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May 6, 2013 Issue
The Gray Goose
H_ello_, boys and girls, this is Burl Ives, and I’ve come to sing some songs for you. Here’s a song about a gray goose, the strangest goose. In 1948, the year Miriam’s father left, she was given an album. Last Sunday mornin’, Lord, Lord, Lord / Oh my daddy went a-huntin’, Lord, Lord, Lord. Miriam was forbidden to operate her parents’ hi-fi, built into a long rosewood cabinet that also included a radio, the most fantastical item of furniture in their lives, purchased on installment at Brown’s Appliance, on Greenpoint Avenue, and a fixture of contention in any number of speeches on the subject of what her father termed, in the grip of one of his baroque and finicky rages, their “slavery to commerce.” And along come the gray goose, Lord, Lord, Lord. Miriam had to request the Burl Ives each time.
Photograph by Weegee / ICP / Getty
The way her mother handled the album reminded Miriam of the Jewish ritual actions Rose despised: the slipping of scrolls from a cabinet, her grandfather’s tender sheathing of the afikomen within its napkin at Passover, really anytime Miriam had ever witnessed a Jew handling papers of importance or turning the pages of a book as if unworthy, grateful, ennobled, discreetly defiant, all at once. Rose opened her political books in this way—her Engels and Lenin and Earl Browder, her volumes of Carl Sandburg’s life of Abraham Lincoln. And she tutored Miriam in the action of handling an LP: middle fingers paired at the label, steadying thumb at the disk’s outer edge. Never so much as a breath grazing the sacred dark-glinting music carved into the disk’s canyons, during its passage in and out of the crisp inner papers. A wrong glance could probably scratch the thing. God knew this was a house of wrong glances.
For the girl seated at the record-player, fathoming the nature of her mother’s presence and her father’s absence was practically a full-time pursuit. If necessary, she’d offer it as justification for a report card’s testimony of mild disappointment: Miriam, though talented and capable, seems distracted from her assignments. Yes, she’d say. Too busy with my real study: the implausibility of my existence on earth! For what, after all, had Albert Zimmer and Rose Angrush’s marriage been if not an implausibility briefly entertained? Tolerated for an instant before being demolished, dismantled from at least three directions at once: her family, his family, and the Party. The high assimilated German joining up with Rose the Polack, Rose the Russian, Rose the immigrant, Rose the second-generation, raised-in-the-back-of-a-candy-store Brooklyn Jew? Unlike every comedy ever devised by Jewish writers mocking class difference from the sanctuary of Hollywood, these were divisions that truly couldn’t be overcome by the bonds of love. Rose and Albert’s marriage wasn’t screwball; it was you’re screwed. Not “It Happened One Night” but “It Happened Never.”
Miriam’s origin myth centered on Rose and Albert’s first meeting. Even after her father had fled back to Germany, she could get Rose to tell the story. What child wouldn’t start there? Grasp this story, and you might even know what kind of meeting you could expect to make in the world, at some future time.
It was at a packed hall near Gramercy Park, under a high ornate ceiling echoing with voices: there a mole met a mole. Rose seated on one side, in a creaky wooden folding chair, Albert seated across the room, in another. Both seeking to take the meeting’s floor, to steer its innocence and idealism in a given direction, both eager to run back to their contacts and brag of enlisting the group, and each obstructed, largely, by the other. Oh, it was ripe: Albert and Rose discovered each other because they’d been assigned, by their separate and poorly coördinated cells, to insinuate themselves into the same organization, the Gramercy Park Young People’s League. To introduce the possibility of solidarity with the coming workers’ revolution into this vague, well-intentioned gathering.
Each was therefore forced, at some point, to bite a tongue and hear the other. Until, as they tussled for dominance in pursuit of the same outcome, the prospect of some other form of tussle emerged in the thoughts of both, and the hall’s other occupants melted away into irrelevance. Albert thinking, Who is this young Emma Goldman, this zaftig Brooklyn shtetl girl in the hand-sewn dress, covering the Yiddish parts of her speech with elegant rhetoric, with comical double-feature-at-the-Loew’s Britishisms? Rose thinking, Who is this fair Germanic professorially handsome fellow in suspenders and gold-rimmed glasses—and can he possibly be, as he claims in his speech, Jewish?
Their infatuation was above all a meeting of two intellects gleaming with the same exalted certainties, two wills emboldened by the same great cause, and they were still uncovering the extent of their political sympathies (though “political” was too limited a term, insufficient to describe what joining the greatest movement of human history had done for their sense of what life itself was for), gabbing a mile a minute, barely able to stop talking to eat the food that sat cooling on the table where she’d cooked it for him in the kitchen of his flat, or to sip the wine they’d poured but in their intoxication with the cause hardly needed, when Albert first unbuttoned her dress and his trousers. So the tussle, begun in full public view, was now consummated behind closed doors.
For a little while, Rose and Albert abandoned all urgencies, except those of a cell of two. Two fronts moving as one. Full synthesis achieved and lost on a nightly basis.
Then, when Rose had missed three menstruations, they married. What could be so wrong? They were two Jews. Two humans. Two believers in revolution. In the eyes of anyone but their families, a matched pair. Any “real American” would have heard his German accent as close kin if not identical to her parents’ Yiddish. He was fair and she was dark, sure. But, spiritually, they could be taken for brother and sister. Certainly Albert and Rose found themselves allied utterly, proudly so, in the glance of any hater of Jews or revolutionists. Wouldn’t the Cause soon erase all distinctions of class and creed and race?
Try telling it to the Jews. At their futzed-together, hasty wedding, Albert’s mother and her brother high-hatted the Angrush clan—that whole spilling array of Rose’s sisters and their husbands and their broods, the innumerable cousins. They treated Rose’s family like the servants they’d been forced to let go just before fleeing Lübeck. The Zimmers, the progressive, the enlightened, the worldly Zimmers, in the face of non-German Jews, semi-religious Jews, village Jews, felt their own place instantly: above them. This union was not what world revolution was meant to make possible, thank you very much!
Then, as if to prove that the cosmos itself wanted no such union, the pregnancy lapsed, in the privacy of night, leaking out of Rose in gobs and streams, so discreetly that she was left to explain it to Albert herself, just weeks after the wedding.
Now, girl, the doctor said, eat red meat and salad, avoid exotic fruits such as bananas, and try again. Try again? They hadn’t been trying. He’d meant to pull out. Now, married, they’d try.
By now they’d settled, out of Manhattan, but not out of the heart of the world’s happy controversies: no. They’d made their home in the official Socialist Utopian Village of the outer boroughs, Sunnyside Gardens, where the houses bounded courtyard gardens, the neighbors venting their lives one to another across a shared common. Yet with such struggles as soon overtook Rose and Albert, truthfully, they might have wished to be a little better partitioned from their neighbors’ overhearing. That first accord between them, had it been only a fever of hormones? Their marriage only a panic of pregnancy in the wake of brain-befogging stints of sheer fucking?
A baby would make it right.
They tried and tried. Four years of trying before his seed would take in her again and make Miriam. The girl arrived just in time to be assigned her own booklet of wartime ration stamps, born into a new world that no longer resembled the nascent utopia in which Rose and Albert had come together to start a family.
The marriage was by that time wrecked—on reefs of personality, on the lack of support from the two alienated families, and on Albert’s vanity, his uselessness at the task of anything but distant and unreachable revolutions. Rose worked as a bookkeeper in a pickle factory, toiling alongside the workingman. Albert was either above or beneath mere work: give him even a sheaf of pamphlets to distribute, and you’d find them stuffed into his suit’s pockets, his campaign to distribute them among the working classes having ended in some dialectical flirtation over drinks with a fellow-pamphleteer he just happened to run into. And then, soon enough, he was gone.
By 1948, the top men in New York Communism had taken notice of Albert and decided that he needed correction, needed to be adjusted, from the status of dissolute husband and father, and pressed into service overseas. He was returned to Germany, where his courtly manners made him an asset instead of a sore thumb. Now Rose was a reverse war widow, divorced from but still married to the sole Jew who’d run back to Germany, run back because he wanted to dissolve his urbanity, his Jewishness, his Americanness, all in the solvent of the Soviet.
Men got through the Sunnyside Gardens door after Albert. Handsome, heavy of chest, Rose was seen by men and didn’t always flinch from being seen. Yet none of them ever meant anything to her. Apart from Lincoln, that is. For Rose had erected a shrine on the half-circle table in the apartment’s foyer, on which the six volumes of Sandburg’s “Lincoln” were aligned, and in front of them a small cameo portrait of the martyred President was propped. Albert moved out and Lincoln moved in. For any other man, an hour in Rose’s bed but not so much as a cup of coffee afterward. Let alone permission to stay the night. In the apartment, only Rose, Lincoln, and Miriam, the daughter who was repository for Rose’s whole self, her insurance against being forgotten.
H_e was six weeks a-fallin_’, Lord, Lord, Lord / And they had a feather-pickin’, Lord, Lord, Lord. For what seemed a year of life as her father’s letters—not many of them—came from Rostock, from Leipzig, locations, thanks to Life magazine, impossible to envision except as wholly deserving ruins, palaces of rubble, Miriam sat entranced or bored, stilled anyhow, mulling what Ives seemed to have to impart, cheery parables of ducks and whales and goats and geese. Once, Sol Eaglin, making one of his mysterious visits—dapper, bullshitting Comrade Sol—stopped in the living room to jape at Miriam and her album.
“What’s your kid know from ducks, Rose? You ever been to a farm, doll?”
“She knows from ducks,” Rose said. “She’s been to a Chinese restaurant.”
Animals, in Rose’s remorselessly unsentimental urban pragmatist’s views, were for eating, sure. (No filthy pets for Miriam.) Rose frowned at children’s books when they veered in directions zoological or anthropomorphic to any extent beyond Aesop, with his adamantine morals. (Always, with Rose, special emphasis on the bitterness of grapes, the inaccessibility of tidbits residing at the bottom of a vase: animals starved, animals rationalized, animals connived.) Sentimentalizing a duckling or a rabbit was associated, for Miriam, with her mother’s contempt for Catholic ritual: Easter eggs, bland milk-chocolate bunnies (“Only German chocolate is worth eating,” Rose would say, in irony and sorrow, then follow with her regular sighing incantation: “They made the very best of everything, of everything”), smears of ash, idiot Irish and Italian neighbors under the knuckle of idiot priests. So what was the anomalous gray goose, who wouldn’t be made a meal of, meant to signify? He was nine months a-cookin’, Lord, Lord, Lord / Then they put him on the table, Lord, Lord, Lord / And the knife couldn’t cut ’im, Lord, Lord, Lord / And the fork couldn’t stick ’im, Lord, Lord, Lord. Where was Aesop when you needed him? Of all the songs on the album, this was the one Miriam studied, helplessly. So they took him to the sawmill, Lord, Lord, Lord / Oh, it broke the saw’s tooth out, Lord, Lord, Lord. At last, one day, Rose took mercy on her daughter and explained. The answer, when it came, wasn’t difficult, though Miriam, at six, could never have guessed it.
Now, tonight, more than a decade later, on the postage-stamp-size platform in a Greenwich Village club so small that any table was front and also rear, the grapevines of smoke clinging to the ceiling providing an illusion of distance in a room that, cleared of bentwood chairs and voices and clamor and filth, would have been revealed as no larger than the Sunnyside Gardens parlor where Miriam had memorized her mother’s albums, yet which somehow made room for not only a stage and a side bar featuring Italian coffee and red wine but also for an intricate social world that Miriam was just learning to parse—here the tenor folksinger on the tiny platform crooned out exactly Burl Ives’s version of the folk song. Note for note, vocal gesture for vocal gesture, syllable for syllable. The last time I see’d him, Lord, Lord, Lord / He was flyin’ over the ocean, Lord, Lord, Lord / With a long string of goslins, Lord, Lord, Lord. The raffish blond singer offered up a version cribbed from a children’s LP, as if it had been dredged out of some mossy Appalachian music-finding expedition, or salvaged during some hobo’s stint working in a train yard or begging at the kitchen door of the very farm that had raised the gray goose itself. Miriam laughed at how smugly the rendition was gobbled up by those unqualified to know the difference—or who if they knew it would endure fingernail splinters before confessing that they were familiar with Ives’s version. The boy at her side turned, as he had each time that night she’d laughed for no evident cause, and said, “What?”
“Nothing.” All this she couldn’t explain, not to him. (Afterward, it would be his name, among so many here, that she, famous rememberer, resolutely couldn’t dredge up.) Then Miriam laughed again and said, “Do you know what the gray goose represents?”
“You may have heard me on ‘Fresh Air with Terry Gross.’ I’m Terry Gross.”
“I’m asking what the gray goose represents. I just wondered if you knew.”
The song now finished, she’d gained the attention of their whole table, and the table beside theirs as well. Chairs, long since reversed so that chests creased against chair backs, cigarette-knuckled hands flung carelessly forward for ballast, now squeaked. The margin between different tables, between friends and strangers, those who’d arrived in one configuration and those who might later depart rearranged, in pairs or complicated threes or gaggles or alone, had been lost a while ago.
“Enlighten us, Mim,” said Porter, the clever one in horn-rims, the Columbia man. Eying her for several nights now but too genteel to pry her from the boy.
“Well, since you ask, the gray goose represents the irrevocable destiny of the working class.” Never had Miriam been so delighted to regurgitate a Roseism.
Leaning in from the next table like a Disney wolf, Rye Gogan said, “Ach, fella, beware—your girl’s a Red.” Rye, middle baritone of the Gogan Boys, an act too big for this stage (not only reputation-wise but in strict bodily terms, the three Irish louts in their thick brocaded vests would never have fit on this club’s riser), was the celebrity among them, not that any of them would acknowledge it. Rye Gogan was also already famous as something worse than a wolf. A drunken shark at an evening’s end. The girl farthest from shore at that point was traditionally doomed. “No, really, she is one,” Porter said. “Not like us paper revolutionaries, gentlemen. Mim grew up in a cell, she’s been to secret meetings. Tell them, Mim.”
“Meetings?” Rye growled. “Who hasn’t?” The Irish singer rounded his shoulders, that signature vest like a dank filthy sail hung from the rigging of his chest, and creaked his chair back toward his own party. Likely registering that engaging with Miriam’s table entailed simply too much smarty-pants confusion to be worth the bother now, even if he’d tabulated Miriam’s presence for some pending shark chase to shore.
“You have no idea,” Miriam said to Porter, and Porter’s friend, named, she was fairly certain, Adam, and the Barnard girl Adam had brought along, who’d said she was from Connecticut, and who’d been looking sick for most of an hour already. “I have a pedigree. My father’s a German spy.”
“Can he get us into Norman Mailer’s party?” Adam said. Adam knew, or pretended to know, where the real action was tonight. Any crowded smoky basement or throngs on MacDougal or St. Marks to the contrary, all persons visible to their gaze were, ipso facto, losers like themselves.
“He’s not allowed into the United States,” Miriam said, surprising herself with where this was going, but then seeing it play, like nearly anything from her mouth, in this company: thrilled amazement at what the wild child from Sunnyside might say next. Her fiercest sincerities were translated by the male ego, on arrival, into daffy flirtation. For instance, when Miriam said she was bored by jazz (worshipping at its longueurs, its brilliant “passages,” induced the same claustrophobia she always felt at sitting hushed through Rose’s Beethoven symphonies, being instructed in their remorseless dire profundities) and preferred Elvis Presley (cutting class to hide in Lorna Himmelfarb’s basement, listening to Presley having been the sole salvation in the final semester of her senior year at Sunnyside High), men like Porter went into paroxysms of delight at how the female could want to provoke them, never grasping the notion that anyone they’d ever be seen squiring, let alone this raven-haired Jewess with a vocabulary like Lionel Trilling’s, could possibly possess such backward tastes. No one who actually didn’t get jazz would ever admit it! And if you got it, man, well, you got it. Miriam, therefore, was a tease, ironist supreme. And with a figure.
“She’s dead serious,” Porter said now, fingering his frames Arthur Miller style, again sealing Miriam’s words with his only-I-get-it endorsement.
Miriam’s original boy had been morosely toying with the red wax pooling in their table’s blunt candle, dipping his fingertips to coat them, then jostling the little inverted fingerprints off to assemble, like a series of mouse-size bowls on the tablecloth, or tiny bloody footprints, a mock crime scene. Maybe trying to say that someone had placed a tiny dagger in his tiny heart. Truly, Rye Gogan’s storm-cloud attentions had altered the barometric pressure at their table. While the folksinger interred his guitar to the mildest applause, a poet or comedian, some Lenny Bruce aspirant, stood waiting to commandeer the unnecessary microphone. He wore a cravat and clutched a sheaf of papers. Someone knew him. But someone knew everyone. Miriam believed she could get one or more of her admirers on their feet and outside, possibly even Porter among them, and suddenly wanted to prove that she could.
“What the hey. I’ll get us into Mailer’s party.”
“With my secret Commie powers, of course.”
An hour later they stood braving a cold wind at the gentle summit of the Brooklyn Bridge’s rotting-plank walkway, the East River’s boardwalk, and surveyed the transistor gleamings of the island they’d exited, contrasting it with the low-roofed smolder of Brooklyn Heights, the murk of their promised destination, Mailer’s party, down there somewhere, one of those faint flares amid a hundred thousand darkened bedrooms, the sea of sleepers beyond. Here they halted, stared. Boroughphobia. Fear of Brooklyn. Miriam recognized it in her companions and laughed, but silently, not wanting to incite her unmemorable boy to another automatic, threatened “What?”
Miriam felt it in them, this cohort she’d manufactured by calling them out of the folk basement: their collective reservations at being dragged to this brink, the bridge’s perihelion, the immigrant shores. For the moment, at least, this seventeen-year-old Queens College freshman dropout had called their bluff. The Barnard girl, Adam’s date; Adam himself; and solo, enchanted Porter, interested but too sweet to be predatory; and Miriam’s grown-sullen date, too. Miriam’s ad-hoc committee, her cell.
So forget Rose’s secret meetings, her living rooms, her smoky kitchens. Forget Rose’s sidewalk speeches, her tirades against the residents of the dead utopia of Sunnyside Gardens, corrupted by the onrush of coming disappointment, seeking scapegoats for their stupid guilt at their wasted lives. This night, right here, with New York splayed before them, a banquet they feared to eat, Miriam understood clearly for the first time that her Secret Commie Powers were not actually a joke: Miriam Zimmer understood tonight she was a leader of men. Not just men slavering over her curves or astonished at her wit or haunted by her Jewish mysteries or dazzled by her fluency with the city’s mad systems—the subway lines, the Staten Island ferry terminal and its pigeon population, the significance of a Dave’s egg cream on Canal Street, the parsing of baseball affiliation since the Dodgers and the Giants had fled to California (no, you couldn’t just suddenly become a Yankee fan, not while Sandy Koufax and Jake Pitler still lived), her ease with Negroes, her allusions to veiled knowledge, the transparency to her of symbols like the gray goose—but all of it, all. Surviving Rose and Sunnyside Gardens, that suburb of disappointment, had made Miriam sublime, a representative of the League of Absconded Kings or Queens. And, seeing it, she laughed aloud, and of course Forgettable weighed in with “What?”
“Listen.” Miriam’s favorite idiot bar bet gained a new allure here as they shivered on the bridge. The answer would be staring them in the face and they’d still blow it. “I’ll bet anyone here five bucks they can’t name an island in New York State that has a bigger population than forty-eight of the fifty states.”
“That’s dopey,” Adam said. “Manhattan, of course.”
“You’re dopey. It’s Long Island. You owe me five bucks or your last cigarette.”
“But, hey, who’s counting?” Porter said, leaning in with his own still plentiful pack, tapping a cluster of cigs halfway out. Fingers mobbed in, and then for an instant the five smokers were melded in physical purpose, clustering to bell-jar Porter’s match from the night’s wind, each dipping a cigarette’s tip to the flame. Ladies first, then, once the match was inevitably doused, finishing with the square dance of touching lit to unlit tips. Night workers edged in darkness past them, heads bent, ignorant of the city’s splendor and misery, filing toward sour bedrooms. Fear of Brooklyn: there was plenty to fear, Miriam knew, though not what her companions imagined.
“I’m freezing,” Forgettable said, evidently intending them to understand him to mean frozen out. Miriam’s date had given up petitioning with his shoulders and elbows to clutch Miriam to him, as Adam and his Barnard girl were clutched, the girl’s shoulder inside Adam’s tweed jacket, her arm vanished within his shirt at the waist. Forgettable’s last few attempts had been despondent anyhow, as though he sensed the turn things were taking. For Miriam was changing hands tonight, Porter sweeping her away, if something so completely under Miriam’s agency could be granted to Porter’s. It surely would be. Miriam being just a girl, after all. Miriam plunged her cigarette’s orange tip into the night. “Charge!”
“Screw Mailer,” her former date said. As if that were an option, in lieu of what he’d never get from Miriam. “I’ve got to get up in the morning. I’m going back.”
“We’ll walk you,” Adam said. This sudden defection sealed Miriam’s transfer more absolutely than she might have wished; after a flurry of embraces, she and Porter hoofed it down the Brooklyn slope of the bridge, just the two of them, while the others retreated to Manhattan. Miriam considered him entirely for the first time, her new courtier: with his funny knobbly gait, embarrassed or melancholic shoulders, and gigantic forehead, Porter was really drawn along Arthur Miller or Robert Lowell lines, though with his labored quipping he might be trying to pass as Mort Sahl. Leery Rose, in the right mood, might give him a chance on the basis of a resemblance to Abraham Lincoln. But then why would Miriam need her mother’s approval? She cancelled the thought.
“Look,” she said, again pointing her cigarette past the bridge’s descent into Brooklyn Heights. “Remsen Street, it’s one of those, terminating at the Promenade.” In her imagining, the glamorous town houses would be visible, a crest of terraces peering back across the water at Manhattan, and one of them declaring itself by throbbing with jazz and cocktail clatter, clouds of marijuana smoke, genius conversation. In truth, all that was visible there was a dark barricade of greenery, seemingly more than a mile beyond and below them, across the silent river’s mouth.
“Which?” Now, committed, Porter sounded nervous.
“It’ll be obvious from the street. We’ll hear it a block away, I expect.”
“If not, it isn’t worth going,” he bluffed, regaining his confidence. Yet that very bluff carried them merely a stride or two more on the bridge’s downward slope. Porter’s confidence had some other purpose, now that they’d shed their companions. Only when you’d finally shaken them free, those couple-disguising little mobs, the self-chaperoning cocoons that blobbed around everywhere together, were you reminded of their uses. Porter kissed her. Miriam kissed him back, just as ravenous, even if strategizing how to delay or undo it, or where they would go, or what it would have to mean. Porter’s cold fingertips had already found gaps in the buttons of her dress at her tailbone, causing some electrical outline to quiver along the contour of her buttocks, to her feet, which attempted to stay rooted on the walkway’s planks. Porter was tall. Miriam got up on her toes, a half-measure, a compromise with an impulse to drop in a swoon to her knees or lift off into the sky.
Precisely to the same degree that she’d been mothered in disappointment, in embittered moderation, in the stifling of unreasonable expectations, in second-generation cynicism toward collapsed gleaming visions of the future, the morose detachment of the suburbs, Miriam was in fact a Bolshevik of the five senses. Her whole body demanded revolution, her whole character screamed to see high towers raised up and destroyed. Every yearning Rose might ever have wished to dampen had been doubly instilled in her daughter. For all her quashing of utopias, Rose had merely been proving Miriam’s innate suspicion that life was elsewhere. For God’s sake, you could see the Empire State Building framed at the foot of Greenpoint Avenue! And, for what felt like ten years, Miriam had been observing the special appearance and attitudes of the girls who had enrolled at City College but still lived at home, or at least kept rooms in their homes, in Sunnyside Gardens: the knowledge behind their new cat sunglasses, the cigarettes they sneaked and the gossip they ceased to spout on the communal back patios when nine- or ten- or twelve-year-old Miriam wandered up. Miriam knew that these girls were telling her her future and wondered why they bothered to conceal it. Miriam could see the Empire State Building now, past Porter’s shoulder as she pulled her mouth from his and leaned and gasped for air and stalled for time, her cheek against his arm. The stupid beckoning phallic symbol, brazenly named for the nation’s criminal aspirations yet paradoxically bearing with it the pride Rose had instilled in Miriam for being an American and a New Yorker, the dull amazing monument was always there, stabbing the air, calling to her, crushing her like a bug in advance. You’re nobody so special, Miriam Zimmer!
Except here on the bridge, upper lip already raw in the high wind from Porter’s five-o’clock shadow’s scraping, Miriam felt all the freedom accorded to nobody special as a power equal to the Empire State’s mass and force. Had anyone ever already known what Miriam knew at seventeen? It seemed unlikely. And tonight she would know more. She was going to let Porter be the first to make love to her, because he was just special and not-special enough to be the one to do it. That night beginning on the bridge, as she’d already half started to call it. “Take me somewhere,” she said.
“My neighbors bought new furniture.”
There, with her words, to which Porter panted his grateful consent, began the insane night that had already had so many beginnings. First, withdrawal to Manhattan, not boroughphobia now but total uninterest in Mailer or the dark roofs or the cold sky or anything outside of themselves and their skins. If they could have left their clothing on the bridge, they might have done that. The I.R.T. at Brooklyn Bridge took them to Union Square, where in a high-backed booth in the Cedar Tavern they fondled and entwined tongues until asked to leave. They repeated the performance at the Limelight coffee shop, to which Miriam had dragged Porter after he’d expressed a dazed uncertainty as to where else to try—they’d have had more privacy in a corner of Mailer’s party, which she’d fully visualized by now as consisting of sultry Bennington girls being serially deflowered in piles of coats. They briefly had more privacy in Washington Square, where for another turbulent session they settled on a bench. But whenever they quit walking, and Porter’s hands resumed inching inside her already flimsy coverings, Miriam started to freeze. “Why can’t we go to your rooms?” she whispered.
Porter looked at her, not for the first time, with an admiration suggesting that Miriam was Wuthering Heights mad. “There’s a strict dorm policy.”
“I thought you Columbia men were trying to change that.”
“Trilling stood against us,” Porter bragged, proud anytime he could cite that name. “He seemed confused that we’d even want women in the dorms, leaving their nylons around, as he put it—”
“So why don’t you make a stand?” Miriam shamelessly gave this the Marilyn Monroe treatment, lips at his ear. “Protest for your cause.”
“My roommate,” Porter said helplessly. “I couldn’t—”
The virginity Miriam trailed around with her was an anchor, one she vowed to cast off before dawn. So they rode the subway again, to Grand Central, and she guided him downstairs to the track where the 7 line would carry them to Queens, then to the back of the platform. Miraculously, a train hovered, panting slightly with its doors open. They boarded and it took off as if it had been waiting for them. “After the river the train goes elevated, Porter. I’ll show you something you’ve never seen before.”
“What’s that?” he said dreamily. They’d walked with their fingers enlaced, pulling downward to draw each other close, his hip at her waist, her breasts at his ribs, each awkward rubbing step a kind of prolongation of the endless makeout session the night had become. On the train, they stood against a door, unwilling to discontinue the contact between the lengths of their bodies, letting the car’s lurches buckle his knee into a place between her legs.
“You’ll see. The greatest curve in the system,” Miriam teased.
“I actually think I know what you’re talking about.”
“That’s when you can be certain you’re wrong.”
“Nothing you could show me that was curved could be wrong.” What was this talk, so stupidly enchanted, so seemingly drunk on each other’s wit and promise? Or should the question be: How much red wine had she unthinkingly guzzled at the Cedar Tavern?
The Queens-bound train scraped moonward out of the darkness, into the constellation of streetlights and signage along Jackson Avenue. “Holy heck!” Porter shouted. “It’s like a roller coaster!”
“No, I told you,” she said, styling her formulation after Porter’s manner, and leaning into his ear to put it over, above the elevated’s rattle and shriek. “That was nothing, brace yourself. The real curve’s the next one, watch.” She urged him against the door’s windows, to take it in fully. The 7’s lead cars obligingly jackknifed into Queensboro Plaza. “It’s the only place in the system where you can watch the front cars of the train you’re on pull into a station from the rear cars,” Miriam said. Hammering the point home, she felt like Rose. Like she’d picked up Rose’s hammer of personality to impress the Columbia boy, to bonk against his broad, pretentiously daft forehead. (How could you go to so much trouble to arrive in New York City, as the throngs at Columbia and Barnard had, and not ride the system?) As if Miriam’s life-exuberance pointed back toward Rose’s punitive ferocity, just the way the I.R.T. screamed in the direction of home.
She tried to see Sunnyside’s Forty-seventh Street through his eyes. The slumbering apartment blocks, the tended shrubbery and flagstone walks, Miriam’s home borough some false vision of calm, an immigrant’s dull fantasy of American sanctuary that suddenly turned her stomach; she hurried him past. Only they had exited the train at the Bliss Street station, and now, on the sidewalks, they passed no one. The whole journey might have been a dream she’d had, once she’d tiptoed inside through the Gardens and the kitchen door, and swept Porter into her bedroom, only he was still blithering about the elevated’s rocket ride, so that she had to hush him until her door was safely shut. She stuffed a towel along the jamb as if to enjoy a secret cigarette.
At this point, the dream of night—or morning, she’d glanced at Porter’s wristwatch on the street and the time was 3 A.M.—veered toward squalid comedy. The two of them remaining on their feet, in some shyness still unwilling to commit to her bed, Porter struggling with one or another of her fasteners and buttons, forcing Miriam to add her hands to his and solve whatever problem he’d been muttering over, so that before very long she was completely nude while he still wore his entire outfit. In exasperation she lay down on the bedspread. “Take off your shoes, at least,” she whispered.
“Have you got an, um, pessary?”
“Pessary?” She tried not to snort at the absurd term, which struck her as Midwestern, if not actually Victorian. “Do you mean a diaphragm?” What, was he afraid to remove his clothes for fear of pregnancy? Should she lie? Yes. “Yes.”
“It’s taken care of, Porter.”
Miriam flashed on Rye Gogan and his reputation. Where was the masculine devourer when you needed him? Must you swim with sharks to get sharked? Take me, she wanted to tell Porter, yet refused to have to tell him, on the principle that even men in tortoiseshell glasses were meant to transform into animals in the dark. Perhaps especially men in tortoiseshell glasses, according to the cartoons in Playboy, Lorna Himmelfarb’s older brother’s copies of which she’d perused during Elvis-auditing sessions in the Himmelfarb basement. Something should be swarming Miriam, apart from her yearning to be swarmed. She got Porter onto the bed. Pulled him by the belt. Unzipped and researched inside. Oh, Lord, the boy, nicely long and rigid, Chinese-finger-trapped by desire in his too-tight boxer shorts, wasn’t circumcised. He also blurted his goop into her palm at the same instant that she groped the knob and discovered its stretchy hood. Then, sighing, Porter covered her lips and chin and nose with a flurry of seeking kisses, as if both grateful and falsifying the record. See, I’m ravishing you, therefore I must have been all along! Instead, she’d accidentally ravished him.
And it was at that moment that Rose came barrelling in, a titan, Alice’s enraged Red Queen in her quilted robe, her gossamer nightdress beneath it, her expression a storm of reproach, and the story abruptly had nothing to do with their bodies, with Miriam’s nakedness and desire and what Porter was or wasn’t going to do about it. All that was left of that story was how fortunate Miriam could feel, in retrospect, that she’d got so little of Porter’s clothing off. Even knowing that Rose had seen nothing, Miriam had time for the stray, absurd thought: Abraham Lincoln wouldn’t have been circumcised, either, so Rose couldn’t object to that, could she?
“Should I call the police?”
“No, Mother.”
“No Mother what?” Rose seized any occasion for a mental test, a verbal duel—why miss what was there for the taking?
“Don’t overreact, Rose, for God’s sake.”
The room flooded with light from the living room and foyer behind Rose, every lamp switched on, as though her mother had been awake for a duration of eavesdropping and pacing, and for expert selection of the awkwardest instant to make this confrontation.
“Don’t tell me how I should react. Don’t tell me what to do. If I don’t call the police it’s less a mercy than the fear they might arrest me for parental dereliction.” Rose’s bold, rising, theatrically superb declaration ran over a thin, husky, stuttering sound, something that might have been an attempt on Porter’s part to apologize or introduce himself or both, even as he juggled his glasses back onto his face and pinched at his zipper and his disordered trousers. Rose detoured to a Barbara Stanwyckian quip: “By the way, it’s rape, Mister, unless you happen still to be in high school yourself.”
“Nobody was raped,” Miriam said, letting her disappointment color the word with scorn for Rose and Porter both. “And I’m not in high school, thank you.”
“You ought to be. This matter of skipping a grade makes you think you’re a woman now? The bosom on you fooled this young man, fair enough, but how can it have fooled you as well? Perhaps you’re ready to become parents of a child. It’s not as much pleasure as you’d think from the way it begins, making babies.”
“Nobody’s making any babies.” Miriam thought of the word “pessary” again. As long as Porter was present, this scene was only comic overture to the crisis, the explosion struggling to begin.
“I tried to raise a young woman but apparently produced an American teen-ager in her place. No doubt the fault is mine, yet it’s also the case that the result was sabotaged in a thousand ways. First by the father, who couldn’t be kept at home. In that, of course, the fault is surely mine. We fought terribly. I couldn’t keep him fascinated in ways a freethinker like you appears to have already mastered, but what two lovebirds like you couldn’t imagine is the world I brought this girl into. A battlefield. Not a playground for children in the bodies of adults. You’re in a hurry to grow up—we gave up our childhoods before we knew we’d given them up. Before I plunged my arms into pickle brine, I slaved in the back of that candy shop. This one, Miriam, ah! Look at the expression! He wouldn’t know what a barrel of halvah was if I shoved it in his face.”
Halvah! Miriam found herself issuing a sharp guffaw.
“How could you,” Rose cried at Miriam’s laughter. “If I was dying it wouldn’t stop you doing as you wished. No doubt you’d step over my body on your way to Greenwich Village or to a man like this one, whose name you won’t even condescend to share with me. Step over my dying body on your voyage to where the squares wouldn’t go. But I hardly imagined you’d shower me with laughter as you went past.”
“You’re not dying, Rose.”
“I am inside.”
That’s how you know you’re still alive, Miriam wanted to tell her. Dying inside was for Rose a way of life. Within her mother was a volcano of death. Rose had spent her whole life stoking it, trying to keep the mess contained but fuming. In Rose’s lava of disappointment, the ideals of American Communism had gone to die their slow death eternally; Rose would never die precisely because she needed to live forever, a flesh monument, commemorating socialism’s failure as an intimate wound.
Miriam started humming, the song entering her mind unbidden. Last Sunday morning, Lord, Lord, Lord. Oh my daddy went a-huntin’, Lord, Lord, Lord. It had been a trick question, she realized now, a paradox beyond even Aesop’s devising. How could you possibly learn the identity of the gray goose by asking the gray goose? For, after everything, this was at last unmistakable: the gray goose—inedible, adamantine, undead, warping any implement that dared glance in its direction, let alone one that dared to attack—was none other than Rose Zimmer.
Oh, an intervention was desperately needed, but the difficulty was in how little offense Porter gave, how few grounds for ejection. He stood dopily awaiting his turn, which would never come. Miriam now wished Porter would make some move, any move, even in panic, to incite Rose into showing him the door. Instead, Rose, measuring his passivity, latched on to a listener. Miriam couldn’t count how many she’d seen frozen on a square of sidewalk at one of Rose’s stunning harangues, though she’d never been draped naked in a sheet while a would-be boyfriend played the part. Maybe Porter was about to begin taking notes, as if at Trilling’s own feet. Miriam had to do everything herself. She elevated from the bed like a ghost or a muse in her drapery and took Porter’s elbow and guided him past a momentarily jaw-frozen Rose, back through the kitchen. Though Porter was apparently properly dressed, he moved as awkwardly as if he wore his jacket backward, his shoes on his hands.
“I’m so sorry. When can I—?”
When can I what? Miriam thought, an exact Rose Angrush Zimmer cadence, except Rose would have said it aloud. What in this performance was Porter eager to reflect on or repeat? She craned on tiptoe for a quick kiss, surprising herself by wanting one. She’d after all fondled Porter’s secret heartbeat, collected his private sigh. They had, after all, been romancing across a connect-the-dot map of Miriam’s city for hours past, hours of what now seemed another night, another life entirely.
The light in the Gardens was morning light as Miriam stood at the kitchen door in a sheet, pushing her Columbia boy through the gap. Porter, she realized, could be from Mars for all he grasped of the creature with whom he’d passed the night. Miriam might be altering herself at a furious rate into that other thing, the girl Porter believed he’d deviously squired out of the basement club behind the stalking horse of her official date, then halfway across the Brooklyn Bridge and back, then to Queens to find himself more or less raped and accused of rape within a span of minutes, but she wasn’t there yet. And so, as Porter wobbled along the light-blotted lanes of the Gardens and vanished, Miriam closed the door and withdrew to face Rose. ♦
Published in the print edition of the May 6, 2013, issue.
Jonathan Lethem teaches creative writing at Pomona College. He will publish a new novel, “The Arrest,” in November.
More:(Pres.) Abraham LincolnAlbumsBooksBrooklyn, New YorkColumbia UniversityCommunistsDatingDaughtersFightsGeeseGirlsGramercy ParkImmigrantsJewsMothersNew York CityNight ClubsNorman MailerQueensSecond World WarSexSongsSpiesSubwayTrains
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Report: Pres. Trump to order Chinese company to sell TikTok U.S. operations
by: NBC4 Staff, The Associated Press
FILE – This Feb. 25, 2020, file photo, shows the icon for TikTok in New York. Amazon has told employees to delete the popular video app TikTok from phones on which they use Amazon email, citing security risks from the China-owned app, according to reports and posts by Twitter users who said they were Amazon employees. The notice said employees must delete the app by Friday to keep access to Amazon email. Workers would still be allowed to use TikTok from an Amazon laptop browser. (AP Photo/File)
(WCMH) — President Donald Trump plans to announce an order to direct ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, to sell its U.S. operations.
Trump to order China’s ByteDance to sell TikTok U.S. operations, an announcement is imminent, sources tell me, @jendeben and @JenniferJJacobs
— Saleha Mohsin (@SalehaMohsin) July 31, 2020
Sources told Bloomberg that an order could be announced as soon as Friday.
Chinese internet company ByteDance owns TikTok, which is designed for users outside of China; it also makes a Chinese version called Douyin. Like YouTube, TikTok relies on its users for the videos that populate its app. It has a reputation for fun, goofy videos and is popular with young people, including millions of Americans.
But critics have cited concerns, including the possibility of TikTok censoring videos, such as those critical of the Chinese government, sharing user data with Chinese officials, and violating kids’ privacy. TikTok has said it doesn’t censor videos based on topics sensitive to China and it would not give the Chinese government access to U.S. user data even if asked.
TikTok has been trying to appease critics in the U.S. and distance itself from its Chinese roots, but finds itself caught in an increasingly sticky geopolitical web.
It recently named a new CEO, former Disney executive Kevin Mayer, a move experts said could help it navigate U.S. regulators. And it is stopping operations in Hong Kong because of a new Chinese national security law that led Facebook, Google and Twitter to also stop providing user data to Hong Kong authorities.
A U.S. national-security agency has been reviewing ByteDance’s purchase of TikTok’s precursor, Musical.ly. Meanwhile, privacy groups say TikTok has been violating children’s privacy, even after the Federal Trade Commission fined the company in 2019 for collecting personal information from children without their parents’ consent. Concerns aren’t limited to the U.S. India this month banned dozens of Chinese apps, including TikTok, citing privacy concerns, amid tensions between the countries.
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daegan
(Before I get started, why is Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP up for awards this year? That was a 2011 game with no major differences in its PC/Mac/Android releases from its original. Not that I'm complaining…it was my GOTY last year, but I'm just curious what gets it exempted from the "ROM dump/HD Version" rule.)
1. Fez ; It's really too bad that so much controversy has taken away from such a genuinely good experience. Playing Fez is an experience that is unlike so many in an age of GameFAQs, video walkthroughs and the like. The game can be simple - just hunt for the cubes! - or it can be further and further complex, with coded alphabets and hidden items. As you start to find the hints that point to the crazier puzzles, you feel more rewarded. Despite little text, Fez is awesomely charming with gorgeous pixel art and a superb soundtrack. More than anything, it is a game I can recommend to almost anyone, and that's what puts it at the top for 2012.
2. Analogue A Hate Story ; One of only a handful of games I've ever played that made me want to do further reading into its inspiration. Analogue is not for everybody - it's a visual novel; I'm sorry - but it is a game that everybody should play. The game has you exploring the records of a civilization on a spaceship lost for hundreds of years, whose society underwent some transformation after losing contact with Earth and came to resemble the institutionalized patriarchy of feudal Korea. The story that unfolds as you peer through the messages the ship's inhabitants left behind is tragic, stunning and shockingly less extreme in ways than its inspiration. It's amazing what Christine Love accomplishes where entire teams of writers can't.
3. Super Hexagon ; I've spent more time playing this than almost anything else this year. Obscenely simple and impossibly frustrating. A game that constantly makes you punch yourself for losing; this is the arcade gameplay style's answer to Dark Souls.
4. Halo 4 ; No matter what HaloGAF thinks, I loved every minute I spent with this game. The campaign is just surprising enough, with the sandbox encounters that are why I love Halo; the multiplayer is the most fun I've had with Halo multi in a long time. I can't complain about too many choices, but I do wish campaign scoring was in.
5. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy ; I can't believe I can score a fan service-focused Final Fantasy title this high! Theatrhythm, while infuriating to type, has tons (tons!) of content in its 3DS incarnation and controls perfect on iOS. Anyone who has enjoyed a Final Fantasy game and a music game can and should get into this, but I understand if you're not a Final Fantasy fan that it loses a lot of appeal. Still, the sheer amount of fun packed into that 3DS cartridge overrides any need for prior education and gets it a spot on my list.
6. Persona 4 Golden ; 2008 strikes back. There still hasn't been a better Japanese RPG since Persona 4 and at the rate things are going there may never be. Persona 4 Golden makes a must-play literally mandatory if you can breathe and like RPGs. Sell your kidneys for a Vita and play this. It only places 5th because it's still a remake, but it is probably the best remake I've ever encountered. And if you need more convincing it seriously references NeoGAF within the first four hours.
7. Sleeping Dogs ; Another pleasant surprise, and one not without its flaws, Sleeping Dogs is a hell of a game. Hong Kong is a fun backdrop and the driving in particular stands out among others in its genre. Loads of personality help the game feel unique in a landscape dominated by Grand Theft Auto and Saint's Row.
8. Persona 4 Arena ; Guilty Gear - a bunch of characters + Shoji Meguro - Daisuke Ishiwatari + a lower bar of entry + a story that almost kind of a little bit makes sense = an awesome fighter. Game is phenomenal fun, limited only by its small cast.
9. Mass Effect 3 ; ME3 isn't as good as ME2, but when it shines it shines brighter. The big set piece events - taking down the Reaper on Rannoch, for example - are tense and memorable. It's a pity it didn't live up to ME2 but that doesn't need to take away from the fun ride that it is.
10. Tokyo Jungle ; Awesome awesome awesome. Just buy this.
x. Journey ; Journey is a game I have such a hard time with. It's very memorable, enjoyable, and moving. It's just the right length and is gorgeous both in appearance and audio. The game is unlike any other online multiplayer game. But playing Journey is, in the end, not that different from watching somebody -else- play Journey, and this is why I can't say it's one of the ten best games released this year. The actual play mechanics in Journey are, well, disappointingly average; very few of the feelings Journey evokes are caused by having the controller in your hand. It is still worth playing and will be a game remembered for a long time, but sadly, not for being fun or interesting to play.
x. New Super Mario Bros. U ; Yes, it's another NSMB game, but it's absurdly fun, challenging, and is packed full of things to do. In a game that had less memorable releases would easily have charted.
erotic butter maelstrom
daegan said:
(Before I get started, why is Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP up for awards this year? That was a 2011 game with no major differences in its PC/Mac/Android releases from its original. Not that I'm complaining
it was my GOTY last year, but I'm just curious what gets it exempted from the "ROM dump/HD Version" rule.)
I believe Superbros would fall under the 'next year port' rule, which is why you're seeing votes for games like Dark Souls on PC and Rayman Origins on Vita (or also PC).
Snuggler said:
Basically. We want to allow people to vote for games that game to their platform of choice/possession but were just on the other side of the new year, but not allow people to just vote their old favorites because they keep getting re-released.
fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
Can you make a detailed list going from 10 to 1 and then just post it afterwards 1-10 with a comment to have it counted? I find it easier to write them that way.
Papercuts said:
I'll have to check with Cheesemeister, but I believe that duplicate numbers in the same post cause a ballot to be thrown out by the parser. so you'd have to make two separate posts to do what you're talking about.
scoot3r
1. Kid Icarus: uprising.
2. Zombi u
3 new super mario bros u
4. New super mario bros 2.
scoot3r said:
GAF Games of the Year 2012 - Voting Thread - At least 1 Comment Required
jakeellis01
jakeellis01.blogspot.com
Just a reminder you need at least one comment. Don't forget to edit it in later!
Thanks added mine!
Domstercool
Mirfield, West Yorkshire, England
www.darkzero.co.uk
When Telltale’s The Walking Dead was announced I was not interested in it. I was so bummed out with the disappointment that was Jurassic Park that I was worried The Walking Dead was going to be same. This is certainly not the case and what has appeared is one of the best adventure games I have played for a very long time. As a game, this is a somewhat similar situation as Virtue’s Last Reward, in that the gameplay itself is not exactly fantastic, but the dialogue options, story and the feeling of creating your own persona in Lee is what makes The Walking Dead shine. It’s a raw tale that will bring all sorts of emotions out of the player during the five episodes. In a year where endings were detested by fans, The Walking Dead finishes with a brilliant closure that makes you look back on your own experience with the game - like Virtue’s Last Reward - discussing with people your adventure and what choices you did in this quality written story.
In an industry where zombies have become used to the point of becoming boring, The Walking Dead shows us that zombies aren't the enemy, we humans are, oh and the fact that someone somewhere can write a child character that I want to care for is a miracle. For Clementine!
2. Guild Wars 2
Guild Wars 2 does so much right for the MMORPG genre. The world feels alive, with dynamic events that appear out of nowhere as you go around exploring. It’s the fact that the game rewards players for exploring that makes it so rewarding to discover these huge vistas and take back in the lovely graphics. No matter what style you want to play in this game, you are compensated, go PvP, do the quests, create things, whatever you do you feel like you can progress in the game. The fact that each race has its own story is a huge plus, and with small choices in character creation that change bits of the plot it feels like you are having your own adventure compared to being a sheep and having the same story experience as every other player in the game. And best of all? No subscription, which allows people to play at their own pace. A massive achievement from ArenaNet and I cannot wait to see what content comes next year.
I did not get to play Journey until just a few weeks ago. What a great way to come into the last month of the year with such a magical and heart-warming experience. Journey is a one-of-a-kind game, a game that forces you with a single objective to climb up to the top of a mountain. On your way you will meet with other anonymous pilgrims, coming together to find secrets and helping each other by signalling with the only communication tool of a glowing symbol that somehow manages to work. You will see pilgrims come and go. You will see them blown away, frozen or attacked by strange beings, and even though you do not know these fellow pilgrims, you still feel a sort of sadness develop for them. This is a passionate game with a great soundtrack that is unlike anything else this year.
Dragon’s Dogma ended up being one of my favourite new RPGs of the year. There is something amazing about taking a group of pawns and bringing down giant mystical beasts. Just seeing a Griffin swoop down for the first time and steal your pawn is such a “what the fu!” moment. It had a great combat system that lets you climb up these enormous monsters and stab them in the eye (or butt if you so wish to take that route), along with good AI for your companions and a cool online pawn sharing system - your personal pawn would gain more knowledge about quests and the world of Gransys when taken on adventures by other players. Oh, and we can’t forget about that ‘ending,’ can we. Awesome game that shines with its own style.
5. Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward
I was a huge fan of 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, so you can imagine how happy I was to get the sequel and for it to actually get a UK release this time. It’s a visual novel, which has probably just sent 90% of the readers away, but if you don’t mind reading then you owe yourself to check this out. Virtue’s Last Reward creates a story that is so absorbing, so full of surprises and tension that you won’t be able to put it down. After finishing it you will want to discuss it with people for hours. The game also manages to make improvements mechanically over 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, and blending them in as part of the plot is brilliant. Bring along better puzzles and a longer game, and you have a near perfect follow up to one of my favourite visual novel games.
Talking about getting lost in a virtual word, Far Cry 3 just shouts for you to explore its open tropical island and find hidden secrets, fight knife in hand against a bear or take a hand glider and float across the tree tops of this stunning looking canopy. Not to mention that after the intro and getting face to face with Vaas and his psychotic nature you just know this guy is going to be one bonkers, but memorable villain, and one of my favourite new characters of the year - shame he doesn't get the sending off he deserves. Far Cry 3 is jam packed with variety and it exposes it for you to just have fun in its world. Even the story missions are fairly enjoyable for the most part. Let’s burn fields of weed and put on some Skrillex - wub, wub, wub.
It seems game developers have been nice to me in the past two years, because I have had the pleasure of playing some of the best criminal open world games – Saints Row: The Third from last year and now the surprisingly awesome Sleeping Dogs. Mechanically, this game hits it out of the ballpark with top-rate animation, a Batman blended kung-fu melee combat system, respectable third-person shooting and easy to use free running. Wei Shen makes for a very likeable main protagonist and is surrounded by a worthy cast of characters. The story is interesting, especially if you are into the whole Triad gangster plot lines, and features a very unique setting, Hong Kong, which has yet to appear in an open world setting. Also, if you played it on the PC, then wow, what a brilliant looking game.
8. Forza Horizon
When Forza Horizon was first announced I was a little worried what was happening to the realistic driving franchise. Was Microsoft really making an open world racer that seemed to drop everything that made Forza awesome, changing the game to a more arcade-like experience to pick up extra sales from the Need for Speed crowd? Eventually I gave in and bought the game about a month after its release, and man, I am so happy my worries with the game were completely incorrect. This is an amazing racing game that feels fantastic to play and looks absolutely stunning. It manages to still feel like Forza - keeping all the customisation and classy style the game is known for, but throwing it into the beautiful open environment of Colorado that makes for some refreshing, thrilling and blissful drives across the dusty canyon. This is the racer of the year for me.
9. Torchlight II
While I played both Diablo III and Torchlight II extensively this year, I have to give my vote to Torchlight II being my favourite of the two games. The main reason is that it came with so many improvements over the original title that it truly felt like a sequel that was doing its best to appease everyone who had problems with the first game. For me, it was one of the best examples of a dungeon raiding; isometric loot game that kept the old classic approach instead of changing itself for easier gameplay access, one thing that I felt Diablo III was going for to bring in the World of Warcraft players. If you are looking for one action RPG this year you should make it this one.
10. Resident Evil: Revelations
In a year where the Resident Evil franchise has either been disappointing in survival horror or plain average as a game, thanks to Resident Evil 6 and Operation Raccoon City, it was nice to have at least one Resident Evil game that was great to play and felt that it still kept the survival horror intact. Of course, this just happened to be on Nintendo’s 3DS system, but even so, it had quality production values and an eerie soundtrack that needed you to sit down in a room and put on some headphones. This is a game that successfully captures the spirit of the franchise, but modernises it successfully at the same time. Resident Evil: Revelations is my favourite 3DS game of 2012.
so1337
1. Gravity Rush ; Moving around the different parts of the floating city of Hekseville by literally bending the laws of physics is so much fun that it's all too easy to forget that Gravity Rush features both a genuinely likable heroine and and an interesting story with more than a few twists and turns. Gravity Rush remains a very divisive game but it's unique take on the open world formula kept me hooked from start to finish. It's easily my favorite game of the year.
2. Fez ; Fez is much more than a charming indie platformer with a clever but somewhat familiar perspective-shifting hook. I realized this when I found myself deciphering abstract symbols using pen and paper to find one of the dozens of anticubes hidden in the game's vast and colorful world. I also realized that I haven't liked a video game soundtrack this much in a very long time.
3. The Walking Dead ; Let's get this out of the way first: I shouldn't have to copy save files, change their names and timestamps and move them all over the goddamn place just to play the game the way it was meant to be played. From a technical perspective, The Walking Dead is an absolute mess across all platforms. However, it is also one of the most engaging stories I've ever experienced in a videogame and the way it handles choice (or lack thereof) is truly remarkable.
4. Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward ; The direct sequel to 2010's visual novel 9 Persons 9 Hours 9 Doors had a lot to live up to, especially in terms of story. From the improved production values and the incredible voice work to the convenient visualization of previous decisions and playthroughs I prefer pretty much every aspect of Virtue's Last Reward. Expect for it's story. It just doesn't leave as much of an impression as the self-contained 999, which is mostly by virtue of it being the trilogy's middle chapter.
5. Super Hexagon ; Super Hexagon has replaced Canabalt as my favorite mobile timesink. Sure, you can play it on PCs and Macs but is clearly meant to be played on the go, whenever you've got a couple of minutes or even seconds to spare. People like to make fun of games on iPhone controlling like garbage but Hexagon's twitch-controls are about as close to perfection as you can get.
10. Binary Domain
Blue Ninja
so1337 said:
5. Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward
10. Alan Wake's American Nightmare
Yeah, you definitely have a point there. I had to replay the first two episodes because the game randomly decided to load up Episode 1 instead of 3. The fact that it still scores so high everywhere, even with those rampant issues, tells me it's something pretty special.
tim.mbp
Zissou said:
It looks like a non-game could win goty. At least in previous years in which I disagreed with GAF's #1 pick, the thing that won was a game.
Like MGS4.
Non-game http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-game ??
1. xenoblade chronicles ; i didn't think much of it when i first started playing. it trudges on a long time with story drama, and i couldn't really care, and then i'm suddenly thrust into an adventure and wow- i'm actually thrust into an adventure. xenoblade chronicles elicited the same feeling i had when i explored hyrule field from ocarina of time the first time. it reminded me that i used to play video games to explore their worlds and find treasures and fight monsters. and that's exactly what i did. i was so compelled to see what this game had to offer that i tacked 35 hours onto what would have normally been the endgame. i wanted to rebuild towns, conquer creatures that had been mocking me, and discover as much as i could about the bionis. it doesn't hurt that it had one of the best soundtracks i've heard in an rpg in some time, or that it was a lot of fun to switch between characters, each with their unique play styles. 125 hours marks the most time i've ever put into a single-player experience. i don't know when that will be matched, but it would have to be that year's best game.
2. sound shapes ; at this point, i've played so many platformers that it's getting more and more difficult to surprise me. sound shapes surprises me by being a 2d collectathon platformer where the collectathon element is immensely satisfying. the better you are at a level, and the more complete the song is. that's a simple concept pulled off incredibly well. the level design and the platforming mechanics are well done, and everything culminates in the beck levels. my only complaint is that the first beck level is the best thing in the game, and i'm left wanting more just like it. still, it's my favorite platformer of the year.
3. virtue's last reward ; make a story in a video game, and it damn well better have a purpose. a common dilemma is how game design and story don't get along. instead, virtue's last reward intricately weaves the story into the game design. it's playful with video game tropes, and all more worth the while for it. virtue's last reward is not the game its predecessor was- the story isn't as unique, nor are the stakes as high, but it's still one of the best examples of how you can tell a story in a game where dialogue and game design can ally with and not betray one another.
4. new super mario bros. 2 ; the presentation of nsmb2 is not its strong suit. no new music and barely updated graphics do it no favors. however, the level design is immensely satisfying. this time, there was a lot of thought given to the world map and how everything connects. it's the best platformer on the 3ds.
5. need for speed: most wanted ; i've wanted a sequel to burnout paradise for a long time, and i was so glad to get it. the added element of cop chases is a welcome one. more than just a racing game, it's an adventure game with a car.
6. dishonored ; another game where choices don't really matter in the grand scheme of things, but the toolset you're given is pretty large, and there is a lot of variety each mission. good art direction and level design go a long way.
7. journey ; i completed my pilgrimage with just one stranger. it brought a smile to my face when we skated down sand dunes, made me worried when they were attacked by monsters, and made me glad when i found them safe again. we helped each other find secret areas and protected each other as best we could, as long as we could. video games aren't art, but journey shows video games can be just as beautiful.
8. paper mario: sticker star ; this is more of a paper zelda game than the paper mario people were expecting, but i like that. the turn-based battles are unnecessary a lot of the time, the game is split into easy-to-access nodes ala super mario world, and there are some puzzles that require thinking outside the box. it's still paper mario, so it can be funny when it needs to be, and it can drag a bit too, but i found this one of the year's most pleasant surprises.
9. nba 2k13 ; every four or five years i will get a sports game and play the hell out of it. this was one of those years. 2k13 has a lot of different modes and customization, but it also has some of the longest load times in recent memory. some of the presentation leaves a lot to be desired- particularly voice acting of general managers and the main player in career mode- although it's not really that important since it's not the main focus of the game.
10. pokemon black 2 ; if i was still 13, i'd probably have this at #1. a direct sequel to a pokemon game? holy shit! well, i actually didn't pay attention in the first pokemon black, and i didn't pay much attention here. it was good ol' addicting fun, though, and it was great having all my guys from the previous game at the start instead of waiting until the end of the game like what usually happens because gamefreak is full of dicks.
x. the walking dead ; probably gets the award for best script and not much else. it was really cool to be making decisions in a zombie apocalypse world. it was really disappointing that you don't actually make any decisions that matter. there was some debate over the walking dead being a game, and it obviously is, but it's just a really bad one with some interesting characters.
x. mass effect 3 ; after mass effect 2, i think it was too much to expect bioware to deliver on the promise me1 had for the trilogy. still, it was disappointing when the ending happened and i didn't even get an 80s montage following up on characters and events of the game. there were a couple events that did work depending on what you did in me1, 2, and 3, and that was cool to see. just a shame what happened to the series.
x. kid icarus: uprising ; i played only 13 games from 2012, and this is easily my least favorite. the controls make it hard to play, and the on-foot level design makes it almost unplayable. somehow i managed to get through all of it thanks to a surprisingly humorous script, some good voice acting, and really great music. also, the on-rails flying stuff was pretty good so i can't complain there.
Joseph Merrick
1. drox operative ; awesome action rpg
Hargenx
1. HALO 4; Amazing game, amazing story, and great multiplayer.
2. The Witcher 2; I played last year, and played it again on the 360, just fantastic.
3. Sleeping Dogs; Great game and a AMAZING combat system, little broken, but is ok made me feel like Jet li.
4. Footbal manager 13; meth in form of a game.
5. X-COM; How I can love so much a broken game...it's X-com!
6. FTL; That image of the dog to the ship blowing up says all.
7. Max Payne 3; Best TPS this gen.
8. FIFA 13; Getting better every year.
9. The Walking dead; More like a interactive movie but ok, and that end, awesome.
10. Dishonored; Good game, the sequel has lot of potential.
x. Dark Souls; Don't get a place in top 10 for the port been so bad.
x. Tekken Tag 2; Best fighting game of the year, but to fuzzy sometimes.
EYEL1NER
I guess I will finally take part in a GotY thread:
1. Warriors Orochi 3; My most fun game all year. There isn't much I can say except that I love the Musou games, especially the Orochi series. The characters from both Samurai and Dynasty Warriors (and so fucking many of them at that) together whooping ass and killing tons of dudes. It kept me playing for so long and it made me wish that the 360 version had a timer to see how many hours were sank into it.
2. Dragon's Dogma; I had a blast customizing my character and pawn. I would have to type a very long post describing the cool moments I encountered in combat, but there were a lot of them. Times when I sat back and said aloud "I can't believe that just happened!"
3. Sleeping Dogs; The game feels like every one of my favorite HK movies. Combat is the Arkham-style combat of counters, but the moves you pull off and string together look so cool and punishing. The main character is slick as hell and the open-world environment is great.
4. Lollipop Chainsaw; It's Grasshopper, how could it not be good? The soundtrack was something I really liked and I enjoyed the combat as well. The sense of humor was certainly good. The game has a good number of unlockables that add replayability, in addition to trying to get high scores. Then again, I knew I had to have the game as soon as it was announced that Jimmy Urine was involved.
5. Forza Horizon; This came out of nowhere for me. I was looking forward to NFS: Most Wanted all year and only grabbed this on BF because it was cheap and I buy any and every 360 game I can. The game looks incredible and the environment is perfect for just cruising around in. The soundtrack is killer as well. I prefer straight-up arcade racers, but this has just enough 'sim' to it that I am still enjoying it. I just wish I was better with the wireless speed wheel; I've always used standard controllers for racing games.
6. Darkness 2; The sequel to a game I loved. The cel-shaded graphics looked great IMO and really added to the game. The controls were really good; quad-wielding felt so natural and it was easy to pull off really destructive combat.
7. SSX; This was my go-to game for just relaxing and zoning out. I had my songs in the game that I liked and would drop onto a mountain and just cruise on down. I was never that big an SSX fan before this gen, so I guess I didn't have much to be disappointed about.
8. Dead or Alive 5; The game looks fantastic. The character models all look incredible, as do the stages. Though I am mainly a 2D fighter fan, DoA is my favorite of the 3D fighters and I knew I would love a new game in the series. It was a long time since 4 came out.
9. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning; I thought this game was great for being a first game. Everything that happened surrounding this game was a damn shame, because I would have liked to see what else could have been done with the game world. I liked the game's visuals a lot, the scenery and world they created.
10. Asura's Wrath; This game felt like every shōnen anime I ever watched when I was 15. It had so many badass moments that left me sitting there with my jaw on the floor. The characters and story really drew me in as well.
I feel bad if anyone reads those comments, because I ended up typing a lot of words that pretty much said "This game is on the list because I liked it and thought it was cool." But yeah, those are my favorite games of the year. I haven't dug fully into many of the games to release in the last three months yet; hazards of having hundreds of games in my backlog and trying to juggle a dozen or two at the same time. So maybe I will end up liking Dishonored more than one of those games, or Spec Ops or something.
But it was an easy choice for me to say that Warriors Orochi 3 was my GotY. Like the Orochi games and Gundam Musou titles before it, I did not get much sleep at all the week that came out. I wasn't working when that released either, so I'm pretty sure I was able to beat my '50 hours the first week' record that Gundam Musou 2 held.
Now to decide if I want to track down the 'Biggest Disappointments 2012' thread and rant about Assassin's Creed 3 all morning or if I want to get to sleep for work tonight...
Fine Ham Abounds
Domstercool said:
Heh, well this is interesting, thanks for that.
More Fun To Compute
1. Legend of Grimrock ; Atmospheric, demanding and just a great RPG adventure in the broken tradition of great computer RPGs. A wonderful modern reboot of the genre to introduce young gamers to, like everyone below 30.
2. Hotline Miami ; This game is like Halo only better. A few seconds of fun over and over again except now that fun is more intense. The music sucks which almost makes it not worth playing although you can turn the sound off.
3. Mount & Blade: Warband - Napoleonic Wars ; A brilliant multiplayer shooter with guns that cannot hit anything most of the time and take 30 seconds to reload between shots. Includes musicians who play music badly. Engineers who dig holes instead of planting ammo. No XP, leveling up, microtransations, unlocking but you can play on 200 man servers. Highly recommended.
4. Warlock: Master of the Arcane ; Compared to the Firaxis games that it competes with it feel light on feautures and has gameplay that seems to free flowing with a lack of critical key decisions to make. But still it manages to put up a good fight and is very
compelling.
5. FTL: Faster Than Light ; A great spaceship combat and exploration game. My only problem with it is that sometimes it feels a bit too much like there are not enough builds that are as viable as the best and it relies a bit too much on replaying to get the right lucky events to unlock things and get what you need.
6. Quantum Conundrum ; Has some really great environments and puzzles to solve. Not enough challenging ones or the wrong sort of challenge sometimes? Maybe, but when it works it is a really satisfying game.
7. Planetside 2 ; At it's best it generates some unpredictable large scale combat encounters.
1. XCOM Enemy Unknown ; XCOM Enemy Unknown is to be played on Ironman Difficulty. There is no other option. On this difficulty, It’s the kind of game that when I’m not playing it I’m just constantly thinking about playing. It’s so engrossing that it actually infected my dreams for two weeks changing most of them into turn based affairs involving ant farm side views, aliens, laser guns, movement limits, and constant bizarre deep voice narration from a shadowy figure. Because of Iron Man mode, every single decision becomes intensified. Suddenly, that decision to build another medkit or save the money for after your next mission becomes the most pivotal decision of the game. Iron Man causes each trooper you have to become exceedingly precious to you, especially when they level up enough to get nicknames. Iron Man causes you to agonize over every single dice roll during combat, and even then know exactly the mission where it all went to hell. Iron Man causes the game to have an actual “Game Over” screen where the countries of the world decide you can’t protect them, withdraw from XCOM, and let the aliens win. The best thing about XCOM, though, is that even in this time of crushing defeat, where you team has been wiped off the face of the earth, you then rush back to start a new game with a new plan, ready to kick some alien ass. I love strategy games, and XCOM is easily right up there with Valkyria Chronicles as best of the generation. I can’t wait to play this game again in 5 months when I get bored one afternoon.
2. Ys Origin ; I love, love, lovelovelove Action Role Playing Games, and I completely forgot how much I did until I played Ys Origin. There is nothing better in gaming then pulling your shit together, memorizing a boss’ patterns, and finally cracking it’s skull open by dodging attacks and hitting it at the right moment. Sure, you could just pop out and grind the one level you need to fight him/it/her comfortably, but fuck you I have the skill, and that mother-F-er is going down! Also, the music in this game is beautiful, exciting (Best Rocking Guitars of the Year!), tension building , and Boss perfect . I could link almost every song in the soundtrack, that’s how great it is. Ys Origin, thank you for making me remember how much I love ARPGs. Because of you, I bought and loved, loved, lovedlovedloved Ys: Oath in Felghana. Although both were “released” on Steam this year, Origin gets the nod a) because I like the tower structure a little better than running back to town, b) I liked replaying the game as multiple characters to get different perspectives, and c) because I played and remember Ys 1 and 2, which Origin references a lot. Speaking of (b), I know a game is good when I instantly want to play it again after I beat it, and then a 3rd time after that.
3. Tokyo Jungle ; Tokyo Jungle is just a game, and unabashedly so. It’s a ridiculous concept in a ridiculous setting with ridiculous mechanics, and it’s so much damn fun. The quickest way to play the game is to pick an animal and immediately try and unlock the next animal, which can take anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes of doing the starting challenges. The actual way to play the game is to unlock the next animal, and then for some reason try and survive as long as possible against the insane odds the game throws at you. The beauty of the game ends up being the crazy stories that you tell your buddies: “Oh man, yesterday I got my baby chick to level 65, outran a pack of raptors in the park, managed to mate with another chicken to extend my lifespan, and then accidentally dropped down a manhole only to be ripped apart by a pack of sewer alligators.” The icing on the cake is that the story mode in the game, while silly, actually explains what the hell is going on and in a really fun way. That’s right: it actually makes sense why there are pomeranians, bears, lions, and raptors running around with no humans anywhere. If that’s not an accomplishment, I don’t know what is.
4. Double Dragon Neon ; Wacky 80’s fun that plays hard on nostalgia for everything that made the era great, but wins every single time it does. I downloaded this with almost no hope for it being good (free from PSN+) and ended up having a blast playing through solo. I couldn’t believe that I was having fun playing a beat-em-up in 2012, actually enjoying the combat and its mechanics, and completely loving the hell out of the music, style, and general 80’s stupidity in game. And man, can I just point out how much I love the music? I must have spent an hour on the mix tape screen alone once I unlocked them all. When a game makes you go from apathy to genuinely loving it you know something was done right. Also, Props to the best ending song in a game (“Dared to Dream” since “Still Alive” from Portal. Yes, I think it’s just as good. I have no idea how it holds up if you haven’t played the game, but by the end of the game my feelings had completely flipped on Skullmageddon (the silly looking skeleton boss) from “stupid enemy” to “He’s like the Monarch from Venture Brothers!”, and the final song fit so perfectly.
5. Black Mesa ; You would think that when Half-Life 1 is one of your favorite games of all time you would avoid a remake by an unknown team that has nothing to do with Valve at all costs. Instead, I downloaded and played through Black Mesa when it was released and was blown away. Even with the amount of time it’s been since I played the original clouding my judgment as to how good it originally looked and played I still LOVED this remake of it. It somehow captured everything about the original that made it wonderful and brought those feelings flooding back. The greatest compliment I can give this is that I can seriously say that If I ever want to play HL1 again, I can instead play Black Mesa and feel completely satisfied. Hell, not having Zen in is sort of a bonus. Now who do I have to sleep with to get these guys to remake Half-Life: Opposing Force?
6. Vessel ; A fluid mechanics puzzle platformer that is mostly puzzling (in a good way!). Vessel struck that wonderful balance that all puzzle games hope to achieve where you wander into a room and think “Oh god, how am I going to do this”, but then screw around for a bit and easily figure it out on your own. Also, it does a great job of slowly adding new items, wrinkles, and objects that change the puzzles and how everything interacts. It starts off so simple with water and one “eye” type, and by the end of the game you are finding ways to create Fluros of different elements and temperaments so that they will run into each other and explode, or light up a dark area, or turn into steam, or even turn a generator somewhere. God, it’s just so much fun!
7. Spec Ops: The Line ; The gameplay in this game (the cover, shooting, weapons, etc… are all incredibly mediocre and serviceable, but the reason this game ends up on my list is because after everything is said and done, that’s kind of what the game is about in the first place. The greatest amount of praise that I can give Spec Ops is that it’s a game I thought about more after I finished it. I don’t mean this in a Bioshock way where it was just a “Oh man, what a twist”moment. It’s more along the lines of coming to the climax, thinking “That…was a neat twist”, and then starting to think what everything meant outside of the game. Spec Ops did the thing I love most from any media I absorb: cause me to seek out discussion on it. The most fun I had with this game was reading everything after I turned off the game: the message boards, the interviews with the developer, and the breakdowns of specific moments on Youtube. If I could wish for one thing, it would be a Developer’s Commentary mode like Starbreeze did in Escape from Butcher Bay or Valve did in Teamfortress 2 and Half-Life 2 + Episodes.
8. Asura’s Wrath ; QTE’s the game. No, that’s a good thing. Not only do I love the sheer insanity of what happens on screen, I love the lengths the game goes to in order to present it: giant button prompts, crazy prompt locations, late title cards, “Next time on Asura’s Wrath!”, etc…. I’ve read the argument that watching someone else play is just as good as playing, and I can’t disagree more. My only proof is that I was too cheap to buy the true ending of the game (sub note: awesome job on a DLC plan there Capcom) so I instead opted to watch it on Youtube. While insane and fun, I was more bored watching that then I was playing any part of the game itself. There is just something much more fun about hitting that giant flaming X prompt, or mashing the buttons to B U R S T than watching someone else do it.
9. Botanicula ; A beautiful storybook with puzzles, humor, and all around zaniness. Another type of game I never thought I would like, but ended up finishing in one sitting. I loved constantly being surprised by what was on each screen, by how you interacted with the world, by how much charm each and every bug and flower in the game had, and by how much I cared about a bunch of bugs saving a seed from a giant soul-sucking spider.
10. Torchlight 2 ; Disclaimer: I’ve only played around 5 hours and am just getting into this game, but I can already tell it’s exactly what I wanted from Torchlight 1. Thus far, the Multiplayer has been great fun and there has been tons of loot. If anything, there is almost too much damn loot. Nothing kills the fun like opening my inventory only to have to spend the next 5 minutes sorting through items.
x. Superbrothers Sword and Sworcery EP ; Great art, great music, great exploration, great fun. As someone who generally kind of hates adventure games and pixel hunt mechanics, I was blown away by how much I liked this game. It makes me wish I had a tablet, as I’m sure it’s the best platform to play on.
x. Orcs Must Die! 2 ; It was more Orcs Must Die. Yes, that was fun and great, but at the same time…. It was just more Orcs Must Die. I still had a blast playing through it with a friend but I have 0 urge to replay through solo or beat my old high scores. I’m hoping that when I get bored over the summer I’ll come back and give it another try because I can tell it’s great game, it just hasn’t grabbed me.
x. Planetside 2 ; This game would have been on my list if the F2P treadmill wasn’t so insane, and I say this as someone who subscribed for the first month! It just takes way to damn long to get anything substantial (new guns and weapons in particular) without spending money, and even then things are just a little too expensive (the 500 points I got for my month of subscribing got me 0 items I wanted for the three classes I played). I would have gladly paid for this game at release and yet it really irks me that I backed that up by subscribing for a month only to feel like I got nothing out of it. Other than it being F2P though, it’s the most fun I’ve had playing an online shooter since Teamfortress 2.
x. Frog Fractions ; What. The. Hell. If you read this far and don't know what the hell Frog Fractions is and have 15 minutes to spare, click this link --> http://twinbeardstudios.com/frog-fractions <-- right now. A little hint, there is more to the game then just a joke at the expense of 80s learning software and a bad Missile Command clone. It goes deeper, and gets insane.
x. 2011. Q.U.B.E. ; After the utter disappointment that was Quantum Conundrum, I picked up Q.U.B.E. on a sale having almost no hope for it. What I discovered is that a first person puzzle game with no narration, or story, or really anything other than rooms connected with doors is still an awesome game. Aside from some silly “in the dark” puzzles, Q.U.B.E. made me happier and feel smarter than QC did at any point during it.
Whew.... that was a lot, but a lot of fun to reflect back on. Time to read the rest of the thread that I missed!
Later votes overwrite previous votes. If the overwriting ones don't have any comments, it'll be disqualified.
mkenyon
1. Tribes: Ascend ; A return to pure adrenaline FPS with a great free to play model.
2. Guild Wars 2 ; Finally an MMO that made every aspect of the game fun, even the combat.
3. Hotline Miami ; This is the first time where art direction and soundtrack actually made me enjoy the game more.
5. Crusader Kings II ;
6. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 ; PC matchmaking based on a modified ELO system is always welcome.
7. FTL: Faster than Light ;
8. Torchlight II ;
9. XCOM: Enemy Unknown ;
10. Borderlands 2 ;
Nocturnowl
Owensboro said:
*list*
I've gotta say, I really enjoyed reading this list and that's with only one game here (possibly) matching up to my own choices when I finish my write ups, if I had to explain why i'd say something like that it had a fair bit of charisma to it.
Ken Masters
3. Dust: An Elysian Tale
Nocturnowl said:
Hah, thanks! I'm just glad someone read that huge text dump at all.
I'm not too suprised if your choices don't match up. Due to a bout with unemployment during this year, I really didn't get to play a ton of $60 games. With that being said though, I'm not sad at all that most of my games this year are smaller affairs. I'm really, really looking forward to getting a few paychecks in the bank and catching up on all the games that everyone is listing.
Orayn
1. Kid Icarus: Uprising ; A challenging, content-rich experience that exemplifies Sakurai's unique style.
2. Frog Fractions ; Subversive, hilarious, and sublime. An amazing parody of various video game tropes that manages to have a few breathtaking moments in its own right. I smiled from start to finish.
5. Planetside 2
6. Darksiders 2
Didn't play very many games this year, but here's my (short) list. Also, I have to preface this by saying Dota 2 would be my #1 if it were allowed, as I've invested 1000+ hours into it and absolutely love it. So next year it will likely top my list.
1. The Walking Dead; incredible achievement for storytelling and character development in games. I've never played anything like it, and have never before been so emotionally invested in a game. Shame to hear about the glitches/bugs some have experienced, but I was lucky enough to have a bug-free playthrough that was amazing throughout. Needless to say season 2 is a day 1 purchase for me.
2. Hotline Miami; not perfect, but a damn fun indie game with exciting and fluid gameplay. The music was also top notch. The story left a bit to be desired, but it was a good effort.
3. Guild Wars 2; I didn't actually finish the main story, and haven't touched the game in months. I was really hyped for the game leading up to its release, but it came out at the start of my school term and I just didn't feel like investing a lot of time into an MMO. However, I played it enough to know that they did an amazing job in terms of world building and art. I disagree with some of the mechanics they introduced, but it's still a good game that I hope to get back to eventually.
SA-X
1. FTL: Faster Than Light ; Being a complete sci-fi nerd, this game perfectly captures the feeling of being a starship captain navigating in hostile space. A really amazing indie game with lots of hidden depth and replay value thanks to the randomly generated universe each time you play. Definitely the best game of the year.
2. The Unfinished Swan ; The most creative game I played this year. I think I had a smile on my face the entire time I played it. It also earns points for proving that games can be artistic and still have, you know, actual gameplay. I do however wish the mechanics were fleshed out a bit more, at times this game feels like it's on the verge of becoming a portal esque puzzle platformer masterpiece but sadly it never quite gets there.
3. Hotline Miami ; This game is basically the Super Meat Boy of twin-stick shooters. Great soundtrack, solid simple gameplay mechanics that are done really well, and constantly getting your ass handed to you on these tiny little levels until you finally get it right and all you can say is "f yeah, bring on the next one!". Add it all up and you have a tremendous game. I wish there was co-op play though, as the game is begging for it.
4. Quantum Conundrum
5. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 ; Ok, ok, I know. The single player campaign is shit. The multiplayer is shit. But good lord man, zombie mode? It's freaking fantastic! And when making this list I realized that's good enough for it to be one of the best games of 2012.
2011. Deus Ex: Human Revolution ; Great linear-sandbox gameplay, and the terrific art direction and music created a fantastic atmosphere. It would have been #2 on my list for 2011 (after Portal 2) if I had gotten a chance to play it last year.
There were some other games I played this year, but those are the only ones I think are worthy of any recognition. Pretty pathetic year really, thankfully 2011 was ridiculously overflowing with quality so I spent much of my game playing time this year catching up on games I missed. I still have Dishonored and Far Cry 3 in my backlog, so if both of those live up to the GAF hype (lol) they might possibly salvage this year however.
We really need new systems at this point so we can get some new AAA IPs, looking forward to 2013 and sweeping 2012 under the rug like it never happened.
Owensboro -- really awesome job you did on your list. Mine will look a lot different, but I loved reading your opinions. Also, I'm really curious about Frog Fractions now.
radioheadrule83
1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 ; Snobs won't like this pick, but for all its aim assist and hilarious campaign that borders on parody, this series has the sheer user base and funding behind it to keep it a compelling series worth playing. Its big and its fun and there are loads of people playing it to have fun with. Zombies is great. I know I'm not in love with it but I've logged way too much time with it on both 360 and Wii U now not to acknowledge it.
2. Sonic & Sega All Star Racing Transformed ; The next Mario Kart has a lot to live up to. Sadly not had too many opportunities to play it repeatedly in local multiplayer but it was great when I did and the wealth of modes and challenge in the game is great. Unlocks in recent MK games are a chore... This is always fun. Probably the best new kart racer since DKR and Crash Team Racing
3. Sleeping Dogs ; I liked the True Crime games, but they were in many ways - pretenders to GTAs throne. Like Saints Row, the developer and Squeenix managed to make something that feels like its own thing, and not a me-too title.. I love kung fu movies and this felt like a worthy videogame equivalent, even with a bit of hard boiled and infernal affairs thrown in. The last game aside from the arkham games to make me feel like I was playing a fun character in a world rather than a marionette in a game with superficial gameplay. Other games try to be movies, this just pays homage to its inspirations.
I think Journey is getting a lot of justified votes, and for myself I've played a lot of the likes of fallblox and new art academy. The games I expected to love this year were, surprisingly, not as great as I'd hoped (Darksiders 2) - and other games I've really enjoyed are ones I've actually been quite LTTP with.
I thought NSMB2 was terrible to be honest, and while I have just finished NSMBU and loved it, I know the best is yet to come from Wii U... In fact, whatever the best is, it hasn't been announced.
I was glad to see Rayman Jungle Run get a mention... And there's a lot of games listed here I'll have to add to my backlog
I'm looking forward to Rayman Legends, The Cave, Runner 2 and whatever surprises E3 and future Nintendo Directs may bring.
manfestival
1. Journey ; It was such a unique and fantastic experience.
2. Diablo 3 ; Cant think of a game this year that I have spent more time playing(league of legends comes close). I got to level 40 then quit, picked the game up after 1.04 and became addicted. Then I met some gaffers and well... thats all she wrote
3. FTL ; the first 5 minutes were somewhat dull so I dropped it. Picked it up a week later and became hooked. Still havent beaten it but its always fun to get a difference crew and different results.
4. The Walking Dead ; gave me the same kind of engaging ride that I got from heavy rain.
5. Mass effect 3 ; The game was probably too ambitious for the amount of time that they had to complete it. I was able to enjoy the game a bit despite its glaring flaws and poor ending.
6. Asuras wrath ; It was like having a high budget interactive anime on my tv and I really enjoyed it.
7. Warriors Orochi 3 ; It was my return to the musou franchise and it didnt disappoint. Spent quite a bit of time playing this
8. Hawken ; fun mech game
9. Guild wars 2 ; it was not what I was expecting
2011. Dark Souls ; Still playing it
A Pretty Panda
fuckin' called it, man
I don't play a lot of video games
1. Sleeping Dogs ; FUCK
2. Angry Birds Star Wars ; The only Angry Birds game I have played to completion. I'm not even a hug Star Wars fanatic either. It's the new SW-related powers each bird gets that make this game so fun. Aiming your red bird then tapping the screen to have your lightsaber come out as a spiral of death is pretty satisfying.
3. Double Dragon Neon ; They make a reference to Bimmy and Jimmy Lee
2011. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 ; I think I put like 1200 hours into this game.
