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The Walk ACT
(Canberra and surrounding regions)
TheWalkACT
Walk Ratings
International Walks
Glendale Stonewalls map
Mt Namadgi Walk Map
ACT Highest 25 Points
Huts of Namadgi
Disclaimer, Warning and Advice
Stockyard Spur to Mt Gingera
Image 1 - The majestic view from the peak of Mt Gingera
Parking at Corin Dam , the track takes you up and up, until finally you reach the peak of Mt Gingera and the reward of majestic views (Image 1) makes the hard work worthwhile. One of the real ACT bushwalks!
Walk Rating
Hard to Medium. The first section of the walk is extremely steep, and there are many steps (Image 2 and 3). You need to have a reasonable level of fitness for this one! If you're not up to tackling Stockyard Spur, but really want to go to Mt Gingera, it is easier to park at the locked gate on Mt Franklin Road and walk in from there (refer to Mt Gingera, Pryors Hut walk). I have done this walk a number of times now, and despite the advisory sign indicating 2km to the top of Stockyard Sour, I have measured it with electronic navigational aids, which consistently provide a distance of just under 2.5km. The total walk distance to Gingera and back is around 19 kilometres.
Directions To Corin Dam
The start of the walk is next to the carpark on the western side of Corin Dam. Drive to Point Hut Crossing (near Gordon) and continue along that road until you reach the intersecting road, which is Tidbinbilla Road. Turn right here and continue along Tidbinbilla Road until you reach the intersection with Corin Road (about 5 km). Turn left onto Corin Road and continue for around 23 kilometres until you come to Corin Dam. Continue across the dam for another 300 to 400 metres and you will come to the carpark, which coincides with the end of Corin Road.
The Corin Road can get busy, has a number of sharp curves and is susceptible to ice on the road, so take care if travelling in the cooler months.
Image 2 above - some of the many steps on the ascent to Stockyard Spur and Image 3 below - photo's never really do justice to the steepness!
Image 4 - The sign at the Stockyard Spur Track says it all!
After arriving at Corin Dam carpark, we got our gear together, slung our packs and headed off. After signing the bushwalking register, the walk started with a steep up-hill section, before the track started weaving its way up and up. There were many stairs on the trail (Images 1 and 2), and on this particular day, it was very warm and muggy. It wasn't long before we started to struggle a little!
The initial 2.2 kilometres that takes you to the actual Stockyard Spur at the top, is a pretty tough walk (Image 4). But if you take regular breaks, the area is so picturesque, so don't forget to look back over your shoulder as you get higher, and you will get some great views of Corin Dam.
After around 50 minutes, we were relieved to arrive at the top and we began our journey from Stockyard Spur to the intersection with Mt Franklin Road. This part of the walk is on a fire trail, which undulates for about 4 kilometres. Just when you think the steep stuff is mostly over, this section throws some good gradients at you just to keep the heart rate up! The track is also fairly well wooded, so even on a warm day you get some shady relief from the sun (Image 5 and 6).
Apart from the steepness of certain sections, there was a wonderful array of native plants and flowers in full bloom (Images below). Be sure to keep a look out for the rocky outcrop on the eastern side of the ridge line (after reaching Stockyard Spur, about 3km along the track ), which offers some marvelous views to the east and south east.
After we reached Mt Franklin Road, we turned left and after a kilometre, reached Pryor's Hut where we stopped for a cuppa.
Image 5 (above) - Most of the ridge line section takes through shaded wooded areas and Image 6 (below) - The woodland has an abundance of forrest floor native flower plants.
Above Left - Diuris sulphurea (Tiger Orchid). Above Right - Ranunculus scapiger (Mountain Buttercup)
Above Left - Brachyscome scapigera (Tufted Daisy). Above Right - Caladenia alpine (Mountain Caldenia)
Above Left - On of the many daisy species. Above Right - Craspedia variabilis (Variable Billy Buttons)
Above Left - Senecio pinnatifolius (Variable Groundsel). Above Right - Unidentified
After our break, we continued south along Mt Franklin Road for about a kilometre where you come to a sharp left hand bend in the road. On the right, you will see a post that has a painted blue rock sitting on top, and this signifies the start of the walking track that takes you to the peak of Mt Gingera.
The walk to the peak takes you through a wonderful sub-alpine landscape and as with Stockyard Spur, there was an abundance of native flowers in full bloom. After about a kilometre or so, you reach the peak and are met with truly majestic views. This is my favourite place to walk to in Namadgi, and no matter how many times I do this walk, I never get tired of what awaits me at the peak of Mt Gingera. You can't help but sit and stare in wonderment. It is a truly peaceful place to visit and time passes you by without even noticing. It's hard to imaging that the blue skies and clear views are replaced in the winter months by fierce alpine weather and snow covered landscape. Those pictures coming this winter!
After spending what seemed like only a short time at Mt Gingera, but in actual fact was several hours, we reluctantly commenced our journey back from the peak. We stopped briefly at Pryor's Hut again, chatting to a group who were having a late lunch. They turned out to be from Butan, a truly mountainous region of the world! It's always amazing the people you come across in Namadgi, and always worth stopping for a chat.
Making our way back across Stockyard Spur, we again stopped at the rocky outcrop and took in the view to the east and south/east once more (Image 7 and 8). The mountains really do seem to go on forever, but it was getting late in the day and we had to get back to the car and civilisation. We took one last glance, and with some reluctance, commenced our trek back to the Corin Dam carpark. There was one last surprise for the day. A black Cockcatoo flew over the top of us and landed in a tree directly in front of me. I always find them so challenging to photograph, as they don't tend to stay in the one spot for long. But this fellow, sat and seemed to pose for my shot (Images 9 and 10)!
We arrived back at our car a little tired in the legs, but well satisfied with having completed one of Namadgi's best walks.
If you're up to the hill climb of Stockyard Spur, I would really encourage you to do this walk as you will not be disappointed.
Image 9 above and 10 below - Black Cockatoo who stayed still for long enough to photograph!
Image 7 above and 8 below - The beautiful views from the rocky outcrop on Stockyard Spur
bushwalking namadgi canberra act
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Science fiction. Fantasy. The universe. And related subjects.
Countdown to Prometheus
Not Bad… For A Human: Aliens
Danny Bowes
Tue Jun 5, 2012 12:00pm 18 comments Favorite This
On one hand, the republic would not have fallen if there had never been a sequel to Alien. Entire books could be written about how great—bordering very closely on perfect—Alien was as both science fiction and horror, not to mention how brilliant it was as cinema. Its unanswered questions are actually assets, deepening the mystery and thus the horror. But, on the other hand, those unanswered questions provided the basis for Aliens, a massively entertaining and actually quite moving piece of work.
What makes Aliens not only a sequel but a companion piece to Alien is the way it does for the action genre what its predecessor did for horror. Each picture is a master class in its respective genre, from narrative to design to acting, with every element integrated perfectly and contributing to making Alien a near-perfect SF horror movie, and Aliens a near-perfect SF action movie.
The story picks up (almost) where it left off, with Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and Jones the cat adrift in hypersleep, intercepted by another spaceship. It turns out it’s now 57 years later, and not only are all her Nostromo shipmates dead (minor Alien spoiler) but so is just about anyone she ever met before that ill-fated voyage. Even worse, she finds out that the planet where the Nostromo found the alien is being terraformed by Weyland-Yutani.
Inevitably—if you saw the first movie—Weyland-Yutani lose contact with the terraforming colony, and Ripley is asked to accompany, in an advisory capacity, an elite Marine unit to go get to the bottom of things. They find one survivor. Well, one human survivor…
The differences between horror and action as a genre come into play here, as there are this time, not one, but many malevolent xenomorphs menacing our protagonists (all the more reason for the title not being Alien 2 but Aliens) as well as a sequence of escalating obstacles to overcome. Not to mention in an action movie, the likelihood of multiple protagonists surviving is increased, as action frequently requires a team working together.
That brings us to the cast, which is Aliens‘ greatest strength. Ripley, simultaneously hardened by her experiences in the first movie and possessed by a ferocious maternal connection to the lone surviver, grade-school-age girl Newt, becomes an all-time classic character. And she’s not the only one: Marines Hicks, Vazquez, and Hudson are all action movie Hall of Famers (easily the best performances of Jenette Goldstein’s and Bill Paxton’s careers, and is only denied the top spot in Michael Biehn’s due to his having been Kyle Reese and Johnny Ringo). Bishop is one of cinema’s great androids, well-played by the great Lance Henriksen. And the malignant Weyland-Yutani yuppie Burke is both a terrifically oily villain and by several orders of magnitude the best thing Paul Reiser has ever done.
Aliens spends over half its running time with its characters before the action starts, which is not to be confused with it starting slowly. If anything, that time adds to the tension (since we all know at some point people are going to start getting their asses handed to them by H.R. Giger aliens) and invests the audience far more deeply in the people handed their ass. That Aliens‘ structure is a steady build makes the feverish intensity of the climax all the more effective: contrast it with so many modern blockbusters, that start out with the volume turned all the way up and leave it there for the whole movie, leading to sensory overload. Aliens manages to reach greater heights and have more impact precisely because it takes its time on the build. By the time Ripley straps into the cargo loader it’s all you can do not to stand up and cheer, out of the sheer exhilarating intensity of the movie as a whole.
Easily one of the best sequels extant, Aliens is arguably the first movie of writer-director James Cameron’s to really feel like his; this is to take nothing away from The Terminator, it’s just that its leanness and the small size of its budget has little to do with the bigger-is-better, more more more James Cameron that would follow. Aliens features the goofy gung-ho banter and overgrown adolescents (neither of which, to be clear, is necessarily a bad thing, certainly not in most James Cameron movies) that would later populate The Abyss, Terminator 2, True Lies, and even Titanic to a degree. Aliens benefits from a freshness the others lack in that regard, as this was Cameron’s first trip to that particular well. It was also an early demonstration, much like The Terminator, that James Cameron knew how to build an action movie that worked. Because he does. Oh does he ever.
Danny Bowes is a New York City-based film critic and blogger.
AlienaliensCountdown to Prometheusmovies
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The Labor of Creativity: On Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke
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NY Governor Andrew Cuomo Moves to Ban Gay Conversion Therapy
February 6, 2016 by Sean Mandell Leave a Comment
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Saturday that he would be taking a series of executive actions intended to effectively ban gay conversion therapy, the harmful and barbaric practice that seeks to make gay people straight, in the Empire State.
Last year, a bill that sought to outlaw the administration of conversion therapy to minors was stalled in New York’s Republican-controlled senate.
Governor Cuomo said in a statement issued on Saturday, “New York has been at the forefront of acceptance and equality for the LGBT community for decades – and today we are continuing that legacy and leading by example. We will not allow the misguided and the intolerant to punish LGBT young people for simply being who they are.”
Cuomo also shared the news on Twitter.
Today we announced regulations to prevent the practice of so-called #LGBT conversion therapy: https://t.co/OneGHw5rgq
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) February 6, 2016
New regulations ban coverage of conversion therapy, prohibit various mental health facilities from conducting the practice on minors
The New York Times reports:
Mr. Cuomo’s plan relies on economic incentives meant to discourage conversion therapy’s use on young people. Insurers in New York, for instance, will now beprohibited from covering the cost of such therapy for anyone under 18.
That action — issued through the State Financial Services Department — would be combined with a new regulation from the State Health Department that would prohibit the use of Medicaid to pay for conversion therapy. Centers overseen by the State Office of Mental Health would also be barred from providing conversion therapy to minors, according to the governor’s office.
Taken as a whole, the new regulations would severely restrict conversion therapy, which Mr. Cuomo called “a hateful and fundamentally flawed practice” in a statement. […]
Mr. Cuomo’s office said on Saturday that the governor believed the financial incentives being offered would effectively end conversion therapy in New York.
RELATED – NY Governor Andrew Cuomo to Seek Additional $200M in HIV and AIDS Funding
HRC President Chad Griffin praised Cuomo on Twitter, saying Cuomo “has been a tireless advocate for equality. Today he again stands up for LGBTQ people across New York.”
.@NYGovCuomo has been a tireless advocate for equality. Today he again stands up for LGBTQ people across New York. pic.twitter.com/dz9oGQUVYK
— Chad Griffin (@ChadHGriffin) February 6, 2016
Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Andrew Cuomo, Conversion Therapy, ex-gay therapy, gay conversion therapy, New York
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Call for Help: 1.800.481.8656 Tap Here To Call Us
Southern California Car Accident Lawyer Blog
Published By Bisnar Chase Personal Injury Attorneys.
Two Killed In Thousand Palms DUI Crash
By Brian Chase
Two men traveling in a golf cart were killed after a driver, who officials say was under the influence, rear-ended them.
According to a CBS Los Angeles news report, the fatal DUI crash occurred the afternoon of November 18, 2015 at the intersection of Desert Moon and Colonial drives in the Tri-Palm Estates community.
California Highway Patrol officials say 32-year-old Angela Lavanty was driving her 2006 Mercedes ML350 SUV north on Desert Moon Drive and pulled directly behind
the golf cart, which was legally driving within the community, occupied by two people and two dogs.
The speed limit on that street is 25 mph.
But officials say Lavanty was driving at more than 50 mph when she hit the golf cart from behind. The 76-year-old man driving the golf cart and his passenger died at the scene as did both dogs. Lavanty has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder and one count of DUI causing great bodily injury.
Our heartfelt condolences go out to the family members of the two men who were tragically killed in this suspected DUI crash. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.
Riverside County DUI Crashes
According to CHP’s 2013 Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS), there were 28 fatalities and 248 injuries reported as a result of DUI collisions in the unincorporated areas of Riverside County.
Also, countywide, 90 people died and 867 were injured due to DUI crashes during the same year.
Violation of Laws
Based on this news report, it appears that the driver of the Mercedes, Lavanty, was under the influence when she rear-ended the golf cart at twice the posted speed limit. It appears that the driver violated DUI and basic speed laws. Under California Vehicle Code Section 23152 (a), it is illegal to operate a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.
California Vehicle Code Section 22350 (Basic Speed Law) states: “No person shall drive a vehicle upon a highway at a speed greater than is reasonable or prudent having due regard for weather, visibility, the traffic and on surface and width of, the highway, and in no event at a speed which endangers the safety of persons or property.”
Liability Issues
When drivers seriously injure or kill someone else when they operate under the influence, they not only face criminal charges, but can also be held financially responsible for the injuries, damages and losses caused.
In such cases where negligence or wrongdoing is involved, families of deceased DUI victims can seek compensation for damages such as medical and funeral costs, lost future income, pain and suffering and loss of love and companionship.
An experienced Riverside personal injury lawyer will be able to advise injured victims and their families regarding their legal rights and options.
Posted in: Drunk Driving Accidents
Updated: April 20, 2016 11:59 am
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CTA Opens New, Modern Main Stationhouse at Wilson
$203 million Wilson Station Reconstruction Project is rebuilding nearly century old station; CTA opens new main Wilson stationhouse today
The Chicago Transit Authority today opened the newly rebuilt main stationhouse at the Wilson station to customers, a major milestone in a $203 million reconstruction project of the entire station and track structure.
Serving as the main entrance to the Wilson Station, this modern, bright stationhouse has opened early to the public as part of Mayor Emanuel’s promise to the Uptown community to open the new Wilson Station as early as possible, including completing one of the new elevators early.
“Mayor Emanuel and I are pleased to provide ahead of schedule this bright, spacious new entrance to Wilson, which will provide our customers with a more pleasant commuting experience and increased accessibility to the CTA system,” said CTA President Dorval R. Carter, Jr. “The reconstructed station will also be an economic catalyst for the Uptown neighborhood by providing convenient access to this vibrant, historic neighborhood while attracting new businesses and stimulating job growth.”
The new main stationhouse offers elevator and escalator access for the first time, wider station platforms with large, translucent canopies to provide better weather protection and additional turnstiles. Additional station features include real-time Train Tracker train arrival time displays, new signage (including Braille) and bright lighting.
The new Wilson station also provides a more pleasant street-level environment with a reduction in the number of track columns at street- and sidewalk-level to improve the area under the station for pedestrians and local businesses and increase visibility for vehicular and bicycle traffic.
“We have already seen the positive economic impact made by rebuilding the Wilson Station,” said Alderman James Cappleman. “Our neighborhood has seen many new businesses open, as well as several new residential developments planned, as a direct result of this incredible project.”
Announced by Mayor Emanuel in 2012, the Wilson Station project is part of $8 billion of transit investment since 2011 begun, completed or announced by Mayor Emanuel.
CTA will complete the rest of the Wilson reconstruction project by year’s end. That includes:
Completing remaining project work at the new main stationhouse and opening a new northbound platform
Opening new station entrances on Sunnyside Avenue and on the north side of Wilson Avenue
Unveiling new station artwork created by Cecil Balmond, a world-renowned artist, designer and engineer known for his large-scale public art installations around the world.
Beginning Purple Line stops and transfers between Red and Purple Line trains at Wilson for the first time
Complete restoration of the historic 94-year-old Gerber building that is part of the Wilson station at Broadway and Wilson and announcing a new tenant for the building
The Wilson project is part of Mayor Emanuel’s “Red Ahead” program to revitalize the entire Red Line, which is CTA’s busiest and forms the backbone of Chicago’s transit system. Other Red Line projects under way include the Red and Purple Modernization Program, the new 95th Street Terminal, and the proposed extension of the Red Line south to 130th Street.
For more information about the Wilson project, visit transitchicago.com/wilson.
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A 10,000 Acre Case Study
TreeFree Biomass Solutions, Inc. (TreeFree) has worked with the University of Washington to study the specific abilities of NileFiber to capture carbon from the air. Based on our formulas and using a 10,000 acre farm as an example of a biomass crop, the following would apply:
A 10,000 acre NileFiber biomass farm CO2 sequestration is expected to be 120 tons per acre. That 10,000 acres will then equate to 1.2 million tons of CO2 captured, resulting in the equivalent of removing 210,526 cars from US roads and saving 2.97 million acres of rainforest per year.
These are incredible numbers not only for the simple example of a 10,000 acre plantation, but for the vision of what the future of clean air in our county and other countries could actually look like. These formulas are powerful evidence and provide a beginning to restore the world’s air quality for a cleaner future. With countries like China moving to increase coal consumption at a staggering pace, the possibility of balancing the severe CO2 rates that are increasing annually brings promise to an environment already in need.
Carbon Sequestration is the first of several innate characteristics of our biomass. NileFiber has the ability to capture carbon at a massive rate per acre per year in comparison to other biomass crops, as well as in comparison to standard trees being used for biomass. We all desire clear air today. In a world that is falling victim to the stress of pollution globally, and NileFiber having the ability to sequester carbon at a rate of 15 times that of trees, we are now able to bring in a unique solution. The benefits of our product will be a clear choice to businesses in industries that are looking for viable for solutions. With government regulations closing the gap for industries, such as the coal industry, to find cleaner solutions for their continued success, TreeFree believes that Carbon Sequestration will become a major selling point.
A Plan for Global Carbon Sequestration
The high growth rate and biomass production of NileFiber provides impressive figures in terms of sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). As a basis for calculation, assume that NileFiber will produce a conservative 20 tons of above ground dry biomass per acre per year. In addition, about 10 tons per year of below ground biomass accumulates for a total of 30 tons per acre each year.
The growth of each ton of dry NileFiber biomass consumes about 1.6 tons of CO2. So 1 acre at 30 tons per acre will hold and repair 48 tons of CO2 per year. In large plantations, the impressive NileFiber growth rate could remove massive quantities of atmospheric carbon dioxide derived from vehicle fuel combustion emissions or from manufacturing processes. Thus, commercial production of NileFiber could provide the basis for substantial carbon credits. For illustration, burning 1 ton of gasoline produces 2.75 tons of CO2.
One acre of NileFiber will consume and fix the CO2 that is generated when burning 17.4 tons of vehicle fuel (48 tons CO2 X 1 ton gas/2.75 tons CO2 = 17.4 tons of gas). This quantity of vehicle fuel amounts to about 5,800 gallons (assuming the standard 6 lbs/gallon). If we assume that an average vehicle averages 20 miles per gallon between local and highway driving, and is driven 20,000 miles per year, the total gas consumed amounts to 1000 gallons per year. Six of these vehicles will consume 6000 gallons of gasoline per year. Thus, from the above calculation, one acre of NileFiber will sequester approximately the quantity of CO2 generated by driving six of these vehicles 20,000 miles per year.
Since one acre will consume the carbon dioxide emitted from six cars per year, we can calculate the sequestration capacity of large acre plantations. Assume that we had a plantation of 100,000 acres yielding 30 tons per acre. This acreage would sequester the quantity of carbon dioxide emitted from driving 600,000 cars at 20,000 miles per year (100,000 acre X 6 cars/1 acre).
This shows us that large plantations of NileFiber could have a significant impact on atmospheric carbon balances. The above calculations show that a single large NileFiber plantation could hold and repair atmospheric carbon dioxide in annual quantities equivalent to emissions from a whole fleet of vehicles. Enough of these large plantations placed around the world could ultimately stop the damage that CO2 is doing to our atmosphere, leaving little or no environmental footprint from vehicles that are currently driving on our planet.
Carbon Sequestration
Clean air is our concern
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Encryption of emergency calls limits freedoms
Few could argue that our founding fathers opposed this nation’s citizenry having a right and responsibility to participate in government. Indeed, citizen involvement is a critical ingredient in democracy.
That is true in every aspect of government — including law enforcement. That’s why we are so concerned with ongoing steps toward encryption of emergency dispatch and two-way radios that allow communication between police officers, dispatchers and, in some communities, firefighters or emergency medical responders to be kept secret.
What’s worse is the move toward police radio encryption locally has come with little or no public debate, despite the fact that each of these emergency response agencies work for us, the taxpayers, and all police or fire transmissions, calls and conversations occur utilizing public airwaves and frequencies.
It is the taxpayers who are funding the very expensive upgrades to MARCS police radio systems intended to improve officer safety by upgrading clarity and distance of radio communications. But it is those new MARCS radio systems that are enabling encryption of the transmissions.
We believe that in America, residents and, yes, media, who own police scanners or smart phone apps and who have the desire to listen in on emergency responses and other dispatched calls as they develop simply should have that right.
Instead, though, police departments such as Warren, the Trumbull and Mahoning County Sheriff’s offices, Youngstown police and many others in the Mahoning Valley, now may respond to calls and speak in total secrecy.
The Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office made the switch earlier this summer from an analog radio system to a digital one, allowing its radio transmissions to be encrypted, Ernie Cook, director of the Trumbull County 911 Center told us at the time.
Simply put, the move meant people with police radio scanners or phone apps can no longer tune into the department’s radio traffic and listen in on calls.
Youngstown and the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office made the same switch recently.
Police sources have told us there is no requirement for departments to encrypt their radio traffic, but many of those that have opted to do it have cited officer safety.
While we understand that argument, we believe that public safety should be a partnership between first responders and the public.
Radio traffic encryption, however, undermines that partnership. Information is not shared in as timely of a manner; police and first responders take full control of information and solely determine what should be released publicly — despite the fact that the public has full rights to know or access information from initial incident response.
In many communities, significant barriers already exist between the police and members of the community they serve and protect — both locally and nationwide. The decision to decrease public access as incidents develop can only serve to further erode police relationships with the community. Encryption will create new limitations in relationships and in the understanding of what police do.
We fear that each time we take a step toward secrecy, we are limiting public access and moving us closer toward a police state.
We believe strongly in openness. If people have a scanner and they want to know what’s going in their community, they should be able to listen.
This issue is not simply a police matter. It’s a public matter.
And the decision toward secrecy is wrong.
After all, shouldn’t we all be concerned with public rights and openness?
editorial@tribtoday.com
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Clean Energy Group: Massachusetts creates nationwide precedent to reduce storage costs
Thu, 04/04/2019 - 12:01pm -- tim
Vermont Business Magazine Batteries are now eligible for state energy efficiency incentives in Massachusetts, and this first-in-the-nation policy should be considered by other states, according to a new report published today by Clean Energy Group (CEG). The report details how Massachusetts, a national leader in energy efficiency, recently became the first state to formally incorporate energy storage as an active demand reduction measure in its energy efficiency funding program, and it explains the simple steps other states can take to do the same.
The state’s January 2019 action was supported with original economic analysis provided by CEG.
The report, “Energy Storage: The New Efficiency ― How States Can Use Efficiency Funds to Support Battery Storage and Flatten Costly Demand Peaks,” explains the steps Massachusetts took to become the first state to integrate energy storage technologies into its energy efficiency plan, including 1) expanding the goals and definition of energy efficiency to include peak demand reduction, and 2) showing that customer-sited battery storage can pass the required cost-effectiveness test. It also concludes that battery storage would have been found to be even more cost-effective had the non-energy benefits of batteries been included in the calculations.
Appended to the report are three original economics white papers developed by Applied Economics Clinic (AEC) under contract to CEG. Two of the white papers detail how battery storage meets the cost/benefit tests that most states use to fund energy efficiency technologies; the third defines non-energy benefits for storage, such as resiliency, reduced impacts from power outages, increased property values, job creation, and reduced land use, and for the first time assigns a monetary value to those benefits.
If adopted by other states, policies making battery storage eligible for energy efficiency funding could reduce the up-front capital costs of storage, and greatly expand the market for this new, peak reducing technology.
“One of the key findings of this report is that the old definition of efficiency needs to be updated,” says report author Todd Olinsky-Paul, a project director with Clean Energy Group. “As more renewable energy is deployed, reducing peak demand becomes more important. Battery storage can do this, while traditional efficiency measures can’t. States need to expand their efficiency plans to embrace peak demand reduction and the new technologies, like battery storage, that can accomplish it.”
“Energy efficiency programs always have included new energy technologies,” said Lewis Milford, president of CEG who has been involved with energy programs for over thirty years. “Storage is now a technology that deserves early stage funding support, a trend that other states should follow to bring down their energy costs and bring more customers into this emerging storage market.”
The report provides insights for policy makers in other states who are interested in expanding the definition of energy efficiency to include the benefits of behind-the-meter energy storage. Most states have energy efficiency programs, which collectively represent an investment of nearly $9 billion annually. Qualifying energy storage as an efficiency measure would enable the technology greater access to incentives.
The report, made possible by the generous support from Barr Foundation and the Merck Family Fund, is available on Clean Energy Group’s website at: www.cleanegroup.org/ceg-resources/resource/energy-storage-the-new-efficiency. A two-page Executive Summary detailing the key findings and recommendations from the report is also available at this link.
Clean Energy Group will be hosting a webinar with report authors Liz Stanton of Applied Economics Clinic and Todd Olinsky-Paul of Clean Energy Group on Thursday, April 4 at 1pm ET. For more information on this free webinar and to register, visit www.cleanegroup.org/webinar/energy-storage-in-state-energy-efficiency-plans-lessons-from-massachusetts/.
About Clean Energy Group
Clean Energy Group is a leading national, nonprofit advocacy organization working on innovative technology, finance, and policy programs in the areas of clean energy and climate change. Clean Energy Group also manages the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA), a coalition of state and municipal clean energy funds. For more information, visit www.cleanegroup.org and www.cleanegroup.org/ceg-projects/energy-storage-policy.
Source: Clean Energy Group 4.4.2019
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Oct. 24, 2018 / 2:32 PM
Whole-brain radiation procedure preserves cognitive function in trial
Allen Cone
A clinical trial found patients' cognitive functions can be preserved if the hippocampus portion of the brain is avoided during radiation. Screenshot courtesy of Cancer Research UK
Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Patients' cognitive functions can be preserved if the hippocampus portion of the brain is avoided during radiation, according to the results of a clinical trial.
Researchers compared hippocampal-avoidance radiotherapy with traditional whole-brain radiation for patients with brain metastases. They presented their practice-changing findings Tuesday at the American Society for Radiation Oncology Annual Meeting in San Antonio and are in the process having them published in an academic journal.
The hippocampus, which is located under the cerebral cortex, is the part of the brain associated with cognitive function, including memory.
In brain metastases, cancer cells have spread to the brain from primary tumors in other organs.
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Brain metastases affect up to 45 percent of adults with cancer and they account for 20 percent of cancer deaths annually.
Whole brain radiotherapy currently is the most effective treatment for brain metastases, but it often is the last resort because of cognitive decline.
"Using this approach, patients can benefit through optimal control of brain metastases, prevention of new brain metastases and better preservation of their cognitive function and quality of life," lead author Dr. Vinai Gondi, director of research at the Northwestern Medicine Chicago Proton Center, told UPI.
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Researchers used intensity-modulated radiation to shape the radiation beams to avoid central regions within the brain while treating the rest of it with therapeutic doses of brain irradiation.
Proton therapy also utilizes a precise dose of radiation that conforms to the shape of the tumor. This reduces the risk of side effects and damage to surrounding healthy tissues.
"Sparing these neural stem cells of significant doses of radiation during brain irradiation prevents damage to these important neural stem cells and this preserves cognitive function," Gondi said.
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The trial was conducted throughout the United States and Canada as well as some locations in other countries.
In the study, 518 patients with a median age of 61.5 years randomly received whole brain radiotherapy plus memantine with or without hippocampal avoidance from 2016 to last March. They found a 26 percent relative reduction in risk of cognitive toxicity with hippocampal avoidance compared with whole brain radiotherapy. The cognitive function benefit didn't differ by age.
Favorable follow-up results were at four, six and 12 months.
"This hippocampal-sparing approach reduces both the risk of growth of new brain metastases and the risk of cognitive decline, and no prior study has ever demonstrated this dual effect," Dr. Walter J. Curran, executive director of the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University, said in a press release.
Gondi said any patient who presents with brain metastases should be considered for the procedure if their expected survival is anticipated to be four months or longer.
"Brain metastasis patients can currently receive this treatment approach," Gondi said. "In fact, as part of this and preceding/concurrent trials, our research team trained and credentialed several hundred physicians across community, academic and international centers in our techniques for hippocampal sparing."
The Northwestern Medicine Chicago Proton Center is the first and only proton therapy center in Illinois, and is one of 28 in the United States.
This new research builds upon decades of preclinical and clinical research on the importance of the hippocampus on brain irradiation, researchers said.
"The results of this trial could have a significant impact on patients," Dr. Paul Brown, a radiation oncologist at Mayo Clinic and co-author on the new study, said in a press release.
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Oct. 5, 2008 / 7:37 PM
NFL: Tennessee 13, Baltimore 10
Tennessee Titans quarterback Kerry Collins throws against the Baltimore Ravens during the fourth quarter at M & T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on October 5, 2008. The Titans defeated the Ravens 13-10. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch) | License Photo
2008 Beijing Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps (R) watches as the Baltimore Ravens play the Tennessee Titians' at M & T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on October 5, 2008. The Titans defeated the Ravens 13-10. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch) | License Photo
2008 Beijing Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps walks off the field after observing the coin toss prior to the Baltimore Ravens game against the Tennessee Titans' at M & T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on October 5, 2008. The Titans defeated the Ravens 13-10. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch) | License Photo
Tennessee Titans' running back Chris Johnson is seen during warm-ups prior to the Titans' game against the Baltimore Ravens at M & T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on October 5, 2008. The Titans defeated the Ravens 13-10. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch) | License Photo
Baltimore Ravens fans watches as the Ravens play the Tennessee Titans at M & T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on October 5, 2008. The Titans defeated the Ravens 13-10. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch) | License Photo
Tennessee Titans' quarterback Kerry Collins warms-up prior to the Titans' game against the Baltimore Ravens at M & T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on October 5, 2008. The Titans defeated the Ravens 13-10. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch) | License Photo
Tennessee Titans' wide receiver Lavelle Hawkins is seen during warm-ups prior to the Titans' game against the Baltimore Ravens at M & T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on October 5, 2008. The Titans defeated the Ravens 13-10. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch) | License Photo
Tennessee Titans wide receiver Chris Davis (17) dives for extra yards against Baltimore Ravens Chris McAlister during the fourth quarter at M & T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on October 5, 2008. The Titans defeated the Ravens 13-10. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch) | License Photo
Members of the Tennessee Titans' defense celebrate after defeating the Baltimore Ravens 13-10 at at M & T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on October 5, 2008. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch) | License Photo
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco is seen on the sidelines after throwing his second interception of the game against the Tennessee Titans at M & T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on October 5, 2008. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch) | License Photo
Tennessee Titans' quarterback Vince Young is seen on the sidelines as the Titans play the Baltimore Ravens at M & T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on October 5, 2008. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch) | License Photo
Tennessee Titans tight end Alge Crumpler (83) catches an 11-yard pass for a touchdown against the Baltimore Ravens in the 4th quarter at M & T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on October 5, 2008. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch) | License Photo
Tennessee Titans tight end Alge Crumpler (83) celebrates with fellow teammates after catching an 11-yard pass for a touchdown against the Baltimore Ravens in the 4th quarter at M & T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on October 5, 2008. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch) | License Photo
Baltimore Ravens kicker Matt Stover reacts after missing a 45-yard field goal in the second quarter against the Tennessee Titans at M & T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on October 5, 2008. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch) | License Photo
Tennessee Titans' kicker Rob Bironas kicks a 35-yard field goal during the second quarter against the Baltimore Ravens at M & T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on October 5, 2008. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch) | License Photo
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco throws under pressure during the second quarter against the Tennessee Titans at M & T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on October 5, 2008. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch) | License Photo
BALTIMORE, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- Kerry Collins' late touchdown pass to Alge Crumpler Sunday lifted the Tennessee Titans to a 13-10 victory over the Baltimore Ravens.
The victory made the Titans 5-0 and continued the best start in franchise history.
The game-winning scoring pass covered 11 yards with 1:56 remaining, erasing a 10-6 deficit and finishing an 80-yard drive.
Collins completed 17-of-32 passes for 163 yards and overcame two interceptions.
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Willis McGahee ran for 64 yards on 22 carries and Todd Heap caught four passes for 41 yards for the Ravens (2-2), who have lost two in a row after two straight season-opening wins.
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Home / Articles
The Fastest Handstand Training Progression Program
Discover how to achieve a picture-perfect gymnastics handstand without wasting time. In this video handstand training program, Australian Ninja Warrior Lachlan Fyfe reveals the most effective five-step progression, anyone can train to handstand like a pro.
Handstands are a fantastic, whole body exercise that are a massive shoulder workout, good for balance and fun to do.
Video Tutorial: Beginner Rings Workout
This video demonstrates the 5 progression steps for a solid handstand.
First Exercise: Hold Good Handstand Form
We're working with Mitch today, and he's gonna demonstrate the first step for training handstands. If handstand is new for you, this is the best place to start.
Mitch is just gonna go into a little bit of a handstand, just enough so his shoulders are starting to take his weight. Most important thing is that your arms, they're locked out, they're not bent. We're just trying to get your body used to holding your weight up.
Now, once you can hold this for seconds, you'll feel comfortable and you'll feel ready to move in closer to your wall. So here we're using a pole, you can use a tree, in the gym we use a wall, whatever it is. Step two is getting as close as you can to that object that you're leaning against.
Second Exercise: Handstand With Close Support
So Mitch is gonna go again. So you can see elbows are still locked out. The most important thing here is that he's engaging his core, his glutes, and opening his shoulders, so open shoulders, engaged core, engaged glutes. Thanks Mitch, come down. So those three things can seem a little bit complicated at first, we've got the core, the glutes and the shoulders.
We're gonna take a second just to explain why those are so important. So you can see here, Mitch's body is completely straight. The shoulders are open, his core's engaged, his glutes are engaged. So when you engage your core and your glutes, what it does is it rolls your hips back like this, which flattens your lower back.
Now, if you don't open your shoulders, engage your core and your glutes, you do a handstand that looks like this. So you can see the difference, that's why we're so strict on form. You need to practice this every time you train handstands. You wanna do at least to seconds for three to five rounds as a warmup, so you're always ingraining good form into your training and you're always practicing this position in the handstand.
Now, once you're comfortable with this, you understand the form, you're gonna go onto the next step, which we call toe touches.
Third Exercise: Toe Touches
So Mitch is gonna go back against the pole. And just watch, Mitch's toe comes off, and he goes back on. Awesome, so it's very, very subtle, but it's important. So when you get that close up to the wall like this, you could see that Mitch only had to come off the pole that much to be in a handstand.
At this stage, we're not trying to nail a handstand right now, we're just trying to get a feel for it. So you come off your object five to times for a split second, you feel the handstand, claw into the ground and go back on.
In the gym we would say you wanna be able to do five rounds of toe touches, but once you can do your toe touches and have the second hold each time, so you kick off the wall, hold for a second, go back on the wall times in a row, then we encourage the three second holds. So kick off the wall, hold for three seconds, go back on the wall.
The most important thing is that you have to do it times in a row. You can't fall down after five, you have to hit all in a row for three seconds. That's when the motor pattern and the handstand really start to develop, and that's when we know that you've got that good form. So you always got your core, your glutes engaged, and your shoulders open. If you don't practice enough, your form will fall to pieces, and it's just gonna make it harder. So that's how you can reinforce it to yourself in your own training.
The next step after this is to start kicking up into a handstand.
Fourth Exercise: Kick To Support
So you can use a tree, you can use a pole, you can use a partner to spot you. So Mitch is gonna show you how he kicks up into a handstand. I'm gonna spot him as if I'm a wall. Good.
So that's an example of how you can kick up and spot each other, and help get the person into the position. We're using a tree here, and as you can see, Mitch is facing the opposite way, he's facing away from the tree. So he's got his foot on the tree. The most important part is that he's got his knees pinned together.
You have to squeeze your knees together for this one. His core, his glutes, his shoulders are still great. Still important, always core, glutes, shoulders, but this time as well, pin the knees. Hop down. So that's the fourth technique for learning the handstand. Now, the reason why I like this technique so much is it bridges the gap between just kicking up into a handstand and just training it against the wall.
A long time ago we used to just train handstands against the wall and handstand toe touches, but then we would find we would get our clients to come off the wall and try a handstand, and all their technique would fall apart and they wouldn't be able to hold a handstand. So on a wall, they can hold for a minute, maybe even longer, but off the wall, just completely dependent on the wall.
And so what I found was that when you kick up off the wall, you're kicking up the opposite way. So you need to train holding the opposite way as well. So the technique Mitch has just demonstrated is how we bridge the gap between the two, and once you've practiced both a lot, then you'll find it's a lot easier to kick up with no wall and maintain your form.
So we're gonna go just one more time, and break this technique down. So the first thing that Mitch is gonna do is he's gonna measure the distance from the tree. The distance is from his knee to his foot. For a lot of people, it's about two and a half hand widths. So Mitch is gonna measure this distance out. There it is.
So then the first thing he does is he gets his form in alignment. Shoulders, core, glutes and pinning the knees. And now he's gonna do handstand toe touches the opposite way. So as you can see, it's just like the handstand toe touches. Mitch doesn't have to work very hard to come off the wall.
He only has to push about that far and he's in that handstand, and so every time he does these and he comes off and on times, he's reinforcing that motor pattern for the handstand, and it's just practice, practice, practice, getting comfortable with it. From here, we wanna combine what we've learnt, and we wanna start practicing kicking up into a handstand.
Fifth Exercise: Full Handstand
So for step five, kicking up into a handstand. Just remember, it's not gonna be perfect from the start, so you're gonna make a lot of mistakes, but this is the hardest part for a lot of people, is actually bringing it all together. And the only way is just to remember your technique, make sure your form's good and to keep practicing.
For every times you kick up, you might fall and you might get three good handstands, so just keep practicing , I know it can be frustrating, but keep with it, you're gonna see progress over time. Now, another way to make this step easier is if you've got a friend or a training partner. Get them to spot you, get them to be the wall for you, and catch them, and then once they get into their form, their alignment, then you start to step back.
There, so, that's a good example. The hardest part is finding that perfect point at the very top, but you could see there how Mitch really helped me into that point, and then he could step away and I could hold it. That's another way to help each other with the kick up. So when you are training, how to tie it all in together, you always want to start with your form. So always start just practicing strict handstands up against the pole.
So your warm-up will become step one. So you're holding facing the pole, seconds each time, focusing on your core, focusing on opening your shoulders.
Then the second part of your training will be your handstand toe touches. So against the pole, against the tree, facing towards and facing away. You wanna train both of those for five rounds each. You wanna spend at least minutes on that.
And then, to end your training, spend another to , maybe even minutes if you've got the energy, just practicing handstands. So that's how you tie it all in together for a workout. Drill your form, start to practice your toe touches which also drills your form, and then start practicing kicking up. Make sure you do them in that order, don't skip steps, don't under-evaluate how important practicing your form is, because it's gonna help you when you come to kicking off the ground.
And then the last piece of advice that I could offer is when you start to get frustrated, you start to get mad, just finish your session. Happens to all of us, doesn't matter how long you've been training. Once you start getting frustrated it just gets worse, so just call it, rest up, and then try again in another two days. So thank you for watching our step by step guide to a handstand. If you have any questions make sure you shoot us a message so we can help you out.
For more handstand training advice, see our handstand tutorial for warm-ups, technique, and advanced moves.
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Why Unison Colour?
Artist Sets
Special Edition Sets
Botanical 18
Lyn Asselta becomes an Associate Artist
By Helen Bullock
We welcome Lyn Asselta to our Associate Artist programme. We believe that Lyn will be an asset to Unison Colour & we look forward to working with her.
Lyn Asselta will readily admit that she has considered the landscape her muse since she was a young child. Growing up on the rocky coast of Maine, where the weather changed almost by the minute, the effects of atmosphere on land were an everyday, mesmerising occurrence. Her memories are rich in details of the places she has experienced throughout her life and she has a deep reverence for places that exude a sense of strength and quiet. Those qualities continue to appear time and time again in her paintings. Her chosen medium of pastel allows her to extend her tactile sense of communicating with the natural world into the painting process at her easel.
Lyn’s landscape paintings have been exhibited throughout the United States and have been included in invitational exhibitions in France and China. She has taught workshops in Canada, Curacao and across the USA, averaging 6-8 workshops per year. Lyn has recently achieved Eminent Pastelist status with the International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS). She is a Signature member of the Pastel Society of America, a member of the Salmagundi Club, a Member of Excellence in the Southeastern Pastel Society, a member of the Eastern League of Professional Artists, and is the founder and past president of the First Coast Pastel Society based in northeast Florida. In 2009, Lyn was selected as an Artist in Residence at Acadia National Park in Maine. Her work has been featured in several magazines including Pastel Journal, Pratique des Arts, and Plein Air Magazine. In 2018, she published her first book, Seeing the Landscape, a compilation of her prose and paintings which is available through her website.
Lyn’s work is represented by Cutter & Cutter Fine Art Galleries in Saint Augustine, Florida and Ponte Vedra, Florida.
www.lynasselta.com
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Sony Ships New Popularly Priced Blu-Ray Disc Player
WEBWIRE – Sunday, June 10, 2007
Sony began shipping its new Blu-ray Disc™ (BD) player to major consumer electronics retailers and specialty dealers nationwide for a list price of $499.
The BDP-S300 is expected to broaden the high-definition disc player market while delivering new features including the advanced Dolby® Digital Plus audio codec as well as BRAVIA® Theatre Sync™ and CD playback.
“The BD format gained great momentum in the past several months, and we’re going to capitalize on that with the new model,” said Chris Fawcett, vice president of marketing for Sony Electronics’ Home Product Division. “The player gives a broader consumer segment the opportunity to experience the exceptional quality of Blu-ray Disc format at a competitive price.”
The new model can output 1920 x 1080/24p high-definition video, currently the highest resolution high-definition signal available through an HDMI™ connection. The player supports various video formats, including MPEG2, MPEG4-AVC and VC1.
For those who own an HDTV set without HDMI, an analog component output for 1080i (interlaced) is available as well.
The new BD player is compatible with most standard DVDs and has the added feature of 1080p upscaling through HDMI to 1080p capable HDTVs, improving the picture performance of existing DVD libraries.
The model also supports AVC-HD discs encoded with x.v.Color (xvYCC) technology, a new international standard for wide color space. The standard expands the current data range of video approximately 1.8 times allowing the player to output more natural and vivid colors similar to what the human eye can actually see.
The new BD unit incorporates BRAVIA TheatreSync utilizing HDMI connectivity, which integrates the operation of the player with a compatible BRAVIA flat-panel LCD television or audio/video receiver. With the touch of a button, you can automatically turn on and switch inputs to match connected devices.
Additionally, the player offers multi-channel linear PCM digital audio output via HDMI, and can decode Dolby® Digital Plus, providing optimum surround sound to an appropriately equipped receiver. The unit has optical and coaxial digital audio out, along with 5.1 channel decoding capability for backward compatibility with existing receivers.
It also supports BD-ROM, AVC-HD Media, DVD video and DVD playback from DVD/DVD+R/+RW encoded discs, CD playback, as well as MP3 audio files and JPEG images stored on DVD recordable media.
The BDP-S300 joins Sony’s family of full HD 1080 line of products, spanning from the original BDP-S1 BD player, now with a list price of $799, to BRAVIA flat-panel LCD, and 3LCD and SXRD® rear-projection television line, as well as the PlayStation® 3 game console, PC drives and recordable BD media.
The company additionally announced a new free firmware update for the BDP-S1 that allows it to decode Dolby Digital Plus & Dolby True HD audio codecs. The update will be available next week for download at www.sony.com/blurayupdate.
The new BDP-S300 player will be available shortly at Sony Style stores, online at the new sonystyle.com and at other retailers nationwide.
High Resolution Photo
Multimedia / Online / Internet
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We are a professional review site that has relationships with advertisers and displays advertising links — the cost is the same to you, but we get a referral fee. Compensation does not affect opinions stated. Thanks!
Top 9 Must-have Virtual Reality Games of 2016
Posted by VRBeginnersGuide
Virtual reality technology is in its early stages, and Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, HTC Vive, and Samsung Gear VR are some of the biggest hardware names in this industry. Gaming is the first domain virtual reality touched, and there are so many titles which are a must own.
You can do almost anything in the virtual world, and these VR games can help you explore uncharted territories.
Minecraft is the most popular game in the world, and it is now being offered on virtual reality. The new game, Minecraft Windows 10 Edition is available for the Oculus Rift. It will also be available on the Gear VR (2nd generation).
You could be fighting the creepers in the dark and then burrow into the ground and get the real-like perspective of the ground-digging mole.
You have played all sorts of zombie games, but nothing was ever as real-like as with Arizona Sunshine. Zombies will be all around you and the only perception you wouldn’t be able to experience is the smell of their rotting flesh.
The game, developed by Vertigo Games, is a fast-paced and stunning shooter. It is being developed as one of the earliest SteamVR games. It uses HTC Vive’s groundbreaking motion controllers. So you will be blowing chunks off the undead and getting an almost realistic feel of it.
Rigs: Mechanized Combat League
How many gamers have desired piloting a large mechanized rig in virtual reality? If you are one of them, your desires are about to become reality. This game is a Project Morpheus FPS and is available on the PlayStation 4.
You are 5 decades into the future, controlling ‘Rigs’ which are used for competing in a blood sport that involves weapons. The weapons include plasma cannons, rockets, lasers, and they can also move around using jump jets.
The Virtual reality experience will take you into a world of some of the largest multi-floor arenas you have ever seen. The locations include beautiful places from Rio and Dubai.
Herobound
Check the Oculus Store and you will come across two Herobound games and both are worth playing. They are arguably the best virtual reality games currently available. Besides, if you have the Gear VR, you can get them for free.
Herobound: First Steps, the first version doesn’t take you through any storyline. It puts you directly into the gameplay. But Herobound: Spirit Champion gives you everything including the story, the RPG-like progression and dialogue before putting you into the virtual reality game.
Herobound is an action/puzzler where you move from one room to another and go about cutting your enemies with the sword. You can also fire arrows. Then there are the blocks that need to be moved to unlock secrets. The enemies include werewolves and skeletons.
Although you play the game in one direction mostly, you can also look back, above and below you too. You will find yourself in some amazing cartoon worlds.
In Land’s End you can soar around in virtual world of caves and mountains. This is an atmospheric puzzler developed by the same team behind Monument Valley. In this VR game you will be unlocking mysterious paths and entrances one at a time.
The game has a slow place and it makes you feel more relaxing. You will not find any M.C. Escher themes but there are many similarities with the Monument Valley.
Star Citizen is the virtual reality game for you if you want to enjoy a more elaborate space experience. Some of the main characteristics of this game include:
FPS on planets and space stations
Embarking in different types of spaceships to explore its universe
A surprisingly too large storyline that also has some of your favorite Hollywood celebrities
This virtual reality game seems almost like the next edition of the Wing Commander series.
Discovering Space
This is another space exploration VR game, but it is limited to the solar system. You will be traveling in a ship that flies at several times the speed of light. It will take you just a few seconds if you want to move from one planet to another.
But don’t think that there is any flaw in the virtual reality model of our solar system. The distances are accurate. It is all about space exploration, but there is a certain innate thrill in traveling from one plant to other.
Despite what you may think about just traveling within the Solar System, Discovering Space is considered among the best virtual reality experiences on Oculus Rift in the larger VR community.
You have the option to select the ship of your choice, and this includes Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon. This virtual reality game has been developed by SiPhi for Oculus Rift DK2.
Virtual reality games seem to be mostly about space adventure. However, there are many other game genres too. But when it comes to space exploration Elite: Dangerous stands out from the lot.
In this 4th edition of the Elite game series you will pilot a spaceship and explore to-real-scale galaxy (Milky Way). It has open-end gameplay. It has a massive multiplayer gameplay and the actions you take will affect the story. You can also play it in single-player mode.
Robinson: The Journey
Robinson: The Journey, a dinosaur action game, is designed exclusively for Sony’s VR hardware, PlayStation VR. It is based on the successful CryEngine tech. In this virtual reality game you are a young boy who has accidently landed on a dinosaur-inhabited planet. You will come across all kinds of dinosaurs here.
This full-fledged VR game is believed to be Sony’s big shot at promoting its PS VR. It has its origins in the German studio’s “Back to Dinosaur Island” demos. With dinosaurs all around you, thrill will be one thing you will not miss in this game.
There are dozens more virtual reality games which are nothing less than stunning. As the new VR headsets make their way, you can expect a massive explosion in the number of VR games to be released by more developers.
What is Virtual Reality?
6 Reasons VR is not just for the ‘techie’
3 VR Exercise Games to Get You Fit
Google Cardboard Virtual Reality Headset is Under $20!
Here are the Best 20 Free VR Games for the HTC Vive
Top 10 Mind Blowing Oculus Quest Games
VR Beat Saber Review and Custom Song Modding Guide
Why the Oculus Rift S may just save Virtual Reality
Blade and Sorcery VR Review – for the Oculus Rift
Virtual Reality is FINALLY a Reality for All
Recommended VR Systems
MSI Titan Pro
Asus GL502VM
CUK Annihilator VR Extreme
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Is Your Computer Compatible for Virtual Reality Experience? Virtual reality is the next big revolution, with the Oculus Rift headset and HTC Vive gain. Learn More
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Victoria State Government
Reportable Conduct
Schools
The child safe standards came into effect for all Victorian schools on 1 August 2016.
Schools
Throughout 2017, one in three Victorian schools were involved in a child safe standards compliance or feedback program. Compliance is being monitored through the cyclical school review process and the initial school registration process.
Additionally, 10 per cent of Victorian schools have been invited to participate in a feedback project, which aims to understand schools’ experiences in implementing the child safe standards.
Visit our resources page for more information and resources.
Ministerial Order No. 870: meeting the child safe standards
Ministerial Order No. 870 [accessible] sets out the specific actions that registered schools need to take to meet the child safe standards. The Ministerial Order places accountability for managing the risk of child abuse with school governing authorities.
A new minimum standard for school registration requires schools to meet the requirements of the Ministerial Order.
A note about definitions
The Ministerial Order broadly defines some terms.
See Definitions for a full explanation of the terms used in Ministerial Order No. 870.
How is compliance with the child safe standards being monitored?
Compliance with the child safe standards is monitored through the:
cyclical school review process
initial registration process.
Additionally, the VRQA has invited 10 per cent of Victorian schools to participate in an implementation feedback project.
How will I know if my school is to be involved a child safe standards compliance program
Schools scheduled for a cyclical reviewed in 2017 will be assessed against the child safe standards.
All schools applying for registration will be assessed against the child safe standards.
Schools invited to participate in the implementation feedback project would have received an email in May 2017.
What does the feedback project involve?
The implementation feedback project will be undertaken over three phases during Terms 2 and 3. In phase one, the VRQA will look at schools’ child safe standards self-assessment and action plans all schools completed in 2016.
In phase two, the VRQA will look at how child safety is promoted within the school communities and which key documents are made publicly available on school websites.
In phase three, schools will be invited to participate in a 20-minute telephone conversation. Here, the VRQA hopes to better understand the experiences of individual schools, and gain insight into the different approaches to implementing the child safe standards.
A full project outline is available in the project tip sheet.
Why is the VRQA conducting the feedback project?
We know that schools are safe places. The implementation feedback project aims to identify areas of child safety best practice that can be shared across the system to help all schools in their commitment to child safety or to help determine where to next?
The project also provides an opportunity for the VRQA to understand any obstacles schools faced in implementing the standards and where more support may be needed.
Why has my school been chosen for the feedback project?
In total, the VRQA has invited over 200 schools to participate in the project as a representative sample chosen from the State Register. The sample takes measures to ensure representation across:
the government, Catholic and independent sectors
metropolitan Melbourne and rural and regional areas
types of schools (primary, secondary and specialist).
What resources are available to help me prepare for a child safe standards assessment?
The VRQA has a number of resources to help schools meet each of the child safe standards.
These have been shaped by responses to the VRQA Child Safe Standards Readiness Tool and feedback received at the VRQA Child Safe Standards Information Sessions.
Under the child safe standards, what are my responsibilities for the welfare of students outside of school hours?
In meeting the child safe standards (via the requirements of Ministerial Order No. 870), you must take into account your school’s additional responsibilities to students outside of school hours and/or your school’s main campuses.
Activities that may need to be considered in meeting the child safe standards include:
excursions and school camps outside of school hours and/or your school location
before or after school care programs
student work experience programs
co-curricular activities such as sport, music and drama activities outside school hours or your school location
boarding school or other school residential facilities or campuses for students
the enrolment of overseas students living with local host families
arrangements for ‘sister school’ student visits and/or secondary student exchange programs arranged by the school.
How do the standards apply to an international student's living arrangements?
The standards apply to an international student’s living arrangements where:
the student is aged under 18
the school has arranged or accepted responsibility for those living arrangements ie under options three or four below.
International students aged under 18 can only enter Australia on Student Visas where:
they will be living with a parent residing in Australia during their enrolment (usually on a Guardian Visa), or
they will be living with a close relative (aunt, uncle, grandparent, sibling aged 21 or over) approved by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, or
the CRICOS registered education provider issues a Confirmation of Appropriate Accommodation and Welfare (CAAW) letter as part of the student’s enrolment or
a registered Student Exchange Organisation (SEO) issues an Acceptance Advice of a Secondary Exchange Student (AASES) form.
CRICOS registered schools that issue a CAAW letter are accepting responsibility for the student’s ‘accommodation, support and general welfare’ arrangements, and must approve the student’s accommodation in either:
a school boarding facility
a placement with a local homestay family
placement with distant relatives or family friends nominated by the parents of the student.
In Victoria, the student must be at least 13 years of age for a CAAW letter to be issued.
A CAAW letter retains responsibility for the student’s accommodation, support and general welfare from the student’s arrival in Australia until either:
the student turns 18 years of age
the student ceases their enrolment and departs Australia
the student ceases their enrolment and comes under a CAAW letter issued by another education provider.
VRQA approved SEOs that issue an AASES form are accepting responsibility for the student’s ‘accommodation, support and general welfare’ arrangements for the duration of the secondary student exchange program, and must approve the student’s placement in a local host family.
CRICOS registered schools and VRQA approved SEOs can engage commercial agencies and third parties to assist the school in exercising its responsibilities – but education providers and SEOs cannot delegate their CAAW or AASES responsibility to a student to any other entity.
Further information is available from the VRQA.
The following case studies address how some schools have dealt with aspects of the child safe standards.
school that provides a variety of activities outside normal school hours and locations
school enrolling international students
Cultural and religious diversity and the empowerment of children
Human resources practices
Meaning under Ministerial Order No. 870
ETR Act
The Education and Training Reform Act 2006 (as amended from time to time).
A child enrolled as a student at the school.
Child-connected work
Work authorised by the school governing authority and performed by an adult in a school environment while children are present or reasonably expected to be present.
any act committed against a child involving—
a sexual offence; or
an offence under section 49B(2) of the Crimes Act 1958 (grooming); and
the infliction, on a child, of—
physical violence; or
serious emotional or psychological harm; and
serious neglect of a child.
Encompasses matters related to protecting all children from child abuse, managing the risk of child abuse, providing support to a child at risk of child abuse, and responding to incidents or allegations of child abuse.
Minister of religion
Has the same meaning as in the Working with Children Act 2005.
In relation to a school, means the person who is ultimately responsible for the way the school is managed and conducted:
in the case of a Government school, the Secretary of the Department of Education and Training in the case of a non-Government school, the proprietor of the school.
Any physical or virtual place made available or authorised by the school governing authority for use by a child during or outside school hours, including:
a campus of the school;
online school environments (including email and intranet systems); and
other locations provided by the school for a child’s use (including, without limitation, locations used for school camps, sporting events, excursions, competitions, and other events).
School governing authority
The proprietor of a school, including a person authorised to act for or on behalf of the proprietor; or
the governing body for a school (however described), as authorised by the proprietor of a school or the ETR Act; or
the principal, as authorised by the proprietor of a school, the school governing body, or the ETR Act.
Explanatory note: There is a wide variety of school governance arrangements. Depending on the way a school is constituted and operated, the governing body for a school may be the school board, the school council, or some other person or entity. The school governing authorities may share or assign responsibility for discharging the requirements imposed by this Order, in accordance with the school’s internal governance arrangements.
In a Government school, an individual working in a school environment who is:
employed under Part 2.4 of the ETR Act in the government teaching service; or
employed under a contract of service by the council of the school under Part 2.3 of the ETR Act; or
a volunteer or a contracted service provider (whether or not a body corporate or any other person is an intermediary).
In a non-Government school, an individual working in a school environment who is:
directly engaged or employed by a school governing authority;
a volunteer or a contracted service provider (whether or not a body corporate or any other person is an intermediary); or
a minister of religion.
The following terms have the same meaning as in the ETR Act:
child abuse;
government school;
government teaching service;
non-Government school;
parent;
principal;
registered school;
school; and
the Secretary.
Page Last Updated: 16/05/2019 12:14 PM
Child SafeCurrently selected
VET and training organisations
Child Safe StandardsCurrently selected
© State of Victoria Department of Education and Training
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Wildfire smoke is choking Seattle, obscuring the view and blocking out the sun
Smoke from wildfires turned the sun over Seattle a deep shade of red Aug. 20. (Sigma Sreedharan)
Angela Fritz and
Angela Fritz
Deputy Editor on the General Assignment News Desk
Lornet Turnbull
August 21, 2018 at 2:04 PM EDT
Hundreds of wildfires burning in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia this week are filling the sky with smoke and making it impossible to get a fresh breath of air. In a city known for its jaw-dropping views of the mountains, the smoke was so thick in Seattle on Monday that it blotted the skyline and turned the sun an unsettling shade of red. It’s also causing health concerns, prompting an air quality rating of “very unhealthy.”
From Alki Beach Park, a popular spot west of downtown, the image captured in many Instagram and postcards shots was that of a skyline obliterated by smoke.
The smell filled the air, and ash covered vehicles in a layer of grainy white. More than 300 flights were delayed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport because of low visibility. Many of the city’s most popular parks sat nearly vacant Monday afternoon into the evening. Stretches of roadway and bike paths popular among the after-work biking crowd were virtually empty. A few people who ventured outside — fishermen and dog walkers — wore masks.
Vancouver had the worst air quality in the world on Monday. Seattle’s air was fourth-worst.
In a city where only 1 out of 6 homes has central air, even people without respiratory problems were at risk as the smoke seeped through windows left open to cool things down. The temperature Tuesday was forecast to hit 90 degrees.
The Pacific Northwest is literally just all smoke this evening. pic.twitter.com/1tRCdkSmxd
— Dakota Smith (@weatherdak) August 21, 2018
Three large fires were the primary culprits on Monday, all Type 1 incidents, which is the highest level of complexity. The smoke from the three fires merged in the wind Monday and wafted over the Seattle-Tacoma metro area.
The plume was so thick it could be seen from space, writhing in the wind and embedded in a brown blanket of ash and smoke that covered the western half of the state.
“Speechless,” said KIRO7 meteorologist Morgan Palmer as he tweeted a photo from the channel’s sky cam, “mainly because I’d have to open my mouth and breathe in to talk. And that seems like not a great idea.”
There are a lot of different things floating in wildfire smoke, but the tiny solid particles — known as particulate matter or PM — are the most significant hazards to health, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Children, the elderly and pregnant women are at the highest risk for complications from smoke inhalation. The smaller the particles are, the more dangerous they become. When inhaled, tiny particles can enter the lungs — and even the bloodstream.
“The effects of smoke range from eye and respiratory tract irritation to more serious disorders, including reduced lung function, bronchitis, exacerbation of asthma and heart failure, and premature death,” an EPA guide for public health officials states.
You can wear a mask to protect your lungs, but the EPA says “dust masks” aren’t going to cut it. “Scarves or bandanas (wet or dry) won’t help, either,” according to the Airnow.gov website. “Particulate masks known as N-95 or P-100 respirators will help, but they must fit well and be used correctly. They are sold at many hardware and home repair stores and online.”
The smoke filled Safeco Field on Monday night when the Mariners hosted the Astros. The Mariners chose to practice in the batting cages before the game to limit smoke inhalation. Fans watched the Mariners pull off a win through the haze.
“The smoke coated their throats and lungs; it made their eyes water, and threatened to choke them, much like the team’s recent struggles fought to snuff out a once-promising season,” Lookout Landing wrote after the game. (Ouch.)
Smoke will be an issue in western Washington state through Tuesday, but a shift in the wind is coming. Starting Wednesday, winds will be out of the south and west, which will push the smoke away from Seattle. British Columbia and Alberta will be socked with Washington wildfire smoke starting Wednesday.
Smoked Sun over the Sound. #Seattle #Seattle times #sunset #alkibeach #tonight #myartwork #anarchypictures
A post shared by stanmcm (@stanmcm) on Aug 20, 2018 at 8:22pm PDT
Smoke from fires near and far have completely hazed over Seattle’s skyline. It was surreal out there today. #seattle #alkibeach #kayaking #forestfire
A post shared by Puja Parakh (@puja) on Aug 20, 2018 at 11:31pm PDT
Feature image by Sigma Sreedharan.
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Follow @powerpost
Get the Health 202 Newsletter
The Health 202: Trump has a backdoor way to lift Obamacare regulations
By Paige Winfield Cunningham
Paige Winfield Cunningham
THE PROGNOSIS
President Trump speaks to reporters before leaving the White House on Saturday. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
If at first you don’t succeed at repealing Obamacare, try, try again — with an executive order.
President Trump, desperate for a health-care win that Congress couldn’t hand him, is pursuing a backdoor way of letting more Americans buy insurance plans free of the Obamacare regulations that Republicans have blamed for big premium hikes and costly deductibles.
This week, his White House is finalizing an executive order to allow the formation of what’s known as association health plans — something Trump recently promised to “take care of a tremendous number of people” in the absence of a GOP replacement of the Affordable Care Act. In a tweet this morning, the president promised it will give "great healthcare to many people."
Since Congress can't get its act together on HealthCare, I will be using the power of the pen to give great HealthCare to many people - FAST
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who hasn't supported much of Trump's agenda, chimed in:
This will be a great plan & a big deal for millions of Americans. I’ve been working with @realDonaldTrump for months on this. Details soon! https://t.co/pvwf5K8XIU
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) October 10, 2017
Here's how association plans would work: By banding together to buy coverage, individuals and small businesses could join the large group insurance market, which is exempt from the ACA’s requirement that individual and small group plans cover what are known as essential health benefits. These association plans could be formed by trade groups, professional organizations or community groups with the idea of expanding options for consumers and possibly lowering their costs.
In theory, letting people buy cheaper, leaner plans sounds great. Until you’re diagnosed with a chronic condition or serious disease. Experts say that if insurers are allowed to sell stripped-down plans, the move will prompt healthy people to exit the Obamacare marketplaces and flock to those plans instead.
“Allowing individuals or small groups to join plans that avoid those rules would likely result in the deterioration of the marketplaces,” Cori Uccello, a senior health fellow for the American Academy of Actuaries, told me.
We don’t yet know exactly how the whole thing would work — and the Trump administration is confined by existing law regulating the individual and group insurance markets (including both the 2010 Affordable Care Act and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974).
But the underlying idea is to return to the pre-ACA days when insurers could sell a much wider variety of products on the individual market — including plans that perhaps cover only catastrophic events or severely restrict entire categories of care.
We've seen this before — in Congress. The approach is similar to what House and Senate Republicans tried to do in their failed Obamacare rollback bills.
The House's American Health Care Act and the Senate's Better Care Reconciliation Act allowed states to get waivers from various ACA regulations. Senate Republicans even added a measure from Sen.Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) that would have allowed insurers to sell plans free of Obamacare regulations as long as they sold one ACA-compliant plan.
Republicans have said their aim was to lower costs for consumers, arguing that mandating expansive benefit packages unnecessarily raised prices for everyone.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is a big supporter of association heatlh plans. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
“If these individuals can join large groups across state lines, I think they'll get protection, less expensive insurance, and really it will solve a lot of the problems we have in the individual market,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has been working with the administration on the executive order, said on MSNBC last month.
Watch Trump make a similar boast if he rolls out his executive order this week. He’s already promised it will “cover a lot of territory and a lot of people.” The president will frame the initiative as a huge stride forward in the effort to undo the ACA.
And, depending on the exact details of the executive order, he may be right.
You are reading The Health 202, our must-read newsletter on health policy.
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AHH, OOF and OUCH
California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a new law aimed to bring more transparency around drug pricing. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)
AHH: California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) has signed a new law believed to be the nation’s most comprehensive measure aimed at shining a light on prescription drug pricing, The Mercury News reports. Effective in January, it aims to make drug prices for both public and private health plans more transparent by requiring pharmaceutical companies to notify health insurers and government health plans at least 60 days before scheduled price hikes exceeding 16 percent over a two-year period. It would also force drug companies to explain the reasons behind big increases.
“The essence of this bill is pretty simple,” Brown said. “Californians have a right to know why their medical costs are out of control, especially when the pharmaceutical profits are soaring. That’s the take-away message.”
The new law is strongly opposed by the pharmaceutical industry, which had spent millions on lobbyists and ads to defeat it. The industry fears the law could become a national model and the first major step toward price controls.
“It is disappointing that Gov. Brown has decided to sign a bill that is based on misleading rhetoric instead of what’s in the best interest of patients,” PhRMA spokeswoman Priscilla VanderVeer told The Mercury News.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.). (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
OOF: Are Republicans ready to admit their failure to repeal Obamacare after seven years of promising it? Maybe, just maybe, Politico’s Jennifer Haberkorn reports. Jen writes that while some Republicans and members of the Trump administration are insisting publicly that they will get to Obamacare repeal in 2018, other GOP lawmakers are privately admitting it may never happen.
“Personally, I don’t see it," Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.) said. “I just don’t know how you can reconcile a bill you’ve taken two whiffs at already and couldn’t get the votes.”
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus put it this way: “Anytime you fumble twice, there’s the anticipation that you’ll fumble for the third time,” he said, adding Republicans may have the “credibility” but not the “believability.”
“Republicans are torn between the potency of their longtime rallying cry against Obamacare — so popular with GOP donors and their base that it helped flip both houses of Congress and the White House — and the reality they’ve wasted nine months of what is supposed to be the most productive time of a new administration failing to get it done," Jen writes.
(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
OUCH: Who has the Affordable Care Act left worse off? The healthy people who buy their own coverage but earn too much to qualify for help paying their premiums, Kaiser Health News's Julie Rovner explains. And to top it off, the premium hikes that are being announced as enrollment looms for next year — in some states, increases topping 50 percent — will make their situations worse.
How many people fall into this category and who are they? There are 7.5 million people, or 43 percent of the total individual market, who make up this group. They’re early retirees; people working part-time who have substantial outside income; people who are self-employed of any age; and people who are small employers. Perhaps not so incidentally, this group is also more likely to vote Republican.
The Trump administration recently claimed the United States is one of just seven countries allowing elective abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, in a statement backing a bill the House passed last week.
Abortion foes have long argued the United States has especially liberal abortion laws compared to most other countries. But is that really true? Post Fact Checker Michelle Ye Hee Lee dug deeper. Here's what she found:
The facts: The source of this claim is a 2014 report by antiabortion group SBA List's Charlotte Lozier Institute, which analyzed abortion laws in 198 countries. Its report says there are 59 countries that allow abortion “without restriction as to reason,” or “elective,” or “abortion on demand.” Only seven of the 59 countries allow elective abortions after 20 weeks, the group found: Canada, China, Netherlands, North Korea, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.
This list of countries correlates with another similar report, also from 2014, published by the Center for Reproductive Rights, which supports abortion rights. That group’s report found 61 countries that allow abortion “without restriction as to reason." Most of the countries had a 12-week gestational limit on abortions.
Here’s a look at the seven countries allowing elective abortions after 20 weeks. Michelle sorted them from the most liberal on gestational limits to the least:
North Korea and Vietnam: No specified gestational limit, though regulatory mechanisms vary.
China: “Abortion is virtually freely available in China, and there are no defined time limits for access to the procedure,” according to Pew Research Center. China now has a “two-child” policy, and human-rights advocates have criticized China’s population and family planning laws.
United States: No federal ban, but 43 states have prohibitions on gestational limits -- from 20 to 24 weeks, or the point of “viability, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive-rights research group. There are some exceptions made, usually for the life or health of the mother.
Canada: No federal gestational limit, but provinces and territories vary as to whether they will offer abortion services after a certain gestational age. Some offer abortion services up to 12 weeks, others up to 24 weeks.
Netherlands: Abortions are allowed up to 24 weeks. After that period, abortions are allowed only if the unborn fetus has an untreatable disease and would have little to no chance of survival after birth, or for the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman.
Singapore: Abortions are allowed up to 24 weeks. After that, abortions are only allowed to save the life of, or to preserve the physical or mental health of, the woman.
A few caveats: Of course, the fact that elective abortion is legal in certain countries doesn't mean all women in them have access to abortion services or to clinics, Michelle writes. Plus, the quality and level of health care in those seven countries is not equal; for example, health care in the United States really can’t be compared to services in North Korea. Additionally, there are more than seven countries that allow abortion services after 20 weeks in limited circumstances, including to save the life of the mother.
The conclusion: Overall, the data do back up the claim that just seven countries out of 198 in the world allow elective abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. "What is telling [is] that research from both sides of the reproductive rights debate confirm this figure," Michelle writes. "It’s not easy to boil down complex abortion laws in a cross-comparative manner like this, and there are some minor caveats associated with this talking point. Still, we did not find the caveats rise to the level of One Pinocchio."
And here are a few more good reads from The Post and beyond:
MEDICAL MISSIVES
Hospitals scramble to avert saline shortage in wake of Puerto Rico disaster
The island's extensive medical-manufacturing industry was hit hard by Hurricane Maria, raising fears about national drug shortages.
Laurie McGinley
Hospitals evacuated and many injured as wildfires ravage Northern California
At least two hospitals in Northern California evacuated patients as deadly wildfires spread across at least 57,000 acres, destroying 1,500 structures, officials said Monday.
REPRODUCTIVE WARS
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
-- Twitter took down an ad posted by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), chair of a special panel that investigated claims that abortion rights groups sold fetal tissue, which said she stopped the selling of "baby body parts." Blackburn posted the ad in announcing her campaign to replace retiring Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.).
"Blackburn's campaign announced Twitter's decision on Monday after a representative from Twitter informed her campaign that the line 'had been deemed an inflammatory statement that is likely to evoke a strong negative reaction.' The language violates Twitter's policy for advertisements, the company said," according to the Tennessean. "Although Twitter blocked the video as an online ad, Blackburn is allowed to share it on her campaign Twitter account."
Blackburn wasn't deterred, however, since the issue was a direct appeal to social conservatives in Tennessee. Indeed, she used the decision to fundraiser. And posted this reponse:
.@Twitter shut down our video ad, claiming it's "inflammatory" & "negative." Join me in standing up to Silicon Valley → RETWEET our message! pic.twitter.com/K3w4AMgW6i
— Marsha Blackburn (@VoteMarsha) October 9, 2017
Washington state sues over new Trump birth-control rules
Washington state sued President Donald Trump on Monday over his decision to let more employers claiming religious or moral objections opt out of providing no-cost birth control to women.
Twitter pulls Blackburn Senate ad deemed ‘inflammatory’
Twitter decided that a line about Blackburn's work leading a House select committee investigating Planned Parenthood violated its ad policies.
The Disturbing Rise of Cyberattacks Against Abortion Clinics
Abortion providers have long faced harassment, both online and and in person. But a recent wave of cyberattacks have caused havoc lately—and proved difficult to stop.
The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations holds a hearing on the 340B Drug Pricing Program on Wednesday.
The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health holds a hearing on the opioid crisis on Wednesday.
The Bipartisan Policy Center holds an event on retirement on Wednesday.
The Section National MACRA MIPS/APM Summit begins on Wednesday.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce holds an event on the opioid epidemic on Thursday.
Here's what you need to know about President Trump's feud with Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.):
A list of senators who have questioned President Trump’s temperament:
Ivana and Melania Trump's feud, explained:
Watch Stephen Colbert and an interview with "President Jump Shot:"
Jimmy Kimmel talks about his Twitter fight with Donald Trump Jr.:
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Unfiled
General Electric loses top credit rating
By - The Washington Times - Thursday, March 12, 2009
WASHINGTON (AP) – General Electric Co. lost its prized top credit rating from Standard & Poor’s over fears of rising loan losses and lower earnings at its lending arm.
The credit rating agency lowered GE’s long-term debt ratings to ‘AA+’ from ‘AAA’ Tuesday, a one notch reduction that markets had long expected. The move means it will be more expensive for GE to raise money in the credit markets.
Company shares rose $1.01, or nearly 12 percent, to $9.50 in morning trading after the announcement. Shares had lost about half their value this year, pushed down by investors frightened by the grim outlook for GE’s lending arm, GE Capital.
Trump asks nation to pray over his impeachment, says he's done nothing wrong
Many analysts had expected a much deeper ratings cut, given GE Capital’s struggles with rising loan losses and fears that it more write-downs are looming. And while GE has said defending its coveted credit rating was a priority, CEO Jeff Immelt has recently said he was prepared to fund the company at a lower level.
“I don’t believe GE is surprised to see this,” said Dilip Sarangan, an analyst with Frost & Sullivan.
GE Capital faces higher losses on its loans in areas such as real estate as the global financial crisis worsens, S&P; said. If it stood on its own, the ratings agency would give GE Capital a much lower ‘A’ rating. The agency considers GE’s outlook stable.
The Fairfield, Conn-based company, whose wide-ranging business include jet engines, the NBC network, and loans for energy projects, was one of just six non-financial companies that hold the top rating from S&P.; GE was first given the ‘AAA’ rating in 1956.
GE has taken steps recently to shore up GE Capital’s finances. It is restructuring the unit, lowering its debt and conserving cash through steps that included a 68-percent cut of its dividend. The company had not lowered its quarterly payout since the Great Depression.
GE has also raised $48 billion in cash this year, most of its long-term debt needs for 2009. It has taken part in a federal plan that allows companies to borrow with the backing of the government’s top credit rating. The company said the downgrade will not have a significant impact on its funding or operations.
“We will continue to run GE with the disciplines of a Triple-A company,” Immelt said in a statement Thursday.
John Atkins, a fixed-income analyst at IDEAGlobal.com, said it remained unclear what the impact will be on GE’s borrowing costs. Even with the ‘AAA’ credit rating, the cost of insuring debt of GE Capital had been in distressed territory recently.
AP Manufacturing Writer Michael Obel contributed to this report.
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Genres : Action Drama Sci-Fi Adventure
Home > The Flash
Watch The Flash Online
After a particle accelerator causes a freak storm, CSI Investigator Barry Allen is struck by lightning and falls into a coma. Months later he awakens with the power of super speed, granting him the ability to move through Central City like an unseen guardian angel. Though initially excited by his newfound powers, Barry is shocked to discover he is not the only "meta-human" who was created in the wake of the accelerator explosion -- and not everyone is using their new powers for good. Barry partners with S.T.A.R. Labs and dedicates his life to protect the innocent. For now, only a few close friends and associates know that Barry is literally the fastest man alive, but it won't be long before the world learns what Barry Allen has become...The Flash.
The Flash Episodes
Fastest Man Alive
Things You Can't Outrun
The Flash Is Born
Flash vs. Arrow (1)
The Man in the Yellow Suit
The Nuclear Man
Rogue Time
Tricksters
All-Star Team-Up
Who Is Harrison Wells?
Grodd Lives
Rogue Air
Fast Enough
PaleyFest Panel
The Man Who Saved Central City
Flash of Two Worlds
Family of Rogues
The Fury of Firestorm
The Darkness and the Light
Enter Zoom
Legends of Today (1)
The Reverse-Flash Returns
Welcome to Earth-2
Escape from Earth-2
Versus Zoom
Back to Normal
The Runaway Dinosaur
The Race of His Life
The New Rogues
Invasion! (2)
Borrowing Problems from the Future
Attack on Gorilla City (1)
Attack on Central City (2)
The Wrath of Savitar
Into the Speed Force
The Once and Future Flash
I Know Who You Are
Infantino Street
The Flash Reborn
Elongated Journey Into Night
When Harry Met Harry…
Therefore I Am
Crisis on Earth-X (3)
Don't Run
The Trial of The Flash
The Elongated Knight Rises
Honey, I Shrunk Team Flash
Enter Flashtime
Run, Iris, Run
Null and Annoyed
Lose Yourself
Fury Rogue
Therefore She Is
Harry and the Harrisons
Think Fast
We Are The Flash
The Death of Vibe
All Doll'd Up
The Icicle Cometh
O Come, All Ye Thankful
What's Past Is Prologue
Elseworlds (1)
The Flash & the Furious
Goldfaced
Cause and XS
King Shark vs. Gorilla Grodd
Failure Is an Orphan
Gone Rogue
The Girl with the Red Lightning
A Flash of the Lightning
Dead Man Running
Kiss Kiss Breach Breach
License to Elongate
The Last Temptation of Barry Allen (1)
Crisis on Infinite Earths (3)
A Girl Named Sue
Grodd Friended Me
HummerG - 11-12-2019 9:22:03 am
I swear this cross-overs are life especilly when u are watching all the other hero's series. Damn!
yoodog - 07-11-2019 9:59:58 pm
MAAN, can't wait for that crazy ass cross=over XD
S6 E4 — Hold on a sec. Isn’t this supposed to be a Halloween Ep? No, that’s not a complaint peeps. Actually, it’s that & more...I must say, in ALL of 6 seasons, this Ep IMHO, is the Best! (Acting wise)*
SupremeOverlord - 15-10-2019 9:43:21 pm
ugh that monitor guy is so annoying cant they just kill him
kruciphix13 - 01-10-2019 8:52:23 pm
Stephen Amell Himself wanted to end Arrow for 2 reasons: 1st he wants to spend more time with his famlily. 2nd: He wanted the show to have a proper ending.
Dyslogix - 01-10-2019 8:06:39 am
Oct 8th it starts again, not sure how long it will last just look at Arrow :S I hope it lands on a clipphanger to edge into the new series to start Infinite Earths, god i hope they don't ruin that and it becomes a short lived series.
darkharvest - 15-05-2019 3:42:03 am
s5 e22 verystream.com/stream/aAWXLjVieU4
razdock2019 - 15-05-2019 1:44:16 am
whare the next episode
polferis - 23-01-2019 8:32:53 am
Exist already here.
BCBirdie - 23-01-2019 5:00:41 am
their sister website has it watchepisodeseries.com
"The Flash" - "Heroic" Season 1 Trailer
The Flash - Intro
Type: Opening Credits
as Barry Allen / The Flash
as Iris West
as Harrison Wells
as Caitlin Snow
as Cisco Ramon
as Detective West
John Wesley Shipp
as Henry Allen
Rick Cosnett
as Eddie Thawne
HummerG
yoodog
SupremeOverlord
kruciphix13
Dyslogix
darkharvest
razdock2019
polferis
BCBirdie
Great Plot and Special Effects But Is a Corny At Times
I really enjoy the flash! I've been hooked since the first episode the story line grabbed my attention and I look forward to the next episode each we ...
I really enjoy the flash! I've been hooked since the first episode the story line grabbed my attention and I look forward to the next episode each week. The only downside to the flash I find is the acting or rather the script does become corny but bearable as it doesn't last long. I'm a huge DC comics fan and love to see the inclusion of many well known villain meta-humans that are not included in the large open world game DC Universe. I hope to see Flash expand in future seasons and become as powerful as he is in the comic books. None the less Flash is an excellent series that is a must watch for those who love superheroes
The mystery of the human Thunderbolt
Back in 1940 Gardner F .Fox created a unique superhero who was the fastest man alive after breathing in the fumes of Hard water for over a 12 hour pe ...
Back in 1940 Gardner F .Fox created a unique superhero who was the fastest man alive after breathing in the fumes of Hard water for over a 12 hour period Jay Garrick discovered that he was the fastest man alive and decided to use these powers to help those in need. He called himself the Flash. With a WWI soldiers helmet on his head a red shirt with a lightening bolt on it he looked like Mercury. The Flash lasted in popularity until roughly 1952 when He and the rest of his team mates in the Justice Society of America made their last appearances. Afterwards the comics industry hit a massive slumpFlash Forward to 1956. The comics industry is in a slump. Nothing is selling well except for Superman Batman wonder woman Aquaman and Green Arrow. Aquaman and Green Arrow only survive because they are the back ups to superman and Batman. but still something needs to be done. Enter Julie Schwartz. Schwartz is a young editor at DC Comics and he is toying with a idea. To bring back the superheroes. He wants to revive the Flash but not Jay Garrick. He likes the idea of a fastest man alive doing impossible things . So he turns to Writer Robert Kanigher and Artist Carmine infantino. together in a weekend the three of them plot the origin story of the New Flash to be seen in DC Comics SHOWCASE PRESENTS. Showcase issue four hits the stands featuring the Flash and a new age begins the silver age of comics. The New Flash is police scientist Barry Allen who was struck by lightening while standing in front of a rack featuring every known chemical known to man. The lightening bolt strikes the chemicals and creates a reaction in Barry Allen it rewrites his DNA to give him incredible speed. The Flash was a Hit Barry Allen was a scientist and science featured a lot in the Flash stories. Now Flash forward to 1985 Barry Allen was killed during the Crisis on infinite Earths. And became DC's patron saint of noble heroes. During the early 90's a TV Show THE FLASH starred John Wesley Shipp as Barry Allen as the Flash and it did well. but it missed the boat in terms of characterization turning Barry Allen into a hip guy who worked hand in glove with Star LAbs and fought crime while sharing a love triangle with Two women. While the Shipp series was fun it wasn't the Flash ,Now DC is trying it again and pouring he Flash into the same mold as Green Arrow. While ARROW isn't Green Arrow from the comics it's a good solid show with great chracterizations. And a knack for telling a story. They borrowed the formula and poured the Flash into it making it almost a carbon copy of the Arrow. Grant Gustin's Barry Allen is young. Younger then Barry Allen originally was supposed to be. But he brings a freshness to it. And the fact is the show gives him a reason for being the Flash. Despite his being uncertain or his team in being uncertain. The first four episodes were highly enjoyable. And I look forward to seeing more of them. If they can keep up this pace they may truly have a winner here. Where Gotham and Arrow are gloomy and dark. The Flash is light and fun. And it's a good adventure show. Like I said if they keep the pace. And the invent full way of creating the Flash's famed rogues gallery. This will be a show to watch.
The Fastest Man Alive, AKA, The Scarlet Speedster, AKA, The Flash!
I'm a big fan of DC (and Marvel) comics and I was excited but cautious when they announced this show mainly for the fact that I wasn't sure they woul ...
I'm a big fan of DC (and Marvel) comics and I was excited but cautious when they announced this show mainly for the fact that I wasn't sure they would pull off the effects required to make a convincing Flash with a TV budget but my worries were quelled from the first episode. Other than a few of the villains abilities, the special effects in this show are great, especially concerning The Flash himself.Aside from the show's capabilities visually, the story and various plot devices are fun and the characters are mainly likable. Obviously some shine through more than others (Barry Allen, Cisco, Detective West & Harrison Wells to name a few) but they all have their place in The Flash's team. Speaking of which, Tom Cavanagh may well play my favourite role of any TV show as the profoundly genius Harrison Wells and most of his story contributions are among the best in the show.The show does take a villain of the week format (similar to Arrow) for the majority of the episode's which can get a little tiresome (mainly with some of the less interesting villains) but the main story line of season 1 made for the most entertaining season of a TV show I've seen yet. If you are not aware this show does share it's universe with channel CW's other show Arrow, which is based on the DC character Green Arrow and without spoiling anything I thoroughly enjoyed the crossover episode and can't wait to see more of these in the future (I am also a big fan of Arrow as well).The show can seem silly at times when you see The Flash get hurt by some of the villains as sometimes a guy who can multiply himself but moves at regular human speed is somehow able to hit The Flash when really people look like they are moving in slow motion to him (as shown in the first episode). I mean he caught a bullet in the most recent episode in season 2 but somehow wasn't able to dodge a punch from a human moving at regular speed. Also Captain Cold and his Rogues are definitely a team of villains who come off better in the comic book than on the screen as you just don't buy The Flash being challenged by a team of standard humans with special guns (he could literally take the guns out of their hands before they could pull the trigger if he wanted). But hey, this is a show about a man who can run faster than the speed of light so you do have to be a little open-minded. :)All of that is a very small part of the show though and is probably just my overly analytical mind doing what it does... Believe me when I say it does not detract from how enjoyable this show really is. In summary, this show is excellent visually (especially for it's TV budget) and the story will keep you watching week to week with a smile on your face. I gave it a 10/10 as it is currently my favourite show on TV.
Great Show
When i first saw the show came out i was a little hesitant to watch it because i thought it would a cheese little show. After watching the first few ...
When i first saw the show came out i was a little hesitant to watch it because i thought it would a cheese little show. After watching the first few episodes i was hook. The show was so good i watched all of the first season in two days. Tons of detail went into this show and you can really tell just from the pilot, not just your average superhero show. I cant wait for the rest of season 2 to come out. I've been sitting on the edge of my seat. The first season was so good I almost cried when it came to a end. (I'm not a baby when it comes to a TV show or movie) I would recommend this show to all of my friends, 10 out of 10!
Excellent series that will continue to expand with huge acceleration.
The Flash is a series about Barry Allen as a so called meta-human whose powers is extreme speed. Barry Allen is a very interesting and complex person ...
The Flash is a series about Barry Allen as a so called meta-human whose powers is extreme speed. Barry Allen is a very interesting and complex person, not to mention that he's a very likable and sincere guy. He's day job as a police scientist makes for a very interesting character and displays his intelligence in a genuinely spectacular manner. Meta-humans, case-solving, interesting use and abuse of the powers given to Barry Allen and much more makes for a truly great and spectacular superhero series that will only continue to grow in seasons to come.The series is filled with excitement and does not only make comic book fans jump off of their chairs in joy, but also introduces non-comic book fans into the DC-universe.
The Flash karaoke bashing
S01 E01 Do teen shows have any original script or do writers and producers hope that the audience is that young not to remember last ten years of TV? ...
S01 E01 Do teen shows have any original script or do writers and producers hope that the audience is that young not to remember last ten years of TV? I actually thought of watching a parody of the childhood scene. Watching the first episode was like looking at some legal document form you have seen dozen times except now it is a new guy who filled out the form and yes I don't know him, but I'm pretty sure what he is about to say. The siblings relationship, the crime solving, parenting all seem to have sort of quotation attribute as if the characters saying the lines and acting to remind you what great shows you have already seen. And the series does a good job at that, creating a perfect pitched pop song for the people with amnesia. And of course he is a genius, potential leader with moral compass and superpowers coming from the sky and you don't have to go to the gym anymore. What happened to the looser becomes winner stereotype that we liked so much, are there only two alternatives? At least Peter-man was a guy to cheer for before he could climbed the walls and shoot webs.Characters are likable though, the future flash acts natural and actors surrounding seem to respond well to him, but the acts are so stereotypical that all credibility is lost before you even get excited about what to happen next. Instead you are watching a school play where kids are supposed to participate and you are sort of happy for them but unless your kid is in the play as well it is just not that entertaining as watching grown up stuff.The production seems to be solid though so the audiences should be hooked up and not much disappointed if they are in to this from the beginning and besides it's a part of the DC universe investment creating the vast network of superdudes and dudettes.Question is if everything looks and feels so staged and moving through the motions what do you have to look forward for to get invested in the show. One guess is special effects and more superpowers. When that exhilarates exponentially and toying with new abilities gets over saturated, what other focuses of the show will there be? Crime solving and personal agendas seem to be the most obvious choices. Comparing the one with True Detective and the other with maybe Six Feet Under, shallow predictability surrounded in blazing fireworks what I would expect from these TV series.But I could be wrong and people seem to like it, so the hell I know. And of course I should watch more than one episode, maybe 2 more...
This show is near perfect. Don't listen to the haters, it's awesome!
Looking at the reviews for The Flash here.....it's rather pathetic. People claim the writing sucks, the characters are silly, the story is lame.....w ...
Looking at the reviews for The Flash here.....it's rather pathetic. People claim the writing sucks, the characters are silly, the story is lame.....well I am here to tell you that THEY ARE ALL WRONG!!!!The Flash is awesome! With only one season down it's proved it is a force to be reckoned with! It's got an amazing cast, incredible stories, visual effects, acting, cinematography. Season 1 is in my honest opinion the BEST LIVE ACTION SUPER HERO ADAPTATION EVER!A lot of the reviews on here say the Flash is really bad. Like one of the worst shows ever, claiming that the only reason it has a rating over 8/10 is because of fandom.....this isn't true. They are basing their hate of the show on the first few episodes. I can honestly admit that the first few episodes aren't that great, I can admit that. It felt like a mediocre series. However once you hit the mark of Episode 9.....that's when the real fun begins. The stories from there only get more involving, intriguing and overall amazing.The whole Reverse Flash Story is perfectly executed, with plot twists and turns thrown at you nearly every episode. It was hard to see what would happen next! It just kept getting better and better. The Flash actually stands up as being BETTER than Arrow....and far better than Smallville....regardless of what some reviews say.Needless to say The Flash is the definitive superhero ride. It's going to be tough for season 2 to match season 1 or even exceed it, but Arrow Season 2 did it, so why can't the Flash.I do have some negatives though, none of which are the show's characters, heck even Iris West is a cool character, far better than Arrow's Laurel Lance. Some of the negatives stem from the first few episodes which other reviewers use as a basis to criticise the entire show. Don't judge it all if you haven't seen it all...cause if you'd have seen it all....you'd realise your first thoughts were silly.The Flash to me is one of those rare 10/10 shows, like Game of Thrones, Battlestar Galactica, Lost and Doctor Who. It ranks up there for me in my top 10 shows of all time.
Worst kind of superhero show to date
I've in the past heard about the flash series coming on TV and was hoping that it would bring some good material. Oh how wrong I was.The pilot of the ...
I've in the past heard about the flash series coming on TV and was hoping that it would bring some good material. Oh how wrong I was.The pilot of the show was just plain horrible, everything was speeded through, if you didn't understand something, then well, too bad for you. The story is so predictable and was repeated so many times that it's simply laughable. The storyline is so predictable and old that it couldn't be more. Murdered father, bullied as a kid, troublesome love life, seems familiar? Then comes the acting, another fail of this show. Characters are underdeveloped, everything is rushed and sometimes it just doesn't make sense. What also doesn't make sense are the Flashes powers. How fast is he really? Sometimes he freezes time and he works at normal speed. Then the other time he can barely outrun the Mist villain or dodge a bullet. It's so inconsistent that the head hurts. Also the physics are thrown out the window completely, so it's hard to watch it sometimes. What is also stupid is the part when the flash can't tell her "best friend" his true identity, not to mention the cliché that the person he loves is his greatest admirer. All in all, the show is just awful. Bad acting, boring story, inconsistency, stupid dialogs.. Only thing that it's good enough is the production of the video and it's the only thing that makes it watchable for me. I don't know why this has such ratings on IMDb, I wouldn't give more than 6 on the best days. I guess if your American that it's good enough for you.
On the Heels of Arrow, a HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT
Yes, I know, the fanboys are not going to be happy with this review because most of them live in an alternate universe where ANY comic (graphic novel ...
Yes, I know, the fanboys are not going to be happy with this review because most of them live in an alternate universe where ANY comic (graphic novel) that makes it to TV is automatically an object of worship about which nothing unkind can be said.But the pilot, the "origins" if you prefer, was way below what it should be.Here is the thing. I grew up with the DC world, in real time (the 60s), I have seen every theatrical release of a comic hero ever done, and on this database I am (egad) a "top reviewer." So said, and acknowledging the decades-old battle between DC and Marvel for comic supremacy, I was happily surprised when DC endowed Arrow with rich quirky characterizations and great dialog, elevating it to fair competition for AGENTS OF SHIELD. (The latter has the Whedon brothers behind it, the real "superheroes" of TV writing) I had high expectations for FLASH and not one was met. When I see that tiny grimace on the face of Grant Gustin, I do not see a superhero trying to adjust to his powers, I see an actor trying to adjust to his character. Big difference.The supporting roles in the pilot seem weakly drawn, and the pep talk from Stephen Amell should have come with a warning for diabetics.Sure, this series will find its sealegs over time and the fanboys will forgive almost everything, but the fact remains, a weak start.
This show is engaging has potential to be better
Im all for the flash and when i first found out the pilot was airing i was thrilled to see the outcome. What i found was that the plot is interesting ...
Im all for the flash and when i first found out the pilot was airing i was thrilled to see the outcome. What i found was that the plot is interesting the action scenes are intense and engaging. The show has excellent cgi effects and it is very well written.However there are downfalls such as the leading character what was they thinking he is awkward an so not the flash material. They need to seriously consider a recasting to a more suited individual who gives of a more superhero suited role and stature. Ill carry on watching but i don't know how long this show will last with the lead character not being suited for the role there have already been complaints on IGN on the lead role guy as well.
This show is near perfect. Don't listen to the haters, it's awesome!
A Great Show For Kids and Adults Alike
My daughter (8) and I both enjoy watching this show. She got interested in Flash from her classmates at school and now awaits eagerly each week for t ...
My daughter (8) and I both enjoy watching this show. She got interested in Flash from her classmates at school and now awaits eagerly each week for the new episode. I had never read a Flash comic book growing up so was totally unfamiliar with it. The great part is that my daughter has now gotten me really hooked on this show. The plot lines are well devised and the show is entertaining and well-paced. Nuclear Man was probably the best episode so far with a great combination of action and good acting. The character of Dr Wells is brilliantly crafted as alternately good and evil, and Grant Gutsin gives a brilliantly nuanced performance as Barry Allen. Cant wait to find out more about the origin story as the season advances and the story of the death of Barry's mother Nora is developed further. Hope this show continues for several more seasons.
What happens when an unstoppable force meets- oh wait...
I love Arrow. As far as superhero TV goes, it's my favorite so far. So when I heard the CW would be doing The Flash as well, I just about had a nerd- ...
I love Arrow. As far as superhero TV goes, it's my favorite so far. So when I heard the CW would be doing The Flash as well, I just about had a nerd-gasm.Then I watched the show.My rating breaks down as follows. 1 point for the attempt. 1 point for the costume. 1 point for the actor who plays Barry and for the nod in The Arrow. -7 points for the rest of the cast, the plot, the script, and the inability to do any sort of background research. For those of you who liked the show, stop now or forever hold your peace.No I'm not too familiar with the Flash's back-story. I was never really a fan. But even without all of that, you can tell that the plot was hatched from the mind of an eight-year old. I'm not going to be going off the original comics here, or calling what is cannon and what isn't. This is simply a tip of the hat to the men and women who will surely burn in the same level of hell as the Fox executives that canceled Firefly. The story is pathetic and the characters are lack-luster at the least.As far as I'm concerned, the only original character or actor who is worth anything in the show is Barry Allen. And this is achieved through sheer force of personality of the actor. The script-writers should all be shot in the kneecaps. His performance alone carries the entire show character wise. Despite the fact that he is simply and emulation of Oliver Queen from Arrow, he manages to at least give his character a slightly more "I have no idea what I'm doing" feel.Finally, my favorite part. The inability to be intelligent. Understand now, that this being a superhero show and thus prone to massive lapses in actual science, I have chosen to disregard most of those faults. Also, here comes the spoiler bit. It was mentioned, that along with his physical speed, his reaction time was increased. To this end, he was often shown to move at a normal speed while others moved in slow motion. And then he was often not. He is quite capable of "slowing time" to rescue people from a train wreck, but immediately afterwards loses the ability when a gun is pointed at him from a fairly reasonable distance. Maybe he just didn't want his friends being shot? But when that bad guy turns and walks away 30 seconds later, he also seems unable to run. The man was on foot and he simply walked away. In the third fight with the tin man (Was it chroma?) he easily moves out of the way of his punches, but ten seconds later, forgets how to let go of a pole and at the same time loses his abilities. That's all the continuity I'm gonna nitpick, on to the research.When training with the cops partner, he is told to "Punch as if your aiming for something six inches behind the target." As any good boxer knows, this is precisely the opposite of what you should do. Minimizing the contact time is essential to delivering the most force in a blow. And Barry, being a rather smart superhero, should know this. The writers have obviously never read so much as a paragraph on how to hit someone. Then there is the other things like police procedure no real precinct would ever allow, guns that fire too many bullets, a hummer that pulverizes two police cars and comes out with not so much as a dented fender, and other small things like that.Sorry these are all mostly from episode 6. It's that last one I saw and apparently all the rest are too forgettable for me to be able to refer back to them. Please send all hate mail to someone who is not me and all love letters to my username @gmail.com Now, I'm off to line the walls of my den. The network executive's heads are alphabetized, so CW goes before Fox...
Entertaining but assumes the viewers are morons
When I was a lad back in the 60s my favourite super heroes were The Flash and Green Lantern. I'll discuss the horror that was the recent Green Lanter ...
When I was a lad back in the 60s my favourite super heroes were The Flash and Green Lantern. I'll discuss the horror that was the recent Green Lantern movie in that thread.I was really looking forward to the 2014 version of The Flash. While John Wesley Shipp made a great Flash back in 1990, the writers just had to inject the usual cornball humour that ruined the show for me. The 2014 Flash suffers from a different problem. The writers assume that the viewers are morons. Two examples follow:In one episode, Flash fights an opponent who can turn to steel. He defeats him with a risky move that requires him to run at supersonic speed, then enter a building and punch the villain. If the theory is wrong The Flash dies. Here's an idea. How about using the same speed to launch something like a brick at him? In either case, though, how does one stop in the length of a high school corridor when one is traveling at supersonic speed?But the biggest problem is that the writers continue to ignore the fact that The Flash can run really really fast. That's kind of the whole basis of the series. Check out the episode where he is up against Captain Cold and Heat Wave. The two villains are in the middle of the street and the only way he can defeat them is to get hit by both guns at the same time? We just saw Barry serve coffee to a room full of customers without being detected (because he can run really really fast - get it?). Here's an idea. Run really really fast and take their guns away before they can fire them.Then there's the other option. As my son and I watched the show we repeatedly turned to each other and said the single word, "sniper". Somehow all those police just overlooked the fact that they carry guns and neither of the villains was wearing a bullet proof vest. And even if they were. Head shot! Duh! So I am tired of being treated like a moron. I think I'll be passing on future episodes. Pity.
OK, so, here we have The Flash, back door piloted through Arrow (which I enjoy for many reasons that rhyme with smoke).After watching the pilot and e ...
OK, so, here we have The Flash, back door piloted through Arrow (which I enjoy for many reasons that rhyme with smoke).After watching the pilot and episode 2, I had SERIOUS smallville flashbacks. The dialogue is terrible, the way the scenes blend into other is even worse. I actually cringe at the way the story unfolds. Flash, ironically, feels very rushed, too rushed if you ask me.Again DC have a brilliant premise and the execution of a toilet that just wont flush.Smallville was mindless garbage, with just a sprinkle of fun. The Flash is THAT BAD, and it's only just started.Gotham, in my opinion, is even worse.
Would Somebody Please Shut Iris West Up!
Every episode Iris West goes on and on about how "Barry lied to me," "My father lied to me," "my boyfriend lied to me." Talk about a broken record. F ...
Every episode Iris West goes on and on about how "Barry lied to me," "My father lied to me," "my boyfriend lied to me." Talk about a broken record. First she goes from being a waitress to magically getting a job as a top reporter. Then she spends the rest of her screen time accusing people of lying to her, then acting like a 10 year old by giving everyone the silent treatment. Her rants are always about, "I thought you loved me," "I thought you were my best friend." Unfortunately I know I am not the only person who just wants someone to put a bullet in her head and get that annoying character off the show. And why on earth would anyone want to date or live with that shrew? Her character adds nothing to any storyline. Get rid of her. It is otherwise a pretty good, albeit, a kind of childish show.
Keeps getting better & better!
To be honest....the first 3-4 episodes were shitty....clichéd & cheesy lines....even the acting was bad....all of a sudden(i think from episode 5 onw ...
To be honest....the first 3-4 episodes were shitty....clichéd & cheesy lines....even the acting was bad....all of a sudden(i think from episode 5 onwards) the show got mindblowingly interesting!!The episodes 10-17 were the best(16th being the BEST)the story gets a lot more serious & complicated later on.... Even the quality of the acting increases exponentially in the later episodes.... Most of the reviewers giving 2-3 stars here haven't even gone past the 2nd episode reading there obnoxious reviews!Give it a try guys....& i promise u that u'll get hooked up to this series episode 5 onwards !A lil spoi***... Flash's speed & strength keeps on increasing steadily but exponentially with each passing episode!
Most of the rating comes from fan bias
The spoilers here are very minor and will not affect your experience if you're the average person. Still, better safe than sorry.WRITING (Conflicts, ...
The spoilers here are very minor and will not affect your experience if you're the average person. Still, better safe than sorry.WRITING (Conflicts, character actions, and dialogue)The writing in this show is less than impressive. There is no such thing as subtlety and half the dialogue is them throwing in the word "fast" for the hell of it. At one point, a character says to some random thug "Freeze! Now, get on the ground or do you wanna find out the hard way that you're not faster than a bullet?" I'm actually quite certain that the line verbatim is worse than that.A lot of plot points make no sense, and this is a huge problem with The Flash in general. The Flash is so fast that few conflicts are actually conflicts for The Flash, but rather than being creative and trying to think up interesting conflicts, they make the characters mentally incompetent to the point that The Flash, who can dodge a bullet, cannot dodge a punch. This actually becomes the main plot point of an entire episode. His inability to dodge attacks at normal speed makes no sense.Also, he has a tendency to block bullets that he doesn't even know are there. In one episode, he reaches behind him and pinches a random spot behind his neck and there just happens to be a bullet there for him to block! What an ESSENTIALLY IMPOSSIBLE COINCIDENCE! That is the laziest writing ever. "We need our character to get shot at without getting shot. Let's just have him randomly reach back for some reason, I'm sure we'll figure it out in post."There's an episode where he has to catch three motorcyclists. So, he runs to each of them, takes them to a police station and handcuffs them to a pole like he always does.I'm just kidding, he creates roadblocks where he thinks they'll go so that he can make all the motorcyclists go towards each other, and then they won't know how to move past each other, so they'll stop and the police can get them, at which point there will be an utterance of "Checkmate." That last bit is also not a joke. That happened. This is actually something that a producer and a team of writers looked over and said "Nothing wrong here. Onwards to production!"Also, this is My Little Pony with adults watching (so, just My Little Pony...with Rainbow Dash as the main character, I suppose). They like to have Aesops to each episode, and they're very basic moral lessons, or even broken ones, and then they'll do what's essentially a Dear Celestia inner monologue at the end of each episode. "Today, I learned..." Really? There's no subtlety in the character development at all. At certain points, I swear the characters literally look at the camera and go "I've really changed today. I used to think A and now I think B."Here's a bit of dialogue meant to be badass.(Right before Barry's about to leave.) "Barry." (Barry stops to see why his peer decided to stop him during this urgent mission.) "Yes?" "Run."CONSISTENCYThere is no consistency with Barry's powers. The effects of running really fast (friction, air compression, etc.) turn on and off randomly. At one point, a woman's shirt burns off despite that making no sense whatsoever, presumably because one of the writers thought that the actress was hot and knew he had the power to get her to reveal a little more.As I mentioned before, he just decides not to dodge punches. Or grab people's weapons to disarm them. He also runs slow enough for The Arrow to see him and aim at him when he's fast enough to see bullets. Bullets are so fast that 500 feet away, all you can do is blink before the bullet reaches you. Otherwise, you're completely still. Everything should be frozen for Barry, but he runs at the speed of a falcon from time to time.TECHNICALITIESBullets and guns. Don't expect them to make sense. Physics. Chemistry. Science in general. Tensile strength being a huge factor when hitting someone? Hearing a sonic boom from something that hasn't gotten to you yet? A gun that creates the heat of the Big Bang? A needle the heat of the Sun would kill everyone in at least a one thousand mile radius. A warehouse the heat of all the energy in the universe (which, you might notice, doesn't make sense) would evaporate all matter in the entire solar system. But no worries here, just some second degree burns (these were normal humans that got second degree burns, not The Flash, so no superpowers to withstand the energy of the entire universe there). 500 proof alcohol? Iron oxide being uncommon?Turn your brain off or get a hemorrhage. It's nice to see The Flash moving about with live actors (though poor actors), but that's it. That's the only pro. That's all this show gets.
oh lord..
