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Ultrastructural localisation of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha4 subunit in rat nigro-striatal neurons
A L Bradly, I W Jones, Susan Wonnacott
Somato-dendritic and presynaptic nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) modulate dopamine release from nigro-striatal neurons. There is pharmacological evidence for α4* and α3* nAChR subtypes at striatal dopaminergic terminals, but the distribution and localisation of these subunits remains unclear. Questions such as the co-localisation or segregation of α3* and α4* subunits in the same or different neuronal populations, respectively, can be answered by analysing the distribution of subunits at the ultrastructural level.
As a first step, the α4 nAChR subunit has been localised by immunocytochemistry using antibodies targeted to both intracellular and extracellular epitopes. Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunoreactivity was examined in parallel to identify dopaminergic neurons. At the light and confocal microscopy level, α4 and TH immunoreactivities co-localised in cell bodies of nigro-striatal dopaminergic neurons and in striatal synaptosomes. The subcellular distribution of the α4 subunit in relation to the local neurochemical environment has been investigated, using immuno-electron microscopy techniques. Double pre-embedding immuno-labelling, using diaminobenzidine to visualise TH and gold particles for the α4, confirmed the presynaptic location of the α4 nAChR subunit in TH positive terminals, supporting the pharmacological data. TH positive nigral cell bodies and proximal dendrites were also densely labelled for the α4 subunit. These techniques facilitate analysis of the comparative distribution of α4 and α3 nAChR subunits within nigrostriatal neurons.
Society for Neuroscience Abstracts
31st Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience - San Diego, USA United States
Duration: 10 Nov 2001 → 15 Nov 2001
http://www.sfn.org/index.aspx?pagename=abstracts_ampublications
Fingerprint Dive into the research topics of 'Ultrastructural localisation of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha4 subunit in rat nigro-striatal neurons'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha4 subunit Medicine & Life Sciences
Nicotinic Receptors Medicine & Life Sciences
Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase Medicine & Life Sciences
Corpus Striatum Medicine & Life Sciences
Neurons Medicine & Life Sciences
Dopaminergic Neurons Medicine & Life Sciences
Cell Body Medicine & Life Sciences
Pharmacology Medicine & Life Sciences
Bradly, A. L., Jones, I. W., & Wonnacott, S. (2001). Ultrastructural localisation of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha4 subunit in rat nigro-striatal neurons. Society for Neuroscience Abstracts, 27(1), 980. [374.6].
Ultrastructural localisation of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha4 subunit in rat nigro-striatal neurons. / Bradly, A L; Jones, I W; Wonnacott, Susan.
In: Society for Neuroscience Abstracts, Vol. 27, No. 1, 374.6, 2001, p. 980.
Bradly, AL, Jones, IW & Wonnacott, S 2001, 'Ultrastructural localisation of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha4 subunit in rat nigro-striatal neurons', Society for Neuroscience Abstracts, vol. 27, no. 1, 374.6, pp. 980.
Bradly AL, Jones IW, Wonnacott S. Ultrastructural localisation of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha4 subunit in rat nigro-striatal neurons. Society for Neuroscience Abstracts. 2001;27(1):980. 374.6.
Bradly, A L ; Jones, I W ; Wonnacott, Susan. / Ultrastructural localisation of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha4 subunit in rat nigro-striatal neurons. In: Society for Neuroscience Abstracts. 2001 ; Vol. 27, No. 1. pp. 980.
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title = "Ultrastructural localisation of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha4 subunit in rat nigro-striatal neurons",
abstract = "Somato-dendritic and presynaptic nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) modulate dopamine release from nigro-striatal neurons. There is pharmacological evidence for α4* and α3* nAChR subtypes at striatal dopaminergic terminals, but the distribution and localisation of these subunits remains unclear. Questions such as the co-localisation or segregation of α3* and α4* subunits in the same or different neuronal populations, respectively, can be answered by analysing the distribution of subunits at the ultrastructural level.As a first step, the α4 nAChR subunit has been localised by immunocytochemistry using antibodies targeted to both intracellular and extracellular epitopes. Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunoreactivity was examined in parallel to identify dopaminergic neurons. At the light and confocal microscopy level, α4 and TH immunoreactivities co-localised in cell bodies of nigro-striatal dopaminergic neurons and in striatal synaptosomes. The subcellular distribution of the α4 subunit in relation to the local neurochemical environment has been investigated, using immuno-electron microscopy techniques. Double pre-embedding immuno-labelling, using diaminobenzidine to visualise TH and gold particles for the α4, confirmed the presynaptic location of the α4 nAChR subunit in TH positive terminals, supporting the pharmacological data. TH positive nigral cell bodies and proximal dendrites were also densely labelled for the α4 subunit. These techniques facilitate analysis of the comparative distribution of α4 and α3 nAChR subunits within nigrostriatal neurons.",
author = "Bradly, {A L} and Jones, {I W} and Susan Wonnacott",
journal = "Society for Neuroscience Abstracts",
note = "31st Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience ; Conference date: 10-11-2001 Through 15-11-2001",
T1 - Ultrastructural localisation of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha4 subunit in rat nigro-striatal neurons
AU - Bradly, A L
AU - Jones, I W
AU - Wonnacott, Susan
N2 - Somato-dendritic and presynaptic nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) modulate dopamine release from nigro-striatal neurons. There is pharmacological evidence for α4* and α3* nAChR subtypes at striatal dopaminergic terminals, but the distribution and localisation of these subunits remains unclear. Questions such as the co-localisation or segregation of α3* and α4* subunits in the same or different neuronal populations, respectively, can be answered by analysing the distribution of subunits at the ultrastructural level.As a first step, the α4 nAChR subunit has been localised by immunocytochemistry using antibodies targeted to both intracellular and extracellular epitopes. Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunoreactivity was examined in parallel to identify dopaminergic neurons. At the light and confocal microscopy level, α4 and TH immunoreactivities co-localised in cell bodies of nigro-striatal dopaminergic neurons and in striatal synaptosomes. The subcellular distribution of the α4 subunit in relation to the local neurochemical environment has been investigated, using immuno-electron microscopy techniques. Double pre-embedding immuno-labelling, using diaminobenzidine to visualise TH and gold particles for the α4, confirmed the presynaptic location of the α4 nAChR subunit in TH positive terminals, supporting the pharmacological data. TH positive nigral cell bodies and proximal dendrites were also densely labelled for the α4 subunit. These techniques facilitate analysis of the comparative distribution of α4 and α3 nAChR subunits within nigrostriatal neurons.
AB - Somato-dendritic and presynaptic nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) modulate dopamine release from nigro-striatal neurons. There is pharmacological evidence for α4* and α3* nAChR subtypes at striatal dopaminergic terminals, but the distribution and localisation of these subunits remains unclear. Questions such as the co-localisation or segregation of α3* and α4* subunits in the same or different neuronal populations, respectively, can be answered by analysing the distribution of subunits at the ultrastructural level.As a first step, the α4 nAChR subunit has been localised by immunocytochemistry using antibodies targeted to both intracellular and extracellular epitopes. Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunoreactivity was examined in parallel to identify dopaminergic neurons. At the light and confocal microscopy level, α4 and TH immunoreactivities co-localised in cell bodies of nigro-striatal dopaminergic neurons and in striatal synaptosomes. The subcellular distribution of the α4 subunit in relation to the local neurochemical environment has been investigated, using immuno-electron microscopy techniques. Double pre-embedding immuno-labelling, using diaminobenzidine to visualise TH and gold particles for the α4, confirmed the presynaptic location of the α4 nAChR subunit in TH positive terminals, supporting the pharmacological data. TH positive nigral cell bodies and proximal dendrites were also densely labelled for the α4 subunit. These techniques facilitate analysis of the comparative distribution of α4 and α3 nAChR subunits within nigrostriatal neurons.
UR - http://www.sfn.org/index.aspx?pagename=abstracts_ampublications
JO - Society for Neuroscience Abstracts
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Cinema Dispatch: Action Point
June 4, 2018 August 29, 2020 ~ Matt Vetrano
Action Point and all the images you see in this review are owned by Paramount Pictures
Directed by Tim Kirkby
Johnny Knoxville doesn’t have what you’d call a STERLING FILMOGRAPHY with his most successful films being pseudo-documentary on shoe string budgets, but then again said movies are some serious box office smashes with the four Jackass movies (one through three and the offshoot Bad Grandpa) making totaling over three hundred and fifty MILLION dollars! Hell, despite the guy getting pretty much ZERO credit as a legitimate actor, he’s managed to find his way in some seriously high grossing blockbusters including Men in Black 2, the first reboot Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, and even that crappy Dukes of Hazzard movie which raked in eighty freaking million; not to mention Skiptrace which he did with Jackie Chan that made a boat load in China! I’ve always had a soft spot for the guy as a legitimate actor which may be due to my fascination with A Dirty Shame as well as the fact that I seem to be the ONLY person on the planet who sincerely likes Daltry Calhoun. It also helps that I’ve never seen The Ringer which would probably put an indelible stain on my inexplicable appreciation for the guy because even in 2005 that seemed like a really bad call. So much in fact that aside FROM the Jackass films, this is first film with a wide US release that he’s headlined since then (not gonna count the voice he did in the first TMNT movie) and it seems like even the studio is aware of how untested this guy is when he’s the face of something that requires a script and direction rather than a bunch of nut shots and Tasers because of how little marketing this thing got in the lead up to its release. Does this manage to be a diamond in the rough that will finally launch Johnny Knoxville’s film career, or is this another failed start that will eventually lead to him making another Bad Grandpa movie that will in all honestly probably net him another hundred million dollars? Let’s find out!!
Deshawn “DC” Crious (Phillip “Johnny Knoxville” Clapp) is the owner and operator of the absurdly unsafe and therefore absurdly fun amusement park known as Action Point, or at least Mr. DC WAS back in the seventies when things like “safety” and “regulations” were for pansies while breaking your arm was fixed with a fist full of mud and a forty of garbage beer! It’s not the seventies anymore though as we see DC somehow managed to survive not only that decade but Regan, Y2K, and Bush Jr (SPOILER ALERT!) as he’s telling his granddaughter all about the great times he had running that place and the one summer her mother (Susan Yeagley as an adult and Eleanor Worthington-Cox as a teen) came to stay with him. Yes, they’ll never forget that summer where they had stiff competition move nearby that was syphoning off most of their attendance while also being supported by local douchebag Mr. Knoblach (Dan Bakkedahl), but that only motivated them to get even MORE wild with the rides and skirt even MORE laws in the process! Truly an idyllic time of their lives spent with good friends like Uncle Benny (Christ Pontius) and the rag tag group of teenage rascals who helped DC run the place (Bridgette Lundy-Paine, Johnny Pemberton, Conner McViker, Eric Manaka, and a few others who don’t have extensive IMDb credits). Can DC do enough scheming to save the park from the greedy corporate fat cats? Will this long protracted battle against common sense and sensible safety protocols get in the way of DC being a good father to Boogie? Did you know that Johnny Knoxville’s eye almost popped out of his head during the filming of this!? Seriously, what more does he have to do to prove himself to you people!?
“ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?” “Eh. I’ve seen better.”
Is this a good movie? Kinda? I guess? I mean I wouldn’t considering this to be BAD by any stretch, but it feels… amateurish. There’s a legitimate tale of old school Americana buried within this thing, but it’s obscured with gross out humor, an astoundingly choppy editing job, and a bit too much of an axe to grind. It’s pretty much a mess of a movie from top to bottom, and while movies like Life of the Party can still make the most of something like that, this film is disappointingly not living up to its full potential and is seriously held back by these issues. I still think Johnny Knoxville is seriously underrated as an actor, and there is a lot that shines about this movie, but the word of the day is DISAPPOINTMENT. To be fair, I’m probably one of say a dozen people who COULD actually be disappointed by this (the other fifteen people who knew this movie existed probably thought it was going to be terrible) so I guess that means you might find it’s mediocrity to be a pleasant surprise!
Now THAT’S how you do a nut shot! Thanks for taking one for the team, Mr. Bear!
Let’s play a game of WHAT I LIKE and HOW THEY SCREWED IT UP, shall we!? I LIKED the framing device a whole lot as it provides a bit of context for its message and does a great job of making all the events of the movie feel that much more nostalgic, but they SCREW IT UP by forgetting about it for long stretches and by having his granddaughter not really an interesting character in her own right. She’s just kind of there listening to the story when it would have been nice to have a bit more back and forth or even disagreements between them; especially as a counterbalance to the messaging here which we’ll get to soon enough. I liked the relationship he has with his daughter, but the film does a poor job of weaving it into the story about the park itself and the two end up feeling like separate movies we keep going back and forth on. Johnny Knoxville proves once again that he’s a surprisingly strong actor when he’s given the chance to shine, but the film is more interested in throwing gags at the wall to see what sticks rather than take advantage of his talents for more than one or two scenes. It’s over and over again with this movie where they’ll either have an interesting plot point that we immediately cut from to do some more gags or it manages to do a pretty solid gag but then it keeps going on and on for increasingly diminishing returns. It’s got a DECENT hit rate as far as the jokes go which is more than can be said about a lot of films, but it all feels too safe which is ironic considering how hurt many of the people in this film probably got while making it. We know that Johnny Knoxville can take a bump and that he can make it funny, but I’m pretty much the only one who knows he can also act so this would have been a great chance to show that instead of just falling back on the same old same old.
Boy is HE gonna feel that in an eight of a second!
There’s more to this story than just a few missed opportunities for father/daughter bonding however, and this is where MOST of my disappointment comes from. The film was originally based on an actual theme park called Action Park which was infamous for shoddy rides, lax rules, and causing several injuries as well as at least six deaths. For reasons that we don’t fully know yet (hopefully the answer is TASTE), the movie eventually distanced itself from the specific connections to that park even though several of its iconic rides are still in there; including the water slide with a loop-de-loop. Why is this important? Well, it’s kind of indicative of the rather tone oblivious nature of the film due to how blinded it is by nostalgia. Action Point resembles Action Park in some ways, but the version we see in this film is an utter fantasy that’s still being treated and frame like some great bastion of THE GOOD OL’ DAYS wrongfully ripped away from us due to the ceaseless march of modernity. Action Park was NOT run by one wacky dude and a grab bag of teenage losers; it was an offshoot of another theme park that was run by very unethical business men who wore suits and weren’t making the rides themselves. Sure, when it comes to adaptation you need to reduce things down to its core elements so what were presumably a series of incompetent managers and poorly trained staff are turned into a rat pack of misfits, but even with that this movie has on some seriously rose tinted glasses. No one ACTUALLY gets hurt in this movie enough to go to the hospital. No one DIES in the park period. The ONE TIME they get in trouble for an injury is when someone fakes it and that is absolutely NOT what happened at Action Park; nor is it ever really the case when someone sues an amusement park when they get seriously hurt. It’s kind of fascinating to watch in the same way that The Disaster Artist was so head over heels in love with the story of Tommy Wiesau, but in here it just lacks a real clear sense of purpose. Things were better in the old days is about all it has, but other than snide remarks about Helicopter Moms and how kids don’t know how to have fun these days, it’s all just toothless whining. Had they ACTUALLY tried to portray Action Point as a place that had legitimate problems (instead of just wacky ones) and maybe even extended that theme to how we look kindly on the past while scoffing at the present, we might have had something great here. Heck, the framing device pretty much writes itself for that kind of story where DC is reminiscing about the old days and the park he had, but in reality the park was a death trap, he wasn’t the best father out there, and in all honesty he should have been shut down pretty much immediately. You can see something approaching that just on the edges of the script, but then we get jokes about dogs humping and people falling on their face which reminds us what this movie ACTUALLY is.
“I FELL ON MY BOOM-BOOM!!”
There are other issues as well that aren’t so much INTERESTING are they just… well, bad. Going along with the THINGS WERE BETTER IN MY DAY theme here, this is also a very white movie in a way that feels at least somewhat tone oblivious. For one thing, the ACTUAL Action Park appealed primarily to the urban working poor who in that area which were mostly Spanish and Polish immigrants (which was actually something else that made Action Point a death trap as very few employees could speak Spanish or Polish to give proper safety instructions at the start of rides), and this is a problem because the movie makes a point of this park being for those people… but they never show up. Whether it’s intentional or not, it’s a very clear sign of erasure where Working Class is basically interpreted to mean White Trash and so a majority of the attendants as well as the actual cast is disproportionally white. Oh wait! There is ONE person of color in the movie… and it’s a stereotypical and EXTREMELY non-threatening black nerd who’s about as over the top as Steve Urkel. See, this is what happens when you pine for nostalgia to an unhealthy degree; you start replacing what things were ACTUALLY like back then and reimagine it in your own safe image; again, a VERY clear missed opportunity for this to be ABOUT nostalgia instead of just indulging in it. Also, while I LOVE the guy in Jackass… Chris Pontius is just not very good in here. Granted, he’s not given much to do other than smile and fall down, but he doesn’t have the charisma of Johnny Knoxville and just looks inept whenever they share the screen.
“So when do I get naked?” “Not that kind of movie, Chris.” “Wait what? Was that like… in the contract?”
Look, this isn’t a particularly good movie and I’d easily recommend Cock Blockers and Life of the Party over this one, but it does have its moments and I did find it interesting to think about even if it didn’t work so well in its execution. I still hold out hope that Johnny Knoxville will find his big movie that’ll show all of you what I see in him, though at this point he needs to find it MUCH sooner than later. Honestly I’m surprised the guy hasn’t already gone the Jim Varney route and made an Earnest like character to try and get steady work off of because I feel that would be a pretty good route for him to take, and he’d certainly be a better alternative than Larry the freaking Cable Guy. Also, Richard Linklater? If you’re reading this (which I’m CERTAIN you are), maybe toss him a bone and give him a part in one of your movies! Call me foolish if you want, but he seems like a natural fit for your sensibilities! Heck, I might have actually gone to see Boyhood if he was the titular boy!
If you liked this review and plan on buying the movie, then use the Amazon link below! I’ll get a percentage of the order it helps keep things going for me here at The Reviewers Unite! In fact, you don’t even need to buy the item listed! Just use the link, shop normally, and when you check out it will still give us that sweet, sweet, percentage! You can even bookmark the link and use it every time you shop! HOW AWESOME IS THAT!?
Action Point [Blu-ray]
Posted in Cinema Dispatch Aidan WhytockBrigette Lundy-PaineCamilla WolfsonChris PontiusDan BakkedahlEleanor Worthington CoxEric ManakaJoe VazJohnny KnoxvilleJohnny PembertonLeon ClingmanLuyanda Biggz KabanyaneMatthew PetersonMatthew WesselsMichael EversonMichael RamanantsialoninaMovie ReviewParamount PicturesStavros CassapisTim Kirkby
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10 December 2015 / Arts & Entertainment / Joe Kukura
The Tom & Jerry House: Inside SF's Most Insane Christmas Display
Multiple generations of San Franciscans have gotten their holly-jollies every December at the Tom & Jerry House, an unbelievably huge and fantastically tacky Christmas display at 21st and Church Streets in Dolores Heights. Nominated for San Francisco landmark status, featured in annual local and national media reports and delivering a yuletide shock-and-awe campaign to rival every house on The Great Christmas Light Fight to mindblown passersby, the display is nearing its 30th annual iteration. SFist spoke with the decorative duo behind the display, who have busted out their illuminated icicles, oversize gifts and stockings, roller coasters, dancing dolls and ferris wheels since the 1980s — and handed out hundred of thousands of candy canes in the process
Tom Taylor and Jerry Goldstein have been together for 43 years, and the live Christmas tree that centers the display has been with them since before they moved to Dolores Heights. Jerry, a neurologist, recalls buying it in 1970 and putting it in their living room as a houseplant. Tom, a display expert who's worked for major retail chains and on the Rainbow flags used annually on Castro and Market Street, recalls it getting so big he had to plant it outside. “Then it got really big and the roots found the sewer pipe and went crazy,” he said.
The tree is a Norfolk Island Pine and is very much alive. The boys bought it in 1970 at Cost Plus Nursery and by 1973 it was living in their yard. “Like Audrey, it grew and grew and grew, and now it’s 60 feet high,” Jerry said. “People always ask ‘where did you bring it in from?’ and I say the North Pole, which is South of Market.”
The Christmas displays started around 28 years ago, though neither Tom nor Jerry is exactly sure what year. “I decided I would make it look like the average Christmas tree in an average home, which is about 6 feet high,” Tom said. “It has all types of ornaments on it, it’s not like Macy’s with all one type. I don’t do ‘theme’ things, that’s for the department stores. The scale just got bigger as the tree got bigger.”
“It got so big that I couldn’t just throw lights on it anymore,” he remembered. “I wanted it to be like what you experience when you were a child, because the most important thing to you when you were a child was the presents, the toys and the stuff you’re going to get.”
Tom would reuse the displays he’d made for various professional organizations’ holiday events. “The gifts I did right away because the tree had missing limbs, so I had to put some boxes in,” he said. “They asked me [to design] a big dinner at the Pacific Stock Exchange, ‘make some big red ribbons for us’ they said. So I made those and they had some holes in them but whatever. I used those to cover where the poor tree didn’t have limbs. And then I started doing the presents and the kids loved that.”
The neighborhood adults ate it up too. “Everyone got after me about doing it, it was really my old straight friends who’d come by and they’re the ones who really got after me about it,” Tom said. “After I realized what an impact that it really had, then it really took a life of it’s own.”
Image: Angela W. via Yelp
Attendance swelled, and Tom & Jerry introduced a Santa Claus to hand out candy canes. But foot traffic gave way to car traffic with passage of California’s car seat laws. “Before we had the car seat law, we would go through up to 10,000 candy canes [each year],” Tom remembered. “The car seat law really changed the amount of kids who were outside, because it was so much work [for parents] to unstrap them.”
The holiday display took on another life after being featured in a 2011 Wall Street Journal article. “Many executives come with their limos and people they have taken to dinner to show them the tree”, Jerry said.
Image: John L. via Yelp
Being on a ridiculously steep incline, the humongous display presents major technical challenges. “We’ve certainly had problems with the weather,” Tom said. “We have all types of rods that go down to the concrete retaining walls to support the tree and hold everything in place. We started a month ago getting the structural steel ready. Everything is tied down. Because you have the winds come through here and it is a real problem.”
Foot and car traffic also cause inconvenience for the neighborhood, and the guys ask that you please not honk car horns and avoid parking on their block of 21st Street. “One of our neighbors who’s a little fussy had a penchant for calling the police repeatedly because of the noise and the inconvenience of the tree,” Jerry remembered. “And then his mother came to visit from Florida. And she told him, ‘You are so fortunate and lucky to be living across the street from that beautiful tree. Isn’t that a joy to you?’ And she said it in front of us. And we haven’t heard a peep from him since then.”
A documentary film about Tom and Jerry and their tree played at Frameline in 2011 and is now available for sale on DVD at the tree's concession stand.
As the creators of San Francisco’s unofficial official Christmas display, Tom and Jerry see the annual holiday creation as a form of philanthropy not unlike the charitable donations of their new nearby neighbor Mark Zuckerberg. “Some people like to write checks. We like to do good deeds,” Jerry said. “I don’t want any fucking legacy put after my name after I’m dead. I want it now.”
The Tom & Jerry House holiday display remains a public attraction until New Year’s Day, illuminated from 6-10 p.m. each night. Santa Claus will be there to hand out candy canes each night from 6-10 p.m. through December 24.
Image: Ed U. via Yelp
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℗ 2008 Fueled By Ramen, LLC for the United States and WEA International Inc. for the world outside of the United States. All Rights Reserved
© 2008 Fueled By Ramen, LLC for the United States and WEA International Inc. for the world outside of the United States. All Rights Reserved.
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U.S. universities move to protect students from China’s authoritarian reach
Leigh Hartman
An assistant professor at Princeton University lets students use code names to shield their identities when discussing topics deemed controversial by the Chinese Communist Party. He’s not alone, says the Wall Street Journal.
Code names are one step U.S. universities are taking to protect foreign students from the authoritarian reach of the CCP on their campuses.
“We cannot self-censor,” Rory Truex, who teaches Chinese politics at Princeton, told the Wall Street Journal. “If we, as a Chinese teaching community, out of fear stop teaching things like Tiananmen or Xinjiang or whatever sensitive topic the Chinese government doesn’t want us talking about, if we cave, then we’ve lost.”
America’s long-standing commitment to academic freedom attracts students from around the globe to study at American universities.
The United States welcomed more than 370,000 students from China in 2019 — more than from any other country.
However, an increasing number of institutions find it necessary to take new precautions to protect these valued members of their campus communities as the CCP increasingly threatens academic freedom beyond its borders. In November, a court in the People’s Republic of China sentenced a 20-year-old national to six months in prison for tweets posted while he was studying at the University of Minnesota.
The Confucius Institutes are part of the CCP’s propaganda apparatus and we will not permit them to exploit the openness of American society and our schools. https://t.co/HNEDv0bFSF
— Under Secretary Keith Krach (@State_E) August 13, 2020
U.S. officials and student groups are urging universities to defend academic freedom against CCP pressure, especially through the Confucius Institutes, which present themselves as cultural centers but also police criticism of the CCP and disseminate state-sponsored propaganda, according to rights groups.
U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment Keith Krach, in an August 18 letter, asked U.S. college and university administrators to examine the CCP’s authoritarian influence on U.S. campuses, including Confucius Institutes, in order to ensure academic freedom, honor human rights, protect university endowments and safeguard intellectual property.
Recently, the United States designated the U.S. headquarters of the Confucius Institutes in Washington as a foreign mission. That means the group must now report on its funding sources, personnel and activities to increase transparency about its role as a foreign-government-directed entity in the United States.
Once available, this information will help universities better understand the influence of the CCP on their campuses and help schools make informed choices on how to protect their students, Krach says.
“Our goal is to see an improved, open and transparent environment in which U.S. and Chinese scholars can engage with greater trust,” he adds.
Krach also urges universities to defend against the PRC’s theft of research and intellectual property, and to ensure that university funds are not invested in companies that may contribute to the PRC’s internment of more than 1 million Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang.
A coalition of groups, including the leaders of the College Republican National Committee and members of the College Democrats of America, also calls for greater protection of academic freedom. The coalition says Confucius Institutes try to censor discussion on American college campuses of topics deemed sensitive by the PRC.
“The Chinese government’s flagrant attempts to coerce and control discourse at universities in the United States and around the world pose an existential threat to academic freedom as we know it,” the coalition said in a May 13 statement.
“It is a civic and moral imperative that we protect that freedom.”
Remembering enslaved people who built a university
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“The Human Seasons” by John Keats
Posted by Isabelle McAlevey
Four Seasons fill the measure of the year;
There are four seasons in the mind of man:
He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear
Takes in all beauty with an easy span:
He has his Summer, when luxuriously
Spring's honied cud of youthful thought he loves
To ruminate, and by such dreaming high
Is nearest unto heaven: quiet coves
His soul has in its Autumn, when his wings
He furleth close; contented so to look
On mists in idleness—to let fair things
Pass by unheeded as a threshold brook.
He has his Winter too of pale misfeature,
Or else he would forego his mortal nature.
John Keats (1795-1821) was an English Romantic poet who contributed several great works to the canon of English-language poetry. Though Keats trained formally as a surgeon, his literary pursuits distinguished him as a tactful writer even in his own time. He often employed picturesque imagery that reflects his upbringing at a stable, as in this poem where the bucolic suggestions conjure images of the countryside.
This poem presents the different stages of life rendered as the four seasons of the year. Instead of describing the physical nature of these stages however, they are the seasons present in “the mind of man.” For every “season” of life, man has a different outlook. First, he lives his “lusty spring” during which anything seems possible and he observes “all beauty.” The idea that in Spring man can take in all beauty with an “easy span” suggests a certain naiveté in youth where one thinks all beauty may be observed in singularity. Keats personifies Spring as “lusty” to emphasize the parallel between the season and the youthful state of mind. Spring occupies only two lines of this sonnet, which further reflects the brevity of a childish outlook on life.
Next comes his Summer, which lacks the same lust and ease of Spring, but during which he can “ruminate” on Spring’s “honied cud of youthful thought.” What were once youthful, fleeting thoughts can, in Summer, be reflected on with more clarity, and pondered or chewed over as a cow or ruminant animal would chew and re-chew its cud. This is no regular cud, however, but “honied” cud that retains the sweetness of youth and its wistful musings. During his Summer, by reflecting on his Spring, man gains a sense of enlightenment, or “dreaming high,” that is “nearest unto heaven.” While growing nearer to heaven, both in acquiring a sense of self and more literally aging towards a time of death, man enters the “quiet coves” of Autumn. These “quiet coves” contrast the image of man’s mind ruminating on his “honied cud” of youth. While the language Keats uses to illustrate Summer evokes exposure and clarity, Autumn suggests a resignation into one’s own thoughts and some emotional closure. Keats employs zoomorphism to portray man’s soul in Autumn as a bird that “furleth close” its “wings.” The image of a bird, unlike that of a cow, suggests an ability to transcend or harness powers of higher imagination. This aligns with the wiser years of later adulthood and the introspection it brings.
Autumn receives the largest portion of the poem with four lines, accentuating the length of this mindset in man’s life. A time of contentedness, man may look on “mists in idleness,” seemingly at peace with what may not appear clearly, and resigning himself to look not only on beauty as the young man does, but also on what he cannot understand. “Fair things,” the ones man might have lusted after and enjoyed in his Spring, he allows to “pass by unheeded.” Man in his Autumn seems to be waiting, aware of his environment but no longer driven by its delights.
Then, man has his Winter, which brings man’s “pale misfeature,” a phrase that can be read as death. The odd and ghostly pallor of death finalizes the natural process of living, and not to experience Winter would to be to “forego” man’s “mortal nature.” The slant rhyme between “misfeature” and “nature” creates a tone of inevitability in death, where it appears as a structural necessity, albeit a slightly uncomfortable one.
In this poem, man embraces every stage of life he finds himself in, and seems aware of that stage fully while never entirely acknowledging the next. Keats died at the age of twenty-five, and it is amazing that he was able to produce this kind of reflective work so young. By animating the seasons, Keats creates a vision of human life that mirrors natural processes, reinforcing the bond between humans and the environment. Furthermore, Keats paints a romantic vision of what it means to live, in a form that conveys a reverence for life’s sequence and structure.
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Celebrating World Ballet Day
One day, five world-renowned ballet companies, all live and online
On Wednesday 1 October 2014 at 12pm (AEST) The Australian Ballet will participate in the first-ever World Ballet Day LIVE, a continuous live-streaming event in partnership with Bolshoi Ballet, The Royal Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada and San Francisco Ballet.
View the 20-hour live stream on YouTube
The Australian Ballet’s section of the live stream broadcast commences at 12pm (AEST) on Wednesday 1 October 2014.
When the clock strikes midnight the magic begins…
Christmas has come early this year for audiences of Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker, having just completed a successful fortnight wowing audiences at Melbourne’s Art Centre, The Australian Ballet is taking its Sugar Plum Fairy, Giant Mice and Handsome Prince and heading to the Sydney Opera House from 28th November – 17th December.
We at Shine were lucky enough to have an inside look at how the Australian Ballet Company prepared for the performance and it is safe to say we were more than inspired. Not only by the meticulous dancers, breathtaking chorography and moving music, but also by the exquisite costumes and incredible sets that together in harmony transported audiences to the Magical World that is The Nutcracker
Click here for more information and to be sure not to miss the incredible spectacle.
Public Ballet Classes in Federation Square
To celebrate World Ballet Day LIVE, The Australian Ballet will be running a free morning of ballet-style classes on the main stage at Federation Square, Melbourne.
Come along to support the dancers, celebrate the opening of World Ballet Day LIVE, and enjoy a rare and exclusive insight into the world of ballet.
Where: Main Stage, Federation Square
When: 1 October 2014, 8am to 10am
Price: Free to attend
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lee yeon bok daughter
She notices the girl’s shoes are mismatched. Despite the acclaim for 3-Iron, the comfort women controversy had a lasting negative effect on Lee's career, and it would take two more years before she made her acting comeback in Kim Soo-hyun's Love and Ambition in 2006. Chef Born in South Korea #5. Ko So Young married actor Jang Dong Gun on May 2, 2010, at the Shilla Hotel, Seoul. Asian drama fan. He puts the knife in his hand. She wonders why she’s waiting for him. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. 61 Year Old Chef #8. Chef. He says whatever is watching her can see her. Korean Actresses and Amazing Mothers: Park Si-yeon, Lee Bo-young, Kim Tae-hee, etc. [11], On February 12, 2004 Lee, and companies Lototo Inc. and Netian Entertainment held a press conference to announce their plan to sell erotic photographs and videos of Lee posing as a comfort woman over the Internet, starting in March. Outside, Jae Hwan tells Ji Ah he’ll see her tomorrow. Granny tells him to cross the bridge. Ainsley Harriott. Lee Age, Height & Weight. Lee Yeon is pleased. The lights go out. It is covered in talisman. The two girls appear and pull on her scarf choking her. They all migrated on the same day via boat in 1950. The daughter shares she heard a crying baby last night around 2am. Ji Ah smiles at the sister. She married her co-star from the 2003 TV series Yellow Handkerchief, actor Yeon Jung Hoon. She played the female lead role, alongside Kim Soo Hyun. Lee Yeon asks what he wants. Lee Seung-yeon graduated from Inha Technical College in Incheon with a degree in Airline Navigation, and became a flight attendant for Korean Air. She remembers Lee Yeon promising he’ll help her have a normal life. Ji Ah demands to know where Lee Yeon is. He waves back. I want more. The door to the mountain opens. Though she continues to act, Lee has become more known in recent years for hosting various style-related talk shows on cable. He remembers Granny stating one day in this prison is seven years in the underworld. Tale of the Nine Tailed Episodes 13 and 14 Delayed. Lee Rang arrives and thanks a man for saving him years ago. Ji Ah wakes on Jae Hwan’s couch. Lee Yeon lays on the bridge. For killing a human being, his sentence is 1-week probation, a reduced sentence because of all the humans Lee Yeon has saved over the years. She married another famous figure, singer-actor, Rain. Lee Yeon makes a move but won’t kill him. He asks if she was abused by a human being. Lee Yeon-Bok Is A Member Of . A year after delivering her second daughter, she filed for divorce after 5 years of marriage. She cries at the loss of her mother. Nam Ji Ah (Jo Bo Ah) rushes in and tells Lee Yeon (Lee Dong Wook) every human on the island is gone. Lee Yeon tells him the judges in the afterlife have rendered this judgement. He says Lee Yeon has saved the years to meet his reincarnated love. In this article, Channel-Korea will tell you about some Korean actresses who are also amazing mothers. Celebrity chef who is best known for having appeared on the South Korean cooking program Please Take Care of My Refrigerator and it’s spinoff series Cook Representative. She also made her big screen debut in 1996's Piano Man, followed by the films Change and Saturday, 2:00 p.m.. Lee's popularity was at its peak during these years, and in 1998 she hosted her own talk show Lee Seung-yeon's Say Say Say. Jae Hwan is gone. He cries with joy that Lee Yeon is alive. The movie was incredibly successful in Asia and played a role in starting the spread of the early Korean Wave. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. He uses his fox eye to ask the father what his wish was. They began a romantic relationship in 2007 and finally tied the knot in September, 2013. She puts her hands in her ears to stop the tears. When Lee Yeon gave Ji Ah♀️ the bean pouch talisman my first instinct was put it in your “lingerie pocket”, is always the most secure . Ji Ah comforts her friend at the funeral. ( Log Out / Outside the friend says she didn’t take her mother on a trip and will never get the chance now. A press conference to announce the project's cancellation was held on February 16. ( Log Out / We will update you soon. The first part of the project was shot on Palau Island in the Pacific, where real comfort women were taken, with the next phases planned in Nepal and Japan. Lee Yeon smiles. Ji Ah texts him. Its energy is that of Mother Gaia. The A-list couple started dating in 2012 and got married on January 19, 2017. He won’t sleep. Lee Yeon and Ji Ah look for the village members, but no one is there. Ji Ah points out no one on the island is working. He asks how she’s getting along with his brother. Chronology of Wiz Khalifa and Taeyeon’s Beef and Their Collaboration. Lee Rang tells her that Lee Yeon thinks she’s his reincarnated first love. Ji Ah can’t reach Lee Yeon via cell phone. 61 Year Olds. The daughter shares she heard a crying baby last night around 2am. Behind them are a score of children demanding she give up her body. Lee Rang wants to teach human to fear foxes. Here Is Full Profile of Him... BTS Member’s Profile (Names, Birthdays, Religion, Height etc) and Facts, Full Profile of BLACKPINK Members (Real Name, Age, Height and Weight), Before and After Blackpink Member’s Plastic Surgery. The father asks Yoo Ri who she is. She sees him covered in gashes. Lee's popularity was at its peak during these years, and in 1998 she hosted her own talk show Lee Seung-yeon's Say Say Say. Hyun Ui Ong tells his son Vet Gu Shin Joo (Hwang Hee) never to marry. She says they were good parents, so good she can’t forget them and move on. Lee Rang speculates it could be the snake that stole his former love. As she walks down the hall, the lights go out. Ji Ah calls Detective Baek to report the situation. OU cries he had no choice but to sleep with her. Lee Rang says she doesn’t need to know. She started her career as a singer but later on she pursued a career as actress. Why were the recently dead sisters’ spirits with the ghosts of the children buried at the site of the funeral hall … if they were spirits, why could the security guy see them❓⁉️ I don’t like seeing children used for evil deeds. Yeon Bok Lee, Animation Department: Widget, the World Watcher. Ko So Young gave birth to her son, Jang Min Joon, on October 10, 2010 and her daughter on February 25, 2014. Lee Rang says people set fire to the mountain. Granny reads the judgement from the afterlife judges. She refuses to say if she saw anyone leave the island. She thanks him and walks away with a smile on her face. Lee Yeon-Bok Net Worth. Here’s photo of her with her cute twins below. [4][5] Because of public disapproval regarding the incident, her drama Heart of Lies was cut short,[6] and she lost roles she had been previously cast in to Yoo Ho-jeong (Trap of Youth) and Lee Young-ae (Invitation). Lee Rang won’t say. #이영애 #쌍둥이 #딸 #엄마 #귀여운아이 #새끼#형제 #자매의 #리아네이처 #cutekidsclub #babies #twins #cutekids #leeyoungae #daughter#mom #momlife #botanicskincare, A post shared by 이영애/LEE YOUNG AE (@leeyoungae_official) on Jan 6, 2018 at 9:45pm PST. The door bell rings. Ji Ah calls him. Lee Yeon asks if that’s why Lee Rang killed all the people in the village. He’s sure he saw her dead body. Menu. She gave birth to a beautiful daughter on May 27, 2018. Her father struggles to remember the accident she had in Nepal that killed her. He could be in hell. Yoo Ri reports she got the necklace from the vet and places it on the table. 6 teaches true compassion and empathy. Eugene is a former member of the popular girl-group S.E.S. Lee Rang says Lee Yeon likes the vet so she must treat him well. Geoffrey Zakarian. Lee Yeon brushes away Ji Ah’s tears. They shake her and tells her to give up her body.
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lee yeon bok daughter 2020
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SubTopic Small-business infrastructure and operations
How to manage mobile devices: Tech investments and a feature wish list
A CIO gives his take on the tech he needs to manage mobile devices and which MDM capabilities he believes are still half-baked.
Christina Torode, Editorial Director
Barry Porozni, CIO of The Reinvestment Fund in Philadelphia, recently spoke with SearchCIO-Midmarket Editorial Director Christina Torode about TRF's bring your own device (BYOD) program, including the investments he's made to manage mobile devices and the features he hopes will become part of mobile device management (MDM) and virtualization vendors' repertoires sooner rather than later. In the first part of this two-part podcast, Porozni shared the BYOD surprises he encountered and how he prepared the infrastructure for mobile devices. TRF is a community development financial institution that manages more than $700 million in capital and has made more than $1.2 billion in community investments, financing more than 2,750 projects since it was founded in 1985.
Download this podcast
What technologies have you invested in to support and manage mobile devices?
Barry Porozni: The key investment we made was just a mobile device management platform. We had a couple of groups who wanted to use it and be able to self-enroll, which worked out well [with regard to] what I said earlier about users going through multiple devices in a short period of time. It's nice that they don't have to come to us or leave their smartphone with the help desk and come back at the end of the day and pick it up. They download the client, they go to a URL, they self-enroll and then all we do is approve them.
And we could even auto-approve them, but we choose not to because that eliminates the risk that maybe someone stole your smartphone and figured out how to enroll. So we will contact you and say, 'Christina did you just get a new Motorola?' And if you say yes, we'll approve it and if not, then we'll investigate. And then just managing the account before the device was tied to a particular carrier account -- now we no longer necessarily have that relationship, so there's some logistics, but in terms of technology, the mobile device management was probably the key one.
We should be able to go to one place and turn off absolutely everything. That doesn't exist today, and that would be a compelling reason to adopt [mobile device virtualization] technology.
Did you consider mobile device virtualization to manage mobile devices?
Porozni: Yes, we did. We don't use it, but I think the day is coming when we'll have to consider it more seriously for the exact same reason that you would do desktop virtualization: You have the ability to lock down or partition the device so that you can download your favorite music app and video apps and all the other things, and you're not going to impact the email client or any customized clients that TRF installs for you to help you do your job -- an approvals app or a job-costing app. At this point, we haven't run into issues where a TRF app doesn't work because you went and downloaded something from one of the stores. That day is going to come, so before that happens we will do something along the lines of virtualization or partitioning.
Is virtualization technology ready yet for managing mobile devices?
Porozni: I don't think it is, and I don't mean to offend vendors out there, but one of the things it's lacking is a true unified portal. So, a simple example would be [when] an employee leaves, we should be able to go to one place and turn off absolutely everything. Disable your Active Directory account, wipe the TRF data from your phone and turn off everything associated with any applications and devices you touched. That doesn't exist today, and that would be a compelling reason to adopt that technology even if it would be slightly immature.
In terms of mobile device management, are there any advances that you would like to see happen?
Porozni: Definitely the portal that I mentioned, that would be important. Improved autoprovisioning -- so again, along the same lines, the users who frequently get new devices, the ability to point them and create our own store. While that's possible, it's not easy, so they go and download the three or four apps that we do have as part of our portfolio of mobile apps, and that's only going to grow. I think that's going to be a key feature to have besides the self-provisioning -- the ability to go and pick up all the applications and permissions and things we need to get up and running in a hurry.
Let us know what you think of this podcast; email Christina Torode, Editorial Director.
Dig Deeper on Small-business infrastructure and operations
When your mobile-first operations are mission critical and IoT optimized
By: Carl Rodrigues
MobileIron: Enterprises aren't focusing enough on mobile threats
By: Rob Wright
Why the worst mobile security risks just won't go away
By: Alyssa Provazza
'Promiscuous' users redefine bounds of good mobile security
By: Jason Sparapani
Is DASH Enough? Identifying the Real Needs of PC Fleet Management –Intel
What to Look for in a Mobile Thin Client –HPI
Enhanced Productivity and Collaboration Tools for the Hybrid Workplace –Microsoft
Dell-EMC deal strikes chord with CIOs – SearchCIO
Creating an artificial sort order using the Oracle ... – SearchOracle
Mobile technology makes time management challenging – SearchCustomerExperience
Server failure, Linux comprise 2020 data center management tips
When you work in IT, you should consistently try to expand your knowledge base. This tip roundup explores recent content about ...
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Last edited by Kagajas
2 edition of case method at the Harvard Business School found in the catalog.
case method at the Harvard Business School
Malcolm Perrine McNair
by Malcolm Perrine McNair
Published 1954 by McGraw-Hill in New York .
Harvard University. -- Graduate School of Business Administration,
LC Classifications HF1111 M25
Through direct contact with a real-world case, students think independently facts, discuss and compare their perspectives and findings with their peers. Contact; Blog → Harvard Business School. A business school history is a little specific. I work at a business school so this felt worth reading, and it was. It starts very slow. While there is some foundational value to understanding the early years of Harvard Business School and management education in general, the book doesn't really get rolling until the modern era s or so on/5(32).
Strategies and templates, in addition to several sample Harvard Business School cases, help you apply the author's framework. Later in the book, Ellet shows how to write persuasive case-analytical essays based on the process laid out earlier. Extensive examples of effective and ineffective writing further reinforce your learning. The case method is a teaching approach that uses decision-forcing cases to put students in the role of people who were faced with difficult decisions at some point in the past. It developed during the course of the twentieth-century from its origins in the casebook method of teaching law pioneered by Harvard legal scholar Christopher C. sharp contrast to many other teaching methods.
free copies available. Giveaway dates from Sep Enter for a chance to win one of first edition copies of The Case Method Miracle. The Case method at the Harvard Business School. [Malcolm P McNair; Anita C Hersum;] Home. WorldCat Home About WorldCat Help. Search. Search for Library Items Search for Lists Search for Contacts Search for a Library. Create Book\/a>, schema:CreativeWork\/a> ;.
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Case method at the Harvard Business School by Malcolm Perrine McNair Download PDF EPUB FB2
Based on the highly successful experience of Harvard Business School and other graduate and professional programs that use case-based teaching, we believe the case method can be employed to strengthen high school and college education as well, ensuring a more exciting, relevant, and effective experience for students and teachers across a range.
The Case Method at the Harvard Business School: Papers by Present and Past Members of the Faculty and Staff. these men felt keenly the lack in print of a fully rounded discussion of the case method. An earlier book, entitled The Case Method of Instruction, edited in byCecil E.
Fraser. Chris Christensen described case method teaching as "the art of managing uncertainty"—a process in which the instructor serves as "planner, host, moderator, devil's advocate, fellow-student, and judge," all in search of solutions to real-world problems and challenges.
Unlike lectures, case method. The Case Method Miracle is about how to use the Harvard Business School case method with a child. As a result the child learns to make wise decisions. Any parent or caregiver can do it, anytime, anywhere/5.
The Case Method Miracle case method at the Harvard Business School book not about the Harvard case method in the traditional sense, and you do not have to be a Harvard graduate to use the case method in the parenting setting. In fact, if you think you have to have a degree from Harvard to parent successfully, then my parenting book /5(17).
The case method presents big challenges confronting organizations – including the constraints and incomplete information found in all real world situations—and places students in the role of decision maker. No simple solutions exist– yet through the process of exchanging diverse perspectives.
Hone the skills needed to outperform today's players and outdistance tomorrow's competitors, through Harvard Business School Executive Education. Professor Das Narayandas describes how the case method brings global challenges to life.
Watch the Video Watch the Video Harvard Business School. A variety of resources on Case Method teaching and student-focused resources on learning by the Case Method. Harvard Business School. Harvard Business Review; Christensen Center for Teaching & Learning.
Harvard Business School Publishing. Harvard Business School. The casebook method, similar to but not exactly the same as the case method, is the primary method of teaching law in law schools in the United was pioneered at Harvard Law School by Christopher is based on the principle that rather than studying highly abstract summaries of legal rules (the technique used in most countries), the best way to learn American law is to read.
book cover of "The Case Method Miracle" The Case Method Miracle is about how to use the Harvard Business School case method with a child.
As a result the child learns to make wise decisions. Any parent or caregiver can do it, anytime, anywhere. Less timeouts, yelling and. Strategies and templates, in addition to several sample Harvard Business School cases, help you apply the author's framework.
Later in the book, Ellet shows how to write persuasive case-analytical essays based on the process laid out earlier. Examples of effective writing further reinforce the s: The book is an excellent resource to increase analytical ability even though it focuses on the Harvard's famous case methodology.
It does so by taking the readers through three important methods of analyzing the cases: decision. problem and evaluation. In analyzing each method the author uses some of the actual case studies of s: About Harvard Business Review Harvard Business Review is the leading destination for smart management thinking.
Through its flagship magazine, 11 international licensed editions, books from Harvard Business Review Press, and digital content and tools published onHarvard Business Review provides professionals around the world with rigorous insights and best practices to Reviews: 7.
Walter Friedman is a Lecturer at Harvard Business School and directs curriculum development for the Case Method Project. He received his Ph.D. in history from Columbia University and is author of Birth of a Salesman: The Transformation of Selling in America () and Fortune Tellers: The Story of America's First Economic Forecasters (), which won the Hagley Prize in Business History.
Case method books from the Harvard Business School Press Over individual chapters from popular Harvard Business School Press books Newsletter articles from Harvard Management Update, Strategy & Innovation, Negotiation, and Balanced Scorecard Report.
Teaching and the Case Method delves into the special role of teacher and students in the case method learning process. Schools that want to use the case method more effectively can use this book to teach groups of faculty how to apply case method techniques.
For the first time, too, a book about case method teaching attempts to show how the method can be applied in a liberal arts setting/5(2). Interviews with faculty and students provide an inside look at the HBS classroom and the case method of teaching and learning. A Glimpse Into A Harvard Business School Case.
The Case Method Miracle is about how to use the Harvard Business School case method with a child. As a result the child learns to make wise decisions. Any parent or caregiver can do it, anytime, anywhere. Less timeouts, yelling and screaming, or telling the child what to do/5(17).
The Harvard Business School case study approach grew out of the Langdellian method. But instead of using established case law, business professors chose real-life examples from the business world to highlight and analyze business principles.
HBS-style case studies typically consist of a short narrative (less than 25 pages), told from the point. Case method Related Topics: Teaching methods Related Topics: Learning Source: Harvard Business School Special Value: FALSE Subcategory: Organizational Development Subject: Organizational Development SubjectList: Case method,Teaching methods,Learning Format Type Filter: PDF Format Type Filter: Hardcover/Hardcopy (B&W) Item: # Industry.
Case Method at Harvard Business School 1. 哈佛商學院的案例教學 (Case Method at Harvard Business School) 余方國 Frank Fang Kuo Yu 03/23/ 1 2. Inside the HBS Case Method // Video 2 3.
大綱 (Agenda) 什麼是案例 (What is a case?). McDonald compares the case method to a performance, appropriately staged in a seat amphitheater, making Harvard Business School, he writes, “as much a school. A small number of case studies can be found in Harvard Business Review which is accessible through our Business Source Complete subscription (present) or in print at Pardee Library (present).
To limit your search results in Business Source Complete to case studies, select "Case Study" for the Document Type.
natalierosedodd.com - Case method at the Harvard Business School book © 2020
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Super Sponsors
SXSW Film Awards Presented by FilmStruck
Mar 13, 2018 | 8:00pm – 9:30pm CT
The 2018 SXSW Film Awards presented by FilmStruck honors the superlative creativity and talent demonstrated by filmmakers and designers in the SXSW Program. A true celebration of vision and talent both behind and in front of the camera, the full lineup includes 136 feature films consisting of 89 World Premieres, 13 North American Premieres, 6 U.S. Premieres, and 49 features films from first-time filmmakers. The lineup also features 171 Short Films, Music Videos, Independent Episodics, Title Sequences, and Virtual Reality projects. Join in celebrating the 2018 program with emcee Jim Gaffigan!
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Tag Archives: gestural interface
TETVision
10 Mar 2015 by Aleatha Singleton
The TETVision display is the only display Vika is shown interacting with directly—using gestures and controls—whereas the other screens on the desktop seem to be informational only. This screen is broken up into three main sections:
The left side panel
The main map area
The right side panel
The communications status is at the top of the left side panel and shows Vika the status of whether the desktop is online or offline with the TET as it orbits the Earth. Directly underneath this is the video communications feed for Sally.
Beneath Sally’s video feed is the map legend section, which serves the dual purposes of providing data transfer to the TET and to the Bubbleship as well as a simple legend for the icons used on the map.
The communications controls, which are at the bottom of the left side panel, allow Vika to toggle the audio communications with Jack and with Sally. Continue reading →
Posted in Oblivion (2013), ~ Comps, ~ scifianimatedgifs. Tagged blue, communications, desktop, gestural interface, legend, red, video, video feed
Klaatunian interior
When the camera first follows Klaatu into the interior of his spaceship, we witness the first gestural interface seen in the survey. To turn on the lights, Klaatu places his hands in the air before a double column of small lights imbedded in the wall to the right of the door. He holds his hand up for a moment, and then smoothly brings it down before these lights. In response the lights on the wall extinguish and an overhead light illuminates. He repeats this gesture on a similar double column of lights to the left of the door.
The nice thing to note about this gesture is that it is simple and easy to execute. The mapping also has a nice physical referent: When the hand goes down like the sun, the lights dim. When the hand goes up like the sun, the lights illuminate.
He then approaches an instrument panel with an array of translucent controls; like a small keyboard with extended, plastic keys. As before, he holds his hand a moment at the top of the controls before swiping his hand in the air toward the bottom of the controls. In response, the panels illuminate. He repeats this on a similar panel nearby.
Having activated all of these elements, he begins to speak in his alien tongue to a circular, strangely lit panel on the wall. (The film gives no indication as to the purpose of his speech, so no conclusions about its interface can be drawn.)
Gort also operates the translucent panels with a wave of his hand. To her credit, perhaps, Helen does not try to control the panels, but we can presume that, like the spaceship, some security mechanism prevents unauthorized control.
Missing affordances
Who knows how Klaatu perceives this panel. He’s an alien, after all. But for us mere humans, the interface is confounding. There are no labels to help us understand what controls what. The physical affordances of different parts of the panels imply sliding along the surface, touch, or turning, not gesture. Gestural affordances are tricky at best, but these translucent shapes actually signal something different altogether.
Overcomplicated workflow
And you have to wonder why he has to go through this rigmarole at all. Why must he turn on each section of the interface, one by one? Can’t they make just one “on” button? And isn’t he just doing one thing: Transmitting? He doesn’t even seem to select a recipient, so it’s tied to HQ. Seriously, can’t he just turn it on?
Why is this UI even here?
Or better yet, can’t the microphone just detect when he’s nearby, illuminate to let him know it’s ready, and subtly confirm when it’s “hearing” him? That would be the agentive solution.
Maybe it needs some lockdown: Power
OK. Fine. If this transmission consumes a significant amount of power, then an even more deliberate activation is warranted, perhaps the turning of a key. And once on, you would expect to see some indication of the rate of power depletion and remaining power reserves, which we don’t see, so this is pretty doubtful.
Maybe it needs some lockdown: Security
This is the one concern that might warrant all the craziness. That the interface has no affordance means that Joe Human Schmo can’t just walk in and turn it on. (In fact the misleading bits help with a plausible diversion.) The “workflow” then is actually a gestural combination that unlocks the interface and starts it recording. Even if Helen accidentally discovered the gestural aspect, there’s little to no way she could figure out those particular gestures and start intergalactic calls for help. And remembering that Klaatu is, essentially, a space ethics reconn cop, this level of security might make sense.
Posted in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). Tagged audio, firsts, gestural, gestural interface, glow, handwave, lights, natural user interface, radio, security, touchless, wave
Gene Sequence Comparison
17 Jan 2013 by Christopher Noessel
Genetic tester
Shaw sits at this device speaking instructions aloud as she peers through a microscope. We do not see if the instructions are being manually handled by Ford, or whether the system is responding to her voice input. Ford issues the command “compare it to the gene sample,” the nearby screen displays DNA gel electrophoresis results for the exploding alien sample and a human sample. When Ford says, “overlay,” the results slide on top of each other. A few beats after some screen text and a computerized voice informs them that the system is PROCESSING, (repeated twice) it confirms a DNA MATCH with other screen text read by the same computerized voice.
Playback box
When Halloway visits Shaw in her quarters, she uses a small, translucent glass cuboid to show him the comparison. To activate it, she drags a finger quickly across the long, wide surface. That surface illuminates with the data from the genetic tester, including the animation. The emerald green colors of the original have been replaced by cyan, the red has been replaced by magenta, and some of the contextualizing GUI has been omitted, but it is otherwise the same graphic. Other than this activation gesture, no other interactivity is seen with this device.
There’s a bit of a mismatch between the gesture she uses for input and the output on the screen. She swipes, but the information fades up. It would be a tighter mapping for Shaw if a swipe on its surface resulted in the information’s sliding in at the same speed, or at least faded up as if she was operating a brightness control. If the fade up was the best transition narratively, another gesture such as a tap might be a better fit for input. Still, the iOS standard for unlocking is to swipe right, so this decision might have been made on the basis of the audience’s familiarity with that interaction.
Posted in Prometheus (2012). Tagged big label, comparison, cyan, gestural interface, green, input mismatches output, magenta, red, translucent display, voice command, voice confirmation
MedPod
28 Dec 2012 by Christopher Noessel
Early in the film, when Shaw sees the MedPod for the first time, she comments to Vickers that, “They only made a dozen of these.” As she caresses its interface in awe, a panel extends as the pod instructs her to “Please verbally state the nature of your injury.”
The MedPod is a device for automated, generalized surgical procedures, operable by the patient him- (or her-, kinda, see below) self.
When in the film Shaw realizes that she’s carrying an alien organism in her womb, she breaks free from crewmembers who want to contain her, and makes a staggering beeline for the MedPod.
Once there, she reaches for the extended touchscreen and presses the red EMERGENCY button. Audio output from the pod confirms her selection, “Emergency procedure initiated. Please verbally state the nature of your injury.” Shaw shouts, “I need cesarean!” The machine informs her verbally that, “Error. This MedPod is calibrated for male patients only. It does not offer the procedure you have requested. Please seek medical assistance else–”
I’ll pause the action here to address this. What sensors and actuators are this gender-specific? Why can’t it offer gender-neutral alternatives? Sure, some procedures might need anatomical knowledge of particularly gendered organs (say…emergency circumcision?), but given…
the massive amounts of biological similarity between the sexes
the needs for any medical device to deal with a high degree of biological variability in its subjects anyway
most procedures are gender neutral
…this is a ridiculous interface plot device. If Dr. Shaw can issue a few simple system commands that work around this limitation (as she does in this very scene), then the machine could have just done without the stupid error message. (Yes, we get that it’s a mystery why Vickers would have her MedPod calibrated to a man, but really, that’s a throwaway clue.) Gender-specific procedures can’t take up so much room in memory that it was simpler to cut the potential lives it could save in half. You know, rather than outfit it with another hard drive.
Aside from the pointless “tension-building” wrong-gender plot point, there are still interface issues with this step. Why does she need to press the emergency button in the first place? The pod has a voice interface. Why can’t she just shout “Emergency!” or even better, “Help me!” Isn’t that more suited to an emergency situation? Why is a menu of procedures the default main screen? Shouldn’t it be a prompt to speak, and have the menu there for mute people or if silence is called for? And shouldn’t it provide a type-ahead control rather than a multi-facet selection list? OK, back to the action.
Desperate, Shaw presses a button that grants her manual control. She states “Surgery abdominal, penetrating injuries. Foreign body. Initiate.” The screen confirms these selections amongst options on screen. (They read “DIAGNOS, THERAP, SURGICAL, MED REC, SYS/MECH, and EMERGENCY”)
The pod then swings open saying, “Surgical procedure begins,” and tilting itself for easy access. Shaw injects herself with anesthetic and steps into the pod, which seals around her and returns to a horizontal position.
Why does Shaw need to speak in this stilted speech? In a panicked or medical emergency situation, proper computer syntax should be the last thing on a user’s mind. Let the patient shout the information however they need to, like “I’ve got an alien in my abdomen! I need it to be surgically removed now!” We know from the Sonic chapter that the use of natural language triggers an anthropomorphic sense in the user, which imposes some other design constraints to convey the system’s limitations, but in this case, the emergency trumps the needs of affordance subtleties.
Once inside the pod, a transparent display on the inside states that, “EMERGENCY PROC INITIATED.” Shaw makes some touch selections, which runs a diagnostic scan along the length of her body. The terrifying results display for her to see, with the alien body differentiated in magenta to contrast her own tissue, displayed in cyan.
Shaw shouts, “Get it out!!” It says, “Initiating anesthetics” before spraying her abdomen with a bile-yellow local anesthetic. It then says, “Commence surgical procedure.” (A note for the grammar nerds here: Wouldn’t you expect a machine to maintain a single part of speech for consistency? The first, “Initiating…” is a gerund, while the second, “Commence,” is an imperative.) Then, using lasers, the MedPod cuts through tissue until it reaches the foreign body. Given that the lasers can cut organic matter, and that the xenomorph has acid for blood, you have to hand it to the precision of this device. One slip could have burned a hole right through her spine. Fortunately it has a feather-light touch. Reaching in with a speculum-like device, it removes the squid-like alien in its amniotic sac.
OK. Here I have to return to the whole “ManPod” thing. Wouldn’t a scan have shown that this was, in fact, a woman? Why wouldn’t it stop the procedure if it really couldn’t handle working on the fairer sex? Should it have paused to have her sign away insurance rights? Could it really mistake her womb for a stomach? Wouldn’t it, believing her to be a man, presume the whole womb to be a foreign body and try to perform a hysterectomy rather than a delicate caesarian? ManPod, indeed.
After removing the alien, it waits around 10 seconds, showing it to her and letting her yank its umbilical cord, before she presses a few controls. The MedPod seals her up again with staples and opens the cover to let her sit up.
She gets off the table, rushes to the side of the MedPod, and places all five fingertips of her right hand on it, quickly twisting her hand clockwise. The interface changes to a red warning screen labeled “DECONTAMINATE.” She taps this to confirm and shouts, “Come on!” (Her vocal instruction does not feel like a formal part of the procedure and the machine does not respond differently.) To decontaminate, the pod seals up and a white mist fills the space.
OK. Since this is a MedPod, and it has something called a decontamination procedure, shouldn’t it actually test to see whether the decontamination worked? The user here has enacted emergency decontamination procedures, so it’s safe to say that this is a plague-level contagion. That’s doesn’t say to me: Spray it with a can of Raid and hope for the best. It says, “Kill it with fire.” We just saw, 10 seconds ago, that the MedPod can do a detailed, alien-detecting scan of its contents, so why on LV-223 would it not check to see if the kill-it-now-for-God’s-sake procedure had actually worked, and warn everyone within earshot that it hadn’t? Because someone needs to take additional measures to protect the ship, and take them, stat. But no, MedPod tucks the contamination under a white misty blanket, smiles, waves, and says, “OK, that’s taken care of! Thank you! Good day! Move along!”
For all of the goofiness that is this device, I’ll commend it for two things. The first is for pushing the notion forward of automated medicine. Yes, in this day and age, it’s kind of terrifying to imagine devices handling something as vital as life-saving surgery, but people in the future will likely find it terrifying that today we’d rather trust an error prone, bull-in-a-china-shop human to the task. And, after all, the characters have entrusted their lives to an android while they were in hypersleep for two years, so clearly that’s a thing they do.
Second, the gestural control to access the decontamination is well considered. It is a large gesture, requiring no great finesse on the part of the operator to find and press a sequence of keys, and one that is easy to execute quickly and in a panic. I’m absolutely not sure what percentage of procedures need the back-up safety of a kill-everything-inside mode, but presuming one is ever needed, this is a fine gesture to initiate that procedure. In fact, it could have been used in other interfaces around the ship, as we’ll see later with the escape pod interface.
I have the sense that in the original script, Shaw had to do what only a few very bad-ass people have been willing to do: perform life-saving surgery on themselves in the direst circumstances. Yes, it’s a bit of a stretch since she’s primarily an anthropologist and astronomer in the story, but give a girl a scalpel, hardcore anesthetics, and an alien embryo, and I’m sure she’ll figure out what to do. But pushing this bad-assery off to an automated device, loaded with constraints, ruins the moment and changes the scene from potentially awesome to just awful.
