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perfect piano lesson
You just have to insert a cartridge in the hardware on his head to make him play the music of the game. Thanks to the piano lessons he took from the age of 4 years old, Professor Sakamoto possesses a perfect pitch and is able to reproduce any melody after hearing it just once. The number of video game songs he knows has reached over 1.000!
He performs every week in the Nico Nico Namahousou program broadcast on the web platform Nico Nico Douga and gathers approximately 3.000 followers. In 2011, his album SKMT hits the first place on iTunes in the Electro category and his single SAMURAI is ranked high in the charts.
Professor Sakamoto presents his own program 8bit Juke Box on the website Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shimbun. He performs “piko piko cover” and forms a duo with Miu SAKAMOTO, daughter of the famous original composer Ryuichi SAKAMOTO whose name he had taken as a tribute (in Japanese, Professor Sakamoto is called Sakamoto Kyouju). In 2012, he participates in many popular programs like Connect Plus on NHK, Sekai Maru Mie!, TV Tokusobu and ZIP ! on Nippon Television, Q Sama ! on TV Asahi and Golden Bomber Kiryuuin Shou no All Night Nipponon Nippon Housou.
He is also a composer for the video game Brave Company by Namco Bandai and an official member of the JSPA (Japanese Synthetizer Programmer Association).
Official Website: http://www.perfectpianolesson.com/
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/perfectpianolesson
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State, private hospitals on alert for New Year’s Eve revelry By Joel C. Atencio December 31, 2010
State, private hospitals on alert for New Year’s Eve revelry
By Joel C. Atencio
December 31, 2010, 1:14am
MANILA, Philippines (PNA) – Doctors, nurses and other medical personnel of government-run and private hospitals nationwide were placed on Thursday on alert for firecracker-related injuries and other emergencies as the nation joins the world in welcoming the New Year on Friday.
The Department of Health (DOH) issued this announcement a few days after it launched an all-out drive against the sale and use of firecrackers through its “Kontra Paputok Campaign.".... MORE
Source: Manila Bulletin
URL: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/295713/state-private-hospitals-alert-new-year-s-eve-revelry
Expect 'extremely wet' weather in 2011 – Pagasa By ELLALYN B. DE VERA December 30, 2010
Expect 'extremely wet' weather in 2011 – Pagasa
By ELLALYN B. DE VERA
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) Thursday warned of “extremely wet” weather conditions in 2011, mainly due to climate change.
Science and Technology Undersecretary Dr. Graciano Yumul, also PAGASA’s officer-in-charge, said the effects of climate change have been evident in the country causing sea level rise and excessive moisture and rain..... MORE
URL: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/295640/expect-extremely-wet-weather-2011-pagasa
China shuts down 60,000 pornographic websites Friday, 31 December 2010 00:00
China shuts down 60,000 pornographic websites
China said Thursday that authorities had shut down more than 60,000 pornographic websites as part of a year-long crackdown on lewd online content, as Beijing moves to tighten control over the Internet. "By the end of November, we had inspected 1.8 million websites, and closed down more than 60,000 unsound websites that spread porn," Wang Chen, minister for the press office of the State Council, China's cabinet, told reporters.
He added that authorities had jailed 58 people for at least five years in the crackdown on lewd online and mobile phone content that was launched in December last year..... MORE
Source: Manila Times
URL: http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/tech-times/36730-china-shuts-down-60000-pornographic-websites
Denmark, Sweden foil ‘Mumbai-style’ massacre plot Friday, 31 December 2010
Denmark, Sweden foil ‘Mumbai-style’ massacre plot
COPENHAGEN: Denmark and Sweden said on Wednesday that they had foiled a “Mumbai-style” plot by Islamic extremists to massacre the staff of a Danish newspaper that published caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
Denmark’s PET intelligence service said that five suspects had been arrested and a submachine gun seized, preventing an imminent assault on the Copenhagen offices of the Jyllands-Posten daily.... MORE
URL: http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/component/content/article/42-rokstories/36737-denmark-sweden-foil-mumbai-style-massacre-plot
2.2-M Filipinos consume NFA rice, NSO says December 31, 2010
2.2-M Filipinos consume NFA rice, NSO says
MANILA, Philippines (PNA) - Middle and upper class Filipino families are consuming more National Food Authority (NFA) rice than the poor households, according to the National Statistics Office.
The NSO said there were 1.07 million Filipino households under the upper 70 percent of the Philippine population consumed NFA rice in 2006.
These middle and upper class Filipino families consumed an average of 273 kilogram (kg) per year..... MORE
URL: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/295714/22m-filipinos-consume-nfa-rice-nso-says
Group wary of 'downtrend' in OFW Mideast deployment By ROY C. MABASA December 31, 2010
Group wary of 'downtrend' in OFW Mideast deployment
By ROY C. MABASA
MANILA, Philippines — Certain labor market reforms being implemented by host countries particularly those in the Middle East next year will result in continued “downtrend’ in the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in 2011.
This, according to Migrante-Middle East as it echoed the same declaration earlier issued by both the Department of Labor and Employment and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) that from January to October this year a total of 1.079 million OFWs were deployed compared with 1.112 million during the same period of 2009..... MORE
URL: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/295769/group-wary-downtrend-ofw-mideast-deployment
Salceda places Albay under state of calamity; urges PAGASA to device warning system for ITCZ By Mar S. Arguelles December 31, 2010
Salceda places Albay under state of calamity; urges PAGASA to device warning system for ITCZ
By Mar S. Arguelles
LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines (PNA) - Albay Gov. Joey Salceda urges the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Service Administration (PAGASA) to device a warning system for inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ), giving it a name and levels of warning system similar to the warning system issued during tropical depressions and typhoons signals.
Salceda, Albay Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC) chairman, said the proposal would make disaster authorities completely evaluate the impacts of the ITCZ in terms of rainfall content and other parameters..... MORE
URL: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/295709/salceda-places-albay-under-state-calamity-urges-pagasa-device-warning-system-itcz
State, private hospitals on alert for New Year’s E...
Expect 'extremely wet' weather in 2011 – Pagasa By...
China shuts down 60,000 pornographic websites Fr...
Denmark, Sweden foil ‘Mumbai-style’ massacre plot ...
2.2-M Filipinos consume NFA rice, NSO says Decembe...
Group wary of 'downtrend' in OFW Mideast deploymen...
Salceda places Albay under state of calamity; urge...
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Moving to set dangerous precedents FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 01/07/2011
Moving to set dangerous precedents
Good luck to the Noynoy government, because it will really need all the luck to have the Sandiganbayan overturn the approved plea bargain agreement forged between former military comptroller, Ret. Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia — especially after Garcia had already been arraigned for direct bribery and pleaded guilty to the charge. But who knows?
To overturn the plea bargain would not only mean that he would still be charged with plunder, plus direct bribery but that henceforth, plea bargains, even if already court-approved, cannot be relied on by the accused to be final and executory.
Precedents are birthed that way and such precedents set the tone for future plea bargains that cannot be relied upon by the accused.
At this point and under the atmosphere created by Noynoy and his quarrel with the judiciary, amid strong public perception that he wants not just the high court but also the entire judiciary to bow to him and his wishes, while he punishes them by slashing the judiciary budget for being unable to get the courts to bow to him, overturning the plea bargain would be seen by the general public as a capitulation of the court to the executive power, which will do the court no good, by way of perception. We have had enough of this judicial subservience under the reign of Gloria Arroyo and it really is time for the judiciary to assert its independence..... MORE
Paris ‘Muslim Batman’ angers rightwing US bloggers FEATURE 01/07/2011
Paris ‘Muslim Batman’ angers rightwing US bloggers
PARIS — Batman has battled many enemies but now has to face the anger of rightwing US bloggers furious that the comic book caped crusader has recruited a Muslim to run his crime-fighting franchise in Paris.
“The character’s name is Bilal Asselah and he is an Algerian Sunni Muslim and an immigrant that is physically fit and adept at the gymnastic sport parkour,” wrote Warner Todd Huston on his site Publius Forum.
“Apparently Batman couldn’t find any actual Frenchman to be the ‘French savior,’” wrote the rightwinger, apparently discounting the millions of French citizens of North African descent from his definition of “actual” French.
In the December issues of DC Comics Detective Comics Annual and Batman Annual, the caped crusader decides to set up Batman Inc. and install a superhero in cities around the world to fight crime..... MORE
Out with the old,in with the new NO HOLDS BARRED Armida Siguion-Reyna 01/07/2011
Out with the old,in with the new
Or so I once said, in Jan. 2, 2007, as columnist of the Lifestyle section of this paper, stressing that the thought pretty much pertained to throwing away old bad habits and old awful experiences of the year just ended, keeping the good forever in our hearts, while looking forward to the best yet to come.
My 2006 went really well, see. My husband Sig and I had two medical tests in New York City and adjudged to be in healthy condition, and while I was by then already using a cane and no longer able to do ballroom dancing, everything else, was fine. Nakakapag-rally pa ako nito, and dapat lang, for even if the “Hello, Garci” recordings were exposed much earlier, in the middle of 2005, there continued to be need for people to express anger out in the streets.
As UP Professor Randy David at that time pointed out in a Concerned Citizens’ Movement forum at the Manila Polo Club, late August of 2006, “To remain quiet is not an option. A quietist attitude rewards thieves, opportunists and dishonest people. Democracy is anything but quiet. The day citizens shut up will be the day they lose their stakes in the nation.”.... MORE
A duty to disobey DIE HARD III Herman Tiu Laurel 01/07/2011
A duty to disobey
Laws control the lesser man. Right conduct controls the greater one.” — Chinese Proverb
Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and the Bagong Katipuneros are now at least free from imprisonment with complete finality. Despite their admission of having violated certain “rules,” one TV network’s Web report headlined, “No remorse.” Of course there should be no remorse!
At that time in 2003, Trillanes and company marched out of their military camps to make known their stand against the illegality and massive corruption of Gloria Arroyo’s regime as well as the military under her reign. The deaths of soldiers from lack of equipment and dud ammunition directly linked to the thievery of the AFP’s budgets make it a duty of every soldier to conscientiously object to what was going on; but only a select few mustered the courage to say what must be said.
Even today, soldiers around the world who in their conscience cannot accept the impositions of authorities over them exercise such conscientious objections by breaking the rules deliberately, refusing to serve, such as in US Army Lt. Watada’s case, or by taking more drastic moves, such as in US Army Private Bradley Manning’s alleged leak of classified documents and video files to WikiLeaks, which led to his solitary confinement today.
Break the military rules they do but shirk from the consequences they don’t. Senator Trillanes, Gen. Danilo Lim, Col. Ariel Querubin, Capt. Nick Faeldon and many others faced the consequences and paid for their courageous acts with years upon years of unjust imprisonment, loss of career and income, and even emotional upheavals.
Disobedience — in service of one’s conscience and of the greater good of God, country and people — isn’t new. The world has a long glorious history of this, from Mahatma Gandhi to Martin Luther King, from George Washington who rebelled against his British superiors down to Hugo Chavez who is now a well-respected leader in the global stage.
At the time Senator Trillanes and the Bagong Katipuneros decided to risk everything on which their families depended, including their lives, the so-called “civil society,” including Yellow critics of Oakwood and subsequent military protests, continued to be in full support of the corrupt Gloria Arroyo. Yellow “icon” Corazon Aquino even staged a special scene for the commemoration of Ninoy Aquino Day (Aug. 21) two months after Oakwood to emphasize the Yellows’ unflinching support for Arroyo, with an inset photo of Cory holding Gloria’s hand on the Aug. 22, 2003 front page of a Yellow broadsheet.
I have this saved because I know I will need to invoke this whenever Yellows such as Christian and Winnie Monsod blame others again for the travails of our society when it is they who persistently sustain the cancers that plague us.
And so it was that by December 2008, Cory apologized both to Erap and the people for her support of Arroyo. In fact, she had already shown remorse even earlier by physically going to the Marines standoff led by Col. Ariel Querubin in 2006. Could the Monsod husband-and-wife team trying to smear the amnesty for all conscientious military objectors — particularly Gen. Danilo Lim who has been at loggerheads with the Monsods over his refusal to express any apology — find the courage to apologize to the nation for their own perfidy?
I hope Gen. Danilo Lim and Capt. Nick Faeldon both apply for the amnesty now that it is clear that no apology is necessary and their years in confinement have sufficiently paid for their “violation of the rules.” We need them to continue serving the people.
This new year and new decade, we must push even harder the campaign for disobedience against the prevailing system to bring about real social change. My philosophy student-son’s La Salle study guide highlights Arnold Toynbee’s conclusion about societal collapse: “The cause of the fall of a civilization occurred when a cultural elite became a parasitic elite, leading to the rise of internal and external proletariats.”
Proletariat in simple terms simply means the alienated employed and unemployed classes who don’t count in social decisions anymore, while the words “elite” and “parasitic” are self explanatory. Today, even our most highly educated are “proletarianized,” like how the top computer experts of UP and other universities who asked to test the source code of the PCOS machines have been given a runaround for a year now by Smartmatic and the Comelec, and this even after the Supreme Court ordered that it be given.
A perfect example of this parasitic behavior is the way the Philippine elite is insatiably extracting the blood from our society dry. In the latest research on 2010 power rates provided by our volunteer Ka Richard from the World Electricity Price Index we have the following data in US dollar terms:
Australia 18.55 cents/kWh; Hong Kong 11.80 cents/kWh; Singapore 17.38 cents/kWh; Turkey18.30 cents/kWh.
Compare all these to the Philippines’ 28.80 US cents/kWh and you’ll definitely seethe in anger. While we’re still updating 2010 prices for other countries, we should note that as of 2009, the Philippines was already at 23.00 US cents/kWh.
So it’s clear that our power rates have risen and continue to rise to breakaway levels as the highest in Asia, if not the world. It is only a matter of time before the VAT rate will be raised anew to 15 (or even 17) percent — this after PeNoy imposes hikes in MRT-LRT fares, the Slex, Nlex, and SCTex toll fees, and water rates, ad nausea.
During the past decade I have made calls for civil disobedience more times than there are fingers and toes on my limbs. We just have to keep on trying. And thanks to Trillanes and Danny Lim, our society is being educated on the dignity and honor of disobeying for the common good.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; TNT with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 8 on “2011: Fears, Tears and Trends” with Dr. Rene Ofreneo and Mr. Butz Junia; visit our blogs, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
Copts feel marginalized in land of ancestors focus 01/07/2011
Copts feel marginalized in land of ancestors
CAIRO — Egypt’s Copts, who celebrate Christmas Eve on Thursday just days after a deadly attack on one of their churches, feel marginalized in a country whose Christian roots date back to the religion’s early days.
The head of the Coptic church, Pope Shenuda III, expressed the despair of his beleaguered people by saying after Saturday’s bombing in Alexandria that “everyone in Egypt must enjoy full rights of citizenship, without discrimination.”
Copts account for up to 10 percent of Egypt’s population of 80 million and are the largest Christian community in the Middle East.
And Egypt’s Christian past dates back to the first century. Tradition holds that the new faith was brought by the evangelist Saint Mark, himself later martyred by being dragged through the streets of Alexandria with a rope around his neck..... MORE
Named and shamed, but still lording it over Congo FEATURE 01/07/2011
Named and shamed, but still lording it over Congo
UNITED NATIONS — He has been named and shamed by the United Nations, accused of murder, rape and abusing child soldiers in one of Africa’s most merciless war zones, but nothing it seems can stop Innocent Zimurinda.
The feared former Democratic Republic of Congo militia leader remains an army lieutenant colonel in “operational command,” despite having been put on a UN sanctions list one month ago, according to UN officials and rights workers.
Zimurinda is a leading name among rogue army officers who are meant to be extending government control in eastern DR Congo but are instead fighting for its mineral wealth and lumber concessions, according to rights groups.
There are “dozens” with a “horrible track record of human rights abuses who are in top positions in the national army,” according to Anneke Van Woudenberg, an Africa researcher for Human Rights Watch, who checked on Zimurinda’s activities on a recent trip to eastern Congo..... MORE
Noynoy: NAIA-3 row to be resolved legally By Aytch S. de la Cruz 01/07/2011
CORRUPTION STILL AN ISSUE IN COMPENSATION
Noynoy: NAIA-3 row to be resolved legally
No out of court settlement on the airport Terminal 3 row appears to be forthcoming, as President Aquino is of the belief that corruption and other irregularities took place in the construction of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 (NAIA-3), whose builder was the Philippine International Air Terminals Co. (Piatco), a consortium with its major German partner, Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide (Fraport AG).
He also stated that the consortium’s compensation demand is “overpriced” while giving out broad hints that holding dialogs with the Germans, through their ambassador in Manila, is a waste of time, as dialogs apparently were already being held prior to the report of the Washington-based ICSID ad hoc committee which resolved to annul the earlier ICSID ruling that said the panel did not have jurisdiction over the Fraport suit against the Philippine government.
Aquino also said that he prefers to have the NAIA-3 row settled legally, which means a long court case, both here and abroad.
Continuing with the court cases, especially those abroad would entail continued payment of reported exorbitant legal fees charged by both the Philippine lawyers, as well as their American counterparts..... MORE
Aquino vows Garcia won’t get away with plunder 01/07/2011
Aquino vows Garcia won’t get away with plunder
President Aquino yesterday vowed that former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) comptroller, Major Gen. Carlos Garcia, will not get away with plunder in light of the strong and clear arguments presented by his Solicitor General Jose Anselmo Cadiz in the motion for intervention filed by his office Wednesday at the Sandiganbayan.
But Cadiz himself told media that his motion to intervene has no chance of success.
Speaking to reporters in a chance interview at the Subic Bay Freeport in Zambales, Aquino said they have good chances at obtaining a favorable decision from the Sandiganbayan on their quest to rectify what they deemed irregular in the plea bargain agreement that was approved by the anti-graft court in May last year.
“There are technical aspects (to consider), I understand. But, I think, our Solicitor General presented (the arguments) well, especially in highlighting the fact that there were provisions (violated) and that the SC (Supreme Court) can review the matter. I’ve been told that among others, the consent of the offended party was not sought..... MORE
DoJ rules PAO chief, deputies lack eligibility By Benjamin B. Pulta 01/07/2011
DoJ rules PAO chief, deputies lack eligibility
It seems the Aquino administration remains bent on a political cleansing at the judiciary after the top state lawyer and her deputies were recommended terminated for supposedly not being qualified for their posts for lacking CES (Career Executive Service) eligibility according to a ruling of the Department of Justice (DoJ).
The ruling places Public Attorney’s Office chief Persida Rueda-Acosta at a tenuous position after Justice Secretary Leila de Lima confirmed the department has issued a legal opinion signed by Chief State Counsel Ricardo Paras III, voiding the appointment of Acosta and her deputies.
The opinion said it is “…..declaring the appointment of the Public Attorney’s Office chief and other top officials of PAO “are without merit” because “they do not possess the required CES (career executive service legilibility) right to security of tenure even if it was expressly guaranteed to them by the PAO law,” said the opinion. The PAO is an attached agency of the DoJ that provides indigent litigants free legal assistance..... MORE
Webb asks SC to drop PAO appeal on Vizconde case By Benjamin B. Pulta 01/07/2011
Webb asks SC to drop PAO appeal on Vizconde case
Lawyers representing Hubert Webb are asking the Supreme Court (SC) to turn down a motion seeking the reversal of his acquittal in the Vizconde massacre case.
In a pleading filed through his lawyers led by Demetrio Custodio, Webb claimed that the Public Attorney’s Office has no legal authority to file the motion for reconsideration (MR) on behalf of widower Lauro Vizconde since the PAO, an attached agency of the Department of Justice (DoJ) that provides indigent litigants free legal assistance, lacked the power to prosecute a criminal case.
As such, Webb said, the high tribunal should order PAO lawyers who signed the MR to explain why they should not be cited in contempt for filing the pleading “despite knowing that they had no authority to do so.”
A total of 12 PAO lawyers, led by Chief Public Attorney Persida Rueda Acosta, assisted Lauro in filing the MR on the Dec. 14 decision of the SC acquitting the suspects in the killings of his wife Estrellita and daughters Carmela and Jennifer in 1991..... MORE
Noynoy denies election operators to replace exiting Comelec executives 01/07/2011
Noynoy denies election operators to replace exiting Comelec executives
President Aquino yesterday refuted “speculations” circulated by his former colleague, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, that he was eyeing some alleged poll fraud operators as potential successors to outgoing Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Jose Melo and other retiring commissioners.
Aquino, in a phone interview, clarified that he and the members of his search committee have yet to come up with clear set of nominees for the next Comelec chief.
Neither did Aquino also confirm that former Supreme Court Justices Sixto Brillantes, Leonardo Quisumbing and Eduardo Nachura, said to be retiring this June, have already made it to the shortlist of Melo’s possible replacement as reportedly told by the outgoing Comelec himself.
In fact, he implied, the reason they are not yet disclosing any names as possible candidates for the position is that they are exercising caution..... MORE
No more public sex on Boracay 01/07/2011
No more public sex on Boracay
Philippine authorities may ban sex on the world-famous beaches of Boracay island after a television crew filmed two naked couples making out in public on New Year’s Day, the local mayor said Thursday.
The clip showed one pair apparently having sex on the beach and the other locked in a passionate kiss in the water, with the woman’s bare breasts clearly shown above the waterline.
The ABS-CBN television network said it filmed the apparently Western couples at 2 a.m. on New Year’s Day following a large beachside party on Boracay to usher in 2011.
“We’re thinking of a ‘no sex on the beach’ (rule) so the other tourists would not be scandalized,” John Yap, mayor of Malay town that has jurisdiction over Boracay, told the TV network in an interview posted on its website this week..... MORE
Norway to RP: All set for peace talks with Reds By Michaela P. del Callar 01/07/2011
Norway to RP: All set for peace talks with Reds
Norway has informed the Philippine government that everything is set for the resumption of preliminary talks between the Aquino administration and the National Democratic Front in Oslo next month despite a gunbattle and arrest of a senior communist leader a day after the holiday truce ended on Jan. 4.
Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles yesterday said the Royal Norwegian Government, the third party facilitator for the talks since 2001, has notified the government that logistical arrangements have been finalized.
“The venue has been reserved so nothing can stop this,” Deles said in a radio interview.
The Maoist insurgent movement, whose membership ballooned to more than 26,000 in the mid-1980s, has dwindled to 5,000 armed members, according to military estimates..... MORE
Koko Pimentel: No retreat, no surrender 01/07/2011
Koko Pimentel: No retreat, no surrender
Saying that he has been “cheated twice,” lawyer Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel, who was edged out of the 12th place in the 2007 senatorial race by Juan Miguel Zubiri, has vowed “no retreat, nor surrender” in his electoral protest.
Represented by his father, former Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Koko Pimentel urged in a petition for certiorari and prohibition filed before the Supreme Court on Jan. 3, 2011, the annulment of two resolutions of the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) which he claimed violate his rights to due process of law and to the speedy disposition of cases, and that the SET decide on his election protest without any further delay.
Senate Resolution 07-105 dated June 4, 2010 ordered that further proceedings be conducted on the remaining precincts counter-protested by Zubiri, while SET Resolution 07-113 dated Nov. 4, 2010 denied Pimentel’s Motion for Reconsideration of SET Resolution 07-105..... MORE
Moving to set dangerous precedents FRONTLINE Ninez...
Paris ‘Muslim Batman’ angers rightwing US bloggers...
Out with the old,in with the new NO HOLDS BARRED A...
A duty to disobey DIE HARD III Herman Tiu Laurel ...
Copts feel marginalized in land of ancestors focus...
Named and shamed, but still lording it over Congo ...
Noynoy: NAIA-3 row to be resolved legally By Aytch...
Aquino vows Garcia won’t get away with plunder 01...
DoJ rules PAO chief, deputies lack eligibility By ...
Webb asks SC to drop PAO appeal on Vizconde case B...
Noynoy denies election operators to replace exitin...
Norway to RP: All set for peace talks with Reds By...
Koko Pimentel: No retreat, no surrender 01/07/201...
Who Are The House Impeachment Managers? - Chosen by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the seven Democratic lawmakers reflect the geographic and demographic diversity of the party’s caucus.
Brexit: MPs overturn changes to exit bill amid battle with Lords - The Commons rejects changes made by peers on citizens' rights, EU court rulings and child refugees.
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THE TRANSFORMATION
(A SANDWICH OF NIGHTMARES)
Combining a sex and horror story with elements of comedy and mysticism, this low-budget effort surrounds the fictional plot with a documentary about the making of the film. Producer Elliot Krasnow, director-writer Lewis Jackson, stars Dianna Mitchell and Michael Baxter are seen discussing the shooting and generally reacting to the situations at hand. The real people are so unaffected that they overshadow the screenplay, dealing with a sex-and-sadism cult investigated by Baxter and Professor David Kirk. Novice Baxter falls in love with exotic singer Mitchelle before discovering she's the high priestess of the cult. Jackson, a former trade press reporter, can also be seen in at least one bit. It's an interesting try at something different, but might appeal mainly to the underground culture. Music by Broken Wing.
[Boxoffice, 11/25/1974, p.66]
Written and directed by Lewis Jackson
Produced by Elliot Krasnow
Palomino Productions
87 minutes, Color
Self-applied X rating
(later rated R by the MPAA)
Released by Howard Mahler Films as
TRANSFORMATION in September 1976
Dianna W. Mitchell, Michael Baxter, David Kirk, Les Crook, Elliot Kastner, Lewis Jackson
Labels: ELLIOT KRASNOW, HOWARD MAHLER FILMS, LEWIS JACKSON, THE ENDANGERED LIST, TRANSFORMATION
Mike Mac said...
I really enjoy and appreciate your blog- very informative and entertaining. Don't know if you have seen the site linked below, but it provides info about Elliot Krasnow's movie-related activities that isn't on his IMDb page. (And clicking on the "nostaglia" (!) button takes you to a page with Krasnow's business card for Palomino Productions. Maybe Mr. Krasnow himself has a print?):
http://www.elliotkrasnow.tv/ekrasnow_tv.html
Temple of Schlock said...
Hi Mike! Thanks for the nice comments about the blog. I knew Krasnow had a website but didn't get around to exploring it too thoroughly -- and had no idea that he was still running Palomino Productions. Maybe someone at a DVD company will read this and get in touch with him!
Lewis Jackson told me he had a print at one point, but it disappeared with an ex-wife, as did a print of an adults-only film he made that I think was called THE DEVIATORS.
I am the artist formerly known as Les Crook (I played Renfield in the film). I've been going by the name Les Visible for about 20 years now and am a writer and recording artist living near Basel, Switzerland and I spend the winters in southern Italy. What I'm up to is easily researched by putting "Les Visible" in Google.
That was a strange production.
"Free admission to all bringing black cats" promot...
One-Sheet of the Week: 69 MINUTES (1976)
THE TEENY BOPPERS (1970)
THE ICEMAN #1: BILLION DOLLAR DEATH
BILL LANDIS R.I.P.
NOW SHOWING -- December 26th, 1979
DARKTOWN STRUTTERS (1975)
The Szurek Zone: HITCHHIKE TO HELL (1978)
MY BOYS ARE GOOD BOYS (1977)
One-Sheet of the Week: DIARY OF A 19TH CENTURY JOY...
PETS (1973): From Playhouse to Grindhouse
Long A'Ghouled And Forry Away
Have a very Murray Christmas!
DEATH HAS MANY DOORS
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Number of hand grenade attacks in Sweden has risen sevenfold, Police has no idea what to do about it
Vincent van den Born
Handgranatsattacker har ökat kraftigt https://t.co/ikNUKCdNRd via @svtnyheter
— Timon Dias (@TimonDias) 3 augustus 2017
Swedish broadcaster SVT Nyheter published an interview today with an expert of the National Operations Department (NOD) of the Swedish police. The expert wishes to stay anonymous. But what he has to say, is that hand grenades are being used more and more in Sweden.
SVT mentioned the detonation of a grenade in a parking lot in Halmstad last week, but police numbers show that the use of hand grenades is on the rise. In 2014, 8 were used, but none of them actually detonated. In 2015, 10 out of 48 hand grenades used did explode, while in 2016 a total of 52 grenades were used, of which 27 detonated. According to the expert:
“[the police] are serious about it. It is an entirely unacceptable situation for Sweden. When it comes to the use of hand grenades, the pattern in Sweden is also completely different from other countries in Europe.
– Does that mean there are more hand grenades here?
It is not possible to say that there are more hand grenades in Sweden than there are in other European countries. But it is possible to say that they are used in a way that you do not see in other countries. It is extremely distinct.”
At first, attacks using hand grenades have been targeted against cars or homes, that have somehow been linked to criminal activity. But in 2015, police noticed that criminals began to choose targets that had no direct connection with gang conflicts.
“Something we’re looking into now, and that is very worrying, is that starting in 2015 grenades have been thrown at targets like offices of the social services, police stations, and police officers. They began targeting targets linked to the state and civil society.“
With the increased number of hand grenade attacks, comes an increasing number of innocent victims:
“It has happened that a mistake in an address has lead to an attack on innocent families with children, we have found hand grenades hidden at playgrounds. There are examples of children finding hand grenades. It is a wonder more people haven’t been killed.“
The police have found that the problem is not limited to larger cities, but that criminal networks across the entire country have access to hand grenades. An insight confirmed by the Halmstad police, after the latest attack in Sweden using grenades. Peter Hejdström, Head of the local Special Investigations Department:
“Yes. Even if the supply is not as good as in larger cities, it is clear that criminals have access to hand grenades her too.“
The grenades represent an acute danger. All of the grenades seized or detonated in recent years are from former Yugoslavia, models M75 and M52. According to the NOD specialist, even holding one can be life threatening:
“Most grenades are old. They can be stable, but you do not know, because you have no idea how they were stored. The bomb squad has found that they can be unstable.“
The Swedish police have identified five main factors underlying the increased use of hand grenades. Firstly, it is easy to get hold of them. Secondly, they offer a lot of bang for the buck – literally and figuratively, as they are quite cheap. The number of gang conflicts is mentioned as the third reason use of hand grenades took off, leading to the fourth reason: normalisation. What could once be considered an escalation, has become a routine. The fifth reason, according to Swedish police, is the low risk of getting caught. When asked what can be done about the hand grenade hype, the NOD expert says:
“It will be a collaborative effort of different parts of society. Of course, we need to get a better grip on the availability of hand grenades, reduce access. That must be done in cooperation with other countries.“
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Sources, symbols, identities, and metamorphoses in Carroll’s ‘Nonsense’ and Macdonald’s Fantasy
Soto, Fernando Jorge (2010) Sources, symbols, identities, and metamorphoses in Carroll’s ‘Nonsense’ and Macdonald’s Fantasy. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.
Printed Thesis Information: https://eleanor.lib.gla.ac.uk/record=b2870960
Lewis Carroll, and George MacDonald are responsible for some of the most popular yet obscure texts in the English Canon. Because Carroll and MacDonald are often credited with pioneering much of their genres — Nonsense Literature and Fantasy Literature — it seems that often they are labeled as originators, and not as active contributing members of a much larger literary tradition. Carroll and MacDonald were close friends and literary confidants, using each other’s works, as well as employing that of other writers.
This is a study of the sources Carroll and MacDonald used in an attempt to better understand the underlying meanings and symbols in some of their works. For example, I study the analogous symbols they utilized, along with the words used to express them, to convey their ideas about identity and metamorphosis. I show that they rely on ancient, complex symbols, and the traditional language and meanings associated with them, to communicate deeply embedded messages to their readers. They employ the symbols of the worm, the chrysalis, and the butterfly, in several different guises, in their complex works. It is these symbols that allowed them to elucidate the concepts of the individual’s initial materialist state, followed by the midway period of dreaming/reflecting, and the subsequent spiritual awakening.
The analysis of the literary sources they used helps to uncover symbols and themes of interest for Carroll and MacDonald, which in turn help to expose other of their sources, such as the Bestiaries, biblical stories, and the works of Isaac Watts, and William Blake. I attempt to explain how some of these symbols and themes function in the portrayal of coherent, yet creative, meanings in Carroll’s ‘Nonsense’ and MacDonald’s Fantasy.
Chapter Four 'INDENTITIES, SOURCES, AND MACDONALD’S REFASHIONING OF CLASSICAL MYTH' was published in slightly altered form as two papers: : ‘Kore Motifs in the Princess Books: Mythic Threads Between Irenes and Eirinys.’ 'George MacDonald: Literary Heritage and Heirs' (Wayne: Zossima Press. 2008), and ‘Unearthing Ancient Sources in MacDonald’s The Golden Key.’ North Wind: A Journal of George MacDonald Studies (2007). A short section of Chapter Five was published as ‘The Phantastic Spark that Binds All Life: George MacDonald and Victorian Bio-electrical/Bio-chemical Theories.’ 'Inklings – Jarbuch f ü r Literatur und Ästhetik' (2002).
Lewis Carroll, George MacDonald, William Blake, "nonsense", Fantasy
P Language and Literature > PR English literature
P Language and Literature > PZ Childrens literature
Colleges/Schools:
College of Arts > School of Critical Studies > English Literature
Supervisor's Name:
MacKenzie, Dr. Donald
Dr. Fernando J. Soto
glathesis:2010-2295
http://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/2295
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Barry White on campaigns, news, events & reviews
“Unless Julian is released shortly he will be destroyed.” Craig Murray
October 26, 2019 Campaigns, international, whistle blowingBarry White
It was some 15 years ago that Craig Murray first became a thorn in the flesh of the British State. He’d had a distinguished career in the UK diplomatic service, but his last posting in 2002-2004 as British Ambassador, Uzbekistan brought him into conflict with the State. Responsible for the UK’s relationship with Uzbekistan, he found Western support for the dictatorial Karimov regime unacceptable having exposed the human rights violations of the administration. In October 2004 he was removed from his post for his revelations. Since then he has pursued a varied career as an author, broadcaster and human rights activist and was Rector of the University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010. At the 2005 General Election, he stood against Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in Blackburn as an Independent candidate, winning 2,082 votes. More recently he has turned his attention to the treatment of Julian Assange, still being held in prison in Belmarsh high security prison, awaiting a hearing scheduled for 25 February on his extradition to the USA.
On 21 October Julian Assange appeared before District Judge Vanessa Baraitser at Westminster Magistrates Court. The hearing was witnessed by Murray who has been following Julian’s case with great interest and concern. He wrote in his blog the following day: “I was deeply shaken while witnessing yesterday’s events in Westminster Magistrates Court. Every decision was railroaded through over the scarcely heard arguments and objections of Assange’s legal team, by a magistrate who barely pretended to be listening.
“Before I get on to the blatant lack of fair process, the first thing I must note was Julian’s condition. I was badly shocked by just how much weight my friend has lost, by the speed his hair has receded and by the appearance of premature and vastly accelerated ageing. He has a pronounced limp I have never seen before. Since his arrest he has lost over 15 kg in weight.
“But his physical appearance was not as shocking as his mental deterioration. When asked to give his name and date of birth, he struggled visibly over several seconds to recall both. I will come to the important content of his statement at the end of proceedings in due course, but his difficulty in making it was very evident; it was a real struggle for him to articulate the words and focus his train of thought.
Up until this court appearance Murray had been sceptical of claim that debilitating drugs had been forced on Assange and that his treatment amounted to torture. ”But” he writes “having attended the trials in Uzbekistan of several victims of extreme torture, and having worked with survivors from Sierra Leone and elsewhere, I can tell you that yesterday changed my mind entirely and Julian exhibited exactly the symptoms of a torture victim brought blinking into the light, particularly in terms of disorientation, confusion, and the real struggle to assert free will through the fog of learned helplessness.
“I had been even more sceptical of those who claimed, as a senior member of his legal team did to me on Sunday night (the day before the Westminster hearing) that they were worried that Julian might not live to the end of the extradition process. I now find myself not only believing it, but haunted by the thought. Everybody in that court yesterday saw that one of the greatest journalists and most important dissidents of our times is being tortured to death by the state, before our eyes. To see my friend, the most articulate man, the fastest thinker, I have ever known, reduced to that shambling and incoherent wreck, was unbearable. Yet the agents of the state, particularly the callous magistrate Vanessa Baraitser, were not just prepared but eager to be a part of this bloodsport. She actually told him that if he were incapable of following proceedings, then his lawyers could explain what had happened to him later. The question of why a man who, by the very charges against him, was acknowledged to be highly intelligent and competent, had been reduced by the state to somebody incapable of following court proceedings, gave her not a millisecond of concern.
“The charge against Julian is very specific; conspiring with Chelsea Manning to publish the Iraq War logs, the Afghanistan war logs and the State Department cables. The charges are nothing to do with Sweden, nothing to do with sex, and nothing to do with the 2016 US election; a simple clarification the mainstream media appears incapable of understanding.
“The purpose of yesterday’s (Monday’s) hearing was case management; to determine the timetable for the extradition proceedings. The key points at issue were that Julian’s defence was requesting more time to prepare their evidence; and arguing that political offences were specifically excluded from the extradition treaty. There should, they argued, therefore be a preliminary hearing to determine whether the extradition treaty applied at all.
“The reasons given by Assange’s defence team for more time to prepare were both compelling and startling. They had very limited access to their client in jail and had not been permitted to hand him any documents about the case until one week ago. He had also only just been given limited computer access, and all his relevant records and materials had been seized from the Ecuadorean Embassy by the US Government; he had no access to his own materials for the purpose of preparing his defence.”
All of this cut no ice with magistrate Vanessa Baraitser who accepted the prosecution’s case that the defence should be given be no extra time to prepare their case. But there was worse to come. In ruling on where the extradition case will be heard in February Vanessa Baraitser announced that it would take place not at Westminster Court but in Belmarsh Magistrates Court,” the grim high security facility used for preliminary legal processing of terrorists, attached to the maximum security prison where Assange is being held.” According to Murray there are only six seats for the public in even the largest court in the complex, thus making public scrutiny of the hearing more difficult.
Oliver concludes: “The whole experience was profoundly upsetting. It was very plain that there was no genuine process of legal consideration happening here. What we had was a naked demonstration of the power of the state, and a naked dictation of proceedings by the Americans. Julian was in a box behind bulletproof glass, and I and the thirty odd other members of the public who had squeezed in were in a different box behind more bulletproof glass. I do not know if he could see me or his other friends in the court, or if he was capable of recognising anybody. He gave no indication that he did.
“In Belmarsh he is kept in complete isolation for 23 hours a day. He is permitted 45 minutes exercise. If he has to be moved, they clear the corridors before he walks down them and they lock all cell doors to ensure he has no contact with any other prisoner outside the short and strictly supervised exercise period. There is no possible justification for this inhuman regime, used on major terrorists, being imposed on a publisher who is a remand prisoner.” He concludes: “Unless Julian is released shortly he will be destroyed. If the state can do this, then who is next?”
You can read Craig Murray’s blog at: https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/10/assange-in-court/
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Fight to Return Federal Land to the States Gets a Boost from Koch Brothers
February 13, 2016 uhm Leave a comment
Fight to Return Federal Land to the States Gets a Boost from Koch Brothers © AFP 2016/ Rob Kerr
03:44 13.02.2016(updated 10:35 13.02.2016) Get short URL
http://sputniknews.com/us/20160213/1034684209/koch-brothers-oregon-standoff.html
Following the resolution of an armed standoff at an Oregon wildlife refuge, the movement to transfer federal lands to state control has gained some powerful backers: conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch.
The 41-day standoff between law enforcement agents and armed militants at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge ended on Thursday when David Fry, the last holdout of the occupation, surrendered to police.
While calls for states to reclaim lands from the federal government are unpopular with most Americans, support from the Koch network could help the movement gain some traction in the mainstream.
ClimateProgress reported that “the Koch network is providing direct support to the ringleader of the land grab movement, Utah state representative Ken Ivory, and has forged an alliance with groups and individuals who have militia ties and share extreme anti-government ideologies.”
As an advocate for states’ rights, Ivory has long argued that federal lands should be transferred to state control.
In 2012, Ivory, a Republican, sponsored the Utah Transfer of Public Lands Act, which called on the federal government to give all federal land within Utah – which amounts to 65% of the land in the state – to the state government.
He also founded the American Lands Council (ALC), a nonprofit formed to support the state takeover of public lands.
Earlier this month, it was announced that Ivory would step down as head of the ALC and join the South Carolina-based group Federalism in Action, specifically, its “Free the Lands” project. Federalism in Action is a member of the State Policy Network, a Koch brother–funded network of more than 50 right-wing think tanks and libertarian groups focusing on state policy.
As ClimateProgress pointed out, backing from the Koch network may help the land-seizure movement attract the support of politicians who want the Koch endorsement and contributions. Last week, GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz promised to be “vigorously committed to transferring as much federal land as humanly possible back to the states.”
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Category: Global Police state post democratic society Tags: blm, bundy, Bureau of Land Management, FEDERAL LAND, hammonds, koch, koch brothers, land grab, militia, militiamen, states, tyranny
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The 1,000 Greatest Horror Films
#1-#100
#101-#200
#901-#1000
Drop-offs and Additions
Hidden Horrors
Subset Lists
The 21st Century’s Most Acclaimed Horror Films
The Top 50 Horror Directors
#1-#25
#26-#50
The 21st Century’s Most Acclaimed Horror Films: #1-#125
The 21st Century’s Most Acclaimed Horror Films: Introduction | #1-#100 | #126-#250 | Full List | Sources
1. Låt den rätte komma in
2008 / Sweden / 115m / Col / Vampire | IMDb
Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar, Henrik Dahl, Karin Bergquist, Peter Carlberg, Ika Nord, Mikael Rahm, Karl-Robert Lindgren, Anders T. Peedu
“Though subtlety and atmosphere may be two of the key factors that help distinguish Let the Right One In from a vast majority of jump-cut-laden adolescent vampire flicks, the filmmakers don’t shy away when the time comes for all hell to break loose. Not only does that stylistic decision allow cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema the chance to get a little creative during some of the film’s more intense sequences, but it also helps to make the violence all the more effective when it actually occurs onscreen, skillfully laying the groundwork for a beautifully executed payoff that will nudge Let the Right One In into near-classic territory for many.” – Jason Buchanan, TV Guide
2. The Descent
2005 / UK / 99m / Col / Monster | IMDb
Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder, MyAnna Buring, Nora-Jane Noone, Oliver Milburn, Molly Kayll, Craig Conway, Leslie Simpson
“From the high-impact opening shock to the poignantly bleak ending, this underground Deliverance is designed to cause maximum stress in anyone remotely claustrophobic, vertiginous or afraid of the dark. Marshall’s expert choreography of the creepy “crawler” creatures provides the extra terror, while they provide the full-on skin-slicing gore. As a writer and director he has a keen understanding of what makes the horror genre tick, and overturns the usual conventions with canny wit. Super-scary and vicious, both psychologically and physically, this cleverly produced chill-ride is edgy British horror at its very best.” – Alan Jones, Radio Times
3. It Follows
2014 / USA / 100m / Col / Monster | IMDb
Linda Boston, Caitlin Burt, Heather Fairbanks, Aldante Foster, Keir Gilchrist, Ruby Harris, Christopher Hohman, Olivia Luccardi, Maika Monroe, Lili Sepe
“It Follows is simply one of the most fascinating and atmospheric horror movies in recent memory. It oozes dread with its simple, single-minded concept that is as unrelenting as the titular “it” terrorizing the protagonists. It doesn’t waste time with extraneous subplots, long-winded backstories or even an explanation of what “it” is and where it came from. This is a lean, mean film that’s all about making you feel the paranoia that its characters experience.” – Mark H. Horror, AboutEntertainment
4. Shaun of the Dead
2004 / UK / 99m / Col / Zombie | IMDb
Simon Pegg, Kate Ashfield, Nick Frost, Lucy Davis, Dylan Moran, Nicola Cunningham, Keir Mills, Matt Jaynes, Gavin Ferguson, Peter Serafinowicz
“A hybrid of stylish suspense and dry comedy, Shaun Of The Dead tries to do right by all its contributing elements and mostly succeeds. No laughing matter, the zombies come straight out of a George Romero film, lumbering along with a fearsome intensity. Wright directs with an expert sense of rhythm but never lays his technical finesse on with Guy Ritchie thickness; he lets his characters take center stage even after he’s shown he can frame them through a gaping hole in a zombie’s stomach.” – Keith Phipps, A.V. Club
5. 28 Days Later…
2002 / UK / 113m / Col / Zombie | IMDb
Alex Palmer, Bindu De Stoppani, Jukka Hiltunen, David Schneider, Cillian Murphy, Toby Sedgwick, Naomie Harris, Noah Huntley, Christopher Dunne, Emma Hitching
“From eerie vistas of deserted London to unnerving views of Manchester reduced to burning rubble, this Dogme-driven apocalyptic nightmare from director Danny Boyle is a tense, exciting and terrifying horror. A powerfully iconoclastic Dawn-meets-Day of the Dead hybrid (written by Alex Garland, author of The Beach), this triumphantly executed piece of contemporary horror has genuine shock value with its down-and-dirty violence and disturbing authenticity. Shot on digital video for a documentary feel that is tempered with occasional, unexpected flashes of surreal artfulness, Garland’s compelling story grips on every level as Boyle’s visual concept dovetails perfectly with the atmospheric narrative to produce an engrossing assault on the senses.” – Alan Jones, Radio Times
6. The Babadook
2014 / Australia / 93m / Col / Psychological | IMDb
Essie Davis, Daniel Henshall, Tiffany Lyndall-Knight, Benjamin Winspear, Noah Wiseman, Carmel Johnson, Hayley McElhinney, Craig Behenna, Peta Shannon, Cathy Adamek
“At the beginning, the tension is all wrapped up in this out-of-control child. Wiseman, who was 6 when the film was shooting and is making his screen debut, is an ideal mix of wide-eyed innocence and tantrum-throwing rage. At one point, as his screeches fill the car, you may wonder how his mum has managed to go this long without strangling him… That is the subtext running through the film — the threat of imaginary monsters and the real ones humans are capable of becoming… Many times along the way, you fear you know where things are going. But Kent is clever in choosing unexpected spots to pull the rug out from under you.” – Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times
7. À l’intérieur
Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury
2007 / France / 82m / Col / Home Invasion | IMDb
Alysson Paradis, Jean-Baptiste Tabourin, Claude Lulé, Dominique Frot, Nathalie Roussel, François-Régis Marchasson, Béatrice Dalle, Hyam Zaytoun, Tahar Rahim
“A compelling, unusually nasty little horror flick, Inside takes an exceedingly simple premise – a pregnant lady is terrorized by a psychopath – and just runs with it. Sarah (Alysson Paradis) is nine months pregnant when a crazy maniac (Beatrice Dalle) breaks into her house and immediately makes it clear that she’s not leaving without the unborn child. Directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury have infused Inside with an exceedingly dark (both literally and figuratively) sensibility that proves impossible to resist; the incredibly stylish visuals (which certainly owe a lot to Panic Room) are undoubtedly a highlight, while Paradis does a superb job of ensuring that Sarah never quite becomes a horror-movie stereotype” – David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
8. Martyrs
2008 / France / 99m / Col / Splatter | IMDb
Morjana Alaoui, Mylène Jampanoï, Catherine Bégin, Robert Toupin, Patricia Tulasne, Juliette Gosselin, Xavier Dolan, Louise Boisvert, Jean-Marie Moncelet, Jessie Pham
“[Martyrs is] one of the most extreme pictures ever made, one of the finest horror movies of the last decade… What begins as an archetypal genre piece soon twists and snaps in unexpected directions, its dizzying plunges down midnight-black rabbit holes keeping viewers disorientated and vulnerable… Martyrs is, according to Laugier, the “anti-Hostel”, its savagery devoid of glee and its scalpel scraping at mind and soul… a technically brilliant, emotionally resonant, uncommonly cerebral horror film that dares to bend every rule, blend every mood. The first half comprises a reeling camera, disjointed cutting and a half-glimpsed phantom… The second half is mechanical and methodical, evoking Michael Haneke’s cruel austerity yet infused with genuine tenderness.” – Jamie Graham, Total Film
9. The VVitch: A New-England Folktale
Robert Eggers
2015 / USA / 92m / Col / Witchcraft | IMDb
Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Lucas Dawson, Ellie Grainger, Julian Richings, Bathsheba Garnett, Sarah Stephens, Wahab Chaudhry
“Laying an imaginative foundation for the 1692 Salem witchcraft trials that would follow decades later, writer-director Robert Eggers’ impressive debut feature walks a tricky line between disquieting ambiguity and full-bore supernatural horror, but leaves no doubt about the dangerously oppressive hold that Christianity exerted on some dark corners of the Puritan psyche. With its formal, stylized diction and austere approach to genre, this accomplished feat of low-budget period filmmaking will have to work considerable marketing magic to translate appreciative reviews into specialty box-office success, but clearly marks Eggers as a storyteller of unusual rigor and ambition.” – Justin Chang, Variety
10. The House of the Devil
2009 / USA / 95m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Jocelin Donahue, Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov, Greta Gerwig, AJ Bowen, Dee Wallace, Heather Robb, Darryl Nau, Brenda Cooney, Danielle Noe
“Yet another of this year’s homage-facsimiles, The House of the Devil forgoes campy self-awareness in favor of reverential faithfulness—and in doing so, implicitly critiques contemporary horror cinema. With its cinematography combining unadorned realism and angular expressionism, and its title sequence emblazoned with yellow title cards and marked by synth music, freeze frames, and sudden zooms, Ti West’s latest mimics ’80s horror flicks with a straight face. Its rhythms, dialogue, and period detail are so finely attuned to the style of its chosen era that, were it not for a technical dexterity generally absent from its predecessors, the film might pass as an exhumed relic.” – Matt Noller, Slant Magazine
11. Get Out
2017 / USA / 104m / Col / Thriller | IMDb
Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Marcus Henderson, Betty Gabriel, Lakeith Stanfield, Stephen Root, LilRel Howery
“Writer and director Peele has pulled off a masterstroke with one of the most timely and horrifying satirical takes on anxieties facing African Americans in the 21st century. If that’s not enough, it also takes aim at the horrendous slaving past that blights the country’s history… Peele’s writing is sharp and to the point. There’s not wastage in the story. It gets straight to the point – that racism in all its forms is a horror story in and of itself. While it may make some audiences uncomfortable shining a light on the subject in an entertaining way, it doesn’t lessen the impact of the ignorance. The film even has the balls to take a pop at US policing in a suitably scathing remark on how some officers go beyond their powers to target people of colour.” – Garry McConnachie, Daily Record
12. El orfanato
2007 / Spain / 105m / Col / Haunted House | IMDb
Belén Rueda, Fernando Cayo, Roger Príncep, Mabel Rivera, Montserrat Carulla, Andrés Gertrúdix, Edgar Vivar, óscar Casas, Mireia Renau, Georgina Avellaneda
“This is a movie whose power and emotional pitch lie in the understated: the discreet performances, the lack of special effects, the laconic script. Yes, one can quibble over an unnecessary prologue, a drawn-out séance and a sentimental final sequence, but these are minor flaws in a poignant film that looks to the past and the world beyond to illuminate the realities of the present.” – Maria M. Delgado, Sight and Sound
13. Drag Me to Hell
Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, Dileep Rao, David Paymer, Adriana Barraza, Chelcie Ross, Reggie Lee, Molly Cheek, Bojana Novakovic
“As scary as the film is, it is still downright hilarious in all the right (and sometimes very wrong) ways. I fear that the more casual horror fans won’t quite get the joke; the joke of course being that the entire film is actually One. Big. Joke. Drag Me To Hell is both an old-school celebration of classic eighties horror flicks and a pitch-perfect spoof of modern-day terror-tropes, from its Danny Elfman-aping score to its Ghostbusters-esque spectres. It would all be laughable if it still weren’t so damn frightening. Raimi teases the audience like a master seducer (note one sequence featuring a pesky fly flirting with Lohman’s upper lip). Each moment is almost unwatchable for its intensity, but you’d be crazy to look away.” – Simon Miraudo, Quickflix
14. Under the Skin
2013 / UK / 108m / Col / Science Fiction | IMDb
Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy McWilliams, Lynsey Taylor Mackay, Dougie McConnell, Kevin McAlinden, D. Meade, Andrew Gorman, Joe Szula, Krystof Hádek
“Glazer reportedly spent ten years developing Under the Skin, and some aspects of it are so immaculately realized that they seem eerily inevitable. The audio design immerses the listener, its layered soundscapes suggesting how overwhelmed the alien might feel on earth. Glazer disorients the viewer through his use of the Steadicam, exploiting its uncannily smooth movement to suggest, as Stanley Kubrick did in The Shining, the perspective of a superhuman voyeur. The most impressive effects come during the seduction sequences, as Glazer creates the blank, ever-shifting environment of a nightmare… Like its protagonist, Under the Skin effectively draws us in while managing to stay beyond our grasp.” – Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader
15. The Ring
2002 / USA / 115m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, David Dorfman, Brian Cox, Jane Alexander, Lindsay Frost, Amber Tamblyn, Rachael Bella, Daveigh Chase, Shannon Cochran
“Expanding on the strong visual sense evinced in the otherwise mediocre The Mexican, director Gore Verbinski creates an air of dread that begins with the first scene and never lets up, subtly incorporating elements from the current wave of Japanese horror films along the way. He succeeds mostly through sleight of hand. When the shocks come, they interrupt long stretches in which the camera lingers meaningfully as characters accumulate details that confirm what they already know: What they’ve seen will kill them, and soon.” – Keith Phipps, A.V. Club
16. El espinazo del diablo
2001 / Spain / 106m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Marisa Paredes, Eduardo Noriega, Federico Luppi, Fernando Tielve, Íñigo Garcés, Irene Visedo, José Manuel Lorenzo, Francisco Maestre, Junio Valverde, Berta Ojea
“This is not a good advert for Hollywood. Not just because Del Toro’s poised and poignant ghost story contains more substance and is executed with more style than a half dozen Hollywood monster movies, but because, working for a major studio, Del Toro turned out such dross himself, namely Mimic. Here the director returns to his Spanish language roots for a complex Gothic horror set in a school for orphaned boys during the Spanish Civil War. Building slowly from a stately start, Del Toro manages to unite all his disparate elements – ghosts and gold, infidelity and politics – for a devastating final reel. The command of sound and colour is breathtaking.” – Colin Kennedy, Empire Magazine
17. Janghwa, Hongryeon
Kim Jee-woon
2003 / South Korea / 115m / Col / Psychological | IMDb
Kap-su Kim, Jung-ah Yum, Su-jeong Lim, Geun-Young Moon, Seung-bi Lee, Park Mi-Hyun
“The film’s most striking aspect is Kim’s framing, which includes a fair number of overhead shots and off-kilter angles. The art of horror filmmaking lies in defining screen space, so that audiences are led to look beyond the foreground for what might be jumping into the emptiness. With A Tale Of Two Sisters, it takes time to adjust to what Kim shows, which means the audience—and the sisters—have a hard time figuring out where the scares are coming from.” – Noel Murray, A.V. Club
18. The Conjuring
2013 / USA / 112m / Col / Haunted House | IMDb
Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Lili Taylor, Ron Livingston, Shanley Caswell, Hayley McFarland, Joey King, Mackenzie Foy, Kyla Deaver, Shannon Kook
“The Conjuring has just enough tongue-in-cheek visual elements—like the goofy yellow font introducing the film’s title and “true-story” origins, the ostentatious zooms, and the prevalence of high-waist jeans—to maintain an element of levity without undermining the film’s frights. The period touches never distract from the deft storytelling, in which Wan juggles two separate families and their distinct wants, fears, and stakes… As the thematic emphasis jockeys between their stories, multiple events often occur simultaneously, particularly toward the climax, giving the film a swift pace and a tension that primes the audience to jump.” – Sarah Mankoff, Film Comment Magazine
19. Kill List
2011 / UK / 95m / Col / Crime | IMDb
Neil Maskell, MyAnna Buring, Harry Simpson, Michael Smiley, Emma Fryer, Struan Rodger, Esme Folley, Ben Crompton, Gemma Lise Thornton, Robin Hill
“It often looks like a film by Lynne Ramsay or even Lucrecia Martel, composed in a dreamily unhurried arthouse-realist style that is concerned to capture texture, mood and moment. Perhaps inspired by Thomas Clay’s The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael, Wheatley has set out to supersaturate ostensible normality with a flavour of evil. In many scenes he succeeds impressively. It’s not entirely clear if Kill List is more than the sum of its startlingly disparate parts, or if the ending lives up to the promise of something strange and new, but its confidence is beyond doubt.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
20. [Rec]
Jaume Balagueró & Paco Plaza
2007 / Spain / 78m / Col / Zombie | IMDb
Manuela Velasco, Ferran Terraza, Jorge-Yamam Serrano, Pablo Rosso, David Vert, Vicente Gil, Martha Carbonell, Carlos Vicente, María Teresa Ortega, Manuel Bronchud
“[Rec] softens us up with a gentle prologue in which the crew of a late-night ‘reality TV’ show… make a late-night visit to a fire station. Then comes a call about an old woman trapped in her apartment. When [they] break into the apartment, they are attacked by a shrieking, zombie-like woman in a blood-stained nightdress… The less you know about what happens next the better. Suffice it to say that nothing in the previous work of joint directors Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza prepared us for the nerve-shredding intensity of the ensuing scenes. A brilliantly staged early scare signals that the safety rails are off and, despite an unexpected, last-minute swerve into the supernatural realm, the edge-of-the-seat tension is sustained to the very last second.” – Nigel Floyd, Time Out
21. The Loved Ones
Sean Byrne
2009 / Australia / 84m / Col / Black Comedy | IMDb
Xavier Samuel, Robin McLeavy, Victoria Thaine, Jessica McNamee, Richard Wilson, John Brumpton, Andrew S. Gilbert, Suzi Dougherty, Victoria Eagger
“An Australian horror picture in the tradition of New French Extremism, Sean Byrne’s The Loved Ones adheres to the principle that if you delve into full-tilt repulsiveness wholly enough, the rest will just sort of take care of itself. You could call it “torture porn,” as many critics have since it was released in its native Australia two years ago, but then this isn’t exactly Hostel either; its tone is too light, its manner too cavalier, to be bogged down by the kind of portentous posturing that made Eli Roth’s film reek of self-importance. Byrne, a first-time director, has a lot of fun with what is essentially rote slasher material, endowing it with the kind of blackly comic wit and levity that virtually guarantee its entry into the contemporary midnight-movie canon.” – Calum Marsh, Slant Magazine
22. Ginger Snaps
2000 / Canada / 108m / Col / Werewolf | IMDb
Emily Perkins, Katharine Isabelle, Kris Lemche, Mimi Rogers, Jesse Moss, Danielle Hampton, John Bourgeois, Peter Keleghan, Christopher Redman, Jimmy MacInnis
“John Fawcett’s cult teen horror film uses the idea of mutation – both biological and sociological – to provide a witty and intelligent exploration of what it means to become and live as a woman in middle-class suburbia. Twinned in Victorian boots, plaid skirts and over-sized overcoats, the fuzzy-haired Fitzgerald sisters – Ginger and Brigitte – are cast as mutants in the homogenous world of Bailey Downs, a fictitious Canadian town of pristine picket fences and sports pitch triumphs. The sisters deviate from the norm, not only in their Gothic fashion choices but also in their biological development. As their mother tactfully remarks in one of several awkward family dinner scenes, ‘the girls are three years late menstruating – they’re not normal’.” – Eleanor McKeown, Electric Sheep
23. The Cabin in the Woods
2012 / USA / 95m / Col / Comedy | IMDb
Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford, Brian White, Amy Acker, Tim De Zarn
“Would you like your head thoroughly messed with? Then check straight into The Cabin in the Woods, the sort of horror movie that knows all the rules, knows that you know, and knows that you know it knows. But you still don’t know what’s coming next, for while this fiendish meta-horror makes a joke of its own mechanics – so much “how”, so little “why” – it also brings both victims and torturers into an unexpected alignment, one in which chaos is guaranteed and there’s literally nowhere to run.” – Anthony Quinn, Independent
24. Haute tension
2003 / France / 91m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Cécile De France, Maïwenn, Philippe Nahon, Franck Khalfoun, Andrei Finti, Oana Pellea, Marco Claudiu Pascu, Jean-Claude de Goros, Bogdan Uritescu, Gabriel Spahiu
“Director Alexandre Aja manages to create one of the most layered and suspenseful slasher films ever made since “Halloween” and while displaying often disturbing scenes of graphic violence, the film’s main point is its atmosphere and tension as these two people play a game of cat and mouse trying to outwit one another relentlessly. The film continuously runs on a loop of a pretty plot-less and utter pointless violence and gore which becomes an exercise in snuff and brutality that didn’t satisfy any need I had for a true horror movie.” – Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed
25. Lake Mungo
2008 / Australia / 87m / Col / Found Footage | IMDb
Rosie Traynor, David Pledger, Martin Sharpe, Talia Zucker, Tania Lentini, Cameron Strachan, Judith Roberts, Robin Cuming, Marcus Costello, Chloe Armstrong
“Anderson’s use of the documentary framework is an inspired choice, since it lends what we’re seeing an air of reality that helps build the tension to jangling point. It also gives him the opportunity to vary the look with the use of different types of film, including Super 8 and lots of still photography, smartly serving the story while keeping a grip on what was, presumably, a very tight budget. By staying true to the audience’s expectations of the documentary format, the sense of dread that settles over the family is also more readily conveyed than it might have been if we were watching something which looked more ‘fictional’. It’s not just the format that draws the viewer in, but also the manner in which the film is shot. Since much of what the family talk about relates to spooky images in pictures, Anderson’s camerawork draws you deeper and deeper into the frame with an increasing feeling of unease.” – Amber Wilkinson, Eye For Film
26. Spring
Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead
2014 / USA / 109m / Col / Romance | IMDb
Lou Taylor Pucci, Nadia Hilker, Vanessa Bednar, Shane Brady, Francesco Carnelutti, Vinny Curran, Augie Duke, Jeremy Gardner, Some Other Guy, Holly Hawkins
“Just as we fall for their characters falling for each other, Benson’s metaphorically resonate script providing their space to emote is matched visually by Moorhead’s cinematography. Whether static aerials showing rotting corpses with snakes slithering through them, the shallow depth of field focusing on exactly what he wants us to see (showcasing Louise’s delicate balance between life and death with budding and withering flowers animated along her path), or a magnificent long take of Hilker following Pucci as he works his frustration out through the winding cobblestone alleyways of Apulia, the sense of place becomes a character in itself. Add the in-close cropping of creature effects and you get a genre film unencumbered by genre aesthetic. So if you’re someone who believes horror is mood, gore, and little else, Spring proves its validity as legitimate cinematic art.” – Jared Morbarak, The Film Stage
27. The Others
Nicole Kidman, Fionnula Flanagan, Christopher Eccleston, Alakina Mann, James Bentley, Eric Sykes, Elaine Cassidy, Renée Asherson, Gordon Reid, Keith Allen
“This is a modern horror film with an old-fashioned touch, relying on suspense and the suggestion of the supernatural to generate a disturbing sense of the Uncanny. In the manner of classic haunted house movies like THE INNOCENTS (1960) and THE HAUNTING (1963), THE OTHERS uses a deliberately steady pace to increase tension, gradually drawing viewers into its mystery until they are so engaged that they completely susceptible to the effectively executed scare tactics. Although the actual shocks are few and far between, the film maintains interest with its intelligent storytelling, and the rich atmosphere sustain the mood of supernatural dread throughout.” – Steve Biodrowski, ESplatter
28. Session 9
2001 / USA / 100m / Col / Psychological | IMDb
David Caruso, Stephen Gevedon, Paul Guilfoyle, Josh Lucas, Peter Mullan, Brendan Sexton III, Charley Broderick, Lonnie Farmer, Larry Fessenden, Jurian Hughes
“The entire movie is like one giant jigsaw puzzle; mind you, this movie is very plot-driven and very loooong but stick with it, because in the end all the pieces puzzle will come crashing together and when they do, it’s a jaw-dropper. People looking for a quick scare here and there won’t find it here; there isn’t a witty ending, there’s not a lot of jumpy moments and there’s no masked man running around slashing teens. But what this lacks in the dazzle department it makes up for in brains and plot. I suggest you check out this intelligent horror flick, it’s a doozey.” – Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed
29. The Mist
Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher, Toby Jones, William Sadler, Jeffrey DeMunn, Frances Sternhagen, Nathan Gamble, Alexa Davalos
“Darabont generally understands what works and what doesn’t in King’s story and makes the best of what he can – his few changes only spell out stuff that was better left deliberately vague in book form but need to be highlighted in a movie. His filmmaking choices also yield some wildly fluctuating results – the handheld camera technique and lack of musical score are strengths, the production values are solid too, but the decidedly weak CGI renders some sequences – most notably the tentacle attack in the early scenes – almost laughably bad. Its the more practical effects moments, and the vague shapes in the distance of the mist, that prove far more effective.” – Garth Franklin, Dark Horizons
30. Saw
2004 / USA / 103m / Col / Splatter | IMDb
Leigh Whannell, Cary Elwes, Danny Glover, Ken Leung, Dina Meyer, Mike Butters, Paul Gutrecht, Michael Emerson, Benito Martinez, Shawnee Smith
“Saw is everything a thriller should be. Instead of a long-winded back story to lead into our premise, Wan and Whannell move right into the thick of things. The story is exceptionally clever, revealing the characters and Jigsaw himself very carefully. Just when you may think you’re getting a handle on a character or a situation, Saw throws you for a loop again and again. The intensity is constant and absolutely relentless. Much like the tests Jigsaw puts his subjects to, Saw is an endurance test. When you think you can relax and take a deep breath, it hits you again.” – Jeff Otto, IGN
31. Kairo
2001 / Japan / 119m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Haruhiko Katô, Kumiko Asô, Koyuki, Kurume Arisaka, Masatoshi Matsuo, Shinji Takeda, Jun Fubuki, Shun Sugata, Shô Aikawa, Kôji Yakusho
“Cross the “Ring” series with “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and the result wouldn’t be far from “Pulse,” another step on the road back to the psychothriller genre by which cult Japanese helmer Kiyoshi Kurosawa first made his name overseas… Though “Pulse” has vague correspondences with Kurosawa’s more serious movies, like “Charisma,” it never strays far from its genre roots, with an ambiguous tone that oscillates between sheer psychothriller silliness and moments of haunting abstraction when time and the real world seem to momentarily freeze. Lensing by Junichiro Hayashi is a fillip throughout, with a cold, clammy patina in several scenes (such as Ryosuke and Harue in the subway) that could come from no other director.” – Derek Elley, Variety
32. Trouble Every Day
2001 / France / 101m / Col / Drama | IMDb
Vincent Gallo, Tricia Vessey, Béatrice Dalle, Alex Descas, Florence Loiret Caille, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Raphaël Neal, José Garcia, Hélène Lapiower, Marilu Marini
“Denis’s films have always been shot through with a current of menace just waiting to be made explicit: it’s present in their off-balance close-ups, faintly unstable camera moves, obsessive attention to the texture of hair, clothes, and skin, and habit of letting the camera slide caressingly around actors’ bodies when they’re at their least self-conscious and most exposed. Where other Denis films seem to circle and drift around indecisively, Trouble Every Day itches with a kind of nervous forward momentum. It’s an extended come-on, full of teases and hints and come-hither gestures, finally climaxing — in every way — with two scenes of gruesome sexual violence.” – Max Nelson, Film Comment Magazine
33. Gwoemul
2006 / South Korea / 120m / Col / Monster | IMDb
Kang-ho Song, Hie-bong Byeon, Hae-il Park, Doona Bae, Ah-sung Ko, Dal-su Oh, Jae-eung Lee, Dong-ho Lee, Je-mun Yun, David Anselmo
“The mood shifts wildly between comedy, horror, serious drama, and action – but Bong always seems in control and by the end leaves one feeling satisfied (though not overstuffed) with the results as it’s both exciting and ballsy. Even our protagonists have an endearing everydayness about them which makes them easy to root for. In spite of its assorted lumpy bits, this is a far more successful monster movie than any creature feature Hollywood has churned out in a LONG time.” – Garth Franklin, Dark Horizons
34. Evil Dead
2013 / USA / 91m / Col / Zombie | IMDb
Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jessica Lucas, Elizabeth Blackmore, Phoenix Connolly, Jim McLarty, Sian Davis, Stephen Butterworth, Karl Willetts
“Evil Dead is relentless. Once it starts, it never lets up. It becomes a constant barrage of gory fun, and in the spirit of the original, Alvarez and his team use make-up and real-world special effects rather than relying solely on CGI. Another distinctive and key part of the original series were the off-kilter and exaggerated camera angles. Alvarez adopts the film language of Raimi’s films, adds more to the bag of tricks, and keeps the sardonic attitude without necessarily being slapstick.” – Eric Melin, Scene Stealers
35. Insidious
Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Ty Simpkins, Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson, Barbara Hershey, Andrew Astor, Corbett Tuck, Heather Tocquigny
“The masterminds behind the first Saw and Paranormal Activity join forces on Insidious for a bump-in-the-night shocker, which plays out in such a high, trilling key of baroque anxiety it’s both jumpy and ludicrous. Laughter in horror movies is often a good sign they’re doing something right, but this goes beyond even Sam Raimi’s brazen Drag Me to Hell as an elaborate wind-up, and reaches a tipping point where the guffaws take over from genuine scares… The final act is pure horror camp, even if director James Wan has raided the dress-up box to death by then. His film, barging its way around the genre with unrestrained glee, is nothing more objectionable than a rickety ghost-train ride, cackling as it speeds up and flies off the rails.” – Tim Robey, The Telegraph
36. The Devil’s Rejects
Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Sheri Moon Zombie, William Forsythe, Ken Foree, Matthew McGrory, Leslie Easterbrook, Geoffrey Lewis, Priscilla Barnes, Dave Sheridan
“The Devil’s Rejects is a visceral little film that reverberates with nasty attitude, a knowing smirk, and a demented gleam of the eyes. That said, this is not a film for everyone. It’s a hard R, filled with disturbing imagery and f@#k laced spurts of dialogue, but it’s all part of the package and those who get it, however, will be treated to a high-octane thriller that operates on a much deeper level than your average slash-and-gore film. In the end it’s not only a perversely entertaining yarn, but a wickedly intelligent one, as well; a film that is destined to become a cult classic of the highest caliber.” – Spence D., IGN
37. The Strangers
Bryan Bertino
2008 / USA / 86m / Col / Home Invasion | IMDb
Alex Fisher, Peter Clayton-Luce, Scott Speedman, Liv Tyler, Gemma Ward, Kip Weeks, Laura Margolis, Glenn Howerton
“This premise is so simple, only a tyro writer-director like Bryan Bertino would dare pitch it. Even the similar French-Romanian movie Ils (Them) was constructed around a revelation that complicates its couple-terrorised-by-barely-seen-intruders business. This is a single idea, with only enough characterisation to force an audience to invest emotionally in the victims… an ingredient is missing – the most vicious ’70s horror films still had humour and perspective. This shows only a relentless commitment to being no fun at all, which is vaguely admirable but ultimately self-defeating. The message of ’70s horror was that straight society was crazy; the 2008 version is that other people are shit – it’s a fine distinction, but makes a depressing difference.” – Kim Newman, Empire Magazine
38. Bug
Ashley Judd, Michael Shannon, Harry Connick Jr., Lynn Collins, Brían F. O’Byrne, Neil Bergeron, Bob Neill
“Bug is not surprisingly being advertised as being “from the director of The Exorcist,” which says almost as much about the lingering power of that 1973 horror classic as it does about the disappointing nature of Friedkin’s career over the past three decades. The comparison is not just a marketing ploy, though, as Bug allows Friedkin to play on his strengths as a director–namely, managing actors in close quarters. For all the talk about pea soup and head-spinning in The Exorcist, that film was in many ways a chamber piece, with its issues of faith, religion, and the true nature of evil playing out largely within the tight confines of a little girl’s bedroom. By the end of Bug, Agnes’s motel room is as unrecognizable as Reagan’s bedroom was, transformed from a place of ordinary existence into a realm of extraordinary degradation in which two people finding love and acceptance culminates into a literal inferno.” – James Kendrick, Q Network Film Desk
39. Akmareul boatda
2010 / South Korea / 142m / Col / Thriller | IMDb
Byung-hun Lee, Min-sik Choi, In-seo Kim, Seung-ah Yoon, San-ha Oh, Chun Ho-jin, Bo-ra Nam, Kap-su Kim, Jin-ho Choi, Moo-Seong Choi
“I SAW THE DEVIL is a shockingly violent and stunningly accomplished tale of murder and revenge. The embodiment of pure evil, Kyung-chul is a dangerous psychopath who kills for pleasure. On a freezing, snowy night, his latest victim is the beautiful Juyeon, daughter of a retired police chief and pregnant fiancée of elite special agent Soo-hyun. Obsessed with revenge, Soo-hyun is determined to track down the murderer, even if doing so means becoming a monster himself. And when he finds Kyung-chul, turning him in to the authorities is the last thing on his mind, as the lines between good and evil fall away in this diabolically twisted game of cat and mouse.” – Gabriel Chong, Moviexclusive
40. Pontypool
2008 / Canada / 93m / Col / Zombie | IMDb
Stephen McHattie, Lisa Houle, Georgina Reilly, Hrant Alianak, Rick Roberts, Daniel Fathers, Beatriz Yuste, Tony Burgess, Boyd Banks, Hannah Fleming
“Scriptwriter Tony Burgess knows that by entering the world of cinematic zombiedom, he has a responsibility to comment, to satirise – to not just tear open and chew on but also engage the mind of his characters and audience. He does this via a stunning reveal as to the nature of the ‘plague’ that has corrupted the collective mind of society (a clue is in Mazzy’s role as a lowbrow social commentator). In the hope of curing the population of its new-found fleshy hunger, Mazzy unleashes a last-gasp broadcast that is a wild, frenzied meld of brilliant scripting and tour-de-force acting. Spouting nonsensical gibberish at an electrifying pitch, Stephen McHattie throws himself into the film finale with wild abandon and it is a sight to behold. Horror fans may gripe at the lack of blood-&-guts (though a couple of moments keep the ‘that’s gross!” factor high). Fuelled by committed acting, tight direction and a wonderfully focused script, Pontypool proves a winning combination of shuddery suspense and intelligent observations.” – Simon Foster, SBS
41. Antichrist
2009 / Denmark / 108m / Col / Psychological | IMDb
Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Storm Acheche Sahlstrøm
“Antichrist is a boldly personal film, tossing all von Trier’s ideas about faith, fear, and human nature into an unfettered phantasmagoria, full of repulsive visions and fierce scorn. It’s also the most lush-looking movie von Trier has made in about 20 years. Antichrist starts with a gorgeous black-and-white prologue—spiked, in typical von Trier perversity, with explicit sex and operatic tragedy—then moves to woodland sequences where the edges of the frame look subtly distorted… Cinema’s leading Brechtian wouldn’t seem like the best choice for a visceral examination of real emotional pain, but von Trier makes Antichrist about how aesthetic control can be as impotent as therapeutic control when it comes to dealing with nature at its wildest.” – Noel Murray, A.V. Club
42. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
2014 / USA / 101m / BW / Vampire | IMDb
Sheila Vand, Arash Marandi, Marshall Manesh, Mozhan Marnò, Dominic Rains, Rome Shadanloo, Milad Eghbali, Reza Sixo Safai, Ray Haratian, Pej Vahdat
“Iranian-American writer-director Ana Lily Amirpour describes her weirdly exhilarating feature debut, which premiered at Sundance last year, as the Iranian love-child of Sergio Leone and David Lynch, with Nosferatu as a babysitter. It is set in the fictional Iranian ghost town of Bad City (the name nods toward Frank Miller’s Sin City) and plays out like the missing link between Kathryn Bigelow’s first two features; the ultra-cool biker pastiche The Loveless and the latterday vampire flick Near Dark. It is steeped in the pop iconography of the past, yet its crystalline anamorphic black-and-white photography has an unmistakably contemporary edge. Cinematically, it exists in a twilight zone between nations (American locations, Iranian culture), between centuries (late 19th and early 21st), between languages (Persian dialogue, silent cinema gestures) and, most importantly, between genres.” – Mark Kermode, The Observer
43. You’re Next
Sharni Vinson, Nicholas Tucci, Wendy Glenn, AJ Bowen, Joe Swanberg, Margaret Laney, Amy Seimetz, Ti West, Rob Moran, Barbara Crampton
“Given its title, you can be forgiven for assuming that Adam Wingard’s home-invasion thriller will be just another blood-soaked body-count flick. But You’re Next is better than that… The relentless violence does get to be a bit much, but what juices this bare-bones premise and lifts it above the weekly slew of run-of-the-mill splatterfests is Wingard’s canny knack for leavening his characters’ gory demises with sick laughs and clever Rube Goldberg twists (razor-sharp piano wire hasn’t been used this well since 1999’s Audition). It’s like Ordinary People meets Scream… It’s so deliciously twisted, it will make you walk out of the theater feeling like you just endured a grueling, giddy workout.” – Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly
44. Sinister
Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, Fred Dalton Thompson, James Ransone, Michael Hall D’Addario, Clare Foley, Rob Riley, Tavis Smiley, Janet Zappala, Victoria Leigh
“Put them all together and they make Sinister the horror film to beat this Halloween: scary and suspenseful without insulting our intelligence. The underlying concept proves sound, the development deftly avoids genre cliché, and the twist builds upon what came before instead of trying to blow our minds at any cost. It pulls threads from earlier horror movies like Ringu and The Shining, but remains beholden to none of them: creating an atmosphere that, while not completely original, remains resolutely its own. And good God, it actually comes from an original script. In an era (and a genre) littered with sequels, Sinister should be commended for standing by its ideas. It’s scary as fuck too: the only criteria that really matters for a movie like this.” – Rob Vaux, Mania
45. Mientras duermes
Jaume Balagueró
2011 / Spain / 102m / Col / Thriller | IMDb
Luis Tosar, Marta Etura, Alberto San Juan, Petra Martínez, Iris Almeida, Carlos Lasarte, Amparo Fernández, Roger Morilla, Pep Tosar, Margarita Rosed
“As the film’s character based plot wraps its well scripted hands around the viewer’s neck, the same noose closes in on César, as he dodges and uses his false smiles and quick thinking to avoid detection. Both eerily realistic and uncomfortable, the viewer can never be sure whether what they are watching borders on the absurd. But the movie loses all pretension that is found in more Americanised horrors, and avoids the temptation of over-scoring itself in an attempt to add drama, and instead lets the looks and silence in-between them to create the tension. This ensures a well rounded but by no means flat film, that will leave you squirming in, and on of the edge of, your seat.” – Ross Shapland, Shapstik on Screen
46. Detention
Joseph Kahn
Alison Woods, Logan Stalarow, Julie Dolan, Shanley Caswell, Daniel Negreanu, Will Wallace, Josh Breeding, Marco Garcia, Josh Hutcherson, Mickey River
“Don’t be turned off by Kahn’s satirical take on teen angst and high school drama though, even if you find yourself outside the tech generation of today. Detention still has enough polished oddities to win over anyone with an open mind and a hunger for cutting edge cinema. One can simply marvel at how our director effortlessly pulls off tonal 180’s, or creates such indulgently fun scenarios, but does so with grace and beauty while simultaneously throwing massive amounts of dense script material directly in our face. Both challenging and rewarding, Kahn’s sophomore feature oozes unfiltered creativity films like Jennifer’s Body tried so hard to emulate, given the whole horrific high school experience scenario. Most impressive is the usage of self-aware filmmaking, opening a hidden door of silly gags and playful interactions. Kahn ingeniously pokes enough fun at his own movie as a smack to the audience’s head, almost as to say “Hey, this is supposed to be fun and not serious! Just embrace it!”” – Matt Donato, We Got This Covered
47. Berberian Sound Studio
Peter Strickland
2012 / UK / 92m / Col / Psychological | IMDb
Toby Jones, Cosimo Fusco, Antonio Mancino, Fatma Mohamed, Salvatore LI Causi, Chiara D’Anna, Tonia Sotiropoulou, Eugenia Caruso, Susanna Cappellaro, Guido Adorni
“Berberian Sound Studio has something of early Lynch and Polanski, and the nasty, secretive studio is a little like the tortured Mark Lewis’s screening room in Powell’s Peeping Tom, but that gives no real idea of how boldly individual this film is. In fact, it takes more inspiration from the world of electronic and synth creations and the heyday of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and it is close in spirit to Kafka’s The Castle or to the Gothic literary tradition of Bram Stoker and Ann Radcliffe: a world of English innocents abroad in a sensual, mysterious landscape… With a face suggesting cherubic innocence, vulnerability and cruelty, Toby Jones gives the performance of his career, and Peter Strickland has emerged as a key British film-maker of his generation.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
48. Ils
David Moreau & Xavier Palud
Olivia Bonamy, Michaël Cohen, Adriana Mocca, Maria Roman, Camelia Maxim, Alexandru Boghiu, Emanuel Stefanuc, Horia Ioan, Stefan Cornic, George Iulian
“Them has obviously been shot on the cheap, and although it lacks the professional sheen you get with bigger budget productions, its griminess suits the tone perfectly – stripped down to the bare essentials with no theatrics and no pyrotechnics, it’s an ugly movie that is wise to stick to the shadows, playing to its strengths by using what you can’t see rather than what you can. It could have perhaps done with a little more time in the editing room – some shots are re-used and the sound mix leaves something to be desired – but Them hits hard where it counts: the money shots are all worth their weight in gold. Perhaps ‘horror’ isn’t quite the right term to describe Them; ‘terror’ sums it up much better. Although the word has been associated with bearded bombers and cartoon advertisements of late, it’s not a movie that revels in gore or tries to shock you, rather one that tells a terrifying story that everyone can relate to. Sparingly shot and ingeniously executed, it’s a film that subscribes to the idea that real life is far scarier than anything you’ll see in the movies.” – Ali Gray, TheShiznit
49. Honogurai mizu no soko kara
Hitomi Kuroki, Rio Kanno, Mirei Oguchi, Asami Mizukawa, Fumiyo Kohinata, Yu Tokui, Isao Yatsu, Shigemitsu Ogi, Maiko Asano, Yukiko Ikari
“Nakata is a master of the uncanny, able to transform something as innocent as a little girl’s shoulder bag into an object to inspire terror. “Dark Water” positively oozes atmosphere, building up the tension slowly before allowing it to overflow into irrational shocks and strange epiphanies. Yet just beneath its surface horror this film conceals a deep reservoir of tragedy, addressing themes like family breakdown, isolation, abandonment, and – something of a taboo in Japan – the terrible legacy of mental illness. In the end, the keynote of “Dark Water” is not so much horror as an overwhelming sadness, in this masterpiece of tormented souls.” – Anton Bitel, Movie Gazette
50. The Woman
Pollyanna McIntosh, Brandon Gerald Fuller, Lauren Ashley Carter, Chris Krzykowski, Sean Bridgers, Angela Bettis, Marcia Bennett, Shyla Molhusen, Gordon Vincent, Zach Rand
“A harrowing and often darkly hilarious horror satire about family values, feminism, and the nature of violence from the twisted minds of Lucky McKee and Jack Ketchum. A true find at Sundance for all fans who love gore and the twisting of Americana… When most horror movies today are concerned about gory pay offs instead of character driven violence or death, McKee connects us to the family and their dramatic dynamic through a series of musically-cut vignettes that add a haunting layer to the underlying theme of American Dream traveling through the bowels of hell. While the main focus is on Chris and the woman, each one of the characters in the Cleek family give exceptional performances.” – Benji Carver, Film School Rejects
2002 / USA / 93m / Col / Psychological | IMDb
Angela Bettis, Jeremy Sisto, Anna Faris, James Duval, Nichole Hiltz, Kevin Gage, Merle Kennedy, Chandler Riley Hecht, Rachel David, Nora Zehetner
““May” is a wonderful and powerful statement on the struggle for perfection and acceptance, and what lengths many of us will go through for it. Even the mentally unstable ones. A marvelous cinematic debut from director Lucky McKee, “May” is a tragic and gut wrenching look at a girl who would do anything to become the ideal person for the people in her life, and eventually unwound from the aftermath of imperfection and idealistic visions of our loved ones.” – Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed
52. Amer
Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani
2009 / Belgium / 90m / Col / Psychological | IMDb
Cassandra Forêt, Charlotte Eugène Guibeaud, Marie Bos, Bianca Maria D’Amato, Harry Cleven, Jean-Michel Vovk, Bernard Marbaix, Thomas Bonzani, François Cognard, Delphine Brual
“This is basic movie Freud, elegantly mounted. The soundtrack (footsteps, dripping taps, creaking doors, banging shutters) is ominously exaggerated. The close-ups are extreme. Colours change melodramatically to fit the shifting moods. The music is borrowed from old horror films. The dialogue is at first sparse, then non-existent. Luis Buñuel (sliced eyeballs, insects crawling out of bodies), Mario Bava and Dario Argento are affectionately alluded to. Viewers are left to create their own narratives or absorb the events into their own dreams and nightmares. This is art-house horror, a pure cinema for connoisseurs, a return to late-19th-century decadence.” – Philip French, The Guardian
53. Trick ‘r Treat
2007 / USA / 82m / Col / Anthology | IMDb
Dylan Baker, Rochelle Aytes, Quinn Lord, Lauren Lee Smith, Moneca Delain, Tahmoh Penikett, Brett Kelly, Britt McKillip, Isabelle Deluce, Jean-Luc Bilodeau
“[A] welcome addition to the post-modern meditation on the genre. An anthology at its core, but more a triumphant return to old school shivers, this unique narrative experience will instantly remind the viewer of cold Fall nights, years ago, when 31 October was a date to be reckoned with. A quasi-classic, this exceptional look at what Halloween really means is the byproduct of writer/director Michael Dougherty’s desire to craft, what he lovingly refers to, as tales of “mayhem, mystery, and mischief. Perhaps the most surprising thing about this love letter to ghosts, ghouls, and goblins is how accomplished it is. With only a few scripts under his belt (he co-wrote X2 and Superman Returns), Dougherty turns out to be as visually compelling as Tim Burton, or even Terry Gilliam.” – Bill Gibron, PopMatters
54. Wolf Creek
Greg Mclean
2005 / Australia / 99m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
John Jarratt, Cassandra Magrath, Kestie Morassi, Nathan Phillips, Gordon Poole, Guy O’Donnell, Phil Stevenson, Geoff Revell, Andy McPhee, Aaron Sterns
“McLean captures that real horror in a brutally unHollywood way, one that goes beyond the frank, almost documentary style of the cinematography and performances and the presentation. The young actors playing the kids are so simply effective that they couldn’t be more removed from the jokey, self-aware snarkiness of most modern “horror” movies, in which everyone knows they’re following a formula and the ending is preordained and it’s all a big joke. And John Jarratt’s Mick is something of a throwback, in the best sense: he’s not a cartoon maniac, like Jason or Freddie, but a genuine human person who’s gone off a deep end that is, unfortunately, all too familiar in the modern annals of crime and depravity. Mostly, though, it’s how McLean refuses to give in to the expectations we typically bring to horror movies, that everything must wrap up in a particular way and concepts like justice and fairness must prevail. Cuz as we all know, the real world is only rarely that satisfying.” – MaryAnn Johanson, Flick Filosopher
55. Tucker and Dale vs Evil
Eli Craig
Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk, Katrina Bowden, Jesse Moss, Philip Granger, Brandon Jay McLaren, Christie Laing, Chelan Simmons, Travis Nelson, Alex Arsenault
“High-concept horror comedies that actually work are a rare breed, yet Tucker & Dale vs. Evil manages to continually make the comedy-of-errors shtick work. Props should go not only to Labine, but Tudyk as well, who bears the brunt of the comic violence heaped upon the clueless duo. Thankfully, the laughs are evened out with a heaping of gore that’ll please the horror hounds in the crowd. Amazingly, even the unbelievable romance between Allison and Dale comes off as rather sweet. In its own pleasantly blood-soaked way, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil delivers a whole lot more than just a one-joke concept, making it a very worthy watch for genre devotees.” – Jeremy Wheeler, TV Guide’s Movie Guide
56. Paranormal Activity
2007 / USA / 86m / Col / Found Footage | IMDb
Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Mark Fredrichs, Amber Armstrong, Ashley Palmer
“Don’t expect CGI clouds of ectoplasm: the scares here are strictly bargain-basement, even reduced-for-clearance: a chandelier swings, a shadow looms and things go bump! – and then thump!, to ensure you’re getting your money’s worth. Peli’s film revives the honourable tradition of chills-by-suggestion, whereby what we don’t see is far scarier than what we do. In fact, the very eeriest moment is a lengthy shot in which we just gaze at an empty room, and dread what will come next.” – Jonathan Romney, Independent on Sunday
57. American Psycho
2000 / USA / 102m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Christian Bale, Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas, Bill Sage, Chloë Sevigny, Reese Witherspoon, Samantha Mathis, Matt Ross, Jared Leto, Willem Dafoe
“[American Psycho] regards the male executive lifestyle with the devotion of a fetishist. There is a scene where a group of businessmen compare their business cards, discussing the wording, paper thickness, finish, embossing, engraving and typefaces, and they might as well be discussing their phalli… It is their uneasy secret that they make enough money to afford to look important, but are not very important… I have overheard debates about whether some of the murders are fantasies (“can a man really aim a chain saw that well?”). All of the murders are equally real or unreal, and that isn’t the point: The function of the murders is to make visible the frenzy of the territorial male when his will is frustrated.” – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
58. Final Destination
Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, Kerr Smith, Kristen Cloke, Daniel Roebuck, Roger Guenveur Smith, Chad Donella, Seann William Scott, Tony Todd, Amanda Detmer
“Wong’s old-school modus operandi is superficially reflected in the decision to name the movie’s characters after well-known horror filmmakers (ie Hitchcock, Lewton, Browning, etc), yet it’s the ease with which the director cultivates an atmosphere of suspense that ultimately sets Final Destination above its slasher brethren – with the surprisingly tense opening fifteen minutes certainly standing as a highlight within the proceedings. Sawa’s personable turn as the hero is matched by a uniformly effective supporting cast rife with familiar faces , which – when coupled with Wong’s thoroughly capable directorial choices – cements Final Destination’s place as an innovative (and unexpectedly influential) exercise in horror.” – David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
59. Dawn of the Dead
2004 / USA / 101m / Col / Zombie | IMDb
Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, Mekhi Phifer, Ty Burrell, Michael Kelly, Kevin Zegers, Michael Barry, Lindy Booth, Jayne Eastwood
“Like Romero’s pulpy progenitor, there’s a fair share of laughs, including a sequence where zombies are picked off from long distance based purely on their spurious resemblance to celebrities. Most of all, though, this is about zombie-crunching action, from the initial, tense opening – including a stunning pre-credits sequence in which we follow Polley through the beginnings of the unexplained plague – to a final kick-ass third in which our heroes load up with weaponry and souped-up trucks and head out to face the zombie holocaust. It’s here that the controversial decision to eschew the lumbering zombies of lore and go for fast-moving vicious bastards really pays off, generating a genuine sense of fear and revealing this for what it really is: a pared-down homage to Aliens.” – Empire Magazine
60. Calvaire
Laurent Lucas, Brigitte Lahaie, Gigi Coursigny, Jean-Luc Couchard, Jackie Berroyer, Philippe Nahon, Philippe Grand’Henry, Jo Prestia, Marc Lefebvre, Alfred David
“It helps to find the very dark, dark humor in “Calvaire,” a grueling, disgusting and quite effective horror film from Belgium. Part “Psycho,” part “Deliverance” and all creepy, it is simultaneously off-putting and absorbing… What sells this movie is the realistic attention to detail and the bravura direction of Fabrice Du Welz, who draws a gut-wrenching performance from Lucas, who cries, squeals and screams with the best of them… this feels different and fresh. At the very least, it gets under your fingernails.” – G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle
61. Batoru rowaiaru
2000 / Japan / 114m / Col / Splatter | IMDb
Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Tarô Yamamoto, Takeshi Kitano, Chiaki Kuriyama, Sôsuke Takaoka, Takashi Tsukamoto, Yukihiro Kotani, Eri Ishikawa, Sayaka Kamiya
“A few twists and turns keep the formula from becoming repetitive, and Fukasaku brings enough compassion to the deserving to keep the grizzly deaths from numbing our moral sensitivities. A sharp sense of humor assists him: aimed towards insight and ridicule rather than the nihilistic glee to which it might have succumbed. It chills us even as we snicker, and the resulting mayhem ultimately reads as a condemnation of our own violent tendencies rather than a tacit celebration. The underlying messages combine with sharp filmmaking for a gloriously entertaining ride, provided you have a taste for dark material and don’t mind the occasional poke in the ribs. Battle Royale completely engages us without losing track of its anti-violence message, a tricky balance that has sent many lesser productions spinning into hypocrisy.” – Rob Vaux, Mania
62. Frailty
Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey, Powers Boothe, Matt O’Leary, Jeremy Sumpter, Luke Askew, Levi Kreis, Derk Cheetwood, Missy Crider, Alan Davidson
“A resoundingly old-fashioned and well crafted study of evil infecting an American family, “Frailty” moves from strength to strength on its deceptive narrative course. Though Brent Hanley’s script feels like it’s based on an account of white Anglo-Saxon serial killers run amok in middle America, it’s a genuine invention that has its cinematic roots in the rich soil plowed by such disparate works as Charles Laughton’s “Night of the Hunter” and Tobe Hooper’s “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” Pic’s dark-night-of-the-soul mood derives from the former, while the latter inspired the notion that the family that kills together stays together. Final effect is of a timeless work that could have been made at any point in the past 20 years.” – Robert Koehler, Variety
63. El laberinto del fauno
2006 / Spain / 118m / Col / Fantasy | IMDb
Ivana Baquero, Sergi López, Maribel Verdú, Doug Jones, Ariadna Gil, Álex Angulo, Manolo Solo, César Vea, Roger Casamajor, Ivan Massagué
“With its painterly palette and densely detailed production design, Pan’s Labyrinth evokes great works in any number of artistic mediums, from the paintings of Goya and Balthus to the films of Luis Bunuel and Dario Argento… It’s in its sophisticated politics that “Pan’s Labyrinth” qualifies as Del Toro’s most mature work; he depicts fascism not just as a failed political or philosophical system… but primarily as the failure of imagination. As Ofelia makes her quiet and courageous way through the faun’s to-do list — while the sentient world around her falls apart — her own imagination, her willingness to surrender to her own creative subconscious, becomes the means not just of escape but of survival.” – Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post
64. Cloverfield
Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, Odette Annable, Anjul Nigam, Margot Farley, Theo Rossi, Brian Klugman
“Reeves, who’s been near anonymous in the pre-release hype, is masterful at choosing shots without appearing to do so. We view this unlovely goliath from all angles – a fleeting leg here, full-length in crafty helicopter shots on news footage there – but he’s even more effective as an unseen presence. There’s equal, if not more, dread in hearing furious roars as our band cowers in a side street, watching the military throwing everything they have uselessly at the beast. This is as much a triumph of sound design as of seamlessly blended CG and unsettling camerawork. Wise to the fact that the most frightening attack is the one without apparent reason, Cloverfield never chooses to explain its monster’s arrival. It’s suddenly there and, as one soldier notes, “it’s winning”. It intends to scare, not educate. The constant air of panic is so pervasive that it’s easy to miss the skilful creation of the sequences, which include a rescue from a collapsing skyscraper and a tunnel sequence so butt-clenching you’ll crap diamonds for a week.” – Olly Richards, Empire Magazine
65. Shadow of the Vampire
E. Elias Merhige
2000 / UK / 92m / Col / Vampire | IMDb
John Malkovich, Willem Dafoe, Udo Kier, Cary Elwes, Catherine McCormack, Eddie Izzard, Aden Gillett, Nicholas Elliott, Ronan Vibert, Sophie Langevin
“The movie does an uncanny job of re-creating the visual feel of Murnau’s film. There are shots that look the way moldy basements smell. This material doesn’t lend itself to subtlety, and Malkovich and Dafoe chew their lines like characters who know they are always being observed (some directors do more acting on their sets than the actors do)… Vampires for some reason are funny as well as frightening. Maybe that’s because the conditions of their lives are so absurd. Some of novelist Anne Rice’s vampires have a fairly entertaining time of it, but someone like Schreck seems doomed to spend eternity in psychic and physical horror.” – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
66. The Guest
Dan Stevens, Maika Monroe, Brendan Meyer, Sheila Kelley, Leland Orser, Lance Reddick, Tabatha Shaun, Chase Williamson, Joel David Moore, Steve Brown
“Director Wingard and his regular screenwriter collaborator Simon Barrett are interested in genre mash-ups and the dramatic possibilities of comedy-horror, as evidenced by their previous full-length feature “You’re Next.” “The Guest” goes even further in that direction. The music (by Steve Moore) suddenly blasts throughout, with moments of pulsing techno unease, as Anna, crouched in her bedroom decorated with Goth-Girl skull-and-crossbones, desperately tries to figure out more about the hot interloper… Wingard and Barrett have a perfect eye and ear for this type of material. They have fun with their influences, paying homage to John Carpenter and others. They’re not afraid to be silly and bold.” – Sheila O’Malley, RogerEbert.com
67. Black Swan
Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder, Benjamin Millepied, Ksenia Solo, Kristina Anapau, Janet Montgomery, Sebastian Stan
“By the end, resentment has entered a psychotic dimension, and melodrama has morphed irretrievably into horror movie. Of course the possibility of it has been there, perhaps from the very first minutes when we saw Nina at home in her mother’s bedroom, plastered with self-portraits, a shrine to herself. If you think it all sounds overblown – nuts – you’d probably be right. But The Red Shoes was nuts, too, and it’s still a masterpiece. Black Swan dances itself dizzy in its urge to overwhelm us, but Aronofsky’s boldness and Natalie Portman’s exquisite, raw-nerved performance make the surrender very enjoyable.” – Anthony Quinn, The Independent
68. Halloween II
Sheri Moon Zombie, Chase Wright Vanek, Scout Taylor-Compton, Brad Dourif, Caroline Williams, Malcolm McDowell, Tyler Mane, Dayton Callie, Richard Brake
“Despite the limitations inherent in the genre, it actually delivers. It’s not about the pure scares in a movie like this (almost any junky spookfest can get those, with the old face-in-a-mirror trick and various hoary techniques). No, a “character-based” monster flick – and Michael Myers is in that first generation, make no mistake – needs to play with that conceit, and Zombie’s dirty, disturbing, even dream-based approach works perfectly. And McDowell, that old pro, is a real hoot as Dr. Loomis… in a world where the “Hostel” and “Saw” films are the norm, and the recent remake of “Last House on the Left” set the bar nauseatingly low, Zombie knows a thing or two about keeping it pure.” – Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News
69. 28 Weeks Later
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Harold Perrineau, Catherine McCormack, Idris Elba, Imogen Poots, Mackintosh Muggleton, Amanda Walker, Shahid Ahmed
“Coincidence or not, the visual aesthetic and energy of Fresnadillo’s film bears a striking resemblance to Cuarón’s — both use a pallette of dull and desaturated colors, as if the colors itself were weary of the worlds they’re inhabiting. Fresnadillo’s camerawork, like that in Children of Men, is jittery, so restless and panicky, in fact, that you think it might burst forth from the screen. It’s the director’s deft and sylish hand with this material that makes 28 Weeks such a refreshing jolt, plying a genre routinely deadened by sub-par slasher-fests. The exhilaration evident in the smartly-cut action sequences, the glances at pathos in the sequences of loss, betrayal, guilt, and abandonment underscore Fresnadillo’s considerable directorial powers; the man is taking his job seriously and at full-steam, never condescending to it.” – Jay Antani, Cinema Writer
70. Gok-seong
Hong-jin Na
2016 / South Korea / 156m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Do-won Kwak, Jung-min Hwang, Jun Kunimura, Woo-hee Chun, Hwan-hee Kim, Jin Heo, So-yeon Jang, Han-Cheol Jo, Chang-gyu Kil, Do-Yoon Kim
“A tense blend of genres, The Wailing succeeds at combining a mood of deep unease with visceral gore, buddy cop comedy, and a hallucinogenic mix of horror tropes, and in this sense the film becomes a unique creation of its own, setting its terrible events against the gorgeous landscapes and mountains of South Korea. And although overlong and not without flaws, there is enough in The Wailing to warrant a viewing, and the subtle force of the film confirms Na Hong-jin’s reputation as a director to be reckoned with.” – Pamela Jahn, Electric Sheep
71. Jisatsu sâkuru
2001 / Japan / 99m / Col / Thriller | IMDb
Ryo Ishibashi, Masatoshi Nagase, Mai Hosho, Tamao Satô, Takashi Nomura, Rolly, Joshua, Masato Tsujioka, Kôsuke Hamamoto, Kei Nagase
“As frustrating as Suicide Club may be, there is no denying that it does succeed in hooking viewers with its highly original concept. The film manages to establish a sense of creeping dread; the anticipation of what lurks around each corner proves far more terrifying than the cheap scare tactics employed in other films. Ryo Ishibashi exudes a sense of decency and commitment to his mission—qualities that have a definite payoff later in the film. As Kuroda, Ishibashi gives the viewers a solid protagonist they can latch onto during the dark journey ahead. The lack of clear answers will frustrate many (this reviewer included) but what Suicide Club attempts to say and do, coupled with its success in executing some of those goals, makes the film worth recommending. And even with its baffling conclusion, there’s at least one lesson to be gleaned from Suicide Club: J-Pop may be hazardous to your health.” – Calvin McMillin, Love HK Film
72. Oculus
Karen Gillan, Brenton Thwaites, Katee Sackhoff, Rory Cochrane, Annalise Basso, Garrett Ryan, James Lafferty, Miguel Sandoval, Kate Siegel, Scott Graham
“In many ways, Oculus feels like the best J-horror remake not based on an existing film (apart from being based on Flanagan’s own short films). There’s a pervasive sense of tragedy throughout, as the details of Kaylie and Tim’s tragic past are slowly fed to us through flashbacks and hallucinations, calling to mind the disorientation of The Grudge and the mournful quality of Dark Water… Flanagan delivers plenty of horrible little shocks courtesy of the mirror’s ability to delude and misdirect, with a couple of moments that will have you putting your hands over your eyes, but Oculus is refreshingly light on cheap jump scares… By rooting its clever narrative structure in a tragic story, Flanagan has created a horror that pulls on the heartstrings as often as it grabs you by the throat, helped every step of the way by an excellent cast.” – Jonathan Hatfull, SciFiNow
73. Let Me In
2010 / USA / 116m / Col / Vampire | IMDb
Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloë Grace Moretz, Richard Jenkins, Cara Buono, Elias Koteas, Sasha Barrese, Dylan Kenin, Chris Browning, Ritchie Coster, Dylan Minnette
“In transliterating a foreign-language horror hit into an Anglophone movie it doesn’t follow [shot-for-shot]… though it does lift many scenes verbatim… If anything, this is a grimmer reading: as per Lindqvist, Abby genuinely feels for Owen, but the film suggests – via a photo-strip showing that she has been with her current protector since he was Owen’s age – that the vampire is going through another iteration of a relationship she has had before and will have again… Let Me In isn’t as rich or daring as Let the Right One In and seldom improves on it – but it plays better as a horror film, more concentrated in its focus on the creepy and shocking aspects of its unusual love story.” – Kim Newman, Sight and Sound
