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Classic TV uploaded by HappySwordsman ''Beat the Clock'' - Circa August 1956 An episode of "Beat the Clock", a popular game show. Original 1956 commercials intact. Topics: Classic TV, Television, Game show, Beat the Clock, 1950s, 50s, Fifties ''Beat the Clock'' - 13 October 1951 An episode of "Beat the Clock", a popular game show. Think about it: This aired over 60 years ago. This copy contains original commercials and network ID. Topics: Classic TV, Television, 1950s, 50s, Fifties, Game Show, Early Television 18,749 19K 50's Game Show 'Beat The Clock' (Classic TV) eye 18,749 Episode of the 50's game show "Beat The Clock". Topics: Classic TV, 50's, Fifties, 1950's, Game Show, Advertising Another episode of the 50's Game Show "Beat The Clock" Apr 4, 2008 04/08 Another episode of the 50's Game Show "Beat The Clock". Topics: Classic TV, Advertising, 1950's Television, Game Show, Fifties, 50s, Goodson Todman, 50's, 1950's,... CNN: Money Archive CNN Money Archive: Beat the clock for online fashion by CNN Money Deadline shopping sites, such as Gilt Groupe and HauteLook, entice customers with a limited supply of high-end designer deals. Topic: CNN Money Archive Conquer by the Clock by RKO-Pathe Encourages American wartime workers to "keep their sleeves rolled up." Describes the volume of industrial and agricultural production that can be accomplished in a single day: enough rifles for a battalion, 1000 acres of corn converted to 30,000 bushels of food." Calls tired workers, in effect, "saboteurs". Narration admonishes workers for the death of soldiers through inadequate equipment or supplies. Utterly melodramatic. Urges workers to move production forward... Encourages American workers to make the best possible use of their time in a war where industrial production and combat are synchronized on an international level. favoritefavoritefavorite ( 4 reviews ) Topics: World War II: Homefront, Timekeeping, Globalization The FlemishDog Collection ABC TV - Test Pattern, Slide, Clock (ABN-2, 26/02/79) Sep 7, 2018 09/18 Hey look, I've beat my 1980 limit with a lovely Umatic recording from the brilliant Commercials Ahoy!. Enjoy a test pattern, an ABC slide, and the clock with Close Encounters music. Originally uploaded by FLEMISHDOG on May 31, 2014 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3pb11KzU4o. CCX Media - Northwest Community Television Off the Clock with Brooklyn Park City Council Member Lisa Jacobson by CCX Media When she’s not representing Brooklyn Park constituents, Lisa Jacobson is helping homeless youth through Hope 4 Youth in Anoka. She also dances on two local dance teams. “I’ve been there.” Lisa Jacobson heads up Hope 4 Youth in Anoka. “We are meeting the needs of the currently unaccompanied homeless young people, age 23 and under,” explains Jacobson. The nonprofit has a drop-in center and housing program to help homeless children and young adults from the northwest metro. She says... Topics: Minnesota, Brooklyn Park, CCX Media, CCX, Public Access TV, Community Media, PEG, Youtube, 2018 Videogame Replays The Fairly Oddparents: Information Stupor Highway Timmy accidentally sent an email to Suzie, and he REALLY needs to get it back - so badly that he shrinks himself down to pixel-size and enters the Internet! -Control Timmy, Cosmo or Wanda and surf the Internet on an email envelope! -Choose from three exciting gameplay modes: RACE: Line up against Crocker's evil green viruses and beat them to the finish! TIME TRIAL: It's a race against time - can you beat the clock? EMAIL RESCUE: Collect all the emails to save Timmy from electronic... Topics: The Fairly Oddparents: Information Stupor Highway, The, Fairly, Oddparents, Information, Stupor,... The C64-Gamevideoarchive C64-Gamevideoarchive 280 - The Great American Cross Country Road Race by The C64-Gamevideoarchive Video from the C64 game "The Great American Cross Country Road Race". >>Download Video (121 MB) < < Manual [ 1.0 ] General Description From sea to shining sea, the race is on! Rally across the nation in high gear in any of four cross-country challenges. Mind you, it'll take a lot more than just good driving. You'll need to select the race, map out the best route, check road and weather conditions, look out for speed traps, watch your gas level, go easy on the clutch, and,... Topics: c64, The Great American Cross Country Road Race, activision Moving Image Archive BBC Top of the Pops 1979-07-19 by BBC Broadcast Information: Channel: BBC4 HD (satellite) Date: July 2014 Programme Description: Top of the Pops was a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1st January 1964 to 30th July 2006. Each programme consisted of performances from some of that week's best-selling popular music artists, with a rundown of that week's singles chart. This edition is presented by David Jensen. Playlist: The Sex Pistols – C'mon Everybody (charts) The Real... Topic: Top of the Pops Broadcast Information: Channel: BBC4 HD (satellite) Date: July 2014 Programme Description: Top of the Pops was a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1st January 1964 to 30th July 2006. Each programme consisted of performances from some of that week's best-selling popular music artists, with a rundown of that week's singles chart. This edition is presented by Peter Powell. Playlist: The Dooleys – Wanted (charts) Sham 69 – Hersham... Funny or Die Videos Funny or Die Video e8006b3d2a: Daylight Savings Time w/ MC Lyte Nov 1, 2014 11/14 by Funny or Die The rapper goes to the Mother of the Beat to create a theme song for DST. Topics: Funny or Die Video Archive, Daylight savings time, Jennifer Aspen, MC Lyte, The Mother, The Rapper,... ''Stage 7'' - The Deceiving Eye The first episode of "Stage 7", an American anthology television series of 1955, which presented entertaining half-hour stories ranging from drama to comedy. In this dramatic episode, a professor who teaches a class about the unreliability of eye-witnesses is accused of murder. Starring Frank Lovejoy and a bunch of other people. Aired on CBS. Useless info about the scheduling of the episode: In Philadelphia this episode aired on 30 January 1955 on WCAU-TV at 9:30PM, aired against... Topics: Classic TV, Television, Crime drama, Murder, Murderer, 1955, 1950s, anthology, anthology series,... House in the Middle, The by National Paint, Varnish and Lacquer Association Atomic tests at the Nevada Proving Grounds (later the Nevada Test Site) show effects on well-kept homes, homes filled with trash and combustibles, and homes painted with reflective white paint. Asserts that cleanliness is an essential part of civil defense preparedness and that it increased survivability. Selected for the 2002 National Film Registry of "artistically, culturally, and socially significant" films. favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite ( 50 reviews ) Topics: Atomic-nuclear: Civil defense, Cold War, Waste disposal The Living Planet A Portrait of the Earth: 9 - the Margins of the Land by Attenborough, David, 1926-; British Broadcasting Corporation. Television Service; Time-Life Films Intended audience: Ages 16 through adult Topics: Intertidal ecology, Mangrove ecology, Intertidal ecology, Mangrove ecology Hak5 Hak5 - FAIL: The 19 Weirdest Products From CES 2011 Jul 9, 2019 07/19 by Hak5 The annual Consumer Electronics Show has come to an end, and along with all the cool new products, surprisingly there were even more wacked products on the show floor than usual. We've wrapped up the wackiest, weirdest, most bizzarre and biggest FAIL products from the show floor this year, guaranteed to surprise, delight and keep you LOLing and ROFLing with glee. Here's a partial list of our dubious winners: Angry Birds - the board game: That's right, soon you'll be able to play an IRL version... Topics: Youtube, video, Film & Animation, verizon, iphone, igrill, rovio, angry, birds, mattel, board,... The Adventures of Captain Comic Revision 5 any% speedrun attempts 2020-08-01 by David Fifield Speedrun attempts of The Adventures of Captain Comic, Revision 5 for DOS. I completed only 1 out of 8 attempts and did not beat my PB of 11:24.59. attempt castle time win time #32 9:28 reset at 15:40.98 #33 8:42 13:46.39 #34 8:54 reset at 12:52.15 #35 reset at 0:22.73 #36 9:24 reset at 13:57.61 #37 8:50 reset at 14:25.45 #38 9:22 reset at 12:14.75 #39 9:30 reset at 11:39.03 The first part of the video is practicing the dark castle in the trainer. The attempts start at 0:10:00. In the trainer,... Topics: The Adventures of Captain Comic, speedrun, any%, DOS games, DOSBox G4 Video Grabs g4tv.com-video16706: Ninja Warrior: Paul Hamm by G4TV.com American Paul Hamm will try to beat the clock and move on to Stage 3 Topic: G4TV.com videos Speedrun attempts of The Adventures of Captain Comic, Revision 5 for DOS. I completed 5 out of 18 attempts, and had 8 runs on pace to beat my PB on entering the castle that I was unable to convert. attempt castle time win time #53 8:49 10:49.04 #54 8:47 11:10.78 #55 8:46 reset at 13:06.27 #56 9:09 reset at 12:02.99 #57 8:41 reset at 13:29.48 #58 9:20 12:19.54 #59 9:21 reset at 15:00.15 #60 reset at 6:48.40 #61 8:42 11:01.20 #62 8:38 reset at 12:50.87 #63 8:45 reset at 11:55.16 #64 reset at... Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS) - Single-segment 0:55:51 - Adam Grise by Adam Grise Single-segment speed run of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night done on February 14 2005. Video quality is rather blurry because of an improper deinterlace. Author's comments: I know there's a lot of comments here. But, if you watch the run and have any critisism, comments, suggestions, or inquiries, please read this first. Thanks! -----RUN ABSTRACT/INTRO INFO----- Hello; my name is Adam Grise, and this is my single-segment speed run for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for Playstation. The... Topics: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Single-segment, PlayStation Great Railway Journeys of The World: Changing Trains by Films Inc. Great Railway Journeys of The World: Changing Trains Reel 2 Reel 1 available here By train from London to Budapest on the Cisalpin from Paris to Montreux and the Orient Express through the Iron Curtain to Budapest. Search Educational Film Journals at Media History Project for references to this film Topics: Educational Film, Series: Great Railway Journeys of the World (1980) The Hundred days by FDR (Television program); American Broadcasting Company; Sextant, inc., New York; Encyclopaedia Britannica Educational Corporation Telecast on the ABC-TV documentary program FDR Topics: 16mm Film, Educational Film, Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945, Finance, Rulers... Source: Lasergraphics ScanStation Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb (PC) - 1:46:43 - Erik Krug Aase by Erik 'Goggen' Krug Aase Speed run of Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb, done in 58 segments across 10 files plus ending, completed on March 13 2006. Available in four qualities: low/normal/high/insane quality DivX. Author's comments: Preface: As I started this speedrun, ignorant of the pains and horrors to come, I wrote it with the intent that you could read what I did and why, while making brief jokes to break up what would be a straightforward and boring comments file. I was wrong. After a few months, and only a... Topic: Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb Speedrun attempts of The Adventures of Captain Comic, Revision 5 for DOS. I set a new PB of 10:37.77 . I did a lot of early resets in this session, chasing a run without major mistakes. Out of 37 attempts, I completed 7. 11 attempts were on pace to beat my PB but died in the castle. attempt castle time win time #86 8:51 reset at 13:20.59 #87 reset at 4:11.88 #88 reset at 4:27.64 #89 8:39 reset at 11:05.60 #90 8:43 reset at 12:13.05 #91 reset at 4:07.61 #92 8:38 11:19.57 #93 8:37 reset at... Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Speedrun !!Note!!: I understand that some people are having trouble watching the run. That's my fault; I coded this movie with the incorrect video codec (or at least, a codec that's much less popular). I have the movie re-encoded with the correct encoding so people will be able to watch it, but I have yet to get the correct file on the site. I will put a note on the comments section when the correct file is up. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your patience! Stay tuned; I'll get it updated... Topics: Castlevania, speedrun, symphony Racers put new Mountain Bike Trail to the Test by NWCTV With a little pedal power and some careful maneuvering through trees and around tight corners, mountain bikers race the clock in Maple Grove. A 12.7 mile singletrack mountain bike trail is just a year old at Elm Creek Park Reserve. This month, Three Rivers Park District decided to launch a series of four time trial races at the course every Tuesday night. Racers are coming out by the dozens to give the singletrack trail their best shot. "On any given night, you'll see this parking lot... Topics: Minnesota, Brooklyn Park, Northwest Community Television, NWCTV, Public Access TV, Community Media,... Classic TV commercials and TV ephemera uploaded by HappySwordsman C. 1950s Hazel-Bishop ''Longer Lasting'' Lipstick commercial An old commercial for Hazel-Bishop Longer-lasting Lipstick. This commercial was taken from an episode of "Beat the Clock" that can be downloaded on another part of the site. Topics: Classic TV, Commercial, Commercials, 1950s, 50s, Old, Television PyConZA Beating the bugs: Simulating drug resistance in viral and bacterial DNA using Python and AWS by Imogen Wright Imogen Wright https://2016.za.pycon.org/talks/59/ As a species, we're engaged in a crucial evolutionary struggle, and we're losing: pathogens are evolving resistance to drugs faster than we can make new ones. To slow down the clock and beat the bugs, we need to make sure that resistant pathogens don't get a chance to replicate unchecked in their human hosts. This means doing drug resistance tests to ensure that we only give patients drugs that their infections will respond to. At Hyrax... Topics: pyconza, pyconza2016, python, ImogenWright ''Four Star Playhouse'' - The Man Who Walked Out on Himself Ronald Colman stars in this episode of the popular anthology series. This episode is shot on a single set with most of it consisting of a single character, yet it is still entertaining. Scheduling notes: This was a CBS series, and on most CBS affiliates aired on 26 March 1953 at 8:30PM. For example, in Philadelphia, it aired on WCAU, aired against "Treasury Men in Action" on WPTZ and "Chance of a Lifetime" on WFIL-TV. After the episode aired they had a choice of staying on... Topics: Classic TV, Television, Early television, Anthology, Anthology series, Ronald Colman, 1950s,... Sci-Fi / Horror 3.3M 3.3M by Karl Hardman, Russell Streiner eye 3.3M favorite 1,013 In this classic yet still creepy horror film, strangers hold up in a rural Pennsylvania farmhouse and battle constant attacks from dead locals who have been brought back to life by mysterious radiation. Note: This item contains a user-contributed srt subtitle file. To use this file you must download an srt compatible player and point it at the correct video and srt files (google for srt subtitles). We include this file for advanced users who may wish to use it, however the Archive does not... favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite ( 104 reviews ) Topic: horror Philadephia City Council Councilman David Oh Honors the 50th Anniversary of 93.3 WMMR 9-18-2018 by Philadelphia City Council On Tuesday, September 18, 2018, Councilman David Oh (At-Large) joined Beasley Media Group to celebrate the 50th anniversary of 93.3 WMMR-FM (WMMR), the longest-running rock radio station in America, by presenting a City Council resolution to the station. Legendary WMMR-FM midday personality Pierre Robert broadcast the reading of the Council resolution live as part of The Preston & Steve Show that morning. The event will kick-off “Alumni Week”, a weeklong celebration featuring former DJs... Topics: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Council, Government Access TV, Community Media, PEG,... Philadelphia: Bed Bug Capital of America? Pest control company Terminix released its annual list of the most bed bug-ridden cities in America -- so did Philadelphia beat out NYC for the top spot? Plus, Amazon.com founder and big-time billionaire Jeff Bezos wants to make a really, really big clock for a cool 2 million. C64-Gamevideoarchive 252 - Ballblazer Video from the C64 game "Ballblazer" For the best video quality I advise the Cinepack version Manual Scenario: --------- The simplest, fastest and most com- petitive sport in the known universe. It grew from dark roots in an ancient space war to become king of all games among every lifeform within range of Interstellar ethercasting. In exactly three minutes, Ballblazer can make you ahero - or destroy a lifetime of dreams. The year is 3097, and the place is a null-gravity nexus... Topics: c64, ballblazer ''Compilation of Classic TV Footage'' - Episode 21 by Matthew Paul Argall A collection of clips from public domain television series of the 1950s and 1960s. Includes excerpts from "The Price is Right", "As the World Turns", "Beat the Clock", "Hancock's Half Hour", "Life with Elizabeth", "The Ed Sullivan Show", "Strictly for Laffs" (unsold pilot), "The Frank Sinatra Timex Show", "Tic-Tac-Dough", and "You Asked for It". Topics: Classic TV, Compilation of Classic TV Footage, Television, Broadcasting 256,085 256K Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (GCN) - 7:11 - James Bunkley by James 'Brown Bomber' Bunkley eye 256,085 Speed run of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door in 16 segments completed on June 24 2005. Available in 3 versions: low quality, normal quality, and 60fps high quality. Quality note: Parts 10 and 12 have some ~30 second portions of bad quality due to damaged source tape. Author's comments: Hey. This is my first speed run, and I decided to do it on Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. I'm probably crazy for picking such a long game as my first game to speed run; however, I really like this game,... Topics: Mario: Paper Mario, GameCube Iraq War: General American Dictators: Documenting the Staged Election of 2004 by Kevin Booth In a dictatorship there is no choice, the elections are controlled, the police are the military, fear equals control, speech is suppressed, the economy is looted, the people are slaves. We dont know the future but weve studied human history and regardless of who wins the November election in 2004 the new world order wins. --Alex Jones Topics: tyranny, patriotism, patriot, liberty, new, world, order, george, bush, election, 2004, john,... River Cities Community Access Media Lunch And Learn Afternoon Slump 1-17-18 by RCCA HOW TO BEAT THE AFTERNOON SLUMP Presenter: Asia Bay, BS, CPT, CWP, CHWC; Aspirus Business Health. Are your eyelids getting droopy? Is that a yawn? Most of us have been there: a super-productive morning finishing projects, answering emails, and checking tasks off of the to-do list one-by-one when suddenly the clock strikes two and that sluggish, tired feeling sets in…the afternoon slump. Topics: Wisconsin, Wisconsin Rapids, River Cities Community Access Media, RCCA, Public Access TV, Community... The Long Search: 12 -- Alternative Life Styles in California by British Broadcasting Corporation. Television Service Also issued as videocassette Topics: Religion, Spiritual life, Religion, Spiritual life PEGTV Rutland Eli Rogers Hits Winning 3 pt. Shot Against Rice by PEGTV Senior Eli Rogers of the Rutland Raiders varsity boys basketball team hits a 3pt. shot to put the Raiders up by 2 with 2.6 seconds left on the clock. The Raiders hold on to beat division rival Rice Memorial High School by the score of 58-56. Game held February 23, 2013. Watch the full game on PEGTV CH15 or on our website at www.pegtv.com via video on demand. Topics: Rutland, Vermont, PEGTV, Public Access TV, Community Media, PEG, Youtube, Rutland, Rutland Raiders,... Hopkinton Community Access and Media Hank Rudden Buzzer Beater by HCAM The Boys Varsity team beat the Medway Mustangs on Friday, January 11, 2013, with a Buzzer Beater Shot from Senior Hank Rudden. The Hillers were down by 2 with 2.1 seconds remaining, Hillers in bounded from the opposite end of the court to get the ball to Hank Rudden. Rudden shot a beautiful 3 pointer , beating the clock to win 60-59. Click on the video to watch the shot and to see the entire game, tune into HCAM. Topics: Massachusetts, Hopkinton, Hopkinton Community Access and Media, HCAM, Public Access TV, Community... THE LAST BOMB B-29 RAIDS ON JAPAN U.S. ARMY AIR FORCE WWII FILM 33574 This official War Department film titled “The Last Bomb” and was photographed by Army Air Forces Combat Camera Units and special personnel of the AAF Motion Picture Unit. Filmed in Technicolor in 1945, it concentrates on the B-29 bombing raids on Japan in World War II. Striking from bases in Saipan, Tinian, and Guam, the Superfortresses traveled 3,000 miles roundtrip as part of long range bombardment operations in the final months of the war. Members of the XXI Bomber Command (a unit of the... Topics: Stock Footage, High Definition PSX longplay [194] Metal Slug X by NPI 00:00:55 Regular game 00:43:38 Another Mission mode, where you get 14 bonus missions. There is a mission that I couldn't go through because of a glitch that would brake the game, so I died instantly, other than that other missions are hard and there is no way to finish as 1st in some, because you can't get the maximum needed points. 01:04:46 A Chat with Instructor Meg, your instructor in Combat School mode. This mode is nothing more than the original game all over again with rules such as 1... Castlevania 3 (NES) - 0:34:21 with Grant - Tom Votava by Tom 'rdrunner' Votava Speed run of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse chosing Grant as the spirit parter done during October 2003. Available in three versions: low quality, normal quality, and 60 fps high quality. Author's comments: It takes longer to beat the game with Grant (extra clock tower stage), but NOT by much! He can just about make up all of the time lost from going after him, thanks the ton of shortcuts he can use with his wall-climbing abilities, as well as his superior foot speed. If only he were able to... Topics: Castlevania: Castlevania 3, NES Zelda: Majora's Mask (N64) - 6 day challenge - Peter Branam-Lefkove by Peter 'Dragorn' Branam-Lefkove Speed run of a the '6 day challenge' of Majora's Mask. The goal of the 6 day challenge is to beat the game in at most 6 game days, the first 3 required days, and then after going back in time, use the next 3 days and never go back in time again. 'Dragorn' reaches the clock tower with everything completed at 8:32 pm on the 2nd day, a total of 38:32 game time. Author's comments: First off, the recordings are of days 4 through 6. The first 3 days are relatively boring. In addition to the standard... Topics: Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Nintendo 64 NES Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! TAS in 17:52.4 by Phil and Genisto For more details, see http://tasvideos.org/229M.html The objective is not to beat your opponent... but to humiliate him by winning as fast as possible. Record times in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out: Glass Joe 0:42.00 Von Kaiser 0:35.97 Piston Honda 0:42.82 Don Flamenco 0:14.97 King Hippo 0:37.61 Great Tiger 0:47.48 Bald Bull 0:57.82 Piston Honda II 0:50.25 Soda Popinski 0:47.00 Bald Bull II 1:08.97 Don Flamenco II 1:00.48 Mr. Sandman 2:19.25 Super Macho Man 0:46.48 Mike Tyson 1:58.XX No clock stop... Topics: NES, Mike Tyson, Punch-Out, TAS, Tool-assisted, Speedrun, Phil, Genisto NES Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! TAS in 17:51.87 by adelikat Topics: NES, Mike Tyson, Punch-Out, TAS, Tool-assisted, Speedrun, adelikat by GuidoAnchovies No, unfortunately this isn't a Dr. Who inspired game. In Time Lord, some aliens traveled to different parts of Earth's history to mess shit up and take the planet over. As a "Time Lord" it's supposed to be your job to go into these different time periods and find all the time orbs, and kick some ass. However, this game loves to fuck with the player. Many of the time orbs involve puzzles with very... obtuse solutions. There is also a time limit where you only have about 25 minutes to... Topics: let's play, guidoanchovies, time lord Hopkins ready for state final It was a strange overtime game that ended in dramatic fashion. Hopkins held the ball and Shakopee stayed in its zone defense through much of the four overtime periods in their state Class AAAA boys basketball semifinal. At the end of the fourth overtime, Amir Coffey let a desperation shot from beyond halfcourt go and hit it at the buzzer for a 49-46 win. The slowdown renewed calls for a shot clock in Minnesota high school basketball. Hopkins will now take on Lakeville North for the Class AAAA...