Given the inexplicable man-only settings, requiring a desperate patient to recall FORTRAN-esque syntax for spoken instructions, and the failure to provide any feedback about the destruction of an extinction-level pathogen, we must admit that the MedPod belongs squarely in the realm of goofy narrative technology and nowhere near the real world as a model of good interaction design.
Posted in Prometheus (2012). Tagged affordance, anesthetic, cyan, design challenge, emergency, feedback, gestural interface, gesture, magenta, medical, natural language, pointlessly constrained, procedure, rant, red, robot surgery, surgery, voice command, voice interface
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Scrubs Wiki
Dr. Cox
Dr. Kelso
The Todd
List of fantasies
List of music
List of Janitor's pranks
List of J.D.'s girl names
List of Janitor's lies
List of flashbacks
List of Todd's high-fives
Scrubs Episodes, Season 3 Episodes, Special Episodes
My Butterfly
"My Butterfly"
Three Sixteen
Justin Spitzer
Henry Chan
Transcript • Images
“Me, I don't believe in fate. I believe we have more control than we think and that every action has a reaction.”— J.D.
"My Butterfly" is the sixteenth episode of Scrubs' third season. J.D. contemplates chaos theory. Turk can't find his lucky do-rag, which helps him with surgery. Elliot has to look for her patient's lost stuffed pink dog.
1.1 First Scenario
1.2 Second Scenario
2 Recurring Events
2.1 Fantasies
2.2 Flashbacks
2.3 Janitor story
2.4 J.D.'s Girl Names
2.5 Dr. Cox's Girl Names
J.D. talks about superstition. The surgeons start their day with an ass slap and have their own personal good-luck rituals. Turk can't find his Tabasco do-rag. Elliot's patient lost her stuffed pink dog and is scared of her bone marrow transplant. Turk's surgical record with the do-rag is 23 and zero, so he wants to find it.
First Scenario
J.D. and Turk stare at a beautiful woman
At the reception, Turk and J.D. watch a butterfly land on a busty woman's breasts, and the two stare for a while before walking off. J.D. walks straight into Laverne, who drops all the drinks she was carrying. Elliot asks the Janitor to help her find the pink dog, but he is too busy cleaning up the spilled drinks. Turk asks Carla to go home and find his do-rag. Dr. Kelso begins to chastise Carla for clocking out nine minutes late, and Turk defends her, angering Carla because it made her look weak. When Carla arrives home, she finds an old Snickers bar in the couch, but before she can bite into it, she is called back to the hospital by Elliot asking her to help find the little girl's dog. Carla rushes back to the hospital, forgetting to bring the do-rag, which was in the bathroom on Rowdy's head. J.D. and Dr. Cox begin to treat Mr. Strauss, a patient who they believe has a GI bleed. After Dr. Cox decides to let J.D. take the lead on the patient's case, J.D. tries to help Elliot find the dog. They try to look in the Janitor's supply closet but are kicked out by the maintenance staff, who all hate J.D. By the time the little girl goes into surgery, Elliot still has not found the dog. Mr. Strauss codes, and they find out he had an aortic dissection that J.D. and Cox missed earlier. He is sent to surgery. Turk, who still does not have his lucky do-rag, performs the surgery, but Mr. Strauss dies. J.D. then wonders how things would have been different if the butterfly had landed on a fat man's chest instead, and how the whole series of events were caused because of that one butterfly.
Second Scenario
The butterfly chooses another place to land
The events are different the second time around. J.D. and Laverne do not bump into each other, and thus Laverne does not spill the drinks on the floor. The Janitor does not have an extra mess to clean up and is able to help Elliot look for the dog. During Kelso's confrontation with Turk and Carla, Turk does not defend Carla, but Carla is still angry, this time because Turk is not supportive. When Carla gets home, she finds the Snickers bar and bites it. Carla does not get the phone call from Elliot because the Janitor already agreed to help her. She is disgusted by the taste of the candy bar and runs into the bathroom to spit it out into the sink. Since Carla ran into the bathroom, she found the do-rag on Rowdy's head. J.D. still believes that Mr. Strauss has a GI bleed, but since he was late for his shift the second time around, Cox does not let him take charge and merely sends him off to get coffee. J.D. goes to the elevator to try to make a wise-ass remark, only for the door to close on him before he can do so. J.D. overhears three attendings talking about a patient with ischemic bowel disease and realizes that Mr. Strauss may have the same ailment. He asks Dr. Cox to order a CT scan. The CT scan does not find ischemic bowel disease, but it does detect the aortic dissection that Mr. Strauss originally died from. Dr. Cox decides to prepare Mr. Strauss for surgery and calls Turk, who now has the lucky do-rag, to operate. However, even with the do-rag, the surgery is still unsuccessful, and Mr. Strauss still dies. Elliot tries to look for the dog in the Janitor's supply closet. When the same maintenance staff member tries to kick Elliot out, the Janitor vouches for her, allows her to look in the maintenance staff's Lost and Found/Free Stuff box, and gives her the dog. J.D. again looks at the butterfly and wonders what would happen if things were different.
More: Fantasies • Flashbacks • J.D.'s girl names • Janitor's pranks and lies
Randall surprises Turk in surgery
Randall pops out of a patient while Turk is operating.
J.D. distracts Dr. Kelso by playing the banjo. (When the butterfly landed on the woman's breasts.)
Dr. Cox plays the banjo, while Dr. Kelso plays the washboard. (When the butterfly landed on the fat man's chest.)
A young Janitor.
When Dr. Cox asks J.D. if this moment was always how he pictured it, he flashes back to playing with two homemade dolls of himself and Perry, and repeats the same question.
Elliot notes that Janitor is taking a personal interest in helping her find the little girl's stuffed doggie. The Janitor then remembers that as a child he could not find a teddy bear. His mother says that she may have accidentally thrown it out while cleaning his room, which wouldn't have happened if his room wasn't so filthy. The young boy picks up a broom and says "Never again," which may be the reason he became a Janitor.
Janitor story
When the butterfly landed on the woman's breasts Janitor then had to clean up the dropped drinks which meant he didn't have time to help Elliot look for the lost stuffed doggie. When the butterfly landed on the man's chest he was happy to help Elliot look for the stuffed doggie and they eventually find it in time.
J.D.'s Girl Names
“Look, Carol, I know you think you look dashing in your navy blue scrubs, but I can't deal with the fact that I walk into the front door of this place and I find you standing there taaaalking at me.”— Dr. Cox
“It's your show, Debbie. Is this moment just like you always pictured?”— Dr. Cox
Dr. Cox's Girl Names
Eleanor - When the butterfly lands on the woman's breasts, Dr. Cox actually leaves J.D. in charge of the hospital, so J.D. attempts to impersonate Dr. Cox, which doesn't faze him at all.
“Here's the deal, Eleanor, We're gonna go ahead and get a full work-up on this guy. So, while I drop an NG tube and do a gastric lavage, why don't you go ahead and get an order on EKG with cardio biomarkers. If you need to know where those are, they're on page 37 of the Ann Taylor catalog -- right next to that salmon cable-knit sweater you've wanted for so long but haven't had the courage to order...'cause you're worried the weave's so thin, your nipples might just go ahead and peek their little pink selves through. Isn't that right, Dr. Cox.”— J.D.
Martin Klebba as Randall Winston
Charles Chun as Dr. Phillip Wen
Frank Encarnacao as Dr. Walter Mickhead
Martin Klebba as Randall Winston (Custodian)
Donald Sage Mackay as Dr. Page
Renee Ryan as Janitor's mother
Brandon Waters as Young Janitor
Michael Coleman as Janitor #1
Bubba Da Skitso as Butterfly Man
Zaid Farid as Mr. Strauss
Lily Goff as Gaby
♫ List of music featured in Scrubs
"What a Wonderful World" by Joey Ramone
“I couldn't help but think two things. First, I do look stunning in these navy scrubs - I mean, come on, who wants a taste?”— J.D.
“I'll have to learn to play the banjo.”— J.D.
“I got a pink doggie for you. But it's not little.”— Todd
“If you show me your penis, I am going to take it away from you.”— Elliot
“Hhhheeeere's the deal, Eleanor: We're gonna go ahead and get a full work-up on this guy. So, while I drop an NG tube and do a gastric lavage, why don't you go ahead and get an order on EKG with cardio biomarkers. If you need to know where those are, they're on page 37 of the Ann Taylor catalog -- right next to that salmon cable-knit sweater you've wanted for so long but haven't had the courage to order...'cause you're worried the weave's so thin, your nipples might just go ahead and peek their little pink selves through. Isn't that right, Dr. Cox.”— J.D.
“Son, do you think I got to be chief of medicine by being late?”— Dr. Kelso
“Nooo, Bobbo! You got there by back-stabbing and ass-kissing.”— Dr. Cox
“Maybe so, but I started those things promptly at 8.”
“Turk! Why didn't you stand up for me?”— Carla
“Baby, you said I was too whipped.”— Turk
The actor John Ritter who played J.D.'s father died of an aortic dissection, the same way J.D.'s patient dies in this episode.
Dr. Mickhead is wearing blue scrubs in this episode, despite being a surgeon.
Even though this is his second time appearing as a janitor (he first appeared as one in "My Catalyst" four episodes prior), Randall claims he just got the job and J.D. is surprised to see him.
Randall surprised Turk in surgery
Turk and J.D. stare at breasts
J.D. distracts Kelso
J.D. acts out a scene with Cox
The Janitors' closet
The butterfly lands on a man
Cox and Kelso pass time
A young Janitor
1. "My Own American Girl"
2. "My Journey"
3. "My White Whale"
4. "My Lucky Night"
5. "My Brother, Where Art Thou?"
6. "My Advice to You"
7. "My Fifteen Seconds"
8. "My Friend the Doctor"
9. "My Dirty Secret"
10. "My Rule of Thumb"
11. "My Clean Break"
12. "My Catalyst"
13. "My Porcelain God"
14. "My Screw Up"
15. "My Tormented Mentor"
16. "My Butterfly"
17. "My Moment of Un-Truth"
18. "His Story II"
19. "My Choosiest Choice of All"
20. "My Fault"
21. "My Self-Examination"
22. "My Best Friend's Wedding"
Retrieved from "https://scrubs.fandom.com/wiki/My_Butterfly?oldid=73797"
Scrubs Episodes
Special Episodes
More Scrubs Wiki
1 J.D.
2 Elliot Reid
Scrubs Wiki is a FANDOM TV Community.
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Open in Our App
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Open in Spectrum News App
Charter Communications to Offer Free Broadband, WiFi Access to Teachers, Families with Elementary, College Students
By Spectrum News Staff Nationwide
UPDATED 1:32 PM ET Mar. 27, 2020 PUBLISHED 4:38 PM ET Mar. 13, 2020 PUBLISHED 4:38 PM EDT Mar. 13, 2020
NATIONWIDE -- Charter Communications is doing its part to help keep people safe and connected.
Charter announced that beginning on Monday it will offer free broadband and wifi access for 60 days to families with K-12 students or college students who do not already have a Spectrum subscription. The company is also waiving its installation fees for new subscribers.
The company said Friday, March 27, it is now expanding free broadband and Wifi access to include educators who may need internet access to teach students at home.
In addition, Charter says it will open its more than half a million wifi hotspots across the country for public use.
The move comes after the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission urged internet providers to lower costs and boost speeds given that the Coronavirus is driving more people to go online for work, study as well as gather information.
Charter, the parent company of Spectrum News, operates in 41 states and services 29 million customers including health care facilities, first responders and government offices.
To enroll in the free broadband and wifi program, you can call 1-844-488-8395.
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AFC vs. NFC 1/27/19 NFL Pro Bowl Pick, Odds, and Prediction
Home NFL Picks
Randy Chambers January 24, 2019 3:38 pm
AFC vs. NFC
Sunday, January 27, 2019 at 3:00 PM (Camping World Stadium)
The Line: NFC -1 -- Over/Under: 57 Click to Get Latest Betting Odds
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The AFC and NFC meet Sunday in the 2019 NFL Pro Bowl at Camping World Stadium.
The AFC will be led by Los Angeles Chargers coach Anthony Lynn, who took his team to the AFC Divisional Game with 12 regular season wins. Offensively, the AFC will have quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes, Andrew Luck and Deshaun Watson, while the top skill position players include James Conner, Tyreek Hill, Keenan Allen and Jarvis Landry. Defensively is where the AFC will likely really shine with difference makers such as Von Miller, Xavien Howard, Jalen Ramsey and Myles Garrett round out the starting unit. The AFC is a little weak in the running back department and has two of its original quarterbacks (Philip Rivers and Tom Brady) not participating, but the defense is young, and youth can be key in these type of meaningless games. You want players who are honored to participate and excited to put on a show. There’s a lot of players on that AFC defense who are still making a name for themselves, and that could be key for that side producing a victory. I expect a fast, youthful defense that wants to change the whole feel of the Pro Bowl.
The NFC will be led by Jason Garrett, who took the Dallas Cowboys to the NFC Divisional Game and has won double-digit games in three of the last five years. The NFC quarterbacks will be Drew Brees, Russell Wilson and Mitchell Trubisky, while the key skill position players are Ezekiel Elliott, Michael Thomas, Saquon Barkley, Davante Adams and George Kittle. A really explosive offensive unit with proven quarterbacks, arguably the best two running backs in the league and highly productive receivers who are as reliable as they come. The NFC defense will be missing a lot of starters due to pull outs or guys playing in the Super Bowl, but Kyle Fuller, Patrick Peterson, DeMarcus Lawrence, Bobby Wagner and Anthony Barr will help keep things afloat. The feel you get with the NFC are the usual suspects. Guys who have been there done that over the years and take pride in the conferences dominate over the AFC over the years.
There's no line yet due to possible more players dropping out or reserves needing to be added. We know the NFC is probably going to be favored yet again and the total is sure to be high. It's the same song and dance in these type of games. The play is usually the over, and I often like to take free points in meaningless all-star type games. The goal in these games is to have fun and leave healthy. Free points is where I usually lean.
This total is pretty low when you consider seven of the last 11 Pro Bowls have produced at least 60 points. Defense is not really an option in these type of games, and while the last two years have been pretty low scoring, the overall history of this game has been a back and forth contest. Instead of picking one team when there's no logical reason to be on one side over the other when you consider both sides are loaded with talent, I'll be on the side of points and back the over.
Randy’s Pick Over 57
Kareem Hunt: Five NFL Teams That Could Sign Pro Bowl Running Back
Super Bowl 53 MVP Pick, Odds, and Prediction 2/3/19
AUTHOR: Randy Chambers
Randy has covered sports betting since 2014 and writes about everything from NFL to WNBA.
Follow Randy Chambers on Twitter @WizardOf0dds
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Exclusive Partner:
SHRI Connects with Experts on Facebook Live
SHRI is proud to collaborate with Stories of Asia (SOA) on our 3rd SHRI Connects with Experts on 26 June 2020. Bringing you a live chat session with industry experts Ms Genevieve Godwin, Chief People Officer of PropertyGuru Group, and Mr Paul Choo, Vice President (HR&CSR) of Bridgestone Asia Pacific.
Hosted by Mr Sam Neo, CEO & Co-Founder of Stories of Asia (SOA), join our speakers as they to SHRI Council Member, join our speakers as they share their organisation’s experiences in returning to the workplace during Phase two of Singapore's Safe Reopening, including how their organisations tackle challenges as they transition from remote working and adjust their workforce to a post circuit breaker setting.
Date: 26 June 2020, Friday
Platform: Facebook Live
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She provides HR leadership to the group with a focus on building strong employer branding including talent strategy as well as organisational capabilities for continued business growth. Leading the HR team across the region, she collaborates with business leaders to further develop and implement strategies that inspire employees toward pursing their goals.
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Finally, Sam was also most recently co-opted as a council member of the Singapore Human Resources Institute to transform its brand image and drive membership.
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Gets Her Man
Diaries of an Internet Lover
Mating Season: How to Find Love Online
Dawn O’Porter says sharing Caroline Flack’s personal messages is ‘a massive betrayal’
Honestly Dawn Dangers of online-dating
Your sports-only digital subscription does not include access to this section. Please log in, or sign up for a new account to continue reading. You must be a full digital subscriber to read this article. Please subscribe to keep reading. You can cancel at any time. We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content. Jennifer Grey is reportedly set to star in the sequel as well as executive produce it. Here’s a preview of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music platforms this week. All Rights Reserved.
As more and more people turn to internet dating sites to find love, we take a look at how the photo you select for your profile can affect your chances of attracting that all-important first contact. Get In Touch. However, research has actually shown that most online singles are fairly timid when it comes to stretching the truth — claiming to be just a few pounds lighter than they really are, perhaps a couple of inches taller….
Dawn O’Porter walks us through the books that shaped her. J.K. Rowling will be releasing a free new children’s book online · bibliotherapy.
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By Lina Das. They are also the qualities that helped her rise to success in her 20s when she fronted a series of compelling TV documentaries on topics as diverse as polygamy and extreme dieting for which she slimmed down from a size 12 to an eight. Although she went through a difficult patch in her television career when she moved to Los Angeles nine years ago of which more later , she has since reinvented herself as an author.
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Dawn O’Porter has called out stars for sharing their last texts with led an online pile-on against her regarding a new TV show she was doing.
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Log-in for internet dating How to Find Love Online, pm. With Dawn O’Porter.
She was born in Alexandria , Scotland, but raised in Guernsey. She studied acting at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts but in her third year decided that acting was not for her and did work experience on the television series Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned rather than participate in a school production. Having established her credentials as a writer and journalist, Porter first came to widespread public attention when she attempted to slim down to a size zero by using drastic dieting regimes for the BBC documentary Super Slim Me.
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Dawn O’Porter has voiced disapproval on the sharing out of private messages from Caroline Flack in the wake of her sad death. She’s opined that sending out the texts is a “massive betrayal” to her late friend, who died by suicide on 15 February. She’d absolutely hate it.
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To continue viewing content on tucson. Current Subscriber? Log in. Activate now. Subscribe now. Respond: Write a letter to the editor Write a guest opinion. All Rights Reserved. Just as University of Arizona students were starting to edit the films that they had spent their entire college careers leading up to, the coronavirus pandemic happened and their worlds were turned upside down.
The book was very well received and went on to be published in German, Dutch and Portuguese. The documentary enjoyed huge critical acclaim. In Dawn presented a BBC3 series of five documentary films, exploring attitudes to nudity, lesbianism, dating and pregnancy and childbirth. Site Registration If you already have login details you can log in here.
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Her novel, Goose, is out now, and This Old Thing, based on her new C4 show about vintage clothes, is out now. This is the book that made me want to be a writer. Flowers for Mrs Harris by Paul Gallico. The main character is on her way to Paris to spend all her savings on a Dior dress. Nora Ephron wrote graphically about her life, and I appreciate it when writers do that because female progression is hugely helped when women in the public eye are honest.
Her rants show how ridiculous we women are for caring so much about our appearance.
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« What Do You Think About Trolls?
BCM Gunfighter History – Vol 1: The SCUD Hunter Carbine »
Author Tom Kratman Talks Military Training
Tom Kratman is an author of military science fiction but unlike many authors, he is a Veteran having served as an enlisted Soldier and commissioned officer, retiring as a LTC from the USAR. Below is an excerpt from an article he wrote on military training for his publisher, Baen Books. Politically correct, he ain’t. But that’s the point.
ON TRAINING FOR WAR, PART 1
Axiom One: The functions of training, the reasons we train, and all training can do for us, boil down to five things: Skill Training, Conditioning, Development, Selection, and Testing of Doctrine and Equipment.
The armed forces have a serious doctrinal lack when it comes to explaining why we train and how we do. Since they can’t articulate things like, “No, Doctor, Ranger School sucks in the way it does because we are conditioning and selecting, not merely teaching skills,” we get changes demanded from unqualified amd ignorant people, with credentials that bear no particular relationship to train for war.
I’ve spent, by the way, a number of decades since I first floated this axiom around, looking for a valid argument against it from anyone entitled to an opinion. I still haven’t gotten one, beyond the merest quibble. Every practicing trainer would probably recognize these as valid, even if they wouldn’t necessarily articulate them in exactly the same way.
The five functions should not be looked at as things that can be added up, to come to an approximation of a unit’s or individual’s training status. To even hope to do that you would have to be able to measure some immeasurables. Forget it; all the really important things can’t be measured, while all the really measurable things aren’t very important.
But if you could measure everything, trying to add their values together would still be the wrong way to look at it. After all, a soldier or a battalion, be they ever so skilled, are still worthless if they lack the courage to stand in line of battle, or to press the assault home. Instead, the proper way to look at them would be as things that must be multiplied by each other, with any factor being a zero causing the total to be worth zero, even if one approached infinity. Of course, again, since most of these are anywhere from difficult to impossible to measure, you’re not going to get a true value. The important thing to remember is that a zero in one is a zero overall, and even a serious weakness is one means weakness overall.
It’s also worth remembering that there is crossover. Better shooting ability, a skill, requires a degree of physical conditioning, but also conditions greater confidence, for example. Greater confidence develops greater trust and unit cohesion. I will treat these functions as distinct, for the most part, the better to illustrate them. But they are actually much fuzzier, with much more crossover, than that. They also apply in different ways at different levels, while some are appropriate to leaders, not so key to followers, and still others are collective, applying not just to everyone but to everyone in a unit together.
Be sure to read the entire article at www.baen.com.
Tags: Baen books, Tom Kratman
This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 19th, 2013 at 00:10 and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
16 Responses to “Author Tom Kratman Talks Military Training”
Andrew K says:
“Forget it; all the really important things can’t be measured, while all the really measurable things aren’t very important.”
Awesome, just awesome.
Baldwin says:
“The important thing to remember is that a zero in one is a zero overall, and even a serious weakness is one means weakness overall.”
Love this guy’s focus and accuracy!
I know him, that is, if he was a Civil Affairs Officer, and if so, I know his son as well…
SSD says:
He was
Tom Kratman says:
My FA was Civil Affairs, for some years, but I was never actually anything but an infantry officer and EM. Well…I did wear IG brass for a few years, too, but I was still infantry
ENthePeasant says:
Then I know both him and his son Kenny. Long story, but I served with them when I was a Boot, then, again with the Son in the Stan
He looks kinda like Mr. Bean
And you’ve never seen me and Mr. Bean on the same TV show at the same time, either, have you? What more proof does one need?
Part II of the article is up now, too. I don’t know how many parts it will be broken into. Probably 5-6. Eventually, I’ll turn it into a full length book, since Collins’ Common Sense Training is somewhat dated now.
Michael Ball says:
Part 2 is worth a read, too. After reading the vignette about the “Old Guard”, it seems tragically ironic that as soon as we started fighting 2 wars, TRADOC diminished the importance of Drill & Ceremonies in Initial Entry Training. I hate D&C as much as the next guy, but I do think it serves a purpose, especially in IET Soldiers.
SGT Dan's Cat says:
Yeah, you guys who aren’t as familiar with his work should have been warned- he greatly enjoys dueling critics on the Internet. Probably the only author I know of who prowls his Amazon reviews.
It’s therapy.
Mr. Bean?
MR. BEAN!?
Mr. Bean does a lot of things, but Driving Tranzis Into Conniptions is none of them.
There is only one Rowan Atkinson character capable of *that*: Edmund F. Blackadder. 🙂
H.C. says:
Awesome… who can argue with this? nailed it… thanks for the post.
JES says:
Also a great sci-fi author. I particularly liked _The Amazon Legion_; _Come and Take Them_ is next on my reading list.
Jon Meyer says:
“Any bitches, moans, gripes, complaints? Thought not.”
Good read.
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‘Peaceful’ CHOP Has Another Deadly Shooting Overnight
By Danielle Wallace June 30, 2020
Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best said both victims were African-American
A 16-year-old boy has died and a 14-year-old boy has been hospitalized in critical condition Monday following the latest shooting at the Seattle area known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest, or CHOP, police revealed.
Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best said it marked the second death of an African-American victim in the area. The first death associated with the CHOP came June 20 when 19-year-old Horace Lorenzo Anderson was shot and killed.
Monday marked the fourth shooting linked to the CHOP zone.
“It’s very unfortunate that we have another murder in this area identified as the CHOP,” Best said Monday. She elaborated that they were African-American victims “at a place where they claim to be working for Black Lives Matter but they’re gone. They’re dead now. And, we’ve had multiple other incidents — assaults, rapes, robbery, shootings — so this is something that’s going to need to change.”
Officials initially said the victims of the latest shooting were “men” before clarifying their ages.
Best said multiple 911 callers reported that two males had been shot in a vehicle on 12th Avenue between Pike and Pine early Monday morning, but by the time officers arrived at the scene both were gone.
The younger wounded teen arrived at Harborview Medical Center’s Emergency Department at about 3:15 a.m. by private vehicle, Susan Gregg, a hospital spokeswoman, told Fox News. He remained in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
The second victim was brought to a Seattle Fire Department staging area outside the CHOP and arrived at the hospital via ambulance at 3:30 a.m. He later died at the hospital, Gregg said.
Best said investigators “found a white Jeep Cherokee riddled with bullet holes on 12th Avenue between Pike and Pine,” KOMO reported.
She explained the crime scene had been tampered with by the time law enforcement arrived and that police investigations into the shootings in the Capitol Hill area, which normally would involve interviews with witnesses, have been hindered as “people are not being cooperative with our requests for help.”
“Our homicide detectives searched the Jeep for evidence but there wasn’t much we could find,” Best said. “The typical things we search for in a shooting like this weren’t there and it’s abundantly clear to our detectives that people had been in and out of the car after the shooting.”
Officers investigating a shooting near 12 Ave/Pike Street. Reports of two people injured. More information when available.
— Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) June 29, 2020
The corner of 12 Avenue and Pike Street is about two blocks away from Cal Anderson Park, where protesters initially camped out in tents to occupy the area first referred to as the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, or CHAZ. The encampment has become more difficult to manage, drawing violence and a large homeless population since the onset of the occupation three weeks ago.
Organizers on Sunday said they’re seeking to move into the abandoned East Precinct, where most protest leadership have already taken up shelter, as part of an effort to secure their best bargaining chip in convincing city officials to act on police reform and other demands, the Seattle Times reported.
City efforts to dismantle the CHOP were thwarted Friday when protesters laid down in the street to block Seattle Department of Transportation crews and heavy machinery from removing barricades around the occupied zone. Crews left after two hours without removing the barricades.
Negotiations between city leadership and organizers over the weekend did not prove fruitful, as hundreds of protesters have reportedly refused to leave the Capitol Hill area.
Anderson’s death came as a result of the first shooting on June 20 that rung out around 2:30 a.m. near Cal Anderson Park on 10th Avenue and East Pine Street inside the CHOP. Another man was wounded in the incident.
“Officers attempted to locate a shooting victim but were met by a violent crowd that prevented officers’ safe access to the victims,” Seattle Police Department said in a press release at the time.
“Officers were later informed that the victims, both males, had been transported to Harborview Medical Center by CHOP ‘medics,’” it continued. “Officers responded to Harborview and were informed that one of the victims, a 19-year-old male, had died from injuries.”
Anderson’s death prompted Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan to announce last week the city would begin efforts to dismantle CHOP, asking organizers to convince protesters to disperse to avoid police intervention.
A 17-year-old was shot in the arm around 10 p.m. on June 21 near Cal Anderson Park.
“To ensure the safety of medical personnel, police staged with Seattle Fire at the edge of the CHOP area and were gathering information about where the shooting victim was located when they learned he had been transported in a private vehicle to Harborview Medical Center,” a police press release said.
He has since been released from the hospital and declined to speak with detectives.
A man in his 30s was shot early June 23. Police received multiple 911 calls around 4:30 a.m. to report someone had been shot in the 1100 block of East Denny Way.
“Officers and Seattle Fire Department medics staged nearby and met the victim outside the area known as the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP),” a police press release said.
“The victim refused to provide any information about the circumstances surrounding the shooting or a suspect description to officers. Medics transported the victim to Harborview Medical Center for treatment of a gunshot wound to the calf.”
Author: Danielle Wallace
Source: Fox News: Latest Seattle CHOP shooting kills 16-year-old boy, critically wounds 14-year-old boy
Environmentally Unsafe Materials Used For Large Mural Of Teenage Climate Change Activist
Democrats Call To Continue Trump-Russia Probe Without Mueller
Democrats Have Finally Lost It
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Ezequiel Barco Source: MLS 2020 NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL SCHEDULE • Nov.
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Will my points be refunded if I do not win?
And the Bucks had to cut Ersan Ilyasova today because his contract became fully guaranteed if they didn’t cut him today.
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Later in practice, Watt lined up wide and did the same thing.
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Daily Archives: February 13th, 2015
NBA’s prolific scorers: Who passed?
By Jerry Tapp on February 13, 2015 | Leave a comment
Antawn Jamison
Back in December, Antawn Jamison of the Los Angeles Clippers scored his 20,000th point in the NBA, becoming the 40th player to do so in league history.
Jamison, a two-time All-Star, has fashioned a nice 16-year career in the NBA playing for six different teams. He has averaged 15 points per game in 12 of his 16 seasons.
One thing you notice about Jamison’s career, however, is that his assist totals are not as significant as his point totals. In fact, Jamison’s career assists per-game average is 1.6 per game. Of the 40 players who have scored 20,000 or more career points in the NBA, Jamison ranks 38th in that category. Only Moses Malone and Robert Parrish have a lower career assists per-game average of those 40 players.
At the other end of the list is Oscar Robertson. The “Big O” averaged 9.5 assists per game in his career while scoring 27,610 points in a 14-year career.
Following is a look at the 40 players who have scored 20,000 or more career points in an NBA career and their career assists per-game average.
Oscar Robertson 9.5
LeBron James 6.9; Gary Payton 6.7; Jerry West 6.7; Larry Bird 6.3; Allen Iverson 6.2
Clyde Drexler 5.6; Michael Jordan 5.3
Kobe Bryant 4.8; John Havlicek 4.8; Wilt Chamberlain 4.4; Elgin Baylor 4.3; Hal Greer 4.0
Charles Barkley 3.9; Kevin Garnett 3.8; Paul Pierce 3.7; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 3.6; Vince Carter 3.6; Alex English 3.6; Karl Malone 3.6; Mitch Richmond 3.5; Ray Allen 3.4; Carmelo Anthony 3.1; Tim Duncan 3.1; Adrian Dantley 3.0; Reggie Miller 3.0; Bob Pettit 3.0
George Gervin 2.6; Dirk Nowitzki 2.6; Hakeem Olajuwon 2.5; Shaquille O’Neal 2.5; David Robinson 2.5; Dominique Wilkins 2.5; Walt Bellamy 2.4; Tom Chambers 2.1
Patrick Ewing 1.9; Elvin Hayes 1.8; Antawn Jamison 1.6; Robert Parrish 1.4; Moses Malone 1.3
Follow Jerry on Twitter @StatsonTapp
Posted in: Basketball | Tagged: Antawn Jamison, Moses Malone, NBA
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A spirited deal for drinks firms
Ian Macleod Distillers plans further growth after acquisition
By Dave Hunter
• Spencerfield founder Alex Nicol (left) with Ian Macleod boss Leonard Russell
THE acquisition of The Spencerfield Spirit Company by Ian Macleod Distillers earlier this month likely wasn’t a big surprise to many in the Scottish licensed trade.
The firms have worked closely together for the better part of six years, with Ian Macleod acting first as the bottler for Spencerfield’s Edinburgh Gin brand and, later, as both bottler and UK distributor of the company’s entire portfolio, which also includes whisky brands Pig’s Nose and Sheep Dip.
The acquisition, for an undisclosed sum, sees Ian Macleod take over all three brands, as well as the entire Spencerfield team. Spencerfield founders Alex and Jane Nicol will work with the new owners during a handover period.
Speaking to SLTN, Neil Boyd, commercial director at Ian Macleod Distillers, said the company has plans to expand the Spencerfield brands across Scotland, the UK and overseas.
Edinburgh Gin, in particular, has a lot of potential for growth in the Scottish on-trade, said Boyd.
He stated that, despite the “avalanche of gins” launched in recent years, “it is early days for the boutique gins in Scotland”.
• Commercial director Neil Boyd.
“I think standard gin is everywhere,” said Boyd.
“But the boutique gins are increasingly coming into the on-trade and going on the back-bar. You’ll see lots of bars across Scotland stocking a wider range of these premium/boutique gins than ever before.”
Education, said Boyd, will be key to growing Edinburgh Gin’s presence in the trade, whether it’s in the form of distillery tours for bar staff, tastings or masterclasses.
“I think the whole premium gin category is growing on the back of consumer interest in botanicals and flavours, etc.” he said.
“So a lot of our activity is around explaining more about how you make these products and how you create the flavours. That’s the real driving force.”
The on-trade will also be important for the growth of Edinburgh Gin’s liqueurs range, as well as for both Spencerfield whisky brands.
“You might have thought, initially, that the liqueur range was an off-trade range, but that’s not the case anymore,” said Boyd.
“We’ve got a lot of interest from bartenders, who are creating gin cocktails and then using the liqueurs to create specific cocktails.
“As long as that interest in cocktails is there, the Edinburgh Gin portfolio is well positioned to make the most of that.”
Similarly, high-end bars will be the target market for Spencerfield whiskies Sheep Dip and Pig’s Nose. Boyd said the brands will likely be targeted at venues with a focus on spirits and cocktails.
“There are a number of bars that will always stock the classic whisky brands that we all know,” said Boyd.
“That’s perhaps not the target. The target is more hipster, unique bars where there’s going to be a good cocktail list, where there’s going to be a large range of boutique gins, and where there’s going to be a more interesting range of spirits.
“That’s where we’re likely to find traction for the likes of Sheep Dip and Pig’s Nose.”
The acquisition has added several new strings to Ian Macleod’s bow, but Boyd maintained that the firm still has plenty room to grow.
“We’re a relatively small player compared to the big guys out there, so there’s a lot to chase – there’s a lot of opportunity out there for us,” he said.
Ian Macleod Distillers
The Spencerfield Spirit Company
Supreme Court ruling could lead to COVID insurance payouts
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Home Football News NFL Week 5: How to watch, stream Buffalo Bills vs. Tennessee Titans...
NFL Week 5: How to watch, stream Buffalo Bills vs. Tennessee Titans on CBS and CBS All Access
Whenever the Buffalo Bills travel to Nashville, it’s hard not to think about the Music City Miracle. These two teams still have a long way to go before they get back to the playoffs, however.
The Bills just lost their first game of the season last Sunday to the New England Patriots, but they may have lost more than just a divisional matchup. Quarterback Josh Allen went down with a concussion after taking a hard hit during a run, and his status for Sunday is up in the air. Matt Barkley will be the starting signal caller if he can’t go.
The Titans registered what could be a statement win last Sunday in Atlanta, but there are still several questions when it comes to this team. After a blowout win in the season opener against the Cleveland Browns, the Titans lost two straight divisional matchups to two backup quarterbacks. You never know what kind of Titans team is going to take the field on Sunday, which makes every game they play in seemingly unpredictable.
The Bills took down the Titans 13-12 in Buffalo last season in Week 5. Marcus Mariota and Allen combined for just 211 passing yards and two interceptions in a matchup dominated by field goals. This rematch could be another defensive matchup. We’ll get to our predictions shortly, but here’s how and when you can watch or stream the game:
Date: Sunday, Oct. 6, 2019 | Time: 1 p.m. ET
Location: Nissan Stadium (Nashville)
TV: CBS | Stream: CBS All Access
Follow: CBS Sports App
It took four weeks, but Mariota finally threw a touchdown to a wide receiver — actually three touchdowns to be exact. Rookie phenom A.J. Brown accounted for two while Corey Davis caught the other. Mariota threw for just 129 yards the last time he faced the Bills, and he’s going to have to put up a better performance if the Titans want to move to 3-2. Brown only has 10 receptions on the season, but has 223 yards and two touchdowns. He had another big game last Sunday, turning three catches into 94 yards and two touchdowns. Good things seem to happen when he touches the ball. If the Titans struggle to move the chains against the Bills, Mariota should look to get the ball into the hands of his rookie playmaker.
For the Bills, it comes down to their defense. They held Tom Brady to 150 yards, zero touchdowns and an interception last week, and lost by just six points despite turning the ball over four times and playing with a backup quarterback. There’s a reason the Bills have a winning record, and it’s because they know how to keep competitive no matter if they are plagued by turnovers or an anemic offense.
SportsLine currently lists the Titans as a three-point favorite. It’s worth wondering what this spread would be if Allen had not suffered a concussion the previous week. Tennessee is returning home after a two-game road trip, and looking to record its first win in Nissan Stadium since last year. The win against the Falcons last week may have been enough to get the Titans back on track. That paired with Allen being less than 100% is enough for me to pick the Titans in this one.
The pick: Titans 24-17 over Bills
Check out CBSSports.com for even more predictions, including from Pete Prisco and Will Brinson.
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Sober Recovery https://www.soberrecovery.com/images/og-image.gif
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Study: Half of Adults Who Consume Alcohol Drink Way Too Much
By Audrey Beim
Updated on Jun 20 2019
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Alcoholism is a serious concern in our society today. Not only does the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report an estimated 88,000 preventable alcohol-related deaths annually, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) also states that more than 15 million adults and 620,000 adolescents already have alcohol use disorder (AUD), characterized by an "impaired ability to stop or control alcohol use despite adverse social, occupational, or health consequences."
Drinking Too Much: Uncovering Disturbing New Data
A study involved 34,000 adults throughout the United States with the objective of studying transitions to and from at-risk alcohol use. Researchers collected data from the participants at two different intervals to monitor alcohol consumption levels.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism states that more than 15 million adults and 620,000 adolescents already have alcohol use disorder (AUD).
Southeast Addiction Center
Garden Estates
Lake Ariel Recovery Center
Research has found that about 40 percent of U.S. adults consume enough alcohol to cause negative health consequences. The results include the following:
73 percent of those drinking risky amounts were still doing so 2-4 years later
15 percent of those not drinking risky amounts during the first survey interval, began to drink in excess by the second survey interval
"At-risk use" was defined as follows:
for men, more than 14 drinks per week on average or more than four per occasion
for women, "at-risk use" was categorized at seven drinks per week or more than three per occasion
The distinction between occasional drinking and drinking too much was based on the widely accepted diagnostic tool, Alcohol Use Disorder and Associated Disabilities Interview Schedule IV.
Predictors of At-Risk Alcohol Use
In general, there are a variety of reasons some individuals become addicted to alcohol. Peer pressure, genetics, low self-esteem, depression and other mental issues may lead to a greater risk for alcohol use disorder.
In this specific study, the process of transitioning to at-risk alcohol behavior was found to be associated with specific indicators. The strongest predictor of becoming an at-risk alcohol user was being of younger age, particularly among participants who were under the drinking age at the time of the first survey.
Other indicators included:
being male
identifying as White/Caucasian
not being married
becoming divorced or separated
being in the military
regular drug use
What Alcohol Does to Your Body
The results of this latest investigation suggest that many who drink at high risk levels experience significant health issues and, without intervention, are likely to continue to do so. This behavior will have long-term implications on their quality of life unless there is an intervention.
Alcohol affects every organ in the body, and the consequences from abuse take a serious toll on health. Some of the most critical health issues caused by at-risk drinking include:
Brain: Alcohol interferes with the brain’s function and communication pathways. These disruptions can lead to memory lapses, slurred speech, difficulty walking, mood changes and slowed reaction time.
Heart: Drinking in excess over a long period of time or consuming too much on a single occasion can lead to cardiovascular damage including stroke and high blood pressure.
Liver: One of the most commonly known effects of alcoholism are liver issues including cirrhosis, fatty liver and even alcoholic hepatitis.
Pancreas: Alcohol causes the pancreas to produce toxic substances that can eventually lead to pancreatitis, a dangerous inflammation and swelling of the blood vessels in the pancreas.
Cancer: Chronic alcohol consumption has been linked to an increased risk of certain cancers.
Too often, however, these dangerous health consequences are not enough to dissuade a person from excessive drinking. Alcoholism, or alcohol dependence, is a disease that involves both physical and psychological addiction.
Individual paths to recovery differ. Therefore, treatments and services of at-risk alcohol disorders should be tailored to fit individual needs. Treatment programs that include counseling sessions, relapse prevention coaching, family assistance and group support can help with rehabilitation and recovery. Unfortunately, relapse rates for alcohol use are estimated to be 40-60 percent. Aftercare and lifelong support are necessary for recovering alcoholics to maintain a sober lifestyle.
The results of this latest research revealed methods for prevention such as screening and intervention, especially for those at high risk. In addition, investigators believe that public health and clinical messages need repeating, particularly for young adults. This latest study indicates specific demographics where mediation can be most effective.
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, you can visit our directory of rehab centers or call 800-772-8219 to speak with a treatment professional.
More in Signs of Addiction
Behavioral Signs You or a Loved One May Have an Addiction
STUDY: Alcoholics and Social Media Addicts Have Similar Personality Traits
Inside the Mind of a Porn Addict
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Stem Cell Research & Therapy
Ascorbic acid can promote the generation and expansion of neuroepithelial-like stem cells derived from hiPS/ES cells under chemically defined conditions through promoting collagen synthesis
Rui Bai1,2 na1,
Yun Chang1,2 na1,
Amina Saleem1,
Fujian Wu1,2,
Lei Tian3,
Siyao Zhang1,2,
Ya’nan Li1,2,
Shuhong Ma1,2,
Tao Dong1,2,
Tianwei Guo1,2,
Youxu Jiang1,2,
Yi You4,5,
Wen-Jing Lu1,2,
Hong Feng Jiang1,2,6 &
Feng Lan ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9038-40141,2,7,8
Stem Cell Research & Therapy volume 12, Article number: 48 (2021) Cite this article
Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a neurological, medically incurable disorder. Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) have the potential to generate neural stem/progenitor cells (NS/PCs), which hold promise in the treatment of SCI by transplantation. In our study, we aimed to establish a chemically defined culture system using serum-free medium and ascorbic acid (AA) to generate and expand long-term self-renewing neuroepithelial-like stem cells (lt-NES cells) differentiated from hPSCs effectively and stably.
We induced human embryonic stem cells (hESCs)/induced PSCs (iPSCs) to neurospheres using a newly established in vitro induction system. Moreover, lt-NES cells were derived from hESC/iPSC-neurospheres using two induction systems, i.e., conventional N2 medium with gelatin-coated plates (coated) and N2+AA medium without pre-coated plates (AA), and were characterized by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis and immunocytochemistry staining. Subsequently, lt-NES cells were induced to neurons. A microelectrode array (MEA) recording system was used to evaluate the functionality of the neurons differentiated from lt-NES cells. Finally, the mechanism underlying the induction of lt-NES cells by AA was explored through RNA-seq and the use of inhibitors.
HESCs/iPSCs were efficiently induced to neurospheres using a newly established induction system in vitro. lt-NES cells derived from hESC/iPSC-neurospheres using the two induction systems (coated vs. AA) both expressed the neural pluripotency-associated genes PAX6, NESTIN, SOX1, and SOX2. After long-term cultivation, we found that they both exhibited long-term expansion for more than a dozen generations while maintaining neuropluripotency. Moreover, the lt-NES cells retained the ability to differentiate into general functional neurons that express β-tubulin at high levels. We also demonstrated that AA promotes the generation and long-term expansion of lt-NES cells by promoting collagen synthesis via the MEK-ERK1/2 pathway.
This new chemically defined culture system was stable and effective regarding the generation and culture of lt-NES cells induced from hESCs/iPSCs using serum-free medium combined with AA. The lt-NES cells induced under this culture system maintained their long-term expansion and neural pluripotency, with the potential to differentiate into functional neurons.
Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a destructive neurodegenerative disorder with life-long consequences that often leads to irreversible changes because of the loss of neurons and glial cells [1, 2]. However, the quality of life of patients with SCI has been improved by the findings of past research; nevertheless, no effective therapy is currently available. In recent years, many experimental animal models have been generated to simulate human SCI, and the transplantation of neural stem/progenitor cells (NS/PCs) has been shown to be an effective treatment to cure neurological disorders and repair damaged brain tissue because of their ability to differentiate into neurons and glial cells and their competence to secrete neurotrophic factors [3, 4].
In the SCI research field, NS/PCs derived from mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) [5] and rat embryonic spinal cord [3] have been transplanted into the injured spinal cord of mice and rats, thus promoting functional recovery in animal models of SCI. Moreover, NS/PCs derived from the human fetal brain [6, 7] have been transplanted into injured spinal cord models in mice or nonhuman primates [6, 8], thus greatly promoting the development of stem-cell-based transplantation therapy for human patients. However, the collection of NS/PCs from the brains of aborted fetuses or surplus embryos is not allowed for clinical applications in Japan. This fact has been a major hindrance to the clinical use of human NS/PCs [9].
In this context, human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) [10, 11] and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which were established by Yamanaka et al. [12, 13], have the ability to differentiate into NS/PCs, thus representing a rich source of neurons and glial cells [14]. Therefore, they provide a new approach for studying human neurodevelopment, for simulating neurological disease and for regenerative medicine. Moreover, iPSCs reprogrammed from somatic cells provide the new prospect of generating patient-specific cells for disease modeling and regenerative medicine [12]. The proliferation and differentiation abilities of iPSCs are almost equal to those of ESCs, and the use of iPSCs could circumvent the ethical issues and rejection in NS/PC transplantation related to the use of embryos and aborted tissues.
Neurospheres are a well-known culture system for NS/PC extension [15]. The neurosphere-induction protocols available currently for human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) depend on the formation of an embryoid body [16,17,18]; however, this method has many considerable disadvantages, such as unclear culture conditions, prolonged differentiation, and low differentiation efficiency. In addition to these methods, human long-term self-renewing neuroepithelial-like stem (lt-NES) cells [18] have reached the standard definition of NS/PCs, thus providing a more homogeneous and robust cell generation via monolayer adherent cultures [19]. Furthermore, all lt-NES cells derived from different hESCs/hiPSCs exhibit characteristics such as continuous expandability, stable neuronal and glial differentiation competence, and the capacity to generate functionally mature human neurons [14, 20, 21]. However, these lt-NES cell-culture systems require plates coated with adhesive materials, thus not being chemically clear culture systems. Therefore, the development of a culture system of lt-NES cells under chemically defined conditions is crucial.
Here, we describe for the first time a serum-free culture system to generate lt-NES cells from different hPSCs under chemically defined conditions without the need for pre-coating and avoiding the preparation of basement membranes, such as Matrigel matrix-coated, poly-l-lysine/laminin-coated, or inactivated MEF-feeder-coated plates [22, 23], with unclear chemical composition, which limit the clinical applications of NS/PCs. In this system, we applied ascorbic acid (AA), which promotes collagen synthesis through the MEK-ERK1/2 pathway [24], to induce the generation and long-term expansion of lt-NES cells. This method is expected to facilitate the clinical application of NS/PCs derived from hPSCs for the regenerative-medicine-based therapy of neurological disorders and injuries, such as SCI [25].
Human PSC culture
Human PSCs including hESCs-H9 (H9, provided by WiCell Institute Inc., Madison, WI, USA) and urine-derived iPSCs (UiPSCs, provided by Cellapy: CA1002008, Beijing, China) were cultured in PSCeasy medium (Cellapy, China) on six-well plates (Corning, US) coated with a 1:500 dilution of hESC-matrigel (5 μg/cm2, Corning). Medium was changed every day. PSCs were passaged every 3–4 days at 70–80% confluence with 0.5 mM EDTA (Cellapy). All cells were maintained at 37 °C, 5% CO2 in incubator (Thermo Fisher Scientific, USA).
Neurosphere differentiation of PSCs
The protocol of neurosphere differentiation was shown in Fig. 1A. When hPSCs were grown for 4 days on human recombinant laminin fragment iMatrix-511 (Nippi, Japan)-coated (0.5 μg/cm2) 6-well plate, at which time they reached 100% confluence, namely at day 0 of induction of differentiation, cells were washed with PBS (Hyclone, USA), and then added the 2 ml NeuroEasy Human Neural Stem Cell Induction Culture medium (Cellapy, DMEM/F12 containing 500 μg/mL recombinant human albumin (A0237, Sigma-Aldrich)+2 μM Chir99021(Selleck, China)) per well, and change the medium every 2 days until the cells exhibited a rosette morphology (5–6 days). And then, cells were dissociated with Accutase (Innovative Cell Technologies, USA) at 37 °C for 10 min and resuspended by NeuroEasy Human Neural Stem Cell Culture medium (Cellapy, DMEM/F12 containing 2% NeuroEasy Human Neural Stem Cell supplement (xeno-free version of B27, Cellapy), supplemented with 20 ng/ml FGF2, 25 ng/ml EGF, and 25 ng/ml heparin) on low cell-adhesion plates. A ROCK inhibitor, Y27632 (Selleck, China) at a concentration of 10 μM, was used only at the time of plating. Next day, cell aggregated to form neurospheres, and the medium was changed to neural stem cell culture medium without Y27632. Neurospheres were passaged every 3–4 days when they grow to 200 μm in size with Accutase. Medium was changed every 2–3 days. All cells were maintained at 37 °C, 5% CO2 in incubator.
Generation of neurosphere from hiPS/ESCs. a The protocol for deriving neurospheres from H9 and UiPS. b The morphology and Immunostaining of H9 and UiPS at days − 1 (a, b, f, g), day 5 (c, h), and day 7 (d, e, i, j) during neural induction. Immunostaining showing emergence of SSEA4+ (green), OCT4+ (red) H9 and UiPS (b, g), and SOX2+ (red), NESTIN+ (green) neurospheres induced from H9 and UiPS at day 7 (e, j). Scale bars = 100 μm. Nuclei were counterstained with DAPI (blue). c Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of the expression level of neural progenitor markers SOX1, PAX6, NESTIN, and SOX2 and pluripotency markers NANOG and OCT4 of H9 and H9-neurospheres. d Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of the expression level of neural progenitor markers SOX1, PAX6, NESTIN, and SOX2 and pluripotency markers NANOG and OCT4 of UiPS and UiPS-neurospheres. n = 3 each. Data are expressed as means ± SD.*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 vs. control
lt-NES cell differentiation of neurosphere
When the neurospheres grow to 200 μm in size, we perform PBS washing and dissociated neurospheres with Accutase at 37 °C for 10 min and resuspended by lt-NES cells culture medium (DMEM/F12 containing 2% N2 (xeno-free version, Cellapy), supplemented with 20 ng/ml FGF2, 25 ng/ml EGF and 25 ng/ml heparin) on gelatin-coated plate. When we identified the effect of AA in the generation and expansion of lt-NES, uncoated-plates were used and 50 μg/ml L-ascorbic acid-2-phosphate (Selleck) was added to the lt-NES cells culture medium during resuspension, long-term culture, and other experimental procedures.
Cell viability and proliferation assays
Cell viability and proliferation was measured by the Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay (Dojindo, Japan). The lt-NES cells under different condition were plated in 96-well plates (3000 cells/well), and cell viability was detected after 12 h according to the manufacturer’s protocol. Cell proliferation was detected every 24 h. At every point in time, 10 μl of CCK-8 reagent was added to each well, and the plate was incubated for 2 h at 37 °C. And then, each sample was measured absorbance at 450 nm using an automatic microplate reader (BioTek Synergn 4, USA). All experiments had three technical replicates each.
Differentiation of lt-NES cells into generic neurons and glia
lt-NES cells were dissociated by for 10 min and plated on human recombinant laminin fragment iMatrix-511-coated 12-well plate with glass slides at a low density of 2 × 104 cells/cm2 in neuron maintenance medium (DMEM/F12 containing 2% NeuroEasy Human Neural Stem Cell supplement (xeno-free version of B27, Cellapy)), and half of the medium was changed every 2 or 3 days.
RNA extraction and quantitative real-time PCR
Cells were lysed and harvested using TRIzol™ Reagent (Invitrogen, USA) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. RNA samples were treated with DNase I (RNase free) (Beyotime, China), RNA was quantified with NANO drop 2000 (Thermo Fisher Scientific), and 1 μg RNA was reverse transcribed into cDNA using the PrimeScript™ RT Master Mix reverse transcription System (TaKaRa, Japan). The levels of relative gene expression were analyzed by quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR (qRT-PCR) with TB Green™ Premix Ex Taq™ II (TaKaRa) using the iCycler iQ5 (Bio-Rad, USA). The housekeeping gene GAPDH was used for internal normalization and the relative quantification of gene expression was calculated according to the △CT method. The qRT-PCR primers are listed in Supplementary Table S1.
RNA-seq processing and biological information analysis
Clustering and sequencing were executed by Novogene Corporation (Tianjing, China). The clustering of the index-coded samples was performed on a cBot Cluster Generation System using TruSeq PE Cluster Kit v3-cBot-HS (Illumia). After cluster generation, the library preparations were sequenced on an Illumina Hiseq platform. Raw data (raw reads) of fastq format were processed through in-house perl scripts. All the downstream analyses were based on the clean data with high quality. Differential expression analysis was performed using the DESeq2 R package (1.16.1). The resulting P values were adjusted using the Benjamini and Hochberg’s approach for controlling the false discovery rate. Genes with an adjusted P value < 0.05 found by DESeq2 were assigned as differentially expressed. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis of differentially expressed genes was implemented by the clusterProfiler R package, in which gene length bias was corrected. GO terms with corrected P value less than 0.05 were considered significantly enriched by differential expressed genes. KEGG is a database resource for understanding high-level functions and utilities of the biological system from molecular-level information. We used clusterProfiler R package to test the statistical enrichment of differential expression genes in KEGG pathways.
Cells were fixed with 4% PFA (Solarbio, China) for 10–15 min at room temperature, permeabilized with 0.3% Triton X-100 (Sigma) for 10–15 min at room temperature, blocked with 3% bovine serum albumin (Solarbio) for 45–60 min at room temperature, and then incubated with primary antibodies against OCT4 (1:100; Santa Cruz Biotechnology), SSEA4 (1:100; Santa Cruz Biotechnology), SOX2 (1:100; Santa Cruz Biotechnology), NESTIN (1:100; Sigma), β3-tubulin (1:100; Abcam), and GFAP (1:100; Abcam) overnight at 4 °C. And then cells were incubated with secondary antibodies: Goat anti-Rabbit IgG Alexa Fluor 488 (1:200; Invitrogen) and Goat anti-Mouse IgG Alexa Fluor 594 (1:200; Invitrogen) for 1 h at 37 °C. Wash with PBS three times before each step. Nuclei were stained with DAPI (300 nM, Invitrogen) for 15 min at room temperature. Fluorescence images were captured by Leica DMI 4000B fluorescence microscope and Leica TCS SP5 MP confocal laser scanning microscope (Leica, Germany).
Cells were lysed using tissue protein extraction reagent (Thermo, USA) containing phosphatase inhibitor cocktail (1:100, Thermo), protease inhibitor cocktail (1:100, Thermo), and 5 mM EDTA (Thermo); lysates were oscillated and centrifuged (13,000×g, 15 min, 4 °C). The supernatant was collected and stored at − 80 °C. The protein concentrations were determined using the BCA protein assay kit (Thermo). The protein was mixed with 5X SDS-PAGE protein loading buffer (Beyotime, China) and denatured by 100 °C water bath. Then, the samples denatured were electrophoresed in 10% SDS-PAGE and transferred to PVDF membranes using transfer device (Bio-Rad). The membranes were blocked with 5% non-fat milk prepared in TBST for 1 h at 37 °C and then incubated at 4 °C overnight with the primary antibodies: ERK1/2 (1:1000, Cell Signaling Technology, p44/42 MAPK Rabbit mAb, 4695), p-ERK1/2 (1:1000, Cell Signaling Technology, Phospho-p44/42 MAPK (Erk1/2) XP®, Rabbit mAb, 4370), and the internal normalization mouse anti-GAPDH (1:1000, Santa Cruz Biotechnology). Next, the membranes were washed in TBST, incubated with secondary antibody: Goat anti-Rabbit IgG (H + L) IRDye 800CW or Goat anti-Rabbit IgG (H + L) IRDye 800CW (1:20,000; LI-COR) for 1 h at 37 °C. The images were observed with a UVA Bio Imaging System and analyzed with ImageJ software.
Data analysis and statistics
All data are analyzed by means ± standard errors of the means (S.E.M.). Statistical significance was evaluated using two-sided t test for two groups and using one-way ANOVA test for statistical differences of multiple groups. Significant differences were considered when *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01.
Generation of neurospheres from hESCs/iPSCs
To evaluate the applicability of our approach, studies were performed in parallel in two cell lines, i.e., hESC-H9 and hiPSCs, produced from urine cells [26] via standard Sendai Reprogramming. Urine-iPSCs (UiPSs) were morphologically identical to hESC-H9 and expressed representative pluripotent markers, including SSEA4 and OCT4 (Fig. 1B (a, b, f, g)).
Neurospheres for culturing NS/PCs in vitro have been reported and are widely used [16]. The protocol used for neurosphere induction from hESC/hiPSCs is shown in Fig. 1A. HESC/hiPSCs can be efficiently differentiated to neurospheres with rosette formation using the neural stem cell induction medium, and rosette dissociation can be achieved using the neural stem cell medium. In the process of differentiation, the morphology of the transition from the hPSC to the neurosphere phenotype is shown in Fig. 1B. Significant changes in cell morphology accompanied cell proliferation. At the hPSC stage, cells had expanded and displayed a round, colony morphology (Fig. 1B (a, b, f, g)). On day 5 of neural induction, cells exhibited a rosette morphology (Fig. 1B (c, h)). On day 6, cells were digested and resuspended to form neurospheres (Fig. 1B (d, i)). By starting with pluripotent stem cells at 100% confluence, it is possible to obtain 20–40-fold increases in the number of NS/PCs obtained within 6 days; thus, it is possible to generate a quantity of NSCs that is sufficient to meet the needs of clinical applications.
The relative gene-expression analysis shown in Fig. 1C confirmed the identity of the neurospheres at day 7 through the progressive loss of hPSC pluripotency markers, such as NANOG and OCT4, and a significant increase in the expression of the neural progenitor markers SOX1, PAX6, NESTIN, and SOX2, which define early neural fate. At day 7 of neural induction, neurospheres were plated for immunostaining with pluripotent NS/PC markers; most of the cells were positive for the NS/PC markers SOX2 and NESTIN (Fig. 1B (e, j)). Neurosphere generation and gene expression were evaluated using two cell lines, H9 and UiPS, with no significant differences observed between them (Fig. 1C, D).
These results suggest that neurospheres derived from hESCs/hiPSCs using neural induction medium possess the NS/PC phenotype.
AA promoted the generation of lt-NES cells from neurospheres under chemically defined conditions
Although neurospheres exhibit a heterogeneous character and tent to reproduce the neural development process, monolayer adherent cultures provide a more robust and homogeneous cell-generation system [19].
We have applied many protocols to obtain lt-NES cells (Figure S1) and found that AA can promote the stable attachment of lt-NES cells. To evaluate the efficiency of using AA to induce lt-NES cells, we subsequently performed paralleled derivation of lt-NES cells from H9/UiPS-neurospheres using conventional N2 medium with gelatin-coated plates and N2+AA medium without gelatin-coated plates. The lt-NES cell-derivation protocol from neurospheres is shown in Fig. 2A. Neurospheres were dissociated into single cells and plated onto gelatin-coated/uncoated plates containing the N2 medium with FGF2 and epidermal growth factor (EGF) (referred to as coated/uncoated hereafter) or onto uncoated plates containing the N2+AA medium with FGF2 and EGF (referred to as AA hereafter). The morphologies of the lt-NES cells derived from H9/UiPS-neurospheres in N2 medium (coated) and N2+AA medium (AA) were comparable with each other (Fig. 2B (a, c vs. d, f)), with few lt-NES cells detected in uncoated plates (Fig. 2B (b, e)). The viability of lt-NES cells in the different culture conditions was evaluated by a CCK-8 assay (Fig. 2C), which revealed no differences in the cell viability of the lt-NES cells in coated and AA conditions at 12 after plating. Growth kinetics showed no significant differences in the proliferation of the lt-NES cells in the coated and AA conditions (Fig. 2D), which suggests that lt-NES cells expanded in the N2+AA medium (AA) into a large number of cells, with an expansion of almost three-fold observed upon each passage (lt-NES cells were passaged twice a week on average).
lt-NES cells can be generated from H9/UiPS-neurospheres under a chemically defined culture system using N2+AA medium. a The lt-NES cells derivation protocol from neurospheres. b The morphologies of the lt-NES cells in N2 medium (coated/uncoated) and N2+AA (AA). Scale bars = 100 μm. c The viability of P0 lt-NES cells was assessed by a CCK-8 assay after plated for 12 h. d Expansion capacity of lt-NES cells investigated by continuous culture in N2 medium (coated/uncoated) and N2+AA (AA) in 8 days. n = 3 each
All cells cultured using the two methods expressed the NS/PC markers SOX1, PAX6, NESTIN, and SOX2 (Fig. 3A, B) and exhibited low expression of the hPSC pluripotency markers NANOG and OCT4 in passage one. Of note, N2+AA (AA) cultured cells exhibited higher expression levels of NS/PC markers than did N2 cultured (coated) cells, which indicates that AA can promote the neural pluripotency of lt-NES cells. The immunocytochemical analysis indicated the absence of significant differences in the percentage of NS/PC marker-positive cells (Fig. 3C–E); however, there were slightly more SOX2-positive cells in the N2+AA culture, indicating that N2+AA is the optimal culture condition.
N2+AA medium can maintain the neural pluripotency of lt-NES cells. a Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of the expression level of NSC markers SOX1, PAX6, NESTIN, and SOX2 and pluripotency markers NANOG and OCT4 of P0 H9 neurosphere-derived lt-NES cells. b Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of the expression level of NSC markers SOX1, PAX6, NESTIN, and SOX2 and pluripotency markers NANOG and OCT4 of P0 UiPS neurosphere-derived lt-NES cells. n = 3 each. Data are expressed as means ± SD.*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 vs. control. c Immunofluorescence for NSC markers SOX2 (red) and NESTIN (green) of P0 H9 & UiPS neurosphere-derived lt-NES cells. Scale bars = 100 μm. Nuclei were counterstained with DAPI (blue). d Quantification of SOX2- and NESTIN-positive cells of immunofluorescence of P0 H9 neurosphere-derived lt-NES cells. P, passage. e Quantification of SOX2- and NESTIN-positive cells of immunofluorescence of P0 UiPS neurosphere-derived lt-NES cells
These data suggest that N2+AA medium in plates without gelatin coating is suitable for the induction and growth of lt-NES cells.