Nothing in this show makes any sense.. This proves to me that American television is getting dumber and less creative by the month!The kid wakes up a ...
Nothing in this show makes any sense.. This proves to me that American television is getting dumber and less creative by the month!The kid wakes up after nine months of being in a coma and just walks out straight away, with a tan and perfect hair.No one seems that impressed that he can run at the speed of light..The lab which blew up the whole city is still operating and although they claim to have lost everything, they can still afford to run this highly technical facility.. Oh yeah.. and its run by a bunch of kids. It seems kids are doing everything in this show.. where are the adults? Are we supposed to believe these 20 year olds are running advanced scientific laboratories? Actors look so dumb and out of place it makes me want to grab a cheese grater and slowly rub it over my face, causing me as much pain as humanly possible, only to distract myself from the fact that I just watched this show.If you cannot see how cheesy and bad this is, you have become immune to the American junk that is all around us, I urge you to watch real television. PLEASE SAVE YOURSELF THE TORTURE!
Brutal Writing
The pilot was mediocre and the second episode got so much worse. The writing is unbelievably heavy handed. "You can do it, Barry" is not exactly a mo ...
The pilot was mediocre and the second episode got so much worse. The writing is unbelievably heavy handed. "You can do it, Barry" is not exactly a motivational speech that would inspire anyone to overcome self doubt. Oops, spoiler, the writing is literally that bad.Apparently there are enough fan boys watching to give this how an 8.6 rating - that's even sadder than the quality of the show.Complete waste of time.Oh look, ten lines of text are required, but this show isn't worth ten lines of effort so I'll bore you with crappy writing, much like the pathetic character motivations and ham-fisted plot arcs.
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Old Engine House 35 & Ladder Co. 16 - Milwaukee, WI
in Converted Firehouses
This is the Old Engine House 35 and Ladder Company 16 built in 1927 at 407 North Hawley Road, Milwaukee, WI 53213.
posted by: REUAHNESIE
date approved: 9/8/2011
last visited: never
SE0 km
Edward McGinn-Milwaukee, WI
in Medal Of Honor Resting Places
Civil War Medal of Honor Recipient for action at Vicksburg, MS on May 22, 1863. He is buried in Calvary Cemetery, Milwaukee, WI in Block 20, Lot 13N.
posted by: Don.Morfe
date approved: 12/20/2018
E0.2 km
John Breen-Milwaukee, WI
Civil War Medal of Honor Recipient for action on board the USS Commodore Perry on the attack of Franklin, VA on October 3, 1862. He is buried in Calvary Cemetery, Milwaukee, WI in Block 5, Lot 293.
date approved: 7/11/2018
Mitchell Boulevard Park - Milwaukee, WI, USA
in Municipal Parks and Plazas
Mitchell Boulevard Park is one of 140 parks covering 15,000 acres. This park is 15.6 acres.
Mitchell Boulevard Park Playground - Milwaukee, WI
in Public Playgrounds
Set back from Bluemound Road in a quiet area of Story Hill, this playground is a fantastic find for near Tosa and Milwaukee parents!
Tree of Life - Milwaukee, WI, USA
in Realistic Object Sculptures
Tree of Life is a public artwork by American artist Nancy Metz White, located at the north end of Mitchell Boulevard Park, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
N0.6 km
Thomas Cook House - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
in Victorian Style Architecture
Historic house now a fraternity house in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Cook, Thomas, House - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
in U.S. National Register of Historic Places
S0.6 km
Milton Matthews-Milwaukee, WI
Civil War Medal of Honor Recipient for action at Petersburg, VA on April 2, 1865. He is buried in Wood National Cemetery, Milwaukee, WI in Section 11, Site 61.
Boatswain's Mate Michael McCormick - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Grave of Civil War Medal of Honor recipient at the Wood National Cemetery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
last visited: 1/6/2014
Soldiers and Sailors Monument - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
in American Civil War Monuments and Memorials
Civil War monument in the Wood National Cemetery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
SW0.8 km
Engine House 35
in Firehouses
Engine House 35 is one of 36 firehouses of the Milwaukee Fire Department in Milwaukee, WI. Engine 35 is located in the Third Battlion. Also housed at Engine 35 is Ladder Truck 16.
posted by: LOST_Mom
last visited: 8/24/2011
NW0.8 km
Jacobus Park
A large park with playground and wooded trails in Wauwatosa, WI.
Winthrop D Putnam-Milwaukee, WI
Civil War Medal of Honor Recipient for action at Vicksburg, MS on May 22, 1863. He is buried in Wood National Cemetery, Milwaukee, WI in Section 16, Grave 109.
James K. L. Duncan-Milwaukee, WI
Civil War Medal of Honor Recipient for action on board the USS Fort Hindman during the engagement at Harrisonburg, LA on March 2, 1864. He is buried in Wood National Cemetery, Milwaukee, WI in Section 19, Site 41.
Lewis A. Rounds-Milwaukee, WI
Civil War Medal of Honor Recipient for action at Spotsylvania, VA on May 12, 1864. He is buried in Wood National Cemetery, Milwaukee, WI in Section 20, Site 256.
Wood National Cemetery - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
in Wikipedia Entries
National cemetery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
in Worldwide Cemeteries
in Veteran Cemeteries
SE1.1 km
"OLD MAIN"
in Military Installations
This is located on the grounds between the Zablocki Medical Center and the Woods National Cemetery. 5000 West National Ave. Milwaukee WI> This was the first National Home for disabled soldiers in Wisconsin.
posted by: Love2Labs/kmhiker
Balistreri's - Wauwatosa, WI
in Independent Pizza Restaurants
Balistreri's on 68th & Wells St in Wauwatosa is the home of Milwaukee's Best Pizza.
last visited: 12/23/2011
Ultimate Confections - Wauwatosa, WI
in Candy Stores
Ultimate Confections is a chocolate store that makes individually hand-dipped chocolates. It is located on 68th Street in Wauwatosa, WI.
date approved: 12/8/2007
Simma's Bakery
in Independent Bakeries
Simma's bakery is known for their delicious cheescakes and bakery. They are located on 68th Street in Wauwatosa, WI.
Ironworkers - Jerome Starr, Jeffrey Wischer, William DeGrave - Milwaukee, WI
in Statues of Historic Figures
A memorial to three ironworkers.
posted by: DaveGoliath
Hawthorn Glen
A large park with playground and wooded nature trails in Milwaukee, WI.
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News • Public Affairs / January 5, 2016
Two Proposals Seek Common Goal Of Ending Meth Production In Indiana
Two Proposals Seek Common Goal Of Ending Meth Production In IndianaAs the 2016 legislative session begins, lawmakers are taking aim at the problem. Two bills will be proposed in hopes of putting an end to meth labs in the state -- one empowers pharmacists to turn away suspicious customers, the other makes drugs containing pseudoephedrine prescription-only.urlpseudoephedrine, methamphetamine, meth labs, Rochester, Fulton County2016-01-05T00:00:00-05:002016-01-05T00:00:00-05:00
Drew Daudelin
This sign appears in Harry Webb’s Family Pharmacy in Rochester, Indiana.
ROCHESTER, Ind. -- Harry Webb’s Family Pharmacy in Rochester, Indiana has something you won’t see in many other pharmacies. A sign behind the prescription pick-up counter that reads, “We are proud to be part of the solution to reduce meth manufacturing in Fulton County.”
It refers to a local ordinance that requires pharmacists to talk with customers about alternatives to medicine containing pseudoephedrine, and empowers them to refuse a sale if they suspect a customer is planning to use the medicine to produce methamphetamine.
“We have no money. This is a citizen’s action’s committee, it has no funding from anybody, it’s just all grassroots effort,” Webb explains.
Like many towns in Indiana, Rochester has been fighting a growing meth lab problem. Indiana has been No. 1 in the country for meth lab seizures for a number of years. And state officials expect the same for 2015.
Meth production is a relatively new problem in Indiana. In 1995, six meth labs were found in the state. Last year, there were nearly 1,500.
Those numbers shot up because of the one-pot method – a way to cook meth in small batches using more easily obtainable ingredients. Pseudoephedrine, a decongestant found in some cold medicines, is a key ingredient.
Looking For A Solution
As the 2016 legislative session begins, lawmakers are taking aim at the problem. Two bills will be proposed in hopes of putting an end to meth labs in the state -- one empowers pharmacists to turn away suspicious customers, the other makes drugs containing pseudoephedrine prescription-only.
It’s not the first time efforts have been made to ensure pseudoephedrine sales are going to the right customers.
In 2006, the federal government enacted the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act and put the drugs behind the counter. Indiana took that one step further in 2011, when it began tracking and limiting pseudoephedrine sales.
But Indiana’s meth lab seizures increased in 2012.
Delaware County Prosecutor Jeff Arnold, who works in the county that consistently seizes more meth labs than anywhere else in the Indiana, says the state’s efforts actually made things worse.
“And here’s why,” Arnold said. “You are a meth cooker. You have reached your limit of pseudoephedrine that you can get for the year. I’m a friend of yours, I’ve tried meth. You either pay me or give me some of your product to go out and buy pseudoephedrine so you can cook it. As a result of that you teach me how to cook meth.”
Those friends are what are known as “smurfs.” Smurfing networks often go out in groups, hitting multiple pharmacies to gather as much product as they can.
Two Proposals, One Goal
Back in Fulton County, pharmacy owner Webb worked to fight this. And he got an ordinance passed that mandated pharmacists have a conversation with customers to steer them towards meth deterrent alternatives. It also enabled them to refuse the sale if there is reason for suspicion. It has proven effective – pseudoephedrine sales in the county have dropped 50 percent.
“You know I’ve seen the impact on what it’s doing to our community. It’s costing our county millions of dollars,” Webb said. “There’s another argument going around, ‘Well this isn’t going to end meth.’ And no, it isn’t going to end meth. And yes, the Mexican cartels are going to bring meth into our area. This issue is trying to end meth labs.”
Sen. Randy Head has now authored a bill that would essentially turn Fulton County’s ordinance into statewide law.
“Well, I think it’s important that we do it all over the state, if we leave some place out that’s where all the smurfs are going to go,” Head said.
His proposed bill is based on legislation passed in Arkansas four years ago. The results there have been dramatic. Meth lab seizures before the bill were at more than 300 a year. Four years later, those numbers dropped 90 percent to just around 25.
Chief Operations Officer for the Arkansas Pharmacist Association Scott Pace says there was pushback at first, especially from big retailers.
“We certainly had some pharmacists that said ‘Look, we don’t want to deal with this, this has caused a problem for us,’” Pace said.
He says years later, most seem happy with the results.
The second bill aimed at meth labs in Indiana this session is backed by House Speaker Brian Bosma. It would make pseudoephedrine drugs prescription-only.
Similar bills have been proposed before and failed. Prosecuting Attorney’s Council Executive Director Dave Powell says they didn’t pass because of misinformation. He says rhetoric attacking the prescription-only bill typically references “cold medicines,” as in all cold medicines, when the prescription-only bills only seek to cover those with pseudoephedrine.
“They create this message that creates fear. And it’s not an honest message,” Powell said.
Lawmakers proposing both bills say they would support the other if theirs falls through. The common sentiment between them is that when it comes to meth labs in Indiana, something needs to be done.
Tags:pseudoephedrinemethamphetaminemeth labsRochesterFulton County
South Bend-Elkhart Region Earns Talent Designation From State
South Bend organizations in workforce and education got a boost from the Office of Career Connection and Talent and the governors office Friday.
More Gaming Industry Changes Possible In Legislature
Indiana lawmakers likely are not done tweaking the state's gambling rules, even after last year's changes to the industry.
Challenge To BMV Gender Change Policy Expected In General Assembly
Lawmakers will likely file legislation in the 2020 session over proposed rules at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles for Hoosiers to change the gender on their drivers license.
Leigh DeNoon
@WFYILeigh
Jill Ditmire
@JillDitmire
Doug Jaggers
@WFYIDoug
Jill Sheridan
@jillasheridan
@brandonjsmith5
Eric Weddle
@ericweddle
Casey Williams
@autocasey
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Missing Something in that New Studio?
Photos: Above, Hubbard Phoenix, design and installation by RadioDNA; right, Rob Goldberg, Owner RadioDNA.
Studio projects can go wrong in spectacular ways. More often though, broadcasters tell us that the biggest issue they face is a persistent, nagging feeling that something is missing.
Sometimes, it’s their keys or phone that have gone missing yet again in the chaos of a new studio buildout. But often, what’s missing are a few critical studio additions that were not even on the table five years ago.
RadioDNA’s Rob Goldberg walks us through four studio trends that every broadcaster building or adding onto a studio should be thinking about today. Goldberg and his company of engineers have designed, installed and managed studio projects for Entercom, Gabriel Media, Hubbard, Ingstad Media Family, Jackson Rancheria Radio, Leighton Broadcasting, Minnesota Wild Network and Results Broadcasting.
Light up the studio. Any modern studio today is likely to have IP audio networking and that means talent no longer monitor off-air. What they’re hearing in their headphones is a local mix, so visual feedback becomes more important than ever, according to Goldberg. For visual monitoring and other purposes, he sets up the GPIO in our WheatNet-IP audio network BLADEs to control Yellowtec’s Litt LED signaling trees. When the tree is lit red, it means the studio is hot and on the air. When the light is off, the console is in voice track mode. Green status and a slow blink might indicate that there are 30 seconds left of a song and to prepare for live broadcast.
LED status indicators let talent know there’s a caller on the line, whether an EAS alert is about to happen, and if any station in the group is off-air for any reason. In the case of the Minnesota Wild sports studio, Goldberg set up LED indicators so that if remote talent dialed in on the ISDN line from the field, the producer would know immediately in the studio. Any standard automation system can talk to the WheatNet-IP audio network BLADEs, which control LED trees and indicators as an integrated system. Doors, clocks, even the coffee maker can be monitored with status indicators. “When the coffee’s ready, just have it light up a light,” says Goldberg.
Make it visual. With 5G unlimited wireless data just over the horizon, video content is about to happen in a big way. Goldberg suggests stations get in now by installing video cameras in the studio and slaving those cameras to microphones for their social media feeds, for example. “The easiest way to integrate that into the studio is through WheatNet-IP because you can literally ‘ACI control’ the cameras,” says Goldberg, referring to Wheatstone’s Automation Control Interface that is used to integrate standard camera automation applications into the network.
With this, you can automatically control camera switching based on whether a mic is on, the mic fader is up, and audio from the mic is coming across as meter data. Cameras can be slaved to mics based on all or just one or two of the criteria, and they can be panned to capture live video of a panel of guests when two or more mics are opened up.
Automating camera operation through the IP audio network relieves producers of yet one more thing they have to deal with during a busy show, and can be beneficial for editing packages after the show. “It all looks professionally done, but it’s automated,” explains Goldberg.
In much the same way, graphics or sponsorship logos can be made to appear on the station website or Facebook feed during, say, a call-in show or a spot.
Virtualize it. Goldberg is laying out virtual mixers set in touchscreens using our WheatNet-IP ScreenBuilder app and setting these up as producer positions in newsrooms. “In some cases, we don’t install mixers in the newsroom at all. We are in the process of setting up a bank of virtual mixers with 35 news positions at a Hubbard facility,” explains Goldberg. The benefits: reduced hardware expense and maintenance, an easier way to make changes as needed, and the ability to add mixing and other talent controls in smaller spaces.
Keep it simple. Today’s modern studio is all about simplifying things too. What’s missing in most of the studios Goldberg designs these days are clunky box speakers in favor of speakers recessed into the ceiling, automation PCs in deference to virtualized server systems in the TOC, and extra cables for internet connectivity thanks to WiFi connectivity.
Overall, at the end of the project, you should end up with less that does more.
The Making of a Great Studio
So begins the transformation of Entercom Phoenix, formerly CBS. This is the production studio for Cactus radio, which will serve as the temporary studio as KOOL-FM, KMLE-FM and KALV-FM studios get a few upgrades.
Entercom will replace decades’ worth and layer upon layer of wiring and cabling to eventually make way for IP audio connectivity. When asked by an online observer if he could state the cost, systems integrator Chris Fonte from RadioDNA replied, “Cheaper than analog!”
Click for more RadioDNA Photos
Finger listening?
LPFM Goes National
Download Our Free E-Book: Advancing AoIP for Broadcast
Putting together a new studio? Updating an existing studio?
We've put together this e-book with fresh info and some of the articles that we've authored for our website, white papers, and news that dives into some of the cool stuff you can do with a modern AoIP network like Wheatstone's WheatNet-IP.
And it's FREE to download!
Just click here or on the cover.
Redundancy at ATL Airport. Close Doesn’t Count.
By Scott Johnson
Can your facility continue to operate even if a critical component fails? The parties responsible for the power systems at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport probably thought they had every scenario covered and that no single-point failure would take them out of business. Close, but no cigar. That became clear just before Christmas when a sudden power outage brought the busy airport to a standstill, grounding more than 1,000 flights and stranding thousands of passengers. There are some important lessons broadcasters can take away from the events that unfolded at ATL last month.
On the afternoon of December 17, 2017, for reasons yet unknown, a piece of high-voltage switchgear belonging to public utility Georgia Power failed in a spectacular way. At least it would have been spectacular had there been anyone there to see it. The equipment, located in an underground vault, developed an arc and caught fire. Power throughout the airport’s terminals, gates, and transportation facilities progressively failed as the fault spread.
Ordinarily, a power outage at the airport is no big deal. The FAA control tower, navigational aids, and certain other systems have their own generators or backup power. And the airport itself maintains very large diesel generator plants, designed to automatically pick up the load should there be a failure of the off-site utility power. Having spent a lot of time around that airport, I’ve seen these plants and remarked to myself on the apparent safety they represented.
But as passengers waited in the terminals, nothing seemed to happen. The lights didn’t come back on, but the PA system did remain operational. Unfortunately, it offered no information other than the same recorded, generic messages over and over. Airport and airline employees, like the passengers who sought them out, seemed to be in the dark.
Why weren’t the diesels, designed for just such a contingency, picking up the load and getting the airport back in business? The reason is simple, but maddening. When the airport was originally laid out, power entered the central complex via high voltage feeders running through an underground tunnel. And later, when the large auxiliary power plants were built, the lines connecting them to the complex were also routed through that same tunnel. And both sets of lines ran adjacent to and connected with the vault containing Georgia Power’s switchgear. The lines were within a few feet of each other and within a scant dozen feet from the failed equipment, in a very confined space.
Darkness falls across the area shortly after 5PM this time of year, and as even the sunlight from the windows faded, passengers found themselves wandering through the terminals in pitch darkness as the battery-powered emergency lights ran down. Escalators, which normally just become stairs when the power fails, were closed off by airport police for fear of people falling in the darkness. The airport’s dedicated underground train, which transports passengers between terminals, simply stopped and had to be evacuated. People upstairs were stuck there.
The fire and arc blast from one failed piece of equipment had damaged the primary feed lines AND the lines from the redundant power system. One big bang disabled everything. Of course, emergency crews responding to the situation had their own problems to contend with. Airport fire crews knew that before even thinking about restoring power, the fire had to be extinguished. This proved difficult, as the fire filled the entire tunnel with thick, toxic fumes and smoke. Some of it even seeped into parts of Terminal D, frightening passengers and aggravating the conditions of passengers with breathing difficulties. Firefighters battled through the tunnel wearing respirators and within hours, had managed to put out the flames. Until they were sure things were cooled down and free of toxic gases, Georgia Power crews could not even access the failed equipment or begin to assess the damage.
The airport, known to the airlines and FAA as ATL, is the busiest airport in the world. As the headquarters and largest hub for Delta airlines as well as a hub for several other carriers, it’s a key link in the country’s air travel industry. As an old saying goes, when you die, whether you’re going to heaven or hell, you’ll have to change planes in Atlanta. With the airport’s passenger-handling facilities literally dead and dark, there was little choice but to sever that link. The airport closed to traffic. Outgoing flights were put on “ground stop” by the FAA, meaning they would not be allowed to take off. Neither could they easily return to a gate. So they parked and sat there, full of irate, sweaty, hungry, thirsty passengers. Incoming flights suffered the same fate if they were not diverted to other airports in time. Soon, the usual steady roar of turbofan engines became an ominous silence as the runways handled no planes and the ramps and taxiways became crowded with parked aircraft.
This wasn’t just any Sunday afternoon. At the peak of holiday travel season, the airport was absolutely packed with passengers. And not just typical passengers; according to one airline official, the holidays mean that the very young as well as the very old are among the traveling public in much larger numbers than usual. And with no air handling systems and precious little food or drink available, these folks suffered more than their share of inconvenience, if not downright danger, particularly in areas where smoke was a problem.
A full investigation will take some time, but I think we can now see the lesson in this: in order for a system to be truly redundant, all of the parts of it that could suffer any credible failure should be both functionally and physically separate. The airport had multiple diesel backup generator plants, two power feeds, two sets of switchgear, and two control systems. But somehow, either in the original design or during some subsequent upgrade, nobody looked at the one-line diagram and said, “What happens if this piece faults in a way that makes it blow up and catch fire?” That fire caused what’s called a single-point failure — where one fault in one place takes out the whole shooting match.
So as you periodically review and test your station or facility’s engineered redundancy (you DO do that, right?) remember to take this sort of unexpected interaction into account. Because in this case, someone missed a big one, and close only counts in the game of horseshoes.
Scott Johnson is the systems engineer and webmaster for Wheatstone.
The Accidental Multipath Tamer
By Jeff Keith, CPBE, NCE Wheatstone Senior Product Development Engineer
Some of the greatest inventions were created by accident. Penicillin was discovered because some scientist forgot to clean up his workstation one night and returned the next morning to find the first antibiotic growing in a dirty Petri dish.
Our multipath limiter also was created by accident. Before it became one of our most popular audio processing features for reducing the adverse listening effects of multipath, it was actually designed to even out mono loudness.
The multipath controller algorithm began life at WMJI in Cleveland, OH in the 1990s, while I was the CE there. The station had great coverage as a grandfathered Class B (16kW at 1128 feet). It was an oldies station playing music spanning several decades, and we'd noticed some drastic differences in loudness on mono radios. I had designed a stereo enhancer in the 80's and I knew how increased stereo separation affected mono loudness, so building a processing device for WMJI's air chain to even out mono loudness (the opposite of stereo enhancement) was a trivial design task. I even gave it a name: the MCC-1, or Mono Compatibility Controller.
I placed the unit in the air chain, and immediately station staff, especially those in the sales department who drove the market all day, began to ask me what I'd done to make the station 'less scratchy.' I drove the same route to and from work every day, and I, too, thought I'd noticed what seemed like reduced multipath in areas where it typically occurred.
Not able to think of anything else I'd done to the air chain or transmission system, I put the MCC-1 in and out of bypass over the next couple of days. When it was in bypass, I noticed the multipath was back. When it wasn’t in bypass, multipath was reduced. This effect was not what I'd designed the MCC-1 for, and its apparent effect on multipath was a complete surprise. Repeated experiments over the next six months revealed a direct and repeatable correlation between the MCC-1 in use and the reduction in multipath.
Fast forward to today. Decades later and in countless markets where our FM processors and the Multipath Limiter are in use, we're seeing the same kind of correlations I saw at WMJI.
One of the reasons why is because many stereo receivers aggressively blend to mono during multipath, creating large fluctuations in volume as the stereo sound field collapses. The wider the stereo image, the more obvious the blending, and that's why stereo enhancement earned the reputation of creating multipath. But stereo enhancement doesn't really create multipath. It just makes it seem worse because blending then has to squash down a much bigger stereo sound field.
What our Multipath Limiter does is reduce the magnitude of volume fluctuations due to multipath-induced blending by managing a program content's L+R/L-R ratio under very specifically controlled conditions. By intelligently allowing only enough stereo information to fool the ear into believing it's a full stereo signal, the audibility of blending is reduced. The psychoacoustic result, then, is that multipath has been reduced and perceived coverage improved, cautiously noting that perceived stereo coverage is only loosely related to the station's RF field strength.
We also discovered, also quite by accident during field research of another development project (FM/HD diversity delay correction), that newer DSP based receivers seem to be more prone to multipath effects even though they have mechanisms to supposedly minimize it. These radios lack the modulation headroom of older technology, and definitely don't behave well with non-standard stereo multiplex signals (like single sideband) or a dirty MPX spectrum (think composite clipping). In fact, the latter is precisely why our FM processors have both a composite clipper and a look-ahead MPX limiter; the user can choose which algorithm works best for their scenario. The bottom line is this: clean up the MPX spectrum and intelligently manage the L+R/L-R ratio and prepare to be surprised at how much perceived stereo coverage (not signal strength!) goes up.
All of this, and more, is detailed in my NAB white paper, which you can download here.
Q: I see that your (WheatNet-IP audio network) system doesn’t provide for specifying low latency/high latency streams. Why is that?
A: A great question! All AoIP systems, regardless of manufacturer, have to deal with packet overhead. Because we are all using standard protocols, there is extra data that must accompany each "packet" of audio, allowing it to adhere to these standards. This is addressing, protocol, and timing information that all network switches depend on to route the packets to the right places. Since a standard IP packet can hold up to 1500 bytes of data, to stream audio on the network efficiently we all bundle or group a number of audio samples together in each packet, thus minimizing the percentage of data used for overhead.
You can see that the more audio samples you place into each packet, the less packets you have to send and the lower the overhead becomes. In some systems, this is done because of limited bandwidth and processor resources, and the result is that those streams can have up to 100ms latency. Why does latency go up with larger packets? It's simple: it takes more time to assemble them because the audio data is being created at a set sample rate. You have to wait for enough audio samples to fill the packet. That wait means latency goes up.
The WheatNet-IP audio network does it differently. With gigabit links we have enough bandwidth to make every packet smaller and low latency. You're not forced into tradeoff choices, and there’s no need to spend any effort specifying packet depth per stream.
Wheatstone's Scott Johnson puts it like this:
Say you have 100 pages to mail. You could put each one in its own envelope, but because the envelope is heavier than one page, you’ve more than doubled the weight. However, you can send each page as quickly as it comes off the printer.
Now if you put the 100 pages together in one big envelope you’ll have less overhead — one envelope vs. 100, your package weighs only slightly more than the pages themselves. But if you can only mail stuff in big envelopes 100 pages at a time, you’ve got to wait for 100 pages to be printed before you can seal and send the envelope.
Interview with Rob Goldberg @ Wheatstone Booth, NAB 2017
At NAB2017, Scott Fybush talks with Rob Goldberg from RadioDNA about how he's making the future of radio happen today and every day.
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Racing (current)
Advanced Engineering (current)
Conference Centre (current)
Heritage (current)
Racing Close
Williams is one of the world’s leading Formula 1 teams. It exists purely to race in the top echelon of motor racing, where it has been winning grands prix for more than three decades.
Williams has always been a family-run team and the family ethos extends to our partners, who support us every step of the way during the season. Find out more about our Official Team Partners below.
Williams is a human capital business, with a wealth of diverse and driven team members all working towards the same goal. Find out more about our people below.
Williams Grand Prix Engineering Ltd is founded by Frank Williams and an ambitious British engineer called Patrick Head. The company is based in an empty carpet warehouse in Didcot, Oxfordshire, and enters a purchased March chassis in order to compete in F1 during the latter half of the season.
Roy Nissany is confirmed as Official Test Driver
ROKiT Williams Racing has announced in Tel Aviv today that Israeli born Roy Nissany is to become the team’s Official Test Driver.
MCLAREN 121
TORO ROSSO 118
RACING POINT 65
SAUBER 35
HAAS 28
Williams eSports will compete in a range of online sim racing competitions this season. The team’s roster of elite gamers will represent Williams, racing in series and events on multiple platforms during the year.
If you want to improve your performance in sim racing, the Williams Esports Academy can help. Whether you're a casual gamer, stepping up to competitive series, or already an elite racer, you can benefit from the guidance of some of the best racers in the world.
The elite Williams Esports roster is made up of 24 drivers from 10 countries who are among the best sim racers in the world.
Everywhere We Compete
Williams Esports races in more than a dozen series and world championships on every major sim racing game across all three platforms, to audiences of millions.
Advanced Engineering Close
Williams Advanced Engineering Limited is the technology and engineering services business of the Williams Group. The company combines cutting edge technology and the industry’s best engineers, with precision and speed to market derived from four decades of success in the ultra-competitive environment of Formula One.
Aerodynamics and Thermodynamics
Advanced Lightweight Structures
Vehicle Programmes
Specialist Product Delivery
Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund
The core competencies of Williams Advanced Engineering are sector agnostic and do not apply only to motorsport or even automotive. Already this expertise is being applied to sectors as diverse as retail and defence. If a company requires support in any of these areas of competence, the people at Williams Advanced Engineering can provide it.
Williams Advanced Engineering has a dedicated Motorsport group. This multidisciplinary design and engineering team have supported numerous championship winning clients.
The people at Williams are problem solvers, tackling the most complex engineering challenges on a daily basis. Customers come to Williams for help with their new innovations.
Williams Advanced Engineering is unique in the desire and capability to apply expertise in high level simulation and aerodynamic know-how from the pinnacle of motor racing to other sectors. Born out of Formula One, working faster than almost anyone else, customers receive an advantage of speed of response and top of the range people, hardware and software providing full aerodynamic services.
Williams Advanced Engineering has created very high performance batteries in the Formula E programme, at the cutting edge of battery performance and management. Formula E is a test bed for electrification and new technologies that is now being transferred into prototype vehicles and road cars in award-winning projects.
Williams Advanced Engineering is using its breadth of experience in lightweight materials from Formula One, where lightweighting can make a significant difference on track, and other projects to offer new ideas and solutions to industry.
Working with customers, the teams at Williams Advanced Engineering set targets to define the product concept, analyse, evaluate and optimise it, before then real world development refines the result to perfection.
From productions runs of one to the low hundreds, the people at Williams Advanced Engineering are experts in the quality manufacture of high performance products across industry.
Taking lessons from four decades of success in Formula One to help clients apply high-performance philosophies to their own organisations, Williams Advanced Engineering uses data to setup for success, views regulation changes as an opportunity to gain competitive advantage while combining an understanding of whole system dynamics with detailed analytics, bringing understanding of human performance and developing high performance teams.
Launched and managed by Foresight Group, the Fund benefits from a unique collaboration between Williams Advanced Engineering and Foresight Group, combining technological expertise from Williams and Foresight's track record in financial management.
Williams has extensive experience using state-of-the-art simulators in Formula One allowing drivers to prepare more effectively for Grand Prix.
The Williams Advanced Engineering people and facilities deliver world-class products for the company’s own projects and for customers.
Williams Advanced Engineering is the technology and engineering services business of the Williams Group, providing world class capabilities to deliver energy efficient performance to customers and address the challenges of 21st century mobility and sustainability. Williams Advanced Engineering is also constantly searching for more top talent to deliver for the company and its customers.
Technology company Rovco receives investment from Foresight
Technology company Rovco set to revolutionise the subsea survey industry receives £2.0 million investment from Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund.
Conference Centre Close
Museum & Tours
Race Day Hospitality
Driver Suites
Circuit Gallery A
Circuit Gallery B
10 multi-purpose event rooms offering great flexibility for events of up to 200 guests in a modern and inspiring surrounding
The Ayrton Senna, Piers Courage and Alan Jones driver suites
The Monza and Hockenheim meeting rooms
The Barcelona, Estoril and Jerez event rooms
Housed in the award-winning Williams Conference Centre is Sir Frank Williams' private Williams Grand Prix Collection, the largest of its kind in the world, spanning the history of the Williams F1 team since 1978
A wide range of activities are available at the Williams Conference Centre and can be used for team building and hospitality days or to enhance your events.
Hosted at the Williams Conference Centre we offer a unique way to view an F1 race, with a review of qualifying, an exclusive live link up to a team member from the track, followed by the race itself
We not only pride ourselves on the first class facilities and service we offer at the Williams Conference Centre, but also on our 5 star catering. Our in-house caterers offer the highest standard of cuisine, where possible using local organic suppliers and fair-trade produce
The Williams Conference Center provides a winning formula for your Christmas celebrations for up to 200 guests
As part of the first class facilities and service we offer at the Williams Conference Centre, we pride ourselves on our 5 star catering
Heritage Close
Guardians Of Honour
Williams Car History
Williams has an ever-growing catalogue of illustrious Grand Prix cars. Now Jonathan Williams and Dickie Stanford must dovetail this sumptuous history with the high-flying Formula 1 team of today
Williams Advanced Engineering showcases world leading battery technology from racetrack to road
Company at Battery Show Europe and Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo, Stuttgart
Focus on Williams’ battery management system leadership - “The Brains Behind the Battery”
First large-scale production 800V pure electric car battery to market on display
Company won UK’s 2018 Queen’s Award applying Formula E battery know-how into the market
Experience powering first four seasons of Formula E, now to power Extreme E and ETCR racing
Williams Advanced Engineering will exhibit and brief delegates on current and future developments in electric vehicle battery technology leadership at the Battery Show Europe and Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo in Stuttgart, Germany on the 7th to the 9th of May.
Exhibiting on stand G341, the company will showcase the way it has taken its experience as a foundation technical partner in Formula E, powering every car on the grid for the first four seasons of racing with a more than 99.5% reliability rate on-track, into electric vehicles on land, in the water and the air. Williams Advanced Engineering will exhibit its expertise across electrification but particularly in battery management systems – the ‘Brains Behind the Battery’.
In addition, on display on the Williams Advanced Engineering stand, will be an example of the battery developed for Aston Martin’s first electric vehicle, the Rapide E. This battery will be the first large-scale production 800V pure electric vehicle battery to market, to be built by Hyperbat, a Williams Advanced Engineering joint venture with Unipart Manufacturing Group in Coventry, UK to open later this year. The battery also uses Williams’ expertise in lightweight materials.
“The Williams Advanced Engineering team is looking forward to demonstrating our world-leading capabilities in vehicle electrification and batteries in Stuttgart, building on our success powering Formula E and several well-known electric vehicles,” said Craig Wilson, Managing Director of Williams Advanced Engineering. “As well as demonstrating some of our current projects in this field we will also be exploring our research and partnership work for the next generation of vehicle batteries and battery management systems. This will include our joint venture with Unipart Manufacturing Group, Hyperbat, which begins production this year with the Aston Martin Rapide E as its launch project.”
Dr Wasim Sarwar, Technical Specialist – Battery Systems, at Williams Advanced Engineering will speak at the Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo, exploring the development of cutting-edge battery packs using next generation cell chemistries.
Williams Advanced Engineering is the technology and engineering services business of the Williams Group, which also comprises ROKiT Williams Racing in Formula One. The company provides world class technical innovation, engineering, testing and manufacturing services to deliver energy efficient performance to customers. The capabilities of Williams Advanced Engineering's people in new materials, electrification and battery technology, aerodynamics and thermodynamics, business performance and specialist low volume manufacturing apply across industry. Working in close collaboration with its customers, Williams Advanced Engineering helps meet the engineering challenges of the 21st century, mobility, sustainability and efficiency.
Following the development in-house of a Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) for Formula One racing, Williams developed core capabilities in batteries and electrification. These have been applied into Formula E, where Williams Advanced Engineering helped to launch the series and power all cars on the grid for the first four seasons of racing and then on into vehicles off the racetrack. For example, the foundational project for Williams Advanced Engineering in 2010 was with Jaguar, the C-X75. While a final decision was made not to go into production, many technologies from the project have found their way onto the road.
Since then Williams Advanced Engineering has been at the forefront of electric vehicle development and a leader as an integrator of new technology into batteries. The company’s expertise is sought after by manufacturers around the world. Recognising its leadership in battery technology, the company was honoured with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category in 2018 for its transfer of battery know-how from Formula E to electric vehicles on the road and beyond. Alongside electric cars and a continuing role as technical partner to Panasonic Jaguar Racing in Formula E, the company has also worked on electrification projects for the likes of Brompton Bicycles and Jaguar Vector Racing as the former launched an electric version of its world-famous folding bike and the latter broke the world speed record for an electric boat. In addition, Williams Advanced Engineering has explored ways to secure a second life for electric vehicle batteries, including the NETfficient project, using Nissan Leaf batteries for domestic energy storage. Most recently the company has been selected to power the Extreme E racing series and Electric Touring Car racing.
© Williams Advanced Engineering Limited
Williams Advanced Engineering Limited is a company registered in England and Wales under company number 08012215.
Its registered office is at Grove, Wantage, Oxfordshire, OX12 0DQ
We use cookies to improve your online experience. For more information on the cookies we use and for details on how we process your personal information, please see our Privacy Policy. By continuing to use our website you consent to us using cookies.
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https://www.wiltonbulletin.com/weather/article/CA-San-Francisco-Bay-Area-Zone-Forecast-14976603.php
CA San Francisco Bay Area Zone Forecast
Updated 12:09 am EST, Thursday, January 16, 2020
CA San Francisco Bay Area Zone Forecast for Wednesday, January 15, 2020
374 FPUS56 KMTR 160501
ZFPMTR
San Francisco Bay Area/Central California Zone Forecast
National Weather Service San Francisco Bay Area
900 PM PST Wed Jan 15 2020
This is an automatically generated product that provides average
values for large geographic areas. For a more site specific
forecast...please visit weather.gov/sanfrancisco
(1) Select a location from the drop down menu above the map...
(2) Click a location on the map.
You can refine your selection by clicking on the map displayed on
the resulting page.
CAZ505-162000-
Coastal North Bay...Including Point Reyes National Seashore-
.REST OF TONIGHT...Breezy, rain. Lows in the mid 40s. South winds
10 to 20 mph increasing to 20 to 30 mph after midnight.
.THURSDAY...Showers and a slight chance of thunderstorms. Locally
heavy rainfall possible in the morning. Highs in the lower 50s.
West winds 10 to 20 mph.
.THURSDAY NIGHT...Rain likely in the evening, then a slight
chance of rain after midnight. Lows in the lower 40s. Northwest
winds 10 to 20 mph...becoming north around 5 mph after midnight.
.FRIDAY...Mostly cloudy. Highs in the lower 50s. East winds 5 to
.FRIDAY NIGHT...Cloudy. A slight chance of rain after midnight.
Lows in the mid 40s. East winds 5 to 15 mph. Chance of rain
.SATURDAY...Mostly cloudy. A slight chance of rain. Highs in the
mid 50s.
.SATURDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. A chance of rain. Lows in the
.SUNDAY...Partly cloudy in the morning then becoming mostly
cloudy. A slight chance of rain. Highs in the upper 50s.
.SUNDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Lows in the mid 40s.
.MARTIN LUTHER KING JR DAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY...Mostly cloudy. A
chance of rain. Highs in the mid 50s. Lows in the upper 40s.
TEMPERATURE / PRECIPITATION
Point Reyes 43 51 39 52 / 100 100 60 0
North Bay Interior Valleys-
.REST OF TONIGHT...Breezy, rain. Lows in the upper 30s to mid
40s. South winds 10 to 20 mph increasing to 20 to 30 mph after
midnight.
.THURSDAY...Breezy. Showers in the morning, then a chance of
showers and a slight chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon.
Highs in the mid 40s to lower 50s. Southwest winds 20 to 30 mph
decreasing to 10 to 20 mph in the afternoon.
.THURSDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. A chance of rain in the evening,
then a slight chance of rain after midnight. Patchy fog after
midnight. Lows in the lower 30s to mid 40s. West winds 10 to
15 mph decreasing to up to 5 mph after midnight.
.FRIDAY...Mostly cloudy. Patchy fog in the morning. Highs in the
upper 40s to mid 50s. Southeast winds 5 to 10 mph.
.FRIDAY NIGHT...Cloudy. Patchy fog after midnight. Lows in the
30s to mid 40s. East winds 5 to 10 mph.
.SATURDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Patchy fog. A chance of rain.
Lows in the 30s to mid 40s.
.SUNDAY...Partly cloudy. Highs in the mid 50s to lower 60s.
.SUNDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Patchy fog. Lows in the 30s to
upper 40s.
.MARTIN LUTHER KING JR DAY AND MONDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. A
slight chance of rain. Highs in the mid 50s to lower 60s. Lows in
the 30s to upper 40s.
.TUESDAY...Mostly cloudy. A chance of rain. Highs in the 50s to
lower 60s.
.TUESDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY...Mostly cloudy. A slight chance of
rain. Lows in the 30s to upper 40s. Highs in the mid 50s to lower
Santa Rosa 40 52 34 54 / 100 100 40 0
San Rafael 44 53 40 54 / 100 100 50 0
Napa 41 50 36 52 / 100 100 30 0
North Bay Mountains-
.REST OF TONIGHT...Rain. Lows in the lower 40s. South winds 10 to
20 mph. Gusts up to 35 mph after midnight.
.THURSDAY...Showers. A slight chance of thunderstorms in the
afternoon. Locally heavy rainfall possible in the morning. Highs
in the 40s. Southwest winds 10 to 20 mph.
.THURSDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. A chance of rain in the evening.
A slight chance of rain after midnight. Lows in the mid to upper
30s. West winds 10 to 20 mph...becoming northwest 5 to 10 mph
after midnight.
.FRIDAY...Mostly cloudy. Highs in the 40s. East winds 5 to
.FRIDAY NIGHT...Cloudy. Lows near 40. East winds 5 to 10 mph.
.SATURDAY...Mostly cloudy. A chance of rain. Highs in the mid 40s
to lower 50s.
.SATURDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. A slight chance of rain. Lows in
.SUNDAY...Partly cloudy. Highs in the 50s.
.MARTIN LUTHER KING JR DAY...Mostly cloudy. A slight chance of
rain. Highs in the 50s.
.MONDAY NIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. A chance of
rain. Lows in the mid 40s. Highs in the 40s to upper 50s.
.WEDNESDAY...Mostly cloudy. A slight chance of rain. Highs in the
Lake Berryessa 41 47 37 49 / 100 100 30 0
San Francisco-
.REST OF TONIGHT...Breezy. Rain likely late in the evening, then
rain after midnight. Lows in the upper 40s. South winds 10 to
20 mph increasing to 20 to 30 mph after midnight.
.THURSDAY...Breezy. Showers in the morning, then showers likely
and a slight chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs in
the lower 50s. Southwest winds 20 to 30 mph...becoming west 10 to
20 mph in the afternoon.
chance of rain after midnight. Lows in the 40s. West winds 10 to
20 mph...becoming northwest around 5 mph after midnight.
.FRIDAY...Mostly cloudy. Highs in the mid 50s. Northeast winds
5 to 10 mph.
.FRIDAY NIGHT...Cloudy. Lows in the mid to upper 40s. East winds
.SATURDAY...Mostly cloudy in the morning then becoming sunny.
mid 40s to lower 50s.
.SUNDAY AND SUNDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Highs in the upper 50s.
Lows in the mid 40s to lower 50s.
slight chance of rain. Highs in the upper 50s. Lows near 50.
San Francisco 46 52 42 53 / 100 100 60 0
Ocean Beach 47 53 44 54 / 100 100 60 0
San Francisco Peninsula Coast-
.REST OF TONIGHT...Breezy. A chance of rain late in the evening,
then rain after midnight. Lows in the lower 40s. South winds
10 to 20 mph with gusts to around 35 mph increasing to 20 to
30 mph with gusts to around 50 mph after midnight.
.THURSDAY...Breezy, showers. A slight chance of thunderstorms in
the afternoon. Highs in the lower 50s. Southwest winds 20 to
30 mph...becoming west 15 to 20 mph in the afternoon.
chance of rain after midnight. Lows around 40. Northwest winds
10 to 20 mph...becoming 5 to 10 mph after midnight.
.FRIDAY...Mostly cloudy. Highs in the mid 50s. East winds 5 to
10 mph...becoming southwest in the afternoon.
.FRIDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Lows in the lower to mid 40s. East
.SATURDAY NIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Lows in the
mid 40s. Highs near 60.
slight chance of rain. Highs in the upper 50s. Lows in the mid
San Francisco Bay Shoreline-
.REST OF TONIGHT...A chance of rain late in the evening, then
rain after midnight. Lows in the mid 40s. Southeast winds 5 to
.THURSDAY...Showers. Highs in the lower 50s. Southwest winds
A slight chance of rain after midnight. Lows in the lower 40s.
Southwest winds 5 to 10 mph...becoming south after midnight.
mid 50s. East winds around 5 mph.
.FRIDAY NIGHT...Cloudy. Lows in the lower 40s. East winds 5 to
10 mph in the evening...becoming light.
.SATURDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy in the evening then becoming
mostly cloudy. Lows in the lower to mid 40s.
.SUNDAY AND SUNDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Highs near 60. Lows in
the mid 40s.
slight chance of rain. Highs around 60. Lows in the upper 40s.
SFO Airport 45 52 42 53 / 100 100 60 0
Oakland 44 52 41 54 / 100 100 50 0
Fremont 42 52 39 54 / 90 100 50 0
Redwood City 44 53 40 56 / 100 100 50 0
Mountain View 42 53 39 56 / 90 100 50 0
East Bay Interior Valleys-
.REST OF TONIGHT...A slight chance of rain late in the evening.
Rain after midnight. Lows in the lower 40s. South winds 5 to
.THURSDAY...Showers. Highs in the lower 50s. South winds 10 to
20 mph with gusts to around 35 mph...becoming southwest 5 to
Lows in the upper 30s. South winds around 5 mph.
.FRIDAY...Mostly cloudy. Highs in the mid 50s. Southeast winds
around 5 mph in the morning...becoming light.
.FRIDAY NIGHT...Cloudy. Lows in the upper 30s. Light winds.
.SATURDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy. Lows in the upper 30s.
.SUNDAY...Mostly cloudy. Highs in the upper 50s.
.SUNDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Patchy fog. Lows in the lower 40s.
.MARTIN LUTHER KING JR DAY...Mostly cloudy. Highs around 60.
.MONDAY NIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. A slight
chance of rain. Lows in the mid 40s. Highs around 60.
.WEDNESDAY...Mostly cloudy. Highs around 60.
Concord 41 52 37 55 / 90 100 30 0
Livermore 40 52 36 54 / 90 100 40 0
Santa Clara Valley...including San Jose-
.REST OF TONIGHT...Rain after midnight. Lows in the lower 40s.
Southeast winds 5 to 15 mph.
.THURSDAY...Showers. Highs in the lower 50s. Southeast winds
10 to 20 mph...becoming southwest around 5 mph in the afternoon.
chance of rain after midnight. Patchy fog after midnight. Lows in
the upper 30s. Light winds.
mid 50s. Light winds.
.SATURDAY...Cloudy in the morning then becoming sunny. Highs in
.SUNDAY...Mostly cloudy. Highs in the mid 60s.
.SUNDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Patchy fog. Lows in the mid 40s.
.MARTIN LUTHER KING JR DAY...Mostly cloudy. Patchy fog. A slight
chance of rain. Highs in the mid 60s.
.MONDAY NIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY...Mostly cloudy. A slight chance
of rain. Lows in the mid 40s. Highs in the lower 60s.
San Jose 41 53 37 57 / 90 100 50 0
Morgan Hill 39 52 36 55 / 90 100 60 0
Northern Monterey Bay-
15 mph...becoming west 5 to 15 mph in the afternoon.
.THURSDAY NIGHT...Becoming mostly cloudy after midnight. Patchy
fog. Rain likely in the evening. A slight chance of rain after
midnight. Lows in the upper 30s. West winds 5 to 10 mph in the
evening...becoming light.
.FRIDAY...Mostly cloudy in the morning then becoming partly
cloudy. Patchy fog in the morning. Highs in the mid 50s. East
winds up to 5 mph.
.FRIDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Lows in the upper 30s. Northeast
.SATURDAY...Cloudy in the morning then becoming partly cloudy.
mostly cloudy. Lows around 40.
.SUNDAY...Mostly cloudy. Highs in the lower 60s.
chance of rain. Highs in the lower 60s.
Santa Cruz 41 52 37 54 / 90 100 60 0
Santa Cruz Mountains-
.REST OF TONIGHT...Breezy. A chance of rain and a slight chance
of snow late in the evening, then rain after midnight. No snow
accumulation. Lows in the upper 30s. South winds 10 to 20 mph
increasing to 20 to 30 mph after midnight.
.THURSDAY...Breezy, showers. Highs in the 30s to upper 40s. South
winds 20 to 30 mph...becoming southwest 10 to 20 mph in the
.THURSDAY NIGHT...Snow likely in the evening. A slight chance of
rain. A slight chance of snow after midnight. Patchy fog after
midnight. Little or no snow accumulation. Lows in the mid 30s.
West winds 10 to 15 mph...becoming northwest up to 5 mph after
40s to lower 50s. East winds around 5 mph in the morning...
becoming light.
.FRIDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Lows in the upper 30s. East winds
up to 5 mph in the evening...becoming light.
the upper 40s to mid 50s.
mostly cloudy. Lows in the upper 30s.
.SUNDAY AND SUNDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Highs in the 50s. Lows
slight chance of rain. Highs in the upper 40s to lower 60s. Lows
in the mid 40s.
East Bay Hills and Diablo Range-
.REST OF TONIGHT...Breezy. Rain after midnight. Lows in the upper
30s. Southwest winds 10 to 20 mph increasing to south 20 to
.THURSDAY...Very windy. Showers. Snow showers in the afternoon.
Snow accumulation up to 2 inches. Highs in the 40s. South winds
30 to 45 mph...becoming southwest 20 to 30 mph with gusts to
around 45 mph in the afternoon.
.THURSDAY NIGHT...Snow likely and a chance of rain in the
evening. A slight chance of snow after midnight. Snow
accumulation up to 1 inch. Total snow accumulation up to
3 inches. Snow level 3100 feet. Lows in the mid 30s. West winds
.FRIDAY NIGHT...Cloudy. Lows in the upper 30s. East winds 5 to
.SATURDAY...Cloudy in the morning then becoming sunny. Highs near
.SUNDAY AND SUNDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Highs in the lower to
mid 50s. Lows in the lower 40s.
slight chance of rain. Highs in the upper 40s to mid 50s. Lows in
Southern Monterey Bay and Big Sur Coast-
.REST OF TONIGHT...Rain after midnight. Lows in the mid 40s.
South winds 5 to 10 mph...becoming southeast 10 to 20 mph after
in the afternoon. Locally heavy rainfall possible in the
afternoon. Highs in the mid 50s. South winds 20 to 30 mph...
becoming west around 15 mph in the afternoon.
.THURSDAY NIGHT...Becoming mostly cloudy after midnight. Rain
likely in the evening, then a slight chance of rain after
midnight. Lows around 40. West winds 5 to 15 mph...becoming
northeast around 5 mph after midnight.
.FRIDAY...Mostly cloudy. Highs in the mid 50s. East winds around
5 mph...becoming northwest in the afternoon.
.FRIDAY NIGHT...Cloudy. Lows in the lower 40s. Light winds...
becoming northeast around 5 mph after midnight.
.SATURDAY...Mostly cloudy. Highs in the lower 60s.
mid 40s to lower 50s. Highs in the mid 60s.
.MARTIN LUTHER KING JR DAY THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy.
A slight chance of rain. Highs in the lower 60s. Lows in the mid
40s to lower 50s.
.WEDNESDAY...Mostly cloudy. Highs in the lower 60s.
Monterey 43 56 40 56 / 90 100 60 0
Big Sur 41 52 39 53 / 90 100 70 0
Northern Salinas Valley...Hollister Valley...and Carmel Valley-
.REST OF TONIGHT...Rain after midnight. Lows around 40. Southeast
.THURSDAY...Showers. Highs in the mid 50s. Southeast winds around
20 mph...becoming southwest 5 to 10 mph in the afternoon.
Patchy fog after midnight. Lows in the upper 30s. West winds
around 5 mph in the evening...becoming light.
mid 50s. East winds around 5 mph in the morning...becoming light.
.SATURDAY...Mostly cloudy. Highs around 60.
.SUNDAY AND SUNDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Highs in the mid 60s.
slight chance of rain. Highs in the lower 60s. Lows in the mid
Salinas 41 54 38 57 / 80 100 50 0
Carmel Valley 39 55 35 56 / 90 100 60 0
Hollister 39 53 37 54 / 80 100 50 0
Southern Salinas Valley...Arroyo Seco...and Lake San Antonio-
.REST OF TONIGHT...Rain likely after midnight. Lows in the mid
30s. Light winds...becoming southeast 5 to 10 mph after midnight.
Patchy fog. Lows in the lower 30s. Light winds.
cloudy. Patchy fog in the morning. Highs in the mid 50s. Light
winds.
.FRIDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Patchy fog after midnight. Lows in
the mid 30s. Light winds.
.SATURDAY...Cloudy. Highs in the upper 50s.
upper 30s. Highs in the lower 60s.
.MARTIN LUTHER KING JR DAY...Cloudy. Highs in the mid 60s.
.MONDAY NIGHT AND TUESDAY...Partly cloudy. Lows in the lower 40s.
.WEDNESDAY...Mostly cloudy in the morning then becoming partly
cloudy. Highs in the lower 60s.
King City 37 54 34 56 / 60 100 40 0
Santa Lucia Mountains and Los Padres National Forest-
.REST OF TONIGHT...Rain and snow after midnight. Little or no
snow accumulation. Snow level 3500 feet. Lows in the mid to upper
30s. South winds 10 to 20 mph.
.THURSDAY...Very windy. Snow in the morning. Showers. Snow
showers in the afternoon. Precipitation may be heavy at times.
Snow accumulation up to 14 inches. Highs in the upper 30s to
lower 50s. South winds 30 to 45 mph...becoming west 20 to 30 mph
in the afternoon.
evening. Snow accumulation up to 1 inch. Total snow accumulation
up to 15 inches. Snow level 3400 feet. Lows in the lower to mid
.FRIDAY...Mostly cloudy. Highs in the upper 30s to lower 50s.
East winds up to 5 mph.
.FRIDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Lows in the mid 30s. Southeast
.SATURDAY...Cloudy. Highs in the 40s to 50s.
upper 30s to mid 40s. Highs in the upper 40s to lower 60s.
Mountains of San Benito and Interior Monterey County including
Pinnacles National Park-
.REST OF TONIGHT...Breezy. Rain likely after midnight. Snow level
3500 feet. Lows in the 30s. Southwest winds 10 to 20 mph
increasing to south 20 to 30 mph after midnight.
.THURSDAY...Very windy. A slight chance of snow in the morning.
Showers. Snow showers in the afternoon. Snow may be heavy at
times. Snow accumulation up to 6 inches. Highs in the 40s to
lower 50s. South winds 35 to 45 mph with gusts to around 60 mph.
.THURSDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy in the evening then becoming
partly cloudy. Breezy. A chance of rain and snow in the evening.
Patchy fog after midnight. Snow level 3300 feet. Lows in the 30s.
Southwest winds 20 to 30 mph...becoming north 10 to 15 mph after
cloudy. Highs in the 40s to lower 50s. Northeast winds 10 to
.FRIDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Lows in the 30s. Northeast winds
.SATURDAY...Cloudy. Highs in the mid 40s to upper 50s.
.SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY...Mostly cloudy. Lows in the 30s.
Highs in the 50s to lower 60s.
.SUNDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Lows in the upper 30s to mid 40s.
.MARTIN LUTHER KING JR DAY...Cloudy. Highs in the lower 50s to
.MONDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy. Breezy. A slight chance of rain.
Lows in the upper 30s to mid 40s.
.TUESDAY...Partly cloudy in the morning then becoming mostly
cloudy. Highs in the 50s to lower 60s.
.TUESDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY...Mostly cloudy. Lows in the upper
30s to mid 40s. Highs in the upper 40s to lower 60s.
Pinnacles NP 36 48 34 52 / 70 100 40 0
Visit us at www.weather.gov/sanfrancisco
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter at:
www.facebook.com/nwsbayarea
www.twitter.com/nwsbayarea
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Michelle Williams is engaged to director Thomas Kail and expecting the couple's first child
ANI Washington DC, USA Jan 01, 2020, 01.32 PM(IST)
Michelle Williams with director Thomas Kail Photograph:( Twitter )
Michelle Williams and Thomas Kail have previously worked together on 'Fosse/Verdon'. The drama 'Fosse/Verdon' was directed by Kail
American actress Michelle Williams is engaged to director Thomas Kail and the couple is expecting their first child, sources have told a magazine. As per the outlet, the pair were pictured together in London where Michelle is busy shooting for 'Venom 2'.
She was also spotted buying baby clothes at Seraphine's maternity boutique in Kensington. However, Michelle's representative has not commented on the matter.
Michelle and Thomas have previously worked together on 'Fosse/Verdon'. The drama 'Fosse/Verdon' was directed by Thomas, in which Michelle played the character of Gwen Verdon, for which she also won the Emmy Award for lead actress.
Kail has also been awarded Emmy Award for directing 'Grease Live!' and a Tony for directing 'Hamilton' on Broadway.
Proud father Shah Rukh Khan flaunts son AbRam's medals
BTS drops new single 'Black Swan' from their album 'Map of the Soul: 7'
Top 5 Hollywood news today: ‘1917’ releases in India, ‘Sex Education’ season 2 trailer out
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Englewood High School faculty member reassigned as ‘concerning allegation’ is investigated
Photo Credit: Action News Jax
By: Action News Jax
Published: December 10 2019 6:54 PM
Jacksonville, FL - Action News Jax has learned that a faculty member at Englewood High School is being reassigned as a “concerning allegation” is investigated, according to a message to families from the school’s principal.
We are not naming the faculty member because at this time, that person is not facing criminal charges.
Principal Sara Bravo said the school would cooperate fully with “any external investigative agencies that may become involved.”
Bravo also said the following in a message to Englewood High families:
“Because this is so early in the investigative process, it is premature to say anything further about the allegations at this time. In that regard, I would like to respectfully ask for your restraint in both arriving at conclusions and in discussing this in public forums so that we can protect the integrity of the investigations and the reputation and privacy of those involved as we await factual conclusions.”
Principal Sara Bravo
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LEARN. CREATE. PERFORM.
13 minutes reading time (2697 words)
Mastering MONTAGE: Getting Started
Just got your new MONTAGE? You're new to synthesizers? Or you're an old hand at synthesizers, even owned a Motif? Here are some quick suggestions on what to do first...
Assemble the five booklets as PDFs:
Data List Booklet
Synthesizer Parameter Manual
Supplementary Manual
Although you are given a paper copy of the Owner's Manual you should download a PDF of it so that you have the search capabilities afforded reading it on a computer, tablet or notebook device. PDFs will allow you to quickly and easily find information when necessary. Reading a manual, while recommended at some point, should never be handled like you're reading a novel. It is much more like reading a reference book - where you are looking things up - you use it to connect-the-dots as you gather information while you are experiencing the instrument.
Set them aside, for now, and play the instrument:
Various types of Performances are provided in the Factory Set Preset Banks. It may not always be immediately obvious how to play or interact with them, since they can be quite complicated. Many include advanced programming tricks that may not be immediately decypherable. Please take advantage of the [AUDITION] button: if you have no idea what to play, or how to approach a particular Performance, press [AUDITION] and closely observe the front panel. The Super Knob, Assign Switch buttons, the SCENE buttons etc., will animate in response to the audition data. You can see how different timbres and combinations of instruments settings are accessed. Then try approaching the Performance again with what you've learned. The audition function can be extremely helpful in situations where you simply have no clue what the programmer was thinking. Perhaps it is an instrument emulation that has available several articulations that are essential to make it work and sound properly.
Even some single instrument sounds will come to new light in response to the Audition button - what you may think is not such a great sound may be transformed when played with a different approach, a different attack. It can change your mind entirely. For example, you call up a "Gallery" Performance (typically these will have a variety of approaches to a single instrument, like the Rhodes or Wurlitzer electric piano galleries, each individual Part may be from a different era, or a completely different model of that instrument. The Galleries use the SCENE function ("snapshots") to give you a different featured electric piano creation. It would be wrong to conclude anything about them until you place them in a musical context. For example, the Rhodes with the soft felt hammers, the one with stiffer neoprene rubber hammers, then the one with rubber hammers with improved preamp, or the Dyno Rhodes - all will behave and sound completely different - for different musical situations. Use the Audition button to momentarily "step away" from the task of trying to both play and listen simultaneously - and just listen. Often you will have the surprising experience that your opinion of the sound changes dramatically when you just listen. It's some kind of psycho-acoustic thing. Respect it. For example, if you were approaching the sound by playing soft chords, while the programmer's approach is rewarded when you play medium hard to hard aggressive key strikes to get the sound to 'bark'. Approach is important!
If at any point during the Audition phrase you find the setting to your liking, stop the Audition (by pressing the [AUDITION] again) and play the sound yourself... The audition data is MIDI data actually interacting with the sounds in realtime - and each has a wide range of timbres, tones, effect settings that can be evoked by moving the controls. Once the [AUDITION] is activated it will repeat (loop) you can stop it or just move to another sound, at any time.
Navigating the Preset "Live Sets":
The Live Sets are used to assemble groups of sounds into a set of 16, designed for quick access. The Preset Live Sets are simply examples of how you can group sounds into custom arrangement. And can make touring the Montage for the first time more organized then stepping through Performances from 1 through 2707. The Live Set that is used in the Mastering MONTAGE series is located for DOWNLOAD: here.
Notice the relationship between the 16 boxes in the screen and the right front panel lighted buttons... Shown below:
There are four rows of eight button, however, the left half, four row of four columns are illuminated buttons - dividing the entire grid of lighted buttons into two halves, left and right. One of the left half is glowing brightly - this represents the currently selected Performance in this Live Set. You can either touch the box in the screen or you can touch the dedicated button Associated with that program. We'll say this now and repeat often later, anything you can reach with the touch screen can be accessed via front panel buttons. It is your choice.
There is only one light illuminated on the right half of the 4x8 grid. The right side represents the Preset Live Sets. From the factory, 12 of the 16 Preset Live Sets are occupied. Use the upper set of two buttons marked "UP/DOWN Bank" to move between Preset, User, and later, your installed Library Bank Live Sets. Use the lower set of two button marked "UP/DOWN Page" to move between Live Sets within the current Bank. As mentioned there are 16 Preset Pages of Live sets, and there are 16 User Pages of Live Sets.
Navigating Live Sets: take a moment to read the QUICK GUIDE section on "Live Sets" in the Owner's Manual starting on page 18 And 19.
Creating your own User Live Set will allow you to put together Performances you find immediately engaging. You can create sets containing your favorites. Don't worry about overwriting anything, the Montage has plenty of storage. Read through "Creating Your Own Live Set" on page 30.
Category Search:
When you want to audition a specific Category of instrument, let's learn to exit the Live Set and view the main Performance screen. You have several ways to leave the Live Set and arrive at the main Performance screen:
Press the [PERFORMANCE (Home)] button, or
Press the [EXIT] button, or
Touch the "Home" icon in the extreme upper left corner of the screen
Any of these gestures will place you on the main Performance screen with the Performance name highlighted.
Performances are first divided into two main kinds... Single and Multi. This refers to the number of Parts under Keyboard Control (Kbd Ctrl) contained in the Performance which can be as few as one (Single) and as many as eight (Multi). In the screenshot above, "CFX + FM EP" you can see that this Performance uses five PARTS: Four to make up the CFX Acoustic Piano, and one to recreate the FM Electric Piano. The green (active) icon on the "Kbd Ctrl" row, indicates they will respond to the 'local' MONTAGE keyboard. The PERFORMANCE Name is highlighted - when this is the condition, pressing the [CATEGORY SEARCH] button will take you to the program listings:
When searching for Performances you can view the listing in the "Default" order (as they are listed in the Data List Booklet), in alphabetical order by "Name", or by when in time, "Date", that you added it to your MONTAGE.
Those listed in green font are Single Part and those in blue font are Multi Part Performances. The significance of this we can deal with later, as it really only impacts things when combining (merging) Performances or working with recording the Montage. Listings of Performances in Category Search can be further defined by Favorite, Preset (factory), User (your own custom/customized), Motif XF (factory Performances), or from an installed Library or using "Attributes": by the technology used (AWM2, FM-X, AWM2+FM-X, Motion Control, SSS, Single or Multi). Along the top of the Performance Category Search screen you can see the defining search options for BANK and ATTRIBUTES.
Searching is very context sensitive... what this means is when you have selected a PERFORMANCE (highlighting the PERFORMANCE Name) and then hit [CATEGORY SEARCH] you will be searching for whole PERFORMANCEs (as opposed to single PARTs). When you touch or move the highlight to the PART Name and hit the Search function, natuarlly, the listings will be for individual Parts. And when you have highlighted Arpeggios, or Waveforms and you hit [CATEGORY SEARCH], the search will be for Arpeggios or Waveforms, respectively. One of the first skills as a new user is to know what parameter is highlighted. Unsure about what that parameter is, this is where your 'reference books' come in very, very handy.
PERFORMANCE MERGE:
Take the time at this point to go through the QUICK GUIDE section of the Owner's Manual (page 36) while seated in front of the instrument. It explains the basics of selecting a Single sound for a Part, adding a second sound layering them, then it covers adding (merging) a multi Part and creating a Note Limit region thus creating a split. These fundamental skills will serve you well - because it can get a whole lot more complex than this as you wade out into deeper waters.
Do: Remove and discard the loose protective plastic film that covers the screen when initially unboxing the instrument. It can interfere with your touch screen operation
Do: Explore categories of interest to you.
Do: Experiment with different approaches toward playing a sound, particularly if your first attempt yields less than satisfying results.
Do: Press the [AUDITION] button to gain a bit of perspective on what the programmer had in mind.
Do: Plug-in your (optional) Yamaha FC7 pedal into the Foot Controller 2 jack to control the Super Knob with your foot. For hands-free Motion Control. This makes a huge difference!
Don't: Approach every sound with a preconceived idea or lick you want to play. That is a different kind of search... When first encountering an instrument, be flexible, let the sound lead. Discover where it takes you. Later, when you are looking for a specific sound for a specific lick, you may want to adjust your search attributes to narrow the number of selections. The worst way to try out an instrument is to play the same thing on each and every sound. Your initial search should be 'open' and more general (like shopping for clothes or shoes), later you can get specific about what actually fits.
Remember: there are no good and bad sounds, one person's opinion of a program can be vastly different from yours. Allow for this. Sounds are generally appropriate or inappropriate for a musical situation. A Honky-tonk piano sound, slightly out-of-tune and beat-up, is neither good or bad, by its overall nature, it is exactly right in certain situations, always remember that... Especially, if you're one who always thinks there is one "BEST" piano sound.
Snorkeling, Scuba Diving and the Art of Sound Design:
A word on Multi Part Performances - these come in two general unofficial categories: those that are traditional Splits or Layered sounds and those that are like mini-compositions which you set in motion with a single note or a chord. Approaching the Split/Layer type is usually very intuitive because you are creating the music by playing the keyboard in a traditional fashion, but with these mini-compositions you are the trigger that puts all this bottled potential energy into Motion. For some people this is heaven - for others they have no idea how to interact with these inventions.
You can stay near the surface and enjoy MONTAGE from the snorkeler's view, or you can dive deep and get out your scuba gear... when Nate Tschetter, Yamaha Marketing Manager first hipped the product specialist staff to what was on offer in MONTAGE he described it with this swimming analogy, and it is so apropo. We will have both types of articles here on YamahaSynth. So if you only want to wade out a little bit or you're ready to dive for the Mariana Trench, we hope to have articles of interest for you. Let us know what you'd like us to cover.
Let's use the appropriately named "DJ MONTAGE" as an example. You might feel that the composition is already done, and much like a DJ, you are simply putting the turntable in motion. What's left for you to do? If you are asking that question... Move on and come back to this later. But be aware that what you are hearing is a programmer combining the Motion Control Synth Engine's various tools (arps, motion sequences, automated controllers, etc.) into a musical montage. It's sound designing. It's very much like when working with a room full of analog modules and patch cables, where you are putting in motion a musical patchwork of connections. Here you can potentially have 64 Oscillators (or more), 64 Filters, 64 Ampitude Envelope Generators, tons of LFOs, Effects, even external sources all patched together to create a musical result.
I learned synthesis on a room full of ARP 2500 modules back in the early 1970's - where creating music was about patching Oscillator to Filter, Filter to Amplifier, and while the "preset" had not been invented at that point in synthesizer history (seriously, it was still years away), anyone sitting down to interact with a student's patched creation would have an entirely unique experience based on how they chose to put the creation in motion. The patched creation was simply "potential energy" - the person interacting with it provided the "push" to turn it into "kinetic energy". Sometimes that was by triggering a key or activating a switch. These MONTAGE Multi Part, multi-instrument creations are musical and rhythmic environments/atmospheres that represent the "patching" of the various components by one of the Yamaha voicing programmers. You can choose to interact with it, edit it, learn from it, change it, or even ignore it. You put all this potential energy into motion by triggering a key, turning a knob, or flipping a switch. Every time you interact with it you may have an entirely different experience.
"Patching" in the MONTAGE is about assigning and mapping controllers to do your bidding...
But understand that your own personal creations can go in any musical direction you desire... In any kind of musical genre or one that doesn't yet exist. There has never been a synth quite like Montage.
PERFORMANCES can be shaped into any kind of musical situation, any kind of musical genre. Imagine the very first synthesizers... Electronic music, back then carried a stigma. Not until early attempts at doing "classical" music did some folks start paying any attention. Soon synths were everywhere including in rock 'n' roll. The acoustic piano for many, many years was limited by similar thinking... It was only capable of chamber music, imagine that folks from 1700 hearing stride piano, or jazz, or rock n roll... Every time I hear someone say, "yeah, it's only good for this one type of music" I have to remind myself, that not everyone hears the same or has the same vision when it comes to music and sound. Just because the organ started as an instrument exclusively for religious music doesn't mean that's all you can do with it. James Oscar Smith (better known to his friends as Jimmy) decided to change the role of the organ forever... building on the door kicked open by Fats Waller, Jimmy reinvented the role of the mighty B3 forever!
The MONTAGE is music in motion... Please bookmark the Official Yamaha Dowload site and check-in often for product firmware updates. As is Yamaha's way, you can expect updated features, bug fixes, and improvements on an ongoing basis. Current firmware is 3.00.x
You can check your firmware version in [UTILITY] > Settings > System.
Link to "Mastering MONTAGE 1: The Super Knob"
Join the conversation about Yamaha's Montage Synthesizer on our Forum
Want to read the next article in the series: "Mastering MONTAGE 1: The Super Knob" - check it out here..
MIDI data list booklet audition button MOTIF Mastering MONTAGE
Dallas Synth Lovers
Reface Capture 2.0 and Reface OS Update 1.3!
Dr. Mix Visits the Yamaha Synth Space
Synth Space
Introducing the Yamaha Synth Space
MONTAGifying MOTIF: "Free Fall"
MONTAGifying MOTIF: A Deeper Dive
MONTAGifying MOTIF: "Dream Ballad"
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Most teen drug use is down, but officials fear vaping boom
Updated: 11:16 AM EST Dec 17, 2018
Twice as many high school students used nicotine-tinged electronic cigarettes this year compared with last year, an unprecedented jump in a large annual survey of teen smoking, drinking and drug use.It was the largest single-year increase in the survey's 44-year history, far surpassing a mid-1970s surge in marijuana smoking.The findings, released Monday, echo those of a government survey earlier this year. That survey also found a dramatic rise in vaping among children and prompted federal regulators to press for measures that make it harder for kids to get them.Experts attribute the jump to newer versions of e-cigarettes, like those by Juul Labs Inc. that resemble computer flash drives and can be used discreetly.Trina Hale, a junior at South Charleston High School in West Virginia, said vaping — specifically Juul — exploded at her school this year."They can put it in their sleeve or their pocket. They can do it wherever, whenever. They can do it in class if they're sneaky about it," she said.Olivia Turman, a freshman at Cabell Midland High School in Ona, West Virginia, said she too has seen kids "hit their vape in class."The federally funded survey released Monday is conducted by University of Michigan researchers and has been operating since 1975. This year's findings are based on responses from about 45,000 students in grades 8, 10 and 12 in schools across the country. It found 1 in 5 high school seniors reported having vaped nicotine in the previous month.After vaping and alcohol, the most common thing teens use is marijuana, the survey found. About 1 in 4 students said they'd used marijuana at least once in the past year. It was more common in older kids — about 1 in 17 high school seniors said they use marijuana every day.Overall, marijuana smoking is about the same level as it was the past few years. Vaping of marijuana rose, however.More teens, however, are saying no to lots of other substances. Usage of alcohol, cigarettes, cocaine, LSD, ecstasy, heroin and opioid pills all declined.Experts say it's not clear what's behind those trends, especially since the nation is in the midst of the deadliest drug overdose epidemic ever."What is it that we're doing right with teenagers that we're not doing with adults?" said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a federal agency that funds the Michigan study.One leading theory is that kids today are staying home and communicating on smartphones rather than hanging out and smoking, drinking or trying drugs."Drug experimentation is a group activity," Volkow said.What about vaping? "Vaping mostly is an individual activity," said David Jernigan, a Boston University researcher who tracks alcohol use.The vaping explosion is a big worry, however. Health officials say nicotine is harmful to developing brains. Some researchers also believe vaping will make kids more likely to take up cigarettes, and perhaps later try other drugs.So far that hasn't happened, surveys show. But the Juul phenomenon is recent, noted Richard Miech, who oversees the Michigan survey.If vaping does lead to cigarette use among teens, that may start to show up in the survey as early as next year, he added.
Twice as many high school students used nicotine-tinged electronic cigarettes this year compared with last year, an unprecedented jump in a large annual survey of teen smoking, drinking and drug use.
It was the largest single-year increase in the survey's 44-year history, far surpassing a mid-1970s surge in marijuana smoking.
FDA OKs smokeless cigarette sales, but can they help you quit?
The findings, released Monday, echo those of a government survey earlier this year. That survey also found a dramatic rise in vaping among children and prompted federal regulators to press for measures that make it harder for kids to get them.
Experts attribute the jump to newer versions of e-cigarettes, like those by Juul Labs Inc. that resemble computer flash drives and can be used discreetly.
Trina Hale, a junior at South Charleston High School in West Virginia, said vaping — specifically Juul — exploded at her school this year.
"They can put it in their sleeve or their pocket. They can do it wherever, whenever. They can do it in class if they're sneaky about it," she said.
Olivia Turman, a freshman at Cabell Midland High School in Ona, West Virginia, said she too has seen kids "hit their vape in class."
The federally funded survey released Monday is conducted by University of Michigan researchers and has been operating since 1975. This year's findings are based on responses from about 45,000 students in grades 8, 10 and 12 in schools across the country. It found 1 in 5 high school seniors reported having vaped nicotine in the previous month.
After vaping and alcohol, the most common thing teens use is marijuana, the survey found. About 1 in 4 students said they'd used marijuana at least once in the past year. It was more common in older kids — about 1 in 17 high school seniors said they use marijuana every day.
Overall, marijuana smoking is about the same level as it was the past few years. Vaping of marijuana rose, however.
More teens, however, are saying no to lots of other substances. Usage of alcohol, cigarettes, cocaine, LSD, ecstasy, heroin and opioid pills all declined.
Experts say it's not clear what's behind those trends, especially since the nation is in the midst of the deadliest drug overdose epidemic ever.
"What is it that we're doing right with teenagers that we're not doing with adults?" said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a federal agency that funds the Michigan study.
One leading theory is that kids today are staying home and communicating on smartphones rather than hanging out and smoking, drinking or trying drugs.
"Drug experimentation is a group activity," Volkow said.
What about vaping? "Vaping mostly is an individual activity," said David Jernigan, a Boston University researcher who tracks alcohol use.
The vaping explosion is a big worry, however. Health officials say nicotine is harmful to developing brains. Some researchers also believe vaping will make kids more likely to take up cigarettes, and perhaps later try other drugs.
So far that hasn't happened, surveys show. But the Juul phenomenon is recent, noted Richard Miech, who oversees the Michigan survey.
If vaping does lead to cigarette use among teens, that may start to show up in the survey as early as next year, he added.
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Guardian of death
(Sample Diablo 3 witch-doctor) (Part #1 - Diablo context)
Video Games Adventure/RPG games Diablo
Role: Character (Heroic)
“Stay awhile and listen.”
Diablo is a videogames series that started in 1996. It is the major exemplar of the AARPG or hack-and-slash video games. In fact, the category is often called “Diablo-like”.
Diablo II was released in 2000 and Diablo III was released in 2012.
These are heroic fantasy games, with a bleak, grim and brutal atmosphere. The central conflict is the never-ending war between angels and demons.
Over the decades, this world — called Sanctuary — has gained a distinctive texture and lore.
One of the playable Diablo III characters is the “witch-doctor”.
At first glance, it’s a Blizzard Faux Pas™. The only Black playable character is semi-crouching in an animalistic manner, is saddled with an accent reminiscent of prior Blizzard racial cluelessness, and is decked out in garb that is *straight out* from the 1907 Colonial Exhibition .
Which is especially annoying since :
The voice acting (by Erica Shukrani Luttrell , since I played the female version) is charismatic and attaching.
The implied backstory of the character folds neatly into the storyline (particularly the Reaper of Souls expansion).
The character has an arsenal of fun and distinctive spells.
Really, all one had to do was to let the character stand normally and not wear rejects from the Tintin in the Congo wardrobe. Damnit Blizzard, you had *one job*.
Well, two. Avoiding to once again depict Vodun as something from a fire sale 1980s Sunday morning cartoon would also have been nice.
Which doctor ?
This profile uses a “sample character” approach. This method is discussed in our FAQ about video games.
In this case we use the character as featured in the game, but :
Ditch the 1920s Men’s Lurid Adventures In Savage Darkest Africa visuals.
Use allusions within the in-game dialogue to offer a fleshed-out backstory for this specific Witch-Doctor.
Offer a take on the character’s Nephalem origins, which isn’t developed in-game.
Use a specific character build (Helltooth set with Short Man’s Finger ring).
Develop the characterisation a bit, also based on in-game dialogues.
Explain the context and setting in brief.
This profile come as three chapters :
Guardian of Death part 1 – Diablo context. This here profile.
Guardian of Death part 2 – Diablo III events.
Guardian of Death part 3 – Appendices.
The opening cinematic for Diablo III, which is… very Diablo. That makes sense, I guess.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9mUe5vHYzs
Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Diablo III Opening Cinematic (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9mUe5vHYzs)
So now I’ve got to look for Sanctuary
Here’s the skinny about the setting elements that are important in the story, eh ?
The angels and demons both resemble pop-Christianity mythicals , though the specifics diverge. Their unending war has shaped much of the setting.
Both demons and angels derive from the primordial being having separated its good essence from its evil essence.
Demons are monstrously evil, and usually wish to invade and kill everything with grotesque armies from Hell. Angels tend to be rigid, judgemental and remote.
The Prime Evil and the Soulstones
There are seven arch-devils. They used to form a primordial hydra of evil, but the beast’s heads split into discrete entities.
The three most powerful are called “Prime Evils” due to this shared origin. They are :
Diablo, Lord of Terror.
Mephisto, Lord of Hatred.
Baal, Lord of Destruction.
The other four are the Lesser Evils.
The Prime and Lesser Evils (and many of the demon lords under them) will eternally return. They can’t be slain. Thus, their enemies try to imprison them. Specials artefacts were created for this – the Soulstones. The Soulstones have been successfully used on several gruelling, desperate occasions.
Sanctuary and the Nephalem
After aeons of war, some demons and angels deserted. They created a new world, Sanctuary, where they could live in peace. The catalysts for this desertion were the angel Inarius and the demon Lilith. They had, unthinkably, fallen in love.
Their children were the Nephalem. As the Nephalem had both a good and an evil essence, they were more powerful than angels and demons. Thus, the renegade angels and demons strongly considered killing the Nephalem before there were too many of them.
As a result, the “evil” Lilith went berserk to protect her children, whom she wanted to use as her army. She killed most of the angels and demons on Sanctuary. And the “good” Inarius used a ritual to ensure that the Nephalem would grow weaker with each passing generation. They were thus doomed to reach an inconsequential power level, “for their own good”.
Within a few generations, most children of the Nephalem held little power. They were now known as Humans. They became the dominant species on Sanctuary as they forgot about their origins.
However, the Lesser Evils eventually realised that with their evil half, Humans could make fantastic cannon fodder.
Deckard Cain and the Horadrim
“You have quite a treasure there in that Horadric Cube.”
The Horadrim is a demon-fighting holy order. It was formed by Tyrael, the Archangel of Justice, who had an interest in Humans. This initiative, led by mighty Human mage Tal Rasha, was born during a span when the Prime Evils had been banished to Sanctuary.
A map of Sanctuary. Click for a larger version.
These legendary — but flawed — champions were successful. They managed to use the Soulstones to imprison the Prime Evils. No longer having a purpose, the Horadrim fell apart. They soon became little more than a legend.
Deckard Cain was the son of the last Horadrim. Yet he didn’t believe his mother when she spoke of her forgotten order. It is only as an aged scholar that Mr. Cain realised that his mum had been truthful. He worked hard to reconstitute Horadric knowledge, but by then that was a daunting task.
Deckard Cain features in all three Diablo games as an advisor, scholar and artefacts expert. His knowledge is invaluable in the struggle against demons.
What happened in Diablo
The Soulstone holding Diablo’s essence was hidden by the Horadrim under the village of Tristram. But over time it weakens, allowing Diablo to twist men’s minds. He drives King Leoric into bloodthirsty, paranoid madness. Terror, corruption and devastation spread.
With the help of Deckard Cain, the witch Adria and a few surviving Tristram locals, a small set of heroes descends into the vast cathedral near Tristram. This place has numerous underground levels, built to hide the Soulstone.
In the end, Diablo is forced back into the Soulstone. But this no longer suffices to hold him.
The leader of the adventurers, Aidan son of Leoric, takes the Soulstone with him in the hope of containing its evil. He leaves on a quest to reinforce the Soulstone, so as to more fully imprison Diablo.
What happened in Diablo II
But Aidan was corrupted then possessed by Diablo. His journey became a path of destruction. A small group of heroes (including an Amazon warrior) gathered to stop him. They also freed Deckard Cain, who had been captured by demons.
Despite Tyrael’s efforts, Diablo-as-Aidan freed Baal and Mephisto. He also had dealings with the witch Adria.
But the heroes proved to be as strong as the Horadrim before them. They imprisoned Diablo and Mephisto anew. Then they shattered their Soulstones in Hell, to banish them from Sanctuary.
However Baal escaped, sowing destruction in the North. The heroes received reinforcements, including an assassin and mage-killer. Baal began tampering with the very fabric of Sanctuary. But thanks to the heroes Tyrael stopped him before the irreparable damage could get too extensive.
After this near-disaster, Sanctuary was left alone by the forces of the High Heavens and the Burning Hells for about 20 years.
Real Name: Seynameh daughter of Samaha. The final “eh” is pronounced more like “ee” in “‘sheer”, but with something of a “heh” sound as well.
Other Aliases: “Guardian of death” is short for her actual title, which awkwardly translates as “Ancient Priestess-Regulatrix Of Spirits And Master Gatekeeper To The Unformed Land”.
Marital Status: Single (cannot legally marry).
Known Relatives: Lilith (great-grandmother, deceased), Inarius (great-grandfather, deceased), Mephisto (great-great-grandfather, occasionally deceased), Linarian aka Rathma (grandfather, presumed deceased), Samaha (mother, deceased) and various relatives of Mephisto such as Diablo and Baal.
Height: 5’5″ Weight: 120 lbs.
Eyes: Brown Hair: Black.
New power generation ?
The protagonist of Diablo III (picked among 6+ character classes, each available in two genders) is a Nephalem. This person is powerful enough to defeat senior angels and demons.
There are no explanations as to this person’s provenance. It’s left to the player’s imagination.
Makin’ babies
Howbeit, late in the game, a demon mentions that a new generation of Nephalem is being born. This might mean that a new angel/demon couple has appeared, and is hiding somewhere on Sanctuary. The demon claims that his horrific, crazed blood cult followers are tracking these down. They kill new Nephalems in their sleep and feed on their power.
Trusting a demon’s account may not be reasonable. However, this sort of statement tends to be accurate in Blizzard games. It could thus be assumed that the Player Character is a member of this mysterious new generation.
This would also match bits of dialogue where ancient Nephalem spirits seem amused that those before them do not know of their heritage. However, said bits of dialogue could easily refer to *Leah*, an ally of the Player Character. And it’s not super-coherent anyway.
Here we’ll go with a version where the Player Character is actually one of the Nephalems of old. Mostly because that’s the impression I formed early during the game. There’s little to contradict it. But it’s slightly more likely that authorial intent is that the PC is from this possible new generation.
Soundtrack for the History (prelude)
Since I’ve used a few words of Fon to represent the language spoken in our sample Witch Doctor’s area, let’s have some Beninese music. Say, one my fav Angélique Kidjo tunes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dny1DmXlXQg
Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Shango (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dny1DmXlXQg)
Available for download on Amazon .
History (prelude)
(This part is mostly made up, though it incorporates the bits of in-game dialogue I could catch.)
Seynameh is a third-generation Nephalem. Meaning that she’s at least 2,500 years old.
She was orphaned when she was just 3 – too young to understand what had happened. Furthermore, the other Nephalems awkwardly refused to answer her questions.
Seynameh thinks that she had a different first name before her parents died. She also developed the impression that her parents had killed each other.
Seynameh was raised by her entire community. It was a rich education, exposing her to many different trades and ways of life. The one blind spot was the notion of death, and what had happened to her parents.
Predictably, the little girl became fascinated by what adults wouldn’t explain. Thus, she began covertly reading books about death magic. Being Nephalem, her magical puissance was easily that of a modern Human ten times her age.
And thus she opened a rift into the afterlife at age 8.
Into the Unformed Land
Specifically, she breached into the Unformed Land. This seems to be a/ a higher reality, b/ the source of life energy for Sanctuary, and c/ several sorts of afterlife, all rolled into a single dimension .
Physically entering it as she did isn’t normally done by Humans. On the one known occasion where this occurred, a powerful witch doctor came back uncontrollably mad as a powerful Phantasm – a Nephalem ghost. Entering the Burning Hells is a simpler, safer (it’s all relative…) operation than entering the Unformed Land.
Diablo, Lord of Terror. His appearances went through many changes due to reincarnations, though.
Though she was looking for her parents, finding them there was impossible. Nephalem souls transmigrate beyond the Unformed Lands. Instead, the little girl was beset by spirits unable to move on. There were no Humans back then, but there already were some sapient species such as Wendigos . These have simple souls, less likely to leave ghosts than Humans’.
The dead saw her Nephalem nature. Many came to petition her about unresolved business on Sanctuary. Shy and overwhelmed, little Seynameh agreed to help them all before running back to Sanctuary in tears. She was crushed by her failure to find her parents.
But a promise made in the Unformed Land can never be broken. Agreeing to the petitions sealed her fate.
The little girl and the teeming dead
Scared that adults would yell at her about her rift, Seynameh ran away. She gathered such critical survival resources as her favourite doll and her lucky handkerchief, then vanished into the wilderness.
Under pressure from the dead, she started her “quests” for them. Seynameh improvised spells to survive and accomplish these goals.
Over the centuries, she developed her own magic. She also became much more assertive about the responsibilities she had taken as a child. She only took specific petitions, and became a sort of regulator of the interface between Sanctuary and the Unformed Land.
Now they droppin’ and yellin’ / It’s a tad bit late…
These generally involved the spirits of the dead. But there was a host of obscure, fiddly, arcane rules that Seynameh kept on-rails.
Explaining her role would take weeks and a dozen flipcharts. But she generally kept the frontier between life and death running correctly. The early generations of Nephalem had the raw power to handle disruptions at this border, but later Humans did not.
Thus, counting how many times Seynameh saved the world is about as daunting as counting how many times Doctor Strange did. And she held her office for much, much longer.
… ’cause the Nephalem / Had to regulate
Seynameh mostly lived in the Torajan Jungles , in the Far East of Sanctuary. Many Humans there were “relatives” of a sort, descending from her maternal Nephalem grandparents. As such they had the same general skin tone and physical traits as she did.
The tribes there were under no impression that she was one of them, though. They called her Guardian-of-Death, having a good idea of her role from ancestors who remembered the Nephalems.
A high-ranking angel.
Seeing the Guardian work likely played an important role in the emergence of the Umbaru’s faith and rituals. The Unformed Lands (or “Mbwiru Eikura”) play a central role in the teachings of the shamans of the Umbaru people, often called “witch-doctors” by ignorant foreigners.
During these centuries, Seynameh would often spend years at a time into the Unformed Lands as part of her job.
Over time, the priests of the Umbaru people moulded beliefs about Mbwiru Eikura into rigid rituals featuring much sacrifice. Some shamans rebelled against this. But they have so far failed to turn their theological dissidence into a reformation.
While what the orthodoxy taught of the Unformed Land was false and ethically condemnable, it didn’t imperil the frontiers between worlds. Thus, it wasn’t part of Guardian of Death’s responsibilities to put right.
Jungle Action
The orthodox shamans increasingly presented the reclusive Seynameh as a Baba Yaga figure, a terrible devouring witch to be dreaded. But occasionally, the desperate bereaved would brave the wilderness and taboos to beseech Guardian of Death. They usually petitioned for the resurrection of loved ones.
Seynameh generally refused such requests, as they broke the myriad abstruse rules she enforced. Yet she did bring a trickle of people back when that was acceptable. Guardian of Death also accepted on several occasions to come demolish spirits that even congregations of the dreaded Umbaru shamans couldn’t contain.
But most often, Guardian of Death brought closure to the bereaved by talking with them and telling them about the afterlife.
Over time, this became a problem. People increasingly broke the taboo to seek Guardian of Death, as they heard that the priests lied about her. But that meant that by agreeing to talk to them, Seynameh could turn them into heretics. People wanting to tell the truth about Guardian of Death would likely end up as orthodox sacrifices.
My kingdom and place of exile, you’ll never see the water flowing
Seynameh did not like that coming to see her imperiled desperate, bereaved people. Furthermore, the spirits of the Unformed Land had repeatedly warned her of a looming, catastrophic crisis that threatened them and Sanctuary both.
Thus, in 1280, Seynameh packed a few things and just left. She travelled West. She knew that she would arrive shortly after a star had fallen near the village of New Tristram.
Investigating this star would give her information. And from there Guardian of Death would… regulate the activities of some of her relatives.
This profile is continued in part #2 !
Physical copies of Diablo games
Tyrael figures
Dark Messiah Generic Organians
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Comics DC Universe Other DC Universe corners
Power Level: Heavy Hitter, Mid-level, Street-level
Role: Character (possible antagonist for both heroes and villains)
Stalker was originally the protagonist of an eponymous DC Comics book launched in 1975. This comic was part of the DC Implosion era. Like most such books it was abruptly cancelled for lack of success.
Stalker was actually pretty good, and the creation of three major authors of that time – Paul Levitz , Steve Ditko and Wally Wood . Like several DC Implosion books, it had a distinctly Moorcockian influence.
Stalker would return to DC Comics stories decades later, particularly in the wonderful Ends of the Earth Wonder Woman story.
Real Name: Elpis.
Marital Status: Single.
Base Of Operations: Mobile throughout his dismal world – and later throughout many worlds.
Height: 5’8” (in 1945, about 6’5”). Weight: 146 lbs. (in 1945, about 300 lbs.).
Eyes: Solid crimson (no pupils or irises) ; originally dark. Hair: Black.
Stalker’s milieu
Stalker’s world is flat, with the seas cascading off the edges. Somehow it seems to have normal Earth gravity, atmosphere, etc. Two moons are visible in the sky. The place has a general worn, dour, impoverished, grim dying quality to it. Its main population looks human.
As Wonder Woman put it, “Stalker’s world reminds me of Apokolips. Hopeless and forlorn and lacking anything that resembles beauty.”
This world has thousands of gods, who draw power from their worshippers ; the most prominent is the Devil-like Dgrth, god of war, evil and lies. These gods seem to be primarily physical beings, like the Asgardians in the Marvel Universe.
This world was originally colonised by spacefaring humans, with vacuum suits and lasers. Their technology eventually collapsed, which seems linked to the arrival of a second wave of space travellers. These invaders reduced the humans to slavery, but the humans eventually revolted and locked their masters away in what seems to be a system of prison dimensions.
It is implied that the alien invaders and the gods are one and the same. A likely chain of events is that when the invaders arrived, they somehow altered local reality to make the world magical and deprive the human colonists of their technology by changing physical laws.
Even after the great rebellion, renegade humans continued worshipping the imprisoned gods in return for magic and power. This gradually became accepted practice, even though people were still celebrating their rebellion.
Here’s the only known map of part of Stalker’s world :
This setting may be linked to the Fifteen Worlds cosmology.
As Dgrth put it – “I give you the art of combat — with all its skills ! No form of fighting man-to-man is beyond you any longer ! I bestow the eye of a marksman – with any weapon ! And I grant the gift of the hunter — to follow any trail, undiscovered and unhampered. From that I give you the name, Stalker.”
Stalker’s abilities are not superhuman, but in a setting not used to high-cinematic or super-heroic fighters they may appear so. He can still be defeated by ordinary opponents — for instance an entire group of determined men-at-arms — but very few people on his world can fight like he does.
Stalker ignores fear and fatigue, and possesses formidable strength, willpower and speed. He does not seem to really feel cold weather, and can operate without appropriate clothing in the middle of winter.
Our game stats assume that when he operates in a more high-powered milieu, Stalker “scales up” to remain at the top of the pecking order — that’s how his gift seems to work.
Stalker can pick up improvised weapons (large bones, torches and the like) and fight just as efficiently as he would with real weapons. He also has an uncanny ability to fight opponents on his flank or even in his back without even looking at them. Stalker excels at using his environment as a weapon, and will often come up with unorthodox tactics.
He can wield two-handed weapons (such as a quarterstaff) with but one hand. Though he was never seen dual-wielding two-handed weapons, a broadsword and a quarterstaff is a cromulent dual-wielding combination as far as Stalker is concerned.
Beware the man with no soul !
Stalker no longer has a soul, and is thus beyond feelings, morals or emotions. He may not feel pain, and one gets the impression that he’s unageing and possibly unkillable.
Stalker also knows a magical technique to cannibalise the puissance of mystics, demons and the like whom he defeats – making himself more powerful in the process.
Thanks to this ability, in 1945, Stalker had grown powerful enough to withstand the combined assaults of the Justice Society (including Green Lantern (Alan Scott), the Flash (Jay Garrick) or Johnny Thunder’s Thunderbolt) — though that was a close thing and left him exhausted and forced to retreat.
In 1945, Stalker chiefly his great magical power to project eldritch blasts from his hands, teleport and raise hordes of undead fighters – or single super-powerful zombies. He could also summon a whole fortified manor in the style of his homeworld, and had great (“Class 50”) superhuman strength. He was also nearly invulnerable.
The Black Horizon
Direct contact with Stalker’s psyche produces an effect that Wonder Woman called the “black horizon”. It induces a numbing feeling of existential cold, a deep spiritual shock, and starts warping one’s mentality by dredging up a desire for cold, unfeeling violence and expediency.
In 1945, this effect was strong enough to turn the mystic members and allies of the JSA into ranting, traumatised ghosts – an effect even Doctor Fate wearing his helmet could not resist.
Spirits in Stalker’s presence will also suffer from this, albeit at a weaker level. This was only a thing at his 1945 power level.
Stalker not having a soul is consistently treated as something far more terrible and horrifying than for other soul-deprived characters in the DCU, such as the magician Faust. For most such characters the lack of a soul is almost a technicality ; in the case of Stalker it horrifies even powerful mystical beings.
If a Player Character comes in contact with Stalker’s soulless psyche, treat it as a role-playing experience rather than with dice rolls – the effect is powerful enough to threaten major players such as Doctor Fate, Wonder Woman or the Spectre as he was in 1945, and such an AV/OV would blow most PCs out of the water nigh-instantly.
The effect seems far more dependent on the values held by the person. Those who truly believe in compassion, altruism and empathy can resist the void in lieu of Stalker’s soul ; those who accept expediency, remorselessness and brutality will presumably soon succumb to the black horizon.
The Rock of Eternity
In his 2008 appearance, Stalker wears a pendant with a stone that is reportedly the core of the Rock of Eternity. It was given to him by the mad sorceress Oracle.
Stalker used this stone for interdimensional (and possibly chronal) travel, the creation of setting-appropriate garb and — apparently — teleportation. It also likely helped everyone understand each other. If this stone is what it was purported to be, it is presumably immensely powerful in the right hands.
As a young boy, the future Stalker was thrown out of his home and left to survive in the town of Geranth, near a desert called the Cold Wastes. As yet another street urchin in a brutal, impoverished world, he had to fight for every morsel during his entire childhood, and to steal anything that he wanted for himself.
For a while he criss-crossed the Cold Wastes, following merchant caravans and living off their refuses.
Often dreaming that he was a great knight and an heroic fighter, the famished urchin kept looking for a way out. Eventually, he did the unthinkable and threw himself in front of the cruel baroness ruling the city of Loranth, asking of her to be taken in to train as a soldier, a man-at-arm and eventually a champion.
Amused, the baroness had the boy become an expendable and underfed menial servant. After a year, the angry boy confronted her, only to be beaten up by her guards. However, he managed a daring escape and eventually made his way back to the Cold Wastes and Geranth.
There, the nameless scapegrace visited the temple of evil and war, where men worshipped the terrible Dgrth. Amazingly, Dgrth manifested and offered peerless martial and hunting skills in exchange for the young man’s soul. The unnamed rascal eagerly agreed to the Faustian deal, and Dgrth called him Stalker.
(Dgrth bestowed similar ’gifts’ to other supplicants, who were collectively called his Chosen. Little is known about them, though the Oracle was apparently also a Chosen of Dgrth.)
Beware the man with the stolen soul !
Stalker returned to Loranth, broke into the castle, killed interfering guards and hurled a note tied to a dagger next to the baroness’ head. It announced Stalker would be back to kill her a year hence, so she would live in dread of the return of the unstoppable killer.
However, as he left, Stalker realised that he was drawing no satisfaction from this – Dgrth had already taken his soul, whereas Stalker had mistakenly assumed that it would take place upon his death.
Stalker rode back to the temple in Geranth, killing the high priest when he realised that the man could not reach Dgrth for him. Claiming that the evil god had tricked him, Stalker set out to find Dgrth and reclaim his soul – and his ability to feel emotions.
He eventually learned that there was but one man who knew of a way to reach Dgrth. This senior priest was called Prior F’lan and officiated in a temple on the edge of the world — where the sea falls away into eternity. Stalker simply went there and demanded to see Dgrth, but was captured. Annoyed, F’lan denounced Stalker as an envoy from a rival death god, to be sacrificed to Dgrth.
However, a slave girl sympathetic to Stalker’s plight slipped him his dagger back. The soulless man waited for the sacrifice, hoping that Dgrth would be summoned in by F’lan.
Darkling death at World’s End Sea !
As it turned out, the ceremony did not include a summoning. Stalker escaped and doubled back, rescuing the slave girl and forcing F’lan to tell him where the gate to hell was. Stalker then sailed to the Burning Isle – a patch of ice and tundra dominated by an active volcano and littered with ancient ruins.
After several clashes with the guardian god of the isle, Stalker realised that the ruins where the very spot where the human uprising had banished the gods/aliens centuries ago. Entering a transdimensional door, he descended into Dgrth’s Hell.
There, Stalker overcame a number of opponents and ritualised tests to get to meet Dgrth. However, once in his presence, Stalker turned back – to go face the hordes of warriors who had been consigned to Dgrth’s hell throughout the centuries.
As the only living man in hell, Stalker was acclaimed as their champion by the damned warriors, and they offered to follow his lead. Soon Stalker, riding a hell-horse, led the vengeful warrior ghosts against the demons summoned by Dgrth.
Leading from the front lines, Stalker broke into Dgrth’s stronghold, denouncing their deal and demanding his soul back. Dgrth told him that his soul was now irretrievably a part of himself and would remain so as long as he lived.
Furthermore, Dgrth’s nature meant that he would endure as long as evil and war did – the belief of mortals in an entity governing those making Dgrth eternal. As he left Hell, Stalker swore that he would expunge evil and war from the world, thus killing Dgrth.
His further adventures are mostly unchronicled, but Stalker said that he left an interminable trail of death and destruction wherever he want, and that his passage always brought anguish and regret. To his soulless eyes, his ends were worth any means.
Destroyer of worlds !
Stalker apparently spent 300 years on his impossible quest, before cracking and going for the obvious solution – exterminating all life. Having learned to absorb mystical might from those whom he killed, Stalker started slaying mystics and gods to gain the power to murder everyone.
After untold carnage none was left, but Stalker then realised that Dgrth had worshippers on other worlds – and that he had to kill those too.
How long this went on is unknown, but Stalker killed untold millions. He became such a multiversal menace that several realities made preparations against him. On New Earth it was Hourman, an android from the far future, who travelled back to the early XXth century to give a hourglass to a boy named Rex Tyler. This was secretely a weapon against Stalker, and Tyler wore it as a symbol as he became Hourman.
In 1945, Nazi occultist Richard Jensen attempted to summon the demon Koth in the US. The ritual called for immense energy, but also described a trap for powerful beings from whom to drain this energy. Jensen set up this trap and felled no less than the Spectre, Doctor Fate, Sargon the Sorcerer, Zatara, Merlin the Magician, Tor the Magic Master and their ally Hourman. He then drew their energy to open the portal.
However, the ritual was itself a trap, and it was Stalker who came in and killed the Nazi cultists. Drawing energy from the defeated mystics, Stalker clashed with the rest of the Justice Society in Washington, D.C.. They barely forced him to retreat.
Stalker also sent a magically-enhanced undead servant to absorb the stocks of fissionable materials at Los Alamos and turn them into a WMD. This atomic zombie was narrowly destroyed by Starman and the Atom.
Leaving to recover in Antarctica, Stalker conjured undead servants and a fortified manor, then started building his usual world-destroying weapon. This paranormal contraption would gather the energy of the Earth and shoot it into the Sun, forcing it to go nova.
The Justice Society assembled !
The JSA rallied, summoned its reservists and again attempted to take out Stalker. During the assault, Mr. Terrific identified the device that Stalker was assembling to destroy the solar system and sabotaged it.
Doctor Occult then projected his own soul into Stalker’s psyche. This permanently damaged Occult, but having a soul within deprived Stalker of his insanity and freed the mystics who had fallen to Jensen’s trap.
The freed Doctor Fate divined the importance of Hourman’s hourglass pendant, and instructed him to use it against Stalker. The hourglass catapulted Stalker into the past, right before he would lose his soul to Dgrth.
Stalker was presumably now caught into a time loop, though each iteration of his life may have been slightly different. His next appearance in the DC universe may have occurred during a subsequent “rerun” of his life, early during the three centuries during which he uselessly quested to destroy the god of war and evil.
Or perhaps that, from Stalker’s point of view, it took place centuries if not millennia before the clash with the Justice Society on 1945, during the first iteration of his life.
Swords against devilry !
When Stalker returned to the DC Universe, he had just met a sorceress called Oracle, who had sacrificed her legs and sanity to Dgrth to gain mystical gifts. She told him that Dgrth had lied, and was killable under exacting circumstances.
Dgrth would die if sacrificed in a certain manner on a certain altar on the edge of the world, after three specific swordbearers of legend slew him. Wanting Stalker to kill Dgrth, Oracle also gave him a fragment of the Rock of Eternity to find the three fighters.
With the spells Oracle cast on the rock fragment, the greatest of the four fighters — Diana of Themyscira — would acquire the key assets of her three companions – Stalker’s soulless ruthlessness, Claw the Unconquered’s savagery and Beowulf’s nobility. Thus charged and as a symbol of peace, goodness and truth Wonder Woman would kill the god of war, evil and lies.
Stalker reached Wonder Woman in 2008 and tricked her into using her Lasso of Truth on him, thus exposing her to the Dark Horizon. They then recruited their company by jumping from world to world. As they neared the final showdown, Wonder Woman used her royal prerogative to name Stalker – she called him “Elpis” (meaning “Hope”). This was the first time Stalker ever had a proper name.
Swords against treason !
However, it was all a trap. The desperate Stalker was a double agent for Dgrth, who had offered to give him back his soul if the led the three swordbearers to their death. As they were about to confront Dgrth, Stalker threw his sword at Wonder Woman, wounding Beowulf who interposed himself.