VALIS said:
Most Overrated:
Really, GAF? If the story was typical gangsta or mafia instead of kung fu movie I think a lot of you would hate this sloppy game.
Yeah that's precisely it.
Ratrat
1. Dark Souls Durante Edition (it's like a new game in this resolution and fr stability!!)
For the love of GAF people, please read the OP so you can format your entry correctly.
A lot of posts are going to fall by the wayside at this rate.
ikkei
EDIT: Oops
I didn't play too many games this year but I liked most of them. Only Yakuza Dead Souls and maybe Resonance dissappointed me.
1. Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown ; Sega did a wonderful job with this port. Online worked really well, the trainning mode was superb, Sega's youtube tutorials were a nice addition, the inclusion of 7 soundtrack from the previous titles was a great idea and graphics and gameplay were really good. The only thing I hate about this game (and other fighting games nowadays) is that in the end you can just play with one or two characters if you want to do it well.
2. Botanicula ; Really nice game. It's awesome sound-wise and I loved it's humor. I liked the pace of the game too.
3. The Walking Dead ; Telltale did a great job with this license, as usual. The graphics were better than I expected and the story worked really well. They will have a bad time while trying to surpass what they achieved here. It'd be probably in the first position if it wasn't for the unforgivable saving errors.
4. Dear Esther ; Interesting story, great graphics.
5. Tribes Ascend ; I mostly played when it was still on beta, but loved its solid and unique gameplay.
6. The Unfinished Swan ; I usually don't like stories for childs but still liked the game for its graphics and some nice gameplay ideas.
1. The Walking Dead ; Nice story.
2. Journey ; Made me feel like an 8 year old with such wonder
3. Borderlands 2 ; Had a blast playing that game from start to finish with 3 friends.
4. Hotline Miami ; That soundtrack.
5. Dishonored ; Great new IP.
6. Torchlight 2 ; Great ARPG.
7. Fez ; Such a hidden master piece.
8. Rayman Jungle Run ; Mobile game made good.
9. Spec Ops: The Line ; Nice character development.
10. Counter Strike: Global Offensive ; That MP is still epic.
2011. Batman: Arkham City ; These games are truly games and epic.
Neon_Icarus
Most of the PS3 games I've played this year (Uncharted 3, Arkham City etc...) were older titles, so this is going to be quite a Nintendo-heavy list.
As for Xenoblade, I voted for it last year so it won't make an appearence.
1. Last Story ; Beautifully streamlined JRPG. Original and nostalgic at the same time. Perfect for someone like me who hates bloated RPGs.
2. ZombiU ; Glorious return of true survival horror. Also proves that the features of the Wii U gamepad can have a really big effect on the gameplay experience.
3. Kid Icarus: Uprising ; Ridiculously packed full of content. The simple, yet deep controls and game system are clearly a result of very smart, elegant design.
4. Pandora’s Tower ; Given it's low production values, I'm not expecting this to appear on anyone else's list. But I loved it. We don't get this kind of Japanese dark fantasy nearly often enough. The core concept of the game is very original too. Makes great use of the Wii pointer controls as well.
5. Gravity Rush ; Beautiful presentation. This is the kind of original, ambitious game we used to get from Japan more often. Shame that the combat system could have clearly used some refinement. Maybe in the sequal?
6. Fire Emblem: Heroes of Light and Shadow ; A great return to form for the series after the dissapointing Shadow Dragon. Shame it was never released in the West.
7. Nintendo Land ; I was really sceptical of Nintendoland when I first saw it, but after actually playing it, I quickly changed my mind. Lovely presentation. Some of the games are pretty satisfying as single player experiences too.
8. Resident Evil: Revelations ; A game of two halves. The parts that feel like classic RE are great. Some other parts are not as good. The story is completely nonsensical and stupid.
9. Project Zero 2: Wii Edition ; Not as good as Project Zero 4, but still a tense, classy horror experience. Can't wait for the inevitable Wii U game!
10. New Super Mario Bros U ; It was definitely enjoyable. Some other year it would have been higher on my list, but I guess I'm just kind of bored with the series now.
EGM1966
1. Journey ; The equivalent of the little film that delivers an experience beyond the big budget explosions of the usual blockbuster suspects. Loved it from start to finish over multiple plays both alone and with others. As a side note was there ever a game where you felt so close to someone else only to be amazed when you saw some of the nametags? I loved discovering someone called KillYouOften666 was willing to spend ages being patient and loyal with you across multiple levels.
2. Dishonored ; I love great worlds delivered via SP experiences. I love multiple approach gameplay with emergent experiences. I love stealth and finding out hidden back-stories. I love Victorian and Steampunk trappings. Clearly there was a lot for me to love in Dishonored.
3. Planetside 2 ; Sometimes more really is better. I don't play much MP but hey, if your're going to go into battle online why not have a lot of company? I have no idea if its balanced or not but I love the experience when it's going full blast
4. Dear Esther ; A very different feel from Journey but another great experience for me. The mood and tone were great and the levels astonishing in their sense of place. Would have liked a tiny bit more interaction - but then that might have spoiled one of the interpretations. The final moments were quite something.
5. Gravity Rush ; Loved the setting and the mechanics. Would have liked a little more ground covered narrative wise but overall my favorite RPG experience for a while and a place I still return to when the mood takes me.
6. Uncharted Golden Abyss ; more of the same really, but it's a well I enjoy every trip to so it still delivered for me. Liked some of the new mechanics (taking photos, dusting off stuff, etc) and enjoyed the trip as always.
7. Borderlands 2 ; bigger and better in all the right ways and a blast to play
8. Sleeping Dogs ; not normally a fan of the GTA style but the setting and approach worked for me and I enjoyed it a lot
9. Tokyo Jungle ; simply batshit mad who thought of that madness that I enjoyed a whole lot despite the somewhat shallow mechanics
10. LittleBigPlanet Vita ; It felt fresh, the touch input made a ton of sense for this IP and the art style entranced me as always.
Hobbestetrician
Played exactly 10 games that were released in 2012.
1. Journey; A perfect blend of visuals, mechanics, music, and premise. We all have a Journey co-op story because it was such a great idea used perfectly to enhance the experience. A transcendent game filled with beauty, heartbreak, and triumph. Sand surfing is an all-time moment for me.
2. The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition; Pretty much the polar opposite of Journey while still being a tremendous experience. Compelling (while also complicated and confusing) adult story that is genuinely affected by decisions you make. A fantastic world filled with great characters and great writing. The best looking game I have seen on 360.
3. Assassin's Creed III; I was all in once the time period was announced. Not all changes were for the better and most of the side content was filler but walking around Boston Harbor, running through the snow in the Frontier, and steering my ship in the Caribbean while cannons boomed around me more than made up for it.
4. Nintendo Land; Tons of great content for both single and multiplayer. Filled with typical Nintendo charm. Surprising amount of content and depth while also being newcomer friendly. The only game my wife has wanted to play with me. Great use of the GamePad and illustrates its capabilities. Might not set the world on fire like Wii Sports but is infinitely better.
5. ZombiU; The best game featuring zombies this year. Uses the GamePad in very novel ways that enhance the gameplay and tension. Legitimately terrifying at moments and leaves you on your toes. Punishing gameplay requires strategy and preparation.
6. New Super Mario Bros. U; Probably the best 2D Mario game ever. Seemless overworld map, secret exits, power-ups, and Challenge mode improve upon NSMBWii in every single way. Looks so smooth and great in HD.
7. The Walking Dead; I feel that The Walking Dead TV show is merely a good show that gets by on its premise more than its characters or writing. While the game certainly solves those problems, I went in thinking I could finally make decision and affect the outcome that usually leave me frustrated with the direction of the TV show. When I realized my choices were more for emotional differences rather than story differences (a specific example is a shocking, unavoidable moment in Episode 3), the game dropped quite a bit on my list. Still a tremendous achievement but would actually benefit at times from having less gameplay.
8. Resident Evil 6; My analogy for RE 6 is that of a band releasing a double album. Messy, chaotic, abrupt shifting of styles, would have been better if it were edited down, but still filled with some great moments. Not nearly the mess reviews would have you think but certainly not up with the best in the series.
9. Little Inferno; A great little experimental game that may just be about burning things but is very addictive. You will want to find all 99 combos. Nice art style, music, and little touches to items that you burn. Enjoyed the story, too. Sugar Plumps and The Weather Man were both great.
10. SSX; My first SSX game so I came into this with no expectations. The Deadly Descents premise was certainly hit or miss and the bottomless pits were frustrating but once you got into a groove and were working your Tricky it really was a lot of fun. The Global Event online integration was a great way to compete with your friends and people around the world.
2011 - Rayman Origins; Great cartoon visuals, tight controls, zany music, and interesting levels make it a top-tier 2D platformer. Bring on Legends.
Thanks. Think I figured a decent way to do it, typing it out as ten, nine, eight, etc. and then actually using the numbers in the proper order with cliffnoted comments afterwards formated for the parser.
MichaelEM3
videogamenewsnetwork.com
1. The Walking Dead ; It is my firm belief that Season 1 of Telltale's The Walking Dead will be remembered as a catalyst for the evolution of the medium, in no small part, thanks to how it was initially distributed. Where Valve and others have failed, Telltale succeeded: The Walking Dead serves as a shining example of how to handle episodic content right. With The Walking Dead, Telltale managed to keep players interested in episodic content like never before, creating true "discussions around the watercooler at work" moments once only the realm of television and film. But all that aside, in The Walking Dead, an immaculately paced and heart-wrenching story collides with some of the most lovingly crafted characters to ever appear in the medium. At times, it's uplifting and even cathartic, but most of the time it's dark, tense, dramatic, frightening, and downright depressing. Its more poignant moments nearly brought me to tears. Easily the Game of the Year in my eyes.
2. Persona 4 Arena ; Persona 4 is one of the greatest RPGs ever made. Its cast is endearing, charming, and relatable; its story is quirky, engrossing, and unconventional; its gameplay is forward-thinking, addictive, nonlinear, and cohesive; and its visual and audio presentation is second to none, featuring some of the most sytlish menus and catchty tunes ever committed to the genre. It's also 80-100 hours long, but I enjoyed every single second of my time with the game. Golden is the definitive version of the game, addressing nearly all the issues with the original game, transforming it into a bonafide masterpiece in my mind.
3. XCOM: Enemy Unknown ; While I cant speak to how the game holds up to the revered original, I can speak to personal experience: for me, XCOM: Enemy Unknown is right up there with the likes of Final Fantasy Tactics, the Fire Emblem series, and Valkyria Chronicles in the high tier list of excellent turn-based strategy RPGs. Not since the aforementioned Valkryira Chronicles back in 2008 have I been this addicted to a game in this genre. With Enemy Unknown, Firaxis Games have brought their trademark one more turn/game seductiveness to a grueling, albeit immensely satisfying, game about humanity fighting off an alien invasion.
4. Xenoblade Chronicles ; With the lone exception of Atlus' Shin Megami Tensei series, I'm of the opinion that Japanese RPGs have stagnated in recent years. Current generation entries in the Final Fantasy and Tales series, for instance, just haven't grabbed me like previous iterations from generations past. Fortunately, Xenoblade Chronicles is the personified antithesis to the modern big budget Japanese RPG. Completely uncompromising in its artistic vision, Xenoblade Chronicles don't give a damn that it is on the Wii. Xenoblade Chronicles is a game that combines the sensibilities of Western and Easter game design, nearly perfect in its marriage of the two philosophies. Not only is it the best Japanese RPG on the system, in my humble opinion, it's the best Japanese RPG of its generation of consoles (Wii, 360, PS3). If you're a fan of the genre, you should absolutely play it.
5. Journey ; While it may not be my favorite game released this year, thatgamecompany's Journey is probably the closest thing to a perfect video game on this list. There are no "Unfortunately"s or "However"s with Journey, unless of course you think it's strange to pay ~$15 for a 90 minute experience, which to that I say: "People pay $10-15 every week to see films that don't even invoke an iota of the emotional response that Journey does." In Journey, the aesthetically pleasing visuals and the moving score work in perfect tandem to deliver an experience that I won't soon forget. But where it truly shines is the experience of actually playing it: the mere act of jumping, floating, and chirping your way through Journey's gorgeous and meticulously crafted world was enough to invoke feelings of joy and happiness from within me.
6. Borderlands 2 ; Borderlands 2 feels like someone at Gearbox sat down, built a checklist of all the first game's issues -- a forgettable story, a terrible final boss fight, idiotic A.I., the lack of a trading system, the overuse of the color brown -- and set out to fix them. As a whole, the game definitely feels more reactionary than evolutionary to me, which is totally fine, because personally I was totally down for more Borderlands.
7. Spelunky ; Like Super Meat Boy and Mark of the Ninja, Spelunky is one of those 2D games with perfect controls. Spelunky is an abject asshole of a game at times, but it's kind of why I love it. It's probably the one game I've sunk the most time into this year.
8. Mark of the Ninja ; From Klei Entertainment, the creators of N+ and the visually-striking but ultimately forgettable Shank series, comes Mark of the Ninja, one of the most mechanically-sound, playable, and downright fun 2D stealth games I've ever played. To be perfectly honest, the only reason the game isn't higher on my list is because the story, while somewhat interesting at points, is pretty throwaway. But a forgettable story is no reason to disregard one of the best downloadable titles -- nay, games -- released this year. Mark of the Ninja is a true triumph for the pure stealth genre: not since Arkham Asylum's "Predator" scenarios have I gotten such a rush out of clearing an entire room of witless guards without a single thing going wrong.
9. Dishonored ; With Dishonored, Arkane Studios have crafted another great stealth-action RPG very much in the vein of games like Deus Ex, Thief, and even the original BioShock. Unfortunately, the narrative half of Dishonored is where the game stumbles a bit for me. But story disappointments aside, its a fun and accessible game -- not to mention a praiseworthy achievement for a new IP (that has no multiplayer of any kind!) arriving so late into a generation. Can't wait to see what Arkane Studios do with the setting next.
10. Kid Icarus: Uprising ; Easily the funniest game of the year. I've long since lost count of how many times I busted out laughing at its unique brand of 4th-wall breaking, referential and self-referential humor. But it's not just smart writing and fun dialogue that sells it: it's the incredible voice cast, especially Ali Hillis as Lady Palutena and Stuart Scott Bullock as Hades. If you've got a 3DS or plan to pick one up eventually, don't let the game's idiosyncratic control scheme deter you from giving this game a shot. Kid Icarus: Uprising is a triumphant return for Pit and the franchise, and I can only hope we won't have to wait 20+ more years for the next game in the series.
Sallokin
1. Journey ; One of, if not THE most enjoyable gaming experience I've ever had. Such a wonderfully designed game with a truly moving soundtrack.
2. Persona 4: Golden ; I love this game. Love it.
3. Gravity Rush ; Wonderful mechanic and main character.
4. Borderlands 2 ; Fun co-op and enjoyable writing.
5. Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery EP ; I will buy anything these guys make.
6. Tales of Graces f ; I enjoyed the shit out of this one. Not my favorite Tales game, but it had a great localization and enjoyable battle system.
7. The Last Story ; Proof that The Gooch can still make an excellent game.
8. Persona 4: Arena ; More Persona is always welcome. Mostly ham fisted stories (with some intriguing threads) and the mechanics were really fun.
9. Theaterhythm: Final Fantasy ; This one played on my nostalgia and I'm cool with that. Cute character designs to boot.
10. Xenoblade Chronicles ; Had to include it on my list again this year because of the NA release. Still amazing, still want it to have my babies.
sleeprockss
1. Max Payne 3 ; This might be my favorite third person shooter of all time. I can't think of one other third person shooter that feels as good as MP 3. My only complaint with it being the unskippable cutscenes, but in retrospect they didn't bother me very much considering I played through the game 5 or 6 times.
2. Mass Effect 3 ; I've always been more invested in the characters of the Mass Effect games rather than the overall story. That's why I didn't come from Mass Effect 3 disappointed. It has the best gameplay of the whole series and most of the characters have great endings.
3. Far Cry 3 ; Loved the gameplay, only wish the story was better. Ah who am I kidding, the story doesn't matter when you can punch sharks and set cheetahs on fire.
4. Assassins Creed 3 ; It's the first AC game that clicked for me and I enjoyed the story quite a bit (mostly due to Haytham Kenway).
5. The Walking Dead ; Could have been my GOTY if more of the choices had an effect on the story, but I still loved the characters and story.
6. Borderlands 2 ; It's more of the same but very few games hooked me as much as this did this year.
7. Syndicate ; I'm not a coop guy at all but I loved everything about Syndicate's coop. It's one of the most intuitive shooter's out there and the shooting is fantastic.
8. XCOM: Enemy Unknown ; A fantastic turn based strategy game that got me excited to play while also being scared to play it.
9. The Darkness 2 ; Some of the most fun I've gotten out of a FPS in a long time, and it's one of the few shooters that is more about giving you options during combat rather than before.
10. Forza Horizon ; Combines my two favorite racing games, Burnout Paradise and Dirt 2, with great results and it's the only racing game where I had fun just driving around the open world.
Blue Ninja said:
I think it really is. And I think I'd be okay with it taking the number one spot this year. But not without a disclaimer.
CecilRousso
Can we please avoid spoilers in the descriptions, like the one for Far Cry 3 a bit above here? It's a recent release that I just started playing.
Mizzou Gaming
1.HALO 4;Bungie who? 343 Delivered in every key area and up against all odds. HALO 4 looks, plays and sounds PHENOMENAL.
2.MASS EFFECT 3;Caving to outside demands to alter ending cost this game Game of Year Honors
3.BORDERLANDS 2;Also doubles as a complete manual on how to properly do a sequel. Without a doubt the best co-op game of the year, maybe the entire generation.
4.FAR CRY 3;Amazing characters in an amazing open world
5.FORZA HORIZON;Easily the surprise hit of the year. Gorgeous, fun and it completely ruined Criterion's Need for Speed for me.
6.ASSASSIN'S CREED 3;Super ambitious title that delivered far more than it disappointed. Expect this game to garner more respect a few years down the line.
7.THE WALKING DEAD;Great Story and characters we grew to actually care about. Still though, a tad-bit overrated.
8.MAX PAYNE 3;Killing people in Bullet Time seriously never gets old and neither does RockStar story tellin'.
9.BATTLEFIELD 3 PREMIUM;Each one of DICE's themed expansions have brought fresh changes to what is this generation's best multiplayer game.
10.JOURNEY;Let's not start sucking each other's dicks just yet, Journey is by far this year's most overrated game as well too. Unfortunately this is also the game we see every year that shows up on everyone's top ten list to try and bolster our game critiquing abilities but deep down we all know it really sucks.
gutterboy44
So glad I got around to playing XCOM before the the votes are tallied. Fantastic game. Had to revise my list.
AlphaDump
1. FarCry 3 : Thank you Crytek, you have nailed the formula, and i hope you stick with this into the next gen. The tropical settings, the incredible intro, and the best shooting mechanics in a first person ever. Far Cry 4 will suffer if it is a collect-othon, however as far as I am concerned no one comes close to this kind of immersion in an FPS, and I have played them all this gen. I played with the audio off too, not sure how much that changes things, but good lord did it put me into the world.
2. Disnhonored : It puts you into a world that is reminds me of Bioshock in how it is told. This is a "sandbox" stealth game with super natural elements. It's a gamers wet dream on paper and plays beautifully. Ai can be a bit retarded though
3. Halo 4 : The boots to fill were huge, and they hit it out of the park. It's the best of halo put into a blender, and I dont think many people gamers could be pissed about that.
4. The Witcher 2 Assassins of Kings : Much like the guys at Crytek - You can tell this is a game made by the fans of the genre. This series deserves so much more credit and recognition for what it has produced. Top notch, and if given a proper budget - mother of god.
5. ZombiU : For as much crap as the Wii U gets on this forum, the graphics are pretty damn stellar and the lighting matches the atomsphere beautiful. Love the survival horror elements, and hope more games take notes on what this game does right.
6. LittleBigPlanet Vita : It saddens me about the hate for vita. Playing LittlebigPlanet 2 while I am taking the train makes the shittiest ride awesome.
7. Gravity Rush : So damn creative in the gameplay, and the presentation is awesome. And I can take a dump while I play - Fuck yeah! (also: see 6.)
8. Twisted Metal : Ironically, I mentioned this as one of the biggest disappointments of 2012 as well, but this is the twisted metal I remember as a kid growing up - less the amazing character story lines and somewhat odd themes racing levels. They really, really dropped the ball on that one. Sweet Tooth is great, but way too much focus. If they crafted Twisted Metal in the likes of 2, I think this could of had Action Game of the Year potential.
NotTheGuyYouKill
Vancouver...ish.
Sweet, didn't even realize this was going on. Alright, games of the year. Took a bit of introspection to come up with my final list, but I think I'm okay with it.
1. Max Payne 3 ; The Max Payne series is one of my all-time favourites. I love its relentlessly grim and occasionally goofy storylines and beaten down protagonist. So I was very excited when the third game was announced as finally coming. And after playing it, I was not let down. It's a beautiful looking game with a great sound track and sound effects. And while the story line is more Man on Fire/Die Hard than traditional Max Payne, I had a blast playing through it as Max got more and more furious and angry over the course of the game blowing through his continued failures with a fusillade of gunfire and blood and odd monologues. This is a game about failure. About being broken down and addicted and being pathetic and simply doing what it takes to make something useful out of the mess that is your life. I loved it. Plus, James McCaffrey was fucking awesome. No, it's not as poetic as Sam Lake's work, but I was okay with that. I know the Houser's sensibilities. And I loved the end result. Never has the very horrific act of murder ever felt more... sickly joyous. The animations, the controls, the weapons, everything works in perfect harmony to showcase death.
2. Spec Ops: The Line ; Kind of the flipside of Max Payne. As a third person shooter, it's mediocre. But unlike Max Payne, which revels in the violence and chaos, Spec Ops turns it around and makes the player sicker for it. While the gameplay is serviceable, the story is truly brilliant. One of the best this generation. Dark and subversive and anchored with a fantastic performance by Nolan North as a soldier falling apart under the strains of horror and war, this game sticks with you after the credits have finished rolling. Visuals are quite nice, sound is great, and the game is very atmospheric. Deserves a lot more plays. A fantastic subversion of video games that to a degree fetishize war and violence.
3. Dishonored ; A fantastic stealth game. I'm not much of a stealth gamer, but this is one game where I felt like I had to be stealthy, not cause the game was punishing me, but because I wanted to be the badass avenging angel of Dunwall. A silent ghost in the night. While the story's a bit weak, the game's world feels incredibly unique and lived in. The combat is great. Visuals are nice. Voicework is also splendid. Would love a return to this grand city.
4. Alan Wake's American Nightmare ; I fucking love Alan Wake. Seriously. So when American Nightmare was announced, I was incredibly excited, and it did not disappoint. It might be a side story, a sequel, imagination, I don't know. But it's a fantastic look at what kind of improvements in combat and atmosphere we'll see in Alan Wake 2. A nice short story to Alan Wake's novel. Visually and in terms of atmosphere, it's great. Short and sweet, it doesn't wear out its welcome. New enemy types and awesome weaponry are a welcome addition. The growth of Alan's character is also awesome. This awesome little game is anchored by the fantastic performances by Ilka Villi (physical acting) and Matthew Porretta (voice) as the antagonist, Mr Scratch. A wickedly funny and deranged serial killer, he is one of this generation's most memorable villains.
5. Far Cry 3 ; A huge step-up from Far Cry 2 in my opinion. Great atmosphere, lovely visuals, great voice acting. The gameplay is superb, allowing you all manners of gameplay styles. While aspects of the story are interesting, it becomes quite a mess by the third act, but the great antagonists kept me interested in how things were gonna turn out. The Rook Islands is a great environment and combat there feels fantastic.
6. Hitman: Absolution ; Definitely a different direction from previous Hitman games, there's no doubt about that. However, I had a ton of fun with this game. First off, it looks beautiful. The art direction and graphics look incredibly lovely and give it a great atmosphere and mood. It's very rare that I'm struck by how nice a game looks like I was with this game. The gameplay is fun, I like being a stealthy assassin, but I also kind of loved going crazy and forcing violent confrontations when necessary. Gunplay feels good. The story's hilarious pulp, but it's fun and it kept me engaged enough. Great game.
7. Sleeping Dogs ; Surprisingly awesome game about being undercover in the Triads. While the story's pacing is a bit wonky, it's pretty good stuff. The combat system is great and functions very well. The acting is really good. Game looks fantastic... feels like it looks next-gen sometimes.
8. Assassin's Creed III ; This should have ended up ranking higher on the list, but it's ending left a very sour taste in my mouth. Five years I've been eagerly addicted to this series and anxious to see how the modern-day outcome would end and that's what I get!? Biggest let-down ever. The modern day sections, like in ACR, were a sore disappointment, but this time it feels more sucky. Ultimately, that's the main reason it fell so low on the list. So many missed opportunities. Having said that, it does a lot of great stuff in the historical portion. Connor's story is pretty interesting, some wonky story bits aside. Great voice acting. The game looks beautiful, the Frontier is fantastic. The combat is great fun, I love how brutal it gets at time. Heytham Kenway is a nice change of pace as an antagonist from the supervillain Borgias, but I wish we interacted with him more. The animation is superb. Game looks great. Fantastic soundtrack. Worth playing, but the modern-day portion does disappoint so much that it knocked it down a few spots. Had it been a satisfying ending (hell, if they hadn't fucked up the whole modern day section), could easily have been third on my list.
9. The Darkness II ; The Darkness II deserves more love. While short, it is very sweet, as in awesome. Quad-wielding is a great mechanic. Game is very responsive. Great story! I hope we see a Darkness III sooner rather than later, because I need to see what happens next. I'll get it Day 1. Digital Extremes did great work with this game, a much superior work than their previous game, Dark Sector.
10. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 ; Yup. This game cemented it, Treyarch's CoD games are superior to Infinity Ward's. The gameplay is standard CoD, so I won't delve into it, but I love how Treyarch just went crazy with future warfare. It just feels fantastic. The past portions are great too. Story's really good as well with a great antagonist. While it doesn't get quite as crazy "WHAT DO THE NUMBERS MEAN", it's still a great game. Had a ton of fun.
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New Masters Academy The Best Value in Art Education
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Cast of The Cadaver with Iliya Mirochnik
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The Cadaver Draw the features of the face
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Iliya Mirochnik
Anatomy, Design, Head & Portrait
Paper, Pencil
In this lesson, you will follow along with Iliya as you draw the cast of the Cadaver. You will be introduced to the forms and anatomy of the head as it occurs in life. You will break down and analyze the complex forms of the features, combining your knowledge from the previous lessons.
Kneaded and Hard Erasers
Roll of Paper, Smooth Sketchbook paper
Used in video:
Long point sharpener
Sharp eraser
Waterdrop blender
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Choose one video.
Okay, so why don't we continue with our exploration of casts.
We've already done all of the features of the face,
not to mention everything that we did before that. So why
don't we take what we've learned? I think we definitely
have learned how to take an organic
object and element of the head, in our case
think of it in terms of changes of plane, figure out what
is happening in terms of the light and
shadow and the principles of those elements and
then convert them
back into something organic. But because of having gone
through this process of analysis is now considerably more
structured, analyzed, and understood. Now what we're going to
do is take all of that and put it all together in
an exercise involving the entirety of human face.
And that of course this is a cast, but this is not on the
contrary to our previous casts,
a sculpture, in the sense of this is not an interpretation
of an eye or something like this, this is actually a cast just
taken off of a cadaver. So this is kind of as close as we're
going to get to a live model without it actually being a live
model at all. So I think that's exciting and let's get started.
So we start the same way that we have been. Though the one
thing I do want to add is that
the interesting part about this part of the course is that we
organized it in a way that I think would be quite
helpful for you in terms of going over these exercises
What we have managed to do is I think
this is - basically this is an assignment that you can
practice before going into the anatomy portion where we really
break down the head and all that stuff
and then go into that or you can do it afterwards before we
do a portrait of a model from observation. So I am
going to talk a little bit about anatomy simply because
there are points on the head that
are called, you know, by their anatomical terminology. And the
thing is if you know what I'm talking about because you've
done the later part of the course, that's excellent. And
this is a fantastic way to practice this again and
internalize that terminology, these concepts and so on. But if
you haven't then just don't worry so much about this and
just follow along in thinking of a head as a head, changes of
plane and all this. Either way it'll be extremely helpful. And
in the end you'll probably be doing this multiple times it
after you've done subsequent parts of all of the subsequent parts of
the course as well as
even if you haven't yet. I recommend doing these multiple
times. So okay with that let's begin.
clearly this might be a little bit more intimidating, right?
So let's just figure out basic placement on the page just like
we did with the John Asaro planar head.
Right. At the same time, just like we did with the casts
of the features, we're thinking of the cast in its entirely, right.
So where the cuts are, where they've removed the cast,
is where we
and that we're not just working on the head or the part of the
head that we can see right because it's not the full head,
but we're trying to get all of it
within the context of the particular cast.
Now, of course, you can
essentially practice it any which way
You could practice the head as well just on its own but I
thinking of the cast of a whole. Hole.
Okay. So where are we now,
right, just angles, axes, things like this.
Sometimes it helps to get the particular
changes in the front plane
the nose right away because it helps establish how long it
appears. Not how long it is, but how long it appears on the
page, right? This is all an illusion after all.
I'm continuing with the approach that we had, right? I'm
thinking in straight lines a lot.
There are other times like down here, right, where I'm going to
think in curves.
But then go into them and make corrections to them.
So right we can clearly see
the zygomatic, right, the zygomatic right here, the angle
of the mandible.
We can see it on the other side as well.
Now because this is a cadaver and the thing about it is that
I've tilted this cast as in it's upright, right, this cast is
in the sort of the in the position we're accustomed to
seeing humans in but the cast was taken off of a cadaver that
at the time was probably on a table horizontal
and he lay horizontally and because
this person was no longer alive as well as the fact that
that he was horizontal you could see how the eyes have
sunken into the orbits.
This is wonderful to see because it gives us a little
more clarity about the -like we could see the orbits. We
can see a larger like a structure there we can imagine
the shape of
the skull underneath.
And if you're doing this right after the
the casts of the features
you're beginning to see elements
that we've already spoken about, right, the wing of the nostril,
the nose, this
inflated part on the side plane of the nose, right? All of that
is apparent. Remember - now here, of course, this man does not
have -
his lips aren't as interesting of course as the ones from the
David cast obviously. They're not -
you can hardly see them in fact. But remember that lips
are not just the lips,
they're the entirety of this element here: the orbicularis oris,
the muscle of the mouth.
Right as we of course work proportion to proportion,
you know make adjustments. Like maybe the chin comes down a
little bit, we've got room. The neck is quite long.
So we're going to have some fun with that. We'll be able to go -
so we do
have a whole
segment on a neck and the anatomy of the neck.
This is pretty clear.
So this is either in preparation for that or a review.
Either one works, right?
See at times I'm just a little bit more kind of organic, a little
more abstract with these things are just a little bit like a
curvy squiggle of a line.
Okay with that. We're early, we're early in the process. No
need to to worry. Now here too, right? We see that side plane,
right, that we saw with our casts. We see that side plane
of the plaster of the cast that needs to exist. It needs to be
on the page.
It's important to see right where the mandible really is,
possibly even take an angle. We have this angle. You can see it
right from the zygomatic process into the masseter.
Taking it all the way back. The zygomatic arch as it
leans back into the ear. The ear is lovely here. It's going
to be - this
is reminding me of the ear from the Asaro head. We were able to
see all of the planes
and yet it is entirely in shadow. So we're going to have
a fun time
making it read correctly.
Okay, so more or less I think things are in place at the same
time I do feel like I need to go over it and make sure
everything's in place, but
you know,
we all by now kind of know
but if you don't I'll say it again that the thing that will
really push this towards completion
are the shadows. And by completion I mean it'll push
it towards the completion of the initial laying in, right, to
figuring out what the proportions are
essentially cannot be
accurate until the shadows are in place.
So I think why not?
Why not hint at some, right, and this will imitate the
process that we're going to take in the future with heads
and casts and all this stuff a little bit more. Now keep in
mind the advantage here is that this is not a stylized
head. By stylized I mean
has not gone through the interpretation of an artist
because all art is an interpretation. So
in the casts of the, you know, in the eye, for example,
that was Michelangelo's interpretation and emphasis of
and you know, of an eye. He focused on certain aspects of
it. He made it - he made some of the more prominent maybe made
others not as prominent and he was focused on you know, it's
in some ways an idealized idealized.
portrait of David from the
biblical story.
we're encountering - of course I mean you can argue a few
things here, but in general we're encountering a person as
he was.
I'm going to start laying in that shadow, laying in those
terminators.
Why I'm saying this by the way, well why I brought it up again,
right the fact that this is not idealized or stylized in any
way. I'm bringing this up because our next assignment
is going to be
the final cast that we do here
in this group of assignments and it's going to be
a sculpture again and of a sculpture that one would say
maybe is even more stylized than anything that we've encountered
up to this point. It's a beautiful piece
and the reason
we need to do it is because of how stylized it is. And
once you look at it, you'll see what I mean. Here this is a
great example because of the particular character of of this
It's very angular the fact that this is a mask taken off it's this is a mask taken off
of a cadaver is that you know, the skull is even more
making his face even more angular and all of that stuff.
So it's quite -
it's quite interesting in this way. Right? We have been
talking this whole time about angles and making something
organic into a plane, all that stuff.
So here I think this is a perfect thing to practice on
is a cast where those angles, you know, they existed in the
eye that we did and the ear, we saw those angles, we amplified
them, we found them, and we're going to find them here. Our
next assignment isn't going to be so easy because those angles
at times just won't exist. So we're going to be working with
much more organic
curvature.
And that is
going to be a challenge but extremely important because
even within that curvature we're going to be trying to
find as many planes as we can. But at times we just won't be
able to.
Hmm, okay.
See so, I'm not blocking in the shadow yet. I'm -
figuring out where the terminator is
but I'm also figuring out where all of the parts within that
shadow are, the anatomical parts. Right. I want to see
where they are.
And so I'm looking for these internal and by internal I mean
internal in the shadow outlines.
So I'm not thinking in planes. I'm just allowing these
areas of shadow to help me see what the proportions are, what
the particular tilts are,
because then we're going to
carve some planes into here. Now keep
in mind that some of these shadows just by being outlined -
we saw this in the nose -
are going to be
just the shape of the shadow is the plane, right? So
that might happen. Just be aware of when it's happening.
The sternocleidomastoid in there, I guess, you have
top of the sternocleidomastoid and here is the
levator scapulae coming in
and then the trapezius underneath that if we can see
any little bit of kind of
getting sucked into the area behind the head.
So there is a little tilt so we have to make sure
it's in place. Right? There's that tilt of the head there, tilts.
And you know keep in mind that as you're working on this and
you're getting your proportions more and more correct, things are
going to get larger, smaller, that's just what's going to happen. Duchess what's going to happen?
don't worry, like in my case I like that the
amount of the space this head is taking up. I don't
know what this stuff is above. Looks like a cap or something.
I don't think we need to worry about it.
This ear, let's figure it out,
figure out where that is
down here.
Too big. I don't know. It's hard to see. That's hard to tell
as well because I don't know
what's going on there. I don't know
how active it should be now. It's much more active because
it's just an outline right but then once this is all
and shadow, maybe that outline will be perfect.
Can't tell yet.
Angle of the mandible, extremely important. Let's move victim important. Let's move
shadow forward, right, to kind of signify a little bit more of that
side plane in the chin.
Now let's look at the larynx.
How long is this? I don't know.
It's gonna go proportionally, it goes up to the nostril I think.
To the nostril, to the top of the wing, right. I got it
from the sternal notch.
My apologies. From the sternal notch to the chin right
Move that distance up, should hit to pretty much right at the
top of the wing of the nostril. Am I right? Let's check it out.
I would go the other way though, right but this is fine. We're done
with that. Bring it down see. So the sternal notch is actually a
little bit low. I've exaggerated it because this neck is quite
long. So I felt like I'm going to just exaggerate it. I tend
to exaggerate the length of the neck, right all of us have
proportional biases. I talk about that
throughout the entirety of the course. We have -
we all have them as we're learning.
You know, there are times when we make the heads too big or
too small and they're consistent. Keep in mind that
all of us have - we repeat the same errors
and they never go away and at some point they just become - you
just own them.
You know there are times that you
you realize it's a mistake and you can you correct it and you
realize you have another proportional bias, you know,
after you've corrected the length of arms in general,
you've trained yourself to see those proportions him that those proportions
properly.
You realize that there's another proportional issue.
And so on and so forth that never ends and I have a couple,
you know, I elongate the torso a bit and I elongate the neck a
bit.
It could come from my own proportions, it could come from
proportions that I'm used to I'm used to seeing in maybe
some proportion that I find attractive, it's hard
to tell where exactly this comes from, but just be aware
that you have you have those too and
there's some which become a part of essentially who you are
as an artist and others that are
just, you know, they're just errors that you want to
remove as you
I see - I feel like the neck is too short.
I think it's a little bit above that.
proportionally it is what it is.
Strange.
If anything I will change it later. It's not that big of a
deal but I'm going to sharpen my pencil little bit. I'm still
working with the softer ones and right start out with the softer
pencils. Not just because you can get a darker
but also because you can get
just a better line, a flow of a line, it doesn't get so
caught up. You can actually have a lighter hand with a
softer pencil.
yes. That's something -take a plumb line if you will, except
a plumb line up, right, just put a pencil to the sternal notch
and move it, you know one side up to a point and see where it
ends up. I'm getting that this point right here should pretty
much hit here. All right.
Hmm. I might have to move it just that little bit.
That's kind of nice, that might help elongate the neck a little,
right. Take your time. Don't necessarily worry about things
being too clean.
All right, go switch to another
longer pencil of the same softness. I'm not a big
fan of the -
of a pencil when it gets too short. Now, so what do we have
here? We have to figure out what to do with this whole
side, right? Because it's not informative. It's not really
helping us, but we need to have it. So we will figure that out
as we go. Now from here
you can see
the clavicle, right, you can see the full clavicle and the
super clavicular fossa right here.
You can see the short flat head of the sternocleidomastoid
attaching to the - falling over the front of the clavicle. And
then you have the omohyoid
right here from a bone in here, the hyoid,
moving in and going and sweeping in under, attaching to
the scapula in there.
So don't -
that's what's happening there. Now. Look at this sweep. We're
getting this underside. We're getting this -
you can see the entirety of the clavicle and that's sort of the
inside and that's the outside, right? We're getting
that gap right there, that hole, that supraclavicular fossa and
we're getting a cast shadow falling from the clavicle into
Oh, it's great. It's really good. Now from here
the clavicle of course begins to turn out a little bit more
and I don't know if we see it all the way until the
end. I don't know if we see it until the acromion.
I'm not sure we see that much in general, right? So this is
already shoulder.
And that is the pectoralis.
you know I always say don't use too many lines, but I tend to
in some cases and I don't know why, it just happens.
But it's a habit, right? So I always say that you should
avoid that one, that habit, and
here I am doing it myself.
We'll get this more precise as we as we work. It's not the
most important thing right now.
But I like where we are. I like where we are. I
like some of the proportions. What needs to happen right now
though is some larger proportions
I need to see
how much of them
I can compare now. So I'm going from this point, the
widest point right here,
to here. I'm taking this distance across and seeing how
many times it fits into the height.
It should hit to exactly from the bottom to the lower
margin of the orbit of the eye. It's a good thing.
If we get that then we have the sort of the big proportions in
place. Notice I didn't take them at the beginning, I've
mentioned this before oh boy. Oh boy a long needle or brush
should be good, but we can do with this.
Let me do it. Boom. Take it.
Oh, it's perfect. Okay, so our large proportions are in place.
As I said notice I didn't take them at beginning and
work within them, I took them after I penciled everything in
by eye. That is important to learning about proportions.
Okay. So, of course we can perhaps begin talking about
changes in plane. I still would - I would
I'm still cautious about proportions. I still would like
them to be in place. So I think it'd be easier to move them
if we get a little bit more tone, right, so squint a lot.
This is important right now because by squinting
you're minimizing some of these issues, right, you're just
squinting and just knocking this back. Keep in
mind that you want to get a little bit lighter as you reach
the edge. You don't want to
push the values there too dark, right? That's the edge, it's
not that important. You're more concerned about the terminator.
So of course, as we always do,
begin to tone that shadow from the terminator.
It's gonna move that. It doesn't have to be a value
that's very heavy. It doesn't have to be a dark value at all.
It can actually be quite light.
And I notice I'm starting with a large shadow,
right, the big shadow of the head. I'm more concerned about
that shadow of the egg than I am about small shadows like in
the orbits and eyes and mouth and all that stuff. All that
stuff we covered and we're going to - we're going to
get those shadows but
keep in mind right the big mass of the head is more important
than anything on the head.
Okay. Okay. That's helping me see what these proportions are.
And don't worry too much about differentiating between cast
and core right now.
But do sharpen stuff up if you can, right, get things clean.
Move up from here. There's a little bit of light on this
part of the - we have this clavicle too by the way.
We don't see it as clearly, it's sort parallel,
right? It's flat in our line of sight.
Don't worry about too many distinctions within the shadows
and highlights, right, all the highlights and half-tones
regardless, right? They're all the same value and the shadows
are also all pretty much the same value.
Okay, okay.
We're getting a bit of clarity here. Now we're probably - I mean
chances are we might even like erase some of these afterwards.
We don't need them, perhaps don't know yet. But
then look at this, just squint at--look at this just squint
and look at everything here that's dark. that that's dark.
Now this is getting a little bit harder, right because we
have the cast as you can see is within you know, it's inside a
box and there's something really interesting happening
with the wall of the box casting a shadow onto this
shoulder. I think it's excellent. And of course is
something apart from the cast, right? It's not just the cast,
it is sort of a situation of the light around the cast but
in terms of bringing out what's most important,
which is the head, it's perfect.
Okay, excellent. Excellent.
Off to a good start. What we do there is a nice curvature here
this clavicle, but it's done half tones
not shadows, so we're going to leave it blank for now the
white of the page. Okay. So before we sort of take a break
because let our eyes rest, right, this restroom, right like dude, this
is where you - like you need to after you make some
large -
that you establish something on the page it's
like important, right, and we're starting out with just getting
proportions in place and all this. That's you know, that's
kind of exhausting on the eyes. And so you need to
take a break, especially if the concern right now is to just
get the proportions of in place as much as possible.
To get them accurate you need to take a break so that you can
then come back and re-evaluate everything you've done in
these early early stages.
Okay, so I
think more or less we've laid in our shadows.
Maybe even hint at a couple of very light half tones, but it
would be good to take a moment to step good to take a moment to step
away and then come back and think about this all over
again, right? Think about those proportions again, make sure
they're in place. You won't get them a right a hundred percent,
but you can bring them closer every time you allow
your eyes to take a break and then come back so
I'll see you in a minute.
Now that we've
allowed our eyes to relax a little bit let's go back and
rethink these proportions. See how right we were
or rather going to see how right I was and you'll see how
right you are.
I can see that actually in terms of figuring out
proportions with shadows I can see that this shadow from the
nose is larger, but this is just a shape
but this makes a certain amount of sense right? It's not
random. It's not simply larger because it is, it's
larger because the nose is as large as it is in relation
to the direction and placement of the light source.
A then the shadow's as large as it
is based on the angle of the plane that it's falling
upon, right? So in a sense, you might just be copying a shape
but you are also
maybe not even always consciously thinking of why
something is happening. Why something is as large as it is
and so on right all that stuff.
Now because this mouth is
extremely straight,
this is going to make a couple of things a little difficult.
The fact that it's
straight on the page doesn't mean that it straight
in real life. It's horizontally possibly. But if you look at it
from above or below you can really see that curvature, right,
that kind of that horseshoe of the mouth, that horseshoe of the
the alveolar ridge of the mandible. Both upper and lower
open like, you know the mandible and the two
maxilla has too, all that stuff, right?
It's like this from above and below.
I'm gonna have to think of that and find ways to show that
with our half tones, right?
So the height of the nose is interesting to me. I'm going to
take from this outer corner, which I'm taking from
the shadows and so outer corner of the wing of the nose to
point right there on the superciliary - on
supraorbital margin, right, under the superciliary arches. Don't
worry about that if you don't know it.
Just that point is what I'm talking about. I think it's
good, taking that. And then I'm just going to find somewhere
where it can go so from the zygomatic to the nose so
from here to here
is the same as from here to here, right?
Does that make sense, is that good?
See something is a little off.
This distance,
look what it is, either this is too short - all right, this is
Maybe it's - I think it's little further back though.
Maybe not. Let's try that again.
From there to there,
turn it sideways. It's from there to there. Okay, so from
to here should be the same.
It is. Excellent. See so obviously go over the proportions
multiple times, go over them multiple times and see if
you're right. Like if you find the proportion and realize
you're wrong
don't rush to make changes.
Okay, just take your time, try it again, take another
proportion. Make sure you're wrong because
this holding up the pencil and all that is not a precise
It's nice. It's very helpful.
You improve with practice, but it's very imprecise or can be.
So don't ever rush to make any big changes.
Okay, so see I'm kind of beginning to lock in a form a
little bit, right? That's the end, not really, but sort of the
end of the frontal bone, right, the zygomatic process of the
frontal bone right there.
I heard it called something else recently.
External angular process. Maybe that's right, but
that seems like adding a word where we don't need an extra
word. We already have the zygomatic, right? So if a
process is named after the bone that it's
towards I think that's much clearer. So the zygomatic
process is reaching towards a zygomatic bone. The frontal
process is reaching towards the frontal bone,
not named after the bone that it's a part of, named after the
bone that is connecting to.
Just remember that.
Okay. So where were we?
I'm putting in these shadows trying to find this
like the,
you know still not to accurately, right? Just making
sure it's there, just trying to find it in relation to -
there's the orbit, just find the orbit.
A portrait is a skull and and I think you saw we were
working on the individual features, though the skull
wasn't maybe that prominent in them,
I tried to focus on that as much as possible, focus on the
fact that we're not worried about the
element itself, not the eye itself, but the area around the
eye.
That is more the eye. Now see like I did that right now
and that is a dangerous thing to do at this point because
clearly that's not shadow. That's a half tone. But I think
getting a little bit in there
can be helpful
because it makes
an edge there, it establishes a half tone
on a very important part. The
I guess infraorbital margin, right, I would imagine, right if the one
above is the supraorbital margin, that's the infraorbital
margin. So as you see I'm getting into a some of these
little half tones coming off of the shadows, right? Because
that's another thing and I mentioned it earlier, the other
thing is that, you know,
big shadows help with proportions
but then the dark half tones coming off of those
are going to help you with the
proportions of the shadows themselves, right, everything
like you're building on top of this but you aren't ever
satisfied. It's not like you've completed a step and you're never
think of it again. I know I've said that many times and I will
say it many times, but I'm just trying to make that just
automatically so that you understand that that's the
So, okay. So this already makes things a little bit clearer,
right? It shows us what this area is, how much light is there,
but I do think it won't hurt to get some
changes in plane, right, some placement. And we know from the
John Asaro planar head what is happening here, right? We know
that this is that lower ridge,
right, that tilt downwards of the superciliary arches. We
know that.
And then we move upwards to that front plane of the frontal
bone,
which is the frontal eminence.
Now what's happening here is also an interesting thing,
right, the top of the head is quickly falling away into a
dark half tone. You might even a say into shadow.
And that is of course happening for the same reason that this
shadow is happening is that the structure of the box
casting a shadow on the top of the head and I think that's
in terms of practicing a mood, practicing a feeling of light,
not only shadows where they helped the structure and the
anatomy and the changes of plane, but also where shadows
not part of the form itself are falling onto the form from afar.
Not even just the cast shadows that we use
but from afar is an excellent thing to practice. For emphasis,
for atmosphere, for
figuring out what the
real changes in the front and back planes are and
so on.
So we'll get there. Now this is a triangular plane leading
And what I'm interested in seeing here,
right, is this is the temporal line and we take it all the way
back to the to the parietal eminence.
Bringing this back here
and see I'm just breaking down,
still very structurally breaking down the frontal bone.
See it's already getting a little bit more. I'm not - I'm figuring
our planes but I'm also -
oh this is a fun part right here, right
because this
wraps and then wraps around again, right? You could just
see the skull as I'm making this line just becomes a skull
and then of course there is the eye itself. We don't have to
worry about the eye in the same way that we did with the
eye on its own because this eye is closed and also it's sort of
fallen into the skull as I mentioned before due to the
fact that this guy was dead. And that's actually quite
convenient because we're able to see the form much more
without getting distracted by, you know, that psychological
quality, that effect that eyes have on us be they in a
sculpture or, you know, in life, painting, a photograph, anything.
Eyes don't have to be alive to have the effect on us that they
tend to.
But as soon as they're closed
we kind of -
as soon as they're closed they just fall into the
background a little bit.
I actually have a thing, I don't know, the portraits that I paint,
a lot of times I divert the eyes away or turn them down. I
can't always explain why.
I can't - I don't know but I find it interesting and quite
interesting to try to express some sort of psychology without
I mean I still think of from a technical standpoint I still
think of orbits and placement and anatomy but I try not to -
but I don't know for the longest time I thought it was
maybe somewhat of a cop out, you know your kind of you're
relying on eyes to make things look human
because you know, you open up the eyes, you show a gaze and eyes
are very hard to do, it's true, but like you do this
but then, you just, you need to - I'm sharpening in case you
can't see.
But then you need the eyes.
Yeah, I think you got to use them when you really need to,
like I think of them as like a detail
that is extremely important, but can be overused, At the same
time you should know how to draw them.
That hasn't gone away. You just need to know the stuff,
which is what we're doing here.
I'm still working the shadows. I'm putting in some some of the
half tones, right, some of them. Right, like I'm just trying to
get this eye out of here, as inside the head.
What's happening here is interesting. Right? We have all
these shadows on the nose, which
we sort of left - I left abruptly.
And let's do
what I did with the nose when we're working on it on its own.
Let's just place that side plane of the nose into some
Whether it's shadow or half tone, I don't
know yet. Clearly based on what we have here it's shadow, based
on what is going to happen I can't tell you because I think
the wing of the nose is in fact in light, a dark light, dark half
tone and the side plane does come out in light as well, but
we'll get there.
now the front plane of the head
coincides quite conveniently with what we have here, right?
We just have the - from the zygomatic, from these sort of
outer most point here
to - I mean you can actually go from the outer corner of the
eye as well
like to allow this to stand out from there as its own plane to
the corner of the mouth. And then you drop it straight down
from there.
It's pretty much all we need.
But a similar thing needs to happen right here that happened
right there. This is side plane.
See and right away
we're establishing a bit more form. This right here is an
intermediary plane between front and side. So let's start
with side and break that off, right, as long as you can still
pin point where those terminators are. Everything is
pretty light right now.
And then this intermediary plane, let's block that off,
too. I'm gonna just unify them with the top for now. It's not
entirely correct to do that but I think we should. I think
it's easy to do it now, it works. Now front and side of the
larynx, side. Look at that. You can see that bit of light on
the front plane of the flat small head of the
sternocleidomastoid and then it falls back into
side plane.
Okay so already we're getting a lot of structure here.
Now, of course these planes are turning upwards towards our
light while some of these are not. These are pretty much flat,
curved with variations and so on of course but flat, so
I'm just gonna knock this back a little, not maybe that dark but
just not come back and we'll use an eraser to come in and
get things a little bit cleaner as we go.
just going to erase some of this. I know our brightest
lights are around the eye, the zygomatic a mattock.
on the frontal eminence and front plane there,
and I'm just - the ear's marvelous and I can't wait to get to it
but I feel like it's sticking out too much right now, and we
just need to knock it back.
We'll get there. We'll get there for sure.
What I would do now is
now is the time to follow procedure again,
it's time to work the terminator, work out from it into
the darker half tones.
And let's start with the most prominent and most important
anatomical point from this angle in the face, the zygomatic bone,
is so clear because of the
the cheeks, right, and how they've fallen in a little bit.
sunken in cheeks -
I mean, it's kind of horrible, right, this guy
he wasn't alive, but he
will be remembered for a while
since he was made into this sculpture, if you will.
Made into a cast
to be used by us
all right look, so
the key is, right, is to have the darkest contrast on those
Remember that the zygomatic.
It's pretty much
in line with the
base of the nose. Pretty much.
I'm working - see I've switched to a slightly harder pencil and
I'm immediately beginning to sort of carve out some of those
darker half tones. I just think they're so important. I can't
leave them for later because see I'm already not too
in copying, right, I'm not copying the shadow shapes
anymore. We got them in place, they helped us establish some
areas, that's all good, but
the purpose of this, right, we're thinking now,
beginning to think in planes and form. That's the goal here.
Go with the masseter there, but also look at where the form of
the zygomatic ends. Try to see it.
Right, spend your time on this spot.
Just working on that zygomatic, working on those shadows, right, a
lot of small shadows there. So we're just pulling out from
them what's happening here. All right, we're getting
protrusion.
Excellent, the protrusion here.
Just figure out the front plane of it and the top.
And keep in mind I'm still focusing on proportions because right
now I'm going to go from here to here, see how wide this
orbital rim is,
so that I can place that eye even more clearly, even more
proportionately.
So yeah, so I'm not - keep in mind I've lost already - I could
already see how I've lost some larger plane changes.
I'm okay. I'm okay with it for now.
Hmm. I'm moving things around here already because
everything's a little bit organic.
But look at this. Look how flat this is. Just going to take
this across.
All right, we need this darker in general so that we can have
a light on the orbital rim.
We're not in a hurry here
for analyzing and notice I'm not worried about
the individual structures that we've already covered. Of
course, you might ask then why do we spend all that time on
when here
we're not even worried about the nose and the eye and the
mouth and the ear.
And my answer is
one, is that we're going to do them for sure and spent a lot
of time on them.
but also is that the purpose in doing them was to learn about
making an organic structure and a form on a page that is
organic.
But attempting to
divide what seems like an even curvature on the outside
of the form into something
that has an order
and simply not even an order than just an angle.
Believe it or not, doing those small casts is actually
helping you with all of the stuff that we're doing now.
Right, but we're still kind of still at the proportions. We're
still taking proportions. At least I'm still trying to,
right, I'm modeling a little bit, but I'm moving
some stuff up and down a little bit.
This is - this is quite a volume right? You can see that volume.
You almost want to not forget to make it clear.
Just clean that up a little bit.
A lot going on in here.
A lot going on.
This mass of the masseter
Keep sharpening that pencil.
I kind of - I'm kind of switching between hard and soft right now
because I use the soft ones to push that terminator, that
shadow, but I'm using the hard pencil to
the kind of to move that terminator into the lights a
little bit. So I'm using them in a way. I'm kind of using
both in a similar way, but it's hard to explain the
difference in effect. So I recommend you just try it.
It's a tactile effect and also you can see
something happening on a page in a different way. But right
here, right, I'm not just focusing on terminator. I'm
seeing the little cash shadows are falling from these forms
onto the other forms of the cheek. You can see how
it's coming closer.
To make these things with like half-tones I'm going to need
this shadow right here.
Right and that shadow
it's sunken in, its the zygomatic not the bone but the
either the major or the minor. I don't think they're that
important to know but it's the muscle - it's
probably the major.
here right, that's creating that edge.
It's that muscle that comes down from the zygomatic itself,
the bone, and connects to the corner of the mouth.
And that pulls the corners of the mouth out and up.
Don't get too concerned with that.
In general, they're not that important, all those
muscles of
the face and all of that stuff, expression.
Of course, they're important in life, right? Because without
them we wouldn't be able to make the expression but I don't
think they're helpful in as you know them, you wouldn't
necessarily know to
draw the head
any better.
Except for a couple, right, except for a couple.
I'll mention them as we get to them and if we see them.
But now I need to work off of that shadow and move it up into
large curve, right, that sweep right there.
On the cheek moving upward toward the nose.
Use the eraser little bit front plane of that form.
We need to get it there.
You can be a little imprecise the moment but
we'll get it.
See, everything is feeling a little bit more
locked in and
blocked in.
front plane here of the philtrum which you might not be
able to see as clearly as in the Michelangelo lips, but
let's break it down into that pyramid shape that we saw on
the Michelangelo lips.
Let's have that happen.
You can see the lips are slightly parted. We're going to
have to do that. Don't worry about it just yet, but we're
going to have to do that by
increasing that gap between the lips.
Just keep extent extending those half tones. Just
kind of a lock them into the shape of the area. Right?
That's what we know how to do now
and it's okay if it's a little bit blocky
right now, right? That's what we did with our other casts,
right? We block them off. They were maybe a little bit every
plane change was a sharp one
like maybe clearer than they need to be but then later to
just to soften that is -it's not just that it's not that
that difficult or it's not a lot of work because it can be
but it's so enjoyable because you know you have those
structures in there.
You're not like if you overstate them
earlier on you're not afraid to lose them.
Not afraid to lose them.
Okay. Okay. I think we got relatively far here right now.
I'm just gonna extend this some of these shadows there are
multiple shadows there. Once again interference of different
lights the stuff I'm going to minimize that a little bit,
couldn't combine them, right, that big shadow on the side
plane of the head as well as that sort of very clear almost
occlusion shadow from the
from the zygomatic process and the temporal line here.
And this is just from the temporal line.
This is our accent. That's our emphasis. Now
alright more planes, more planes to break down but in general,
right, this whole part is side plane, so we get that
all into a darker value right off the bat get this away.
It's a little easier to do because I just, I pushed that
shadow, of course.
Just gonna knock this lower
ridge, right, that ridge of the superciliary arches. Just take
it all the way, knock that back, that triangle, also push it back
and then all of this
it is what it is. We don't need to worry about it that much
This is probably more shadow this like the cap that they put
on this guy.
That's fine. That's fine, too.
And just to clean stuff up, right? You can always carve a
nice organic outline later as you go.
I'm left-handed as you see so the left side is clean. I mean
maybe that's not
super professional and we just need to keep anchored but I
don't all the time.
Sometimes I do but then but then I anchor that and then I
still get those marks so I just say don't worry about it.
Let's get that
really protruding strong Adam's apple,
the thyroid cartilage.
Look at that. And then it has a
like all of this right? It's just
at this strong triangular sort of angle. the angle.
And then of course, there's the shadow itself. Let's make it a
little bit darker than the mandible, right, core shadow,
terminator, core shadow, reflected light, cast Shadow.
Casts shadow's darker and then we knock it back, right, knock it
Then we knock it back.
I'm solving it. I'll get into that more and more.
I think it's come a ways.
Little bit more clarity, a little bit more of a proper
tonality here and there.
Let's take a moment and see if we can begin to move
into some of those specifics like the eyes, nose, and mouth.
All of those things that we we just spent a
lot of time on, we can now
see how we can apply that
Okay, so I've taken a bit of a break and
I looked at some things here and I
think there's still some proportional errors that I can
can work to correct, even though I've already moved
past them in a way. So let me just explain a very quick sort
of easy technique.
And a way to do it, right, is to take a break
and just keep your eyes on the object or the model or
whatever is in front of me, right, squint, keep your eyes
there until it becomes a little bit almost uncomfortable.
Right? It's hard to keep your eyes in one place for too long.
Keep them there, kind of squint again think of
large relationships, open them up, small relationships, and then
quickly transfer your eyes to the paper.
And you will be much easier to see
what jumps out as wrong?.And what I'm seeing here is that
the eyes are a little bit too big and I'm skeptical about the
amount of room I have from the mouth down to the chin. That's
what I'm concerned about right now. This angle too seems a
little bit too - it's almost a 45, I think in real life it's
much flatter and then it sort of it's not
simply a tilt upwards. It can be
broken up into a little bit more than that. So
before I continue
with all of this
stuff that
I've been doing up to this point
I'm just going to go and make some corrections. So that's
what I was talking about up there, right, the bridge of the
nose a little more prominent. It's sort of exaggerated almost
but you know, that too can be a little bit more obvious
our model was not alive when when this happened. Now, I
think bringing down the eyes is the way to go. I think -
but let's check it, right. I'm going from essentially this
line to the
eye, right, to the
that occlusion shadow between the eyelids.
Okay. I'm moving it up, moving it down will work and I take it
across.
It's actually from here to here,
from this point to this point should be about the same.
It's okay. It's not bad. It's pretty close actually.
But the height of the eye now, if the bottom is fine that I
go from the bottom to the top and I compare it to
something else. This is a little bit of a harder of a
proportion to compare I think though. One,
two, essentially the halfway point here right from the
to the bridge halfway is about the height of the eye.
Something like this, halfway. It's somewhere right there I
Keep in mind I'm going to the shadow. I'm not going to the
ridge.
I'll find the ridge in that shadow eventually.
Right the proportions of the hunt for them never stops.
That's the thing to realize here.
I want to keep things consistent in technique, right?
I do kind of want to use the stump a little bit more than I
had been with the other casts, but I'm gonna -
like you can get a lot of information in there simply by
moving values around, modeling that way, which was an academic
technique for sure
in the 19th century, a hundred percent. And in some cases
earlier.
But the hatch
I want to keep it consistent with the technique that we've
been practicing, right?
s=So I'm okay with this, but now, now the eye is a little bit
smaller. We can end the eye by the way, the ball of the eye,
let's end it.
have that bit of of light there as it comes off of the eyeball
and is clearly representative
tear duct.
Okay, but my other problem, right, I fixed some of those, not
to say that they're done but for now
and I'm just going to take from the chin to the mouth that
distance and moving it up again. It should be halfway
from here to here.
Seems okay.
Seems okay. Could be a value thing, could be the shape of the
shadows. I think I'll just keep adjusting it. It possibly is that
the chin doesn't come out enough, makes it feel smaller.
There are lots of things here that affect it. Lots of like -
see I did that.
Oh, that's awesome. See it elongates the chin, but
diagonally without me changing any vertical proportions.
Cool. See you learn things every time you do it right
because you're learning from
something that's
alive, you will right, you are trying
to use what you know
to understand what you're seeing.
You're encountering some problems because there's just a
lot you don't know.
So you have to rely on - you know, it's a back and forth
kind of thing.
You observe and then you analyze the observe again and
it never stops.
I'm just laying in some large
tonal movement, right, I just explained some of these
changes in plane. Not being specific with it.
Is much more organic in real life, but just to have it on
the page. I think it's good. It's nice to have there.
It's getting into here a little bit though.
Like these little shadows on that side plane of the upper
and lower teeth, if you will. The upper and lower rows of teeth.
And then this is
a muscle of expression, the
depressor anguli oris.
Or I think it used to be called the triangularis as well
because it's sort of triangular.
I don't think it's called that anymore though.
It's an interesting - I don't know who changes the names
though. I mean, I think once you have it you kind of keep it,
nobody cares, but probably
yeah, no change them for artists doesn't matter maybe
matters for doctors,
anatomists and all that stuff.
that triangular muscle, right, goes in the corner of the mouth
and sort of establishes that intermediary plane to the chin.
So that's where that comes in to play, right, when it's helping
you structure the head then it's important. Like the
zygomatic here. In most people it won't help you structure the
head, you won't even see it.
Even if a person is smiling, which is what that muscle is
responsible for, it also you won't see it. You just see the
So if you don't know some of those don't really worry about
it. I mean, I learned them in school, but I just you know, I
don't think that I've ever thought of them.
Just hinting at the mouth there. Of course, we're going
to get into that. There's some - a lot more going on there
like getting into some of that light and how this form wraps
around the lower row of teeth. That's a big thing.
But I already see that there's a clear problem with some of
this stuff right here, right? There's
There's -
we're breaking it up into planes. This makes a lot of
sense, but
let's knock this back more
into side plane.
Let's just kind of even out that shadow just a little bit more.
Not really working on the features yet, even though I
promised to.
That's the thing, right, get as much done with the head as you
can.
The large planes, the large changes. This is what
like if you've done the anatomy portions of the skull
and the anatomy of the head then you know that that's what
I'm about and what I've been trying to get across.If you
haven't then you definitely see it, you see more of it.
All right, that's the masseter.
But look at how clear we see these curvatures as they that these curvatures as they
wrap the zygomatic there. Zygomatic arch, not process.
Or bone.
But then look at that turn, the zygomatic arch. You can see it
turning back,
the ear actually might need to come down a little bit.
But you can see that turning back.
Right, like more and more the skull begins to appear here.
Things are looking to still a little bit too angular.
I'm not overjoyed by this.
But what is happening here? I think this whole top part,
right? The cranium above is getting a little
flat, right, because
now it's a little bit better, not - it's not done. This needs to
come down a little bit, that value too.
We'll get there though, we'll get there. I'm more
concerned with some of these small changes, right, hatching
terminator.
Now I'm getting into the orbit. This is an enjoyable
The mouth,
right, it has a shape, but I'm not too worried about it at the
If you're interested don't hesitate to really begin to
wrap these forms.
And now that I've got the actual
line of the orbit
I feel like I can get that cast shadow that's falling onto the
upper eyelid.
And then down here.
And then see the full end of the eye.
This is a tough, right? This is tough. In some cases it's going
to be a darker value. This is going to
require some
up-close work. All right.
Keep it clean though.
But don't hesitate to make these dark accents, even if you
know, we are being constructive and stuff, but don't worry
about it. Make it read. Because this is of primary importance.
Right, go up to this little notch right there.
But then let's get more
modeling in there.
Mmmhmm, exciting.
Wrapping that
orbit,
really looking good. See I'm a little bit more tonal though.
A little bit more tonal. sorry.
I'm still thinking in form undoubtedly, there's
no alternative. There is but this isn't the class
for it.
I'm curving turning that form on the zygomatic really
making sure those half tones are dark enough because at
they're not that dark, you know.
I've heard it seemed as though they're not that they're not
that dark, but see already I'm getting a lot more already. I'm getting a lot more
turn there.
How's a B pencil looking?
Something in between, that was just getting a little too hard,
but you know, there's more stuff to do there.
right, don't want to overstate
closed eye, right, that's not the larger fact that it's a
ball in there is more important.
The eyeball, the sphere. But do look up close and see that
there is the lid and the thickness of the upper lid
followed by the cast shadow, even, you know, even
a closed
eye, right the upper lid is above in a sense a little bit above
the lower one and casting a shadow onto it.
And then we're there.
Kind of carve into it.
All right, so that kind of
is getting us
thinking about the features again.
But I just would like to place them first with a little more
emphasis, of course, like I'm doing
before we get into some of these, you know, some of the
specifics.
Of all the features and getting into there but
I think the side planes are reading quite well. This is a
very structured cast at the moment. It's not
feeling organic at all. So in that sense, it's sort of along
the lines of what
we were doing with the rest of the casts that
it's the polish that's going to be interesting, making these a
little bit more organic, really getting into the features, and
also establishing the necessary accents and all that all that
enjoyable stuff.
We'll get there. We'll get there
for sure. So
where it is right now, I after fixing some proportions
before getting too carried away
I would like to take another moment take my eyes off of this
so that I can come back
and give that head a good look
compared to what I have on the page.
Just to make sure everything's in the right place before
moving on and we're going to kind of get into the habit of
doing this over and over again.
So with that let's take another few.
Whenever you need it, take a break. The whole
point isn't to just keep at it until you pass out. The
whole idea is to try to concentrate as much as you can,
focus on the task at hand. After it's accomplished you can take
a break. Even halfway into it take a break if you
realize that after the break it'll improve your
concentration and
productivity. So I'll see you in a few minutes.
Okay, we've taken a few moments and let's get back and see what
we can do in these areas that we haven't yet really spent
time on.
was looking a little bit during the break
and I feel like this half tone, which I initially said is good,
right, because it kind of rounded off that
area is a little bit too much right now. So just gonna tone
that back and see how it opens up the space of the
zygomatic. However, I'm not lying to you.
I do in fact intend to get into
the features, right, those areas that we have not - I keep saying
we're going to do
and I don't do.
So the first part, right, is to make sure that the features are
sufficiently intense, the values need to be
clear because that's where we want the
attention to go, like the viewers attention.
Alright cast is
you know, I've heard a lot of opinions on cast and of course
there is the -
just taking that angle.
Yeah, I got to bring this down a little. You know, there's the opinion
that it's
not that exciting.
You know, it's clearly viewed as simply an exercise , there's also
the opposite opinion where the cast is the sort of the end all,
it's art in itself.
Both of those wrong. I think I mean it's - I think there are
definitely interesting things to pick up from from casts and
to learn from cast and even the cast itself
and I'm not saying that the image of the cast itself, the
exercise itself can be something quite enjoyable
to look at, right, like if you can think of the of quite
artistic interpretations of casts, even though they are
profoundly accurate.
Some good examples are of course
Menzel's casts.
Menzel.
He did some paintings of cast, but he kind of put them in an
interesting environment. You know, he
hung them on a wall with a light from underneath. It's
quite fun.
There's that but I think he actually also has just some
things that were cast right, but it's just the quality of
his execution that really brought them to a new level and
that's wonderful.
So it is possible to have a piece with a great deal of
that's sort of begins as an exercise.
At same time understand, right, that this is
in order to learn.
the principles of light and shadow, to analyze
a structure, to make something organic, not as organic,
and then organic again, you know, all that stuff we've
been talking about. It's an exercise. size.
So I apologize in advance right now for
all the contradictions.
But if there aren't any, right, no there aren't any right no car
contradictions in the practice here then
what's the fun at all?
Okay, so,
okay. So the half tones are definitely becoming
here the hard part, right? The hard part is that we have to
make sure that we get those shadows on the side plane of the
nose but also those half tones, those half tones are dark dark
value. They're coming really close to the nose rather than
to the shadows right there. That's at times it's even
hard to
look at them just very briefly on. Is that shadow, was that
light? So
that's why we treat them a little bit more as one major
group, right, as
a group
of darker values.
I think that's easier to do with the moment than anything
else and then we'll see.
Just trying to see where that is, where the corner of the nose is in
relation to the eye. A classic proportion.
Yeah, and then we're going to get into, you know, pulling them
apart a little bit.
Pulling them apart. Just a little.
Using the eraser to carve those shadows, right? So not
everything is structural.
Though everything ideally is in your head.
So but some things you just you find, you find in place.
And then we'll get into -
look at that wonderful down plane of the glabella.
You can really see it there.
We're not there yet. Right. We're not even at half tones
The lighter half tones, those we can play around with a little. I
just extend them into the front of the nose.
But don't worry too much about them yet.
What I do want to do is the lips, right, and I did mention
when we were working on the lips from
the cast, the lips cast,
that I said that I personally feel that
they are the key to likeness.
And I still think that
and I precisely kind of think that I'm lacking a likeness at
this point
because of the lips, right, because they're not there yet.
They're not the right shape. They're not the right
Very particular overlaps there at the lower lip because lips
are parted remember that and what's really going to show
that of course is, cast shadow is that cast shadow from the
upper lip of the lower lip.
Look at that overlapping rotation there. whatever rotation there.
Feel free to push that occlusion shadow, right, and that
parting of the lips.
A little bit of a carving. I'm carving more than anything
else, but it's very hard to see how light certain parts are.
Plant that center line over and over again and knock back that
I think I'm going to actually switch to a pencil that's maybe
somewhere in between, right, not an F,
not an HB, but maybe just a B, right, so that I get soft enough
without the excessive darkness.
So that axis. Okay. So things to talk about right is that
alignments are very important. And we've gone over
that a little bit
and we're going to keep going over them.
But the thing is, right, that this in a sculpture,
especially of you know a more,
an older
work of art, chances are the sculptor placed those
and made everything parallel and symmetrical and so
Right? Eyes,
all these planes and so on.
This being a cast from a person who
was alive, a human being, not having undergone the
particular transformation, the interpretation, the translation if
you will into a work of art,
is much closer to what we actually can perceive in life
and that is of course these axes are not perfectly
parallel.
So a times you want to
see that and make sure that you're not
aligning them all the way, right? So for example, the
mouth actually I think is at a slightly different tilt.
And the hard part is right when do you actually convert
these alignments,
the actual alignments into something a lot more structured
on the page and when do you
leave it? And that's hard to say. I think
it's sort of case by case
and I think essentially my answer, though not really
that helpful I think would be that you have to leave those
where they are essential to the character of the face.
So I think that's - and so now let's move move back a bit.
Right? And if I based on what I said earlier, I think that the
character of a model is entirely in the lower part
of the head, right,
in the chin and
all that and the mouth and the orbicularis oris and the
lips, all of that then clearly
means that maybe something that's off-axis,
chances are would appear,
more likely appear,
And there were artists who have commented on that as well, right,
that a portrait is
you know, there's always something wrong with
the mouth. I think that was a line by
by Sargent, yeah, I think it was Sergeant.
There's always some - it's a portrait of a head which
there's always something wrong with the mouth.
So he agrees in a sense. I think that's kind of
what I was talking about. He said it in fewer
words, made it a little more of an aphorism.
See so
I am refining
the features but I'm not forgetting those half tones
that really really matter. Right like knocking back the
wing of the nose, the side plane, like making sure that this
whole area isn't a tone like to curve right the horseshoe of
the mouth we were talking about earlier.
So yeah. Yeah, I think we're getting
somewhere now. Clearly I'm losing some of these shadows
and that's okay for now. I feel like more structural
modeling is necessary, right? Keep things pretty planar.
We'll start inflating some of these areas, right, making them a
little bit more
organic. We will arrive at that point. That's not a big deal.
That part's easy.
And if you don't arrive at that
and that's hard to do,
if that doesn't work out that well, that's actually okay,
right because that's not the main point. That is something
that will come with practice as you complete more and more
assignments you learn to
polish them into something that is a little bit more
But yes, yes. Yes that's making sense to me. So that's the
interesting part. Right? So the mouth kind of horizontal. Still
not there, not a hundred percent, not a hundred percent,
but that's okay. Look at this corner, right, this corner, this
sort of area, this inflated part of the corner of the lips.
You'll encounter this a lot.
We sort of saw it in the Michelangelo Michelangelo lips,
but it's a little more obvious here
and I've just kind of knocked it back
because it shouldn't be that bright.
I feel like, yeah, that half tone I was putting in earlier,
it's very important now for me to look and see where some of
these intersections are.
Because I don't entirely know
where the head is on the other side there, right, how much of
the outer edge of the front plane of the nose stands out
against the background and how much of the other zygomatic do
and on the one hand you might ask isn't that something
I should have figured out earlier and
that's for sure. Sure, because it's you can see, it's all
pretty, it's pretty easy. Right? It's not -
there's not a lot of value there. Not a lot of structure
just figuring out a line and that means you could
pretty much move it around for as long as we need until you
get it right.
Okay, okay. Okay. I'm going to get back into the
superciliary arches. But
if you have done the
assignment on the skull, you know what those are.
Yeah, round that off. Right? Let's get a feeling of roundness.
I think it's maybe
over accentuating some of those values at the moment.
You know pushing maybe little bit too much.
I'm not actually defining them that clearly, I'm kind of
inching towards the under plane of the
superciliary arches with the value.
I think that's actually a little bit clearer.
All right, there's tilts make sure those tilts are in place.
I think the one thing that you definitely have to always
align is axes along in one structural area. So for one structural area. So for
the parts of the
frontal bone up here have to be aligned. So the
eyebrows and the eyebrow ridge rather
has to be aligned with the top of the frontal bone, right?
It's not - so it's the same structure now are they in same structure now are they in
reality? Not always I'm pretty sure
they're not in all cases aligned perfectly, but
we need them. We need them there. Now this right those
shadows and the orbit on the far side just make sure
they're just that tiny bit lighter than the ones up close.
So just outlining a little bit of the
moving upwards.
Moving upwards on the -
kind of making the
frontal eminence just little bit more organic, right, just
like we started with just sharp points right, so we just need
carve them up a little bit.
I'm ignoring you guys again.
Sorry about that. This is right like this is just sort of
a crucial part of the process
in which
I'm really establishing the particular turn of some of the
half tones, how quickly they fall into shadow. And that is
kind of the part that will make this come
alive. Everything after that is then just you know enhancing
contrast, reducing it, getting a little more of a detail in
there. But right now I just need
to get a little bit more.
information in there
in all these places right? Just just
getting all that stuff in there.
Stepping back, taking a look. Okay. Okay. Okay, okay.
Now what's happening here? What's happening here?
Let's kind of turn that form from the
temporal line, right? Just kind of get a little bit more
moving in. This is also - everything in the head right is
sort of along this curvature. So
at times you don't even need to look up there, just take a look
what is properly sort of curving away from us.
Clean this up a little bit,
getting a little too smudgy.
Which I think in terms of how soft this needs to be is
actually pretty good. I like how soft it has
become but you know, the other parts got smeared by my hands.
Okay. Yeah, just sort of make sure we have that side
plane and then we keep going.
I feel like beforewould go into even more refinement -
I like what I'm seeing though - but before we go
into more refinement and more specifics,
it is good to get a little bit more information just on the
inside, right, inside here. Sort of the side plane of the
kinda that tubular curvature of the sternocleidomastoid.
But soft, don't overstate it.
You can find it later with a line if you need to.
It's not that big of a deal, but
I feel like we don't move this along
a little bit, right, if we don't kind of get a feeling for the
entirety of the cast, the full completion, right. Here now we
can begin to, you can see that
strong tapering off, right, strong tapering off into
the tendon, right the tendon of the sternocleidomastoid, the
thin point there.
And you can see it because of the cast shadow, too.
You just get it on the page, right, Just don't worry
about it.
How specific this is, I mean you can see it wrapping on the
clavicle and all that style, that stuff we'll get there and
then not the biggest deal but because deal but
right, but see I make that mark and already I'm
having some
second thoughts. Right? I think it's too dark compared to
the head.
It's all about balancing those values, balancing those accents.
Making sure that light on the side leads more.
Let's move back up here.
Just gonna hatch straight out of that shadow into the
half tone.
But that, right, this we know is the short head,
sternocleidomastoid, but look at this.
That's already, right, that extension that is this part
right here expanding there, that's levator scapulae.
I'm overstating it a little. I might though. No, at first I thought
it was and I looked and yeah, it's right there.
That's the weird part about about it sometimes that you're
sometimes you do things just based on what you remember
them to be
you end up being right, the right place.
Just going to continue with this the larger value here. I
don't know how dark to push this. Yes. That's why keep it
lighter for now.
Keep it lighter for now, step backwards. This is -
and let's get a little bit more out.
And once again, let's just get things a little bit softer, little more
refined, and a lot of times refinement right, it's just flatness if
you will, I just a flat edge that is kind of all the
refinement in it.
Where are we? Here good, this is good. This is interesting. All
of this is very very light half tone. So
we'll figure that out as we go, right? I just want to see how
Just knock that back a little bit more to make sure the neck
stands out and then this is one of those instances that
kind of go against
this structural principle, right, that's clearly a
shadow entirely happening because of the box, right? So
if you notice what I do
in explaining these things, right? Is essentially every
single part that I approach,
every single part that I sort of arrive at, have arrived at
I just find a name for it. That's pretty much what I'm
doing. I'm working here and then I just explain what that
and why that's happening. And now the question is is that
going to help you
draw it, right? If I just - if you know what it's called and I
truthfully think that it does make a difference. Like if you
know what it is and you just call
something by its name, by its proper name
you have a better understanding.
of that element in question, right? It's not just a value, a
certain kind of value, a lighter value than this but a darker
one than that becomes too confusing, that becomes
in a sense too repetitive but if you're naming things based on
the principles of light and shadow, just organizing a little
bit more where things are coming from
why they're doing that and so on
and I think you have a much better chance of putting them
on paper in a way that's really really convincing.
I'm still trying to keep this loose though.
All right, still keeping this loose, not overstating the
clavicles. Though I do think, right, the clavicle
has that large curvature, this way and then out. sweat and then out.
So that's that one. I'm just going to put that in here with
just a bit
of value.
Right just to get that curvature.
But make sure we align these things. Clavicles, clavicles,
clavicles.
Just looking across left to right, left to right,
stepping back.
Right so keep in mind also the fluctuations. I'm noticing
them as I'm working
because I'm also talking about them, right, if I was working on
them maybe without
talking as much I wouldn't notice them as clearly but
notice what keeps happening structurally. Alright, we get -
we go through these fluctuations, these
oscillations between
more optical -
and I'm not talking about like the the process, just a more
optical appearance like the way it looks
on the page, right more sort of
just observed placement of shadows, values,
angles and lines,
stuff like that,
to a more structured approach where everything clearly seems
to be a little bit more focused
on the planes of the head and the planes of each individual
right? Just kind of analysis not observed clearly the values
and are off, they're not that precise, things go a little
haywire in terms of that, but get a little more interesting
in terms of
anatomy and structure and so on, right, so
you kind of soften that and bring it back to what you're
looking at, right, just observable
contrasts and things like that. Maybe some small - like even from
a structural standpoint it's more observed, right? We're
going to get to something quite small and intricate
right, that just observed - and I don't like I'm not so sure we
can really ever pinpoint that area from our minds. Perhaps
you could you know, but I think it's a little bit too specific
to our model, right? So so you end up structuring something
from observation, right? So this is constantly moving -
It's hard to explain entirely right, but you're moving all
around like you're moving from one end of the technical
spectrum to the other
and you could see it
on the paper. That's the crazy part. This is why I brought it
up because I saw it like when
we came back after the break
I looked at it and I thought okay. It kind of it was a
little bit on the of a little bit on the
structural side of things but there were parts that were
clearly overpowering and that they were the observable
I think the parts from observe - like the observed parts, right,
just the values have gone away a little bit
and it's much more specific
to just analysis of
of angles and planes and things like that.
Yet at the same time some of the half tones are also
contributing to a feeling of a larger structure. So it's hard
to pinpoint but the that's the - just keep in mind like
that's something which comes with the approach. We're going to
move between
these, like there is no one approach that will handle
everything and solve every problem
is what I'm trying to say.