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Tag Archives: Michel Piccoli 144. HOLY MOTORS (2012) May 29, 2013 Gregory J. Smalley (366weirdmovies) 5 Comments “Weird… weird.. weird! He’s so weird!”–delighted fashion photographer at his first glimpse of Merde DIRECTED BY: Leos Carax FEATURING: Denis Lavant, Edith Scob, Eva Mendes, Kylie Minogue, Michel Piccoli, Leos Carax PLOT: A man wakes up and walks through a secret panel in his bedroom wall that leads him into a cinema. Next we meet “Mr. Oscar,”who drives around Paris in a limousine taking on nine “assignments” which require him to become an accordion player, a hitman, and fashion model-abducting leprechaun, among other personae. After Mr. Oscar’s night is over, his chauffeur drives the limo back to a huge car lot labeled “Holy Motors,” where hundreds of similar vehicles are stored. Holy Motors was Leos Carax’ first feature film since 1999’s Pola X. Leos Carax is a pseudonym for Alexandre Oscar Dupont. In most of Carax’ other movies, Denis Lavant plays a lead character named “Alex.” Here he plays a character named “Mr. Oscar” (a name which is itself hidden inside the pseudonym leOS CARax). The flower-eating leprechaun character, “Merde,” first appeared in Carax’ segment in the omnibus movie Tokyo! (2008). The role of Mr. Oscar was specifically written for Lavant. Carax originally wanted to credit Michel Piccoli (who is difficult to recognize under his makeup) under a pseudonym, but word of the actor’s involvement in the project was leaked. Carax says he does not like to shoot on digital film, but did so because he found it made fundraising easier. Holy Motors swept the Weirdest Actor (Denis Lavant), Weirdest Scene (the accordion intermission), and Weirdest Movie categories in our 2012 Weirdcademy Awards contest. INDELIBLE IMAGE: The character of Merde, the gimpy, gibbering, flower-eating subterranean leprechaun-creature, who was so unforgettable Carax recycled him from his segment in the triptych Tokyo!. For a single snapshot that captures Merde’s hard-to-define charm, we select the moment when he bites off a woman’s finger, then licks supermodel Eva Mendes, leaving a trail of blood on her armpit. Ever the professional, she never breaks her expression of sultry indifference. WHAT MAKES IT WEIRD: Holy Motors is overwrought, pretentious, obscure, scatterbrained, confusing, and self-indulgent—all qualities that, when matched with talent, typically make for a great work of weird art. Prepare to be perplexed. You won’t, however, be bored. Original trailer for Holy Motors COMMENTS: Seen as a showcase for the chameleonic talents of Denis Lavant, Holy Motors is an unqualified masterpiece. Lavant officially plays Continue reading 144. HOLY MOTORS (2012) → 2012CinemaDenis LavantEdith ScobEva MendesFrenchIdentityKylie MinogueLeos CaraxMichel PiccoliPostmodernSurrealism LIST CANDIDATE: THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY (1974) May 13, 2013 Otto Black 6 Comments The Phantom of Liberty is now Certified Weird. Please visit the official entry. Le Fantôme de la Liberté DIRECTED BY: Luis Buñuel FEATURING: Jean-Claude Brialy, Adolfo Celi, Michel Piccoli, Monica Vitti PLOT: There isn’t one! Numerous bizarre situations are briefly explored, but none are resolved. It’s the ultimate shaggy dog movie. WHY IT MIGHT MAKE THE LIST: Monks behaving badly are randomly exposed to exhibitionist sadomasochism. Two people are somehow the same person. A spider-fixated family find architecture pornographic. The dead make phone-calls from their coffins. People who feel no shame about sitting on lavatories together are embarrassed and disgusted by any mention of eating. Etc., etc., etc… COMMENTS: As with the other two films (Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and That Obscure Object of Desire) in Buñuel’s very loose swansong trilogy, Phantom of Liberty gives us a sense of an artist tying up loose ends. In many ways Phantom is one of his most Surrealist movies, as if he was revisiting the glories of his youth one more time. And yet, it should be remembered that, although he is often described as a Surrealist filmmaker, Buñuel formally abandoned Surrealism in 1932, being forced to choose between active membership of the Spanish Communist Party, which regarded Surrealism as a decadent bourgeoise affectation, or belonging to a pretentious club that mucked about with art and pretended it mattered. Or maybe, like most other short-lived Surrealists, he simply couldn’t stand the movement’s awful, awful founder, André Breton. Since Buñuel was a control-freak himself, the latter explanation is perhaps the more probable. Given his obvious intelligence and love of complex in-jokes and hidden meanings, it’s significant that in an interview recorded around this time, Buñuel says—very perceptively—that Surrealism triumphed on a superficial level, while utterly failing to change the world in any way that truly mattered. (In the same interview, he jokes about making a melodramatic but utterly insincere deathbed conversion to Catholicism just to wind up those of his friends who militated against religion in the most humorless way imaginable). Sure enough, The Phantom Of Liberty uses almost exactly the same dramatic structure as “Monty Python’s Flying Circus“: the ultimate manifestation of unofficial Pop Surrealism. And yet, given the very short difference in time between the creation of Python and this film, and the implausibility of an initially marginal BBC series being sufficiently internationally famous for Buñuel to have already seen it in a language he understood, it has to be assumed that any similarities are purely coincidental. And similarities there most certainly are! The episode in which a crazed sniper randomly kills numerous people (which was cut from early UK TV broadcasts on grounds of unacceptable nastiness) and then, having been found guilty, is unaccountably released with no consequences at all, and instantly becomes tremendously popular, is almost identical to a Python sketch aired the previous year. Plagiarism? I doubt it. Zeitgeist? Almost certainly. More significantly, the entire film follows the Python ethos of not wasting a good idea just because you can’t think of a punchline. Problem ending the scene? Forget it, and arbitrarily move on to something else! As more than one critic has observed, Richard Linklater’s 1991 Slacker is remarkable for being the first film (or at any rate, the first film that anyone’s heard of) to use the technique invented by Buñuel 17 years previously. But actually they’re wrong. Richard Linklater shows us vignettes from the lives of various people who are going nowhere, then cuts away to somebody else because if we followed this particular non-story any longer it would become boring. Buñuel gives us glimpses into situations that have no rational explanation whatsoever, and abandons them because any punchline he could possibly provide would be an anticlimax. The title, insofar as it refers to anything, seems to invoke a spirit which pervades the movie without ever being in any way discernible to the characters or the audience—a direct reference to The Exterminating Angel, in which the Angel of Death is supposedly responsible for the inexplicable events without directly manifesting itself at any point in the film. The characters drift into completely random situations, every one of which involves a massive breach of social norms, or laws even more fundamental than that. And nobody notices a thing. The entire film could, if the title is taken literally, be said to document the progress of an invisible and otherwise totally undetectable entity that capriciously drifts around altering the nature of reality for reasons all its own. And that’s the spirit in which it should be viewed. Buñuel’s best film? No. Buñuels weirdest film? Definitely in the top three. Worth watching? Yes! Just don’t expect a satisfying sense of closure. PS – In recent years certain scenes in this movie have been played out for real in the UK by radical Islamists with no understanding of irony, who used their democratic right to demonstrate to hold demonstrations against democracy. What a pity Buñuel didn’t live to see it! Though maybe he wouldn’t have been all that surprised. PPS – Are there any other films featuring two Bond villains? “An uproarious summary of Luis Bunuel’s surrealistic concerns… a crazy, subversively funny film about convention-bound characters who have a hard time dealing with sexuality and freedom.”–Michael Scheinfeld, TV Guide (This movie was nominated for review by “viqman.” Suggest a weird movie of your own here.) 1974Adolfo CeliComedyFrenchJean-Claude BrialyLuis BuñuelMichel PiccoliMonica VittiReommendedSurrealismWeirdest! LIST CANDIDATE: HOLY MOTORS (2012) January 2, 2013 Gregory J. Smalley (366weirdmovies) 1 Comment Holy Motors has been promoted to the List! Please check the Holy Motors Certified Weird entry for more information and to comment. This initial review is left here for archival purposes. FEATURING: Denis Lavant, Edith Scob, Eva Mendes, Kylie Minogue, Michel Piccoli PLOT: “Mr. Oscar” drives around Paris in a limo taking on nine “assignments” which require him to become an accordion player, a hitman, and fashion model-abducting leprechaun, among other personae. WHY IT MIGHT MAKE THE LIST: Holy Motors is overwrought, pretentious, obscure, scatterbrained, confusing, and self-indulgent—all qualities that typically make for a great work of art. The main knock against it certifying it as one of the 366 Best Weird Movies immediately is that it’s not yet out on DVD—but keep an eye out for it in the near future. COMMENTS: Leos Carax’ segment in the portmanteau film Tokyo! revolved around a gimpy, gibbering leprechaun dubbed “Merde” (played by Denis Lavant) who arose from the sewers to scandalize the polite people of Japan by eating money and licking schoolgirls on the street. In that movie Merde served as a symbol of Japanese xenophobia, a surreal and satirical rendition of boorish Western invaders as seen through Eastern eyes. Lavant reprises Merde in Holy Motors, but here the character is even more random, limping through a Parisian cemetery eating flowers off of gravesites and abducting a fashion model (Eva Mendes) with the backbone of a rag doll. The idea that an already mysterious and absurd character like Merde would be resurrected and tossed into a situation that’s even further out of context is typical of Holy Motors‘ approach. In between a very weird prologue featuring director Carax as a man living in a secret room behind a cinema where shadowy beasts prowl the aisles, and very weird epilogue featuring chauffeuse Edith Scob and a parking lot full of telepathic limousines, Lavant (presumably) plays ten different roles—nine “assignments” and his base character of “Mr. Oscar.” There are no connections between the parts he is assigned: some, like Merde, are purely absurd, some are musical, and some are legitimately moving human moments. Each segment operates according to its own internal illogic. The roles are arbitrary, like the jobs any working actor would take: this month an action hero, next month a dying benefactor. At times we see, or at least think we see, hints of the “real” person behind Mr. Oscar, but mostly we see him applying his makeup in front of his mobile vanity mirror, preparing to disappear into a new role. It’s never suggested what the purpose of these performances might be, or whom they are for the benefit of, or if they ever end (when Oscar goes home for the night, it appears he is only playing another insane character). Scenes that appear to involve Mr. Oscar as “real” person sometimes turn out to be part of another assignment; if we try to figure out who Oscar really is, we’re continually frustrated. By the end of the long twenty-four hour session Mr. Oscar looks weary, sad and resigned; but he must wake up in the morning and do it all over again. It’s a bravura suite of performances by Lavant, who is appointed to capture the whole strange and tragic spectrum of human activity in a single day. In Carax’ eyes this spectrum involves motion-capture sex scenes, accordion intermissions, and mixed human-chimpanzee marriages. Prepare to be perplexed. You won’t, however, be bored. Carax assembled a fascinating cast for his first feature film in over a decade. Gnarly faced Lavant, who has appeared in all of the director’s previous films as well as gracing weird works by Veit Helmer, Harmony Korine and Veiko Õunpuu, was the obvious choice for the lead in the most ambitiously odd art film of the French calendar. The casting of Scob and Piccoli, who between them have worked with all of the great European Surrealist filmmakers of the past, from Franjou to Ferreri to Buñuel, is an equally obvious nod to Carax’ influences, one that positions Motors as the latest link in a long cinematic chain. Australian popstress Kylie Minogue immediately scores unexpected cool points by appearing in this project, while glamour girl Eva Mendes follows up her role in Herzog‘s Bad Lieutenant with this even weirder part. We definitely approve of the way her career is headed (even though her recent choices probably make her agent tear his hair out). “…weird and wonderful, rich and strange – barking mad, in fact. It is wayward, kaleidoscopic, black comic and bizarre; there is in it a batsqueak of genius, dishevelment and derangement; it is captivating and compelling.”–Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian (contemporaneous) (This movie was nominated for review by “Dwarf Oscar,” who said it was “weird, weird, weird. You already guessed, I know that, but right now I’m making it official. For once, I’m pretty confident it’s going to make its way to the List…” . Suggest a weird movie of your own here.) 2012CinemaDenis LavantEdith ScobEva MendesFrenchIdentityLeos CaraxMichel PiccoliPostmodernSurrealism 106. LA GRANDE BOUFFE (1973) February 22, 2012 Gregory J. Smalley (366weirdmovies) 2 Comments AKA The Big Feast; Blow-Out “If you don’t eat, you won’t die.”–Ugo, La Grande Bouffe DIRECTED BY: Marco Ferreri FEATURING: Phillipe Noiret, Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Piccoli, Marcello Mastroianni, Andréa Ferréol PLOT: Four middle-aged, upper middle-class men (a judge, a TV personality, a pilot and a chef) hole up at a country villa to feast; it is gradually and casually revealed that they plan on eating themselves to death. They gorge themselves constantly, but the pilot can’t stand to go even for a day without sex, so prostitutes are invited to join them—along with a schoolteacher who attaches herself to the group willingly. As the gluttonous orgy continues the whores flee in disgust, but the teacher joins in the bacchanalia with gusto. All of the main actors use their real names. All four of the male stars were well-established (Mastroianni, of course, was an international star and sex symbol). Except for Noiret, each had worked with director Ferreri before. Each had also had prominent roles in weird films from other European directors (Mastrioanni, most famously, in Federico Fellini films, but Noiret appeared in Zazie dans le Metro for Louis Malle, Piccoli was a mainstay in Buñuel movies, and Tognazzi had small roles in Roger Vadim’s Barbarella and Fellini’s Satyricon). The quartet would reunite with the director the next year for a surrealist rendering of Custer’s last stand called Don’t Touch the White Woman (starring alongside another weird favorite, Catherine Deneuve). The scatological content of the film scandalized some viewers at Cannes, but the film nonetheless won a FIPRESCI prize for Ferreri. At its British showings La Grande Bouffe was protested by infamous decency crusader Mary Whitehouse; her attempts to have the movie banned ironically led to modification of the Obscene Publications Act to exempt films with artistic merit. INDELIBLE IMAGE: The visions that will probably stick with you when you think back on La Grande Bouffe are scenes of four great European actors stuffing their faces with turkey legs, a castle made out of pâtés, and a pair of matching cakes shaped like breasts. Michel Piccoli dancing with a pig’s head is another strong candidate, as are the numerous gross scatological moments. But, the strangest and most lingering image may be the final one: sides of meat scattered around the villa lawn—a slab of beef wedged in the crook of a tree—and a pack of dogs sitting and looking attentively at the carcasses, making no move to eat. WHAT MAKES IT WEIRD: La Grande Bouffe takes an absurd premise—four men decide to eat Brief scene from La Grande Bouffe themselves to death—and plays it out with illogical realism, proffering no explanations or motives for what happens. It’s an unnatural but straight-faced parable that suggests nothing about how we’re supposed to take it. It’s a grotesque spectacle, but a strangely engrossing one, with a fascination that comes largely thanks to a dream cast of 1970s Euroweirdos. COMMENTS: In the course of their Grande Bouffe, the four suicidal gourmands scarf Continue reading 106. LA GRANDE BOUFFE (1973) → 1973Andréa FerréolArthouseBlack ComedyDramaGluttonyGrotesqueHedonismMarcello MastroianniMarco FerreriMichel PiccoliPhillipe NoiretRecommendedSatireUgo Tognazzi 105. BELLE DE JOUR (1967) February 8, 2012 Gregory J. Smalley (366weirdmovies) 2 Comments “By the end, the real and imaginary fuse; for me they form the same thing.”–Luis Buñuel on Belle de Jour FEATURING: Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel, Pierre Clémenti, Michel Piccoli, Geneviève Page PLOT: Séverine is a wealthy young newlywed who proclaims she loves her husband, but refuses to sleep with him. Her erotic life consists of daydreams in which she is bound, whipped and humiliated. She decides to secretly work as a prostitute during the day, taking the stage name “Belle de Jour”; in the course of her adventures a macho young criminal becomes obsessed with Belle, and he sparks sexual passion in her, as well. The movie was based on a scandalous (but moralizing) 1928 novel of the same name by Joseph Kessel. Belle de Jour marked Buñuel’s return to France after his “Mexican exile.” It was the 67-year old director’s most expensive production to date, his first film in color, and his biggest financial success. The director did not get along with the star, and the feeling was mutual. Buñuel resented Deneuve because she was forced on him by the producers. For her part, the actress felt “used” by the director. Whatever their differences, however, they made up enough to collaborate again three years later on Tristana. Séverine’s courtesan name, “Belle de Jour” (literally “day beauty”) is the French name for the daylily; it is also play on “belle de nuit,” slang for a prostitute. Too spicy for critics in 1967, Belle de Jour won only one major award at the time of its release: the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. It now regularly appears on critics top 100 lists (Empire ranked it as the 56th greatest film of world cinema). Martin Scorsese was behind a 1995 theatrical re-release of the film. INDELIBLE IMAGE: The ecstatic look on Catherine Deneuve’s face as, tied up and dressed in virginal white, she’s insulted and spattered with shovelfuls of mud (or is it cow dung?). WHAT MAKES IT WEIRD: Although the movie weaves in and out of dreams and reality until we don’t know which is which, by Luis Buñuel’s standards Belle de Jour is a straightforward dramatic film. Even the dream sequences are relatively rational, unthreatening, and easy to follow, making Belle the favorite “Surrealist” film of people who don’t like Surrealism. But something about the dilemma of Séverine/Belle’s divided personality, and her uncertain denouement, sticks with you long after “Fin” appears. The movie’s weirdness is subtle but persistent, like the scent of a woman’s perfume that lingers in the air long after she’s departed the room. Original trailer for Belle de Jour COMMENTS: Cinematographer Gil Taylor famously said “I hate doing this to a beautiful woman” Continue reading 105. BELLE DE JOUR (1967) → 1967AmbiguousArthouseCatherine DeneuveCriterion collectionDramaFrenchGeneviève PageJean-Claude CarrièreLuis BuñuelMichel PiccoliMust seePierre ClémentiProstitutionPsychologicalSadomasochismSex CAPSULE: DANGER: DIABOLIK (1968) August 8, 2010 Alice Stoehr 3 Comments DIRECTED BY: Mario Bava FEATURING: John Phillip Law, Marisa Mell, Michel Piccoli, Terry-Thomas PLOT: A master thief and his girlfriend carry off a series of audacious heists while evading the police and a rival criminal. WHY IT WON’T MAKE THE LIST: Despite some perplexing plot developments and slightly surreal moments, Danger: Diabolik never really journeys beyond its cops-and-robbers framework. Ultimately, it’s more a product of its era’s weirder impulses than anything truly out-there. COMMENTS: Full of kitschy décor and colorful costuming, Danger: Diabolik is a time capsule of the late 1960s. The high-tech hijinks of its masked title character (Law) are redolent of Batman and James Bond, but with his frivolous capers and improbable escapes, Diabolik tops even those series’ campy excesses. The entire film is just a string of cat-and-mouse encounters, as the Javert-like Inspector Ginko (Piccoli) lays a trap—be it priceless emeralds or a 20 ton ingot of gold—only for Diabolik to abscond with the loot, and his sexy accomplice Eva (Mell). It may be perplexing at first to see a glamorous ball of fluff like Diabolik being directed by Bava, a man who’s best-known for stylized horror films like Black Sunday. But Bava seizes on Diabolik’s ridiculous premise as a perfect opportunity to pour on the eye candy, unhindered by considerations of logic or self-restraint. So instead of just getting one more of the routine super-spy pastiches that were clogging the theaters in 1968, we get some delirious sequences influenced by psychedelia and pop art. The most effective such moment transpires when a prostitute tries to describe Eva’s appearance, leading into a bizarre animated cavalcade of mutating female faces. The rest of Diabolik, however, is less audacious. The cast seems to exist outside of these creative outbursts, and their performances drone on, whether they’re madly overacting—like Thunderball‘s Adolfo Celi as an angry gangster, or Terry-Thomas as a tooth-gnashing government official—or else, like John Phillip Law, underacting to the point of barely giving a performance. Law is so deadpan that it’s easy to forget he’s there, and that’s not exactly a desirable trait in a brazen anti-hero. But who needs a believable performance when you’ve got sex amidst piles of cash? Or a giant mirror as a method for deterring the police? Or a grand finale that features an explosive vat of molten, “radioactivated” gold? Diabolik’s triumph is that it dispenses with plausibility from the very first gush of multicolored fog, and doesn’t look back, prioritizing scenes of wacky spectacle over minor details like dialogue and characterization. So it’s certainly not a good movie, per se—in fact, a truncated version was mocked in the last-ever episode of “Mystery Science Theater 3000”—but it does carry its worn premise to enthrallingly absurd heights. For a viewer who wants some unrestrained campy nonsense, that should be as much of a lure as freshly cremated ashes chock-full of emeralds. “Utilizing wide-angle lenses, day-glo colors, psychedelic sets, and outrageous costumes, Bava creates dynamic compositions which could have come straight from a comic-strip panel, along with some indelible images, none more so than Diabolik covered in gold at the end, or the shots of he and Eva making love on a spinning bed while covered by a pile of money.”–TV Guide (This movie was nominated for review by reader “Jules.” Suggest a weird movie of your own here.) 1968ActionCampItalianJohn Phillip LawMario BavaMichel PiccoliMystery Science Theater 3000SpyTerry-Thomas 58. DILLINGER IS DEAD (1969) Dillinger e Morto “Dillinger Is Dead throws narrative, psychological, and symbolic common sense out the window… the film’s refusal of clear-cut logic, its contradictory symbols, and its moral ambiguity open it to endless interpretation.”–Michael Joshua Rowin, from the notes to the Criterion Collection edition of Dillinger is Dead FEATURING: Michel Piccoli, Annie Girardot, Anita Pallenberg PLOT: Glauco designs gas-masks by day. One night, he returns to the apartment he shares with his wife and live-in maid and, while searching for ingredients for dinner, discovers a gun wrapped in newspaper in his pantry. He spends an evening puttering around the house, making dinner, watching home movies, playing with his various toys, disassembling and reassembling the gun, painting it, then using the weapon in a senseless final act. John Dillinger was a bank robber in the 1930s who became both Public Enemy #1 and a folk hero. Ferreri barely directed Piccoli, giving him only simple blocking instructions and dialogue and allowing the actor to improvise the rest of the performance. This is the first of six films Ferreri and Piccoli made together. Model Anita Pallenberg may be best known for her romantic involvements with two members of the Rolling Stones (first Brian Jones, and later Keith Richards), but she has had small roles in a couple of weird movies besides this one: Barbarella (1968) and Performance (1970). The movie was filmed in the apartment of Italian pop-artist Mario Schifano, and some of the painters works (most prominently, “Futurismo Rivisitato“) can be seen in the background. The observations that the young worker makes to Glauco in the prologue are all paraphrases from philosopher Herbert Marcuse’s essay One-Dimensional Man, a critique of then-contemporary consumerism, mass media and industrialism. Marhola Dargis of the New York Times believes that the entire movie is an attempt to give cinematic form to Marcuse’s ideas. After it’s initial release, Dillinger is Dead nearly disappeared. Variety‘s 1999 version of the “Portable Movie Guide” didn’t mention it among their 8700 reviews, Halliwell never heard of it, and Pauline Kael didn’t encounter it in “5001 Nights at the Movies.” It was seldom screened and never appeared on home video until a 2006 revival led to the film being virtually rediscovered, culminating in a 2010 release by the Criterion Collection. INDELIBLE IMAGE: The gun that may have belonged to John Dillinger, which fascinates the protagonist. Especially after he paints it bright red and carefully paints white polka dots on it. WHAT MAKES IT WEIRD: Dillinger is Dead is a disconnected, absurdist parable where Clip from Dillinger is Dead nothing seems to be happening, and when something happens, it doesn’t make sense. It’s very much a product of its time—the anarchic, experimental late 1960s—yet the world it portrays still feels oddly, and awfully, familiar. COMMENTS: Dillinger is Dead doesn’t take leave of reality until its very last moments, Continue reading 58. DILLINGER IS DEAD (1969) → 1969AbsurdistAlienationAmbiguousAnita PallenbergArthouseAvant-gardeCriterion collectionDramaEnnuiExperimentalHedonismItalianMarco FerreriMichel PiccoliMinimalistPhilosophicalPop art