74. Mulholland Dr.
2001 / USA / 147m / Col / Mystery | IMDb
Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Ann Miller, Dan Hedaya, Justin Theroux, Brent Briscoe, Robert Forster, Katharine Towne, Lee Grant, Scott Coffey
“As difficult as Mulholland Drive may appear at first glance, every trajectory in this metaverse is the equivalent of dreams spiraling into REM sleep… [It] isn’t a movie about dreams, it is a dream (or, at least, until the blue box is opened) — a Hollywood horror story spun by a frustrated actress yet to cross into consciousness. Lynch’s narrative is carefully configured, painstakingly difficult to decipher, but boldly obvious should one embrace its dream logic… Mulholland Drive is a haunting, selfish masterpiece that literalizes the theory of surrealism as perpetual dream state.” – Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
75. The Children
Tom Shankland
2008 / UK / 84m / Col / Evil Children | IMDb
Eva Birthistle, Stephen Campbell Moore, Jeremy Sheffield, Rachel Shelley, Hannah Tointon, Rafiella Brooks, Jake Hathaway, William Howes, Eva Sayer
“For parents, the film will play on their personal fears and insecurities. Some parents (non-horror fans and insecure parents) will likely be appalled by the idea of children killing their parents, and vice versa (likely the reason why the film didn’t see a theatrical release). Others will simply enjoy the scary good ride – which is a brilliant byproduct of our own fears driven by pandemic paranoia. Director Tom Shankland skillfully crafts intensity through mostly non-scary images. With the help of his equally talented editor (Tim Murrell), Shankland intercuts several horrifying moments, juxtaposed with an energetic, pitch-perfect score from Stephen Hilton. And with such quick, focused intensity at play, seemingly innocent images like pinwheels and coffee mugs, or shots of children playing, drive fear into the hearts of his audience.” – R. L. Shaffer, IGN DVD
76. Cabin Fever
2002 / USA / 93m / Col / Body Horror | IMDb
Rider Strong, Jordan Ladd, James DeBello, Cerina Vincent, Joey Kern, Arie Verveen, Robert Harris, Hal Courtney, Matthew Helms, Richard Boone
“Cabin Fever establishes its terror alert early on — contamination! eek! — and treats it lightly while taking it seriously. The comedy here is not the reflexive sort, wherein the characters have all seen this movie before. It comes out of the realistic reactions a group of none-too-bright underclassmen might have when faced with blood-spewing doom. Filled with gratuitous gore (at one point, an entire jeep drips with the stuff) and sex (a comely female character muses that she should be grabbing the nearest guy and having a last bout of we-who-are-about-to-die-have-sex activity; cut to her jumping the bones of the nearest grateful guy), the film is solidly of a subgenre I over-reference, but it fits: the beer-and-pizza flick.” – Rob Gonsalves, eFilmCritic
77. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
Scott Glosserman
2006 / USA / 92m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Nathan Baesel, Angela Goethals, Robert Englund, Scott Wilson, Zelda Rubinstein, Bridgett Newton, Kate Miner, Ben Pace, Britain Spellings, Hart Turner
“Once Vernon gets into character and stalks his prey, he’s a force to be reckoned with, and no one will stand in his way. The last act plays out how we suspect, but we’re left wondering if it will play as Leslie hopes or in a completely different manner. You can pretend to know what’s coming, but you don’t know shit. Either way, we’re left with one final satisfaction; Glosserman has given us a surefire horror classic, and I couldn’t be happier. And for the love of god, stick around after the credits. As a hardcore fan of the slasher genre, “Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon” is a wet dream of a slasher re-construction that sets itself apart from every other slasher film ever made. Compared to this, “Scream” is pure child’s play, a wannabe that states the obvious. “Behind the Mask” is a pure horror film masterpiece, and slasher fans would be best to acknowledge it.” – Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed
78. The Hills Have Eyes
Aaron Stanford, Kathleen Quinlan, Vinessa Shaw, Emilie de Ravin, Dan Byrd, Tom Bower, Billy Drago, Robert Joy, Ted Levine, Desmond Askew
“The remake to “The Hills Have Eyes” (Wes Craven who has his hand firmly placed in the cookie jar as producer) still isn’t a perfect film, but for what it gives us in its ninety minute run time, is a true definition of a horror movie. Aja knows how to make a horror movie that’s realistic, bold, and provides all the bloodhounds with a satisfactory amount of gore. This remake of “Hills” is superior not only because it provides us with the amount of violence that’s been missing from horror for years, but basically because it has more focus on the survival aspects. There’s more tension, more urgency, more dread, and less camp. Aja’s new film has a sort of eeriness to it from the very beginning as we’re introduced to this family taking a crossroad journey for their vacation (you know how the usual story goes).” – Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed
79. Teeth
Mitchell Lichtenstein
Jess Weixler, John Hensley, Josh Pais, Hale Appleman, Lenny von Dohlen, Vivienne Benesch, Ashley Springer, Laila Liliana Garro, Nicole Swahn, Adam Wagner
“While “Carrie” is the obvious influence (with genital transmogrification instead of telekinesis, and the other sex doing the bulk of the bleeding), “Teeth” could be seen as a “Reefer Madness” for the New Chastity Generation. The camp sensibility, however, is fully self-aware, not unlike certain Todd Haynes’ movies: the Barbie-doll biopic “Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story,” or the black-and-white venereal horror/sci-fi segment of “Poison.” Writer-director Lichtenstein, best known for his central part in Robert Altman’s 1983 film of David Rabe’s “Streamers,” straddles one line between earnestness and facetiousness and another between horror and satire, shifting and pivoting from one to the other. Most of the time his balance is just right.” – Jim Emerson, Chicago Sun-Times
80. Resolution
2012 / USA / 93m / Col / Drama | IMDb
Peter Cilella, Vinny Curran, Zahn McClarnon, Bill Oberst Jr., Kurt David Anderson, Emily Montague, Skyler Meacham, Carmel Benson, Justin Benson, Catherine Burns
“The horror in Resolution is effective because it’s well-crafted, but it’s greatly heightened by the fact that its two central characters matter. Chris and Michael really do come across as lifelong friends, at least at one time close to the point of basically being brothers. There’s a chemistry, a rapport, a genuine bond that’s rarely glimpsed in horror. There are layers and dimensions to these characters that transcend two or three word stock descriptions. The usual Junkie’s Running Dry clichés like the pale, gray makeup and hollow eyes you’re probably picturing are all noticeably absent; hell, Chris is the funniest and most charismatic guy in the movie. Resolution greatly benefits from having such an outstanding cast” – Adam Tyner, DVD Talk
81. Honeymoon
Leigh Janiak
Rose Leslie, Harry Treadaway, Ben Huber, Hanna Brown
“Janiak is concerned with exploring how relationships break down and Honeymoon operates much better as an examination of married life than it ever does as a creepy horror flick. One morning Paul wakes up and feels like he doesn’t know his other half anymore. He feels frustrated, he feels trapped. Their sex life grinds to a halt. Bea finds her identity being chipped away by a relationship that is feeling increasingly like a performance. She still wants to love her husband but she can’t talk to him about what’s really going on and how she’s feeling. That’s the real horror of the piece – questioning how well you really know the person you’ve committed your life to. This is all subtext, of course, but it’s wonderfully conveyed in way that’s both subtle and hard to miss.” – Joe Cunningham, Film4
82. The Battery
Jeremy Gardner, Adam Cronheim, Niels Bolle, Alana O’Brien, Jamie Pantanella, Larry Fessenden, Kelly McQuade, Eric Simon, Ben Pryzby, Sarah Allen
“The problem with most modern zombie films is that the writers forget that the humans should be the centerpiece of the film, and not the zombies. Director Jeremy Gardner’s “The Battery” is the prime example of how to handle this kind of genre entertainment with a low budget. Rather than flood the screen with zombies, the monsters are used sparingly and for great moments of terror and memorable scenes, while Gardner focuses primarily on character, building two complex and unique people we can love and hate, in many ways.” – Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed
83. Paranormal Activity 3
Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman
Lauren Bittner, Christopher Nicholas Smith, Chloe Csengery, Jessica Tyler Brown, Hallie Foote, Dustin Ingram, Johanna Braddy, Katie Featherston, Sprague Grayden
“This paradox—the less you see the more you think you see, or the more you think about seeing—is what used to make horror go. Before Tom Savini and Dan O’Bannon, and before the essential redundancy of torture porn, scary movies depended on viewers’ imaginations. The Paranormal Activity films return to that low-budget idea, with an exponentially high profits pay-off. Their plots are rudimentary, and this third installment’s architecture is both banal and ludicrous (as it elucidates how the sisters came to know the demon plaguing them in the first two films, it wades into hoary-old-witches waters). But you don’t go to horror movies for story. You go for sensation, to be moved. Paranormal Activity 3 not only gets that, it also asks you to get it, to be aware of how you’re being moved, and your part in the moving.” – Cynthia Fuchs, Pop Matters
84. Grave
Julia Ducournau
2016 / France / 99m / Col / Cannibal | IMDb
Garance Marillier, Ella Rumpf, Rabah Nait Oufella, Laurent Lucas, Joana Preiss, Bouli Lanners, Marion Vernoux, Thomas Mustin, Marouan Iddoub, Jean-Louis Sbille
“This exhilarating French-Belgian debut from writer/director Julia Ducournau is a feast for ravenous cinephiles, an extreme yet intimate tale of identity crises that blends Cronenbergian body horror with humour and heartbreak as it sinks its teeth deep into the sins of the flesh… Directed with the same cross-genre dexterity as Kathryn Bigelow’s seminal vampire western Near Dark, Raw is a thrillingly confident and vigorously executed work. From the chilling opening shot of a car crash to the woozy, single-take sojourns through drunken student raves, Ducournau and cinematographer Ruben Impens lead us effortlessly into Justine’s underworld. A tethered horse on a treadmill canters in slow motion through Justine’s tortured dreams, while scratching fits and metamorphosing sweats are captured from within the claustrophobic confines of imprisoning bed-sheets.” – Mark Kermode, The Observer
85. Frontière(s)
Xavier Gens
2007 / France / 108m / Col / Splatter | IMDb
Karina Testa, Samuel Le Bihan, Estelle Lefébure, Aurélien Wiik, David Saracino, Chems Dahmani, Maud Forget, Amélie Daure, Rosine Favey, Adel Bencherif
“There’s enough blood in the unrated French horror film “Frontier(s)” to satiate even the most ravenous gore hounds. The real surprise here is that this creepy, contemporary gross-out also has some ideas, visual and otherwise, wedged among its sanguineous drips, swaying meat hooks and whirring table saw. Much like other recent French-language horror films (“High Tension,” “Calvaire,” “Inside”), this one owes a debt to the modern American slasher flick, the original “Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” among many others, though “Frontier(s)” adds an amusingly glib and timely political twist to its wholesale carnage… “Frontier(s)” finally works because its shivers are as plausible as they are outrageous.” – Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
86. 30 Days of Night
Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Danny Huston, Ben Foster, Mark Boone Junior, Mark Rendall, Amber Sainsbury, Manu Bennett, Megan Franich, Joel Tobeck
“Like “28 Days Later,” this is a film in awe of its creations, eager to unleash them into a world that lacks the glitz and polish of a supernatural thriller and focused in the intent to expand their visage into one of remarkable believability. There are moments here when we are not just staring back at movie villains or even watching on with misplaced hope at the antics of a cluster of desperate survivors. If a good horror picture means to transport us into the fabric of its bleak narrative and imprison us there, then here is one of those rare movies that penetrates the membrane separating all those disposable “gotcha” scarefests from genuinely engrossing supernatural thrillers, and finds a resonating chord.” – David Keyes, Cinemaphile
87. What We Do in the Shadows
Jemaine Clement & Taika Waititi
2014 / New Zealand / 86m / Col / Vampire | IMDb
Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi, Jonathan Brugh, Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, Stuart Rutherford, Ben Fransham, Rhys Darby, Jackie van Beek, Elena Stejko, Jason Hoyte
“Fans of Clement and Waititi’s previous work know the kind of humour to expect: bone-dry, beautifully observed and deeply silly. There’s a brilliantly funny sequence in which the three speaking vamps furiously debate the washing up rota, the importance of virgin blood is floridly discussed, while a dinner party sequence in which potential victims are confronted with re-enacted Lost Boys sequences is beautifully done… Clement in particular is clearly having a brilliant time, as it soon becomes apparent that the lascivious Vlad’s best years are behind him, while Waititi slays with his portrayal of the sweetly heartbroken Viago. In short, the most important thing to know about What We Do In The Shadows is that it’s laugh-out-loud hilarious” – Jonathan Hatfull, SciFiNow
88. The Endless
2017 / USA / 111m / Col / Science Fiction | IMDb
Callie Hernandez, Tate Ellington, James Jordan, Emily Montague, Lew Temple, Justin Benson, Ric Sarabia, Aaron Moorhead, Kira Powell, Peter Cilella
“The Endless opens with a quote from cult horror author H.P. Lovecraft, whose dread-filled mythos of ancient alien gods and terrifying occult knowledge is a key influence on Benson and Moorhead’s work. But the tone here is more classic low-budget indie drama, restrained and cerebral, than nightmarish horror. Initially, at least… A key future challenge for the duo will be how to bring this fine-grained auteur approach into the commercial mainstream without diluting their strongly original vision.” – Stephen Dalton, The Hollywood Reporter
89. Eden Lake
2008 / UK / 91m / Col / Splatter | IMDb
Kelly Reilly, Michael Fassbender, Tara Ellis, Jack O’Connell, Finn Atkins, Jumayn Hunter, Thomas Turgoose, James Burrows, Tom Gill, Lorraine Bruce
“Though nightmarish and visceral, it’s the most intelligent horror film to have been made by a British director since Jack Clayton’s The Innocents in 1960. And it fulfils the two purposes of horror: it involves you emotionally and it’s frightening… It’s a thoroughly credible set-up and the process of escalation whereby Jenny and Steve alienate, then anger these feral youths until they’re ready to stab, torture and even burn them to death is worryingly authentic. Unlike most horror films, in which the heroes steer themselves into danger by their own stupidity, Jenny and Steve behave with complete plausibility and a tragically unrequited sense of kindness and social responsibility.” – Chris Tookey, The Daily Mail
90. Green Room
2015 / USA / 95m / Col / Thriller | IMDb
Anton Yelchin, Joe Cole, Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, David W. Thompson, Mark Webber, Macon Blair, Eric Edelstein, Michael Draper, Andy Copeland
“A merciless maelstrom set within grungy, cramped quarters for much of its 94 minutes, “Green Room” mounts and mounts with grabby urgency and anything-can-happen danger. A battle of wits and survival begins as Darcy uses his power of persuasion from the other side of the door and asks the band to hand over the gun they’ve retrieved, forcing The Ain’t Rights to become resourceful in other ways as they plan their escape out of that one door. When the kill-or-be-killed spree takes off in the second half, the violence is very savage and matter-of-fact without coming across gratuitous for the hell of it. It’s also underscored by cinematographer Sean Porter having an eye for making nerve-shredding chaos look controlled.” – Jeremy Kibler, The Artful Critic
91. Stake Land
Jim Mickle
2010 / USA / 98m / Col / Vampire | IMDb
Connor Paolo, Gregory Jones, Traci Hovel, Nick Damici, James Godwin, Tim House, Marianne Hagan, Stuart Rudin, Adam Scarimbolo, Vonia Arslanian
“Making the most of a modest budget, director and co-writer Mickle profitably focuses on establishing character and the film’s overall haunted tone rather than simply conjuring gratuitous mayhem. An effective economy of style and the faded color scheme admirably suit this stripped-down aesthetic. The lead performances are solid, despite somewhat generic characterizations, and all-importantly, the vampires’ acting, makeup and costuming are persuasive, even if they appear nearly as dim-witted as a typical zombie. Stake Land’s trenchant worldview, both dystopian and completely rational, shows more affinity with the likes of The Road, 28 Days Later and Night of the Living Dead than it does with movies inclined to romanticize or demonize vampires. The message that America, with all of its social ills and conflicts, is a nation devouring itself seems particularly appropriate as budget battles and culture wars rage on unabated.” – Justin Lowe, The Hollywood Reporter
92. Gerald’s Game
Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood, Chiara Aurelia, Carel Struycken, Henry Thomas, Kate Siegel, Adalyn Jones, Bryce Harper, Gwendolyn Mulamba, James Flanagan
“Gerald’s Game is a single-setting thriller for the majority of its runtime, so Flanagan and his longtime cinematographer Michael Fimognari use constrictive camera shots and precise editing (which Flanagan also handled) to maintain a suffocating sense of atmosphere throughout the scenes set in Jessie and Gerald’s bedroom, in spite of the unchanging scenery… Gerald’s Game generates horror more through suggestion that onscreen imagery for much of its runtime, but be warned: when things do get explicit, the movie becomes rather graphic and very disturbing, very quickly.” – Sandy Schaefer, ScreenRant
93. The Nightmare
2015 / USA / 91m / Col / Documentary | IMDb
Siegfried Peters, Stephen Michael Joseph, Yatoya Toy, Nicole Bosworth, Elise Robson, Age Wilson
“Ascher makes a persuasive case that it is the physiological phenomenon of sleep paralysis that has created the nightmare tropes now commonplace in art and literature: they are recognisable, diagnosable symptoms. This condition, he says, both pre-exists and is the inspiration for scary movies such as Nightmare on Elm Street – and not the other way round. It also accounts for alien-abduction delusions. However, his film also listens sympathetically to sufferers who interpret their condition in spiritual terms. He films his interviews and reconstructions in a self-consciously creepy way; it’s possibly a bit overdone, but often disturbing, especially the dream where the man gets a call on his mobile phone from a polite voice saying: “I wonder if you can do me a favour?” I jumped.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
94. Bone Tomahawk
S. Craig Zahler
2015 / USA / 132m / Col / Western | IMDb
Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins, Lili Simmons, Evan Jonigkeit, David Arquette, Fred Melamed, Sid Haig, Maestro Harrell
“There’s an elegance to Bone Tomahawk that doesn’t let up even when it veers into cult-movie territory. Zahler is a patient director, willing to let scenes unfold, with tension developing organically. He uses music sparingly; the early scenes in town are almost unnaturally quiet, with the moody, minimalist score (credited to Jeff Herriot and Zahler himself) only kicking in once the search party strikes out for the territory. As the men become more and more desperate, the camera comes in closer and closer. But even the final act is devoid of the kind of unhinged stylistic hysteria that can take over films that upend genre. You could even say that’s what makes it so disturbing — the director’s unflinching eye reveals both character and violence.” – Bilge Ebiri, Vulture
95. Stoker
Chan-wook Park
2013 / UK / 99m / Col / Thriller | IMDb
Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman, David Alford, Matthew Goode, Peg Allen, Lauren E. Roman, Phyllis Somerville, Harmony Korine, Lucas Till, Alden Ehrenreich
“Park Chan-wook’s long-awaited English-language debut is a gorgeously mounted family mystery dressed up as a gothic fairytale. The atmosphere is suffocatingly effective, and if the scarcity of shocks leaves some viewers feeling cheated (Park created the South Korean Vengeance trilogy after all), this misdirection is also one of the movie’s great strengths. Stoker is a puzzle. Its lush visuals, allied with Clint Mansell’s eerily dynamic score, are MacGuffins to some degree. After Sunday night’s world premiere at Sundance, Chan-wook spoke of his admiration for Alfred Hitchcock and homage courses through Stoker like, well, blood… Literary references and symbolism abound in Stoker. You can get tied up trying to figure out who is what. That is the idea. All the clues are there. You just have to look closely.” – Jeremy Kay, The Guardian
96. Maniac
Franck Khalfoun
Nora Arnezeder, Brian Ames, America Olivo, Genevieve Alexandra, Liane Balaban, Jan Broberg, Aaron Colom, Joshua Delagarza, Alex Diaz, Megan Duffy
“With the accomplished Maxime Alexandre serving as cinematographer, and Raphael Hamburger providing a euro-trashy synth score, Maniac proves exploitative horror flicks need not seem hastily slapped together to unsettle and disturb. Maniac is technically impressive, which is more than can be said for most schlock of its ilk. If you’re watching Maniac to admire cinematic handiwork, to ponder our culpability in slasher flicks, or to compare Wood’s performance with the original’s Joe Spinell, I can safely recommend it.” – Simon Miraudo, Quickflix
97. It
2017 / USA / 135m / Col / Evil Clown | IMDb
Jaeden Lieberher, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff, Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hamilton, Jake Sim
“I’m no expert on Stephen King, and I leave it to other writers to weigh up this movie’s faithfulness to the canon from which it derives. But a look into the grief of children can only come across in a movie that’s been put together well, and this one has. Go expecting jump scares, and you will be rewarded handsomely. But you’ll also find a well-crafted meditation on the pain that communities refuse to see and the effect that pain has on the young and powerless. It is study in trauma to match the best of them.” – Josephine Livingstone, The New Republic
98. Dog Soldiers
2002 / UK / 105m / Col / Werewolf | IMDb
Sean Pertwee, Kevin McKidd, Emma Cleasby, Liam Cunningham, Thomas Lockyer, Darren Morfitt, Chris Robson, Leslie Simpson, Tina Landini, Craig Conway
“One of the best all-out, no-apologies, hell-bent-for-leather horror films to emerge from the beginning of the 21st century—a modestly-budgeted, action-packed effort that pits British soldiers against local werewolves with a taste for human flesh. DOG SOLDIERS is derivative of any number of previous films (reduced to its essence, one might call it a hybrid of THE HOWLING and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD), but it works on its own tongue-in-cheek terms, fillings its dialogue with references to its antecedents.” – Steve Biodrowski, Cinefantastique
99. Busanhaeng
Sang-ho Yeon
2016 / South Korea / 118m / Col / Zombie | IMDb
Yoo Gong, Soo-an Kim, Yu-mi Jung, Dong-seok Ma, Woo-sik Choi, Sohee, Eui-sung Kim, Gwi-hwa Choi, Terri Doty, Jang Hyuk-Jin
“Crucially, [director] Yeon has come up with a take on zombies that is rooted deep in the genre but still feels innovative. Like Romero’s undead, these are an inescapable evil spreading across the world to offer a sly commentary on our modern society… Yeon establishes himself as a gifted action director: one mid-journey stop at an apparently deserted station turns into a terrifying set-piece that’s among the year’s best. But it’s a slow struggle through carriages full of infected people to reach a stranded loved one that really stands out… In the end, Yeon goes back to the human story and delivers a surprisingly emotional climax. It may seem like a shift of tone, but maybe family ties were the point all along.” – Helen O’Hara, Empire Magazine
100. The Taking
Adam Robitel
Jill Larson, Anne Ramsay, Michelle Ang, Ryan Cutrona, Anne Bedian, Brett Gentile, Jeremy DeCarlos, Tonya Bludsworth, Julianne Taylor, Jana Allen
“This is not your average devilish demon wreaking hellish havoc while looking for a human host cliché. A clever origin story accompanies Deborah’s mania and the supporting players in her life are woven into its fabric very well. One item to note is that snake-related mythology plays an important role. Anyone fearful of slithering shapes will have double the reasons to find the film’s imagery terrifying and its climactic scene uniquely disturbing. Something else deserving a mention is how the film’s characters are written to behave with rational thought. When inexplicable events and increasingly deadly circumstances reach an intolerable point, one member of the documentary-making trio says enough is enough and abruptly exits, never to be seen again.” – Ian Sedensky, Culture Crypt
101. Orphan
Jaume Collet-Serra
2009 / USA / 123m / Col / Evil Children | IMDb
Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman, CCH Pounder, Jimmy Bennett, Margo Martindale, Karel Roden, Aryana Engineer, Rosemary Dunsmore, Jamie Young
“Spaniard Jaume Collet-Serra’s wickedly entertaining, if slightly over-stretched, variation on the familiar ‘evil child’ scenario displays an unusually complex grasp of twisted psychology… Producer Joel Silver regularly specialises in routine horror remakes, such as Collet-Serra’s previous ‘House of Wax’. But here, courtesy of an insidious screenplay by David Leslie Johnson, we are in more disturbing territory. More of a psychological thriller than a horror movie, ‘Orphan’ does contain explosions of shocking, though not especially graphic, violence.” – Nigel Floyd, Time Out
102. Bakjwi
2009 / South Korea / 135m / Col / Vampire | IMDb
Kang-ho Song, Ok-bin Kim, Hae-suk Kim, Ha-kyun Shin, In-hwan Park, Dal-su Oh, Young-chang Song, Mercedes Cabral, Eriq Ebouaney, Hee-jin Choi
“Throughout very audible kissing and slurpy blood-drinking, the film proves to be scary, remarkably moving, and startlingly evocative. And like most Park films, it doesn’t end when the audience expects it to. The final section of the film transforms the characters and retains their humanity, even amid their most frenzied embrace of their obsessions. Park’s film is an ingenious look at a sleepy topic, proving that the vampire movie hasn’t lost its verve, but that most directors making them have. Place a filmmaker like Park behind the camera and suddenly the genre awakens from its slumber, digs itself from out of its own grave, and emerges ready to feed from the ideas of a great director.” – Brian Eggert, Deep Focus Review
103. Trolljegeren
André Øvredal
2010 / Norway / 103m / Col / Found Footage | IMDb
Otto Jespersen, Glenn Erland Tosterud, Johanna Mørck, Tomas Alf Larsen, Urmila Berg-Domaas, Hans Morten Hansen, Robert Stoltenberg, Knut Nærum, Eirik Bech
“With this Bizarro-World trek through the fjords, fields and mountaintops of wintry Norway, Andre Ovredal joins a select group of European filmmakers who have clearly paid attention to Hollywood’s lessons – particularly in the class on creature-features old and new – without negating their own specific cultural sensibility… Some plot turns don’t entirely hold water in the exciting climactic stretch, and the agitated hand-held visuals can grow wearying. But this is nonetheless an original and highly assured fusion of B-movie lore and fairy-tale terror. The premise may be absurd but the filmmaker and his able cast show unwavering commitment to the story’s elaborate mythology.” – David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
104. We Are What We Are
2013 / USA / 105m / Col / Drama | IMDb
Kassie Wesley DePaiva, Laurent Rejto, Julia Garner, Ambyr Childers, Jack Gore, Bill Sage, Kelly McGillis, Wyatt Russell, Michael Parks, Annemarie Lawless
““We Are What We Are” is mostly not terrifying, offers almost nothing in the way of traditional horror-movie shocks and jolts, and does not get bloody until the last 20 minutes or so. (At which point, whoo-boy.) It’s a sinister, wistful and even sad portrait of one family that has followed the insanity and bloodthirstiness of American history into a dark corridor with no exit. There’s a hint of Terrence Malick (or David Lowery, of “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”) in the often-gorgeous photography of Ryan Samul, and a hint of Shakespearean grandeur in Sage’s portrayal of a dignified and honorable American father infused with an ideology of madness. I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen an exploitation film played so effectively as human tragedy.” – Andrew O’Hehir, Salon
105. Somos lo que hay
Jorge Michel Grau
2010 / Mexico / 90m / Col / Drama | IMDb
Francisco Barreiro, Adrián Aguirre, Miriam Balderas, Carmen Beato, Alan Chávez, Juan Carlos Colombo, Paulina Gaitan, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Miguel Ángel Hoppe, Raúl Kennedy
“Once under way, We Are What We Are is a long journey through an urban miasma to the end of a dark and bloody night, a modernist score adding to the anxiety around the invariably messy kills. This is a movie in which mise-en-scène trumps the suspense. Played out in shadowy streets, dilapidated overhead highways, grime-encrusted underpasses, and fetid clubs, We Are What We Are seems an organic product of Mexico City’s teeming sprawl. (There’s a hint of Buñuel’s Los Olvidados in its life-feeding-on-life Darwinian struggle.) The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls—or rather tonelessly chanted on a rattling train in a sequence providing the movie’s appropriately off-key lyrical interlude” – J. Hoberman, The Village Voice
106. The Innkeepers
Sara Paxton, Pat Healy, Alison Bartlett, Jake Ryan, Kelly McGillis, Lena Dunham, Brenda Cooney, George Riddle, John Speredakos, Sean Reid
“The suspense built up in this story is real. I wasn’t on the edge of my seat but there was a knot in my stomach as I wondered what was going to happen next. From a creepy basement visit with the ghost to a scene where the aging actress warns Claire about the spirit world, this movie is slow but tantalizing. “I’m just here for one last bit of nostalgia,” the hotel’s final visitor says, a nod to why the film works so well. It’s a nostalgic film that should remind viewers of what suspense really feels like. Suspense isn’t watching a man getting hacked into pieces. It’s watching a woman realize that she’s in too deep when she starts asking too many questions about paranormal activity. And that what “The Innkeepers” delivers.” – John Hanlon, Big Hollywood
107. Ju-on
Takashi Shimizu
2002 / Japan / 92m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Megumi Okina, Misaki Itô, Misa Uehara, Yui Ichikawa, Kanji Tsuda, Kayoko Shibata, Yukako Kukuri, Shuri Matsuda, Yôji Tanaka, Yoshiyuki Morishita
“The creep factor in this film is high, not because either the kid, or the specter look particularly scary (though the latter may fit that description at points), but because Shimizu is a master of camera shots, timing and the unexpected. Your nerves are left perpetually unsteady, never knowing the reach of the specter’s killing power. Not even the best of the slasher movies can compete with the non-stop, pulse-racing tension found here.” – John Strand, Best Horror Movies
108. Slither
2006 / Canada / 95m / Col / Comedy | IMDb
Don Thompson, Nathan Fillion, Gregg Henry, Xantha Radley, Elizabeth Banks, Tania Saulnier, Dustin Milligan, Michael Rooker, Haig Sutherland, Jennifer Copping
“It’s no surprise that the majority of laughs are ably captured by Fillion, showing off the knack for deadpan delivery previously tapped by Joss Whedon in Serenity. As Pardy, he fills out the role of an unlikely hero dealing with extraordinary events, bringing bumbling affability to a part that could so easily have been lost to square jaws, steely eyes and other clumsy stereotypes. Tipping its hat at everything from the original Puppet Masters to bargain-bin trash like Ted Nicolaou’s TerrorVision, Slither is a carefully crafted parody (the Predator nod in particular will bring a smile to your face). But this is the scalpel to the Scary Movie series’ bludgeoning sledgehammer, skirting cheap imitation in favour of affectionate irreverence and managing to produce a genre hybrid that’s far more than the sum of its pilfered parts.” – James Dyer, Empire Magazine
109. Shutter Island
Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earle Haley, Ted Levine, John Carroll Lynch
“With an Oscar on his mantelpiece, Martin Scorsese takes a breather from prestige pictures with “Shutter Island,” an exquisitely crafted potboiler… He creates a seriously creepy mood in the film’s opening moments and tightens the screws amid elaborate sets (some scenes were shot in an actual abandoned state asylum) and gorgeous cinematography — though cinematographer Robert Richardson’s rather pretty vision of Dachau made me queasy… “Shutter Island” strikes me as one of Scorsese’s more minor works, a rather elaborate trifle one of our greatest directors has devised for his — and our — amusement.” – Lou Lumenick, New York Post
110. Jeepers Creepers
2001 / USA / 90m / Col / Monster | IMDb
Gina Philips, Justin Long, Jonathan Breck, Patricia Belcher, Brandon Smith, Eileen Brennan, Peggy Sheffield, Jeffrey William Evans, Patrick Cherry, Jon Beshara
“Throughout, Salva’s skill as a director keeps the movie afloat, helping to propel us through some of the dodgier narrative stumbles (the “let’s go back to the obvious death trap for no reason other than to facilitate a horror film!” moment, or a weird, stretched-out, yet excellently tense confrontation with a crazy cat-lady played, distractingly, by Eileen Brennan), and making the best moments sing. Every inch of the sequence inside the pipe is carried off brilliantly, and not just Darry’s half: as Trish stands guard outside, there’s a truly breathtaking false scare that uses an out-of-focus depth of field in a profoundly clever, subtle manner; as indeed, the film consistently makes outstanding use of hiding details in corners of the frame where, because of composition or focus, we don’t necessarily expect to look.” – Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
111. The Grudge
Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Behr, William Mapother, Clea DuVall, KaDee Strickland, Grace Zabriskie, Bill Pullman, Rosa Blasi, Ted Raimi, Ryo Ishibashi
“For the American émigrés that populate ‘The Grudge’ are portrayed as struggling with the basics of Japanese language, confused even by the products on a Japanese supermarket shelf, and generally lost and out of place and it is a mutually uncomprehending relationship between an American and a Japanese which turns out to have engendered the curse at the heart of the film. Shimizu, it seems, is not only exploiting this cultural clash to amplify his characters’ alienation, hopelessness, and terror, but also to comment wryly on the bizarre love affair between America and Japan which makes a film like this possible. It is as though the original ‘Ju-on’ had been merged with Lost in Translation, and the result is an intelligent reflection on Hollywood’s flawed attempts to recreate Oriental horror in its own image as well as a great scare or three for the uninitiated West.” – Anton Bitel, Movie Gazette
112. Hostel
2005 / USA / 94m / Col / Splatter | IMDb
Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson, Eythor Gudjonsson, Barbara Nedeljakova, Jan Vlasák, Jana Kaderabkova, Jennifer Lim, Keiko Seiko, Lubomír Bukový
“Eli Roth’s “Hostel” is an agonizing experience to sit through – disheartening, unpleasant, bursting with torture, detached and harsh, and unrelenting in its passion for the horrific. To call it a challenge in the visual sense does not begin to explain its ability to completely rob you of the comfort of artifice; it so fully indulges in its reality that every cut, every bloodcurdling moment in which pain is inflicted on a number of unsuspecting victims, is felt rather than seen. That may rob the movie of repeat value even in the hands of audiences who willingly embrace this overzealous sub-genre of torture-driven horror, but it does provoke deeper considerations: in the hands of skilled filmmakers who know how to establish reason and perspective, can extreme visual depravity rise above its nature to merely sicken and appall?” – David Keyes, Cinemaphile
113. [Rec]²
Jonathan D. Mellor, Óscar Zafra, Ariel Casas, Alejandro Casaseca, Pablo Rosso, Rafa Parra, Pep Molina, Andrea Ros, Àlex Batllori, Pau Poch
“The story being depicted elaborates on the original scenario and is endlessly intriguing. We only got a taste of the virus’ demonic nature in the original and here, that concept is expanded in a frightening manner. This is no longer the story of crazed infected humans running around biting each other’s faces off; it’s a terrifying tale of deadly people being influenced by a demonic source… Balagueró and Plaza really know what they’re doing. The continuation of their story is what keeps you intrigued, but it’s the eeriness and constant need to be prepared for what’s lurking around the corner that makes this film downright as horrifying as it is relentless. REC 2 it isn’t as good as its predecessor, but only finds itself a notch below, making it an enjoyable and honorable sequel” – Perri Nemiroff, CinemaBlend
114. The Ruins
Carter Smith
2008 / USA / 90m / Col / Nature | IMDb
Jonathan Tucker, Jena Malone, Laura Ramsey, Shawn Ashmore, Joe Anderson, Sergio Calderón, Jesse Ramirez, Balder Moreno, Dimitri Baveas, Patricio Almeida Rodriguez
“Enjoyable, well made and genuinely creepy horror flick that transcends its ridiculous premise thanks to a strong script, some sure-handed direction and superb performances from a talented young cast… The script is excellent and director Carter Smith gets the tone exactly right, playing everything straight, despite the ridiculous premise, and orchestrating some genuinely creepy scenes. He also includes some impressively nasty gory moments that, crucially, derive naturally from the characters and situations rather than just looking to gross you out for the hell of it… In short, The Ruins is a worthy addition to the Tourism Is Bad genre that ensures that you’ll never look at a rustling vine quite the same way again.” – Matthew Turner, ViewLondon
115. Gin gwai
Oxide Pang Chun & Danny Pang
2002 / Hong Kong / 99m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Angelica Lee, Lawrence Chou, Jinda Duangtoy, Yut Lai So, Candy Lo, Edmund Chen, Yin Ping Ko, Florence Wu, Wisarup Annuar, Yuet Siu Wong
“The story winds up going to familiar places, with Mun and her doctor (Lawrence Chou) doing the obligatory investigation into the former owner of Mun’s new eyes. But while this is stuff we’ve seen before, the screenplay (written by the Pangs and Jo Jo Hui) goes the unexpected route and finds an emotional base to these later scenes. There’s a great sadness hanging in the air here, mixing with the horror in such a way that the frights never feel cheap. This movie understands that while ghosts may be here to scare the crap out of us, whatever happened to make them ghosts must add some sort of tragedy to their existence. This is a ghost story that cares about its ghosts as much as it cares for its living characters. By giving their movie such emotional weight, the Pangs have crafted a horror movie that’s more effectual than most because it reaches us on a more complete level. But don’t think it’s all emotion here – there are plenty of powerful shocks and nifty spook-outs to satisfy anyone looking for a strong horror treat.” – David Cornelius, eFilmCritict
116. Freddy vs. Jason
Ronny Yu
2003 / Canada / 97m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Robert Englund, Ken Kirzinger, Monica Keena, Jason Ritter, Kelly Rowland, Chris Marquette, Brendan Fletcher, Katharine Isabelle, Lochlyn Munro, Kyle Labine
“Two dead horror franchises and two one-note jokes combine their burnt-out story lines and collective myths in “Freddy Vs. Jason,” and the result is a horror movie that’s better than it has any right to be… The Jason (‘Friday the 13th’) and the Freddy Krueger (‘Nightmare on Elm Street’) series were limp self-parodies long before they went dormant. But something in the combination of the two villains wakes things up. The presence of Freddy liberates this Jason entry from the monotony of a guy lumbering about with a ski mask and a sword, while the presence of Jason liberates this Freddy film from the monotony of the usual endless dream sequences… Director Ronny Yu… keeps it as light as possible.” – Mick LaSalle, SFGate
117. Splice
2009 / Canada / 104m / Col / Science Fiction | IMDb
Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, Delphine Chanéac, Brandon McGibbon, Simona Maicanescu, David Hewlett, Abigail Chu
“Splice is not a David Cronenberg film but it comes closer to capturing the sensibility of Cronenberg’s films from the mid-1970s to the late 1990s than anything Cronenberg himself has done in the past decade… Underpinning the stylish production values and moments of shock are strong characters and engaging writing. What holds your attention throughout Splice is the changing sympathies you constantly have for Elsa, Clive and Dren as they all constantly shift from positions of being the aggressors to being the victims. Splice is science-fiction/horror at its best, underpinning its daring moments of bodily horror and sexual anxieties with flawed characters to care about and moral issues to wrestle with.” – Thomas Caldwell, Cinema Autopsy
118. The Human Centipede (First Sequence)
2009 / Netherlands / 92m / BW / Body Horror | IMDb
Dieter Laser, Ashley C. Williams, Ashlynn Yennie, Akihiro Kitamura, Andreas Leupold, Peter Blankenstein, Bernd Kostrau, Rene de Wit, Sylvia Zidek, Rosemary Annabella
“So what is the use of a genre film that doesn’t conform to the conventions of genre? Plenty. You know this movie is called The Human Centipede. You will watch the film knowing you will see a human centipede. And when it is over, you will be able to claim you have now seen a human centipede. The evocative title, the lack of motive and the absence of genre tropes are completely intentional – Six is giving us what we want, reminding us all the while that getting exactly what we want is usually the last thing we should ever really have. Basically, The Human Centipede is a better, more effective satire (experiment?) than Michael Haneke’s Funny Games.” – Simon Miraudo, Quikflix
119. Land of the Dead
Simon Baker, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper, Asia Argento, Robert Joy, Eugene Clark, Joanne Boland, Tony Nappo, Jennifer Baxter, Boyd Banks
“The ideas fly as fast and furious as the body parts, but brilliantly Romero never stoops to obvious, dialogue-driven harangues, instead opting to submerge his conceit- that is, a divided society where zombies reflect our own political complacency – in the forgotten stuff of subtext. The gore is amped up appropriately from earlier films, and provides a literal cross-section of destruction and dismemberments; some of them exist for sheer thrill value, but Romero, unlike many of his style-stealing disciples, knows that substantive storytelling is the key to evoking true dread, not a coroner’s checklist of body parts.” – Todd Gilchrist, IGN Movies
120. The Exorcism of Emily Rose
2005 / USA / 119m / Col / Possession | IMDb
Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson, Campbell Scott, Jennifer Carpenter, Colm Feore, Joshua Close, Kenneth Welsh, Duncan Fraser, JR Bourne, Mary Beth Hurt
“By giving us the facts as seen through the eyes of the various beholders, the film is asking us to be the jury that decides the case, and the information provided is very intentionally left open to interpretation. Rather than seeming wishy-washy and indecisve, this results in a film with a great deal of tension and suspense. Structuring the story as a courtroom drama increases the horror because it takes place in a believable context: whether you think Emily is ill or possessed, what happens to her is almost beyond endurance. Moreover, because the fate of the priest rests on the trial’s outcome, it’s clear that the horrific events in the story have dramatic consequences: what happens is part of a convincing story, not just a series of gratuitous special effects shocks.” – Steve Biodrowski, Cinefantastique
121. Funny Games U.S.
2007 / USA / 111m / Col / Home Invasion | IMDb
Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt, Brady Corbet, Devon Gearhart, Boyd Gaines, Siobhan Fallon, Robert LuPone, Susi Haneke, Linda Moran
“This transposed Funny Games registers more strongly than the original as a film about privileged white people… Next to their Austrian equivalents, Corbet and Pitt seem less outwardly presentable, more outlandish and fey… While both iterations of Funny Games are schematic to a fault, their anti-illusionism opens up a Pandora’s box of unanswered questions. Haneke scolds us for our bloodlust, yet leaves us wondering how the suffering of a fictional character can carry any weight at all. As onscreen narrators employed to articulate these puzzles, Peter and Paul could be cousins to the Joker in The Dark Knight or Javier Bardem’s smiling assassin in No Country For Old Men.” – Jake Wilson, The Age
122. Dans ma peau
Marina de Van
2002 / France / 93m / Col / Body Horror | IMDb
Marina de Van, Laurent Lucas, Léa Drucker, Thibault de Montalembert, Dominique Reymond, Bernard Alane, Marc Rioufol, François Lamotte, Adrien de Van, Alain Rimoux
“It’s mostly the suggestion of what Esther is doing to herself that worms its way into your mind and won’t leave you alone, and that’s what people were finding so uncomfortable that they couldn’t continue to watch the film. Being confronted with a sudden boundary between “me” and “my body” isn’t something many of us have dealt with, and our innate inclination for self-preservation tells us to run from the suggestion that such a thing is possible. That might make In My Skin the ultimate horror movie, one the proposes that, given the right stimulus, we ourselves could be our own worst mortal danger.” – MaryAnn Johanson, Flick Filosopher
123. Zombieland
Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, Amber Heard, Bill Murray, Derek Graf
“You could argue that the film is really about ‘family’ or ‘friendship’ or ‘romance’ or ‘finding acceptance’, because these are the elements that make up life, and thus, are the building blocks of most stories. But, life in Zombieland isn’t exactly life at all. Our four protagonists struggle to find normalcy in their situation, and although they succeed to a certain degree, it is only once they learn to accept (and enjoy) the disemboweling of their undead enemies. No, this film is not some Michael Haneke-esque lecture condemning audiences for enjoying the violence within. It is a celebration. It’s nice to see a movie in which the very fabric of society falls apart, yet humanity still soldiers on; not through feats of extreme bravery or powerful self-sacrifice, but through a sense of humour.” – Simon Miraudo, Quickflix
124. Inland Empire
2006 / USA / 180m / Col / Experimental | IMDb
Laura Dern, Jeremy Irons, Justin Theroux, Karolina Gruszka, Jan Hencz, Krzysztof Majchrzak, Grace Zabriskie, Ian Abercrombie, Karen Baird, Bellina Logan
“Because watching movies is a bizarre business, and a movie creates its own world, in some ways more persuasively cogent and real than the reality surrounding it, Lynch positions himself in the no man’s land between these two realities and furnishes it with a landscape and topography all his own… It is mad and chaotic and exasperating and often makes no sense: but actually not quite as confusing as has been reported. Even the most garbled of moments fit approximately into the vague scheme of things, and those that don’t – those worrying rabbits – are, I guess, just part of the collateral damage occasioned by Lynch’s assault on the ordinary world. How boring the cinema would be without David Lynch, and for a long, long moment, how dull reality always seems after a Lynch movie has finished.” – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian
125. Triangle
2009 / UK / 99m / Col / Science Fiction | IMDb
Melissa George, Joshua McIvor, Jack Taylor, Michael Dorman, Henry Nixon, Rachael Carpani, Emma Lung, Liam Hemsworth, Bryan Probets
“After his passable, low-budget horror movie, Severance, the British writer-director Christopher Smith takes a big leap forward with this clever and compelling occult thriller. Shot on the coast of Queensland but set in Miami, it interweaves to potent effect Nietzsche’s theory of “eternal recurrence”, the mystery of the Mary Celeste and Sutton Vane’s once popular play Outward Bound… It’s creepy, atmospheric stuff and at every twist of this Möbius strip we wonder how Smith will keep things going. But he manages it with considerable skill and we leave his picture suitably shaken.” – Philip French, The Observer
© 2018, They Shoot Zombies, Don't They?
Soliloquy WordPress Theme
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Task Force Members Rep. Donovan and Rep. Quigley in The Hill
Report: Her Health, Her Lifetime, Our World
Video: Christy Turlington Burns outlines Task Force’s Final Proposal
Other Sectoral Studies
U.S. Govt Funding for Women’s and Family Health
Changing the course of history in US priority countries
TASK FORCE MEMBERS
Central AmericaVision2017 Leadership2016-04-26T17:37:47+00:00
[rev_slider alias=”central-america”]
REPORT | CENTRAL AMERICA ANALYSIS
Since 2000, the U.S. government has been a strong supporter of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, contributing more than US$730 million through the end of December 2015 to advance the public-private partnership’s effort to introduce new and underutilized vaccines in the world’s poorest countries.
Lower-income countries receiving Gavi assistance have long been required to cofinance a portion of each vaccine dose procured with Alliance funds, with the expectation that as the countries grow economically and reach lower-middle-income country status (LMIC), they will eventually transition away from Gavi support.
Photo credit: Daniel Mendoza
The long history of U.S. support for global maternal and child health programs, its emphasis on assisting countries in strengthening their immunization programs, and considerable U.S. investments in Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, over the past 15 years all underscore why the United States has an interest in ensuring that LMIC transitions from Gavi support proceed smoothly and sustainably.
Yet in many LMICs, the United States is scaling back its bilateral engagement on health. In Latin America and the Caribbean, where the United States has supported maternal and child health programs since the 1960s, the recent drawdown of resources for health has been notable, with bilateral support for health programs now in only a handful of countries and focused primarily on HIV/AIDS.
To examine the Central American countries’ experience with the Gavi transition and to assess prospects for future U.S. engagement in strengthening immunization in LMICs, a small team from the CSIS Global Health Policy Center traveled to the Republic of Honduras and the Republic of Nicaragua in January 2016. Important questions included the following:
What roles have the United States and other partners played in strengthening immunization programs in the Central American region?
What has been the impact of Gavi support in Honduras and Nicaragua?
What have been the countries’ experiences in preparing for, or moving through, the Gavi transition?
What role can the United States play in promoting a sustainable transition from Gavi support, especially where it no longer supports bilateral engagement on maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) issues?
In both Honduras and Nicaragua, national immunization programs have served as models for a region that already has high standards when it comes to immunization program performance. Immunization programs enjoy a high political profile in both countries, and citizens in Honduras and Nicaragua generally express confidence in government-provided vaccines.
Thanks to support from Gavi, the PAHO Revolving Fund, bilateral development partners, and other donors, both Honduras and Nicaragua have successfully introduced a number of the newer and underutilized vaccines, such as the rotavirus vaccine and pneumococcal vaccine, and have maintained generally high immunization coverage rates, even as health indicators in other areas of maternal, newborn, and child health lag behind.
Yet both countries face significant political, technical, and social challenges to the sustainability of immunization programs, challenges that may affect the long-term success of each country’s transition from Gavi support.
We identified three areas where the United States has an opportunity to contribute to the sustainability of immunization programs in Central American LMICs within the context of their transition from Gavi support:
At the global level, the United States can use its position on the Gavi Board to advocate for continued refinements to transition policies to give countries extended access to low Gavi prices, or longer than five years to move toward full financing. It can also advocate that other governments that support Gavi increase their yearly contributions to the Alliance, as the United States has done in recent years.
At the regional level,the United States should continue to support regional mechanisms that facilitate countries’ pooled procurement of vaccines at low cost and respond to countries’ requests for technical assistance with immunization program design and disease detection.
At the national level,the sustainability of high-performing immunization programs in Honduras and Nicaragua is at risk because of financial and technical challenges. The United States could revisit its decision to draw down bilateral health assistance in the two countries, or it could use resources within other well-funded programs, such as those related to food security or democracy and governance, to strengthen program integration and citizen engagement, recognizing that poor health is both a driver of and a consequence of inequality and insecurity.
Central America Analysis
Vision2017 Leadership2016-05-06T18:17:33+00:00
Report: Transitioning from Gavi Support
Katherine Bliss2016-03-04T16:55:47+00:00
Addressing Adolescent Pregnancy & Maternal Mortality in Nicaragua
Katey Peck2016-02-29T22:52:27+00:00
The Price of Conflict in Honduras
© 2015 The Global Health Policy Center and The Center for Strategic and International Studies
Click here for further research by the Global Health Policy Center
This project is funded through the generous support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
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Mother’s beau named as a suspect in missing 8-month-old baby: Police
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department(INDIANAPOLIS) -- A week after an 8-month-old baby was reported missing in Indianapolis, her mother's boyfriend was named as a suspect in the newly classified "homicide investigation," police announced on Saturday.
Robert Lyons was last seen with Amiah Robertson on March 9 near Rockville Road and South Mickley Avenue. But, Amiah Robertson's mother, Amber Robertson, did not report her baby missing to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department on March 16, police said.
"We are frustrated and quite frankly angry because of misinformation and lack of information and lack of cooperation from those who are most closely involved," said Police Chief Bryan Roach in a statement before a press conference on Saturday.
Roach announced that Lyons, the boyfriend of the baby's mother, is a suspect in what has been deemed a "homicide investigation," but is not being actively sought. Amber Robertson is not a suspect and is cooperating with police.
After days of hunting for the infant and receiving conflicting statements from family members, investigators had concerns for the welfare of the baby and issued a Silver Alert on March 19.
Items found on March 20 near the bank of White River belong to Amiah, police said. The police did not specify what the items were.
Police are asking for anyone, who saw a 1996 maroon Isuzu Rodeo SUV in "poor condition," to call the police tip's hotline 317-262-TIPS.
Previous Subway restaurant customer sues franchisee after video captures alleged assault
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Daniel Gonzalo Carcur Arredondo is Chillean Psychedelic Trance artist - Ital! Known for his unique blend of full-on and atmospheric grooves, Ital has a killer new album ‘Voice of Nature’ due to be unleashed on the masses via Iono-Music on in 28th January 2019! We wanted to find out more about this fresh release from the maker himself so decided to grab Dani to tell all…
You started your music journey playing the guitar, how did this come about? Are you from a musical family; were you self-taught or did music play a big part in your school days?
Hi there, well yes...as with many Psytrance producers, I started my connection with music when I was very young. I starting playing the guitar when I was 14 years old creating a band with friends at school. We loved playing rock, punk and even some psychedelic rock music. A couple of years later when I was 16, i started to DJ all kinds of popular music at parties at the school, in many clubs and also at private parties at people's houses, so this was where I began my career as a DJ.
How did you discover electronic music, and psychedelic trance?
I discovered electronic music around 1996-1997 when some of my friends showed me some acid techno music that they had brought from international travels with their families. I'm from Chile in South America, and back in those days it was very difficult for me to get any cassettes, vinyls or CDs of electronic music, so little by little I was discovering this electronic world. One of the first electronic musicians I heard was Plastic Man, and I loved it so much that I started get into this world very soon after that.
Later in the year 2001, I got in touch with the psychedelic goa trance happening in Ecuador. There were some really good underground parties happening on the beaches in a place called Montañitas. It was here I found some German DJ playing some Goa trance tunes. Also, during that travelling period I met my friend and later my partner for our “Metatron“ Project; so that was the beginning of my life into producing Goa and later Psytrance Music.
You started off experimenting with samplers and hardware synths. Do you still use these in your studio set up today?
Yes, I started producing with Fruityloops software with an old PC computer plus some samplers and old school synthesizers; such as the Roland 303 sequencer. These days I’m still using some external hardware like the awesome Virus TI, Nord Lead 2x and MS2000 synth from Korg.
How has your sound changed over the years?
Sound is evolution, as humans we also change, all of life changes; in fact everything is impermanent, so everything is changing every day. My sound had been evolving every year, but always keeping the key essence and roots of psychedelic music. Keeping it groovy, psychedelic, atmospheric and most of all, I feel, keeping the spiritual essence of our Psytrance roots.
What inspires you and what drives you?
What makes me flow and continue on this path is the message that we need to give through the music. For me, music is a way of channelling the energy, the one we can send to our world and people. To inspire souls is part of my mission, to make their lives more connected to divinity, and music is a way to re connect our souls to the universe and its mystery. I live in the hills in Santiago de Chile, so I'm fortunately always connected to nature for the last 10 years, so this is my main inspiration, plus the love from my family, my wife and all of our friends around the world.
Your new album ‘Voice of Nature’ will be released on Iono-Music on the 28th of January 2019. Tell us about the album. Was there a concept behind it? Talk us through the tracks? What are the stand out tracks for you?
This is my 7th studio album, and I wanted to make it special, with a warm connection with many friends around the globe. I did some tracks with friends bringing energies from Brazil, England, Japan, India, Spain, Switzerland and Argentina. 6 Collaboration tracks plus 2 remixes and 1 original track from me. About the concept, I was inspired by nature, and nature is calling us with her voice to reconnect our self - to our mother, Earth. She is talking to us every day, but unfortunately often we don’t listen to the signs. This album is made specially to try to listen to our mother and her knowledge. Taking care of her in any act we do, giving our love to her and she will then feedback to us all her universal love.
What equipment did you use to make the album? What was the process? How long did it take to make?
I was around two years making all the tracks, playing them around the world and checking every single detail and sound to be in a special synchrony with the people on every dance floor. I use Logic Pro Plus as my main DAW, plus some external synthesizers. I love to create some music with my friends and give this music as a present to all of you.
Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? If so; how do you deal with this? If no, what’s your secret?
Well not really, I'm just flowing with the energy that surrounds us! Some days I am more creative and productive then others of course. Some days I'm just more relaxed and lazy, lol. Some days I don’t want to get in touch with the machines (the computers), but I do try every day to go in the studio and record at least some sounds.
What goes through your mind when you’re playing a DJ or live set?
I try to send all my inspiration and spiritual connection to the people on the dancefloor, to heal our body, mind and soul through the dance and the sounds.
What is music to you?
A way of channelling the universal energy.
What are your other passions in life?
Other things I love are working in my garden, cooking delicious meals, and being in nature, doing sport and giving love to my family, wife and friends.
What are the best parts of your career?
Having a platform to be able to give my message to the people out there.
What are the worst parts of your career?
Travelling so much and being far away from home a lot. This can be tough at times.
What advice can you give to aspiring artists?
If music is your passion, just go for it. Everything is possible, just believe in your dreams, you have to really believe.
If a film was made about your life, which actor would you choose to play you and why?
I don’t know. I love films but I'm really bad with names hahaha.
What are your hopes, dreams and wishes for the future?
To continue expanding my message through music and reconnecting humans to divinity and to our roots!
Ital - many thanks for taking the time to do this interview! Good luck with the album release X
To buy Ital’s new album from the 28th January 2019 click here:
To follow Ital on Facebook click here:
https://www.facebook.com/itallive/
To hear Ital’s music click here:
http://www.soundcloud.com/itallive
Images courtesy of Daniel Gonzalo Carcur Arredondo. Not to be reproduced without permission.
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St Mary’s Church Whitton
BURNE-JONES WINDOW
WHITTON PARISH
» Village Christmas
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St Mary's Church Whitton
When Longfellow wrote: *
“I like that ancient Saxon phrase which calls
The burial-ground God’s-Acre! It is just;
It consecrates each grave within its walls,
And breathes a benison o’er the sleeping dust.”
perhaps he had visited the churchyard of St Mary’s, Whitton. At any rate, BBC Television certainly did when they filmed several Shropshire churchyards within the Caring for God’s Acre scheme for an item which appeared in The Heaven and Earth Show on BBC One on 30th April 2006.
Churchyards are recognised as vital habitats for wild flora and fauna which are disappearing elsewhere, and since St Mary’s churchyard has always been managed as a conservation area (never having been sprayed even before it became part of the Caring for God’s Acre initiative), it is particularly rich in diversity and quantity.
The Caring for God’s Acre charity aims to encourage conservation within churchyards and the plan was for garden designer Andy Sturgeon to meet churchyard enthusiast Professor David Bellamy to discover what rarities were hiding between and on the gravestones.
On the day before filming, a BBC Producer met several of the parishioners on site to discuss the location of especially interesting flowers and plants. Mary Hislop-Winn and Tony Thompson were deputed to this task.
Click on any thumbnail to view larger picture
Filming took place on 24th April. David Bellamy not surprisingly showed an encyclopaedic knowledge of his subject, and took time to thoroughly acquaint himself with the churchyard before the BBC team arrived. He particularly admired the richness of the plant diversity, commenting that there was the potential for a programme within the parameters of one grave alone.
The BBC crew consisted of a camera-man, sound man and two on the production side; filming took over two hours (inevitably reduced in the programme to about five minutes) while Andy Sturgeon and David Bellamy moved slowly around the churchyard discussing what they found in each area. At the end, they were happy to chat, sign autographs and sign the visitors’ book in the church.
It was interesting to see just which shots of Whitton they had selected for the broadcast programme from the many hours of filming, and indeed fun to try to tell them apart since sadly none of the churchyards featured was identified. It had been good however to get the feedback and enthusiasm from the two experts David Bellamy and Andy Sturgeon. After all:
“This is the field and Acre of our God,
This is the place where human harvests grow!” *
* Extracts from God’s Acre by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807-1882
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Publisher: Kemco Released: 8.5.94
Developer: Zoom Scarcity: 4.5
Ealier in 2006, I made the grave offense of confusing G2 and R2
I was really looking forward to playing G2... I can remember the preview EGM ran on it, and the game looked like it'd be a blast to play. The Super Famicom version appears very hard to find, and although a US version was in the works, it never made it. After playing it, I can't say they made a bad decision.....
G2 is a ho-hum action scroller. There are 15 levels. I beat the game on my first try in 40 minutes. You go through short levels, killing everything (hence the full name GENOCIDE 2... on a side note the US release was called Generations 2) but it's just oh so DULL. There's no variety to it, the controls are cumbersome and the graphics and sound very bland. If you ever seen the GAMERA monster films of Japan, the death cries of the enemies in G2 sound exactly like the screams belonging to the villain GYAOS
Gyaos' 1967 old school vs. his 1995 new school revival
But back to our friend, G2...
To me this game has a few problems. For starters, the levels are production line (a term to describe a job done without care or love). You simply go right, hack and hack (the special weapons aren't worth mentioning much either) and proceed to next level and repeat. It's more shallow than a slip-and-slide. OK, that was a little harsh... but it's true
So if the level design blows, you'd hope for at least interesting boss designs and battles, right? Not here, either. The bosses lack the same kind of oomph! as the generic levels do
The game seems very hard to
find. Quite frankly, it's not worth
the effort. I do know a few people
who enjoyed this SFC port, but I
really couldn't look past its flaws.
The concept sounds great. Control
a 20 foot tall ass-kicking machine
of destruction, but for me it just
never went anywhere past
I know I've been (exceptionally) hard on G2 thus far, but it's not total crap. It's better than a lot of junk out there
But what's worse than an average game besides a bad game?
An average game that, by all admissions, should have been very good
G2 gets a pedestrian 5.5/10, and I'm being nice. It should have been leagues better, LEAGUES. Proceed with caution
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About User Experience Magazine
Select a page Select a page... id="menu-item-15">Home id="menu-item-1768">Past Issues id="menu-item-2447">Book Reviews id="menu-item-1081">About User Experience Magazine id="menu-item-5885">UXPA
The Magazine of the User Experience Professionals Association
Stop Admiring the Problem: Getting Traction with Your Content Strategy
How do you define content strategy? If you Google “content strategy definition,” you see lots of conflicting information about what the term means, even among prominent content strategists. The fact is that there probably isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to content strategy. What works at one company may not be relevant at another.
Figure 1. Which definition of content strategy works best for you?
When I joined AT&T in 2010, we struggled for months to define what a content strategy was. We held meeting after meeting trying to pin down a definition that pleased everyone. Much hand-wringing and chin-scratching ensued.
I decided the simplest approach was to go with the simplest definition. Kristina Halvorson, one of the pioneers of the content strategy movement, once wrote that content strategy is essentially content planning, or not treating content as an afterthought. Most of the time at the large corporations in which I’ve worked, working on projects first involves mapping out an experience based on business requirements and what IT can support, then garnishing that experience with piecemeal content: a product description here, a headline there; intro copy for one page, a button label for another. Done and done.
The problem with that approach is that it creates a disjointed narrative that’s not really focused on dealing with real customer needs. So how do you know what your customers really need? How can you be sure your content is prioritized appropriately? How do you know how much content is too much, and how much isn’t enough? Our organization had always addressed design from a customer perspective. Now it was time to focus on how to use content strategy to enrich our content and make it more customer-centric.
Initially, I boiled “content strategy” at AT&T down to a few simple questions:
What is the business goal?
What is the problem or issue we are trying to address?
What data or research is available to support this effort?
Who will use this content?
How will users access the content?
What is the lifespan of this content?
I’ve had spirited discussions with other content strategists about how wrong-headed they think my approach is. The basic argument against it is that you should have all the proper elements––planning, creation, implementation, and governance––in place before even beginning. I’ve found that doesn’t have to be the case.
It’s a challenge to put some grand content plan into place at any company, much less one the size of AT&T which has roughly 300,000 employees. Introducing new processes is a cultural challenge, especially when people do not understand why it’s being introduced. Therefore, I had to show the merits of planning for content, one project at a time.
Are You (User) Experienced?
AT&T’s Digital Design & User Experience organization is unique in that we focus almost exclusively on improving the digital customer experience. That is, we use data and customer feedback to inform our information architecture and design so that it’s easy for customers to complete tasks. Our job is less about making the sale than it is making it easy for customers to come to our mobile or desktop sites and find the information they need quickly––whether it’s sales, servicing their account, or seeking support.
In my first couple of years at AT&T, I was frequently asked to “do a content strategy” for a project that was already in flight with a deadline quickly looming. Though I knew in those situations that a real strategy was out of the question, I nonetheless proceeded to ask questions: Who was the primary audience? What was the problem we were trying to solve? What research was available? And so forth. Many times there were no solid answers, but those questions did help build credibility for being proactive rather than reactive about content.
After a couple of years of working on minor efforts, I finally got my first real opportunity to lead a full-blown strategic content effort in February 2013. I was asked to help improve the global navigation for both our mobile and desktop experiences. The business goal was to make it easier for online customers to locate and complete the top 44 call drivers (the reasons people call customer service), for example arranging a late payment or enrolling in paperless billing. This effort concentrated only on customers that log in to our website, not those who are merely shopping or seeking support.
Using Research to Inform Content Design Decisions
We wanted to use heavy user research to determine how we should incorporate these 44 tasks into a navigation that was already very crowded, and we wanted to do this for our mobile and desktop experiences. We also wanted to use data and customer feedback to reduce the amount of guesswork that in the past had resulted in a bloated and confusing navigation.
Grouping tasks
We started with a card-sort exercise which involved writing down all 44 tasks on note cards and asking participants to group them in a way that they thought would be appropriate. Next, we asked them to label those groups and offer any suggestions on task wording. For example, when customers call a representative to ask about paying late or paying in installments, the call center reps refer to that internally as a “payment arrangement,” a term that did not resonate very well with online customers.
We reviewed the card sorting results and saw pretty clear patterns emerge around what tasks should be grouped together, as well as what those groups should be called and what the labels should be. The findings informed a basic taxonomy, but we were far from done. We needed to test that taxonomy to see if it provided a clear path to task completion.
Getting the taxonomy right
The next step was a tree study that used a low-fidelity tool that users click on to find various tasks (see Figure 2). A tree test focuses only on taxonomy––in this case whether the organization and labeling of our global navigation links made sense to customers. Participants click the areas they think will lead them closer to task completion and then click a button labeled “I’d find it here” when they are finished.
Figure 2. This expanded view of a tree study shows how test participants drill down into the categories to find specific tasks.
This exercise allowed customers tell us how they thought our navigation should be organized, instead of forcing them to use a taxonomy we created internally. It helped us prioritize the tasks customers were struggling to find and to eliminate the guesswork around labels and organization by utilizing user-centered design. Now it was time to validate this taxonomy with a usability test.
Validating the taxonomy: Mobile first
We wanted to make this a mobile-first effort, so we tested it on a mobile device first. We had 12 participants visit our usability lab in Middletown, NJ over four days in the spring of 2013.
We asked users where they would click to complete 20 of the top 44 call-driver tasks. We observed their behaviors and asked questions about their decisions. As expected, some tasks were easy to complete, others were failed miserably. But the feedback we received gave us strong insight into how to regroup and relabel certain links to at least minimize confusion. Once we felt confident that our customer-driven global navigation was strong enough to launch for our mobile experience, it was time to focus on the desktop version.
Since our mobile navigation was streamlined before we added the call drivers, we were not concerned that the new links would overcrowd it. We would have to remove links and rename column headers to align with the mobile experience, but we knew we would need solid rationale behind our decisions.
Figure 3. An example of a global navigation tray, this one showing the links under TV in the Shop section.
Usage data: Which links are being used?
We turned to click data to evaluate which global navigation links were being underused. Click data in and of itself doesn’t usually paint a complete picture, but in this case it told us which links weren’t being used very often. Within each navigation tray, we found the same basic pattern: a few links were heavily used while the rest went largely ignored.
Most of the product owners of the links we removed weren’t thrilled with our decisions, but it was difficult to refute the facts. In most cases we ensured customers still had access to those links in more contextual locations outside of our global navigation. For example, the link for Payment Options––which explains the various methods and locations available for paying your AT&T bill––was relocated to the Make a Payment page.
Design cleanup
Removing extraneous links opened up the global navigation so that we could find room for the top call drivers. But we didn’t stop there. We frequently hear customers talk about having “too much stuff” on our pages, which makes things harder to find. Since our overall focus was on improving the experience, we noticed that the global navigation was still untidy. For example, prior to July 2013 if you had only cell phone service with AT&T you would see “Internet” and “Home Phone” in the global navigation options for Digital TV. If you clicked on those links, you would be taken to a page that said you didn’t have the service, and it provided links to pages where you could shop and sign up for service.
We contacted the prior global navigation owners and discovered that those sections were included for everyone for consistency with the Shop section of the global navigation, which also has those sections (although unlike the ones in the myAT&T section, they link directly to pages where customers can shop and sign up). In our quest to simplify the experience, we requested six months of click data for all the links in the secondary section of the global navigation (the white bar) for wireless-only customers.
Figure 4. We used click data to justify removing underused links from the global navigation. A group of six links represent only 3% of all clicks
As you can see in Figure 4, the links for Apps, Att.net, Digital TV, Home Phone, Internet, and Messages & Email, made up less than 3% of all the clicks in that section of the navigation. So for wireless-only customers, who make up the bulk of our customer base, those links were unnecessary. Once we removed those links (see Figure 5), the global navigation bar was far more streamlined and customer-focused.
Figure 5. The before and after views of the global navigation for wireless customers once we removed underused links. The final menu under MyAT&T contains only fivelinks: Overview, Billing & Usage, Wireless Services, Profile, and My Orders.
Finally, we reworded the column headers to align better with our mobile navigation and used the test results to place new links in the appropriate locations. We knew there would never be an exact 1:1 match, but the goal was to ensure that the content was consistent with our mobile navigation. As you can see in Figure 6, for the most part we succeeded.
Figure 6. We aligned the categories in the mobile navigation (right) with the categories in the desktop experience (bottom).
Measuring Success through Remote Validation and Stakeholder Feedback
Measuring the success of a global navigation update is tricky. Click volume shows us which links are being used most, but it doesn’t guarantee that customers like the experience once they click. We can see drop-off rates and completion rates, but those don’t always reflect the overall effectiveness of the global navigation.
A couple of months after launching the new navigation, we asked 218 test participants to log in to their AT&T accounts and try to complete a series of tasks while we monitored them remotely. For the most part, findability was unchanged for tasks that had been part of the global navigation prior to the overhaul. The new tasks rated roughly the same as the prior tasks. But for some of the key call driver tasks we saw success rates between 9-12% over a previous study. This let us know our taxonomy was pretty solid, though we continued to make adjustments to labels and groupings as we acquired additional data over the next couple of years.
Within hours after launching the new global navigation, there were dozens of requests from business stakeholders to make changes to it. To manage the requests, an information architect and a website producer were assigned to help me vet the requests. We set up meetings twice a week to review the job tickets and either approve or reject them, or, more commonly, ask for data to support the request. Since some of the tickets involved the content implementation team, we invited a couple of implementers to our weekly calls. Some business stakeholders asked to be included as well, as did the creators of our support articles. Within a few months we had a comprehensive global navigation governance committee. Because we open the meetings to anyone who wants to attend, the committee has largely been positively embraced.
The interesting thing is that a few years earlier we discussed how to create a content governance committee; since no one could agree on who should be involved we ended up not creating one. In the end, the global navigation committee was created out of a real need to ensure adherence to our strategy; it literally created itself.
My initial approach to content strategy––asking questions prior to content creation––had been effective enough to grant me a shot at working on our global navigation, a project that has garnered a lot of attention throughout the AT&T business community. We started with the business objective of working the top call drivers into the navigation, and used customer feedback to drive the organization and labeling. We continually tested that feedback to ensure we were on the right path. We validated our findings after the launch with a remote usability study, and we now govern this global navigation content in weekly meetings. Much like the customer-centered design approach we have used for years, we’re now applying a similar methodology to the creation of content.
Because more people see the value of customer-centric content strategy, I’m continually being engaged in more and more projects. Rarely am I asked to “do a content strategy” for an in-flight project. Instead, I utilize research and testing to ensure that our content decisions resonate with customers and help improve our digital experience.
Our global navigation will no doubt continue to evolve and change, and the hope is the effort we worked on in 2013 will serve as a framework for how that evolution should occur.
It took a few years to build a viable content strategy discipline, and we still have a long way to go, but I truly sense excitement around how content strategy can be an effective way of driving a positive customer experience at AT&T. If I had waited for all the elements to be in place before starting, well…I would still be waiting. My advice is to get started now. Use research and testing to keep your customers top-of-mind, and leverage little victories to get traction and build credibility for your strategic approach.
Topics: Management, Content & Content Strategy
Published in: February, 2016 in Content Strategy
Turner, K. (2016). Stop Admiring the Problem: Getting Traction with Your Content Strategy. User Experience Magazine, 16(1).
Retrieved from http://uxpamagazine.org/stop-admiring-the-problem/
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Plutonium Futures - "The Science" - 2010
Keystone, CO Keystone Resort & Conference Center September 19-23, 2010
David L. Clark (Laboratory Fellow, Los Alamos National Laboratory)
Michael J. Fluss (Senior Scientist, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)
Gordon D. Jarvinen (Acting Director, Los Alamos National Laboratory)
David Hobart (Project Manager, Los Alamos National Laboratory)
Susan M. Ramsay (Professional Staff Assistant, Los Alamos National Laboratory)
Honorary Chairs:
Michael Anastasio (Director, Los Alamos National Laboratory)
Siegried S. Hecker (Senior Fellow, Stanford University)
Gerard H. Lander (Senior Scientist, Institut Laue-Langevin, France)
Pre-registration is closed. Please register on site.
Hotel Reservation Form
Last updated September 15, 2010, 5:04pm CDT.
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AirAsia x Rags2Riches: Empowering Artisans
Back in October 2013, I was given the privilege by AirAsia to be flown to Manila and watch behind the scenes work of one of AirAsia Foundation's funded project, a very unique & eco-centric community based project aptly named Rags2Riches.
Rags2Riches Inc. is a for-profit social enterprise based in Manila, Philippines, creating eco-ethical fashion and home accessories out of up cycled scrap cloth, organic materials and indigenous fabrics by working with artisans (mostly women) living in the poor communities across Philippines. Rags2Riches’ philosophy stands upon its four bottom lines: People, Profit, Planet and Positive Influence.
The eco-ethical business model originated in 2007 in Payatas, one of the Philippines’ largest dumpsites and home to half a million people. An informal cottage industry of rug-weavers grew from the many women who developed a means to earn a living by scavenging the waste to find and recycle scrap pieces of fabric so that they could participate in handicraft production like rug and rag weaving, while taking care of their children at home. Over time, the industry became exploited by a series of middlemen who controlled both the supply of scrap fabric and the women’s access to the market, which created an unfair value chain for the women who at the end of the day earned only pennies per finished product or less than .20 cents USD per day.
Rags2Riches Inc. was created to provide these artisans with fair access to the market and the formal economy, as well as with additional skills-based, financial and health training so that they can maximize their career potential and take steps towards long-term financial and personal well-being.
In 2013, AirAsia Foundation provided a social grant of USD13,275 to Rags2Riches Inc. to grow its business. The grant has covered:
♥ An orientation session facilitated by Rags2Riches Inc. artisans to new artisans communities.
♥ A workshop to develop current skills and materials of artisan communities so that the new artisans are able to produce high-quality products that can be sold through Rags2Riches and AirAsia's distribution networks.
♥ Integrated training which includes programmes on nutrition and healthcare, and life skills such as financial management.
♥ Opportunity to link up Rags2Riches artisans network and earn regular income as a Rags2Riches weaver.
♥ A field visit to another artisan group for joint product collaboration.
With that, in return artisans will have the opportunity to upgrade their skills and gain access to marker which will raise their income earning potential and create opportunities for improvement in their standard of living.
AirAsia Foundation was registered on 15th March 2012 and it's missions are:
♥ To share AirAsia ethos of entrepreneurship, equal opportunity & innovation.
♥ To empower communities through social entrepreneurship.
SOCIAL ENTERPRISE AWARDS:
AirAsia Foundation aims to promote the use of entrepreneurial thinking to address social challenges so that we empower communities and build sustainable livelihoods. Social enterprises are businesses that exist primarily to achieve social goals such as reducing poverty, creating jobs for the underprivileged and preserving traditional skills. What distinguishes social enterprises from 'normal' business is they typically invest their profits into community projects to fulfil their social goals.
AirAsia Foundation nurtures budding or growing social enterprises such as Rags2Riches Inc. through the following means:
♥ Seed funding to new enterprises.
♥ Funding to help existing social enterprises expand their business.
Mentorship by AirAsia Foundation Trustees or relevant industry advisers.
♥ In-kind support through AirAsia channels including AirAsia Megastore, Travel3Sixty Magazine, Social Media Sites.
For more info visit AIRASIAFOUNDATION .COM / FACEBOOK.COM/AIRASIAFOUNDATION
R2R integrated a design solution by partnering with well-known influential fashion designers like Rajo Laurel, Amina Aranaz-Alunan, Olivia d’Aboville and Oliver Tolentino turning scrap materials into fashion handbags. After four years, R2R has already trained 800 artisans across 21 communities in the Metro Manila area and continues to expand its social impact and eco-ethical footprint in the country.
RIIR's PHILOSOPHY: ♥ RIIR is creating a stylish social statement. ♥ Through bringing together the best design minds of the world and artisanal hands from all over the 7,107 islands of the Philippines, RIIR creates fashion and home accessories that integrate conscientious design, artisanal skills, and inspiring stories. ♥ The RIIR partner artisans come from all over the Philippines – from the densely populated communities of the capital to the mountain range tribes of the South. RIIR is a life and livelihood partner for these artisans as they strive to weave better futures for their families and communities. ♥ RIIR believes that each person who touches the product, from raw materials to finished masterpieces, must be dignified, empowered, and enriched. ♥ RIIR pieces fuse timeless silhouettes with a selection of traditional and contemporary artisanal techniques. Each piece illustrates the tactile richness of different handmade textures as well as the artful interpretations of the lives and values of the artisans. ♥ RIIR products are created for those who seek great design and are equally captivated and inspired by the stories they tell.
At our visit with the AirAsia & media team to RIIR San Juan Facility, we were honoured to be in the presence of young leading social-entrepreneur Reese Fernandez-Ruiz, the lady who kick-started Rags2Riches Inc at the aim of helping mothers at Payatas, Philippines. She shared with us her story, empathy and vision for RIIR and needless to say after listening to her we were all captivated and enormously inspired by her passion and stand throughout the whole brand.
RIIR has not only successfully empowered local artisans through skills, but also manage to create a standard relationship with everyone that they are working with. At product launches, artisans get to mingle along with all the designers and celebrities who are connected to RIIR and in this case there is no such thing as double standard, everyone is equal and honored of their good work towards the brand. Through open-mindedness such as this, local artisans who were once timid and felt low self-esteem about themselves feels empowered especially when people from all kinds of background appreciates and praises their handy work. What was once something that has never crossed their mind is now within grasp and has become a reality, often times there are middle people who takes advantage over artisans and pay them measly wages but in RIIR there is no such thing, every single thing is transparent and clear. RIIR even helps these local artisan communities to open up bank accounts so that they can see their savings and save for the future that was once gleam.
RIIR are not only sold in Philippines and on board AirAsia but also in the US & UK at the famous online store ANTHROPOLOGIE
Featured in VOGUE UK
Received multiple awards in 2013, but best of all I personally love their stand about these awards:
It was such an honor to be able to talk with this inspiring team and social entrepreneur brand that has the people of their land in their heart and on their sleeves. Thank you so much AirAsia for the opportunity ♥
Show Rags2Riches Inc your love, they ship worldwide! shop: http://rags2riches.ph/shop-online/ blog: http://rags2riches.ph/blog facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Rags2RichesInc instagram : http://instagram.com/rags2richesinc
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Aneesh Sheth
Print/Misc
#AchievementUnlocked
On December 10, 2014 I wrote about my experiences booking Around the World in 80 Days. For me, it was an amazing feeling to book a role that was not only a pipe dream, but that would gain me more experience in the field I was dedicating my life to. More experience would only lead to more opportunities.
I was also happy that I was cast in the only play in Village Theatre’s season, still trying to reckon my own fears and anxiety about my body dysmorphia with the way I presented myself as a musical theatre artist. Sure, I have some pretty great pipes that have gotten me some great work, as a man. But how was I going to start to feel comfortable looking at myself in my truest form, as I am now, and hear this classically trained bari-tenor voice come out? Looking at myself in the mirror only caused more anxiety. But I found solace in the compliments of my peers, assuring me that people think I have a great voice and never question ‘it’s gender’. Still, I had resigned myself to never finding a place as a trans actress in musical theatre.
Today, there are no words to describe the feelings I am feeling; to express the immense joy and reconciliation within myself, from booking my latest gig. I am humbled and honored to join the company of Southern Comfort, the Public Theater’s new musical work.
(Look, Ma! I’m in the New York Times!!!)
From the Public Theater website:
Based on Kate Davis’ 2001 Sundance Award-winning documentary, SOUTHERN COMFORT tells the true story of a group of transgender friends living life on their own terms in the back hills of rural Georgia. Winner of the prestigious Jonathan Larson Award, this folk and bluegrass inspired musical is a celebration of redefining family and choosing love over every obstacle. Tony-winning lyricist/composer of Falsettos William Finn calls SOUTHERN COMFORT, “remarkable,” with a score that “mines the country’s heart, and unveils, along its way, surprising pathways to a new world.”
Book and Lyrics by Dan Collins
Music by Julianne Wick Davis
Choreography by Ryan Kasprzak
Directed by Thomas Caruso
Based on the Film by Kate Davis
Conceived for the stage by Robert DuSold and Thomas Caruso
Featuring Donnie Cianciotto, Lizzie Hagstedt,Jeffrey Kuhn, Elizabeth Ward Land, David M. Lutken, Jeff McCarthy, Morgan Morse,Annette O'Toole, Aneesh Sheth, Robin Skye, and Joel Waggoner
Musings of an Actress, who happens to be trans
I am an actor. I am a singer. I also happen to be transgender. And that is one crazy journey, especially in show business.
INDUSTRY ENTERTAINMENT, Kyle Luker
kylel@industryentertainment.com
ABRAMS ARTISTS AGENCY, Danielle DeLawder
delawder.assistant@abramsartistsagency.com
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My Career, Aspiration and Employment
At The Abbey School students follow a careers curriculum that is broad, inclusive and tailored to the needs of every student. Its aim is to inspire and enable all students to make informed decisions about their future.
Careers is delivered through a range of form time activities, assemblies, workshops and external visits. Subject-specific careers information and activities will be delivered through the appropriate curriculum areas throughout the year and in our “Careers Week”. Students also experience support from one of our ‘business mentors’ and receive an interview with a CXK advisor. Opportunities for students to participate in activities by external providers have been built into the careers programme. This will ensure that opportunities available for students suit their personal and academic needs.
At The Abbey School, our Careers Leader works with a team of dedicated professions within the school, the community and an Enterprise Network advisor to provide students with the information, advice and guidance that is key to them making informed choices about their future. This journey begins in Year 7 and is an integral part of their learning throughout their time at the Abbey School.
We have great careers resources available to all of our students. These include;
A dedicated Careers Hub, displaying information on careers and college/university prospectuses.
Upper school students all receive an interview with our CXK Adviser who provides impartial advice to our students.
The ‘Business Mentors’ (parents and local employers) provide bespoke opportunities and advice to our Year 9 –Year 13 students.
Our dedicated Business and Work Experience Co-ordinator supports and organises bespoke opportunities for our students.
The universities of Kent and Christ Church support careers curriculum delivery through a published programme of Aim Higher activities
My Post 14 Choices
During Year 8 students make their option choices for GCSE and BTEC courses.
Mrs Lucas oversees the Options process for all students in the year to ensure students choose and follow the most appropriate courses. During our Options Evening, students have the opportunity to ask questions to subject specialist staff about the qualification and potential career routes. This is a lengthy operation and it is helpful if parents discuss their child’s options prior to choices being made (including a range of skills and interests that perhaps link to future employment or study) so that every student’s choice along their career path are as broad as possible.
During Year 11 students are supported in making their choices for future study.
With the change in law and the raising of the Participation Age to 18, all students must remain in some form of education or training up to the age of 18. As a school we would encourage as many students as possible to remain and study in our Sixth form as well as accessing courses from The Queen Elizabeth Grammar School. This is dependent on the grades they achieve. Moving on to Sixth form or College means you are at the start of Further Education.
Students will need to consider their post-16 choices very carefully. They need to be aware that the subjects they choose at this time could have an effect on the courses they can choose to study at 18. UCAS (the Universities Clearing and Admissions Service) offers students an advice portal to support them in their post-16 decision-making.
UCAS - After GCSES
For information on post-16 courses please refer to the Sixth Form prospectus.
Higher Education (18+) is for students who have an interest in attending University or college to follow an undergraduate degree course or diploma.
The online portal to Higher Education in the UK is UCAS.
Students can search the range of courses delivered at University easily through their search tool. Students can look for a subject they want to study at Degree level or by location (the University they want to attend).
Search UCAS
Not Going To Uni
A number of our students may choose not to attend University but to follow other routes in their career. The KS5 Student Support Manager organises a range of local apprenticeship events that students can access during their time in the Sixth Form.
Not Going To Uni is a website offering information on apprenticeships and other forms of education (alongside other opportunities) available to those students who choose not to move onto Higher Education). The website allows students to search for apprenticeships at Intermediate, Higher and Advanced levels within all employment sectors. Students can also search freely within the website or look into the Advice Centre / Be Inspired tabs to find a variety of activities they might not have previously considered.
Websites for further careers information
Careers Box
Careers Films on the WebStart
Start is a free and comprehensive digital platform, offering schools and colleges a single starting point to help simplify and improve careers guidance in schools
Where the Work Is
This interactive tool enables users to explore demand for particular occupations and the potential salary benefits and likely levels of competition for these positions.
Careerometer 2 Widget
icould
icould is an online charity providing career ideas and information for young people.
Entitlement Statement
As a school, we have a statutory duty to provide students in Years 8 to 13 with careers education, information, advice and guidance. This is extended in the Abbey School to include Year 7.
Guidance takes place through a multitude of opportunities including (but not exhaustive) during tutor led PSHE, through small group talks, careers fairs, employer visits and with one to one interviews.
You are entitled to:
clear advice and information about ALL the options available, so that you understand what they involve
support and guidance to help you make choices and complete a career plan for the future
regular personal support on information on how well you are doing
help to decide what to do when you leave, including further learning, training and employment
a programme of careers education helping you develop skills and knowledge to make choices and to be successful in the transition to work and learning
an opportunity to set out an individual learning plan, and
an opportunity to learn about the world of work
Careers Hub Visit and Talk
Stem Challenge Day
Enterprise Workshops
Careers Fair (organised by Year 12)
Faversham Creek Trust Visit
Army Teamwork and Careers Day
PSHE Form Time
Upper School Pathways Event
Employability Skills Talk
Year 8 Options and Careers Guidance
STEM Careers Fair
Kent Police Careers Talk
Forensic Career Day
Post 16 Information Evening
Careers Fair (organised by Year 12) Work Experience
Apprenticeship assemblies
Applying for Jobs/CV Writing Workshop
One-to-one careers advise CXK
Apprenticeship Show
PSHE Careers Skills
E-mentoring
Finance Business Mentoring
UK University and Apprenticeship Search Fai
Provider Access Statement
The Abbey School Provider Access Policy
This policy statement sets out the school’s arrangements for managing the access of providers to pupils at the school for the purpose of giving them information about the provider’s education or training offer. This complies with the school’s legal obligations under Section 42B of the Education Act 1997.
Pupil entitlement
All pupils in years 8 – 13 are entitled:
to find out about technical education qualifications and apprenticeships opportunities, as part of a careers programme which provides information on the full range of education and training options available at each transition point;
to hear from a range of local providers about the opportunities they offer, including technical education and apprenticeships – through options events, assemblies and group discussions as well as taster events;
to understand how to make applications for the full range of academic and technical courses.
Management of provider access requests
A provider wishing to request access should contact Mrs S Priestly (job title) Telephone: 01795 532633 Email: spriestley@abbeyschoolfaversham.co.uk
Opportunities for access
A number of events, integrated into the school careers programme and calendar, will offer providers an opportunity to come into school to speak to pupils and / or their parents / carers. This can take the form of assemblies, lesson visits or special events throughout the year.
Please speak to our Careers Leader (Mr Forrest) to identify the most suitable opportunity for you.
Premises and facilities
The school will make spaces available for discussions between the provider and students, as appropriate to the activity. The school will also make available specialist equipment (as far as is reasonably possible) to support provider presentations. These will be discussed and agreed in advance of the visit with the Careers Leader (Mr Forrest).
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Jennifer Harrison: Folly&Grief
Posted on 1 February 2007 by Martin Duwell
Melbourne: Black Pepper, 2006, 133pp.
One of the features of Jennifer Harrison’s work is the way that the themes are consistent and the styles change. Folly&Grief is, quite simply, a brilliant book. To get a sense of what it is doing and where it is positioned, though, it is more than helpful to look at her previous work. Her first book, Michelangelo’s Prisoners (published in 1994), began with a group of poems about the body which position the author both as external analyser and participant ; that is as body-owner.
The first poem, “Imaging the Brain”, looks at that unknowable entity in terms of the traces it leaves, one of which is the very poem we are reading:
The scan declares a brain is free
Of tumour or haemorrhage
But doesn’t comment on the mind’s possibility.
Idle, industrious, the faint white streamers
Which streak the filmy cortex
Must be sentences.
Other poems (such as “Cancer Poem”, “Chemotherapy”, “Outrider” and the title poem) seem based on a personal experience of the body going wrong and so have a less-removed, occasionally nightmarish quality. Nevertheless they are still defiantly analytical in mode.
The second section of Michelangelo’s Prisoners is called “The Sea”. Here, especially in the last poems, it foreshadows the next book, Cabramatta/Cudmirrah. The central poem of this section is a sequence of seven sonnets called “Maturana Songs”. It is central because the biologist/epistemologist figure which it celebrates provides a philosophy which seems to underpin much of Harrison’s work. Since Maturana’s work gravitates towards the image of “drift” for the way in which human and non-human systems inhabit an environment, we can expect that seas in Harrison’s work will never be simply seas. Insofar as the sea is opposed to the body then it does inevitably symbolize the mind but the conventionality of this image (with its attendant symbols of fishing, drifting etc) is complicated by the addition of the idea that it also represents the medium that we inhabit and never control.
If each observation is a system
each thought an adaptation, then we drift
upon a spacious sea.
Slippery meanings flash through weeds . . . . .
So the sea poems at the end of Michelangelo’s Prisoners, like those in Cabramatta/Cudmirah, have a decidedly equivocal quality: they describe a medium which can represent the brain, the house of memories and creativity, but which can also represent a kind of primal medium out of which observers produce what they imagine to be solid “objects” and experiences but which don’t in fact have any “objective” status though they do serve to obscure the fact that they have been created. It recalls Tarkovsky’s Solaris though that wonderful film never appears in any Harrison poem that I know. To put it mildly, a lot of things are happening when this poet goes down to the sea.
Cabramatta/Cudmirah is a book of memories: the titular suburb and coastal town being the twin poles of the poet’s upbringing. But memory for Harrison is far more than the re-creation of old, loved places. The first section is obsessed by fast travel and roads, symbols of the passage of time, and makes no bones about its interest in the very act of observation:
but this isn’t how you remember it
now that the highway by-passes
everything that is ordinary
you see only the ordinary invisibility of speed
you are unsure which cows
are trees, which trees are people
the anabolic blur flattens the lot
until you are driving fast into your own history
and digging deep into the eye within
which is the only place you see it
The second section takes us back to the sea which is looked at through all the possible symbolic filters. It is the medium, it is also process, the natural world, the unconscious mind, the meaning-laden underside of a poem, and all human bodily fluids. There are two major human figures: a wise gypsy and a grandmother. Since the latter is suffering from Alzheimers she is a place where memory is slipping into the dark and her character is the reverse of the poet who pulls memories into the poems. Poetry is always responsive to this central human dilemma: the almost infinite details of life (the exact call of the local currawongs outside my study as I write this, for example) slip continuously into the irretrievable. Those things that are retrieved – chance items in a vast shipwreck – can be fixed in a poem but they do no more than remind us of the enormity of what has been lost. At any rate, one of poetry’s functions is to be aware of its power to fix: as Yeats says in “Easter 1916”, “I write it out in a verse” and that poem celebrates poetry’s transforming power while seeming to record a transformation wrought by political commitment. One of Harrison’s poems, “Thermocline”, sets up a three-layered sea. There is the surface (the world of phenomena), the deep ocean (the world of forgetting), and between them the thermocline where memories are preserved and have an influence on the waves and currents of the surface. It seems schematic but it is a good poem:
Lying between the eye’s horizon
and the eye’s blindness
the thermocline hoards memories that do not fade
for without light, without heat
the sea would be an infinite homogenous
forgetting.
Cudmirrah Shoalhaven Swan Lake Ulladulla.