Okay, so just going to lay in the ear, right?
Look at that really intense curve on the antihelix and you
can see the helix behind it and the weird earlobe that the weird here though,
right? Look at how that gets in and under, the ear has a lot of
and that is awesome.
There's some darker areas in there, right, the concha.
Concha.
Just knock it back.
Right proportions, proportions. I think that's pushed too high,
that comes down a little bit more.
Comes down a little bit more. It comes down to here.
Look at how the lower crus of the antihelix
this perfectly continuing that line of the zygomatic arch.
Now, is that consistent? I don't know. I don't think so.
Is that going to happen in every head? I mean, I don't
think so, but it's happening here.
And that's a nice rhythmic thing that we need to pick up
right, and it's an element of the plasticity of the
head. This is a term
used a lot at the Repin Academy and it means pretty
much everything.
It means gesture,
angles,
sort of the movement of lines on the two-dimensional plane,
but also into like - but also the movement of
sort of a movement around the head in the around the head in
three-dimensional space as well.
So I don't want to like confuse you with the terminology, but
that is pretty much the
word used to describe everything at the Repin
Academy. Is it plastic enough
is essentially a question that concerns the gestural
qualities of a drawing.
But it's not only just angles,
you know, angles of one thing in relation to angles or something
else even though it is that as well.
And interesting part is that these words definitely
exist in English, right? They definitely exist in English,
but it's not even so much
word itself,
it's how common the word is right? How often it's used.
There are a few of these.
And some become a little bit more complicated
because they are dealing with what sort of more just
concepts.
But there are words that are more common
so you can even - so for example, you can talk about them
not necessarily from the
like from an artisti - it's not the vocabulary that belongs
to the craft of an artist. This is something that you can tell
a person on the street who has nothing to do with art and they
pretty much understand what you're talking about. They
might not know the specifics or the intricacies of the
application of the term, but they will know what you're
talking about. And that's the interesting thing. Like if you
tell a person
who has nothing to do with art, right, that's not
their career, practice,
the word plasticity then
they kind of won't know what you're talking about for the
most part and I think also a lot of artists won't know what
you're talking about because that's just not the terminology
that's used.
Nor is it used in everyday life.
This is the hard part of converting artistic education,
right, but I think something like that line continuing
is a pretty -
it's, you know, that's an internal rhythmic structure
that can be called
a gestural component of the head
I went on a big tangent just off of that, right, that
was a lot.
The interesting thing is is that there's nothing to find
out in the case of just contemporary
current art education that's
just, you know, think about you know, different
countries, different languages, explaining different things
different ways and so on but
what's interesting to think about is artists and terms that
we take for granted. Like the terminology of the
Italian art of the
the Cinquecento for example the sort of mid to high Renaissance
moving on too high,
what were the terms used? We have a lot of them, they've come
out of those,
a lot of the manuscripts and the texts about artists have
come down to us. But the question is do we know what
those terms actually mean?A lot of times you don't
but luckily there's a lot of excellent scholarship on those
topics.
Okay, so see I kind of laid the earring in a much more
painterly way, right? I just moved things around, got a value
in, knocked it back. So on, right? Just to get a placement. Of
course it's going to need a little bit more form, a little bit more
refinement and all that.
I think we're at a good spot right now and we're at a good spot,
things are already in this sort an even amount of
observable contrast observable tonality, but also,
more structural components. So let's
take a moment,
step back for a bit and then really get into the refining of
this cast and the -
we're still early but what you can already call the
stages of completion.
Okay, let's get into some of that refinement.
Alrighty, so
here is the fun part. I think right now we're going to start
from the top, move our way down. That's pretty much how I think
we need to we need to think of this,
right, refinements, some sharper pencils.
Put the pencil in and turn, it'll kind of that it'll kind of
move it in as it sharpens.
This is the 2B.
This is a 2H, right? I'm alternating between the two.
And then I also have my -
I have a B pencil which I think is a good in between. Now
of course, you know, they're not exactly a certain kind that
because you know depends
on the brand also, right? Like a B from one isn't like
a B from another kind of like, you know,
that's always the case.
But that's not a big deal here. Just kind of
play around with it until you're comfortable. until you're comfortable.
All right, let's get that eye, right? Let's get that full
roundness in the eye. And you can see that there's that
little bit of a lip kind of like the one on the lip if you
on the upper eyelid,
right? You can see that little half tone come down to there.
We need some -
yeah, just dig into pretty much one pencil and
just getting this moving.
There we go.
Right working on the features, getting to turn a little more,
removing all that sharpness.
Right keeping in mind that there are tiny little
half tones
and tiny little highlights in between those half tones. Right
so the erasers will definitely be handy here.
Interesting, interesting, interesting. I think we need to
push this back a little bit.
Let's get that clarity of a cast shadow now. It's
maybe a little bit too clear.
It's going to hatch over that edge
just a little bit.
Look at how high this point is, how narrow it is. Now is
it actually narrow or does it just look narrow?
What I mean by that is that if the tonal structures
here, right if that halftone
is stronger, right? It's rounder, this whole thing is
rounder so we need the more of that tone
then you can see
we're perceiving the bridge of the nose based on the highlight
and if you're doing that based on the highlight
clearly the highlight is smaller and narrower. That's
the way to think of it, right? So.
this is going back to that principle, right, that everything
helps everything else. Right? So you get your outlines, you
need a shadow
to make sure those outlines are correct. You get your shadows,
you need those half tones to make sure those shadows as well
as those outlines are correct and so on right everything
corrects everything else.
Now this is sort of a, you know, slightly insane of a process. I
have been
when I was explaining this to some people I was -
they told me it was mad and it's considerably easier to
just establish
a little bit more of a formula
but then the work looks like formula and there is nothing
worse than that.
And also teaching a formula is somewhat of a problem right?
Because then it's harder to break away from it.
The goal is to break away from it.
At some point, eventually, right? In your own way.
You keep what you can.
You take what you need, you move with it, you roll with it.
You need and you find other things along the way.
All right getting into that front plane of the nose. Nice.
Now, of course, I'm running into some problems here. Look
at how bright that side plane of the nose looks like. The
classic problem. We've encountered it before. Let's
knock it back.
Knocking it back, good.
Okay, there we go. Look at that.
That side plan is now
in side plane.
Now we got that little bit of a sharper edge, right? We can see
that sharp edge on the upper crus of the alar
cartilage. Remember that one?
Bringing that up a little bit more.
That's a little bit tough, right?
Move around so you can see that edge, right, you can see
that edge
against the dark background.
Alright, I like what I'm seeing, but just going to get a
light down that front plane.
And this is, right, his is one of the most important parts, this is
the tip of the nose.
It's protruding. It needs to be sharp, needs to be clear.
I'm going to unify everything down there.
And begin to get this half tone
running into that.
Now my concern is, right, that I'm lacking a little bit of move acting a little bit of
light coming down the bridge of the nose.
Begin to refine some of this. It's
little sharp, right? That's sharp that the tip
of the nose, a little bit too sharp.
We do need to define the nostril.
Hmm, tough stuff, right, small small stuff requires
This is when I get to this point I'm not talking as much,
just follow along.
Requires a bit more clarity in terms of observation, right just
getting into the specifics,
but come real close so you can see where the cast shadow
begins and ends from the nose of the side plane. Where is it,
there it is. All right, let's make sure it's a darker value
then the wing of the nose.
Regardless of what we're seeing, right, just make sure it's
crisp, it's clear, so that we get that
placement.
Interesting. Okay that nose is coming to life.
I'm liking it.
Strange saying it's coming to life on a
dead guy, right?
But it's kind of got that structural feeling.
All right, there stands out like see that structure, but at
the same time it's not overwhelming. I'm still feeling
that it's a real form.
It's interesting, I've spoken about this with the fastest with
friends of mine who are artists
and we do often use the
glamour talking about each other's artwork or when you
know, we ask each other to take a look and comment or
something, we often
talk about how, you know, I feel that this how you know, I feel that this
is wrong. I feel this could be the lighter, which is an
interesting - I don't know if that's sort of
evasive language on the one hand, right? I don't
know why it makes it more of an opinion
as opposed to
just, you know, making it sound more like a fact.
that really is how we interpret
our understanding of
our own, you know, our own pieces, a model, anything, right? Maybe
it is something - I mean, of course
in reality, you know, you could
think about it and say that it's not simply a feeling that
you have, it comes from from
a place but it's always made into something a little bit,
kind of ethereal.
It becomes important like this. It becomes important
to make it emotional, when it could be just a
question of proportions. I feel this is too long.
I kind of like it though. I kind of like that
you're focusing - oops, I dropped all that, almost dropped
all that - you're focusing on that immediate response and
you're making it clear that it's happening very
quickly and it's intuitive.
It's not analytical.
It's not like you take the proportions and you compare
them and then say what you're thinking, you start with that
initial intuition.
Something to that.
But that was something I noticed a little while back.
Knock that eye back a little bit.
Get a little bit softer
on this outside edge.
Gonna come back and get that terminator on the glabella, on
this super orbital margin.
Just making sure that works, right, make sure this this reads
like it's wrapping around.
And yet see, I have already made too much of a line.
Notice how there is a little bit of a lip here too. Now
you wouldn't necessarily see this in a human being.
A, because they're the eyebrow
and B because this is happening in part because
everything is kind of stretched over the face
because as we mentioned
before this guy was dead.
This lip you will see on the skull
very important part of the supraorbital
margin, the edge of the orbits of the eyes on top, right, it has
that lip.
And if you can see it here then we do it.
It's almost a structural component.
Almost. Now I'm going to actually knock this back
because there's certain things I'd like to do with an eraser
right? Just going to
knock it back a little bit
and then I'm going to do it with an eraser. I'm going to
get that highlight on the superciliary arch, that margin,
and then I'm going to come in from above the superciliary
arch and get that slightly darker half tone and notice
what's happening, right? We're getting that full roundness
right here of that form just by doing that.
All right. We're just taking our time.
Calm piece by piece.
Learning as much as we can in the process.
I just check this out. Look at that
kind of -
I omitted the terminator there.
Not good.
Oh look at that, that will bring this down.
I want this a little more. This is feeling too rounded right
now. I want this flatter.
Flatter and simpler.
Too much going on there.
See so sometimes you over -
the one thing you don't want to do is over round things, that to
me - we're going to encounter this in the next cast we do,
like the next cast that's going to be the challenge. You think
this was a challenge?
That one's going to be real tough.
But unbelievably informative.
It's going to be all very very very soft.
We're going to see how we can try to
planarize it, it's not the word. I'm not sure
that's a real word. I'm certain it isn't
a real word, but we're going to
own it. Gonna stick with that one.
Here at least you know, if you look hard enough
a lot of these forms already look like the planes which we
we're making them.
Not a big deal, not the hardest thing to do here.
Precisely why we're starting with this guy
and not the other one. I did something like
you know, it depends on the instructor that you have. So
I'm trying to bring everything that I can to you.
Mainly because
I had instructors who made us focus entirely on sort of
an anatomical interpretation of things, of a planar
interpretation of things. I had other instructors
who are out of sort of a just a general like, you know, it all
comes from their understanding of art, right? So who
wanted us to work in in forms that were
a lot more organic, a lot like with turns of the forms
that were considerably slower and gradual
because they believe that was the high point of
technique and
that's what it all had to come down to
so taking all that all the stuff that I got from many
different teachers,
all of whom were
extremely instrumental in helping me be the artist and
technician in a sense that I am today.
We're not talking too much about art here. So it's more
about the technique.
Though they are connected.
And that is the real challenge.
But you'll get there.
that is the -
and so I'm just going to take everything that I was that I
learned and
you know, a lot of is from the academy in St. Petersburg and
a lot of it is just
the stuff I learned before going to the anatomy - yes
exactly before going to the academy, before having any
knowledge of anatomy and studying with instructors who
had gone to a school that was akin to the Repin Academy, but
just in a different part of the country.
And it had its own, at times had its own particular
interpretation of some of these things. So, you know, every
single person is the entirety of their influences if you
will, right? It's the -
it's kind of a slightly deterministic point of view
there, but it's you know,
we are a composite of everything that has influenced
Along will the other things there too, right? But
so I'm not entirely just taking what I learned in
St. Petersburg and
transferring it onto you. I'm taking
everything I've learned and interpreted
on my own and explaining it, you know, all in all how I've
combined all of this information
and how I
understand it and that's what I'm -
what I'm what I'm trying to get across to you is that
it's more personal
than it seems at first.
All right that look at this whole part. It's coming
Because you have to understand that the academy in St. Petersburg
is a large school.
It's not sort of a - it's not a small
kind of - it's insular for sure, but it's not a small school that
a lot of people who teach there are - a lot of of the
people who arrive there have already had to some degree of
prior education. So there's a lot of influences, there's a
lot of stuff going on right? It's kind of a melting
it's not that easy to just sort of distill the the
into you know, a few key principles.
Into a technique, into a formula.
In part, that's why the education takes as long as it
tends to, right, because there isn't really a formula that can
speed up your learning.
But when you do come out the other side
you really know what you're talking about I think.
So now I'm moving down again to my favorite part, we already
know it and we'll know more about it. The zygomatic arch,
right, making sure that terminator reads, extending that
core shadow.
Oh look at that, nice. Extending that core shadow, making sure we get -
really getting this intense area here
to stand out.
And I'm lacking - I could see how I'm lacking
a little bit of these shadows, these terminators on the
side plane, right? We need to get that because this guy, his
cheeks are quite
in there, right,
they're following the forms of the skull underneath
even more than
just a regular person, right, because
everything is sort of proceeded back into the skull.
So we're seeing those forms of the skull
on the surface.
This is why this is such a good head. This is a great head to
practice both before and after you've done the course
assignments on the skull.
That's a wonderful part, this part right here, right? That's
the sinking in of the cheek from the zygomatic.
It's beautiful.
That whole part.
Excellent. Excellent, excellent. We're getting there. Man this is
It's crazy how much I enjoy this though, every time I tell
myself no casts, who cares about them at this point? I've done
enough of them and then I go back and I do it and
my God, it's always such good practice. It's so
enjoyable to just spend that time with some
not looking over that small stuff, I'm kind of learning again.
Now, I'm not simply
trying to convince you to like this.
I am truly enjoying this.
But that is the danger right? We
sort of traditionally
trained, academically trained, however, you want to call it.
Artists can kind of get over obsessed with the technical
aspect of things, with just the practice,
and some people say that that's good. You know, you are focusing on
the craft.
And the craft is everything and you can just keep focusing on
the craft your whole life and maybe that is the case in other
times. Some people say, oh you got to move past this already.
I don't know what the right answer is.
That's kind of what I'm talking about when I do -
when I talk about the fact that this whole art education
thing it never gets easier, right, you learn these
or what not and then you apply them
to whatever.
But then the hard part actually begins
when you're trying to find out what you really want to do with
all of this,
that's tough.
But that's also kind of humbling because we're all in
this together regardless of the technique the
amount of technique, the amount of training
anyone's had, we're all in this sort of the process of the
creation of the art itself. We're all in it
together trying to
you know solve as many problems as they arise, at
the rate at which they arise.
So as you see I'm working on the masseter here, right? It's
muscle sort of behind the cheek if you will on the
sort of - it's the creation of the
side plane of the face.
And it's very nice. You can see it. We're getting some -it's
hard to get it to round off right? That's the secret right?
So this right here, is that terminator on it. So we're
going to really try hard to make it read that this is the
whole thing in its entirety. There's a lot going on there.
You can see all this coming down.
It's getting a little bit rounder.
Gonna knock this back right, make sure that we read that is
zygomatic arch
for what it is. So we get that terminator on it
and we turn it reflected light, cast shadow underneath.
Knock that back though, right? That zygomatic arch.
Lots of contrast around it means it'll appear lighter than
it actually is. Okay. I'm done with that. I'm tired of that
part. We're gonna get back there. But now
let's just get as much of this as possible in front. Right?
Don't leave - we've got the eye kind of a good spot, the
zygomatic in a good spot.
We've got all this here it's not bad.
We're just going to keep moving
down to the
the chin.
Oh, look at that mouth. I think that's getting closer. And you
know, right,
I'll bring this back in the future.
In the other of this course, but other parts of this course, but
what's really important, right, is that at times
I've always spoken about this, but at times you do just get
just this intuitive response to something being correct.
So I'm looking at this whole area and without even you know,
just without even like asking myself why
I see that it's closer
than it was. I see that it's kind of describing something in
a way that I like it.
Afterwards I go in and I asked well, why is it doing that and
how is it doing that and so on so forth. So all that comes
All right. There we go.
Wasn't kidding about that refinement. It's happening. Am
I actually sort of consciously thinking about refining things?
Sometimes, but not always, right. Sometimes I'm just moving along
the form, just describing things as I go down.
Small form stuff, you know,
that's what I'm really describing but
that's what I'm really thinking about. I'm not actually
thinking about -
move this
Adam's apple, the thyroid cartilage out a little bit.
Knock back that side plane.
Excellent. Excellent. Excellent. A little bit too much of this
swirl happening.
Not liking it.
Try to avoid those because that would - it just
it's not properly describing the changes of plane right
because there isn't anything that would stay the same
tonality as it swirls around the head
because it's not just moving across the two dimensional
plane, it's moving in and out. So that's the part to think
So just knock it back, go over it as many times as you need.
Hard part's always, right, the hard part is always the -
keep squinting, keep squinting because I'm still not
there with his cheek. You think this cheek my God
what's so important about this cheek?
And I would say is more important than anything else,
but it needs to read - we need to kill some of these like
strong outlines that we have had for quite some time,
right? We just need to get them to read like one tone coming up
against another tone.
Why not? Why not get a little bit of a darker value on that
zygomatic. You can never have too much on that zygomatic.
It's everything.
That and clavicles.
You get that part right and you're 90% there.
We can extend this a little bit, right? There's that sort of -
there are multiple shadows here, right, interference and all that
stuff we talked about but
it's not so much that you need to highlight the fact that
there are multiple shadows, but you can show that they are -
you can just push the values, you can kind of make them one
shadow with variations.
But with some parts that are darker some parts are lighter
and you know
so that you avoid those sharp edges within the shadow.
Hmm. Okay. Okay knocking that back. Good. Good. Good. Good.
Good. I do not - my hand as always you can see is a
disaster. So just gonna
clean this up a little bit.
Excellent. Let's keep moving.
Just gotta a clean off my hand a little bit
in a simple way.
That's if you don't have any soap or water.
Cleaning it out all the ways to some degree is pointless
right, because it's just going to get
covered in graphite again in a second. So
let me get back into here, right, getting into some of these
things. And you know, isn't this the weird part here, how
I'ma staying away from all this?
How -
let's get that wrapping.
You know how I'm not - how I'm just hinting at every part of
the head here.
Just hinting at them.
Not getting too caught up with it.
You arrive at this later. See, I'm exaggerating though. I am
exaggerating some of those forms in the lower lip, trying
to get that large curve across and along the form.
And yet, you know, also trying to get these planes
of the chin.
edges create
the form on the side as well as complete the form.
Let's see what we have here.
Going to get a sharpness, a sharpness in the dark value at
that core shadow on the chin,
which is a darker value
then this large sort of cast shadow falling on that side of Shadow falling on that side of
the cast. That's important because we do want
the chin and the head to stand out in front of this whole
spot. We haven't even gotten to that whole part, but you'll see that
it actually won't take that long.
It's not that hard to do all that
once the head is that its proper place.
When I talk about proper place I mean completed enough.
Okay. Okay. Okay.
I say let's get the ear down.
Because I feel like if we don't then it'll just keep bothering
We can't have that because then we can move
But let's do it with the zygomatic, right, the zygomatic
You can see really see it turning, you can see the skin
being pulled in these areas. It's nice, it's strong.
A softer pencil might solve some of these problems, a harder
one it's kind of already added
the dark value range in here. All righty getting in there and
getting in there
and then just knocking back right? Keep in mind what will
really help here
thinking of the ear as a form coming off of a pretty much a
plane that's kind of flat, right? Of course it's got a
curvature to it. But pretty much flat and we did this in
the cast of the ear, right, it was on this kind of oval
plane that wasn't even a head. That was just a flat
plane and there's an ear coming off of that. This is the
important thing here, right? Because it's these values, the
relationships of the ear to not the ear,
speaking in a
slightly cryptic way there
is what's going to make this work.
It's not the ear, parts of the ear in relation to each other.
It's the ear in relation to the ground.
Or the wall, in this case the wall of the head that it's
hanging off of.
If you think of it like that it'll help.
And remember it comes off of the head at an angle, right,
at an angle.
All right. All right. Okay getting that nice shadow, strong,
possibly to some degree occlusion shadow on that crease
between the antihelix and the helix. The lower crus, right, in
triangular hole
in between the crura.
The legs of the antihelix.
And bringing it down. Bring it down. Nice. Sweet. I'm liking it. Now
I'm just going to knock this back because you can see this
here is marvelous here because you get that bright -
it's not that light but you got a much lighter part on
the most protruding, most
on the curviest part of the antihelix,
we can break down, you can really see the changes in plane. If you
remember the Asaro, the John Asaro planar head sorrow planar head.
the ear is really broken down into very very basic wealth into very very basic.
angles, that's what that ear's really about. Now what nears really about know
those angles, all that swirly stuff yeah, you can take it or
Looks cool with all this other stuff,
but we had a whole conversation about
how looking cool as criteria. I just don't think
it's enough.
Alrighty, look at that. Let's get that cast shadow.
You're still looking like a lot like line,
right, a lot of lines still there. So.
But those lines are defining the forms a little
better than before.
The hard part, right, is to keep that ear
in its proper context on the side plane of the face.
Don't forget that.
Oh, but look at that, we can just knock this whole part back.
Squinting helps of course. We need this front plane of the
to read clearly
and then we need this whole part
to begin to turn, this whole part to begin to turn even the
tragus,
antitragus there.
Squint and see which one is brighter and so on.
Okay. Okay. I'm not opposed to
what I'm seeing. Let's get that curvature there a little bit
Just knocking that back a little bit.
Um,
I'll get back to the ear in a second. Let's just resolve some
of this cranial area.
Right we're gonna get some light there, whatever. forever.
Take a more painterly approach to this.
There's that hat, whatever he's wearing.
Maybe it's a hair net.
Maybe it's just hair, you know, a lot of weird things can you a lot of weird things can
happen when you you just cast a person, right?
You're casting hair. So.
That might be just a hair. So obviously not that bright. We
just need to erase it to make it work.
We're going to keep it pretty simple though.
Keep it pretty simple. Knock it back. Make sure it's
over there somewhere.
Right, treat it as the planes that you see them, as you
see them, right, don't
invent too much,
but do kind of convert what you're seeing into planes.
Here however,
Terminator, terminator, terminator. Sideplane, sideplane,
nice and then extend backwards, back back back.
That hairnet thing is still bothering me because I mean
it's so active. So we're just going to knock it back until it
stops doing that.
I'm not like - and that's the thing. I'm not sure how much
more we need up there like it. Otherwise, it'll just - I mean
you could spend all the time really defining the individual
little hairs
and maybe
you can just hint at them
or you can practice some of this by modeling them if you
really really want to. There's no way I will stop you because
all practice is good.
But do you really want to be doing that,
there's my question.
let's step back and think,
step back and think about what we have here. I'm kind of
satisfied with a lot of spots.
It needs even more refinement. However, I feel
like if we don't get to this whole part down here, the
clavicles,
the muscles of
the neck, the larynx, kind of figuring it out as a whole and
seeing how we can - how much we really need here to balance the
head. We can't really go back into the head and refine it even
further because I think there is still room, definitely room
for refinement,
and I want to take it there. But let's take a moment.
There's a lot that happened here. So let's take a moment to
just divert our eyes from this and then come back and see what
do with everything down here.
And we're back from taking a break again, which is great
because now I did get a chance to step away to take a look and
I'm alright with what I'm seeing. So let's get to all
these parts now as we said.
So, as you noticed I do take
breaks and they are sort of timed rather randomly, right? It
just depends on when I feel like I need to step away. Of
course. If there's a model in front of me, then the times I
take a break are sort of controlled by when the model
needs to take a break.
And that - but on the one hand that's helpful and it all kind
of like I've noticed that I've become conditioned
a break at the same interval as
do the models. Even if I'm not working on a model. So if I'm
working on a cast I will sort of take a break every 20 or so.
There are times and you'll see them, where even though the
model's taking a break I still keep at it. Right? So
it's you know, there's a lot of
factors to take into
consideration. But the one thing I'm telling you is that
you don't need to just work without a break. There's no -
there isn't anything that comes of just you know,
working for hours and hours and hours.
Unless of course you feel like doing that, unless of course
that comes easy to you
and you're really excited about a thing and you're working at
it. Like that's awesome. If you can do that, that's great,
the goal is to have a clear
idea of what's happening on the paper, right, to
to just move along.
To to analyze to think about things, right? It's not about
All in all it's about hours. That's what I'm saying, like
obviously the amount of hours you put into practicing a
the better you will
be at it of course. There's no question about that.
But at the same time, I don't think it's amount of hours in a
row.
So just keep that in mind.
If you're feeling
like you need to take that break, you should take that
break and not feel guilty about it. Now it sounds like I'm
telling myself this more than you,
so maybe I am.
Maybe I in fact feel quite guilty every time I take a
break.
Because I should be
Putting in these hours.
See isn't that insane? Yeah, so
the point is have clarity in your mind about what is
happening on the page.
And any way you achieve this is fine.
And if you read about artists, the
habits of artists are,
that they sort of
depend on
a lot of outside the elements so, you know, so you
artists who would spend hours and hours
in the studio and they were incredible and there's a lot
that came of it and then there were others,
a good example is Korovin, K-O-R-O-V-I-N, was a great
landscape painter. Konstantin
Korovin, I'll say it with a more
American pronunciation
who I think he worked about two hours a day.
That was like a lot. I think a lot of times
he didn't do anything. He just out at parties.
But all I'm saying is, you know, it's not about
doing either or it's about figuring out what is
At times the partying can really get in the way as we
know and at other times it might be exactly what you
need to take your mind off of the
what's happening in the studio.
I am,
you know, it could be anything.
Just depends on you.
Yeah, but Korovin was a great a great painter, a marvelous
landscape painter, kind of an the
impressionist if you want if
you want to
call them that.
But to definitely look into him.
Okay. So what's happening here?
Let's figure out what's happening with that
sternocleidomastoid on the side. I do want to take this
and bring it up and see where it lands. I'm a little bit
skeptical. Woah I'm off. I'm off.
It should fall right there. So let's bring this in.
Just a little bit more.
Going to bring that in, that works for me and then kind of
carve a little bit right here.
Good good, good good good. It kind of pushes the neck
that way in its entirety.
But at the same time I want to see what at this point is and
you think that that's a point you get earlier right? But I'm
just getting it now. No, that's fine. That's fine. But there's
a general direction there that I think I'm lacking by just
bringing this out to here.
Kind of getting that tapering out of the neck there.
Yes, so that's the
the thing right, so
getting some of these, right, I'm kind of beginning to jump
around a little bit because my eye
keeps moving around the head just to get
some things, you know, in line with others, right? So right
here, for example,
I need to get - I'm still here. I'm still focusing on
all this stuff down here.
This right here is a nice
area of, you know, form cast,
just ends a form, we can see the form ending right here
and everything past this line is already cast shadow. Cast
shadow, cast shadow, bring it down to here.
Don't overstate it though.
It's too close to the bottom. Not that important. So I'm just
rub this in a little bit.
Getting it a little bit softer with this -
whatever that is.
Bungee thing
works quite well, actually.
Good, good good good. At the same time
right you can use the eraser even to kind of get a little
lighter value
in an area while keeping all of the relationships a glaze but
in the other way.
Now it's time to get that side plane of the cast
without any of the specifics, right?
Just going to take it out there.
Take it out to there, take it out to here,
just so reads like a block.
Keeping it soft, keeping it soft. Now maybe traditionally,
maybe traditionally you shouldn't smudge with your
hands when working in graphite.
This was what
a professor of mine told me.
At the same time she let me smudge with my hands because the
results were all right.
Now that I think is the real answer, you know, in a way
saw that there was a technique which in a sense is
outlawed, if you want to go that far and
instead of just not allowing me to
practice it, she saw that some of the results I got from it
were okay and allowed me to move
on with it and see if I could refine it. Now
there are some problems with that of course, right, if you're
allowing one person
to use that technique you should allow everyone to
it means that it's possible for everyone to learn it. If
they're not practicing then how do they learn it? The fact that
I was able to do it could have come from the fact that I just
had done it a lot before it was something that I was more
comfortable with, maybe somebody else hadn't so it was sort of
unfair in a way on the other hand. I think it's important to
keep in mind and to be aware of kind of
certain qualities that a student and artist or you
yourself have that come easily to you
and to see if you can use them, refine them, and you know and
make them become a little bit more part of your technique. In
my case definitely became a part of my technique as you
will -
as I'm going to demonstrate in future assignments.
when we switch to working in softer media.
Because in softer media, you're almost required to use your
hands. That's also hard thing, right? Like that's exactly the
exact same issue. Like are you really, like you can do anything
you want really but it's easier to work with softer media in
your hands. That's what I'm saying. And I tend to a lot
so that's become my technique in a way.
smudge if you have to.
It's all right.
But I like hatching too though.
It's hard for me to say what I like more. Straighten that out
a little bit.
Okay, okay. We're getting the block of everything at the
everything at the bottom here, really getting the block of
that form.
Adam's Apple,
I mean this kind of - it goes who tells you to not forever who tells you to not
use one of these either. Don't smudge with -
there are whole schools of thought that are very much against it.
But I -
there's no way I'm going to subscribe to any of going to subscribe to any of
And I'm going to move this little darker half tone across,
moving that across. Excellent
In order to define the sternal notch.
Nice. And then bring this down to here
just to tone down the larynx. You can see it's a darker
value. Is it little more precisely toned-down? Yes, of
course, but
Find the outer edges of it here. I would like to establish
changes in plane, not with line already, but getting into the
highlight, right, changes from one to the other.
If anything is going to be accented in this area, it's the
sternal notch. All the stuff on the side, you know, you could
take it or leave it a little bit but the sternal notch, if
you don't have that you've got nothing.
What's happening right here? Nice, look at that, that core
cast shadow on the other sternocleidomastoid. And make
sure to really see that intersection of the
sternocleidomastoid and that flat top plane of the manubrium
of the sternum.
You can see it right there.
If you don't know yet what the manubrium of the sternum is as
I said, don't worry.
But now you've heard that word. So when it appears again
you'll know what I'm talking about.
I'm just moving from one point to the other at this this
Now from here
you can see there's a sort of center line, right?
Those are
the - these are the muscles from
the hyoid
down to the part of the manubrium to the sternum.
Let's not concern ourselves too much with those, they're a
little crazy. There's a lot of them.
The sternohyoid,
then the ones that are just they're not even the hyoid. from there not even the hyoid.
They're kind of - I will talk about the ones that you need of all
of these in the future, that one for example the omohyoid is
one that I think is very important.
Some of these you can just think of as the shape of the
larynx without getting too caught up in the particular
stuff going on in the neck. They're a little bit ridiculous
those things.
Though of course if you're learning anatomy, you know, you might as
As my teacher said, the point of anatomy is to learn it and then
forget it.
And of course that doesn't actually mean that you forget
it. It means instead that you learn it, but then you don't
necessarily spend time recalling it, you allow it to
become something understood, something that you can kind of
access on a level that's much more intuitive.
Yeah, this was a great
teacher of mine who passed away sadly but he was a marvelous
sculptor and I worked with him before.
And went to study at the Academy because I initially
wanted to practice
sculpture, not painting.
Maybe that's evident from the way that I draw.
But maybe it isn't either, right, because I mean there's write because I mean there's
like a structural component in the way that I draw for sure.
But there's also sort of a painterly component that I the component that I
wouldn't want to give up. It's quite nice.
All righty. Let's see now. I'm working on those other
parts, working on those small changes in between the
long head and the short head and all that stuff of the
sternocleidomastoid. ANd here the particular edge, right,
how soft or sharp it is really matters because it's the
only way we're going to get it to go from this like tender
this portion to the wider part then the flatter part of
the small head. A lot going on there.
A lot of it is it needs to happen, right, because
of all those
strong concavities and convexities that I have spoken about, these that I have spoken about
a lot of it is going to be treated
the highlights between the forms.
Extending that upwards a little bit.
Now let's get that cast shadow falling
onto that
Now, this part right here actually is probably all
omohyoid as well. Right like this. They go that way,
this part right? Here is the
levator scapulae.
I'm not sure it actually picks up the scapula or not. That's
and how much of that happens with that one, but
a little bit probably. Enough.
to call it that.
clavicle time,
right, we can see that strong highlight on the clavicle, right
here. Meaning that we need to establish much clearer sense of
top plane, side plane.
Or top plane, front plane.
Right. We're getting that down there needs to happen.
Right because the clavicle also has to flatten as it goes
towards the shoulder.
So that highlight on the edge then becomes more and more
prominent as we go.
Jut gonna kind of move that over a little bit, push those darker half tones.
A little bit more.
What do we have here?
Now it's time to just knock this back, right, remember that
was our plan,
to really show that clavicle coming out from there. called coming out from there.
We're gonna have to work into the shadows but not too much.
Oh, there we go. Look at that. We can see that,
we can see the clavicle ending a little bit more so turning
And now, we had this at the beginning. game.
We can see that side plane the clavicle.
Squinting a lot we can exaggerate the curvature of the
cast shadow from the box onto the clavicle, right, so we can
push that turn on to it a little bit more.
But I also want the softer,
a little bit cleaner.
And the side of this cast again,
which we'll just knock back.
this right here is the infraclavicular fossa. clavicular Pasa
Infraclavicular fossa.
And that
means that this part right here belongs to the pectoralis and
this part up here belongs to the shoulder, the deltoid, the
anterior part, the front.
Now how much of this anatomy do we need? I don't know.
Hard to tell.
Gonna knock that back a little bit, right, and then here too.
We're kind of working shadows within shadows here.
Right just to get a full form of that clavicle. But
it does seem a little
like extra round. Maybe more round than we need it.
Figure out how to do that later.
But at the same time right, I need to just make sure that
both clavicles are reading correctly.
We're getting a roundness there, there,
but we're going to get more form.
Get this front plane, front part, which already belongs to the
manubrium to the top of the sternum.
Just trying to simplify it at the moment, not overdoing it.
Maybe getting a little bit of
a light in places.
But also softening some of these clavicles, right? We
don't need them too prominent. That's the other part.
Now they're almost outlined and you will see that I do talk
about this.
Or you might have already seen.
I do believe that you should in fact try to outline should in fact try to outline
the clavicles a little bit more and allow - then kind of
remove them, right, because you need them to exist very very
very very clearly.
On the one hand, right, but on other you can't overstate them
because otherwise they just look -
they don't look as though there's skin covering them and
also, you know, muscles not just skin, but the muscular
structure is covering them.
And then of course that sharpness of some of those cast
shadows at their origins, let's say right here.
Sorry, I've gone quiet.
Just concentrating here a little bit and kind of got
enamored by you know, sometimes you get caught up in a little
bit of a shadow or something.
What's happening right here?
Maybe it's time to get back to this little piece, right,
because here we are focusing on an area that's not maybe that
at the same time is defining
the same area as here on the other side. So maybe just
purposefully sharper because that is a depression.
And allow that to fall in
and then you know the rest of the stuff.
I'm using the eraser to get out sort of movement of light
across the thing not really a structural
way to do it if you will.
But effective though, isn't it?
But as effective.
Here use the fact that this is ending in this whatever the, you
know, the side of that cast is to give us that form.
That neck, that
neck's looking good.
Okay. I'm going to clean up a little bit.
And reinforce some of this, right, I want this to turn more.
I don't know that was maybe a small accent or something,
right? We still want to make sure that our cast is on the
ground so
just hinting at a little bit of something there. us something there.
In this case, it's not that important, there's a lot going on,
we don't need to
overstate this. So this eraser feels like it needs to be
sharper. Right? I'm cutting them
little triangles as you know, I tend to do and I have taught
And then I'm using the eraser to carve a little bit more.
Carve those shadows in the neck but look at that right? Look
at how curvy that is. Remember what I said about the about
those curves.
You really shouldn't have them.
Really shouldn't have them and show them as a form in
space, not a movement on the two-dimensional plane of the
And what we have now, you know, I'm not opposed to two
dimensional form of the paper. I actually think in some ways
actually more important than the three-dimensional illusion.
That's kind of the the modernist in me, but
just knocking that back like keeping it loose but not going
too back so we don't compete with the head.
I do really want to get back into the head
but I'm going to prevent myself from doing this and I'm just going
to not go into it because I feel like there's a lot to do
here still, not a lot but a little bit to do here at least
that I can
before moving back up. Look how bright this whole thing is.
This whole pectoralis right here. Maybe that needs to
be cleaned up.
I'm liking what I'm seeing there.
Let's take this all the way right because that omohyoid
is going under.
Let's do a little bit of that.
And then we -
without overstating too much right there.
Now clearly, I mean it's not mandatory, but if we have this
right, if we have this cast shadow from the box from of from the from the box from
the frame onto the cast itself,
then clearly
following with that logic we're going to need to get that cast
shadow or the, you know, that soft remnants of the
top of the head,
which wouldn't necessarily be logical but geological every last member of
this whole top plane would actually be rather light but I like what
it does, but I like how it
knocks that whole top of the head away a little bit. I mean
I'm interested in this, right, and this is just
just an option. I'm just observing this, I'm seeing it.
I still think - see I'm jumping around a little bit, still think
it's a little sharp for down here.
Just getting that that much softer.
I'll get back into there. I'm not fully satisfied with this
in general, I think we have all the necessary parts. There's a
structural quality to this that I'm really liking
and so I think what this needs
is just another pass.
Basically, you know either cross or top to bottom this
just needs one more pass and then we can call it completed.
let's take a moment to allow our eyes once again to relax a
bit and then to come back with the full intent of
completing this head.
Okay. So at this point you can pretty much - like if you got to
you can comfortably call it and move on to a new project.
However, I think we do need just a little bit of time to go
over everything, clean things up, and see if they're maybe just
some small little tiny areas that can use just a
little bit more refinement. So with that let's have at it.
So, let's see.
Let's start by just cleaning up these edges, right? I might, you
know, I'll be working on this more so I might get them
So the thing that I'm not going to do here though is put in a
background. I thought about it in the break. I looked at this
and thought to myself maybe it does needs just like a
partial background right here to enhance
this quality of light. But as I said, the quality of light here
is not the most important thing that we're after, right, we're
after the form
that's a little bit of quality of light and that definitely
explains the cast shadows falling onto the top of the
head and the shoulder but that's you know, that's just a
cool effect and it's more of a compositional kind of idea. Oh
boy.
Just got
more of a compositional thing than anything else, so
if your paper is attached like mine, right, just by clips, be
careful when you're erasing right? Because when you erase
you can tend to hurt the paper a little bit and by that, I
mean just kind of crumples up. So this explains why I hold it.
I hold the paper down around the area I'm erasing to keep
it flatter. If you have a piece of paper that you've
stretched onto
onto a thing then you don't have to worry about that
and you can even erase as much as you want and it'll be great.
let's take a look around right? Let's take a look up here.
What is this pencil? I don't know, not a fan.
I'm gonna stick with actually kind of a hard pencil
right now, right because the effect that I can get from is a
nice sharp edge. A sort of not very intrusive half tone.
I was just looking because if you know, usually with sharpeners
like this the tip of the pencil breaks off and gets
lodged inside. But with this has not happened yet, and I've
been sharpening like a madman so
that's cool.
So, yes, look at this. I can just bring out some highlights.
Right? Just cleaning, bring out that big nice highlight on
frontal eminence, that protruding part
of the forehead.
The thing also that we
we're getting at here
is that there's a certain looseness right in areas that
aren't as important, right? And I'm not saying they're not
important objectively. I'm just saying I have decided that in
this image they're not going to be the most important.
I'm handling them by not refining them as much both in
terms of accent,
in terms of just the specific information within those areas, but
in terms of handling right? I'm not getting a nice hatch in
I'm not too worried about that here.
I'm more right now thinking about the shape of certain
highlights, kind of getting in with the eraser
but also but the edge of highlights right so I can use
the eraser to just soften some
value trying not to lean too much so that I don't smudge
more and have to clean up more. I'm gonna have to
but, you know.
kind of refinement.
Right so and I mean, I mean I said that we're going to come
back and complete this now.
You can keep doing this. You know this could you know in theory
never end.
You're going to find that a bit,
take a break, come back, refine it a bit more, you can
even put it away
for you know a month
and then come back and do a little bit more, work on top of
that. Now is that -
I think you with practice
will realize the best way
to engage with a piece , right, the amount of time it requires,
no piece is identical, you know, it doesn't have the -
yeah, it would just depend on the idea, depend on the on the idea of depend on
how you're working and depend on the amount of time you have.
A lot of things go into it. Just keep an open mind though.
That's all I'm saying. I've been saying that in lots of - in
as many different ways as possible this whole time. I
keep an open mind because there is no like
one way to proceed.
No one way to proceed.
That other eye though, right, maybe a hint
of the lid,
maybe even
toning down the lid
right there.
So we get a little bit more light closer to the top of the
lid.
That's nice. I think that reads well.
Keep cleaning, keep cleaning so that we have our
highlights really really strong. Right? We want the -
this is sort of what the values we're thinking of.
All right, are
a little bit more conceptual than observed. The
brightest lights are pretty much as light as the paper,
right, and they could be a little repetitive like it's
okay if all of these highlights are the same, right,
because they're just going to give us the structure, not the
conditions of light right? So we're kind of in
between here. At times we've got the sort of the
conditions of the light coming from above, you know cast
shadows, larger shadows blah, blah, blah. And another times we're just
making sure we have enough value in a given area to get a
good read on the form.
There go those, I'm liking these changes so far. I mean there
are many changes there, just refinements, but I'm liking
them. I think they're adding something. I think they're
adding more clarity.
They're adding like tiny little changes
here and there.
They're adding tiny little highlights.
Now, of course, you know that's also it's weird right
because I'm adding them.
So it's weird for me to say that they're just being added
on their own
but that is how I think about it, right. I kind of like to
think of things just happening, right?
I'm making them happen, I'm aware of this obviously, but at
I'm an observer
of the changes that are happening on the page.
They're not - it's as if they're not always up to me.
Also, that's kind of - that's a nice thing to feel because I
don't have to be as concerned. I just kind of you
know,
think about them and direct them in a different
way, but in the end, I'm not fully responsible
for them.
But it's always nice to, you know, to take that
responsibility away from yourself and relax a little.
While still getting work done.
And that's the thing that, right, a lot of
is kind of passive in the way that I'm talking about right
now, right, once it becomes intuitive. You don't really
think that much, right, you just allow things to happen. Then
you observe and you sort of monitor from afar almost right?
You control it from afar.
You don't get too carried away with it.
Look at that bright light right there, interesting.
Also the shape can be corrected.
Keep stepping away, keep looking.
The zygomatic got lost a little bit and I feel like come on
that's got to be there, right? We've had it there, we've talked
about that continuous movement from the zygomatic arch into
the lower crus of the antihelix, but you
end up losing stuff when you add value, that's fine. That's
Squint.
Look, okay. Okay a little bit more, a little bit more, a
little more.
It's nice to have a person around
who can take stuff away from you.
There are artists who
I've read
whose partners would take away
the artwork at a certain point, right, because the artist
could not
leave it alone. Right? They couldn't call it quits
because you gotta end it, right? This is the advantage of having
a commission assignment right? Because then you just have to
end it because somebody is expecting it in their house or
wherever in a given amount of time. So it ends not when you
want it to end, you do have to plan a little bit, but it'll
end, you know, when you run out of time.
It'll end when you run out of time.
I feel like that shouldn't be too much of a sharp edge,
right? It just needs to be kind of - I'm not now I'm
totally aware that the larynx is not totally defined
as a cylindrical form, but I'm not bothered by it
though. I have to say I think it's all right not defined.
I'm okay with it not being
overstated as a tubular form,
right. Alright s you do add information here or there just make sure
it is describing something like I just did right there, adding
into a plane.
It's got to describe something.
Okay, the head I'm liking.
I'm just going to get a little bit more clarity on the terminator
on the chin, right? You think all the terminators there should we've all become there should
be in place by now,
but they're not.
All this is the bottom is good enough for me
for what the head is doing, right? It's always a
I'm just some hints of general form, a general form, don't want
to overdo it
in this area I mean. we're gonna have plenty of time to
talk about clavicles and how they, you know,
how they move
along that line of the shoulder girdle. We'll get there for
sure. And this is a great opportunity to practice that
we also need to consider just compositional questions right,
importance of certain elements in relation to others.
Uh-huh. Okay. Okay, this is fine, but I'm seeing some
information there. I'm just gonna let it - I think we can't
avoid.
Couple of accents on the neck here.
Accents and then also removing accents, right, more variation.
Some places softer, some places sharper. The neck is
fine for me, highlights on the head look good.
Just one little bit of that highlight between
the full mass of the lower lip and the chin.
A tiny bit higher that highlight between those forms.
I actually feel more of a curve here.
Oh, removing it might actually be the way to go.
Getting that even softer.
Let's clean up the top
with a softer pencil.
Just cleaning up edges.
The ear looks looks good to me where it is, but maybe this can
be knocked back. Right? I don't want to over model it because
it's in that shadow of the side of the head, of the side of the
whole cast really.
We can continue this past this.
Oops. Oh the worst thing, the dropping of the pencils.
And the cleaning up of the page one last time.
All right, I've decided
that I'm done
and you can too, you could have done it earlier. You could do
it at any point here,
right? There's something to be gained from reaching a certain
point, feeling like you've gotten to a certain
level of completion then starting again, starting in the
next assignment then coming back and seeing if you can sort
of push past that previous amount of completion of a an
exercise so there's no like - it's not all about just taking
everything from point A to point B,
so, but that does conclude
this particular cast assignment and we have one more that we're
going to do that takes everything we've learned and
makes it just a little bit harder.
I'll see you then.
In this assignment using the images and the 3D scans
provided with this course, you are going to be working on the
cadaver cast head.
Now the important thing about this head to keep in mind is
that the particular changes in plane are obvious and so
it's your job to work on emphasizing them as much as you
can. The medium here that I used is graphite and I
recommend that you use that as well due to the fact that it
allows you to take the time to slowly move around and analyze
each individual plane and form. Good luck.
Reference Images
1. Lesson Overview
Now playing...
Watch the whole lesson with a subscription
2. Establishing Structure of the Head & Blocking in the Shadows
3. Observing the Anatomy of the Face
4. Correcting Proportions and Applying Halftones
5. Refining the Features of the Face
6. Balancing the Halftones and Shadows of the Features
7. Refining the Cast & Core Shadows and Adding Highlights
8. Refining the Cast & Core Shadows and Adding Highlights pt. 2
9. Observing and Developing the Forms of the Neck
10. Clarifying the Forms of the Neck
11. Applying the Finishing Details and Resolving the Drawing
12. Assignment Instructions
Previous lesson in Course 11. Russian Cast Drawing Course: Cast of the Ear
Next lesson in Course 13. Russian Cast Drawing Course: Cast of the Pre-Renaissance Bust
Be Masterful!
Learn to make stunning drawing, painting, sculptures, and more — all at your own pace.
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© 2021 New Masters Academy. All Rights Reserved.
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The National Museum’s Public Affairs team assists the media with inquiries about the Museum, its collections and exhibitions, and helps connect media with our expert staff.
National Museum of Australia
Acton Peninsula, Canberra ACT 2601
Diana Streak
media@nma.gov.au
See a sample of high-quality images we have available for media use.
Largest return of Aboriginal remains
The remains of some 300 Aboriginal people, robbed from their graves a century ago, will be returned to the Ngarrindjeri people of the lower Murray Lakes and Coorong area in South Australia by the National Museum of Australia next Monday in what is the nation’s largest repatriation of ancestral remains.
National Museum's new branding campaign
The National Museum of Australia is inviting Australians to “Discover why we are like we are” in a major new branding campaign to be launched next month.
Canberra bushfires book launch at Museum
A book which documents the stories and images of the ACT’s devastating January bushfires contributed by those who lived through the capital’s greatest disaster will be launched at the National Museum next week.
Anzac pilgrims plot Australia's social history
Are you one of the thousands of Australians who has made the pilgrimage to join Anzac Day services at Gallipoli?
Museum talkback goes international
Students from the United States will join Australian students in questioning Prime Minister John Howard about the Iraq conflict and other issues next month through a TV hookup between the National Museum and the Smithsonian Institution a new twist in this year's series of Talkback Classroom.
Australians recorded for Eternity
The personal stories of 25 extraordinary Australians, including cricketer Victor Trumper and bionic ear developer Professor Graeme Clark, will be brought to life in one of the National Museum of Australia’s most popular galleries next month.
Drought in the Year of Freshwater
Australia has just weathered the longest and worst drought for a century.
Museum performers recreate old magic
Australia’s most successful but now largely forgotten magician will be brought back to life in a performance work during a unique two-week residency this month at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra.
Twists and turns of Museum's history
One of Australia’s foremost historians, Professor John Mulvaney, will reflect on the tangled history that led to the creation of the National Museum of Australia in a lecture this week to mark the Museum’s second anniversary.
Canberra's green gardens to flourish again
ACT residents whose gardens have been damaged or lost through drought and January’s bushfires will get free advice from a panel of experts at a National Museum forum next weekend.
Museum reveals its unmentionables
The National Museum of Australia is throwing open its closet next week to reveal the role of underwear in shaping Australian women's bodies and perhaps their minds.
Vietnamese writer joins National Museum
A writer for young adults whose books feature Vietnamese culture in Australia is spending three weeks at the National Museum of Australia this month as the 2003 resident "Writer in the Museum".
Go to previous page Previous
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Governor Sandoval, Mayors Schieve and Martini endorse Washoe County Question 1 to Save Our Schools
Special to NNBW
info@nnbw.biz
Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval (middle), Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve (right), and Sparks Mayor Geno Martini (left) announced their collective support for Washoe County Question 1 (WC-1), the ballot measure to invest in the construction and repair needs of our schools, after a meeting with The Coalition to Save Our Schools Wednesday, August 17.
COURTESY |
Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve, and Sparks Mayor Geno Martini announced their collective support for Washoe County Question 1 (WC-1), the ballot measure to invest in the construction and repair needs of our schools, after a meeting with The Coalition to Save Our Schools Wednesday, August 17.
Governor Brian Sandoval issued the following statement after a meeting with the Coalition to Save Our Schools, encouraging voters to join him in voting yes on WC-1.
In the last few years we have taken tremendous steps to improve our education system. The new innovations and resources are improving reading and math proficiency, giving more resources to gifted and talented students and getting needed technology into the classroom.
However, in Washoe County, we all know that there is another education crisis – our schools are overcrowded, outdated and worn out. Indeed, most schools are over 40 years old. Without new investment, we cannot expect to provide children with a 21st century education in a classroom built in the 1970s, a portable trailer or even a converted storeroom. Although we have first class teachers, we cannot expect them to teach our students the lessons of today in the classrooms of yesterday. Our children, teachers, parents and community deserve better.
That is why I’m asking you to join me and vote yes on WC-1. WC-1 will not only provide the needed resources to build new schools and modernize others, it will bring out the best in our students and ensure prosperity in the future. Make no mistake, what happens in our schools today will determine the future of our state.
Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve joins Governor Sandoval in encouraging voters to support the initiative, issuing the following statement.
Reno’s future is so bright, and we have so many positive economic developments happening. We must continue to make Reno a destination for companies and families and to do that we need schools that match their needs. WC-1 will dramatically improve our schools and our community, and help to continue the excellent trajectory we’re on.
Sparks Mayor Geno Martini released the following statement.
For more than a decade, I’ve represented the citizens of Sparks. I am committed to ensuring this generation, and future generations to come have the greatest opportunities to learn and grow in a safe and productive environment. Our children deserve nothing less. Passing WC-1 this November is the solution to provide those opportunities.
The Coalition to Save Our Schools issued the following statement following the meeting.
We are proud to welcome three important leaders to our coalition. Having the endorsement of Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval and the mayors of Reno and Sparks speaks to the gravity of the issue at hand. We look forward to working with them to pass WC-1 this November.
For more information or to get involved visit http://www.soswashoe.com.
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Wynne, Kathleen
CANDIDATE DETAILS
Affiliation Liberal
<- 2018-01-01
Name Kathleen Wynne
Toronto, Ontario , Canada
Email kwynne.mpp@liberal.ola.org
Website [Link]
Born May 21, 1953 (67 years)
Contributor Monsieur
Last Modifed IndyGeorgia
Tags Lesbian -
Info Kathleen was elected MPP for Don Valley West in 2003. Prior to entering Cabinet in 2006 as the Minister of Education, she served as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Training, Colleges, and Universities, and Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Education.
As Minister of Education, Kathleen secured an early release of grants to school boards to allow predictable budgeting, increased education funding this year by $781 million, passed legislation to fix the flawed Safe Schools Act, and continued work to lower primary class sizes, increase provincial test scores and increase graduation rates. As MPP for Don Valley West, she successfully advocated for stronger tenant protection, creation of the Ontario Child Benefit, greater access to employment for foreign-trained professionals, and reform to make the Ontario Municipal Board a true appeal body.
Before her election as an MPP, Kathleen served as Public School Trustee for Ward 8, founded the Metro Parent Network, and was a founding member of Citizens for Local Democracy. Kathleen holds a Masters in Linguistics from the University of Toronto and a Masters in Adult Education from OISE.
Kathleen has three grown children, Chris, Jessie, and Maggie. Kathleen has lived in North Toronto for more than 25 years, where she and her partner Jane are active in the community.
JOB APPROVAL POLLS
Date Firm Approve Disapprove Don't Know
05/31/2013-06/04/2013 Angus Reid 43.00% ( 0.0) 41.00% ( 0.0) 16.00% ( 0.0)
FAVORABILITY POLLS
Date Firm Favorable Unfavorable Don't Know
05/30/2018-06/02/2018 Pollara 22.00% ( 1.0) 57.00% ( 6.0) 21.00% ( 5.0)
05/23/2018-05/23/2018 Forum Research 19.00% ( 0.0) 69.00% ( 0.0) 12.00% ( 0.0)
Title Purchase Contributor
Importance? 0.00000 Average
06/07/2018 ON Premier Lost 5.65% (-55.65%)
06/07/2018 ON Legislative Assembly - Don Valley West Won 38.89% (+0.40%)
06/12/2014 ON Legislative Assembly - Don Valley West Won 57.01% (+26.39%)
06/12/2014 ON Premier Won 54.21% (+28.04%)
01/26/2013 ON Premier Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
01/25/2013 ON Liberal Party Leader Won 39.55% (+9.77%)
10/20/2011 ON Minister of Aboriginal Affairs Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
10/20/2011 ON Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
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State Election Information
Our Homes, Our Votes,
Our District of Columbia
Things You Need To Know:
1. Registration Deadline:
The deadline for registering by mail to vote is (received by) Tuesday, October 13, 2020.
The deadline to register in-person to vote is Tuesday, October 13, 2020.
The early voting period runs from Tuesday, October 27, 2020, to Monday, November 2, 2020, but dates and hours may vary based on where you live.
You can also register and vote on Election Day.
2. Polling Times:
7 a.m. to 8 p.m
3. Is Early Voting Available:
Yes, 15 days ahead
4. Can I Vote by Mail:
Yes, You can register here.
*Accepts late-arriving ballots postmarked by Election Day*
5. ID Needed for Voting:
If you are registering to vote in the District of Columbia for the first time and submit this application by mail, you may be required to provide identification that shows your name and current address the first time you vote in an election in the District of Columbia. No notary or witness requirement for return of mail ballot & No ID requirement to vote by mail
6. Voting Without Address
The DC voter registration form requires the address where the voter lives.
7. Interesting Notes
DC's website includes an FAQ for voters and language access (including individuals with disabilities).
Resources
Get voter and candidate engagement resources.
Access tool kits and other resources to help you ramp up your traditional and social media efforts.
Registration Information, Polling Place, Provisional Ballot and Absentee Ballot.
2020 District of Columbia
Housing Profile
A one-page snapshot of the information advocates need to make the case for socially just housing policy.
Congressional Profile
The profile pulls from a variety of sources and illuminates several dimensions of housing affordability for renter households in each district, the surrounding area, and the state.
Our Homes, Our Votes: 2020
C/O National Low Income Housing Coalition
1000 Vermont Avenue, NW, Suite 500
Email: ourhomes@nlihc.org
Learn More about NLIHC
© 2019 Our Homes, Our Votes: 2020
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SOLBERG WORLD CUP T&CS
The prize comprises:
-One economy class, return ticket (if under-18, an economy ticket will be supplied for the travelling parent or guardian) to Seattle. The cost of the tickets will not exceed US$4,000
-Airport transfers to and from the hotel and DirtFish Rallyschool
-Two nights twin-room accommodation in a hotel close to DirtFish
-Dinner with Oliver Solberg
The winner must:
-Weigh less than 130 kilos
-Be no taller than two metres
-Declare any existing medical conditions before accepting the prize
-Have a full driving license and present it on arrival at DirtFish Rally School
We understand there are a lot of under-18 gamers taking part. Here are the terms and conditions related to winning if you're under the age of 18. If the winner is aged 9-15, they will be offered a passenger ride with Oliver Solberg - dependant on a parent/guardian signing the appropriate waivers in advance. A winning participant aged 16 or 17 can drive the DirtFish school car with Oliver - but only if they are approved to do so by a DirtFish Rallyschool instructor.
-The winner will be announced within one (1) week of the end of the completion of the Solberg World Cup (midnight on June 21) by the Oliver Solberg Media Office (OSMO). Entry to the competition gives permission for OSMO to contact the winner.
-Subject to eligibility and compliance with all applicable terms and conditions, the first entry drawn at random from all eligible entries will win the prize.
-Free entry to the competition. A copy of DiRT Rally 2.0 is required with additional locations purchased. Responsibility for any purchases remains with the participant.
-The prize is subject to the winner and/or his/her parent/guardian signing the DirtFish Release and Waiver of Liability and Indemnity. Those terms and conditions can be accessed here
-Racesuit and helmet will be provided onsite.
-Codemasters accepts no liability arising from the running of the Solberg World Cup or the delivery of any prizes won by participants in the competition.
- It is agreed that the winner must provide evidence of their times (via replay recording) if requested. If no replay is available then proof must be provided afterwards showing that the time was possible in a fair way (i.e. without excessive cutting or cheating).
- each individual can only take part in each event of the Solberg World Cup with one account. Those found using multiple accounts will be disqualified from the event.
- if any driver is under suspicion of cheating, it is at the sole discretion of the organiser to disqualify the driver. This includes suspicion of using physics-editing mods, corner cutting, hacking the system or anything else that could create an unfair advantage.
In starting any one of the six events included in the Solberg World Cup, the participant is accepting of all terms and conditions laid out by the Oliver Solberg Media Office (OSMO), the Solberg family, DirtFish Media/DirtFish Rallyschool and Codemasters.
© Oliver Solberg / PS110%
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West Kelowna business facing charges after six bears killed over littering
A West Kelowna business has been charged for leaving garbage around Lake Okanagan Resort
A West Kelowna business has been charged after six bears were euthanized in three days following continuous littering in an area around Lake Okanagan Resort.
According to Conservation Officer Jeff Hanratty, officers were forced to put down three bears on Sunday, one on Monday and two on Tuesday, due to safety concerns.
“We had a group of bears that were habituated and food-conditioned with unnatural food sources that had become a threat to the public,” said Hanratty.
“We had a witness who was charged twice by the black bears, we had bears up on balconies accessing garbage and food and there’s a report of a bear pushing on a window.
“So, these bears were a high risk to the public and as a result, the bears were destroyed.”
READ MORE: Lake Country begins testing bear-resistant garbage carts
Hanratty said COs had no choice but to shoot the bears, noting if the bears had been relocated to their natural environment there would be a very good chance of them making a return.
Since June of this year, 97 black bears have been euthanized by the BC Wildlife service across the province mostly due to public safety concerns.
“The problem with bears having access to unnatural food sources is that it can lead them to become food-conditioned,” said Wildlife BC Okanagan coordinator Meg Bjordal.
“Once they become food-conditioned they can very quickly become human habituated whereby they actually begin to associate people with food and that’s when they start to tolerate people in closer proximity than what is safe for both the people and the bears.”
READ MORE: VIDEO: Shuswap resident’s yard becomes nighttime thoroughfare for grizzlies
Hanratty said the West Kelowna business is being criminally charged and a dangerous wildlife protection order has been issued.
Conservation Officers will be laying charges under the Wildlife Act anyone caught attracting dangerous wildlife. It’s a $130 ticket for attracting dangerous wildlife.
The public is asked to report dangerous wildlife to the Report All Poachers and Polluters hotline at 1-877-952-7277.
Frustration and pride in Canada after a year of legal pot
Drop, cover and hold on: Thousands of British Columbians to take part in earthquake drill
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Coronavirus, supply-chain issues raise fears in…
Coronavirus, supply-chain issues raise fears in local manufacturers
Supply chain disruption poses a huge problem for manufacturers in Southern California.
Employee Maria Flores assembles safety glass shields at Paulson Manufacturing in Temecula. The company has bolstered its manufacturing capacity to meet rising demand for medical face shields during the coronavirus crisis. (File photo: Terry Pierson, SCNG)
By Jack Katzanek | jkatzanek@scng.com |
PUBLISHED: March 4, 2020 at 4:02 p.m. | UPDATED: March 4, 2020 at 4:04 p.m.
The spread of the coronavirus, questions over how bad it could get and what authorities should do to fight back are casting shadows across the manufacturing sector.
The crisis has become a double-edged sword for Paulson Manufacturing, a Temecula company that makes protective face shields.
As the novel virus spread from country to country, the company upgraded its production capabilities to make as many as a million medical shields a month.
“We had to move heaven and earth to get that done,” said President and CEO Roy Paulson. “We have a lot of orders and have given quotes to many other companies.”
But the downsides are adding up. Paulson said that while he does buy materials from U.S. vendors, some of those products are made with components from China And while Chinese entities have ordered his face shields, air transport companies have limited their flights, making it harder to deliver them.
It’s been a sales boom for Paulson, but he has empathy for other manufacturers. “There’s not a lot of good information coming out of China,” he said. “A lot of my other friends in this industry are dead in the water.”
In the months before the virus became a global concern, the manufacturing sector was improving, thanks to an updated NAFTA deal and a partial settlement of the U.S.-China trade dispute.
A survey of manufacturers across the country found a shrinking majority of companies leaders believe the sector is moving positively. But executives from many of those companies are worried that illnesses in China could threaten their ability to purchase the raw goods they need.
The national Purchasing Managers Index, released Monday by the Institute for Supply Management, was 50.1 for February, down from 50.9 in January. A reading above 50 suggests a majority of the executives surveyed believe their businesses are moving in a positive direction.
The respondents reported slower production, fewer new orders and a heavier backlog of orders compared with January. Many feared that supply-chain issues could become exacerbated in the near future.
“Global supply chains are impacting most, if not all, of the manufacturing industry sectors,” said Timothy Fiore, chair of the ISM survey committee, in a statement.
The PMI for the Inland Empire, from the Institute of Applied Research at CSU San Bernardino, was 57, up from 54.4 in January. It was the fifth consecutive month above 50.
Close to half of the 30 factory owners who responded to the CSUSB survey voiced concerns about the coronavirus situation, mostly because the parts and materials they use to make their products come from China. One respondent said his company had received no shipments from China.
It also affects manufacturers who sell their merchandise to Asia.
“Our customers in China have obviously been silent for the past month,” one respondent wrote. “As of Feb. 24, we have not heard from any of them since before the Chinese New Year.”
Ann Davis, a sales associate for Eclat Textile, a Los Angeles-based clothing manufacturer for companies that include Nordstroms, Lululemon and Nike, said shipments of fabric from China are still arriving.
“But if the situation continues there we expect there will be delays,” Davis said.
The uncertainties could force factory owners to delay plans to hire more workers. The Inland Empire survey cited a 7.4 point decline in its employment index, to 48.3 in February. An estimated 505,000 people in Southern California work in the factory sector, according to the most recent state data.
Raymond Sfeir, a Chapman University economist, said the Federal Reserve’s rate cut Tuesday was evidence that even top tier policymakers are worried.
In a report released Wednesday, the Fed’s San Francisco regional bank reported the coronavirus outbreak has led to decreased demand for aircraft from China and other Southeast Asian nations. Some American solar equipment manufacturers also have experienced delayed shipments due to supply-chain disruptions.
“The situation is extremely fluid right now; no one knows that’s going to happen,” Sfeir said. “The medical people say it will take them three to four weeks to know what’s going on.”
Sfeir said he’s heard traffic at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach is “way, way down” and that some freight operators there are laying off workers. He said he wasn’t surprised that manufacturing employers are not looking to hire many new workers or invest in new equipment.
“It doesn’t make sense to make a big investment right now if you can’t say whether it will pay off,” he said.
Jack Katzanek | Reporter
I left my hometown of New York City in 1981 to take a job on a weekly paper in Ordway Colorado, a prairie town of 1,200. This made me the ultimate fish-out-of-water. I have since covered sports in Miles City, Montana; crime, courts, government and education in Napa , California,and gaming in Las Vegas, all before becoming a business reporter and editor in 1996. In that capacity I have worked at the Santa Clarita Signal, the Inland Valley daily Bulletin, and the Press-Enterprise. I joined the PE in 2000, left in 2014 and rejoined in 2018.
jkatzanek@scng.com
Yellen faces a new role: Salesperson for the nation’s economic policy
Status Update: New eats coming to District at Tustin Legacy; Fendi Men debuts at South Coast Plaza
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SPECIAL HOLIDAY HOURS: Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum and the Battleship Missouri Memorial will be open on Monday, December 28, 2020 and Tuesday, December 29, 2020. After the 29th, Battleship Missouri Memorial will be open 4 days a week (Wednesdays – Saturdays) from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm and the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum will be open Wed-Sun from 9 am to 4 pm. The USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park is open daily from 8 am to 4 pm. The parks will be closed on Christmas and New Years Day.
Pearl Harbor Historic Sites
PEARL HARBOR Tickets and Tours PEARL HARBOR HISTORIC SITES
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I Christen Thee Missouri…
by Nov 30, 2019
Miss Jane Tunstall Lingo, Sponsor Miss Mary Margaret Truman and the Honorable Harry S. Truman, Senator from Missouri, at the launching of Battleship Missouri at Brooklyn’s New York Naval Shipyard, January 29, 1944.
“Today is the Day She Leaves Ways!” reads the headline for lead story of the January 29, 1944 issue of the New York Navy Yard Shipworker newsletter.
The story continues:
“Scores of Thousands of New York Navy Yard workers will fill a tingle of pride run up and down their backbone today when the mighty battleship Missouri hits the waters of the East River for the first time.”
Rear Admiral Kelly, Commandant of the Navy Yard, and Rear Admiral Kennedy, General Manager of the Yard, stand by for Sponsor Mary Margaret Truman’s christening of the battleship Missouri, while her father, Senator, later President, Harry S. Truman, looks on.
“Simple and brief ceremonies attend the launching of the Missouri today, although the event means much to all Americans and to the United Nations especially, since we expect to have her seeking out the enemy and finding him nine months ahead of schedule. Wartime restrictions plus the desire to avoid interference with other vital work in the yard have limited witnesses to yard workers, naval personnel and a few distinguished guests. The President of the United States is unable to attend, because of the pressure of official affairs. Like the President, Vice President Henry A. Wallace and Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox were unable to accept invitations.”
“The P.A. System will broadcast to all parts of the yard brief talks by Admiral E. J. King, USN, Commander in Chief, US Fleet, Rear Admiral Monroe Kelly, USN, Commandant, and Senator Harry S. Truman of Missouri. Two national networks and several local stations will describe the proceedings to the American people.
Sponsor of the ship, the eighty-fifth to be launched at this yard, is Miss Mary Margaret Truman. At approximately 1:10 PM, Miss Truman will say, in traditional fashion, “I christen thee Missouri. May God guard the Missouri and all who sail in her.”
Ceremonial champagne bottle cover used in christening of Missouri, in wooden case.
And then, with champagne flying and the Navy Yard band playing “Anchors Aweigh”, the Missouri will move down the ways, and the world will know of another great stride taken by Americans in building their offensive strength.”
The champagne flies as sponsor Mary Margaret Truman christens the battleship Missouri at Brooklyn’s Navy Yard, on January 29, 1944
The inscription on the bottle cover reads:
“ U.S.S. Missouri
Navy Yard New York
Miss Mary Margaret Truman
Daughter of
Honorable Harry S. Truman
United States Senator from
Mary Margaret Truman and Jane Tunstall lingo were roommates while attending George Washington University.
GW University Relations Photograph Collection; Cherry Tree yearbook, 1946.
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Mar 1, 2013 Posted by Bitter in Anti-Gun Folks, The Media | 14 comments
What the Media Really Thinks of Gun Owners
Locally, there’s a new group that has popped up to defend gun rights. The media is aghast, and they resent being reminded that 1 in 17 of voting age adults in the county have concealed carry permits – a number from before the rush on permits post-Aurora and Newtown.
“Registration? Does it include the criminals?” [a local pro-gun State Rep.] asked, repeating a very tired argument. He went on, concluding: “Firearms protect children, wives and husbands.”
What about the dog? Should we shoot people who threaten the family pet?
Yes, the paper just called the argument that we should punish criminals “tiring” before comparing the value of the lives of your spouse and children to that of a dog. Let that sink in. They think the concept of defending the lives of your children is as worthless as defending a house cat. Why? Because you own guns.
But, the unsigned editorial doesn’t stop there. No, they have to make gun owners out to be dangerous creatures.
Said one of the “concerned gun owners” of possible government intervention, “They have a hunger to control us — unless we stop them.”
God help us.
Clearly, divine intervention is needed. Because gun owners couldn’t possibly be talking about stopping power-hungry politicians through civic engagement, public education efforts, citizen lobbying, and election volunteer activities.
This doesn’t even get into their policy discussion. They promote Obama’s gun ban agenda as “modest,” and then they try to claim that full gun registration isn’t really controversial at all. They think that a ban on firearms commonly owned and used by thousands of gun owners in the region is just not big deal and shouldn’t be challenged. They do make clear that we’re “entitled” to have opinions, but they are outraged that gun owners dare organize to express them.
More Philadelphia Media Nonsense
Alert for New York Gun Owners
14 Responses to “What the Media Really Thinks of Gun Owners”
pink Floyd says:
“Should we shoot people who threaten the family pet?”
That would depend on how you view “the family pet”.
It IS my property and some, if not most, castle doctrines allow me to use deadly force to prevent a crime against property. In my opinion, yes, I can shoot the gremlin that is threatening damaged to or theft of my property.
Patrick H says:
Especially because if he’s willing to shoot a living animal, he’s likely to shot another larger self aware animal.
Yeah, and since most of these hoplophobic, beta-humans are extreme animal rights freaks they claim that “meat is murder”,I would be stopping a murder from taking place.
Erin Palette says:
I love my dogs. They’re part of my family, so anyone threatening them threatens me. And yes, I totally agree with what Patrick says above.
But the line of reasoning I am using in the police report is “My dog is part of my family’s security system. He protects us. What’s the difference between someone shooting my dog and disabling the alarm on my house? Both of them are actions of someone up to no good.”
In general pets are treated as property or live stock. Floyd is correct in his assessment. Your response options do not change because the threat is to a pet. The local laws have a tremendous impact on those options. But, if you are going far enough to have a predetermined response to police, I recommend that you speak with an attorney/leo about your rights if you haven’t already done so. Your actions after the encounter should be tailored to an overall legal response in case it comes to that.
The only question of someone trying to shoot my dog is figuring which one of us, myself or my wife, shot the bastard before he had a chance to do so.
An assault on my dog is an assault on my family. It will be responded to as such. Only thing different between him and a child is he walks on four legs and has a speech impediment.
Andy B. says:
Actually, that newspaper has a long and distinguished history of anti-gun chicanery.
In 1964 I was arrested under an unconstitutional local ordinance banning hunting. I had the ordinance overturned on appeal. But I was arrested in possession of a dead crow. The paper reported I had shot a “cow.” When I complained they claimed it had been an unfortunate misprint. Then they printed a retraction/correction, that made no sense, in which they said again — twice — I had shot a cow. They never did print the word “crow.”
At one point my father went into their offices to complain, and the editor said, “Well, in my opinion, I don’t think people should just be allowed to run around with guns,” to which my father replied “And in my opinion, newspapermen are crooks who are too lazy to work but don’t have the guts to steal!” The reporters in the office at the time roared, and said “Sounds like he’s got you pegged, Sandy.”
“And in my opinion, newspapermen are crooks who are too lazy to work but don’t have the guts to steal!”
Andy B., do you mind if I steal that quote? I promise that I won’t claim it as my own. It pretty much sums up the entire population of “journalists” in the world today.
Sure, steal away. Neither I nor my dad actually owned it.
I recall at one time it was a fairly popular phrase, where people filled in their targets of choice.
I checked to see if I could find a reference on that. There appear to be dozens of variations on that “Too lazy to work. . .too cowardly to. . .” idea.
Here’s one of the very first I stumbled upon:
“The first priest was the first man who was too lazy to hunt his own firewood, and too cowardly to catch his own meat.”
What if a SWAT team mistakenly breaches your home and threatens the family pet?
The cops have a pretty rough record when it comes to the family dog…
Whetherman says:
Remember when a female BATFAG threw Harry Lamplugh’s pet kittens against a wall, during their raid on his place?
Regarding the ATF raid on the Lamplugh household: From what I can recall reading about this raid in a 1990’s issue of SOF magazine, a female ATF agent by the name of Debra Slusser stomped on the Lamplugh’s kitten that was trying to get back inside as she was leaving their house. Then she kicked the dead kitten underneath a tree. Two other Lamplugh family cats died later from ingesting prescription drugs that another ATF agent had dumped all over the bedroom floor. All of these ATF and IRS agents who had raided the Lamplugh house that day had themselves a pizza party for lunch and left their trash all over the Lamplugh’s house. You can read more about the Lamplugh ATF raid here:
http://www.atfabuse.com/heresay-6.html
Positive Kids & Shooting Coverage | Shall Not Be Questioned - [...] do your homework on who you pitch at a local paper or other outlet. The same group that published…
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A COMMUNITY-ORIENTED FOOTBALL PROGRAM WHERE SAFETY AND CHARACTER COMES FIRST
The Palatine Amateur Football Association (PAFA), founded in 1966, is focused on building a strong football community-- providing local youth an opportunity to learn the fundamentals of football in a safe, positive, and inclusive environment, while building confidence, discipline, and character.
PAFA provides tackle football for grades 3rd -8th and flag football programs for K-2nd grades. We welcome all players and families who are interested in joining a community-oriented football program where safety and character comes first. When players and families join PAFA, below is what they can expect:
We will put safety first. First and foremost, in all practices and games, safety comes first. All PAFA tackle football coaches are USA football certified, and annually complete an extensive training program focused on teaching the fundamentals of football using safe and effective techniques; all tackle football parents and coaches complete concussion awareness training annually; and licensed NovaCare trainers are present at all PAFA tackle home games. And, as a feeder program for Fremd and Palatine High Schools, coaches attend workshops led by Fremd and Palatine High School coaches.
We will build strong football families. We work hard, and play hard. In PAFA, we have opportunities for players to celebrate their hard work, and come together on and off the field. We kick of the season with Party in the Park with a picnic, music, as well as a presentation by the Fremd and Palatine football teams; each team has a homecoming game and celebration; and, at the end of the season, coaches celebrate and recognize each player at a team banquet attend by the players and their family.
We will treat players with respect, and focus on character. Our coaches are focused on teaching the fundamentals of football in a safe and positive environment. And, character is paramount. Our coaches are helping to build strong athletes, and even better young men. Our coaches will treat players with respect, and will expect and reinforce same from them. This is all part of PAFA’s focus on building strong football families, where working effectively as a team and developing good athletes is more important than winning football games.
We will encourage players to achieve excellence on and off the field. At PAFA, we present an Academic All American award each year to students who achieved straight As during the football season, recognizing they are “student” athletes and academics come first.
We know choosing a sport, and a football family, is a big commitment—a big commitment on behalf of the athlete, and family. We are proud of the program we have built in PAFA over the past 52 years, and we look forward to continuing to work with our community and our football families to make this a great program for our local youth-a program where life-long friendships begin.
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Daily Morning Note – 11 March 2020
Stocks rose sharply in wild trading on Tuesday as investors weighed the prospects of fiscal stimulus to curb slower economic growth stemming from the coronavirus outbreak.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 1,167.14 points higher, or 4.9%, at 25,018.16. Tuesday’s gains for the Dow cut the index’s losses from Monday in half. Earlier in the day, the 30-stock average was down 160 points. The S&P 500 was up 4.9% at 2,882.23, notching its best day since Dec. 26, 2018. The Nasdaq Composite also advanced 4.9% to 8,347.40.
Mainboard-listed Winas Limited is set to be delisted after failing to get approval from the Singapore Exchange (SGX) for an extension of time to meet the requirements for a new listing, the company said on Tuesday evening. The company had requested for a trading halt on Tuesday morning before the market opened, pending an announcement, and then asked for the halt to be lifted on Tuesday evening.
DARCO Water Technologies is preparing to write off S$2.46 million in debts which it has deemed to be of “low recoverability”. They have been due for some three years. In response to queries from the Singapore Exchange (SGX), the mainboard-listed company said the impairment loss stems from three projects and a former subsidiary.
BHG Retail REIT said on Tuesday it has reopened two of its malls in Anhui, China, after certain stores were temporarily closed from Feb 7 due to the coronavirus outbreak. Hefei Mengchenglu Mall and Hefei Changjiangxilu Mall, both in the provincial capital Hefei, reopened on Tuesday “upon approval from the relevant local authorities”, BHG Retail REIT said in a statement.
SASSEUR Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit) will be reopening its Hefei outlet mall on March 13 following approval from the local government in Hefei, its manager said on Tuesday. The Reit’s sponsor, Sasseur Cayman Holding, will continue to roll out a series of marketing and promotional activities to welcome shoppers back on Friday, the manager said in a bourse filing during the midday trading break.
SINGAPORE taxi operator ComfortDelGro Corporation is expanding its presence in the UK through a £7 million (S$12.5 million) acquisition of the Liverpool City region’s third-largest taxi and private-hire operator.
TECHNICAL PULSE
Bukit Sembawang Ltd
Recommended Action: Technical SELL
Bukit Sembawang (SGX: B61) continued bearish momentum will continue based on the technical
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Date: 2 March 2020
Phillip Research in 3 minutes: #18 – Singapore Budget 2020
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Archers Quest Green Arrow
by Brad Meltzer
Becoming an expert marksman with a bow and arrow while stranded on a desert island, wealthy industrialist Oliver Queen took the identity of the swashbuckling hero Green Arrow until his selfless death. But years later, after a miraculous resurrection, Oliver has returned to recapture his life. Embarking on a journey through his past, the Emerald Archer reflects on his decisions and actions as he goes about retrieving items of sentimental value from his history. Now after encounters with the Flash, Green Lantern, and Solomon Grundy, the Green Arrow reveals hidden secrets from his past as he prepares for the future with his estranged son, Connor Hawke, and longtime lover the Black Canary.
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BIOREGULATORS
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Home › Clinical study of Suprefort
Clinical study of Suprefort
The dietary supplement Suprefort is a complex of low-molecular peptides with molecular weight up to 5000 Da, isolated from pancreas of young animals - calves aged up to 12 months. Isolated peptides possess tissue-specific action to pancreas cell tissue, thus restoring metabolism and normalizing its functional activity.
Suprefort is manufactured in the form of capsules, containing 10 mg of active peptides. Suprefort was administered per os 10-15 minutes before meal 1-2 capsules 2 times a day for 10-20 days depending on severity of the pathological process.
The clinical studies of Suprefort were carried out at the Medical Center of the Saint Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology in patients with Chronic pancreatitis in the state of remission and in patients with Diabetes mellitus II during the period from November 2005 till January 2006.
Deregulation of physiological functions and pathological changes in pancreas result in diseases with signs of nutrition and metabolism disorders. Consequences of progressive inflammatory process in pancreas are, as a rule, dystrophic processes accompanied with disorders of excretion of digestive pancreatic enzymes, characteristic for chronic pancreatitis. In the presence of disorders of insulin secretion, the patient has symptoms of ‘secondary’ diabetes mellitus.
Diabetes mellitus is one of most widespread endocrine diseases: about 1-2% of Earth’s population has it. Besides there are same amount of people with occult diabetes and genetically predisposed to this disease. The diabetes signs in any single case are integrated reaction to mutual action of multiple factors with various combinations (genetic predisposition, chemical and infectious agents of environment, autoimmune processes, nutrition, physical activity, psychological stresses etc.). Detection of new syndromes (diabetes, caused by formation of antibodies to insulin receptors; diabetes caused by genetic defects of insulin structure etc.) is a reason of constant necessity of addition of disease classification. Potential, latent and asymptomatic forms of the diseases without clinical symptoms require special attention concerning prognosis, prophylaxis and treatment (1, 3, 6, 7, 8). Treatment of chronic pancreatitis is based mainly on diet and enzyme preparations (pancreatin, pansinorm) etc. (5) Treatment of diabetes mellitus without clinical signs requires diet therapy and phytotherapy (2, 4).