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A Book and a Chat with Steve Berry (There is a slight gap at the begining of the show when I lost all my connections, but the show is one not to miss.) New York Times best selling author Steve Berry is a person I use as a example to other authors, and it was interesting upon having him back as my guest on tonight’s show, that he uses the same example of what happened to him when talking to other users. Steve has been writing since 1990, and it took him 12 years and 85 rejections (over five different editions) to finally sell a manuscript. Now nine years later his books are printed in 40 languages, and he has kept 12 million readers in 51 countries on the edge of their seats with the exploits of his hero “Cotton Malone”. Cotton has been having adventures all over the world to all parts of Europe (The Templar Legacy, The Paris Vendetta), Asia (The Venetian Betrayal), Antarctica (The Charlemagne Pursuit), the Middle East (The Alexandria Link) and China (The Emperors Tomb). It’s no wonder that he told Steve that he wanted some time off so will not be back in a fresh story until 2013. That is however not before one last adventure before his break this time through Steve’s latest smash hit of an adventure; “The Jefferson Key” takes our hero to America. Steve Berry is such a great guest always sharing with us his latest news as well as a few hints along the way about what we might be reading from him next. Now this can also be shared in two ebooks which will introduce to you or perhaps follow up on other characters that appear in both this new book and the "Emperors Tomb" in the form of “The Balkan Escape” and “The Devils Gold”. We also learned in this show about Steve’s trip to the Middle East along with other “Thriller/Mystery" writers to visit the troops and the great reception they received there. So what about The Jefferson Key, which is officially launched tomorrow (May 17th)? Four United States presidents have been assassinated—in 1865, 1881, 1901, and 1963—each murder seemingly unrelated and separated by time. But what if those presidents were all killed for the same reason: a clause in the United States Constitution—contained within Article 1, Section 8—that would shock Americans? This question is what faces former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone in his latest adventure. When a bold assassination attempt is made against President Danny Daniels in the heart of Manhattan, Malone risks his life to foil the killing—only to find himself at dangerous odds with the Commonwealth, a secret society of pirates first assembled during the American Revolution. In their most perilous exploit yet, Malone and Cassiopeia Vitt race across the nation and take to the high seas. Along the way they break a secret cipher originally possessed by Thomas Jefferson, unravel a mystery concocted by Andrew Jackson, and unearth a centuries-old document forged by the Founding Fathers themselves, one powerful enough—thanks to that clause in the Constitution—to make the Commonwealth unstoppable. The response the author has received from the book is amazing, as he stated normally there are a few who do not like the book for one reason or another yet so far he has received nothing but praise, and I can tell you that I for one also think this is his best book so far! When you get reviews like… “One of the most spellbinding and ingenious openings in all of thrillerdom. The cast of characters is huge but every one of them is memorable. The action is intense and masterfully choreographed. As always with Steve Berry, you’re educated about significant things while your knuckles are turning white and the pages are flying. Easily Cotton Malone’s most epic, swashbuckling adventure.” —David Baldacci "The Constitution. . . secret codes . . . loads of history. . . AND pirates! What else does anyone need? The Jefferson Key won't just haunt your nights--it'll haunt your life. Cotton Malone is coming back to the scariest place of all: Home." —Brad Meltzer "THE JEFFERSON KEY starts with a bang and holds the reader in its grip until the last page. Fascinating American history, up-to-the-minute politics, pulse-pounding action. This is a story Mitch Rapp would love." —Vince Flynn You know it’s a sure hit that will soon have the name of Steve Berry and Cotton Malone back on the New York Times Best Sellers list. So listen to an interesting and hugely entertaining show as I spend sixty minutes sharing "A Book and a Chat with today Steve Berry" Direct link to the show "A Book and a Chat with Steve Berry". or you can download the mp3 file of the show from "Steve Berry" You can find out more about my guest and their books at: "Steve Berry - The Jefferson Key" My Blogs: Book Information and Things UK - Across the Pond Book and a Chat Radio Show Guests - A Book and a Chat Funny, Weird Or Just Interesting News From Around the World - Laugh I Thought My Trousers Would Never dry Labels: Alexandria link, Barry Eva, Book and a Chat, Cotton Malone, Emperors Tomb, pirates, Steve Berry, Templar Legacy, The Jefferson Key, thrillers, US constitution, Venetian Betrayal Teenage thiefs find out just "who dares wins"
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FRIENDS OF ALM Adelaide Literary Magazine THE BLIGHTED MADONNA by Lynn Dowless THE PRINCESS IN THE TOWER by Cezarija Abartis THE LOCUSTS HAVE EATEN EVERYTHING by Marissa Glover MEETING KAFKA by Andy Martin URIEL FOX AND THE MYSTERY OF THE DYING CHILDREN by John… A SWELL GUY by Omar Reyes KETTLE by Pernille AEgidius Dake NET WORTH by Sam Barbee SOMETHING IS HIDING by Sharon Lopez Mooney I CAN TELL NO-ONE, EXCEPT THIS POEM by Susan C. Waters WHAT LIARS THEY ARE by Frank Kowal WHETHER THE PATRIARCHY by Joanna Kadish BREATHING ROOM by Diane Finlayson ROAD TRIP by Elizabeth Bernays WINTER IN CANBERRA: TIME TO HEAL by Sacha Paterson LIBBY BELLE, Author – The Juicy Parts and Other Quirky Stories JUDY HOGAN, Author of BABA SUMMER I & II TIMOTHY RYAN DAY, Author of BIG SKY NICK PADRON, Author of SOULS IN EXILE LYN COFFIN – Author of AFTERMATH Home Fiction “36” by Mike Dorman Fiction - Year III - Number 9 - Volume Two - September 2017 “36” by Mike Dorman By Mike Dorman He did, of course, know when it had happened. Which is to say he had no clue precisely when. It had occurred, not at one decisive turning point, but over the course of days, insidiously, the awareness of it growing slowly, like how spring does not bloom suddenly but rather imperceptibly crosses a critical mass until its clear the season has finally, and inexorably, shifted. In this way did Mark realize he, too, had grown old. Thirty-six. The idea rumbled around in his head, didn’t seem right, like how those psychos convinced their leg or arm didn’t really belong to them must have felt. Thirty-six? Not him. He didn’t feel a day over twenty-five: Lord knew he still had all the insecurities, despite a happy marriage, and despite all the signs of Nadine’s fidelity—chief among them “Leo”, barely even recognizable as a teddy bear after 40 + years of snuggling, and still squished beside her head every night. And he hated that he cared, hated the cliché, but there it was, regardless his repression, regardless his denial: those options he enjoyed at twenty-five, that sense of owning the world, of conquering his professional life, of finally embodying All That Potential? He wasn’t going to live up to any of it. Yet still worst of all was the possibility that he just might. Amir had been right: sometimes having hope was worse than the alternative (and if he was so right about this, why not other things? Maybe all those women Amir passed really were looking at him sexually). Such were Mark’s thoughts as he crossed the parking lot, the Audis and Mercedes and BMWs glittering in the sun and looking out of place before the two-floor rise of corrugated aluminum that looked more like a manufacturing plant than Mulheim’s most upscale gym and further proof that Germany’s industrial heartland, after being bombed beyond distinction in the second war, had rebuilt not with beauty in mind, but sheer function. The grunts and sibilance of clay court volleys drifted through the mesh screen, walking with him, so to speak, along the path separating the indoor courts from the outdoor ones to where a terracotta boulder rested like a pleasant coincidence before two bike racks in full bloom. Resting on a tile of clipped lawn just before the entrance, the rock had been sliced diagonally down the middle, the exposed surface then adorned with metal letters in Copperplate Gothic, a font Mark had always appreciated; sure beat the hell out of that schoolhouse Sans Comic every Klaus, Karl, and Heinrich used when advertising their landscaping ventures (did they not have Word? There were some real decent templates these days). Which brought him to his own flyer. He frowned at the close-up of the coffee mug, knowing there would be mistakes in the German—Nadine had not been home to consult—and wondered if he should have printed in color after all. No, he thought, reminding himself this was just a rough draft, a visual aid, a conversation starter really. In the hallway, Jr. Tennis champions smiled at passersby from plaques, and though it was dimmer than outside, it was strangely warmer—not only due to Germany’s lack of AC culture but also because, in the back corner of the repurposed tennis shop, the pizza oven was currently glowing a cozy, furnace orange. Mark wiped his brow and squinted into the gloom. The room smelled like cork, and though not much larger than an average kitchen, had been creatively and efficiently and—dare I say?—boldly utilized, replete with two slim picnic tables that one, in theory, could eat on, though Mark couldn’t recall a time he had seen a customer. The walls were covered in what had at first appeared to be the chalk scribblings of a madman, but proved, upon pupils’ adjustment, nothing more sinister than the handwritten menu displayed on the blackboards now acting as wall panels. After contemplating the chalk message above the table that read, No, we don’t have WiFi: talk to each other! Mark called into the darkness. “Hello?” The figure before the oven had his arms spread on the countertop as if he needed the support after having just downed a third shot of tequila. Though pudgy, his spot atop the raised dais momentarily transformed that fact, making him seem more bullish than squat, his baldness more thuggish than regrettable. “Uh,” Mark tried again after his greeting went unnoticed, or, more likely, ignored, “I’m here. As we agreed?” “Yes, yes take a seat.” He indicated one of the steel stools screwed to the floor before him. “Would you like a drink?” “Pardon?” Though Mark’s German was at the point where people no longer commented on how good it was, this guy spoke fast. “Something to drink?” He said, just as fast. “An apple spritzer? A coke? A beer?” “…just a water, please.” After walking back from the fridge and uncapping the bottle in a drawn-out ceremony that Mark’s inability to chit-chat in German made seem even longer, the man poured the water in a Koenig Pilsner beer glass and slid it across the fabricated wood. Through all this, Mark chastised himself for not knowing (a) something witty to say and (b) if said witticism would not rather be taken, in a German context, as insecurity. One thing his six years in Mulheim had taught: Germans could endure awkward silences far longer than an American. “You brought something?” His chin indicated Mark’s lap. “Uh…yeah.” Mark’s hand very nearly raced after the snatched-up flyer like it was his lover leaving on the train. “It’s just a rough draft.” The bull-man brought the paper under his nose and for a moment, Mark wondered if he might smell it, feeling all the while like an open wound as the man’s eyes tripped over what he could only assume were mistakes. He’s excited about the idea, Nadine had said. He’s super nice, she had said. Once again, Mark was having a completely different experience, a fact he attributed to his lack of big breasts and toned, female figure. He couldn’t count the times he’d watched grins and twinkling eyes mutate into malice the moment Nadine brought him over to meet another “really nice guy”. Once, an old cowboy with an eye patch didn’t even bother to return his handshake, just went on flirting in his whisky-slurred speech as if he wasn’t even there. “English coffee,” the man nodded at last. “I like it.” “So…you’re interested?” Mark wondered not for the first time if this meeting was going well. Both the idea and push were Nadine’s, and so Mark, rather than hoping for the immediate partnership before him, found himself daydreaming of that life changing email again, the one with the positive response to his query, the one with the book deal. It’s not that he was afraid of work, or that he didn’t like teaching. He did. In fact, up until a week ago, he had imagined himself on the next rung of that career, right up until FOM offered him only one class for the fall semester, which didn’t make sense, because hadn’t his professor ratings been near perfect? Last semester, his third at FOM, he’d needed to turn down courses, which had given him the now clearly misguided audacity to imagine full-blown employment. Sorry, Herr Brewer, we must offer courses to our full-time professors first. Of course we are very happy with your work here and look forward to seeing you this fall. Career path? A freelance English trainer was no career, that much was clear, right along with his worth—six years of experience wasn’t getting any callbacks, further proof of the saturation the recent influx of student travellers had placed on a market willing to pay low wages to any idiot, so long as they were a native speaker. So here he was, peddling his services at his gym, conjuring a dormant entrepreneurial spirit just so he could gain work he didn’t even really want. “Yes, in principle, I am interested. The idea of a language café is one that I’ve seen work before. As I explained to your wife, I have many tennis mothers who come and wait here while their kids take lessons.” To Mark’s despair, the man stored the flyer (it was just a rough draft!) in a pile behind the counter. “Do you know Kirsten Jones? No? She goes to Sporting as well, is also an American. Well, if there is a person to talk to, she is the one. She runs her own language school—you really don’t know her? Networking. It’s all about networking. I will give this flyer to her, and ask around to see if there is any interest. Though, on your flyer you say 10 am? That could be too early.” “It’s just a rough draft,” Mark explained again. “My idea was to keep this as simple as possible. I just wanted to offer—“ “—simple is good, simple is good.” The man bid Mark stop with show of palm. “I will talk to Kirsten. As I said, she runs her own language school, and is in contact with the Dusseldorf Tennis Academy. Do you know of them? Well, they are responsible for an international youth camp during the summer, and Kirsten is coordinating with them because they have expressed interest in learning English, as there is a need for it when one gets into international competition. She wants the contract for the entire international tennis academy.” Mark gulped his remaining water. Had this been an English conversation, he would have steered it accordingly, made a case for his original plan of just advertising the idea and seeing if anyone showed. Instead he said, “Sounds really interesting.” “I will give her your flyer.” The man stared at the counter. “I’m not making any promises.” As Mark hopped off the stool and walked up the stairs separating Sporting from the tennis club, he considered it was probably a bad sign he hadn’t gotten the guy’s name. He stumbled on the path, the darkness abruptly disturbed by a distant light that bloomed against the ridge ahead and made it seem that the bearded face yelling something incomprehensible at him had no eyes. Another flare. Light eradicated shadow and all contour of the man’s face, and he realized it was Dad. “It’s Wodan! It’s Freja!” Dad jostled his shoulders and jabbed a finger overhead. “They’ve come! Don’t you see? They’ve come to test us!” The next rumble knocked father into son, both falling against a boulder and collapsing to the ground. He crawled forward, his fingers suddenly appearing amidst the grass as the next fireball in the sky sent shadows rushing from the valley ahead. Emerald fractals. In an instant they were gone, darkness melting from the ridges to again complete the night. “Are you alright?” She stood, her lightning-colored gown translucent and billowing about the fields, her face high above like a lighthouse. When the next flare waned, she was closer to earth, her face lined in scratchboard-sharp shadows. He crashed to knees. “Do you forgive me?” When her brow furrowed, he soared through its grass-tipped ridges, weaving in the air until the next sudden flare flattened her brow a milky white. “Don’t you see?” She shined like a saint on the path ahead. “The gods are coming back!” Frightened, he backed away, ran, batting grass walls aside. When he opened his mouth to yell into the darkness, it came to him that he had forgotten who he was searching for. “Over here!” From within a cave, diamonds gleamed, growing until they appeared within the face that the next swell of light revealed. All around Dad, grass-trees gamboled, their lengths limned in the same shimmer of the object which he raised from his waist. Swimming atop the wooden surface, ribbons of light illuminated the photo of boy-Dad beaming as he hugged a trophy half his size. The light ebbed to spotlight the engraving screwed to the bottom: Singles Jr. Champion, Southeastern Regionals 1963. Dad reached from the darkness and patted his shoulder. “So long as you’ve got your plaque, they can’t harm you!” But I don’t have my plaque, he couldn’t scream. “I am telling you, women are never wanting to be equal. They are all the same, they want to be taken care of. It is inside of them. It is…” The driver side of Amir’s car—or, to be precise, his wife’s company car—filled up with a chalk-white vape cloud that streamed around his boyish face. Propelling his e-cigarette in the air like an Italian’s hand, more smoke accompanied the completion of his thought, “…biological. Think of it, do you think you would be behaving the same to her if she did not earn as much as you? You think it is okay she travels to Hamburg to see her friends and not let you do the same?” “If it’s with her own money…” Mark shrugged. “Look, I—my generation—we were raised to believe that boys and girls are equal. I mean, not everyone. Where I grew up, in Utah…look, I was never that kind of guy who was gonna grab a girl by the arm and say, ‘come, we’re eating here, and I’m ordering you the shrimp’, but, yeah, I mean, the conservative of us still think men should rule the home. Some of those Utah girls wanted to be bossed around.” “You see?” Amir said, “It is not only cultural. It is your personality. Your Dad was probably weak too, did whatever your Mom told him to. Just like you and Nadine.” “Maybe you’re right.” Mark wondered if it was okay to sponsor people you didn’t really like. “Anyway, what did you need to talk about?” “Did I offend you?” “No. Look, I just got to get home, is all. Dagobert’s alone. But I’m happy to talk about what’s bothering you.” “I did offend you. Look, it is okay if you are weak, it’s no problem. Everyone is different. Me?” His fingers spread across his clavicle. “That would be a deal-breaker! If my wife ever bossed me around just because she earns more money than me? It is such a turn-off. Right now, she wants to go to this fancy hotel in Greece, 5000 euros for 5 days. What do I need this fancy shit for? She tells me, Amir, it is my money, let me spend it for you on a nice holiday, but I said no! First of all, it is our money, not yours, and I will not let you waste it.” “You and your wife are fighting again?” “It is only about Salma. If you want to fuck up your life, that is fine. Go do it. But don’t mess with my daughter’s future.” For a moment, the steering wheel became his wife’s neck, and his knuckles went white. “She is so weak when it comes to Salma. I demanded that in this one instance, she do what I want—she knows herself this is the right thing—but she is…she is lazy. She comes home from work