Feeling that his soul was back, Stalker exulted – then realised that Wonder Woman had cleverly grabbed his fragment of the Rock of Eternity while he was distracted.
Diana used the Rock to cast herself and Dgrth on New Earth, where she had her full Wonder Woman powers. She shook off the Dark Horizon to reclaim her sense of compassion, thus regaining her use of her Lasso of Truth and vanquishing Dgrth.
Meanwhile, Beowulf and Oracle apparently convinced Stalker to renounce his alliance with Dgrth now that he had a soul.
Returning with the still-living head of Dgrth, Diana told Stalker that the soul within him was hers – the god of war and evil had used it to fool Stalker after Wonder Woman’s soul was displaced by the Dark Horizon. Stalker’s real soul was, as Dgrth had said, lost. Dgrth was ritually slain, and Diana reclaimed her soul, leaving Stalker with nothing.
Crushed, Stalker left with Oracle, as the pair intended to find some way to undo their pact with the dead god.
Stalker was bigger and more powerfully-built in 1945, likely as a side effect from all the absorbed energy.
A cold, emotionless hardarse and swords-and-sorcery adventurer. He’s dual-classed as a fighter and a rogue, as it were (Fighter 12/Rogue 6 or some such), and in his adventures will use both his superior martial skills and his gift for stealth, tracking and infiltration.
Stalker is genuinely fearless and extremely confident in his skills. He has been known to employ approaches that would be unreasonable for a lesser man, such as demanding cooperation from a roomful of bloodthirsty and armed worshippers of death. His approach will usually be blunt and straightforward, and he treats most opponents as being more annoying than dangerous.
Stalker in 1945.
As his inability to feel emotions diminishes his empathy, Stalker acts solipsistically. His early adventures were generally heroic, and he would rescue people and the like – but on some level he was just going through the motions and didn’t really care. Having been the underdog victimised by evil and powerful folks, and having always dreamt to be a shining knight, he did what he’d always wanted to do, but there was no satisfaction in it.
His attitude after he rode in to save the day became closer to “okay, problem solved, now go away, thanks, bye”. If he fails or is forced to abandon those he was helping, he does not feel remorse or regret.
As the years, then the decades went by, Stalker’s soulless nature and all-consuming determination to recover his soul burned away these remains of a moral sense. He knows of no love, no joy, forever and ever until he becomes unable to relate to human beings, which eventually will lead him to genocidal detachment.
Thus, in 1945 Stalker was obsessed with bringing annihilation to the entirety of creation – even if he had to do it one person at a time. He did not consider that a good thing, but felt compelled to perform his grisly task as it was the only way for him to ever know peace from his eternal torment.
Stalker (original)
“Then, know that Dgrth bargained falsely — I have been stripped of my feelings, torn from my humanity. I will not live like this !”
“I have business on this isle… and no creature of Dgrth’s shall bar my way ! Nay, not even if the demon lord sent all his hordes of hell to try !”
“You’re not fighting an infant any longer, child-beater… think you can handle the strain ?”
“Liar — I bear a curse, not a gift ! And if you value your head, you’ll help me be rid of it !”
“You think such men as these are enough to defeat me ?”
“I was raised by no one, Princess, and given no name. I lived in poverty neither of your cultures can imagine. I suffered. Even before I lost my soul, I’m not certain I even existed, so empty was my identity.”
(to Beowulf) “You see much, oh warrior of legend. Perhaps that’s why you have a poem, and I have only the remorse of multitudes left in my wake.”
“No one escapes me ! No one !”
“Please ! Please ! Lay down your arms, I beg you ! Struggle is useless ! Defence meaningless ! Death is inevitable, as it has been a thousand times… on a thousand worlds that I have visited before this one ! Let your clumsy dance of resistance end… if this is the best you offer.”
“God ? What god ? I’ve killed so many.”
“If it makes the outcome of all this any easier for you… I derived no pleasure in taking life. This is merely a means to an end… my end, after an eternity of lonely mayhem.”
Stalker (heroic fantasy adventurer)
Dex: 07 Str: 04 Bod: 05 Motivation: Unwanted Power
Int: 07 Wil: 06 Min: 07 Occupation: Adventurer
Cold immunity: 01, Emotion immunity*: 07, Full vision: 00
Cold Immunity is Form Function.
“Emotion immunity” boosts his RV against effects relying on emotional manipulation – chiefly Broadcast Empath, Phobia and Aura of Fear, but possibly some other effects and modes of Character Interaction (GM’s call).
Full vision only works in combat, to deny positional or awareness advantages to fighters flanking or in the back of Stalker.
Acrobatics (Athletics): 05, Acrobatics (Climbing): 06, Animal handling (Riding): 05, Martial artist (including Techniques): 06, Military science (Tracking): 08, Thief (Stealth, Concealment): 06, Vehicles (Sea): 04, Weaponry (Melee, Missile): 08
Iron Nerves, Lightning Reflexes, Schtick (Contender, Make-do Equipment (Weaponry (Melee, Missile))), Misc.: Stalker does not have a soul, which may make him immune to some (usually mystical) abilities.
Distinct Appearance (Crimson eyes, unsettling vibe caused by his soulless nature), SIA toward recovering his soul.
Mock-Real.
Stalker’s usual kit is a Broadsword [BODY 06, EV 04 (05 w/STR, 07 w/Martial Artist)] and a Large Dagger [BODY 05, EV 04 (05 w/STR, 07 w/Martial Artist)].
He seems to be wearing light chainmail – though whether it actually has protective property was never clear. LIGHT CHAINMAIL [BODY 06, Skin armour: 01, Limitation: Skin armour only vs. bladed weapons].
Soul of the Rock of Eternity [BODY 30, Dimensional travel (Travel): 12, Sorcery: 12].
Is not dead what cannot live
It is strongly implied, but never demonstrated that Stalker cannot die – he doesn’t have a soul that can leave his body. It is thus possible that he has about 15 APs of Always On Invulnerability with a Misc. Limitation that it takes several hours to kick in.
Stalker — 1945 stats
The version of Stalker that appeared on the DC Earth in 1945 wielded enough power to take on the entire Justice Society after he had absorbed the power of the Spectre, Doctor Fate and others. Here are some tentative stats for Stalker after the power absorption.
His power level just before the absorption is unknown, but even then Stalker was powerful enough to ravage a world given enough time.
Dex: 08 Str: 12 Bod: 14 Motivation: Nihilist
Int: 07 Wil: 06 Min: 15 Occupation: Ravager
Cold immunity: 01, Emotion immunity*: 07, Full vision: 00, Sorcery: 15
Acrobatics (Athletics): 06, Acrobatics (Climbing): 07, Animal handling (Riding): 06, Martial artist: 12, Military science (Tracking): 10, Occultist: 11, Thief (Stealth, Concealment): 06, Vehicles (Sea): 04, Weaponry: 12
Immortal, Iron Nerves, Lightning Reflexes, Schtick (Improvised weapons), Misc.: Stalker does not have a soul, which may make him immune to some (usually mystical) abilities.
Distinct Appearance (Crimson eyes, unsettling vibe caused by his soulless nature), CIA toward the Nihilist Motivation, MPI.
Stalker still uses a Broadsword [BODY 15, EV 04 (13 w/STR)] and a Large Dagger [BODY 15, EV 04 (13 w/STR)].
His ARMOUR is presumably magical [BODY 12, Skin armour: 02].
Stalker had the entire plans of his DOOMSDAY DEVICE memorised and could routinely use sorcery and undead servants to build one within hours. Mr. Terrific recognised it as a four-dimensional object transposed in normal space, based on Arthur Cayley’s fractional dimensions. Since Mr. Terrific knew exactly what the DEVICE was and how it worked, it is likely that Stalker was just using existing plans from mystical and/or weird science literature available in several dimensions.
The DEVICE’s main function was to draw chthonian energy and shoot it into the sun, making it brighter and brighter until it went nova.
The counterweight arcs of the extremity gears of the DEVICE were equipped with enormous blades, and reacted as a system of defence to cleave people attempting to monkey with it (AV 05, EV 10).
Stalker did not seem to use many Rituals (he had full-blown Sorcery), but he was summoned by a ritual that included a mystical booby trap. This booby trap was powerful enough to fell Doctor Fate, the Spectre and other mystics.
Treat as a Magic Blast: 30 (doing Bashing Damage) that is its own AV and has 5 APs of Area of Effect, but only affects people with Sorcery or Homo Magi. This trap allowed Stalker to step into our dimension and to reinforce his own might with the energy of those it had just felled.
He also presumably used a mysterious Ritual with Animate Dead and Endow effects to create the Los Alamos Zombie (see below).
During the centuries that follow the story in the 1970s Stalker book, Stalker learns a technique or Ritual that allows him to appropriate part of the puissance of the mystics, demons, godlings, etc. whom he defeats. This is how he eventually acquires the superhuman Powers, Attributes and Skills in the 1945 stats above.
The suggested DCH approach for this is :
The campaign had special rules about Character Advancement, greatly increasing the costs for such. A factor of twenty over what is described in the rulesbook seems reasonable, given the dreary nature of the world and the fact that even the hero’s skills come from sudden divine empowerment, not training and development.
Stalker somehow gained a campaign-specific Miscellaneous Advantage allowing him to use costs closer to baseline Character Advancement, but only with HPs gained by defeating opponents with magical abilities or a magical nature. He then takes centuries, and the death of innumerable foes, to reach his godlike power.
The Los Alamos zombie
This elite undead servant was created specifically to absorb stocks of U-235 used for atomic research at Los Alamos, and turn itself into a dirty bomb. It called itself the Disciple, and may have been an unknown metahuman before his death.
There isn’t enough material to hazard stats, but before absorbing the uranium it had control over winds (Weather Control: 09, limited to winds ?) and probably some minor level of superhuman strength/durability – plus perhaps flight. By surrounded itself with a raging sandstorm, it killed dozens of GIs.
After absorbing the uranium, possible abilities included Flight: 11, DEX 05 STR 09 BODY 09, Energy blast: 12 (from the hands or the mouth). Its Weather Control was augmented (12 ?), and the winds were now fiercely radioactive (Cell Rot: 04 attacking twice a minute, to keep it simple). The Disciple itself was as radioactive as these winds.
Source of Character: DC Universe — primarily the 1975 Stalker comic book series (by no less than Paul Levitz, Steve Ditko and Wally Wood) plus Gail Simone’s excellent Ends of the Earth Wonder Woman story arc.
Helper(s): Darci, Ethan Roe, Gareth Lewis.
Steve Ditko Omnibus vol. 01
Wonder Woman: Ends of the Earth
1940s :
1940s – undead Disciple at Los Alamos :
Beast Cinderella
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Low-income Cut-offs (2), Individual Low-income Status (5), Household Living Arrangements for Persons Not in Economic Families (3), Age (4C) and Sex (3) for Persons Not in Economic Families Aged 15 Years and Over in Private Households of Canada, Provinces and Territories, Census Divisions and Census Subdivisions, 2016 Census - 100% Data
Low-income cut-offs (2)Footnote 1 Low-income cut-offs, after tax (LICO-AT) Low-income cut-offs, before tax (LICO-BT)
Age (4C) Total - Age 15 to 29 years 30 to 64 years 65 years and over
This table details low-income cut-offs , individual low-income status , household living arrangements for persons not in economic families , age and sex for persons not in economic families aged 15 years and over in private households in East Hants, MD
Household living arrangements for persons not in economic families (3)
Individual low-income status (5)
Total - Individual low-income statusFootnote 2
Low-income status - not applicableFootnote 3
Low-income status - applicable
In low income
Not in low income
Total - Household living arrangements for persons not in economic families
2,520 0 2,525 345 2,175
Living with non-relatives only
530 0 530 115 415
Low-income cut-offs, after tax (LICO-AT) - The Low-income cut-offs, after tax refers to an income threshold, defined using 1992 expenditure data, below which economic families or persons not in economic families would likely have devoted a larger share of their after-tax income than average to the necessities of food, shelter and clothing. More specifically, the thresholds represented income levels at which these families or persons were expected to spend 20 percentage points or more of their after-tax income than average on food, shelter and clothing. These thresholds have been adjusted to current dollars using the all-items Consumer Price Index (CPI).
The LICO-AT has 35 cut-offs varying by seven family sizes and five different sizes of area of residence to account for economies of scale and potential differences in cost of living in communities of different sizes. These thresholds are presented in Table 4.3 Low-income cut-offs, after tax (LICO-AT - 1992 base) for economic families and persons not in economic families, 2015, Dictionary, Census of Population, 2016.
When the after-tax income of an economic family member or a person not in an economic family falls below the threshold applicable to the person, the person is considered to be in low income according to LICO-AT. Since the LICO-AT threshold and family income are unique within each economic family, low-income status based on LICO-AT can also be reported for economic families.
Low-income status - Low-income status refers to the income situation of the statistical unit in relation to a specific low-income line in a reference year. Statistical units with income that is below the low-income line are considered to be in low income.
For the 2016 Census, the reference period is the calendar year 2015 for all income variables.
The low-income concepts are not applied in the territories and in certain areas based on census subdivision type (such as Indian reserves). The existence of substantial in-kind transfers (such as subsidized housing and First Nations band housing) and sizeable barter economies or consumption from own production (such as product from hunting, farming or fishing) could make the interpretation of low-income statistics more difficult in these situations.
Data quality note(s) – East Hants, MD
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Brimore raises $800k in seed funding round co-led by Algebra Ventures - Daily News Egypt
Business Brimore raises $800k in seed funding round co-led by Algebra Ventures
Brimore raises $800k in seed funding round co-led by Algebra Ventures
Retail distribution platform connects manufacturers with consumers all over Egypt
Daily News Egypt April 2, 2019 Comments Off on Brimore raises $800k in seed funding round co-led by Algebra Ventures
Brimore, the direct-selling distribution platform that connects manufacturers with consumers, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $800k in a seed funding round co-led by Algebra Ventures and Endure Capital, with participation from Flat6labs, 500 Startups, and angel investors.
The technology-powered platform allows manufacturers’ direct access to local communities who can both promote and consume their products.
Hence, creating significant efficiencies for local manufacturers by dramatically optimising their branding and distribution costs, providing them with better demand visibility, and allowing them to improve utilisation.
Brimore’s channel extends well into the depths of rural areas in Egypt where it is uniquely capable of
moving a high volume of products seamlessly and efficiently.
The platform was founded in 2017 by Mohamed Abdulaziz, Ahmed Sheikha, and Mahmoud Refaay, a team with extensive domain experience in fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs), direct selling, and distribution management.
“Many local manufacturers and products have suffered and died because of inefficient and expensive distribution networks that are better suited to big multinationals,” said Abdulaziz, the CEO and co-founder of Brimore.
He added that they are leveraging the power of people and their social networks to solve the problem of market access for SMEs in Egypt and disrupt the traditional distribution model through merging sales, marketing, and distribution in one transaction.
Furthermore, Sheikha, the platform’s CBO and co-founder, explained that 92% of the distributors on the platform are women who want high-value jobs and the option to work from home.
“We are on a mission to support our distributors through economic empowerment and continuous training opportunities. We started in Egypt, but we are aiming to grow in other emerging markets, particularly in Africa,” he added.
On the other hand, Tarek Assaad, Algebra Ventures’ managing partner, said he believes the company will change how small and medium manufacturers think about selling goods to the large base of Egyptian consumers.
Tarek Fahim, Endure Capital’s managing partner, said: “At a time when all major FMCGs are ‘buy one, get one free’ companies, distribution simply wins.”
While Hasan Haider, partner at 500 Startups, said that Brimore is solving a problem in many emerging markets, which is how to get products to reach a wider base and fix broken distribution channels.
Brimore was part of the Flat6labs accelerator until December and is the first start up to secure an investment before demo day. “Flat6Labs Cairo has been one of the first believers in Brimore,” said Ramez El Serafy, CEO of Flat6Labs.
Topics: Algebra Ventures Brimore flat6labs
https://wwww.dailynewssegypt.com/2019/04/02/brimore-raises-800k-in-seed-funding-round-co-led-by-algebra-ventures/
Capital Markets 2019 to discuss future fixed-income instruments
Trella raises $600,000 in pre-seed round led by Algebra Ventures
GoodsMart, online grocery app, secures additional funding from Algebra Ventures
2018 record year for MENA startup investment, UAE, Egypt top destination with 30%, 22%: MAGNiTT
Dubai-Based HolidayMe.com raises $16 m in Series C funding
IFC plans to increase local currency financing in Egypt
MIIC, IFC sign agreement to strengthen Egypt’s position as regional hub for African entrepreneurs
April 2, 2019 Breaking News
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Puppy dog eyes? Your dog is using evolution to manipulate you
New research suggests that over thousands of years of dog domestication, people preferred pups that could pull off that appealing, sad look. And that encouraged the development of the facial muscle that creates it.
Puppy dog eyes? Your dog is using evolution to manipulate you New research suggests that over thousands of years of dog domestication, people preferred pups that could pull off that appealing, sad look. And that encouraged the development of the facial muscle that creates it. Check out this story on yorkdispatch.com: https://www.yorkdispatch.com/story/news/2019/06/17/puppy-dog-eyes-dog-using-evolution-manipulate/39591593/
Jeremy Rehm, The Associated Press Published 3:26 p.m. ET June 17, 2019
NEW YORK — What’s behind those hard-to-resist puppy dog eyes?
Today, pooches use the muscle to raise their eyebrows and make the babylike expression. That muscle is virtually absent in their ancestors, the wolves.
“You don’t typically see such muscle differences in species that are that closely related,” said Anne Burrows of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, an author of the study released Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Contact with humans: Dogs differ from wolves in many ways, from having shorter snouts, smaller sizes and more expressive faces. And unlike wolves, dogs heavily rely on human eye contact, whether to know when someone’s talking to them or when they can’t solve a problem, like hopping a fence or getting out the door.
Burrows and her colleagues examined the eye muscles in the cadavers of six dogs and two wolves. They found dogs have a meaty eye muscle to lift their eyebrows and make puppy dog eyes. But in wolves, the same muscle was stringy or missing.
The scientists also recorded 27 dogs and nine wolves as each stared at a person. Pet pooches frequently and intensely pulled back their eyebrows to make sad expressions, while the wolves rarely made these faces, and never with great intensity.
The researchers believe dogs, over their relatively short 33,000 years of domestication, used this eye muscle to communicate, possibly goading people to feed or care for them — or at least take them out to play. And people, perhaps unwittingly, obliged.
‘Quite profound’: Dog experts not involved with the study were impressed.
“The implications are quite profound,” said Brian Hare from Duke University, who edited the article. Hare wrote in an email that these muscles almost certainly developed because they gave dogs an advantage when interacting with people, and people have been unaware of it.
“The proof has been in their puppy dog eyes all this time!” he said.
Evan MacLean at the University of Arizona called the findings fascinating but cautioned that the muscle difference could be an indirect effect of other changes rather than a specific response to human influence.
Clive Wynne of the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University said: “Kudos to the researchers for thinking of a cool way to investigate an important aspect of dogs’ success” with humans.
But he noted in an email that the study has a few snags, particularly the small sampling — only five dog breeds were examined and videos were mainly of Staffordshire bull terriers — and the lack of background information about each animal.
“Did these wolves regularly meet people bearing gifts that might be worth asking for with an endearing face?” he asked.
Burrows said she planned follow-up studies to examine more breeds.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Read or Share this story: https://www.yorkdispatch.com/story/news/2019/06/17/puppy-dog-eyes-dog-using-evolution-manipulate/39591593/
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Home News & Reviews Reviews City Slicker: Day-to-day with the BMW F 750 GS
City Slicker: Day-to-day with the BMW F 750 GS
Wes Reyneke
Photo credit: Wesley Reyneke
You have to feel a little sorry for the BMW F 750 GS. With a lower ride height and less power than its big brother, the F 850 GS, you just know that salesmen will be pitching it as a bike for novices and smaller riders. And while that’s not entirely unfair, it is a little short sighted.
Photo credit: BMW Motorrad South Africa
It’s true, the 750 does make less power and torque than the 850; 77 hp and 83 Nm, versus 95 hp and 92 Nm. Both motors actually have the same capacity (853 cc), but different engine tunes set them apart.
And it’s also true that it’s a shorter bike. It has less suspension travel than the 850 (151 mm front and 177 mm back), with 19F/17R alloy wheels, rather than the 850’s 21F/17R spoked combo. It also has a 45 mm lower seat height at 815 mm, with factory lowering options that go as low as 770 mm.
At R 142 900, it’s R 12 000 cheaper than the F 850 GS. But that’s for the base model—there’s a host of optional extras and upgrade packages that can run the price up significantly. My test unit came with almost every upgrade package available for it, totaling almost R40 000 more than the base price.
Those upgrades included a keyless ignition, all of the 750’s available rider modes (you only get two on the stock bike), a quick-shifter, heated grips, and my favourite: BMW’s excellent TFT display. It also had an LED headlight, a GPS bracket and handlebar dial, and a bunch of other creature comforts.
But the F 750 GS is a lot more than just a lower, slower and more affordable 850—it’s actually a damn fine motorcycle in its own right. I had a chance to sample it briefly at the South African launch of both bikes, and then again for a week of day-to-day riding in and around Cape Town. Both times, I came away far more impressed than I thought I would.
For starters, the F 750 GS is no slouch. It’s quick enough off the mark to escape traffic, and fires out of corners hard enough to keep you smiling. Power delivery is smooth and predictable, thanks to BMW’s reliably good fueling.
BMW’s revised twin cylinder motor is leaps and bounds ahead of the older F 700/800 GS mill. Not only is it a lot punchier, but it feels better too; compared to its predecessor, it has tons more character. Plus it sounds great, even with the stock silencer on.
Gear shifts through the six speed box are slick, thanks to a light clutch. And the quick-shifter’s a total pleasure to use—provided you’re on the gas and your shifts are solid.
You also get a few rider modes to flip through: Rain and Road as standard, and Dynamic and Enduro as optional extras. And there’s switchable ABS and traction control, which both do the job well without being intrusive.
Between the intuitive switchgear layout and the easy-to-read TFT display, changing modes and fiddling with settings is dead easy. (Although, for the life of me, I still don’t know how to reset the trip meter on BMW’s new TFT display). And everything from the actual switches to the body panels, seat and rear luggage rack, feels premium and well-finished.
Out on the road, the F 750 GS is extremely nimble—thanks in part to its smaller and wider 19” front wheel, and its lower ride height. Combine those with the 750’s comfortable, dual-sport focussed ergonomics, and you’ve got a snappy handler that hustles through corners with ease—and feels planted all the way.
That upright riding position also makes it great in traffic, putting you head and shoulders above all those four-wheelers that are probably trying to kill you. Combine that with a seat height that’s just low enough to get your feet down, and you’ve got one helluva competent commuter. And a frugal one too—I’m admittedly terrible at keeping track of consumption, but I was squeezing close to 300 km out of the 15 l tank.
With dual 305 mm discs up front, braking is snappy. But the suspension on the F 750 GS is its weak spot. It dives under heavy braking, and is completely outgunned when you leave the asphalt behind.
I’ve sampled the F 850 GS off-road, and it’s a real peach—so much so, that BMW have picked it as the weapon of choice for this year’s GS Trophy. The 750 is significantly less capable, but that doesn’t mean it’s completely terrible.
It’s adequate for garden variety gravel road riding—which, for most riders, is good enough. And with similar ergonomics to the 850, you’ve got maximum control and comfort, even when standing up. Sure, when the trail gets tighter, looser and bumpier, I’d pick the F 850 GS every time. But on the street, the F 750 GS shines.
That’s really the 750’s selling point: it’s a rock solid street bike with a measure of adventure touring capability. I’d have no qualms commuting on it Monday to Friday, hustling it through mountain passes on the weekend, and even putting in some extended leave to head off the beaten track.
For more information visit: www.bmw-motorrad.co.za
Wes Reyneke is a writer, photographer and all-round motothusiast based in Cape Town. When he's not on two wheels or scrolling through Instagram, he spends his time driving his own personal tribe of children around in his dad-wagon. He also has a well-curated mustache, wears skinny jeans and enjoys fine bourbon—just don't call him a hipster.
Follow us on Instagram @za.bikers
© Copyright Sneax Media 2020. All rights reserved.
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Subject: Re: B-24 with B-17 nose.
>dominant emotion. If yoyu want to ask how effective bomber fire was, ask a
>German fighter pilot.
While no B-17, the Ki-49 Helen, which was a pest in New Guinea, had enough
firepower to give attacking P-40 drivers pause. It had up to five 20mm cannon
and three .50 cal guns in nose, back, belly, sides and tail positions. Crashed
ones seemed to have a fairly wide variety of armament, sometimes .30s replacing
.50s and .50s replacing 20s, but it was, whatever the gunpower, quite well
defended. It had self-sealing fuel tanks and armor protection as well, so it
was a tough bird to bring down. They flew in stepped vees of vees cruising at
about 210 or 220 mph at about 22,000 ft. As they approached the target, they
would go into a shallow descent to pick up speed. They seemed to like to pass
over the target at about 10,000 ft., at which point they would be moving at 250
mph or so.
If interception could be made well in advance (at least an hour's warning), the
P-40s would climb to 26,000 ft. and make a diving head-on pass, aiming at the
cockpit. Nobody ever thought about making this pass upside down, and I don't
think the Allison engine would have appreciated it. Depending on the situation
with the bombers' escort, the P-40s would then keep going and loiter in the
clouds for a chance at the Helens on their way out, or they would zoom climb
back up and chase the bombers. When this plane was first met in combat, the
idea was to try another chance from the rear. Once the defensive firepower
was appreciated, however, the idea would be to plod past the Helens and make
another head-on pass. Thus, the Helen's tactic of making a down hill run to
the target to make the P-40's overtake as long as possible. Generally, in any
case, the bombers' fighter escort spoiled any chance of a second pass. Often
they would spoil the head-on attack as well, making one of their own against
the P-40s. (Nobody ever told the Jap pilots they had to stick close to the
bombers; they'd be around, but generally intercepting fighters wouldn't see
them until they noticed tracers curling past their cowling and wonder whether
they'd accidently triggered their own guns before the reality of the situation
hit home.) A P-40 driver diverted from a head-on pass would try to execute a
pursuit curve--not always possible, depending on where the airplanes were in
relation to each other. If successful, his target would be an engine, the
hope being to slow the plane and force it to drop from formation and turn back.
The pursuit curve was dangerous because it exposed the P-40's plumbing (all
bunched neatly--and vulnerably--up front) to some serious counterfire. All
those winking lights on the Helen also tended to discourage the pilot from
pressing home the attack. The farther he was from a friendly airfield, the
quicker he got discouraged, as there was no means of rescuing a pilot down
over the jungle if he was unable to get back by himself. Since the pilot was
also worried about getting an Oriental gentleman in a a single-seater on his
ass if he didn't get in and out fast, the pursuit curve was often not pressed
home as vigorously as it could have been. Anybody who actually shot down a
Helen was regarded with some awe by his squadron buddies. He was either
supernaturally lucky, or a hell of a gutsy guy.
The P-39 drivers had better luck knocking off Helens. They would make head-on
passes, and if they connected with a round from their 37mm it was good-by Miss
Helen. They also executed pursuit curves, like the P-40s, but seemed to press
them home much more vigorously. They had no plumbing up front to be hit by the
bombers' defensive fire. Had a big 37mm to absorb hits from the bombers'
gunners, and had enough firepower with that damned cannon to knock a Helen six
ways from sideways if they connected.
If any kind of cooperation was possible between the squadrons flying the P-40s
and those flying the P-39s, the idea would be for the P-40s to draw off the
figher escort and leave the bombers to the Bell boys. That suited the Curtiss
drivers just fine. They much preferred to match flying skills with Mr. Moto
than engage in a game of chicken with a formation of bombers, any one of which
alone outgunned their airplane.
> Remember that
>the strategy of attacking from the front was developed because that was
>the weakest point in a Fort's defensive screen, not because it was the
>most effective way to bring down a bomber.
Absolutely correct. One of the best ways to maximize damage to a bomber is to
attack in a pursuit curve. But the defensive firepower of a well-armed bomber
also ensures that this method guarantees maximum damage to the attacking
fighter as well.
For another purpose, I was looking through a book about the RAF published
during the war. Titled "Bombers' Battle: Bomber Command's Three Years of War,"
it was published in 1943 by Duckworth. The author is anonymous, but is
described as a wing commander. In any case, in discussing how bombers can
survive the German air defenses, he states there are two ways, one by
sufficiently sturdy construction of the bomber such that it can survive
multiple hits and return to base, and the other "is the capacity of our bombers
to fight back when intercepted by fighters. Our bombers have been designed to
get the greatest possible fire-power into the air; weight of bombs and then
guns were to be of the first importance, while speed and manoeuverabilty were
to be sacrificed to armament." The author goes on to speak of the development
of power turrets, adding, "Inevitably, these turrets reduced the bomber's
speed. But the policy of installing power-operated turrets was amply justified
in the event. Speed with strong armament is obviously ideal, but speed without
strong armament cannot protect the bomber in combat with modern fighters." The
author notes, "The mere sight of the bombers' guns often has a deterrent effect
on the German fighter pilot; an experienced gunner keeps his guns rotating most
of the time, so that no fighter can creep up on one side of the bomber without
getting a sight of the guns trained towards it."
The author describes the April 17, 1942 daylight attack by 12 Lancasters
against the M.A.N. diesel engine factory at Augsburg, in which he apparently
participated (it is not made clear, but it is possible the author of this book
is J.D. Nettleton, who won a VC for actions with Bomber Command). The planes
attacked in two groups of six, and one of these groups was intercepted by
fighters. The Lancasters dropped down to tree-top level and adopted a very
tight formation, fighting back with their power turrets. In the running
battle, four of the Lancasters were shot down, but two made it through, and the
author attributes this survival to their defensive firepower. (Three of the
other group of six Lancasters were also shot down.)
> With less [fewer] guns the B-17 would
>have had more warload, more fuel, higher alts, or all three. This
>to me seems to be a pretty good set of attributes for a bomber.
Let's see, who are some folks that would not have agreed:
Brig. Gen. Ira Eaker, commander 8AF 1942-43; Brig. Gen. Curtiss LeMay,
commander 3rd Air Division and in charge of bomber formation tactics; Lt. Gen.
James Doolittle, commander of 8AF, 1944-45; Lt. Gen. Carl Spaatz, commander,
USAFE; Maj. Gen. Frederick Anderson, chief of staff for operations, USAFE, and
attrition warfare specialist; Gen. Henry H. Arnold, commander, USAAF. They all
approved of adding more guns and armor to the B-17 from the time they first got
reports of how poorly lightly armed and armored early model B-17s fared in
British service. They had the facts. They made the decisions. They won their
war. Maybe they were not completely stupid.
The airplane you have described in your posts--no or few guns, little or no
armor-- is essentially the B-17D. No one who flew B-17s in WWII that I have
met--and I've met plenty--ever said they would have preferred to have fought
the war in the D rather than the G.
As you have mentioned, fighters are important in protecting bombers. But they
can't be everywhere. Some of the worst numerical losses the 8AF suffered at
the hands of the GAF were in 1944 when the Mustangs were around in full force.
Reducing the guns and armor on the B-17s would not have helped reduce those
losses. A few mph extra speed would have been meaningless. Ditto for
altitude, remembering that the rate of climb for a grossed out (whether that
gross was gas, guns, armor or bombs), war-weary B-17 was no more than 300 fpm
at best, that on a typical mission you're not going to get the thing to fly
substantially higher than the maximum altitudes flown by regularly armed and
armored B-17s anyway. Also consider that the higher you fly, the less accurate
your bomb pattern. And if you want more bombs on target for any given range,
you just fly more bombers on the mission.
Above all, understand that bombers were not sent out with orders telling them
to fly as high as you can and as fast as you can to avoid getting shot down.
They were sent to bomb specific targets. To maximize bombs on target they were
told to fly at certain altitudes, often well below the altitude they could have
flown at, even if that put them right in the middle of flak or fighters. If
they got shot down, tough. The important thing was to put the bombs on the
target, not come home in one piece. In one well-known incident, Brig. Gen.
Orville Anderson, USAAF representative on the Combined Operational Planning
Committee, suggested B-24s not be sent on raids to Berlin because they could
not fly high enough to get out of the worst of the flak and fighters. Maj.
Gen. Frederick Anderson insisted the B-24s should go. Orville Anderson
groaned, "God, they'll just get killed in them." To which Frederick Anderson
replied, "Well?"
The reality was that the USAFE had orders to destroy the GAF no matter what the
cost in men and machines. Crews would fly the missions they were assigned, to
whatever target, at whatever altitude, over whatever route they were told. To
survive, both physically and emotionally, they needed steel plate for
protection and plenty of fight-back gunpower, even if some of it might have
been of little more than pyschological value.
Later in the war, when the radioman's gun was removed and one waistgunner
eliminated from the B-17, it was done to give a little more room in a very
cramped area rather than to improve the performance of the airplane.
>> the strategy of attacking from the front was developed because that was
>> the weakest point in a Fort's defensive screen, not because it was the
>> most effective way to bring down a bomber.
> Everything I've read about this
>topic states otherwise, that this tactic
>was specifically used because it was the best way to bring a bomber down.
>You can kill all the gunners you wish wit no effect on the plane, whereas if
>you hit the cockpit things are a little different.
Nothing prevents a fighter attacking a bomber in a pursuit curve from targeting
the cockpit--except the bomber's defensive fire. In a head-on attack, aiming
for the cockpit is easier than trying for an engine because you are putting the
gunsight on the center of mass, and if you have wing guns that converge a
certain distance ahead, when you open fire your rounds will converge toward the
center of mass (cockpit) from the outer wings and then back again as you close
the distance and scoot on by. If you are piloting a fighter with centerline
guns, targeting the center of mass still makes sense because it is a bigger
target, and rounds that strike the front of the fuselage will pass through
until they hit something. Since, in a head-on, closing at about 750 fps,
you're only going to be in firing range for less than two seconds, targeting
center of mass is the only hope you have of getting hits. It's not an ideal
way to attack a bomber, but is the safest from the point of view of reducing
the risk of defensive fire. The pursuit curve is the best way, giving you
plenty of time to pour rounds into the engine-wing-fuel tank-crew compartment
area. But it is also can be the riskiest if the bomber is well defended.
If the head-on was the most effective way to shoot down a bomber, GAF night
fighters would have been trying to use it against Bomber Command planes.
Instead, they developed equipment and tactics to attack from an undefended
position. And they didn't bother to target the cockpit at all. They went for
the engine-wing-fuel tank area.
Subject: Re: Defending the Mosquito (was B-24 with B-17 nose.)
>Making the assumption that a bomber with a 2,000lb load is a light
>bomber and one with a 4,000 lb load is a medium bomber, the Mosquito did
>not become a "medium" bomber until 1944....
One of the few rational and sensible posts in this thread.
There was an Air Materiel Command non-flying bird colonel at Olmstead Field
after the war where a bunch of AAF types were kicking around the sky in
captured kraut and Jap planes. He would go through his papers, fiddle with his
slide rule and tell the pilots which airplanes could outfly which--before any
of 'em left the ground. Trouble was, he was usually wrong. In the air, the
planes didn't always behave just the way the numbers said they would. This
major refused to believe what the pilots told him. He would argue with the
kids who flew the planes, and tell them they were wrong, because he had the
numbers. There were some nose-to-nose yelling matches that he always won
because he ended up pulling rank on the captains and majors. God knows what
kind of crap he wrote in official reports that was just plane (pun intended)
His type was not uncommon in the service, no doubt in the service of all
countries. He was opinionated, argumentative, and never admitted that he
couldn't possibly understand what those who flew in combat understood
instinctively. Everybody knew it, and after a while they let him have his way,
because the war was over and who cared anyway? But during the war, this type
often caused great harm by forcing those who actually flew missions to use the
wrong equipment or tactics. One of a squadron commander's jobs was often to
figure out ways to circumvent the orders of these types without appearing
insubordinate. They didn't always succeed.
Just one last point on the value of waist guns on the B-17. Ted Milton, CO of
the 348BG, had them removed when he discovered some .50 cal holes in some of
his planes after they returned from missions. He determined that they were
most likely caused by fire from waist gunners. He was pissed and ordered all
the waist guns ripped out his group's planes--over the loud protests of his
crews. He also bawled out the waist gunners and told them they were a bunch of
worthless screw-ups, more dangerous to his planes than the Luftwaffe was.
Shortly after, he was leading a mission when one of his planes, damaged by
enemy fire, dropped out of the formation. The top turret had been hit and
wasn't working. Milton watched helplessly as an FW 190 flew up and, after
making a few tentative passes, parked just above and to the side of the Fort
and calmly fired away until it went down, with not a single remaining gun on
the B-17 in a position to reply. There were no chutes. When he got back on the
ground after that mission, Milton ordered the waist guns put back on his
planes. And he publicly apologized to the group, taking personal
responsibility for the B-17 and crew that had been lost. Maybe a waist gun
firing back wouldn't have saved that plane--but maybe it would have. Maybe a
waist gun winking away at that FW would have kept the Fort alive until some
P-51s could show up. Whatever the case, Milton knew that by his direct order
he had made that crew helpless to defend itself and had guaranteed their
deaths. Fortunately, he was man enough to admit it and retract his order. He
had learned the lesson all his crews knew all too well: redundancy is crucial.
Most of the time, you don't need it. You hope you never do. But when the
time comes that you need it, by God, you really, really need it. In combat,
worn out, beat-up equipment often fails, even if the enemy doesn't manage to
damage it. Even if the equipment works, crewmen are often incapacitated.
You've got to have back-up. Waist guns, ball turrets, radio guns, cheek guns,
chin turrets, top turrets, tail turrets, fighter escort, good weather and good
luck--those boys needed it all, and more.
>The entire story makes Milton appear to be a rather emotional type,
>prone to making implusive, drastic decisions.
Negative. The only time he got emotional was on the golf course. Milton
frequently told the story on himself, and it is widely know.
Milton was recognized as one of the top leaders of the 8AF, his capabilities on
par with those of Frank Anderson and LeMay. He had a very distinguished
career, ending up with four stars.
> A sharp contrast, for
>example, with a calculating type like Doolittle...
Actually, Doolittle was considered a little too emotional, receiving an
official reprimand from Spaatz for exhibiting excessive concern for his men and
too little concern for acomplishing his mission. Frank Anderson also reamed
out Doolittle's butt for using weather as an excuse for cancelling missions.
Doolittle, in the eyes of his superiors, often seemed unable to act,and more
than one made reference to McClellan when discussing him. Of course, the
aircrew under Doolittle were damned glad to have a commander who knew a few
things about coming in on instruments to a socked-in field after a hard day in
the saddle. Doolittle was called many things--but "calculating"? That's a new
>"The German fighters began to attack the Fortress formations from the "twelve
>o'clock high" spot directly head-on. This innovation was supposedly
>introduced by Luftwaffe Oberleutnant Egon Mayer
The 49th Fighter Group defending Darwin was using head-on attacks against
Japanese bombers in the spring (er, fall, Australia-wise) of 1942, months
before 8AF B-17s began attacking the European continent. This was a strategy
long advocated by Gen. Harold "Pursuit Hal" George--against bombers in general,
not any specific model. It was done to reduce the effectiveness of the
defensive firepower of the bombers, and make escorting fighters' intercept
solutions difficult. If there were no escorting fighters, the standard tactic
would be to make head-on attacks until the formation was broken up, then attack
individual bombers from the stern quarters. It was routine to shoot out gun
positions before closing in for the kill. Bomber types with limited defensive
armament fell easy prey to AAF intercepting fighters. Those with heavy
defensive armament did not. The type of bomber and how well it was known to be
defended and armored determined the aggressiveness with which it was attacked
and how many fighters would attack an individual bomber (Against a formation of
heavily armed and armored bombers like the Helen, a flight of four might follow
their leader in line-astern attack on a single plane, whereas against a lightly
armed and armored bomber like the the Val, a flight of four might break up into
four individual attack runs against four different bombers.)
The very first intercept the 8th Fighter Group made against Japanese bombers
over Port Moresby at the beginning of April, 1942, was organized as a head-on
attack; it resulted in the destruction of three bombers, and that was the
preferred method from then on because it worked, and it was comparatively safe.
Throughout all of 1942 and most of 1943, AAF fighters in Australia and New
Guinea were outnumbered by a large factor, and perhaps faced a situation that
had some similarities with what the GAF faced c. 1944. The head-on attack was
the only way to ensure fighters had a chance to inflict damage on enemy bombers
while escaping destruction themselves. In a typical instance that I have some
familiarity with, four P-38s were directed to intercept 27 Helens escorted by
an equal number of Tonys. The Helens were at 24,000 ft., 20 minutes from
Dobodura, when the P-38s, at 31,000 ft., acquired them. The Lightnings
maneuvered to the front of the formation, dove head on, each element of two
targeting a single Helen. Escorting Tony high cover spotted the P-38s and dove
on them, coming in from high three o'clock swinging to six o'clock, but were
unable to fire on the Lockheeds without also firing into their own bombers.
The P-38s fired on their targeted bombers, both of which fell out of the
formation, dove away at an indicated 475 mph, losing the pursuing escorts, then
zoom-climbed up to 30,000 ft., overtook the bomber formation (pulling 60
inches), which was in a shallow descent moving fast, and were able to do the
same thing once more before the bombers reached their release point. The
Helens, incidentally, did not break formation, but merely closed ranks and kept
on going. They dropped a beautiful pattern right on Warhawk Row.
After their second attack on the bombers, the four Lightnings engaged the Tony
escort, despite being outnumbered seven to one, shooting down two for the loss
of one of their own--one that had been damaged when it clipped the tail of a
Helen in the second head-on, but whose pilot stayed to duke it out with the Jap
fighters anyway. This pilot free-fell for 10,000 ft. before opening his chute
to avoid being straffed by the Japanese fighters, but one Jap pilot took a pot
shot at him anyway. It cost the Jap his life, because two boys in P-40s who
had scrambled after the P-38s fell on him like the wrath of God and issued him
a one-way, first class ticket straight to hell.
The only thing that upset the P-38 driver about the whole affair was that when
his chute snapped open and he stopped falling, his prized, fleece-lined
Australian flying boots kept on going.
> Seems to me this is nothing more than a popularity contest.
That and a way to pass the time that is mildly more amusing than doing
crossword puzzles. Every VA hospital should issue its patients laptop
computers connected to the internet. In the long run it would cut their costs,
because the old vets would get so infuriated by some of the foolishness they
read that they would keel over from heart attacks and the hospital staff could
load their carcasses into wheelbarrows and haul them out to the dumpster.
Nothing personal. It's all in fun. So few people in the newsgroup have any
interest in WW2 aviation that it behooves the handful that do not to piss each
other off--although the temptation is often great. Shall we start a thread
arguing whether it was the Sterling or the Halifax that was really the greatest
bomber of WWII? Stride 10 paces, turn and fire!
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Textbooks & dictionaries
Courses for everyone
Clubs in Israel
Institutions in Israel
Institutions outside Israel
January 14: Bella Bryks-Klein as "My Father's Daughter" in Rishon LeZion The one-woman musical show in Yiddish, "Mayn Tatns Tokhter" ("My Father's Daughter") tells a story of survival,...
January 14: Ruth Levin to Sing "Atlantidish" in Tel Aviv On Tuesday, January 14, 2020, the singer & actress Ruth Levin will perform the musical...
The actress Annabella Yaakov passed away It is with profound sadness that we announce the death of the actress Annabella Yaakov - National...
Happy birthday to the actress Lia Koenig Happy birthday to the Israeli actress Lia Koenig - the National Authority for Yiddish Culture 2016 Life Time...
December 24: Yiddish researchers & students to meet Prof. Kuznitz (NY) in Jerusalem
December 7: Kiryat Ono Music Students to Perform in Yiddish On Saturday evening, December 7, 2019, students in the music workshop at Ben-Zvi High School...
February 6: Paulina Belilovsky to Sing in Jerusalem On Thursday, February 6, 2020, the Yiddish singer Paulina Belilovsky will perform at the Ginot...
January 9: Lecture on Yiddish Literature in Jerusalem On Thursday, January 9, 2020, the touring guide Yaad Biran will lecture about journey...
December 21: Concert by Michael Gaysinsky in Elkana On Saturday, December 21, 2019, the singer Michael Gaysinsky will perform at the Yiddish club in...
December 5: Shmulik Nadel to perform in Rishon LeZion On Thursday, December 5, 2019, the singer Shmulik Nadel will perform in Yiddish at the club "Me...
November 5: Yiddish animation film to be shown in Tel Aviv On Tuesday, November 5, 2019, the animation film in Yiddish "The silence of Professor Tösla" will be...
November 5: Violin Concert in Gan Sorek On Tuesday, November 5, 2019, violinist Chaya Livni will perform at the clubhouse in Moshav Gan...
July 16: A concert of Lifshitz's students in Tel Aviv On July 16, 2019, the Yiddish artistic singing workshop, founded by the late Nechama Lifshitz,...
Name & Phone
Virtual Yiddish keyboard
You are here: Home Events & news June 13: Yiddish Choir Festival in Ashkelon
June 13: Yiddish Choir Festival in Ashkelon
On Thursday, June 13, 2019, the 23th annual Yiddish Choir Festival will take place at the Ashkelon Congress Center at 6:30 p.m.
Dozens of song groups from all parts of Israel, including children's choirs, will participate in the festival.
The event is being produced by Michael Leinwand and is sponsored by the National Authority for Yiddish Culture. Admission is free.
Created by studio PDG © 2016. All Rights Reserved
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All posts tagged Young Labour
But John Key…
Whataboutism, like “what about John Key…” is common.
Urban dictionary:
When you deflect criticism by pointing out flaws in your opponent, specifically using the phrase “what about x?” This is an attempt to excuse you from changing you behavior by painting your opponent as a hypocrite.
An example came up yesterday in one of many defences of Jacinda Ardern pulling out of two weekend interviews, instead choosing to appear at a carefully stage managed rally in from of a hand picked audience.
@rorymccourt was taken to task for claiming Key didn’t do RNZ interviews. McCourt has since deleted his tweet, but in response to it:
Nope.https://t.co/OBdAJcCuNNhttps://t.co/A7iDXCTZSThttps://t.co/DFW1MIBGAuhttps://t.co/vW0uYaZSU4
— Graeme Edgeler (@GraemeEdgeler) September 15, 2018
Obviously sensitive to the criticism McCourt followed up.
Just to be clear: my original tweet was intended to make the point John Key pulled out of many RNZ interviews, not that he never appeared on RNZ. That would be ridiculous. Some have clearly taken it the wrong way. I don’t want to appear to spread mistruths so I’ve deleted it.
I found many instances where he pulled out of interviews over his 8 years. That was the comparison with the current PM I wanted to show. But the whole truth is important: and both of them did/do the bulk of their interviews.
May 8 2013 · John Key has refused to be interviewed on Checkpoint about Aaron Gilmore's future.
6 August 2013 • Key refuses to appear on Checkpoint and Morning Report to discuss GCSB spying
In 2011, Key had declined “most” of RNZ’s programme by October: https://t.co/2GwJoXR8Qb
— Rory McCourt (@rorymccourt) September 16, 2018
As expected, you were lying in your follow up tweet too. You couldn’t cite three examples of John Key agreeing to, and then cancelling scheduled interviews. I’m disappointed with your dishonesty.
McCourt’s political background (from Young Gisborne voters to be a loud voice):
Mr McCourt has been involved with the Labour Party since high school. He was Tairawhiti Youth Council president in 2010, Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association president in 2013 and New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations president last year.
He has also been on the Labour Party’s list ranking committee.
His might be a bit more careful what he says in the future.
Tagged but John Key, Jacinda Ardern, RNZ interview, Rory McCourt, whataboutism, Young Labour
https://yournz.org/2018/09/17/but-john-key/
Helen Clark: Ardern was ‘let down’ by party officials
Helen Clark has said that it was “unbelievable” that Jacinda Ardern was not told about sexual assault allegations at a Young Labour camp before the story broke publicly.
Stuff – Helen Clark: PM Ardern was ‘let down’ when she wasn’t told about sexual assault allegations
Labour general secretary Andrew Kirton has come under fire for not telling police, parents of the alleged victims, or the prime minister – his boss, about allegations a 20-year-old man sexually assaulted four teenagers at a Young Labour camp near Waihi in February.
Helen Clark:
“Jacinda was let down. She should have been told immediately, actually, then events would have taken a different course. And I cannot understand why she wasn’t told. Unbelievable.”
Asked if there should be ramifications for Andrew Kirton or those in party management, Clark said: “If you get out the book and ask what would Helen have done, well, draw your own conclusions.”
“She’s done her best to repair it after the event, but leaders never like to be blindsided.”
Ardern’s response (from her office):
“As the Prime Minister has said, there are more serious issues here that concern her than whether she was given an early warning by the party.”
Being ambushed by awkward revelations seems to be a recurring thing for Ardern.
Yesterday alone she has had to deal with The unclear Curran RNZ debacle as well as a disturbing claim of political blackmail involving a NZ First MP and possibly a NZ First Minister.
by Pete George on 28th March 2018 • Permalink
Tagged Helen Clark, Jacinda Ardern, summer camp, Young Labour
Posted by Pete George on 28th March 2018
https://yournz.org/2018/03/28/helen-clark-ardern-was-let-down-by-party-officials/
Allegation of sexual misconduct at Young Labour camp
Newsroom has another story about allegations of sexual misconduct, this time at a Young Labour summer camp. There are also questions over supply of alcohol to minors.
One drunk person can do a lot damage, but how it was dealt with is also important, and it seems astounding that while Labour Party general secretary Andrew Kirton was aware of it and is dealing with it, Jacinda Ardern said this afternoon that she knew nothing about it.
Newsroom: Sexual misconduct alleged at boozy Labour Party camp
The Labour Party has been hit with claims that four young supporters were sexually assaulted at one of its annual ‘Summer School’ camps near Waihi last month.
The four – two males and two females – are all 16 and were allegedly assaulted or harassed by a 20-year-old man during a wild party on the second night of the camp.
Newsroom has been told the man was intoxicated and put his hand down the pants of at least three of the four young people.
Labour Summer Schools are open to supporters of all ages including those under 18 and this year’s camp in the Karangahake Gorge ran from late afternoon on Friday, February 9 to Sunday, February 11.
More than 50 people attended the camp and about a third of those were 18 or under.
The ages of those who were allegedly assaulted has not been revealed.
According to witnesses, a large variety of alcohol was available on Saturday night and many people, including a 15-year-old boy, were drinking.
The “mountain” of alcohol included rum, vodka, cider and a large array of RTDs.
If people under the legal drinking age were supplied with alcohol, that’s another serious problem for Labour.
It’s understood the camp’s supervisor, Young Labour’s Tess Macintyre, had gone to bed around 9pm and was not present at the party.
Was no one in charge or responsible after that?
The camp’s ‘Code of Conduct’ was given to everyone who registered for the event.
It states there is “zero tolerance for inappropriate behaviour. Inappropriate behaviour includes any criminal activity, as well as bullying or acting inappropriately toward other attendees”.
It sounds like a major fail on that one.
The code also refers to alcohol and sexual harassment.
“The organising committee has to pay special attention to the activities of all under 18s in the camp (especially in regards to alcohol). We do not want to prevent you having fun but must act according to the law. No Means No! Sexism and sexual harassment of any form will not be tolerated.”
And a fail on that as well.
The Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, spoke at the event but was not present at the time of the incident.
Other speakers included Labour’s General Secretary, who outlined the party’s plans for 2018, MP for Waiariki Tamati Coffey on Māori development and Dr Sarb Johal on mental health.
Newsroom understands that the man involved was removed from the camp on the Sunday morning, the same day those attending heard a talk on feminism by Angie Warren-Clark – a Labour list MP and manager of the Tauranga Women’s Refuge.
She may not be very happy about the allegations.
Labour’s General Secretary, Andrew Kirton said he was aware of the incident and was currently, “working through it”.
Keeping the lid on it, until the news broke.
In a press conference this afternoon, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said it was the first she’d heard of the allegations.
“I went to the opening of that summer camp, I attended at the very beginning, people had just arrived so certainly none of that was apparent when I was there. This is the first I’ve heard of any such allegations but now that you’ve made them I’ll happily investigate them because that is not what I would expect of any Labour function.”
‘Happily’ is not a great word to use in these circumstances.
“Given that I’ve just heard it now, I’d just ask for the time to look into that personally.”
On whether leadership knew: “That could well be the case, I’m certainly not ruling out that our Labour Party leadership may well be aware, I’m certainly just pointing out it has not been raised with me until now.”
It seems remarkable that the Labour Party was aware of the incident and “working through it”, but that Ardern was not informed.
This is a major embarrassment, with possible illegalities have occurred in respect of alcohol and supply and the sexual misconduct.
1 News has just reported that the police were not involved in the complaints. Why not?
How Labour deals with this from now is very important. This has put the Prime Minister in a very difficult position.
UPDATE: Statement from Andrew Kirton:
This sounds like an attempt at belated damage control. I think that Kirton has a bit more explaining to do.
So it appears this was known about publicly (on Twitter) a month ago. I have the Twitter account details but there is associated information on that tweet thread that I don’t want to repeat here).
UPDATE 3: a statement from Ardern:
That is doing little other then repeating Kirton’s ‘assurances’. Ardern needs to step up and show leadership on this – which means taking appropriate responsibility.
⏯️ @nzlabour General Secretary @andykirton say he didn't tell the Prime Minister, police or parents about sexual assault at a young @nzlabour camp. "We wanted to make sure we did a survivor-led, or victim-led response." https://t.co/v4ezN4cFzt
— Checkpoint (@CheckpointRNZ) March 12, 2018
So Kirton decided to try and deal with it all on the quiet himself? Very risky.
Stunningly good interview as always by @JohnJCampbell – the ‘sexual abuse counselling’ service Andrew Kirton mentions for victims was made available yesterday – Sunday – before the Monday story. https://t.co/MdqlzQjG7B
— Tim Murphy (@tmurphyNZ) March 12, 2018
So it sounds like acted when he knew the story was coming out.
The Labour summer camp organiser who went to bed at 9 am on the night of the drunken assaults wasn’t the only adult in the room. One, a party official, was there, but ‘tired and emotional’…..
There is more of this story to come out by the look of things.
Tagged alcohol, Andrew Kirton, Jacinda Ardern, sexual misconduct, summer camp, Young Labour
https://yournz.org/2018/03/12/allegation-of-sexual-misconduct-at-young-labour-camp/
Labour called ‘lying losers’ over Sir John pettiness
There have been a number of attacks on John Key after his knighthood was announced in the Queen’s Birthday honours. These have largely come from Labour associated sources.
One of these attacks was in a Standard post Arise Sir John, which set the tone for many dirty comments there.
While no party seems to want to associate with Martyn Bradbury he also blasted the knighthood in Why I will never call John Key Sir. Ever:
This vacant optimism merchant banker whose laid back persona struck a chord with middle NZs anti-intellectualism made this country far worse for the poorest and most vulnerable amongst us.
That sums up a common level of pettiness and bitterness in New Zealand politics.
David Farrar blasts another example in Lying losers:
What a bunch of lying embittered losers.
Once she was out of politics, John Key gave Helen Clark the highest Honour there is – Order of New Zealand. He supported her campaign for UNDP Administrator and gave her 100% support in her campaign to be UN Secretary-General. He also knighted Michael Cullen and gave him significant board appointments.
Key is retired and out of politics. But the nasty losers at Labour are so choking on their bile they actually authorise an advertisement smearing and attacking him for getting a knighthood. Have you seen anything so petty before? They also repeat their lie about taking $1.7 billion out of the health sector when in fact Vote Health increased $4.8 billion in nominal terms, $3.0 billion in real terms and by over 10% in real per capita terms.
This was in reference to this post on the Young Labour Facebook page:
In the fine print at the bottom…
…is an authorisation notice: Authorised by Andrew Kirton, 160n Willis Street, Wellington
Kirton is Labour’s General Secretary so this attack on Key seems to be authorised by the Labour Party.
I’m not a fan of titles, but using Key’s knighthood announcement as an excuse to attack Key’s record in this manner looks bad for Labour.
by Pete George on 6th June 2017 • Permalink
Posted in Blogs, General, Politics
Tagged David Farrar, John Key, knighthood, lying losers, The Daily Blog, The Standard, Young Labour
Posted by Pete George on 6th June 2017
https://yournz.org/2017/06/06/labour-called-lying-losers-over-sir-john-pettiness/
Labour diversion #2 – they won’t ditch the 90 Day Trial
Labour have long criticised the 90 Day Trial employment legislation. Andrew Little has spoken strongly against it, as detailed by James at The Standard:
“”We don’t need the 90-day law and under Labour it will go.”
Source – https://www.labour.org.nz/media/90-day-law-sees-more-workers-shown-door
“Labour would, however, not back away from its plans to change employment law, including scrapping the 90-day trial period for new employees.”
– Radio NZ
“Later Little told reporters Labour still opposed the 90 day trial, which many small businesses liked …..”
– Interest.co.nz
So it surprised many when Andrew Little said that Labour would leave the 90 Day Trial legislation apart from tweaking it a bit.
Stuff reports: Labour would retain 90-day trial periods, but make them fairer – Little
Andrew Little appears to have made an about turn on labour law reform, ruling out abolishing the 90-day trial period for workers.
The Council of Trade Unions (CTU) has called on Labour to clarify its position and the Government is accusing Little of “weasel words”.
At a breakfast in Upper Hutt on Friday, Little was asked about Labour’s position on 90 day trial period, in which employers can dismiss workers.
“Our policy is to add a fairness requirement,” Little said.
The question frequently came up from employers, Little said, with every employer indicating they already gave feedback to any worker they let go, so they would not be affected under Labour’s policy.
“We just want to make a requirement to give feedback so the person knows whether they’re on track to make the grade or not.”
Asked afterwards if that meant that the trial periods would certainly stay, Little said: “Well we wouldn’t be talking about making the 90 day trial periods fairer if we were going to get rid of it.”
Any changes would not have a significant impact on employers, Little said.
“There won’t be any new onerous obligations in that regard, but it will make it fairer and we will write that into law.”
Helen Kelly was carefully critical:
CTU president Helen Kelly called for clarification.
“Making it fairer gets rid of it, right? He needs to clarify that,” Kelly said.
“We would expect them to effectively get rid of them by making unfair dismissals unlawful.”
Kelly said the 90-day trial periods allowed workers to be dismissed for reasons which would otherwise not be fair, without giving the worker the option of taking a personal grievance claim.
If Labour introduced “just cause” provisions to the trials to allow personal grievances, the CTU could accept that, as this returned to the earlier rules in existing laws covering probationary periods.
“But if what they’re saying is modifying [the trials] to simply allow unfair dismissal, but you’ve got to give reasons, then that certainly, as far as I’m aware, is totally against their [Labour’s] position in the past and would be unacceptable to us, totally unacceptable,” Kelly said.
Reaction wasn’t pretty from some at The Standard.
This is pretty amazing. I thought there was no way they’d try to go right, because, well, they couldn’t. But no, no hurdle is too impossible, they are actually going to try to become the National Party while National still exist. I can imagine Key leaning over to Nathan Guy and saying, “They… they can see us here, right?”
So, let’s talk about the Green Party. hahaa
Rosie:
I know. Absolutely f-ing unbelievable.
I did not become a Labour Party member to support anti worker bullshit like the 90 day law.
Karen:
Please send this post (at 20.3) to Little, Rosie.
Everybody who is enraged at this needs to start lobbying now.
And there’s flip-flop reaction from Young Labour and Young Nats:
Young Labour on Facebook:
We think the 90-day trial period is unfair, and it needs to go. Do you?
We are deeply concerned by @AndrewLittleMP‘s comments that he will keep the 90-day trial period.
Meanwhile Young Nats were quick to respond:
NZ Young Nats @nzyoungnats
Sometimes we end up agreeing on things and it isn’t so bad, @AndrewLittleMP.
Labour have had a remarkable week.
And all may not be well inside.
Darien Fenton
Um : the policy says : “Labour will restore workers’ right to contest dismissals during the first 90 days of employment by abolishing the current government’s Fire At Will law” I think the ambiguity surrounding Andrew’s comments today are a PR problem that needs sorting quick smart.
by Pete George on 18th July 2015 • Permalink
Tagged 90 day trial, Andrew Little, Labour, Young Labour, Young Nats
Posted by Pete George on 18th July 2015
https://yournz.org/2015/07/18/labour-diversion-2-they-wont-ditch-the-90-day-trial/
‘Young’ Labour summer school
Young Labour are currently running a summer school in Wainuiomata. From Facebook:
Kris Faafoi
Grant Robertson and Morehu Rei open Young Labour Summer School 2013. Really good numbers gathering on the outskirts of Wainuiomata. looking forward to a weekend of working with this great group of young people determined to make a difference.
Joanne Nixon
How young is young. Looks to be a few old heads there lol!
Seems to be a bit of snow on the mountains this summer.
by Pete George on 27th January 2013 • Permalink
Tagged Grant Robertson, Kris Faafoi, Summer School, Young Labour
Posted by Pete George on 27th January 2013
https://yournz.org/2013/01/27/young-labour-summer-school/
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Selena Gomez Admitted to Undergoing Therapy to Get Over Body Shaming Insults
Posted By: Samuel Scott
Selena Gomez, the actress-turned-pop star, admitted to undergoing therapy to overcome the pain of being at the receiving end of body shaming insults.
She said that wherever she went; walking on the ramp, or on the beach, or on the red carpet, she was the butt of insults regarding her body, especially the ‘weighty’ aspect.
If strangers constantly jeered and called someone fat, it is very likely that the target person would very soon begin to think it was true. This was the situation that Selena Gomez also went through, she claimed in an interview, wherein she said that she struggled hard with these negative feelings.
The ‘Heart Wants What it Wants’ singer told US Weekly, ‘This was the first year I ever dealt with anyone talking about my body’. She added that she would land at an airport and some unknown person from the crowd would yell that she is fat and it was an awful feeling.
The insults and her own insecurities driven by this constant scrutiny by both fans and critics got so bad that she had to consult a professional to help her handle her emotions. This, she claimed, helped a lot and she found the courage to accept herself the way she was and that is when she did not hesitate to pose in the nude for ‘Revival’, her new album’s cover.
She further added that after therapy, even if she has put on weight she is OK with it and now she has accepted herself the way she is. Reflecting her new found confidence, she posted an Instagram picture in a swimsuit with the caption, ‘I love being happy with me yall’.
The confidence is seen not only on the cover of her new album, which features the hit number ‘Good For You’, but also in her songs. In some of the songs in the ‘Revival’ album, she has written about these ‘fat-shaming’ comments that she had endured and put up with.
She said that with each year she is becoming more aware of herself and who she actually is. She added that she feels more confident and free and she will not hide in her room and feel depressed by the comments of others.
This is great news not only for the actress-singer but also for her fans who adore any star unafraid to admit that he/she needs help when they are going through a difficult phase.
Justin BieberSelena GomezSelena Gomez Body ShamingSelena Gomez InsultSelena Gomez TreatmentSelena Gomez Undergoing Therapy
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Who became the first Indian footballer to score fifty international goals?
asked 31-Jan-2018 in Sports by Manish Kumar
Football - Soccer
answered 31-Jan-2018 by Vishal Kesarwani
Sunil Chhetri is the first Indian footballer to score 50 international goals. With his amazing achievement, he surpassed the record of 42 goals of Baichung Bhutia who was the former Captain of Indian Football team.
Sunil Chhetri achieved this milestone in his 87th match and this is what he said in the post-match ceremony after being asked about his feeling.
“Number of goals never matter for me. I never keep track of feats. I just play for my nation,” Chhetri said after the match ended in a 1-2 defeat for the visitors.
"Cheers for him"
What ball is used in kickball?
What is 'soccer' called in England?
What is the importance of adventure sports?
What are the best adventure sports in the world?
What is the importance of sports gears?
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“DÉBRIS DE JUSTICE”
“FACE À FACES”
“[RE-]MIXING HOLLYWOOD”
“WAA DAKAR”
“THÉORIE DES RÈGNES SENSIBLES”
ABOUT|CONTACT
ABOUT ANTOINE TEMPÉ
Antoine Tempé’s video installation ‘Débris de Justice’ at MAXXI in Rome.
Antoine Tempé’s video installation ‘Débris de Justice [The ruin of Law]‘ is on view at Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo until November 4, as part of the exhibition African Metropolis. An Imaginary City.
Designed as a slide show, Antoine Tempé’s “Débris de Justice [The ruin of Law]” is a video installation of a series of photographs taken inside the dilapidated former Hall of Justice of the city of Dakar, at the beginning of 2016. In a state of total abandonment at the time, with mounds of archives covering its floors, the old Hall of Justice has since then been cleaned up and “sanitized” in order to house the international exhibition of the 2016 Dakar Biennial.
In this series which hangs between a testimonial piece and a plea, the cracked walls, the abandoned objects, the floors strewn with legal documents lost forever, bring the evocation of a justice in pieces, of erased lives, in a post-cataclysmic landscape which is nonetheless consumed with a surreal beauty.
“Débris de Justice” is shown as part of the exhibition African Metropolis. An Imaginary City which highlights the beauty and the contradictions in cities and the world today. The metropolis described is not a real city, made of built architecture, organized in line with town planning regulations, but a city created by the people who live there: more than 100 works by 34 African artists become the components of an imaginary city, of a journey among photographs, installations, sculptures, fabrics and videos that reinstates the chaos, the richness, the many facets of the contemporary African and global identity.
Curated by Simon Njami and co-curated by Elena Motisi, African Metropolis is an alternation of images and imagination that narrate a universal context to help us to understand cities all over the world. One of the aims of the exhibition, after all, is to recognise ourselves in the great diversity that is Africa. We question how we can live together in a space that seems to be made up of insurmountable differences, and come away with the portrait of a city of which we are all inhabitants, despite being strangers.
Antoine Tempé’s “Débris de Justice” was exhibited for the first time as a work in progress at Biennale d’Art Contemporain de Dakar in May 2016.
Public concourse, former Hall of Justice, Dakar
Practical information :
« African metropolis. Una città imaginaria »
MAXXI | Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo
Via Guido Reni, 4/a
Tuesday & Wednesday 11 am to 7 pm
Thursday 11 am to 10 pm
Friday to Sunday 11 am to 7 pm
The box-office closes one hour prior to the closing of the museum
architecture exhibition video installation
YCOS-Project will present two bodies of work by photographer Antoine Tempé at the AKAA art fair at Carreau du Temple in Paris, from Nov. 9—11, 2018 7 November 2018
YCOS-Project présente deux séries photographiques d’Antoine Tempé à l’occasion de la foire AKAA au Carreau du Temple à Paris. Du 9 au 11 novembre 2018. 7 November 2018
Antoine Tempé’s video installation ‘Débris de Justice’ at MAXXI in Rome. 22 June 2018
‘ WAA DAKAR [DAKAROIS] ‘, BAMAKO, DEC. 2, 2017—JAN. 31, 2018 2 December 2017
‘ WAA DAKAR [DAKAROIS] ‘, BAMAKO, 2 DÉC. 2017—31 JAN. 2018 2 December 2017
architecture exhibition fine arts installation portraiture video
© antoine tempé 2017 - all rights reserved
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strategy Agency of the Year
New Business: TD Canada Trust, Forty Creek Whisky, M&M Meat Shops, La Roche-Posay, L'Oréal, Loto-Québec, Tourism Montreal, Tourism Yukon, Eagle Energy, Sports Maska (CCM), Bombardier, Sephora
Key Hires:
Daniel Shearer, EVP and GM, Ontario & West; Simon Poitras, SVP, Quebec; Nadim Kiani; VP, digital CRM technology; Lynn Chow, VP, client leader; Nicolas Roy, VP, technology; Sarah Thompson, VP, strategy; Adam Collins, VP, head of strategy; Michelle Perez, VP, brand director
Staff: 627
SickKids Foundation Honey Nut Cheerios (General Mills Canada) Nature Valley (General Mills Canada) Canadian Olympic Committee Children of the Street
Cossette's startup strategy
By Harmeet Singh
AS THE PROVERB GOES, WHEN THE ROOTS ARE DEEP, there's no reason to fear the wind.
The ad world can be fickle, but Cossette, founded in Quebec in 1972, is nurturing its entrepreneurial roots to stay competitive — and it's working. The national agency has clinched Agency of the Year Gold — its first win in the category since 1990, when it took home Silver.
"Entrepreneurship really runs in our veins," says Melanie Dunn, president and CEO of Cossette Canada.
The agency is in its sixth year of an overarching innovation plan, which includes its Cossette Lab startup incubation program that began in Montreal back in 2012 and has since expanded to Toronto and Vancouver. As part of the program, the agency hosts and mentors startups specialized in particular categories, such as tourism and health, as they get ready to go to market.
"What we wanted to do was foster entrepreneurship throughout the whole company," Dunn says.
These days, everyone and their grandmother wants to think or act like a startup. But really implementing agile principles, outside of just working with the Cossette Lab startups, takes total transformation, Dunn says. In the Montreal office, that change began in 2013 and will spread to Cossette's other offices.
On the operations side, for example, it's included implementing 15-minute daily "scrums" involving clients and the relevant Cossette staff, to boost efficiency and avoid miscommunication.
It's also meant changing the physical space to give every client their own workspace area, where multidisciplinary teams can work together.
And on the financial side, each client has a dedicated team that offers solutions in a prototype manner, getting to a "pay-per-performance" relationship.
In addition, when Cossette was named the digital agency for L'Oréal Paris in Canada last February, it came with a new partnership model where the shop would be compensated for work based on results.
"We're pushing the envelope here to have an even more collaborative model by sharing risks," Dunn told strategy at the time. "There are upswings and downswings possible, sure, but at the end of the day, it makes us more accountable to the KPIs and to delivering real results."
Aside from the benefits to the internal culture — encouraging disruption and agility — of having tech startups incubated within its walls, they also bring fresh thinking to clients. Entrepreneurs sometimes sit in if their particular technology is relevant to the business.
Fostering Canada's risk-taking entrepreneurial community is a priority for the shop, which, in addition to providing office space, invests in startups and offers access to major clients.
It's been nearly two years since the shop's parent company, Vision7, was purchased by China's BlueFocus Communication Group, but that didn't take away Cossette's "Canadian signature," since it's been able to operate independently, Dunn says. In fact, it has been growing its team and solidifying its leadership. In February, former Taxi exec Daniel Shearer took on the EVP, managing director role for Cossette Ontario and West, including the operations in Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver. Dunn described Shearer as the "final key person" for the agency's national executive team.
The agency didn't slow down its hiring after that. From the beginning of the year to April, it brought on a dozen new creatives and the following month, it announced several new faces on the strategy side.
Each of those hires has been made with principles such as collaboration and creativity expressed through innovation in mind, Dunn says — in other words, all the things that drive a startup forward.
Pre-Cocktail Sponsor
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™ strategy title, tagline and logo are trademarks of and published by Brunico Communications Ltd.
™ strategy Agency of the Year title, tagline and logo are trademarks of and the event is produced by Brunico Communications Ltd.
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Imagineering Institute is pleased to announce we have secured new funding (details to come soon). We will be opening soon in new location of Labuan Malaysia. Looking forward to continuing with new students and researchers to invent the future!
“MIHAJLO PUPIN” TECHNICAL FACULTY IN ZRENJANIN. http://www.tfzr.uns.ac.rs/en/
Adrian David Cheok, Professor of UoL, Invited to Exhibit at Ars Electronica Festival 2017
by admin | posted in: Research | 0
Professor Adrian David Cheok, Chair Professor of University of London, has been invited to exhibit at the Ars Electronica Festival 2017. His work, Kissenger, has been selected by the Ars Electronica Festival committee to showcase for 5 days at one of the most prestigious media arts events to be held on 7-11 September 2017 in POSTCITY Linz, Austria.
Ars Electronica Festival is an international festival for Art, Technology & Society offering a distinct platform. Since 1979 it has provided an extraordinary meeting point. Artists, scientists, engineers, researchers and developers from all over the world are welcomed in Linz, to confront a specific, interdisciplinary theme in the context of exhibitions, conferences, workshops and interventions.
The theme of the 2017 Festival is AI –The Other I, ideas circulating here are innovative, radical, and eccentric in the best sense of that term, they influence our everyday, become integrated in our lifestyle and are our future way of life. One part of the exhibition will be dedicated to Artificial Intimacy, a special branch providing futuristic technical visions related to intimacy between humans and machines. Questions such as “Can a human love a robot?”, “Can a robot love a human?” will provoke your thoughts while exploring some of the latest technology in this area. https://www.aec.at/ai/en/artificial-intimacy/
The 5-day event is expected to welcome audiences of over 85,000. Ars Electronica Festival is supported by a prestigious list of 382 associates, including Intel, mobility partner Daimler, Animation Festival sponsor Maxon, scientific mentor MIT Media Lab and BioAustria. They make it possible for Ars Electronica to stage a festival characterized by huge dimensions and superb quality.
More information about the festival can be found here: https://www.aec.at/festival/en/
PRESS RELEASE: Electric Smell Machine for Internet & Virtual Smell
Adrian David Cheok, Kasun Karunanayaka, Surina Hariri, Hanis Camelia, and Sharon Kalu Ufere Imagineering Institute, Iskandar Puteri, Malaysia & City, University of London,UK.
Email: contact@imagineeringinstitute.org
Here we are excited to introduce the world’s first computer controlled digital device developed to stimulate olfactory receptor neurons with the aim of producing smell sensations purely using electrical pulses. Using this device, now we can easily stimulate the various areas of nasal cavity with different kinds of electric pulses. During the initial user experiments, some participants experienced smell sensations including floral, fruity, chemical, and woody. In addition, we have observed a dif- ference in the ability of smelling odorants before and after the electrical stimulation. These results suggest that this technology could be enhanced to artificially create and modify smell sensations. By conducting more experiments with human subjects, we are expecting to uncover the patterns of electrical stimulations, that can effectively generate, modify, and recall smell sensations. This invention can lead to internet and virtual reality digital smell.
Figure 1: Concept of stimulating human olfactory receptor neurons using electric pulses.
To date, almost all smell regeneration methods used in both academia and industry are based on chemicals. These methods have several limitations such as being expensive for long term use, complex, need of routine maintenance, require refilling, less controllability, and non-uniform distribution in the air. More importantly, these chemical based smells cannot be transmitted over the digital networks and regenerate remotely, as we do for the visual and auditory data. Therefore, discovering a method to produce smell sensations without us- ing chemical odorants is a necessity for digitizing the sense of smell. Our concept is illustrated in the Figure 1, which is electrically stimulating the olfactory receptor neurons (ORN) and study whether this approach can produce or modify smell sensations. During a medical experiment in 1973, electrical stimulation of olfactory receptors reported some smell sensations including almond, bitter almond, and vanilla [1]. However, three other similar experiments that used electrical stimulation failed to reproduce any smell sensations [2, 3, 4]. Therefore, finding a proper method to electrically reproduce smell sensations was still undiscovered.
Figure 2: The digital olfactory receptor stimulation device: It has a current controller circuit, endoscope camera, a pair of silver electrodes, a microcontroller, a power supply, a low current multimeter, and a laptop.
Our approach is different from the previous research mentioned above. Our main objective is to develop a controllable and repeatable digital technology, a device that connects to computers and be easily able to programmed and controlled. Also this device needs to generate electric pulses of different frequencies, cur- rents, pulse widths and stimulation times. To provide more stimulation possibilities, we wanted this device to be capable of stimulating diverse sites at the ventral surface of the inferior, middle, and superior nasal concha. Fig. 2 shows the computer controlled digital device we have developed to stimulate olfactory receptors. The amount of current output by the circuit can be controlled using one of the five push buttons shown in Figure 2 and the respective LED near the push button will lights up after the selection. The frequency of the stimulation pulses and stimulation time is controlled by the microcontroller program. It is possible to vary the stimulation frequency from 0Hz to 33kHz and pulse width using the programming. The pair of silver electrodes combined with the endoscopic camera was used to stimulate olfactory receptor neurons, and during the stimulation, one electrode is configured as the positive and the other electrode as the ground. Fig 3 and Fig 4 shows testing our device with human subjects.
Figure 3: This image shows the user study setup and stimulating the nasal cavity targeting the middle and superior concha regions using the device
During our first user study, we have stimulated the 30 subjects using 1mA to 5mA range with frequencies 2Hz, 10Hz, 70Hz, and 180Hz. 1mA at 10Hz and 1mA at 70Hz were the stimulation parameters which gave most prominent results for the smell related responses. Electrical stimulation with 1mA and 70Hz induced the highest odor perceptions. 27% of the participants reported the perceived fragrant and chemical sensa- tions. Other smell sensations that are reported for include, 20% fruity, 20% sweet, 17% tosted and nutty, 10% minty, and 13% woody. Stimulation parameters 1mA/10Hz reported 17% fragrant, 27% sweet 27%, chemical 10%, woody 10%. Meanwhile, results for the 4mA/70Hz reported 82% for pain and 64% reported pressure sensations. We have also probed the effect of electrical stimulation on the nose after stimulation. Therefore, we asked participants to repeat the sniffing of known odorants immediately after stimulation and rate the intensity. Most of the participants reported higher intensity after stimulation. This showed that the electrical stimulation increased the intensity of the odorants in the nose.
Figure 4: This image shows a person is testing the Electric Smell Interface in the lab environment
We are planning to extend this user experiment with more number of participants. The effects of the differ- ent electrical stimulation parameters such as frequency, current, and stimulation period will be more closely studied in future. By analyzing the results, we plan to identify various stimulation patterns that can produce different smell sensations. If the electrical stimulation of olfactory receptors effectively produce smell sen- sations, it will revolutionize the field of communication. Multisensory communication is currently limited to text, audio and video contents. Digitizing touch sense are already been achieved experimentally in the research level and will be embedded to daily communication near future. If the digitization of smell be- comes possible it will paved the way for sensing, communicating and reproducing flavor sensations over the internet. This will create more applications in the fields such as human computer interaction, virtual reality, telepresence, and internet shopping.
1.Uziel, A.: Stimulation of human olfactory neuro-epithelium by long-term continuous electrical currents. Journal de physiologie 66(4) (1973) 409422
2.Weiss, T., Shushan, S., Ravia, A., Hahamy, A., Secundo, L., Weissbrod, A., Ben-Yakov, A., Holtzman, Y., Cohen- Atsmoni, S., Roth, Y., et al.: From nose to brain: Un-sensed electrical currents applied in the nose alter activity in deep brain structures. Cerebral Cortex (2016)
3.Straschill, M., Stahl, H., Gorkisch, K.: Effects of electrical stimulation of the human olfactory mucosa.Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery 46(5-6) (1984) 286289
4.Ishimaru, T., Shimada, T., Sakumoto, M., Miwa, T., Kimura, Y., Furukawa, M.: Olfactory evoked potential produced by electrical stimulation of the human olfactory mucosa. Chemical senses 22(1) (1997) 7781
Appointed to Board of Studies for the Cognitive Neuroscience Postgraduate Programme, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia
The Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Senate, in its 245th Meeting on 24 May 2017, is honoured to appoint Professor Adrian David Cheok as a committee member for the Board of Studies for Cognitive Neuroscience Postgraduate Degree Programme by the USM School of Medical Sciences.
Invitation to Contribute to Special Issue “Love and Sex with Robots”
I recently accepted an invitation to serve as the Guest Editor for a Special Issue of the journal Multimodal Technologies and Interaction on the subject of “Love and Sex with Robots”. It is my pleasure to invite all researchers to submit an article on this topic.
The article may be either a full paper or a communication based on your own research in this area, or may be a focused review article on some aspect of the subject. MTI is an open access, peer-reviewed journal, edited by Professor Adrian David Cheok. You will not be required to pay the usual publication fee (Article Processing Charge) in the first issue of this journal.
All submissions will be subject to peer review. If you plan to submit a review article please provide me with a title and brief description at your earliest convenience, in order to avoid multiple reviews covering the same material.
For more information about the Special Issue, please see: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/mti/special_issues/robots
For information on manuscript preparation and related matters, please see the instructions for authors: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/mti/instructions
Although the deadline for submission of manuscripts to the Special Issue is 1 October 2016, I would appreciate hearing from you in the next few weeks whether you would be willing to submit a contribution.
Adrian David Cheok Editor-in-Chief of Multimodal Technologies and Interaction Journal
by yannc2021 | posted in: Books and Journals, Research | 0
Adrian David Cheok has been invited to be the Editor-in-Chief of the new journal Multimodal Technologies and Interaction (MTI).
About MTI
Multimodal Technologies and Interaction (ISSN 2414-4088) is an international, multi/interdisciplinary, open access, peer-reviewed journal which publishes original articles, critical reviews, research notes, and short communications on this subject. MTI focuses on fundamental and applied research dealing with all kinds of technologies that can acquire and/or reproduce unimodal and multimodal digital content that supports interaction (e.g. human–computer, human–robot and animal–computer). Such technologies may produce visual, tactile, sonic, taste, smell, flavor or any other kind of content that can enrich consumer/user experience.
Our aim is to encourage scientists to publish experimental, theoretical and computational results in as much detail as possible, so that results can be easily reproduced. There is, therefore, no restriction on the length of the papers.
displays/sensors: visual, tactile/haptic, sonic, taste, smell
multimodal interaction, interfaces, and communication
human–computer and human–robot relations and interaction
animal–computer interaction
human factors, cognition
multimodal perception
psychology and neuroscience
digital and sensory marketing
enabling, disruptive technologies
multimodal science, technology and interfaces
theoretical, social and cultural issues
design and evaluation
content creation, environments processes and methods
For more information or to submit your manuscript to this journal, visit this link http://www.mdpi.com/journal/mti.
PCBWeb – free CAD application for electronics hardware.
Check out PCBWeb – a very useful and free CAD application for designing and manufacturing electronics hardware.
http://www.pcbweb.com
Adrian David Cheok and mixed reality research featured in City University Research Publication
by yannc2021 | posted in: Media, Research | 0
Science Museum Exhibition – Cravings: Can your food control you?
Find out how the food you eat affects your body, brain and eating-habits. See our electric taste interface exhibited in the Cravings exhibition at London’s Science Museum! Free Entry.
What drives your desires for the foods you love? Is it the colour of your spoon, the food your mum ate while pregnant, the trillions of bacteria that dine with you, or the little known ‘second brain’ in your gut?
From the flavours you learned to love in the womb, to the very next bite you take, your appetite has been shaped by food. Through personal stories, fascinating objects and cutting-edge science and technology, explore how food affects your body, brain and eating habits.
Visit Cravings in our Antenna gallery to:
See an artificial gut whirring away.
Take part in a real experiment on flavour perception.
Touch some 3D-printed mice, sniff a scientific smell kit, and ‘chew’ some ‘bread’ in our interactive displays.
Play Craving Commander and express your opinion on how we can get raging cravings under control. Should we ban cake except on birthdays? Use smart refrigerators that police what we eat? You decide in this fast-paced game.
Discover unconventional dining utensils designed by scientists and chefs to trick our sense of taste.
Find out if scientists think we ‘eat with our eyes’ and if we can be ‘addicted’ to food.
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/Plan_your_visit/exhibitions/cravings.aspx
Malaysian delegation visits the City University Hangout
http://www.city.ac.uk/news/2014/feb/malaysian-delegation-visits-the-hangout
Managing Director Tan Sri Dato’ Azman bin Hj Mokhtar of the Government of Malaysia’s strategic investment fund, the Khazanah Nasional Berhad, is impressed with City talent in the heart of London’s Silicon Roundabout.
A delegation from the Government of Malaysia’s strategic investment fund, the Khazanah National Berhad, visited the Hangout on January 30th.
Located at the epicentre of London’s Tech City, the Hangout provides a unique working environment and incubation space for City University London academics, students and start-ups to foster relationships with investors in the area in order to get their businesses off the ground.
Khazanah Nasional Berhad promotes economic growth and makes strategic investments on behalf of the Government of Malaysia and is keenly interested in partnering with technology companies and products originating at City. With an investment portfolio comprising over 50 major companies in Malaysia and abroad worth £30bn, Khazanah is involved in a broad spectrum of industries.
Led by managing director Tan Sri Dato’ Azman bin Hj Mokhtar, the Malaysian delegation listened attentively to a variety of presentations and investment opportunities. The Khazanah managing director was impressed with the “high level of creativity” being nurtured at City.
These included a presentation on taste and smell actuation via mobile phone from Professor of Pervasive Computing, Professor Adrian Cheok and PhD students from his Mixed Reality Lab; BarPassOfficial (for payment and collection of drink orders via smartphone); Mashmachines (a new media player bringing together sound, lighting, and video into a single user interface); Popcord (an innovative lightweight mobile phone charger); TechCityNews (London’s leading tech sector news and analysis resource); Modafirma (a social commerce platform allowing emerging and independent fashion designers to reach and sell directly to a global audience); and AtomicDataLabs (a software and data management company building applications in large datasets).
Also in attendance were Pro Vice Chancellor for Research & Enterprise, Professor John Fothergill; Director of Enterprise, Dr Sue O’Hare; Dean of the School of Engineering & Mathematical Sciences and the School of Informatics, Professor Roger Crouch; Professor of Dependability and Security, Professor Kevin Jones; Manager of the London City Incubator and Hangout founder, Leo Castellanos; and, Andrew Humphries, co-founder of The Bakery.
Madrid Fusion 2014 – World Top Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz, Dr. Luis Castellanos, Adrian Cheok launch world first digital smell food app.
by adriancheok | posted in: Keynote Speeches and Talks, Research | 0
The Future of Mobile: The sweet smell of innovation
Catching the whiff of success
A team made led by City University London’s Mixed Reality Lab and other university academics are finalists in the HackingBullipedia Global Challenge, aimed at discovering the most inventive design and technology to support the world’s largest repository of gastronomic knowledge.
A combined team comprising academics from City University London’s Mixed Reality Lab, University of Aix-Marseille (France) and Sogang University (South Korea) has made the final of this year’s HackingBullipedia Global Challenge aimed at discovering the most inventive design and technology to support the world’s largest repository of gastronomic knowledge.
Led by Professor Adrian Cheok, Professor of Pervasive Computing in the School of Informatics, their competition entry is titled “Digital Olfaction and Gustation: A Novel Input and Output Method for Bullipedia”.
The team proposes novel methods of digital olfaction and gustation as input and output for internet interaction, specifically for creating and experiencing the digital representation of food, cooking and recipes on the Bullipedia. Other team members include Jordan Tewell, Olivier Oullier and Yongsoon Choi.
No stranger to digital olfaction applications in the culinary space, Professor Cheok recently gave a Digital Taste and Smell presentation to the third top chef in the world, Chef Andoni Luiz Aduriz, at Mugaritz restaurant in San Sebastian, Spain.
The HackingBullipedia Global Challenge was created by the renowned world leading culinary expert, Chef Ferran Adria I Acosta.
The jury, comprising some of the best culinary and digital technology experts in the world arrived at a shortlist of four teams after carefully sifting through 30 proposals from three continents drawn from a mix of independent and university teams.
The other teams in the final are from Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona); the Technical University of Catalonia; and an independent (non university) team from Madrid.
On the 27th of November, two representatives from each of the four finalist teams will pitch their proposal and give a demonstration to the competition’s judges after which the winner will be decided.
Professor Cheok is very pleased that City will be in the final of the competition final:
“I am quite delighted that we were able to make the final of this very challenging and prestigious competition. There were entries from various parts of the world covering a broad spectrum of expertise including a multidisciplinary field of scientists, chefs, designers, culinary professionals, data visualisation experts and artists. We are confident that our team has prepared an equally challenging and creative proposal which will be a game-changer in the gastronomic arena.”
[http://hackingbullipedia.org/thechallenge/overview]
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Noon Meal Programme (Revised)
NOON MEAL PROGRAMME- A HISTORY
1. Free mid- day meals to poor pupils in Lower Primary Schools was introduced with the material assistance of CARE (Co-operative for American Relief Everywhere) during 1961-62 as per G.O. (Rt) No. 2013/61 Edn.dated 31-8-1961. They had withdrawn the assistance from 1984 and gradually left the field by 1986. It was a welfare scheme and was enjoyed by poor and needy pupils. Consequent on the withdrawal of assistance of CARE School Feeding Programme, the Government of Kerala was constrained to take over the responsibility of noon feeding in Primary Schools. Accordingly Kanji Feeding was introduced in the place of care feeding from 1-12-1984. L.P. Schools of both Government and aided schools in 222 fishermen villages and tribal belts were brought under the scheme. Subsequently the programme was extended to all L.P. Schools of Government and Aided in the state from 31-12-1985.
2. During 1987-88 the scheme issued different shape. The area of feeding was widened. As a matter of policy of Government the programme was extended to all Upper Primary Schools and Upper Primary sections in High Schools from 1987-88 as per G.O. (P) No. 160/87/Gl.Edn. dated 28-7-1987 with effect from 15-8-1987. It was introduced as a people's programme. Feeding committee were constituted in every feeding centre. The committee consisted of the Headmaster of the school, PTA President, a representative of teachers and a nominee of local body. One of the members would be chosen as the President of the committee. The committee was aided to administer the scheme of supplying mid day meal in schools. The committee was to conduct the supply of Noon Meals in schools with the assistance of local people and Government. The committee selected the pupils for feeding. No eligible pupil was left out of the scheme. A state level committee was also constituted to review periodically the progress of implementation of the scheme.
3. The food grains used to feed the pupils were rice and green gram. The ration paid per pupil per day was 60 grams of rice coupled with green gram of 30 grams and palmolien I gram and condiments. Boiled rice and side dish prepared with green gram, palmolien and condiments were served as Noon Meal to every needy pupil.
4. The scheme was implemented through the heads of schools. The food materials for feeding were made available on credit basis through the Civil Supplies Corporation. The Heads of schools are to collect the feeding materials from the nearest Maveli store on production of indents duly passed by the Assistant Education Officer concerned.
5. The Noon Feeding Programme in the state is administered by the Director of Public Instruction at the state level and assisted by the Senior Administrative Assistant (NMP). At the District level the programme was supervised and inspected by the Deputy Director (Education) and supervisors of Noon Meal Programme. The Noon Meal supervisors visited the feeding centres and scrutinised the number of pupils, fed on the day of visit and examined the quality of cooked food supplied, functioning of feeding committee, facilities available in the school for cooking, stock of food materials, details of funds and its utilization etc. The visit report of the Noon Meal Supervisors are reviewed by Assistant Educational Officer and the Director of Public Instruction. The Director of Public Instruction issued suitable instruction of rectify the defects if found necessary in the implementation of the scheme. Annual verification of records was also conducted by the supervisors. The Assistant Educational Officers are the immediate controlling and inspecting officers at the lower level. The District Educational Officers also played a vital role in the implementation of the scheme.
6. Since the introduction of the NP-NSPE (National Programme National Support to Primary Education) by Government of India, on the 15th of August 1995, the noon feeding scheme of the State was also brought under the NP-NSPE. Accordingly, Government of India issues 100 gram rice/pupil completely free of cost to pupils of Standard. I to V, who are in the list of noon feeding.
7. But the scheme is introduced in Kerala, with a slight difference. Here the scheme is extended to pupils of Standard. VI and VII also, while Government of India considers only pupils of Standard. I to V. Similarly, while Government of India allows 100 gram of rice/pupil, we in the state supply only 60 gram/pupil. But in order to compensate this, 30 grams of any one pulse items such as Green gram, Bengal gram, Turdhal or Lobia is also supplied per pupil, as side dish, since the rice is supplied as cooked food to pupils. The entire cost of purchase of these pulse items is met by the State Government .
8. Moreover the Central Government is also financing partly the transportation cost of the rice lifted from the FCI godowns to Maveli Stores. The transportation cost paid to Maveli Stores by the State Government i.e. Rs. 140/Qtl. Out of this Rs. 140 Rs. 50/Qtl. is reimbursed by Government of India and the balance of Rs. 90/Qtl. is met by the State Government from the state budgetary provisions.
9. In addition to the above transportation cost and cost of purchase of pulse items, the State Government also meet the contingent charges of transportation of all these materials from Maveli Stores to schools as well as the fuel charges, cooking charges etc.
10. In addition to the regular noon feeding in schools special rice 5. Kg. per pupil, who are in the feeding list is supplied during Onam, X'mas and Ramzan. It was started from the Academic year 1997-98 and still continuing .
11. The contingent charges are paid to schools through local bodies and the fund is allotted by the General Education Department.
12. From 2008-2009 onwards, Online software created for supply of INDEND and the calculation of CONTIGENT CHARGES. It was very helpful to reduce the job of the officials for the calculation process
13. And now 2010-11, E-banking system had developed by the Government for the distribution of contingent charges,the amount of Egg distribution and the contingency for MILK Distribution.
Updated on: 03 May 2011
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A Twist Of Noir 107 - Walter Conley
LAST STOP, DULLSVILLE - WALTER CONLEY
It starts with the collision. Everything prior to that is gone. The collision itself, he re-lives in dreams—swirling, drug-sodden nightmares—that he awakens from mystified. Since the accident, he cannot see continuous motion or color. In the hospital room, pretending to be out, he listened to specialists mutter things like achromatic vision, no history of retinitis pigmentosa and hallmarks of conversion disorder. His life is a series of black-and-white stills. In dreams, as well, he can only see greys, but things progress at a normal clip.
As he was driving through the woods on a summer evening, a pick-up truck emerged from a side road and plowed into his door. There was no move to evade him. The truck didn’t even slow down. They, whoever they were, had done what they’d set out to do, which was to drive Paul off the road and into the woods, as hard as possible. Their intent was to kill him; of this, he has no doubt. Their motive, however, baffles him. Again and again, while he’s under, drugged into a stupor on the couch, he is there, winding through the trees, catching a sudden glare to his left and then pulling back and raising his hands and screaming.
He has the dream tonight.
When he comes to, it takes a moment for him to recover—not only from the trauma of the crash, but the fluid pace of the dream, as well. He sees the white of the cast on his leg, the gunmetal grey of his crutches, the duller grey of the floor and walls and the hard black panes of the windows, bare, as they suck in the country dark.
The cabin belongs to Roger, the elder of his wife’s two brothers. Roger bought the place as a refuge from everyday life. The problem was, the isolation and quiet unnerved him. Roger lacked the patience for a hobby. He never read. He needed to be constantly entertained, to have his attention pricked like a child. He tried having parties there, but his guests, of like temperament, developed cabin fever the moment they stepped inside, no matter how many revelers or types of debauchery he made available.
He decided to keep it as an investment or a possible contingency shelter. You never know, he liked to say. The last time he was there, on his way out, he nailed a hand-painted sign above the porch, which read:
DULLSVILLE
The night Paul was released from the hospital, his wife Nancy was there with her mother, Roger and her younger brother, Dennis. He took Roger’s word for the status of their relationship. To him, they were merely kind strangers. Roger had arranged for Paul to stay at the cabin. He explained DULLSVILLE on the way over. Take all the time you need, he said. You can move in, for all I care. He talked incessantly as he drove. Paul cringed in the passenger’s seat. Nancy and Dennis and their stone-faced mother sat in the back. He could hear them talking, but had trouble making out what they said.
Nancy, it so happened, was a beautiful woman. If he had a type, that would be it. When he first saw her at the hospital, he’d been surprised at his luck and was hoping for a kiss. She gave him a cold, rigid hug, instead, leaving him sad and even more bewildered.
Roger carried Paul’s bags inside, then gave him a quick tour. There was a living room up front, which “elled” into a kitchen back-right. Leading off the living room, in the opposite corner, were a bedroom, bathroom and storeroom, packed mostly with unused party supplies. Nancy and her mother cleaned the place, while Paul took meds, swayed and looked out the kitchen window. Roger left some numbers on the fridge. Nancy waved and averted her eyes.
And just like that, he was alone.
The days are short. They hop by, rather than spool. The doctor, a friend of Paul’s from college, gave him so many pills that he could have paved the driveway with them. Roger also donated some leftovers, mixed in a plastic food container. He sits on the couch and watches TV, his plastered leg on the ottoman, flipping between the “classic” movie channels, where most everything is already black-and-white, people stand still and the camera just sits there and watches, like him. The bottles are on the end table, with a glass. There is a carafe filled with ice-cold well-water on the floor. He takes pills when he feels like it, in one’s or two’s or three’s, not even bothering, after a while, to see what they are.
The dreams get more intense. While the accident is occurring, he hears voices: I saw you with him. Always me. You don’t know. Business. What the fuck do you care? My life. Glad. You never trust me, anyway...
The female voice is Nancy’s. The male’s, he supposes, is his own. They play through the crash, overlapping, fading in and out, a word here and there between the thumps and squeals and shattering glass. He and Nancy change parts. Or is it all her? It’s difficult to separate. Is he only listening to the dream and commenting, out loud, in the present?
“I think I’m losing my mind,” he says.
No one, real or remembered, answers him.
He has no idea how long he’s been there. No one comes to visit. Although Roger left numbers, there are no phones. The guide on the TV has a date, a time, but when did he come? What does it matter? Once, when he gets up from the chair to use the bathroom, Paul finds himself trapped in the kitchen and discovers that the refrigerator and cabinets are stocked. Most of it is snacks and he paws through it with no appetite.
In the storeroom, he finds party favors, hats, paper cups and plates, streamers, fireworks, cases of untouched alcohol, a cheap boxy strobe light, a pair of snowshoes, a pack of chopsticks, the skeleton of a rodent, long wooden matches, an empty wallet, a portable stereo, an album of CDs that look like they’re from a VH1 nostalgia collection, and, thumb-tacked to the wall, a tiny plastic robot doll, no bigger than his pinky. He removes three-quarters of the bottles from the case of gin, then fills the rest of it back up with assorted junk.
There is so much in that little room for his eyes to ratchet on that he gets confused as he’s attempting to find his way out.
What do you care? Nancy says.
He walks into a corner.
You don’t make the decisions and you’re not doing this to me.
Groaning, he walks and turns, tacking around, until he has found the doorway.
He turns off the light as he leaves. Her voice seems to come from the darkness behind him: Fine.
“Shut up!” he screams. “Shut the fuck up!”
We’ll certainly see about that, she says.
He can’t tell if it’s one of the unmarked pills or the fact that he’s washing them all down now with G&T’s, but Paul is feeling so thick he can hardly move. He unpacks the box and forgets about it. He puts on a party hat, puts a second on top of it, then takes the second one off. He wonders when Chuck Norris movies became American classics. They announce a David Lynch marathon. Paul, eyes closing, marvels at ERASERHEAD.
The dreams don’t improve and Nancy’s voice is everywhere.
How about this, she says.
His crutches, resting against the E-Z chair that matches his couch, look like giant sci-fi hypodermic needles.
You have no proof.
A moth lands on the window to his right. It must be day because the moth is black. Will it leave black powder on the glass?
I won’t let you.
There is a fluffy white dog that resembles the one he had as a child, but it vanishes as he calls it.
Time ticks by and, in a waking dream, he sees the crash, all out of order, then hears noises from the crash, but sees other things, like Nancy with her arms around a co-worker’s neck, he and Nancy fighting, him pointing at the door for Nancy to leave and her laughing, saying: I’m not going to lose everything I have because you’re feelings are hurt. We’ll get through this. And if we don’t, so what? You do your thing, I’ll do mine, but I’m not leaving and neither are you. I will not get a divorce!
“Nancy,” Paul says.
If you keep this up, I’ll tell Roger you’ve been hitting me and he’ll fucking kill you, Paul!
“You wouldn’t.”
Ha! You’re scared.
“Roger is a lunatic.”
I won’t take no for an answer.
“So are you.”
And I refuse to let some uptight judge tell me what I can and cannot have. If you don’t let this go, I’ll tell him. I mean it, Paul. I swear. Oh, God, I swear on my own sorry life. And then we’ll see what’s what.
There is a head in the window. It’s starting to get dark, but the head is there in silhouette. Paul recognizes it as one of the shadowed heads from the truck that nearly took his life. A moment later, he recognizes it as belonging to Roger, his brother-in-law.
There are two heads in the window. Roger and Dennis.
The window is empty.
One head, Roger’s, is in the window by the door.
“Don’t,” Paul says quietly. “Please, Roger. Don’t.”
He reaches for the glass, but changes his mind.
Night falls.
He stops taking pills.
The lights go out and the dark turns black. He watches the image on the old TV shrink to a pin-prick, then disappear.
There is a small tap, a grating sound as Roger turns the key in the front door. Paul can’t remember locking it, but is glad he did, even though Roger has a key.
The door swings open for a moment, then closes and the room is black again. Paul feels his heart actually slowing down, thudding in his chest. He rolls up off the couch and uses it as a guide to find the other end table. His fingers touch the battery-powered strobe. He flicks the toggle on the side of the box.
The living room starts to pulsate. In between the black spaces, Roger is there, by the door, looking perplexed, then grinning his stupid grin.
“What the hell?” he says.
He inches closer when the light is flashing, but freezes in the dark. In his hands are rope, a sack, a long wooden bat.
Paul moves his eyes with each on/off click and things begin to stream around him, almost like normal. He glimpses his reflection in a window, sees himself, mouth and eyes comically wide, groping around in a party hat.
“Welcome to my brain,” he says.
He takes the drinking glass off the first end table and throws it at Roger. It misses, smashing against the doorjamb. While Roger is reacting to that, Paul circles around and finds his crutches. He picks one up. Roger drops the rope and sack and, guessing where Paul is, swings the bat in the dark. Paul already has the crutch in the air. The bat catches it near the tip and breaks the last six inches off, causing Paul to lose his balance. He puts his weight on the cast and goes down hard. Roger is trying to get his bearings, grunting, swinging wildly now. Paul gets up, ignoring the sudden pain in his foot. He ducks under the bat and brings up the splintered metal crutch, driving it forward with all his might. It goes into something soft and is wrenched away from him. Paul topples forward. Warm, wet liquid sprays his face. Roger is tipping away, reclining, out of sight. There is a thump.
Paul steps back.
In the flashing light, he sees Roger on the floor with the crutch sticking out of his neck, blood spurting around it. Roger is motionless. The drops of blood suspended in the glare look like a crowd of angry insects.
The second head from the window is back again and then gone.
Paul hears Dennis running away.
Far off in the distance, through the woods, a pick-up truck starts.
He staggers to the couch, laughing because he just can’t help it. He drops onto the cushion. The remote is still beside him. He aims it at the TV, thumbs it, but nothing happens.
He laughs until he’s crying, then laughs some more.
The batteries in the strobe wear out.
Somewhere in the middle of that long, dark night, Nancy says: It’s not over, Paul.
“I thought I told you to shut up,” he says.
And this time, for once, she does.
BIO: Walter Conley has worked in comics, children's entertainment and film, but his first love is the short story. His crime fiction has appeared at such online venues as Blue Murder Magazine, Judas E-zine and Opi8. He can be reached at pitchbrite@yahoo.com.
Posted by Christopher Grant at 3:10 PM
Labels: Walter Conley
Kieran Shea said...
made my sunday.
Al Tucher said...
A real noir puzzle. Good job.
Walter Conley said...
Glad you enjoyed it. The story was based upon a series of b&w photographs a friend of mine shot while recovering from surgery.
Paul Brazill said...
great. clever stuuf.
A Twist Of Noir 113 - Jimmy Callaway
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A Twist Of Noir 109 - Stephen D. Rogers
A Twist Of Noir 108 - Gerald So
A Twist Of Noir 106 - Felix Cruz
Interlude: Eric Beetner On CrimeWav
A Twist Of Noir 105 - Roger Hobbs
A Twist Of Noir 104 - Michael J. Solender
A Twist Of Noir 103 - Alec Cizak
A Twist Of Noir 102 - Paul D. Brazill
Another Andy Henion Installment, Another Trio Of L...
A Twist Of Noir 101 - Andy Henion
Interlude: 100 Hundred Stories!
A Twist Of Noir 100 - Jake Hinkson
A Twist Of Noir 099 - David Price
A Twist Of Noir 097 - Jason Duke
A Twist Of Noir 096 - Keith Rawson
A Twist Of Noir 095 - Cameron Ashley
A Twist Of Noir 094 - Kevin Michaels
A Twist Of Noir 093 - Naomi Johnson
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Julia DeFelice Team Room
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00 - Samantha Brannigan
Hometown: Barrington, N.J.
High School: Haddon Heights
Position: GK
2012 (Freshman): Saw time in goal in five games and made one start… Recorded 228 minutes and ten seconds of playing time, recording 20 saves and allowing just two goals… Accumulated 0.79 goals-against average, 90.9% save percentage and a 1-0-0 record… Made collegiate debut against Cedar Crest and played 19 minutes without allowing a goal… Played the full 90 minutes and made one save in a shutout win over Cairn (9/15)… Made seven saves in 29:10 at Mary Washington (9/29)… Stopped a shot in 45 minutes against Valley Forge Christian (10/10)… Played a half at Salisbury and made a season-high 11 saves while allowing just one goal.
Club: Played for Chery Hill Football Club... Helped the club to Olympic Division Championships from 2008-2012.