Clinical characteristic of the patients
Distribution of the patients by diagnoses, sex and age is shown in the table 1. Treatment using Suprefort was carried out in 34 patients (18 male and 16 female) with diagnoses ‘Chronic pancreatitis, latent form’ (12 persons) and ‘Diabetes mellitus II type, latent form’ (22 persons). The patients with chronic pancreatitis were complaining of the loss of appetite, eructation, meteorism, borborygmus, stool disorders. Two groups of patients were formed using random sampling technique, in these groups the patients have similar sex, age and diagnosis: the basic group included 12 patients (8 men, 4 women), control group - 8 patients (4 men, 4 women).
Distribution of the patients by diagnosis, sex and age
The patients of the control group have been taking general purpose medicines. The patients of the main group have been taking Suprefort in addition to the general purpose medicines - 1-2 capsules, 2 times a day before meal for 15 days.
Diabetes mellitus II in the patients was not accompanied by any clinical signs and was diagnosed on the basis of an increase in glucose level in peripheral blood in view of unbalanced diet.
Control group included 17 patients, who have been taking general purpose medicines. 22 patients of the main group have also been taking Suprefort in addition to the general purpose medicines - 1 capsule, 2 times a day before meal for 15 days.
Examination methods
The patient complaints were assessed and compared, general clinical studies of blood and urine were carried out together with blood biochemical test using ‘REFLOTRON’ device, (Boehringer Mannheim, Germany). Duodenal content was examined. Glucose tolerance test was carries out.
It was established that administration of Suprefort in patients with chronic pancreatitis resulted in increase in appetite and decrease in the rate of dyspepsia.
Suprefort influence of activity of digestive enzymes in patients with chronic pancreatitis
Laboratory assessment of duodenal content has shown initial decrease in activity of pancreatic enzymes (table 2). After Suprefort administration there is tendency toward increase in activity of pancreatic enzymes, which correlated with improved clinical symptoms.
Suprefort in patients with diabetes mellitus II was administered in parallel with glucose tolerance test. It was established that after glucose challenge the patients had characteristic glycemic curve. The patients of the main group have also been taking Suprefort in addition to the general purpose medicines - 1 capsule, 2 times a day before meal for 10 days. It was shown, that after Suprefort administration the test carried out in 2 hours after beginning of the study showed gradual decrease in the glucose level. In 5-10 days after beginning of the treatment course the patients had normal glucose levels. None of the patients had increased dosage of blood glucose lowering drugs, 12 patients (54,5%) were using decreased levels of general purpose medicines and in 7 patients (31,8%) the blood glucose level was below normal values without blood glucose lowering drugs. In 3 patients (13,6%) the parameters remained at the initial level. It is worth noting the stabilization of the blood glucose parameter in the patients of the main group within next 2-3 month after the end of treatment (table 3).
Suprefort influence on blood glucose values after glucose loading in patients with diabetes mellitus II
In patients of the control group, who have been taking general purpose blood glucose lowering drugs, it was not possible to lower the dosage of the medicines, and in 9 patients (52,9%) the dosage of blood glucose lowering drugs was increased with a purpose of normalization of content of blood glucose.
Thus the results of the clinical study obtained confirm an efficiency of Suprefort and expediency of its use in complex treatment of the patients with chronic pancreatitis and diabetes mellitus II.
Suprefort does not result in side effects, complications and drug dependence. Suprefort is convenient for administration in hospital, out-patient conditions and at home. Suprefort can be used as medical and preventive mean in the form of biological active food additive and in the form of adjunct in combination with any means of symptomatic and pathogenetic therapy, used for treatment of patients with chronic pancreatitis and other diabetes mellitus II.
The dietary supplement Suprefort normalizes functional activity of pancreas cells.
Suprefort is well tolerated by patients at oral administration; it does not result in any side effects and can be widely used as a treatment and prophylactic biologically active food additive for complex treatment of pancreatic function disorders.
Recommended Suprefort dosage
In patients with chronic pancreatitis - per os 10-15 minutes before meal 1-2 capsules, 2 times a day for 15 days.
In patients with diabetes mellitus - per os 10-15 minutes before meal 1 capsule, 2 times a day for 15 days in parallel with blood glucose monitoring.
It is expedient to carry out another treatment course in 3-6 month if needed.
1.Balabolkin M.I. Diabetes mellitus / Endocrine disorders // Diagnostics and treatment of internal diseases: Manual for doctors. - Edited by F.I.Komarova. - M.: Medicine, 1991. - V. 2. - pages 465-492.
2. Belousov Y.B., Moiseev V.S., Lepakhin V.K. Clinical pharmacology and pharmacotherapy: Manual for doctors. - M.: Universum, 1993. - 398 pages
3. Internal diseases / Edited by A.S. Smetnev, V.G. Kukes. - M.: Medicine, 1982. - 496 pages
4. Yordanov D., Nikolov P., Boychinov Asp. Phytotherapy. - Sofia: Medicine and physical culture, 1972. - 346 pages
5. Mashkovsky M.D. Medicines: Pharmacotherapy for doctors, manual: 2 parts. - Vilnius: ZAO “Gamta”, 1993.
6. Geriatry manual / Edited by D.F. Chebotarev, N.B. Mankovsky. - M.: Medicine, 1982. - 544 pages
7. Teppermen G., Teppermen H. Physiology of metabolism and endocrine system: Translated from English. - M.: Mir, 1989. - 656 pages
8. Ugolev A.M., Radbil O.S. Digestive system hormones. - M.: Nauka, 1995. - 283 pagesDiabetes mellitusDiabetes mellitusDiabetes mellitusDiabetes mellitusDiabetes_mellitusDiabetes_mellitus
Prof. Khavinson
Institute of Gerontology
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PHD appoints James Hawkins as CEO for Asia Pacific
Hawkins brings over 15 years of experience in creative and media agencies to the task of channelling PHD's upward momentum in the region.
James Hawkins appointed CEO for PHD APAC
PHD has appointed James Hawkins as CEO of its operations in Asia Pacific (APAC). Hawkins joins the network from Dentsu X, where he was Managing Director – APAC and brings over 15 years of experience in advancing digital practices and driving digital transformation at creative and media agencies, including 10 years in APAC. He will now be tasked with taking the agency’s future-facing offering to the next level.
Having established its APAC operations in 2007, the PHD network has climbed from strength to strength across the region and the world. The Gunn Media 100 listed PHD Shanghai as the fourth most-awarded media agency in the world in its 2018 ranking, and the network holds 14 ‘Agency of the Year’ titles for 2017 from various awards shows across the region. The recent appointment of HSBC’s global media duties is a reflection of the network’s clout and standing in the region today and its unparalleled strength in local-market leadership.
In his new role, Hawkins will have a dual reporting line into Tony Harradine, CEO of Omnicom Media Group Asia Pacific, and Mike Cooper, CEO of PHD Worldwide. He will now work closely with both, as well as agency leads in 16 APAC markets, leveraging his extensive digital experience and industry knowledge to elevate the network’s offering in line with ongoing media transformation and technological advancement.
Speaking on the appointment, Harradine commented: “Over the years, PHD has emerged as a force to be reckoned with in APAC and shows no signs of slowing down, bringing home the global HSBC account just last month. Given the unique growth opportunities presented to us, we have taken our time to identify the best candidate to take the helm in APAC, one who can harness its energy and continue building an agency of the future. As such, we are thrilled to have James join the team and play an instrumental role in continuing PHD’s incredible success story in the region.”
Cooper added: “APAC represents a very strategic market for us, one that is now starting to set the pace and agenda for global clients and agencies alike. Some of our strongest and most applauded work in 2017 came out of markets like China, India, Australia and New Zealand. With James’ impressive track record of growing agencies in the region and progressing the digital credentials of several prominent brands, we are confident that the network will continue to soar to new heights in APAC.”
“PHD has certainly commanded the industry’s attention over the past few years, surpassing larger competitor networks with its new business and awards performance,” added Hawkins. “However, its strong people-focused culture and impressive talent pool are what have impressed me the most about the network. I am excited to be joining such a dynamic and inspirational team, and look forward to working with them on continuing PHD’s powerful growth journey in Asia Pacific.”
The appointment is effective October 2018.
PHD APAC
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Palabras Bookstore Has a New Location, Plus More Phoenix Art News
The Sistine Chapel Exhibition at The Croft Is the Closest You're Getting to Rome for a...
A National Book Award Finalist, Hologram Talks, and Other Metro Phoenix Art News
| Art |
Lynn Trimble | October 12, 2020 | 5:17am
Look for this collaborative mural at The Hive.
The arts march on in metro Phoenix, as they must. Here's a quick look at recent art news and events from around the Valley — museums reopening, new murals, and more. Friendly reminder: Check mask and social distancing policies before you venture out.
Murals Highlight Voting
La Morena worked with several fellow artist to paint a new Vote Out Hate mural at The Hive, a creative space located at 2222 North 16th Street. Bacpac painted They Risked Death to Vote; You Don’t Have To on Seventh Avenue near the I-10 freeway.
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Poet Natalie Diaz is a 2020 National Book Awards finalist.
National Book Awards
Poet Natalie Diaz, who teaches in the MFA creative writing program at ASU, was recently named a finalist in the poetry category for the 2020 National Book Awards. Diaz was recognized for her recent work, Postcolonial Love Poem. Winners will be named on November 18.
Augmented Reality Artworks
Scottsdale Arts has added an augmented reality component to its Canal Convergence temporary art experience happening in Old Town Scottsdale starting on November 6. Featured elements include holograms of artists talking about their work.
New Arizona Lottery scratchers feature art by Lalo Cota.
Arizona Lottery
Lottery Ticket Artwork
Several new Arizona Lottery scratcher tickets include artwork Lalo Cota, whose murals dotting the downtown landscape incorporate skulls and other traditional Mexican imagery. The tickets cost $5 and the highest prize is $50,000.
Breakfast Club Exhibit
It’s been 20 years since artist Beth Ames Swartz founded a collaborative community called the Artists’ Breakfast Club. Now dozens of participants are part of a group show that continues through December 31 at Scottsdale Civic Center Library, located at 3839 North Drinkwater Boulevard in Scottsdale.
Desert Nights, Rising Stars
The ASU Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing recently announced that its 2021 writing conference happening in February 2021 will be a virtual event. Scholarship opportunities will be open from October 12 through November 15.
A small sampling from "Portraits & Icons" artworks.
FOUND:RE Phoenix
‘Portraits & Icons’
More than 100 figurative works by dozens of Arizona-based artists are on view at FOUND:RE Phoenix, located at 1100 North Central Avenue. Featured artists include David Dauncey, Rigo Flores, Frank Gonzales, Maggie Keane, and Lisa Von Hoffner.
Cosanti Tours Resume
Cosanti, which is home to the former design and architectural studios for Paolo Soleri, has resumed public tours. Tours are limited to eight people each, and participants are required to wear masks. The site is located at 6433 East Doubletree Ranch Road in Paradise Valley. Adult tickets are $15.
National Theater Grant
Borderlands Theater in Tucson received a New England Foundation for the Arts grant that will help fund the development of a multimedia touring show called Antigone at the Border with partners that include Phoenix-based Teatro Bravo.
Checking out Mucho Más Art Studio before the recent expansion.
Mucho Mas Expansion
The Mucho Mas Art Studio located at 1736 East McDowell Road recently expanded its exhibition, retail, event, and workshop space. The studio shows and sells works by Emily Costello, Patrick Murillo, and Kathy Cano-Murillo.
New Art Classes
Shemer Art Center, located at 5005 East Camelback Road, recently opened registration for November and December classes in drawing, painting, ceramics, and other mediums. Class sizes are limited and masks are required. Class costs vary.
The IndigeDesign Collab is projecting works by indigenous creatives onto outdoor spaces in Roosevelt Row during an event called Rise 2 Vote, which takes place from 6:30 to 9 p.m. on October 12. The event will also be livestreamed.
Sculptor Ray Villafane is showing work in downtown Phoenix.
Villafane Studios
Strange Encounters
Renowned sculptor and pumpkin carver Ray Villafane is showing 15 installations in outdoor spaces and storefront windows in downtown Mesa from October 17 to November 8. Villafane is a judge on the Food Network show Outrageous Pumpkins.
Haunted Phoenix History
Marshall Shore is leading a socially distanced walking tour of “historic and ghostly haunts” in downtown Phoenix from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 17. Tickets are $20, and masks are required for all participants.
Ana Teresa Fernández, Of Bodies and Borders 1 (performance documentation), 2017, oil on canvas, 54 x 94 inches.
Ana Teresa Fernández and Gallery Wendi Norris
Exhibit Catalog
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art launched a Kickstarter crowdsourcing campaign to raise $6,000 for a catalog for its previous “Counter-Landscapes” exhibit featuring works by 23 feminist artists exploring climate change, identity, migration, and other themes. The deadline to donate is October 31.
An indie theater group called Space 55 has created an online pop-up academy for the performing arts, which is offering 10 workshops taught by nine creatives with expertise in playwriting, storytelling, songwriting, sketch comedy, and more. Single workshops are $30.
Arizona Theatre Company Season
Arizona Theatre Company will resume its Herberger Theater Center performances in February, with a six-show mainstage season that will launch with a reduced audience size. Productions will be recorded for those who prefer ticketed online viewing. The season will include Justice a musical work about Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O'Connor.
Museum Reopenings
The i.d.e.a. Museum located at 150 West Pepper Place in Mesa is reopening to the public on November 7, following a limited capacity opening for members on October 31. The Arizona Museum of Natural History located at 53 North Macdonald in Mesa will have the same opening dates.
Phoenix College History
Novelist and alumna Stella Pope Duarte authored Our Past. Your Future. The History of Phoenix College, a coffee-table book on the 100-year history of Phoenix College, which includes an introduction by Arizona state historian Marshall Trimble. The book costs $29 and is available on the college’s website. All proceeds benefit student scholarships.
Keep Phoenix New Times Free... Since we started Phoenix New Times, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Phoenix, and we would like to keep it that way. Offering our readers free access to incisive coverage of local news, food and culture. Producing stories on everything from political scandals to the hottest new bands, with gutsy reporting, stylish writing, and staffers who've won everything from the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi feature-writing award to the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. But with local journalism's existence under siege and advertising revenue setbacks having a larger impact, it is important now more than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. You can help by participating in our "I Support" membership program, allowing us to keep covering Phoenix with no paywalls.
Lynn Trimble is an award-winning freelance writer and photographer specializing in arts and culture, including visual and performing arts
Facebook: Lynn Trimble
Twitter: @ArtMuser
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Normalization of ties with Israel brings disgrace on reactionary Arab states: Leader’s aide
Monday, 14 September 2020 2:26 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 14 September 2020 4:00 PM ]
Ali Akbar Velayati, a top advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei
A top advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says those few reactionary Arab states that have embarked on normalization of their relations with Israel will be disgraced and regret their move.
Ali Akbar Velayati, who also chairs the World Assembly of Islamic Awakening, made the remarks on Monday after he announced that Tehran will host a webinar on Wednesday on the normalization of certain Arab states’ ties with Israel, adding that the event will be attended by participants from 50 Muslim countries.
Noting that certain reactionary Arab countries had secret ties with the Israeli regime in the past, Velayati said, "These relations have now become evident."
"We have recently witnessed wrong moves by the [United Arab] Emirates and Bahrain [to normalize ties with Israel]. One of the reasons behind the disclosure of these relations is the consecutive victories of the resistance movement in West Asia," Velayati said.
He emphasized that the recent steps taken by some reactionary Arab states in cooperation with Israel and the US are doomed to failure, stressing that these countries would be more disgraced than ever and forced to back down.
"Enemies of the Muslim world should know that the Zionist regime (Israel) will have no place among world nations whether the reactionary regional states back away from their position or not," the senior Iranian official stated.
In a tweet on Friday, US President Donald Trump announced the normalization of bilateral ties between Bahrain and the occupying regime of Israel, the second Arab state to join a deal widely censured as a betrayal of the Palestinian cause.
Trump says Bahrain joining UAE in normalizing ties with Israel
Trump has announced the normalization of bilateral ties between Bahrain and the occupying regime of Israel, the second Arab state to join a deal widely censured as a betrayal of the Palestinian cause.
Trump said that Bahrain had agreed to join the United Arab Emirates in striking a deal to normalize relations with Tel Aviv.
Bahrain will join Israel and the UAE for a signing ceremony at the White House hosted by Trump on September 15.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Velayati said any country recognizing the Israeli regime would have, in fact, turned a blind eye to the interests of the Muslim world, adding, "The Zionists' passive move in the face of the victories of the resistance front is fruitless, and will make no change in the resistance front's strategy as we will continue to resist strongly."
He said, "The US and its current president seek to win the [upcoming presidential] election. He (Trump) wants to focus on the foreign policy and the recent measures by some [Arab] countries to normalize relations with the Zionist regime are a positive point for him."
The deal between Israel and the two Arab countries on normalization of ties has drawn strong condemnations from the Palestinians and the Muslim world.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry vehemently condemned the deal aimed at normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates as an instance of “strategic folly” that will only end up strengthening the regional resistance front.
Iran’s highest ranking military commander, Major General Mohammad Baqeri, has also said the Iranian nation and Armed Forces will make a radical change in their approach to the United Arab Emirates after Abu Dhabi’s recent step to normalize relations with Israel.
Meanwhile, Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on also reacted to the establishment of diplomatic relations between Bahrain and the Israeli regime on Saturday, saying the Bahraini ruler will face “harsh revenge” from Muslim nations, and the country's citizens over the move.
Harsh avenge awaits Bahraini ruler after normalization deal with Israel: IRGC
“The disgraceful move by [the Bahraini kingdom of] Al Khalifah and the vassal ruling regime in Bahrain to establish ties with the Zionist regime (Israel), which was taken against the will and cause of the Muslim people of this country, was a big folly and devoid of any legitimacy and will receive appropriate responses,” the IRGC said in a statement.
In a statement also released on Saturday, Iran's Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the deal, saying the Manama regime had sacrificed the Palestinian cause against the occupation for the upcoming US presidential election through the “shameful” treaty.
Iran condemns Bahrain’s ‘shameful’ normalization deal with Israel
Iran strongly condemns a normalization agreement between Bahrain and Israel, saying the Manama regime sacrificed the Palestinian cause for the upcoming US presidential election through the “shameful” treaty.
It added that the Bahraini regime had committed a “fundamental mistake” by turning its back to its own people instead of gaining legitimacy from them.
'No country dares threaten Iran’s security'
Elsewhere in his remarks, Velayati stressed that the Islamic Republic's security will not be affected by the normalization deals with Israel, saying that the Iranian Army, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and the rest of the Armed Forces are protecting the country in the face of the enemies' excessive demands.
"No country dares threaten the security of the Islamic Republic of Iran," the Leader's advisor pointed out.
"We have no concern about the Zionist regime getting closer to our region, because our defense system has been designed in a way that if they (enemies) seek to make an act of aggression against our security, they will receive a harsh response and we will teach the aggressor an unforgivable lesson," Velayati said.
All Palestinian factions have unanimously denounced the normalization agreements between Israel and the Persian Gulf Arab countries as a stab in the back of the oppressed Palestinian nation and a betrayal of their cause.
Palestinians in Gaza rally against Bahrain-Israel normalization deal
Iran Iran Ali Akbar Velayati Ali Akbar Velayati
Outrage growing over Bahrain’s normalization with Israel
'Bahrain, UAE only serving foreign interests'
Palestinian factions condemn Bahrain-Israel deal
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News / More / Editor's Choice
Ethiopia's PM says Tigray operation 'completed' as army seizes Mekelle
Sunday, 29 November 2020 6:14 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 29 November 2020 9:24 AM ]
Ethiopians carry their belongings from a boat after crossing the Setit river on the Sudan-Ethiopia border in Hamdayet village in eastern Kassala state, Sudan, November 22, 2020. (Photo by Reuters)
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has announced victory against heavily armed rebels in the northern Tigray region.
The premier said in a statement on his Twitter account on Saturday that government forces had captured and gained control of the regional capital, Mekelle.
“The federal government is now fully in control of the city of Mekelle,” the PM announced.
Abiy said government troops had freed thousands of federal forces from the army’s Northern Command, who had been taken hostage by the rebels.
Federal troops had also taken control of the airport, the regional administration office and other key facilities, he added.
Since November 3, the Ethiopian army has been engaged in fierce fighting against the Tigrayan forces in a war that has shaken the Horn of Africa. The offensive started in response to rebel attacks on federal forces in Mekelle and Dansha.
There were no new reports on casualty count from Saturday's clashes. However, the United Nations has said hundreds of people have died in the fighting.
In addition, about one million people have been forced from their homes, including about 40,000 refugees who have crossed the border into neighboring Sudan.
Human rights groups have warned of the plight of the refugees fleeing the conflict.
Abiy, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, said he had ordered the military operation to stop. “I am pleased to share that we have completed and ceased the military operations in the Tigray region.”
The premier said he had ordered the federal police to arrest leaders of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). “Our focus now will be on rebuilding the region and providing humanitarian assistance while Federal Police apprehend the TPLF clique.”
Billene Seyoum, the prime minister's spokeswoman, said, “The safety of Ethiopians in Mekelle and Tigray region continues as priority for the federal government.”
Amnesty, UN, EU warn Ethiopia's warring sides: Do not target civilians
Amnesty International, the UN
The TPLF had dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades; however, the group's clout has declined since Abiy came to power in 2018.
Since then, the government has introduced a number of reforms. Many senior Tigrayan officials have been detained, fired, or sidelined, in what the federal government calls a clampdown on corruption.
The once-powerful TPLF, however, complains of being unfairly singled out in corruption prosecutions.
With communication down in the Tigray region, it is unclear whether the rebels have ceased their operations against federal forces.
Hours after Abiy’s announcement, TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael said the Tigrayan forces would keep fighting the government.
“Their brutality can only add (to) our resolve to fight these invaders to the last,” he told the Reuters news agency in a text message. “This is about defending our right to self-determination.”
The conflict has sporadically spilled over into neighboring Eritrea. On Friday night, at least one rocket fired from the Tigray region landed south of the Eritrean capital of Asmara.
Asmara was also rocked by at least six explosions on Saturday night.
The Tigrayan forces stand accused of launching rockets at Asmara with the intent to drag neighboring countries into the conflict.
Abiy was awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in brokering peace with long-time enemy Eritrea.
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Over 20,000 Ethiopians fleeing conflict in Tigray cross into Sudan: UN
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UN agency calls for inclusion of domestic violence risk in disaster response to COVID-19
Source(s): United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)
By Denis McClean
Measures to combat domestic violence need to be given attention and addressed by national disaster management agencies, according to a statement issued today by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Mami Mizutori who is also the head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Ms. Mizutori said: “Women and girls are more affected by disasters generally because of the gender inequality evident in society at large. They die and are injured in greater numbers particularly in extreme weather events. This unfortunate reality has taken a new twist in the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Women and girls trapped in abusive domestic situations are in jeopardy because of the lockdowns and restrictions on their movements imposed by governments to contain the spread of the pandemic.
“I call on all national disaster management agencies to give attention to this urgent issue within their governments so that support to victims of domestic abuse are included in their COVID-19 response plans. This will save lives and prevent serious injury to many.
“At this time, this means the allocation of adequate funding and careful planning of shelters for women and girls escaping domestic abuse. It also means increasing the level of online support services including help-lines to police and social services.
“Facilities such as supermarkets and pharmacies that remain open, should be on alert to receive pleas for help from women seeking support without worry that their abusers will be alerted. We need to find safe and creative ways for women to seek support.
“It is clear that health workers and police services are working at full stretch dealing with the consequences of this pandemic, but it is crucially important that they liaise with national disaster management agencies and designated civil society organizations so that necessary support is provided to the increasing number of victims of domestic violence as a result of COVID-19.”
More about addressing violence against women in DRR
COVID-19 makes domestic violence a disaster management issue
Coronavirus and ‘domestic terrorism’: how to stop family violence under lockdown
Europe braces for domestic abuse 'perfect storm' amid coronavirus lockdown
More about coronavirus disease outbreak
Gender Governance Inclusion Epidemic & Pandemic
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Cheap flights from Singapore
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BIG MATCH PREVIEW: Top class Teemu set for a special City landmark
Published: 11:10 AM August 31, 2019 Updated: 11:04 PM October 10, 2020
Teemu Pukki will make his 50th Norwich City appearance against West Ham Picture: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd - Credit: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd
Given the alarming rate Norwich City’s central defensive stocks are dwindling Daniel Farke might need Teemu Pukki to do him a turn at the back.
The head coach told a revealing anecdote on Friday about the type of unassuming character spearheading the Canaries push for Premier League survival, as he prepared for his landmark 50th appearance for the club.
A fresh setback for Grant Hanley following on from the expected gloomy forecast surrounding Timm Klose's knee layoff left Farke looking for some light relief at Colney.
"I have praised Teemu a lot. I am never scared if we praise him too much he loses the ground under his feet. He is a calm personality," he said. "That is my feeling why he is delivering over a longer period.
"He is not carried away by one or two good performances and all the headlines. He just keeps going, with hard work, so modest, and thinking about the club and his team mates.
Daniel Farke is a big fan of West Ham's summer signings Picture: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd - Credit: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd
"For example, we had a conversation about when he is due back from his national team from the Euro 2020 qualifiers. His last game for Finland is on the Sunday evening. He asked me when he has to come back and I said, 'maybe if you get a flight on Monday morning you don't have to attend training, but in the afternoon we can go again on the pitch' and he replied, 'okay, no problem.'
"I had to tell him that Monday is probably a day off for him and to come back a bit later. He would come in if I said, 'take a flight Sunday evening or drive by car to be here at 8am on Monday for a tough training session.' This says enough about his character."
Hanley, however, is unlikely to join up with Scotland after tweaking a groin.
"I don't think it is possible. He was not able to run. Let's wait for the results of what the scans say," said the City chief, who has Christoph Zimmermann to call upon after recovering from his own midweek injury scare.
"Grant injured himself in our last session. We hope it is not too bad but he had to cut short his training. His first call up for a while was a reward for how he had come back into our side but I think it will be very difficult for him to be involved.
"Christoph is available. That is good news. He got a hit against his back and felt his hip. For one or two days he felt a bit sore but he was back on the training pitch on Friday."
Alex Tettey and Josip Drmic are also in the mix to face a West Ham side packed with expensive talent under the well-travelled Chilean coach Manuel Pellegrini.
"Top class club. Top class side. They signed a lot of quality and a lot of good choices in the transfer market," said Farke. "During his working life he was involved at big clubs and always delivered. He has won things and I am full of respect. He knows how to lead.
Grant Hanley is ruled out with a groin injury suffered yesterday Picture: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images - Credit: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd
"You look at the attack and they have many top players and a good balance. They might not have the opportunities for the top two or three in the league but there is a lot of ambition.
"We are respectful but not scared. We created chances against two of the best sides in the league and we will try to have those spells in this game. They lost to Manchester City 5-0 but I was a bit reminded about our Liverpool game.
"It was never a 5-0.
"They were pretty close to a decent result. There were many late goals and any side can lose to that club by that score. I expected them to bounce back and they have."
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Moyes admires relegated City’s pure approach
Published: 6:00 AM July 13, 2020 Updated: 7:23 PM November 22, 2020
West Ham manager David Moyes admires how Norwich City have stuck to their guns Picture: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd - Credit: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd
David Moyes ‘admires’ how Norwich City have stuck to their beliefs despite inflicting a heavy defeat that sealed a swift Premier League exit.
West Ham’s 4-0 rout means the Canaries must again plan for life in the Football League, but Moyes – who forged his early coaching reputation at that level with Preston – insists there was a purity to City’s top flight attempt.
“I really hope football is not just about who has the most money wins or wins the league. It is important there are other ways to do it,” he said. “I admire Norwich for how they tried to do it.
“They didn’t spend a lot of money, they have stuck with the manager and not tried to change the way they play. That is their choice. If it is not all about money then clubs can still dream.
“But certainly it is true to say if you have lots of money it gives you a better chance of winning.
“We limited them to not very many opportunities. I have watched Norwich quite a bit and they have created chances but we did a good job. There was a good save from Lukasz before half-time but I am driving it into the players I want clean sheets.”
Michail Antonio’s four-goal masterclass eased the Hammers’ own relegation fears.
“He’s actually improved even from when he’s started (playing as the lone striker), because we were always looking to get him in behind,” said Moyes. “But now we’re able to get him a bit more into feet, set things up and play off him.
“Because of his pace and his threat and his power, nobody really wants to play against him, so he’s become a good threat for us.
“There aren’t many players in the Premier League who get to score four goals.
“I have to say he probably had one of his best days in training on Friday. I can smile about it, but it’s a big thing about training well, being good at what you do, and you hope you take it into the games and it leads you into good performances.
“We scored four, and really, if we’d have scored seven or eight, I’d probably have been thinking that was about right. The clean sheet was all-important as well, because keeping them to none always gives you a chance. Even when it’s 2-0, you don’t want them to get a goal; even when it’s 3-0.”
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A Beginner’s Guide to Teaching in China: How to get a criminal record check ( New Zealand)
Beijing City Guide – Everything You Need to Know Before You Go!
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There's no pressure, insists Russell
George Russell insists there is no special pressure this weekend as he deputises for Lewis Hamilton, revealing that 'the call' from Toto Wolff came at 2 am on Tuesday.
After two tough seasons with Williams, George Russell finally gets to show F1 fans what he can really do if given the opportunity, albeit at the expense of Lewis Hamilton.
While Stoffel Vandoorne is Mercedes official reserve driver, it was to Russell that Toto Wolff turned on learning that Hamilton would miss this weekend's Sakhir Grand Prix after testing positive for COVID.
"I got a phone call from Toto at 2am on Tuesday morning," Russell, who is tipped by sites like Olybet at 3/1 this weekend, told reporters in Bahrain, "I was in the bathroom, which was slightly awkward.
"I answered the phone, and he said 'George are you in the bathroom?', I said, 'Sorry, I am in the bathroom'. He said 'unfortunately Lewis has caught COVID, he's doing well, he's healthy and he feels fine which is most important, but we want you to drive'.
"So I was like, 'right, OK', then it was a bit of a sleepless night. We made it happen throughout the following day.
"I counted yesterday that I had 64 phone calls on Tuesday pinging between so many different people," he admitted, "I'm so glad we got there in the end."
Looking ahead to the weekend, he said: "From my side, there's no pressure, I'm being thrown in at the last opportunity, I haven't driven their sim in two years.
"My seat is three years old," he continued, "I've got so much information to learn and going up against Valtteri isn't going to be easy, so I'm in a good position, not putting any additional pressure on myself.
"I am going to go out there and enjoy it and there's been no targets, no expectations expected from me by Toto or by Mercedes because you can't judge somebody off the back of one race.
"This weekend is all going to be about learning," he admitted, "especially Friday. Focus towards qualifying and into the race on Sunday.
"If I get the opportunity again in Abu Dhabi, who knows, that will be easier for me," he added, amidst speculation that the strict protocols in place in Abu Dhabi could mean Hamilton needing to remain in isolation.
Check out our Thursday gallery from Bahrain, here.
Sakhir GP: Power Unit elements
Tyre barrier installed at Grosjean crash site
Sakhir could present an opportunity for Ferrari
Sakhir GP: Preview - Ferrari
Sakhir GP: Preview - Red Bull
Sakhir GP: Preview - McLaren
Sakhir GP: Preview - Renault
Aitken to replace Russell for Williams at Sakhir Grand Prix
Russell to replace Hamilton for Sakhir GP
Hamilton "devastated" to miss Sakhir race
1. Posted by ChickenFarmerF1, 03/12/2020 18:40
"Somehow I'm reminded of the scene in Finding Nemo where Dory is trying to read the address on the mask. No pressure. BUT PRESSURE!!!"
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New global digital platform for Chivas Regal
New Global Digital Platform for Chivas Regal Brands
Published Date: 4th June 2009
Chivas Brothers has unveiled a new global digital platform www.chivas.com that will integrate all online activity for its flagship Scotch whisky Chivas Regal. It will also create a global hub for the brand’s new Live with Chivalry communication programme, whilst allowing local affiliates to tailor online marketing in their regions.
In line with Chivas Regal’s core brand message Live with Chivalry, the new website offers a call to arms to Chivas consumers to join a worldwide movement behind Chivalry. Exhorting them to live their lives with Chivalry is the ‘Join the Movement’ module where consumers can upload their name, motto and crest to a wall of Chivalry advocates from around the world.
Simon Burley, International Marketing Manager for Chivas Regal, explains: “We want to focus our efforts on a consistent, stylish and engaging online platform that is true to Chivas Regal’s identity. Our new digital solution aims to harness the Live with Chivalry campaign and create a real movement, both globally and locally, which calls our consumers to live their life with honour, courage and gallantry.”
The new hosting system will allow local marketing teams around the world to build on the global movement by creating their own local modules around Live with Chivalry whilst still benefiting from core global sections of the site.
Further highlighting the globally acclaimed Live with Chivalry campaign and to mark the launch of the new website, a series of short films has been created that will be shown exclusively on the site celebrating Modern Knights from around the world. The films feature men that embody the masculine ideals that Chivas Regal is embracing with its Live with Chivalry campaign such as loyalty, brotherhood, honour, a sense of passion and adventure and behaving with class in everything you do.
Britain’s most successful Olympic sailor ever, triple gold Olympic medallist Ben Ainslie CBE, and Tony Chambers, the Editor-in-Chief of Wallpaper*, the iconic international design, fashion and lifestyle magazine, are both featured in the Modern Knights films.
Chivas Regal is a truly global brand, available in over 200 countries, and maintains a consistent positioning and global communication platform. The Live with Chivalry advertising campaign, launched at the end of 2008, is based on the idea that there is a code of behaviour that sets some men apart from others. This contemporary call for Modern Knights is an inspirational new platform that has researched extremely well in key markets around the world.
Read more about Dallas Dhu Whisky Distillery and view contact details.
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You are here: Home / News / Woman bristles at how her question at campaign event portrayed
Woman bristles at how her question at campaign event portrayed
October 5, 2012 By O. Kay Henderson
An Illinois woman who asked a question of Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan while Ryan was in Clinton, Iowa, this past Tuesday is bristling at how the Obama campaign characterized her comments. Linda Morrison of Fulton, Illinois, asked Ryan to explain how he and Romney plan to lower the national debt without raising taxes.
Ryan chose Morrison from the crowd because of what she was wearing. “She’s got a Green Bay Packer shirt. I have to pick on her, I apologize,” he said, and the crowd laughed.
Morrison said: “Hi. My question is, you know, you keep talking about China and jobs and then we talk about the unemployment, but where are the answers? I mean, why aren’t you more specific?”
The Obama campaign sent out a statement, suggesting Ryan had been “called out” by Morrison. Morrison wrote The Quad City Times to complain about that. On Tuesday, Morrison told a radio reporter she was pleased with Ryan’s eight-minute answer to her question and planned to vote for the Romney-Ryan ticket.
“We hear: ‘Well, we’re going to do this.’ Well, how?” Morrison said Tuesday in Clinton. “He answered the how.”
Morrison had been a registered Democrat, but is now a registered Republican voter and cast a vote for John McCain in 2008 and plans to vote for the Romney-Ryan ticket in 2012.
Filed Under: News, Politics / Govt Tagged With: Democratic Party, Republican Party, Taxes
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VISIT RAD
RAD News
A RAD CULTURAL LEGACY
FURTHERING THE ARTS IN NAPA, TOGETHER
RAD Napa is proud to link arms with the organizations in our community who have been furthering the cause of community transformation through public art in the City of Napa for generations. From local governments to nonprofits to small businesses, these are the advocates and visionaries that laid the foundation for a dedicated public art district in our community.
ONE RAD COMMUNITY
CITY OF NAPA
Founded in 1847, the City of Napa is considered the Napa Valley’s commercial center. Reborn in recent years, Napa is now home to more than 25 wine tasting rooms; numerous luxury hotels and inns; three live entertainment venues; a downtown Art Walk; a wide selection of shops, boutiques, and restaurants and the Rail Arts District—all located within walking distance to one another in the historic downtown. Napa is also home to Oxbow Public Market, which features artisanal foods and local wine, and the legendary Napa Valley Wine Train. For outdoor enthusiasts, the City of Napa also features four parks (Alston; Skyline; Westwood Hills and Trancas Crossing) and numerous trails open to equestrians, mountain bikers, hikers and dog walkers such as the Napa Valley Vine Trail.
PUBLIC ART IN NAPA
Public art first appeared in Napa in the 1970s, when the Napa Community Redevelopment Agency commissioned five sculptures that were placed in the downtown to enhance its image and encourage people to walk and shop in the area. A number of murals were also painted or installed on buildings primarily in the downtown, most of which were facilitated by the Napa Chamber of Commerce in the 1980s and 1990s. Around the same time, public art sponsored by private businesses and property owners began being installed with private development for the enjoyment of the public.
Moon Gate: located at the southwest corner of First Street and Soscol Avenue
Ars Longa Vita Brevis: (mosaic fountain) at Hatt Hall
Cha Cha Cha: located at Napa Riverfront
Fork: located at CIA Copia
The Grape Crusher: located at the Meritage Hotel
ARTS COUNCIL NAPA VALLEY
Arts Council Napa Valley enriches the lives of Napa Valley community through connecting, advocating and leading our diverse arts and culture community. Since 1963, ACNV has been dedicated to advancing creativity through services for local artists, nonprofits, government agencies, and businesses in Napa County.
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Photos and Videos by Birdman Photos
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[ January 18, 2021 ] PWTorch Announcement: PWTorch Columnist Zack Heydorn has been promoted to Assistant Editor of PWTorch.com ETC News
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Startup makes labs smarter | Tech News
Although Internet-connected “smart” devices have in recent years penetrated numerous industries and private homes, the technological phenomenon has left the research lab largely untouched. Spreadsheets, individual software programs, and even pens and paper remain standard tools for recording and sharing data in academic and industry labs.
TetraScience, co-founded by Spin Wang SM ’15, a graduate of electrical engineering and computer science, has developed a data-integration platform that connects disparate types of lab equipment and software systems, in-house and at outsourced drug developers and manufacturers. It then unites the data from all these sources in the cloud for speedier and more accurate research, cost savings, and other benefits.
“Software and hardware systems [in labs] cannot communicate with each other in a consistent way,” says Wang, TetraScience’s chief technology officer, who co-founded the startup with former Harvard University postdocs Salvatore Savo and Alok Tayi. “Data flows through systems in a very fragmented manner and there are a lot of siloed data sets [created] in the life sciences. Humans must manually copy and paste information or write it down on paper, [which] is a lengthy manual process that’s error prone.”
TetraScience has developed an Internet of Things (IoT) hub that plugs into most lab equipment, including freezers, ovens, incubators, scales, pH meters, syringe pumps, and autoclaves. The hub can also continuously collect relevant data — such as humidity, temperature, gas concentration and oxygen levels, vibration, light intensity, and mass air flow — and shoot it to TetraScience’s centralized data-integration platform in the cloud. TetraScience also has custom integration methods for more complicated instruments and software.
In the cloud dashboard, researchers can monitor equipment in real time and set alerts if any equipment deviates from ideal conditions. Data appears as charts, graphs, percentages, and numbers — somewhat resembling the easily readable Google Analytics dashboard. Equipment can be tracked for usage and efficiency over time to determine if, say, a freezer is slowly warming and compromising samples. Researchers can also comb through scores of archived data, all located in one place.
“Our technology is establishing a ‘data highway’ system between different entities, software and hardware, within life sciences labs. We make facilitating data seamless, faster, more accurate, and more efficient,” says Wang, who was named to this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 list of innovators for his work with TetraScience.
More than 70 major pharmaceutical and biotech firms, including many in Cambridge, Massachusetts, use the platform. Numerous labs at MIT and Harvard are users, as well.
Pain in the lab
For Wang and his TetraScience co-founders, building their smart solution was personal.
As a Cornell University undergraduate, Wang worked in the Cornell Semiconducting RF Lab on high-energy physics research. Frustrated by the time and effort required to manually record data, he developed his own system that connected and controlled more than 10 instruments, such as a signal generator, power meter, frequency counter, and power amplifier.
Years later, as an MIT master’s student studying microelectromechanical systems, Wang worked on sensing technologies and processing of radio frequency signals under the guidance of Professor Dana Weinstein, now at Purdue University. During his final year, he wound up at the MIT Media Lab, working on a 3-D printing project with Tayi, who had spent his academic career toiling away in materials science, chemistry, and other labs. Tayi and Savo were already conducting market research around potential opportunities for IoT in labs.
All three bonded over a shared dislike for data-collecting tools that have remained relatively unchanged in labs for a half-century. “We felt the pain of manually tracking data and not having a consistent interface for all our equipment,” Wang says.
This is especially troublesome at scale. Large pharmaceutical or biotechnology firms, for instance, can have several hundreds or thousands of instruments, all with different hardware running on different software. Humans must record data and input it manually into dozens of separate recording systems, which leads to errors. People also must be physically in a lab to control experiments. Smart labs were the new frontier, Wang, Savo, and Tayi agreed.
In 2014, the three launched TetraScience to build a platform that connected equipment and pooled data into a single place in the cloud — similar to the one Wang created at Cornell, but more advanced. Back then, they used a slightly modified Raspberry Pi as their “hub,” while they refined their software and hardware.
For early-stage startup advice, the startup turned to the Industrial Liaison Program and MIT’s Venture Mentoring Service, and leveraged MIT’s vast alumni network for feedback on their technology and business plan. “We definitely benefited from MIT,” Wang says.
An early trial for the platform was with the Media Lab, where researchers used the platform to monitor not equipment, but beehives. The researchers were studying how hives could be implemented into building infrastructure and how design and materials could promote bee health. As bees are sensitive to changes in environment, the researchers needed to constantly monitor temperature and humidity around hives over several months, which would be challenging if done manually.
Using TetraScience’s platform, the researchers were captured all the necessary data for their project, without suiting up and approaching all the hives daily — saving “hundreds of hours … and 686 bee stings,” according to the startup. Testing at MIT, Wang says, “helped us gain an understanding of the industry and value proposition.”
From there, the TetraScience platform found its way into more biotech companies and into more than 60 percent of the world’s top 20 pharmaceutical companies, according to the startup. Benefits of today’s TetraScience platform include speeding up research, improving compliance, producing better-quality data and, ultimately, saving millions of dollars and countless hours of work, Wang says.
Numerous case studies, listed on the startup’s webpage, showcase the platform’s efficacy and value at major pharmaceutical firms and cancer research centers, and at Harvard and MIT.
For example, in the final stages of approval of a multibillion-dollar drug, a large pharmaceutical firm conducted an accelerated lifetime test, where any prolonged deviation from preset conditions would require restarting the experiment, at the cost of millions of dollars, weeks of unusable data, and delayed commercialization. Within a few weeks of the test’s conclusion, a major deviation in one experiment occurred late at night. Within seconds, according to the study, TetraScience’s platform detected the deviation and alerted scientists, who caught it immediately, stopping any significant damage.
The platform also offers benefits for determining equipment efficiency and usage. In a 2017 case study with another pharmaceutical firm, TetraScience monitored 70 pieces of equipment. The startup flagged 23 instruments as “heavily underused.” The firm used that data to reduce service contracts for 14 instruments and sell nine instruments, leading to improved efficiency and hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings that could be put toward more research and development.
Although the startup’s focus is on pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, the platform could also be used in oil and gas, brewing, and food and chemistry industries to see similar benefits. “Those industries all use similar instruments [as life science labs] and produce the same kind of data, such as monitoring the pH of beer, so we will get into those industries in the future,” Wang says.
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Motion capture at SIGGRAPH 2019: go to the Moon with NVIDIA’s RTX demo
NVIDIA’s demonstration of the power of its RTX architecture takes a new step at SIGGRAPH 2019, with the recreation of the moon landing and an invitation to attendees: be the astronaut!
Jose Antunes
With NVIDIA’s demo of the Apollo 11 moon landing on display at SIGGRAPH 2019, everyone can walk on the moon just as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin did. No space suit needed!
NVIDIA recently demonstrated that the Apollo 11 moon landing was not an hoax, and the company use its RTX technology to prove it. As I wrote here at ProVideo Coalition recently, “the project started five years ago, when the team that created the original demo collected every detail they could to understand the NASA Apollo 11 landing image, takes now another step, as NVIDIA enhances the earlier moon-landing demo using RTX real-time ray tracing technology.”
Now the company has taken its demo to a new level, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, with an interactive demo that takes SIGGRAPH attendees on a trip to the moon and back. Visitors to the NVIDIA booth, writes Nicole Castro, Marketing Content Writer for NVIDIA professional visualization solution, on the company’s blog, “will immediately recognize a familiar, historic scene on display: a photoreal, rendered recreation of the moon landing with an astronaut standing next to the Apollo 11 lander. But, stepping closer, they’ll notice the astronaut starts to move — and it’s copying their exact movements.”
RTX and Omniverse
NVIDIA’s demo is a sign of the power of its RTX technology. A single camera is set up in the booth to capture the person’s poses and match their movements to the 3D-rendered astronaut. Using pose estimation technology designed by NVIDIA Research, the interactive demo doesn’t require any special suits, multiple cameras or a depth sensor — it just requires a willing participant and an off-the-shelf webcam.
The demo is a clear demonstration of the power of real-time ray tracing to render every detail, but it is also used to show the power of RTX combine with Omniverse, NVIDIA’s platform that streamlines 2D and 3D product pipelines, which is also a highlight of SIGGRAPH this year. With the pair, NVIDIA is “able to project a photoreal 3D image of attendees as if they were an astronaut exploring a real moonscape that is literally out of this world.”
Mocap or motion capture has, traditionally been a difficult task, when it comes to capturing someone’s precise movements. Although systems are less complex today, studios still require, as Nicole Castro writes, “a large production that involves multiple cameras, full-body suits with sensors, and painstaking calibrations to accurately detect the body movements and generate 3D recreations.”
Mocap simplified
That’s where the NVIDIA Research team enters, with a simpler solution (now that it is implemented, I would say). The state-of-the-art method developed reconstructs the 3D human body motion and position from a single 2D video feed. With pose estimation technology, the Tensor Cores in RTX GPUs speed up the AI inference to understand the person’s movements. That information is then translated and sent to the Omniverse renderer to match the precise movements to the 3D astronaut.
What this means can be experienced at SIGGRAPH 2019: the moment someone steps into the NVIDIA booth, they’re virtually transported into space to relive the historic moon-landing moment. As Nicole Castro writes, “From the moon rocks strewn about to the Apollo 11 lander, the realistic details in the scene are made possible through NVIDIA RTX technology. It creates stunning levels of realism while simulating how the sun’s rays react to the moon’s surface in real time. The interplay of lights and shadows give incredible new perspectives on the moon landing.”
The invitation is now open: take a trip to the moon powered by RTX technology in NVIDIA booths 1303 and 1313 at SIGGRAPH 2019.
apollo 11 Buzz Aldrin mocap moon landing Motion Capture Neil Armstrong nvidia Omniverse RTX SIGGRAPH 2019
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Tags: ‘New York’
“Smurfs” And UNICEF Celebrate International Day Of Happiness
UNITED NATIONS, UNICEF AND TALENT FROM “SMURFS: THE LOST VILLAGE” TEAM UP TO CELEBRATE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF HAPPINESS
Demi Lovato, Mandy Patinkin and Joe Manganiello deliver keys to ‘Smurf Village’ at the United Nations Headquarters in New York
UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK – In the lead up to the United Nations International Day of Happiness on Sunday March 20th, cast from the movie SMURFS: THE LOST VILLAGE will attend a special ceremony at the UN headquarters in New York on March 18th to lend their support towards the human pursuit of happiness and well-being throughout the world. The campaign themed “Small Smurfs Big Goals” encourages everyone to support Sustainable Development Goals that include ending extreme poverty, protecting the planet and giving everyone the chance to enjoy peace and prosperity. www.smallsmurfsbiggoals.com
Keep an eye out for special event footage and images out of New York City and around the world through to March 20th as the population observes and celebrates the International Day of Happiness.
“Smurfs: The Lost Village” will be released in cinemas globally from 29rd March 2017.
/ ends
Shows: Event Highlight Package 18 March 2017
(00:15 second b-roll tease-not slated)
Slate 2:
1. Press Information
2. Event Featurette
3. Blue Carpet Soundbites
4. Blue Carpet & Event B-Roll
5. General Assembly Hall Selects
Press Information:
In the lead up to the United Nations International Day of Happiness on Sunday March 20th, cast from the movie SMURFS: THE LOST VILLAGE will attend a special ceremony at the UN headquarters in New York on March 18th to lend their support towards the human pursuit of happiness and well-being throughout the world. The campaign themed “Small Smurfs Big Goals” encourages everyone to support Sustainable Development Goals that include ending extreme poverty, protecting the planet and giving everyone the chance to enjoy peace and prosperity. www.smallsmurfsbiggoals.com
“Smurfs: The Lost Village” will be released in cinemas globally from 29th March 2017.
Event Featurette
Blue Carpet Soundbites
‘Smurfette’ and Joe Manganiello ‘Hefty Smurf’
Mandy Patinkin ‘Papa Smurf’
Kelly Asbury Director
Caryl Stern President & CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF
Slate 10:
Blue Carpet & Event B-Roll
General Assembly Hall SelectsRed Carpet Event (Saturday March 18th): UN and UNICEF dignitaries along with Smurfs actors Demi Lovato (voice of ‘Smurfette’), Mandy Patinkin (voice of ‘Papa Smurf’), Joe Manganiello (voice of ‘Hefty Smurf’) and film director Kelly Asbury.
UN Ceremony where Smurfs actors present Youth Champions with the keys to “Smurfs Village”.
Talent present global campaign in the iconic General Assembly Hall of the United Nations.
New York, Red Carpet, Sony Pictures
Celebrity, Conservation, Entertainment, Events, Film
Spike Lee Reflects On His Brooklyn Roots
Director Spike Lee is first to admit, New York City is an advertisement of its own. As a native New Yorker, Lee has long revelled in The City’s unique appeal. Lee has the best of both worlds: He grew up in the borough of Brooklyn, where he continues to work, and lives in Manhattan. He attended New York Graduate Film School and shortly thereafter shot his first feature, She’s Gotta Have It, the story of a woman and her lovers around the streets of Brooklyn. Throughout his 35-film career, he’s never considered leaving New York for Los Angeles. He is in good company: “[Martin] Scorsese’s here, Woody Allen’s here – they didn’t move,” he adds.
His native Brooklyn helped develop the person he is – and it’s often been the subject of his films includingDo the Right Thing, Crooklyn and Clockers. Although Spike Lee’s boyhood Brooklyn has changed, he still praises and credits the people, diversity and culture. Lee is quick to roll call a list of legendary Brooklyn talents like classical composer Aaron Copland, iconic rapper Biggie Smalls, singer-songwriter Barbara Streisand and filmmaker Woody Allen. In Manhattan, Lee is a loyal New York Knicks and New York Yankees fan, often taking the train to the Bronx (where the Yankees play) and going largely unnoticed because it’s packed with fans.
New York City has long been recognizable in TV shows, films and music, especially with the rise of Hip Hop. Spike Lee knows people want to see where it’s all being made. Of course, Lee loves all of New York. Still, his number one New York visitor requirement? “If you come to New York City, you’ve got to get a bike or walk over the Brooklyn Bridge.” He loves the classic view of Manhattan and the magic energy of the city and insists, “If you can, before you leave this planet, you must come here to visit.” For more information, visit Our New York Guide. Visit New York City’s top attractions and iconic spots with ease with an official CityPass.
Spike Lee walking on Brooklyn Bridge
GVs New York
GVs Brooklyn
IV Spike Lee on Brooklyn Bridge
GV New York
Brand USA, New York
Entertainment, Film, People, Places, Tourism, Travel
Microsoft Ushers In New Era Of Windows 10 Devices, Redefining The Ultimate Laptop
Story: Microsoft Ushers in a New Era of Windows 10 devices, that redefines the Ultimate Laptop.
At a New York event, Microsoft Corp. unveiled new Surface, Lumia and Microsoft Band devices, taking advantage of powerful and versatile hardware to unlock new Windows 10 experiences.
Showcasing the innovation possible with Windows 10, Microsoft also shared new details on HoloLens, the first fully untethered holographic computer.
Satya Nadella, Chief Operating Officer, Microsoft
Terry Myerson, Executive Vice President, Windows and Devices Group
Lindsey Matese, Senior Manager, Microsoft Band and Health
Panos Panay, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Surface
Features highlighted include the detachable screen, inking experience, Windows programs like Microsoft Edge, the phoenix pen.
Building on its track record of pioneering new categories, Microsoft is redefining the laptop with the new Microsoft Surface Book, a powerful, high-performance laptop with stunning craftsmanship and incredibly accurate and responsive pen and touch support.
Features highlighted include Windows Hello, Cortana, Microsoft Edge and One Note, the redesigned surface pen, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
Microsoft also introduced Microsoft Surface Pro 4, the thinnest, lightest and most powerful tablet that can replace your laptop, alongside new Surface accessories. The Surface Pro 4 Type Cover features a redesigned mechanical keyboard with optimal key spacing for fast and fluid typing, and a new Microsoft Surface Pen packs 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity
Lumia 950, Lumia 950 XL, Lumia 550.
Features highlighted include: Windows Hello, Cortana, latest generation PureView camera, Continuum for phones
The company also reinforced its commitment to mobile with the introduction of Microsoft Lumia 950 and Microsoft Lumia 950 XL, the first Windows 10 Lumia phones and the newest premium phones from Microsoft. Lumia 550, an affordable LTE smartphone running Windows 10, also joins the Lumia family. For people who value affordability, uncompromised quality and signature Microsoft services, Microsoft Lumia 550 combines super-fast internet with the best of Microsoft.
Microsoft Band 2
Features highlighted include: Continual heart rate monitor, Email, Cortana, Guided workouts and sleep quality.
Microsoft also announced Microsoft Band 2, the latest fitness wearable designed to help you live healthier and achieve more. Even more comfortable to wear, Microsoft Band 2 allows you to track your heart rate, exercise, calorie burn and sleep quality and stay connected with email, text and calendar alerts.
Microsoft HoloLens is the world’s first fully untethered holographic computer, powered by Windows 10. Starting today, the company is inviting applications for the Microsoft HoloLens Development Edition.
Press Kit assets, b-roll and other materials will be made available on Red Robots MediaGRAB
To register please goto: http://www.redrobot.org/mediagrab/web/register/
Microsoft, New York, Windows 10
Business, Events, Technology
Nadal Tennis Tournament Launches Tommy Hilfiger Underwear
Tommy Hilfiger and Rafael Nadal celebrated the brand’s new underwear collection, ‘TH Bold’ fragrance and tailored collection, and unveiled the Fall 2015 ad campaign featuring the tennis icon with a pop-up tennis tournament in Bryant Park on August 25, 2015.
Tommy Hilfiger, which is owned by PVH Corp. [NYSE: PVH], launched its global brand ambassadorship with iconic tennis star Rafael Nadal for Tommy Hilfiger underwear, tailored and fragrance with a pop-up tennis event in Bryant Park. The 14-time Grand Slam winner challenged some of New York¹s best-dressed opponents in a one-of-a-kind, rapid-fire tennis competition, with a fun, sexy twist. The event celebrated the debut of the new Tommy Hilfiger underwear collection and unveiling of the dedicated advertising campaign featuring the tennis icon.
Nadal faced off in several rounds of tennis with top models including Chanel Iman, Constance Jablonski, Hannah Davis, Noah Mills, Arthur Kulkov and Akin Akman, all dressed in custom Tommy Hilfiger looks. Each time a team scored a point their opponents removed a piece of clothing, eventually unveiling the new Tommy Hilfiger men’s and women’s underwear designs. Actresses Jane Lynch and Lake Bell hosted the event from the umpire’s seat as Nadal took victory in three consecutive games.
“We’ve revamped our men’s underwear collection with a look that’s modern, athletic and bold, and Nadal is the ultimate global brand ambassador for this new direction,” said designer Tommy Hilfiger. “Since I first established my brand 30 years ago, we’ve always brought a unique twist to our designs and our advertising. Today’s event continues our tradition of bold, surprising campaigns and iconic ambassadors that celebrate our brand spirit and resonate with our consumers globally.”
“I love how this event brings together fashion and sport with Tommy’s signature twist – it was the perfect way to kick-off my partnership with Tommy Hilfiger,” said Rafael Nadal. “I’m proud to be launching the new campaign in the middle of New York City with such an exciting event.”
The advertising campaign was revealed just after midnight on August 25 through the brand’s social media channels, and will run globally in top print publications, television, online and out-of-home placements, including billboards in key cities worldwide. The striking campaign imagery and revealing video was shot in Nadal’s hometown in Mallorca, Spain.
To complement the event and partnership the brand launched a series of digital initiatives, including a live Periscope feed from the event hosted by American fashion blogger Sazan Barzani. In an exclusive collaboration with Funny or Die, comedian Nate Dern brought a new perspective to the traditional red-carpet Q&A in a series of videos that will be revealed on social media over the following days.
The Fall 2015 Tommy Hilfiger underwear collection refreshes classic styles with updated fits, revamped fabrics and elevated details. Design innovations, including a special four-way flex stretch technology, combine with premium fabrics for a result that’s sophisticated, durable and essential for every day comfort. The Fall 2015 Tommy Hilfiger Tailored collection features sharp silhouettes, modern tailoring and rich textures.
The TH Bold fragrance celebrates the spirit of determination and has been created for the modern man who lives bold, with a competitive nature and effortless self-confidence.
Tommy Hilfiger and Rafael Nadal were joined by fashion icons, sports stars, models, and VIPs, including:
Glee star and Hollywood Game Night host Jane Lynch; No Escape and Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp star Lake Bell; Paper Towns star Nat Wolff; home and design icon Martha Stewart; supermodels Chanel Iman and Constance Jablonski; 2015 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover model Hannah Davis; actor and model Noah Mills; Hilfiger models Arthur Kulkov and Akin Akman; and fashion bloggers Bryanboy, Danielle Bernstein and Sazan Barzani, all dressed in Tommy Hilfiger.
Friends of the brand joined the conversation on social media using the hashtag #TOMMYXNADAL and the Twitter/Instagram handles @TommyHilfiger and @RafaelNadal.
PHOTOS/VIDEO: http://runwaynewsroom.tommy.com/
About Tommy Hilfiger
With a brand portfolio that includes Tommy Hilfiger and Hilfiger Denim, Tommy Hilfiger is one of the world’s most recognized premium designer lifestyle groups. Its focus is designing and marketing high-quality men’s tailored clothing and sportswear, women’s collection apparel and sportswear, kidswear, denim collections, underwear (including robes, sleepwear and loungewear), footwear and accessories. Through select licensees, Tommy Hilfiger offers complementary lifestyle products such as eyewear, watches, fragrance, athletic apparel (golf and swim), socks, small leather goods, home goods and luggage. The Hilfiger Denim product line consists of jeanswear and footwear for men and women, accessories, and fragrance. Merchandise under the Tommy Hilfiger and Hilfiger Denim brands is available to consumers worldwide through an extensive network of Tommy Hilfiger and Hilfiger Denim retail stores, leading specialty and department stores, select online retailers, and at tommy.com.
About PVH
PVH Corp., one of the world’s largest apparel companies, owns and markets the iconic Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger brands worldwide. It is the world’s largest shirt and neckwear company and markets a variety of goods under its own brands, Van Heusen, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, IZOD, ARROW, Warner’s and Olga, and its licensed brands, including Speedo, Geoffrey Beene, Kenneth Cole New York, Kenneth Cole Reaction, MICHAEL Michael Kors, Sean John, Chaps, and Ike Behar.
Broadcast media, please contact:
nick@redrobot.org
paul@redrobot.org
Fashion, New York, Rafael Nadal, Tommy Hilfiger
Fashion, Sport, Tennis
Africa Australia Awards Bentley Burberry Cars Celebrity Cigars Cortana Cuba DHL Dubai E3 Education Fashion Festival Fireworks Formula-e Gaming Gold Coast Great Barrier Reef Guiness World Records Habanos Havana HoloLens Koala Laureus Sports Awards London MDL Beast Fest Microsoft Microsoft Edge Mo Ibrahim Foundation Music New York Office 365 Queensland Red Carpet Sony Pictures Surface 3 Sydney Tourism Travel UAE Windows 10 Xbox
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COVID-19 patients may be most contagious one to two days before symptoms appear, study finds
N'dea Yancey-Bragg / USA TODAY
COVID-19 patients may be most infectious in the days before they began showing symptoms, a new study from researchers in China found.
Researchers examined "viral shedding" in 94 patients with COVID-19 admitted to Guangzhou Eighth People’s Hospital, according to small study published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal "Nature."
Scientists took throat swabs from the patients and found that viral loads were highest when symptoms began and gradually decreased towards the detection limit at about day 21. This finding is consistent with other small studies done at two hospitals in Hong Kong and with patients in Zhuhai, Guangdong, China.
The study also modeled COVID-19's infectiousness from a separate sample of 77 pairs of people in which one had infected the other with coronavirus.
Using pairs obtained from publicly available sources within and outside mainland China, researchers estimated that 44% of the transmissions occurred during the index patient's presymptomatic stage, "in settings with substantial household clustering, active case finding and quarantine outside the home."
They were then able to infer that infectiousness started 2.3 days and peaked 0.7 days before symptoms appeared. Infectiousness was estimated to decline quickly within a week.
"Our analysis suggests that viral shedding may begin 2 to 3 days before the appearance of the first symptoms," researchers wrote. "More inclusive criteria for contact tracing to capture potential transmission events 2 to 3 days before symptom onset should be urgently considered for effective control of the outbreak."
These findings align with previous guidance from the World Health Organization which found infected people can be contagious and test positive 1 to 3 days before they develop symptoms. Presymptomatic transmission was seen in several cases in Singapore.
Tara Smith, a professor of epidemiology at Kent State University who was not involved in the study, said the research confirms both previous findings of presymptomatic transmission and that infected people seem to have a high viral load right around the time they began showing symptoms.
"That seems to be when they are maximally infectious," Smith said.
Presymptomatic transmission is also seen in viruses like influenza and measles, Smith said, but is not seen with other coronaviruses like SARS and MERS.
Smith said more testing needs to be done to determine the role presymptomatic and asymptomatic transmission is playing in the current pandemic. She said these findings emphasize how important it is to keep social distancing measures in place to prevent those kinds of transmission.
"That's why its important to avoid people as much as possible, to wash your hands, to wear masks," she said. "To prevent you from spreading the virus."
Follow N'dea Yancey-Bragg on Twitter: @NdeaYanceyBragg
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What The Year Of The Pig Means For You
Story from Health & Wellness
What The Year Of The Pig Means & How To Celebrate It
Cory Stieg
Photo: Courtesy of Getty Images.
While the January New Year glow has worn off for many of us, tomorrow marks another opportunity to refresh: the Lunar New Year, or the Chinese New Year. This annual celebration is marked by a different animal in the Zodiac calendar. Last year was the year of the Dog, and this year, we'll welcome the year of the Pig, which is the last Zodiac animal in the Chinese lunar calendar.
Despite some of the less-favourable traits we typically associate with swine, "there is nothing wrong with being a pig," says Shenzhan Liao, director of education at China Institute’s School of Chinese Studies. In fact, in Chinese culture, pigs represent wealth and treasure, because of their importance within an agrarian society, she says. From an astrological perspective, people born during the year of the Pig (which includes 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, and 2019) are believed to be philanthropic and generous, but also disciplined and hard-working. Pigs are very social and friendly (some might say too friendly), enjoy entertaining, and have a love for life.
If you're born in the year of the Pig, you can expect to put in some grunt work this year. In general, when the year aligns with the year of your birth, it tends to be more difficult than others, Chinese astrologer Laura Lau told Refinery29. To that point, those born under the year of the Pig might want to keep a close eye on their finances and wealth this year. Like the year of the Dog in 2018, the Zodiac element associated with 2019 is Earth, which encourages us to be organized and authoritative. Pigs born during an Earth year (1959 and 2019) may be more relaxed and focused than their pig peers born under other elements.
Regardless of your own personal sign, there are a few ways that you can celebrate the Lunar New Year. Before February 5th, Liao suggests decorating your house with red and gold. "In China red and gold are considered lucky colours since they are believed to convey happiness and prosperity," she says. If you're feeling the Pig's generosity, you can give red envelopes full of money to your family members, she says.
And what would the year of the Pig be without great food? Liao says there are a few foods that you should eat on Chinese New Year because they're associated with wealth: dumplings for success, rice cakes for prosperity, a whole fish for abundance, and citrus fruits for health. Whether you're born under the Pig or just want to eat like one, here's hoping you can harness the year of the Pig's prosperous spirit the rest of the year. Xīn nián kuài lè, y'all!
Year Of The Pig 2019: Chinese New Year Zodiac Meaning
written by Cory Stieg
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We're Still Not Over This Riverdale Moment
We're Still Not Over This Major Health Code Violation On Riverdale
Photo: Bettina Strauss /The CW.
The CW's Riverdale is finally back, and of course, we've eagerly devoured both season 2 episodes that have so far been released. For the most part, we've been pretty content with how things are playing out for the gang, but there's one thing about the last two episodes that we're having trouble digesting, and we need to talk about it. Why is everyone still eating at Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe? We're not trying to throw shade at Pop Tate, especially because we're sure his burgers and milkshakes are usually incredibly tasty. We just cannot imagine eating a meal at a diner that is still an active crime scene. Let's break this down.
In "Chapter Fourteen: A Kiss Before Dying," Betty and Jughead walk into Pop's and are faced with a pool of Fred Andrews' blood. This, on it's own, raises quite a few questions. Why was the diner not roped off with crime scene tape?
Photo: Courtesy of The CW.
When Pop enters the front of the diner to see Betty and Jughead staring at the blood, he simply says, "Sorry, kids, we, uh... We're closed today." At this point in the episode, many of us found ourselves screaming at the television screen, "Why didn't you lock the door, Pop?! There's literally blood in the middle of your restaurant and you just experienced an attempted robbery." We're not the only ones who had a major issue with this part of season 2, episode 1.
My only concerns with #Riverdale: 1) Why wasn’t Pop’s corned off as a crime scene? 2) Why wasn’t Fred’s clothes taken in for evidence?!
— Chloe... (@chloecheyenne2) October 13, 2017
Whyyy is Pop's Diner not a crime scene? Lmao why is he just mopping up the evidence?? #RiverdaleSeason2
— GeecheeGalGriot✨? (@saramakeba) October 12, 2017
Pop's Diner isn't zoned off as a crime scene? The police in #Riverdale stink.
— dakota (@dakotaconway16) October 12, 2017
After Betty and Jughead tell Pop what they're doing at the crime scene, he starts to casually mop up Mr. Andrew's blood, right in front of the kids. He then proceeds to ask them if they're hungry. Even as people who love to eat, we can't really imagine a time we'd be less hungry than right after watching our best friend's dad's blood being mopped up in our favorite restaurant.
Here, it seems, we finally have a character who's on the same page. Betty is totally weirded out when Jughead takes Pop up on his offer, and when she gives him a "how can you eat at a time like this" look, he responds by explaining that crises make him hungry. Things get even weirder when Betty and Jughead later bring Pop's food to the hospital for everyone waiting to hear how Mr. Andrews' is recovering. You know, from being shot inside the diner where the food's from.
While we can definitely understand wanting to bring comfort food to the hospital, there's another factor here that absolutely no one know is acknowledging. Isn't Pop Tate violating at least one restaurant health code rule? To go from mopping up blood to preparing food that quickly just seems wrong.
In season 2, episode 2, we see Betty and Jughead go on a mission to save Pop's Diner, and for the first time, we actually felt ourselves taking sides with Mayor McCoy. When the teen crusaders approach her and ask her to make Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe a historic landmark in order to help Pop Tate with business, she responds, "My priority as a mayor and as a mother is keeping this town safe. If we have to close Pop's, I'm all for it." Now, we're not saying that it's right for her to turn her back on an important community establishment and one of the town's most beloved residents. And we definitely don't think that Pop's should close forever, but we just wish these kids would give it a minute. Their best friend's dad was just shot at this diner. And, what about Pop Tate? He's just been through a whole traumatic experience of being held up. If it's financially possible, we recommend he take a beat, close the shop for a couple weeks, and go on a rejuvenating vacation. You know, if Betty and Jughead would just leave him alone.
Riverdale Pops Diner Crime Scene Health Code Violation
Food News • Food & Drinks • Riverdale • TV Shows
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Carteret News
Middlesex County Man Admits Unlawfully Possessing Firearm
A Middlesex County man today admitted illegally possessing a firearm, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael Honig announced.
DEVELOPING: Gunfire Strikes Victim in the Chest in Carteret
Police are on the scene of a shooting with a person down in a section of Carteret at this time.
Carteret Man Charged with Killing His 89-Year-Old Grandmother
Middlesex County law enforcement officials announced that Mr. Shawn Gonzalez, 39, of Carteret has been arrested and charged with the murder of his grandmother Dolores Babij, 89, of Carteret.
Carteret Police Search for Missing Autistic Man UPDATE: Found Safe
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December 8, 2020 at 11:03 a.m. EST
As of 3:23am, There's a crash on the New Jersey Turnpike inner roadway just south of Interchange 12 - Carteret-Rahway in Woodbridge Twp. The right lane blocked.
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Jersey City Police Investigates Carteret Street Shooting
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June 14, 2020 at 12:50 pm EDT
Worker Tests Positive for Coronavirus at Carteret Shoprite
Store management released the following statement:
UPDATE: Family Confirms Death of 15-Year-Old who Fell in Icy Pond in Carteret
The family of a boy who emergency responders pulled from an icy pond last night has confirmed his death Thursday morning.
Carteret Teenager Critical After Falling Through Ice at Pond
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Threat Evacuates Amazon Facility in Carteret
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Truck Fire Kills Tractor Trailer Driver on NJ Turnpike in Carteret
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July 12, 2019 at 4:47 a.m. EDT
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Expect delays.
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Carteret Shots Fired Incident Under Investigation; Injuries
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Free Diabetes Self-Management Workshop Series Offered in Carteret
"Are you a person with Medicare living with diabetes or know someone who is"?
March 9, 2019 at 5:46 a.m. EST
Carteret Man Who Had More Than 6,0000 Videos, Explicit Images of Minors Goes to Prison
Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced that a man who possessed over 6,000 videos and explicit images of minors on his computers was sentenced to prison today. Officials say Kevin M. Groeger, 64, of Carteret, was sentenced today to five years in prison, including 2 ½ years of parole ineligibility, by Superior Court Judge Benjamin S. Bucca Jr. in Middlesex County. He pleaded guilty on Oct. 12, 2018 to second-degree distribution of explicit images of minors. Groeger must register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law and will be subject to parole supervision for life. Officials say Groeger was among 79 predators and offenders arrested in November 2017. Ten alleged predators were arrested in the operation, including eight New Jersey men and two men in California and Indiana who allegedly tried to have minors transported interstate for sex. According to authorities, Groeger was arrested on June 1, when detectives and troopers from the New Jersey State Police Digital Technology Investigations Unit and TEAMS Central Unit, assisted by the Carteret Police Department, executed a search warrant at his residence. A detective of the State Police DTIU previously had downloaded 12 files of explicit images of minors from a shared folder at an IP address traced to Groeger.
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Person Found Hanging in Carteret
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Carteret Shooting Kills One Person Outside Knights of Columbus Hall
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16-Year-Old Teens Charged with Carteret Home Invasion
Two juveniles charged in home invasion Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey and Director Kenneth Lebrato of the Carteret Police Department, announce that two juveniles, both 16 years of age, have been arrested today and charged in the Aug. 18th home invasion of an elderly couple.
Man Charged in Carteret Home Invasion
Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey and Director Kenneth Lebrato of the Carteret Police Department, announced today that a man from Carteret has been arrested and charged in the home invasion of an elderly couple.
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Racing Aeroplanes Over The Sea: SkyDrift
1st December 2011 / 11:14AM
SkyDrift is Burnout with Mario Kart powerups, or Pilotwings with more racing and shooting. The fact that it’s about planes rather than cars does take away the possibility of nudging competitors into oncoming traffic or sending them spinning out of control, which is disappointing. Powerups take the place of collisions and although shooting opponents down with missiles hardly seems sporting, no one seems to mind. Perhaps it’s because the settings are so idyllic and tranquil. There’s a demo available on Steam, which I took for a quick test flight. Thoughts follow, like a bogey on your six.
SkyDrift is a game that makes the racing and rupturing of planes seem like a sedate pursuit, which does make the Burnout comparison slightly less than apt, but the boost meter and encouragement of dangerous flying is straight out of Criterion’s book. I’ve quite enjoyed my time with the demo, although I’m craving a greater sense of speed and impact. It’s enjoyable though, with a certain pleasure to be gained from the simple act of piloting your crate through tight gaps and dodging and weaving through the terrain.
The stylised, postcard-like locations and gentle pace are the things that make this feel more like a kart racer than a plane racer. Flying a plane between outcropping rocks, wings cut to a vertical line, should feel dangerous, as should skimming the ground to throw off missiles or gather boost, but the controls are so perfectly tuned that the sense of flight is never really there, just as bouncy little karts never really give an impression of driving on an actual surface. I don’t know what the plane equivalent of a kart is, but Digital Reality have captured it.
If any of that sounds appealing, the demo is definitely worth a shot. There’s enough of a feel for the game to get a good idea its merits, I reckon.
Tagged with demo, Digital Reality, free games, Kalypso Media, SKYDRIFT.
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Arma 3 •
Hands On: Arma 3 Wasteland
Post-Wasteland Craig
2nd July 2013 / 11:00AM
Deep breath… *boom*. The little dot in my sights zigs to the left. *Crack*. He zags to the right. I have no hope of hitting him at this distance, as I’m only aiming in his general direction, but it’s enough to make him think he could die at any moment. He’s taking decisive, military action, but with a hilarious, half-ducking run. I give up shooting, because hunting for more bullets is a pain, but he carries on running and dodging without any more shots from me. My goal has been fulfilled: to make him run like John Gordon Sinclair in Gregory’s Girl.
Strange? Yes, but it’s the only way I can have fun in this game. One morning in Wasteland, a sandbox survival Arma 3 multiplayer mod, has changed me. The Craig you knew pre-Wastelend would say “Hi! How are you? May I say, what a smashing blouse you have on,” if we were to casually meet. Post-Wasteland Craig is different. He’d flinch at the first sight of you, dive into a bush, and make bird noises until you passed. He might take a pot-shot or two, but only out of a misplaced sense of justice, and only if you’re really far away. I have died many times in Wasteland. My corpses are shrines to every tactical folly you can make.
Wasteland isn’t quite DayZ without the zombies, but it’s a good enough touchstone. It’s a game of survival and death, but under the Greek sun instead of dreich Bohemian forests. You’re also not quite as lonely as you are in DayZ: at the beginning of the map you’re asked to select a team. Blu or Green binds you to that particular faction, meaning you can hope for some level of backup and teamwork. I always select the third faction: Independent. This means I am a target for everyone, including the other players under the Independent banner. I’m placed between a collision of goals that makes it feel like I’m playing a very slow game of deathmatch in the middle of a game of territory control. There are missions that send people scrambling across the map, to fight for a helicopter or a weapons stash, but they don’t interest me. There’s also water and food meters, but I haven’t lasted long enough to figure out what impact they have.
The compact landmass of Stratis means it’s easy to find people. My first death was in Agia Marina. There was a corpse near the middle of the waterfront. Corpses have weapons and money, the two most helpful things in the game. Guns can be found, either on bodies or in vehicles, and you can also buy them at weapon stations. Money is found on bodies, or in the bags a body has left behind. So a corpse could be a bounty. Agia Marina is the biggest town on Stratis, with plenty of little buildings to hide in. From my vantage point, a slope to the south, it seemed like the corpse was the only resident. Population: one corpse.
I spent a few minutes crawling down the hill. I pushed up against every wall. I darted and dodged, and even doubled-back to try and catch out anyone that was following me. Nothing. I spotted a butterfly, noted with pride that I could see its shadow, and carried on. There was a truck near the corpse that gave me the confidence to dash out into the open, knowing that if I could get to the truck I could have it as cover on one side, while there was mostly water on the other. Tactics! Stealth! Exactly what the guy in the building behind me knew I’d do!
Shit. Lesson learned: there’s always somewhere for someone to hide. I was shot in the back and spawned in the middle of nowhere.
If you see someone beside a vehicle, you can be pretty sure they’re attempting to swap whatever its carrying into their backpack. It’s a clunky interface that leaves the player vulnerable, and sometimes it bugs out so you need to drag the contents to the ground before placing them into your inventory. That’s why it’s worth camping out near them: some idiot might run from the top of the hill, stop to roly-poly down (lie on the ground and press q or e), and then run up to a van and stand there in full view of everyone, humming the bacon pancakes to himself. And that’s how I died the second time. I’ve yet to come across another player in Wasteland who doesn’t operate on the notion that survival means being an awful human being to people like me. How can you kill someone you watched roly-polying? Survival of the fittest? Survival of the fuckiest, more like!
I died a third time because I hesitated. I stumbled across a guy in one of the abandoned bases. We were both on a hilltop on a spit of land, and I spotted him before he noticed me. He had chosen a medic class, or as the game calls it: “combat lifesaver”. There’s something off-putting about seeing “lifesaver” appear over someone you’re pointing a gun at. It’s disarming. I had chosen the medic class, too. Here we were, two people bonded over our care for other huma – goddamnit. He unsaved my life.
I spawned elsewhere, not too far from another player that hadn’t spotted me. I had a brief moment of ‘no more mister nice guy’ and shot him, only to find he’d just spawned and had nothing on him of any value. And he was a lifesaver. I felt sad. It was worse when I found a screenshot of the exact moment I snuffed him out.
That moment was decisive. I decided that I wasn’t here to kill-or-be-killed. The island-wide fight that’s taking place over the 20 km2 of Stratis was never too far away. The engine’s view-distance enables you to see movement kilometers away, bursts of gun-play rattle around the valleys, there’s a constant thud on the air from the helicopter that people are fighting over. I could observe and survive, if I was careful. I found someone to watch back at Agia Marina, where I first died.
I was on a hill to the south when I caught movement down below, a man sneaking through town, heading towards the waterfront. Amazingly, that corpse was still there. I think the person that died had left their PC on in that state, drawing people towards the body whenever they enter the town. Either that, or it’s just one body in a line of corpses that have died and died at that spot. By then I’d found a pair of binoculars, a rifle, and a gun scope. I was lying in the shadow of a rock, watching him sneak through the streets. I looked around: while I’d found a comfortable spot to hide, another guy was watching him from the ridge of the hill. He had a gun trained on him. Below us, the little figure looked pretty pathetic as it was scavenging. I settled my gun, took aim to left of him, and fired. He zigged. I fired right. He zagged. I stopped shooting and he carried on up the hill. I could see the puffs the other sniper’s bullets were making, but I could already tell I’d saved this one. He made it to the top of the slope on the opposite side of the town and hopped into a van. He circled around the lip of the hill, probably celebrating life and all it had to offer.
Then he swerved back down the hill, straight into town and deliberately ran another player over.
Tagged with Bohemia Interactive, Arma 3.
More about Arma 3
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Wot I Think: ArmA III
All Greek To Us
Arma 3 Apex: Old Man is a new, official, single-player mission inspired by freeform RPGs
Arma 3's been invaded by aliens in the new Contact expansion
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Domain Name Reform
Pill Press Penalties
Destroy Fake Medical Devices
Learn about Counterfeits and to Save Money Safely
The Drug Importation Debate
Drug Counterfeiters Get Light Sentences
Real Victims of Counterfeit Drugs
Research On Drug Safety
Fentanyl Pill Crisis
Fake Medicine in Your State
Events, briefings, and op-eds
PSM Leadership
Counterfeiters Coerced U.S. Man to Drive 20,000 Counterfeit Pills Across Mexico-U.S. Border
Caption: 20,000 fentanyl pills concealed in Peraza’s car
Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) accepted a guilty plea from a U.S. citizen who was caught in August attempting to smuggle over 20,000 counterfeit oxycodone laced with fentanyl into the country, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. Fernando Jesus Peraza tried to enter the U.S. at the San Ysidro Port of Entry around 2:30 AM on August 8, 2018. A U.S. Custom and Border Protection (CBP) agent noticed an abnormality when a density reading device was passed over the car driven by Peraza and sent the vehicle for additional screening.
According to court documents, a CBP agent and a canine unit were assigned for the secondary inspection. In the passenger rear side quarter panel, agents found the fentanyl pills. Peraza waived his Miranda rights and spoke with agents with Homeland Security Investigations and admitted that he knew there were drugs in his vehicle, but claimed only to be participating because his family had been threatened.
At the time of Peraza’s arrest, U.S. Attorney Adam Braverman said, “This is the biggest fentanyl pill seizure we’ve seen along the Southwest Border, and it’s likely a national record.” In a press release announcing Peraza’s guilty plea, Braverman said, “Counterfeit pills are especially dangerous because users often don’t know they are ingesting fentanyl. With overdoses taking a life every eight minutes, federal law enforcement agencies are prioritizing prosecution of every individual who smuggles and distributes this deadly substance. Thanks to the vigilance of CBP, these deadly pills will not see the streets of our communities.”
Peraza faces up to ten years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for February 1, 2019. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri Hobson is prosecuting this case.
Posted in Fentanyl, News and tagged California, counterfeit drugs, Fentanyl
← Bay Area Adderall Counterfeiter Sentenced to 10 Years in PrisonRhode Island →
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Fantastic Leadpages
Verified Coupon Printable Code Leadpages
leadpagesreview / By LeadpagesCollector
They’re a relatively mobile-friendly approach and they offer a simple service for including CTAs to pages that may not otherwise produce leads. When again, Leadpages makes these incredibly simple to set up and you won’t require to handle any code or plugins to use Alert Bars. Integrated with exit-intent popups, these can make a real distinction to your landing page conversion rates.