and would rather give Salma some chocolate than deal with her tantrums.” “You’re mad because she gave your daughter chocolate?” “Children do not need these gummy bear bullshit things! They are not even aware of them until we give them to them.” He exhaled another milky cloud. “The only thing I expect is that my wife care about Salma’s health. I do not want her getting addicted to candy and the stupid IPads. I don’t want her being like all these other stupid kids who cannot sit still for two seconds.” That up until a year ago Amir had smoked cocaine while driving with Salma strapped in her child’s seat, Mark neglected to point out. “You mentioned in there you feel rock-bottom inside?” “I am fine.” A cloud emerged from his lips as he repeated, “I am fine.” “Well, which is it? A moment ago you shared how terrible you felt, even though all your external circumstances look so wonderful.” “I don’t understand.” Amir growled at the ceiling. “I read the Quran, I pray, I do my religious thing. I have slipped on looking at women, but I have not masturbated in over a year.” The church hulked outside the rear window, looking more and more sinister as the daylight waned. Beneath the wheel window, seated on the steps leading from the arched, wooden doors, two more from their group were engaged in conversation, the seriousness of which was made evident by the frequency and intensity of cigarette drags. Over his ten years of sobriety, such juxtapositions of the sacred and profane had become commonplace, and not often unnoticed. Mark had heard plenty of slogans, too, and one struck him now: churches have become houses for the holy, instead of what they should be: hospitals for the sick. “You’ve tried to stop cocaine on religious observance before, right?” “Religion is what I do to avoid hell,” Amir said. “And I use it to overcome my bad impulses.” “Did it help you stop using cocaine?” Mark didn’t wait for the answer. “Because, why else come to AA? Why supplement it if it worked so well?” Amir’s brow crashed on the steering wheel. “What am I doing wrong?” “You’re doing it on your own will,” said Mark. “It’s all about humility. I mean, I like to think I’m past coming to these meetings, but, when I accept I have to, when I accept—humbly—that I got an addiction…it gets easier, man. That’s the whole crazy thing about all this: we don’t do our program because of—God only knows why—and all we’re doing is robbing ourselves of happiness. Look, prayer and Quran is great and all, but I think your hiding behind religion again.” “I have slipped on my program.” Amir conceded. “I no longer write a gratitude list every day. I don’t call you, my sponsor. I tell myself I’m too busy to go to meetings.” “See how tricky the ego is? It uses religion to prop itself up as holy, doing its typical checklist/trophy thing by ticking off religious observances, all the while trying to do things all by itself, without any help from God!” Mark shrugged. “No wonder you’re having control issues.” “Control issues?” Amir pushed out his lower jaw as he did when thinking. “It is just good parenting that I don’t want Salma to eat unhealthy. Why should she become addicted to sugar when I have the power to keep her from ever eating it?” “Why are you mad at your wife?” Amir held the mouthpiece just before his lips. “Because she is lazy and doesn’t follow through on what we agreed to.” “So you’re mad at her for not doing what she needs to?” “Kind of like how you’re slipping on your program?” Mark grinned. “Hey, its totally common to project what we hate about ourselves on other people. Just…I mean, you think your wife’s giving 90 percent in regards to Salma?” “Is she giving 90 percent with your daughter,” Mark said, “or you think she’s trying her hardest?” They both jumped at the knock on the window, though only Mark relaxed once it could be seen it was Roland. The best dressed as usual in a white Oxford shirt that complimented his recent tan, Roland waved affably—and, yes, daintily—goodbye as he climbed into his Mercedes. “I am telling you, it is a cultural disease.” Amir’s lip curled as he watched Roland’s car reverse. “We do not have these homosexuals in Egypt. It is not right. It makes me uncomfortable being in the room with him.” “Alright, I’m going.” Mark didn’t feel like going down this road again, and Dagobert was home alone. He paused before shutting the door. “Remember: its just like that reading we had in there: humility really might solve most of our problems.” As he watched Amir whirr away in his wife’s Volvo, Mark chastised himself for feeling unduly perspicuous. Whatever help he was able to offer Amir had come from his Higher Power, and not from some past reading of Carl Jung. Besides, as was usually the case in this vexing AA program, the doling out of advice only revealed one’s own deficiencies. Because, the truth was, he hadn’t talked to his own sponsor in months. The truth was, he’d quit believing in the validity of his inner voice, because, if writing truly was what he was supposed to be doing, shouldn’t he have more to show for it by now? Maybe it was time to grow up. Maybe it was time to give up on this stupid dream, to stop spending all that energy writing stories nobody read. It was time to put away childish things, time to be responsible, time to finally start providing. Huddled together like puzzle pieces, the stained glass shards bloomed various colors, the halo atop the crucified savior shining brightest of all, its golden hue increasing in intensity until each pie-shaped slice of the wheel-window burst apart. As the world receded from that prismatic point, he realized in horror it was only the blink of the beast’s eye. Wind tossed about as he gaped at the sky, paralyzed as he was by the illuminated, wing beast that hovered above. Head shaped like a goat, the beast spread its rainbow-colored wings from its furry torso as, not unkindly, it stared back at him. His back slammed the ground. “Don’t look at the gods!” Dad’s legs pinned him to the ground as his hyena eyes twinkled in the darkness above. “Come. We must hurry! I’ve kept all the plaques at home.” Dad helped him to feet and, after two steps, he was in the back of the Ford Explorer, the click-click of the emergency lights all he registered, overdosed as he was, high on enough cough and cold pills to kill a high-school senior. Dad looked back, all the decades and dementia stripped away, his face twisted in concern and all the more youthful for it. “Don’t worry, we’ll get the plaque.” “I’m sorry,” he sobbed. “I always thought you were a loser! I condemned you, hated you for being a failure…but you loved me. All you wanted was the best for me. And now you’re gone! Gone! I’m so sorry!” Outside, the headlights grazed over wind-tossed grass crawling like seaweed atop the darkness. Dad jumped out and bounded up the hill towards the distant lighthouse, fireballs illuminating the coastline that stood poised like so many Irish suicides above the surf-smashed boulders. The lighthouse took two for every step they rushed towards it, growing larger even as it shrunk, its cupola backlit by the Milky Way come closer to Earth for just such an occasion. Dad shouldered the entry and the door crashed against their first home’s hallway. “It’s just down here.” Rushing past his brother playing Nintendo in the living room, Dad paused before the door leading to the garage. He floated past Dad like a phantom, gasoline asphyxiating as he searched the shelves of half-inflated floats and sleeping bags for his plaque. The door opened and he could breath again; gasping, he glanced at his brother draped in the doorframe boasting he had just beaten Bowser. The world shook. When it stopped, a dent in the shape of a giant fist was visible on the garage door. “Got your plaque, James?” “You know it.” His brother held up the proof, his grin matching the boy’s on the photo who pointed towards a painting of a cat hanging on a gallery wall. The garage again trembled, wrenches falling from perforated walls. “And yours?” The door leading to the kitchen rattled. Mark glanced at his hands, but only saw his shoes where he hoped to find the plaque. More banging, more rattling. He glanced up, and the door now had a fissure where golden light leaked through. “They’re here!” Dad shouted. “The gods are returned!” The fist again pounded the garage door. As the Landstrasse meandered along the glowing wheat-fields, Mark reminded himself why he was driving out to Jonathan’s. Because a phone call hasn’t sufficed of late, because the action takes me out of my head, because I’ve never solved a problem by thinking my way out of it. Honestly, he didn’t believe any of these platitudes anymore—he presently hated the dime store wisdom—which was precisely why he was scared enough to drive an hour and a half out of his way on a weekday just to hear what he already knew Jonathan would say. And that would be how expectations of the future got in the way of happiness-in-the-now, how writing was a part of his sobriety, that all that energy spent on soothing the craving was now freed-up for creativity. He would insist Mark enjoy the ride. Wasn’t that just the thing about this spirituality business? If hopes panned out, it was God’s will, and if they didn’t, hey, that was God’s will, too, the necessary tempering of the soul for its Next Great Purpose. While a pinch of doubt might go with the territory, questioning was arrogance—God’s ways remained ever impenetrable. For a while, he’d found Tim Tebow inspiring—not that he was going to advertise Philippians 4: 13 on his eye black or anything, but, if a Higher Power had helped Mark kick heroin, why not other things? Now, however, after some years sober, he could look life square in the eye, could see that sometimes it sucked. No magical thinking of better days or some Great Destiny needed. He had tried some directions, and not all of them had panned out. Why beat himself up for playing in that church-plant’s worship band? Why be embarrassed of that date with the pastor’s daughter—at least the disaster had shown him he could never fit in with the churched. He walked up the driveway, mentally sang. Oh it’s so disarming darling, everything we did believe, is diving, diving, diving, off the balcony. After ditching the Christians, he tried the Eckhart Tolles and other distillers of Eastern Wisdom—their worldviews being better attuned to the multi-cultural, every day—and had meditated with all the fervor of one who might reach Enlightenment with the next, conscious breath. Yet, for all his hopes of integrating rationality with faith, of bringing the awareness the 12 steps had gifted him to society at large, he finally realized spirituality could never be “cool”. Sure, yoga might be trendy, and “mindful” tech-geeks who talked of flow-states increasingly the norm, but while hipster culture might tolerate a serial adulterer finding Enlightenment and remaining unchanged, Mark thought awakening entailed some qualitative change, some fruits of the spirit. So he’d denounced the Autobiography of a Yogi as eloquently written hyperbole, and, after seeing India for himself, denounced Hinduism as primitive drum banging at painted statues. For that matter, why did post-moderns have so little issue with burning sage but were so cynical about exorcism? In any case, he had dumped his fair share of worldviews, so why not this stubborn notion of becoming a published writer as well? Because you’ve dreamed this even before you used to get high. That inner voice was persistent, he’d give it that. Thigh quivering, he withdrew his phone in hopes of finding that email requesting the rest of his manuscript. It was Nadine. Of course. Who else WhatsApped him? Nico said you never came by again. Who’s Nico? The guy from the café! Your possible business partner! No wonder he doesn’t want to— The door opened to a flush-faced Jonathan, his chest free of shirt and glistening in sweat. “You found it.” Being English, Jonathan showed little excitement, a fact Mark had learned not to take personally. He wasn’t wearing his oversized, thick-framed lenses, drawing attention both to his eyes’ tininess and the skin that fell away like melting wax to his disheveled beard. A heavy-breathing object brushed past his jeans and onto the portico. “This must be, uh…” Had Jonathan told him the name? “Your new dog. It’s pretty. What’s the breed again?” “A Weimaraner.” Jonathan rubbed the dog’s neck. “He keeps me busy.” “I remember when you were still scared of the commitment of a dog.” “That’s right, you’ve a dog as well.” Jonathan scratched at his head. “A…gray hound, right?” “Dachshund.” “That’s right. A girl?” “Boy.” Mark glanced up from his massaging of the Weimaraner’s neck. “Name’s Dagobert.” “Well, I was just at a sit down for some tea. I can’t remember if you take yours with milk.” When compounded with his shoulder-length hair and unkempt beard, Jonathan’s slenderness made him appear all the more crazy, a fact which neither his shirtless torso nor tiger-print Chuck Taylor’s did anything to ameliorate. Yet, despite all appearances to the contrary, he was as English as the teatime he never skipped. Mark already felt better. If this dude could manage 20 + years sober, then, well, surely he could. As he’d never been to Jonathan’s before, he inhaled every detail as he followed him to the kitchen. The low ceilings typical of German Altbau made the rooms seem squat, and the few windows created a dearth of natural light fully appropriate against the hallway’s bulging, mahogany carapace. Mark, peaking through a doorframe, found the IKEA furnishings offensive to the elaborate carpentry, though the living room’s leather sofa and Victorian writing table better matched the house’s soul. Surprisingly—and disappointingly—not a single piece of Jonathan’s, either painted or sculpted, was on display. After Mark had twice declined tea (yes, he was sure), he fired off his grievances, Jonathan listening without interruption and with a floral-patterned mug poised before lips. “You could work out a budget with Nadine.” Jonathan shrugged. “Come to an agreement so you could save up same money, if that’s what you wanted, and go on your own trips.” The idea was nice, but Mark avoided the exact figures for a reason: already, his end of the month contributions felt like throwing pebbles in the ocean of debt he could never repay Nadine. The future might have been now—hard to escape the fact Jonathan and Amir both had breadwinning partners—but Nadine expected fifty-fifty on the mortgage: after all, she already paid all the groceries and vacations. “Do you think I should keep writing?” “C’mon, don’t do that!” Face crashed on palms, Mark suddenly lifted his gaze towards Jonathan. “You know, this would never work as a story.” “Not sure I follow.” “There’s no resolution!” Mark exclaimed. “It’s fine to compare life to a book and all, but…what if the next chapter never comes? You say just keep writing, enjoy the journey, but, in a story, that doesn’t work as a resolution. Okay, maybe in literary fiction, but who reads that crap anymore?” “What would resolve it?” “In the story I’d like to live? I get a book deal.” His hands whisked together. “Conflict solved. Catapulted into the next chapter.” Dents popped around the garage-paper-bag from all sides. “Got it!” Gathering the plaque from the trash pile, his smile died prematurely. “What?” “It’s got a crack in it.” Terrified, he saw that Dad was right. Beginning from the top corner, a crack split the wood, very nearly cutting the same red ribbon strung before a Starbucks his photo self was smiling before. Another rumble. “What do I do?!” Fear in their eyes, Dad and brother backed away as if he were contagious. Plaster rained on their shaking heads as a colossal fist pounded the ceiling. “Help me!” He screamed. “I don’t know what to do!” Above, a pool of brilliant light appeared in the middle of the ceiling, and, choice-less, he joined it, staring suddenly at his own, stupid-gazing-self holding the plaque below. In an instant, he returned to his body, more courageous if not fearless. He would just have to meet the gods. The door leading to the kitchen jostled on its hinges, golden light banging behind, scrambling to get in. Ankle-deep in souvenirs that shined like silver, he approached the door. His hand stretched for the knob. Before his finger reached it, the knob twisted of its own accord—turned from the other side—and, ready or not, the door rushed open. Light flooded the room. Mike Dorman is an American ex-patriot who runs his own English training business for corporate clients in Germany. After a near-death scrape in 2009, he embarked, fear of failure and all, on his lifelong dream of publishing novels. He is working on the third installment of his YA fantasy series, currently seeking representation for the first book, and much prefers coffee over tea. Previous articleTIMOTHY ROBBINS, A POET – Shortlist Winner Nominee 2017 Adelaide Literary Award for Poetry Next articleMARIA by Emily Peña Murphey Follow us on Instagram @adelaidebooksny Published by Adelaide Books LLC, New York 244 5th Avenue, Suite D27, New York, NY, 10001 Copyright © 2021 by Adelaide Books LLC Contact us: info@adelaidemagazine.org
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is certainly a food-borne pathogen that preferentially infects the Peyer’s areas is certainly a food-borne pathogen that preferentially infects the Peyer’s areas and mesenteric lymph nodes, leading to an acute inflammatory response. NF-B-dependent sign transduction pathways. Nuclear translocation of pre-IL-1 and IL-1-reliant secretion of IL-8 in response to infections were reliant on extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and p38 MAP kinase signaling but indie of NF-B. These data claim that inhibits intracellular pre-IL-1 signaling and following proinflammatory replies through inhibition of MAP kinase pathways. Launch You can find three types of pathogenic for human beings, like the two enteric pathogens and the as and so are both food-borne pathogens that infect the Peyer’s areas and mesenteric lymph nodes, leading to a self-limiting infections (11, 12, 20). Primarily, the bacteria put on and invade M cells, which will make up a specific intestinal epithelium that overlays the Peyer’s areas (27, 31). In rare circumstances, frequently in the framework of immune system compromise, systemic attacks including most body systems may appear (12). contamination is usually seen as a an severe inflammatory response that’s initiated by proinflammatory cytokines, resulting in the recruitment and activation of neutrophils and macrophages (14C16, 21C23). Eventually, a Compact disc4+ T-helper type 1 response clears chlamydia (1C3). Using pet versions and cell tradition, we as well as others exhibited that interleukin-1 (IL-1) takes on a critical part in initiating the inflammatory response to contamination (5, 6, 23). The IL-1 family members includes proinflammatory cytokines and carries a quantity of molecules very important to the sponsor response to contamination, such as for example IL-1, IL-1, and IL-18 (5C8, 19, 23, 41). These cytokines are created as preproteins that want proteolytic cleavage to eliminate the propiece ahead of secretion. IL-1 family are differentially prepared, with IL-1 and IL-18 becoming substrates of caspase-1 as well as the inflammasome and IL-1 becoming cleaved by calpain (19, 41). Mature IL-1 family are secreted from cells, plus they consequently act to start inflammatory signaling on a number of cell types. Unlike IL-1 221244-14-0 supplier and IL-18, pre- and pro-IL-1 are biologically energetic, employing a nuclear localization series (NLS) at proteins 79 to 86 to translocate from your cytoplasm towards the nucleus, where IL-1 enhances the transcription of additional proinflammatory cytokines, such as for example IL-8 (17, 38). Nuclear pre-IL-1 may connect to proteins from the transcriptional equipment, including necdin, GAL4, and histone acetyltransferase (13, 26, 37). It really is now hypothesized that this predominant part of IL-1 is really as an intracellular signaling molecule. Furthermore to IL-1 being truly a nuclear element, translocation of IL-1 towards the nucleus may serve as a way of limiting swelling during necrosis, when pro-IL-1 can work as a danger-associated molecular design (Wet) molecule. Despite the fact that contamination leads to severe inflammation within the sponsor response, has developed numerous systems to temper the host’s inflammatory response (20). Defense evasion molecules employed by are encoded on both chromosome as well as the 70-kDa virulence plasmid (pYv). Certain strains of encode three unique type three secretion systems (TTSS), including chromosomal and flagellar TTSS, however the best-studied Rabbit Polyclonal to A4GNT immune system modulating systems are from the pYv-encoded TTSS and connected effector protein (18, 24, 40). TTSS enable to straight secrete effector protein from the bacterias straight into the cytoplasm of sponsor cells. The TTSS effector proteins referred to as Yops are enzymes that imitate sponsor proteins such as for example phosphatases, kinases, GTPase-activating proteins (Spaces), acetylases, and proteases that effect sponsor cell physiology by disrupting transmission transduction pathways as well as the cytoskeleton 221244-14-0 supplier (18). YopP (YopJ in and contamination, deletion of YopP includes a measurable effect on virulence, nonetheless it is usually not an important virulence element in the extremely mouse virulent serogroup 0::8 strains (36). Contamination of human being epithelial cells with prospects towards 221244-14-0 supplier the secretion of IL-8, and pursuing contamination in the mouse model, there’s a rapid upsurge in the mouse IL-8 homologues KC and Mip-1 (28). Recently, it was proven that throughout a infections, IL-8 creation was reliant on pre-IL-1 intracellular signaling (17). Predicated on these observations, we looked into the hypothesis that pre-IL-1 was accountable or partially in charge of the IL-8 noticed after infections of epithelial cells which pre-IL-1 intracellular signaling may be a focus on for strains. 221244-14-0 supplier Rabbit Polyclonal to A4GNT Estrogen-mediated neuroprotection is usually seen in neurodegenerative disease and neurotrauama choices; Oseltamivir and peramivir are getting considered for mixture treatment of serious
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“Made In China” Starts Rolling, Feat Rajkummar Rao and Mouni Roy The successful team of Stree – Actor Rajkummar Rao and Producer Dinesh Vijan has already kick-started the shooting of Made In China, also starring Mouni Roy and Boman Irani. The entire cast and crew of Made In China, which includes Rajkummar Rao, Boman Irani and Mouni Roy along with filmmaker Mikhil Musale have started the shoot of Made In China in Ahmedabad. The official handle of Maddock Films shared this information on social media. It said, “A new beginning. #MadeInChina starts filming today. Mark the date, releases on 15th August, 2019! #DineshVijan @PVijan @RajkummarRao @Roymouni @bomanirani @MusaleMikhil” The film will release on 15th August 2019, so mark your dates! The Omerta star will play a struggling Gujarati businessman, who sets on a journey to China in order to make his business flourish. The hilarious journey and several lessons leave Rajkummar a successful entrepreneur. As the title suggests, it will be majorly shot in China with parts being shot in Ahmedabad. The film will be directed by Mikhil Musale, who won a National Award for his 2016 drama-thriller ‘Wrong Side Raju’. Rajkummar Rao was last seen in Stree, also starring Shraddha Kapoor in the lead. This movie marks the second outing of Mouni Roy after Gold with Akshay Kumar.