AA can maintain the long-term expansion and neural pluripotency of lt-NES cells
To verify whether the N2+AA culture system supports excellent proliferation and preserves the neural pluripotency of lt-NES cells, we cultured the cells in N2 (coated) and N2+AA (AA) conditions to 15 generations and identified the capacity of proliferation and the potential of neural differentiation by qPCR and immunocytochemistry. First, we counted the number of cells in each generation to calculate the cumulative population doubling and describe the expansion capacity of lt-NES cells in long-term culture. As shown in Figure S2, lt-NES cells grown in both coated and AA conditions could be cultured for 15 generations and exhibited vigorous growth, with similar growth rates. Next, the relative gene-expression analysis by qPCR shown in Fig. 4A, B showed that cells cultured in N2 (coated) or N2+AA (AA) medium to passage 5 and passage 10 expressed the NSC markers SOX1, PAX6, NESTIN, and SOX2 and had almost no expression of the pluripotency markers NANOG and OCT4. Moreover, analyses of expanded lt-NES cells by immunofluorescence staining showed consistent expression of NSC markers, including SOX2 (> 75%) and NESTIN (> 95%) at passage 5 and passage 10 (Fig. 4C, D). Furthermore, the N2+AA medium was able to maintain a normal karyotype over 15 passages (Fig. 4E).
lt-NES cells can maintain long-term expansion and neural pluripotency using N2+AA medium. a Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of the expression level of NSC markers SOX1, PAX6, NESTIN, and SOX2 and pluripotency markers NANOG and OCT4 of P5 H9 neurosphere-derived lt-NES cells. b Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of the expression level of NSC markers SOX1, PAX6, NESTIN, and SOX2 and pluripotency markers NANOG and OCT4 of P10 H9 neurosphere-derived lt-NES cells. n = 3 each. Data are expressed as means ± SD.*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 vs. control. c Immunofluorescence for NSC markers SOX2 (red) and NESTIN (green) of P5&P10 H9 neurosphere-derived lt-NES cells. Scale bars = 100 μm. Nuclei were counterstained with DAPI (blue). d Quantification of SOX2+ and NESTIN+ cells of immunofluorescence. P, passage. e Representative karyotypes of H9 neurosphere-derived lt-NES cells at passage 15
The results reported above revealed that N2+AA without gelatin coating can maintain the long-term expansion, yield excellent proliferation, and preserve the neural pluripotency of lt-NES cells.
lt-NES cells cultured in N2+AA can differentiate into functional neurons
The neurons generated from NSCs provide a useful model for studying human diseases, drug screening, toxicity testing, and cell therapy. To test the neuronal differentiation potential of lt-NES cells cultured in N2+AA medium, we assessed whether the lt-NES cells could differentiate into generic neurons and glial. As shown in Fig. 5A (a, c) after 2 weeks of neuronal differentiation, H9-lt-NES cells in the coated and AA culture systems differentiated into a large number of neurons using neuron maintenance medium. Moreover, this phenomenon could be reproduced in UiPS-lt-NES cells, as they were also able to differentiate into a substantial number of neurons (Fig. 5B). As demonstrated by the immunocytochemical analysis of the neuronal marker class III β-tubulin and the glia marker glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) (Fig. 5A (b, d)), the neurons produced by our system were highly pure (≥ 95% class III β-tubulin-positive neurons; < 5% GFAP-positive glia) and could be maintained in long-term culture. The quantitative RT-PCR analysis showed that neurons generated via the neuronal differentiation of N2 (coated) and N2+AA (AA) cultured lt-NES cells exhibited similar gene-expression patterns (Fig. 5C): after 14 days in the neuronal culture medium, the expression of neuronal type markers NeuN, Neurog2, and β-tubulin, the glutamatergic neuron marker vGlut1, the motor neuron marker HB9, and the dopaminergic neuron marker ALDH1A1 was upregulated, whereas the expression of the astrocyte markers S100B-β and GFAP and the oligodendrocyte marker OLIG2 was low. The use of a neuronal culture medium that is conducive to the growth of glial cells (such as adding thyroxine (T3) and large amounts of insulin) enhanced the expression of the astrocyte marker GFAP and the oligodendrocyte marker OLIG2 (Figure S3). Subsequently, we investigated the electrophysiological activity of neurons differentiated from H9-lt-NES cells using a microelectrode array (MEA) recording system. We plated lt-NES cell-derived neurons onto the MEA plate, followed by their culture in the neuronal maintenance medium and the recording of their spontaneous activity (Fig. 5D). The spontaneous activity of the lt-NES cell-derived neurons gradually increased and was maintained at a high level for 50 days after differentiation (Fig. 5E). This indicates that N2+AA-cultured lt-NES cell-derived neurons were functional and able to maintain long-term spontaneous neuronal activity.
lt-NES cells differentiated into functional neurons. A Neurons and glia differentiated from P10 H9 neurosphere-derived lt-NES cells (a, c). Immunofluorescence for neuronal marker class III β-tubulin (green) and glia marker GFAP (red) of Neurons and glia (b, d). B Neurons and glia differentiated of P10 UiPS neurosphere-derived lt-NES cells (a, c). Immunofluorescence for neurons marker class III β-tubulin (green) and glia marker GFAP (red) of neurons and glia (b, d). Scale bars = 100 μm. Nuclei were counterstained with DAPI (blue). C Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of the expression level of neurons markers NeuN, Neurog, β-tubulin, the glutamatergic neuron marker vGlut1, the motor neuron marker HB9 and the dopaminergic neuron marker ALDH1A1, astrocyte marker GFAP, and the oligodendrocyte marker OLIG2. Transcript levels were normalized to undifferentiated lt-NES cells, n = 3 each. D Representative images of activity map of neurons differentiated from H9 neurosphere-derived lt-NES cells on the 24-electrode array. E Spikes of neurons differentiated from H9 neurosphere-derived lt-NES cells in 30 s
These data indicate that N2+AA-cultured lt-NES cells have the capacity to differentiate into generic functional neurons and glial.
Transcriptome analysis of lt-NES cells
To explore the changes in gene expression, functional consequences, and potential molecular mechanism caused by AA, we performed an RNA-seq analysis on N2 (coated) and N2+AA (AA) cultured lt-NES cells. We found that 3050 genes were significantly upregulated and 1967 genes were downregulated after AA culture (Fig. 6a).
Transcriptome analysis of lt-NES cells cultured by coated or AA. a Volcano plot of upregulated (red) or downregulated (green) transcripts in AA cultured lt-NES cells vs. coated cultured. b Significantly enriched Gene Ontology (GO) terms in AA cultured lt-NES cells. c GO terms categorization and distribution of differentially expressed genes. GO terms were processed and categorized under three main categories (biological process, cellular component, and molecular function). d KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia Genes and Genomes) pathway rich detail
To understand the biological mechanism underlying the effects of AA, we performed a gene ontology enrichment analysis on differentially expressed genes. The 10 most significant categories were identified in the cell composition, molecular function, and biological process groups, respectively (Fig. 6b). The most remarkable categories were concentrated in the regulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) assembly, collagen metabolic process within biological process, and extracellular matrix component within cell composition (Fig. 6b). Among them, cell adhesion molecule binding was category that exhibited the greatest number of differences (Fig. 6c). The results reported above indicate that AA plays a critical role in cell adhesion, ECM deposition/remodeling and collagen synthesis, which is consistent with previous research [27, 28]. To understand the biological impact of these differentially expressed transcripts, next we performed a Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes functional analysis (Fig. 6d). The 20 significantly different pathways identified were mainly related to cell adhesion and ECM-receptor interaction.
Overall, these transcriptional profiling results indicate that AA is involved in the regulation of cell adhesion and is closely related to the regulation of ECM deposition/remodeling, especially in collagen synthesis.
AA promotes the generation of lt-NES cells through the MEK-ERK1/2 pathway by promoting collagen synthesis
A transcriptome analysis indicated that AA plays a role by affecting cell adhesion, ECM deposition/remodeling, and collagen synthesis. However, it is known that AA is also an antioxidant; therefore, we aimed to determine whether the generation of lt-NES cells by AA can be attributed to its antioxidant properties. We found that treatment with other antioxidants, such as vitamin B1 (Vb1) and reduced glutathione (GMEE), did not mimic the effect of AA on lt-NES cell adhesion (Fig. 7A), indicating that the effect of AA of promoting the adherence of lt-NES cells was not related to its antioxidant properties. Collagens are indispensable components of the ECM, play a vital role in cell development and function, and have been shown to affect cell proliferation and differentiation [29]. In addition, it has been pointed out that AA enhanced the proliferation of CPCs via the MEK-ERK1/2 pathway through the manipulation of collagen synthesis [24]. To verify whether the mechanism underlying the promotion of the generation and expansion of lt-NES cells by AA was similar to that reported in the article mentioned above, we analyzed the effect of AA on collagen synthesis and found that the expression of the collagen genes Col1a1 and Col4a1 in lt-NES cells cultured in N2+AA (AA) was significantly increased (Fig. 7B), which is consistent with the transcriptome results. Moreover, western blot analysis further confirmed the strong increase in the expression of type IV collagen (Col IV), which demonstrated that AA can promote collagen deposition (Fig. 7C, D). To further explore the role of AA in the synthesis of collagen, we used the generic collagen synthesis inhibitor l-2-azetidine carboxylic acid (AzC) and found that the adhesion of It-NES cells afforded by AA was completely eliminated by AzC (50 μmol/l) (Fig. 7E). Furthermore, to confirm whether AA promotes collagen synthesis via the MEK-ERK1/2 pathway, we validated the AA-induced ERK1/2 activation and assessed the effect of ERK1/2 inhibitors. The western blot analysis shown in Fig. 7F, G indicated that the level of p-ERK1/2 was higher in N2+AA (AA) cultured lt-NES cells than it was in N2 cultured (coated) cells. Moreover, an ERK1/2 inhibitor (LY3214996) completely abolished the AA-induced generation and expansion of lt-NES cells (Fig. 7H), whereas the N2-cultured cells remained unchanged after the addition of LY3214996. Moreover, the use of isoproterenol hydrochloride as an activator of ERK partially mimicked the adhesion-promoting effect of AA on lt-NES cells, suggesting that the MEK-ERK1/2 pathway is involved in the AA-dependent generation and expansion of lt-NES cells.
AA activates ERK signaling in a collagen synthesis-dependent manner. a The morphology of lt-NES cells treated with AA or alternative antioxidants vitamin B1 (Vb1) and reduced glutathione (GMEE). b Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of the relative expression of collagen genes Col1a1 and Col4a1. n = 3 each. Data are expressed as means ± SD.*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 vs. control. c Collagen deposition after AA treatment by Western blot analyze. d Quantitative statistics of collagen deposition after AA treatment by Western blot analyze. e The morphology of lt-NES cells treated with AA and collagen synthesis inhibitor AzC. f The whole-cell extracts of N2 cultured (coated) and N2+AA cultured (AA) lt-NES cells were analyzed by Western blot with phospho-specific antibodies against ERK1/2 (pERK1/2) and total ERK1/2. GAPDH was used as a control. g ERK activation is defined as the ratio of p-ERK/total ERK. n = 3 each. Data are expressed as means ± SD.*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 vs. control. h The morphology of lt-NES cells when treated with or without ERK inhibitor and ERK activator. Scale bars = 100 μm
The data reported above demonstrated that the AA-induced collagen synthesis promotes the generation and expansion of lt-NES cells through the MEK-ERK1/2 pathway.
In this study, a new system was established to induce lt-NES cells from hESC/hiPSC-neurospheres under chemically defined conditions, and this system was designed to meet the requirements of quality in clinical settings. This system also demonstrated that the N2+AA culture system is suitable for the induction and long-term expansion of lt-NES cells (Figs. 2, 3, and 4) and the differentiation of generic neurons (Fig. 5). The addition of AA to the N2 medium for the generation and expansion of It-NES cells allowed the elimination of pre-coating and the use of basement membrane preparations; therefore, the chemical composition of this culture system was more specific and this culture system complies with the standards of serum-free systems for clinical application in the future. Moreover, this system is suitable for the generation of various pluripotent stem cells, including ESCs and iPSCs; therefore, patient-specific iPSCs can be used to avoid ethical issues and immune rejection.
Neural stem/progenitor cells (NS/PCs) exhibit long-term expansion and constant self-renewal and have the ability to differentiate into a variety of neural cell lineages, including neurons and astrocytes, which illustrates the potential of neural stem cells in cell-replacement therapies for neurological disorders and injuries caused by the loss of neurons and glial cells, such as SCI [30, 31]. Neurospheres, a classic culture system for expanding NS/PCs, are cultivated as free-floating aggregates and are considered as a more natural environment for cells because of their 3D niche-like structure [15]. The methods used for neurosphere induction and expansion exhibit slight modifications from the previous protocols. Neurospheres are usually derived from single-cell suspensions of neural stem and progenitor cells isolated from the adult or fetal central nervous system (CNS); however, neurospheres can also be established from ES cells [32]. Here, we used a neural stem cell induction medium to induce hESCs/hiPSCs into rosettes, followed by rosette digestion and cell spreading onto uncoated plates in the form of a single-cell suspension. Subsequently, the single cells aggregated to form a spherical shape and expand continuously (Fig. 1). The medium was supplemented with B27 containing the fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and EGF [33]. This neurosphere-induction method was proposed for the first time in this study and exhibited a higher yield and a higher efficiency than previous methods.
However, heterogeneity is one of the significant limitations of the neurosphere culture system [34]. This heterogeneity is caused by the size of the neurospheres, which is difficult to control and is usually not uniform; moreover, the cells inside and outside the neurospheres are exposed to different environments. This heterogeneity makes it difficult to maintain their long-term expansion and excellent differentiation potential. Moreover, after the transplantation of neurospheres into the nervous system, their neurogenic potential is gradually lost and the yield of neurons decreases [34]. Therefore, there is a need to develop a new NS/PC culture system that should be homogeneous, robust, and stable over time and that can constantly produce a large number of neurons. Culture of NSCs in a monolayer has been studied previously to address the above-mentioned needs, and human long-term self-renewing neuroepithelial-like stem cells (lt-NES cells) are NS/PCs grown in a monolayer culture system. They are a fairly homogeneous population of undifferentiated cells with the ability to continuously expand and stably produce functional neurons and glia [21]. The most common method used to generate lt-NES cells consists in the pre-coating of the culture plates with basement membrane preparations rich in extracellular matrix (ECM) components, such as laminin [35], fibronectin, gelatin [36], and Matrigel [37]. However, the basement membrane preparations listed above all contain exogenous components, which hinder the progress of cell transplantation because of uncertain chemical composition. Here, we established a new system for inducing and maintaining lt-NES cells under chemically defined conditions using AA (Fig. 2A). The lt-NES cells cultured under this new system can stably expand in large numbers and preserve their neural pluripotency (Figs. 2 and 3); moreover, they can maintain long-term culture (Fig. 4). Moreover, lt-NES cells cultured under our system can maintain the differentiation potential of functional neurons and glial cells (Fig. 5). Therefore, it is expected that this system will contribute to regenerative medicine for spinal cord injury and other CNS diseases in the future, because this method can reliably provide a large number of functional cells for regenerative medicine.
AA is widely known as an essential nutrient for guinea pigs and primates [38, 39]. AA has two major biological activities: it serves as an antioxidant and as a cofactor in collagen synthesis [40]. In our study, other antioxidants were tested, such as vitamin B1 (Vb1) and reduced glutathione (GMEE), but none of them mimicked the effect of AA on lt-NES cells (Fig. 7A), suggesting that antioxidant activity is not a critical factor in the generation and expansion of lt-NES cells. Therefore, we focused on the role of AA in the synthesis of collagen, as the ECM may affect cell adhesion. AA is essential for the biosynthesis of collagen. It is a cofactor of prolyl and lysyl hydroxylase and a stimulator of collagen gene expression. After the addition of AA to the culture medium, many studies have evaluated the relationship between AA and collagen expression regarding the short- and long-term effects on cells [27]. This study evaluated the use of AA in the long-term culture of It-NES cells. The results of the RNA-seq analysis (Fig. 6) revealed that AA affects cell acquisition and long-term culture by affecting cell adhesion, ECM remodeling, and collagen synthesis. Moreover, during the long-term culture, the expression of the collagen genes Col1a1 and Col4a1 was enhanced (Fig. 7B), and the adhesion of It-NES cells triggered by AA were completely eliminated by the collagen synthesis inhibitor AzC (50 μmol/l) (Fig. 7E). These data indicate that AA plays a promotive role in the generation and expansion of lt-NES cells because of collagen synthesis, rather than its antioxidant properties. It has been reported that AA specifically enhances CPC proliferation by manipulating collagen synthesis through the MEK-ERK1/2 pathway [24], which is consistent with our results, as the MEK-ERK1/2 pathway was activated by AA and the adhesion of It-NES cells induced by AA was completely abolished by an ERK inhibitor (1 μM) (Fig. 7D–F). We also treated the cells with an activator of ERK (isoproterenol hydrochloride (50 mM)) and found that it can promote the adhesion of some lt-NES cells; however, it cannot completely mimic the adhesion of AA to lt-NES cells. This may be because isoproterenol has other effects at the same time, and this result indicates that the MEK-ERK pathway is partly responsible for the promotion of lt-NES adhesion by AA; in addition, other signaling pathways may be involved in this process. Moreover, we found that lt-NES cells cultured in N2+AA (AA) had higher expression levels of NS/PC markers than did cells cultured in N2 (coated) (Figs.2 and 3). The studies mentioned above indicate that AA may play a critical role in the development of NS/PCs and may provide a more suitable culture environment for lt-NES cells and promote the neural pluripotency of lt-NES cells.
We have successfully established a new culture system for the long-term large-scale monolayer culture of NS/PCs from hESC/hiPSCs. AA promoted the formation of a homogenous population of lt-NES cells grown in an environment without foreign components. After 10–15 passages, the cells on the N2+AA condition can maintain good self-renewal ability, and the cells can retain neural pluripotency and the ability to differentiate into generic functional neurons. In addition, we demonstrated that AA specifically promotes the generation and expansion of neuroepithelial-like stem cells through the MEK-ERK1/2 pathway by increasing collagen synthesis. The findings of this study will help promote the clinical application of hPSC-derived NS/PCs in regenerative medicine for SCI and neurological diseases.
SCI:
hPSCs:
Human pluripotent stem cells
NS/PCs:
Neural stem/progenitor cells
AA:
lt-NES cells:
Long-term self-renewing neuroepithelial-like stem cells
RT-PCR:
Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction
MEA:
Microelectrode array
mESCs:
Mouse embryonic stem cells
hESCs:
Human embryonic stem cells
iPSCs:
Induced pluripotent stem cells
UiPSs:
Urine-iPSCs
GFAP:
ECM:
KEGG:
Vb1:
GMEE:
Reduced glutathione
AzC:
L-2-Azetidine carboxylic acid
bFGF:
Fibroblast growth factor
EGF:
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Sato H, Takahashi M, Ise H, Yamada A, Hirose SI, Tagawa YI, et al. Collagen synthesis is required for ascorbic acid-enhanced differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells into cardiomyocytes. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2006;342:107–12.
Arrigoni O, De Tullio MC. Ascorbic acid: much more than just an antioxidant. Biochim Biophys Acta Gen Subj. 2002;1569:1–9.
The authors would like to thank Enago (www.enago.com) for providing English editing.
We gratefully acknowledge funding support from Beijing Natural Science Foundation No. Z190013, Non-profit Central Research Institute Fund of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (2019PT320026), and National Natural Science Foundation of China Nos. 81970205.
Rui Bai and Yun Chang contributed equally to this work.
Beijing Laboratory for Cardiovascular Precision Medicine, MOE Key Laboratory of Medical Engineering for Cardiovascular Diseases, MOE Key Laboratory of Remodeling-Related Cardiovascular Disease, Beijing Collaborative Innovation Center for Cardiovascular Disorders, Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100029, China
Rui Bai, Yun Chang, Amina Saleem, Fujian Wu, Siyao Zhang, Ya’nan Li, Shuhong Ma, Tao Dong, Tianwei Guo, Youxu Jiang, Wen-Jing Lu, Hong Feng Jiang & Feng Lan
Beijing Institute of Heart, Lung and Blood Vessel Diseases, Beijing, 100029, China
Rui Bai, Yun Chang, Fujian Wu, Siyao Zhang, Ya’nan Li, Shuhong Ma, Tao Dong, Tianwei Guo, Youxu Jiang, Wen-Jing Lu, Hong Feng Jiang & Feng Lan
Key Laboratory of Chinese Internal Medicine of Ministry of Education and Beijing, Dongzhimen Hospital Affiliated to Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China
Lei Tian
Center for Clinical Translation and Innovation, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen, 518055, China
Yi You
Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen, 518055, China
Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Research Institute Building, Room 323, 2 Anzhen Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100029, China
Hong Feng Jiang
State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
Feng Lan
Rui Bai
Yun Chang
Amina Saleem
Fujian Wu
Siyao Zhang
Ya’nan Li
Shuhong Ma
Tianwei Guo
Youxu Jiang
Wen-Jing Lu
LF and LWJ conceived the idea and designed the experiments; BR and CY performed the cell experiments and data analysis. BR and Amina performed the manuscript preparation. WFJ, TL, and ZSY are responsible for the cell culture experiments and the collection and assembly of data. LYN, MSH, and DT contributed to the molecular experiments. GTW and YY contributed to the function analysis. JHF and JYX have been helping with revisions. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Correspondence to Hong Feng Jiang or Feng Lan.
Additional file 1: Supplementary Table S1.
Primer sequences used for q-PCR.
The morphologies of the lt-NES cells in different medium. (A) The morphologies of the lt-NES cells in N2 medium (coated), N2+AA (AA), and N2+ Retinoic acid, Y27632,Tzv and Blebbiststin. Scale bars = 100 μm. Figure S2. Long-term growth curves of lt-NES cells. (A) The cumulative population doublings (CPD) of lt-NES cells cultured by coated and AA. Every cell passage is indicated by a point and thenumber of CPD was calculated based on the ratio of cells seeded versus cells harvested per passage. Figure S3. lt-NES cells can differentiated into astrocyte and oligodendrocyte .(A) Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of the expression level of the astrocyte marker GFAP and the oligodendrocyte marker OLIG2, and neurons markers NeuN and Neurog,n = 3 each.
Bai, R., Chang, Y., Saleem, A. et al. Ascorbic acid can promote the generation and expansion of neuroepithelial-like stem cells derived from hiPS/ES cells under chemically defined conditions through promoting collagen synthesis. Stem Cell Res Ther 12, 48 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13287-020-02115-6
Neurospheres
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Steven Lyle Jordan
An author's observations on science, fiction and futurism
RIP James Garner
Date: 20.July.2014Author: Steven Lyle Jordan 0 Comments
RIP to one of my favorite actors, James Garner (1928 – 2014).
I happen to have a great Father, and I’m glad I have him. But if I hadn’t had him… James Garner’s most popular roles and characters have represented, to me, the kind of guy whom I would’ve wanted my father to be like. Garner played my surrogate dad, the Man’s Man Par Excellence.
There are actually a few similarities between James Scott Bumgarner‘s life and my dad’s, interestingly enough: Family struggles, a lot of ball playing with a shot at the pros, military, all conspired to make Garner a strong, confident, capable and popular guy. Garner was a hard worker, but people loved working with him. He had health issues, but worked gamely through them and constantly amazed others with his work ethic, dedication and refusal to avoid hard work. He was also a staunch defender of his work and rights, regularly going up against the TV studios to make sure he was getting his due and compensation for his work.
I knew Garner best for his portrayal of Jim Rockford on The Rockford Files, discovering later that his character was similar in bent to his character of Bret Maverick from his earlier Maverick series. Rockford/Maverick were men who had overcome shady pasts to become comfortable (if not greatly successful) in their chosen professions. Rockford, as a private investigator, was the epitome of the American private detective: Sharp, strong, brave and shrewd, with a quick wit, a love of his family and friends, and an easy tolerance for their dalliances. He wasn’t perfect, and he was okay with it. He took what life dished out, and made sure he found a comfortable spot within it for him. He wasn’t a fan of violence, but he could dish it out when he had to. And he was a master of the iconic American muscle car, getting free of scrapes and catching bad guys with the help of his steel steed every week.
Many of the movie characters he played were variations on the same theme, the easygoing guy whom you could depend on in the clutch, and who was more likely to save your ass with his quick wit than with a gun or fist. Being a child of the 1960s, this was the kind of hero I grew up with; Jim Rockford would have stood proudly next to the James T. Kirks, the Doctors, the Joe Fridays, the Richard Kimballs and the John Robinsons of the day (though he would have been the one sitting in the back, holding a beer, and enticing the rest of them to lighten up a bit. I figure Kirk would’ve been the first to sit down with him). Garner represented the modern American man that would be taking us all into the optimistic future.
And if you want to know why I, as an author and a person, don’t favor the modern rough-and-tumble characters who shoot first and don’t bother to ask questions later, it’s because of men like my Father and James Garner, and the way they raised me to be (in person and by proxy). They knew how to take the lemons and make lemonade… and they made damn good lemonade. And today, I only wish I could make lemonade a tenth as good as they did.
We’re gonna miss you, Jim.
American heroAmerican successBret Maverickiconic AmericanJames GarnerJames Scott BumgarnerJim Rockfordsurrogate father
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“The hallmark of science — and, indeed, science fiction — must always be intelligence.” — Steven Lyle Jordan
Steven Lyle Jordan writes commentary and opinions regarding science, science fiction and futurist topics, and has published over a dozen science fiction novels.
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St Francis Outreach Trust
Supporting disadvantaged communities in the Southern Peninsula
About the Trustees
About Nurturing
About Our Associates
Homes to Grow
The Second Home
Suppport us
Reports and Newsletters
Foundation blessing ceremony
Book Launch – “The Six Saints of Simon’s Town” 1814 – 2014
Comedy Fundraiser Dinner
Six Saints of Simon’s Town
Fundraising: The 2015 Calendars
Posted on August 26, 2014 October 2, 2014 by homestogrow
The 2015 calendar is out!!
Artist Emma Appels-Riley captures Cape scenes with a touch of whimsy in a splash of riotous colours. This year marks the 200th anniversary of the St Francis Church, the oldest Anglican church in South Africa and tribute is paid to this historic milestone in the front of the calendar. The early history of the church as well as other churches in Simon’s Town is portrayed in Boet Dommisse’s book “The Six Saints of Simon’s Town” . Sadly Boet passed away a few months after the book was launched, but it is a wonderful tribute that the funds from the sale of this book are all donated to St Francis Trust for the running of the “Homes To Grow” project which supports vulnerable and abandoned children affected by HIV/Aids.
All enquiries may be directed to Uwe Hass: uweh@realtime.co.za or Monika du Sautoy: peteandme@mweb.co.za
These calendars can be purchased at the following venues: Reader’s Warehouse, Tokai, Wordsworth, Sunvalley Mall, Simon’s Town Pharmacy, ST Thomas Church , Rondebosch. St Margaret’s Church Fishhoek. Further distribution points to be advised.
this is our 2015 calendar
Posted in UncategorizedTagged fund-raising, Homes to Grow, SFOT Calendar 2015, Six Saints of Simon's Town, St Francis Outreach Trust
“The Six Saints of Simon’s Town 1814 – 2014”
Posted on April 27, 2014 May 8, 2014 by homestogrow
Professor Boet Dommisse presented his latest book at a launch on the 26th March 2014, in St Francis Church, Simon’s Town.
“The Six Saints of Simon’s Town 1814 -2014” chronicles the 200 years of the first Anglican Church established in Southern Africa.’ St Georges Church’ as it was then called ,was built opposite Jubilee Square at the site of the present ‘Pescado Restaurant’ and a plaque will be unveiled by Bishop Margaret.Vertue on the 26thApril, followed by a procession to the present St Francis Church.
In 1819 torrential rains caused the original church to collapse and by the time the Simon’s Town Anglican congregation had collected enough funds to rebuild, Cape Town had started building the ‘St Georges Cathedral-so they had to rename their church ‘St Francis Church’ on it’s completion in 1837.
Boet’s book deals with the activities of this congregation with sensitivity and humour and also relates the happenings to current world history. A great read and we thank Professor Dommisse for his meticulous research. Furthermore he was able to get the MR Kingswell Charitable Trust and the Simon’s Town Cultural and Heritage Trust to fund the printing and publishing costs, so that the entire proceeds of the sale of this book are donated to the St Francis Outreach Trust. This group of caring people has been able to build and support the “Homes To Grow” foster homes that nurture orphaned, vulnerable and abandoned children in townships in the Cape Peninsula. These funds are most welcome towards the purchasing of another plot.
Uwe Hass, Trustee Tel: 021 7865487
Posted in Fund raisingTagged Boet Dommisse, fund-raising, Homes to Grow, Masiphumelele, Six Saints of Simon's Town, St Francis Outreach Trust, vulnerable children
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Locations, Burns Empire, Mr. Burns,
Tapped Out Buildings
Recurring locations
American Locations
The Simpsons Wrestling
Burns Manor
1000 Mammon Avenue
Charles Montgomery Burns;
Bart Simpson (Burns' foster son);
Bret Hart (formerly);
The Rich Texan (formerly)
"There's No Disgrace Like Home"
Burns Manor is Mr. Burns' mansion. It used to host the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant Annual Picnic.
1 Location and Protection
Location and Protection
It is located at 1000 Mammon Avenue, on the corner of Croesus and Mammon streets in the Springfield Heights district. It is protected by a high wall at least 20 feet tall, an electrified fence, and a pack of ten vicious attack dogs known as "The Hounds", one of which is named Winston. In addition he has at least one sixteen-year-old dog named Crippler. Crippler is known for bagging hippies–"something they don't find too groovy at all". At times he has employed for protection a force of Wizard of Oz - style guards, a personal paramilitary force, a riot police squad, and a robotic Richard Simmons.
The former appearance of Burns Manor.
The inside of the mansion includes a room containing a thousand monkeys at a thousand typewriters, a bottomless pit, a human chess board, the largest television in the free world, a 'Hall of Patriots' commemorating his ancestors, a laboratory, a botanical garden of vultures bearing his likeness, a safe containing a Beefeater guard, Lillie Langtry Theater, a theater showing round-the-clock plays regardless of whether there is an audience, and an illegal Surveillance Room for such a large mansion, it has a surprisingly small basement, seemingly no larger than the basement in the Simpsons home.
The mansion is also home to many rare historical artifacts including the only existing nude photo of Mark Twain, the suit Charlie Chaplin was buried in, King Arthur's mythical sword Excalibur, and a rare first draft of the Constitution with the word "suckers" in it.
He also has a large wine cellar with an entrance through the back of the mansion, the stairway has heads of a Dodo, Saber-toothed Tiger, Tyrannosaurus Rex, all of which are extinct, and a skeleton of a trespasser hung up on the wall. The wine cellar itself has hundreds of wine bottles, including a massive 60,000 dollar bottle of wine which Homer drank.
He also has a room filled with priceless paintings, including The Concert by Vermeer which was stolen in March 1990. It is considered the most valuable painting ever stolen with an estimated value of 200 million dollars. Chief Wiggum and Lou arrested Burns for the burglary and most likely confiscated the painting.
Burns Manor has 137 rooms and at least three floors visible from the exterior (not including the basement or attic).
In The Simpsons: Hit and Run, the mansion's size is exaggerated and out of proportion, with the only room accessible is Mr. Burns' office only in Level 4. However, in both Level 1 and 4, the back of the mansion can be accessed through the Power Plant via a hidden tunnel above a pipe-bracing. The back of the mansion sports the aforementioned human chess board, only the chess pieces act as the typical destructible/damageable objects that can be knocked over to fill the Hit & Run meter and earn coins.
The back of the Manor in The Simpsons Road Rage
Episode – "There's No Disgrace Like Home"
Episode – "Bart vs. Thanksgiving"
Episode – "Bart Gets Hit by a Car"
Episode – "Blood Feud"
Episode – "Dog of Death"
Episode – "Last Exit to Springfield"
Episode – "Rosebud"
Episode – "$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)"
Episode – "Burns' Heir"
Episode – "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds"
Episode – "Team Homer"
Episode – "Homer the Smithers"
Episode – "Burns, Baby Burns"
Episode – "The Old Man and the Lisa"
Episode – "The Trouble with Trillions"
Episode – "Monty Can't Buy Me Love"
Episode – "The Mansion Family"
Episode – "Bart to the Future"
Episode – "Tennis the Menace"
THOH – "Treehouse of Horror XII"
Episode – "Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge"
Episode – "Dude, Where's My Ranch?"
Episode – "Springfield Up"
Episode – "Crook and Ladder"
Episode – "American History X-cellent"
Episode – "The Fool Monty"
Episode – "Holidays of Future Passed"
Episode – "Them, Robot"
Episode – "To Cur, with Love"
Episode – "Dark Knight Court"
THOH – "Treehouse of Horror XXIV"
Episode – "The Kid is All Right"
– The Simpsons Movie
Comic book – 3000's Company
Video game – The Simpsons Road Rage
Video game – The Simpsons: Hit and Run
Video game – The Simpsons: Tapped Out
Christmas Burns manor Tapped Out
Locations in Springfield
The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop • The Frying Dutchman • The Gilded Truffle • Herman's Military Antiques • Jake's Unisex Barbershop • Lard Lad Donuts • Luigi's • King Toot's Music Store • Krusty Burger • Kwik-E-Mart • Moe's Tavern • Phineas Q. Butterfat's Ice Cream Parlor • Grocery Store • Springfield Mall (The Leftorium)
82 Evergreen Terrace • 740 Evergreen Terrace • 742 Evergreen Terrace • 744 Evergreen Terrace • Apu's apartment • Barney's apartment • Burns Manor • Chalmers house • Skinner's House • Spinster City Apartments • Springfield Retirement Castle • Van Houten House • Wiggum house
Aztec Theater • Barney's Bowlarama • Channel 6 • Department of Motor Vehicles • Duff Brewery • First Bank of Springfield • First Church of Springfield • Krustylu Studios • Legitimate Businessman's Social Club • Noise Land Video Arcade • Old Springfield Library • Sleep-Eazy Motel • Springfield Cemetery • Springfield City Zoo • Springfield Convention Center • Springfield Downs • Springfield Drive-In • Springfield Elementary School • Springfield General Hospital • Springfield Glen Country Club • Springfield International Airport • Springfield Natural History Museum • Springfield Nuclear Power Plant • Springfield Public Library • Springfield Squidport • Springfield Tire Yard • Springfield Town Hall • Springfield Town Square • Springfield War Memorial Stadium • Ye Olde Off-Ramp Inn
Springfield County Court House • Springfield Penitentiary • Springfield State Prison • Springfield Police Station
Natural landmarks
Alkali Flats • Lake Springfield • Mt. Springfield • Springfield Gorge
Retrieved from "https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/Burns_Manor?oldid=932577"
Burns Empire
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Muse Headband Opens the Door to Brain-to-Computer Applications
Cameron Scott
FitBit, Jawbone, Aero: Wearable devices to track physical activity are everywhere. But technology advocates insist that’s not all the devices can do — not by a long shot. The tiny machines promise to track our vital signs and share them with doctors. And eventually, many believe, they may be able to detect our brain activity and power computers hands-free.
Muse, a headband fitted with EEG sensors, is an early entrant in the race to that future. Made by the Canadian company InteraXon, the headband sells now with a soft sales pitch: Track your brain activity for a half and hour a day to train yourself to focus or meditate better.
“The same way taking your pulse will tell you how your body is doing during physical exercise, this will tell you how your brain is doing during mental exercise,” said co-founder Trevor Coleman in an early Indiegogo video.
“When your mind is concentrated and focused on a single thing, we can detect that. And when your mind wanders, we can detect that too. So what we’ll do is give you feedback that will help you notice that your mind is wandering so then you can develop the skill of bringing it back,” Coleman explained.
The headband picks up four channels from seven EEG sensors, five across the forehead and two conductive rubber ear sensors. Together, the sensors detect the five basic types of brain waves, and, unlike conventional sensors, they don’t need to be surrounded by gel to work. Software helps filter out the noise and syncs the signal, via Bluetooth, to a companion app. The app shows the user the brainwave information and offers stress-reduction exercises.
The science to support the claim that EEG biofeedback can improve focus and relieve stress seems more suggestive than conclusive. The approach has been shown to help children with ADHD, for instance. Meditation, which tends to produce brain waves linked with relaxation and deep thought, has positive health effects, although it’s not clear exactly how.
That said, it’s pretty clear that watching your brain waves won’t hurt you, so if you want to spend $300 with the hopes of diminishing sturm und drang, why not?
InteraXon isn’t the first company to offer a mobile EEG: For instance, Emotiv’s headset connects to a mobile phone. But it is the first to make the EEG truly wearable and to give it a clear consumer use case.
InteraXon is also working a long play by opening up an SDK that will let others build apps using the brain activity information from the headband. More than one study has shown that, with EEG sensors, a user can control computerized objects by sheer force of concentration. EEGs are a fairly crude way to tap into a person’s thoughts, but there are plenty of uses for them even so. On the serious side, wheelchair app could allow the user to steer using Muse. On the less serious side, a music app could select music based on the user’s brain activity and a virtual reality game could sync its play scenes to the user’s mood to make the experience that much more compelling. This isn’t science fiction, even now.
A bit further down the road of possibilities is brain-to-brain networking. Last year, researchers at the University of Washington used EEG sensors to detect one person’s intention to move his arm and used it to stimulate the other person’s brain with an external coil and watched as the second person moved his hand without planning to.
So while Muse sounds a bit woo-woo at present, it — and likely competing EEG devices — will eventually bring much heavier hitting applications than tracking how many steps the user takes on a given day.
Photos: InteraXon
Cameron received degrees in Comparative Literature from Princeton and Cornell universities. He has worked at Mother Jones, SFGate and IDG News Service and been published in California Lawyer and SF Weekly. He lives, predictably, in SF.
Follow Cameron:
Meet Assembloids, Mini Human Brains With Muscles Attached
New IBM Research Means We Could Soon Train Neural Networks on a Smartphone
How a Software Map of the Entire Planet Could Change the World Forever
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Archives of Neuroscience Approved by the Scientific and Research Publications, IR Iran
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Optimization of 3D Alginate Scaffold Properties with Interconnected Porosity Using Freeze-drying Method for Cartilage Tissue Engineering Application
Naghmeh Bahrami 1 , 2 , Ali Farzin 3 , 4 , Farshad Bayat 5 , Arash Goodarzi 4 , Majid Salehi 6 , Roya Karimi 4 , Abdolreza Mohamadnia 7 , 8 , Alireza Parhiz 1 , 2 , * , Jafar Ai 4 , **
1 Craniomaxillofacial Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2 Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department, School of Dentistry, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
3 Research Center for Science and Technology in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
4 Department of Tissue Engineering and Applied Cell Science, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
5 School of Dentistry, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
6 Department of Tissue Engineering, School of Medicine, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran
7 Chronic Respiratory Diseases Research Center, National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (NRITLD), Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
8 Department of Biotechnology, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Corresponding Authors:
* Corresponding Author: Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department, School of Dentistry, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Email: [email protected]
** Corresponding Author: Department of Tissue Engineering and Applied Cell Science, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Email: [email protected]
How to Cite: Bahrami N, Farzin A, Bayat F, Goodarzi A, Salehi M, et al. Optimization of 3D Alginate Scaffold Properties with Interconnected Porosity Using Freeze-drying Method for Cartilage Tissue Engineering Application, Arch Neurosci. Online ahead of Print ; 6(4):e85122. doi: 10.5812/ans.85122.
Archives of Neuroscience: 6 (4); e85122
Received: October 8, 2018
Revised: December 10, 2019
Accepted: December 19, 2018
DOI : 10.5812/ans.85122
Image Credit: Archives of Neuroscience
Alginate scaffolds are extensively used in bone and cartilage tissue engineering because of their chemical similarity to the extracellular matrix. However, for the successful replacement of hard tissue, the properties of alginate scaffolds should be tailored. In this study, for the first time, we optimized the porosity, degradation rate, mechanical, and osteogenic properties of alginate scaffolds by the freeze-drying method. The freeze-drying method was used to prepare different concentrations of alginate scaffolds (4, 8, and 16% (w/v)). Their porosity, mechanical properties, surface-wetting behavior, and osteogenic properties were characterized. The results showed that the 8% (w/v) alginate scaffold had an interconnected porosity of about 80%, a hydrophilic surface with a contact angle of water on the surface of 39º ± 0.56, and compressive strength of 2.7 MPa. This concentration of alginate also showed the degradation rate of 70% in Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle’s Medium (DMEM) with fetal bovine serum. The periodontal ligament stem cells culture results confirmed that the 8% alginate scaffold had good biocompatibility and cell differentiation ability and it could enhance cell ingrowth and attachment. These results showed that the modified 8% (w/v) alginate scaffold is a good candidate in cartilage and bone tissue replacement.
Cartilage Tissue Engineering Periodontal Ligament Stem Cells Alginate Scaffold
The main purpose of biomaterials fabrication for use in tissue engineering is the simulation of the human body mechanism to revive damaged or diseased tissues. Hard tissues such as bone and cartilages are often in need of reconstruction more commonly because of tumor removal and age-related diseases (1). Cartilage as a hard tissue is difficult to repair because it has no vessel or nerve (2).
Alginate has been extensively used in recent years, especially for cartilage and bone regeneration, because of chemical similarity to the extracellular matrix (ECM) (3-5). The hydrophilic nature of alginate is a significant property that improves its cell compatibility and viability. Furthermore, alginate is a natural polymer that shows better biocompatibility than other synthesized polymers. Sodium alginate scaffolds cross-linked by Ca2+ are widely used for drug delivery and tissue engineering of cartilage because cross-linkers containing calcium ions are safe and do not damage cells (6).
However, the main problem with alginate scaffolds is the lack of appropriate mechanical strength that cannot meet the cartilage tissue requirements (7). The mechanical properties of scaffolds are highly influenced by the interconnectivity of porosities. Furthermore, the controllable degradation rate of fabricated scaffolds at which cartilage tissue regeneration occurs is a key parameter that needs optimization. It has been reported that different physical and chemical properties of scaffolds can affect cell differentiation and osteogenesis ability (8). Freeze-drying is a simple and fast method for the fabrication of different types of scaffolds (9-11). This method can facilitate the optimization of mechanical strength, degradation rate, and osteogenesis potential of scaffolds.
2. Objectives
In this study, we developed a 3D alginate scaffold by the freeze-drying method. To the best of our knowledge, there is no report on the effect of pores architecture produced by freeze-drying method on mechanical properties and cell behavior of alginate scaffolds. Herein, the porosity, degradation rate, and mechanical properties of the fabricated scaffold were optimized in order to use as cartilage substitute. Furthermore, the biocompatibility, periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs) differentiation ability, and cell viability properties of the optimized scaffold were evaluated.
3.1. Alginate Scaffold Preparation
Medium viscosity bio-chemical grade sodium alginate (molecular weight = 30,000, Sigma Aldrich, USA) was dissolved in distilled water to produce different concentrations (4, 8, and 16% (w/v)) under magnet stirring at room temperature for 24 h. Then, 3 mL of 3% (w/v) aqueous calcium chloride was added to the solution as a crosslinking agent, followed by constant stirring at 40ºC for 2 h. The mixture was frozen at -20ºC for 24 h and then freeze-dried (Telstar, Spain) for 48 h.
3.2. Interconnected Porosity of the Fabricated Scaffold
The apparent interconnected porosity of the scaffold fabricated by the freeze-drying method was measured by water displacement principle using Archimedes method according to the ISO standard 39231/1-1979(E) (12). In this way, the interconnected porosity (IP) of the fabricated scaffold was measured using the following equation:
Interconnected porosity=W2-W1W2-W3×100
where W1 is the dry weight of the scaffold, W2 is the weight of the scaffold after removing from water, and W3 is the weight of the scaffold after soaking in water.
3.3. Contact Angle Measurement of the Scaffold
The wettability property of the freeze-dried alginate scaffold was evaluated by the sessile drop technique using water contact angle measurement machine (GBX Instruments Co.). For this purpose, the silica substrate of the machine was washed with ethanol (Merck, Germany) before the beginning of each experiment. The fabricated scaffold was placed in the transparent chamber under the needle. Next, a distilled water droplet was placed on the surface of the scaffold gently. The shape of the formed distilled water droplet on the surface of the scaffold was monitored using a high-resolution time-lapse camera (Nikon D90, resolution: 13 megapixels). Image J software was used to analyze the droplet and measure the contact angle. The experiment was repeated three times for each concentration of the alginate scaffold.
3.4. Mechanical Strength of the Scaffold
The compressive mechanical strength of the fabricated alginate scaffold was evaluated by Instron 5542 mechanical tester (Norwood, MA, USA). Samples were placed between the grips of the Instron machine and compressed in the axial direction at the rate of 1 mm/min.
3.5. Evaluation of Morphology, Distribution, and Size of Pores
The morphology, distribution, and size of pores of the prepared scaffold were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM, Philips XL30: Eindhoven, The Netherlands). The image analysis software (Image J 1.40 g) was used to estimate the average pore size of samples (by selecting five individual pores for each sample).
3.6. In Vitro Degradation Rate of the Prepared Scaffold
Blood plasma is a neutral environment containing inorganic ions such as Na+, Ca2+, and K+. Furthermore, organic compounds such as proteins and amino acids can be found in blood plasma. Therefore, the in vitro degradation rate of the prepared scaffold was evaluated in three different media: distilled water, Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle’s Medium (DMEM; Gibco, Grand Island, USA), and DMEM with 10 % Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS, Sigma Aldrich, USA). The detailed composition of the used DMEM and DMEM+FBS solutions are listed in Table 1. For this measurement, the scaffold was sliced into small pieces (10 mm× 10 mm × 2 mm); the slices were immersed in the solutions and placed in a shaking incubator at 37ºC. The samples were collected after four weeks and dried at ambient temperature for 24 h. The percentage of weight loss was measured by the following equation:
Weight loss%=W1-W2W1×100
where W1 is the weight of the dried gel and W2 is the weight of the scaffold after four weeks of soaking in the solutions.
Table 1. Chemical Composition of DMEM and DMEM + FBS Solutions Used for Evaluation of As-prepared Scaffold Degradation
DMEM
DMEM + FBS
CaCl2 1.8 1.8
NaCl 109.4 109.4
KCl 5.37 5.37
NaHCO3 44.05 44.05
NaH2PO4 1.04 1.04
MgSO4 0.81 0.81
Glucose 5.5 5.5
Amino acid 11.01 11.01
Fetal bovine serum None 10%
3.7. Periodontal Ligament Stem Cells (PDLSCs) Isolation and Culture
To evaluate the cellular behavior of the fabricated scaffold, periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs) were used. Human PDL cells were extracted from human teeth. For this reason, after washing teeth several times with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), the PDL was scraped from the middle third of the root surface. Obtained tissues were washed several times with sterile PBS, crushed to small pieces, put in a 25-cm2 culture flask, and incubated at 37ºC in 5% CO2 atmosphere. After reaching 80% confluence, the cells were cultured in DMEM (Gibco, Grand Island, USA) supplemented with 10% (v/v) FBS (Gibco, Grand Island, USA), 100 unit/mL of penicillin, and 100 mg/mL of streptomycin in a humidified incubator at 37ºC with 5% CO2.
3.8. Cell Viability Assay
To evaluate the biocompatibility behavior of the optimized alginate scaffold, the samples were put in a 96-well plate, sterilized by ultraviolet light (254 nm) irradiation for 30 min in a laminar flow hood, and seeded with 1 × 104 cells/well. The cytotoxicity and the proliferation of the cells on the scaffold were assessed by 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay kits (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, USA) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The cells in the wells of the plate without scaffolds were treated as positive control. All experiments were performed in triplicate and the absorbance was read by an Awareness Technology Microplate-Reader.
3.9. PDLSCs Differentiation into Osteoblast-like Cells in the Fabricated Scaffold
A sterilized fabricated scaffold was placed in a 24-well plate and 2 × 104 cells were seeded in each well. Differentiation media containing DMEM/F12 + FBS 10%, dexamethasone 10 nM, ascorbic acid 50 μg/mL, and β glycerol phosphate 10 mM were added to each well for 21 days. The media were replaced by fresh ones every three days.
3.10. Real-Time RT-PCR
The effect of different groups of fabricated alginate scaffolds on the expression of four main bone correlated genes including osteopontin, collagen I, osteocalcin, and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were evaluated by real-time reverse transcription (RT)-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). After 21 days of PDLS cell culture on the surface of scaffolds, samples were washed using PBS. The total RNA was isolated using Qiazol reagent kit according to the manufacturer’s instruction. Next, cDNA was fabricated by M-MLV Reverse Transcriptase kits. The obtained cDNA was subjected to quantitative RT-PCR and gene expression was measured by SYBR-Green (TAKARA, USA). The used primer sequences for osteonectin, collagen I, osteocalcin, and ALP are presented in Table 2.
Table 2. Primer Sequences for the Quantitative Real-Time RT-PCR
Forward (5’-3’)
Reverse (5’-3’)
COL (Ι) ATGGCTGCACGAGTCACACC CAACGTCGAAGCCGAATTCC
OCN TGCTTGTGACGAGGTATCAG GTGACATCCATACTTGCAGG
ALP CCTCGTTGACACCTGGAAG CTGGTAGTTGTTGTGAGCATAG
OPN GCCGACCAAGGAAAACTCACT GGCACAGGTGATGCCTAGGA
Abbreviations: ALP, alkaline phosphate; COL (I), collagen I; OCN, osteocalcin; OPN, osteopontin.
3.11. Immunofluorescence Analysis
After 21 days of PDLSCs induction, immunocytochemistry as double staining was used to evaluate the expression of specific markers for differentiation. After fixation with 4% PFA (Sigma-Aldrich), cells were permeabilized by 0.2% Triton-X100 (Sigma-Aldrich) for 30 min and then blocked with 5% bovine serum albumin in PBS. After 45 min, the cells were incubated overnight with primary antibody collagen I, mouse monoclonal AB (Abcam, 1:200), osteonectin, and Rabbit Monoclonal AB (Abcam, 1:200). A secondary antibody (Alexa [email protected] donkey anti-mouse IgG and Alexa [email protected] donkey anti-rabbit IgG at a 1:500 dilution; Abcam) was used at 37ºC for 1 h. Between each step, slides were washed with PBS and nuclei staining was performed using 4’,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI, Sigma). Cells were examined by fluorescence microscopy (Olympus BX51, Japan).
3.12. Statistical Analysis
All experiments were repeated three times. The data are shown as means and standard error. Two-way ANOVA was used to evaluate the data. Significant differences were shown as *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, and ***P < 0.001.
4.1. Morphology and Structure Characterization
The SEM micrographs of the prepared scaffolds by the freeze-drying method in Figure 1 show the morphology, size, and interconnectivity of pores. The pore size analysis by Image-J software showed that the pore sizes of the 4%, 8%, and 16% (w/v) alginate scaffolds were in the range of 250 - 320 μm, 220 - 250 μm, and 180 - 200 μm, respectively. All samples showed pore interconnectivity. Flatley et al. (13) reported that using scaffolds with pore sizes of 200 - 500 μm is suitable for hard tissue regeneration. Hulbert et al. (14) showed that the minimum pore size for osteoconduction is 150 μm. Freyman et al. (15) concluded that the minimum pore size of scaffolds should be greater than 100 μm to allow for nutrient transferring among the pores. As shown in Figure 1, all the fabricated alginate scaffolds with different concentrations had suitable pore size structures for hard tissue replacement.
Figure 1. Scanning electron microscopy of alginate scaffolds with different concentrations of (A) 4%, (B) 8%, and (C) 16% (w/v) fabricated by the freeze-drying method
The compressive strength of the alginate scaffolds showed that the mechanical strength of the alginate scaffolds improved with increasing the alginate concentration (Figure 2A). The poor mechanical properties of the 4% alginate scaffold would limit its application in cartilage and bone tissue engineering.
Figure 2. (A) Compressive strength, (B) contact angle of water on the surface, (C) degradation rate, and (D) quantitative mRNA expression analysis of osteoblast-like cells derived from PDLS cells seeded onto samples of alginate scaffolds with different concentrations of 4%, 8%, and 16% (w/v) fabricated by the freeze-drying method (n.s. stands for not significant, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, and ***P < 0.001).
Contact angle analysis was conducted to evaluate the surface properties of different concentrations of the alginate scaffolds. Figure 2B shows the variation of water contact angle on the surface of fabricated scaffolds. As can be seen, the contact angle decreased from 41 ± 0.17º to 37 ± 0.56º as the concentration of alginate increased from 4 to 16% (w/v). However, all three samples showed hydrophilic surfaces that could facilitate cell adhesion and ingrowth.
4.2. Degradation Behavior of Prepared Scaffolds
The degradation trends of the prepared alginate scaffolds with different concentrations (4, 8, and 16% (w/v)) after 28 days of soaking in water, DMEM, and DMEM + FBS are shown in Figure 2C. As can be seen, the degradation rate was significantly higher in DMEM + FBS media for all the samples. A significant difference was observed between the degradation rates of samples soaked in water and in DMEM + FBS. After 28 days, the degradation rate of 4% alginate reached ~76% in DMEM + FBS, showing a weight loss of almost 1.5 times the 16% alginate soaked in the same solution. As can be seen, the degradation rate of 8% alginate was ~70% in DMEM + FBS.
One of the most important properties that a scaffold must full fill is its degradability over time (16). The present study demonstrated that the obtained 4% alginate scaffold exhibited high weight loss in different solutions and its dissolution rate was much higher than the rates of 8% and 16% alginate scaffolds throughout the degradation time and in all the examined solutions, indicating that the obtained 4% alginate scaffold had an unstable structure. The high dissolution rate of 4% alginate scaffold may be attributed to its high porosity volume compared to both 8% and 16% alginate scaffolds.
It was found that the 4%, 8%, and 16% alginate scaffolds had the interconnected porosities of about 83 ± 2.3, 80 ± 3.7, and 58 ± 4.3, respectively (Table 3). Based on these results, the 16% alginate scaffold had almost a closed-porosity structure and its low volume interconnected porosity could not meet the requirement for cartilage and bone tissue substitute.
Table 3. Interconnected and Total Porosity of Fabricated Scaffolds
Interconnected Porosity
Total Porosity
Alginate 4% 83 ± 2.3 85 ± 3.1
Alginate 16% 58 ± 4.3 80 ± 3.9
One of the most important properties of scaffolds in hard tissue engineering applications is their osteogenesis abilities. Here, we evaluated the effect of alginate concentration on gene expression levels using RT-PCR (Figure 2D). As can be seen, there was no significant difference in collagen type I expression by changing the concentration of alginate. In the case of osteocalcin, ALP, and osteopontin genes, the levels of gene expression of the cells exposed to the 8% alginate were significantly higher than the gene expression levels of the cells contacting the 4% alginate. Osteocalcin and ALP genes exhibited the highest expression in the 8% alginate scaffold (having the highest amount of interconnected porosity) and the lowest expression in the 16% alginate scaffold (having the lowest amount of interconnected porosity). Other researchers showed that different physical and chemical properties of scaffolds could significantly affect the gene expression (17). Interestingly, as can be seen in Figure 2D and Table 1, the gene expression level decreased dramatically with decreasing the pore interconnectivity.
Ideal scaffold biomaterials for use in bone and cartilage tissues should be satisfied with a normal level of biodegradability, high porosity, high osteogenetic ability, and good mechanical properties. In this study, we showed that 4% and 16% (w/v) alginate scaffolds had weak mechanical properties and poor osteogenesis abilities, respectively; thus, they could not be good candidates for use as hard tissues substitutes. Therefore, our proposed scaffold to use in hard tissue engineering applications is the alginate scaffold made with the concentration of 8% alginate (w/v).
Thus, we evaluated in-vitro PDLS cells seeded on the optimized 8% alginate scaffold at different time points and the results are presented in the following.
4.3. Cell Culture on the Optimized Alginate Scaffold
Figure 3 shows the morphology of PDLS cells cultured on the optimized 8% (w/v) alginate scaffolds for 9 days using SEM. As can be seen, the cells attached and grew on the surface of the scaffold over time. The figure demonstrates that cells attached and spread on the surface by normal spherical shapes and most of them showed several extensions (marked by yellow arrows). The attachment and growth of cells on the surface and in the pores of a scaffold are the most important properties of a completely safe and biocompatible scaffold (18). Cells attachment and spread on the surface of the optimized 8% (w/v) alginate scaffold are obvious in Figure 3.
Figure 3. Cell attachment and spread on the surface of the 8% alginate scaffold after 9 days of cell culture distinguished by SEM.
Figure 4 shows the results of MTT assay of the optimized 8% (w/v) alginate scaffold and a control sample (only cells + media) after 3, 6, and 9 days of cell culture. The results showed that after 3 days of culture, there was no significant difference between control and alginate samples. However, cells continued to grow over time. By extending the culture duration up to 6 days, the optical density of the optimized 8% (w/v) alginate scaffold significantly increased compared to the control sample (P < 0.05). As can be seen, the synthesized alginate sample not only did not have any negative effect on PDLS cells, but also could promote cell ingrowth. These results strongly show that the optimized alginate scaffold was completely safe, with cell-friendly behavior and no cytotoxic effect.
Figure 4. MTT assay of the modified 8% alginate scaffold after different durations of cell culture using periodontal ligament stem cells. Data are presented as means ± SD (*P < 0.05).
4.4. Differentiation of PDLSCs to Osteoblast on the Optimized 8% (w/v) Alginate Scaffold
Figure 5 shows the immunocytochemistry staining for collagen I and osteonectin related to osteoblast-like cells. This figure shows that PDLSCs differentiated to osteoblast-like cells successfully during culture of PDLSCs in differentiation media. These results show that the fabricated modified alginate scaffold was osteoconductive and could be used in hard tissue engineering applications.
Figure 5. Immunocytochemistry staining of osteogenic-differentiated PDLSCs cultured on the 8% (w/v) alginate scaffold for collagen I and osteonectin.
Alginate-based scaffolds are promising biomaterials in cartilage and bone substitute applications. However, their mechanical, physical, and osteogenesis behaviors should be tailored for a successful replacement. In this study, we showed that the 8% alginate scaffold had the optimized concentration to meet the requirement of hard tissue engineering applications.
4.5. Conclusions
In this study, we modified the mechanical properties, surface characteristics, porosity structure, and cell behavior of alginate scaffolds fabricated by the freeze-drying method only by changing the concentration of alginate. The modified 8% (w/v) alginate scaffold had interconnected porosity of more than 80%, the compressive strength of ~2.6 MPa, and the contact angle of water on the surface of 37º ± 0.56. The results showed that the modified alginate scaffold exhibited high cell viability and could significantly promote osteoblast-like cell proliferation. Our results confirmed the differentiation of periodontal ligament stem cells into osteoblasts by using the optimized alginate scaffold. The results support the use of 8% (w/v) alginate scaffolds fabricated by the freeze-drying method as bone and cartilage tissue substitutes.
Conflict of Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Ethical Considerations: We did not perform any in vivo or human experiments.
Funding/Support: It is not declared by the authors.
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Recovery from any addiction is a difficult battle. Fortunately, there is always hope for a better life, even after the most difficult substance use disorders. Treatment and continued commitment after rehab can play a big role in a successful recovery.
All residential (inpatient) treatment programs should include some discharge planning. Everyone has unique goals after rehab treatment. Most aftercare programs focus on similar basic goals, including:
Sustaining abstinence
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Maintaining or obtaininga career or job
Learning more about recovery and staying proactive
Resolving family difficulties1,2
It’s easy to forget how important it is to maintain recovery practices. Studies show that it pays to remember how important recovery really is. People who take time each day to remember what a relapse might cost and what supports can help are more likely to reach their long-term goals.3,4 Group therapy, support groups, 12-step programs, and individual and family counseling all help with these goals.2
Tips to Keep Recovery on Track
Here are 15 simple suggestions that should help keep your recovery on track.5
Be honest with yourself. You were addicted to alcohol and/or drugs and could be again, if you’re not careful.
Continue complete abstinence. This isn’t a matter of moderation, of self-control, or adherence most of the time. Recovery calls for a commitment to total abstinence every waking moment.
Prevent relapse. While minor lapses may occur (you’re not perfect, but you’re determined), you must avoid letting down your guard to surrender your power, your identity, to substances. Remember, people are more vulnerable to rash action when hungry, angry, lonely or tired (commonly referred to as H.A.L.T.); recognize the risk and be ready to cope positively.
Test for other mental health conditions. Many people with substance use disorders also have other health issues; those other conditions may contribute to a substance use disorder. If there is a mental or physical health condition present, this is referred to as having co-occurring disorders, and you should be treated for a “dual diagnosis.”
Seek and maintain a strong social support system. To stay the course of recovery, you need to have a positive, drug-free social network. This may involve family therapy or group therapy to build bonds, or individual therapy to help build boundaries.
Find drug-free environment. Precautions must be taken to ensure your living and working situations feel safe to you, and do not lure you back into addictive behavior.
Form a new, healthy lifestyle. Naturally, with alcohol and drugs out of your life, new patterns of healthy living need to be practiced until they become your new habit. This will take time, and it may feel awkward or uncomfortable at first. But it can be done intentionally and successfully.
Submit to post-treatment monitoring. As a person with a history of substance use disorder (and possibly other complicating conditions), you should remain awareof the power of addiction. A sponsor or supportive sober person or program can help you remember your goals.
Don’t overcompensate. With treatment hopefully behind you for good, you may have feelings of shame, guilt and sorrow for all that has been lost or damaged. Resist the temptation to setunrealistic expectations on yourself or overwork yourself; this might only lead to more frustration, anxiety and stress, which could pull you back into that old, familiar routine involving alcohol and/or drugs.
Improve your attitude. You will find strength when you reflect daily on where you’ve been, what you’ve accomplished and the hopeful path you are now traveling. Expressing your gratitude will repair bridges that have been damaged and nurture a healthier mindset.
Give more of yourself to others. It is incredibly healing to help other people. Your involvement in self-help or 12-Step groups will offer plenty of opportunity to give testimony, encouragement and advice. By getting your mind off yourself, you may gain the fulfilling satisfaction of giving useful service to others and, in return, receiving thanks, kindness and encouragement to faithfully continue your own journey.
Educate yourself and loved ones. Everyone wins when you are able to assist or encourage significant people in your life to join you in learning more about addictions and mental wellness.Family therapy, parenting groups, and even support groups can help you and your loved ones learn more.
Maintain hope and resilience. We are all human. You are a work in progress. The lure to relapse into old habits will always be out there; just hold your ground and keep doing your best.
Embrace community and spirituality. Consider expanding your sense of meaning and purpose in life by being an active part of a local community or religious organization.
Make wellness a priority. Maintaining an overall quality of life (well-being) and pursuing optimal physical, emotional and mental health is simply good advice for everyone.
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1 Substance Abuse Treatment for Persons with Co-Occurring Disorders. Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. Rockville (MD): Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (US); 2005. (Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) Series, No. 42.) 6 Traditional Settings and Models. Retrieved 7 Jul 2017.
2 Substance Abuse Treatment: Group Therapy. Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. Rockville (MD): Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (US); 2005. (Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) Series, No. 41.) 5 Stages of Treatment. Retrieved 7 Jul 2017.
3 Laudet, Alexandre B., Robert Savage, and Daneyal Mahmood. Pathways to Long-Term Recovery: A Preliminary Investigation. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 34.3 (2002): 305–311. Retrieved 7 Jul 2017.
4 Clinical Issues in Intensive Outpatient Treatment. Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. Rockville (MD): Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (US); 2006. (Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) Series, No. 47.) Chapter 7. Retrieved 7 Jul 2017.
5 Treatments for Substance Use Disorders. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Aug 2016. Retrieved 7 Jul 2017.