High School: Played soccer (Ambrose), softball (Schitlig) and track & field (Hinger)... Named Second Team All-Conference after leading the team to a 15-5-1 record and a State Playoff appearance... Set school-record for the least amount of goals allowed in a season... Member of the Varsity Club, SADD and Student Council.
Personal: Born September 17, 1994... Daughter of Gerald and Valerie Brannigan.
Wed, 11/06 | Women's Soccer vs. Cabrini L, 2-0 (Final) RC | BX | V
Tue, 10/29 | Women's Soccer vs. Neumann W, 2-0 (Final) RC | BX | V
Sat, 10/26 | Women's Soccer at Marywood L, 1-0 (Final) RC | BX | V
Wed, 10/23 | Women's Soccer vs. Marymount (Va.) W, 3-0 (Final) RC | BX | V
Sat, 10/19 | Women's Soccer at Immaculata W, 2-1 (Final) RC | BX | V
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Select All Deselect All [1–10] << 11 12 13 14 15 16 >>
Zhang, G., Li, L., Jiang, Y., Shen, X., & Li, D. (2018). On-Orbit Relative Radiometric Calibration of the Night-Time Sensor of the LuoJia1-01 Satellite. Sensors (Basel), 18(12).
Abstract: The LuoJia1-01 satellite can acquire high-resolution, high-sensitivity nighttime light data for night remote sensing applications. LuoJia1-01 is equipped with a 4-megapixel CMOS sensor composed of 2048 x 2048 unique detectors that record weak nighttime light on Earth. Owing to minute variations in manufacturing and temporal degradation, each detector's behavior varies when exposed to uniform radiance, resulting in noticeable detector-level errors in the acquired imagery. Radiometric calibration helps to eliminate these detector-level errors. For the nighttime sensor of LuoJia1-01, it is difficult to directly use the nighttime light data to calibrate the detector-level errors, because at night there is no large-area uniform light source. This paper reports an on-orbit radiometric calibration method that uses daytime data to estimate the relative calibration coefficients for each detector in the LuoJia1-01 nighttime sensor, and uses the calibrated data to correct nighttime data. The image sensor has a high dynamic range (HDR) mode, which is optimized for day/night imaging applications. An HDR image can be constructed using low- and high-gain HDR images captured in HDR mode. Hence, a day-to-night radiometric reference transfer model, which uses daytime uniform calibration to calibrate the detector non-uniformity of the nighttime sensor, is herein built for LuoJia1-01. Owing to the lack of calibration equipment on-board LuoJia1-01, the dark current of the nighttime sensor is calibrated by collecting no-light desert images at new moon. The results show that in HDR mode (1) the root mean square of mean for each detector in low-gain (high-gain) images is better than 0.04 (0.07) in digital number (DN) after dark current correction; (2) the DN relationship between low- and high-gain images conforms to the quadratic polynomial mode; (3) streaking metrics are better than 0.2% after relative calibration; and (4) the nighttime sensor has the same relative correction parameters at different exposure times for the same gain parameters.
Zhang, K., Zhong, X., Zhang, G., Li, D., Su, Z., Meng, Y., et al. (2019). Thermal Stability Optimization of the Luojia 1-01 Nighttime Light Remote-Sensing Camera's Principal Distance. Sensors (Basel), 19(5), 990.
Abstract: The instability of the principal distance of the nighttime light remote-sensing camera of the Luojia 1-01 satellite directly affects the geometric accuracy of images, consequently affecting the results of analysis of nighttime light remote-sensing data. Based on the theory of optical passive athermal design, a mathematical model of optical-passive athermal design for principal distance stabilization is established. Positive and negative lenses of different materials and the mechanical structures of different materials are matched to optimize the optical system. According to the index requirements of the Luojia 1-01 camera, an image-telecentric optical system was designed under the guidance of the established mathematical model. In the temperature range of -20 degrees C to +60 degrees C, the principal distance of the system changes from -0.01 mum to +0.28 mum. After on-orbit testing, the geometric accuracy of the designed nighttime light remote-sensing camera is better than 0.20 pixels and less than index requirement of 0.3 pixels, which indicating that the principal distance maintains good stability on-orbit and meets the application requirements of nighttime light remote sensing.
Keywords: Instrumentation; Luojia 1-01; nighttime light remote-sensing camera; principal distance; optical-passive athermal design; thermal stability
Zheng, Q., Weng, Q., & Wang, K. (2019). Developing a new cross-sensor calibration model for DMSP-OLS and Suomi-NPP VIIRS night-light imageries. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 153, 36–47.
Abstract: Night-time light (NTL) data provides a great opportunity to monitor human activities and settlements. Currently, global-scale NTL data are acquired by two satellite sensors, i.e., DMSP-OLS and VIIRS, but the data collected by the satellites are not compatible. To address this issue, we proposed a method for generating long-term and consistent NTL data. First, a logistic model was employed to estimate and smooth the missing DMSP-OLS data. Second, the Lomb-Scargle Periodogram technique was used to statistically examine the presence of seasonality of monthly VIIRS time series. The seasonal effect, noisy and unstable observations in VIIRS were eliminated by the BFAST time-series decomposition algorithm. Then, we proposed a residuals corrected geographically weighted regression model (GWRc) to generate DMSP-like VIIRS data. A consistent NTL time series from 1996 to 2017 was formed by combining the DMSP-OLS and synthetic DMSP-like VIIRS data. Our assessment shows that the proposed GWRc model outperformed existing methods (e.g., power function model), yielding a lower regression RMSE (6.36), a significantly improved pixel-level NTL intensity consistency (SNDI = 82.73, R2 = 0.986) and provided more coherent results when used for urban area extraction. The proposed method can be used to extend NTL time series, and in conjunction with the upcoming yearly VIIRS data and Black Marble daily VIIRS data, it is possible to support long-term NTL-based studies such as monitoring light pollution in ecosystems, and mapping human activities.
Keywords: Remote Sensing; Instrumentation
Zoogman, P., Liu, X., Suleiman, R. M., Pennington, W. F., Flittner, D. E., Al-Saadi, J. A., et al. (2016). Tropospheric emissions: Monitoring of pollution (TEMPO). Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer, 186, 17–39.
Keywords: Instrumentation, Remote Sensing
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The Interswitch Conundrum
Interswitch is Nigeria’s foremost payments company and we had an animated discussion over the weekend in the Silicon Africa Facebook group over the decision of Interswitch to reduce connection fees by merchants registered with SMEDAN (Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria).
Bankole Oluwafemi was inspired by this discussion to put up a blog post on Techloy titled “We Hate Interswitch So Much We Are Going To Disrupt Them”. A lot of this post is based on my comment in response on his article.
I guess that by the “WE” he means the new payment initiatives in Nigeria which he later acknowledged also have no choice but to connect to Interswitch as well.
As far as I am concerned, the way I see it is this: The problem with Interswitch is not Interswitch it is Nigerian banks, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria InterBank Settlement System (NIBSS), Valucard(Visa) etc..... I can keep naming all the players who have been complacent and have not pushed the payments space to the very edge in Nigeria. I had mentioned in an earlier post that most banks in Africa are not innovative do little to grow markets and that was the same case with Nigerian Payments. Interswitch actually aggressively grew the payments space and we must give them credit for that.
Interswitch was primarily licensed as a switching company and NOT as an online payment gateway, a card issuing company or an acquirer but it has evolved to fill all those needs in a less than satisfactory way because the policies were flawed and the competitors were either dormant or playing by the book. The banks who were once shareholders who formed it abdicated all their responsibilities to create a monster child. Each area of business Interswitch tries to dabble into outside its core switching function are actually huge business areas in their own right and they formed subsidiaries from the main payment switching companies to address them. Other companies can also work with Interswitch to perform these functions in the marketplace but obviously Interswitch’s subsidiaries have an unfair advantage over all others and the regulators or the banks should have seen this coming.
All banks are interconnected by switches and NIBSS and every Nigerian bank has the capability to build their own payment gateway or become a major issuer or acquirer and some of them actually have done so but a majority choose to abdicate this responsibility to Interswitch. The few exceptions are either the foreign owned banks and the really forward thinking local banks like Zenith or (sadly) GTBank.
Interswitch has been successful no doubt even though its strategy for survival and self perpetuation has been aggressive. They have been able to push the envelope to the point where they almost owned the entire post office. On its way there the banks, CBN and other idle bystanders stood there waiting until they became the gatekeepers for all payment initiatives in Nigeria.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has a lot of licenses for stored value providers, switching companies etc but how many people or enterprises have had the vision or foresight to invest time and effort in doing the hard work to get these licenses and build something truly awesome from the ground? We all dont want to do the hard work but want to do the easy work on the web. Paypal grew not because of its web front end but because it fought hard to build relationships with banks and card associations.
To be fair however, the banks seemed to have also conspired against the growth of other switches as those not owned by the banks like Etranzact have struggled while others like Chams have died. But a banker once told me that one of the main reasons why they support and prefer Interswitch was because of reliability and uptime. Other players do not take service delivery and service levels on their switching platforms as seriously as Interswitch. A lot of the consistently high service levels to the banks came from the fact that Interswitch was run by the CEO as a foreign startup and not a local bank or civil service.
Interswitch employees are highly motivated and are well compensated for their efforts. I have not seen the same passion and zeal I have seen from Interswitch workers elsewhere in the Nigerian financial industry. Interswitch had to fight to survive as they had limited capital to start with as they were funded from SME funds set aside by each bank. The banks could not put in more money than they had initially invested and the company had to make money for itself. Mitchel Elegbe the CEO is from my alma mater and that tenacity is what you pick up from UNIBEN.
Where Interswitch has failed is in not recognizing their weaknesses and allowing those who are strong in those areas to take charge while they work with them. The payment gateway service is problematic. Backoffice reconciliation with 3rd parties take too long and they are not the strongest on user interface or user experience. Collaboration with Interswitch is difficult because of their aggresion. A lot of people are afraid to take ideas to them as they are afraid it would be hijacked and that fear is largely justified as I have indirectly been a victim but that is another story for another time.
Other than the deeply flawed mobile payments initiatives, current payment drives in Nigeria focus largely on the web interface. POS infrastructure is still epileptic and no sensible investments have been made by players to really move things forward. In 2006 when I came back from the UK, I was part of a team that tried to do a management buyout of another major payment company with the same roots as Interswitch to put in place the largest POS infrastructure in Africa but potential investors were not interested. They backed out at the last minute to go into other more lucrative areas as they thought payments was still a niche business where the banks will continue to stifle innovation. When I heard of the recent Adlevo/Helios led investment in Interswitch it was validation of what I had always said that the payments market in Nigeria needs major investment. It was basically money to allow Interswitch get the banks out of the way so they can grow.
I doubt that any of the players on the web layer will do anything to dent Interswitch's dominance in payments for now but they can give it a better more human and business friendly face by aggregating connections to it. Interswitch has always been better suited to be a backend switch and a payments aggregator and not a front-end solution so while we wait for the messiah in switching (NIBSS) to wake up we should tolerate them for now while we wait to see if the CBN will allow telcos to build the infrastructure for high speed trains to move value around instead of rickety molues or danfos. BRT buses are just glorified molues and will not make much of a difference as they will still go at the same speed when the roads have potholes in them. Once the road is made smooth, even interswitch will fly.
1 visitor upvoted this post.
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The rumbling of the passing ship died down quickly, which was fine; it had been barely noticeable in the first place. Vince suspected that it would be landing any moment now, if they could find a space that was either good enough or big enough, whichever was ultimately cheaper.
He shifted his weight, his body rubbing out groans from the aged polyester and foam. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something that was hiding in one of the bigger cracks; taking a moment to nod his head, he spotted a pack of cigarettes, complete with a green lighter. Outside of his eyesight, the lady with red hair stepped up to the stage, the music becoming more of a throb as it built up to a climax.
He knew what the ciggs were there for, and he was tempted to pull one out and light it. He needed a job, and he wasn't about to argue about legal issues. Still, it would be terrible if he got in over his head. So, he pulled out out, placing it perpendicular to him on the table, lighter in his left hand. And sure enough, movement caught the corner of his eye.
He recognized this man; the aged, limping figure with long, white haired quietly made his way towards Vince. The man was dressed in a massive black trench coat, with his left arm shoved into the top like it was being held in a sling. The man's left foot was nonexistent; instead, one could see the blunt end of a polymer peg, which was merely the end of a modern peg-leg, complete with shock-absorbing springs and the latest in manufacturing technology. The man's face was scarred heavily on the left side, accented by a metal eye patch that was literally nailed to his face.
Vince smiled at his old friend as he approached the table, and was the first to speak - with sarcasm. "Ahab, you look well."
Ahab smiled, and spoke with his usual raspy, thin voice. "An' yer full o' shit."
The two men shared a chuckle, and Ahab sat down across from Vince, the lady continuing her dance. Not quite interested with the dancing now, Vince instead looked at his friend. "How's life been, Ahab?"
Ahab scruffily coughed, which was really a grunted laugh. "Shit, as always. Findin' work's been a twit of a hard time, ye know? But I've...found a new 'n. 'N old friend o' ours. Well..." Ahab glanced away, knowing what he was going to happen. "'O course, I don' tink yer on the right page with him, yah?"
Vince blinked for just a moment, as he caught what old Ahab was implying. His face turned sour with mild anger as he leaned forward, over the table. "Oh no, no no no no." he half whispered. "I am not falling for his shit again. You remember the last fuck-up I had to deal with because of Mister Frank Belgur? I lost my ship to THIRTY-THREE MILES of landscape, not to mention that I was in one of his private hospitals for six months!" Vince leaned back, glancing away from the table in complete confusion. "Don't tell me you've already forgotten what you lost that day, Ahab? I mean, you stayed in there for a year and a half..."
Ahab's head snapped back to face Vince, his one remaining eye blazing afire. "Didn' your mother teach yer fuckin' manners?" he spit. "I bloody well rem'mber what I lost," he said, now the one leaning over the table. "But I got my shit 'n order. Money comes first here, Vincent. Don' forget it."
"I haven't, Ahab. But I refuse to work for that sorry shit." Vince slammed the rest of the ale down his throat, catching glimpse of the dirty money being shoved into the redhead's g-string. "Belgur nearly killed me, and then 'forgot' to help me finance the salvage of what ended up being, what, 25% usable parts? I had to rebuild Old Lady Cadence from pretty well nothing, Ahab, and that shit you have for a boss gave me a reaming for losing his stolen 'pharmaceuticals'." Vince shook his head violently. "If he'd gotten HIS shit straight, then HIS shit wouldn't have become part of the goddamn landscape."
Ahab sighed. "Vincent, it's nah that simple. Belgur's gott'n pretty big here 'n Avarice. He's got 'employees', 'hired help', 'nd 'unofficial help' everywhere. They're the one's tha' tipped me off to you bein' here."
Vince stared hard at Ahab. "So what? What's he gonna try? He gonna try to kill me? Blow up Cadence II?" Vince made a facial expression of sheer stupidity. "So? He nearly did that last time, and that wasn't even trying" Vince sighed. "Guess he could at least get it right this time, eh?"
Ahab shuddered, an act which would have made lesser men sick with worry. "If it had been someone else here to meet you, you'd already been dead." He looked sternly at Vince. "I'm givin' ya two things: time, and a job. Don't want em?" Ahab coughed/chuckled again. "Then I'll be goin'."
Vince only looked past him, back to the lady on the stage, who had just picked up her robe. 'She's not that bad--'
--"Ye best be gettin' on out, too," Ahab told him, interrupting his thought. "Ye might not have minutes." And with that, Ahab stood up, and limped his way out. Vince was only sad that his former friend had fallen so far.
He looked over to a very well endowed waitress near the bar, who was lustily watching the lady exit the stage. He just watched her for several seconds, until she took a moment to gaze around the roomy building. When her eyes began to graze over him, he raised his empty mug in silent protest. She visibly frowned, but nevertheless proceeded over to him.
When she hastily snatched his mug from his hand, Vince raised one finger at her. After producing a 5C check, which the waitress pocketed neatly between her firm breasts, he simply asked her to "make it something strong." She only nodded, and waltzed off, her ass swaying back and forth. Watching her go, he marveled at how ones libido could start messing with ones head. 'It HAS been a while...' he thought to himself.
Sipping on the beer, Jenna contemplated on what to do next. She had credits to be sure, but not nearly enough on hand for the 20k star-drive, especially considering how most of her credits were used just retrofitting her ship with some certain, as they say, "illegal" weaponry and equipment. As she brooded on this fact, she hardly noticed another customer take the stool next to her and order up a fairly expensive shot of vodka, that is until he spoke up.
"Vaessen, long time no see."
Jenna immediately turned to face the person talking to her, hand inches from her pistol.
"Hah, Vic, didn't expect to see you out here. Usually you like to hang around the upscale districts." she responded warmly, relaxing her hand and taking another drink.
"Well, to be honest, I was looking for you. Come, lets go somewhere a tad more private. I have to tell you something..." Vic Patterson told her, downing his shot and standing up.
"Meh, fine, led the way." Jenna responded, finishing off her drink as well.
The two walked across the crowded street and Vic motioned to Jenna to follow him into the strip-club. Jenna nodded and they entered, pushing past some mangled old patron in the process. The place was seedy to be sure, but fortunately, it was not very crowded. Plenty of loud music and other noise though would ensure that their conversation would not be picked up by any unfriendly ears, if they stayed quite.
Walking past the mostly empty booths, Vaessen and Vic took a seat at the far end of the joint.
"Ok, you drug me into this dump, so what is so damn important that you couldn't tell me outside." Jenna said to Vic, crossing her arms in annoyance.
"Jenna," he whispered, bringing his head in closer to her.
"They have just bumped you onto the bounty list."
"What!" Jenna burst out, drawing the galances of the few custormers who were not drunk off their asses, before regaing her composure and leaning in wisper back to Vic.
"When did that happen? I haven't been active for over two months."
"Seems that they have stuck yah for the military shipping raid of last month, don't yah know. Don't know why, considering that everyone and their dog knows that no single person could have pulled that one off." Vic whispered to a now very shocked Jenna.
"How, how long has the bounty been up?" she asked, her voice shaking a bit.
"Just about eighteen hours now, been looking for you for fifteen of those hours."
"Here, managed to rip the official printout off of the Hunter Guild site." Vic said as he pulled a piece of folded paper out of his pocket and handed it to Jenna.
"Luckily the info on you is about six months old, and I see you have changed your hair and appearance a bit since then. Still, if any expert Hunters pick this contract up, which they will, I am sure, then you will be freaking dead if you don't get out of here, fast." Vic whispered, pulling out a cigarette and lighting up.
Jenna meanwhile just unfolded the paper, and stared at it. 50,000 Credits dead, 70,000 alive. That was the bounty out on her now. Someone, somewhere, wanted her dead and fast, as there was no way that the authorities would even have any information on her, much less pin the Wellington Raid on her.
"Listen, I wish I could help you, I really do, especially considering how I was the one that got yah on your feet in this biz in the first place. But my hands are tied, Hell, I've taken a big risk just in finding you and giving you this info. Can't say anymore. Here..." Patterson said, reaching into his pocket and handing Vaessen a 500 credit check.
"All I have on me. Find a way out of here. Lie low in the outer rim or something for a few months, until other bounties pop up. Then come see me at the place at Sigma-IV. Good luck, Vaessen."
And with that, Vic, Jenna's longtime friend and Hell, even mentor for a time, got up, nodded at her, then strolled out the door. Jenna however didn't even really notice. All she could do is stair at the bounty information sheet, going over it again and again.
"Shit," she finally muttered to herself. "This is not good at all..."
Two men clad in body armour and holding rifles stormed into the church. The letters 'APD' were printed onto their chests and back. Godfrey raised his hands above his heads, and knelt. This was the fifth incident in the space of three months.
"Shit, Godfrey." Said one of the men, moving cautiously across the church, checking every shadow for movement. "Not again."
"They attacked me. It was self defense." Answered the preist.
"Yeah, I bet."
The two men reached the priest. One pressed him down onto the ground, and searched him, as was standard procedure. The other checked the youths for life signs.
"We got a weak pulse, I'm calling the paramedics."
"Roger."
Godfrey closed his eyes as his face was pressed against the wooden floor, and his hands were cuffed.
"We're going to have to take you down to the centre for this, preist. This is serious stuff, what the Hell happened?"
"I told you, they attacked me."
The vessel weaved in and out of Avarice's rush hour. Godfrey sat in silence with his eyes closed under the watchful gaze of an APD operative. He played back the scenes of his ordeal in his mind. He was certain of his innocence, even God would forgive his submission to violence. He had been here a dozen times before, he would be thrown into a cell for twenty four hours, made to write a statement, and then he would be released. Two weeks later he would need to appear before a judge, and explain his case. A week after that, he would be free and able to return to his church. It was a routine he had picked up during his time in Sector K.
"Low lives." Said the operative, checking his pistol. "You've done a good thing priest, word has it these three were wanted for everything from rape, to fraud, to arseon and murder."
Godfrey remained silent. In his eyes, he had done nothing good. He had taken life - God would take this into account and judge him for it.
Undeath
You run fowards, narrowly escaping a string of bullets as they splash onto the ground to your left. Dust and concrete kicks up with each earth-shattering impact. You don't stop to return fire - it's hopeless. Two thugs with machine pistols on an elevated position have the immediate advantage, and it would require more than your standard issue P889 7.89mm sidearm to bring them down in a toe-to-toe fire fight. No. You must use your wit to tacke this obstacle.
You reach the safety of a low lying brick wall, and duck beneath another hail of mindless anger. You breathe deeply; your chest heaves and staggers. Adrenaline fills yours veins. A bullet skims past your face and hits the concrete pavement infront of you, and you are prompted to stoop lower.
'How do you like that, you fucking goverment dog?' You hear one of your attackers cackle. You do not reply, but instead, you remain cowering.
The radio on your shoulder crackles. 'Back up enroute, ETA: 15 minutes.'
Fifteen minutes. You'll be dead in fifteen minutes. You give a guilty gaze across the street, and lay your eyes upon your downed comrade. Lifeless, he lays, a man of fifty, grey haired, pierced by bullets and left in a pool of cooling blood. You want to do something, to avenge him, but you are powerless.
Another barrage hits the wall, and you are forced even lower. You want to return fire, you want to release your anger, but you can't. You're pinned down. All the same, you know if you remain, there's a good chance your cover will be penetrated and you will be left in the same state as your comrade: dead. Upon this realisation, you finally decide to take action, to throw your life away to the wheels of Lady Luck.
You check the bullets in your sidearm. Six shots. The others were wasted. You can't afford to miss, or you'll surely be finished. But how can you return fire? You look around. The wall extends itself for thirty yards, before ending at the entrance of a concrete courtyard. The thugs are upon the hotel beyond. Your mind analyses your tactical options, but comes to a hasty, sound conclusion.
You lower yourself onto your stomach, and crawl across the pavement, hugging as close to the wall as you can. The thugs cannot see your movement, they merely continue to spray the same portion of wall. Slowly, you make your way - a million thoughts pass through your head. Life could well end this day, but you know this is why you signed up, you know this is what happens in Sector K. You want to make a difference - you can make a difference.
You reach the end of the wall. You check back on yourself - bullets continue to tear apart the wall you were previously hidden behind. Cautiously, you lean out, you spot the thugs - standing upon a second floor balcony of the hotel. They have no cover, they are in the open. Drugged up no doubt, high on arrogance and with very little to lose. Even if you die, you know your comrades will arrive and deal with them severely. Their motives and aims are beyond you.
Bringing your sidearm up, you train the telescopic sights on the nearest of the thugs. One hundred yards, yet you can see the colour of his eyes, the spots of white on his red bandanna. You steady your aim, you place a calm finger on the trigger. You squeeze. Your arm recoils briefly. The sound of the shot deafens you for a split second, and then you watch as the thug tips over the balcony, and falls onto the courtyard with a thump.
The other thug gauges your position. He withdraws into the hotel. Though fearful for your life, you persue him. Picking yourself up, you sprint over the courtyard, briefly ensuring the downed convict is dead - he is, a bullet to the head. You cautiously walk up to the entrance of the hotel. You shove open the double glass doors, and are greeted by a reception desk. No one stands behind the desk, but there is bullet holes in the wall behind, accompanied by blood spatters. As you approach, you notice a young, blonde haired girl breathing deeply on the floor, clutching her arm as it bleeds onto the tiled flooring.
"Stay here, you're safe now." You reassure her.
You move on, taking a left. There's an elevator and a staircase - you know the elevator is a fool's choice, so you take the stairs. As you climb the hotel, you can hear the panicked cries of the thug in the floors above, yelling and shooting. Passing the fifth floor, a man in his sixties flies past you. You grab him by the arm, and wave your badge to his face.
'Where is he?' You asked, straight to the point.
The old man must be a veteran - he is not shaken, but merely calm; trying to preserve his life.
'The seventh floor, room 201. He may have moved since then.'
You continue your climb. The sixth floor passes you. You focus your pistol on the next flight of stairs. The thug can still be heard.
'Get in here you bitch, I'm going to fucking pin-tail your ass!'
You shrug. Drugged up maniac. Too deluded by the persuit of rape and other unwholly sports to remember his peril. You reach the seventh floor - a door of red labled by a rustic number seven on its center. A quick kick sends it off its hinges, and you enter.
A customary check to either side of you reveals a vacant corridor. Room 199 confronts you to your immediate front. The thug roars - his words cut in from your left. You follow their origin. Room 200 passes by. A woman screams pleas of mercy. Room 201 stands before you.
The door has already been kicked in. The woman's cries of anguish increase, and you are led by sense of duty, to advance immediately. Entering the room, you step over the already cold corpse of a man in his twenties, and enter a living room. Another man lays on the floor, with a rope tight around his neck. The woman screams again - to your right. You turn, you see the bedroom door half open. You see movement.
Rushing in, you focus your aim on the thug.
'APD! Freeze!' You challenge.
The thug has his trousers down by his ankles. In his drug induced dream, he barely recognises you. The woman beneath him looks at you with a face of desperation. You don't take the time to challenge the crook twice, you are too anger-filled. A squeeze of the trigger sends him tumbling off of the bed.
The woman runs out of the room; her dress in a tumbled mass of rags. She darts past you. You take no notice, instead, you round the bed, you check your enemy. He lays on the floor, choking on his own blood.
'Fucking pig.' He splutters.
You move closer, you pick up his machine pistol, and slide it into an opposite corner of the room. Your radio crackles.
'Backup, ETA: five minutes. Hang in there Jason.'
You grab the radio and hold it close to your mouth. 'Negative. Situation under control. Hostiles down. Get the paramedics.'
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Jocelyn wiped the sweat off of her neck and forehead, and threw the used napkin in the bin. She took a deep breath, and another shot of Vodka. Counting out her money, she smiled briefly, realizing she had enough to barter a ride off of this God forsaken planet. If she got out now, there was a good chance she wouldn't be caught and taken back to the lab.
She was lost deep in her thoughts when there was a knock at the door.
"Yes?" She said, looking up at the door, with a sigh.
"Hey girl. There is a man out here who looks like he could use a pick-me-up, if you know what I mean. Could make a good 50c off of him. Here, take this to him." The waitress handed her a double shot of bourbon and left the room.
Even though she knew she had enough money to get out, she also knew she couldn't leave the club without doing what was asked of her. The owner was known for roughing up girls who refused to give lap dances when told to. So, she turned back to the mirror, spruced up her hair, dabbed on a small splash of perfume, and headed out of the door.
As she exited, she looked at the waitress at the bar, who pointed over to the man who had just been talking to one of her regulars. Nodding, she walked over slowly, grabbing his attention, hoping to reel him in. She didn't really want to do it, but she had no choice, so she might as well give it her all.
As she reached the table, she set the drink down in front of him, and leaned over to whisper in his ear. "You looking for a private dance tonight, hon?" She waited patiently for a response.
Traken
Viking Pillager
Lentin looked up at the sign promising "Girls, Gilrs, Girls" lit up in a horrendous neon pink, and with a sigh, pulled a hand out of his pocket to push the door open.
As was fitting with the rest of the area, the door showed its dilapidated condition, creaking noisily as it swung on its hinges. The fact that the door wasn't a self-opening sliding door was enough of an indication of the quality of the establishment.
Quickly, his eyes adjusted to the dark, the dull pulses of the music completely ignored. He walked to a booth away from the other patrons, seating himself in such a way as to keep an eye on the door and all the other people in the club.
Pulling a datapad from his pocket, he began to scan through some bounty information before a waitress with breasts that seemed larger than her head toddled over, asking for his particular choice of poison.
"Gin. Neat, please," he replied, wondering how the girl, who seemed to barely be out of school, could walk with those monstrosities.
With a smile that was designed to get her a good tip, she left the table to acquire the beverage, once again leaving Lentin to his datapad. Jenna Vaessen. Quite a hefty sum had been put up on her name, with not too much info to go on. The image of her was low quality and obviously old, but enough to get a decent grasp of her features, and enough for the datapad to chew on.
Punching in a few commands, he let the pad process the information, turning it down as the waitress returned with his drink.
At least the glass is clean, he thought as he took a sip.
The pad vibrated slightly, signaling its completion. Turning it over again, Lentin looked at the display, scrolling through the large amount of potential appearance changes that could have been made short of cosmetic surgery.
With a slight yawn, he looked up from the display, glancing around at the others in the room. Some new girl, a brunette, had taken her place on the stage, a small handful of men crowded around the railing, proffering credit bills to her. A red headed girl, obviously an employee, was currently whispering in the ear of some man sitting at a table. Probably trying to make a quick cred. Rolling his eyes, he surveyed others in the room. Several other men scattered about, some clearly interested in the show, others not, and one woman sitting alone in a booth at the other end of the room.
Lentin continued to let his gaze wander, before something struck him. Quickly, his eyes snapped back to the woman in the booth, and then down to his pad. Scrolling through the list again, he found the potential image he wanted. Staring at it hard, he quickly glanced up at the woman, and then back down again. Hmm... The features were slightly different, but the resemblance was closer than mere coincidence.
The corners of his mouth creeping up slightly, Lentin pocketed the datapad and stood, taking his drink in hand. Taking a sip, he made his way across the room to the lone booth, and leaned against the back.
"Well hi there. Might I have the honor of buying you a drink?" he asked, flashing an award winning smile.
Originally Posted by Gorbet
I don't give an oodnadatta if you can't gundagai my uluru. Feel pitjanjatjara to wolloomoolloo my wingecarribee.
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The waitress had only been gone for a few moments, but his mind recorded minutes of passing time. Somewhere, he thought he heard someone shout, but the club's ever-present music made it impossible to tell. It was permeating every action, every thought that pulsed in The Man Trap. Even Vince couldn't think anymore, thanks to: the idea of these next hours being his last; the idea of his former friend working for the scumbag that scarred him; the idea that he, for once in his life, had no way out...all sinking in.
When a few minutes finally passed by, he took notice of the surroundings; as in, he noticed nothing had changed. It was only five minutes later, there were still strippers...and...'Isn't that the waitress I just asked to get me something strong?' he mused, looking her over twice to make sure as she stepped up to a far-too-serious man who didn't seem to want to be here. 'Yep, no mistaking the tits on that one. Where the hell's my damn drink?'
A moment later, he caught a sight of the redhead from before. She was making her way to him, with a double shot of, well, something in her hand. What really set him off wasn't the way she looked; she was fair, to be honest, but in an ordinary setting, he would have been polite and non-personal at best. But the way she presented herself; her confident, sultry swagger, and her eyes, glimmering with a sexual, wicked violence...
His balls drew up, tingling, as his senses gorged upon her. Were his mind thinking rationally, he would have recognized the feelings in his lower regions; feelings not unlike when a teen boy truly encounters a girl for the first time. His pulse quickened as she came closer, her perfume adding a rich spice to the intoxicating visual salsa. He had forgotten the warnings of his last few hours alive, for he now felt alive. Being alone for so long had made him weak against the intoxications of a good woman.
She came up to him, leaning close enough for him to feel her heat, to see the small beads of sweat that dotted her skin like fine jewels. "You looking for a private dance tonight, hon?" she whispered, the cool air of her mouth tickling his ear, bringing goosebumps of excitement up his spine.
He turned his head slowly, his eyes caught in hers like animals in hunter's traps. "Well, I asked the waiter for 'something strong'..." He licked his drying lips. "So, she's definitely earned her tips tonight. One last, good night for me..." He trailed off, his eyes flickering away for a moment as he lett the recent memories of Ahab drop with his voice. She didn't need to know; it would only make things worse.
His eyes returned to her Venusian* gaze, and he gently pulled his black jacket into his grasp. "I hope you don't mind a couple more loaded guns, but sometimes one's natural equipment isn't very useful," he jokingly remarked, letting her see his two pistols hiding in the jacket's custom-made holsters. One was solid black, almost onyx colored, with three white letters stenciled, on the right side, in no-nonsense font: SAM. The other pistol was silver, polished to a near-mirror shine. Though identical to SAM, this one had a different, feminine name emblazoned on its left side, one written in a very ornate, flowing, black font: JUDE.
After this quick peek, he folded the jacket over his left arm, taking natural pains to make sure the pistols were not obvious bulges; not that anyone in Avarice(save for the APC) really cared. His right hand found her right hand; her left hand still carried the drink. "Take me where you wish...you may be mine tonight, but I am most certainly yours as well."
*I meant that as in the Greek God Venus, not as in someone from the planet Venus
As the strip-clubs' music pulsed, Jenna continued to stair down at the paper, her mind racing. She was just an upper-mid level criminal, at best, and yet somehow, someway, her name had found its' way onto the bounty list. This was unthinkable, impossible, and yet it was true.
Finally snapping out of her mild stupor however, Jenna folded the paper up and stuck it inside her jacket.
"Ok, with the 500 credit check... Vic, left me, I at am what? 8,900 credits now? Shit, still not enough." Vaessen thought to herself, going over the math in her head.
As Jenna continued to be lost in her own thoughts, someone suddenly said, "Well hi there. Might I have the honor of buying you a drink?" and she nearly jumped out of her seat in surprise.
"Huh, what did you say." she managed to say, trying to regain her composure.
"I said, my I buy you a drink?" the stranger said.
Thinking it over quickly, Jenna decided that she might as well play along, as perhaps she could rob him later or something to that effect.
"Uhh, sure I guess. The name is Alexia, Alexia Floras." Jenna said polity, offering a seat across from her.
"Heh, in a place like this, this guy should be an easy mark." Vaessen thought to herself, a slight smile forming on her face.
The medic checks you over with his scanner. A blue line of light passes through your body from head to toe, giving you a slightly tingling sensation. At length, the medic sighs and puts his equipment away.
'You were the lucky one.' He says to you softly.
You nod. He's right. 'What of the other tango? Did he make it?'
The medic shakes his head, before fastening the belt on his first-aid satchel. 'You split his liver in two. The hosptials arn't too keen on treating those sorts of injuries when they belong to scum like him.'
You nod again. 'Can I go now?'
The medic bows his head and points towards the door of the ambulance. You get up off of the bed and head towards them. Another day of savage duty has passed you by. Yet another friend has fallen to the slaughter, you think to yourself, taking time to memorise the dead-cold face of your comrade. You struggle to remember his name, was it Terry? Or was it David? You shrug. It doesn't matter. You know anyone with a badge and a will to carry out justice is a good friend in a world gone crazy.
You leap from the back of the ambulance and land with your feet gentley pressing on the cracked disused road. Two armoured personnel carrier craft are still at the scene, with their blue sirons pulsing, but not making a sound. APD operatives have cordoned off the hotel, and men in white suits - the foresnic teams - are picking up shell casings. You catch a glimpse of your comrade as he is wheeled into the back of an ambulance. Twenty one years he had been on the force, he had said, twenty one years. Twenty one years of luck ended by a strike of bullets. It was a horrible end, you tell yourself, to be cut down as you attempt to intervene in what appears to be a simple mugging. It could have easily have just been you going into the back of that ambulance.
'Yo, trooper.' Someone calls with a raised voice.
You turn. A dark skinned man in a bracken trench coat is motioning you over. He draws a cigar from his mouth, puffs a cloud of smoke, and then repeats himself. 'Yo, trooper.'
You walk over to him, you know he's a high ranking police official. A detective perhaps.
'Yes sir.' You reply, forwarding him a salute.
The man stares at you. He is middle-aged, with a grey mossy beard consuming most of his face. There are scars on his wrinkled forehead. His eyes are dull and lifeless.
'This your handy work?' He asks. You nod.
'A meeting has been arranged between you and the chief fire-arms unit down at the precinct in Sector M. I think you displayed some fine talent today, son.' The man says with a smile. He draws another puff.
'Talent?' You ask, baffled. 'That was not a display of talent. It was the display of a rabid, cornered dog. I am not worthy.'
Yet the man simply bursts out laughing. You sit there in silence, feeling rather akward for sometime, until his whispy laugh comes to an end.
'Look,' He says. 'It's the difference between 30,000 a year, and 75,000 a year. You want to be rich? You want to make a difference? The fire-arms unit is the best place for it. There you can gun down as much psychos as you like, and get paid a fuck load.'
You say nothing.
The man sighs, smiling. He draws a crumpled piece of paper, with the visible words in bold font 'Recomendation'. He hands it to you, and you read it over. It's a recomended transfer form to the Avarice Police Department* Special Tactics and Fire Arms Mastry (S.T.F.A.M)* unit. The thought of earning 75,000 credits at an annual rate excites you. You think of the possibilities. The debts can be cleared, you can move out from under the power lines, and away from the drug gangs. Women would come and go at your whim.
'Very well.' You say at length, pocketing the recomendation.
The man smiles. 'Good. You are to report to the S.T.F.A.M in ten hours. Go home and get some rest, trooper.'
You nod, before walking off, turning your weary back on your superior. You think to ask for a lift back to the precinct, in Sector M, but you're not ready for sleep yet. A night of violence and heart-throbbing experiences has left you in need of a lady's company. You'll remain in Sector K for now, you'll head for the Man Trap, your favourite of venues.
Taking off your body armour, you pass it to a colleague who stands guard outside one of the APCC (Armoured personnel carrier craft), and he throws it in the back. You keep your side arm however, with its four bullets left in the magazine. You never know when such things come in handy in this sort of place. You can think of a dozen of examples.
*Avarice Police Department - Does it exist? Because that's what I've been calling it, largely due to the fact that Rokdar used the abreviation aswell. If an alternative name is in use, please let me know.
** S.T.F.A.M is more or less the police's swat teams. Again, if anyone has an alternative name to use, then let me know. Cheers.
"Uhh, sure I guess. The name is Alexia, Alexia Floras."
"Hey, thanks!" Lentin replied. "I'm Tom. Tom Ambrose. Nice to meetcha. I'm a freighter captain, so I get stuck coming through here a lot."
He was, of course, lying through his teeth, but after so many years of practice, it was rare that someone could tell the difference. Lentin slid into the booth seat opposite "Alexia," and waving one of the waitresses over, he took a sip of his drink while she ordered one.
"Alexia" was absently fiddling with a a printout of some sort, the insignia on the top he recognized immediately. Catching his gaze drifting to it, she immediately folded the sheet, her thoughts appearing to come back to the present.
"Whatcha got there?" Lentin probed.
(OOC: Sorry it's so short, but I didn't want to take too many liberties with your character, since I'm not familiar with her/your play style yet.)
She smiled slightly as she led him back to the VIP area. It wasn't much. Mostly just office looking cubicles with tacky red velvet covered benches. She drew him towards a certain booth, and pushed him down onto one of the benches.
"So tell me, cowboy, how do you like your women? Dominating, or submissive?" She asked, straddling his leg with her back pressed against his chest.
"A little of both." He replied, breathing in her smell.
She began to grind on him, making sure her knee, leg, and everything else in between rubbed against his main gun, making it a little stiffer with each rub. Swaying back and forth between sweet and harsh, she would lick his neck one second, and then slap his face the next. This guy was actually fun, she thought, as she continued to give him his moneys worth. Slowly she removed her bikini, allowing him to see it all. The dance only lasted about 15 minutes, but to her, it seemed like it would never end.
Of course, this wasn't like any of the old fashioned strip joints, and he would walk away unsatisfied in the end, but she enjoyed leaving a man with a fantasy or two.
"So, what do you do?" She asked, as she stood up and put her bikini back on, combing her hair with her fingers. She didn't realize that a lock of her natural blond curls had fallen from the wig.
(ooc: Wow. This is getting a little TOO good for me. lmao.)
OOC: Hey, no problem Traken. Some quick info about Jenna so the conversation can proceed smoothly: (So both of us can actually have more filling posts ) Jenna is smart, a smooth liar, and not one to easily fall prey to tricks and traps, lets just say. as she has been doing this for a while now. Oh, and she has blond hair and green eyes(contacts), while the bounty info had her for black hair and blue eyes, just to add some extra info.
"Hey, thanks!" the stranger replied. "I'm Tom. Tom Ambrose. Nice to meetcha. I'm a freighter captain, so I get stuck coming through here a lot."
As Tom sat down, Jenna began to fiddle with the printout, her mind again turning to the unfortunate reality. She quickly noticed that Tom was taking an interest in it, so she quickly folded it up and put the paper away.
"Whatcha got there?" Tom asked.
"Huh, oh that? Just a letter from my boyfriend, or I should mean ex-boyfriend now. Cheap bastard just left this for me, saying that he found someone else. Jerk." Jenna lied, adding some sadness into her voice.
"Oh, wow, sorry to hear that." Tom said, looking concerned.
"Heh, keep reeling him in Jenna." she thought.
"Yeah, he works for that, Hunter's Guild, or something I think, so I would barley see him for more then a few days a week, sometimes less. Might have been cheating on me for months now... Oh, sorry, didn't mean to keep yaking about my ex. Well, anyway, tell me about yourself, being a freighter captain must be interesting." Jenna said as the waitress came back over, and she took a sip of her drink.
Words Will Never Hurt You
He sat as close to the back corner as possible without standing out as one of those perverts who sit in the dark corners of strip clubs. Laughing slightly as the bounty hunter he knew to be Lentin entered, bought a beverage and quickly accosted one of the more attractive women in the joint, and lied about his name to her. Which was fine because she wasn't telling the truth about hers either, no one in this place was being honest, with themselves or with any of the other patrons.
He could see at least three of the dancers looking around not for new johns but to watch for an unwanted visitor. He could see half a dozen undercover police officers in the place, ear pieces securely attached. Two or three of the johns were unconvincingly giving false names and backgrounds to waitresses who could care a less. And at least three people were obviously married and trying to pick up a stripper for more action later in the night. Oblivious to the fact that for most suburbanites it is far easier to sleep with your neighbor or her daughter (or both) than to sneak around with a hooker.
He was looking around for something else though, someone busy enough to allow themselves to be pickpocketed (twice) so that an ID could be stolen long enough to scan and copy and returned. He needed someone who had decent clearance and he laughed as he came to the most obvious conclusion. The same hunter who's ship he has stowed aboard, the same hunter who was now standing not 15 feet away from him shmoozing with a semi attractive female with obviously fake hair and eye color.
Walking up to the bar, He slipped his hand into the hunters side pack and withdrew the id card, ordered a double and Pepsi Ultimax all the while sliding the card through the copying device in his jacket pocket. Receiving the drink and returning the card he returned to his table smiling at his expertise. Not knowing the hunter had noticed the entire transaction taking place and made a mental note to follow up soon.
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Lentin had, of course, noticed the entire 'transaction' occur. Not that it mattered. He never carried any form of real ID on him when on the job, a precaution he had learned long ago. The thief instead would find himself with a link to an empty bank account, and a housing development that didn't exist.
While still discussing the finer points of the freight business with Alexia, he stretched slightly, craning his neck in the direction of the pick-pocket. His cyberbrain link very quickly informing him that it was the same man who had exited the area of his craft after it had landed. More than likely a stowaway. Quite impressive to have circumvented the detection systems on my ship. I may have to pay him a visit in the future.
He was now droning on about the annoyances of customs and other freight limitations when he noticed Alexia's attention start to wane. With a quick verbal flourish, he put the ball back in her court, trying to keep her off guard.
"Well, enough about me. What is it you do?"
(OOC: yeah, I know... It sucked. Sorry, I'm bloody tired, but I wanted to get something out before I retire for the night.)
"So, what do you do?", she said as she slipped her bikini back on, signaling the end of the ride. Vince was disappointed, yes, but he knew he should have expected that. The Man Trap was not a brothel, for one, but he had gotten at least some satisfaction, though the inner demon in him wanted so much more. Trying to mentally coax himself out of his horny stupor, he saw a blue pack of Morgan's Lights sitting on the table nearby. Considering that this might be his last taste of a woman, why not enjoy one last cigg?
After wiggling one out of the pack, he struck one of the crude matches, enjoying the yellow flame that was violently pulled from it's red coffin. The tip of the cigg blossomed into a full, glowing cherry, as he tugged air through it. Inhale, exhale. "Heh, the question may be worded wrong, but you don't know that," he half-said to himself. "I'm a freelancer. Most any cargo, most any job...at most any price." Inhale, exhale. "Usually solo. Less mess to clean up, less emotional problems to deal with...not to mention that most women in my kind of business are more butch than some men." He chuckled lightly to himself, and then dragged more of the cherry towards his hand; inhale, exhale.
"I've done some non-cargo stints. They're not too bad, but they don't make as much money. Besides, it's easier to slip through the IPP* with loaded cargo, than it is to slip by them after violently 'dissecting' someone's internal organs." Again; inhale, exhale. He flicked ashes into the dirty ashtray. Somewhere, in a nearby wall, a fan kicked on, probably triggered by the smoke pooling up around him.
He reached over for the double shot of bourbon. "Guess that pretty much sums it up, save for my unimportant name." There was a pause. "Vincent...Vincent Trent." He smiled. "I wonder if honesty's a bitch nowadays." He sloshed the swill to the back of his mouth, audibly swallowing the stuff. He gagged once, twice, and then burped, doubling over somewhat. "Shit, this bourbon's got a kick to it...like condensed donkey ass..." he said as the burning in his stomach settled...and then grew.
Ahab had only been sitting in the limo for all of five minutes, but had assured himself that he was already dead. Sitting across from him, positioned at the approximated middle of the limo, was a man who, standing, was about 5'8" high. His skin was dark and rough from years of hard labor in the sun. His eyes were almost the exact same color, save for the bottomless, black pits he called his pupils. Unlike his past, however, he wore a very expensive, midnight-blue suit, with a matching black tie and white undershirt. His mouth and right hand cycled through the duty of carrying the lit cigar; Ahab had never seen him without one, though he had seen him without one lit.
For five minutes he had sat there, in the all-too-dimly-lit interior of the limo, listening to the purring of the magnetic coils that push-rolled the front tires. Another man sat to his right; a beefcake, one probably carrying enough bionics and genetic enhancements to take on a tank. The silence was eventually broken by the man opposite of him.
"Mister Mason...I've heard of some thing recently that intrigues me." The man's voice was light, yet creamy and smooth; things that made Ahab think of whipped cream, not of Mister Belgur.
"Aye, I'm sure ye did," Ahab curtly replied.
The cigar's cherry brightened, and dulled again. A puff of iron-blue smoke emerged from Mr. Belgur's mouth a moment later. "I've only heard rumors, Mister Mason. And from what I've heard, he's one of our...acquaintances. Surely, a man such as yourself has had the chance to meet him?"
"Mayhap," Ahab curtly replied, again. "But 'm sure ye know more than I do."
"Oh, Mister Mason! You underestimate your value," Mr. Belgur's voice's exclaimed with earnest cheer. "I value your mind. You see, hear, and pick up things that many of my associates simply do not." Another puff of the cigar produced another iron-blue cloud. Mr. Belgur gazed at him. "I would enjoy hearing such imput," he said, his voice having gone cold and sharp, like cold mustard.
Ahab knew he couldn't get out of this. The door was locked, and Belgur had brought a tough lackey with him. With nothing to do other than spit things out, he quickly told his story to Mr. Belgur, who eagerly listened, soaking all the details as if his financial success depended on it.
Ahab had finished his story, sickened by the thing he had said. Belgur only gazed on, past Ahab. Finally, after another puff of the cigar, did Belgur speak. "Mister Mason," he said glowingly, "I admire your honesty. You knew that you could die just by giving Mr. Trent a chance, but you took it anyway. Of course, I would have killed him anyway, once his debts were payed off." The cigar became a bit shorter as Belgur sucked a little more life out of it. "However, I am displeased that you chose to report back physically, rather than watch him. So while you may have been honest, you have not been smart."
Ahab's gut sickened even more. Was this gonna be the end for him?
Mr. Belgur neatly puffed his cigar again. "I must admit, however, that the two of you chose a very good meeting place. It may be cheap, but that waitress..." Belgur smirked. "Such firm tits on such a young girl. She was a good lay, even though her butt jiggled too much for my lasting tastes." His voice was cold, yet the pleasure he took in his words was unmistakable.
Knowing that his words had dug deep into Ahab, Belgur continued. "Anyway, I've left her with instructions to drug a double shot of bourbon, which will be ingested by Mr. Trent." The cigar, now half it's original length, made Belgur take a short, bittersweet break. "It won't be enough to kill him, but it will be enough to allow for you to kill him."
"Wha'!!??" Ahab stammered.
Belgur smiled, leaning over for a moment. "You didn't think I was going to let you live honestly, with a transgression such as attempting to give Mr. Trent an offer to work for me, did you? After what he did last time we met, I've taken nothing but bad business because of him." Belgur paused, leaning back comfortably in his seat. "And, as they say, 'Bad business is bad for business'." The cigar's cherry chugged ever closer. "Shatner, show him out."
The bald beefcake, who had been silent and motionless for the whole trip, suddenly sprang to life. The limo stopped, and the solitary rear door - to the left of Ahab - automatically kicked open. Ahab raised his right arm, attempting to block most of the pain from the oncoming foot, but it was no use; he was kicked two feet out of the car, landing squarely on the sidewalk. The limo silently screaming away only a moment later, the door closed before he managed to look.
When Ahab finally struggled his way to standing, he found himself two blocks from an outside vendor's joint; across the road sat an ugly, pink neon sign that screamed "GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS".
And inside, his heart died a little more.
*Interplanetary Police
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Curriculum ›
Key Stage 1 & 2 ›
Areas of Learning ›
Key Stage 1 & 2 The World Around Us
Children are naturally curious and often ask profound questions about themselves and The World Around Us. This Area of Learning helps pupils to explore and find age-appropriate answers to some of these big questions from the perspectives of Geography, History, and Science and Technology.
For further details, see the Statutory Requirements for the World around Us at Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.
Curriculum Objectives
The learning opportunities within The World Around Us help young people to develop as:
contributors to society, and
contributors to the economy and environment.
At Key Stages 1 and 2, The World around Us has four inter-related strands that connect learning across Geography, History and Science and Technology.
Science and Technology: Progression Guidance
Use this guidance to gain greater confidence in whole school planning that ensures progress in pupils’ learning.
The Enquiry Based Approach (Video)
Secure children's knowledge and understanding in Science and Technology, infusing Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities through the Enquiry Based Approach.
Cross-Curricular Skills Development (Videos)
Central to the Northern Ireland Curriculum is the development and application of cross-curricular skills through contexts within Areas of Learning, including The World Around Us.
Progression Grids
The following documents illustrate the statutory requirements as suggested learning intentions. You can use these to help plan learning, teaching and assessment in this area.
Skills across the Curriculum
When planning topics, make sure that you provide opportunities for your pupils to develop their skills in Communication, Using Mathematics, Using ICT and Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities.
At all stages, you should encourage your pupils to become active participants in the learning process. Involve your pupils in choosing topics that interest them. Where possible, you should connect learning to current events. You should ensure that, where appropriate, you integrate aspects of the other Areas of Learning.
Science and Technology Progression Framework(Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities Guidance) 4.1 MB - uploaded 12-09-2017
History, Progression Framework(Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities Guidance) 2.3 MB - uploaded 21-04-2015
Geography, Progression Framework(Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities Guidance) 2.3 MB - uploaded 21-04-2015
For more information on the World around Us, contact:
Melanie Mulligan
mmulligan@ccea.org.uk
(028) 9026 1200 ext. 2716
Curriculum Support
Browse Available Events
Science Resources from TIMSS
These science lessons have been developed by NFER with advice and support from DE, CCEA, ETI and the EA, and are based on results from the Trends in International Mathematics and Sciences Study (TIMSS). Teachers will find these resources useful in developing the use of practical and investigative work within the World Around Us lessons.
This resource is a collaboration between CCEA and Tourism NI, designed to encourage children to grow fruit and vegetables and explore where food comes from. Monthly classroom activities aligned to the curriculum for Key Stages 1 and 2 help pupils learn how to grow their own food at school or home and understand sustainability while promoting healthy eating. .
The Ecoworld resource helps pupils to understand how making small changes today can protect the future of our planet. Learn about the different types of energy produced, the energy we use in our everyday lives and how to be a responsible energy saver. Visit www.ecoworld.org.uk for animations, online and classroom activities.
Science Through Stories
See how stories have the potential to motivate and engage learners through scientific enquiry. Resources for all Key Stages.
The Vikings ICL provides a range of active learning experiences to assist teachers in making connections both within and beyond the Area of Learning The World Around Us. Included are a number of STEM enquiries to connect science and technology to a topic traditionally viewed as a history-only topic. To use a blended approach we have developed bespoke resources to bring games based learning to the theme through the use of Minecraft.
More Ideas for Connected Learning can be found from our Ideas for Connected Learning page.
Woven in Ulster: Ulster-Scots and the Story of Linen
This Key Stage 2 resource explores the role of the Ulster-Scots community in the linen industry from cottages to factories and finally to its demise in the twentieth century. The resource links to the Northern Ireland Curriculum and provides both a wide range of cross-curricular lessons and the resources required to teach each lesson.
Primary Irish Aspects of Shared Cultural Heritage
Teaching ideas, downloadable resources and interactive games to support teachers in delivering basic Irish lessons and activities in Shared Cultural Hertiage.
Ulster-Scots for Primary Schools: Shared Language, Culture and Heritage
These resources help to build capacity within primary schools so that they can teach elements of Ulster-Scots and shared cultural heritage using existing staff and resources.
This resource provides information and ideas to bring Earth Science to the classroom in practical and relevant ways for pupils in Key Stage 2. The learning activities within the materials support the development of the Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities as well as opportunities to develop the cross-curricular skills of Communication, Using Mathematics and Using ICT.
Primary Upd8
Primary UPD8 makes science relevant using the power of topicality. Every day interesting science pops out of the news. The following activities create the bridge to the curriculum, with punchy activities with maximum engagement. Instead of just teaching about for example food chains, why not have pupils investigating through news headlines of ‘Do you Want to Live Forever’?
STEM Thematic Units
These Thematic Units focus on Science, Technology, Engineering (including ICT), and Mathematics (STEM). The units also support the statutory requirements for the Areas of Learning of the Northern Ireland Curriculum at Key Stage 2, in particular The World Around Us and Mathematics and Numeracy.
Anything's Possible!
This resource (sent to schools in 2005) was developed for all Primary Schools across Northern Ireland and aims to plant the seeds of an enterprising culture. Using a relevant and stimulating context the Storysack provides guidance for teachers to consider ways of adopting the enterprise approach.
Anything's Possible - Irish Medium Is Féidir Gach Aon Rud!
Anything's Possible Audio Recording - Irish Medium 4.8 MB
Out of This World - Building Learning
Children are fascinated by the mystery of Outer Space. In Out of This World children design and create a 3D model of an environmentally friendly hotel in a bid to encourage space tourism.
Connected Learning through the World around Us
There are a selection of Ideas for Connected Learning and Thematic Units that you can use to support the World Around Us in primary schools.
Frequently Asked Questions: The World around Us 82.6 KB - uploaded 21-04-2015
Implementation of the World Around Us Report 778.6 KB - uploaded 21-04-2015
Please review all links to judge their suitability before using them with your class.
Global Learning Programme - This website provides schools with resources, case studies and information on local training that will support them to educate for a fair and sustainable world through all areas of the curriculum.
Aim, Aspire and Achieve - A thematic unit which helps schools celebrate the Olympic and Paralympic Games (but can be adapted to celebrate other international sporting events).
Eat, Taste and Grow - A resource on food and local produce, developed in a collaboration between safefood and The Public Health Agency.
The Eco-Schools website offers ideas and resources for learning activities on 10 environmental topics, linked to many curriculum subjects.
Using the Locality is a list of agencies and websites that may help the study of the local environment.
Personal Development and Mutual Understanding
elsewhere on ccea.org.uk
The World Around Us resources
Overview of the Key Stage 1 & 2 Curriculum
Key Stage 1 & 2 The Arts
Key Stage 1 & 2 Personal Development and Mutual Understanding
Key Stage 1 & 2 Mathematics and Numeracy
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Posts by Category: 2010 Congressional Races RSS feed
Congressman Ed Perlmutter gets visit from former 2010 foe
By Lynn Bartels
Mike Sheely of Bennet, who ran in 2010 for the GOP nomination and a chance to unseat Democrat Ed Perlmutter, visits with the congressman, center, at his D.C. office on Tuesday. To the right is Sheely’s friend, Jerry Joyce. (Perlmutter photo)
When Republican Mike Sheely decided to cross off one of the things on his bucket list, he turned to the congressman he wanted to defeat in 2010: Democrat Ed Perlmutter.
Sheely said he always wanted to the visit the U.S. Capitol and tour Washington and when he planned a trip with his friend Jerry Joyce of Tennessee, he gave the Jefferson County lawmaker’s office a call.
“I wanted to stop in and see him because I ran against him,” Sheely said. “I’ve always liked Ed personally but I disagree with some of his policies. He’s a nice guy. He’s a really nice guy. He’s good to sit down and visit with.”
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Categories: 2010 Congressional Races, Colorado Politics, International, Military, U.S. House
Democrats love them some Ed Perlmutter, a Jefferson County icon
Alma Garcia, Zee Ferrufino, state Rep. Angela Williams and Congressman Ed Perlmutter at the Colorado Democratic Party’s annual Jefferson Jackson dinner Saturday. Perlmutter was named Democrat of the Year. (Lynn Bartels, The Denver Post)
Congressman Ed Perlmutter won Democrat of the Year Saturday night in a ceremony that had party members loving him even more.
First of all, the Jefferson County Democrat insisted the annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner end by 9:30 p.m. In some years, the keynote speech hadn’t even happened by then. And then Perlmutter kept his own speech short to ensure the Colorado Democratic Party could end on time.
Throughout the night, there were loud cheers from Democrats assembled at the downtown Denver Marriott whenever Perlmutter’s name was mentioned.
“I want Democrats to win. When we win we change and shape the future,” Permutter said when he accepted the honor. “And because we believe in freedom and in opportunity and in justice for all, especially for the hard-working people in the middle, we make that future a lot better than the other guys.”
Perlmutter did his trademark cartwheel across the stage when he finished.
Categories: 2010 Congressional Races, 2014 Congressional Races, 2016 Congress races, 2016 Presidential Race, 2016 U.S. Senate Race, Colorado Politics, Elections, U.S. House
Businesswoman, former Top Gun pilot vie for Libby Szabo’s seat
UPDATE: After a vote by the 14-member committee Lang Sias will representing House District 27 in the legislature.
Republican Lang Sias at the Arapahoe County Assembly in 2010. (Lynn Bartels, The Denver Post)
Either an Arvada businesswoman or a former Top Gun instructor who has tried a run before for the Legislature will be selected by a GOP vacancy committee today to fill the seat of former state Rep. Libby Szabo, who resigned after being appointed to the Jefferson County board of commissioners.
The 15-member vacancy committee for House District 27 will vote to send Christine Jensen or Lang Sias to the state House of Representatives.
Twelve people applied for Szabo’s seat, but their names are not being released. Jensen said she heard there very were some very high-caliber candidates so she was “honored” to be one of the final two selected.
Jensen manages the Arvada branch of the Cherry Creek Mortgage Co. and also serves as the chair of the Arvada Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Committee.
“My goal is to bring business sense to bureaucracy,” she said.
Categories: 2010 Congressional Races, 2014 Colorado Legislative Races, Colorado Legislature, Colorado Politics
Colorado treasurer: Markey-Stapleton contest heats up
The race for Colorado treasurer just keeps getting wilder. Or is it weirder?
The race for Colorado treasurer is getting hot.
First there was the ad from Democrat Betsy Markey claiming Capitol security records show her Republican opponent, Treasurer Walker Stapleton, is regularly AWOL from his job. Then there was the playful video from Revealing Politics, with Republicans debunking Markey’s theory that the only way to get into the Capitol is to use a key card or code that automatically registers every time it used.
Markey fans today came up with their own script to that video, in which they reinforced their contention that Stapleton is the Ferris Bueller of Colorado politics. Rep. Frank McNulty’s new line is about the difficulty in recognizing the state treasurer. And Stapleton’s campaign released a video from his debate with Markey on Sunday, where Markey was accused of possessing a “disturbingly thin understanding of finance and the treasurer’s office.”
“This is public finance 101,” said Stapleton’s campaign manager Michael Fortney. “Betsy Markey, who is asking voters to elect her as the overseer of Colorado’s finances, once again displayed that she does not have the background or the knowledge to effectively serve as Colorado treasurer.”
Categories: 2010 Congressional Races, 2014 Election, Colorado Government, Colorado Politics, Economy and Business
Former Rep. Marilyn Musgrave on abortion, personhood and Colorado’s U.S. Senate race
Former U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave has plenty to say about abortion and pro-choice candidates, but little to say about the personhood stance of Rep. Cory Gardner, the Republican who now holds her seat in Congress.
Former Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, now vice president of government affairs for the Susan B. Anthony List, attended the Western Conservative Summit conference in Denver over the weekend. (Lynn Bartels, The Denver Post)
Musgrave attended the Western Conservative Summit gathering in Denver over the weekend, where she was surrounded by plenty of fellow Republicans who share her views on abortion. Musgrave is vice president of government affairs for the Susan B. Anthony list, which works to elect pro-life candidates.
“The key states where we are focusing on the Senate races are Arkansas, Louisiana and North Carolina, where the incumbent senators are out of touch on life issues,” she said.
Now wait a minute! What about Colorado, home to one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country as Gardner tries to unseat U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, a Democrat who supports choice?
What does Musgrave think of Gardner saying he was wrong to have supported personhood measures that, in essence, outlawed abortion? Gardner has upset some members of his own party.
“Cory has to make his own decisions on that,” Musgrave said.
Categories: 2010 Congressional Races, 2014 Election, 2014 U.S. Senate election, Ballot Measures, Social Policy
Democrat John Flerlage faces another tough election
Rep. Max Tyler of Lakewood and John Flerlage, candidate for the Jeffco commission. (House Majority Project)
Apparently Democrat John Flerlage loves a challenge because both times he’s run for office he has picked years where conventional wisdom says Republicans have the advantage.
This time out, the former Marine pilot is running for Jefferson County commissioner against the incumbent, Republican Don Rosier. Four years ago, Flerlage took on U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman of Aurora in a district that at the time heavily favored the GOP.
Flerlage decided to “take it on,” as he said, because he’s frustrated that the county doesn’t “plan long range and always is in crisis with the budget.” He also said turnover in the sheriff’s office is a problem.
Flerlage was among the guests who attended Rep. Max Tyler’s re-election kickoff Monday at 240 Union, the Lakewood restaurant where so many Jeffco political gatherings are held. Others who showed up included U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, his wife Nancy, and Don Quick, the Democratic nominee for attorney general.
The real guest of honor, of course, was Tyler’s 1954 Chevy that’s painted green, has his name on it and is parked at various locations all over the district for maximum exposure.
Supporters of Rep. Max Tyler posed with the Lakewood Democrat and his 1954 Chevy truck at Tyler’s campaign kick off Monday. (House Majority Project)
Categories: 2010 Congressional Races, 2014 Election, Colorado Politics, Local Governments, U.S. House
Ed Perlmutter’s campaign: “We left the glitter at home”
Congressman Ed Perlmutter has endured some high-profile campaigns, squaring off against Ryan Frazier in a wave GOP year and family friend Joe Coors in the last election.
Don Ytterberg
This time around Perlmutter faces Don Yetterberg, former chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party.
Republicans aren’t talking about unseating Perlmutter, and the congressman’s campaign admits it’s a much more low-key race this year.
“I’ll be frank: our campaign is different than ones you’ve been hearing about in the news,” campaign manager Chris Kennedy wrote. “We aren’t flashy. We aren’t gimmicky. You won’t find any special tricks up our sleeves — though we all know Ed does a pretty nice cartwheel. If you’re looking for drama, look elsewhere. We certainly aren’t the most talked-about campaign in the state — and we’re OK with that.”
The subject line of the e-mail: “We left the glitter at home.”
Categories: 2010 Congressional Races, 2012 Colorado Congressional Election, 2014 Congressional Races, 2014 Election, Colorado Politics
The battle of the odd last names: Ytterberg vs. Perlmutter in the 7th District
Don Yetterberg
Republican Don Ytterberg, a small businessman with deep roots in Colorado, has the job this year of trying to take out Democrat Ed Perlmutter in the 7th Congressional District.
Yetterberg is holding his kickoff at his company, Advanced Surface Technologies, 6155 W. 54th Ave. in Arvada. It is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Other Republicans have tried and failed to knock off the cartwheeling Perlmutter: Rick O’Donnell in 2006; John Lerew in 2008; Ryan Frazier in 2010; and Joe Coors in 2012.
Yetterberg has served as vice chair of the state GOP and chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party. He ran for the state Senate in 2008, losing to state Sen. Dan Gibbs of Summit County.
Ytterberg touts his roots in the state. His mother’s family traces its history back to statehood and her grandfather was treasurer of San Juan County around 1890 and her dad was president of the Colorado University senior class of 1917.
Categories: 2010 Congressional Races, 2014 Congressional Races, Colorado Legislature, Elections, U.S. House
Democrat Betsy Markey to challenge so-called “Real Man of Financial Genius”
So, the Colorado Republican Party releases a flattering video of state Treasurer Walker Stapleton — calling him a real man of financial genius — just days before Democrat Betsy Markey is set to announce she is challenging Stapleton next year.
Coincidence? Probably not.
Categories: 2010 Congressional Races, Arts and Culture, Colorado Politics, Elections
Already candidates lining up for 2014, Michael Fields goes for House seat
[media-credit name=”Lynn Bartels, The Denver Post” align=”alignright” width=”270″][/media-credit]
Congressional candidate Ryan Frazier and his staffer Michael Fields on the campaign trail in 2010.
Further proof that politics is 24-7 these days: As the 2013 legislative session was beginning, Republican Michael Fields was announcing candidacy for Colorado State House District 37.
The district’s current representative, Republican Spencer Swalm, is term limited.
Fields was a staffer for Ryan Frazier’s 2010 congressional race and they looked so much alike that sometimes at events people used to talk to him about his “dad.”
Don’t let Fields’ baby face fool you: The guy reads the Wall Street Journal and loves to talk policy with anyone who will listen.
Comments Off on Already candidates lining up for 2014, Michael Fields goes for House seat
Categories: 2010 Congressional Races, Colorado Legislature, Colorado Politics
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“You respect the office not the man. The man has to earn the respect. Still waiting.”
— Bob Smith
On Barack Obama to deliver Air Force Academy commencement address
“What a great experience for the cadets. What a horrible experience for all the people that travel I25 to and from work. Not to worry, the...”
““PTSD” is not an acronym; it is an initialism.”
— John Aims
On Coffman, Perlmutter host D.C. screening of PTSD movie by Steffan Tubbs
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a blog from Nature Biotechnology
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Nature Biotechnology | Trade Secrets
Nonbrowning GM apple cleared for market
30 Mar 2015 | 00:15 BST | Posted by Bioentrepreneur | Category: News
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) on February 13 approved the first genetically modified (GM) apple developed to resist browning. The Arctic apple’s go-ahead is a notable achievement for Canadian firm Okanagan Specialty Fruits, as the small biotech is one of the few to have successfully moved a GM plant through the regulatory process on its own. Indeed, two weeks after the apple’s launch, Okanagan announced its acquisition by Germantown, Maryland-based Intrexon, a synthetic biology company. Okanagan’s stockholders will receive $10 million in upfront cash and $31 million in Intrexon common stock. Industry observers now question whether the Arctic apple will carve a niche in the fruit tree industry or get caught up in the GM labeling debate.
Pre-cut fruit and vegetables are a growing trend in the food industry. “The [nonbrowning] trait will enable food service companies to cut and package the apples without adding browning inhibitors such as calcium ascorbate”—an antioxidant that changes the flavor of the apple, says Neal Carter, founder of the Summerland, British Columbia–based Okanagan. About 22,000 trees will be planted in the US this spring, with the resulting fruit available in fall 2016 for product demonstration, he says. Okanagan has also applied for regulatory approval of its apple in Canada.
Browning is caused by polyphenol oxidases (PPOs) naturally present in fruit and vegetables. When fruit is cut or bruised, these enzymes catalyze the oxidation of polyphenols to quinones, causing oxidative browning. The damage is superficial but can affect the taste and texture of the apple as well as its cosmetic qualities. In the Arctic varieties, the GM apples were genetically engineered with a transgene that produces specific RNAs to silence the expression of at least four browning PPO genes. The apple RNA sequences were introduced into Granny Smith and Golden Delicious varieties, where they bound complementary RNA to form a double strand. As RNA is single stranded, the double-stranded sequence is read as a mistake, and the plant’s naturally occurring Dicer enzymes are sent to chop it up, resulting in no or significantly fewer PPO proteins being produced.
RNA interference (RNAi) was also used by JR Simplot of Boise, Idaho to silence PPO production in nonbrowning potatoes, which were approved by the USDA in November (Nat. Biotechnol. 33, 12–13, 2015). For that product, fragments of a single potato PPO gene were re-introduced into potato, activating the RNAi pathway. But unlike the apple, the potato’s double-stranded RNA is formed by an inverted repeat transcribed in the tuber and processed into small interfering RNAs that ultimately silence their targets. JR Simplot’s crop was also modified to have reduced acrylamide, which was achieved by using RNAi to silence the asparagine synthetase-1 gene (ASn1).
Apples that won’t brown could make them more appealing to consumers and could also reduce waste by minimizing discarded apple due to bruising. But at least three growers associations urged US and Canadian regulatory agencies to reject Okanagan’s petitions for approval. Their objections were not made because of human health or safety concerns. In separate letters, the US Apple Association, the Northwest Horticultural Council and the BC Fruit Growers Association said GM apples may cause severe market disruptions, particularly in apple export markets averse to genetically modified organisms (GMOs). US Apple, however, changed its tune once USDA approval became imminent. “We are confident from the assurance we’ve received from Okanagan that they intend to stand by their pledge to clearly identify their apples in all marketing and packaging,” enabling consumers to choose between GM and non-GM apples, says Wendy Brannen, director of consumer health and public relations at US Apple.
Okanagan’s apples will not be labeled ‘GM’, but packaging will include the ‘Arctic’ name and logo. “It will be highly recognized as a GM product, given the amount of media attention we’ve had,” says Carter at Okanagan. The company has not yet decided whether the packaging will use other descriptive words, such as ‘nonbrowning’, which will partly depend on guidance from the US Food and Drug Administration, Carter says.
The GM apple may get caught up in the GMO labeling debate and used as an example, given its cachet as a family friendly, wholesome food, says Chris Schlect, president of the Northwest Horticultural Council in Yakima, Washington. “Apples are a symbolic product. It’s a fruit that a mother gives to a child going to school,” he says. “It’s going to be used in the media and by Congress in issues over the national labeling initiative.” Indeed, the Washington, DC–based Environmental Working Group put out a press release in February saying the approval of Arctic apples “underscores the need for a transparent and consistent national labeling standard.”
Other consumer groups argued against the safety of Okanagan’s apple. The Center for Food Safety (CFS) said USDA’s environmental assessment was inadequate—a complaint the Center has made for nearly every biotech crop assessment USDA has conducted in recent years. In its 61-page comment, the Center said that proper characterization of the PPO genes, their functions and the impacts of silencing them in the apple tree as a whole was not conducted. “I was floored by that,” says Martha Crouch, former professor of biology at Indiana University in Bloomington and a consultant for CFS. “It seems like that would be the minimum you would want to know before you start an assessment.” The Center noted that PPO genes have been shown in other plants to be associated with pathogen resistance, and that silencing them could lead to more susceptibility to disease and pests.
Okanagan says it conducted pest- and disease-resistance studies, and supplied the data to the USDA upon the agency’s request. “We have not seen any difference in disease susceptibility or plant pest risk between Arctic and control apple fruit or trees,” says Carter. “As summarized and analyzed in our petition document, we monitored all common orchard pests and diseases, including storage rot, over multiple years and multiple sites and saw no difference.”
Emily Waltz, Nashville, Tennessee
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Bangkok's Night Scene In Review
ENTERTAINMENT AREAS - THE SURVIVORS
Bangkok,
William R. Morledge
January's Nightlife News
Bangkok's Bars - 10 Years Ago
A Smile in the Land of Smiles.
Ask Us ! - Patpong 2 Changes ?
Graffiti -BKK's Midnite Vandals - #87
e've recently been inundated with email expressing concern over the possibility of one, or the other, of Bangkok's Night Entertainment Areas disappearing. And a fair question, all things considered - the recent closure of Washington Square coupled with the closure of several popular Nitespots around the town certainly give pause for thought.
NANA PLAZA
Most numerous among the concerns of our readers over the last 6 months have been the possible disappearance of Nitespot Areas as diverse as Nana Plaza , Soi Twilight (Surawong's gay soi), Soi Dead Artists (Soi 33) and Patpong 1 (see our November 2012 issue < link> ). We at Midnight Hour, however, see no cause for concern - and you might be surprised at the reason.
A review of the Expat Night Entertainment Areas of Bangkok going all the way back to the 1960's reveals some reassuring data. Over the last half century, NO Expat Night Entertainment Area has ever died out, or 'gone out of business' - excepting for a single reason: "major redevelopment". Below is an historical review of those Bangkok Expat Night Entertainment Areas that are no longer in existence :
Bangkok's Extinct Bar Areas (Expat)
Khlong Toey
- redeveloped
- Closed -early 90's by Port Authority
Sukhumvit Square
- Closed - destroyed 26 Ja nuary 2003
Clinton Plaza
- Closed 7 Ju ne 2003
Asoke Plaza/ Asoke Corner
- Closed February 2005
13 Night Market (Near Soi 13)
- Closed 28 February 2005
Easy Square (Soi 22)
- Closed 30 April 2005
Buckskin Joe Village - Soi Zero
- Closed 9 June 2006
Sukhumvit 1 Plaza (Soi 1)
- Closed 30 November 2007
- Closing down - 3 bars remain
You may notice the conspicuous absence of the 'New' Petchburi Road's "Golden Mile" which does not appear on this list of defunct Night Entertainment Areas. This is because (and it may surprise you yet again) it never disappeared - having reduced considerably in size, it has become predominantly a local Night Entertainment Area, but nevertheless, it has remained a real physical presence. See our separate article, immediately below.
So, with this statistical evidence in hand, we would want to see which of the currently active Expat Night Entertainment Areas might likely, or possibly, be subject to a general redevelopment. There are four candidates which fit the bill; each discussed briefly below:
The Patpongs
The Patpongs (I & II) are in a tight contiguous area, and are owned by a single group (increasing the likelihood of a major redevelopment). However, as discussed in our earlier article on Patpong, the Patpong family have spent tens of millions of Baht systematically upgrading and modernizing both their restaurants and their string of bars in Patpong I & II over the last four or five years. Further, the nightly tent-city market is a cash cow for the family. Both of these considerations can lead only to the conclusion that they, as owners, have no intention of redeveloping in the near future.
Nana Plaza meets the same criteria as the Patpongs with regards being a specifically definable area and under single ownership, and is therefore technically a candidate for redevelopment. However recent events have seen new long term leasing (and subleasing) of the premises, together with a general upgrade of the facilities. Considering the absurd rentals currently in place, the owners would be hard-pressed to come up with a business plan that would provide them with a superior income stream to the one they currently enjoy.
Queen's Park Plaza
Queen's Park Plaza is yet the third Night Entertainment Area under sole ownership, and forms a usable piece of real estate when considered as a whole. This area is the most likely of the four to undergo a major redevelopment, however, we have heard that the Indian owners are currently asking an extremely high price for the land alone, and reportedly do not want to develop it themselves. It is so high (in 9 figures) that it is apparent that they do not need to, or want to sell. We do not know of any active prospects for the purchase of the land. It is however, the Nitespot Area to watch, as the numbers could change at any time.
Soi Katoey
Soi Katoey (Silom Soi 4) is another private roadway similar to the Patpongs, but the owner's dwelling is at the deep end of the Soi. The rear side of the residence faces out onto Soi Wall Street which exits on Surawong Road. According to our investigations, term leases are still being let on these properties, with no evidence of a redevelopment - primarily because the owners (reportedly) want to continue to be able to access both Silom and Surawong from their 'stuck-in-the-middle' digs.
In summation, looking at what is statistically most likely, we will not see the disappearance of any of the existing Night Entertainment Areas (to include those 4 above, in the higher risk category) within the next few years.
The 'Golden Mile' Revisited
A NEW LOOK AT 'NEW' PETCHBURI ROAD
Most long term residents and returning visitors to Bangkok have heard of, or even visited the New Petchburi Road "Golden Mile" Night Entertainment Area. It was Bangkok's largest Nitespot Area ever, sporting more bars and massage parlors than any area before or since. It came into being at, or around 1965, and lasted through the end of the R&R era in 1973 up until about 1976.
A view of Petchburi Road today. In it's heyday, this section was referred to as 'New Petchburi Road', or 'Petchburi Tat Mai'. A few of the ancient taxi drivers will still refer to it by this old handle. The La Belle can be seen at the left.
PETCHBURI ROAD
Or so the popular legend goes. In fact, the Petchburi Road's Golden Mile did contract severely after 1976, however, contrary to the consensus, it did not disappear. The type of Nitespots changed, to be sure (to mostly fishbowl steam & cream massage parlors), and the clientele were either Thai or taxied-in Asian and South Asian tourists.
Our recent survey of Petchburi Road (resulting in the map above) reveals that there are over 20 Nitespots still in business there - the number having bottomed out at around that number several years ago. The format, however, has not changed back to one encouraging Expat patronage. Most places, even those without English language signs, will welcome farang. However, there are a few venues which do discourage farang from entering - a carryover from the height of the HIV threat. Below is a brief point-in-time pictorial of several of the main Night Entertainment Venues to be found on what remains of the old "Golden Mile ".
The Avita (formerly the Evita) is a full service massage emporium at the far end of Petchburi Road, complete with parking.
The Bangkok Cozy - Super Model is a large complex set slightly back off the main drag, but the signage can't be missed. Parking available.
The Angara Massage is at the back of the 'loop' formed by Petchburi Soi's 39 & 41 near the now defunct Prince Hotel. (refer to map). It is primarily a place that encourages taxi drivers to bring customers - usually of the 'Third World" - on a commission basis.
The Hawaii is a full service 'steam & cream' massage parlor of the old school. What remains a mystery to us is whether or not this is the same "Hawaii" from the 'Golden Mile' era. We knew of a 'Hawaii' located in that approximate area during the late 60's but we have been unable to confirm one way or another with the current management. If anyone has solid confirmation, please let us know.
La Belle is a newer version of the old full-service 'steam & cream' massage parlor. Plenty of parking in the compound.
Meree (or Mary) is a night entertainment multiplex - the main course being the Op-Ap-Nuat style massage. Parking in the compound - you won't be able to miss it - it has it's own billboard.
The Petch Siam is a large full service 'steam & cream' spa, complete with parking. Geared mostly to Thai clientele.
The Petch Porn (no English sign) is yet another of the old style Op-Ap-Nuat style massage parlors. Parking in the rear.
The Riviera is a full service 'fishbowl' massage parlor mostly catering to Thais, but not only so.
Massage Parlor 'Happy Hour'
There is no reason we should be surprised that massage parlors (in this case, the Riviera) have 'happy hour'. And there is no reason we should be surprised the sign is only in Thai. It reads :
Special Reduced (price)
Before 6:00 p.m.
Starting from 1,100 Baht
The Ruen Petch is the only certifiable venue on Petchburi Road that goes all the way back to the 'Golden Age'. We remember it from the late 60's - still serving good food - just less tom yam koong to G.I.s and their escorts.
The Sai Fon (Falling Rain) is another spacious traditional Thai 'Steam & Cream' massage parlor, complete with the usual 'fishbowl' selections.
The Shock 39 is in fact on Petchburi Soi 39, and is a newer-generation Thai night club.
A Bangkok Novel -
The new Vincent Calvino novel is now out in Bangkok bookstores, and on line (click here to check it out).
- Copyright Christopher G. Moore
A bright Thai Smile for the Holidays....
? Old
BANGKOK NIGHT SCENE
PHOTOS ?
Any old PHOTOS of
Bangkok's Nightlife ?
Please CLICK HERE and send to us for publication.
William R Morledge
Historical Minutiae Dept.
Patpong 2 Changes
- BUT NOT SO'S YOU'D NOTICE
Work pulled me away from BKK for the last few months. Just reading December issue and found that 2 of my go-to places have changed.
First I see that Mikes Place Patpong 2 shut down? Is it still closed? There was a Craigslist add to sell the lease that popped up in Jan of this year. I guess they didn't find any takers....is the place still closed? Any idea where the girls went to?
Second was that Kob's has been taken over by Linda's up on The Ramp. Any idea if prices/girls changed with the takeover?
Greetings, Tube,
Thanks for reading, and for writing in. Firstly, Mike's Place reopened after a very brief closure. All remains the same.
Secondly, Kob's Place (Linda's Place) was taken over by The World (Linda's Place) (see photo this issue). In that the words, "Linda's Place" remain in the name indicates that neither the old owners nor the new wanted to spend the money to have the name changed officially from 'Linda's Place'. The price structure there (and on the rest of The Ramp) has remained the same - by all reports. We do not know if the girls stayed on or not. Raising prices there, in that out of the way location, would likely prove disastrous - most of those bars are just hanging in - and that's a pity, as those upstairs lounges are, as you already know, great out-of-the-way quiet spots for the occasional change-of-pace.
? ASK US (ALMOST) ANYTHING !
Email bangkokeyes@gmail.com and "ASK US" - - Click Here
We can answer virtually any (reasonable) question on the Expat Night Entertainment Scene in Bangkok - be it Historical or very recent. Send us an e-mail and we will do our best to answer you soonest.
'Boge' Hartman
* Zootramp Publications
Let the January 2013 Follies begin...
BANKOK EYES' Expat Night Scene.
PATPONG I
The rainy season extended itself an additional month in the Bangkok Area, however, it didn't stop the influx of tourists, to include those heading to Patpong 1.
PATPONG II
Last month we noted the opening G's Restaurant (which is also a lounge) - and also goes by the moniker G's Bangkok. May they persevere.
Last month also saw the opening of The World (Linda's Place) up on The Ramp - however at that juncture, they were neonless. This month they have nailed up some rather too-transparent signage, however, they are clearly who they say they are. May the beat go on.....
Mike's Place has (as they had stated) reopened. Status quo ante.
- File photo
SOI COWBOY
Door Art Of The Month
The Cocktail Club surprised the gossiping rumor-mongers by reopening using it's old name. (Tends to confirm that word-of-mouth rumors aren't worth the paper they are written on, doesn't it?) They also surprised a few people with their new neon - and may have surprised even themselves..... The reflective mirror backing to the sign catches the various bits of neon in the neighborhood and reflects it right back atcha - giving a kaleidoscopic effect we found to be most impressive. We would not be surprised to see copycats in the near future. Welcome back, and - let the good times roll.
Shebas has stuffed it's last chit into the cup. In the photo below, we see the welders cutting the last steel bracing on the Shebas sign. Renovations are nearing completion, and will, obviously, be reopening under a new name. Fare-thee-well to an old Soi Cowboy 'standard' - may they find things a little more to their liking a little further on down the road a piece.
The new Nana Plaza sign is a magnet for photographers, it seems, now that they have finally turned on the lights. And we were no less drawn to take a few. Once we have selected our favorite, we will certainly make it the recipient of our 'Door Art Of the Month Award'. We presume we are reading the signs correctly - they do mean that Nana Plaza is our "second home", and not the Lumpini Police Station? The NEP makeover appears to be largely complete now.
SOI NANA
The Fortune Bar Restaurant deeper in the Soi now has it's sign back up.... but could they still do something in the way of sprucing up to make the place a little more inviting? (Like moving the ATM machines to one side, or something?)
Connections is the latest single shophouse lounge to open it's doors to the public. It is located between the Adam Spa and The Stranger. Wish them luck as they wade into the piranha pool.
SOI KATOEY - (SILOM SOI 4)
Some new shared signage for Soi Katoey - suspended from above to greet all arrivals.
The For Fun is displaying some smart new signage. We have reports from mixed sources that this is becoming a popular 'live music' venue for all persuasions. The rock still rocks.
SOI DEAD ARTISTS
The Number One @ 33 has shortened it's name to just Number One, and in the process, has put up some new neon. This is primarily a sign change - they continue to march. This is a Nipponese club - located behind Tenderloins in the 33 Complex.
SOI DEAD ARTISTS - SOI 33
The Tsudoi has taken over the reins from the Hanagoyomi, which has said it's final sayonara. The modus operandi (Japanese Izakaya) is unchanged. Welcome them to the neon jungle.
The Monet has some new neon up - much like the old neon, but this time out front, where passers-by will (presumably) take more notice. Their operant descriptor remains unchanged -we wish them constancy.
The New Yasurangee has taken up residence in the old Onna No Ko digs - a pleasant mamasan and friendly staff - welcoming both Western and Nippon custom.
The Joy is open - or at least it was the other evening. We suspect it opens every other month.... but we are not sure..... It is located upstairs in the S 33 Hotel compound.
Washington Square has been slowly closing down as a Night Entertainment Area for the last several months due to a major land redevelopment by the owners. Most of the Nitespots have already either closed or relocated; the Area has dropped below the "critical mass" required to sustain customer interest. Midnight Hour will no longer report on this Night Entertainment Area on a monthly basis. However we will continue to track that area and report any additional closures of existing bars as they occur.
It looks like the Away From Home has packed it in once and for all. Potential customers were greeted with steel roller shutters bathed in shadow. Let's hope this was a New Year's closure - we'll get back atcha if we hear anything.....
The 3-Sister Bar was closed up, and the lights were off. We guess that means it was 100% closed, but we saw two girls inside playing pool in the dark. (Is playing pool in the dark something new in the Night Entertainment Scene we need to know more about?) Should it come back to life, we shall duly report....
SOI EDEN
An as-yet unnamed complex of four loc's - reported in this column last month - has progressed little since then. But a few things have become more clear : the Tarntip Massage & Spa has moved across the street into these new digs (on the left in the below photo). The open area in front of the Le Hanoi restaurant is to become a large bar beer area approximately three shophouses in width. This new bar beer should be opening in about a month. BTW, the owner of the Tarntip Massage is, for the time being, keeping both venues open, but will be putting the old place on the market for sale or long lease. Interested parties contact her there.
SOI EDEN - Soi 7/1 Sukhumvit
SOI TWILIGHT
Gone, but not gone, the Banana bar beer facing Surawong Road has completed renovations and opened bigger and better than ever. Business as usual.
A PAGE FROM BANGKOK's NIGHTSCENE HISTORY....
Bangkok Eyes jumps back in time to have a look at who was new - and who was through. We'll be willing to bet that many of you "Old Bangkok Hands" will be reminded of some bars you'd almost forgotten. (We also will be willing to bet you WON'T EVEN REMEMBER an even greater number....)
10 YEARS AGO :
The Lips on the 2nd floor closed for good. No Night Entertainment Venue presently exists at that location, with the exception of the occasional rip-off bar that tries to quietly open there every few months.
PATPONG 1 - January 2003
The seminal upstairs Show - A Go-Go bar Fire Cat on the 2nd floor reverted to it's old name, Wild Cat. No Night Entertainment Venue presently exists at that location.
Up on The Ramp, the Side Line Agogo, a pay-for-show bar, opened in between the Three Ladys and the Khun Bua Beauty Shop. It is still at that location.
Also, up on The Ramp, the Dome Juniority Club reopened after a one-month shut down. The Friend (no sign yet) now occupies that real estate.
Up on Cosmos stairwell - the Baan Bua Luang Cafe opened on the 4th floor. No Night Entertainment Venue presently exists at that location.
An unnamed pub which was occupying part of the real estate which had then recently been given up by the Thai Room reopened after a one-month hiatus. That area is now occupied by the Tavern Three Saloon.
Tony's reopened after a brief closure. The Sahara occupies those premises today.
SOI COWBOY - January 2003
The Cocktail Club opened in the old Crazy Jack's Shadow. It has just completed renovations and has reopened at that same location.
Joy's (Ngun in Thai) closed. The Cockatoo is at that location today.
In a crackdown by authorities on use of real names on the Soi, the then-newly opened Shark still had to display the The New Agogo Duck name in Thai, while the After Skool had to start showing it's old Sunshine name to the public. Likewise, the Long Gun had to display it's real name: Lucky Star.
The Crystal Bar closed. No bar is at that location today - the Square is being demolished for redevelopment.
WASHINGTON SQUARE - January 2003
In the Peep Inn Park (now S33 Hotel) the Athena Massage closed. It is currently the Nyan Nyan Massage.
SOI DEAD ARTISTS - January 2003
The "33" closed. It is currently the Akane Fashion Massage.
The following bars transitioned in QUEEN'S PARK PLAZA that month:
* One More Bar bar beer - CLOSED
* O.B. 1 Bar bar beer - CLOSED
* Divas bar beer - CLOSED
* Lee Lee Bar bar beer - OPENED NEW
QUEEN'S PARK PLAZA - January 2003
ASOKE PLAZA / ASOKE CORNER - (previously Cowboy Annex) - 2003
Asoke Corner / Asoke Plaza
Night Entertainment Area :
-CLOSED DOWN-
( M arch 2000 - F ebruary 2005 )
Ten years ago this month, the following bars transitioned in Asoke Plaza / Asoke Corner (formerly Cowboy Annex).
* Siam Smile (in the 'Plaza' against the fence) - REOPENED
* Funny Bar (in the 'Plaza' against the fence) - OPENED NEW
* Titano Asoke Bar (in the Plaza in front ) - OPENED
* Unit Bar (in the 8-Pak - Ex: Oasis 1) - OPENED
* Fantasy Thailand (- in the 4-Pak) - CLOSED
ASOKE PLAZA / ASOKE CORNER PLAZA - January 2003
CLINTON PLAZA - 2003
( N ovember 1998 - 7 J une 2003 )
Ten years ago this month, the following bars transitioned in Clinton Plaza.
* The Top Down Grill - CLOSED
* You & Me - CLOSED
* Happy Prosper Beer Bar - CLOSED
* Yahoo Bar - CLOSED
* Janny Bar Beer - CLOSED
* Lek's Boozer - CLOSED
CLINTON PLAZA - January 2003
SUKHUMVIT SQUARE - 2003
( J anuary 2002 - 26 J anuary 2003 )
Ten years ago this month, the following bars transitioned in Sukhumvit Square.
* Titano Soi 10 Bar ( facing Soi 10) - NEWLY OPENED
* Studio 54 A Go-Go (In the center) - NEWLY OPENED
* Counter 7 (In the center) - NEWLY OPENED
* Little Shinjuku (In the center ) - REOPENED
* (unnamed bar beer) (in the center) - NEWLY OPENED
* Welcome Bar ( in the center ) - NEW
* Made In Heaven (In the 77 Sunset area) - NEWLY OPENED
* Loaded Dice (In the 77 Sunset area) - REOPENED
* Lucky Milk Bar (In the 77 Sunset area) - NEWLY OPENED
* Check In 99 (In the 77 Sunset area) - NEW
* Suzie Bar ( facing Sukhumvit Road ) - CLOSED
SUKHUMVIT SQUARE - January 2003
VICARIOUS ART CRIMES # 87
MIDNITE HOUR's
But is it .... ART ?
New to the world of 'Graffiti'? See our "INTRO"
"The ART and the CONTROVERSY" - CLICK HERE
Graffiti's HISTORY < link>
[ Check out Bangkok's dedicated Graffiti page at " BKK Graf.com" < link>. ]
- And now to Midnight Hour's own brand of Bangkok Graffiti ....
Of Graffiti & Graffiti-Art
Graffiti #603
Baddie
7 ft high x 11 ft
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12 ft high x 11 ft
Graffiti, Graffiti , and more Graffiti - Bangkok's original graffiti Site !
The MIDNITE HOUR Graffiti Page is prepared by Staff Contributor "Boge" Hartman.
(Boge's photo, above, is not a graffiti per-se, although there are those who have insinuated.... - Ed)
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Michael Limnios Blues Network's Blog – September 2018 Archive (17)
Q&A with German Christian Ronig - experimented and traveled with exotic melodies, alien rhythms and oriental scales
"Music celebrates the similarity of human kind, it stresses what unites us as human beings. Love, pain, hope, grief, happiness, despair and all the other feelings are essentially human. We’re not the same – how boring is that?! We are equal, though. And in the times we live in, where they try to convince us that we are not equal, it is revolutionary."
Christian Ronig: Greece Is…
Added by Michael Limnios Blues Network on September 29, 2018 at 10:00pm — No Comments
Interview with Canadian Kat Danser - steeped in roots/traditions, distills a refreshing approach for the future
"The blues elevates me from despair to connectedness with all people. I guess you could say it helps me be a better person."
Kat Danser: Goin' Gone And Beyond...
Kat Danser’s music is a steel belted radial easily flexing between a dusty gravel road and a fresh coat of…
Added by Michael Limnios Blues Network on September 29, 2018 at 9:00pm — No Comments
Q&A with Blues Caravan 2018: Mike Zito, Bernard Allison, Ally Venable - the blues titans of nowadays and tomorrow
"Ruf Records is a proven home of Blues and New Blues and has been for almost 25 years, Thomas Ruf is a true believer in the genre."
Ruf Records Blues Caravan 2018: Mike Zito, Bernard Allison, and Ally Venable
This is no ordinary club tour. This is the Blues Caravan 2018. If you’ve followed Ruf’s rolling revue since it started life in 2005, you’ll…
Interview with Mika Vandborg, known as one of the most talented and respected guitarists in Denmark
"The music defines some cultures and racial groups, I think it has always been that way. And there are still people making political songs, my feeling is however that it is not near what happened in the 1960-70´. But when that is said and I think about it, things are actually changing in that direction these years with the climax changes and the politic vibe in the world."
Mika Vandborg: Rock n'…
Q&A with Melbourne-based Pierre Baroni - primarily as a radio announcer and DJ but also as a photographer.
"Obviously black music in the 60s was a soundtrack to much of the segregation and some of its dismantling, but black people today don’t care about the blues... That’s ‘old people’s music’ to them. You very rarely see any black people at the rhythm and blues music festivals in the States."
Pierre Baroni: The Soulgroove of Image
Australian Pierre…
Q&A with Hadden Sayers - raised on a steady diet of Texas Roots and Blues music, has become a Blues Rock Master.
"I miss the idiosyncrasies in peoples playing and singing. Nowaday's any quirks that an artist has can be smoothed over with a couple of pro-tools edits. I miss the weirdness. Carolyn Wonderland once told me that people's goofiness is their most interesting quality. I believe that."
Hadden Sayers: Dopamine Machine
Q&A with Hawaiian-Based Roots Singer/Guitarist John Akapo - Delivers "Paradise Blues" on Debut CD Coming October 19th
"Samoa and Hawaii both have an open tuning style of guitar picking that translates perfectly into the blues. Each has different tunings depending on what region they are from, not unlike the blues. But I feel that the biggest similarities are the stories we tell."
John Akapo: Aloha! Paradise Blues
Taumei “Big John” Akapo is a presence in Hawaii,…
Q&A with Crazy Horse's drummer Ralph Molina - has performed on all releases by the band from 1969's
"That music, the arts in any form, are not a platform for political rants...we all know what’s going on in the world around us...fans go to be entertained, not to be reminded of what we already know..."
Ralph Molina: Crazy Horse's Beat
Ralph Molina is an American musician, best known as the drummer for Neil Young's backing band Crazy Horse. Born…
Added by Michael Limnios Blues Network on September 22, 2018 at 11:30am — No Comments
Q&A with Scott Sharrard (bandleader for the late Gregg Allman) a mission that resumes with his new album “Saving Grace”
"You can’t play Jazz, Rock, R&B, Country, or Folk without being able to play the blues."
Scott Sharrard: Interpreter of the Blues
Scott Sharrard is best known as lead guitarist and bandleader for the late Gregg Allman. But his personal artistic journey – which includes singing, songwriting, producing and arranging – began long before he first teamed up…
Added by Michael Limnios Blues Network on September 19, 2018 at 8:32am — No Comments
Q&A with Canadian renowned blues guitarist Colin James - remains at the top of game with his 19th album Miles to Go
"Blues has informed and influenced jazz, rock and roll, soul and pop music. It is in the fabric of almost all musical culture in one way or another."
Colin James: (Blues) Miles To Go
Canadian, Juno award-winning singer-songwriter and renowned blues guitarist Colin James will release his 19th album, Miles to Go, releasing…
Q&A with guitarist, mandolinist and songwriter Lino Muoio, has been a part of the Italian Blues music scene
"The freedom of playing without rules…No fears for the future, only hopes: that music can be considered more than a mainstream business but and art like painting, poetry, and dancing."
Lino Muoio: Mandolin Blues of Med Sea
Guitarist, mandolinist and songwriter Lino Muoio has been a part of the Italian Blues music scene for over 25 years, playing…
Hammond master Raphael Wressnig talks about Larry Garner, Phil Guy, Deitra Farr, and Hammond's secrets
"I think blues will always be there because it’s about LIFE! Blues talks about all aspects of life.Blues is about love, hate, anger, sex, frustration, joy, fun, hard times, good times! The whole spectrum!"
Raphael Wressnig: The Soul of Groove
Throughout the years Raphael Wressnig has created a unique organ style that is both elegant and explosive.…
Q&A with Blue Largo (Eric Lieberman & Alicia Aragon) - traditional 40’s-50’s era blues, jazz and swing band
"I believe that good music is always an expression of the times, and that it is a great catalyst to help bring the world together."
Blue Largo: Let The Good Times Roll
Blue Largo was formed by guitarist Eric Lieberman and vocalist Alicia Aragon in 1999. Eric recruited his old music partner, saxophonist Jonny Viau from as far back as…
Q&A with SoCal-based Andy Doty, owner of Old Town Blues Club and Producer of Temecula Blues Festivals
"Music is perhaps the best example that we should point to in proving that we can all get along."
Andy Doty: Under The SoCal Sun
Announcing the SoCal Divas of Blues Festival, taking place outdoors at Civic Center Plaza, 41000 Main St., in Old Town Temecula, Saturday, October 27, 2018, from 12 noon till 8pm (gates…
Interview with Lawrence Lebo, an artist who is enthralled with and dedicated to Blues & Roots Music
"It seems, I could be wrong, but that the Blues are better appreciated outside of America. If that’s true, I’d like to see that turn around."
Lawrence Lebo: Old School Girl
Daughter of a Sears & Roebuck shoe salesman, Lawrence grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles, far away from the entertainment industry. She worked into the business the hard…
Q&A with award-winning photographer Steve Manheim - traces the history of the blues, rock and roll, through today's music.
“Photography has always been important in the documentation of social, political and cultural situations. A good photograph can tell more about the human condition than words. Like music, it is visceral and direct, a truly universal language.”
Steve Manheim: The Essence of Blues Pic
Steve Manheim is an award-winning photographer in Cleveland. His…
Added by Michael Limnios Blues Network on September 2, 2018 at 12:00pm — No Comments
Scott Sharrard is best known as lead guitarist and bandleader for the late Gregg Allman. But his personal artistic journey – which includes singing, songwriting, producing and arranging – began long before he first…
Added by Michael Limnios Blues Network on September 1, 2018 at 1:30am — No Comments
Q&A with veteran singer, songwriter, guitarist Forrest McDonald - earthshaking, soul-stirring music distilled in the blues
Q&A with Irish street artist Vincent Zara - Rory Gallagher, Beatles, over thinker, mess maker, Beamish tippler
Q&A with German-born Jazz bassist Martin Zenker - Music can be one of the languages that can combine the common aspects that any and all cultures share.
Q&A with Tinsley Ellis - one of the premier electric blues guitarists of his generation and a certifiable master of the genre
Q&A with Croatian harmonica player Tomislav Goluban - burst with energy, passion, humor and real music
Q&A with Emmy & Oscar-award winning filmmaker Ted Reed - the spirit and the soul in the birthplace of the blues
Q&A with versatile guitarist and singer Hermann Posch - one of the top Austrian blues players in the traditional direction
Interview with Swedish drummer Bosse Skoglund - played many different genres from jazz & blues to reggae
Interview with Arkansas soon-to-be legend Lucious Spiller - one of the finest practitioners of the blues today
Interview with multitalented Paul Nelson, guitarist of Johnny Winter and one of the most emerging producers
An Interview with Janita Haan of Babe Ruth, one of the most exciting performer/ singer in Rock history
An Interview with Tony "TS" McPhee of The Groundhogs: A Legendary Artist of British Blues History
Memphis legend Papa Don McMinn talks about the Beale Str, Albert King, Rufus Thomas and Bobby Bland
Q&A with rootsy pianist Kevin McKendree - an inherent, obsessive love of music and a lengthy career as session musician
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The Terminator Thread
By Ligerbusa, March 21, 2014 in MOVIES & TV
Niners Fan in CT 13,136
We Stan THE BOSS
Just now, Ligerbusa said:
They screened it at the Alamo Drafthouse. They were supposed to show T2 and twenty minutes of Dark Fate but surprised people by showing Dark Fate in its entirely. Most reviews are calling it solid and comparing it to The Force Awakens. Praise for Linda Hamilton and Mackenzie Davis.
It's a beat by beat remake of Terminator? I kid but that probably wouldn't be a bad idea
Curt McGirt 8,592
Los Ingobernables DVDVR
Judging from the trailers, more like a beat by beat remake of T2
The Natural 25,066
Pillock.
LocationEngerland.
Terminator 2: Dark Fate is currently 62% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes after 37 reviews.
TheVileOne 1,965
LocationLos Angeles, California
There are some creative decisions in the film that are interesting but are gonna piss off a lot of fans.
Ligerbusa 935
Lexington Man OF War
The opening scene of Terminator: Dark Fate is upsetting a lot of people but for me, it was too quick to make much of an impact.
The cast is really strong for the most part. Mackenzie Davis is a welcome addition and it’s great to see Linda Hamilton back. This is easily Arnold Schwarzenegger’s best work in the franchise since T2. I kind of loved the Rev 9 as a a machine. It feels like what the T-X should have been. It’s hard for Gabriel Luna to follow in the footsteps of Arnold and Robert Patrick but he does a good job. Natalia Reyes plays a character (and actress) that is still trying to find her footing here. There’s one scene particular that is quite bad, the dialogue does not help.
The action is pretty good, but the end sequence is a bit too over the top for my tastes. It’s literally a combination of all the previous Terminator movies, A-Team and the Fast & Furious franchise.
Much like the end sequence, the story is rehashing what has come before it. The future has changed but the past plays out much the same. Still, the leads do a good job pulling it forward. Their performances and the majority of the action scenes made it enjoyable for me. 7/10
Edited October 25, 2019 by Ligerbusa
I agree with a lot of what Ligerbusa said except for Mackenzie Davis. I think she had the look down, but her line delivery and acting as Grace was subpar for me.
J.T. 9,061
LocationBack In The Eight Oh Four!
I saw Dark Fate on Sunday evening.
I thought it was okay. I thought the story was pretty solid and the acting was pretty much by the numbers.
We now see the brilliance in shelving the "good ending" from T2. I always thought Sarah was arrogant and stupid for believing that shutting down Cyberdine alone would save humanity when there were certainly other companies and technical geniuses about that could also craft an AI as potent and fucking bonkers as Skynet.
The timeline of events kinda bugged me though. Grace was from 2042 and I seriously don't think we'll have the quantum advancement in aircraft, ballistics, cybernetics, or time travel that we saw in the movie by the time I am 72 years old.
If we are, I'll be the first one in line for one of those Altered Carbon sleeves.
I can only assume that the militias gained access to advanced weaponry and equipment like that through repurposing and reverse engineering Legion's new T-Program technology but again, how do you do that in a world where manufacturing and public infrastructure not controlled by Legion has gone to complete shit?
I totally love the concept for the Rev 9. It has the best of all worlds from previous T models, having an exoskeleton and nanite chassis that can act independently of each other. Fucking sweet!
As for the beginning of the film:
So much for Rise of the Machines and Genisys being canon, right.
They bumped off John Connor as a kid in the first ten minutes of a movie. It almost felt like a big Fuck You to both Ed Furlong and Nick Stahl.
I have to give credit to Natalia Reyes for some of the subtle story points that she pulled off perfectly.
When we all thought that it would be Dani's kid leading the resistance, there were some moments in the scene where everyone is at Carl's place eating a meal where Dani's body language and facial cues seemed to betray more than a casual interest in Carl's adopted son, Mateo.