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Real Men Don't Use Scissors Hello again! We're going to start things off with this helpful and insightful grinder tip that seems to surprise students at times. When using a grinder the water in the tray will eventually need to be replaced. Some of it sprays out while you are grinding and a lot of it leaves the grinder by clinging to the piece of glass you've just ground and removed from the grinder. With all of this water leaving the grinder you have to remember to keep adding water so it's high enough to make a small twist of water at the bottom edge of the wheel while it is spinning. It not only keeps the wheel sharp but it also allows the grinding head to cut into your glass quicker and more effectively. A dry grinder will always slow you down. And lastly, just because you filled the grinder with water 15 minutes ago doesn't mean that you won't need to add water to it again shortly. Ok, so we're going to start things off this week by looking at Jeanne's Tiger LSU Window. Where's the LSU? Look at the center stripes and you'll see it hidden away in plain view almost like a subliminal message. Jeanne did a great job on this with a very minimal amount of help. Linda F's Scrap Glass Owl turned out perfect as well. This large suncatcher helps prove that colors (although important) need not be the focal point of your window. Who would ever think to use red, white, and purple in an owl's feathers? Look below and that's what you'll find. Although the colors are abstract at times, the owl is instantly recognizable. Great stained glass windows are a combination of good design and a good use of color. This is both. It's stained glass and color is something that you might want to run with from time to time. Be daring! Linda L's last Santa Window is completed leaving her with a new set of three windows to start. She knows what she's doing already and you'll see just what that is when you get a little further down in this post. This window has nice, even lead lines and beautiful soldering which gets Linda two thumbs up from me. Merry Christmas! Let's stay on the Christmas theme here and move along to Sue's two mirror image Candy Canes. One was completed last week and the second completed this week. Together they sure make a nice pair for decorating. We've added some wire along the bottom of the Candy Canes to make sure they don't fold in half while being handled because straight lines and stained glass never mix well together. However, the problem was averted before these were even finished so now Sue is ready to do her decorating with them. This is the last of the Christmas Decorations that we're featuring this week and this one belongs to Mary Grace. This is the second in a set of three Tree's that she's making as Lawn Ornaments. This one looks fantastic and as you'll see down below (if you keep reading) Mary Grace has her third tree all cut out and ready to be ground. Charlie came in with a hand mirror all cut out and ground save for the mirror itself. He wrapped all the pieces, tacked them together and the we cut the mirror to fit opening that Charlie left when he tacked it together. The mirror fit perfectly the first time it was ground and then he wrapped it, tacked it into place and soldered both sides of his mirror before class was finished. The end result is this completed hand mirror which is spectacular if I may say so myself. In the last of our completed projects, Janet managed to put together her latest Bee Lawn Ornament and now she's officially a pro at making these. I think I'll let her teach the other students how to bend the wings and the body the next time someone else decides to do one! Poor Brenda just can't seem to get away from these Tiger De Lis'. Every time I turn around she has another one started on her work board. The good thing is that these pretty much fall together for her now. But after making five or six of them I'd expect nothing less! Betty's been busy finishing up her LSU Tiger Claw Window and only has the back side left to solder on that project. She also has two more Snowmen cut out and now they're both ground as well. Someone is going to be finishing quite a few projects very shortly and that someone's name starts with the letter 'B'. And Ann now has all of her Rose Bud Window ground. She wants to add a double border to this and once it's wrapped and tacked together the borders will go on quickly. The color that Ann picked for the bud really gives this window a completely different look from it's 'predecessors'. I won't be surprised to see borders get attached to this when we see it next. Becky S has been bust cutting away at glass and will have at the very least a garland of roses once she gets all of these flowers assembled. Then for good measure she's got a few butterflies in the works as well. I know someone who is keeping VERY busy! Linda's latest project is shaping up to be a winner. The original design for this Ship In a Bottle called for the ship to be made as a single piece and the bottle as a secondary solid piece of glass that would be tacked on top of the ship. My problem with this approach is that water and chemicals always get caught between the glass and since the front piece would be clear, build up is a very real problem. Our solution is to simply cut the bottle around the ship. The design practically lends itself to this approach with only one difficult cut. With just one night of work Linda is making this look downright easy! Linda L is fast becoming our student who always works in triplicate! She's done three Pumpkin Panels, three Santa Panels and now she's working on three Mardi Gras Mask Panels. They all slide into metal frameworks that make changing the design easy so Linda is making multiple sets to change things up for each of the holidays. These masks are the most challenging panels she's yet to make due to the number of pieces but as you can see she's cut through this one about as quickly as possible. Jeannette squared up her window and got the background glass cut and tacked into place just before adding her final border. Although they look similar, the purple border on the diamond section differs slightly from the purple border on the border that finishes off the window. You may not see it now but you certainly will when you see it lit up. Once that final border is attached all Jeannette needs to do is begin soldering this project. Well, Bonnie not only added a background to her Rose Bud and Stem Window-- she also added a border as well! There was some creative finagling going down with this project but no one would ever suspect a thing. And I'll never tell! This will be completed before you know it. Have you recognized the rose bud? Yep, it's a variation of the window that Ann is currently making and that Janet and Becky have made in the past. Vickie is moving quickly in class even though she's our newest student. This is the Fleur De Lis that she decided to make and this is what she accomplished in just two classes. The FDL portion has been cut and tacked together and she has the background cut and ground now. That means that this will be ready for a border when she comes back in. I call that working at top speed. When life hands you lemons, make lemon-aid! That's what Martha did this week as she cut and ground the glass for the lemon portion of her Seafood Window. She's meticulously picked out perfect glass for it and has even opted to use the rough side of the glass as the front side to give her window a little more texture. Gale has begun working on this Owl Window which I know is going to turn out great. I love the small overhangs of the branch and the Owl's tail feathers that reach into the background glass. It means that she'll need to grind using the small grinding wheel but the end result will be very much worth it. Sue started working on this Santa Face that she found online and then printed out. The picture is slightly out of kilter but we'll address that once we cut the background and the borders. As it stands this Santa is looking wonderful. And here's the third Christmas Tree Lawn Ornament that Mary Grace is working on. It's identical to the first two save for the texture of the green glass that she's used. This just needs to be ground and then she can fit the red globs into place. Next we have Cindy who resumed work on her LSU Tiger Stripe Fleur De Lis Window and is (as always) grinding as she goes along. It's a method that works for her and that's fine with me as long as the quality of the work doesn't suffer-- and Cindy's work doesn't suffer for it. I just don't recommend this practice to beginning students because it limits your ability to make adjustments on the fly without re-cutting. I was hoping that we'd see Shelley's Aquatic Window completed this week but we had a number of run thru's (lead that flows between the glass from the back side to the front side) that kept us from washing and coloring this mammoth window. Rest assured that it's 100% completed now (except for it's bath) and that you'll surely see it lit up in our next update. Lastly we have Terry who was working on something else while she was tweaking her LA/Tiger pattern but I can't recall what it was! I obviously didn't get a picture of it or I would have that to jog my memory, but I do have a picture of her Tiger which is a lot easier to see than it was in our last update so I'll just post this here and apologize to her when I see her next week. And that's what happened during our first week of classes in November. My memory of some of these events is a bit blurry but I think I've properly matched each of the photo's to the students who were working on them. But I'm not beyond being wrong on that... Hookin' Me Up Alright, it's been a while but we're officially back on track. Between moving, going on a vacation to Rome and Greece, and not having internet on on my computer, I'll be the first to admit that it's taken me some time to get things together here. To be perfectly honest I'm not even sure how far behind I am but these pictures were taken during the last week of October so let's start there. Let's start with Brenda who completed her LSU Tiger De Lis Window. I have to say that her soldering was nothing short of perfection as not one touch up needed to be done on this. She was concerned since the final purple border wasn't a perfect match to the rest of the purple but the SLIGHT shift in contrast is something that I always try to achieve in my own work. Since the corner Fleur De Lis sections are purple which butt against the purple border, the subtle color variation prevented the colors from bleeding into one another. This separation makes the FDL corners stand out rather than just become one blob of purple. Sometimes we learn great things through our 'mistakes'. Linda L finished the first of her three Santa Windows and look how great this first one turned out. This is a another project that didn't need any touching up at all with the soldering. In fact, Linda cut and attached the borders while she was at home. Now that's what I call an accomplished student. Paula's Hurricanes Window is officially finished. The two different whites work perfectly together (like the purples in Brenda's Window) but it's the lettering that really impressed me with this window. Paula is always ready to tackle a challenge whether it's small pieces of glass that have to fit together just right, or foiling someone else's window as she's waiting for her patina to 'dry'! This is another great job by Paula. Cindy completed this four sided butterfly spinner and did a great job on it. You just make four sets of wings and assemble them together with one wing facing at the 12 o'clock position, another at the 3 o'clock position, another at the 6 o'clock position and the final wing pointing at the 9 o'clock position. It sounds confusing but I think the two pictures at different angles explain it all. Cindy went with two different color combinations for the wings so as it spins you'll actually see two different butterflies. Carol made this FDL Window at home and brought it in for some brass channel, some hooks, and it's closeup for the blog. The soldering was perfect (as always) and Carol has yet another window under her belt. Terry wrapped up the work on her flowing Cross design and made short work of it at that. She used 5 bevels in the cross to make this sparkle when the light hits it. It's geometrically and symmetrically perfect but we're used to that from Terry, aren't we? Betty has a first here as she made an old snowman pattern come back to life. It's been years since this Snowman has been made and Betty learned that to make it you actually assemble the snowman, the holly leaves, and the bow as four separate suncatchers. Once they are all completed (soldered, washed and waxed) they are soldered on top of the Snowman to make one final suncatcher. After that we paint on a face and call him Frosty! Betty also completed 4 more Angel nightlights bringing the grand total of Angels to 27 (or so.) That's a lot of wings and Halo's! And speaking of halo's, Betty twisted her own wire to make the halo's on these (final?) four Angels. It's a little tricky but in the end it's kind of fun to do. Janet completed another Butterfly and from start to finish she needed no help at all. Next week she wants to take home three stakes which makes me think that she has three more of these ready to be put together. She's wasting no time at all on these and doing a terrific job. Vickie got all of the copper wire tinned with lead and then cut and spun them around a sharpie marker to make the antennae/hook for her ten completed butterflies. I'd show you all ten but I think that might be a little redundant especially since they all share the same color scheme. Vickie did a great job on these and is ready to tackle another project when she come back in to class. Ann has turned into a regular cutting machine. She has all of her Rosebud Window cut out and ready for the grinder. The pink/champagne class was a very tough glass to cut but Ann got it all out with glass to spare. Sometimes glass is just difficult to cut and this was definitely one of those times. And then, as if to add insult to injury, her background glass didn't want to cooperate either. But again, Ann persevered and put that glass into its place on her pattern. And Becky S is becoming a 3D rose expert because she has at least 3 more of these traced out and ready to be cut. Here's a look at some of the yellow glass that she chose to use. You can see that she has most of the the glass cut with only a few left to be separated. Bonnie has all of her Rosebud With Stem window all cut out and it's got a wonderful flow to it. She requested that it 'pop' out of the background glass and into the border which is an effect I've always loved. I'm pretty sure that this will gain a background when you next see it. Carol also completed another of her bevel inserts while in class and plans on bringing them all back (once they are all completed) so we can get better pictures of them and assemble them correctly for you to look at. Charlie now has one Bird Of Paradise Window completely ground and is just about ready to start grinding the second mirror image match to this one. He's begun wrapping this one but if he wants to box this and resume grinding on the second window there would be nothing wrong with that. Come back next week and see what Charlie decides to do next. Cindy started working on cutting out glass for her version of Brenda's Tiger Fleur De Lis Window and she's moving along nicely. She's gotten the trickiest cuts (the L, S, and U) out of the way first but there's still a lot of stripes to do. But things like that never scare Cindy away. Jeannette began working on her Grapes, Wine and Cross Window and has really done an amazing amount of work on it in just one class. She's got the majority of it cut out AND she has it ground as well! I have to say that Jeannette has really hit her stride on this window because I can't imagine anyone moving any faster unless the quality of the work were sacrificed. Linda F has just about all but the final touches completed on this beautiful Owl Suncatcher. With just the final edging to go I know that we'll see this completed when she comes back in the door. This owl is set to fly the coop. Mary Grace has one Christmas Tree under her belt and a second one almost there. She spent most of her time grinding the tree and then on fitting the red globs into her pattern. Working one at a time she got them all fitted into place in a reasonable amount of time. Perfect fits are important here because without that we end up with a lot of lead around the beads. Mary Grace is really getting the hang of this now. Natalie continued working on her Pelican Window and now that all of the glass is cut for the bird itself she's set to start grinding when she comes back in. Her colors look great and I think this widow will be spectacular when it's finished. Rowena has two panels almost completely cut out for her series of five inserts. Her last series based on this pattern totaled six windows but this set that she's working on has one longer section across the top that we've redesigned for this window. Rowena wanted a Humming Bird and a flower in the top section but we needed it to line up with the original panels or the leaves wouldn't flow correctly. And as you can see from the pattern, we've succeeded wonderfully. Shelley got the second side of her Aquatic Window completed and it's looking perfect. She has a few runs thru's on the front side that will need to be straightened out before she can color this and wash it but that will hopefully be handled during her next class. Hopefully this will be completed next week. Sue resumed work on her large Candy Cane Suncatcher and started a second mirror image version as well. With one completely soldered and the second one ready to be wrapped I'd say that these two projects are just about behind her and ready to be hung. Our other (original) Susan worked on soldering her Tiger Window and made a conscious decision to apply less solder than she normally would and it paid off in spades. This window will be completed when she comes back in because all it really needs are a few more lead lines, a bath, and some patina to finish it off. And speaking of tigers, Terry 's got her Tiger/Louisiana window pattern just about all worked out and will begin cutting glass on this project next week. Though it's hard to see, there's a lot of detail in that tiger face and you WILL see that once the glass is cut for it. So that wraps up the month of October save for the two Weekend Workshops that we held. Those will be coming along shortly along with two other normal class posts which should bring us up to date. Mark my words when I tell you that you'll be hearing again from us sooner than ever! Posted by Bayou Salé GlassWorks at 11:46 PM 1 comment:
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Mobile Solar Pvs Can Now Replace Diesel Generators for Disaster Relief and Military Operations Published on October 16, 2018 by Daryl James off grid inverter Diesel generators as a temporary power supply for military operations, disaster relief efforts and music festivals could soon be replaced by mobile solar PVs. An Australian-made innovation, CROSS is a factory assembled, a relocatable solar array that has been developed to reduce the logistics challenges associated with deploying solar PV generators. Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has announced $289,725 in funding for Canberra-based ECLIPS Engineering to design, manufacture and test its rapidly deployable Container Roll Out Solar Panel System (CROSS). This is on behalf of the Australian government. Designed to fit inside a standard shipping container, the CROSS units can be stacked up to seven units high. The system also come available in 20ft and 40ft configurations, with a maximum output of 2,175W and 4,350W delivered in minutes ready for connection to an off grid inverter. The $703,468 total project opens up markets not previously available to the renewables industry, including defense, disaster recovery, humanitarian, construction and temporary network augmentation. “CROSS units can be deployed in off-grid and fringe-of-grid areas, displace or offset diesel consumption and improve the security of existing networks,” ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht said. “These renewable options can reduce some of the barriers to entry for potential renewable power users in remote locations, including short project durations and where power systems need to be periodically relocated,” Mr. Frischknecht said. Roll-Out-Solar-SystemRoll-Out-Solar-System “Renewable energy can provide an emissions-free, silent energy system that could replace diesel generators in the long run.” Managing Director of ECLIPS Shaun Moore said that the main purpose of CROSS was to improve power self-sufficiency for defense. “One of our early objectives was to provide rapidly deployable utility-scale PV generators to improve the self-sufficiency of Defence’s deployed forward operating bases. Diesel consumption related to the provision of electricity can account for up to 70% of deployed forces’ fuel usage and is a significant cost driver. More importantly, deploying CROSS to forward operating bases also reduces the frequency of convoys for fuel resupply, which reduces the threat to soldiers in contested environments. “These same logistics efficiencies and benefits are transferable to commercial and utility customers in remote areas of Australia,” he said. News off grid inverter Ways to Buy Online Cardboard Tubes for Packaging Purposes Online at Best Prices? TIPS YOU NEED TO ENSURE PROPER LANDSCAPE MAINTENANCE Attic Conversions to Add Extra Space Previous Previous post: How To Hire An Expert To Level Up Your Ecommerce Store SEO Next Next post: GABRIEL ART PRINT
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Aluminium the most environment friendly metal .... By Recycling, Metal is Reborn ..... The aluminium is 100% recyclable which means conservation of natural resources, good for the environment and good for the economy .... Recycling one kilogram of aluminium can save up to 8 kilograms of bauxite, four kilograms of chemical products and 14 kilowatt hours of electricity .... We may run out of wood but not Aluminium - Aluminium forms 7% of earth’s upper crust .... "CNFC" has installed annual capacity of nearly 68,000 M.T. of Aluminium alloys and 15,000 M.T. of Zinc alloys. The plant has latest fuel efficient furnaces. "CNFC's" innovation and expansion have shown its ongoing commitment to provide quality metal and superior service with in-house facility to design and develop Tools & Dies. The unit is able to honor our commitment to its customers with High quality of products Timely delivery of material "CNFC" is a responsive and progressive organization - a dependable, efficient and quality-oriented business partner for aluminum and zinc consumers and sellers. "CNFC" is geared toward making rapid decisions. Our staff of professional metal people provides continuity in our business relationships. The Company is successfully marketing its products in the Automobile Industry for over 35 years. Over the years, the Company has developed a strong marketing network spread all over India having offices at Kolkata, Faridabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Kanpur. The Company has built a strong reputation for its products. ... for ecologically GREEN future Home :: About CNFC :: Our Products :: Production Process :: Quality Management :: Testimonials :: Photogallery :: Career :: Contact Us :: Legal Disclamier Copyright Century NF Casting © All Rights Reserved.