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Versus Trump Podcast
Ensuring the President “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed”
Free Speech & Press
Reproductive Freedom
Gun Rights & Regulation
International & Foreign Relations Law
Removal from Office
Russian Interference
Pardon But Don’t Forget
Bernadette Meyler
// 10/4/17 // Commentary
We often tell ourselves “forgive and forget,” but when a president pardons a crime does that mean we forget it? It doesn’t and shouldn’t. Those who claim otherwise don’t understand the meaning of the pardoning powers under the Constitution.
A pardon is an act of mercy remitting punishment or barring further prosecution; it is not an amnesia pill. Executive pardons are powerful enough to grant freedom to prisoners on death row, but they cannot rewrite the history books or create the fiction that the pardoned conduct never occurred.
This is no merely theoretical distinction. It bears on the legal consequences of President Trump’s pardon of Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff. Oral argument about the pardon is set for today, October 4, and the Department of Justice has supported Arpaio’s request that Judge Susan Bolton vacate his criminal contempt conviction. But she could instead simply dismiss the case and let the contempt ruling linger.
A conviction for criminal contempt differs from a final conviction in a criminal case. It arises out of a court’s decision that a party willfully disregarded a court order rather than a jury verdict on the defendant’s guilt or innocence. In Arpaio’s case, a judge had ordered him to stop detaining people based only on his belief they were illegal immigrants. Evidence showed he flagrantly disobeyed that order. That led to his criminal contempt conviction in July.
There’s a first question we should ask: Is Trump’s pardoning of Arpaio constitutional at all? Here the answer is yes. In the 1925 case Ex parte Grossman, the Supreme Court held that the president can constitutionally pardon convictions for criminal contempt. Some lawyers and scholars have argued either that Grossman doesn’t apply to the Arpaio case, or that it should be overturned, and that the Arpaio pardon is constitutionally invalid. But given the broad scope of the president’s pardon power, these arguments don’t seem particularly convincing. For better or worse, Grossman sets a clear precedent and needs be followed.
But here’s the catch: if we follow the precedent of Grossman, then that also means Arpaio’s contempt conviction should not be vacated. Why? Because, according to my review of the historical record, Grossman’s conviction was never vacated after President Coolidge’s pardon. This means that there is no precedent for forgiveness entailing forgetting, at least when it comes to executive pardons.
Current Justice Department guidance confirms the distinction between pardoning and erasing. A presidential pardon does not expunge the fact of a prior conviction; instead, federal judges can order expungement under limited circumstances. Following a pardon, the record of an individual’s conviction stands side by side with his or her pardon. There is an additional complexity in the Arpaio case because final judgment was never entered against the sheriff; the plaintiffs in the original class action against Arpaio have, however, submitted an amicus brief that effectively responds to the government’s argument that this distinction should make a difference.
Looking at the longer historical record, there is a long tradition of differentiating between erasing crimes and pardoning them. In seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England and America, for example, there were many Acts of Oblivion. As the name suggests, these statutes forcefully prescribed forgetting. Coming in the aftermath of events like the English Civil War or mass uprisings, they were designed to halt civil conflict and put to rest the memory of prior turbulence. They covered large swaths of people, mandated forgetting, and carried stiff penalties against those who insisted on bringing sore subjects to the fore.
Even in England, however, the King did not issue these Acts of Oblivion through his prerogative powers. Instead, they were passed by the King in Parliament. In America, colonial legislatures, not governors, issued them. Why? Because the decision to forget is of great consequence. It should be made by the whole community through its representatives, not by one person.
Memory in these contexts is important. To take but one example: even though President Obama commuted Chelsea Manning’s sentence last year, uproar over the activities leading to her conviction by court martial recently led Harvard University to withdraw its fellowship offer to her. Should we let Arpaio get off more lightly and allow his violations of many people’s constitutional rights to be removed from the historical record?
Judge Bolton would be making a serious error if she were to vacate Arpaio’s criminal contempt conviction. But even if she does, let’s not let President Trump make us forget what Arpaio did.
Recently on Take Care
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On this week's Versus Trump, Charlie and Jason discuss the (frivolous) legal challenges to come. They are then joined by Public Citizen's Matthew Seligman to learn what happened with all those last-minute ballots, and what might happen in ongoing litigation in the Supreme Court.
Jason Harrow
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I catalog the legal attacks to come from the Trump team. None of his strategies have any chance of changing the outcome.
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I'm pretty nervous. But there’s also no reason to think that the rule of law has been entirely eroded in America in 2020. So far, the center has held.
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The Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District and the Parker County Livestock Improvement Association receive the Texas Water Development Board’s Texas Rain Catcher Award
For immediate release. Contact: Lauren Munguia at 512-463-2322
AUSTIN – (September 3, 2020) – The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) announced today the recipients of its annual Texas Rain Catcher Award, a rainwater harvesting competition and recognition program. The Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District and the Parker County Livestock Improvement Association were recognized in the agricultural category.
The TWDB's Texas Rain Catcher Award recognizes excellence in the application of rainwater harvesting systems in Texas, promotes rainwater harvesting technology, and educates the public on this critical water-saving practice.
The Parker County Livestock Improvement Association (PCLIA) fairground hosts more than 60 events annually with an estimated 35,000 visitors. In recent years, the fairground has faced a water supply challenge. In 2019, the existing well struggled to keep up with the water demand during the PCLIA’s largest event, the Parker County Youth Livestock Show. Rather than drilling a second well, the PCLIA applied for and received a $50,000 grant from the Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District (District) to construct a rainwater harvesting system on the newly built 30,000-square-foot livestock arena.
Featuring a 65,000-gallon tank, the system offsets the demand on the Trinity Aquifer and serves several functions. The collected rainwater primarily provides water for livestock consumption and washing during stock shows and rodeos. During the summertime, the rainwater collection offers a water source for fire trucks, minimizes runoff and erosion, and serves as an educational tool for the District.
The Texas Rain Catcher Award competition began in 2007 and is open to all individuals, companies, organizations, municipalities, and other local and state governmental entities in Texas. It recognizes entities and individuals in the rainwater harvesting community and beyond and establishes award recipients as dedicated water conservation leaders in Texas. The Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District and the Parker County Livestock Improvement Association are one of six awardees being recognized statewide this year.
The TWDB is the state agency charged with collecting and disseminating water-related data, assisting with regional water and flood planning, and preparing the state water and flood plans. The TWDB administers cost-effective financial assistance programs for the construction of water supply, wastewater treatment, flood control, and agricultural water conservation projects.
About the Texas Water Newsroom
The Texas Water Newsroom, produced by the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB), was created to tell the stories of Texas water—the people, places, issues, and efforts—and to showcase the TWDB’s expertise and resources.
All content on this site is available for public use and may be reproduced in full or in part for informational purposes. The TWDB does not endorse the use of this content for promotional purposes.
For media inquiries, contact Lauren Munguia at Lauren.munguia@twdb.texas.gov or 512-463-2322.
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Wachusett School Committee Member Says She Wants Schools Closed Because 10,000 Kids Have Died From COVID In The Last 2 Weeks
Review Of Arrested Rioters Shows None Posted About Raiding Capitol On Parler, But All Posted On Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
Home/Uncategorized/Woman And Friends Who Wrongly Smeared Hull Police For Racially Profiling Booze Thieves At Nantasket Beach Vows Lawsuits Against Turtleboy
Woman And Friends Who Wrongly Smeared Hull Police For Racially Profiling Booze Thieves At Nantasket Beach Vows Lawsuits Against Turtleboy
Uncle Turtleboy July 31, 2019
Yesterday we published a blog debunking a viral lie on Facebook, alleging that the Hull Police racially profiled three black teenagers at Nantasket Beach. As it turns out the kids had stolen a bottle of booze from the store across the street, they were confronted by the cops, and their parents offered to pay for the alcohol in order to avoid an arrest.
But it was still shared over 5K times and counting, which has led to violent threats against the police.
Dina Willis frequently pulls stunts like this anytime she can capitalize on it, or any time she’s inconvenienced at all. For instance, two weeks ago she was upset that the nurses and doctors at BMC were racist because they had the audacity to treat gunshot victims and heroin addicts who run wild around meth mile.
After seeing she had been called out as a liar she responded by posting this.
Thank God she clarified that it was the white KKK of Boston. For a moment there I thought it was the Latino chapter of the Klan.
She posed the age old question, why “wasn’t they” arrested? And the answer to that is simple – because the store owner chose not to press charges in exchange for being reimbursed. Thus proving that both he and the Hull Police are the exact opposite of racist.
The blog in question also highlighted other disturbing comments that were made by her friends on the post, including this one from realtor Regina Hunter, stating that we should teach kids that the police are not their friends.
The opposite of a friend is an enemy, and I think that’s how most reasonable people would take that. Teaching kids that the police can’t be trusted is dangerous for both the police and the kids who are being force fed this propaganda.
Evidently Regina Hunter is planning on suing for slander because of that.
Pro tip – if you look into suing a website for slander, you’re gonna run into some problems. Particularly because slander is oral defamation and the word you’re looking for is libel. Unfortunately for you when a website screenshots a comment you made on Facebook, posts it on a blog, and offers opinions on that comment, it’s not libelous.
In fairness, this woman has a very interesting and recent history with the police that would make her suspicious of their intentions. Her son, Kevin Williams, was arrested for allegedly murdering a well liked clerk in Dorchester in October of 2018. She insisted he was innocent.
“My son is stating that they stopped him for walking while black because he didn’t do anything,” Hunter told WBZ-TV.
Luckily she’s resourceful, received help from the NAACP, knew that accusing the police of racial profiling would pressure on them, and her son had the charges dropped against him. But the BPD had a witness and video surveillance to have made the arrest.
Boston police say they have the strength of a strong witness identification and video surveillance from the scene. But Hunter says she has the strength of a mother’s conviction that her son was in their Dorchester apartment helping her pack for a move the next day.
I’m not saying he actually killed the clerk, because if there was strong enough evidence to convict him they’d have brought it to trial. But he was released a week or so after Rachael Rollins was elected District Attorney, and she’s notorious for being lenient and frequently used the race card in order to get elected. I have no idea if Regina knows Rollins, but the timing was interesting to say the least.
In April there was an arrest for the shooting, but the guy arrested is accused of being the look out, so they still don’t have the shooter. Again, I’m not saying it was Kevin Williams did it, but his uncle was the President of the NAACP, his mother is obviously resourceful and good at playing the race card, and according to her son,
“My mom’s an animal,” said Kevin. “She puts her heart into everything.”
And the killer’s never been found as far as I can tell. So take from that what you will.
She made an appearance on WBUR after an arrest was made in April, which again, was not for the shooter.
Look, I get why a mother would be distrustful of the police after an incident like this. But the fact of the matter is that her son wasn’t racially profiled, and neither were the kids on the beach in Hull. They were identified by witnesses as having broken the law. It’s the police’s job to investigate that. They had a witness and a surveillance tape suggesting it was Kevin Williams, which was the same evidence the kids at Nantasket Beach had against them. It’s just that getting someone on a murder and armed robbery charge is a lot harder than catching someone stealing a bottle of booze.
The bottom line is you shouldn’t believe everything you see on Facebook and it’s always better to cooperate with the police like the kids at Nantasket Beach did, rather than be confrontational with them.
Hello Turtle Riders. As you know if you follow Turtleboy we are constantly getting censored and banned by Facebook for what are clearly not violations of their terms of service. Twitter has done the same, and trolls mass reported our blog to Google AdSense thousands of times, leading to demonitization. We can get by and survive, but we could really use your help. Please consider donating by hitting the PayPal button above if you’d like support free speech and what we do in the face of Silicon Valley censorship. Or just buy our award winning book about the dangers of censorship and rise of Turtleboy:
Boston Boston Police dina willis fake hate crimes greg simmons hull police juan williams kevin williams nantasket beach racial profiling regina hunter
Well Respected Rutland Cop Arrested For Domestic Violence Incident With Ex-Husband At West Brookfield Home
Leominster Police Bothered By Fabricated Story About Whitney Mall Kidnapping Attempt To Drive Traffic Towards Hair Coloring Business On Facebook
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YC-backed BuildBuddy raises $3.15M to help developers build software more quickly
Alex Wilhelm 2 months
BuildBuddy, whose software helps developers compile and test code quickly using a blend of open-source technology and proprietary tools, announced a funding round today worth $3.15 million.
The company was part of the Winter 2020 Y Combinator batch, which saw its traditional demo day in March turned into an all-virtual affair. The startups from the cohort then had to raise capital as the public markets crashed around them and fear overtook the startup investing world.
BuildBuddy’s funding round makes it clear that choppy market conditions and a move away from in-person demos did not fully dampen investor interest in YC’s March batch of startups, though it’s far too soon to tell if the group will perform as well as others, given how long it takes for startup winners to mature into exits.
Let’s talk code
BuildBuddy has foundations in how Google builds software. To get under the skin of what it does, I got ahold of co-founder Siggi Simonarson, who worked at the Mountain View-based search giant for a little over a half decade.
During that time he became accustomed to building software in the Google style, namely using its internal tool called Blaze to compile his code. It’s core to how developers at Google work, Simonarson told TechCrunch. “You write some code,” he added, “you run Blaze build; you write some code, you run Blaze test.”
What sets Blaze apart from other developer tools is that “opposed to your traditional language-specific build tools,” Simonarson said, it’s code agnostic, so you can use it to “build across [any] programming language.”
All the companies from Y Combinator’s W20 Demo Day, Part III: Hardware, Robots, AI and Developer Tools
Google open-sourced the core of Blaze, which was named Bazel, an anagram of the original name.
So what does BuildBuddy do? In product terms, it’s building the pieces of Blaze that Google engineers have access to inside the company, for other developers using Bazel in their own work. In business terms, BuildBuddy wants to offer its service to individual developers for free, and charge companies that use its product.
Simonarson and his co-founder Tyler Williams started small, building a “results UI” tool that they shared with a Bazel user group. The members of that group picked up the tool, rapidly bringing it inside a number of sizable companies.
This origin story underlines something that BuildBuddy has that early-stage startups often lack, namely demonstrable enterprise market appetite. Lots of big companies use Bazel to help create software, and BuildBuddy found its way into a few of them early in its life.
Simply building a useful tool for a popular open-source project is no guarantee of success, however. Happily for BuildBuddy, early users helped it set direction for its product development, meaning that over the summer the startup added the features that its current users most wanted.
Simonarson explained that after BuildBuddy was initially used by external developers, they demanded additional tools, like authentication. In the words of the co-founder, the response from the startup was “great!” The same went for a request for dashboarding, and other features.
Even better for the YC graduate, some of the features requested were the sort that it intends to charge for. That brings us back to money and the round itself.
BuildBuddy closed its round in May. But like with most venture capital tales, it’s not a simple story.
According to Simonarson, his startup started raising the round during one of those awful early-COVID days when the stock market dropped by double-digit percentage points in a single trading session.
BuildBuddy’s goal was to raise $1.5 million. Simonarson was worried at the time, telling TechCrunch that it was his first time fundraising, and that he wasn’t sure if his startup was going to “raise anything at all” in that climate.
But the nascent company secured its first $100,000 check. And then a $300,000 check, over time managing to fill out its round.
So what happened that got the company from $1.5 million to just over $3 million? The investor that put in $300,000 wanted to put in another $2 million. The company talked them down to $1.5 million at a higher cap (BuildBuddy raised its round using a SAFE), and the deal was done at those terms.
The startup initially didn’t want to raise the extra cash, but Simonarson told TechCrunch that at the time it was not clear where the fundraising environment was heading; BuildBuddy raised back when startup layoffs were a leading story, and a return to high-cadence VC rounds was months away.
So BuildBuddy wound up securing $3.15 million to support a current headcount of four. It intends to hire, naturally, lower its comically long runway and keep building out its Bazel-focused service.
Picking a few names from the investor spreadsheet that BuildBuddy sent over — points for completeness to the startup — Y Combinator, Addition, Scribble and Village Global, among others put capital into the round.
Dev tools are hot at the moment. Given that, as soon as BuildBuddy’s ARR starts to get moving, I expect we’ll hear from them again.
Developer productivity tools startup Raycast raises $2.7M from Accel
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How to pack extremely light for hiking
Words: Scott Messenger | Images: Blaise van Malsen, iStockphoto.com
DIY Environment Wellness
Reduce the weight on your back for your next backcountry trek
On his first backcountry hike, Andrew Johnson (Machinist ’04) intended to be prepared for everything. He and a friend were headed out for a 2-night excursion last summer in the pleasantly scenic Skoki Valley near Banff. She was a veteran trekker, a geologist used to hauling equipment and the necessities of life into remote locations.
Johnson, frankly, was afraid.
“I was worried about freezing at night,” says the Machinist program technician. “I was worried about not getting enough calories.”
What should have worried him more was the weight of his pack. Johnson had filled it with bulky clothes, cans of tuna and bottles of water, creating a 60-pound burden on his six-foot-five, 180-lb frame. He finished his first day exhausted. They admitted defeat and thought it best to hike home the next.
But Johnson left the woods that day with a new outlook and has since transformed himself into a serious hiker, never to be brought down by his backpack again. “My philosophy: come down to the gram on everything,” says Johnson, now a frequent backcountry camper. “The quality of your trip and the lightness of that bag are proportional.”
Here’s how he leaves as much as possible behind when he gets away from it all.
Packing tricks
In Johnson’s view, reducing weight is a responsibility best shared. That’s why a “packing party” precedes a hike. The night before departure, he and his travel companions meet, dump their bags and redistribute anything meant to be shared.
A tent, for example, can be split into pegs, poles, and the shell and shared. Same goes for a stove and other communal items.
If it can’t be divvied up, it has to be light. A down sleeping bag generally weighs less than synthetic. A Leatherman multi-tool might be cool, but not useful enough to justify its heft. Even a knife is questionable. “People think you need a knife when you go hiking, but for what?” asks Johnson.
After scrutinizing other contents, he considers the pack itself. Though Johnson didn’t compromise on the comfort of his 70-litre bag compared to lighter models, he did remove unnecessary attachments and compartments.
“I consume a lot of calories,” says Johnson. “If I don’t get them I start to get kind of woozy.”
Most people would on a hike, which can burn 430 to 550 or more per hour, depending on body weight.
Johnson reduces homemade meals to near weightlessness in a simple food dehydrator. Add hot water to food in freezer bags (no plates or bowls required) and dinner is served in roughly 3 minutes.
Dinner is served in roughly 3 minutes.
Though rice is his go-to carb, he’ll add variety with recipes from A Fork in the Trail, a cookbook devoted to practical, flavourful backcountry feasts. “We make our own food and we feel good and have the energy we need.”
He grabs water – which adds a kilo per litre – on the go from local sources, cleaning it with a gravity filtration system and adding electrolyte tablets if he’s feeling low.
First aid and toiletries
Johnson’s first aid kit comprises a scant collection of Band-Aids, Tylenol and digestive meds.
He packs travel size toothpaste, sunscreen, bug spray and the like, or takes small amounts in reusable containers. In either case, they get shared at the packing party.
Johnson dresses for success in the backcountry, which means few wardrobe changes, and accessories that include little more than a sun hat, well-ventilated rain coat, polarized sunglasses, comfortable hiking boots and inexpensive flip flops for river crossings.
“We don’t take pants.”
On summer hikes, “we don’t take pants,” he says. “You need long underwear for the night, shorts for the day and rain pants. With those 3 things you’ve already got plenty of gear for your legs.” His upper half requires just 2 long-sleeve shirts: one for hiking, one for sleeping. He layers with a vest.
All of it (apart from the vest, which is down) is merino wool – which is warm, breathable, quick drying, and comfortable. The dedicated ultra-light hiker can even find underwear made of the stuff, which Johnson has.
“I don’t know if that’s necessary,” he says, “but why not?”
Andrew Johnson’s favourite backcountry hikes
Car camping isn’t Johnson’s idea of a getaway. “There are all these cars, all these people,” he says. “What I really like is peace and quiet and getting off the grid.” Here are 3 of his favourite places to unplug.
Banff National Park, Alberta
Plan your visit to beautiful Paradise Valley carefully, as you can encounter early summer snow or the trail may be closed in July and August due to bears. Those who make it will be rewarded with views of the Grand Sentinel, a massive, natural obelisk, and a waterfall known as the Giant Steps – “the highlight of my hiking life,” says Johnson.
Berg Lake Trail
Mt. Robson Provincial Park, British Columbia
“This is one of the most hiked trails in our neck of the woods,” says Johnson, owing to a lake speckled with icebergs set against a dramatic Rocky Mountain backdrop. Book campsites ahead, he recommends, and consider daytrips to Tobaggan Falls, Hargreaves Lake and Glacier, and the Snowbird Pass. “All are worth the effort.”
The Skyline Trail
Jasper National Park, Alberta
“The name of this hike speaks for itself,” says Johnson. This is Jasper’s highest trail, offering views of much of the park – “a magnificent panorama that I will never forget.” At the Notch, the halfway and highest point, Johnson recalls ptarmigan hidden among the rock, lichens and snow. Since the walk begins and finishes at different points, you’ll need a vehicle waiting at the end.
If you enjoyed that story, try these
Memoirist Rob Kaye reflects on 3 decades as a park warden
The ultimate car-camping packing list
What to do if you encounter a bear
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Flirting Tips for Teenagers
By Crystal Schwanke
If you're just venturing out into the dating territory or you're hoping to do so soon, you can benefit from flirting tips for teenagers. The key is to keep it lighthearted and fun. Flirting is a way to say, "Hey, you, I like you" without having to actually say it. Read on for the how-tos.
Why Flirt?
Flirting is a way to call attention to yourself and impress your crush with your wit and charm, plus make them know you like them without ever having to spell it out. Most of us don't feel too comfortable with just saying it, and part of the fun of a potential new relationship is the game of "Is he or she flirting or aren't they?" There's a certain thrill to flirting.
Teenage Girls' Bedroom Ideas
The bonus perk to flirting is that it makes you feel better about yourself! When your flirting is well received, you feel more important and liked. And while your main goal is to snag a sweetie, the only person who really needs to like you is you. It's a great cycle because the more you like yourself, the more others will be drawn to you. Just don't become a narcissist! The self-assuredness you gain in your flirting adventures will stick with you for life.
Top Flirting Tips for Teenagers
There are so many detailed flirting tips for teenagers out there (whole books!), but here are some of the best:
Display your sense of humor. Laugh at their jokes if they're funny and tell a couple of your own. Don't be afraid to let them know that they're funny with words in addition to a giggle or guffaw.
Casually touch your crush's arm as if you're simply emphasizing a point.
Show off just how smart you are. You don't have to act like a know-it-all (please don't!), but don't dumb yourself down in an attempt to reel in the object of your affection
Make eye contact. Go on, don't be shy. Don't stare, of course, but don't let yourself get overwhelmed by the fact that you're talking to someone you really like. Make the general eye contact you would make with a sales clerk, for example. Just hold it a second or so longer.
Be confident- or just act like you are. The longer you pretend to be confident, the more confident you will become. That in itself will make you a better flirt.
The cardinal rule is to be yourself. However trite it may sound, it's true. If you can't impress your crush by being true to who you are, do you really want to spend much more time with him or her? Save your efforts for someone who will appreciate them. Not to mention, if your crush believes you're being "fake" they may be turned off immediately.
Make eye contact from across the room and quickly look away. Make eye contact again, hold their gaze for a few seconds and smile. Then look away again. That will let you know that you are interested in almost any school or social setting. Don't be surprised if they approach you as soon as possible for a chat.
Body Language 101
Body language is huge in flirting. While flirting is made up of smiling, eye contact, light and casual touches and sharing a sense of humor, flirting isn't the same without body language. It's one of easiest ways to flirt. Knowing the body language hints of flirting will help you decide if your potential new boyfriend or girlfriend really likes you back. Flirty body language includes:
Sitting with your knees pointed toward your crush while engaged in conversation
Flashing the inner portion of your wrist. This one is traditionally for women. For example, if you're holding a soda and angle it outward so that the delicate skin of your wrist is exposed. The same goes for the palm of your hand.
Leaning forward and maintaining good eye contact in conversation. Leaning forward gives the impression of hanging on their every word, therefore making them feel important.
Playing with hair (flipping it, twirling it, and so on) is a common flirty body language tactic among women.
Smiling, eye contact, and body language that conveys the right message are the best--and usually easiest--flirting tips to abide by.
Truth or Dare Questions for Teens, Kids, and Adults By Kate Miller-Wilson
What Is an Appropriate Monetary Graduation Gift? By Eliza Martinez
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Subject: Māori language [x]
Publisher: education [x]
langdon (1)
T. Glynn & M. Berryman & Y. Langdon & S. McDonald (2003) Bilingual literacy gains from classroom language and literacy strategies for beginning Māori second language learners: Final Report.. Ministry of Education Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga
Bilingual literacy gains from classroom language and literacy strategies for beginning Māori second language learners: Final Report. Wellington: Ministry of Education. This publication is not currently available online. Visit your local library or contact Waikato University for advice on obtaining this publication.
R. Bishop & M. Berryman & C. Richardson (2001) Te Toi Huarewa: Effective teaching and learning strategies, and effective teaching materials for improving the reading and writing in Te Reo Māori of students aged five to nine in Māori medium education: Final report to the Ministry of Education.. Ministry of Education Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga
Te Toi Huarewa looks at effective teaching and learning strategies, and effective teaching materials for improving the reading and writing in te reo Māori of students aged five to nine in Māori-medium education. The main purpose of the project was to observe and collaboratively reflect upon the teaching and learning strategies used during literacy programmes by a range of year one to year five Māori-medium classroom teachers who were identified as effective.
T. Glynn & C. Richardson & M. Berryman & R. Bishop (2001) Diagnostic assessment tools in Māori medium education: Stocktake and preliminary evaluation: Final report to the Ministry of Education (2001). Ministry of Education Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga
The purpose of the stocktake/evaluation was “to determine which Māori-medium diagnostic tools are currently used in New Zealand to assess student’s achievement in reading, writing and mathematics in the first 4 to 5 years of instruction.” The study also sought to identify gaps in current provisions and potential areas for development.
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+44 (0)20 7183 0254 info@thesoundpipemedia.com
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Apple Pay Cash starts rolling out to iPhone users in the US
by admin | Dec 5, 2017 | Productivity, Technology, UK App News | 0 comments
Apple Pay Cash is finally starting to roll out to users in the States, bringing the ability to send other iOS users payments directly through iMessage. The update is arriving piece by piece to those who’ve downloaded iOS 11.2, which launched two days back with a not-yet-live version of the feature.
Apple Pay Cash was announced back in June at WWDC. However, the company added ahead of iOS 11’s September launch that the feature would be “coming this fall with an update to iOS 11 and watchOS 4,” and while it was intended to launch alongside 11.2, this weekend’s early arrival of the operating system left it behind, as the company worked to push the software live, seemingly in order to address an issue that was causing some iPhones to randomly reboot.
The new feature is a proprietary take on mobile payment apps like Venmo, PayPal and Square Cash, allowing money to be transferred to friends and family in a message or using Siri. Money sent is drawn from the credit or debit card tied to a user’s Apple Wallet. When it’s received on the other side, it shows up as an Apple Pay Cash card — sort of a virtual gift card, also stored in the Apple Wallet.
That money can then be transferred to the bank or kept on the device as a gift card, where it can be spent anywhere that accepts Apple Pay. It’s an added convenience, bringing all of that functionality directly to iMessage, rather than having to mess about with a third-party app. But for Apple, it’s also a way to rope in users who have been reluctant to install Apple Pay, and keep people in the iMessage ecosystem.
The feature appears to still be rolling out in pieces here in the States. No word yet on a time frame for international expansion.
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Msty
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Tag: Air India
Posted on October 25, 2016 October 25, 2016 by thebullishbearblogger
Against a backdrop of rising concerns over NPAs in the banking system, it was reported that Air India was looking at the possibility of availing a new scheme, the Scheme for Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets (S4A), to rejig debt to the tune of a minimum of Rs 100 Bn. Since 2012, the airline has been on a life support with a Rs 300 Bn bailout package from the government, spread over ten years. In fact, this may be one of the biggest sums that LIC has ever loaned out till date: this new loan to Air India of Rs 100 Bn (If that number is correct), will grow its loan book by an enormous 9.26%.
Who reported this? A Secret deal? Was it leaked?
Since, at the time of writing, Air India has made available annual reports only until FY 2013-14, all the financial figures and plans of rejig coming out in the newspapers, if true, are very likely being leaked from Air India/ Civil Aviation Ministry itself, and being dealings in material non-public information, this constitutes a situation of non-uniform dissemination of sensitive information, and possible violation of securities law.
Indeed, the public sector bank index was up by a chunky 1.5% today, being the first day since the story broke, with two of the three stocks mentioned in the story (Bank of India, Bank of Baroda) up over a per cent and the third stock (Punjab National Bank) within 3% of its 52-week high.
Best of socialism at its worst?
There are many facets to this development that stink to high heaven. As Firstpost pointed out – Why the bailout when it was already turning around? It has also been queried before on multiple occasions when LIC was bailing out public sector Companies and investing aggressively in public sector disinvestments, who has the authority to approve this and why isn’t there a public outcry? And all this for a saving of Rs 3 Bn (A 3% saving on Rs 100 Bn), which Air India could save anyway by paying its fuel bills on time, as has been reported here by the Business Standard.
Hypocrisy unlimited
Arun Jaitley: “LIC is not a body which invests only to bailout the government in disinvestment. In issues by private companies, LIC also participates.”
That’s right. The (dis)honorable Finance Minister had agreed, last year, that LIC bails out & bails out repeatedly. And that LIC, with the public’s insurance money, routinely bails out private Companies too!
The government speaks highly of transparency and accountability, yet hijacks the public treasury to bail out desperate banks and monopolies, placing an incremental debt burden on the public.
Here’s another quote from ex- Finance Minister, Yashwant Sinha, a senior leader of the current ruling party, while he was in opposition in March 2012, around the time LIC bailed out ONGC’s disinvestment auction with an unnecessarily high-priced bid:
“LIC is a captive source of funds for the government. They have misused the status of LIC to misappropriate policyholders’ money and brought it to the government’s coffers through the ONGC disinvestment.”
Now that his party is engaged in the same treasonous act, in his own words, a “daylight robbery”, I’m sure he will stand up for the public and do everything in his power to stop this transaction.
Fat chance!
A case of honest kleptocracy
But the Bullish Bear wouldn’t write this if there wasn’t a silver lining to this all. There is an honest side to this, y’kno.
This bailout has proved that the government can openly rob the public of its money, via the LIC, to bail out bankrupt Companies.
Such instances of naked cronyism can at least serve to warn the public that their savings and insurance are at risk. The Life Insurance Corporation of India is not a safe house, nor are any of these banks offering 4-7% return on savings, making loans to extremely indebted Companies while maintaining tier-I ratios of just 10%.
Related reading: Debt-ridden Government makes more claims on LIC (NDTV Profit) >>
This amounts to a rather more transparent & direct socialistic involuntary bailout. Which is bad no doubt, but incrementally better than an indirect socialistic involuntary bailout! As Canadian billionaire and philanthropist Eric Sprott warned, “Whenever you think of the word bank, you should think risk.”
For a brief education on bailouts funded with public money, it can’t get any better than this short video segment, in which Peter Schiff, an Austrian economist and a guru & mentor to yours truly, lambasts a pitch for a government sponsored bailout of American car manufacturers by Lansing, Michigan Mayor Virg Bernero on live television! “If you think these Companies are such good investments, you put your own money into it!”
As mentioned previously, the Bullish Bear is an ardent fan of free markets and open competition. Yet, I have sympathy with Air India’s Chairman & Managing Director, Ashwani Lohani. Coming from the head of a public sector enterprise, these are astonishing words, admitting that a public sector entity does not really care about the delivery of its services. Although he does shy away from writing the public sector off completely, the Bullish Bear believes that he is headed in the right direction!
“Often my airline is questioned on its inability to match the private sector on various operating parameters, and this is unfortunately always done without due appreciation of the fundamental reality that there is no level-playing field… A course correction is the need of the hour, for contrary to what many may think, the public sector has still not lost its relevance in entirety… Unless and until we all, and that includes the mighty government machinery, start believing in the supremacy of deliverance over everything else, such dilemmas would always continue.”
Posted in Airlines, Bailout, India, UncategorizedTagged Air India Arun Jaitley Bailout banks disinvestment Eric Sprott LIC ONGC Peter Schiff public sector Yashwant Sinha1 Comment
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“Saturday Funnies If It Was Not True Edition”
My Friends and Fellow Voting Bikers:
All righty then… Tuesday was Election Day hither and yon. Wednesday was 9-11 everywhere and there was the “Million Muzzie March:” and “Million Biker Rally”, both in Washington, District of Criminals.
Friday was Pizza and Chianti night, but that is a different story.
To just touch on that, show of hands, how many of you heard about the Million Muzzies and/or Bikers in your local media?
I did follow it as best as I could but there were no clear figgers as either can be manipulated. But as far as the Muzzies, they were able to muster somewhere between 21 and 3,000. True number may be, and I am being generous, in the hundreds. (Quote: “A few hundred people walking the streets.”)
The bikers, well, that was a different story. The numbers ranged somewhere between 800,000 and 2,000,000. And, of course, the low number was an “official” estimate by the police early in the day.
The bottom line is that when push comes to shove and despite the racist and hateist rhetoric of this “president” and others, the Muzzies are unable or disinclined to profess their faith.
Similarly despite the racist and hateist rhetoric of this “president” and others, the Americans are strapped, Hog Riding Patriots and are ready to take their Country back.
If you did not hear of this, please complain to your local SRM and demand the truth. Maybe suggest that a biker march on their offices might have them come to Jesus.
OK, that said, what I aim to focus on is the election coverage by the media, specifically in New York for example.
There were races for nominations for Mayor, Comptroller and a few other minor races in the City and the ‘Burbs.
The Republicans had two major candidates: Lhota, who was recently the head of the Metropolitan Transit Authority. Everyone hates him because he raised the bus fares, tolls, you name it, he got the blame.
Then there was the chap, Cats, called so largely because no non-Greek could say “Catsimatidis.” Everyone hates him because he is a self-made billionaire who is not a Liberal and owns Gristedes, which is the largest and by far the most expensive grocery store chain in Manhattan.
These two critters shared something less than 55,000 TOTAL votes of something like 475,000 registered Republicans. So, the true winner was “None of the above.”
On the other side was a Socialist, gay, black, suspect and pervert. No, I am not talking about Biff but, believe it or not, five different people. (So, he CAN do the work of….)
There was Bill DiBlasio, socialist White dude who hates the rich, is married to a black woman and pimped his mixed-race kids in his ads. What a creep.
Then there was Christine Quinn, the Rosie O-Donnell-type loud and brash Lesbo whose bloom came off the rose early.
Next up, Bill Thomson, prolly the most moderate of the bunch and a black man.
John Liu had no chance of winning largely because he has some serious legal problems emanating from some financial issues.
Then there is the self-hating moron of the century Anthony Weiner. (Sue me, please!)
Weiner, as odd as it might sound, may have been the best political choice for the job if you are a regular Lib. (And for fodder for at least four years of late night talk show humor.) But he is a reprobate, photo-philanderer, and can’t keep his mouth shut or avoid starting a fight with a voter.
He had the unmitigated temerity so run ads late in the campaign showing him on the stoop of a brownstone saying, almost matter-of-factly that “The voters do not care about my personal life.” Welllllll, apparently they did. He was leading the pack until he was exposed for exposing his package.
And despite the fact that his Muslim wife, Huma Weiner, stood up for him when he made is confession, she was not seen again during the campaign.
(The other sad thing is that there were four others running for the Dem nod and the above quintet of ne’er-do-wells beat them. In all candor, they were not serious candidates.)
So, with over three million registered Dems, with 645,000 voting, again the overwhelming favorite was “none of the above.”
Speaking of Huma Weiner and her conspicuous absence from the campaign, the post-election rallies were very telling as well.
All throughout the campaign, each candidate seemed to have their personal United Nations entourage and their ads reflects the vaunted “rainbow coalition.” However, at the various post-election gatherings it appeared the truth came out.
Of the twenty or so folks on the dais with Bill Thompson, I saw exactly one White man among all the black folk.
On DiBlasio’s dais where was a similar number of people and the exact same number of White people, that being one. That being the candidate.
Really? Ya over doing it a bit, Bill? For that reason alone you should be disqualified, your overt racism is daunting.
In the race for the Brooklyn DA, there were zero Whites on the dais. Fuhgeddaboutit, mah man.
In a lesser race, the disgraced ex-Governor of New York, “Client 9”, aka Eliot Spitzer, lost big time to Scott Stringer for Controller.
Spitzer is a creep and a fraud and his campaign was a litany of half truths. While lionizing his accomplishments of punishments here and fines there the truth is that in virtually case when he was Attorney General the results were arrived via plea bargaining. There was only one case I could find that went to trial, but he did not prosecute it as it was turned over to the Feds.
Oh, one last thing on the corrupt politics and borderline criminal reporting thereof, the talking heads were saying (paraphrasing) “The Democrats most assuredly will win the mayorship ending over two decades of Republican governors.”
Well, ain’t that just like a pile of pelosi all wrapped up in nice paper with a bow!
The last time there was a “Republican” mayor was Rudy Giuliani (and he is very liberal social issues such as on abortion and marrying cousins). The least time there was a Republican mayor was in the ‘30s with Fiorello LaGuardia. (You can’t count Lindsey in the 60s he was far, far too liberal.)
And, of course, the SRM is appealing to the Low Information Voter who thinks that Midget Marxist Mayor Mike Boob-berg is a Republican.
You see, Midget Mike was a Dem his whole life, until 2001 when he changed parties to buy the mayorship, as the Dems boxed him out. Then he became an, ahem, “Independent” because even the liberal Republicans in NY said he was too far to the left and there was no Marxist Party on which to run.
So, you want to know how some absolute beginner of a person can get elected president, the politics and media of New York City serve as a microcosm for that result. (Chicago is just too far corrupt to be used as an example and Detroit is, well, never mind….)
Speaking of Midget Marxist Mayor Mike Boob-berg, on the other side of the coin, his throwing money into places he does not belong is starting to backfire. One can only hope that he will flood all states and various counties with all of his cash in order to bend the law till he is broke, thence irrelevant.
There was a recall election in Colorado where anti-gun state senators, Angela Grion and John Morse were BOTH recalled. Oh, BTW, they are BOTH Democrats.
But, it was not simply a recall of two tools (twools?) of the anti-gun, anti-Second Amendment and prolly anti- a lot of other things we hold near and dear.
You see, when voters were questioned they saw it not just the recall of two senators who do not share their views on guns but a repudiation of the Wh’ite House. The bill that made draconian limits on magazine capacity (or “clips”, if you are a Liberal), background checks and other restrictions passed without Republican support.
While there are a lot of hippies, yuppies and other garden variety Liberals out in the Rocky Mountain High as a Kite State, it is still the West. And despite some the losers in public office in Arizona, Colorado, Arizona, Montana, Arizona, Utah, Arizona and Arizona, among some other western states and there are still some good people who share our collective values of the validity of the Constitution and ALL of the Amendments, the rule of law and so on.
The kind of people who I like to call “Americans.”
But, two recalls of two liberal ant-Constitution state senators do not a landside make. However, Colorado Gov. Hickenlooper was on the wrong side of this debate and he is up for election next year.
Then there are the traitors to the cause elected to Congress over the past two elections who pledged fealty to the views of the tea party types who sorta kinda forgot who elected them and they went off the reservation.
They need to go.
In fact, EVERY C’man, Senator and your state officials who are anti-gun and pro-healthskare MUST be voted out of office.
And if we can attain a sizable, unassailable, veto-proof Congress, then we can set our sights on other, er, er, er, issues….
… just sayin’
There will be more on elections as we go on I can assure you.
That said, have a happy Saturday, today is the only day today we have, let’s make the best of it.
Your Precious will be kicking up his lederhosen tonight at our annual German Night fundraiser. Great food, great beer, great company and great fun. Wish you ALL could attend!
One thought on ““Saturday Funnies If It Was Not True Edition””
Roslyn Atwood says:
Wow I had seen some info on the NY elections but you really exposed the details! What a fiasco, is this the best we can do? Or are all the decent folk afraid of the attacks on them & their families that running for office with a communist media will undoubtedly expose them to? [ack that’s awful grammar! Never end a sentence with a preposition,LOL] I looked all over the “news” for something about the biker ride & there was NOT ONE REPORT!!!! AAARRRGGGHHH! Unbelievable! However , the fizzle of the muzzie march filled me with glee, are they all a bunch of cowards afraid to come out & be counted? Happy Saturday, your event this evening reminds me of the great Octoberfest celebrations we experienced in Deutschland, I would love to be able to sing along with all the great beer drinking songs! Enjoy as you hoist a few 7 temporarily zone out of the disaster our nation is right now. GB XXXX
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Tag Archives: Violet Evergarden
*UPDATE* Kyoto Animation Studio Fire| 34 Confirmed Dead
July 18, 2019 Anime, Uncategorized#PrayForKyoani, #StayStrongKyotoAni, A Silent Voice, animation, Anime, arson, Clannad, Free!, Japan, K-On, Kanon, KyoAni, Kyoto, Kyoto Animation, Lucky Star, NHK, Pray for KyoAni, Sentai Filmworks, Sound! Euphonium, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Violet EvergardenKrystal Kitsune
Aerial shot of Kyoto Animation
Famed anime studio, Kyoto Animation was destroyed during an arson attacked on Thursday morning. Local authorities stated that there are 34 dead and 35 injured during the attack. Local Kyoto news media have quoted police stating that a 41-year-old man broke into the studio and began pouring gasoline inside the office and reportedly, on some employees as well, although this has not been confirmed.
The 41-year-old man has now been identified as, Shinji Aoba. Aoba reportedly shouted “Drop dead” or “Die” before igniting the gasoline. Neighboring residents witnessed hearing an explosion sound before watching the three-story building be engulfed in flames. The fire was reported at 10:30AM (JST).
Kyoto Animation has produced many popular anime titles such as The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Kanon, Lucky Star, Clannad, and K-On! More recent titles include Violet Evergarden, Sound! Euphonium, A Silent Voice and Free!.
The animation studio in 2015
At the time of this updated publication, local authorities have stated that there are 34 dead and 35 are currently in hospitals in critical conditions. Of those 34 dead, NHK reported that 12 were men, 20 were women, and one still remains unidentified. The building had approximately 73 people inside when the incident occurred. The Kyoto Fire Department has concluded with the rescue operation and can confirm that no one else is in the building. About 30 fire engines reported to the scene and extinguished the blaze at 3:19 PM (JST) about 5 hours after the fire was ignited.
“They are the people who carry Japan’s animation industry on their shoulders, I can’t bear to accept the fact they are being hurt or losing their lives.” – Hideaki Hatta (Kyoto Animation, CEO) via CNN Japan
Kyoto Animation’s CEO, Hideaki Hatta, told local reporters that for the past few years, he had to contact the authorities due to death threats being sent to the company. There is no direct link between the death threats and Aoba.
KyoAni building engulfed in thick smoke | Photo Credit: The Kyoto Shimbun
Aftermath | Photo Credit: The Kyoto Shimbun
According to Hatta, the studio usually has strong security requiring special ‘key cards’ to gain access to the building. However, on this particular day, the studio had visitors and the security system was turned off for the convenience of the visitors.
30 minutes prior to the attack, Aoba had purchased 40 liters (10.6 Gal.) of gasoline from a gas station located less than a mile away from the studio. Aoba placed the gasoline inside carrying cans and put them onto a hand pushed trolley, then made his way towards Kyoto Animation. Witnesses stated that Aoba entered the studio and shouted “DIE” before igniting the fire and attempting to flee on foot. According to local police, a male Kyoto Animation employee managed to chase Aoba down and detain him in the streets.
Aoba was injured during the attack, sustaining serious burns to his feet, chest, and face and was taken to the hospital. During transport, he admitted to setting the fire. Unused knives and a hammer were found near the arson site. Authorities have delayed any further interviews with Aoba as he is currently in the hospital for treatment. Local Kyoto media have reported, that the suspect is not a former employee of Kyoto Animation and has no other direct connection with the studio.
His motive has not been specifically established, however one possible motive was during Aoba’s arrest, as he was shouting that Kyoto Animation had stolen his ideas and accused them of plagiarising.
“The amount of damage is huge. I don’t know in detail”
CEO Hideaki Hatta stated during a press confess on July 19th. Valuable human resources have been lost. Animation materials such as drawings, animations cells, and computers have all been destroyed during the fire,
KyoAni recently released, Free! Road to the World and Sound! Euphonium the movie. In July of 2018, Kyoto Animation announced a “completely new” project titled “Violet Evergarden Gaiden” a film set to be released on January 10th, 2020.
Kyoto Animation Studio 1 (Arson fire location) produced the majority of the animation for its anime series. With such heavy loss, cancellations or major delays in upcoming series and films are to be expected.
Fans began expressing their love for Kyoto Animation as reports of the incident spread, with many going on social media to share their favorite Kyoto Animation anime titles. Many fans have attributed this tragic loss as losing a museum with high cultural value.
Kyoto Animation is a beloved, organized, & independent studio full of talented people who’ve worked/helped tirelessly on these gorgeously animated & heartwarming shows that spread joy to millions. My condolences to all the brilliant staffs & their families. pic.twitter.com/B2lbrYf1qh
— ThrowingMyselfAtTheSun (@PrideWrathToday) July 18, 2019
i’m horrified to hear about Kyoto Animation, that someone could do something so horrible to people who have brought so much joy is absolutely sickening
— SungWon Cho (@ProZD) July 18, 2019
KyoAni character smashup | Artist: ピロ水 Source: 平成同人物語
#PrayForKyoani and #StayStrongKyotoAni are being used to share these posts.
Anime licensing company, Sentai Filmworks has also stepped in and created a fundraiser, to help support Kyoto Animation in their time of need. In just 24 hours fans have raised over $1M, but its not over yet.
HELP KYOANI HEAL
Kyoto Animation has given us, the Anime community, characters we treasure and storylines we will remember for a long time to come. Its time for us to give them something in return. Please consider a donating, Thank you. This is a developing story that we will continue to keep updated with all of the latest information. If you have any information pertaining to this particular story and like to contribute, please contact The Kitsune Network at Contact@TheKitsunetwork.net Thank You!
Sources: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4, Link 5, Link 6, Link 7, Link 8.
UPDATES: This article has been edited to reflect current details and information regarding the Kyoto Animation arson attack. Dead toll, suspect name, aftermath, and additional information about the incident have been updated as of 7/19/19 at 4:56AM This is a developing story that we will continue to keep updated with all of the latest information.
UPDATES: NHK reported that a male Kyoto animation employee passed away on the night of July 19th, making the death count at 34. Updated as of 7/19/19 at 1:23PM
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Decorating Early for the Holidays and Holiday Spirit in Quarantine
Rayiah Ross and Najla Alexander
The holiday season looks very different this year. Normally at this time of year, the fall decorations would just be put away within a week of Thanksgiving while families rush to introduce the Christmas season. We pass the time by using all of our self-restraint to save Christmas music until the first of December. Our pumpkin spice lattes are swiftly replaced with peppermint bark and our knitted sweaters with winter coats. But 2020 has been far from normal.
So much more comes with this holiday season than Christmas trees and caroling. The pandemic, being away from our families, the time change, and seasonal depression are all playing a role in this time of year. These factors are drastically changing how people celebrate the holidays, and more specifically, how and when they decorate.
Whether it be because of a new abundance of time that we normally wouldn’t have had without the pandemic or because it’s just a way to distract ourselves from the outside world, people are surrounding themselves with much more holiday decor than usual. Understandably, it’s hard to be excited about the holidays this time around, but the influx of early holiday decorating gives a new meaning and urgency to finding your ‘holiday spirit.’
Image Courtesy of Best Health
Seasonal affective disorder (“SAD”), or seasonal depression is a type of depression that correlates with a change in seasons. SAD is more common within the winter months because of the lack of sunlight and is commonly brushed off as the winter blues. According to Martin Klein, a Connecticut-based clinical psychologist in private practice who specializes in the treatment of SAD, studies have shown that around 80 percent of all Americans are dealing with some form of depression or stress since the pandemic began, causing the country’s depression rates to triple.
With an increasing number of people decorating early for the holidays, seasonal depression is being combated in a less traditional sense and more decorative one. A great example of this is Jessica Potter (class of 2023), who began putting her Christmas decorations up as early as November 1st.
“We couldn’t wait to get our Christmas decorations up,” Potter explained. “We really wanted to start the season early because we felt like the house needed a little joy after everything that I had ensued throughout the pandemic.”
For Potter, the holidays have always been a time for joy, faith, and hope. “Christmas lights dangle from our front porch, and our tree is fully decorated, it serves as a reminder of how fortunate people are to be together as a family, to have a roof over our heads and food on our plates.”
This sense of therapy and solace that Potter received from decorating her house early doesn’t seem to be uncommon in the scientific world.
“Have you ever listened to an old song and found how you were flooded with strong feelings? You often remember when you first heard that music and re-experience the emotions associated with those experiences. This is a common experience and one often discussed in psychotherapy,” says Dr. Cheryl Paradis, a Psychology professor at Marymount Manhattan College.
“When a person explores these memories in treatment, they may learn a great deal about themselves which is important in order to make positive changes.”
During stressful times people reminisce about fond memories, they have with loved ones, helping people remember those connections and continue to foster those very connections. During COVID-19, remembering those memories and traditions associated with the holidays will help those who cannot physically be with their loved ones. Participating in this tradition helps to be together with their loved ones emotionally even if cannot see them.
“I do believe that many people will decorate more than before as a means of connecting with positive, healing memories and feelings,” Dr. Paradis concluded. “I would not be surprised if many people send out holiday cards this year, even if they never did before.”
Laurel Syvertsen, a single working mom of five kids, has always been one to decorate for the holidays. Despite everything that has gone on this past year, COVID hasn’t stopped her Christmas spirit it’s encouraged her to do more.
“I have always been a fanatic for the holidays, always causing my family and me to decorate early for the holidays,” Syvertsen said.
This year with the chaos looming outside it gave, Laurel Syvertsen had even more time on her hands to go all out even more than she has in the past few years. “I have seen more and more decorations than average even those who do not decorate for Christmas have because in this time it is a way to feel closer to loved ones in time when that is not possible.”
But families aren’t the only ones getting a head start on the season’s greetings; many businesses are doing similar things.
It isn’t unusual for you to just smell and see the difference of the season in the air with all the new holiday flavors Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts brings out for the holidays and all the feel-good holiday movies Netflix puts out. Like the famous peppermint mocha to the gingerbread cookie coffee flavors or seeing those corny but warm holiday movies like Jingle Jangle. In many years there is a set time when the transition of holiday festivities moves in whether it is drinks or movies, they come out closer to the holidays.
In light of COVID-19 and the nation facing a pandemic, the holiday cheer has been coming out earlier than it did last year. Netflix started putting out holiday movies as early as November 1st and releasing one or two every week into December last year. In 2020, Netflix put out holiday movies as early as October 28 and much earlier because giving the audience something to look forward to with everyone still being alone in these hard times. Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts started putting out their drinks a couple of days earlier than last year. This all works to give people that little extra holiday magic they need to get through holidays in these unpredictable times.
This year is different for everyone. No matter what your circumstance is, it would be unfair to ignore how difficult this year has been. Decorating early might be elating for some or a coping mechanism for another, but what matters is that we’re getting through it. So listen to that Christmas song a little early, put up as many decorations as you want, zoom with your family, and end this holiday season on a good note. And if none of this sounds like you and you’re just a scrooge about the holidays, that’s completely fair too. This year has certainly been a long one, but if there’s one thing I know that will ease your mind, it’s that at least 2020 is almost over.
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Jobless rate jumps to 6.3 per cent for November
News National Jobless rate jumps to 6.3 per cent for November
11:38am, Dec 11, 2014 Updated: 4:45pm, Oct 1
The worst is yet to come with the unemployment crisis. Photo: Getty
Rod Myer YourSuper Editor
Australia’s unemployment rate jumped to 6.3, the highest rate in 12 years in November despite a rise in the number of people in work.
The figure had been widely predicted and demonstrates an upward trend in unemployment.
The ABS reported the number of people employed increased by 42,700 to 11,637,400 in November 2014 but most of those jobs were part time with total full time employment rose by only 1800.
Full time employment totals 8.06 million and part time is up 40,800 to 3.05 million.
More people did not have as much work as they would like with the underemployment rate at 8.6 per cent in November an increase of 0.3 percentage points.
The news will not help the flagging spirits of consumers with the latest figures showing confidence slumping to its lowest level since August 2011.
• Consumers most pessimistic in three years
• Government pledges to climate fund
The Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index tumbled a further 5.7 per cent in December, in what the bank’s chief economist, Bill Evans, described as a “very disturbing” result.
“Respondents are clearly concerned about the outlook for the economy and job security,” he said when releasing the report on Wednesday.
There was also “disillusionment” about the May budget.
The rise in unemployment also reflects recent reports of weaker business confidence and business conditions with many economists predicting another interest rate cuts in coming months.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch economists Saul Eslake predicts the jobless rate to climb to 6.75 per cent over the next 12 months.
There was a mixed picture across the states with NSW jobless rate up to six per cent in November from 5.8 per cent.
The rate was unchanged in Victoria at 6.8 per cent and in Tasmania at 6.9 per cent.
In Western Australia, which has benefited most from the now disappearing mining boom the figure rose slightly to 5.2 per cent from 5.1 per cent.
In Queensland unemployment fell to 6.9 per cent from 7.1 per cent and South Australia it fell to 6.6 per cent from 6.7 per cent.
Currency markets seemed buoyed by the figures with the Australian dollar rising from US83.49c prior to the announcement to US83.61c afterwards.
Pyne begs Abbott to save ABC from Turnbull
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The Cross-Eyed Pianist is the pen name of Frances Wilson - writer and blogger on classical music with a special interest in the piano, its literature and those who play it. Described by concert pianist Peter Donohoe as "an important voice in the piano world", Frances has been blogging as The Cross-Eyed Pianist since 2010. Her blog enjoys a strong reputation in the UK and beyond and a large online following. “a valuable resource not only for the varied artists it represents but for the breadth of viewpoint and information it has amassed” - Kenneth Hesketh, composer Frances is also a regular writer for Hong Kong-based classical music site InterludeHK, has contributed articles to Pianist magazine, International Piano and The Schubertian (the journal of the Schubert Institute of the UK), and has been a content creator for classical music streaming service IDAGIO. She has written teaching notes for the ABRSM and Trinity College London, and has acted as a syllabus consultant for the London College of Music. Frances has also appeared on BBC Radio Three’s Music Matters with Tom Service to discuss the role of music criticism today and the effect of the internet on music journalism and writing. She also works as a publicist for a small portfolio of clients within the music industry.
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Grey Nun Academy Wins “Best Private School in Bucks County” in Bucks County Courier Times “Best of Bucks” Contest
Jul 27, 2017 | Lifestyle
The Prek-8th Grade School Tops Out Over Both Private Elementary and Private High Schools in the Region
YARDLEY, PA, July 27, 2017 /24-7PressRelease/ — Grey Nun Academy, an independent, Catholic, elementary school serving students in PreK through eighth grade, has been voted “Best Private School” in Bucks County, PA by the readers of the Bucks County Courier Times. Nominees included many area private elementary and private high schools.
The Bucks County Courier Times collected online and paper ballots for the competition and more than 80,000 votes were cast for various categories. The write-in only contest gave constituents an opportunity to vote for their choice of the best in the county. Each voter could only vote one time and votes were carefully tabulated to calculate the results to determine the readers’ favorites.
Deborah Kost, Head of School at Grey Nun Academy, was excited to learn news of the results. “We are extremely grateful to all who voted for Grey Nun Academy for Best Private School. To be recognized by the community demonstrates our commitment to our students and families. Our faculty and staff work diligently to ensure our students feel at home while also providing an education that is rigorous and effective for all students at all levels. Our school is dedicated to living its mission every day – providing a superior education that celebrates the whole child – mind, heart, body, and spirit. Our teachers ensure that students excel on their academic journey and discover their potential both inside and outside of the classroom.”
Grey Nun Academy has been recognized by the community frequently this year, also winning the Hulafrog “Most Loved Private School” for Lower Bucks County as well has being named a finalist for the “Best Private School” and “Best Teacher” categories in the Bucks Happening 2017 Happening List.
“To be recognized by readers of the Courier, which has such a large readership, is truly an honor and testament to the tight-knit and welcoming community that our faculty, staff and families have created. Grey Nun Academy is dedicated to providing the tools needed for students to excel. We are constantly continuing to update our curriculum and resources to provide the best learning environment for our students and are very excited for the new school year to begin,” added Kost.
Interested in learning more about Grey Nun Academy? Contact Director of Enrollment, Lisa Grabowski at 215-968-4151 or [email protected]. Visit our website at http://www.greynunacademy.org/.
About Grey Nun Academy
Founded in 1963 by the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart, Grey Nun Academy is the independent, Catholic, co-educational elementary school in Bucks County, PA for children in grades PreK3 through Grade Eight. The Academy’s mission is to offer an academically rich curriculum that meets the unique needs of individual students while respecting the rights, interests, and dignity of each child. The Academy’s educational process leads children to embrace and promote peace and social justice in our world. Grey Nun Academy is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) and is accredited by both Middle States Association and AdvancED. The Academy welcomes children of all faiths and cultures. To learn more, visit www.greynunacademy.org.
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Release Date 11 December 2020
Triple Vinyl LP
3LP features the audio of the full length live show from Birmingham. Live show focuses on tracks from their seventies albums and include Black Sabbath, Paranoid, War Pigs, Iron Man, Fairies Wear Boots, Snowblind, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Children Of The Grave and more.
Birmingham. 4th February 2017. The End. After nearly fifty years it was the final show of Black Sabbath’s Farewell Tour back where it all began in their home city of Birmingham, the industrial heart of England. There could be no more appropriate place for the Godfathers of Heavy Metal to take their last bow. Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne delivered a set that focused on Black Sabbath’s classic seventies albums, the albums that defined a genre and inspired future generations. It was an extraordinary, emotional night for both the band and the fans and one that will never be forgotten.
Line-Up Ozzy Osbourne (vocals); Tony Iommi (guitar) and Geezer Butler (bass) with Tommy Clufetos (drums) and Adam Wakeman (keyboards / guitar)
LP Side A:
1 1) Black Sabbath
2 2) Fairies Wear Boots
3 3) Under The Sun / Every Day Comes And Goes
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1 1) After Forever
2 2) Into The Void
3 3) Snowblind
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1 1) Band Intros
2 2) War Pigs
3 3) Behind The Wall Of Sleep
4 4) Bassically / N.I.B.
LP Side D:
1 1) Hand Of Doom
2 2) Supernaut / Sabbath Bloody Sabbath / Megalomania
3 3) Rat Salad / Drum Solo
LP Side E:
1 1) Iron Man
2 2) Dirty Women
LP Side F:
1 1) Children Of The Grave
2 2) Paranoid
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What Went Wrong For Ohio State?
Armaan Sodhi January 1, 2020 College FootballfeaturedOhio State Buckeyes
After having a couple days to digest the tough loss my Buckeyes had on Saturday night, I decided to review the game and see what went wrong. After a dominant first 25 minutes, the Buckeyes fell apart and lost in the semifinals of the College Football Playoffs. Today I will be discussing what went wrong.
Before we get into analyzing the game, I just want to reminiscence on the great season Ohio State had. After Urban Meyer left, many analysts doubted the Buckeyes under new head coach Ryan Day, but he defied all odds. In his first year as head coach, Day led the team to a 13-1 record and a berth in the College Football Playoffs. Even with the plethora of talent declaring for the draft, the future is bright for the Buckeyes under Ryan Day.
We saw a targeting call on Buckeyes corner Shaun Wade which completely changed the tide of the game. While I do believe that Trevor Lawrence ducked into Wade’s path, if Wade could’ve been safer with his tackle, as in not led with his helmet, the Buckeyes could’ve gotten off the field and held Clemson to zero points. After the targeting call, the Tigers scored 29 points to the Buckeyes 7 points, while also out-gaining them in yardage 420 to 228.
The roughing the kicker call. With Clemson pinned deep in their territory and the defense forcing a 4th down, Ryan Day decided to play aggressive and try and block the kick. The Buckeyes would’ve had great field position if they played it safe, but they got greedy and came up short. Travis Etienne later scored a 53 yard touchdown on this drive, giving the Tigers the lead 21-16.
Two touchdowns dropped by JK Dobbins. While Dobbins played a phenomenal game, his two touchdown drops coming back to haunt the Buckeyes later in the game. He dropped one earlier when he did not maintain control of the ball going into the end zone, and he also dropped a screen pass where he had blockers ahead and could’ve walked in for a touchdown. This would’ve been an 8 point swing and might have resulted in the Buckeyes leading 24-0 in the first half.
The controversial touchdown called back. Trevor Lawrence threw Justyn Ross the ball and Ross clearly took more than 3 steps and made a football move, but then suddenly, All-American corner Jeff Okudah knocked the ball out and Jordan Fuller, the safety, scooped the ball up and scored. Just like that the Buckeyes had the lead again and all the momentum. However, upon review the refs ended up overturning this call. This gave the ball back to the Buckeyes offense that was struggling, and they ended up throwing an interception to linebacker Isaiah Simmons on the next possession.
Justin Fields was not himself. Injuries are never an excuse to lose a game, but he was not the same in this one. His knee was not 100 percent and the brace did not help. Also, after throwing only 1 interception the whole season, he came in and threw 2 interceptions in 1 game. Wow! He was flustered this game and was not himself.
Finally, on the most crucial play of the game, the miscommunication between Chris Olave and Fields. Olave’s route was a post and that’s what Fields was throwing, but instead, Olave thought Fields was scrambling and changed his route to a corner, causing Fields to throw right to a Clemson player, effectively ending the game.
While this was a tough loss for the Buckeyes, I fully expect them to regroup, come back better, and be right back in the playoffs next season.
Congrats to Clemson on winning a hard fought game and I cannot wait for the National Championship between LSU and Clemson.
GO BUCKEYES.
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Tag Archive: Blackwater
The Outsourcing of War
by TMC
The Trump administration has a brilliant idea on how to deael with the conundrum of the 16 year war in Afghanistan: privatize it by outsourcing it to a private mercenary army. Trump White House weighs unprecedented plan to privatize much of the war in Afghanistan By Jim Michaels, USA Today The White House is actively …
Tags: Afghanistan War, Blackwater, Eric Prince, Mercenaries, Politics, privatization, TMC Politics
Civilian Contractors Sentenced for Iraq Massacre
After years of investigations, set backs, a 10 week trial, 28 days of deliberations and the four men convicted, the sentencing for the Blackwater guards who slaughtered 17 people in Nisour Square, Baghdad on Sept. 16, 2007, took place in a courtroom in Washington, DC.
One former Blackwater security contractor received a life sentence on Monday and three others received 30-year sentences for killing unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad’s Nisour Square in 2007. [..]