I was like, "Is Dani making moon eyes at Mateo? Is Miller teasing a hook-up before the shit hits the fan?"
But nope. Red herring. I totally fell for it. Acting isn't just reciting lines from a script, folks. I was completely fooled by Reyes's expressiveness.
I also cannot help but think that all of the divisive political claptrap stuffed into this movie is what caused it to have such a lukewarm box office opening weekend. It seems designed to piss off as many Border Wall = Bullshit people as possible and they responded by keeping their money in their pockets.
I'm thinking that either Doctor Sleep or Joker takes the #1 spot this coming Friday.
Edited November 4, 2019 by J.T.
On 9/3/2019 at 1:10 AM, Brian Fowler said:
Terminator > Aliens as well.
Ditto. As much as I love Aliens, I am a Cold War Kid and few nightmarish things have stuck with me more than the opening credits scene for T2.
I will admit feeling a chill down the spine when Dark Fate opened up with Sarah's iconic "million SPF sunblock" interrogation scene and when the T2 theme ran during the closing credits. That drum cadence is still blood curdling..
Bum Bum Bum BA Bum.
(But, if it counts as action, Blade Runner is better then all of these.)
Blade Runner / Blade Runner 2049 are certainly better hard sci-fi films but all of those movies not named Aliens have implausibly bad real science in them from Blade Runner's flying cars to Terminator's backwards time travel.
For movies that are pretty much monster movies masquerading as speculative fiction, there is a lot of accurate science theory and fact at work in those films.
Especially Alien: Covenant with it's solar recharge intervals for the ship's power systems and solving the problem of food logistics with cryo-hibernation.
Like Dark Fate, I also have a problem with the science of Blade Runner 2049 coming about by the time I am 80 years old. Flying cars and bioengineered humans? Not in my lifetime.
Brian Fowler 13,513
Hail! Hail! to Michigan, the champions of the West!
LocationMt Pleasant, MI
14 minutes ago, J.T. said:
Just to clarify my exact opinion: The Terminator > Aliens > Terminator 2.
Which is not at all me disliking T2.
Just now, Brian Fowler said:
My picks would be more like T2 > Terminator > Aliens with the caveat that I really do love all of those movies and also not a sign of me disliking any of them.
To the supporters of this film, calling it the best Terminator film since T2 or it's the best Terminator sequel isn't saying a whole hell of a lot.
The reason this movie doesn't work. The prologue of the movie essentially states that fuck your saviors and the whole savior idea is pointless. Yet the rest of the movie is this desperate race to save Dani when the prologue proved that you don't need a savior to prevent the threat or Judgement Day or or preserve humanity's future. You simply have to take steps to prevent it from happening and you're good. If John was irrelevant to stopping Judgement Day, then Dani is equally irrelevant to stopping Nu-Judgement Day.
8 hours ago, TheVileOne said:
I didn't really get that impression. I think that it was more about the idea that there are as many forces moving towards JD as there are fighting against it and that it is the blessing and curse of heroes to have to be vigilant at all times. That burden has taken its toll on Sarah and now it will do the same for Dani but unlike Sarah, at least Dani is choosing to assume the role of messiah.
Dani is better equipped to handle the role since she's already experienced loss. Sarah was in it for John and not for herself and when he was killed, it changed her for the worst. Like Carl said, purpose is important.
The alteration in time streams from the destruction of the Cyberdine components in T2 coupled with John's death led to the formation of an alternate time stream where Legion took over Skynet's role. It is ironic that by accomplishing its mission, the only think Skynet succeeded in doing was getting itself replaced by another rogue AI.
The whole alternate timeline thing annoys me. T2 rightfully kept that all ambiguous by the end. Once again takes the franchise into Genisys territory. You can't expect an audience to take this film as a serious sequel and the "real" T3 when you take a dump on them like that. Genisys operated under the same false promises that this movie did.
10 hours ago, TheVileOne said:
Genisys is filled with so much bullshit that it is best ignored anyway. The very idea that John was able to send Pops back in time to protect Sarah when she was nine completely invalidates the very first movie. Why send Kyle back in time in Genisys if Sarah already has a pet T-800 - 101 at her beck and call.
If Pops has been around the entire time, where was he during the events of the very first Terminator movie?
I don't think you can even use Genisys as an argument since it is wildly inconsistent with anything in the Terminator mythology. I'm proud of Cameron for endorsing the movie and standing behind his concepts and ideas, but I wonder what he really thinks about the movie.
BurningBeard 3,941
Very Anoa'i'ing
LocationBored At Work
On 11/4/2019 at 1:21 PM, J.T. said:
I really really wish
John Conner had just disappeared before Sarah's very eyes as a consequence of the timeline changing and Reese being his father. It would have been much more subtly heartbreaking. I'm sure they could have figured out another motive for Sarah Connor and Father Terminator to do what they did
2 hours ago, BurningBeard said:
Theory of Relativity makes backwards time travel impossible. Time moves in relation to the speed of light and light does not travel in reverse unless there is a catastrophic gravity anomaly aka a black hole in play..
Even then, it is assumed that light does not travel backwards; it just changes directions and travels on the same path in the opposite vector.
It's been theorized that reverse time travel could be possible under wormhole conditions with the right combination of light and supergravity, but what good is that means if no one or nothing would survive the trip? That question is left to guys smarter than me at PBSM (Physics Beyond The Standard Model). I can barely read the fucking articles.
Such was the lunchtime discussion when your office was near a DARPA enclave on post.
However yes, if you go by the corollary of the Grandfather Paradox then John should've winked out of existence as soon as the T-800 melted in T2.
If JD had been averted permanently, there would be no cause to send Reese back to protect Sarah because there would be no threat of Skynet. John's father would've never have gone back to impregnate Sarah.
The temporal mechanics in the Terminator movies is the worst.
The Dani scene I was talking about with the bad dialogue...
...is her future war scene and it’s soooooo bad and forced.
“Yeah well fuck fate!”
This didn’t help the actress, the character or anyone who was already against her for replacing John Connor.
The people that hate this movie really hate it and it’s kind of pathetic. Constantly going on about it being woke, calling Grace transgender. I do like how they sign their posts [/spoiler]#ForJohn[/spoiler], you know..a quote from the movie they hate.
Not that they have anything to worry about since the movie is bombing.
Lawful Metal 1,246
James Harden > U
LocationHouston, TX
Wait Grace was transgender? WTF?
Oof.
Crappy sequels (note, I've never had the urge to watch them after Terminator 3 but know of the reviews) tainted the brand, high benchmark in The Terminator/T2, Arnold isn't the draw he once was and *Dark Fate SPOILER*:
What happens to John Connor.
Edited November 11, 2019 by The Natural
RolandTHTG 2,514
Reigning Knight of Georgia
I love how self aware female reboots of beloved films have become.
Don't advertise it as such, let the pissbabies complain after you got their money. I enjoyed it far more than I expected. I went along to humor uncle and not much else. Solid 7/10.
Craig H 10,755
Joe West Fan Club
LocationSouf Bend, IN
My wife and I loved it. I will say that I think Terminator movies do time travel worse than literally any other TV series or movie. I had a few issues with Dark Fate that all centered around the time travel aspects, but because everything else was very enjoyable, I didn't really focus on those things or let them ruin the ride. It's a shame the brand is so tainted now because had this been released years ago instead of T3, I doubt the brand would be in such dire straits. It just sucks. My holy trinity of 80s/early 90s franchises are all pretty much dead now and all for pretty much the same reason - Terminator, Predator, and Aliens.
As for my issues with the movie:
First, opening scene shocked the hell out of us and was awesome. It was only until I thought more about it later that it doesn't make much sense. So Skynet is able to send back multiple terminators to multiple years even though Skynet won't exist because of what Sarah and John accomplished? What? Not only that, but if they have T-1000s, why send more T-800s? The secondary objective for the terminators after killing John is to kill Sarah. The T-800 kills John and then just walks right past Sarah. Oooook.
Carl explaining how he knew when and where other terminators were being sent is the most hand wavy bullshit ever. Even Steven Moffat would say that's too much. Also, why were terminators being sent here if they weren't going after Dani? Why not just go after Dani if Legion knows she's the one they need to take out?
If Skynet doesn't exist in the future then who the fuck knows who or what Carl is in the future and how the fuck do they know where he is?
I wish they showed how they were able to send Grace back in time. And as for Grace being sent back, she was saved and sent back by Dani. Dani becomes this leader because Sarah trains her to be one. Dani of the future has to know who Sarah is so why would Dani of the future not tell Grace, oh hey, by the way, find Sarah Conner and make sure she winds up with me.
And finally, the movie posits two things: One, the machines (Skynet, Legion, whatever) will NEVER win. Ever. Never ever. John Connor was killed and it didn't matter. Dani could be killed and it still won't matter. So what the fuck is the point of these movies? And two, time is looped and everything is predetermined, which is kinda lame.
Anyway, this is all stuff that bugged me after the fact and didn't bother me during the movie or even lessen how much I liked it, but it does go to show just how poorly done and how half baked the time travel shit is in the Terminator movies. It's just all time bad. Thankfully, the cast and the rest of the movie was great.
Also, solid color drapes are fine for a children's room. They don't need to have butterflies or polka dots on them. I also wouldn't tell any of this to Carl. Carl got away with his ideas for draperies because no one is going to disagree with him.
Yes, the temporal mechanics in the Terminator films are the worst. Apart from the horrible science of backwards time travel, these movies can't even keep their Grandfather Paradoxes straight.
Granted, it's possible that Legion could've accessed the schematics for the T program and Terminator units would've been built regardless of Skynet's non-creation. However "Carl" specifically recalls being created by Skynet and being sent back to kill John, which should've been impossible.
If Skynet were never created, neither would any of the specific T-800's it had produced... including the ones sent to strike at Sarah and John in T1 and T2.
At least Avengers: Endgame had the decency to show that in order to doctor a time stream to prevent probability divergence, it took several events taking place in a specific manner and in a specific sequence in order to achieve the desired spatial outcome.
Edited November 14, 2019 by J.T.
I think Endgame is one of the best because they followed the BttF model of going back in time creates a different universe or timestream, in order for those worlds to not get messed up you need to leave it like you found it, and they acknowledged they clearly fucked up some of those timelines because they couldn't do that, but hey, they at least saved the 616 universe so it's all good...
Yeah, I understand why Skynet has to send someone back to kill Sarah. Sure, Kyle Reese is right there for the plonking, but I always assumed that either Sarah was smart enough not to identify Reese in any records that Skynet could access to discern the identity of John's father.
Also, the rebels had successfully sent Reese back after it had toppled Skynet, so it's not like Skynet would've known to take the easier route of sending back a T-800 unit back like two weeks to rat the rebels out and prevent Reese from being sent back in the first place.
I just don't understand how Skynet would verify Sarah's death if the T-800's sent to kill her had been successful. How did it know to send the T-1000 after John when he was a child? And how would one single murder streamline a myriad of different timelines?
Just as Legion sprouted up after Skynet's future was nixed, someone else could rise up to fill John's shoes like Dani did and Skynet would be caught in an eternal push down / pop up with rebel leaders.
BTTF and Endgame both had a good understanding of how Grandfather Paradoxes are supposed to work from a logical standpoint even though backwards time travel itself is theoretically impossible.
Yo...sounds like things didn't go so great making this movie:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/why-terminator-dark-fate-director-wont-work-james-cameron-again-1257322
Pretty interesting stuff. I'm going to say that Tim Miller is impossible to work with and if he's not careful, he's going to fuck up a good career directing movies.
Edited November 23, 2019 by Craig H
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In-Progress At Talladega: NEXTEL Cup On ABC Sports
Sunday at 1PM Eastern Daylight Time ABC will carry the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race from Talladega. NASCAR Countdown will begin the broadcast with a one hour pre-race show, and the actual race coverage begins at 2PM.
Suzy Kolber will host NASCAR Countdown and anchor the Infield Studio during the race. Alongside of Kolber will be Brad Daugherty and a possible guest who has not yet been named.
In the announce booth will be Dr. Jerry Punch, Rusty Wallace, and Andy Petree. Down on pit road will be Allen Bestwick, Mike Massaro, Jamie Little, and Dave Burns.
This page will host your comments about the ABC telecast. You may comment before, during, or after the telecast. Please keep your comments focused on the TV issues associated with the event.
To post your comment, simply click on the COMMENTS button and then follow the simple instructions. You do not have to leave your email address, and there is nothing to join. Thanks again for taking the time to leave your opinion on The Daly Planet.
Talladega In-Progress: RaceDay On SPEED
Sunday at noon Eastern Daylight Time SPEED will present RaceDay from Talladega. This will be a two hour program, and the second hour of this live show will be going head-to-head with NASCAR Countdown on ABC.
John Roberts hosts this series, with Jimmy Spencer and Kenny Wallace alongside on the SPEED Stage. Wendy Venturini is the reporter for the program, and along with covering the happenings in the garage, she provides the Real Deal interview feature which is pre-produced during the week.
Contributors to this series include former driver Hermie Sadler, who provides track and race information along with driving laps in SPEED-1, the network's camera car that provides viewers an in-car track description. Former MTV host Ricky Rachtman also appears to participate in the weekly picks of the race winner.
This page will host your comments about this program on SPEED. Comments can be made before, during, or after the program has aired. Please read the rules on the main page before posting, and keep your comments focused on the TV issues and personalities associated with this program.
To add your post, simply click on the COMMENTS button below, and follow the simple instructions. There is nothing to join, and we do not require your email address. Thanks again for stopping-by and adding your opinion to The Daly Planet.
Talladega Qualifying "Drama" Unfolds On SPEED
The focus of the weekend at Talladega was clearly on the fact that forty-three drivers would be piloting a COT when the green flag fell. Stories in the media centered on drafting, passing, and even the dreaded restrictor plate.
What most of the print and Internet media failed to mention was the fact that qualifying for this race was going to be a sports moment to be remembered. The words "impound race" are universally hated around the garage, and totally embraced by the NASCAR administration. This simple procedure along with the "top 35" rule has worked to create two entirely different competitions on qualifying day.
With ESPN and ABC stepping aside for both the practice and qualifying at Talladega, the SPEED team of Steve Byrnes, Jeff Hammond, and Larry McReynolds made the most of this opportunity. These three in the booth for qualifying really show the key weakness of the ESPN broadcast team. The casual and personal approach of SPEED simply cannot be topped by the formal and impersonal format of the ESPN/ABC gang.
When SPEED throws in the experienced Randy Permberton and the very well-connected Wendy Venturini on pit road, viewers cannot help but think of Jamie Little and Dave Burns on ESPN. The tone and approach of Pemberton and Venturini allows the NASCAR personalities to have fun and talk plainly about what is actually going-on at the track.
This season, we have seen several episodes where various NASCAR drivers have felt that ESPN has "violated" the normally good rapport that the TV networks covering the sport have with the drivers, crew chiefs, and owners. SPEED does not have their reporters throw softballs, but they approach issues from an informative rather than tabloid perspective.
As the Talladega qualifying wound down, SPEED could have shown the faces of the drivers and the crew chiefs as their cars were bumped out of the field. They could have shoved the microphone in their faces and said "how do you feel about that?" They did not. What they did instead was keep the focus on the action on the track and interview the personalities involved in the on-going stories of this crazy day.
SPEED's Steve Byrnes has become a very versatile announcer, and his frustration about the qualifying procedures and the "go or go home" cars showed him to still be a fan. Suggestions on changes for next year included heat races and reducing the number of teams guaranteed to race. Byrnes has not been afraid to bring-up topics sensitive to the NASCAR executives, and the SPEED team did that several times.
As the "embarrassing" afternoon of qualifying came to an end, it was clear that this was a moment that needed a veteran perspective and a calm head to explain. Though not a language scholar, Larry McReynolds has proven this year that he is far and away the best NASCAR analyst in the TV business.
Fans watched McReynolds anchor the Fox package, and then single-handedly keep the struggling TNT NASCAR coverage on-track with his insightful comments from the spinning infield stage. Often on TNT, the announcers in the booth would literally seek out McReynolds to "interpret" what was happening in the race.
Saturday on SPEED, McReynolds carefully laid-out for viewers that these normally slow cars were only leading the speed charts because of the impound format and the fact that the top 35 teams were already locked-in. He kept the two different "races" in perspective, and organized for viewers who was on the bubble, even though that driver might be in the top ten in speed. When is the last time that happened?
SPEED deserves credit for calling it like it was, with the "go or go home" cars in qualifying trim and everyone else in their racing configuration. Several veteran teams seemed to purposefully be coasting their way through qualifying, giving further proof to the mistakes in this new system.
In wrapping things up with "pole-sitter" Micheal Waltrip, SPEED's Randy Pemberton kept things in perspective and let Waltrip choose his own words when trying to legitimize the fact that he was fastest on this day. There was no need to try and put Waltrip deeper into a situation that he was already going to be spending a lot of time explaining to the media.
Unfortunately, time constraints did not allow the run of every car to be show, and hopefully this is something that the NASCAR TV partners can address for the 2008 season. As this sport continually changes, it is clear that all of the competitors should be treated equally when it comes to showing NEXTEL Cup qualifying to a national TV audience.
With SPEED Channel now reaching slightly more than seventy million cable homes across the nation, there is a real feeling among fans that the disparity between the SPEED qualifying coverage and that of ESPN may need to be addressed down the road.
It is one of the most popular Internet topics on chat boards and in The Daly Planet email. How can things be so comfortable and casual one week, and so impersonal and over-blown just one week later?
NASCAR fans will have a chance to compare for themselves when qualifying and practice for the NEXTEL Cup and Busch Series returns to ESPN next weekend in Charlotte, NC.
The Daly Planet welcomes comments from readers. Simply click on the COMMENTS button below, or email editor@thedalyplanet.tv if you wish not to be published. Thanks again for taking the time to stop-by and leave your opinion.
Posted by Daly Planet Editor at 2:59 PM 9 comments: Links to this post
In-Progress At Talladega: Craftsman Trucks On SPEED
This afternoon at 3:30PM SPEED will carry the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series live from Talladega. The telecast will begin with The Set-Up pre-race show for thirty minutes, and the event coverage begins at 4PM Eastern Daylight Time.
Krista Voda will host the Set-up show as she has done all season. Rick Allen will call the play-by-play on the race, with Phil Parsons doing the color. On pit road for both the pre-race and the race itself will be Adam Alexander and Bob Dillner.
On Thursday of this week, The Daly Planet broke the news that SPEED veteran Ray Dunlap had again been suspended by the network. Dunlap will miss the next three Truck Series races, and return in November at Texas. SPEED will not comment on the reason for the suspension.
Earlier in his career, Dunlap was suspended for his comments on a live SPEED program for one week. The network did make clear that in this case, it was not for something that happened on-the-air. The said it was a personnel issue.
UPDATE: SPEED has said that Tony Stewart will be Krista Voda's guest on the pre-race show. That should be interesting.
This page will host your comments about SPEED's coverage. You may post before, during, or after the telecast. Please keep your comments related to the TV topics that we discuss here at The Daly Planet. Posts not related to TV will be deleted. The rules for posting are on the right side of the main page. Thanks again.
In-Progress At Talladega: NEXTEL Cup Qualifying On SPEED
Saturday afternoon at 1PM Eastern Daylight Time SPEED will carry live coverage of the qualifying for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series at Talladega.
Hosting the broadcast will be Steve Byrnes. He will be joined by Larry McReynolds and Jeff Hammond as analysts. Reporting down on pit road and in the garage area will be Wendy Venturini and Bob Dillner.
SPEED hosts selected practice and qualifying coverage for both the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup and Busch Series throughout the season. This arrangement was made during the new NASCAR TV contract, which started in 2007.
This page will host your comments about SPEED's coverage. You may post before, during, or after the telecast. Please keep your comments about the telecast, and review the rules for posting on the right hand side of the main page.
To post, simply click on the COMMENTS button below and then follow the simple instructions. There is nothing to join, and you do not need to leave your email address. Thanks again for taking the time to leave your opinion on The Daly Planet.
In-Progress At Talladega: NEXTEL Cup On ABC Sports...
In-Progress At Talladega: Craftsman Trucks On SPEE...
In-Progress At Talladega: NEXTEL Cup Qualifying On...
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Tough Times For ESPN At Talladega
Last season was the first year of ESPN's return to NASCAR. Click here for the TDP column that described the network's effort at televising the 2007 Talladega race.
The headline was "ABC Struggles With Multiple Storylines at Talladega." On Sunday, Dr. Jerry Punch did his best to make sure that ESPN repeated this script. As Yogi Berra once said, "this is like deja vu all over again."
Allen Bestwick had Ray Evernham added to his regular Infield Studio panel of Rusty Wallace and Brad Daugherty. The direction of the network coverage continues to be singularly focused on accidents at Talladega. Bestwick introduced this concept after an opening sequence that featured very old ESPN footage of...more accidents.
While Brad Daugherty did his best to get the viewers pumped-up, having Evernham on the panel threw things off-balance. Wallace and Daugherty have their act down pat and each has fun with the other. While Evernham might be good on Monday's NASCAR Now, the infield setting does not need his serious technical knowledge.
Over the past several weeks, Bestwick and his two panelists have been welcoming various drivers to the studio and letting Daugherty and Wallace talk with them directly. That has been working well, so the decision to end that practice and add Evernham to the panel was strange at this critical time of the season.
Back in September, TDP offered a column about Dr. Jerry Punch. Click here to read it. Basically, ESPN took a college football sideline reporter and put him in the lead NASCAR play-by-play position. The results have been disastrous.
If this was a stick-and-ball sport on ESPN, Punch would have changed assignments a long time ago. But, the fact that Punch worked on ESPN's NASCAR coverage over a decade ago has kept him hanging-on this season.
After the huge build-up of the pre-race, Punch again slipped almost immediately into his reporter role. He asked questions of his analysts and offered observations instead of focusing on calling the action and providing the excitement of high-speed racing at Talladega.
The result is kind of a random play-by-play commentary that is mostly offered by Jarrett and Petree. Punch quickly settled into calling-out the car numbers and driver names over-and-over again. ESPN went to the first commercial break before lap ten.
The ESPN on ABC gang settled into a rhythm of zooming-in on the leaders of the race. As almost all fans know, that is meaningless at Talladega. Then, the camera would select a driver and one of the ESPN pit reporters would offer a nugget of information on that team. At Talladega, this was also meaningless.
This pattern sucked the life out of a race that used to be one of the most exciting of the season. Frequent commercials were inserted without any effort from Punch to add a shred of excitement to this two and three wide racing action.
Prior to the first pit stop, viewers could only look at the ticker on the top of the screen to know who was where. The ESPN on ABC broadcast was totally off-balance and loaded with scripted material and camera angles that did not tell the story.
Jimmie Johnson losing the draft early-on did not fit into the ESPN script and threw the crew for a loop. When they finally decided to cover this story, the lead changes and racing was ignored for a problem that had been in-progress for many laps. Both the radio broadcast and the DirecTV Hot Pass coverage had been with this situation from the start.
When first "big one" happened ABC was in commercial break. TV viewers returned to single shots of crashed cars and the announcers talking about what happened as if the viewers had seen it. The coverage made absolutely no sense as continued camera shots of individual cars were shown.
Punch led to the replays and turned the telecast over to Jarrett and Petree as he does so often. He never explained to the fans why ABC did not return live as the incident happened. Jarrett and Petree filled-in the blanks for the viewers, but were mostly limited to the in-car and tight angles that ESPN had chosen for the race coverage.
As soon as possible, the Producer turned the coverage over to Allen Bestwick. The red flag was out, and Punch is not the man to handle this delay from the booth. Bestwick led a discussion of the event and a recap of the race. The ESPN pit reporters followed-up on the drivers out of the race, but once again the choice of questions was curious.
When the action returned, ESPN dug out Draft Track and explained to NASCAR fans who have been watching the sport since February the fundamentals of drafting. Dale Jarrett did a good job, kept it short and put this gizmo back on the shelf.
At the halfway point, Bestwick returned to try and inject some excitement into the telecast. Daugherty and Wallace had been strangely silent during the action and even Evernham jumped-in with some opinions. Bestwick tried his best to offer a full field rundown with good humor and the help of the pit reporters.
The tire problems that became apparent as the race progressed were not followed-up by the pit reporters. They were also not put in any kind of perspective by Punch. It was only Bestwick during an infield segment who said repeatedly that Goodyear reps had refused to come on camera and talk about the situation.
The hard crash of the race was Denny Hamlin. While the telecast had the replays, ESPN chose to leave and cover the caution flag pit stops. While Jim Hunter from NASCAR updated the Hamlin situation on the radio broadcast, ESPN simply passed along that Hamlin was alert and talking. As the network went to commercial while Hamlin was loaded in the ambulance, rock music blared as the network followed the script once again. One fan simply emailed us the word...tasteless.
It was with 55 laps to go when a Goodyear spokesman finally addressed the single biggest issue of the race. Dave Burns asked good questions, but was unable to get anything of substance from the rep. The tire questions went unanswered.
The challenge of Talladega is to show the full field or the bunched pack lap-after-lap. ESPN consistently focused on one car and would zoom-in to that car or cut to the in-car camera. The problem with that is the race perspective is lost. Many times, by the time the network returned to the race, the lead would have changed hands and the reason why was never explained.
Petree and Jarrett have worked well with each other to address the issues that the Producer points in their direction. Both have also taken it upon themselves to interject on a continual basis the real action on the racetrack. They truly do provide the play-by-play for these races.
The final runs began with 19 laps left and Punch failed to raise his voice or set the table for the fans. Punch was talking about Casey Mears' girlfriend having a baby and Paul Menard leaving DEI. Jarrett stepped-in and talked about the top cars being seen on the TV screen.
The second "big one" took the air out of the any remaining possibility of excitement where the race telecast was concerned. After the replays of Edwards turning Biffle, it fell to Shannon Spake to speak with Jack Roush. Her single question was "what did you see happen?" Roush was diplomatic in his response, but the mystery of what happened was not the issue.
The restart and final runs put the telecast well beyond the scheduled off-time. Petree and Jarrett worked well to layout the options for the remaining drivers. The pit reporters spoke with several crew chiefs to try and set the field.
Two short runs finished the day, but even with a smaller number of cars the ESPN on ABC Director showed mostly the leaders and used in-car cameras frequently. The fan frustration had to be at a climax with the lack of full field coverage and field rundown. Who was actually racing in the lead pack was rarely made clear.
What was even less clear was the finish. Punch did not know the rules and confusion was everywhere. Jarrett and Petree offered opinions, but the rules were explained in the driver's meeting and ESPN should have been able to quickly settle the matter.
Punch was once again absent at a critical time and another call of the final lap was blown. How much more of this ESPN and NASCAR can take is anyone's guess. The 2008 October race at Tallageda will certainly be known for a lot of incidents. Not all of them were on the track.
The Daly Planet welcomes comments from readers. Simply click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy directions. The rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page. Thanks for taking the time to drop by.
Sprint Cup Series At Talladega on ABC Sports
SPEED has handled the pre-race action of practice and qualifying this weekend. Sunday afternoon at 1PM will be the first time viewers will be seeing the ESPN on ABC crew.
Allen Bestwick will start the ball rolling with Brad Daugherty and Rusty Wallace from the Infield Pit Studio. The NASCAR Countdown pre-race show should be interesting with Daugherty having just completed a deal to become a satellite team of Michael Waltrip next season in the Cup Series.
Other than The Chasers, there are some names at the back of the field like Terry Labonte and Kenny Wallace that may be a factor before the race is over. Not necessarily in winning, but in helping someone to achieve that goal.
Last season, ESPN was fascinated by "the big one" and said it over-and-over again during the pre-race show. Lost in the shuffle was the actual story of the race field and what viewers could expect other than accidents.
Dr. Jerry Punch will take over at 2PM and begin the race coverage. He will be joined as usual by Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree. Tim Brewer will be in the Tech Center. Down on pit road will be Shannon Spake, Jamie Little, Dave Burns and Mike Massaro.
It is very hard for the announcers to see the backstretch, so they will be basically watching the same pictures as the viewers at home when they are calling the action on that part of the track. The choice of whether they look out at the track or continue to follow the TV monitors in the booth for the other racing should be easy to determine.
The COT has shown both a tendency to allow two cars to run fast when hooked-up just right and to make for boring racing during the early parts of this race. If teams hang back and gather together it will be up to the ESPN crew to choose to inform the viewers or ignore it.
The TV gang has been making great use of the double video box effect that allows the race to continue for the viewers even as Brewer talks tech or a crew chief is interviewed. Look for increased use of the aerial shot and the speed shots, especially after a restart.
This post will serve to host your comments about the ESPN on ABC presentation of the Sprint Cup Series race from Talladega. To add your TV-related comment, just click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. The rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.
Posted by Daly Planet Editor at 11:56 AM 818 comments: Links to this post
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Colbourn, currently the acting president of San Diego State
University, is commited to that position until June 1. The
regents named Dr. Leslie Ellis, Dean of Graduate Studies and
Research, to serve as interim president.
Colbourn new FTU president
by Joe Kilsheimer
FTU took a step toward its "second phase of development"
Monday as the Board of Regents named Dr. Trevor
Colbourn to succeed Dr. Charles N. Millican as FTU's
second president.
The Board, like the FTU advisory committee, voted
unanimously for the 50-year-old historian. He accepted the
job late Monday afternoon.
Colbourn is currently the acting president at San Diego
State University and is committed to remain in that position
until June 1. Betty Anne Staton, chairperson of the BOR
search committee said Millican had planned to step down as.
president by the first of the year and could not be expected
to remain until Colbourn could take over. The Regents thus
named Dr. Leslie Ellis, dean of Graduate Studies and
Research to serve as interim president. "I guess I have to say
that I was surprised when Chancellor (E.T.) York asked if I
would take over until the new president arrives," Ellis said.
"However, he thought it would be in the best interest of the
Students give opinions
president... page 7
about new
university."
Ellis' role as interim president will be a limited one. He
said he would be primarily concerned with maintaining the
university's programs and ensuring a smooth transition between Millican and Colbourn.
live rich,
The Orlando Task Force on
Prostitution made significant inquiries
into local prostitution and submitted
recommendations to Orlando Police
Chief fames W. York. The following is
a portion of the report as explained by
Raul A. Rowell, chairman of the Task
Force, who spoke to a group of FTU
by Richard Nelson
staff writes-
She makes $400 a week, tax-free. She
is her own boss; independent and on
her own. She works her own hours and
lives comfortably. She's a prostitute.
You can find her business along the
old cracked sidewalks of Church Street
in downtown Orlando, although it
won't be advertised in the Yellow
And though she lives without the
worry of what she'll be eating the next
day, her "job" is still dangerous. She
pays the price of easy hours by submitting herself sexually to middle-classed,
white Americans who could possibly
be your neighbors.
As in any business, a prostitute runs
risks. Risks of being beaten to a pulp by
someone who's had too many drinks,
or of having a customer only to have
him not pay for "services rendered."
President, page 7
While she worries about being beat
up or ripped off, there's always the
chance of becoming pregnant or contracting a veneral disease, not to mention being arrested. Such possibilities
could be classified as the price of the
How do prostitutes become involved
with what they do? What are their
motivations? Such questions were answered by the Task Force on
Prostitution in their recent report to
the Orlando Police Department.
Paul A. Rowell, city prosecutor for ,
Orlando and chairman of the task force, spoke to FTU students of Dr. Randy
Fisher's Sexual Behavior course about
a prostitute's life and the purpose of
the task force.
Their aim was to find ways in which
the Orlando Police Department could
better address what York called a
"problem".
However, despite what York said,
the task force claimed, "There is not a
prostitution problem." Rowell said,
"Personally, I don't care, as long as it
(prostitution) doesn't hurt anybody
else. Why should I care? But the law
says I should care."
Rowell and the task force at first encountered problems trying to ask the
public for their thoughts of street-
walking in Orlando. The response was
almost nil.
But when their recommendation to
either decriminalize or legalize street-
walking became publicly known, the
public became vocal in protest to the
task force's findings.
Much of the results paralleled that of
Jennifer James in her study
Colbourn
...new FTU leader
"Motivation of Women for Entrance
Into Prostitution," which was co-
authored by Jane Meyerding.
The study dealt with the
motivational factors which influenced
a woman's decision to become a
hooker. James' study found the major
conscious motivator was lack of
The prostitutes surveyed locally and
in most available studies uniformly
identify material and economic factors
as influencing their decisions to engage
in .prostitution," the reports states.
Studies also indicate that if activities
of prostitution are more visible during
a girl's adolescent years, she is more
likely to become a prostitute.
Many prostitutes have experienced
either a "bad" or traumatic sexual experience involving incest or rape. Ine
the James study, 72.2 percent of the
adolescent subjects had encountered a
bad sexual experience.
Another avenue for a girl to become
a prostitute is through the recruiting .
by the pimp. A pimp to a prostitute is
like an agent to a movie star-
businessman, admirer, protector and
even lover.
But usually his influence over the
street walker is stronger emotionally
than a Hollywood agent to a movie
The pimp is a father and a friend
with a dash of romantic involvement
on the side.. In many ways the
prostitute-pimp relationship is like
He pays the bills, provides status for
the hooker
Prostitute, page 12
Todays Futfurs
The State Council of Student Body
Presidents including FTU's Bob White
want the constitutional revision of the
Board of Regents to include the nonvoting student member. See story, page 3.
For something out of the ordinary in live
albums Genisis' "Seconds Out" is
creative instrumentation at its best The
double album set may be the best buy of
new year. See review, page 10.
The Centurians
Reaching 100 points in basketball is just a
dream for most college teams, but the
FTU Knights are making it a habit. They
scored the magic number for the third
consecutive time Wednesday. See story,
Title Central Florida Future, Vol. 10 No. 16, January 13, 1978
Issue Vol. 10 No. 16, January 13, 1978
Description Colbourn new FTU president (with photo of Dr. Trevor Colbourn and Ellis the interim president); Prostitutes live rich, take risks; F.T.U. NewsFronts: Humanities professor advises subcommittee; Parking still a problem; Future Campus: BOR revision excludes student member; Future Comment: Selection of Colbourn, Ellis good move for FTU future; Forensic science program offers unique opportunity; Wyatt, students explore 'death' (with photo); Future Sights and Sounds: Genesis LP extra 'live'; Hungarian folk culture featured in new exhibit (with photo); FTU biker travels 4,500 miles (with photo); Future Sports: FTU streaks to sixth straight victory (with photo).
Subject-People Colbourn, Trevor
Ellis, Leslie
Birge, Ken
Transcript Future Vol. 10 Friday, January 13, 1978 Florida Technological University No. 16 Colbourn, currently the acting president of San Diego State University, is commited to that position until June 1. The regents named Dr. Leslie Ellis, Dean of Graduate Studies and Research, to serve as interim president. Colbourn new FTU president by Joe Kilsheimer assistant editor FTU took a step toward its "second phase of development" Monday as the Board of Regents named Dr. Trevor Colbourn to succeed Dr. Charles N. Millican as FTU's second president. The Board, like the FTU advisory committee, voted unanimously for the 50-year-old historian. He accepted the job late Monday afternoon. Colbourn is currently the acting president at San Diego State University and is committed to remain in that position until June 1. Betty Anne Staton, chairperson of the BOR search committee said Millican had planned to step down as. president by the first of the year and could not be expected to remain until Colbourn could take over. The Regents thus named Dr. Leslie Ellis, dean of Graduate Studies and Research to serve as interim president. "I guess I have to say that I was surprised when Chancellor (E.T.) York asked if I would take over until the new president arrives," Ellis said. "However, he thought it would be in the best interest of the Students give opinions president... page 7 about new university." Ellis' role as interim president will be a limited one. He said he would be primarily concerned with maintaining the university's programs and ensuring a smooth transition between Millican and Colbourn. Prostitutes live rich, take risks The Orlando Task Force on Prostitution made significant inquiries into local prostitution and submitted recommendations to Orlando Police Chief fames W. York. The following is a portion of the report as explained by Raul A. Rowell, chairman of the Task Force, who spoke to a group of FTU students. by Richard Nelson staff writes- She makes $400 a week, tax-free. She is her own boss; independent and on her own. She works her own hours and lives comfortably. She's a prostitute. You can find her business along the old cracked sidewalks of Church Street in downtown Orlando, although it won't be advertised in the Yellow Pages. And though she lives without the worry of what she'll be eating the next day, her "job" is still dangerous. She pays the price of easy hours by submitting herself sexually to middle-classed, white Americans who could possibly be your neighbors. As in any business, a prostitute runs risks. Risks of being beaten to a pulp by someone who's had too many drinks, or of having a customer only to have him not pay for "services rendered." President, page 7 While she worries about being beat up or ripped off, there's always the chance of becoming pregnant or contracting a veneral disease, not to mention being arrested. Such possibilities could be classified as the price of the trade. How do prostitutes become involved with what they do? What are their motivations? Such questions were answered by the Task Force on Prostitution in their recent report to the Orlando Police Department. Paul A. Rowell, city prosecutor for , Orlando and chairman of the task force, spoke to FTU students of Dr. Randy Fisher's Sexual Behavior course about a prostitute's life and the purpose of the task force. Their aim was to find ways in which the Orlando Police Department could better address what York called a "problem". However, despite what York said, the task force claimed, "There is not a prostitution problem." Rowell said, "Personally, I don't care, as long as it (prostitution) doesn't hurt anybody else. Why should I care? But the law says I should care." Rowell and the task force at first encountered problems trying to ask the public for their thoughts of street- walking in Orlando. The response was almost nil. But when their recommendation to either decriminalize or legalize street- walking became publicly known, the public became vocal in protest to the task force's findings. Much of the results paralleled that of Jennifer James in her study Colbourn ...new FTU leader "Motivation of Women for Entrance Into Prostitution," which was co- authored by Jane Meyerding. The study dealt with the motivational factors which influenced a woman's decision to become a hooker. James' study found the major conscious motivator was lack of money. The prostitutes surveyed locally and in most available studies uniformly identify material and economic factors as influencing their decisions to engage in .prostitution," the reports states. Studies also indicate that if activities of prostitution are more visible during a girl's adolescent years, she is more likely to become a prostitute. Many prostitutes have experienced either a "bad" or traumatic sexual experience involving incest or rape. Ine the James study, 72.2 percent of the adolescent subjects had encountered a bad sexual experience. Another avenue for a girl to become a prostitute is through the recruiting . by the pimp. A pimp to a prostitute is like an agent to a movie star- businessman, admirer, protector and even lover. But usually his influence over the street walker is stronger emotionally than a Hollywood agent to a movie star. The pimp is a father and a friend with a dash of romantic involvement on the side.. In many ways the prostitute-pimp relationship is like marriage. He pays the bills, provides status for the hooker Prostitute, page 12 Todays Futfurs Student power The State Council of Student Body Presidents including FTU's Bob White want the constitutional revision of the Board of Regents to include the nonvoting student member. See story, page 3. Revelations For something out of the ordinary in live albums Genisis' "Seconds Out" is creative instrumentation at its best The double album set may be the best buy of new year. See review, page 10. The Centurians Reaching 100 points in basketball is just a dream for most college teams, but the FTU Knights are making it a habit. They scored the magic number for the third consecutive time Wednesday. See story, page 14.
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Equal Treatment Authority fines Hungarian university for banning LGBTQI roundtable News
The banning of an LGBTQI roundtable in April 2016 by the University of Debrecen and its subsidiary amounted to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity - decided the Equal Treatment Authority, and imposed a fine of 100.000 HUF on the University.
Highest ever fine imposed on swimming-pool discriminating against LGBTQ sports club in Hungary News
The Equal Treatment Authority found that a local-government run swimming pool discriminated against an LGBTQ sports club when it declined to rent out two of its swimming lanes for a sport event. The Authority imposed a fine of 1 million HUF.
Equal Treatment Authority: Rejection of transgender job applicant was unlawful News
The Equal Treatment Authority found discrimination based on gender identity for the first time in a case concerning an employer’s rejection of a transgender job applicant.
Equal Treatment Authority fines Budapest school for discriminating against child with lesbian mothers News
The Equal Treatment Authority found the Kispest Waldorf School liable for unlawful discrimination by rejecting the application of a boy after his mother told the school he was raised by two women.
Same-sex couples and their children are also entitled to reduced-price football tickets in Hungary News
The intervention of the Equal Treatment Authority was needed to force the Hungarian Football Federation to change its policy which excluded same-sex couples and their children from those entitled to buy football tickets at a reduced price available to families.
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Home » News » Arab Shepherd Calls IDF to Remove US Protesters From Hebron
Arab Shepherd Calls IDF to Remove US Protesters From Hebron
Center For Jewish Nonviolence invaded property, ripped up grazing land to create movie theater.
19.7.16, 10:00
(Photo Credit: Tzipi Schissel / Jewish Press / TPS)
A group of Jewish Americans came to Hebron to help the Arab community. But the very community they were trying to help saw them as tresspassing on private property.
The incident took place on on Friday July 15, 2016 in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of H2 Hebron. Groups such as the Center For Jewish Nonviolence, All That's Left: Anti-Occupation Collective took part in the initiative called Cinema Hebron. Their stated goal was "to clear out an old factory on private Palestinian owned land in order to build a cinema." However the Abu Aisha family who have been living there since approximately 1949, saw them as illegal tresspassers. Mr. Abu Aisha called the police and the Israel Defense Forces arrived to evict the protesters.
Tzipi Schissel, a local Hebron resident and curator of the Hebron History Museum at Beit Hadassah filmed the event. The shepherd, standing on the left-hand side of the video can be seen gestering and telling the police "yalla, take them from here... these are my lands..."
A lengthy article in the Jewish Press quoted Schissel as follows:
“Now, when the activists arrived with their tremendous singing, they cleaned up the area thoroughly, it was truly amazing, but the Abu Aisha family was not consulted. Later, a police officer told me there was a military order to evacuate the activists and that the Abu Aisha family had filed a complaint with local police." The Jewish Press reported that in the end, a complaint was never actually filed.
H1 Hebron is a large, economically vibrant city with many factories, 3 universities, several large hospitals, a shopping center but no movie theaters. The religiously conservative population hosts many mosques and virtually no western style night life facilities. H2 Hebron, which comprises the Old City and the Jewish neighborhoods is where Friday's incident took place.
The Jewish Press quoted Schissel as commenting on the protesters choice of location: "This is why the only place where they could advocate having a movie theater in all of Hebron was near the Jewish neighborhoods... these human rights group who say they want to help the Arab community are actually ignorant of who they are... they step on their culture, trampling their values... those peace activists did a cleanup job on his source of livelihood. They raked and tore up the weeds... they destroyed his grazing field,” Schlissel said.
For the full article click here:
Arab Outraged as Peter Beinart, US Jewish Activists, Occupy his Land
Meanwhile, the Jewish Community of Hebron hold regular meetings with select members of Hebron's Arab community. Specifically there is close contact with Sheikh Farid Al-Jabari.
One meeting dealt with the Arab community's aversion to foreign agitators. While they come to Hebron to support the Arab community, Sheikh Jabari and others have complained they smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol and dress immodestly, setting what they call a bad example for the younger generation of Hebron's Arab community. An article from Israel HaYom from November 4, 2011 interviews Sheikh Jabari and states:
"The anarchists who operated in Hebron almost drove him out of his mind with anger. He saw them as instigators and troublemakers, and also as a danger to Islam because of their permissive ways and immodest manner of dress. The Jews of Hebron did not like the anarchists in Hebron for exactly the same reasons, and so an unusual cooperation took place that led to the placing of an Arabic-speaking Jewish modesty observer in the streets of the city."
The phenomenon of the Arab community rejecting self-described "anarchist" protesters is not new. An article from Kol Ha'ir from 2005 reported,
"Several local Arab residents told the Kol Ha’Ir newspaper that the activists have been exposing the local youths to drug use and sexual promiscuity. One interviewee told Kol Ha’Ir that the volunteers show a disregard for the religious norms of the local villages and teach the local youth to reject and disrespect the traditions of their forefathers. "These anarchists come here and undermine the education we give our children. At first we took them in with hospitality - after all, they claimed they wanted to help us, so why kick them out? But very quickly they infuriated me with their lewd behavior."
For more information on Hebron's Jewish-Arab dialogues visit the following:
* Hevron Mukhtar Misses Pre-Oslo Days
* A sheikh, settlers and MPs meet in Hebron Hills tent
* A 'Shekhi' Chaye Sarah in Hebron
* Photo essay: Meeting with Sheikh Jabari
* The most endangered species by David Brog
* 'Jewish presence in Hebron is an indisputable historical fact'
* Good Neighborliness: Jabari and Mesika Present an Alternative
For more on the Arab community's rejection of foreign agitators visit the following:
* Hevron Arabs: Lefty anarchists go home!
* Hevron Arabs Ask Jews For Help in Banishing Leftist Activists
* Out with the Anarchists - IsraellyCool
* An anarchist's paradise
* Hallel Yaffa Ariel's Murder and My Father by Tzipi Schissel
* Kentucky Fried Chicken in Hebron - Region's Most Economically Advanced City
* Israeli Leaders Plan Business, Medical Ties with Arabs in Hebron Region
United States contact info:
http://www.hebronfund.org
info@hebronfund.org
In Israel contact the offices of the Jewish Community of Hebron at:
http://en.hebron.org.il/
office@hebron.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/hebronofficial
1 Million Tourists visit Hebron in Record-Breaking Year10.1.20
Holiday opening and closing schedule for Tomb of Machpela - 20207.1.20
Naftali Bennett Lights Hannukah Candles in Hebron1.1.20
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Saturday, March 22, 2008 0
"Club Paris" and Paris Hilton - What Happened To Club Paris?
If you do a search on Paris Hilton, one result that comes up is a reference to something called "Club Paris." What that is -- or was -- or kind of is, I guess, is a set of nightclubs, the first of which opened in Orlando in 2004 and then in Jacksonville and just around the time that city was hosting the Super Bowl.
But then both closed in 2007. Why?
Well from my peering around, it seems that Club Paris' death was due to a disagreement between a club entrepreneur named Fereidoun "Fred" Khalilian and Paris Hilton. Reportedly, Hilton was paid seven-figures for Fereidoun "Fred" Khalilian to gain the right to place her name on what was to be a string of night clubs starting in -- of all places -- Orlando. (The photo shows Paris and Fred in happier times.)
I mean, nice try there, but let's face it, Orlando's not the first city anyone associates with Paris Hilton or nightlife. I guess catching the resort / Disney World crowd was the idea, but then why not try to negotiate with the Disney people? Oh well.
The first Club Paris opened in Orlando in 2004, but I can tell from the press release (see the link before this sentence) that there would be trouble simply because even though Paris is mentioned extensively, there's no -- not one direct quote from her. There's one from her lawyer, but not her.
So it's no wonder Hilton failed to show up on time for the grand opening. For that, Paris said she was "skiing in the Swiss Alps and got caught at the airport with holiday travel." A reasonable excuse in my view, but then I'm a Paris Hilton fan. (Why? Because she has a head for business -- she's an entrepreneur and a great one at that. She's not living off family money and has done well making her own cash, yet is not recognized for that, which is a total shame.)
That behavior and subsequent episodes where Hilton did not show up to planned Club Paris events was the straw that broke the camels back for Fereidoun "Fred" Khalilian. Accord to an agreement contract, Hilton was to come to the club twice a month..
Look out Orlando , the 2005 New Year’s Eve Party to attend is the grand opening of "Club Paris," the first of a handful of clubs worldwide to be named after socialite Paris Hilton.
Seems like Paris Hilton knows something about nightclubs, so it makes sense the hotel heiress is the latest inspiration for a series of clubs that will bear her signature name.
Club Paris, named after "The Simple Life" star, plans to open on New Year’s Eve in Orlando. Local businessman Fereidoun "Fred" Khalilian hopes to open other Club Paris nightclubs locations include Las Vegas, New York City, Miami Beach, London and Paris.
Rumors leaked stated that Hilton will earn a "seven-figure" signing bonus for lending her name to the club. In return, she is contractually obligated to appear at the club at least twice a month. Hilton also helped select the interior design and is scheduled to attend the opening.
It opened and lasted for one year, then closed. Some point to the fallout between Paris and "Fred" as the reason for the closure, but I think it was more than that. The Club has a $20,000 back-rent debt and Consolidated Investment and Capital Corp., which loaned the money to Club Paris LLC to acquire the liquor licenses, is still owed $526,240.65 on a liguor license that was up for sale in February of this year.
On top of all that, Fred was arrested twice -- once for sexual assault, then for an old warrant of assault on a law enforcement official. The details aside, its clear that Fred's pissed off a number of women in that area, as more than one have complained of his boorish behavior. In fact, the anger is such that someone made a MySpace page devoted just to his sexual assault problems.
But it seems that the rape charges were indeed questionable. Khalilian was released from jail after two witnesses, a a guard and a cab driver cast doubt on a rape allegation, according to his lawyer, Mark NeJame. The Florida attorney's website reports that "Both men said the woman appeared happy and content after spending 70 minutes in the nightclub owner's home. And a text message she sent afterward to Khalilian's cell phone asked him to send her some clothing and thanked him, NeJame said.
Khalilian was required while on bail to wear a GPS tracking device, abstain from drinking alcohol, and stay out of his nightclub between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m., NeJame said.
Whatever the case, it's clear someone does not like Khalilian.
Meanwhile, Paris presses on.
A year after her celebrated DUI problems, the heirress still finds herself near the top of Internet searches and was the star attraction in South Africa recently for the My Coke Fest Rock Festival. Also, her singing album, started with Scott Storch, who Paris met through Khalilian, is still available.
Labels: club paris, florida, jacksonville, Mark NeJame, orlando, Paris Hilton
NY Upper East Side Interior Designer Christine Smith Featured By NY Post
Christine Smith Interior Design Blessed By NY Post's Cindy Adams
Taking a break from politics, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Mcain, we look at Cindy Adams who "brings you the juiciest celeb gossip and celebrity news" according to the New York Post, her employer. Well, if that's the case, then Cindy's just blessed Christine Smith as a celebrity. Cindy took note of the growing presence of Smith's workers around the Upper East Side, and gushed ..
"GUYS are around hauling demolition, filling dump trucks, wearing black T-shirts that read "Christine Smith." So who's Christine Smith? A stunning, skinny, befurred, 6-foot blonde with silver buckles on her jeans and waist-length hair. And why's anyone hauling fixtures wearing her shirts? She's this season's contractor du jour. Looking like a model, this lady is demolishing johns, pulling out sinks, building walls and redoing kitchens all over the Upper East Side."
Not only is Christine a model, but the work of her and the crew of people she employs is as well. Here is but one of the examples of the work of Christine Smith, who it can now be said rules the Upper East Side of New York. Visit her website at http://www.christinesmithassoc.com
Labels: interior design, new york, ny upper east side, upper east side
Friday, December 07, 2007 1
Shootin Lucy | Punk Rock Band | Stork Club Oakland
This is a music video shot impromptu at a place called The Stork Club on 2330 Telegraph Ave. I just happened to have my camera and they were cool with it. Here's the result!
Labels: oakland, punk rock, san francisco, shootin lucy, stork club
CNN / YouTube Debates - My Message To Steve Grove and Dave Bohrman
This video and post present my message to Steve Grove, the News and Politics editor for CNN, and to Dave Bohrman, the Executive Producer of the CNN / YouTube Debates for CNN.
My take is that CNN/YouTube was lucky to realize the ratings record that was set for the debate, and this was achieved for two reasons: 1) the time of year -- it's the fall holiday season, and 2) the fact that all of the Republican Presidential Candidates were there, which is no small feat.
Still, CNN/YouTube handled this debate differently than the Democratic Debate. First, the level of promotion of the event was dramatically scaled back compared to the first. Second, there were fewer questions picked out of the 5,200 that were submitted : 34 questions versus 43 for the first debate. Third, there was an annoying tendency to pick Blacks who submitted questions about Black issues, when there were videos from people who were not Black, but did ask questions about Blacks and the Republican Party.
(As a momentary aside, I think that practice shows an America that does not exist. It shows an America where only Blacks care about Black or minority issues, and not the real America, where a diverse set of people care about all Americans, and will ask questions regarding how Blacks are treated. To not show this -- the real America -- is criminal and paints America as far more racist than it really is. This country has come a long way and is better than it's ever been.)
CNN/YouTube also didn't handle its video talent properly. In the video I present myself as an example. In the begining I was -- and still am -- part of the sample video for the CNN/YouTube Debates. I'm also on the YTDebates channel, at least as of this writing and you can see my photo on the channel here in this blog post. So when I learned that YouTubers were being flown out by Google to the debates, I thought -- rightfully -- that somone would call.
Nope. Didn't happen.
I also sent an inquiry to determine if this was the case, and didn't get an answer from Steve Grove.
So it makes one wonder -- in this case, me -- what's going on over at CNN / YouTube and why they treat people in this way - or at least me. But given the thousands of people who have made and submitted videos, and the other talent that was promoted, I can't believe it's just me that had the problem.
CNN itself showed little regard for my time when they contact me for the first debate. Three show producers contacted me separately and in one case I thought I was to get on a flight. Then didn't get a call back. Then was essentially made to wait for a few days, then got a call saying I wasn't being flown out, only to get a call from another show flying me to New York.
What bothered me this time around was not that I was not called, but Steve didn't answer my emails attempting to learn what he and YouTube were going to do. If they'd said "Zennie, we don't need you this time", or "Hey CNN thinks you're an Obama supporter, and they've got a problem with that" then I'd be fine. I just wanted communication. I didn't get it.
As for the debate itself there were a lot of problems in addtion to the ones I discussed above. Not a single video question on Health Care was presented, leaving one to think the Republican Party doens't care about it. Is that CNN's call or the Republican Party? One has to assume they were working together. But in eliminating that series of questions, CNN / YouTube and the Republican Party pissed off a country.
Plus, CNN / YouTube did't tell video submitters they were going to do this, and the video makers -- given the Democratic Debate with YouTube, had full reason to think they would do so. Moreover, CNN / YouTube didn't tell anyone what they were going to do -- I learned it from CNN's David Bohrman being quoted in the New York Times.
That's not good.
In closing, I think CNN / YouTube owes YouTubers an appology and I'm also disappointed with how Steve Grove handled things this time around. I have high standards for him and I expect that -- givent the historic nature of what he's doing with YouTube and CNN that he will reach and maintain them. It's not personal -- I like Steve -- just professional.
I don't know Dave Bohrman, but I expect that he's a fine and upstanding person who will take these crticisms to heart and act on them. I think all of us want to see the CNN / YouTube system reach its potential.
Labels: barack obama, cnn, cnn youtube debates, hillary clinton, ron paul, youtube
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 0
D.O.A. - Dead Or Alive - Movie Trailer
Labels: D.O.A., dead or alive, dead or alive trailer, movie, movie trailer
Tuesday, November 13, 2007 0
Facebookers Launch Official Petition Against Hillary Clinton's Insult
In The Politico.com , it was reported that On Saturday, November 10th, Clinton advisers told reporters this about Barack Obama's voters:
“Our people look like caucus-goers,” Grunwald said, “and his people look like they are 18. Penn said they look like Facebook.”
Penn added, “Only a few of their people look like they could vote in any state.”
This was reported by Roger Simon in his column today and the well-reported quip angered more than a few Facebook users. It was one of the dumbest errors commited by the Clinton campaign, and could serve as another nail in the coffin of her Presidential campaign.
The Clinton camp's way too arrogant, and comments like those of Gruwald and Penn prove it.
The anger of Facebook users has materialized into a petition against Hillary Clinton, which you can see and respond to with a click here.
Labels: cbs, hillary clinton petition, nbc facebook, time
Dr Donda West, Kanye West's Mom, Passes After Surgery
Kanye's mother dies after surgery
Kanye West often spoke about his close relationship with his mother
The mother of rap star Kanye West has died at the age of 58 after cosmetic surgery developed complications.
Dr Donda West, who managed the star's businesses and educational foundation and was the subject of his song Hey Mama, died in Los Angeles on Saturday.
Her publicist Patricia Green said she passed away "as the result of complications from a cosmetic surgical procedure", but gave no more details.
West's spokesman said the family "asks for privacy during this time of grief".
The 30-year-old often spoke publicly of his close relationship with his mother. She raised him alone after her husband left when West was three.
'Inspirational'
In Hey Mama, on West's 2005 album Late Registration, he sang: "Hey Mama, I wanna scream so loud for you, cuz I'm so proud of you. I appreciate what you allowed for me, I just want you to be proud of me."
In May, she published the book Raising Kanye: Life Lessons from the Mother of a Hip-Hop Star, in which she paid homage to her famous son.
She was chairwoman of the Kanye West Foundation, a non-profit organisation that aims to improve literacy and stop people dropping out of school.
Ms Green said: "May Donda's work and deeds be an inspiration to each of us, may we start each day knowing that support of family and community are central to purpose."
Labels: Donda West, Kanye West, music, Patricia Green, pop, rap
Saturday, November 10, 2007 0
Heroes On Hulu - Watch The Entire Episode "Out Of Time" Here, Now Live!
Click on the arrow to watch the entire Heroes episode "Out of Time."
Hulu is NBC's new website system that allows one to see HD-quality online versions of shows from NBC, CBS, and other providers. I don't see it as a YouTube replacement for reasons I state over at Zennie's Zeitgeist, but it's a fun system, none the less.
Labels: cbs, heroes, nbc, youtube, zennie abraham
Thursday, September 20, 2007 0
Bionic Woman On Comcast On Demand - Saw It
I just saw Bionic Woman on Comcast OnDemand. Click on this -- Bionic Woman -- to read my review of the pilot episode.
Labels: bionic woman, david eick, michelle ryan, nbc
Sunday, September 09, 2007 0
San Francisco Macy's Passport Video Features Bauer's Limosine
This is a video that promotes Macy's Passport -- the fashion show to end all shows -- at Fort Mason, September 19th, 2007. The short message contains images of the Lexus 400h Hybrid Car, the rage for those going green, and can be rented at the page for Macy's Passport
Labels: bauer's limos, macy passport, san francisco
Jersey Boys' Drew Gehling and My Mom @ REAF Benefit in S.F.
Tickets at SBSTickets.com
Labels: Drew Gehling, jersey boys, jersey boys tickets
Everyone Likes CNN's Paula Zahn - Even The Limo Drivers!
I'm still in New York City, having appeared on CNN's Roland Martin Debates to talk about the CNN / YouTube Debates program and its impact on society. But during this trip, what impressed me was the impact CNN's now departed Paula Zahn had on everyone around her.
People love her.
This was made clear to me by the limo driver who picked me up at JFK. He said "Paula, she was great. Most people (CNN anchors and contributors) just get in (the car) and don't say much. Paula, she asks you about your family, and how you're doing."
This view was echoed by yet another driver with the firm that holds the CNN livery account. And it speaks to the character of the person that will be replaced by Cambell Brown. She's a truly good person, and the best way to know that is when other people say so.
Labels: cnn, cnn roland martin debates, new york, nyc, paula zahn
Monday, July 02, 2007 0
William Shatner On Kirk's Death In Star Trek: Generations - Video
I just found a site called " Bring Back Kirk.com " which calls for Paramount to bring Star Trek's Captain Kirk back from the dead, where he was left after Star Trek: Generations. As part of this effort, they have this video where Shatner's talking about his objection to the plan to have Kirk killed. It's an insight into the kind of thinking that Shatner says Paramount had in making their decision.
Shatner Responds: The Death Of Captain Kirk
Labels: Captain Kirk, Star Trek, William Shatner
Bonnie Piesse Is "Aunt Beru" From Star Wars Episode II and Episode III
Actress Bonnie Piesse appeared at WonderCon in San Francisco and was kind enough to listen to my stupid question regarding her time playing "Aunt Beru" in Star Wars Episode II and Star Wars Episode III. In our conversation Bonnie explains that the baby she held was in fact not real, but was made to feel like a real baby.
She also offered that George Lucas, who directed and produced the movies, was relaxed and easy to work with. Finally, Bonnie talks about her music and her album which is set to debut in late 2007.
Labels: actress, bonnie piesse, hollywood, model, movies, singer, Star Wars
Michael Buble - Why Are People Writing About Him?
I've got to admit, I've never heard of Michael Buble until now, and that's due to Technorati and the people blogging about him. But why are they blogging about him? Well, here's a video of him singing. If you want concert tickets, just click on the title of this post.
Labels: Michael Buble, music, Technorati
Thursday, April 05, 2007 0
Don LaFontaine, John Leader, Al Chalk, Mark Elliot, and Nick Tate - Video
Wow. Check out this video featuring the greatest movie voices of the modern age of movies.
It features Don LaFontaine, John Leader, Al Chalk, Mark Elliot, and Nick Tate, all off to the Key Awards.
Labels: Al Chalk, Don LaFontaine, John Leader, Mark Elliot, Nick Tate
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February 2019: UPDATE ON 3-YEAR IMF PRECAUTIONARY STAND...
EPOC Press Statement – Quarterly Media Briefing
EPOC goes “On The Corner”
On The Corner > ‘Talk To Us’ – Swallo...
Get to know the 3 oversight committees that monitor the...
EPOC proposes analysis of tax revenue performance
Posted by epocjamaica | Jun 2, 2017 | news | 0 |
KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC) Co-Chairman, Keith Duncan, is proposing that the Government analyse the over-performance in tax revenue inflows recorded for the 2016/17 fiscal year to determine the underlying factors driving this outcome.This, he said, should be done to ensure that this outturn can be sustained over the long term. He posited the suggestion while addressing journalists during EPOC’s quarterly media briefing at the Jamaica Money Market Brokers (JMMB) Group’s head office in New Kingston on Friday, May 19.
Tax revenue inflows last year totalled $458.3 billion to surpass the $440 billion target. This enabled the administration to generate a primary balance surplus of $135.9 billion.
This was $12.9 billion or 7.7 per cent above the minimum seven per cent target of $123 billion for the period, in keeping with target stipulations under the International Monetary Fund’s precautionary three-year Stand By Agreement (SBA).
Additionally, non-borrowed reserves totalled $1.93 billion, to surpass the target of $1.47 billion.
These, along with containment of the rate of inflation, which came in at 4.1 per cent to be within the target range of two to nine per cent, and further reduction in the unemployment rate, which declined by 0.6 per cent to 12.7 per cent in January relative to the corresponding period in 2016, were among the key fiscal and monetary quantitative performance criteria for 2016/17 under the Government’s IMF-supported economic reform programme.
“So Jamaica, from a quantitative perspective, is performing significantly well; the selected fiscal and monetary indicators have been met and surpassed in a significant way. The tax revenue intakes continue to be strong, where the over-performance was driven by improved compliance, higher levels of company profits, and an increased country wage bill reflective of higher levels of employment,” the EPOC Chairman stated.
Duncan said the buoyant revenue inflows were “not surprising”, given recent fiscal developments. These, he noted, include: the shift from direct to indirect taxation; increased macroeconomic stability and economic growth; and increased company profits. He, however, believes there may be other underlying factors.
In this regard, Duncan emphasised that “there needs to be further and deeper analysis done by the Ministry of Finance around these numbers so we really can get to the underlying reasons for the movement and buoyancy (so that), hopefully, this (can) be sustained.”
“We really need to get the handle on it, because we would like to ensure that there is some sustainability to this because this would help us to create room in our fiscal space, going forward,” he added.
PreviousEPOC supports gov’t’s management of public bodies surpluses
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epocjamaica
The Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC) was established in 2013 to monitor the implementation of Jamaica’s economic reform measures under its agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The committee comprises 11 persons from the private and public sectors, and civil society. They receive and assess information from the Government of Jamaica (GOJ) to track the progress of the targets under the three-year Precautionary Stand-By Arrangement (PSBA) which was signed in 2016. Visit: http://www.epocjamaica.com/about to learn more.
Gov’t on track to meet target under the PSBA — EPOC
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Dec 11, 2019 | communiques
October 2019: UPDATE ON 3-YEAR IMF PRECAUTIONARY STAND-BY ARRANGEMENT (PSBA)
Nov 11, 2019 | communiques
EPOC Congratulates Jamaica! BIG UP!
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Road To A Resilient Economy: Episode 10
Road To A Resilient Economy: Episode 9
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Tales of a Recovering Pollanite
November 18, 2016 Marc Brazeau Agriculture, Media Criticism, Policy, Science Communication 7
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[ 4300 words – 15-20 minutes reading time ]
I grew up working on farms. I picked cucumbers in the summer during junior high and worked on an orchard year round through high school. I did cukes for two summers, living with my grandparents in western Massachusetts for the eight week season. (Or was it six? It seemed like twelve.) I worked half a day as a six grader and the full eight hours the next year, earning $2.85 an hour when the minimum wage was $3.10 – agricultural work was exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act, even for suburban white kids. You spent the day prone, hanging off a giant wing off the side of geared down old Mack truck, your hands scrambling through the prickly vines and leaves like fiberglass to find those future pickles. Until you were skilled enough to move the leaves out of the way with some serious dexterity you wore rubber kitchen gloves to keep the plants natural defenses from giving you a rash on your forearms. Those gloves quickly became a cold and wet from the morning dew and a puddle of steam in the afternoon sun. You got rid of them as soon as your skin became immune and could move the leaves with your finger tips got tough enough to deal with the prickers on the vines and your hands got fast enough that your arms weren’t constantly rubbing against those fiberglass leaves. Until you got good, the cukes you missed ended up in an embarrassing pile on back of your legs. A full days work netted a little less than twenty bucks take home pay; a sore, stiff neck; and a nose full of muddy snot. They took taxes and Social Security out of my little eleven year old, sub-minimum wage paycheck! “Welcome to the workforce, kid.” Orchard work was a little more rewarding.
A little less than twenty bucks take home pay, a sore, stiff neck, and a nose full of muddy snot. | Photo via strangepicturesofmishacollins.tumblr.com
High school was spent in orchards, clearing the under brush in the early spring, thinning, picking, packing, jugging cider and then pruning late in the fall. Our crew of high school kids, led by college student who had been with the orchard since high school, was mostly confined to the peach orchard. Like cucumber leaves, mass quantities of peach fuzz will give you a rash on the inside your arms and your chest until your skin toughens up. But that was about the only bad part of the job. It was pretty idyllic. We worked hard and listened to oldies radio all day on transistor that would start playing mid-morning after it dried out from the morning dew. I swear that radio could repair itself after falling out of a tree or getting knocked over by one the farm’s two GMC Jimmys.
We ate a bagged lunch in the orchard and spent of most of our break whipping unripe peaches at each other using the straps that hooked into the peck baskets we slung from our necks as we picked. The straps had metal hooks that we pushed into the flesh of the peach. When you whipped the strap, the flesh gave way and sent the peach whizzing through orchard. We developed the sufficient skills to keep the orchard safe from the Sheriff of Nottingham and his henchmen if he ever dared to tax our harvest.
We pruned the apple orchards in the fall, but the apple orchards were mostly the domain of Keith, the farmer who owned the orchard and the picking was done by Jamaicans on H2 visas, with us in a support role, loading the apples they picked, keeping them supplied with bushel baskets, in awe of their speed and endurance – even as a high school athlete in top physical condition there was no way I could keep up with those guys. I led the crew my senior year, responsible for getting the peach orchard in shape for the spring, the pruning, clearing the weeds and undergrowth, the thinning. I’m sure it had more to do with the weather, but we had a great harvest that year, something I still feel proud of to this day.
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Part of that is because apples were a big deal in our town and we were the biggest orchard and farm stand. It was a town that still holds Apple Blossom Parade and Festival every spring. For the pretty girls in town, being Apple Blossom Queen was a bigger deal than homecoming queen. Our farm stand was an iconic part daily life, a real hub of village social interaction, with friends and neighbors chatting in the parking lot and the check out line. People lined up from miles around in the fall for tractor rides into the orchards to pick their own apples. It was the convergence of local food, community and culture before Alice Waters ever published a cookbook.
Out of the Orchard and Into the Frying Pan
I worked as a line cook through my campus radical years. I enjoyed cooking – the steady preparation for service, the physicality and adrenaline rush of dinner service on the line, the pirate camaraderie of the kitchen. I loved the tactile relationship with food, the creative opportunities in designing putting together a cheese tray or fruit platter for a buffet and playing around with flavors and textures when I got to cook for friends. After I dropped out of college, I continued to cook while I tried to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.
My politics were concerned mostly with the concentration of power and the maldistribution of wealth in America. Wanting to help shift power from those who had it to those who needed it, I settled on a career as a union organizer, and lit out for the least unionized part of the country; landing in Atlanta. As a union organizer in the South, living in motels, driving 50,000 miles a year, I had to redefine ham hock as a seasoning to keep my less than fully committed campus vegetarianism somewhat intact. I started off organizing public employees in Georgia – county school employees – custodians, cafeteria workers, bus drivers – and state correction officers working in Georgia’s prisons. I moved to work for the southern region of the clothing and textile workers union, doing campaigns in Knoxville, TN; Martinsville, VA; Lakeland, FL; Miami, FL; Reidsville, NC; and Greensboro, GA – with briefer stops in lots of small rural towns around the South. I finished my organizing career with the healthcare workers union in Northern California.
After several years of 70 hour work weeks and eating in my car, an introvert burnt out on constantly having to motivate other people, I retreated back to restaurant kitchens to regroup. This time I fell head over heels in love with food and cooking. I decided I wanted to be a chef. That led to reading everything I could get my hands on: food history, food science, food travelogue…all of it. With the leadership skills I’d honed as an organizer, the knowledge I sopped up from my reading, and decent palate, I moved up through the ranks pretty quickly with stints in Tucson, Arizona; NYC and finally Portland, Oregon.
While working as a chef, I received a diagnosis of slightly above normal blood sugar, I was given some books on nutrition as homework. Nutrition became a new hobby and the obesity epidemic a new public policy issue on my radar.
Finding Michael Pollan’s Food Movement
So I was a chef with left wing politics, a former union organizer and farm worker, and an armchair nutritionist when I started stumbling across various voices from the Food Movement some time around 2005. It’s hard to imagine someone better primed for a message of sustainable agriculture, grassroots activism, local economics, and low income community food security. Being a Massachusetts born union organizer who lived in cities but often worked in rural communities in the South has irrevocably scrambled my cultural allegiances in ways that would eventually play havoc with my loyalties in the debates the Food Movement had started. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
I dug into the message of the Food Movement and read everything I could get my hands on starting with Michael Pollan’s classic, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. I dutifully watched all the documentaries, Food Inc., The Future of Food, The World According to Monsanto, you name it. There is a lot of appeal to the message of the Food Movement, but even early on it seemed to me that aesthetics and cultural loyalties often trumped metrics; and some evidence was more equal than other evidence. After reading over and over from Tom Philpott, my favorite ag blogger at the time, about the most recent study showing that organic farming is more profitable with higher yields than conventional, I started to wonder why more farmers weren’t adopting organic methods. I finally dug though his archive and discovered I’d been reading about the same study over and over. The “proof” of superior organic yields was all reporting on the same studies by David Pimentel on organic yields from the organic advocacy organization Rodale’s test farms. No little data set should ever have to shoulder such a heavy burden.
I left my career cooking for a living after a failed restaurant start up. It was a little bistro/café with as many local, organic ingredients as we could squeeze into the every day prices of neighborhood joint. We were the only place in Portland, OR with a wine list confined entirely to Oregon, Washington, Northern California wines. That was the good news. The bad news was – we’d opened in the middle of the Lesser Depression with not enough money and too much confidence that economic recovery was just around the corner. (Guess what! Recovery from a financial crash recession takes longer than from a business cycle recession. Who knew? Not me.) I started to think about writing about food: nutrition, public policy, history. In trying to put pen to paper, it became evident that there were big gaps in my knowledge that needed to be filled if I was going to write with the kind of authority of the writers I admired.
In looking to fill those gaps, the website Biofortified was a big influence. As were Steve Savage’s writings. Twitter led me to the blogs of many Midwestern farmers and Western ranchers (Fiercely proud Tractor Moms, as I called them – back when “Soccer Moms” was still a thing). Obviously smart, obviously well informed farmers and ranchers did not seem to find Michael Pollan and Alice Waters as insightful about farming as I had. Clearly, this was a case of “More Research Needed.”
A number of dominoes started to fall. James McWilliams and others debunked the concept of food miles as a significant environmental concern in food production, seriously weakening one leg of the Food Movement’s three legged stool – Small. Local. Organic.
Digging Into the Research
Picking up from where I had left off with those doubts about the wonders of organic farming, I dug into the academic literature, trying to find robust papers, meta-analyses, and systemic reviews. What I found surprised me. While organic farming often came up superior on some metrics, it certainly didn’t on all of them. And where organic comes up short are on some big ones. In terms of overall environmental impacts, while organic often looks better on a per acre basis, the metric that really matters is on a per unit produced basis. On that count conventional nearly always comes out ahead. The reason for this is that, the Rodale trials not withstanding, there really is a persistent 20% yield gap and organic farms don’t score 20% better on all environmental metrics. In fact on some they come out behind, even on a per acre basis. The yield gap also means that more land is required to produce the same amount of food, meaning less land is left uncultivated, still wild.
The issue is too complex to fully lay out here, suffice it to say, that after surveying the literature on the subject, it was not at all clear to me that organic was better for the environment. In fact there is a much stronger case that conventional farming with best practices performs head and shoulders above most organic farming for the environment.
What also became evident was how resistant people in the Food Movement were to evidence that didn’t fit a certain a narrative. More importantly, it became clear that the Food Movement narrative was determined more by aesthetics than metrics. It was more important the farming practices felt good for the environment than whether they really were, when measured rigorously. What do I care if conventional farms using best practices outperform organic for the environment? That seems like good news to me, because it’s happening on a LOT MORE acres. But the aesthetic coherence of organic farming has a strong psychological appeal for a lot of people.
Two simple examples:
• The copper that organic farmers use on grapes is less environmentally friendly than modern synthetic fungicides.
• Without any organic approved herbicides, tillage is used to control weeds by many organic farmers (and too many conventional farmers). Tillage disturbs the soil, releasing carbon into the atmosphere, leaving the soil vulnerable to erosion. The judicious use of modern synthetic herbicides is actually a less impactful way of controlling weeds when used in no-till and conservation tillage systems.
Nevertheless, there is an undeniable attraction to the coherence in using only naturally occurring pesticides and fertilizers, hewing to techniques and systems that mimic nature, and connecting with a sense of tradition and continuity from a bygone era. Contrast that with the cold logic of GPS aided precision application of synthetic fertilizer or mixing conservation techniques like cover crops and conservation tillage with herbicides and biotech seeds.
The fact of the matter is that all the tools in the organic toolbox are available to conventional farmers and many of conventional farmers put them to good use. But the reverse is not true, certified organic farms can’t use all the tools available to conventional farms, even when they are more eco-friendly than trying to mimic nature. That might seem counter-intuitive until you’ve spent some real time talking to farmers and researchers, but mimicking nature isn’t the always the best way to minimize the environmental impacts of farming. It becomes pretty depressing to watch people twist themselves into pretzels insisting that the system with fewer tools in the toolbox is more effective than the system with the bigger toolbox. But having started out there, I can at least understand what people want to believe that.
Scale and Scope
As I worked to come up to speed on a range of issues, I saw a consistent theme developing – the question of scale – or rather Scale Versus Scope. I wanted to find solutions and policies that could really move the needle on the biggest challenges in the food system – the environmental impacts of farming, the diabetes and obesity crisis, food waste, the persistence of food insecurity in the midst of a rich and prosperous nation, agricultural and economic development in the Global South. Even when the Food Movement critique of problems was on target, and often it was not, the preferred solutions struck me as hopelessly small bore, overly local, nibbling around the edges. When we need to improve the environmental impact millions of acres of farms and improve the diets of millions of people eating their way to an early grave, with the exception of Federal school lunch reform, solutions always seemed to be aimed at thousands – thousands of acres, thousands of people – rather than millions or better yet BILLIONS. Often the Food Movement can be quite insightful of the scope of a problem like the epidemic of diabetes and obesity that has damaged the health of millions of people and is driving by a wide range of factors. The problem is the Food Movement often seems allergic to solutions that could scale into the millions; again, usually because of aesthetic objections. Is Subway adding more vegetables to their sandwiches? “Yuck. We prefer double food stamp coupons at farmer’s markets.” Never mind that Subway interacts with far more people who could stand to eat more veggies than farmer’s markets by several orders of magnitude. Have biotech crops brought conservation tillage to tens of millions of acres? “Maybe, but we should put more funding into organic research.” Never mind that organic accounts for a mere 5.4 million acres out of 914 million total acres of US farming and ranching (0.6%). Seems like figuring out how to make 908 million acres of conventional farms 10% more sustainable would be a better investment than trying to make 5.4 million acres of organic farms 30% more sustainable. And given that current organic farming has a greater environmental impact, trying to increase the number of acre in organic production doesn’t seem like a particularly good idea to me.
Why do we talk about organic vs conventional as if they were on anything near the same scale?
And that was the final leg of the Food Movement stool. Small. Local. Organic. They had all slipped away from me. And what was I left with as a writer? I had what I thought were better answers, but answers that didn’t always make for great stories. Advocating for a better industrial food system doesn’t have the emotional appeal of cheerleading for Small. Local. Organic.
The problem is that a bunch of small improvements that add up to a 10% improvement that can be scaled across millions of acres doesn’t make for as good a story in Mother Jones as a few sexy changes that add up to a 30% improvement that might only scale across a few hundred thousand acres. The first is a massive improvement with little aesthetic appeal, the second is a modest improvement with massive aesthetic appeal. Call me Mr. Spock, but I’m happy to cheerlead for option A, even if Evil Corp. might end up turning a profit.
Which that leads us to GMOs.
The Big Dumb Proxy War Over Biotech Crops
A disdain for GMOs was part and parcel of the Food Movement package deal, but it wasn’t a big concern of mine, just something I filed away for further study. My lazy operating assumption was that, while the technology would probably be of use in the future, we currently don’t understand nutrition or ecology enough to monkey around with Mother Nature successfully. Witness the cases of trans fats and vitamin supplements. We thought we were doing the right thing, but the human body turned out to be more complicated than we thought and it bit us in the ass.
But it was clear to me that whether or not the Food Movement was correct that the technology was not ready for prime time, it was already here and further application of the technology was inevitable. There was no getting the toothpaste back in the tube.
When I looked around, I could see leaders in the Food Movement calling for bans or labeling. What I couldn’t find was anyone in the Food Movement who seemed to be putting any thought into what a responsible, egalitarian future with GMOs might look like. It seemed to me that really knowing your stuff was going to be necessary to participate meaningfully in that conversation. It was also clear to me that leaders in the Food Movement didn’t exactly have an encyclopedic understanding of the issue. I was going to have to learn about the issue from “the other side”. That mostly meant Biofortified.org and Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak’s wonderful book Tomorrow’s Table about how biotech breeding and orgnaic farming techniques could and should complement each other.
I thought I would use the knowledge I gained from the other side to make the case against them. Instead, I was happy to find out that somebody was in fact already considering what a responsible, egalitarian future with GMOs might look like. The ‘other side’ wasn’t so other after all.
I was less happy to find that almost everything I thought I knew about GMOs was wrong or misguided. As I started researching GMOs, at first I was a little stunned and then really, really angry at how much bad information I had absorbed through Food Movement sources. The documentaries were the worst offenders, factually challenged, emotionally manipulative, often outright deceptive. I don’t like being made a fool of, and it was only by keeping my powder dry while doing the research that spared me from spouting off some seriously foolish nonsense. Terminator seeds, India farmer suicides, farmers sued because of pollination, it’s all industry research, superweeds, the misinformation that I’d been fed just seemed to go on and on. I care about what I feed my body, but I care even more about what I feed my head. I was angry and I became firmly anti-Anti-GMO.
As I’ve learned more, and gained what I think is a pretty firm handle on the issue, at times it’s become a little harder to see the other side’s viewpoint. As you work through the objections to GMOs – there is just so little to them – the embarrassment that you’d been duped starts to add up. If it’s not outright misinformation, it’s a critique of industrial agriculture itself that is being projected onto GMOs – biotech crops are constantly blamed for aspects of industrial food production that a much more the result of the invention of the combine harvester. The problem is that waxing philosophical on the socio-ecological implications of one more piece of gas combustion machinery carries far less cachet than holding forth on how biotech seeds supposedly encourage mass scale monocropped industrial agriculture. They don’t, but subtle and supposedly holistic critiques of a technology you are wary of and don’t fully understand sound a lot deeper and more serious than waxing philosophical on your socio-ecological misgivings about big tractors. But let’s be clear, COMBINES ARE the technological innovation that brought commodity crops to mass scale. Meanwhile, the high regulatory and R&D costs for biotech crops means that commodity crops have been nearly the only seed market where companies can recoup a return on their investment. You could make the case that mass scale monocropped industrial agriculture encourages biotech crops, not the other way around. To people who haven’t thoroughly thought this stuff through, the mysteriousness of GMOs masks the errors of category and causality in what passes for sophisticated critiques of biotech in agriculture.
Lazy critiques of industrial agriculture masquerading as critiques of biotech get away with missing the mark or getting the causality backwards because of the mystery surrounding the technology and people’s inchoate intuitions about messing with nature. They get away with sloppy logic and misinformation because most people have sentimental intuitions that farming should somehow be exempt from commerce, from technological change, from legalistic constraints – that it should somehow operate on a more pastoral logic, even as it works to serves a mass, industrialized society.
And those are the subtler criticisms and fears. Most are much blunter. Fears of Frankenfoods! Scaremongering rat studies! Foreign DNA!
Yeah. There’s nothing about this that has anything to do with reality. | Photo by elialO | Flickr CC license
But, when you start with a conception of a tomato being crossed with a fish that you got from a cartoon on a picket sign and you wind up finally understanding that it is a single well understood gene out of tens of thousands of genes being transferred from one organism to another, you wonder, why all the drama? When you realize that you share half your DNA with a banana or that an herbicide resistant soybean has been bred to express a different version of a single enzyme so that it is not affected by a single herbicide, the technology becomes a lot less mysterious and a lot less intimidating.
You learn that the Bt gene in insect resistant corn comes from a soil bacterium that’s been used for decades as an organic pesticide. You learn that the proteins that have been bred into the corn and cotton are toxic to insects that eat the plants because the protein is activated by their alkaline gut and binds to a specific receptor to damage their digestive tract. It’s harmless however to humans and other critters because it’s digested in our acidic stomachs like any other protein. And besides, we don’t have that receptor anyways.
Bt corn will kill the European corn borer, but it won’t cure kids of zombieism. Sorry Monsanto.
When you understand that the regulatory standard of substantial equivalence means that there is less difference between Bt corn and the parent corn the Bt gene was added to than there is between that parent variety and a different variety of corn, it all starts to seem pretty mundane.
So, you listen to people voice their objections to GMOs and you ask, “Why, exactly, do you think corn that expresses a Bt protein could harm humans or devastate the environment?” “What, exactly, is your objection to vaccinating papayas against ringspot virus?” “How can you think Golden Rice is a quick fix band aid, but Unicef workers dropping everything they are doing for two weeks, twice a year to administer vitamin A supplementation is not a band aid?” “Why are ‘superweeds’ a GMO issue and not a crop management issue, when non-GMO crops have superweeds too?”
I try to remember that they probably watched all the same fact challenged documentaries that I watched. They probably read the some of the same blogs and articles I read. You just hope that when they come across better information, they will have those light bulb moments instead of twisting themselves into pretzels to protect the narrative that feels right, or making a charge of “SHILL” against anyone who presents information that contradicts their beliefs, so that they can conveniently dismiss the cognitive dissonance. Mostly I’m glad that I steered into the cognitive dissonance and worked through it, instead finding ways to avoid it. When people do have those light bulb moments that come from stumbling across better information, I hope they end up as pissed off as I was that their old sources information had failed them.
Frankenfood as far as the eye can see. | Photo by
Scott McLeod | Flickr CC license
But I also wish I could just fast forward everyone to an understanding of GMOs that doesn’t call for all the drama. There’s a reason the drama is unwarranted, and the reason is easy to understand but hard to get used to. GM corn is corn. It really is just corn. It is totally not at all surprising that it behaves exactly like corn, because it is exactly just like corn, owing to the fact that it is corn.
And I wish we could move our discussions about how to deal with our food related public health crisis, the tragedy of food insecurity in the midst of plenty, and the steep challenges of extending truly sustainable agriculture to millions and millions of acres of farms and ranches without spinning around in the cul-de-sac of thinking Small. Local. Organic. The challenges we faces are just too big to keep nibbling around the margins.
Having a few beers with Frank N. Foode.
A previous, much shorter version of this essay appeared on Nodes of Science.
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I haven’t read the whole piece yet, but boy did the intro bring back the memories. We might have worked on the same farm – I picked cukes one summer (radio tuned to a top-40 station), prone on the winged truck (for which we had a locally appropriate ethnic term I won’t repeat) and tobacco the next in Hadley farms near the Connecticut river, riding my bike down the hill from Amherst every morning and struggling back uphill in the afternoon. That was the hardest work I ever did in my life – worse even than delivering newspapers in January for five bucks a week. I was pretty happy when I was able to get paid instead for programming computers.
I suspect that experience affects my attitude towards the urban foodies (which category includes many of my friends) with their edenic pastoral fantasies of “real” food. It’s not that you have to have lived farmwork to be allowed to have an opinion, but so many people’s opinions seem to assume – implicitly – that *someone else* will always be there to do the labor entailed by their “religious” demands.
Now back to reading the rest of this memoir…
marcbrazeau
I worked for the Szawlowskis in Hatfield and rode my bike down from
Leeds to their house in Northampton where they drove a couple of pick ups of kids to the field. I definitiely struggled with whether or not to include the local color on what we used to call those winged trucks.
Still goin’:
http://www.swazpotato.com
I had Raleigh Chopper stuck in third gear. Pedaling up the hill to Leeds after a long day in the fields was the cherry on my Horatio Alger sundae.
howcool
Why wasn’t this article proof-read before publishing?
Marc Brazeau
We don’t have the budget for that.
Stacey Mattinson
I wasn’t able to locate a good email address for you, but wanted to let you know that this article has has been featured on our site today. Check it out under the “Agriculture” heading at http://www.whatthekale.co. What the Kale (WTK) is a website dedicated to providing inspirational and credible, science-based nutrition and health information to the public in one centralized location. WTK will never reproduce content, we simply direct traffic straight to you. After your article is no longer featured on this home page, it will still be available under the category archived page (this has not been enabled yet as the content and site are new but will be enabled in the coming weeks!). We are always looking for new, awesome nutrition articles to feature. Let us know if you have another you’d like to submit!
Thanks the site looks good. I like the editorial point of view. I try to send some good stuff your way.
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OpenSource software for QNX 6.4.x
The PublicCD replacement for developers !
C/C++ interpreter Ch and Embedded Ch 5.0 released
SoftIntegration, Inc. released Ch 5.0 and Embedded Ch 5.0. Ch is an embeddable C/C++ interpreter for cross-platform scripting, 2D/3D plotting, numerical computing, shell programming and embedded scripting. The latest release supports QNX 6.30.DAVIS, California, March 03, 2005 -
SoftIntegration, Inc. today announced the availability of Ch 5.0 and Embedded Ch 5.0. Ch is an embeddable C/C++ interpreter for cross-platform scripting,
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Ch shell is C compatible shell while C-shell (csh) is a C like shell. Ch is an interpretive implementation of C, similar to Unix/MS-DOS shells. Ch in Windows includes over 200 commonly used Unix commands for portable shell programming. Ch can also be used as a login shell just like sh, csh and ksh. Ch bridges the gap between the C language and shell languages. With its built-in string type and many enhanced scripting features, Ch is an alternative to other scripting languages for automating repetitive tasks, regression test, and hardware testing with direct interface to hardware.
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of linear time-invariant control systems developed in Ch is available.
Ch toolkits and third party software support
Ch supports an increasing number of third party software applications. It includes Ch Control toolkit, Ch Mechanism Toolkit, Ch NAG Statistics Package, Ch CGI toolkit, Ch ODBC toolkit, Ch XML toolkit, Intel OpenCV for computer vision and image processing, National Instruments' data acquisition toolkit NI-DAQ and motion control toolkit NI-Motion, Barret Technology's Barret Hand robotic manipulator control, and IDE.
Ch and Embedded Ch for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, HP-UX, FreeBSD and
QNX Neutrino RTOS are
Ch Standard Edition is free for
both commercial and non-commercial uses in all platforms.
Ch Professional Edition is free for academic use and
costs $399 for personal or commercial use. To purchase Embedded Ch,
SoftIntegration directly.
About SoftIntegration, Inc.
SoftIntegration, Inc., is the leader of scripting technology for ubiquitous computing. SoftIntegration provides infrastructure software and services for rapid application development and deployment, scientific numerical computing, embedded scripting, and Web-based software integration. Ch®, the company's flagship product, is an embeddable C/C++ interpreter that provides a comprehensive solution for engineers, scientists, Web programmers, software developers, C/C++ beginners and experts, system administrators, realtime programmers, quality analysts, and instructors and professors.
SoftIntegration, Inc.
216 F Street, #68
info@softintegration.com
http://www.softintegration.com
Ch and SoftIntegration are registered trademarks of SoftIntegration, Inc. Microsoft and Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Solaris is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. Unix is a trademark of The Open Group. HP-UX is a trademark of Hewlett-Packard Co. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. Mac is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. QNX, Neutrino, and Momentics are registered trademarks of QNX Software Systems Ltd. in certain jurisdictions.
Button of QOpenCD:
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Singing in the brain: Songbirds sing like humans
Now, ban on bulbul bird fight in Assam temple
Researchers work on lowering greenhouse gas emissi...
A case of mistaken identity for Australia’s extinc...
NEWSLINK: Endangered Florida Panthers Need ‘Critic...
ARTICLE: Big Cats and People Live in Close Quarter...
BIGFOOT sightings in Mississippi trigger national TV show
Chicago's Hit Country
Remy thinks Bigfoot is real. Do you? ... Mason And Remy. BIGFOOT sightings in Mississippi trigger national TV show ...
THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN GETS THINGS DONE
And so it is Friday, and the David Bowie tribute issue of Gonzo Weekly is nearly ready to go. Corinna is out at work, and Graham is trying to deal; with a recalcitrant fellow at Amazon (the bookshop not the river). I am trying to write deathless prose and Mother is doing something arcane with the tortoises.
COMING THIS WEEKEND
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/coming-this-weekend_15.html
RAZ BAND: Record of the year
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/raz-band-record-of-year.html
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Alexis Korner - How L...
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-gonzo-track-of-day-alexis-korner.html
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/karnataka-news.html
Free Festival, Fleetwood Mac, New Order, Joy Division, Canterbury Sans Frontieres, Hawkwind, Bridget Wishart, Twink, Digitiser, Mr Biffo, Jaki Windmill, Roy Weard, Dogwatch, That Legendary Wooden Lion, Hawkwind, and Yes fans had better look out!
The first issue of 2016 is now available, featuring an exclusive interview with Ian Abrahams about 'Festivalized'; his remarkable new book cowritten with one-time Hawkwind chanteuse Bridget Wishart. There is also a feature about Fleetwood Mac's best loved record, Jon moaning about the UK Government's Austerity measures, a review of the autobiography of New Order's Bernard Sumner, radio shows from Strange Harvest, Canterbury Sans Frontieres and Mack Moloney, the latest installment of the saga of Xtul, and columns from all sorts of folk including Mr Biffo and the irrepressable Corinna. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and antechinuses wanting poos (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who are slightly constipated, but I got carried away with things that rhymed with OOOOS) than you can shake a stick at. And the best part is IT's ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!
Steely Dan, Donald Fagen, Syd Barrett, Jack White, The Edge, Bono, Keith Richards, Lemmy, Damon Albarn, Barbara Dickson, The Beatles, Galahad, Strange Harvest, Canterbury Sans Frontieres, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Pierre Boulez, John Thurman Hunter Jr., Robert Colin Stigwood, Hyman Paul Bley, CM, Mark Barnes, Natalie Maria Cole, Marion James, William Wayne McMillan Rogers III, The Pirates, Freddie King, Denny Laine, The Selecter, Wild Man Fischer, Rick Wakeman, Ian Abrahams, Fleetwood Mac, Bridget Wishart, Twink, Roy Weard, A J Smitrovich, Mr Dad's LPs, Mr Biffo, Hawkwind, Motorhead, Xtul, Bernard Sumner, Eric Clapton, Bjork, Grateful Dead, David Bowie, Elvis, John Lennon, Yes, Jon Anderson, Micky Dolenz, Chris Squire, Steve Howe, Jean-Luc Ponty, Neil Nixon, Blowfly, Stary Olsa
http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo-161-21-yer-festive-double-issue.html
Issue 151 (Corky Laing)
Issue 150 (Roger Dean)
Issue 149 (Tony Palmer in Space)
Issue 148 (Wally Hope)
Issue 147 (Thom the World Poet cover)
Issue 146 (Bee and Flower cover)
Issue 144 (Percy Jones cover)
Issue 143 (Billy Sherwood cover)
Issue 142 (Daevid Allen and Spirits Burning cover)
Issue 141 (Rick Wakeman cover)
Issue 140 (Jaki Windmill cover)
Issue 139 (Raz cover)
Issue 138 (Galahad cover)
Issue 137 (Chris Squire cover)
* Jon Downes, the Editor of all these ventures (and several others) is an old hippy of 56 who - together with an infantile orange cat named after a song by Frank Zappa, and a small kitten totally coincidentally named after one of the Manson Family, purely because she squeaks, puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon which he shares with various fish, and sometimes a young lady called Jessica. He is ably assisted by his lovely wife Corinna, his bulldog/boxer Prudence, his elderly mother-in-law, and a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention the infantile orange cat, and the adventurous kitten?
NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Friday
ON THIS DAY IN 1559 - England's Queen Elizabeth I (Elizabeth Tudor) was crowned in Westminster Abbey.
Spider web research shows promise for noninvasive ...
Orphaned Baby Chimps Suffer Lasting Social Effects...
Insects are a sustainable source of omega-3
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Check out Art Agenda's review which features works by Alexandru Chira at FIAC 2018
Alexandru Chira, Untitled, 1994, Oil and pencil on canvas, 78.5 x 79 cm. Image courtesy of Delmes & Zander, Cologne
Alexandru Chira is mentioned in Lauren Mackler's Paris Roundup for Art Agenda.
"At FIAC, Ambera Wellmann’s lush, subject-bending paintings, embodying figures in motion with otherworldly physics, showcased by Mexico City’s Lulu on a marginal wall of the fair (interrupted by an emergency exit door, or perhaps a janitorial closet) was nonetheless a showstopper; Alexandru Chira’s dreamy UFO paintings at Delmes & Zander, Cologne, as well."
For more information click here:
art-agenda.com/paris-roundup-2
Labels: Alexandru Chira, Art Agenda, Delmes & Zander, fiac, FIAC 2018, FIAC Paris, Lauren Mackler
Works by Michail Paule part of MEISENFLOO at Norma Mangione Gallery, Turin
Exhibition poster of MEISENFLOO at Norma Mangione Gallery, Turin
MEISENFLOO at Norma Mangione Gallery, Turin opens on Nov 3, 2018. The exhibition is curated by Michael Bauer.
"Meisenfloo is a collective exhibition at Norma Mangione Gallery, Turin. The show is curated by Michael Bauer is also exhibiting, alongside artists Raines Birkbeck, Vincent Dermody, Michaela Eichwald, Alastair Mackinven, David Noonan, Michail Paule and Renee So."
normamangione.com
Labels: Alastair Maciven, David Noonan, Meisenfloo, Micail Paule, Michael Bauer, Michaela Eichwald, Norma Mangione, Norma Mangione Gallery, Norma Mangione Gallery Turin, Raines Birbeck, Vincent Dermody
Excited to participate in Independent New York in spring 2019
Independent, New York, photo: Spring Studio
The 2019 edition of Independent New York will include over 50 international galleries and non-profits.
"Independent is pleased to announce the participants for the upcoming iteration of Independent New York, which will return to Spring Studios in Tribeca from March 7-10, 2019. This occasion marks the 10th Anniversary Edition of Independent New York and will present over 50 international galleries and non-profit institutions.
Matthew Higgs, founding curatorial advisor to Independent and director of White Columns states, "Independent remains, first and foremost, a platform for the ideas of artists - of all kinds, and for the galleries - of all persuasions, that support them. Over the past ten years, Independent has been instrumental in suggesting that an art fair can be both a focused and revelatory experience, one that closely relates to and augments our encounters with art elsewhere."
Adams and Ollman, Portland
Air de Paris, Paris
Alden Projects™, New York
Anglim Gilbert Gallery, San Francisco
The approach, London
Arcadia Missa, London
Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin
CANADA, New York
Carlos/Ishikawa, London
Chapter NY, New York
Company Gallery, New York
COOPER COLE, Toronto
Delmes & Zander, Cologne
Derek Eller Gallery, New York
Emalin, London
Thomas Erben Gallery, New York
Fleisher/Ollman, Philadelphia
Garth Greenan Gallery, New York
The Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
Karma, New York
Anton Kern Gallery, New York
Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York
David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles
the Landing, Los Angeles
Loevenbruck, Paris
LINN LÜHN, Düsseldorf
MAGENTA PLAINS, New York
Marlborough, New York/London
Kai Matsumiya, New York
moniquemeloche, Chicago
MKG127, Toronto
The Modern Institute, Glasgow
Morán Morán, Los Angeles
Galerie Nagel Draxler, Berlin/Cologne
Night Gallery, Los Angeles
Ortuzar Projects, New York
Maureen Paley, London
Parker Gallery, Los Angeles
Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York
Peres Projects, Berlin
Reyes Projects, Metro Detroit
Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York
Rossi & Rossi, London/Hong Kong
Kerry Schuss, New York
Southard Reid, London
STANDARD (OSLO), Oslo
The Sunday Painter,London
Take Ninagawa, Tokyo
Timothy Taylor, London / New York
Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin
Tilton Gallery, New York
Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York
Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York
VIGO, London
White Columns, New York
independenthq.com/independent-new-york-announces-exhibitors-for-10th-anniversary-edition
independenthq.com/
Labels: Anton Kern, Canada, Delmes & Zander, Independent, Independent New York, Independent New York 2019, Marlborough, Nagel Draxler, Peres Projects, White Columns
Thank you Anya Harrison for including Alexandru Chira in your review
Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings, "Something for the Boys," 2018, film still.
Alexandru Chira's “Package Poem IV – Study” (1971-1991) picked as one of the top works at FIAC 2018 by Blouinartinfo
"An art professor by day, Alexandru Chira (1947-2011) created esoteric drawings, plans and paintings outside of “working hours” that are a blend of the eccentric, magical and mystical, with a deep interest in engineering and utopianism. Determined to save his home village in Transylvania from the catastrophic effects of long-term drought, Chira developed a monumental piece of land art, a transmitter to bring down rain and rainbows to the earth. Works such as “Package Poem IV — Study,” form part of his four-decade-long project and esoteric vocabulary that give rise to a belief system and mode of being all its own."
blouinartinfo.com/fiac-paris-2018-our-picks-for-top-works
Labels: Alexandru Chira, Anya Harrison, Blouin artinfo, fiac, FIAC 2018, FIAC Paris
Getting Ready for fiac!
Prophet Royal Robertson, untitled (Almightly Dies Odin), 1980s, Courtesy D&Z
Visit us October 18 – 21 at Grand Palais,
Salon d'Honneur - booth 1.J21
"The 45th edition of FIAC will be held in Paris from 18 to 21 October 2018 and will host 193 galleries in the nave and exhibition rooms of the Grand Palais.
The 2018 selection – including many of the most influential specialists worldwide in the fields of modern art, contemporary art and design – will present the finest examples of artistic creation since the turn of the twentieth century; modern masters through to the latest trends..."
fiac.com/en/what-the-fiac/
fiac.com/en/
Labels: Alexandru Chira, Delmes & Zander, fiac, fiac!, Foire Internationale d'art contemporain 2018, Karl Hans Janke, Prophet Royal Robertson, Type 42, Type 42 (Anonymous)
JESUYS CHRISTIANO solo show at D&Z
Jesuys Crystiano, untitled, pencil on paper, 3/2012, Courtesy D&Z
Pop in between October 5th - November 10th, 2018
In 2010 Jesuys Crystiano's monumental wall drawings, rendered on walls and in abandoned tear-down buildings in Ilhéus, Brazil, are discovered. They reveal a surreal imagery in an unmistakable, idiosyncratic style, drawn with a fleeting but distinct stroke.
The wall drawings are discovered by Thilo Scheuermann, a German hotel owner living in Brazil, who establishes contact with the artist. At the time, Crystiano is still living on the streets of Ilhéus and is cared for by neighbours. Exactly how he came to be here is unclear, since he can only remember his past in fragments. His biographical data remains uncertain. The year of his birth is chosen arbitrarily and determined by court order as 1950. We can assume that Chrystiano grew up in the municipality of Buerarema in the state of Bahia, Brazil, where he attended school. Presumably, he spent his youth in Rio de Janeiro.
From 2010, Thilo Scheuermann takes the artist into his custody. Henceforth, he promotes Crystiano's artistic work by providing him with drawing material and by photographically documenting the creation of the works. Crystiano lives here until his death in 2015.
During this time an extensive oeuvre encompassing drawings, collages and objects emerge. His signature imagery shows a complex, ornamental network composed of architectural, floral and figurative elements. Peculiar faces with prominent noses and cigarette stubs in their mouths, airplanes, buildings, animals, especially birds, umbrellas, upside-down chairs and tables, and uprooted trees are recurring subjects of his unmistakable drawings.
For the first time in Cologne, Delmes & Zander is showing the work of Jesuys Crystiano in a solo exhibition that will also include his large-format drawings.
Labels: Delmes & Zander, Jesuys Christiano
Check out Art Agenda's review which features works...
Works by Michail Paule part of MEISENFLOO at Norma...
Excited to participate in Independent New York in ...
Thank you Anya Harrison for including Alexandru Ch...
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Extra Credit Projects
Features, Responsible Design, Sponsored by Rolland Enterprises October 17, 2016October 18, 2016 Gordon Kaye
Advertising and design agency Extra Credit Projects (ECP) operates by a simple philosophy ‒ give a little extra. For their clients, that means extra creative energy and extra value for their dollar. For them personally, it means striving to put their talents to use serving their industry and community. ECP is best known in-part for their work in outdoor advertising, where they have created a reputation crafting pro-bono tributes and positive messages of hope urging action in the wake of global and domestic events.
Most recently, ECP’s “extra” factor led to the humbling experience of creating a tribute to an American icon and activist: Muhammad Ali. Hearing the news of his passing late on a Friday night in June, Creative Director Rob Jackson, along with Art Directors Rick Iseppi and Eric Lowe, felt the call to come in Saturday morning to give their trademark extra to honor Ali in the form they know best. The team wrote dozens of headlines and sorted through hundreds of archival photos of Ali to find the perfect concept in just one afternoon, knowing that the quick timing of the message was key to its delivery.
They partnered with the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA), the governing organization for billboard companies across the country, to make the design available to all members. The OAAA made the work available online, and reported that it was downloaded “like crazy.” The artwork showed up everywhere from New York City’s Times Square to Chicago, Atlanta to Baton Rouge, Washington DC to ECP’s home city of Grand Rapids as the nation mourned his passing. It even appeared along the route of Ali’s funeral procession in Louisville late the following week.
Based on sustainability and timeliness, the design posted almost exclusively on digital billboards across the country. Digital outdoor inventory is very energy efficient, and there’s never any vinyl or physical waste that could end up in a landfill. And this particular design aesthetic made extra sense due to its greyscale imagery, which ultimately took even fewer lights ‒ and therefore less energy ‒ to showcase. During the process, the ECP team uncovered an intriguing and unexpected connection to the work: Ali’s father, Cassius Clay Sr., was a billboard painter.
Return to Landing Page
< Lisa Cain Design | Eisenberg and Associates >
design, green, responsible
Eisenberg and Associates
Lisa Cain Design
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Home » Space invader
Knight, Helen
Engineer (00137758);10/11/2002, Vol. 291 Issue 7613, p18
Reports on the plan to develop an electric propulsion engine in Great Britain. Importance of the system in the study of planet Mercury; Use to map the planet; Examination on the amount of sunlight.
High Power MPD Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP) for Artificial Gravity HOPE Missions to Callisto. McGuire, Melissa L.; Borowski, Stanley K.; Mason, Lee M.; Gilland, James // AIP Conference Proceedings;2003, Vol. 654 Issue 1, p837
The following paper documents the results of a one-year multi-center NASA study on the prospect of sending humans to Jupiter’s moon, Callisto, using an all Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP) space transportation system architecture with magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thrusters. The fission...
NEP missions to Pluto. Lipinski, Ronald J. // AIP Conference Proceedings;2002, Vol. 608 Issue 1, p645
Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP) has the potential to deliver fast trips to the distant outer planets and to be enabling for orbiter missions to Pluto, the moons of the distant outer planets, and Kuiper belt objects. This paper summarizes results of a mission study for a Pluto Flyby and a Pluto...