Waves are never one colour -
they inhabit space not place -
they’re in the sea’s lung
then they’re out in the open
mouthing the smoke of Bherwherre -
then they curve to the shore
taking the ship’s dog with them.
Girls lie nearby
rubbing hot-noonday suns
into their skin’s cool echo.
I must think of the wave as a diary.
Scarcely daring to read
what I have written the day before
in case I edit what I mean.
There are enough surprises here to overcome the schematic quality. I like the unexpected ending and I really like the listing of the towns in the middle – it is as though a list will re-establish the power of the poem to fix particulars. Another poem, “Sea Eagles”, seems to suggest that a list of remembered items can have an incantatory quality as though each object became sacred:
See grandmother - we
are recording the swimmer
the cry, the unexplored X, coloured red
meaning this is where
we will go without finding
the village of strange implements and boasts.
There is a way of touching the dreams of another
of calling when you have no voice.
We make a tower from sticks
and hang it with feathers, funeral stones
rubber thongs, whelks, a wind-chime.
There is a lot that is relevant to Folly&Grief in that image.
Poets develop and change in their own ways and are not required to please their readers, but it is hard not to think of Dear B as a disappointing book. The bulk of the poems seem extremely gnomic and don’t – unlike the poems of the first two books – suggest approaches that a reader might take. What are we to make, for example, of “Husk”?
Your nervous heart insists
that lightness makes sense of grace
that boneless time weighs the seed and
spills its morse as choreography
now prisoner stammering
in the breathless crevice - fly fly
across flagstones: smooth
tumbling brief - pinned now
to the ragged branch
you disappear longing to see.
Yes it is about the seed which carries its plant’s DNA across cracks in stone and paving and ends up in a tree and it is also about the heart’s desire to approve of the weightlessness of the seed but it is hard to determine the poet’s stake in all this: what makes it a necessary poem instead of a merely incidental one. The same could be said of the bulk of the poems in the book although occasionally, in poems like “Local Astronomy” and “A Serious Case”, familiar themes (memory, system-identity) push through. And the poems are not necessarily bad. Everything I have said in a way applies to “Out of Body Experience” which is, in its own way, a tour de force:
Last night I lay above myself in the dark
looking down upon a stranger beside him.
Momentarily, in the moonlight, she was that person
I am no more, the one seen from far away
who cannot be regained or changed
and whom the dawn will not unite.
The two women who lie awake beside him
cannot speak or touch each other.
One is made of earth and blood, the other
of air and moon-frost. All the night between them
is past and future night
so that everything I have done, everything she watches
becomes a memory, now passing
as I sleep and wake outside her, inside myself, beside him.
The brilliant opening works by quickly and unexpectedly introducing a third person as a kind of marker point so that the spectral self looks down on “a stranger beside him”. But even this poem despite its personal theme has an impersonal quality, almost as though its ideal housing would be some kind of anthology where poems don’t need to be read through their individual author’s obsessions and thematic and stylistic quirks.
And so to Folly&Grief. At the simplest level we can see that, like the first two books it is in two parts. It is also a long book, each of the parts being as long as a conventional book of poetry. Each section ends with a diary-like poem that represents something that is, as far as I can see, new in Harrison’s work – though Dear B does contain a diary section in one of its longer sequences. But the overwhelming impression that a first reading of Folly&Grief makes is of the almost all-encompassing symbolic set-up built around commedia dell’arte, mime, clowning and funambulism. You can get the wrong initial impression – as I did – that this is a kind of got-up research project that a poet might put to an arts-funding body: promising to write a sequence about the circus world. In fact the obsessions of the earlier books are here and the magic of Folly&Grief is that these obsessions find a natural, logical home in the world of the clown and the mime. In fact the nature of these obsessions becomes so much clearer when they are opened out, so to speak, into a different symbolic realm.
When discussing the earlier books, I have already spoken about the features of memory and the way a poem can fix them. Sometimes these memories actually are embedded in objects inherited and kept. It is no accident that the word “heirloom” occurs so frequently in Harrison’s poetry. We meet these pregnant objects in the first poem of Folly&Grief, “Funambulist”.
Coins fill the busker’s hat;
it’s true, a thief will steal from the blind.
Satellites spin delicate journeys
in the woods above.Space
the guestroom we never had.
Malleable, down below,
in the mute neon between streets,
we’ve touched only the details of maps.
Believing ourselves beamed upon,
we script new mercy themes
and here are the things I carry:
a silver bell, a desk, a lock of hair,
some laurel flowers, a lantern,
a bonbonniere, three scarves,
a black cat, a peacock, a box of rain,
a streak of lightning,
a ladder, a pipe, a coffin, a fan,
a pumpkin, a skull, a book of law.
Believing myself beamed upon,
I carry one clap of thunder, some shrimps
and a globe, a bag of nails, a carton of crème,
a rolypoly of doves.
I carry the city, the cleft mirror,
the faked fight of the fist on the drum.
Part of the magic of this initially strange poem is its movement into list. Instead of fixing one item by focusing on it, it provides a list which suggests the infinite number of possible items for the character to carry and, at the same time, takes over the poem: a really fascinating structure. The list itself is an abbreviated version of the one provided in Kay Dick’s history, Pierrot, as an account of the property of the greatest of the Pierrots, Gaspard Deburau, who flourished in Paris in the first half of the nineteenth century.
It is tempting to look back to the idealist position of Maturana and to begin to make symbolic connections. If the world of objects is essentially illusory then what better expression of this could be found than the world of fixed-role comedians and, above all, mime. I think it would be reductive to see this as the essential principle behind the poems of the book but at the least it can be said that the circus world is one whose thematic possibilities chime well with poet’s obsessions. “Ringmaster”, for example, is the monologue of a character reluctant to be a mere clown, one who wants to seize the key to Rimbaud’s “barbarous sideshow”:
But I went inside the rough sketch of a woman
to find the dice’s grace -
to find hail drubbing on an old Zephyr sedan
a ringmaster’s whip scything the air.
I went to the circus to take charge;
to remove blouse after blouse.
I went alone
because to master the sanded weights
a juggler first conquers clumsiness
then writes the same poem, over and over.
Sometimes it is possible for the power of memory-objects to be overwhelming. The first prose poem of “The Feminine Sublime: Two Briquettes” treats heirlooms as dangerous:
Should I open this pressed metal trunk with a surface like crocodile skin - should I fall in - I might not return. Crocheted into doilies, the dead wait with powdered faces, bleeding floral lips and sometimes with kind, eccentric maps. However kind they may be, they lure you into memory, there to tangle their perfumes through your own until you cannot resist the past’s vigilance. And what you find is a caravel treasure: satin pennants, third place, lace, the cigarette box your father made from matchsticks . . .
But there is more going on in the book than an exploration of the theme of memory through the image of the clown and the collection of heirloom-objects. “Cochlear Implants”, a poem – obviously – about an operation that will stop the world being an experience of mime for the sufferer, focuses rather on the heightening of the visual sense over the auditory:
You believe the ear is Orphean -
I treat it as an appendix in the mirror.
Before I take the bee inside
give me time
to memorise the poem I’ve seen:
the red hibiscus in bloom
my street without shadow -
outside my window, men in mime digging
with their jackhammers at noon.
Another theme related to the idea of the world as shadow, playacting and illusion is the mirror. A fine and very complex poem, “Fauna of Mirrors”, explores this at length, using both the ancient Chinese idea that mirrors harbour their own creatures (not necessarily well-disposed to the watchers on the other side) and the idea that the mirror contains our entire past. The world of Cudmirrah recurs:
Starlight twists inside the mirror
and an old woman wades barefoot across the moon, later
washing towels of blood to hang between the fibro houses
clutched around a shore. Children there, too, shaking the sand
from polished bones - a bird’s skeleton, its stutter raked
by storms . . .
And it reminds us that the gypsy character from Cudmirrah, Moss Wickum, is celebrated in a poem in Michelangelo’s Prisoners as “a man who threw shadows / on a fibro wall: a rabbit, a parakeet, a balloon twisted / into a giraffe”: he too inhabited the world of illusion and a kind of mime. And it reminds us of an earlier poem in that book which concerned itself with sign-language: “and foam, rubber, snow and glycerine / seem softer in the fingering span / than spoken words falling short of what they are”.
“Fauna of Mirrors” concludes not with the French priest’s catalogue of the Chinese notions of what inhabits a mirror but with an allusion to Borges, that connoisseur of objects like books and mirrors which trouble us by suggesting the infinitely multipliable nature of reality. Borges’ “baldanders” – “soon something else” – in his Book of Imaginary Beings can teach us how to converse with objects and becomes the subject of a sequence in Folly&Grief in which the figure of the poet becomes his partner. This first section also contains two fine poems, “Glass Harmonica” and “Chinese Bowl” which seem (at least in my inadequate readings) to focus on the positive, creative aspects of objects and art. In the former the artist playing on the instrument conjures up images far beyond those imagined by the inventor and players of this exotic eighteenth century instrument and in the latter the artwork contains in itself, and makes available, the entire cultural history that went into its making.
References to the world of professional illusion become a little sparer in the book’s “Grief” section although there is a poem about Antonioni’s Blow-up (a film which includes a mime troupe as a framing symbol) as well as poems about dancers, musicians and statue-mimes. Overall these poems seem, true to their title, darker and, above all, obsessed by loss. In “The Steyne Hotel” it is a friend suffering from cancer and in “Birthday Poem” it is the poet herself accommodating herself (at least in my reading) to the stream of time symbolised in a strangely clarifying rainstorm and the fact that “more bark has fallen from the gum tree”. “Soiree at Black Lake” is a complex poem about the attempt to find a place outside of time:
A man stroked my hair
and said, memories are grasses;
flax, hay, lawn - a little traffic
a bicycle bell - all is at it was.
There is nothing to fear.
But I didn’t believe that lullaby
And I knew, then,
that the cruel hours spring back
when the hay is cut, the lawn mowed.
And “Fathers” has one of the books finest treatments of memory – though also one of the darkest. The poet is reading the work of Li-Young Lee:
Tonight when I read your poems, I think
nothing in you grieves that should sleep, nothing
hungers that has not been fed, nothing glimpsed
through a door or feinted by a corner of light
has been lost. Memories corner us
into type - and the untidy ghosts are arriving
by later, less punctual trams. Outside ourselves,
then, are the essential moments
not here in these poems, these crowfolk
of the streets, each dressed in invisible black
each hurrying beside the traffic
bird-poised ahead, buoyed by life’s recompense.
Finally there are the two sequences, “Folly” and “Grief” which end each section – one of ten pages the other thirteen. It is difficult to know exactly what to make of them beyond saying that they are clearly movements into new territory. They have something of the cast of those psychological/autobiographical sequences of the seventies – Andrew Taylor’s “The Invention of Fire” and Jennifer Rankin’s “The Mud Hut” are two very different examples. They are odd sequences and it is hard to judge how successful they are. They certainly represent yet another kaleidoscopic retreatment of previously met themes and images and we know immediately that we are in familiar territory when the first poem of “Folly” speaks of the ability to
. . . dip my hook
over the side
and retrieve deletions
that have left my mind
this theatre more tawdry
than last year’s
and the second poem establishes a riverscape
where shallow swamps
are littered with memorabilia
as the sea hoarding its wrecks
art folds back on itself
But familiarity with the poet’s thematic material only goes so far. Beyond saying that “Folly” is centred on a return home, or movement to another home (it concludes with another reference to the sea: “ . . . marshlands / reclaimed by the sea / leave no trace of nests”), and that “Grief” is about treatment for cancer and is built around the equation of the body with the land and recalls the poem “New Road In” as well as the much earlier “Cabramatta” in its interest in the metaphorical possibilities of the road, I am not sure I would trust myself much farther. This does not mean, though, that I think they are failures as poems or are modes that the poet will not profitably explore. In fact it may not be the case that Harrison’s future books work through this diaristic-imagistic-unconscious-oneiric quality. There are, however, a couple of other poems in Folly&Grief which are open, relaxed and celebratory. I am thinking especially of the second of “The Feminine Sublime” prose poems which is a celebration of the act of childbirth and of “Tamagotchi Gospel”. This poem is about experiences of childhood and the natural world and has an expansive, relaxed, long-breathed quality which is a long way from the delphic images of “Folly” or “Grief”:
It may be nothing more than a faded awning
tilting in oleander sun,
or the way someone rings on the mobile
at just the right time, someone
who might not have noticed
your regard for their humour,
or the way you admired the coral torque
against their skin last spring.
And see how happy you are
when alone in the bush,
the others ahead as mossed voices,
you arrive at the fern-lit pool
where the bird of long wings and hard eyes
dips to drink from the creek’s sigh?
There is no freedom from change
but it is quiet, words nowhere to be seen -
quiet as your father’s favourite silence:
the psh!psh! of waves softening the shore,
the silence of bush bees
chiming hard and bright
against the earlier time you were here
dressed in a costume of leaves.
I am easily entranced by this poem – by this kind of poem – but somehow so much intelligent analytical material has to be left out to say these simple things that I can’t think of it as a model for Harrison’s future poems.
This entry was posted in Reviews and tagged 2006, Black Pepper, Folly & Grief, Jennifer Harrison by Martin Duwell. Bookmark the permalink.
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Starring: A.J. Cook, Ali Larter, and Michael Landes
Homicidal Maniac: Death
Intro Vision: High Car Pile-Up
Quick Synopsis: A woman has a premonition of a highway car accident. The premonition comes true and now the people saved by her warning our now being killed to complete death's plan.
A year after the Flight 180 plane crash, a young woman has a similar premonition of a highway car pile-up that takes the lives of many. Just like Alex in the original, Kimberly is able to save a handful of lives. As you all expect, this is only the beginning as once again the survivors begin to be picked off one by one. While this film doesn't totally mail it in like some of the future sequels, there really isn't much to the movie other than the kill scenes. Fortunately, they are entertaining enough to overcome the fact there is very little other substance in the story. Each kill has added creativity and surprise that will definitely
get a reaction out of the viewer. There are random changes and additions to the original concept that I assume were meant to give the movie from freshness but it doesn't do much other than add a little misdirection. There is many more attempts at humor in Final Destination 2 than its predecessor, but I am not really sure whether it adds or takes away from the quality of the film. I guess it just depends on the taste of viewer. This is similar to a lot of horror movie sequels. There is a tendency to move away from the horror and more towards giving the audience what they think the audience wants, in this case creative kills. Final Destination 2 is your typical sequel to an decent awful horror movie.
Fun Fact: Devon Sawa and New Line Cinema could not agree on a contract and this caused his character from the original to be left out of this film.
Hidden Gem: The school bus of students were from Mt. Abraham, the same school from the original film.
Total Kill Count: 12
Car Accident Victims (15:00) Car Accident Gore Rating: 8
Shaina- Sarah Carter (16:00) Hit by Truck/Car Explodes Gore Rating: 3
Frankie- Shaun Sipos (16:00) Hit by Truck/Car Explodes Gore Rating: 3
Dano- Alejandro Rae (16:00) Hit by Truck/Car Explodes Gore Rating: 3
Evan Lewis- David Paetkau (26:00) Ladder through the Eye Gore Rating: 7
Tim Carpenter- James Kirk (43:00) Crushed by Glass Window Gore Rating: 7
Nora- Lynda Boyd (59:00) Decapitated by Elevator Gore Rating: 6
Kat- Keegan Connor Tracy (1:12:00) Pipe Through Head Gore Rating: 6
Rory- Jonathan Cherry (1:12:00) Cut into Segments by Flying Barbed-Wire Fence Gore Rating: 7
Eugene- T.C. Carson (1:18:00) Hospital Room Explosion Gore Rating: 1
Clear- Ali Larter (1:18:00) Hospital Room Explosion Gore Rating: 5
Brian- Noel Fisher (1:25:00) Grill Explosion Gore Rating: 5
Horror Film: 5
Gore: 7
Overall: 6.25
Posted by James Toomey at 11:48 PM
Labels: 2000s, Supernatural
Mockingbird (2014)
Home Sweet Home (2013)
The Final Destination (2009)
Barricade (2012)
Would You Rather (2012)
Come Back to Me (2014)
Camel Spiders (2011)
The Babadook (2014)
Final Destination (2000)
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JUser: :_load: Unable to load user with ID: 82
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“IS THE LAW AN ASS OR THE PEOPLE THAT ADMINISTER IT?
Saturday, 12 December 2015 01:46
In his book “I ACCUSE’ Frank Ainslie has described how Storm Financial and certain banks conspired together to exploit their clients by adopting a policy of reckless overleveraging and imprudent lending.
When so doing, they were aided and abetted by a poorly regulated financial system, and a number of consumer laws that invariably protect the wrongdoers rather than the victims.
In his recent “CONFLICT OF INTEREST” submission to the Attorney General of Australia, (see below covering letter and submission) Frank is now alleging that ASIC acted outside its powers when it lodged an Appeal with the Federal Court in relation to the Macquarie Bank Class Action Settlement. He further maintains that when this Appeal was upheld, the Federal Court then compounded this wrong by acting incorrectly in Law when approving the revised settlement agreement because its “terms” had been changed without the approval of the Group Funder Members. Frank and Helen were two of the Group Funder Members involved.
Frank believes that the legal issues involved in this case are important to all Australians because the common law rights of all individuals are under threat if Courts and lawyers can act arbitrarily in order to contrive a result.
“Does the end really justify the means or should the Law prevail in all such instances?” That is the question that Frank is now asking of the Attorney General.
Frank has circulated this submission to the legal fraternity in Australia including the Federal Court Justices, the major class action law firms, the law universities, and those that have written papers about the class action system in Australia. So far, their silence has been deafening. You make up your own mind.”
"CONFLICT OF INTEREST" By FRANK AINSLIE A former Group Funder Member of the Macquarie Bank Class Action
"COVERING LETTER" By Frank AINSLIE To the Attorney-General’s Department, 21st November 2015.
"RESPONSE LETTER BY ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S DEPARTMENT" to Frank Ainslie, 23rd December 2015.
WARNING to all Investors and Would-Be Investors in Australia
Frank Ainslie is one of the thousands of Victims who lost everything in the STORM FINANCIAL BANKING SCANDAL.
He has written the book "I ACCUSE" as a Financial Health WARNING to all investors and would-be investors in Australia to think twice before signing on the dotted line.
"I ACCUSE" is a factual account of the true reasons why Storm FINANCIAL collapsed, and the roles major banks played in its demise.
This book should serve as a watershed for all investors because it highlights the dangers of placing your trust in those in the financial sector that may not have your best interests at heart.
Below is Frank's story of his involvement with Storm Financial, and how ASIC and the Government failed to protect consumers before and after the Storm. "
This is Frank's story.
Helen and I first met in 1997. She owned a convenience store and sub-news at the time situated in Woodridge, a Brisbane suburb.
In 2002 we purchased half of the shopping centre in which her shop was located. In 2005 we sold the shop and used the proceeds to pay off the mortgage on the shopping centre. We then sold the shopping centre in 2007 for $1.1 million.
At that time we had no debts and our assets totaled $1.64 million. We thought carefully about what we would do with the million dollars in cash we had in the bank. Then, we were earning 7% on this amount that was in an account with the Suncorp Bank.
Helen wanted to leave a legacy for her children (three grown up daughters) and her grand children, so we started looking around for a sound investment that was “low risk” but would give us sustained growth over a period of time. That’s when some friends of ours told us about Storm Financial. They had been with Storm for some years and they were very happy with what Storm had done for them.
After attending some seminars at Storm’s premises in Brisbane, we decided that Storm’s strategy, as sold to us, was both sound and secure. Storm informed us that the shares we would purchase through them would be spread over a broad spectrum in the share market, and the controls they had in place would insulate us against any marked fluctuations that can be expected in the share markets from time to time.
What we didn’t know then was that Storm’ policy of over-leveraging its clients’ assets was a self-serving one. It was a ‘high risk’ policy when we and countless others in Storm were looking for a “low risk” strategy. Unfortunately, we were not aware at the time of the risks involved in such a strategy because we were, to use Bernie Ripoll’s words, “unsophisticated investors.” I had been employed around the world in higher management within the freight forwarding industry for nearly 30 years, and Helen had been in retail since 1983. Therefore, we were both highly experienced business people. However, we knew little about investing and that is why we employed the services of Storm Financial.
We paid Storm $145,000 in fees because we thought that we were buying the best advice that money could buy. In fifteen months, Storm managed to lose it all and leave us with a half a million-dollar debt. The occurrence of the GFC in late 2008 didn’t help our cause, but our losses and those of many other Storm clients were not due solely to this event. Rather, our losses came about because Storm and the Banks had covert agreements that “cut across” our margin loan agreements with the banks These secret agreements were the real reason why our shares were sold down only after many weeks had passed.
When a Black Swan event occurs such as the GFC thereby causing the share markets to crash, any delays in the selling down of shares by even a few days can mean the difference between solvency and bankruptcy. The CBA took 10-12 weeks to contact its customers and the Macquarie Bank took 3-4 weeks to do the same. THAT was the reason why these losses occurred in such epic proportions.
People need to remember that Storm didn’t just give us “bad advice”. It’s no crime to give “bad advice” if it’s done in good faith. Storm’s advice went further than this because it was “misleading and deceptive advice”. There are still many in our community that don’t understand the difference between the two. Many still insist that the victims of Storm were partly to blame for their own troubles because they should have been able to see through Storm’s duplicity from the start. If that were the case, why were ASIC also misled into believing that Storm was operating within the boundaries of the Corporations Act right up until the end? If ASIC didn’t know what Storm was up to, how could anyone with any commonsense expect Storm’s clients to spot the deception?
By acting in the way it did, Storm breached certain sections of the Corporations Act and ASIC has charged the former directors of Storm accordingly. Our Storm Financial adviser, Mr. Stuart Drummond was also suspended by ASIC for the same reason. He is now probably back out there practising again or soon will be so watch out!
When Storm collapsed, we thought that we would be protected under the Law. I have found out since that when something like this happens to you, you have little or no protection at all because the consumer laws in this country are defective.
In 'I ACCUSE' I have documented my path to seeking justice and the many obstacles I have encountered along the way. My mission is a simple one. I want to warn others of what can befall them when they put their trust in those within the financial sector. I also want to challenge the consumer laws in this country because they, in my opinion, subjugate the common law rights that each individual in our democracy is entitled to rely on as an Australian citizen.
I have studied commercial law both in the UK and Australia so I am not exactly a novice in this area. For six years I have been researching the collapse of Storm and the reasons why so many of Storm's clients lost everything. Many that lost their life savings when Storm went under have been left with nothing. Even their will to fight has been emasculated by a system of justice that seeks to protect the wrongdoers whilst isolating the victims. In I ACCUSE, I have given the victims a voice.
I am also a published author: My book, 'THE THIRD SECRET' can be downloaded free at:
https://sites.google.com/site/thethirdsecret/
I formulated my own 'Google' Group in 2010 which I named 'SOB' (Storming on Banks). I also have two websites devoted to the machinations of the banks associated with Storm:
(1) Storming on Banks https://sites.google.com/site/stormingonbanks/home
(2) Bank of Queensland Class Action https://sites.google.com/site/boqnorthward/
Banks such as the CBA, the Macquarie Bank and the BOQ figure prominently in 'I ACCUSE' because they play a major role in the Storm Financial saga. These banks aided and abetted Storm by supplying bank loans to Storm's clients that were in many cases "imprudent" and did not conform with the banking codes adopted by these banks. The fact that these banking codes are never enforced despite the many breaches of the codes by these banks and others is a prime example of why the financial system in this country has failed to meet the needs of consumers.
The Judiciary by failing to bring these banks to account has perverted rather than preserved the rule of law. Further, in the case of the Macquarie Bank Class Action Group Funder Members, the courts have actually tarnished the law by ignoring the contractual rights of those individuals. By allowing the Macquarie Bank settlement agreement to be amended rather than having it declared "void", the Judiciary's decision is at odds with the common law rights of persons that enter into a legal contract. The rules governing the occurrence of "frustration" in a contractual agreement have been sacrificed for the sake of expediency.
The Government and ASIC have failed to protect consumers by not insisting that all financial advisers have an effective 'Professional Indemnity Insurance' cover in place (mandatory under the Corporations Act as it stands). By their failure to ensure that Storm had an adequate PI insurance cover, the Government and ASIC stand accused as the principal instigators of the Storm Financial disaster. Needless to say, the Government and ASIC have been doing everything possible ever since to cover up their failings in this regard.
In 'I ACCUSE' I have detailed the various aspects of our case so that people can readily understand that the Government and the consumer laws it has introduced are weak and ineffectual. Further, the Regulator, ASIC, has been asleep on the job for far too long. Any other watchdog would have been put down a long time ago.
The truth of the matter is that vested interests rather than the rights of the consumers always comes first, and it will remain so until this Government is prepared to act to implement changes that can offer investors the protection they deserve. Our rights should be paramount in all things. That is not currently the case in this country.
Let ‘I ACCUSE’ stand as a reminder to all investors and potential investors in Australia that their money isn’t safe when they invest using financial advisers. Nor is it safe when they take out loans from banks for investment purpose. Why? Because if you are deceived or parties such as banks grant loans to you that you may be incapable of paying back, all the ‘rights’ and the ‘might’ are on their side, and your chance of seeking justice is ‘out of sight’ unless you have more money than you lost to fight your case in a court of law. Even then, the odds are not stacked in your favour.
Last modified onTuesday, 24 April 2018 22:59
Banking royal commission: ASIC should cancel big banks' operating licences if they behave badly, experts say
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Information to the Market - Resignation of the CEO
BB Seguridade Participações S.A. (“BB Seguridade” or “Company”) hereby announces that Mr. Antônio Maurício Maurano has resignated today to the position of CEO and member of the Board of Directors of BB Seguridade, taking effect on November 28.
The Board of Directors appointed today Mr. Werner Romera Süffert, current CFO, to accumulate temporarily the positions of Mr. Antônio Maurício Maurano.
Mr. Werner Romera Süffert is 45 years old and is employee of Banco do Brasil since 1993, where has held the positions of General Manager of Banco do Brasil’s branch in Paris, Executive Manager at Credit Card, New Retail Business and Marketing divisions and Manager at Finance, Risk Management, Distribution and Logistic divisions. Mr. Werner joined BB Seguridade in 2013 helding the position of Controller and Head of IR until 2014 when was appointed CFO. He holds a Bachelor degree in Business Administration by Universidade de Brasilia – UnB, an MBA in International Business by FIPE-USP and a Master in Business Administration by COPPEAD-UFRJ.
Brasilia (DF), November 27th, 2018
Marcelo Augusto Dutra Labuto
Chairman of the Board of Directors
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Cooking on the Aga
Posted in: Boys, Daniel, Michael, Mr. Waffle, Princess
Unusually for someone who is as fond of eating as I am, I am not a very keen cook but, having invested my retirement fund in our new Aga (make your own jokes about going up in smoke here), I am doing my best to use it. When the Aga was delivered it came with a free (for a certain value of free) cookery book. I used a recipe from the book the other day. It involved using both hot plates and all three ovens. It was very elaborate and I also made a vegetarian version with tofu for herself (she once told me that tofu could substitute for chicken) further complicating matters.
I served it up, quite late but triumphant. The boys had a look at the creamy sauce and instantly said that they didn’t fancy it. “Surely, you’ll have some chicken,” I pleaded. Mr. Waffle obliging dipped in the ladle to extract some chicken. “Um,” he said, “are you sure that there is chicken in here?” Alas, I had left the chicken in the warming oven after quickly frying it and it was sitting there on the raw side still instead of having spent a happy twenty minutes in the roasting oven. I microwaved it. Michael pronounced it rubbery but nobody died. Herself said, “I’m sorry I led you astray but tofu cannot substitute for chicken on all occasions.” Really, is it any wonder that I dislike cooking?
“I suppose,” said Mr. Waffle, “that poultry is that which is lost in translation.” Daniel went for “Fowl play is suspected” and herself offered that it was just a run of bad cluck. Alas.
BLEKE says
Years ago at an ethnic restaurant I ate tofu masquerading as chicken. It cost more than a paltry sum.
belgianwaffle says
Unsatisfactory, I take it.
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Home > ENT
Wu Zhuolin's wife wanted to change her red hair for transshipment. She expressed her weakness to Wu Qili in spite of her bitterness.
Nineteen-year-old Wu Zhuolin is the illegitimate daughter of Jackie Chan and Wu Qili. In the past two years, Wu Zhuolin has made a lot of news. On April 6, Wu Zhuolin's Canadian same-sex wife updated INS. Wu Zhuolin's wife shared a new look of herself and wrote: "We're all used to hearing that sometimes you have to do something you don't want to do." But if someone tells you, "Sometimes you have to do something when you feel bad, but this action will make you feel good." If we don't believe in ourselves, we can actually do anything imaginable. Love. "
From Wu Zhuolin's wife Andi's message, it is not difficult to see that their lives seem to be not smooth, or because of the recent life is not satisfactory, so Andi has changed a new hairstyle, and intends to start again! The red hair color is supposed to bring good luck to oneself.
img src="/1ydzximg/0LfPae1kn6"/>p>Wu Zhuolin and his wife Andi returned to Hong Kong on a seemingly unsatisfactory day. They had no job and no stable income, and their lives were very difficult. Previously, there were reports in the media that they could only eat one cigarette together. Before
, Andi took over nail advertising to subsidize households, but there is no latest news recently, and their income has entered the winter again.
Because Wu Qili could not accept Wu Zhuolin's same-sex wife, they could not get along with each other. Wu Zhuolin can only rent a house on his own, but the rent in Hong Kong is so expensive, presumably they are under great pressure. Is it to show weakness to Wu Qili and hope to get Wu Qili's help?
Before that, Wu Qili had not hesitated to call the police again because she had lost contact with Wu Zhuolin. She said that "some people were locked in the house, I am afraid some people were killed", but after the police and firefighters came to the scene to verify the situation, they found that Wu Zhuolin was a false alarm. Contacted.
In the face of Wu Qili's alarm action, Wu Zhuolin was obviously very indifferent, and even later wrote "Aunt went to see a doctor", thinking that Wu Qili's rash action disturbed her neighbors, very embarrassed, so the relationship between mother and daughter is still very rigid.
When the incident broke out, Taiwan media also followed the trend to report on Wu Zhuolin and involved Jackie Chan's wife. According to media reports, Lin Fengjiao was extremely disgusted with Wu Zhuolin. Even after the death of Jackie Chan and Wu Qili, she would not take care of her, believing that the existence of Wu Zhuolin would only spoil Jackie Chan's reputation."
In fact, what Lin Fengjiao said seems to be reasonable, at least for the moment, Wu Zhuolin's various actions are very distracting, and repeatedly let Wu Qili, a very passive mother, and some people say that the wife around her is the culprit.
Since her daughter returned to Hong Kong, Jackie Chan has not mentioned anything about her publicly. It seems that there is no emotional relationship between father and daughter. In the face of Wu Qili's alarm for a daughter, Jackie Chan has not mentioned anything in recent activities.
Last month 30, Jackie Chan played a flash after attending the event, skipped the reporter's questioning link and left the scene. I'm afraid he didn't want to be asked about his daughter publicly.
But Wu Zhuolin is rebellious, but in fact it is pitiful, if it is not such a family environment, maybe she would not be so. Now her situation is still very embarrassing, on the one hand, there is no stable work, on the other hand, the relationship with her parents has been deadlocked, I do not know when such a situation will end.
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2019-03-01Zhang Xinyi basks in the sunshine of her son sleeping soundly on his body. The baby's fleshy figure is very lovely! _____________
2019-02-18Bai Baihe dressed up in a fashionable fashion. His son grabbed the doll. His 11-year-old son was plain and dark.
2019-02-18Net in the first-class cabin of the aircraft happened to meet Yang Fang to expose his plain face
2019-01-31Zhao Zhongxiang's grandson was exposed to rare exposure. Netizens: He and Grandpa just pasted and duplicated.
2019-01-04The 05th Super Girl Ji Minjia was divorced, but the netizen asked: Who is this snake face?
2018-12-26He Jie took a pair of children for the holidays, and the eldest son turned out to be so big!
2018-12-24Zhao Liying was exposed to pregnancy in July, still a baby boy
2018-12-24In order to promote new people, let Hu Ge "married" with the actress born in 1995?
2018-12-24Zhu Liqian was so excited that she cheered and cheered for Andy Lau. Liu Xiangyu also helped with the ribbon.
Zhong Liti once again speculated whether she was fat or happy when she covered her bulging abdomen with a swab.
Zhao Liying's Expectation Period Exposure: Has entered the hospital expectant family are accompanied by
Joker Xue was so excited that he took the initiative to get close to the fans, and the security guard stopped him from holding his waist.
Yang Kun's "Singer" first talks about the deceased girlfriend, the beautiful love story singing and crying audience
Xu Jinglei denied the rumor of marriage: You can't just stop because you're idle.
Xiong Dailin Tucao Filipino maids are deep, designing employers to cheat money and run away, leaving behind a foreign debt.
Zhang Ting's luxury house was exposed, a room full of shoes and air garden, netizens: Li Xiangjia lost
Xiong Dailin sun twin daughters, less than one year old will split, the two beef-tooted sisters good germination
Sun Nan's family moved out of Beijing and spent 700 yuan a month renting in a fourth-tier city. They were told by friends that they were too poor.
Zeng Zhiwei responded with a Hong Kong police crash in Japan: he is not drunk
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Home > Health
Several academicians and famous doctors collectively concluded: 10 iron rules of not getting sick! Very rare
People who like to keep in good health know that if they want not to get sick, they need to eat a balanced diet, keep exercising and keep in good mood, but few people can really do this.
When we are difficult to adhere to good habits, if we want not to get sick, we must not do anything harmful to our health! Today, I share with you some experience summary of "not getting sick", among which there are many health secrets of famous doctors.
If you want not to get sick, you must remember this "Ten iron laws of not getting sick"! <<<
<<<<<<
<< section>
< < < section>>
< / section > < / section > < / section > < / section > < p > "If you don't get angry, you can do it." This is the summary of Hao Wanshan, professor of Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, who has been practicing medicine for decades.
How high is the incidence of diseases caused by anger? The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta found that 90% of all illnesses are related to stress.
Professor Hao Wanshan
Professor Hao Wanshan said: "You see a lot of people complaining everywhere and seeing nothing is pleasant. Complaint is a negative emotion. "As long as we < strong > control our emotions well , we can avoid serious illness, less illness, late illness."
< p> is the so-called disease from the heart, the evil from the heart. If you don't get angry, you won't get sick. If you don't get sick, you won't die early.
can't remain unchanged
< section> Former Director of the Central Health It is pointed out that if you can lie down, never sit, never stand, never walk, you would rather wait in long lines for elevators than climb stairs smoothly. This should be the "hidden rules of life" that many people do not notice but follow every day. But in the long run, the consequence is that all the functions of the body go backward in an all-round way. "Strong" animals, animals, you have to move more; do not move? That's how fast you die. Wang Minqing is very direct.
Wang Minqing
when Wang was 78 years old, he also climbed the stairs to visit teachers who lived on the 22nd floor and did not take the elevator; he did housework and climbed up and down, with quick movements and agile behavior; in the physical examination report for more than ten years, the indicators had hardly changed...
"Only by doing more activities, not greedy for enjoyment, and protecting one's own functions, can one live a long and healthy life. It's much better than eating uncontrollably first, then getting three taller, obese and trying to lose weight. If you want to be healthy, you have to be tough on yourself. Wang Lao's words are always very real, but very reasonable. <<<<
>>><
>>>Don't worry too much <<< strong>
The son hasn't come for two months. Has he lost his business?
The weather is cold. I wonder if my daughter has worn a sweater.
Some middle-aged and old friends do not worry much about their own affairs, but they always worry about their children, and even produce a lot of tension and anxiety. The gastrointestinal tract can sense our stress and emotional changes, and long-term negative emotions can cause gastrointestinal dysfunction. Many anxious people will find that there are always abdominal pain, abdominal discomfort and changes in defecation habits.
If you feel that there are so many things worrying about recently, you always want to control your children's feelings, you should reflect on it. It may be that space has been empty recently. At this time, the best < strong > transfer the object of worry < strong > find a hobby , even if it is to learn to make a new dish, fill the empty feeling, will not feel very worried. <<<<<
><<<<
<<< section><<<<
He Yumin
He Yumin, a professor at Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, mentioned that his clinical practice over the past twenty or thirty years had made him notice a phenomenon: relatively speaking, there were a group of people in the city who were particularly susceptible to cancer - professional women such as finance, accounting, auditing, personnel, statistics, and teachers in primary and secondary schools.
These tasks require a very serious attitude and can not make mistakes. This leads to their habit of being meticulous, very cautious and even pursuing perfectionism. So the strings of the nervous system are always tight, endocrine disorders, target organs can't stand it, and cancer is coming. The pursuit of perfection is a good thing, but excessive pursuit of perfection is not always a good thing for health, especially for those who are a bit neat and attach great importance to details. If you want to be healthy, you have to be confused. If you want to live longer, you have to be simple. If you want to be happy, you have to be casual. <<
>><<
>< section>
>>>> but it was grigrigrigrigrigrigrigri> < / section > < / section > < / section > < / section > < p > according to《 According to Liaoning Daily, American researchers have found that excessive grief may damage the heart and lead to symptoms similar to heart attacks, including chest tightness and shortness of breath. These symptoms are called "heartbreak syndrome". In addition, similar studies in Britain have confirmed that emotional changes or excessive psychological stress, such as the loss of family members, can lead to "heartbreak" and death. < p > < p > Therefore, < strong > when there is sadness, we should learn to talk. Find friends and family to chat, can not hold in mind. Those who seem to control their emotions on the surface actually cause the emotional garbage to be transferred into the body and put pressure on the internal organs. It can also vent through appropriate ways, such as fitness exercises.
Don't stay up late
< section> director of Shanghai Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital It is pointed out that staying up late has become a common phenomenon in modern life. It is not correct to think that it is enough to make up for the day after staying up late.
Dr. Xu Liang
who stays up late for a long time will also suffer serious skin damage. The best time for skin rest is at night. Late sleep will increase the burden of the skin and cause a series of skin problems, such as dull skin color and acne. Stayers like to eat supper at night, which makes it difficult for them to fall asleep. They also suffer from loss of appetite during the day, resulting in uneven nutrition and obesity. As a result, diseases cluster.
< p> Studies suggest that the normal sleep time is from 9-10 p.m. to 5-6 a.m. and 7-8 hours a night, usually no less than 5-6 hours. Only by respecting the law of the growth and decline of Yin and Yang in nature can we conform to the physiological law of human beings. <<
Article 7<
<<<<<<<<
< < section><> < / section > < / section > < / section > < / section > < / section > < / section > < / section > < p > Yu Juan, a Fudan female doctor who died of cancer in the past few years, has analyzed the causes of her cancer in this way. Among them, one is a bad eating habit: eating blindly, overeating, and eating like meat.
Yu Juan wrote in her blog that I am a person who never refuses to eat at the table. For many objective reasons, I have eaten a lot of things that should not be eaten, incomplete statistics, such as peacocks, seagulls, whales, puffers, bears, pheasants, wild boars, five-step snakes and so on* However, I must reflect deeply that these things should not be eaten.
We should believe that our wise ancestors have accumulated wisdom for thousands of years. They sifted through a long period of time, many times longer than our life span, and finally locked in our present food, and consequently nurtured it. If peacocks are better than chickens, then now chickens are peacocks and peacocks are chickens.
does not depress oneself
in clinical lung cancer patients, nearly half of them are found. Patients are associated with long-term depression and depression. Professor Zhi Xiuyi, Director of Lung Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Center of Capital Medical University, once introduced this.
_Zhixiu
Modern Medicine found that cancer occurs mainly in some people who have been depressed, anxious, depressed, depressed, fearful and sad for a long time after being frustrated. Psychological factors
can not directly cause cancer, but they often affect and reduce the body's immunity with a chronic and sustained stimulation, resulting in the imbalance of autonomic nervous function and endocrine function, so that cancer cells break through the body's immune system defense, and then form cancer.
Learn to control and relieve repressed emotions. Physical exercise, meditation, silence and other methods can be used to achieve psychological balance. <<<
><<<>>>
Article 9 <
/ section > < / section > < / section > < / section > < / section > < p > Work Sanlang desperate type of people, the string of life has always been tightly taut, it is easy to overdraft themselves, which is very easy to lead to human endocrine and autonomic nervous system is often in a state of disorder, the body is naturally not good.
The human body has a life-span and can be maintained.
In the previous：Stop pouring waste fried vegetable oil into the pool! The consequences are terrible.
The next article：That day I lost my anal hair, and every step of the way was like riding a hedgehog - on the importance of anal hair
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2019-04-25How effective is tea against cancer? The doctor explained that you might as well come to know the tea drinker.
2019-04-07Five secrets about breast size, don't say you don't know yet!
2019-02-18Is classical swine fever a real "flood animal"?
2019-02-09Sitting on your knees for a week and refreshing your breath for a year is the magic way to tonify the liver, drain blood down and invigorate your whole body! ________
2019-02-09Cephalosporins go with wine! Whoever you are!
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2019-01-22What is "extended suicide" in Jinan when a man jumps from a building to commit suicide after killing five members of his family?
2019-01-22Does banana have any effect on relieving constipation? It's time to know the answer.
36-year-old woman, no pain, no diagnosis of lung cancer, a sign on her hand, or has reached the middle and late stages
Every puerpera needs pelvic repair? This market is too dark!
Without pain, she won't feel any pain when she gives birth to a child! __________ But everyday life is not easy at all.
People with good hearts and lungs often have three common points, even if only one is good!
When does defecation mean that the digestive system is the healthiest? Is it morning? A lot of people are wrong.
Three clinics refused to see the patient he received, the results of a needle down.
If you know where the suffocated fart has gone, I bet you won't suffocate anymore...
Eat a scallion, top ten pairs of medicine! Unfortunately, 90% of the people have eaten wrong, which is equal to eating for nothing.
What happened when my body suddenly shook when I was sleeping?
What is "extended suicide" in Jinan when a man jumps from a building to commit suicide after killing five members of his family?
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A stolen JCB skid-steer loader has been identified and recovered in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates thanks to the help of Datatag. The machine belonging to A-Plant was registered with the CESAR (Construction Equipment Security and Registration) scheme and fitted with the Datatag security system.
The skid-steer was stolen and quickly shipped from the UK to Gibraltar and then carried across the Mediterranean Sea and down through the Suez Canal to Oman where it was unloaded and trucked into Sharjah, in the UAE. The thieves had attempted to hide it's identity by removing the unique CESAR registration plates but they could not find or remove the hidden, miniature, Datatag transponders or the thousands of microscopic Datadots or the millions of Datatag forensic DNA molecules protecting the valuable A-Plant machine.
The machine was also fitted with the A-Trak system that uses mobile GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) devices; through this tracking system Enigma was able to locate the machine in Sharjah. Working with an undercover representative Engma were able to visit the location of the machine in Sharjah and establish who the people were who were holding it. Eleven days after the machine was stolen in England Datatag scanning equipment was used to confirm the true identity of the JCB and remove any doubt that the true registered keeper was A-Plant. Three days later the Sharjah Police took two suspects into custody and recovered the JCB skid-steer loader which is now on its way back to the UK.
Asif Latief, Marketing Director of A-Plant, had this to say on hearing the news………."We’re delighted with the successful recovery of our Skid-Steer Loader. It shows that by having a combination of leading anti-theft devices and state-of-the-art tracking, recovery, official registration and identification technology we’re making it harder than ever for criminals to steal equipment and avoid being traced. We look forward to working with the CESAR Scheme, Datatag and Enigma to ensure that we continue to have market leading systems making the industry less of a target to organized crime."
Kevin Howells, Director of Datatag ID the company that administers the CESAR scheme, commented………” We’re clearly delighted that the effectiveness of CESAR registration combined with the Datatag Identification Technology has proved invaluable in such unusual circumstances. It's virtually impossible for thieves to find and remove the hidden Datatag security technology on a CESAR equipped machine. The Police and others in authority can always identify a CESAR protected machine using the correct equipment. The scheme is gathering momentum with the list of leading manufacturers fitting CESAR as standard including Doosan, JCB, Manitou, Merlo, Hanix, NC Dumpers, Bomag, Bobcat and Takeuchi. Many more OEM's are planning to join the CESAR Scheme. I would like to commend all of the Police officers who took part in this operation, Ian Keam George of Enigma and in particular A-Plant, for leading the way within the Hire Industry by adopting such an effective range of security measures including the standard fitment of CESAR”.
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The Book Addict's Guide
Events & Features
Book and a Beverage
My Latest Bookish Addiction
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Reviews: By Series
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The Selective Collective features INK: Page to Screen
The Selective Collective reads INK by AMANDA SUN
The Selective Collective features INK by AMANDA SUN provided to us by Harlequin Teen for review and book club discussion!
For my part in this Selective Collective post, I’ve got what used to be our Casting Call feature, but we’re changing things up a bit around here! Firstly, you might notice our new banner which I am SUPER excited for! Originally, we came up with a tagline that was geared more toward fierce female main characters which we always enjoy, but as we’ve been reading more and more books for The Selective Collective, we’ve found that the books we tend to fall in love with have been mostly contemporaries. Don’t get me wrong, these girls can still be pretty fierce even if they’re not fighting dystopian governments or discovering supernatural powers, but we thought the tagline wasn’t quite as relevant for the books we started leaning towards. Instead, we came up with this new banner that just plain looks nice! 🙂
Second, we’ve updated our Casting Call feature, evolving it into PAGE TO SCREEN. Page to Screen will still keep our initial idea of fan casting, but also bringing more elements into the feature such as setting, thoughts of how best to adapt the book, and even soundtracks to really bring this book to life as if we were adapting it as a TV show or movie.
Before we jump in, here’s a little info on the book:
Publishing Info: June 25th 2013 by Harlequin Teen
Source: Physical ARC provided to us by Harlequin Teen for review and use for the Selective Collective promotions
Book Synopsis: On the heels of a family tragedy, the last thing Katie Greene wants to do is move halfway across the world. Stuck with her aunt in Shizuoka, Japan, Katie feels lost. Alone. She doesn’t know the language, she can barely hold a pair of chopsticks, and she can’t seem to get the hang of taking her shoes off whenever she enters a building.
Then there’s gorgeous but aloof Tomohiro, star of the school’s kendo team. How did he really get the scar on his arm? Katie isn’t prepared for the answer. But when she sees the things he draws start moving, there’s no denying the truth: Tomo has a connection to the ancient gods of Japan, and being near Katie is causing his abilities to spiral out of control. If the wrong people notice, they’ll both be targets.
Katie never wanted to move to Japan—now she may not make it out of the country alive. — From Goodreads.com
Bringing INK from PAGE TO SCREEN…
What would be the best adaptation? I know usually when we’ve done our “Casting Call” feature in the past, we’ve always talked about the book being adapted as a movie. With so many books being adapted as TV shows recently (or were in talks of being adapted as TV shows at one point in time) such as Delirium, The Selection, Vampire Diaries and of course big adult series like True Blood and Game of Thrones, I really think INK could do well as a TV series!
But then the question is… what network would it work best with? I thought about SyFy because of the paranormal aspect of it, but it’s really more mythology-related then science-fiction so SyFy was kind of iffy for me. Ultimately, I think if TV show writers were to focus on familial and romantic relationships, delve more into the sense of being out of place in Japan, and get some awesome special effects from the drawings, you know what… I’m kind of leaning towards the CW. Traditionally I think of the CW as more of a “contemporary” channel, so to speak. Not a lot of paranormal or fantasy going on there BUT with the Vampire Diaries being such a major show for their network, I think building on that could really help INK fit in nicely!
I don’t know much about Japan, but clearly we’ve GOT to be someplace with cherry blossoms. I’ve ALWAYS wanted to see them in full bloom because that’s got to be gorgeous.
Washington D.C.: Don’t want to film all the way in Japan? Washington D.C. might be a nice alternative! D.C. is well-known for its cherry blossom trees and they have Japan-America Society of Washington D.C. that sponsors Sakura Matasuri which is an annual Japanese street festival. Each year, the festival takes place during prime cherry blossom season which sounds really amazing!
Macon, GA: Georgia? You bet! Macon, Georgia has over 300,000 cherry trees within the city and they have a 10-day international cherry blossom festival each year in March. The architecture may not be correct, but the trees!!
Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, CA/Japantown, San Francisco, CA/Japantown, San Jose, CA: Filming in Japan too far out of reach? These may be the next best thing in the US. There are three Japantowns (according to the good old stand-by Wikipedia) in California which could be very convenient to try to get a Japanese-feel within the United States!
CASTING CALL: INK
Katie: Nicola Peltz
You may have seen her in… The Last Airbender (2010), Bates Motel (2013 TV)
I think she looks a little like the artwork on the cover, no? (And not just because of the position of these pictures… Although it helps!) I know her hair is naturally brown, but it’s dyed blonde for Bates Motel so when I was looking for a girl to play Katie and saw her face, I just knew she was the right choice! I think she could bring a lot of personality to show both Katie’s discomfort with being out of place in Japan as well as a sense of boldness when she first confronts Tomo and begins to find out his secrets.
Tomo: Kengo Kora
You may have seen him in… Well, to be honest, unless you’re watching Japanese cinema or TV, you probably haven’t seen him! He’s actually in his 20s but he LOOKS like a teenager. Even reaching out to the rest of my SC gals, we hard a hard time coming up with an actor for Tomo! Most of the Asian-American actors I could think of were way too old and the younger ones just didn’t fit the part in my mind. With help, we decided to go with Japanese actor Kengo Kora… His haircut just reminded me of Tomo and that’s all it took for me to be sold! If you have any ideas of who to cast, we would love to hear!
Hope you enjoyed my choices for our newly modified feature, PAGE TO SCREEN! We’d love to hear how you would adapt INK! Do you see it as a movie? A TV show? Who would be the stars?
And please don’t forget to check out the features from the other ladies in The Selective Collective! We each have a post to feature a different side of INK so please go visit their take on the book as well!
Tee @ YA Crush Freebie: Two Tickets to Paradise!
Candice @ The Grown-Up YA Review: INK
Diana & Sandie @ Teen Lit Rocks Roundtable: The SC talks about INK!
Daphne & Kristina @ Gone Pecan Q&A With Amanda Sun & INK Giveaway!
This entry was posted in Books, Paranormal, Selective Collective, YA and tagged Amanda Sun, Books, Casting Call, Ink, Japan, Mythology, Paranormal, The Selective Collective, YA, Young Adult on June 26, 2013 by Brittany.
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Cover Love
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Release Day & Giveaway | Jamaican Temptation by Afton Locke {@aftonlocke}
Jamaican Temptation - Can you resist!
Shopaholic Kyra Mays decides to shop for a rich man on her Jamaican vacation. Instead, she meets Justin Lance, a white reggae singer who’s nearly as poor as the orphans he devotes his life to helping. Overwhelmed by his magnetism, she decides to have a fling with him.
All that matters to Justin is being a perfect Rastafarian. He vows to avoid succumbing to temptation with the dark beauty at all costs. Unable to keep their hands off each other, they forge a bond that is just as emotional as physical as they explore their differences on the lush island of Jamaica.
But Justin’s secret will put their ability to compromise through an impossible test.
“You’re even more beautiful than I imagined,” he whispered. His hungry gaze bathed her with warmth.
Clearly, he wanted her more than he ever had. Telling him she’d experienced poverty earlier must have been the magic words. Ever since, he’d looked at her as if they were on the same team…as if they could have a relationship.
But why? What difference did her background make?
Her thighs trembled in response to his heated stare, anticipating the sensation of his tongue on her folds.
Instead of lowering his head, though, he looked away, shaking it. “Am I really doing the right thing?” he asked. “I can justify it by saying I’m giving you pleasure, but I can’t help getting pleasure out of it as well.”
Kyra’s jaw tightened as she cupped a palm over her cleft to hide it. “Justin, this back and forth business is driving me crazy. A little pleasure isn’t going to make the world end.”
“The Rasta way of life is important to me,” he said. “I have to stay true to my faith every minute of every day, not just when I feel like it.”
She sighed. “I respect that. Hand me my pants so I can get dressed.”
Instead, he lowered his head. His blue eyes, clear with his decision, sought hers on the way down.
Apparently, he planned to continue. A shiver of anticipation she couldn’t have suppressed if she’d wanted to coursed through her.
“Yes, Justin, yes,” she whispered. “It’s all right.” He kissed the insides of her thighs first, as gently as he’d massaged her feet earlier.
His slight beard brushed her tender skin, igniting icy-hot flames everywhere it touched. Devon used to take her fast and hard. Foreplay was usually as compressed as his busy schedule. Closing her eyes and surrendering to the titillating sensations, she wished Justin had been her first lover. Maybe her only lover. He gripped the undersides of her thighs and the bed squeaked as he shifted position. He must mean business.
Perspiration broke out across her forehead and she opened her eyes. If he changed his mind, she swore she’d scream. “I want to feel your hair…on me,” she demanded.
Where had that come from?
Without questioning her strange request, he gripped one of his locks and held it in front of his face with reverence. “Do you know what the dreadlocks signify, Kyra?”
They signify something hot and sexy I want on my body. Now! “They stand for everything natural and good.
No scissors, combs, styling gadgets, or dye touches them. According to the Rasta faith, those things are the work of Babylon.”
Babylon must be the name of her hairdresser because her hair was cut, straightened, and highlighted.
Before she could reply, he grasped the end of one lock and brushed it across her mound. It probably went without saying that her bikini wax was also up Babylon’s alley. She watched, breathless, as his hair mingled with the scanty tuft of hers. Then he lowered the tantalizing lock, brushing it across her clit. She cried out as each of his silky hairs brushed her nerve endings.
How could the man be so spiritual one minute and scorching hot the next?
The combination was more potent than fire and gasoline.
Play List:
Positive Vibration by Bob Marley
This song embodies the Jamaican reggae flavor of the hero and setting.
Bob Marley was my inspiration and muse for writing the story.
This Woman's Work by Maxwell
I pretty much had this song on an endless loop while writing the end of the book. The emotional tone matched perfectly, and struggling to make a relationship work is the theme of all romances.
Heaven Must Be Like This by The Ohio Players
Not only is this song romantic and sensual, its lyrics show how the physical can connect to the divine,
which I really explored in this novel.
Afton Locke is a USA Today Bestselling Author who prefers romantic fantasies to everyday reality.
Fantasies take her to different times, races, places, and beyond. She lives with her husband, dog, several unnamed dust bunnies, and a black cat that can be scary or cuddly, depending on the current book. When she’s not writing, Afton enjoys hiking, cooking, crafts, and reading.
Afton Locke November 9, 2014 at 6:59 PM
Thank you for posting my latest release!
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“Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.” ~ Joyce Carol Oates
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University home > School of Earth Sciences > People > Dr Pamela Gill
Publication - Dr Pamela Gill
Morphological evolution of the mammalian jaw adductor complex
Lautenschlager, S, Gill, P, Luo, ZX, Fagan, MJ & Rayfield, EJ, 2016, ‘Morphological evolution of the mammalian jaw adductor complex’. Biological Reviews.
The evolution of the mammalian jaw during the transition from non-mammalian synapsids to crown mammals is a key event in vertebrate history and characterised by the gradual reduction of its individual bones into a single element and the concomitant transformation of the jaw joint and its incorporation into the middle ear complex. This osteological transformation is accompanied by a rearrangement and modification of the jaw adductor musculature, which is thought to have allowed the evolution of a more-efficient masticatory system in comparison to the plesiomorphic synapsid condition. While osteological characters relating to this transition are well documented in the fossil record, the exact arrangement and modifications of the individual adductor muscles during the cynodont-mammaliaform transition have been debated for nearly a century. We review the existing knowledge about the musculoskeletal evolution of the mammalian jaw adductor complex and evaluate previous hypotheses in the light of recently documented fossils that represent new specimens of existing species, which are of central importance to the mammalian origins debate. By employing computed tomography (CT) and digital reconstruction techniques to create three-dimensional models of the jaw adductor musculature in a number of representative non-mammalian cynodonts and mammaliaforms, we provide an updated perspective on mammalian jaw muscle evolution. As an emerging consensus, current evidence suggests that the mammal-like division of the jaw adductor musculature (into deep and superficial components of the m. masseter, the m. temporalis and the m. pterygoideus) was completed in Eucynodontia. The arrangement of the jaw adductor musculature in a mammalian fashion, with the m. pterygoideus group inserting on the dentary was completed in basal Mammaliaformes as suggested by the muscle reconstruction of Morganucodon oehleri. Consequently, transformation of the jaw adductor musculature from the ancestral ('reptilian') to the mammalian condition must have preceded the emergence of Mammalia and the full formation of the mammalian jaw joint. This suggests that the modification of the jaw adductor system played a pivotal role in the functional morphology and biomechanical stability of the jaw joint.
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F1: the FIA vote aftermath
Here are some of the latest developments in the aftermath of the FIA’s vote of confidence in its president Max Mosley yesterday:
• Another national organisation is thinking about whether its future lies with the FIA, according to Autosport.com – and this time it’s a sporting body rather than a motoring group.
The authoritative magazine is reporting that the chairman of the South African governing body of motorsport says he did not agree with the outcome of yesterday’s confidence vote and is considering joining the clubs contemplating withdrawing from the FIA. It continues:
South African bodies consider FIA future
Motorsport South Africa (MSA) chairman Roger Pearce says it too is deliberating its future with the sport’s governing body.
“We are obliged to abide by the majority decision in the interest of our international competitors,” he said. “For now, we will stand back and carefully consider all our options.”
Pearce will head back to South Africa to consult with MSA’s stake holders over any future course of action.
The country’s leading car club, the Automobile Assocation of South Africa (AASA), also expressed its concern at the decision to keep Mosley in power and claimed that he has rejected numerous calls from car clubs for him to step down in the last few months. Read full story here…
• One jaw-dropping statement made by the FIA, and reproduced in the BBC’s latest story on the subject, gives an unfortunate indication of which way things may be going:
“The vote was not a comment on the president’s private life but a confirmation that the decision-making of the FIA must never be manipulated by external forces who may attempt to undermine its independent authority.”
However, by deciding to retain Mosley, a divisive and fatally compromised figure with his reputation in shreds, in the face of clear evidence that he is unwelcome at some of motorsport’s most high-profile events, the FIA may very well have undermined its own authority to the point where it will cease to exist.
Three high-membership motoring organisations in Germany, The Netherlands and the USA have already either announced their decision to stop working with the FIA or to consider doing so. Now two more, both in South Africa and one a sporting body, are publicly considering their position.
And if a breakaway organisation is founded, who knows how many other national clubs will flock to its standard?
Refusing to be dictated to is one thing. Refusing to accept which way the wind is blowing while the tornado rips down your house is quite another.
• James Allen’s take on what’s important about yesterday’s events has been posted on the ITV F1 site. He predicts the sport is about to suffer from an uncomfortable period of change and instability:
James Allen’s verdict on Mosley vote
One major problem is that there is no Concorde Agreement binding the FIA, Ecclestone and the teams together.
Or rather, some teams like Williams, Force India, the Red Bull teams and Ferrari believe that they have one, because they signed up to an extension of the old agreement in 2005. But the manufacturer-backed teams believe that because they are not bound by any such extension to the Concorde Agreement, there therefore isn’t one.
Sorting that situation out for the good of the sport will not have been made any easier by recent events.
Because we are in uncharted territory here, we are probably in for another period of instability in the sport as everyone jostles for position. Who will come out of this period with a stronger hand and who will be weakened by it? What will Mercedes, BMW Honda and Toyota do next?
Will it lead to an all-out war for ownership of Formula 1? Where does it leave CVC, the finance group which bought 75% of Ecclestone’s company, based on the 100-year commercial agreement with the FIA?
Which grands prix will disappear from the calendar as a result of clubs withdrawing from the FIA? Nurburgring looks like one, because of the German ADAC pulling out — could there be others? Read full article here…
• Keith Collantine at F1 Fanatic is asking 10 questions that we’d all like to know the answers to, including what exactly happened at the meeting, whether a transcript will be made available, how the British representatives voted and whether the anti-Mosley clubs pull or lose their races. It just goes to prove how transparent and accountable motorsport’s administration isn’t… You can read his full post here.
• Edward Gorman, motor racing correspondent at The Times, has updated his Formula One blog, saying that, having won the vote, Mosley still has no intention of going quietly:
A few days in Paris
So we go further into uncharted territory after another dramatic day at the FIA. Now there is a president in charge who has been opposed by more than 50 clubs and who has acknowledged that he cannot fulfill the functions of his office.
It is going to be interesting to see how this develops, especially in Formula One where Mosley is very short of friends. I heard Eddie Jordan on BBC radio arguing on Tuesday night that, having won his vote of confidence, Mosley will most likely stand down sometime soon. Jordan’s argument was that he has made his point and can now go with some dignity and so on. I must admit my reading of the situation is a little different, partly because Mosley’s people keep telling me that there is “a very long way to go” in this saga and partly because I get the sense that Mosley wants to take this to the limit in every way. Read full story here…
Categorised under F1, tagged under FIA, Max Mosley.
« F1: FIA vote liveblog – Mosley wins, threat of split, fears for British GP
F1: Coulthard lukewarm on tintop driving »
F1: Mosley faces FIA inquiry into his conduct
F1: FIA vote liveblog – Mosley wins, threat of split, fears for British GP
F1: Lola jumps in – as teams and FIA fail to agree deal
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Aktuellste insights
BMW Group's Sustainable Value Report rated amongst Germany´s best reports
Nachhaltige Beschaffung mit IWB
Nachhaltigkeitsstrategie und GRI-Bericht für ORIOR
Beat Grüninger, BSD's managing partner in Brazil spoke with Ali Jamaloodeen, CEO of Anglo African Enterprises, our IR training partner in Mauritius, to learn more about the uptake and benefits of Integrated Reporting in that country.
BSD: Ali, in March, your company Anglo African won the prestigious PwC-Corporate Reporting awards in Mauritius, for the 4th time in a row [non-listed category], and your subsidiary NanoBNK [A FinTech Company], has been nominated for its 1st Integrated Report in 2 categories, including the Star category: Sustainability. How do you explain such a success?
Ali: The recent months have been rich in terms of nominations and awards, from PWC in Mauritius to Global Institutions like the ICAEW, Deloitte and the very prestigious London Stock Exchange’s “Company to Inspire Africa 2019”. Obviously, these are great achievements for us, given that we are a small company in a small country… but most importantly we aspire to make global impacts. All of these would not have been possible had we not embarked on the Integrated Reporting journey 4 years ago. By using the IIRC framework, we derived the most important benefit: Integrated Thinking, and through which we have started to conceive new resilient business models and use technology in a unique way that considered value creation on all capitals and in alignment with UN SDG Goals, for all stakeholders. NanoBNK and our newly developed Enterprise Command and Control [EC3, our Smart City Platform] are just 2 examples of the application of the framework. The Integrated Report is just the output of the transformation started 4 years ago, and all the nominations and awards are the recognition of the effort of our people.
BSD: Integrated and Sustainability reporting had a significant uptake in Mauritius and made the country – alongside with South Africa – one of the most inspired places in the African continent. What are the reasons behind this interesting development in island state?
Ali: There are many reasons to explain this, let me share with you some which I believe have shaped the reporting landscape in Mauritius. PWC started as early as 1998 the Corporate Reporting Award, called the Best Published Accounts at the time, to encourage companies to improve the presentation and contents of their annual report. In 2011, Prof Mervyn King came to Mauritius as the guest speaker of PWC Corporate Reporting Awards, and he actively promoted transparency in corporate reporting, and in 2014 the annual reports started to be assessed using the IIRC framework by PWC. One year later, Anglo African published its first Integrated Report which we firmly believe was the right thing, and at the same time had paved the way for others to embrace this journey. I recall going into clients meetings with Cx level people, and our team explaining the benefits of <IR>, and in 2017 Anglo African in cooperation with Beat Grüninger, Partner of BSD Consulting, an <IR> Foundation Training Partner, dispensed the first approved IIRC training sessions on the <IR> Framework to key participants across industries, which definitely accelerated companies to embrace the <IR> framework.
Sustainability Reporting while initially of interest only to companies in tourism/hospitality industry is now starting to gain traction across industries in Mauritius. I read that Mauritius is considered to be the 7th most exposed country to natural disasters out of 171 countries, and I think people are now starting seriously to realise the importance of doing business towards a sustainable world, especially after Mauritius faced and continue to face drastic weather conditions. I see today more and more awareness around UN SDGs being made, which is a good thing, as this is the basis on which people will start constructing.
BSD: Your company inspired peers in the region to follow the path of integrated reporting and you provided – together with BSD – technical support to other companies in the country: Do you think you will be able to expand this movement in other countries where your company is acting? How is the landscape in reporting in these countries?
Ali: We wanted first to start awareness in Mauritius and since 2015, we have been actively promoting <IR> in various ways, including through both public and private local sessions together with BSD to stakeholders. Anglo African has offices in Zambia, Djibouti and India and clients across Africa. While the reporting landscape is not yet mature as in Mauritius for most of these countries, the opportunities there are massive, and I believe that we should start with awareness, for people to understand the benefits of value creation and sustainable business development.
BSD: What do you see as primary benefits of having chosen Integrated Reporting as you reporting tool: Did you see changes in your business model and in decisions that have been taken based in this new approach of strategic thinking?
Ali: As I have mentioned, the most obvious benefit to us was and still remain Integrated Thinking, which has been instrumental to re-model our thinking process and our business models, which by the way has become more resilient, and has transformed our focus from Short-Term Profitability to Long-Term Value creation, for all stakeholders. For instance, our FinTech company NanoBNK was conceived and now operates in consideration of value creation on the capitals of the IIRC framework, and also aligns with UN SDG Goals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10 & 17. NanoBNK co-creates projects with stakeholders, and uses technology to bridge the gap between the banks and unbanked population. Our platform is already live in Cameroon and now being deployed in the remaining 9 signed African countries, and well on its way to tackle the Financial Inclusion challenges in Africa. We are now entering into our next phase, Funds Raising to allow us to scale to 25+ countries, and again Integrated Thinking remain a guiding tool!
BSD: Finally, what do you recommend to companies that are starting their journey towards Integrated Reporting based on your own experience at Anglo African?
Ali: It is a journey, while at first, it is time consuming and companies may not get it right, it is important to embrace this initiative and persevere, as the benefits are massive. We have people out there who can assist on this journey, make sure that companies understand the basics first and gradually put them in practice within their team, so that at the end of the day, Integrated Thinking is instilled in them.
Ali Jamaloodeen is the CEO of Anglo African Enterprises. Anglo African recently won the Non-Listed category 4 times in a row, at the PwC Corporate Reporting Awards 2019. NanoBNK, their Fintech subsidiary was nominated for their first Integrated Report, and alongside LUX in a new category: Sustainability.
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Home > Asia Pacific > Oceania > Australia
Buddhist abbot approves Shoalhaven tourism site
Australia Buddhist Corporation, August 3, 2006
Shoalhaven, Australia -- The Venerable Abbot Shi Yong Xin has inspected land at Comberton Grange where he hopes to build a Shaolin Temple, Tourism and Residential Development.
<< The Abbot looks over the plans for the Temple at Comberton Grange with his investors.
Shoalhaven City Council representatives travelled to China earlier this year to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Abbot stating that the land at Comberton Grange will be sold to him if the State Government approves the development.
The proposal is currently before the State Planning Minister, Frank Sartor who is expected to make a decision by the end of August.
During his tour, the Abbot and his party that included monks from China and potential investors, inspected the local beaches and a sandstone quarry near the proposed temple site, which the council has agreed to include in the sale of the land.
Shi Yong Xin also inspected the land at Comberton Grange where he hopes to build the temple both on foot, and from the air in a helicopter.
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Tuesday, August 23, 2016 | Sacramento, CA | Permalink
Pete Magill is an author, coach and runner, but before all that, he was a victim of substance abuse.
After needing to go to ER at the age of 38, Magill strapped on his running shoes at 39 and rebuilt his life around running.
He is now 55 years old. He has written best-selling books and articles about running, and has inspired people to get up on their feet.
His latest book "The Born Again Runner" targets new and returning runners who struggle to maintain a consistent running schedule because of obstacles they face.
Magill joins Insight to talk about his reincarnation into the running world and his new book.
Return to showInsight: California Wildfires / Dead Trees / "The Born Again Runner" / Capital Dance Project Collaborative
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Home > Cruise Ships > Royal Caribbean International > Majesty of the Seas > Reviews
Majesty of the Seas - Royal Caribbean International
In Service - 1992 to Present
8.5/10 based on 264 reviews
16 written reviews
Review: Majesty of the Seas
Ship Review: This cruise was 4 nights to the Bahamas and Key West, Florida. The ship was average. The cruise was nice for a short trip.
By riverstraveler
Ship Rating
3.2/10 5/10 5/10 3/10 3/10 2/10 1/10
This user recommends this cruise ship
Ship Review: Too small, used to the bigger ships. Other than that though, it was fine.
By myShips Facebook User
This user does not recommend this cruise ship
Ship Review: HS reunion cruise. The first timers loved it.
8.3/10 8/10 8/10 8/10 10/10 8/10 8/10
Ship Review: Short 3 day get away.. 3days is not enough time on a cruise. 1 st day is taken loading Last day taken unloading
Ship Review: Good getaway cruise.
Ship Review: best singers and dancers in comparison to all the other cruises i did
9.3/10 8/10 8/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10
Ship Review: After playing 6 days in Key West, we raced to Miami to board the Majesty of the Seas for another adventure with Memorable Cruises and Vacations.
3 stops this time. Ironically, KEY WEST, and then off to the Bahamas and Coco Cay.
We played two shows aboard during the week and loved it.
A word to musicians,,, if you're playing aboard a ship that's underway and you're on the top deck, you're guitar WILL fly off the stand at 22 knots.
What's not to love about RCCL. The food is amazing and the ships are all beautiful. Go cruising!
By RobbieMeade
Ship Review: too small! pretty rocky !!
Ship Review: We sailed on this ship prior to it going to dry dock to be cut and rehabbed. We have been told that it is a much nicer ship today but who knows?!
Ship Review: Ok trip, but not as a single. To many couples.
Ship Review: This is an older ship and we have become accustomed to bigger ships with "more" on them. It still is nice for a short cruise.
Ship Review: Not bad, but she ait no Disney Wonder!
Ship Review: Great ship for a quick get away if you live in the Miami area
8/10 8/10 8/10 6/10 10/10 10/10 6/10
Ship Review: I have sailed on this ship four times and really enjoy her alot.
Ship Review: Compared to the first time I was on Majesty, the food service, food quality and overall energy of the ship has diminished considerably. Might be time to consider drydocking her.
Ship Review: This ship was definatly older and the smallest ship Ive been on, But WOW...what great service and the Food was awsome..If you want great food and 5 star service, go Royal Caribbean, If you want lots of FUN FUN FUN go Carnival....dont get me wrong RC is also fun.....
9/10 8/10 8/10 8/10 10/10 10/10 10/10
Ship Review: Majesty is very well kept. It has been in service for 17 years and while there are areas where wear and tear is visable, the ship is overall in great condition.
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Índice general Destinos turísticosFrancia
chance to double the lead
Sección de Francia, donde podras encontrar solución a tus dudas y compartir con la comunidad.
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por Cl11234566 » Lun Dic 09, 2019 4:57 am
COMMERCE CITY, Colo. - The Vancouver Whitecaps hadnt experienced a loss in over two months before falling to the Colorado Rapids 2-0 on Saturday. Dillon Powers and Vicente Sanchez both scored in the first half as the Rapids snapped the Whitecaps (5-3-7) franchise-best unbeaten streak at eight matches. But as head coach Carl Robinson saw it, it wasnt that big of a deal. "Weve lost one in nine," Robinson said. "I wont get carried away." Despite the loss, Vancouver had reason to celebrate as Whitecaps Mehdi Ballouchy, Steven Beitashour and Nigel Reo-Coker all made their returns after various lengths of absences. Ballouchy played 20 minutes in his first game in nearly 11 months since tearing his right ACL last season. He tore his left ACL two years ago, and played only five games for the San Jose Earthquake before the most recent injury. "Its been a long time," Ballouchy said. "When you do an ACL, you come back, and you do it again, these are long-term injuries. A lot of players dont come back. Its been a steep, steep hill and Im happy to be playing again." Reo-Coker was back in action after missing Wednesdays scoreless draw against Montreal to be in New York for the birth of his first child, while Beitashour was back after a long trek back from Brazil, where he played for Irans national team in the World Cup pool play. Vancouver hadnt lost since falling to Los Angeles 1-0 on April 19. It was the second of a brief two-game losing streak that started with a home loss to Colorado a week earlier. "Weve lost three games out of 15. Its not bad," said Reo-Coker. "Every team has spells like this — even the top teams. Were going through it now. We have so much belief and confidence in this team that were going to bounce back. Its a sign and test of how good we are." Reo-Coker said the birth of his daughter Scarlet changed his life "completely." "Its fantastic," he said. "Its something you cant put into words until you go through." He had a less memorable moment late in the first half when he fouled Sanchez in the box, leading to a penalty kick. Sanchez easily beat goalie David Ousted in the 36th minute to give the Rapids their second goal. "It was just miscommunication between David and myself," Reo-Coker said. "I saw David coming out and we kind of hesitated amongst each other, no one really took command of the full situation." Robinson had no issue with the call. "Second goal, it was a blatant penalty," he said. Powers hit the bar in the 17th minute and put a shot through the legs of a Vancouver defender three minutes later to give Colorado a 1-0 lead. The Rapids had another chance in the 27th minute, but were turned away by Ousted. Vancouver had two solid chances in the second half but Pedro Morales put a shot wide in the 63rd minute and Johnny Leversons laser in the 77th minute was saved by Clint Irwin. Colorado had 19 shots overall to Vancouvers five. "Were going to win games where we dont deserve to and were going to lose games we deserve to win," Robinson said. "Tonight we got what we deserved." Robinson didnt play Beitashour, opting instead to give him a rest after a long period of travel. "Beitas had three flights and in total its probably 16 hours of flying," Robinson said. "What I didnt want to do is risk an injury to him. I made the decision before the game." Chad Moeller Jersey .com) - The New York Islanders will try to solve their issues against Central Division opponents when they visit the Minnesota Wild for Tuesdays battle at Xcel Energy Center. Corbin Martin Jersey . Beckham finished 2 for 4, adding a double in the first inning. Chicago has won eight of 12 to get back to .500 (27-27). The White Sox are 6-3 against Cleveland this season after losing 17 of 19 to their American League Central rival in 2013. Mike Aviles went 1 for 2 with a walk and drove in Clevelands run. https://www.cheapdiamondbacksjerseys.us ... s.html.com) - Manchester City will face a steep test in the Champions League knockout stage as the English champions were drawn with Barcelona on Monday. Albie Lopez Jersey . Joakim Nordstrom and Garret Ross also scored for Chicago and Corey Crawford made 30 saves. Tomas Tatar scored twice for Red Wings (2-3-0), Jonathan Ericsson added a goal and Gustav Nyquist had three assists. Bob Brenly Jersey . Philippe Desrosiers stopped 42 shots through overtime and three more in the shootout to pick up his third shutout of the season for Rimouski (31-15-7). Zachary Fucale made 28 saves for Halifax (34-17-3) in the loss.MALABO, Equatorial Guinea - Both the Ivory Coast and Cameroon came into the day as big favourites at the African Cup of Nations, and both finished it happy just to avoid losing.The Ivorians got a late equalizer from Seydou Doumbia — shortly after Gervinho was sent off with a straight red card — to earn a 1-1 draw with Guinea on Tuesday at Malabo Stadium.A short time later at the same venue, it was Cameroon that needed a late goal from Ambroise Oyongo to hold on for a 1-1 draw against Mali.We bounced back. Its a good point for us, said Ivory Coast captain Yaya Toure, who recently won his fourth African player of the year award. We have a couple of games coming, and I hope we will do well in them.The draws leave all four teams in Group D with one point. On Saturday, Ivory Coast will take on Mali and Cameroon will face Guinea.Gervinho had been Ivory Coasts best player, or least the one with the best chances, until a scuffle with Baissama Sankoh during an off-the-ball incident earned him a straight red in the 57th minute.With 10 men it was very hard, said Ivory Coast coach Herve Renard, who led Zambia to the African Cup title in 2012. I think the players did very well in the different organization (after the sending off).Doumbia, who came on in the 66th as the tactics changed, scored from in front of goal in the 72nd after a pass from Wilfried Bony.dddddddddddd Toure was the one who started the play.Guinea had taken the lead in the 36th when Ibrahima Traore crossed to Mohamed Yattara.Traore then had a chance to double the lead in the 61st but his shot hit the crossbar.Were not happy, because we know we could win this game, Traore said. Were going to keep working hard. At the end we will win and we will qualify, because as I said we are not afraid of anyone.In the second match, Oyongo latched onto to a long pass from Raoul Loe in the 84th and beat Mali goalkeeper Soumaila Diakite in a fast-paced game that had several missed chances at both ends.Sambou Yatabare had given Mali a surprising lead in the 71st, controling the ball with his chest and scoring from a tight angle after a free kick on the other side of the field.The manner we played this match, especially the second half, it was the manner to win the game, Cameroon coach Volker Finke said. The goal of Mali was a matter of concentration. The players were not concentrated.Cameroon, which conceded only one goal in qualifying, had chances earlier in the game but lacked quality finishing.One of the more entertaining moments came in the 57th minute when Cameroon forward Edgar Salli bounced the ball several times on his head to evade defenders but was eventually brought down just outside the box. ' ' '
Cl11234566
Registrado: Jue Dic 05, 2019 12:32 pm
Montreals best chance to take the lead
en Lugares turísticos
por wh3171
Sab Dic 28, 2019 5:05 am
great chance to
por Cl11234566
Konerko had a big three-run double
I knew it had a chance
be integral to any chance of success
Mié Dic 11, 2019 6:50 am
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Ashley Madison founder emails leaked in new data dump
Alastair SharpJosephine Mason Aug. 21, 2015 | 09:10 AM
Emails sent by the founder of infidelity website AshleyMadison.com appear to have been exposed in a second, larger release of data stolen from its parent...
U.S. interrogation strategy gets scrutiny in Benghazi case
Eric Tucker Aug. 18, 2015 | 12:11 AM
After a suspected militant was captured last year to face charges for the deadly 2012 attacks on Americans in Benghazi, Libya, he was brought to the U.S....
Philippines can't afford full military modernization: officials
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US transfers widow of top ISIS figure to Iraqi custody
The United States Thursday handed over to Iraqi authorities the widow of a senior ISIS leader who had been detained by US forces since May, the Pentagon...
U.S. Navy investigates report of Gitmo cancer cluster
The U.S. Navy is investigating a complaint that seeks the evacuation of civilian and military lawyers from parts of the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,...
Swiss army makes incursion into France for water for cattle
Maggy Donaldson Jul. 27, 2015 | 05:37 PM
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US Guantanamo board hears case of alleged Al-Qaeda member
Idrees Ali Jul. 27, 2015 | 06:46 PM
A suspected Al-Qaeda recruiter held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison for 13 years faced a U.S. national security board Monday to determine if he is...
Airstrike kills Al-Qaeda leader in Syria: Pentagon
A US-led coalition air strike earlier this month killed the leader of an Al-Qaeda offshoot in Syria that American officials accuse of plotting attacks against...
Philippines hikes defense budget 25% amid China tensions
The Philippines is planning a 25 percent hike in its defense budget next year, mainly to bolster its claims in the disputed South China Sea, officials said...
Pentagon chief heads to Israel, Saudi after Iran deal
U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter heads next week to Israel and Saudi Arabia -- a diplomatic charm offensives to two countries that have expressed serious...
US psychology group colluded with govt 'torture' program: report
The U.S.'s top psychology association colluded with the Pentagon and the CIA to devise ethical guidelines to support post-9/11 interrogation techniques that...
Saudi royal visits U.S. warship in Gulf waters
A U.S. aircraft carrier in the Gulf hosted one of Saudi Arabia’s most powerful figures, official media said Wednesday, as regional concerns mount over alleged...
Saudi royal visits US warship amid regional tensions
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Documents: Mexican army ordered troops to 'kill criminals'
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Islamic State seen as potent force a year after caliphate declaration: Pentagon
David Alexander Jun. 29, 2015 | 10:36 PM
A year after Islamic State declared a caliphate on territory seized in Iraq and Syria, the al Qaeda splinter group faces military pressure from a U.S.-led...
China to widen draft security law to cover space, sea, polar interests
China will add its assets and activities in space, the deep sea and polar regions to its pending national security law, state media said on Wednesday, the...
US says ISIS suspect in Benghazi attack killed in airstrike
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US Senate passes annual defense policy bill, veto threatened
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The U.S. Senate passed an annual defense policy bill that authorizes some $600 billion in defense spending for the 2016 fiscal year and starts reforms that...
U.S. State Department OKs sale of six military planes to Lebanon
The U.S. State Department has approved a deal to sell six military aircraft to Lebanon, along with other military hardware and support equipment as part of a...
US State Department approves sale of 6 military aircraft to Lebanon
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Pantech Confirms Android 4.4 KitKat Update for Vega Iron
Surprisingly, the first company to confirm that it will update one of its smartphones to Android 4.4. KitKat is Pantech. According to a tweet spotted by UnwiredView, Pantech will push the highly anticipated upgrade to one of its high-end smartphones, the Vega Iron.
The bad news is that Pantech Vega Iron is only available in South Korea, so this won’t have any impact on the international market. The Vega Iron was launched earlier this year with Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean out of the box and packs a hyper-vibrant 5-inch HD (720p) capacitive touchscreen display and a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor clocked at 1.7 GHz.
Although there’s no telling when exactly Pantech plans to deliver the promised update, there’s a slight chance that Android 4.4 KitKat will arrive on Vega Iron devices by the end of the year.
Pantech Vega Iron
Image credits to Pantech
BBM for Android APK Now Available for Download
BlackBerry promised several months ago that it would bring BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) to Android and iOS platform sometime in fall, but the Canadian company did no unveil any details on the exact release date.
Although we’ve already seen a BBM for Android demo earlier this month, we’re still not sure when exactly it will be available for iOS and Android users. Even though the company has yet to introduce BBM, it appears that the folks over at XDA Developers have been able to get their hands on the APK file, which will allow Android users to install and run the application.
Unfortunately, you won’t be able to use BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) on an Android device yet, as the application won’t connect to BlackBerry servers. However, you can now download BBM for Android for free, but keep in mind that it’s useless until BlackBerry fires up its servers.
BlackBerry Messenger for Android
Image credits to XDA-Developers
Jolla Announces Sailfish OS Now Compatible with Android Apps and Hardware
Sailfish OS fans rejoice, as Jolla has just announced that its new ecosystem will be fully compatible with Android applications and hardware.
Those who have already pre-ordered the first smartphone powered by Sailfish OS won’t have to wait to install their favorite apps anymore. According to Jolla, all Android applications will now run directly on Sailfish OS without any modifications. Basically, Sailfish OS users will now be able to take advantage of the Android application ecosystem, which is now available through various app stores globally. Moreover, the Finnish company has promised that it will cooperate with some of the most important app stores to make sure that Sailfish OS users will be able to download Android apps just as they would do on any device powered by Google’s mobile platform. “For example, highly popular apps such as Instagram, WhatsApp and Spotify run directly on Sailfish OS. Also Chinese WeChat – already with over 400 million users – runs on Sailfish OS,” says Jolla CEO Tomi Pienimäki.
There’s more to it, as Jolla has announced that Sailfish OS now runs on common hardware specifically produced for Android, including smartphones and tablets. This means that vendors that are interested in taking advantage of Sailfish OS offering can now develop phones and tablets based on many different chipset and hardware configurations. “We believe Sailfish with Android compatibility is a highly relevant mobile operating system option for major mobile companies in Europe and in Asia. We are already in discussions with several major Asian vendors regarding this opportunity,” says Tomi Pienimäki.
In the same piece of news, the Finnish handset maker has confirmed that the next batch of Sailfish-powered devices will be opened for pre-order sometime this week. “Due to extremely positive feedback and increased demand in the past weeks, we are offering another pre-order opportunity for our second production batch later this week through jolla.com. This will be targeted to Finnish customers who want to express their passion for the Finnish mobile industry,” Pienimäki concluded.
Jolla logo
Image credits to Jolla
Patriot Memory SuperSonic Boost XT 256 GB Flash Drive
Patriot Memory has a lot of competition on the DRAM and NAND Flash industries, which is why it sometimes launches things that really stand out, like the new SuperSonic Boost XT flash drive.
The name alone should be enough to imply what sorts of capabilities the product possesses, but we'll go through them one by one all the same. They deserve it too. Sure, the newcomer is bound to cost a pretty penny, to say the least, but at least it won't seem undeserved. Besides, between getting one of these and buying a portable hard disk drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD) instead, prospective customers may very well choose the smaller but equally capable flash stick. Of course, if the capacity was any less than 256 GB, we might not have said the same. That's right, the new SuperSonic Boost XT flash drive has 256 GB to offer. This is actually the latest addition to an existing product line, which previously topped at 128 GB.
Thanks to the USB 3.0 interface, it doesn't take long to move large-capacity files, as the top read speed is of 150 MB/s. The writing speed is considerably lower, however. Still, even 30 MB/s are nothing to scoff at, not when USB 2.0 would limit things to 4 MB/s or so. Add to this a rugged standard capped enclosure and there isn't much of a reason against buying this thing. Well, except the price, but we don't know it yet. We do know the exact measurements though, so here they are: 59.7 x 12.2 x 19.8 mm / 2.35 x 0.48 x 0.77 (WxDxH) and a weight of 13 grams / 0.45. The photo up on the left should be an accurate representation. As you may come to agree, that's not the sleekest case we've ever seen, but then rugged things aren't supposed to look fancy, and Patriot tried to add some aesthetic value anyway.
Super Talent SuperSonic Boost XT
Image credits to Super Talent
Nokia Lumia 1520 Gets Certified in China
Although Nokia and Microsoft have pushed back the launch of Lumia 1520, the phablet has just received its certification in China.
MyNokiaBlog reports the smartphone has been recently spotted China’s Telecommunication Equipment Certification Center, though details on its specs sheet have yet to be unveiled. New pictures of Nokia Lumia 1520 have leaked online as well, and show the phone's buttons and the virtual keyboard.
According to the latest rumors, the Lumia 1520 should boast a huge 6-inch capacitive touchscreen display that supports full HD (1080p) resolution, as well as a powerful quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor. Other highlights of the phone include a 20-megapixel PureView camera on the back with Carl Zeiss lens, as well as 3400 mAh Li-Ion battery and microSD card slot for memory expansion (up to 32GB).
White Nokia Lumia 1520
Image credits to CtechCN.com
Dual-SIM Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Leaks with Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 Inside
Samsung will launch a dual-SIM version of its Galaxy Note 3 phablet, but the company did not unveil any details regarding the phone's hardware configuration.
Dubbed Samsung Galaxy Note 3 N9002, the smartphone was recently spotted in China, GSMInsider reports. Several photos showing the N9002 in action while being benchmarked confirm it will be equipped with a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor clocked at 2.3 GHz. Samsung is expected to launch no less than four different Galaxy Note 3 models in China. Each major carrier in the Mainland will offer its own Galaxy Note 3 variant, such as the N9008 and N9009.
However, aside from the fact that it comes with an extra SIM slot there are no major difference between the N9002 and other Galaxy Note 3 models powered by Qualcomm's chipset.
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 DUOS
Images credits to GSMinsider
Sony Xperia Z2 (Avatar) Specs: 5.2-Inch Display and 3GB RAM
Sony has just announced the Xperia Z1, but rumors on the next flagship smartphone are already making headlines. It looks like the Japanese company plans to launch the Xperia Z2 early next year at CES or MWC 2014.
It's a common fact that major handset makers launch their flagship products during major trade fairs that take place in various cities. According to the latest hearsay, the Xperia Z2 is codenamed Avatar and is likely to pack a slightly larger display than the Z1. Although the improvement is not that important, Sony Xperia Z2 will boast a 5.2-inch full HD Triluminous display. Hardware-wise, it will come equipped with a quad-core Qualcomm MSM8974AB processor clocked at 2.3 GHz, as well as 3GB of RAM.
It's unclear yet if Sony will also upgrade the main camera and deliver the Xperia Z2 with a 26-megapixel module or if it will keep the same photo snapper included in the Z1 model. However, Sony Xperia Z2 will be capable of capturing 4K videos. Obviously, we should take the information with a grain of salt, as for now, there are no confirmations whatsoever that Xperia Z2's specs sheet will contain any of the above.
Image credits to Sony Mobile
ASUS M70, First NFC Desktop PC
Near-Field Communication chips are, for now, mostly used to help phones/tablets quickly recognize each other so that a Bluetooth connection may form easily. ASUS decided to extend that to PCs.
In this respect, it released the M70 Desktop PC, the first NFC-enabled desktop ever. It should allow owners to log on to the PC and launch applications via NFC, wirelessly back up photos and such from phones with a single tap of a key, and even detect and only back up files added since last sync. And since NFC wasn't about to sell the system on its own, ASUS also gave the M70 a built-in Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), a Core i3/i5/i7 dual-core CPU (Haswell), NVIDIA Graphics (up to GTX 650), and a built-in Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) that activates when power fails. The UPS is there to ensure that sudden lapses in the power grid don't compromise ongoing copy/paste and backup processes. And if the power fails altogether, it will last for some minutes, allowing the tasks to finish and then pushing the HDD into hibernate mode.
Finally, an ASUS Wireless Charger tray is located at the top, for wireless recharging of phones. The rest of the specs are standard, save for the ASUS Universal Storage Module (USM), a hot-swap drive bay twice as fast as USB 3.9. I'll be keeping an eye out for the price of this thing.
ASUS M70 NFC Desktop
Pantech Confirms Android 4.4 KitKat Update for Veg...
Jolla Announces Sailfish OS Now Compatible with An...
Patriot Memory SuperSonic Boost XT 256 GB Flash Dr...
Dual-SIM Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Leaks with Qualcomm...
Sony Xperia Z2 (Avatar) Specs: 5.2-Inch Display an...
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NextChina and the Developmental State Model
EnvironmentInnovationPolicy & Regulations
New Five-Year Plans Promote Energy Industry Reform
Facing ongoing pollution challenges and a push to diversify energy sources, China’s energy planners kicked off 2017 by announcing an array of 13th Five-Year Plans (13FYPs). Offering quantifiable short-term goals for limiting reliance on coal in favor of oil and gas, these plans collectively focus on emissions cuts, renewable energy development, and improved energy industry efficiency, while encouraging technology solutions such as data centers.
USCBC on May 17, 2017
By David Solomon, Josie Cai, and Owen Haacke
As China outlines its upcoming policy direction for traditional, renewable, and efficient energy, as well as pollution control, USCBC has highlighted key FYP themes and targets, which shed light on new energy sector trends that offer opportunities for member companies.
13th Five-Year Plan for Energy Development
In January, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and National Energy Administration (NEA) announced the 13th Five-Year Plan for Energy Development, a guideline for promoting an “energy revolution” in China. The plan highlights the following themes:
Structural adjustments support oil, gas, renewable energy consumption Total energy consumption by 2020 should be within 5 billion tons of coal equivalent. Growing by 2.5 percent annually, this 13FYP rate is 1.1 percent lower than that of the 12FYP period. Structural adjustments to the sector will include greater emphasis on oil and gas in place of coal, while renewable energy will begin to gradually replace fossil fuels. Companies in the oil and gas space should focus on this section of the plan.
Development through innovation Science and technology innovation will promote clean and intelligent energy, propelling new industries and business. Gradually shifting from traditional high energy-consuming industries to service industries and household consumption, energy consumption growth will focus on modern manufacturing, big data centers, and new energy, offering opportunities to companies with expertise in energy efficiency.
Diversified energy sources Major energy projects will include development and commercialization of smart grids, distributed energy resources, low-speed wind power, solar energy materials, and biomass and geothermal energy. China intends for these energy sources and systems to be a predominant fuel source for economic growth in towns and rural regions; however, success depends on implementation.
Cooperation in other markets China will increase cooperation with other countries on energy technology, equipment, engineering services, and capacity development by encouraging Chinese companies to participate in foreign electricity projects. China will also pursue investment, construction, and operation of overseas power grids and new energy projects. This could provide opportunities for US companies to partner with Chinese counterparts seeking to collaborate in markets beyond the United States and China.
Fiscally supportive policies and projects Chinese energy reform will rely on various other supportive policies that include energy resource pricing mechanisms, monetary and tax incentives, financing support, and methods for evaluation and supervision. The development of an energy market access negative list will encourage companies and other market players to invest in the Chinese energy sector. Pilot projects will include developing and drilling non-traditional oil and gas, deep-water oil and gas, and natural uranium resources.
Other industry-specific plans
In addition to the 13FYP for Energy Development—which serves as a broad industry blueprint and action plan—China announced a range of sub-industry FYPs that offer strategies to reduce carbon emissions. The following chart outlines 14 of these plans:
Sub-Industry 13FYP Highlights
Electricity Development
Sets overall electricity percentage targets for coal (55 percent), hydropower (17 percent), wind (10.5 percent), solar (5.5 percent), gas (5.5 percent), and nuclear (2.9 percent), as well as for electricity and transmission and distribution networks.
Achieve 770 million kilowatts (kW) of non-fossil energy power and 50 million kW of gas power installed capacity.
China to establish market for electricity spot trading, a system that ensures immediate power delivery and value.
Coal Industry Development
Reduce average coal consumption of new coal-fired generating units to less than 300 grams of standard coal per kWh
Accelerate coal energy system upgrades,promote sustainable development, achieve low emissions, retrofit to save 420 million kW, implement energy-saving mechanisms to save 340 million kW, and achieve 300,000 units of ultra-low emissions.
Eliminate 800 million tons per year of inefficient or polluting industrial capacity, known as “backward production capacity.”
Intensive Coal Processing
Achieve annual coal liquefaction capacity of 13 million tons, gasification capacity of 17 billion cubic meters, and low-rank coal utilization capacity of 15 million tons.
Upgrade large-scale coal gasification, hydrogenation liquefaction, low-temperature Fischer Tropsch synthesis, Methanol to olefin technology, low-rank coal pyrolysis, medium and low temperature coal tar deep processing, methanation, and coal-to-aromatics technologies.
Improve energy efficiency, reducing total energy consumption.
Coal-Bed Methane Exploration and Development
Build three to four coal-bed methane (CBM) industrial bases.
Develop 40 billion cubic meters of drainage volume—noticeably outpacing 12FYP period goals.
Increase coal-mine gas usage volume from 4.8 billion cubic meters to 7 billion cubic meters.
Shale Gas Development
Achieve 30 billion cubic meters of shale gas production volume.
Release supportive policies such as subsidies, review processes for international cooperation, and management mechanisms.
Natural Gas Development
Increase regular gas reserves by three cubic meters; total reserve should reach 16 trillion cubic meters.
Achieve a supply capacity of 360 billion cubic meters.
Construct 40,000 km of new natural gas pipelines, achieving a total of 1.04 million km.
Promote natural gas market reform that improves legal and policy systems and establishes comprehensive supervision.
Petroleum Development
Increase geological reserves by one billion tons per year.
Achieve more than 200 million tons of petroleum production to ensure 590 million tons of domestic consumption.
Construct 5,000 km of new crude oil pipelines and increase oil transportation capacity by 1,200 million tons per year.
Build 12,000 km of refined oil pipelines and increase transportation capacity by 900,000 tons per year.
Nuclear Industry Development
Achieve 880 million kW of nuclear power capacity.
Improve nuclear safety and emergency systems, increase security capacities, ensure uranium and nuclear fuel supplies, and strengthen spent fuel and radioactive waste management.
Conduct research and development in floating nuclear power plants.
Renewable Energy Sources Development
Increase hydropower capacity by 60 million kW and investment by 500 billion RMB ($70 billion).
Increase wind power capacity by 80 million kW and investment by 700 billion RMB ($100 billion).
Increase solar power capacity by 500 million kW and investment by 1 trillion RMB ($143 billion).
Increase renewable energy (including biomass power generation, solar energy water heaters, and geothermal energy) investment by 2.5 trillion RMB ($357 billion)—a 39 percent increase from the 12FYP period.
Solar Energy Development
Expand solar use by cutting costs and improving technology.
Focus on development of distributed photovoltaics (PV) and PV plus application.
Strengthen international cooperation in solar energy technology and equipment manufacturing.
Wind Power Development
Shift development focus from promotion of large-scale base construction to low-wind-speed regions, such as east and south.
Add 80 million kW of national wind power capacity including 42 million kW of eastern and southern region land-based capacity.
Hydropower Development
Emphasize pumped storage and add 60 million kW of hydropower production.
Expand West-East Electricity Transmission Project capacity.
Achieve 100 million kW of hydropower generation.
Biomass Energy Development
Increase production of alternatives to fossil fuels from 35.4 million tons per year (2015) to 58 million tons per year.
Establish 160 pilot counties for biological gas and agriculture recycling, with particular emphasis on Central, East, and Northeast China.
Marine Renewable Energy Development
Construct demonstration bases for MW-level power grids, 500kW-level wave energy, and kW-level tidal energy.
Achieve total marine renewable capacity over 50,000kW.
Establish five independent marine power systems that complement wind and solar power.
Expand the application of marine energy.