Nicholas A. Slatten, a former Army sniper from Tennessee, was convicted of murder for firing the first fatal shots. Three others – Dustin L. Heard, also of Tennessee; Evan S. Liberty of New Hampshire; and Paul A. Slough of Texas – were convicted of manslaughter, attempted manslaughter and the use of a machine gun in a violent crime. The last charge carried a mandatory 30-year prison sentence under a law passed during the crack cocaine epidemic.
Mr. Slatten was sentenced to life in prison, and Mr. Heard, Mr. Liberty and Mr. Slough to 30 years. The men are all in their 30s.
Now where is the justice for all the other civilians who have been killed and, or, tortured by American soldiers, drone pilots and contractors? Where are the prosecutions of those who ordered it and wrote the memos that justified the violations of US and International law? Where and when will the United States do the honorable thing for them?
Today justice was served but it should just be the beginning. This is not enough.
Tags: Blackwater, Iraq, Law, Nisour Square, Politics, TMC Politics
Blackwater Mercenaries Convicted for 2007 Baghdad
Three security guards who worked for private security contractor, Blackwater, were found guilty of manslaughter stemming from a 2007 shooting of unarmed civilians in Baghdad, Iraq. A fourth guard was found guilty of murder. All are facing long prison terms.
The Nisour Square massacre in 2007 left 17 people dead and 20 seriously injured after the guards working for the US State Department fired heavy machine guns and grenade launchers from their armoured convoy in the mistaken belief they were under attack by insurgents.
But attempts to prosecute the guards have previously foundered because of a series of legal mistakes by US officials, and the case had attracted widespread attention in Iraq as a symbol of apparent American immunity.
Now, after a 10-week trial and 28 days of deliberation, a jury in Washington has found three of the men – Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard – guilty of a total of 13 charges of voluntary manslaughter and a total of 17 charges of attempted manslaughter.
The fourth defendant, Slatten, who was alleged to have been first to open fire, was found guilty of a separate charge of first-degree murder. Slough, Liberty and Heard were found guilty of using firearms in relation to a crime of violence, a charge which can alone carry up to a 30-year mandatory sentence.The Nisour Square massacre in 2007 left 17 people dead and 20 seriously injured after the guards working for the US State Department fired heavy machine guns and grenade launchers from their armoured convoy in the mistaken belief they were under attack by insurgents.
The fourth defendant, (Nicholas) Slatten, who was alleged to have been first to open fire, was found guilty of a separate charge of first-degree murder. Slough, Liberty and Heard were found guilty of using firearms in relation to a crime of violence, a charge which can alone carry up to a 30-year mandatory sentence. [..]
Jeremy Ridgeway, another member of the convoy known as Raven 23, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in 2008 and agreed to testify against his colleagues in exchange for a more lenient sentence.
The Legal Director of Center for Constitutional Rights, Baher Azmy issued this statement upon hearing the verdicts:
While today’s verdict cannot bring back the innocent Iraqis killed at Nisoor Square, it is a step towards full accountability for Blackwater’s actions. However, holding individuals responsible is not enough. If corporations like Blackwater, now known as Academi, are granted the rights accorded to “people” they must also bear the responsibilities. Private military contractors played a major role in the pressure to go to war in Iraq and have engaged in a variety of war crimes and atrocities during the invasion and occupation, while reaping billions of dollars in profits from the war. To this day, the U.S. government continues to award Blackwater and its successor entities millions of dollars each year in contracts, essentially rewarding war crimes.
The may be a great deal of satisfaction that these men will pay the price for their crimes but their boss, Eric Prince, and the other architects of war crimes remain free.
Blackwater Founder Erik Prince Remains Free & Rich While His Former Employees Go Down on Murder Charges http://t.co/U44LDZ8v3M
— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) October 22, 2014
While Barack Obama pledged to reign in mercenary forces when he was a senator, once he became president he continued to employ a massive shadow army of private contractors. Blackwater – despite numerous scandals, congressional investigations, FBI probes and documented killings of civilians in both Iraq and Afghanistan – remained a central part of the Obama administration’s global war machine throughout his first term in office.
Just as with the systematic torture at Abu Ghraib, it is only the low level foot-soldiers of Blackwater that are being held accountable. Prince and other top Blackwater executives continue to reap profits from the mercenary and private intelligence industries. Prince now has a new company, Frontier Services Group, which he founded with substantial investment from Chinese enterprises and which focuses on opportunities in Africa. Prince recently suggested that his forces at Blackwater could have confronted Ebola and ISIS. “If the administration cannot rally the political nerve or funding to send adequate active duty ground forces to answer the call, let the private sector finish the job,” he wrote.
None of the U.S. officials from the Bush and Obama administrations who unleashed Blackwater and other mercenary forces across the globe are being forced to answer for their role in creating the conditions for the Nisour Square shootings and other deadly incidents involving private contractors. Just as the main architect of the CIA interrogation program, Jose Rodriguez, is on a book tour for his propagandistic love letter to torture, Hard Measures: How Aggressive CIA Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives, so too is Erik Prince pushing his own revisionist memoir, Civilian Warriors: The Inside Story of Blackwater and the Unsung Heroes of the War on Terror.
Tags: Blackwater, Eric Prince, Iraq, Politics, TMC Politics
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Panama extends suspension of international flights by a month due to coronavirus
The additional month of suspended flights begins on July 22, according to a statement from the civil aviation authority.
Panama's civil aviation authority said on Friday it will extend a suspension of international flights by another month due to the coronavirus crisis.
International flights were first suspended in March as the spread of the virus prompted authorities to impose measures to better contain it.
The country's Tocumen airport is a major hub for Panama-based Copa Airlines, which like other carriers has been hard hit by the pandemic.
As of Friday, Panama had reported 51,408 total cases of the coronavirus and 1,038 deaths.
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Tag: Hedwig
Hannah Corneau’s Yitzhak Steps Out of the Shadows, and Steals the Show in Hedwig and the Angry Inch at DPAC
Hedwig and the Angry Inch, playing tonight through Sunday evening at the Durham Performing Arts Center as part of DPAC‘s SunTrust Broadway Series, tackles controversial issues with an unapologetic rawness and flamboyant flair! In the aftermath of North Carolina’s infamous House Bill 2 bathroom bill and the Trump Administration’s recent Muslim travel ban and threats… Read More ›
Hedwig and the Angry Inch Is a Delightful, Raunchy Rock-Romp
Raunchy rock and roll show meets Broadway musical in DPAC’s presentation of John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch, onstage now under the direction Tony Award-winner Michael Mayer . For those not familiar with this totally original, totally fun musical, it chronicles rockstar Hedwig Robinson, played to sleazy, hilarious perfection by… Read More ›
HB2 Be Damned: Hedwig and the Angry Inch Will Raise Eyebrows at DPAC Jan. 31-Feb. 5
House Bill 2 be damned: Hedwig and the Angry Inch, composer and lyricist Stephen Trask and librettist and star John Cameron Mitchell’s gender-bending, 90-minute 1998 Off-Broadway, 2000 West End, and 2014 Broadway concert musical about the travails of a brassy transsexual East German-American punk-rock singer recovering from a gruesomely botched sex-change operation, will definitely raise… Read More ›
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Incidence and bacteriology of burn infections at a military burn center
Edward F. Keen, Brian J. Robinson, Duane R. Hospenthal, Wade K. Aldous, Steven E. Wolf, Kevin K. Chung, Clinton K. Murray
Burn/Trauma/Critical Care
Considerable advancements in shock resuscitation and wound management have extended the survival of burned patients, increasing the risk of serious infection. We performed a 6-year review of bacteria identification and antibiotic susceptibility records at the US Army Institute of Surgical Research Burn Center between January 2003 and December 2008. The primary goal was to identify the bacteria recovered from patients with severe burns and determine how the bacteriology changes during extended hospitalization as influenced by population and burn severity. A total of 460 patients were admitted to the burn ICU with 3507 bacteria recovered from 13,727 bacteriology cultures performed. The most prevalent organisms recovered were Acinetobacter baumannii (780), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (703), Klebsiella pneumoniae (695) and Staphylococcus aureus (469). A. baumannii was most often recovered from combat-injured (58%) and S. aureus the most frequent isolate from local (46%) burn patients. Culture recovery rate of A. baumannii and S. aureus was highest during the first 15 hospital days (73% and 71%); while a majority of P. aeruginosa and K. pneumoniae were recovered after day 15 (63% and 53%). All 4 pathogens were recovered throughout the course of hospitalization. A. baumannii was the most prevalent pathogen recovered from patients with total body surface area (TBSA) burns less than 30% (203) and 30-60% (338) while P. aeruginosa was most prevalent in patients with burns greater than 60% TBSA (292). Shifting epidemiology of bacteria recovered during extended hospitalization, bacteriology differences between combat-injured and local burn patients, and impact of % TBSA may affect patient management decisions during the course of therapy.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2009.10.012
Klebsiella
10.1016/j.burns.2009.10.012
Fingerprint Dive into the research topics of 'Incidence and bacteriology of burn infections at a military burn center'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Bacteriology Medicine & Life Sciences
Burn Units Medicine & Life Sciences
Acinetobacter baumannii Medicine & Life Sciences
Infection Medicine & Life Sciences
Body Surface Area Medicine & Life Sciences
Pseudomonas aeruginosa Medicine & Life Sciences
Bacteria Medicine & Life Sciences
Keen, E. F., Robinson, B. J., Hospenthal, D. R., Aldous, W. K., Wolf, S. E., Chung, K. K., & Murray, C. K. (2010). Incidence and bacteriology of burn infections at a military burn center. Burns, 36(4), 461-468. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2009.10.012
Incidence and bacteriology of burn infections at a military burn center. / Keen, Edward F.; Robinson, Brian J.; Hospenthal, Duane R.; Aldous, Wade K.; Wolf, Steven E.; Chung, Kevin K.; Murray, Clinton K.
In: Burns, Vol. 36, No. 4, 01.06.2010, p. 461-468.
Keen, EF, Robinson, BJ, Hospenthal, DR, Aldous, WK, Wolf, SE, Chung, KK & Murray, CK 2010, 'Incidence and bacteriology of burn infections at a military burn center', Burns, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 461-468. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2009.10.012
Keen EF, Robinson BJ, Hospenthal DR, Aldous WK, Wolf SE, Chung KK et al. Incidence and bacteriology of burn infections at a military burn center. Burns. 2010 Jun 1;36(4):461-468. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2009.10.012
Keen, Edward F. ; Robinson, Brian J. ; Hospenthal, Duane R. ; Aldous, Wade K. ; Wolf, Steven E. ; Chung, Kevin K. ; Murray, Clinton K. / Incidence and bacteriology of burn infections at a military burn center. In: Burns. 2010 ; Vol. 36, No. 4. pp. 461-468.
@article{ba749b7d00da4abca4bad083cd625223,
title = "Incidence and bacteriology of burn infections at a military burn center",
abstract = "Considerable advancements in shock resuscitation and wound management have extended the survival of burned patients, increasing the risk of serious infection. We performed a 6-year review of bacteria identification and antibiotic susceptibility records at the US Army Institute of Surgical Research Burn Center between January 2003 and December 2008. The primary goal was to identify the bacteria recovered from patients with severe burns and determine how the bacteriology changes during extended hospitalization as influenced by population and burn severity. A total of 460 patients were admitted to the burn ICU with 3507 bacteria recovered from 13,727 bacteriology cultures performed. The most prevalent organisms recovered were Acinetobacter baumannii (780), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (703), Klebsiella pneumoniae (695) and Staphylococcus aureus (469). A. baumannii was most often recovered from combat-injured (58%) and S. aureus the most frequent isolate from local (46%) burn patients. Culture recovery rate of A. baumannii and S. aureus was highest during the first 15 hospital days (73% and 71%); while a majority of P. aeruginosa and K. pneumoniae were recovered after day 15 (63% and 53%). All 4 pathogens were recovered throughout the course of hospitalization. A. baumannii was the most prevalent pathogen recovered from patients with total body surface area (TBSA) burns less than 30% (203) and 30-60% (338) while P. aeruginosa was most prevalent in patients with burns greater than 60% TBSA (292). Shifting epidemiology of bacteria recovered during extended hospitalization, bacteriology differences between combat-injured and local burn patients, and impact of % TBSA may affect patient management decisions during the course of therapy.",
keywords = "Acinetobacter, Antibiotic resistance, Burn, Infection, Klebsiella, Pseudomonas, Staphylococcus",
author = "Keen, {Edward F.} and Robinson, {Brian J.} and Hospenthal, {Duane R.} and Aldous, {Wade K.} and Wolf, {Steven E.} and Chung, {Kevin K.} and Murray, {Clinton K.}",
doi = "10.1016/j.burns.2009.10.012",
journal = "Burns",
T1 - Incidence and bacteriology of burn infections at a military burn center
AU - Keen, Edward F.
AU - Robinson, Brian J.
AU - Hospenthal, Duane R.
AU - Aldous, Wade K.
AU - Wolf, Steven E.
AU - Chung, Kevin K.
AU - Murray, Clinton K.
N2 - Considerable advancements in shock resuscitation and wound management have extended the survival of burned patients, increasing the risk of serious infection. We performed a 6-year review of bacteria identification and antibiotic susceptibility records at the US Army Institute of Surgical Research Burn Center between January 2003 and December 2008. The primary goal was to identify the bacteria recovered from patients with severe burns and determine how the bacteriology changes during extended hospitalization as influenced by population and burn severity. A total of 460 patients were admitted to the burn ICU with 3507 bacteria recovered from 13,727 bacteriology cultures performed. The most prevalent organisms recovered were Acinetobacter baumannii (780), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (703), Klebsiella pneumoniae (695) and Staphylococcus aureus (469). A. baumannii was most often recovered from combat-injured (58%) and S. aureus the most frequent isolate from local (46%) burn patients. Culture recovery rate of A. baumannii and S. aureus was highest during the first 15 hospital days (73% and 71%); while a majority of P. aeruginosa and K. pneumoniae were recovered after day 15 (63% and 53%). All 4 pathogens were recovered throughout the course of hospitalization. A. baumannii was the most prevalent pathogen recovered from patients with total body surface area (TBSA) burns less than 30% (203) and 30-60% (338) while P. aeruginosa was most prevalent in patients with burns greater than 60% TBSA (292). Shifting epidemiology of bacteria recovered during extended hospitalization, bacteriology differences between combat-injured and local burn patients, and impact of % TBSA may affect patient management decisions during the course of therapy.
AB - Considerable advancements in shock resuscitation and wound management have extended the survival of burned patients, increasing the risk of serious infection. We performed a 6-year review of bacteria identification and antibiotic susceptibility records at the US Army Institute of Surgical Research Burn Center between January 2003 and December 2008. The primary goal was to identify the bacteria recovered from patients with severe burns and determine how the bacteriology changes during extended hospitalization as influenced by population and burn severity. A total of 460 patients were admitted to the burn ICU with 3507 bacteria recovered from 13,727 bacteriology cultures performed. The most prevalent organisms recovered were Acinetobacter baumannii (780), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (703), Klebsiella pneumoniae (695) and Staphylococcus aureus (469). A. baumannii was most often recovered from combat-injured (58%) and S. aureus the most frequent isolate from local (46%) burn patients. Culture recovery rate of A. baumannii and S. aureus was highest during the first 15 hospital days (73% and 71%); while a majority of P. aeruginosa and K. pneumoniae were recovered after day 15 (63% and 53%). All 4 pathogens were recovered throughout the course of hospitalization. A. baumannii was the most prevalent pathogen recovered from patients with total body surface area (TBSA) burns less than 30% (203) and 30-60% (338) while P. aeruginosa was most prevalent in patients with burns greater than 60% TBSA (292). Shifting epidemiology of bacteria recovered during extended hospitalization, bacteriology differences between combat-injured and local burn patients, and impact of % TBSA may affect patient management decisions during the course of therapy.
KW - Acinetobacter
KW - Antibiotic resistance
KW - Burn
KW - Infection
KW - Klebsiella
KW - Pseudomonas
KW - Staphylococcus
U2 - 10.1016/j.burns.2009.10.012
DO - 10.1016/j.burns.2009.10.012
JO - Burns
JF - Burns
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A Pacific Rim Sequel Is Possible
Marla Desat | 20 Mar 2014 12:35
Image Source: SciFied.com
Legendary Pictures CEO and Pacific Rim producer Thomas Tull says the studio is open to a sequel.
Guillermo Del Toro's action adventure starring massive jaegers and even more massive kaiju was a modest success at the box office last summer. The film's box office gross was $407 million worldwide, a sizeable sum but not enough to guarantee a franchise. The movie has attracted some dedicated fans and praise from critics, topping The Escapist's own MovieBob's Best of 2013 list. Guillermo tel Toro confirmed in October that he and Pacific Rim screenwriter Travis Beacham were working on a script for a sequel. However, the decision to make a second film in the Pacific Rim universe lies with Legendary Pictures. The studio had been silent on the possibility of a sequel until now. Legendary Pictures CEO and Pacific Rim producer Thomas Tull responded positively to questions about it in an interview with Collider on March 19.
We love being in business with Guillermo and frankly that movie, if you look it up, did I think more business than the first X-Men, did more than Batman Begins, our first movie, did more than Superman Returns, The Fast and the Furious, Star Trek- so for a movie that was an original property that we made up it's done really well. It did north of 400 million dollars globally and both the home video sales and the merchandise have way over-indexed, so it seems like fans really loved the world. So we're going to sit down with Guillermo and as long as we think it's authentic and there's something to say, we're certainly open to it.
Legendary Picture's upcoming Godzilla reboot will further test public appetite for the kaiju genre. If Godzilla does well at the box office, it could help make a Pacific Rim sequel a reality. Pacific Rim will remain a great standalone movie without a sequel, but the world that Del Toro and Beacham created has a lot of potential to tell more stories. A prequel could explore the early days of the jaegars, or a sequel could see humanity intentionally create a rift to the alien dimension that birthed the kaiju. Charlie Day, who played the kaiju-obsessed scientist Newt, has said that Del Toro has considered making his character a villain in the sequel. If you're itching for more Pacific Rim content right away, Beacham has written a graphic novel prequel to film, titled Tales From Year Zero. What do you think? Does Pacific Rim need a sequel?
marla desat, guillermo del toro, kaiju, legendary pictures, movies and tv, pacific rim, pacific rim 2, prequel, sequel, thomas tull
From Halo to World of Warcraft: An Interview With Voice Artist Laura Bailey John Keefer 15 Comments
The New X-Files Learning Curve Aaron Williams 8 Comments
Ghostbusters - Who You Gonna Call? Marter 7 Comments
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GERMANY: MAN CHARGED WITH PRODUCING BIOLOGICAL WEAPON AT HOME IN COLOGNE
Sief Allah H. was arrested after police in Cologne found a deadly toxin in his apartment. A local newspaper reported that the suspect came to Germany in 2016 and had terrorist sympathies.
Federal prosecutors on Thursday charged a 29-year-old Tunisian citizen with producing a biological weapon after police found highly toxic ricin in his apartment in the western city of Cologne.
Sief Allah H. has been in police custody for two days on suspicion of violating the War Weapons Control Act and “preparing a serious act of violence against the state.” Special police and fire units found the ricin during a raid of his home late on Tuesday.
Security services first became suspicious after H. ordered 1,000 castor seeds — the main ingredient for producing ricin — and a coffee grinder from an online store in mid-May, prosecutors said. He successfully produced the toxin in June.
Possession of the highly toxic substance, which is 6,000 times more powerful than cyanide, is restricted by a 1997 international convention on chemical weapons. Exposure causes organ failure and death can occur within 36 to 48 hours, according to Germany’s Robert Koch Institute, which categorizes ricin as a “potential biological weapon.” There is no known antidote.
Reported IS sympathies
The man first came to Germany in November 2016, local daily Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger reported. He reportedly had sympathies for the “Islamic State” (IS), the Islamist terror group that has carried out attacks in Europe and fought in the war in Syria.
Special units wore protective suits during the raid on the suspect’s apartment
But prosecutors said they have not found evidence the man was planning an attack at a particular time or place or that he was a member of any terrorist organization.
The newspaper also reported that authorities had been observing the suspect for some time. Police reportedly decided to raid his home after discovering that he had ordered castor seeds online.
German weekly Der Spiegel reported H. was thought to have followed online IS instructions for building a ricin bomb.
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Posts Tagged ‘tiny house parking’
Land For Sale: 4 Tips For Choosing the Perfect Land For Tiny Houses
By Alexis Stephens | April 7, 2020
There’s a lot more that goes into picking land for tiny houses than one might think. Here’s our quick guide to picking the right land for your new home. Building a tiny house can be an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime journey. Rather than buying a home that other people have lived in, constructing a home from scratch…
Today’s Tiny House Parking Spot: Durango Communities
Today’s Tiny House Parking Spot: Tiny Home Communities of Durango, Colorado In this episode of Today’s Tiny House Parking Spot, we visit beautiful Durango. It’s an outdoor enthusiast’s paradise in southwestern Colorado, where the high desert meets the mountains. It’s also becoming a tiny house dweller’s dream—various legal parking options within city limits. Our big…
Tiny House Self-Quarantine!? COVID-19 Shelter in Place Prep in a 130 sqft
Coronavirus self-quarantine tiny house edition: will we lose our minds in our 130 square foot tiny home over the next several weeks?! Maybe. Good news: we have five years working and living tiny together, a secure affordable parking spot, and relatively enough supplies. Watch to see how we prepared for self-isolation in our tiny house…
Today’s Tiny House Parking Spot: a Gym and a Driveaway
Tiny House Parking on the Road After carefully maneuvering out of a tight parking spot at Peak View Park, we headed down to the mountain with steep 7% grades. It’s essential to take it slow and utilize the tow/haul mode in the truck, which boosts torque and engages the engine braking mode to help maintain…
Today’s Tiny House Parking Spot: Peak View Park
Today’s Tiny House Parking Spot: Peak View Park in Woodland Park, Colorado We parked our tiny house at the lovely Peak View Park. It’s located in a small mountain city of Woodland Park, Colorado, just 25 minutes northwest of Colorado Springs. It is a park model and tiny house on wheels community for full-time living.…
Mountain Tiny Home Community – Today’s Tiny House Parking Spot
Today’s Tiny House Parking Spot: Tiny House Leadville in Colorado The small Rocky Mountain town of Leadville is the highest city in the USA, situated at an elevation of 10,152 feet. This makes the charming Tiny House Leadville the highest tiny house community in the country. The next-door dispensary also provides a new facet to that fun fact. Owner…
Today’s Tiny House Parking Spot: A Video Series
By Alexis Stephens | February 18, 2020
Sharing Our Nomadic Tiny House Life Parked at the Red Rock State Park in New Mexico As you guys know, over 4.5 years, we’ve gotten around with our tiny house. At the end of last year, we passed the 55,000-mile mark. Crazy! Five years ago, we had no idea that we would travel that far.…
“I’m a Maximist” Tiny Houses Aren’t Just for Minimalists
Do you have to be an extreme minimalist to live a tiny house? Absolutely not. Meet Andy. He is a self-described “maximist.” He lives in a tiny house that is full of all his favorite things and hobbies, like volleyball and cooking. Everything is carefully displayed or stored, kind of like a nesting doll system.…
Man Builds Inventive Gooseneck Tiny House After Life-Changing Accident
By Alexis Stephens | February 3, 2020
There’s no time like the now to repriortize your life around what matters most. Our most recent video is a throwback to a few years ago when we met Richard Ward. He’s a designer, artist, and DIY tiny house dweller. During our visit to his first tiny home, he shared with us his compelling story…
Woman’s Eclectic 10′ Wide Tiny House in Texas Tiny Home Community
What’s better than life in a beautiful tiny home of your own? Parking in a community with kind neighbors. Robyn’s bohemian extra-wide tiny house is just as delightful as her personality is infectious. This is perfectly fitting since a tiny home should be a self-reflection of its owner. We love how incredibly livable her space…
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British American Tobacco in Africa: A Past and Present of Double Standards
British American Tobacco in Africa: A Past and Present of Double Standards, Tobacco Tactics, updated 24 April 2020, accessed 15 January 2021.
British American Tobacco: We Are Acting “Responsibly”
British American Tobacco (BAT) sells its products in more than 200 markets globally, supports over 100,000 tobacco farmers, and sold 676 billion cigarettes in 2013 over six continents.1 Although tobacco products kill up to one out of every two of its consumers,2 the company publicises itself as a company in a “controversial industry” that is acting “responsibly and with integrity”,3 with a team that is “committed to achieving our business objectives in an honest, transparent, and accountable way”.4
In the company’s Statement of Business Principles, BAT elaborates on its core business principle of good corporate conduct:
“The principle of Good Corporate Conduct is the basis on which all of our business should be managed. Business success brings with it an obligation for high standards of behaviour and integrity in everything we do and everywhere we operate. These standards should not be compromised for the sake of results.”
These messages have been frequently echoed by the company’s Director of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs Kingsley Wheaton. In an interview for BBC Two’s June 2014 mini-series Burning Desire: The Seduction of Smoking, Mr. Wheaton stressed the company’s values of corporate accountability, stating: “We are indeed the problem. That is no reason for us not to be part of the solution.” Wheaton was referring specifically to the ‘harm reduction’ agenda and BAT’s venture into the e-cigarette market.
BAT’s Business of Double Standards in Africa
Despite claims of responsibility and transparency, evidence shows BAT has breached its own business mandates, sometimes violating international codes of conduct and the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Internal documents describe BAT’s advertising, marketing, and sales strategies in Africa. Many of these documents shed light on BAT’s contradictory business conduct within the African continent, detailing a system of double standards between how the tobacco company conducts its business in countries with more tobacco control regulation and how business is conducted in African countries.56 Historical examples of these double standards are detailed below, including the tobacco company’s established targeting according to race, gender, and age; its method of fostering financial dependency among its farmers; and its exploitation of the African continent.
For more examples of BAT’s behaviour in Uganda, see Uganda- BAT’s Tactics to Undermine the Tobacco Control Bill.
Business Standards in Emerging Economies vs. Developed Economies
In an internal document defending the tobacco company’s business behaviour in emerging economies, BAT explained why it does not necessarily need to operate in “emerging economies” with the same values it would in a “developed economy”:
“It is our experience that local governments are quite capable of judging for themselves whether they are being exploited and can act accordingly, in a way suitable for their culture and institution.”
“Governments in developing economies are perfectly capable of determining their own health priorities. To suggest otherwise is insulting and patronising.”6
Taking Advantage of Africa: “Tobacco’s Final Frontier”
In a speech to BAT managers in 17 countries in which the company has subsidiaries, BAT Chairman Barry Bramley reported that the company was specifically targeting African markets as business became more affected in other economies (partly due to tobacco control legislation):
“Africa is also projected to continue growing…BAT is strongly placed to take advantage of the growth in these markets.”7
The senior BAT executive stressed the essential objective to “become the lowest possible cost producer in each market” in order to take full advantage of growth in emerging markets (such as Africa) so as to “increase that profitably still further”.7
In a 1990 Insight investigation published in the Sunday Times, BAT was found to be “operating a double standard—one for the West and another for the Third World”, taking “advantage of loosely enforced or non-existent government health restrictions to target millions of poor and ignorant people in what is becoming tobacco’s final frontier.”8
The investigation presented evidence that BAT was not operating on the same principles and mandates in Africa as it did in Europe. In the former, BAT was:
Selling cheaper, highly addictive cigarettes to Africans with tar and nicotine contents that would not be legal in countries with restrictions on tobacco products.
Marketing that smoking is not harmful to health despite evidence to the contrary and the fact that it was forbidden under British advertising code at the time;
Using political and economic power to advance its presence in African markets;
And disseminating advertising in print, television, and media that promoted the idea that smoking was a way to mimic Western sophistication, manliness, and beauty. An African smoker was quoted as starting the habit because BAT’s advertisements led him to believe smoking was “a passport to prosperity” because everyone in the advertisement was wearing shoes.8
BAT’s plans to take advantage of the previously unexploited business opportunities in Africa are evidenced time and time again in other internal documents:
The company’s 1992-1996 Five Year Plan pinpointed African markets as a priority in their marketing objectives, stating “Profitable opportunities in significant markets in Latin America and Africa will be aggressively and consistently exploited with BATCo companies being the target.”9
In a 1995 staff bulletin, BAT director of African operations Norman Davis spoke of the “untapped” resources on the African continent the company sought to benefit from: “It (Africa) represents immeasurable wealth, and it’s frustrating for Africa that these resources have never been exploited.” Expanding on the company’s future performance in Africa, Davis said, “There is no lack of opportunities. It is up to us to grasp them.”10
More recently, a 2009 article in The Times detailed multinational tobacco companies’ exploitation of African markets, primarily through the “single-stick model” of business, whereby tobacco producers like BAT increase their earnings by selling cheap single stick cigarettes, making money off of vulnerable groups like “the poor, the uneducated, and the young”.11
An article by a member of the Tobacco Control Research Group published in April 2014 evidenced how the tobacco industry’s “expansion in emerging markets” is strategically maximised to “offset declines in mature markets.” Author Gary Fooks goes on to exemplify how the industry protects its African markets by stalling legislation and public health measures that would restrict its opportunities for further growth and success.12
Image 1. BAT highlights Black African middle class as ‘drivers’ of their economy, BAT website 2007
Targeting Race: BAT’s ‘Black Diamonds’
A slide (see Image 1) from a BAT presentation at the 2007 South Africa Citygroup Tobacco Sector Conference referred to the African “Black middle class” as the company’s “Black Diamonds”, singling out this group as the key to the company’s future success and profitability. 13 BAT implied the company could advance its profits and corporate aims by focusing their efforts specifically at increasing the number of Africans who smoke.
Targeting Gender and Age in Africa: Appealing to Females and ‘Early Adopters’
How the Tobacco Industry Defines “Young Adults”
It should be noted that BAT specifically and the tobacco industry in general have left a trail of documents establishing that terms such as ‘young adult smokers’ and ‘adult smokers under 30’ in practice refer to youth smokers, even if they are not of legal age to consume tobacco products.14
For example, a 1975 memo from Brown and Williamson (part of BAT) explained:
“when describing market categories and target audiences we use references such as ‘young smokers’, ‘young market’ ‘youth market’ etc …in the future when describing the low-age end of the cigarette business please use the term ‘young adult smoker’ or ‘young adult smoking market.’15
Given this, although the strategies and programmes referred to in the evidence presented below may use phrases that are similar to those above, it is likely that youth and underage smokers are implied on an unspoken basis.
Lucky Strike Cigarettes and Young Adults
An internal document outlining its global ‘Nothing Else’ campaign discloses that BAT sought to make its Lucky Strike brand of cigarettes a “valid and acceptable alternative for a growing number of young adults” throughout the 1990s.16 In the same document the company commended the campaign for successfully establishing Lucky Strike cigarettes as a genuine “international brand for young adults from a non-existent awareness base” in some of its targeted markets.16 Although in the 1990s, at the time this document was written, Lucky Strikes were not yet widely actively marketed in Africa, records show that the document outlining plans for the campaign, including its targeting of young smokers, was faxed to a number of its African companies, including BAT Uganda, BAT Malawi, BAT Nigeria, and BAT Zimbabwe.16
Table 1. Action Plan and Timings for BAT’s Lucky Strike Africa launch17
In an internal document from April 1995 BAT revealed its plans to launch their Lucky Strike brand, now successfully marketed as a prime tobacco product for young smokers, in eight African countries throughout the first part of 1995, namely Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Sierra Leone, and Mauritius.17 Similarly, its Lucky Strike Filter Africa Launch Plan expounded on the plans for this launch and specifically states that the introduction of the Lucky Strike brand into African countries is meant to serve strategically as BAT’s “main thrust into the key Young Adult Urban Smoker (YAUS) segment”. Table 1 shows the proposed timeline for this plan in various African countries.
Singling Out African Youth
The 1998-2000 Southern African Area Plan set forth a strategy to make its cigarettes appeal to “early adopters” as well as “trend setters”.5
African Youth Exposure to Tobacco Industry Marketing
Table 2. Results of the Global Youth Tobacco Survey report 2002,18
Table 3. Table detailing part of a BAT Development Plan to increase BAT’s market share in female and ASU30 (adult smokers under 30) segments in Southern regions of Africa5
Table 4. Excerpt from BAT’s Southern Africa Area 1998-2000 Plan detailing their aim to invest in attracting females and ASU30s to their brands,5
A 2002 survey of Ugandan youth suggested that 80.6% of students were exposed to high levels of tobacco industry advertising.18 Table 2 summarises results from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey.
See Uganda- BAT Marketing Strategies for more information on how BAT’s marketing in Africa and Uganda is tailored to attract youth and young adults to its tobacco products.
Targeting Women in Emerging Economies
BAT has also targeted women in its campaigns in emerging economies. In an internal document, the company defended their direct targeting of women: “The profile of some brands and advertising may well make those brands more appealing to women or other groups in society, than other brands.”6
BAT went as far as insisting that not directing marketing toward women in lower-income countries belittled them:
”It is patronising to suggest that particular segments of the adult population, such as women, should not be the specific focus of an advertising campaign, as it suggests that they are incapable of making an informed decision as to whether or not to smoke.”6
‘Lights’ For African Women
Developing ‘light’ versions of some of BAT’s cigarettes was also part of the strategy to specifically attract African females to their tobacco products.5
African Females and Young Adult Smokers
In the company’s 1998-2000 Southern Africa Awareness Plan, a “development project” was created to address particular brands’ failure to “develop appeal among ASU30’s and females.”5 Tables 3 and 4 are extracts from this plan to counter this failure.
Selling More Harmful and Addictive Cigarettes in Africa
The Sunday Times 1990 investigation into BAT’s African manufacturing concluded that BAT was marketing cheaper cigarettes to lower-income Africans that had greater levels of tar and nicotine than previously existing products.8 Tests conducted found that 80% of BAT’s Kenyan cigarette brands had more tar than their British equivalents. In an internal memo BAT sent to its employees following the article in the press, BAT assured its employees that no cigarette they sold in Kenya had more than 20 mg of tar, but the average in European cigarettes at the time was 13 mg.19
Double Marketing Standards in Africa
Despite display and advertising bans, BAT has sponsored sports events popularly attended by children and has devised covert ways of advertising their products to new and current consumers. Such practices are banned in many of the countries it operates in and is prohibited by BAT’s own International Marketing Principles.
See Uganda- BAT Marketing Strategies for more information.
Promoting Single Stick Sales in Africa
BAT has secretly fought against prohibiting the sale of single cigarettes while publicly declaring never to sell nor promote the sale of single cigarettes. The sale of single sticks is illegal in many parts of the world as it is known to appeal especially to children.20
See Uganda- BAT’s Tactics to Undermine the Tobacco Control Bill to read about how BAT sought to promote single stick sales in Uganda in 2014.
Fostering Financial Dependency of African Farmers
A 2013 Tobacco Industry Monitoring Report by the Centre for Tobacco Control in Africa stated that the tobacco industry in Uganda, (85% of which BAT Uganda accounts for), functions on a financial model between the tobacco company and its contracted tobacco farmers that creates a form of cyclic credit bondage.21 Tobacco companies provide loans to tobacco farmers at rates they cannot possibly or feasibly repay, creating a cycle in which the farmers remain constantly indebted to the tobacco company. In Uganda, BATU not only has power over the finances but also has direct control over the agricultural inputs such as seeds and fertilizers, giving them complete control over the tobacco farming system in Uganda.18 As the Uganda Tobacco Control Association explains:
“Because of the domination of BATU in monopolistic market conditions, farmers only have access to one principal buyer for their products. Due to the lack of competition, and hence unfavorable prices, tobacco farmers operate in a form of bondage to tobacco companies while the industry reaps huge profits.”18
Because the farmers are contracted to only sell their crop to BATU, BATU is required to buy the entire tobacco crop from its farmers to ensure their livelihoods. Yet, in 2005, the company was sued by 3,000 tobacco farmers when BATU failed to buy their tobacco, only providing the farmers with compensation three years later when the court found the company to be in violation of their contracts.22
This inequitable monopoly is not new. It was reported at the All African Conference on Tobacco Control in 1993 that there is a “general feeling among farmers that BAT grossly cheats them by paying miserable prices for their crops,” sometimes claiming less than 1USD in profits after what a farmer owed to BAT was paid.23
Encouraging the Involvement of African Children in Tobacco Farming
A 2013 report monitoring the tobacco industry in 13 African countries, Uganda included, found that children of tobacco farmers are often unable to attend school because they are encouraged by the industry to work in tobacco fields to replace older family members.21 Centre for Tobacco Control in Africa, Tobacco Industry Monitoring Regional Report for Africa, August 2013[/ref] This has been a consistent problem in Uganda; surveys conducted in Uganda in the 1990s discovered that only 60% of boys and 40% of girls in tobacco growing families were able to attend school, quoting labour requirements of tobacco farming and not enough profit from their crop as the reasons for their lack of attendance.23
More About BAT in Africa
For more information on BAT in Uganda and Africa, see:
: British American Tobacco
: The Uganda Tobacco Control Bill 2014
: Marketing Strategies
↑British American Tobacco, Who We Are, 2014, accessed June 2014
↑World Health Organisation, Tobacco, 2014, accessed June 2014
↑British American Tobacco, About Us, 2014, accessed June 2014
↑British American Tobacco, Corporate Governance: A Commitment to Transparency, 2014, accessed June 2014
↑abcdefBritish American Tobacco, Southern African Area 1998-2000 Plan, 1998, Bates no. 325017595-325017650, accessed June 2014
↑abcdBritish American Tobacco, BAT Arguments: Our Presence in Emerging Economies Uganda, undated, Bates no. 770009881-770009884, accessed June 2014
↑abBritish American Tobacco, Talk to TMDP-Chelwood August 1990, 24 July 1990, Bates no. 502619006-502619029, accessed June 2014; note: The document is a 24-page speech with no author mentioned. However, the speaker introduces himself as sharing his “views from the perspective of a BAT Industries Board member as well as that of BATCo Chairman”. In 1990, Barry Bramley was the company’s Chairman, and at the trial MINNESOTA V. PHILIP MORRIS INC., the speech was attributed to him Deposition of RAYMOND J. PRITCHARD
↑abcBritish American Tobacco, Africa: Ashtray of the World, The Sunday Times, May 13, 1990, Bates no. 2500078937-2500078947, accessed June 2014
↑British American Tobacco, BATCo Operating Group Five Year Plan 1992-1996, December 11 1991, Bates no. 300019658-300019747, accessed July 2014
↑British American Tobacco, BAT Bulletin, February 1995, Bates no. 500161146-500161167, accessed July 2014
↑J. Kluger, Big Tobacco Sets its Sights on Africa, July 24 2009, accessed July 2014
↑G. Fooks, Explainer: How Big Tobacco Turns Profit, The Conversation, April 10 2014, accessed July 2014
↑D. Crow, BAT South Africa Citygroup Presentation, BAT website, 2007
↑C. Bates and A. Rowell, Tobacco Explained: The Truth About the Tobacco Industry… in its Own Words, 1998, accessed June 2014
↑RA Pittman, Memorandum to J.A. Broughton et al. Concerning Marketing Descriptors for the Young Smokers Segment, 1975, Bates no. 670192436, accessed June 2014
↑abcBritish American Tobacco, Tobacco Strategy Group: Lucy Strike Filter- Progress in “Nothing else” Campaign Markets, undated, Bates no. 500245105-500245113, accessed June 2014
↑abBritish American Tobacco, Lucky Strike Filter Status Report/ Key Issues, April 25 1995, Bates no. 500311225-500311256, accessed July 2014
↑abcdUganda National Tobacco Control Association, Shadow Report on the Status of Implementation of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC) Articles 8 and 13 in Uganda 2012, May 2013
↑British American Tobacco, Memo Regarding Sunday Times Article on BAT, May 14, 1990, accessed June 2014
↑Action on Smoking and Health, You’ve Got to be Kidding: How BAT Promotes its Brands to Young People Around the World, 2007, accessed June 2014
↑abCentre for Tobacco Control in Africa, Tobacco Industry Monitoring Regional Report for Africa, August 2013
↑Hillary Nsambu, BAT Ordered to Pay Farmers Sh3b, New Vision, 29 June 2008, accessed June 2014
↑abD Yach and S Harrison (Ed.), Proceedings of the All Africa Conference on Tobacco or Health 14-17 November 1993, 1993, Bates no. 304057140-304057344, accessed June 2014
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Today On Chain
News and Updates on Blockchain
The ‘12 Days of Zombie Christmas’ to auction NFT holiday horrors for charity
Home / The ‘12 Days of Zombie Christmas’ to auction NFT holiday horrors for charity
Darren Kleine, known to most by his handle DKleine, is an NFT artist with a decidedly specific niche — Zombies. We’re talking crypto zombies, political zombies, mustachioed Salvador Dali zombies. Zombies of all shapes, sizes, and orientations! If it’s green, dismembered, and loves the savory taste of a good brain, it’s ripe for tokenization (and charity) so far as Mr. Kleine is concerned.
What started as a quasi-political statement just a few short months ago (his first zombie NFT was a decaying Donald Trump, still running for president in 2040) has now blossomed into a fully matured signature aesthetic. And with his creative output growing more popular by the day on blockchain marketplaces like Open Sea and Known Origin, Kleine concluded that the holiday season was a splendid time to exercise a little peace on earth and good will to all.
On December 12, Kleine will list the first of twelve Christmas-themed NFTs in a series titled The 12 Days of Zombie Christmas with 80% of the proceeds to benefit children’s charities. Each artwork in the single-edition series will depict a scene from a classic holiday film, but with a deliciously gruesome twist — all of the characters are either undead… or soon will be.
A Zombie Brown Christmas by DKleine.
“I’m not changing them a lot. I’m changing them enough that it’s just slightly uncomfortable, but there’s still kind of a joy to it. There’s still something beautiful about it,” Kleine explained in an interview with Cointelegraph. Carouseling through a sneak preview of his upcoming pieces, he continued:
“Here’s the ‘Christmas vacation’ one. Clark Griswold and his cousin Eddie are shopping for brains at Walmart. I really like that awkward moment in ‘Elf’ where he’s eating the spaghetti with jelly beans. So I took that, but I changed them to intestines. Star Wars Holiday Special is still in the works.”
They’re truly something to behold.
To explain his personal brand of phantasmagoria, Kleine launched into a description of the unintended psychological effect known as the “Uncanny Valley” — a term used to describe creations that are supposed to realistically mimic flesh and blood humans, but fail to capture the illusion in often cadaverous ways. Ever seen Robert Zemekis’ adaptation of The Polar Express? Uncanny Valley. Those creepy Japanese fembots with airbrushed silicone skin and glassy, dead eyes? Uncanny Valley. He reasoned:
“I think it’s similar with zombies. There’s something about them that is just instinctively repugnant. But then you put them into the context of this charming Christmas scene, and your natural reaction is to laugh.”
Home Alone (Except the Zombies) by DKleine
You can bid on the first in Kleine’s series here.
Elucidating on this point, he drew a more serious comparison to our current, socially distanced reality. “It also ties back to the whole COVID thing, right? Because, obviously, the idea of zombies is that they’re this impending viral threat that’s always kind of looming over us.” Indeed.
“I do think this has been a bit of a coping tool for me, in terms of COVID. Just the humor of it. I was the type of person that as a kid, if I watched a movie and there was a sad or uncomfortable part, I would make a joke — because that made me feel more at ease. I do feel like there’s a bit of that happening here.”
Creating NFTs has led to something of a rediscovery for the artist, in fact. Once an art major and bonafide creative spirit, Kleine shied away from such pursuits for years, favoring the analytical security of his job as a full-time grade school math teacher. As a child, however, his passion was for pencil and paper:
“When I was a kid, I could not stop drawing. I drew to the point that I got in trouble in class for doing that when I should have been doing my schoolwork. Then I got into teaching, and just never did it anymore. It wasn’t until this digital art thing that it kind of grabbed me again.”
His work took on a new level of enthusiasm once he decided to create The 12 Days of Zombie Christmas as a charitable effort. The series, which is to be sold auction-style on the Open Sea NFT marketplace, will see 80% of its proceeds divided between 12 separate charities. He’s working with The Giving Block — a non-profit outfit focused specifically on helping charities accept cryptocurrency-based donations — to ensure the funds are distributed accurately.
“Being a teacher, I wanted to focus on charities that have to do with opportunities for children, opportunities for girls in places where they don’t normally have access to education,” said Kleine.
“I picked out 12 different charities, one for each piece. Starting December 12, I’m going to put a piece up for auction each day on ‘Open Sea’, and they’re all going to expire Christmas Eve.”
With an unencumbered sense of joy for his work, Kleine shared that “My favorite Christmas movie is actually one of them. It’s ‘Christmas Vacation’. Chevy Chase. Every time I watch it, I laugh. I see the squirrel scene with the dog chasing them through the house, and I see them carving the turkey and it breaks open to this carcass. It’s just hilarious. I love it.”
The charities included in the campaign are: 1000 dreams fund, Children International, Pencils of Promise, FIRN, Mona Foundation, SOS Children’s Villages, Many Hopes, She’s the First, Count Basie Center for the Arts, Code to Inspire, Save the Children, and Family Promise.
The 12 Days of Zombie Christmas kicks off today with a one-of-a-kind NFT called Home Alone (Except the Zombies). Interested parties will find this piece, and all future tokens in this series, on the artist’s Open Sea page. Happy bidding, and a Scary Christmas to all!
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Information published on 12 March 2019 in the UIC electronic newsletter "UIC eNews" Nr 637.
Commuter and Regional Train Services (CRTS) working group meeting in Bern
Commuter and Regional
On 28 February 2019, the first meeting of the year of the Commuter and Regional Train Services Working Group was held at the headquarters of BLS in Bern, Switzerland. The meeting was hosted by Hans-Bernhard Fiechter, Head of Offer Planning at BLS and was chaired by Bartłomiej Buczek (PKP SKM), chairman of the group. There were representatives from PKP SKM, BLS, Euskotren, JR East and SENER. The UIC was represented by Vanessa Perez and Amin Saadaoui, Advisors for the Passenger Department.
The meeting started with two case studies respectively presented by Irina Schneider, Head of distribution at BLS AG, and Bartłomiej Buczek regarding new ticketing policies recently implemented in their respective countries.
The first case study was the NOVA interface in Switzerland, a standardised platform for travellers, travel and product data exchange as a backend for all distribution channels for public transport in Switzerland. Mrs Schneider further presented a new ticketing solution developed by BLS for automatic billing in the public transport. The Lezzgo app uses NOVA platform and provides a car-like seamless travel experience.
Bartłomiej Buczek presented the first impressions on the implementation of the Common Ticket in Poland which took place in December 2018. The Common Ticket is a new framework allowing rail passengers in Poland to book a journey operated by different railway undertakings in a single transaction. Besides, the new platform brought along a new tariff scheme promising more convenience and cheaper travel cost for passengers.
Kenzo Fujita, on behalf of JR East, represented the new service provided by the company to passengers regarding the congestion update notification in stations. The systems use image processing to identify congestion rates in different parts of the stations and forward it to passengers. The service is being tested in three pilot stations and subjected to further extension to other stations in the future.
The focus of the meeting was the work progress on the Handbook on CRTS. First, members viewed the “Ticketing systems” chapter, provided input and validated the contents of the chapter. Then the group discussed the roadmap for the “Main principles and logistics chapter.
The CRTS project handbook aims to provide guidelines and recommendations to commuter and regional rail operators on how to initiate and manage CRT operations covering ticketing, safety and security, legal and communication issues, challenges and best practices.
The meeting concluded with discussing near future activities of the group and the plans of cooperation with other bodies in the rail and transport sector. The next CRTS meeting will be held on 4 June, followed by the training on IV CRTS on 5 – 7 June 2019 in Barcelona kindly hosted by FGC.
For further information and registration please check here https://events.uic.org/4th-training-on-commuter-and-regional-train-services
This group is open to all UIC members, so do not hesitate to contact us should you wish to participate.
For further information please contact Vanessa Perez Miranda, Advisor for the UIC Passenger Department:
perez@uic.org
UIC gives third party access to MERITS Integrated Data 1st Digital Intelligent Rail Conference jointly organised by UIC and Infrabel to be held from 3 – 5 June 2019 in Brussels Belarus: Belarusian Railways are conducting a new container transport project Belgium: Lineas strengthens its workforce in Germany with new train drivers CRITIS 2019: 14th International Conference on Critical Information Infrastructures Security – Call for Papers Czech Republic: SŽDC launches complete reconstruction of Letohrad railway station International Railway Congress to take place from 17 – 19 March 2019 in Vienna, Austria Joe Boardman, former Amtrak president, has passed away Last chance to register now for the 4th Asset Management Global Conference to be held from 17 – 19 April 2019 in Paris Paul Véron, former UIC Director, is new Chairman of the International Railway History Association (IRHA)
e-News articles with keyword Passenger
First international conference relating to passenger transport intermodality (20 February 2009) Switzerland / France (20 February 2009)
e-News articles with keyword Reporting
Presentation of the study carried out by Roland Berger for UIC held on 29 September 2017 (3 October 2017) Appointment: Crister Fritzson confirmed as new CER Chairman (26 September 2017) UIC represented in its role as coordinator at the Capacity4Rail C4R Project Final Conference in Madrid (26 September 2017) UIC Digital Days in Rome: Asset Digitalisation and Cybersecurity (26 September 2017) Commuter and Regional Train Services (CRTS) working group meeting in Bilbao (19 September 2017)
645130(current)
e-News articles with keyword Promoting
Launch of the new UIC RailDoc Web Portal: the new tool facilitating your document searches (5 July 2016) 1st UIC Digital Awards (5 July 2016) CRITIS 2016 – Online registration is now open (5 July 2016) 13th UIC Sustainability Conference to be held in Vienna on 12, 13 & 14 October 2016 (28 June 2016) Railway Cooperation and Development Summit to be held in Beijing with joint efforts of China Railways and UIC (14 June 2016)
e-News articles with keyword Ticketing
Technical Group and Commercial Group chairs start work on E-Ticketing and Dematerialisation of Tickets on 25 – 26 January in Bern, Switzerland (30 January 2018) 2nd meeting this year of Commercial and Distribution Forum groups held from 4 – 5 October 2017 in Paris (10 October 2017)
e-News articles with keyword Commuter and Regional
2nd Training on Commuter and Regional Train Services (CRTS) held from 21 – 23 November 2017 in Rome (5 December 2017)
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Prose and Cons
Revisiting ‘The Beauty Myth’: What Are the Ethics of Applying Bad Facts to a Good Cause?
Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women has long been heralded as one of the greatest feminist books written. Many women have confessed that Wolf’s book was the antidote that woke them from the thrall of advertising, glamour and the intense need to conform to physical perfection. Although revolutionary in its prose and critical analysis, Wolf’s book fails at one vital juncture: accuracy.
In The Beauty Myth, Wolf argues that the standard of beauty and feminine traits assigned to women are devaluing. Women from all walks of life cannot seize power and happiness completely, because their insecurity at personal appearance — while bombarded by brands, fashion editorials, and pornography — is so profound that it mentally pulls them back. Wolf writes, “The real issue has nothing to do with whether women wear makeup or don’t, gain weight or lose it, have surgery or shun it, dress up or down, make our clothing and faces and bodies into works of art or ignore adornment altogether. The real problem is our lack of choice.” It was a groundbreaking idea for its time.
However, a problem regarding the book reemerged during a recent controversy that Wolf encountered while publicizing her new book, Outrages, a documentation of Victorian-era same-sex relationships and their persecution. While Wolf was explaining how the last recorded execution for the above was misreported as 1835, host Matthew Sweet interjected saying, “Several dozen executions? I don’t think you’re right about this.” He then went on to disprove this key element in Outrages by both pointing out that ‘deaths recorded’ was the Victorian Court term for pardons, and that the term ‘sodomy’ used to record these crimes was then applicable for both same-sex relationships and child abuse. Sweet added, “I can’t find any evidence that any of the relationships you describe were consensual.”
Though Wolf took it in her stride and corrected the above in her book, she has always had a problem with facts and statistics, often manipulating both to put across her point in a stronger manner. The Beauty Myth is no stranger to such manipulation, with Wolf having exaggerated statistics about anorexia — for example, stating around 7.5% of the total girls and women in the U.S. had anorexia, when the actual percentage was 0.065. So fraught was the book with incorrect statistics that there exists a critical research paper titled, “A Critical Appraisal of the Anorexia Statistics in The Beauty Myth: Introducing Wolf’s Overdo and Lie Factor (WOLF),” which, in its abstract, states that “18 of the 23 statistics (regarding anorexia nervosa) are inaccurate and overdone” and that “on average, a statistic on anorexia by Naomi Wolf should be divided by eight to get close to the real figure.”
What Keeps Many Girls from Loving Their Bodies
This sort of fact-fudging is both patronizing and harmful. One one hand, Wolf infantilizes her mostly female readership by using numerous anorexia deaths as the great specter that would change their minds. On the other, it perpetuates the idea that people only fear diseases that reach epidemic proportions. Would a doctor show any less concern for a rare disease with terrifying implications? Wolf didn’t need to create an epidemic when the nature of the disease itself has always been bone-chilling. How could a potential survivor of anorexia, who also found solace in The Beauty Myth, come to terms with the use of her illness and trauma to fearmonger?
Other statistics in Wolf’s book haven’t fared too well either. In the 1991 review of The Beauty Myth, New York Times critic Caryn James points out that Wolf’s statistics were both dubiously sourced and dated. James wrote, “She makes the preposterous claim that in the United States only 48 percent of women use contraception regularly, her source is a 1984 pop-psychology book called Swept Away: Why Women Confuse Love and Sex. And who knows where those old numbers came from?”
Fact-checking isn’t the only problem with the book, which continues to grace budding feminists’ shelves. In the new introduction for the 2002 edition of The Beauty Myth, Wolf writes that “the latest fashions for seven and eight-year-olds recreate the outfits of pop stars who dress like sex workers.” The idea that children (or anyone) can be ‘sexualized’ by virtue of how they dress and the implied derision for sex work is oddly placed in a book about the corporatization of feminine beauty and insecurities, making it dated and insensitive.
New Study Sheds Light on Genetic Causes of Anorexia
Ironically, a similar conclusion was drawn in the 1991 review of the book. Caryn James wrote, “(Wolf) examines how women’s magazines have substituted the impossible ideal of youthful beauty for the pre-feminist goal of a clean house and domestic bliss. But she writes as if women’s magazines were as powerful today as they were in the 1950s. More damaging, she virtually ignores how television, film, and videos have shaped women’s self-images and their bodies. How can any credible analysis of the way beauty tyrannizes women afford to ignore Oprah Winfrey’s liquid diet, Jane Fonda’s mega-hit exercise tapes or Madonna’s ever-changing sexual parade?”
Though Wolf acknowledges her inaccuracies, she ignores criticism. In a recent interview with The Guardian, she said, “I’m lucky. I had a good education. I know my books are true. They’re well sourced. They have hundreds of footnotes,” while fully aware of the various ways in which her research methodology has been picked apart over the years. Maybe, a reason to disregard criticism could be the confidence derived from Wolf’s privilege. (She came from a family of academics, read literature at Yale and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University.) Someone with a more marginalized identity would’ve never found continued backing from publishers after a scandal like this.
Another reason could possibly be the lure of a larger cause. In the New York Times’s review of Outrages, critic Parul Sehgal writes, “The issue (with writers who misrepresent information) isn’t simply that publishers don’t spring for fact-checking and leave writers vulnerable to making such errors. These writers see themselves in service of something larger than grubby reporting. They are the emissaries of great stories, suppressed stories, and if they take liberties or eschew careful research — as consistently as Wolf has done — it is because they believe they have a right to them, that the story, the cause, somehow sanctions it.”
The cause makes the ethical implications of Wolf’s misrepresentation murkier. While any scholar worth their salt would place no value upon this book, the women who read and swore by it still do. This is because The Beauty Myth’s cause has been that of the greater good — which makes it harder to dismiss entirely. Wolf’s observations – about women embodying beauty and men wanting to possess it; about the onus of beauty landing squarely on women’s shoulders — are all subjectively accurate and relatable. This discrepancy of false facts and subjective truths make Wolf look like some sort of feminist vigilante, trying any means necessary to get her point across, rather than the academic she’s branded herself as. In a world where women have to work twice as hard to be taken as seriously as their male counterparts, this doesn’t bode well — especially for feminist scholarship.
As children, we learn facts about the world around us and later grow up to realize that particular nuances of said facts may be incorrect. For example, we all learned as children that chameleons change color to camouflage themselves when the actual reason why they do so is a representation of mood and a change in body temperature. Perhaps, The Beauty Myth is a similar sort of primer: a solid exposure to critical feminist theory at a young age, that is best left behind slowly as one gathers more nuance and appreciation for facts.
beauty | books | feminism | Prose and Cons
Written By Aditi Murti
Aditi Murti is the senior culture writer at The Swaddle. Write to her using aditi@theswaddle.com, or find her on social media @aditimurti.
See all articles by Aditi
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Avril Lavigne scolds Mark Zuckerberg for bullying Nickelback
By Pablo Luna -
Mark Zuckerberg tells a Nickelback joke. Image: YouTube.
Canadian singer-songwriter, Avril Lavigne, recently expressed her disgust via Twitter on what she considers to be an outright act of bullying from Mark Zuckerberg to the Canadian rock band, Nickelback.
The Facebook co-founder published a video three days ago on his official channel, where he formally introduced the Jarvis AI home assistant, voiced by veteran American actor Morgan Freeman.
In the video, he commands Jarvis to “play some good Nickelback songs,” just like he would do with an Amazon Echo Dot, for example. Jarvis, however, refuses to do so while adding that “there are no good Nickelback songs.”
Lavigne, who was married to Nickelback’s lead singer Chad Kroeger, published a statement urging Facebook to stop promoting this kind of jokes, stating they were getting old and also that it constitutes a form of bullying.
The singer considers Facebook’s joke to be “in poor taste”
Following the video’s publishing, Lavigne’s response was more than a tweet. It was a lengthy statement that many commenters argued took things out of proportion.
Facebook has not responded to recent requests for comment made by numerous online sources, and Mark Zuckerberg has not made any official statements either.
Chad Kroeger has also failed to make a statement regarding what happened, nor has any other Nickelback member.
Dear @facebook, pic.twitter.com/1SCjWVV9TK
— Avril Lavigne (@AvrilLavigne) December 23, 2016
Nickelback: Band or meme?
Zuckerberg is not the first person to joke about Nickelback’s music. In fact, the whole Internet community has been bullying the band for years.
Even though Nickelback has sold over 50 million albums worldwide, as Lavigne cleverly points out in her statement, and the band enjoys an excellent roster of number one singles, they currently hold an individual page on KnowYourMeme, up and running since 2012.
The group, the website states, has received criticism for “failing to innovate,” among other reasons. Almost a year ago, an Australian police department comically tried to charge the band with “crimes against music.”
Other highlights of this internet-born joke include the ‘Nickleblock’ app, who played a Nickelback song whenever a user tried to get in contact with their ex.
The singer’s tweet currently has more than 68,000 retweets and 16,000 likes, which is not too shabby but also not very impressive for a celebrity with 20 million followers.
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ThinkMarkets
A blog of the NYU Colloquium on Market Institutions and the Leipzig Colloquium on the Market Order
Colloquium & Papers
HomePosts tagged 'epistemics'
epistemics
The Passions and the Interests in Forensic Science
April 17, 2012 koppl forensic science, Law, Uncategorized epistemics, experts, forensic science, Washington Post investigation
by Roger Koppl
A front-page article in yesterday’s Washington Post underlines the importance of establishing a substantive defense right to expertise in the US.
The article says, “Justice Department officials have known for years that flawed forensic work might have led to the convictions of potentially innocent people, but prosecutors failed to notify defendants or their attorneys even in many cases they knew were troubled.” The DoJ begin investigating in the 1990s “after reports that sloppy work by examiners at the FBI lab was producing unreliable forensic evidence in court trials.” As the Post article chronicles, the investigation was very narrowly drawn in spite of evidence that problems were likely more widespread. Continue reading →
Epistemic monopoly is still a bad thing
January 16, 2010 koppl forensic science, Law, science criminal justice, epistemics, experts, forensic science, science
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services has been distributing my op ed with Dan Krane on “Science rules the FBI should obey.” We discuss an example of epistemic monopoly in action, namely, the FBI’s failure so far to release anonymized data from its vast NDIS (National DNA Index System) data set. The NDIS data set contains the genetic profiles of more than 7 million people, most of whom have been convicted of serious crimes, such as rape. It contains information on whether the practice of forensic DNA profiling aligns with DNA facts, but that information can be extracted only if scientists are allowed to study the data. Why isn’t the FBI playing by the usual science rules requiring openness and data sharing? Continue reading →
The New Interventionist Economics
November 17, 2009 koppl Behavioral, Economics, Financial Markets, Keynes, macroeconomics animal spirits, epistemics, macroeconomics
Two recent posts on this blog (here and here) raise the issue of animal spirits and where macro is headed. I’ve recently completed a draft manuscript saying we are headed for “BRACE” economics. I say the “New Interventionist Economics” will be characterized by five features:
Radical Uncertainty
Complexity Dynamics
Extra-Market Control
(giving the BRACE acronym). Continue reading →
Rent Control and Torture
May 8, 2009 koppl Ethics, Public Choice epistemics, torture
Dick Cheney has intimated that water boarding yielded important, actionable intelligence. The evidence points the other way, however. Some evidence suggests that there may have been an ulterior motive for at least some “harsh interrogations,” namely, to link Iraq and al Qaeda. We need more analysis of Bush-era torture from an economic point of view, including public choice.
Rent control and torture are similar. In both case you have a government policy that cannot achieve the end it is said to pursue. And in both cases you might wonder what the policy’s true purpose really is. Continue reading →
Now it’s official: forensic science is a mess
March 7, 2009 March 7, 2009 koppl forensic science, Law criminal justice, epistemics, experts, NAS
The NAS released a much-anticipated report on forensic science last month. The report said, “With the exception of nuclear DNA analysis, however, no forensic method has been rigorously shown to have the capacity to consistently, and with a high degree of certainty, demonstrate a connection between evidence and a specific individual or source.” That’s a much stronger statement than we might have expected. The report identified several of the big problems with forensic including attachment to law enforcement. The report advises Congress to create a new home for forensic science: the National Institute for Forensic Science (NIFS). Basically, NIFS would take over forensic science and make sure everybody plays fair and does the right thing.
The NAS proposal to create NIFS is a much better idea than many ThinkMarkets readers might at first imagine. You might think it’s a bad idea to create another bloated government bureaucracy centralizing authority in Washington. But we need to remember where authority exists today and what constrains that authority. As the NAS report notes, the current system is “fragmented.” The opposite of liberty is arbitrary authority, and in many parts of our “fragmented” system, local authorities have unchecked discretionary authority. Reason magazine’s Radley Balko gives us a jaw-dropping example of the abuse of forensic-science authority in Mississippi. Sadly, other examples exist. NIFS will have problems of its own, but it should be better than such arbitrary local authority.
The report is far from perfect. It recommends research on “observer effects” in forensic science, but fails to recommend “sequential unmasking” as a corrective. Nor does it recognize the importance of epistemic monopoly and the need for a defense right to forensic expertise. It makes it impossible to pretend all is well in forensic science, however, and that’s a good beginning.