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The Gallery is closed until further notice. For programming updates, please sign up to our Newsletter (link at bottom of this page). The More Things Change... Reflections on 40 years of the Centre for Art Tapes Timeline Exhibitions and Events Find Us First Features 18 January – 31 May, 2017 Curated by Ron Foley MacDonald Film still from The Second Awakening of Christa Klages, dir. Margarethe von Trotta, 1978. Some directors arrive fully formed on their debut features. Others never recover. In this survey of first features, we begin with one of the greatest motion pictures of all time, Citizen Kane, and then progress to more contemporary times where some directors—Duncan Tucker and Transamerica, for example—disappear from the scene after tackling some exceptional subject matter. Female directors and stories of gender determination dominate more modern times; Art House staple directors such as Lars von Trier (The Element of Crime) and Andrei Tarkovsky (Ivan’s Childhood) help anchor the series to the traditions of ‘serious’ cinema, while other directors’ debuts mark them for ‘serious’ Hollywood success. SCREENINGS WEDNESDAYS AT 8 PM 18 January - Citizen Kane Orson Welles, USA, 1941, 119 minutes. Orson Welles’ debut—made in his mid-twenties—still remains one of the most talked about films ever. The thinly disguised bio of newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst, Citizen Kane sports complex timelines, expressionist cinematography, and bravura acting. 25 January - The White Sheik Federico Fellini, Italy, 1951, 86 minutes. The great filmmaker behind La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2 made his solo-directing debut with this mild mannered comedy about a trip to Rome by a family from the sticks, complete with an obsession with a washed up film star. Michelangelo Antonioni co-wrote the original story and the script. 1 February - Fear and Desire Stanley Kubrick, USA, 1953, 62 minutes. Long unavailable, Kubrick’s debut is an unorthodox war story that prefigures all of his subsequent work. Also on the bill is his 30-minute documentary on the Seafarers International Union, which mentions Halifax. 8 February - Ivan’s Childhood Andrei Tarkovsky, USSR, 1962, 87 minutes. Co-winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes, Tarkovsky’s debut feature is a dream-like story of a very young Russian partisan during the depths of World War Two. 15 February - Sebastiane Derek Jarman, UK, 1976, 89 minutes. One of the first LGBT films—and perhaps the only one in Latin—Jarman’s debut re-creates the world of ancient Rome and the titular Saint—martyred, famously, by a run of arrows. 22 February - The Second Awakening of Christa Klages Margarethe von Trotta, West Germany, 1978, 93 minutes. A key film of the New German Filmmakers movement, von Trotta’s first solo feature tells the story of a woman—radicalized when her daycare is closed—who robs a bank for money to keep the daycare open. 1 March - My Brilliant Career Gillian Armstrong, Australia, 1979, 100 minutes. One of the signature films of Australia’s great 1970s film revival, the incandescent Judy Davis stars as an unconventional woman struggling to make her mark in a repressive post-Victorian society. 8 March – The Element of Crime Lars von Trier, Denmark, 1984, 104 minutes. The maverick Scandinavian director (Breaking the Waves, Melancholia) delivered a stylized detective story for his first feature, full of plot twists and heavy on dank cinematic atmosphere. 15 March - My American Cousin Sandy Wilson, Canada, 1985, 89 minutes. This Canadian autobiographical classic directly addresses the differences between us and our southern neighbours, written and directed by the West Coast’s most prominent female director Sandy Wilson. 22 March - The Seventh Continent Michel Haneke, Austria/France/Germany, 1989, 108 minutes. Haneke’s (The White Ribbon, Caché, Amour) first theatrically distributed film details the tale of an average family whose final shocking act explores the nature of violence. 29 March - I Shot Andy Warhol Mary Harron, USA/UK, 1996, 103 minutes. Lily Taylor stars as Valerie Solanis, the woman who actually shot Andy Warhol the day after Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in 1968. Mary Harron’s film is full of mordant wit, spot-on art direction, and assured performances. 5 April - Smoke Signals Chris Eyre, USA, 1998, 89 minutes. The first feature written and directed by North American Indigenous filmmakers, Smoke Signals is a wry, subversive comedy about daily life on a reserve, penned by the legendary Sherman Alexie. Canadian Adam Beach stars. 12 April - The Virgin Suicides Sophia Coppola, USA, 1999, 97 minutes. Jeffrey Eugenides’s cult novel about untouchable suburban sisters came to the screen via this remarkable debut feature from Sophia Coppola, daughter of Francis Ford Coppola. James Woods and Kathleen Turner star, with a Sloan song on the soundtrack. 19 April - Me and You and Everyone We Know Miranda July, USA, 2005, 92 minutes. Idiosyncratic artist and writer Miranda July’s first feature is the story of a quirky couple trying to make it in an unforgiving world. July plays the wife. Closed for exhibition installation 24 April to 5 May. 10 May - Transamerica Duncan Tucker, USA, 2005, 103 minutes. Felicity Huffman and Kevin Zegers star as an unlikely parent-and-offspring duo on a cross-country trip where identities—sexual and otherwise—are in a constant flux. 17 May - Submarine Richard Ayoade, UK, 2010, 97 minutes. Afro-British comic, writer, and director Ayoade’s first feature is an absurdist coming-of-age drama defined by landscape and attitude, full of unexpected plot twists and rampant humour. 24 May - Fruitvale Station Ryan Coogler, USA, 2013, 87 minutes. Michael B. Jordan plays Oscar Grant III in this true story about the death of the young black San Francisco Bay Area transit rider. Jordan would go on to star in—and Coogler direct—Creed, the critically acclaimed and financially successful revitalization of the Rocky franchise. 31 May - A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night Ana Lily Amirpour, USA, 2014, 100 minutes. Shot in Los Angeles but set in Iran, A Girl Walks Home... is part vampire flick, part Spaghetti Western, and part art film. Totally unique and utterly original, it marks the emergence of a major filmmaking voice. About the Gallery · Contact Us · Memberships and Donations · Loans on Campus Program · Newsletter Signup Tuesday to Friday: 11am to 5pm Weekends: noon to 5pm Dalhousie Arts Centre Lower-level
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ARTMS’ QUANTM Irradiation SystemTM to be featured at two international conferences in September ARTMS invited presentations in September Vancouver, September 24, 2018 /BusinessWire/ — ARTMS Products, Inc. announced today that it has been invited to present at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s 2018 Mo-99 Topical Meeting on Tuesday, September 25th and the Third International Symposium on Technetium and other Radiometals in Chemistry and Medicine on Thursday, September 27th. Lead manufacturing engineer, Mr. Joel Kumlin, will present at the 2018 Mo-99 Topical Meeting in Knoxville, TN, during Session 7, Production Projects and Technologies II, at 13:00EDT on September 25th. Mr. Kumlin will be discussing progress on implementation of the ARTMS QUANTM Irradiation SystemTM for producing technetium-99m. The QISTM combines local production control and a cost-effective, easy-to-use solid target system for the production of Tc-99m on most cyclotron systems. ARTMS recently announced that the QISTM received CE mark approval and has been installed in a number of countries throughout the world. ARTMS also announced that Dr. Paul Schaffer, CTO, has been invited to present at the Third International Symposium on Technetium and other Radiometals in Chemistry and Medicine in Bressanone, Italy during Scientific Session C at 15:35CEST on September 27th. Dr. Schaffer will be discussing advances in QISTM for producing high-value radioisotopes, such as Tc-99m, Ga-68, Zr-89 and Cu-64. About 2018 Mo-99 Topical Meeting The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) NNSA manages the 2018 Mo-99 Topical Meeting, taking place in Knoxville, Tennessee from September 23-26, 2018. The meeting allows policy and technical experts to present progress on the production of Mo-99 (Tc-99m) without the use of HEU in support of non-proliferation objectives and global supply reliability. About TERACHEM 2018 The Third International Symposium on Technetium and other Radiometals in Chemistry and Medicine (TERACHEM) will feature invited lectures and presentations on the development of medically relevant radiometals and their application in chemistry, radiopharmacy and nuclear medicine. About ARTMS Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, ARTMS is a leader in the commercialization of novel technologies and products which enable the production of the world’s most-used diagnostic imaging isotope, technetium‐99m (Tc‐99m), using medical cyclotrons. ARTMS holds the exclusive global commercialization rights to this award-winning and proprietary Canadian invention which addresses these challenges and offers the prospect of revolutionizing the nuclear medicine industry. For more information on ARTMS and the QUANTM Irradiation System™, please follow us on Twitter @Quantm99, LinkedIn or http://artms.ca/ Contact: Dr. Michael Cross – cross@artms.ca PrevPreviousQUANTM Irradiation System™ Earns CE Mark Approval NextARTMS/Odense University Hospital to Present Solid Target Gallium-68 Production Record at European Association of Nuclear MedicineNext
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Home > People > Armed Forces Veterans > Roll of Honour -WW1 > Frederick Clements > Frederick Clements WWI Roll of Honour By Lynette Wray Military History: Regiment: Royal West Sussex Regiment (previously RWS Home Counties Division) 202006, (previously T/4144) Date of Enlisting: Cemetery/ Memorial: UK Cemetery/Memorial: St Mary’s Church Ashwell Roll of Honour Frederick enlisted on 8th September 1914 with the (Queen’s) Royal West Surrey, 2/4th Territorial Force, Regimental Number T/4144, which became part of the Home Counties Division. When Frederick were mobilised for war he was transferred to the 160th Brigade of the 53rd Division, Regimental Number 202006, and landed at Gallipoli on 9th August 1915. Due to extremely heavy casualties from combat, disease and harsh weather the Division was evacuated. They then went on to fight in the Palestine Campaign during 1916 and 1917. In June of 1918 they were deployed to the Western Front, France and Belgium and ended the war there near Courtrai in Belgium. Frederick was awarded the British War Medal, the Victory Medal and the Silver War Badge. Frederick survived the war and died on 12th October 1948. He is commemorated on the St Mary’s Church Ashwell Roll of Honour. Date of Birth: c1887 Birth Place: Ashwell, Hertfordshire Residence: Ashwell, Hertfordshire Marriage: (1) 18.8.1928, (2) 2nd quarter 1942 Frederick was born in Ashwell, Hertfordshire c1887 the only son of Mark and Maryann (nee Oyston) Clements. He was a pupil at the Merchant Taylors School in Ashwell. The 1911 census shows him as a farm labourer. Frederick married Mary Sears (nee Goss) on 18th August 1928. It is not known if they had children. Mary died in December 1938. Frederick then married Joan Constance Doreen Skirman in the 2nd quarter of 1942. They had three children, Frederick John, Colin Mark and Eileen Joan. Frederick died on the 12th October 1948 at Flint Cottages, Ashwell, Hertfordshire. Ashwell, Hertfordshire Enlistment Place: Royal West Sussex Battalion: 160th Brigade 53rd Division (2/4th Territorial Force) Regimental Number: (T/4144) Type of Casualty: Theatre of War: Balkans: Gallipoli, Palestine, Western Front: France and Belguim Roll of Honour -WW1 Reginald George Clark Walter Henry Clark Charles William Clements Harold Christopher Clements Herbert George Clements Cyril (Sonny) Markham John Collins
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Tanzania Missions February 2008 Category: Tanzania Missions Our trip to Tanzania was long overdue. Allen Wells and I had looked forward to this for months and it was with great anticipation that we boarded the plane to Dar Re Salaam and then onto Kilimanjaro. I had first met Ps Norbert two years earlier while on Mission in Kenya and he had willingly agreed to take on the role as our mission"s representative in this vibrant yet poor country. I went there to see the progress of Moriel Missions Tanzania, now an official government Non Profit organization, and I was really impressed with the progress under Norbert"s leadership. Our first day was a trip to the Moriel HQ. 20 acres of land given freely by the Tanzania government is being developed into a mission station that now has a school for vocational and biblical training. The journey there was not easy and everyone winced as the underside of the vehicle was scraped by the terrain and the exhaust almost ripped off. The 30 kms took nearly two hours to travel in the blistering heat with seemingly no air. One of my duties was to give certificates to the hard working students most of who are orphans. Here they learn agriculture, computer skills, tailoring, English studies and biblical studies. The presentation of the certificates was made at the church run by Ps Nelson, a lovely man of God. Not only is the land being developed for growing but a mill has been purchased that strips the maize kernel from the husk and then over to the milling machine for flour production. The Moriel land is next door to a village and the ladies have formed a cooperation that helps one another with the milling as well as funding a mini credit union for the poorest amongst them. As well as crops, it is hoped that they can raise cattle, goats and chickens to feed the growing number of orphans and widows. A cattle shed has already been erected and we hope to be able to encourage donations of animals for the upkeep of this needy community. ‚ One of the nicer duties was to pray for the local pastors and leaders so that they could be set aside as ministers of the gospel with Moriel. Although we are not a credential giving mission (most of us are wit CMFI) it was with a sense of occasion that we were able to set these men aside. The final act of our time on site was to meet with the government and villagers who expressed their support for our work. The next visit of the day was to a village down the road where Moriel supports a substantial orphans and widows project. The local community has given us 2 acres of land to develop and although we could not get to see the land due to the rains and road conditions, Norbert’s vision for the place is truly wonderful. Most of the people here were Masai and it was heartwarming to be received with song by both widows and children. The next day we were to set off to Tabora were Moriel has churches plus a radio program that reaches over 2 million people on Radio Tabora. The ministry here is struggling to pay the $160 per month it takes to host the show and it is our hope that a sponsor may be found very soon so we can preach the gospel and broadcast some good bible teachings from the likes of Jacob. Unfortunately we could not arrange transport to this area (about 10 hours by car) So the next day we were taken to another remote region to visit a Masai village. Our purpose was to undertake house to house evangelism and to set aside the villages Pastor of our Moriel church. The road to the village was even worse. At one time we had to get out and push the vehicle that had got stuck in mud. The local farmer was not happy as we had to push onto his land and his Panga looked very menacing. Most of us got covered in mud but eventually we were free to go on with our journey. The village was made up of simple mud and straw huts. This village had no power, no running water. The people collected orange rainwater that had collected in wheel ruts on the dirt road. They used this water for washing, cooking and drinking. Theirs is a desperate situation. Infant mortality is high, HIV infection growing and the children looked to be malnourished and sickly with opportunistic diseases evident. But despite the lack of water and desperation we were welcomed from house to house to share the gospel and not only was there a lot of interest among the majority of pagans but we had the honor of leading one Masai lady to Christ. The afternoon ended with a meeting at the church tent. The pastor has built a wonderful construction paid with donations of wood and material from Moriel. The praise and worship was awesome and it was great to lay hands on the new pastor. The ladies of the church came and gave us food at the end of rice and beef. However, even though it tasted great we couldn’t bear to eat it with so many hungry children looking on and so we asked could the food be taken and shared amongst the children. Our next trip was to the church of Ps George. Ps George, his wife and 5 children were in a desperate situation. There small congregation are so poor they cannot support even the building. Ps Georges house costs $20pm and the Church also $20pm. In fact they were on the verge of being kicked out penniless onto the streets. At this church we preached the gospel and also were introduced to government leaders. Ps George and his family are good people. We enjoyed their fellowship and hospitality and despite the desperation, they never complained once but were in fact so passionate about the Lord that you sensed they would have it no other way. So what did we learn and what are our recommendations for your prayer? We are amazed at what has been done in such a short time by Norbert and his team. They are to be commended for their vision and energy While at the Moriel HQ we met a retired nurse whose vision it is to set up a mobile medical clinic. This is desperately needed and could save the lives of many children. The following link is to a USA company that could supply the ideal vehicle ‚ for the kind of terrain at a cost estimated at $7000 with transport to Kenya and fitting of back box Clean water is an issue. The people are desperate. Energy is an issue. We could easily set up a solar station that could serve the village. Pastors if they are to travel and preach the gospel and look after their families need some source of income. Even if it’s only a monthly gift to pay the house and church rent. This could be done by creating a ministers account administered by the Moriel Tanzanian board to help out when needed. Equipment such as sewing machines, electrical generators and of course animals are needed. All this takes money and of course the expertise to implement these things. But I am sure that this is doable and that through these measures we could see the sustainable growth of this ministry that blessed our hearts during this brief visit. I will be going with Jacob in June and I pray that in the meantime the Lord will burden hearts to enable us to help Moriel Tanzania to reach the Pagan people of the Masai with the gospel of Jesus Christ and to save the lives of countless children. "We also had the privelidge to meet our Kenya administrator PS Moses who came with John his board member and also our new admin for Rwanda, Burundi and DRC Ps Deo. PS Moses relayed the aweful events in Kenya and how Moriel is helping feed and meet the needs of some of the 600,000 people displaced through ethnic violence. Please pray for the brethren there who are being stretched to the limit. PS Deo comes from a country that after the aweful ethnic cleansing is having a new start. He related how the Lord is working and the planting ofr churches is going ahead. We hope to visit Rwanda in the future". In Jesus Director Moriel Missions