Changing landscape: member company opportunities
The themes and targets listed in China’s various energy industry 13FYPs reveal goals to improve nationwide sector efficiency, as well as newly-emerging commercial opportunities:
Increased clean and low-carbon energy consumption; emphasis on natural gas Adjustments to energy industry structures will enable China to develop clean and low-carbon energy. During the current five-year period, China will increase non-fossil fuel consumption to more than 15 percent, raise natural gas consumption to 10 percent, and reduce coal consumption to less than 58 percent. The 2016 China Natural Gas Development Report indicates that natural gas will be China’s primary future energy source. NDRC and NEA have released several policies during the past six months regarding pricing, control, and management of natural gas, establishing further legal basis for natural gas industry reform. Recent State Council measures also outline new opportunities for foreign companies to participate in natural gas drilling and exploration, although implementation timelines are conspicuously absent.
Gradual transfer of wind and PV power to eastern and central China Declining traditional energy consumption, coupled with persisting distribution limitations, are creating a regional supply and demand imbalance. China’s major wind and photovoltaic (PV) energy plants are predominantly in northern and western China, requiring long-distance power transmission that risks degradation en route to Eastern and Central China. Chinese energy planners are making structural adjustments to overcome these challenges, as new policies seek to meet traditional energy consumption demand with renewables. The government announced that 58 percent of new wind power installations and 56 percent of new PV power installations will be in Eastern and Central China, with PV development emphasizing the distributed system and local consumption.
Reforms focused on electricity, oil and gas Greater emphasis on renewables will also require China to carefully control coal sector development to avoid overcapacity. China’s petroleum development and natural gas development FYPs outline reforms to the system of oil and gas exploration and development, as well as the expansion of pilot projects. China will seek to open up downstream business opportunities for oil and gas exploration, development, imports, and exports, providing improved access to pipeline networks and other infrastructure development. These highlighted oil and gas industry reform plans will offer future investment opportunities.
Internet Plus smart energy China has also announced the planned development of an internet-based energy strategy. Outlining the Guidance on Promoting Internet Plus Smart Energy Development in 2016, NDRC will create smart energy infrastructure through development of a multi-energy micro-grid network and big data services. This Internet Plus Smart Energy plan will integrate cloud computing, big data, and the internet of things with energy production, transmission, storage, and consumption to create a more efficient system. The central government has announced various pilot projects for the next five years that develop these technologies. China has yet to announce detailed regulations on this plan, however, NEA’s Chief Economist, Li Ye, has predicted the creation of a large investment fund to finance development. The plan will offer new opportunities for distributed energy, micro-grids, energy storage, big data services, comprehensive service providers, and other related fields.
USCBC will continue tracking the evolving Chinese energy landscape to identify upcoming member company engagement opportunities in the sector.
About the Authors: The US-China Business Council (USCBC) is a private, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization of more than 200 American companies that do business with China. Founded in 1973, USCBC has provided unmatched information, advisory, advocacy, and program services to its membership for more than four decades. Through its offices in Washington, DC, Beijing, and Shanghai, USCBC is uniquely positioned to serve its members’ interests in the United States and China.
Posted in: Environment, Innovation, Policy & Regulations, Standards + Licensing, Sustainability, Tech, Top Story
Tagged in: Coal, Development, Energy, Hydropower, Indstry Reform, Natural Gas, Nuclear, Solar Energy, Wind Power
Posted by David Solomon, Josie Cai, and Owen Haacke
China and the Developmental State Model
Where is TPP heading?
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Plenary Assemblies
Europe-infos
COMECE lunch debate 14/06/2016
Europe´s vocation to promote peace in the world
Presentation of the COMECE Peace Report, Tuesday 14 June at 12:30
Today, Europe is surrounded by a series of violent conflicts and our neighbourhood is marked by political instability. One of the most urgent tasks it has to address nowadays is the elaboration of the Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy.
Which role does the EU play on the global scene? How can its foundational commitment to peace be revived today? Can Europe defend itself against new security threats?
Ahead of the upcoming European Council, COMECE will present its report on “Europe’s vocation to promote peace in the world” which the COMECE Bishops adopted at their last Plenary Assembly as their contribution to the preparation of the EU Global Strategy.
The Report will be launched on the occasion of a Lunch debate, Tuesday 14 June 12:30 to 14:00 at COMECE, Square de Meeûs 19, 1050 Bruxelles:
H.E. Mgr. Jean Kockerols
Vice-President of COMECE and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Malines-Brussels
Brigadier General Heinz Krieb
Director of Concepts & Capability Directorate of the European Union Military Staff (EUMS) of the European Union External Action Service (EEAS).
The event will start at 12:30 and will be followed by a lunch at 13:30
Please register online by Friday 10 June latest:
Alessandro Di Maio
Press & Communications Officer E-mail contact Tel.: +32 (0) 2 235 05 15
Our Member Bishops
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Migration & Asylum
Ecology & Sustainability
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Justice & Fundamental rights
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External Action
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Download e-book for iPad: Accept - Russian Roulette by Anonymous
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By all accounts Burrows was a most attractive personality and a man of the greatest personal integrity. But a study of the considerable body of material that still survives about the early history of the Koraes Chair suggests that his philhellenic sentiments were liable to get the better of his academic judgement. It is dear that he envisaged that an important part of the role of the incumbent of the newly established chair would be to engage in sophisticated academic propaganda on behalf of Greece and her national aspirations at one of the most crucial junctures in her modern history , the immediate aftermath of the First World War.
K. Koumas, Istoriai anthropinon praxeon ... (Vienna, 1832) vol. 512. 17. This encyclical was reprinted in MeLissa, i Ephimeris Elliniki (Paris, 1820) pp. 218--19. 18. The History ofthe Decline and Fall ofthe Roman Empire, ed. J. B. Bury (London, 1907) vol. VI, pp. 485-6. 19. Koumas, Istoriai, vol. XII, p. 544. 20. D. A. Zakythinos, 'Two historical parallels: the Greek nation under Roman and Turkish rule', in A. ), Charanis Studies (New Brunswick, NJ, 1980) p. 320. 21. Quoted by K. Th. Dimaras in the preface to Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos, Istoria tou Ellinikou Ethnous [I proti morphi: 1853} (Athens, 1970) p.
So to vulgarize, on the other hand, as to appear disgusting to those who have received an edueation appears to me demagogie. When I say that the whole nation shares in the language with demoeratie equality, I do not me an that we should leave its shaping and ereation to the vulgar imagination of the mob. 13 22 The Greeks and their Past The debate over the language was waged with astonishing verbal ferocity and, at times, actual physical violence. One leading archaizer, Neophytos Doukas, was set upon one Sunday morning, as he was leaving church in Bucharest, by a gang of pupils of the demoticist Benjamin of Lesvos, at that time director of the Princely Academy in Bucharest.
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EMILY C. A. SNYDER
Classical NYC
Pop Feminist
O! Beauty Unattempted
Published Plays
Verse Plays >
Shakespeare Inspired Verse Plays
Medieval Inspired Verse Plays
Love and Death Trilogy
New Play Exchange
The Other, Other Woman
Written and Directed by Emily C. A. Snyder
Workshop Production by Turn to Flesh Productions (2018)
When the rhyming couplets break apart into simple and honest speech, the audience takes a collective breath and holds it. The ache of love unexpressed and inexpressible. ~ A Work Unfinishing
Emily C. A. Snyder (Writer/Director) is obviously a genius. She has written a show with a large amount of characters all playing off of one another, and the weaving in and out of situations is handled with such aplomb that it's magic to watch. The script has incredibly complex-yet-wonderful structure, filled with great comedy, deep and meaningful drama, and a whole lot of heart. On top of which she has assembled an amazing cast who she's directed marvelously. Theater in the round is difficult, but the staging is engaging and the performances she's gotten ring true. ~ StageBuddy
What a lovely, funny, and yet delicately punched-in-the-gut kind of evening, thanks to Turn to Flesh' s production of The Other, Other Woman, by the brilliant, prolific Emily C.A. Snyder. I couldn't stop thinking about it when I got home. While it sat very clearly and comfortably as French restoration comedy, and was created through a typical process you'd witness at the Globe - I was really struck by the intense, silent "negative space" between certain actors, which made it so much richer. Something different, even. So happy I caught this one...Brilliantly done. I hope this show gets another chance to live and breathe again sometime soon. ~ Megan Greener
Pictured Clockwise from Top Left: Justy Kosek as LeBoeuf, Amanda Roberts as Madame Evolette, Joe Raik as Impetueux, and Chris Rivera as Dr. Nanti
Photo courtesy of Duncan Pflaster (2018)
Cupid and Psyche
~ A New Play in Blank Verse
Produced by Turn to Flesh Productions (2014)
"Emily C. A. Snyder writes soul-restoring, gorgeous plays." ~ Kelly Zekas, author of These Vicious Masks
"Turn To Flesh Productions certainly chose a relevant story to present for Valentine’s weekend of 2014: the myth of Cupid and Psyche... written and directed by Emily C. A. Snyder, is their very first play -- a comedy with the audacity to deconstruct that classical story." ~ StageBuddy, Paloma Chediak
"What happens when a god falls down to Earth and a mortal ascends to the heavens? You get one of the most enduring stories of love wrapped in a myth — Cupid and Psyche. Under the helm of playwright and artistic director Emily C.A. Snyder, the theater company re-contextualized a classic legend about Cupid’s fabled experience of the trials and agony of love...truly carrying them into the 21st century." ~ Off-Off Online, Jessica Taghap
"A delicious treat for the Valentine's Day weekend!" ~ Hi! Drama, Kristin Hardwick
Pictured: James Parenti as Cupid and Erin Nelson as Psyche
Photo courtesy of Patricia Phelps (2014)
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Emily C. A. Snyder
Produced by Hamlet Isn't Dead (2015)
"From the first line of the play, director Snyder makes her vision clear... This is a world of prisons where each character is his own jailer. Richard's coffin [is] present onstage from the first - sometimes serving as a platform, a bench, a chest of jewels, a grassy hillock - but always a reminder of where this is heading. The other principal set piece is Richard's throne - a spindly-legged gilt affair, a signal of how weak his hold on power is, even from the first. Snyder understands this acutely and crafts her production - staged in the challenging alley formation - cleanly and with little ornament, relying on the words and the people speaking them to convey the narrative." ~ A Work Unfinishing, Zelda Knapp
"Simplicity. Sometimes it's all you need to tell a story. In an age of an overabundant amount of Shakespeare companies, sticking out can be hard. But when the focus is on the text rather than the reimagining, that may be all you need to stick out. In Hamlet Isn't Dead's stripped down production of Richard II, the focus is on the language and the struggles of power. Given a modern look with a gender, age, and ethnically fluid lens, this Richard II is an examination of character. Director Emily C.A. Snyder takes the game of power to the ultimate." ~ Theater in the Now, Michael Block
Pictured: Morgan Hooper as Richard II (Front) & Kitty Mortland as Aumerle (Back)
Photo courtesy of John Robert Hoffman (2015)
May Violets Spring
By James Parenti, with text from William Shakespeare
Emily C. A. Snyder: Director (2016), Verse Coach (2014)
Produced by Turn to Flesh Productions (2016), Dare Lab (2014)
"As I now take for granted at an Emily C. A. Snyder-helmed production, the cast is fluidly agile and completely comfortable in the world of verse, to the degree that I'd forgotten until writing this that I was taking it for granted. " ~ A Work Unfinishing, Zelda Knapp (2016)
"A gorgeous production! This is a fantastic script beautifully realized by the cast. They clearly all had such a strong command of the language and I imagine that a great deal of that is due to Snyder's work with them on telling the story. Also -- it always makes me very glad to see terrific race- and gender-blind casting for the sake of having the best people fill the roles." ~ Amanda Sayle Rinzel, Dramaturg
"The direction of May Violets Spring is terrific...I was swept up in the language, the characters and plot, and found it deeply engaging, the movement graceful, the acting impassioned...[I]t was a joy being reacquainted with these characters and for dear Ophelia to have the last word for a change!" ~ Fengar Gael, Playwright
"[M]any of the lines usually given to Guildenstern and Rosencrantz are here given to Ophelia and Horatio...leading to some charming early scenes with the three buddies which almost play like John Hughes (kudos to Emily C. A. Snyder as Verse Coach)." ~ BroadwayWorld.com, Duncan Pflaster (2014)
Pictured: Sandra Williams as Gertrude (Left) and Cristina Madero as Ophelia (Right)
Produced by What Dreams May Co. and Queens Shakespeare (2016)
"[T]hough King Lear is full of battle and bombast, this production finds its strength as its characters approach closer to their quiet, inner humanity." ~ A Work Unfinishing, Zelda Knapp
"It amazes me how much shifting just a few characters to female, making the cast about evenly split between men and women, changed the feel of the play! Lear cursing Goneril with infertility was especially poignant in this way, as was having Lear's fool played by Cordelia's actor." ~ ShowScore, Claire Gilligan
"[This] production, set in the wintry twilight of Imperial Russia, features a female Lear, who recalls not only Catherine the Great but also some of Shakespeare's own ferocious female rulers like Queen Margaret. The power of the text is preserved, and particular themes strike the ear anew, as in Lear's excruciating curse on Goneril’s womb: “Hear, nature, hear; dear goddess, hear!/ Suspend thy purpose, if thou didst intend/ To make this creature fruitful!/ Into her womb convey sterility!” This is hard to hear in any production of Lear, but when Lear is Goneril’s mother it makes me think more of the family tree Lear is stunting by cursing away her potential grandchildren." ~ First Things, Alexi Sargeant
Pictured: Kitty Mortland as Lear and Samantha Leigh as Cordelia
Pictures courtesy of Ryan Smith (2016)
Top 15 NYC Shows of 2017
A Comedy of Heirors
By Emily C. A. Snyder
Directed by Aliza Shane
"While this may have only been a reading and not a fully staged production, it was so freaking polished, bursting with talent, and utterly hilarious - I was crying from laughter at one point. Playwright Emily C. A. Snyder presented a sister play to Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, one with two pairs of unbeknownst sister twins running around parallel to the shenanigans of Shakespeare's comedy, and pursued by a disgraced Malvolio who's now turned detective after his last spate with twins. This was a delightful romp that absolutely deserves a fully staged rendering (please keep Abby Wilde and Erin Keskeny in the cast)." ~ Zelda Knapp, A Work Unfinishing
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South Africa / Players / Stiaan van Zyl
Domestic Season
Complete list by ground
Africa T20 Cup
Momentum One Day Cup
Sunfoil 3-Day Cup
CSA Provincial One-Day Challenge
CSA Women's Provincial League
Zubayr Hamza
Pieter Malan
Anrich Nortje
Dwaine Pretorius
Keshav Maharaj
Stiaan van Zyl
Full name Stiaan van Zyl
Born September 19, 1987, Cape Town
Major teams South Africa, Boland, Cape Cobras, Chittagong Vikings, Cumilla Warriors, South Africa A, Sussex, Western Province
Playing role Allrounder
Batting style Left-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm medium
Tests 12 17 2 395 101* 26.33 778 50.77 1 0 59 0 6 0
First-class 175 293 42 11132 228 44.35 21330 52.18 27 50 1445 24 99 0
List A 120 110 12 3400 114* 34.69 4570 74.39 5 18 320 23 34 0
T20s 73 66 7 1509 86* 25.57 1272 118.63 0 9 131 40 21 0
Tests 12 11 403 148 6 3/20 3/22 24.66 2.20 67.1 0 0 0
First-class 175 133 5564 2535 68 5/32 7/82 37.27 2.73 81.8 2 1 0
List A 120 44 1056 927 20 4/24 4/24 46.35 5.26 52.8 1 0 0
T20s 73 14 132 191 7 2/14 2/14 27.28 8.68 18.8 0 0 0
Test debut South Africa v West Indies at Centurion, Dec 17-20, 2014 scorecard
Last Test South Africa v New Zealand at Centurion, Aug 27-30, 2016 scorecard
- Statsguru Test analysis - Player analysis menu/filter Test match list --------------------------------- Batting career summary Batting innings list High scores Batting series averages --------------------------------- Bowling career summary Bowling innings list Bowling match list Best innings bowling Best match bowling Bowling series averages --------------------------------- Fielding career summary Fielding innings list Most catches in an innings Fielding series statistics
First-class debut Kei v Boland at Stellenbosch, Oct 26-28, 2006 scorecard
Last First-class Sussex v Worcestershire at Hove, Sep 23-26, 2019 scorecard
List A debut Kei v Boland at Stellenbosch, Oct 29, 2006 scorecard
Last List A Sussex v Glamorgan at Hove, May 7, 2019 scorecard
T20s debut Cape Cobras v Dolphins at Cape Town, Mar 26, 2008 scorecard
Last T20s Cumilla Warriors v Khulna Tigers at Dhaka, Jan 10, 2020 scorecard
0/31, 10 Warriors v Tigers Dhaka 10 Jan 2020 T20
12 Warriors v Tigers Dhaka 8 Jan 2020 T20
10 Warriors v Thunder Sylhet 2 Jan 2020 T20
22 Warriors v Challengers Dhaka 31 Dec 2019 T20
21 Warriors v Royals Dhaka 28 Dec 2019 T20
56 Sussex v Worcs Hove 23 Sep 2019 FC
60, 27 Sussex v Derbyshire Derby 16 Sep 2019 FC
28, 30* Sussex v Gloucs Bristol 10 Sep 2019 FC
5, 6 Sussex v Lancashire Manchester 13 Jul 2019 FC
34, 48 Sussex v Durham Hove 24 Jun 2019 FC
Stiaan van Zyl abandoned his South Africa ambitions to sign a Kolpak contract with Sussex in 2017, part of an outpouring of South Afrixans into county cricket as the UK's vote to leave the European Union brought fears among players and agents that the pathway might soon be closed.
Van Zyl's last of Tests came against New Zealand in August 2016, the highlight being his unbeaten century on debut in 2014, as South Africa beat the West Indies by an innings at Centurion. He joined Sussex at 29, with almost 8,000 first-class runs to his name at 42.55.
A left-hander with a classic cover drive, van Zyl was not always an elegant top-order batsman. At primary school, he fancied himself as a quick bowler but later chose batting over a bucolic life in the Boland, where he was educated at the rugby-mad agricultural high school, Boland Landbou. He made his first-class debut at 19.
Van Zyl averaged over 50 for the Cobras in the summer of 2007-08 but it was not until two seasons later that he arrived in the top-ten run-scorers in the first-class game. In 2009-10, van Zyl was sixth with an average of 58.00 and was rewarded with a call-up to the South African A side to tour Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. By then, he had also developed as a handy medium pacer.
He remained a regular in the national reserves but it was not until the 2012-13 season, when he finished second on the domestic competition run-scorers' list, that he was spoken of a possibility for the senior side. With a batting line-up that included top-order heavyweights like Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla, it became difficult for van Zyl to get a look in.
But both Smith and Kallis retired in the summer of 2013-14 and van Zyl topped the run-charts, which made him possible to ignore. He travelled with the Test squad to Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in the winter of 2014 but did not get a game before making his spectacular Test debut , becoming the 100th batsman to score a century on Test debut.
After his abrupt international retirement, his Twitter feed continued to state "Proudly South African" but it was Sussex where his career took him, his most significant Championship innings in his first season being his 166 not out against Leicestershire at the Arundel Festival. A knee injury curtailed his involvement in 2018, though he returned to top Sussex's run-scoring charts the following year, including a 173 against Middlesex at Lord's.
ESPNcricinfo staff
Moeen Ali begins red-ball hiatus as Stiaan van Zyl leads Sussex recovery (Sep 23, 2019)
Unbeaten Will Beer reaches career-high in retro first day for Sussex against Gloucestershire (Jun 11, 2019)
Stiaan van Zyl's epic century sets Sussex on course for maximum-points win over Middlesex (Jun 3, 2019)
Sussex bounce back after opening defeat as Stiaan van Zyl seals chase (Apr 14, 2019)
David Wiese, Stiaan van Zyl turn tables for Sussex against Durham (Apr 13, 2019)
Stiaan van Zyl news and articles »
Stiaan van Zyl gets on to the front foot
Stiaan van Zyl carts one over the off side
© Raton Gomes/BCB
Stiaan van Zyl and Sikandar Raza shared a 73-run partnership
Stiaan van Zyl cricket photos
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Home News Serious Stages makes its V Festival debut
Serious Stages makes its V Festival debut
UK: Serious Stages continued to expand its client roster by supplying the main stage and ancillary structures to V Festival for the first time from August 20 – 21.
V Festival 2016 boasted a capacity of 90,000 and hosted performances from Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Sia and Bastille. For its inaugural year working with the festival, Serious provided the Virgin Media Stage, in the form of a 28.8m x 28.8m stage with a 27m x 19.2m Triton Roof. Serious also installed two side extensions to accommodate monitor desks and production technology, as well as a 4.2m x 6m offstage hut for the VIPs, which was decked on two levels and featured a VIP viewing platform on the second.
Flanking the stage, Serious provided two 12m x 12m PA wings to accommodate the video screens and PA speaker systems. Two 7.2m x 7.2m covered front-of-house towers were also installed to accommodate the lighting and sound. Serious Stages also supplied steps, ramps, camera runs, two roofed camera towers and a 4.8m x 2.4m media platform, complete with hand and kick rails.
Steven Corfield, Managing Director at Serious Stages, said: “We were thrilled to get the chance to work with V Festival for the first time, and it truly was a great event to be part of. We supplied our Triton Stage, which draws on over three decades of our experience and enabled us to offer a range of great benefits to the organisers. Our in house CAD designers, structural engineers and fabrication teams worked together to create this high end tower roof system, which allows for larger weight loading capacities, flexibility for different trim heights and improved audience sightlines. With weight loading capabilities of 3400kg per cross stage arch, this stage enabled organisers to accommodate the impressive productions at this year’s event.”
Festival Director Simon Forshaw commented: “We don’t change suppliers very often but a significant one this year was the introduction of Serious Stages to our team. They have supplied our main stage, which looks great. It is not much different in size, but has a bigger weight capacity in the roof, which is good moving forward with the trend for heavier productions coming in.”
Serious Stages
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You are here: Home » Glen Miller » Smith an Upgrade in the OF for Friars
Smith an Upgrade in the OF for Friars
Posted: 8:30 am, December 8, 2013 by Glen Miller
It looks like the Padres have made their “big splash” this winter in acquiring OF Seth Smith from Oakland in exchange for RP Luke Gregerson. Smith, 31, would appear to address the team’s stated desire to add a LH bat. Reactions have been mostly, meh, or negative to the trade from the Friars perspective and while I’m not awestruck I do see it as an incremental improvement.
First off, let’s fall right back out of love with Gregerson. He was a quality reliever for the Friars for a few seasons but the Padres have made a habit of turning one team’s garbage into quality relief help over the years. Gregerson, after all, was a 28th round draft pick of the Cardinals and was essentially the throw in when the Friars traded SS Khalil Greene to St. Louis for fellow reliever Mark Worrell. Sure, it’s nice to have a proven 8th inning guy in the pen but the reality is Gregerson has averaged just 70 innings pitched per season in his five year Friar career. His impact on the success or failure of the team was going to be limited by that basic fact.
The Padres should be able to turn to Nick Vincent or Dale Thayer and they have a couple of prospective bullpen arms they like coming up the ranks in Kevin Quackenbush and Brad Boxberger. They could also sign a couple of the many veteran hurlers recently non-tendered to add some depth. The Friars should be just fine.
In Smith the Padres get a solid if unspectacular hitter who holds his own against RH pitching. For his career Smith has hit righties to the tune of a .279/.358/.487 triple-slash line in 1,893 PA and has clubbed 65 of his career total of 73 HR against RH hurlers. Smith is bound to get the AB’s that last year went to Mark Kotsay and his .203/.263/.239 triple-slash line against righties. Just for that Smith should be welcomed in San Diego.
Smith is also a capable defensive corner OF who is better off in LF than RF as his career UZR/150 is 7.7 in left and -7.0 in RF. With Carlos Quentin’s checkered health history and the recent injury troubles and ineffective play of Cameron Maybin, Smith should provide the Padres with some quality depth and flexibility.
If we look at it from a straight value standpoint, Smith has been worth roughly 2.0 WAR per 600 PA for his career. Over the last two years that number has been about 1.6 WAR per 600 PA. Of course as more of a platoon bat Smith is more likely to be in line for roughly 400 PA as opposed to 600. In that case his recent performance suggests he’ll be worth about 1 WAR for the Padres in 2014, with all of that value coming courtesy of the bat.
Gregerson has been worth just less than 1 WAR per 70 IP for his career. Since 2012 he has been worth an average of about 0.76 WAR per 70 IP.
The Padres appear to earn a slight win on that exchange based on recent performance, solely using WAR as a guideline. But in order to calculate any loss/gain correctly for the Padres we’d have to factor in how much of an upgrade Smith is over the players he will replace in the OF. Additionally, we’ll have to guess how much of a downgrade the new bullpen alignment will represent for the Padres.
First off, we already know Smith is set to take the 171 PA the Friars gave to Kotsay. Kotsay was worth an astonishing -1.7 WAR last season for the Padres.
Alexi Amarista, a nice little utility type with some pop, was miscast as an OF last season. All told with the bat he was worth a -1.1 WAR in 244 OF PA.
If we combine the two players, Kotsay and Amarista, in 418 PA, all likely to be absorbed by Smith in 2014, they were worth almost a -4.0 WAR. If we project Smith to be worth 1.0 WAR the Padres will improve by almost 5 wins by giving the PA’s Kotsay and Amarista received last season to Smith.
It’s doubtful that whatever collection of relievers the Padres chose to roll with in the eighth inning will be worse than replacement level; much less five wins less than replacement level. It would appear that with one relatively minor move the Padres can improve significantly just by virtue of having a better option than Kotsay and Amarista in the OF.
Looking at the financial side of the coin, both players are in their final year of arbitration eligibility before hitting the open market in 2015. Matt Swartz employed a projection model for MLBTradeRumors which has proven to be quite accurate in predicting salaries for arbitration-eligible players. He sees Smith netting $4.3MM for 2014 while Gregerson is projected to earn in the neighborhood of $4.9MM. In essence, it’s more or less a wash fiscally.
I must admit I don’t trust Billy Beane. The guy is smart and generally sets trends in baseball. If he is going left you can bet a majority of baseball teams will soon be following him. This offseason, with the additions of Gregerson and former Orioles closer Jim Johnson along with the presence of Jerry Blevins, Ryan Cook and Sean Doolittle, the A’s are bulking up on bullpen help.
Have the A’s found another soft spot in the market that they are set to exploit? It could be as another team noted for maximizing their fiscal resources, Tampa Bay, has also gotten in on the reliever market by acquiring our friend and former Friar closer, Heath Bell. When teams like Oakland and Tampa begin investing heavily in a particular player type or position I start to wonder if they may be on to something.
Setting my suspicions aside, I still like the deal for the Friars. I don’t love the deal but I like it. If you had asked me before I would have thought they could have done better in dealing Gregerson but if Smith was the best they could get then so be it. Smith should help the Padres win more games than Gregerson would have even if the net positive in the value equation has more to do with how bad Kotsay and Amarista were than how good the newest Friar is.
Posted in: Glen Miller
Tags: Alexi Amarista,Cameron Maybin,Carlos Quentin,josh byrnes,Luke Gregerson,San Diego Padres,Seth Smith
About the author: Glen Miller
Life-long baseball and Padres fan who attended his first Friar games way back in 1983. I've been a contributor on Friarhood for more than two years and enjoy talking baseball with the knowledgeable fans that frequent the site. Prior to my beginning here I owned and operated my own San Diego sports site while writing for several other sites focusing specifically on hockey. When not watching, reading or writing about sports I might be sleeping or perhaps spending time with my family since I have few other hobbies. I did recently try my hand at golf and am a pretty good pool player to boot.
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Home Buxton 2014
Reviews from the Buxton Fringe 2014
The Buxton Fringe - England's second-largest mixed-arts festival - takes place each July in the beautiful Peak District. This friendliest of festivals sees a dozen or more events each day, running across a compact cluster of venues. With many shows stopping off on their way to Edinburgh, it's a great chance to catch both local and national talent in the relaxed setting of this pretty spa town.
Feminism For Chaps
Reviewed by Richard Stamp
Underground Venues
13-14 Jul 7pm to 8pm, 15 Jul 8:30pm to 9:30pm
I approach this particular write-up with some trepidation. Andrew Watts opens his solo comedy show with a biting deconstruction of a previous review – a review which accused his patter of betraying casual misogyny. Many male comedians would take that as a badge of pride, but Watts (to his credit) was stung; and this new show is a form of rebuttal, an earnest pro-feminist manifesto, thrown into sharp relief by the recent arrival of Watts’ longed-for first-born child.
Dracula's Women Underground
Poole's Cavern
4-19 Jul 5:30pm to 6:30pm, 7pm to 8pm, 8:30pm to 9:30pm
For their now-traditional site-specific play in the depths of Poole’s Cavern, Butterfly Theatre present an original script based on a rewrite of Dracula. Vampire-hunter Van Helsing, and the love-lorn Dr Seward, pursue their enemy through the shadowy underworld in which he’s built his lair. But Dracula’s Women – the three undead sisters from Brad Stoker’s original book – lie in wait to trap the unwary. And unknown to Seward, the love of his life is already lost forever… while the woman who killed her, Mina, is out for her own style of revenge.
16 & 18-19 Jul, 8:15pm to 9pm
Before I saw WOW – the very first show at brand-new venue The Market Place – I’d certainly heard of World of Warcraft, a computer game which promises the chance to re-invent yourself in a fully-realised fantasy world. But I have to admit, I’d always assumed it wasn’t intended for people like me. And nor would I have imagined it could possibly appeal to Sarah – the sassy central character of this eloquent, intelligent, and thoughtful one-woman play.
The Speech
14 Jul 7:30pm to 8:30pm, 15-16 Jul 9pm to 10pm
On 18 September this year, four million Scottish voters – one of them me – will be asked the stark question: independence, yes or no? Set a decade or so in the future, new play The Speech imagines how an unexpected “yes” might affect the country we Scots would leave behind. We join the English Prime Minister at a moment of crisis, closeted away with her speech-writer – seeking the right words to soothe a national emergency, and to deliver some straight talking on just where her nation stands.
Stories About Love, Death And A Rabbit
10 & 12 Jul 8:30pm to 9:30pm, 13 & 15 Jul 10pm to 11pm
This delightful show sits halfway between comedy and solo theatre, delivering plenty of laugh-aloud surprises yet concealing a sharp-edged poignancy, too. Hosted by middle-aged librarian Ms Samantha Mann, it’s a broad-ranging monologue about loves lost, lives lived… and the trials of sharing her home with a rabbit. Though she seems at first prim and practical, Samantha gradually reveals both an intriguing past and an adventurous personality, stumbling through a public journey of self-discovery which I felt positively privileged to join her on.
10 & 13-14 Jul 9pm to 10pm, 15 & 27 Jul 4pm to 5pm
This instantly-engaging one-man adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic is both an impressive feat of acting, and triumph of uncomplicated entertainment. Alone on the stage, Jamie Robertson evokes all the characters in Stevenson’s free-spirited tale of heroism and villainy – with verbal and physical pictures so vivid you can almost sense the smell of the sea. Subtle sound design and a masterfully-adapted script also contribute to a thoroughly engrossing production.
About the Buxton Fringe
The Buxton Fringe 2014 runs from 9 to 27 July in the town of Buxton, Derbyshire.
It's easy to find your way around this friendly Festival, with most venues within a stone's throw of the town centre. For more information on the Peak District's own Fringe, check out the official website.
Buxton Fringe online >>
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→ Royce Gracie: Let's Face it...
Royce Gracie: Let's Face it...
GM Roy
…If it weren't for Royce, we wouldn't be here. There would be no interest in learning grappling and we'd still be throwing basic karate techniques around.
I don't really "like" Royce as a fan…but I respect it was he who made everything ignite.
Enjoy marijuana
RE: Royce Gracie: Let's Face it...
if not royce it would've been Rickson or any other Gracie
MMA would have taken off without the UFC .. Japan already had shooto and pancrase.
however UFC was the first large scale no-holds barred event
It is both Royce and Rorion who are responsible for what we have today. Rorion was the brains behind the brilliant marketing scheme which became the UFC. He strategically chose the fighters from the long list of entrants, based on Royce's ability to defeat their style. Shamrock, based on his Pancrase background, was the closest thing they allowed to a genuine challenger, but everyone else was a shoe-in for Royce. They relied also on the element of surprise, I suspect that most of the entrants had no idea about Gracie JJ before the event.
Royce performed very well though, apparently he was the second choice, Rickson was unavailable at the time from memory.
I really liked the Bloodsport feel to it, and all of the characters and their various, often made-up, disciplines. The modern UFC doesn't hold a candle to it in my opinion, regardless of better technique, weight divisions, rounds, a points system and sanctioning. In fact, I think those 5 things are why it's not as fun to watch for me.
I wish that someone would bring it back, hold it in Thailand or Brazil, or fucking Somalia or somewhere that no one is going to force them to abide by rules. Make it open weight class and just one unlimited round, and broadcast it PPV via the internet.
I'm just trying to figure this shit out like you are.
^^ Oh, and make it an 8 man tournament, of course.
The Diet Butcher
I always rooted against Royce until he fought Dan Severn. I was thinking no way a wrestler beats Jujitsu. He's not even a "shoot wrestler" lol. I started to hespect the GJJ after that.
excellent posts from redneck.
loved the original UFC. so raw and the style vs. style was great
first 5 UFCs were awesome!
Winnson
2013/2015 Poster of the Year! YES!
That man is my hero.
come for the calo, stay for the yoshida brotha
(06-18-2015 08:09 PM)Redneck Wrote: It is both Royce and Rorion who are responsible for what we have today. Rorion was the brains behind the brilliant marketing scheme which became the UFC. He strategically chose the fighters from the long list of entrants, based on Royce's ability to defeat their style. Shamrock, based on his Pancrase background, was the closest thing they allowed to a genuine challenger, but everyone else was a shoe-in for Royce. They relied also on the element of surprise, I suspect that most of the entrants had no idea about Gracie JJ before the event.
no, Rickson wanted a million dollars, and they couldn't give it to him. Then they changed the story to him having obligations in pride.
"I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned.” - Richard Feynman
according to Art Davie (13:25), they wanted Royce from the start. He had the build and the level of athleticism (or lack thereof) that the ave Joe could relate to.
I always used to root for Royce.
dead soul
Without Royce we wouldn't have ....what we have today!
It's funny because The UFC was established to show the dominance of BJJ. No rules, no time limits.
Now The UFC is wrestling in a cage with a few strikes thrown in. Using too much BJJ will lose you the match unless you sink the submission.
good wrestling is bjj kryptonite, good to get some wrestling in to blend the style to be able to counter it
Yeah just tonight a German kayoed the Brazilian champ right at the round break on the undercard of the Kimbo/Shamrock event and the champ got to recover for a minute a wound up knocking out the German when he came in for the second finish. just underscores how unrealistic the whole thing is now. Thoroughly entertaining though, at least tonight.
the original UFC's had potential for violence, the UFC or MMA of today has no potential of any such thing.
Renzo Gracie says despite being 51, upcoming match with Yuki Kondo not his retirement Skookum Charlie 27 3,256 08-06-2019 10:49 AM
Gracie Family Wall-of-Shame Thread kungfool 6 1,015 03-16-2019 04:50 PM
Last Post: Skookum Charlie
Ralph Gracie shakes hands with Almeida, then assaults him CTsar 20 1,743 03-07-2019 09:45 PM
Gracie first UFC win in 25 years CTsar 38 2,647 02-28-2019 09:50 AM
Last Post: Chaos Reigns
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Deep Space Nine (DS9) Season 5
Season 1Season 2Season 3Season 4Season 5Season 6Season 7
Apocalypse RisingThe ShipLooking for par'Mach in All the Wrong PlacesNor the Battle to the Strong
The Assignment Trials and Tribble-ationsLet He Who is Without SinThings PastThe Ascent
RaptureThe Darkness and the Light The BegottenFor the UniformIn Purgatory's Shadow / By Inferno's Light
Dr. Bashir, I PresumeA Simple InvestigationBusiness as Usual Ties of Blood and WaterFerengi Love Songs
Soldiers of the EmpireChildren of TimeBlaze of GloryEmpok NorIn the CardsCall to Arms
Apocalypse Rising
Stardate not given: Sisko, Odo, O'Brien and Worf are surgically altered to infiltrate the Klingon Empire and expose Chancellor Gowron who is a Changeling as Odo suspects. Dukat provides a safe transfer on his Bird-of-Prey and drops them at the Hall of Warriors at Ty'Gokor where they are left to themselves. While installing polaron emitters that would force a Changeling to return to the fluid state, the four officers have to fend off drunk Klingons. Sisko is just about to activate the emitters when his Klingon name is called up to become members of the Order of the Bat'leth. But Martok recognizes Sisko and has him, Odo, O'Brien and Worf arrested. Saying that he had the same suspicion, Martok later leads the four back into the hall where they are supposed to complete their mission and exterminate Gowron. But Odo notices that Gowron, as opposed to Martok, has the honor to challenge Worf to a fight. He exposes Martok as the true Changeling. It was the Founders' intention to deceive Odo in order to seize control of the Klingon Empire. In the wake of these events Gowron agrees to a cease-fire with the Federation, however fragile it would be.
Although I rate DS9's season 4 as the one with the greatest single episodes, it wound up as a bit unbalanced, even undecided. At long last the season finale "Broken Link" managed to join the dangling threads of the Klingon and Dominion conflicts. Odo was made human, the Klingons canceled the peace treaty, and the ending was the most exciting cliffhanger since TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds". So Gowron is a Changeling, as Odo believes. I was just as excited as everyone else to see the conclusion, and it did not leave me disappointed.
The first half of the season opener "Apocalypse Rising" thrives on its character interaction. Sisko motivates a lethargic Odo, who is struggling with his new existence as a human being and who takes an odd pleasure in watching the bubbles in a glass of beer. Kira welcomes Dukat, her former arch nemesis, who has become an odd kind of friend since the two found his daughter Ziyal. She surprises him with the pregnancy and the statement that O'Brien is the father of her child. Later Kira jokingly blames Bashir for her condition, because it was him who transplanted the O'Brien's baby (who would be named Kirayoshi) into her womb. This is a hilarious tongue-in-cheek reference because in real life Alexander Siddig is the father of Nana Visitor's baby, Django. Also, it is great how the two attempt to cheer up one another while Sisko and the three other officers are on what seems to be a suicide mission. Likewise, Bashir talks to Jake, who is hanging around on the promenade deck after the departure of his father. I would have appreciated to see Jake one or two more times in the episode though. He maintains a too low profile here.
In its second half the episode gradually builds up tension in a very skillful way. I just loved how Worf gave his fellow crew members a crash course in Klingon manners aboard Dukat's Bird-of-Prey, although it was on the verge of becoming childish. We could expect that, rather than Sisko, the restrained O'Brien and Odo would have trouble behaving like real Klingons. Especially Odo, who is a now Changeling caught in a human body disguised as a Klingon! But even Sisko makes a serious mistake, when he strikes Worf with the back of his hand, which is a challenge to a fight to the death. In other words, the right misbehavior must be learned. When the visual communication with another Klingon ship fails, Dukat does not hesitate long and blows it up. This comes as a shock, although it was foreseeable. Quite evidently Dukat's intentions and methods are not like those of the four Starfleet officers, whose mission is only to expose Gowron, not to kill anyone (although it would be legitimate as they are at war with the Klingons). It is not very surprising either that Dukat decides to leave the scene just after beaming down the infiltration team. So the four are left to themselves, a failure of their mission meaning certain death.
Once they have arrived in the Hall of Warriors, everything initially flows more smoothly than expected. Even when Sisko assaults the Klingon warrior who boasts about killing a Benzite captain whom Sisko happened to know from the Academy, the situation remains under control. (The Klingon says something like "Benzonite" but it must be a Benzite as he explicitly mentions the breathing apparatus.) O'Brien reacts exactly the right way when Martok finds his face familiar, explaining that they probably met in battle. Likewise, Odo keeps his nerve when a Klingon discovers the polaron emitter he is installing. Worf explains in his inimitable fashion that it is actually a Vulcan toy - just as he always used to give lectures on Klingon rituals to his fellow Starfleet officers, he now kind of parodies himself.
However, when Sisko has just received the award from Gowron's hands, Martok knocks him down with the bat'leth. This doesn't come unexpected. When Martok concedes that he suspected Gowron to be a Changeling himself, he is able to give reasons, because it was Gowron who acted not very Klingon-like when he called off the battle in "The Way of the Warrior" but later pressed the Klingons into a war with the Federation when the Federation was already prepared. I admit Martok deceived me just like he did with the infiltration team, although in retrospect such an obvious outcome would have been too easy. The twist was overdue, but when Odo discovered the truth, it wound up as a bit less spectacular than it could have been. Well, exposing Martok as the actual Changeling was "morally" up to Odo because he caused the whole trouble in the first place.
The episode has two nice TNG tie-ins. The first is the tachyon detection grid, a technology that has obviously been adopted by the Klingons since TNG: "Unification" as a defense against cloaked vessels. The second is rather a déjà-vu, as the travel on a disguised Cardassian BoP to Klingon space is somewhat reminiscent of Picard's and Data's journey on a Klingon BoP to Romulus in TNG: "Unification", only that the political situation has changed.
Nitpicking: Well, we don't know how exactly the Dominion plan was supposed to work and which options were available, but it seems a bit too convoluted to get Federation officers to kill a wrong Changeling deep inside the Klingon Empire. I also wonder whether the Starfleet officers spoke Klingon all the time. That's barely possible. Perhaps the universal translator works much better in the 24th century than still in "Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country" (and is hard to detect too).
Remarkable quotes:
"He is upstairs at his usual table. Just follow the black cloud." (Quark, to Sisko, about Odo)
"As for you -- You should have killed me when you had the chance. I promise you won't get another." (Gowron, who wouldn't keep the promise, to Worf)
"I could do without the ridges, but I kind of miss the fangs." (Sisko, after the restoration of his human appearance)
Remarkable dialogue: Dukat: "Captain, I insist we make a holographic record of the four of you. Consider it payment in full for the use of my vessel." - O'Brien: "Maybe after the mission." - Damar: "After the mission you will be dead."
Stardate 50049.3: A small survey team is on a runabout in the Gamma Quadrant when they discover a crashed Jem'Hadar vessel. While Sisko, Dax, Worf, O'Brien, T'Lor and Muniz are investigating the ship, which is fairly intact but whose crew is dead, another Jem'Hadar ship appears and destroys the runabout. T'Lor and the runabout crew are killed, Muniz is wounded. A female Vorta named Kilana demands that Sisko relinquish the ship, but he refuses. After an assault by a Jem'Hadar secretly beamed into the vessel fails, Kilana lowers her demands and requests just an unspecified item that is aboard, but Sisko doesn't trust her. Muniz dies in an unsuccessful attempt to lift off. It turns out that the valuable item Kilana wanted to have was a Founder, and that his critical condition was the reason for the Jem'Hadar not to openly attack the away team. Now the Founder is dead, and the Jem'Hadar commit mass suicide for their failure. The Defiant arrives to salvage the crashed vessel.
One key issue raised in this episode is how a lack of trust between Kilana and Sisko kills five Starfleet crew members, the Founder and eventually the Jem'Hadar. But realistically, is there any chance that all of them could survive the incident? For all we know the Dominion always takes everything by force and does not give a damn on the lives of their own soldiers, much less of their enemies. They recklessly destroy the runabout and attack the away team. It is an exceptional situation that the Jem'Hadar do not immediately board the crashed ship and kill everyone, which buys the remaining Starfleet crew some time. Still, there is just no reason for Sisko to trust the Vorta, because once she has the valuable asset she wants, couldn't the Jem'Hadar do anything they want with the Starfleet officers? Sisko may have considered agreeing to Kilana's lowered demands though, when she proposed leaving the ship to him.
Well, Sisko makes it clear to Kilana that he doesn't trust her and that there is nothing to trade already at their first meeting. But then why does he go out with Worf in the first place? Doesn't he take into consideration that the Jem'Hadar could easily capture or kill them, leaving two less people to defend the ship? Or beam in a Jem'Hadar while they are talking, which is exactly what happens? Sisko may have intended to buy the rest of his crew some time to the arrival of the Defiant, but realistically the risk was much too high.
Kilana, on the other hand, has two options: take the Founder by force, or come to any kind of agreement with Sisko. I wonder why the injured Founder is able to maintain the shape for so long but not able to escape somehow. Anyway, if Kilana has to assume that the Founder is severely hurt and may die without medical aid, why doesn't she order the soldiers to simply take the ship? The chances that the Founder is hit would be slim, and expending a few Jem'Hadar shouldn't be an issue anyway. Well, Sisko might blow up the ship or, as Kilana herself said, he might have discovered the Founder and taken him hostage. Regarding Kilana's appearance and nature, she may not appear as the most credible Vorta, and actually she is like none of her species that we see on other occasions. But I think it was just the right choice to let her appear in the best light outwardly and inwardly, because it still does not help to come to a peaceful solution. A mischievous Vorta along the lines of Weyoun would not have worked here.
It is the point of the episode that Kilana and Sisko have discussions to absolutely no end because they don't trust one another. But exactly this is what makes the episode a bit dissatisfactory. There is no real progress, it never gets really exciting. On the other hand, I like how the focus remains on the enclosed crew and particularly on Muniz all the time, rather than on cold negotiations. Even though and just because he dies slowly, painfully and perhaps unnecessarily, he receives the highest esteem in the story. He gives his fellow crew members who die in this and other episodes a face and a voice to be remembered, possibly the most touching death of a "redshirt" ever shown.
I cherish how Captain Sisko deals with the situation at every point, doing the negotiations, never losing sight of the goal to salvage the ship and continuously motivating his crew. Still, he always shows a great deal of compassion and remorse about the crew members who have died -- for the needs of the many? Sisko summarizes it himself: "Five people have died on this mission. I want to be able to tell their families why." But most of all I like the interaction between O'Brien and Worf. They have a violent argument about Muniz's chances of survival, with O'Brien insisting on the human(e) position that any slim chance to survive must be embraced, while the fatalistic Worf would rather kill Muniz than let him die in such a miserable fashion. It is a great consoling ending in the best tradition of Star Trek when the two join at Muniz's coffin in the end.
The episode takes advantage from extensive filming on location. Unfortunately the crashed Jem'Hadar ship, which is buried in rock and soil for the most part, does not look realistic, especially since we are meant to believe that it is essentially still in one piece. Well, the set decorators could hardly build a 100m long and 20m tall ship for one episode, and it was before the time of CGI wizardry. The interior of the ship, on the other hand, looks quite realistic as usual, and eerie because it is all upside down.
Remarkable dialogues:
O'Brien (having a rest on a rock): "Me out of breath? I was climbing mountains in Ireland before you were born." - Muniz: "You mean hills, don't you? They've gently sloping hills in Ireland. No mountains. -- But, what do I know, after all you're the mountain man. An old mountain man." - O'Brien: "You know something, Muniz? You're due for a transfer. How does waste extraction sound?"
Sisko: "The Vorta doesn't want the ship. She wants something aboard it." - O'Brien: "Any idea what?" - Sisko: "Could be anything. Encoding device, guidance system,..." - Dax: "Maybe she lost an earring."
Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
Stardate not given: Worf is captivated by the sight of Grillka, but is angry to learn that she is Quark's ex-wife. Nonetheless he and Dax help the Ferengi with Klingon practices in romantic relationships. Quark is successful, but when Grillka's guard, Thopok, sees the two together, he challenges the Ferengi to a bat'leth duel. Doomed to lose either Grillka or his life, Quark receives Worf's help yet again. Jadzia attaches remote control devices to Quark's body so Worf would be able to effectively fight for him. During the fight the devices fail, and while Worf and Dax are hurrying to repair the system, Quark delivers a lengthy speech about his beloved. With the remote control working again, Quark wins the fight. Worf has him hand out the bat'leth to Grillka, which would retain Thopok's honor. Suddenly recognizing that the fitting woman has been next to him all along, Worf becomes intimate with Jadzia.
Knowing that par'Mach means something like the Klingon equivalent of love, the title of the episode is obvious in retrospect. But even though more sex was shown, or rather implied, than in any Trek installment in the preceding 30 years, the episode came out as mostly boring. It took until the final 15 minutes that anything of consequence happened, when Thopok challenged Quark, something that was overdue at this time. The course of the story was also quite predictable. We could anticipate that Quark, the self-declared womanizer, would fall in love with Grillka again, and so does Worf too. They both declared, "She's glorious". It was just too understandable that the Klingons wouldn't tolerate that. Also because Quark already got himself into trouble on Qo'noS in "The House of Quark". It was foreseeable that Quark would wind up in another duel, and that, just for a change, this time he wouldn't simply fall on his knees, begging for his life. When Jadzia devised the rather silly remote control for Quark's bat'leth fight, we knew that it would fail at some point. Fortunately Quark quickly made up the Ferengi "Right of Proclamation" - not only a quirk that saved his life, but also an innuendo to the Klingon fondness of rituals. I found it quite funny.
By any means, Quark has to overcome a good deal of cultural disparities to attain his goal. And he is walking a thin line all the time. He is always like that, and perhaps unlike other Ferengi: no risk, no fun. But after re-enacting the romance of Kahless and Lady Lukara in the holosuite Quark queries, "I'm surrounded by corpses, my shoes are dripping in blood, and you want me too feel romantic?" This illustrates the radically different concepts of love, romance and relationships. So Quark still wants to "enjoy" the sexual intercourse in a Klingon fashion? Well, he is very happy afterwards despite all his contusions and bruises. I can't imagine that Worf prepared him for that in any fashion, but perhaps little dirty Quark always maintained a secret holographic SM dungeon?
I have a bit of a problem understanding Worf in this episode. Grillka's advisor Tumek makes it clear that Lady Grillka would never want to get involved with an outcast. So Worf compensates for this setback by helping Quark, even though he is not exactly a friend of Worf's. Moreover he is a Ferengi who would never deserve Grillka's appreciation in Worf's mindset. Like on many other occasions, it makes Worf proud to heed Klingon traditions and teach them to other people. It may give him satisfaction that Quark would never succeed without his support. But would Worf really go as far as taking part in the dishonorable cheat with the remote-controlled Ferengi against a Klingon warrior? Well, we can see that he enjoys the fight. He not only has the skills and the fortitude that Quark is lacking, he also looks a lot more solemn than Quark when he puts down the bat'leth at Grillka's feet. Anyway, I have the impression that, although Tumek couldn't really know Worf, he is absolutely right with his remark that Worf had no idea of Klingon women -- although we know that K'Ehleyr could never be Klingon enough for him. I don't know how to pursue Klingon women either, but even by human standards Worf acts like a lovesick teenage boy all the time. At no point it can have been more than just romantic desire from his part (albeit probably of a Klingon flavor), seeing how suddenly he changes his mind and gets intimate with Jadzia (though not totally unexpected).
There seems to be a second love triangle in the episode in the secondary plot, and not just accidentally. But unlike Quark and Worf the "three O'Briens" have a quite mundane problem, no unfulfilled love, much less a cultural clash (we once again witness that humans and Bajorans are very much alike, not only physically). The three simply don't leave each other enough freedom. They could need a counselor, if Deep Space 9 only had one at this time. I like how Miles and Nerys manage to deal with it in a rather professional way, while Keiko is really a bit too hysterical about everything. I had that impression of her already in TNG. Their best scene is when Keiko insists on O'Brien accompanying Kira to Bajor when the major's true intention is to get away from the overcaring couple for a few days.
What is left to mention is that Sisko has just one brief appearance in the episode, and Odo at least once scene, in which he makes some wonderful snide remarks about Kira and the O'Briens.
Remarkable dialogue: "I thought you said the O'Briens were arguing in there." - "Not Miles and Keiko - the *other* O'Briens, Miles and Kira." (Bashir and Quark, who "accidentally" heard loud voices in the O'Briens' quarters, and then saw Keiko walk in)
"I will apologize for this at a later time. -- YOU ARE IN MY SEAT!" (Worf, tossing Morn off his seat to impress Grillka)
"...and I refrain from making any further disparaging remarks about the chief - I mean, Miles." (Odo, after criticizing that O'Brien cares too much about Kira and vice versa)
Remarkable fact: We finally hear a sample of genuine Klingon opera the way Worf loves it. I've listened to more outlandish human operas, albeit not very long.
Nor the Battle to the Strong
Stardate not given: Jake is traveling with Dr. Bashir on a runabout to write an essay about the physician, when they receive a distress call from a Federation colony under attack by the Klingons. With Jake affirming that he could handle the situation and that it would make a good story, Bashir alters the course to aid the colony. Soon Jake finds himself in a makeshift hospital in a cavern, crowded with seriously injured and dying people. When he and Bashir go out to get an emergency generator from the runabout, they come under attack by the Klingons. Jake panics and runs away. He runs into a dying soldier but can't help him. Some time later he finds his way back to the cavern but doesn't talk about his experience. As the Klingons keep advancing, the hospital has to be evacuated. Jake is hiding when Klingons enter the cavern and shoot the last guard. Jake grabs the rifle in panic, fires erratically and accidentally releases an avalanche that stops the Klingon advance. Instead of writing about Bashir, Jake decides to describe his own behavior in the crisis and the thin line between cowardice and courage.
Jake is given less screen time every season as it seems. The writers often don't really know how to get him involved, since he decided against a career in Starfleet and has nothing to do with the station's operation. But they occasionally come up with stories that concentrate on him. So this is the first of only two installments of season 5 where Jake is allowed to play a major part. I never liked this episode too much though, seeing that Jake just stumbles through it with horror. He comes to rest and reflects about it only in the very end. But while nothing really "important" happens, it still deserves more consideration than other episodes that I give only an average rating.
It is obvious that the writer chose Jake to experience the horror of war first-hand just because he has never been trained for it. The episode shows the full range of human behavior and emotional states in a time of war, and it is perhaps a first time in Star Trek, at least in this intensity. Jake hears of Starfleet people who just ran away out of fear, wondering why they would get scared and run, although they have been in so many battle simulations. He encounters an ensign who shot himself with a phaser in order to be taken away from the battle zone. He stumbles straight into a dead Klingon. He witnesses the death of a Starfleet soldier who stayed behind to allow the hopper to lift off with the rest of his platoon. He finds the grim humor of the nurses appalling, who are discussing their preferred methods of getting killed by the Klingons. But most of all he is scared, all the time and to an extent that he can think of nothing else. Fear determines his thoughts and his actions alike. His notes just reaffirm what we can observe all along: "I wonder if Kirby [the orderly] knew that the whole time we were talking all I could think about was how close the Klingons were. He didn't seem that worried. No one else seems to lose sleep over it. So why is it the only thing I can think about? I have been on the station when it was under attack plenty of times, but somehow the danger never seemed as real as it does here. Maybe it's because I spent all day seeing first hand what the Klingons are capable of. And maybe it's because for the first time in my life my father's not here to protect me."
Jake's fear is justified. He gets into a Klingon barrage twice. While he panics on both occasions, the first time he just runs away, leaving Bashir behind, and is full of self-reproaches later. The second time there is no running away, he grabs a phaser rifle and fires aimlessly, luckily releasing an avalanche that stops the Klingons. So why should he be a coward the first time, and a hero the second time? This is the question that Jake probably keeps asking himself. And his father provides the answer in the end, that the common concept of "cowardice" and "courage" may be flawed. I think Jake is a coward on the battlefield by all means, but that is why he never considered to become a soldier. Whether they have been specially trained or not, there may be many people who wouldn't panic in his place, but only a complete idiot would not be afraid in the face of death. You can be courageous while still being afraid, you are even courageous in the first place just because you put aside your fear for a moment. But Jake's courage rather lies in a different field, and he can be glad to have a father who understands him.
As hard a time Jake has on Ajilon Prime, as easy is the banter on the station and later on the Defiant. Even Odo's little accident that he mentions to Sisko comes out as rather amusing although it must have been quite painful. While pursuing two Yridians who cheated at the dabo table, Odo tried to morph into a Tarkalean condor in mid-air, noticing too late that he has lost this ability.
Remarkable dialogue: Odo: "Jake is eighteen years old. Does your father still worry about you?" - Sisko: "All the time." - Odo: "I never realized how stressful it is to be a parent. I have to say I don't think it's for me." - Sisko: "That's your choice. But you don't know what you're missing."
Jake's notes:"...The Battle of Ajilon Prime will probably be remembered as a pointless skirmish, but I'll always remember it as something more. As a place I learned that the line between courage cowardice and courage is a lot thinner than most people believe." - Jake, to his father: "I wasn't sure whether to show it to you or not." - Ben: "Anyone who's been in battle would recognize himself in this. Most of us wouldn't care to admit. It takes courage to look inside yourself. And even more courage to write it for other people to see. I'm proud of you, son."
Remarkable quote: "Solid. I wonder why my people use that term. Humanoid bodies are so fragile." (Odo, after telling Sisko of his accident)
Remarkable scenes: Aside from his fear, Jake shows a less severe human weakness, aversion to medical science, in two more light-hearted scenes. The first is still on the runabout, when Bashir floods his ears with medical technobabble, not noticing that Jake does not understand anything. The second is when Bashir performs a "surgery" on his plate with noodles, and Jake has to vomit (which I think is not related to his battlefield hospital experience).
Remarkable facts:
The Klingons have occupied the Archanis Sector. But Starfleet is regrouping for a counter-offensive, including the Rutledge and the Tecumseh. The Farragut is destroyed by the Klingons in the Lambatta Cluster on her way to Ajilon Prime.
The episode title is from the Bible, Ecclesiates 9:11: "I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all."
The Assignment
Stardate not given: When Keiko O'Brien returns from Bajor, Miles is shocked to learn that his wife's body is possessed by an alien conscience. The entity demands that O'Brien make some modifications to the station's impulse response filters in the subspace communication emitters. O'Brien decides to seek the captain's advice, but the entity demonstrates its power by dropping Keiko from the upper level of the promenade deck. O'Brien carries on with his sabotage and swears Rom to secrecy about it. After evading Odo the two have almost completed the task when Rom explains that the modifications can be used to kill the wormhole aliens, the Bajoran Prophets, with a chroniton beam. O'Brien recognizes that the Pah-wraiths want to eradicate their ancient adversaries. He takes his wife on the runabout and activates the weapon. But instead of the wormhole the beam hits the runabout, and the Pah-wraith is expelled from her body.
"The Assignment" is a creepy episode that greatly benefits from the performances of Colm Meaney and Rosalind Chao. But overall the execution is too cautious and real highlights are missing. In addition, we have seen the bodies of crew members as hostages before, most notably and more excitingly in the action thriller TNG: "Power Play". Well, "The Assignment" is rather a psycho thriller anyway. I admit that I am still fond of the two most frequent motives of this genre: The hero is either running around with no one believing him that something terrible is going to happen, or he is running around trying to pretend that everything is fine while a beloved person is being held hostage. The episode draws its suspense from the latter, from Miles O'Brien's bizarre and direful situation. It is not enough that he has to pretend that everything is perfectly okay with Keiko. No, he also has to celebrate his birthday with the Pah-wraith Keiko baking the finest pastries ever. And he has to listen how Dax, Sisko and Odo are talking about the saboteur in his presence.
After Miles was already possessed by an alien and threatened Keiko in TNG: "Power Play", they have ironically switched their roles now. However, nobody bothers to refer to their previous experience of alien possession. The only slight cue is when Miles initially thinks that Keiko is kidding when she says that she is possessed by an alien. It is possible that the two have found a humorous way to deal with the events from "Power Play" without the need to explicitly mention it. But while it is clear that their family is the perfect target for an evil alien, I wonder if it really had to be the O'Briens yet again. Of all crew members it is preferably O'Brien anyway who is given a hard time with physical and mental torture, even if Keiko is not involved. Well, it is always a good idea to give Colm Meaney the chance to excel as Chief O'Brien, the perhaps best character of the show to identify oneself with.
Rom's role in the story lies somewhere between a useful idiot and a stalwart sidekick. His awkward attempts of socializing with the people on his shift are somewhere between pitiful and hilarious and there is no real way of telling how Rom feels about it. I didn't like that part very much, but I could never really make much sense of his character anyway. Well, I have met people who were naively overenthusiastic in a similar fashion as Rom, as well as geniuses who could quickly analyze things that I needed to reflect on thoroughly. Only that I cannot really imagine to find both qualities in one person. Maybe rather in an alien than in a human person.
Regarding the Pah-wraiths, their premiere in "The Assignment" turns out creepy enough to call for sequels. So the Pah-wraiths will play an important role in some more episodes. It is satisfying to see that the authors manage to re-use not only plots with non-corporeal aliens that are pulled off thin air each time, but also the aliens themselves. In the end the Pah-wraith is killed as it seems by its own chroniton weapon that left Keiko largely unscathed. Poetic justice of this kind is comparably rare in Star Trek but is another very common motive in psycho thrillers.
Continuity: It is the third time in four episodes that people are talking about waste extraction, this time Quark and Rom. Somehow this is a worrying development...
"Is there something wrong, chief? I can work slower if you want me to." (Rom)
"Don't worry about me, chief. My lips are sealed. Nobody will get anything out of me. Not even my name." (Rom)
"For the first 40 minutes it was like pulling teeth even getting him to admit his name." (Odo, after Rom's interrogation)
Remarkable scene: While working on the modifications, O'Brien discusses with the computer how he can stun Keiko. Although there is not really a big deal about it, I like this typical Trek narrative (as used extensively in TNG: "Remember Me") as the more skillful substitute for the stream of consciousness (as used repeatedly in the preceding episode "Nor the Battle to the Strong").
Remarkable fact: O'Brien is probably the first one to be very lucky that Odo is not a Changeling any more, otherwise he couldn't knock him out so easily.
Stardate not given: Sisko receives two unpleasant visitors: Dulmer and Lucsly from Starfleet's Temporal Investigation. They question him about a recent time travel. Flashback: The Defiant is carrying the Bajoran Orb of Time when Arne Darvin, an old Klingon disguised as a human, uses the device to send the ship more than 100 years to the past. More precisely to the time when the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 was orbiting Deep Space K-7, summoned there to protect a cargo of quadrotriticale. Arne Darvin was present aboard the station and was later, with the help of Tribbles who don't like Klingons, exposed as a Klingon spy who had poisoned the grain. Now he strives to alter history. He has planted a bomb on the station to take revenge on James T. Kirk. The Defiant officers are deployed to find the bomb. Sisko and Dax manage to find it attached to one of the Tribbles in the grain storage just above Kirk's head. The bomb is beamed into space and the original timeline is preserved. The Defiant, however, brought some uninvited guests to the 24th century, as Deep Space 9 is swarming with Tribbles.
"Trials and Tribble-ations" perfectly blends the good old TOS episode "The Trouble with Tribbles", a known fan favorite, with a new DS9-based background story. My high opinion of the episode is already noteworthy because until then I usually disliked similar installments in any TV series, including the classic re-use of "The Cage" in TOS: "The Menagerie", which I saw as an inept attempt of story recycling. But "Trials and Tribble-ations" benefits greatly from an intelligent script, from its accurate timing, from the fantastic visual effects and from actors who visibly have fun in their roles. It is full of memorable quotes like several normal episodes combined, and the crew's numerous mistakes about 23rd century technology and habits are hilarious without becoming silly. An equally affectionate homage to The Original Series has never been produced before and will never be made again. Among my all-time favorite episodes this may not be the most exciting one, but it will always have a special place.
The digital effects were a masterpiece at the time the episode was being made and still are today. The bar brawl does not allow a distinction of old and new shots. In the following interrogation it really looks like O'Brien and Bashir are standing next to Kirk. However, it is remarkable that, in spite of all the efforts to digitally insert new characters into old scenes, "Trials and Tribble-ations" authentically recreates the look of all TOS sets and props without any concessions to 24th century style and to innovations in the real world. Even the obviously primitive tricorder interface that Dax is fond of remains exactly the same as in TOS. The decision not to digitally adapt the Klingon foreheads to the ridged 24th century version was prudent in a stylistic sense, and it paid reverence to the original, although it was Gene Roddenberry's stance that the Klingons always looked like they did since "Star Trek: The Motion Picture". But I wonder why it was necessary to explicitly hint at the flat foreheads. When O'Brien, Bashir and Odo are sitting in the bar, they don't recognize the Klingons at the two neighboring tables. The Klingons of the 23rd century don't seem to smell either. Moreover, what is the deal about Darvin's look having been surgically altered, as Worf and Jadzia insinuate, when in fact many if not pretty much all Klingons of his time used to look like humans? The episode does not offer a solution. On the contrary, it toys with the self-imposed inconsistency when the allegedly surgically altered Klingon Darvin insults his own people and when the disguised Worf takes part in the famous bar brawl - against the Klingons.
Aside from the Klingon foreheads, I have only one minor nitpick. While it is a lucky coincidence that Sisko and Dax get an empty turbolift while the deck is swarming with crewmen, how likely is it that the turbolift can simply be stopped for a couple of minutes while the ship is at red alert?
Darvin (in Worf's presence): "After six months, I was hoping that the Klingons would invade. At least, they know how to make coffee - even if they are foul smelling barbarians... uh... Sorry." (Darvin leaves) - O'Brien: "I wouldn't take it personally, Worf." - Bashir: "I rather like the way you smell." - O'Brien: "Yeah, a sort of earthy, peaty aroma." - Bashir: "With a touch of lilac."
Bashir (to O'Brien and Sisko in their TOS uniforms): "Wait a minute, aren't you two wearing the wrong color?" - O'Brien: "Don't you know anything about this time period?" - Bashir: "I'm a doctor, not a historian." - Sisko: "In the old days, operations officers wore red, command officers wore gold." - Dax (entering in a miniskirt): "And women wore less." - Bashir: "I think I'm going to like history."
Worf (about Tribbles): "They were once considered mortal enemies of the Klingon Empire." - Odo: "Huh. This?!" - Tribble: "SQUEAK!" - Odo: "A mortal enemy of the empire..." - Worf: "They were an ecological menace. A plague to be wiped out." - Odo: "Wiped out? What are you saying!" - Worf: "Hundreds of warriors were sent to track them down throughout the galaxy. An armada obliterated the Tribble homeworld. By the end of the 23rd century they had been eradicated." - Odo: "Hm. Another glorious chapter of Klingon history. Tell me, do they still sing songs of the great Tribble hunt? Hmhmhmhm."
Remarkable quote: "I guess you boys of Temporal Investigation are - always on time." (Dax) - Actually, I was glad that after two minutes of "time" jokes following the arrival of the two temporal agents Sisko took his time to tell his story.
Remarkable scenes: When the Defiant crew tries to get accustomed to the 23rd century, they make countless funny mistakes. Bashir confuses the uniform colors. O'Brien and Bashir are standing in the turbolift, not knowing how to activate it. O'Brien removes a transtator that he has no idea of, and the lights on the deck go out. Bashir possibly meets his great-grandmother and wonders if he could be his own great-grandfather. Sisko slaps the embroidered patch on his uniform that he thinks is the communicator, but nothing happens. O'Brien mistakenly identifies a lieutenant in the bar as James Kirk. Sisko thinks that Jadzia is speaking of Kirk when she actually adores Spock. Odo, Bashir and O'Brien don't know how Klingons of the 23rd century look like.
"Dulmer" and "Lucsly" are anagrams for "Mulder" and "Scully".
As a homage to Spock, Jadzia arrives at the very same number of Tribbles of 1,771,561, based on the assumption that each Tribble creates 10 offsprings every 12 hours. She comes to that conclusion about one hour earlier than Spock, an hour in which the Tribbles have continued to breed. But since the calculation is based on a quantization of 12 hours, the result is still the same. With 72 hours of reproduction we have six generations and hence 11^6 = 1,771,561 Tribbles. Thanks to Guri Harari for the hint.
Let He Who Is Without Sin
Stardate not given: Worf agrees to join Jadzia on a vacation on Risa. Julian Bashir and Leeta travel with them to "celebrate" the end of their relationship with a Bajoran ritual. On Risa, Worf is annoyed to learn that a woman named Arandis is Curzon Dax's former lover. Out of jealousy he decides to join the rally of the New Essentialists who turn against the complacency of the Federation. In order to demonstrate how vulnerable everyone would be without technology, Worf sabotages Risa's weather grid, with the result that the planet's climate becomes naturally rainy and stormy for a couple of days. He leaves New Essentialists leader Pascal Fullerton in control of a tricorder that taps into Risa's environmental systems. When Dax and Worf have an argument about the matter, he tells her that he once accidentally killed a boy named Mikel during a soccer match on Gault and that he does not want to indulge himself ever since. Suddenly an earthquake strikes the planet. Worf rushes to snatch the tricorder from Fullerton, who went over the top with his demonstration. Now he and Dax can finally enjoy what's left of their vacation.
I didn't care a lot about the episode when I first saw it because it was so full of clichés and not only the setting reminded me a lot of soap operas. But watching it again, I found some new qualities and I noticed how well the single threads were woven together. And in the post-9/11 world some aspects have gained a whole new significance.
Worf's childhood trauma effectively prevents him from having fun. I wonder if he ever talked to a psychiatrist or to Deanna to find that out. But it wouldn't even have needed this all-embracing explanation to see what is going on. I think that Worf's and Jadzia's problem in their relationship boils down to the simple finding that they are quite different in many if not most respects. They both share a passion for martial arts, but aside from that they don't have very much in common, or they have just not yet discovered it. Most of all, Worf's graveness does not go with Dax's joyfulness. He reacts with jealousy on what he sees as escapades, whereupon she punishes him with defiance. This may have been one reason for her to choose Risa for the vacation - a place that Worf definitely wouldn't enjoy.
In a similar fashion as Worf's and Jadzia's disagreements, the austere idea of Fullerton's Essentialist Movement collides with the lax conventions of the pleasure planet. As with many things in life, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Fullerton wants to create awareness for the dangers of the universe, which certainly isn't a bad thing. Although this is not his principal intention, citizens of the Federation should not turn a blind eye on those who are not so lucky to live in a free and wealthy society. Although no one is required to fight, hunt or work hard in order to be able to survive, the Federation would not function if all of its inhabitants were indulging themselves all the time. And actually it looks like they don't. Unfortunately we never learn about the other guests, but aren't they probably people with jobs who just seek some diversion on Risa, not in any way different than those who prefer vacations on Earth's beaches today? We may disagree about the role of Risa as the Federation's biggest brothel, but not about the fundamental right of the pursuit of happiness. By taking it for granted that the whole Federation is in a state of dangerous self-indulgence, Fullerton makes the fundamental error of all extremists of all times. Like so many before him he is blind for the shades of gray in life.
I don't care for Julian and Leeta and their Bajoran rite of separation, which I find about as silly as Quark does, and which distracts from the more important plot lines of Worf, Jadzia and the Essentialists. Moreover, it turns out much less humorous as probably intended. It is odd anyway that, in spite of the casual environment and the bizarre sight of Worf on a pleasure planet, the episode never gets really funny.
Remarkable dialogue: "Aren't you uncomfortable in that uniform?" - "Starfleet uniforms are designed for comfort, even in the most extreme environments." (Jadzia and Worf, in whose eyes Risa is an extreme environment)
Remarkable quote: "Do not hug me." (Worf, to Bashir, just after a hug attack by Leeta - the by far best line of the episode)
We can see how Morn apparently dates a woman in Starfleet uniform.
The O'Briens are thinking about naming their child Sean, but in Bajoran something like "Sean" means "swamp". As we know from DS9: "Bar Association", Sean Aloysius O'Brien was one of Miles's forefathers.
Jadzia went for lunch with a Gallamite captain named Boday. Gallamites have transparent skulls. Worf says that he is Jadzia's ex-lover.
Jamaharon is the Risan word for sex. And jamaharon is mentioned more often in this episode than "sex" on any other occasion in Star Trek.
Curzon Dax died during jamaharon on Risa.
Leeta says that she has fallen in love with Rom because "he's so cute and so sexy."
Things Past
Stardate not given: Returning from a conference on which a "dispassionate view" of the Cardassian occupation of Bajor was being discussed, Sisko, Odo, Garak and Dax are found lifeless in their runabout. The unconscious crew wake up on Terok Nor, apparently at a time when Odo's Predecessor Thrax was still on duty, more than nine years ago. After Dax has been taken to Gul Dukat's office, the three men discover that, in this reality, they are three Bajorans named Ishan Chaye, Jillur Gueta and Timor Landi. Odo recalls that these three were falsely accused of attempting to assassinate Gul Dukat and were executed - but this happened at a time when Odo was already the station's head of security. Thrax morphs into a changeling, and Odo is eager to not let it happen again. But in the end the three prisoners are lined up for execution in the presence of Dukat and another Odo, just as it happened seven years ago. The four wake up on Deep Space 9. Dr. Bashir finds out that during a plasma storm Odo's morphogenic enzymes created something like a miniature version of the Great Link with his crewmates, and they relived the event from the past that he still feels guilt about.
DS9 has a predilection for subjecting characters to illusions induced by some mysterious force or by their own conscience, rather than trapping them on the holodeck, in a parallel space or in the past. This episode with its eerie atmosphere is reminiscent of Bashir's "Distant Voices" and O'Brien's "Hard Time". But most of all it harks back to "Necessary Evil", the other episode partially taking place in Odo's past on Terok Nor. I actually confused the two episodes more than once. This may also have to do with the fact that on both occasions the chemist's shop next to Quark's Bar plays a role, albeit this time it is merely mentioned as the place where the terrorists supposedly stole the chemicals for their bomb. Nice continuity here!
The episode is full of inconsistencies that are quite deliberate and a part of the story. For instance, the four characters only see each other as Bajorans. Thrax is the chief of security at a time when it should be Odo's job. Dax is apparently hurt in the blast in Dukat's place, as Sisko's perceives it. Finally, the escapees that have already reached the docking hatch suddenly find themselves in the cell again. Also, would the actual Thrax discuss his investigation with a convicted Bajoran criminal like he does with "Timor Landi", Odo in Bajoran disguise? I like how initially the four characters discuss several typical Trek scenarios that could have taken them to Terok Nor, but gradually dismiss all of them because they would make no sense. Their considerations are quite logical and well-written. In some respects the repeated nonsensical leaps from one place to another remind me of TNG: "Frame of Mind", but the DS9 episode is not by far as impressive. Some of the inconsistencies will make sense in the following, such as the wrong statements of the Cardassian guards that Odo mentions as one reason for the false accusations and that explain why Sisko believes to see that Dax has been injured, thereby raising unnecessary suspicion.
Still, everything is simply too constructed. It is clear that the whole dilemma is somehow taking place in Odo's mind, out of guilt for allowing three innocent people to be executed. As a matter of fact, it becomes clear to everyone after 21 minutes that Odo must be responsible for their deaths when Garak checks his files and states that the time is seven years ago when Odo was already there. However, Odo needs 20 more minutes to understand what is going on. This may be justified by a tendency in his mind to deny what happened, but effectively it takes away the tension from the story. I was a bit annoyed by the rather cheap fashion in which Odo was uncovered and released, only to watch how the three terrorists (now Sisko, Garak and Dax) are executed, with Dukat and Thrax in the roles of his conscience. Finally, Julian's twisted technobabble may be a satisfying in-universe explanation, but it is only one more deficit in a story that too quickly becomes exhausted.
One thing that I am fond of and that is indispensable is Odo's and Kira's scene at the very end when she asks him whether there were more innocent Bajorans killed when Odo was on Terok Nor. Odo truthfully answers that he doesn't know but hopes there were none. I am also delighted to finally see Garak again, after not appearing in the previous episodes of the season.
"How much damage would it do to the timeline if Quark were to suffer a mysterious accident?" (Odo)
"I never knew we were such messy conquerors." (Garak)
Remarkable fact: When Dukat asks Jadzia, who appears to be a Bajoran woman, for her name, she calls herself "Leeta".
Stardate not given: Quark and Odo are on their way to a hearing, when Quark notices a whistling sound in the floor of the runabout. It is a bomb, obviously planted by the Orion Syndicate. They manage to contain the explosion in a transporter beam. Still, the small vessel crash lands on a desolate and cold Class-L planetoid. Quark suggests that they carry the emergency emitter to the top of a high mountain in order to increase its range. The two are already completely exhausted when they discover that the mountain is still days away. Moreover, Odo breaks his leg when the two slide down into a valley. Odo insists that Quark leave him behind. He is prepared to die when the Defiant arrives and beams him up.
This episode follows a well-known recipe: Isolate two opponents or otherwise contrary characters in a dangerous situation that requires them to collaborate in order to survive. In the end they may learn a lesson and gain some more mutual respect while still maintaining their conflict. Quark and Odo run the gamut from mutual mistrust to mutual accusations, mutual malice and finally some sort of solidarity. Armin Shimerman and René Auberjonois give great performances. Especially the latter gets to play out emotions that Odo always used to restrain when he was still a Changeling - although his typical condescending attitude towards Quark has never been different and dominates parts of this episode too while we may have expected to see a bit more of a change. Anyway, not only physically he is a weak human being in this episode -- and a strong character nonetheless. On the other hand, this benefit doesn't prevent "The Ascent" from being plain boring. It is a conventional and rather contrived plot about marooned people without any particular highlights. With the Orion Syndicate it introduces an unnecessary new conflict to the mix that will have hardly a chance to become bigger in the following. The only interesting outcome is that Odo is not even aware if and why Quark is being persecuted when he is ordered to take the Ferengi to the interrogation. Odo apparently feigns knowledge to get Quark to talk.
Jake's and Nog's problems in their cozy quarters mirror those of Odo and Quark on the Class-L planet in a light-hearted fashion. I like that part of the episode better than the main plot. It is life as we probably all know it, and still it is nice watching.
It happens quite a few times, and especially in DS9, that an inhabitable planet is incidentally very close whenever an accident happens on a ship. Well, the runabout may have been still traveling at warp for a couple of minutes, and Odo explicitly says that the long-range sensors have found the Class-L planet. Still, it is a huge coincidence to have such a planet a few minutes away. It is also contrived that the explosion selectively destroys the comm system, most of the emergency rations and all protection suits but one. On a different note, as much as I like filming on location, the Sierra Nevada scenery is too pleasant a place to insinuate that Odo and Quark almost starve and freeze to death. There are supposedly meant to be no animals, at least no "beetles, slugs, worms or snails" that Quark would have loved to eat (In "The Jem'Hadar" he still loathed anything but Ferengi beetles, but it is obvious that he can't be that picky here). Still, about 38 minutes into the episode, when Quark is lying on the soil, we can see some small insects buzzing around his head.
Remarkable dialogues: "We're going to clean every day?" - "No, Jake, just the odd- and even-numbered ones." (Jake and Nog),"...It looks like he saved both of your lives." - "I was afraid you'd say that." (Jadzia and Odo, about Quark)
Remarkable quote: "Try not to break the other leg while I'm gone." (Quark)
Rom takes a blood sample from Nog because he thinks his son could be a Changeling. He became suspicious because Nog is so different after returning from the Academy.
When he discovers that Odo is reading a romantic or erotic story, Quarks offers him a first edition of "Vulcan Love Slave".
Jake writes a story named Past Prologue (that Nog feels urged to "correct"). "Past Prologue" is also a first-season DS9 episode.
Stardate not given: The Cardassians return an old painting depicting the ancient Bajoran city of B'hala. Sisko is eager to find the site. While he is working in a holosuite to reconstruct an obelisk that could reveal the city's location, he is struck by a discharge from a console. From now on his senses are enhanced, and he manages to finish his work and find B'hala. But he continues to be plagued by headaches and, against Jake's and Kasidy's advice, refuses to be treated. When Bajor's admission to the Federation is going to be signed, Sisko storms into the conference room and demands that it be halted, otherwise Bajor would be destroyed. The captain then collapses, and Jake decides that Dr. Bashir needs to operate his father so he can survive. Bajor abstains from joining the Federation for the time being.
Since the beginning of the series Benjamin Sisko has gone through quite a development from a mundane Starfleet commander to a revered Bajoran religious icon. In "Emissary" his actions were governed by rationality. The Bajoran Prophets appeared to be just "wormhole aliens" in his view. In the beginning Sisko's visions of the Prophets surely impressed him but were not essentially different to him than were the frequent encounters with non-corporeal aliens to Spock or Data. This changed a bit in the following. However, by the time of "Destiny" in the third season Sisko still preferred the scientific explanation of the surprising outcome of the wormhole relay experiment over the Bajoran interpretation of it being the fulfillment of a prophecy. In "Accession" in the fourth season Sisko was willing to hand over his duties as Emissary to Akorem Laan but was lucky in the end when Akorem returned to his own time. Once again a prophecy was fulfilled, and this time it left the captain thinking.
In "Rapture" Sisko takes a further step, and it is a huge one this time. He is hit by a lightning that comes out literally as an enlightenment, rather than as the mundane malfunction of an ill-maintained console that it would have been in any other episode. After this incident Sisko openly confesses that something has happened to him that he cannot explain and may not even want to explain. Sisko's former role as the skeptical Starfleet officer who demands discipline and dispassion is now up to Admiral Whatley who has a small yet important role. Sisko is plagued by visions all the time, to an extent that he may suffer permanent and possibly lethal damage. But he doesn't care. He puts his new-gained faith in the Prophets and his dedication to serve the Bajoran people above everything. Well, he is not totally obsessive all the time and he attempts to limit the damage to the relationships with his son and with Kasidy. I like how charmingly he manages to combine pleasure and duty when he invites Kasidy to a trip to Bajor where he is determined to excavate the ancient city of B'hala -- but that works only because Kasidy is more than keen on continuing their relationship.
Other things he does and says rather sound like he is out of his mind. It looks like Sisko wants to be Jesus Christ II, ready to suffer and die for the welfare of the Bajoran people, if this should be the plan of the Prophets. Statements such as "The baby that I'm holding in my arms right now is the universe itself. And I need time to study its face." are either indicative of a mental illness, or he has really become superhuman. But the latter still wouldn't excuse him talking such a grandiose trash. I admit that, as much as I appreciated him in this season so far, I don't like Avery Brooks's performance in this episode. Sure, the script is to blame for Sisko's frequent piercing headaches, his fainting and his trembling on the floor like he were drunk as hell. The script as well as the acting should have been toned down, it becomes importunate after a while. When he storms into the conference room, barely capable of saying that Bajor is not ready yet for the Federation, the episode hits its low. I found it unintentionally funny.
Looking at the other characters, I like the discussion of the religious issue in the ops in the obvious constellation Dax/O'Brien (secular) vs. Kira/Worf (spiritual). Although it is essentially composed of phrases, it mirrors the debate in the real world. In the end it is neither Starfleet nor the Bajorans, but it is up to Jake as the closest relative to decide whether Bashir can perform a probably life-saving surgery against Sisko express orders or not. In the best scene of the episode Jake makes the obvious decision to save Ben's life. Only Kira is apparently against the operation, but she shows a good deal of loyalty when she later defends it against Kai Winn's criticism. Other than that, it is noteworthy that Kai Winn's role has shifted from an opponent to Kira's new trustee in spiritual matters.
"Rapture" comes at a time when VOY: "Sacred Ground" has already laid the ground for a new kind of Trek episodes that turn the tables on Trek's rationality and technophilia. Scientific findings lose their relevance, and intuition may be just as valid or even better than thorough consideration of a problem. Not everything can be rationalized, and some things better remain unexplained. Many things in the Star Trek Universe always remained mysterious, but never before so clearly as an essential part of a story. Particularly in the DS9 episodes another trend is that technology is involved in the fulfillment of ancient prophecies, like in "Destiny" and once again in "Rapture" (where Sisko finds B'hala only with the help of the holodeck). Technology serves spiritual purposes, further blurring the former contrast.
Remarkable mishap: When Quark celebrates Bajor's expected entry into the Federation, his employees uncoil the Klingon flag.
Remarkable fact: This is the first DS9 episode with the new uniforms from "Star Trek: First Contact".
The Darkness and the Light
Stardate 50416.2: Three members of Kira's Shakaar resistance cell have been assassinated, each time followed by a message from the culprit to Kira. Her former comrades Lupaza and Furel arrive at the station to aid her. But the two are killed in an explosion. Odo compiles a list of suspects, refusing to give it to the pregnant Kira. However, Kira takes the list and comes to the conclusion that it has to be Silaran Prin. Without anyone's knowledge she takes a runabout to Prin's home but is instantaneously confined in a forcefield upon her arrival. Prin was disfigured in a resistance bombing and now seeks revenge. When Prin thinks she has been sedated, Kira manages to overwhelm and kill him.
"The Darkness and the Light" is one of those episodes that I can find nothing wrong with, still it is rather uninspiring. The episode is well-written but it is a routine job devoid of real highlights. Clearly Nana Visitor's performance is great, and her character finds a worthy opponent in Silaran Prin. Prin continues a long tradition of Cardassian characters whose stances and actions appear confounding, even despicable to Bajorans and to humans alike. However, oddly enough, of all DS9 characters it was most often Kira Nerys who became emotionally attached to single Cardassians, such as Marritza in "Duet", Ghemor in "Second Skin" and eventually even Dukat in "Indiscretion" and "Return to Grace". Silaran Prin sort of "corrects" her view of Cardassians. His dispute with Kira about what is allowed in a war and what not is something we have had before, but is is still the most interesting part of the episode. Prin is much of an antithesis to Marritza, the low-ranking Cardassian executive who thought that his sacrifice could help in the redemption the Cardassian people. Prin's intention is quite the contrary, but in achieving their goals the two share their determination, their passion and their attention to detail.
The other characters hardly play a role. Particularly Kira's friends from her resistance cell fail to contribute much to the plot because they are all assassinated after their first appearance or only show up on computer screens anyway. On the other hand, killing off these characters is not such a great loss, as the focus of the series has shifted since the first three seasons and the idea of episode is a bit anachronistic anyway. Seeing how irresponsibly the pregnant Kira acted, I would have expected the O'Briens to be accordingly infuriated. But that opportunity was wasted.
There a few nifty details in the episode, like the fact that Prin uses Kira's voice to relay his messages (which Nog with his "lobes" finds out), or the herbs that Kira takes and that later block the effect of Prin's sedative.
"You've been smirking ever since we left the starbase." - "I do not smirk. But if I did, this would be a good opportunity." - "How was I supposed to know that Captain Ramirez was a three-time tongo champion." - [Worf is still smirking] "You may have asked, before mocking him and then allowing him to up the stakes to a no-limit game." - "I didn't lose that much." - "Two bars of latinum. I hope you have it." - "I have it - most of it... Worf -" - "No." - "Fine. I'll borrow it from Quark. He likes me." - [Beep] "Major Kira's friend is ready for transport... Quark may lend you the money. But remember Rule of Acquisition No. 111: 'Treat people in your debt like family. Exploit them.'" - "You know the Rules of Acquisition?" - "I graduated at Starfleet Academy. I know many things." (Jadzia and Worf)
"None of us liked killing. We were fighting for our freedom, against..." - "You vaporized the entire east wing! Twelve Cardassians were killed, including Gul Pirak's entire family. Twenty-three others were crippled. Don't you feel guilty, don't you feel ashamed of what you did?" - "None of you belonged on Bajor. It wasn't your world. For fifty years you raped our planet, and you killed our people. You lived on our land and you took the food out of our mouth, and I don't care whether you held a phaser in your hand or you ironed shirts for your living. You were all guilty, and you were all legitimate targets." - "And that's what makes you a murderer. Indiscriminate killing... No sense of morality... No thought given to the consequences of your action. That's what makes us different." (Kira and Prin)
Remarkable fact: 15 million Bajorans were killed during the occupation, according to Major Kira.
The Begotten
Stardate not given: While Kira is about to deliver the O'Briens' baby, Odo has adopted a child of his own - an infant Changeling. Dr. Mora Pol, who once worked wit Odo, arrives from Bajor to assist him. But even though he is ordered by Starfleet Command to establish communication with the Changeling as soon as possible, Odo detests Mora's methods of using mild force to teach the shapeshifter. The two finally settle their conflict when their concerted efforts succeeds. However, the celebration doesn't last for long as the young Changeling is dying. As a final gift the Changeling merges with Odo and transforms him back into one of his kind.
Although his being human was not explored too much except in "The Ascent", an episode that I simply didn't like, it was an interesting twist to have Odo transformed into what must appear as a primitive lifeform to him. Still Odo as a Changeling is a more versatile and a more valuable character, also because this way he can literally maintain unique ties with his people. So it is good to have this old Odo back. And although it happens in a quite miraculous fashion, there is something poetic about the dying infant's last gift to Odo.
All parents of all species probably want their children to have a better childhood than they had themselves. Odo is determined to let the infant Changeling, his child, experience loving care, something that he thinks he never received from Dr. Mora. The two met before in the series, in DS9: "The Alternate", but didn't get the chance to talk things out. When Odo talks about him and with him in "The Begotten", it almost sounds like Dr. Mora must have been a ruthless stepfather who misused Odo as a lab rat. But it becomes clear very soon that Mora is not like that. "You never want to give anything away, even though it is right there in your face." is one of the first things that Mora says to Odo, and this sounds like it comes from a caring father. Odo's beef with Mora is also reminiscent of inexperienced parents who think that they instinctively know what is best for their child and who wouldn't take a lesson from a professional nanny or from their own parents.
Mora Pel appears to Odo as a self-righteous person who believes that he always did the only right thing in the given circumstances. But at latest when Starfleet demands fast results from Odo in a similar way as the Cardassians put Mora under pressure, Odo begins to understand him. In many ways the situation echoes that of TNG: "The Offspring", when an admiral came to monitor Data's progress in the development of Lal, threatening to take away his daughter from him - with a sad outcome. But most of all it becomes clear that Mora is right that a Changeling needs stimulation and needs motivation to explore his world, just as a human child should not spend all day in front of the TV screen.
The secondary plot of Kira's Bajoran birth ceremony was quite exasperating, but that was probably exactly the intention. Miles's and Shakaar's adolescent quibbling really wasn't necessary to beef up the story though. I bet the next time Kira would want the baby to be simply beamed out.
"And it's always nice to have someone around to change the diapers." (Sisko, advising Odo to accept help in raising the Changeling)
"Constable. Why are you talking to your beverage?" (Worf)
"Arghh. I'll be in pain for the rest of my life." - "Odo. You have a pinched nerve." - "Really." - "It comes from bad posture." - "Me? Ridiculous. I haven't seen anyone sit so straight." - "Exactly. You carry yourself too rigidly." (Odo and Bashir)
"I'm measuring its volume. It's been here a week, and it's only grown 17%. After three days in my lab, you were twice that size." - "Maybe I was anxious to grow up, so I could get out of there." (Mora and Odo)
For the Uniform
Stardate 50485.2: Sisko is going to retrieve information about the former Commander Eddington, who defected to the Maquis, when his contact turns out to be none other than Eddington himself. Eddington sabotages the Defiant with a cascade virus and escapes. Using a compound that is harmless to humans but hazardous to Cardassians, Eddington begins to poison Cardassian colonies. The Defiant now receives support from the USS Malinche, but the Maquis attack and disable the Starfleet ship. When his ship arrives too late to stop another attack on a Cardassian planet, Sisko decides to turn the tables and contaminate a Maquis planet with a chemical that is harmful to humans but not to Cardassians. While the two sides have to switch planets, Eddington turns himself over to the Federation authorities in order to avert a further escalation.
It is an exciting episode and one that I enjoyed a lot. Still, I have a huge problem with it. A problem with Sisko's decision to poison the Maquis planet. He does not just overstep his authority by far, but the act is plain criminal. Very easily Sisko could have become a mass murderer, if the Maquis had not accidentally had enough transport ships to evacuate the whole planet, or if the bioweapon had taken effect too rapidly. Eddington says that Sisko is betraying his uniform, without even noticing it, and he is damn right about that. Sisko betrays his superiors by weakening Starfleet's position in the Neutral Zone, he betrays the principles of peace and justice that the Federation and Starfleet stand for and he betrays the human settlers of the Neutral Zone who would have deserved neutrality from his part at the very least, and not help for the Cardassian oppressors. Sisko does all this only to hunt down one man. Ironically, when Sisko met with Eddington at the beginning of the episode, the captain still accused the Maquis of misusing the colonists for their purposes. Now Sisko does the very same, he may even kill many of them. My particular gripe is not only that Sisko does commit this crime in the first place, but that it has no consequences for him. No charges from Starfleet Command, no open criticism from his crew. On the contrary, the episode closes with an inappropriate comment from Dax who says that she is glad that this time the bad guy wins. The sad thing is that Sisko really is the bad guy here, and nobody really cares. The manufactured poetic justice that the expelled Maquis settlers may take over the former Cardassian planets and vice versa does not really alleviate Sisko's (or Eddington's) guilt either. But Eddington eventually surrenders for a higher cause, while Sisko would not have abstained from his hunt to avoid incommensurate damage. So in a strange fashion it is Eddington who prevails in the end. The moral victory is with him.
A key question of the episode is whether Sisko takes the task of apprehending Eddington too personally. It is quite obvious in all of his statements and actions that he does. It may be the main reason why Starfleet takes away the task of apprehending Eddington from him. Since the events of "For the Cause" Sisko has been deceived and repeatedly humbled by the former fellow officer. It is not even the fact that Eddington commits clear war crimes when he poisons whole planets and attacks defenseless refugee transports that makes Sisko furious. On the contrary, Sisko does exactly the same in the end, just to capture Eddington. But it usually takes two for a vendetta. So what about Eddington? The Maquis leader initially comes across as magnanimous. He says that he just does what he has to do, and that he has no harsh feelings towards Sisko. But Eddington's position is much more comfortable anyway. He has not been betrayed by a fellow officer. No one has ordered him to go after the Starfleet captain. So why should he make it a personal matter? Still, we cannot really believe him. At latest when Eddington sends over Les Misérables to the Defiant, it becomes evident that there is more about it than just fighting for a cause. In his mindset Eddington is the bread thief Valjean who is chased by Inspector Javert, Sisko's character, for the rest of his life. Eddington should know that this interpretation of his connection to Sisko is simply not true. He did not commit a minor offense like Valjean. He may not take it quite as personally as Sisko does, but Eddington's transfigured perception of the situation is just as dangerous for everyone involved.
Nitpicking:
I wonder why the Defiant's bridge was not simply moved down to engineering, as long as most systems, even including the helm, could be operated only from there. And even if it made sense to give remote commands, why didn't everyone on the bridge wear a communicator like Nog, instead of having Nog repeat everything from and to engineering?
Trilithium already has a history of being used inconsistently. In TNG: "Starship Mine" it was a highly volatile by-product of the warp core. In "Star Trek Generations", trilithium resin was an unknown explosive. In DS9: "For the Uniform", trilithium resin is suddenly familiar but not an explosive any longer, but rather a bioweapon.
"Tell me captain. What is it that bothers you more? The fact that I left Starfleet to fight for a higher cause, or the fact that it happened during on your watch?" - "You didn't leave Starfleet. If you had, I wouldn't be here. You betrayed Starfleet." (Eddington and Sisko)
"You betrayed your uniform!" - "And you're betraying yours, right now! The sad part is, you don't even realize it." (Sisko and Eddington)
"You know what I see out there, Mr. Eddington. I see victims. But not of Cardassia or the Federation. Victims of you, the Maquis. You sold these people on the dream that one day they could go back to those farms and schools and homes. But you know they never can. And the longer you keep that hope alive, the longer these people will suffer." (Sisko)
"You know what your problem is, captain. You made this personal. It didn't have to be, it wasn't with me. I have no animosity, no harsh feelings towards you." (Eddington)
"I think it is time for me to become the villain." (Sisko)
"Sometimes I like it when the bad guy wins." (Dax)
Remarkable fact: This episode repeatedly makes use of the new holo-communicator, a device that will reappear in only one more episode and then vanish without a trace.
In Purgatory's Shadow / By Inferno's Light
Stardate 50564.2: Worf and Garak follow a mysterious message that Garak's mentor Enabran Tain seems to have sent from the Gamma Quadrant. On the far side of the wormhole they run into a Dominion fleet, are captured by the Jem'Hadar and taken to a prisoner camp. In the camp they meet Tain and General Martok, as well as another prisoner: Dr. Bashir, who was kidnapped on his way to a conference and replaced with a Changeling a month ago. Tain is about to die when he finally acknowledges Garak, who promises to escape, as his son. Meanwhile on Deep Space 9, the crew, together with the Bashir Changeling, is working on a plan to seal the wormhole. When the Dominion fleet enters the Alpha Quadrant through the wormhole, the ships surprisingly turn about and head for Cardassia. Gul Dukat follows the fleet and announces that Cardassia is now a part of the Dominion, with he himself being their leader. Gowron reinstates the Klingon-Federation treaty against the new common enemy. In the internment camp, Worf almost ceaselessly fights against the Jem'Hadar for the guards' enjoyment, while Garak and Bashir are working for their escape. Although Garak suffers from claustrophobia, he continues to modify the communication system in a narrow crawlspace and beams out Worf from the arena before he is executed. The doctor sends a message to Deep Space 9, warning the crew of the shapeshifter. But the fake Bashir has already taken a runabout, heading straight for the Bajoran sun with an explosive that would cause it to go nova. Dax and Kira take the Defiant and tow away the runabout in the nick of time.