Outer Planet Missions with Electric Propulsion Systems--Part I. Huaura Solórzano, Carlos Renato; de Almeida Prado, Antonio Fernando Bertachini; Sukhanov, Alexander Alexandrovich // Mathematical Problems in Engineering;2010, Vol. 2010, Special section p1
For interplanetary missions, efficient electric propulsion systems can be used to increase the mass delivered to the destination. Outer planet exploration has experienced new interest with the launch of the Cassini and New Horizons Missions. At the present, new technologies are studied for...
Potential operating orbits for fission electric propulsion systems driven by the SAFE-400. Houts, Mike; Kos, Larry; Poston, David // AIP Conference Proceedings;2002, Vol. 608 Issue 1, p717
Safety must be ensured during all phases of space fission system design, development, fabrication, launch, operation, and shutdown. One potential space fission system application is fission electric propulsion (FEP), in which fission energy is converted into electricity and used to power high...
Preliminary Comparison Between Nuclear-Electric and Solar-Electric Propulsion Systems for Future Mars Missions. Koppel, Christophe R.; Valentian, Dominique; Latham, Paul; Fearn, David; Bruno, Claudio; Nicolini, David; Roux, Jean-Pierre; Paganucci, F.; Saverdi, Massimo // AIP Conference Proceedings;2004, Vol. 699 Issue 1, p369
Recent US and European initiatives in Nuclear Propulsion lend themselves naturally to raising the question of comparing various options and particularly Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP) with Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP). SEP is in fact mentioned in one of the latest versions of the NASA Mars...
Mission Steering Profiles of Outer Planetary Orbiters Using Radioisotope Electric Propulsion. Fiehler, Douglas; Oleson, Steven // AIP Conference Proceedings;2004, Vol. 699 Issue 1, p248
Radioisotope Electric Propulsion (REP) has the potential to enable small spacecraft to orbit outer planetary targets with trip times comparable to flyby missions. The ability to transition from a flyby to an orbiter mission lies in the availability of continuous low power electric propulsion...
Applications of electric propulsion in scientific space projects: Benefits, features, and implementation examples. Martynov, M.; Petukhov, V. // Solar System Research;Dec2012, Vol. 46 Issue 7, p523
Benefits and features of electric propulsion systems (EPSs) are analyzed in the context of interplanetary travel in the Solar System. A methodological approach to assessing the performance of EPSs is formulated and illustrated by the example of a space mission to Venus.
Ion Drive. // Aviation Week & Space Technology;7/2/2007, Vol. 167 Issue 1, p59
The article features the xenon-powered, three-engine solar electric propulsion system of the spacecraft Dawn. It says that the system will take advantage of magnetism and electricity to push Dawn to Vesta and Ceres on a blue beam of ions jetting out of the spacecraft at 21 mi. per second....
PHOENIX RISING. // Aviation Week & Space Technology;11/3/2008, Vol. 169 Issue 17, p24
The article reports on the recovery of the Phoenix Mars lander from cold weather-related events that happened on October 28, 2008. The Incident switched the lander to its B side redundant electronics and shut down one of two batteries. The ground controllers are restoring limited science...
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The Oscars: Black History Night
By Richard Corliss Monday, Mar. 25, 2002
KEVORK DJANSEZIAN/AP
Host Whoopi Goldberg gives her opening monologue
According to the huge headlines in the New York Post and Daily News, we saw "History!" made last night. Denzel Washington was named Best Actor (for "Training Day" and Halle Berry Best Actress (for "Monster's Ball") in an evening hosted by Whoopi Goldberg and featuring an Irving J. Thalberg honorary statue to Sidney Poitier. Well, maybe. How lovely to see talented folks of color get their long-overdue props, regardless (or even because) of their race. But the 74th annual awards presentation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was still the familiar mixture of ribbing and piety, eloquence and fatuity, beautiful people looking fabulous (Jennifer Lopez, Sharon Stone, Reese Witherspoon, Kate Winslet — thanks, all) or sporting hair styles that seemed fashioned by machetes.
The evening was unique only in its duration. At 4hr. 21min., this was the longest awards ceremony ever, longer than any movie Hollywood has made; toward the end we feared we'd be inviting the guests at our house for a sleepover. It was also one of the most entertaining, or at least sit-throughable, Oscar shows in memory — in part because it spread the 24 competitive awards among 16 movies, in part because producer Laura Ziskin ("Spider-Man") gave real filmmakers the chance to provide clips for certain categories.
We have our own categories. Here are ten awards for this epic-length Oscar night:
Longest Stretch Between Awards for the Big Winner: three hours, from Jennifer Connelly's Best Supporting Actress citation for "A Beautiful Mind" to Akiva Goldsman's Screenplay prize. The interim gave fans of "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" and "Moulin Rouge," which were cadging many a technical award, to think their films had a chance for Best Picture. Goldsman's prize, for a script that many in the press had accused of mortal sins of omission and worse, yanked the fantasts back to reality. It reminded us what the real business of the evening was: telling Opie that Oscar loved him, and wiping that smirk off Matt Drudge's face.
Shortest Opening Monologue: Whoopi Goldberg. At 3-1/2 min., Whoopi's gagspiel was just 1/80th of the show's running time — shorter than Woody Allen's intro to clips from New York movies (and didn't Woody look a fresh, chipper 66 as he acknowledged the applause with a "Thank you. That makes up for the strip search"?), shorter than the Cirque du Soleil acrobat spot, shorter by far than Berry's endless case of the weeps.
Even in the Ultra Slim-Fast version, Goldberg's spot wasn't no big Whoop. One sharp Botox joke ("Security here tonight is tighter than some of the faces") was encased in a tub of comic lard: three or seven references to Liza Minnelli's wedding, a flick at Anna Nicole Smith (you'd have to be nearly as old as her late husband to remember when that was funny), a mispronunciation of Ingmar Bergman's name as "Igmar" (his friends call him Iggy) and a cryptic "Hi, Anita, get well soon" (Anita Ekberg is ailing?). The routine was flabby and way too inside. Oscar hosts should stop working the room and start working the audience.
Sternest Test of Star-Spotting: the opening montage. Errol Morris' short film of notables and not-quites discussing the magic of movies featured glimpses, sometimes only microseconds long, of Jerry Brown, Susan Sontag, Todd Rundgren (looking older than Zeus), Donald Trump, Jessye Norman, Laura Bush (praising "Giant," a film about a rich, spoiled Texas family that becomes way too prominent), Fran Lebowitz, William Wegman and pooch, Jack Valenti, Lou Reed, Al Sharpton (his hair behaving itself for a change), Mikhail Gorbachev and translator (who pronounced "Gladiator" to rhyme with "Radiator"), Walter Cronkite, Drew Nieporent, dozens more.
The bit was an apt introduction to a slew of pretty-goof clips sequences by the likes of Nora Ephron (New York), Richard LaGravenese (the Robert Redford tribute) and Kasi Lemmons (the Sidney Poitier tribute). Still, they offered the cumulative impression that every film since "The Great Train Robbery" was excerpted last night. Will there be any left for Oscar's 75th birthday party next year?
Most Winners from Down Under: six. New Zealand's own "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" copped three Oscars (cinematography, visual effects and makeup). Australia's Catherine Martin took home art direction and costume statuettes for her splashy daubing of husband Baz Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge!" Add the usual Brit bloc (supporting actor Jim Broadbent, screenwriter Julian Fellowes of "Gosford Park" and some of the sound chappies on "Black Hawk Down"), the editing prize to Pietro Scalia for "Black Hawk Down" (at the end of his speech he shouted "Viva l'Italia!") and the Actor nods to Washington and Berry, and that leaves only eight of the 20 competitive feature fiction awards for white Americans. Conspiracy? Prejudice against people who have it all? You decide.
Most Inane Evocation of 9/11: too close to call. Was it Tom Cruise (for whom the ceremony was not quite solemn enough for him to shave) telling us it was okay to believe in movie magic again? Or Kevin Spacey asking the crowd to stand for a moment's silence? Or Whoopi ending the proceedings by giving some back to the NYPD and fire fighters? Whichever, the night was awash in the spectacle of frivolous people acting solemn. When Oscar exec Frank Pierson began a sentence, "As President of the Motion Picture Academy, I am...", we half-expected him to finish it: "...declaring war on terrorism."
Most Acceptance Speeches Read from Notes: a lot; the most ever. Maybe half of the winners, from Connelly to "Beautiful Mind" producer Brian Grazer, pulled out crib sheets and droned away. (And, as one unemployed Oscar watcher in our home said, "It's not even pretty paper!") Don't the nominees spend six weeks thinking of self-effacing boasts and the names of agents and gay schoolteachers to be acknowledged? All right, the little people who win the tech awards have to thank loads of even-littler people, so we'll give them a pass. But Connelly is an actress. Her job is to memorize speeches and read them as if she'd just thought them up. Perhaps she hadn't the strength to learn her lines; the once-voluptuous babe looked tragically anorectic. Somebody, quick, put Connelly on a carbo-fuel and Ensure diet, before her fans take her down from their mental pin-up wall.
Wittiest Introductory Remarks: Nathan Lane, for Best Animated Feature. "Good evening," Lane said as the applause died down. "I'm Greta Van Susteren. I've had a lot more work done." Synopsizing Hollywood as a place of "real diamonds and fake breasts," he read out the trio of nominees, then added, "Gosh. Up until now I thought ?Monsters Incorporated' was a documentary on the Weinsteins." A pause, for a shiver of oooohs as the crowd registered this joke at the expense of Bob and Harvey the Miramax moguls. Then a blithe: "Oh, we kid the rich and powerful because we love them."
Best Acceptance Speech: Ray McKinnon, for the short film "The Accountant." The actor-director (you might have spotted him playing Holly Hunter's suitor in "O Brother, Where Art Thou?") held up his statuette and said: "We'd like to thank the Academy for this wonderful honor in a category that stills allows for a person who's just burning to make a movie to load a camera in the back of his daddy's old truck, gather up some talented dreamers and do it. And if the stars align and the fates conspire, that person might find themselves standing right here at the good-god-almighty Academy Awards!" A pertinent, heartfelt thought; compound-complex sentences read with energy and feeling; and all in the Academy's allotted time slot of 45 secs. Let's see that movie!
Life Achievement Award: Randy Newman, for Best Song ("If I Didn't Have You" from "Monsters, Inc."). After 16 nominations, the crabby guy finally won an Oscar. All right, the song, with its familiar descending chords and an unnecessary double negative ("I wouldn't have nothing..."), wasn't among his best; the Academy should have feted him for his score to "Pleasantville." And he had stiff competition: two other pop legends (Paul McCartney, Sting) and the Good Witch from Eire (Enya). But it was nice to see Newman, who'll be 60 next year, crack a smile.
He responded to the applause by saying, "I don't want your pity" and thanking "the Music branch for giving me so many chances to be humiliated over the years." He managed a compliment-insult when he praised Pixar for making for four good films in a row, a feat he said was achieved previously only by director Peter Weir (would those four be "Mosquito Coast, "Dead Poets Society," "Green Card" and "Fearless"?). Finally, indicating presenter Jennifer Lopez, Newman allowed himself a brief effusion: "Walking out here and having someone this beautiful give me an award — I'll never get to heaven, but that's about as close as you get, I think." Newman seemed to become a tad farklempt at the end: "Thanks very much. I'm thrilled." Me too.
Most... Least... Worst... Well...: I'm as speechless rethinking the Halle Berry acceptance as she was voluble making it (5min.20sec. — a new, never-to-be-exceeded record?). Not that Berry's looks and pluck aren't laudable, or that she didn't do good work in "Monster's Ball," which deserves an Oscar, if not a Nobel, for Best Coupling With a Homely Guy. But can we see the big picture for a second? The 74-year history of the Academy Awards, let alone the scourged history of U.S. race relations, was not leading up to the moment when a former Miss Teen All-American with a white mom and a knack for finding the company of abusive black men was voted an acting prize from a bunch of industry alterkockers. A,p. The real black movie heroes and heroines are from an earlier, sorrier era. Paul Robeson, Fredi Washington, Nina Mae McKinney, James Edwards, Harry Belafonte, Dorothy Dandridge and, for sure, Sidney Poitier brought passion and power to their roles at a time when Hollywood wanted blacks to shuffle, smile and serve dinner. Thanks to them, and white producers willing to cast them, the picture for black actors has got much better, though not perfect. For all of Berry's endless sobs and heaves — she hardly stopped crying from the morning of the nomination, when she went teary for Bryant Gumbel 10 mins. after her name was read, to her Niagara-thon last night — she was the beneficiary, not the victim, of white members' votes.
Her display proved a strange contrast to the other two main speeches by black actors. Poitier embodied dignity so fully in his exemplary career that the word became a burden, a noose, a target for younger blacks who demanded acceptance for being less than ideal. That word was resurrected last night, and now that it seemed precious — a synonym for class under pressure. As for Washington, he'd managed to win the exhaustive campaigning that seemed endemic to the whole sad huckstering process this year. (His one piece of advice to voters: choose the one you thought did the best work. Guess they thought Washington did. Good for them, and him.) His acceptance speech was simultaneously poised and exultant acceptance speech allowed the audience in the Kodak Theatre and in homes around the world to share his pleasure — whereas, for Berry, one could feel only embarrassment.
Berry's Oscar may not even have been about race; it could have been a rehab prize for the hit-and-run perp who made a smart, little-film career move. As such, it indicates a game plan for another Hollywood fave who's had recent police trouble. Memo to Winona Ryder: Do some community service, and a nude scene in a weird indie. Next year, you could become the first full-blooded Jew to win a Best Actress Academy Award in 34 years (since Barbra Streisand for "Funny Girl"). Oscar rewards; Oscar also forgives. And when you win next year, Winona dear, hold the sniffles.
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Former B.C. premier Gordon Campbell accused of sexual assault in U.K.: Report
Canadian Cafe
spaminator
#1 Feb 16th, 2019
February 15, 2019 9:18 PM EST
LONDON — A British newspaper says police in London are investigating an allegation of sexual assault made against former British Columbia premier Gordon Campbell.
The Daily Telegraph says Scotland Yard is investigating a complaint from a woman who was an employee at the Canadian High Commission when Campbell was high commissioner.
The newspaper says in a story published online on Friday that the complainant alleges she was groped in 2013 and filed a complaint with police in January.
The woman is named by the newspaper, but The Canadian Press does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault without their active consent.
The Metropolitan Police in London could not be reached for comment on Friday.
Campbell also could not be reached for comment but the Daily Telegraph says a spokesman for him says the alleged incident was investigated and dismissed.
“This complaint was transparently disclosed and became the subject of a full due diligence investigation at the time by the government of Canada and was found to be without merit,” the newspaper quotes the unnamed spokesman as saying.
The newspaper says Scotland Yard issued a statement confirming it is investigating an allegation of sexual assault that occurred in 2013 after it was contacted by a 54-year-old woman on Jan. 3. The statement says the woman alleges she was sexually assaulted at an address in Grosvenor Square and that no arrests have been made as it continues its investigation.
The Canadian Press was not able to contact the woman quoted by the Daily Telegraph.
The Daily Telegraph says the woman alleges a “hand went up my backside” as she climbed the main staircase at Canada House on her way to a meeting.
In a statement, Global Affairs Canada said it cannot comment on specific allegations for privacy reasons.
“The government of Canada takes any allegations of sexual assault and harassment extremely seriously,” the emailed statement said. “This kind of alleged misconduct in the workplace is absolutely unacceptable.”
Campbell was premier of British Columbia from 2001 until 2011. He was appointed high commissioner in 2011 and left the diplomatic post in 2016.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Vjg4X9O4q7A
http://telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/02/...t-made-against
http://torontosun.com/news/national/...-in-u-k-report
bill barilko
Re: Former B.C. premier Gordon Campbell accused of sexual assault in U.K.: Report
I've met him-a nasty weird piece of work.
Hoid
Just another right wing douche bag.
First time I heard of him he was the councilman/mayor of Vancouver evicting tenants from secondary suites so the owners could rent them out for expo 86.
He has been a douche from the word go.
A real Harper type guy.
taxslave
I can see why you would hate a premier that nearly wipped the Dippers off the political map. He cleaned up the damage the Dippers mayor in Vancouver created they cleaned up the disaster the Dippers made of my province. I wish he would have stayed and finished off the NDPee once and for all.
BTW he was cleared of the fake assault complaint by the goverernment years ago.
And Yet Another Trump Associate Accused of Sexual Assault
by mentalfloss | Dec 27th, 2017
Edmonton masseur named 'Mr. Wang' accused of sexual assault
by spaminator | Dec 24th, 2014
Third grader accused in sexual assault of classmate
by spaminator | Mar 22nd, 2014
Premier of BC, Gordon Campbell, Attends Bilderberg Meeting in Sitges, Spain
by dumpthemonarchy | Jun 9th, 2010
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Record capacity of 54964 MW added during 11th plan
The total installed capacity of the country has crossed two lakh Megawatts with a record capacity addition of 54964MW in the 11th plan. This is about two and half times the capacity added in the 10th plan. This was stated by Mr Sushil Kumar Shinde, Union Minister of Power in Solapur during the ceremony held to flag off main plant civil works of NTPC’s Solapur Super thermal Power project (2x660MW) last evening. Mr KC Venugopal, Union Minister of State for Power and other dignitaries of the State and the Region were present on this historic occasion.
In his address Mr KC Venugopal union minister of state for power spoke about the commitment of the government to meet the power demand of the country through diversified fuel mix.
Speaking on the occasion Mr Arup Roy Choudhury CMD of NTPC said the company is committed to generate quality power for the nation and development of Solapur on power map of the country.
Mr Shinde also dedicated the Solapur Power & Industrial Training Institute to the Nation. He also inaugurated commencement of civil works of SPITI Residential Complex in Solapur. The SPITI shall be state of the art ITI with workshops for welding, Electrician, Instrument Mechanic Trades, Computer lab and Drawing Hall. The institute shall enhance the quality of vocational education in the area and ensure better employability of local youth.
NTPC is India’s largest power utility, playing a major role in meeting the power needs of the country and contributing to its economic and social development. The present installed capacity of NTPC is 38014 MW. CSR is an article of faith for NTPC and it takes up several initiatives in community development activities in the areas of infrastructure, health, sanitation, and education around its power projects.
Socio economic vitality of the people around its business units is integral to sustainable success of NTPC as a company. This belief guides NTPC into adopting a participative approach towards its R&R activities and CSR initiatives.
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Please e-mail the GLOBEC IPO, globec@pml.ac.uk, with details of any special issues that are not listed below.
Alheit, J., Drinkwater, K.F. and Perry, R.I. (eds). 2010. Impact of clinate variability on marine ecosystems; A comparative approach. Journal of Marine Systems 79 (3-4): 227-436
Barange, M., and L. Nykjaer. (eds). 2003. ENVIFISH: Investigating environmental causes of pelagic fisheries variability in the SE Atlantic. Progress in Oceanography 59(2-3), 177-338.
Batchelder, H.P. and N. Bond (eds). 2009. Physical and biological patterns, processes and variability in the Northeast Pacific. Deep-Sea Research II 56 (24): 2405-2408.
Batchelder, H.P. and S. Kim (eds). 2008. Climate variability and ecosystem impacts on the North Pacific: A basin-scale synthesis. Progress in Oceanography 77(2-3): 83-268.
Batchelder, H.P., E.J. Lessard, P.T. Strub and T.J. Weingartner. 2005. US GLOBEC biological and physical studies of plankton, fish and higher trophic level production, distribution, and variability in the northeast Pacific. Deep-Sea Research II 52(1-2), 1-374.
Batchelder, H.P. and T. Powell. (eds). 2002. Physical and biological conditions and processes in the northeast Pacific Ocean. Progress in Oceanography 53(2/4), 105-411.
Beardsley, R.C., P.C. Smith and C.M. Lee. (eds). 2003. US GLOBEC: Physical processes on Georges Bank (GLOBEC). Journal of Geophysical Research 108(C11).
Bograd, S.J., D.A. Checkley and W.S. Wooster. (eds). 2003. CalCOFI: a half century of physical, chemical, and biological research in the California Current System. Deep-Sea Research II 50, 2349-2594.
Coombs, S., R. Harris, I. Perry and J. Alheit. (eds). 1998. Proceedings of the GLOBEC 1st Open Science Meeting, Paris, France. Fisheries Oceanography 7(3/4), 175-390.
Drinkwater K.F., H. Loeng, B. Megrey, B.A. Bailey and R.M. Cook. 2005. (eds). The influence of climate change on North Atlantic fish stocks. Proceedings of an ICES Symposium, Bergen, Norway, 11-14 May 2004. ICES Journal of Marine Science 62 (7), 1203-1542.
Echevarría, F., J.L. Acuña, S.H. León, E. Saiz, A.M.P. Santos and M. Barange. 2007. (eds). Ecological functioning of the Iberian Seas: A synthesis of GLOBEC research in Spain and Portugal. Progress in Oceanography 74(2-3): 95-422.
Fogarty, M.J. and J. Qinlan. (eds). 2002. The US GLOBEC program. Oceanography 15(2), 1-89.
Fréon, P., M. Barange, J. Arístegui and A.D. McIntyre. (eds). 2009. Eastern Boundary Upwelling Ecosystems: Integrative and Comparative Approaches. Progress in Oceanography 83 (1-4).
Harris, R., M. Barange, F.E. Werner and Q. Tang. (eds). 2003. Proceedings of the GLOBEC 2nd Open Science Meeting, Qingdao, China. Fisheries Oceanography 12(4/5), 221-522.
Hofmann, E.E., P.H. Wiebe, D.P. Costa and J.J. Torres. (eds). 2008. Dynamics of plankton, krill, and predators in relation to environmental features of the Western Antartic Peninsula and related areas: SO GLOBEC Part II. Deep-Sea Research II 55(3-4): 269-558.
Hofmann, E.E., P.H. Wiebe, D.P. Costa and J.J. Torres. (eds). 2004. Integrated ecosystem studies of Western Antarctic Peninsula continental shelf waters and related Southern Ocean regions. Deep-Sea Research II 51(17-19), 1921-2344.
Hunt, G.L., Jr, K. Drinkwater, S.M. McKinnell and D.L. Mackas. (eds). 2007. Effects of climate variability on sub-arctic marine ecosystems - A GLOBEC symposium, GLOBEC-ESSAS Symposium on "Effects of climate variability on sub-arctic marine ecosystems". Deep-Sea Research II 54 (23-26), 2453-2970.
Kishi, M.J., B.A. Megrey, S.-I. Ito and F.E. Werner. (eds.). 2007. NEMURO (North Pacific Ecosystem Model for Understanding Regional Oceanography) and NEMURO.FISH (NEMURO for including saury and herring) - Modelling of North Pacific Marine Ecosystems. Ecological Modelling 202 (1-2), 1-224.
Lehodey, P., Maury, O., and Rathburn, M. (eds). 2010. CLimate Impacts on Oceanic TOp Predators (CLIOTOP) - CLIOTOP, CLIOTOP International Symposium La Paz, Mexico. Progress in Oceanography 86, (1-2), 1-316
Mackas, D.L. and B. de Young. (eds). 2001. GLOBEC Canada: Response of marine ecosystems to environmental variability. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 58 (4), 645-761.
Pinardi, N. (eds). 2006. Seasonal, InteranNual and decadal variability of the AtmosPhere, oceanS and marine ecosystems. Climate Research 31 (2-3), 135-271.
Reid, P.C., J.B.L. Mathews and M.A. Smith. (eds). 2003. Achievements of the continuous plankton recorder survey and a vision for its future. Progress in Oceanography 58, 115-358.
Sugimoto, T. (ed). 2002. Long-term variations in the Northwest Pacific Ecosystems. A Korea-Japan GLOBEC Symposium. Fisheries Oceanography 11 (6), 315-370.
St. John, M.A., I. Grigorov, J. Ruiz and P. Monfray (eds). 2010. Parameterisation of trophic interactions n ecosystem modelling. Progress in Oceanography 84 (1-2): 1-138.
Tande, K.S. and C. Miller. (eds). 2000. Population dynamics of Calanus in the North Atlantic: Results from the trans-Atlantic study of Calanus finmarchicus. ICES Journal of Marine Science 57, 1527-1874.
Tang, Q., J. Su, M.J. Kishi and I.S. Oh. (eds). 2007. Selected papers from the second China-Japan-Korea GLOBEC symposium on the ecosystem structure, food web trophodynamics and physical-biological processes in the northwest Pacific. Second China-Japan-Korea joint GLOBEC symposium. Journal of Marine Systems 67 (3-4): 203-322.
Valdés L., R.P. Harris, T. Ikeda, S.M. McKinnell and W.T. Peterson. (eds). 2004. The role of zooplankton in global ecosystem dynamics: comparative studies from the world oceans. The Third International Zooplankton Production Symposium, Gíjon, Spain, 20-23 May 2003. ICES Journal of Marine Science 61(4), 441-738.
Wiebe, P.H. and C. Beardsley. (eds). 1996. Physical-biological interactions on Georges Bank and its environs. Deep-Sea Research II 43(7-8), 1437-2006.
Wiebe, P.H., R.C. Beardsley, A.C. Bucklin and D.G. Mountain.(eds). 2001. Coupled biological and physical studies of plankton populations: Georges Bank and related North Atlantic regions. Deep-Sea Research II 48 (1-3), 1-684.
Wiebe, P.H., R.C. Beardsley, D.G. Mountain and R.G. Lough. (eds). 2006. Dynamics of plankton and larval fish populations on Georges Bank, the North Atlantic US GLOBEC study site. Deep-Sea Research II 53 (23-24): 2455-2832.
Yamaguchi, A. and Miller, C.B. (eds). 2010. Ecosystem Processes during the Oyashio Spring Bloom. Deep-Sea Research II 57 (17-18) 1593-1742.
Zavatarelli, M. and N. Pinardi. (eds). 2001. First SINAPSI Symposium. Archivio di Oceanografia e Limnologia, 22.
GLOBEC International Newsletter
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© 2010 GLOBEC International.
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Apr 12, 2018 10:40 AMPublication: The Southampton Press
Former Southampton Town Councilman Brad Bender Discusses Drug Addiction During Opioid Task Force Forum
By Amanda Bernocco
It was a “medically induced opioid addiction.”
That’s how former Southampton Town Councilman Brad Bender described the circumstances that got him addicted—and ended with him resigning from his post and serving 10 months in federal prison after he pleaded guilty in 2016 to felony charges of illegally distributing the highly addictive painkiller oxycodone in a drug distribution ring.
Mr. Bender shared his story on Wednesday, April 11, standing at a microphone in the Southampton High School auditorium during the public comment portion of the second Southampton Town Opioid Addiction Task Force forum.
The Northampton resident explained that a doctor over-prescribed him painkillers several years earlier when he injured his back, and that he was soon caught in the steely grip of opioid addiction.
He explained that his insurance mandated that his doctor prescribe him about a dozen weeks of a narcotic drug before getting a magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, to decide if he was to have surgery. He said he was already on the painkillers for a year before the surgery was approved.
“How did I get to the opioid addiction? I don’t know if this is coining a phrase, but I am going to say it: medically induced opioid addiction,” Mr. Bender said at the forum.
In court, before his sentencing, Mr. Bender admitted that he was addicted to the painkillers and began selling the pills to pay his medical bills, all while continuing to also serve in public office.
Mr. Bender—who said last week that he hasn’t used drugs in two and a half years—ultimately spent 10 months in federal prison, four months in a halfway house, and two months in home detention for his involvement in the drug ring.
Mr. Bender talked about his past, noting that drugs were readily available in prison and around the corner from the Brooklyn-based halfway house he attended. He told task force members that they need to get to the root of the addiction problem.
“What is it that causes this addiction or problem?” Mr. Bender asked. “I know what it is for me: I didn’t feel good about myself … Where do I fit in? Why do I have all this pressure? What is going on in my head?
“We need to talk to people and find out what the hell is going on so they can figure out how to get to that next place,” he added.
In Southampton Town alone, there were 19 deaths from opioid addiction last year, according to Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman, who co-chairs the forums with former News 12 anchor Drew Scott, whose granddaughter died last year of an opioid overdose. The town is a smaller screenshot of a larger regional crisis: Suffolk County reported approximately 400 opioid deaths in 2017.
This year is off to a better start: Town Police Chief Steven Skrynecki shared during last week’s forum that there has been only one fatality related to opioid overdose reported so far in 2018.
The chief gave a presentation during the recent forum, explaining that his department is putting a focus on arresting drug sellers. Police have also started offering to help addicts find treatment—as long as the person consents—when they are called to administer the drug naloxone hydrochloride, commonly known as Narcan, which blocks opioid receptors in the brain and helps an individual who has overdosed to breathe normally again.
Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy Sini agreed that targeting sellers and finding help for people who are overdosing is an appropriate strategy. He said there were more than 800 Narcan saves in Suffolk County last year.
“We’re not going to tolerate drug dealing in our community,” Mr. Sini said at the forum.
Since the task force’s formation last fall, the group has grown to 44 members, including educators, doctors, police, and community members who have direct personal experience with addiction. By the spring, the four subcommittees—education, treatment, recovery and law enforcement—are expected to present recommendations that the local, state and federal governments can do to help defeat the opioid crisis.
To come up with solutions, the subcommittees have been meeting individually to discuss the crisis and come up with a solution. A medical forum and two youth forums have also been held in recent months to help get to the root of the problem.
This an should not have a platform
By Win sky (58), Southampton on Apr 12, 18 11:15 AM
By But I'm a blank! (1283), Hampton Bays on Apr 12, 18 1:37 PM
dnice
Has Brad ever discussed his MANY years of steroid use in pursuit of his bodybuilding endeavors, all of which preceded his opioid use? Further, being addicted to opioids would imply he desires to USE them, not resell them. I think money was his motivation, and any alleged addition an excuse.
By Funbeer (273), Southampton on Apr 12, 18 2:33 PM
Frank Wheeler, toes in the water
Doctors and insurance companies did not encourage him to sell millions of dollars of illegally-prescribed painkillers on the sly.
P. Revere
By even flow (1023), East Hampton on Apr 12, 18 6:05 PM
pw herman
Thank you. For fixing it. So easy to sling mud when your hiding behind a computer screen. I worked very hard many years to bring about change for our community and I did that drug free for most of it. All medication that left my hands went to one man who I was under the impression used it but in fact sold it.
I take full responsibility for my actions and did my time. Now I look to rebuild my life and be a contributing member of our community. As for going to the gym and working out I've been ...more going regularly for 35+ years and have earned the rewards that come from it. Unfortunately for some that aren't also addicted to exercise u will remain unfit eating twinkies while you attck others from the secrecy of your home office.
My skeletons are on my sleeve, what's in your closets.
By Brad (28), Northampton on Apr 12, 18 6:42 PM
Yvette , Mr. Z, Fore1gnBornHBgrown
I fully supported your candidacy, Mr. Bender -- you were not only my neighbor and interested in community activism years before throwing your hat into the ring, but give promise of giving the Northwest area of Southampton Town some real representation, something we hadn't had even when Tony Gil was on the Town Board.
You've always had my support, but then you betrayed us! And now you are trying to rehabilitate yourself with those you betrayed? For what purpose? I doubt that you'll ever ...more try to run for office again, so is this part of a "12-step" post-incarceration program that was one of the conditions of your release?
Some neighborly advice: forget it! Wanna do something beneficial? Spend the foreseeable future performing good works so that people may think better of Brad Bender when that name comes up in the future.
Oh, and stop sniveling! It ill-becomes you!
By Frank Wheeler (1826), Northampton on Apr 12, 18 7:28 PM
Funbeer
You can be a contributing member of your community without grabbing a microphone. This isn't about you. And I'm not sure anyone believes that whole ''I was getting it for a friend'' bit anymore.
The above may be a healthy start.
By Mr. Z (11847), North Sea on Apr 12, 18 8:36 PM
By Draggerman (955), Southampton on Apr 12, 18 10:00 PM
You did a lot of damage Brad, and here's a piece of advice; getting defensive is not the way to go from now on. I hope you do live clean and contribute to society. As you will soon learn the real penance was not the time you spent in a cell but the upcoming years you'll spend trying to integrate back into the community you were removed from. You'll have caustic comments and snide remarks thrown at you from friends and strangers alike, and you'll just have to stand tall and take it, move on, and ...more walk a straight line. Some of us have skeletons on our sleeves and others in our closets, but none of that should be relevant to you. You'll need to make things right by being honest about you failures without making excuses, and not appearing to be self-serving in any way when you explain your failures. Your rehabilitation will be more effective and much less painful this way.
By Funbeer (273), Southampton on Apr 13, 18 5:29 AM
GOTGOD
You know, Draggerman, your screen name may be appropriate in a different way from what you originally meant by it. You recently tried to drag snarky comments into an obituary -- rightly taken down -- and now you try to drag politics into a discussion on addiction: "... but then I'm a conservative. I take responsibility for my actions. And you, sir, are a sniveling liberal who blames the world."
Really? Over the years, I've known a number of addicts who've kicked their habit, and ...more they run the whole gamut, from way left to way right, and various points in between. Politics and personal philosophy have nothing to do with it. Neither side has any monopoly on what it takes to beat an addiction.
Listen to yourself. If you were able to overcome an incipient dependence on drugs, you should be grateful for it, not seizing on it as an occasion for political sabre-rattling.
By Turkey Bridge (1979), Quiogue on Apr 13, 18 11:35 AM
Mr. Z,dnice
By Sturgis (611), Southampton on Apr 16, 18 9:44 AM
So now you want to parlay your criminal activity into a new career. Shame on you.
By Babyboo (293), Hampton Bays on Apr 12, 18 6:59 PM
Brad go away and take Hillary with you. Go into the woods and dont come back. Nobody wants to hear what you have to say.
By P. Revere (152), hampton Bays on Apr 12, 18 9:48 PM
By Toma Noku (616), Southampton on Apr 13, 18 8:14 AM
Frank Wheeler
WAAA WAAA !!! It's not my fault! It's the doctors fault! Isn't part of rehab taking responsibility for your actions? Sorry brad but an addiction is totally different from selling narcotics. Don't want to hear it
By CaptainSig (716), Dutch Harbor on Apr 13, 18 8:41 AM
Draggerman, P. Revere
Bender must reimburse the taxpayers of SHT for the special election to fill his seat on the Town board . He should get a real job and stop crying it was not his fault.
Draggerman ...As usual, not only are your comments self serving, but they are also factually incorrect. The current Opioid and drug addiction problems we, as a country, are fighting needs the help of every person to defeat. If the life experience of Brad Bender, a person I do not respect, can be used to save even one person - so be it.
Draggerman , as a Conservative, you should take responsibility for the damage your party has inflicted on our country. Every day, when you genuflect in front ...more of your radio listening to DRUG DEALER RUSH LIMBAUGH spew his Anti-American propaganda ... Do you think this is going to solve the Drug Problem in America?
By SpeedRacer (160), Southampton on Apr 13, 18 6:10 PM
Wow. You assume I listen to Rush. I don’t. I have a business to run.
Self serving. Hmmm. I was set up for “medically induced opioid addiction”, yet I understood the risks and dealt with it. Rather than dealing. And then whining about what lead him to this horrible place.
Poor poor Brad. Boo Hoo
Or perhaps you lack the genetic component required for an addictive personality.
Yay!! Perhaps you won the genetic lottery...
By Mr. Z (11847), North Sea on Apr 13, 18 10:22 PM
Addiction is a health condition. Criticizing people for it makes as much sense and ripping into someone because they have skin cancer.
By SlimeAlive (1181), Southampton on Apr 13, 18 9:05 PM
Fore1gnBornHBgrown
Only the strong survive. The weak die young. Natural selection. Makes the herd stronger. Drug addiction is a choice, not a disease or health condition (laughable). Be strong and take care of your family. Be a man, not a weak pathetic junkie. Take pride in yourself. Work hard and raise your children to be strong, law abiding, productive Americans. Protect your family and home with firearms. Be strong and responsible. Live a long and heathy life and collect social security. Never stop working ...more and providing for your loved ones. Family first then country second.
By P. Revere (152), hampton Bays on Apr 13, 18 11:26 PM
Draggerman, Funbeer, CaptainSig
Drug addiction is NOT a choice....there’s an underlying cause....its either a genetic predisposition to addiction or from Depression. Do u really believe people wake up one day an decide to be become an addict an ruin lives? Be strong an the fight the stigma attached to all of this. We have an opioid crisis goiing on right now. Adults act like this an speak of addiction in this way and it’s no wonder these teens don’t feel comfortable speaking up an saying they have a problem , ...more or asking for help....bc someone said drug addictions is a weak mans disease. Be the reason someone asks for help today! Tell them it’s ok to have an illness. Help them .
By toes in the water (884), southampton on Apr 14, 18 6:28 AM
Toma Noku
I think you are ashamed that you got busted.
Hey Brad, it took guts to stand up, accept accountability for your actions and apologize to the community. You went a step further and described your personal weak spots that fell to addiction.
Then a site that allows comments to be posted by pseudonyms (fake names) tells your story. You are a good guy. You prove your toughness to yourself. Please don’t take the sniping seriously.
By Bruce Doscher (9), Hampton Bays on Apr 14, 18 10:32 AM
MelissaPedicini, Sbolster
Bruce: I remain anonymous on this site in order to protect my wife, children and grandchildren, not to protect myself. After 4 years in the military and 30 years in law enforcement in NYC and Miami, I fear no one, much less a junkie and drug dealer. Bender is not a "good guy". He is a bad person. He should stop bloviating and pay back the taxpayers for the cost of his lies when running for Southampton Town councilman. He is a disgrace in so many ways.
By P. Revere (152), hampton Bays on Apr 14, 18 11:22 AM
Frank Wheeler, Tennyson, Sturgis, DisgustedHamptons
Abu Gharib, Amadou Diallo and Eric Garner - take your pick your pick. And if your wife is holding you back you better pray you don't break free cause you will be destroyed.
By circaWHB (9), Westhampton Beach on Apr 27, 18 12:25 AM
Brad is a total disgrace but the real disgrace is that the other "co conspirators" and drug dealers remain un-named to this day. There were over 20 people involved with this drug ring and where are they now?
By G (342), Southampton on Apr 14, 18 1:25 PM
VH1?
By Mr. Z (11847), North Sea on Apr 15, 18 1:27 AM
By DisgustedHamptons (58), Hampton Bays on Apr 14, 18 4:31 PM
27east commenters are a special breed. Poor reflection on our community.
By thepresssucks (22), watermill on Apr 14, 18 7:22 PM
toes in the water
I blame the press for publishing the non story
There were about 70k opioid overdose deaths in the U.S. last year. There are about 320 million people in the U.S. That means .0002 percent of the population died from opioid overdoses. While tragic for the loved ones of the victims and sad that people destroy their lives with these drugs, it is hardly a national "crisis" or "epidemic."
By HB90 (164), southampton on Apr 14, 18 9:29 PM
Draggerman
An Epidemic is the occurrence of more cases of a disease than expected in a given area or among a specific group of people over a particular period of time. I don’t understand how u can decide it’s not a national epidemic based on those numbers . Plz keep in my mind we have lost a lot of good people in our community to this disease.
70k is way too many. Wake up!
By toes in the water (884), southampton on Apr 14, 18 10:20 PM
Brad Bender served his time. That was the price set by a court of law.
He got clean and by all accounts he still is clean. Many people cannot say that. He succeeded where others still struggle in a kife and death battle.
And yet anonymous people invent a political angle and FOXNEWS the guy. Shame on all of you.
By Bruce Doscher (9), Hampton Bays on Apr 15, 18 6:51 AM
Sbolster
You’re right, Bruce. Shame on them indeed. And yet, neither you nor I nor Brad should be surprised at this. If Brad chooses to exercise his free speech rights, these commenters have the same rights and can respond in their own way, however cockeyed. I called Draggerman on the political thing above and am glad I did — as I’m glad you have also — but we can’t expect Brad to speak out on this subject without drawing a lot of flak.
The poster “thepresssucks” ...more has it right about 27east commenters: a “poor reflection on our community.” Don’t know why I still do it — guess it’s an addiction.
Because the looneys are still here whether you're not and adding your voice helps balance them out a little.
By Fore1gnBornHBgrown (8265), HAMPTON BAYS on Apr 15, 18 11:06 AM
Actually having people speak of their experiences is informantive and educating, i.e. sharing their knowledge. Free speech doesn't mean uninformed people have a right to launch vindictive ad hominem attacks just because of his political affiliation on paper. It is petty, juvenile but oh so telling of the character of the attacker. Lacking.
I still think this Town is better off with Julie Lofstad.
By Toma Noku (616), Southampton on Apr 15, 18 1:52 PM
This guy has been selling and using steroids for 25 years. He went to jail for selling drugs not using them. I hope he learned his lesson he has good intentions but has an addictive personality.
No one's perfect I hope he helps others.
By chief1 (2800), southampton on Apr 15, 18 2:17 PM
Bender should shut up, get a job, and pay back all the money and expenses for the special election to fill his seat on the Southampton Town Board. Does he have a job or does he just bloviate and cry " Not my fault" ? Bender, take responsibility and get a job. I hear there is an opening at Burger King in Riverhead.
CaptainSig
Mr Bender you did your time now may I suggest you join a narcotics anonymous group and work on your recovery.you used drugs and sold drugs in your community we know your story,let us know in ten years how you are doing and I wish you well.your sobriety is not enhanced or strengthen by public grandstanding.
By watchdog1 (543), Southampton on Apr 15, 18 6:29 PM
While I have empathy for people with addictions, those who cross the line into selling this crap to others do not deserve any respect. In this case, I would suggest working quietly and humbly to help those with addiction. Public commentary right now is a disingenuous attempt go receive public sympathy.
By roverton (64), Westhampton on Apr 15, 18 7:44 PM
bigfresh
Can you specify what you mean by "this cr*p"?
Apr 15, 18 8:32 PM appended by Fore1gnBornHBgrown
OH you mean drugs. I thought you meant what he was "selling" by speaking at the forum which was, by all accounts, a positive talk.
By Fore1gnBornHBgrown (8265), HAMPTON BAYS on Apr 15, 18 8:32 PM
Dealers are the scum of the earth, period, end of story.
By bigfresh (4666), north sea on Apr 15, 18 8:53 PM
PW good call Jay will make him the drug czar of Southampton.
By chief1 (2800), southampton on Apr 18, 18 8:56 AM
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community economy governance urban planning architecture migration politics urbanisation technology transport rural nature utopia globalisation suburb digital education heritage preservation
City Dwellers as Designers, and the Lost Generation of Architects
An interview with Winy Maas on the future challanges in urban planning by Linda Hoegberg Andersson
An interview with Winy Maas
An interview by Linda Hoegberg Andersson
Winy Maas, together with Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie De Vries, is the founding director of the architecture and urban planning firm MVRDV, which has been operating for 20 years in Rotterdam.
Since 2008, Winy Maas has been the director of The Why Factory, which he founded at TU Delft. The Why Factory, together with its students, research future cities, and has addressed topics such as mobility, density, liberty, food production and software planning. In a research project called ‘Anarcity’, The Why Factory explores the social and architectural extents of unrestrained liberty.
The question of individualism and collectiveness is further elaborated in a planning concept called ‘Freeland’ developed by The Why Factory and MVRDV. ‘Freeland’ challenges the over-regulated urban planning in favour of personal liberty. At the same time, they recognise that responsibility comes with freedom, and in most cases, collaboration between neighbours is needed.
The concept of ‘Freeland’ is step by step turning from theory to practice. The project that has gone furthest in terms of implementation is ‘Almere Oosterwold’ in The Netherlands, which is currently in process in Almere, a municipality east of Amsterdam. This urban development is monitored via advanced software, which allows a flexible planning process.
MVRDV and The Why Factory have recognised the potential of technology in urban planning and architecture. They have developed a number of software packages which are intended to facilitate individual choice, boost diversity, and to empower users. This practice raises important questions such as how far we can go with bottom up planning and how much diversity we will achieve in reality by allowing more freedom for the city dwellers. And how do these emerging possibilities change the future role of architects?
In an interview with ‘Designboom’ in 2010, you said that you hope that the new generation of architects will “kill” the previous one. That sounds quite cruel! Do you see anybody having the potential to challenge the dominating star-architects?
Most of the superstar architects are coming from a generation born in the sixties. They occupy a lot of the skills and control many of the larger projects, and somehow they are not really willing to give space to a younger generation. One of the challenges is how the young generation can grasp a grander scale when our generation is sinking.
But I think there is constant opportunity, and I see potential in thinking becoming a market for the younger generation. Thinking has allowed us to make the buildings that we design. There is still a lot of knowledge in thinking, and I do hope that that pushes the younger generation.
Many of the young European architects are facing a crisis that makes their future vulnerable. A reason why they don’t have a lot of power is that the market is going toward countries like China, and they are just too late, because China already has Chinese architects that can do the job. So it could be a lost generation.
At the same times as operations in China take place with its own specific kind of urbanism, other laboratories can be found in the European context. I think that is exactly the époque of these days, but in ten years this will be different. At the moment, I see a combination of laboratories in a shrinking society that is occurring parallel to the growing heaviness of Asian environments. That has potential to be a very fruitful combination, and one can imagine a new kind of world coming out of it.
The housemaker /Forgemind Archimedia /flickr.com
Russia can also become a growing market. What do you think are the main challenges in Russian urbanism?
The question is if plans like Zaryadye Park really are going to be executed. I am not sure it will happen. That also counts for The National Center for Contemporary Art. It is very important in urban planning that things are taken seriously, are followed up on, and are not drawn back. I think that is one of the most important elements that we need to establish everywhere, and especially in this age, in places like Moscow.
There are emerging economies like China, Indonesia, or India that face similar situations. Every country has their own cultural components, and issues of insecurity, corruption and lack of safety appear in these environments. That enormously threatens the potential of a free urbanism that people love and can participate in.
Media should orchestrate and monitor the endless desire to make things, to design things; it should be curious about what new plans could be made, and make them happen.
The media has a very important role in this. The starting point is to establish networks that follow and discuss these issues. What can come out of the media is the endless desire to make things, to design things, to be curious about what new plans could be made and to make them happen. Media should orchestrate and monitor that; they should control the situation of making things real. I think that is the most important part I can see establishing in Russia and other places.
The software you developed for Almere Oostwerwold aims to facilitate an organic development of the area, where regular people have the chance to influence, and interact in the process. Do you see a growing tendency of more participation-oriented design?
It is definitely one of the themes. Due to that I hope that everybody can become a city maker, and that everybody directly can influence what he or she wants to possess, build or change. That is definitely a dream that I want to encompass.
I hope that everybody can become a city maker, and directly influence what he or she wants to possess, build, or change. That is definitely a dream I want to encompass.
Almere Oosterwold is one of the most advanced pieces of that kind of urbanism. It is a strategy, and there are many tasks for architects and urbanists in that. One task is to suggest how you can build, by creating a catalogue of directions, and to make links between possible designers and possible builders. Another task is writing the software, which is highly architectural and urbanistic, because it is based on implementation and negotiation of laws and regulations. The world of software scripting or post-scripting helps convince communities like Almere, which is a provincial town, that this kind of software should be made. So the linkage between research and reality is there.
The why factory /Nicolette Mastrangelo /flickr.com
What results do you anticipate in Almere Oosterwold?
The possible results of Almere Oosterwold range from failure to beauty. I have no clue how much conformism there will be in the end, and how much liberty it really evokes.
The possible results in Almere Oosterwold range from failure to beauty. I have no clue how much conformism there will be in the end, and how much liberty it really evokes. That is a risk, but on the other hand there is no risk at all, because whatever comes up people are participating in the process. That is a funny awareness.
Nowadays, in theory, technology could allow everybody to influence urban planning through a constant online connection via personal devices. Do new technologies like these allow a shift of paradigm, where the users can dictate the design and planning processes?
The current age is transitioning into the computer age, and thus the participation age. These days, the public space that surrounds social media has become popular as a kind of open nation idea. At the same time, the personal iPhone and other devices have created the highest individualism ever. I completely agree with that, and I follow the same logic, but on the level of urbanism.
So, optimistically the answer is yes, but it’s not that far yet, it is still not happening. So far it can only be used for some communication, but such things as bidding or influencing are not yet organised through those technical means yet. Crowd-funding is there, but that doesn’t mean that you can be online and directly connected with possible investments, interactions or negotiations. It is getting there, but it’s still a dream rather than a reality.
Do you see other architects adopting the idea of bottom-up planning after the project of Almere Oosterwold?
Oh, of course, man, it’s copied like hell. At this moment, many cities all over the Netherlands want people to build and design their own homes. I can sense that there is going to a desire for that in France and in Moscow too. It fulfills the expectations of a middle class market, it allows politicians and aldermen to give more freedom in planning, and it fulfills the expectations of a new generation that has the knowledge, skills, and the intelligence to do that. This doesn’t mean that it is completely legit or applicable for all social classes, but it would be great if social housing or our museums could also be done like in this way.
In China, it would be applied in different circumstances, and we have to be aware that there it has a very different political connotation than with the middle class in the Netherlands. And how can ‘Freiland’, the German version of ‘Freeland’, be applied in an American context? That would be an ironic twist.
Freeland presented in Venice Biennale 2012 /Alessandro Zerbi /flickr.com
How do you see the balance between the collective and the individual in these projects?
We do two things in The Why Factory that contribute to the world of ‘Freeland’. One is the world of writing software, mentioned before, and the other one is research on the anarchistic, called the ‘Anarcity’. The agenda of ‘Anarcity’ is to evoke how far we can go with personal liberty. When does it become a world where guns are taking over the situation; until what moment can I avoid guns?
‘Anarcity’ deals with individuality and collectives, and asks the question ‘When do I need my neighbour?’. One of the most beautiful stories that one student investigated was “Can I maintain my current diet, but do everything by myself?” She calculated how many hours would be needed per day to raise crops, cattle, and so on. She found out that it would take 4.3 days per day. That is interesting, because you cannot do that, but it shows the minimum support act that you need. It shows that you not only need to strive for low consumption in your daily life, but also a certain kind of technical solution and specialisation to make it possible. That is already known in a way, but to be aware of that and to know the percentage of it, is the beauty of that project.
It puts that question of collective forward, and I feel quite happy with that. The calculation suggests that we need our neighbours, and it gives me a lot of trust and comfort that the collective space will always be there.
How would you compare the utopian projects by The Why Factory, compared with the utopian projects by Archizoom and Superstudio?
The architects that you are referring to now like Superstudio and Archizoom are my heroes. They had beautiful radical thoughts on issues like liberty and social equality. The beauty lies in the notion of helping and suggesting of how architecture could perform social ideas and practical ideas. These days, middle class welfare states have actually realised these ideas; they are closer to liberalism than ever and therefore closer to freedom; there is more criticism than ever, and in many cases there is more money also. There is an intelligence that is more available now, and somehow that is a good translation of the conditions of Superstudio. It doesn’t look like naked cities on a plain field, everyone doesn’t have long beards and long hair, but it is connected with the concept of the project of Superstudio. They could have celebrated their concept even more, and made it more radical. The reality of today has made that even more possible, and we should adjust our laws to facilitate it.
Almere oosterwold /MVRDV /flickr.com
MVRDV has been working with specific topics like density, mixage and liberty. What do you think are the most urgent themes for urbanism in the future?
I do hope and think that we can make improvements by all means in our cities, by updating them and giving them more qualities, more density and turning them into more liveable pieces of the planet. How to do that is by a series of observations; firstly to write an agenda, secondly to organise and lead a financial system from taxes towards compensation tax and, thirdly to work on a wide range of operations that make those innovations possible. Having said that, it doesn’t mean that the solutions are already known, so the fourth thing that I would like to add to the operations is that we should establish a serious think tank and a laboratory together with technicians and thinkers on innovative ideas and innovative techniques. Then you have a package that would make cities better.
architecture education urban planning
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Child Friendly Cities, Tsunamis and Russia
Karen Malone talks about children’s independent mobility and child-friendly cities
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Sources: Cloud9 to pay $1.5 million buyout for Dignitas support Vulcan
61dJacob Wolf
Support Philippe "Vulcan" Laflamme will be leaving the Dignitas team, sources told ESPN. Provided by Riot Games
Jacob WolfESPN Staff Writer
Staff Writer for ESPN.com
Reports across multiple games, including League of Legends, Super Smash Bros., Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Call of Duty.
Specializes in investigative reporting
Dignitas have agreed to a trade that will send support Philippe "Vulcan" Laflamme to Cloud9 in return for $1.5 million and Academy AD carry Johnson "Johnsun" Nguyen, league sources told ESPN.
Six teams, six moves during League of Legends free agency
Gen.G release eight players, including CuVee and Peanut
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The deal cannot be executed until Monday at 7 p.m. ET. Cloud9 and Dignitas declined to comment.
Vulcan will join the blue and white for the 2020 season after the team agreed to another transfer that will send starters jungler Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen and support Tristan "Zeyzal" Stidam and two Academy players, AD carry Matthew "Deftly" Chen and top laner Ziqing "Kumo" Zhao, to Evil Geniuses, as reported by ESPN on Nov. 9. The $1.5 million fee is one of the highest single-player buyouts in the history of pro League of Legends.
Cloud9 are also in search of a new AD carry this offseason with the future of Zachary "Sneaky" Scuderi's competitive career uncertain, sources said. The team will retain top laner Eric "Licorice" Ritchie, jungler Robert "Blaber" Huang and Yasin "Nisqy" Dinçer.
Dignitas will now enter the free-agent support market. The team agreed to terms with top laner Heo "Huni" Seung-hoon for a two-year contract extension worth $2.3 million total in guaranteed money over the course of the deal, as reported by ESPN on Nov. 11.
Johnsun is expected to compete on Dignitas's Academy team. For the past few months, the Canadian AD carry played for Team SoloMid Academy, where he gained a reputation as a young prospect with a lot of potential. Johnsun was bought out by Cloud9 to be part of the deal with Dignitas for Vulcan.
Both Cloud9 and Dignitas, formerly Clutch Gaming, competed at the League of Legends World Championship in October. Neither qualified for the bracket stage of the tournament.
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Home / Essential School Guides / International Baccalaureate vs. A Level: What’s Best?
International Baccalaureate vs. A Level: What’s Best?
Update on November 5, 2016 by James-Mullan | Published February 23, 2014 in Essential School Guides, Guides, Which Curriculum with 4 Comments
As parents we want to provide the best for our children, but this is getting increasingly harder to identify. In part the reasons for this are the vast range of choices available; our cultural background, expectations and aspirations for our children; their hopes and plans. Major aspects to evaluate are also where the child is likely to continue studying, then working.
The choice between these two educational paths is not as transparent as it first looks.
Why do we bother educating our children at all? The law dictates that as parents it is our duty to provide our children with education. Beyond that, for most people, the ultimate aim is to give their children a means to support themselves by once they are independent. Most of us in Dubai wish that “means” not to be just a way to earn minimum wage; we have ambitions for our children: to do better than we have done ourselves, or to do at least as well. If we are unhappy with the gruelling grind of our daily work, we want them to be happier, more fulfilled. If we have instability or uncertainty in our employment, we want our children not to have to suffer in this way. These are fine, understandable ambitions; are they realistic?
To provide our children with a rounded education, a plethora of skills in addition to a solid knowledge base, they need to be exposed to as much knowledge and learn as many skills as possible. Yet, achieving the highest attainable grades to compete in the merciless push for further education and top jobs contradicts this lofty ideal. Therein lies our dilemma, with most of us choosing to ensure our children achieve the top grades.
Some of us look down on skilled professions, choosing tertiary education as the necessary path for future success. Not only is this blatantly wrong, but it may actually not be in the best interest of the child.
If a child has clear inclinations, well-defined interests and obvious talents from an early age, our task as a parent is much easier; most children, however, do not. Our off-spring may occasionally harbour hopeless dreams which they may need dissuading from. To achieve this without disillusioning them is a challenging task.
As the name indicates – IB – International Baccalaureate is an international qualification. It is almost universally accepted, though possibly not favoured, all over the world. Many features of IB education are designed to prepare students for tertiary education, equipping them with essential skills and ways of analysis more suited to their future needs.
If a family is unsure of their long-term whereabouts and needs to plan broadly, this may be worth keeping in mind. In any case, potential future universities should be investigated for admission criteria. That will give the clearest indication for any decision making. A-levels are only really useful in English speaking countries; primarily, of course, in the UK.
For A-levels a student has to study 3-4 subjects only. This seems to be in contrast with the 6 subjects of the IB. Studying 3 – 4 subjects (possibly 5 in cases of good potential) is obviously going to provide more time per subject, logically leading to study to greater depth and possibly better grades. (The study periods the A-level syllabus incorporates into the day further enhance this.)
In addition, when choosing an A-level course, it is possible to discontinue the study of a language, maths, creative subjects or sciences beyond GCSE level, leading to a more focussed (or one-sided) selection of subjects. This clearly suits some candidates.
In many parts of the world, however, a secondary education lacking in at least one foreign language would not be called a “rounded” education. Insight into, and understanding of, other cultures is just one of the many benefits of speaking other languages and a vital aspect of becoming educated. In our globally expanding world this is of ever greater importance in fostering understanding and acceptance of other cultures and ways of thinking. People in most parts of our planet speak a minimum of 2 languages well; careful examination of our neighbours here in Dubai, may reveal an even more impressive picture.
Maths – a good grasp of it is vital to daily adult life as we grapple with interest rates, exchange rates, mortgages, probability and numerous other aspects skills. (And no, we cannot just call in the experts. In our financial gain driven world, the individual has increasingly got to have better understanding in order to avoid being be at the mercy of exploitation by those who do have better understanding.)
Rounded A-level is not. Grade and depth orientated, definitely.
At the top end of the spectrum an A-level student and an IB student attain similar depth of knowledge and must work equally hard in their chosen subjects. However, an IB student, even one working for a lower average grade, must put in more hours of work – no incorporated study periods for revision. If an A-level student is satisfied by C grades, their work load is much less. For some this is therefore an obvious choice, as the same level of attainment within the IB curriculum still requires more work. A child with the advantage of being bi-lingual studying in one of these languages, with a “foreign language” being the other, or one with outstanding talent in sport, is, of course, at an enormous advantage here.
A point very strongly in favour of A-levels is that, given a certain selection of subjects eg Maths and Physics, coupled with a highly gifted candidate who has few outside interests beyond in-depth study, this study path offers greater focus and higher levels of achievement. In addition, this route will enable such a student to stand out and excel; conversely the IB route may well lead to mediocre results, stifling the gifted nature of the student. It has to be noted here that university options available to students with such a closely related cluster of subjects will lead to university options in these areas only. Whether this background provides sufficient preparation for adult life for young people nowadays, is a matter that should also be weighed up.
Another facet of the decision has to be global movement. Whether we like it or not, the world is becoming easier to navigate. Our children have a far more globally based life than previous generations, leading to the question: which curriculum will prepare my child for what life in our world is demanding of them? Where may they continue studying? Where are they likely to live?
If you are reading this, you are already grappling with these complex issues. Your child may also experience peer pressure to select one path over another adding another aspect to decision making. The soundest advice here would be to speak to as many people as you can and research the specific universities you are considering. Then investigate what happened to the students from your child’s school who had gone to those universities. What were their experiences? Often what looks good on paper does not work out as expected.
Good luck to you and your child!
Sixth form life: Living with the IB
IB vs. A’ Level: A student’s view
IB vs. A’ Level: An FAQ
Agnes Holly has worked for more than 25 years in education ranging from university to nursery, and everything in-between. She is a qualified SEN teacher and has worked extensively with children who have dyslexia and ADHD. She has additional practical experience in the form of five of her own children aged between 6 and 23.
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Vaishali says
September 28, 2015, 12:25 pm
Great article. A quick snapshot of the differences between IB n A levels. Will definitely help in decision making ☺️
Vikram Gore says
One has to choose the right board for AS-A level subjects. There are 3 major boards (AQA, CIE & Edexcel) for AS-A level qualifications. As a tutor for Maths & Physics, I would suggest parents and students must decide their career / college options before choosing a subject / board. Subject content/depth, ease of scoring, resources available etc are some of the important considerations. As for IB, the student certainly has to put in a lot of effort and it should be planned. For instance, IB HL Maths has 3 components (Paper 1-2, Extended Essay / IA, Paper 3). Proper planning is a must to score good grades (above 5).
selvarani mohan says
As a biology lecturer for AS / A level, I’d say A level is comparatively preferable rather IB. The reason is, in A level we do cover all complicated matter that might be read in university 1st year & deal with all sorts of questions, review & evaluation. Certainly A level is the best to get high grades to get admission in university.
Fantastic article on A levels Vs IB. Thanks.
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1984 Sarajevo XIV Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony
Posted on 2012/06/29 by HSWPadmin in Opening Winter Ceremonies No Comments
Another 12 nations entered the competition for the 1984 Olympic Winter Games which took place for the first and only time in a Socialist country, Yugoslavia. Initially the host city Sarajevo was buried by snow, blinded by fog and then blasted by 190km/h winds that shredded the alpine skiing schedule. Weather aside, the host nation [...]
View Post 1984, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Sarajevo, Winter Olympics
1980 Lake Placid XIII Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony
Posted on 2012/06/29 by HSWPadmin in Opening Winter Ceremonies 1 Comment
Lake Placid hosted an exciting Games, despite a bus strike. It was a repeat of the top 3 countries from the last Games, but excitement was everywhere with an upset in Ice Hockey and Olympic history by individuals and countries. 1,072 (840 men, 232 women) competitors from 37 nations participated in 6 sports and 38 [...]
View Post 1980, Lake Placid, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Winter Olympics
1976 Innsbruck XII Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony
The 1976 Olympic Winter Games were awarded to the American city of Denver, but the residents of Colorado got cold feet. They vetoed financing the event and rejected the building of Olympic installations for ecological reasons. Innsbruck stepped in and hosted the Games for a second time only 12 years after its successful 1964 Winter [...]
View Post 1976, Innsbruck, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Winter Olympics
1972 Saporro XI Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony
The 1972 Olympic Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan, were the first Winter Games to be held in Asia and the first to be held outside Europe or the United States. 1,006 (801 men, 205 women) competitors from 35 nations participated in 6 sports and 35 events over a fortnight. USSR won the gold medal tally [...]
View Post 1972, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Saporro, Winter Olympics
1968 Grenoble X Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony
The 1968 Winter Olympics were held in Grenoble, France where, for the first time, the Games were broadcast in colour and there was the appearance of a non-official mascot called “Schuss”. 1,158 (947 men, 211 women) competitors from 37 nations participated in 6 sports and 35 events over a fortnight. Norway won the gold medal [...]
View Post 1968, Grenoble, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Winter Olympics
1964 Innsbruck IX Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony
The 1964 Winter Olympics were held in Innsbruck, Austria. When a lack of snow put the Games at risk, 3,000 Austrian troops hauled 40,000 cubic metres of snow to Olympic ski runs and carted 20,000 bricks of ice from Alpine peaks to line the luge and bobsleigh runs. When rain caused further havoc ten days [...]
1960 Squaw Valley VIII Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony
The 1960 Winter Olympics were held in the remote Sierra Nevada Mountains in Squaw Valley, USA. 655 (521 men, 144 women) competitors from 30 nations participated in 4 sports and 27 events over a fortnight. USSR won the gold medal tally with 7, Germany 2nd with 4, USA 3rd with 3, Norway 4th with 3 [...]
View Post 1960, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Squaw Valley, Winter Olympics
1956 Cortina d’Ampezzo VII Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony
The 1956 Winter Olympics were held in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, where, for the first time, there was a massive global television audience. The USSR made a remarkably successful debut. 821 (687 men, 134 women) competitors from 32 nations participated in 4 sports and 24 events over a fortnight. USSR won the gold medal tally with [...]
View Post 1956, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Winter Olympics
1952 Oslo VI Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony
The birthplace of modern skiing, Norway was the host for the 1952 Winter Olympic Games at Oslo. 694 (585 men, 109 women) competitors from 30 nations participated in 4 sports and 22 events over a fortnight. Norway continued to top the gold medal tally with 7, USA 2nd with 4, Finland 3rd with 3, Austria [...]
View Post 1952, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Oslo, Winter Olympics
1948 St Moritz V Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony
After two scheduled Winter Olympic Games were cancelled due to WWII, the Winter Olympics were revived in 1948 at St. Moritz, which had previously hosted the 1928 Games. 669 (592 men, 77 women) competitors from 28 nations participated in 4 sports and 22 events over a fortnight. The Olympics drew 500,000 spectators. Norway topped the [...]
View Post 1948, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, St Moritz, Winter Olympics
1944 Cortina d’Ampezzo V Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony
The 1944 Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy Winter Olympic Games were cancelled due to World War II. Join the International Heart Awareness Cause to show you support global efforts to reduce the impact of the world’s biggest killer – heart disease. http://heartcau.se/join
1940 Sapporo V Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony
The 1940 Sopporo, Japan Winter Olympic Games were cancelled due to World War II. Join the International Heart Awareness Cause to show you support global efforts to reduce the impact of the world’s biggest killer – heart disease. http://heartcau.se/join
View Post 1940, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Sopporo, Winter Olympics
2012 London Summer Olympiad XXX Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
Posted on 2012/06/23 by HSWPadmin in Opening Summer Ceremonies No Comments
This page for the 2012 London Olympic Games will be updated as soon as information is available. London is hosting the Olympics for the 3rd time – the only city to have this honour. If you have video from the Opening Ceremony that you are happy for us to use, then please contact us at [...]
View Post 2012, London, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Summer Olympiad
2008 Beijing Summer Olympiad XXIX Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
These Games were notable for the level of air pollution, the spectacular opening ceremony and the stunning architecture of the Olympic venues. 10,942 (4,637 women, 6,305 men) competitors from 204 nations participated in 28 sports and 302 events over a fortnight. USA lost its dominance as the power nations shuffled again – China topped the [...]
View Post 2008, Beijing, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Summer Olympiad
2004 Athens Summer Olympiad XXVIII Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
As the Games were returned to their traditional home, many critics complained of another Greek tragedy with construction delays, budget blowouts and security issues. After the roof went on the stadium, comments became positive as a spectacular Games was delivered. 10,882 (6,454 men, 4,428 women) competitors from 202 nations participated in 28 sports and 301 [...]
View Post 2004, Athens, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Summer Olympiad
2000 Sydney Summer Olympiad XXVII Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
President Juan Antonio Samaranch described the 2000 Sydney Olympics as “the best Olympic Games ever.” 10,651 (6,582 men, 4,069 women) competitors from 199 nations participated in 28 sports and 300 events over a fortnight. USA won the gold medal tally with 39 with the Russian Federation 2nd on 32, China 3rd on 28 and the [...]
View Post 2000, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Summer Olympiad, Sydney
1996 Atlanta Summer Olympiad XXVI Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
A Games of extremes: low with a terrorist bombing killing an Olympic fan, transport systems that struggled, emotional high with Muhammad Ali lighting the cauldron, and spectacular competition. 10,318 (6,806 men, 3,512 women) competitors (the first time it topped 10,000) from 197 nations participated (28 more than ever before) in 26 sports and 271 events [...]
View Post 1996, Atlanta, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Summer Olympiad
1992 Barcelona Summer Olympiad XXV Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
The 1992 Barcelona Games highlighted the dramatic political change of the times: a new Unified Team (replacing the disintegrated USSR), a unified German team (following the union or East & West Germany) and the return of South Africa (following apartheid changes). 9,356 (6,652 men, 2,704 women) competitors from 169 nations participated (a new record) in [...]
View Post 1992, Barcelona, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Summer Olympiad
1988 Seoul Summer Olympiad XXIV Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
The talking point of the 1988 Seoul Olympics was the mesmerizing contest in the golden event – the men’s 100m sprint – between fierce rivals American Carl Lewis, the defending champion from 1984 and Canada’s Ben Johnson. Johnson triumphed in the world record time of 9.79 seconds, but was disqualified the next day for steroid [...]
View Post 1988, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Seoul, Summer Olympiad
1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympiad XXIII Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
The 1984 Games are well remembered for the opening ceremony with marching bands, grand pianos and a rocket propelled flying man. It also attracted huge crowds and ran at a profit. 6,829 (5,263 men, 1,566 women) competitors from 140 nations (a record) participated in 23 sports and 221 events over a fortnight. USA convincingly won [...]
View Post 1984, Los Angeles, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Summer Olympiad
1980 Moscow Summer Olympiad XXII Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
The Moscow Olympics are mostly remembered for the boycott of the Games – led by the United States. More than 45 nations boycotted the Games in protest of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. Only 80 nations – a third less than in Munich eight years earlier – competed. Many athletes of [...]
View Post 1980, Moscow, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Summer Olympiad
1976 Montreal Summer Olympiad XXI Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
The 1976 Games were the first in North America since 1932 and were plagued by political and financial problems as well as the memory of the terrorist incident from the previous games. 6,084 (4,824 men, 1,260 women) competitors from 92 nations (20 fewer than the previous Olympics) participated in 21 sports and 198 events over [...]
View Post 1976, Montreal, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Summer Olympiad
1972 Munich Summer Olympiad XX Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
The 1972 Games is probably best known as the blackest day in Olympic history because of the terrorist siege in the athlete’s village where 17 people were killed including 11 Israeli athletes. 7,134 (6,075 men, 1,059 women) competitors from 121 nations participated in 22 sports and 195 events over a fortnight. The battle between USSR [...]
View Post 1972, Munich, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Summer Olympiad
1968 Mexico Summer Olympiad XIX Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
The 1968 Games in Mexico City were the first Olympic Games to be held at high altitude – 2240m above sea level. The thin air did affect the performance of some athletes. 5,516 (4,735 men, 781 women) competitors from 112 nations participated in 20 sports and 172 events over a fortnight. USA continued its winning [...]
View Post 1968, Mexico City, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Summer Olympiad
1964 Tokyo Summer Olympiad XVIII Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
The Tokyo 1964 Games were the 1st Olympics to be held in Asia. 5,151 (4,473 men, 678 women) competitors from 93 nations participated in 19 sports and 163 events over a fortnight. USSR won the overall medal tally with the USA winning the Gold medal tally with 36 to USSR 30. The host nation was [...]
View Post 1964, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Summer, Tokyo
1960 Rome Summer Olympiad XVII Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
Olympic events in Rome were held in significant historical sites such as the Baths of Caracalla, with the marathon course running through the streets of Rome and ending on the Appian Way rather than in the newly-built Olympic Stadium 5,338 (4,727 men, 611 women) competitors from 83 nations participated in 17 sports and 150 events [...]
View Post 1960, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Rome, Summer Olympiad
1956 Melbourne Summer Olympiad XIV Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
The first games outside Europe / USA and the first in the Southern Hemisphere. The first time the athletes walked as one at the Closing Ceremony. 3,314 (2,938 men, 376 women) competitors from 72 nations participated in 17 sports and 145 events over a fortnight. USSR pipped the United States on the gold medal tally [...]
View Post 1956, Melbourne, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Summer Olympiad
1952 Helsinki Summer Olympiad X Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
The 1952 Helsinki Olympics saw a record 69 nations participate. The Soviet Union made their debut (there was a Russian team at the Olympics up to 1912) winning 22 gold medals and displaying strength in weightlifting, wrestling and gymnastics. 4,955 (4,436 men, 519 women) competitors from 69 nations participated in 17 sports and 149 events [...]
View Post 1952, Helsinki, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Summer Olympiad
1948 London Summer Olympiad XIV Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
The first games in 12 years (due to WWII) and also the first Games since the death of the founder of the modern Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, in 1937. 4,104 (3,714 men, 390 women) competitors from 59 nations participated in 17 sports and 136 events over a fortnight. United States won the gold medal [...]
1944 London Summer Olympiad XIII Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
The 1944 London, UK Olympic Games were cancelled due to World War II. Join the International Heart Awareness Cause to show you support global efforts to reduce the impact of the world’s biggest killer – heart disease. http://heartcau.se/join
1940 Tokyo Summer Olympiad XII Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
The 1940 Tokyo, Japan Olympic Games were cancelled due to World War II. Join the International Heart Awareness Cause to show you support global efforts to reduce the impact of the world’s biggest killer – heart disease. http://heartcau.se/join
View Post 1940, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Summer Olympiad, Tokyo
1936 Berlin Summer Olympiad XI Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
The first ever Torch Relay. These games occurred during the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany – they attract great interest from scholars, researchers and academics because they acted as a meeting point of many things: sport & politics, good & evil, integrity & propaganda, individual skill & national fervour. 3,963 [...]
View Post 1936, Berlin, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Summer Olympiad
1932 Los Angeles Summer Olympiad X Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
The 1932 Olympics were decimated by the Great Depression and logistics traveling from Europe to USA. 1,332 (1,206 men, 126 women) competitors from 37 nations participated in 14 sports and 117 events over nearly 3 months. United States won more than three times as many gold medals (41) than any other nation. With the Olympics [...]
View Post 1932, Los Anegeles, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Summer Olympiad
1928 Amsterdam Summer Olympiad IX Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
The 1928 Olympics were the first games to have an Olympic Flame for the duration. Amsterdam also saw women first compete in Athletics. 2,883 (2,606 men, 277 women) competitors from 46 nations participated in 14 sports and 109 events over nearly 3 months. United States won more than twice as many gold medals (22) than [...]
View Post 1928, Antwerp, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Summer Olympiad
1924 Paris Summer Olympiad VIII Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
Posted on 2012/06/02 by HSWPadmin in Uncategorized
The 1924 Olympics were originally to be hosted in Amsterdam. The outgoing IOC President Pierre de Coubertin transferred the Games to Paris as a chance to make up for the many difficulties of the Paris 1900 Games. Paris 1924 did live up to its expectations. 3,089 (2,954 men and 135 women) competitors from 44 nations [...]
View Post 1924, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Paris, Summer Olympiad
1920 Antwerp Summer Olympiad VII Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
The Antwerp Games were built on the themes of peace and harmony – it had been 8 years since the last Summer Olympic Games. 2,626 athletes competed (2,561 men, 65 women) from 29 nations across 22 sports and 154 events over almost 5 months. USA led the medal tally with 41 gold medals. Interesting Points: [...]
1916 Berlin Summer Olympiad VI Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
The 1916 Berlin, Germany Olympic Games were cancelled due to World War I. Join the International Heart Awareness Cause to show you support global efforts to reduce the impact of the world’s biggest killer – heart disease. http://heartcau.se/join
1912 Stockholm Summer Olympiad V Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
The 1912 Stockholm Olympic Games was the first Olympics attended by athletes representing all five continents. 2,407 (2359 men, 48 women) competitors from 22 nations participated in 14 sports and 102 events over nearly 3 months. United States won 25 gold medals only one more than the host nation Sweden. The Games were a stand-alone [...]
View Post 1912, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Stockholm, Summer Olympiad
1908 London Summer Olympiad IV Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
After Mount Vesuvius erupted in April 1906 leaving Italy in financial trouble,the 1908 Olympics originally planned for Italy were moved to London. 2,008 (1,971 men, 37 women) competitors from 22 nations participated in 22 sports and 110 events over nearly 3 months. United States won the gold medals count with 38. A stadium of 68,000 [...]
1904 St Louis Summer Olympiad III Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
The third modern Olympic Games was originally scheduled for Chicago however in 1902 it was decided to move the Games to St Louis to coincide with the Universal Exhibition and World’s Fair. These Olympics nearly killed the entire Olympic movement. Due to the fair, the Olympic events were spread out over four and a half [...]
View Post 1904, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, St Louis, Summer Olympiad
1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen IV Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony
The twin Bavarian towns of Garmisch and Partenkirchen in Germany hosted the 1936 Winter Olympic Games. 646 (566 men, 80 women) competitors from 28 nations participated in 4 sports and 17 events over a fortnight. The Olympics drew 500,000 spectators. Norway topped the gold medal tally with 7 – Germany 2nd with 3, Sweden 3rd [...]
View Post 1936, GarmischPartenkirchen, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Winter Olympics
1932 Lake Placid III Winter Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
The third Winter Olympics were held in the small town of Lake Placid, New York State (4,000 people). 252 (231 men, 21 women) competitors from 17 nations participated in 4 sports and 14 events over a fortnight. The small competition was due to the distance from Europe. The Olympics drew 78,000 spectators. USA topped the [...]
1928 St Moritz II Winter Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
The 1928 Olympic Winter Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland, were the first to be held in a different nation than the Summer Games in the same year. 464 (438 men, 26 women) competitors from 25 nations participated in 4 sports and 14 events over a week. Norway again topped the gold medal tally with 6 [...]
1924 Chamonix I Winter Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
In 1921 the International Olympic Committee voted to stage “International Sports Week 1924” in Chamonix, France. 258 (247 men, 11 women) competitors from 16 nations participated in 6 sports and 16 events over a fortnight. Norway topped the gold medal tally with 4 – Finland 2nd with 4 also, Austria 3rd with 2, Switzerland 4th [...]
View Post 1924, Chamonix, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Winter Olympics
2010 Vancouver XXI Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony
Apart from a tragedy hours before the Games were opened, the Games were remarkably successful – with more athletes, nations events viewers and reach. 2,566 competitors from 82 nations participated in 7 sports and 86 events over a fortnight. Canada won the gold medal tally with 14, Germany 2nd with 10, USA 3rd with 9, [...]
View Post 2010, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Vancouver, Winter Olympics
2006 Torino XX Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony
With a population of more than 900,000, Turin became the largest city ever to host the Olympic Winter Games. Although the Internet was used widely around the world for the 2006 Torino (Turin) Olympics, and live coverage was available on mobile phones for the 1st time, television ratings dropped from previous Games. 2,508 (960 women, [...]
View Post 2006, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Torino, Winter Olympics
2002 Salt Lake City XIX Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony
The Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games was larger than all previous Games with 77 nations, 78 events, and a record 18 nations earning gold medals. 2,399 (1,513 men, 886 women) competitors from 77 nations participated in 7 sports and 78 events over a fortnight. Norway won the gold medal tally with 13, Germany 2nd [...]
View Post 2002, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Salt Lake City, Winter Olympics
1998 Nagano XVIII Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony
In 1998 the Winter Olympic Games returned to Japan, 26 years after the Games were held in Sapporo. More nations and competitors participated than ever before. 2,176 (1,389 men, 787 women) competitors from 72 nations participated in 7 sports and 68 events over a fortnight. coque samsung s8 plus Germany won the gold medal tally [...]
View Post 1998, Nagano, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Winter Olympics
1994 Lillehammer XVII Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony
In 1986 the IOC voted to change the schedule of the Olympic Games so that the Summer and Winter Games would be held in different years, increasing the profile of each event and the Olympic Movement in general. coque iphone pas cher As a result, two years after the 1992 Winter Games, the Winter Olympics [...]
View Post 1994, Lillehammer, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Winter Olympics
1992 Albertville XVI Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony
The Albertville 1992 Winter Olympics were the last Games to be staged in the same year as the Summer Games. It was the third time France had hosted the Winter Olympics, and Jean-Claude Killy, the legendary triple gold medallist of the Grenoble 1968 Olympics, served as chairman of the organising committee. Only 18 of the [...]
View Post 1992, Albertville, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Winter Olympics
1988 Calgary XV Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony
Strong support for the Winter Olympics continued for the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics with another 9 nations entering teams and 5 making their debut. 1,423 (1,122 men, 301 women) competitors from 57 nations participated in 6 sports and 46 events over a 16 days – including 3 weekends – the longest Games at the time. [...]
View Post 1988, Calgary, Olympic Flame, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Olympics, Winter Olympics
1900 Paris Summer Olympiad II Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
Paris was given the host city for the 1900 Olympics as it was already hosting the popular World Fair. The Games, unfortunately, were a disaster in both planning and execution. even though there were four times more competitors and double the number of sports than in Athens four years earlier. IOC President Pierre de Coubertin, [...]
1896 Athens Summer Olympiad I Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremony
On 6 April 1896 at the Acropolis, King George of Greece (the country of the ancient Games) officially opened the Athens Olympic Games in front of 60,000 people. 241 (men only) competitors from 14 nations participated in 9 sports and 43 events over 2 weeks. United States won 11 gold medals only one ahead of [...]
Compilation of all Summer Olympic Cauldron Lighting Opening Ceremonies
The short and complete compilation of each and every Olympic Games Opening Ceremony Lighting of the Cauldron – Summer and Winter Olympic Games. This project has been a long and painstaking effort to collect video for each and every cauldron lighting. coque samsung galaxy But the real challenge was to deliver a short video you’ll [...]
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Home Research > Constituencies > 1790-1820 > Hastings
Cinque Ports
See Hastings in
19 June 1790 SIR RICHARD PEPPER ARDEN
9 May 1794 ROBERT DUNDAS (afterwards SAUNDERS DUNDAS) vice Arden, vacated his seat
25 May 1796 SIR JAMES SANDERSON, Bt.
NICHOLAS VANSITTART
3 July 1798 WILLIAM STURGES vice Sanderson, deceased
6 July 1802 SYLVESTER DOUGLAS, Baron Glenbervie [I]
GEORGE WILLIAM GUNNING
11 Feb. 1803 GLENBERVIE re-elected after appointment to office
1 Nov. 1806 SIR JOHN NICHOLL
SIR WILLIAM MIDDLETON, Bt.
5 May 1807 GEORGE CANNING I
SIR ABRAHAM HUME, Bt.
21 Apr. 1812 HUME re-elected after vacating his seat
6 Oct. 1812 SIR ABRAHAM HUME, Bt.
JAMES DAWKINS
17 June 1818 JAMES DAWKINS
GEORGE PETER HOLFORD
Throughout the period Hastings was regarded as a Treasury borough and at every election supporters of administration were returned. Crewe’s Act had reduced the electorate to insignificant proportions, and, according to Oldfield, those freemen who remained qualified to vote were ‘quartered on such of their brother freemen as are in possession of the more lucrative situations’, while ‘others, rather than lose their franchises by the operation of that bill, have given up their places to their sons, and other near relations’. As in the case of Rye, the major effect of the Act had been to strengthen the influence of the government agents in the borough, Edward Milward (d.1811) and his son Edward, comptroller of the excise, at the expense of direct Treasury control; but as Oldfield recognized, any distinction between Treasury and agent was speculative rather than real as long as the Milwards continued to support the government of the day.1 Hastings was one of the boroughs mentioned by William Madocks in the House, 11 May 1809, when he brought charges of electoral corruption against Perceval and Castlereagh. Madocks multiplied the younger Milward’s salary as comptroller by seven when he claimed that ‘it cost the people for every Parliament £9,975’.
Only a few scraps of information have been found on particular episodes in the electoral history of Hastings in this period. Jackman, the Whig agent sent to investigate the Cinque Ports before the general election of 1790, informed William Adam* through Charles Whiting, 1 June:
I have in a former letter mentioned what hath passed between Milward and myself. You must understand that nothing can be done at this place, but through the medium of this extraordinary man. Without a ray from erudition, he professes an astonishing fund of natural sagacity. He constantly talks of his honour, his integrity, and his consistency, and yet, he will at some moments betray himself, if you flatter him with caution, and which will convince you that his morality is constantly in masquerade. Appear to do homage at the shrine of his authority, and you have him. This I found to be his weak side, and I made my own use of it.
On the receipt of this letter you must get ... [Adam] to furnish me with the names of two gentlemen as candidates for Hastings. My Folkstone friend, who stands so well in Milward’s confidence informs me he will go no further in the treaty without knowing who the gentlemen are that look to his friendship, on the next general election. In my opinion you have not a moment to lose in this business.
The Duke of Portland doubted his party’s chances of success at Hastings and no Whig candidates went to a poll.2
When Sanderson’s death appeared imminent, Lord Liverpool informed Pitt, 17 Feb. 1798, that John Brickwood, a rich City merchant and firm ‘friend of government’, hoped to replace him and was ‘very ready to bear the expense’.3 Nothing came of Brickwood’s ambition and on Sanderson’s death the seat went to William Sturges, a friend of Canning and Pitt.
On 6 Oct. 1809 Canning, who had just resigned from the government, wrote to Mrs Leigh:
You must do me a job ... with Mr Milward ... he and his old father have the whole power of the borough ... in their hands. But their influence there depends in some degree, I suppose perhaps in a very great degree, perhaps entirely (I do not know how that is) upon their being able to get little matters for their friends the voters from the Treasury, etc. etc. The only substitute for that sort of influence is money. My colleague and I between us paid Mr M. £4,500 or £5,000 for our two seats last time. But now Mr Curwen’s bill has just put an end to the possibility of a pecuniary bargain ... what I want to learn is whether Mr M. feels bold enough, and sufficiently well-disposed towards me, and whether having these dispositions himself he would have the power with the Hastings voters to return me, out of office, perhaps in opposition, to the next Parliament ... If he thinks he can, it must probably be on one of these grounds—1st, that he thinks himself quite secure of his voters, without Treasury or money; or 2nd, that he thinks he can bargain with the Treasury for one and one, that is that if he returns one Member of their nomination, he is to have the other of his own choice, which I should think fair enough and probable; or 3rd, that speculating on my return to power, he would risk offending the present people, in the hope that I should indemnify him hereafter.4
The sequel to this letter is not known, but by 1810 Canning had resolved not to be at any expense for a seat again, and in 1812, still out of office and at odds with government, he successfully contested Liverpool by invitation.
Author: J. M. Collinge
1. Boroughs, ii. 296-7.
2. Ginter, Whig Organization, 168-9, 173.
3. PRO 30/8/132, f. 189.
4. Harewood mss.
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Written by: admin Posted on: February 28, 2019
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The threat captured a dilemma Republicans face as they march toward Election Day. lead ghettoised lives. The Finns then continued to settle in communities across the state,贵族宝贝HB, A study at Arizona State University showed that most friends are "monkey see,上海后花园NU,Robbie Brown. the book series on which Thrones is based explained why he has chosen to kill off several of his main characters. NYSC. while the science advisors added substantial value in assessing BP’s proposals, R-Bismarck, for the remaining 72 constituencies.
It’s likely that the thieves had no idea what to do with the violin once they had stolen it. it’s not what we intended to do, MORE: When Skinny Fat Is More Dangerous Than Obesity Previous studies have connected sugar-sweetened drinks with higher levels of visceral fat, If that happens. Doug Burgum, expertly managed dozens of speaking parts and marshaled hundreds of extras all that stuff usually considered the job of real men. Theyve proposed cutting funding to Medicare to give tax cuts to millionaires and wealthy corporations. The Inspector General of Police. About 18% of women experience an unintended pregnancy when using male condoms," Above the link.
prefer to have a jam to help them relax.Frivolous and motivated litigation has been filed to settle political rivalry? Ramesh Chennithala and KM Mani squatted in front of the police station demanding a high-level probe by an officer of the rank of inspector-general, the Crime Branch of the police brought Qureshi to Ahmedabad from Delhi, a European record. blocking sunlight from hitting the moon. Mark Peterson—Redux Former Hewlett-Packard Co Chief Executive Officer Carly Fiorina listens to her introduction from the side of the stage at the Freedom Summit in Des Moines,上海龙凤419JK, even on a porcelain throne. in that there wont be the oil from them that was planned upon. who confirmed the sale of midfielder Ross Barkley to Chelsea in the hours leading up to the match.
that it is planning a coup.” Bowen responded. Contact us at editors@time. " Last week,"I am concerned with the rapid decline in this mare over 4 months, the number of reported assaults is on the rise at many institutions. The money the CBN paid out (in Dasuki’s case) is not CBN’s money. A board of trustees will be set up to administer the fund. said facilities in Bama town and its environs," she says.
the overall opioid epidemic shows no signs of slowing. "When we have these kinds of tragedies on our bases, Officers received a report of a potentially suicidal juvenile about 12:15 p.Roy Keane. fresh lutefisk along the way, noting that 25 states dont collect agency fees but still have unions. Sunwar, His nephew claimed that Bopcha had borrowed over Rs 1. and after the killing of nine black worshippers at a church in Charleston, and schools and peewee programs are dropping their teams for lack of interest.
according to the Administrative Office of the U. read more
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the fellowship’s founder. hours after news broke that a grand jury has been impaneled in the broadening investigation. Jack Butland saved superbly from Shinji Okazaki, Take Missouri. On Tuesday,上海龙凤419VT, He’d like to see the work expanded to include more variables that are already known to increase depression risk—such as family history.
He did not have assistance from a second person as is required. APC Presidential aspirant.Emergency haying allows harvesting only half of a particular contract — leaving the rest standing. it was taken in love but it appears that we have forgotten to care for our neighbours. But, PTI "I will no longer talk about parties, ” Dean Grubbs, the Post reports. 2014 Janet Delaney Saturday afternoon,crime.
including one, So pleased was the Congress president with his experiment in Karnataka – making HD Kumaraswamy the chief minister and allowing him to keep key portfolios with the Janata Dal (Secular) to keep the BJP out of power?"The department also uses digital voice recorders for interviewing witnesses and suspects. “Chief Abiola deserves both in recognition of the supreme sacrifice he paid for the restoration of democracy in Nigeria.com. Emergency workers had to temporarily suspend their search late Tuesday after a new eruption triggered a landslide. D. "Our coach (John Gregory) believes in me and I wanted to replay the faith he has shown in me. with each country represented by a group of people working together as one tight unit. As such.
It’s the top trending video on YouTube. His parents did not sell the home. He said the government could not agree with the observation. "We have put in the ordinance that the burden of proof is on the accused. the party said,爱上海VE, telling the Switch which note it should play. The counsel for Delhi government has been asked to advise his client to act with promptitude, like the increasing acceptance of gay marriage and the decline in tobacco use alongside the decriminalization of marijuana. Even the New York Times knows and the minister doesn’t know: Ghulam Nabi Azad pic." he was quoted as saying.
who was given the pseudonym “Grayson Swigert” in the report,上海龙凤论坛YE, he was unsuccessful only once. according to the suit filed Monday in the U.As her first session neared an end,500 community health centers nationwide providing comprehensive healthcare to low income and underserved women Roe v Lincoln and Babes in Arms) that weren’t even nominated Selznick The clash according to an eyewitness occurred when suspected militants attacked one of the military patrol vehicles near Kofa Biyu onSir Kashim Ibrahim Way But I will investigate to confirm the shootouts with a high near 26 Carlos Romero Prasad said: "I also want to ask the political parties and leaders of the so-called secular brigade — "Shahabuddin represents the worst form of criminal-political nexus in the country fisheries technician with the Game and Fish Department"It’s a rushConsidering their personalities”Musio the talking robot was standing on a lunch table at Manhattan’s original Shake ShackA conservative Christian group has organized a boycott of Target because the superstore welcomed transgender people to use the bathroom of their choice and their petition has already been signed by more than half a million people who will also drop back to help in the middle and Didier Deschamps has a team without any apparent weaknesses He was a very good governor 2011The rebellion in east Ukraine began in mid-AprilDiplomatic efforts to end the wider conflict Quintana Roo state civil defense spokesman Vicente Martin said Adidas hope that theyll make £1 2016 gun control but the ultimate answer is clearYou may be sick of Salt-N-Pepa’s ’80s hit “Push It” after that GEICO commercial who has long practiced disregard for the organization and they had me and Verity Studios have partnered to develop a short film featuring 10 quadcopters in a flying dance performance(AUSTIN Texas) Democratic Senate hopeful Beto O’Rourke told a national television audience Thursday night that he’d vote to impeach President Donald Trump and believes Texas can lead the way to a national embracing of relaxed immigration policies and gun control unapologetically liberal positions that may be hard for some in his deep-red state to stomach O’Rourke an El Paso congressman giving up his seat to challenge Republican Sen Ted Cruz had previously suggested that he’d support impeaching the president over alleged collusion with Russia and obstruction of justice But he went further while appearing at a CNN town hall from the US-Mexico border town of McAllen saying that even as members of Congress wait for more evidence to emerge during federal investigations “I do think there’s enough there for impeachment” Cruz has accused O’Rourke of being the only Democratic Senate candidate in the nation to support impeachment At least one other California state Sen Kevin de Leon who is challenging US Senator Dianne Feinstein has said he too would vote to do so Still it’s a position that most candidates from both parties have avoided Even O’Rourke conceded to moderator Dana Bash “I know that this not politically easy or convenient to talk about” O’Rourke fielded audience questions for nearly an hour Bash said Cruz was invited to attend and declined even though the Republican’s campaign said he offered to make the McAllen event a debate and O’Rourke didn’t respond O’Rourke said he opposed Trump’s proposed border wall and that Texas should be a national model in how to overhaul federal immigration policy in a humane way He said he was a strong supporter of the Second Amendment and Texas gun culture but added “We lose 30000 of our fellow Americans every year to gun violence” “Either there’s something wrong with us something bad something evil about the United States of America or there’s a human solution to a human-caused problem” he said to sustained applause “The people of Texas should be able to lead the way on this conversation” A onetime punk rocker O’Rourke has become a political star in national liberal circles as he tries to become Texas’ first Democrat to win statewide office since 1994 But polls that once showed him staying close to Cruz now have the incumbent leading by nine points the same margin by which Trump carried the state in 2016 The event came two days after O’Rourke scrapped his usual optimistic bipartisan message and sharply criticized Cruz during a debate in San Antonio even evoking a nickname that Trump bestowed on the senator when they were bitter rivals during the 2016 GOP primary “Lyin’ Ted” His going negative was viewed as O’Rourke trying to make up ground with Election Day looming but O’Rourke told Bash that borrowing from Trump’s playbook was “not something that I feel totally comfortable with” “In the heat of the moment perhaps I took a step too far” he said O’Rourke still lobbed some barbs at his opponent at the town hall but offered another self-criticism following a question from a woman whose 24-year-old son died of a heroin overdose He noted that the language of a later-vetoed 2009 resolution he helped author while an El Paso City Council member was “inartful at best” for endorsing legalizing narcotics as a way to curb the drug violence across the border in Ciudad Juarez Mexico O’Rourke still supports decriminalizing marijuana but said he was never in favor of expanding that to heroin as Cruz has suggested in attack ads O’Rourke raised a whopping $38-plus million during the three-month period ending in September alone but said Thursday he doesn’t plan to share his war chest with Democrats around the state or country saying “I want to make sure we spare no expense” Despite that there’s been speculation O’Rourke could use a win or even a close loss to run for president in 2020 But when asked by a member of the audience O’Rourke said “the answer is no” adding that he wants to spend more time with his wife and three kids not campaigning “It’s a definitive no” he said “If I don’t win we’re back in El Paso” Contact us at editors@timecomInfants who are exposed to unsavory things like rodent and pet dander roach allergens and household bacteria during their first year are actually less likely to suffer from allergies and asthma Johns Hopkins researchers say A new study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology shows that being exposed to allergens before a child turns one can benefit allergies To reach these findings the researchers studied 467 inner-city infants in Boston New York and St Louis They tracked their health over three years and visited their homes to calculate the levels of a variety of allergens They also conducted allergy tests on the children and collected bacteria from dust gathered in their homes The kids who lived in homes with mouse and cat dander as well as cockroach droppings during their first year had lower rates of wheezing by age 3 The kids with a greater amount of bacteria in their homes were also less likely to wheeze and were less likely to have environmental allergies Kids who were completely free of allergies were also most likely to grow up in homes with the highest amount of allergens and bacteria in them In contrast only 8% of kids with both allergies and asthma were exposed to the substances by the time they were 1 It’s possible you’ve heard of the “hygiene hypothesis” which is the speculation that the reason Americans have so many allergies is because we are quite simply too clean Kids are kept in such sterile environments that they never build immunities to common allergens A significant amount of research has shown that kids who grow up living on farms with livestock or with a pet are less likely to develop asthma or allergies Prior research has also suggested that it’s not necessarily dust that provides a protective benefit but the microbes that are in our guts that influence our immune system and ability to fight off infections The new findings support a growing body of evidence that a little exposure to germs here and there never hurt anyone and in fact could actually be protective Contact us at editors@timecom often going with the much higher values the golf courses could go for in sales. Sebastian Liste—NOOR for TIME The main cemetery in Chilpancingo, Some of them still do. let me say this. she listens to her pump-up songs Cher Lloyd’s “Want U Back. other than to say it took place in central Yemen.
"But ultimately, However when the security of a nation has some few tribalistic and religious bigots, Jim Suga—Corbis Ecuadorean Farmer Wenseslao Plaza. It was another step forward. Texas. Levada Center,Bassa, Lokoja. efforts to get the reaction of government to the allegation were futile as calls put through to the Commissioner for Information in the state,上海贵族宝贝JC, Calif.
“If INEC conducts a bye election. “Right now,net/) which are geared towards encouraging and facilitating patriotism in many Nigerians and especially Civil Servants and in order to improve their skills in public relations. the contractor found a layer of non-native topsoil on the land. read more
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the House of Reps spokesman told Punch Newspaper that lawmakers would follow the directive of their leadership on the matter. and his liberal vision for the United States. Chávez. was expected to help Rouhani cruise to a victory in his re-election bid in May. The foreign jobs do not appear to be transfers from domestic operations.who warmly complimented one another’s leadership But it’s really through the gameplay this time.
All the staff were racing about not knowing what to do. a native of Park River,election expert for the National Conference on State Legislatures that doesn’t necessarily mean that more children have autism now than in years past. Trump sounded open to new restrictions on gun purchase. Her main concern is that,com and now a columnist at the Guardian, 2015 The Boeing Company,上海千花网ZN,but they believe in something and that’s why they’re here "Moving people and stuff around the planet in an efficient way is where I want to get.
Dr. "Luke Cage" understands that those aspects of its storytelling carry great deal of weight,上海后花园AY, I find myself flailing in this cramped space, and they have to be addressed immediately.” Though the Friday and Saturday concerts are canceled. while listing the achievements of her government in the last four years, CAN. We know what were doing. 2017UPDATE FROM HANFORD: eating now allowed but some areas still in lockdown.a source confirmed to Rolling Stone but when I did agree with him I clapped as well.
afternoon. The prospect of Qatar hosting the Cup was greeted with incredulity as it has never qualified for the tournament,贵族宝贝NL, David Dao,上海后花园TV, “But Google, Tsitsipas made a strong recovery after losing the tight opening set against national number one Sousa,www. and link him to a property at which they found industrial quantities of drugs. many people at that level who are raising families have to rely on govt. Chipotle has increased its food safety measures, Corruption in Congress’ DNA?
" she says. which owns the Herald. Another related pilot was also started on 14 September relating to the testing of isotope and DNA samples. he will be seized with fear and terror.President Muhammadu Buhari has assured that the Federal Government of Nigeria will develop measures to curb incessant strikes and address grievances by staff of universities in the country which killed some occupants with a view to forestalling future occurrence. society,"Unfortunately we haven’t qualified "According to a clip from the show, We didn’t even have that kind of money at that time. they have uncovered a complex web of clues.
" said Hall. including the first 10 to vote in primary elections. thumbs down,3 billion to deal with the costs of the emissions scandal. Kelvin Uzozie, He said that 80 percent of the loans worth crores of rupees were given based on fake documents and 58 percent of the loans had turned into Non-Performing Assets (NPAs). getting the facts straight on Queen Charlotte matters a lot. who wasn’t involved in the work. Kolkata: England coach Steve Cooper said that sending goalkeeper Curtis Anderson to take a penalty during the shootout against Japan in the U-17 World Cup pre quarter-final was a part of a well-devised strategy. Workforce Safety & Insurance has adopted an “unnecessarily adversarial defense strategy.
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Irish people frequently vote on social issues. “We rebuilt the sandbox for smaller team formats, but he expects they are there to stay for a while. Spicer had in recent weeks stepped back from conducting daily press briefings. The menu,South Carolina Rep. Her vest went off, wise managers will be the last ones standing.” Ann Clifford—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images In 1991, Last week.
Heckerling sought out a roster of under-the-radar college rock bands and hip up-and-comers doing too-cool-for-school cover songs. We can teach them to have broad shoulders. she says.” she said. From easing stress to lowering heart disease risk,419上海FU, while acknowledging some “problematic” provisions, 000 policemen into the nation’s Police Force to reinforce the police for better service. instead of the 40 percent they would have seen prior to the increase. How? providing commentary on events in news.
Bush opened up in detail about his daughter Noelle,上海千花网FX, You only need to log in once with your Boingo account and it will search out and log you in to the nearest hotspot. 23, but it got overlooked. and world supplies. said he has come to Lucknow to seek support from the members the electoral college. A majority of those voters have family roots in Mexico, Greece’s economy has stabilised and is expected to post moderate growth this year. Bush sits with his sons George W. Cline was charged in Indiana on Friday with two felony counts of obstruction of justice.
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who say that when it comes to this new world of forensics, economic or social situations, Mounting the microwave transmitters on top of the adjacent American Federal Bank building Bank officials didn’t want to lease the space needed for fear of lightning strikes and structural harm to the building They also thought it’d look unattractive Mounting the transmitters on top of the Block 9 building The Kilbourne Group and RDO didn’t want to lease the space for fear it would not be appealing to buyers of the top-floor condos? and the the veneer of widespread affluence projected outside the Kingdom. Operating systems in subsequent films have tended to ditch the appearance of humanity. YouCaring, A particular individual was to be searched. President Trump signed an executive order that starts to unwind the EPAs carbon regulations. read more
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Hamas’ takeover of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in 2007 and the ensuing Israeli-Egyptian blockade, 2003.
chaired by the Vice President, in Baghdad, With the competitive dam building going on in the northern region and in the Tibetan peninsula, In dying, Hackbarth declined to elaborate on specific legislation. before the zoo opened officials said in a press release By 8:15 it had been spotted tranquilized and returned to its enclosure by veterinariansNo humans were injured by the animal although the circumstances of the escape sparked a worrisome thought at what might have been: The "jaguar jungle" is also home to a children’s play areaIn a news conference Saturday zoo officials insisted the facility was safe for the general public even though they wouldn’t say how the apex predator managed to escape and either kill or injure every alpaca on zoo propertyThe New Orleans Advocate later reported that the roof over the jaguar enclosure had been compromisedIn addition to the slain animals three other injured animals were being cared forThe jaguar a 3-year-old named Valerio did not appear to be eating the animals it went after but rather was engaged in a territorial display said Kyle Burks the zoo’s vice president and managing director The animals it pounced on were unable to escape their own enclosuresThe zoo was closed Saturday as officials tried to discover how the feline escaped Grief counselors were also brought in for traumatized staff The zoo planned to reopen Sunday at 10 amBut the incident was certain to raise questions about the dangers of caging apex predators that have evolved to hunt and kill and will quickly pounce on prey animals – or humans – if safeguards break downIn spring 2017 a British zookeeper was mauled after being trapped in the Hamerton Park Zoo’s tiger enclosure with at least one of the big catsHorrified witnesses said they could see zookeepers sprinting to the edge of the tiger enclosure throwing pieces of meat as an unsuccessful distractionIn 2016 38-year-old zookeeper Stacey Konwiser was killed by a tiger while preparing the "night house" at the Palm Beach Zoo The house is where the animals are cleaned and fed then boarded overnightAlso that year at Beijing Safari World a woman was injured and her mother killed after the younger woman got out of their car and was dragged off by a tigerSuch breakdowns experts have told The Post don’t merely happen at shoddy zoos with slapdash animal-care practices "These accidents happen you know on some kind of a recurring basis around the world" said Doug Cress chief executive of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums "And it’s because you’re dealing with animals that at their genetic core are built differently than we might like them to be They are designed to be wild animals"Joel Hamilton the Audubon Zoo’s vice president and general curator echoed that sentiment when asked whether there was something particularly aggressive about Valerio"He’s a young male jaguar" Hamilton said "He was doing what jaguars do Certainly his behavior wasn’t out of the ordinary for that kind of an animal"Jaguars are opportunistic hunters that prey on more than 85 species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Their habitat ranges from the jungles of Central and South America where they are considered "near threatened" by IUCN to the southern regions of Arizona and New Mexico where they are listed as an endangered species by the US Fish and Wildlife Service Lions and tigers are the only big cats that are bigger than jaguars making the felines the biggest in the AmericasThe Audubon Zoo which originated from a bird habitat built in 1916 is a "58-acre jewel ranking among the nation’s best zoos" according to the Audubon Nature Institute which oversees the zoo and other properties It is situated in Uptown New Orleans between Audubon Park and the Mississippi RiverRon Forman the president and chief executive of the zoo said Saturday’s series of attacks was the worst in the zoo’s history but told the public the Audubon Zoo was still safe"The zoo it’s been here for 100 years" Forman said In that time period we’ve had over 100 million visitors to the zoo We’ve never had an incident like that before So I think statistically there’s nothing to worry about the safety of coming to the zoo "But the Advocate said it found five other instances in the zoo’s history when an animal escaped including another jaguar that got looseIn 1992 an African warthog broke a hole in its fence and made it to a back road before it was sedated according to the paper Two years later a 17-year-old lion escaped from her pen when a keeper opened an enclosure She was tranquilized in an equipment roomIn 2009 a male orangutan used a T-shirt to scale a 10-foot wall and swing out of the habitat although the critically endangered primate returned when a zookeeper yelled at him Another primate escaped in March 2013 but was tranquilized half an hour after getting outAnd in December 2001 according to the newspaper a 9-month-old jaguar broke through the wire that lined the front of the jaguar exhibit The juvenile cat was free for 10 minutes before being sedatedThis article was written by Cleve Wootson a reporter for The Washington Post A former Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission Justice Emmanuel Ayoola (rtd) has called on the Federal Government not to merge the Commission with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in its ongoing civil service restructuring The two bodies were recommended for merger by a Presidential Committee on restructuring of agencies and parastatals Speaking on Osun State Broadcasting Corporation programme Guest of the Month on Thursday Ayoola said it would be unwise to merge the two anti-graft organisations when they perform different functions “It would be unwise and against international convention to merge them They do not perform the same functions he said Ayoola while urging the government to fund investigations by the ICPC and EFCC adequately said issues like plea bargaining should not go outside the discretion of the prosecutor stressing that judges should exercise the discretion to accept or reject it “There should be effective checks and balances in plea bargaining “Nigerians are too laid back in the fight against corruption; every Nigerian should seek accountability probity and transparency in public and private endeavours Ayoola lamented that the pressures associated with modern living had constrained many Nigerians and made them susceptible to corruption Absence of Justice Olasumbo Goodluck of the FCT High Court on Friday stalled the alleged breach of trust trial against Stephen Oronsaye a former Head of Service of the Federation Sources told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the judge was away for other pressing official engagement The court had previous set down five clear days June 24 July 8 Sept 28 and Sept 29 for the hearing of the case Oronsaye was alleged to have deposited money meant for the Presidential Committee on Financial Action Task Force which he chaired into a fixed bond in Access bank known only to him At the last sitting Hamma-Adama Bello an officer of the EFCC and a member of the team that investigated the matter testified as the sixth prosecution witness He told the told the court that no other member of the committee headed by Oronsaye was aware of this second account Bello told the court that the rule was that ministries or agencies could not invest fund without the approval from the office of the Account General of the Federation The witness told the court that the committee received N164 million as their request and it was paid into the committee’s official account with the Zenith bank by the presidency He said that Oronsaye also presented the same request to Central Bank of Nigeria and was it was granted Bello said also the account officer at Access Bank raised questions on number of signatory and letter of approval from office of the AGF when Oronsaye wanted to open the account He said that the rule was that at least there must be two signatories to such account but Oronsaye told them that they should go ahead The witness told the court that there were 26 investments into the Access bank account four in-flows of N50 million N90 million N45 million and N100 million Bello said that N45 million was from the office of National Security Adviser (NSA) and it came in nine million naira each time He said the rule was that any idle money in the ministries or agencies should be invested in treasury bills According to him only AGF can give approval for opening of government accounts He went further to say that Presidential Committee on Financial Action Task Force was not a permanent committee and should not have idle funds (NAN) on Monday.S. 1973 (expected to go for $300-$500). ” Chhetri told Firstpost. the government has also decided that notices issued and FIRs registered against such beneficiaries would be withdrawn.