Sadly, Leadpages quickly loses if you in fact start utilizing other landing page builders. There are a variety of factors for this. Verified Coupon Printable Code Leadpages. Unbounce is more costly than Leadpages but you get endless A/B testing on every version of its platform and you also get an extensive variety of optimisation features.
Unbounce’s page builder is superior also, genuinely making it fast and simple to build and customise landing pages. This is one area where Leadpages truly annoys and it’s hard to forgive this in a landing page platform. Something else that ruled out Leadpages for us was its restricted type options.
We can’t do this with Leadpages. Instapage also provides you unrestricted A/B screening on its basic “Core” plan and its landing page contractor is most likely the finest I have actually utilized so far. Among Instapage’s standout functions is its heatmapping tool. This is an indispensable optimisation tool for landing pages and you’ll require to incorporate Leadpages or Unbounce with a third-party platform for this, such as Hotjar. You can read our Hotjar evaluation here. Leadpages aims to supply a landing page home builder for smaller organisations and its pricing policy looks pretty suitable at a glance.
If it makes A/B screening totally available on every version of its platform, then the affordable costs of its Standard plan end up being a genuine property. At this point, you basically need to pay up for its Pro variation and this puts you close to Instapage prices – Verified Coupon Printable Code Leadpages. The other 2 concerns I have is the absence of customisation alternatives on Leadpages’ design templates, that makes it difficult to match the branding and style on existing sites.
Now, the engine of any landing page tool is the home builder (likewise called an editor). This is where you change a generic template into your personalized landing page. Sadly, we had significant challenges and disappointments with this element of Leadpages. It is an embarassment due to the fact that they do have some great other features.
Something to note is that Leadpages (the business) is really much in transition as we speak. They released their new drag and drop editor in March. This is a significant paradigm shift for them. In July, Leadpages got Drip, a light-weight SMB marketing automation tool (Verified Coupon Printable Code Leadpages). Weeks later, Leadpages laid off 12% of its staff (due to reorganization not financial problems).
So we can cut them some slack, however all of this is irrelevant to what tool you purchase. It’s difficult to feel bad for Leadpages. They are the biggest SaaS landing page tool. Over 43,000 clients utilize the tool. They received $27 million in financing in 2015. Leadpages isn’t going anywhere.
There are a lot of landing page home builders out now. Numerous are a fraction of Leadpages rates. Leadpages is in a competitive field without an outstanding offering. However being # 1 in size does not indicate having the finest product. Leadpages owes a lot to their wonderful marketing. You ought to check out their interesting podcast, free marketing courses, and a number of other resources.
While we understand Leadpages Drag and Drop Editor remains in ‘early access’, we think the tool will be far behind rivals for some time. As discussed, outside of the two editors we like some Leadpages features like Leadlinks. However these are secondary. The majority of are better off with other solutions, even those with little to no technical-savvyLeadpages scored a 7.25 out of 10 ranking them # 12 versus other landing page home builders.
You can find the breakdown of this score listed below to see exactly how we pertained to this number. Turning up in this Leadpages evaluation we will cover Leadpages rates, functions, combinations and far more (Verified Coupon Printable Code Leadpages).
Please log in again. The login page will open in a brand-new tab. After visiting you can close it and return to this page. As you’ll discover in this Leadpages evaluation, the web-based platform promises to offer you the tools you’ll require to publish high-converting landing pages for your lead-generation projects. Leadpages is the perfect choice for individuals with the cash to invest in a tool that will let them produce beautiful and high-converting landing pages and opt-in boxes.
Through these landing pages, users will be able to prompt users to provide their e-mail or other pertinent details. At the heart of Leadpages is the, a user friendly tool that allows users to deal with templates and modify the details as needed. You will see later on how the editor works.
Honestly, there’s a lot to like about Leadpages. But the tool is far from best. Let’s break down the pros and cons (Verified Coupon Printable Code Leadpages). For the average user, Leadpages will be ample to satisfy your list building goals. At the end of the day, all you require is a presentable landing page that will wow your audience.
It genuinely does not need any prior coding or design experience. The sheer number of offered templates would be ample to get you started on the ideal track. There’s a design template for virtually every circumstance. Options range from webinar pages, thank you pages, product launch pages, checkout pages, and even 404 pages.
You can use Leadpages no matter what CMS you’re utilizing. It can support WordPress, Joomla, Squarespace, and more. The bulk of this Leadpages evaluation was focused on the landing page home builder but let’s not forget that customers likewise get access to Leadboxes. There’s no rejecting the truth that pop-up boxes work and can result in conversions that would otherwise be missed if not for Leadboxes.
People who are extremely particular about their landing page styles can fight with the tool’s user interface. The tool can also slow down every so often which can be troublesome specifically for individuals who are on a tight due date. Leadpages themselves encourage users not utilize their basic templates. There’s hardly any modification choices.
leadpagesreview
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‘Divorced from reality’: MPs report ‘widespread’ child sex abuse in England
Reuters / Mohammed Salem © Reuters
Organized and systemic abuse of children is ‘widespread’ in England, MPs have warned, following the publication of the Rotherham abuse scandal report on Tuesday.
The report, conducted by the Communities and Local Government Committee, said Rotherham Council had failed victims of child abuse in the town, adding there needed to be a full review of child protection services across the country.
The MP’s investigation was prompted by a report published earlier this year by Professor Alexis Jay, who revealed that an estimated 1,400 children had been victims of child abuse rings between 1997 and 2013.
READ MORE:Rotherham child abuse: Crime commissioner urged to resign amid misconduct allegations
According to the report, many of the victims were young, ethnically white girls, who were targeted by sex abuse gangs dominated by British men of Pakistani descent. However, the report did not make any causal link to overt religious or racial motivations.
However, the report claimed the Council’s child protection measures, while in place, were dysfunctional and “divorced from reality.”
MPs also criticized the schools watchdog Ofsted for failing to lift the lid on Rotherham abuse, despite carrying out multiple council inspections. Ofsted is due to give new evidence before the committee in the coming months.
“On the evidence we took, the alarming conclusion is that Rotherham was not an outlier and that there is a widespread problem of organized child sexual exploitation in England,” the report says.
The report also highlights governmental issues that may have led to the abuse going unnoticed, including poor advice from council officers, inadequate child protection measures and the “single party supremacy” of Labour councilors in the area.
“It’s vital local authorities across the country now ensure their scrutiny, governance, and leadership is fit and ready to identify and combat child sexual exploitation in their communities,” said the chair of the committee Clive Betts MP.
The Rotherham abuse inquiry resulted in a number of high profile resignations. In August, the Rotherham council leader stood down over accusations the administration had failed children in the area, while in September, controversial Police and Crime Commissioner Shaun Wright was forced to resign, despite initially refusing to do so.
READ MORE:Baroness forced to step down in UK Pedophile Investigation
Head of Children’s Services Joyce Thacker also resigned that month.
“Repeated Ofsted inspections in Rotherham failed to lift the lid on the council's shameful inability to tackle child sexual exploitation,” Betts said.
“Arrangements should be put in place to bring to account not just council officers still in post, but those who have moved on from an authority before serious questions about their performance emerge,” he added.
Rotherham’s current council leader Paul Lakin said he welcomed the committee’s findings and that he had taken measures to make the council more transparent as a result of the inquiry.
Lakin also said the council planned to bring in an external audit team to continue investigating missing cases of child abuse in Rotherham.
‘No sex, drugs or booze’ code: British police back new conduct rules
Baroness forced to step down in UK Pedophile Investigation
Child sex abuse surge sees police overstretched
1,400 kids sexually abused in UK town, council turned blind eye over 'racism' fears
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Nutritional Quality of the Diets of US Public School Children and the Role of the School Meal Programs
Publisher: Elsevier Inc.
Publication: Journal of the American Dietetic Association
Author(s): Clark MA, and Fox MK
Data collected for the third School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study (SNDA-III) show the majority of school children in the United States have nutritionally adequate diets, but excessive intakes of saturated fat and sodium.
This report on SNDA-III used Dietary Reference Intakes and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005 to assess the nutritional quality of the diets of U.S. public schoolchildren. Researchers followed Institute of Medicine procedures to estimate the prevalence of inadequate and excessive usual intakes of macronutrients, vitamins, minerals, calcium, potassium, sodium and fiber. Standards used included Estimated Average Requirements (EAR) for most vitamins and minerals and Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (UI) for sodium. Propensity score matching enabled comparison of school meal program participants and nonparticipants.
15 percent of children showed inadequate intakes of magnesium, phosphorous, vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin E. Inadequacies were highest in the diets of female adolescents.
High school-aged children were more likely to consume excessive levels of saturated fat and insufficient levels of vitamins and minerals.
At the elementary school level mean energy intakes exceeded the Estimated Energy Requirement (EER). At the high school level energy intake falls short of EERs.
Data related to the intake of dietary supplements were not available.
Improving Child Nutrition Policy
1. The Third School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study
2. A Practice Perspective on the Third School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study
3. Evaluation's Vital Role in Healthier School Meals
4. Meals Offered and Served in US Public Schools
5. Nutritional Quality of the Diets of US Public School Children and the Role of the School Meal Programs
6. Availability and Consumption of Competitive Foods in US Public Schools
7. School Meals
8. Consumption of Low-Nutrient, Energy-Dense Foods and Beverages at School, Home, and Other Locations Among School Lunch Participants and Nonparticipants
9. School Food Environments and Practices Affect Dietary Behaviors of US Public School Children
10. Association Between School Food Environment and Practices and Body Mass Index of U.S. Public School Children
11. School Breakfast Program But Not School Lunch Program Participation is Associated with Lower Body Mass Index
Nutritional Quality of the Diets of US Public School (Web)
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Green snakes have no limbs at all and now scientists know why.
SIRIPONG JITCHUM/iStockphoto
Tiny DNA tweaks made snakes legless
By Elizabeth Pennisi Oct. 20, 2016 , 3:30 PM
Sometimes, a genetic tweak can make a really big difference in an animal’s appearance. That’s what likely happened when the predecessors of modern snakes lost their legs, a process that started some 150 million years ago, two separate groups of scientists have discovered. Although the teams took very different approaches to solve the mystery of how those limbs vanished, both came up with similar results: Mutations in DNA located near a gene key to limb formation keep that gene from ever turning on, they report today.
The new studies have impressed other scientists in the field. In both cases, "there is a correlation between the molecular findings on the one hand and the evolutionary trend of limb reduction and loss on the other," says Michael Richardson, a developmental biologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands. The findings show “there can be pretty minor changes in the genome that can account for very big specific changes,” adds James Hanken, an evolutionary developmental biologist at Harvard University.
Though they are reptiles, almost all snakes are completely missing the limbs typical of most land vertebrates. They didn’t start out that way: More than 100 million years ago, snakes had visible legs. And even today pythons and boas have tiny leg bones inside their bodies, suggesting they have vestiges of the molecular pathway for building these appendages.
Scientists got some of their first clues about the genes involved in the development of the serpentine body form in 1999. At the time, Martin Cohn, an evolutionary developmental biologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville, discovered snake embryos had a different pattern of activity of certain genes than other reptiles and that applying a growth factor could make those embryos start to grow limbs. But he lacked the genomic tools to look any deeper. Four years later, Hanken and his colleagues discovered that activity in one of the genes, named after the video game character Sonic the Hedgehog, played a role in leg size in lizards, hinting that it could also be important for snakes. Now, with more ways to monitor gene activity during development—and fully sequenced genomes of various snakes and other reptiles for comparison—Cohn and graduate student Francisca Leal have tracked the genetic activity in embryonic pythons to see why their legs start, but never finish, developing.
They found three DNA deletions in the genetic switch that controls the activity of the Sonic hedgehog gene. Situated in front of the gene, this switch, called an enhancer, is a docking site for proteins that control the gene’s activity. The deletions made it difficult for certain proteins to land, resulting in only a brief window of gene activity during the development of the python embryo, Cohn and Leal report today in Current Biology . In snakes with no leg bones, the enhancers have even more deletions, they report, making it likely that the gene never turns on in the first place. “It’s taking the old results to a finer level,” Hanken says.
Axel Visel, a genomicist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, also used the python and boa to track down the cause of leglessness. He and his colleagues compared the genomes of those snakes with the genomes of snakes such as vipers and cobras, which evolved more recently and have no leg remnants. They, too, noticed that the same Sonic hedgehog enhancer had many deletions and mutations.
They then showed that a mutated Sonic hedgehog enhancer does indeed affect leg growth by testing its influence on mouse limbs. They replaced the rodent’s own version of the enhancer with the snake version using the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technique. They also repeated the experiment, subbing in the same enhancer from a fish and, later, from a human. Even with the fish and human enhancers, the mouse legs developed normally, demonstrating that enhancers from other species still work in the mice. But with the snake enhancer, the legs turned into little nubs, Visel and his colleagues report today in Cell . Finally, when researchers put the missing DNA into the snake enhancer and then put the modified enhancer back into mice, their legs grew just fine.
“The Visel paper is a beautiful study; a tour de force that takes functional genomics using CRISPR-Cas9 to a new level,” Cohn says. Visel says that Cohn’s experiments with snake embryos “independently confirm what we saw in our mouse models. It's very elegant work.”
But Cohn, Visel, and Hanken caution that changes in this enhancer are not the whole story behind the evolution of the serpentine form. Recently, for example, other researchers discovered that another enhancer was responsible for snakes’ extra ribs and long backbones. And it’s possible that the Sonic hedgehog enhancer was not the first step in leg loss, Hanken says. “But it’s certainly a major player.”
The studies may also help settle a longstanding controversy about fossil snakes, some of which have legs to varying degrees. Paleontologists have long tried to squeeze the limbed fossils onto one branch of the family tree with the limbless ones sprouting off from that branch, something that would be expected had limbs been lost only once. But if it didn’t take much to lose legs, then it probably didn’t take much to re-evolve them. “It could explain the possible reappearance of limbs in some extinct snake lineages,” Richardson says. For centuries, evolutionary biologists have argued that organisms cannot re-evolve lost features. But Hanken says this work “shows that, developmentally speaking, it’s not that farfetched.”
Elizabeth Pennisi
Liz is a senior correspondent covering many aspects of biology for Science.
Email Elizabeth
A single genetic switch can lead to rapid evolution in sea anemones
Gene therapy beats premature-aging syndrome in mice
Will warming make animals darker—or lighter?
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More Arctic Methane Bubbles into Atmosphere
A new study suggests more than twice as much of the potent greenhouse gas is bubbling out of the rapidly warming Arctic Ocean, speeding climate change
By Stephanie Paige Ogburn, ClimateWire on November 25, 2013
Scientists are continually working to improve estimates of just how much methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is being emitted from the Arctic.
A new study led by researcher Natalia Shakhova of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and the Russian Academy of Sciences' Far Eastern Branch reports that methane releases from one part of the Arctic Ocean are more than twice what scientists previously thought.
Shakhova and her colleagues investigated releases of methane from permafrost underneath a shallow part of the Arctic Ocean called the East Siberian Arctic Shelf, which sits in the ocean north of Siberia and east of the Lena River Delta.
There, the underwater permafrost serves as a cap over methane in the seafloor. The permafrost is thawing, though and losing its ability to hold in the methane.
"Thus, methane could release in large amounts," Shakhova said.
In deeper parts of the ocean, the methane released from the ocean floor would likely never make it up to the atmosphere, since it would get used up by microbes before it reached the surface.
However, on the shelf where Shakhova measured methane releases, the shallowness of the sea and the fact that methane is released as bubbles mean that it rises quickly to the surface and escapes into the atmosphere.
Storms bring up more methane
Pulses of the methane bubbles are often triggered by storms, which churn up the water and allow the bubbles to quickly make their way up to the surface, the study found. Storms are already common in the area and may increase with climate change, leading to more methane pulses.
Shakhova's research team used sonar to target bubbles of methane rising up from the seafloor. They calculated the amount of methane being released from the bubbles to the atmosphere at 17 teragrams per year, which is close to the amount being released from the Arctic tundra.
"This means that the East Siberian Arctic Shelf is at least as significant a source of methane to the atmosphere as Arctic tundra, which is thought to be one [of the] major sources of methane in the Northern Hemisphere," Shakhova said.
Another recent study also pointed to ponds in the Arctic tundra as a possible important source of methane (ClimateWire, Nov. 22).
While the quantity of methane being released may sound alarming, scientists are not sure whether this methane escape is new, or whether it has been happening for a long time. Until 2003, when Shakhova's team started studying this part of the Arctic Ocean, no one had measured how much methane was being released from it.
Researchers do believe that climate change contributes to more thawing of the ocean floor permafrost in the Arctic because they have measured increases in seafloor temperatures in recent years.
The research adds another number to the effort to quantify just how much methane is being released from the Arctic. Knowing that is key to understanding how climate change is affecting methane releases in the polar region, said Shakhova.
Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500
Stephanie Paige Ogburn
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Home Social & Behavior Flamingoes, elephants and sharks: How do blind adults learn about animal appearance?
Flamingoes, elephants and sharks: How do blind adults learn about animal appearance?
Animal silhouettes.
Credit: © Adrian Hillman / Adobe Stock
They’ve never seen animals like hippos and sharks but adults born blind have rich insight into what they look like, a new Johns Hopkins University study found.
“First-person experience isn’t the only way to develop a rich understanding of the world around us,” says Judy Kim, a doctoral candidate at Johns Hopkins and corresponding author of the study published May 21 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“Essentially, the question is, how do we know what we know?”
While some previous research has shown that blind people do have knowledge of things like light and color, researchers still have little understanding of what blind people know about appearance and how such information is learned. Some studies suggest that people born blind remember verbal facts, like ‘flamingos are pink,’ so the research team wanted to investigate further.
“People often have the intuition that we can’t know what we can’t see,” says Kim.
The researchers presented 20 blind and 20 sighted adults with animal names and asked participants to: order animals by size (smallest to largest) and height (shortest to tallest); sort animals into groups based on shape, skin texture and color; pick which animal out of a group is unlike the others in shape, and choose from various texture options (“Does a hippo have feathers, fur, skin or scales?”).
Overall, blind and sighted participants organized animals in similar ways and agreed on which physical features were most likely to be observed within animal groups. For example, blind and sighted participants judged that dolphins are similar in shape to sharks and sloths are similar in texture to grizzlies. 15 out of 20 blind and 19 out of 20 sighted participants judged elephants to be bigger than rhinos. But the groups also showed some differences.
Contrary to the idea that blind people learn about animal appearance from sighted people’s descriptions of what animals look like, blind and sighted participants disagreed most about the dimension that was easiest for sighted people to describe in words: animal color. Sighted participants created groups for white, pink, black, black and white, brown and grey animals, and they easily labeled these groups according to their primary colors. By contrast, sighted people had a hard time verbally describing their shape groupings; they used many words and did not agree with each other. Nevertheless, blind people created similar shape groups to the sighted but did not make consistent color groups.
The researchers found that to deduce what animals looked like, blind people relied on similar biological classifications that scientists use to group species. This strategy works very well for shape and texture: birds, for example, have feathers and a characteristic winged shape. Such inference works less well for color because many very different animals are white (e.g., swans, polar bears and sheep).
The main conclusion is that blind people develop rich and accurate ideas about appearance based on inference.
“It’s sometimes assumed that the senses and direct experience are the best way to learn about the world. What the findings show is that linguistic communication can give us rich and accurate knowledge, even knowledge that at first glance seems ‘visual.'” says Marina Bedny, Assistant Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins and another author on the paper.
“Neither sighted nor blind people living in urban environments really need to know about wild animals. But we are fascinated by them. Knowing about lions and elephants is part of our culture and blind people who are members of the same culture infer animal appearance from linguistic communication.”
Materials provided by Johns Hopkins University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Judy S. Kim, Giulia V. Elli, Marina Bedny. Knowledge of animal appearance among sighted and blind adults. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019; 201900952 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1900952116
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Mammoth Marae waste minimisation for Waitangi Day
Press Release: Marae Para Kore
DATE: 2nd February 2016 - for immediate release
This year's Waitangi Day celebrations at Te Tii Marae in Waitangi, attended by thousands of people, will involve a mammoth recycling and waste minimisation effort.
"Kaimahi from Para Kore and EcoSolutions are aiming to divert as much waste as possible from landfill through recycling and collecting food scraps in and around Te Tii Marae" says Para Kore waste advisor Jaroz Popata.
From the 4th to the 6th of February, Ms Popata and her team will be at the marae supporting the waste minimisation efforts.
"Te Tii Marae has recently joined 97 marae across Aotearoa who are part of the Para Kore (Zero Waste) movement. Incorporating Zero Waste principles into Waitangi Day was a natural step in caring for Ranginui and Papatūānuku. We are confident that we will divert hundreds of kilograms of food scraps and recyclables from landfills."
"There will be eight recycling stations where volunteers and kaimahi will educate people on the spot and help them dispose waste into the appropriate bins. We are sorting the waste at the point of disposal and at the same time educating people about what things don't need to go to landfill: it's a win-win situation."
Para Kore is a call to action that aims to end the current take, make, and dispose mentality that we have now become accustom to. In its simplest form it is Kaitiakitanga in practice, caring for Ranginui and Papatūānuku. The Para Kore programme is supported by the government’s Waste Minimisation Fund and local councils.
Find more from Marae Para Kore on InfoPages.
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The SDG Fund is operationally closed. This site is alive for knowledge and dissemination purposes. Please visit jointsdgfund.org
Goal 10: Reduced inequalities
Reduce inequality within and among countries
It is well documented that income inequality is on the rise, with the richest 10 percent earning up to 40 percent of total global income. The poorest 10 percent earn only between 2 and 7 percent of total global income. In developing countries, inequality has increased by 11 percent if we take into account the growth of population.
These widening disparities are a call for action that require the adoption of sound policies to empower the bottom percentile of income earners and promote economic inclusion of all regardless of sex, race or ethnicity.
Income inequality is a global problem that requires global solutions. This involves improving the regulation and monitoring of financial markets and institutions, encouraging development assistance and foreign direct investment to regions where the need is greatest. Facilitating the safe migration and mobility of people is also key to bridging the widening divide.
Reducing inequalities is one of 17 Global Goals that make up the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. An integrated approach is crucial for progress across the multiple goals.
Learn more about the targets for Goal 10.
Goal 10 targets
By 2030, progressively achieve and sustain income growth of the bottom 40 per cent of the population at a rate higher than the national average
By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status
Ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome, including by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices and promoting appropriate legislation, policies and action in this regard
Adopt policies, especially fiscal, wage and social protection policies, and progressively achieve greater equality
Improve the regulation and monitoring of global financial markets and institutions and strengthen the implementation of such regulations
Ensure enhanced representation and voice for developing countries in decision-making in global international economic and financial institutions in order to deliver more effective, credible, accountable and legitimate institutions
Facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies
Implement the principle of special and differential treatment for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, in accordance with World Trade Organization agreements
Encourage official development assistance and financial flows, including foreign direct investment, to States where the need is greatest, in particular least developed countries, African countries, small island developing States and landlocked developing countries, in accordance with their national plans and programmes
By 2030, reduce to less than 3 per cent the transaction costs of migrant remittances and eliminate remittance corridors with costs higher than 5 per cent
The SDG Fund response
The SDG Fund programmes undertake situation analysis to understand what inequalities underpin the challenges in the communities and countries where we work. By doing this, the programmes pay special attention to inequalities suffered by women, girls, indigenous people, older people, youth, and those living in geographical isolated communities. Our initiatives take inequalities into account and put into practice solutions to address them, responding to the 2030 Agenda’s mandate of leaving no one behind.
In Tanzania, the SDG Fund is working with the national government to scale-up one of its existing national programmes to reach all the extreme poor living below the food poverty line. In particular, it’s targeting women, children, youth, elderly, people living with disabilities and people living with HIV and AIDS. The programme employs conditional cash transfers, promoting employment through public works programmes, family planning awareness and primary and secondary school education.
In Bangladesh, the SDG Fund is working with ultra-poor women, particularly with those who are widowed, divorced or abandoned. The programme is supporting the most vulnerable households to move out of poverty through public works jobs, education and financial literacy.
In Paraguay, the SDG Fund is supporting the government’s efforts to find integrated solutions to undernutrition and to address other health problems faced by indigenous and vulnerable rural households, particularly female-headed ones, to produce nutritious and diversified food production.
Goal 1: No poverty Goal 2: Zero hunger Goal 3: Good health and well-being Goal 4: Quality education Goal 5: Gender equality Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth Goal 9: Industry, innovation, infrastructure Goal 10: Reduced inequalities Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities Goal 12: Responsible consumption, production Goal 13: Climate action Goal 14: Life below water Goal 15: Life on land Goal 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals
SDG Fund’s programmes contributing to SDG 10
Strengthening women’s ability for productive new opportunities (SWAPNO)
Food and nutrition security of the department of San Marcos
Paraguay protects, promotes and facilitates effective implementation of the right to food security and nutrition
Economic inclusion and sustainable development of Andean grain producers in Ayacucho and Puno
Joint programme to support Tanzania’s productive social safety nets (PSSN)
SDG Online Library
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Ballin a great clubman: Toovey
Thu 2 Apr 2015, 09:16 AM
Geoff Toovey is regarded as one of the toughest player’s to ever pull on the mighty maroon and white jersey.
Pound-for-pound, they say no one was made of sterner stuff.
However, yesterday it was the current coach and club legend’s turn to praise Matt Ballin, as the Manly hooker prepares to lace up for his 200th game for the side.
“It’s an awesome effort, playing in a tough position at hooker for so long,” Toovey said.
“He doesn’t shirk any hard work on the field, it’s a great effort from him. He’s a tough competitor, tough player and a great clubman.”
COME CELEBRATE EASTER AND MATT BALLIN'S 200TH GAME IN ALBURY. GET TICKETS HERE TODAY
The Sea Eagles iron-man played 182 consecutive first grade games for the Sea Eagles before suffering a broken leg during last seasons Round 25 last gasp win over the Penrith Panthers.
Toovey also lamented his side’s start to the season and believes that the teams nightmare run injuries has disrupted his team’s progress.
“Its been tough. We have lost several players for long periods of time - Josh Starling and Clint Gutherson have been dealt blows, Steve Matai has been in and out for a little while, but we will put him through some fitness tests before we make the decision to bring him back in, and now Jamie Lyon looks like he’s out for a week or two,” he said.
“Last year we lost some senior players and it takes time to get different combinations right.”
“That combined with our horrendous injury list has been really disrupting for us,” Toovey finished.
Despite the results and poor run with injures, Toovey was upbeat and looking forward to getting to the Border this weekend and meeting the man Rugby League fans in the Riverina.
The coach was excited about the build up to this weekends clash when asked about the match against the Raiders on the Murray.
“It’s going to be good for the fans down in Albury. We are very much looking forward to it and are hoping to spread the gospel of Rugby League to supporters down there.”
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Home » News » Energo Boost Clean Energy Prod via Qtum Blockchain Implementation in Philippines
Energo Boost Clean Energy Prod via Qtum Blockchain Implementation in Philippines
By Manu Tayal/ Updated On Mon, Apr 9th, 2018
Through combining the decentralization of blockchain with solar cells, energy storage and other hardware, we hope to accelerate the power reform in off-grid areas, said Kaikai Yang, Founder and CEO, Energo Lab Foundation.
Energo Foundation has implemented Qtum blockchain platform in its latest cooperation with First Gen, the largest producer of clean energy in the Philippines, on the company’s blockchain microgrid project.
First Gen recently co-hosted a ‘blockchain + new energy Workshop’ with De La Salle University in Manila, Philippines, making it the first microgrid project of its kind.
At the core of Energo Labs is the Qtum blockchain platform and a decentralized system designed for the measurement, registration, transaction, and settlement of clean energy in local micro grids.
As the first application of its kind based on the Qtum chain, Energo counts Clean Energy Access Network (the largest decentralized energy organization in India), Power for All, and Alliance for Rural Electrification as its partners.
Commenting on the development, Energo Lab Foundation, Founder and CEO, Kaikai Yang said, “Through combining the decentralization of blockchain with solar cells, energy storage and other hardware, we hope to accelerate the power reform in off-grid areas and devote itself towards making clean electricity more accessible to residents in remote areas in the near future.”
On the De La Salle University campus microgrid project, Energo makes use of the decentralization of the blockchain to ensure that users between buildings can directly conduct peer-to-peer electricity transactions and that the supply and consumption of electricity in the building remains balanced.
Meanwhile, the smart meter system can effectively record a series of transactions and ensure the security of data storage.
In addition, Energo has donated a hardware system to De La Salle University that can load 10 kilowatts in a bid to promote the use of green energy on the campus.
The system is expected to save up to 1.2 million Philippine pesos in electricity expenditures over the next 20 years.
Tags: blockchain, Clean Energy, De La Salle University, Electricity, Energo, First Gen, green energy, International, microgrid project., Philippines, Qtum
Manu Tayal
Manu is an Associate Editor at Saur Energy International where she writes and edits clean & green energy news, featured articles and interview industry veterans with a special focus on solar, wind and financial segments.
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6 Bold Predictions for Digital Marketing in 2016
As 2015 begins to wind down, the prediction posts pontificating what the next year has in store have begun to ramp up. This has become something of an annual tradition for marketers and this season is no exception.
What does next year hold in store for our industry? There's no way of knowing for sure, but below is how I see things shaping up for next year.
1. Social media traffic to most websites will decline
The more people go in-app with their social media use, the more it will appear as though social traffic is on the decline. In actuality, it's likely an attribution error. Many mobile apps strip out what's known as UTM parameters from links or simply obfuscate itself as a source. This causes analytics programs to view the traffic as direct as opposed to social or referral.
Also, Twitter has been making changes to its API as of late, the result of which has led to the disablement of some third party software and the ability to track tweet counts for some widgets. If this isn't a fluke and was done on purpose it may have an impact on RSS-driven spam bots, too. This may make some content marketers social share count numbers smaller overall.
Lastly, this declination in social media traffic will be exacerbated further by the fact that many networks have already, or are about to, turn down the visibility of content shared by brands organically - less visibility equals less clicks and traffic.
2. Google will finally launch its native advertising network
There have only been a few leaks over the last twelve months, but currently the search giant has its native network in private beta. It's rumored to compete directly with networks like Revcontent, AdBlade, Outbrain and Taboola.
However, it'll also incorporate something the others aren't doing - it'll connect brands directly with bloggers and premium publications, at scale, for full-fledged sponsored content publishing. At present, Newslauncher is the only company doing this.
3. LinkedIn will launch its version of "Instant Articles"
As a reaction to Facebook's "Instant Articles," Google and Twitter announced a new partnership to do essentially the same thing. Look for LinkedIn to make an announcement of something similar in 2016.
In the early days of LinkedIn Today, the network relied heavily on syndicated content in a non-monetized way. As Pulse has been developed, its reliance on content syndication has waned considerably. This announcement will open up content syndication and monetization opportunities for brands.
4. An influencer marketing platform will be acquired by one of the stacks
Unfortunately, most of the tools content marketers need to get meaningful visibility for their content are disparate, disjointed and don't talk to each other. The next evolution of the marketing stack (Oracle, Adobe, Marketo, Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.) will include the integration of earned and paid content promotion channels to amplify top-funnel content.
It has to.
Why? Because the current technology stack available to marketers is an exercise in owned media broadcasting only. We no longer live in a "build it and they will come" world like we once did. Content marketers are begging for amplification in order to stand out from the noise of the Internet.
HubSpot has taken a good first step by releasing its new ads plugin, which allows marketers to natively promote content on LinkedIn and run AdWords campaigns. Unfortunately, that's not enough for amplification at scale of top-funnel content.
Look for native paid execution and influencer marketing software to begin to coalesce with the marketing stack next year. I anticipate one of the marketing stack companies going after and acquiring a BuzzSumo, Little Bird, GroupHigh, Augure, etc.
5. Ad blocking adoption will begin to level off
There's a new arms race happening on the internet - ad blockers versus ad networks and publishers. Both are armed with very smart people trying to undo each other's work. As a result of this race, many ad blockers are doing more than just blocking ads. Some of them are accidently blocking some of the content its users are there to see.
This doesn't bode well for their future adoption growth. According to Addition, adoption world-wide is estimated at 300,000,000 today. Networks and publishers are battling back and forcing ad blockers to maintain an aggressive posture. That's why some of them are beginning to overreach into the content we want, and why there's an adoption ceiling to be hit next year.
6. Content recommendation networks will get better at delivering relevant content
What's the biggest knock on content recommendation engines? The quality of the content they're recommending people consume is suspect in many situations. Some of it's pure and simple click-bait, and many of the accompanying images are racy, too.
Some networks have done a decent job of cleaning this up, however, next year we should see even more relevant, timely and quality content being delivered this way. Revcontent, for example, already admits to denying 98% of the sites that seek to distribute content via its network.
inPowered, a third party that uses multiple networks, does business on a cost-per-engagement basis and not the cost-per-click we're so used to seeing. It's this attention to quality and engagement that will infiltrate the industry next year.
The pontification is complete. Will every one of these predictions come true? Maybe, but we'll have to wait to find out. Undoubtedly, digital marketing in 2016 will be even more exciting that what it was this year.
Agree or disagree with any of my predictions? Have any predictions of your own? Feel free to leave a comment below and we'll discuss.
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Press Releases October 29, 2020
Investing in Providers of Global Data Infrastructure with Global X’s New Data Center REITs & Digital Infrastructure ETF
According to Cisco’s Annual Internet Report, 66 percent of the world’s population (5.3 billion people) will have access to the internet by 2023. This staggering amount of data produced requires an efficient global data infrastructure, a demand, which created a whole industry of companies specialized in building and operating large data centers that process society’s digital life. To enable investors to access Data Centers straightforwardly, Global X launched an ETF incorporating large-scale Data Center and digital infrastructure players in their new Global X Data Center REITs & Digital Infrastructure ETF [Ticker: VPN], tracking an ARTIS®-based Solactive index.
Solactive incorporated key Data Center REIT operators as well as industry-related players providing data infrastructure in one index, the Solactive Data Center REITs & Digital Infrastructure Index. Index constituents are selected via Solactive’s proprietary natural language processing algorithm ARTIS®.
ARTIS® utilizes advanced algorithms to parse high volumes of public documents evaluating companies’ exposure to various themes or topics and the firm’s corresponding relevance inside these very fields. Companies eligible for index inclusion need to generate at least 50% of their revenues from data center and/or cellular tower related business operations. This selection may include companies that own, operate, and or develop data centers (including data center REITs), cellular towers (including cellular tower REITs), or manufacturers of servers and/or other hardware often used in data centers and cellular towers, including semiconductors, integrated circuits, and processors.
“Data centers existed long before I had the pleasure to listen to my old 56K modem’s serenade, and, today, play a significant role in our every-day life,” comments Timo Pfeiffer, Chief Markets Officer at Solactive. “As investors progressively want to diversify their portfolios, Global X’s Data Center REITs & Digital Infrastructure ETF eschews traditional brick-and-mortar real estate investments for a contemporary approach that plays on the increasing demand for digital infrastructure. We are happy to work with Global X and serve as their partner to make innovative ideas publicly investible once again.”
The Global X’s Data Center REITs & Digital Infrastructure ETF started trading on the 29th of October on Nasdaq.
Press Release – Investing in Providers of Global Data Infrastructure with Global X’s New Data Center REITs & Digital Infrastructure ETF
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Put your employees’ safety and well-being at the top of your organization’s agenda with the implementation of the OHSAS 18001:2007 standard.
Sound occupational health and safety policies are essential for employees, but they are also increasingly important for your customers and other stakeholders. Occupational Health and Safety Management systems certification to OHSAS 18001 is a strong sign of your organization’s commitment to your employees’ health and safety.
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KPIX 5 News at 6:00PM
KPIX 5 News at 5PM
KPIX 5 News – Early Edition
KPIX (CBS)
KPIX 5 News at 5PM : KPIX : August 28, 2018 5:00pm-5:31pm PDT
by KPIX
shelter, there's a push to open existing county facilities to the homeless. kpix5's len ramirez explains how that would work. >> reporter: with santa clara county's homeless problem among the worst in the nation, a new idea to help solve it. >> what we're really talking about is how do we share assets. >> reporter: supervisor cindy chavez unveiled a plan to partner with the county school districts to build low income and homeless housing on their unused acres of land. >> housing is such a crisis in our community that it's all of our responsibility. >> reporter: school districts are some of the biggest land owners in the county, some of it still vacant like this lot behind the east side union district office. two week ago chavez met with several school districts to begin talks and today the board of supervisors pushed an exploratory measure ahead. funding would come through voter approved measure a. >> they have a number of families in their schools that have homeless children that are attending their schools today. this is not an outside population. this is part of their communities. >>
shelter, there's a push to open existing county facilities to the homeless. kpix5's len ramirez explains how that would work. >> reporter: with santa clara county's homeless problem among the worst in the nation, a new idea to help solve it. >> what we're really talking about is how do we share assets. >> reporter: supervisor cindy chavez unveiled a plan to partner with the county school districts to build low income and homeless housing on their unused acres of land....
KPIX 5 News at 6:00PM : KPIX : August 23, 2018 6:00pm-7:00pm PDT
to save it. kpix5's len ramirez on what the opposing sides are arguing about. len? >> reporter: well, they're arguing about a lot and this is shaping up to be a good old- fashioned fight between the city of san jose and the county of santa clara all over that building which has been vacant now the past 13 years. the old city hall annex building has been practically unused since the city of san jose moved out in 2005. it was bought a few years later by the county of santa clara which plans to demolish it to build a parking lot as part of its master plan, but now with the homeless crisis gripping the city san jose wants to save the building and repurpose it for a shelter. >> i'm hoping that they consider this as an option to provide housing for the homeless. >> reporter: 10 days ago sam liccardo sent a letter to the supervisors department asking if there was any reinterest in reusing the building for low income housing and pledged city support to make it happen. it's close to light rail and county services. homeless advocates call it a no brainer. >> people are dying in record numbers.
to save it. kpix5's len ramirez on what the opposing sides are arguing about. len? >> reporter: well, they're arguing about a lot and this is shaping up to be a good old- fashioned fight between the city of san jose and the county of santa clara all over that building which has been vacant now the past 13 years. the old city hall annex building has been practically unused since the city of san jose moved out in 2005. it was bought a few years later by the county of santa clara which...
. and our len ramirez tells us... law enforcement is quickly ss. >>> a couple of brothers getting ready to make a difference on the streets of san jose. they are new police officers, law enforcement is quickly becoming a family business. >> reporter: they are two of the newest police officers, the brothers, they came up working the fields and dairy farms, soon to patrol the streets of san jose. do you think you can make a difference? >> i think i can. i think i can be of assistance to the community. >> reporter: whose idea was that? >> i would say it was my brothers idea. >> reporter: he was not sure he wanted to be a cop and was exploring other options. they both attended community college. what was it like growing up with this guy? >> very competitive. that is something that my dad -- he liked -- he wanted us to always compete. >> reporter: luis had already decided on law enforcement and helped convinced his brother he could do it too. last week they both graduated from the academy. their parents, immigrants from mexico, probably pinned on two badges that day. >> they know that this c
. and our len ramirez tells us... law enforcement is quickly ss. >>> a couple of brothers getting ready to make a difference on the streets of san jose. they are new police officers, law enforcement is quickly becoming a family business. >> reporter: they are two of the newest police officers, the brothers, they came up working the fields and dairy farms, soon to patrol the streets of san jose. do you think you can make a difference? >> i think i can. i think i can be of...
the scandal. kpix5 reporter len ramirez on a south bay priest who said it is time to open sealed church records. >> reporter: in a strongly worded open letter to the world's 1.2 billion catholics, pope francis said his church showed no care for the little ones saying, "we abandoned them. the heartwrenching pain of these victims was long ignored, kept quiet or silenced." >> the words are very appreciated. i think all the victims will tell you they appreciate it. it's actions we're looking for. >> reporter: john salberg was 6 years old when he was sexually abused by his pastor in san jose. he sued the church and won a settlement. now he and many other victims want an outside investigation of the church. >> it would just be nice if the church would expose their documentations and documentations of pedophile priests and other acts of clergy abuse, stuff they've kept shut behind closed doors. >> reporter: father tom reese says what was good is that the pope confessed that the church did a bad job responding to the sex abuse crisis. >> we tried to protect the institution, tried to prot
the scandal. kpix5 reporter len ramirez on a south bay priest who said it is time to open sealed church records. >> reporter: in a strongly worded open letter to the world's 1.2 billion catholics, pope francis said his church showed no care for the little ones saying, "we abandoned them. the heartwrenching pain of these victims was long ignored, kept quiet or silenced." >> the words are very appreciated. i think all the victims will tell you they appreciate it. it's...
, len ramirez, kpix5. >> the archbishop of san francisco is reacting to the child abuse revelations. he said he will designate a day when people can come together and make an act of reparation. he has not announced what that will entail. >>> on the day of his funeral we learned utah firefighter matt burchett was killed by tree debris, knocked down when 1,000 gallons of retardant was dropped from an air tanker overhead. the 42-year-old firefighter was killed a week ago assisting on the mendocino complex fire lines. makovec has the tearful tributes. >> reporter: a solemn procession began this morning's services for battalion chief matthew burchett in a small town near salt lake city, draper, utah, where he served as a firefighter for 20 years. >> the firefighting profession is said to be a noble profession and i believe that 100%, but it takes an even nobler man to fill that role. there was none in my mind more noble than matt. >> reporter: burchett was 42 years old and he leaves behind a wife and a son. he was one of five firefighter sent from draper to help battle the largest wildfi
, len ramirez, kpix5. >> the archbishop of san francisco is reacting to the child abuse revelations. he said he will designate a day when people can come together and make an act of reparation. he has not announced what that will entail. >>> on the day of his funeral we learned utah firefighter matt burchett was killed by tree debris, knocked down when 1,000 gallons of retardant was dropped from an air tanker overhead. the 42-year-old firefighter was killed a week ago assisting...
KPIX 5 News – Early Edition : KPIX : August 17, 2018 4:30am-5:00am PDT
win kpix 5's len ramirez has more on the frightening encounter. >> i was hoping that nothing was going to happen that was bad. >> reporter: for janet smith and her husband, it wasn't a typical sunday drive on almaden expressway. >> a motorcycle passed us and then another one and another one and another one, and my husband said there were between 30 and 50. >> reporter: she says the seemed to swarm around everywhere doing stunts and wheelies and knocked on her husband's car window. >> he rolled his window down, which i wouldn't have done, and they said, you're in our way. slow down. and he said, i was here first. you know? i don't know where else to go. they were to the right, they were to the left. they were behind us. >> reporter: she recorded this cell phone video all the while fearing that someone was going to get hurt. no one did, but -- >> it was scary for a couple of old people. >> reporter: the stunt riders are usually more interested in showing off to their friends and youtube followers than anything else and the dangers that they pose are mostly to themselves. but their antics
win kpix 5's len ramirez has more on the frightening encounter. >> i was hoping that nothing was going to happen that was bad. >> reporter: for janet smith and her husband, it wasn't a typical sunday drive on almaden expressway. >> a motorcycle passed us and then another one and another one and another one, and my husband said there were between 30 and 50. >> reporter: she says the seemed to swarm around everywhere doing stunts and wheelies and knocked on her husband's...
windows. kpix 5 len ramirez spoke to a driver who got caught in the middle of the pack. >> reporter: for janet smith and her husband, it wasn't a typical sunday drive. >> motorcycles passed us and we thought well, there it goes. another one and then another one and then my husband said there were between 30 and 50. >> reporter: she says they seemed to swarm around everywhere doing stunts and wheelies, and even knocked on the car window. >> they said you're in our way. slow down. and he said i was here first. you know, i don't know where else to go. they were to the right, they were to the left, they were behind us. >> reporter: she recorded this cell phone video all the while fearing that someone was going to get hurt. the motorcycle stunt riders were more interested in showing off to their friends and youtube followers than anything else and the dangers that they pose are to themselves. but their antics can trigger emotions and other drivers, such as road rage. four years ago bikers in new york city, the terrifying driver plowed through several bikes injuring a rider. the bikers ch
windows. kpix 5 len ramirez spoke to a driver who got caught in the middle of the pack. >> reporter: for janet smith and her husband, it wasn't a typical sunday drive. >> motorcycles passed us and we thought well, there it goes. another one and then another one and then my husband said there were between 30 and 50. >> reporter: she says they seemed to swarm around everywhere doing stunts and wheelies, and even knocked on the car window. >> they said you're in our way....
groups, so far no takers. in redwood city, len ramirez, kpix5. >> i think i still have some old radio air check on reel to reel ampex tapes, shows how old i am. kids in college are saying hey, what's that? they used to put audio and video on a physical thing that's not stored in the computer. >>> it was the coldest day of the summer today in the bay area. >> i like it. >> i have not heard one person complain yet at least online. we're looking at temperatures today which were not that warm. 78 doesn't sound cold but by far the coolest afternoon so far this summer in concord, morgan hill 86, 73 for san rafael today, 72 in san jose, fremont not hitting 70 and san francisco 63, 73 the official high in livermore this afternoon, coolest day since before summer began june 9th, 66 days ago. still some thunderstorms bubbling up in and around lake tahoe, more toward reno and carson city than anything else bypassing the lake, but there's some activity if you are heading up toward the sierra and the air quality up there continues to be a mess. our ridge of high pressure which kept us warm is temp
groups, so far no takers. in redwood city, len ramirez, kpix5. >> i think i still have some old radio air check on reel to reel ampex tapes, shows how old i am. kids in college are saying hey, what's that? they used to put audio and video on a physical thing that's not stored in the computer. >>> it was the coldest day of the summer today in the bay area. >> i like it. >> i have not heard one person complain yet at least online. we're looking at temperatures today...
games really teach you how to be a pilot? we asked our len ramirez to look into that. >> reporter: the flight simulators at san jose state lab are so realistic even the simulated cockpit tilts and swivels as pilots maneuver the controls. >> the real purpose of simulators is to help pilots train for instrument flying. >> verify that we have ignition by etg rising. >> reporter: but you don't have to be in flight school to access high resolution simulators, video games and streaming step by step video guides such as this one entitled how to start a boeing 787-800 with over 2 million views on youtube. the airline worker who stole and flew a passenger plane in the seattle area last week had no formal flight training, but richard russell told air traffic controllers he didn't need it as he performed some dangerous aerial stunts. >> he just needs some help controlling his aircraft. >> i don't need that much help. i played some video games before. >> reporter: russell crashed into a small island and was killed. >> it's a lot easier to fly, getting off the ground, as opposed to landing. >> repo
games really teach you how to be a pilot? we asked our len ramirez to look into that. >> reporter: the flight simulators at san jose state lab are so realistic even the simulated cockpit tilts and swivels as pilots maneuver the controls. >> the real purpose of simulators is to help pilots train for instrument flying. >> verify that we have ignition by etg rising. >> reporter: but you don't have to be in flight school to access high resolution simulators, video games and...
how to fly an airplane? kpix5's len ramirez tested out a flight simulator to find out. >> reporter: the flight simulators at san jose state university's aviation lab are so realistic even the simulated cockpit tilts and swivels as pilots maneuver the controls. >> the real purpose of simulators is to help pilots train for instrument flying. >> verify that we have ignition by egt rising. >> reporter: but you don't have to be in flight school to access high resolution simulators, video games and streaming step by step video guides such as thisone entitled how to start a boeing. the airline worker who stole and flew a passenger plane in the seattle area last week had no formal flight training, but richard russell told air traffic controllers he didn't need it as he performed some dangerous aerial stunts. >> he just needs some help controlling his aircraft. >> no. i don't need that much help. i played some video games before. >> reporter: russell ended up crashing into a small island and was killed. >> it's a lot easier to fly getting off the ground as opposed to landing. >> reporter: s
how to fly an airplane? kpix5's len ramirez tested out a flight simulator to find out. >> reporter: the flight simulators at san jose state university's aviation lab are so realistic even the simulated cockpit tilts and swivels as pilots maneuver the controls. >> the real purpose of simulators is to help pilots train for instrument flying. >> verify that we have ignition by egt rising. >> reporter: but you don't have to be in flight school to access high resolution...
cost of living would be cheaper. i was surprised. >> reporter: in san jose, len ramirez, kpix5. >>> talk about too close for comfort, a mountain lion caught on camera in the bay area just feet away from a neighbor walking his dog. the encounter happened in pleasanton. kpix5's mary lee picks it up from there. >> it was about here where i first sighted the cat crouched down the end of this road about where that red car is down at the end of the road. >> reporter: noel messenger was walking his dog reba this morning like he does every day in his pleasanton neighborhood when he got quite a shock with an unexpected visitor. >> at first it appeared to be a cat. it was in a crouched position not even facing me, but it stood up and turned around when it heard us coming. at that point i clearly realized what it was. it was a small mountain lion. >> reporter: noel captured this video on his cell phone and what animal control says is a 100-pound adolescent mountain lion roaming the streets. he said first it was walking toward him, but the next thing he knew it was running toward noel and
cost of living would be cheaper. i was surprised. >> reporter: in san jose, len ramirez, kpix5. >>> talk about too close for comfort, a mountain lion caught on camera in the bay area just feet away from a neighbor walking his dog. the encounter happened in pleasanton. kpix5's mary lee picks it up from there. >> it was about here where i first sighted the cat crouched down the end of this road about where that red car is down at the end of the road. >> reporter: noel...
KPIX 5 News at 6:00PM : KPIX : August 9, 2018 6:00pm-7:00pm PDT
working to sure that happens as soon as possible. in salinas, len ramirez, kpix5. >> that pesticide must be banned within 60 days. >>> tearful testimony in an oakland courtroom today, the sentencing of ghost ship fire defendants derick almena and max harris got underway. it began with the families of victims pouring out their anger and emotions. kpix5's da lin was there. ap on the wrist. > reporter: inside department 13 family after family voiced their strong opposition to the plea deal, nine years for ghost ship master tenant derick almena and six years for max harris. a victim's boyfriend compares that to a slap on the wrist. >> this sentence is unfair. it's unbalanced. it's negligent. >> three months for almena and two months for harris for each of those lives was way too short. >> reporter: many families asked judge james cramer to dismiss the plea bargainor change it. a different judge jacobson brokered the plea deal. cameras were not allowed inside the courtroom. one of the victim's brothers told the defendants the d
working to sure that happens as soon as possible. in salinas, len ramirez, kpix5. >> that pesticide must be banned within 60 days. >>> tearful testimony in an oakland courtroom today, the sentencing of ghost ship fire defendants derick almena and max harris got underway. it began with the families of victims pouring out their anger and emotions. kpix5's da lin was there. ap on the wrist. > reporter: inside department 13 family after family voiced their strong opposition to...
night. >> reporter: in san mateo, len ramirez, kpix5. >>> wait times at the dmv have gotten longer. why a audit of the agency is off the table. >>> a sick man brutally beaten. the attack hitting home for a bay area police chief. how he helped to arrest his own son for the crime. >>> in san francisco it is foggy but also it is smoky. the haze from oakland across the bay towards the city. when will the smoke clear? i have the answer coming up. ♪ ♪ ♪ i put a spell on you ♪ yeah, because you're mine ♪ with chase atms serena can now grab cash on the go, all with the tap of her phone. ♪ stop the things you do no card? no problem. life, lived serena's way. chase, make more of what's yours. monitor their blood glucose every day. which means they have to stop. and stick their fingers. repeatedly. today, life-changing technology from abbott makes it possible to track glucose levels. without drawing a drop of blood, again and again. the most personal technology, is technology with the power to change your life. life. to the fullest. airplane noise. >>> you know that sound. cities in sa
night. >> reporter: in san mateo, len ramirez, kpix5. >>> wait times at the dmv have gotten longer. why a audit of the agency is off the table. >>> a sick man brutally beaten. the attack hitting home for a bay area police chief. how he helped to arrest his own son for the crime. >>> in san francisco it is foggy but also it is smoky. the haze from oakland across the bay towards the city. when will the smoke clear? i have the answer coming up. ♪ ♪ ♪ i put a...
about it. it did resume before the close after an 11 percent gain. reporter len ramirez his life at the tesla factory with the tweet that shook the stock market. >>reporter: issue or dead. it shook up a lot of people. a lot of veteran wall street times shaking their heads wondering how this would be. this is no way to run a big car company like tesla to smaller investors and tesla fans in the south bay who are excited this may be the best path forward. >>reporter: with one tweet, elon musk sent the stock market into a frenzy. am considering taking tesla private at $420, funding secured. >> those two things taken together sent the market and made investors go crazy. >>reporter: the tweets after and reported that a saudi investment report had taken a stake in the electric car company. the effect on the stock was dramatic. and shut up $36 a share in a matter of hours but prompted question about whether lawn mosque broke rules. >> elon musk is an unconventional communicator. very similar to the way president trump communicates with his constituencies. it goes outside of the norm. in thi
about it. it did resume before the close after an 11 percent gain. reporter len ramirez his life at the tesla factory with the tweet that shook the stock market. >>reporter: issue or dead. it shook up a lot of people. a lot of veteran wall street times shaking their heads wondering how this would be. this is no way to run a big car company like tesla to smaller investors and tesla fans in the south bay who are excited this may be the best path forward. >>reporter: with one tweet,...
international flights this fall. in san jose, len ramirez, kpix5. >>> get this. plastic surgeons are concerned by the number of patients wanting to look like doctored selfies. the trend is called snapchat dysmorphia. boston researchers say the smartphone app can have effect on self-esteem and even cause mental illness. last year 55% of surgeons saw patients who wanted to look better in their selfies. >>> facebook wants a look at your financials. coming up the report claiming the tech giant wants access to credit card transaction data and account balances. >> it looks like a scene from a movie, the incredible explosion on a highway in italy. i'm april kennedy and i'm an arborist with pg&e in the sierras. since the onset of the drought, more than 129 million trees have died in california. pg&e prunes and removes over a million trees every year to ensure that hazardous trees can't impact power lines. and since the onset of the drought we've doubled our efforts. i grew up in the forests out in this area and honestly it's heartbreaking to see all these trees dying. what guides me is ensur
international flights this fall. in san jose, len ramirez, kpix5. >>> get this. plastic surgeons are concerned by the number of patients wanting to look like doctored selfies. the trend is called snapchat dysmorphia. boston researchers say the smartphone app can have effect on self-esteem and even cause mental illness. last year 55% of surgeons saw patients who wanted to look better in their selfies. >>> facebook wants a look at your financials. coming up the report claiming...
KPIX 5 News at 5PM : KPIX : August 6, 2018 5:00pm-5:31pm PDT
change lives. international passengers here in the bay area . kpix 5's len ramirez went to mineta san jose airport to find out how it works. [nats] >>> new facial recognition technology greeting international passengers here in the bay area. kpix5's len ramirez went to mineta san jose international to find out how this work. >> reporter: the latest security upgrade at mineta san jose international is over in just a flash. >> it will be as simple as walking up, having your picture taken, two to three seconds you'll board the aircraft. >> reporter: mineta san jose is the first airport on the west coast to commit to fully adopting the u.s. customs and border protections new biometric security system that uses cameras and facial recognition technology to identify travelers as they enter or leave the united states. they say it provides better security and moves security lines quickly. >> we're solving an incredibly complex security mandate, a legislative requirement, to take biometrics from departing visitors without creating gridlock and shutting down air travel. >> reporter: san jose
change lives. international passengers here in the bay area . kpix 5's len ramirez went to mineta san jose airport to find out how it works. [nats] >>> new facial recognition technology greeting international passengers here in the bay area. kpix5's len ramirez went to mineta san jose international to find out how this work. >> reporter: the latest security upgrade at mineta san jose international is over in just a flash. >> it will be as simple as walking up, having your...
len ramirez tried to track them down. office workers of the south bay win big. they one half $1 billion. >> we try to track them down. >> the man that purchased the mega millions ticket has not stepped into the public spotlight. they described how he bought the ticket. one of the people said did you hear about the jackpot, we should play. they each pitched into dollars. all of them, the lottery we want to keep our jobs. we love that company. we had a good time and we want to stay together. it was a $543 million. the cash option is 320 million -- $320 million. nearby at this store they recognized the winner. >> that is great news. >> he is god an office pool had one. >> it he is glad an office pool had one. >> it will take care of 11 families. i am very happy. >> all of the coworkers declined to be interviewed by the media. they work for a financial institution. they want to keep on working. reporting from san jose. >> they will hear from every second cousin, you name it. >> yes. >> join us at 10:00. we will be back here also at 11 pm. >>> you could save energy by living off the
len ramirez tried to track them down. office workers of the south bay win big. they one half $1 billion. >> we try to track them down. >> the man that purchased the mega millions ticket has not stepped into the public spotlight. they described how he bought the ticket. one of the people said did you hear about the jackpot, we should play. they each pitched into dollars. all of them, the lottery we want to keep our jobs. we love that company. we had a good time and we want to stay...
ramirez is in san jose with more on the co- workers who took a chance and it paid off. len? >> reporter: that's right. those co-workers are now co- millionaires. one of the men who bought the ticket, in fact, has been identified as roland reyes. now we don't know for sure. we have not confirmed that it's the same person who lives in this same evergreen valley neighborhood. it's very close to the ernie's liquors where that million dollar ticket was purchased. so now we're trying to figure that one out, but it does go to tell you when you work with friends, great things can happen. the man who purchased the winning mega millions ticket at this san jose liquor store has not stepped into the public spotlight, but lottery officials identified him as rowland reyes and described how he bought the ticket as part of his office pool. at work one of the group said hey, did you hear about the jackpot? we should play. so 11 co-workers including a supervisor each pitched in two bucks and bought quick picks. the winners range in age from 21 to 60 and all of them told the lottery we want to keep our jo
ramirez is in san jose with more on the co- workers who took a chance and it paid off. len? >> reporter: that's right. those co-workers are now co- millionaires. one of the men who bought the ticket, in fact, has been identified as roland reyes. now we don't know for sure. we have not confirmed that it's the same person who lives in this same evergreen valley neighborhood. it's very close to the ernie's liquors where that million dollar ticket was purchased. so now we're trying to figure...
in cupertino, len ramirez, kpix 5. >>> those living in an east bay community had a cry for help after their rents were raised nearly 60%. people living in the bayshore commons mobile home park want the city of san leandro to step in. kpix 5's devin fehely explains why the chances for relief are pretty slim . >> reporter: this was not how or where john bush expected to spend his golden years pick series -- stressful. a series of rent increases in the modest mobile home community where he lives. >> i grew up in san leandro, i am fighting this. >> reporter: he and his supporters hope the fight will bring attention to all of those that have been burned by the red-hot rental markets. >> this is a crime, this will change our state forever. people are coming in here as investors and basically, it is like the new gold rush, they are just pushing people out. >> reporter: a spokesperson for the owner of the company, harmony communities, says much of the rent increases came under the previous owner. there would've been a settlement that would have forgiven $6000 that he still owes. >> if i live
in cupertino, len ramirez, kpix 5. >>> those living in an east bay community had a cry for help after their rents were raised nearly 60%. people living in the bayshore commons mobile home park want the city of san leandro to step in. kpix 5's devin fehely explains why the chances for relief are pretty slim . >> reporter: this was not how or where john bush expected to spend his golden years pick series -- stressful. a series of rent increases in the modest mobile home community...
KPIX 5 News – Early Edition : KPIX : August 1, 2018 4:30am-5:00am PDT
feds argue that heavier vehicles are safer than lighter winds. kpix 5's len ramirez has reaction . >> reporter: under president donald trump's proposal, the oak , era rules requiring cars to continue get better gas mileage would be dropped for safety reason, the -- reasons, the trump administration says that putting americans in smaller and lighter cars encourages them to drive more and puts them at risk for greater collisions than if they were driving bigger cars like suvs. >> to smaller cars get driven more? >> certainly in the bay area, i would say yes, our needs are community. >> reporter: carol mahoney traded it in an suv -- treated an suv for a smaller car. >> smaller cars at the lifeline of the valley. >> reporter: the proposal will be leaked next week but it has been getting hammered by environmental groups as it leaked out. >> i am not sure what trump is trying to do, that california is trying to reduce air pollution. >> reporter: tom flanagan with the bay area air district says the proposal would undo years of progress in reducing air pollution, although the bay cali f,
feds argue that heavier vehicles are safer than lighter winds. kpix 5's len ramirez has reaction . >> reporter: under president donald trump's proposal, the oak , era rules requiring cars to continue get better gas mileage would be dropped for safety reason, the -- reasons, the trump administration says that putting americans in smaller and lighter cars encourages them to drive more and puts them at risk for greater collisions than if they were driving bigger cars like suvs. >> to...
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The Maanvi Gagroo Interview: Four More Shots Please Season 2 Is Here
As the next season of Four More Shots Please gets ready, here’s what one of its more intriguing characters has…
As the next season of Four More Shots Please gets ready, here’s what one of its more intriguing characters has to say about her journey with the small screen. She is in love with the digital medium. Online streaming platforms have given us content to love and explore, and often to push our boundaries with what we consume. We now have new web stars and one such star is Maanvi Gagroo. We have seen her on Four More Shots Please, which comes closest to Sex And the City with an Indian context.
Maanvi Gagroo broke on the desi web-series scene with Pitchers, gaining adulation as one of the three eccentric siblings in Tripling. Playing one of the four main characters in the hugely popular Four More Shots Please! Gagroo further cemented her work and positioned herself as a seasoned and versatile actor. We also saw her as the bubbly and rather girl-next-door female lead in Ujda Chaman. She also broke many stereotypes with her dialogues in that film.
Maanvi Gagrro speaks with SheThePeople.TV on what it’s like to be one of the first wave breakout web stars in India, why we need to normalise diversity and the stereotypes that the entertainment industry needs to get rid of while writing women characters.
With Four More Shots Please! and Ujda Chaman you’ve played two characters dealing with body images issues? Was that a conscious decision?
No, it wasn’t. In fact when Four More Shots Please! was offered to me I was very sceptical about doing this part. For the majority of my career, I have been offered parts that were of a chubby girl but were not substantial enough. They were either there for just the comic relief or they were defined by their physicality, and that’s all there was to them. I fought really hard to not give in to those parts. So when Four More Shots Please! was offered to me I was really scared that I might fall back into that trap. The reason I agreed to do it was because her physicality isn’t all that is there to her. While her body image is a part of her characterisation, there is so much more to her.
Even after signing the project I was still a little hesitant. At that time the show’s director Anu Menon told me, “Just allow yourself to be this character and you’ll see that it might liberate you.” And you won’t believe, but that actually did happen. For instance, before playing Siddhi, I used to be very conscious of my legs being a little heavy, so I wouldn’t wear shorts or short skirts. But in the show, I am only wearing shorts because that was the part of Siddhi’s look. While filming I had to put that confidence on for my character, but it became a part of me. So now I have qualms about wearing shorter clothes.
You are one of the actors who garnered fame due to online streaming platforms. What has the journey been like?
It has been very good. I feel extremely proud and possessive of this medium. I take it very personally when someone says anything against digital content. My first ever digital show was The Pitchers, and I remember when it was being developed, I knew that something really interesting was happening, because these guys (the makers) were my friends. I felt that I need to be a part of it one day or another, in fact, I even told them that in case if you don’t cast me as an actor, please take me as an AD, because I want to be on that set. Then of course the show came out and people loved it, and then Trippling happened, and that blew up. It suddenly felt that a new world has opened up for us as actors and everyone else. Even though I just went with the flow, there were a lot of people who were still sceptical about it initially. And then suddenly people took notice of this medium and this format and they realised that web-series are working. There was this whole market to be tapped into.
I love the fact that everybody is getting opportunities to work today. In fact we keep joking among ourselves that if you are an actor and without a job, then you have to be a really shitty one because right now everybody is working. There’s just so much work happening, and not just the actors; the writers, directors, camera people and technicians, everybody is working, and that is really good.
Read more of this interview with Yamini Pustake Bhalerao by clicking this.
With Four More Shots Please now ready for its season 2, it will be interesting to watch how the relationship between the four girlfriends plays out. Set in Istanbul, the series has also expanded its geographies and brought in new complexities in the relationships.
four more shots please
Maanvi Gagroo
maanvi gagroo interview
Sayani Gupta
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ASSA ABLOY EMEA
Dahua Technology Ltd
NVR (IPC Support list) VMS Partners Storage Partners Brochures
Dahua to showcase developments in AI-powered intelligent solutions at SECURITY ESSEN 2018
Dahua launches deep-learning powered Network Video Recorder with Artificial Intelligence features
Dahua Technology unveils DeepSense face detection/face recognition network cameras
Dahua announces 88 models of PTZ series network cameras are now compatible with QNAP NAS
Dahua intelligent facial recognition technology offers businesses a smart & secure access solution
As one of Europe’s leading trade fair for security, SECURITY ESSEN 2018 provides a good platform for Dahua Technology to showcase its latest developments in creating a more efficient, intelligent and convenient surveillance system.
Innovative surveillance technology
Featured with the theme of “AI Creates Value”, Dahua Technology, a global solution provider in the video surveillance industry, will present its innovated technologies to industry professionals, including its advanced AI technology, the world-renowned HDCVI 4.0, video cloud, smart H.265+ encoding and ePOE & EoC technology.
Answering to this year’s theme, AI-powered intelligent solutions will be on display at SECURITY ESSEN, including Smart Retail 2.0, Smart Logics, Safe City, Smart Residential, etc., which have composed the full picture of Dahua Technology’s smart life initiatives.
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Dahua Technology Ltd news
Dahua Technology UK & Ireland announces the launch of a new Consultants’ Support Programme to support CCTV and security consultants
A new initiative designed to deliver unprecedented levels of support for CCTV and security consultants has been unveiled by Dahua Technology UK & Ireland. The Key Consultants Programme for the UK and Irish markets will see Dahua harness its technical and product expertise to keep consultants up-to-date with developments in security technology, including regular and informative product and technology updates, training and CPD opportunities, and help with specifying the best equipment for the...
Dahua Technology obtains ISO/IEC 27701 Certificate from British Standards Institution
Dahua Technology, a video-centric smart IoT solution and service provider, is honoured to announce that it has obtained ISO/IEC 27701 Certificate from British Standards Institution (BSI). Formed in 1901, BSI was the first National Standards Body. Representing UK interests at the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and the European Standards Organizations (CEN, CENELEC and ETSI), BSI aims help improve the quality and safety of...
Dahua Technology supports the public through charity sales and Dahua Charity Fund
This year has witnessed an array of unprecedented crises that disrupted people's lives around the world. Nevertheless, despite challenges and difficulties, people and organisations around the world are pulling together to help those in need. It could be a donation of clothing and food, or just a simple word of encouragement and support. Regardless of nationality, race, ethnicity and other differences the world has, every person stands together. As a front runner of video-centric smart IoT solut...
Dahua Technology Ltd case studies
An important heritage site which played a key role in protecting the UK during World War II is itself being made safe and secure with the installation of a comprehensive and fully integrated security system, including more than 75 Dahua HD CCTV cameras. Battle of Britain Bunker The Battle of Britain Bunker is an underground operations room in Uxbridge, formerly used by No. 11 Group Fighter Command during the Second World War, most notably in the Battle of Britain and on D-Day. The operations...
Dahua Technology deploys networked video surveillance system at Petwood Hotel, formerly The Dambusters home
A networked surveillance system has been installed at Petwood Hotel in Lincolnshire, the former home of members of 617 Squadron, more famously known as The Dambusters, during World War 2. The hotel, situated in the village of Woodhall Spa, was originally built in 1905, as a country house for a wealthy Baroness, and after serving as a military convalescence hospital during World War 1, was converted into a hotel in 1933. Located among magnificent lawns and landscaped gardens, the Grade II-listed...
Dahua provides its Mobile Solution to enhance patrolling services for the Buenos Aires police
As one of the most important provinces of Argentina, Buenos Aires Province has been seeking to improve work efficiency and emergency response speed of its police force. However, the local police was always lacking of evidence when performing legal actions towards violence, traffic accidents, and other social incidents. This created temporary loopholes in law enforcement that criminals and erring people took advantage of in order to escape legal sanctions. For this reason, the Ministry of Securi...
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The Most Popular Cakes in Southern History
By Maggie Burch
Credit: Alison Miksch
When you think back to the biggest moments in your life—graduations, weddings, birthdays, and even funerals—it's very likely the occasion was marked by a gathering that included a cake. Well, if you're Southern they definitely were. You might remember the types of cakes you loved over the years, but the one you likely didn't partake in was the cake people had in celebration of your birth. The popularity of cake trends interestingly ebbs and flows along with American society and culture. Whether it's the influence of To Kill a Mockingbird or an industrious rum company, it's clear America loves to jump on a bandwagon and have a slice of whatever everyone else is having. Scroll through to see which cake was most of-the-moment the year you were born.
1948: Orange Chiffon Cake
Credit: Jennifer Davick
When aptly named Harry Baker introduced his Chiffon Cake recipe, it was dubbed the first “new” type of cake in over 100 years, adding to the already familiar sponge and butter cakes. Baker held on to his secret ingredient (swapping butter for salad oil) until he sold it to General Mills in the late 1940s. In 1948, Betty Crocker’s Orange Chiffon Cake recipe officially debuted in Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies’ Home Journal, and McCall’s.
1957: German Chocolate Cake
Contrary to what you may have thought, German Chocolate Cake has nothing to do with the country of Germany. In 1957, the Dallas Morning Star published the first known recipe for German’s Chocolate Cake (named after Sam German, who created a baking chocolate for Baker’s Chocolate Company in the 1850s). The chocolate-coconut confection blew up, as the recipe and photos of the cake spread across the country. Over time, the apostrope-S was dropped off of the name, leading to the famous title as it’s known today.
1960: Lane Cake
Credit: Hector Sanchez
The Lane Cake is one of many cakes with deep Southern roots. More than 100 years ago, Emma Rylander Lane of Clayton, Alabama won the annual baking competition at the Columbus, Georgia county fair with her Prize Cake. Her recipe included a filling of rich custard heavily spiked with bourbon; today it’s often filled with coconut, pecans, and raisins. From its inception, the Lane Cake became an honored Southern baking tradition; however, the rest of the country was introduced to Lane Cake when it was mentioned in 1960’s To Kill a Mockingbird.
1962: Pink Champagne Cake
Credit: Joe Barrentine/Tacoma News Tribune/MCT/Getty Images
This airy, sweet cake traces its origins to the west coast, where Hollywood starlets and other hobnobbers spent their evenings drinking, you guessed it, pink champagne. A recipe for Pink Champagne Cake in the Los Angeles Times (including ¾ cup of champagne) remains one of the newspaper’s most requested recipes to this day. There are a few California institutions known for the pretty rose-colored dessert, and it’s understandably a favorite at showers, bachelorette parties, and weddings.
1966: Tunnel of Fudge Cake
Can you imagine a world without Bundt cakes? Until 1966, that was the reality for most. That year, the runner-up in Pillsbury’s annual bake-off was the delightfully named Tunnel of Fudge Cake. The recipe used the heretofore-unpopular Bundt pan to create a delicious cake that had a ring of gooey fudge at the center. Pillsbury received thousands of requests for the recipe—and the pan—almost immediately.
1972: Sock It to Me Cake
Credit: Becky Luigart-Stayner
As a nod to the catchy refrain in Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” (sock-it-to-me, sock-it-to-me, sock-it-to-me), the sketch comedy show Rowan & Martin’s “Laugh-In” made saying the phrase “Sock It to Me” common vernacular by 1972. And while it’s not quite clear how, this sour cream coffee cake garnered the moniker. The original recipe was based on a Duncan Hines cake mix—and was even printed on the box for years after becoming so popular.
1975: Carrot Cake
Carrot Cakes, in one form or another, have been around for centuries due to the ease of using carrots (and other naturally sweet vegetables) in lieu of sugar. Sometime after World War II—whether it was a result of sugar rationing or the rise of a more health-conscious public—Carrot Cakes made a resurgence and was a favorite both in restaurants and at home. Our best-ever recipe includes coconut, pineapple, and walnuts.
1977: Rum Cake
As was the case with infusing cakes with carrots, the concept of adding rum to cakes was nothing new in the 1970s, but the idea really caught on when Bacardi featured a recipe for Rum Cake in its Bacardi Party Book, which was filled with drink, snack, and dessert recipes that all featured rum as a key ingredient (also in this book: a now classic cocktail, rum and coke). Southern Living’s Baba au Rhum Cake was featured in our January 1975 issue.
1978: Hummingbird Cake
Credit: Iain Bagwell
We’ll gladly take the credit for making this one of the most popular cakes of the late 70s (and frankly, for all the years since then). The tropical fruit and nut flavored cake was featured in a 1978 Southern Living, and has continued to be one of the most-requested recipes in our history. The original banana-pineapple-cream cheese combination has since been tweaked and altered in various ways, from a Bundt cake version to one that incorporates white chocolate. They’re all delicious and are sure to be crowd pleasers.
1986: Mississippi Mud Cake
Credit: Southern Living
After taking a slight turn for the healthier and simpler in the 70s, the nation got on the path to excess in the 80s. You remember the big hair, bright clothes, and chunky jewelry—but do you remember the over-the-top desserts? Decadence was in, as noted by the surge in dessert recipes with the name “mud” in them. How we tout our Mississippi Mud Cake recipe? Imagine the richest, darkest, most decadent chocolate dessert you’ve ever eaten. Now add some marshmallows, and you’ve got this ultra-rich dessert.
1989: Red Velvet Cake
Recipes for Red Velvet Cake first shot onto the national conscience between the 1940s and 60s, with the heavier marketing of food coloring, creating a more interesting version of a classic Velvet Cake. But the crimson cake truly became a national treasure when it made a can’t-be-missed appearance in 1989’s Steel Magnolias in the form of an armadillo-shaped groom’s cake that Julia Roberts’ and Shirley MacLaine’s characters were simply appalled by, saying it looked like people were cutting into a real animal.
1991: Molten Chocolate Cake
Credit: Jennifer R. Davick
The ubiquitous chocolate cake with a runny, underdone center that’s found a permanent place on the menus of chain restaurants like Chili’s and Applebee’s actually originated among the most elite of restaurateurs. The famed Jean-Georges Vongerichten accidentally created the dessert in 1987 when he took a chocolate sponge cake out of the oven too early at his Michelin-starred JoJo restaurant in New York. Needless to say, he liked the “mistake,” and added it to the menu. By the early 90s, it had made its way into other several high-end restaurants across the country. In 1997, a recipe for Individual Molten Chocolate Cakes appeared in Joy of Cooking for the first time. (Here’s ours for a Mocha Java version.)
1994: Barbie Birthday Cake
Credit: Tnzr/Getty Images
If your mid-90s birthday party didn’t feature at Barbie Birthday Cake, were you even a 90s kid? It’s unclear who first decided to put a doll in a cake, but they were heavily featured on the birthday-party circuit. These cakes were obviously more recognized by their shape than the flavor (which, as far as we can tell, could be anything), featuring a Barbie Doll sticking out of a rounded cake (her “skirt”) that was completely iced over. The dessert became so popular that you could find them in almost any grocery store, but Martha Stewart even created a recipe for it so you could mimic the trend at home.
1997: Coca-Cola Cake
By the 1990s, Coca-Cola Cake was standard fare among Southerners—we’d been using the soda as a sugar alternative in a variety of dishes since it became a staple in our homes. In fact, our famous Cola Cake recipe was included in Southern Living’s first cookbook: 1970’s Our Best Recipes. But it wasn’t until Cracker Barrel added its Double Chocolate Fudge Coca-Cola Cake to its menu in 1997 that the recipe gained true national attention.
2000: Cupcakes
So, we might not be exactly living in a post-cake world, but cupcakes have become serious stakeholders in the world of cake-y desserts. Once just the easy answer to children’s birthday parties and classroom treats, cupcakes have become the focus of many a serious baker, and the star of a few TV shows for the ability to experiment with creative flavors and intricate icing jobs on a smaller scale. We might be able to trace their surge in trendiness to a 2000 episode of Sex and the City when Carrie and Miranda sit outside the famous Magnolia Bakery eating cupcakes. You might not have been able to afford Bradshaw’s wardrobe, but you could afford her favorite treat. And people did.
1 of 15 1948: Orange Chiffon Cake
2 of 15 1957: German Chocolate Cake
3 of 15 1960: Lane Cake
4 of 15 1962: Pink Champagne Cake
5 of 15 1966: Tunnel of Fudge Cake
6 of 15 1972: Sock It to Me Cake
7 of 15 1975: Carrot Cake
8 of 15 1977: Rum Cake
9 of 15 1978: Hummingbird Cake
10 of 15 1986: Mississippi Mud Cake
11 of 15 1989: Red Velvet Cake
12 of 15 1991: Molten Chocolate Cake
13 of 15 1994: Barbie Birthday Cake
14 of 15 1997: Coca-Cola Cake
15 of 15 2000: Cupcakes
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To Battle We Go: Glad to be here
By: Dr. Steve Kellner
One of the highlights of the year in my adopted hometown of Annapolis, Maryland, is Commissioning Week, when the Midshipmen 1st Class of the United States Naval Academy are commissioned as officers in the U.S. Navy. The events of the week include the Color Parade, musical performances, award ceremonies and, of course, the graduation and commissioning ceremony, held in Navy–Marine Corps Stadium. But the highlight of the week for us “townees” is a performance by the Blue Angels, the Navy’s flight demonstration team.
This world-famous squadron is renowned for its incredibly precise flying, with the F-18 Hornet fighter planes whizzing by at 700 miles per hour, as low as 50 feet from the ground, and sometimes only 18 inches apart. Blue Angels pilots are the “top guns” of naval aviation, among the finest pilots in the world.
The secret to the Blue Angels’ amazing level of performance is the rigorous debriefing process the team undergoes after every practice and performance. Each team member reports in minute detail his or her mistakes that day, and how they are going to correct them. Any mistake not known about or admitted to by a team member is then pointed out by the other team members.
No one – not even the commanding officer – is exempt from the process, and the team figuratively “takes off the rank insignia” so everyone can be totally honest with each other. This kind of constructive self-criticism is painful but necessary to improve the team’s performance. Each team member’s presentation ends with the phrase “Glad to be here,” to signify that they are grateful to be a member of the team and that they embrace the debriefing process.
For the Salvation Army to accomplish its mission, we Salvationists must also commit to constructive criticism – of ourselves, our structure, our methods, and our programs – to make sure we and they are as effective as possible. This is a difficult task for anyone, but it’s particularly hard for Salvationists because of the Army’s “quasi-military” structure, which inherently discourages input coming up from the bottom.
Leaders at all levels of the Army struggle to be vulnerable with those they lead, either out of pride, embarrassment or the belief that admitting mistakes or shortcomings makes them a weak leader. But Christian leaders are Christians first, and thus aren’t exempt from hearing the truth, as Paul makes clear in Ephesians 4:15: Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.” Avoiding constructive criticism from below makes leadership growth and maturity impossible.
Constructive criticism (not idle gossip, slander or bellyaching) actually builds up those with whom we minister. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen (Ephesians 4:29). And, like the Blue Angels, we should always be “glad to be here,” grateful that we have the opportunity to minister to others through The Salvation Army and willing to admit and correct our mistakes and shortcomings so that we can better accomplish our mission.
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News > Marijuana
Texting gives pot case a bizarre twist
Tue., March 30, 2010
By Meghann M. Cuniff meghannc@spokesman.com
The text messages to the Spokane County Sheriff’s deputy came after a raid at a suspected marijuana grow house. “wee can either b friends or enemies,” the cryptic message began, urging police to drop their probe and alluding to dire consequences that could befall the detective’s family members if it continues: “don’t do this 2 ur kid…I’ve got a surprise for you…tic tock tic tock you aint even going to know when it’s coming.” Those and hundreds of other sexually explicit, profanity-laced messages filled Detective Jeff Shover’s cell phone in the weeks after he gave his number to a suspect who was vacationing in Hawaii when the grow operation was raided, and claimed she was in danger. That suspect, 41-year-old Tina Blanchette, has been charged with intimidating a public servant and making harassing phone calls in a case that began as an otherwise routine marijuana probe but has now taken an unusual twist. Police say the hundreds of text messages, phone calls and emailed images can be traced to her phone. But, Blanchette said in an interview, “You’re only seeing part of the conversation… It’s really humiliating because I’ve been depicted as something completely different.” She pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to intimating a public servant, harassing phone calls and three drug charges connected to an investigation that ended up focusing on much more than just marijuana. Blanchette is accused of threatening Shover and his family by sending more than 300 profanity-laced voice mails and text messages, as well as a few sexually explicit photos, as she vacationed with her boyfriend in Hawaii. Investigators think she may have accessed confidential files at the state Department Social and Health Services, where she worked as a fiscal analyst until earlier this year, to obtain information on Shover. DSHS employees reported receiving similar messages from Blanchette on “such a regular basis that they were basically not able to do their work for fear of picking up the phone,” Deputy Prosecutor Teresa Border said Tuesday. DSHS spokesman John Wiley said he couldn’t comment on a personnel investigation but that “we would look into any allegations of inappropriate or unauthorized access to our computer records.” According to court documents, Blanchette sent her first message to Shover on Feb. 18 - one day after Shover seized three pounds of marijuana and 75 plants from a home at 11311 N. Judkins Road belonging to Blanchette and her now estranged husband, Joseph Blanchette. Tina Blanchette has a medical marijuana card, but Joseph Blanchette reportedly told Shover he knew they were growing more than the allowed amount. “He did it to support Tina’s love for money,” according to court documents. The case began when Shover learned from a confidential informant of possible marijuana dealing by the Blanchettes. The informant reportedly bought marijuana from the Blanchettes’ 21-year-old daughter on two occasions before a judge authorized the Feb. 17 search. Tina Blanchette was in Hawaii with her boyfriend when the home was raided, according to court documents. She got Shover’s cell phone number after she told him she’d been threatened because of the drug bust, but Shover said he never received further information about the alleged threats. Rather, he received lewd photos and profanity laced text messages and voice mails, according to court documents. “…come to Hawaii you not a cop in Hawaii,” one read. Blanchette was arrested on March 16. She said she’d called Shover when she was at the courthouse to tell him she’d returned from Hawaii. “I was not running from anything,” she said. “There’s a lot more to it.”