This is the best thriller of the series since DS9: "Way of the Warrior". Most notably the double feature bears as many surprises as hardly any other Trek installment: Tain's and Martok's survival in the prisoner camp, the fact that Tain is Garak's father, Dukat's ploy to join the Dominion. Still nothing of all this comes across as contrived. It all ties in nicely, and makes a lot of sense. Clearly this double episode, written by Ira Steven Behr and Robert Hewitt Wolfe, has not been pulled out of thin air but has been carefully prepared over the course of several months. The definitely biggest surprise, however, is that for several episodes (at latest since "Rapture" when we first saw the uniforms) we have not seen the real Bashir but a Changeling in disguise. A Changeling who did such a thorough job that no one noticed the difference. Regarding Martok, he says he has been in the prisoner camp for two years and he also doesn't know Worf, so the Martok from "Way of the Warrior" must already have been the Changeling.
An all-out war with the Dominion is due at the time of the episode, and yet it is adjourned once again, which leaves me a little bit disappointed. If the prior acts of aggressions were not yet sufficient to prove that the Dominion is evil, the almost successful attempt to detonate the Bajoran sun in order to destroy the combined Federation, Klingon and Romulan forces is so devilish that it should defy all diplomacy. Gul Dukat apparently doesn't notice that he is selling Cardassia to a ruthless superpower that would sooner or later destroy his people, and just to play the head of a pathetic puppet government.
I am delighted to see Tora Ziyal again after a longer absence from the screen (though she is yet again played by a different actress, Melanie Smith, and with a somewhat different make-up as I think). It is no surprise that her little romance with Garak would infuriate her father. Still, Cardassian family ties remain incomprehensible. At one time Gul Dukat truly wants his child to die (DS9: "Indiscretion"), on other occasions he would kill anyone who just talks to her. But when he leaves the station, Dukat gives up his daughter rather effortlessly, knowing that she will die together with everyone else. Elim Garak's relationship to his father is similarly ambivalent. He has been denied and exiled by his father Enabran Tain. We never learn what disunited the two though.
Nitpicking: Prisons in Star Trek "traditionally" have lax security. The Jem'Hadar internment camp is no exception. Crawlways with important systems are rather easy to access, there are no weapon fire detectors and there is no audio or video surveillance.
[Garak talks Worf into supporting his application for Starfleet Academy] "Frankly, I think I could be quite an asset to Starfleet. With my extensive experience, I could skip the lower ranks entirely, and begin my career as a commander. Maybe you could suggest that in your letter. Tell them you'd be honored to serve under me." - "Do not play games with me. - You have no desire to join Starfleet, do you?" - "No. I'm afraid I don't." - "Then why all of this deception?" - "Because lying is a skill like any other, and if you want to maintain a level of excellence, you have to practice constantly." - "Practice on someone else." - "Mr. Worf, you're no fun at all." (Garak and Worf)
"The Jem'Hadar don't eat, don't drink and they don't have sex. And if that wasn't bad enough, the Founders don't eat, and don't drink and don't have sex either... which, between you and me, makes my financial future less than promising." - "It might not be so bad. For all you know, the Vorta could be gluttonous, alcoholic sex maniacs." (Quark and Ziyal)
"Romance is for solids." (Odo)
"At the first sign of betrayal, I will kill him, but - I promise to return the body intact." (Worf, before departing with Garak)
"I should have killed your mother before you were born. You have always been a weakness I can't afford." (Enabran Tain, to Garak)
Remarkable character: The Breen prisoner is sitting there all the time, never talking, until he attacks the Jem'Hadar guard. The Romulans have a proverb, "Never turn your back on a Breen", although I doubt that the Romulans may know the mysterious Breen so well.
Dr. Bashir, I Presume
Stardate not given: Dr. Bashir has been chosen to be the model for Starfleet's latest holographic doctor. Dr. Lewis Zimmerman comes to the station for extensive field studies. Dr. Bashir is uncomfortable when his parents Richard and Amsha Bashir arrive - invited by Zimmerman who is going to examine Bashir's childhood as well. Julian is particularly concerned that the two could reveal a childhood secret that would cost him his career - that he has been genetically enhanced. This is illegal in the Federation. The two later tell their son that they won't let that happen. But they are actually talking to the holographic version, with Zimmerman and O'Brien witnessing the revelation. Dr. Bashir decides to resign before the fateful report is filed. But Sisko arranges an alternative solution to the dilemma. Richard Bashir accepts a two-year sentence, while his son is allowed to remain in service, albeit with a stain on his record.
As the dust of the almost successful Dominion attack has settled, DS9 carries on with a light-hearted episode - at least this is what "Dr. Bashir, I Presume?" appears to be in the beginning. It is the second time after VOY: "The Swarm" that Robert Picardo appears as Dr. Zimmerman. And once again it is a lot of fun to watch. Zimmerman is not just outwardly the exact prototype of the EMH. The only thing the latter obviously hasn't inherited is Zimmerman's insatiable libido. We may speculate if there are any characteristics of Julian that Zimmerman may have decided to abandon when creating the new long-term EMH.
While we could not anticipate that Bashir has a good reason for his parents not to be interviewed because they are hiding a secret, it was obvious that Zimmerman would ignore the doctor's explicit wish. When Amsha and Richard Bashir arrive on the station, the atmosphere is still humorous in its awkwardness, a lot like in TNG: "Family" where Worf is similarly enthusiastic when his adoptive parents come aboard the Enterprise. Probably everyone knows what it is like when your parents come to visit the place you live or work at, and then keep telling your colleagues or friends all sorts of embarrassing things about your childhood. Especially when they find attentive listeners among them, like Jadzia in this case.
Richard Bashir is a real windbag, an anachronistic kind of human character that we rarely see on Star Trek. He has not accomplished anything noteworthy in his life, but he can talk about his great achievements and his plans for hours. Or give Julian advice in fields he has not the slightest idea of. Julian, on the other hand, is hostile towards his parents and especially towards his father from the very beginning. My impression is that he is not only afraid that Richard Bashir may talk a bit too much to Lewis Zimmerman. Julian wouldn't want to speak with his father anyway, knowing that it is rather fruitless. Of course, the revelation that the Bashirs have altered Julian's DNA in a way that he would have a better life and overall better chances gives their conflict a new dimension. Yet, the problem between Julian and his parents may have been essentially the same if he had wound up as a genius despite his natural genetic heritage.
As much as his anger about his father's method to circumvent problems instead of facing them is understandable, Julian is being unfair to him. Unfair because he himself has been profiting from his enhanced abilities more than anyone else, and because he would never want to give up that part of his personality (for instance, by having the treatment reverted in some fashion). Even if it was morally questionable and illegal, the genetic enhancement works. Julian is not a freak. He is not the fraud that he is afraid to be. He is not a victim either. Perhaps we can compare his viewpoint to that of an overprotected child of overcaring parents who looks back and would have preferred to struggle for acceptance instead of gaining it effortlessly. When Julian and his father are spouting mutual accusations, the time for his mother to speak up for the first time has come. Amsha Bashir's account gives the whole dilemma a human dimension again. We may want to believe her that it was not their overbearing desire to have a perfect child but rather the sincere worry that Julian's life as a possible mentally handicapped person in the complicated 24th century would have been miserable in spite of all the social progress.
In retrospect, it should have been easy to anticipate that the Bashirs would accidentally reveal their secret to the Bashir hologram. I noticed that after a couple of seconds, when "Julian" was still standing there, mostly motionless. His own parents didn't recognize the fake son... The outcome that Julian would be able to keep his commission in spite of his being a fraud makes sense. Especially since his abilities do anything but disqualify him to be an officer. In addition, if genetic engineering is not tolerated because it is "fraudulent", wouldn't the same apply to artificial lifeforms or cybernetic enhancements? Wouldn't Data or Picard have to resign as well? It is a nice twist that, for once, Richard Bashir has to face the consequences of his deeds and is sentenced to prison. It only leaves a bad taste how Starfleet is apparently authorized to decide about a punishment for a civilian person...
Regarding the thread about Leeta and Rom, there is one rule in the universe that is invariable (perhaps except Quark's stance that "females are trouble"). Even if all humanoid species may basically feel attracted to the opposite sex of other races, the cheerleader would still never date the inhibited pimpled spectacle wearer from the chess club. So inhibited (rather than slow on the uptake) that he even doesn't even react on the many clear cues that Leeta gives him when she makes him jealous by going out with Zimmerman and later asks Rom whether he could tell her a reason to stay on the station. It is TV, not real life, that she returns his affection.
"Wow. Think of it, Julian. If this thing works, you'll be able to irritate hundreds of people you've never even met." (O'Brien)
"No, there's no stigma attached to success, chief. After the treatments, I never looked back. But the truth is, I'm a fraud." (Julian Bashir)
Remarkable scenes:
Dr. Zimmerman's interview is carried over seamlessly from one person to another. This is a narrative technique that I remember from just one other episode, DS9: "Visionary". Morn was involved on both occasions.
At the end of the episode Julian demonstrates his "new" powers by hitting three bullseyes in the darts match with O'Brien. This is the beginning of a running joke through several more episodes in which everyone expects the doctor to show superhuman abilities.
Amsha Bashir calls her son "Jules".
Quark offers his brother a copy of "Vulcan Love Slave, part II".
Admiral Bennett says that the Eugenics Wars happened 200 years ago, putting them well into the 22nd century.
We learn something about Rom's former wife and Nog's mother, Prinadora. Her father swindled Rom out of his money, and then she left him for a richer man.
A Simple Investigation
Stardate not given: Odo encounters the attractive Arissa. She tells him that she is about to meet with Tauvid Rem who is going to provide information about a daughter she gave up fifteen years earlier. But when the two enter his quarters, Tauvid has been killed. Arissa admits that she is working as a computer hacker for Draim of the notorious Orion Syndicate but wants to leave the criminal organization. All she still needs is the information stored on Tauvid's data crystal to buy her own life. After spending a night with Arissa, Odo is informed by an Idanian agent that she is actually one of his people who was surgically altered to infiltrate the organization. All memories of her former life were erased and stored on the data crystal. The Idanian and Odo save Arissa when Draim is going to kill her, but he has to let her return to her married life.
This is a simple and an unusually boring episode. There is nothing really wrong with it, but I nearly fell asleep watching it for the first time, and once again when I re-watched it. Overall, there are just two noteworthy aspects about the episode. The first one is that Odo gets intimate with a humanoid woman for the first time. It almost seems like it is still the human Odo, before his state was reverted in DS9: "The Begotten". His liquefying hand while he is holding Arissa's is the only time that Odo's nature as a Changeling plays a role here. Fortunately, while the episode insinuates more clearly than usual that the two are having sex, their relationship overall remains romantic. However, it is simply little interesting to watch, because there is nothing special about a man having a romantic relationship with a woman that does not encounter real obstacles except for initial aloofness.
The second interesting aspect is that Arissa is not aware of her own true identity. We have seen similar things on Star Trek before. I'm thinking of the intriguing episode DS9: "Second Skin", in which Kira was close to believing that she was actually a covertly operating Cardassian agent. That was clearly a much more interesting context than some previously unknown woman working for some previously unseen aliens and pursued by yet another unimportant species. The spy story is very lame, and the plot twist essentially just emphasizes Odo's letdown and, at the same time alleviates it. In some odd fashion, Arissa or whatever is her real name beats Odo in terms of not knowing what she really is and what she really wants. Still, the way it happened, neither of the two must be sorry about anything.
"Falcon? Again? I'm tired of being the bad guy." - "But you do it so well." (O'Brien and Jadzia, talking about Julian's holographic characters)
"You are not talking, you're gossiping. And besides, Odo is quite capable of taking care of himself." - "Don't shout across the room. If you want to 'gossip' with us, then come down here." (Worf and Jadzia, who has just been chatting with Kira about Odo)
Stardate not given: Quark has just realized that he is practically bankrupt when his cousin Gaila proposes him a tempting deal. Quark is supposed to provide his holosuites for weapon demonstrations of the unscrupulous arms dealer Hagath. Quark witnesses how Hagath fires his associate Farrakk and later learns that Hagath killed the man. The deals having become an open secret on the station although the Bajoran Government allows them because Hagath once supplied the Resistance, all his friends turn their backs on Quark. When Hagath is going to sell weapons to the Regent of Palamar, which will result in the death of millions, Quark decides that the deal must not take place. He invites Nassuc to the station to "accidentally" encounter his enemy, the Regent of Palamar. While the regent is killed, Hagath and Gaila escape with Nassuc on their heels. Quark, however, has paid off his dues and regained his friends.
It is no surprise to see that Quark is insolvent yet again, and that he is engaged in a dubious business yet again. Overall the idea of this episode includes only few new aspects, most obviously that this time Quark crosses the line to being utterly immoral and criminal. Speaking of criminals, Gaila, Quark's shady cousin that has been mentioned before appears for the first time. At one point, in DS9: "Little Green Men", Gaila even attempted to kill Quark, but so did Rom in DS9: "The Nagus". The family has anything but a clean record, and so far Quark appeared to be among its more decent members.
Now Quark follows the rules of the unscrupulous Hagath as readily as Hagath is willing to trust Quark. The desire to make a fortune unites the two men. Actually, there is even one thing I like about Hagath, that he is not giving the earned money directly to Quark until all debts are paid. I wish everyone who wastes money has a supervisor like that. ;-) Anyway, other than their quest for money the two don't have much in common. Quark still has a conscience, although it needs as many as 28 million prospective victims to finally convince him that his dealings are wrong. Quark's nightmare of "dead" crew members accusing him of murdering them is the turning point. It has been done in similar fashions quite often in the series, and I'm usually not fond of such tricks to visualize emotions. But this time, with the dabo table indicating that Quark loses, it works out well. Especially since Quark has no one he could actually talk to, not even Jadzia.
It leaves a bit of a bad taste how easily Quark apparently copes with Farrakk's death or that of the Regent, although they were both bad guys. I am not convinced that in the end everything is really as fine as it seems and I also don't think that Quark's friends should so readily forgive him. On the other hand, we have to take into account the legal situation, that the Bajoran Government insists that Hagath may continue selling weapons on the station because he supplied the Bajoran Resistance. I have to concede that this is a clever twist devised by the writers that allows Quark to carry on legally but scorned by everyone on the station. It also wouldn't give him many options to end his business relationship than with the trap he sets up.
I am not really fond of the secondary plot involving Miles O'Brien and his fruitless attempts to get his son Kirayoshi to stop crying. It is just too trivial, although it may have been meant to constitute a light-hearted antithesis to Quark's grave situation. At least the ironical outcome that either technology (the maintenance pit on the ops) or a Klingon warrior are the best surrogate fathers is funny.
Finally, while regular characters other than Quark appear only casually anyway, it is strange, even a bit irritating, that neither Rom nor Nog are in the episode.
"28 million dead? Can't we just wound some of them?" (Quark)
"Look out there. Millions and millions of stars. Millions upon millions of worlds. And right now, half of them are fanatically dedicated to destroying the other half. Now, do you think, if one of those twinkling lights suddenly went out, anybody would notice? -- Suppose I offered you ten million bars of gold-pressed latinum to help turn out one of those lights. Would you really tell me to keep my money?" (Gaila)
Remarkable fact: Curiously, the episode credits list Siddig El Fadil as the director, although, as an actor, he changed his name to Alexander Siddig with the beginning of the fourth season.
Ties of Blood and Water
Stardate 50715.5: Tekeny Ghemor, the high-ranking Cardassian who once thought that Kira was his long-missing daughter, appears at the station. He is going to die soon, but not before revealing to his family the secrets he holds. As Ghemor doesn't seem to have any living relatives, he has elected his "daughter" Kira. She grudgingly agrees, seeing the opportunity to learn something to be used against the abhorred Cardassian-Dominion alliance. But then Gul Dukat appears and demands Ghemor to be turned over to him. He provides Kira with a military record stating that Ghemor, as a young man, took part in a massacre on Bajor. Kira turns away from Ghemor in disgust, but then remembers how she left her father to die when he needed her most. She joins the Cardassian in his last moments and buries him next to her father.
This episode nicely wraps up the story that began in "Second Skin" in the third season when Kira was presented to Tekeny Ghemor as his long-lost daughter, who had infiltrated the Bajoran Resistance. Kira Nerys has a talent to decide quickly whether something is right or wrong, or whether someone is a friend or a foe. This is probably a holdover from her time in the Resistance. Now she is willing to move on and to give her former enemies, the Cardassians, a chance to redeem themselves in her eyes. Yet, she makes this exception only for Cardassian dissidents (formerly including Dukat) who support the Bajoran cause. Dukat's recent ploy of joining the Dominion facilitates her distinction of "good" and "bad" Cardassians even more.
Unfortunately for Kira her Cardassian "father" Ghemor has not always been the friend of the Bajorans she has imagined him to be. That she turns her back on him after learning of his participation in a massacre is certainly an emotional response. She could continue to talk to him because it is her duty and her cause, but ultimately it is another emotional response, her role as his "daughter", that reconciles them. Kira's flashbacks about her father nicely illustrate what she feels for Ghemor. I think the parallels between the two men are a bit factitious nonetheless. Yet, they bring forth the superb closing scene in which Kira buries Ghemor beside her father.
Something I find interesting but also worrying is how close Kira and Dukat still are despite his despicable treason. As he says himself, they have a perverse pleasure talking to one another. Why are Dukat and Weyoun, as clear enemies and without diplomatic immunity (because neither the Federation nor the Bajorans recognize their government) allowed to walk about the station anyway? It would be understandable if the Bajorans lynched them.
Remarkable dialogue: "Major Kira... friends with a Cardassian... seems wrong." - "You should have known her five years ago. Back then, I never thought she would be friends with anyone." (Worf and Jadzia)
"He doesn't seem to like you very much. We're going to have to do something about your public image. *grin*" (Weyoun, about Ghemor, to Dukat)
"Vorta are immune to most forms of poison. Comes in handy when you're a diplomat. *giggle*" (Weyoun, after drinking a glass of the poison delivered to Ghemor)
Shri-tal is the Cardassian tradition that a dying person tells secrets to a family member, to be used against their enemies.
This is the first appearance of Weyoun 5. We learn that the Vorta are cloned. The preceding clone, Weyoun 4, was killed by Jem'Hadar Omet'iklan in DS9: "To the Death."
Remarkable ship: This is the first time we can see the impressive Jem'Hadar battlecruiser up close.
Ferengi Love Songs
Stardate not given: Quark returns to Ferenginar to his mother's home. But Ishka is uneasy because she is secretly romantically involved with Grand Nagus Zek. When Quark discovers the liaison, he is thrilled but hopes in vain that Zek would restore his trade license, which only the FCA can do. Liquidator Brunt of the FCA proposes that Quark break up the relationship between Zek and Ishka to regain his license in return. The plan succeeds and Zek leaves Ishka, with Quark feigning sympathy. He agrees to become Zek's First Clerk and soon recognizes that the economic decisions of the Grand Nagus are disastrous without Ishka's advice. Quark helps Zek to redeem himself in the eyes of the Ferengi society, and he reunites the couple.
This light-hearted episode shares the problem of most Ferengi-centered installments. It is fun to watch, but relies heavily on comedy clichés. The setting and the way the story takes reminds me a lot of soap operas. But I have to concede that "Ferengi Love Songs" remains on track where an overdose of silliness could easily derail it. I'm speaking of the moment when Quark finds the Nagus and his servant Mai'hardu hiding in his closet, and some time later Brunt. Yes, it is funny. Yet, I am glad that most other jokes in the episode wind up as more decent and still quite nifty, like the "Marauder Mo" figures that Moogie has been keeping for Quark. Most of all the pleasant characters save the episode, which becomes sort of a tragicomedy in its second half. It is touching to see Ishka cry when the Nagus has left her, or the Nagus who suffers from senility and doesn't want to admit it. In spite of everything it comes across that they are not simple caricatures but characters with feelings and desires, although the Ferengi appear a bit too human in everything they're doing. Well, Quark admits that he has been hanging around with "hew-mons" too long and has been "brainwashed" with their ethical values. But Ishka, Zek and Brunt represent human behavior and misbehavior just as well, even though they do it in an alien setting.
I also like Rom in this episode, because this time he gets himself into a real dilemma when he urges Leeta to sign an unfair Ferengi marriage treaty - based on his education and his bad experience with his ex-wife. Only that I doubt that his eventual solution, to donate all his money to a Bajoran orphan fund, will make anyone happier - except for the orphans, of course. Anyway, he has grown to more than just the clown who is always the last to notice anything.
"I know, I know. This is just a temporary setback. The bar will open again, and I'll get back to my life." - "I'm going to realize that." - "The trouble is, I hate my life." (Quark and Jadzia)
"My Marauder Mo action figures. I thought you'd thrown these out." - "All these years I've been keeping them in storage for you. I figured you wanted to take them back to Deep Space 9 with you." - "I sure do. Do you have any idea how much these are worth?" - "Not as much as if you had kept them in the original packaging, which is what I told you at the time." (Quark and Ishka)
Remarkable oddity: Rom quotes Horan's seventh prophecy as "He will come to the palace, carrying a chalice, bearing no malice, overflowing with sweet spring wine." Did he twist the translation to produce a rhyme?
Soldiers of the Empire
Stardate not given: General Martok assumes command of the Bird-of-Prey Rotarran. He takes Worf and Jadzia on a mission to search and rescue a missing Klingon ship, the B'Moth. But the crew of the Rotarran is war-weary, and Martok's attitude to evade confrontations with the Jem'Hadar only aggravates the depressive mood aboard the Rotarran. When they locate the B'Moth, Martok refuses to enter Cardassian space to save the survivors. Worf challenges Martok to a fight. He allows Martok to defeat him just when he notices that the crew's warrior spirit has been reawakened and a Jem'Hadar vessel is approaching. The Rotarran destroys the enemy ship and rescues 35 crew members from the B'Moth. Martok, grateful for what the son of Mogh has done for him, accepts Worf's entry into the house of Martok.
"Soldiers of the Empire" will be remembered for showing the other side of the Klingon warrior spirit. Not every Klingon can always win or can die a glorious death in battle. There have to be single warriors or warships that barely survive a skirmish by withdrawing in time, which is lucky by human standards but ill-fated in a Klingon interpretation. The events on the Rotarran correct the image of Klingons to something more realistic, and more likable in its diversity. Still, her crew is not depicted as a bunch of overly "humanized" Klingons. They all still heed the principles of their culture or strive to do so. They only struggle over the right way to prove their worthiness. They are lacking a common goal and they are lacking leadership. And this is what makes them dangerously unstable as a crew, as Jadzia correctly recognizes.
Dax's sudden decision to join the Rotarran crew befits her capricious character, still it does not really make sense. As she has to concede herself, it is an occasion to be with Worf and to have some fun (or what she considers fun besides vacations on Risa). I wonder what the "old man" did off-screen to persuade Sisko to let her go. Overall, her being on the ship is a bit fabricated despite the importance of her role.
Surprisingly, when the rescue mission begins, it is not the frustrated Rotarran crew, but General Martok is the one who is overly cautious. Leskit suspects that Martok fears the Jem'Hadar because they broke him. The old Klingon may be correct, because Martok was in the Dominion prisoner camp, he has been practicing all along, he of all warriors should be prepared to enter a battle even with a second-rate crew on his side. However, the general may be actually afraid that his subordinates could fail again, possibly even giving credence to the alleged curse on the Rotarran. Based on the Rotarran's records Martok's apprehension may be justified, but in the eyes of the crew that desperately awaits a battle he must appear as a coward. The true reasons for his lack of motivation remain nebulous.
Out of loyalty and discipline Worf initially grudgingly supports Martok's orders although in his heart he feels more like everyone else aboard. Jadzia's ties to the crew are even much closer, which has to do with Worf being an outcast and the higher-ranking officer on this mission. But overall it is ironical that the only non-Klingon on the ship apparently knows best what the crew needs, followed by the Klingon without a house. In contrast, Martok's caution and the crew's unrest are the two positions that simply don't fit together and need to be corrected.
The inevitable fight would have to take place either between the crew and Worf or between Worf and Martok, as only the first officer is allowed to challenge the captain. By human standards the duel is certainly the least preferable option and a total waste especially if the two opponents are much rather expected to fight side by side. But remembering everything we have seen about the Klingons so far it makes sense as it re-awakens their spirit no matter who wins the challenge. The Rotarran crew are just waiting for something to happen. And as Worf proves, it does not have to be a fight to the death. This looks like a concession to human ethics in an episode that is overall dominated by Klingon philosophy.
Inconsistency: Worf apologizes to Martok for causing too much damage in the battle simulation, and the old Klingon bridge officer apologizes to Martok for his disrespect. Both are very polite. What happened to the Klingon ban on apologies, which was corroborated in the lesson Worf gave to his fellow officers in "Apocalypse Rising"?
"The Klingons are as diverse a people as any. Some of them are strong, and some of them are weak." (Jadzia)
"Getting away is something we've become very good at. The Rotarran can run away from battle faster than any ship in the quadrant." (Leskit)
Children of Time
Stardate not given: While the Defiant is investigating an energy barrier around a planet in the Gamma Quadrant, Kira is struck by a plasma discharge. The crew discover a colony on the planet, led by a certain Miranda O'Brien and entirely populated by descendants of the Defiant crew. This is possible because upon their departure from the planet, the Defiant would enter the energy barrier again, would be hurled 200 years to the past and crash land. Trapped on the planet named Gaia, the crew would have to begin a new life and have several generations of children. Yedrin, the current Dax host on Gaia, claims to be working on a plan to duplicate the Defiant of which one would crash and one would make it through the barrier. But he has no hope that it could work, and his actual plan is to let the crash happen in order for his colony to continue to exist. Although Sisko's initial decision was to escape in order to save his first officer and to allow everyone to return to their families, he changes his mind after spending some time with the people on Gaia. He ultimately rules in their favor, with the approval of most of his crew. But the Odo of Gaia, who is still alive and still in love with Kira, changes the ship's course in a way that it would be able to cross the energy barrier unscathed. The people on Gaia cease to exist.
"Children of Time" clearly stands out among the more recent time travel episodes because of its novel premise. Having the crew encounter their own descendants from a time anomaly is something never seen before. The idea of the quantum duplicate, like in TNG: "Parallels", that Yedrin puts forth is an additional clever twist. It is only a ruse here, and hence it ironically comments on the cases where similar theories were successfully put to work. Overall, it is a well-rounded story as it is possible only on the ground that Star Trek has been preparing all along, rather than any other science fiction series.
The probably biggest surprise of the episode, however, is Odo - the one who has been on Gaia all the time and who has learned to maintain his shape despite the anomaly. In some way it is the human Odo of the first half of the season, but the Odo from Gaia is also a lot more accessible and self-confident than the one we know. This Odo, the future version of the one who confessed his love to a fake Kira in DS9: "Heart of Stone" but never to the real one, has been waiting for his beloved to return for 200 years! Wow. It was a brilliant idea to bring in this second Odo in the course of the story, without the need to resort to another contrived trick. It is almost like the whole time travel plot is built around him, even rather than around the idea of the crew meeting their own descendants. Yet, this doesn't mean that the rest of the setting of Gaia, such as the "Sons of Mogh" (the young people following Worf's example), doesn't impress me just as well. I only think that Worf should have kept his promise to kill them in the face of their pending disappearance. Anyway, it is remarkable, for a change, to see Jadzia with pangs of remorse, and Yedrin Dax mirroring this sentiment.
The other characters, especially Sisko and O'Brien, are rather problematic. I have already given my more than two cents on the time travel and the ethical concerns about the outcome elsewhere. So the only thing I would like to repeat is that I find annoying how cutesiness beats true affection, how fatalism beats logic and how herd instinct beats sense of duty here. I still like the scene in which Sisko consults his senior staff, and Kira's and Worf's fatalism clashes with O'Brien's down-to-earth attitude. It is the last honest thing that happens in the episode. O'Brien and everyone else change their minds in spite of everything, while doing romanticized kibbuz work with even the "Sons of Mogh" participating and looking into all the cute children's faces that would be doomed to disappear forever. It seems to make sense, but actually it is a fabricated impression that the script imposes on us against all reason. It is kind of a setback in a so far fantastic episode, also because it is lucid anyway that the crew would eventually escape their "destiny" on Gaia. The way it happens, future Odo plays the scapegoat as he sabotages the Defiant. Fortunately no one but Kira explicitly blames him, but the crew comes out a bit hypocritical because they let someone else do what everyone would eventually be glad about. It may have been better (and more consistent) if in the end nobody remembered Gaia, the colony that was never meant to exist.
Nitpicking: What reconnaissance mission could be so vital that DS9 may be unshepherded with the complete senior crew gone for weeks, while the Dominion could attack any time? The station is not shown once in this whole episode, by the way.
Remarkable dialogue: "All right. We'll make a quick survey. But if all we detect is some fungus, we're not beaming down." - "What if it's smart fungus?" (Sisko and Jadzia)
"It's something I want you to know, something I want to tell you for 200 years - I love you, Nerys. I always loved you." (Odo)
"Ceasing to exist because my parents were never born - that is not a death worthy of Sto-vo-kor." (Brota)
Remarkable fact: In the beginning, Kira mentions her break-up with Shakaar in Odo's presence.
Stardate not given: The Jem'Hadar have almost completely wiped out the Maquis who were fighting against the Cardassians. Yet, Sisko receives a message that the Maquis have launched a series of missiles against the Cardassians as a final retaliation. In order to stop the missiles, Sisko takes the reluctant Michael Eddington into the war zone where they have to evade two Jem'Hadar vessels. Eddington final gives in to Sisko's demand and leads the captain to Athos IV. After fending off two Jem'Hadar soldiers they don't find any weapons but a few Maquis survivors among many corpses. Eddington introduces Sisko to his wife Rebecca. The message about the missiles was a trick by Rebecca to let her husband know that she has safely arrived on Athos. But when the Jem'Hadar advance toward the hiding place, Eddington is wounded. He stays behind to provide coverage and is killed while valiantly battling the attackers.
It is definitely a worthy swan song for Eddington and for the Maquis as a whole. Yet, the episode never gets quite as interesting as the teaser promises, in which Martok hands out to Sisko the intercepted recording about the missiles. It is clear from the start that Eddington is playing a game with Sisko besides his already well-known role as the victim of the obsessive Starfleet captain. It still comes as a little surprise that the missiles never existed. Given his record in the Maquis so far, we wouldn't put it past him that he may actually launch a retaliatory attack against Cardassia that may kill millions. On the other hand, he is still too much Starfleet to ever consider such a cruel act of revenge, and Sisko knows that. While Sisko and Eddington generally continue their petty struggle from "For the Uniform", it is good to see that they do manage to behave like normal people at times. And Eddington's eventual self-sacrifice out of love and loyalty gives the episode a nice twist. He dies the romantic way he has probably always envisioned for himself. Although he announced it to Sisko, I doubt anyway that he really had the intention to kill the captain. No, Eddington is too much concerned with always doing the right thing. He would have found a perfect excuse not to kill Sisko, like he did for everything else.
While eating a replicator meal, Eddington talks to Sisko about his new-gained appreciation of real food, "grown with my own hands", which does not fall on deaf ears. Their common interest in fresh food essentially serves to bring the two not so dissimilar characters closer together again for a moment, just before they fall back to their old debate. However, it should be noted that DS9 has always been a proponent of simple lifestyles. This is in contrast to TNG, where such an idea was often regarded as backward, and to Voyager, where it was usually shown as a necessity rather than a deliberate choice. After "Let He Who Is Without Sin" and "Children of Time" Eddington's way is one more recent example of technology criticism in DS9.
I sort of like the B-plot in this episode, in which Nog tries hard to gain the respect of the Klingons. Although Klingons and Ferengi don't mix like few other things in the Trek Universe, it never becomes silly.
Remarkable off-screen facts:
Cal Hudson was killed in a skirmish with the Cardassians, as Eddington says.
When Quark mentioned to Morn that the Dominion may attack the station and kill everyone, Morn hit Quark with a bar stool, ran out onto the promenade deck, screaming, "We're all doomed!"
"You are either very brave, or very stupid, Ferengi!" - "Probably a little of both." - [Laughing] "Indeed. Courage comes in all sizes. But don't tempt fate." (Martok and Nog)
"What would you have done if I hadn't forced you to come with me?" - "I would've volunteered." (Sisko and Eddington)
Empok Nor
Stardate not given: A team of engineers with O'Brien, Garak and Nog take a runabout to the abandoned Cardassian station Empok Nor to salvage spare parts needed for repairs on Deep Space 9. On Empok Nor they discover two stasis tubes that have recently been activated. Two Cardassian soldiers, apparently under the influence of a psychotropic compound, are on the loose. They destroy the runabout and kill two of O'Brien's team. Garak tracks down one of the soldiers and kills him, acting increasingly erratically. The other one attacks two team members before Garak eliminates him too. But then the Cardassian tailor, who has been exposed to the drug as well, turns against the surviving crew member. Garak has captured Nog when O'Brien challenges him to a duel. But O'Brien detonates a phaser he has prepared, which knocks Garak unconscious without killing him, much to O'Brien's relief. The remainder of the team returns to Deep Space 9 with the spare parts.
While it is superficially an action thriller, "Empok Nor" bears an underlying controversy. In a surprising twist Garak is affected by a psychotropic drug. He eventually turns against the Starfleet crew and even kills one of them. And he desecrates the bodies of the four dead crew members, for what it's worth. Although the drug may excuse his actions to some extent as Bashir explains, it is still essentially the same person who commits the crime, not something like an alien parasite in Garak. Star Trek usually doesn't go that far with characters that are slated to stay more or less likable. But DS9 crosses that line. This is not to the disadvantage of the episode, which may have wound up somewhat hypocritical if Garak's victim had survived. But just like Bashir, even O'Brien forgives him too readily in the end. I don't think that it should be as easy as blaming a "dark side" in a person for criminal conduct. A drug that "amplifies xenophobic tendencies" is a quite worrying idea anyway. The way it is described, it sounds like xenophobia is an inherent trait, rather than something that arises from education, experiences and social factors.
Garak's unsettling metamorphosis is especially noteworthy in the light of his latent conflict with O'Brien. It is already remarkable that the two are in the same away team in the first place. We know of the chief's involvement in the Cardassian War and particularly the Setlik Massacre since TNG: "The Wounded". While he doesn't have too much business with Cardassians on DS9 anyway, he always avoids them. And unlike his friend Bashir, he never talks more with the only resident Cardassian than the absolutely necessary minimum. They are the two most estranged regular characters of the show, just because they avoid contact instead of engaging in semi-humorous quibbles such as Quark and Odo. Well, Garak would enjoy an occasional little debate with the chief though. He provokes him several times in his uniquely polite fashion, also mentioning Setlik III -- after all an event that caused a trauma in O'Brien. While O'Brien is the most skeptical mind among the station's staff anyway, Colm Meaney gives his character that inimitable "don't tread on me" expression whenever he is worried or annoyed. And Garak is an extreme annoyance to him, even without psychotropic drugs. The two don't mix at all because of their histories and because of their personalities, with O'Brien being very human and Garak very Cardassian.
Aside from that, "Empok Nor" benefits from a credible premise and a convincing execution. Empok Nor is particularly creepy because this dark and messy place otherwise looks just like Deep Space 9. The low-ranking crew members are more than just cannon fodder, although not a single one of them escapes the usual fate of redshirts. The Bolian strikes me as overly anxious for a member of Starfleet though. On a humorous note, the episode has another waste extraction reference. There are quite a few of them in this season, considering that this topic is normally never talked about.
"Really. It's just that lately I noticed that everyone seems to trust me. It's quite unnerving, I'm still trying to get used to it. Next thing I know is people are inviting me to their homes for dinner." (Garak, to O'Brien)
"It's a shame. And the worst part of it is, this isn't a coil spanner. [Stabbing the crewman] It's a flux coupler." (Garak)
Remarkable station: Empok Nor has the same design as Terok Nor. It is rather odd though that the abandoned station is always shown as tilted (as a means to distinguish the to stations), although there is evidently no up and down in space.
Stardate 50929.4: Jake decides to cheer up his dad who is depressed in the face of the bad news about the ever worse warmongering of the Dominion. In an auction at Quark's he and Nog bid on an ancient baseball card, but a man named Dr. Giger outbids them. When they approach Giger, he tells Jake and Nog that he would trade the card for a variety of supplies that he needs for his cellular regeneration chamber. After collecting the requested items, Jake and Nog are surprised that Giger's quarters are empty and that he allegedly never dwelt there. In a paranoid move Jake suspects that Kai Winn, who is on the station negotiating a non-aggression pact with the Dominion, has something to do with Giger's disappearance and confronts the Bajoran religious leader. Sisko is infuriated, but still with the intention to get that baseball card as a surprise, Jake doesn't tell the truth. On the way to their quarters Jake and Nog are suddenly beamed to Vorta Weyoun's ship where Giger is held captive too. When Weyoun doesn't buy the story about the baseball card, Jake conceives a conspiracy theory so absurd that Weyoun allows them to leave with the baseball card.
Even though it has some entertaining merit, I think this is the crappiest episode of the season. Basing the story on the baseball card that Jake wants to get for his father at any cost is ridiculous to start with. It is the first of many contrived coincidences that Jake is just thinking of something to cheer up his dad when Nog spots the baseball card in his uncle's auction listing. And realistically, would Nog be ready to spend all his savings just to buy one pathetic gift? I also don't like the involvement of the senior staff. Their only purpose is to procure supplies to Jake and Nog in exchange for little favors, like stealing Kukalaka, the teddy bear, from Leeta's quarters for Bashir. The way everyone is bartering with everyone else in this episode is wacky.
I admit that Giger's character is out of the ordinary because we can never really make sense of him. Unlike other obsessed scientists that we have seen on Star Trek, his research is so odd that even the laymen Nog and Jake think he is crazy. And his weird idea of being pursued by the "soulless minions of orthodoxy", the 24th century equivalent of the "black helicopters", doesn't exactly make him more credible. Giger's disappearance may have been worked into a mystery story. I remember I was hoping for such a twist the first time I watched, when Nog and Jake try to convince Odo that Giger indeed exists. But rather than that the two plot threads are woven together in an awkward fashion. In my view it simply doesn't work to embed the Dominion into a humorous premise.
Aside from that the episode certainly does its job of foreshadowing the Dominion War and saving Bajor through the proposed Bajoran-Dominion treaty. It thereby corroborates Sisko's vision in "Rapture" that with Bajor as a member the Federation the planet would be doomed. Unlike the baseball card affair the political and military considerations absolutely make sense. And they make curious how the pact with the devil will turn out for Bajor.
Remarkable dialogue: "I'm concerned. The Dominion is notorious for its political intrigue." - "Oh, I have some experience in that area as well." (Sisko and Kai Winn)
Remarkable quote: "We need that card. The entire future of the galaxy may depend on us tracking down Willy Mace and stopping him." (Jake, to Weyoun)
Remarkable scene: Weyoun tells Kai Winn that he thinks they are much alike. Winn then grabs his ear, stating, "No, we're nothing alike." But while Weyoun is smiling after she has left, Winn's facial expression is very uncertain.
Stardate not given: The crew of Deep Space 9 discuss ways to protect the Alpha Quadrant against Dominion reinforcements from the Gamma Quadrant, when Rom comes up with the idea to deploy self-replicating mines at the wormhole entrance. Using the Defiant, Dax and O'Brien begin to drop the mines. Rom hurriedly marries Leeta. With no further support to be expected from Starfleet and with a Dominion fleet arriving from Cardassia to seize the station, Sisko orders Deep Space 9 to be evacuated. The Dominion attack begins while the Defiant is still building the minefield, protected only by Martok's Rotarran. As soon as the minefield is completed, all Starfleet personnel withdraws, leaving only the Bajoran crew who "welcomes" their Dominion "guests" led by Weyoun and Dukat under the terms of the non-aggression treaty - but not before Kira has disabled most of the station's systems. While the Dominion was distracted at Deep Space 9, Starfleet has taken the opportunity to destroy a Dominion shipyard. Sisko promises to return, joining a fleet of the Federation. He is furious, however, when he learns that Jake has chosen to stay behind and report on the ensuing war.
"Call to Arms" does a terrific job in making the political and strategic matters transparent without going too much into details that may appear unrealistic. Everything fits together in this episode, and it is exciting to watch as well. I wondered why it comes as such a surprise that Sisko supports Bajor's non-aggression treaty with the Dominion. He was not really opposed to it when he talked to Kai Winn. But his official refusal makes sense, as it may buy Bajor and DS9 some time (well, unless the Dominion decided breach its promise not to attack Bajor...).
It is amazing how great a deal of private issues were packed into the 45 minutes of the episode. Naturally all of them have something to do with the impending war. Miles O'Brien mentions that his family has left for Earth. Ben Sisko is surprised that his son publishes first-hand stories about the preparations for the war. Leeta and Rom are eager to get married before the war breaks out. Quark and Rom reaffirm their family ties. Kira needs to talk with Jadzia and later with Odo himself about Odo's feelings; they decide to keep their relationship on a professional level. Ziyal and Garak have to separate for the time being, as Garak would not exactly be welcome on Bajor. Jadzia and Worf vow to get married. Quark orders yarmok sauce for the Cardassians, just the supplies he was glad to get rid of in DS9: "Progress", when Jake and Nog traded them for self-sealing stembolts. These unusually quick changes of the focus intensify the impression that something troublesome is in the air. Well, this is a bit like in disaster movies of the 70s, but hey, I liked a couple of them.
We always knew that straightforward thinking is not exactly one of Rom's strengths. He can be a genius with his out-of-the-box ideas, but he may just as well be a jerk who doesn't even get everyday tasks managed. And now he jumps forth and back between the two roles when he proposes the self-replicating mines, only to worry about details of his marriage a split second later and then hurry to the waste extraction. I used to have a few problems with Rom until this episode, but as unrealistic as his erratic trains of thought seem at times, his unique character has grown to a valuable asset of the series.
Nitpicking: The destruction of the ship yards may have been deemed a top priority. Yet, it is inconclusive why Starfleet couldn't spare at least one or two ships to protect the station until the minefield is up. The Defiant and the Rotarran barely manage to fend off the attack, and if they failed, the cause to seal off the Alpha Quadrant would be lost. Moreover, doesn't it make the Dominion suspicious if there are no additional ships at DS9?
I also wonder how the Dominion could have possibly agreed to a cease-fire of several minutes, long enough for all Starfleet personnel being able to leave the station and even for Sisko to hold a speech. Would Weyoun and Dukat really forego the opportunity to kill them all or to get prominent prisoners?
Remarkable dialogue: "Captain, as a major in the Bajoran militia, I must officially protest Starfleet's refusal to turn over this station to my government." - "Your protest is duly noted." - "Good. Now that's over with. Kira Nerys reporting for duty." (Sisko and Kira)
Remarkable quote: "Well, that was the most pathetic excuse for a wedding ceremony I have ever seen. No bridal auction, no latinum dances, and the bride - the bride was severely overdressed." (Quark)
Proceed to DS9 Season 6
http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/episodes/ds95.htm
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Gamma Quadrant Ships
Karemma
See Dominion
Skrreean
Transport ship
This is one of various Skrreean ships used to transport emigrants.
Article: Redresses of the Batris
Known ships
No name given
There were said to be more than 100 emigrant ships in DS9: "Sanctuary". Several were visible on screen, but only this one could be clearly identified. It is a re-use of the Norkova which may have been turned upside down purposely to suggest that it is a different ship (yes, I know that there is no up and down in space, but Star Trek ships always stick to the established flight plane). There were evidently more than one ship of this design. Since it seems very unlikely that a fleet of them was sent though the wormhole to the Skrreean homeworld, I assume that this design is indigenous to the Gamma Quadrant.
Various ships, arriving at Deep Space 9 in DS9: "Sanctuary"
Aside from the above "upside down" Norkova, there were several other ship designs (which is plausible in a randomly gathered fleet of hundreds of ships). Few of them can be identified, and they better shouldn't, because they are all re-uses of Alpha Quadrant vessels anyway. One design of which at least two could be seen would later appear as an apparently Klingon vessel in DS9: "Sons of Mogh". Maybe it was Klingon in "Sanctuary" too?
Tosk & Hunters
Hunter ship
The Hunter ship is used to pursue a Tosk. The ship has a transporter system and equipment to reverse the polarity of Federation shields.
Article: Redresses of the Tarellian Vessel
Gallery: Gamma Quadrant Ships
The Hunter ship appeared in DS9: "Captive Pursuit". It is an unchanged re-use of the Zalkonian vessel from TNG: "Transfigurations". Of course, it is virtually impossible that the two ships are actually related to each other.
Tosk ship
Tosk uses this small vessel of about the size of a runabout.
Known shuttles
The Tosk ship appeared in DS9: "Captive Pursuit". It is a re-use of the Vulcan ships from TNG: "Unification". Aside from the color (which is brown instead of bluish), several modifications were made to the model, such as the small curved wings and an additional superstructure at the aft end. From the dialogue and the interior view we get the impression that it is very small, probably only shuttle-sized. The cockpit window as visible from inside matches the white window-like detail visible on the top of the model. Also, in the episode there is one external view of Tosk's ship docked at one of the smaller ports in the docking ring of DS9, where it appears to be about 20m long.
Length: approx. 20m
Wadi
The Wadi ship may be a cargo vessel. Further specifications are unknown.
Article: Redresses of the Wadi Ship
The Wadi ship appeared in DS9: "Move Along Home". The miniature was later re-used for various cargo vessels of the Alpha Quadrant, including Bajoran ships on three occasions and the Xepolite freighter in DS9: "The Maquis". The latter episode shows a close view and reveals that the model has an unusually great deal of detail for an alien ship. Considering that the Wadi along with their vessel appeared only once, we may want to give the Xepolite design precedence and imagine the Wadi ship was different. There is one significant difference in any case: For the second appearance as Xepolite freighter the ship was flipped over. The Fact Files erroneously labeled the Xepolite orientation as "Wadi ship". The corrected image on the upper left of this entry may look odd because of the unusual shading but reproduces the look fairly exactly.
Length: approx. 200m
Unknown Affiliation (DS9: "The Forsaken")
No details are available on this probe.
Known probes
"Pup"
"Pup" is Chief O'Brien's nickname for an alien intelligent software that came with the probe. We did not learn the name of the culture from the Gamma Quadrant that sent the probe that carried Pup to Deep Space 9. The probe model itself was a modification of the Cytherian probe originally built for TNG: "The Nth Degree".
Back to Starship Database index
http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/schematics/gamma_ships.htm
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Playing dominos in the carny quarters on the San Mateo County Fairgrounds in California, these carnies are “cutting up jackpots,” swapping stories and laughing.
Workers gather at the end of the day for food and a bit of socializing in Chugiak, Alaska.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIDZ3ubdCEA
“Life near the bone is the sweetest.”
In the ten states I worked carnivals this last year, I lived on the border of Chugach National Forest in Alaska and in a cow pasture outside Chicago with 40 Black Angus cows and a big, dirty bull.
The carnival quarters exist in sharp contrasts, in part because of the ownership but also due to the people in the bunkhouses.
In Chicago Heights, a town with high unemployment on the rural edge of the Chicago south suburbs, I met a short “jointee” the first morning named Pork Chop. A “jointee” runs games. I was running the carousel for the Chicago carnival, so I was known as a “ride jockey.”
It was one of the few dry nights of June last year but I was still negotiating my way through mud puddles that morning.
Apparently, my awe of the cows and the widespread decrepitude gave Pork Chop a good laugh at the new guy.
“Welcome to The 30,” Pork Chop said. “Wait till it rains, then it’ll be “Welcome to The Dirty 30.”
It’s called The 30 because US Route 30, the legendary Lincoln Highway, runs along the border of the cow pasture. The Lincoln Highway was the first bi-coastal highway in the country. It was one of many fabled highways I traveled this year in carnivals from Route 66 to the Alaska Highway.
One morning a carny on The 30 pointed at the rising sun and said, “My house is right on this highway out that way, in Ohio.”
When it became the Dirty 30, my shoes would sink and disappear in the mud and cow shit. The “donnikers,” which is a carnival term for outhouses, were a football field away.
That concept prompted Marine Eric to object.
“If you have diarrhea, you’ll never make it. You’ll have to do it next to the cows. Say, move over cow.”
My room had no window and the door hung by a single latch, like a child’s loose front tooth. I had no heat in the cold, no air in the heat. Much of the time I had no electricity.
The first 10 days I was on The 30, I slept in a decrepit van, crawling with bugs and mites. One morning I woke and saw a cow pushing his head up to the partially opened window. I half expected him to say, “Good mooo-ning.”
As bad as my conditions were, others had it worse. One couple lived in the underbelly of a trailer, that looked something like an animal transport trailer.
Trash overflowed from trash cans all around. The pasture was a dumping ground for old rides and a storage grounds for rides in need of repair.
That carnival troop had no H2-B visa workers, migrants working from Mexico, South Africa, Jamaica or other countries.
Last month I met James Judkins, the biggest migration agent for Mexicans in the country. I asked him why he didn’t send people to that carnival company, he said because the living conditions were too raw for the Mexicans.
I felt so surrounded by sewage and infestations, one morning I woke myself up with the greeting, “Mud and cow shit everywhere, honey, what’s for breakfast?”
During my final tear down in Chicago, Peanut told me that I was going to miss my family, the carnival. I’ll even miss the cows, he said. He was right to link the carnival family with the cows.
I loved The 30, I just didn’t know it when I was shin-high in bullshit.
Bugs to Weber grills
My California bunkhouse was infested with bed bugs. I endured the bites when I slept. I scratched all day for weeks. Not only was I miserable but if I ever mentioned it, I became a pariah, so I suffered in silence.
That bunkhouse’s filthy showers featured shower curtains blackened by grease and dirt. The floors were torn up and caked with mud and grime. The joke was, you came out of the shower dirtier than you went in.
In New Jersey, an electrical short caused sparks and smoke. It drove us out of the bunkhouses. When the smoke cleared, we went back to bed. The owners the next day said it was our fault for leaving on the water heater. No apologies for the fire hazard.
Single-room carnival bunkhouses are about six feet long, about five feet wide. Bunks on one side of the trailer are on the floor, on the other they are chest high. In most bunkhouses, I could touch all four walls.
In Alaska, along with my Native Alaskan roommates, we slept three in a room. Two bunks on one side and a chest-high bunk at the entrance. A small sink and closet fit snuggly.
Across the country, Mexican “reefers” fit 15 or more Mexican men to a trailer. Showers are on one side and a kitchen is on the other. Lockers face the bunks, where men slept on three-leveled bunks.
Workers didn’t want to take frequent cold showers. The Laundromat van sometimes skipped a week. I never saw a reefer with circulating air. So those trailers smelled of working men.
Mexican men pool their money for food and the few women who come up from Mexico are responsible for shopping and cooking.
Small outside kitchens line most carnival bunkhouses. Mexican meals are common meals. The “Jarochos” from Veracruz eat more fish than the city slickers from Mexico City.
American carnies put out their portable Weber grills and sit around on fold-out chairs or industrial sized buckets eating hotdogs and hamburgers.
In Alaska, Golden Wheel had a souped-up modern grill and tent for common meals. It also had a kitchen in its warehouse.
Chugiak was such a carnival paradise, I imagine only E.K. Fernandez Shows in Hawaii to be a match. Grocery stores and fresh fruits and vegetables are just down the road. Across the road is street is a park, for playing basketball and baseball. Behind the quarters is Chugach National Park, for hiking.
In Chicago I saw 40 cows in the carny quarters, in Alaska I witnessed a moose and her cub walk majestically through camp.
Barrios to “love shacks”
In my Oakland carnival, I slept on the floor bunk and looked at the pornographic graffiti on the pressed wood a couple feet above.
Somebody loves Knockout and someone else wishes me a future filled with great sex. Good to know.
I remember stressing out about the viability of my year in carnivals when the rap music turned down and I heard a young woman singing softly to a ballad. The noisy night became quiet. No other word for it than pretty.
Other nights, frisky couples rocked the bunkhouse like a hammock. In Minnesota, the couple across from me were a new couple, really new.
The rocking went on most of the night but I was happy to hear the man once in a while say, “quiet Mike will hear you.” Every little bit of courtesy is appreciated here.
In the bigger carnivals the Mexican reefers are filled with men who don’t want to stay inside so they hang outside. The Mexican music and tequila on pay day can give it a barrio feel.
Living next to Jamaicans in New Jersey and New York, I got a contact high from the pot smoke wafting through the vents.
The closeness of the quarters meant nothing is private. Who is sleeping with whom. Who is abusing drugs, alcohol or their wife.
Whispers can be heard through the walls and farts smelled. We knew each others secrets and what we had for dinner last night.
The closeness led to bickering and to closeness. When carnival people talk about the carnival family, it’s because they work all day together and sleep side-by-side at night.
In off hours, carnies usually hang around the bunkhouses. Younger workers played hacky sack and basketball in Alaska. In most traveling carnivals, pay days were for drinking, drugs, music, video games, dominos and “cutting up jackpots” … gossip or storytelling.
We shared so much. We shared the weather, food, cigarettes, booze, drugs, shoes and the constant state of being broke. Working constantly and yet being poor is the life of the carnival worker.
The old-time carnies talk about sleeping under rides, which I did on several occasions. They bemoan how soft the new carnies have it compared to the days when boats were made of wood and men made of iron.
After a year working and living in those bunkhouses, I can say carnival workers aren’t that spoiled and some have it every bit as tough as the old days.
Yet I also saw bunkhouses and ‘barrios’ filled with all the human foibles, passions, vices and fun of traveling small towns. They were as good as their people, living close and close to the bone.
I spent the last year working and living in carnivals in California, New Jersey, New York, Chicago, Alaska, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Texas, Georgia and Florida. Because I lived on carnival wages, I hitchhiked between jumps for about 15,000 miles, making me America’s #1 hitchhiker for 2013-14.
I’m writing a book. If interested or you want to comment, email me at www.comerfordmichael@gmail.com
This entry was posted in Uncategorized on March 23, 2014 by admin.
Carny Philosopher King with Buffalo Bill Beard
“Someday I’ll wish upon a star
Wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where trouble melts like lemon drops
High above the chimney tops
That’s where you’ll find me”
Somewhere Over the Rainbow, music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg
The 30-ish bartender sports a shiny bald head, purple triangle earrings and a Buffalo Bill Cody goatee.
I decide to take a seat where the bartender gets ice, so he can pause to talk once in a while.
I’m on the hunt for carnival stories. My duck blind is the main bar in Showtown USA, during its annual traveling carnival trade show in February.
Not many people were there yet. It’s a long rectangular bar with flat screen TVs. Brightly lit, real Italian- painted carousel scenery panels above the bar made it carnival chic.
I remembered an encounter the night before, when I walked in with a carny who knew I was looking for stories.
“There are going to be hundreds of people here tonight,” he said, “and each of them will have thousands of stories.”
We chuckled and looked around the room, not at the each other.
“And half of them will be related to each other,” I said. “A lot of them will be slaughtering someone else’s story.”
The bartender’s name is Kelly Wilson and he was born into the carnival business. His parents were in the business, he grew up in games and food wagons.
His eyes are clear and he sports an easy, full smile. Buffalo Bill Cody was the greatest showman of the early 20ths Century and the first to join a the first showmen’s association. Kelly Wilson’s look shows he knows his showmen’s traditions. That, plus he knows it looks cool in a place like this.
I just knew the story safe at a carnival trade show would be at the bar and the key is the bartender with the Buffalo Bill beard.
Wilson’s Laws
Kelly learns from everything he comes across, religion, philosophy, music and art. He’d be a humanities scholar if he ever went to college.
“My college is life,” he said as he poured rum and coke.
Then he began mixing disciplines.
“Love and music are my religion,” he said. “Buddhism and Daoism make sense to me.”
He was careful not to “dis” Christianity either. He’s not ruling out ideas so much as seeking unifying laws for life.
“Kindness,” Gandhi and food service are the disparate concepts he’s been mulling.
“Gandhi said you should be the change you wish to see in the world,” he said. “I want to be kind as much as possible. Even to the meanest people.”
Bartending is Kelly’s off-season gig. He’s tried lots of sucker jobs. He’s trained under some good restaurant chefs, so, “I know how to cook.”
The “season” calls him back, though, like it does migrating birds.
“I tried the normal life,” he said. “Every a April I’d get the itch.”
Maybe it’s because he was raised on the road in a cramped blue trailer, in a family of six.
His childhood was spent running around, free rides, free sweets, playing with the other carnival kids from town to town.
He worked some games coming up but he spent more than half his life on the road making cotton candy, gyros, pizzas and hamburgers.
“My whole life, there wasn’t a year I didn’t go out and do something,” he said pouring whiskey and Coke. “My friends always say I’m like the Allman Brothers song, “Ramblin’ Man.” That’s the way we lived in a blue bus.”
When he reached his teen years the cramped living and maybe his phase in life, led to lots of arguing. Sometimes it was great but somewhere it turned.
Music was his savior. At his first “Rave” he had an epiphany. I don’t have to live like this any more.
“It was like the Bob Marley song, ‘If you are unhappy then travel wide.’”
Nevermind he was already traveling wide, it was a freedom song to him.
Unification theory
From July to October he travels the Midwest and South working a Mexican food trailer.
About five years ago he began selling hula hoops on the side. On breaks he went to the meeting room off the bar area so he could hula with kids.
I videotaped the dance. It started out with a “life’s a playground” feel. Then he kept going, part dervish, part “auana,” a Polynesian hula word for “to wander or drift.”
Kelly hears all the wild carnival stories as he pours drinks but I asked him what’s the weirdest thing he ever saw on the road.
He kept pouring drinks and making change but was stumped for a while.
“For me, weirdness is just normal,” he finally said. “Like people having sex in random spots is normal.”
When I prod him about his future, he says maybe he’ll buy his own trailer some day.
Which tells me, he isn’t like some carnival people I’ve known who envied homes in towns they passed.
He was more like a nester, who sets up home where he migrates.
Once again, he searches for the unifying theory of his life.
“I like cooking. I like people. I like traveling. And this is the best way to do all three.”
What I find disorienting about his unified theory is the backdrop. We’re in a carnival bar, everyone in this bar is a carnival person. He was raised in carnivals and lives in carnivals.
Yet he’s not jaded. His theories are idealistic, at times romanticized and wishful.
Bob Marley, the Allman Brothers, Daoism, Buddhism, Christianity, Gandhi, cooking, traveling and “kindness” even to the mean people.
Such are the truths he lives by – Wilson’s laws – as he dances in hula hoops through life with his beard of Buffalo Bill.
I recently finished working a year in traveling carnivals in California, New Jersey, New York, Chicago, Alaska, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Texas, Georgia and a Florida freak show. I trekked down into Mexico to see the new face of American carnivals, Mexican carnies. I’ve traveled more than 20,000 miles through 36 states, Canada and Mexico. I’m attempting to sell a book on the America I saw from the carny quarters and the side of the highway.
Mexican Faces and Reefer Madness
Video of my Mexican co-workers from San Mateo and Martinez, California to Tlapocoyan, Veracruz, Mexico. I used Son Jarocho music, La Bamba, sung by Los Lobos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k29vkCI8tJI
“Don’t shave, don’t shower, don’t care. Be really stinky and wear the same clothes everyday. I think what makes a man sexy is not being self aware. That’s what is really cute to me.”
Gwen Stefani, American singer
Emerging from the shower in the reefer, I was alone in the sleeping quarters for more than a dozen Mexican migrant carnival workers.
Unexpectedly, opportunity was at hand. I went to the Mexican reefer for the shower but when I finished it was empty. My camera was in my pack beside the cramped shower. Time to film.
I rushed, putting my clothes and fast-walking to the front of the bunkhouse trailer. I took tiny steps, in order to avoid slipping on the water I was still dripping.
Wood bunks with thin mattresses were stacked three high on the left wall. Lockers and a table for hotplates and spices lined the opposite wall.
Work clothes hung from bunks to air out. Carnival workers work extraordinary hours, 60 to 80 hour weeks aren’t unusual. Hundred hour weeks are unusual but happen. You didn’t want to miss the bus to the local beat-up, coin-laundromat. The bus was always unscheduled and sometimes skipped a week.
Our reefers in my San Francisco Bay area carnival smelled like work.
I went to film from the opposite side of the trailer, by the refrigerator and sink. It was also near the exit, should I need a quick getaway.
The suspense was crazy high. People in carnivals are always walking around corners. It’s like a Shakespearian play that way, someone is always opening a door, overhearing a scandalous comment or bumping into someone.
Everyone knows what you’ve been eating. They’ve seen what you’ve been drinking. Everyone is guessing about who might be sleeping with whom. I imagine people lying awake listening through the thin bunkhouse trailer walls. Nothing is private and not even your dream life, because people speculate about that too.
The lack of privacy is magnified in reefers because people are piled on top of each other. They didn’t need to listen through walls to hear someone sleep talking. Their meals were communal, everyone pitching in a few Yankee dollars for supplies. The donnikers, (carny lingo for port-a-potties)were just a few feet from the front door of the reefer.
My bargain-basement camera blurred at the least bit of movement. Picture after picture blurred in my shaky hand. I cursed and kept taking unusable pictures.
I decided to take a video, I could always take a snapshot off the video.
If someone walked in while I was panning across the reefer with my camera, there would be hell to pay.
Bosses would be told. I’d be unmasked as a spy.
In the days of carnival lore, disloyal carnies were beaten or thrown from the train. Workers have been beaten for drinking on the job. Some have been beaten for mouthing off to the owner. Some carnivals, allegedly one I worked on later, beat people up for leaving before the end of the season. I had no idea what I might face if caught.
I wasn’t just in danger of being fired or beaten. My year in carnivals could be defeated by gossip. Not only do people know everything about you in the carny quarters but carnies talk across carnivals.
A reluctant spy, I was forced by circumstance into working as a carny but writing every spare moment about their lives.
My spy career began with the a colorful carnival owner and ex-pro wrestler, with the stage-name of Bo Paradise. He owned the first carnival I worked for, Classic Amusement in Hayward, California. However, he fired me after he judged my blogging to be dangerous for business. Then he told me he thought the carnival project was a stupid idea.
No owner will allow a writer in his carnival. Even if I’m hired, I don’t speak Spanish and the new face of the American carnival is Mexican. I won’t have access to the dominant work sector.
Yet there I was showering in the reefer, which was the exclusively Mexican bunkhouse. They’re called ‘reefers’ because they supposedly have ‘refrigeration’ during the summer.
Unlike the bunkhouse I lived in, Mexicans lived rent-free. I paid $50 a week for a six-foot, by five-foot bunk room. They lived shoulder-to-shoulder and slept in stacked bunks.
I befriended my Mexican coworkers and they were comfortable enough to allow me into the reefer unsupervised. Showering in the reefers was another way to open communications.
Being seen with a camera in their quarters would sound alarm bells for management because we already knew Butler Amusements was being sued by Mexican employees. My Mexican pals thought they knew who was suing but their names were deleted from the lawsuit for fear of retribution.
If coworkers knew their identities for sure, those bringing the suit feared for their safety and their ability to ever work again in American carnivals.
Networks of families and friends might blackball them. Agents who recruit workers might take a pass on the trouble makers.
Workers from Mexico are at the mercy of so many forces.
Filed under the name of Doe, the lawsuit alleged substandard living conditions, uncompensated work hours and pay below the minimum wage.
The groups helping with the lawsuit also participated in a study called, “Taken for a Ride,” conducted by American University. The study alleged such abuses are widespread throughout the country.
I eventually worked in carnivals in California, New Jersey, New Mexico, Chicago, Alaska, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Texas, Georgia and Florida. Nobody worked in more carnivals than I worked.
I can’t say abuses are widespread. I can say I’ve witnessed them. I once calculated my hourly wage at roughly $2 to $4 an hour.
The lawsuit and the national study were fresh on people’s minds.
I stood my ground, filming and panning longer and longer and longer. It seemed like forever. Then I tucked the camera in my side-pouch.
A split second later, someone walked in as I walked out.
“Cold water El Grande?” he said.
We laughed. I walked away into the night.
Grateful for the bracing shower of a cold-hearted spy, I smelled of cheap soap and a clean escape.
Last month was the end of my year working and living in traveling carnivals around the USA. I lived on carnival wages so I also hitchhiked between jumps. I’ve traveled through 36 states, Canada and Mexico, for more than 20,000 miles. My 15,000 miles of hitchhiking makes me the #1 Hitchhiker in America. I worked carnivals in California, New Jersey, New York, Chicago, Alaska, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Texas, Georgia and Florida. I worked rides, games and one freak show.
Death Defying Father Mike tells Hell Rider stories
This video is brought to you by HoldtheMayoMedia.
“You must not fear death, my lads; defy him, and you drive him into the enemy’s ranks.”
I’ve heard that scholars believe when Shakespeare wrote “All the world’s a stage” and “one man in his time plays many parts,” it may have already have been a well known saying.
That is because people already noticed life’s stages and that not a single role defined a whole life.
Father Michael Juran’s stage is full of characters and so many are him.
You might know him as the Human Battering Ram, the Flying Padre, stunt man in “Man with the Golden Arm,” Burt Reynolds stunt double in Smokey and the Bandit II and Father Mike.
I met Father Mike in the main bar at the headquarters of the International Independent Showmen’s Association in Gibsonton, Florida.
Bellied up to the bar, having a white wine with pals, he took time out to talk to me about his many roles in life.
Freak Show owner Chris Christ, left, and Father Michael Juran talk at the IISA Trade Show last month.
His life, he says, is part of a “traveling apostolate,” a mission sanctioned by the pope for itinerant workers.
When asked why he was both a priest and a stuntman in circuses and carnivals, he hints there may have been some “pompous asses” who didn’t understand.
“We have this Argentinian, (Pope) Francis, who says remember what Jesus did,” Father Mike said. “He’s popping the bubble of the pompous asses.”
At 65 years old, he’s retired but he’s been a priest for 40 years and a stuntman for 27 years.
He performed the “Human Battering Ram,” in which he is strapped to the front of a car as it crashed threw a burning wall.
He drove his car on two wheels at state fairs and racetracks. He flew over a bridge in the 1974 James Bond film, “The Man with the Golden Gun.” He drove stunts for Burt Reynolds in the 1980 movie “Smokey and the Bandit II.”
He slept in the trailer for Joie Chitwell Thrill Shows and performed priestly duties in his off hours. He heard confessions, performed baptisms “without the paperwork,” and performed carny weddings.
“Jesus didn’t do paperwork,” he’s fond of saying.
In a carny wedding, couples get on a carousel. Words are spoken. Blessings made. The carousel turns three times to symbolize the union.
When the end of the season comes or the end of the relationship, whichever comes first, the couple gets on the carousel which turns three backward three times signifying the carny divorce.
“None of its official,” Father Mike said, and probably all might get him in trouble in some church sectors.
Father Mike had their trust, he said, because he walked among them.
“They’d say, he’s one of us, he’s a performer too,” he said. “I’d say God loves you. I’m just like you.”
Confessions happened behind rides, walking along the midway, anyplace, he said.
“They’d say I want to talk about God’s forgiveness,” he said. ”
It was barroom banter and couldn’t last long as carnival workers came from every corner to shake his hand and share a story.
Father Mike has more stories to tell. A television company is making a documentary about priests that serve the itinerant people at carnivals, circuses, racetracks, rodeos, cruise lines and airports.
Christianity is a religion where the Messiah came from the common people and so it stresses that it is with the common people where the divine is to be found. It is also a death defying religion, one where the Messiah defies death and says followers can too.
Father Mike drove a fast car down those tracks and defied death, hell bent and heaven sent.
Last month I finished a year in carnivals, hitchhiking between shows. I crossed 36 states, Canada and Mexico on my way to racking up 20,000 miles on the road. Many stories were not written as they happened and are now being written as I write a book about the year.
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Online HTML Flipbook Archives Resource Guide Breaking News
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The Green Sheet Online Edition
December 25, 2017 • Issue 17:12:02
Street SmartsSM
What if you had $1 million to invest in a payments business?
By Steven Feldshuh
Merchants' Choice Payment Solutions East
So, you have been in the merchant service business for several years. You have spent countless hours in the field, have worked with call centers, had a taste of operations, handled risk for six months and understand the current technology available to small to midsize merchants to a large extent.
Then a call comes in from an angel investor who wants to enter the payments space, because that investor has seen the success of Silicon Valley payment companies and wants a piece of the action. You are called because you have done a great job and were recommended by your largest restaurant group. You have published some industry articles and are a committee member for two industry organizations. The good news is you are respected and haven't crushed people to attain success.
What do angel investors want from you?
Your angel investor wants to invest $1 million in your company and, being fair, is looking just for a small piece of the action. The $1 million would be an initial investment. After researching the group represented by the woman who contacted you, you realize this is a serious play. And you pause. The issue isn't that you do not feel confident in your abilities; you just are not sure which direction you would go and how you would spend the money.
Yes, drawing up a business plan would be a good first step, but what idea would you want to develop? Obviously, you are drawn to the opportunity, because the upside results could be huge. The investor is experienced with raising funds but is looking to you for your background and ideas, as well as for your skill in implementing the business plan.
How can you find a game changer?
The idea for this article came from GS Online's MLS Forum. Forum members Steve Norell and TheCreditCardMan, along with some other forum participants, believe that the key for small ISOs, or sub-ISOs, is to develop our own unique technology that integrates with POS systems, and ties in our processing and other applications that businesses are hungry for. As I started to research the various applications that are available at a cost or for free, I realized there are developers who have the answers and can become your best friends.
As an example, I was asked about gift cards on Poynt POS systems and realized that there were two gift and loyalty programs already available for the terminal. Clover POS seemed to have even more, with dozens of unique applications that a merchant could work with. So what I believe is necessary is getting an understanding of applications that have already been developed and putting together a playbook of what really is important to one's customers and run with that.
But my potential investor wouldn't be satisfied with that response, because she is looking for something unique and something the company could control. Does that mean a piece of hardware needs to be developed? Or devising an application that hasn't been developed or seen yet in the market place? How does one think of something revolutionary?
Why not test drive apps?
In speaking with some industry folks, I found the overwhelming response was that most merchants do not have the time to listen to you preach about the latest and greatest applications, but if they were given the ability to play with or demo some of these apps, they might bite.
But how does one reconcile the fact that the applications may cost the merchant $15 a pop, yet you might want them to try out an application a few weeks after a system has been installed? The answer to that is to load up the system, and when a merchant opens and plays with an application, the merchant is given a trial period to test-drive it. When the trial is over, the merchant can either select the application and get billed, or reject it and not get billed. I don't know how many of the applications developed today give you that option. But they all should.
Can one still develop something unique?
Is it possible to be unique; to develop something special, unusual and potentially a game changer in our industry? The answer is yes, but I believe the service or product needs to be revolutionary. When Square appeared, the concept was shot down by a lot of us merchant level salespeople (MLSs). Who would go for high flat-rate pricing, no live customer service and the use of a cutesy iPad? I guessed wrong on that one like a lot of us did. So what could someone do that is revolutionary? One might start with asking Apple to develop a unique product for you, but we know that isn't going to happen.
The angel investor who sought my expertise wanted me to devise a unique product or service to work in a certain vertical. The business vertical chosen obviously would need to have enough merchants to make it worthwhile. The business type also would have to be stable, which would likely have necessitated significant investment to attain. The product or service also probably shouldn't be something that Amazon is already targeting. Generally, it seems when investors put a lot of funds into something, the product or service has already been proven to work, and typically, it has a large audience. With this in mind, I researched some verticals and narrowed my search to two industries: food and auto.
What about food andauto industries?
In the food industry, getting into a brick-and-mortar business requires a large amount of capital for a good size business. But as we all know, restaurant failure rates are very high. Getting into the auto industry requires probably even more capital, and car manufacturers seem to limit the number of locations selling their cars based on population size. If you think of Manhattan, with a population that is growing, there are only one Mercedes, one Audi, one Volkswagen, one General Motors, one Ford and one Volvo dealership on the island.
For this article, I decided to research the auto industry, and what better way to do research than to pretend I am looking for a new car. Up in Westchester, N.Y., where I live, I spent two Saturdays (to the chagrin of my wife) going to a total of 15 car dealerships. At each one, I nosed around and tried to figure out how the location was processing, and if it had anything special from the world of processing. I figured out that the best way to see processing in action was to go to the service department. I also realized in today's dealerships, you can walk in, have a coffee, a roll or candy, and grab a bottle of water ‒ and never speak to a soul.
What innovation would excite car dealerships?
In the 15 dealerships I visited, I didn't find one that had integrated processing with credit cards. They all seemed to still use VX 520s, FD130s, Ingenico and PAX terminals. I did find one dealer that struggled with a virtual terminal, because the card reader didn't work. I didn't see any wireless terminals, the use of which would have made sense as a courtesy to customers and to speed up the payment process.
Most of the locations had one or two terminals at a cashier, which meant a lot of walking for customers. Four of the terminals didn't accept chip-based cards; the signage said "Please swipe." Given that some of these dealerships probably process $3 million to $6 million a year in credit and debit card volume, maybe there is something here to improve.
But what type of revolutionary product could an auto dealership use? What type of applications would be so exciting that one could get the attention of the owners of these businesses? I thought of wireless terminals in the shape of a car, but then each dealer might want their own car shape, and would this really help this business segment? I was left wondering what radical change could be made to insure walk-in success in this vertical. Unfortunately, I am neither a designer nor a developer, so I will leave that thought in your minds.
Steven Feldshuh, President of Merchants' Choice Payment Solutions East, has 18 years' experience in sales and ISO development. Directly prior to joining MCPSE in 2012, he was President of Payment Partners. In his current position, Steven devotes the bulk of his time to assisting agents in building their portfolios. Contact him by email at stevenf@mcpseast.com or by phone at 212-392-9202.
The Green Sheet Inc. is now a proud affiliate of Bankcard Life, a premier community that provides industry-leading training and resources for payment professionals. Click here for more information.
Notice to readers: These are archived articles. Contact names or information may be out of date. We regret any inconvenience.
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Home > Leonardo Royal Hotel Amsterdam
Leonardo Royal Hotel Amsterdam
Amsterdam (0 miles away)
Contact Healthcare Champion
Max Capacity: 600
Bedrooms: 490
View Venue Website
Healthcare Venues believes the Leonardo Royal Hotel Amsterdam aligns to the metric applied to our GREEN assessment status.
GENERAL POSITIONING
Leonardo Royal Hotel Amsterdam is a 4-star business hotel just outside the city and away from the distractions of the city centre but is conveniently situated and easily accessible by public transport and main road with Schipol Airport reachable within 16 minutes by public transport or 20 minutes by car. The RAI Exhibition & Conference centre can also be reached in 5 minutes by direct Metro.
The hotel features 490 bedrooms with 335 comfort rooms, 147 deluxe rooms and 8 suites.
Rate Banding
The hotel features 490 bedrooms with 335 comfort rooms, 147 deluxe rooms and 8 suites. The difference between our comfort and deluxe category are the additional amenities which can be removed to offer more comfort rooms for healthcare meetings.
The hotel offers 11 meeting rooms across two floors with the largest meeting space, the Amstel Ballroom, on the 2nd floor. The ballroom is made up of three connecting rooms which when combined can accommodate 600 guests in theatre style.
On the 2nd floor you will also find The De Dam meeting room of 52m2 which can be utilized as an office or breakout space for up to 45 guests in theatre style.
The 2nd floor of the hotel can be reached by escalators and elevator and can be completely privatized providing the privacy required by meetings for the healthcare sector.
Seven smaller meeting rooms are located on the ground floor which offer flexible spaces suitable for advisory boards for 10 or conferences up to 100 guests.
The restaurant on the ground floor can seat up to 400 guests and the unique proposition of the hotel is its ability to Eat, Meet & Sleep groups of up to 400 delegates. The restaurant can also be privatized for lunch or dinners for larger groups.
The hotel does offer residential guests use of a Fitness room with free weights and machines, and a sauna and steam room but are provided on a separate floor to the main meeting space so would not prove a distraction to delegates attending a meeting here.
As a new property the website is currently under construction but is expected to follow the Leonardo brand template and once completed, the focus will be towards individual or group business guests with images and information to support this proposition.
External websites support the hotels star rating and reference the hotels location with some limited mention of the hotel’s leisure facilities, but this does not detract from the main focus of the hotel which is business.
The hotel manages a Facebook account which is typically focused on attracting individual leisure guests and a LinkedIn account aligned to the corporate market.
LOCATION AND SETTING
The hotel is an 18 storey, red brick building, located outside the city centre in a business district, close to one of Amsterdam’s many canals and opposite to the Overamstel metro station where delegates can reach Amsterdam Central Train station by direct metro in 10 minutes. The RAI Exhibition & Conference centre can also be reached in 5 minutes and the metro also connects the hotel to the city's financial district where the VU University Medical Centre is located.
For delegates arriving by car, the A10 highway offers quick access to the hotel where there is parking for 160 cars in the garage.
Internally the hotel reflects a modern and fresh design using the theme of Amsterdam maritime history to add some character but no touches that would suggest a more luxurious property.
The hotel was purpose build as a conference hotel and will open in April 2019.
The 2nd floor of the hotel is a dedicated meeting floor that includes the Amstel ballroom that can host up to 600 guests. One other smaller meeting room, suitable for up to 45 guests, is on the same floor. This area can be reached by both escalators and elevators and can be completely privatized therefore giving you the privacy that is required for meetings of all kinds.
With 7 other smaller meeting rooms on the ground floor, the hotel offers a location for healthcare meetings of all sizes.
The hotel features Bar Leo and the Vitruv restaurant on the ground floor which can host up to 400 guests.
Vitruv restaurant has a fresh and modern design and offers international cuisine. The restaurant can also be privatized for groups when privacy is required.
Meetings: The hotel offers 11 meeting rooms across two floors with the largest meeting space, the Amstel Ballroom, on the 2nd floor. The ballroom is made up of three connecting rooms which when combined can accommodate 600 guests in theatre style.
Bedrooms: The hotel features 490 bedrooms with a fresh and modern design and consists out of 335 comfort rooms, 147 deluxe rooms and 8 suites.
The difference between the comfort and deluxe categories are the additional amenities however, these can be removed to offer more comfort rooms should they be required for larger healthcare meetings.
The size and amenities are the same in all rooms with exception of the suites which are 45m2 and 60m2. Amenities in the rooms include a work desk, coffee/tea maker, laptop safe, mini bar (unstocked), air conditioning, cable HD tv and complimentary Wi-Fi.
Leisure: The hotel offers residential guests use of the Fitness room with free weights and machines, a sauna and steam room but are provided on the first floor so would not prove a distraction to delegates attending meetings on the second floor.
The hotel offers complimentary Wi-Fi throughout the building for all guests.
Independent Venue
Meeting & Event Room Capacities
Amstel Ballroom
- 392 468 - 520 - - 700 600 - -
Amstel 1
- 112 144 - 160 - - 275 270 - 54
- 88 126 - 140 - - 225 210 - 45
Amstel 1 & 2
De Dam
18 - 24 - 30 - - 50 60 - 24
Herengracht
12 - 12 - - - - 25 18 - -
Keizersgracht
12 - 12 - - - - 30 27 - 12
De Prinsengracht
36 - 30 - 30 - - 55 56 - -
Prinsengracht 1
12 - 12 - - - - - 24 - 15
De Singel
36 42 75 - 60 - - 90 106 - 36
Singel 1
Singel 1 & 2
24 28 54 - 40 - - 60 72 - 24
Meeting & Event Rooms
Total no. of meeting rooms: 11
Max capacity (Theatre Style): 600
Total no. of breakout rooms: 0
Total capacity of all breakout rooms: 0
The tick shown below identifies the rate banding applicable for that venue, based on its geographical location. Please note these rates act only as a benchmark guideline. Actual rates will be subject to seasonal fluctuations, corporate agreements and any individual/separate negotiation.
Day Delegate Rate
UK: < £45
SE / London: < £54
UK: £45 - £69
SE / London: £54 - £86
UK: £69 +
SE / London: £86 +
24hr Rate
UK: < £150
SE / London: < £180
UK: £150 - £189
SE / London: £180 - £227
UK: £189 +
SE / London: £227 +
Schiphol (6.71 miles away)
Nearest motorways
1096 BK
From Schiphol: • By taxi: It takes approximately 20 minutes by taxi from Schiphol airport. Approx. fare €40 each way • By public transport (20 minutes): From Schiphol Airport take the train towards Amsterdam Zuid station and change to the metro Metro station Overamstel • By car (20 minutes): Get on A4, Follow A4 and A10 to Gooiseweg/s112 in Du
Venue Contact Details
Telephone: +31 (0)20 – 250 00 00
Healthcare Champion
Name: Anita de Jager-Brown
Email: anita.dejagerbrown@leonardo-hotels.com
Telephone: +31 611 32 9844
Name: Richard van Esveld
Email: richard.vanesveld@leonardo-hotels.com
Make an Enquiry… Name Company Email address Month of event n/a January February March April May June July August September October November December Number of people Residential Yes No General comments
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Metal, A Dying Genre
Idea Of Blog:Metal, once a genre feared by parents and religeous groups alike, is now coming to the same fate it did in the late eighties.
In the eighties the "Glam Metal" scene came to an end. The end was caused by the introduction of Power Ballads.[The first powerballad in metal was by motley Crue on their "Theatre Of Pain" Album]. With powerballads emerging metalheads lost interest, and with the emerging grunge scene moved on to get the heavier music. This killed metal until the early to mid 90's when the group "Pantera"emerged, then it all changed.
Pantera a band from Arlington, Texas, brought back the heavy metal scene when they put out the album "Cowboys From Hell". The metal scene went up from there. Pantera released several more albums such as "Vulgar Display Of Power"," Far Beyond Driven" and others. They also launched other groups such as Down, Damage Plan, And Super Joint Ritual. As the years progressed more and more bands emerged making the genre even stronger, and taking it to extrememes never before seen. Bands like Marilyn Manson And The Spooky Kids, Slipknot, Disturbed, Devil Driver, Hatebreed. All of these bands created huge buzzes and touched new bases. Marilyn Manson a band from the early 90's as well being one of the largest. A band with an original heavy sound with the odd or downright scary image exploded its way into the heavy metal world when the hit single "Sweet dreams" came into play. [Originally done by the eurythmics]. Marilyn Manson became one of the hugest and largely protested bands. However it brought about new comings in the metal community. Slipknot, also became huge with the song "Wait and Bleed". They brought a heavy sound to a new generation of pissed off headbangers. Disturbed, and Hatebreed did the same thing. Devil Driver, showed the next level also. With their heavy guitars, insane drums, and great vocalists screaming. Metal continued to grow stronger and stronger with many other bandss emerging.
Up until now Metal has continued to grow. The new generation of metal is destroying an amazing genre. the "Melodic Metal" scene is destroying the genre. This type of metal is becoming huge. Older heavier bands are selling out to this in order to continue making money and mantain its fanbase. The melodic metal seems to be nothing but a genre of pop metal. Teen girls liking these bands just because they feel that the singer, or band is hot. bands like Bullet for My Valentine, Atreyu, Killswitch engage, or even Avenged sevenfold. Bands like these are killing the genre because they are so comercial , and are making it so hard for other bands who are actually original, talented, and are doing what its all about. Metal has always been about ass kicking, face melting, head banging music. Now it seems to be about which band has the hotter band members, which band has the better melodic singer, ect. The genre is dying, it wont be long before real bands arent around, and its all melodic garbage.The genre needs another band like pantera, or slipknot, disturbed, metallica or something to save it.
Ill be putting a better worded version up in a few days.
Posted on April 16th, 2008 at 11:39pm
I did not contradict myself at all, you have taken two separate sentences and muddied the contexts. That statement about no one being right or wrong wasn't referring to whether it was dying or not, what I was referring to was the fact that these are opinions, and opinions are not fact. Neither one of us can be said to be wrong or right based on an opinion. If you want to prove something you have to do a sh*tload of research and test your data with the worst possible chain of statistical analyses imaginable, only then can you state it as fact. So having said that, I reiterate, we have differing opinions, you think it's dying, I think it is not. And until the data is tested, it's really just conjecture.
Grandma, April 22nd, 2008 at 03:23:57am
I dontl isten to the radio or watch mtv. i watch 1 hour of tv a week thats house. Metallica did switch their focus, and the guitar riffs went downhill, the lyrics all changed, and they began shooting videos, and getting radio play. when did it happen? after and justice for all, th en full force after the black album. Rap music? I probably know more about that than anyone on here cause i am a rap artist, i constantly listen to it mainly underground, tech n9ne, immortal technique, mc supernat, AZ ect. Yeah real is out there but not enough.. and you contradicted yourself in saying it isnt dying at all, then saying noones wrong here they have different views. if it isnt dying at all, then im wrong. if it sorta is/ sorta isnt then noone is wrong.
syco-cheechoo2, April 21st, 2008 at 09:20:58pm
No studio albums, but three live ones.
Define good, everyone's music taste is different Steven. What sounds good to one person, sounds like sh*t to another so that argument is redundant.
Metallica did what they wanted to so, the whole sellout argument is also redundant and a phrase way too overused these days. If a band shifts focus it's their choice, they do what they want to do. If some fans don't like it, so what? The band was obviously happy with it and it's their music.
Bottom line is, metal isn't dying at all, it's still out there, in a variety of forms and in it's original form, you just have to know where to look, just like you have to look in places other than MTV and local radio to find intelligent rap. As in many things people's opinions will differ on the subject. No one is right or wrong here, we just have different views.
Grandma, April 21st, 2008 at 04:43:46am
Metallica still produces music, but lost a HUGE ammount of their true fans at the black album. they are a big example of SELLOUT. megadeth hasn't had a good album since symphony of destruction. Anthrax hasnt made an album in quite a few years.
syco-cheechoo2, April 20th, 2008 at 02:36:24pm
Metallica, Mega Death &; Anthrax still produce music, and are still widely loved within the scene.
Tholomew Plague, April 20th, 2008 at 08:48:34am
BR00T4L, You said i am only talking about a few subgenres? Nah, metal as a whole. especially thrash..thrash metal practically died when metallica, anthrax, megadeth,n sh*t like them stopped makin albums. grindcore has never been great to begin with. deathmetal is one subgenre that hasnt changed really. nu metal is the metal that isnt doing anything bad to metal as a whole. as a matter of fact its broiught more fans into the metal scene.
now as a whole i didnt say metal is dead, i mearly said it is dying. and when i say it like that i mean the true talent within. what metal overall used to be about. its just becoming too comercial. and in the end the more comercial it gets the real metal fans wont always support it. it'll cause it to die. i mean yea they'll still have fans. but most will only be bcause of the fad and comercialism of it.
syco-cheechoo2, April 20th, 2008 at 12:52:51am
Metal isn't dead.
"Bands like Marilyn Manson And The Spooky Kids, Slipknot, Disturbed, - Marilyn Manson, Bullet for My Valentine, Atreyu, or even Avenged sevenfold"
Btw those bands are nu-metal, not real metal. (:
Go see a decent metal band and you'll see that the metal scene is still alive. I go to metal gigs once in a while and there aren't 498746 girls screaming the leadsingers name or anything. I think only deathcore/nu-metal/hardcore bands are (becoming) very populair. You can't just say that all metal is getting commercial.. What about (suicidal) black, doom, avant-garde, death, thrash, folk, grindcore, progressive metal, huh? (: You've only been talking about a few lame subgenres so yeah..that's not enough to 'prove' that metal is dead or anything. I don't even think you've heard at least one band of every genre is just named..
"The new generation of metal is destroying an amazing genre."
Not really..I know plenty of really good ~newer~ bands that aren't commercial or anything, you just don't have to look for them on MTV or anything..
And I agree with 'man of infirmity, April'.
Sorry for my bad spelling/grammar.
DARKPSYDE, April 19th, 2008 at 04:46:28am
I see you mentioned Marilyn in there =] It made me smile. Great blog,
Kurtni, April 19th, 2008 at 12:05:55am
i've seen this same type of thing happen to the bands i like. when i was growing up i listened to sum 41 and blink 182. then i listened to the OLD fall out boy, green day, taking back sunday. so sum 41 broke up for a long time and their music hasn't sounded great since Does This Look Infected. blink 182 is gone. fall out boy has totally changed and sold out. green day isn't making new music. TBS isn't really doing anything either. a lot of "screamo" crap took the place of the old stuff i liked. and they aren't really sell outs, we just say they are because they aren't like our favorite bands. and i agree with most everyone else, Avenged Sevenfold isn't really metal. they are a type of metal but they can't be classified in the same type as most of the other bands you've listed. these bands never sold out..they're doing what every band does, trying to make money. and they aren't making the music we want, instead they are attracting all the preppy kids. i've had the same problem as you though...its sh*t to listen to that stuff when you have always listened to great bands. i think if you give some of these bands time they'll either die off or turn into something great. i hope at least. right now everything sucks. my boyfriend LOVES metal. recently hes been listening to Rage Against the Machine. They aren't quite metal but they sure are heavy. But once again, they arn't making new music. so its hard. i guess we either have to keep listening to the good, old stuff or try to find a new band.
suburban.zombie, April 18th, 2008 at 07:45:46pm
ok i probably know as much about metal as george w bush knows about grammar but i have heard metalheads saying that montley crue and that sh*t "isn't real metal" and same with slipknot. Not that i know what i'm talking about or anything but i just wanted to add that.
Mycophobia, April 18th, 2008 at 07:29:36pm
I agree metal is becoming very commercial, but what genre isn't? There still are metal fans. A genre can't really die. There will always be someone listening to it.
neen bean, April 18th, 2008 at 07:23:58pm
actually, i don't believe metal is dead.
there's newer heavy metal bands im sure none of those who are in it for looks know about.
there's Amon Amarth, Opeth, Behemoth, Lamb of God, Dimmu Borgir, Mastodon, Strapping Young Lad, and i suppose Slayer, but they've been around forever.
pseudo superhero, April 17th, 2008 at 11:23:58pm
What I'm trying to say is:
Metal already changed drasticly once before. A fan of the really really 60's and 70's metal may have thought that it died when the 80's and 90's style of it came to be. Now you're thinking its dieing because you perfer the 80's and 90's style over todays. So, I soppose its already "died" before the first power ballet.
As for the comercial stuff, you're dam right. I don't like it, so I pay it no attention what-so-ever. I just listen to the music.
Blarg!, April 17th, 2008 at 06:43:23pm
I beg to disagree there Steven. It might seem like that, but the reality is very different, you cannot judge how the genre is going by listening to the radio or watching MTV. Radio and TV will only play what is commercial after all it is a business, but that doesn’t mean the original metal sound is dying, it’s still out there you just have to dig a little to find it. As to ‘glam metal’, well when that hit it was seen by a lot of metalheads as a joke. The genre didn’t die out then, it just retreated. It kept on doing what is was doing with a small but dedicated following. If you look further than TV and radio you will find a large number of new metal bands out there that have the sound of the originals.
As an oldie who was actually around for the first wave of metal, I can honestly say that the bands you listed above, ie Avenged Sevenfold, Bullet For My Valentine etc, those to me are not really metal, they are more akin to heavy rock or possibly soft metal. Just because a band is loud doesn’t make them metal.
The Reverend makes a good point about the “oldies” getting old and dying off. I wouldn’t want to see them on stage in their zimmer frames, they did what they set out to do and are getting on with the rest of their lives. And yes, Manowar hasn’t changed in the slightest, even down to the picking girls out of the audience for a backstage quickie. True metal is always there, just not conspicuous. And the ‘new’ metal won’t change that.
Grandma, April 17th, 2008 at 04:53:46pm
Whats causing metal to die is the REAL metal bands, dying of old age. Not being able to play anymore because they forgot their songs and have arthitis. Avenged Sevenfold is a totally different type of metal, if you can even class it as metal. They're new wave. They arent ACTUAL metal. Real metallers would rather eat gum off their shoe than listen to them. So they cant be classed as metal in my opinion.
Everything is of a different genre of metal. The real metal is ManOWar and Dragon Force. Most metal bands arent dying out. Man0war and Dragonforce are STILL producing good music, and Cradle of filth has been going for over 20 years and have never sold out any of their music, they're still a TYPE of metal.
Metal will never 'die', Just old school metal will. The only reason for that is because they're all old men now :]
Tholomew Plague, April 17th, 2008 at 04:37:04pm
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Latifoğlu Development
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1 Famagusta City Walls
Famagusta city-walls built by the Lusignans and were originally high and thin. The Venetians fortified the walls against artillery fire particularly to protect themselves from the Ottomans. Martinengo Bastion is considered the to be one of the finest examples of military architecture of the 16the Century in North Cyprus.
2 Lala Mustafa Pasa Mosque – St. Nicolas’ Cathedral
St Nicolas’ Cathedral is the most impressive monument in Famagusta. Lusignan kings were crowned here in absentia as kings of Jerusalem after they had been crowned as kings of Cyprus in Nicosia. The cathedral was turned into a mosque by the Ottomans and names after Ottoman General who conquered Cyprus.
3 Salamis Ancient City
Situated on the east coast, Salamis is one of the most important and fascinating sites in North Cyprus. It was founded around the 12th Century BC and had a long development until its destruction by Arab raiders, earthquake and tides in the 7th Century. It is a large city compels revealing Roman buildings and architecture.
4 Kyrenia Harbour
The picturesque old harbour is one of the best places to visit in North Cyprus. The harbor is lined by flats, cafes, bars and restaurants offering lots of good places to eat where you can taste the local food.
5 Kyrenia Castle
Situated next to the Kyrenia Harbour, the Kyrenia Castle is a complicated mixture of building styles worth visiting in North Cyprus. Behind the Venetian castle walls you will find church of St George, royal apartments, and byzantine chapel or French dungeons. The ship in the Shipwreck museum is estimated to have sunk around 300BC and is, to date, the oldest ship ever to be recovered from the seabed.
6 Turtle Beach
Turtle beach is a long stretch beach of sand. The beach is signposted as it is here where the green and loggerhead turtles come and lay their eggs in the summer. The beach is mostly visited by local Cypriots. Visit North Cyprus Turtle Beach if you want to experience local atmosphere.
7 Bellapais Monastery
The Bellapais Abbey is truly one of the most tranquil places in North Cyprus. It was founded at the beginning of the thirteen century. Most of the Bellapais Abbey that is visible today dates from the time of Hugh III. It is beautiful and elegant building depicting Gothic styles throughout the stage of its development. A small courtyard is defended by a machicolated gatehouse.
8 St. Hilarion Castle
St. Hilarion Castle is another best place to visit in North Cyprus. The castle stands just about Kyrenia in 670 m. It was named by a hermit who once inhabited the summit. The castle was built on three levels. The upper level consists of winding and very narrow steps up to Prince John’s Tower and royal apartments. It offers splendid view over Kyrenia and surrounding villages.
9 Buffavento Castle
Buffavento Castle lies about 16 km eastwards from Kyrenia, North Cyprus. Situated in 954 m it is the highest castle offering the most spectacular view. 6.8 km drive along a rough track is followed by a 45 minute walk up the mountain path. Largely ruined, it is an impressive architecture you should not miss when visiting North Cyprus.
10 Karpaz Peninsula and Apostolos Andreas Monastery
Karpaz peninsula situated in the north-east part of North Cyprus is a land where time stands still with miles and miles of untouched sandy beaches. Situated at the tip of the peninsula, Apostolos Andreas Monastery is dedicated to St Andrew, the miracle worker. Karpaz is also known for its wildlife including wild donkeys. Visit Karpaz as one of the most beautiful place in North Cyprus.
11 Kantara Castle
Kantara Castle was built by the Byzantines in 965 to rule the Karpaz peninsula after the Arabs raids. It stands at 610 m and is the most accessible. It was constructed around the entire circumstance of the mountain peak on which it was built. On clear days it offers splendid view on the Karpaz peninsula and Salamis Bay to Famagusta and other part of North Cyprus.
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Available for touring to involve local community members
Choreography and direction | Laura Murphy
Sound sore | Irene Buckley
A Dance Concerto is based on Laban Movement Choirs of the 1930s, features both professional and pre-professional dancers with an inter-generational cast of 40 persons from Cork city community. Tin cans generate music and movement that evolves from industrial beginnings through mass production to become something more familiar from our everyday lives. (The tin cans of food used in A Dance Concerto were donated to Cork Penny Dinners, along with those handed in by the audience as part of their entrance fee)
“Bravura” is a word that could also be applied to the first presentation of the festival.... Choreographer Laura Murphy and composer Irene Buckley create a sequence of continuous movement, hypnotic in its pace and in the visual effect of its ranks of black-clad dancers, all obedient to an orchestra of tins.
It is splendidly original; one doesn’t really expect food cans to be quite so active."
Mary Leland | The Irish Times, 24 June 2014
"...As a community project, this was a success even before it premiered, since it drew in members of the public who might never have thought of dance before, let alone participated in a performance.
The capacity audience also testified to that success. Lively toddlers lay, chins on hands, watching every movement with delight. Older watchers were fascinated by the ways in which sound could be drawn from such basic, everyday objects. A violin bow evoked a strange wail; multiple, soft tapping was a ground base that echoed a pulse beat. The cans weren’t just a quirky idea, says Laura Murphy. They emphasised food, the need for it, the lack of it.
An important aspect of the show was the use of tins of food as exchange for tickets. In the foyer beforehand, the trolleys piled high with offerings showed that the public had taken to this with delight. All the barter goods will be donated to Cork Penny Dinners, incidentally — another strong community link. Here is one arts project genuinely reaching out to the people...."
Jo Kerrigan | A Dance Concerto, Irish Examiner, 26 June 2014
"...Choreographer Laura Murphy locates the humanity in mass production, and music where others hear noise.