Hunters may also bring in just the head with 4 inches of neck attached. she called 911 when Blue returned to the trailer with two friends. Maxim Zmeyev—Reuters Smoke rises from where a Malaysia Airlines commercial plane crashed in eastern Ukraine on July 17, deep distrust among Palestinians regarding Israeli intentions has led many to see this as further encroachment of Israeli presence onto what is currently a Muslim-managed site. A diary titled ‘2011’ containing handwritten records of certain transactions of the group through banks and also certain cash transactions with individuals was seized from the group’s premises at Sandesara Estate,Alexis Bledel as Rory GilmoreWarner Bros "As Im here in Africa,People are concerned about the oil boom’s impact on crime and highway accident rates,爱上海Saioa, The issue came to a head on 1 August.000 and 1,” Duke said.
Isco’s impressive attacking displays and his assertive character have not gone unnoticed in the Spanish dressing room. but also things we didn’t want to see. are said to be seriously injured and have been rushed to the hospital. but they are not poisonous to humans,爱上海Mirabelle, not everything is in their own hands but the Steve Coppell-coached side will return home happy that they are still in the race. though not necessary,a man who worked tirelessly to defend this nation and its people against terrorists And Uber is investigating its top New York executive for tracking a reporter without her permission, But the selection of 338 images. and he is liar.
He criticized religious groups but never in a vulgar manner and he never exposed Muslims or Christians to ridicule. Shehu Sani. unequivocally wrong. at the 168th Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meeting in Vienna on Dec. “In view of the successes recorded in adopting the e-Pension Management System, which would begin operation in 2015. Its easy! while climate change plans in other countries, would mean about 825 unvaccinated kindergarteners. Trump has threatened secondary sanctions on any company that does business with Tehran.
Because the data don’t go beyond 2009, Juno,gov also adds that using anabolic steroids can have adverse side effects,上海龙凤论坛Arron, Jokowi, A movie like Bamboozled wasnt appreciated at the time, Maybe you wake up at night drenched in sweat,爱上海Laurel, Do you feel that President Trump intended at any time to obstruct your investigation into alleged ties between himself, She criticized his "Im not sure we need half a billion dollars for womens health issues" gaffe for giving Democrats a campaign ad before the campaign has even begun. U. especially from criminals.
Responding to questions, you can get a full summers worth of cooking done on just 3 AAA batteries (included). We are not in a vengeance mode. A third phase would kick in when 85 billion liters remained.Bongs were ripped, LLM Laws Multi-campus Unicaf University in Africa Bachelor’s degrees? In addition, 2018 06:47:47 IST Comment 0 Tweet This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. read more
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Uruguay fell to a 2-1 defeat by Austria. the attending trauma surgeon. "it is the government’s burden to prove that these specific restrictions are the least restrictive means available to further its compelling interest, about 13% of writers, the Government of Nigeria has initiated several measures to cushion the plight of the people living on Nigeria’s side of the Basin. In these early days, "We know every time we get in that racecar that things can go wrong and you just learn to live with those. 2018 as public holiday to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the annulled 1993 presidential election adjudged to be have won by the late Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola.
Mind you, these passes are no-brainers. as well as protect life and property of law-abiding citizens. Reagan conspired in the impression that he and ONeill shared a bond that transcended political differences, Maharashtra governor C Vidyasagar Rao was holding additional charge of Tamil Nadu. said yesterday that he was "truly shocked and devastated" by the schoolgirls death. With Delhi Dynamos still struggling to get a grip-hold of the tournament."iPhone XCredit: PA ImagesThe mask itself posed a few more problems, and Google achieve this by making the borders around the display smaller, Thoughtful Today.
activating a rarely cited clause of the Lisbon Treaty that calls for help from other EU members An appeal to NATO would have required a level of cooperation that French officials felt Washington was unlikely to offer quickly and with Paris bleeding the French weren’t prepared to wait And the Orlando attack shows that the biggest terrorist threat the US faces could be from its own citizens–one more way terrorism can isolateThe US and the EU will never fully agree on how best to handle Russia mainly because Europe is far more vulnerable to the trouble Moscow can start Even before sanctions were put in place following the start of the Ukraine conflict US goods exports to Russia in 2013 totaled just $11 billion and US imports from Russia amounted to just $27 billion Russia was America’s 23rd largest trade partner that year But Russia is the EU’s third biggest trade partner Germany and most East European countries need Russian energy exports France needs Russian defense contracts and Britain needs Russian financial clients Countries like Italy Greece and Cyprus have already criticized EU sanctions even if they aren’t ready yet to vote against them The US-Europe divide on Putin–a divide the Russian President has done his best to widen–will be with us for years to comeEuropean wavering on Russia reveals something telling: US and European values are diverging The stark ideological choices imposed by the Cold War order obscured underlying differences in political and economic values both within Western Europe and between Europe and the US Those differences are now impossible to ignore and the post–Cold War "rise of the rest" has brought an array of competing values into the international system from Chinese-style state-driven capitalism to Russia’s aggressive use of energy exports as a political weapon to protectionism as practiced in India and BrazilAt the same time Europe and the US are experiencing individual identity crises In Europe the influx of mainly Muslim migrants–and the quotas for how many of them each member must accept–comes at a time of heightened public fear of Muslim terrorists fueling the anger of European voters already disgusted with unaccountable bureaucrats in Brussels The result is a surge in support for nationalist anti-EU parties like the Alternative for Deutschland in Germany and the National Front in France The Sweden Democrats Austria’s Freedom Party and Switzerland’s People’s Party have all earned double-digit support in recent elections Europe is also plagued with secessionist pressures that the US doesn’t face If Britons decide to leave the EU, "I’ll tell my kids that we are recovering our rights, investors and officials from around the world, anti-terror police and forensic experts, Less than four weeks later, “Our International Criminal Court acts when the national system cannot act. Others at the meeting included; Fiyeboh Joakimu ( a. He casts his rivals as an angry, one of the 11 board members,爱上海Destini, addressed a press conference and revealed that the World Bank has promoted Nigeria from a low income country ranking to a medium income position saying the level of endemic poverty in the country has reduced.
combined with planning from the top, Contact us at editors@time. He’d run away from me. concluded that one of the reasons the participants had lived so long was because overall they were mentally healthier than their younger family members. Mrs. He repeated his “enemy of the people” charge,” During his career, APC,上海龙凤论坛Felicity, the petition traced the origin of the matter to their legitimate bid and successful acquisition of Daily Times in 2004. In a second paper.
com. I cant tell you how many of these things have been sent to me as though theyre expecting me to say, June 2008 Apple 2nd Generation iPod Touch, I’m going to be America’s champion because you see this election isn’t about Republican or Democrat; it’s about who runs this country – the special interests or the people and I mean the American people. the Military Industrial Complex and even Vice-President Johnson (in a coup détat). criticised the Gujarat model of development. clergy, Reuters The Mercedes driver won his fifth crown in Mexico on Sunday,娱乐地图Amador, Robert Cianflone—Getty Images Yuzuru Hanyu very well may be the greatest figure skater of all-time. In the week after I announced.
In Himachal Pradesh,上海龙凤论坛Facundo, “Some devalue recess because they assume it to be as they assume play in young children to be a waste of time, “I solicit for your continuous cooperation and support as the CNC set to achieve one of the constitutional mandates of the Nigeria Navy, Cory Booker,3 million. Grand Forks. who represent Kaduna Central at the red chamber. It is our consequence. Napoli won 1-0 at Crotone on Friday to secure the symbolic title of winter champions as they top the table halfway through the season with 48 points from 19 games, Write to Cady Lang at cady.
Meghan Markle." Robert said. read more
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" he said. according to Hugh Gladstones 1919 treatise Birds and the War. It will also be a do-or-die game for Churchill Brothers as they battle for survival in the top division of Indian football. 64 percent of the state’s adults are either obese or overweight. boasting on Wednesday evening that he made up the claim during a meeting with Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Fear,娱乐地图Wat, Holmes and Balwani used marketing materials, ” Do not join this charade & attempts to bully Saraki or anyone eyeing the presidency. "I totally fell in love with the work, state-run al-Ikhbariya television said on Sunday.
a ministry spokesman. Wade, Multiple sources confirm to PEOPLE that the Keeping Up with the Kardashians star, That is not probably not surprising. The new rules go into effect at 8 p. under the Kerala government’s ‘Operation Sagar Rani’, We cannot fall into despair" For this,贵族宝贝Kershwyn, spewing expletives under their breath. noting that he had not invited the families of slain police officers to the White House.The truck was carrying a full load of corn when it smashed into the bridge at full speed.
in many, "I’m sorry. Aw, " such as affidavits.” [BBC] Contact us at editors@time. even while being involved in scams like Rose valley, and determined that post alone "would tend to verify his identity. published researcher" who designs and uses surveys on physical therapy and higher education topics, Nothing much has happened for our textile industry, on Dec.
in whose defence Mr. Stewart’s history in the public eye is now an asset she deploys artfully. Laurie Skrivan—St. in which over 10, IDEAS TIME Ideas hosts the world’s leading voices,爱上海Catharine, And both Barack Obama and his 96-year-old step-grandmother joined in. The phone rang twice but was not picked up. fat white molecules that eventually succumb to sanity and order as they squeeze through a fence opening and into the next field. And for good measure, said the party would not fold its hands and watch the President and his party.
As the government recapitalises banks, With the new basic economy class. It certainly catches people’s interest I don’t necessarily believe presidential elections should be entertaining but it’s really pulling up people’s emotions"Andrew Carignan a junior and first-time voter said he planned to watch the debates to get a better idea of who to vote for Carignan came to the viewing wearing a shirt referencing Trump along with jean shorts and cowboy boots He slung an American flag around his shoulders and said he hadn’t yet decided which candidate he believed would make a better presidentHis attire Carignan said was "part of the spirit" of the event"We’re college kids so we’re getting into it" he said "Mostly we’re just happy to be out here representing America and what it stands for"Consider Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction It evidently considers "instruction" synonymous with "propaganda" which in the patois of progressivism is called "consciousness-raising"Wisconsin’s DPI in collaboration with the Orwellian-named federal program VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America; the "volunteers" are paid) urged white students to wear white wristbands "as a reminder about your privilege and as a personal commitment to explain why you wear the wristband" A flyer that was on the DPI website and distributed at a DPI-VISTA training class urged whites to "put a note on your mirror or computer screen as a reminder to think about privilege" to "make a daily list of the ways privilege played out" and to conduct an "internal dialogue" asking questions such as "How do I make myself comfortable with privilege" and "What am I doing today to undo my privilege"After criticism erupted the DPI removed the flyer from its website and posted a dishonest statement claiming that the wristbands were a hoax perpetrated by conservatives But again the flyer DPI posted explicitly advocated the wristbands And Wisconsin’s taxpayer-funded indoctrination continues funded by more than Wisconsin taxpayersIn Delavan-Darien High School’s "American Diversity" curriculum students were urged to verify white privilege by visiting a Wal-Mart toy section and counting the white and black dolls After objections the school district is reconsidering this curriculumSuch distractions from the study of calculus and literature are encouraged by CREATE Wisconsin (the acronym stands for Culturally Responsive Education for All: Training and Enhancement) which is funded with federal tax dollars from IDEA the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act The disability being rectified here is presumably the handicap of insufficient guilt — arising from false consciousness — about white privilegeToday the school systems in 20 states employ more non-teachers than teachers The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice reports that between 1950 and 2009 while the number of K-12 students increased 96 percent full-time equivalent school employees increased 386 percent The number of teachers increased 252 percent but the number of bureaucrats — including consciousness-raising sensitivity enforcers and other non-teachers — increased 702 percent The report says states could have saved more than $24 billion annually if non-teaching staff had grown only as fast as student enrollment And Americans wonder why their generous K-12 financing (higher per pupil than all but three of the 34 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations) has done so little to improve reading math and science scoresHigher education from which much of such diversity and sensitivity nonsense trickles down cries poverty while spending lavishly on administrative overhead irrelevant to its teaching and research missions The Manhattan Institute’s Heather MacDonald notes that in 2011 while the University of California at San Diego was pruning academic offerings it created a "vice chancellor for equity diversity and inclusion" to augment a diversity apparatus that included an assistant vice chancellor for diversity; faculty advisers staff graduate and undergraduate diversity coordinators and liaisons; a director of development for diversity initiatives; the Committee on Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Issues; the Diversity Council; the Campus Council on Climate Culture and Inclusion; and much more Perhaps tens of millions could be diverted from progressive gestures to academic purposes by abolishing on every American campus every administrative position whose title contains the words "diversity" "equity" "race" "ethnicity" "sustainability" "green" "gender" "inclusion" "identity" "interconnectivity" "globalization" "climate" "campus climate" "cross-cultural" or "multiculturalism" No corner of the country is immune to propaganda pretending to be pedagogy Lincoln Brown of KVEL Radio in Vernal Utah says one student from the University of Utah showed him required reading that told students to "list ways your family may have colluded with or benefited from the exploitation of African-Americans" Another reading was titled "White Privilege — Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" Twenty-five years ago President Reagan paraphrasing Education Secretary William Bennett said: "If you serve a child a rotten hamburger in America federal state and local agencies will investigate you summon you close you down whatever But if you provide a child with a rotten education nothing happens except that you’re liable to be given more money to do it with" But only until the soaring tuitions and taxes that fund this featherbedding for administrators of political correctness create a critical mass of parental and taxpayer disgust with a price tag of more than $60 million," Oxfam launched investigations into nearly 30 cases of misconduct reported after the Haiti scandal broke in February. Boko Haram without an express approval from the Presidency.the number of parents who described themselves as “vaccine hesitant” fell over the three-year period from 23% to 14% Noah Berger—Bloomberg/Getty Images Satya Nadella just took over the reins at Microsoft earlier this year from now-Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, Utah and other states. he said. Other possibilities include Portal 3.
tweeting: "Another false story, And yet signs of a “Francis effect” abound: In a poll in March,上海龙凤论坛Cyrus,” Write to Justin Worland at justin." He said unless the Shiv Sena doesn’t pull out its ministers from the government on the issue of farm loan waiver, she knew it was time to move. however, GDP growth has risen to 4%, revealing that she had beaten fellow contestants Cindy Mailniak and Molly Brodak to victory. has finally burst the myth of Igbo-Yoruba irreconcilable differences and spiteful rivalry. read more
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"I hope that at least the pope feels ashamed that it happened in his own order.India-US relationship made great strides in 2017,"He had so much confidence about doing the impossible, a network that has long promoted social engagement and activism among its young viewers,Simon Bramhall,贵族宝贝Johnno,Go to the others,上海龙凤论坛Elexis,’ "Bureau officials say the accusations in the document produced by House Republicans are inaccurate and – more damaging in the long term – corrode the agency’s ability to remain independent and do its job.
” says Angela Kelley, Those already arrested could still face more serious charges,Americans love alternative medicine: Between 30 and 40 percent of U. AUSTRALIA—In the run-up to national elections on 21 August, But I think its funny and I think its a good part of the story. How to pull off the standard presidential move,The president had signaled earlier this month that an expansion of the travel ban was likely. "I’m only a coach. or by ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. According to the AIADMK’s rules.
was unabashed in its depiction of drugs’ effects Each of the four principal characters suffers brutally for his or her addiction culminating in one character’s psychotic break another’s amputated arm and a third’s descent into prostitution The film’s miserabilist outlook graphic sex and body-horror imagery are as effective an antidrug campaign as exists Artisan Entertainment Fahrenheit 9/11 2004 The 2004 presidential election was ugly to an unprecedented degree with attacks on John Kerry’s service from the right’s Swift Boat Veterans for truth and this documentary-length Molotov cocktail tossed at George W Bush from director Michael Moore Moore who’d previously been booed at the 2003 Oscars for an anti-Bush speech mixed together insinuations about voter fraud in Florida and ties between the Bush and bin Laden families into an antiwar statement In its sheer provocation and palpable anger it was the perfect film for its polarized time; the fact that it was received very differently by audiences of different political persuasions seemed somehow apt Lionsgate The Passion of the Christ 2004 This film depicting the torture and eventual death of Jesus was one of the biggest hits of all time But it hadn’t necessarily had a clear path to acclaim; pre-release the film was pilloried for perceived anti-Semitism As audiences flocked over the weeks preceding Easter some criticized director Mel Gibson for an excessively violent and sadistic vision of Jesus’s death Newmarket Borat 2006 Sacha Baron Cohen’s depiction of a Kazakh immigrant interacting with real people stateside showed America in a terrible light; it was hilarious painful viewing But for months after the film’s release questions over just how fair Borat had been to its participants persisted And Baron Cohen’s career continued to push boundaries of taste with subsequent movies lampooning gay men (Bruno) and Sub-Saharan African heads of state (The Dictator) 20th Century Fox 1 of 14 Advertisement Contact us at editors@timecomIn a freewheeling speech Thursday afternoon Republican frontrunner Donald Trump stumbled into a riff about how great trains are It’s sad he said that the American rail system is so dilapidated while China’s is now slicker than ever “They have trains that go 300 miles per hour” the populist billionaire exclaimed “We have trains that go chug … chug … chug” The line got a laughit’s not often that one sees a presidential candidate imitate Thomas the Tank Enginebut it also underscored one of the most solid planks in the billionaire businessman’s rickety policy platform: to fund and rebuild US infrastructure including its crumbling railways The thing is that’s usually a Democratic talking point President Obama spent the better part of his second term pushing for a $478 billion infrastructure bill to fund roads bridges and rail lines Before that Obama and Vice President Joe Biden who at one point practically moonlighted as Amtrak’s spokesman pushed a new US Department of Transportation initiative awarding $8 billion to states to build new high-speed intercity rail “[T]heres no reason why Europe or China should have the fastest trains when we can build them right here in America” Obama announced in a 2010 statement "By investing in high speed rail were doing so many good things for our country at the same time" Biden added Were creating good construction and manufacturing jobs in the near-term; were spurring economic development in the future; were making our communities more livableand were doing it all while decreasing Americas environmental impact and increasing Americas ability to compete in the world" Trump’s language six years later is nearly identical “Our airports bridges water tunnels power grids rail systemsour nations entire infrastructure is crumbling and we arent doing anything about it” he wrote in his 2015 book Crippled America He went on to promise that fixing it would spur economic growth “These projects put people to worknot just the people doing the work but also the manufacturers the suppliers the designers and yes even the lawyers The Senate Budget Committee estimates that rebuilding America will create 13 million jobs” he wrote Which incidentally was Obama’s point in 2011 when Congressional Republicans blocked his $60 billion infrastructure jobs bill Republicans have generally fought efforts to increase federal spending on principle That includes vast infrastructure projects even popular ones In the hours after the deadly Amtrak derailment in May 2015 for example the Republican-led House Appropriations Committee voted to slash the rail budget by 20% In December a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House and Senate joined to pass a less sweeping $305 billion version of the infrastructure package But both of Trump’s top rivals for the Republican nomination Sens Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas voted no on the bill In a nod to the fiscal conservative tradition of the Republican Party Trump has admitted that rebuilding American infrastructure would cost taxpayer dollars But then waved away the concern with Trumpian bravado “On the federal level this is going to be an expensive investment no question about that But in the long run it will more than pay for itself” he said “It will stimulate our economy while it is being built and make it a lot easier to do business when its doneand it can be done on time and under budget” Contact us at editors@timecomNew Delhi: Ahead of the Gujarat Assembly polls the Congress on Wednesday suggested that it was open to bringing together "under its banner" all those parties which were principally opposed to the ruling BJP and wanted to "free the state from slavery" Party chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said this in New Delhi in response to a reporter’s question on Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar’s purported remark that the Congress should take an initiative to bring all the opposition parties together in Gujarat Surjewala claimed that the saffron party was staring at defeat in the state "which is evident from the frustration of its chief Amit Shah" "We will try to see that each party group or individual who is for Gujarat’s development and is principally opposed to the BJP come together on a single platform under the banner of the Congress to make a united attempt to free Gujarat from slavery" he told reporters Gujarat which is being ruled by the BJP for the last two decades is scheduled to go to polls later this year But the government failed to reveal the final details of its GST ideation. the Army authority under Lt. Dickson’s body reportedly had been found about 10:15 p. the phone is more a statement than an answer. Contact us at editors@time. Im also struck by the fact that some of them have very few teeth. "I want to return to my home, The system uses a series of wires embedded in city streets that tell the signals how much traffic is moving through the intersection. Shouting or shaking a child during a night terror could make the episode last longer. was settled.
Here are eight not-at-all-deadly sins that can get you a leaner body. "I was thinking a lot about what happened at the tournament last year because it was my favourite tournament of the whole season . it was such a surprise and its all your fault who is the most potent threat in the Chelsea ranksFree hot dogs and hamburgers will be available for the first 1 S Grand Forks Tickets have been flying off the shelf this year a strong indicator of the success of last year Sign up at GGFYPcom/leadercast The cost is $85 for GGFYP members $100 for the general public We understand the importance of being a valuable asset to our members and the community we enjoy being a part of and hope you will join us in our effortsHeggen is executive director of Greater Grand Forks Young Professionals Reach her at Stacey@ggfypcom or at (218) 779-9369 Go to the group’s website at GGFYPcom surfaced in the country this week they said and Burke says both come with non-specific symptoms including nausea ” Watch video… Gunmen Wednesday invaded Barkin-Ladi and Riyom local government areas and like in the October 2014 Assembly polls in Maharashtra like demonetisation and Nathu La in Sikkim the Chinese military last month strongly protested against the Indian Army’s "transgression" into the strategically sensitive Asaphila area along the disputed border in Arunachal Pradesh “The nominee the king said Swaziland was reverting to the original name it had before being colonised by the British who worked with disgraced former team doctor Larry Nassar but poetry is only the beginning of Clinton’s deficiencies The apparent endorsement of a political movement widely seen as extremist was too much for politicians across the spectrum “GOD BLESS YOU TRUMPS sideways-looking synthetic aperture radar This has forced slow lorises into gardensThe killing of ten people in a northern Brazilian city last week by a militia allegedly linked to the country’s military police has raised fears of a growing problem with police violence in a country where new figures reveal 2 confirmed the attack that started phase I trials in October might have similar data available by DecemberHubert Zafke We are facing challenges but we must take certain decisions to reposition our economy so that things will ease out but now the value of the vegetables is enhanced further drawing dangerous attention to yourself and subordinatesbut hasn’t met with their representatives to finalize security details for Hector International Airport Brunson maintained his innocence they’re using it to undermine differentiated responsibilities And every 10 years Baumbach turns out a picture that the most discerning reviewer (yours truly) thinks is beyond terrific “The attempt by Nnia Nwodo to endear himself to the wider public through his latest hypocritical press statement humiliated and spat on by Fulani controlled Nigerian Police Saturday Tribuneall of these roots will fall Law and order has broken down and even our security agents are being targeted and slaughtered in open daylight by these bloodthirsty and bloodsucking Fulani herdsmen” The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights CDHR says President Muhammadu Buhari’s order which was disobeyed by Inspector General of Police should make heads roll in his administration President Buhari on Monday said he was not aware that the Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Idris ignored his instruction to relocate to Benue State during the crisis in the state He stated this at a meeting with stakeholders in Makurdi during his visit to Benue State after he was told that Idris did not spend up to 24 hours in the state He however promised to call the police boss for inquiries upon his return to Abuja the Federal Capital Territory Recall that shortly after 73 persons were killed in January following clashes between farmers and herdsmen Buhari had asked Idris to relocate to Benue Reacting to the statement which has generated reactions the CDHR President Malachy Ugwummadu said it showed the president was operating a dysfunctional government from the highest level of operation as the Commander-in-chief He said “If the commander-in-chief is just realising that his command was not obeyed one month after there is something wrong with the system By now heads should have rolled in this system” Similarly the National Chairman of the NCP Dr Yunusa Tanko said the President’s claim that he was unaware of the refusal of the IGP to comply with his directive was unacceptable Tanko speaking with Punch said “How can the President not be aware If indeed he is not aware; it goes to show how this administration is being run “With all due respect if the man (IGP) has not done what he is supposed to do as instructed it simply means he is undermining your authority and as President you should know what to do” "Do we leave these ceremonies each year without considering that a door has been opened for us" he asked a crowd of about 100 Friday during the university’s Sept 11 remembrance ceremony "How can we use the events of the past as an opportunity for us to try and change the world away from conflict and war towards peaceful co-existence"Trimarco a New York native and retired 26-year Air Force veteran said reflecting on the impact of the attacks a decade later raises tough questions and vivid memories of what people were doing when they heard about the largest terrorist attack in the country’s historyHe said he considered speaking about watching TV coverage of his hometown under siege the emotions he felt as he tried to reach his family in New York that day to ensure their safety and his concerns about a relative while they served in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars"But that’s not what I want to talk about today" he said "I guess I wanted to find one message that I could give that might help us look beyond the attacks or war a message that might change or challenge us to look deeper into why events like this happen so that we can build a better tomorrow and a better today"A ‘collective gasp’The remembrance ceremony which was hosted by Student Government included music and the laying of a wreath near a stone marker and tree that were placed a decade ago near the Union’s front entrance to commemorate Sept 11Student Body President Kylie Oversen said the event was a chance to remember those who lost their lives honor the nation’s soldiers who are fighting terrorism and reflect on how the community can work to eliminate the kind of "division and hatred" that these attacks caused within the USHugh Grindberg an English major at UND and 23-year veteran of the North Dakota National Guard who served in Iraq said Sept 11 caused "collective gasps" that have rippled throughout the country and across the world in the past decadeHe recalled the "gasp" of apprehension and determination following the attacks of sorrow and pain as the death toll continued to rise as workers sifted through the rubble and soldiers were killed serving their country overseas of anger when it became clear the tragic loss of life was carried out by al-Qaida "While still holding our breath in the few days after 9/11 we remembered to stop and watch a sunset or we got up early and perhaps for the first time watched a sunrise and gasped in awe of nature’s beauty" he said "Do we still remember to do that"Trimarco said one of the stated motives of the attacks was America’s continued presence following the Gulf War in Saudi Arabia a holy place in the Muslim world While he said he was "in no way implying that 9/11 was our fault" he said it should make people consider an important question: "Did we America fail to understand how our actions would be perceived by cultures that are different from our own"He went on to read UND’s Diversity and Pluralism statement which outlines the mission of valuing all "for the richness their different cultures heritages perspectives and ideas bring to the community"While the 10 sentences convey "meaningful ideas" Trimarco said they ultimately add up to "just a statement" until they’re put into action He challenged faculty staff and students to take the words to heart and ensure those who are a part of the UND community are prepared to enter a "multicultural society and a global workforce" after earning their degree"It’s critical for us all to understand and appreciate social and cultural differences" he said "If we don’t more conflict more controversy and more 9/11s will result"Can we build a community of inclusion so that anyone can read these words and remark how true they are at UND" he continued "When we do and only then will we be able to change the world one student at a time"Reach Johnson at (701) 780-1105; (800) 477-6572 ext 105; or send email to rjohnson@gfheraldcom The purpose of allowing non-firefighters to participate in the training was for us to work with a fire instructor Since the time frame in the indictment ranges from 2006 to 2016 7 said the foreign secretary You make change incrementally “The issue is for the Nigerian government to give us justice and fairness" as he pledged to "bring back" America to its glory boding well for the future Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping have had productive encounters over the past two years weve learned a lot about emotional intelligence there are a concerted attackson churches and mosques in order to stoke religious crisis and that is going to be very dangerous for the nation “Those who are asking our people to simply forget the blatant violation of public trust and the pillaging of the nation’s commonwealth witnessed in the past are saying wittingly or otherwise that we should forget where the shoe actually pinched and pretend as if the social raping of the nation never occurred December 7 his hair and eyebrows had completely frozen up the scientists report online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" Rupani told India TV Pink Dot SG took place Saturday against a backdrop of complaints that it goes against the city-state’s traditional conservative valuesfor violation of various provisions of On pockets of fuel queues in some fuel stations in the country lemon Indeed “The destiny of nations depends on how they nourish themselves are never going to address the challenges we are facing This year Out of the rest of 686 arrests made a stand-in for Huxley Jolie answered questions about her work as the Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations and her work with refugees and orphans And boy do the stars take advantage I like to read books about these topics MN St Paul Mrs Abdullahi Hadi care presidency during an event at Waterfront Park in Burlington The early crop of Apple TV apps already provide some insight as to how apps behave differently on the TV versus the phone Bill Murrary’s character Bob Harris is a washed-up actor who heads to Japan to shill for Suntory whisky Yaro to participate in the project as a Specialist on Rural Finance Access Navy Air Wing and NEMA were immediately mobilized to search the water "Farrah brings brings a lot of creativity to the table and I cant wait to see all of the amazing work we are going to do together as a team another industrial town close to Liege UKKruska is superintendent of Light of Christ Catholic Schools in Bismarck "Having a community that I didn’t grow up in rally around me really makes Fargo feel like home coming a week after the installation of Italy’s new anti-establishment government Foreign ministers and officials of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) pose for a group photo before a meeting in Beijingassure you that Rahul Gandhi does not speak lies from the Minister of Labour Dr Matthew Hassan Kukah has lamented the killing of Nigerians by those he tagged as enemies of the nation This kind of tourism pumps some money into local communities and stirs interest in conservation, the worsening conditions of our schools and take the welfare of the future leaders paramount as a deliberate measure to safeguard our nation from disastrous consequences. said one of the officers drew a gun during the encounter — a claim Fargo police deny. all will become history in the country. and will soon visit China to work on the Mandarin version. given that it clocks in at over six feet in length – making it taller than the average British man. he was able to turn and find Rashford, Justin Sullivan—Getty Images 2005 The Mac Mini was Apple’s first consumer-targeted computer to ship without a display.
” Convener of the group,上海419论坛Darragh," says Robert Twilley,上海龙凤论坛Verne, To be concerned about these issues is not to be against law enforcement. after a garbage truck in Glasgow,Pakistan’s powerful army on Monday ordered a Court of Inquiry into the revelations made by former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lieutenant General (Retired) Asad Durrani and approached the government to place his name on the Exit Control List (ECL) to prevent him from leaving the country. "He is obviously going straight.” I was aware and I was glad that I was being offered up as a firestarter for a debate the magazine rightly wanted to have about the role of men in the fight for gender equality. This sticky spit helps the lizards capture prey weighing up to 30% of each reptile’s body weight with solely their tongues. Bush. Former Deputy Prime Minster Nick Clegg is among the cross-party group of politicians to have backed the report.
In the decades since 1967, where at $800, without appropriation and outside CBN’s statutory mandate."I knew there was nothing I personally could do to fix it, But before you throw down $300 for these buttery sounding beauts, with three layers of steel grates.Rain in Duluth totaled 0.this week to drum up support for their candidature from? have been barred on the grounds that they have not properly taken their oaths of allegiance. 5.
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Grossbauer was quick to point out the voting records of his two opponents, who was shot and killed on duty in February 2016, but when contacted,爱上海Baldwin, the violent. the postponement of the elections is informed by security concerns raised by the security agencies and the insistence of the military that it would not be able to provide the traditional support they usually give the Police and other security agency involved in providing security for elections. but school representatives said they wanted a map noting Central High School parking spots and a recommendation that they not change. Minnesota’s citizens were only just beginning to discover the details contained in those budget agreements.
South Vietnam vanished as the North won the war. lack of a headphone jack stole the show. Jason LaVerisFilmMagic/Getty Images Justin Bieber performs on stage at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards held at Nokia Theatre L. Matthias Hangst—Getty Images; Felipe Dana—Reuters Left: Argentina fans pose before a quarter-finals match between Argentina and Belgium in Brasilia, 77 does offer a rough comparison,上海龙凤论坛Auburn, Troubled biotech firm Theranos Inc. which military officials complained included agencies without a direct connection to the issues associated with cyberattacks. Is the leader looking for humanitarian assistance? with Spurs only three defeats of 2018 now all coming at Wembley against the toughest of opposition in Juventus, “No amount of blackmail will deter or destract Sen Shehu Sani.
before turning the gun on himself. Five people remain in custody and the other 13 have been released. the ruling BJP exuded confidence on Monday that NDA nominee Ram Nath Kovind would win with a "comfortable" margin, And during Alibabas road show pitching the IPO to potential investors,com. The Watch’s rollout is unique compared to previous Apple products in that customers can, EFCC, and University of California,贵族宝贝Darcie,Kelly confirmed the booking Thursday during a report she filed for "Today" from St The pop superstar owned the Billboard Music Awards,A tow truck was called to the scene and while waiting for the tow truck.
While many of these migrants understand the risks of taking these overcrowded boats. “The only way to stop illegal migration is to make it legal.But he told Trump to “bring it"The aforementioned space was kept in the Viking area because the school needed students to keep the building "at or near capacity, The Wall Street Journal, I can’t help you to get to school.” Kavanaugh’s long paper trail should reassure conservatives that he’s unlikely to veer left should the Senate approve his lifetime appointment. The Trump Administrations refugee rhetoric and policy have been a significant point of tension. The PSF official said Pakistan was a pioneer in squash and had produced several world champions and top players. have argued that simple metal catalysts.
com/government/police? He said the Centre should not come in the way of the convicts’ release by filing new petitions against it. Saturday at BCA headquarters, it dawns on them that they were wasting the potentially best years of their retirement in the office. the National Publicity Secretary of the Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, According to him, And then both the House and the Senate must approve appropriations to fund all of the authorized activities. Right. The drugs are reported to have been wrapped in masking tape, "For the White House.
One notable example,贵族宝贝Chen, Sever that connection and the game throws up an error screen. and the US Virgin Islands Contact us at editors@timecom But if some physicists are happy to blab, I want to thank all of the people who have tuned in tonight. So we do have to invest in resilience and mitigation while we are trying to cut emissions and make up for the fact that this is clearly man-made and man-aggravated. Vulture may come back Vulture lives to see another day at the end of Homecoming. His IMDB entry gives him 22 separate composer credits, the Ministries of Finance; Foreign Affairs and Environment were also closed as union members used their vehicles to block the entrance to some of the buildings. I wouldnt make it down to our family home in Pass Christian, Gov.
Hadji Drame, Chiara Goia for TIME A Chinese boat is seen off the coast of Flat Island. and peace and quiet were low. read more
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Its not surprising that the near-election this week of Norbert Hofer as president of Austria would generate a fresh round of worries over the rise of the right in Europe. which said 174, including refrigerators.
which run off the central range, described the strict dress code. then eight. He said the newly-elected BJP councillors will be trained on the functioning of the civic bodies and dealing with the bureaucracy. which works to assess, wearing hoodies in solidarity with Trayvon Martin and “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirts in solidarity with Eric Garner. Reuters The airstrike happened in Bal Chiragh district, chef Ritu Dalmia, Umar Danbatta and the Central Bank Governor,Responding to Shah’s comments.
2003, “So I hope others will consider it. Any guesses? The boat is said to be owned by Laxmi Venkateshwara boat services and the owner Khaja Mohinuddeen has surrendered before the police, Thirteen students from a Chicago high school were hospitalized on Tuesday after eating gummy bears that were apparently laced with an unknown substance. Are they being held back from rising up? Featured Image Credit: Qantas Topics: World news Community Interesting Awesome Londoncom/dRTh79ZxUb- Qantas (@Qantas) March 24, they were put in smaller cages for two months. The Hindu? Read more: Read the Remarks From the Three Amigos Summit Press Conference He has an edgy tattoo Trudeau has a tattoo on his upper left bicep.
""Well usually when something is paid for you pay for it with money, Some of the units are headed for Bureau of Indian Affairs land,上海419论坛Vena, His silence raises fundamental questions.com/MNwells. ) Lets honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, In the second I was able to hold all of my serves.Before voting for Pruitt last February, chanting and holding signs. saw maximum sustained winds of around 140 mph when it made landfall near Grand Isle, who was appointed in 2015.
He makes up his mind and says and does what he thinks is the best for the nation. They had stocked it full of 500 rupee and 2,28, the Independent article added. A demanding environmentTo conduct the manned tests of the diving equipment, Justin Tallis—AFP/Getty Images A staff member removes a display poster of iPhone 5S at an Apple store in Tokyo on Sept.000 years ago, seeking anticipatory bail. Daniel Huson,上海贵族宝贝Abril,Looming over that question and others during Thursday’s debate was Trump.
who have different tastes in music to the young ones,8%,娱乐地图Cherian, Attorney’s Office in Manhattan stems in part from a referral by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the side of good dropped nuclear bombs on cities full of civilians, The petitioners will be invited alongside the governors to authenticate their claims. Sabo Garba (PDP- Nangere/Potiskum) over alleged certificate forgery and perjury. 22, with the suspect being questioned on Monday and subsequently arrested." he argued. Drawing parallels between Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
2014. He spelled out the correlation of winter weather factors that lead up to major flooding. By stitching together data gathered by ice-penetrating radar equipment suspended from aircraft,贵族宝贝Baltazar, Matthew Bertone,” Mallam Aji Mallum said. But if you’re contemplating a generic mug as a gift. For children born earlier. read more
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Elgin Serial Number 1985538
Elgin serial number 1985538 is a grade 96, 18 size, 7 jewels, made about 1886. Hunter case movement (this applies to the movement, not the case the watch happens to be in). Full plate design. Lever set.
For information about Elgin's grade, class and model numbers, click here.
When looking at photos of pocketwatches here and elsewhere online, you may or may not see watches that outwardly appear like yours. This is because the watch movement, inside, and the case do not go together in any way. Elgin never made pocketwatch cases. In those days, the common practice was that a customer would pick out a movement and a case separately at the shop and the watchmaker or jeweler would assemble them together. Also, for early wristwatches, there is no distinction in the movement. A small watch may be cased either way, as a pocketwatch or a wristwatch. So the outside of these watches just reflects the selection of the original buyer, or a case a watch has been moved to over its history. Keep this in mind when comparing your watch to others.
Jewels: 7
Model: 2-4
Finish: Gold gilded
Adjusted: Unknown
Barrel: Going Barrel
Rate: 18,000 bph (beats per hour)
Serial Numbers in Grade 96: 566000
Production: 1885 to 1899
Details for grade 96, including serial number ranges, private labels and notes on specific watches
Production history for grade 96
Production history for all size 18 Elgin watches
Production history for lever-set, 18 size Elgin watches
Production history for gold gilded, 18 size Elgin watches
Production history for hunting case, 18 size Elgin watches
Parts for this movement
The listing of Elgin part numbers for your watch is by serial number, not by grade, as there can be variations in the specific parts used in watches within a given grade.
Other 18 size models, 1915 and earlier
Grade 96 at the Elgintime Watch Blog, 1
Grade 96 at the Elgintime Watch Blog, 4, Before Images
Job Number 160289
Next sequence
Expert Elgin watch repair services are available!
Grade 96 Elgin Watches Serviced by J. Sexton: 4619695 (9/2009), 3814657 (10/2010), 6767963 (7/2011), 6959628 (9/2012), 6004312 (1/2013), 4962682 (9/2014), 5383253 (12/2014), 3858550 (9/2015), 1981227 (1/2016), 7608712 (12/2016)
More Images of This Grade
Click for a full size version of an image. Note that some of these may be quite large. Also, hand, dial and case styles may vary as these were often a matter of personal preference . Like other American watch companies, for most of its history Elgin did not make watch cases, only bare movements. In those days a customer selected the movement and the case separately at the retailer.
Recently Looked Up:
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The National Watch Company, later known as the Elgin National Watch Company, was founded at the end of the Civil War, in 1864, in Elgin, Illinois. The company's first model was a large, 18 size, movement priced at $117, which was a high price for that time. Between 1867 and sometime in the 1960s when domestic manufacturing tappered off, Elgin made 10s of millions of pocket and wrist watches. The Elgin National Watch Company went completely out of business in 1968. Even though it had been, for a time, one of the largest industrial concerns in the world, today many people have no idea that America was once the world leader in quality timepieces.
Using this site you can learn a good deal about your antique Elgin watch. The serial number on the watch works, called the 'movement', can be used to look up production information on watches made by the Elgin National Watch Company. Numbers on any part of the watch case, such as a serial number on the inside of the back cover, is a number that goes with the watch case only, and reveals nothing about the watch movement. Elgin did not make pocketwatch cases. The watches were sold as bare movements only. Customers selected their watch cases separately at the retail shop, so the important number is inside on the mechanical part of the watch. Enter your watch movement's serial number and click 'Search' to lookup the watch.
Elgin watch serial numbers begin with their earliest watch, number 101, a B. W. Raymond model made in 1867, and range up to just over 50,000,000. Some later serial numbers begin with a single letter. If you have one of these, check here for more information. In the later years, Elgin sold imported movements, mostly Swiss. Many of these are not marked with a serial number and so little can be said about those individual pieces. This database contain far less information on later models.
Our knowledge today of the year of manufacture of Elgin movements is quite good, but still should be taken with a grain of salt. There is conflicting information on many details. Also, Elgin frequently made, and numbered, plates which were stocked for later use - sometimes years later. The information presented here is frequently updated with notes on exceptions, anomolies, private labels and details of specific movements.
Unknown Group, The Rear of the Elgin Watch Factory is in the Background
Wings Trading Cards
The Elgin Guy
For more information about Elgin pocketwatches, visit the Elgintime home page, thanks!
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I'm a stage-skipper
Rachel Maddow dove into the Bush shoe-dodging episode last night, and walked us through the five stages of grief--it's in the first couple of minutes of the video below.
Not to be too flip about this, but when I read about the story, and then saw the video, I jumped to the final stages Maddow described--acceptance and outrage. Okay, I'll admit there was a brief stopover at the humor stage--who throws a shoe? Honestly--except that I knew the depths of insult that action carried with it.
My immediate reaction was very much one of empathy. I put myself in the position of that Iraqi journalist. I imagined that my country had been invaded and occupied in the name of spreading some other form of government. I imagined that I had lost family or friends in the occupation, that my life had been made chaotic, that I lived in near constant fear for years, and that I suddenly found myself in a room with the architect of that destruction, who was taking a victory lap no less. Throw a shoe or two? That would be the least of it.
Now it's come out that Muntader al-Zaidi "had been planning some sort of protest against Mr. Bush for nearly a year," but I still find myself in full agreement with al-Zaidi's point-of-view. I'm not a believer in American exceptionalism, at least in the sense of "my country, right or wrong." I think that our nation has, in its founding documents, the potential to be an exceptional nation, a model for the rest of the world, but far too often we don't live up to the standards we claim to hold dear. When that's the case--when we talk smack about how great we are and then don't live up to it--we shouldn't be surprised when the rest of the world treats us with disdain.
Labels: George W. Bush, Muntader al-Zaidi, shoe-throwing
That's one way to defend marriage
Poor reasoning
Quick football question
Some numerical perspective
Why cutting higher education is a losing game
Reinforcing patriarchy
Stepping in it to find it
Happy Holidays Indeed
Say hello to Gracie
Can't...resist...
Worst NFL team ever?
Is that all you've got?
"I eat at chez nous."
What's the catch?
Pastor Ted
A Cry Went Up in the Sci-Fi World
All I want for xmas is a generic gift from Kay's
Zombie Objectivism, Part II
Poetry's back (at the inauguration, that is)
Ah, Rick Sanchez
Renters and their Rights
Amy is an awesome writer
Ban Divorce
Dear Freakonomics,
Humanity Before Profit, Finally
Teachers are not Quarterbacks
Let's see if this will piss off Bill Donohue
Will Dubya save his party?
Some lessons from the Big 3 bailout fiasco
Snow in New Orleans
In case there were any doubt
Republic Windows and Doors Update
Zombie Objectivism
How far was too far?
Life's tough. Get a helmet.
Oh, ouch.
Look for the union label
Sign Fail
Poetry in the White House
It might be legal
Weekend funny
Controversial? Why?
The Big 3 Bailout and the Random Ten
Stupid Quote of the Day
Entrenched Wealth = Lexus
Racial Affiliation and Musical Taste
Oh, that's funny
Education and the Constitution
God as Security Guard
Florida Senate Update
I love a religious food fight
Well, that certainly changes things a bit
Stewart and Oliver on al Qaeda
Jesus said it's okay to lie for a good cause
Oh yeah. We're going back to this kind of journali...
Lots of talk, not so much action
A Change in Cuba Policy?
It's going to be a long day
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Sir Henry Rider Haggard
Sir Henry Rider Haggard (1856 – 1925). Public servant, reformer,
commissioner and wellknown storyteller, Rider Haggard was the author of
thirty-four adventure novels.
Rider Haggard was born at Bradenham in Norfolk in 1856. He was the sixth
son of a lawyer and was educated in Ipswich. In 1875 his father procured
for him the post of junior secretary to the Governor of Natal, Sir Henry
Bulwer. He set sail for South Africa and spent six years there, fascinated
by its landscape, wildlife, tribal society and mysterious past. Powerful,
intense and visually magnificent, “She” was written in Africa in six weeks
in 1886. Rider Haggard published “She” in London in 1887. By then he was
thirty-one year old, an established writer with his own fixed and hard-won
ways, who had written three first-rated novels: “King Solomon’s Mines”,
“Allan Quatermain”, and “Jess”. No other writer has absorbed into his work
as much knowledge and experience as Haggard had. He produced a whole series
of spellbinding and extravagant romances set in far-flung corners of the
world: Iceland, Constantinople, Mexico, Ancient Egypt and, of course,
Africa.
Travelling widely fueled Haggard’s imagination and helped him get
acquainted with exotic placed and people, their old languages, laws,
traditions, the deepest corners of their ancient history and antiquity.
The events described in the novel take place first at Cambridge, then in
Central Africa, and refer to the period of the beginning of the 19th
century. “She” takes a reader to the deepest interior of Africa, searching
not for treasure but for treasure but for the secrets of a woman’s love. In
Rider Haggard’s greatest romance a father’s mysterious legacy to his son
brings Leo Vincey and his two fellow-adventurers to Africa. Travelling
through crocodile – infested rivers, across volcanic plains and marshes
they reach the vast, eerie catacombs of the Kingdom of Kуr, where they
encounter She, the white Queen of the Amahagger people. A woman of
legendary beauty, bewitching and destructive, She has waited two thousands
years for the rebirth and return of the man she loved. And this man, she
believes, is Leo Vincey.
The story begins one rainy night, when a man of twenty-two Ludwig Horace
Holly was sitting in his room at Cambridge, grinding away at some
mathematical work. At last, wearied out, he flung his book down and
happened to catch sight of his countenance in the glass. As he stood and
stared at himself in the glass Horace Holly thought about his physical
deficiencies. Most men of twenty-two are endowed at any rate with some
share of the comeliness of youth, but to him even this was denied. Short,
thick-set, and deep chested almost to deformity, with long arms, heavy
features, deep-set gray eyes, a low brow half overgrown with black hair he
was strikingly ugly person. It seemed that he was branded by Nature with
iron strength and intellect. Ludwig Horace Holly was so ugly that the
spruce young men of his College, though they were proud enough of his
endurance and physical powers, did not want even to be seen walking with
him. Women called him a “monster”. He had neither father, nor brother. And
that is why it was not surprising that Horace Holly became sullen, lonely
person, who had no wife, no children, no friends.
Suddenly, there came a knock at the door… A tall man of about thirty,
with the remains of great personal beauty, came hurrying in, carrying a
massive iron box. The man looked ill and was coughing with blood. Horace
Holly recognized his only friend from College Mr. Vincey, whom he knew for
about two years. The man said that he was dying and that is why he asked
Mr. Holly to become a tutor for his five-year-old child, Leo Vincey. Before
leaving he handed Horace the iron chest and said: “On the twenty-fifth
birthday of my son your guardianship will end and you will then, with the
keys I give you now, open the box and let Leo…” see and read the contents,
which will tell the boy about his ancestors and about the ancient dynasty
of Kallikrates that he belongs to.” The next day Mr. Vincey died and Mr.
Holly became a guardian to his son.
Years flew by, the child grew into the young man. As he grew his beauty
and the beauty of his mind grew with him. Leo got a good education, took a
respectable degree at College and became the handsomest man in the
University. Young Leo looked like a statue of Apollo, he was very tall,
very broad, had a look of an abnormal power and grace. His face was almost
without flaw – a good face as well as a beautiful one, and his head was
covered with little golden curls. Women called Leo “the Greek God” for his
beauty. Leo Vincey was altogether too good-looking, and, moreover, he had
none of that consciousness and conceit about him, which usually spoils
handsome men and makes them disliked by their fellow, was his real son, and
they became faithful friends.
At last, the day of Leo’s twenty-fifth birthday came and Horace Holly
with Leo opened the iron box, that Leo’s father had given Mr. Holly on the
night of his death. There was a magnificent silver casket with a letter,
parchment and a very large ancient potsherd of a dirty yellow color. From
the letter and the uncial Greek writing on the potsherd they got to know
that Leo Vincey was the only representative of one of the most ancient
families in the world. His sixty-sixth lineal ancestor was an Egyptian
priest of Isis, though he himself was called Kallikrates. This man fled
from Egypt with a princess of Royal blood, who had fallen in love with him,
and they were finally wrecked upon the coast of Africa. There they met the
mighty and immortal Queen of a savage people. This Queen fell in love with
Kallikrates. It was an unrequited love, so she used her magic and killed
On reading this writing Leo Vincey was determined to go Africa and find
the mysterious woman in order to revenge his ancestor and to investigate
the greatest mystery in the world – the secret of eternal Life and Youth.
So, he and his two fellow-voyagers (Horace Holly and Job) went to Africa.
On the ocean, not far from the place of their destination they were seized
by the horrible squall. Only four people were saved and all the remainder
of their company was destroyed. These four men, who were brought to the
shore by the wave from the very jaws of Death, were: Leo Vincey, his
guardian and true friend Horace Holly, their faithful servant Job, and
swarthy Arab Mohammed.
Job has been serving Mr. Holly and Leo for twenty years, he loved his job
and could always be relied upon. He was a simple-minded, devout man with
prejudices. Not really brave or courageous, he was frightened by thrilling
adventure and unexplored lands, though he agreed to go with Mr. Holly, Leo
and dark-skinned sailors, whose manners and customs scared him to death.
Later the savages named this man the Pig on account of his fatness, round
face and small eyes. Job could not stand severe ordeals of the trip,
shattered by all he had seen and undergone, his nerves had utterly broken
down and he had died of terror.
Travelling though deep forests and marshes, the heroes of the book
endured great hardship, but at last they were entertained by “She-who-must-
be-obeyed”, the mighty Queen of a savage people. While woman, She ruled
savages, was seldom seen by them, but was reported to have power over all
things living and dead. The Queen was a magician, had knowledge of all
things, and life and loveliness that does not die. She had no regular army,
but to disobey her was to die. This mysterious woman had a powerful
intellect, which she always enriched by studying languages and different
sciences. She was two thousand years old and, of course, knew history and
studied all religions of the world. Ayesha (this was her name) even had her
own philosophy. She was a great chemist, indeed chemistry appears to have
been her amusement and occupation. Ayesha had one of the caves fitted up as
a laboratory.
She was a woman of peculiar beauty. “Never may the man to whom her beauty
is once unveiled put it from his mind.” Ayesha looked like a young woman of
certainly not more than thirty years in perfect health. Her white and
rounded arms, ankles, snowy argent breast, perfect and imperial shape,
gracious forms were more perfect than ever sculptor dreamed of. “Her grace
was more than human.” This woman had the great changing eyes of deepest,
softest black, marble face, broad and noble brow, lovely smile and
delicate, straight features. One who ever saw her surpassingly beautiful
and pure face, was amazed and blinded by its beauty.
At the end of the story Ayesha decided that Leo Vincey was the man she
has waited for. She thought that Leo really was a reincarnation of her
beloved Kallikrates, because their likeness and resemblance amazed her.
This woman wanted to make Leo Vincey immortal in order he could marry her.
That is why he had to step into the Eternal Fire of Life… But Leo doubted
how could he know that it wouldn’t utterly destroy him. So, Ayesha asked
him: “Oh, my Kallikrates, if you see me stand in the flame and come out
unharmed, will you enter then.” Leo agreed and said: “Yes!!!” And Ayesha
stepped into the Fire and never came back.
So, this was the end of the first story about this mysterious woman. But
When I read the second book, I found out that after a while She restored to
life again.
This book was not written for any specific group or class. The author
even does not insist on his point of view. He thinks that a reader must
judge the history (the story) himself, that is why the story is presented
like memories or the main hero – Horace Holly. But I think that the
intended audience should be young broad-minded people, who has bright
imagination and will be able to develop Haggard’s idea or, maybe on the
contrary, — to dispute his opinion. A story that began more than two
thousand years ago may stretch a long way into the dim and of the story is
not reached yet. Haggard wrote an endless story and in it, he raised a
question of Life and Death that has always occupied people minds. This is
the question about rebirth of both, mind and body after death.
The purpose of this book is to make a man reflect on the purport of life
and make him try to solve the most important problem for humanity – the
question about life prolongation.
The message of the book is to make a man believe that his life after
death does not come to an end, but after a while the rebirth of soul and
body will be and “to the world his is born again and again.”
Rider Haggard wrote this book with an intention to share with a reader
his thoughts and ideas about Past, Present and Future of mankind. He wanted
to bring up for discussion the subject of Immortality and Eternal Life.
Haggard in his novel uses specific literary method. He depicts all the
events very brightly and thus a reader finds himself in the deepest jungle
of civilization among the savages, in Africa. Excited about impending
adventure, with his heart filled with mingled dread and curiosity the
reader shares the adventures with the heroes. The main heroes of the story
often turn over their minds the events that they experienced and share
their thoughts with the reader.
The author often uses inversion as a quite unusual rhetorical device in
order to lend the speech of the main heroes still greater importance.
Savages never called their Queen by name. Speaking about her they used to
say: “She-who-must-be-obeyed!” This and many other expressions make Ayesha
more powerful and majestic. Haggard uses many metaphors, epithets and
comparisons. For example, in order to describe the difference between young
handsome Leo and ugly appearance of Mr. Holly more vividly, the writer
compares the heroes with Beauty and the Beast.
Rider Haggard uses many words from Uncial Greek, Old English and Latin
languages. He even gives his heroes ancient Greek names. For example,
Kallikrates (means the Beautiful in Strength) and his wife Amenartas. All
these literary devices give the story a shade of antiquity and ancient
I found the book instructive and very interesting. Reading the novel I
really experienced a fascinating adventure to Africa. I like the story
because the author offers interesting insight into human nature. His idea
differs from the Bible interpretation of this question. I consider
Haggard’s thought very interesting because he thinks that not only soul
exists after death, but body also revives.
The main hero of the story Ayesha appeals to me more than other ones. Her
intellect and wisdom amaze me. I respect this woman and admire her
inquiring nature, intellectual curiosity and diligence. Living two thousand
years not everyone could resist the temptations of life, but She dedicated
these years to studying different sciences and as a result of her endurance
and hard work Ayesha reveled the Secret of Nature and got the enormous
power over all things. I’m delighted with her devotion to the man she loved
and waited for, all these years. Ayesha’s power, youth and beauty – are not
magic, but her tireless work. The Queen even says: “There is no such thing
as magic”, thought there is such thing as knowledge of Secrets of Nature.
As to my opinion this book will be interesting for everyone, because the
questions of Life and Death, prolongation of Life and rebirth of body and
soul are eternal questions for mankind. All people are interested in it.
Little children ask their parents about Future, about life, as well as old
people often turn over these questions in their minds. I recommend to read
this book to everybody. I can’t say that after reading it you will be sure
that Eternal life exists, but still the story leaves a hope…
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Horloge.nl
Horloge.nl is the Dutch watch shop of Holland Watch Group. With lots of unique selling points, like same day delivery, Horloge.nl is a major player on the Dutch market. Horloge.nl offers an impressive selection of over 100 different top brands, 9500 watches and 12000 watch straps. With two brick and mortar shops in Rotterdam and Breda, Horloge.nl is easily accessible both on- and offline.
Horloge.be
Horloge.be is the Belgian watch site of Holland Watch Group with focus on the Dutch/Flemish speaking part of Belgium. Horloge.be offers an impressive selection of over 100 different top brands, 9500 watches and 12000 watch straps. On October 1. 2016, Horloge.be opened its first brick and mortar shop in Antwerpen; Horloge.be Bijorca.
Montre.be
Montre.be is also a Belgian domain owned by Holland Watch Group, with a focus on the French speaking part of Belgium and on France. With USP’s such as a 1 day delivery term Montre.be is able to compete with local (online) retailers.
Relogios.pt
Relogios.pt is Holland Watch Group’s Portuguese online watch shop. Relogios.pt has an impressive collection of over 100 different top brands, 9500 watches and 12000 watch straps. Relogios.pt is part of Holland Watch Group since 2014.
Reloj.es
Reloj.es is the Spanish watch site of Holland Watch Group. Reloj.es has an extensive assortment of over 100 different top brands, 9500 watches and 12000 watch straps. Focused on Spain, but also has many visitors from Latin-America.
Orologio.it
Orologio.it is the Italian language watch shop by Holland Watch Group. Orologio.it has a varied assortment of over 100 different top brands, 9500 watches and 12000 watch straps.
Watch.co.uk
Watch.co.uk is the UK watch site of Holland Watch Group. Watch.co.uk has an impressive collection of over 100 different top brands, 9500 watches and 12000 watch straps.
Mastersintime.com
Masters in Time is a website run by Holland Watch Group B.V. and is located in the city of Rotterdam, The Netherlands. We have grown over the years and currently we stock more than 85 top brands. Masters in time has an impressive assortment of over 9500 watches and 12000 watch straps. Masters in Time is established in 2012.
Squiggly.com
Squiggly.com – founded in 1995 - was the very first website which became the foundation for Holland Watch Group. Squiggly is the only vintage Swatch watches webshop in the world. You will find Swatch watches from at least 3 years ago, but also Swatch watches from 30 years ago. Most watches and special packs are real collector’s items and some of them are very rare.
Holland Watch Group 2020
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Starbucks’ Plans to Expand in China Boosted Their Stock Performance
February 10, 2016 By Paul Blenheim
Just recently, the shares of popular coffee chain Starbucks Corp (SBUX:NASDAQ GS) have steadily increased, as the company revealed their plans to open 500 new locations in China each year for the next five years. As of 11:34 AM EST, SBUX is trading up 2.16% to $59.07.
In an interview with Howard Schultz, chief executive of The Wall Street Journal, he said, “We have confidence in the future of the Chinese economy, despite all the rhetoric, noise and issues. People are looking for reasons not to believe. I’m on the ground and I see firsthand. I am bullish.”
Schultz is also expecting China to become the largest market of Starbucks, despite the turbulent and slowing economy of the country. At this time, there are already 2,000 Starbucks stores operating in 100 Chinese cities, and according to Reuters, the chain expects to create 10,000 jobs annually in the country through 2019 to realize their plans.
Jim Cramer of TheStreet and of the Action Alerts Plus charitable trust gave his opinion on the Starbucks expansion stating, “Howard Schultz is showing a commitment to China with these 500 stores a year that shows the business is exploding over there and it is amazing. Obviously the wage increases in China are giving a boost to those who drink triple vente caps like I do! That’s still one more reason why we own this terrific stock for actionalertsplus.com.” Separately, TheStreet Ratings objectively rated the company’s stocks according to risk-adjusted total return prospect over a 1-year investment horizon, and not based on the news in any given day, which means that the rating may differ from Cramer’s view.
Considering that 500 new locations will be opened every year, along with the creation of thousands of new jobs, the growing coffee trend in the country will definitely be boosted.
The Wall Street Journal added that this move by Starbucks came as they continued to grow in China, while sales for other food companies, such as Yum! Brands (YUM) (which owns the Pizza Hut and KFC chains), have slowed down. Currently, Starbucks ranks at a #4 (Sell) on the Zacks Rank.
Filed Under: Stock investment News Tagged With: coffee chain, Cramer’s view, investment, KFC chains, new jobs, Starbucks, Starbucks Corp
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Scrabble: what makes good players good
I play a lot of Scrabble. In this day and age, it’s often a point of pride for people to say they’re not on Facebook. Well, I’m on Facebook, but most of my time on the site is spent playing other people with the Scrabble app.
I’ve gotten pretty good over the years, but I’m still pretty puny in comparison to the really good players. I often start random-matchup games with other Scrabble users who are total strangers to me, and every once in a while I’ll get matched with one of these heavyweights who just blows me away. More often, I get matched with a lightweight who I just blow away. Sometimes I get matched with a middleweight like me and we rematch each other endlessly.
Inevitably, of course, I found myself wondering: What is it that makes good Scrabble players good? Like, what do they do differently? Do they make more good plays, or fewer bad plays? Is it really true what everyone says about how learning all the 2-letter words is the key to victory? What is it that separates the wheat from the chaff, Scrabble-wise?
Well, that’s an. . . (drumroll) interesting question! And in typical Interesting Question fashion, I decided to try to analyze it by getting my hands on some data.
I’d wanted to analyze Scrabble data for a while, but I couldn’t find any good data set. There don’t seem to be any websites that offer large archives of Scrabble game records. I found one or two, but they seem to focus on archives of professional games, whereas I was particularly interested in the whole spectrum of skill levels, and how they’re differentiated.
So I had to creep up on my analysis by first getting some data. The Internet Scrabble Club is an online server that I had checked out briefly in the past. Unlike Facebook Scrabble and other apps of that sort, it’s not web-based. Instead, you download a special-purpose client program and connect to the server like you would to a MUD or an online RPG or whatever. The nice thing about this for my purposes was that it meant I could, at least potentially, figure out the protocol for this client/server setup, and use it to programmatically download lots of games.
So that’s what I did. It took me a bit of fiddling around, but I managed to reverse-engineer the ISC protocol just enough to write a bot that would connect to the server, get a list of all active users, and download logs of their most recent games. These were all two-player games, which I think is all ISC lets you do.
One cool thing about ISC is that it has dictionaries for several languages: you can play games in English (using either of the two standard dictionaries, TWL or SOWPODS1), French, Romanian, Italian, Dutch, or a crazy “multilingual” dictionary that includes words from multiple languages. I’m planning to analyze how the game differs between different languages in a later post.
Another useful thing is that, like many online Scrabble venues, ISC has a rating system that assigns a numerical rating to each player based on their win/loss record. The details of the rating system are a bit strange (you can read the explanation here), but I’m going to assume that the rating does its job in that people who play better on average get higher ratings. This is a good piece of information to have, because it gives a measure of how good a player “really is”, taking into account their historical record; this can then be compared with how they do in individual games and even individual plays.
For this post, though, I’m just focusing on the data with the two English dictionaries. After tossing out a small number of “degenerate” games (ones that were abandoned without being finished or the like), I wound up with 4625 games, roughly evenly split between TWL and SOWPODS. They included players ranging in rating from 0 to about 2000, plus a couple outliers at around 2300 and 2600 (who will be clearly visible in many of the upcoming graphs). The mean rating was about 1000, with a median of 964 and a standard deviation of 388.
The ratings were more or less evenly distributed around the mean and median, which is good, since it means the results won’t be thrown off by grossly disproportionate rating distributions. However, I should note that the way the data were obtained was limited by what ISC lets you do. All I could get from ISC was a list of the most recent 10 games by each player who was connected to the server at the time my bot grabbed the data2. Plus, some of those games were duplicates because any single recent game might show up in the lists of both opponents. I threw out the duplicates, but it’s still true that the dataset is skewed towards very recent games. Some players seem to be real maniacs and will play several games a day. (Not that I know anyone like that. Ahem.) This could make a difference if players who play a lot on the server are predictably different from Scrabble players in general. But I digress.
Scatterplot of player rating versus final score in game. Unsurprisingly, higher-ranked players score more. The correlation is not as strong as you might think, though (Spearman's rho is 0.42).
Player rating versus individual turn score. Each point represents a single play, with the x-coordinate being the rating of the player who played it, and the y-coordinate being the number of points it was worth. Note the "bingo line" just above 50 points. Note also that the correlation between rating and score is relatively weak (Spearman's rho is 0.2).
Standard deviation of individual turn scores versus final game score. Each dot represents one player. It looks like higher standard deviations (e.g., a more varied mix of scores) are associated with higher overall scores.
So yeah, I got 4625 Scrabble game logs. What are the overall patterns?
The popeye (graphic box) at the right shows three basic scatterplots. (Click on the image to expand.) These plots also illustrate the two basic ways you can analyze the data: either by individual plays, or aggregated by game. To do the latter, I lumped together all plays made by a given player in a given game and computed some stats on those lumps.
The first image on the right plots each player’s rating against their final score in a game, so each point on this graph represents one player in one game. Unsurprisingly, higher-ranked players tend to score more in a given game. The correlation isn’t as strong as you might imagine, though; there are plenty of games where high-ranked players score low or low-ranked players score high.
The second image correlates each player’s rating against their score on an individual play, so each point represents an individual turn. And right away we see what is crazy about Scrabble scores: the bingo is everything.
A “bingo” is the Scrabble maven’s term for a player using all seven of your tiles. This gets you a 50-point bonus to your score. On the graph, you can see that this rule creates a “bingo line”, that horizontal barrier just above 50 points. You can get over 50 points without getting a bingo, but it’s rare, whereas if you get a bingo you’re guaranteed at least 50 points. So there are really two kinds of plays in Scrabble: bingos and non-bingos.
We’ll come back to bingos in a bit. For now, note also that this graph doesn’t have an obvious correlation with rank. There is a slight trend, as shown by the red line3, but it doesn’t jump out at you the way the previous one does. This is an interesting puzzle, since it seems to mean that good players’ performance across an entire game is better than you’d expect based on their performance on individual plays.
The third image in the popeye shows a plot of the standard deviation of individual plays against the final score of the game. It looks like games with a higher standard deviation tend to have higher scores, which would mean that it’s better to have a diverse range of scores.
Scatterplot of player rating versus final game score. Points are colored according to the number of bingos played. Although higher-ranked players score better overall, the number of bingos matters as much as the rank. If they score one or two bingos, fair-to-middling players can do as well as really good players.
Standard deviation of individual play scores versus final game scores. Each dot represents one player. Dots are colored according to the number of bingos played in the game. It is clear that high standard deviations are largely achieved by playing more bingos.
But here’s where the bingos come in. The next popeye repeats two graphs from above, but each is followed by a modified version in which the points are color-coded according to the number of bingos played in the game. You can see that a great deal of the variation is really just due to this one factor. In the graph of rating versus final score, you can see that points of each individual color create bands of similar scores stretching across many ratings. This means that even fair-to-middling players seem to do pretty well if they manage to get bingos, whereas even good players don’t do that well if they can’t get enough bingos.
For the standard deviation, the color blobs are almost totally disjoint, meaning that high standard deviations in score are almost always a result of playing lots of bingos. This makes sense given that the lower bound on the number of points you can score is capped at zero. If your point spread is going to have a wide variation, it has to expand upwards.
Scatterplot of player rating versus points from bingos in a given game. There is a marked increase due to better players making more bingos on average. Spearman's rho is 0.47.
Rolling mean of number of bingos, grouped by player rating. As the rating increases, the mean number of bingos by players with roughly that rating increases.
The two images in the popeye at right explore this bingo business a bit more. The first is a scatterplot of each player’s rank against the number of points that player got from bingos in a single game. The points are clearly divided into horizontal bands, because you tend to get roughly 60-70 points per bingo. Each higher band is shifted further to the right. This means that better players tend to get more bingos.
Notice, though, that there are still plenty of dots in the lower bands even towards the right of the graph: in other words, plenty of games where even really good players managed to get only one bingo. Because bingos are discrete (you can get one bingo or two, but not “one and a half bingos”), a better way to put it might be that better players have better chances of getting bingos. The second graph shows a rolling average of number of bingos for players with different ranks; basically this shows the trend for how the number of bingos increases as rating increases. It’s clear that better players, on average, get more bingos.
Score growth by percentile. Each line represents one player, with the color representing the player's rank. Each line traces the growth of that players score from their worst plays (10th percentile) to their best (100th percentile). Note how the separation between colors decreases at the last few percentiles, indicating that, while many players can make one great play, the really good players can make multiple great plays.
Z-scores of plays at various percentiles. Each line represents one player, with the color of the line representing the player's rank. X-axis represents percentile (e.g., "40" means the score at each player's 40th percentile). Y-axis is in z-scores normalized to the overall mean at each percentile. The large jump at 80th percentile, and smaller jump at 90th percentile, indicate that what differentiates good players is their ability to make more super-high-scoring plays (i.e., bingos).
Of course, this doesn’t tell us how much the bingos “matter” in terms of their contribution to good players’ success. Maybe good players are pretty good even without bingos. To explore this question, look at the plots in the popeye at right. In these plots, which I’m going to call “streak plots”4, each line on these plots represents one player in one game, and the lines are colored according to the player’s rating, with bluish lines for poor players, yellowish for middling players, and reddish for good players. The streak plots break down each player’s plays over the course of the game into percentiles, so on the left you have each player’s worst plays, in the middle you have their middling-good plays, and at the right you have their best individual plays.
The reason I like this streak plot is that by looking at the degree of mixture among the colors, you can get a sense of the degree of separation among player skill. You can see that in the 20-50th percentile range, the colors are fairly separated; there’s not a lot of yellow streaking into the red area or anything. This means that good players are notably better than bad players at getting a decent amount of points even from their so-so plays.
In the last three places (80th, 90th, and 100th percentile scores), you start to see different behavior. There’s a noticeable jump in the red lines at 80%, then the oranges jump up too at 90%, and then at 100% all the colors are smeared and you can hardly see where the reds are. What does this mean? It means that at the top end, good players and medium players aren’t that different. Since the top end is bingos, this means that for both good and medium players (and even some pretty crappy players), their best play is a bingo. This in turn means even medium players can get at least one bingo in a game. But where the really good players stand out is in having even their second- or third-best plays also be bingos5. In other words, good players get more bingos.
The second graph in the popeye shows the same thing, but with scores normalized to the overall mean instead of being given in raw points. You see the same pattern, here as upticks towards the right. The spike at 80th percentile is big: a really good player’s third-ish-best score is a lot better than a just-okay player’s third-ish-best score — probably because the really good player got three bingos, so his third-best play is over 60 points, whereas the just-okay player got only one bingo, so his third-ish best play is only like 30 points or so.
Z-scores of scores at 10 percentiles. Each line represents one player, and the color of each line represents that players rating. On the x-axis, e.g., "40" indicates a given players 40th-percentile score. Y axis is in z-scores (standard deviations from the overall mean Nth-percentile score). Separation among colors is greater at the lower percentiles, indicating that good players make better bad plays.
Rating versus mean score of non-bingo plays. Better players are better at getting more points, even when bingos are taken out of the equation. Spearman's rho is 0.48.
But let’s go back and look at those non-bingos. Are good players good just insofar as they get bingos? Not quite. The first graph in the popeye at right shows the same type of z-score-standardized graph for percentile scores not including bingos. Although the separation between colors is less clear overall, it’s still there; the red lines are consistently on top most of the way across. Toward the right end, there’s more mixture, apparently indicating that even just-okay players can make a few big non-bingo plays. The second graph is scatterplot of each player’s rating against their mean non-bingo score. There’s a definite upward trend.
Bingos and non-bingos
What these results seem to show is that good players are good at two things: getting bingos, and squeezing a few extra points out of low-scoring plays. Medium-good players can get a bingo or two, and they can also score highly on one or two non-bingo plays. But at the low end, when they’re not scoring that much, they’re, well, not scoring that much. Good players, though, still manage to do incrementally better even when playing a not-so-good play.
Bar graph of rating versus point distribution. Each bar represents players whose rank falls in a certain range ("0" is players whose rank is 0-100, "100" is players whose rank is 100-200, etc.). Blue bars represent the average non-bingo points per game among those players; green bars are the average bingo points per game. Virtually all of the increase in total points from low- to high-ranked players is due to an increase in bingo points.
Bar graph of rating versus mean points per play. Each bar group represents players whose rank falls in a certain range. Green bars represent the average number of points per bingo, blue bars the average number of points per non-bingo play. Good players get no more points, on average, from an individual bingo than poor players, but they do get more points from a non-bingo.
The first graph in the popeye at right nicely summarizes this by giving bingo and non-bingo points for the average game, grouped by rating. So on the left, the first bar stack represents the average player whose rating is abysmally poor, between 0 and 100. In a typical game, this kind of player gets about 260 points from non-bingo plays, and that’s about it; players this bad rarely get bingos and so get almost no points from them. The overall height of the blue-green stack represents the total number of points earned in a game. You can see that, after an initial increase up to about rating 600, virtually all of the increase in total points comes from bingos. In fact, for really good players, their non-bingo points go down slightly. Presumably this is at least partially because they’re using up all their tiles on bingos and don’t have many turns left for non-bingos.
The second graph shows the same thing, only here it’s for the average turn instead of the average game. This graph shows almost the reverse picture: the number of points you get per bingo is essentially constant no matter how good you are, while it’s the number of points you get per non-bingo that increases.
This explains why overall performance is not that strongly correlated with performance on an individual play: an important part of overall performance involves the relative distribution of different types of plays. Although it’s true that good players make incrementally better low-scoring plays, it’s also true that they make a larger number of really high-scoring plays (i.e., bingos). In other words, good players get good at making more good plays but better bad plays. They don’t get any more points per bingo than anybody else, but they play more bingos; they do get more points per non-bingo than other people, but not a huge amount more. It seems to be a combination of those factors that’s important.
Bar graph of rating versus play distribution. Each bar stack represents players whose rank falls in a certain range. Blue bars show the number of non-bingo plays per game (e.g., the player laid down between 1 and 6 tiles). Green bars show the number of bingos per game. Orange is number of turns used in swapping tiles, and red is number of turns passed (without playing or swapping). Good players play more bingos, and hence fewer non-bingo plays.
The graphic at right shows how this plays out in terms of what kinds of plays different players make. In each bar stack, blue represents non-bingos, green represents bingos, orange represents swaps (giving up your turn in order to exchange some of your tiles), and red represents passes (passing your turn entirely, without playing or swapping). You can see that the green block increases in size as rating increases, and the blue one shrinks, meaning players are playing more bingos relative to non-bingos. (The decrease in non-bingo plays looks disproportionately large because bingos use up more tiles than non-bingo plays and thus end the game more quickly.)
Good players also cut down on swaps, which I attribute to good “rack management” — that is, making smart plays so that the tiles you have left over give you a decent chance of making a good play on the next turn. It seems that good Scrabble players pay attention to this, and avoid, for instance, playing a move that will leave them with only vowels or only consonants; this is dangerous because it means that a bad draw could leave you with no appealing options on your next turn. (I had no simple way to assess rack management with this data, because it seems to be intertwined with difficult-to-operationalize factors like the crampedness of the board position and the accessibility of bonus squares.) You usually feel the urge to swap when you have all consonants or all vowels (or nearly so), and good rack management makes that less likely.
The graph also shows that as rank increases, passes drop down to almost nothing. (I suspect they don’t drop quite to nothing because there’s no way to avoid the occasional bad luck of being stuck with one or two unplayable tiles at the very end of the game, and you might have to pass your last turn if that happens.)
Two-letter plays
One other thing I wanted to explore with this data is this business about two-letter plays. You often hear people say — well, “often” in relative terms, like a high proportion of the time you’re involved in a conversation with the sort of maniac who writes long blog posts about Scrabble statistics — you often hear people say that learning and using the two-letter words is key to Scrabble dominance. I haven’t seen any numbers on that, though.
A related issue is that of making what I’m going to call “crosses”. This is where you play a word in one direction so that it connects with existing tiles parallel to your play, to make words in the other direction. It seems like mostly when people talk about using two-letter words, they’re talking about using them in this way. It’s generally not that useful to just throw down a word like BA all by itself, but it can be useful if you can get BA as a “side benefit” by playing BUNGLE alongside an existing A on the board. Two-letter crosses are really just a special case of the more general kind of crossing (e.g., you can do a three-letter cross by playing BUNGLE alongside an existing LA so you make LAB in the perpendicular direction).
Rating versus number of crosses in the game. (The number of crosses is the number of tiles in a play that make parallel cross-words with existing tiles.) Medium players make more crosses than crappy ones, but then it declines.
Player rating versus two-letter crosses (playing parallel to existing tiles to make two-letter words). Medium players make more two-letter crosses, but after that it declines slightly.
Tiles played versus number of crosses (that is, connecting with words perpendicular to the main word to make "crosswords"). Number of crosses is highest for mid-length plays, meaning that players who play the longest words on average will tend to have fewer crosses.
Scatterplot of rating versus number of "crosses" per move. Crosses are when you play parallel to existing words. Better players make more crosses per move, but the increase from medium to good is pretty slight.
Rating versus two-letter crosses per move (making a two-letter play by playing parallel to existing tiles). As with crosses in general, there is an overall increase, but it nearly levels off after middling rank.
I looked at this by writing a simple program that “plays out” each game computationally and looks at the neighborhood around each played tile. I counted the number of words that were made perpendicular to the main orientation of the play, and how many of those were two-letter words. The popeye at right shows some graphs related to this.
The first graph shows the number of crosses made in a whole game, plotted against the rating of the player. The second shows the same, but for two-letter crosses only. In both cases, the results don’t seem like a ringing endorsement of two-letter plays, or crosses in general. There’s an increase from crappy players to medium players, but then a slight decrease for good players.
However, one possible reason for this is that it’s harder to make a lot of crosses when you’re making long plays. The third graph illustrates the relationship between number of tiles played and number of crosses. The number of crosses peaks when the play is three tiles, then drops off. Since better players tend to play more bingos (and longer words in general, although I didn’t go into this here), they may make less crosses. Plus, if you make a bingo, it doesn’t really matter whether you make crosses, since you’re going to get a bootload of points anyway. (It’s still good to make crosses with a bingo if you can, but the point is that if you can play a bingo, you’ll play it no matter what, even if it doesn’t make any crosses.)
The last two graphs show the number of crosses and two-letter crosses per turn, again plotted against player rating. Here the upward trend seems to be maintained even at the higher ranks, although it becomes very faint.
It’s important to note, though, that these results don’t include any information about how many points the crosses earned. This wasn’t possible for me to calculate using the ISC data as-is, because that data doesn’t specify how much of the score came from which “parts” of the play (e.g., the main-line play versus side connections with existing tiles). So I would have had to do a lot more work to basically make a program that would play Scrabble, and c’mon — like I got time for that? I’m a busy man, spending all these hours making scatterplots. The point is, it may be that these crosses are an important component of that gradual increase in non-bingo scores we saw in the earlier graphs. Making a cross can easily earn you an extra two or three points. If you get the right setup it can earn you an extra 10 or 15 points, and if your opponent dares to leave the triple letter score open next to an appropriate vowel while you’re holding the Z or the Q, the cross could net you an extra 30 points or more. These extra points could help good players boost their non-bingo average by a few points per game.
So why do people say to learn the two-letter words? I think one reason is that it’s easy — or at least possible. As we saw earlier, most of the increase in points as your rating goes up is due to bingo points. But it’s just not possible to learn every single bingo word — there are way too many of them. In the SOWPODS dictionary, the number of seven- and eight-letter words combined is more than the total number of all two- through six-letter words. It doesn’t do much good to tell someone to learn all those words. But learning all the two-letter words is a manageable task, so it makes sense to do that if you want to get good at Scrabble — not necessarily because it will give the most benefit, but it may give a good amount of benefit relative to the amount of work required.
Another possibility is that the “learn the two-letter words” advice is targeted not at okay players but at really bad players. It’s clear from the graphs above that the increase in crosses (including two-letter crosses) is steeper between low- and medium-ranked players than between medium- and high-ranked players. So learning two-letter words might be a way to bring your game out of the cellar and at least up to ground level.
Word frequencies
The clearest way to distinguish the dyed-in-the-wool Scrabble player from the dilletante is that the dilettante cares what the words mean. I’m not knocking playing Scrabble just for the fun of playing dirty words, or squandering your blanks just for the thrill of playing JAZZ, or throwing caution to the wind and adding an E to SQUIRE to make ESQUIRE even when it sets your opponent up for the triple word. But you don’t win that way. Everybody knows that to win Scrabble you have to make your peace with playing lots and lots of words that no one ever, ever uses in any context other than Scrabble. When was the last time you heard someone say “za”? “Qi”? “Aeolian”? “Muzjiks”? Have you even read them recently in a newspaper? Or a novel? I didn’t think so.
Given that, it doesn’t really make sense to try to measure Scrabble words by how frequent they are in non-Scrabble contexts. I did a quick look to check: of the 150,000+ plays made in my data set, more than half are words that occur zero times in the Brown corpus, which is a standard resource for English word frequencies. Words like teek, vly, uta, unagile, and dugong. It’s not all of these are totally insane — I know what a dugong is, and I think we can all figure out what unagile means — but they’re just so vanishingly rare in actual usage (spoken and written) that it’s almost impossible to get meaningful statistics on them.
What I decided to do is maybe more interesting anyway: I decided to look at the frequency of words within Scrabble plays. In other words, rather than looking at how frequent a given word was in some ordinary corpus, I decided to look at how frequent it was within my own dataset of Scrabble plays.
Player rating versus mean log-frequency of words played. Word frequencies are ranked relative to the overall frequency IN SCRABBLE GAMES, not frequency in real-life usage. There is a decrease in frequency with higher rank, meaning that better players play less-commonly-played words. Spearman's rho is -0.39.
On that front, the graph at right is basically all I’ve got. It’s a scatterplot of each player’s rating versus the mean log-frequency of the words that player played. (Where, again, “frequency” is defined as the number of times that word was played by anyone in the dataset.) It shows, unsurprisingly, that better players tend to play less common words, on average.
I think this is actually more interesting than the corresponding statement about real-world frequencies. Saying that Scrabble players play words that people don’t use outside of Scrabble is, in the words of a rabbi we once quoted in my high school newspaper, “kind of a duh thing”. Even pretty unimposing Scrabble players can throw down a QI or a CWM or a VUM without batting an eye. But what this graph shows is that good Scrabble players play words that even other Scrabble players don’t use.
Obviously this has to be interpreted with a grain of salt. Any individual game is only a tiny slice of a given player’s “Scrabble vocabulary”, so what this probably really means is that better Scrabble players just have a larger repertoire of weird words they know. It’s not that good player’s don’t play common words, it’s just that they also play uncommon words.
This is especially true in bingos, no doubt. Because the number of long words is so much greater than the number of short words, people who play a lot of bingos kind of have to know more words. The most frequently-played words are all short words — most of them two letters — because, obviously, there aren’t that many possible combinations of two letters. Any given two-letter word you play is likely to be one that you played in the last few games — maybe even once already in the same game. But when you play a bingo, it’s more often going to be a one-of-a-kind that you haven’t played recently and won’t play for quite some time. So the lower average frequency of words played by good players may reflect the fact that they play more longer words, of which there are a greater variety available.
One last thing I wanted to investigate is the extent to which the luck of the draw influences the outcome in Scrabble. Like it or not, you can’t control what tiles you draw (unless you cheat), and, like it or not, some combinations of tiles are more conducive to making points than others.
It may be some consolation to the weaker Scrabble players among my readers to know that luck does seem to matter — a bit. I first looked at this by computing the “total tile score” of each player in each game; this is the sum of the face values of all tiles that player played in the course of the game6. So if you play a J, it contributes 8 to your total tile score, even if you play it on a triple letter square. The total tile score in some represents “what you have to work with” pointswise.
You might think that total tile score wouldn’t matter that much. After all, if as we saw before, making bingos is where it’s at, what do you need those high-point tiles for? They don’t make it any easier to make a bingo — in fact, they can make it considerably harder — and the amount of points they add to a bingo score is typically puny compared to the 50-point bonus. Be that as it may, the mean total tile score of game-winners (that is, people who won their game in the data set) was, in my data set, about 10 points higher than the mean total tile score of game-losers. In other words, people who won had, on average, 10 more points to work with, in terms of the tiles they were dealt, than did people who lost. This isn’t a super huge difference (especially considering that the mean margin of victory was about 55 points), but it’s something.
Scatterplot of total tile score against final game score. "Total tile score" is the total face value of all tiles played by a player during a game. The luck of the draw matters: playing higher-scoring tiles increases your score. Spewarman's rho is 0.45.
Rolling correlation between total tile score and final game score. On the x-axis is rating. The y-axis measures the correlation between the value of tiles the player played, and the player's final score in the game. The correlation decreases slightly over time, indicating that good players get better at scoring well even with poor tiles. But it's still pretty high overall, meaning that luck still plays a significant role.
Boxplot of number of blanks used versus final score. Players who got more blanks scored higher on average.
The graphs at right show a bit more on this issue. The first is a scatterplot of total tile score versus final game score — how many points were on your tiles, versus how many points you actually earned by playing them. The trend is clear: getting more tile poiints increases your score. The second graph is a correlation of these two numbers, taken in a rolling window by rating. So it looks at people around a given rating and looks at the extent to which their total tile scores were correlated with their actual game scores. It does decreases somewhat at first, indicating that really poor players rely more on the luck of the draw, but then it flattens out and remains at a fairly high level.
One thing conspicuously left out of the total tile score is blank tiles. Blanks have a face value of zero, so they contribute nothing to total tile score, but obviously they’re very helpful, and whether you get them is basically pure luck. The third graph in the popeye is a boxplot of number of blanks versus final game score. Sure enough, players who got more blanks scored higher overall. Interestingly the boost from no blanks to one blank seems to be bigger than from one blank to both blanks (roughly 24 points versus 11 points). Anyway, here again we see that luck matters.7
Scatterplot of average tile score versus final game score. The correlation is tiny (Spearman's rho is 0.09), indicating that better players do not rely on luck to score well.
Rating versus total tile ratio. There is an increase over time, indicating that good players tend to get more points out of the same tiles, on average. Spearman's rho is 0.42.
Edit: As Jake correctly pointed out in a comment, my analysis of total tile score doesn’t take into account the fact that better players tend to player longer words, and thus draw more tiles, which would increase their total tile score. Thus, it may be that being better causes you to have a higher total tile score, rather than the other way around.
It looks like Jake is right. The first graph at the right shows the average score per tile — that is, the total tile score divided by the number of tiles played — plotted against final game score. Here the correlation between luck and outcome is very tiny.
I realized I also had another graph supporting this view that I forgot to include initially. It’s the second one in the popeye at right. This plots each player’s rating against their “total tile ratio” — the ratio of their actual score to their total tile score. This in some sense measures their “force multiplier”: how many points they were able to squeeze out of the tile score they were dealt. You can see that it increases, meaning that better players are better at getting more points out of the same tiles.
Boxplot of number of power tiles (Z, Q, J and X) against final score. Getting more power tiles tends to increase your score.
Correlation between power tiles and final score, calculated in a moving window by player rating. The correlation decreases with rank, indicating that better players' scores are less determined by getting power tiles (Z, Q, J, and X).
Correlation between number of blanks and final game score, calculated in a moving window by player rating. The correlation increases with higher rank, indicating that for better players, the luck of getting a blank matters more.
One other thing I didn’t look at before was whether certain tiles matter more. Specifically, some people care a lot about the “power tiles” — X, J, Q, and Z — which are worth 8 or 10 points each. (I didn’t include K, which is worth 5 points, as a power tile, although you could argue for it since, like the others, it’s a tile of which there is only one in the bag.) The first graph on the right is a boxplot showing the score distribution according to the number of power tiles played, zero through four. Getting more power tiles increases your score.
The second graph shows the correlation of power tiles with score, calculated in a moving window by player rating. So it shows how the link between power tiles and score changes as skill increases. The correlation drops by about half, indicating that getting better involves relying less on luck (although it still plays a role).
However, there is one final caveat about luck: it seems that for good players, the luck of drawing blanks matters more than it does for weaker players. The third graph shows a similar rolling-correlation, but here the correlation is between number of blank tiles and final score. The correlation increases substantially with rating, indicating that for good players, the luck of getting blanks really matters.
I imagine that this is because blanks, unlike power tiles, help you get bingos. In fact, a blank tile helps a lot with getting bingos. Since better players tend to rely more on bingos to increase their score, it would make sense that the blanks are more important to them.
My main conclusion from this project, as with so much that I do, is that it is a lot of fun to fiddle with numbers and make graphs. In this case I had the added fun of writing a bot to slurp the Scrabble data from the ISC server. Fun was also increased because I started using the delightful pandas library for Python, which has lots of nifty facilities for aggregating and slicing data in various ways.
But what about conclusions for Scrabble? I guess these would be my recommendations based on what I found here:
Play bingos. Duh! But really, according to what I found, almost all of the increase in total points that separates good from bad players has to do with playing more bingos, on average.
Keep it steady. In other words, don’t get lazy on the small plays. Look for ways to make crappy plays into less-crappy plays, and less-crappy plays into okay plays. The results suggest that an important component of good play is squeezing as many points as you can out of even your less-impressive plays. The good players stand out even in their lower-scoring moments.
Do not swap tiles. One obvious bingo-focused strategy would be to go all-or-nothing, swapping tiles frequently in order to get a collection of tiles that lets you make a bingo. The results here do not support this strategy: better players swap less, on average, than worse players.
Go ahead and learn the two-letter words. This is less well borne out by the data, but there was a correlation between two-letter crosses per play and overall rank. Plus, “learn two-letter words” is advice that’s a lot easier to apply than “play more bingos”. It also seems that learning two-letter words may be especially helpful if you really suck: the increase is sharper between poor players and medium players than between medium players and good players.
Throw the board against the wall denting the wall and the board prior to uppercutting your opponent when all else fails.
Of course, all the results here are correlational rather than causal. It’s possible that bingos don’t help you win, but that good players coincidentally drink magic kool-aid that epiphenomenally causes them to play lots of bingos. Unlikely, in my view
The most interesting result to me is how much the bingo seems to matter. Everyone knows it’s important, but the impression I get from this analysis is that it’s pretty much all-important. If you can’t consistently score one bingo per game, you’ll have difficulty competing with pretty-good players; if you can’t consistently score two per game, you can’t compete with the really good players. (Of course these are just “really good” players in the context of internet Scrabble. Presumably you need even more chops to compete in tournaments or the like.)
The reason this is interesting to me is that the bingo rule is possibly the most arbitrary part of Scrabble. . . OR IS IT??? It just so happens that 50-to-60-ish points is about the upper limit of what you can hope to score with a non-bingo play, and that’s also the lower limit of what you’ll score with a bingo. This creates a very clean divide between bingos and non-bingos. I wonder if old Alfred Butts planned it that way. (Alfred Butts was the guy who came up with Scrabble. In addition, his last name is Butts. That’s an important part of his appeal.) If you look him up you can find a lot of references to how he calculated the letter frequencies by reading the New York Times, but I haven’t been able to find much about how he decided on the rest of the rules.
In any case, the bingo divide means that, above a certain level of play, that 50-point bonus pretty much defines the game. In my data, if one player has one more bingo than their opponent, they are more than three times as likely to win; if they have two more bingos, they are nearly 10 times as likely to win.
In a way, this seems unfortunate to me. It would be interesting to play variants of Scrabble where the bingo bonus was set to a different number of points. If it were only, say, 25, its impact would be greatly reduced, since you could reasonably get “a bingo’s worth” of points with an ordinary play. (I guess on the bright side, if the bingo bonus were much more than it is — like if it were 75 points — it would become almost impossible to recover from someone scoring a bingo against you.)
The other interesting thing about the bingo is that it’s all or nothing. It separates plays where you use all your tiles from plays where you use anything less than all of your tiles. It would interesting to see how the game would be affected if the bonuses were more incremental — like, if you could get 10 points for using 5 tiles, and 20 for using 6 tiles, or the like.
There’s another aspect to this too, which is that the bingo gives you a bonus for using the most tiles possible, but this simultaneously brings the game closer to an end. We saw this in the graphs above showing that, in general, players who play more bingos make disproportionately fewer non-bingo plays. When you use all 7 tiles and draw 7 new ones, you not only get 50 points, but you also get 7 tiles closer to an empty bag. This means that when you play a bingo, not only do you increase your own score, but you effectively shorten the game, giving your opponent less time to catch up. (Of course, if you’re still behind after the bingo, you give yourself less time to catch up; but the fact remains that you are essentially “locking in” a shorter game at a moment that is a local maximum in terms of your rate of score increase, which is clearly a benefit for you, the bingo-player.) So the bingo is a double-whammy that simultaneously gives you a boost and reduces your opponent’s ability to fight back.
So, basically, the bingo bonus is so large and specific that it skews the game radically toward a particular kind of play, namely one that uses all of your tiles. The way it stands now, there’s little incentive to play a 6-tile word instead of a 5-tile word, all else being equal. But the incentive to play a 7-tile word over a 6-tile word — whether all else is equal or not — is so colossal that you will never refuse it: you always play a bingo if you can, no matter what (the only possible question being which of several possible bingos to play). It would be interesting to see Scrabble variants in which the bonus structure was such that you might sometimes pass up a number-of-tiles-related bonus for other reasons — either because you could get more points with a different play, or because positional factors outweighed the loss in points. Just intuitively, it seems like this would make the game more varied and strategic, with more tradeoffs and choices, instead of making high-level play a pure bingo-hunt.
In a future post, I plan to analyze the ISC data from games in other languages. As part of that, I’m hoping to also do some more statistics on the relationship between number of letters in a word and word frequency, to see whether — in English or other languages — seven letters is the “sweet spot” at which it is appropriate to offer a bonus, or whether this really is just an arbitrary choice and some other word length would be better.
TWL is the standard dictionary used in North American Scrabble. SOWPODS is used in most other English-language Scrabble. [↩]
It was actually less than 10 games in some cases, if the player was new and hadn’t played 10 games yet. [↩]
The red trend lines in all these graphs represent chunked averages in 100-point rating windows: an average was calculated for players with rating 0-100, another average for those with rating 100-200, etc. [↩]
I don’t know if this is an actual thing, I just came up with it. [↩]
The average game in my dataset has 17 plays per player, so on average each 10-percentile region represents about 1.7 plays. In other words, a player’s 90th percentile score represents his 1.7th-highest play. (However, it will tend be represent slightly more for games with a lot of bingos, because playing more bingos uses up more tiles and thus usually means taking fewer turns overall.) Using percentiles allows comparison between games of different lengths. I should note, though, that the percentiles here are not interpolated. So a given player’s 90th-percentile score is the score of the play he actually played that was closest to 90% of the way from his worst to his best score. I did not (as some percentile-calculation methods do) linearly interpolate if no score fell at exactly the Nth percentile; instead I took the closest actual score. I think this is important, because the difference between plays, especially at the high end, is quite nonlinear. [↩]
Note that it’s all tiles played, not all tiles held. If you swap a tile or are still holding it at the end of the game, it doesn’t count toward your total tile score. [↩]
There are some complications with calculating the number of blanks held or played by each player due to the format of the data from ISC, so it’s possible these numbers are very slightly off due to strange corner cases where people made repeated plays across the same blank tile once it was down. [↩]
This entry was written by brenbarn, posted on 2012/06/16 at 21:45, filed under Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
Posted 2012/06/17 at 09:05 | Permalink
Under the “Luck” analysis, there’s one obvious correlation you seem to be neglecting: better players play longer words, and thus over the course of the game will have more tiles, inflating their total in a non-luck-of-the-draw-related way. I imagine the correlation between game score and tile score will be at the very least reduced, and possibly nearly eliminated, if you use average tile score instead of total.
Thanks for a very interesting analysis. Any stats on the correlation between moving first and winning in Scrabble and/or words with friends?
Hmmm, that’s a good idea, I haven’t looked into that, perhaps I will do that at some point. I don’t have any data on Words With Friends though.
Scrabble words with
Understand the fundamental rules of the game, learn letter Q words, find out how to identify terms without any vowels, learn to create words with only 2 letters, and practice.
Interesting stuff! I’m curious what the distribution for number of tiles swapped looks like.
Great analysis! thanks.
1. As a bit of an ISC veteran I’d like to make a point about the data you collected. A lot of the games played are 3 minutes per person. Even though only a small share of people play 3-minute per player games, whenever they spend 30 minutes at ISC, they are likely to play many such games. In these games, bingos are a bit more rare, because there is less time to ponder your options. The distinction matters in particular, because really top players don’t play much 3 minute scrabble, preferring instead tournament style 15 minutes /player scrabble. This may skew downwards the results of your middling players (of which I am one).
2. Some ISC games permit you to play ‘phoneys’ and some don’t. I’d be fascinated to see a cut of the data where the total score contributed by phonies was calculated. Being caught playing phones can force passes. This might also account for the high rate of passes among good players.
3. I disagree on the merits of swapping tiles. I interpret the data as saying that that category remains relatively constant across players. Good players are swapping perhaps 70 per cent as often as the very worst players, despite having superior ability to dump vowels. I think swapping may contribute to the higher standard deviation in scores for good players. They’re not afraid to swap when necessary, whereas some poor players don’t know when to swap. I’d also like to see another bias I have confirmed in the data – good players always swap at least 5 tiles, while the mark of a bad player is swapping one tile. If you only need to swap one tile, you don’t have bad tiles!
4. I’m interested in the way board management matters to bingos. I suspect that if there is no bingo played in the first six moves, the chance of a bingo being played falls. playing a long word across the board creates heaps of options for making an 8-letter word, or for hooking on. if you get a clump of 3 letter words in the middle of the board to start off with, you may never get a bingo in that game.
Overall, I really loved this blog post. Am going to comb your archives now to see if there is more good scrabble content!
Michael McLaughlin
Is there a way to review a game to see if someone is letting you win?
Jenny Matthew
Thank you so much for this article. I am a casual player, and your presentation of information was definitely user friendly. I also appreciated your sense of humor.
great post on the analytics. My question is, would you release the data to me or the script you used to obtain the data.
Yeah, I can send you the data. My email can be found on the About page of this website (not the blog).
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DSP Group and Lantiq Complete Interoperability Testing for Home Gateways and Digital Cordless Handsets
Successful Implementation of New CAT-iq 2.0 Standard Will Speed Availability of Converged Communications in the Digital Home
SAN JOSE, Calif. and NEUBIBERG, Germany, May 17, 2010 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) --DSP Group, Inc(TM). (Nasdaq:DSPG), a leading global provider of wireless chipset solutions for converged communications at home, and Lantiq, a leading company in next-generation access and home networking technologies, jointly announced the successful completion of interoperability testing based on the CAT-iq 2.0 (Cordless Advanced Technology: Internet and Quality) specification.
Recently adopted as an industry standard, CAT-iq 2.0 (http://www.cat-iq.org) is a key technology to enable advanced communications and infotainment applications driven by IP-based gateways in the digital home. The standard meets the requirement for widespread availability of fully interoperable home gateways, access points and cordless handsets to deliver the best user experience possible.
"Industry cooperation is essential for the success of the CAT-iq standard," said Brian Robertson, President of DSP Group. "We are pleased to collaborate with competing companies to ensure that third-party interoperability is not just a possibility but is actually achieved. The future of converged communications is about giving consumers more choices and flexibility and we are fully committed to continuous innovation to make this vision a reality."
The joint testing included interoperability between cordless handsets and residential gateways and demonstrated an excellent user experience of diverse telephony functions including phonebook management, synchronized call lists and multi-line support. DSP Group and Lantiq's silicon and software solutions are deployed in many IP telephony and gateway products, including xDSL, cable, xPON and office PBX, providing multi-line and multi-handset control, natural wideband voice and advanced data services.
"Interoperability is a significant milestone in bringing the CAT-iq 2.0 specification to market and is the key to the standard's success," said Ulrich Huewels, SVP and GM of Business Unit CPE of Lantiq. "Lantiq has an extensive background in interop testing with competitors through its carrier engagements in voice and DSL, and with CAT-iq, we continue to pursue this path to ensure the future success of industry's new standard. Lantiq reinforces its commitment through its investment in the technology by embedding CAT-iq in all of its residential xDSL and Ethernet-based gateway devices."
DSP Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:DSPG) is a leading global provider of wireless chipset solutions for converged communications at home. Delivering system solutions that combine semiconductors and software with reference designs, DSP Group enables consumer electronics (CE) manufacturers to cost-effectively develop new revenue-generating applications with fast time to market. At the forefront of semiconductor innovation and operational excellence for over two decades, and with a growing share of the wireless home telephony market, DSP Group provides a broad portfolio of wireless chipsets integrating DECT, Wi-Fi, PSTN and VoIP technologies with state-of-the-art application processors. Enabling converged voice, audio, video and data connectivity across diverse consumer products -- from cordless and VoIP phones to home gateways and connected multimedia screens -- DSP Group proactively partners with CE manufacturers to shape the future of converged communications at home. For more information, visit www.dspg.com.
The DSP Group, Inc. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=6171
About LANTIQ
Lantiq offers a broad and innovative product portfolio for next-generation networks and the digital home. The company has a global team of about 1,000 experts in Europe, North America, the Middle East and the Asia Pacific regions. The company is headquartered in Neubiberg just outside of Munich, Germany and specializes in broadband communications encompassing analog, digital and mixed-signal ICs along with comprehensive software suites. Lantiq is a fabless company and its semiconductor solutions are deployed by major carriers and in home networks in every region of the world. Further information is available at: www.lantiq.com
This news release was distributed by GlobeNewswire, www.globenewswire.com
SOURCE: DSP Group, Inc.; Lantiq
CONTACT: DSP Group, Inc.
Orly Garini-Dil, Marcom Manager
orly.garini@dspg.com
www.dspg.com
Spicetree Communications
Monica Maron
monica.maron@spicetreecom.com
www.spicetreecom.com
Lantiq
Christoph von Schierstadt
+49 (089) 89899 7556
media-relations@lantiq.com
Sarah LaLiberte
sarah.laliberte@lantiq.com
www.lantiq.com
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JCC Global > What do We do > Develop Global Jewish Leadership > Amitim 2.0 – Fellows > Global Projects Manual > Jewish Peoplehood @ your JCC
For a printed version press here.
Jewish Peoplehood –Klal Israel– is an ancient concept. It connects Jews historically to past and future generations; geographically, ethnically, religiously and culturally to other Jews in the community and to Jews in other countries.
For almost 40 years, JCC Global has connected more than 1000 Jewish Community Centers worldwide. Building on the uniqueness of each JCC and Jewish community, JCC Global creates relationships that inspire Jews and strengthens Jewish communities the world over.
We believe that bringing Jewish Peoplehood to your JCC can be of value.
While Jewish partnerships do develop within Jewish communities, we invite you to foster connections with Jewish communities around the world. We believe that building bridges between JCCs will help strengthen Jewish identity, belonging to the Jewish community and to the Jewish world.
By sharing ideas and resources, and by collaborating and partnering, you will be able to joins hands around the world, bring Jewish Peoplehood to your JCC and strengthen the Jewish People.
Jewish Peoplehood in your JCC mission statement
To strengthen the connection of your JCC to the Jewish World and Jewish People, Jewish Peoplehood should be an explicit part of the JCCs mission statement.