A Gem in the Folded Palm of Forensic Science
January 15, 2009 koppl forensic science, Law Buddhism, criminal justice, epistemics, experts
I’ve been railing against epistemic monopolies for a while now, particularly in forensic science. This project complements Peart and Levy’s work on experts. (See their symposium the 2008 Eastern Economics Journal, vol. 38 starting page 103.) I keep insisting that we need redundancy to reduce error rates. Economists, forensic scientists, and philosophers have all pressed me for data on error rates. How big a problem is this really? Continue reading →
Flaming torches and pitchforks
January 10, 2009 koppl Law criminal justice, epistemics, experts, forensic science
Forensic scientist Brian Gestring laments “The Dawn of the ‘Forensic Science Provocateur’” in the latest CAC News. That’s the newsletter of the California Association of Criminalists. He objects to the “peripheral waves of lawyers and business professors that have . . . found a new calling, that of Forensic Science Provocateur.” But wait, there’s more! “Like a flock of peasants with flaming torches and pitchforks, their rhetoric abounds and obscures substace.”
Gestring is having his rhetorical fun, but he is also engaging the so-called provocateurs. I think many other forensic scientists, however, genuinely believe that only practicing forensic scientists have standing to “criticize” forensic science, where “criticize” tends to mean saying something they disagree with or don’t like. Continue reading →
If redundancy is good enough for the rich and famous . . .
January 5, 2009 koppl Law criminal justice, epistemics, experts, forensic science, Travolta
According to Associated Press, “Bahamas using 2 experts for Travolta son autopsy.” (HT Ed Lopez.) Actor John Travolta’s son Jett died tragically on Friday, January 2nd, after hitting his head in a fall. (It seems he had an illness that left him subject to seizures.) The E! News story says, “A government official confirms to E! News that the autopsy will be conducted in Freeport by two separate pathologists to ensure accuracy of the results.”
I approve. Neither pathologist should have an epistemic monopoly in this case. I especially appreciate the use of pathologists who are “separate.” They should not work together and each should remain ignorant of the other’s conclusions.
The principle of redundancy in forensic science and medico-legal investigation is little more than common sense. I often talk about it in terms of breaking the forensic or epistemic monopoly of our crime labs. I also sometimes say, “My message to the forensic science community is simple: When you going motoring, put a spare tire in your trunk.” It looks rather as if the authorities in the Bahamas have got the basic idea of redundancy in forensic science and medico-legal investigation – at least for the rich and famous. Shouldn’t the same principle apply to indigent defendants in the criminal courts of the United States?
Epistemic monopoly may let the bad guys get away
December 20, 2008 koppl Uncategorized criminal justice, epistemics, experts, forensic science
The Chicago Tribune gives us another example of the trouble with epistemic monopolies. They uncovered a case in which the police in the Chicago area city of Harvey, Illinois ignored a DNA match in a rape case. In two other rape cases they did not submit the rape kit for analysis.
Madison expressed the liberal dilemma in Federalist 51: “In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.” We should count the risks of epistemic monopoly among the dangers poised by the police powers of the state. Short of full anarchy, which I don’t personally accept anyway, how could we introduce epistemic competition to municipal policing?
Who needs that new-fangled DNA anyway?
December 16, 2008 koppl Law criminal justice, DNA, epistemics, experts, forensic science
It seems some police and prosecutors do not view DNA evidence as friendly to their cause. I’ve come across two cases in which the police won’t use available DNA evidence. Earlier I blogged about Baltimore, where the police were ignoring DNA evidence. Now the Chicago Tribune reports, that in Lake County, Illinois, “authorities have sometimes pressed for convictions even when the DNA doesn’t match a suspect.” The story recounts several episodes, including two in which the child victims “were found with semen in their bodies, and in both cases DNA tests revealed genetic profiles that do not match the defendants’ DNA.” In one of those cases the authorities claimed the semen could have been picked up when the child played in the woods at spot known for romantic encounters. Continue reading →
The Technical Obsolescence of Forensic Fraud
December 6, 2008 December 6, 2008 koppl Law criminal justice, epistemics, experts, forensic science
I gave a webcast yesterday on “How to Improve Forensic Science.” Online questioners challenged me on a point that I now recognize to be underappreciated: The “ACE+V methodology” of fingerprint examination lets you shop your verifications. Let me explain. Continue reading →
CSI: Detroit
December 3, 2008 koppl Law criminal justice, epistemics, experts, forensic science
CSI: Detroit is looking a bit less glamorous than its TV cousins. The Detroit Free Press reports that an audit of the Detroit Crime Lab was ordered when an outside expert discovered errors in the police forensics. The audit reveals shocking deficiencies. The forensics monopoly of the Detroit police was broken when one Detroit defense attorney, Marvin Barnett, introduced a little competition by hiring David Balash, a retired Michigan State Police firearms expert, to examine the prosecution’s firearms forensics.
In September the Michigan State Police released its preliminary audit. They found a false positive error rate in ballistics of almost 10%. The report notes that “the DPD firearms unit analyzes 1,800 cases per year,” which implies about 180 false convictions per year on bogus firearms evidence alone. Continue reading →
See “How to Improve Forensic Science” Live on the Internet
November 26, 2008 November 26, 2008 koppl Law criminal justice, epistemics, experts, forensic science
On December 4th BrightTalk is running a “Forensic Science and Law Summit.” I’ll be giving a talk at 1:15 p.m. Eastern time. I’ll be using the slides from my presentation to the National Academy of Sciences committee on “Identifying the Needs of the Forensic Science Community.” It’s free and you can type in questions in real time as I present. I will discuss a suite of reforms that would break the fornsic science monopoly.
I don’t expect to discuss the fingerprint scandal in Los Angeles in my BrightTalk presentation. But I would like to talk about it here. In October of this year an internal audit revealed problems with fingerprint identifications in Los Angeles. The report, says the LATimes, “highlighted two cases in which criminal defendants had charges against them dropped after problems with the fingerprint analysis were exposed.” These two were cases that were caught in time to avoid a false conviction.
How many cases are we really talking about? Continue reading →
Truth-challenged police forensics in Baltimore
November 20, 2008 koppl Law criminal justice, epistemics, experts, forensic science
Most people think DNA evidence is bulletproof. Molecular biologist and forensic scientist Dan Krane has very nice presentation on some of the problems that can arise in this area. When the biological sample is mixed, degraded, or small, the evidence can be ambiguous, which allows subjective judgment to enter. Recent events in Baltimore point to another problem that has nothing to do with such ambiguity.
On September 27th, the Baltimore Sun reported, “In at least nine homicide, sex assault and burglary cases, Baltimore police detectives instructed crime lab technicians not to follow up on convicted criminals’ DNA found on evidence at crime scenes because they determined it was not relevant to their investigations.” The police have a plausible explanation. “Police spokesman Sterling Clifford played down the significance of the discovery, saying detectives routinely make judgment calls on evidence.” Moreover, says Clifford, “Very often those crime scenes are enormous, sometimes covering entire city blocks.” Continue reading →
Truth-Market Failure
November 19, 2008 November 19, 2008 koppl Law criminal justice, epistemics, experts
A friend of mine is a public defender in the Midwest. These days she is working on a murder case. The county medical examiner (ME) testified for the prosecution in the case. The defense called in an ME from a neighboring county to testify for the defense. The two MEs have opposite opinions in the trial. To an academic, it’s normal for two experts to disagree. But to a prosecutor it can seem outrageous that someone on “his team” would testify for the defense, even if in a different jurisiction.
The district attorney (DA) in the county where the defense ME works fired off an email protesting “the testimony of you or a member of your office as a defense expert in a prosecution being conducted by one of my colleagues.” Notice that this objection is not coming from the prosecutor in the case. It comes from the prosecutor in the county where the defense ME works. One of his MEs has the gall to go and testify for the defense in a nearby jurisdiction. Unthinkable! Continue reading →
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← Khedive Abbas II of Egypt
Wales Gets a New Prince →
The Khedive of Egypt Tiara: a Tale of Three Generations of Royal Brides (Tiara Time!)
Posted on Wednesday, 16, April, 2014 12:28 pm by ♔ la dauphiine ♔
Aficionados of spirals and scalloping rejoice! Rejoice extra if you love diamonds…so that’s pretty much all of us. Note to self: bumper sticker reading “Honk if you Love Tiaras.” Hell, honk if you love weddings, wedding dresses and love stories. Today’s tiara tells more than just the hand-me-down history of some jewellery; it’s the story of four generations of daughters.
Bumper-slogan hilarity aside, the Khedive of Egypt tiara is a 1905 Cartier concerto in diamonds and platinum. Behold ye, above: the Khedive in its current incarnation. Compare and contrast with below; the original did not have that booster base. Queen Anne-Marie of Greece beefed the tiara up after inheriting it from her mother, Queen Ingrid of Denmark.
Yep, this is one of those well-travelled tiaras; owned personally, not part of the state crown jewels. They make you give those kind back.
Unlike most tiaras named for a specific person, the Khedive of Egypt tiara’s moniker reflects not the original owner but he who bestowed the gift. It’s the thought that counts! Ha ha! A wedding gift from Khedive Abbas II of Egypt to Princess Margaret of Connaught in honor of her nuptials to Crown Prince Gustavus Adolf of Sweden. Connaught’s corona was really romantic coinciding she and Gustavus first met in Egypt.
Khedive Abbas also gave the gift of multi-functionality; another transformer tiara, the Khedive makes a flexible stomacher. We consent the argument for brooches but stomachers! We defy you to find one woman wearing a stomacher nowadays. One out of how many billion? See? Can’t be done. For Us the modern equivalent of a scullery maid, the oil-painting (right) of Crown Princess Margaret simply says “See, honey, this is how you wear that.” Heh, like oil paintings can be snarky. Well, maybe Dorian Grey…
In 1920, following a mastoiditis operation, the crown princess caught an infection and died June 1. At the time, Margaret of Connaught was pregnant with her sixth child. She never saw her husband crowned. The Khedive of Egypt tiara was handed down to Princess Ingrid.
off to denmark with Princess Ingrid.
Ingrid of Sweden married the one-day-king Frederik XI of Denmark in 1935. It was the media event of the year in Sweden, to the point where criticism was drawn for so much coverage of another country’s royal family. Princess Ingrid went to Denmark so naturally the Khedive of Egypt went to Denmark too, Worn so frequently as both crown princess and Queen of Denmark, Ingrid’s many looks demanded a cinematic montage!
Check out how often Ingrid pairs the Khedive of Egypt tiara with layered pearl strands. We like it better with the shorter necklaces. If We can find ten photos without breaking a sweat it stands to reason Queen Ingrid wore it often, maybe it was her favorite. It would certainly be one of Ours. finger pyramid of evil contemplation. The diadem looks like it rests comfortably on the head too. No wonder she wore it so often.
Rumor has it the Danish royal family won’t play well with others when it comes to their diadems, especially today under Queen Margrethe. (I’m imagining adult women in a castle screaming “Stop touching my stuff!” from another room. Hee.) Queen Ingrid was a bit more giving–er–a bit more loaning with her bling. Maybe it took her so long to loan it out as the Khedive had previously only haloed queens. The Cartier masterpiece was first “fairy god-mothered” in 1959. Yeah that’s right, We invented a verb. Ingrid loaned it to her niece, Princess Margaretha of Sweden (left), when she visited Denmark for her first cousin’s then-Princess Margrethe’s 18th birthday festivities. Guess the sharing gave Queen Ingrid a warm and fuzzy feeling, inadvertently starting a new tradition. She loaned the Khedive corona to each of her three daughters for their wedding day.
princess anne-marie and king constantinos II
We have an inexplicable preconceived notion that siblings marry in chronological order, a theory which does not apply to the Ingrid’s three princesses. Anne-Marie, the youngest, was the first to marry in 1964. In a traditional Greek Orthodox ceremony, Anne-Marie of Denmark and King Constantinos II wed in the Metropolis, the Greek Orthodox cathedral of Athens. The couple are third-cousins; sharing both a paternal great-great-grandfather and a maternal great-great-grandmother. (Constantine is also a prince of Denmark by birth. Don’t ask me how that works.) The couple first met in 1959 when Anne-Marie was 13. The crown prince accompanied his parents, King Paul and Queen Frederika to Denmark on a state visit. The third cousins met a second time in 1962, when Constantine announced his intention to marry Anne-Marie. In March of 1964, Constantine succeeded his late father Paul as King of the Hellenes. The royal engagement was announced officially in July 1964. (Were they just ‘pre-engaged’ before that?) Anne-Marie and Constantine were married on September 18th 1964, just two weeks after Anne-Marie’s 18th birthday. (Whoo, way to keep it legal, your majesty!) Check out the grin on Constantinos’ face. Ha ha! Got her! She’s all mine! We are also huge fans of the “crown ritual” during an orthodox ceremony. It’s tiara-on-crown action! HOT!
crown princess margrethe and henri, comte de laborde de mospezat
Margrethe was officially made heiress presumptive in 1959 after Parliament amended the laws of succession. Her father began the process in 1947 when it became clear that Queen Ingrid would not be having more children. The year 1967 saw another Khedive of Egypt princess bride and a spectacular state wedding, the norm for a future monarch. The future queen married French ambassador Henri Marie Jean André, Count de Laborde de Mospezat. Henri’s name was Danicised (yes, it’s a word) to Henrik (cooler) upon marrying the crown princess and was dubbed HRH Prince Henrik of Denmark. Holy public appearances, Batman. That’s what a state wedding for a crown princess is: a ton of waving from balconies and carriages
Margrethe’s dress is amazing and may win my vote for best royal wedding dress ever. I love that brooch that she’s centered on the bodice and you can never go wrong with a timeless princess-cut dress.
princess benedikte and prince richard of sayn-wittenstein-berleberg
The middle-princess, Benedikte, was the last to marry in 1968. Benedikte married Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg (yeah, just try to not-typo that surname.) Sayn-Wittengenstein-Berleburg is a German princely house of which Richard is the 6th Prince, styled as serene highness instead of royal highness. When the Richard and Benedikte tied the knot, King Frederik decreed that the children must be raised in Denmark to be in line to the throne. The Prince and Princess chose the opposite, raising the kids in the land of good-luck-fitting-that-in-the-SAT-name-sheet-boxes: Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleberg. Consequently, Benedikte’s three children are only styled as highness. Being bumped from the chain of succession does not preclude wearing the Khedive of Egypt tiara atop the bridal melon. So far, every one of Queen Ingrid’s granddaughters has worn the Khedive for their wedding. Both of Princess Benedikte’s daughters and Queen Anne-Marie’s eldest daughter, Princess Alexia have all joined the family tiara tree.
In our opinion, the Khedive of Egypt eclipses the Cameo Tiara of Sweden as far as family tradition. (Madeleine did skip on the Cameo, if you recall.) Every last female descendant of Ingrid’s has anchored her wedding veil with the swirling headpiece. The most fabulous trait the granddaughters share with their mothers? Superb taste in wedding gowns. Like mothers like daughters I suppose.
princess alexandra of sayn-wittengenstein-berleburg & count joseph von pfeil ind klein-ellguth
In 1998, Princess Alexandra, eldest daughter of Princess Benedikte, married Count Joseph von Pfeil ind Klein-Ellguth in Gråsten Palace, a summertime favorite of the Danish royal family, on the Jutland peninsula. I wonder if the site was symbolic as both Danish and Germanic lands share Jutland. I really dig how Alexandra’s dress is all about the cut of the fabric, no adornment, monochromatic. Save the tulip sleeves, the entire gown is clean lines. Brava, Sandy!
Princess Alexia of Greece & Carlos Morales
In 1999, Ingrid loaned the Khedive to a second granddaughter, Queen Anne Marie’s eldest daughter. Princess Alexia married Carlos Morales. If you take a look, you can see how the tiara indeed sits lower, still in it’s original version. The buttons down the back really do it for me. The front? Not as big of a fan but again, monochromatic with clean lines, just like Cousin Alexandra and Aunt Anne-Marie.
Princess Natalie of sayn-wittengenstein-berleburg and Alexander Johannsmann
Princess Nathalie of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg scores a bridal 9.9 using the traditional IOC Gymnastics scoring scale. (This new system ruined the sport…don’t get me started!) Princess Benedikte’s younger daughter’s score is a composite of one helluva dress and the best expressions We’ve ever seen on a bride. It goes without saying that Nathalie shouldn’t play poker; her Highness has about 40 tells! The ivory-satin gown was made by Danish designer Henrik Hviid. Although the bodice, sash and skirt all flaunt a different pattern, the combinations sings in harmony rather than a cacophonous clash. Just daring enough fashionably and clearly having the time of her life on her wedding day, I may even go out on a limb and say she’s runner-up to Queen Anne-Marie herself for excellence in Danish brides. Besides, don’t the blue umbrellas just make your heart melt?
Nathalie wed Alexander Johannsmann. a German horse breeder, civilly in May 2010. (Their marriage makes sense as the princess was an alternate on the Danish Olympic team for Dressage in 2000, won Bronze at the European Championship in 2001 and then bronze-medaled again at the 2008 London Olympics.) Here we see the religious ceremony the following year, on 18 June 2011, at the Evangelic Stadtkirche in Berleburg, Germany.
We didn’t mention it before, but did you notice that all six brides wore the same veil? Not only is the Khedive of Egypt tiara a family custom, the Danish Royal family antique Irish lace veil is also a tradition. (Go on and have a look back at the brides. We’ll wait here…)
From Denmark to Greece then set to wander
The Khedive of Egypt tiara remained in Denmark as Queen Ingrid’s personal property until she died in 2000. (Think Fabiola and the Spanish Wedding Gift tiara; hers not the state’s.) Ingrid had many personally owned jewels and did not leave the entire cache to her oldest daughter Margrethe. Instead the Khedive was inherited by the youngest, Anne-Marie of the Hellenes. The tiara traversed Europe to yet again, making it one of the best-travelled tiaras of the Twentieth Century. Queen Anne-Marie added the more substantial base, explaining why the tiara has a different look in more recent photos.
Now that the Greek Royal family has been deposed, many worry about the Khedive of Egypt tiara’s fate. As the Hellenes have connections to many other royal houses, it will definitely turn up at tiara events across Europe even though the Hellenes are a monarchy without a country. As with all pretenders and active nobility alike, there lurks the fear that the tiara will be sold when money grows scarce or inheritance taxes too high. An inconvenient fate that befell Ena’s Aquamarine tiara as well as the Poltimore tiara and the Rosenborg Kokoshnik tiara.
A fate to which many assumed Queen Frederika’s tiara, a staggering edifice of diamonds, had succumbed only to see it resurface more than 20 years later at Queen Margrethe’s Ruby Jubilee atop Crown Princess Marie Chantal’s noggin in 2012. That’s a comfort.
Who wore it best?
Thus We wait for Princess Theodora to round out the tradition as the last of Ingrid’s granddaughters. As Anne-Marie’s youngest is currently living in Los Angeles pursuing a career in acting. (Credited as “Theodora Grace,” the princess has appeared on the soap opera, the Bold and the Beautiful.) We get the impression that the wedding may be a long time coming. Then again, We’ll be waiting even longer for the Khedive Tradition to resume with Ingrid’s great-grandaughters.
Well? Who gets your vote for best-dressed of the brides? Why? Do you agree that Anne-Marie’s dress was epic or is that brooch in too weird of a place for you? Opinions, please! We know your got ’em!
This entry was posted in denmark, diamond, tiara time! and tagged diamond, European royalty, tiara. Bookmark the permalink.
12 Responses to The Khedive of Egypt Tiara: a Tale of Three Generations of Royal Brides (Tiara Time!)
Wednesday, 16, April, 2014 1:23 pm at 13:23
I agree that the 1960s wedding gowns were the finest–good tailoring and classic, clean (Danish!).
A beautiful tiara, but I enjoyed the hilarious asides the most: finger pyramid of evil, good-luck-fitting-that-in-the-SAT-name-sheet-boxes, Stop touching my stuff!”
I’m such a dork that way.
Tweeted and facebooked!
Thank you for such a sweet comment! [blog hostess blushes] I’m beyond flattered that my random flights of fancy are your favorite parts because that’s nothing more than me be me but I try not to overindulge. Maybe I should…
Joycelyn Schmid says:
Thursday, 17, April, 2014 10:43 am at 10:43
I love your tiara stories. Your asides are a scream! I do like the 60s dresses, as I was a 60s bride with similar gown.
Have you got a photo? We’d love a Wedding Dress Theme Week…
Thank you for the comment and kind words. My family stopped laughing at my jokes about 15 years ago, so appreciation for my humor is much adored! merci buckets!
Saturday, 19, April, 2014 1:03 pm at 13:03
I absolutely love Margrethe’s dress; simple but all elegance.And the hair-do tweren’t too shabby either.
Monday, 28, April, 2014 10:21 am at 10:21
I know! Margrethe’s dress has been voted “favorite royal bride” by other websites too! Can you blame them!? I know very few girls want to wear their mom’s wedding gown, but for this one I’d make an exception! I just adore the placement of the brooch, in the dead center like that: it’s exactly the kind of thing I’d do!
[ps – on an unrelated note, guess who got her pic taken on the Grand Staircase just for you? Yeah, now I just have to find a way to scan it in….]
Sunday, 4, May, 2014 12:58 pm at 12:58
Whoops. I just now seen this. Yes, please do share!!! I’m probably/literally turning green with envy over hearing this.
I do like the photo of Princess Benedikte – the one with her eyes lowered. It could be the position of her head, but the veil seems to give some extra height to the tiara, rather than sloughing off to the sides.
But it’s the painted portrait for me: Crown Princess Margaret looks petulant and sad; but her gown is a lovely color, her hair is soft and extravagant and her veil is around her shoulders, letting the tiara have all the glory.
Good Monday Aubrey! (Like that exists…heh.) I agree with you that Benedikte’s got the superior “tiara perch,” shall we call it? That’s also before Anne-Marie added the “booster seat,” so good job Benedikte! (Also, Isn’t her name so fun to type?!)
I also love that eyes-lowered candid pic myself. So intimate, I always wonder what they’re talking about. I know that’s Queen Ingrid on the right, I can’t pinpoint who’s on the left though.
As far as Crown Princess Margaret goes, yes, that portrait is killer! The brushstrokes are just texture-iffic. (Sorry for inventing such a dumb word. It is Monday.) Now–obviously–I have to blog about the other tiara in the painting: the loopy, shiny Connaught tiara.
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Cymric Breed
Kategoria: Breeds
Julkaistu: elokuu 13, 2018
Osumia: 30777
The mature Manx with all its rounded contours reminds one of a bowling ball. It is a round, heavy cat of medium size. Its primary feature is its lack of a tail. Not all kittens are born tailless. The ideal Manx has a rounded rump with just a dimple where the tail would have been however some have short stubby tails and some are born with full length tails. But the intelligent Manx is far more than just a cat without a tail! Its hind legs are long than the front legs so the rump is raised in the air. In days gone by, some people thought they saw a hopping gait and this, combined with the longer hind legs and lack of tail, gave rise to the moniker of 'bunny cat'. These charming cats claim an origin from the Isle of Man and come in two coat lengths: the shorthair known as the Manx and the longhair known as the Cymric.
Several colorful tales surround the origin of the Manx including the one where Noah cut off its tail as he closed the Ark door as the rain began. The records show the breed originated on the Isle of Man. The first cats may have come from nearby England and Wales or they may have come from further afield however the initial population arrived by ship on the Manx shores. At some point, a mutation occurred so kittens were born without the vertebrae of a normal tail. The first picture of one appears in a painting from 1810 however linguistic evidence suggests an earlier date around 1750 as the English word 'stubbin' is used for the Manx whereas prior to 1750 only the Manx language was used. A small island, the Isle of Man is an isolated area so inbreeding of the island population resulted in the lack of a tail becoming a common trait. Manx were among the original breeds at the dawn of the cat fancy in the late 1800s as we find them in the show records from that era. Tailless longhairs also appeared on the Isle of Man, however they did not achieve mainstream recognition until later. Today, the longhair is known as the Cymric with an identical standard to the Manx. TICA recognized both the Cymric and the Manx for championship competition in June 1979.
These gentle cats are generally playful and their powerful hindquarters make them excellent jumpers able to get to the highest corner to investigate something that has attracted their interest. They are intelligent cats quickly learning how to use their paws to turn a door handle to get to a room containing something they want. Manx and Cymrics quickly learn to retrieve and sometimes bury their toys like a dog. While they have a relatively quiet voice, they can be quite talkative and often use a unique trilling sound. They are people-oriented cats who form strong bonds with their families. They get on with children and other pets when properly introduced. These even-tempered, calm cats have a lot of affection to share and prefer not be on their own for long periods of time.
Together, the Manx and the Cymric comprise the Manx breed group. They differ only in coat length with the shorthairs known as Manx and the longhairs as Cymrics. They come in all traditional colors and patterns often with bold colors and dramatic markings. They have a thick coat that gives a padded feel to the body and adds to the rounded look. The shorthaired Manx has a double coat and the somewhat hard guard hairs tend to have a gloss appearance. The longhaired Cymric has a silky texture to the plush, medium-length coat with fluffy breeches and neck ruff.
While lack of a tail is the immediately obvious features of these breeds, they are also known for the roundness. These medium-sized cats have short, rounded bodies with a deep flank to the strong hindquarters, arched back and a round head with round cheeks. In fact, everything about these cats is round, making them resemble bowling balls! The eyes are also round but set on a slight tilt and the ear set resembles the cradle of a rocking chair giving the cats a sweet expression. Manx/Cymrics take 5 years to reach their full maturity and then males will weigh 10-12 pounds on average and the female 8-10 pounds.
While the lack of tail is the most striking characteristic, it is important to keep in mind that the nerve endings are still present but are not protected so care should be taken when handling the area where the tail would have been or the stubby tails. Pressure in this area can cause the cat pain. Children should be cautioned to be careful when petting the cat and not to poke at the missing tail area. Also, because of the structure of the cat, the cat's hindquarters should always be supported when it is being picked up or carried to ensure there is no additional pressure on the spine.
Cymric Breed At A Glance
Cymric Breeders
Best of Breed: Cymric
Best Cymric Of The Year
RW BW ULALUME DEJLIGE DHOOLISH
BROWN (BLACK) MACKEREL TABBY/WHITE
Bred By: THOMAS ANDERSEN
Owned By: SYLVIA CHURCH
Best Cymric Alter Of The Year
LA BW SGCA MISTYSPRINGS HELLO GORGEOUS!/CF
Bred By: GAYNELL VAN WEELDEN
Owned By: SHARI MILLAR/GAYNELL VAN WEELDEN
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Home » Lakewood: A Novel (Hardcover)
Lakewood: A Novel (Hardcover)
By Megan Giddings
NPR Book of the Year 2020
Electric Literature: One of 55 Books by Women and Nonbinary Writers of Color to Read in 2020 | Lit Hub & The Millions: Most Anticipated Books of 2020 | Ms. Magazine: Anticipated 2020 Feminist Books | Refinery29: Books by Black Women We are Looking Forward To Reading | One of The Millions’ Most Anticipated Reads of 2020 | Amazon Book of the Month Pick | Audible Editor’s Pick | Essence’s Pick| Glamour’s Must Read | Ms. Magazine’s Anticipated Read of 2020
A startling debut about class and race, Lakewood evokes a terrifying world of medical experimentation—part The Handmaid’s Tale, part The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
When Lena Johnson’s beloved grandmother dies, and the full extent of the family debt is revealed, the black millennial drops out of college to support her family and takes a job in the mysterious and remote town of Lakewood, Michigan.
On paper, her new job is too good to be true. High paying. No out of pocket medical expenses. A free place to live. All Lena has to do is participate in a secret program—and lie to her friends and family about the research being done in Lakewood. An eye drop that makes brown eyes blue, a medication that could be a cure for dementia, golden pills promised to make all bad thoughts go away.
The discoveries made in Lakewood, Lena is told, will change the world—but the consequences for the subjects involved could be devastating. As the truths of the program reveal themselves, Lena learns how much she’s willing to sacrifice for the sake of her family.
Provocative and thrilling, Lakewood is a breathtaking novel that takes an unflinching look at the moral dilemmas many working-class families face, and the horror that has been forced on black bodies in the name of science.
Megan Giddings is a features editor at The Rumpus, a channel of the Los Angeles Review of Books, and a contributing editor at Boulevard. She is a recipient of a Barbara Deming Memorial Fund grant for feminist fiction. Her short stories have been published in Black Warrior Review, Gulf Coast, and Iowa Review. Megan holds degrees from University of Michigan and Indiana University. She lives in Michigan.
“Chilling...Giddings is a writer with a vivid imagination and a fresh eye both of the body and of society. This eerie debut provides a deep character study spiked with a dose of horror.”
“Giddings writes with eloquence, walking readers through the complicated world of Lakewood. They'll be eager to turn each page and read what happens next.”
"Lakewood is a thought-provoking debut and Megan Giddings is a young writer to watch."
“Megan Giddings’ debut novel Lakewood is reminiscent of Jordan Peele’s terrifying film Get Out.”
“Both profoundly poetic and utterly compelling, Lakewood presents an intimate portrait of the physical and psychological trauma caused by the use of black people as test subjects for medical experiments in the United States and powerfully connects it to the broader legacy of environmental racism.”
— Ladee Hubbard, author of The Talented Ribkins
“Megan Giddings’ Lakewood is a gripping thriller of ideas in the tradition of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, depicting a terrifying world of public complicity and government-sponsored malpractice. Giddings asks: What happens when our want to be useful is weaponized against us, when the only way we see to help others is to invite harm upon ourselves? This is the rare debut that feels utterly of the now, unearthing our shared past even as it charges the reader to imagine and enact a better future, fast as they can.”
— Matt Bell, author of Scrapper
"Like Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale or Ira Levin’s The Stepford Wives, Lakewood compels even as it unsettles. Megan Giddings writes with a scalpel and I’d follow her characters anywhere."
— Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble
“An impressive debut. Megan Giddings has produced a novel of great emotional intensity. Her brilliant storytelling skills are on full display in this story which unfolds with subtle prose that deftly explores powerful themes of family, loss, responsibility, and friendship. Lena Johnson is a masterfully rendered protagonist, reminiscent of the characters of Toni Morrison, Gayl Jones and Jesmyn Ward, while appearing utterly new and fresh.”
— Jeffrey Colvin, author of Africaville
Fiction / African American / Women
Fiction / Dystopian
Fiction / Medical
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PM Benjamin Netanyahu and China's Deputy PM Liu Yandong at the opening of the Israel China Innovation Conference on March 29, 2016. (Haim Zach/GPO) (Haim Zach/GPO)
Chinese Show Growing Interest in Israeli Technology
INNONATION: China-Israel Investment Summit
Israel-China relations
Over 1,000 Chinese investors and strategic partners, as well as 500 Israeli high-tech companies and entrepreneurs from a variety of fields such as agriculture, clean technology, mobile and Web, smart cities, and medicine will gather in Tel Aviv in September to discuss further collaboration and investment.
Tel Aviv will host the “INNONATION: China-Israel Investment Summit” from Sept. 24-26, following the success of a similar summit held in January 2016 in Beijing.
The joint Israeli-Chinese conference is supported by both nations’ governments. It will be held at the David Intercontinental Hotel in Tel Aviv and will host more than 1,000 Chinese investors and strategic partners, as well as 500 Israeli high-tech companies and entrepreneurs from a variety of fields such as agriculture, clean technology, mobile and Web, smart cities, and medicine.
The INNONATION summit is a joint initiative of Israel’s Ministry of Economy and the Infinity Group, and has already secured the participation of more than 40 investors from Chinese investment funds, according to the Israeli business news outlet Globes.
“I expect that the vast majority of the Israeli venture capital funds which will raise capital in 2016 will include at least one Chinese investor. The significant interest of Chinese companies and investors and the large resources they have are an opportunity for Israeli companies. This fact particularly refers to sectors which include elements of advanced manufacturing, where Israel has a lot to offer, while in China, these capabilities are part of the recent five year plan of the Chinese government,” said Ziva Eger, head of the Foreign Investments and Industrial Cooperation Authority at the Israeli Ministry of Economy.
By: JNS.org
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Donate to vital charities that protect Israelis and help inspire millions around the world to support Israel too!
Now more than ever, Israel needs your help to fight - and win - the battle of public opinion.
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BDS Fail: European Airports Use Israeli Corona Gargle Test
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I found a very interesting article on United with Israel! Click to read this: --> https://unitedwithisrael.org/chinese-show-growing-interest-in-israeli-technology/
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Untold Arsenal: Supporting the club, the manager and the team
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From across the galaxies, the overwhelming Untold Arsenal prediction service… »
Arry charged with tax evasion; Untold predicts the exact score YET AGAIN
Redknapp to be charged with defrauding Revenue and Customs
Untold Arsenal predicts EXACTLY the right score yet again!!!
Oh where to begin?
The is the second Tottenham manager in recent history to have had a little contretemps with the authorities while holding that esteemed office. In 1987 David Pleat was cautioned concerning kerb crawling (the tactic of driving a car slowly past prostitutes in the Kings Cross area) and resigned.
From memory that event happened on the Friday – I remember that because we had a home match the next day, and outside Highbury there were hundreds of guys selling tee-shirts with the front and back pages of the Sun reprinted. I reckoned about half the crowd were wearing them by the time our game kicked off.
So one might say that trouble with that tricky business of law and order and is bit of a thing for Tottenham managers.
Although I must add it seems that the English footballing authorities like men with “a past”. I have commented before on the huge amount of money the England manager has had to pay back to the finance authorities in Italy. Something well known to the FA when they took him on.
Back to Arry. To be clear and exact the being known as “Harry Redknapp” is going to be prosecuted over his alleged inability to pay the right amount of tax to Her Majesty’s tax collectors. The hearing has not taken yet. He is innocent until proven otherwise.
The solicitors BCL Burton Copeland said: “Harry Redknapp is extremely surprised and disappointed to have been informed that HM Revenue & Customs intend to institute proceedings against him in the week commencing 11 January 2010.”
The blog site Untold Arsenal said, “Tony Attwood is extremely thrilled and delighted to have been informed that HM Revenue & Customs intend to institute proceedings against the man who has left West Ham, Southampton and Portsmouth in the state we have found them in this season.”
A spokesman for the alleged “football club” said: “The club considers this matter to be a private issue… and which is not related to football matters. His position remains unaffected and he has the full support of the club.” Much like David Pleat then.
Tony Attwood said, “Untold Arsenal considers this matter to be of great public interest, and should be the source of much amusement for all right thinking football supporters. The fact that the Tiny Totts are standing by this alleged “manager” will beyond doubt increase the amusement that is to be had by this affair.”
So that’s great news, and now back to the footie and the bookie.
Last weekend we predicted Liverpuddle 1 Arsenal 2. And guess what? We was right!!!! Absolutely. The preview even mentioned an own goal – although I admit we had Theo scoring a goal at the wrong end, but still the concept was right.
Then – I fully admit it, I predicted a 1-3 win for us against Burnely and I got it wrong. One punter wrote in and said “I should give up on predictions mate”.
But Arsenal 3 Hull 0, predicted on friday night by Phil Gregory was again absolutely right. Two out of three scores absolutely right in a period of 8 days, what more could you ask for from a blog?
We had some rousing choruses of “Stand up if you hate Phil Brown” and on the naivety of the ref allowing Barnby and Hunt to stay on the pitch. Watching the TV replays later it was clear that Barnby shoved his hand in Nasri’s face, which normally is a sending off offence but I am told is normal saturday night behaviour in Hull.
The Evil Being Called Brown tried every trick in the book, but the best plans of mice and mice were undone by Denilson’s brilliance, Almunia’s dive, and the stunning predictions made on this site.
So I look at the table and think…
No Fabregas
No Van Persie
No Bendtner
No Clichey, Gibbs or Traore
No Rosicky
which is a fairly big injury list. Laughingly Match of the Day changed their tune this week and said that Arsenal had been quietly plodding away and getting there. Last week we had “four defeats in their last seven games” or something stupid (they included games where we put out the youth team).
Looking down, and being careful not to get vertigo we are eight points above Liverpoodle with a home game in hand. Liverpoodle will of course be happy that they are above those high flyers of Birmingham City (on goal difference) and above that top team Fulham (by one point) but they might be a trifle concerned that Birmingham C and Fulham Al Fayad both have a game in hand over Liverpool. If they were to play and win those games Liverpool would not be a flattering seventh, but a less convincing ninth.
They are also six points south of securing a Europa League spot next season.
Of course we could have spent a few billion on new players as required by some, and been perhaps like, oh, I don’t know, Manchester Arab, who are six points behind us, and have just sacked that most disgusting of managerial dung heaps, the OOOOOOOoooooooze. The man who required Fabregas to apologise to him. The man who thinks there is nothing wrong with rushing into the other team’s technical area to wave and shout and sending his team out to kick the others into the mud.
The man who spent £25m on Mr Adebayor and then forgot to play him yesterday.
The papers won’t say it, but Manchester Arab got rid of the OOOOOOoooooze because he was a total embarrassment to them.
Ruminating further, could this be the end of Liverpool?
Certainly no one seems to be anxious to buy them. They are clearly in poor shape, and the banks want their money back. Anyone buying into the club is likely to have to
1. Pay off the £350m debt to the bank
2. Invest £100m in new players, the youth team not seemingly bringing many first team players through.
3. Spend £300m on a new stadium.
4. Spend £100m to balance the books over the next three years before the stadium is built.
So that’s about £850m – which is not far short of what you would have to pay to buy Manchester IOU.
It doesn’t look like a great deal – although of course someone from the middle east might go for it.
I doubt that they will go bust, and I suspect that somehow they will survive in the EPL this year, but that means next year they have no Euro money, and less TV money, and that will be the killer blow – not this year’s performance.
That lack of income to a club that lives by spending £30m a year to throw on players will be much more destructive than this year’s failure, and the long run of 20 years without a championship (which we shall celebrate this year) will be ended by a scrape with relegation. The myth of Liverpool will finally end.
So, all in all, a jolly (if cold) day yesterday.
Now about this little matter of Redknapp the Destroyer and his not paying tax. What could that be about? Obviously not his salary as a manager, because he would be paying PAYE on that as all employees do. It must be some other money that has come from somewhere….
Where, I wonder?
Tony Attwood
If you wish to comment on Mr Red the Destroyer of Football Clubs please do remember that he is not guilty of anything, and has not had his day in court. It would be wrong to allege anything you cannot prove in advance of the hearing.
If you place an order for Making the Arsenal with the publishers on Monday or Tuesday this week I will still have time to sign it (if you want) and post it to you for delivery straight after Xmas.
And you can read all about Christmas for the Arsenal 100 years ago on www.woolwicharsenal.co.uk
Bloody cold still, isn’t it?
Signing Manor Solomon; how the post-Brexit rules on transfers are working
Then and now: just how far have Arsenal fallen in the past 10 years?
Arsenal v Palace: the team predictions
Arsenal’s Bargain Buys
Arsenal v Palace. Partey and Gabriel return for re-ignited Gunners
December 20th, 2009 | Category: Arsenal stories, Corruption, Finances, Match reviews and previews, Tottenham Hotspur | 33 comments - (Comments are closed)
33 comments to Arry charged with tax evasion; Untold predicts the exact score YET AGAIN
shotta-gunna
Just brilliant Tony. You called it. “The chickens are coming home to roost” in the inimitable words of my hero Malcom (see my Avatar).
PS: How come you missed ManUSA beginning to drop points like leaves in autumn. Splash the cash they say.
Phil Gregory
Cracking read Tony. In particular: “Barnby shoved his hand in Nasri’s face, which normally is a sending off offence but I am told is normal saturday night behaviour in Hull”
SomeRandomGunner
Nice post. I am really happy with yesterday’s performance . Do you guys feel that Song,Diaby,Denilson are all playing better and show their talents more when Fabregas is not there ? I have not seen Song trying to dribble so much and he was successful most of times too. Denilson’s long passes were delightful and especially the one to Theo. May be they do not have enough confidence to play along side Cesc and they have too much respect for Cesc. Probably Arsene should tell them they do not have to stop playing when Cesc is there and he cannot win matches alone. It was a really good moment to see Denilson come forward and take the free kick , what a good kick that was it was like Cristiano Ronaldo’s free kick few weeks back.
Wonderinggoon
Congrats on the prediction! Wonderful game yesterday.
“four defeats in their last seven games”
I think they said ‘four in six’, which of course sounded even worse.
No, I think he’s sacked because the Sheiks are HUUUGE fans of Mr. Wenger and were pissed at the no handshake incident. Okay certainly not but it amuses me to write so.
All in all not a bad day yesterday. ManU & Liverpool lose, Hughes loses his job and Happy Arry keeping HM Customs & Revenue busy.
Has anyone heard about this John Terry story? All I heard was a bit on the Sunday Supplement but it seems Terry has been caught in a sting operation taking backhanders (£10 grand according to the NOTW) to show people round the Chelsea training ground. Why the hell does someone earning a reputed £170,000 a week need to take a £10,000 backhander? It really makes you wonder about the intelligence level of the England Captain.
According to the Star on Friday or Saturday (can’t recall which) Arsene Wenger refused to rule himself out of the Manchester City job.
That was good.
The John Terry story is all there in the News of the World – including video evidence on line
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/647166/TERRYS-ALL-SOLD-John-Terry-in-secret-cash-scandal.html
Sorry I can’t make that link live here – you will have to cut and paste it into the browser.
Oh I just did make it live. clever me.
Cape Gooner
@SomeRandomGunner
I remember seeing an interview with Alan Mullery where he talked about playing for England under Alf Ramsey. Ramsey said to him “Your job is to get the ball and give it to him”. Him was Bobby Charlton.
I doubt if AW gives those instructions, but I guess they do it all by themselves!
GoonerGaz
Bet arrys twitchin now.What about putting an offer in for Torres now he will have nothing to play for this season?
Tony – Do you think Terry declared that money to the tax man?
GoonerGaz – I dont think Torres will be going anywhere in Jan but it might be worth a go in the Summer. He would really fit into out team and can you imagine the number of goals he would get with our creative players around him?
I mentioned something about comeuppance here on Friday 18 Dec. That counts as another Untold prediction, doesn’t it? Now lets see how many comeuppances recorded this weekend.
1. Man disUnited got seriously spanked 3 – 0 by Fulham (a true comeuppance)
2. Mark Hughes lost his job (even though I do not like the way he found out about it, it is still a proper comeuppance)
3. Dirty Harry to rumble with HM Revenue (another comeuppance in my book). If Harry is found guilty, I will absolutely have no sympathy for him.
Back to yesterday’s win:
It is official. Diaby is the back-up to Cesc Fabregas. a truly Man-of-the-match performance from him yesterday.
Denil-my-son, A truly Brazilian free kick, that was.
The Aluminium man? Didn’t he stop the albeit dubious penalty?
Yet they are useless, the lot of them, aren’t they? Ehnnn!!!
Honest old John Terry. The English don’t dive; only Johny Foreigner do. I guess only Johny Foreigners took that bribe on behalf of John Terry, ehnnn? Greedy, shameless plonker (even if ‘plonker’ probably does not exist, I am allowed to make up my own words if I choose to, aren’t I?).
Great article once again. And was it Tony again who first revealed that there could be something wrong with Harry ? Long before others ? Really great job.
And those predictions I’m curious for the next week. Maybe I should visit a bookmaker when I leave Kings Chross next week ? 😉 Better not say it’s the Untold prediction then.
That is when Eurostar is working normally again. When I look out side my window I see some 10 inch snow and this is really unprecedented for ages I must say. I never have witnessed it in my life and as I am nearing the half century mark in a few years this means something I think.
I feel like in Siberia or so.
Here is some food-for-thought for you guys:
Has anyone noticed how Diaby seems to play masterfully well in matches whenever Fabregas is out – A la Roma last season et al?
Think about it guys.
diceman1984
Nice one Tony,
Brown was as ever a disgrace. In fact the whole Hull team represented Brown’s personalities very well.
2 unbelievable dives in a match was ridiculous to watch. The poor old Silvestre looked like he might get a heart attack when that whistle blew.
another food for thought: Played three games this week. The two with Denilson on the pitch we won and the one without him on the pitch not…
Our disgracefull match commentator hadn’t a clue what happened. I heard a whistle and everybode stopped playing but no one really knew what the ref had given. Ridiculous.
Great article Tony. Better than reading the rubbish in the Sunday papers anytime.
You reap what you sow or so the saying goes. As far as I am concerned we are lead by an upstanding gentleman who will always do the right thing for our club. No wonder he is coveted by so many other clubs. Our whole team was outstanding yesterday and even under great pressure and under hands tactics.Even Sylvestre defended well ( penalty aside???? ) and got forward at every opportunity. So looking forward to the Villa game and I do thknk it is going to be a cracker! Pun intended.
Walter I’m in Caanda at present and we had over a foot of snow over the weekend and it’s currently -15 outside ( 10am ). Nothing stops for snow here. Maybe Europe is getting the wrong “type” of snow?
The BEPL strikes again……….another bent penalty for the Chavs.
You never know, Tony. Hughes’ display of bad behaviour against Wenger might have truly irked the Arab owners. Arab culture might take a much dimmer view of that kind of reprobate beaviour than does our fawning press.
Forget the injury prone Torres, I think if Eduardo gets his scoring boots on, he could be very prolific in our set-up. His dragged back which narrowly went wide was almost spectualar, add to that the tap-in……
………for the last 10 years we’ve wantted a tap-in merchant.
IndianGooner
2 points dropped by Chelsea.. So, its just 6 points from the top with a game in hand!!! Great week for a Gooner!!!
Look if you guys are going to start covering the article I have just spent half an hour writing about John Terry and his tax situation I am not going to play any more.
It is wonderful that the KGB, Manchester IOU, and Liverpool Insolvency all lose points, and it really puts into perspective our draws with Burnley and West Iceland. We draw with Burnley and someone writes in to say everyone is rubbish and should go. Manchester lose to them, and that is forgotten. We draw with Iceland and its the end, but now we can see the KGB had the same problem.
This will be seen as the season when it all changes – the top four which has been fixed since Chelsea went KGB, is now all over. What is it replaced with? A top 3 + 1 rotating outsider. A top 5 with one team rotating out into the Europa league. A genuinely rotating top 6 or 7 seems a bit far fetched.
But as I write the history of Arsenal 100 years ago each day on the Woolwich Arsenal blog I am constantly struck by the fact that through most league history clubs moved very rapidly from success to failure and the reverse.
I am going to guess we will move to a top 3 plus a rotating outer ring of 3 who are constantly on the edge of getting into the top 3, but don’t. So the outer three play a little league of their own, the winning getting the 4th spot in the Champs, the runner up gets Europa, and possibly the 6th team in the league might get a Europa too.
Complex eh?
jazbo
Another great piece Tony, and three points gained with out Cesc and in some style, Hughes getting the sack, Manu U and Liverpool loosing, Chelsea only getting a draw, what a great weekend!!
My MoM was Diaby followed by Denilson, Song and Nasri well played boys, my only gripe is that they never play this way with Cesc in the team, what’s the problem???
Loved all the chants during the match it was great to hear so many of our supporters giving Tango man a hard time.
Well done to Nasri for waking up the team and getting them going, the boys a bit nasty which is what we need in our team because we are just too nice.
Next prediction please Tony, this time i’ll go down to the bookies and have a flutter!!!
In the Observer today I gave Diaby 9 – the only player to get that score.
Yup, Nasri is the main man, ‘nasty’ Nasri maybe? He’s understood that to get respect, you need to be twice as nasty as the opposition.
Diaby is unique, because he barrels through the inside centre channels, which causes central defenders grief.
Pete The First
What a great weekend of results!
Tony I noticed you got fan status in the Observer. Didn’t reference your blog though. Team of the week notched Zamora ahead of Arsenal’s team. Maybe he’s Wneger’s no 1 target?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/arsenal/6851894/Arsenal-midfielder-Samir-Nasri-facing-FA-charge-after-clash-with-Hulls-Richard-Garcia.html
More shit from the BEPL. If Nasri is charged, why don’t all the other off the ball fouls get charged? We’ve got a list as long as your arm of off the ball violence. Shawcross last season, and the guy from Sheffield Wecnesday who assaulted Van Persie spring immediately to mind.
But then this is the BEPL, where Arsenal are to the football authorities what like to hunt and harry us for some reason.
On the subject of BEPL, Chelsea got a blatant non-penalty given in their favour, and by all accounts, escaped a second penalty against them when Carvallho took out Franco. And we got the lamest penalty ever against us when Silvestre was penalized for having a name that sounds like a vest, and so was incriminated for vest-tugging.
The question is not, “Can we win the league?” , but “can win the BEPL?”
I doubt even Tony knows.
Going a little back to the corruption/xenophobia conversations:
Does anyone else feel a discrepancy in the coverage towards Mark Hughes, the way the Arab owners of Man City are being compared to say the owners of Liverpool, Manure, the unknown banksters in charge of other clubs etc…It’s quite blatent in my opinion.
Some people commented on the Dubai situation, and how that might affect Abu Dhabi City. Well, the only effect it had was to get rid of the OOOOOOoooooooozzzzzzeee I think.
Abu Dhabi is a very wealthy Emirate, more then happy to keep the port that is Dubai in business, not keen to see it as an emerging rival financial center to the trade between Africa, Europe he Mid-East & Asia.
Many outside of Asia seem unaware that Dubai is the heart of Asia’s black economy, has been for decades. That most counterfeit goods manufactured in China pass through it’s ports & that many of those construction sites were never meant to be finished, just to lure gullible investors.
Dubai is a city that was being built in the desert, where the temp. can reach up to 50 degrees, but they never built or planned a sewage system. About as explicit a statement of intentions as you could find, architecturally speaking.
How funny is that on Sunday morning when looking at all the Back Page headlines Sky completely ignored the ‘Harry Redknap going to be charged’ headlines.
Nobody want to upset the poor father of Jamie? The one who left all his previous club in such good situation they nearly all finished brankrupt.
How funny that some has been former player is dolled out to pontificate about the good old honest English player. Then advocate that Samir Nasri should be banned for his bastardly attack.
If you look at the picture of the incident a slightly different story emerge.
First Nasri approach the ball with Garcia and Hunt preventing a quick free-kick (which in itself is an offense), Nasri is then pushed away by Garcia, Nasri quietly trod on his feet as revenge. Garcia succombes to the terrible kick like Mike Tison just punched him. Barmby tried to punch Nasri. Hunt pretend to be horrified by Nasri’s dastardly act.
If you look at punishment, then Garcia should be charged for initiating the attack. Barmby should be banned for raising his hand (violent conduct). Hunt for also raising his hand.
I am afraid, Nasri act cannot be qualified as violent conduct (sneaky and uncalled for but not violent). Because he could only be charged for ungentlement conduct that carries just a yellow card, technically the FA cannot charge him with anything unless they use the catch all card of bringing the game into disrispute.
It is funny that only on French TV was it mentionned that at half time in the tunnel Nick Barmby try to confront Nasri and ended up in mild scuffle with a stewart and that it is the reason why he was substituted. If Nasri is charged, then Arsenal could then ask for Barmby to be charged for both incidents (raising hand to an Arsenal player, raising hadn to a stewart). That is also the reason why Tango tried to downplay the incident when still pretend to complaign about it.
Bar a miracle of biblical proportion, Liverpool are f*cked.
In you assessment of the situation, you forget that the owner would want money to cover their own ‘investment’. Do not forget that according to their own account they borrowed at 19% to put the deposit to borrow to buy the club. It is like borrowing on your credit card to put the deposit on a mortgage that you cannot afford anyway. They still want £300 millions. You need to add that money to the expenditure.
Even without adding that extra money, you end up with number that do not add up. Unless somebody comes and build a stadium of 120,000 places and charge a fortune for the pleasure to watch their team play in the Europa league. They will not make it.
I can see a slow painful death before the big implosion.
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Unbloated Arsenal v Palace: injuries, predictions and games against the Palacials.
Surely it is the journalists who are bloated not the Arsenal squad
Arsenal v Palace facts and figures: two clubs totally balanced
How Arsenal got into this mess, and the one thing they must now do.
Arsenal to sell Willock or Nelson to buy Buendia, despite having no space for foreigners
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About Turner Hall
Tag Archives: steven wilson
“An eternal outsider at the pop party…”
The ever brilliant Q magazine featured Steven Wilson for the first time ever a few months back in a 6 page Maverick feature which marked the end of the To The Bone campaign in the UK. Steven’s UK tour dates received rave reviews everywhere from Prog to the Sun.
Tagged prog magazine, q magazine, steven wilson, the sun, to the bone
the most successful British artist you’ve never heard of
Reviews for Steven Wilson‘s recently released album To The Bone (charted in the UK at No 3).
“Resolutely independent… the most successful British artist you’ve never heard of” The Telegraph
“A near perfect balance… flash & flamboyant with lovingly crafted big tunes” Mojo 4*
“An inimitable rabbit-hole of psychedelia” Planet Rock, 5*
“Lush and ambitious… insistently melodic” Uncut
“Wonderfully executed… pop brilliance” Q 4*
“A fervent and meticulous tribute to the very notion of the song itself… Steven Wilson is consciously rehabilitating an approach to pop music that, let’s face it, is long overdue a widespread revival. And, as with everything else, he does it better than most” Prog (album of the month)
“To The Bone features squalls of furious guitars and occasional shifting time signatures… it’s artful, sophisticated pop-rock, channelling the favourites of his youth: Talk Talk’s The Colour of Spring, Peter Gabriel’s So, and Tears For Fears’ Sowing The Seeds of Love” The Guardian
“His best and most complete solo album yet” Classic Rock 4*
Tagged steven wilson, to the bone
The Biggest Band In Britain – An Update
Still Cooking
How I Helped Underworld Write A Socialist Banger by Aditya Chakrabortty
The Biggest Band In Britain
Courteeners. Heaton Park. June 2019.
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A Sad Day for Little Piggies – A Recap of Pretty Little Liars’ Season 4 Premiere – “A is for Alive”
Hey there, my Pretties! It’s that time again. Our favorite little liars are back for another season of being tortured by “A” . . .
. . . romanced by sexy shirtless men . . .
. . . and making questionable fashion choices (sometimes) . . .
So dig that creepy baby-face mask out of moth balls, keep your cell phone away from coffins, and for Heaven sake, hide your little piggies . . .
. . . because it’s time for another Pretty Little Recap . . .
There’s A Dead Body Bacon in the Trunk!
“So, I’m guessing that Rosewood doesn’t have a car wash?”
Last season, on Pretty Little Liars, Deputy Douchey’s car magically emerged from a lake, and drove itself out to meet our fabulous foursome (plus Mona). It turns out, Douche Car was on a mission. It wanted to show the Liars incriminating footage of Mama Marin hitting Deputy Douchey with her car, and driving off into the sunset. Now, admittedly, getting hit by a car sucks. But it could have been worse, Deputy Douchey! You could have been hit by a car ON YOUR WEDDING DAY . . .
Also, Deputy Douchey didn’t even DIE yet, when he was hit by that car. He just brushed himself off and walked away. He even got the opportunity to shower, after it was all over . . .
. . . which is more than we can say for his car . . .
Because, as we find out, in the opening minutes of the episode, being dirty, and playing a bad home movie on its OnStar screen are the LEAST of Douche Car’s problems. THERE’S SOMETHING IN THE TRUNK!
WHAT COULD IT BE? It must be something pretty horrible, considering the writers made us wait MONTHS to find out . . .
I mean, when you think about it, anything could be in that trunk . . . Ali’s corpse, Jason’s corpse, Toby’s corpse, A SPARE TIRE . . .
But what actually ended up being in the trunk was worse than ALL OF THOSE THINGS COMBINED. It was . . . BREAKFAST . . .
“OH THE HUMANITY!”
Silently agreeing to all become vegans, the little liars hightail it from the “crime scene,” before they can be spotted by the cops. Mona, however, decides to stick around, because a good song is playing on the car radio. And everyone knows it’s bad luck to leave a car when a good song is playing . . .
Mona Vanderwaal’s theme song
Actually, she’s just dismantling the incriminating OnStar video monitor, like the sociopath / criminal mastermind she is . . .
Good going, girl! An extra special helping of bacon for you!
You know how a lot of company websites have a Frequently Asked Question page, so that the customer service line isn’t inundated with the same inane questions, over and over again, like “What’s the mailing address?” or “What are your hours?” or “Why does the hair color on my head look nothing like the picture of the girl on the dye box?”
Well, that’s kind of what the next scene was like for me. Having Mona answer six or seven of the series’ most frustrating questions all at once, was both a really lazy thing to do, from a writers’ perspective, and an oddly satisfying experience for the fans. So, without further adieu, I proudly present to you, Mona PLL F.A.Q. . . .
(Does this mean Cece is Red Coat? She certainly seems to be A Red Coat. I’m just not certain yet that she’s THE red coat.)
Should the writers have revealed the answers to these “Burning Mysteries,” through actual plot exposition, as opposed to mere script exposition? Sure. But if they did that, they’d have so much less time to focus on things like Dead Pigs in car trunks and the never ending Love Saga of Ezria . . .
Sarcasm aside, I think the writers simply recognized the fact that they didn’t have time to include the answers to these questions in their actual plotline. And, if that’s the case, I’m glad they revealed them, this way, rather than keeping them as intensely frustrating eternally unsolved mysteries, like some OTHER shows I know . . .
“I’m looking at you, Hurley Bird, and Walt’s rapid aging /random magical powers!“
One of the things I love most about PLL is how refreshingly self-aware it is of it’s own occasional ridiculousness. Take for example, this next scene, where all the little liars awaken to find Mona gone. Of course, they immediately assume that they all fell asleep because Mona drugged them . . . and not simply because they were tired from a long night of playing Fondle the Dirty Cop Car . . .
And why wouldn’t they think that? Especially, when Emily, Hanna, and Aria have each been drugged by their enemies, at least once on the show.
Poor Mona! She just went out to get all her friends their morning cups of coffee, exactly how they like them . . . and possibly murder Deputy Douchey.
Mona is kind of a kick ass car thief! They should really consider hiring her for the next installment of Fast and Furious . . .
Trailer Park of the Dolls
You know, we all make jokes about how all the liars (with the exception of Emily) have such awful parents. But what about Mona?
I mean, think about it. Here’s a girl who spend about half a year in the nuthouse. And when she gets out, her parents don’t seem to notice, mind or care, that she took all that creepy crap she used to store in a random skeevy motel room, and moved it to her OWN PERSONAL TRAILER! Last I checked, you had to be 25 just to rent a car. Can you really buy a house on wheels at 17?
In hopes of proving her worthiness, Mona generously allows each of the girls to read the personal stalker files she’s amassed on each of them, during the course of three seasons. Then, she glibly admits to Hanna that she successfully impersonated Caleb despite being about 5 inches shorter than him at last year’s Halloween party, just so that she have an excuse to suck face with her former bestie, who she once tried to run over with her car . . .
But Mona wasn’t the only cross dresser on the Halloween Train of Terrors. Check THIS out?
It’s pretty hard to be afraid of someone who looks so ridiculous. Then again, this was the guy who drugged Aria, put her in the coffin with a dead body, and then literally almost THREW HER FROM A MOVING TRAIN . . .
Mona’s carefully captured video footage suggests that there was another member of the A Team responsible for Aria’s future therapy bill. She claims it was Spencer’s B*tch Sister Melissa . . .
But this pretty awesome “Kiss Virus,” smears fake lipstick kisses across Mona’s desktop, and deletes all her files, before Mona can confirm that she’s telling the truth. My theory? Mona clearly has a backup for this footage. I’m thinking she likely planned the “virus,” because she’s covering for someone much more surprising than Melissa . . . someone who we HAVEN’T actually assumed was bad news from Day One. Someone like . . .
I’m kidding. I know the writers would never do this. But you have to admit, it would be a pretty shocking reveal . . .
Attack of the Kiddie Clones
Outside the trailer, the girls hear the sounds of their names being called, and head out to investigate. Here’s what they find . . .
My goodness! Does A work in a toy factory? It’s the only possible explanation as to why every single week she or he seems to come up with another set of dolls that look exactly like the liars. (I hope ABC Family is selling some of these to fans. They’d make a mint.)
Well . . . honestly, these are pretty ugly. I wouldn’t buy these!
So, the kids tell the liars that some girl named “Alison” gave them the dolls, and blah, blah, blah. We’ve heard this one before. What’s more disturbing is the fact that the kids themselves actually look like the liars. What is this Orphan Black? Is the A Team involved in human cloning too?
I said the little girls look like younger versions of the liars. What I didn’t mention was that there was one MAJOR exception to this rule. Aria’s “clone” looked like someone else entirely . . .
I swear this show just gets more disturbing by the minute . . .
Ding Dong Deputy Douchey’s Dead . . .
On the way home from the Trailer Park of Terror, the girls encounter a familiar face . . .
Either Deputy Douchey is DOA, or he just picked a really bad location for a nap. Suddenly, the girls realize the significance of the pig in the car. Get it . . . pigs . . . cops?
It looks like the little liars are about to be framed for yet another murder.
Now, more than ever, they need Mona to give up that incriminating video footage. But can they trust her to turn it over?
Fitzy Goes to Jail . . . Just KIDDING!
After a few weeks of successfully avoiding Fitzy, post breakup, Aria has an uncomfortable encounter with him at the coffee shop. The fact that she’s wearing an outfit that directly resembles Sheldon Cooper’s Doppler Effect Halloween Costume certainly doesn’t help matters . . .
Then Fitzy reveals to Aria that he’s once again taking a job teaching at Rosewood High, and mixing stripes with solids quickly becomes the least of Aria’s problems. “I have a family now,” Fitzy reminds Aria, careful to use the word “family” and not just “kid,” to imply that the awful “Maggie,” is also a part of this picture.
“Why do you insist on continuing a relationship with Alex Mack. She is LITERALLY a pile of goo!”
But to Aria’s credit, she keeps her cool, even icily referring to the guy she used to bone as “Mr. Fitz,” before exiting stage left. You go, girl!
Back at school, Aria’s paranoia kicks into overdrive, when she becomes positive that the school principal is watching her moon over Fitz. Her suspicions seem to be confirmed, when the principal calls her into his office, and confronts her with some TRULY PORNY pictures of Ezria going to pound town on one another . . .
You know what comes next, don’t you?
Aria is crushed. She rushes out of the principals office, to a chorus of sad trombones and tiny violins . . .
Then Aria “awakens” to find herself still outside the principal’s office. It was all daydream, silly!
Fitzy isn’t really going to jail!
And while part of me is relieved for Aria, the other part of me kind of wishes they actually did arrest Fitzy, if only so that he could start wearing doo rags in prison, like Toby, and, possibly even get the words “Thug Life” tattooed on his butt.
Speaking of the Tobster . . .
The Many Faces of Toby Cavanaugh
Sometimes I think Abs Toby has multiple personality disorder . . .
Sometimes he’s REALLY creepy . . .
Other times he seems genuinely sweet . . .
He can occasionally be a thug . . .
And this week, he was about eight other things, I hadn’t actually seen before.
It all started on an ordinary morning, during which Toby generously cooked his on-again girlfriend Spencer a breakfast, which hopefully didn’t include bacon . . .