A Dance Concerto presents the humble can as never seen before."
Stephen D'Arcy Collins | Dance Voices
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+39 0372 403 542 italiano@isvps.org
Candidates Login
Harper Adams University PGCerts
An exciting collaboration between Harper Adams University College, the International School of Veterinary Postgraduate Studies and Improve International with University validation leading to new PGCerts in Small Animal Medicine and Small Animal Surgery.
Improve International together with the International School of Veterinary Postgraduate Studies (ISVPS) is pleased to announce a new collaboration with Harper Adams University College.
Improve International is Europe’s largest provider of post-graduate training to the veterinary profession with a portfolio of 19 modular programmes for vets and activity in 10 different European countries.
EISVPS is a not-for-profit company established in 2003 with the remit of accrediting veterinary CPD and awarding a range of General Practitioner Certificates (GPCerts) on a Europe-wide basis.
Harper Adams University College is a higher education institution located in Shropshire, England. It is the UK’s leading specialist provider of higher education for the agri-food chain and rural sector. Established in 1901, Harper Adams has had its own degree awarding powers since 1981.
This exciting three-way collaboration will enable vets enrolled on the Improve International training programmes in Small Animal Medicine and Small Animal Surgery to sit a University supervised examination run by ISVPS as the Assessment Partner. Successful candidates will then receive a PGCert awarded by Harper Adams University College as well as a General Practitioner Certificate awarded by ISVPS.
These qualifications are positioned at Level 7 (Masters) within the QAA Framework and carry 60 academic credits at this level. It is intended that a route to a Master’s Degree will be available in due course and that these PGCerts can form an important stepping stone towards this higher qualification.
The rigorous validation process undertaken by Harper Adams together with their on-going involvement in these programmes ensures that both the teaching elements and the examination processes meet the highest academic standards.
These new PGCerts in Small Animal Surgery and Small Animal Medicine are academically equivalent to other PGcerts currently available to the UK veterinary profession.
The validation by a British University College elevates the status of the teaching and the accompanying qualifications to a recognised level and is a significant move forward for all three parties.
Enrolments onto these new programmes will be available for all delegates starting the 2012 programmes at all UK venues in October 2012. Further details will be made available to these delegates at their first session.
For further information please do not hesitate to contact us either by email – enquiries@improve-international.com / english@esvps.org or by telephone on 01793 759159 (Improve) or 01822 859233 (ISVPS).
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MASTERPLAN: ‘Novum Initium’ Digipack Cover Artwork Unveiled
March 27, 2013 0 Comment Masterplan
“Novum Initium”, the new album from multinational melodic metallers MASTERPLAN, will be released on May 17 via AFM Records.
“Novum Initium” track listing:
01. Per Aspera Ad Astra
02. The Game
03. Keep Your Dream Alive
04. Black Night Of Magic
06. No Escape
07. Pray On My Soul
08. Earth Is Going Down
09. Return From Avalon
10. Through Your Eyes
11. Novum Initium
12. 1492 (digipack bonus track)
13. Fear The Silence (digipack bonus track)
The “Novum Initium” digipack cover artwork can be seen below.
The band last month filmed a video for the song ” Keep Your Dream Alive” in the Luftverteidigungsbunker Erndtebrück, also called “Bunker Erich.”
A photo of MASTERPLAN‘s new lineup can be seen below. Joining drummer Martin “Marthus” Skaroupka (CRADLE OF FILTH) are vocalist Rick Altzi (AT VANCE, SANDALINAS, THUNDERSTONE), who replaces Jorn Lande, and bassist Jari Kainulainen (STRATOVARIUS, SYMFONIA, DEVIL’S TRAIN).
In a recent interview with Metal Shock Finland, MASTERPLAN guitarist/leader Roland Grapow stated about the band’s new CD: “We are not leaving the MASTERPLAN path too much, but everything we have — the melodic part and a little bit progressive — I would say we’re a little bit more powerful and I’m also mixing the album this time. I want to get a little bit more modern, as the sound we have was created ten years ago. We’re still having the typical sound with melodies, but the drummer is amazing and plays a lot of crazy shit!”
MASTERPLAN‘s new lineup:
Rick Altzi – vocals
Roland Grapow – guitars
Axel Mackenrott – keyboards
Jari Kainulainen – bass
Martin “Marthus” Skaroupka – drums
In an August 2011 interview with the Czech web portal Kultura21.cz, Grapow stated about MASTERPLAN‘s numerous lineup changes: “I think it’s always difficult in this band, I guess. If you see, the first album just came out after a big turbulence — leaving HELLOWEEN, Uli [Kusch, drums] and me. I think this band always needs some very bad moments to some great songs. [laughs] And it looks like MASTERPLAN, basically, is my main band, and whoever will sing and whoever will play in the band, I’m happy with. But, basically, at the moment, I’m thinking the main songwriters are Axel now and me. So whatever happens, this band will continue. It’s very important for me to show that we still have the power and the ability to write beautiful melodies and some aggression and rock and metal songs. Whatever we do, we want just to make good-quality stuff.”
MASTERPLAN‘s last CD, “Time To Be King”, was released on May 21, 2010 through AFM Records. The CD’s first single, “Far From The End Of The World”, was issued on April 16, 2010.
← CLUTCH’s ‘Earth Rocker’ Cracks U.S. Top 15
RUSH Frontman To Throw Out Ceremonial First Pitch At TORONTO BLUE JAYS Home Opener →
MASTERPLAN: ‘Keep Your Dream Alive’ Video Released
Former RIOT/MASTERPLAN Singer’s TENPOINT: ‘Carry Over’ Video Released
MYSTIC PROPHECY: ‘Killhammer’ Trailer Available
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FIRST BLACK RUSSIAN TERRIER TRIPLE CROWN WINNER
GCH Zilya's Chicago Blues Fusion at Runes, CD, RN, CGC, TT
(Call name: Zil)
Zilya finished 2011 as the #1 Ranked Black Russian Terrier in breed competition for the entire year. He is also #1 ranked in AKC Lifetime Grand Championship points, and has been awarded 30 Group Placements with 5 Working Group wins. At the end of 2012 he was #1 in both Breed and All Breed competition.
Zil was awarded Best in Specialty Show at the 2011 Black Russian Terrier Nationals held in Gray Summit, MO, on September 20, 2011, giving him a solid place in the history of the breed. During the preceding show weekend Zil went Best of Breed and Select Dog and the following weekend Best of Breed at all 3 shows with two Working Group Wins (Group 1's) and one Group 3. Zil became the first American bred dog to win the National.
We finished off 2011 with a Best of Breed at the Eukanuba National Championships. 2011 was a great year. With his Eukanuba win in 2012, Zil is only the 2nd BRT to win the Eukanuba National Championship twice.
2012 started as another amazing year with Zil winning the First Best in Specialty Show at the Black Russian Terrier
Club of New Jersey Specialty on February 11 and topping it off with a fabulous Best of Breed at the Westminster Kennel Club on February 14. And #1 in both Breed and All Breed Statistics for 2012. Zil now has over 300 Best of Breeds and over 80 Working Group Placements
Zil is the first (and still only as of October 2015) Black Russian Terrier in the history of the breed to win the Triple Crown consisting of the BRT Nationals, Eukanuba and Westminster. Sprinkle on his fantastic health certificates and working titles and you have one amazing dog! He is also the first US bred winner of both the Nationals and Westminster Kennel Club. Zil is now the #1 Black Russian Terrier in the history of the Breed in number of BRTS defeated in show. He is truly an unbelievable dog!
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NCV
David and Goliath 17 1The Philistines gathered their armies for war. They met at Socoh in Judah and camped at Ephes Dammim between Socoh and Azekah. 2Saul and the Israelites gathered in the Valley of Elah and camped there and took their positions to fight the Philistines. 3The Philistines controlled one hill while the Israelites controlled another. The valley was between them. 4The Philistines had a champion fighter from Gath named Goliath. He was about nine feet, four inches tall. He came out of the Philistine camp 5with a bronze helmet on his head and a coat of bronze armor that weighed about one hundred twenty-five pounds. 6He wore bronze protectors on his legs, and he had a bronze spear on his back. 7The wooden part of his larger spear was like a weaver’s rod, and its blade weighed about fifteen pounds. The officer who carried his shield walked in front of him. 8Goliath stood and shouted to the Israelite soldiers, “Why have you taken positions for battle? I am a Philistine, and you are Saul’s servants! Choose a man and send him to fight me. 9If he can fight and kill me, we will be your servants. But if I can kill him, you will be our servants.” 10Then he said, “Today I stand and dare the army of Israel! Send one of your men to fight me!” 11When Saul and the Israelites heard the Philistine’s words, they were very scared. 12Now David was the son of Jesse, an Ephrathite from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons. In Saul’s time Jesse was an old man. 13His three oldest sons followed Saul to the war. The first son was Eliab, the second was Abinadab, and the third was Shammah. 14David was the youngest. Jesse’s three oldest sons followed Saul, 15but David went back and forth from Saul to Bethlehem, where he took care of his father’s sheep. 16For forty days the Philistine came out every morning and evening and stood before the Israelite army. 17Jesse said to his son David, “Take this half bushel of cooked grain and ten loaves of bread to your brothers in the camp. 18Also take ten pieces of cheese to the commander and to your brothers. See how your brothers are and bring back some proof to show me that they are all right. 19Your brothers are with Saul and the army in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.” 20Early in the morning David left the sheep with another shepherd. He took the food and left as Jesse had told him. When David arrived at the camp, the army was going out to their battle positions, shouting their war cry. 21The Israelites and Philistines were lining up their men to face each other in battle. 22David left the food with the man who kept the supplies and ran to the battle line to talk to his brothers. 23While he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, came out. He shouted things against Israel as usual, and David heard him. 24When the Israelites saw Goliath, they were very much afraid and ran away. 25They said, “Look at this man! He keeps coming out to challenge Israel. The king will give much money to whoever kills him. He will also let whoever kills him marry his daughter. And his father’s family will not have to pay taxes in Israel.” 26David asked the men who stood near him, “What will be done to reward the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the shame from Israel? Who does this uncircumcised Philistine think he is? Does he think he can speak against the armies of the living God?” 27The Israelites told David what would be done for the man who would kill Goliath. 28When David’s oldest brother Eliab heard David talking with the soldiers, he was angry with David. He asked David, “Why did you come here? Who’s taking care of those few sheep of yours in the desert? I know you are proud and wicked at heart. You came down here just to watch the battle.” 29David asked, “Now what have I done wrong? Can’t I even talk?” 30When he turned to other people and asked the same questions, they gave him the same answer as before. 31Yet what David said was told to Saul, and he sent for David. 32David said to Saul, “Don’t let anyone be discouraged. I, your servant, will go and fight this Philistine!” 33Saul answered, “You can’t go out against this Philistine and fight him. You’re only a boy. Goliath has been a warrior since he was a young man.” 34But David said to Saul, “I, your servant, have been keeping my father’s sheep. When a lion or bear came and took a sheep from the flock, 35I would chase it. I would attack it and save the sheep from its mouth. When it attacked me, I caught it by its fur and hit it and killed it. 36I, your servant, have killed both a lion and a bear! This uncircumcised Philistine will be like them, because he has spoken against the armies of the living God. 37The Lord who saved me from a lion and a bear will save me from this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and may the Lord be with you.” 38Saul put his own clothes on David. He put a bronze helmet on his head and dressed him in armor. 39David put on Saul’s sword and tried to walk around, but he was not used to all the armor Saul had put on him. He said to Saul, “I can’t go in this, because I’m not used to it.” Then David took it all off. 40He took his stick in his hand and chose five smooth stones from a stream. He put them in his shepherd’s bag and grabbed his sling. Then he went to meet the Philistine. 41At the same time, the Philistine was coming closer to David. The man who held his shield walked in front of him. 42When Goliath looked at David and saw that he was only a boy, tanned and handsome, he looked down on David with disgust. 43He said, “Do you think I am a dog, that you come at me with a stick?” He used his gods’ names to curse David. 44He said to David, “Come here. I’ll feed your body to the birds of the air and the wild animals!” 45But David said to him, “You come to me using a sword and two spears. But I come to you in the name of the Lord All-Powerful, the God of the armies of Israel! You have spoken against him. 46Today the Lord will hand you over to me, and I’ll kill you and cut off your head. Today I’ll feed the bodies of the Philistine soldiers to the birds of the air and the wild animals. Then all the world will know there is a God in Israel! 47Everyone gathered here will know the Lord does not need swords or spears to save people. The battle belongs to him, and he will hand you over to us.” 48As Goliath came near to attack him, David ran quickly to meet him. 49He took a stone from his bag, put it into his sling, and slung it. The stone hit the Philistine and went deep into his forehead, and Goliath fell facedown on the ground. 50So David defeated the Philistine with only a sling and a stone. He hit him and killed him. He did not even have a sword in his hand. 51Then David ran and stood beside him. He took Goliath’s sword out of its holder and killed him by cutting off his head. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they turned and ran. 52The men of Israel and Judah shouted and chased the Philistines all the way to the entrance of the city of Gath and to the gates of Ekron. The Philistines’ bodies lay on the Shaaraim road as far as Gath and Ekron. 53The Israelites returned after chasing the Philistines and robbed their camp. 54David took Goliath’s head to Jerusalem and put Goliath’s weapons in his own tent. 55When Saul saw David go out to meet Goliath, Saul asked Abner, commander of the army, “Abner, who is that young man’s father?” Abner answered, “As surely as you live, my king, I don’t know.” 56The king said, “Find out whose son he is.” 57When David came back from killing Goliath, Abner brought him to Saul. David was still holding Goliath’s head. 58Saul asked him, “Young man, who is your father?” David answered, “I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.”
New Century Version® / © 2005 Thomas Nelson, Inc. About
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Preparation a multi-walled carbon nanotubes-carbon paste electrode based on a sulfanyl phenyl Schiff’s base for selective determination of mercury(II) in environmental water samples
Kamal Alizadeh 1
Ziba Yaghouby 1
Azim Shams 2
1 Department of Chemistry, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran
The electrochemical property of a recently synthesized ligand, 3-((3-mercaptophenyl) aminomethyl)benzene-1,2-diol has been investigated with construction of a modified carbon paste electrode to find out of mercury ions in real samples. To modify the electrode, paraffin oil and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) were used as binder and modifier respectively. Under the optimized conditions, the electrode exhibits a Nernstian slope of 30.0±0.2 mV per decade for mercury(II) ions over a broad concentration range 1×10-7 to 1×10-1M with a R2 value of 0.996 at pH 4.5 in a 5 sec response time. The detection limit of the method for Hg2+ was 2.3×10−8 mol l−1. The influence of several potentially interfering ions such as K+, Ag+, Cd2+, Ni2+, Ca2+, Cr3+, Pb2+, Cu2+, Co2+, Mg2+, Fe2+, Al3+, La3+ and Fe3+ on the determination of Hg2+ was studied and no significant interference was observed. The proposed modified carbon paste electrode was successfully applied to the determination of mercury ions in real water samples.
Hg-selective electrode
Modified carbon paste
MWCNT
Sulfanyl phenyl derivative
Recently, different physical, chemical and biological methods can be used to contamination removal from wastewater. Some of them involve coagulation, foam flotation, ion exchange, adsorption, electrolysis, chemical precipitation, and membrane process. The Adsorption technique is interesting methods because has been found to be more effective and low-cost treatment process to remove pollutants of water [1-10]. Diseases such as hearing loss, mental deterioration, dialogue difficulty, impaired vision, vestibular dysfunction, and autism have been reported by Mercury which is one of the most toxic elements in the world [11].
Atomic spectroscopic methods are powerful analytical techniques for the determination of elements in a great number of samples. However, these techniques are quite expensive and time-consuming and may not be obtainable in all the laboratories. Thus, the development of uncomplicated methods for selective determination of mercury in trace amounts in different matrices is serious [12]. Electrochemical methods offer several advantages over these methods, such as ease of use, low cost, direct detection, miniaturization, and fast response times. Modified carbon paste electrodes are simple and selective tools for the determination of heavy metal ions that have been extensively developed in recent years. The operation mechanism of such modified carbon paste electrodes depends on the properties of the modifier materials used to import selectivity towards the target species [13].
The aim of this work is to introduce a potentiometric carbon paste electrode (PCPE) for Hg2+ determination based on its complexation reaction with 3-((3-mercaptophenyl) aminomethyl)benzene-1,2-diol, L as an excellent ion carrier with N, O and S as donor atoms. For this point, the spectrophotometric of the complex is carefully studied. The new synthetic ligand, L, then mixed with graphite powder, MWCNTs and paraffin oil for constructing of a selective CPE sensor to the potentiometric determination of Hg2+ in environmental water samples.
Material and instruments
High viscosity paraffin (density=0.88 g cm–3) from Fluka was used as the pasting liquid for CPE. Graphite powder (particle diameter=0.10 mm) from Merck and MWCNT with purity >95%, from Nanostar Tech. Co., Tehran, Iran were used as the working electrode substrates. All other reagents were of analytical reagent grade and were used as received. Double-distilled water was used throughout and test solutions were buffered in a 0.02 mol L-1 solution of acetic acid/sodium acetate and pH adjusted by the addition of 1 mol L-1 sodium hydroxide or hydrochloric acid solutions.
A Jenway (USA) model 3020 pH meter with a combined glass electrode was used after calibration against standard Merck buffers for pH determinations. A Shimadzu (Japan) model 1650PC double-beam spectrophotometer was used for running the electronic absorption spectra (controlled to ±0.1 °C). A totally glass Fisons (UK) double distiller was used for the preparation of doubly distilled water. 1H, 13C NMR spectra were recorded at 298K on a Bruker AM 500 instruments (1H: 500.130 MHz; 13C: 125.758 MHz). Infrared spectroscopy measurement was recorded in the range 400–4000 cm−1 on a Shimadzu FT-IR spectrometer model 8400S (Japan). The mass spectra measurement was performed using Shimadzu GC-MS spectrometer model 17A-QP5050.
Preparation and Characterization of Schiff’s base 3-((3-mercaptophenyl) aminomethyl)benzene-1,2-diol (L)
The new Schiff’s base L, with the chemical name of 3-((3-mercaptophenyl) aminomethyl)benzene-1,2-diol, was synthesized and purified from the reaction between 2-aminobenzenethiol and 2,3-dihydroxybenzaldehyde in ethanol [14,15]. The yellow solid product was filtered and the product was recrystallized from ethanol. The L was characterized by FT-IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR and Mass spectroscopy and the analytical data are as follows: C13H11NO2S, Yield: 75%; mp: 96 ◦C. IR (KBr): υO-H=3450, υS-H=2525 and υC=N=1600cm-1. 1H NMR (500 MHz, DMSO): δ = 3.00 (SH), 4.11-4.73 (2H, OH phenolic), 6.80-7.56 (7H, Ar–H), 8.05 (1H, HC=N). 13C NMR (125 MHz, DMSO): δ = 118.16, 118.95, 119.87, 122.46, 122.51, 125.63, 127.00 (C-ring), 146.76 (1C, C-N), 151.85 (1C, C=N). MS: m/z (%) = 245.0 (M+).
The modified carbon paste was prepared by hand mixing different amounts of the graphite powder, MWCNTs, paraffin oil and new synthetic ligand with a mortar and crusher. The mixture was packed into polyethylene syringes (2.5 mm diameter). Electrical contact to the carbon paste was established via inserting a thin copper wire thorough flank. For all measurements the modified carbon paste electrode as an indicator electrode and the Ag/AgCl as a reference electrode were placed in the different concentrations of Hg(II) solutions. The potential was recorded after each Hg(II) addition, and then plotted as a logarithmic function of Hg(II) activity.
3-((3-mercaptophenyl) aminomethyl)benzene-1,2-diol shows an absorbance maximum at about 310 nm. By increasing the addition of Hg2+, a decrease in absorbance is observed at this wavelength as shown in Fig. 1. For most of the other studied metal ions, i.e., Ag+, Cd2+, Ni2+, Zn2+, Cr3+, Pb2+, Cu2+, Co3+, Mn2+ , Al3+ and Fe3+ negligible or small variations in the absorbance maximum are observed by increasing the same mole ratio of corresponding ions. According to the shape reported in Fig. 2, it should be noted that the largest variation is observed for Hg2+, while for the other studied ions variation is unimportant. Based on the relatively high selectivity of L for Hg2+, as was concluded from its absorbance variation, the mentioned compound, L was expected to act as a proper ionophore in preparation of novel ion-selective carbon paste electrode for Hg2+ ion [16].
Thus, in preliminary experiments, L was used as a neutral carrier to prepare carbon paste electrodes (with the same composition) for a variety of metal ions. The potential responses of various ion selective electrodes based on L are shown in Fig. 3.
As it can be seen, except for the Hg2+ ion, the excepted Nernstian slopes (59, 29.5 and 20 mV per decade for the mono-, di- and trivalent cations, respectively) were not observed for other metal ions. This is maybe due to the high selectivity of the ionophore for mercury ions over other metal ions, as well as the rapid exchange kinetics of the resulting ligand Hg2+-L complex [17].
The Influence of Carbon Paste Electrode Composition
Because for a given ionophore, the selectivity and sensitivity of the carbon paste electrodes-based on the sulfanyl phenyl derivative depend significantly on the carbon paste composition, the nature and amount of liquid and chemical additions used. The influences of these parameters on the potential response of the Hg(II) electrodes were investigated. Therefore, different carbon paste compositions were tested and the results were summarized in Table 1. The ion carrier is the most important component of any ion-selective electrodes. To test the selectivity of the sulfanyl phenyl derivative as well as the role of the composite concentration on its behavior, the ionophore was used to fabricate a series of nano-composite CPEs having a variety of compositions.
A liquid for use as pasting in a carbon paste electrode should complete certain conditions. They should be sufficiently chemically inert, insulating, nonvolatile, water-immiscible, and forming paste mixtures of fine uniformity. By means of paraffin oil in the carbon paste electrodes yields more efficient extraction of ions with high charge density into the carbon paste surface. In addition, with MWCNTs in the composition of the carbon paste not only improves the conductivity of the sensor, but also increases the transduction of the chemical signal to electrical signal. By increasing the conductivity, the dynamic working range and response time of the sensor improve. If the transduction property of the sensor increases, the potential response of the sensor improves to Nernstian values. Also, using MWCNTs leads to the expanding of the surface of paste by fabrication of three-dimensional nanostructures, as well as diminishing the ohmic resistance of the paste [13,18].
Obtained results from Table 1, indicate that the MWCNTs-modified carbon paste electrode with the graphite powder/paraffin oil/sulfanyl phenyl derivative/MWCNTs percentage ratio of 65/22.5/2.5/10 was selected as the optimized composition for the preparation of the Hg-selective electrode (no. 6). It exhibited a Nernstian slope of 30.0±(0.2) mV decade−1 in a wide mercury ion concentration range between 1.0×10−7 and 1.0×10−1M (Fig. 4). The LOD for the electrode was equal to 2.3×10−8M. This LOD was calculated when the linear regions of the calibration graphs were extrapolated to the baseline potentials [19].
Effect of pH of the Test Solution
The responses of Hg2+-CPE based on 3-((3-mercaptophenyl) aminomethyl)benzene-1,2-diol towards pH changes in aqueous solution are very important parameters, which allow to optimize the measuring conditions of selected analytes and to find out the mechanism of the potentiometric responses. As seen in Fig. 5, the pH changes from 3.0 to 6.7 caused the same potential response. Beyond this range, considerable potential increased were seen. At pH<3.0, the potential increased, indicating that the electrode responded to hydrogen ion concentration while, above pH 6.7, the increased potential could be due to the response of the sensing material of the proposed electrode for alkali cations [13,20].
Dynamic Response Time of the Hg(II)-Carbon Paste Selective Electrode
Commonly, dynamic response time is an important parameter for any ion-selective electrode. Fig. 6 illustrates a representative plot of the potential changes vs time for modified carbon paste electrode based on the new synthetic ligand 3-((3-mercaptophenyl) aminomethyl)benzene-1,2-diol as a neutral carrier after additions of the Hg2+ ion concentrations in a series of solution from 1.0×10-7 to 1.0×10-1 mol L-1. As it is obvious in Fig. 6, the electrode reaches its equilibrium response, very fast (ca. 5 sec) in the whole concentration range. This is probably due to the very fast exchange kinetics of complexation-decomplexation of Hg2+ with the mentioned neutral carrier on the composite interface-test solution [17,20].
Life-Time Study
The stability and lifetime of the proposed Hg(II)-carbon paste electrode were tested by four same electrodes. They were used at length of two months (1 hour per day). After their 8 week utilization, the mean slopes of the electrodes were found to be 30.0 (± 0.2) and 28.9 (± 0.1), before and after this period, respectively. Consequently, the mentioned sensors are stable within this period with a minimum lifetime of 2 months.
Potential Responses of the Hg(II)-Carbon Paste Selective Electrode
The influence of interfering ions on the potential response behavior of the ion-selective electrodes is usually described in terms of the potentiometric selectivity coefficients, KI,J. In this work, the potentiometric selectivity coefficients were determined by the two solutions method (TSM) that is based on the Nikolsky–Eisenman equation [21]. This method involves measuring potentials of a pure solution of the primary ion (1.0×10-3 mol l-1), EI, and a mixed solution containing the primary and interfering ions, EI+J. The potentiometric selectivity coefficient is calculated by inserting the value of the potential difference, ∆E = EI+J – EI, into the following equation:
KI,J ={ aI (e∆E×ZI×F / (RT)_1}/{aJ (ZI / ZJ )} (1)
where aI and aJ are the activities of analyte and interferent ions. When the selectivity coefficient is 1.0 the membrane responds equally to the analyte and the interferent. As seen in Table 2, the selectivity coefficients are in the order of 10-2 or lower, which seems to indicate that these cations have negligible contact on the functionality of the proposed Hg(II) membrane sensors.
Analytical Application of the Hg(II)-Carbon Paste Selective Electrode
The optimized Hg(II) selective electrode was found to work well under laboratory conditions. The Hg(II)-carbon paste selective electrode based on L was successfully applied as an indicator electrode in the successful titration of a Hg2+ (1.0´10-3) with EDTA (1.0´10-2) at pH 4.5. The resulting titration curve is shown in Fig. 7. As can be seen from Fig. 7, the endpoint of the titration is sharp and the number of mercury ions can be accurately determined from the resulting titration curve with the proposed electrode. The applicability of the Hg(II) selective electrode was tested to the recovery of Hg2+ ion in several natural water samples collected from the west of Iran. Data in Table 3 clearly revealed that the amount of mercury in the real water samples can be accurately determined by the proposed selective electrode without any primary sample treatment.
Table 4 compares the main analytical characteristics (i.e., sensing material, type of sensor, linear range, detection limit, slope, response time, interferences, the working pH range and method of selectivity coefficients determination) of the represented electrode based on 3-((3-mercaptophenyl) aminomethyl)benzene-1,2-diol with those of some of the previously reported sensors for the determination of Hg2+ [13,20]. Due to the advantages of the proposed method with respect to previously reported ones, it may be used as an alternative method for Hg2+ determination.
In the current study, the modified carbon paste selective electrode based on 3-((3-mercaptophenyl) aminomethyl)benzene-1,2-diol and MWCNTs are introduced for the Hg2+ determination. This electrode presented the best response characteristics with a Nernstian slope behavior of 30.0±0.2 mV per decade for the Hg2+ ions at pH 4.5, over a concentration range of 1×10-7 to 1×10-1M with a detection limit of 2.3×10−8 M and a fast response time of 5 sec. The proposed electrode system found to work well under laboratory conditions. It was successfully used as indicator electrode for the titration of Hg2+ ions with known EDTA solutions and also applied to the quantitative recovery of low levels of mercury ions from tap water samples.
Authors are grateful to Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran for providing financial assistance to undertake this study.
1. M. El Haddad, R. Slimani, R. Mamouni, S. ElAntri, S. Lazar, Journal of the Association of Arab Universities for Basic and Applied Sciences, 14(1) (2013) 51.
2. M.M. Lakouraj, F. Mojerlou, E. Nazarzadeh Zare, Carbohydrate Polymers, 106 (2014) 34.
3. E. Nazarzadeh Zare, A. Motahari, M. Sillanpää, Environmental research, 162 (2018) 173.
4. E. Nazarzadeh Zare, M.M. Lakouraj, Iranian Polymer Journal, 23 (2014) 257.
5. M.M. Lakouraj, F. Hasanzadeh, E. Nazarzadeh Zare, Iranian Polymer Journal, 23 (2014) 933.
6. E. Nazarzadeh Zare, M.M Lakouraj, A Ramezani, Advances in Polymer Technology, 34 (2015) 1.
7. E. Nazarzadeh Zare, M.M Lakouraj, A Ramezani, New Journal of Chemistry, 40 (2016) 2521.
8. E. Nazarzadeh Zare, M.M Lakouraj, P.N Moghadam, R Hasanzadeh, Polymer Composites, 36 (2015) 138.
9. E. Nazarzadeh Zare, M.M Lakouraj, N Kasirian, Carbohydrate Polymers 201(1) (2018) 539.
10. E. Nazarzadeh Zare, M.M Lakouraj, M. Masoumi, Desalination and Water Treatment, 106 (2018) 209.
11. K.V. Gopal, Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 25 (2003) 69.
12. K. Alizadeh, R. Parooi, P. Hashemi, B. Rezaei, M.R. Ganjali, Journal of Hazardous Materials, 186 (2011) 1794.
13. H. Khani, M.K. Rofouei, P. Arab, V.K. Gupta, Z Vafaei, Journal of Hazardous Materials, 183 (2010) 402.
14. R. Hahn, W.A. Herrmann, G.R.J. Artus, M. Kleine, Polyhedron, 14 (1995) 2953.
15. M. Behpour, S.M. Ghoreishi, N. Soltani, M. Salavati-Niasari, M. Hamadanian, A Gandomi, Corrosion Science, 50 (2008) 2172.
16. K. Alizadeh, B. Rezaei, E. Khazaeli, Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 193 (2014) 267.
17. M. Hosseini, H. Bagheri Sadeghi, M. Rahimi, M. Salavati-Niasari, S. Dehghan Abkenar, K. Alizadeh, M.R. Ganjali, Electroanalysis, 21(7) (2009) 859.
18. M. Shariyati, H.A. Zamani, A. Dehnavi, M.R. Abedi, International Journal of Electrochemical Science, 9 (2014) 8320.
19. Biosensors: an introduction, Brian R. Eggins, 2007, Wiley-Teubner.
20. M.H. Mashhadizadeh, M. Talakesh, M. Peste, A. Momeni, H. Hamidian, M. Mazlum, Electroanalysis, 18(22) (2006) 2174.
21. Umezawa Y, Bühlmann P, Umezawa K, Tohda K, Amemiya S. Potentiometric Selectivity Coefficients of Ion-Selective Electrodes. Part I. Inorganic Cations (Technical Report). Pure and Applied Chemistry. 2000;72(10):1851-2082.
Fig_1190_-_All.png
Fig_1190_-_All1.png
Alizadeh, K., Yaghouby, Z., Shams, A. (2019). Preparation a multi-walled carbon nanotubes-carbon paste electrode based on a sulfanyl phenyl Schiff’s base for selective determination of mercury(II) in environmental water samples. Journal of Water and Environmental Nanotechnology, 4(3), 244-250. doi: 10.22090/jwent.2019.03.007
Kamal Alizadeh; Ziba Yaghouby; Azim Shams. "Preparation a multi-walled carbon nanotubes-carbon paste electrode based on a sulfanyl phenyl Schiff’s base for selective determination of mercury(II) in environmental water samples". Journal of Water and Environmental Nanotechnology, 4, 3, 2019, 244-250. doi: 10.22090/jwent.2019.03.007
Alizadeh, K., Yaghouby, Z., Shams, A. (2019). 'Preparation a multi-walled carbon nanotubes-carbon paste electrode based on a sulfanyl phenyl Schiff’s base for selective determination of mercury(II) in environmental water samples', Journal of Water and Environmental Nanotechnology, 4(3), pp. 244-250. doi: 10.22090/jwent.2019.03.007
Alizadeh, K., Yaghouby, Z., Shams, A. Preparation a multi-walled carbon nanotubes-carbon paste electrode based on a sulfanyl phenyl Schiff’s base for selective determination of mercury(II) in environmental water samples. Journal of Water and Environmental Nanotechnology, 2019; 4(3): 244-250. doi: 10.22090/jwent.2019.03.007
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Movie Review: Fast and Furious 7
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Latest: Batman and Superman movie confirmed
It looks as if the Batman and Superman movie poster seen in I Am Legend is set to become a reality, as yesterday Zack Snyder announced that the sequel to Man of Steel will feature Batman.
Those that have seen Man of Steel will know that there is an Easter Egg hinting that the characters share the same universe and it’s been pretty hard to ignore the various rumours circulating that a Justice League film is on the way.
But yesterday’s annoucement pretty much cements the fact that Warner Brothers do intend to expand the DC universe beyond that of Kal-El and friends.
At the San Diego Comic Con, Zack Snyder brought Harry Lennix onstage to read out “I want you to remember, Clark, in all the years to come, in all your most private moments, I want you to remember your hand at your throat. I want you to remember the one man who beat you.” – a line that many Batman fans will know, is taken from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns.
While it’s not expected that the film will be a direct adaptation from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight, Zack Snyder has confirmed that the story will serve as some inspiration.
“We’re not adapting this thing, but it is the thing that will help us tell that story”
Zack Snyder on how The Dark Knight Returns
will inspire the Man of Steel sequel
It’s also been confirmed that Henry Cavill will return as Superman, along with Amy Adams (Lois Lane), Lawrence Fishburn (Perry White) and Diane Lane (Martha Kent).
The official Warner Bros press release is below:
NEXT DC SUPER HERO MOVIE IN PRE-PRODUCTION
Director Zack Snyder Unites Superman and Batman in One Explosive New Film
BURBANK, CA, July 20, 2013 – On the heels of the worldwide success of “Man of Steel,” director Zack Snyderis bringing together the two greatest Super Heroes of all time—Batman and Superman—for the first time on the big screen. The announcement was made today by Greg Silverman, President, Creative Development and Worldwide Production, and Sue Kroll, President, Worldwide Marketing and International Distribution,Warner Bros. Pictures.
The current hit, “Man of Steel,” has taken in more than $630 million at the worldwide box office to date, and climbing. Along with its star, Henry Cavill, the upcomingfilm brings back Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne and Diane Lane. The new Batman has yet to be cast.
Snyder is co-writing the story with David S. Goyer, who will then pen the screenplay. Production is expected to begin in 2014, with an anticipated release date in Summer 2015.
Silverman stated, “Zack Snyder is an incredibly talented filmmaker, but beyond that, he’s a fan first and he utterly gets this genre. We could not think of anyone better suited to the task of bringing these iconic Super Heroes to the screen in his own way.” Kroll added, “We are thrilled to be back in business with Zack and his team on this next movie. The success of ‘Man of Steel’ is a wonderful testament to the love and support that both fans and new audiences, worldwide, have for these characters. We are very excited to see what Zack has in store for all of us.”
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Colin lives in south west London. Looks like a hobbit and has been watching films ever since he saw Return of the Jedi at the age of 3. You can follow Colin on Twitter @obicolkenobi.
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Eiga Sai 2013 - The Japanese Film Festival @ the Shangri-la Plaza Mall EDSA
Japan’s history, culture, and true-to-life stories come together in Eiga Sai – the Japanese Film Festival – as hosted once again by Japan Foundation Manila in cooperation with the Embassy of Japan, top lifestyle hub Shangri-La Plaza, and the Film Development Council of the Philippines from July 4 to 14, at Cinema 2 of the Shang Cineplex.
The film fest kicks off with the screening of About Her Brother, filmmaker Yamada Yoji’s homage to legendary director Ichikawa Kon's film of the same title. The movie presents a heartwarming story of the bond between a hard-working older sister Koharu and her long lost younger brother Tetsuro.
Meanwhile, set in a small working class town in post-war Tokyo, Always – Sunset on Third Street tells the interweaving stories of community residents at the time the famous Tokyo Tower was being constructed. In the first installment, sweets shop owner Chagawa drunkenly agrees to take care of a young boy, Junnosuke. But years after, Junnosuke’s father turns up in town and Chagawa decides to let go of the child.
In Always – Sunset on Third Street 2, Chagawa tries to secure a stable life to get Junnosuke back from his real father, and also to prove himself to Hiromi, the girl who left Junnosuke in his care. Chagawa starts writing again, hoping to win the Japanese literary prize, the Akutagawa award. In the last film, Always – Sunset on Third Street 3, Chagawa, now a novelist, faces more troubles as he finds himself upstaged by a younger writer and later receives word from his home in Nagano that his father is seriously ill.
Japan's entry for the 83rd Academy Awards' Foreign Language Film Category, Nakashima Tetsuya’s Confessions is a gripping film about high school teacher Moriguchi Yuko, who believes that one of her students murdered her daughter.
In Rinco’s Restaurant, the heartbroken Rinco moves in with her mother and opens up a restaurant. Because of her carefully prepared meals and heartfelt cooking, her place soon became known for bringing happiness to customers.
By the award-winning Nishikawa Miwa, Dear Doctor stars Shofukutei Tsurube, who gives an emphatic performance in his first lead role as Ino, a well-loved village doctor. After examining widow Kazuko, Ino learns she has a terminal condition. Kazuko asks him to lie about her illness, but before long, he mysteriously disappears.
Adapted from the classic Ninja comic by Shirato Sampei, Kamui is a live action period film that portrays the fierce escape of the young Kamui from the Ninja world, hoping to find his own freedom. Meanwhile, Castle under Fiery Skies, which takes place in 1575 in Feudal Japan, depicts how Oda Nobunaga’s forces defeated Takeda Katsuyori when the Nagashino Castle was besieged. Years after, Oda Nobunada builds a lavish new castle to symbolize his unification of various factions. Named Azuchi Castle, it will be built high enough to be seen from the Kyoto capital.
Parade is a dark coming-of-age film adapted from Yoshida Shuichi's novel, a winner of the Yamamoto Shugoro Prize. Praised for his portrayal of the restless and apathetic youth, director Yukisada Isao brilliantly conveys how repeated incidents of violent assault cast a shadow on the superficial relationship between a group of five young men and women who live in an apartment together. But their seemingly peaceful life is threatened by a male prostitute who comes into their lives.
Rounding up the line-up are two award-winning animated films. Mai Mai Miracle is a nostalgic full-length, animated film adapted from the autobiographical novel by Akutagawa Prize winner, Takagi Nobuko; while Japan, Our Homeland, a multi-awarded animation is based on an original story by director Nishizawa, describing life in a
class of sixth graders in Kiba downtown Tokyo, some ten years after the Second World War and how people struggled each day to get by.
Seats are on a first-come, first served basis. Tickets are released 30 minutes before the screening. Film ratings may be confirmed at the ticket office.
1:30pm - ALWAYS-Sunset on Third Street (133mins)
4:30pm - Castle under fiery skies (139 mins)
7:30pm - Confessions (106 mins)
1:30pm - ALWAYS -Sunset on Third Street- 2 (146 mins)
4:30pm - Rinco's Restaurant (119 mins)
7:30pm - Parade (115 mins)
1:30pm - Mai Mai Miracle (93mins)
4:30pm - ALWAYS -Sunset on Third Street- 3 (142mins)
7:30pm - About Her Brother
1:30pm - Furusato -Japan (100 mins)
4:30pm - Dear Doctor (127mins)
7:30pm - Rinco's Restaurant
1:30pm - Castle under fiery skies
4:30pm - Confessions
7:30pm - KAMUI (119 mins)
1:30pm - Mai Mai Miracle
4:30pm - ALWAYS-Sunset on Third Street-
1:30pm - Furusato -Japan
7:30pm - ALWAYS -Sunset on Third Street- 2
7:30pm - Dear Doctor
7:30pm - KAMUI
For inquiries, please call (63 2) 370-2597 or (63 2) 370-2598.
Shangri-la Plaza Mall
Shaw Blvd. cor. EDSA
Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines
Thursday July 4, 2013 - Sunday July 14, 2013
Labels: Film Festivals
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My Catholic Blog
Catholic News and Information
Interview with John Desjarlais
January 10, 2011 by Tom
From 6th Century Irish legend to Mexican-American woman: John Desjarlais entertains, thrills, and intrigues. Mycatholicblog is honored to present our interview with this incredibly talented author, professor, and former radio producer.
Let’s start at the beginning. Your first book The Throne of Tara, first published in 1990, is based-off the true story of Columba of Iona. What compelled you to write this story, and what kind of message are you hoping readers will take away from it?
I began “Tara” soon after producing and scripting a documentary on the history of Western Christianity. During the research, I became fascinated by Irish monasticism and discovered Columba in particular. This was the best man the 6th Century could produce: a warrior, scholar and poet, gifted with Second Sight and a thunderous voice, a natural leader with a serious flaw – his Irish temper. He went to war over a book (a copy of the Latin Vulgate, most believe, that he copied by hand but lost in a court dispute to the owner of the original) and in the “Battle of the Book” in A.D. 560 nearly 3,000 men were slain. In remorse and in order to avoid excommunication, Columba exiled himself among the savage Picts of Scotland, vowing to win as many souls to the Church as were lost in the battle. The records say he encountered the Loch Ness monster on the way. Once in the royal court (which he entered miraculously), he dueled the Druids, miracles versus magic, in a contest of power. Well, all that said ‘great novel’ to me and I was off.
As for the ‘take-away value,’ it’s hard to say. Writers with a message in mind often mess up a great story. There are some clear themes, though, such as the conflict between nascent Christianity and the Old Religion of the druids. Both respected nature and recognized power in the natural order but had a different understanding of where the power came from.
And what made you transition from a producer with Wisconsin Public Radio to college professor?
I was let go during the recession of 1993 and since I’d just published my second novel, “Relics,” and I was placing short fiction in magazines, I decided that earning a second Master’s degree in English or Creative Writing that enabled me to teach writing at the college level would be a wise career path. Funny thing is, given my media background, I also teach the mass communication courses at my community college, including Radio Production.
Looking at more current literary achievements, your novel Bleeder tells of protagonist Reed Stubblefield, a professor who must face the challenges of physical disability, the loss of his wife and (as the story progresses) becoming a murder suspect. Why did you feel it necessary to portray a character that has faced so much suffering? How does it facilitate the character’s spirituality and religious perspective?
One reviewer called BLEEDER ‘a novel-length contemplation of the mystery of undeserved suffering,’ and that captures it pretty well. Surely a traditional ‘mystery’ is about an unsolved crime and the restoration of justice, but I wanted to explore “higher mysteries” that we all think about: why is there evil and injustice in the world at all? Why do we endure undeserved suffering? Is it, in any way, ‘redemptive?’ What meaning can we draw from the suffering of Christ – exemplified in the stigmata of Father Ray – to comprehend our own? All mystery novels consider to some degree the problem of human grief, loss, and woundedness – but awfully few go beyond the solving-of-the-puzzle. The Catholic understanding of human frailty and fallenness, of human promise and potential, is very deep and profound, and something that moved me as I wrote the story as a devout Presbyterian. Soon after finishing the book I entered into full communion with the Catholic Church. My character Reed doesn’t. One of the things that makes so much “Christian fiction” sentimental and spiritually smarmy is the inevitable conversion at the end. Reed, an Aristotle expert and logician, comes to recognize new possibilities beyond his secularized understanding of the world. He grows to respect people of faith as intelligent and winsome, and not as superficial or saccharine. One might say he is newly opened to the mysteries of faith, hope, and love, although much remains unresolved at the end.
Along these same lines, with so many deep questions to ponder, why did you decide to write Bleeder as a mystery novel?
Mysteries – classic murder mysteries, I mean – connect with something deep inside us. They are the modern form of the medieval morality play, where the sleuth is Everyman who works against time, big money, a determined antagonist, daunting odds and his own flaws to expose evil and to restore the balance of justice. At the end, readers who identify with the successful hero or heroine feel a little better about the world and about themselves. A critic might say that mystery novels are escapist, since they offer a fantasy world in which justice prevails, right always wins over wrong, and love finds a way. But what’s wrong with that? That’s healing. I really think the ‘entertainment’ aspect comes first. This is why people read mysteries.
However, mysteries are close to the barest human desires and fears, and because they deal so openly with death, they have a built-in opportunity to explore life’s higher mysteries, as I mentioned earlier. All literature tries to make meaning out of the frightfully short dash between our birth date and departure date on our tombstones, and the hardships during that short dash. So the ‘mystery novel’ is a perfect vehicle to consider the mystery of undeserved suffering and the problem of evil in a world created by a good God.
What can you tell us about the inspiration for your newest novel, Viper? How did you create the character of Selena De La Cruz, and how do you write so convincingly as her? Was much research into the Mexican American community necessary?
As a new Catholic, I was excited by observing all the new customs and practices I hadn’t known as a devout Protestant. One of them was the “Book of the Dead” on All Souls’ Day, where a ledger is placed in the church for relatives to record the names of loved ones who have passed away during the year so they can be remembered and prayed for. The mystery writer in me asked, “What if there were names in the book of people who weren’t dead yet? And what if they were killed one by one in the order in which they were listed? Who are they, and who would kill them and why? At about the same time I learned about the Mexican “Day of the Dead,” a festival celebrated at about the same time and blended with All Souls’ Day in Mexican-American culture. That’s when I knew my Mexican-American insurance agent minor character from BLEEDER, Selena De La Cruz, would be the protagonist in the sequel. And her name would be last on that list. Once she walked on the stage in BLEEDER in those cherry high heels, with that attitude and driving that vintage Dodge Charger, I knew she had a story of her own. It took me a little while to realize she had a former career with the DEA and she’d left it under a cloud and was trying to start her life over as an insurance agent in rural Illinois. It took off from there.
And I was scared to death. How could I – an Anglo guy – presume to write the story of a Mexican-American woman? I feared the audacity of it and anticipated objections from the Latino community: “How can you, an Anglo man, tell our stories? And how can you, an Anglo man, represent a proud Latina?
So for nearly two years I became a second-generation Mexican-American woman.
Not literally, of course. Lacking any personal experience as a Latina, I immersed myself in the experiences of Latin women vicariously in many ways. With the recent meteoric rise in this population’s numbers in the USA, there are many new books in circulation by Latinas about coming to terms with one’s culture and traditions (especially family traditions and the Old-World expectations placed upon women) while trying to fit into New-World American society. I read most of them and took careful notes, as with any other research I had to do for VIPER (DEA undercover operations, police interrogations, crime scene processing, shooting a SIG Sauer which I really did, snake handling which I really didn’t, Aztec religion and so on). I studied Mexican holiday customs (especially The Day of the Dead and the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe), Mexican Catholic practices and Mexican cooking and proverbs and on and on, all online. I subscribed to Latina magazine for fashion, beauty, relationship and lifestyle issues. I paid attention to any news related to this community, especially immigration issues. I browsed Latinas’ blogs and web sites to see what everyone talked about, especially with regard to family life, work and social life, negotiating two cultures at once and living with a bi-cultural identity. Just like the Dad says in the movie Selena, “We’ve gotta be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans both at the same time. It’s exhausting!”
I interviewed Latinas and visited social spaces online where Latin American women (Cuban, Puerto Rican, Guatemalan and so on, not just Mexican) talked about their life experiences. By dipping into so many other Latinas’ life experiences, I noticed things that were common to them all that I could easily adapt, and other things I could tweak and make my own – well, Selena’s own. I built a very thorough backstory – life story – for her based on all this research. I had pages of notes and stacks of cards that I browsed through repeatedly to remind myself of small details that were of possible use as ‘bits’ in the story or for possible flashback scenes. In these ways I was able to construct an authentic Mexican-American woman with a real family and real-life inner conflicts most Latinas could identify with – not a ‘composite’ but a unique and genuine person.
A Latina translator helped me with the Spanish phrasing and reviewed the work-in-progress, and at one point she told me, “I am SO into Selena!” That’s when I knew I was getting it right – down to the 3-inch heel faux leopard Giuseppe Zanottis.
Finally, what else can we expect from John Desjarlais in the upcoming year?
I’m gathering material for the third book in this series and it’s all vague at this point. Insofar as VIPER considered Selena’s relationship with her mother in some detail (to correspond to her developing relationship to Our Lady of Guadalupe), I think the third book needs to consider her troubled past with her father, a former PEMEX executive who suddenly moved to Chicago to take a position with the Mexican Consulate there shortly before he died under questionable circumstances. I expect Selena will have to investigate and resolve all this before she can move ahead in her life.
Filed Under: Interviews Tagged With: Bleeder, Christian mystery, Christian novel, John Desjarlais, Reed Stubblefield, Selena de la Cruz, Sophia Institute Press, Viper
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Nightmarish Detour
More Spookiness Here…
[Series Review] DRACULA (2020)
Sarah Musnicky
Courtesy of Netflix
As far back as I can remember, I’ve always been obsessed with vampires. The obsession began with, at first, the hit soap opera “Dark Shadows“, with the enigmatic Barnabus Collins. However, it wasn’t until the worker at Hollywood Video (yes, I do believe I’m dating myself a wee bit here) told me that the character was inspired by the infamous Count Dracula that I found myself engaging in a downward spiral of research and obsession that would linger now in my late ’20s. I’ve read the original novel. I’ve seen almost every interpretation of the infamous fanged character and, as such, have taken pleasure in how the character has been interpreted by writers and actors over the years. So, when I discovered that Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss were adapting the project for BBC and Netflix, I was curious to see what they would do to try to add their own spin onto the character. Needless to say, I’d say that DRACULA will be polarizing, with many people either loving or hating it. Also, be warned, there are spoilers in this review. I repeat, spoilers abound here.
DRACULA follows a loose interpretation of the original tale across a span of three, roughly 90-minute episodes. The story starts off on a high note in the first episode, where we meet an emaciated Jonathan Harker (John Heffernan) being interviewed by Sister Agatha (played captivatingly by Dolly Wells) with regards to his travels to Transylvania. We quickly learn about how he comes to meet Count Dracula (Claes Bang) and what dangers reside within his castle walls. The episode concludes with an epic showdown of wits between Sister Agatha, who is revealed to be Van Helsing, and Dracula, but ends with a cliffhanger. The second episode leaps directly into another battle of wills between Dracula and Sister Agatha, which takes the audience through Dracula’s journey to England. While the episode starts off with an abrupt shift from the cliffhanger we were left with at the end of the preceding episode, the decision to start there makes sense about two-thirds into the runtime.
The episode ends with the ship exploding into a ball of flame, with Sister Agatha losing her life and Dracula sinking to the surface. However, he does find his way to land. By the time we conclude the episode with Dracula on land, we are left with another jarring cliffhanger that – unfortunately – might instigate an eye roll or two from the viewer. Dracula has emerged from the ocean in England 130 some years into the future. This revelation leads into what I find to be a rather subpar concluding episode, with much of the fun being poked at Dracula now adapting to this future time period. Dolly Wells returns in the final episode as a descendant of Sister Agatha, but she is rapidly succumbing to cancer. However, this unfortunate truth provides the key she needed to unlock the true mystery behind the Count’s fears and all the answers that her ancestor sought in understanding the monster. Despite the interesting dynamic provided between Claes Bang’s DRACULA and Dolly Wells’s Sister Agatha Van Helsing and Zoe Van Helsing characters, it could not make up for what I felt to be an unnecessary twist by throwing a massive time-shift into the mix. In the end, the story felt cheapened by that twist and – in some ways – almost made it feel like one of Moffat’s old “Doctor Who” episodes.
Dolly Wells as Sister Agatha in Netflix’s DRACULA
I will be honest, I really do struggle to enjoy Moffat’s writing a lot of the time. As has been seen in shows like “Sherlock” and his time spent on “Doctor Who”, he has a propensity for starting out really strong and then losing steam rather quickly, which results in a so-so or rather disappointing conclusion. Gatiss, as his co-writer, I imagine is usually the person who tries to keep things rooted in some semblance of reality. At least, that’s how I’ve come to justify how some of Moffat’s work resonates better than others. Needless to say, the DRACULA series does get weighed down by the faults that are commonly found in Moffat’s work. To be quite frank, while I did like many of the liberties that were taken with the source material, at times the story suffers from needless attempts to be edgy and many moments, especially in the third and final episode, where the writing is screaming how clever it is trying to be but falling short of the expectations that had been loudly set. However, I did appreciate the new elements and explanations that were added to the tropes that many of us have come to expect from a vampire or DRACULA piece. And the decision to make Van Helsing, the titular character’s adversary, a woman was honestly the change that made me most compelled to continue watching in part due to Dolly Wells’s performance.
First off, I will say that I’m immensely glad about the decision to combine the characters of Sister Agatha and Abraham Van Helsing together. For those unfamiliar, Sister Agatha has a brief moment in the original novel where Jonathan Harker is tended to by a nun named Sister Agatha after his escape from Count Dracula’s castle. Given the short episode order, it made sense to cut corners character-wise while also trying to find ways to make the story work in such a short episodic time. Combining the characters of Sister Agatha with Professor Abraham Van Helsing creates more of a purpose for the character’s inclusion in the storyline while also injecting a new spin into the character that many familiar with the story might not come to expect. While the character’s dialogue felt like a weird hodgepodge of Moffat’s edgier female characters (here’s looking at you, Irene Adler), Dolly Wells delivers the character with such aplomb and charisma that one can forgive the sometimes more purposely bate-y lines that make you just want to roll your eyes. My only complaint is that oftentimes it did felt that the character was shoved off to the side for a fair bit until the story needed to be poked along with a stick. But despite this, dare I say, Wells’s performance is honestly what kept me motivated to keep watching the series after the first episode.
However, Wells was not the only other standout in the series. Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the man of the hour – Claes Bang. While his accent, in the beginning, sounded more Italian to me than Romanian, once the character of DRACULA transitioned from young to old, Bang’s performance became more seamless and natural. And, dare I say, he handles the dialogue and more sociopathic direction of the character quite well. Bang radiates cheeky charm and charisma, even while being immensely detached from his various experiments in figuring out the various quirks of his vampirism through a variety of subjects. We see the true depths of his monstrous nature in both the first and second episodes, where Bang gets the opportunity to dabble in both sociopathy and addiction, with the mere sight of blood driving him into almost a shark-like feeding frenzy. However, we do lose a bit of what makes his particular interpretation of the infamous Count stand out in the third episode and – unfortunately – it has less to do with Bang’s acting abilities and more in terms of the direction Moffat and Gatiss chose to take in throwing the character so far into the future. It renders the Count coming across as more comical than I think either of the writers had intended, which is unfortunate. However, in the first two episodes, we do really get to see how Bang’s makes the Count memorable and that combined with his chemistry with Wells’s Van Helsing makes for a lightning bug in the bottle type of watchability.
Claes Bang as Count Dracula in Netflix’s DRACULA
In dissecting the actual story, I’ll be plain. There are a fair amount of liberties both Gatiss and Moffat take in deconstructing what we know about the original tale and rebuilding it to make it fun and interesting for them. This comes, of course, with mixed results. For example, I did feel that the show really worked well when it stuck to being a period piece. It still felt modern due to the dialogue itself, but it still contained that aura of the Hammer film era of DRACULA that just made it feel like coming home in a way. However, all that changed once the writing duo decided to throw the character into the future. I’m not sure whether the decision was more due to their familiarity in tackling traditionally Victorian characters and smacking them with the modernity stick or what. However, the time jump threw off the overall tone of the series at that point and, unfortunately, wasn’t as clever as they probably thought it would be. Throw in undead children stalking Lucy Westenra, an overly out of his element DRACULA, and the weird laboratory set reminiscent of my vague memories of “Torchwood” and the episode felt like it could have belonged in the “Doctor Who” Moffat era.
Speaking of Lucy Westenra (played by Lydia West), man, does the writing of that character really remind me of Moffat’s problem with writing women? Don’t get me wrong. The character of Lucy Westenra generally gets the short end of the stick, but she really gets screwed over in terms of her character development in this adaptation. Somehow Moffat and Gatiss make her into this immensely vapid, self-obsessed person with no actual care as to whether or not she dies. The latter is what initially draws DRACULA to her, but her fixation on her beauty is a constant thread even after she is changed over. In what only seems like some sort of karmic punishment, the character is cremated before she can rise. Oh, and she can feel every bit of her flesh burning off in the process. It isn’t until she discovers that she is no longer beautiful, but a burned husk of a person that her confidence crumbles and she begs for death. This particular character development was immensely unfortunate, especially given the modern era that the duo had written the story into. This treatment of Lucy along with the casual dismissal of Mina Harker (Morfydd Clark) as an insipid girl for the brief section she appeared makes me give massive side-eye given Moffat’s past history with creating lackluster female characters (cough…Clara…cough). Needless to say, these characters could have been handled and written a lot more satisfactory.
However, despite what I mentioned above, the updated mythos specifically featured in DRACULA is quite interesting and makes this vampireholic intrigued by how future creators might run along with the changes. The biggest change is how the consumption of blood changes the titular character. As is stated in the first episode, “Blood is lives.” While this quote will make the viewer pause, the explanation through a combination of showing and telling helps explain how the character has managed to survive and adapt throughout the course of his long life. We learn that through the act of drinking blood, he essentially absorbs all of the knowledge and experience that life has acquired. This results in him most apparently learning languages, acquiring a person’s body ticks, and the like, which Claes Bang handles with gusto. This also ties into how the consumption of blood has become an addiction to the character. With how much DRACULA desires to know about himself and the constant changes in the world around him, taking a person’s blood provides an insight he could not obtain living just through his own actions. This proves to be his greatest asset and weakness because the thirst for knowledge is never-ending. These changes, however subtle, help to make the character stand out and provide an explanation for curious viewers who always wondered why anyone would fear the cross or be unable to walk into a residence unless invited in.
Overall, I think this iteration of DRACULA was interesting, but not exactly a rush to must-see adaptation. In my case, I think I’d say to watch it at your leisure rather than rush to binge it ASAP. While Moffat and Gatiss succeed in bringing the titular character to a modern audience through various changes in the overall storyline, I think the changes will be met with mixed feelings. Unfortunately, as someone who is all too familiar with Moffat’s work, the series suffered from the pitfalls that his preceding works suffered from. The concluding episode suffered from its twist of taking place in 2020 and – ultimately – ended up shifting too much in tone to something more overtly comedic and corny. However, the redeeming factor in this entire series is the chemistry between Claes Bang’s DRACULA and Dolly Wells’s Sister Agatha Van Helsing. To hammer my love of Sister Agatha home, if someone decided to create a spinoff of just Sister Agatha, I would give them my money right then and there. Netflix, you heard me. Get on this.
DRACULA is now available for streaming on Netflix.
Managing Editor at Nightmarish Conjurings
Sarah is the managing editor of Nightmarish Conjurings and a lover of all things magical and horrific. All who are familiar with her can attest for her love of glitter, adorable plush, and obsession with folklore and mythology. When she's not chasing after things she probably shouldn't hug, Sarah is making sure that Shannon's sanity stays intact long enough for deadlines to be tackled.
Latest posts by Sarah Musnicky (see all)
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Claes Bang Dolly Wells dracula Dracula 2020 Mark Gatiss Steven Moffat TV Reviews
[News] Arrow Video Announces January 2020 Release
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New Supergroup: Hagar, Satriani, Michael Anthony, Chad Smith
Post subject: Re: New Supergroup: Hagar, Satriani, Michael Anthony, Chad Smith
First single "Oh yeah," I bet I can guess who came up with that title. Meh well I'm still interested to hear the rhythm section and how it comes out. Maybe they'll release an instrumental version.
Location: D.C
These have been out for a while I didnt see them here though. Hagars voice is amazing, but I really wish they would have put Michael Anthony's voice higher in the mix. Im not a big Satrinani fan so the music isnt my favorite. Still rocks harder than 99.9% of stuff on the radio though.
Soap On A Rope: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX-OwmvuBjA
Down The Drain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_EMFYrZVrw
Wierd to hear Satriani Riff... XD
i wasnt blown of my feet...
goofy song titles ... Then again, so is the band name!
Well that was intersting
The early bird gets the worm, and the second mouse gets the cheese!
I was only able to give "Soap on a Rope" a listen........Um...can someone wake me up at the part where they sound better than Led Zeppelin
Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 12:48 am
I finally got a chance to listen to the two songs and they were .... ok. Didn't knock my socks off like I was expecting considering the people involved in this project, but I'll still give it a shot when it's released ... because of the people involved in the project.
volheel
I agree, nowhere near Zeppelin (but I knew that wouldn't happen anyways). It was alright, but I gave up halfway through Soap on a Rope. Honestly, it got dull to me. Not really exciting, but alright I guess.
You've got to believe in yourself, cause no one will believe in you.
My Randy Rhoads Tribute video, with pictures of his PDV and pictures of the Civic Coliseum taken 27 years later
Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 12:54 pm
Pretty much exactly what I expected. Sounds cool. No real edge to it though. The music doesn't exactly breathe.
Heres there new song "Oh Yeah" http://www.chickenfoot.us/sites/all/the ... layer.html
Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2009 10:41 pm
I was impressed by Satch's tone. Sounds fairly unprocessed (un-overly processed?). I was expecting to hear what sounded like a solo artist thrown on top of 3 other guys. It sounds like a band. Looking forward to hearing more.
I agree, Dan. Satch sounded nothing like I expected.
Interestingly, there's a new interview out there in which Hagar claims Satch is the most talented guitarist he's ever played with. Take that, Eddie!!
That's no suprise to me really. Hagar can play pretty well himself, and knew Ed personally so he's not caught up in the Eddiemania like the rest of the world. Not taking away from EVH at all, because at his best, he's absolutely phenominal - but he's still not Joe Satriani.
Like he would say Ed's better than Satch. Mustaine says that everytime Megadeth gets a new guitar player.
I can see wheres hes coming from on a perspective of being able to play anything but as far as rock Satch cant touch Ed.
It really does come down to opinion...but when it comes to rock or anything else related to six strings and a peice of wood, Satch is way more accomplished than Ed. Eddie may have innovated alot of the techniques Satch uses, and Satch owes him a debt that I'm sure Satch would be the first to admit to, but theres a such thing as taking what an influence does, and making it better...
But anyway, now that the album is out and the dust has settled, what does everybody think?
It's pretty much what I expected, generic rock . I don't really mean that in a bad way, it's better than 90% of modern bands calling themselves rock, and the highlights to be honest, is anytime Satch gets a solo, and Chad Smiths drumming is excellent throughout the whole thing.
There's a few highlights, I actually like the more ballady ones, Future in The Past is good, and Learning to Fall is nice.
Satch's guitar stuff on Turnin' Left is typical blazing Satch.
All in all, it's pretty solid, but nothing to knock me off my chair.
I really enjoy it overall. I think Sammy's lyrics are the weakest link -- in fact, the lyrics are just plain lame on a couple songs -- but the contributions of the rest of the band are really good. I think some of the songs sound like what the next Van Halen CD should sound like if they ever make another one ... nice to hear Michael on backing vocals again.
I also agree that some of the ballad-type songs are the best ones on the CD. I also agree Satch's work on "Turning Left" is phenomenal.
Moderator/Admin
Location: MD
I finally got it about a month ago and gave it some serious spins and it really grew on me to the point that I played it so much that I can't listen to it again for awhile. My first reaction was it sounded like just another Sammy solo album but that changed after a few spins. I like it alot for what it is, which is 4 guys having alot of fun and it shows.
Satriani plays in the pocket and doesn't override anybody but when it comes time to solo he shows why he is so highly regarded in guitar circles even though he is playing for the song. There are several nods to his solo albums in parts spread throughout the songs and there are a few parts where he totally mimics Eddie and I don't mind that (I'm talking about some ripping parts, not the start of "Running Out" which was almost a total rip off of the start of "Finish What Ya Started"). I really dig "Down The Drain" and "Future In The Past". I can't recall which song it was but one starts out as a big nod/swipe at a certain Led Zep song. But bottom line is I really enjoyed the album. No it's not gonna rival Led Zep like Sammy said way back, but a good job by all.
Mr.Coneman wrote:
the highlights to be honest, is anytime Satch gets a solo
Absolutely. I love some of the solos on there.
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Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Muslim Convert Arrested In Stabbing Attack On French Soldier
Muslim Convert Arrested In Stabbing Attack On French Soldier
Young French Muslim Convert Admits To Attacking Soldier
A 22-year-old converted Muslim has reportedly confessed to the attempted murder of a French soldier in Paris at the weekend.
The subject of an intense manhunt since the Saturday stabbing, the suspect was arrested on Wednesday.
"I can only underscore the violence of the extremely rapid attack on the soldier. And the fact that the intention at the time was to kill seems very obvious as the perpetrator did not hesitate," said Paris prosecutor François Molins.
The victim, Cedric Cordiez, has left hospital after the potentially fatal attack, and the authorities' attention is now turned towards finding out the motivations for it, and at what point the suspect who has been named as Alexander may have turned to violence.
"The event took place in a climate of worry and threats, terrorist threats that our country has lived with for a few months now. So we have to be careful," said French Interior Minister Manuel Valls.
He added that said France faced the possibility of dozens, or even hundreds of religiously-motivated and increasingly radicalised petty offenders with the potential to commit similar attacks living on its soil.
http://www.euronews.com/2013/05/29/young-french-muslim-convert-admits-attacking-soldier/
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OpenEMR 4.1 Achieves Full 'Meaningful Use' Certification
How Cloud-Based Tools Can Help With FDA Compliance
Healthcare's Big Problem With Little Data
See the following -
Audit: DOD E-Health Timeline 'Not Realistic'
Billy Mitchell | Fed Scoop | June 1, 2016
The Pentagon inspector general doesn't think the DOD can reach initial operational capability of its new $9 billion, "state-of-the-art" electronic health records system by December. The Defense Department's goal of having a pilot of its modernized electronic health record platform running by the year's end "may not be realistic," its inspector general said Wednesday...
8 Companies That Want A Piece Of The DoD's $11 Billion EHR Contract
Sarah Kuranda | CRN | July 4, 2014
Interest is starting to mount for the Department of Defense (DoD) contract to modernize the department's health system for more than 9.7 million military beneficiaries. With an $11 billion price tag, it is no wonder that the contract is attracting some big-name solution providers and vendors...
Cerner Raises Costs on Department of Defense's New EHR
Thomas Dworetzky | Health Care Business | July 13, 2016
The Defense Department's giant health record effort just got a bit bigger – Cerner has bumped up its $50 million estimate on data center costs to about $75 million. The Defense Healthcare Management Systems Modernization (DHMSM) is presently set to cost $4.3 billion – so it's a relatively small bump up. Beyond that, DoD spokesperson David Norley told Politico that the additional funds will go to better data access and keep up with a boost in data demands – and won't push the Cerner and Leidos deal beyond its $4.3 billion cap, which was set when it was signed last July...
Cerner, Leidos, Accenture Plan Joint Bid for Defense EHR Contract
Joseph Conn | Modern Healthcare | June 26, 2014
Cerner Corp. has entered an alliance with experienced government contractors Leidos and Accenture Federal Services to make a play for the multibillion-dollar contract to build, install and configure a replacement electronic health-record system for the Defense Department's health system. Read More »
Defense Health Agency Signs AHLTA EHR Contract
Erin McCann | Government Health IT | May 7, 2014
The Defense Health Agency is moving closer to reworking its clinical information systems with a bridged contract engaging a Reston, Va.-based technology and defense company. Leidos, previously the Science Applications International Corporation, landed the $70.7 million contract from DHA in which it will support the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application and Composite Health Care System with logistics, data mapping, beta site support, remote monitoring and enterprise scheduling support...
DoD And Tech Firms Face Daunting Health-IT Challenge
John K. Higgins | eCommerce Times | September 22, 2014
"The DoD's electronic health record program is a large and extremely complex undertaking. There are a number of different vendors, players, technologies, organizations and politics involved, resulting in tremendous barriers to overcome," said eHealth Initiative CEO Jennifer Covich Bordenick. "That doesn't mean it is impossible to execute DHMSM successfully -- but it will be a difficult feat."...
DoD EHR Contract: Open Source Vs. Commercial
David F. Carr | Information Week | October 31, 2014
Pricewaterhouse Coopers and partner firms urge Department of Defense to consider open source VistA for EHR contract, vying against IBM/Epic and other commercial contenders. Read More »
DoD Opens Bidding For Massive EHR And IT Modernization
Erin McCann | Government Health IT | August 27, 2014
...The broad DoD Healthcare Management Systems Modernization undertaking, aka DHMSM — dubbed “Dim-Sum” by industry insiders — puts as much as $11 billion at stake, so the biggest vendors and consultants have been banding together for several months now to answer DoD’s request for proposal...
DoD: New EHR not about interoperability with VA
Tom Sullivan | Healthcare IT News | July 30, 2015
When Defense Department officials briefed reporters prior to announcing that the Cerner, Leidos and Accenture team won its EHR modernization contract, they were adamant that so much speculation about the DoD’s ability to share patient information with the Department of Veterans Affairs had been unfounded. "There is not a big interoperability problem with the VA and DoD today," said Frank Kendall, DoD Under Secretary for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. "It’s a big misconception out there that this software system we’re buying is about interoperability." Read More »
EHR debacle leads to paper-based care for Coast Guard servicemembers
Darius Tahir | Politico | April 25, 2016
The botched implementation of an electronic health records system sent Coast Guard doctors scurrying to copy digital records onto paper last fall and has disrupted health care for 50,000 active troops and civilian members and their families. Five years after signing a $14 million contract with industry leader Epic Systems, the Coast Guard ended its relationship with the Wisconsin vendor, while recovering just more than $2.2 million from the company. But it couldn’t revert back to its old system, leaving its doctors reliant on paper.
Epic Grabs VA Software Contract
Tom Sullivan | Healthcare IT News | August 27, 2015
Epic, along with Lockheed Martin subsidiary Systems Made Simple, inked a five-year $624 million contract with Veterans Affairs. The deal is nowhere near the $4.3 billon that DoD awarded Cerner and Leidos for the first phase, of course, but it does hold the potential for a big payoff – publicity-wise at least – because the work Epic and SMS signed up to undertake addresses one of VA's most public pain points: patient scheduling.
Google Joins VistA Team Proposing Open Source EHR for the Department of Defense
By Roger A. Maduro | January 28, 2015
Google has thrown its hat into the EHR ring by joining the team led by PwC which is proposing that the Department of Defense (DoD) upgrade their current EHR to Defense Operational Readiness Health System (DORHS), a customized application built for the DoD and based on VistA, the open source EHR developed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)...Google’s participation has enormous implications for both the DoD’s EHR and to the healthcare industry as a whole. By choosing the open source EHR team, Google...has sent a clear message to the world that VistA is the best option for the DoD.
Google, PwC Bidding for $11B DoD Health System Modernization Project
Jaikumar Vijayan | eWeek | January 18, 2015
When Google and PricewaterhouseCoopers announced a business partnership last October, they described the move as an effort to jointly compete for large projects leveraging PwC's consulting experience and Google's Cloud Platform technologies. Last week, the two companies followed through on that announcement with PwC including Google in a team that is bidding for a massive $11 billion health system modernization effort at the U.S. Department of Defense.
Intermountain Healthcare Partners With Cerner To Provide Clinical Governance For Leidos Partnership For Defense Health
Press Release | Cerner, Leidos Partnership for Defense Health | September 24, 2014
Cerner today announced a strategic agreement with Intermountain Healthcare to provide clinical governance of solutions and workflow to be proposed for the Department of Defense's Healthcare Management System Modernization (DHMSM) initiative. Cerner is a member of the Leidos Partnership for Defense Health, an alliance that includes Leidos, the domain experts in Military Health, and Accenture, a global IT and management consulting company and one of the largest EHR systems integrators in the world...
Intermountain, Cerner Collaborate On Defense Health IT Bid
Joseph Conn | Modern Healthcare | September 24, 2014
Cerner Corp., one of several major electronic health-record system vendors competing for a multibillion-dollar contract to replace the Military Health System's EHR, has entered what it terms a “strategic agreement” on its bid with Intermountain Healthcare...
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Something To Brighten Your Day
A little bit of foto art to brighten an otherwise dreary day! The above memory of summer days is the work of local photo artist Sheryl Falls.
You can see more of Sheryl's handiwork at www.f-stop-foto-art.com.
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Avoid Olympic Games Scams
Warns Of Olympic Scams
The 2010 Olympics are approaching, but the scams have already arrived and more are expected to emerge over the coming weeks.
The Olympic Games begin on February 12, 2010 in Vancouver-Whistlers, British Columbia and BBB expects to there to be a rise in frauds related to counterfeit tickets, bogus Olympic merchandise, rental properties, problems with travel packages and possibly other scams.
“The Olympics are such an exciting time of year for the entire world. They provide an amazing opportunity for athletes, tourists, residents and local businesses, ” says BBB spokesperson. “Unfortunately scam artists are very tuned into the opportunity this event poises for ripping people off. The Olympic Committee can only do so much to protect people from fraudulent activities related to the event. We all need to become educated and aware of what we can do to protect ourselves from disappointment and becoming a victim of fraud during the Olympics.”
BBB advises consumers to be aware of the following common scams related to the Winter Olympics:
Counterfeit Tickets: Just about every sporting and entertainment event has issues with counterfeit tickets. If you are in search of last minute tickets to an Olympic event be very wary of the source from which you are purchasing your ticket. Authorized fan-to-fan tickets can be purchased by Canadian and U.S. residents via the 2010 Olympics official website at www.vancouver2010.com. VANOC will also host regular public online auctions for tickets remaining prior to the event. Click here to see more in-depth information about Olympic Tickets.
Bogus Olympic Merchandise: Be aware of knock-off Olympic memorabilia, including collectibles and sportswear being sold near sports venues and online. Not every product with the Olympic logo on it is necessarily an authentic, licensed Olympic product. Consumers are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the official 2010 Winter Olympics logos, graphics and branding and consider shopping directly from the www.vancouver2010.com, the official 2010 Games website. Click here for more in-depth information on Olympic merchandise.
Rental Property Scams: Phone ads for British Columbia rental properties are popping up on Craigslist and other online classifieds. Scams typically require the victim to wire a large deposit of money to the supposed landlord in order to receive the keys to the rental home. The money is wired and communications stop. Victims lose their money and a access to place to stay during the event. If you are looking or accommodations during the 2010 Games, the Olympics has an Official web site www.2010destinationplanner.com that provides a list of hotels, bed and breakfasts, private home rentals and rooms on cruise ships that are available. Click here for more in-depth information on Olympics accomodation.
Problems with Travel Packages: Millions of people are expected to arrive in Vancouver-Whistler for the Olympics, making accommodations and travel options limited in the area. Before making travel plans be sure you know who you are doing business with. Check Canadian tourism businesses out at www.bbb.org. Travel agencies should be licensed with Consumer Protection BC and Property Management fires with the Real Estate Council of B.C. To ensure your trip is a success be sure to confirm all reservations for hotels, rental cars or other similar rental arrangements before arriving, and bring all confirmation numbers, record of price or rates quoted, or other verification with you.
What To Do If Car's Throttle Sticks
Things To Do In Nanaimo Jan. 29 - 31
Nanaimo Events and Activities
The Nanaimo Things To Do Directory has over 160 different contacts for every interest from Air Cadets to Windsurfing and everything in between. To visit this directory click the banner above or Nanaimo Info LINK.
Fri. calendar of events use this Nanaimo Info LINK.
Sat. calendar of events use this Nanaimo Info LINK.
Sun. calendar of events use this Nanaimo Info LINK.
Nanaimo Clippers Hockey use this Nanaimo Info LINK
Port Theatre events calendar use Nanaimo Info LINK.
Nanaimo Movies Guide use this Nanaimo Info LINK.
Western Edge Theatre use this Nanaimo Info LINK.
Nanaimo Theatre Group use Nanaimo Info LINK.
Nanaimo Art Gallery use this Nanaimo Info LINK.
Nanaimo Arts Council info use this Nanaimo Info LINK.
Nanaimo Minor Baseball info use Nanaimo Info LINK.
Youth Soccer Club info use this Nanaimo Info LINK.
Nanaimo Pirates Baseball info use Nanaimo Info LINK.
Weekend weather forecast use this Nanaimo Info LINK.
Downtown Farmer's Market opens Friday, more info.
Weekend Garage Sales use this Nanaimo Info LINK.
Neighbourhood Farmers Market Nanaimo Info LINK.
Nanaimo Timbermen Sr. A. Lacrosse Nanaimo Info LINK.
Nanaimo Timbermen Sr. B Lacrosse Nanaimo Info LINK.
Nanaimo Timbermen Jr. A Lacrosse Nanaimo Info LINK.
Vancouver Island Short Film Festival
VISFF Feb. 12 & 13
Vancouver Island Short Film Festival 2010
Short List Announced
After several months of preparation and promotion, followed by a thorough judging process, thirteen films have been selected for the 5th annual Nanaimo Arts Council - Vancouver Island Short Film Festival.
This year we were flooded with great original short films. Over the past weeks, a three person jury selected 13 films that will be shown at the festival on February 12th and 13th - 7 PM - at the Malaspina Theatre at the Nanaimo VIU campus. The festival will include a screening of the 13 selected films and an awards ceremony for best films in several categories with prizes for winning filmmakers.
“The quality of storytelling, technical aptitude and artistry is improving every year,” said VISFF director Johnny Blakeborough.“This made the task of narrowing all of the short films submitted down to the 13 that we will show on February 12th and 13th extremely challenging. This was the hardest year to choose a limited number of films for the festival. There are so many talented filmmakers in our community and we are very excited to give them an opportunity to showcase their work.”
The selected films include Boingo Boingo by Mark Benard, Come Clean by Alina Cerminara, Desolation by Steve Harrison, Detective Fawkes and the Victem's Vixen by Todd Jones, Mercenary Soluctions by Graham Stark, Riboflavin by Blair Dykes, Smothered by Linley Subryan, The Button by Jeremy Klassen, The Mechanic by Michael Grand, The Nastiworths by Kristina Durst, The New Dad's Survival Guide by Michael Chen, The Piano Player's Sister by Tash Baycroft & John Gardiner and The Secret of the Sauce by Graham Stark.
All types of short films were accepted for consideration into the festival. All films had to be 10 minutes or less to be considered. “Our main goal is to turn the spotlight on our talented local filmmakers,” says Blakeborough. “More than anything, this festival is for them. It’s an opportunity to show their films in front of a large audience.”
Tickets are available in the Nanaimo Arts Council Gallery in Nanaimo North Town Centre, Falconer Books at Port Place Mall, the Nanaimo Art Gallery at the VIU campus, the House of Indigo Boutique in downtown Nanaimo and at the door. Tickets are $15.
The Vancouver Island Short Film Festival is a Nanaimo Arts Council event. The Nanaimo Arts Council is dedicated to the promotion, development and support of all the arts in Nanaimo and area. Information on the Vancouver Island Short Film Festival is available on the website at www.visff.com. For more information, contact admin@visff.com or phone 250-729-3947.
Vancouver Island Fiddle Camp
Third Annual Fiddle Camp
From March 12 to 14, 2010, at the Cowichan Lake Education Centre, some of Canada's premier fiddle players will share their skills and passion with fiddle and piano students of all ages and abilities. The Nanaimo Conservatory of Music is presenting the third annual Vancouver Island Fiddle Camp, and this year promises to be better than ever!
The faculty at the 2010 camp includes Gordon Stobbe (fiddle, Seaforth, N.S.), Geoff Horrocks (piano and fiddle, Ottawa ON), Mark Sullivan (fiddle, Vancouver BC), Patti Lamoureux (fiddle, Courtenay BC), Miriam Sonstenes (fiddle, Victoria BC), Zav RT (fiddle, Salt Spring Island BC) Lesley Clarke (visual arts, Nanaimo BC) and Trish Clair-Peck (fiddle, Nanaimo BC). These teachers are in demand at camps and workshops across the country and always deliver excellent and inspiring instruction.
Campers will study specific fiddle styles, offered for every level from beginner to advanced, in small group classes. They also participate in family dances and jam sessions and are treated to a spectacular performance by the instructors at the Cowichan Lake Community Hall. In past years, the camp has been attended by fiddle students aged 5 to 55+ from as far away as Toronto. There is truly something for everyone at the VI Fiddle Camp.
This camp grew out of the Nanaimo Fiddlers program, and is one of the most exciting and dynamic new initiatives at the Nanaimo Conservatory of Music. Registration is now open and there are great early-bird savings for those who register by February 1, 2010.
Visit the website for more information, or call 250-754-4611.
Nanaimo Arts Council February Feature Show
'Digital PhotoArt with Pizzazz'
by Micki Findlay
The Nanaimo Arts Council is pleased to feature the work of Micki Findlay, Vancouver Island photographer, through the month of February.
The show is entitled ‘Digital PhotoArt with Pizzazz. Micki is an award-winning, creative, freestyle 'photo-artist' who has a passion for the arts. Her most cherished art forms include the theatre, music, jewelry design and computer graphics. She was to discover, later on in life, that she possessed a love for photography after receiving a digital camera from her husband. Micki has an excellent eye for artistic detail, while utilizing her computer graphic arts skills, she lovingly pours hours into her craft to perfect it, creating a contemporary, unique, artsy feel to her images.
Micki has a knack for bringing her images ‘to life’ with her post-processing techniques and use of vibrant colours. Micki notes, “Living on breathtaking Vancouver Island, I am never at a loss for inspiration”. Micki will be onsite, at the gallery, on Wednesday afternoons, from 1:30 PM to 5:30 PM, throughout the month of February. For a preview of Micki Findlay's work use this LINK.
The Nanaimo Arts Council gallery is located at #259 in Nanaimo North - Town Centre mall. For more information call 250.729.3947 or visit nanaimoartscouncil.ca
RCMP Dog Services - Premiere Service Worldwide
Facts & Stats About Dogs & Handlers
A new dog handler requires a minimum of 750 hours or four months of training.
Today, multi-purpose dogs are German Shepherds and specialty narcotic dogs are Labrador retrievers
The RCMP Police Dog Service implemented an in-house breeding program in 1998. The RCMP Puppy Program located in Innisfail, Alberta produces on average 120 German Shepherd puppies a year from proven stock. Children across Canada name each of the dogs through the “Name the Puppy Contest”.
Over 50%, or 70, police dogs currently working in the RCMP were bred in RCMP Puppy Program.
Another 70 that were raised in the program are now with other agencies worldwide
Police Dogs can indicate a person up to 300 to 400 yards away.
The dog has a sense of smell that is a thousand times greater than that of humans. They only need one part per million of scent to get a detection.
A dog can search a car in approximately three minutes
Dogs can work up to four hours with rest intervals.
Currently, there are 125 RCMP dog teams across Canada
There are currently 79 Police Dog Teams across E Division (British Columbia) and 44 in the Lower Mainland which is integrated with the Abbotsford Police Department.
Healthy police service dogs cost less than $1,000 annually to maintain.
Nanaimo Global Film Festival 2010
There will be 29 great films for viewing on 3 evenings and all day Saturday.
You can purchase an Early Bird pass to the entire festival for only $20 starting January 18 at the following locations:
Falconer Books, Port Place Mall
VIU Students Union, VIU Nanaimo Campus
Van-Isle Video, Bowen Road
Nanaimo Arts Council, Nanaimo North Centre
Lucid Records & Clothing, Commercial Street
Blue Jewel Bakery Café, 3018 Ross Road
All other passes (evening, daytime, and combo passes) will be available at the festival as follows:
Full festival pass (Thursday evening to Saturday evening) $30
Two-day pass (Friday evening to Saturday evening) $25
Full Saturday pass (day and evening) $20
Saturday 3/4 pass (afternoon and evening only) $15
Saturday half day pass (10 am to 1pm or 1 pm to 4 pm) $10
Evening pass (Thursday, Friday or Saturday evening films only) $10
Low income passes will also be available at the festival.
For more information please visit our website using this LINK.
Practical Help For Haiti
Fundraiser At VIU Supports
Shelter Boxes For Haiti
The Shelter Box program is an initiative of the Rotary Club that started in England 10 years ago.
Each Shelter Box contains a 10 person tent, 10 sleeping bags, tools and equipment, water purification equipment and tablets, hand crank radio, cooking and eating supplies including a stove (designed to burn anything flammable), the basic necessities to shelter up to 10 people.
There will be a donation table set up at VIU on the main floor of the library until Friday and will be staffed from 10:00 am - 4:00 pm each day. Each box costs $1,000 and there are 3,000 boxes scheduled for Haiti with an urgent need for thousands more.
If you can help, this is a great way of providing very practical help through a trusted organization who will get the help to those who need it. To learn more about the Shelter Box program visit their website using this LINK.
For more information contact Don Bonner at 250-741-8483 or at sales@nisa.com.
Be Prepared For 7 Days Not 72 Hrs.
Kipp Says
Be Prepared For 7 Days
Councillor Kipp made the point at the recent council meeting that people who can afford to be prepared with food, water and other emergency supplies for 7 days instead of the popular 72 hrs. are wise to do so.
His comment was prompted by observations of what has happened during the recent disaster in Haiti and how long it is taking for relief to actually get through during a major event.
Haiti is a good example of what happens to people when they depend on 'the government' to take care of them. Remember it is the same bright minds who have narrowly missed leading the world into financial ruin who are in charge of disaster relief.
Councillor Holdom Thinks 1% Tax Decrease 'Nickels & Dimes'
Councillor Holdom
Logic Flawed
If you listen to what Councillor Bill Holdom says at the Jan. 25/10 Council Meeting you can't help but wonder if he was very tired that night.
It seems the professor has forgotten that 'nickels and dimes' add up to dollars when you put enough of them together.
Councillor Bestwick proposed adopting other cost saving cuts which would have reduced this years taxes by nearly another 1%. His motion was supported by Kipp, Sherry and Pattje and defeated by Ruttan, Unger, Holdom, McNabb and Johnstone.
The reason Holdom offered for not supporting the motion was because he considered the items to be cut as 'nickels & dimes' and not worth supporting. He made some vague reference to dealing with 'larger' items if the budget was to be reduced.
Seems like only yesterday he was taking praise for holding the line on taxes by spending money that was in reserves, yet this year thinks a similar reduction in taxes as not worth supporting.
If you want to listen to the logic of those on council that would not support reducing your taxes by nearly 1%, go the the video archives of the meeting and advance the playback to 1:20:15/03:26:29. You can access the archives using this Nanaimo Info LINK.
Listen closely and you will see why these council members have no interest in holding the line on your taxes, regardless of what they say.
I realize that old fashioned thinking is not considered valid these days, but my wise old granny used to say 'take care of the pennies, and the dollars take care of themselves'.
Is anyone on council listening???
Safe Stolen From Instaloans
On Monday January 25th at 2:19am RCMP members responded to a report of a Break and Enter in progress at the Instaloans Financial Solutions business at 1925 Bowen Road. At least 3 males suspects using a stolen pickup truck hooked chains to the front door of the business and gained entry. Once inside, in a matter of a few short minutes, suspects forcefully removed the safe that was bolted to the floor and loaded it on to the waiting truck and fled the scene. The safe contained an undisclosed amount of cash. As a result of this incident the business incurred extensive interior and exterior damage.
Information gained in the course of the investigation has determined the the vehicle used in this heist is believed to be a 2002 Chev Silverado Pickup truck, dark green, bearing plate 9450KD which was stolen from Jinglepot Road on Sunday January 24th.
"The interior of the business was completely destroyed in the process of removing the safe .The safe its contents and the truck have not been recovered to date" said Constable Gary O'Brien, media spolesperson for the Nanaimo RCMP.
If anyone has any information on this incident , please contact the Nanaimo RCMP at 250-754-2345 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477(TIPS).
Editor's Comment: You have to wonder how long it took to respond, given the bad guys had time to rip off a front door, and then forcefully remove a safe bolted to the floor and then load it into a truck and make a clean getaway. Things that make 'ya say 'hmmmmmm.
Maybe they were at the Olympics?
Bestwick Tries To Reduce Tax Increase
Mayor Ruttan, Councillors McNabb,
Unger, Holdom & Johnstone
Defeat Motion To Decrease Taxes!
If you want to know who really is serious about holding the line on tax increases, it was clearly demonstrated last night at the city council meeting.
A proposal by Councillor Bill Bestwick which was supported by Jim Kipp, Loyd Sherry and Fred Pattje which would have held tax increases to 1% was defeated.
Remember this is the same council that pays $500,000 for someone to stay home, and tells us they are saving us money!
If you want to see some changes in how this council keeps spending our grand kids money, get on the phone and let them know what you think. A contact list for Mayor and council can be found using this Nanaimo Info LINK.
Daniele Brand Deli Meats Recalled
Possible Salmonella Contamination
January 25, 2010 – The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is warning the public not to consume certain Daniele brand salami products, described below, because the product may be contaminated with Salmonella.
All codes of the following Daniele brand products are affected by this recall:
Purchased at
Gourmet Italian Deli Selection 400 g 7 36436 53013 1 Super C stores in Quebec.
Italian Brand Gourmet Pack 500 g 7 36436 70737 3 Costco stores in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Gourmet Italian Deli Selection Tray 600 g 7 36436 72005 1 Costco stores in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Additional products have been recalled by the manufacturer and may have been imported into Canada. For a full list of products, please consult the USDA website: using this LINK.
There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of these products in Canada.
Food contaminated with Salmonella may not look or smell spoiled. Consumption of food contaminated with this bacteria may cause salmonellosis, a foodborne illness. In young children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems, salmonellosis may cause serious and sometimes deadly infections. In otherwise healthy people, salmonellosis may cause short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, vomiting, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea. Long-term complications may include severe arthritis.
The importers are voluntarily recalling the affected products from the marketplace. The CFIA is monitoring the effectiveness of the recall.
For more information consumers and industry can call the CFIA at 1-800-442-2342 / TTY 1-800-465-7735 (8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern time, Monday to Friday).
Nanaimo 2009 Crime Statistics Released
Click on Graphic To Enlarge
Theft From Autos & Shoplifting On Rise
The 2009 Crime Stats for Nanaimo are out and some interesting trends are revealed with theft from autos and shoplifting complaints up by at least twenty five percent.
Theft from autos increased by 25 percent while shoplifting complaints increased by almost 32 percent.” These type of offences can vary but are indicative of certain trends within our community “said Constable Gary O’Brien, media spokesperson for the Nanaimo RCMP.”Often drug addicted street criminals regularly target motor vehicles to break into. Items such as GPS units and small change are then quickly handed over for drugs. As many as 10 to 20 vehicles will be broken into on any given night by one or two people.
The other crime type on the rise is shoplifting. “Again ,what we are seeing is criminals shifting from residential break and enters to stealing from stores. The risk of detection for shoplifting is less and the and sentences being doled out by the courts are considerably less than what would be given out for breaking into a home” said O’Brien.
Other areas of interest that showed an increase were in drug trafficking and drug production, both up by 17 and 15 percent respectively. Both increases being attributed to the tenacious effort of the Municipal Drug Unit and Green Teams in in targeting street level drug dealers and marihuana grow ops respectively..
Nanaimo Traffic stats for 2009 also showed an increase of almost 30 percent in the apprehension of impaired drivers .”This increase can be attributed to the hard work of our traffic and general duty members but is also due to the increase in manpower within the Traffic section from the year before.
Other crime prevention initiatives such as the Bait Car Program ,targeting of Prolific offenders and the proactive work of the Bike Unit are also reflected in the statistics said O’Brien.’We are always thriving to do better, that’s the nature of police work .We are however confident that the commitment by the officers serving Nanaimo is 100 percent and with the expected increase in manpower this year and crime prevention initiatives already in place , 2010 will not be a good year for criminals operating in Nanaimo” said O’Brien.
In Case You Think Our Winter Is Bad
Haiti Relief Text Donations
Make Sure Your Donation Goes
To A Legitimate Source
In the wake of the earthquake disaster in Haiti, opportunities to donate via text message are popping up across the web. Better Business Bureau (BBB) advises donors that giving through text can be a safe and easy way to give—but you should still use caution.
Within days following the disaster in Haiti, it was widely reported that more than $3 million was donated through text message to such organizations as the Red Cross and others.
“It’s encouraging that people are making small donations through text messages,” says Rosalind Scott, Executive Director of BBB Vancouver Island. “An incredible amount of money will be needed to address the crisis in Haiti and charities will certainly welcome gifts made through any means available. However, donors should still do their due diligence to make sure their money is going to trustworthy charities.”
BBB offers the following tips on giving through text messages:
Confirm the number directly with the source. While BBB has not yet heard of any scams relying on text message donations, this emerging method for donating is ripe for exploitation by scammers.
Be aware that text donations are not immediate. Depending on the text message service used by the charity, text donations can take anywhere from 30-90 days to be transferred to the designated charity. If you would like the donation to be received immediately by the charity, you can give online through the charity Web site, by calling the charity directly or by sending a check in the mail.
Review the fine print. When you give to a charity through text message, you might also be signing yourself up to receive text message updates from the charity in the future. A charity should include the details of its text campaign on its Web site so you can see what you’re signing up for and how you can opt out.
Research the charity. Giving wisely to a charity isn’t just about making sure that the solicitation isn’t coming from scammers. Wise donors make sure their donations are going to charities that are best equipped to help in the relief efforts and will responsibly use the money for its intended purpose.
BBB has identified that following organizations as currently providing legitimate text donation opportunities. Please note that this list is not inclusive of all organizations and is likely to expand over the coming days. Cell phone users can text:
“Yele” to 501501 to donate $5 to Wyclef Jean’s Yéle Foundation;
“Haiti” to 85944 to donate $5 to Rescue Union Mission and MedCorp International;
“Haiti” to 25383 to donate $5 to the International Rescue Committee;
“Haiti” to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross in the U.S.;
“Haiti” to 45678 to donate $5 to the Salvation Army in Canada (Canada only).
Please be advised that donations should show up as one-time charges on the contributor’s next cell phone bill. (Amounts are in U.S. dollars, and standard text-messaging fees apply.)
According to Mobile Giving, 100 percent of donations will end up in the hands of the recipient charities.
In Canada, the service is available to Bell, Rogers, Fido, and Solo Mobile customers.
The best resource for consumers to check out for making donations is at the Foreign Affairs department: using this LINK.
Nanaimo Building Contractor
Specialists Since 1997
Bell Built Homes have specialized in residential construction since 1997 and offer custom home building, renovations, putting on an addition or any other project related to home construction.
We employ qualified, ticketed tradesmen who are passionate about their craft and put pride in everything they do. We welcome the opportunity to show you what quality and professionalism looks like.
Call today for a free estimate and no obligation consultation, 250-616-4347 or visit our website by clicking the above graphic or using this LINK.
Is 4% An Acceptable Tax Increase For Nanaimo?
Can They Do Anything But Increase Taxes ??
You have to wonder why governments at all levels think they can just keep spending more and more money and continue to increase taxes. Sooner or later the chickens will come home to roost and society is going to have to pay for this uncontrolled spending.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is warning Canadians of coming belt tightening as governments have to deal with out of control spending. In an article in the Globe and Mail Harper says:
Stephen Harper is warning Canadians to prepare for belt-tightening at two levels of government, noting the provinces are in the same financial straits as Ottawa and will likewise be forced to cut back spending.
“I suspect the provinces will have to make some of the same difficult decisions we are making, and to control their spending in the years in the future,” the Prime Minister told reporters in Truro.
“And I think we'll all be in the same boat in that regard. I think that's just the reality.”
So, at a time when the Prime Minister is telling us we need to reign in government spending, our local council is still planning on increasing taxes by 4% this year, and more increases are budgeted for the next five years.
The provincial government has found it necessary to grab another handful of taxes using the HST which is coming this year while at the same time increasing the costs to pensioners in retirement homes.
Sooner or later the well is simply going to be dry and the debts we keep running up will have to be paid. Maybe this council and those of it's generation are hoping the problem will not be theirs to solve and will simply pass on our irresponsible spending habits to the next generation.
Things That Make You Say: Hmmmmmmm
More RCMP Needed For Nanaimo?
Recently the local RCMP Inspector told city hall we need more officers to give proper service to Nanaimo, where apparently the workload is higher than the provincial average.
One of the reasons given is the extra manpower it takes to comply with the PRIME reporting system put in place by the provincial government. It seems that paper work under the new system requires 30% more time resulting in more time pushing paper and less time available rendering services.
The task of attending fender benders has been taken from the RCMP and given to the local fire department as they attend accidents anyway and can handle the routine mishaps.
So considering the above, why can our local detachment send 24 officers which represents 16% of the force to help police the Olympics and according to local RCMP spokesman it will not affect policing levels in the city?
Violent Offender Captured In Nanaimo
Gary Kenneth Mills Arrested
With the assistance of Emergency Response Team(ERT) members ,Nanaimo RCMP officers arrested a violent offender this morning wanted on a variety of charges including attempted murder.
Gary Kenneth MILLS age 54, the subject of an arrest warrant since 2008, was arrested in the parking lot of the 7-11 on Departure Bay by ERT members early this morning. “Our office was made aware he was in our community. Because of his background and propensity for violence, surveillance was established and a decision was made this morning to effect his arrest, utilizing ERT” said Constable Gary O’Brien media spokesperson for the Nanaimo RCMP. “Public safety is paramount in any arrest, the use of ERT today demonstrated that” said O’Brien.
MILLS was arrested without incident then transported to the Nanaimo Provincial courts where he will eventually be escorted back to Fort St John. MILLS was charged after an incident in originating in 2007 in Fort ST John where he allegedly shot a male. He was later arrested by RCMP in that community but was then granted bail. He later moved to Texada Island where he had been residing until his disappearance in late 2008.