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Autumn in Bangkok II Following Autumn in Bangkok I Monday, September 8, 2003 [NB] NEWNES: 1157: Richard Coeur de Lion born. 1760: Montreal capitulated to the British. 1909: Colonel Cody, aviator, remained in the air for the British record time of one hour. 1933: King Faisal of Iraq died. (*) Wescott: SERAPHINA SFORZA The Count of Urbino's daughter, married to Alexander, Lord of Pistoia. It was a happy marriage for a year or two; but Alexander fell in love with a lady most unsuitably named Pacifica, and put his wife out of the house. She took refuge in a convent of the Poor Clares. When the passion for Pacifica had worn itself out and Alexander wanted her back, it was too late: she had become an abbess and taken irrevocable vows. MAO: "All reactionaries are paper tigers. In appearance, the reactionaries are terrifying, but in reality they are not so powerful. From a long-term point of view, it is not the reactionaries but the people who are really powerful." - "Talk With the American Correspondent, Anna Louise Strong" (August 1946), Selected Works, Vol. IV, p.100. Yesterday afternoon Watcharee, Golf, Pom and I took the Sky Train over to the MBK Mall (near the Siam Center). We had an appointment to meet P'Kig's younger sister, Sa, and one of her other sisters. Sa wanted us to bring a large Buddha back to Florida to give to P'Kig (**). As you can see from the photo, this particular Buddha is a pretty meaty piece of metal. And, since Thai law prohibits the unofficial export of images of Buddah, Sa was reluctantly forced to take it back on the bus or find another home for it. Anyway, Sa is a pretty cool girl: she has a diamond set into her upper left canine tooth. You can catch a flash of it in the picture ... but you have to look closely to see it (***). Later we stopped at Starbucks to buy Annie a BANGKOK Starbucks 20oz coffee mug. "Alf, doesn't Bangkok have anything more cultural than a Starbucks ... or has your family affiliation blinded you?" Much later in the evening Army, Tick-Tock (sp.) and Beige came over to River Garden to try on their new Screwless Tusker lounging garb. Though I don't want to swamp you with pictures on this already heavy Kodak day, here are two that presage what's to come. [NB] Readers in places just to the east of the International Date Line can easily be confused about today's date. Since our house journal usually 'goes to bed' sometime before 11:00am Bangkok time, readers just a few time zones to the east of THOCBDC many times find their editions on their desks while it is still early in the 'day-before'. As I write this it is dinner time in Montreal, Boston and Lima, Peru; in Bremerton, WA, Tuktoyaktuk (between Mackenzie Bay and Cape Bathurst) and in the Galapagos it's approaching cocktail hour ... going further west you find people who are still lingering over lunch. And all of this is going on the day BEFORE my today. * He tipped over into his dish of Oysters Rockefeller after suffering a major heart attack at his favorite Monte Carlo restaurant. Or, maybe that was King Farouk of Egypt who did that. ** P'Kig is the Thai girl who Watcharee met in Florida ... remember? Sure you do ... we took her out to dinner: up to Max's Place on the beach. Anyway, Sa and her other sister live in Bangkok though, originally, they hail from 'up-country'. *** My camera did not capture her tattoo. On reflection, maybe the tooth with the diamond is the one that bites next-door to the canine. 1513: The Battle of Flodden Field. (*) 1513: James IV, King of Scotland, killed in battle. (*) GORGONIUS AND DOROTHUS Died 303 The first of these Christian officials of Diocletian's court in Nicomedia, seeing the second tortured, challenged him and the torturers to a trial of endurance. Flesh was whipped off the rival's bones; salt and vinegar were sprinkled in their wounds; they were grilled over a slow fire: nothing much was left of them, but their obstinacy lasted. The torturers finally gave up hope of the Christians' changing their almost maddening minds, and hanged them. (**) Yesterday Watcharee, Golf and I went to Si Quey's Place (AKA The Bangkok Museum of Forensic Science). Though Watcharee and I had been there twice before (once on our very first 'date'), this was Golf's first visit; she was visibly shaken by the experience of being so close to Si Quey. THOCBDC grudgingly admits that a lot of its log-mileage comes from visitors to its ... ah ... 'historical' pages. While upper management would like to think that the majority of the computers that have corkscrew-balloon.com in their 'favorites' list prefer to wander around our offerings of articles and photographs about corkscrews, hot air balloons and elephant polo ... well, the raw numbers scream otherwise. Frankly, the biggest chunk of our clients go directly to the spilled blood pages. (***) Buy Ritter stock? Yesterday's Bangkok Post reported that the Thai government will offer lethal injection as a 'parting-option' for criminals on death row. The accompanying photograph showed what appears to be Ritter's Model 111 dispatch table (****). Readers are asked to compare this picture with the ones THOCBDC published back when Tim McVeigh was launched into his own three-stage orbit. (*****) Reader M.A. from Yemen asks if we have any more pictures of the Screwless Tusker team. In particular, he seeks a tighter shot of the team shirts and "something with a little more action". Can do! * In prior years when THOCBDC pointed out this 'coincidence' nary a reader volunteered any help: did James die on Flodden Field? UK reader A. Page should know the answer to this one. ** In one of the 'Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbooks' ("TRAVEL", I think) ... or, maybe it was in one of those niche-market foreign phrase books ... I can't remember which (hey, THOCBDC has a lot of stuff on its bookshelves) ... Anyway, the authors of the book usefully provided its readers, should they be kidnapped, with six ways (six Romance languages) to say to their captors "No matter how much you torture me I will not tell you what you want to know." *** Over the next few days 'fresh' meat will be added to our existing Si Quey site. Little of it is really new; most will be just 'better' shots of the existing works. But, don't go there right now ... give us some time [as if there is even a correlation between footnote readers and Si Quey fans]. Oh, OK, here's one that hasn't been seen before ... but no more until Paul has finished his dinner. **** Just because it says "Ritter" on the label does not mean that it necessarily came from a Ritter factory. Puntip Plaza and Patpong Night Market shoppers know full well that 2,000 baht Rolexes were not made in Switzerland; is this Ritter but another Bangkok Rolex? ***** According to The Bangkok Post the first injection produces unconsciousness; the second causes muscle paralysis; the third brings the heart to a stop. From the first 'prick' until the last beat only five minutes are expected to lapse. Apparently the same mix of cocktails that was used in the USA will be used here in Thailand. Though bullets may remain as an option. PS: Though this man is not from the Si Quey collection, he might as well be part of it ... provided the Museum of Forensic Science had some photojournalists on its staff. This fellow was caught dragging around a bag of people bones ... with what appears to be some attached 'jerky'. 1547: The Battle of Pinkie. 1771: Mungo Park, explorer, born. (*) NICHOLAS OF TOLENTINO This Augustinian monk was a vegetarian. During an illness which resulted from fasting to excess, a stew of pigeons was set before him, by order of his superior. The very sight of it disgusted him, and a miracle immediately took place: the skewers broke, the gravy sucked up into the cooked veins, feathers grew, and the birds flew out the window. Years after his death, when parts of blessed bodies were at a premium, a German friar cut off Nicholas' arms for his own monastery, and tried to escape with them. It was not possible; though he walked fast all night, he was still in sight of the monastery at daybreak; and the old arms were bleeding, though they had been buried so long. Upon occasion, one is told, they still do. Of all the objects in Bangkok's Museum of Forensic Science none ... save for Si Quey himself ... attracts more young viewers (mostly males, naturally) than that of the anonymous 'head-shot'. Not a full head, mind you; only half a head. But viewers are not shortchanged, for Mr. Dead 'n Plastic has been band-saw-sliced ever so smartly (jaw to crown) ... which, of course, gives the curious an easy-trace of the bullet that so pauselessly 'rifled' from the man's forehead to the rear exit. In just three days we shall roll into Hua Hin. Surely from then on the Screwless Tuskers will be surrounded by the world's flash bulbs, scores of local 'wannabes' and hundreds of autograph hounds. Understandably, any opportunity for quiet and reflective pictures of these shy lassies will be lost once these professionals start their avaricious work. So, before the terribly intoxicating spotlight of .... "That's a bit much, Alf ... even for you." I was just trying to ease into some mug shots. * A Scot who explored Niger in 1796. Though worthy in retrospect, his quest did not generate much interest at the time; his death never made the broadsheet obituaries and it's only a guess as to when he died. Newnes's compiler, Collison, can only come up with " ...about 1805." 1618: Thomas Ross, libeller (*), beheaded. 1909: Halley's Comet first observed at Heidelberg. 1922: The British mandate proclaimed in Palestine. (**) 1950: Field-Marshal Smuts, statesman, died. ELIAS SPELIOTES Ninth Century A lucky Calabrian monk, said never to have known 'bodily disease or mental perturbation.' He was one of those who worked on the manuscript copy of the Gospels known as Codex 13. SPERANDIA A woman who learned in a vision what to wear: a pigskin with the bristles inside and an iron chain as a belt. Yesterday the Screwless Tuskers received, via Express Mail, their VIP passes. Along with the seven picture-passes for the players and their owners the box contained 50 complimentary VIP passes. If any readers plan to be in Hua Hin anytime between September 13 and the 21st these passes are in 'awaits' just for you. (***) In intensely private correspondence among and between the participants and the organizers of the King's Cup Elephant Polo Tournament much has been said about handicapping: the added weight that a strong team should shoulder before taking a victory lap. For example, the all-powerful Chivas Regal team must score 3 additional goals before it is at 'scratch' with a totally unburdened field rival. And Mercedes Benz Germany (****) needs 2 before it can move into plus territory. The Screwless Tuskers (seeded 12th out of 12) has a zero handicap. Sadly, the employment of negative handicaps (successfully pioneered at WEPA) was not something that TEPA wanted to bite at. However, the Screwless Tuskers are very pleased that its players will fall on the comfortable side of the 'two hand rule'. (*****) Readers from all over continue to demand more photographs of the Screwless Tuskers. T. Parsons from Beloit, Wisconsin wants "... a full frontal shot." But, half way around the globe, Anna V., from Petropavlovski-Kamchatski on the Kamchatka peninsula writes "... how long is their hair, in the back?" In a strangely 'edited' photograph The Bangkok Daily News carried this above-the-fold beach scene without comment. Below the fold Morton's traditional darkroom techniques hide the bloody bits. * Yes, NEWNES uses two Ls in his spelling of libeller. ** Reader H.R.P. of Tooting-Beckwith noted (in unpublished correspondence from last year): "Is it just a mathematical fluke that the WTC disaster took place exactly 79 years later? That the number 79, when reduced by the number of virgins to be awarded martyrs upon their arrival in heaven, is 7? Seven being the Arabic number for the number of days in the week?" *** Fashionably decorated with the Screwless Tuskers logo ... well, it won't be long before some of them find their way onto e-Bay. **** That name alone should give it a handicap of at least 6. ***** The 'two-hand rule' allows ladies to grip their sticks with both hands; gentleman can only use one. PS ... or, maybe a footnote to a footnote: A. Page of the UK expectedly replied to THOCBDC's cry for help in re the possible connection between James' death on 9 September 1513 and the mess at Flodden Field on the same day. [Whether any quotation marks are needed ... and if so, how many degrees 'removed' they should be (if any) ... was left in limbo.] Subj: Flodden field 9th September 1513! Date: 9/10/2003 7:44:44 AM SE Asia Standard Time From: Axpage@aol.com To: Alf@corkscrew-balloon.com Alf as requested! As the sun set on Flodden field, James went down fighting, killing five men with his pike before it shattered in his hands. He then drew his sword and slew five more before he was finally hacked to death. When his body was found in the aftermath, it was found to have been pierced by at least five blows from bills and one arrow. In death James was joined by 10,000 of his fellow countrymen including a large proportion of the Scottish nobility (Two Bishops, Nine Earls, and Fourteen Lords of Parliament.). The English lost somewhere between One and Four thousand men. The one modern day legacy of the battle is that most haunting and evocative pipe lament "flowers of the field" which whenever I hear it moves me to tears for not only does it lament those cut down at Flodden but particularly in the last century at such places as Ypres, The Somme, Cambrai, Paschendale where Europe rushed to war through the compacts of alliances and the dictates of friends. As Shokolov pens in his masterpiece, Silent flows the Don, "sagt Die mir Die blumen Sind?" Bye 4 now PPS: And this from reader J.B. at netnet.net: In a message dated 9/10/2003 11:18:28 PM SE Asia Standard Time, jfbxxxxx@netnet.net writes: A bit of searching reveals that James IV did indeed die in the Battle of Flodden Field. You may want to read more, here: http://www.royal-stuarts.org/flodden.htm ..... and, on a more recent note we have the mysterious Mungo Park. Turns out he had quite a scuffle with the local zombies during his trek. More information on Mungo Park versus the zombies can be found here: http://www.fvza.org/mungo, though I tend to wonder at this as source material, it does make for small amusement. As ever, 1213: The Battle of Muret (decisive in the Toulouse crusade). 1852: The Earl of Oxford and Asquith, statesman, born. 1874: Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot, historian and statesman, died. 1943: Mussolini rescued from prison by the Germans. 1948: The Korean People's Republic (North Korea) proclaimed. GUY THE POOR Eleventh Century Guy or Guido's poverty-stricken parents were content to be miserable and to fear God. He himself, if at an early age he had not found employment in the church, certainly would have endeavoured to get on in the world; it is not certain if he would have succeeded. The spirit of gain was apparent, and bad luck constant, throughout his blessed career. In order to make money for charity he entered into a partnership with a merchant in Brussels; and set sail for England with a boat-load of cheap goods; he was promptly shipwrecked. In later life, he persuaded a company of pious Belgians to take him as their guide to the Holy Land: they all caught some disease and died; and it took him seven years to get back. According to one of my bathroom magazines the newest move in digital cameras is toward giving the photographer greater optical zooming power. This once was the case ... and then it seemed to fall out of favor for a few years ... and now it is apparently again back in vogue. What I mean is this: about five years ago I bought a Sony Mavica that was fitted with a 14 power optical zoom (but, no 2nd stage digital zoom); it also used a floppy disk for storage...then, for a few years all the Japanese builders worried more about 'pocketability' and the number of pixels on a picture, so my next camera (a tiny Canon) had only a 3 power optical zoom but miles and miles of Compactflash Card warehouse space ... now my newest Nikon 5700 has an 8 power optical lens along with a 4 power digital enhancement plus a one gigabyte Flash Card. "So?" This morning I 'tested' my old Sony against my newer Nikon. For starters, the Sony's floppy disk filled up after only 11 pictures (taken at maximum resolution); but the Nikon's tiny Compact Flash card said it still had more than 4,500 empty places, even with three days of shooting under its belt. Take a look. "Boring! Anything new from Si Quey ... or your team?" PPS: Great Leaders think alike: ... from The Bangkok Post, four days ago: D-day for stray dogs as Apec summit looms City hall will today start clearing the inner city of stray dogs in preparation for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit next month. The measure targets stray dogs in Phra Nakhon, Pomprap Satruphai and Samphanthawong where up to 2,000 dogs are believed to wander. Apec delegates are expected to visit tourist attractions and other spots in the area. Kosin Theswong, the Phra Nakhon district chief, said searches for stray dogs would begin today in his district, where there were a total of about 900 strays. Watcharee again made a visit to the little shop on one of the soys near our apartment....you know, the one that shelters some creations of a local Thai corkscrew artist. Yes, it's the same place where she found those pieces for me. Anyway, here is a larger sampling of his work: 1759: The Marquis de Montclaim mortally wounded (died 14th). 1943: General Chiang Kai-shek elected President of the Chinese Republic. CRESCENTIUS Fourth Century A boy martyr whose valuable body was presented to the town of Siena by Pope Stephen IX. Last night Pom and Golf and Watcharee started to pack for the trip to Hua Hin. Actually, we are also packing for London (*), New York (*), Florida and Virginia (**) as Watcharee and I are leaving Thailand the day after elephant polo finishes. The girls are ready to go: "See y'all in Hua Hin." * We are going to see some 'plays' while in London and New York. The last time we were in London (other than for a change-of-planes) we saw one of the last performances of "Cats". This time we'll also go for the 'musical' route ... maybe "Chicago" and "Mama Mia". Both are playing in London AND in NYC. Does anyone out there have any suggestions? But, nothing heavy with language. ** Don Bull is hosting the 2004 ICCA ... in Virginia. Sometime, either during that meeting or immediately after it, the PCC will have its own AGM. In order to make up a quorum, Gift, Ohmy and Amma have agreed to temporarily give up their Bangkok night jobs at Kings. As the ICCA host hotel is fully booked, the three cofounders of the PCC will pass their down time in a camper in the hotel parking lot. "On the Road" Photo Album: Van ride to Hua Hin - Checking in at Anantara Resort PS: We have the same suite as we've had for the last two years. Next: Hua Hin Elephant Polo Search WWW Search corkscrew-balloon.com comments@corkscrew-balloon.com
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CROSSING DARTMOOR Performances & bookings The composer The librettist The supporters On the value of performing your own work by Caitlin, 25 September 2015 It’s been a rather manic few weeks here for Crossing Dartmoor as we hurtled towards the third performance of the piece in London – this time for Bastard Assignments: Fresh & Clean in the Thames Tunnel Shaft in Rotherhithe on Thursday 17 September. With no piano in the venue and Simon unavailable to sing, I created a new arrangement for mezzo-soprano and guitar for this performance, yielding to suggestions that I should have a go at singing it myself, and working with guitarist Ashley Blasse. I also developed a new ‘path’ through the material to cater for a shorter timeslot and an audience who I knew would be open to the more unusual elements of the work. This was a great chance to test out the flexibility of the piece, and I ended up setting aside three of the existing four sung pieces (two songs and the text score ‘Windsong’ which uses a folksong) and focusing instead on the text scores and audiovisual media. This Rotherhithe performance has really cemented the place of the new content I created for the theatrical production in the work. Both the video elements and the text score ‘Drawing Out’ (amplified drawing of a Dartmoor scene via contact mic) worked extremely well, with the latter in particular receiving a very enthusiastic response this time round. For this performance, I allotted it a longer duration, we were able to pump more volume thanks to Ashley’s provision of a larger amp than we’d had before, and I gave it a more prominent position in the path – first up, combined with both a video and a field recording. I think all of these worked in its favour and allowed it to shine. Performing the piece myself has been a very valuable exercise too. While I’m no rival for Simon in the singing stakes, doing it myself made concrete some things that as a composer I could only imagine. Those long gaps in the vocal part are a bit abstract until you find yourself on stage with nothing to do in them, and I felt a strong need to find something that would make me feel relevant in these gaps. To do this, and to smooth transitions between pieces, I found myself drawing on some of the elements Omar developed for the theatrical production. Watching the videos and messing about with maps – but the theatrical approach also leaked into how I considered the relationship between videos, field recordings and live performance. My original concept had been that the videos and field recordings would be presented as performed pieces within the work – no overlap, they would appear in sequence in much the same way as if an oboist had stepped forward to play a solo in the middle of the performance. I may still try this out, but for this show I wanted to experiment a little with layering up sounds and playing around with how that layering affected the perception of duration. I started to look for points where crossfading between videos and fading field recordings in or out would make some sort of dramatic sense, even though I wasn’t thinking of this as a staged production at all. Of course, the sacrifice for performer-side knowledge like this is the eternal problem of the performing composer: you lose the experience of being an audience member, which provides a different type of information. But I’m glad I did it because the experience has provided yet more useful information for the development of the piece, and particularly for staging the piece, even in a formal recital context. © 2021 Caitlin Rowley