No doubt, it was a sweet gesture. But there was something about the way he kept reminding Spencer to thank him for the food, and shutting her down, whenever she tried to talk about Deputy Douchey’s death that didn’t sit right with me. Perhaps, a part of me feels that Toby’s earlier betrayal was whitewashed over a bit too quickly. And I’m clearly having a harder time trusting him again than Spencer.
That said, I genuinely felt bad for him, when “A” left him that threatening text about the mystery surrounding his mother’s “disappearance.” I even understand why he kept that information from Spencer. Though, I’m sure that decision will eventually come and bite him in the ass, during the weeks to come . . .
He’s a little shady. But he’s still a really sexy crier (with great abs).
Later in the day, Toby takes Spencer to that burned down building in search of the elusive red coat. And it’s pretty much the Worst Date Ever . . .
Of course, Super Sleuth Spencer doesn’t seem to mind too much . . .
Through a flashback, we learn that Toby’s mother was either massively depressed, or had a serious drug problem. And Ali was a seductively manipulative b*tch. Of course, we already knew that last part . . .
Something struck me as odd about this flashback. I understand that Toby was supposed to come off as young and naive. And Ali was supposed to come off as an evil date rapist, who recycles her pickup lines . . . despite the fact that both characters were realistically only about 13 or 14 when this event took place . . .
It’s just that the way the lines were read, Toby somehow seemed less young and naive, and more . . . Lenny from Of Mice and Men, if you catch my drift . . .
In happier couples news . . .
You’ve Come a Long Way, Little Orphan B*tchy . . .
Remember when Paige looked like this?
And did this?
Well that’s sure in the past. Because now Paige is asking Emily to go to Stanford with her. And the pair are exchanging “I love yous.”
But more importantly, her hair and wardrobe are awesome!
The little liars have been a very good influence on you, girl! It’s too bad that by admitting your love for Emily, you’ve pretty much just signed your death warrant. Emily Fields is basically the Jeremy Gilbert of PLL . . .
Best Friends and Bad Hair Days
You can tell that Hanna is having a difficult time processing Deputy Douchey’s death, because she’s got her wig on crooked. And she’s wearing her headband so low on her forehead that you would think she was auditioning for a workout video for the 1980s . . .
Speaking of the 80’s, bedazzle much?
It’s abundantly clear that these two girls need to go shopping. Though, given their current wardrobe choices, I’m not quite sure it’s such a good idea for them to be shopping together . . .
All sarcasm aside, I thought the moments Mona and Hanna shared together this week were actually really sweet. And a big part of me genuinely wants to believe Mona, when she tells Hanna that she truly loves her and misses her, despite knowing that Hanna is only hanging out with her now to protect herself and the rest of the liars.
Mona even gives Hanna the incriminating disk we saw in the beginning of the episode, as a gesture of good faith. After all the terrible things Mona has done to the girls, and Hanna in particular, she’s still a long way from gaining my trust. But this was definitely a start . . .
In other news, Mama Dilaurentis is back in town. And despite her daughter’s having supposedly been dead for two years, still can’t quite bring herself to get rid of all her sh*t. So, the “twin” theory rears its ugly head yet again . . .
And finally . . .
A Nice Day for a Black Funeral
Everyone in Rosewood knows that the monthly funerals are the most important events on the town’s social calendar. This is why the little liars always attend them, dressed like they are going to bachelorrette party in Vegas. It’s also why they insist on sitting in the front row, despite the fact that not only are they typically of no familial relation to the deceased, they also tend to be the number one suspects in that person’s murder . . .
The social importance is Rosewood funerals may also explain why Jenna insists on showing up to them fashionably late, on the arm of a new heretofore unknown gentleman, each month . . .
But if trying to make a fashion statement at the funeral was the little liars (and Jenna’s) ultimate goal, then all of them failed. Because if anyone was going to get gawked at during Wilden’s funeral, it was most definitely going to be THIS CHICK . . .
She’s wearing a mask AND a veil? How does she not bump into walls?
Before the big day, Spencer gets a tip, thanks to “A,” that there may be something special waiting for her in Deputy Douchey’s coffin . . .
Spencer is excited, because she hasn’t fondled a corpse since, well . . . the last time she fondled a corpse. Mona, who received the same cryptic message, is also up for the challenge . . .
“I hope the clue is not in his pants.”
The girls extract a phone from Douchey’s coffin, and dial the number attached to the contact “Kisses.” So, you can imagine their surprise when the phone call goes directly to HANNA’S PHONE!
Don’t worry, Caleb . . . it’s actually Hanna’s MOTHER, who Dead Wilden was dialing. But still . . . gross . . .
After the funeral, New Deputy Less Douchey confronts the girls, and does that TV cop thing, where he seems to be both flirting with them, and accusing them of murder at the same time . . .
I don’t care if he ends up being an A$$hole, who, like everyone else in this show, is somehow, involved in Ali’s murder and/or has it in for the liars. He’s HOT! There, I said it. . .
In the final moments of the episodes, the girls get yet another cryptic text from A, informing them that the truth is going to BURY them . . .
Get it? Bury! Ahhh . . . you got a love a good funeral pun.
See ya next time, my Pretties!
[www.juliekushner.com][Fangirls Forever] [My Tumblr]
Tagged as 4.1, 4a, a is for alive, ABC Family, animated gifs, Aria Montgomery, Ashley Benson, Ashley Marin, cece drake, cop, dead, dolls, Emily Fields, Episode 1, Ezra Fitz, Ezria, funeral, Hanna Marin, Ian Harding, Janel Parrish, jenna cavaugh, Keegan Allen, Lucy Hale, Mona Vanderwaal, murder, paige mccullers, pemily, pig, Premiere, Pretty Little Liars, recap, screencaps, sean faris, Season 4, Shay Mitchell, Spencer Hastings, Spoby, tape, Toby Cavanaugh, Troian Bellisario, trunk, wilden
Bad Santa Klaus – A Recap of The Vampire Diaries’ Mid Season Finale “O Come All Ye Faithful”
“Oh, you better watch out. You better not cry. You better not pout. I’m telling you why. Santa Klaus is coming to kill your hybrids . . . and your mom . . . and your romantic relationship . . . and your favorite boots . . . which are now covered in blood . . . because you stepped on some decapitated hybrid . . . while walking through the forest . . . on the way out of town. Anybody have a napkin I could borrow?”
It’s Christmas, Fangbangers! Christmas is a time for time for GIVING, LOVING, and SPENDING TIME WITH PEOPLE YOU CARE ABOUT. Unless you live in Mystic Falls. In which case, Christmas is a time for MURDER, MAYHEM, BETRAYAL, DISAPPOINTMENT, AND SENDING THE PEOPLE YOU CARE ABOUT AWAY IN A CAR WITH BONNIE FOR NO F*CKING LOGICAL REASON WHATSOEVER . . .
[As always, special thanks to Andre for all the screencaps you see here. Even though he still thinks I write too much about Delena in my recaps. And it still makes me cry . . .]
“Wanna Come?”
I concur Damon. I suspect a lot of the problems I have with this show would cease to exist, if you and your male cast mates spent the entire hour naked . . . Or, rather, they would still exist, but I wouldn’t remember them. Because I’d be too busy staring at your . . .
Yes, I went there. I titled this section “Wanna Come?” And I meant it to mean exactly what YOU think it means.
In my defense, it’s an actual quote from the scene. Also in my defense . . . hey . . . at least SOMEONE should be having fun, because it sure as heck isn’t Damon and Elena . . . at least not in this episode . . .
Yes, boys and girls, we open this hour, just as we opened the last one, with Damon and Elena . . . sort of SPOONING . . . in Damon’s bed. Except, this time, they are fully dressed, and both looking pretty miserable because of it. Let that be a lesson to you, kiddies. Clothes are BAAAAAAAD!
Sleeping in your jeans is really uncomfortable . . . as is sleeping that close to someone who looks like Ian Somerhalder, without jumping his bones . . . or, at least, I imagine it would be uncomfortable. I can’t really say I know from personal experience . . . yet.
Whereas, in the previous episode, we saw Damon wake up HAPPY . . .
Now, he’s kind of broody about the whole “not breaking the sire bond / lying to Stefan” thing. You know what I say to that? “BAH HUMBUG,” that’s what. Hey Damon, do you think all those times Stefan slept with Elena, he spent all his post-coital mornings worried about how crappy it would make YOU feel?
Here’s an idea, Damon. You already did the “wrong” thing, by not breaking the sire bond, when you told Stefan you would. You already FEEL guilty. So, why not take your own advice from a previous episode, and just own your guilt?
It would be more fun for you and Elena, for sure. It also might be more fun for us to watch. But hey, at least we get to see you take your shirt off again . . .
“Just do it,” Elena says, when Damon makes this deliciously naughty overture toward the love of his life . . .
Nike would be so proud!
Unfortunately, almost immediately after, Elena puts the kibosh on any and all possibilities of morning sex, by saying she has to go to the lake house with Bonnie, so that the two of them could help Jeremy, you know, not want to murder Elena and Stuff.
“Wanna come?” Elena asks hopefully . . .
WE DO! WE DO! Except you two aren’t letting us! Such teases!
Klaus Mikaelson . . . He’s one Special Snowflake
It’s nice to see that Klaus’ plans for World Domination haven’t adversely impacted his passion for Arts and Crafts.
Ponies . . . globs of goo that vaguely resemble poop . . . a cartoonesque picture of the girl he likes . . . a snowflake. Klaus may be over 1,000 years old, but in terms of art appreciation, he still seems to prefer painting a range of subjects that would look right at home on the wall at an Elementary School art fair . . . Maybe that’s why Klaus so much prefers hanging out with teenagers, than with people closer to his own age. You know, like them . . .
Stefan pops by the Klaus House, because there is important Mythology Stuff that must be relayed to the viewers. And the writers secretly hope that the homoerotic allure of seeing Klaus and Stefan eyef*&k one another will help us to forget that this particular part of the show sometimes feels like homework . . .
It totally works, by the way.
Blah blah blah, vampire cure . . . blah blah blah hunter’s mark on Jeremy’s arm equals map to cure . . . blah blah blah sword “owned” by Klaus equals legend for map to cure. It’s really nothing we haven’t heard before. But I guess we all need a little refresher course, every once in a while. And like I said, it’s fun to watch these two flirt with one another, even though we know they’ll never really bone, because this isn’t HBO or Showtime . . .
Klaus and Stefan – Frenemies with benefits?
Later on in the episode, Klaus and Stefan share even more warm and fuzzies with one another, as they bond over the fact that they both maintain a Murder Victim Keepsake collection. Stefan writes his victims name on a wall, and Klaus breaks into their homes and steals their letters . . . you know . . . if they ever actually write any . . . and forget to send them.
“Dear Lover. If you are reading this, it means you killed me. So, take this letter and shove it up your ass, you MURDEROUS BASTARD!”
Klaus views this as a sign of shared loneliness.
I view it as a sign of shared psychosis . . . Except, unlike Saint Stefan, at least Klaus doesn’t glue people’s heads back onto their bodies, after he’s chewed off their necks . . .
Same difference I guess. But hey, it could be worse. Klaus could draw ponies for all of his victims.
Meanwhile at Mystic Falls’ Weekly Town Event Where Everyone Dies . . .
The Tale of the Dumbass Martyr
After you’ve been dating someone for awhile, you begin to develop little tricks to coping with his or her . . . idiosyncrasies. Tyler has been dating Caroline long enough to realize that she has a bit of a Freak Out Problem . . .
“I’m not angry! What would make you think I’m angry?”
And this is probably the reason he chooses a VERY public place (i.e. right in the middle of town square) to drop the bombshell on her, that he’s LITERALLY planning on donating his body to Operation Kill Klaus.
“First you go off and live in the mountains for six months, and now this? I’m beginning to think you’re trying to avoid me.”
*whistles uncomfortably*
I don’t know. I mean, if they were planning on dumping Tyler’s body, along with Klaus’ “essence” (whatever that means”), into a vat of concrete, anyway, why not just push Klaus into the vat and be done with it? (It worked on True Blood with Russell Edgington. . . for a half a season, anyway.) Why must the Scooby Gang always needlessly over complicate things? This is why their FAILURE RATE is so high . . .
Nonetheless, the fact that Tyler is willing to do this for the hybrids that just last week tried to kidnap and kill his girlfriend, just because he believes it’s the “right thing to do,” shows just how far he’s come as a character, since his Season 1 douchebag days. Tyler’s plan is admirable . . . idiotic, but admirable, which is why Caroline’s nickname for her boyfriend is entirely accurate. Yes, fangbangers. Tyler Lockwood is a Martyr. But he’s also a DUMBASS . . .
Speaking of dumbasses . . .
Have wood, will thrust . . .
OK, so let me get this straight. You have this guy Jeremy, who has basically been converted into this supernatural serial killer.
You’re inviting his sister over, who he’s once tried to kill, so you can see if you can get him to STOP trying to kill her. While he’s waiting for his sister, he’s at this lame lakehouse, where there’s pretty much nothing to do, but sit around and count the tiles on the floor. And he’s bored.
Let’s brainstorm some things you could do with Latent Serial Killer Boy to keep him occupied, while he waits for his sister. You could . . . break out some board games . . . like Scrabble, or Jenga . . . maybe even Pictionary.
You could play Twister, or have a dance party . . .
“Ooh what a feeling! When we’re dancing on the ceiling . . .”
You could . . . I don’t know . . . have sex with him.
I mean, you could really do anything. The world is your proverbial oyster. But, you know what I wouldn’t do? I wouldn’t GIVE HIM A MASSIVELY LARGE AXE, AND LET HIM GO OUTSIDE ALONE TO CHOP WOOD THAT CAN BE USED TO MAKE STAKES . . .
All logic reasoning aside . . . Jer Bear is looking gooooooood . . .
Oh hey, so remember last week, when I complained that the whole “a vampire needs to be invited into your home” rule has been totally abandoned by the show? Well, they used it this week! Jeremy had to invite ELENA into her own lake house . . . and then he tried to stake her . . . with the stake he made . . . while chopping the wood, with the massive axe, that Dumbos 1 and 2, i.e. Bonnie and Professor Numb Nuts, GAVE HIM . . .
Is it weird that I was kind of jealous of Elena, while she was getting almost butchered by her own brother, because having his big burly arms wrapped pressed up against her chest looked like a lot of fun?
ELENA: “Your skin is so baby soft. What kind of lotion do you use?”
JEREMY: “Vampire Death of Olay”
“Considering we’re siblings and all, it’s probably a little inappropriate that you’re squeezing my ass.”
Doctor Do Nothing’s plan to hypnotize Jeremy into loving Elena again seemed like a bad idea, right off the bat. And I think I’d be saying that, even if we hadn’t been reminded about 85,000 times since he first appeared that he’s Up to No Good. Put it this way, they say that if you lose something while you’re drunk, the best way to find it is to get drunk again, because it puts you in the same frame of mind that you were in when you lost it?
Well, that’s kind of how I feel about Jeremy’s hunter tendencies. He always seems like he’s in a trance, when he’s murdering vampires. So, putting him in a trance seems like the exact WRONG thing to do, which, I suspect, might have been Stupid Hair, Phd’s plan all along.
Nevertheless, I did find Jeremy’s entranced admission that he “hates” Elena, because she’s indirectly brought about the death of everyone he’s ever loved to be kind of intriguing. After all, there’s always a sort of truth to the things you do or say in an uninhibited state like trance. So, even though Jeremy’s murderous tendencies are about 98% due to his hunter’s mark, there seems to be at least 2% that are a result of his unresolved subconscious anger at his sister for all that she’s inadvertently cost him. That actually adds a surprisingly complex layer to Jeremy Gilbert’s personality that I would like to see explored more deeply in the weeks to come . . .
And here is another “layer” of Jeremy’s character that I’d like explored. Thank you very much.
Also, I hate to say it, but Zombie Jer kind of has a point. I mean, think about it: Jeremy’s biological parents, his uncle, Aunt Jenna, Vicki, Anna, Alaric, almost all the people he’s ever cared about have died in service to the Save Elena Games. Not that any of these deaths are necessarily Elena’s fault. But you can’t blame Jeremy’s subconscious for making that very real connection . . .
And now that I’ve said all these nice, warm, fuzzy things about this particular storyline, I feel like I’ve earned the right to be a little bitchy. Because yeah, I AUDIBLY gagged when it was revealed that BONNIE was Jer Bear’s one link to sanity, because he LOOOOOOOVES her so much.
Oh gross! I’ve seen paperclips that have more chemistry together than these two . . .
“There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like . . . It didn’t work. You’re still here.”
But hey! Now, Jeremy can hug Elena, without snapping her neck. So, progress?
JEREMY: *think about Bonnie . . . think about Bonnie . . . think about Bonnie*
ELENA: “Jeremy get that stake away from my crotch. I thought they cured you of trying to kill me!”
JEREMY: “Ummm . . . that’s not a stake. Maybe this thinking about the girl I want to have sex with, while hugging my sister thing, isn’t such a good idea, after all.”
But you know who ISN’T making progress?
BLOW ME . . . one last kiss.
Outside of the lake house, Elena admits to Damon that she logically knows that she was in love with Stefan, when she spent time with him this same location, last year. But now she barely remembers it, nor relates to the feelings she supposedly felt so strongly, during that time. That’s OK Elena, I often try to forget . . . and have difficulty relating to . . . your past relationship with Stefan too!
Damon, of course, is still feeling guilty . . . about the existence of the sire bond . . . about lying to his brother about breaking the sire bond . . . about having the best sex of his life, while Stefan had to listen to Caroline babble for hours . . . about not telling Stefan that he had the best sex of his life . . . and, of course, about not telling Stefan that he was spending the day with Elena at the same lakehouse where Stefan may or may not have had the best sex of his life . . .
That’s a whole lotta guilt for one guy! And that guilt cup overflows, as Damon watches Elena bond with her brother over Christmas ornaments.
It’s at this moment that Damon makes the Heartbreaking Decision hinted at, by all the promos and episode synopses. He tells Elena he’s setting her free.
He sends her away with Boring Bonnie (talk about the punishment not fitting the crime!) in a scene that evoked memories of his compelling Jeremy to leave town a couple seasons back.
And that’s what it feels like to me . . . compulsion. I didn’t like it when it happened to Jeremy. And I didn’t like it happening here. In both situations, Damon was doing something ostensibly, for the good of the compelled. He felt he was setting them free. But in doing that, he was actually taking AWAY their choice, and forcing them to do something they ordinarily wouldn’t have chosen to do. We saw it in Jeremy’s confusion, when he decided to selfishly leave his entire family in the middle of the school year, but couldn’t quite figure out why he was doing it.
We see it in Elena, as her body pulls her toward the car, but her heart seems to pull her back, causing her to lean in for one last kiss.
I know that Damon BELIEVES he’s doing the Right Thing. And I respect that he loves Elena enough to be willing to give her up for the umpteenth time. I’m just so tired of seeing this guy play the martyr, when it comes to Elena and Stefan. And I wish the show would FINALLY let him catch a break. He deserves it . . .
Meanwhile, back home . . .
Mama Don’t Preach . . .
Now, I know Carol Lockwood croaked this week. So, we’re supposed to be nice to her. But I’ll admit I had to laugh a little bit, when Tyler told his mommy he was going to allow some random witch to dump his body into a vat of cement for a few decades, AFTER she enabled him to become possessed by Klaus. And then, Mommy Dearest, more or less said, “Whatever makes you happy, dear?”
“I also totaled your Mercedes . . .”
REALLY? Because if I ever said something like that to my mom, first she would CRY HYSTERICALLY . . . then she would take me to have my head examined . . . then she probably wouldn’t let me out of my room until I was about 55 years old.
Again . . . yes . . . this is a “Heroic Act.” Yes, one could even say it’s the “Right Thing to Do,” but it’s also CATACLYSMICALLY STUPID!
What’s worse? Mama Lockwood then has the NERVE to tell Tyler that his FATHER would be proud of him, because, apparently, taking a two decade long nap, a la Rip Van Winkle, is a sign of GREAT LEADERSHIP. Let’s not forget that this is also the guy who physically, mentally, and emotionally abused Tyler for years. With parental role models like these, is it any wonder that Tyler thinks it’s a good idea to spend a significant portion of his perpetual late teens as a statue?
“I wish Michaelangelo’s David was my son, instead of you. At least he never gives his father any lip.”
I’m still on your side . . . except, not really.
Unlike Mama Lockwood, Caroline Forbes isn’t quite so chill about the idea of her boyfriend turning himself into a Tyler-cicle. So, she rats him out to Papa Stefan . . . something she’s been doing A LOT, lately. (More on that later.)
Of course, Stefan seems a lot less concerned with how the Tyler-cicle plan will impact the Forwood relationship, and more concerned with its impact on Klaus.
That’s right, Fangbangers. It appears that dear old Saint Stefan has, ONCE AGAIN, found himself in the seemingly once-in-a-lifetime predicament of NEEDING TO KEEP HIS MORTAL ENEMY ALIVE. You know . . . so he can save Elena from loving Damon A LOT MORE than she loves him vampirism.
In Stefan’s defense, he does at least TRY to find the cure, in a way that won’t ultimately involve his Princess Elena becoming a lifelong bloodbag / hybrid baby maker to the “Most Evil Vampire On the Planet.” While Caroline’s flirtations at the Winter Wonderland Carnival keep Klaus occupied with Champagne Wishes and Vampire Barbie Sex Dreams . . .
. . . Stefan ransacks his erstwhile boyfriend’s home, in search of the sword that is the key to the drawing on Jeremy’s arm, which is actually a map to . . . yeah, yeah, you know the rest.
Of course, Stefan can’t find it. This I suspect, is only because he hasn’t looked in the SOAPDISH, where Klaus keeps his moonstones, or in the sock drawer, where Damon says people keep kinky stuff. Something tells me the sword is probably in one of those two places.
So, Stefan confronts Tyler to tell him he can’t kill Klaus because . . . wait for it . . . ELENA NEEDS HIM. And, of course, I have to laugh when Stefan gets all up in Tyler’s grill and says all menacingly, “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that to Klaus,” possibly forgetting (as the writers of this show often do) that Tyler, as a hybrid, is actually supposed to be a much stronger supernatural creature than Stefan.
Then again, maybe not . . .
Unfortunately, we never actually get to test that theory. Because Tyler’s Hybrid Homebodys (and girls) appear on the scene, proving this to be not-at-all a fair fight. Having won by default, Tyler turns his attention to CAROLINE THE BETRAYER, whose got this “I burped in Church” look on her face, like she knows she screwed up.
“I needed you to be on my side today,” Tyler says solemnly.
Except lately, the only person’s side who Caroline ever seems to be on is Stefan’s. Could there possibly be something brewing between these two of which neither is yet consciously aware? I wonder . . .
News gets slightly better when Shady Shane announces himself to Damon as someone who KNOWS where the cure is hiding, which will enable the Scooby Gang to get to it without Klaus OR the sword. Now, that Klaus is allowed to die again, Caroline comes up with the idea to put him in his sister’s Rebekah’s body. Tyler agrees, and everyone is happy . . . well . . . almost everyone.
Now, this is where things get confusing. You see, I’m still not entirely sure what Professor Boobs Radley and Hayley are plotting. On one hand, Dr. Snorefest agreed to help Damon and Co. find the cure WITHOUT Klaus, which seemed to suggest they wanted Klaus dead. But then, the pair foiled the Scooby Gang’s plan to kill Klaus, implying that they wanted him ALIVE. Also, Hayley seemed weirdly intent on Klaus’s “essence” possessing Tyler instead of Rebekah, which just made no sense whatsoever . . .
You re-killed Caroline! You bastard!
I like how whenever vampires get “murdered” on this show, it’s nothing more than a “fun” opportunity to lie down for a quick cat nap. Unfortunately, for Caroline, Hayley “murdered” her in a dirty public restroom. RUDE! She could have at least put down some paper towels on the floor, or something . . .
Clueless April Young finds Caroline that way and is clearly traumatized . . . so much so that, when Caroline un-dies, the “mere human,” almost seems a bit disappointed. “But you were dead. You had no pulse,” she whines.
Maybe next time, April . . .
Oh, did I mention that Caroline tries to compel April to forget what she saw, but she can’t because the girl is wearing Jeremy’s vervain ring? OOPS!
In addition to NOT forgetting that Caroline came back from the dead, April also overheard her mention vampires, werewolves, hybrids and an UNDAGGERED REBEKAH, who, if you recall, is April Young’s only friend, who, just so happens to have spent the past few epsiodes “playing dead.”
Now, most of us, upon hearing someone babbling on like that in a public bathroom, would assume the babbler suffers from a disease common among teens known as “reading too much Twilight fanfiction.”
However, April lives in the Wackadoo Town of Mystic Falls. And this prompts her to believe what she’s heard enough to investigate the tomb where a daggered Rebekah is supposedly buried.
“This is like a life-sized version of those Stars without Makeup articles I read on the supermarket checkout aisle . . .”
As my dear friend Yoda would say, “Thickening . . . the plot is.”
Back at La Casa de Rich and Awesome . . .
Caroline and Stefan engage in a little heart-to-heart about what awful people they actually are, and how, they aren’t really all that different from Klaus, aside from the fact that they have “family” to keep them from becoming super villains. (Of course, Klaus has family too. He just keeps staking them.)
Then, Caroline proceeds to PROVE herself to be awful by not-so-subtly insinuating that Damon and Elena did the deed, even though it was 100% not her place to give out that information.
To say Stefan took it poorly is the understatement of the century.
But, in his defense, maybe he was just cranky, because he hadn’t eaten all day . . .
Have yourself a bloody little Klausmas . . .
Back in Winter Wonderland, Hayley rats out Tyler’s plan to Klaus, and Stefan doesn’t hear her do it, despite the fact that he has vampire hearing, and is standing only about 5 feet away. Klaus then dashes out to the forest and systematically exterminates each and every one of his so-called precious hybrids to punish them for trying to kill him. As Christmas Carols play eerily in the background, Klaus yanks out hearts, chops off heads, twists necks, punctures carotid arteries, and slams his boots into people’s brains.
But, in his defense, he looks kind of sad while he’s doing it . . . So, it’s totally justified.
Yes, I AM kidding. But honestly, the choreography, special affects, and directing on this scene are pretty much as masterful as TVD gets. It was equal parts disgusting, poignant, disturbing, sad, and yet, oddly mesmerizing.
“Klaus Mikaelson: Wearing YOUR heart on his sleeve since B.C.”
Kung Fu Hybrid 2 . . . coming soon to a theater near you . . .
P.S. I wonder if, after he finished his dastardly mass murder, Klaus went back to hybrid headquarters and stole all those dead kids iPhones. After all, it’s probably the closest thing we have nowadays to letters.”
Hayley comes clean to Tyler about her betrayal. And the poor guy barely has time to process the loss of this friendship, when he finds himself ankle deep in hybrid guts, and is forced to live with the fact that, had it not been for him, all of these folks (lame as they were) would probably still be alive today.
Bummer . . .
Speaking of bummers . . .
Off to that Cougartown in the Sky . . .
I wonder what the average life expectancy is in Mystic Falls. On one hand, it seems like every character over the age of 30 croaks after about three episodes. On the other hand, the place is CRAWLING WITH VAMPIRES and other immortalesque creatures. This means that everyone in town is either about 18-years old, or 372. Weird . . .
Anywhoo, a winsomely tipsy Mama Lockwood is lounging by the fountain, waiting to meet up with her son, when Klaus pops by to say hi. His face is covered in hybrid blood, and he’s got this crazy “I just killed twelve people” look in his eye. So, you could imagine Mama Lockwood is a bit . . . concerned about the whole situation.
I’m just wondering why she didn’t run . . . like immediately. Wouldn’t you, if someone came at you looking like this?
I don’t know. Maybe she was too drunk, or something. Whatever the reason, Mama Lockwood takes this opportunity to plead for her SON’S life. “He’s all I have left,” she says tearfully.
As it turns out, that was EXACTLY the wrong to say, as it gives Klaus an idea . . . a way of hurting Tyler the way Tyler hurt him, by taking away his “family.” Poor Mama Lockwood gets a nice free facial in the fountain, courtesy of Klaus, and never lives to see the results.
Drowning in a 2 foot deep pool of water . . . it’s a pretty crappy way to go. But, of course, not quite as crappy as having your heart literally ripped out of your chest by your “maker.” R.I.P. Mama Lockwood. We barely knew ye. But hey, look on the bright side! At least you’ll have a very clean corpse!
“Dammit! I left my Gucci Swimmies at home.”
On that lovely note, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Fangbanging Night!
Filed under The Vampire Diaries
Tagged as 9 p.m., animated gif, April Young, arms, Bonnie and Jeremy, Bonnie Bennett, break up, Candice Accola, Carol Lockwood, chop, cure, CW, Damon and Elena, Damon Salvatore, death, Delena, Elena and Damon, Elena Gilbert, fire, Forwood, Fountain, funny, hunter, Hybrid, Ian Somerhalder, Jeremy and Bonnie, Joseph Morgan, Katerna Graham, Klaroline, Klaus, Klaus kills, Klefan, love triangle, Matt Donovan, Michael Trevino, mid season finale, murder, Nina Dobrev, O Come All Ye Faithful, O Holy Night, Paul Wesley, photo stills, Rebekah, recap, screencap, screenshot, Season 4, season finale, sex, Shane, shirtless, silas, sire bond, Stefan Salvatore, Steroline, Steven R. McQueen, The Vampire Diaries, Tyler Lockwood, Tyler's Mom, wood, Zach Roerig
Sookie Stackhouse: Angel of DEATH! – A Recap of True Blood’s “We Will Meet Again”
Uh oh, Fangbangers! Don’t mess with the Sookster! Because, if you do, you might just end up with a stake in your heart, a cap in your ass, a face full of glow fingers, or a piece of your brain flapping in the wind. (Sorry Tara!)
For all you folks who’ve been super pissed about this whole “Everybody Loves Sookie” theme that’s been a resounding refrain on this show since season one . . .
. . .this was the episode for you!
Sookie sure wasn’t feeling the love this week . . . with everyone from Lafayette, to Holly, to that random extra sitting in the back booth at Merlotte’s giving her Bon Temps Death Stare.
Of course, there was one notable exception . . .
Yes, TB fans, after two seasons of unrequited sexual tension, Alcide Herveaux and Sookie Stackhouse finally swapped some heavily alcohol-laced spit, just a hop skip and a jump away from the spot where the former’s trailer trash ex was turned into wolf kibble. Ain’t that sweet?
In other news, they FINALLY killed off that darn kid . . . Yeah, I said it.
Let’s review, shall we?
Tanning BAAAAD, Blood GOOOOD!
Those of you who were secretly hoping that Vampire Tara would meet her maker, Jersey Shore style, were probably a bit disappointed, when Pam not only rescued her progeny from the Evil Tanning Bed, but forbid her from using it again. (I guess she will have to find more creative ways to try and off herself now.)
That said, considering how much pride Vampire Pam takes in her relationship with her Maker (more on that later) . . .
. . . it was kind of nice to see the tough-as-stakes blonde take her “parenting” responsibility seriously. Not only did Pam teach Tara how to feed without killing, she also helped her to hate herself just a little less, and gave her some fashion tips to boot!
Now, that’s what I call a good mom!
Of course, teaching Tara not to hate herself, may have had the unintended effect of making Tara hate Sookie more. And she’s in good company, in that regard . . .
Everybody HATES(?) Sookie (especially that Demon Head thing)
Now, Lafayette, my Laffy Taffy. Most of the time, you and I see eye-to-eye on things.
But even I have to say, you’ve been acting like a total Turd Ball to Sookie . . . blaming her for Tara’s vampirism, when the whole “turning” thing was 100% your idea first . . .
What’s worse, from the mean, nasty thoughts everyone was thinking about the bustiest Stackhouse at Merlottes, your “Sookie Sucks” mentality just might be contagious.
And don’t get me started on that weird Demon Head Halloween mask you like to wear sometimes for sh*ts and giggles. What the f*&k is up with that?
Whatever it is, it screwed up the brakes on Sookie’s car, and almost left her brain flapping in the wind, Tara Thornton style . . .
. . . almost . . . but not quite.
Of course, not all “hated” characters will make it out of this episode alive . . .
OMG! You killed that annoying vampire kid. You RULE! Bastard!
Let me start by saying that there are a lot of really great child actors in this world . . . like Sally Draper on Mad Men . . . and that kid from Modern Family, and pretty much every pre-pubescent on Game of Thrones.
That little vampire kid . . . who I’m sure is a really nice guy in real life . . . just isn’t one of them.
I mean, sure, he looked the part . . . all cute, blonde, and well dressed. In fact, if he never opened his mouth, he’d be an awesome vampire. I’m certain of it. Plus, I think, if I was forced to be ten-years old for all eternity, I’d probably be pretty loud and whiny about it too.
But there was just something about the way “Alexander” delivered his lines each week, that just made fans say, “Stake that b*tch.”
And so, when Christopher Meloni learned from Eric’s hot sister that there was a traitor among them . . . one with blonde hair, baby teeth, and a super screechy voice, that’s exactly what he did . . .
BRAVO! Er . . . I mean . . . awwww . . . he was just a kid . . . that’s sad.
Meanwhile, in Terry’s boring storyline news . . .
PTSD 2: Electric Boogaloo
Noel from Felicity and Terry go on a rather lame road trip, to find their former comrade, who once shot up some civilians, because they looked at him funny.
Long story short . . . they find him . . . He paints creepy pictures . . . and looks like he hasn’t taken a shower since Desert Storm. Needless to say, unlike Noel from Felicity, whose hot, and looks like he could sell you insurance, Arlene probably wouldn’t be so quick to invite this guy home for a dinner with the “Fam.”
In which Eric and Pam make us ugly cry . . .
Oh, Eric Northman! It’s a good thing you’re so pretty.
Because like Lafayette, you also treaded dangerously close to Turd Ball territory, at the beginning of this episode. Suffice it to say that accusing Vampire Pam, your own flesh and blood . . . literally . . . of betraying you and releasing Big Bad Russell Edgington onto an unsuspecting populace was most definitely not your finest hour.
That said, you did earn some of that debonair Viking Vamp mojo back, when you made the ultimate personal sacrifice to save your progeny, even though that meant renouncing the most sacred bond between maker and made.
“How ya like me now?”
For those of you who did not get even the slightest bit teary, when Eric — who, once again, fears his rendezvous with Russell Edgington and the Authority might end up being fatal — told Pam she was destined for greatness, and that she had to live on without him to ensure the vitality of his bloodline . . . well . . . you just might not be human.
The only thing that would have made this scene better would be if Eric was naked during it. But hey, we can’t get everything we want in this world, right?
Or can we?
In which both Alcide and Jess take one for Team Sookie, but only one of them gets rewarded for it . . .
Earlier on in this recap, I noted that almost everyone seemed to hate Sookie this week. Of course, there were some notable exceptions to this rule. The first exception was Vampire Jess who, upon hearing that Sookie wished to turn herself in to Sheriff Andy for killing Trailer Trash Debbie . . .
. . . immediately took the law into her own hands. Like the awesome gal pal she is, Jess followed Jason to Sheriff’s office, and defty compelled Sheriff Andy to forget that Debbie even existed. Pretty awesome huh?
Of course, Jessica’s compulsion tactics would not have been nearly as effective had Debbie’s grieving parents already called off the search. And why did they do that you ask? Because sweet ole lovelorn Alcide blamed the whole thing on already dead packmaster Marcus, which is kind of perfect, when you think about it . . .
Yeah . . . you go ahead and tell them you didn’t do it, Tough Guy!
Meanwhile, Sookie, who’s, all in all, had a pretty crappy day, what with being called the Angel of F*&king Death, and almost DYING when her car went all “Christine” on her, and randomly wrapped itself around a tree . . .
. . . has decided to go and get herself good and wasted. That’s my girl!
You know what, Fangbangers? This might have been my favorite scene in the episode. For starters, Sookie’s bar selection is all kinds of awesome. Either girlfriend’s been filching for Merlotte’s, or she’s totally been holding out on us.
And what’s more, for all her whining and ugly cry facing, Sookie is actually kind of an awesome drunk!
She sings her own versions to cheesy songs like “The Pina Colada Song,” while humping the couch.
She also entertains werewolfy guests, whose girlfriends she just murdered, by making them drinks called Orange Marzapan, and telling them, in no uncertain terms, how much they looooooove her.
That’s right, Alcide. You thought you were fooling the mind reader, with your gruff exterior, and unrequited secret were-lust.
But you were wrong! So, now that you’ve been caught, it’s time to put your tongue where your mouth is, and eat that busty fairy’s face. Nom-nom, nom . . .
Oh, and hey, it looks like you have an audience! Poor Beeeel . . . it looks like you aren’t going to be the Knight and Shining Vampire in this fairytale. And now that your ex has moved on to furrier pastures, if you want to force her to help you find Russell, you’re probably going to have to use more than your “charm” to do it. Might I suggest dipping into your daughter’s Mary Jane stash?
Oh, and Eric, you may act like this doesn’t bother you at all.
But you aren’t fooling anyone . . And as many times as you say “F*&k Sookie,” we all know that deep down that’s exactly what you’d like to do . . . again.
Speaking of folks, who are f*&ked . . .
Barak and Hillary – Shapeshifter Edition
Apparently, it’s a bad day to be a shapeshifter, who vaguely resembles a highly regarded political figure. Just ask these two pals of Sam’s who “shifted” into corpses, and will never “turn” again. The question is . . . who killed them? I smell another mystery! Because lord knows, that’s just what this season needs, ANOTHER mystery for Sookie to solve . . .
Speaking of mysteries . . .
Moulin Rouge- Fairy Edition
Why does the Super Secret Fairy Club that the mayor dude took Andy and Jason to visit look like a set from the straight-to-video sequel to Moulin Rouge?
And why did that weird random fairy have glow-sex with Andy in the woods last season? Unfortunately, we have little time to contemplate the answers to the questions, because our two favorite buddy cops stay at Hooligans Fairy Dance club is disappointingly short.
Not long after Jason reunites with his cousin Hadley, who we last saw playing beer-bitch to the ill fated Queen Sophie Anne, he and Andy get their ass glow fingered (that sounds dirty) right out of the club! And all because Jason started asking too many questions about Sookie’s fairy roots, and what really happened to his parents.
Is Sookie really in danger, due to her vampire intoxicating fairy blood? (Isn’t Sookie always in danger?) Could vampires really have murdered the Stackhouses, back in the day? Can a human male get pregnant from glow sex with a fairy?
Unfortunately, these are all questions for another day, and another episode. Until next time, Fangbangers!
Tagged as Alcide and Sookie, Alcide Herveaux, Alexander Skarsgard, Andy Bellefleur, animated gif, Anna Paquin, Arlene, authority, Bill Compton, car, Chris Bauer, Christopher Meloni, Debbie, Deborah Ann Woll, demon, drunk sookie, Eric and Pam, Eric Northman, fairy, Hadley, hooligans, Jason Stackhouse, Jessica, Joe Manganiello, kiss, Kristin Bauer, Lafayette Reynolds, makeout, maker, Marcus, murder, Nelsan Ellis, Pam, pam and eric, pina colada, recap, roman, Russell Edgington, Rutina Wesley, Ryan Kwanten, Sam Merlotte, Scott Foley, Season 5, shifter, Sing, Sookie and Alcide, Sookie Stackhouse, Stephen Moyer, Tara Thornton, terry, Terry Bellefleur, True Blood, vampire kid, we will meet again
May 19, 2012 · 12:41 pm
“We find them, and we kill them. We kill them ALL!” – A First Look at Teen Wolf Season 2
Wake up, Stiles! It’s time for a new season . . .
Last summer, MTV, home to “masterpieces” like Teen Mom and Real World: Season 265, surprised everyone, by taking a cheeseball 80’s movie starring Michael J. Fox, as the hairiest high school basketball star ever . . .
. . . and turning it into a genuinely entertaining, smart, well-acted, and, at times, even downright scary, television drama series . . .
I mean, sure, at the beginning, most of us were just watching Teen Wolf for the pretty naked men. Because, let’s face it, there was A LOT of that . . .
“Doctor, why am I wearing pants? Don’t you know I appeal more to the 18-34 demographic without them?”
. . . but somewhere along the way we actually started giving two craps about these characters . . . wondering what was going to happen to them, and guessing who the mysterious Alpha Wolf would end up being . . .
Hint: It wasn’t This Guy . . .
Now, that the series is entering its sophomore season, the stakes are even higher for both its writers and actors. No longer will Teen Wolf be blanketed under the protection of diminished expectations.
No longer will the mere promise of gratuitous images of Tyler Hoechlin’s abs, be enough to keep us coming back for more . . .
OK, that’s a lie . . . I’d totally watch a show, just to see this . . .
Coming into Season 2, fans are going to expect even more blood, guts, and gore . . .
. . . massive plot twists . . .
. . . sex scenes that give the TV Ratings system the middle finger . . .
. . . romance . . .
. . . adventures in homoeroticism . . .
. . . and, yes, even some character development . . .
So, the REAL question is, can the series continue to deliver?
Without further adieu I proudly present to you, both the first official Teen Wolf Season 2 trailer, and the first ten minutes of the show’s sophomore season premiere . . .
(Special thanks to my blogging pal Andre for the awesome screencaps you see below.)
My first impression of the new season is that the writers and producers have cleverly taken the aspects of the series that worked in Season 1, and amplified them in Season 2. For example, Season 1’s pilot featured a whole lotta half-naked Scott . . .
The first ten minutes of Season 2 features a whole lotta half-naked EVERYBODY . . .
Season 1 revolved largely around Scott adjusting to his new werewolf persona . . .
Season 2 will feature Jackson, Lydia, and at least two new characters adjusting to their new lives as supernatural creatures . . .
Season 1 explored the various differences between Beta werewolves and the supposedly all-powerful Alpha . . .
Season 2 will introduce new species into the mix. Among these species will be the much-discussed Omega wolf (The first episode of the season will be entitled “Omega.”), the shapeshifting “abomination” that’s brutally eviscerating townspeople throughout the season, and whatever the f*&k Lydia is now (a wolf? a banshee?). Of course, there’s always the possibility that all three of these entities are actually one in the same . . .
*snickers* Season 2’s Big Bad kinda looks like Batman.
“Beef jerky . . . yum.”
Which brings me to my next comparison . . . the Main Murder Mystery. In Season 1, fans knew that it was the Alpha who had been committing brutal murders throughout the town. However, they weren’t quite sure of the Alpha’s identity. Many fans initially expected Jackson, due to his increasingly bizarre behavior, and the wackadoo hallucinations he suffered, throughout the series . . .
This season, I suspect one of the main suspects for the brutal murders around town will be Lydia, who was brutalized by the Alpha last season, but never actually turned into a werewolf. Like with Jackson, the first ten minutes of Season 2 show Lydia experiencing bizarre hallucinations. She also seems, based on the trailer, to regularly blackout, and awaken nude (SURPRISE!) in close proximity to where the murders are taking place.
My current theory? Lydia is NOT the Season’s Big Bad at all . . . but actually a banshee, inevitably drawn to death, and forced to harken its arrival, through ear-piercing cries of agony. (It would certainly explain all her screaming . . . though I’m not sure why being bitten by an Alpha wolf would cause someone to morph into this.)
Season 1 introduced us to the Argents, a crazy werewolf-slaying family, who, despite their supposed adherence to some sort of Code of Conduct, possessed a strong tendency to kill first, and ask questions later . . .
In Season 2, they are still the Argents. And they are still crazy. Now, there just seem to be more of them . . . and they have KNIVES . . . lots and lots of knives . . .
SCOTT: “Uhh . . . Derek, is that a knife in my ass, or are you just really excited for Season 2?”
For me, two of the weakest aspects of the first Season of Teen Wolf were the snooze-worthy supposed-Romeo and Juliet relationship between Scott and Allison . . .
And some of the more laughable CGI graphics on the show . . .
With respect to the former, I suspect that the Romeo and Juliet-ness of Scott and Allison’s story will only increase, now that Allison knows she’s a huntress, and her family knows that Scott is a werewolf . . .
“You were supposed to be MY boyfriend, dammit!”
However, whether these heightened circumstances actually serve to make this relationship more interesting to watch remains to be seen. I, for one, am still skeptical . . .
As for the CGI graphics on the show . . . well . . . that little Leap Frog Number Scott was doing on the way to Allison’s house definitely made me giggle . . . though, I suspect that wasn’t its intention.
Is he supposed to be running or taking a sh*t?
On a much more positive note, I absolutely predict that Season 2 will feature much more STILES! And that, my friends, is a very good thing . . .
But hey, writers. . . let’s get the guy a little romance this summer, OK? He’s earned it . . .
So, my fellow wolfbangers, it’s your turn to sound off on the first sneak peeks of Season 2. What are your thoughts on the new characters? The new creatures? Scott’s new haircut? Jackson’s new abs? Who do you think is this season’s Big Bad? Why wasn’t Derek naked in ANY of these shots?
And, perhaps most importantly, who was Stiles dreaming about in the first five minutes of the episode? Lydia . . . the night nurse . . . Derek . . . or Danny?
That’s all I’ve got. See you on June 3rd, my fellow werebangers!
Filed under Teen Wolf
Tagged as 11 p.m., Allison, Allison and Scott, alpha, argent, banshee, colton haynes, Crystal Reed, Derek, Dylan O'Brien, first ten minutes, gif, graphic, holland roden, hoyay, june 3, love triangle, Lydia, MTV, murder, omega, romance, scott, Scott and Allison, scream, screencap, Season 2, shirtless, speculation, Sterek, Stiles, Sunday, Teen Wolf, Trailer, Tyler Hoechlin, Tyler Posey, veterinarian, werewolf, werewolf hunter, YouTube
On Bad Men and Fearless Ladies – The Lazy Recapper Mini-Caps Mad Men’s “Mystery Date”
On July 13, 1966, a real-life Mad Man named Richard Speck raped and tortured nine student nurses, in the boarding house where they were living at the time. Eight of them were killed. Only one survived. She did this, by miraculously managing to hide under a bed, undetected, while a horror movie unfolded inches away from where she lay . . .
It kind of makes you think twice about a childhood game, that revolves around opening the door to “sexy strangers.” Don’t you think?
(Some doors are best left closed . . .)
The episode “Mystery Date” reflected on this real-life tragedy, and how it impacted the lives of the women and men, who lived during that time. In a sense, the Speck murders functioned as the unofficial villain of this hour of television. From Don Draper to young Sally, this week, all of the characters of Mad Men were forced to cope with issues of female violence, and what it means to feel “safe” in a world that is often terrifying . . .
Of course, since I’m a Lazy Recapper, I’m probably not going to address any of that stuff . . .
After all, it’s much more fun to talk about important things . . . like what the heck Stan Rizzo is wearing on his head!
“The Seven Dwarfs called, Stan. Dopey really wants his hat back.”
Don Draper’s bout with the flu this week on Mad Men taught me two things: (1) yes, hot people do, in fact, get sick, just like everybody else;
“I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather lately. Perhaps it has something to do with this massive flood in my office.”
. . . and (2) being sick can make you INSANE!
I mean, think about it . . . one minute, Don is defending his honor to his wife, when a former fling of his hits on him right in front of her, in an enclosed space.
(Love in an elevator . . . . living it up, when you’re going downnnnn.)
DON: “So, Wifey #2 . . . I guess this would probably be a bad time to ask for your thoughts on threesomes?”
The next minute, he’s STRANGLING HER TO DEATH, AND SHOVING HER CORPSE UNDER HIS BED!!!
Officially out of the running for Wife #3 . . .
Wait . . . what’s that you say? That Don’s seeming murder of Sexual Conquest 323 was just a Fever Dream, Symbolizing the Protagonist’s Subconscious Fear that his Slutty Past will Come Back to Haunt Him / Ruin his New Marriage? And that his shoving her under the bed, reflected that same subconscious’ reaction to the Speck Murders, specifically, the hiding place of the lone female survivor?
Well, thank you, Dr. Freud. I feel much better knowing that the man I have sex dreams about one of my favorite television characters isn’t an actual murderer of women. Still . . . having dreams like that is pretty f*&ked up, if you ask me.
Speaking of Bad Men, Joan FINALLY kicked to the curb her no good hubby, Dr. McRapeyPants, after he blatantly admitted that he would rather spend another year AT WAR, halfway across the world, and possibly DIE, than be with his wife and Roger’s lovechild their newborn baby son.
She also not-so-subtly called him out on that one terrible time, a few seasons back, during which he forced himself on her in Don Draper’s office, thereby incurring the wrath of Mad Men fans, like myself, for all eternity . . .
We love you, Mama Joan! You’re a FEARLESS, and just all-around awesome woman, who’s decades ahead of your time! But . . . that still doesn’t make it OK for you to do this . . .
Hey Mommy Dearest, you are ONE TOSS AND TURN AWAY FROM SQUISHING YOUR BABY! Get thee to a crib, GO!
Speaking of questionable parenting tactics, Grandma Francis found a fabulous way to get a stressed-out Sally to sleep, the night after the latter learned about the Speck murders . . . and by “fabulous” I mean “ridiculously inappropriate and more than a bit disturbing” . . .
(WARNING: Here comes that “survivor under the bed” motif again!)
Fifteen years from now, when Sally’s a cast member on Celebrity Rehab, she will undoubtedly be telling Dr. Drew all about the time Grandma Harris slipped her some Seconals and let her pass out under the couch, while Granny sat above her holding a steak knife . . .
On a much more positive note, Peggy Olson officially became my spirit animal, when she OWNED Roger Sterling, cleverly convincing the latter to give her $400 out of his own pocket, by simply uttering two words: “Dazzle Me.”
Of course, this causes one to wonder just how much money Roger Sterling carries in his billfold. And, perhaps more importantly, what’s he REALLY spending it on (aside from paying for the silence of his underlings, of course)?
French lessons, maybe?
Peggy may have handled Roger Sterling, like a boss. However, she was a bit less savvy with new co-worker Dawn. Sure, things started off OK! When the ambitious copywriter learned that Dawn had been forced to spend the night at the office, out of fear for her own safety, she gallantly invited the latter back to her home so they could get wasted together for a few drinks and some Girl Time Bonding . . .
(By the way, Peggy’s becoming a bit of a lush. Don’t you think?)
(Then again, I guess it takes one to know one . . . )
Of course, she then proceeded to make poor Dawn feel like a crook, when she very blatantly eyed her newly chock-full-of-cash purse, before leaving the latter to sleep on her couch for the night. Oops!
Speaking of socially awkward . . . New Guy, Michael Ginsburg, is actually growing on me, ugly suit preferences and all . . .
“I’m sexy and I know it.”
(Even though the way he painted the “Cinderella Meets Prince Charming” story as a thinly-veiled Date Rape Scenario, during a pitch meeting, means I’ll probably never watch Once Upon a Time the same way, ever again . . .)
And that was Mad Men in a Lazy Recapper’s nutshell! What did YOU think of the episode?
Filed under Mad Men
Tagged as 1966, AMC, animated gifs, Christina Hendricks, Dawn, Don and Megan, Don Draper, Elizabeth Moss, Grandma Francis, Greg Harris, Joan Harris, Joan Holloway, John Slattery, Jon Hamm, Jon Snow, Mad Men, Matt Weiner, Megan and Don, Megan Draper, Megan Pare, Michael Ginsburg, murder, Mystery Date, nurse, Peggy Olson, recap, Richard Speck, Roger Sterling, Sally Draper, screencaps, Season 5, Sunday night
You Better Knock on Wood! – A Recap of The Vampire Diaries’ “The Murder of One”
“Hey Rebekah, would you mind if we finish reenacting your favorite scene from Fifty Shades of Grey, later? I kind of have to pee.”
Greetings, Fangbangers! Our favorite vampire show has become quite the merciless tease, hasn’t it?
The promos promised us Open Season on Originals . . . a veritable Vampire Bloodbath . . . our heros, armed with more stakes than they had targets. “The odds ever in their favor.”
What we got was one lowly kill, of a character who’s claim to fame was literally being a Creepy Mama’s Boy. Also, dude couldn’t fight worth a sh*t. (Let’s face it, my grandma would have put up more of a fight than Finn did.) Then again, in his defense, if you had spent the last 900 years napping, you’d probably be a bit off your game too.
Additionally, the promos promised us intensely erotic Delena kisses.
What we got was a Dream Sequence . . .
. . . oldest trick in the book . . . And yet, I manage to fall for it Every Single Time.
Shame on me.
Petty frustrations aside, there WAS definitely some fun to be had during “The Murder of One.” For starters, we were treated to a rather clever twist on the concept of “Vampire Family.” (So, which Original do you think sired Rose?)
Mommy?
In related news, our Scooby Gang reached new levels of stupidity, when it willing ARMED the serial killer . . . again. (They really would have been better off hiding the stake in the soapdish . . .)
So, stroke . . . er . . . I mean sharpen your woody . . . and chain up your half-naked pet vampire. Because it’s time for another TVD-cap . . .
(As always, special thanks to my expert screencapper, Andre for the filled with awesomesauce screencaps you see here.)
“Shhh . . . be very, very quiet. We’re hunting Originals.”
“Elena, please stop hounding me for sex. You are starting to sound a little desperate.”
Truth be told, Damon is acting a little cagey, when Elena pops by the site of Alaric’s “house arrest,” to drop off the latter’s Breakfast of Psycho Killer Champions. The dark-haired vampire seems unusually eager for the love of his life to leave. In fact, he pretty blatantly rebuffs her attempts to cross the threshhold into the apartment.
(And we all know how much Damon and Elena generally enjoy their bedroom rendezvous.)
Something is definitely UP, but what could it be?
Perhaps, Bad!Alaric has gone on a rampage, and destroyed the house? Or, maybe the two bromantic buddies are having a dance-off. Maybe, Damon and Alaric are watching a Lifetime movie together. And they have just reached the part where Tori Spelling finally escapes her wife beating-shrew of a husband, and finds her way into the waiting arms of the mildly attractive B-list actor, who loved her all along . . .
“Funny . . . I always thought the most dangerous weapon in the world was in my pants . . .”
It isn’t until after Damon closes the door in Elena’s face, that we find out what he’s really hiding . . . It’s his morning wood . . .-en stakes, that is. That’s right, boys and girls! It turns out that Psycho Killer Alaric Saltzman is a whiz with a buzz saw! (Take that, crazy family from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.)
And Damon? Well, he can whittle like nobody’s business! Their Herculean efforts (combined with Stefan’s griping and complaining about his wood not being sufficiently erect) turn an old lame wooden bridge sign, into no less than TWELVE lean, mean, Originals- killing machines . . . (Though part of me thinks they could have had more, if they made them a little smaller. Silly men – always so preoccupied with the size of their sticks . . .)
Then, because five whole minutes have passed in the episode without anyone having done anything stupid, Damon and Stefan convince Psycho!Alaric to not only NOT turn himself in to the cops, but also to wear his “Jamaican Me Crazy” ring, for sh*ts and giggles. Then . . . they actually GIVE this lunatic a stake!!! Can you believe it?
Speaking of Psycho!Alaric, Elena tells Caroline that she should TOTALLY forgive him for murdering her father. After all, it’s not his fault that he has REALLY bad taste in jewelry!
“It could be worse, he could have a Jamaican Me Crazy Nipple Ring . . .”
Just like it’s not Caroline’s fault that she used to sometimes drink her favorite B Positive Blood from peoples’ necks, instead of using a straw, like the rest of us . . .
After all, everybody knows that if Elena chose to turn her back on her friends and lovers JUST because they were serial killers, she wouldn’t have any friends at all! (Plus, she’d pretty much never, ever get laid.)
Caroline is super impressed by Elena’s Mother Theresa-esque attitude toward supernatural murderers. So, she vows to be more tolerant of her father’s stake-wielding, cold blooded killer, in the future. All together now: Awwwww!
As it turns out, Elena and Caroline aren’t just frolicking in the woods for their health. They have a date with destiny! Stefan has gathered the entire Scooby Gang . . . and Matt . . . in order to indoctrinate them into Team Kill Originals.
“No, Damon! Everytime you make us play shirts versus skins, Vampire Killers, you always make us be skins. It’s not fair!”
“I can take off my pants, if that helps. (I’m not wearing any underwear.)”
And why shouldn’t everyone get to play? There are plenty of stakes to go around! Plus, since Mommy Original Witch’s spell has succesfully linked the family’s lives together, all the group needs to do is manage to kill ONE Original, and the rest of them will die shortly thereafter.
Now, surely, this stalwart crew of monsters, murderers and . . Matt . . . can manage to kill one measley vampire, right?
Well . . .
On one hand, I adored the lighthearted nature of this “training” scene. I smirked when Elena got to “roleplay” Klaus. And I smiled again, when Caroline, (a.k.a. Klaus Bait) got to roleplay Rebekah. My only gripe with this scene was that I thought there should have been a whole lot less planning, and a whole lot more . . . STABBING of things. Just sayin.’
Finn Mikaelson . . . you are The Weakest Link.
Little does the Scooby Gang know that an Originals-Killing opportunity is closer at hand, than they think. As it turns out, The World’s Most Self-Loathing Vampire (though, it could be argued that his vampire-eating, father hated himself more), did not actually leave town, as initially suspected. In fact, he’s wandering around the Mystic Falls’ town square, RIGHT NOW. It is here, where brother and sister dearest, Klaus and Rebekah corner him, and drag him back to their family lair.
“Check out those pects! Have you been working out?”
But Klaus and Rebekah are no dummies. They know, full well, that they can catch more flies with honey, than with Finn-egar. (See what I did there?) Knowing that Finn will not guard his life, to save his own siblings, they opt to offer him another reason to live . . . a.k.a. his lover girl, Sage . . . the boxing mind raper. (Well, we all know who wore the pants in THAT relationship.)
Personally, my impression of Finn has always been that the only woman he’s ever dreamed about being horizontal with, is the one who breast fed him. But hey, at least cares enough about Sage to put off whacking himself, long enough to accompany her to the Only Bar / Social Establishment in Mystic Falls for some bottom shelf tequila. Ahhh, true love!
“He always shouted out, ‘Mommy,’ whenever we had sex. I thought it was a cute pet name . . . until that time, when his mother tried to climb into bed with us . . .”
Well, hello, there, Bondage Damon!
Back at La Casa de Rich and Awesome, Damon and Alaric (Wait . . . they are letting the Psycho Killer out of the house now? What happened to house arrest?) . . .
Then again, maybe some fresh air wouldn’t hurt . . .
. . . are busy hiding their Originals-killing stakes. When Damon decides to hide his in the fire kindling, Alaric hilariously reminds him of the “Moonstone in the Soapdish” incident. Crazy Train is right, Damon.
Hiding valuable objects in plain sight might not be the best idea, in this instance. . .
Unfortunately, Damon is about to have bigger problems than merely choosing a poor hiding place for his surrogate weiner. Suddenly, Alaric has been knocked out cold, by an unseen force.
Alaric: “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”
Alaric’s alter ego: “Suck it up, loser! We’ve got people to kill!”
Next thing you know, Damon is being staked in the gut, to the point of unconsciousness. “Hello, lover,” coos Rebekah, as she drags her “ex boyfriend” out of the house. Well, that’s one way to let a guy know you are interested . . .
This is another . . .
Sometime during the commercial break, Rebekah, the sadist – who was none too happy to learn that Damon had used her body for sex, and then mind-raped her too boot (I don’t know, sounds like a pretty great time to me) has taken the opportunity to chain Damon to her ceiling.
Now, that’s a lot of heavy hardware to have just “lying around” your new mansion. In fact, it made me wonder where one goes to purchase such a contraption. (Something tells me an S&M sex shop wouldn’t do particularly good business in an old-fashioned town, like Mystic Falls. Then again, considering about ¾ of the people we’ve met who live there are bloodthirsty vampires, witches, and werewolves, perhaps some intrepid entrepreneur capitalized on what he saw as a good business opportunity.)
Question, fangbangers: Does the fact that I was turned on by the sight of an open-shirted Damon chained to the ceiling make me a bad person? I strongly suspect that it does. Then again, unless this is the first recap of mine that you are reading, you probably already knew I was a bad person, anyway, and have decided to withhold judgment against me for it. So, thank you for that.
You know what’s nifty about the Salvatores? (Yes, I just used the word “nifty.” 1954 has been calling me ever since I typed it, asking that I return the word to its proper decade.) They even bleed pretty. Back in “As I Lay Dying” the makeup department did a pretty awesome job of making the gorgeous Ian Somerhalder genuinely look like a sickly vampire, mere moments away from suffering the True Death.
But this time, Bondage Damon just looked like a gogo dancer at an S&M themed strip joint . . . one who’d been splattered with red body paint to accentuate his perfectly muscled abs.
Klaus must have noticed this too. Upon seeing Damon Salvatore, The Extra Large Christmas Tree Ornament Version, he suggested that Rebekah HANG HIM UPSIDE DOWN. Now, that is something I would have liked to have seen! (I suspect Ian and his agents would likely have disagreed to that though.) The implied method to Klaus’ awesomeness madness is that an upside down Damon can be bled for vervain much faster than one that is right side up, which would make him a quicker candidate for compulsion.
Rebekah balked at the idea . . . not necessarily because it was a bad one . . . but, more so because it was Klaus’ idea. And Rebekah can torture her ex boyfriends just fine, without his help, thank you very much. Also, I suspect, based that Rebekah was much more interested in torturing Damon and making him bleed, than actually . . . oh, I don’t know . . . making him do something useful for the Original’s cause. Such motivation (or lack thereof) is kind of consistent with who Rebekah is as a character, I think. She’s never really been one to concern herself with mundane things like “goals, plans, and . . . logic.”
In other words, it’s all “id” all the time, for this chick . . .
Mystic Falls, we have a problem . . .
Unlike Bonnie, who never seems to pick up her cell phone, or return anyone’s calls (It looks like someone got a bad cell phone plan at Witchmart), Damon is usually rather chatty.
So, when Alaric has no clue where Damon has gone, and the latter is not answering his phone, Stefan knows that something is drastically wrong. He tells Elena to hold off on staking Finn in the town square, because the Team is in trouble.
Upon hearing about that Damon might have been captured by the enemy, Elena immediately campaigns for a rescue mission. “Please Stefan,” she says “Rescue your brother, because I strongly suspect he is half naked, and, back when you were chained to a ceiling half-naked by older vampires, he dropped everything to go out in the rain and rescue you. Also, I’m in love with the guy, and would very much like to bone him” Elena says (more or less).
Stefan replies, “Meh, maybe later. Killing Originals is wayyyy more important than my brother’s life. He’ll understand” (failing to realize, of course, that because Damon has been captured BY AN ORIGINAL, this would be an excellent opportunity to kill two birds with one stake.)”
Elena pouts in frustration. But will she defy her exes instrustions to rescue his brother? Only time will tell . . .
Damn you, promo makers. DAMN YOU!
Rebekah may not be her brother’s equal, when it comes to Concocting Plans of World Domination / Vampire vervain draining, but she can definitely hold her own, when it comes to psychological torture. Later on in the episode, we see a fully drained and rather pale Damon, still chained alone in the grand hall area, when a “mysterious female figure” approaches him. It’s “Elena.” “Elena” looks at Damon with obvious concern, as he weakly motions for her to free him from his chains.
“If you wanted to be kinky, Damon, a pair of fuzzy handcuffs would have been much cheaper.”