Nanaimo House Prices and Canadian House Prices Dec. 2009
Nanaimo House Sales
Up 102% Over Dec. 08
Nanaimo unit house sales increased by 102% when compared with December 08 with 85 units sold compared with 42 last year.
House prices in the Nanaimo market have edged up slightly by 1% compared with last year but have risen 3.6% when compared with the previous month.
Based on average MLS sales summaries for Nanaimo and other Canadian cities for December 2009.
National Average
Dec 09 - $337,410
Dec 09- $241,644
Dec 09 - 85
Remember that these prices provide a broad market trend only and do not necessarily reflect the true market value of real estate. For a proper evaluation of your property you need to consult one of the many professional realtors in Nanaimo.
Another Tough Nanaimo Winter
Local Residents Endure Winter Hardships
Having to put on jackets but being careful not to do them up for fear of overheating, Nanaimo residents are having to endure another harsh west coast winter!
As witnessed yesterday at Piper's Lagoon Park, these brave Nanaimo souls dressed themselves against the elements and bravely ventured into the harsh outdoors.
Midday temperatures had dipped to a bone chilling 10 degrees Celsius or 50 degrees Fahrenheit but in spite of these adverse conditions some fearless souls left the comfort of their homes and pitted themselves against nature.
Seriously though, the last few days have been a delightful break from that liquid sunshine the west coast is famous for and I would encourage one and all to get out and visit your favourite Nanaimo spot.
Early Morning Blaze - Suspicious
Suspicous Blaze
One Arrest
Nanaimo RCMP have one male in custody after an early morning blaze yesterday morning in the 900 block of Milton St that left three people homeless.Nanaimo Fire crews were already on scene when officers arrived. All the residents of the home had safely made their way out and had taken up shelter at a neighboring home. The only injuries reported from the fire involved a 21 year old female living in the home. She was taken to hospital suffering from minor smoke inhalation. She was transported to hospital by BC Paramedics ,examined then later released.
“Based on information obtained at scene by our members , officers attended to a secondary residence and arrested a 47 year old male for uttering threats. The fire is deemed suspicious in nature and further charges my be laid” said Constable Gary O’Brien media spokesperson for the Nanaimo RCMP.
Anyone with information on this incident is asked to contact the Nanaimo RCMP at 250-754-2345 or call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477(TIPS)
Wayne Keith Milligan Charged
The name of the male arrested yesterday morning after a suspicious fire that left three pesons homeless has been identified.
Wayne Keith MILLIGAN age 47 a resident of Nanaimo, has been charged with two counts of Uttering threats.The first count alleges he uttered threats to cause death and alleges he uttered threats to burn a structure. MILLIGAN has been realeased from custody and is scheduled to make his next court appearance on February 17th .
"Our investigation is continuing and we are asking anyone who saw anything suspicious near the residence, prior to the fire being reported at 6:00 AM , to call our office at 250-754-2345 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477(TIPS)"said Constable Gary O'Brien ,media spokesperson for the Nanaimo RCMP.
Driving Tips For New Cellphone Ban
Over the past several weeks, many drivers have seen the advertisements and highway signs reminding them they can no longer use hand-held cellphones and other electronic devices while driving in B.C. As we approach the end of the one-month grace period, the Province, ICBC and police are reminding drivers to adopt smart driving behaviours.
Driving is a complex task that requires our full attention. When you are behind the wheel, anything that competes with your attention will impair your ability to notice what’s going on around you, increasing your risk of being in a crash.
The goal of the new law is to make our roads safer for everyone and we all play an important role in that. Here are some smart driving tips should your cellphone ring while you’re driving.
Let it go to voicemail. Better yet, turn it off to avoid the temptation. Be a role model and help create a culture where friends, family and colleagues don’t expect you to pick up right away. Let callers know on your voicemail that you may be driving and there may be delay before you return their call.
Ask your passenger(s) for help. If you're travelling with someone else and your cellphone rings, ask them to take the call for you.
Pull over before you answer or return a call. Your life and the life of people around you are much more important than your phone call.
Focus on the road. Multi-tasking while driving has become a common practice, but studies show that drivers who talk on a cellphone lose about 50 per cent of what's going on around them, visually, and are four times more likely to get into a crash. Maintaining focus on the road should be a driver’s priority.
Ask your caller if they’re on the road. If you’re returning a call, and you suspect your caller is driving, set an example and suggest talking when it’s safer to do so. We all have a responsibility to make our roads safer.
Use a hands-free device if you need to take a call, and:
Keep the conversations brief.
Keep a consistently safe speed - research shows drivers on cellphones tend to vary their speed up and down.
Make sure your device is securely fixed to your vehicle and doesn’t obstruct your view.
Safe driving is about making smart driving decisions – driving is a complex task that demands all of our concentration if it is to be done safely. Be a role model and set an example – your smart decisions can have a significant influence on others.
Western Edge Theatre Presents 'Fireweed'
B.C. MARKS NATIONAL
NON-SMOKING WEEK
January 17 to 23 is National Non-Smoking Week across Canada, and B.C. leads the way on a number of fronts in helping to keep the province smoke-free.
“Government is committed to helping British Columbians achieve their best health possible, which is why we’re involved in a number of healthy living initiatives, including our strong support for the smoke-free Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games,” said Ida Chong, Minister of Healthy Living and Sport.
When visitors come to B.C. to be part of the Olympic and Paralympic celebrations, they’ll notice:
Tobacco is not promoted to youth in stores.
All school grounds are tobacco-free.
Indoor public and work spaces such as restaurants are smoke-free.
Participants and visitors to Game venues will also be able to enjoy smoke-free environments in the following areas:
All indoor venue areas and outdoor seating sites.
All line-up areas.
Break areas for workers.
Catering areas and living quarters in the Athletes’ Village.
Transportation connected to the Olympic and Paralympic celebrations.
“We are very pleased to be working with government to support smoking cessation in the province,” said Scott MacDonald, executive director of the BC Lung Association. “We’re excited about our current project, QuitNow and Win, which is proving to be very successful in helping people to turn their lives around and live smoke-free.”
“It's great to see the support for smoke-free programs - including the smoke-free policies planned for the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games,” said Mary McNeil, Minister of State for the Olympics and ActNow BC. “It will build on Canada’s legacy as a sport host and promote tobacco-free sports.”
According to the 2008 Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey, B.C. currently has the lowest smoking rate in Canada.
Nanaimo RCMP Seize Cocaine and Cash
Ryan James Truckle Arrested
Three Others Charged
A 27 year old resident of Nanaimo is in police custody after being arrested late Friday night in connection with the seizure of over a pound of cocaine and $1000's of dollars in cash.
Ryan James TRUCKLE age 27, known to local police and believed to be active in the local drug trade was arrested shortly after 11 PM on Saturday night by Nanaimo Drug Unit officers .He was arrested while sitting in his vehicle with three other men in the parking lot of the Longwood station plaza in the north end of Nanaimo. The three along with TRUCKLE were arrested and a search of TRUCKLE’s vehicle located a little over 500 grams of powdered cocaine and $12,000 dollars in Canadian currency.
“Any time you take over a pound of cocaine and $12,000 dollars from illegal gains, off the street ,we call that a good day in the world of crime reduction” said Constable Gary O’Brien media spokesperson for the Nanaimo RCMP.
The four males were all charged with Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act .The three arrested, with ages of 24.28, and 53 were released later from cusotody on Promises to Appear and are scheduled to make their first court appearance in Nanaimo Provincial court on April 13,2010.
TRUCKLE will be making an appearance in Nanaimo Provincial court today where a decision will be made on his release.
High Winds Cancel BC Ferries
Departure Bay - Horeshoe Bay
Sailing Cancelled
The 8:30am sailings from Departure Bay and Horsehoe Bay have been cancelled by BC Ferries dues to the high wind hazard.
To check current Nanaimo sailing conditions use this Nanaimo Info Link. To read the cancellation notice posted at 6:22 am this morning use this LINK.
For more complete information regards schedules and fares etc. use this Nanaimo Info LINK.
City Taxes To Rise 4% This Year
Expect At Least 20% Increase
Over Next Five Years
City Council is patting itself on the back for keeping our tax increase down to a measly 4% after removing expenditures from the budget.
City staff apparently identified $1.8 million which could be cut but council opted to eliminate only $844,000.
Staff also is patting itself on the back for not filling two redundant management positions and finding other money saving opportunities where tax dollars had previously been wasted.
How much money could be saved if the general taxpayer were not paying $500,000 to help people attend shows at the Port Theatre, nearly $1,000,000 to prop up the convention centre and the incidental amount of $500,000 to pay a city manager to not work for two years.
There, in only three items, I identified more tax saving than city staff has identified in months of 'scouring' their departments.
Does anyone really care how their tax dollars keep being spent? How long can people not working for government keep supporting an ever increasing, highly paid civil service where efficiency is not part of the job requirement?
Is the goose still hissing or has it died?
Heavy Rains Can Cause Problems
Heavy Rains Create Drainage Troubles
The amount of sustained rains we have had over the past several days could be creating water problems around your house you are not aware of but could cause serious damage.
If your gutters are not clear and free flowing, the excess water will begin to overflow the gutter and as a result will collect along your house's wall rather than running off in the drainage pipe where it is intended to go. This can result in water coming into your basement or crawl space which is usually nice and dry when the water is directed away as it should be.
If you are able, take a walk around your house and simply observe what your gutters are doing. Can you see water running over the tops of the gutters or overflowing at the end of the troughs? Can you hear water running down the downspout? Is the water all going into a drainage pipe or at least being directed away from your house where the downspout comes to the ground?
Have you checked your basement or crawl space lately? If you have a traditionally wet basement, have you checked to see if the sump pump is doing it's job?
If you have gutter issues, unless you are really, really comfortable with ladders or walking on wet roofs, you should call a professional to deal with your problem. Anyone in the gutter cleaning business, usually associated with window cleaning should be able to safely clear plugged gutters at a reasonable cost.
Remember, water damage can result in extreme cost depending on what kind of trouble it starts. A damp basement can be the perfect breeding ground for molds and mildew which you really don't want in your house.
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Councillor Holdom Thinks 1% Tax Decrease 'Nickels ...
Nanaimo House Prices and Canadian House Prices Dec...
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Wanting To Help Haiti?
Water Quality Notice
Mountie and Dog Get Their Man
Scott Richard Curson
Tell City Council What You Think
Nanaimo RCMP Bust Five Grow Ops
Nanaimo Toilet Rebate Program Returns
Nanaimo RCMP Arrest Red Scorpions Seize Crystal Me...
Things To Do In Nanaimo Jan. 8 - 10
Harmac's Tax Bill Charged 5% Daily Interest
Neck Point Park Master Plan
Lost RCMP Puppy Found
Nanaimo Boating Course
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New BC Cellphone Rules Explained
$62,500 Police Cost Increase To Nanaimo Taxpayers
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Make The Call!
All Rights Reserved Copyright K.J. (Jim) Taylor 2019. Picture Window theme. Theme images by Airyelf. Powered by Blogger.
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Texts —
We need to talk
"We need to talk" is a series of lectures and talks focused on the confrontation between...
Superdomestico
A dialogue for the new obsession of domesticity. Third talk: SUPER ROOM
With:...
Possibilities are choices - The design turns
Conversation between Marco Pertroni, Martina Muzi and Parasite 2.0. Moderated by Tamar Shafrir
"Architecture,artifice and the normative man" on Avery Shorts
Our text for Avery Shorts, a project of Columbia Books on Architecture and...
House warming @ domesti.city, New York
Adjustments Agency and...
Parasite 2.0 @ Molto molto fuori, Casabanchel, Madrid, 12-15. 04. 2018
Parasite 2.0 are Stefano Colombo, Vedano al Lambro (MB), 1989; Eugenio Cosentino, Luino (VA), 1989; Luca Marullo, Catania, 1989. They are based in Milan and Brussels. The practice was founded in 2010 as an independent research unit, a space of expression parallel to the academic environment. They investigate the status of human habitats, acting within a hybrid of architecture, design and scenography.
They have worked and collaborated with ar\ge Kunst (Bozen, 2019); Damien and The Love Guru (Brussels, 2019); MAMbo Museo d’Arte Moderna in Bologna (2018); Terraforma Festival (Milan, 2017 and 2018); domesti.city (New York, 2018); 501(c)3 Foundation (Los Angeles, 2017); Marres (Maastricht, 2017); XX Chilean Architecture Biennale (Valparaiso, 2017); Venice Architecture Biennale (2012, 2014 and 2018) and the Shenzhen Architecture Biennale (2015), among others. They have led didactic activity at the Faculté d’architecture de l’université libre de Bruxelles, Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam, Design Academy Eindhoven and Politecnico di Milano, among others. They taught at NABA Nuova Accademia Belle Arti Milano, and since 2016 they have been regularly teaching at MADE Program-Accademia di Belle Arti R. Gagliardi in Syracuse, Italy.
Parasite 2.0 was awarded with the Young Architects Program MAXXI in 2016. They are artist in residence at Jan Van Eyck Academie and mentee at Forecast for the 2019 program. Parasite 2.0 are represented by Operativa Arte Contemporanea Gallery and Galleria Corraini Arte Contemporanea.
Rue des Pierres 27
Via Predabissi 1
20131, Milan
parasite2.0 [at] gmail.com
Alessandro Barbieri
Mattia Losa
Federico Scudeler
"Towards a Digital Talking Architecture"
Form of Formalism, n.3, 2016
[READ]
“L’architetto neofiliaco”
Kabul Magazine, 2016
"The Neophiliac Architect: Three-act play"
Trans 28, architectural magazine edited by ETH Zurich Architecture Department
"Partytopia, crypto urban desert e primitive future tribalism"
Artribune, “Carnet d’architecture” a cura di Emilia Giorgi
"Can the architect disappear?"
Interview with Dori Sadan (Minibuilder-IaaC)
Aformal Academy Archive, UABB 2015 Re-Living The City, Bi-City Biennale Of Urbanism\Architecture Shenzen and Hong Kong
“After all It Was You and Me”
Interview with Bernd Upmeyer, MONU magazine
Radical Island #4-Primitive Future Tribalism
RITMO, from 30th August to 20th September 2015, Catania
Primitive Future Tribalism is the fourth stage of the “Radical Island” project which has been born from the will of re-defining the concept of derived and accidental islands, those places where the absence of laws and conventions allows the libertarian emancipation of life, and thus of the human habitat. The project investigates the possibilities offered by these places focusing on some case studies; during a one-week residency in Sicily, Parasite 2.0 will develop his research envisioning Librino neighbourhood as a radical island in the primitive future and envisioning the metropolitan tribalism forms which will inhabit. They foreshadow a future animated by the bond between extreme technologies and primitivism, by the dissolution of the boundaries between natural and artificial and between anthropised and wild.
The enclaves of the modernist segregation will be the place where new forms of hybrid societies could develop. From the failure of the modernist dream the human kind will be able to restart albeit the advanced Anthropocene. Across the trip through extreme future realities, the project aims to present Librino and the suburban areas as places for a new emancipation where activating new and independent forms of society. It wants to develop a new consciousness within these realities, nowadays always more marginalised, which at the same time represent unique areas of freedom and refuge for the diversity of our metropolis.
Photo: Ritmo and Parasite 2.0
www.welcometoritmo.com
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No Kill Gold Standard | PAWS Chicago
The Gold Standard of No Kill
Is the No Kill organization in your community reaching the Gold Standard?
Transforming Animal Welfare
There are a lot of animal groups out there, including a lot of No Kill groups. But every No Kill organization was not created equal. How can you be sure yours is committed to the highest level of No Kill and making a real impact for animals?
We realized we were getting asked this question a lot. So we developed the Gold Standard for No Kill. It is designed to help you ask the right questions and implement the right programs to optimize lifesaving in your community. This Gold Standard is a living road map that will continue to evolve as individuals and organizations around the country continue to ask questions and provide feedback.
There are four cornerstones to Gold Standard of No Kill.
Cornerstone 1: Mission, Vision & Strategy
Cornerstone 2: Transparency
Cornerstone 3: Programmatic Effectiveness at Building No Kill Communities
Cornerstone 4: Volunteers & Community
When looking for Gold Standard organizations, a mission statement and vision that is committed to No Kill is the first thing to look for. Gold Standard organizations are committed to making major transformation, not only for the animals in their shelter but also for the animals in their community. Assess whether it is:
Broad enough to transform the status quo for animals in the entire community. Small shelters do wonderful work saving animals, but Gold Standard shelters drive real change.
Realistic in scope. While an expansive vision is essential, it must not be so broad that it diverts focus from making tangible impact. Gold Standard shelters set transformative but achievable missions.
Active and solutions-based. At its core, what is the organization doing to help animals.
Beyond the mission statement, the organization must demonstrate strategic thinking and capability. You can tell a lot by how an organization talks about itself. Gold Standard organizations should set out a clear strategy on solving the problem of pet overpopulation and demonstrate how its programs are measurably making an impact.
Key Questions to Consider
What is the organization’s overall mission? How does the organization plan to reach it?
Tip: Ensure their priorities align with yours. Some organizations focus on advocacy, while others focus on legislation or direct lifesaving. What matters most to you? Listen for action words and results.
Do leaders have a history of growing businesses or nonprofits? Do they know how to optimize resources and maximize impact?
Have they shown a commitment to the No Kill movement and do they use the language of No Kill? Many traditional cage-and-kill organizations claim to save all “adoptable” animals or state they never euthanize for time or space, but a large proportion of their animals are killed each year.
Organizations must embody transparency to be considered Gold Standard. Publicly reporting detailed programmatic results and financial statements should be standard. This also provides insight into whether the organization is:
Effectively managing resources
Operating in a sustainable manner
How does the organization present itself in the public space (website, written materials, etc.)?
Is it easy to find detailed information on its program results and financials?
Do independent charity evaluators rank them? For larger, established organizations, consult Charity Navigator for a rating on financial effectiveness and transparency. Gold Standard charities will be rated 4 Stars in both categories.
What do their public filings show? Look at Guidestar to evaluate the organization’s required 990 filings.
Tip: Learn more about nonprofit reporting so you can determine if fundraising and administration expenses are appropriate for the organization’s size and reach.
Tip: Evaluate their governance. Board of Directors members should not be compensated, and employees should not serve on the Board of Directors.
Is the organization fiscally responsible and operating soundly? Ensure the organization has sustainability and is operating within its means. Look at the annual revenue and expenses reported in the 990s.
Is the organization operating well? Visit the shelter to ensure all animals are receiving quality care. Evaluate how many animals they have in their care and how many they adopt out in a year. An organization must be able to understand their capacity, otherwise they compromise the long-term viability of their lifesaving or they have a cage-and-kill operating model.
Developing programmatic expertise and operational excellence is critical to creating change. There are three core programs essential to building No Kill communities. Gold Standard organizations will be top performers in at least one of these sectors.
I. Affordable, Accessible Spay/Neuter Programs & Outreach for Low-Income Families and Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) for Feral/Community Cats
Gold Standard spay/neuter programs are targeted to pets that are likely to breed and contribute to pet overpopulation.
Free and low-cost targeted spay/neuter of family pets in underserved communities is critical for any organization looking to build a No Kill community. And every year, the dreaded kitten season brings waves of litters into shelters. TNR is a proven solution.
Who qualifies for free or low-cost services? The organization should be targeting families who could not otherwise afford the surgery.
How many spay/neuter surgeries is the organization performing on pets of the general public? Helping rescue groups is great, but it is not serving the pet overpopulation mission.
Where are the services being provided? Are they in underserved areas or convenient for low-income families to access? Is transportation offered?
How robust is the organization’s Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program?
II. Comprehensive & Innovative Adoption Programs Incorporating Best Practices in Animal Health and Behavior
Adoptions are the most tangible lifesaving work that an organization can perform. Gold Standard shelters focus in two key areas:
Innovative Adoption Outreach: These shelters bring adoption to the community with offsite events, welcoming adoption centers and ongoing support.
Excellence in Shelter Medicine and Animal Behavior: Committing to the life of every pet means treating sick, injured and behaviorally challenged but rehabilitatable pets, regardless the time or resources required.
i) Innovative Adoption Outreach
Successful adoption programs are geared toward engaging the community and raising awareness about the wonderful pets available for adoption. Gold Standard shelters have extensive outreach arms that showcase homeless animals using:
Offsite, high-traffic locations like malls, retail areas and community events
Media partners (TV, radio, newspapers and magazines)
Social media and other online channels
This outreach should extend beyond the adoption itself, providing adopters with resources to help during the transition and beyond, ensuring a successful family match.
How does the shelter reach out to potential adopters in the community?
What does the organization’s online presence look like?
Does the shelter provide resources and support after adoption?
ii) Excellence in Shelter Medicine and Animal Behavior
Homeless animals often arrive at shelters with physical and emotional challenges. Gold Standard organizations have the expertise to give these animals the care they need.
In shelter medicine, a trained veterinary team works to provide each pet with treatment and rehabilitation to get them adoption-ready. It also means understanding and tending to the needs of a large population of animals without cross-contaminating them and utilizing an expansive network of foster families to give pets the best environment to heal.
In animal behavior, a team of trainers, behaviorists and volunteers work with scared, abused, and undersocialized animals to ensure they receive rehabilitation, training and enrichment.
These two programs are essential to operating as a No Kill shelter (see Defining No Kill). But to reach the Gold Standard, a shelter must be excellent in these fields.
Does the shelter have a robust shelter medicine program where they treat ringworm, parvo, all upper respiratory disease, feline calicivirus, heartworm, mange and other common illnesses? Is the shelter able to perform orthopedic surgery, necessary dental surgery and other surgeries internally or through veterinary partners?
Are the shelter’s animal housing areas designed for isolation to treat a wide range of contagious disease? In more progressive shelters, animals will be housed in suites with bleachable flooring and wall surfaces and isolated airflow.
What is the shelter’s return policy? (A Gold Standard No Kill should require adopters to bring their pet back to the shelter in the event that the pet is no longer wanted.)
What is the shelter’s Save Rate? Look at shelter data to understand the volume of animals taken in and the lifesaving success. Gold Standard shelters should typically exceed a 95% Save Rate.
III. Innovation & Leadership in Animal Welfare to Challenge the Status Quo and Initiate Change
While lifesaving programs are essential to building No Kill communities, model organizations also innovate and provide leadership that can be shared with the field at large.
How has the organization responded to challenges and innovated to solve problems?
Is the organization perceived as a national leader in a particular program or arena?
The most essential foundation for any animal welfare organization is engaging the community in the cause of homeless pets. It is the public that will adopt, volunteer, and raise funds and awareness.
Gold Standard organizations know how to inspire people to join the cause. They invite the public into all aspects of the organization and have nothing to hide.
How vocal is the organization about the plight of homeless animals? Do they rally and motivate the community to get involved? Are they frequently on television, radio and in print, discussing animal issues and raising awareness?
Are trained volunteers able to help every aspect of the organization, or are there areas where the volunteers are not permitted? Trained and qualified volunteers should be welcomed into any program.
We're proud to be a No Kill shelter
Getting great results and being transparent is very important to us. See our results here.
Help Us Achieve a No Kill Chicago
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The threat from ocean acidification is greatly exaggerated
Published on: Tuesday, 15 June, 2010
Corals under threat? Yes, but not much from either warming or acidification.
As part of an `interview' with me, New Scientist published a critique by five scientists of two pages of my book The Rational Optimist. Despite its tone, this critique only confirms the accuracy of each of the statements in this section of the book. After reading their critiques, I stand even more firmly behind my conclusion that the threats to coral reefs from both man-made warming and ocean acidification are unlikely to be severe, rapid or urgent. In the case of acidification, this is underlined by a recent paper, published since my book was written, summarising the results of 372 papers and concluding that ocean acidification `may not be the widespread problem conjured into the 21st century'. The burden of proof is on those who see an urgent threat to corals from warming and acidification. Here is what I wrote (in bold), interspersed with summaries of the scientists' comments and my replies.
Take coral reefs, which are suffering horribly from pollution, silt, nutrient run-off and fishing - especially the harvesting of herbivorous fishes that otherwise keep reefs clean of algae. Yet environmentalists commonly talk as if climate change is a far greater threat than these, and they are cranking up the apocalyptic statements just as they did wrongly about forests and acid rain
Andy Ridgwell says `I agree that at least for some reef systems, other, and more local human factors such as fishing and pollution may be the greater danger' and Jelle Bijma says `I do agree that, for example, pollution and overfishing are also important problems, some even more important than the current impact of ocean acidification'. It was not therefore accurate of Liz Else to say that the critics accuse me of failing `to recognize that there is more to the health of corals than the amount of bicarbonate in the sea' They do not - she has misrepresented their views and mine.
Charlie Veron, an Australian marine biologist: 'There is no hope of reefs surviving to even mid-century in any form that we now recognise.' Alex Rogers of the Zoological Society of London pledges an 'absolute guarantee of their annihilation'. No wriggle room there.
Chris Langdon agrees that such claims `may be extreme'. None of the others provides any evidence to support such extreme claims. Yet these remarks were widely reported in the media.
It is true that rapidly heating the water by a few degrees can devastate reefs by 'bleaching' out the corals' symbiotic algae, as happened to many reefs in the especially warm El Niño year of 1998. But bleaching depends more on rate of change than absolute temperature. This must be true because nowhere on the planet, not even in the Persian Gulf where water temperatures reach 35°C, is there a sea too warm for coral reefs.
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg says that `the observation that corals grow in the Persian Gulf today at temperatures of 35 °C does not mean that coral reefs will be able to adapt rapidly to the current upward shift in sea temperatures' in other words, he concedes the point I was actually making: bleaching is caused by rate of change of temperature, not absolute level of warmth. This is not understood by many commentators on the subject in both the environmental movement and the media. I am glad to have it confirmed, because it corrects a widespread misunderstanding.
Lots of places are too cold for coral reefs - the Galapagos, for example.
Ridgwell says that `There are in fact several reef communities in the Galapagos, so the inference that the Galapagos is "too cold" is incorrect (or at best, mis-interpretable), although I agree that colder temperatures are likely an important factor in the dominance of non-reef coral communities in this location.' Which is it? `Incorrect' or `an important factor'? He concedes my point in his last phrase: `the dominance of non-reef coral communities in this location.' The very few reefs are in the warmer parts of the Galapagos. Incidentally, Charles Darwin once wrote: `There are no coral-reefs in the Galapagos Archipelago, as I know from personal inspection'.
It is now clear that corals rebound quickly from bleaching episodes, repopulating dead reefs in just a few years,
None of the five challenge this statement. As an example, a study of Fiji's reefs following a bleaching episode (Lovell and Sykes 2008. International Coral Reef Symposium) states: `Though variable, substantial recovery to pre-bleaching levels was seen within 5 years in many areas.'
which is presumably how they survived the warming lurches at the end of the last ice age.
Both Ridgwell and Hoegh-Guldberg claim that current rates of temperature change are unprecedented. Ridgwell says that the deglacial transition `was a few degrees centigrade in about 4000 to 5000 years. In the future, we are looking at a few degrees in a hundred years - perhaps 50 times faster (certainly, one to two orders of magnitude higher).' Hoegh-Guldberg refers to a rate of change `that is many times higher than even the most rapid shifts in conditions seen over the past million years or more.' These are astonishing statements to anybody with even a cursory knowledge of the scientific literature on the ending of the last ice age. The current rate of temperature change since 1975 is estimated at about 0.161 degC per decade (and is incidentally not statistically distinguishable from that in the 1860-1880 or 1910-1940 periods - see Roger Harrabin's interview with Phil Jones here:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8511670.stm). By contrast the deglacial transition was characterized by `local, regional, and more-widespread climate conditions [which] demonstrate that much of the Earth experienced abrupt climate changes synchronous with Greenland within thirty years or less' (Alley 2000. Quaternary Science Reviews 213-226), including `a warming of 7 °C in South Greenland [that] was completed in about 50 years' (Dansgaard, White and Johnsen 1989, Nature 339: 532). That is a change roughly nine times as fast as has happened since 1980 - in Greenland or anywhere else. Another study gives even bigger numbers, saying that the `abrupt warming (10 ± 4 °C)' at the end of the Younger Dryas and the warming at the end of a short lived cooler interval known as the Preboreal Oscillation `may have occurred within a few years' (Kobashi et al 2008 Earth and Planetary Sciences 268:397). Nor was this rate of change confined to Greenland. As one article summarises, `temperatures from the end of the Younger Dryas Period to the beginning of the Holocene some 12,500 years ago rose about 20 degrees Fahrenheit in a 50-year period in Antarctica, much of it in several major leaps lasting less than a decade.' (Science Daily, Oct 2 1998). It is remarkable how few scientists working on other aspects of planetary ecology seem to know about these recent conclusions of much faster changes in the past. No climatologist would these days claim that current rates of change are unprecedented in `the past million years or more'.
It is also apparent from recent research that corals become more resilient the more they experience sudden warmings.
None of the five challenges this statement, which is based on a paper by Oliver and Palumbi 2009 (MEPS 378:93), which concluded that corals are `tougher than we thought' (interview with Science News May 22, 2009) and on Baker et al 2004 (Nature 430:741), who say: 'The adaptive shift in symbiont communities indicates that these devastated reefs could be more resistant to future thermal stress, resulting in significantly longer extinction times for surviving corals than had been previously assumed.'
Some reefs may yet die if the world warms rapidly in the twenty-first century, but others in cooler regions may expand.
Ridgwell agrees `that eventual colonisation and expansion of corals into regions previously too cold will, in theory, be possible at some point in the future' so there is no inaccuracy in my statement. He merely says that it is `unclear' whether dispersal and colonisation can occur fast enough to keep up with increasing temperatures.
Local threats are far more immediate than climate change.
Ridgwell agrees `that at least for some reef systems, other, and more local human factors such as fishing and pollution may be the greater danger' but says this may not be true for those in protected areas - because the local threats there have been reduced. That is merely a statement of the obvious. But the greatest threats to coral reefs come outside protected areas.
Ocean acidification looks suspiciously like a back-up plan by the environmental pressure groups in case the climate fails to warm: another try at condemning fossil fuels.
A statement of my opinion based on what follows.
The oceans are alkaline, with an average pH of about 8.1, well above neutral (7).
Langdon confirms this: `Yes, it is true that the surface oceans are slightly alkaline at a pH of 8.1' but then says that `the declining pH of the surface ocean is one of the most firmly established facts in climate change science.' Is he implying that I dispute this? I do not. Incidentally, the pH of the ocean varies hugely, being below neutral in some inshore areas influenced by run off from the land. On some coral reefs it goes as low as 7.5 at night and as high as 9.4 in the day (Revelle and Fairbridge 1957). Remarkably there are parts of the sea with pH already far lower than it can possibly go as a result of carbon emissions. In one hydrothermal spot off Iceland, it is 5.36-7.29.Yet four-decade-old mussels have learned to cope with even this acidity, though growing half as fast as in normal waters (Tunnicliffe et al 2009, Nature Geoscience 10.1038).
They are also extremely well buffered.
Langdon agrees: `And yes, the oceans are well buffered'.
Very high carbon dioxide levels could push that number down, perhaps to about 7.95 by 2050 - still highly alkaline
Presumably it is here that Bijma thinks I `introduce confusion about the term "acidification"' merely because by saying that 7.95 is still highly alkaline, I am accurately reminding the reader that there is no prediction of the oceans becoming technically `acid' - ie having a pH lower than 7. Far from introducing confusion, I was attempting to reduce the very confusion so often encountered by readers who think that acidification will lead to oceans that are actually acid. In any case, my statement is accurate.
and still much higher than it was for most of the last 100 million years.
Ridgwell agrees: `Ocean pH in the past (at least, according to published reconstructions) was indeed lower than now during the Cretaceous, and probably lower than anything we will manage in the future.'
Some argue that this tiny downward shift in average alkalinity could make it harder for animals and plants that deposit calcium carbonate in their skeletons to do so. But this flies in the face of chemistry: the reason the acidity is increasing is that the dissolved bicarbonate is increasing too -
Langdon agrees: `Matt is correct that bicarbonate concentrations are increasing'.
and increasing the bicarbonate concentration increases the ease with which carbonate can be precipitated out with calcium by creatures that seek to do so.
Here there seems superficially to be a disagreement, but in reality there is none. Ridgwell, Langdon and Bijma say that carbonate levels fall rather than rise as a result of increasing dissolved carbon dioxide. But I don't say that carbonate levels rise. I say that the biological precipitation of carbonate by organisms is easier at higher bicarbonate levels. And Langdon confirms this: `Matt is correct that the skeleton and shell building of some species is unaffected or even increases under reduced pH'. My evidence? For example, Ries et al 2009 (Geology37:1131) found that in seven of the 18 species of calcifiers they observed `net calcification increased under the intermediateand/or highest levels of pCO2'. And that their results `suggestthat the impact of elevated atmospheric pCO2 on marine calcificationis more varied than previously thought, while Hendriks et al 2010 (Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 86:157) found that the ion chemistry inside the bodies of calcifiers is more important than that outside them, and there is evidence that some of them - eg coccolithophores - actually find it energetically easier to deposit carbonate shells at slightly lower pH.
Even with tripled bicarbonate concentrations, corals show a continuing increase in both photosynthesis and calcification.
My source was the Herfort et al 2008 paper, which Ridgwell says is irrelevant, because of its experimental design. That's his opinion, which others in the field do not share. In any case, my statement was a correct and precise description of the result.
This is confirmed by a rash of empirical studies showing that increased carbonic acid either has no effect or actually increases the growth of calcareous plankton, cuttlefish larvae and coccolithophores.
Hoegh-Guldberg disagrees: `Call it inconvenient but the vast bulk of scientific evidence shows that marine calcifiers such as coccolithophores, corals and oysters are being heavily impacted already by ocean acidification.' He provides no reference. By contrast, I cite Iglesias-Rodriguez et al 2008 (Science 320:336). They state: `From the mid-Mesozoic, coccolithophores have beenmajor calcium carbonate producers in the world's oceans, todayaccounting for about a third of the total marine CaCO3production.Here, we present laboratory evidence that calcification andnet primary production in the coccolithophore species Emilianiahuxleyi are significantly increased by high CO2 partial pressures.Field evidence from the deep ocean is consistent with theselaboratory conclusions, indicating that over the past 220 yearsthere has been a 40% increase in average coccolith mass'.
As for oysters, Miller et al. 2009 (PLOS ONE 4: 10.1371) found that oyster larvae `appeared to grow, calcify and develop normally with no obvious morphological deformities, despite conditions of significant aragonite undersaturation,' and that these findings `run counter to expectations that aragonite shelled larvae should be especially prone to dissolution at high pCO2'.
As for sea urchins, Lacoue-Labarthe et al. 2009 (Biogeosciences 6) report that `decreasing pH resulted in higher egg weight at the end of development at both temperatures (p < 0.05), with maximal values at pH 7.85 (1.60 ± 0.21 g and 1.83 ± 0.12 g at 16°C and 19°C, respectively).'.
As for corals, Suwa et al. 2010 (Fisheries science 76) report that `larval survival rate did not differ significantly among pH treatments.'
Lest my critics still accuse me of cherry-picking studies, let me refer them also to the results of Hendrikset al. (2010, Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 86:157). Far from being a cherry-picked study, this is a massive meta-analysis. The authors observed that `warnings that ocean acidification is a major threat to marine biodiversity are largely based on the analysis of predicted changes in ocean chemical fields' rather than empirical data. So they constructed a database of 372 studies in which the responses of 44 different marine species to ocean acidification induced by equilibrating seawater with CO2-enriched air had been actually measured. They found that only a minority of studies demonstrated `significant responses to acidification' and there was no significant mean effect even in these studies. They concluded that the world's marine biota are `more resistant to ocean acidification than suggested by pessimistic predictions identifying ocean acidification as a major threat to marine biodiversity' and that ocean acidification `may not be the widespread problem conjured into the 21st century…Biological processes can provide homeostasis against changes in pH in bulk waters of the range predicted during the 21st century.' This important paper alone contradicts Hoegh-Gudlberg's assertion that `the vast bulk of scientific evidence shows that calcifiers… are being heavily impacted already'.
In conclusion, I rest my case. My five critics have not only failed to contradict, but have explicitly confirmed the truth of every single one of my factual statements. We differ only in how we interpret the facts. It is hardly surprising that my opinion is not shared by five scientists whose research grants depend on funding agencies being persuaded that there will be a severe and rapid impact of carbon dioxide emissions on coral reefs in coming decades. I merely report accurately that the latest empirical and theoretical research suggests that the likely impact has been exaggerated.
rational-optimist
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Reason and Reality
"If You're Not Outraged, You're Not Paying Attention."
‘Spiked’ launches a demented, fact free attack on “Stop Funding Hate”.
The bizarre on line magazine, Spiked, has launched another fact free attack on a campaign it doesn’t like. These two very similar articles from Spiked writers were published within days of each other:
“The hatefulness of stop funding hate” by Naomi Firsht,
Staff writer at Spiked:
http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/the-hatefulness-of-stop-funding-hate/18978#.WC4ttfmLSUl
“Stop Funding Hate: a nasty, elitist campaign for press censorship” by Brendan O’Neill, in the Spectator (16th Nov 2016):
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/11/stop-funding-hate-nasty-elitist-campaign-press-censorship/ … (Brendan O’Neill is editor of Spiked)
I don’t hold any brief for the “Stop Funding Hate” campaign apart from noting the obvious good sense of its title, so I took a closer look.
Try what may I couldn’t find any evidence whatsoever to support Spiked’s claim that this campaign is a “hateful, nasty elitist campaign for press censorship”.
What the two Spiked writers have done is simply made stuff up, distorted reality and mixed it all up with an endless stream of worthless straw-men arguments.
The inflammatory and, to be honest, demented and hate filled tone of the two Spiked articles is in stark contrast to the calm reasoned tone of “Stop funding hate”. If you are a Spiked supporter nothing I say will influence you, but if you came this way interested in a more open minded, evidence based view of “Stop funding hate”, I suggest you check out “Stop funding hate” for yourself.
Here is their video advert:
Here are some more links:
Meet the man behind Stop Funding Hate, the campaign tackling racist tabloids (Article from The Tab by Callum McCulloch): http://thetab.com/uk/2016/11/13/meet-the-man-behind-stop-funding-hate-the-campaign-tackling-racist-tabloids-25400
Stop Funding Hate: Facebook page Twitter account.
Lego ends advertising with Daily Mail after calls for companies to ‘Stop Funding Hate’: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/lego-ends-advertising-daily-mail-stop-funding-hate-campaign-a7413361.html
Most of us are very wary of government involvement in monitoring the press. Spiked authors take this further and are generally opposed to any government involvement in any aspect of our lives but on the other hand are very happy for market forces to replace the role of democratically accountable government. It’s therefore pretty hypocritical of Spiked to criticise anyone who dares to make use of those market forces. Lego and Waitrose etc are free to do as they wish, customers are free to do as they wish, ‘intellectual elites’ are free to do as they wish, what could Spiked possibly object to?
Finally, I repeat, where is the hate in this campaign – perhaps it’s only in the minds and straw-men of Spiked authors.
To get some reality based perspective on this debate let’s remind ourselves of some tabloid front pages:
Spiked Authors – Apologists for the far right
Here is a Spiked article by their deputy editor Tom Slater in which he acts as apologist for the far right groups, Breitbart and Alt-right.
Here’s a video of an alt-right conference meeting led by Richard B. Spencer, in Washington, D.C., where Trump’s victory was met with cheers and Nazi salutes. (Read the full article: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/…)
Spiked authors assert that worrying about Trump, his cronies and advisers is “hysteria and fear-mongering”. I’ll leave the reader to watch this video and decide for themselves.
Finally, a message to Spiked writers: If the only time you defend free speech is when the speech is racist, sexist, homophobic or white supremacist, …. you don’t love free speech.
More about Spiked on Line here: http://powerbase.info/index.php/Spiked
Author Colin LawsonPosted on November 18, 2016 November 21, 2017 Categories Media, Politics
2 thoughts on “‘Spiked’ launches a demented, fact free attack on “Stop Funding Hate”.”
Geoff Tipps Rotherham says:
Scum like O’Neill and Firsht portray minorities who speak out against the vicious hatred of the white ruling class and the establishment media that is poured upon them on a daily basis as nasty fascist censorious bullies of rich media corporations owned by billionaire tycoons.
They truly are vile and reprehensible
Colin Lawson says:
Thanks for contributing Geoff. While your language is not quite what I would use I am sympathetic to your anger. This University educated ‘intellectual elite’ are clearly aware that they’re using every trick in the propagandist’s book and do so without any qualms.
I am particularly galled by their ruse of making token attempts at distancing themselves from the far right but then go onto attack anyone who criticises the far right with a venom that enables Spiked to act as apologists without having to justify their support.
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Democracy is dependent upon an electorate that is accurately informed. There is a vast difference between putting forth a point of view, honestly held, and intentionally sowing the seeds of confusion. Free speech does not include the right to deceive. Deception is not a point of view. And the right to disagree does not include a right to intentionally subvert the public awareness. DeSmogBlog
George Eustice – “My priorities for Camborne, Redruth and Hayle” GE2019 December 1, 2019
The pernicious influence of right wing lobbyists given a platform by the BBC and #SkyPapers December 2, 2018
Brexit campaign ads are among the first removed by Facebook in a crackdown. Here’s a Leave.EU video ad that includes an appalling example of fake news. December 2, 2018
Mark Littlewood of the IEA has blocked me in response to my ‘Trojan Horse attack on the NHS’ comment. July 29, 2018
Jacob Bronowski in the crematorium at Auschwitz (Ascent of Man, BBC 1975) January 27, 2018
‘Spiked’ launches a demented, fact free attack on “Stop Funding Hate”. November 18, 2016
Invoke Article 50 Now – Invoke Democracy Now – Uphold the Brexit vote! September 4, 2016
Who is behind the campaigning group “Invoke Democracy Now”. July 18, 2016
Brexit: the battle for democracy starts here. (Institute of Ideas / Spiked on Line) June 30, 2016
“Not on the backs of the most vulnerable in our society.” March 18, 2016
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The parable of the reporter and the meadow
A reporter encounters two men returning from the fields. He asks them what they had been doing. The first man says they have been to the meadow to cut the grass; it was now immaculate. The second man says they have done no such thing; not a blade of grass has been touched.
A bad reporter quotes just one of the men.
A mediocre reporter quotes both.
A good reporter goes and looks at the sodding meadow.
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“‘The price of this financial crisis is being borne by people who absolutely did not cause it”. “Now is the period when the cost is being paid, I’m surprised that the degree of public anger has not been greater than it has.”
— Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England
George Eustice – “My priorities for Camborne, Redruth and Hayle” GE2019
The pernicious influence of right wing lobbyists given a platform by the BBC and #SkyPapers
Brexit campaign ads are among the first removed by Facebook in a crackdown. Here’s a Leave.EU video ad that includes an appalling example of fake news.
Mark Littlewood of the IEA has blocked me in response to my ‘Trojan Horse attack on the NHS’ comment.
Jacob Bronowski in the crematorium at Auschwitz (Ascent of Man, BBC 1975)
Invoke Article 50 Now – Invoke Democracy Now – Uphold the Brexit vote!
Who is behind the campaigning group “Invoke Democracy Now”.
Brexit: the battle for democracy starts here. (Institute of Ideas / Spiked on Line)
“Not on the backs of the most vulnerable in our society.”
Colin Lawson on Jacob Bronowski in the crematorium at Auschwitz (Ascent of Man, BBC 1975)
I Evans on Jacob Bronowski in the crematorium at Auschwitz (Ascent of Man, BBC 1975)
Colin Lawson on Brexit campaign ads are among the first removed by Facebook in a crackdown. Here’s a Leave.EU video ad that includes an appalling example of fake news.
Dave Holladay on Brexit campaign ads are among the first removed by Facebook in a crackdown. Here’s a Leave.EU video ad that includes an appalling example of fake news.
Colin Lawson on ‘Spiked’ launches a demented, fact free attack on “Stop Funding Hate”.
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Local Detroit Biz: Sales Soar After Shark-Tank App...
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Local Detroit Biz: Sales Soar After Shark-Tank Appearance
Photo: Shark Tank
Just because an entrepreneur walks away without a deal from the billionaire moguls on Shark Tank doesn’t mean the pitch was a failure. In many cases, the effort to get Mark Cuban, Lori Grenier or even Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary to invest can itself turn out to be a huge success.
That’s what happened to Jess Sanchez-McClary. The CEO of Detroit’s McClary Bros. originally pitched her drinking-vinegars business on the season premiere of the ABC-TV reality show in late September, seeking $100,000 for 15 percent of the company.
Her product was drinking vinegars, a modern version of a colonial-era cocktail and soda mixer made with natural and organic ingredients. She came up with it while studying preservative techniques at culinary school, and told the sharks that her mixes are aimed at the growing craft cocktail movement.
The Sharks weren't initially impressed. Not only did she not get an investment, she got an aggressive dismissal from O’Leary, whose criticism went over the line in the opinion of guest shark Ashton Kutcher. The reason: O’Leary's comment to Sanchez-McClary that, “Let’s be honest -- it’s four guys and dog that drink this stuff. Why are you doing this to yourself?”
Kutcher actually called him out: “You’re belittling people and that’s not OK,” he told O’Leary. “She gave you an answer, and if the answer’s not suitable, that’s fine, but you don’t have to belittle people.”
That may have buoyed Sanchez-McClary’s spirits. But what happened immediately after the Friday episode aired probably did even more: McClary’s website took in 1,000 new orders the very next day. By Monday, Sanchez-McClary was able to say, “We have done now, on the website, as much in sales as we did on the website the whole of last year.”
In the three months since, things have gotten even better. Sanchez-McClary now says she’s doubled her full-time staff from three to six people, reopened a tasting room to draw in retail customers, connected with several distributors and grown the business so much that she’s opening a second production facility next month.
And her bottom line? She estimates today that sales prompted by her Shark Tank appearance have brought in $200,000 – more than she was seeking from the sharks in the first place. “Before the holidays started, we had already done more than twice in revenue than the amount we had requested from the sharks,” Sanchez-McClary says. “I really don’t need an investor anymore.”
Posted by Erin Rose at 4:20 PM Labels: Detroit Business, Detroit Making Headlines, Detroit On Film, New Detroit Business
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SCRIPT NEWS
FUTURE FILM
FUTURE FILM RELEASE DATES
Universal Release Two New Clips from 'THE THING' starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead!
Follow @Scriptflags
Universal Pictures have released two clips from The Thing, their upcoming prequel to John Carpenter's 1982 original of the same name via Myspace. The movie focuses on paleontologist Kate Lloyd [Mary Elizabeth Winstead] who has made the journey to a remote desolate region of Antartica to join a Norwegian scientific team that have discovered an extraterrestrial ship buried in the ice. The movie directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. also stars Joel Edgerton, Jonathan Lloyd Walker & Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. The Thing hits theaters on October 14th. Hit the jump to check out the clips.
Synopsis: "Antarctica: an extraordinary continent of awesome beauty. It is also home to an isolated outpost where a discovery full of scientific possibility becomes a mission of survival when an alien is unearthed by a crew of international scientists. The shape-shifting creature, accidentally unleashed at this marooned colony, has the ability to turn itself into a perfect replica of any living being. It can look just like you or me, but inside, it remains inhuman. In the thriller The Thing, paranoia spreads like an epidemic among a group of researchers as they're infected, one by one, by a mystery from another planet. Paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has traveled to the desolate region for the expedition of her lifetime. Joining a Norwegian scientific team that has stumbled across an extraterrestrial ship buried in the ice, she discovers an organism that seems to have died in the crash eons ago. But it is about to wake up. When a simple experiment frees the alien from its frozen prison, Kate must join the crew's pilot, Carter (Joel Edgerton), to keep it from killing them off one at a time. And in this vast, intense land, a parasite that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish."
The Thing - Clip - Kate Shows Everyone The Filling She Found
Trailer Park Movies | Myspace Video
The Thing - Clip - Kate Locks the Americans in a Storage Room
Clips via Myspace [via Rory at CBM].
I'm reading: Universal Release Two New Clips from 'THE THING' starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead!Tweet this!
Ghostwrks.com
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Christine Cohen
Representing Branford, Durham, Guilford, Killingworth, Madison & North Branford
Follow Senator Cohen:
Press Aide: Lawrence Cook, 860-240-8609
Connecticut Farm Bureau, Bishop's Orchards, Support Cohen's Cider Bill
GUILFORD, CT—Today, the Connecticut Farm Bureau and Bishop’s Orchards gave their support to State Senator Christine Cohen’s (D-Guilford) bill which will allow holders of a manufacturers permit for cider to sell apple wine and hard cider by the glass and bottle and also to sell and serve food on the permitted premises.
“This bill proposal will allow Bishop's Orchards, as well as other cideries, the opportunity to not only manufacture hard cider, but also have the option of selling by the glass,” said Sen. Cohen. “We have breweries across the state conducting business in this manner and shouldn't prevent sales for cider. I'm happy to help by introducing legislation that will promote commerce in the 12th district and the State of Connecticut.”
If enacted, Senate Bill No. 539 “AN ACT CONCERNING THE SALE OF CIDER AND FOOD BY HOLDERS OF A MANUFACTURER PERMIT FOR CIDER,” will create economic opportunities for businesses like Bishop’s Orchards, according to co-owner and winemaker Keith Bishop. He said Sen. Cohen has been an ardent supporter of local businesses.
“This legislation will give us a better opportunity to serve more customers and make us a more attractive destination for consumers,” said Bishop. “I thank Sen. Cohen for her leadership and attentiveness to her community and ask that all other legislators follow her lead in supporting this proposal. Sen. Cohen knows that Bishop's stewardship of over 200 acres of crops is important to our town, and direct sales to the public of our crops are important to our economic sustenance. All of the wines and hard ciders we make are from fruit we grow on our farm.”
Sen. Cohen reiterated the importance of supporting local business and said with the growing popularity of hard ciders and apple wines, passing this legislation will help similar businesses across the state
“Helping businesses succeed is vital to a healthy economy,” said Sen. Cohen. “I was made aware that our current laws were creating significant encumbrances preventing Bishops from expanding upon their business plan. They were rightfully exploring opportunities to expand with market changes based upon a product they were manufacturing—hard cider. Yet, because of an antiquated statute that perhaps didn't have the foresight that hard cider would become popular, Bishops was unable to sell in a certain manner.”
Connecticut Farm Bureau Executive Director Bryan Hurlburt said he fully supports this legislation. He said Sen. Cohen’s efforts are consistent with, and supportive of, the Connecticut Farm Bureau’s agenda and will best serve the economic and agricultural health of the state and 12th District.
“Creating more opportunities for all local producers of cider is a Connecticut Farm Bureau priority for this legislative session,” said Hurlburt. “We know that consumers are demanding more access to locally grown, and produced, ciders; and this will help this new market grow and thrive—supporting farms with a better value-added opportunity across the state. We thank Sen. Cohen for proposing this bill and will work to ensure that all legislators understand the importance of this proposal and what it means for Connecticut farmers.”
On January 24, Senate Bill No. 539 was referred to the General Law Committee to determine if the proposed legislation will advance in the legislative process. It has been included to legislation concerning the Liquor Control Act and will have a public hearing on February 28.
About Christine Cohen: Sen. Cohen was first elected in 2018 to represent the 12th Senate District which consists of Branford, Durham, Guilford, Killingworth, Madison and North Branford. Christine is a small business owner; the proud owner of Cohen’s Bagel Company.
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Posted by Melissa McEwan at Thursday, March 10, 2016
Here is some stuff in the news today...
In case you didn't watch the Democratic debate last night, but want to see the very excellent moment in which Hillary Clinton mocked Donald Trump's incessant argle-bargling about how he's going to build a giant wall along the US-Mexico border, here it is:
He's talking about a very tall wall— [audience laughter] Right? A beautiful, tall wall— [laughter] Ah, the most beautiful, tall wall, better than the Great Wall of China [laughter] that would run the entire border, that he would somehow magically get the Mexican government to pay for [laughter] and, you know, it's just fantasy!
[Content Note: Climate change] "The US and Canada declared they would help lead the transition to a low-carbon global economy on Thursday, in a dramatic role reversal for two countries once derided as climate change villains. The shared vision unveiled by Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau ahead of a meeting at the White House commits the two countries to a range of actions to shore up the historic climate agreement reached in Paris last December. The two leaders committed to rally G20 countries behind the accord, promote North American carbon markets, cap emissions from hundreds of thousands of existing oil and gas wells, and protect indigenous communities in a region which is warming beyond the point of no return, according to a statement from the White House. The initiative announced on Thursday brings the US a big step closer to meeting its own Paris target by committing for the first time to cut emissions of methane—a powerful greenhouse gas responsible for about a quarter of warming—from existing oil and gas wells." Obama + Trudeau = WIN.
Speaking of President Obama: "President Barack Obama earned a 50% job approval rating for the week ending March 6, his highest weekly average since May 2013." Huh! It turns out that Democrats being progressive gets them higher approval ratings! I'm sure looking at Obama in comparison to the nightmare contingent of Republican candidates doesn't hurt, either.
[CN: Class warfare] Rage seethe boil: "On Wednesday, lawmakers in the West Virginia House overwhelmingly passed a bill that will drug test some of the poor who apply for state welfare benefits. ...The state Senate already approved the legislation, but will have to hold a vote of concurrence on the amendments added to it in the House. After that, it will head to Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin (D) for a signature. Once the bill arrives at the governor's desk, a spokeswoman for his office told ThinkProgress he will review it with his policy and legal teams and then make a decision about whether to sign it or veto." My thoughts on this garbage previously.
[CN: Assault; misogyny] Another reporter has been assaulted at a Trump rally: "The Breitbart News reporter who was allegedly assaulted by Donald Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski at a campaign news conference Tuesday night is speaking out about the incident for the first time in a new op-ed posted to the news outlet's website overnight. Michelle Fields, who covers politics for Breitbart, says she was 'jolted backwards' after she posed a question to the Republican front-runner. 'Trump acknowledged the question, but before he could answer I was jolted backwards. Someone had grabbed me tightly by the arm and yanked me down. I almost fell to the ground, but was able to maintain my balance. Nonetheless, I was shaken,' Fields writes in the post. Fields did not see who pulled her but said The Washington Post's Ben Terris allegedly identified the aggressor as Lewandowski. 'I quickly turned around and saw Lewandowski and Trump exiting the building together. No apology. No explanation for why he did this,' Fields says." Breitbart News is a deeply conservative outlet, so it's unlikely the motivation was ideological. Trump routinely blasts the press at his events.
[CN: Assault; racism] Another black protester was also assaulted at a Trump rally: "The now-common violent outbreaks at Donald Trump rallies escalated further at an event in Fayetteville, North Carolina on Wednesday. Footage that surfaced Thursday morning showed a black man getting punched in the face by a white rally attendee and then wrestled to the ground by police officers. The protesters were being led out of the rally by men who were wearing sheriff's uniforms when Rakeem Jones flipped his middle fingers to the crowd. In the video, he's punched in the face by a white man in a cowboy hat. The crowd cheers, and Jones is pushed to the ground by the officers and handcuffed." Fucking hell.
Also some dudes apparently ate some nachos at a Trump rally.
[CN: Sexual assault; Christian Supremacy; video may autoplay at link] Josh Duggar has left his "rehabilitation program," which was some untherapeutic religious bullshit promoted by a serial sexual abuser, and is now home with his family. I desperately hope that his children and the women around him will be safe, and fear that they won't be.
[CN: Video may autoplay at second link] Wow: "A NASA Mars spacecraft celebrates a major milestone today—a decade circling the Red Planet. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) arrived at the Red Planet on March 10, 2006 and has done yeoman's work in the decade since. To mark the occasion, NASA created this video celebrating the MRO's 10 years at Mars."
And finally! "Puppies or Food?" LOL!!! We'd better just NOM NOM NOM all of them to be safe.
Labels: class warfare, climate change, Hillary Clinton, I Fart in Donald Trump's General Direction, Josh Duggar, Justin Trudeau, Obama, space exploration
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DW News - News : DW : February 11, 2018 10:00am-10:16am CET
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haiti after the twenty ten earthquake he has accused of a cover up which the charity denies. of monday marks exactly three years since the men's peace agreement has been signed the conflict in eastern ukraine shows no sign of abating and twenty fifteen moscow and kiev agreed to the cease fire the withdrawal of heavy weapons and the release of all prisoners but so far there has been little sign of those measures being implemented. alexandre's says progress separatists have taken parts of his homeland away from him that's why he joined a ukrainian volunteer battalion he was later taken prisoner by separatist forces and jailed in donetsk for almost two years the separatists accused him of treason. the prison management were ok. but when the masked men came in it got bad. and so everything we had. in december ukrainian and separatist forces exchanged more than three hundred prisoners alexander was one of them it was a rare tangible success of the twenty fifteen minutes weekly event which is otherwise still egregious cease fire has broken almost daily in some areas just a few hundred
haiti after the twenty ten earthquake he has accused of a cover up which the charity denies. of monday marks exactly three years since the men's peace agreement has been signed the conflict in eastern ukraine shows no sign of abating and twenty fifteen moscow and kiev agreed to the cease fire the withdrawal of heavy weapons and the release of all prisoners but so far there has been little sign of those measures being implemented. alexandre's says progress separatists have taken parts of his...
DW News - News : DW : February 21, 2018 2:00am-2:03am CET
misconduct by its staff in haiti mark goldring said he was sorry for the damage caused to the people of haiti. a trade dispute is brewing between the e.u. on the us the european union is reportedly preparing counter tariffs on american products from altera bikes to whiskey. the hard sell trying to join your arrives in india to sell luxury apartments while preaching foreign policy so it's like a conflict of interest and cash strapped tennis where launches of virtual currency the pap show a stroke of genius or an act of pure desperation. time for business news i'm funny for charlie in berlin walk home authorities in the e.u. are getting ready to slap high tariffs on american products like whiskey orange juice and motorcycles if donald trump carries out his friends to its important steal the punitive measures u.s. secretary of commerce wilbur ross has suggested a likelihood of putting a twenty four percent tariff on all steel imports or introducing a quota.
misconduct by its staff in haiti mark goldring said he was sorry for the damage caused to the people of haiti. a trade dispute is brewing between the e.u. on the us the european union is reportedly preparing counter tariffs on american products from altera bikes to whiskey. the hard sell trying to join your arrives in india to sell luxury apartments while preaching foreign policy so it's like a conflict of interest and cash strapped tennis where launches of virtual currency the pap show a...
DocFilm - Lost Childhood in Kenya : DW : February 23, 2018 10:15am-11:00am CET
run boarding school in. the state are thought to have been abducted by extremists. haiti has suspended oxfam great britain's operations in the country for two months pending an investigation into alleged sexual misconduct the move follows reports that staff held sex parties with prostitutes during relief efforts for a devastating earthquake in two thousand and ten. the dutch parliament has recognized the massacre of up to one point five million armenians during the first world war as genocide this contradicts the dutch government's official position on the killings the massacre was carried out by the ottoman empire during world war one turkey denies any genocide took place. campaign aides paul metaphor and rick gates are facing fresh charges in the rush of probe they've already pleaded not guilty to indict once for money laundering and fraud this comes week after special counsel robert mueller charged thirteen russians with meddling in the u.s. presidential election. you're watching the news still to come president donald trump wants to arm teachers in a school that's despite
run boarding school in. the state are thought to have been abducted by extremists. haiti has suspended oxfam great britain's operations in the country for two months pending an investigation into alleged sexual misconduct the move follows reports that staff held sex parties with prostitutes during relief efforts for a devastating earthquake in two thousand and ten. the dutch parliament has recognized the massacre of up to one point five million armenians during the first world war as genocide...
DW News - News : DW : February 11, 2018 2:00pm-2:16pm CET
prostitutes all they were on a mission to haiti following the twenty ten earthquake haiti has accused all. spam of a cover up a charge the charity did not. manned mars government says it will take action against ten members of the security forces and six villagers were suspected of massacring will hinge on muslims it's not clear whether the suspects will face charges authorities claim this move is not connected to a warder's news report on the massacre over which two journalists were arrested. right when protesters in the south korean capital seoul have rallied against north korea just hours after a joint korean a women's hockey team made this one big debut in china protesters are skeptical about the warming relations between the leaders on the two countries. over more on the winter olympics which is now into day two in china i'm joined by alina had talking from our sports desk only we're going to take us through all the acts and i understand there are seven gold medals being decided today what can we look forward to so it's been a bit of a gold rush for germany who have are on prefer he
prostitutes all they were on a mission to haiti following the twenty ten earthquake haiti has accused all. spam of a cover up a charge the charity did not. manned mars government says it will take action against ten members of the security forces and six villagers were suspected of massacring will hinge on muslims it's not clear whether the suspects will face charges authorities claim this move is not connected to a warder's news report on the massacre over which two journalists were arrested....
hired prostitutes in haiti all a mission to help those affected by the two thousand and ten earthquake all asked the senior staff member if aid workers can be trusted. that it is dave's here with the winter olympics and pianka chan will have the latest action including seventeen year old graduate who argue that it will win in the men's slopestyle the first goal for the u.s. . plan . and sarah holland broken is a show it's good to have you with us. or russian passenger plane operated by summer tall the airline says crashed else live moscow sixty five passengers and six crew members were on board the plane when it went missing from radar after taking off when moscow airport the plane went down in a rule area near the city's outskirts all seventy one people on board feared to have been killed. let's cross now to our moscow correspondent emily sure when she's on the story for us emily what more can you tell us about this crash well there isn't that much information about the crash at the moment particularly was it when it comes to the causes it seems that the airplane crashed ju
hired prostitutes in haiti all a mission to help those affected by the two thousand and ten earthquake all asked the senior staff member if aid workers can be trusted. that it is dave's here with the winter olympics and pianka chan will have the latest action including seventeen year old graduate who argue that it will win in the men's slopestyle the first goal for the u.s. . plan . and sarah holland broken is a show it's good to have you with us. or russian passenger plane operated by summer...
responding to accusations oxfam covered up allegations of sexual misconduct by its staff in haiti mark goldring said he was sorry for the damage caused to the people of haiti. a new face off in syria pro regime forces arrived in the northern kurdish enclave of offering with one goal pushing back the turkish invasion as shots fired the specter of direct conflict between damascus and i'll grow grow. i'm sorry kelly in berlin this is the day. by the job. her operation may look like it's moving slowly because we're making sure we're not putting the lives of our security forces at risk and we are aware the civilians. in syria is according to the interests of illegal ones are providing turkey with security you can be resolved i'm satisfied.
responding to accusations oxfam covered up allegations of sexual misconduct by its staff in haiti mark goldring said he was sorry for the damage caused to the people of haiti. a new face off in syria pro regime forces arrived in the northern kurdish enclave of offering with one goal pushing back the turkish invasion as shots fired the specter of direct conflict between damascus and i'll grow grow. i'm sorry kelly in berlin this is the day. by the job. her operation may look like it's moving...
thought to have been abducted by extremists. haiti has suspended oxfam great britain's operations in the country for two months pending an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct the move followed reports that oxfam staff held sex parties and sexually abused women during relief efforts for a devastating earthquake in two thousand and ten. to the united states there are new details have emerged about last week's florida school shooting that left seventeen people dead the armed officer assigned to the school waited outside the building during the shooting and did not confront the killer this news comes as president carter trying to schooling for tighter background checks and for some teachers to be armed. this is the coffin of chris hicks and hailed a hero for trying to stop the shooter at the florida school he worked at a u.s. navy veteran he was given full military honors. as families lay their loved ones to rest more details about the fateful day are emerging surveillance footage has shown that the armed officer on duty scott peterson never went inside the school to conf
thought to have been abducted by extremists. haiti has suspended oxfam great britain's operations in the country for two months pending an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct the move followed reports that oxfam staff held sex parties and sexually abused women during relief efforts for a devastating earthquake in two thousand and ten. to the united states there are new details have emerged about last week's florida school shooting that left seventeen people dead the armed...
DocFilm - Putin - Master of the Game : DW : February 23, 2018 4:15pm-5:00pm CET
inductee in you'll be a state of thought to have been abducted by extremists. haiti has suspended oxfam great britain's operations in the country for two months pending an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct the move followed reports that oxfam staff held sex parties and sexually abused women during relief efforts for a devastating earthquake in two thousand and ten. to the united states there are new details have emerged about last week's florida school shooting that left seventeen people dead the armed officer assigned to the school waited outside the building during the shooting and did not confront the killer this news comes as president carter trying to schooling for tighter background checks and for some teachers to be armed. this is the coffin of chris hicks and hailed a hero for trying to stop the shooter at the florida school he worked at a u.s. navy veteran he was given full military honors. as families lay their loved ones to rest more details about the fateful day are emerging surveillance footage has shown that the armed officer on duty scott peterson never
inductee in you'll be a state of thought to have been abducted by extremists. haiti has suspended oxfam great britain's operations in the country for two months pending an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct the move followed reports that oxfam staff held sex parties and sexually abused women during relief efforts for a devastating earthquake in two thousand and ten. to the united states there are new details have emerged about last week's florida school shooting that left...
inside korea receiving bribes carries a penalty of up to a lifetime in jail park in haiti denies any wrongdoing in a very direct as expected on april sixth. join me now is what i'm jason strother in seoul south korea just in today was the final session in this luck irruption guest tell us about the significance of this trial and what kind of wood it is expected. i mean i think many south koreans feel this was an example of people power as your reporter indicated for months millions of south koreans came out onto the streets to call for her ouster and they got it pretty much and to them it was you know it was a long overdue correction of what they many people see as the corrupt ties between the political and business elites and as for what kind of a verdict that we can expect when the judge rules it's hard to say prosecutors have asked for much to for penalties for the samsung chairman lee j. young as well as chase to shill the woman at the center of the corruption scandal but in the end the judge has always given less than what the prosecution has asked although we have to remember t
inside korea receiving bribes carries a penalty of up to a lifetime in jail park in haiti denies any wrongdoing in a very direct as expected on april sixth. join me now is what i'm jason strother in seoul south korea just in today was the final session in this luck irruption guest tell us about the significance of this trial and what kind of wood it is expected. i mean i think many south koreans feel this was an example of people power as your reporter indicated for months millions of south...
DW News - News : DW : February 5, 2018 9:00am-9:31am CET
president park in haiti. ryan as flying high with its latest quarterly figures showing its earnings soared twelve percent to one hundred six million euros spite the cancellation crisis a few months ago when thousands of flights had to be cancelled due to a problem with pilot scheduling the result and chaos cost the irish budget carrier its position as europe europe's biggest ally and by passenger numbers in favor of tonnes us in law in large by its takeover of lynn ryan as figures also come offered announced a so-called briggs's clause applying to tickets sold for the summer of twenty nineteen that's a warning to passengers that their tickets will be invalidated if aviation regulations remain unclear after the u.k. leaves the european union. so a quick check on the markets now danielle copus our correspondent in frankfurt done the following wall street mainly stocks went down last week on the whole what can we expect this week. yeah good morning again from a very chilly frankfurt this morning climbing also rather cold inside of the stock market here after all the major indices in as
president park in haiti. ryan as flying high with its latest quarterly figures showing its earnings soared twelve percent to one hundred six million euros spite the cancellation crisis a few months ago when thousands of flights had to be cancelled due to a problem with pilot scheduling the result and chaos cost the irish budget carrier its position as europe europe's biggest ally and by passenger numbers in favor of tonnes us in law in large by its takeover of lynn ryan as figures also come...
forced to hand over power to his deputy but president up to rubble months or haiti struggled with various issues including al qaeda attacks food insecurity and high unemployment. who the rebels took advantage of this political situation and over several years gained control of various provinces in two thousand and fifteen who these and their allies seize control of the capital sanaa president haiti was forced to flee last month government forces faced another foe separatists captured large parts of the southern port city of aden they want to restore the independent state of southern yemen which existed until one nine hundred ninety the conflict reaches far beyond yemen's borders it's become a fierce struggle for regional dominance between saudi arabia which backs the government and iran which backs the who the rebels as the battle for regional control grows so does the enormous toll on civilian lives that the u.n. calls it the world's worst manmade humanitarian disaster. and to talk more about this we're joined now from beirut by adam baron he's from the european council on foreig
forced to hand over power to his deputy but president up to rubble months or haiti struggled with various issues including al qaeda attacks food insecurity and high unemployment. who the rebels took advantage of this political situation and over several years gained control of various provinces in two thousand and fifteen who these and their allies seize control of the capital sanaa president haiti was forced to flee last month government forces faced another foe separatists captured large...
staff illegally blue hired prostitutes in haiti won't want to mission to help those affected by the twenty ten earthquake the senior staff member if aid workers can be trusted. and sarah harmon welcome to the show it's good to have you with us a russian passenger plane operated by saratov airlines has crashed outside moscow the country's transport minister says almost seventy one people on board were killed the aircraft went missing from radar after taking off from a moscow airport the regional jet was flying from the capital to the provincial city of or sick when it went down in a rule area on the outskirts of moscow officials say so far two bodies have been found at the crash site. our moscow correspondent emily sure one has been following that story for us and really good to see what else can you tell us about this crash . well as you said sara russian officials have now said that all seventy one of the people on board this plane were actually killed in the accident the ministry of emergency situations has also published the list of the people that died we don't know what actuall
staff illegally blue hired prostitutes in haiti won't want to mission to help those affected by the twenty ten earthquake the senior staff member if aid workers can be trusted. and sarah harmon welcome to the show it's good to have you with us a russian passenger plane operated by saratov airlines has crashed outside moscow the country's transport minister says almost seventy one people on board were killed the aircraft went missing from radar after taking off from a moscow airport the...
Euromaxx - Lifestyle Europe : DW : February 23, 2018 11:30am-12:00pm CET
been abducted by the extremists. and haiti has suspended oxfam great britain's operations in the country for two months pending an investigation into alleged sexual misconduct the move followed reports that. held sex parties with prostitutes during relief efforts after a devastating earthquake in twenty town. donald trump's former campaign aides paul metaphors and rick gates are facing fresh charges in the rush of pro they've already pleaded not guilty to indictments for money laundering and fraud comes a week after a special counsel robert mueller charged thirteen russians with meddling in the u.s. presidential election. staying in the u.s. new details have emerged about last week's florida school shooting that left seventeen people dead police now say an armed officer assigned to the school waited outside the building during the shooting and did not confront the killer this news comes as president all trump is calling for tighter background checks and for some teachers to be armed. this is the coffin of chris hicks and hailed a hero for trying to stop the shooter at the florida
been abducted by the extremists. and haiti has suspended oxfam great britain's operations in the country for two months pending an investigation into alleged sexual misconduct the move followed reports that. held sex parties with prostitutes during relief efforts after a devastating earthquake in twenty town. donald trump's former campaign aides paul metaphors and rick gates are facing fresh charges in the rush of pro they've already pleaded not guilty to indictments for money laundering and...
DW News - News : DW : February 11, 2018 12:00pm-12:16pm CET
affected by the twenty earthquake in haiti haiti has accused of a cover up which the charity to noice. india's prime minister and around moody's says the porches supports the palestinians goal of an independent states achieved through peaceful negotiations or do anything with palestinian leader mahmoud abbas was the first ever visit by an indian meter to the palestinian administrative town of ramallah in the west bank where he also pledged forty million dollars in aid for infrastructure projects. there's the winter olympics which is into day two in china and we're joined by i mean the whole taki from the sports desk to take us through all the races action. the first medal of days who was won by the seventeen year old red gerard's how big was this win for him it was big it basically took a teenager to win the united states first gold medal and it was all down to one big but we leave bold moves so people need to understand that read prior to his final run he had to really pull one so he knew that in his final shot he had to come up with something really impressive something really
affected by the twenty earthquake in haiti haiti has accused of a cover up which the charity to noice. india's prime minister and around moody's says the porches supports the palestinians goal of an independent states achieved through peaceful negotiations or do anything with palestinian leader mahmoud abbas was the first ever visit by an indian meter to the palestinian administrative town of ramallah in the west bank where he also pledged forty million dollars in aid for infrastructure...
. resigns after it emerged that oxfam aid workers paid for prostitutes while working in haiti. plus he used to be the presidents of georgia that mikhail saakashvili and join the ukrainian government then he became a protest leader. to poland to find out why. the winter olympics are fierce winds have been making life difficult for competitors and. bush should think events be taking place asshole. welcome to the program the leaders of south africa's ruling party the african national congress are meeting to decide the future of the country's embattled president pressure on jacob super house been growing since december when he was replaced as a. and see lida by the country's deputy president still rather a seventy five year old zuma has been dogged by scandal since coming to power in two thousand and nine is currently fighting the reinstatement of seven hundred eighty three corruption charges if he refuses to step down the president could face another no confidence vote in parliament or impeachment. a doctor jackie ciliates is executive director of the institute for security studies in pre
. resigns after it emerged that oxfam aid workers paid for prostitutes while working in haiti. plus he used to be the presidents of georgia that mikhail saakashvili and join the ukrainian government then he became a protest leader. to poland to find out why. the winter olympics are fierce winds have been making life difficult for competitors and. bush should think events be taking place asshole. welcome to the program the leaders of south africa's ruling party the african national congress are...
making headlines this morning haiti has suspended. great britain's operations in the country for two months pending an investigation into alleged sexual misconduct the move follows reports that staff held sex parties with prostitutes during relief efforts for a devastating earthquake in two thousand and ten. nigerian authorities say the schoolgirls who were unaccounted for following a boko haram attack on monday are still missing this comes after early reports suggesting that some of them had been rescued dozens of girls from state run boarding school in. state are thought to have been abducted by the extremists. campaign a. day or facing charges in the they've already pleaded not guilty to indictments for money laundering and fraud it comes a week after a special counsel charged thirteen russians with meddling in the u.s. presidential election. while staying in the u.s. it has emerged that armed officer assigned to the florida school was seventeen people were killed by a gunman last week waited outside the building during the shooting and did not confront the killer this news comes
making headlines this morning haiti has suspended. great britain's operations in the country for two months pending an investigation into alleged sexual misconduct the move follows reports that staff held sex parties with prostitutes during relief efforts for a devastating earthquake in two thousand and ten. nigerian authorities say the schoolgirls who were unaccounted for following a boko haram attack on monday are still missing this comes after early reports suggesting that some of them had...
Arts.21 - Arts.21 takes on jihadists and climate change : DW : February 11, 2018 6:30pm-7:00pm CET
under fire after a newspaper report saying its staff illegally blue hired prostitutes in haiti won't want to mission to help those affected by the twenty ten earthquake well i asked a senior staff member if aid workers can be trough.
DW News - News : DW : February 1, 2018 4:00pm-4:15pm CET
morning i was in haiti voluntarily i face trial for eight years i serve the justice for eighteen years to clean my name so this is my duty and i did it in twenty sixteen charles the way a prosecutor filii you. said witnesses would be intimidated by a senior politicians to change their stories in some cases he said names are protected with this is have actually been revealed in social media including facebook again no one has been prosecuted but the then who should be going to bid for their mission in the name who the politician to the verse requests and old because to speak on general is difficult not only for me but for everybody still not worth investigating them if this is still going on if you never see their former report or something or many people states what they think is right or stayed near to dangers or you will x. stating how things went wrong in your legs it's european rule of all measure so we keep doing what is it our homework i keep doing this of my what's my own war amounted to an evasion there selfies it's governance it's rule of law and a cohesive society i wor
morning i was in haiti voluntarily i face trial for eight years i serve the justice for eighteen years to clean my name so this is my duty and i did it in twenty sixteen charles the way a prosecutor filii you. said witnesses would be intimidated by a senior politicians to change their stories in some cases he said names are protected with this is have actually been revealed in social media including facebook again no one has been prosecuted but the then who should be going to bid for their...
was responding to accusations oxfam covered up allegations of sexual misconduct by staff in haiti goldring said he was sorry for the damage caused to the people of haiti. the palestinian authority president mahmoud abbas and hasn't called for an international peace conference to provide a long lasting solution to the mideast crisis and ensure a palestinian state appearing before the u.n. security council abbas also criticized america's decision to move its israeli embassy to jerusalem. iran says it has located the wreckage of a plane that crashed into a mountain two days ago with sixty five people on board rescue workers will have to recover bodies from the debris by foot due to the rough terrain records show the plane only recently resumed service after spending six years in storage. a new suspension bridge with a glass floor has brought the rails and delight to tourists in china. province the bridge some one hundred sixty meters above gorge was opened to the public just in time for the spring festival holiday. very brave souls here in germany the center left social democrats hav
was responding to accusations oxfam covered up allegations of sexual misconduct by staff in haiti goldring said he was sorry for the damage caused to the people of haiti. the palestinian authority president mahmoud abbas and hasn't called for an international peace conference to provide a long lasting solution to the mideast crisis and ensure a palestinian state appearing before the u.n. security council abbas also criticized america's decision to move its israeli embassy to jerusalem. iran...
DocFilm - Traveling by Train in Panama : DW : February 1, 2018 4:15pm-5:00pm CET
then i did something that dignitary does next morning i was in haiti voluntarily i face trial for eight years i serve the justice for eighteen years to clean my name so this is my duty and i did it in twenty sixteen charles the way a prosecutor filii you who will be here said witnesses would be intimidated by a senior politicians to change their stories in some cases he said names are protected we'll this is have actually been revealed in social media including facebook again no one has been prosecuted but the then who should be go a little bit for there mention the name who the politician to the verse requests and old because to speak on general this is difficult not only for me but for everybody still not worth investigating them if this is still going on if we never see their former report or something or many people states what they think is right to stay dear to dangers or you will x. stating how things went wrong in your legs its european rule of law measure so we keep doing what is it our homework i keep doing this of my what's my own war amounted to an evasion there selfie
then i did something that dignitary does next morning i was in haiti voluntarily i face trial for eight years i serve the justice for eighteen years to clean my name so this is my duty and i did it in twenty sixteen charles the way a prosecutor filii you who will be here said witnesses would be intimidated by a senior politicians to change their stories in some cases he said names are protected we'll this is have actually been revealed in social media including facebook again no one has been...
based charity oxfam has denied haiti's claims of a cover up over alleged misconduct an investigation by the times newspaper found senior staff had illegally hired prostitutes in haiti after the twenty ten earthquake the british government says it is warning old charities that is the u.k. aid to tackle sexual misconduct among staff or face having their funding cost. thousands of demonstrators have rallied and says he's across as a way to protest against racism the show of force comes after a gunman with a neo nazi sympathies opened fire on african migrants last week has taken in more than half a million migrants in recent years and surveys show many italians blame immigrants for violent crime is becoming a major issue. skirting the city's made evil walls to send a message against violence and hate many are warning of a revival of far right sentiments ahead of next month's national elections but still meant to be at the moment political parties are using populism to create hate terror and divisions and it is necessary to refer to those pots on values and to stand on the right side the
based charity oxfam has denied haiti's claims of a cover up over alleged misconduct an investigation by the times newspaper found senior staff had illegally hired prostitutes in haiti after the twenty ten earthquake the british government says it is warning old charities that is the u.k. aid to tackle sexual misconduct among staff or face having their funding cost. thousands of demonstrators have rallied and says he's across as a way to protest against racism the show of force comes after a...
have a legally hired prostitutes while on a mission in haiti after the twenty ten earthquake he has accused of a cover up which the charity talese. india's prime minister narendra modi says delhi supports the palestinians goal of an independent station chiefs through peaceful negotiation. meeting with palestinian leader mahmoud abbas was the first ever visit by an indian major to the palestinian ministry to town of ramallah in the west bank also pledged some forty million dollars in aid for infrastructure projects on monday marks exactly three years since the mint's peace agreement was signed the conflict in eastern ukraine shows no sign of a basing in twenty fifteen moscow and he have agreed to a ceasefire the withdrawal of heavy weapons and the release of all prisoners but so far there has been little sign of those measures being implemented. alexander says progresses separatists have taken part of his homeland away from him that's why he joined a ukrainian volunteer battalion he was later taken prisoner by separatist forces and jailed internets for almost two years the separatist
have a legally hired prostitutes while on a mission in haiti after the twenty ten earthquake he has accused of a cover up which the charity talese. india's prime minister narendra modi says delhi supports the palestinians goal of an independent station chiefs through peaceful negotiation. meeting with palestinian leader mahmoud abbas was the first ever visit by an indian major to the palestinian ministry to town of ramallah in the west bank also pledged some forty million dollars in aid for...
allegations of sexual misconduct by staff in haiti he said that he was sorry for the damage to the people of the country. a new suspension bridge with a glass floor has brought thrills and delight to tourists in china's henan province the bridge some one hundred and sixty meters above a chord was opened to the public just in time for the for the spring festival. well here in germany a parliamentary report has said the nation's armed forces are just not good enough the bun this far lacks the personnel and the equipment needed to meet their responsibilities says the report it follows a spate of media stories about shortfalls in everything from tanks to tents that have raised concerns about whether germany will be ready to take command of a nato rapid response force next year. a rare glimpse of the airbus a four hundred m. it was touted as the german military strand sport plane of the future so far fourteen have been delivered but at times not a single one was cleared to actually fly. and it's not an exception a new report by the parliamentary commission of for the bundeswehr describes dramatic
allegations of sexual misconduct by staff in haiti he said that he was sorry for the damage to the people of the country. a new suspension bridge with a glass floor has brought thrills and delight to tourists in china's henan province the bridge some one hundred and sixty meters above a chord was opened to the public just in time for the for the spring festival. well here in germany a parliamentary report has said the nation's armed forces are just not good enough the bun this far lacks the...
oxfam covered up allegations of sexual misconduct by staff in haiti well then said he was sorry for the damage to the people of haiti something else iran says it has located the wreckage of a plane that crashed into a mountain two days ago with sixty five people on board and rescue workers will have to recover bodies from the debris by foot due to the rough terrain records show the plane only recently resumed service after spending six years in storage. authorities have warned new zealand's south island to take precautions ahead of a powerful storm the remnants of cycle which battered tonga and samoa last week are expected to bring strong winds and heavy rain flights to and from the capital wellington have been cancelled. a court in peru has ordered former president of virtual he mori to stand trial for the killings of six farmers in nineteen sixty one thousand nine hundred ninety two excuse me the court decision comes after it was pardoned from a lengthy prison term because of ill health for him or he was jailed for crimes including commanding military death squads. a new suspensio
oxfam covered up allegations of sexual misconduct by staff in haiti well then said he was sorry for the damage to the people of haiti something else iran says it has located the wreckage of a plane that crashed into a mountain two days ago with sixty five people on board and rescue workers will have to recover bodies from the debris by foot due to the rough terrain records show the plane only recently resumed service after spending six years in storage. authorities have warned new zealand's...
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Female Founders Mission to London
A mission to London Tech Week 9-15 June 2019 for female founders, investors, innovation leaders, and change makers.
Interested in joining our Mission to Europe?
Reserve your place now!
Register for a paid place
Why London?
If you are selling to the corporate sector, London is home to the headquarters of hundreds of global corporate giants, and is the fintech powerhouse of the world. If you are looking to raise funding and connect with investors, London has the highest investment rates in Europe. If you are looking to understand startup ecosystems, London is home to over 70 startup accelerators and tech hubs. London also has numerous programs with very high levels of female participation rates, and numerous strong female startup community leaders and program managers.
This mission is open to women, whether they be founders, investors, corporate innovation leaders, and Government policy makers from across Australia who are looking to connect with and learn from other female leaders from the Australian and London startup communities, and who want to understand the UK market and build long-range international networks. There are a maximum of twenty places available on the mission, and we anticipate they will fill fast. If you are considering the mission we encourage you to register quickly.
“Don't waste another day. Just get over here.”
- Leanne Kemp, Everledger
Mission Inclusions
The mission includes all the following:
Oyster travel pass (tube+bus)
London Tech Week (300+ events)
Organised tours & meetings
Two hosted networking events
One mission dinner
$6000 ex gst per person
excludes international flights
The mission is a combination of official events and meetings organised by Startup Catalyst, plus all participants will also receive support from our UK partners to curate specific meetings to suit their individual needs.
The schedule of official mission events is built around the participants on the mission, and currently includes a group dinner with guests, private meetings and tours with accelerators and with corporate innovation labs, meetings with local investors and founders, and much more.
Mission Exclusions
Participants must arrange and pay for their own return international flights, and make their own way to the hotel to be ready to commence the mission on the afternoon of 9 June. Participants must also cover any other personal costs or out-of-pocket expenses including all other meals, incidentals, visas, passports, travel insurance, equipment, and all other personal expenditure.
All participants are to arrange and pay for their own flights, to be ready to commence the mission at the hotel in London on the afternoon of 9 June, and departing London any time on 15 June.
Mission Leaders
Mission Leader
Eleanor Carey
Mission Sponsor
UK DIT
Mission Partner
“If you are interested in this, but thinking 'I could go to London myself that week and see all the same stuff'...think again! Having recently travelled to the USA with StartUp Catalyst I can confirm without a doubt that it is worth every cent..”
- Joy Taylor (2017 alumni)
Included in the schedule are group meetings and tours with accelerators, corporates, co-working spaces, startup founders, and other experts.
Included in the schedule, we host larger public events to allow opportunities for networking and new connections.
Private Meetings
All participants receive support from UK DIT, London & Partners, TIQ, and Austrade, to curate private one-on-one meetings for participants.
Curated meetings and events with female entrepreneurs, mentors, investors, and leaders from the London startup ecosystem.
Group Dinners
We host group dinners for the participants and with hand-picked guest attendees, to develop relationships but also market insights.
You will build incredibly strong and valuable relationships with the other participants on the mission, which continue long after the mission.
All Catalyst mission participants are added to our alumni network for ongoing communication, collaboration & networking.
All accommodation in the heart of Tech City UK, with breakfasts daily. We stay right in the middle of the action.
In London we travel by foot, tube or bus, and every participant receives free unlimited tube and bus transport for the duration of the mission.
“I highly recommend going on this Catalyst mission. It was invaluable for me, both from a learning experience, and for the vast connections they made to people who we wouldn't otherwise have been able to meet.”
- Elise Henry (London 2016 alumni)
a curated mission, loaded with events, tours, meetings, and connections, and including all accommodation, breakfasts, & some group dinners
Interested in joining our female founders mission to London in June?
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Encyclopedia > 5AA
5AA is Adelaide's only commercial talkback radio station. The station has a range of programs dealing with issues including news, sport, current affairs, social issues, gardening, lifestyle and health. While most programs also have interviews, they are all mostly talk-based. Adelaide is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of South Australia, and is the fifth largest city in Australia with a population of almost 1. ...
1.1 Weekday Schedule
1.2 Saturday Schedule
1.3 Sunday Schedule
Weekday Schedule
Midnight-Dawn
12:00am-5:30am
Hosted by Brian Bennett.
Completely call based program, Adelaide's only live overnight radio program during the week.
Hosted by Keith Conlon, Tony Pilkington & Jon Blake.
A light-hearted breakfast show with a mix of news, sport, current events and calls.
Hosted by Leon Byner.
Talk and interview based current affairs show. South Australian politicans often join Byner to discuss the news of the day and take calls from listeners.
Hosted by Nicole Haack.
A lighter afternoon program with a mix of lifestyle and culinary guests as well as calls on the issues of the day.
The 5AA Sports Show
Hosted by Ken Cunningham and Graham Cornes.
Drive-time sports program with guests and callers discussing the big issues in sport.
The Phil Sheldon Show
Hosted by Phil Sheldon.
A health-based program where Sheldon answers callers questions on their health problems.
8:00pm-12:00am
Hosted by Bob Francis.
A largely call driven program hosted by the opinionated and outspoken Bob Francis who also has regular guests. Brian Bennett was drummer with The Shadows from 1961/62. ... Jon Blake was a promising actor of the 1980s. ... Bob Francis (born December 5, 1958 in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, Canada) is a ice hockey head coach of the Phoenix Coyotes. ...
Saturday Schedule
Hosted by Jon Hart.
Adelaide's only live overnight radio program on a Saturday.
Michael Keelan's Weekend
Hosted by Michael Keelan.
Gardening expert and Adelaide TV personality, Michael Keelan takes calls on gardening, lifestyle and events happening in Adelaide over the weekend.
Saturday Sports Show
Hosted by Ken Cunningham, Graham Cornes, Michaelangelo Rucci and Russell Ebert. KG heads this panel as they discect the week's sporting events and preview the upcoming weekend's events.
Live Coverage of AFL Footy
Hosted by 3AW and 5AA commentators.
Live broadcasts of AFL matches during the season.
Best of KG and Cornesy
The best of KG and Cornsey's interviews from their weekday program.
Hosted by Gerard Stone.
Gerard Stone takes calls on any issue right through to midnight. Russell Ebert is acknowledged as one of the greatest players in the long history of Australian Rules football. ... 3AW began transmission in February 1932 as Melbournes fifth commercial radio station. ... AFL is a three-letter acronym that stands for: Academic Free License Alberta Football League American Federation of Labor, see also AFL-CIO American Football League Arena Football League Australian Football League Austrian Football League Assessment for Learning (AfL) This page concerning a three-letter acronym or abbreviation is a...
Hosted by Dave Waterman.
Completely talk-based show, Adelaide's only live overnight program on a Sunday.
Hosted by Stephen Rowe.
Talk and interview based sports show with sporting guests joining Stephen Rowe.
Talk-based show covering a wide range of topics. 3AW began transmission in February 1932 as Melbournes fifth commercial radio station. ... AFL is a three-letter acronym that stands for: Academic Free License Alberta Football League American Federation of Labor, see also AFL-CIO American Football League Arena Football League Australian Football League Austrian Football League Assessment for Learning (AfL) This page concerning a three-letter acronym or abbreviation is a...
5AA website
Category: Adelaide
Membrane Stretch Accelerates Activation and Slow Inactivation in Shaker Channels with S3-S4 Linker Deletions -- ... (5281 words)
FIGURE 11 Simulations of channel activity in the 5aa mutant (a) and in Shaker w-t (b, c).
With the driving force on K invariant, the simulated traces were essentially G (time), i.e., open channels per 1000 (each contributing a unit of conductance) at time, t, (column a and columns b and c have different time scales).
11 for two kinetic schemes: a is a "5aa" model; b and c are for Shaker w-t.
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Greg Droman Website
He’s a well known audio producer, engineer, mixer and more who has worked with an amazing list of artists, including Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham, Trisha Yearwood, Lee Ann Womack, Emmylou Harris, Brooks & Dunn, Faith Hill and many others. Greg Droman’s new websites gives him his first ever presence on the web. He joined his first band at the age of twelve and has been in love with music and music production ever since. He played in Joe Walsh’s band, touring the U.S. and Japan before moving to L.A. where … [more]
Ernie Hendrickson Website
I just completed designing, building and launching a new website for a great indie musician in Chicago, Ernie Hendrickson. His new album, Walking With Angels, is due to be released on October 13th. The album was produced by Bo Ramsey and it’s a real treat. Ernie grew up listengin to artists like Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Cat Stevens and The Grateful Dead and these influences are clearly present in his own music. Yet, he manages to write, record and perform songs and music that are uniquely his own. … [more]
Synthetica
by Metric
Cheater's Game
by Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison
Lonesome Dreams
by Lord Huron
Something For The Pain
by Redlight Kings
3 Rounds And A Sound
by Blind Pilot
It Takes A Worried Man
by Elliott Murphy
Traveling Alone
by Tift Merritt
on FX
on AMC
on Showtime
on Fox
on ABC
Col d’Allos – From Both Sides
Levens, Utelle & La Tour
From Vence to Sainte-Agnes and Back
La Vencoise
Rain! Wind! Thunder! Lightning! Cold!
Col de la Lombarde
French “Carte Fidélités”
Top 25 Live Albums
Top 10 All-Time Albums
About My Music Blog
©2020 Steve Wilkison
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Stories from Friday, December 16, 2016
Hydrocodone pills reported stolen from unlocked auto (Local News ~ 12/16/16)
A woman reported to Shelbyville police Wednesday that 39 Hydrocodone pills, a prescription for someone else, were stolen from her vehicle on Cowan Avenue. She parked her vehicle around 11 p.m. on Tuesday, the report said. She said she left her purse in the vehicle with the doors unlocked. ...
Educators gather (Local News ~ 12/16/16)
The Beta Nu Chapter of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International gathered at the Coffee Break Event Room Dec. 5th for the society's holiday dinner and meeting. New member Stephanie Cleveland was initiated into the international society for key women educators. Members of the society attending the gathering include, first row, Shirley McGee, Marilyn Massengale, Nancy Barnett, Mary Francis Gordon and Donna Green; second row, Kanya Gordon, Nicole Yockey, Kathy Reed, Hazel Gant, Betty Farrar, Martha Fisher, Marla Gordon and Terise' Rhodes; third row, Janice Womble, Stephanie Cleveland, Jean Williams and Sandra Beasley. (Submitted photo)
Wartrace now accepts online payments (Local News ~ 12/16/16)
The Town of Wartrace has launched an online payment system to give customers more payment options for paying water and sewer bills, taxes, fees and other accounts. The online payment portal debuted on the Town website on Wednesday, December 14. The web page, launched in November, can be found at www.townofwartrace.com...
Harris principal to leave for Rutherford County (Local News ~ 12/16/16)
Bedford County School Superintendent Don Embry notified school board members this morning that Harris Middle School principal Jimmy Sullivan has accepted a position as principal of Rocky Fork Middle School in Rutherford County, a brand new school which will open at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year. Sullivan will start work Feb. 6...
Toys For Tots (Local News ~ 12/16/16)
U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots held its annual distribution Thursday. Pictured is Shelbyville Firefighter Jason Blanton with donated items. More photos will appear in a future edition of the Times-Gazette and in an online gallery at t-g.com. (T-G Photo by Jason Reynolds)
New seats for Cascade? (Local News ~ 12/16/16)
Could Cascade be getting an upgraded football facility? The school's booster organization, the Touchdown Club, asked the Board of Education to pay for new bleachers during the directors' monthly meeting Thursday. The board only discussed the issue; no action was taken...
Wreaths arrive (Local News ~ 12/16/16)
The Christmas wreaths for the Wreaths Across America ceremony Saturday at Willow Mount Cemetery and Mt. Ararat Annex were delivered Thursday by Titan Transfer, and the shipment received a police escort as it made its way from the trucking company to the cemetery...
Catherine Braden "Margaret" Cochran (Obituary ~ 12/16/16)
Catherine Braden "Margaret" Cochran, 78. of Lewisburg, died Wednesday, December 14, 2016, at her home surrounded by family and friends. Memorial service will be held at a later date. Doak-Howell Funeral Home is handling arrangements.
Vandal 'destroys' Shelbyville home with trash and waste (Local News ~ 12/16/16)
A Cherokee Trail rental home was "destroyed" by animal feces and trash, according to a Shelbyville Police Department report. Officer Jon Cooke, who was notified to the vandalism Thursday, said in his report he was "overcome" by the smell of trash and animal waste in every room...
Kenny Randall Powell (Obituary ~ 12/16/16)
Kenny Randall Powell, 57, of Shelbyville died Thursday, December 15, 2016. Funeral services will be 3 p.m. Sunday at Feldhaus Memorial Chapel. The Rev. Ray Armstrong will officiate, with burial to follow in Willow Mount Cemetery. Visitation will begin at noon.
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Thailand: Impact of International Patent Developments
Posted on 12-Jun-2018 by Helika Jurgenson
Today’s blog post has been kindly shared with us by our external experts Mr. Daniel Greif and Mr. Dhanasun Chumchuay from Spruson & Ferguson. In this article, Mr. Grief and Mr. Chumchuay explain the two announcements made by Thai Department of Intellectual Property and their impact on companies wishing to apply for patents in Thailand. This article first appeared in Managing Intellectual Property Magazine.
On May 5 2017, the Thai Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) issued two announcements in regard to patent processes in Thailand: (1) Announcement on the Establishment of a List of International Search Authorities and International Preliminary Examining Authorities (No 2); and (2) Announcement on Fees for International Applications, International Searches, Delivery of International Applications and Late Payment of Fees.
The first announcement specifies the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) among the list of International Search Authorities (ISA) and the International Preliminary Examining Authorities (IPEA), while the second announcement establishes new fees for international applications, which have been adjusted to reflect the current fee rates charged by the listed ISAs and the current currency exchange rates.
These two developments reflect the continued positive steps being taken by the DIP to create greater efficiencies and to upgrade patent processes, as well as to clear the patent backlog that poses a constant obstacle to timely patent prosecution in Thailand.
IPOS as ISA and IPEA
The DIP’s Announcement on the Establishment of a List of International Search Authorities and International Preliminary Examining Authorities (No 2) confirms the IPOS as a body qualified as an ISA and an IPEA for international applications filed in Thailand.
According to the search fees outlined in the Announcement on Fees for International Applications, International Searches, Delivery of International Applications and Late Payment of Fees, fees for searches conducted by IPOS are the third highest after the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the European Patent Office at ฿61,000 ($1,720) without the possibility of a reduced rate. However, numerous possible advantages of using the IPOS as the ISA and IPEA should not be overlooked. As IPOS’s turnaround time to issue a first office action is approximately 60 days, and the Office is able to review prior art published only in Chinese as part of the search and examination process, the use of IPOS as the ISA and IPEA represents a fast and thorough search process. IPOS is also used as the ISA and IPEA for PCT applications filed with the United States, Japan, Mexico, Brunei, Indonesia, Laos or Vietnam as the receiving office.