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Jump to Content » Jump to Side-Bar » Jump to Navigation » Jump to Far-Bar » Jump to Footer » Cryptomundo for Bigfoot, Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents and More Cryptomundian WVBotanist Offers Insight: Retired US Forest Service Ranger Claims Sasquatch is Real! Posted by: Craig Woolheater on August 24th, 2011 Cryptomundian WVBotanist offers this insight regarding the Cryptomundo post: Retired US Forest Service Ranger Claims Sasquatch is Real! Forest service employees are not extraordinary in terms of honesty, knowledge, or scientific ability. They are often, however, exposed to information that the Department of Interior would rather keep as secret. For example, Indian burial mounds in various National Parks. They are there, but are not officially recognized because of the political and ownership issues that would arise. I have seen that first-hand, a number of times. And, like the spotted owl example given above, the DOI is very much involved in suppression of information regarding some species’ presence and distribution. One solid example I witnessed firsthand involved the Florida Panther. USFWS and the State of Florida have drafted and followed a plan, according to Endangered Species Act requirements, that basically outlines the range of the Florida Panther as extending only as far north as Lee County. No major Federal actions north of this location are reviewed with regard to the potential to impact or result in a ‘take’ of the Florida Panther. Why? Until recently, land development and mid-range luxury housing and ranchettes, planned communities, and similar drove the entire economy of Florida in that area. If you have wetland (Section 404 CWA) impacts, you have a Federal action requiring a USFWS review under the Endangered Species Act. And nearly every land development and road project in Florida has wetland impacts and Section 404 permits. None mention panthers, unless they are in Lee County or south. Follow so far? Now, see how many state and federal biologists will readily tell you that the Florida panther lives and breeds well north of Lee County. Do a FOIA to Sarasota County Natural Resources regarding panther tracks, trail camera photos, and, in particular, the excellent biologist who brought this to the Feds and the State. What happened? They all sat on it, with the exception of a few stories in the local paper designed to a) cheer for the land management program and b) explain that it was a cryptorchid pet or hybrid and not a REAL panther in the photo. Why? Here are a few names: Palmer. Patton. Bush. Thaxton. String those players together, from bottom to top, and you have a pretty clear story of how and why DOI controls information. Having established that, consider that despite what you hear about the Forest Service, Park Service, USFWS, USACE, and a number of other agencies charged with implementing and enforcing various conservation and biodiversity legislation, usually it is only the entry-level and field staff that even begin to understand the challenges and the science involved. Above that, most are playing politics, and above that, the appointed Administrators are mostly only carrying out a scripted agenda to placate lobbyists or follow the new President’s short-term needs. In short, actual conservation science or even simple cataloging of biodiversity almost NEVER happens. Most of today’s science and EIS data come from university grad students on bean and rice stipends OR excellent USGS Biological Survey documents from DECADES ago. OK, that was almost a rant. But from someone who has been through those ranks, seen it firsthand, still loves science and biology, and actively works as a consultant – I routinely ‘re-discover’ organisms and EPA often responds ‘that can’t be, there are no records of that for the past xyz years’ and promptly overrule my findings unless vouchered (I do plants, but rarely voucher animals). Organismal biology and identification (taxonomy) is a dying science in this molecular era. Few know how to do it, and fewer still can get paid to do it, as scientists should. And when they do, the environmental policy wonks (yes you can get a degree in that) hide what they are not prepared to deal with. It is that simple. Small conspiracies, sometimes, but mostly incompetence. No idea what to make of the interview, it seems believable enough, but I can’t get more than that from it. ~ WVBotanist About Craig Woolheater Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005. I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films: OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou. Email • Facebook • Twitter • Pinterest • Instagram • This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 24th, 2011 at 8:00 am and is filed under Bigfoot, Bigfoot Report, Conspiracies, Cryptomundo Exclusive, Cryptozoologists, Cryptozoology, Evidence, Eyewitness Accounts, Sasquatch, Skeptical Discussions. You can follow responses via our RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is not allowed. Delicious Digg Fark Google Instapaper LinkedIn MySpace Newsvine Pocket Readability Reddit StumbleUpon Tumblr Yahoo! Momo Is Here! New Book Coming Soon... Momo! Wild Thing: Virginia Wade The Devil's Creek So, Why Do People Believe In Bigfoot Anyway? 12 Responses to “Cryptomundian WVBotanist Offers Insight: Retired US Forest Service Ranger Claims Sasquatch is Real!” DWA responds: August 24th, 2011 at 10:10 am Well, with regard to the real-world examples he cites, hiding the existence of something that would, if acknowledged, endanger timber sales, second-home developments and mining claims and Wal-Marts nationwide might be a thing certain bureaucrats might want to – even be paid to – do. I for one would not be surprised at all if a number of “shoot, shovel and shut up” sasquatch stories eventually came to light. Absent that, though, I’d rather not focus on this aspect of the sasquatch issue. Sasquatch Up Close responds: August 24th, 2011 at 2:06 pm I think you should embed the video of part two, not part one. midwest mimi responds: August 24th, 2011 at 2:41 pm With all due respect (my husband is from WV), I understand the economic realities of acknowleging the existence of species which might undermine housing developments, mining etc. That said, many Bigfoot sightings are in remote areas which have no foreseeable economic, etc. value. Quite simply, I find it hard to believe that DOI or any other federal agency which lives and dies by its federal budget and is starving for publicity would bury (literally) what is arguably the biggest new species discovery in the past century. Doesn’t make sense. I’m no Pollyanna when it comes to believing the feds keep secrets (I still thing there’s an alien body or two in a storage closet at Wright Pat), but this gentleman’s claims are just too conspiratorial for my taste. PhotoExpert responds: August 24th, 2011 at 4:47 pm DWA–I could not agree with you more. I have nothing to add because you said exactly what I am thinking! Surveyor responds: August 24th, 2011 at 8:48 pm This is a 2 sided coin. There are big $ in conservation banking, which was created by the USFWS as a for profit incentive to preserve endangered species & habitats. In conservation banking, a large area of private land is set aside and restored to pristine condition (wetland,etc., but usually several different ecosystems). Then credits for the new “bank” are determined by the USFWS for each ecosystem or species. The credits are then sold at a high price to developers or others who wish to impact land of that particular ecosystem within that bank’s service area. As far as endangered animal species goes, the USFWS determines in advance how many of each species the bank can support, & impacted species are relocated there for a fee. When all of the credits are sold & species slots are full, the bank is given over to public or non profit trust forever. Craig Woolheater responds: August 24th, 2011 at 10:00 pm Thanks Sasquatch Up Close! I corrected the video embed. jimlyding responds: August 26th, 2011 at 12:34 am What about the Department of Agriculture which the National Forest Service is actually part of rather than the Department of Interior? WVBotanist responds: August 27th, 2011 at 2:01 am All, I had originally submitted this as a comment on the “Retired US Forest Service…” article. And I have to agree with jimlyding about the replacement of “DOI” with the appropriate Ag Department, when referring to the Forest Service. I worked closely with Forest Service Rangers AND DOI National Parks Rangers when I was a DOI scientist… And that make my example a bit less relevant that intended, but still relevant, simply as an example. Supression of species distribution happens often in the case of Federal actions or Federal agency review of proposed actions, under the National Environmental Policy Act. It dont mean to imply that it happens as large conspiracies, to conceal information regarding presence/absence, so much as it happens through a series of accidents, acts of incompetence, small conspiracies, careful presentation of data to avoid regulatory triggers in the NEPA process, and, of course, real, individual conspiracies to suppress data regarding presence of know species via stamping it ‘unauthenticated’ simply because they agencies are not prepared to deal with the political repercussions. Im not suggesting that this is exactly what happened in the case mentioned by the retired Forest Service Ranger. In many ways, his story sounds much more intriguing. I simply meant to point out that you can’t rely on any Federal agencies to have accurate information regarding species distribution, for a number of reasons, and sometimes that is intentional on the part of the agency. As far as funding for the agencies goes, and the tie-in with conservation banking, I have a lot of opinions on that based on continuing experience, but I’m not sure that would fit into this forum. Just consider that in order for USFWS to take jurisdiction AND develop, manage, market, and preserve via trust any type of habitat, there is a long series of actions that must happen, starting off with the designation of the species status (literal act of Congress), followed by years of semi-scientific pursuit of species profiling and habitat accounting (identifying the need more clearly) while happening in concert with an existing protection plan or developed in parallel with the protection plan, which has its own bureaucratic timeline. Then you are ready to pursue land acquisition… etc. At best it is a lengthy process which surpasses the short-term goals of most middle-managers and administrators in FWS. At worst, unmanaged information, verified occurrences of protected species outside of anticipated ranges, or worse yet, ‘takings’ in areas where the species was not ‘known’ to exist – then you have grounds for a 3rd party such as Sierra Club, etc to file suit against the Feds. That is what they fear, that is what drives their public and private policies alike, moreso than legislation. Think of legislation as the bones of their mission, and the fear of 3rd party lawsuits and the chance at late-career appointments as the meat and animation, respectively. Yes, I know it is a cynical viewpoint. And not universally applicable. But definitely based in reality. “Just consider that in order for USFWS to take jurisdiction AND develop, manage, market, and preserve via trust any type of habitat, there is a long series of actions that must happen, starting off with the designation of the species status (literal act of Congress), followed by years of semi-scientific pursuit of species profiling and habitat accounting (identifying the need more clearly) while happening in concert with an existing protection plan or developed in parallel with the protection plan, which has its own bureaucratic timeline. Then you are ready to pursue land acquisition… etc. At best it is a lengthy process which surpasses the short-term goals of most middle-managers and administrators in FWS.” The USFWS does not own, take jurisdiction, develop, market, preserve, or acquire any land for the purpose of conservation banking. As I said in my initial comment, it is set up to be a purely private, for-profit endeavor. I mentioned it to counter the arguments about government coverups about hiding the presence of endangered fauna and flora so that land could be developed or used for timber harvesting, oil exploration, etc., by showing that the government has created very profitable alternatives to offset the destruction and impact of these habitats. As I also mentioned in my original comment, each conservation bank can only serve areas impacted within a certain “service area”, which means that there is no risk of, say, spotted owls from Washington being relocated to Florida. Prior to the bank being placed in the public trust or transferred to a non-profit organization (Sierra Club, Nature Conservancy, etc.), after all of the credits have been sold, a portion of the profits must have been placed in an interest-bearing trust account in an amount such that the maintenance for the bank can be carried out perpetually with these funds. Therefore, it is obvious that government funding for the conservation bank will not be an issue. Here is a link to the USFWS page on conservation banking. Here is their official publication on conservation banking in .pdf format. Trust me, this has been a part of my job for quite some time as a private development consultant. There is money to be made if endangered species are on land that may be impacted by development or growth. It makes no sense financially for the government to cover it up, since they wind up with more land in the end and don’t even have to pay for the upkeep and maintenance of it. WVBotanist responds: August 28th, 2011 at 1:56 pm I’m not trying to misrepresent the details of how conservation banks work. I was trying to present a) in original post: an example of supression of existence of species in a particular area. b) in my comment to your comment: as a hypothetical, in the event that a NEW species were encountered, it would take a long time before any money could be made marketing credits. By ‘taking jurisdiction’ I meant of the species itself. In some cases, as you probably know, that does, in fact, extend to land in the form a ‘critical habitat’ designation. But that choice of language is not as important as the point I was making – that a lot of effort and time would be required to go from documented observation through to the possibility of anyone marketing credits. I know USFWS doesn’t in and of itself market the credits or own the land. But the conservation banking process requires USFWS oversight all along, from allowable credits for a given bank, to review of performance criteria for various restoration scenarios (thinking Scrub Jays, Indigo Snakes, and Sand Skinks here, my only 1st hand experience w/ Federal conservation banking for T&Es)… Again, I did’t mean to misrepresent but condensed the detail in order to get to my opinion. Now, more to the details of the panther example: I described one of several well-documented occurrences that fell OUTSIDE of the USFWS Recovery Plan’s description of the Florida Panther’s ‘Approved’ range. I say ‘approved’ because that is the range referred to by the Recovery Plan, but many people are well aware that they actually exist in a much broader range. There is not money to be made in marketing habitat credits outside of that range. Because none will be approved, under the current recovery plan. There is, however, plenty of political reckoning and lawsuits to be avoided by NOT admitting that some of this area is part of the range of the panther. For one thing, the Recovery Plan would have to be revised. For another thing, 3rd party lawsuits, as previously mentioned, would be filed IF there existed public record documentation of the presence of the actual species, and the possibility of a ‘take’. Because any citizen with enough knowledge and willpower could file suit against the USFWS for not complying with the Endangered Species Act. This suit, to-date, could be potentially filed for past actions. Additionally, the process could result in a pause of several years of other, associated federal actions (USACE wetland permitting, EPA/State joint NPDES permitting, etc) for land development (think large, planned communities here) proposals simply because a pending suit and the attendant research required on the part of USFWS, particularly in the context of questioning the existing Recovery Plan, would preclude the issuance of a Biological Opinion, under an ESA Section 7 consultation. (It should be noted, as previously implied in my original posting, USFWS involvement in this geographical area is almost ALWAYS in the form of a Section 7 consultation, in association with other federal actions, namely Section 404 CWA permit issuance.) For this reason, and this reason alone, the documented year-round presence of multiple Florida panthers AND young (implying more than simply ‘panthers moving through’) in an area far north of that prescribed within the USFWS Recovery Plan, was supressed. And that was my whole point. For an unknown species (in a hypothetical scenario, where a large, unknown primate might be walking the the woods of North America), I felt that your optimistic view of conservation banking and money-making by private landowners was stretch. Land owner/developers and their subsidiary tier of LLCs generally don’t take that long term of a view, in my experience. Once design is begun, time is money. I agree that portions of an area being considered for development that may be set aside and place under a banking instrument, whether for wetland credits or habitat for T&Es, can generate additional dollars, but that is secondary to and almost always less than, the possible money to be made by residential or commercial development. DWA responds: August 31st, 2011 at 2:31 pm Then of course, there’s this. While I hold no brief for a Government wide conspiracy of any stripe, I could see local managers for local reasons stemming from local interests and local management “policy” to try to hush funny stuff. (And this report shows how that might not be tenable for very long.) Opalman responds: September 7th, 2011 at 6:55 pm In another thread I give ample examples and reasons why the government would want to keep the subject of sasquatche’s existence within the realm of folklore. Is The Government Hiding Evidence Of Bigfoot? Recently I had a discussion with an individual who hinted at just that. The gentleman was a Ducks Unlimited executive type who has insisted on anonymity. As we know; Ducks Unlimited (DU hereafter), is a very successful, non-profit organization devoted to conservation and especially wetland and migratory route habitat conservation. DU has worked closely with both American and Canadian governments among others for a long time. They are the world’s leading organization of its kind and they have been active since the 1930’s. The crux of our discussion was devoted to duck hunting and the wild outdoors etc, but almost in passing, for some reason; I mentioned that an ongoing area of interest of mine was armchair research and study of the sasquatch phenomena. Turns out he had recently had a similar discussion with one of his co-workers who said she had been privy to a conversation by one of the higher ups regarding how the bigfoot issue would be addressed after the cloak of secrecy was lifted, and what ramifications might lie ahead for DU. The individual; (we’ll call him Fred) indicated that off the record he believed, (he said he; “absolutely believed”) that the existence of sasquatch had already been validated by the U.S. Government, select museum scientists and geneticists, and that plans for announcing that fact were being made but also put off for as long as possible in order to assure the status quo on many fronts and interests remain; thereby minimizing disruption (Federal Parks, lumber industry, Endangered Species Act ramifications etc.) He also mentioned that the creature was being classified as simply a gorilla sub-species. Finally It became obvious to me he was experiencing remorse for talking as much as he did and I changed the subject; much to his approval. I know… this is one of those ‘he said’—‘she said’, ‘I heard’ etc, etc., accounts and usually I keep this kind of story to myself—but I’m thinking that, in light of this thread, some of you might find its recounting interesting. |Top | Content| Cryptomundo Home Join The Search Mystery Pages About Cryptomundo Bio of Craig Woolheater Bio of John Kirk Bio of Loren Coleman Bio of Rick Noll CryptoRama Merchandise |Top | Sidebar| RSS: Comments RSS: Entries Connect with Cryptomundo BCSCC Champ Search Texas Bigfoot Research Center The International Cryptozoology Museum UFOmystic |Top | FarBar| Copyright © 2005-2021, Cryptomundo. All rights reserved. |Top| Cryptomundo is powered by WordPress and has had (Stats Disabled) unique visitors Accessible “Cryptomundo” theme SB v.1.2.c © 2006-2021 by Mike Cherim Attention: This is the end of the usable page! The images below are preloaded standbys only. This is helpful to those with slower Internet connections.
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