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Christmas comes early for Beauly community
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Beauly as the village gets a festive make over as the community Christmas tree is fitted.
Organised by the Beauly Community Council and donated by housebuilders, Springfield Properties, the impressive 15ft Christmas tree has been installed in the garden of the former bank building just off the high street.
Draped in sparkling fairy lights the tree will help brighten the darker winter nights throughout the festive season and bring a little Christmas joy to the community.
Beauly Community Council Chairman, Roy Harrison, said:
“The Christmas decorations are an important factor in bringing the village together every Christmas – even more so after a very challenging year.
“On behalf of the residents of Beauly, the Community Council would like to express thanks to Springfield for their kind donation towards the Christmas decorations which was used to purchase the tree.”
Springfield North Community Liaison, Megan McConnell, added:
“Communities are more important than ever with everything that has been going on this year, and we all need something to make us smile. A community Christmas tree does exactly that. We’re delighted to have contributed to the festive decorations for the holidays and we wish everyone who lives in Beauly a safe and Merry Christmas.”
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Seaport wears the signs of great transformation. The Boston neighborhood was once shaped by shipping industry growth in the 1800s, then marked by a century of abandoned parking lots and empty warehouses in the 1900s, but its recent high-profile development projects have cemented its reputation as Boston’s Silicon Valley equivalent.
Over the last decade, Seaport has become increasingly attractive for commercial tenants — most notably a climbing number of tech startups — seeking top talent in a bustling, culturally diverse community. With ongoing commercial construction, nearby universities, and a slew of tech companies, Seaport is a neighborhood to watch in Boston.
Seaport Office Space | Lease & Data Trends
Seaport’s commercial office space has skyrocketed in the last decade. With 887,000 square feet of commercial office space currently under construction, there’s growing opportunity for companies to join Boston’s “Innovation District.”
The neighborhood’s longstanding industrial character is particularly attractive to startups in market sectors like hardware and manufacturing. In Seaport, companies can rent repurposed, brick office space for an average of $53 a square foot. Popular places to lease commercial office space in Seaport include the Drydock area, a tech-rich spot known for its gritty feeling and creative energy, and Seaport Boulevard.
A couple of decades prior, it may have been difficult to lease Class A office space in the Seaport district. But thanks to heavy investment and revitalization efforts, tenants are renting Class A office space in Seaport for an average of $64 per square foot. At the current rate, Seaport could catch up to East Bay in terms of cost and popularity.
Big-name companies are recognizing Seaport’s vitality. Amazon is currently designing a new office in Seaport’s Harbor Park Square. The 525,000 square foot space has been approved by the Boston Civic Design Commission, and the e-commerce giant will provide 2,000 jobs in the new 17-story office.
When it comes to finding fertile, tech areas, Amazon is trend-setter. And other life sciences and e-commerce companies are starting to recognize Seaport’s value as a talent hotbed. The neighborhood’s unique location, critically situated at a Silver Line connection from Boston’s Red Line, let’s the area’s best talent travel easily to and from work. And as more companies fill commercial office space in the neighborhood, Seaport is establishing its position as one of Boston’s fastest-growing submarkets.
What Our Brokers Say about Seaport District Office Space
With an onslaught of new construction, development is booming in Boston’s Seaport neighborhood. Thanks to a huge push from former mayor Thomas Menino, city resources have been concentrated on revitalizing the old Seaport district. Some of this recent investment includes developing affordable, yet trendy, micro-apartments geared towards millennials in their late twenties and early thirties to attract nearby university talent to the area — and it’s working.
Due to an influx of tech and life sciences companies, Seaport boasts the second highest volume venture capital funding and the city’s highest volume of lab space.
The presence of cost-effective houses is drawing a steady hiring pool of fresh talent to Boston’s Seaport neighborhood, and companies are beginning to follow suit. Early this year, Cengage leased a 117,000 square foot space at the under-construction Pier 4 in the Seaport. As a leader in educational content, the company’s relocation will likely spur other companies to take advantage of the new construction happening in Boston’s Seaport District.
Other companies, like pharmaceuticals giant Alexion and software company PTC have also chosen Seaport as their home. Both businesses will occupy 150,000 square foot plus spaces on Seaport Boulevard.
Some notable companies with headquarters in Seaport include venture capital firm Battery Ventures, tech consulting group Cervello, the social networking app Jess, Meet Ken, and startup accelerator MassChallenge.
Getting Around Seaport District
One of the biggest draws to Seaport is its access to public transportation. Over 280,000 commuters ride Boston’s Red Line to get to and from work each day, making proximity to Red Line stations a major draw for commercial offices. Seaport is located at a nexus where the Red Line meets the Silver Line, making it an easy travel point from all across Boston.
Commuters can reach Seaport via bus lines 4, 7, 9, 11, 47, 448, 449, and 459. The Seaport area is also accessible by the Silver Line train, with a central stop at South Station.
Seaport employees also travel by ferry, as Boston operates commuter ferries to the South Waterfront area year-round. With stops at Rowes Wharf and Long Wharf, it’s easy for Seaport visitors to travel by boat.
And if you’re traveling from out of town, I-90 and I-93 provide direct and quick access to Logan International Airport.
Seaport Neighborhood & History
Despite today’s buzz around the desirable Seaport area, this Boston neighborhood has humble beginnings. Seaport’s origins are industrial: in the 1800s, Boston Wharf Co. was the major developer in the area, and most Seaport employees were dock workers. Manufacturing, too, provided many workers with jobs at Boston Button Co. and Boston Asphalt.
But as industries shifted and the country moved into the Information Age, the docks in Boston’s Seaport area fell quiet. But in recent years, Boston’s “Big Dig” and former Mayor Menino’s construction initiatives have given the Seaport District new life. The docks are once again filled with workers, although today’s work is done with technology in hip, converted warehouse spaces.
New restaurants and mixed-use developments continue to spring up in the Seaport District. As tech start-ups and venture capital firms continue to congregate in Seaport, the value of commercial real estate in the area is on the rise.
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National Statistics in Slovenia – Annual Report 2019
A review of the most important achievements of the Slovenian national statistics in 2019
The Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia and the authorised producers of official statistics prepared the Annual Report 2019.
Erika Žnidaršič
SHARE RELEASE:
The Annual Report 2019 presents work done by the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (SURS) and the authorised producers of official statistics according to the Annual Programme of Statistical Surveys 2019 (OJ RS, No. 75/18 and 30/19). The document follows the basic objectives of national statistics in four priority areas: statistical data and services, data sources, capacities, and cooperation.
We invite you to view the Annual Report 2019.
Visit our SiStat database.
Methodological explanations
In November 2020, compared to October 2020, the number of persons in employment down by 0.1%
Average gross earnings for November 2020 11.4% higher than earnings for the previous month
The value of construction put in place 12.2% higher than in October 2020 and 18.4% higher than in November 2019
Through Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport 95% fewer passengers travelled than in November 2019
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St Michael's Catholic Church Hurstville
Parish Rosters
Parish 2020
‘In Honour of the Angels’ Newsletter
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Home > Our Parish > Parish 2020
Archbishop Fisher is planning for the future of Sydney parishes with this hope. He hopes “for a Church in which the Gospel is preached with joy, the wisdom of tradition mined with fidelity, the sacraments celebrated with dignity and welcome, and the seminaries, convents and youth groups teeming with new life; a Church in which parishes are true centres of the new evangelisation, the laity theologically literate and spiritually well formed, outreach to the needy effective and growing, and God glorified above all”.
He wishes to consult with the Catholics of Sydney to help with this planning – hence the Parish 2020 initiative. Over the last 18 months he has been consulting with the clergy. Now it is the laity’s turn to be consulted.
To help the laity fulfil their part in Parish 2020, Archbishop Fisher has formed a 15 member working group which includes Bishop Brady and Bishop Randazzo and which is chaired by the Vicar General Fr Gleeson. This group is responsible for the provision of resources for the parishes and the dissemination of information between the parishes and the archdiocese. It will also receive the parish feedback submissions and present them to the Archbishop.
To facilitate the parish consultation at St Michael’s, Fr Janusz has decided to form a leadership committee composed of representatives of different groups and ministries in the parish. These representatives will then go back to the groups they represent, consult with them and bring back information to the leadership committee.
This committee met in December 2016 to discuss the “Leaders Survey”.
Based on this discussion, I filled in and submitted this survey on the 21 December 2016.
Again, the committee met on Saturday, 11 February 2017.
The three Facilitators’ Seminars hosted by the Archdiocese on 15,18,21 February 2017 were well attended. The auxiliary bishops were present as well as the Vicar General Fr Gleeson. They were keen to impress on us the importance of getting feedback from as many parishioners as possible – through the Parish and Community Survey and later on as well.
The time and effort our parishioners have expended in completing the Catholic Archidocese of Sydney Parish and Community Survey is truly appreciated. Archbishop Fisher would like us to keep the Parish 2020 initiative in our prayers, asking for the guidance of the Holy Spirit as we discern what is best for the Church in Sydney and for all the faithful, now and in the future.
Valerie Gonzaga
Parish 2020 Coordinator
Parish and Communities Terms of Reference
Parish 2020 Q&A
Parish 2020 Prayer
Archbishop Fisher Address at Clergy Conference
St Michael’s Hurstville Parish Profile
Contact Parish
10 Croydon Road
Deanery: Deanery 8
Email: office@stmichaelhurst.org.au
Latest Archdiocese News
Simcha Fisher: The fairy tale of America
Euthanasia focus would be ‘tone deaf’
© 2019 Copyright: St. Michael's Parish, Hurstville
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Our Community Supporters
Identification (ID)
Mobile Health Bus – Moss Park
Overdose Prevention Site (OPS)
Safer Supply
Bad Date Reporting
Clothing Banks
Drop Ins
Harm Reduction Resources
See our latest information regarding Covid-19, and our response to the pandemic.
Faceless IDs Left Around Toronto
HIGHLIGHT GROWING NEED FOR DOCUMENT STORAGE
FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE HOMELESS...
When a person who is homeless or under-housed loses their ID, they can lose access to other essential service - including housing, health care, income supports, childcare services, or even voting in an election.
Last week we left "faceless" IDs across the city to bring awareness to the importance—and growing need—for our safe
document storage programs for vulnerable people. Follow the link to learn more and help our ID
Safe program meet the needs of our community.
Street Health has left these faceless IDs across Toronto in a campaign to bring awareness to the growing need for our ID Safe program, which has
seen over a 25 per cent increase in clients in the past year.
The IDs look like normal healthcare, Ontario photo ID, or driver’s licenses from a distance, but a closer look reveals a faceless portrait with obscured
description fields. The back of the card sends a clear message: “Losing your ID shouldn’t cost your identity.” along with a QR code that takes
people to our website where they learn more about how the program works and where they can donate to the organization.
The cards were left in common places such as bus stops, cafe tables, and grocery baskets. When the cards were discovered and examined by
good samaritans, they received an educational message: “When street-affected people lose their ID, they lose access to health care, assistance
programs, and housing services. Safe document storage provides stability to those who need it most.”
Losing your ID can lead to losing access to services many of us may take for granted and creates lasting instability for people who are homeless or precariously housed.
Replacing a lost ID from scratch requires the applicant to have a safe address to receive mail (which we provide) and can take up to 8 weeks to process—a long time for anyone to go without access to health, financial, or other supportive services. Street Health provides this along with covering the fees for ID replacement for their clients, regardless of cost which varies across Canadian provinces.
Although our ID Safe program is unique across Canada, and has seen a 25% client increase in the last year, we have seen a significant decrease in funding needed to provide this service. We're hoping to draw attention to this for both clients who may need this service and for donors who would like to support it.
Street Health Community Nursing Foundation
Street Health was formed after a group of homeless people met to discuss discrimination in health care, and identified nurses as the people they would feel most comfortable going to for care.
Stay in Touch!!
338 Dundas Street East
Toronto, Ontario, M5A 2A1
Street Health® is a registered trademark of Street Health Community Nursing Foundation
Charitable Registration: 11920-0541-RR0001
Website powered by Northern Village
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These Ceramics Are Next-Level Nudes
Jude Jelfs taps her fine-art background to create her remarkable figurative wares.
During a recent interview with Emi Moore, the proprietor of the online treasure trove Casa Shop, we spoke about the thrill of discovery and the role it plays when selecting artists for her store. “I want to continue supporting designers people haven’t heard of before, like Jude Jelfs,” she said. Jude Jelfs? After our call, I Googled the name, and became an instant admirer. Jelfs studied painting and sculpture at Gloucestershire College in England, and began making functional objects in the 1970s after meeting her husband, John, with whom she runs a studio, The Cotswold Pottery, in an enchanting English village called Bourton-on-the-Water. Made of white earthenware clay (and sometimes porcelain or bronze), Jelfs’s figurative wares—which evoke the work of Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso, and, perhaps most vividly, Henri Matisse—take the form of causally arched nude women. “What I hope to achieve are drawings in space that have a three-dimensional element to them,” Jelfs told me in an email. “There’s always been anthropomorphism in pottery,” she continued (the “belly” of a jug, the “neck of a vase, the “foot” of a bowl), so referencing the human body in a pottery jug is a logical progression—albeit a playful one.
But her pottery, and the process of making it, also marks Jelfs’s return to her roots, and a search for ways to combine ceramics with her fine-art background. Each piece begins with a drawing, which Jelfs translates into a paper pattern and uses to cut flat slabs of clay that she hand-builds into a jug. The exterior is painted with layers of a vitreous slip—a mix of clay and minerals, which add a subtle sheen to the finished surface—and drawn on with a needle. The seemingly flat, expressive results, which vary in size, position, and aesthetic, are a fitting way to celebrate the female form.
(Photos: Jude Jelfs)
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PERSONAL UNIFORM
The Fashion Bricolage of Job Smeets
These Unconventional Wares Are Sculptures in Their Own
An Ethereal Gallery Marries English and Korean...
Speed, Sprezzatura, and the Sins of Retro Design
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Resilient City
Creative Workplace
Hospitality & Lifestyle
Waterfronts
Trail Systems
Landscape Infrastructure
Urban Corridors
Planned Communities
Town Centers
Riyadh East Sub-Center
Large-Scale Urban Planning in Desert Context
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LocationRiyadh, Ar Riyad
ClientArriyadh Development Authority/ DAR Alriyadh
SERVICE: Planning, Urban Design
Size300 hectares
SWA provided comprehensive planning for a new 300-hectare commercial, mixed-use center in northeast Riyadh abutting the KKI Airport. This area is part of an urban management framework being developed to guide the future growth of the city. SWA developed a plan and implementation strategy to establish an urban center comprising residential neighborhoods, corporate offices, administrative functions, centers of educational excellence, religious congregation, cultural facilities, shopping and great parks and recreation/sports venues served by a multi-modal transit system.
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
This office building’s roof garden celebrates a potent image of the native Texas landscape: the level, grass-covered plains emerging from a wooded riparian area. A design vocabulary of native, drought-tolerant plant materials, especially selected to react to light and air movement, reinforces this design approach. The project serves as a two-acre rooftop garde...
RIT Global Village and Global Plaza
Global Village, a pedestrian-only infill neighborhood adjacent to Rochester Institute of Technology’s academic core, and its mixed-use centerpiece, Global Plaza, create a social heart for 17,200 students and 3,600 faculty and staff. The landscape architects and architects collaborated on an urban design that establishes multiple “crossroads” ...
Kasumigaseki Plaza Renewal
Tokyo’s first high-rise and architectural landmark is located in the heart of downtown, where government and major private business offices are concentrated. Urban growth changed the dynamics of the building’s surroundings and left its public spaces ineffective and barren. The addition of new mixed-use buildings provided the owners with an opportunity to bring...
OCT Bay
Located in Shenzhen, OCT Bay has a combined site area of approximately 1.25 square kilometers including equal parts new urban center and nature preserve. SWA provided both master planning and landscape architectural services for the entire site. As a new urban cultural and entertainment destination, OCT Bay provides urban amenities, entertainment components, p...
Suzhou Center
The Suzhou Center is a landmark urban space within the Suzhou Central Business District that embodies the spirit of the city of Suzhou as a gateway for intersecting old and new cultural and historic heritage. The successful combination of high-density development and ecological conservation will allow for Suzhou to transition to a garden city where state-of-th...
Almaza Bay Beach Town
Located on the tranquil and pristine Mediterranean coastline in northwest Egypt, Almaza Bay Beach Town redefines the concept of a resort town. Seamlessly integrating the intimate and relaxed feel of a beach community with the entertainment and excitement of a walkable retail district, this mixed-use development offers an exceptional lifestyle that enriches the...
SWA provided planning services related to entitlement and land use for 1,400 acres of land in the City of Irvine, representing the last “flat land” development within the Irvine Ranch. Fundamental to the planning of Woodbury was the concept of a village “commons” with a mix of retail, residential, and office uses, which also includes a recreation c...
Beijing Finance Street
Awarded after an international competition, the Beijing Finance Center Master Plan creates an international destination in West Beijing. The project, which includes a mix of uses—housing, retail, hotel office and cultural facilities—is focused in terms of the landscape design on a central park known as “The Heart” of western Beijing. SWA’s wo...
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Product Provider
09/07/2020 | Polar Capital
Can Convertible outperformance continue?
Convertible bonds have enjoyed a resurgence of investor interest during 2020 amid strong performance year-to-date. The Polar Capital Convertible team reflects on this performance and, importantly, explain why they believe the convertible asset class can continue to outperform into 2021.
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FONDSBOUTIQUEN & PRIVATE LABEL FONDS: China, Geopolitik, Rohstoffe, Value Investing und Südtirol
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Geschäftsmodelle des Jahres 2030 im Blick – Erfolgreiche Lancierung des DNB Disruptive Opportunities Fonds
Übergreifendes Research unter Einbeziehung von sechs bestehenden erfolgreichen Fonds Um aus dem anfänglic...
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Unionists take issue with Jamus Lim’s wage remarks
Prof Jamus Lim employed the phrase during a debate on Thursday. PHOTO: GOV.SG
'Folksy wisdom and beliefs' comment by WP's Jamus Lim is regretful, and belittles work done over the years, they say
Yuen Sin
Remarks made in Parliament by Workers' Party MP Jamus Lim on minimum wage last week have drawn a strong response from several unionists.
In Facebook posts and a series of forum letters to The Straits Times and Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao, union leaders have accused Associate Professor Lim, an MP for Sengkang GRC, of belittling the work they have put into tripartite negotiations over the years.
They especially took issue with his choice of words in characterising their views on the issue of low-wage workers' incomes as "folksy wisdom and beliefs".
Prof Lim employed the phrase during an exchange with NTUC deputy secretary-general Koh Poh Koon on the progressive wage model (PWM) and minimum wage during the debate on the Government's strategies to tackle Covid-19 on Thursday.
Dr Koh had said the PWM - a wage ladder that sets out minimum pay and training requirements for workers at different skill levels - has seen significant achievement.
He added that taking a negotiated approach with stakeholders, including veteran union leaders, is important.
"Research, reams and reams of data and research is good, but in practice, it's always harder to do because there are practical considerations," Dr Koh said.
In response, Prof Lim said: "With all due respect, as much as it will be lovely to always rely on folksy wisdom and beliefs by labour union leaders, at the same time, it's important to realise that when we talk about studies that show that the minimum wage does not lead to any appreciable increase in unemployment, this is based on careful consideration and not just beliefs."
In a letter to The Straits Times Forum page on Saturday, Mr Nasordin B. Mohd Hashim, the former president of the Building Construction and Timber Industries Employees' Union, said Prof Lim's comments were "regretful".
He said: "(The comments were) not just belittling our hard work all these years but also seemingly putting down the intricate issues involved in outsourced industries such as cleaning, landscape and lift maintenance."
'DISRESPECTFUL '
Mr Lim Teck Chuan, general secretary of the Metal Industries Workers' Union, in a letter to Lianhe Zaobao on Saturday, said he found Prof Lim's "tone and choice of words disrespectful to thousands of union leaders".
On Saturday, Prof Lim, in a Facebook post, said his argument about how "folksy wisdom" should not form the basis for policy was made in reference to beliefs held by some union leaders about the minimum wage, as cited by Dr Koh.
Said Prof Lim: "There are many areas where I respect the views of union leaders, such as their empathetic representation of workers under their charge, their ability to negotiate with business owners, and their hard work in support of workers' rights."
Prof Lim in a forum letter to ST published today, reiterated his view of unionists.
He said his disagreement with Dr Koh on what should be considered when making policy decisions "in no way diminishes my regard for unionists in these other ways, nor does it take away from my appreciation of their work in the past".
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TCU to travel to New Mexico
The No. 61 TCU women’s tennis team will travel to New Mexico to take on No. 48 UNLV on Saturday and No. 45 San Diego State on Sunday.
The Frogs lost to the No. 36 SMU Mustangs on Tuesday, 5-2. Sophomore Federica Denti sustained an ankle injury, and junior Shalini Sahoo was still resting an injury from Saturday’s match against Utah. Head coach Dave Borelli said senior Maria Babanova played well in the match against SMU and will be relied on to play singles in this weekend’s matches.
“The two best teams in our conference on paper are UNLV and San Diego State,” Borelli said. “We may be a little shorthanded, but it’s an opportunity for kids to play well and get some confidence.”
UNLV is coming into Saturday’s match with three consecutive wins against Wyoming, Colorado State and Air Force. With those wins, the Lady Rebels improved to 13-4 overall and 3-0 in the Mountain West Conference.
In its past match, UNLV’s only doubles victory came from No. 110 Lucia Batta and Anna Maskaljun, who won 8-2. Nives Pavlovic, Adrienn Hidvegi, Jana Albers and Anna Maskaljun all won their singles matches against Wyoming.
The San Diego State women’s tennis team had won eight straight matches before its loss to San Diego on Wednesday, giving the Lady Aztecs a 12-7 overall record and a 3-0 MWC record. TCU has won five of the past six matches against SDSU and leads the all-time series, 5-2. This past season, the Lady Aztecs beat TCU, 4-3, in the regular season before falling to the Horned Frogs in the MWC Championship title match by the same score.
The Lady Aztecs’ Emily Cioffi is 5-0 at the No. 4 spot and won both of her matches last weekend. In doubles, Cioffi and Julia Trunk are 13-4 this spring, including a 10-1 mark at the third slot.
Borelli said his team is the most encouraged group of players he has ever worked with.
“Once we get everybody together [and] healthy, hopefully…we can get a shot at the conference title,” Borelli said. “I think that’s our goal right now — to try and play well this weekend and have an opportunity to improve and go from there.”
TCU vs. UNLV
When: 10 a.m. Saturday
Where: Albuquerque, N.M.
TCU vs. San Diego State
When: 10 a.m. Sunday
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Home Boardroom Games Cape Town Municipal Tribunal Gives Go-Ahead To Mega-Development at Two Rivers Urban...
Boardroom Games
Cape Town Municipal Tribunal Gives Go-Ahead To Mega-Development at Two Rivers Urban Park
He was very impressed that Liesbeek Leisure Properties had secured Amazon as an anchor tenant.
Ground Up
The River Club, currently a nine-hole golf course, is to be rezoned and will house new headquarters for giant multi-national company Amazon, following a decision by the City’s Municipal Planning Tribunal on Friday. Photo: Steve Kretzmann
A city tribunal has made way for Amazon to move in to River Club mega-development in Cape Town.
The rezoning was decided in the face of 180 heritage and environmental objections.
Buildings up to 11-storeys high are to be constructed on a First Nation site.
Amazon’s presence is a “major breakthrough”, according to the chair of the tribunal.
By Steve Kretzmann
The rezoning of the River Club property in Observatory to allow a R4.5bn mega-development including headquarters for Amazon was given the go-ahead by the City of Cape Town’s Municipal Planning Tribunal on Friday 18 September.
Friday’s decision to rezone the area from Open Space to Business designations, came in the face of 180 objections from civil society bodies, activist organisations, First Nation groupings, and individuals. The development will result in infilling a floodplain, permanently erasing the original course of the Liesbeek River, and constructing buildings up to 11-storeys high on an area recognised as significant to First Nations.
An Environmental Authorisation which is a requirement for rezoning, was granted by the Western Cape Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning on 20 August. But there were 40 objections, and an appeal process is underway. The deadline for appeals to be lodged was 10 September, and among the applicants are the City’s own Environmental Management Department, and Heritage Western Cape, both of whom say the province’s decision violates provisions of the National Heritage Resources Act and the National Environmental Management Act.
But just eight days after the deadline and without sight of the Environmental Authorisation appeals, the City’s Municipal Planning Tribunal decided to rezone the site at the confluence of the Black and Liesbeek Rivers. The tribunal chairperson, David Daniels, favourably compared the proposed development to Century City.
Development on the 14.8ha River Club site, which is owned by Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust and currently features a nine-hole golf course, pub, conference venue and golf shop, has faced sustained civic opposition since the trust submitted a notice of intent to develop in July 2016. The land is in the Two Rivers Urban Park, seen to be South Africa’s first site of colonial dispossession by the Dutch as they forced the Khoi from their ancestral grazing lands.
In a bid to temporarily halt development in order to assess the heritage significance of the land, Heritage Western Cape invoked a two-year provisional protection order on the site in April 2018. This was appealed by the developer, backed by the City and two provincial departments. The appeal was rejected by the provincial appeals tribunal. The two year period of the protection order has since lapsed.
The Municipal Planning Tribunal on Friday stated it had not considered Heritage Western Cape’s, nor the City Environmental Management’s own 20-page appeal (excluding annexures) against the Environmental Authorisation on environmental and heritage grounds.
More than one objector noted in their presentations that this gave the impression that the Municipal Planning Tribunal was taking advantage of the Environmental Authorisation to push through the rezoning of the site.
Observatory Civic Association chairperson Leslie London, in his presentation, noted a number of issues which brought “procedural justice” into question.
London said since the initial advertisement for rezoning two years ago, Liesbeek Leisure Properties had inserted new information dealing with “substantial changes” to its application. London said there were eight new reports but the tribunal did not allow appellants to provide new information, such as the appeals that have been lodged against the Environmental Authorisation.
He said in order to make a fully informed decision, the tribunal needed to have sight of the appeals, yet appellants were not allowed to put this information before the tribunal.
London said the developers had been allowed to introduce a response by “the applicant’s heritage expert” dated 31 March 2020, “but bizarrely the actual Heritage Western Cape final comments” which were issued on 13 February 2020 and rejected the developer’s Heritage Impact Assessment was not included in documentation before the tribunal.
The tribunal “will misdirect itself if it is not provided with all the relevant information pertaining to this decision,” said London.
In the prelude to the tribunal hearing, one of the five tribunal members – who was not identified on the Skype broadcast – said the tribunal did “accept and understand and must accept that the environmental and heritage aspects are very important”. These aspects “will have to carry quite a considerable weight in the assessment”, the tribunal member said.
But in the final summation, Daniels rejected the environmental and impassioned heritage appeals presented.
He said the findings of the tribunal were unanimous. “I think there are more positives than negatives” regarding environmental impact.
He said with “the conservatism you see around us today I wonder if our environmentalists would ever have approved that wonderful restaurant at the tip of Cape Point that sits on the edge of a cliff, or that viewing deck we approved on the top of Table Mountain. You would struggle to get that approved now.”
He said none of the objections brought to light any conflict with the 2018 Metropolitan Spatial Development Framework, which is the planning policy the tribunal considered applicable.
“I think it (the River Club development) will be a destination like Century City is a destination,” said Daniels.
He was very impressed that Liesbeek Leisure Properties had secured Amazon as an anchor tenant. “That’s a major, major breakthrough for the economy of the Western Cape and for the brand of Cape Town. I think it’s a big deal.”
Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust spokesperson Jody Aufrichtig called the decision an “unequivocal victory for the people of Cape Town” and a “major milestone in a comprehensive, open and transparent development approval process”.
River Club property
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(VIDEO) eO PP01, a new electric supercar to conquer Pikes Peak
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Gadgets Review
World’s Best 5 Games to Play With Friends in 2020
April 17, 2020 April 16, 2020 by Himanshu Ric
Hey, are you looking for the best games to play with friends.? Oh, I get it, you mean yes alright. So Tension not if you are here and reading this article then make sure that this gaming site will help you find out your best games to play with your friends ever.
So, Techootech here and in this article, we will surely talk about some World’s Best 5 Games Play With Friends in 2020. Via which you can easily invest your time in some good stuff threw gaming.
So as you know that multi-player games are super excited because they also allow you to play with your friends, family members or some random one, Via which you can keep your bonding and relationship strong.
There are lot’s of Category in multi-player games, action, adventure, Shooting, brain games, Puzzle, sports and many more.. But Mostly people like action games and shooting because they have lot’s of dramas thrilling actions which relate people even better.
After our research by seeing people interest in games we created a top 5 list of Games to Play With Friends, And i hope that you like these all games that we selected in our top 5 list.
Are you excited now to see the list of Top 5 Games to Play With Friends .?
If Yes! Then Let’s get started.
5 Games to Play with your friends online
2. PUBG or Player Unknown’s battleground
3. Garena Free Fire
4. Ludo King™
Tennis Clash: 3D Free Multiplayer Sports Games
Clash of clans is one of the world’s one of the best online mobile game which has over 500+ millions of active users in 2020, The game is about Upgrading your town hall, Buildings and increase your village in daily bases.
Every year the company (Supercell) comes with their new new updates and be their viewer’s happy. If you don.t know how to play “Clash of clans” Then read this article this below:
The game is set in a fantasy themed persistent world where the player is a king of a village and have to upgrade their town hall and buildings to max out their village.
(Resources, elixer and dark elixer) is the main part of this game, gained though attacking on other players villages.
Here you also can join or create (Groups) clans up to fifty People where you can chat and message with them and play war with other clans called enemy.
To earn and store gold and elixer, player must have to build gold mines, elixer collector fir storage you you have to build gold storage and elixer storages, respectively elixer used to train troops and carry out research in the laboratory to upgrade troops. In other hand Gold is used to upgrade your town hall and Building like Cannons, Mortar, Bombs, archer tower, hidden tesla and many more, which helps you to strong your village.
Village Hero’s:
Barbarian king (Town Hall 7)
Archer Queen ( Town hall 9 )
Grand Warden ( Town hall 11 )
Royal champion (Town hall 13)
These all hero’s will Help you while attacking on your enemy village with troops.
Player Unknown’s battleground or in short PUBG is better known to all gamers. PUBG started his journey on PC, Yes PUBG is a PC game. But after some time PUBG released the mobile version, known as PUBG Mobile. Do you know that somehow PUBG Mobile significantly better than the Xbox version from a technical standpoint. The players also find that in the mobile version it has a better texture than the PC version and the frame is more stable. Also, it doesn’t support crossplay with PC and console so that there is no danger of opting into a lopsided match against people playing with more accurate controls.
Let’s talk about game facilities:
In PUBG Mobile here players play as a mercenary, A mercenary who parachutes, along with 99 enemy players, onto an island. After land onto the island player have to find weapons, ammo, armor, and other useful supplies. Here you have to fight against 99 players and if you stand out till at last, you will be the champion of the game. At first, you will see a large map but time by the time the safe area compressed so that you have to get into the safe area. I hope I successfully clear all the doubts of yours.
PUBG Mobile doesn’t need the most powerful phone:
One of the main things of that game is PUBG mobile work on mobile is the increased power and screen size that average mobile devices now offer. Nowadays, maximum smartphones are pretty good and provide lots of features so that you can say that maximum phones are eligible to play PUBG Mobile.
We especially experienced in many various devices of various companies and we realized that a large phone screen will give a better experience than the small screen. But don’t feel sad if you don’t have a small screen because on the small screen you will also feel a better experience. you can also play this game easily on any mid-range mobile.
PUBG Mobile addresses a good number of graphical elements to the game and it also automatically detects the best setting for you. But giving you control over the solution, coloration, and other settings. And mainly you can also edit the rate of frame wherever you find that you’re not getting a smooth experience.
The biggest barrier of this game to play that we’ve found is connectivity. Yes, connectivity. If you don’t have a good connection and you are worried about it, then there is nothing to worried because this game easily runs on any connection.
Generally, as a speaker, I say that the graphics quality is pretty good, and the game does play smoothly–but it’s important to make sure you have your brightness turned up and any night mode turned off then you will enjoy the quality graphics.
Gameplay and controls:
The main thing about this game is that here in the PUBBG Mobile you have to survive. In this game there you can’t find any plot. here you have to gather, kill your enemies, and avoid being killed. It has many several different modes that always Never let you be bored. After every update, you will see something new and awesome but revolve around Classic and Arcade modes.
in the classic mode, there are 100 players are dropping into one of three maps. The arcade mode has different versions so that you always see something new. Also, you can change the length of the game, the size of the map or restricting the selection of weapons.
This game also provides a third-person and also the first-person perspective and letting you choose how you play.
And we all know that the main thing about any mobile game is controls and information. And in this game, the makers provide you lots of movement controls to the minimap, to voice and text communication, as well as weapon controls, because there is available a lot on the display.
Overall review of this game:
It is an awesome mobile game that comes with a carries a lot of features and If you want any game that I recommended then I will provide you PUBG Mobile to play.
Guys do you know about Garena Free Fire.?
Let me tell you about the game…
Garena Free Fire game is a new awesome survival shooter mobile game published by Indonesia’s top publishers. This game also available for Android and iOs platforms so that if you have one of them then you can play this awesome survival game easily. Nowadays we mainly Zombie types of games as survival games. But this game changed everything and here you see new things that you never saw before. People also say that it is a battling type of game.
So, let’s get start with the Free Fire Battlegrounds review
Feature of the Game (Best Action Game)
In this Free Fire Battleground, you need to master a lot of controls because it has a lot of features like attack, scope, run, lay down, jump, sit on the floor. there you also can’t see IFS or Buts if you are not used to it. This time you will have a very hard time getting accustomed to it as we went through.
Let’s talk about the experience that I get while playing. After download first I open the app and see the loading screen and within a sec I entered into the lobby. In the lobby, I see everything/every option that I saw in the lobby. Then I click the start button and within a few seconds, I have seen myself into the training room. and there has a timer of 30 seconds, and after that, I am in the game.
There I am on a plane and see the jump button so that I click that then I jump into the plane then I glide and get down in the land. after that started finding all the needed thing and kill many enemies.
It’s a great experience while I was playing.
Let talk about the quality of Graphics…
The graphics quality of this game is not pretty good but not even bad. We score 82 out of 100. It is a low spec game and that is the main reason why the quality is not pretty good. I know the graphics quality is more important for some players but it has a benefit that you can easily run this game in any mid to low spec mobiles.
Garena, in our opinion, did a great job to optimize the size of the game to suit Indonesian (or Southeast Asian) players, who mainly use and play using mid to low-end phones.
Level Wise Game…
Free Fire is the ultimate survival shooter game and best of all it is available on both Android and iOS mobile devices. Each session has a 10-minute game space and that is a place on an unknown island where you have to fight 49 other players, and each game player wants to survive and win.
At the beginning of the game, players can undoubtedly choose their starting point while others parachute to their destination. And if you want to get booyah, your first goal is to be in the safe zone for as long as possible. To explore more things you can drive different vehicles on the expansive map and find all the secret grooves or become invulnerable by trimming under the grass.
Ambush, snipe and survive, there is only one goal that you have to survive and become the apex of them all.
4-man squad, with in-game voice chat
Also here you have the option to create your legend team or your squads of up to 4 players and establish communication with your squad at the very first moment. Lead and command your friends to victory and be the last team standing at the apex.
Ten minutes, 50 players, epic survival goodness awaits
The game gives you ten minutes to start the new inning, a new one will survive. Does all this depend on if you are on top of all the other players?
Guys, are you want to play Ludo with your friends then this game provides you the feature to play with your friends. Ludo King™ is a standard board game and here you can play online or offline with your friends, family members, or others.
Ludo King is a cross-platform multiplayer game that supports any kind of mobile device like desktop, Android, iOS and Windows. You can also play this with your family and friends offline, where the player can play with Computer or, Local multiplayer (play and pass mode).
This game also provides you many various awesome themes
Egypt Theme
Disco / Night mode Theme
Pinball Theme
New things of this game
New Awesome LIVE THEMES !!!
Real-time chat with friends and buddies
Make new buddies worldwide
you can also challenge Facebook friends/buddies
Also has the Save/Load Ludo game option
Player statistics with XP and level up system
More user-friendly UI
Support extended to Low spec devices
Features of Ludo King:
There is no internet connection needed to play because you can also play against the computer.
Play with your family and friends in offline and Online Multiplayer.
Play 2 to 6 Player Local Multiplayer Mode.
Invite and challenge your Facebook Friends in a private game room and beat them to become the Ludo King.
Play with world players and make them your buddies.
Express your expression by sending emojis to your opponents.
Play Snake and Ladders on 7 different gameboard variations.
Graphics with a classic look and the feel of a dice game.
If you want to play sports games with your friends then you can choose this ultimate online sports game. This is one of the most popular online multiplayer sports game. Go to an instant 3-minute online 1v1 tennis game or start promoting your career in an action-packed, real-time multiplayer 3D free game. Compete against your friends and family members and beat them in a fun, multiplayer, world-class sports tournament. This is the best free sports game around! Have fun!
if you were tired of other sports games where it involves too much luck and too little skill then you have to play this one because tennis Clash is all about mastering your skills and raising your game to become a legend. You can also challenge worldwide players and also join the worldwide championship tours spanning from New York to Sydney. Can you become the next Grand Slam Champion?
Tennis Clash Features:
here you can Play with friends in fun multiplayer tennis matches in the best sports game.
Cool 3D Ultimate graphics that rival the top sports games.
Win games, collect trophies and climb the ranks to become the top player in the world.
Equip your character with different gears including rackets, sports shoes, racket strings, and many other things to give yourself
Play in world-class venues in the US, France, Australia, Great Britain and much more!
Categories Gaming Review Tags Games to Play With Friends, games to Pplay with friends at homes, games to Pplay with friends on android, games to Pplay with friends online, games to Pplay with friends when bored, Multiplayers games Post navigation
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Uber joins the race for Nokia here, Nokia’s Digital Mapping Service with a $3 Billion bid
Uber bids $3 billion for Here, Nokia’s answer to Google Maps
One thing readers will agree that the now defunct Nokia smartphones had a great digital mapping service in the form of Nokia Here. The Nokia Here was in fact the harbinger of many mapping features like turn by turn voice assisted driving. Its competitor, Google maps has brought many of these features in Android smartphones.
Uber is a fast growing company which allows users to book a taxi through its smartphone application. However to expand its services Uber needs a good mapping services which can integrate its current business. At present Uber relies heavily on Google Maps for delivering people and things to their destinations.
To end this dependency Uber has submitted a $3 billion bid for Here, the main competitor to Google Maps. Nokia which owns Here and had announced last month that it was considering selling the business.
Uber will be competing with a consortium of German automakers, including BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz who have also bid for Here. The German automakers have teamed up with Chinese search engine Baidu to bid for Here. Another undisclosed private equity firm has also been submitted a bid and Nokia is expected to announce the suitor for Here the end of May.
Negotiations over the sale of Nokia’s mapping business are continuing and the talks still may not lead to a deal, the people cautioned. Representatives for Uber, the German automakers and Nokia declined to comment on the deal rumors.
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Feds Approve New Vaccine Facility in Bryan-College Station
by Reeve Hamilton March 26, 2013 12:28 PM
By Reeve Hamilton, The Texas Tribune March 26, 2013
"Feds Approve New Vaccine Facility in Bryan-College Station" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services approved a $91 million influenza-vaccine manufacturing facility to be based in the Bryan-College Station area and run by the Texas A&M University System and GlaxoSmithKline, a global pharmaceutical company.
Speaking Tuesday at a news conference at the Texas Capitol, A&M System Chancellor John Sharp predicted that decades from now, the announcement would be remembered as "one of the most significant economic developments ever created in the state of Texas." The system predicts that the project will generate $41 billion in expenditures and more than 6,800 jobs for the state over the next 25 years.
Gov. Rick Perry, on hand for the announcement, said it was "fitting that this is coming to Texas." He cited innovations in Texas oilfields, NASA's work at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and the invention of the integrated circuit at Texas Instruments. "Texas is home to innovative minds and world-changing ideas," Perry said.
But why is this happening in College Station? As Brett Giroir, the system's vice chancellor for strategic initiatives, noted, "It's not exactly at the crossroads of Philadelphia and Brussels."
Last June, an A&M System-led team, which includes GSK, landed a roughly $285 million federal contract to develop one of three new national centers focused on developing and manufacturing medicine and vaccines to respond to pandemic diseases and bioterror threats.
The facility announced Tuesday will anchor what the team named the Texas A&M Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing. It will produce vaccines using a cell-culture process rather than the traditional, slower, egg-based process.
The efforts are expected to complement GSK's existing vaccine operations in Canada and Germany. The vaccines made in College Station will be packaged, inspected and distributed by the company's operations hub in Marietta, Penn.
Giroir said that Tuesday's announcement was about a decade in the making, but specific discussions with GSK about the facility began in 2010. And there were hints that there could be more to come from this partnership.
Antoon Loomans, a senior vice president and general counsel at GSK Vaccines, said of the new facility and working with the A&M System, "We want to use this to build on our platform, particularly in Texas."
Texas Tribune donors or members may be quoted or mentioned in our stories, or may be the subject of them. For a complete list of contributors, click here.
<p>This article originally appeared in <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/">The Texas Tribune</a> at <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2013/03/26/m-system-announces-partnership-glaxosmithkline/">https://www.texastribune.org/2013/03/26/m-system-announces-partnership-glaxosmithkline/</a>.</p> <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.texastribune.org/2013/03/26/m-system-announces-partnership-glaxosmithkline/"> <p>The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.</p> <script async src="https://dot.texastribune.org/analytics/2.8.3/pixel.js" data-dot-token="eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJ2ZXJzaW9uIjoiMi44LjMiLCJjYW5vbmljYWwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy50ZXhhc3RyaWJ1bmUub3JnLzIwMTMvMDMvMjYvbS1zeXN0ZW0tYW5ub3VuY2VzLXBhcnRuZXJzaGlwLWdsYXhvc21pdGhrbGluZS8iLCJzb3VyY2UiOiJyZXB1YiJ9.JuC_thcKB7PD-q9MaoOGCDXiBQf-M-hZ8Sc8CgnZqfA" integrity="sha256-ZJXQrLo0Ynf8hLbHdW7jHTl/xkk6bUAW+hubxjltcXo=" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
Feds Approve New Vaccine Facility in Bryan-College Station By Reeve Hamilton March 26, 2013 The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services approved a $91 million influenza-vaccine manufacturing facility to be based in the Bryan-College Station area and run by the Texas A&M University System and GlaxoSmithKline, a global pharmaceutical company. Speaking Tuesday at a news conference at the Texas Capitol, A&M System Chancellor John Sharp predicted that decades from now, the announcement would be remembered as "one of the most significant economic developments ever created in the state of Texas." The system predicts that the project will generate $41 billion in expenditures and more than 6,800 jobs for the state over the next 25 years. Gov. Rick Perry, on hand for the announcement, said it was "fitting that this is coming to Texas." He cited innovations in Texas oilfields, NASA's work at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and the invention of the integrated circuit at Texas Instruments. "Texas is home to innovative minds and world-changing ideas," Perry said. But why is this happening in College Station? As Brett Giroir, the system's vice chancellor for strategic initiatives, noted, "It's not exactly at the crossroads of Philadelphia and Brussels." Last June, an A&M System-led team, which includes GSK, landed a roughly $285 million federal contract to develop one of three new national centers focused on developing and manufacturing medicine and vaccines to respond to pandemic diseases and bioterror threats. The facility announced Tuesday will anchor what the team named the Texas A&M Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing. It will produce vaccines using a cell-culture process rather than the traditional, slower, egg-based process. The efforts are expected to complement GSK's existing vaccine operations in Canada and Germany. The vaccines made in College Station will be packaged, inspected and distributed by the company's operations hub in Marietta, Penn. Giroir said that Tuesday's announcement was about a decade in the making, but specific discussions with GSK about the facility began in 2010. And there were hints that there could be more to come from this partnership. Antoon Loomans, a senior vice president and general counsel at GSK Vaccines, said of the new facility and working with the A&M System, "We want to use this to build on our platform, particularly in Texas." Texas Tribune donors or members may be quoted or mentioned in our stories, or may be the subject of them. For a complete list of contributors, click here. "Feds Approve New Vaccine Facility in Bryan-College Station" was first published at https://www.texastribune.org/2013/03/26/m-system-announces-partnership-glaxosmithkline/ by The Texas Tribune. The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state.
https://www.texastribune.org/2013/03/26/m-system-announces-partnership-glaxosmithkline/.
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Health District temporarily pause sign-ups for COVID-19 vaccine waiting list
WFISD board considers separate facilities bond elections
by: Lauren Linville
WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — WFISD Board of Trustees is now considering separate bond elections to get the facilities plan in action.
One would be in 2020 with a property tax increase and another in 2027 at little or no cost to taxpayers.
Thursday’s workshop meeting focused more on the bond package rather than facilities planning.
Superintendent Michael Kuhrt laid out the idea of separating the facilities plan into phases.
A $335 million price tag riding on a November 2020 bond election.
“That would include two new high schools and renovations to the then three middle schools, three middle schools being Barwise, Rider and Hirshi and then maybe some other propositions on the ballot,” Kuhrt said.
Kuhrt’s original plan to have two bond elections in 2020 and 2030 both with tax increases with a more than $420 million cost didn’t sit well with all board members.
“For a district that’s never passed anything over $60 million, I really get squeamish as the numbers go up, but I really got a hard stop once that first number changes from a three to a four,” WFISD school board place 1 member Bob Payton said.
Now it’s back to the drawing board to reconfigure numbers to see how a 2020 election and 2027 no cost election will play out.
The 2027 election would require voters to decide on what to do with $90 million the district gets back from bond debt rolling off
“Or we would add what we want to do around 2030 to that and it might be a small election, say a 10 cent election,” Kuhrt said.
Kurht said it could be a problem if 2020 were to pass, but the 2027 election doesn’t.
“That messes up the whole plan,” Kuhrt said.
A phase three could come sometime around 2035 with another tax increase, but for now, nothing is set in stone.
The goal is to have a board-approved plan by February to educate the public for six months before a November package has to be ready by August.
The next board meeting is on Monday, Dec. 16, they’ll begin to discuss the property in closed session.
WICHITA COUNTY (KFDX/KJTL) — Officials with the Wichita Falls-Wichita County Public Health District announced Monday they will be pausing sign-ups for the waiting list to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
In a press release, officials with the Health District said they are planning to update to an online, high-volume vaccine management and reporting system that will automate the vaccine process.
Judge denies lower bond for Electra man accused of sexual assault of child
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Archives: Articles
NAD Launches CI 16-60 DSP Amplifier
The following is a press release issued by NAD Electronics.
Pickering, Ontario, canada January 18, 2021 – NAD Electronics, the highly regarded manufacturer of high-performance audio/video components, announced an all-new advanced amplifier targeted squarely at high performance distributed audio systems. The CI 16-60 DSP ($2,499 U.S. MSRP) delivers 16 x 60 watts per channel with unique features and will be available in mid-February.
The CI 16-60 DSP is a highly versatile, robust amplifier built for the demands of professional installations. Delivering a conservative 60 watts per channel at 8 ohms into all of its 16 channels, each pair of channels is with bridgeable to 140 watts per channel if more power is desired. The hybrid digital amplifier platform delivers stable and efficient power with high current capability all in a 2U rack space. The CI 16-60 DSP uses a customized version of the proven Hypex UcD output stage to deliver great load invariant power with extremely low distortion and noise in the audible range. Every detail of this design has been carefully executed to wring out the best possible performance. Designed to deal with the demands of the custom installation world, the CI 16-60 can effortlessly handle long cable runs and difficult speaker loads.
The CI 16-60 DSP is an IP-controlled amplifier which allows the installer to configure and calibrate via a web-based user interface. The user interface offers access to multi-channel digital signal processing (DSP) providing detailed equalisation control. A virtual patch bay permits any input to be routed to any, or multiple outputs without the need to create physical connections. In addition, the UI offers insight into temperature and power status, as well as basic troubleshooting functions like power cycling, factory resetting and updating. Rounding out the CI 16-60’s impressive feature set are loop through jacks on all the inputs making it easy to daisy chain sources to multiple amplifiers for larger installations.
“NAD’s CI 16-60 DSP amplifier joins the CI 8-120 DSP and CI 8-150 DSP distribution amplifiers highlighting one of the brand’s strongest features which of course is our amplifier platforms, commented Joe de Jesus, Lenbrook’s Product Manager for CI. The brand has a reputation for rock-solid amplification and a tonal balance that seems to shake hands with virtually any speaker it powers. Our clients can expect the same exacting standard. For example, this new CI 16-60 DSP adheres to the same stringent sonic tests as our best traditional amplifiers. Quite simply, that sonic signature and rock-solid reliability is what separates NAD from the rest.”
Platform accessed through IP control
Custom web app manages DSP calibration, IP control and more
16 Channels x 60 Watts @ 8 ohm
Bridgeable – any consecutive channel pair bridgeable to 2 x 140 Watts @ 8 ohm
Renowned NAD sonic signature
Effectively handles long cable runs and difficult speaker loads
Global Input/Output and Individual Channel Input and Output
2U Rack height
5W Standby Mode, 3W
Network Standby
12V Trigger In; IR In/Out
Multiple Power-up options as well as Eco Mode
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Michael Rabin And His Magic Bow
Michael Rabin (1936–1972) was one of America’s greatest violinists—so great that his renowned teacher, Ivan Galamian, said he had “no weaknesses, never.” Even today Rabin leaves the listener agog at his tone, inventiveness, and technical prowess. The following overview sifts through Rabin’s much-reissued recorded oeuvre in order to recommend the finest performances and best-sounding releases, some overlooked even by enthusiastic fans. Rabin aficionados have had their work cut out for them if they wanted to go beyond the recordings issued in his lifetime and separate the wheat from the chaff. If you love his playing and want to dive in deeper, this article could save you a lot of time.
Michael’s first LPs for EMI were released on Angel in the US and Columbia in the UK. EMI acquired Capitol in 1957, and subsequent releases appeared under that imprint. EMI remastered all those studio albums for their six-CD 1936–1972 set from 1991. People have complained for years that it’s decent but airless. (Viewing the frequency spectrum reveals that everything above about 20.5kHz is cut off.) EMI’s 2011 reissue, Young Genius on the Violin, uses the same remasters. Testament did its own remastering for their 2011 Studio Recordings CD set, and in general it’s slightly warmer and less “digital.” But for the best sound at affordable prices, Testament’s 180-gram LPs cannot be topped; they have presence, authority, and wider bandwidth that no other modern versions have.
The Magic Bow is the crown jewel of Rabin’s studio work, an audiophile holy grail of light classical fare made with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra under Felix Slatkin. Testament’s splendid LP is the most faithful to the original Capitol. EMI’s Strings by Starlight CD from 1990 sounds more natural than 1936–1972, but it’s out of print, expensive, and still missing the uppermost frequencies. Two reissues of the EMI reproduce its sonics: one by Arkiv Music, the other a 1994 Royal Classics release.
Testament’s Magic Bow in The Studio Recordings loses a little shimmer on Michael’s tone, and the low end is slightly shallower. Also, playback speed was apparently slowed so the orchestra would match A=440. I have five Capitol LPs that show the Hollywood Bowl actually tuned a few cents sharper. It’s no deal-breaker, but it does result in slightly slower tempos on the CD.
In 2016 Blue Moon Records produced an “SACD” of The Magic Bow and Mosaics. Avoid it. The packaging lacks any legalese about licensing, and the frequency spectrum is clearly cut off just above 22kHz, consistent with CD-quality mastering, not hi-res.
Rabin recorded two other albums of short works for Capitol: Mosaics, and a sequel that inexplicably got shelved. Testament released the sequel in its 2012 Unpublished Recordings CD set, and as Mosaics 2 on LP in 2017. Rabin’s technique is jaw-dropping, of course, but he put loads of emotion and care into these wonderful miniatures. EMI’s 1999 remastering of Mosaics is a touch clearer than 1936–1972, and I believe EMI added a hint of reverb to sweeten the sound (I have the authorized Arkiv reprint). It also included solo sonatas by Bach and Ysaÿe that were recorded in mono and only issued in the US for Angel. Testament has not put these astonishing beauties out on LP.
Close-miking makes the complete Paganini Caprices tiring eventually, and there’s barely a difference between mono and stereo. 1936–1972 added reverb to the mono masters. The 1993 stereo version from EMI is as dry as cracker juice; 2001’s offered mono, reverb, and a rumbling background. Simon Gibson at Abbey Road redid the stereo for EMI’s Great Recordings of the Century series in 2003. Testament chose stereo, too; its CD has a touch of reverb, as does Gibson’s. It’s a tough call between them, but Gibson’s lies easiest on my ears.
Michael had already recorded 11 Caprices for his Columbia debut at age 14, and they sound fresher and even more playful. Sony’s 1999 CD, The Early Years, includes those along with Michael Rabin Plays, a 10-inch of short pieces with Artur Balsam on piano, and another 10-inch of Paganini, Sarasate, and Nováček with the Bell Telephone Hour Orchestra. The remastering is excellent.
The concerto recordings for EMI were mostly pre-stereo. The Mendelssohn is earthbound and the Tchaikovsky is rushed. A far superior Tchaikovsky from 1961 can be found in stereo in the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Centennial Collection. The other EMI concertos are stunning. Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy is a heartbreaker, and Glazounov’s Concerto is noble and heartfelt. The First Concertos of Paganini and Wieniawski show how much depth Michael could bring to so-called show-off pieces.
A remade Paganini 1 in terrific stereo with Wieniawski 2 as its disc mate appeared in 1960. EMI’s 1990 remaster came out only in Europe and now sells for over $300; it is less compressed than 1936–1972 and has all the upper frequencies. A surprise contender is an outstanding 2006 Medici Arts remaster that also offers four tracks from The Magic Bow. Testament’s CD has less oomph than the rest, but its LP is every bit the equal of a Capitol original.
Rabin’s contract with EMI lapsed in the 1960s, and from then on his output is limited to broadcasts or test recordings with archival sound, to put it politely. Hiss, hum, and dropout are frequent, and some home tapings were made with a microphone in front of a speaker. Since Michael’s luminous tone was one of his greatest glories, it’s cruelty to have to hack through lousy sound to hear it. It’s unfortunate that, for an artist of his stature, so much of the later output would be so limited, obscure, and subpar sonically. But is there some fine music on some of these out-of-the-way recordings that, in many cases, weren’t originally intended for release? Absolutely.
Doremi has issued three volumes in its Michael Rabin Collection. Volume 1 has rare broadcasts from the early 60s in Berlin. Beethoven’s Sonata No 8 is perky but often slapdash. Fauré’s First is hardly his best work, and Rabin’s performance is prosaic. His vibrato is unusually wobbly, likely because of tape flutter.
In Volume 2 (three CDs), a 1967 Ravinia Festival performance of the Brahms Concerto with the Chicago Symphony and Rafael Kubelik is full of yearning, beautifully paced, and has decent stereo sound. Michael’s intonation was running on 87 octane rather than his usual premium, but his interpretation shows both ardor and musical maturity. Orchestra and conductor are with him all the way. Some of Rabin’s attacks are too slashing, and the dry acoustic lets some of the magic escape. Archipel included a 1957 Prokofieff with the Köln Radio Symphony on André Cluytens Rarities. Sonics are gritty, but it has more personality, polish, and purpose.
One of Rabin’s few forays into 20th-Century music was the concerto of German-American composer Richard Mohaupt; it’s ruddy-cheeked but angular, a bit like rustic Hindemith. Rabin makes the themes sing like a Heifetz tune, and if they weren’t so academic, the piece could have become fairly popular. Paul Creston’s Second Concerto (with Thomas Scherman and the Little Orchestra Society) has strong strains of both impressionism and neo-classicism; the rhythms are vigorous but more sophisticated than Mohaupt’s. Creston’s slow movement is steamy, and the finale is a flirtatious, carefree tarantella that reflects his Italian heritage. Rabin plays it to the hilt, but it was apparently recorded underwater.
There’s a handful of other Bell Telephone Hour appearances from 1951 and 1955; one, the first movement of Bach’s Double Concerto, is the only aural document we have of Rabin performing with Zino Francescatti. The orchestra is shaggy, but clearly the stars are having fun. Short pieces by Milhaud, Szymanowski, and Spalding come from Berlin broadcasts, as well as six solid Paganini Caprices. A 1950 Wieniawski Concerto No 1 is iffy.
Volume 3 includes the 1960 premiere of Creston’s Second Concerto with Georg Solti and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, but the hum, static, harshness, and missing bottom end render it unbearable. Mozart’s Fourth is exuberant, but the Denver Symphony in 1960 was unrefined and the sonics clotted. In a 1968 Glazounov Concerto, Rabin’s serenity and wisdom almost edge out his early EMI version.
A handful of Bell Telephone Hour appearances bring sentimental delights, but the miracle find is a Sydney Town Hall concert from Rabin’s 1952 Australian tour. He played showpieces, three Paganini Caprices, Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and an arresting reading of Ravel’s Tzigane. It is quite distorted, sad to say. Tahra’s 2-disc Michael Rabin Legacy has a few concertos in poor audio, but the big draw is about 20 appearances from the Bell Telephone Hour unavailable elsewhere. The sound is dated but fair.
Michael’s sister Bertine contributed family recordings to Testament’s Unpublished Recordings. His public debut recital at age ten includes most of Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole, four Paganini Caprices, and a few other beefy selections. His technique and tone are mind-boggling. Some 78s from 1949 include three movements of Bach’s Partita in D Minor. Besides the aforementioned Mosaics 2, there is John Alden Carpenter’s underrated, sensual sonata, recorded for Golden Crest in 1964 but never released (mono, some deterioration). Brahms’s Concerto and Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy come from 1970 and 1971 stereo broadcasts. The Brahms at Ravinia is better, but this Scottish Fantasy is a keeper.
In 2009 Audite gave us Bruch’s First Concerto with Thomas Schippers and the Berlin Radio Symphony, which is sonically superior to one on Doremi 2 from the same week in June, 1969. The pacing, the fire, the grandeur, the swells, and the details from all the instruments are breathtaking. Rabin’s phrasing always reflected youthful yearning, but now it was informed by the disappointments life had brought him.
Profil’s budget-friendly Genius on the Violin has almost all the mono concertos in masterings that hold their own. Three selections from The Magic Bow and Mosaics, Bach’s Third Sonata, Mozart’s Fourth Concerto, and the only listenable version of the Creston premiere with Solti round out the four-disc set.
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Audio Research Corporation Reference 160S Stereo Power Amplifier
The Audio Research Corporation needs no introduction. Its foundational contribution to the audio world is well established. I have lusted after various ARC products over the last 35 years. Pretty much all ARC’s tube gear—from the 1987 SP9 preamp a neighbor owned when I was starting out to the more recent REF250 power amps, and many products in between—has fostered a kind of “inner life” within recorded music. The even more recent Reference 160M monoblocks vaulted my interest yet higher. When I heard them at industry shows and in audio shops, they sang with a clarity, finesse, and dynamic command that struck me as a new frontier for ARC. Now, we have the stereo version of the 160M—the $22k Reference 160S.
I didn’t have a pair of Ref160M ($34k) monos on hand for direct comparison, but with the stereo Ref160S in my system I did hear qualities very similar to those of the monos in other systems. This is no surprise, since the Ref160S has the same circuitry, tube complement (four KT150, two 6H30 per channel), and power rating (140Wpc) as the monos. The feature set is also the same—output-tube auto-bias, front-panel output-tube monitoring, ultralinear/triode-mode buttons, and “floating” power meters on a see-through faceplate. On the rear panel we have 4-, 8-, and 16-ohm taps, an output-tube hour-counter, a cooling fan control, an auto shut-off, and RCA/XLR input switches. The Ref160S is a bit larger in all dimensions (mostly depth) and weighs a lot more than a single Ref160M (100 pounds vs. 56 pounds), no doubt to accommodate two channels’ worth of stuff in a single chassis. (The only circuitry difference—as far as I can tell—is that the Ref160S shares one power transformer for both channels, whereas the 160M has, of course, one transformer per amplifier.) The stereo amp actually has a slight edge over the mono in aesthetics in my opinion: The 160S’s transformers are covered in their own nice-looking vented cage with the Audio Research logo on top, whereas the 160M has exposed transformers—if one removes its larger, “whole amp” cage cover to expose the tubes. The Ref160S also has two rear handles, which the Ref160M lacks, that make moving its 100-pound chassis easier. (For a more detailed explanation of the Ref160M/160S circuit and tube complement in the context of ARC’s development as a company, please see Executive Editor Jonathan Valin’s excellent Ref160M review in Issue 294. For more information about Audio Research Corporation as a company and its contribution to the audio arts, please refer to the ARC section in The Absolute Sound’s Illustrated History of High-End Audio, Volume Two: Electronics.)
Right from the start, the Ref160S had a wonderful, fluid, agile quality. Music skipped along with engaging litheness that did not immediately scream “classic tube amp,” in the sense of imparting a slight sluggishness on transients and some looseness in the bass. Actually, the Ref160S is the most powerful, nimble, and neutral-sounding tube amp I have had in my system. (For twenty years, until 2009, I used to run mostly new [not vintage] tube preamps and power amps exclusively.) The Ref160S combines just a touch of warm-side-of-neutral tonal balance with remarkably low—for a powerful tube amp—underlying noise, so it joins a group of tube gear from brands such as VTL, VAC, Lamm, Ypsilon, and Atma-Sphere that bucks classic tube amp sound in this regard.
In keeping with tubes’ typical strengths, the Ref160S had both midrange resolution and 3-D depth—both of the larger soundscape and of individual images—in spades. Though not quite as extended at the extremes as some good solid-state amps, it also expanded midrange resolution to the immediately adjacent parts of the frequency spectrum—to a degree that helped everything sound more realistic and less obviously “tube-processed.” Mind you, the Ref160S’s top end was a little softer than I am used to from the solid-state amps (Gamut, Constellation, Hegel) I have been recently using, but I did not get the sense that I was missing much sonic information when I considered the whole picture. In fact, the Ref160S reproduced the gestalt (as TAS founder Harry Pearson liked to say) of a full orchestra in a way that made me think, “Wow, that gets a lot of it right!”
It may seem like a conundrum, but the Ref160S had such a low noise floor and its image boundaries were so free of “electronic etch” or “fizz” that its upper frequencies might strike some listeners as missing the last bit of extension and information, compared to certain other amplifiers. But the Ref160S actually made music sound more lifelike, to my ear, than most other amplifiers in terms of its refined image outlines and lack of electronic grain. Maybe it was the sense of continuousness that tubes bring to bear, or the midrange lucidity, or the sense of physical presence, or the wonderful musicians-in-a-hall effect with their trailing tails of notes lingering in space a bit longer (all of which the Ref160S does so well) that contributed to an overall “reminiscent-of-live” impression. Because of this truly fine realistic quality, I was motivated to revisit some of my classical LP collection: the Poulenc Concerto for Strings, Tympani, and Organ [Erato], Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne [EMI], and Mozart’s Concerto No. 21 in C Major [Phillips] were reproduced with remarkably natural-sounding details and immediacy. I found new aspects of the performances’ phrasing and developmental arc—new “musical meaning,” if you will—with the Ref160 in play. (Choreographers Glen Tetley [Voluntaries], Leslie Jane Pessimier, [Les Chansons] and Jiří Kylián [Petite Mort] used the music listed above, respectively, to create wonderful neo-classical dance works, by the way.)
Pop and rock had forward momentum in a parallel to the lucid gestalt in classical music. There was plenty of transient snap and power to give well-recorded drum kit, for example, the sense of acceleration that well-recorded drums contribute to the mix. I didn’t hear the Ref160S’s musical appeal across different genres as overtly euphonic as such; rather, the Ref160S simply brought out elements in recordings that illuminated the artistic expression inherent in music more readily—provided the recordings had decent performances and were well recorded in the first place, of course. It was as if the musicians had a particularly good night at the concert hall, club, or recording studio. We have probably all attended a live performance on one evening and then heard the same group or orchestral program again on another night and regarded one evening’s performance as better than the other. The players were clicking more with each other or the singer was in particularly good voice or the sound engineer got the levels and microphones’ phase-matching right. The Ref160S seemed to have the effect of making home listening sessions come closer to a superior evening’s performance. When one of my long-time audiophile friends said upon hearing a few cuts through the Ref160S, “Wow, the music sounds really alive—I could easily live with that amp,” I got it.
The Ref160S had a very deep soundstage, the deepest I have heard in my system. Front-to-back layering was continuous and closer to real life than many amps can muster, especially amps of the solid-state variety. Images within the soundscape were fleshed out as more completely formed sound sources created by real people and instruments in space, rather than as flat cutouts or bas-relief tableaux. The front of the soundscape was moved more forward than I am used to, so this—combined with slightly narrower soundstage width—created an overall stage that was sometimes closer to a cube in shape than to a rectangle whose width is greater than its depth. I suspect some of the amp’s slightly narrower soundstaging could be the result of the Ref160S being a stereo amp rather than a monoblock. (All things being equal, a pair of monoblocks tend to cast a wider soundstage than the equivalent stereo version.) Also, I believe the Ref160S is meant to be paired with an ARC preamp, like a Ref10 or Ref6SE, which themselves recreate very wide, expansive soundscapes. (Unfortunately, an ARC preamp was not available during the review period to test this hypothesis.)
Bass was deep reaching and powerful. The Ref160S’ plumbed the depths with ease, not exactly a typical tube amp’s forte, especially when one considers the speaker I used was the YG Sonja 2.2, which generally fares better with a high-current solid-state amp. While not quite matching the speed and definition of some solid-state amps, the Ref160S had the best bass pitch definition and stability of any tube amp in my system. Dynamics were also very good, both macro and micro. The big, meaty sound the Ref160S produced stemmed, in large part, from its ability to track bass-laden dynamic peaks with sustained control. The Ref160S never clipped or showed signs of strain while in ultralinear mode. It did lose control and clip, however, on the big orchestral stuff while in triode mode (70Wpc). I think most folks who listen in triode mode would presume it is better suited to smaller, less demanding music (or to an easy-load speaker). Speaking of triode and ultralinear modes, I did nearly all of my listening in ultralinear. While the triode mode did offer some additional warmth and intimacy on smaller-scale music, I didn’t find the difference compelling enough to be worth switching back and forth between the two modes on appropriate music selections. On the whole, I found ultralinear to sound tonally closer to neutral and more dynamically responsive.
The Ref160 gives off a lot of heat, but that comes with powerful tube-amp territory. ARC uses cooling fans to keep operating temperatures within optimal range and extend tube life. Since I placed the Ref160S in front of my equipment rack to make connecting it to and from my system easier, I did hear the fan during very quiet music passages, even with the fan speed set to low. I believe most users would place the amp in a more room-friendly position, and that would, no doubt, be farther away from the listening position. Let me add, the Ref160M/S aesthetics are a welcome change for ARC whose typical look has tended to be more industrial and functional. I liked the see-through faceplate, but I turned off the lighted VU meters, as I found them to be a little distracting. A friend thought they looked really cool and wanted to see them with their light level all the way up. (There are three levels plus off.)
The winning combination of a low noise floor, which allows details to emerge in an unforced way, and very high levels of image solidity, which produces a closer-to-live listening experience, is central to the Ref160S’s appeal. Add in uncommonly good bass presence and dynamic control, and you have a tube amp that goes a long way to furthering the strengths of valves while mitigating their typical weaknesses.
To my mind, the Ref160S doesn’t try to sound like a solid-state amp as such; it is, rather, a high-quality amp in its own right, and can outperform most solid-state designs in depth layering and musical fluidity. If you feel like venturing into the glories of tubes or continuing your tube amp adventures on a different plane, consider the Ref160S. It is highly recommended.
Tube complement: Two matched pairs KT150; two 6H30 per channel
Power output: 140Wpc (20Hz–20kHz)
THD: Typically 1% at 140 watts, below 0.04% at 1 watt, 1kHz
Power bandwidth: 5Hz to 70kHz (–3dB points)
Frequency response: (-3dB points at 1 watt) 0.5Hz to 110kHz
Input sensitivity: 2.4V RMS balanced for rated output
Gain: 25.5dB into 8 ohms
Input impedance: 300k ohms, balanced; 100k ohms, single-ended
Output taps: 16 ohms, 8 ohms, 4 ohms
Damping factor: Approximately 14
Overall negative feedback: 14dB
Slew rate: 13 volts/microsecond
Rise time: 2.0 microseconds
Dimensions: 19.0″ x 10.25″ x 21.5″ (with handles and connectors: 24″)
Weight: 100 lbs. (net)
AUDIO RESEARCH CORPORATION
6655 Wedgwood Road North, Suite 115
audioresearch.com
Analog source: Basis Debut V turntable & Vector 4 tonearm, Benz-Micro LP-S MR cartridge
Phonostage: Simaudio Moon 610LP
Digital sources: Hegel Mohican CDP, HP Envy 15t running JRiver MC-20, Hegel HD30 DAC
Linestages: Ayre K-1xe, Hegel P30, Constellation Audio Virgo III
Integrated amplifier: Hegel H390
Power amplifiers: Gamut M250i, Hegel H30
Speakers: YG Acoustics Sonja 2.2, Raidho TD1.2, Dynaudio Confidence C1 Signature
Cables: Shunyata Sigma signal cables, Nordost Heimdall 2 USB, Shunyata Alpha S/PDIF and AES/EBU, Shunyata Sigma NR and Omega XC power cords
A/C power: Two 20-amp dedicated lines, Shunyata SR-Z1 receptacles, Shunyata Everest 8000 and Typhon power conditioners
Accessories: PrimeAcoustic Z-foam panels and DIY panels, Stillpoints Ultra SS
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The following is a press release issued by KEF.
Marlboro NJ, 14th January 2021 – Audio Manufacturer KEF is releasing a brand new groundbreaking technology called Uni-Core, which delivers a completely new take on speaker and subwoofer design. This latest innovative technology developed by KEF redefines size versus performance by enabling high-level performance while reducing the subwoofer or speaker cabinet volume significantly.
With the ambition to create an aesthetically pleasing piece of audio equipment to complement your living room, it was also imperative that KEF not only maintain but excel in their delivery of accurate and deep bass. Between desirable aesthetics and uncompromising performance the first challenge was fitting two drivers into a compact cube enclosure.
“To deliver deep and loud bass from a compact product is a big engineering challenge,” says Dr. Jack Oclee-Brown, Head of Research & Development at KEF. “The Uni-core is a breakthrough technology for KEF because it allows us to pack two drivers into a tighter space without compromising their performance.”
Uni-Core uses two dual force-cancelling drivers with concentrically arranged, overlapping voice coils, that are driven by a single motor to provide stunning bass performance from a small enclosure. The voice-coils are different sizes and occupy the same physical space within the Uni-Core driver assembly. This allows for an extremely compact physical cabinet with significantly reduced volume when compared to subwoofers that rely on conventional driver technology.
The saved space provides the drivers far more excursion than an equivalent-sized, force-cancelling design, unlocking more output and depth from much less space. This patent-pending technology smoothly delivers powerful and deep bass response while removing the space concerns that are often obstacles to premium subwoofer performance.
The new Uni-Core technology will be applied in an upcoming KEF product that will be announced this month. To discover more on KEF, please visit: https://us.kef.com/.
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After a decade in limbo, Dallas-bred alt-rock cult favorites Secret Machines return with an emotionally charged and sonically forceful fourth album. Building on the kinetic flavor of their haunting 2004 debut Now Here Is Nowhere, Awake in the Brain Chamber is a volume-challenging mesh of fiery guitar, evocative keyboards, and propulsive drumming. It’s a fitting homage to their onetime bandmate guitarist Benjamin Curtis, who left the fold in 2007 and sadly passed away from lymphoma in 2013. Working on and off for 10 years, surviving bassist/keyboardist/vocalist Brandon Curtis (Benjamin’s older brother) and drummer Josh Garza honed eight songs that blend unavoidable melancholy with a fierce drive to plow forward. Aptly named opener “Let’s Stay Alive” crackles with the full force of Garza’s muscular drumming, while Curtis’ dreamy vocals serve as a 21st-century bridge between the Machines’ inherent shoegazing tendencies and unabashed space-rock heroics. “Everything Starts” sews in sinewy guitar accents from the late Benjamin Curtis, and the guttural “Talos’ Corpse” teems with defiant resolve. Brain Chamber is a welcome reawakening from a long-lost band not yet ready to sign off on their final chapter.
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Jonathan Valin wrote the following essay in response to the Point/Counterpoint in the last issue, in which Robert Greene and I presented diametrically opposed views of the roles of listening and measurement in evaluating audio equipment. —Robert Harley
To start, let me just say that I am very very glad that Dr. Robert E. Greene has recovered from his illness. If you’re comparing big differences to littler ones, what could be bigger than surviving a near-death experience, where being here and not being here are the stakes? I am extremely happy that Dr. Greene is still with us. The petty disagreements about hi-fi that he and I have had over the years matter not—hi-fi itself matters not—in this biggest of all pictures.
Having said that (and said it from my heart), I have to add that denying the existence of sonic differences because they are “too small” to verify by measurement is the exact opposite of Harry Pearson’s “observational” approach to hi-fi. This is not to say that questioning or expanding upon Harry’s ideas (which is what Dr. Greene is doing and what I myself have done and am about to do) is verboten; it’s just that quoting Harry incredibly selectively to support your position on, oh, wide-dispersion loudspeakers and soundstaging, while simultaneously going squarely against his core idea (which is that listening trumps measurement, always and invariably) is more than a bit misleading.
But rather than chastising Dr. Greene for heresy, let me confess one (very big) heresy of my own: I don’t believe in the absolute sound—at least, I don’t believe in it exclusively. Instead, I see three closely related but nonetheless distinctive and equally valid ways of listening to stereo systems and judging their excellence.
My first group of listeners, staked out by Harry and this magazine, is what I call the “absolute sound” bunch. For them, the thing that matters most is how closely and convincingly reproduced sound approaches the sound of the real thing. It doesn’t really matter how a speaker or amplifier or turntable or server manages to create the illusion of actual acoustic instruments in a real space; all that matters is that it does—whether that be by design, accident, coincidence, or adherence to or deliberate departure from the measurable (or un-) “truth.”
While profoundly important and influential, the idea of the absolute sound is not unproblematic. The trouble is that the absolute sound, as I often said to HP, isn’t absolute. What you hear in a concert hall is fundamentally dependent on all kinds of variables (e.g., the hall’s acoustics, where you’re seated in the hall, how the players themselves are spaced on the stage floor, what kind of instruments they are playing, how “warmed up” or not those instruments are, etc.). The result of all this relativity is that what sounds “absolute” to you in your orchestra section seat close by the double basses (which is where Harry customarily sat in Carnegie Hall) may be—in fact, will be, in ways large and small—different than what sounds “absolute” to another listener who sits in the center of the orchestra section or nearer to the strings, or in a loge or a balcony seat.
My second group of listeners is also looking for the absolute sound, but with an essential proviso: These folks want to hear voices and instruments sound fully realistic when—and only when—the recording has been made in a way that permits them to sound fully realistic. This is what I call the “accuracy” school of listeners, who aren’t really listening first and foremost to music, but rather to the quality of recordings. Fidelity to what is on an LP or a bitstream becomes the central goal of the stereo system and reproducing what was actually miked, mixed, and mastered, warts and all, overrules other considerations.
The trouble here is that determining what was “actually” recorded is fraught with its own set of problems, not the least of which is the inescapable fact that a recording is made and monitored through a set of speakers (or headphones) and electronics that are fundamentally different than those through which that recording is being played back in your listening room.
Of course, you could (if you had the access) turn to someone who was actually at the recording session for an informed opinion on how “faithful” your playback is, but then you start bumping up against some of the same issues that vex absolute sound listeners (e.g., where was that audience member seated vis-à-vis the microphones used at the recording session—and how did what he or she heard differ from what the microphones heard at their locations, how reliable is his or her “sonic memory” of the event, how much of what he or she heard is actually reflected in the finished product where edits, compression, and overdubs may have been used, etc.).
Which kind of brings us back to the ineluctable relativity of the listening experience, in the concert hall, in the recording studio, and in the home—a conundrum that is solved (or at least overstepped) by my third group: the “as you like it” or “musicality first” listeners.
By far the largest of my three sets, musicality listeners are simply looking for a good time. They could care less if the system sounds like the absolute (save to the degree that voices and instruments sounding real increases their enjoyment of and involvement with what they’re hearing), and they aren’t concerned if a system is faithful to sources (save to the extent that better-sounding records make listening more exciting and fun). Truth is, this group is not interested in sound per se. Its adherents are interested in what sound does to them, physically, emotionally, and intellectually. They’re looking for a facsimile of the rapture they feel in a rock club or a concert hall; they’re looking for delight.
Obviously, the problem with putting musicality ahead of everything else is that one man’s musical is another’s mush. In worst case scenarios, musicality amounts to subjectivity taken to an entirely personal extreme. There can be no general standard of what constitutes excellent playback because no standard (except one’s own) is needed or applies. Put simply, you like what you like.
As I noted earlier, these three groups are interrelated: They share a love of “better” sound. What constitutes “better” is where they differ.
This brings me to a fourth set of listeners—one that Dr. Greene, at least in part, seems to sympathize with—the bunch that listens primarily to numbers.
Based on long experience, I don’t fully relate to this group. Oh, I understand the role that measurements play in designing, say, a loudspeaker, just as I understand the role that measurements play in following a recipe for a mille-feuille pastry or a plate of lièvre à la royale. What I don’t understand is how measurements taken with a microphone from one or even from several spots in an RFZ or an anechoic chamber or a quasi-anechoic setup can tell you, save in broad outlines, what that speaker is going to sound like in a real-world listening room, hooked up to real-world sources, amplifiers, and cables. For me, determining that requires actual listening, just as that pastry or plate of lièvre requires actual tasting.
I used to pester Harry with some of these thoughts—to get his goat. But whenever I started to go on about, say, the relativity of the absolute sound, he’d stop me short with a single prescient observation that could’ve been his byword: “We all know real when we hear it.” In other words, real is real, whether you’re sitting in the first row or the cheap seats, whether you’re listening to an RCA or a Mercury, whether you’re a fan of acoustic music or rock ’n’ roll.
“We all know real when we hear it.” Figuring out why that should be the case in the face of the obvious contradiction (to wit, a stereo system is manifestly not a real symphony orchestra or a string quartet or a rock group) has been the challenge of a hi-fi lifetime. And I haven’t figured it out yet, save to speculate (as I’ve done recently) that when a stereo sounds “real” it isn’t just a matter of superior parts (such as more powerful intensity, flatter-measuring timbre, longer duration, or more perfect pitch) but also of the way those parts are grouped together—of their gestalt—and that this magical gestalt regrouping of parts depends in some unmistakable way on the neutrality and completeness of the presentation. It is that neutrality and completeness that allows a stereo system to disappear like the Cheshire cat, leaving behind only the music—the cat’s grin.
Well, that’s it, folks. At least, from this corner of The Absolute Sound world. It may not be satisfying and it certainly isn’t specific, but…it’s the best I can do when it comes to summarizing how we listen.
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As a long-time user of various Shunyata Research AC power conditioners and power cords, I’ve been fascinated to discover how the company’s products have evolved with each new generation. In performance there’s been unmistakable forward progress, with lower noise and an attendant increase in clarity, resolution, and soundstaging. But Shunyata’s new flagship Everest 8000 power conditioner breaks this trend; rather than offering an incremental improvement, the Everest 8000 represents a significant leap in sound quality—one that redefines what’s possible in AC power conditioning. I think it’s no coincidence that the Everest benefits from some of the technologies Shunyata founder and designer Calin Gabriel developed for his AC power conditioners used in medical laboratories. A few years ago, a cardiologist who spent much of his time battling residual noise while looking at extremely low-level electrical signals in heart patients made a surprising discovery. The cardiologist, an audiophile who happened to use a Shunyata power conditioner in his home-audio system, speculated that if the Shunyata conditioner lowered the noise floor in his music system, it might confer similar benefits in his medical lab.
After plugging his lab equipment into the Shunyata conditioner, he was surprised and delighted to discover that the AC conditioner allowed him to more clearly see the heart’s low-level electrical signals. He contacted Shunyata to share his experience, which eventually led Shunyata to start a whole new company, Clear Image Scientific, to design and manufacture AC power-conditioning devices for cardiac labs. The new company has grown exponentially, leading Gabriel to research and develop advanced new techniques to isolate, to an unprecedented degree, sensitive medical equipment from AC line noise. Some of those techniques have now been deployed in Shunyata’s AC conditioners for audio. How Clear Image Scientific sells its products says much about their efficacy; the company demonstrates the gear in a hospital for cardiologists, who can see for themselves the effect of reducing noise on the AC powerline.