Amended fees for international patent applications
The Announcement on Fees for International Patent Applications, International Searches, Delivery of International Applications and Late Payment of Fees establishes new fees, which have been adjusted to reflect the current fee rates charged by the listed ISAs and the current currency exchange rates.
According to this Announcement, the international application paper filing fee in Thailand is set at ฿53,000 ($1,430) for the first 30 pages of the application and ฿750 ($22) per subsequent additional page. Further, the online filing fees have been adjusted to between ฿41,000 and ฿49,000 ($1,155 to $1,380) depending on the electronic file types in which the documents are submitted. Reduced rates are available for applicants who are nationals of or reside in certain countries, as specified under the PCT.
Overall, the fees have been slightly reduced from the previously applicable rates in order to reflect the exchange fluctuations. Additionally, the search fees for each qualified ISA have been reduced as well, except for the Japan Patent Office and the Australia Patent Office. Such fee reductions will be beneficial for all patent applicants.
Daniel Greif and Dhanasun Chumchuay
This article first appeared in Managing Intellectual Property and is reposted here with the kind permission of the authors. Please see the original article here: http://www.managingip.com/Article/3728764/Thailand-Impact-of-international-patent-developments.html
Author’s Name: Daniel Greif
Law Firm: Spruson & Ferguson
Email: Daniel.Greif@spruson.com
Short Bio of the Author
Daniel Greif is a Principal of Spruson & Ferguson (Asia). Daniel oversees the firm’s Thailand office, which provides patent and trade mark attorney services, as well as other intellectual property services in Thailand and the Mekong region.
Daniel specialises in trade mark law representing a wide variety of major global brand owners and SMEs in all aspects of contentious and non-contentious trade mark matters in Thailand, the Mekong Region, ASEAN and the Asia Pacific. Daniel has a particular specialty in strategic brand portfolio management and has consistently been rated by World Trademark Review, Asia IP and other leading trade mark rating entities as one of the foremost trademark lawyers in the Asia Pacific.
Daniel was Trademark Counsel for The Coca-Cola Company for seventeen years and before that he was Senior Trademark Counsel for Sony Corporation. Most recently, Daniel was Head of the Intellectual Property Practice at Siam Premier International, one of Thailand’s leading law firms.
Daniel provides strategic and tactical advice (eg. searches, clearance, applications, IP enhancement strategies and IP enforcement strategies) related to trade marks, trade dress, designs, copyrights, domain names and other trade indicia for high-profile multi-country marketing campaigns. Daniel has worked on numerous trade mark acquisitions and other trade mark related and IP business transactions.
Author’s Name: Dhanasun Chumchuay
Email: dhanasun.chumchuay@spruson.com
Dhanasun graduated with an LLB Law with French Law from University College London, in 2010. In 2011 he was awarded the 8 New Square Prize for Top Performance based on his results in the 2009/10 academic session.
Prior to joining Spruson & Ferguson’s Thailand Office, Dhanasun was an Associate at Siam Premier International Law Office where he was involved in dealing with Thai and International clients in all stages of trademark registration. This ranged from providing initial advice and customised fee proposals to filing and prosecuting trademark applications. During this time Dhanasun also gained experience in the Thai prosecution process for patent applications.
Dhanasun is fluent in both English and Thai, and is professionally proficient in French.
This entry was posted in IP Protection Tools, Recommended Reading, South-East Asia IP Protection, Thailand IP and tagged ASEAN, Daniel Greif, Dhanasun Chumchuay, Expert, IPR Protection, Patents, Registration, South-East Asia IPR SME Helpdesk, technology by Helika Jurgenson. Bookmark the permalink.
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It's Mother's Day. Here are some books where the mother/child relationship takes center stage.
The White Bicycle by Beverly Brennan. Taylor Jane is spending the summer in France with her mother, her mother's boyfriend, and his two children. She's being payed to be a personal care assistant for one of the boys, who has cerebral palsy. Taylor Jane is on the autism spectrum and sees this job, and this summer, as crucial in gaining independence from her mother, who Taylor thinks it too over-protective.
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. This collection of related short stories examines the relationship between four Chinese women living and San Francisco and their Chinese-American daughters. Published for adults, this one has high teen appeal.
You Never Did Learn to Knock: 14 Stories About Girls and Their Mothers selected by Bel Mooney. This collection of stories includes ones by Candice Ransom, Cathy Hopkins, Adele Geras, and 11 others.
Stealing Heaven by Elizabeth Scott. Danielle and her mother are thieves, moving to a town, finding the mark, carrying out the heist, and moving on. When they reach the town of Heaven though, Dani does everything she's not supposed to, like make friends, and isn't sure she can continue to follow her mother's wishes.
Bitter Melon by Cara Chow. Frances's mother has laid out her life for her, Frances just has to do it-- get into Berkeley and become a doctor. But when Frances takes speech class and discovers a new talent, one her mother wouldn't approve of, what can she do?
Out of The Easy by Ruta Septys. In the 1950s, in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Josie is planning her escape. Her mother is a prostitute, and she hears the whispers behind her back. But then her mother gets her mixed up with murder investigation and Josie is caught in her own web of secrets and lies.
Flyaway by Helen Landalf. Stevie's entire life has revolved caring for, and covering up, her mother and her mother's addiction to Crystal Meth. When her mother disappears and she's forced to move in with her Aunt Mindy, Stevie starts to get her own life on track, just in time for her mother to show up again.
The Poison Apples by Lily Archer. Three girls sent to boarding school bond over their evil step-mothers. They form a club to get revenge on the women who have ruined their lives, only to find that not everything is they way they see it.
Between Mom and Jo by Julie Anne Peters. When Nick's moms' relationship hits the skids, he's not sure who to turn to. Nick's pain goes beyond other divorce stories because Jo is not biologically related to Nick and when she moves out, she has no legal recourse for partial custody or even access to him.
What are your favorite YA books about mothers?
Posted by Jennie at 11:42 AM
Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month...
Loomis Day: Wireless Technology
Wisconsin Becomes a State: Books by Cheeseheads
Ian Fleming's Birthday: Spy Novels
Hurricane Preparedness Week: Books About Hurricane...
Champion's League FInal: Books About Soccer
Youth Traffic Safety Month: Books with Car Crashes...
South Carolina Ratifies the Constitution
National Moving Month
Latino Books Month
Homestead Act: Books about Pioneers
May is National Foster Care Month
Jewish American Heritage Month
Happy Birthday George Lucas!
Mothers Day Part 2: Missing Mom
National Babysitter's Day: Books with Babysitting
J. M. Barrie's Birthday: Books with Faeries
National Anxiety and Depression Awareness Week
Cinco de Mayo: Books in Mexico
Paranormal Day
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Home > News > Giant Spider Stolen and Scrapped
Giant Spider Stolen and Scrapped
By Charlie Hintz on September 25, 2013
The giant spider from the low-budget 1975 film The Giant Spider Invasion was reported stolen August 28 from the field in Merrill, WI where it has sat rusting since the movie was filmed there.
The shell of the 25-foot spider was mounted on an old Volkswagon chassis. The thieves would have needed a flatbed trailer to move it. Bill Rebane, the film’s director, said it was last seen a few weeks prior on a trailer in Merrill’s sixth ward.
Rebane once tried to sell the spider frame on eBay for $35,000. It was most likely scrapped for about $200.
After a meteorite crash, rural Wisconsin becomes overrun by menacing spiders from outer space. The giant spider was created by covering the frame with black artificial fur. The legs were operated by a crew of seven inside. The arachnid’s glowing red eye were the tail lights of the Volkswagon.
Shot for $300,000, The Giant Spider Invasion went on to gross millions as a cult classic film. Unfortunately, it also became one of the most pirated movies in history.
Watch the trailer for The Giant Spider Invasion:
Bill RebaneFilmMerrillThe Giant Spider Invasiontrailer
Hole in the Wall Wisconsin Horror Film
Buried As Kings
lagena
that is sad!! :(
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@TEAM_FRM
34 Team News
Post-Race Reports
Partnership Marketing >
FRM Post-Race Report: Darlington
Michael McDowell
No. 34 Jimmy Means Throwback/ Dockside Logistics Ford Mustang
Started: 23 | Finished: 38
"I saw the 8 start to get loose like he blew a tire and chased it up the track. I was already on the bottom and I saw the 11 and a few other cars on the top and they were just trying to get down and we all kind of jumped on the brakes. You’re so fast at that point when you jump on the brakes the cars get pretty loose and out of control. I think I got clipped by the 11 in the right-rear and just kind of turned me hard right into the wall and in front of the field, but it’s really unfortunate. We had a decent Dockside Logistics throwback car. We were logging laps trying to get to the end and were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Matt Tifft
No. 36 Tifft Family Throwback/ Surface Sunscreen Ford Mustang
"This was definitely a 'rookie' race for me. We struggled to find the right balance in the car from the start, and while we found it at times during the race, we had trouble staying on the lead lap, which ultimately hurt us to where we couldn't recover. I'm really happy we were able to pay tribute to David Hilliker and my dad with this throwback scheme. We'll take what learnings we can from this weekend and move onto Indy."
David Ragan
No. 38 David Pearson Throwback/ Shriners Hospitals for Children Ford Mustang
"Really tough night for our No. 38 Shriners Hospitals for Children Ford Mustang. I felt like up until the three-quarter race mark, we had a pretty solid car, but those last 60 laps or so, we didn’t execute nearly as well as we should have and that cost us in the end. I’m proud of the effort and adjustments that the team made throughout the race; I just wish that we could have gotten a better finish for our fans and the Shriners Hospitals for Children."
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KU’s Reed eyeing leadership role
Kansas University basketball guard Tyrel Reed, who stepped up to hit the big shot in numerous games during his sophomore season, plans to expand his role not only on the court, but in the locker room in 2009-10.
Reed, a 6-foot-3 guard from Burlington, recently attended the 2009 NCAA National Student-Athlete Development Conference in Orlando, Fla. He was one of 700 college athletes from Div. I, II and III schools who studied a leadership handbook and attended several seminars designed to help players improve their leadership skills.
“I plan to try to bring back some of the qualities and some of the things we talked about and try to institute it into being a better leader on the team and on campus,” Reed said.
“I definitely feel after going to that conference and after being under coach (Bill) Self for a couple years that I’m a lot more confident, and I feel like I can assume that leadership role,” added Reed, who averaged 6.5 points per game as a key reserve on a 27-8 KU team.
“I need to be more vocal. That’s probably the biggest key for me. I try to lead by example a lot, but sometimes you just have to step in there and say what you really feel and hopefully other people will follow what you say.”
The Academic all-Big 12 first-team pick attended several seminars about “sportsmanship and a lot of different leadership roles that we would take on our campus. There were a lot of people there, a lot of different networking. I got to meet probably 50 different people and got 50 new Facebook friends. It was just a lot of fun,” he said.
“We set goals of what we want to bring back to our campus. Hopefully when the school year starts I can try to get more involved on campus.”
• Miles update: Former KU point guard Aaron Miles is in Cleveland attending mini-camp of the NBA’s Cavaliers. Miles, who played in Greece last season, will play for the Dallas Mavericks in the Las Vegas summer league in July.
KU guard Reed finally takes a much-needed break
Reed ‘the star’ of Self’s Boot Camp so far
Josh Selby gives Tyrel Reed a boost
jman18562 10 years, 7 months ago
To be honest? I love a KS product.... but If Tyrel sees serious minutes next year (especially after December) then our Hawks are in some serious trouble.
kingpin 10 years, 7 months ago
What are serious minutes? If Tyrel can fill the same roll he did this last year, but with better consistency... we will be just fine.
Dirk Medema 10 years, 7 months ago
If Tyrel plays like a soph and sees serious minutes, we're in trouble, but not as much as him.
If he continues to develop, he has a decent enough 3 that he could see PT. He is likely to see his minutes being cut tho, since the 3 is also X's strength, and who knows about CJ after 5 years.
FairgroveJayhawk 10 years, 7 months ago
Every off season we see development of players and either think they developed beyond what was expected or not. I admire Reed's ability to recognize the whole picture and attend a conference that will better assist him in helping the team from a leadership role.
From a skill level I don't know if he'll see more minutes than last year or not, I hope so. But that is the beautiful thing about college athletics. He may develop beyond what one expects and see a significant increase in minutes and that would be awesome. I hope his commitment to improvement leads him to play 20 minutes a game.
Keep it up Reed.
callowax 10 years, 7 months ago
Guys like Reed are critical to a team. A team of superstars rarely wins. It's guys like Reed and Morningstar who are the glue. Russell Robinson was that for the '08 team. Jeff Gueldner was that for the '88 team.
Reed is from Kansas, has a pride and devlotion for the University and B-Ball team that most of his team members won't understand, he's tough, smart and incredibly hard working.
When the game is on the line, it's guys like this who bring the character needed to win.
Thanks Tyrel for being a Jayhawk. You are going to have a great year.
JJHawq 10 years, 7 months ago
Ball Handling. He needs to be able to back up the point, if he wants is role to expand. I have always liked Reed for his moter and his shot, but was disappointed in his lack of ability to handle the rock under pressure last year.
I don't expect X to be the "savior" everyone around here thinks he is... He's very good - but he's still a freshman. Everyone is sleeping on the guy most likely to start - Mario Little. I know that's not the popular choice - but the likely Self choice to start the year.
I'm expecting the "why isn't coach starting X" threads to get out of hand in early December.
pmohr13 10 years, 7 months ago
I believe the most important thing for Reed to improve on is his defense.
Jason Musick 10 years, 7 months ago
He needs to improve his consistency on his trade mark corner three point shot, that really came in handy last season. He could be a dominant role player by coming in and hitting them, when nothing is working for the offense.
Marcia Parsons 10 years, 7 months ago
I don't think he's saying he believes "leadership" necessarily translates into "more playing time."
KGphoto 10 years, 7 months ago
jman18562,
I remember the EXACT same quote last year about Brady Morningstar.
Was that you?
Gary Denning 10 years, 7 months ago
"Everyone is sleeping on the guy most likely to start - Mario Little. I know that's not the popular choice - but the likely Self choice to start the year."
Why would Little be any choice to start at the 3? He didn't play the 3 in juco. He was a good but undersized 4. He is not known for shooting the 3 very well. He has a quickness advantage over many power forwards, but does not out-quick elite 3's. His ball handling is not great compared to many small forwards.
Just why would Little be starting over Henry?
I hope Little's health improves to where he can contribute more this year, but his contribution will be quality substitute minutes. And its hard to figure out where his minutes will come from with the all the players we have coming back unless a completely healthy Little has a lot more quickness than last year.
hawk316 10 years, 7 months ago
I wholeheartedly agree with Callowax's comments above. Tyrel may never be a superstar, but he has been and will continue to be an important part of this team. As we know, a successful team has many intangibles, and players like Tyrel contribute some of those. Plus, this kid has a knack of hitting a big "3" when most needed, and that's a big asset.
ObiWan 10 years, 7 months ago
You don't have to be the best player to be a team leader. Remember when Collison, Hinrich and Gooden were freshmen, the leader was Nick Bradford. Leadership is derived from experience and maturity, and I'm certain that Tyrel Reed will make huge contributions this season.
Tony Bandle 10 years, 7 months ago
Tyrell can fill the leadership role if he improves his consistency, becomes better on defense, evolves into a more dangerous three-point threat, emerges with more fire and emotion and doesn't disappear at critical moments...........the question is, is this a fair set of conditions to place on this young man. I don't know.
I am actually of the camp that Tyrell may benefit from redshirting this season and be ready to fill this role next year because several 2010 mock drafts have Collins, Aldrich, Henry AND Taylor going in the two rounds and, with Little graduating, leadership will be a key issue in 2010-2011.
[Oh for goodness sakes...maybe I should see how 2009-2010 turns out!!!}
Lance Hobson 10 years, 7 months ago
I wouldn't count him out. We had great chemistry last year and came darn close to making the Final 4. If Xavier shows up with a big head an bad attitude with overrated skills, I can see Reed stepping in so we don't miss a beat.
ginger2015 10 years, 7 months ago
I feel sure that the on court leadership roles will be filled quite well by Sherron and Cole. Tyrels leadership will be through the examples he sets in practice, on campus and in the community.
ahhhhhh, We are in the very same position right now that we were with Kirk Hinrich after the 2001 season. We had just watched Kirk Hinrich get completely dismantled by Frank Williams and Bill Self's Illinois team and all the talk that offseason was about whether or not Hinrich was the right fit to be a starter. Hinrich's cross-over dribble was picked left and right and his confidence was shaken to catostrophic proportions during that game.
We all know what happened after that.............Reed will be just fine. He knows his role and Okie Baller Self (Jaybate-that is for you) loves that in a kid. Reed will be just fine.
Wait..........Reed wasn't suppose to play this year. LMAO! Reed and Morningstar get such a bad rap. Keep proving the naysayers wrong!
Eurekahwk 10 years, 7 months ago
I still think Reed would be better served to RS, but I agree. He and Kirk are from the same mold. The year after this, we are going to be relying on the veteran play of Reed and Morningstar to keep us strong while the young blood get their feet wet.
KGphoto,
Copy and paste on Reed.
sydhawk 10 years, 7 months ago
Don't know where else to post this. Some interesting nuggets about the Henry Clan in the KC Star. I have a bad feeling about this...
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/story/1293180.html
A month after signing with the Jayhawks, Carl says, the family looked into Xavier playing in Europe for a year. “You don’t have to take any classes,” Xavier says.
Carl says both of his sons hope to be one-and-done at KU. “I don’t like stepping on people’s toes,” Carl says, “but I just know what I know. I watch them play, all the Kansas kids. I like all these kids, (Sherron) Collins, (Tyshawn Taylor), they’re good kids, man. But they’re not better than C.J.”
Carl’s iPhone rings, interrupting his flow. It’s Bill Self. Carl looks at the phone and considers whether or not to answer. He hits ignore... A minute has now passed since Self’s call, and Carl picks up his phone. “You know what?” Carl says. “I better call that guy back.”
Lounging on a white leather sofa in C.J.’s apartment, the Henry boys’ attire hints at quite a story: C.J. wears a Memphis shirt, Xavier a KU practice jersey.
sydhawk - no need to have a bad feeling, same stuff, different day. The most insightful line I found in the article was:
"As much as he likes to talk, it’s a miracle any food gets eaten." when refering to Senor Henry.
ku_foaf 10 years, 6 months ago
Obiwan,
Don't say that. It sounds like a curse. Bradford was not only not the best player on the team, he was the worst starter on a KU team from 1984 to present, IMHO! Fortunately, a few years of mediocrity ended, not coincidently, when he graduated.
Haha, I know what you mean ku_foaf. My point is that if you ask the class of '03 who took them under their wing when they were freshmen, they would all say Bradford. Reed can help the youngsters adjust to college life and help to motivate them in practice. Clearly Sherron and Cole are our captains, but a good role player with leadership qualities is also a valuable asset.
“I don’t like stepping on people’s toes, but I just know what I know. I watch them play, all the Kansas kids. I like all these kids, (Sherron) Collins, (Tyshawn Taylor), they’re good kids, man. But they’re not better than C.J.”--alleged Carl Henry quote from above
Do you suppose that if John Calipari, reputedly under investigative siege in Lexington, were shown that quote that he would shake his head, smile, and say, "Well, at least I don't have to deal with that guy anymore"?
Just imagine how weird this is all going to get, if CJ and X don't live up to all the hype. You just know some enterprising student is going to start printing up "OAD" t-shirts with images of CJ and X on them and a big red circle with a slash through it.
Seriously, Kenny Gregory and--from the way back machine--Nino Samuels--two KU guys with big reps that did not live up to expectations--were no where near as hyped as CJ and X...maybe because they did not have dads like Carl Henry.
Mr. Henry, I sure hope you know what you're doing with the PR campaign. It looks like you're contributing a very unpleasant experience for your sons, if they merely develop normally.
But the guy who owes Mr. Henry a debt of gratitude is Jeff Withey.
Remember when many were talking about Withey coming in and starting as the second of twin towers, or at least being a major contributor giving KU a serious chance at a ring? Withey was expected to be this awesome complement to Cole Aldrich. Now it is Jeff who? All eyes are on the high wire act of the Henry Brothers.
How many times does a seven footer (or whatever he really is) with a big rep come in and drift into almost complete obscurity? Never that I recall.
But thanks to Mr. Henry's frequent PR campaign of quotes on behalf of his sons, CJ and X, Jeff Withey will be able to develop slowly and under the radar screen and anything at all that Withey does this coming season will be viewed as just frosting on the cake.
CJ may be wishing for some of that anonymity should he fail to guard Self style, avoid the TOs Self style, or trinitize at 40%. KU already has two--Brady and Tyrel--who can trinitize at that rate, or better, and a third--Tyshawn--who is reputedly working his buns off to become a third. And Brady and Tyshawn are already superb defenders, while Brady and Tyrel make few TOs.
CJ and X, come on up from OKC. Your father has two hot seats warmed up and ready for you.
Jaybate: I have to correct you a little on Kenny Gregory. He had "Hype" written all over himself from his Junior year of High School. Gregory was the all-time scoring leader in Ohio at that time, won the MVP of the 1997 McDonald's game, and finished second in the Slam Dunk to Baron Davis. Hype was all Gregory ever had. He was suppose to replace Pierce, suppose to be better than Pierce, and for a brief moment in time was compared to a young Jordan. Hype was all Gregory ever had.
Jaybate: I was saying that in reference to X and CJ hype. Internet and other media outlets allow for it to be scoped like a colonioscopy now days, but for the time period, Gregory was "Hyped" as there was.
Joe Baker 10 years, 6 months ago
This crap is going to continue until the first day of classes. How many more rumors are going to be started? The Henrys are KU bound and will play. He made a simple observation that is being blown way out of proportion referring to the European league and school.
Is it just me, but did anyone notice that Brandon Jennings got drafted # 10 after making a million bucks last year in Europe?
Wouldn't that give pause to some 18 year old OAD's out there?
Any guesses where Lance Stephenson ends up?
Isn't it folly to totally dismiss the possibility that the Henrys are exploring other options?
At what point did Carl Henry transition from beloved alumni to manipulative father?
Personally, I am not counting on the Henrys until I hear their sneakers hit the hardwood in Lawrence. This soap opera is not yet completed!!!!!!
Jonathan Allison 10 years, 6 months ago
This quote from the KCStar could be misleading
"A month after signing with the Jayhawks, Carl says, the family looked into Xavier playing in Europe for a year. “You don’t have to take any classes,” Xavier says."
Yes, it could mean that Carl Henry said "A month after signing (with the Jayhawks) the family looked into Xavier playing in Europe for a year."
It's more likely that it means that before Xavier signed with Kansas the family looked into his playing in Europe. Yet Carl Henry didn't reveal that information until a month after the signing.
Journalists love to create ambiguity, especially if they don't know all of the facts.
markster956 10 years, 6 months ago
"How many times does a seven footer (or whatever he really is) with a big rep come in and drift into almost complete obscurity? Never that I recall."
B.J. Mullens
For Kansas players...Eric Chenowith didn't exactly set the world on fire from teh hype of being selected as a McDonald's all-american game.
I don't think anyone ever thought Kirk Hinrich would be in the NBA after his sophomore season. Granted, I do think Kirk was better at that juncture of his career than Tyrel is, but who's to say that Tyrel doesn't have that same opportunity. He definitely could play overseas and make some of that European money before heading to the sidelines as a Bill Self assistant. Kirk's improvement from sophomore year to junior year was simply amazing so I will keep my fingers crossed for Tyrel to do the same.
markster956,
Your response is so fitting that I need you to help me recall who the heck B.J. Mullen even was? :-)
The Question for the Day:
Which came first: the ball or the basket?
Kent Wells 10 years, 6 months ago
Jaybate,
Is this similar to the question:
Which came first, the Jayhawk or the egg?
justanotherfan 10 years, 6 months ago
kushaw,
Perhaps we are remembering two different people.
Kirk Hinrich was a truly great Jayhawk. He had a tremendous career, one that Tyrel Reed, through two seasons, isn't even in the same league with. Just for fun, let's throw Brady in the conversation, too, mostly because to me, Tyrel and Brady are the same type of player.
Hinrich Freshman - 188 points on 69-161 shooting. 82 rebounds, 123 assists, 87 turnovers, 35 steals. 43% FG, 31% 3PT Sophomore - 378 points on 116-232 shooting. 134 rebounds, 229 assists, 111 turnovers, 43 steals. 50% FG, 50% 3PT.
Reed Freshman - scored 47 points on 18-35 shooting. 10 rebounds, 21 assists, 4 turnovers, 7 steals. 51% FG, 46% 3PT. Sophomore - scored 228 points on 66-162 shooting. 65 rebounds, 37 assists, 36 turnovers, 24 steals. 41% FG, 38% 3PT
Morningstar Freshman - 34 points on 13-26 shooting. 12 rebounds, 8 assists, 4 turnovers, 5 steals. 50% shooting, 44% 3PT RSophomore - 229 points on 78-186 shooting. 104 rebounds, 92 assists, 47 turnovers, 43 steals. 42% FG, 42% 3PT
If you were to say that Reed may mimic the improvement that Hinrich made from his freshman to sophomore years, I could buy that. But clearly, Hinrich as a freshman was superior to Reed as a sophomore. Reed had more points, but Hinrich had more rebounds, assists and steals, plus shot better from the field (although he was awful from three) and had a much better assist to turnover ratio. And this was while playing roughly the same minutes. In fact Hinrich played 726 minutes as a freshman (21.4 mpg). Reed played 724 minutes last year (20.7 mpg).
Morningstar's stats last year are much more comparable to Hinrich's freshman stats, but Brady played over 1000 minutes last year, averaging over 30 mpg. Brady's efficiency is great, but the fact that in 30 mpg he only produced 6.5 pts, 3 rebs and 2.6 assists says that he has maxed out his potential since very few collegiate players average more than 30 mpg anyway.
Tyrel may have a little bit more potential to go, but the fact that his efficiency dropped quite a bit from freshman to sophomore years (look at his shooting numbers over the year) indicates that he may have maxed out his development as well.
Lin Rahardja 10 years, 6 months ago
No doubt Tyrel plays hard, scrapy at times, but Hinrich clearly has a lot more talent, he is a much better defender as well. We still appreciate Tyrel for his hard work though, there are many ways to contribute to a basketball team. Go Hawks!!!
jeremycasefan 10 years, 6 months ago
Comparing Tyrel to Hinrich thats insane. Any true ku fan knows that Hinrich was one hell of a player and always will be. GO HAWKS
Martin Shupert 10 years, 6 months ago
Absurd points are being made here. Who cares if Brady scores a point? He was always on the best offensive guard or forward and they were always shut down completely. Defense matters.
Is it just me or is anyone home at the LJW???????
What's going on with Tyshawn Taylor overseas?
I know it's a slow period but nohing new in the last 5 or 6 days????????
Please get Lew and his cigar off as the main header!!!!!!!
Happy Fourth of July to all and to all you service men and women out there, God Bless, keep your heads down and please come back home soon and all in one piece!!!
Lopsided Sunflower Showdown ends with all-out brawl between No. 3 Kansas and K-State January 21, 2020
Notebook: Sophomore Ochai Agbaji provides impact as rebounder in win over Wildcats January 21, 2020
Brawl overshadows career night by KU freshman Christian Braun in KU’s 81-60 win over K-State January 21, 2020
Quick recap: No. 3 Kansas rolls to easy win over Kansas State, but Sunflower Showdown ends in brawl January 21, 2020
KUsports Live: No. 3 Kansas vs. Kansas State January 21, 2020
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上海419论坛ZF
Tagged 上海419论坛ZF, 上海后花园ED, 上海龙凤419LX, 娱乐地图KG, 娱乐地图YU, 爱上海VL, 爱上海WF, 爱上海WO, 爱上海XA, 贵族宝贝WX
Go back to the enewsletter Autograph Collection H
Go back to the e-newsletterAutograph Collection Hotels, Marriott International’s distinctive portfolio of independent hotels, has welcomed four one-of-a-kind properties to its global portfolio, in the Florida Keys, New Orleans, Michigan and The Netherlands. Launched in 2010, Autograph Collection Hotels is a pioneer in the independent hotel space and has grown both aggressively and selectively from less than five hotels in 2010 to over 95 hotels today, making it not only Marriott International’s fastest growing brand, but one of the fastest growing hotel brands in the industry.The Collection’s latest additions include:The Saint Hotel Key West, Autograph Collection (Key West, Florida)Located on famous Duval Street just blocks from Mallory Square’s famed daily Key West Sunset Celebration, The Saint Hotel Key West, Autograph Collection provides the ultimate luxury destination to enjoy the island’s renowned festivals and water sport offerings. The one-of-a-kind, 36-room property, boasts a spontaneous, eccentric and edgy sophistication for even the most cultured traveller. Guests are met with the brand’s signature “Play Naughty, Sleep Saintly” atmosphere, infused with the laid-back lifestyle and Southern charm of Key West. Following a US$22 million dollar purchase and transformation, the property formerly known as the Southern Cross Hotel was rechristened The Saint Hotel Key West when it reopened in February 2015.Q&C Hotel and Bar, Autograph Collection (New Orleans, LA)The 196-room Q&C Hotel and Bar is ideally located between the French Quarter and the Central Business District in close proximity to all the major tourist attractions. The hotel is over 100 years old and located on the Historic Register. Following a complete renovation in 2014, the hotel now boasts brand-new luxurious modern rooms with Wi-Fi, 47-inch flatscreen TVs with tele-adapt wireless capability, fitness centre, convenient parking and pet-friendly amenities. The lobby has the warmth of a living room and embraces the entire hotel’s unique historic charm. Every dish served at Q&C Hotel and Bar is locally inspired and freshly prepared in the hotel’s open kitchen.Hotel Nassau Breda, Autograph Collection (Breda, The Netherlands)In the heart of the vibrant city of Breda, the Hotel Nassau Breda, which opened on 26 May 2016, redefines the Breda hotel market. The hotel is the perfect combination of rich history and contemporary comfort and luxury. On one of the oldest streets in the city centre, Three Court Houses, a convent and a beautiful chapel have been converted into a hotel with 95 rooms, several meeting spaces and a fine dining restaurant. The restaurant serves excellent dishes centring on a “Mad for food” philosophy.The Inn at Bay Harbor, Autograph Collection (Bay Harbor, Michigan)The stately Inn at Bay Harbor is situated on the shore of Lake Michigan’s Little Traverse Bay, where broad vistas form the background for some of the world’s most spectacular sunsets. Calming hues and nautically-inspired patterns, textures and art provide a relaxing state of mind while enjoying the comforts of the hotel’s 123 one-, two- and three-bedroom suites with full kitchens, living areas with Travertine stone fireplaces, marble baths, and breathtaking balcony views. The lobby – centred on a spectacular Schonbek chandelier with more than 34,000 gem-cut crystals and nearly 200 lights – has been modernised with a warm ambience to settle in from a day’s travels. Deep blue wingback chairs, rich leathers, marble tabletops, decorative lighting and a cosy fireplace flanked with bookshelves of northern Michigan memorabilia encourages guests to linger. The Inn’s full-service spa and salon provides the ultimate in luxury and pampering with services that evoke rest and restoration. Lakeside dining at its finest is served up in the all-new Vintage Chophouse | Wine Bar where guests can indulge, unwind, and soak in refreshing lake breezes in this classic all-American steakhouse.Go back to the e-newsletter read more
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We'll never know how it ends
The high-profile battle between Eminem and Universal over digital royalties has ended in a slightly more low-key way.
There's a settlement, but it's secret.
So we can only conclude that the cash Universal are giving Eminem is large enough to persuade them they don't want other artists to know how much, and large enough for him to be persuaded to keep his mouth shut.
More from No Rock on eminem, universal
Lady GaGa wonders why nobody mentions Adele's weight
The Mail runs a story about Lady GaGa talking about Adele:
In an interview with Stylist magazine the singer speaks out after hitting headlines because of her weight gain and asked why people didn't target British singer Adele.
Speaking to the magazine she said: 'Adele is bigger than me, how come nobody says anything about it? She’s so wonderful and I think her confidence is something I have to match. She has set the bar very high for a lot of women.'
I think the Mail was running that story with a straight face, too.
But, obviously, if the Mail really wanted to point out to GaGa that people do talk about Adele's weight all the time, they had to do no more than dig in their own archives. For example:
Adele displays her slimline figure in a sleek black outfit as she prepares to make her musical comeback at the BRITS
Adele shows off her slimmer figure in leggings as she enjoys a busy day with boyfriend Simon Konecki
Adele set to slim down even more as she embarks on new fitness plan
'She's a beautiful girl... I'm her biggest fan': Now Karl Lagerfeld apologises after calling Adele 'too fat'
or... oh, but you get the point.
More from No Rock on adele adkins, daily mail, lady gaga
Fox News see fundraiser; hear 'vote Obama'
If there's one thing we know about the Fox News Channel, they hate nothing more than something pretending to be impartial while actually being a political statement. They really, really hate that.
So it's perhaps no surprise to find Fox angrier than a child without a balloon over the NBC Sandy benefit. You or I might have seen it as a well-meaning attempt by some older pop acts to try and raise a few quid to help some people who are in quite a bad way.
But, no: It was little more than an Obama campaign advert:
"Good intention, raise some money for victims, but the timing is more than suspect," guest host Eric Bolling said. "Is this more political? Is this more, let's get this thing on TV before the election to help President Obama look more presidential? Or is it more to help out victims?"
"It does look like they're trying to squeeze it in," Steve Doocy agreed. He then noted that Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen are avowed Obama supporters (they are also New Jersey musical icons, of course).
"Where are the conservative performers?" Doocy asked. "How's NBC going to control what people say?"
"Is it a hurricane benefit or a concert for Obama?" he later said darkly. "I don't know," Bolling said.
They even dragged up Kanye West's "George Bush doesn't care about black people" remarks during the New Orleans hurricane benefit to somehow explain why they believed an event that hadn't yet taken place was going to be a Democratic pep rally.
There's something almost sad that Fox is now so broken as a rational beast that their first thought when they hear people are raising money to help others is that this stands against everything they believe in.
The other sadness is that Sting, Springsteen and Billy Joel is about as (small c) conservative a line-up as you can possibly get; that trying to suggest Billy Joel is like some cross between Che Guevara and, uh, a bloke playing pianos is so ridiculous you can't help but laugh.
"People will see a man who used to be married to a supermodel, who has a personal stash of 160million dollars, singing a song in front of a picture of a washed-out New Jersey theme park and will be tricked into voting for healthcare."
Really, Fox? If you believe that, you're more in need of an appropriate adult than Britney Spears ever was.
If you don't, you're kinda of a disgrace for pushing that sort of shit on the television to the small-but-significant audience who see the word "news" on your screen and confuse that with "truth".
More from No Rock on billy joel, bruce springsteen, fox news, new jersey, new york, sting
Making Rubber Soul
From the exhaustive A Warm Gun tumblr, a 1965 production line producing Rubber Soul.
This is what EMI used to be like.
More from No Rock on emi, other music blogs are available, the beatles
Epic loosens Death Grips
Death Grips decided that their album was information which wanted to free, and so slapped the music up on line. Unfortunately, they'd forgotten they'd signed to Epic, and thus had no longer actual ownership of their own art.
Epic failed them, and got cross:
Epic Records’ Head of Business & Legal Affairs Heath Kudler wrote in the email, dated 1 Oct – the same day as the leak: “Epic is extremely upset and disappointed that the artist decided to release an album without Epic’s knowledge or involvement. As you know, the artist has not only blatantly breached a number of provisions in the applicable recording agreement, it also has wilfully infringed Epic’s copyright rights with respect to these masters. Equally important, without provocation, the artist has made false and disparaging statements on various websites about Epic. All this, despite the fact that Epic has done nothing except wholeheartedly supported the band, even though the band has made certain decisions that have financially damaged Epic”.
Upset and disappointed. I suppose at least when they're telling off the people who made the music the RIAA companies pretend to have emotions - if it had been an ordinary person who had put up an album, they'd have actually just been got a drone strike.
Now, though Epic are going to drop the band - thereby totally alienating them from the product of their labours.
More from No Rock on dropping, epic, sony
HMV defend their no tattoo policy
A couple of weeks back it leaked out that HMV were going to ban their staff from having tattoos. It made the store look a little ridiculous, but they didn't get onto the downward spiral they're on today without clinging doggedly to an absurd line.
Their head of marketing and ecommerce, Mark Hodgkinson has given an interview to Marketing Week to explain what they were doing:
Hodgkinson told Marketing Week: “It’s [the change in policy] been taken out of context and sensationalised and we’ve given a wrong impression of what we want to do. The [appearance policy] is part of something bigger within HMV about being really welcoming and inclusive to customers and encouraging more diversity of customers and making them feel comfortable, welcomed and embraced by our stores.
“We will continue to embrace diversity in our colleagues - we have one of the least stringent codes in retail and we’ll continue to. - we’re just saying where it is too extreme, bear in mind we’re trying to attract broader customers and it could be something that would deter some customers.”
It's heartbreaking, isn't it? Nothwithstanding that there's very, very few people working in HMV had "MURDER" across their foreheads or walked about the headphone department with their shirts off revealing Fred West's face inked on their backs, does HMV really think its tills are silent because the general population thinks its stores are too edgy to enter?
Seriously, Mark, your shops already make Ned Flanders' Leftorium look like Malcolm McClaren's Sex Shop. And even if it wasn't already the place where your grandma buys records, given that most chain restaurants have a couple of members of staff whose ears have got dinner plates shoved in them, I think most people in modern Britain are able to cope with the somewhat mainstream tattoo culture.
People don't come into your shops because you're the sort of place that thinks tattoos are a bit "out there".
You'll also note Mark doesn't mention the sexist insistence that female staff wear skirts at all.
More from No Rock on hmv, tattoos
Even younger rock stars are getting old
Anthony Kiedis turned 50 yesterday.
More from No Rock on anthony keidis, red hot chili peppers
Mercury Prize 2012: Alt-J quickly given their prize
There's a lumbering headline from the Daily Mail which, though gauche, pretty much sums it up:
Electronic quartet Alt-J are handed the prestigious 2012 Mercury Music Prize after being named the favourites to scoop the title
Okay, to be accurate nobody went "they're the favourites, so we better hand them the prize", but you can see what the Mail is getting at. It wasn't much of a surprise, and we're probably a good year or two away from a well-meaning presentation of the cheque to an outsider from whom we shall never hear again.
Let's just take a quick look at the coverage, shall we? This year the prize moved from BBC2 to Channel 4, who gamely made space in the schedule for the announcement.
Not very much space, though: just a five minute slot.
Ah, but Channel 4 is a family of channels, right. So was there a bigger programme on More4?
Erm, no.
E4?
Ah! Here we are, 4Music had a longer live programme.
Yes you do, 4Music, over on Sky Channel 330.
Now, it might make sense for the awarding of music's most literary prize to be on a music channel. Except 4Music isn't really a music channel - the awards were sandwiched between three hours of Kim Kardashian and an old 8 Out Of Ten Cats. It's a bit like bunging the Turner Prize out on CITV because the channel once showed Art Attack.
Oh. But still, on a sort-of dedicated channel, there's room for a decent chunk of programming, right?
Nope. Just a thirty programme, like there used to be on BBC2.
So, no extra coverage, just hidden away on a less-appropriate channel.
I'm not sure if I was the sponsors I'd be that thrilled at this exciting new profile.
More from No Rock on 4music, alt-j, awards, channel 4, mercury music prize
Radio London cuts off Prodnose to spite its face
It's something of a semi-regular occurrence in British broadcasting: a Danny Baker show exploding in flames as yet another management team decide they can do without him.
The BBC seems convinced that Baker is going to carry on doing his 94.9 London show until Christmas; the programme that went out today didn't suggest that would be the case.
As ever, MediaGuardian misses the point:
In a diatribe reminiscent of Dave Lee Travis's live resignation from Radio 1 in 1993, Baker told listeners: "The show's been cancelled by the BBC. They don't want this any more.
"It's a dirty rotten shame and a rotten way they did it. Nobody phoned me. Apparently they were planning on getting round to telling me. I don't want to go, I make no bones about it."
In what way was Baker's show like DLT's "changes are being made" bit? That's a bit like comparing a magnificent march towards the fire with a petulant toddler, isn't it?
You hesitate to quote a Stephen Fry twit, but on this one he's right. The BBC are dickwits.
More from No Rock on axed, bbc london, danny baker, radio
Metalobit: Mitch Lucker
Mitch Lucker, singer with Suicide Silence, has died following a motorcycle accident on Wednesday night.
The band's label has issued a statement:
"It is with great sadness and regret this morning that we have to report that Mitch Lucker, vocalist of SUICIDE SILENCE, passed away a few hours ago due to injuries sustained during a motorcycle accident.
"Nuclear Blast would like to offer our condolences to his family, friends, band members and fans worldwide who are affected by this loss. He left us doing what he loved to do most.
"He was 28 years old and will be sorely missed.
"Fans are encouraged to share their memories, photos of Mitch and condolences on the band's official Facebook page."
Lucker had been hospitalised in September with a broken elbow.
In a 2010 interview with The Au Review, Lucker explained why the band's music became darker between first album The Cleansing and second No Time To Bleed:
think the general population of people just don’t think. It’s actually proven that people just use the part of the brain they have to, to get through the day. They don’t sit there and ponder over the big picture stuff. So it’s kinda going along that whole concept.
Mitch Lucker was 28; Suicide Silence had been due to be part of the Outbreak Tour.
More from No Rock on metal, mitch lucker, obit, obituary, suicide silence
Songwriterobit: Bill Dees
Bill Dees, who co-wrote some of Roy Orbison's keynote songs, has died.
Dees also wrote songs for Glen Campbell and Johnny Cash, but it was with Orbison that he created his best work. This was part of that:
Bill Dees was 73; he died in Arkansas on October 24th. The cause of death does not appear to have been made public.
More from No Rock on bill dees, obit, obituary, roy orbison, songwriting, video
A very cold dish of revenge
Remember Deryck Whibley used to be married to Avril Lavigne? And that Lavigne is now engaged to Chad Kroeger?
Guess who Deryck and his current partner dressed up as for Halloween?
"Ha ha, you're engaged to someone from a dreadful rock band, Avril" scoffs Deryck, recalling a phrase written on gifts given to Avril back at her last wedding shower.
More from No Rock on avril lavigne, chad kroeger, deryck whibley, halloween, nickelback, sum 41
Gordon in the morning: There's exclusives, and "exclusives"
Yesterday, Gordon had a first with the play-through of the One Direction album (albeit with each track reviewed so tersely, why, a man could probably have just guessed what the songs sounded like.)
Today, his colleague Kate Jackson has what is described as a "first look at One Direction's calendar for 2013".
They even slap an "exclusive" label on it.
Which is odd, given the calendar's been available since September, and they're even flogging it from a little stand opposite Nando's.
More from No Rock on calendars, gordon smart, nandos, one direction, the sun
Gordon in the morning: One Direction want some attention
One thing we know about Gordon is that the sort of band he likes is Kasabian. And yet, the sales and page views are with bands like One Direction. Today, offered the chance of an exclusive first listen to the One Direction album, he slaps on a fake grin and dad-dances his little tush off:
NOW here’s the thing. I’m a 32-year-old man who likes good old-fashioned rock ’n’ roll.
But, sadly, hardly any of the bands I like can sell two million albums to teenagers any more.
So ONE DIRECTION have earned almost the entire day in Bizarre page about their new album — and this is why...
This is the equivalent of a locked-in blinking. "I'm only writing about them because they're popular."
Obviously, there is a question hanging here: if Smart really wants his sort of band to sell more, why doesn't he give them the coverage rather than One Direction? (The answer, you'd guess, would be that he needs the bands more than they need him.)
So, with the grin on, what's Gordon's verdict on the record?
The headline is the sort of thing that could go in an advert:
Take Me Home is 1Dful
Wundyful? Full of wund?
Gordon bottles the challenge in the end, passing over to a younger member of his team, Tom Thorogood, to trot out a couple of sentences about each song:
Fast-paced and McFly-alike. Could be a future single.
... but not before Gordon does rather a deft dance of seeing how far he can push damning with faint praise before the One Direction fans would notice:
The album sounds almost identical to the last one but kids will love it — and some of the writers are talented folk.
I'm not Gordon's biggest fan, but that is a great bit of writing: like a man examining a steaming turd he's found on his doorstep saying 'well, whoever did this is at least enjoying a healthy diet'.
More from No Rock on gordon smart, one direction, reviews, the sun
Rihanna offers $250 album
Times are tough for selling physical products in the music industry, so I suppose you've got to be impressed at Rihanna offering a copy of her CD which costs $250.
She does throw some stuff in to sweeten the deal:
The Diamonds Executive Platinum Box edition includes a copy of the album, a 2GB credit card-style USB, a unisex T-shirt with a Michael Muller photo printed on, and seven art print 12x15 lithographs.
It will also contain three device adhesives featuring Rihanna's Unapologetic cover, logo and image, seven laptop stickers, a vinyl featuring remixes of her single 'Diamonds' and a View-Master containing 3D images depicting her style transformation.
Some stickers, a t-shirt and - oooooh! a two gigabyte memory card. A whole two gig.
Okay, I'll admit the idea of a Viewmaster is quite a nice idea, but they only cost a tenner. An eight track edition - that might have been a move.
More from No Rock on memorabilia, rihanna
Gordon in the morning: The rage of GaGa
Apparently on BBC Breakfast yesterday, Calvin Harris mentioned that he'd been asked to work with Lady GaGa, but had said 'no'.
GaGa wasn't happy, as Gordon copies off her Twitterstream:
Gaga took to the social networking site to write: “Seems to be trendy lately to talk s*** about lady gaga when your albums/singles drop.
“Y’all should live off your own hustle.
“Never even emailed you @calvinharris I guess it’s hard to believe I write + produce my music.
“Cuz I’m a woman I don’t know about EDM right?”
Gordon helpfully points out that EDM is electronic dance music, lest his readers wonder why GaGa might be talking about Early Day Motions.
Interesting attack line for GaGa to somehow read sexism in Harris' comments, which I don't think was there in the first place.
But we should respect her for writing and producing her own stuff and not needing any help from other people. Harris should be ashamed for suggesting otherwise. Where would he have got the idea otherwise?
Obviously, on Born This Way the album she shares a writing credit with Fernando Garibay. But pretty much it's just her.
Well, her and Fernando Garibay and Jeppe Laursen. And DJ White Shadow.
GaGa, Fernando Garibay, Jeppe Laursen and DJ White Shadow. Writing together, but with no further assistance. If you don't count Garibay, RedOne and Cheche Alara.
Okay, okay, so maybe she doesn't write alone. But she's producer, right? She produces herself. With only the merest additional work by DJ Snake, DJ White Shadow, Fernando Garibay, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, Jeppe Laursen, RedOne and Clinton Sparks.
Why on earth would Calvin Harris believe that she might collaborate?
Turns out, though, that Harris was approached behind GaGa's back. Gordon again:
Calvin then replied to Gaga: “No, your label emailed me.
“I always make sure I say I’m a fan when asked about it, I apologise if I offended u, wasn’t the intention.”
GaGa accepted the apology, although seemed not to realise it was then her turn to say sorry.
Meanwhile, Gordon himself has taken to Twitter:
Apologies for spelling @sallyhumphreys name wrongly on Twitter and in the paper. Super talented theatre producer and future Mrs Ronnie Wood
— Gordon Smart (@gordonsmart) October 30, 2012
Getting the name wrong. Despite all that studious fact-checking he told Leveson about.
More from No Rock on bbc breakfast, calvin harris, collaborations, gordon smart, lady gaga, producers, the sun
Wiley: The value of a university education
When you're paying massive fees for your courses, you move from being a student to being a consumer. And that makes you demand more, as Wiley found out:
He tells Britain's Daily Star newspaper, "I don't like students' attitudes. They only really like indie (rock) bands, and why would I want to perform for people who are going: 'Shut up Wiley, you're s**t?' I did a gig at Surrey Uni recently that I hated.
"I didn't need that £12,000, so I cancelled the whole uni tour and now I won't play a university ever again."
Rather a lazy cliche that students are only interested in indie rock bands. They like all sorts of music, Wiley. You weren't fighting a genre block, you were struggling with a quality threshold.
More from No Rock on bitter men of pop, cancellation, universities, wiley
Gordon in the morning: Piss weak
What's going on here?
Yes, that's Gordon Smart and Alex James pretending to wee.
Why, though?
In God's name why?
Blur's Alex James lets it all out in the bogs ...for a TV show
For a TV show? Really?
Erm, no. It's for a web video. Tell us more, Gordon.
OVER the years I’ve heard some great stories from readers and rock stars alike about the most famous people they’ve stood beside at a urinal.
Really? I've heard a lot of stories like that, but they always are "I was having a pee, and next to me was Captain out of Captain And Tennille." I don't think I've ever heard any story that goes much beyond that. But carry on.
So an online rock’n’roll TV show has started chronicling those tales in a segment called Slash Gordon.
Oh, really?
Check out the new This Feeling, in association with Guinness, on The Sun’s website from 1pm today to see BLUR’s ALEX JAMES telling his story to me in the bogs.
Really? Guinness are sponsoring a thing about pissing? Did they think through how that's going to help their brand values?
Still, congratulations to Gordon for coming up with a segment that actually manages to exclude the possibility of women taking part by design. It's almost like it's a forum for hoary rock cliches.
Up-and-coming rock star EUGENE McGUINNESS and THE VIEW also compete to see who can throw a TV out a window the furthest. It’s the rock version of Top Gear’s Star In A Reasonably Priced Car.
Yes, hoary old cliches.
More from No Rock on alex james, gordon smart, the sun, urine
Madonna/Romney crossover fans upset
Madonna endorsed Barack Obama from the stage last night. Oddly, it didn't go down well with the whole audience in New Orleans. The AP reports:
Madonna drew boos and triggered a walkout by several concertgoers after she touted President Barack Obama on her "MDNA Tour" in New Orleans.
Really? Walkouts? Now, American politics is a strange beast, but walking out upon hearing Madge endorse Obama suggests that your love of Romney is pretty deeply ingrained. To flounce away from an eye-wateringly expensive gig just because someone said 'vote Obama' implies that you bleed GOP.
Which obviously leads to a follow-on question: if you're that deeply committed to conservative values, what the hell are you doing at a Madonna gig in the first place?
It's like vegetarians flouncing out of a tour of Bernard Matthews factories when they're offered some Turkey Twizzlers to taste.
Still, faced with people booing and walking out, Madonna stuck to her guns, of course.
Drawing boos in touting Obama over Republican Mitt Romney, Madonna followed: "Seriously, I don't care who you vote for ... Do not take this privilege for granted. Go vote."
Of course she didn't.
More from No Rock on barack obama, elections, madonna, mitt romney, new orleans
Paul McCartney absolves Yoko of split responsibility
Dammit, are they going to have rehsoot the Buffy Yoko Factor episode? Paul McCartney has said you can't blame Ono for The Beatles splitting. He says so in an interview with What Is Presumably Now Just David Frost's Head In A Jar:
"She certainly didn't break the group up, the group was breaking up. When Yoko came along, part of her attraction was her avant garde side, her view of things, so she showed him another way to be, which was very attractive to him. So it was time for John to leave, he was definitely going to leave one way or another."
Actually, that doesn't quite say it wasn't down to Ono - 'she showed him there were other things in the world and so it was time for him to leave'. Perhaps you should try again, Paul:
McCartney goes on to say that without the support of Yoko Ono, he believes Lennon would not have written songs such as 'Imagine', adding: "I don't think he would have done that without Yoko, so I don't think you can blame her for anything."
Actually, if - but for Yoko - Imagine would never have been written, it sounds to me like there's something fairly massive you can blame her for. The existence of Imagine.
Paul finally gets round to blaming Alan Klein for the split. Which makes more sense. And how noble of him to only take forty years to getting round to trying to stop fans blaming Yoko.
More from No Rock on david frost, interviews, paul mccartney, the beatles, yoko ono
Indieobit: Jo Dunne
Terrible news last night that Jo Dunne from We've Got A Fuzzbox And We're Gonna Use It has died.
Fuzzbox were ace. Although you can imagine bands like them existing now, it's harder to picture them having quite the same career trajectory because the world has changed so much.
A couple of singles on Robert Lloyd's Vindaloo Records. Full advantage taken of The Chart Show playing indie videos regularly at a time when not all indie records had videos. Transitioning to WEA, and at the same time making the leap from being favourites of Record Mirror to the pages of Smash Hits. Soundtracking a key moment in Emmerdale Farm (they were playing on the Land Rover radio when Jackie Merrick accidentally shot himself). Then WEA got bored, dropped them, they split.
Ah, yes, that 'pretending to ride a scooter' video for Rules And Regulations, which felt like it popped up every third week for about a year and a half. Take it away, away, a-way-hey-hey:
If you need further proof of just how extraordinary these days were, here's the Vindaloo Summer Special, which saw Fuzzbox, The Nightingales and Ted Chippington come together for a bit of a time. The upshot? Ted Chippington on kid's TV:
The band reformed in 2010 - after Vix had been in the line-up on Never Mind The Buzzcocks, strangely enough. There was even a comeback cover:
Maggie spoke about her sister with BBC News:
"Jo is one of the very few female guitarists in this country that had any recognition and any success," she said.
"People from other bands admired her eccentric style."
She said Jo died peacefully after a short illness.
"I want everyone to remember her for being so brave at the end," she added
Jo Dunne was 43. She died from cancer on Friday night.
More from No Rock on fuzzbox, jo dunne, obit, obituary
The most-read October stories were:
1. HMV decide to blame staff for decline, tell women to wear skirts
2. Marilyn Manson & Rob Zombie have trouble understanding they need each other to bark up an audience
3. Spotify survey claims people can think of songs that are better than sex. Goes downhill from there.
4. Glastonbury holds traditional technical failures to mark tickets going on sale
5. New Statesman pats NME on the head
6. Oprah rejoices that Rihanna has returned to Chris Brown
7. Drowned In Sound remember the Forgotten Buzzbands
8. Jarvis Cocker reviews John Lennon's shopping list
9. Coachella offer to dump meat to reunite The Smiths
10. Cheryl Cole stopped from flying by insurance people
It was a quiet release week:
... And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Lost Songs
Download Lost Songs
Kate Rusby - 20
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Treasure Hunting (Open)
Stay Classy, Ymaggion
Treasure Hunting (Open) Dec 12, 2010 1:14:03 GMT -5
Post by BD on Dec 12, 2010 1:14:03 GMT -5
"No, I won't chance it; i'm not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. I can tell from your rigs you guys know what you're doing. What tools I have are in the box, you're more than welcome to try with those, but if you already know that you need other tools don't bother. I appreciate the help though; it's hard to find good people out here," Kite said in a somewhat relieved manner.
I guess that I can take it easy. If they knew who I was i'd have swords in my hand right now. Looks like i'm fine for now.
Post by Steinerman on Dec 12, 2010 1:47:17 GMT -5
Inwardly, Michael sighed in relief, nodding outwardly as he did so. "As you wish," he replied. Glad that they wouldn't have to bring Kite back with them to the convoy. He didn't want to imagine what Uban would be like back at the convoy, as Michael was sure Uban was still suspicious of the man.
By the bike, Nicole nodded, "Right, so we need to send the vehicle back to the convoy, or radio them and have them send a Vee back with the part."
Uban shrugged, "I can take the Vee and catch up to the convoy, they're moving slow, and I don't want to deprive them of another vehicle right now. Knight-Commander, would you like to accompany us? or stay here with the travelers?"
Michael stared contemplatively at his friend, unsure of what the Sergeant was up too, offering to take their vehicle to the convoy. Obviously he suspected a trap, not unusual for him, Uban was a suspicious man by nature. But to suggest that he leave Michael there...
"Yes, that will do nicely, Adams. Radio the convoy and tell them to get the part ready, Riley and I will stay. If bandits do happen to be in the area, seeing our colors should dissuade them from attacking."
Riley seemed completely oblivious to Uban's strange behavior, though in truth she didn't know the man well, and perhaps thought it normal for him to leave the Knight-Commander in the field. She spoke up quickly, obviously excited about being left out with the Knight-Commander, that the Sergeant trusted her enough to leave her made her smile from under the heavy helmet she wore.
"Sergeant, Trooper Wells will need to know what parts I need, if you could tell him I need the stuff from lockers 2-C and 6-C? The part and everything else I need is in there."
Uban nodded, repeating back the numbers to make sure he had them firmly in his mind, and then stalked off to the Humvee. He banged on the side of the vehicle, "Ash!" He called into the vehicle, "Get on the horn and relay what I tell you, we've got some work to do, trooper."
A moment later he hopped into the Humvee, activated the vehicle and drove off, leaving Michael and Trooper Riley alone with Kite and Rua.
Michael turned to Rua, "I apologize, sir. I wasn't meaning to ignore you. You're welcome to stay, even travel with the convoy for a time if you wish, but I truly don't mean to be keeping you from your business, you're more than welcome to leave, if you so choose."
Treasure Hunting (Open) Dec 14, 2010 14:17:09 GMT -5
Post by The Rising Dragon on Dec 14, 2010 14:17:09 GMT -5
Relayia cocked her head quizzically at the Knight-Commander and chirped, but Rua lifted a finger to silence her. "No, it's alright," he replied, shaking his head. "I might as well join you for now. Maybe you have better maps of this area than I do."
Michael cocked his head to the side in thought, eyes narrowing in concentration.
"Hmm, maps. Yes, the convoy has several up-to-date maps in the databanks, we've done several sweeps in these areas over the past few years, and make it a point to map out the area for use by travelers."
He smiled broadly, "Yes indeed, I think we can help in that regard. We should be able to get you some very detailed maps of the terrain once the Sergeant returns with his vehicle."
Rua nodded appreciatively. "I'd like that. With better maps maybe this expedition won't take so damn long."
Riley, who was leaning against a sizable rock a few feet away from the bike, looked up slowly, the heavy helmet focusing on Rua.
"Expedition? Out here? You on a treasure hunt or something?" She asked curiously.
Rua cocked his head a bit and shrugged, causing Relayia to rebalance herself on his shoulder. "Something like that, yeah," he replied. "It helps bring in money to supplement what Kalia makes."
Post by BD on Dec 25, 2010 22:51:09 GMT -5
Kite, finally relaxed, decided that it was time to attempt to make the best of the situation and learn what he could about the order's motivations without stepping on toes at the moment. They were friendly enough, granted that was without knowing who he was, but it still seemed to be the supposed high road to take. They were all waiting for parts, so it couldn't hurt to attempt to mingle and see if the commander would bite.
"Man, I don't know how you guys do it. I hear about you guys braving the jungles and surviving the arctic, and it scares me shitless just to think of what all you guys are tasked with, hell, my hat's off to you guys for all you do" Kite said as he leaned back against a tree to avoid the sun.
He turned to Rua and smirked, "And you're just a damn survivor if you've been doing this hunting stuff around here for too long."
Post by The Rising Dragon on Dec 26, 2010 4:52:56 GMT -5
Rua gave Kite a narrow-eyed, sidelong glance, and folded his arms. "Tough talk coming from someone who couldn't stay on his own bike," he remarked. Relayia made a sound that was neither approving nor disapproving. "Besides, most bandits out here keep closer to the roads, and I won't be on them where I'm heading."
Post by Steinerman on Dec 27, 2010 17:46:36 GMT -5
Riley cocked her head to the side, glancing at Kite through the heavily tinted helmet visor, her cold eyes suspicious. Admittedly, she told herself, she was suspicious of everyone, except for the Knight Commander.
And Sergeant Adams, she quickly added in her mind.
But still, the way he worded the question seemed odd, something about it struck a nerve with her.
Dragonheart's comment made her want to laugh a little, Kite's bike really wasn't that good of a machine, the quality wasn't exactly shoddy, but the machine was heavy and a gas guzzler due to it. She much preferred speed to armor.
Michael also took extra notice of Kite's question, but shrugged and replied easily. "We're Hospitalers, meant to offer aid mostly. Almost half of our subdivision is medical in nature. We mostly do sweeps and patrols of dangerous areas," He nodded up towards the highway in the distance,"The Highways especially, bandits prey on many travelers, we intend to put a stop to that."
Treasure Hunting (Open) Feb 2, 2011 0:34:43 GMT -5
Post by BD on Feb 2, 2011 0:34:43 GMT -5
Kite turned to Rua a bit hurt at the jab towards him.
"Woah there, that was meant as a compliment to you..."
He turned to Michael and smirked at the thought of a parade of tanks going down the Highways. Nothing like a police state to force the criminals into undesirable areas; now they were deciding they wanted those undesirable areas too.
"Hell, bandits are bandits; it's just a shame that they choose the main roads around here, bit uncharacteristic compared to the ones i've always dealt with. That said, at least there's some people out there who actually give a damn. More than I can say about a lot of people."
Treasure Hunting (Open) Feb 2, 2011 16:53:12 GMT -5
Michael nodded amiably,"The bandits generally stick to the lower ground, but the truly brave or foolish ones come up to the highways themselves for better prospects. Our main convoys patrol the highway, and we send out scouting vehicles to cover the surrounding ground."
He took his eyes of Kite for a moment, glancing instead at the young trooper, Riley. He reflected that the girl was extremely self-conscious about her appearance when around anyone not in her unit.
And while he respected her privacy greatly, it was also quite warm out.
Poor child must be roasting in her helmet, those things turn into ovens given the smallest chance.
"Riley," he called out, "Dear goodness girl, it's toasty out here. I don't want to imagine what it's like inside that helmet. At least flip the visor up before you pass out from heatstroke."
Riley wanted to glare at her commander, he knew exactly how she felt about her appearance when around others. She honestly hated seeing the looks in others' eyes when they saw her Verivian features, fear and hatred got old quickly.
But he was her commander, and her helmet felt like a skillet. So with a fair bit of apprehension, she lifted the helmet from her head and let it fall to her side, letting her mechanical arm take the weight of it.
Michael grinned happily, the poor girl's face was sweaty and pale, she really had been roasting in there. But at least she'd complied and taken it fully off, rather than simply lifting the visor, as he had suspected she'd try.
Rua opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again when Commander Saint chastised--as he was certain that's what it really was; he'd spent enough time around Kalia to recognize it--the engineer about the helmet she wore. He could see the Cher Plek in the girl's face, though he didn't quite recognize where exactly, but he said nothing about it. He didn't really go with the racial tensions that'd been building up between the Empire and the rest of the world, that wasn't his concern and he was raised better than that.
"I can't say for certain, but I really don't think bandits aren't going to be much of a problem for me," he finally said after Riley had taken off her helmet. "They always stick to where civilization will be, and I'll be heading pretty much off the grid in that respect. I'd be surprised if I found any hideouts that far from the highways themselves."
Michael cocked his head to the side as he recalled what information he knew about the area. Last reports they'd had of this particular space around the Highways agreed with Rua. If he was going out to an older settlement, he would most likely avoid all of the bandits in the area.
He nodded slowly, "Yes, you are correct. There weren't many bandits operating along this particular stretch of highway last time we were here. I doubt they'll bother you."
However, he didn't want to leave the man totally without an escape route, if he needed one. Single travelers could fall prey to many sorts of dangers, bandits only being one of them. "I think, however..." he added, his expression thoughtful. "That it is always wise to have a back-up plan. Do you have a radio to contact aid, in case something happens, if your vehicle breaks down, perhaps?"
Last Edit: Feb 2, 2011 22:53:33 GMT -5 by Steinerman
"I've got a kit in the back of the junker to help me fix any problems, and I've got a few communication window scrolls stored in there," he informed the commander, nodding a bit. Relayia chirped in agreement. "I have an actual radio but I wouldn't really trust it in this situation. Too many plateaus and mountain ridges, which will only get more plentiful if I find my destination."
He was surprised they hadn't asked him where exactly he was headed yet. And part of him hoped they didn't, either, it was a crapshoot at best, which is why he packed extra supplies for this venture.
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Robot Chicken - Star Wars Coming To DVD
Posted By Mike on July 22, 2008
At last we have a date, at least according to TVShowsOnDVD.com (who are typically pretty reliable). It looks like Robot Chicken - Star Wars will be making its way to a DVD near you on May 20th. The DVD should include the original special and about an hours worth of bonus material including the following:
Animation Meeting
On-Air Bumps
Alternate Audio
Panel Presentations
Episode Commentary
Click here for more details at TVShowsOnDVD.com.
Big thanks to Mike F. for the news.
UPDATE: Click here to pre-order your copy at Amazon.com. (Thanks "OK Records")
UPDATE #2: For those of you who have yet to check out the cover art for the Robot Chicken: Star Wars DVD, see below for the pic from Amazon.com. Click on the thumbnail for a larger view.
Thanks Mathew.
UPDATE #3: TVShowsOnDVD.com is now reporting (per a press release from Cartoon Network) that the release of Robot Chicken - Star Wars on DVD has been delayed until July 22nd. No reason for the delay was given. Blast!
UPDATE #4: Click here for the press release of the July 22nd release of the Robot Chicken - Star Wars DVD release at Starwars.com.
UPDATE #5: Seth Green and Matthew Senreich were onhand for a panel at NY Comic Con this weekend talking about the DVD release of Robot Chicken: Star Wars. The duo were pretty tight lipped about the special features but did confirm the following:
- There are over 2 hours of special features
- There will be 7 commentaries on the DVD
- Robot Chicken: Star Wars took 14 weeks to make while a full season (20 episodes) of Robot Chicken normally takes about 11 months.
Source: IGN
UPDATE #6: Just a friendly reminder that the DVD of Robot Chicken: Star Wars is available today!
July 29, 2009 The Robot Chicken Roller Skating Tour
July 22, 2009 SW Robot Chicken II DVD Details!
July 17, 2008 Seth Green On Conan O'Brien
July 2, 2008 Robot Chicken: Star Wars UK DVD Release
August 19, 2007 Robot Chicken: Star Wars DVD May Be On The Horizon
June 29, 2007 "Robot Chicken: Sci Fi Con Fight "
June 20, 2007 Robot Chicken + Star Wars = Ratings Gold
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June 18, 2007 Robot Chicken: Star Wars At Starwars.com!
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June 16, 2007 Breckin Meyer And Abraham Benrubi Of Robot Chicken: Star Wars
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June 3, 2007 Robot Chicken: Star Wars Article At The New York Times
May 15, 2007 "Inside Robot Chicken: Star Wars"
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Rebelscum Breast Cancer Awareness Charity Patch
Posted By Philip on November 25, 2014:
Thanks to everybody that ordered patches. I sent a check for $1,600.00 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation on Monday. While it's not as much as I hoped for, it's still very much appreciated. They will remain for sale in the store for anybody that still wishes to purchase them. Details after the jump.
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Home / Reviews / Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy Review
Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy Review
The PlayStation Vita is still severely lacking new, great games. Sure we’ve got several cool new indie titles headed its way, but what about big titles that can possibly save the system? NIS’ Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy may not be that big title, but can it add itself to the short list of awesome Vita games?
Operation Abyss is a roleplaying dungeon crawler that takes place in future Tokyo, Japan. You’ll play as a group of randomized characters as you work for the government to defeat variants, horrific monsters that need to be defeated in order to protect everyday people. Overall, the story of Operation Abyss is pretty original, but I found myself disinterested with some of the supporting characters. Your main objective is to always defeat Variants, which does get a little dull.
Combat is just like most other dungeon crawlers. It is turn-based and lets you choose to attack, guard, use skills, and equip different weapons. Every turn, you’ll choose one of these for every one of your 6 characters. It’s fairly traditional turn-based combat but it’s still quite a lot of fun. When in combat, the screen becomes quite cluttered with all of your characters health, the action bar, picture of the character, and action log. It’s a huge bummer to have so much going on while you’re trying to get into the combat.
Like most of NIS’ games, Operation Abyss is presented in really slick anime style. Since the game shows everything from a first person perspective, you’ll often see characters and monsters with clear detail. Speaking of monsters, all enemies look really cool and are usually very monstrous. The variants are also quite varied which is great in a game that requires you to defeat a lot of them. While the art style of Operation Abyss is great, the dungeons are incredibly boring to look at. In a game built on the foundations of dungeon crawling, it became painstakingly awful every time I was in a dungeon.
In conclusion, Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy is a pretty ok game. The overall story wasn’t bad, the art style was good, and turn-based combat is fun. On the other hand, objective variation is lacking, the screen is very cluttered when in combat, and dungeons are boring and generic. Operation Abyss might not be the game to save the Vita, but it is a game that dungeon crawler fans will most certainly enjoy.
Final Score: 6.5/10
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WHITIANGA WEATHER
A truly great way to experience the beauty of the North Island
Posted On Wednesday, 19 June 2019 09:30
Our son has been in Wellington at university for the past three years and has now started his first job in the capital city. As a result, we have been making regular journeys to the city for various reasons.
As retirees with more time on our hands, we continually strive to “up the adventure ante” for each trip to Wellington. In the process of being parents, we also try to make the journey a richer experience and not just a commute.
For our most recent trip, we were travelling as an extended family to celebrate a combination of our son’s 21st birthday and his graduation ceremony from Victoria University, as a newly minted geologist. Grandma and Auntie were travelling from Auckland and we were travelling from Whitianga. After a bit of brainstorming, we all decided that we should get on the train to add a scenic and adventurous component to our journey. So, we booked the Kiwi Rail Northern Explorer for the Thursday before the big weekend.
The Northern Explorer is truly one of New Zealand’s gems. The voyage, starting in Auckland, meanders through a diverse selection of the North Island’s most beautiful scenery. Passengers enjoy a variety of landscapes, ranging from the fertile Waikato and King Country farmlands to the rocky foothills leading to the Central Plateau and its volcanic peaks, then onward through the gorges of the Rangitikei River and the shimmering Kapiti Coast.
The service terminates close to the “Cake Tin” in Wellington at a fairly reasonable time in the evening, which leaves room for more adventure once you alight from the train.
Passengers can enjoy the journey from very comfortable seats in carriages outfitted with brilliantly large windows geared for absorbing the scenery. The service also provides some pretty decent food and beverages, which are incredibly well-priced.
Grandma and Auntie, who are Auckland residents, boarded the train at the Strand Station in Parnell at 7:45am. Grandma is rather elderly and on a walking frame, but she easily got onto the train and to her own very comfortable seat by the window. They clearly got themselves into the swing of things straight away, because by the time we saw them at 10:15am when we boarded in Hamilton (after a drive from Whitianga the previous day), they had consumed their first bottle of bubbles and had made fast friends with their fellow passengers and the staff, who seemed to be keeping quite entertained with their excited banter.
We chose to stay in Hamilton at the Airport Hotel the night before, so that we could easily make our 10:15am boarding time and also because we were flying back to Hamilton on our return. We boarded the train with a hearty welcome from the staff and we found out seats straight away, following the jovial sound of our relatives.
With more bubbles in our possession, we took off through some lovely Waikato farmland, sporting a beautifully green hue from the recent rains. Passing through the foothills towards National Park, we were treated to rock formations, waterfalls, forests and so much more. The Northern Explorer train journey takes you through landscapes that you would never encounter or be able to enjoy driving in a car.
Once we passed through Taumarunui, we started making our ascent onto the Central Plateau where the dramatic landscape was made even more special by the experience of climbing around the tight curves of the historic Raurimu Spiral. The Raurimu Spiral is an engineering marvel designed in 1898, to make the 139-metre ascent onto the plateau possible without a lengthy diversion. It is an experience everyone should have.
Coming into National Park, where some of the passengers got off for a weekend at the famous Chateau Tongariro, our view was dominated by the snow-capped volcanic cone of Ngauruhoe, which starred as Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings movie.
We continued on across three breathtaking and very tall viaducts, which bridge the deep ravines carved out by rivers off of Ruapehu. Grandma, afraid of heights, was less impressed and started to wish she had not chosen the window seat after all. Along the way, motorists on the viaducts had stopped to take photos and wave at the passing train.
Once the train left the next station, Ohakune, we were presented with the best view I have ever experienced of the snow-capped Ruapehu. We were able to enjoy this view for quite a while as we circled Tongariro National Park. Our carriage on the train was abuzz at this stage, with multiple selfies and group photos being taken. I think everything got even more social at this juncture.
The stunning view of Ruapehu continued even as we entered the Rangipo Desert, which is home to Waiouru Military Camp. The wild tussocks, although bleak, had their own style of drama.
My favourite leg of the journey started south of Taihape, where we were treated to the amazing papa cliffs of the Rangitikei River, a geologist’s paradise (so I am told by my son). Comprised of soft sandstone, the gorge created by the river is narrow and very steep with many hair pin turns. The train passes through this amazing landscape via five towering viaducts which were awe-inspiring. Two of these original iron truss viaducts were built in the early 1900s. Our height-challenged Grandma offered up her window seat at this stage, but we simply told her to close her eyes.
The final part of the trip took us through the lovely coastal cliffs of the Kapati Coast, before we went through a long tunnel that put us inside the Wellington basin. Coming into Wellington at 6:30pm and after dark, we were treated to a landscape of twinkling city lights.
For anyone looking for an adventure, I cannot recommend the Northern Explorer enough. It is truly a great way to experience the beauty of the North Island.
Pictured: Mount Ruapehu is one of the many breathtaking sites passengers on the Kiwi Rail Northern Explorer experience.
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The N.C. Chronicles.
Family rights, Parental rights, Children rights.
Warning; We are not a politically correct site. Don't like us? Don't read.
Paying child support for kids that are not yours, legalizing adultery, open destruction of the traditional family..
Why am I not surprised this happens in Ontario? For every step we take towards making everyone responsible for their actions in families, here comes some installed feminists in family court who basically just legalized adultery...doesn't matter if it is husband or a wife, though this ruling is squarely aimed against men, paying for kids who are not yours is by far a slap in the face. Not taking into account the emotional difficulties and been crushed after finding out you are not the biological father, to actually pay for kids that are not yours???What a fu..ed up system...Welcome to the feminist induced world, women who commit adultery are rewarded but if it was the man....This is a judgement based on the "feminist judge's" dislike for men and
lack of fairness on the part of governments...If the wife's philandering ways and the real father of these kids were made responsible for their action then they would have to go after them, instead this is an easy way out, clean and done, the feminist way....
So, why get married in Ontario, why start a family, why be involved when a man is considered....expendable trash?
Of course it isn't the kids fault in all this, but neither is it the man's...
MGTOW sure is a safe road to take in Ontario.
To actually call a feminist who made such a decision a judge is also a slap in the face of what "JUSTICE" is supposed to mean.
This pretty well opens the door to more family break ups by the justice system of ontario, if your a wavering sexually active wife don't worry if you get caught, we will make your husband pay anyway if he finds out....
Your kids will most probably grow up to be angry and have no faith in starting a family of their own, or with what they experienced, live their lives that way, but no worries....there is welfare, we will take care of them?
Again...what a fu..ed up system...thank you, you cat lovers....
Man who didn't father twins must pay child support
A Toronto man is on the hook to pay child support, notwithstanding a DNA test that proved he is not the biological father of his ex-wife's twins, an Ontario Superior Court judge has ruled.
Madam (feminist) Justice Katherine van Rensburg ordered Pasqualino Cornelio to continue paying child support to the 16-year-old twins - regardless of whether he was bamboozled by a philandering wife.
"While the failure of Anciolina Cornelio to disclose to her husband the fact that she had an extramarital affair - and that the twins might not be his biological children - may have been a moral wrong against Mr. Cornelio, it is a wrong that does not afford him a legal remedy to recover child support he has already paid, and that does not permit him to stop paying child support," Judge van Rensburg said.
Mr. Cornelio began making support payments soon after he separated from his wife in 1998. He had the DNA test after his former spouse recently sought an increase in the payments and a reduction in his time with the twins. Upon learning that he was not the biological father, Mr. Cornelio claimed to be a victim of misrepresentation or fraud.
He asked to be excused from paying child support and demanded reimbursement of tens of thousands of dollars he has paid over the years.
Ms. Cornelio was unable to shed light on the mystery of the twins' parentage. "Ms. Cornelio denies knowledge of who the twins' biological father might be," Judge van Rensburg said. "In fact, she claims to have no memory of an extramarital affair preceding their birth, which she attributes to the medication she was taking at the time."
The judge noted that Mr. Cornelio wondered at the time of his separation whether a man named Tony with whom his wife had had an affair might be the father of the children.
"It was not until access was interrupted and Ms. Cornelio commenced proceedings seeking increased child support that the respondent began pursuing this issue," the judge remarked.
In any event, she said that it would be wrong for the children to suffer for events over which they had no control.
"Mr. Cornelio was the only father the twins knew during the course of the marriage," Judge van Rensburg said. "The relationship that developed from the time of their birth was the natural relationship between a parent and his children.
"The fact of that relationship - even if it has now become strained - is sufficient to require Mr. Cornelio to continue to contribute toward the children's material needs."
Child support, Judge van Rensburg said, is the right of a child even if a parent behaves poorly, "whether it be delay in pursuing support, an attempt to contract out of support, or the failure to disclose an extramarital affair that may have led to the conception of the child."
Judge van Rensburg noted that two separate lines of jurisprudence have developed in comparable cases. One focuses on being fair to an individual who discovers that he is not a biological parent. The other concentrates on the best interests of the child.
She pointed to an expansive definition of "parent" under the Family Law Act under which Mr. Cornelio can be seen as "a person who has demonstrated a settled intention to treat a child as a child of his or her family."
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Email exchange between Chapman alumna and Sparks garners outrage
by Louisa Marshall
An email thread between a 2011 alum and Dean Lisa Sparks has been shared hundreds of times on social media, following upset over Sarah Huckabee Sander’s presence at a Chapman event
Chapman alumna Laura Weisbecker (m. Hantke) found herself at the center of an email war: deeply concerned by the invitation of Sarah Huckabee Sanders to an event hosted by the Center for Freedom of Expression and Media Integrity scheduled for Nov. 20, she emailed Lisa Sparks, dean of the School of Communication and Republican candidate for Congress, to express her views.
“I, and many of my fellow alumni, are dismayed at the blatant disregard for both the truth and the integrity of the free press that she has shown both as Press Secretary to the Trump Administration and as a Fox News contributor,” Weisbecker’s Nov. 2 email read. “Your duty as Dean of the School of Communications is to your students, the young minds you’ve been tasked with educating and shaping. To use this event to further your own ambitions at the cost of your students is disgraceful.”
Sparks responded to Weisbecker’s initial email on Nov. 3 and pointed to perceived flaws in the alumni’s letter.
“Arguments must stand on their own, and the qualifications of the presenter are irrelevant. We teach this in our classes. I am sorry you were not paying attention,” Sparks’ Nov. 3 email read. “Maybe the most amusing part of your email (if it were not sad) is that you are asking the Center for Freedom of Expression to disinvite a speaker because of your strong disagreement with her.”
Weisbecker’s Nov. 2 email to Sparks. Emails courtesy of Laura Weisbecker
Sparks spoke to The Panther Nov. 7, and categorized her response as “pointed and somewhat sharp” in a joint Zoom interview scheduled by President Daniele Struppa. Struppa and Sparks, who are married, are currently in Greece.
“It was in response to an email that attacked my integrity and not just my judgment,” Sparks said. “My email didn’t call the alumna names, nor did I use any language that anybody could find objectionable.”
Sparks’ Nov. 3 reply. Emails courtesy of Laura Weisbecker
Telling The Panther that her response would’ve been different if the concern had come from a student, Sparks said that it was an adult writing to her.
“I don’t even know who this person is,” Sparks said.
Sparks’ response email has garnered attention on social media, as multiple Chapman students and alumni have posted screenshots of the exchange. Weisbecker’s sister, who has reached out to Chapman’s public relations office, shared the email on her Facebook page, which as of publication, has received 547 reactions, 270 comments and 292 shares.
Sparks told The Panther that she believes the reaction garnered on social media “shows a complete lack of balance.”
“People have posted pictures of me with my friends, commenting that I only have white friends. There’s an implication of racism that frankly is unfair and uncalled for,” Sparks said. “I’m somewhat amused that those same social media and Twitter users are hiding behind their iPhones and computers are so outraged by my message. It seems pretty ridiculous.”
When asked about the social media frenzy that has endured since the emails were conducted, Weisbecker pointed to the natural reaction to “lash out and strike back.”
Weisbecker’s Nov. 3 response. All communication has ceased between Weisbecker and Sparks. Emails courtesy of Laura Weisbecker
“But someone in administration and running for Congress should have the ability to tap down that reaction,” Weisbecker said. “The whole ‘your accomplishments don’t mean anything’ was surprising.”
Weisbecker, who spoke to The Panther Nov. 5, said that she is not opposed to a balanced debate, but rather Sanders’ “relationship to the media,” her support of President Donald Trump’s categorization of the press as the “enemy of the people” and Sanders’ track record of knowingly lying to reporters. When asked about Sanders’ categorization of the press as the enemy, Struppa told The Panther that it is a “very strong viewpoint,” one that he hopes will be challenged at the Nov. 20 event. He also pointed to the idea that he does not know of a single United States president who hasn’t lied.
“She has lied. I sat and watched her when she defended Trump when he called the press the enemy of the people,” Weisbecker said. “If they want a conservative voice, go get one. But don’t bring someone who doesn’t value the press.”
Speaking positively to her time at Chapman, Weisbecker said she let out a very long “wow” when she read Sparks’ response. Struppa was cc’d on the email, as well as Media Integrity Center director Brian Calle and operations director Michael Ross.
The Alumni Engagement Team declined to comment on the matter.
“I cc’d President Struppa because I knew him during my time at Chapman,” Weisbecker said. “I always had good interactions with him.”
“There have been tweets that have called for me to be fired,” Sparks said. “What, you’re going to fire a dean who made comments you don’t like? Or points out flaws in your statement? That’s completely ridiculous.”
Sparks told The Panther that she perceived the inclusion of Struppa on the email thread as “an implied threat,” and continued to speak to activity on social media that has reflected this sentiment.
Struppa supported Sparks, saying that there would be far fewer people working at Chapman if people were fired for being disagreed with.
This is a developing story. Follow The Panther on social media and at www.thepantheronline.com for updates.
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‘What better way to kick it off’: Inside the Sanders/Gibbs event
Huckabee Sanders and Gibbs disclose varying thoughts on fake news
Over 600 Chapman alumni, affiliates, call for Sanders to be disinvited
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Home Cycling CYCLING: Van der Poel wins third Mountain Bike World Cup, Rissveds wins...
CYCLING: Van der Poel wins third Mountain Bike World Cup, Rissveds wins first in three years in Lenzerheide
Rich Perelman
Back on top: Olympic Mountain Bike champ Jenny Rissveds (SWE)
The penultimate stop on the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup tour in Lenzerheide (SUI) provided plenty of drama that will play out well into the future.
Dutch star Mathieu van der Poel won his third race – out of six held – and closed the gap with seasonal leader Nino Schurter to just 21 points with one race left … which he will not contest.
Sweden’s 2016 Olympic champ Jenny Rissveds left the sport entirely in 2018, then came back with a bronze medal in Val di Sole last week and won in Lenzerheide for her first World Cup win since 2016 … in Lenzerheide!
After winning her first World Cup medal in two years last week, Rissveds moved up to the front of the starting grid and crashed on the first lap, but got back into contention quickly. She had the lead by the second lap and was part of a front group that included Anne Terpstra (NED), Pauline Ferrand Prevot (FRA) and Swiss Jolanda Neff, the seasonal leader.
Neff was dropped with three laps to go and Rissveds rode away with the fastest final lap in the field to win by 1:21:09-1:21:34 over Terpstra. Neff faded to eighth and was passed by American Kate Courtney, vying with Neff for the seasonal title. When the dust cleared, the seasonal winner will be decided in two weeks in Snowshoe, West Virginia; the standings:
1. 1,625 Jolanda Neff (SUI)
2. 1,552 Kate Courtney (USA)
3. 1,225 Pauline Ferrand Prevot (FRA)
4. 1,210 Anne Terpstra (NED)
5. 992 Rebecca McConnell (AUS)
The men’s race was a slugfest between Van der Poel and Schurter. They rode together until van der Poel moved ahead smartly on the sixth lap and was never headed, winning by 1:17:50-1:18:15. That moved van der Poel into position to win the seasonal title in the finale:
1. 1,670 Nino Schurter (SUI)
2. 1,649 Mathieu van der Poel (NED)
3. 1,360 Henrique Avancini (BRA)
4. 1,348 Mathias Flueckiger (SUI)
5. 970 Gerhard Kirschbaumer (ITA)
However, van der Poel already decided to skip the finale in the U.S. in order to prepare for the UCI World Road Race Championships in Yorkshire (GBR) later in September. So the title will essentially be handed to Schurter, which will be his seventh World Cup win and third in a row.
In the Downhill events, France’s Amaury Pierron won his third race of the season, but teammate Loic Bruni will win the season’s title, his first, to go along with his three World Championships golds. Marine Cabirou (FRA) won the women’s race over Tracey Hannah (AUS) to close to within 150 points of the seasonal lead and they will fight it out in the final race of the season. Standings:
● Men:
1. 1,312 Loic Bruni (FRA)
2. 1,222 Amaury Pierron (FRA)
3. 1,094 Troy Brosnan (AUS)
● Women:
1. 1,460 Tracey Hannah (AUS)
2. 1,310 Marine Cabirou (FRA)
3. 819 Nina Hoffmann (GER)
The season finale in Snowshoe will be on 7-8 September. Summaries from Lenzerheide:
UCI Mountain Bike World Cup
Lenzerheide (SUI) ~ 9-11 August 2019
(Full results here)
Cross Country Short (10.4 km): 1. Mathieu van der Poel (NED), 20:07; 2. Henrique Avancini (BRA), 20:08; 3. Nino Schurter (SUI), 20:12: 4. Maxime Marotte (FRA), 20:15; 5. Luca Braidot (ITA), 20:16.
Cross Country Olympic (29.0 km): 1. Van der Poel (NED), 1:17:50; 2. Schurter (NED), 1:18:15; 3. Mathias Flueckiger (SUI), 1:19:03; 4. Victor Koretzky (FRA), 1:1:34; 5. Gerhard Kerschbaumer (ITA), 1:19:34.
Downhill (1.847 km): 1. Amaury Pierron (FRA), 2:49.422; 2. Greg Minaar (RSA), 2:50.373; 3. Loic Bruni (FRA), 2:50.822; 4. Troy Brosnan (AUS), 2:51.582; 5. Danny Hart (GBR), 2:52.644.
Cross Country Short (9.4 km): 1. Pauline Ferrand Prevot (FRA), 21:38; 2. Jolanda Neff (SUI), 21:38; 3. Jenny Rissveds (SWE), 21:39; 4. Anne Tauber (NED), 21:40; 5. Chloe Woodruff (USA), 21:47. Also in the top 10: 9. Kate Courtney (USA), 22:04; 10. Lea Davison (USA), 22:06.
Cross Country Olympic (24.8 km): 1. Rissveds (SWE), 1:21:09; 2. Anne Terpstra (NED), 1:21:34; 3. Ferrand Prevot (FRA), 1:22:28; 4. Sina Frei (SUI), 1:23:12; 5. Catharine Prendel (CAN), 1:23:21. Also in the top 10: 7. Courtney (USA), 1:23:43; … 9. Woodruff (USA), 1:24:08.
Downhill (1.847 km): 1. Marine Cabirou (FRA), 3:34.304; 2. Tracey Hannah (AUS), 3:34.568; 3. Emilie Siegenthaler (SUI), 3:41.389; 4. Kate Weatherly (NZL), 3:41.782; 5. Camille Balanche (SUI), 3:41.953.
Amaury Pierron
Jenny Rissveds
Jolanda Neff
Kate Courtney
Loic Bruni
Marine Cabirou
Mathieu van der Poel
Nino Schurter
Tracey Hannah
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SWIMMING: Sensational 1:56.01 win for Allison Schmitt in Tyr Pro Swim 200 m Free
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Holly Herndon brings her immersive live show PROTO to Sonic Acts Academy 2020
Holly Herndon brings her immersive live show PROTO to Sonic Acts Academy 2020 in which fellow musicians and programmers, as well as a choral ensemble, are regurgitated by an AI ‘baby’ whose input strangely adds humanity to Herndon’s most human arrangement yet. Operating at the nexus of technological evolution and musical euphoria, Herndon has redrawn the map of laptop music, addressing grand themes like the future of all life from a hopeful place.
Listen to the acclaimed performer and composer’s single Eternal, a ghostly transmission inspired by ideas of eternal love through mind uploading; a modern-day vampire story. Punctuated by grandiose orchestration and the voices of her Berlin-based vocal ensemble, the accompanying video was constructed from footage processed from the perspective of an intelligent machine, analysing and searching for a face, yearning for a connection.
Holly Herndon. Photo courtesy of the artist.
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30 Under 30 Nomination
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425 Business magazine is published by Premier Media Group, which has been in business since 2001. The company’s publications are written, designed, created, and published in-house in Bellevue and Tacoma, Wash. Premier Media Group has won numerous national and international awards for their publications: South Sound, 425, NKBA’s Kitchen & Bath, MBA’s Home & Remodel. For more information about 425 Business and other publications, or to advertise or subscribe, please call the corporate office at 253.588.5340 or contact us online.
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By Ann-Christine Diaz - 35 min 13 sec ago
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CMO Strategy
Kohl's continues to chase millennials with new PopSugar push
By Adrianne Pasquarelli. Published on September 12, 2018.
Kohl's is sweetening its millennial offerings with a new collection from PopSugar, the women's lifestyle site. To promote the trendy line, which uses PopSugar social media analysis to predict popular fashions, Kohl's is releasing a new marketing campaign called "Everything is better with a pop of sugar." A 30-second broadcast spot, created by Minneapolis-based Peterson Milla Hooks, lays into florals, stripes, hearts and cherries.
"One of our biggest opportunities is in the millennial segment," says Greg Revelle, chief marketing officer at Kohl's, noting that the chain has seen success with its Lauren Conrad line, which is also aimed at younger customers. "It's the fastest growing market in general in retail." The PopSugar line ranges in price from $24 to $84 and sells in sizes up to 24. Debuting Thursday, it will be available online and in 500 of Kohl's 1,100-store fleet.
Revelle notes that PopSugar, which says it reaches one of every two millennial women in the U.S. with its content, identifies emerging styles early on via social media and uses those insights to create apparel. "They're able to spot trends more accurately and sooner," he says. In addition to the broadcast spot, Kohl's will run shorter videos online and also use Twitter's promoted trend spotlight under the hashtag #PopSugaratKohls.
First announced last spring, the new line continues Kohl's quest to expand its customer base. The Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin-based retailer has also rolled out pilot programs with Amazon and sells Amazon products at some locations.
Such efforts are helping to dust off the 56-year-old retail chain. Last month, Kohl's reported a 4 percent rise in revenue to $4.6 billion, while profit, at $292 million, rose 40 percent over the year-earlier period. Comparable store sales for Kohl's, up 3 percent, beat analyst expectations.
On a second-quarter earnings call with analysts, Kohl's CEO Michelle Gass touted the new PopSugar collection, and noted that the chain will run more personalized digital ads for it targeting Kohl's millennial customers. "It is one of the things that we believe will bring some real newness and fashion relevancy into the assortment," she said.
Adrianne Pasquarelli
A reporter with Ad Age since 2015, Adrianne Pasquarelli covers the marketing strategies of retailers and financial institutions. She joined Ad Age after a dozen years of writing for Crain's New York Business, where she also focused on the retail industry. Over the course of her career, she has won awards from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, the National Association of Real Estate Editors and the Jesse H. Neal Awards.
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When I was a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps at 22 years old, one of my captains at The Basic School was a rugged Marine who’d been awarded the Bronze Star for defending an isolated combat outpost from repeated Taliban attacks.
One day, he told me, “If you’re strong everywhere, it means that you’re strong nowhere. You need to gather intelligence, determine the enemy’s most likely avenue of approach, and orient your defensive position toward it. If you try to defend everywhere at once, you’ll fail.”
I’d offer similar advice to startups. The constraints of capital, talent, and time already leave you vulnerable to the competition’s every move. Trying to position yourself as a one-stop shop just spreads your resources even thinner. The question then is, why do so many startups still try to be all things to all people so soon out of the gate?
Too Big Too Soon
Startups often feel pressured to look bigger than they are. They want to show that they’re at the cutting edge of technology and get the attention of customers by promising a combination of features beyond anything that’s available on the market.
But buyers have become more and more savvy. They can smell even a hint of nonsense from a mile away. This is why they’re increasingly likely to conduct extensive research before making a purchase, which can mean requesting to test out a product before they buy it. When buyers realize that companies are overpromising and underdelivering, it damages the company’s reputation and lowers the likelihood of future success.
Every successful startup excelled at one thing first before expanding into other features. Netflix, for example, became the best in on-demand DVD rentals, while Amazon became the best online bookseller. The same can be said for Google with search, Facebook with connecting college students, and Uber with black car ride-sharing.
Since dominating in its core competencies, Netflix now excels in streaming services and creating proprietary content. Amazon is doing something similar — with the addition of selling all physical goods and offering cloud-computing services. Google still provides search, but has added email, video calls, maps, and even self-driving cars to its roster. Facebook connects people regardless of school affiliation and also runs a marketplace, Instagram, and WhatsApp, while Uber has branched out from a black car service into UberX and UberEats.
When you have nailed down your core competency and built it into a successful business, subsequent product lines must compliment your core business as part of a comprehensive corporate strategy in order to continue growing in a profitable and sustainable matter. Consider WeWork, for example, which had carved out a strong niche in the shared workspace market. The company began investing in more than just office space, moving into retail, housing, preschools, college campuses, food startups, and a wave generator for inland surfing.
That’s a lot of positions to defend — and a confusing corporate structure. That’s why it was no big surprise when WeWork recently pulled its IPO. The company also just received a $1.75 billion line of credit from Goldman Sachs to help clean up its debt and keep the ship afloat.
“What do you need to start a business? Three simple things: know your product better than anyone, know your customer, and have a burning desire to succeed.” – Dave Thomas
More Isn’t Always More
Adding features to match every perceived customer need is tempting. Logic would tell you that more of a good thing means an even better thing, but when it comes to startups, that’s simply not the case.
When my startup was pitching our product, which is smart camera software used for gun detection, to a large global company, the company pointed out that one of our competitors also uses computer vision to detect guns — on top of behavioral analysis, license plate reading, healthcare analysis, abandoned object recognition, people tracking for retail, and seemingly countless other applications. They asked why they should go with us when all we do is gun detection.
I knew of the competitor they were referencing. I knew the company was roughly the same size as us, so I understood a bit about their true capabilities and limitations. And I know that it’s not possible to be good at everything at once.
I said, “If you need a bunch of bells and whistles, ask yourself whether it’s realistic for a seed-stage company to deliver effectively on all of these promises.” I suggested they hold the company’s feet to the fire and test the products rigorously before making a decision.
3 Questions for Staying Focused
As a startup founder, you need to ask yourself three questions when looking to improve your offerings, and the answers should help you maintain a sharper focus on your core competency. Otherwise, you risk losing sight of your target audience and expanding too far too soon.
1. What is the most critical customer pain point we want to solve?
For the most part, your answer will fall into one of four fairly broad categories: cost, productivity, ease of use, and assistance. Cost obviously involves a financial problem, like overpaying for a product or service. Productivity centers on time — or the lack thereof. Ease of process involves making a complicated matter simpler, and assistance is all about support.
Invest in the research to uncover where your customers’ biggest pain points lie. Then, understand how your product or service can best solve that problem only. The first step in staying focused is zeroing in on one pain point and knowing you will need to maximize your offering’s ability to solve it.
“If you define the problem correctly, you almost have the solution.” – Steve Jobs
2. Are we building a valuable solution to this pain point?
Once you’ve established the problem your offering will address, you should determine whether what you have to offer is actually the best way for customers to solve it. Can your product or service take them easily from point A, where they have the problem, to point B, where it has been significantly remedied or entirely solved? If not, it’s time to pivot your strategy and improve your offering to better deliver that one solution, rather than just adding bells and whistles.
3. Are we using feedback to improve?
Nobody knows a pain point better than consumers. Once your product or service is in people’s hands, welcome their feedback with open arms. The more input you can gather, the better.
You can use the feedback directly to build your development road map, allowing you to improve upon your product or service in the way customers most want to see. Hearing from customers themselves is the only way to know the true extent to which you are solving your customers’ problems.
To bring the most value to your customers, focus in rather than expanding out. Startups form around solving problems in the first place, so the attention should remain on finding the very best solution. Focus on what you’re good at and master this area before moving into other uncharted waters. That’s the foundation of success.
Have you thought about starting a business? If so, what part of this article resonated most with you? Share your thoughts below!
Related Topics:Build A BusinessBuild A Startupcreate a businesscreate a companyfocushow to focussolving problemsStartup AdviceStartupsstay focused
Sonny Tai is CEO of Actuate, a Marine Corps veteran, and a social entrepreneur. He co-founded Actuate with the mission of addressing America’s gun violence epidemic, and he works to build software that employs deep learning to automatically identify weapons in real-time security feeds.
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Most people who want to become entrepreneurs, choose this career because they think it’s easy and that they won’t have to work under someone. What these people don’t know is that being an entrepreneur is one of the most challenging things to do. Yes, you do enjoy flexibility in it. Yes, you do get to be your own boss but at the same time, if the business falls apart and if something goes wrong, you wouldn’t have anyone else to blame for it but yourself. (more…)
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