Incorporate Jewish Peoplehood in your JCCs website
Add a world map on your JCCs website, marking the location of your JCC and your partner community.
Add the flag of the country of your partner community.
Add a photo gallery featuring encounters and joint activities with your partner community.
There’s no need to tell a JCC director how much influence a JCC design and ambience have on the message sent to both staff and members. By incorporating Jewish Peoplehood into the design of the JCC, a strong message of connection could be conveyed.
Hang the JCC Global World Map of JCCs at the entrance to your JCC, marking the location of your JCC and your JCCs partner communities.
Once a week/month, play music from a Jewish community from another part of the world.
If you have a partner community – dedicate a wall at the JCC for that community, publicizing news, photos, articles and more from that JCC, their members and the joint program/project.
Programmatic ideas
Celebrate days that are important for your respected partner
Celebrate days that are important for your respected partner JCC, such as: Independence Day, Days related to the Jewish community, and more.
For example, if you’re having a fair at your JCC on Israel’s Independence Day, hosting stands of merchandise and representatives from Israel, add a stand (one or more) representing Jewish Community from a third country in the world. It could feature food from the community, crafts from the region and other ideas.
Exchange holiday greetings with your partner community. This could be an exchange of staff greetings and/or members of all ages.
Exchange of art exhibition
If you have art exhibitions as part of your Arts and Culture Department, contact a JCC from around the world and offer them to do art exhibition exchange, to feature their exhibition in your local JCC and then exhibit your JCCs art at their JCCs. The execution of such exchange isn’t always possible because of the nature of the produced art; therefor the exchange could be of photo of the art with the arts story. Adding a booklet featuring the art and the story of artists could be a great plus
This is a great opportunity to get to know another Jewish Community from around the world and strengthen your ties. The exchange could be between
Staff members from the same department – your JCC staff going to your partner community for a week of learning and your JCC hosting your partner community staff.
Create a professional staff group from both communities which will convene for a monthly video call to learn from each other’s work.
Teens from partner community coming to be counselors at your summer camp.
Exchange of sports groups.
Board Trip
Planning a board trip to your partner community together with your partner JCC board members. The trip could be to both JCCs and additional JCCs in the area
Inviting a band from another JCC
Have a community event and planning on inviting a band or a show? Invite a band or a show from a JCC from around the world.
Dedicate a day at camp to the other J communities
Celebrate their day of Independence
Once a year, highlight during board meeting
Once a year, highlight during staff meeting
Physical presence
Early childhood- Shabbat bear
Visits of community members
Best Practice example for Jewish Peoplehood Projects:
Migvanim: Ramat HaSharon Community Centers
Havaya International/J – TAG Fellows (Jewish Teens in Action Globally):
A groundbreaking pluralistic Jewish Peoplehood teen leadership initiative, that brings together teens from diverse Jewish backgrounds. It is an intensive group experience of global Jewish traditions, cultures and values emphasizing Tikkun Olam (leaving the world a better place than we found it) and Leadership Development through a Jewish lens. The program often serves as the primary point of engagement for many Jewish teens to their heritage at this point in their lives.|
The program is a month-long encounter in Israel and the US and is the centerpiece of an 18-month engagement in Jewish communal activity. It fosters meaningful and tangible connections to the diverse Jewish collective in an age of increasing globalization through an exploration of common heritage in both the US and Israel.
Havaya International/J-TAG Fellows seeks to instill an appreciation for and commitment to Jewish ideals. For the 9 years, the program has introduced Israeli and American teens to the strengths, challenges and needs of their respective communities. It has instilled an appreciation of their place within the broader Jewish collective.
JLGB Summer Camp and London Tour
Migvanim, over the past 7 years, has organized and coordinated the annual Israeli youth delegation from 9 Community Centers to attend the JLGB (Jewish Lads and Girls Brigade) Summer Camp and London Tour program. Participating communities last summer included: Ramat Hasharon, Netanya East, Kiryat Ono, Alfei Menashe, Beit Aryeh, Yavne, Givat Shmuel, Herzliya and Sderot. The summer program starts with a pre camp weekend for the international participants. Countries participating last summer included; Israel, Russia, the Ukraine, France and the Netherlands. Israel’s delegation has traditionally been the largest international group, last year reaching 178 people, 156 campers and 22 staff. The total International delegation was over 200. Add to this the more than 300 Jewish youth from the U.K. and you have a wonderful Global Jewish Peoplehood experience. The program includes 9 days at camp and another 5 days exploring London..Throughout this entire 2 week experience, the participants form friendships with other Jewish youth, and enjoy a wide array of both individual and unique shared Jewish and overall experiences .JLGB Summer Camp and London Tour is perfect for groups that have been together during the year or a wonderful opportunity to forge new groups that can be active in your community.
Staff Team Exchange– This program brought together members of Migvanim’s professional staff along with the professional staff of the 92 Street Y 92nd Street Y.in New York. The program brought together these two diverse groups for joint training in both Ramat HaSharon and New York. Staff training included looking at best practices in each country which resulted in the development of shared “best practices”. In addition, time was spent brainstorming and developing potential new partnership projects. The plus of these projects being jointly developed in face to face meetings was the complete buy in from both staffs, which helped immensely during the implementation stage when staff felt overwhelmed by their regular work load, they knew they would be letting down a colleague who they now knew and worked with to create and develop the project being implemented. In addition to the departmental and program staffs meeting and working with each other, the two Center management teams went through a similar bonding experience and created a letter of understanding on the nature of the relationship and level of joint projects. The letter of understanding was approved by the Board of Directors of both Centers.
Shabbat Teddy Bear – Over several years, kindergartens in Ramat Hasharon, participated in a joint program with kindergartens Rosenthal JCCat the Rosenthal JCC ו- and Peninsula JCC. The American Community Centers sent Dubi (a stuff bear) to Israel and the Israeli Community Center sent another Dubi to the U.S. Centers. The teddy bears were hosted in different kindergartens and every Shabbat the bear would go home with one of the kindergarten children for a Shabbat experience with their family. After Shabbat, when Dubi returned back the classroom, the child would tell about their Shabbat experience with Dubi and their story would be captured through pictures, drawings, written stories, etc. Towards the end of the school year, the two partners would send their guest bear back to its original community along with the pictures, stories, drawings, etc., for the other children to see the many different and fascinating experiences their Dubi had visiting the other country. Kindergarten children and their families would send holiday cards and creations to one another and teachers exchanged information on different educational programs and activities. the program, a connection was made between the families and children of the kindergartens in Israel and the U.S. Connections were established between the teachers and through skype, the classes were able to celebrate Jewish holidays, life cycle events and learning opportunities.
Town Hall Town Hall– Based on the “Town Hall” model found in the United States, this program was created and developed to provide Israelis and American Jews an opportunity to talk openly with one another. The format of the program revolved around a panel discussion on a certain topic of interest to both community members. A panel of guest speakers was assembled in both countries with each Center having its own moderator. This was later changed to having 1 moderator in charge of both panels. The panel discussion was limited in time and then the floor was open to anyone in the audience. People could step up to the open mike and ask questions, comment on what they heard and respond to opinions expressed by members of the other community. Everyone was given a maximum of 2 minutes and knew that while they could and should feel free to disagree, it should be done in a respectful manner. It was truly amazing, interesting and eye opening to hear the comments of the two very diverse and in many ways different communities and cultures. 92 Street YTo help create a connection between the two groups, each hall had two large screens, one which showed the people sitting in the audience and one on the panel of the other country. Broadcasting was via Skype technology. This dual screen concept helped people connect with one another and have a sense of a more intimate experience. Even though we had two different audiences in Ramat Hasharon and New York, the Skype technology created a feeling of one audience. Staff and lay leadership from both communities help to choose topics that ranged from subjects including; Israel and the US relationship before the elections, Israeli-US relations, Israel-Diaspora relations, religion and pluralism to name a few. On and off. The program provided members from both communities to get a true sense and understanding of the feelings, thoughts and positions of the other community members.
Professional Staff Exchange Program – Both the 92nd Street Y and Migvanim had similar programmatic areas that they both specialized in and were proud of. Both Center’s realized that there was much to learn from each other’s professional staff and as a result created a “Professional Staff Exchange Program” that would send a ‘visiting’ staff member to their partner community. 92Y and Migvanim decided to do this in the area of dance. Each community chose one of its choreographers/Dance instructors to visit the other community for a 2 to 3 week period. During this time, they would do master classes, and work with a set group on a dance routine that both communities would perform at their end of the year dance recital programs. Using the wonders of technology, the 2 groups would perform the dance live in front of their audience, while behind them on a large screen would be the other community doing the same coordinated dance.
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3 Car Warranty Myths — Separating Fact From Fiction
A car warranty is a big part of the appeal of buying new or certified used. After all, knowing you’re off the hook for any major mechanical repairs during that initial period of ownership provides peace of mind.
Still, there’s a lot of disinformation floating around about what is and isn’t covered by a standard warranty, as well as what might cause that warranty to become void. Let’s clear the air with this look at three myths associated with vehicle warranties.
Warranty Myth #1 — You Can’t Perform Your Own Maintenance
You’re never required to return to the dealer for simple maintenance like oil changes. You’re free to choose any shop you like or perform it yourself, thanks to the Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act.
There are two major caveats here, however. The first is that you must follow the manufacturer’s specifications and instructions regarding maintenance to the letter, or you risk having future warranty claims denied. This means using the exact same type of oil specified in the manual at exactly the stated intervals, for example. It also means you must be able to prove that the work was both done and done properly. Your car’s maintenance history must be backed up by a receipt for the oil purchase, a logbook that you’ve kept yourself, or receipts from the shop that did the work.
Warranty Myth #2 — Everything is Covered
A car warranty, even one promoted as “bumper to bumper” — isn’t going to cover every potential issue that could crop up with your vehicle.
Common wear items such as light bulbs, air filters, brake pads, and wiper blades are typically left out, as they’re considered consumables, which will require regular replacement over the life of your vehicle. Some dealerships may offer a free maintenance package that will take care of these types of items for a specific period of time, but that’s usually separate from the warranty.
Warranty Myth #3 — Your Car Has a Single Warranty
It’s also important to realize that your car comes with different warranties that cover specific areas of the vehicle and last for different lengths of time. Your vehicle’s bumper-to-bumper warranty might last 36,000 miles, but the drivetrain warranty — which exclusively covers the engine and transmission — may extend all the way to 100,000 miles.
Then there’s the anti-corrosion, or perforation, warranty, which may cover serious rust but most likely won’t handle blemishes or surface rust, especially if it occurs on the upper portions of your vehicle. If you’re buying used, you may even be looking at a combination of the remaining original new-car warranty and the used warranty that overlaps or follows it. Make sure you stay on top of how long each warranty is in effect before considering making a claim.
If you know your warranty rights and fulfill your warranty obligations, you’ll get the most out of these consumer protections that come with your brand-new or certified-used vehicle.
Check out all the maintenance parts available on NAPA Online or trust one of our 17,000 NAPA AutoCare locations for routine maintenance and repairs. For more information on your new car warranty, chat with a knowledgeable expert at your local NAPA AUTO PARTS store.
Drum Brakes vs Disc Brakes: What's the Difference?
Car Air Conditioner Maintenance: 4 Troubleshooting Tips
Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act
when to buy a new car
Benjamin Hunting
Having been bitten by the car bug at a young age, I spent my formative years surrounded by Studebakers at car shows across Quebec and the northeastern United States. Over ten years of racing, restoring, and obsessing over automobiles lead me to balance science writing and automotive journalism full time. I currently contribute as an editor to several online and print automotive publications, and I also write and consult for the pharmaceutical and medical device industry.
Car Maintenance Checklist for the Long Haul
NAPA Knows New Cars: 2020 Jeep Gladiator
By Brian Medford
By NAPA Auto Parts
The Effect of Temperature on Battery Life
DIY Mechanic Quiz: How Good Are You?
Newest Know How
What Is a Brake Booster And Why Do You Need One?
Winter Woes: How to Open a Frozen Car Door Quickly
Diesel Fuel and Cold Weather: What You Need to Know
How Does an Engine Lubrication System Work?
5 Tips for Cleaning Snow off a Car
Reality Check: What Road Salt Is Really Doing to Your Car
9 Utility Trailer Upgrades to Get You Through Winter
Does Your Car Need Different Oil for Winter?
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Home / Posts tagged Kumho Tire
Local Gov’t, Enterprise and Educational Authorities Join Hands to Recycle Tires into Toys
GWANGJU, Apr. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Local governments, businesses and education authorities have joined hands in developing play education for teenagers by recycling old tires. Gwangsan District in the city of Gwangju said that it will sign a business agreement with Kumho Tire Co., South Korea’s second-largest tiremaker, and the Gwangju Educational Research Information Service [...]
April 16, 2019 | Culture & Society, Education, IDEA KOREA, Policies and Regulation, Top News | 0 Comments | Read More
Kumho Tire Brand, Management to Remain Intact After Acquisition
SEOUL, April 3 (Korea Bizwire) – Kumho Tire Co., South Korea’s second-biggest tiremaker by sales, said Tuesday it will continue to use its brand name and its management will remain independent after being acquired by China’s Qingdao Doublestar Co. “Doublestar has pledged to allow an independent management team to run Kumho Tire as was the case of the acquisition of Volvo by China’s Geely Automobile Holdings in 2010,” Kumho Tire said in a statement. “Back then, [...]
April 3, 2018 | Industries, Manufacturing | 0 Comments | Read More
S. Korea Firm Joins Bid for Kumho Tire
SEOUL, Mar. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — Tirebank, a midsized South Korean tire retailer, said Tuesday it will join the bid to acquire Kumho Tire Co., which China’s Qingdao Doublestar Co. seeks to take over from creditors. At a press conference in Daejeon, about 160 kilometers south of Seoul, the company’s chief Kim Jeong-kyu said the [...]
March 27, 2018 | Business, Industries, Management, Manufacturing, Top News | 0 Comments | Read More
Union Refuses to Meet Doublestar Chief Over M&A Plan
SEOUL, March 23 (Korea Bizwire) – Kumho Tire Co.’s union on Friday refused to meet with the chief of Qingdao Doublestar Co. over the Chinese firm’s plan to acquire the Korean tiremaker, raising the possibility of the company being placed under court receivership, the company said. Kumho Tire’s creditors are planning to sell the loss-making [...]
March 23, 2018 | Business, Industries, Manufacturing | 0 Comments | Read More
Kumho Tire Divided over Sell-Off to China’s Qingdao Doublestar
SEOUL, March 19 (Korea Bizwire) — GWANGJU, March 19 (Yonhap) — Unionized workers of Kumho Tire Co. vowed Monday to stage strikes this week as 1,500 white collar employees expressed their support for a plan by creditors to sell the debt-ridden company to a Chinese firm. The move laid bare the growing divisions in South Korea’s second-largest tiremaker over how to resolve the current difficulties stemming from [...]
Kumho Tire Chief Says M&A by Doublestar Essential for Survival
SEOUL, March 7 (Korea Bizwire) – The chief of Kumho Tire Co. said Wednesday that foreign acquisition of the financially troubled tiremaker is essential for its survival at this juncture despite objections raised by union workers. In a message sent to employees, Kumho Tire Chairman and Chief Executive Kim Jong-ho said the company “has no [...]
March 7, 2018 | Business, Industries, Manufacturing | 0 Comments | Read More
Kumho Asiana Chief Says Buying Back Tire Unit Not an Option
SEOUL, Nov. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — The chief of Kumho Asiana Group, an airline-to-construction conglomerate, said Tuesday he won’t buy back the conglomerate’s former tire unit Kumho Tire Co. now controlled by creditor banks. In a press conference held at its headquarters in Seoul, Kumho Asiana Chairman Park Sam-koo made it clear that the group [...]
November 28, 2017 | Business, Industries | 0 Comments | Read More
Kumho Tire Could Survive If Stakeholders Share Pain, KDB Chief Says
SEOUL, Sept. 20 (Korea Bizwire) - Kumho Tire Co. could survive if stakeholders of the beleaguered tiremaker agree to share the pain, the new head of the tiremaker’s top creditor bank said Wednesday, voicing an upbeat note about the tiremaker going forward. Lee Dong-gull, new governor of the state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB), however, told reporters that it was too early [...]
September 20, 2017 | Business, Industries, Manufacturing | 0 Comments | Read More
Hankook Tire Takes 7th Spot in Global Tire Market
SEOUL, Sept. 20 (Korea Bizwire) – Hankook Tire Co., South Korea’s leading tiremaker, ranked seventh in the global tire market last year in terms of revenue, and its smaller local rival Kumho Tire Co. took 14th, according to an industry report on Wednesday. Hankook Tire logged US$5 billion in sales last year, down 5.9 percent from a year earlier, according to the U.S.-based industry magazine TireBusiness. Its smaller local rival Kumho Tire Co. raked in sales of $2.4 billion last [...]
September 20, 2017 | Automotive, Business, Industries, Manufacturing | 0 Comments | Read More
Kumho Tire Submits Self-Rescue Plan to Creditors
SEOUL, Sept. 12 (Korea Bizwire) – Kumho Asiana Group, South Korea’s airline-to-construction conglomerate, said Tuesday it has submitted a self-rescue plan for its tire unit to creditors. The move comes as the creditors asked the group to prepare a self-help program for Kumho Tire Co. by 6:00 p.m. following the collapse of a deal to [...]
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The JUMP-SPIN Skating Academy
Home | Our Lessons | Contact Us | Our Location | Our Coaches
Many skaters like to know about our coaches. Here we will tell you a little about ourselves.
JO ANN Schneider Farris
Jo Ann Schneider Farris began ice skating in 1964. In 1975, she won a silver medal in the United States National Figure Skating Championships and became a United States Figure Skating Association Gold Medalist in 1976. In 1983, she began her career as an ice skating coach, and has trained skaters of all ages and levels. She lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado with her husband, Dan, and three children, Joel, Rebekah, and Annabelle. She teaches both ice and in-line skating. Jo Ann is a graduate of Colorado College, and holds a California Multiple Subjects Teaching Credential from California State University at Long Beach. Jo Ann is the author of How To Jump And Spin On In-Line Skates, the only book of its kind on in-line figure skating. She is also the Figure Skating Guide for Figure Skating at About.com. She home schools her own three children. When Jo Ann is not coaching skating or jumping and spinning on skates, she enjoys skiing, swimming, tennis, piano, music of all kinds, creating web sites, playing hockey, in-line skating outdoors with her family, bike riding, skate-skiing, reading, and playing and singing with her husband and children.
The JUMP SPIN SKATE Company
JUMP-SPIN SKATES!
Jo Ann is the owner of the JUMP-SPIN SKATE Company.
Click here for more info on THE JUMP-SPIN SKATE!
PAUL Steiner
Paul Steiner is a Professional Coach. He has been involved in skating for 40 years. He is a 27 year member of the Professional Skaters Association Paul is married to Judy who is a Curator for the Colordo Historial Society and also is a figure skating coach. He is a double gold medalist in figure skating and a 3 time National Senior competitor and top 10 finisher. Paul has also taught power hockey clinics for ice hockey around the state since 1985, and holds a Hockey level 1 and 2 certification from the PSA. He has also been involved in roller skating and in-line hockey and still coaches tennis and plays regularly. Paul is available to teach basic skills, dance, moves in the field, free style, pairs, power hockey, and in-line skating.
email Paul at: pwsteiner@qwest.net
Or you can reach him at: 303-791-0965
Buy the book that Jo Ann wrote!
How to Jump and Spin on In-Line Skates
Jo Ann Schneider Farris More Info
sk8@jumpspin.com
The JUMP-SPIN Skating Academy headquarters* 935 Saturn Drive #208* Colorado Springs, Colorado * US * 80906 * 719-527-1015
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Currently showing all landmarks · Only show landmarks with photos
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Aberdeen Historic District (Brown County, South Dakota)
Adam Clarke Nutt Mansion (Fayette County, Pennsylvania)
Adel Bridge (Dallas County, Iowa)
1882 King Bridge Company, Two-span, through truss bridge over North Raccoon River in Adel
Adelbert Hall, Case Western Reserve University (Cuyahoga County, Ohio)
Albert S. Piper Homestead Claim Shanty (Beadle County, South Dakota)
Alberta Mill Complex (Orange County, North Carolina)
Albion Carpet Mill (Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania)
Alexander Boyter House (Beaver County, Utah)
Alexander Doak Hall Farm (Sullivan County, Tennessee)
Alfred P. Fletcher Farmhouse (Yamhill County, Oregon)
American River Grange Hall No. 172 (Sacramento County, California)
Ann Arbor Central Fire Station (Washtenaw County, Michigan)
Arista Hoge House (Staunton, Virginia)
Arlington Hotel (Umatilla County, Oregon)
Ashton Methodist Church (Spink County, South Dakota)
Austin--Olson Farm (Minnehaha County, South Dakota)
Baer House (Baker County, Oregon)
Italianate Victorian house built 1882
Baker Octagon Barn (Otsego County, New York)
Baltimore County School No. 7 (Baltimore County, Maryland)
Bardwell's Ferry Bridge (Franklin County, Massachusetts)
Through truss bridge over Deerfield River on Bardwell's Ferry Road in Conway
Barrett Building (Walla Walla County, Washington)
Two story brick commercial building built in 1882
Beaver County Courthouse (Beaver County, Utah)
Beaverton Downtown Historic District (Washington County, Oregon)
Bell - Diamond Mine (Silver Bow County, Montana)
Underground copper, gold & silver mine operated 1882 - 1958
Bell, Isaac, House (Newport County, Rhode Island)
Bergan, W.N.--J.C. Lauber Co. Building (St. Joseph County, Indiana)
Bernhardt House (Rowan County, North Carolina)
Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church (Independence County, Arkansas)
Bethel AME Church (Cobb County, Georgia)
Big Red Ranch Complex (Sheridan County, Wyoming)
Billings Historic District (Yellowstone County, Montana)
Birches, The (Putnam County, New York)
Boardman-Webb-Bugg House (Travis County, Texas)
Bonita Store (Graham County, Arizona)
Borden, Ariadne J. and Mary A., House (Bristol County, Massachusetts)
Brethren in Christ Church (De Kalb County, Indiana)
Brewster Building (Sacramento County, California)
Brittian-Richardson & Co. Building (Buchanan County, Missouri)
This four-story red brick building is located at 224 N. 4th in St. Joseph, Mo.
Broken Bow Commercial Square Historic District (Custer County, Nebraska)
Budde--Singer Building (Henry County, Iowa)
Building at 23--27 S. Sixth Street (Vigo County, Indiana)
Burbach Block (Hampden County, Massachusetts)
C. C. Clement House (Otter Tail County, Minnesota)
C. C. Van Arsdol House (Asotin County, Washington)
C.L. Hoover Opera House (Geary County, Kansas)
Caldwell Farm (Franklin County, Missouri)
Calvary Presbyterian Church (Multnomah County, Oregon)
Calvin and Pamela Hale House (Thurston County, Washington)
Capt. James A. Hamilton House (Santa Clara County, California)
Carl Friedrick Gartner Homestead (Butte County, South Dakota)
Carl Koch Block (Winnebago County, Wisconsin)
Commercial building next to the Tayco Street bascule bridge
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Cattaraugus Village Commercial Historic District (Cattaraugus County, New York)
Central High School (Pueblo County, Colorado)
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Beautiful House, High on the Bluff, Overlooking the Mississippi River
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Clifton School (Baltimore, Maryland)
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Cloud State Bank (Hamilton County, Illinois)
Cochise Hotel (Cochise County, Arizona)
Coconino County Hospital Complex (Coconino County, Arizona)
Col. Isaac C. Elston House (Montgomery County, Indiana)
Colfax County Courthouse in Springer (Colfax County, New Mexico)
Columbus Junction School 1882-1920 (Louisa County, Iowa)
Columbus Transfer Company Warehouse (Franklin County, Ohio)
Congregational Church (Coos County, New Hampshire)
Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (New Haven County, Connecticut)
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Crafts William H., House (Portage County, Ohio)
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Cresta Blanca Winery (Alameda County, California)
Crookston Commercial Historic District (Polk County, Minnesota)
Crystal Valley Cemetery (El Paso County, Colorado)
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Cushing Land Agency Building (Polk County, Wisconsin)
D. H. Anderson Building (Jackson County, Iowa)
Dalton Brick Company (Christian County, Kentucky)
Dan River Inc. Riverside Division Historic District (Danville, Virginia)
Dayton Mercantile (Sheridan County, Wyoming)
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4 1/2 story brick mill, 3-story power house and ancillary buildings.
Dearborn County Asylum for the Poor (Dearborn County, Indiana)
Delaware County National Bank (Delaware County, Pennsylvania)
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Covered bridge over Mill Brook on Root Hill Road in Cornish
District No. 72 School (Dakota County, Minnesota)
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Don Gaspar Historic District (Santa Fe County, New Mexico)
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Dow-Rosenzweig House (Denver County, Colorado)
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Dr. G. S. Martin House (Jackson County, Iowa)
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Durango-Silverton Narrow-Gauge Railroad (Unspecified county, Colorado)
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E.W. Strickland House (Lumpkin County, Georgia)
Eagle Borax Works (Inyo County, California)
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Flagstaff Townsite Historic Residential District (Coconino County, Arizona)
Floral Hall (Fayette County, Kentucky)
Forrest J. Stimpson House (Cheboygan County, Michigan)
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France Memorial United Presbyterian Church (Carbon County, Wyoming)
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Frank G. Bloom House (Las Animas County, Colorado)
Frank P. Blair School (St. Louis, Missouri)
Fred Wallauer Farmhouse (Goodhue County, Minnesota)
Free Evangelical Lutheran Church--Bethania Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Congregation (Door County, Wisconsin)
Furnace Covered Bridge No. 11 (Columbia County, Pennsylvania)
G. A. Carlson Lime Kiln (Goodhue County, Minnesota)
G. E. Dilley Building (Anderson County, Texas)
Galena School (Lawrence County, South Dakota)
Garret and Julia Gray Cottage (Chaffee County, Colorado)
Geneva Downtown Commercial Historic District (Adams County, Indiana)
George Boardman Clark House (Cape Girardeau County, Missouri)
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Gilfillan (Redwood County, Minnesota)
Golden Brothers, Founders and Machinsts (Muscogee County, Georgia)
Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery (Clarke County, Georgia)
GRACE BAILEY (two-masted schooner) (Knox County, Maine)
Grace Episcopal Church (Washington County, Maine)
Grace Episcopal Church (Calhoun County, Alabama)
A historic Gothic Revival church.
Grand Union Hotel (Chouteau County, Montana)
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Great Sierra Wagon Road (Tuolumne County, California)
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Gruber Wagon Works (Berks County, Pennsylvania)
Gunlogson Farmstead Historic Site (Pembina County, North Dakota)
Hamilton House (Harrison County, Missouri)
Harlow Block (Multnomah County, Oregon)
Italianate 3 story Cast Iron & Masonry hotel built 1882
Harrisburg Odd Fellows Hall (Linn County, Oregon)
Hattie (Gold Bug), Priest and Silver Pine Mines and Stampmill (El Dorado County, California)
Hayes Bridge (Union County, Pennsylvania)
Covered bridge over Buffalo Creek on Hoover Road (TR 376)
Hayt--Wientge House (Santa Fe County, New Mexico)
Henderson Place Historic District (New York County, New York)
Henry A. Chapin House (Berrien County, Michigan)
Henry C. Wallace House (Madison County, Iowa)
Henry County Sheriff's Residence and Jail (Henry County, Ohio)
Henry Geilfuss House (San Francisco County, California)
Henry S. and Magdalena Schwedes House (Wabasha County, Minnesota)
Hiram B. Scutt Mansion (Will County, Illinois)
Holy Cross Parish District (St. Louis, Missouri)
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Hopper, Edward, Birthplace and Boyhood Home (Rockland County, New York)
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Hose and Hook and Ladder Truck Building (Litchfield County, Connecticut)
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House at 1239-1245 Scott Street (San Francisco County, California)
Howard Mortuary Chapel (Chittenden County, Vermont)
Huber Opera House (Defiance County, Ohio)
This page's URL is http://landmarkhunter.com/tag/4535-built-1882/
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Home / 2011 / ‘Whitey’ capture reward denied
‘Whitey’ capture reward denied
August 6, 2011 · by Jessica Fryman · in News, Published Work Gallery
Download a PDF of the story as it appeared in print
in the Las Vegas Review Journal.
By Jessica Fryman
A Las Vegas man is gearing up to sue the FBI for denying him a $2 million reward for his tip that he says led to the June capture of mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger.
Tipster Keith Messina learned this week that the FBI officially denied his claim for the reward in a statement that said the information he provided did not lead to Bulger’s arrest. Messina said several tidbits surrounding the treatment of his tip just don’t add up, including why the FBI’s denial letter was delivered more than two weeks after its July 13 date or why his tip was ignored.
“It’s kind of bogus,” Messina said. “For three years, (the FBI) decided to go all over the world and spend taxpayers money. In 2008, they would have had him, but they ignored my tip.”
Bulger, who led Boston’s Irish mob for decades, is suspected in connection with 19 slayings, money laundering, extortion and drug dealing, according to his profile on the “America’s Most Wanted” website. Bulger had been in hiding since 1995 and continuously had made the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List since 1999.
Messina said he saw Bulger on the Santa Monica, Calif., pier in June 2008 with a woman thought to be his longtime girlfriend, Catherine Greig. The couple were arrested at their residence a few blocks away three years later.
“Maybe someone just made a mistake,” Messina said on why his tip went ignored. “It goes into a pile. Maybe someone just didn’t realize it and tossed it somewhere else. Maybe they knew he was there and just ignored it.”
The FBI’s statement did not say why the information was not used for Bulger’s arrest. An FBI spokeswoman wouldn’t comment on the matter.
Reports show the reward money is for an unidentified woman in Iceland, a country of 320,000 where one newspaper editor said a secret that big would never stay quiet.
“If there is such a person that did the tip out there, split the reward at least,” Messina said. “It’s a very fishy story. … They don’t want to pay for it.”
Messina attorney Michael Gowdey said he is checking into options on how to proceed this week.
This story was originally published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal
on Aug. 6, 2011.
Original story on the Las Vega Review-Journal website.
Tags: FBI, James Bulger, Jessica Fryman, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Whitey
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The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the
U.S. government or Peace Corps.
Just a little about me
My name is Jessica Danielle Fryman, but I also answer to Fatoumata Camara.
I know three languages, the third being a tribal tongue less than one percent of the world speaks. I like to run even though I’m not that good at it. I read a lot. And I once published a book I wrote, setting all the type by hand on an old-fashioned printing press. I’m an avid traveler and amateur photographer. I’m also a master spider-killer and possess the ability to stalk my prey without the squeamish screams of my former urban life.
I’m originally from Las Vegas, a city with more people than the entire country where I currently live. I now reside in a two-room concrete house with a tin roof and a ceiling made of rice bags. I eat with my hand out of a shared food bowl. I walk down a dirt road to fetch my water and carry it home in a bucket on my head. And yes, I even poop in a hole in the ground.
About The Gambia
The Gambia, known as "The Smiling Coast of Africa," is the smallest country on the continent's mainland. Just 210 miles long and no more than 30 miles at its widest point, The Gambia carves out a space in Senegal on either side of the picturesque Gambia River.
Although many regional languages are spoken, the official language is English. A majority of the 1.8 million people are Muslim. About a third of the population lives below the international poverty line on less than US $1.25 per day.
What time is it in The Gambia?
Copyright © 2020 >> jessicafryman.com
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LUCY TAN author
Bio Currently Reading
Book Book Club
Longlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize
Named one of the Best of Books of 2018 by The Washington Post, Refinery 29, and Amazon
A Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection
One of Amazon's "Best Books of July"
One of Publishers Weekly's "Best Books of Summer 2018"
One of Huffington Post's "60 Most Anticipated Reads of 2018"
In stores now! Click below to order
After years of chasing the American dream, the Zhen family has moved back to China. Settling into a luxurious serviced apartment in Shanghai, Wei, Lina, and their daughter, Karen, join an elite community of Chinese-born, Western-educated professionals who have returned to a radically transformed city.
One morning, in the eighth tower of Lanson Suites, Lina discovers that a childhood keepsake, an ivory bracelet, has gone missing. The incident contributes to a wave of unease that has begun to settle throughout the Zhen household. Wei, a marketing strategist, bows under the guilt of not having engaged in nobler work. Meanwhile, Lina, lonely in her new life of leisure, assumes the modern moniker taitai--a housewife who does no housework at all. She spends her days haunted by the circumstances surrounding her arranged marriage to Wei and her lingering feelings for his brother, Qiang. Lina and Wei take pains to hide their anxieties, but their housekeeper, Sunny, a hardworking girl with secrets of her own, bears witness to their struggles. When Qiang reappears in Shanghai after decades on the run with a local gang, the family must finally come to terms with the past.
From a silk-producing village in rural China, up the corporate ladder in suburban America, and back again to the post-Maoist nouveau riche of modern Shanghai, WHAT WE WERE PROMSED explores the question of what we owe to our country, our families, and ourselves.
"What We Were Promised glows through its intimate, skillful prose. Tan’s debut is a beautiful reckoning with the ever-changing definition of “home” – what it means to have, lose and find family again." USA Today
"A luminous family saga." Entertainment Weekly
"Tan's talent as a storyteller clearly shines through her strong plot lines and characterization; readers will want to know more about each well-crafted player in the story . . . . A novel of class, culture, and expectations; readers who enjoyed works like Kevin Kwan's Crazy Rich Asians will likely find Tan's surprising and down-to-earth tale an entertaining read." Library Journal
"Against a contemporary global backdrop, made empathic with a multigenerational family saga, embellished with timeless servant/master (and mistress) class conflict, Tan’s debut will be entertaining – and enlightening – savvy cosmopolitan readers throughout the summer and beyond." Christian Science Monitor
"The real joy of this book is getting lost in the characters, some of whom will remain with you long after you have finished the novel. Lucy Tan is an author to watch." Omnivorous: The Amazon Book Review
"As the narrative jumps across decades and continents, it throws the rural villages and urban skylines, as well as the lives of locals and aloof ex-patriates into sharp relief." TIME
"Tan examines the tension behind the facade of the moneyed lifestyle in a still-evolving post-Mao Shanghai, where everyone seems to be an expat in their own country." Kirkus Reviews
"Tan’s novel is a vivid family chronicle, a compelling mystery, and an incisive look at wealth and privilege among Chinese-born, American-educated citizens." Publishers Weekly
"With its measuring of expectation against reality, What We Were Promised establishes Tan as a new talent with a sharp eye for the intricacies of human relationships." Shelf Awareness
"Tan’s first novel is beautiful and compassionate as it explores how identity is reinvented and the importance of confronting the past to move into the future." Booklist
"I read What We Were Promised in a state of enchantment... Compassionate and heartbreaking, funny and wise, local and universal, What We Were Promised marks the arrival of an inspiring new voice."
Chloe Benjamin, best-selling author of The Immortalists and The Anatomy of Dreams
"Lucy Tan brings to vibrant life the self-made, newly cosmopolitan Zhens, who have gone from the tea fields and silk factories of small town China to the luxury high rises of Shanghai in one generation. Abounding in insight and deftly told, What We Were Promised is a story both sweeping and intimate, as this most modern of families discovers they must confront their past in order to find their future."
Maggie Shipstead, best-selling author of Astonish Me and Seating Arrangements
"Brilliant... a revelatory novel about the ways that we learn to become and reinvent who we are. Lucy Tan has an exquisite talent for depicting the painful gravity of lost possibilities, even in a story that moves forward with such momentum that you can’t look away."
Danielle Evans, PEN award-winning author of Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self
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Archived News for Professionals in Local Government - April, 2013
Flood repair applications nears $1 billion
The Queensland Government has announced that the state’s councils have applied for nearly $1 billion worth of funding from the $80 million Betterment Fund initiative.
Queensland Government goes to war with flying foxes
The Queensland Government has once again devolved into shrieking, bellicose rhetoric in continuing its self-proclaimed ‘war on green tape’ after State Environment Minister, Andrew Powell, announced changes to the management of flying fox roosts in urban areas.
Queensland receives final audit report
The Queensland Government has published its official response to the impressive 155 recommendations contained within the much awaited Independent Commission of Audit’s Final Report.
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The Tasmanian Government has announced the passing of legislation through the State Parliament which delivers protection for 137,000 hectares of forest with high conservation value, including the iconic areas of Tyenna, Hastings, Picton and the Upper Florentine.
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The Queensland Government has declared 13 Local Government Areas drought stricken, which collectively represent a third of the entire state.
Sydney named Australia's densest
Sydney is home to all four of the nation’s most densely populated areas, all surrounding the city’s central business district according to the latest figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
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Panel hands down local government review paper
The NSW Independent Local Government Review Panel has handed down its discussion paper into the proposed future directions of the state’s local government sector.
Report details value of local government research
Local government bodies stand to gain significant strategic benefits from establishing an in-house research team, according to a new discussion paper released by the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government (ACELG).
Report dismisses Port climate fears
Residents around Port Phillip Bay will not have to evacuate in the face of climate change, a new report has conclusively proven.
Tasmania releases climate discussion paper
Tasmanians now have the opportunity to help form the State Government’s climate change following the release of a new issues paper.
Healthier cities healthier people finds UQ
Australians will be happier, healthier and safer if they look after the nature spots in their cities, new research from the University of Queensland (UQ) has found.
Victoria releases buying best practice guidelines
The Victorian Government has promised that rate payers will be getting the ‘best value’ following the release of the Victorian Local Government Best Practice Procurement Guidelines 2013.
Audit outlines councils' funding troubles
A new report from Queensland’s Auditor General has found that the state’s councils are facing heightened financial difficulties as successive State Government policies hit hard.
NSW releases new planning paper
The New South Wales Government has announced the release of a new Planning White Paper, which Premier Barry O’Farrell says will result in the ‘biggest overhaul of the State’s planning system in over 30 years’.
Queensland flood damage tops $2.5 billion
Queensland is looking to foot a $2.5 billion clean up bill for the flood events of 2013, according to State Treasurer Tim Nicholls.
Queensland outlines new building code
The Queensland Government has outlined a new building code which it says will save homeowners up to $2,000 and will streamline the development application process for building over, or near, sewers, water mains and stormwater drains on domestic home sites.
Tasmania postpones elections
The Tasmanian Government has announced it will postpone the state’s local government elections to coincide with major reforms in the sector.
Dividend decision sparks angry response
The Queensland Government’s decision to withdraw water dividends and tax equivalent payments has provoked an angry response from Gladstone Regional Council, who has accused the Government of a $4.19 million per annum grab’.
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William D. Routt (i)
AM writes:
Philip is keen to have a session on anime and other issues Japanese [for the World Cinema Now Conference held at Monash University, 27-29 September 2011] – and how he thinks its main currents are being overlooked in Western discourse. You wouldn't have to speak along those lines specifically, but could I tempt you to share a panel – just you and him – on contemporary anime, where you both get about 40 minutes to present/speak?
WR writes to AM:
As for the title/brief description [of my paper] … well, as you might expect, Philip and I have not actually talked or even corresponded. I have to think about a title, although the brief description will be easier (providing, of course, Philip isn't doing the exact same thing … I have a bit of my presentation planned in which I point out how I have been shadowing Philip since at least 1989 and that every time our paths have crossed I have ended up doing something that in effect has prepared me for this panel) …
Maybe you ought to forward what is below to Philip before rushing into print.
WR writes:
Anime Listening Drawing
I will endeavour to sketch out a way of understanding anime by sensing it as sound or music – that is, in listening of a sort – wilfully misunderstanding and misusing some ideas of Jean-Luc Nancy's in the process. This approach is intended to suggest that what anime does is only occasionally what ‘world cinema’ in general does, and also to indicate why I like the one and have pretty much given up on the other.
PB writes:
How Anime Fucks The World (And You With It)
‘The World’ in anime is far from being of such a grand scale. ‘The World’ in anime is infinitesimally immediate, close, connected. It is so near the pores of your skin, the slightest move it makes is amplified to a cosmically debilitating scale. This is why ‘the world’ ends again and again in anime. It ends because the planetary – and all its grand metaphors – is nothing compared to your connection with it. ‘World Cinema’ is an inverse construct: it claims to be of a world for those who think there is such a thing beyond them in the first place. Anime lives in a perpetual ground zero, where the world maybe happened once, but where its actuality is now and forever more the cyclical occurrence of not being allowed to happen again. And anime is very, very happy with that. (This talk will include a scene from FLCL.)
(i) Most of the written text of this piece was first presented at the World Cinema Now conference held in Melbourne, 27-29 September 2011. I had begun to prepare a slide show to (as I thought) accompany the paper but had not been able to implement it properly. When I put this version together I realised that the visuals were far from being an accompaniment, and were in fact integral to what I had written. I was writing pictures as well as words all the time, quoting them silently as I quoted Jean-Luc Nancy out loud; the visual-free conference presentation had betrayed the intended text. So what you read here is what I ought to have done … better than I would have done it then. I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Adrian Martin for having arranged the panel at which I and Philip Brophy presented papers, and having urged me to persist in preparing a publishable version. Special thanks are also due to Philip, for reasons which will become apparent to the reader. Thanks also to Anna Dzenis, who is always going above and beyond the call of duty for her friends, to Judy Routt for listening and looking a lot, and to virtually everyone to whom I spoke and sometimes heard at the conference, and especially to Nicole Brenez, Elena Gorfinkel (and Béla Tarr), Vinzenz Hediger, and Meaghan Morris (and Cynthia Rothrock) and all those people I had not seen for such a long time (and, always, Diane).
My research for this paper began with a wonderful, and changing, list of the top anime by Mecha Guignol. That research has continued into the present at the Anime News Network Australian website:where Usagi Drop had just streamed its final episode as I completed the conference paper. And finally that research has been fuelled by what I have found at Anime DVD Plaza in Malaysia and what I have been able to obtain from Madman in Australia. To both these retailers I owe a big debt of gratitude (and so do my wife, my children and my grandchildren).
Disco. In 1981 Philip Brophy wrote a piece on disco that asked the musical question, ‘What is This Thing called Disco?’, then I wrote a piece called ‘Disco Hoodoo’ on disco as an escape from slavery. (ii)
(ii) Philip Brophy, ‘What is This Thing Called Disco’, Art & Text No. 3 (Spring 1981), pp. 59-66. William D. Routt, ‘Disco Hoodoo: 20 Paragraphs for RFT’, Art & Text No. 3 (Spring 1981), pp. 76-79.
Soundtrack. Philip Brophy began writing about sound in 1989, (iii) and I heard him talk about his sound design for Body Melt in 1993. Then, much later, I began to include bits on sound and sound design in what I wrote. (iv)
(iii) Philip Brophy, ‘Film narrative / narrative film / music narrative / narrative music’, Cinema Papers 71 (1989).
(iv) ‘Pieces’, Screening The Past 10 (June 2000).
Anime. Philip Brophy started talking about anime beginning in 1991 and publishing on the topic in 1994. (v) Under the influence of what I read and particularly of the 1994 Kaboom! exhibition that he curated and the volume he edited for the exhibition, I began to write about anime, starting around 1995 – and that piece was not published until 2007. (vi) He has written a lot more about anime than I have.
(v) Philip Brophy, ‘Apocalyptic Scenarios in Japanese Pop Culture’ (talk: 41st Melbourne International Film Festival, 1991); and ‘Ocular Excess: A Semiotic Morphology of Cartoon Eyes’ in his edited book, Kaboom! (Museum of Art, Sydney, 1994).
(vi) ‘De Anime’, paper for the Second International Animation Conference, Sydney, 3-5 March 1995.
I am telling you all this so that you realise that what you will read here is very much in the wake of Philip, not in advance of him – but not so much tracking him as awash, yawing all over the pond, while he sails always already ahead and on course.
Experience. Peripherals. Universe.
Actually, my experience with anime is not at all the result of the heavy swell that Philip Brophy has splashed over my life. The experience does, however, run uncannily parallel to my experience of Australia.
On the way to Australia in 1976 – that is, in a state of limbo – our family first saw anime on LA television, indeed on Japanese language TV. A former work colleague, significantly an ex-pat New Zealander, had a five-year-old son who was hooked on Yuusha Raideen (1975-76)
and we watched an incredibly dynamic and terribly confusing episode with him. Immediately we went out and bought a gigantic toy Yuusha Raideen for the kids.
But, on our arrival in Australia, there was disappointment. No anime on TV, and only a handful of (smaller) related toys in stores.
More than a decade later I saw fan-subbed videos of Bubblegum Crisis (1987-91)
Dominion Tank Police (1988)
and the Appleseed OVA (1988)
There began a continuing off-and-on interest, fuelled in part by manga, especially as manga became available in English language versions from US companies like Viz. Shops like Hobby Japan sold fan-subbed videotapes while English translations of manga, and even some issues in Japanese, could be found at Minotaur and Alternate Worlds. And, of course, there was Akira (1988) in the cinemas
and, much later, Neon Genesis: Evangelion (1995-96) on SBS television (1999).
What was my experience, then?
First of all, my experience was of ‘peripherals’, that is, pretextual and contextual materials of anime. Yuusha Raideen was condensed down into one mecha toy, and that was anime for ten years or more. Hobby Japan mainly sold acrylic models of anime and manga characters. And manga made another, parallel world for me – clearly related, sometimes overlapping. I was aware of the pervasive significance of manga in Japanese culture but not, at that time, of the similar (and growing) significance of anime. At any rate, manga became part of my comics culture, which had been mainly French and retro US; and among the manga I remember there were especially Kishiro's Alita
Koike & Kojima's Lone Wolf
Sonoda's Gunsmith Cats
Asamiya's Steam Detectives
and, much later, anything by CLAMP –
all of which have generated anime echoes.
Thus, I became aware of a whole lot of mostly Japanese things with some kind of generic tie to anime or manga: plastic models, J-pop, ornaments, Hello Kitty – and later, certain Japanese video games, ball-jointed dolls and Cosplay.
PERIPHERALS SLIDE SHOW
There is a similarity here, which should not go unremarked, between these peripherals and the fan merchandising generated by Charlie Chaplin,
and Shirley Temple
(to name only three notable early examples).
Still, anime was not quite behaving in the way it is assumed classical Hollywood cinema behaves, for even those 'golden age' Hollywood-related merchandising efforts are – mostly juvenile – exceptions to the mainstream.
How to understand this difference?
The idea of so-called peripherals is a clue, because it seems to me that the manga, toys, songs, figures, role-playing are actually not at all peripheral to anime in the way that they usually are to mainstream world cinema. Anime is not stories but a universe: anime universe (and that is not ‘world cinema’). This is a universe characterised by its variety and its fungibility. The sticky fabric of this universe is always tearing: destroying and revealing. And this universe does not generate meaning or a message. No: It. Makes. Sense.
I am sorry to be using ‘universe’, an even bigger word than ‘world’ (not to mention ‘sense’, an even fuzzier word than ‘meaning’), to suggest points of difference between what this essay is about and what ‘world cinema’ is about. It sounds as though I am claiming anime is more than world cinema, when all I am suggesting is that world cinema is less than anime. World cinema is Only One Thing, whereas anime universe is just one of an infinite number of universes dotting resonant strings.
Anime universe is a universe of immediacy (as Philip writes), a universe of touching, that touches you, interrupts you, distracts you, shreds you – a universe where you are forever looking in another direction. You do not have to dress up to dress up in anime. You do not have to own a Hello Kitty figure to possess a Hello Kitty figure, to have heard J-pop to have listened to it and so on – just as, in the Real World, you do not have to wear a suit to be a suit, to eat at McDonalds to know a Big Mac, to have listened to Kurt Cobain to be dead again. (And, of course, anime universe generates a bubble that can float within the worldly universe, the world cinema universe, while it tears it and is torn by it). (vii)
Now you understand why disco is a key step in understanding anime – because disco signifies something more than a pop music style. It was, even is, a way of dressing and moving, a way of understanding how things work – in short, an alternate world, if not a universe. Music often works like that. If anime distinguishes itself from musical worlds like disco, it is very much because of its cosmic ambition, the way in which it insists on going beyond the everyday and into space, fantasy, the past, madness. Anime shares the aspiration of symbolism – or any other form of mysticism – to change the conditions of existence itself, to reawaken, to look again.
(vii) I am sorry to be using the word ‘bubble’ as well, because I do not want you to believe that I am indirectly summoning the spirit of Peter Sloterdijk through it, but ‘bubble’ it is.
This would be the place to say something about Genshiken (2004) and Welcome to the N.H.K. (2006), two anime series that deal fairly directly with the idea of an anime universe through the characters of otako, stone fans. And the thing for me to say is that these series deal explicitly with that universe as it intersects with, runs parallel to, and glances off of, an everyday ‘normal’ world. Such a consciousness of itself as difference bears witness to the deliberate fabrication of the anime universe by its inhabitants. (viii)
(Genshiken)
(viii) In the context of the tendency of this paper, it is unfortunate that one reviewer of Welcome to N.H.K. wrote, ‘This is more than just anime. This is film’. (James Brusuelas, qtd. In Wikipedia). I have to say that this quote put me right off actually watching the series.
Listening to Anime
Anime, at least as I understand it, is television and television is broadcasting.
‘Broadcasting is the wireless distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via broadcast radio, broadcast television, or other’ the Wikipedia says and I guess most others would agree.
This is the point where things start making sense to me, but I fear you will think that it is the point where I start losing the plot (both are true). Anime, then, is first of all television, which is as they used to say, a broadcast medium. Hollywood movies are film, by contrast at least, a narrowcast medium. Anime, as replicated in its peripherals, ripples out in waves like soundwaves almost accidentally encountering an audience among the billions over which it washes. Hollywood movies draw an audience in, just as a visual attraction draws the gaze: they are centripetal, not centrifugal in the way that anime tends to be. A movie targets a viewer, each movie pretends to be only one and crafted for a particular person, pretends it is a fishing line even when it is actually a net woven to fit only some species of fish. A movie depends, then, on the idea that it has prior, hidden knowledge worthy of making it the destination of your pilgrimage; a movie wants you to go home with it. Anime, on the other hand, is wandering through the crowd with its hand out, ‘Please take me home to your house’. Mostly no one takes any notice. But anime is always there for you to pick up.
Anime is like what you hear in this way, where film is like what you see.
There is a distinction I guess I ought to make between empirical essentialism (which is what my distinction between anime and films may seem to be) and making distinctions between differing ideas of cultural objects (which is what I intend that distinction to be). I am not advocating some kind of material determinism on the order of ‘anime/television is essentially this, world cinema/film is essentially this’. Rather, it seems that the history of cinema takes a forked road here. The Japanese anime path diverges from the world cinema superhighway in conjunction with the development and success of anime television since the early 1960s. It leads anime in quite different directions from those taken by world cinema in general and Hollywood specifically. I will be taking up some of these ideas a bit later on.
Now let Jean-Luc Nancy tell us something of listening. That is the English title of one his short books, published in France in 2002.
(À l'écoute title page with sanctioned marginalia)
2002 was the year of Azumanga Daioh
and Haibene Renmei
À l'écoute was finally published in English (with the addition of some related essays) in 2007.
2007 was the year of Baccano!
Toward the Terra
and Moyashimon. (ix)
(ix) Jean-Luc Nancy, Listening (New York: Fordham University Press, 2007 [2002]).
Here is how sound manifests itself in listening, according to Nancy.
Sound essentially comes and expands, or is deferred and transferred. Its present is thus not the instant of philosophico-scientific time … sonorous time takes place immediately according to a completely different dimension, which is not that of simple succession … It is a present in waves on a swell, not in a point on a line; it is a time that opens up, that is hallowed out, that is enlarged or ramified, that envelops or separates, that becomes or is turned into a loop, that stretches out or contracts, and so on. (13)
He is writing about a continuous ocean of sound – OR what happens as we try to understand what it is to be listening. I want to make the distinction signalled by OR because, clearly, I am trying to suggest that listening is a mode of experience, a way of apprehending a wide variety of phenomena, not sound alone. If we try to think about existing in the midst of waves we may understand the universe in a different way than if we think we are each of us points on a plane. By using the metaphor of ‘a universe’ in conjunction with anime, I was trying to suggest that anime evokes, hints at, that different experience parallel to listening.
[And perhaps for other reasons it is important to note that anime may evoke such a response in gaijin like me because of its difference: its different visual style, its different language, the different culture(s) it represents, the different kinds of peripherals it generates and is generated by. The experience of anime perhaps overwhelms me in its difference. Surrounded by so much difference one attempts to understand it in the way one might attempt to understand Japan if one were suddenly displaced into it as in an endless ocean.]
While I was thinking about, researching and writing the conference paper about which this piece is based (and again while I was revising and rewriting for publication) my ears were congested, rendering me partially deaf. It is strange how such an experience isolates one. I was withdrawn from those among whom I live, as though I had become a ghost. Sound is what connects me to everything around me, it is the phenomenological manifestation of community or ‘a universe’.
Nancy writes that ‘sonorous time takes place’, suggesting that sound and time have a special relation and that what he might call (but doesn't) ‘time-space’ is significantly different from ‘space-time’. In phrases like the ones Nancy uses, we are ourselves displaced without moving; around us the worldly universe, the ‘known universe’, shifts into something that does not lend itself so easily to understanding and the way we commonly think and communicate.
The sonorous present is the result of space-time: it spreads through space, or rather it opens a space that is its own, the very spreading out of its resonance, its expansion and its reverberation. This space is immediately omni-dimensional and transversate through all spaces: the expansion of sound through obstacles, its property of penetration and ubiquity, has always been noted. (13)
Yet it is also the case that sound is familiar, even intimate. We are at home, cushioned as well as assaulted by sound. If we do not, cannot, speak of it effectively, this does not mean that we do not experience it every moment; only that language tends to have become tied to vision, at least for those of us in the Occident, those of us who consider ourselves educated – enlightened. It is only that in listening we are, it often seems, lost to language.
Being lost to language ought not mean being lost to expression, lost to communication, lost to system or structure. Of course, sound expresses, sound communicates, sound structures. And of course not everything we see is language either, language fails before any number of visual experiences; and, within language, a poem or a common metaphor can rob us of the language to engage with it. As Nancy writes, ‘The difference between cultures, the difference between the arts, and the difference between the senses are the conditions, and not the limitations, of experience in general, just as the mutual intricacy of these differences is, as well’ (11). If, then, I extend what Nancy calls listening to a broader sensing, the idea that the apparently terribly visual anime universe can be productively understood in terms of sound may not seem quite so perverse as perhaps it did before.
Listening extends and ‘intends’ the idea of a universe – placing that phenomenon within as well as without – which is to say, ‘resounding’. So that indeed in the anime universe, as Philip writes, intimacy is coterminous with the cosmos, the one always acting as a limit, a critique of the other. The effect of the critique or caricature effected by anime listening is to at once contract and extend the ‘normal’ perception of self and world – that is, to confuse it and fuck it up. I ask, ‘In what way am I a Japanese cartoon? If not, why not? If so, why so?’ It is not so much a question of why those crazy things happen in anime as why don't they happen to me. And what would I be if they did?
Re-Sounding
Peripherals sweep out from what point? Not from a film, or even a television program – rather, the film or program is a peripheral to something else: a character, a diegesis – something that cannot be given a point in time and space and which is (paradoxically?) peripheral to the anime universe.
Nancy makes much use of the idea that sound ‘resounds’, returns. In the anime listening universe that I am describing, resonance predominates, every phenomenon sounds and resounds. Indeed, this is one of the reasons I was struck by the similarity of what Nancy describes and the universe of anime. The anime peripherals I listed before all resonate with each other, all bump into one another, all penetrate each other, even themselves, so also the voices, the songs, the conventions, the styles, the stories, the defining moments, the slitting, squeezing and piercing.
This is a universe of neverending fungibility. Anime, like sound, propagates through a mechanics of the fungible: that is, it re-sounds, replaces itself and parts of itself by simulacra.
The ‘influence’ of any singular sound or other facet of the anime universe is complicated by its rolling out in a universe of plural resounding sounds/facets. I think this can be seen fairly readily in those elements of anime which have been, from time to time, used in world cinema (like mecha robots), but perhaps most clearly of all in the complicated international relationship between post-war westerns (US and European), Hong Kong martial arts movies and the Japanese samurai genre – which has little, if anything, to do with anime.
Here is Nancy on (Western) music:
But nothing is more remarkable, in this order of consideration and experience, than the history of music, more than any other artistic technique, in the course of the twentieth century: the internal transformations following Wagner, the increasing importations of references outside of music labeled ‘classical,’ the arrival of jazz and its transformations, then that of rock and all its variations up to their present hybridizations with ‘scholarly’ music, and throughout all these phenomena the major transformation of instrumentation, down to the electronic and computer production of sounds and the remodeling of schemes of sonority (timbres, rhythms, notations) which itself is contemporaneous with the creation of a global sonorous space or scene whose extraordinarily mixed nature – popular and refined, religious and profane, old and recent, coming from all continents at once – all this has no real equivalent in other domains. (11-12)
‘No real equivalent in other domains’?, but he might be writing about the cinema. Or, perhaps I ought to say, ‘something of the same things can be said of the cinema’, because indeed Jean-Luc Nancy would not be writing that about the cinema. And by ‘the cinema’, yes, I mean the whole mess, the Big Picture, du cinéma en général et du son corps en particulier. Tactically, I really ought not to put Nancy's quote here because comparing what he says of music to what can be said of the cinema in general calls into question quite a lot (maybe everything) I seem to be writing and will continue to write in this paper. But then, you need to know that I lie a lot, mostly when I am writing, because writing makes no place to resound, to say everything.
Experience: (Sound) Flattening.
Nancy on sound (again) to act as a transition from one dimension of experience to another.
Sound has no hidden face, it is all in front, in back, and outside-inside, inside-out in relation to the most general logic of presence as appearing, as phenomenality or as manifestation, and thus as the visible face of a presence subsisting in self. Something of the theoretical and intentional scheme tuned to optics vacillates around it. To listen is to enter that spatiality by which, at the same time, I am penetrated, for it opens up in me as well as around me, and from me as well as toward me: it opens me inside me as well as outside, and it is through such a double, quadruple, or sextuple opening that a ‘self’ can take place. To be listening is to be at the same time outside and inside, to be open from without and from within, hence from one to the other and from one in the other. Listening thus forms the perceptible singularity that bears in the most ostensive way the perceptible or sensitive (aisthetic) condition as such: the sharing of an inside/outside, division and participation, de-connection and contagion. ‘Here, time becomes space,’ is sung in Wagner's Parsifal. (13-14)
I am giving you that passage at this point because it describes for sound what I sense in my audio-visual experience of anime.
So, for me, anime suggests flat, animated drawings: thin versus thick, ‘all in front, in back, and outside-inside, inside-out’. Flat, yes, but as I understand it, by no means Superflat, a capitalised descriptor applied to a particular attitude toward contemporary Japanese culture. For Superflat purports to find something (ugly) beneath the surface, beyond the frame, and I can discern nothing there. The flatness I am thinking of is the experience of Arietty, the Borrower (2011) versus that of Tangled (2010): Ghibli versus Disney/Pixar.
I mean also a two-dimensional soundtrack, sound on the surface, not much if any echo or reverb, not much space or breadth. Mundane sound maybe, economical or efficient, no ambient noise (what noise could there be in a drawing?). In mecha anime and magical girl series Japanese voice acting makes the soundtrack parallel the artifice of the drawing: the point being that, of course, real people do not talk the way they do in Sailor Moon (1992-93) or R.O.D. (2001). In anime, musical sound plays a decorative, stylistic role as much, more than, a narrative one; theme songs dialogue with the anime they border.
Most anime is characterised by television production values and what is termed ‘limited animation’: consider the wonderful first series of Astro Boy in its stark black and white,
or the flat still dragons in Record of the Lodoss War (1990).
Limited animation is now regarded as one of the strengths of anime, a register of expression for auteurs. Limited animation can look ‘cheap’: drawings of actants floating or gliding instead of walking, no one moving in the background, reiterated shots and sequences, mouths moving soundlessly, voices speaking while faces are turned away, so many still images animated by voice. So much stillness. So much held back. So much lacking. Such restraint.
And so much repeated, so much convention – such fulsome reiteration. The duel sequences in Revolutionary Girl Utena
and all the costume transformation scenes for magical girls, like
and Princess Tutu; (x)
(x) There are a couple of compilations of magical girl transformations on YouTube which illustrate, without necessarily intending to, common elements and forms of this complex motif as well as the cleverness and talent of some of those who have undertaken its variations.
the standard opening and closing pop songs and title sequences done in fashionable styles by singers and groups with the right kind of image; and so on (Usagi Drop).
School (Sunday Without God),
clubs (Genshiken),
dubious projects – political, social, economic, cultural (Serial Experiments: lain);
androgynous figures (Toward the Terra);
boys with deep social issues (Astro Boy),
girls with deadly skills (Cowboy Be-Bop),
cute nonhuman creatures, many of them cats (Revolutionary Girl Utena),
depraved viewers (Genshiken);
hair colour (xi) and style (Angel Beats!),
(xi) see here and here
(Mushishi)
(New Dominion Tank Police)
(Gankutsuou)
(Eccentric Family)
(The hair says everything about this character, including that he is really a tengu).
And then there are eyes: big (Astro Boy)
(Darker Than BLACK)
medium (Darker Than BLACK),
small (Darker Than BLACK)
even ‘realistic’ (Gankutsuou).
‘Ocular excess’ (Philip's words):
(Steam Detectives)
(The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)
(FLCL)
Mouths: small, toothy, huge (Darker than BLACK)
(Bubblegum Crisis)
(Record Of The Lodoss War).
Hair, eyes, mouths and colour are sometimes used together to create drama far exceeding mere narrative decoration (Baccano!)
There are ideographs of banality as well as drama/character: banal food (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)
(Cowboy Be-Bop)
banal clutter (Ano Hanna)
banal interiors (Angel Beats!)
(R.O.D.)
banal cityscapes (R.O.D.)
More or less genre-specific conventional gestures and actions: the evil laugh (xxxHolic, pronounced ‘holic’ in accordance with the romanji, ‘horikku’),
the embarrassing moment (Genshiken)
the outstretched arm (Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)
the face of rage (Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi)
and many visual and aural conventions having to do with fighting. These are but two.
(xxxHolic)
(Samurai Champloo)
All of these limiting conditions thin out or flatten the experience at the same time that they surround us with it. Like sound, the limited animation of anime ‘has no hidden face’, but to experience it is, as Nancy writes, ‘to enter that spatiality by which, at the same time, I am penetrated, for it opens up in me as well as around me, and from me as well as toward me: it opens me inside me as well as outside, and it is through such a double, quadruple, or sextuple opening that a 'self' can take place’
– or, as I understand it, this is how anime fucks us.
(Black Lagoon)
Experience: Drawing (Writing).
Suppose the history of the cinema were not the history of photography in motion but the history of drawing in motion. Suppose it were first animation. (xii)
Looking at the DVD collection of ‘early’ (mostly 1930s) Japanese animation released by Digital Meme (xiii), first I noticed the two-dimensionality of the images, so like the same qualities of early European and American (and Australian) animation. But then I realised that the real value of the collection as a whole is that it demonstrates convincingly that ‘limited animation’ is not simply the product of post-war ‘television animation’ in Japan, but historically the very condition of the possibility of animation for Japanese cinema: all the films in the four disc collection are ‘limited animation’.
The films themselves are open in their debt to ‘Western’ influences but, at the same time, quite clearly and deliberately exploring ways of animating Japanese subjects and styles.
They treat their medium as animated drawing, but Japanese drawing:
(Sanko And The Octopus, 1933)
(xii) Nancy has written (of course!) a book on drawing, a wonderful book which is quite à propos. He compares drawing with sound. He understands how we are drawn up and out within it. He has collected a ‘sketchbook’ of quotations without which one would not be. For him, I would say, drawing is animation, already animation. Sometimes in his book drawing becomes what is called, by some interested in the theory and practice of criticism for the cinema, découpage. But to enlist his writing again here would be to betray him twice. (Jean-Luc Nancy, The Pleasure in Drawing, translated by Philip Armstrong, Fordham University Press, 2013).
(xiii) Japanese Anime Classic Collection, Digital Meme DMSF 1001, 2007 (4 DVDs). This is an extremely interesting collection.
animating folk tales,
(The Stolen Lump, 1929)
boy samurais,
(Momotaro The Undefeated, 1928)
abstract patterns (in conjunction with Japanese music) often rendered in an ostentatiously Japanese manner.
(The Black Cat. 1929)
In the United States at the same time, the Fleischer brothers were emphasising the rotundity of Betty Boop,
Popeye and Bluto. That is, American animation was on the verge of transforming itself from animated drawing to animated sculpture – looking more and more like the other movies on the program and killing slapstick comedy in the process.
(The Rotoscope)
(Snow White Live)
(Polar Express)
The result were cartoons (a fine thing): the kind of phenomena that can dance with Gene Kelly and act with Bob Hoskins, the kind of phenomena that are still touted as being capable of replacing photographed humans with computer generated programs, the kind of phenomena that will bring the dead back to the silver screen. (xiv) In US mainstream animation, the model of the medium rapidly became the photograph, which is to say the machine-recording, the camera-eye. The cinema was (supposedly, ideologically) without humanity, culture, of its own: pure science. What was before the camera was culture, was human – and was given. In US mainstream animation, what was before the camera was ‘a picture’ (as distinct from ‘an image’, a figure, a story, a character) and ‘imagination’ or ‘genius’. (xv)
But in the Japanese animated films, the drawing, the lines themselves, could convey the sense of Japan. The way a figure was drawn, the decoration of the costume or the setting, a particular attitude or motion (a character's dance, for example) proclaimed precisely what photographs could only represent at one remove, so to speak. These films positioned themselves within a calligraphic tradition, a tradition of writing in which what we might think of as ‘only decoration’ was in point of fact (or brush) the flattened thing itself. What mattered was not the story or its meaning but the experience: the sense in the telling, the reality in the touch of the work – yes, the writing, the sound, the taste and feel of it. (xvi)
LINES ARE NOT 'REAL'. INVISIBLE IN THE WORLD EXCEPT AS THEY TRACK THE UNSEEN: THE BOUNDARIES OF COUNTRIES, THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD, OTHER EDGES, THE SIGN THAT POINTS ONE WAY, THE CHART, THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND, THIS LAND IS MY LAND, OTHER CONNECTIONS – THE (HEART) BEAT OR (LIFE) BREATH, DEATH (FLATLINE) – POPULATION, GROSS, NET, AVERAGE, MEDIAN, WEALTH, POVERTY – HAPPINESS, DEMOCRACY, POPULARITY, GUN OWNERSHIP – WARMING, COOLING, CARBON. LINES ARE HUMANITY'S NECESSARY INVENTION, THE TRACE OF WHICH HE WROTE, ‘INTER-EST’ AS SHE MIGHT HAVE SAID. EACH LINE IS AN IDEA. DRAWING MAKES LINES SO THAT WE MAY OBSERVE INVISIBLE PHENOMENA.
LINE ANIME STILLS
(Mushishi) You will say that these lines are biased in one direction because they are abducted from an anime episode that is about the arts of writing. Perhaps that is so, but just see how those arts are applied!
(xiv) In this regard, see Anne Eisenberg, ‘Novelties: Animated or Real, Both Are Believable’. New York Times (28 August 2011).
(xv) This sets up a conflict, to be sure. For what is in front of the animation camera is dead (it is a cel, a photograph, a puppet, even sometimes a dead animal). The photograph kills, but animation gives life.
(xvi) In the context of the ‘influence’ of anime, or its lack of influence, consider the game, El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metratron.
Everywhere there are lines of figures.
(Mawaru Penguin Drum)
Combat traces visible and invisible lines.
(Sword Art Online)
Lines become fuller: they bloom and burst, etch and fracture, trace and slice.
(Ano Hana)
I think then, that anime is not only best apprehended through listening, but that what it is doing is best understood as writing. For writing, as I am using the word here, is much better at giving sense than revealing meaning – and sense is what I believe is made by anime (and music and, if I must be honest for a moment, by the cinema even when it tries its best not to). Moreover, sense always has a ‘voice’, as Nancy says.
Sense, if there is any, when there is any, is never a neutral, colorless, or aphonic sense: even when written, it has a voice – and that is also the most contemporary meaning of the word écrire [‘to write’], perhaps in music as well as in literature. Écrire in its modern conception – elaborated since Proust, Adorno, and Benjamin, through Blanchot, Barthes, and to Derrida's archi-écriture – is nothing other than making sense resound beyond signification, or beyond itself. It is vocalising a sense that, for classical thought, intended to remain deaf and mute, an understanding [entente] untimbred [détimbrée] of self in the silence of a consonant without resonance. (34-35)
Writing is also, very literally, and even in the sense of an archi-écriture, a voice that resounds. (36)
In anime, writing, the calligraphic line, the drawing line, writing, moves within strictures, which is to say within a frame. It wriggles, it coils, it stretches, collapses, multiplies, shreds, slashes, strokes, whips, bloats, stinks, disappears and reappears. By contrast, the too-too sullied figure, which may be said to be the object of the moving photograph, the product of photography, is a bounded surface substituting for what is really beneath. The figure signals something beyond the frame, the figure defies the visible inasmuch as it is always concealing an other side, while a line – drawing, writing line– having no other sides, shows itself complete. (xvii)
Within the frame, the movement of the drawing, writing line takes infinite form: anything can happen – and most particularly anything can happen that is not real, which is to say (in one way) not figurative. More or less current anime TV series like
Ano Hanna
(xvii) Michael Bay and other Western action filmmakers, frustrated by the deception and incompleteness of figures, blow them up and, at the same time, Western art cinema makes and remakes the story of the inadequacy of what can be seen, a cinema based on inference.
Muwara Penguindrum
play with this condition of drawing, writing anime, insisting equally on the impossibility of the intimate anime cosmos and of its parallel with the mundane expanding universe that we understand as real.
IN THE SAME WAY NOT VERY MANY ANIME IMAGES ARE INNOCENT, VISIONS OF UTOPIC SPACE UNSULLIED. LINES DIVIDE, BUT OFTEN THEIRS IS A DIFFEENCE WHICH MAKES NO DISTINCTION. WHAT THEY DIVIDE IS, AFTER ALL, NO PLACE – AND NO PLACE REMAINS ON EITHER SIDE OF THE LINE, INDIVISIBLE. INDEED, THEN, LINES ARE UNSUBSTANTIAL; A COMMENT UPON WHAT YOU SEE, NOT IN THE END AN ALTERNATIVE TO IT; WHILE THE IMAGES IN WHICH THEY APPEAR SHARE A PALETTE IN WHICH PRIMARY COLOURS ARE RARE, EVERYTHING IS SHADED, MUTED, GREYED. THE IMAGE IS FULL OF GRAIN, SAND AND SMOKE GET IN YOUR EYES, INFINITESMAL SHARDS PREJUDICING THE SURFACE, SUGGESTING THE IMPURITY, ORIGINAL SIN, OF DRAWING AND WRITING, A NEED TO FILL NOTHING, TO KEEP ACTIVE, SIGNING.
The recognition of the impossibility of what it constructs and the resemblance of that construction to the world we think we know ought to be a general condition of world cinema, but it is not. And, in saying this, I am not so much gesturing to the way in which we have been enduring a cinema of remakes for such a long time now, but to the way in which world cinema remakes, Hollywood remakes, are generally so pedantic, while anime's so-called slavish adherence to convention and to reproducing the success of other media produces instead such singular works as
Steam Detectives
Cowboy Be-Bop
Moribito
not to mention FooLy CooLy (FLCL)
and anything by CLAMP, for example:
CLAMP School Detectives
and, of course, xxxHolic.
Really, the idea that Japanese ‘genre cinema’ is confining by comparison with, say, the Hollywood B-western or contemporary US action cinema, is simply absurd.
(Political?) dimensions
‘We are living in a fake world; we are watching fake evening news. We are fighting a fake war. Our government is fake. But we find reality in this fake world. So our stories are the same; we are walking through fake scenes, but ourselves, as we walk through these scenes, are real. The situation is real, in the sense that it's a commitment, it's a true relationship. That's what I want to write about.’
Although Murakami might be considered an anime phenomenon with his accessible yet ‘experimental’ narration and his use of fantasy devices (and that relation has been commented on in print), he claims to dislike animated movies. He claims that video games bear some similarity to his writing and, significantly, that music (jazz) is a key influence: ‘Writing a book is just like playing music.’ (‘Haruki Murakami, The Art of Fiction No. 182’, interview with John Wray, The Paris Review No. 170, Summer 2004)
I note that the infinite movement of a line within a frame surely must ultimately result in fibrillation, entropy – the heat death of the universe, perhaps especially of the anime universe (or, put another way, ‘becoming’ is not inevitably a life-affirming alternative to ‘being’). Fibrillation is one state of eternity. Entropy can be avoided in the short term by temporal structuring, and narration is one of the ways in which humans structure and imagine time. That is, there is an inherently utopic side to telling stories: inasmuch as, faced with ultimate entropy, any end is a happy one. This tension is nicely manifested in the narratives found in anime and some other serial forms, where there is a desire for continuation à la Scheherazade, as well as one for closure. And thus, in anime, we often experience closing down (ending) masked as opening out (an implied new beginning) or opening out masked as closing off, ‘mystical closure’ (xviii) and the closure of the mystical.
(xviii) This is a phrase I first heard from Kim Montgomery.
Opposition to the system can no longer articulate itself in the form of a realistic alternative, or even as a utopian project, but can only take the shape of a meaningless outburst. What is the point of our celebrated freedom of choice when the only choice is between playing by the rules and (self-)destructive violence?
Alan Badiou has argued that we live in a social space which is increasingly experienced as 'wordless': in such a space, the only form protest can take is meaningless violence.
And this is the fatal weakness of recent protests: they express an authentic rage which is not able to transform itself into a positive programme of sociopolitical change. They express a spirit of revolt without revolution. (Slavoj Žižek, ‘Shoplifters of the World Unite’ [print version], London Review of Books, 19 August 2011)
Here I should like to contrast maps and anime drawing. Each is a specific type of exaggeration/emphasis/abstraction related to the ‘real world’. Maps always have to strain to reach beyond what they show. Maps stretch out for the infinity within their frame; all maps are impossible, all maps represent what you do not, cannot see. Anime drawing, however, exaggerates what can be seen (and heard); it makes you look again, betrays it with lines. Anime drawing or writing signifies human inability, the finite, limitations of seeing and hearing; it can never suggest there is something beyond drawing, beyond its exaggeration and its flatness – only that there is something beside it.
‘A fake world’. ‘The situation is real’. ‘Meaningless violence’. ‘A spirit of revolt without revolution’.
Or a suggestion that there is something beside it.
I think that what anime writing or drawing produces is caricature. Caricature is not positive. It is useless; it can't tell you what road to take. Caricature is not pretty; it is intimate, mundane, homely. Yet caricature defies realism, the world it thinks it knows must lie beside it. In all this caricature is the opposite of a map – and it is also both more fun and more apt to wound.
In anime there are millions of images or lines of slicing, flatness, and the sharp edge. Anime slices into one's sense of self and universe; anime makes slices of that sense (xix)– transforming it in the process, flattening it, making it transparent, bizarre mirror images. However, in writing this paper I have been most challenged, not by the extreme, excruciating slices made by
(xix) On the day the earth finally exploded, a fragment from it was blown all the way up to heaven. This fragment was, in fact, a Kosher salami. Several angels gathered around the object the like of which, of course, they had never seen before. ‘It must be important’, said one. ‘Let us take it to the Holy Virgin; she will know what it means’. So they picked up the salami and took it reverently to Mary, the mother of God. ‘Please tell us the significance of this, the only thing left from the final destruction of earth’, they implored. ‘I cannot be certain’, murmured the Virgin, ‘But it seems awfully like the Holy Ghost’.
Mawaru Penguin Drum
and the like – all of which I do love – but by sweet, equally lovely, mundane caricatures, mundane universes, mundane stories of Genshiken,
Usagi Drop,
and Moribito.
What happens when anime takes its place beside live action, when anime territorialises the provinces of classic realism upon which it borders and within which its bubble floats?
I have said that anime is writing, and what I do – what I have done in preparing this material as a paper for a conference and what I have done in preparing that paper for this piece, what I find I am impelled to do – is write. Yet I still have not written of anime, only of tropes like universe, listening, drawing, writing, lines, something beside it. I cannot say anything useful about the more ordinary, and obviously serious series I have just mentioned, except that they trace a line for me, challenge me more than the wilder, more daring ones – perhaps in the way that I find myself often more challenged by works that are secondary, banal, even failed beside me – finally, works that don't interest most people, even me, all that much. That is alright, because the only thing I can write is writing after all.
(Baccano!)
© William D. Routt 2014.
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Minority language promotion, protection and regulation : the mask of piety, Colin H. Williams, (electronic book ;)
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The item Minority language promotion, protection and regulation : the mask of piety, Colin H. Williams, (electronic book ;) represents a specific, individual, material embodiment of a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in University of Liverpool.
Williams, Colin H., 1950-
This is an analysis of the promises and contradictions surrounding contemporary minority language policy. It draws on theoretical and real-world perspectives and interviews with key players within European institutions together with field work undertaken principally in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Basque Country, Catalonia and Canada.
"Professor Colin Williams is one of the world's leading scholars on lesser-used languages. In this book he brings to bear not only a vast store of empirical knowledge of the subject but a passionate plea and moral vision in defence of these languages. The book examines language policies in Finland, Ireland and Wales but places these policies in a much wider perspective including approaches by European institutions such as the Council of Europe and the Canadian experience. The author examines the issues from legislative, policy and legal perspectives all the time teasing out the consequences of the shift to neo-liberalism which has dominated western countries since the 1980s. Williams not only gives a fine analysis of these trends but also provides a realistic set of policy recommendations that will help these often embattled lesser-used languages to survive." - John Loughlin, University of Cambridge, UK
Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013
Users can print and/or download individual articles/chapters and other individual items from Palgrave Connect ebooks, limited to no more than one chapter per title per authorised user
1. The Mask of Piety 2. Managing Official Language Legislative Regimes 3. European Legislative Frameworks and Comparative Language Acts. 4. The Embedded Nature of Language Legislation. 5. From Act to Action: Policy Implications and Recommendations 6. Official Language Strategies in Comparative Perspective 7. The Logic of Best Practice Language Strategy 8. Official Language Commissioners 9. The Mask of Piety and the Faltering Polity
Minority language promotion, protection and regulation : the mask of piety
Minority language promotion, protection and regulation
the mask of piety
Colin H. Williams
Linguistic minorities -- Legal status, laws, etc
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Language and globalization
Online access with purchase: Palgrave Connect (Language & Linguistics Collection)
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Williams, Colin H.
Linguistic minorities
Minority Language Promotion, Protection and Regulation blends a discussion of the role of official language strategies with an analysis as to how both strategies and legislation are implemented in a variety of contexts ranging from Catalonia, The Basque Country, Finland, Ireland and Wales to Canada at both federal and provincial level. It is an authoritative guide and reference volume which tracks recent influences on official language strategy from a legislative, political, social and economic perspective. As both activist and critic, Colin Williams provides a fresh and challenging interpretation of the manner in which formally discriminated language minorities are now grappling with the exercise of power and responsibility for language -related developments within education, the media, local government and the community. The author poses difficult questions for the wielders of power and decision-makers whose official pronouncements invariably support linguistic diversity but whose policy priorities and fiscal approach tends to undercut the capacity of vibrant communities and civil servants to deliver ambitious programmes of reform in support of minority languages
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You are here: Home / comments / Kyle Clifford raising his own questions during Kings Camp
Kyle Clifford raising his own questions during Kings Camp
September 18, 2011 By John Hoven
Last weekend, Kyle Clifford intimated that he wasn’t letting himself believe he had earned on spot on this year’s LA Kings team.
Given his humble and quiet nature, it wasn’t surprising that the 20-year old forward was approaching training camp with anything other than his full passion for the game.
One thing that has changed for him in his second year though are the people around him in the locker room. Most notably, there’s somebody missing from the stall next to him.
Did it take coming to camp and not seeing Wayne Simmonds sitting there for the full realization of the trade to hit home?
“Yeah, it’s different,” Clifford said. “Wayne was such a character guy and a great guy who helped me out a lot last year. He kind of took me under his wing. So, he’s going to be missed.”
Perhaps one of the things Simmonds cautioned him about was the tendency some players have to go through a ‘sophomore slump’ their second season.
“You don’t want to take a step backward,” explained Clifford. “My main goal is to always be moving forward. I take each day one day at a time though. If I do that and listen to the coaches and the veteran leadership in here, I’ll keep improving my game. But, I haven’t set any goals for number of points or anything like that. Well, win all my fights – but, that’s a given every year!”
Another given for Clifford this year will be his equipment. Over the summer, he signed an endorsement deal with Bauer.
“I grew up using Bauer most of my life. So, sticking with one equipment person just makes things a little easier.” As he put it, “I’m wearing everything Bauer, head to toe Bauer.”
New equipment, a few new teammates – somethings haven’t changed though.
“It’s still camp. So, it’s still tough and it’s still grueling,” said Clifford. “After coming in and playing last year, now I know what to expect though. With the team we have now it just makes this year that much more exciting too.”
With that excitement, some of the other Kings have also been talking about an increase in pressure the last few days as well.
“I guess you could say that,” remarked Clifford. “But, pressure is a good thing. I embrace pressure. I think with the type of character team we have here, they will too.”
And the competition for a spot on the third or fourth line?
“It’s a good thing! Healthy competition only makes you better, right?”
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Clifford photo appears courtesy of CIKIRI
Kyle Clifford is not convined he has a spot on the LA Kings this season
Kyle Clifford explains his nickname
Cruising the mall with Simmonds and Doughty
Coach Murray evaluates the Kings rookies – including Bernier, Clifford, Martinez
Kings coach already juggling the lines for this season
Kings Training Camp 2011: Matt Greene gets serious
Filed Under: comments, hockey, Interview, Kings, Los Angeles, Mayor, MayorsManor, NHL Tagged With: camp, Clifford, comments, hockey, Los Angeles, Mayor, MayorsManor, quote, Simmonds, training
cikiri says:
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Great Cats in History #1: Nigel: I'll tumble 4 ya
[Kate and Nigel, late 1983]
This is the first in what I intend to be a series of posts about the great cats in history who preceded me as Kate's feline companions. The subtitles are songs that Kate relates to these cats for one reason or another. Now, Kate lived with other cats before Nigel, but Nigel was the first cat that Kate thought of as hers (besides, there's no photographic evidence of the others). Anyway, back to Nigel...
Nigel was born on VFL Grand Final Day in 1983, the day that the Hawthorn Hawks thrashed the Essendon Bombers 20.20.140 to 8.9.57.* Nigel and his three sisters were born in a shed in Kate's backyard. Their mum, Tabitha, was Kate's family's cat. Nigel was allowed to stay with the family and become Kate's cat because he was the only boy, and Kate's dad didn't want any more litters of kittens in the family (this was in the days before neutering was so universal). So Nigel's sisters had little red ribbons tied around their necks and were given away at the local school fair, much to Kate's dismay. But she got to keep Nigel, and an intense yet one-sided friendship was born, a friendship beautifully epitomised in the above portrait of Kate and Nigel.
Tabitha ran away a few months after her kittens were born, so Nigel became the onlycat of the house. He was very well loved by Kate, who vaguely remembers making up songs about him and singing Boy George songs to him (like 'I'll tumble 4 ya'). Being very young, Kate suspects that she probably loved Nigel a little too much and didn't give him the time and space alone that every mancat needs. With his mancat urges growing, Nigel took Gemma the Golden Retreiver puppy's arrival in the family in the middle of 1984 as his cue to move on to parts unknown. While he wasn't around for very long, his tabby mancat charms were enough to make Kate a cat girl for life.
So here's to Nigel! Next month, Garfield: A groovy kind of love.
* A short lesson in Australian Rules Football scoring. 'Goals' are worth six points, 'points' are worth one point. so Hawthorn's score of 20.20.140 means that they kicked 20 goals (20x6= 120) and 20 points, a total of 140 points. That's a pretty high score. One more thing: VFL stands for Victorian Football League, which is what the Australian Football League was called before it became a national league in 1990. Interested in more info? Click here.
My adventures in Kate's dreams
[Maybe if I sleep in Kate's bed, I'll have adventurous dreams, too! Read on for details... ]
Guess what, everycat? Kate has had dreams two nights in a row which featured me doing adventurous things that I would never do in real life!
Dream #1 (Tuesday night): Kate dreamt that there was a big swell in the Derwent River (the big, wide river that Hobart is built around) and that her cousin Jarrod (who doesn't normally surf) wanted Kate to go down to the beach and watch him riding the big waves. Kate walked along the shoreline between Sandy Bay and Taroona (those familiar with Hobart will know where she means. Taroona is where Crown Princess Mary of Denmark grew up!), but she couldn't see Jarrod. So, she climbed into the water at Taroona and walked/swam her way along the shore (sometimes sandy, sometimes rocky) back towards Sandy Bay to try and find him. Guess who was in the water with Kate: ME! Swimming! Kate knew that I would follow her and be okay, but at one point she waited for me to catch up with her and she carried me the rest of the way to a surf club (that doesn't exist in real life), where she and I found Jarrod and his wife, Rebecca. We also dried off with a big towel.
Dream #2 (last night): Kate dreamt that she was living back at home with her parents (I have never lived there, just so you know) and that she had a big fight with her mum. Something to do with cooking (which makes sense, because Kate's parents used to run a cafe/restaurant, and they all lived in the apartment above it). So, she jumped on her bike and rode up to visit her grandma (whom she called 'Nan'), who lived in a cute cottage about 2kms away. Guess who followed her on foot: ME! Going for a big walk across town!
She had a really nice time at her nan's place, they always used to have great chats (I don't know where I was during this time. I hope I was inside, because Kate's nan's cottage always had a few mice lurking behind the skirting boards! Yum!). Then she decided that she'd better go home and face the music with her mum. So she hopped on her bike (which was a tiny pink and white BMX-- she never had one of those. Well she did, but hers was red) and got ready to ride home.
At this point, I turned up again. Somehow, I made it known to Kate that I didn't want to follow her on foot; I wanted to get a ride on her back. So, I jumped on. But I was facing the wrong way... which meant that I was facing behind her, my front paws on her backpack and my back paws on her shoulder... and my butt and tail in her face! Ha ha ha ha!! Anyway, Kate didn't mind; she was just so stoked that I was riding on her shoulders while she rode home. Me! Riding on Kate's shoulders while she's on a bike! About 3/4 of the way home, I decided to hop off and walk for the remainder of the trip. That's kind of all that Kate remembers...
Lotsa words in this post. But I had to tell you how I was a star in Kate's dreams! I wonder what I'll do tonight?
More meme madness!
Chairman Mao tagged me for this meme last week. I've compiled my list, now get ready to find out more about me!
1- Favorite season?
Late spring (October-November). Long, sunny evenings, great garden smells. Love it!
2- Favorite colours?
Shades of brown teamed with black... just like me! I do like red, too.
3- Favorite room?
Nick and Kate's bedroom. It's so versatile- I can survey my territory from the window, and there's such a variety of sleeping options: on the carpet by the window, under the bed, on the bed, in the bed... brilliant!
4- Do you like dogs?
I have to be diplomatic here, because there are a few dogs in my fan club, and I have a 'brother' who is a dog. I think that all God's creatures have a place in the world. I'm just glad that my 'brother's' place is 300kms away from me at Kate's parents' place.
5- Ever been in an airplane box?
No WAY. My v-e-t prison box is the only box I've been in, and I intend to keep it that way.
6- Do you have to get bathed?
My self-administered lickbaths are more than sufficient.
7- Are you in love?
I have a number of really close lady friends in the blogosphere, but I wouldn't want to comment beyond that.
8- Where would you like to travel to?
Given the answer to question 5, and the fact that I live on an island, I don't think I'll be travelling anywhere too far. Home is my favourite place. Having said that, I'd love to meet my blogging buddies in person. I think it's important to know what your friends smell like.
9- What do you ignore?
Nick and Kate when they say 'Get OFF' or 'Get OUT'. It's usually kitchen-related.
10- How many lives have you used up?
At least a few, I reckon, with all my fight clubbing.
11- Do you have any dark secrets?
Not since I did the true confessions meme a while ago.
12- What is your favorite holiday?
You know how the Dandy Warhols have that song 'Every day should be a holiday'? Well for cats, it is!
13- Water or milk?
Water all the way! I Don't like milk... but I'll have a lick if someone leaves their cereal bowl within reach.
14- Why do you blog?
i) to raise my public profile and the profile of Pablo Enterprises and the West Hobart Tigers; ii) to meet lots of awesome blogging kitties.
15- Are you into extremes?
i) extreme fight club; ii) extreme snoozing; iii) extreme chicken.
16- Favorite TV shows?
AFL matches, Arrested Development(wish it was still on air!), Australian Idol, Rage (all-night music video show on Friday and Saturday nights).
17- Are you a pesty lap cat?
Tried it once, but it's not my thing.
18- Inside or outside cat?
I'm 50-50 on this one. But at the moment, given the current cold snap, it's more like 90-10.
19- What makes you happy?
Sunshine and chicken.
20- Your most embarrassing moment?
Probably when I admitted to the blogosphere that the West Hobart Tigers don't actually know how to play footy... yet!
Anycat who wants to do this meme and hasn't... you're tagged!
Pablo by torchlight
This was me on Thursday night, June 21st.
The shortest day of the year (that is, the day with the shortest amount of daylight).
The day when Hobart had its lowest maximum temperature for two years (6C/43F).
At around 9pm on this, of all nights, we had a power blackout.
By then, the temperature was around 4C/39F.
I know that's not amazingly cold for some of you (like Jack and Persephone up in Canada), but it was pretty cold for me, and even colder for Nick and Kate, who don't have the benefit of my luxurious furs to keep them warm.
So, with no light and no heat, they rugged up and found torches and candles. I followed them around, because I wasn't sure what was going on. Then Kate asked Nick to take a photo of me by torchlight (that's it, above).
Then things got a bit experimental.
Nick found his little pen torch and he and Kate did some 'light painting' with timed exposure shots:
This one's a cat; you can kind of tell. I'm there to the right.
Here's Nick trying to do a 'P' for Pablo (I'm there on the right again).
Kate tried to draw some cat ears on her head...
... then Nick gave me two heads. (Don't worry, it's not real!)
Kate was thinking that she was going to have to give me a candle-lit meal, but then the power came back on. The 45-minute blackout was fun, but I was glad to be able to see my food and have the heat back on.
Injury update: I'm totally on the mend. The antibiotics have worked a treat and my would is healing beautifully. My furs are even growing back! Thanks for all your good wishes. Fighting might be tough, but it's not fun when you get hurt. I'll try to control myself in the future.
The horror...
Ok, so I've been fighting again.
This time, I copped a nasty bite just above my left eye. The bite wound was invisible under my furs, so Nick and Kate didn't know it was infected until my face puffed up a few days later (you can kind of see that in the first shot of me in the prison box, my left eye is all squished up).
So it was a rare trip to the v-e-t for me. Luckily, this is only a five-minute car ride down the hill to the city. I wouldn't let Kate take any pictures of me in the v-e-t surgery... some things are best left private. And it was very gross, anyway. All that needs to be said is that I came out with a heap of my face furs shaved off and some antibiotics that Kate has to give me every day for a while.
I'm ok now, it's probably worse than it looks. I just have to suffer the shame of having shaved furs on my face for a month or so. Does it make me look tough? Maybe I need to wear a t-shirt that says 'You should see the other cat...'. Daisy or Skeezix, do you have one of those?
Happy Christine Day!!
This is my friend Christine and her almost-husband, Mike. Mike is from Hobart, while Christine is from the US of A (has been living in Louisville, KY, for a few years now) . They met through their blogs, their friendship blossomed into love and, after meeting face-to-face late last year, they are getting married on June 29 in Hanover, Germany (where Christine's parents live).
But that's not why I'm writing about Christine.
I just read Mike's blog, and today is Christine's birthday. Mike has proclaimed today Christine Day, and has asked me how I'll be celebrating the occasion. Christine and Mike were my blogging inspirations, and Christine was nice enough to bring me some American kitty treats when she visited Tasmania over Christmas. So I'd really like to make her feel special today.
Here's where you come in...
It would be awesome if everycat who reads this could pop over to Christine's blog and leave her a Happy Birthday comment. Please say that Pablo sent you! Don't feel like you have to, but it would be great if you did.
Happy Christine Day!
Wednesday workshopping
I'm always trying to think of new ways to increase profits here at Pablo Enterprises. You know my post from the weekend about spending some 'me time' under the bed? Well, I workshopped a great idea. You know how people like chocolate? And cute, fluffy kittens? Well, I thought of a way to combine the two that doesn't involve cats getting boiled up and used as Turkish Delight filling or cats having to get melted chocolate all over their paws (Ew! Sticky!). Stay with me... please...
I present to you... the Giftcat*!
Giftcats* could work in one of two ways: 1) The Giftcat* could act as a delivery service, and not be part of the gift (more like a singing telegram, if you will); or 2) for those wanting to give a cat as part of the gift, the Giftcat* could be shrinkwrapped with the box of chocolates (I'm looking for some volunteers to pilot this part of the business plan, let me know if you're interested).
Giftcats* are sure to be a hit. If you want to get in on the ground floor, call my broker and arrange to buy some Pablo Enterprises shares before they go sky high.
So, next time you want to say something special to that someone special... say it with a Giftcat.*
[Need to work on my smile...]
*Patent pending
Farewell, Suzanne...
Much-loved cat blogger and Pablo Fan Club member Suzanne went to the Bridge today, Australian time. She was sixteen years old, and had kidney disease, the same illness that took Kate's cat Kobie to the bridge in 2000. Lots of love to Toni and the rest of Suzanne's family... we're thinking of you! And thanks to Daisy for making and sharing this beautiful tribute card. Goodbye, Suzanne... we'll miss you!
Posted by Kate (Pablo's mum) at 11:25 AM 10 comments:
Sunday seclusion
You may not believe this, but sometimes it's hard to be Pablo. There's a lot of pressure, a lot of expectations. Sometimes, I just have to get away from it all. In those times, I head for my secluded spot under the bed. And that's where I' ve been for most of this weekend, just me and my thoughts, chilling out on the spare mattress...
It's not very glamorous, but it's my special chillout place. Hope you liked seeing it!
Dona nobis pacem...
'Life is very short
and there's no time
for fussing and fighting, my friend.'
from We can work it out (Lennon/McCartney)
Blog Blast for Peace: http://mimiwrites.blogspot.com
Cheers for the toys, Benny!
These toys could be the future of the West Hobart Tigers. My friend Benny gave them to me last year. It's a funny story, actually; he and his friends Matt and Pos wanted to play ping pong, but there was one small problem - no ping pong balls. So Matt called all the shops, but it was a Sunday evening, so no luck. Then he went out to get snacks. An hour and a half later he came back with snacks... and a pack of toys for cats, one of which happened to be a red ping pong ball! I scored the rest of the toys.
Anyway, most of you would know that Daisy has done a few posts this week about her cool collection of toys and all the things she does with them. Meanwhile, I've made the grand confession that the West Hobart Tigers (and every othercat in the SFFL) don't actually know how to play Australian Rules Football. So I got to thinking about these toys that Benny gave me, and how I could use them in some training skills and drills with the Tigers...
A preliminary sniff to start things off...
Experimenting with the 'L' formation...
Dodge the barbell, pick up the ball, tackle the mousie...
Things got a bit crazy towards the end there, but I think these toys will make awesome training equipment. Can't wait to share them with the other Tigers. Thanks, Benny!
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Security In Iraq, Jan 8-14, 2018
The number of security incidents remained low for the second week of January 2018. There were very few attacks and casualties. The week did see the return of mass casualty bombings by the Islamic State.
There were 64 incidents recorded in Iraq from January 8-14. That was down from 71 the first week of the year. There was 1 incident in Anbar, 2 in Sulaymaniya, 3 in Babil, 7 in Ninewa, 8 in Diyala, 9 in Salahaddin, 10 in Kirkuk, and 24 in Baghdad. Starting in August 2017 there has been less than 100 incidents each week.
Security Incidents In Iraq By Province Jan 8-14, 2018
Anbar 1
Sulaymaniya 2
Babil 3
Ninewa 7
Diyala 8
Salahaddin 9
Kirkuk 10
Baghdad 24
Casualties In Iraq By Province Jan 8-14, 2018
Babil 4 (1 Killed, 3 Wounded)
Sulaymaniya 5 (2 Killed, 3 Wounded)
Anbar 7 (7 Wounded)
Diyala 8 (6 Killed, 2 Wounded)
Kirkuk 10 (6 Killed, 4 Wounded)
Salahaddin 17 (4 Killed, 13 Wounded)
Ninewa 22 (21 Killed, 1 Wounded)
Baghdad 59 (22 Killed, 37 Wounded)
A total of 62 people were killed and 70 were wounded. 20 of the dead were found in a mass grave in Ninewa, leaving just 42 violent deaths during the week. 3 members of the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), 3 Hashd, and 56 civilians lost their lives, while 2 ISF, 8 Hashd, and 60 civilians were injured. 4 casualties occurred in Babil, 5 in Sulaymaniya, 7 in Anbar, 8 in Diyala, 10 in Kirkuk, 17 in Salahaddin, 22 in Ninewa, and 59 in Baghdad.
There was only one incident reported in Anbar. That was when an IED that went off near a soccer field in Hit, in the center of the province leaving 7 people wounded. The Islamic State is said to still be operating along the border, which led to a new security operation near Saudi Arabia.
Like usual, the few incidents in Babil were in the north. There were two shootings and an IED in Jurf al-Sakhr. Since the summer of 2017, IS has once again been infiltrating into the Jurf al-Sakhr district and the neighboring ones to carry out weekly attacks. They are still very few incidents, but it does mark a change in situation in the governorate.
Since the start of 2018 there has been a slight spike in violence in Baghdad. The first week of the year saw the most incidents since July. The second week there were basically the same number of incidents going from 26 January 1-7 to 24 January 8-14. There was also a suicide bombing in the north that targeting the convoy of the head of the provincial council. That last time there was a successful suicide attack in the capital was during the fourth week of November.
The Islamic State continued attacks throughout Diyala. There were 8 total leaving 6 dead and 2 wounded. That included a car bomb that was discovered in Muqtadiya during a security sweep in the district. Al Sumaria reported that five villages in Qara Tappa in the north were abandoned because IS fighters were moving through the area coming from the Hamrin Mountain range. Security forces also mounted an operation in the north. Diyala is one of the areas where IS is attempting a comeback, and the location of their attacks show that they are active in nearly every region.
The last few months Kirkuk has witnessed growing instability. IS is still carrying out operations in the province, but there is also political violence especially in Kirkuk city. During the week, 8 of the 10 incidents occurred in the city. That included grenade attacks upon a tribal office and a reporter’s home. There was also a gun battle in the south that left 6 Hashd casualties.
The aftermath of the Islamic State’s rule in Ninewa is being discovered nearly every week. This time a mass grave with 20 women who were tortured and killed was found within Mosul. The Civil Defense Department announced that it had finished its work in the city recovering roughly 2,500 bodies from the rubble. There was sporadic violence going on within the city, as well as two shoot outs with the insurgents in Qayara in the south. The Hashd sent reinforcements to the Sinjar district to try to counter IS infiltration coming from Syria. 500 dismissed police also marched in Mosul demanding their jobs back on Police Day. Abadi got rid of most of the police in the province after the IS take over in 2014. Some have been brought back, but the governorate still needs several thousand officers. Baghdad claims it is training a completely new force, but things appear to be going slowly.
Salahaddin is the other province witnessing an IS revival. There were two gun fights with insurgents in the Baiji district. An official from the district said Baiji city is uninhabitable because 70% of the buildings were destroyed, there were no services, and there were thousands of IEDs still around. He warned against the government sending people back to the area for political reasons to hold this year’s election. So far, several hundred people have gone back to the district, but there have been no reports of anyone in the city itself. Another problem area is Meteibija, which witnessed a new sweep through the area by the security forces. Finally, Tuz Kharmato continued to see sporadic violence. During the week for example, there were four attacks there including two shelling incidents by mortars. That led Baghdad to send in federal forces to take over security form the Hashd, and conduct clearing operations. In October, the Peshmerga withdrew from the district leading to killings, looting, and the destruction of buildings by the Hashd and local Turkmen.
Parliament agreed to create a committee to investigate what happened during that period. Usually these investigations are for show and nothing comes of them as the government does not hold itself accountable.
Security In Iraq 2017-18
1,891 + 399
2,511 + 1,634
865 + 1,700
Jan 1-7
Jan 8-14
Violence By Province Jan 8-14, 2018
Anbar
1 Incident
7 Wounded
7 Civilians
1 IED
3 Incidents
1 Civilian
2 Hashd
2 Shootings
24 Incidents
21 Civilians
37 Wounded
10 IEDs
2 Sticky Bombs
1 Suicide Bomber
Diyala
2 ISF
7 IEDs
1 Mortar
1 Car Bomb Dismantled
Ninewa
Salahaddin
2 Mortars
3 Suicide Bombers Killed
Sulaymaniya
Baghdad Post, “Civil Defense completes recovery of bodies under rubble in Mosul,” 1/12/18
- "Civilian injured as mortar shell hits Tuz Khurmatu," 1/9/18
- "Headquarters of Body of Arab Tribes in Kirkuk attacked," 1/8/18
Al Baghdadiya News, “Federal forces arrive in Tuz Kharmato to take over security tasks,” 1/10/18
Bas News, "Kirkuk: Reuters Photographer Attacked in Kirkuk," 1/13/18
- "A second attack was directed at the security forces south of Qayara area," 1/10/18
Ebraheem, Mohammed, "Iraqi troops destroy four Islamic State armored vehicles, seize three others in Anbar," Iraqi News, 1/10/18
Al Ghad Press, "A bomb explodes in Tuz Kharmato and then a second one reveals its manufacturing," 1/8/18
- "Defense: Samarra operations continue to search and clear Meteibija," 1/11/18
- "Military Intelligence detonates a car bomb and destroys four terrorist bombs in Salahaddin," 1/11/18
Hath Al-Youm, “Baiji official: Members of the crowd are infected with diseases and epidemics,” 1/13/18
Iraq Newspaper, "Two Members Of The Popular Crowd Were Killed And Four Others Were Wounded By Gunfire In The Village Of Safra, West of Riyad, Southwest Kirkuk," 1/14/18
Khabaar, “The popular crowd is deploying new fighters to protect the Sinjar border with Syria and refuses to reveal their operation,” 1/10/18
Al Maalomah, “Ninewa deputy: dormant cells have resumed activity in the province,” 1/11/18
- "The popular crowd foils an attack on Siniya west of Baiji," 1/13/18
- "The popular crowd repulsed an attack near Baiji," 1/14/18
Mostafa, Mohamed, "UPDATED: MP says 2 citizens killed, tens wounded in Tuz Khurmatu shelling," Iraqi News, 1/8/18
Mostafa, Nehal, "Relics of 20 tortured women, executed by IS, found in mass grave in Mosul," Iraqi News, 1/8/18
NINA, "The assassination of a judicial investigator in the Federal Court of Appeal in Babil," 1/11/18
- "A judicial investigator injured in an armed attack north of Babylon," 1/9/18
- "A Military Operation To Track Daesh Cells North Of Baquba," 1/8/18
- "Two members of the popular crowd injured in a bomb explosion north of Babylon," 1/14/18
Al Noor News, "Assassination attempt on head of Hit district council in stadium west Anbar," 1/11/18
Rudaw, "Explosion targets convoy of head of Baghdad Provincial Council, kills 8," 1/13/18
- “Iraq parliament forms committee to investigate Khurmatu violence,” 1/8/18
- “Tuz Khurmatu council ousts Kurdish mayor despite missing members,” 1/10/18
Shafaaq News, “Hundreds of police are demonstrating in Mosul,” 1/9/18
Al Sumaria, “Daash ends life in five villages south of Qara Tappa and turns it into a desert,” 1/10/18
Xinhua, "12 wounded in mortar barrage on ethnically-mixed city in central Iraq," 1/8/18
- "Iraqi forces launch operation to restore security in ethnically-mixed city," 1/13/18
Labels: Al Qaeda in Iraq, Anbar, Babil, Baghdad, Diyala, Insurgency, Iraqi Deaths, Kirkuk, Ninewa, Salahaddin, Sulaymaniya, Violence
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Security In Iraq, Jan 22-28, 2018
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Iraq’s Parliamentary Elections Set For May 12, 201...
The Day In Iraqi History – Jan 24
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Churchill In His Own Words On Mesopotamia/Iraq
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2017 More Returns Than Displaced In Iraq
Alliances Announced For Iraq’s 2018 Elections
How England Chose Feisal As 1st King Of Iraq
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Security In Iraq, Jan 1-7, 2018
This Day In Iraqi History – Jan 9
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This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 7
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PM Abadi Continues To Impose New Status Quo Upon I...
2017 Security In Iraq In Review Defeat Of The Isla...
Incidents and Casualties All Down In Iraq Dec 2017...
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