Turning back to audio, the Everest is a vertical tower with a sloping front panel that narrows toward the top in a kind of truncated-pyramid shape (as seen from the front). This vertical form factor means the Everest sits on the floor next to your equipment rack rather than taking up shelf space. A blue LED, which is mercifully faint, indicates when the Everest is powered on. The rear panel holds eight AC outlets, each supported by Shunyata’s excellent cable-cradle system, which secures the AC cord to the power conditioner. An IEC C19 AC jack (20 ampere) accepts the AC cord that connects the Everest to your wall socket. The Everest isn’t supplied with this C19 cord; you need to provide your own. Because this cord essentially supplies your entire audio system, you’ll want to use a good one. Shunyata sent me its new Omega XC for this application, which costs nearly as much as the Everest ($8000 vs. $7000). An electromagnetic breaker switch turns the Everest on and off, but this switch is not a master power switch for your system. Rather, it is an over-current protection device.
The Everest features Shunyata’s Ground-Plane Noise-Reduction (GP-NR) system, which consists of four grounding posts on the rear of the unit. The idea is that you run a wire from each of your components to the Everest’s grounding posts so that all your equipment is grounded to the same electrical potential. Although most components (preamps, DACs, servers, etc.) lack a grounding post, you can connect the ground wire to a chassis screw and achieve the same effect. Shunyata offers grounding cables made from flexible stranded wire that’s easy to work with. Ground posts are common on professional and telecommunications gear for good reason: If some of your components’ grounds are at a different electrical potential (voltage) than other components, and those components are connected through interconnects, a small amount of electrical current will flow along the ground path provided by the interconnect. We hear this current flow as noise and hum. Preventing these noise-inducing “ground loops” is why I specified that each run of 10AWG to the five dedicated AC lines to my listening room be of the same length. With identical-length runs, the ground potential will be the same in each line. It’s common in professional gear for every component in a metal rack to be grounded with a braided wire to the rack.
The Everest’s technology is based on that of the Hydra Triton and Typhon conditioners, but with some new twists in technologies, construction, and materials. Before describing the Everest’s design, we should review the goal of a power conditioner. In addition to distributing power to multiple components, an AC conditioner should block noise on the AC line from getting into your audio components. Most people think that this is a conditioner’s primary function. But a conditioner’s most important job is preventing noise from traveling from one component to another. Think of a digital component, filled with chips that switch high-speed digital signals on and off. This switching creates noise that gets on the component’s ground plane. The AC cords in your system are the conduits for that noise, conducting it from one component to all your other components, degrading performance. A good conditioner blocks and dissipates this noise, isolating the components from each other.
Each of the Everest’s eight outlets features Shunyata’s CCI (Component-to-Component Interface) filters—a series of multi-stage filters that removes noise. Noise is further reduced by Shunyata’s patented NIC (Noise Isolation Chamber), a device that contains a ferroelectric material that absorbs high-frequency noise. The NIC was originally developed for the Hydra Triton. A different type of noise filter, called “CMode,” reportedly reduces common-mode noise.
Another technology from the Triton/Typhon products is QR/BB, a circuit that delivers additional instantaneous current for brief transients, reducing dynamic compression. Unlike many conditioners that diminish the ability to deliver high-current pulses, QR/BB is claimed to increase impulse-current delivery via a circuit that lowers the inductive reactance. The Everest’s QR/BB device is three times the size of that in the Denali, Shunyata’s previous flagship conditioner. This feature is useful when power amplifiers or integrated amplifiers get their power through the Everest. Unlike a preamp or a DAC that draws a small amount of current continuously, a power amplifier pulls current from the wall in very short bursts (at the tops and bottoms of the 60Hz AC sinewave). If the conditioner restricts these instantaneous current surges, the amplifier will be starved for power, compromising musical dynamics. In designing the Everest, Shunyata relied on its proprietary test instrument, called the Dynamic Transient Current Delivery (DTCD) analyzer, to measure instantaneous current flow through low-impedance conductors and contacts.
The outlets are Shunyata’s CopperCONN, with contacts and conductors made from thick pieces of solid high-purity oxygen-free copper. They also provide better grip on the blades of an AC cord plugged into them than conventional AC outlets. I installed these outlets in each of the five dedicated AC lines that run to my listening room when I built the room. The Everest’s internal wiring is Shunyata’s ArNi conductors, made from certified OFE C10100 copper, and fashioned into hollow tubes to reduce skin effect. The conductors are treated with Shunyata’s KPIP (Kinetic Phase-Inversion Process), which reportedly eliminates the need for break-in, and improves the sound. Many of the components are cryogenically treated in Shunyata’s own cryo lab. Finally, the chassis and internal structures are treated with vibration-damping panels, and the outlets are physically de-coupled from the chassis for further vibration isolation.
I know that’s a mouthful of alphabet soup, but illustrates that the Everest is packed with technologies that Shunyata has developed over the past 25 years, many of them patented.
The Omega XC power cord features Shunyata’s VTX-Ag conductors that are made from an outer tube of purified copper surrounding a silver conductor. The cord has CopperCONN connectors encased in a carbon-fiber housing at both ends. Once assembled, the Omega XC is treated with the KIPP processing described earlier. Note that the step-up power cord, the Omega QR, incorporates noise-reduction technologies within the cable. Nonetheless, Shunyata recommends the Omega XC with the Everest. Both Omega Series cords are available in a range of carbon-fiber colors.
I replaced the Hydra Triton and Typhon combination that I’d been using for a few years with the Everest to power my front-end equipment. My equipment racks are at the back of the room behind the listening seat, and the power amplifiers are at the other end between the speakers. The power amps were plugged straight into the wall sockets.
When I’ve upgraded Shunyata’s conditioners in the past, I’ve usually heard an incremental improvement in dynamics, soundstaging, and the rendering of instrumental timbres. But the Everest/Omega XC combination realized, by far, the most significant improvement in my system. The change in sound quality was more of a step function than an incremental advance. It’s worth noting that my current system is extremely revealing of every change, good or bad.
Swapping in the Everest and Omega XC brought out the best in my system, heightening those qualities I value. The most immediate improvement was in the way the soundstage expanded in all dimensions, particularly in depth. Interestingly, the entire stage became slightly less forward and immediate, like moving from Row C to Row M. But at the same time, the spatial presentation became more three-dimensional, with instruments toward the back of the stage sounding much farther away. The apparent distance between instruments in the front and back of the orchestra expanded. A few minutes into The Rite of Spring (Eiji Oue, Minnesota, Reference Recordings, MQA at 176.4kHz) a contrabassoon plays a short, virtually unaccompanied passage. The Everest presented the instrument as way back in the orchestra, with very fine resolution of the reflections and reverberation that supply the brain with distance cues. Despite the slightly less immediate spatial perspective, the sense of vividness and tangibility increased.
But that’s not what make the Everest/Omega XC so compelling. Rather, it was the way this new conditioner resolved the air and space between instruments, giving the sound a greater dimensionality that was closer to what one hears from live music. I could hear a more tangible sense of the cushion of air around each instrument, particularly on dynamic passages. The feeling of sound expanding from the instrument was more realistic. This impression was heightened by the tighter focus of the image itself, along with the greater delineation between the image and the air around it. This may sound like an esoteric analysis of a not-that-important perception, but this more realistic portrayal of instrumental images, the immediate space around them, and the greater space of the hall went a long way toward making me forget I was listening to a recreation of music. It was just more organic and lifelike. In addition, the finer spatial resolution and more vivid presentation of individual instruments made it easier to follow each instrument’s musical line within the whole. The track “The Cowboys Overture” from John Williams at The Movies (176.4/24 downloaded from Reference Recordings) took on much more sonic and musical clarity, with each instrument, section, and musical line more clearly resolved.
I’ve noticed that my colleague Andrew Quint mentions in his reviews a track that I also happen to like, and also use in evaluating equipment. “Back Row Politics” from Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band Act Your Age features three virtuoso trumpet players trading off extended, high-energy solos. After adding the Everest to my system, the trumpets had less glare, along with more richness, warmth, and body.
Finally, I heard an increase in dynamic impact, particularly in the bass. This is one of my system’s strong suits, but the Everest took transient fidelity and visceral impact to another level of realism.
The Everest 8000 AC conditioner and Omega XC power cord are, in my view, the best components to come out of Shunyata Research, a company with a long history of developing great products. The Everest allowed the outstanding components in my system to perform at their highest level by providing them with an ultra-quiet and clean power source. The Everest 8000 and Omega XC have become essential parts of my reference system.
Type: Eight-outlet AC conditioner
Maximum continuous current: 30A (US version)
Maximum continuous current per outlet: 15A (US version)
Isolation zones: Six
Noise suppression: Input to output (100kHz–30MHz): >50dB reduction; zone-to-zone (100kHz–30MHz): >60dB reduction
Over-current protection: Hydraulic electromagnetic breaker
Wiring: 8 -gauge ArNi® VTX™ Buss system; 10 gauge ArNi® VTX™ wiring
Dimensions: 8″ x 20.75″ x 14.75″
Omega XC Power Cord
Technology: VTX-Ag conductors
26273 Twelve Trees Lane, Ste D
shunyata.com
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Chronosonic XVX, Wilson Subsonic subwoofers (x2), Wilson ActivXO crossover
Analog source: Basis Audio A.J. Conti Transcendence turntable with SuperArm 12.5 tonearm; Air Tight Opus cartridge; Moon 810LP phonostage; DS Audio ST-50 stylus cleaner
Digital source: Aurender W20SE and Wadax Atlantis servers, Berkeley Audio Design Alpha DAC Reference Series 3 and Wadax Reference DACs; Berkeley Alpha USB USB-to-AES/EBU converter; Shunyata Sigma USB cable; AudioQuest Wild Digital AES/EBU cable
Amplification: Constellation Altair 2 preamplifier; Constellation Hercules 2 monoblock power amplifiers, Constellation Centaur 2 stereo (driving subwoofers)
AC Power: Five dedicated 20A lines terminated with Shunyata AC outlets
Support: Critical Mass Systems Olympus equipment racks and Olympus amplifier stands; CenterStage2 isolation
Cables: Shunyata Sigma interconnects; AudioQuest WEL Signature interconnects; AudioQuest Dragon Zero and Dragon Bass loudspeaker cables
Acoustics: Acoustic Geometry Pro Room Pack 12
Room: Purpose-built; Acoustic Sciences Corporation Iso-Wall System
LP cleaning: Klaudio KD-CLN-LP200, Levin Design record brush
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2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee Ushers in Luxury Sound by McIntosh
The following is a press release issued by McIntosh.
BINGHAMTON, NY (January 7, 2021) – The new 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee, now with three rows of seating, will debut with the auto industry’s only sound system made by the legends in luxury home audio, McIntosh Laboratory. Available first in the 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee L, the MX950 McIntosh Entertainment System is available in Overland and Summit models and comes standard when equipped with the Summit Reserve Package.
The collaboration between McIntosh and the Jeep brand has been a match made in America. The Jeep brand understands McIntosh’s goal is to carry its exceedingly high standards for sound into vehicles in an authentic way. That said, this partnership didn’t happen overnight.
Seeds for MX950 McIntosh Entertainment System for the Jeep Grand Cherokee were planted four years ago when engineers from both organizations collaborated on the Grand Wagoneer concept vehicle revealed this past September. And now with the Jeep Grand Cherokee L, customers will soon be able to experience what it is like having a McIntosh Entertainment System with them on-the-go. It is sure to be “Legendary Performance in Motion.”
For over seven decades, McIntosh has been on the leading edge of high-end home audio and popular culture with sound systems handcrafted in their factory in Binghamton, NY. The company’s amplifiers were used to power the original Woodstock and the Grateful Dead’s groundbreaking “Wall of Sound” which cemented McIntosh’s reputation as a true American icon.
But McIntosh is no stranger to car audio, having delved into both OEM and aftermarket fitments in the 1990s. In the new millennium, McIntosh developed custom solutions for Harley Davidson special editions, and the 100th anniversary edition of the Ford GT. The MX950 McIntosh Entertainment System for the Jeep Grand Cherokee will take sound quality to the next level, much the same way Jeep Grand Cherokee has repeatedly reset the bar in sport utility vehicles.
“We understand that customers don’t just want great sound,” said Charlie Randall, President of McIntosh Laboratory, Inc. “They want to get a full sensory experience. And that’s why it was so important that we left no stone unturned to deliver a true McIntosh Entertainment System for the Jeep Grand Cherokee L. We’re thrilled to bring our brand to a whole new group of people who may never have experienced McIntosh before.”
To ensure McIntosh luxury home audio experience was replicated in the vehicle, engineers from both companies worked hand-in-hand to fuse form and function into the system architecture. Engineers constantly went back and forth between the test vehicle and the McIntosh Reference Room itself to ensure a truly authentic McIntosh experience, even in a car. The resulting system is so revolutionary, it doesn’t just bring the performance to you, it brings you to the performance.
The MX950 McIntosh Entertainment System boasts 19 speakers in 12 optimal locations to deliver precision sound through every inch of the vehicle and a 17-channel amplifier delivers up to 950Watts of power. The system has LD/HP® speaker design to lower distortion and McIntosh Power Guard for unrivaled clarity even at very high-volume levels. The most advanced materials technologies were used to make components lighter, yet stronger, so speakers respond faster in delivering timely sonic reproduction. The occupants are enveloped in a massive sweet spot to hear music with zero coloration, just as the artist intended.
The shared vision between Jeep and McIntosh was to integrate the same level of authenticity and design language from the McIntosh home audio products into the Jeep Grand Cherokee. The system incorporates McIntosh’s iconic styling cues such as the metal ridged control knobs, in the look and feel that have made McIntosh instantly recognizable to fans around the world. Backlit logos on the door speaker grilles accent the vehicle’s interior lighting with McIntosh’s signature blue. The Jeep Grand Cherokee L’s subwoofer grille is emblazoned with the McIntosh “Mc” logo as it appears in McIntosh Monogrammed Heatsinks™. It is truly a treat for the eyes as well as the ears!
The 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee L is equipped with the MX950 McIntosh Entertainment System and will arrive in Jeep dealerships in the second quarter of 2021.
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With the increasingly widespread streaming of digital music content to our audio systems, either from discs or streaming services (e.g., Tidal or Qobuz), many audiophiles are finding the need for an audio-grade Ethernet switch to connect their home computer network modems, routers, computers, drive arrays, etc. to an increasingly wide array of devices to mediate the transfer of digital content to digital-to-analog converters. As my digital streaming “front-end” has been in development for the last year and half or so, I’m finding there are now better audiophile-grade solutions that provide network access to my nearly 4TB of disc-based digital content, and to new content via streaming services.
UpTone Audio is a small audio-products firm based in Northern California. Company principal and founder, Alex Crespi, has been in the audio business for over 30 years, and was one of the co-founders of the well-regarded audio products company, Hovland, which was started in 1999 and closed in 2009. UpTone was founded in 2010, and all of its products are developed in close partnership with professional electronics engineer, John Swenson, who has had a long career designing the power-distribution networks deep inside large custom computer chips (the sort of devices that run high-speed network data centers). As UpTone Audio, Crespi and Swenson have developed a successful range of products for digital playback including the REGEN line of digital audio products and the UltraCap line of linear power supplies for digital components and music servers. John is also well-known as the hardware engineer for the popular Sonore Rendu series of products.
I purchased my $640 UpTone Audio EtherREGEN in October, 2019, and I can unequivocally say it has been instrumental in getting the audio performance of my digital streaming front end to a level where it is now as fully engaging, immersive, and enjoyable a musical experience as my turntable-based analog system.
Description and Features
The UpTone Audio EtherREGEN Ethernet switch utilizes the same oval-shaped aluminum case used for many UpTone Audio products, and measures 112mm x 110mm x 30mm. Of note, UpTone has specifically designed EtherREGEN so that it does not require an external linear power supply to provide nominal performance. Rather, it comes with an UpTone Audio switch-mode power supply specially designed to prevent the passage of high source-impedance leakage current to the EtherREGEN (more on this later).
The EtherREGEN is unique among Ethernet switches in that it uses a circuit topology called the Active Differential Isolation Moat or ADIM that completely isolates the side of the switch used for connecting network devices (typically the “A” side) from the side connected to the renderer, network bridge, or streamer (typically the “B” side). The ADIM provides electrical, galvanic, and noise isolation between the two sides. I’ll discuss the rationale and function of the “moat” in more detail in its own section in this review.
On the “A” side of EtherREGEN is a SFP (small form-factor, pluggable) cage for making fiber optic connections using an optical transceiver (Figure 1) and an RJ45 module composed of four specially manufactured copper Ethernet ports with status lights. There are 12 transformer cores in each port and the center-taps of these cores are grounded using capacitors to block port-to-port leakage current.
The “B” side of EtherREGEN (Figure 2) has a DC-power barrel jack, ground post, a single 100-Megabit RJ45 port with status lights, a switch for selecting the internal or an external clock, and a BNC connector for connecting an external clock, if hot-rodding your EtherREGEN is desired. The standard impedance for the clock connector is 75-ohm, but a 50-ohm clock connection can be ordered from UpTone Audio at no additional charge. While EtherREGEN works identically in both directions, the “B” side is typically connected to the computer, streamer, network bridge, endpoint renderer, etc., with a copper Ethernet cable. DACs that have an Ethernet input can be directly connected to the “B” port.
Technical Considerations and Design Features
The Active Differential Isolation Moat (ADIM) design is unique to the EtherREGEN, as it provides data-transfer functionality and audio performance that significantly differentiates it from all other Ethernet switches, including those modified for audio applications. EtherREGEN has two data/power/clock domains which are isolated from each other by the ADIM. These two domains are referred to the as “A” side and “B” side, respectively. Each isolated domain is re-clocked, and the clocking system runs from an advanced, programmable, jitter-attenuating clock synthesizer with four differential outputs. It is referenced to an ultra-low-jitter/phase-noise Crystek CCHD-575 oscillator, and the clock distribution system is run differentially throughout. UpTone Audio colloquially refers to the separation provided by the ADIM between the sides of its circuit board as “the moat.”
The rationale for the moat is important because every signal “edge” coming out of any digital device carries the jitter and phase-noise of the clock used to “clock out” that edge. When dealing with Ethernet-based signals, specifically for audio applications, where timing is critical, there are two types or classes of sound-degrading noises that EtherREGEN was designed to mitigate: 1) low and high source-impedance leakage current, and 2) clock phase noise. Clock phase noise travels on the Ethernet signal and on power and ground planes. This phase noise affects the threshold jitter of chips’ clock inputs.
The differential circuitry was specifically designed to eliminate the signal-borne phase noise going from one side of the moat to the other. EtherREGEN is mostly symmetrical—technically, there is no “dirty side” or “clean side.” While ER works identically in both directions, it is best to have the streaming endpoint device (renderer/streamer/network bridge) that connects to the DAC be the only device that is connected to that particular side (typically the “B” side). While the circuitry between the individual RJ45 ports or SFP cage on the “A” side decreases phase-noise effects to some degree, it does not decrease it to the same degree obtained by crossing the moat. This is because crossing the moat makes use of differential isolators in conjunction with differential flip-flops. (Refer to the engineering white paper by John Swenson, Understanding how perturbations on digital signals can affect sound quality without changing bits, and how these issues are addressed by the UpTone EtherREGEN, https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0660/6121/files/UpTone-J.Swenson_EtherREGEN_white_paper.pdf?v=1583429386.) And this is the big advantage: The differential isolators prevent the data-borne clock signature from getting onto the ground plane of the circuit board, while the differential flip-flops prevent the clock phase-noise signature from getting into the flip-flop’s own internal ground network, as well as the ground plane of the rest of the board. It is the use of these two differential isolation methodologies together that provides the performance advantage of EtherREGEN compared to other Ethernet switches.
Physically, EtherREGEN circuitry is mounted on a single, premium, six-layer circuit board, but electronically it is actually two boards (Figure 3). Looking at the EtherREGEN circuit board, we see it is galvanically divided into two parts, the “A” side (lower half of Figure 3) that typically handles network connections, and the “B” side (upper portion of Figure 3) across the moat, which provides the fully isolated signal to the renderer/endpoint.
Transfer of data from one side to the other is mediated using high-speed Analog Devices differential isolators. When the network signal has passed to the other side of the moat via the differential isolators, it is sent to the “B” side electronics that re-clock the data with an ultra-low phase noise Crystek CCHD-575 Crystal oscillator and Silicon Labs jitter-attenuating clock synthesizer (unless the clock switch is set to external, in which case, the external clock signal is used).
This is a key point: Because all the clocking in EtherREGEN is run with differential lines, and the isolators and flip-flops are fully differential, there is no noise overlaid on EtherREGEN’s ground plane by any of the el-cheapo clocks from network devices (e.g. routers, music servers, NAS’s, generic switches, etc.) upstream. Furthermore, no leakage current from switch-mode power supplies from these upstream devices can pass across the moat, either. No other Ethernet switch design does this, and these features are key aspects of EtherREGEN’s unique design because they prevent the data-borne clock signature and leakage currents from getting onto the ground plane of the circuit board and into the DAC, where they will increase jitter in the circuitry. Reduction of phase noise, leakage current, and concomitantly, jitter, are the significant audible benefits that EtherREGEN offers when used in a digital music streaming setup.
Set-up and Configuration
The setup and configuration of EtherREGEN is simple and straightforward. Connect a single copper Ethernet cable from their main network router or switch to any of the RJ45 ports on the “A” side (Figure 4) of EtherREGEN. The remaining three RJ45 ports can be used for other connections, e.g. a music server, NAS, or other network device. If an optical-fiber connection is used, it can be connected to an optical transceiver in the SFP cage on the “A” side.
Depending on the user’s network or requirements, different connection configurations are possible. For example, one could leave the network router music server, NAS, etc. connected to another switch, and make a single Ethernet connection to EtherREGEN as shown in Figure 4. How the connections are configured are primarily a matter of convenience and/or the requirements of the specific network, and UpTone says the effects of different configurations on sonic performance are likely to be small, if any.
Networking Setup for Evaluation
I made my evaluations of the EtherREGEN compared to a consumer-grade TP-Link Ethernet switch, as I did not have access to any other “audiophile-grade” Ethernet switches. Since I am using a run of fiber from the bedroom study, where the music server, router, and switches are located, to the main audio rack, I also used a consumer-grade TP-link fiber-media converter (FMC) in conjunction with the TP-link Ethernet switch. It’s important to understand that the base configuration was composed of two networking devices used together to stream the data: the consumer Ethernet switch and a fiber-media converter. The run of fiber connected at the downstream end in the main audio rack to a Sonore Optical Module that was connected by a Shunyata Sigma copper Ethernet cable to my SOtM SMS-200 UltraNeo network bridge, which serves as my endpoint/renderer, as shown in the base networking configuration in Figure 5.
For my configuration with EtherREGEN, I replaced the generic TP-link FMC with the Sonore OpticalModule at the upstream end; the Mac Mini music server and OpticalModule were connected to the RJ45 ports on my network router with Shunyata Sigma Ethernet cables. The OpticalModule was connected with a forty-foot run of optical fiber downstream to EtherREGEN’s “A” side via it’s SFP cage in my main audio rack. A Shunyata Sigma Ethernet cable from the “B” side of EtherREGEN was connected to my SOtM SMS-200 UltraNeo renderer/endpoint, which was connected to my Schiit Gungnir Multibit DAC with a Shunyata Alpha USB cable. The configuration using EtherREGEN is shown in Figure 6.
Power Connections for Network Devices
Because of the insidious and audible problems of leakage current, caused by the use of switch-mode power supplies in virtually almost all network devices, I paid special attention to the quality of power for the devices in the digital streaming chain. In my base configuration, when the TP-link Ethernet switch and FMC were used, they were powered by Jameco Reliapro linear power supplies; my Pace router used its standard switch-mode power supply with a home-made connector that shunts high source-impedance leakage current to ground. For the purposes of this review, the Mac Mini music server was powered with a Shunyata Venom V14D digital power cord, and the Sonore OpticalModule was powered with an UpTone Audio LPS-1 power supply. Both the UpTone LPS-1 and the Mac Mini were plugged into a Cryoparts power strip powered by a Shunyata V12 NR power cord. The Shunyata V12 NR power cord provides approximately 12dB of noise reduction for the power strip, and the Venom V14D digital power cord, specifically designed for devices that utilize switch-mode power supplies (e.g. the Mac Mini), provides another 12dB of noise reduction. In the main audio rack, the EtherREGEN was evaluated using the supplied UpTone Audio power supply, and the SOtM SMS-200 UltraNeo endpoint renderer was powered by a Keces P3 linear power supply. Both of these power supplies were powered by Shunyata Venom V14D digital power cords plugged into a Shunyata Everest power distributor. All listening evaluations were conducted using my two-channel loudspeaker system described in the addendum.
Listening Impressions
My journey with my digital streaming front end has been one of discovery, experimentation, and reflection. This journey has taught me new ways to listen to digital content that are much more convenient, flexible, and enlightening, specifically when I use the Radio mode of Roon and Qobuz to discover new music. While I was reasonably satisfied with my first digital front end, when I made the decision to run a direct optical fiber cable connection from the music server to the DAC (see my article on streaming via optical fiber in the May issue of TAS), I needed an Ethernet switch. I bought a generic, consumer-grade TP-link switch to connect the router, music server, and my fiber media converter to the network. After installing it, there were aspects of the presentation that I just didn’t like. Upon first listen, the TP-link switch brought improved detail, but upon extended listening it also brought other attributes were very decidedly un-musical.
What I found was, despite the increased detail, there were “components” to the music and presentation that became increasingly irritating, fatiguing, and over longer listening sessions, quite unpleasant to listen to. I found that I couldn’t listen to the system for more than an hour without wanting to leave the room. It turns out that my Pace network router had four RJ45 ports on it, and I found that by not using the TP-link Ethernet switch (and just using the RJ-45 ports in my router) the presentation was actually pretty good. I would have thought that installing a dedicated Ethernet switch should have sounded better than the ports in a generic Internet router, but every time I put the TP-link switch back into the network (regardless of recording) the system sounded…ghastly. Harsh, strident, bright, irritating, with shrinking of the soundstage and spatiality, a crushing down of dynamic range, and a loss of nuance and gesture in the artists’ singing or playing. By contrast, I found when just using the router’s RJ-45 ports to make connections the sound was acceptably good; I’ll circle back to this observation in the conclusion.
Installing the EtherREGEN Ethernet switch into the system (Fig. 6) brought a significant improvement to the system overall—so much so that it doesn’t even sound like the same system compared to the base configurations. I heard these improvements immediately upon installation, but also noted that, as with almost every other component I’ve owned, audio performance was a bit uneven for the first 200 hours. After that burn-in period, EtherREGEN really smoothed out tonally and opened up spatially with a very low noise floor, providing an exceptionally clean space for the music to emerge into. Most importantly, there was virtually no digital glare, hash, or other nasties that induce listener fatigue. Rather, the presentation was organic, relaxed, and natural to the degree that my digital streaming front end fully rivaled my analog setup.
With EtherREGEN in the system, the Spanish guitar solo fantasia “Malagueña,” composed by legendary guitarist Celedonio Romero, and performed by his son Pepe Romero, had incredibly energetic pacing, a fulsome woody timbre, and finely delineated harmonic structures, as Romero ripped his way through this classic with stunning virtuosity and impeccable technique. There was so much resolution and definition and sheer virtuosity on display that, the first time I heard it, I thought two guitarists, Celedonio and Pepe Romero, were playing…but no, it was just Pepe. As he is the only musician, the stereo image is precisely focused on Romero, but the trailing edges of notes can clearly be heard decaying into the space of the room. Romero moves from a forceful, fast, and dynamic passage to a very beautiful slow, refined, and delicate passage with exquisite phrasing, nuance, and control, and you can hear deeply into the recording, the subtle shadings of timbres and notes flying with perfect articulation off the sound box of his guitar. It was dazzling and incredibly beautiful.
“Falling out of Love” by Mary Gauthier (Mercy Now), is skillfully recorded and mastered with a rich tapestry of sounds, from Gauthier’s gruff voice to her clear, sonorous, and pitch-perfect acoustic guitar in counterpoint to a background harmonica, all fully grounded by a bass drum with a steel guitar layering a plaintive whine on top. Everything comes together as a darkly beautiful song, full of pathos and loss. One of the things that I heard for the first time with EtherREGEN was the gourd instrument, the shakere, driving the rhythm forward, fully resolved but played with just enough restraint not to overpower Gauthier’s voice.
The timeless standard “Cry Me a River” with bassist Ray Brown (Soular Energy) featuring Gene Harris on piano, was beautifully presented with a deep black background against which Brown’s finely articulated string bass provided counterpoint to Harris’ exquisite piano playing. This is one of the most natural and organic-sounding jazz recordings I’ve ever heard, and the clean and quiet background provided by EtherREGEN let the simple beauty of the mastering shine through with subtlety, texture, and naturally rendered tone colors from the piano and bass.
I’ll have to admit I haven’t followed Adele’s studio recordings all that closely—a bit too much commercial overexposure for my sensibilities—but the first time I heard her live recording of “Lovesong” (Adele: Live at the Royal Albert Hall) on my Harbeths, I was smitten. With an exquisitely beautiful vocal performance by Adele, “Lovesong” is exceptionally well-recorded and mastered for a live recording in a large venue. Its starts with the two guitarists, Ben Thomas and Tim Van Der Kull, left and right, and Miles Robertson’s organ laying out the melody and rhythm as her voice comes in over the top, followed by the crispness of Derek Wrights’ drumming and the swell from the string section. The song builds and develops slowly and beautifully as Adele’s incredible voice, finally set free, soars above the string section. It is an absolute knockout. The feel, ambience, and atmosphere of an outstanding live performance in front of a enraptured audience is captured on the recording, and listening to it with EtherREGEN in the system I felt as if I could dive into the experience along with the audience.
After 40 years as an audiophile, I’ve never tired of listening to J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins, strings, and continuo in D Minor, particularly when Belgian violinist Arthur Grumiaux is playing, as he is on the Decca recording with Les Solistes Romands. Here Grumiaux used his Guanerius violin, Rose, made by Giuseppi Guaneri in 1744. All the classic Guarnerius violin attributes—richness, sonority, timbral weight, and exquisite tone—are in full evidence, and in Grumiaux’s hands the virtuosity is fully resplendent, bright, and energetic, never harsh or strident. Each musician in the chamber orchestra is precisely positioned in the soundstage, and with the inner detail and spatial accuracy that EtherREGEN brought, you could focus in on each instrument in the orchestra and hear it fully resolved against the background of the orchestra as a whole. For example, during the Allegro on Concerto No. 2 for Violin, strings, and continuo in E Major on the same recording, as Grumiaux winds down a solo, I could clearly hear the first cello come in on the right, providing counterpoint to Grumiaux’s violin.
A recent find from Roon’s Radio mode and Qobuz is Yeol Eum Son and The Academy of St Martin in the Fields, playing Mozart piano concertos. In particular, Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major (“Elvira Madigan”) is a standout. Son’s sweet, light touch and virtuosic technique remind me of Julian Katchen, and give full credit to Mozart’s genius as well as his musical “sense of humor” in this, his most popular piano concerto. The vibe that comes across is that the musicians are having an absolute blast playing this delightful concerto. This is most evident in Movement III: Allegro Vivace Assai; where both Son and the Academy engage in the classical music version of “call and response,” both pianist and orchestra playing with incredible speed, delicacy, and touch in this challenging movement, the woodwinds cleanly interlaced with the piano. The piano’s full dynamic range, power, weight, and timbre were evident, yet resolved and defined, as were the contributions of every musician and instrument in the orchestra. A fabulous recording by Onyx Records, Son and the Academy’s world-famous super-clean, super-light, and super-tight playing is sensational. Just a fantastic recording and performance.
As I mentioned in Listening Impressions, my journey with developing my digital streaming front end and the UpTone Audio EtherREGEN has been an interesting and informative one. I’ve learned that digital streaming, either via a music server or a streaming service (especially Roon), has clear advantages with respect to accessing and listening to digital content. But, as we add more networking devices to take advantage of the convenience, functions, and features, there is a price to paid. Every consumer-grade digital device with el-cheapo clocks (powered by those dastardly switch-mode power supplies) that we add to our streaming network is adding more clock phase noise, leakage current, and noise on the ground planes of our endpoints and DACs, thereby increasing threshold jitter and, concomitantly, timing errors. The reason for this is explained in John Swenson’s White Paper for EtherREGEN referenced above:
“What this clock phase-noise overlay looks like depends upon the clocks and circuits involved. Most ‘residential’ network devices have very cheap oscillators with very high phase noise, so effects from this in the combined clock can be very strong. Therefore, if your endpoint has a very good local clock, the overlay from upstream can be significantly greater than the local clock.”
When I understood this, it became clear why I couldn’t bear to listen to the system after I added the TP-Link Ethernet switch into the configuration: The digital nasties from it were overlaid onto those already present from the other upstream networking devices (router, FMC, and music server). This additional overlay pushed things over the top for me, creating too much of a bad thing. And this is where EtherREGEN rushed in like the cavalry and saved the day, changing the audio experience from one that previously drove me from the room to one that became completely engaging, compelling, and beguiling.
In summary, I consider the UpTone Audio EtherREGEN to be both a breakthrough and a landmark audio product. If you have, or are looking to put together, a music-server-based digital streaming front end, and you need an Ethernet switch in your network, the EtherREGEN deserves serious consideration. Mine has provided me with the convenience, access, and functionality of Roon with curation of content of Qobuz. And, in doing so, it provides a musical experience that’s every bit as engaging and compelling to listen to as my analog system. At only $640, it’s got to be of the biggest value propositions in all of high-end audio, and has my highest possible recommendation.
Circuitry: Fully differential clock circuitry, isolators, and flip-flops
Clock system: Ultra-low jitter/phase noise Crystek CCHD-575 oscillator
Power regulation: Linear Technology LT3045 and LT3042 voltage regulators
Operating Temperature: 48-52° C (118-126° F
Dimensions: 112mm x 110mm x 30mm
Weight: 298 grams (10.5 oz)
Digital sources: Schiit Gungnir Gen 5 USB Multibit DAC, SOtM SMS-200 UltraNeo network bridge, Mac Mini Roon Core Server, Sonore OpticalModule fiber media convertor, UpTone Audio EtherREGEN Ethernet switch, UpTone Audio LPS-1.2 and Keces P3 linear power supplies.
Preamplifier: First Sound Presence Deluxe 4.0Si Mk-III dual mono preamplifier with dual mono external power supplies.
Cables: Shunyata Research Sigma XC (Everest), Sigma NR V2 (power amp), Alpha NR V2 (preamp), Venom NR-V10 (DAC), Venom V14D Digital (digital components), Black Mamba CX (phonostage) power cables, Shunyata Research Delta and Venom interconnects, Shunyata Research Sigma Ethernet & Alpha USB digital cables and Shunyata Research Delta V2 VTX-Ag speaker cables
A/C Power: Shunyata Research Everest power distributor and SR-Z1 wall outlet
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Three summers ago, Grammy Award-winning composer-arranger-bandleader Maria Schneider premiered her darkly dystopian piece “Don’t Be Evil” at the 2017 Newport Jazz Festival. A swirling, foreboding paean to the sheer power and dominance of tech giant Google, it was named for the company’s motto and corporate code of conduct and carried a couple of tongue-in-cheek references to the military bugle call “Taps,” a song usually played at funerals. This was the outspoken artist sounding the alarm, and she ran down a laundry list of Google’s evils to the Newport crowd—addicting kids to its services, controlling our choices by manipulating “search,” gathering and selling data to garner endless power and money—before her award-winning orchestra launched into the heady commissioned work. And with electric guitarist Ben Monder rampaging through the fray of dissonant horns with a distortion-laced barrage of skronking to rival vintage Sonny Sharrock with Pharaoh Sanders, this dramatic highlight of the Maria Schneider Orchestra’s set was as compelling as it was scary.
At the time, “Don’t Be Evil” stood as an uncharacteristically heavy piece in Schneider’s otherwise uplifting oeuvre—just something she had to get off her chest and onto the page. Over time, however, as her writing progressed, themes started to emerge until it became clear that she had a full-blown concept album on her hands. The imposing Data Lords, Schneider’s latest ArtistShare release, is a double CD set —one composed of dark themes and edgy electric tunes representing The Digital World, another containing warmer, uplifting, often whimsical themes representing Our Natural World. And while the seeds of this project may have been planted with the premiering of “Don’t Be Evil” three years earlier at Newport, Schneider explained, “I hadn’t thought about recording it back then. I was just writing music and continued to write new pieces. And then about a year and a half ago I began to envision a double CD that is telling the story of the push and pull of what we all live with now. Once I was conscious of that, it helped me then find my way.”
In Schneider’s “divining rod” process, she writes the music and then lets it guide her to some conclusion. “I just let the writing of music and the sounds lead me and my thoughts and my interpretation of those sounds,” she explained. “And then all of a sudden you realize there’s sort of a theme or a way to tie it together that reveals itself. I can probably count on one hand the number of pieces where I actually set out with an intention to try to create something about something. It almost doesn’t ever exist with me.”
What revealed itself to Schneider along the way was the idea of depicting the dichotomy between dark and light, digital and natural. And while “Don’t Be Evil” and other turbulent, electrified fare like “Data Lords” and the ominous “A World Lost” fit the bill for The Digital World, the gentle, hymn-like ‘Sanzenin,” the sparse and playful “Stone Song,” the warmly lyrical “Look Up,” and the summer tone poem “BlueBird” fit nicely into Our Natural World. Two other songs in the natural collection, the delicate and poignant “Braided Together” and the wistful “The Sun Waited for Me,” were instrumental pieces inspired by poems from the Pulitzer Prize-winning Great Plains poet Ted Kooser. Composing instrumental music based on poems, Schneider explained, is a different realm. “You’re following another expression. The words are guiding you already with the melody, the phrasing of the sentences, the intent behind the words. It’s different than coming up with an idea in space in your own head and saying, ‘Okay, now I’m going to write about this.’ In the end, they are instrumental pieces that I would’ve never written without the poetry. The poems made me write in a way that I wouldn’t write otherwise too.”
Schneider explained that her walk on the dark side in The Digital World portion of Data Lords was inspired by her collaboration with David Bowie in 2015 on “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime),” which later resurfaced in a tougher, pared down version on Bowie’s final album, Blackstar. “Working with David made me realize that dark can also be fun. And I think that quality came into play on this album too. I wasn’t scared to go into that dark place on intense things like ‘Don’t Be Evil’ and ‘Data Lords’ because I sort of reveled in the fun of it. There’s a little bit of humor or sarcasm in those pieces that I also enjoyed. I didn’t sit here seething as I wrote this music. As a matter of fact, I had more fun than I think I’ve ever had because it felt like such a release to put that in the music.”
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HEGEL Launches V10 Phonostage
The following is a press release issued by Hegel.
January 2021 – Hegel Music System AS is proud to announce the launch of our first ever phono stage. Say hello to the V10.
We have often been questioned when we will bring out a phono stage. For years we answered; “no, we will never make a phonostage”. Later we gradually changed it to; “forever is a very long time, but I don’t think we will make a phonostage”.
But as people keep saying – these are extraordinary times – so here is the Hegel V10. A phonostage we have become extremely proud of.
MSRP/RRP: EUR 1,395 / USD 1,500 / GBP 1,350
Ships: Mid February
Size: Half with
Sound: Extremely good
Web: https://www.hegel.com/products/phono/v10
SOMEWHAT LESS QUICK FACTS:
The V10 is an attempt to make the style of design and sound performance of a EUR/USD 3,000 type RIAA in a half priced package. Therefore the V10 is designed with fully discrete input stages using some very special hand matched pairs of FET transistors. Both for the MC and afterwards the MC stages. This ensures very low noise and zero DC feedback to the pick up. After the FET stages a new bipolar opamp stage takes over for optimal amplification.
Further, the V10 is 100% dual mono design. It uses an external AC power supply that is specially designed by Hegel for the V10. This power supply has two connectors. One for each channel feeding in to the V10. The main features here is a very low noise floor and optimal channel separation. The internal power supplies are also shielded heavily from the gain stages.
In our, perhaps not so, humble oppinion the V10 brings forward all the classic Hegel virtues. Dynamics. Resolution. Naturalness. Finally also for vinyl lovers.
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What does it really mean to say that a luxury consumer good is a “no compromise” product? Sometimes, it means you’re getting the top-of-the-line model with as many bells and whistles as possible. You drive home in a loaded Cadillac Escalade—the Sport Platinum version with plenty of extras, including 22″ 12-spoke chrome-alloy wheels and a polished exhaust tip. The same paradigm can hold with an audio purchase. You go for the preamplifier with the optional phonostage, the server with the standard USB card replaced by one with more impressive specifications, the high-gloss paint finish (in a custom color) that added several thousand dollars to the cost of those already expensive loudspeakers. But other times, “no compromise” refers strictly to basic performance: Nothing is included that could possibly degrade sonic quality. Less is more. This was very much an issue on the table as I got to know Ideon Audio’s $34,900 Absolute digital-to-analog converter.
Ideon is based in Athens, the locus of Greece’s small but vital audiophile community. It’s been operating since 2016, co-founded by the company’s chief engineer Vasilis Tounas and its CEO George Ligerakis, an IT professional. Other principals include Angelos Gallis, representing Novatron SA (a firm assisting with logistics, importing, and accounting) and Greg Mitsacopoulos, the Operations Director and marketing maven. The four are close friends and, while all are highly qualified for their roles in this endeavor, Ideon Audio is also clearly a labor of love. Ideon’s first product was the Ayazi DAC, now in its Mk 2 iteration, which garnered considerable attention for its level of performance at its original price point of around $1200. Soon thereafter came the diminutive USB Renaissance 3R “reclocker,” reviewed in TAS 278. Ideon’s current offerings also includes two other reclocking devices of greater complexity and cost, a streamer, a stand-alone linear power supply, and its flagship Absolute DAC, in development for over three years. In late 2019, Ideon’s product line was taken on by North American distributor Audio Skies of Los Angeles, which carries a number of other top-drawer brands including Larsen loudspeakers, GamuT electronics, and Pear Audio turntables. It seemed an appropriate time for us to have a serious listen to a serious product.
The Absolute is one hefty piece of equipment—bend your knees if you pick it up!—thanks to a 22kg CNC-machined chassis. The enclosure measures 19¼” x 4¼” x 13¾”, the height parameter including four sturdy aluminum pillars. Rounded corners make the box look less severe, and the concentric rectangles cut into its top surface are a nice aesthetic touch. On the front panel are only two functional elements, the 4½” x 2½” LED display and a single large knob that does everything. It turns the unit and off, adjusts volume in the digital domain (if you actually want to—stand by), and changes the input filter or other settings. It’s a little tricky to use at first: You need to remember when to push the knob and when to turn it in order to navigate the menus as intended, but it quickly becomes intuitive. On the rear panel, to the right, is an IEC receptacle (BYO power cord) and an associated rocker-style main-power switch. In the middle are the three digital inputs, one each for coaxial, USB, and AES/EBU connections. Lastly, to their left, are balanced and single-ended analog outputs, one set of each.
Inside the box, students of digital design will find evidence of the innovations and meticulous execution that reflect Vasilis Tounas’ engineering choices. The DAC chipset is ESS Technology’s Sabre ES9038PRO, the most salient feature of which is a dynamic range specification of 140dB. Other manufacturers have utilized this device, but George Ligerakis emphasizes, “If you don’t make sure the whole design of the DAC is appropriate and state-of-the-art, you will never get that impressive result. What we have done, more than most of the others, is to develop many different ultra-low-noise local linear power supplies and a sophisticated analog stage.” The Sabre chip is a 32-bit, 8-channel converter—computations are occurring simultaneously in multiple pathways. Sounding like the computer expert he really is, Ligerakis continues: “We don’t use the classic way of parallelizing the channels of the DAC chip, an area where most manufacturers fail. We do a simple but sophisticated and highly effective parallelization to utilize the high current of these channels. I don’t want to say more, as this is one of the proprietary design elements that we have thought of and implemented!”
DSD decoding is done via DoP rather than natively, something I’m increasingly agnostic about. Most of today’s DACs rely on DoP (DSD over PCM), an interface that formats DSD data as a PCM signal, which then is “unpacked” back to DSD in the DAC.
Though the Absolute allows for both XLR and single-ended analog connections, the signal path within is balanced from start to finish. With his designs, Tounas is clearly obsessed with providing sufficient power, noiselessly, to wherever it’s required. There are independent power supplies serving each stage of the circuit that bypass the main power boards. Ideon describes a “massive multistage power reservoir” comprising 17 low-noise power-supply rails and individual regulation stages. To assure “phase fidelity,” the DAC incorporates three femto, low-jitter/low-phase-noise clock oscillators, each with its own dedicated power line. Additionally, the Absolute’s USB input employs a proprietary three-stage noise-eradication circuit. The output stage is direct coupled, with no capacitors in the signal path.
In the user interface there are just three menu screens that provide all the functionality one needs to operate the Absolute. The main screen allows you to select the digital input, and displays the active source name, upsampling filter identity, audio data frequency, and the gain level, if you’re using the Absolute’s volume control. On the Input Settings screen, the user makes a choice regarding the filter employed. There are seven options that I won’t list here but after listening to each with the same music—an hour or two of my life I’ll never get back—I settled on “slow roll-off linear phase.” Other parameters requiring a decision include settings for an IIR filter (47.44kHz is the default), lock speed (the number of audio samples the machine must see before the digital phase-locked loop, and the Sabre chip’s jitter-reduction algorithm kick in), as well as dithering, jitter elimination, and de-emphasis, for which the options are enabled or not. Finally, on the General Settings screen, one chooses either fixed or variable output for the Absolute, a default volume setting, and how bright you’d like the display to be.
There was no remote control, unlike most of the competition. Why should that be? Read on.
As I usually do with my T+A DAC 8 DSD, I connected the Absolute directly to the power amplifiers, a pair of David Berning Quadrature Z monoblocks. Loudspeakers were either Magico S1 Mk2s (usually deployed here as the surrounds in a multichannel system) or my new references, Magico M2s. Magico’s S-Sub saw some action from time to time, providing support below 40Hz. The digital sources were my long-in-the-tooth Oppo 103 used as a transport, and a MusiCHI SRV-1 server to play files stored on a Synology NAS. Analog cabling was mostly Transparent Ultra, and digital wires included Revelation Audio USB and Apogee Wyde Eye coaxial cables. Ideon encourages experimentation with anti-vibration devices, and I heard improvement with four Ariamateria decoupling feet placed underneath the Absolute’s aluminum pillars.
For my first few weeks with the Absolute, I listened only sporadically as I finished up other projects. There was an obvious “jump factor” going on—plenty of dynamic immediacy—and good detail. My interest grew as I heard the component improve with break-in. (The User Instructions maintain that the Absolute needs “a little over 300 hours to come fully into its own.”) But then the noises started—papery, scratchy noises that sounded like a damaged speaker driver (though the speakers were fine) or a failing capacitor. I checked in with the Ideon folks and their response was consternation. “Even the DAC chip manufacturers recommend that an analog volume control is better than a digital domain control,” replied George Ligerakis. “They recommend that, for critical listening, an analog preamp or analog attenuator should be used in order not to lose the resolution of the bits—meaning, in order not to lose the pure digital playback that is the essence of a good DAC.” This is why there was no remote: Ligerakis tells me that 100% of Absolute owners send output from the DAC to a preamp, which, of course, has its own volume control. Chastened, I started playing the Absolute though one of two preamplifiers on hand with analog volume controls—the Classé Delta PRE, the review of which I’d just finished, and a GamuT D3i on loan from Audio Skies. With both, the extraneous noises disappeared completely and I found myself reveling in the best digital sound I’d ever heard from my system, by a wide margin. As we were about to go to press, Ideon provided a considerably expanded User’s Guide that, among other things, details the benefits of using a quality preamp between the DAC and the power amplifier(s). It mentions the rare possibility that the design of some power amps could result in an impedance mismatch with the Absolute; this was responsible for the spurious sounds I heard when attempting to drive the Berning amplifiers directly with the Absolute.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of the Absolute DAC’s rendering of recordings, the one that’s most redolent of a real performance, is its representation of the dynamic life of music. To be sure, this has plenty to do with the wide dynamic range (and the associated high signal-to-noise ratio) of the Sabre chip and its implementation by Ideon—the Absolute plays loudly with authority and is wonderfully intelligible with the quietest material. A vanishing low noise floor gives intimately recorded music emotional acuity—Christy Moore singing “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” from his 2009 album Listen—and live recordings a captivating sense of occasion—Leonard Cohen’s autumnal Live in Dublin set. An even bigger payoff comes with the recreation of subtle dynamic inflections by vocalists and instrumentalists. You can hear this when Kevyn Lettau modulates the volume of a long-held note in “Everything She (He) Does Is Magic” (Songs of the Police) or in the way the woodwind soloists shape their phrases in the opening Allegretto of Bernard Haitink’s 2010 recording of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 15. The mid-movement crescendo climax of that same selection crests gracefully, with a sense of ample headroom.
Also apparent with the Absolute was a resolution of musical detail and texture that never seemed unnaturally exaggerated. A receptive listener can make sense of simultaneous musical events in a way that’s typically much easier with flesh-and-blood performers. There’s not just the ability to discern the sound of a tiny triangle over the din of a full orchestra, but a world of subtly variegated tonal color is revealed, if it’s there on the recording. For many, the singing voice of the late Walter Becker, half of Steely Dan, was an unknown, at least until he released a solo album in 1994. Becker often sang background vocal parts on early SD albums, but his contribution was mixed with other singers in a way that obscured its individuality. Occasionally, however, Becker would sing in unison with his partner and Steely Dan frontman Donald Fagen. With the Ideon in the playback chain, he’s audible as his own man. Check out “Any Major Dude” from Pretzel Logic—for years, I thought I was listening to Fagen overdubbed with himself.
Two additional strengths of the Absolute DAC are clarity and speed; again, the kind that’s evident at a live concert, rather than an artifact of an overzealous recording or mastering process. Pianist Marc-André Hamelin is known for his superhuman technique and his 2001 CD Kaleidoscope, recorded for Hyperion in 2001 by Tony Faulkner, programs short, challenging pieces by 17 composer-pianists, including Hamelin himself. Hamelin’s Etude No. 6: Essercizio per pianoforte (Omaggio a Domenico Scarlatti) is a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the Italian baroque composer, and the blisteringly difficult passagework can blur with lesser digital playback. With the Absolute, not only is every note clear, but it’s evident that a machine is not responsible for what you’re hearing—each note is not exactly like the one before or after.
After another month with the Absolute in my system, it was apparent this is a product in the same league as the most ambitious gear from Berkeley, dCS, MSB, T+A, Meitner, and others. I’ve heard these DACs at shows, dealers, and in friends’ systems but, aural memory being what it is, I hankered for a more immediate comparison. I borrowed one of these top-of-the-heap components and devoted some hours to playing the same music through both machines, using the same source components and cabling, matching playback levels within 1dB with an SPL meter. I won’t name which one, as it would be highly irresponsible to declare a “winner” when two such complex devices were being compared for what was still a relatively short period of time. But, given my personal listening biases, I know which DAC I’d choose. The Ideon seemed subjectively louder, with more vital dynamics, and musically relevant details registered more clearly. On the Kaleidoscope selection noted above, there was a little less smearing of that demonically difficult passagework with the Greek DAC. Not night and day, but enough to make a difference. Listening to the competitor, you knew you were hearing an outstanding piano recording. With the Ideon, you could believe you were hearing a piano.
Negatives or compromises, if you will? No MQA, if you happen to be a fan. Even if you’re using an external preamp or attenuator, a remote would still be appreciated for switching sources and to make filter choices from the listening position.
But the fact remains that this is a world-class digital-to-analog converter, and even something of a bargain compared to its most elite competitors. There may be no sunroof or heated front seats, but Ideon’s Absolute DAC is a no-compromise piece of audio gear. In a good way, which is why I’m buying one.
Inputs: USB, AES/EBU, coaxial
Formats supported: 44.1kHz–384kHz/32-bit PCM; DSD via DoP
Outputs: One pair each, balanced or unbalanced, fixed and variable
Dimensions: 19.25″ x 4.25″ x 13.75″
Weight: 57.2 lbs,
IDEON AUDIO
Parren 6, Neo Phychiko, 11525
ideonaudio.com
AUDIO SKIES (North American distributer)
audioskies.com
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Equipment racks and stands
Multi-format disc players
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Tubed preamplifiers
USB interfaces, clocks, and soundcards
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HILLARY: 'Climate change' to blame for Syria refugee crisis - TheAmericanMirror.com
HILLARY: ‘Climate change’ to blame for Syria refugee crisis
By Olaf Ekberg
The former secretary of state — whom many would think would have access to better intelligence — is still insisting refugees are fleeing war-torn Syria because of “climate change.”
Hillary Clinton made the remarks to an audience in Iowa, courtesy of Fox Business:
Hillary Clinton lists the reasons why thousands of people are fleeing Syria:”Because of terrible governance, because of corruption, because of conflict, because of climate change.”
Posted by Fox Business on Thursday, November 5, 2015
“We’re in a period of one of the worse refugee crises that we’ve ever faced,” Clinton said in Coralville. “It’s an international problem and I think we should have more of an international response.
“But then we have to ask ourselves why is this happening? And why is it happening? Because of terrible governance, because of corruption, because of conflict, because of climate change.”
When asked by CNN about the remark, an aide doubled down:
On Wednesday, a Clinton aide confirmed that the candidate meant what she said on the connections between climate change and refugee crises.
“As experts have noted,” the aide said, “climate change is one of the factors that can contribute to displacement and exacerbate refugee situations.”
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Press Release | February 11, 2016
Brynne Herbert and Mrs Moneypenny’s Latest Financial Times Article on Creating a Culture of “Radical Candor”
In their latest Financial Times column, Brynne Herbert and Mrs Moneypenny share their thoughts on whether a culture of “radical candor” helps companies get the most out of their employees.
Millennial v Boomer: young generation wants radical feedback
*This article was originally featured on Financial Times.
Brynne Herbert
When I worked in investment banking, my colleagues and I dreaded our annual appraisal. We each sat down with a human resources manager armed with a paper file filled with the details of our work, anecdotes from colleagues and ratings of our behaviour that would decide our bonus. It felt arbitrary, formulaic and false. It neither won my loyalty, nor got the best out of me.
The millennial generation (and much of the modern workforce) is not willing to wait 12 months to hear how they are doing. They are certainly not willing to speak to HR about it, rather than to the people with whom they work day to day. They prize authenticity, transparency and genuine relationships.
Now that I run my own company and get to decide how to appraise employees, I have taken a different approach. My company uses “radical candour”, a constant feedback loop that Google and Twitter also find works for them.
It is a concept developed by Kim Scott, a former Google executive. What matters is how much you care and how much you challenge your employees — if you care a lot and often challenge your employees directly, you get radical candour. Unfortunately, most managers’ style is best described as “ruinous empathy” — the top left box of Ms Scott’s graph (see picture). In other words, the managers do not give direct and real time feedback to their teams.
Ms Scott explains how it worked for her at Google. “Sheryl (Sandberg) told me that when I say ‘umm’ I sound stupid. That got my attention. But I knew she cared about me as a person and that’s why she told me that. I knew [she cared] because when I moved to California, she invited me to her book club to meet new people and supported me when family members were sick.”
Coupled with clear objectives that are tracked regularly, radical candour helps companies get the most out of their staff.
Any company that sticks to the old, stilted, formulaic and impersonal method is going to find it difficult to hold on to employees, especially those most serious about improving their performance.
Brynne Herbert, a millennial, is founder of Move Guides, which helps companies to relocate staff
Mrs Moneypenny
Do people really want radical feedback and even if they do, will they interpret it correctly? I think the whole thing could backfire horribly.
Brynne mentions, Kim Scott, who took criticism well from her boss Sheryl Sandberg “because she knew that she cared”.
I care a lot about my employees, they are my second family, but I am not sure it is the first thing that comes to their minds when I give them critical feedback.
I recall one employee who suffered from overbearing body odour each day from about lunchtime. It was so bad that his colleagues hated going near him in the afternoon. It fell to me to address the situation and I am afraid I did not practise “radical candour”.
Instead, I started my discussion with him by presenting a gift of a white sea island cotton shirt. I stressed that he needed to look after this shirt because excessive perspiration would ruin it. In this context I asked him which antiperspirant he was using. His answer? He used deodorant but not antiperspirant. For the sake of his shirts, I suggested that he bought some and started using it immediately. He has done so ever since, much to the relief of his colleagues. But I wimped out of saying “your colleagues find working in a room with you so challenging that is affecting you professionally”.
You could argue that by giving him the shirt I showed that I cared. But that was expensive and time-consuming and not everyone can afford to buy shirts for their staff. Nor can they invest the time to do the many things Ms Sandberg did for Ms Scott before telling her that she looked stupid when she said “umm”. That is why the real world solution is simply to be slightly more cautious about how we give critical feedback.
And if, as a manager, you find yourself in the most ineffective quadrant of Ms Scott’s graph — where you do not care for an employee and are desperate to avoid having to give them very negative feedback — then perhaps it is not you who has to change. Instead, I would suggest you probably do not want a member of staff who makes you feel this way working for you in the first place. Just make sure to avoid “radical candour” in the exit interview.
Mrs Moneypenny, a boomer, owns and runs an executive search company
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Articulated Restraint
Illustrated by: Jasu Hu
Edited by: Beth Meacham
Wed Feb 6, 2019 9:00am 9 comments 55 Favorites [+]
Being a Lady Astronaut means being twice as dedicated, and twice as good as everyone else. And sometimes, handling a test run that has turned deadly serious. Mary Robinette Kowal visits an off-stage incident in her The Calculating Stars series.
MOON COLONY EXPANDS TO 100 COLONISTS
Sep. 26, 1960 (AP) — The International Aerospace Coalition announced today that the lunar colony, established last year, is ready to expand to hold 100 colonists. This is the next step in preparing to colonize Mars, although many still question the necessity of such an endeavor…
Six thirty in the morning was a brutal time to start work even without a sprained ankle. Ruby Donaldson tried to tell herself that being sore and exhausted was good practice as an astronaut. Limping up to the third floor of the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, she gave thanks that no one else was in the stairwell so she could lean against the metal rail. It was hard enough balancing work and life without people questioning her choices.
All she wanted was to do the NBL training run and then collapse in bed, but somehow she’d agreed to another lindy-hop dance rehearsal tonight. It was just hard to disappoint a friend that you’d been dancing in competitions with since before the Meteor struck, and she didn’t have that many pieces of Before left in her life.
At least, the benefit of being a doctor was that she could diagnose and treat her own injuries. She didn’t have to risk getting grounded if she admitted to a flight surgeon that she’d twisted her ankle practicing a Charleston Flip. All they would have done was exactly what she did. Ice. Wrap. Analgesic.
As she came out on the pool level, the smell of chlorine met Ruby at the door. The massive football field–sized pool hummed with activity as dozens of divers and suit techs prepped for the run.
Wait— There were too many people here.
And there were four EVA suits on the bright yellow donning stands by the pool. There should only be two, because her run had been scheduled with just one other astronaut. All she and Eugene were supposed to be doing was a simulated spacewalk to work out the procedure for attaching cameras to the outside of the station.
Across the pool, Jason Tsao turned from where he was talking with one of the astronauts who had done a run yesterday and shouldn’t even be at the NBL today. His tie was undone and his cuffs were rolled up past his elbows. She had never seen the test conductor look even marginally rumpled.
What the hell was wrong?
He beckoned her over with his sheaf of papers. “Ruby, morning. Change of plans, as I’m sure you probably expected.”
She had missed something—a message left with her roommate, a briefing update, something—and whatever it was did not look good. She snapped into the sort of focus she felt in the operating room. “What sort of change?”
Jason’s shoulders tightened. “Sorry. I assumed you had seen the news.”
“I— I was out last night.” She had been dancing as if Before still existed.
He took a slow breath. “No one is dead. A ship returning from the moon had a retrorocket misfire while docking with Lunetta yesterday evening.”
“Oh God.” Scores of people worked on the Lunetta orbiting platform. People she knew. And Eugene Lindholm, her partner for today’s run—his wife would have been on the lunar rocket. Ruby played bridge with Myrtle and Eugene. She turned, looking for the tall black man among the people working by the pool. He was at the stainless steel bench, running through his checklist with tight, controlled motions. No one was dead, but if the Meteor had taught the world anything, death wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to someone. “How bad?”
Jason glanced up as if he could see past the tall roof of the NBL to the space station. “The pilot of the lunar rocket could see coming in that they had a problem, so Lunetta’s hangar crew evacuated and the rocket’s hull is intact. We’re incredibly lucky.”
Ruby wiped her hand over her face, still stunned. They needed the station as a transfer point to get people off Earth. Damage to it would throw the space program back years. At least the four EVA suits made sense now. “And so we’re working on coming up with a repair procedure today?”
Shaking his head, Jason handed her the paperwork for the day’s run, which was the only thing that seemed normal. “We’re using the NBL to figure out the rescue and recovery plan. The impact warped the airlock and coupling mechanism, so the rocket is locked to the station and the airlock is jammed. We’ve got a team up on the station working on getting it open but want all possible solutions, because the people on the lunar rocket don’t have EVA suits.”
Ruby sucked in a breath that suddenly felt like a luxury. She knew the margins on consumables for the moon run. They’d been trapped since yesterday evening, so had already been on the ship longer than the IAC budgeted for, even with redundancies. “How much air and—”
“We have sixteen hours to figure out how to get them out.”
The Lower Torso Assembly, aka space pants, lay on a cloth pad, ready for her. Astronauts did not, in fact, put their pants on like everyone else. It took two trained professionals and an astronaut wiggling across the floor to squirm into the LTA’s tight legs. Around the pool, three other astronauts were getting ready to do the same awkward floor dance. Eugene sat on the other side of the donning stand from her, his brown skin ashen above the white mesh of his Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment, but he’d insisted that he was okay to do the run.
She’d do right by him and Myrtle. Ruby sat on her rump in her own mesh LCVG, with its lines of tubing wrapping around her body and no modesty. She grabbed the hard aluminum ring at the waist and slid her feet into the top of the legs.
And knew she had a problem.
A different problem than the fact that a score of her friends and colleagues were trapped in a tin can 254 miles above her. The tacky rubber that lined the suit grabbed hold of the fabric of her cooling garment. Ruby’s ankle twinged with a warning. She evaluated it. A mild sprain. She could work through that. It was swollen, but not enough to make the suit not fit. It would just be…uncomfortable. Ruby shoved her feet into the tight layers of rubber, and pain radiated white lines to her knee, sending flashes across her vision.
Ruby stopped, holding the suit and her breath for a moment. All right. The sprain was worse than she thought.
At best, it would eat twelve of the sixteen hours to swap her out for another crew member. Almost everything about the EVA suits was customizable and swapped around to fit the crew members who were using them. The tech suit staff must have worked all night to reset the two other suits for this development run. Dev runs were hard enough when mission control had enough time to build a procedure. Today there would be more winging it than anyone would like.
And if she couldn’t suit up? Since she was the shortest member of the astronaut corps, they couldn’t just plunk someone else into her suit. If they could have, they would have put in someone other than “the pint-sized Astronette” for this run. She’d been an astronaut for two years, with only one moon trip under her belt. Sure, she’d been top of her class, because at her height being the best had been her only option, but if they could have gotten a real astronaut like Elma York in here, they would have.
Heck, the only astronauts they could add on this short a notice had just finished a run yesterday so their suits were already customized. Those two had to be exhausted after six hours fighting suits pressurized to 4.3 psi under thirty feet of water, but Paul Charvet and Serge Broom had shown up with faces as grim and determined as everyone else’s.
The suit tech on her right glanced at her. “Everything okay?”
This was going to hurt, but once she was in, the simulated spacewalk wouldn’t use her feet. Much. She just had to get into the suit.
“Yep. Just getting my toes lined up.” Gritting her teeth, Ruby tried to keep her face placid as she worked her foot through the leg of the suit. The swelling in her ankle made it feel as if the rubber bladder was grabbing her deliberately. Flares shot up from the protesting muscles as if warning her to back away. She tried to breathe through the pain, and kept wriggling past the folds of fabric and rubber while the two techs braced the legs.
A fishhook seemed to embed itself in between the talus and tibia bones of her ankle and dug in deeper as she worked her foot down through the leg. The moment when her foot popped into the boot at the end made her gasp with relief.
She couldn’t speak so she gave a thumbs-up and held out her hands for the men to help hoist her to her feet. Thank God standard procedure meant that they braced her because she wasn’t putting any weight on her right foot until she had to. All she needed to do now was walk five feet, wiggle into the hard torso of the EVA suit where it hung suspended on the donning stand, and that would be the last time she’d have to put significant weight on her ankle until the run was finished.
At least that was one good thing about her lindy-hop training—she knew how to smile through pain. Under the best of conditions, you were sore at the end of an NBL run. This was just different pain.
It also helped that everyone expected astronauts to grimace as they forced themselves into the hard upper torso assembly. But once inside the HUT assembly, she could let the donning stand support her weight and lean against the frame while the suit techs put the rest of the suit on. It wasn’t that it was comfortable, because the o-ring joints at the shoulders of the suit pushed her arms forward a little and dug into her armpits, but at least the donning stand took her weight.
As much as she wanted to tell everyone to hurry, the old aphorism “slow is fast” applied here, too. They wouldn’t help the crew on the station who would have to do the actual spacewalk if they started making mistakes by rushing.
They’d done things right this morning, taking the time to do the pre-run briefing so everyone knew what their jobs were. Broadly, their job was to work out safe procedures in the relatively benign environment of a 6.3-million-gallon pool of water so that when her colleagues in orbit went into the lethal environment of space, they didn’t have to take any unnecessary chances.
Specifically, she and Eugene were going to see if a life raft was possible while EV3 and 4 attempted a maneuver to see if it was possible to run air and power to the lunar rocket. To buy time. Ultimately, if they couldn’t get the hatch open, the rocket’s crew would still need a life raft to transfer safely inside the station.
So Ruby forced herself to relax, conserving energy for the run itself, while the techs checked the cooling system and on so she would have comms in her suit. The helmet followed after that and slid a barrier between her and the world.
This was what things would sound like for the folks trapped in the ship. Even without a breach, they’d have their emergency pressure suits on, which would protect them from a vacuum but not the temperature extremes outside the ship. All their communication would be filtered by comms, which were distancing and intimate all at the same time.
In her ears, the comforting litany of mission control almost made it sound like people weren’t in danger.
And then the litany broke. “We can’t get a good seal on EV1.”
Eugene’s voice followed from where he stood behind her on the donning stand. “It’s probably just a gauge.”
“You know we can’t risk that.”
Ruby opened her eyes. There was nothing she could do, strapped to the donning stand, but if they couldn’t seal Eugene’s suit it would take on water in the pool. Myrtle was up there. “Eugene— There will be three of us in the pool. They can add you as soon as they get a good seal.”
His breath hissed in her ears, but she could hear his fighter pilot training. He was heartbreakingly calm when he spoke. “Copy.”
Jason’s voice joined the mix. “We’ll start the run with EV2, 3, and 4 and add him as soon as you get a good seal.”
With Myrtle up there, it had to be killing him to be pulled at this point.
“Eugene?”
“Yeah, Ruby.”
“I’ve got this.”
His breath caught for just a second. “Copy. I’ll be with you on comm until they get me in the pool.”
As she glanced at the clock on the wall, her stomach twisted. Fourteen hours remaining for the crew on the lunar rocket.
Underwater, everything was blue. The big cylinders that made up the mockup Lunetta were punctured with even round holes to allow water to flow through. Cables snarled in ungainly swirls around the outside of the mock space station and the water pushed against Ruby’s suit, creating a resistance that she didn’t experience in space. Around her, support divers floated with bubbles drifting up from them, ready to help her compensate for the drag of water.
And she needed help. This was her third attempt to attach a spare expansion module of Lunetta to the aft end of the lunar rocket. In theory, with an oxygen pack and a CO2 scrubber, it would serve as a sort of “life raft” for the crew inside the ship. Assuming she could find a path to get it there without getting snarled in cables.
“All right, EV2…” Eugene’s voice was steady on the comm, as if he were in the pool with her. “Look for handrail 1175.”
She had no idea where handrail 1175 was on the lunar rocket. If she’d stayed in last night, instead of going to the rehearsal, then she would have gotten Jason Tsao’s phone call and been able to prep for the change of plans. Or to at least familiarize herself with the lunar rocket in more detail. Grimacing, Ruby peered around the ship.
“Can you give me a big picture of where that is?” She hated to ask for help navigating but the distortions from her helmet and the water made reading numbers a little dicey. Myrtle was not going to die because Ruby had gone to a dance practice last night.
“Oh sorry. We’d need you to go to just aft of the starboard external payload facility.” Eugene’s voice was steady as he guided her in, because he’d done his homework. “Past the grapple fixture, down the gap-spanner…It should be sandwiched between two WIFs.”
When she’d started with the IAC, the jargon had been daunting. Now it wasn’t much different from “over the river and through the woods.” She hauled herself forward, looking through the distortion that her helmet caused in the water. Behind her, the tether for the “life raft” trailed through the water.
A pair of support divers steadied it to compensate for Eugene’s absence. In the real spacewalk, another astronaut would be back there with tethers to hold it steady while she moved forward. If EV3 and 4 weren’t tied up trying to simulate running air and power to the rocket, they might have helped. But it was on her and a faux EV1.
Finally, she found the handrail label sandwiched, as advertised, between two of the sockets that peppered the rocket’s skin. “Got it.” Ruby secured her safety tether, making sure that the black lines on the latch lined up. “EV2’s anchor tether hook is on handrail 1175. Slider locked, black on black.”
She secured a local tether as well, trying to stabilize herself in relation to the rocket. Once she was steady, she snapped the crewlock bag onto the handrail so that it was ready for her.
The final tether was the long one that trailed back to the life raft. “Transferring life raft tether to handrail 1175.”
“Suggestion.” Eugene’s voice cut in. “Use the aft starboard stanchion. Otherwise, the tether might trap your safety line when you pull the life raft forward.”
“Good note.” Ruby kept her voice relaxed as his. She should have spotted that. Carefully, she unhooked the life raft tether from her suit and transferred it to the stanchion. Turning carefully, she worked back along the length of the ship to face the life raft. Pretending that Eugene was in the pool, she said, “Life raft tether secured. New path looks good. Ready to leapfrog the life raft forward.”
“Copy, EV2. Releasing RET and moving toward you.” He wasn’t. A diver was mimicking his actions in ways that they would never do in a real dev run. But this was the best they could do. The suit techs still couldn’t get a good seal on his suit.
Hand over hand, she pulled the bulky rubber toward her, just as if Eugene were really on the other side of it to guide it down the length of the rocket. The action caused her to drift a little away from the handrail, until her tethers stopped her, just as they were designed to do. In space it would be more pronounced. “They might consider two local tethers to control drift.”
“Good note.” Jason’s voice was calm and cool in her ears. “Thank you, EV2.”
As the life raft drifted to her, Ruby felt a flush of triumph. With one stiff glove, she reached out to stop it next to her. “I have the life raft.” With her free hand, she secured a retractable equipment tether to the bracket on the side of the life raft’s grapple mechanism and unspooled the tether to snap it into place on the space ship. On the other side, the diver mimicked her.
“EV2…We’ll need you to place all the tethers to make sure that the positions are achievable in a suit.” Jason sounded almost apologetic.
“Copy.” The plan was to place four tethers to stabilize the life raft and then cinch it down to contact the side of the lunar rocket and engage the grapple mechanism. It made sense that they would need someone in an EVA suit, with its limited range of movement, to place all four. Looking down, she couldn’t even see the bottom tether. All things considered, she’d start with the hard one first while she still had some energy. “Working on the nadir tether attachment first.”
Ruby released the local tether, leaving her safety tether in place, and worked her way down to the bottom of the handrail. At the bottom end, she tried to snag the tether hook but the body position was bad. She had to twist her arm in ways that the suit really wouldn’t let her. The suits really didn’t want you to raise your arms over your head. Being upside down might work though…Grabbing the handrail, she rotated so that she hung head-down in the water. Better.
Kind of. The suits were neutrally buoyant, but inside them, she was dealing with 1-G. As blood pooled in Ruby’s head, she figured that at least her ankle was elevated.
Over the comm, Jason said, “Looks like you’re heads-down, we’ll do a check at five minutes and pull you at ten.”
“Copy.”
The life raft had drifted down in the pool so the grapple mechanism was masking the anchor point on the lunar rocket. Maybe she should have done the top tether first. Ruby tried pushing the life raft up in the pool, but the water resistance and gravity pushed down on it. In space, this would be easy, but in the NBL her muscles burned.
“Five minutes, EV2.”
“I’m fine.” Standard procedure be damned. Her sinuses were full and her head pounded from being upside down, but she could manage the discomfort. The body position was better for placing the tether, but the tube itself was fighting her in ways that it wouldn’t in space.
Ruby was so used to not complaining, because she was short. Because she was a woman. Anything she said would be seen as a failure on her part. But the resistance was an NBLism and not a problem the actual spacewalker would face, and people’s lives were on the line. Ruby sighed as quietly as she could on a live mic. “I could use a diver assist to support the tube.”
Like magic, one of the three support divers following her floated up and guided the end of the bag so that it floated in the water more or less the way it would in space. She stretched her arm toward the newly revealed anchor point, fingers aching as she fought the pressurized suit.
“That’s ten minutes, EV2.”
“Almost there.” The motion made her rotate a little. Damn it. She should have put the additional local tether in place to control her own motion. Grimacing, she tried to snap the tether hook in place and just missed. It slipped out of her clumsy grasp and floated away from her in the water. She held her curses inside.
“Divers, set EV2 upright.”
Biting down on the inside of her cheek, Ruby tried to relax when the divers gently pulled her back and rotated her upright so the blood could drain from her head. As they did, she slipped inside her suit and suddenly all of her weight was on her feet. Ruby closed her eyes, breathing through her teeth.
“Anything wrong, Ruby?” Jason Tsao’s voice snapped her eyes open.
“Nope.” In front of her, the support diver in charge of filming had his camera aimed at her face. Ruby smiled at him, so that everyone in the mission control room would be able to see that she was fine. They wouldn’t pull her out of the pool, not with lives on the line, but they would sure as heck note any struggles for future missions. “Just thinking through next steps. I’m ready to start up again when you are.”
On attempt number four, Ruby had figured out a process that got the tube lined up, but still wrestled with snugging the life raft up against the ship enough to get a good seal. The grapple mechanism had been designed to be activated by pressure from docking. Attempting to exert that pressure manually was…challenging.
Biting the inside of her lip, Ruby fumbled with the thick straps while holding on to a handrail with one hand. Her own tethers stabilized her a little, but not enough.
Eugene crackled onto the comm. “Do you think an APFR would give you better leverage?”
Articulated Portable Foot Restraint. She stopped what she was doing and stared at the ship. The handrail she was using was between two sockets built into the skin of the lunar shuttle. She’d been using the solution as just a navigation point. All she had to do was use one of those two sockets to attach a foot restraint and free both hands.
And she’d been avoiding using a foot restraint because she’d been unconsciously avoiding pain. To get her feet into the APFR, she’d have to twist her ankle in and out of the restraint. Normally the MC trusted the astronaut on decisions like that during a dev run, to figure out what worked best for them. Ruby had been screwing things up because she’d gone dancing.
“Good call.” The silver lining to the number of runs they’d done was that she knew where the nearest APFR was stored. She’d passed by it at least twice during this run, which made it all the worse that she hadn’t thought of it. “Translating back over the river and through the woods.”
“If you’re reversing course, shouldn’t that be through the woods and over the river?”
“Pretty sure there are woods on both sides of the river.” Ruby pulled herself hand over hand to the port sensor array, which was, thankfully, within reach of her safety tether. Even so, fighting the water resistance made her arms burn with effort. In the back of her head, time ticked away. “I could have collected this on my previous pass, which would buy some time.”
Jason Tsao responded. “Good note, EV2. I’ll pass that up to station.”
He didn’t say “if this works” but the question hung in the water with her. Ruby attached a Retractible Equipment Tether to the foot restraint. Once the RET was secure, she pulled the foot restraint off the WIF by turning the collar and depressing the “petals” at the base of the post. The bayonet slid out of the socket. It was a ridiculous thing to feel triumph about, but at the moment she would take even small victories.
Turning to reverse course, Ruby swung her body through the water so that her feet trailed behind her The water resistance grabbed her feet and seemed to slowly twist her ankle. Ruby locked her jaw and breathed through her nose. This was an acceptable level of pain but the translation back to the work site seemed twice as long. She didn’t have the energy for banter.
When she got back to the handrail, she snapped her local tether back into place. “Slider locked, black on black.”
Closing her stiff fingers around the foot restraint, she plugged its into the nearest socket. The litany of locking things in place continued. “Collar locked, black on black.” She wrapped her hands round the APFR to make sure it was seated correctly. “Good twist and pull test”
“Copy EV2.”
Ruby retrieved the RET and restowed it. The last thing she needed was to get snarled in something she’d forgotten to put away.
Adjusting her tethers to allow her to “stand up” perpendicular to the lunar rocket, Ruby put her feet next to the foot restraint. She slid the toes of her left foot under the restraint and twisted her foot to slide the heel ridge into the restraining slot.
Biting the inside of her cheek, she slid her right foot under the restraint and twisted it. It felt as if her boot was filled with broken glass. It wasn’t. She was pretty sure she wasn’t doing permanent damage to the ankle. Slowing down recovery time, yes, but even if it was permanent damage, at the end of the day it just meant she wouldn’t be able to dance.
But she’d still be able to play bridge with Myrtle and Eugene.
Ruby reached for the tether and yanked on it with both hands. Something in her ankle went pfft and snapped.
A small cry escaped. Ruby bit down hard. She would live, and so would the people on that ship if she had anything to say about it. Grimacing, she hauled on the tether until the tube snuggled up against the mockup station and the grapple clicked into place.
Tears streaked across her cheeks, and for once the 1-G was a benefit because the moisture didn’t build up in watery balls over her eyes. Ruby nodded for the camera. “Thanks, Eugene. The answer is APFR. With that, I can pitch back. I can grab the bag. Anchor it. I can maneuver my body and not have to pitch or roll with the handrail. Sorry it took so long to work out.” Her ankle throbbed with each beat of her heart. “What’s next?”
She hung in the water, listening to the sound of her own fans. Around her, support divers slowly turned the water with their fins while they all waited. Her ankle consumed the rest of her attention.
The line crackled as Jason came back on the line. “Let’s get you out of the pool.”
“I’m fine to continue.”
“Thank you, but we’re transmitting this part of the procedure up to Lunetta. We’ll let Paul and Serge dev the process of getting the tube back to the other end of the ship. It’s comparatively straightforward.”
“It’s not a problem.”
“Ruby.” Eugene’s voice cut in. “I’ve played bridge with you. I know your tells.”
She opened her mouth, staring at the camera in front of her. “Right. See you topside.”
Her support divers swam up around her and pulled her away from the ship. In space, right now, someone on Lunetta was suiting up to go out and do this as a real spacewalk, not as a development run in a pool. Or heck, maybe they were all ready to go and had just been waiting for a viable solution.
All the mistakes that Ruby had made were ones that the real rescue team wouldn’t have to. The pool was hard. Space would kill you.
Ruby let herself go limp in her suit, watching the bubbles of her support divers stream past like flecks of snow. In her ears, the conversation with the other team continued as they kept working to try to mate an umbilical to the lunar rocket. She realized that she had no idea how long she’d been down.
When the divers got her attached to the donning stand and the crane hauled her above the pool, Eugene was waiting poolside. He still wore his Snoopy cap, with the comm unit in place so he could stay in the loop. His lower lip had a raw spot as if he’d been biting it constantly while she was under the water.
He could hear her if she spoke, but she waited until her suit was depressurized and her suit tech had her helmet off. She flexed her hands against the ache in the joints and met Eugene’s gaze as the tech pulled her Snoopy cap off.
Eugene took his own off and stepped forward. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell them to pull you earlier.”
“That was the right choice.” She shifted her weight to her left foot as her tech released the hard aluminum ring connecting her pants to the suit. “How long do they have?”
“Six hours.” He glanced across the room at the clock on the wall. “It’s enough.”
Ruby nodded and squirmed down, with a tech on either side to catch her. It was standard practice, but Eugene stepping forward, hands out, wasn’t. For the first time since she’d gone under, Ruby put weight on her right foot. Her head was still in the suit and the fiberglass interior seemed to light up like a meteor striking the Earth.
Hands caught her and the next thing she knew, she was seated in a chair, still blinking back tears. Swallowing, Ruby shook her head. “I’m fine—GAH!” The sound ripped out of her as the techs tried to pull the spacesuit pants down. Her ankle was so swollen that it caught in the boot.
Gripping the side of the chair, she panted until the spots faded from her vision.
The nearest suit tech toggled on his mic. “We need medical for EV2.”
She winced, but calling a medic was inevitable. “Not urgent. I aggravated a previous injury, that’s all.”
“Aggravated?” Eugene shook his head. “You’re going to aggravate me if you keep lying.”
“I’m not— Okay. I am. I’ve likely torn a ligament in my ankle. But y’all are going to pull these goddamn pants off of me because if the medic gets here first, she’s going to try cutting it off.”
The tech looked up, appalled. “Oh hell, no.”
“Right?” Ruby stuck out her hurt leg. “You are Go for removal.”
He looked up at Eugene, who grimaced and then nodded. Eugene stepped behind her and braced Ruby with his hands on her shoulders. Putting a hand on either side of the boot, the tech hauled back. Ruby managed not to scream, but if Eugene weren’t bracing her, she probably would have fallen out of the chair.
Beneath the mesh of her cooling garment, her ankle was swollen to twice the size it should be. Eugene whistled. “Aggravated a previous injury?”
“Sprained it last night.” Her entire leg was pulsing in hot and cold waves around the burning core of her ankle. It was past a sprain now, but Ruby tried to keep her voice military calm. “But…not really a choice, was there?”
“Thank you.” He squeezed her shoulder.
She didn’t deserve thanks. If she’d done her homework on other ships. If she’d not been avoiding using her foot. If she’d just had her priorities straight—hell, if Eugene had been in the pool, he’d have figured this out faster than she did. She’d been trying to fit too many things into her life and had come within a hairsbreadth of failing at all of them. Failing her dance partner was disappointing. Failing the IAC could have been fatal.
Ruby let her breath out slowly as the medic came barreling around the end of the pool. “Make a phone call for me? I have a rehearsal I need to cancel.”
And after that, Ruby was going to go home, curl up in bed, and study every manual she could get her hands on. No one was going to come this close to dying on her watch ever again.
She didn’t have that many pieces of Before left, but keeping them didn’t mean keeping them in the same way and shape. Lindy-hop could go back to being just a social thing. But where she belonged in life After the Meteor, was here.
Here, she made a difference. Sprained ankle and all.
Text copyright 2019 © by Mary Robinette Kowal
Art copyright 2019 © by Jasu Hu
Buy Articulated Restraint from:
Articulated RestraintLady AstronautMary Robinette KowalOriginal FictionScience Fictionshort fictionTor.com Original
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Home Categories Exclusives
The Exiled Martyr “Insight” EP Stream Exclusive
Posted By Mike on September 27, 2018. Under Exclusives, Featured, Melodic Death Metal, Progressive Metal, Technical Metal
The Exiled Martyr have returned! This band blew us away with the 2016 album “Stagnant Waters Breed Life” which featured and awesome combination of Technical / Melodic Death Metal stylings in conjunction with some ear smacking Progressive Metal and Deathcore elements. There’s clearly a lot of talent to go around here and, clearly, they’ve advanced further since!
The band just put out a new EP by the name of “Insight”. Between it’s four tracks, there’s plenty of danger and destruction to be found. This release is an absolute monster! The record is currently available on several platforms including The Exiled Martyr’s base over on Bandcamp.
In support of the band’s efforts, we’re now streaming the record from front to back over on YouTube! You can enjoy this in full force through the video found below. Just make sure to hold onto something before hitting that play button…
If you enjoy this band’s efforts, also be sure to check the aforementioned “Stagnant Waters Breed Life” below as well!
If you’d like to follow along more closely with TEM, they can be found on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to name a few. Go show them some love!
Links: Facebook // Twitter // Bandcamp
See More: Exclusive, Melodic Death Metal, Progressive Metal, Technical Metal, The Exiled Martyr
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Sleep Token – Cult or a Band?
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Millville development rules scrutinized at public forum
Joseph P. Smith
@jpsmith_dj
MILLVILLE - Focus is a tricky ideal to pull off when it comes to steering a 44-square-mile community in the “right” direction for development, but that was the task city and state planning officials set for themselves at a public forum Monday night.
Months into reviewing its development and growth rules and priorities, Millville booked space at the Glassworks building and opened the door to anyone with an opinion and a will to be heard about the city’s zoning rules.
RELATED NEWS:Millville to hold forum
Robert Gallaher, a local businessman and chair of the Planning Board, was happy with the turnout and a makeup that included city officials but also business owners and operators and players in the development community.
"We really weren't sure what type of participation we were going to get,” Gallaher said. “So this really shows the community cares. And that’s important. Because we volunteer our time in our roles as a Planning Board, Industrial Commission, zoning — all these different activities. But without your participation, we never know if we’re going down the right paths.”
The city is reviewing the Land Use Element portion of its master plan. The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, providing free assistance to the city, is expected to write a draft at some point this year.
City Commissioner Lynne Porreca Compari, whose administrative duties interlock with city zoning and planning bodies, has pushed for the review. It seemed necessary in part because of the number of zoning variances being requested and granted, she said.
A high number of variances is an indication that a zoning ordinance, and by extension the Land Use Element that shapes the ordinance, could need changes.
RELATED NEWS: State to decide on land swap
Porreca Compari said the goals of the review start with simplifying zoning rules to make the city more attractive to prospective businesses. Further, she said revisions should address Center City neighborhood issues with residential density, quality of life, and “hopefully” crime.
For the meeting, organizers broke down the discussions into four broad topics and geographic areas.
Those were: the municipal airport, New Jersey Motorsports Park, and airport industrial areas; the Center City, both residential and commercial areas, along with the Glasstown Arts District; agriculture and land conservation areas to include the Holly Ridge property and its development potentials; and, finally, the Route 55 interchange and highway commercial areas, inclusive of lands around Union Lake.
Attendees broke into three focus groups, with participants picking ones that caught their interests. Each group assessed the strengths and weaknesses of the target areas. About 40 people attended, along with 10 city and state officials acting as facilitators.
The focus groups produced a total of 15 recommendations pared down from a large field of dreams. The last job of the night for participants was to cast votes for ones they could support. The DCA will tally those votes for consideration.
RELATED NEWS:Remapping the Holly City
The recommendations included shrinking the size of a historic zone at the airport; rebranding industrial parks as “business parks” in tune with development trends; compiling comprehensive inventories of properties, their current and best uses; seeking Cumberland County’s support to improve “safe” access from the Routes 55/47 interchange into the Union Lake area; make land purchases to connect existing open space areas; consolidate some zones; extend sewer service to the Laurel Lake area; encourage residential living in the arts district; add space for public services like the local library and community enter; and develop waterfront use.
The Center City area may be the most often and intensely analyzed part of Millville, largely due to the arts district the city has invested in so heavily in the last 20 years and its associated businesses. There also is the proximity of the Maurice River and the largely unrealized development ideas for it.
The presence of an Urban Enterprise Zone, the entertainment possibilities, access to state bus transportation, and the presence of Cumberland County College operations are strengths.
“Home of Mike Trout,” said Duane Lewis, swinging for the first laugh of the night.
John Redden, chair of the Zoning Board, said parking was a problem.
Marianne Lods, the district’s coordinator, said crime and the fear of crime hurt the district as does the number of “white elephant” buildings that require exorbitant repair and maintenance.
Kim Ayres, who retired as city planning director in 2011, said the poor conditions and high density of buildings were problems. The high number of rental properties also was a problem and one without much prospect of a quick turnaround.
“I think the neighborhood is really at a tipping point, so there’s a ton of foreclosures,” Warker said. “And depending on who picks up those properties will really have a big impact on the future of that neighborhood.”
In a group looking at agriculture, conservation, and development from the Routes 55/47 to Union Lake corridor, attorney Rocco Tedesco indicted the city for the trouble some projects have encountered from zoning officials. Tedesco, whose practice is in planning and zoning areas, said the city's image suffers when developers are chased off.
Specifically, Tedesco cited a proposed massive residential development project at Union Lake on land Wawa Inc. owns. He was the attorney for the would-be developer.
“They spent, according to them, $2 million in their application soft costs to develop a project that they thought the city of Millville had wanted because that’s how they zoned the property,” Tedesco said. “And they met such resistance in the end they walked away. That news spreads. OK?
“If you say you can do something on a piece of property, then you have to let the people do it,” he said. “In the same token, if somebody wants to come in and do something a little bit different than maybe what you had in mind, you can’t turn your head on that, either. Because we are the most economically depressed county in the state for too many years more than I want to remember.”
Gallaher said better transportation along that highway corridor is “rather important” if development is to happen.
“Because they (developers) see an opportunity to invest in the area, but it’s kind of out of the way,” he said.
Jane Galetto, president of the nonprofit Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River and Its Tributaries Inc., was part of the same group as Gallaher and Tedesco. Her husband Peter Galetto Jr., president of construction firm Stanker & Galetto, also attended but joined a group discussing airport-area issues.
“What the banks were saying in a recent meeting, you can talk to Pete (Galetto) about it, they’re talking about the fact that young people want to live in the cities with a lot of amenities,” Galetto said. “And that the reason why a lot of corporations won’t settle in South Jersey now is because they can’t get the millennial workforce. They can’t get the young workforce. So you have to have a combination of those two things working in tandem to make that work.”
Joseph P. Smith; (856) 563-5252; jsmith@gannettnj.com
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The Top Twelve 2
Top 12 All-Time Best Flyweights
By Robert Portis · On July 28, 2019
We started with the middleweights, then the bantamweights, followed by the light heavyweights. Continuing our rankings of the greatest boxers in each of the original eight weight classes, we offer our fourth instalment, a look at the greatest flyweights of all-time, a weight class absolutely stacked with Hall of Fame talent. Deciding on the best little men ever is significantly more difficult than assessing the heavier divisions. Simply put, the competition is fiercer and there are more great fighters among the smaller men.
Please note, we are focusing here primarily on the weight limit of 112 pounds and those who achieved greatness there. Boxers who made their mark at junior flyweight (easily the most competitive of the ‘junior’ divisions), or strawweight are being given less consideration. So, without further preamble, here they are, the best flyweights of all time:
12. Masao Ohba: A tall, skillful flyweight with quick hands and a terrific jab, Ohba’s career was cut short when he died in a car accident at the age of 23. However, he had already established himself as a Hall of Fame champion with wins over Berkrerk Chartvanchai, Rocky Garcia, Betulio Gonzalez and Orlando Amores.
11. Pone Kingpetch: He became Thailand’s first world boxing champion when he defeated the great Pascual Perez in 1960. Another win over Perez followed, as well as victories over Fighting Harada and Hiroyuki Ebihara.
10. Peter Kane: An exciting battler with two-fisted power, Kane gave the great Benny Lynch two of his toughest fights and defeated the likes of Jackie Jurich, Jimmy Warnock, Theo Medina and Jimmy Stubbs. With 53 KO’s in 98 bouts against only eight losses, Kane is clearly an all-time great.
Peter Kane
9. Betulio Gonzalez: This tough and clever pugilist won the flyweight title three times. With a long career that includes 77 victories, a trilogy with the great Miguel Canto, and battles against Luis Ibarra, Guty Espadas, Shoji Oguma and Masao Ohba, it remains a mystery why the man revered in Venezuela as the country’s greatest fighter is not in the Hall of Fame.
Gonzalez defeats Shoji Oguma in 1979.
8. Midget Wolgast: Quick and clever, Wolgast was an incredibly prolific fighter with some 200 bouts to his credit. He holds wins over Archie Bell, Juan Zurita, Black Bill, Jackie Brown and Johnny McCoy.
The great Joseph Loscalzo, aka Midget Wolgast.
7. Benny Lynch: One of the greatest flyweights and the finest boxer ever to come out of Scotland. Defeated Jackie Jurich, Peter Kane, John “Tut” Whalley and Jackie Brown, among others. Nat Fleischer ranked him as the fifth best flyweight of all time.
The crowd looks on as the great Benny Lynch trains.
6. Miguel Canto: Canto won the WBC flyweight title in 1973 and defended it 14 times, defeating such fighters as Shoji Oguma, Bertulio Gonzalez, Antonio Avelar, Kimio Furesawa, Orlando Maldonaldo and Sung Jun Kim. Without question, one of Mexico’s all-time greatest boxers.
Miguel Canto
5. Frankie Genaro: A stand-out fighter and champion during a highly competitive era for the flyweight division, Genaro holds wins over such greats as Eddie O’Dowd, Georgie Marks, Carl Tremaine, Frankie Garcia, Joey Archibald and the legendary Pancho Villa. Nat Fleischer, Charley Rose and Herb Goldman all ranked Genaro in the all-time top five for the flyweight division. We do the same.
Frankie Genaro
4. Fidel LaBarba: Hard to hit and quick on his feet, LaBarba has an outstanding record with wins over a long list of great fighters including Charles “Bud” Taylor, Frankie Genaro, Kid Chocolate, Elky Clark, Georgie Rivers and Petey Sarron.
LaBarba dispatches Elky Clark.
3. Pascual Pérez: Packing tremendous punching power in his small frame, this Olympic gold medalist and world champion is one of Argentina’s all-time greatest, the country’s first world champ. 57 KO’s in 84 wins against only seven defeats. Herb Goldman rates him as the second best flyweight of all-time.
Perez stalks Yoshio Shirai.
2. Pancho Villa: His career was truly meteoric and almost a century later he remains one of the greatest Asian boxers of all time. Only 23 when he died from blood poisoning in 1925, young Francisco Guilledo established himself as an all-time great fighter in just three years of frenzied action. In 1922 he arrived in America and soon became a huge attraction, defeating Jimmy Wilde, Georgie Marks, Bud Taylor, Johnny Buff, Abe Goldstein, and dropping two close decisions to Frankie Genaro, one of which was widely viewed as a blatant robbery.
Pancho Villa: only the great die young.
1. Jimmy Wilde: Pound-for-pound, one of the most prolific and most powerful of all fighters, there is no question that “The Tylorstown Terror” is the all-time greatest flyweight. He began boxing as a teenager in so-called “booth bouts” and no one knows how many fights he had; estimates range between 500 and 700 matches. He went on to campaign as a legit professional where he authored the longest winning streak in boxing history: 103 fights without a single defeat. By the time he won the world title in 1916, he had already cleaned out the division and was a living legend.
“The Ghost With A Hammer In His Hand” looks for another KO.
Honorable Mentions: Jimmy Barry, Johnny Buff, Santos Laciar, Hilario Zapata, Black Bill, Humberto Gonzalez, Johnny Coulon, Ricardo Lopez, “Wee” Willie Davies, Jung-Koo Chang, Yoko Gushiken, Michael Carbajal, Mark Johnson, Horacio Accavallo, Newsboy Brown, Shoji Oguma, Santos Laciar, Fighting Harada, Chartchai Chionoi, Elky Clark.
Benny LynchBetulio GonzalezFidel LaBarbaFighting HaradaFrankie GenaroHilario ZapataHumberto GonzalezJimmy BarryJimmy WildeJohnny BuffJohnny CoulonJung-Koo ChangMark JohnsonMichael CarbajalMidget WolgastMiguel CantoPancho VillaPascual PérezPeter KanePone KingpetchRicardo LopezSantos LaciarYoko Gushiken
Pernell Whitaker: Best Of A Decade
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Antonio Santiago says: March 29, 2017 at 8:37 am
Gonzalez and Santos Laciar belong in the IBHOF
Juan Carlos Gutiérrez says: October 18, 2019 at 5:23 pm
Your mouth is talking reason my friend.
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Inca Rail Upgrades Trains to Machu Picchu
by David Cogswell / July 27, 2018
Machu Picchu Trains by Inca Rail features upgraded cars and an enhanced onboard experience. Photo: Machu Picchu Trains.
Acquired two years ago by the Carlyle Group, Inca Rail in Peru has rebranded as Machu Picchu Trains by Inca Rail and significantly upgraded its product offering.
With a $10 million investment from Carlyle, the company has refurbished its cars, enhanced the onboard experience, ratcheted up the amenities, added a 360-degree panoramic-view observation deck with an outdoor terrace, and offers a private charter service.
“The idea is now to deliver the customers more experience,” said Maritza Montero, director of sales and marketing for Inca Rail. “It’s all about the experience because all the travelers who go to Machu Picchu are really excited about seeing the ruins at the Citadel, so we want to take them in a different way to experience this wonderful trip. We researched for the last year to find new ways to fulfill the needs of the customers and what we can do to make this journey more awesome.”
Added capacity
The company expanded its first-class offering from 30 seats to 60 seats, adding a second 30-seat car, and adding an observatory lounge car between the two cars.
“The observatory lounge is fantastic,” said Montero, “because after lunch, we invite the customers to experience some live music, drinks and enjoy the trip in a different way.”
Montero said the 360-degree observatory lounge is unique in the market, “not only because we have more panoramic windows, but it is the only train with an open terrace. It’s wonderful because since we want to deliver as full an experience as possible, this is the way the customer can experience the journey with the five senses, to see, to smell, to hear and to feel more of the journey. There are no windows so you can take pictures.”
As to the fifth sense, taste, Inca Rail also has that covered. “We have the flavors because all the food is from the Andes,” said Montero, “so they can taste the food products of the Sacred Valley."
Tech upgrade
Inca Rail also upgraded the technology on the train to accommodate the needs of today’s wired travelers.
“It’s also the first train that offers state-of-the-art technology,” said Montero, “with a USB port for ISP to charge phones and iPads if you want to take pictures and don’t have batteries.
“It’s also the only train that has an entertainment system that lets passengers follow the trip with their phones. They can see where the train is going. There are many things to see along the way. They can hear the narration in different languages and find out what is outside, the Incan ruins or the Urubamba River. There is also music and video from the Andes. So, it’s a unique train.”
New class of service
The company now offers four classes of service: private, first class, 360 Degree and the standard Voyager service.
“For the top luxury class, we offer a private service on a chartered basis,” said Montero. “It’s unique in market. You can charter the whole car and it’s at your disposal. You travel with a chef, staff and butler service. It includes upscale dining with a five-course meal, whisky, live music, a lounge and a bar. It’s for one to 10 people. It could be couples, families or friends. You charter the service and it’s completely private, the only private charter in the market.”
The train's dining car.
Passengers can catch the train from Cuzco or Ollantaytambo. From Cuzco, the train leaves from Poroy Station, about a 20-minute drive from downtown Cuzco. The trip to Machu Picchu is about three hours.
From Ollantaytambo, passengers catch the train near the site itself and the trip takes about an hour and a half.
The final leg
The train drops passengers off at the Machu Pichu Pueblo Hotel, formerly known as Aguas Caliente, at the foot of the final climb to the Citadel. The final leg of the trip is taken by bus. With its new, upgraded service, Inca Rail is including a private bus for the final climb.
The Peruvian government implemented some restrictions, last July, to help prevent degradation of the Machu Picchu site from nearly 4,000 people walking over it every day. Under the new rules, there are two shifts for visitation: in the morning between 6 a.m. and noon, or from noon to 5:30 p.m. In addition, the authorities mandated that visitors have to be accompanied by a licensed tour guide so they know where to walk without damaging the site.
“This bus is a half-hour ride,” said Montero. “We do this because, since the government implemented two shifts, the lines are really heavy. So, we don’t want the experience to be completed until the customers are at the ruins.”
The train features an outdoor balcony.
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G Adventures Brings Back Popular Agent Incentive
The “G-Normous” agent incentive program is back for the eighth consecutive year.
Pleasant Holidays Expands Zero Change Fee Policy to All Destinations
The tour operator announced the elimination of brand change fees for land vacations to all destinations in their product lines.
Reflecting on 2020: This Year 'Took Us on Some Type of Roller Coaster'
As 2020 comes to an end, TMR invited a number of travel advisors and suppliers from all over the world to pen their own letter to the industry, reflecting on the year that was and looking to 2021.
Pleasant Holidays Rolls Out Social Media Marketing Resource for Travel Advisors
The free, pre-messaged social media posts provide travel advisors with images and customizable content they can publish on their own channels.
The Travel Corporation Launches COVID-19 Insurance Program
The new plans are available for new bookings made on or after Dec. 15, for travel starting on April 1, 2021.
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Insight Vacations to Debut Journeys to Latin America For the First Time
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TTC Brands Now Include Specially Trained Well-Being Director
The Travel Corporation Introduces ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ Option
In Memorium: USTOA Legal Counsel John Hughes
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Spring break destinations report strong bookings
By Gay Nagle Myers
If David Letterman were to come out with a Top Ten List of spring break destinations, it wouldn’t contain many surprises.
All the destinations that have been popular in the years since Fort Lauderdale put the kibosh on the invasion of hedonistic hordes that peaked in 1985, when 350,000 spring breakers set beer-consumption records that still stand, continue to be popular this year, for the most part.
Cancun, Punta Cana, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Panama City Beach in Florida’s Panhandle top the destination list for students hopping on the spring break bandwagon and abandoning books for beach and beer.
Operators and resorts have responded accordingly.
In Panama City Beach, activities from concerts and beach parties to free pancake breakfasts and parades lure spring breakers, many of whom arrive by car rather than air.
More than a dozen hotels and motels along the beach offer substantial discounts, listed in a special website, www.pcbeachspringbreak.com.
“We expect a strong turnout this month, and businesses are very encouraged,” said Susan Estler, vice president of marketing for the Panama City Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau.
In the islands, CheapCaribbean’s “Beach for Your Buck” deals offer discounts of up to 70% and are selling fast, a spokesman said.
But spring break is not just beach bashes and bikini contests anymore. Eco-adventure tourism is on the rise across all age markets, including among students.
The Puerto Plata region along the Dominican Republic’s north coast draws kite boarders and surfers to Cabarete’s Kite Beach and hikers to El Choco National Park during spring break, according to Magaly Toribio, marketing adviser for the Dominican Republic Ministry of Tourism.
“We’ve got eight airports in the D.R., resorts for every budget, and we’re seeing a booking increase throughout the spring break period this year over last year,” she said.
Cancun officials expect more than 45,000 spring breakers this year, up from the 25,000-plus who partied there in 2012, according to tourism officials, who last week reported citywide occupancies of better than 90%.
Up and down Mexico’s Riviera Maya, resorts geared up for the monthlong invasion, which began in late February as campuses in the U.S. emptied out.
The tourist police, army troops and federal law enforcement agents also prepared, beefing up and adding patrols along Cancun’s hotel and bar zones as part of Operation Spring Breakers 2013.
Flyers were distributed at the major spring break hotels reminding students about good manners — don’t urinate in the streets, don’t use drugs or destroy property.
“Cancun has enlarged security measures to ensure that all visitors have a fun and safe holiday,” said Jesus Almaguer, CEO of the Cancun Convention & Visitors Bureau. “We have increased the number of lifeguards on duty, and other safety precautions have been implemented in the hotel zone and on public beaches,.
“The only thing our guests have to worry about is choosing between a trip to the Mayan ruins, taking a spa treatment or cooling off in the sea,” he said.
Spring break bookings to Mexico are up 28% over 2012 at StudentUniverse, a Massachusetts-based discount seller of student travel.
“There was less interest in travel to Mexico last year,” said Jessica Canary, manager of online marketing. “Our data also shows a 40% jump year over year for student travel to Europe, with London, Dublin and Paris the top choices.”
Travel within the U.S. remains popular because it’s easier and no passport is required, “but the trend shows increased travel outside the U.S. during spring break,” according to Canary.
Even so, the Western ski resorts are banking on a strong spring break season, bolstered by record snowfalls this winter.
Breckenridge Ski Resort in Colorado targets students with free on-mountain concerts, discounted lift tickets, competitions and accommodations during its month-long Spring Fever festival, which winds up April 14.
Sequester effects probably won’t have much impact on spring break travelers. Federal employees must be notified 30 days in advance before being furloughed, so the impact of the mandatory unpaid leave would not be felt before April 1, according to the FAA.
Follow Gay Nagle Myers on Twitter @gnmtravelweekly.
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Universal Orlando cooks up its first culinary festival
https://www.travelweekly.com/North-America-Travel/Spring-break-destinations-report-strong-bookings
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Con Coverage
C2E2 Pics
Anime Milwaukee
Comic Reviews Rating
Hedeby Educational Consulting
Pullbox Reviews: Elvira #1- All of Elvira’s Wit & Wisdom Securely Intact…
Comic Reviews, Dynamite Entertainment, Movies, Pullbox Reviews, TV
Elvira, Mistress of the Dark #1
Written by David Avallone
Art by Dave Acosta
Colors by Andrew Covalt
Letters by Taylor Esposito
The Mistress of the Dark has become unstuck in time! Elvira crashes Mary Shelley’s monster weekend, beginning an epic journey through horror history, stalked by the most terrifying nightmare to ever walk the Earth. (No spoilers!) Writer David Avallone (Bettie Page, Doc Savage, Twilight Zone) and Dave Acosta (Doc Savage) bring you the thrills, chills and double-entendres in the first chapter of this four-issue miniseries!
Played by actress-writer Cassandra Peterson, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark has carved out a niche in popular American culture that is sure to endure for decades to come. Elvira’s reign as ‘Queen of Halloween’ has now spanned thirty-five years and includes two nationally syndicated television series, two feature films (Elvira, Mistress of the Dark and Elvira’s Haunted Hills), an IMAX movie and two motion control rides. She has appeared in National ad campaigns for Pepsi and Coors, recorded five music CDs, written four books and licensed over Four Hundred products including pinball machines, action figures, guitars, three comic book series, a beer, wine, soda pop, perfume, slot machines and the best-selling female costume of all time.
Come with us now, oh readers of the macabre, purveyors of gothic horror. Answer the call and bear witness to the terror, the fearsome presence that is… Crap, this is an Elvira comic? Forget all of that other stuff, just settle yourselves in for a buttload of quips, cleavage, and thinly veiled dirty jokes.
In between takes on the set of her latest movie masterpiece (heh), Elvira enters her trailer and is whisked through a swirling vortex, to another world. It happens… how else do you explain Carrot Top? On the other side, the Mistress of the Dark finds her charming self in the company of none other than Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and Mary (soon to be Shelley) Wollstonecraft. The trio had been searching for their friend John Polidori, snatched up by a shadowy fiend barely an hour before.
I hope that’s enough setup for you guys, cuz if I’m being honest that’s about all I’ve got. Elvira, the perennial societal outcast, finds herself transported through space and time, and now must solve the mystery of how and why so that she can find her way home before her movie contract expires. The good news is that if you recognized Elvira on the cover of a comicbook, and you thought “I gotta have it!” you already know what kind of ride you’re in for.
Rest assured that fans of Elvira, with all of her (heh) charm & wit should be satisfied with what David Avallone has laid out for them. Throughout the issue, while I was reading Elvira’s dialogue I heard Cassandra Peterson’s voice clear as day in my head. I have no idea how much “research” Avallone had to do, how many hours of Elvira’s television show he had to watch to get it all down, but if there was a model for distilling all of the traits of a well-known pop-culture icon onto the page, I’d say that David Avallone has got it down pat. My wife kept asking me what I was snickering about, and when I’d read her one of Elvira’s lines all she could do was give me a spousal eye roll. Eventually, she stopped asking.
Hey, while we’re talking about the traits for which Elvira is most known (heh), let’s give some credit where it’s due: the artistic team of Dave Acosta, Andrew Covalt, & Taylor Esposito have done their due diligence. Acosta pulls no punches, rendering each line with love and care to bring our temporally displaced heroine to two-dimensional- and gravity defying- life. On colors, Covalt does a fine job of making sure the entire cast of characters remain bright enough to follow on a dimly lit, gothic inspired backdrop (fitting, since Mary Shelley did have a bit of a hand in defining Gothic Literature). For that matter, Esposito is given some room to play, his lettering- while mostly innocuous- manages to creatively spotlight a few of the gags that I thought were a highlight in the issue.
Look, kids, I’m not gonna sit here and try to tell you that Elvira, Mistress of the Dark is going to change the way you look at comicbooks. I’m not even going to imply that it’s a reimagining of a cultural phenomenon. What I am going to say is that from start to finish, I was entertained by this run’s opening issue. The humor was dead on, with just enough slyly suggested corn thrown in to uphold Elvira’s lofty standards of bad taste. Her self-aware brand of humor acknowledges the obvious points of contention with a nudge and a wink, creating a more relaxed atmosphere in which to enjoy the ride. This isn’t Meryl Streep… it’s freakin’ Elvira.
Where the series goes from here is anybody’s guess, but if it remains just a series of one-offs bouncing (heh) Elvira through time, visiting one literary figure after another, it could still be an entertaining trip. That is why we still read comicbooks, isn’t it?
Updated: July 5, 2018 — 7:36 pm
Tags: Acallone, Acosta, Andrew Covalt, Covalt, David Avallone, Dynamite Entertainment, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, Movie Tie In, TV tie in
Pullbox Previews – Dune: House Atreides #4
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Pullbox Reviews: It’s 1973 and Abbott’s Back…But So’s the Umbra!
From Boom! Studios this NCBD, January 20th
Lords of the Cosmos are coming again!
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Eric Weddle: "We kept our season alive, we've got to keep that energy"
Eric Weddle on keeping the same energy going into the final games of the 2019 season, the win over the Seahawks and more.
Andrew and Melissa Whitworth share experience with COVID-19
Andrew and Melissa Whitworth share their experience with COVID-19.
Sean McVay talks conclusion of virtual offseason program
Rams head coach Sean McVay explains why the team decided to end its virtual offseason program two weeks early, as well as expectations heading into training camp.
Darrell Henderson Jr.: "Everyone will have a role, we've just got to be prepared"
Darrell Henderson Jr. on team meetings on racial injustice, his role heading into his second season with the Rams and more.
Robert Woods: "Now is the call for action"
WR Robert Woods on going into year eight, his off-season during quarantine, and how players can make an impact on racial injustice issues.
Sean McVay: "It was about listening to learn more than anything"
Sean McVay speaks about how Rams players and staff have reacted to the protests happening in Los Angeles and across the country.
Sean McVay: "Our goal and expectation is to prepare and win every game"
Head coach Sean McVay on challenges during virtual offseason, the goals for the upcoming season and staying connected with the team.
Jalen Ramsey: "There's no limits to what I think we can do"
Jalen Ramsey speaks to the media on May 26 about the defense, playing in front of fans and more.
DC Brandon Staley: "Especially in times like this, you want to be able to create energy everyday."
Rams defensive coordinator Brandon Staley explains his approach to making virtual offseason meetings exciting, what it's like to be able to build a defense around players like defensive tackle Aaron Donald and cornerback Jalen Ramsey, and more.
OC Kevin O'Connell: "I think we've really maximized the time."
Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O'Connell discusses the unit's progress at this stage of the virtual offseason program.
Aaron Donald on the virtual offseason program, new DC Brandon Staley's scheme
Defensive tackle Aaron Donald discusses what he's been up to during the Rams' virtual offseason program and his impressions of new defensive coordinator Brandon Staley's approach to the defense.
Leonard Floyd on transition to Rams, reuniting with Brandon Staley
"It's going to be great playing for him again. He's a guy who's very intelligent, works hard and really studies the game." Leonard Floyd on Coach Brandon Staley.
McVay: "It's a great challenge against the Cowboys" with opening game of 2020 season
Coach McVay talks to the media about schedule release, the virtual offseason program and more!
A'Shawn Robinson: "I just want to win" with Rams
DT A'Shawn Robinson talks to the media for the first time since signing with the Rams.
Sean McVay on the first day of virtual offseason program
Head coach Sean McVay discusses the start of the virtual offseason, Josh Reynolds stepping up and more.
Josh Reynolds' approach to playing a bigger role in the offense this season
WR Josh Reynolds talks the first day of virtual offseason, going into the final year of his rookie contract and more.
Tremayne Anchrum talks joining the Rams, the offensive line and more
Rams draft pick Tremayne Anchrum discusses where he can fit in in the offensive line and his eagerness to get to work with the team.
Samuel Sloman: "I'm excited for the opportunity to come in and compete for a wide open job"
Kicker Samuel Sloman on coming in to compete for the starting kicker job and how cool it is to be playing for Head Coach Sean McVay being an alum of Miami of Ohio.
Les Snead and Sean McVay wrap up the 2020 NFL Draft
GM Les Snead and head coach Sean McVay discuss the 2020 NFL draft and overall thoughts on this year's process.
Clay Johnston is PUMPED to be a Ram
Clay Johnston on his excitement to be drafted by the Rams, familiarity with Southern California and more in his introductory interview with the media.
Jordan Fuller: "It's just the first step in a long journey"
Rams draft pick Jordan Fuller talks to the media about being selected by the Rams, working hard, and what he expects to bring to the team.
Brycen Hopkins: "I always say I'm a versatile tight end"
Tight end Brycen Hopkins talks joining the Rams, his family's reaction and keeping his mind busy during the wait to hear his name called.
Terrell Burgess: "I'm full with excitement right now"
Safety Terrell Burgess on staying home in Southern California, getting drafted by the Rams and more!
Terrell Lewis ready to "contribute as much as possible" to Rams
Terrell Lewis discusses his reaction to getting drafted to the Rams, the process, and more in his introductory interview with the media.
Les Snead and Sean McVay discuss Day 2 of the 2020 NFL Draft
GM Les Snead and Head Coach Sean McVay discuss the team's Day 2 draft picks.
Cam Akers on his relationship with Jalen Ramsey and what he will bring to the Rams
Rams draft pick Cam Akers on fitting in to the team's offense, Jalen Ramsey and what he hopes to bring to the organization.
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Maurizio Sarri sends Chelsea FC message to Ruben Loftus-Cheek
Maurizio Sarri reassures Ruben Loftus-Cheek that he will get a regular spot in the first team at Chelsea FC
Friday 21 September 2018, 06:45 UK
Chelsea FC manager Maurizio Sarri Photo: The Sport Review
Maurizio Sarri has told Ruben Loftus-Cheek that he will get first-team opportunities at Chelsea FC this season.
The midfielder returned to Stamford Bridge this summer after having enjoyed a successful loan spell at Crystal Palace last term and earning a spot in the England squad for the World Cup in Russia.
Loftus-Cheek, 22, will naturally be looking to continue his development by notching up as many first team minutes as possible this season.
However, he faces some tough competition to get into the starting line-up at Stamford Bridge, with the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Jorginho and Ross Barkley all competing for midfield positions.
It had been suggested that Loftus-Cheek could head out on loan again this season to gain some more regular playing time, but he will be staying at Stamford Bridge until the January transfer window at least.
Now, Sarri has insisted that there will be opportunities for Loftus-Cheek in the first team in the coming weeks and months.
Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Sarri said: “Loftus-Cheek, for me, is a very good player. Of course there will be [a spot for him in the team] in the future.”
Chelsea FC will return to Premier League action on Sunday afternoon when they travel to West Ham United.
The Blues are looking to make it six wins in a row in the top flight this season and keep their spot at the top of the table.
Darren Fletcher talks up Man United summer signing
Darren Fletcher opens up about Luke Shaw at Man United
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Questions still swirl around fatal police shooting of Jermaine Carby
By Jacques GallantStaff Reporter
Thu., July 23, 2015timer4 min. read
Peel Regional Police Chief Jennifer Evans publicly commented for the first time on Thursday regarding the fatal police shooting of Jermaine Carby, while still leaving crucial questions unanswered.
Chief among those questions is: Why did a police officer ask Carby to identify himself during a traffic stop in Brampton on Sept. 24, 2014, seeing as he was not the driver of the vehicle, but rather the passenger?
“I am unable to answer that because we have not completed our Administrative Review,” Evans told the Star in an email.
Evans must report her findings, and any action taken, to the Peel Police Services Board within 30 days. Under the Police Services Act, the board “may” make that report available to the public.
Ontario’s police watchdog said Tuesday that Carby gave his name and date of birth to the officer, who then learned through a police database that there were outstanding warrants against him in British Columbia.
Carby’s cousin La Tanya Grant said her family was told by the Special Investigations Unit that the officer who asked Carby to identify himself also learned through the Canadian Police Information Centre database that Carby had mental health issues. (Toxicology reports later showed he had antidepressants in his system that night.)
The situation quickly degenerated, according to SIU director Tony Loparco, and more officers arrived at the scene. Carby, who had exited the vehicle and was apparently wielding a knife at police, was shot dead by an unnamed officer. Loparco ruled there were no reasonable grounds to lay criminal charges.
Evans’ response comes as Carby’s family is beginning to learn more this week about his final hours, while highlighting what they say are important discrepancies, and as the Peel police union fires back at Loparco for what its president describes as “inflammatory” language regarding a police officer removing a knife from the scene.
Loparco lashed out in his report at an unnamed officer who said he removed a knife from Carby’s body after he had been shot, placed it in a brown paper bag and gave it to his sergeant, who delivered it to an SIU investigator “several hours” after the shooting.
“Peel Regional Police recovered the knife at the scene to safeguard against the loss; seized it to preserve evidence and placed it in a brown paper bag for delivery to the SIU investigators as per procedure,” Evans said, adding she did not feel it was necessary to name the officer pending the administrative review.
Peel police have refused to provide any information about the officer, including his name, number of years on the force, whether he is still employed by Peel police and if he is facing disciplinary action. Evans said that officers are trained how to handle scenes where an SIU investigation is apparent, but did not elaborate further.
Although she refers to the delivery of the knife as procedural, Loparco described the officer’s actions in his report as “ill-advised conduct (that) has cast a pall over the integrity of the SIU’s investigation.”
Peel Regional Police Association president Paul Black told Loparco in a letter obtained by the Star that the knife was seized “in good faith” and that Loparco’s comment about it being delivered “several hours” after the fact was “misleading.”
“Most of those hours and minutes were derived waiting for the SIU forensic investigators to arrive,” he said. “Again, press release commentary that sheds an unexplained and incorrect light on police actions creates an air of mistrust amongst our membership with the SIU.”
The SIU did not return a request for comment regarding the letter.
Grant said that Loparco and SIU investigators told family members during a five-hour meeting on Wednesday that while Carby’s DNA was found on the knife, his fingerprints were not.
Grant told the Star that Loparco said the knife was handed over to SIU investigators at around 5 a.m. on Sept. 25, about seven hours after Carby was shot and five hours after the SIU first arrived on scene.
SIU spokeswoman Monica Hudon declined to comment on Grant’s statements, as Carby’s death may be the subject of a coroner’s inquest. (The coroner’s office told the Star that their investigation continues, and no decision has been made on an inquest.)
“The story has a lot of discrepancies,” said Grant. “It doesn’t sit well with me at all.”
Grant claims that the officer who asked Carby to identify himself did not tell the other officers who arrived at the scene, including the one who shot Carby, that her cousin had mental health issues.
There is also the issue of the unnamed driver of the black Jetta in which Carby was the passenger. He is unknown to Grant and her family; she said the driver apparently knew Carby for about 10 years.
He is described in Loparco’s report as the only civilian witness to have actually seen Carby holding a knife in his hand as he approached officers. (Other civilian witnesses further away from the scene said they heard officers shout “drop the knife.”)
Evans told the Star that the driver was interviewed by Peel police after speaking with SIU investigators, but was not arrested. Loparco said in his report that the car was pulled over because the licence plate was dangling and obscured, and the headlights were off, although the plate is clearly legible in footage from that night viewed by the Star.
“It is my belief that the vehicle was pulled over to investigate offences under the Highway Traffic Act,” Evans said.
Grant said her family wants to speak to the driver, but the SIU will not turn over his identity.
With files from Wendy Gillis
Special Investigations Unit, Brampton
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Emma Russ: Take time to thank the people who helped your career
Fundraisers say thank you all the time, so why don't we say it more to the people who helped us achieve our goals?
Emma Russ
I recently told my team I was leaving. I have been at the organisation six years, and it was really tough.
One of my fundraisers was taken aback by my news and told me that I was the first person who saw something in them and thanked me for investing in them. It really took me back. It made me smile and it made me so damn proud of how much they had achieved since the first time we met.
It got me thinking about the first fundraising manager who saw something in me – the first person who gave me that chance to pursue a career I love so much.
So I messaged her to say thank you. I told her about my day, about what somebody in my team had said and how it had made me think of her. I told her that I wouldn't be the person or fundraiser I am today without her belief and input.
A few weeks later I was at a conference and my first line manager’s boss (at the time) approached me to tell me she had been sent a card by my first line manager, inspired by my message, saying thank you for her chance.
I could see that it meant as much to her as it did when somebody said it to me. It started to feel like a really small pass-the-thank-you-on movement.
I started to think that we, fundraisers, say thank you all the time. We even go to training sessions about how to do it well. But we probably don't say it enough to the people who gave us our breaks, to the people who took a chance on us, supported us, believed in us, to the people who helped make us who we are, the people who enabled us to make a difference to the world.
So I'm asking you all to think back to that person who gave you your break. It might not be your first manager. It might not even be a manager: it might be a colleague or a mentor. It could be two or three people. But there will be somebody in your career who invested in you and helped make you who you are today.
Message them, send them a card, call them, meet them for coffee. Just get in touch, tell them the difference they made to you and to your career.
They definitely didn’t do it for the thanks; they did it because they saw that spark and they knew you'd be awesome. But I assure you that the gesture will make their day. And it will inspire you to do the same for somebody else.
Emma Russ is fundraising and communications manager at Galloway’s Society for the Blind
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Home Nigeria Obasanjo Calls for Merger of MDAs to Check Wastages
Obasanjo Calls for Merger of MDAs to Check Wastages
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has called for merging of government’s ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) as part of efforts to curb wastages of scarce resources.
Obasanjo made the call yesterday in Abeokuta while addressing members of the Joint Tax Board who paid him a courtesy call at his Hilltop residence.
The former president, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said government needed to block all forms of financial leakages due to the dwindling revenue.
He also advised the various states should increase their revenue generating drive and ensure that taxpayers money were utilised to provide necessary infrastructure for benefit of all citizens.
“When times are hard, that is when governments need increased drive for internally generated revenue.
“They have to look into ways of becoming slimmer and also bring together establishments or institutions which cannot continue to exist separately.
“They should also ensure that the funds generated from taxes are well utilised.
“I think these are some of the things we have to do to get us out of the tight situation that we are all in,” he said.
The Chairman of the Joint Tax Board, Mr. Babatunde Fowler, noted that tax earnings available to the federal government had increased through a renewed drive by the board.
He gave assurance that Nigerians would continue to benefit from the laudable projects financed through funds from taxes.
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Trump and Wole Soyinka’s Green Card
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Nigeria, USA: A People Dehumanised, a Country Diminished
BY REUBEN ABATI On November 2, 2016, a week before the US Presidential elections of Nov. 8, 2016, Wole Soyinka, Africa’s first Nobel Laureate in...
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CPI announces smart-labelling project in partnership with Reelables using novel Battery-on-Circuit technology
CPI today announced a new collaborative project with Reelables to demonstrate a novel technology for printing smart Battery-on-Circuit labels, used to track shared objects in workspaces.
This low-cost power source will eliminate the need for expensive and bulky external batteries for printed electronics, overcoming a key barrier to their widening application, mass production and industry growth.
Existing asset tracking solutions on the market require time consuming installation procedures and are often expensive to use. The London-based SME, Reelables, has invented a smart-label that can be easily attached to objects and tracked automatically through a phone app. The smart-label incorporates a key manufacturing innovation that allows a battery to be inserted directly alongside the wireless tracking circuit on a thin plastic film. The low-cost battery technology is formed by electrochemically coating and laminating two plastic films together, which can power a wireless smart-label for more than a year.
Funded by Innovate UK, an initial 12-month feasibility study will be carried out, combining the expertise of Cisco and the Digital Catapult, with each partner bringing unique skills and capabilities for technology innovation. CPI will provide expertise from both its electronics and formulation business units to support the development of the battery device, including: anode coating, electrolyte formulation, cathodic slurry formulations and coatings, device assembly, and the testing of battery cells. In addition, CPI will compile a written report detailing how the technology will be manufactured at larger scales and its potential in the printed electronics market.
The successful development of the smart, Battery-on-Circuit labels will enable a new, growing workforce of geographically disperse employees to track shared objects ranging from tools and demo kits to portable medical equipment.
Brian Krejcarek, CEO at Reelables, said: “The ability to coat a lithium-based battery on the same substrate as our wireless circuit would be a breakthrough manufacturing win for track and trace applications across multiple industries. It would enable long-lifespan Internet of Things (IoT) devices to be made at very low cost. We’re particularly excited to be working with CPI to figure out how this can be done under ambient manufacturing environments in the presence of atmospheric oxygen and water – the key challenge when working with lithium based electro-chemistries.”
Sam Chan, Technical Lead of POETICS Project at CPI, said: “This challenging project brings together the expertise from two business units at CPI to develop an advanced, integrated flexible battery on an existing IoT product. This battery development will boost the market value for printed electronics by greatly reducing costs. The integration of flexible batteries in smart labels also has the potential to be exploited in other IoT devices.”
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Geotab and Lytx partner to bring single-user interface to fleets
by Truck News
SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Geotab and video telematics provider Lytx are collaborating to bring customers a single-user interface to help fleets improve safety, productivity, and efficiency.
The single interface merges Lytx’s video-based telematics platform – Driver Safety Program – with Geotab’s telematics device. Lytx brings vehicle insights from more than 120 billion miles of driving data, while Geotab says its telematics device is now found in over two million vehicles worldwide, with commercial trucks making up around 500,000.
The new integrated offering will provide fleet managers with a new tool to gain insight into both their vehicles and drivers.
“Lytx developed the video telematics industry over 20 years ago and continues to lead in providing advanced technologies for safer and more efficient fleets,” said Brandon Nixon, Lytx chairman and CEO. “We are thrilled to work with Geotab to help better meet the needs of the fleets we work with and bring access to sophisticated video to many more. This integration, which seamlessly pairs Geotab’s exceptional fleet management platform with our own best-in-class video platform will help fleets take their safety, productivity, and efficiency to new heights.”
The collaboration enables browsing of video and data from Lytx’s DriveCam event recorders through Geotab’s platform. As a result, fleet managers will be able to better understand what is happening with their vehicles and drivers at any given moment, which will help reduce risk due to driver behavior and improve regulatory compliance.
“Video is an information-rich technology, and with our scale and advanced machine vision and artificial intelligence capabilities, Lytx is the leader in delivering actionable intelligence from video,” said Nixon. “This new integration gives fleets the power of the Driver Safety Program and our MV+AI technology to deliver the best safety insights in the industry – now in a single sign-on, integrated experience with the Geotab platform they know and love.”
With commercial vehicles connected to the Internet, Geotab’s technology processes more than 40 billion data points every day to help enhance fleet visibility into vehicles and drivers.
During today’s announcement at Geotab’s Connect 2020 conference in San Diego, Calif., Lytx says its video telematics helps to reduce collisions by 50-80% and captures over 1,000 near collisions and more than 100 collisions daily.
Brandon Nixon, Lytx chairman and CEO.
“We are proud to partner with Lytx, a leader in the industry in both years of experience and miles of driving data,” said Geotab CEO Neil Cawse. “With this integration, more customers will be able to use the power of both companies’ technologies to easily manage fleets and drivers through a single-user interface, enabling a stronger return on investment without the need to juggle several different platforms at once.”
Geotab is a Canadian-based technology company, with its headquarters in Oakville, Ont.
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Biden unveils $1.9T plan to stem COVID-19 and steady economy
RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR and BILL BARROW, Associated Press
1of11President-elect Joe Biden speaks about the COVID-19 pandemic during an event at The Queen theater, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021, in Wilmington, Del.Matt Slocum/APShow MoreShow Less
2of11President-elect Joe Biden speaks about the COVID-19 pandemic during an event at The Queen theater, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021, in Wilmington, Del., as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris listens.Matt Slocum/APShow MoreShow Less
10of11President-elect Joe Biden speaks about the COVID-19 pandemic during an event at The Queen theater, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021, in Wilmington, Del.Matt Slocum/APShow MoreShow Less
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden unveiled a $1.9 trillion coronavirus plan Thursday to end “a crisis of deep human suffering” by speeding up vaccines and pumping out financial help to those struggling with the pandemic’s prolonged economic fallout.
Called the “American Rescue Plan,” the legislative proposal would meet Biden's goal of administering 100 million vaccines by the 100th day of his administration, and advance his objective of reopening most schools by the spring. On a parallel track, it delivers another round of aid to stabilize the economy while the public health effort seeks the upper hand on the pandemic.
“We not only have an economic imperative to act now — I believe we have a moral obligation,” Biden said in a nationwide address. At the same time, he acknowledged that his plan “does not come cheaply.”
Biden proposed $1,400 checks for most Americans, which on top of $600 provided in the most recent COVID-19 bill would bring the total to the $2,000 that Biden has called for. It would also extend a temporary boost in unemployment benefits and a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures through September.
And it shoehorns in long-term Democratic policy aims such as increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour, expanding paid leave for workers, and increasing tax credits for families with children. The last item would make it easier for women to go back to work, which in turn would help the economy recover.
The political outlook for the legislation remained unclear. In a joint statement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer praised Biden for including liberal priorities, saying they would move quickly to pass it after Biden takes office next Wednesday. But Democrats have narrow margins in both chambers of Congress, and Republicans will push back on issues that range from increasing the minimum wage to providing more money for states, while demanding inclusion of their priorities, such as liability protection for businesses.
“Remember that a bipartisan $900 billion #COVID19 relief bill became law just 18 days ago,” tweeted Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. But Biden says that was only a down payment, and he promised more major legislation next month, focused on rebuilding the economy.
“The crisis of deep human suffering is in plain sight, and there’s not time to waste," Biden said. “We have to act and we have to act now.”
Still, he sought to manage expectations. “We’re better equipped to do this than any nation in the world," he said. “But even with all these small steps, it’s going to take time.”
His relief bill would be paid for with borrowed money, adding to trillions in debt the government has already incurred to confront the pandemic. Aides said Biden will make the case that the additional spending and borrowing is necessary to prevent the economy from sliding into an even deeper hole. Interest rates are low, making debt more manageable.
Biden has long held that economic recovery is inextricably linked with controlling the coronavirus.
That squares with the judgment of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the most powerful business lobbying group and traditionally an adversary of Democrats. “We must defeat COVID before we can restore our economy and that requires turbocharging our vaccination efforts,” the Chamber said in a statement Thursday night that welcomed Biden's plan but stopped short of endorsing it.
The plan comes as a divided nation is in the grip of the pandemic’s most dangerous wave yet. So far, more than 385,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the U.S. And government numbers out Thursday reported a jump in weekly unemployment claims, to 965,000, a sign that rising infections are forcing businesses to cut back and lay off workers.
Under Biden's multipronged strategy, about $400 billion would go directly to combating the pandemic, while the rest is focused on economic relief and aid to states and localities.
About $20 billion would be allocated for a more disciplined focus on vaccination, on top of some $8 billion already approved by Congress. Biden has called for setting up mass vaccination centers and sending mobile units to hard-to-reach areas.
With the backing of Congress and the expertise of private and government scientists, the Trump administration delivered two highly effective vaccines and more are on the way. Yet a month after the first shots were given, the nation’s vaccination campaign is off to a slow start with about 11 million people getting the first of two shots, although more than 30 million doses have been delivered.
Biden called the vaccine rollout “a dismal failure so far" and said he would provide more details about his vaccination campaign on Friday.
The plan also provides $50 billion to expand testing, which is seen as key to reopening most schools by the end of the new administration's first 100 days. About $130 billion would be allocated to help schools reopen without risking further contagion.
The plan would fund the hiring of 100,000 public health workers, to focus on encouraging people to get vaccinated and on tracing the contacts of those infected with the coronavirus.
There's also a proposal to boost investment in genetic sequencing, to help track new virus strains including the more contagious variants identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa.
Throughout the plan, there's a focus on ensuring that minority communities that have borne the brunt of the pandemic are not shortchanged on vaccines and treatments, aides said.
With the new proposals comes a call to redouble efforts on the basics.
Biden is asking Americans to override their sense of pandemic fatigue and recommit to wearing masks, practicing social distancing and avoiding indoor gatherings, particularly larger ones. It's still the surest way to slow the COVID-19 wave, with more than 4,400 deaths reported just on Tuesday.
Biden's biggest challenge will be to “win the hearts and minds of the American people to follow his lead,” said Dr. Leana Wen, a public health expert and emergency physician.
The pace of vaccination in the U.S. is approaching 1 million shots a day, but 1.8 million a day would be needed to reach widespread or “herd” immunity by the summer, according to a recent estimate by the American Hospital Association. Wen says the pace should be even higher — closer to 3 million a day.
Biden believes the key to speeding that up lies not only in delivering more vaccine but also in working closely with states and local communities to get shots into the arms of more people. The Trump administration provided the vaccine to states and set guidelines for who should get priority for shots, but largely left it up to state and local officials to organize their vaccination campaigns.
It's still unclear how the new administration will address the issue of vaccine hesitancy, the doubts and suspicions that keep many people from getting a shot. Polls show it's particularly a problem among Black Americans.
“We will have to move heaven and earth to get more people vaccinated,” Biden said.
Next Wednesday, when Biden is sworn in as president, marks the anniversary of the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the United States.
Associated Press writers Josh Boak and Alan Fram contributed to this report.
RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR and BILL BARROW
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Winnipeg 1290
GOLF CARD
Subway's Fresh Question Of The Day: January 18
Is Tiger Woods the greatest golfer of all time?
Harris: We came out ready to pounce
Lowry: I look forward to coaching again at the NHL level
Donvito Roundtable
Pulock on new contract with Islanders: 'The future of the team is bright'
Comrie: I really want to get back to playing
Harkins: I was trying to find a good deal for myself and the team
LIGHT UP WINNIPEG!
If you live in Winnipeg and have a house or yard with an impressive holiday display, click here to let us know about it. Together, let's Light Up Winnipeg!
Help us build another mountain of toys for less fortunate families with The Salvation Army!
The Warm-Up Show
The Warmup - Nov 27, 2020
Rick Ralph hosts The Warmup and is joined in studio by Ryan Brandt and Michael Remis (0:00). Guests include Kris Abbott of Coolbet (11:27) and Adam Scully of Golf Talk Canada (20:22).
McIntyre: Roslovic at home watching opportunity fly by
Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press joined Andrew “Hustler” Paterson and Rick Ralph on the Afternoon Ride. They discussed Logan Stanley making his NHL debut tonight, Jack Roslovic’s continued holdout, Perreault’s promotion to the second line for tonight, how COVID is affecting the roster and what lineup changes we might see this week.
Afternoon Ride - Hour 1 - Jan 18, 2020
Hour 1 of the Afternoon Ride with Andrew "Hustler" Paterson and Rick Ralph. They're joined by guests: TSN's Mark Masters (12:23) and TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun (22:51).
LeBrun: The number three goalie has never been more important
TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun joined Andrew “Hustler” Paterson and Rick Ralph on the Afternoon Ride. They discussed the opening week of the Canadian Division, the possibility of baseball style scheduling in the future and the third string goalie carousel around the league.
The Warmup - Jan 18, 2021
Andrew "Hustler" Paterson discusses the Jets lineup ahead of the evenings' Jets/Leafs game with Michael Remis & Ryan Brandt (0:00). They also recap the NFL Divisional Playoff Round. Reid Fowler of DraftKings joins the show to recap NFL weekend and the latest on the PGA Tour (24:04).
Donvito Roundtable - Jan. 18, 2021
Kevin Olzewski and Brian Munz recap the weekend in sports and get you set for the Jets and Leafs. Guests: Murat Ates from The Athletic (24:34), NFL writer Dion Caputi (1:13:09), Leafs writer Jonas Siegal (1:35:39) and Dennis Bernstein from The Fourth Period (1:58:57).
The Big Show: January 18, 2021
Guests include Frank Seravalli, John Hodge, Mark Masters, Mike McIntyre and Marshall Ferguson plus a preview of Jets/Leafs, injury problems on Winnipeg's blueline as well as the NFL Divisional round.
The Illegal Curve Hockey Show
The Illegal Curve Hockey Show - Jan 16, 2021
On today’s episode of The Illegal Curve Hockey Show, Drew, Ezra and Dave break down the Winnipeg Jets season-opening 4-3 OT victory over the Calgary Flames. The guys also welcome to the program with David Alter, Maple Leafs Reporter for The Hockey News (29:40), Jeff Hamilton of the Winnipeg Free Press (52:19), Micah Blake McCurdy, Hockey Analyst (1:14:15) and Ian Mendes, Senators Reporter for The Athletic (1:39:03).
Hour 3 of the Afternoon Ride with Andrew "Hustler" Paterson and Rick Ralph. They're joined by guests: Andrew Harris of the Blue Bombers (11:17) and Tim Campbell of NHL (21:43).
Harris: It was an easy decision to come back
Winnipeg Blue Bombers running back Andrew Harris joined Andrew “Hustler” Paterson and Rick Ralph on the Afternoon Ride. They discussed his new contract with the team, why it was such an easy decision to come back, what he has been doing with his time off and his training plans for the upcoming season.
Hour 2 of the Afternoon Ride with Andrew "Hustler" Paterson and Rick Ralph. They're joined by guests: CTV's Jon Hendricks (13:18) and Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton on the NFL (23:12).
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Bowditch mastering his game
Bowditch promises to put more effort into doing "well at home" this summer. GOH CHAI HIN
by Wayne Heming
Wayne Heming
US MASTERS champion Adam Scott is the big name drawcard for the Australian Masters starting at Melbourne's Huntingdale course tomorrow but Sunshine Coast professional Steven Bowditch tees off following a superb year in which he has overshadowed his fellow Queenslander.
While the history-making Scott has gone winless through 11 months and slipped out of the world's top 10, Bowditch goes into the tournament after capturing the Byron Nelson Classic in May and almost doubling his US career earnings by banking $US3.7 million with 10 top-25 finishes.
Much has been written about Bowditch's personal battles with depression and the immense talent it threatened to destroy.
But at the age of 32, and with the help of his wife, family and close friends, that potential is finally starting to materialise with maturity.
Bowditch's ability to play the game has never really been questioned.
But the Presidents Cup captain's representative has discovered more consistency in his game in the past 18 months along with the ability to get himself through four mentally tough rounds without self-imploding.
"You're right, it's always been the way my career has gone," a candid Bowditch said when asked about his struggles and battles with consistency on the golf course.
"I guess it was just something I had to work on. I really had to sort of tone down in areas and not get so aggressive, and when the game is not going well, stop sort of pushing it a little bit.
"I guess there was a little more on the mental side I had to learn about. Still have to learn, obviously; you never stop learning about it."
That isn't the only change Bowditch has made since last playing in Australia. He has shed heaps of kilos after feeling his 114kg frame was hampering his game. "I was up to 250 pounds. I am now down to about 215lbs (97.5kg)," he said.
Bowditch admitted until he broke into the top 30 and made the Presidents Cup team this year he had not given the Australian Tour the attention it deserved.
"It's nice coming back and walking through here (Huntingdale) the whole way and see all the great Australian golfers that have won sitting there with the Masters jacket and the trophy," he said.
"But I am putting more emphasis on doing well at home this summer."
steven bowditch
australian masters golf steven bowditch
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No staff to meet growing demand
Moranbah's Simply Sunshine Childcare director Amanda Stephan reads to Jay Pietzner and Ashton Hampton. The centre cares for about 70 children. Peter Holt
17th Aug 2012 10:13 AM
AS a growing number of newcomers pour into the town, demand for childcare in Moranbah is high.
Moranbah's Simply Sunshine Childcare director Amanda Stephan said the centre had parents asking about new enrolments on a daily basis and children were on a waiting list.
"I think, because there are a lot of people who have just moved here, they don't have that family support that other families get," Ms Stephan said.
"Sometimes mums and dads just need to spend a little time away from their kids."
Although Moranbah is at the centre of the resource boom, the town has struggled to attract workers for essential services such as childcare providers.
"It's well known that the rents are high in Moranbah," Ms Stephan said.
"We are a not-for-profit organisation. We can't offer huge salaries."
Ms Stephan said her staff members were hard-working but attracting new staff was often difficult.
However, while the influx of new people has increased the demand of childcare, it has also brought potential new staff to the area.
The Moranbah PCYC, which was forced to close its doors earlier this year in April due to a lack of staff, could soon be hiring.
Moranbah PCYC Acting Sergeant Kelsie Henderson said she didn't want to speculate on a timeframe but there was a great new candidate looking to fill a position.
"She has just moved to Moranbah with her family... there have been some changes, so she is just getting her qualifications up to date," she said.
"The hardest position to fill was the full-time co-ordinator role.
"We are looking for other general supervisor staff, but that probably won't be too difficult to find."
"We cared for about 30 kids in vocational and after-school hours care."
pcyc
child care children moranbah pcyc staff
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The inspiring life of Bill Taylor: the man who saved Smithy
by Jamie Brown
AUSTRALIAN aviation pioneer Bill Taylor passed away nearly 49 years ago, at the age of 70, but his legacy is alive and well, including here in Lismore.
The man who risked his life to save Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith on an aborted passage across the Tasman was inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame at Wagga at ceremony in August.
A month earlier his biography was released. Written by Rick Searle, The Man Who Saved Smithy details Bill's extraordinary life.
Pioneer aviator Bill Taylor emerges from a Catalina flying boat which was among his favourite craft.
His exploits and achievements were among the topics of discussion earlier this month at an annual reunion of those who devoted their war years to the Evans Head Bombing and Gunnery School.
At the reunion Lismore resident Gai Taylor addressed the crowd of elderly men and women who would have looked up to Bill as a pioneer.
With great clarity and detail Gai, better known for her role in organising the annual Great Eastern fly-In, recalled some of the tales of skill, endurance and bravery generated by her father.
Officially known as Sir Patrick Gordon Taylor after being knighted in 1954 for services to aviation, Bill was a devoted dad.
"I had a close relationship with Dad," Gai said.
"He was just away a lot. We spent much of our time together teaching me to fish, use an outboard and dingy, sail and a lot of bush walking. He gave me a wonderful sense of connection to the natural environment."
Gai was born late in her father's life at a time when he was busy exploring the Pacific as well as flying Catalinas commercially for Bryan Monkton's Trans Oceanic Airways.
Bill was a regular visitor to Lismore as a pilot with New England Airways and on many occasions landed at Grafton with Trans Oceanic Airways, splashing the Catalina down on the Clarence before offloading passengers and mail. But his domestic duties paled into insignificance when compared to his daring overseas adventures.
Born in 1896 into a successful Sydney merchant family, Bill cut his aviation teeth in World War One flying Sopwith Scouts with the Royal Flying Corp, precursor to the RAF.
Based in England he flew 77 sorties, navigating by the seat of his pants and receiving a military cross for his efforts.
Like a lot of pioneer war pilots - Hudson Fysh, Ross and Keith Smith, Charles Kingsford-Smith - Bill came home with a burning passion to spend his life in the air.
While he had seen the horrors of war, he predicted that one day aircraft could join the continents, bringing people together and perhaps helping to avoid future war.
This inspiration became Bill's life's purpose but the reality of finding work as a commercial pilot proved daunting with only sporadic opportunities available at the time.
Patrick Gordon ‘Bill’ Taylor and Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith are swamped by the crowd after arriving in America.
He was however determined and spent time learning more about flight. In between odd piloting jobs he undertook an engineering course at Mascot, volunteering at deHavilland and learned the complexities of celestial navigation.
Trouble was, marine sextants proved useless above clouds, where no horizon was visible for a reading so Bill developed his own, incorporating a re-designed bubble chamber attached to the sextant to act as an artificial horizon. He also developed a 'drift sight' to accurately read sideways movement of the aircraft due to wind.
With these early tools Bill was later able to navigate the world's largest oceans.
Bill connected with Kingsford-Smith when the pair were involved with the short-lived Australian National Airways, and after that fledgling enterprise crashed - quite literally - Bill and 'Smithy' turned to barnstorming as a way to make a quid from flight.
Together they flew the famous Southern Cross to New Zealand and back, fanning the flame of adventure that continued until Kingsford-Smith perished - as the flying ace had always feared - drowning after crashing off the west coast of Thailand.
Daring act of heroism
One of Bill and Smithy's more famous exploits took place over the Tasman during a commemorative 'jubilee' flight in May 1935.
Nearly 1000 kilometres after taking off they experienced trouble in one of the plane's three engines.
The exhaust manifold cracked free and smashed the propeller which created such a terrible shaking sensation that Smithy shut the engine down to save the plane.
Flying over America after completing the first east to west crossing from Australia to America by air.
It was difficult flying the unbalanced plane, and with reduced power it began to lose altitude.
Smithy ordered Bill and radio operator John Stannage to throw most of their precious jubilee mail cargo out the window in a bid to lighten the load but, fortunately, they accidentally overlooked a shifting spanner, which later proved very useful.
When the engine on the other side of the plane began to burn oil things became serious. The trail of grey-blue smoke indicated the extent of that drama even before its oil pressure gauge indicated alarm.
With little thought for his own life Bill decided to get oil from the dead engine and transfer it to the one requiring help.
Pushing panic back he climbed out the cockpit window and crawled along a horizontal strut, connecting the engine to the fuselage, bracing his neck and shoulders against the wing.
With winds exceeding 130km/h it is a wonder he was not blown away but he managed to unscrew the oil drain plug, using that critical spanner, and filled a thermos with the precious liquid before getting it back to the cockpit where Stannage poured it into a leather suitcase.
Aviation pioneer Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA
This act was repeated several times before they had enough to attempt a re-fill of the stricken engine, and then the whole process was repeated in reverse another five times.
It was a heroic act that saved them and for that Bill was awarded the Empire Gallantry Medal, later converted to the George Cross, the highest civilian bravery award, equivalent to the military Victoria Cross.
Bill Taylor went on to record many more memorable flights, including the first trans-Indian ocean flight from Port Headland to Mombasa via Diego Garcia aboard a Catalina flying boat.
He was the first to survey the central Pacific air route, from Acapulco to New Zealand via the Marquesses and he was the first to pioneer the southern pacific air route, from Australia to South America, leaving from Grafton and flying to Valparaiso via Suva.
On the return leg of that trip, again in a Catalina, he landed offshore from Easter Island to refuel and very nearly failed to get air-borne when the wind piped up and the seas became rough.
Read all about him in The Man Who Saved Smithy, published by Allen & Unwin.
Cops honoured for facing Grantham flood aftermath
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Women Who Still Love Cats Too Much
Women Who Still Love Cats Too Much By Allia Zobel Nolan, with cartoons by Nicole Hollander
A when-is-enough-enough (Never!) guide that helps women pinpoint the warning signs of cat codependency so they can course correct and get their lives back—should they really want to—combined with real-life examples of the lengths women go to please their puddies.
(MediaQuire) Norwalk, CT – Do you gather fur from your cat’s brush to make earrings? Do you reek of Feliway? Ever contemplated plastic surgery to resemble your puddy? Over-the-top behavior? Maybe. But for women who’re on a never-ending quest to prove their love to their kitties, cat codependent comportment such as this is the norm.
Now there’s a book that comes clean about what many would consider cause for ten-step programs and heavy medication: Women Who Still Love Cats Too Much (HCI Books — $10.95). Written with compassion by bestselling feline author, Allia Zobel Nolan, and chockfull of hiss-terical illustrations by Sylvia cartoonist, Nicole Hollander, Women Who Still Love Cats Too Much validates the challenges women go through to do more, be more, give more to the fur balls who share (and rule) their lives. Then, too, it makes women entangled in this self-depreciating web feel better about themselves as they realize they are not alone.
“I know there are women out there who try (many in vain) to cover up their addiction to pleasing their puddies,” says Zobel Nolan. “I’m one of them. So I reprised this book for two reasons: to throw cold water in their faces so they snap out of their dilemma and get a life (fat chance), and failing that, to let feline-addicted women know they’re a member of a silent sorority who find it impossible to look into their cat’s heart-wrenching eyes and say that callous two-letter word ‘No.’ ”
“Women like us wouldn’t think twice about hiring a personal trainer to exercise our cats’ arms and legs while they nap, so the babies don’t have to expend the energy,” confides Zobel Nolan. “It’s just the kind of thing we do, and Women Who Still Love Cats Too Much finally clears the air about it… I’m just hoping readers will find themselves in these pages and learn to appreciate and laugh at the things we do for love.”
Women Who Love Cats Too Much – available on Amazon.
Allia Zobel Nolan is an internationally-published, award-winning author of over 200 children’s and adult trade titles. Her books reflect her two main passions, God and cats, and include such varied titles as Purr More, Hiss Less: Heavenly Lessons I Learned from My Cat, Cat Confessions: A Kitty-Come-Clean Tell-All Book, The Ten Commandments for Little Ones, The Worrywart’s Prayer Book and Whatever: Livin’ the True, Noble, Totally Excellent Life
Zobel Nolan lives and loves her puddies way too much in Connecticut with her husband, Desmond Finbarr Nolan, and their feline children, Sineady Cat, the Fraidy Cat, and Nolan Nolan.
About the illustrator:
Nicole Hollander created and produced the syndicated cartoon strip, Sylvia, for a gazillion years. She blogs six days a week at www.Badgirlchats.com and offers a Sylvia archival strip every day—as well as links to politics, cultural commentary and, of course, more cat videos than you can shake a stick at!
The author is available for interviews and/or to commiserate with women who love their cats too much any time. Please call Kim Weiss at the number above for more information.
By Allia Zobel Nolan
ISBN-9780757318726 — $10.05 – October 2015
Available where books are sold, or to order directly from the publisher call (800) 441-5569 or visit www.hcibooks.com.
AUTHOR INTERVIEW:
1. Cats are ridiculously popular these days. But it wasn’t always so. When and what got you interested in writing about these feline fur babies?
Truth is though I always had an affinity for cats; my parents were really dog people. In fact, my mom really didn’t like cats at all…said they were sneaky. Then one Christmas morning, a friend dropped off a box for me. It was large, moved, and had holes in the top. It turned out that inside the box was a white ball of fluff…the cutest white kitten I’d ever seen. I named him Oscar Pooke. Much to her dismay, the tiny fur ball followed mother around all day and at night, sat in the crook of dad’s neck while we watched TV. Needless to say, mother fell in love with him; father fell in love with him, and of course, I was over the moon. I was about 15. Ten cats later, I’m still smitten.
2. Do you consider yourself a “crazy cat lady?”
You know the stereotypical image of the crazy cat lady is of a spinster, in slovenly clothes, who lives with hordes of cats in a stinky house that looks like a bomb hit it. Other than the messy house, I don’t fit that category. Some may consider my over-the-top treatment of my cats “crazy.” But I believe if you are blessed with the care of an animal, you should do all you can to make it happy and comfortable…everything.
3. What is the most bizarre thing you’ve ever done for your cats?
Well, I don’t consider anything I’ve ever done for my cats “bizarre.” The book notwithstanding, others whose involvement with their puddies may not run as deeply as my own, may think I spoil them—what with insisting on fresh, wild caught (never farmed) salmon for their meals, or hiring a vet technician to come in to the house six times a day to make sure they are okay when I’m away for more than two hours. Also, when I’m cuddling my newly-rescued baby, Nolan Nolan, I also run my face up and down his fur, imitating the licking gestures a mommy cat makes when she cleans her puddy. I do that because he is under a year old and may be missing being groomed by his birth mom. But I don’t consider any of that “bizarre.” However, I read on the web of some woman who actually “married” her cat. Now, to me, that’s bizarre. That’s like marrying your child.
4. Does your love for your cat interfere with your love life?
Well, truthfully, my husband, who is Irish, prefers dogs. However, it’s a matter of the old saying, “love me, love my cat(s).” I really couldn’t spend my life with someone who doesn’t like cats. I’m not saying they have to be ga-ga over them—like I am—but they have to at least understand where I’m coming from. I just lost a cat, Angela Dahling, who had thyroid disease and kidney failure. For two years, I hand-fed her, or arranged for her to be fed, four times a day. She also had to have fluids three times a week and Vitamin B12 shots, and all of this was very time-consuming and costly, both physically and psychologically. And my husband was very understanding of it all. Many wouldn’t be, but then, I wouldn’t be with a person like that.
5. Can you give us three things women who love cats too much can do to course-correct their lives?
Well, first, many of us (and I include myself in the quotient), don’t want to course correct. Our lives may not be as smooth as they would be if we didn’t love cats too much. But then, surely our lives would not be as fulfilled as they are now. But for those who may consider (however briefly) changing, I would suggest: Be firm when it comes to opening and closing the door for your cat. Do it fifty times, and then leave the door ajar. Kitty may learn the mechanics of door-opening, and you’ll have ten, maybe twenty, extra minutes in your day. Here’s another thing: Try (and I say try, because you may have to give in) not to feed puddy every time she stands at her feeding bowl starring at you with soulful saucer eyes. Walk away, engage yourself in busy work, build a catio…anything to get your mind off that face. If you can’t stand the silence though, wait a while before you fill her bowl. This way, she’ll know you are NOT at her beck and call. The third thing is to try (I know it’s difficult) to do more outside the house: volunteer, go shopping, get the mail. If it becomes simply too unbearable, you can always get a video monitor app for your phone to check on them. Course-correcting will not be easy, so take baby steps.
6. Many people don’t like cats at all. They prefer dogs. In fact, many people think dogs are the superior companion animal. What do you say to that?
Hogwash! I’ve written extensively…books and articles…on why the cat is paws-down above and beyond the dog. For starters, unlike dogs, cats don’t have self-esteem issues. They’re not hyper and aren’t in your face for approval every half-second. They may sit on your computer or book now and again. But that’s only for your benefit—so you don’t feel they’re not paying attention to you. A cat’s breath doesn’t smell like a mixture of a dumpster and an old locker. Cats would never cling to a guest’s leg, nor slobber all over them. Cats wouldn’t dream of rolling in the mud then jumping all over you. I could go on and on and on. But you get the picture.
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Fauci: 'Low-Tech' Tools Are Our Best Bet For Preventing COVID-19
Caroline Shannon Karasik
Caroline Shannon Karasik is a writer based in Pittsburgh, PA. In addition to Verywell, her work has appeared in several publications, including Good Housekeeping, Women's Health and Well+Good.
Public health experts say that low-tech interventions, like wearing a face mask and social distancing, are necessary to achieve normalcy as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
Mask-wearing continues to be a top measure not only for preventing the transmission of COVID-19, but also saving lives.
Experts say that to decrease the spread of COVID-19, mask-wearing should be combined with frequent, proper handwashing and social distancing.
In a new article published on October 26, Anthony Fauci, MD, and his co-authors concluded that achieving normalcy in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic will require the continued use of “low-tech” interventions, such as mask-wearing and social distancing.
The article by Fauci, along with Andrea M. Lerner, MD, MS, and Gregory K. Folkers, MS, MPH, was published in the Journals of the American Medical Association.
The authors made it clear that there are preventative measures we all can, and must, take to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
"As countries around the world seek to safely reopen businesses, schools, and other facets of society, mask use in the community to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2, in conjunction with other low-cost, low-tech, commonsense public health practices, is and will remain critical," the article states. "Return to normalcy will require the widespread acceptance and adoption of mask-wearing and other inexpensive and effective interventions as part of the COVID-19 prevention toolbox."
While the recommendation to wear a face mask might feel like a broken record, it bears repeating, Karen Jubanyik, MD, an associate professor of emergency medicine at Yale University School of Medicine, tells Verywell.
“Low tech things like masks make sense now and in the future,” Jubanyik says. “And they make sense because we not only do we not have vaccinations and advanced therapeutics, but COVID-19, like all public health crises, is better addressed by prevention than treatment.”
What Scientists Know About the COVID-19 Virus
Jubanyik also points out that low-tech preventative measures like face masks "will always be a part of the weaponry against COVID-19 and similar pandemics.”
A Vaccine Matters, Too
The article also noted that a “safe and effective vaccine” will be another necessary measure to control the pandemic and allow a return to normalcy and that low-tech tools that prevent the spread of COVID-19 are “essential.”
“It must be emphasized that these interventions will still be needed after a vaccine is initially available,” the authors write. “Even if one or more vaccines have high efficacy and uptake in the population, it will take at least several months for enough people to be vaccinated to confer herd immunity on a population basis.”
Even though we are getting closer to a vaccine, the COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing. We can prevent the spread of the virus now and in the future by using basic, low-tech measures like wearing a properly fitting face mask (and keeping it clean); frequently and correctly washing your hands, and practicing social distancing.
Correct Mask-Wearing
In a study published in Nature Medicine in October, researchers noted that universal mask use—which equates to 95% mask use in public—could be sufficient to improve the worst effects of COVID-19 resurgences in the United States.
Karen Jubanyik, MD
Masks make sense because they are in the hands of everyone. Everyone can get a mask and wear it.
— Karen Jubanyik, MD
According to the study's authors, “Universal mask use could save an additional 129,574 (85,284–170,867) lives from September 22, 2020, through the end of February 2021, or an additional 95,814 (60,731–133,077) lives assuming a lesser adoption of mask-wearing (85%)."
Jubanyik points out that there are a few key standards that face masks must meet to be effective, such as how they fit.
WHO: Fabric Face Masks Should Have 3 Layers
“It is important that the mask be good fitting, especially above the nose, below the chin and at sides. It should be at least two layers thick,” Jubanyik says. “Masks make sense because they are in the hands of everyone. Everyone can get a mask and wear it. And if literally everyone wears a good-fitting mask whenever indoors or whenever not able to socially distance more than six feet when outdoors, virus transmission is reduced by 80 to 90%.”
According to a November report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), coronavirus incidence declined by 82%, hospitalization by 88%, and mortality by 100% from late April to June 2020—when mask mandates, stay-at-home orders, and contact tracing were added to case investigations.
Masks matter—from choosing the right mask to taking care of it properly, which includes cleaning and sanitizing if it's reusable.
How to Clean Your Face Mask, According to Epidemiologists
Choosing and Wearing a Mask
“When choosing a mask, it should be made of two or more layers of breathable fabric that covers the mouth and nose and doesn’t leave gaps,” Marie Russell, MD, chief medical officer for TrueCare of North County San Diego, tells Verywell.
Once you’ve chosen a mask (not a medical mask—save those for frontline healthcare workers), make sure to wash your hands with soap and water or apply hand sanitizer before putting it on.
Grab the mask by the elastic straps or ends or head straps
Place the mask over your face and carefully tuck it behind your ears or tie it behind your head (be careful not to touch the front part of the mask)
As you are wearing the mask, do not touch the front of the mask at all (if you need to make adjustments, do it by touching the straps or cloth around your ears or on the side or back of your face—otherwise, you risk contaminating the mask or yourself).
When it's time to remove your mask, take it off by the edges or use the straps only—again, be careful not to touch the front.
Reusable masks should be washed before the next use and disposable masks should be thrown away after one wear.
"I want to emphasize that after taking your mask off, you must wash your hands with either soap and water or use the waterless hand sanitizer," Russell says.
Frequent, Proper Handwashing
In the realm of “low-tech” measures aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19, the importance of frequent, proper handwashing—emphasis on frequent and proper—cannot be overstated.
According to the CDC, the math is simple when it comes to washing your hands to prevent the spread of the virus. “Germs can also get onto hands if people touch any object that has germs on it because someone coughed or sneezed on it or was touched by some other contaminated object," the CDC says. "When these germs get onto hands and are not washed off, they can be passed from person to person and make people sick.”
While there’s been an uptick in people who are washing their hands frequently, they are not always doing it properly. In October, the CDC surveyed over 4,000 people about their handwashing habits. The results of the survey showed that about a quarter of Americans are not washing their hands correctly and when necessary (e.g. after sneezing or blowing their nose).
CDC: Frequent, Proper Handwashing Matters Now More Than Ever
If you need a refresher on this low-tech measure, the CDC's report included simple guidelines, which are broken down by situations wherein you should always wash your hands and those that are being especially emphasized during the pandemic.
Always wash your hands:
After using the bathroom
Before and after preparing or eating food
After coughing, sneezing, or blowing your nose
During the pandemic, you should also wash your hands:
Before and after touching your eyes, nose, and mouth
After going to a public place and touching a frequently touched surface
Before and after touching your mask
If you're not sure that you're washing your hands the right way, CDC also provides guidelines for proper handwashing.
Wet your hands with clean warm or cold water.
Apply soap.
Lather up. Be sure to get suds on the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails.
Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds.
Rinse your hands well.
Dry your hands thoroughly with a clean towel or disposable paper towel.
CDC: How to Wash Your Hands
Another important low-tech prevention measure is social distancing, also known as physical distancing. The CDC outlines what it means to practice social distancing, as well as provides examples of when it's necessary.
According to the CDC, “To practice social or physical distancing, stay at least 6 feet (about 2 arms’ length) from other people who are not from your household in both indoor and outdoor spaces."
The CDC states that social distancing is most effective when you practice it along with the other precautions—wearing a face mask, not touching your face, and making sure you wash your hands frequently.
To practice social distancing, avoid going to crowded places and make sure you keep your distance from others if you are out running an errand (like going to the pharmacy or grocery store).
With the holidays approaching, you might be hoping to celebrate with your loved ones in person, but it's not safe to get together with others amid the pandemic. To stay connected with your friends and family, use the phone or video chat instead.
How Can You Celebrate Holidays During COVID-19?
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Characteristics associated with adults remembering to wash hands in multiple situations before and during the COVID-19 pandemic—United States, October 2019 and June 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2020;69. doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm6940a2
Reiner RC, Barber RM, Collins JK, Zheng P, Adolph C, Albright J, et al. Modeling Covid-19 scenarios for the United States. Nature Medicine. Published online October 23, 2020:1-12.
Kanu FA. Declines in SARS-CoV-2 transmission, hospitalizations, and mortality after implementation of mitigation measures—Delaware, March–June 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2020;69.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Show me the science - why wash your hands?. Updated September 10, 2020.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). When and how to wash your hands. Updated September 1, 2020.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Social distancing, quarantine, and isolation. Updated July 15, 2020.
Flu Rates Plummet in the Midst of COVID-19 Pandemic
Fact checked by James Lacy
How To Protect Yourself From New COVID-19 Variants
Fact checked by Ashley Hall
Can You Loosen Safety Precautions After Getting the COVID-19 Vaccine?
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Study Shows Which COVID-19 Policies Are Most Effective
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How Food Companies Are Ensuring Food Safety During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Everything to Know About Rheumatoid Arthritis and COVID-19
By Lana Barhum
Long-Term Care Facilities Begin COVID-19 Vaccinations on Older Adults
COVID-19 Stays On Human Skin 5 Times Longer Than the Flu
WHO Recommends Wearing a Mask Inside Buildings With Poor Ventilation
CDC Calls For 'Universal Face Mask Use'
How to Celebrate Thanksgiving Safely During COVID-19
Are COVID-19 Lockdowns Sustainable? What Health Experts Say
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