Damon’s body collapses into Elena’s, as the two stumble dramatically toward the exit, calling to mind a similar situation that occurred back in “As I Laying Dying.” But Damon is too weak from loss of blood, and he falls to the floor, zapped of strength. “I’m not leaving you,” Elena says heroically, cupping her lover’s face in her hands, as she offers him her wrist. “Drink, she says.”
And drink he does. It’s so sweet and erotic, that you really can’t blame the pair for wanting to make out, afterwards, despite the fact that they are minutes away from being discovered and killed by ORIGINAL VAMPIRES. (What can you do? The tongue wants what it wants.)
Then, Damon awakens to a triumphant looking Rebekah, who clearly planned the entire hallucination.
Well . . . that BITES! I throw my shoe at the television, in disgust . . .
Between a Rock and a Klaus Place
Damon may not be having the best day, but it might give him comfort to know he isn’t the only Team Scooby, who’s stuck being an Original’s b*tch, this week. Klaus has Bonnie, who he has been holding under duress to perform the spell that will unlink the Original siblings lives. When Bonnie claims not to know any such spell, Klaus threatens Jeremy’s life (via Kol, who’s secretly watching the future serial killer), and the life of her errant mother.
This recap has been brought to you by Apple iPhone . . .
Suddenly, Bonnie’s memory returns to her. (It’s a miracle!) She mumbles a bit over the blood of the Originals, and it starts to escape in separate directions. And, just like that, the spell has been completed. Well, that was easy . . .
How many friggin candles does this chick have? Seriously, she must light about 30 in every episode. And they are always these boring white ones too. A little color wouldn’t hurt, ya know?
On the way out of Klaus House, Bonnie catches sight of Bondage Damon, and opts to leave him there rotting, when Klaus reminds her of what he did to her sorry excuse for a mother.
Clearly, someone hasn’t been attending the Elena Gilbert School of Supernatural Forgiveness. Once Bonnie is outside the house, she calls Elena to let her know that Klaus still has her lover boy.
After that, the stresses of the day overtake Bonnie, and she cries until snot pours out of her nose . . . literally. I guess this means that snot and tears are the new nosebleed. Look on the bright side Bonnie, it will save you a lot of money on dry cleaning. And hey, life could be worse: SOMEONE COULD HAVE LEFT YOU CHAINED TO THE CEILING, HALF NAKED, AND ON THE VERGE OF DEATH!
The Wild and Wacky World of Vampire Genetics
It’s too bad the Scooby Gang doesn’t watch The Vampire Diaries. If they did, they would have known about the whole separation spell having already been completed. It would have saved them a stake . . .
Over at The Only Bar / Social Establishment in Mystic Falls, lovebirds, Sage and Finn, are enjoying shots of tequila. Apparently, the 1,000ish year old Finn was a “tequila virgin,” up until this point. (Yikes. What a way to live! No wonder he was always wanting to die!)
“The more of these I drink, the more you look like my mother.”
A few shots later, Finn has decided to save his own life . . . which, of course, means he’s about to get shanked . . . That’s just how this show works. But before Finn can be killed, we have to endure a discussion between Finn and Sage about how many people they’ve each turned. Finn seems to suggest he turned ONLY Sage, and did so out of loooooooove.
Sage, on the other hand, was a vampire-turning slut, converting humans left and right, whenever the mood hit her. She even recently turned some dude in the bar, on the way to the bathroom . . .
With the help of Plot Device Matt, Stefan slips some vervain into Sage’s and Finn’s tequila. When they go outside to investigate. Stefan stakes Finn, and he goes kablooey. Sage cries, and snots, like Bonnie did earlier.
“Listen honey, I know you’re hot for me, but this is just ridiculous.”
And Stefan leaves, triumphant, thinking he’s just killed Klaus. Sucks to be him . . . But hey, it could be worse, he could be CHAINED TO THE CEILING HALF NAKED . . . or . . . even worse than that . . . he could be Finn . . .
“One tequila, two tequila, three tequila . . . floor.”
Who will save YOUR soul?
When Stefan learns from Elena, via Bonnie, that Klaus is not-so-much-dead, he’s furious, and finally ready to retrieve his brother, so that he can personally kill Klaus. (Well, it’s about damn time!) Shortly thereafter, Sage arrives to avenge her loverboy Finn’s death, along with that random vampire she turned in the bar. Fortunately, for Stefan, the pair start coughing up blood, and die, before they can do any real damage.
This looks like the before picture in a Botox commercial.
Maybe she died of a broken heart, mused Caroline “B Positive” Forbes, who was there for moral support. Nahh, if vampires could die of a broken heart, all the vampires on this show would have been dead a long time ago . . .
Eventually, Elena and Caroline figure out the “loophole” to their little plan. Apparently, when an Original dies, he takes his entire bloodline along with him. Well, hello BIG TWIST!
Of course, this means that ONE of the Original’s holds the key to the Salvatore Brothers’ and Caroline’s mortality. After all, these three vampires come from the same “bloodline.” Damon’s blood turned Caroline. Katherine’s blood turned Stefan and Damon. And Rose’s blood turned Katherine.
The question is . . . which Original turned Rose? Because that’s the one our Scooby Gang can’t kill. Personally, my money’s on Elijah, the Original, who’s continued existence for all eternity is the least likely to have a negative impact on the Salvatore Brother’s lives. (If you recall, both Rose and Trevor were working for Elijah, during their first appearance on the show.) This also gives Daniel Gillies, a “get back on the show” free card for the rest of the program’s run, which makes me very happy.
In other news, Tyler clearly comes from Klaus’ bloodline, which kinda sucks for Caroline, who’s pretty much destined to lose two love interests in a single episode. But hey, at least she’s not CHAINED TO A CEILING, HALF NAKED. 🙂 Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
Meanwhile, over at Klaus House, Stefan comes to rescue Damon. “This went much differently in my head,” the Elder Salvatore brother jokes.
It went differently in my head too . . .
Stefan admits to killing Finn, and offers to make a deal with the Devil. Eight Original Killing Stakes in exchange for Damon. (Sounds like a good deal to me!)
But Klaus is smarter than I am, and knows there must be more than eight stakes left over. So, he evilly compels Damon to try to break free from his chains, causing the poor guy excruciating pain . . . scratch that . . . MORE excruciating pain.
Someone needs a nap . . .
It really has not been a good episode for Damon. Has it? He then compels Damon to tell him the actual number of stakes remaining, which, as we know, is eleven (since the stake in Finn is gone, gone, gone).
Interestingly enough, it’s actually scorned lady Rebekah, who ultimately shows Damon mercy, offering up Damon’s freedom as a sign of good faith, while Stefan retrieves the remaining stakes, and brings them back to Klaus. Drats, foiled again, Scooby Gang. But hey, look on the bright side, Klaus might end up being your “daddy,” and then you’ll be glad you didn’t kill him / commit suicide.
Heart-to-Bloody Heart
In the aftermath of this twist of fate in Kill Klaus games, Rebekah balks at Klaus’ complete inability to mourn his brother’s passing. Klaus calls Finn pathetic, and better off dead. (Well, we certainly won’t be having HIM speak at the funeral.) Rebekah notes sadly that, for all their manipulations the Salvatore brothers are willing to risk their lives for one another, whereas the Mikaelsons only seem to give two craps about one another, when they are magically linked.
Klaus pouts, promising Rebekah that he will make his own family, who are magically inclined to love him, no matter how many people he kills, or cheesy horse pictures he draws. That’s the spirit Klaus! Everyone knows there’s no better friend than a love slave . . .
Speaking of love slaves, Stefan’s kind of bummed that he can no longer focus all his life energy on killing Klaus, anymore. This means, he’ll have to finally cope with what a douchenozzle he’s been to everybody this season. That makes Stefan sad.
Stefan is also finally going to have to cope with the consequences of his recent actions . . . and one consequence in particular . . . the fact that his departure paved the way for Elena to fall in love with Damon.
“Look me in the eye and tell me that you don’t feel something for him,” says Stefan solemnly to his lady love.
Elena claims she doesn’t know what she feels. But everyone else in Mystic Falls does . . .
Bad!Alaric strikes again.
Earlier on in the episode, Caroline had an awkward, “It’s OK that you killed my dad,” conversation with Alaric, who was supposedly “cured” from being a serial killer by some of Bonnie’s magic “Serial Killer Be Gone” soup.
“It’s OK, Alaric. My father will always live on in my memories. We shared so many good times together.”
During that conversation she talked about the folks that she killed, back when she first turned vamp . . . like that random high school kid Connor, and her mom’s police boy partner . . . “We all have blood on our hands,” Caroline mused. sympathetically.
“Was it as good for you, as it was for me?”
But Alaric’s got bigger problems now than “blood on his hands.” He’s also still got psychopath on the BRAIN. (Bonnie Soup = FAIL!) Alaric comes to THIS painful realization, when Damon comes to collect his Originals killing stake, and Alaric learns that he’s stolen it . . . from himself. (Don’t you just hate it when that happens?)
Maybe it’s hidden in your Chunky Monkey.
Two weeks from now, on TVD, Elena will finally admit her feelings for Damon on a Vampire Road Trup. Then, the two will share a bed together, and have “finger sex.” *sigh*
(This better not be another dream sequence, or someone’s going to get a stake up their ass, courtesy of one very angry TV Recapper.)
Dead Rose will also appear, thanks to Ghost Whisperer/ Future Psycho Killer Jeremy. In other news, Tyler’s back. And he’s wasted no time reuniting his tongue with Caroline’s.
But is he still Gay for Klaus? Only time will tell . . .You can check out the trailer for that episode here:
Until next time, Fangbangers!
Tagged as #18, 3.18, animated gifs, ball, Bill dies, bite, bloodline, bonfire, Bonnie Bennett, Bonnie's mom, bracelet, Candice Accola, Caroline and Tyler, Caroline's dad, Casper Zafer, chains, Charlotte Petrova, coffins, comparison, compel, council, dagger, Damon and Elena, Damon and Elena kiss, Damon and Rebekah, Damon and Rebekah have sex, Damon kisses Elena, Damon Salvatore, dance, Daniel Gillies, Delena, Delena kiss, doppelganger blood, dream, dream sequence, dress, drink, Elena, Elena and Damon, Elena and Damon kiss, Elena and Matt, Elena and Stefan, Elena Gilbert, Elena kisses Damon, Elijah, Emily, emotions, Episode 18, Esther, family reunion, father, Finn, finn dies, flashback, Forwood, founder's council, founders, fourth coffin, Gram, head, heart of darkness, hiatus, hidden stake, horse, horse drawing, Hybrid, hybrids, I forgive you, I Kissed Damon, I'm mad at you because I'm in love with you, Ian Somerhalder, in love with damon, Jamie, Jeremy, Joseph Morgan, Katerina Graham, Katherine and Stefan, Katherine Petrova, Kefan, Kill Bill, Klaroline, Klaus, Klaus and Stefan, Klaus' house, Klaus' sister, Klefan, Kohl, Lauren Cohan, Liz Forbes, Matt and Elena, Matt and Rebekah, Meredith Sulez, Michael, Michael Trevino, Mikael, Mikael dies, murder, Nathaniel Buzolic, necklace, Nina Dobrev, Ordinary People, original, original family, Original Mother, Original Petrova, Original Witch, pajamas, parallel, Paul Wesley, plan, porch, promo, psycho killer, Rebekah, Rebekah and Damon, Rebekah and Matt, Rebekah and Stefan, Ripper, Rose, sacrifice, sage dies, screencap, screenshot, Season 3, Sebastian Roche, serial killer, shirtless, sire, Stab, stake, Stefan and Caroline, stefan and elena, Stefan and Katherine, Stefan and Klaus, Stefan Salvatore, Stelena, sun exposure, Tatiya, the murder of one, The Vampire Diaries, The Witch House, toast, Torrey Devitto, torture, Tyler and Caroline, Tyler Lockwood, vampire hunter, vervain, white oak, who turned rose, wickory bridge, witch house, witches, woods, YouTube
Why You Should Always Be Kind to the Elderly . . . – A Recap of Gossip Girl’s “The Princess Dowry”
It looks like no one bothered to tell Cece Rhodes that Wakes aren’t typically the kind of “party” for which one sends out invitations . . .
Character development . . . it’s what savvy TV viewers expect from their favorite long-running shows. If a viewer has been watching the same television show for four or more years, there’s a good chance that she’s grown and changed quite a bit, since the pilot episode aired. Therefore, she naturally expects her favorite television characters to have evolved during that time as well.
The way I see it, there are four essential elements to solid character development in a television series: (1) believability; (2) subtlety; (3) consistency; (4) and maintenance of the essential characteristics that helped viewers fall in love with the characters, in the first place.
Clearly, there’s a significant portion of the GG fanbase (myself included) who have been frustrated with the show of late. Those who are satisfied with the show, in its current incarnation, will tend to blame OUR dissatisfaction on the fact that we are Chair fans, and our ship currently isn’t on “top”, storyline-wise. That’s true. 🙂
However, I also think such a summation over-simplifies the issue a bit. I would argue that, as GG fans generally, and Chair fans specifically, our main gripe with the show has less to do with the fact that Chuck and Blair are “broken up” right now (We are used to that. :)), and more to do with issues related to “character development.”
On a more positive note, I will say that, as a whole, I found “The Princess Dowry” though admittedly a bit predictable in some of its so-called “plot twists” to be markedly more enjoyable than the two episodes that preceded it. Interestingly enough, much of the credit to that goes to a character that spent the entire episode in a mahogany box. That Grandma Cece! She sure knows how to throw one hell of a wake (no pun intended). . .
Where there’s a will, there’s a wake . . .
We begin our story at the office of an anonymous funeral director. Lily thanks him for seeing her on such short notice. So, Funeral Director Guy jokes that in his business, there tends to be little in the way of “advance notice.” (Ahhhh . .. nothing like a little DEAD PEOPLE humor to put you in the mood for a GG episode . . .)
Interestingly enough, Funeral Director Guy’s not particularly funny joke actually doesn’t apply to Cece. As a matter of fact, Grandma has known of her inevitable demise long enough to plan a funeral with as much flare and gusto as most women put into their weddings! She even scheduled her own wake . . . to occur at Lily’s house . . . the morning immediately following her death . . . which is . . . wait for it . . . RIGHT NOW.
Talk about getting the last laugh! Grandma Cece really is the best Master Manipulator on this show. Please GG writers, have her haunt the characters from beyond the grave, this season. I can think of a few characters in particular that could use a good haunting . . .
Meanwhile, over at the Empire Hotel, Lola and Nate are engaged in a post-coital morning cuddle. (Well, that was fast. She’ll fit RIGHT in, here on the Upper East Side.)
(Screencaps for this recap have been provided by Home of the Nutty.)
Nate casually slips in that he took the day off from work to be with Lola. This reminded me that Nate actually seems to be the only Upper East Sider who’s currently gainfully employed. (I guess Chuck’s employed too. But the only kind of work I can actually picture him doing, is taking Monkey for a walk, and occasionally rolling around on his bed amidst massive piles of his own money . . . with Blair . . . naked.)
Nate is clearly one of those guys who interrupts sex to ask you about your “feelings.” He wants Lola to “talk” to him about this new family she recently discovered that she had. But Lola doesn’t want to talk about her “feelings” or her “family.” In fact, she thinks her new family sucks monkey balls. She’d like to go back to having sex, thank you very much. Unfortunately . . .
“RING, RING, RING”
Lola: “Hello?”
Serena: “Hi, New Family Member. I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
Lola: “Nope. Just boning one of your many ex-boyfriends.”
Serena: “It was bound to happen sometime! Listen, I know you said you don’t want anything to do with your new family, and stuff. That’s cool. I just called to invite you to hang out with me today . . . at my house . . . where our grandma’s wake is . . . I absolutely promise you there will be no family members at our grandma’s wake. P.S. I always lie.”
Lola: “OK, I’ll come, but only because the plot requires me to be a total idiot, and not think things through AT ALL.”
Serena: “Welcome to my world!”
Out in the kitchen, Chuck is helping Nate make espresso. (Don’t they have servants for that?)
Because this isn’t homoerotic at all . . .
He’s super excited, because he now knows that Dan sent that video to Gossip Girl that ruined Blair’s royal wedding. Chuck knows that trust is super important to Blair. So, he figures that once Blair knows Dan for the trust betraying, scheming, Donut that he is, she won’t let him eat her face, anymore.
Seems like a pretty fail safe plan, right? WRONG! But for now, let’s just allow poor Chuck the only happy moment he experiences in the entire episode . . .
Speaking of scheming, trust betraying, face-eating, donuts with no sense of style, Humpty Humphrey arrives at Blair’s house to kidnap her for another “fun date” . . . one that will likely be spent watching the kind of dull, pretentious, films that people only pretend to like, when they want others to think they are intelligent. Blair promptly declines the invitation (Golly gee, I wonder why?). She then informs the Donut that she has to stay home and wash her hair / fantasize about sex with Chuck wait for her step dad to call about a possible loophole in her prenuptial agreement with Louis-bot.
“Psst telemarketer. I really want this annoying Donut to leave my house. So, if you pretend to be my stepdad, while I talk to you in French for a few minutes, I promise to buy your entire month’s quota worth of Pajama Jeans.”
Having had to compete with the likes of Sexy Studly Chuck, Pretty Nate, and scores of richer, more attractive, guest stars for five seasons, Donut Dan is certainly no stranger to rejection. It’s just another day in Humphreyland! No big deal! Besides, now that he’s dateless, he can go check out that Super Cool Wake, he’s heard so much about . . .
“I love wakes and funerals. Whenever I go to them, I’m always the life of the party.”
Hurricane Georgina rides again
Dan isn’t the only one eager for Dawn of the Dead: Upper East Side Edition. Georgina Sparks is also psyched to go to the hottest wake in town. After all, spending hours in front of the computer as Gossip Girl, has put a major crimp in her social life /world domination plans, of late. (“I’m beginning to feel like a stay-at-home mom,” moans the teenage mommy.)
Interestingly enough, Georgina’s gripes about the “job” in question actually offer a surprisingly big clue as to who the real Gossip Girl might be. Being a 24-hour a day, seven day a week gossip columnist takes TIME, and patience. Clearly, Gossip Girl is not one of these Upper East Siders, who spends all their time partying with the main characters of the show. Rather, this person likely spends most of their time alone in front of their computer, reading countless e-mails from people who wouldn’t give her the time of day, if they passed her on the street.
Just some food for thought . . .
Anywhoo, even though Georgina might be “so over” being Gossip Girl, she clearly cares enough about the position to not want to leave it unattended, while she’s off wake crashing. And so, Georgina decides to leave GG responsibilities to her adorable oaf of a husband, Rufus 2.0. Looking back, Georgina’s instructions to her house boy on how to be Gossip Girl might have been a bit oversimplified. When she told the guy to post any e-mailed tips he found interesting, she wrongly assumed he’d know to paraphrase them . . . or, at the very least, remove the e-mail address from which they were sent before posting them.
Here’s hoping Baby Milo gets his mother’s brains, otherwise he’s going to have to be one of those kids who spends his entire life wearing a helmet, because he can’t stop walking into walls . . .
Interestingly enough, Georgina’s date for the wake is none other than Faux Charlie / Ivy / Call Me Serena, herself. Apparently, the latter has kept that damn napkin with Georgina’s phone number printed on the back for over a Season. Now, that’s just unsanitary . . .
Then again, so is this . . .
Anyway, something tells me this female duo won’t be winning Prom King and Queen at this wake . . .
Wakey, Wakey . . .
Now, I’m not Irish. But, if I ever had a wake, I think I’d probably like it to look something like Cece’s, with bagpipes, and the band, and everyone chugging beer, and shots of whiskey.
“OK, here’s how you play the Cece’s Wake Drinking Game. Take a shot everytime someone says the words, ‘You should leave.’“
It’s not at all the kind of “Goodbye Party,” I would have expected from the Rhodes Matriarch. And yet, that’s precisely what makes it so much fun. Actually, that’s not true. What makes it so much fun, is how utterly uncomfortable the entire affair makes the stuffy, straight-laced, Lily.
Somewhere up in Heaven, Cece Rhodes is already laughing her ass off . . . and the party is just getting started . . .
All hail, Chuck Bass. He has arrived at the wake ready to win back his lady love. (You know, because funerals and wakes are great places to pick up chicks, just ask Will Ferrell’s character in Wedding Crashers.) Once Chuck learns that Blair might have found a way out of her prenup, and into the flanneled arms of that soggy stale Donut Dan, he quickly sends Gossip Girl an e-mail encouraging the latter to out Dan for his little excursion into documentary film making.
You would think, by now, these people would learn to contact Gossip Girl using anonymous e-mail addresses, or at least be smart enough not to SIGN the blasts. Of course, most days, this doesn’t matter, since the REAL Gossip Girl, and even Georgina were both smart enough to know how to redact personal identifiers from GG blasts. Not Rufus 2.0 though. Dim Bulb simply copies the entire contents of Chuck’s e-mail (e-mail address included), and publishes it on Gossip Girl. (In Rufus 2.0’s defense, he might not actually know how to read.)
Chaos erupts amidst a wake, which is already filled with Rhodes’ bickering over silverware and antiques. Blair (who I guess decided not to stay home, after all . . . sorry Donut Dan) is already stomping over to Chuck, demanding an explanation. She doesn’t believe what she’s reading. Not Humpty Humphrey! He wouldn’t do something so awful, would he? (That would require him to have a personality.)
Ah, but he HAS done it. And he’s willing to admit it too. At this point in the story, I’m leaning forward in my chair, eagerly awaiting a long overdue Dan Humphrey Smackdown. Then, two minutes later, I’m slumping back in that same chair, having already tossed my pillow at the television screen in disgust.
SHE FORGAVE HIM? JUST LIKE THAT??? REALLY? Is there no justice in this world?
While the dull pair is having their not-so-argument, Georgina takes this opportunity to steal Dan’s phone. Does the fact that part of me was hoping she’d slather said phone with Ebola Virus, instead of just stuffing it in her purse make me a bad person?
A Tale of Two Charlies
Meanwhile, Lola has arrived on the scene. and she is super pissed about having been tricked into attending her grandmother’s wake. (Damn those inconsiderate dead family members, for interrupting Lola’s sex life!) There’s a bit of a running gag, during which, every time Serena tries to introduce Lola to her “nice, down-to-Earth” family, they do and say something even more ridiculously greedy and money grubbing.
That said, Lola’s perpetual pussface does little to redeem the character in my eyes. We have enough self-righteous, judgmental folks on this show, thank you very much . . .
What does endear Lola to me, a little bit, is the surprisingly understanding way in which she handles the presence of Charlie/Ivy/Call Me Serena. While the rest of the VDW/Rhodes’ shun the red head, repeatedly asking her to leave, Lola willingly allies herself with her former imposter, in hopes that together, the two of them can finally figure out, why Lola’s AWFUL mother would go through so much trouble and expense, to hide Lola from the rest of her ostentatious and snobby family.
Take that 1%ers!
Answers may come for Lola, sooner than she thinks. Not long after she arrives, Dr. VDW enters the building. As it turns out, Cece chose Lily’s first of many ex husbands as the executor of her will. Go figure.
“Hey Cece! Good to see ya. You’ve never looked better!”
For a guy who was willing to play fast and loose enough with his medical license to convince his ex wife she was dying of cancer, Dr. VDW sure seems to be a stickler for the rules of trusts and estates. When Faux Charlie comes to sit in on the precedings, and the rest of the family wants her out, Dr. VDW insists that she stay, because “it’s what Cece wanted.”
“I swear! Just ask her . . . oh, wait . . . nevermind.”
Dr. VDW also doesn’t bat an eyelash, when he reads the provision of the will that provides that Cece more or less left her ENTIRE fortune (save for a few antiques and lame ass trinkets) to . . . wait for it . . . IVY DICKENS.
That’s right, boys and girls. Grandma Cece knew all this time, that Ivy was an imposter, who weaseled her way into the Rhodes family, intially for money, but ultimately for acceptance. And Cece LEFT HER EVERYTHING ANYWAY. Wow, she must really hate her family, A LOT!
Like I said in the title of this blog, if you learn anything from this ridiculous episode of Gossip Girl, let it be this: respect your elders. After all, you never know when they might be filthy rich, and willing to write you into their will . . .
Part of me wishes Cece was a bit more descriptive in her will, regarding why she chose to do what she did. For one thing, the fact that she left no explanation for her actions, whatsoever, makes her will a whole lot easier for the VDW/ Rhodes to contest legally. For another, part of me is just really curious, what happened between these two women from disparate generations (Ivy and Cece), during those last crucial few months, that made Cece experience such a drastic change of heart.
Perhaps it was the gin talking . . .
I mean, sure, Ivy needed the money far more than the VDW clan. But that’s not a good enough reason to do what Cece did. I’m hoping we get another flashback to flesh this storyline out a little more. But I’m thinking we probably won’t . . .
Whatever Cece’s reasons for so royally screwing over her family, I can’t IMAGINE she suspected that Ivy would end up unceremoniously evicting Lily from her OWN house, on the day of the wake, claiming that the property now belonged to her. Really? Charlie/Ivy / Call Me Serena? THESE are the actions of a woman who “fell in love with the Rhodes” family? I know they were mean to you, when they found out the truth, Ivy-kins, but still . .. that’s a pretty darn evil thing to do.
My guess is that Ivy won’t actually end up doing it. And that the gesture was just her way of asserting authority against the Rhodes. But hey, what the heck do I know?
In other news, Dr. VDW, who apparently never met a Rhodes he didn’t wanna f*&k, just learned that he’s actually Lola’s father, and will owe a crap load of money in back child support payments, if he doesn’t become Carol Rhodes’ b*tch . . . again. That makes Lola, more than just Serena’s cousin . . . She’s also her HALF SISTER. Predictable. Shocking, I know . . .
“Is there anyone on this show I’m NOT related to?”
“ME! Well, at least I hope I’m not related to you . . . It certainly wouldn’t be the first time someone committed incest on this show.”
“You are the only good thing in my life,” Lola pouts to Nate. . . the man she met just one episode ago, as the two head back to the Empire to make up for lost sex time. How’s that for pathetic? But Lola might just find that she’s very wrong, indeed, about that assessment. Toward the end of the episode, Dr. VDW calls his long lost daughter, to take her up on her offer that he help her investigate her family secrets. However, something tells me that HIS particular paternity secret, will be one he won’t offer up so freely . . .
Don’t do it, Blair . . .
Have you ever watched a horror movie at home, and spent half the time screaming the following things at your television: “DON’T GO IN THERE!” “LOCK THE DOOR!” “HE’S GOING to CHOP YOUR HEAD OFF.” “DON’T JUST STAND THERE, LOOKING SCARED, RUN, YOU MORON.”
Well, that’s kind of how I felt, watching Blair in “The Princess Dowry.” Throughout the entire hour, I watched her move ever closer, to a Donuty Doom. I knew it was coming. And I dreaded it like the plague. But no matter how loud I screamed at the television screen, I couldn’t protect Blair from acting like a brainwashed Stepford Wife . . . It was quite frustrating, really.
Anywhoo . . . when we last left our Queen B, she had just forgiven Donut Dan for trying to ruin her wedding and her life, with that video. Enter Blair’s Minder with a convenient way out of this mess of a wedding. As we learned from last week, this French twit is actually in LOVE with Louis-bot . . .
“See Blayerrrrgh, evaan roboths geth layeeed.” (Translation: See Blair, even robots get laid.)
. . . making it in her best interest to see this wedding annuled.
Elsie the Minder’s theory, is that Blair is such a public relations disaster, that any other prospective wife (even a fellow robot like Elsie the Minder) would look good to the press, by comparison. Therefore, provided Blair agrees to not speak to the press about the annulment, Elise the Minder suggests that the Grimaldis will just let her out of the contract.
“Even though I am lying through my teeth, you believe every word I say, because my British accent makes me sound more trustworthy than I actually am.”
Well now, that certainly doesn’t sound the Grimaldi’s I met this summer . . .
Rhymes with Ditch . . .
Nonetheless, Blair blindly and stupidly agrees to this, never once considering the possibility that she might be getting setup. And setup, she ultimately is, when Chuck and Georgina send “Gossip Girl” i.e. Rufus 2.0 a picture of Dan raping Blair’s face on Valentine’s Day, in complete violation of Elsie the Minder’s so fake “annulment settlement terms.”
“AHHHH! He’s suffocating me! Make it stop!”
OK, so let me get this straight. Chuck did this to KEEP Blair married to Louis-bot and/or potentially bankrupt her . . . just because he doesn’t want her to be with Donut Dan? I don’t buy it. After all, wasn’t Chuck the one who offered to pay off the entire dowry, in the first place, because he knew Blair’s family couldn’t afford its exhorbitant sum?
Anyway, it takes next to no time for Blair to learn that the photograph in question came from Chuck and Georgina, not from Dan. At the same time, Minder chick informs her that there was never really a settlment position on the table, in the first place. (SURPRISE!) Now, Blair doesn’t know WHO to believe. So, Chuck digs the knife in, even deeper, by accusing Donut Dan of repeatedly keeping him away from Blair, so that the Donut could have her all to himself. It’s an accusation which Dan readily accepts!
And when Blair finds out, she’s so incredibly hurt and betrayed that she says. . . NOTHING? Again, what the heck is wrong with this girl, lately? The REAL Blair Waldorf wouldn’t have taken ANY of these injustices lying down. But this one just pouts and walks away. Come on, Blair, even Nate could have done better than that . . .
Toward the end of the wake, Blair sadly tells Chuck Bass that she LOVES him, but isn’t IN love with him . . . a sure sign that Blair has clearly lost her marbles, this season. Here we are, finally, with no obstacles between these two individuals. But Blair is inexplicably throwing in the towel on her own. No me gusta.
Speaking of Chuck, he seeks out Lily for comfort shortly after his dumping. “It’s different this time. She’s had her brain devoured by Zombie Dan changed,” remarks Chuck sadly.
Well, that’s the understatement of the century! Unfortunately, Lily has little intel to impart on the subject of Stepford-Blair Waldorf. However, she does manage to offer up some other fairly pertinent information. It turns out, as many of us suspected, Jack Bass was the one who actually saved Chuck’s life, by ensuring that the Dark Knight received a blood transfusion, following his car accident with Blair.
The question is, was it actually Jack who made the pertinent donation . . . or was it Diana, who we all know Jack called just moments after Chuck was admitted to the hospital, and who many (myself included) have speculated is Chuck’s REAL bio mom . . .
In other news, Georgina calls somewhat of a truce with Blair, agreeing to fly to Monaco to end Blair’s sham of a cyborg marriage (using blackmail intel she learned during her Gossip Girl days, naturally), in exchange for a favor from Blair to be announced at a later time. Blair mindlessly agrees, a decision (like the one in which she STUPIDLY chose Dan over Chuck ) that I am sure she will come to regret in a few weeks. Oh, and did I mention that, before she left, Georgina shipped her entire GG laptop to SERENA, of all people?
Serena as Gossip Girl . . . again? Gahhhh . . . is this a repeat episode of Gossip Girl?
Toward the end of the episode, Blair goes to the Donut’s loft, determined to start what will undoubtedly be an incredibly boring, unfulfilling relationship, characterized by abysmal sex. Hooray!
“Please don’t make me kiss him again. Last time, my lips bled for hours afterward . . .”
Then, they eat eachother’s faces, for a while, and in between mouthfuls, Donut Dan explains how excited he is that Blair actually used his real name, for the first time since they met.
Yes, Donut Dan. She knows your name. Now, if that’s not the foundation for a successful relationship, I don’t know what is . . .
And that was “The Princess Dowry,” in a nutshell. When Gossip Girl returns in April, we will learn why Donut Dan is such a slug in the sack . . . not that this is much of a surprise . . . After all, the guy can’t even manage to walk to the nearest Supercuts to fix that awful hair of his. How can we possibly expect him to navigate the delicate contours of a woman’s body.
Slug or Stud? You decide . . .
That said, the sex-pisode in question, actually looks kind of humorous (especially if you enjoy making fun of Donut Dan, as much as I do). You can check out the trailer for the episode, here . . .
Somewhere on the Upper East Side, Chuck Bass is pumping his fist in triumph.
Filed under Gossip Girl
Tagged as #16, 5.16, animated gifs, annulment, author, Beatrice, blackmail, Blair and Chuck, Blair and Louis, Blair Waldorf, Blair's mom, Blake Lively, blasts, Blouis, CeCe, cell phone, Chace Crawford, Chair, chair shipper, Charlie, Charlie and Dan, Charlie Rhodes, Charlie Trout, Chuck and Blair, Chuck Bass, Chuck's mom, cliffhanger, Constance Billard, conversion disorder, Crazy Charlie, critical condition, CW, Cyrus Rose, Dair kiss, Dan and Charlie, Dan and Serena, Dan Humphrey, Darlie, dead, Derena, Desmond Harrington, Diana, die, divorce, document, dog, dowry, Dr. van der Woodsen, dream sequence, dress, drunk, drunk Blair, Duck, e-mail, Ed Westwick, Eleanor Rose, elinor waldorf, Elizabeth Hurley, Empire Hotel, Episode 16, fist pump, flashback, georgina is gossip girl, Georgina Sparks, Georgina's husband, GG, Gossip Girl, heartlines, hiatus, hospital, hotel, Hugo Becker, I love you, inside anonymous, irish wake, it should be us up there, Ivy, Ivy Dickens, just because we can't be together, Kaylee DeFer, Kelly Rutherford, kiss, LA, Lair, laptop, Leighton Meester, Lily van der Woodsen, lola, Louis and Blair, louis is evil, Marilyn Monroe, Matthew Settle, Max, mid season, midseason finale, minder, movie rights, murder, Nate Archibald, never give up, pact with god, panchitos, paternity test, Penn Badgely, photo still, photograph, prayer, pregnant, prenup, priest, Prince Louis, princess, princess bride, Princess Sophie, recap, reunite, Rufus Humphrey, runaway bride, Sabrina, scheme, screencap, screenshot, Season 5, Serena and Dan, Serena Van Der Woodsen, shots, shower, spectator, speculation, stop wedding, The Princess Dowry, The Spectator, Tiffany, tripp, Valentine's Day, video, wake, who is gossip girl, will
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Hollywood Closes Ranks as Specter of Streaming Looms Over Oscars 2 years ago
Dan Doperalski for Variety
It’s not rare at all for Ethan Hawke to have three or four projects on screens in a given year. The four-time Oscar-nominated star of films like “Training Day” and “Boyhood” works. Hard. He chalks it up to perhaps not being as comfortable in his own skin as other people are, but whatever the reason, his output is perennially considerable, and impressive.
This year the 47-year-old actor appears in Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed” (May 18) and Jesse Peretz’s “Juliet, Naked” (Aug. 17). Meanwhile, Sundance Selects will release his third directorial effort, “Blaze,” later in the fall. But while Hawke has clearly covered a lot of ground in a 30-year career dating back to the formative experience of Peter Weir’s “Dead Poets Society,” there are still a few stones left unturned.
“One thing I haven’t been able to do that I really thought I would have been able to do is, before I die, I would really like to give a meaningful performance inside a really commercial film,” Hawke says.
Specifically he cites actor Alec Guinness, who famously afforded a sense of gravitas to George Lucas’ “Star Wars” with an Oscar-nominated performance that gave the film a whole other dimension.
“To be that good in what basically is just a space flick — I mean, the acting in general is not very good in that film,” Hawke says. “But he elevates it with his life, and he actually imbues Obi Wan Kenobi with a spiritual authority. Or you see Ian McKellen say, ‘Fly, you fools’ [in ‘The Lord of the Rings’]. Most American actors couldn’t pull that line off. Imagine looking at the page and seeing, ‘Fly, you fools.’ Tough line. But if you’ve done Lear four times, it’s not that tough. I see those men, or Judi Dench — there’s lots of women, Vanessa Redgrave — these people who’ve lived a life in pursuit of something beyond celebrity and beyond fame, but then they can in turn use it in ‘X-Men’ to great value.”
On that note he recalls seeing a gaggle of “Star Trek” and “X-Men” fans turn out to see McKellen and Patrick Stewart star in a London production of “Waiting for Godot” some years back, the venerated thespians bridging a cultural gap with aplomb. He looks to actors like Christopher Plummer, Donald Sutherland and Jeff Bridges — “these guys who have walked the road a little bit longer than I have” — as guideposts of a sort.
“When you do a movie like ‘Training Day’ and the world sees it and you do a good job, it’s not [necessarily] what I’m after with my whole life,” Hawke says. “Because if all you want to do is make commercial movies, it’s kind of like saying all I want to do is make hamburgers. But I would like to be in a balls-out comedy. And I’d like to do a really interesting performance inside a commercial movie.”
Luckily for Hawke, there is no shortage of opportunities for these kinds of roles in a modern movie climate dominated by shared universes and their ilk.
For more, including discussion of Hawke’s 2018 projects, listen to the latest episode of Variety and iHeartRadio’s Playback podcast.
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← The PA Grand Jury Report
The Rite of Degradation From The Order of Priesthood. Wherein Fr. Z rants. →
Fr Z calls for solidarity
Posted on 15 August 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf
I saw this tweet from Ed Pentin:
Benedict XVI en route to Fatima 2010: “…today we are seeing it in a really terrifying way: that the greatest persecution of the Church comes not from her enemies without, but arises from sin within the Church.” https://t.co/3bYs4ZIxHT pic.twitter.com/qTzB3hzDen
— Edward Pentin (@EdwardPentin) August 14, 2018
I call to mind Benedict XVI’s words in the Way of the Cross he wrote for Good Friday in John Paul II’s last days. For the 9th Station, the 3rd Fall, he wrote:
How much filth there is in the Church, and even among those who, in the priesthood, ought to belong entirely to him! How much pride, how much self-complacency! What little respect we pay to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, where he waits for us, ready to raise us up whenever we fall! All this is present in his Passion. His betrayal by his disciples, their unworthy reception of his Body and Blood, is certainly the greatest suffering endured by the Redeemer; it pierces his heart. We can only call to him from the depths of our hearts: Kyrie eleison — Lord, save us (cf. Matthew 8: 25).
Lord, your Church often seems like a boat about to sink, a boat taking in water on every side. In your field we see more weeds than wheat. The soiled garments and face of your Church throw us into confusion. Yet it is we ourselves who have soiled them! It is we who betray you time and time again, after all our lofty words and grand gestures. Have mercy on your Church; within her too, Adam continues to fall. When we fall, we drag you down to earth, and Satan laughs, for he hopes that you will not be able to rise from that fall; he hopes that being dragged down in the fall of your Church, you will remain prostrate and overpowered. But you will rise again. You stood up, you arose and you can also raise us up. Save and sanctify your Church. Save and sanctify us all.
All: Pater noster …
Eia mater, fons amoris,
me sentire vim doloris
fac, ut tecum lugeam.
I recently finished an audio “course”, Living the French Revolution and the Age of Napoleon, from The Great Courses [US HERE – UK HERE] and I am presently working through Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities.
Having all this French upheaval in my mind, it wasn’t much of a jump to recall the anecdote about Napoleon and his threat to destroy the Church. It is said that Pius VII’s envoy Ercole Card. Consalvi observed,
“Your majesty, we, the Catholic clergy, have done our best to destroy the church for the last 1,800 years. We have not succeeded, and neither will you.”
Surely this is true. Holy Church is indefectible. Indefectibility is one of the divinely designed attributes of the Church.
Our Lord made promises. He promised that Hell would not prevail against the Church (Matthew 16:18). In the end, the Church will be triumphant and the final closing of Hell’s gates will shut the Enemy away forever.
The gates of Hell will not prevail, the Lord promised.
He did not promise that Hell would not prevail against the Church in these USA.
In the fantastic TV series, I, Claudius, [US HERE – UK HERE] the old emperor, finally and terminally weary, knowing that the horror of Nero is around the corner, acquiesces to his fate and croaks out:
“Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out.”
Great moments all through that series. For example, Caligula’s interpretive dance always reminds me of certain Jesuits, and vice versa.
I think we have to brace ourselves for the fallout.
I suspect that large numbers of nominal Catholics will drop away. They will take income for the Church with them. Local Churches will thin out. Clergy will retire and not be replaced. Churches will close. At the same time, I think that Tradition will grow in numbers and strength. I think these things were going to happen anyway, but it’ll probably speed up now.
Now is the time for all of us on the more conservative and traditional – Catholic not catholic – to close ranks and cooperate. There is no purpose or value in small differences or past grievances, imagined or real.
Cardinal Consalvi, by the way, was the Cardinal Deacon of Sant’Agata de’ Goti, whose title is now held by Raymond Leo Card. Burke.
This entry was posted in Cri de Coeur, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Our Catholic Identity, Si vis pacem para bellum!, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices. Bookmark the permalink.
19 Responses to Fr Z calls for solidarity
Unwilling says:
It must be timely – I also just finished re-watching the series. I thought several things portrayed were similar to current events. I interpreted the “Let all the poisons…” as something that the “deutero-canonical” Sibyl had said. Claudius blames himself for trying and succeeding to make the institution of Emperor less horrible. To get rid of the Emperor entirely, “let all the poisons…” be exposed and cause the maximum of pain, so that the senatus populusque will find intolerable and reject the institution. It is probably bad and nihilistic advice. But even entertaining it as a literary analogy, for us Catholics now: what to expose, what to reject? E.g. homosexualism? The headlines I am reading today about Pennsylvania are pointing the accusing finger at “the Catholic Church”.
Ms. M-S says:
The orchard and the vineyard may look fuller before pruning, but it’s only after the dead and diseased branches in them are lopped off that they can become truly fruitful. Pray for the husbandman. Burn the dead branches carefully. We have a promise. Follow the Master, even if it’s a small train. There’s nowhere else to go.
Sawyer says:
Maybe a good idea for people to write to their own parish priests to thank them for their service and for saying yes to their vocation. Just some words saying you pray for them, supporting and encouraging them. It’s probably a very difficult time to be a priest. Encouragement and thanks can’t hurt, and I would think such support would be welcome.
chantgirl says:
While we stick together and try to do penance for the Church, stay frosty. I have a sinking feeling that all of this scandal is going to be used in upcoming synods to push for a relaxation of celibacy for priests.We may even see calls for homosexual priests to come out publicly since having secret lives ends in so much scandal. Never mind that most gay men don’t want a wife, or that married men make up a large portion of abusers, or that priests have promised to live chastely whether they prefer women, men, children, animals etc.
benedetta says:
I remember tuning in to that Way of the Cross. Such a relief at this time to hear Pope Benedict. To hear him speak the truth at a time when we need it the most.
Peter Hans says:
Fr Z hitting on all 8 cylinders for sure! When it hits the fan, and it’s going to get wild, remember to “put on the mind of Christ and think with the mind of His Church”; never forgetting G K Chesterton’s admonishment that “the true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”
Spinmamma says:
Yes, that line from “I Claudius” has come to my mind frequently in the last few months. However, it was a futile gesture on his part, as he committed suicide by taking what he knew was poison from his wife Agrippinilla, Nero’s mother. Nothing turns out as he planned–Nero becomes emperor and is as wicked and depraved as Claudius foresaw, but the Republic is not consequently restored. The poisons hatch out, but things go from bad to worse. In our case, the poisons are hatching out,and, as you say Father, rather than leading to a great cleansing and restoration they may lead to more poison and more destruction. None of us know where all of this is going. I thank God daily for the good and true clergy left in the world. And I pray my Rosary the more fervently, sing the Divine Mercy chaplet, and remember Mary and John at the foot of the cross at the moment of Jesus’ death, when they continued to trust in God. Jesus , I trust in You.
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Time to link across the world with confession prayer and “Reparation Reparation Reparation”.
This will be big.
Day after the Feast of the Assumption, I thought that I would share this. Our diocese went through this 25+ years ago (accusations still occur) and our tiny mission parish is still doing OK. A couple of months ago, one of our Deacons started praying the Rosary before Mass. It started with six people. The church only seats 150, with SRO about 200 attend every Sunday. Some 30 showed up last Sunday at the start of the Rosary. Few more every Sunday. The NO Masses, from the parishioner side, seem more respectful and solemn now, even though Father has not changed, he always is (and was). Something is going on here, one can sense it.
TonyO says:
We know the Church will survive, but will I? Or my parish? Or my diocese? No guarantees there. I have it within my power to pray and go to confession and stay with Holy Mother Church, God’s grace be praised. I cannot make it happen for the parish or diocese.
I know many wonderful priests who are holy and who think with the mind of the Church. I do not much fear that I, personally, will have to live a long period without access to priests and the confessional. But I worry about my children and grandchildren. Yes, there will be pockets of resistance to the evils, indeed even pockets of great growth in faith, but they will be scattered around and may be very far from Catholics who want and need them. Will my grandchildren have access to sound priests when they need them? It’s not automatic, and we can’t simply say “of course”. Might not happen. There might be whole dioceses that are, effectively, the enemy’s encampments. (That might be very close to the truth right now, frankly.)
Suburbanbanshee says:
Saw the Mater Ecclesia parish anniversary Mass, last night on EWTN. I could tell that the news had cast a sad light on a happy occasion. But Fr. Pasley had an appropriate sermon against living a double life, and they prayed the Memorare before Mass. Also, I felt that the long Kyrie seemed especially appropriate.
We should respond with penitence, yes, but also by doing the right things in love.
Fallibilissimo says:
Lots of people I talk to used to say “I won’t get scandalized” and that these bad things, if anything, strengthen their faith in God. Yet now, in what I hear, I’m seeing signs of actual scandal. I know, those who scandalize murder, those who allow themselves to be scandalized commit suicide. However, it’s hard to talk about it since some folks are so jaded and their views becoming unshakeable. Deep and Clear lines are being made between Christ and the Church, making it sound like the two are separate realities…which we know is not the case. Some just have no respect for the clergy anymore, and make little if any distinction between the good and the bad. Whatever we may want to throw at these people for such attitudes, the visible human cost of these scandals is hard watch.
It’s not just the sex-abuse, but so often I see people get deeply involved in the Church only to end up being so hurt and disappointed by the clergy and those who work with them. They leave so bitter and wounded. Pat Lencioni has somethings to say about this, for anybody who might be interested.
There would be so much I would want to say on issues technical and cultural (within the Church) but for now, I’ll leave that to smarter and better informed folks to talk about. I do have to say that bad things happen everywhere but in the Church, regardless of the reason at hand, it’s different because She is different. Also, I’m convinced Satan knows he has to attack this institution more than others: “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat.”. The wrath of Satan has to be worse here and above all his cunning more acute because he knows it’s THE Sacrament, it’s THE institution.
Personally, my expectation for whenever I enter anything in the visible Church is to see both realities: I expect to see the true light of Christ’s immense charity and I expect to see its worst corruption. Some of the findings of the Penn Grand Jury certainly are showing one of those sides.
Even if this period of purification occurs, it’s not going to solve the effects of original sin, so I’m not expecting “good times ahead”, even after any purge. Instead, I expect all times to be an opportunity for our love to be tried and tested. I’m not sure how it works exactly, but I have the sense that forgiveness will have to play a crucial role in our faith and the way we deal with whatever type of Church problem. Whatever happens, God’s will be done.
On a side note, it’s interesting to see how many of us were thinking of the same quote from I Claudius…I’ve been saying it for awhile as well. If I’ll be fully open about it, part of me felt guilty because I didn’t know what I was wishing for by saying it.
Malta says:
I dealt with the abuse of children for many years, both as a prosecutor and FBI Agent. Most victims are too afraid to come forward, or something like scopolamine (https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4989579/devils-breath-side-effects-scopolamine-date-rape-drug/) because it blocks the memory.
The three-hundred priests indicted in just three counties in PA is just the tip of the iceberg. After Vatican II there was a pole shift in the Church; but modernism was percolating long before: Vatican II was the result of the disease, not necessarily the cause of it.
So, yes, the real enemies of Christ’s church are within it, all the way to the top.
Thorfinn says:
Regarding the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ –
If they haven’t already done so, parishes (dioceses) should take a hard look at their financial structure and plan for contingencies – say, a 10% to 50% drop in donations. What is a need vs. want vs. luxury. How do dirt poor parishes survive and thrive today, and how have they since the time of the apostles? Think very carefully before signing up for new debt.
And the obverse for parishioners: if the lukewarm walk away taking their money with them, are we prepared to make up the deficit in time & money?
SanSan says:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gHPCs6ePDo
The Chastisment of Holy Mother Church……when did it start?
Charlotte Allen says:
I’ve got abuse-scandals fatigue right now. I’ve lived through two rounds of this stuff: the 1990s and the early 2000s. Always the same scenario: A round of priestly horror stories, followed by liberal Catholics blaming the celibacy rule and conservative Catholics blaming various prelates and popes. I don’t think I can take it a third time. I just want to bury my head in the sand and keep attending my Dominican parish with its raft of holy, dedicated priests and a liturgy that isn’t too awful (it could use some improvements, though).
I can’t even figure out what’s going on with the Pennsylvania grand-jury report. Some of the allegations date as far back as 1947, long before Vatican II. Nearly all the priests and bishops involved are likely to be dead–and also many of the alleged victims. What evidence did the grand jury look at? What was the nature of those old alleged crimes compared to more recent ones? I’d like to see a timeline and some graphs and charts on the sorts of allegations that have been made over the years. When did the bulk of the alleged offenses occur, and what were they? You have to remember that sweeping this sort of stuff under the rug was what the Church did back then, all the way through the 1980s. Reassigning errant priests and/or sending them to pointless “rehab” was the usual supposed remedy for sexual misconduct–the theory being that the rehab worked, and if a priest were in a new location, maybe he’d change his ways. We now know better, fortunately. So I’m inclined to take the grand-jury report, if not with a grain of salt, at least with a desire for more context, which I’m not getting from the news stories. This is like the #MeToo movement: lots and lots of allegations, too many to really process, but not a lot of depth in the reporting.
As for people leaving the Church over this, the people who will leave are the ones who have either already left or will be leaving anyway. Liberal Catholicism doesn’t generate loyalty, and it certainly doesn’t generate Catholic offspring for the liberal Catholics. Vatican II-era Catholics had enough nostalgic ties to the Church of their youth to get their children baptized (often by a priest who left the priesthood a couple years later), but the children of those children are typically unchurched and never darken the door of a church anyway (nor do their parents or grandparents unless there’s a liberal church they can attend–occasionally). Conservative Catholics will mostly slog off to church anyway, with grim expressions on their faces.
Where I think the Church will suffer monetarily is in donations to bishops and their pet charities. As this latest scandal indicated, the Catholic bishops in the U.S. are by and large time-serving, glad-handing mediocrities who live high off the hog and have adroitly worked themselves up the ecclesiastical career ladder by saying the right things to the right people at the right time. I think that Catholics in the pews are getting tired of them, and these recent allegations bombshells don’t help. I don’t see why I should donate to my local “Cardinal’s Appeal” when the cardinal already siphons off a big percentage of my parish donation–to pay for what? A beach house for the bishop? Episcopal leadership seems nearly nonexistent, with expensive conferences devoted to issuing bromides and taking secular political positions on issues on which they have neither competence nor any business meddling in. They can’t even get half their priests to say Mass with proper dignity and get rid of all that appalling music, the ugly vestments, the huggy-huggies, and those darned lay “Eucharistic ministers” buzzing officiously around the altar (one of them–at one of yesterday’s Assumption Day Masses at my parish church–was so incompetent that she dropped a Host onto the church floor! Her presence was completely unnecessary–and what ever happened to those acolytes with patens designed exactly to prevent that sort of thing from happening? The Church used to take enormous precautions against falling Hosts: houseling cloths, and so forth. Now it’s all caution to the wind as lay people with minimal training get to feel important playing priest.
Now I’m going to bury my head in the sand again. I’m not going to try to surf this wave, but, rather, let it roll over me. I need a glass of wine–or even better, a relaxing swim. It’s in the 90s outside.
My archbishop is asking all his priests to offer a monthly Mass in reparation. But I suspect even more than that is needed….
Yes, I think that these perpetrators and those who covered up the evil are possessed by demons. I have no doubt. These men have no faith and no heart. A diabolical narcissism is what they have. Those who live in fine mansions and strut about….that is not a shepherd leading a humble flock.
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Introduction to the P2P Foundation Wiki Material about Spirituality
Revision as of 03:34, 28 December 2015 by Mbauwens (talk | contribs) (→Technology and Spiritual Traditions)
1.1 Introductory Citation
2 The Fourteen Precepts of Interbeing
3.1 Jeff Meyerhoff on a ethics of consequences
3.2 Dana Klisanin on Transception
3.3 On the Circle in Worship
3.4 Adam Miller on Peer to Peer Grace
3.5 Mark Pesce on Global Interconnection
3.6 Meta-theory as humanity’s vocabulary of self-transformation
5 Technology and Spiritual Traditions
5.1 Secular Humanism
5.2 Buddhism
5.3 Christianity
5.4 Paganism
6.1 Key Articles
6.2 Key Approaches
6.4 Key Resources
6.5 Key Thematic Issues of P2P News
6.6 Key Webcasts
7 The DIRECTORY
Introductory Citation
* Peer production as the consciousness of the new civilization:
"peer production and the emerging economy of the Commons may (and already do) provide the material conditions of an alternative future spirituality and self. An identity based on networks of cooperation rather than competition, and common property and sharing rather than privatization and commodification, has no need to generate a collective will that puts human systems in balance with eco-systems because that will is already built-in to the foundation of the consciousness and practices of peer production as a collective, commons project. There is no sense of the individual part standing separate from the collective whole or in a dominant relation to others, so there is no gap to mend and heal, there is only an in-built spiritual consciousness and self practice of ‘We’ and ‘I’ in nature and society as a unified (yet diverse) integral practice."
- Joe Corbett [1]
* 'How could we call a coming age of participation?'
Philippe Van Nedervelde suggests two possible names, both drawn from classical Greek:
1) Synergos, from "sun/syn" = together; "ergos" = work
2) Metechos, denotes sharing/participating
Inspired by the work of Dana Klisanin, the P2P Foundation favors the development of Evolutionary Guidance Media which posits the pairing of compassionate-seeing/action with that of Cyberception, or humankind’s rapidly advancing technological abilities, resulting in Transception, [2]
* I (Michel Bauwens) fully endorse this as the spiritual theory behind an integrative p2p theory for social and personal change: A P2P Interpretation of Soul as Intersubjective Reality and Spirit as Interobjective Reality. By Joe Corbett.
For an intro, read Michel Bauwens on the Great Cosmic Mash-Up, which focuses on P2P and common projects and their role in the construction of our identity:
"Postmodernism was all about deconstructing oppressive mental structures that we inherited from modernity. Amongst other things the Cartesian subject/object split and the alienating effects of Kantian's impossibility of knowing true reality; it was a necessary destructive passage, a cleaning out process, but it didn't, as its names "post"- indicate, construct anything. So in my view, if modernity was about constructing the individual (along subject/object divisions), and postmodernity about deconstructing this, then this new era, which I'ld like to call the era of participation, is about constructing relationality or participation. We are not going back to the premodern wholistic era and feelings, but just as modernity was about rigorously individualising everything, eventually reaching the current dead-end of hyper-individualism, we are now just as rigorously 'relationising' everything. If in premodernity we thought, we are parts of a whole that is one and above us, and in modernity we thought we are separate and unified individuals, a world onto ourselves, and in postmodernity saw ourselves fragmenting, and pretty much lamented this, then this is the mash-up era. We now know that all this fragments can be reconstructed with the zillions of fragment of the others, into zillions of commonalities, into temporary wholes that are so many new creative projects, but all united in a ever-moving Commons that is open to all of us..
So the fragmentation of postmodernity is a given for us now, but we are no longer lamenting, we are discovering the technologies (infrastructural, collaborative-software-ish, political, but above all the mental and epistemological) that allow us to use this fragmentation to create the Great Cosmic Mash-Up. That is the historical task of the emerging Peer to Peer Era."
2. From: The Next Buddha Will Be a Collective. By Michel Bauwens
"the 3 paradigm shifts (open/free, participatory, commons), although only emerging as seed forms at this stage, are letting themselves be felt through contemporary spiritual practices. It suggests a new approach to spirituality which I would like to call a contributory spirituality. This approach would consider that each tradition is a set of injunctions set from within a specific framework, and which can disclose different facets of reality. This framework may be influenced by a set of values (patriarchy, exclusive truth doctrines, etc…), which might be rejected today, but also contains psycho-spiritual practices which disclose particular truths about our relationship with the universe. Discovering spiritual truth then, requires at least a partial exposure to these differential methods of truth discovery, within a comparative framework, but it also requires intersubjective feedback, so it is a quest that cannot be undertaken alone, but along with others on the same path. Tradition is thereby not rejected, but critically experienced and evaluated. The modern spiritual practicioner can hold himself beholden to such a particular tradition, but need not feel confined to it. He/she can create spiritual inquiry circles that approach the different traditions with an open mind, experience them individually and collectively, and where the different individual experiences can be exchanged. In this way, a new collective body of spiritual experiences is created, which is continuously co-created by the inquiring spiritual communities and individuals. The outcome of that process will be a co-created reality that is unpredictable and will create new, as yet unpredictable spiritual formats. But one thing is sure: it will be an open, participatory, approach leading to a commons of spiritual knowledge, from which all humanity can draw from."
3. Key Essay: The relational ground of human consciousness. John Heron: Notes on Spiritual Leadership and Relational Spirituality
John Heron:
"I prefer to think of the spiritual development of human culture as rooted in degrees of relational, moral insight and not in an evolutionary logic. Evolution as a concept seems best left to natural processes. Otherwise intellectual bids to know what evolution is up to and what is coming next culturally, rapidly convert into hegemonic arrogance and attempts at social and intellectual control. The developing of the human spirit in cultural forms is a different category and is very close in my view to the way in which our realization of an extended doctrine of rights, in theory and practice, unfolds.
There seem to be at least four degrees of such unfolding:
1. Autocratic cultures which define rights in a limited and oppressive way and there are no rights of political participation.
2. Narrow democratic cultures which practise political participation through representation, but have no or very limited participation of people in decision-making in all other realms, such as research, religion, education, industry, etc.
3. Wider democratic cultures which practice both political participation and varying degree of wider kinds of participation.
4. Commons peer-to-peer cultures in a libertarian and abundance-oriented global network with equipotential rights of participation in decision-making of everyone in every field of human endeavour, in relation to nature, culture, the subtle and the spiritual.
These four degrees could be stated in terms of the relations between hierarchy, co-operation and autonomy (deciding for others, deciding with others, deciding by oneself).
1.Hierarchy defines, controls and constrains co-operation and autonomy.
2. Hierarchy empowers a measure of co-operation and autonomy in the political sphere only.
3. Hierarchy empowers a measure of co-operation and autonomy in the political sphere and in varying degrees in other spheres.
4. The sole role of hierarchy is in its spontaneous emergence in (a) the initiation , and (b) the continuous flowering, of autonomy-in-co-operation, of spirit-in-manifestation, in all spheres of human endeavour." (http://www.human-inquiry.com/slrs.htm)
The Fourteen Precepts of Interbeing
Read also: Gebser’s 19 Criteria to Appraise Aperspectival Movements and Tendencies!
As proposed by Thich Nhat Hanh:
1. Do not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology
2. Do not think the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth
3. Do not force others, including children, by any means whatsoever, to adopt your views
4. Do not avoid contact with suffering or close your eyes before suffering
5. Do not accumulate wealth while millions are hungry
6. Do not maintain anger or hatred
7. Do not lose yourself in dispersion and in your surroundings
8. Do not utter words that can create discord and cause the community to break
9. Do not say untruthful things for the sake of personal interest or to impress people
10. Do not use the community for personal gain or profit
11. Do not live with a vocation that is harmful to humans and nature
12. Do not kill, do not let others kill
13. Possess nothing that should belong to others
14. Do not mistreat your body, learn to handle it with respect"
Source: Thich Nhat Hanh, The Fourteen Precepts from Interbeing , 2003
Peer production as consciousness:
The liberation of the self involves, above all, a social process. In a society that has shriveled the self into a commodity — into an object manufactured for exchange — there can be no fulfilled self. There can only be the beginnings of selfhood, the emergence of a self that seeks fulfillment — a self that is largely defined by the obstacles it must overcome to achieve realization.
- Murray Bookchin [4]
"The reference to “northward arm” and “southward arm” is typically Wintu, and its usage suggests a cultural wisdom so deep and unconscious that it was embedded in the very structure of language. In English we refer to the right arm and left arm, and we might describe a certain mountain as being to our right or left, in front or in back of us depending on which way we are facing at the moment. We use the body — the self — as the point of reference against which we describe the world. The Wintu would never do this, and indeed the Wintu language would not permit it. If a certain mountain was to the north, say, the arm nearest that mountain would be called the northward arm. If the Wintu turned around, the arm that had previously been referred to as the northward arm would now be called the southward arm. In other words, the features of the world remained the constant reference, the sense of self was what changed — a self that continually accommodated and adjusted to a world in which the individual was not the center of all creation."
- From the Book: The Way We Lived: California Indian Stories, Songs and Reminiscences. [5]
Jesus, in the Gospel, did not say, "My kingdom is not of this world; that was the bad translators who, by suppressing three words in one phrase of St. John, have made it say this. Jesus said literally, "My kingdom is not yet of these times." And as his kingdom, as it is explained in the same passage, is the reign of justice and truth, and as it adds that this kingdom will come on the earth, it follows that, very far from have prophesied that the principles of equality will never be realized on earth, Jesus on the contrary prophesied their realization, their reign, their arrival.
- Pierre Leroux [6]
"If what we are calling the ontology of the One rejects what is not itself – by positing a radical commensurability by which only that which is its Self is valued, and all that is Other is devalued – and what we are calling the ontology of the Zero rejects everything – by positing a radical incommensurability by which nothing can be valued at all – then the ontology of the Many succeeds because it rejects nothing (out of hand) – by positing a perpetual flux of commensurables and incommensurables by which subjects/objects, Nature/Society, humans/nonhumans, are continually constructed, deconstructed, and reconstructed, in other words, e-value-ated."
- Paul B. Hartzog
“The time has come to realise that an interpretation of the universe—even a positivist one—remains unsatisfying unless it covers the interior as well as the exterior of things; mind as well as matter. The true physics is that which will, one day, achieve the inclusion of man in his wholeness in a coherent picture of the world.”
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin [7]
Jeff Meyerhoff on a ethics of consequences
"I advocate a shift in emphasis from the epistemological talk of mystically “being in touch with Reality” and “knowing the Truth” and a greater emphasis on the ethical by asking what kind of person we become through whatever self-development practices we do. If a fundamentalist Christian - who thinks a non-believer like myself is going to burn in hell - spends their days helping people then I like that latter part of what their religion leads them to, while fearing that their anti-scientific, literal reading of the Bible has bad consequences for society's fruitful understanding of the world. The results of people's actions should concern us more than the content of their beliefs; unless the content of their beliefs result in bad consequences." (http://www.integralworld.net/meyerhoff16.html)
Dana Klisanin on Transception
"It is not surprising then, that as our sphere of concern expands (i.e., from the personal to the global-planetary) we are creating technological means through which to address those concerns. Transception, described as, “Internet technologies fused with moral concerns,” is one embodiment of that evolution (Klisanin, 2005; 2007). Transception enables digital altruism, for example through websites designed to support caring and sharing behaviors, i.e., the ability to add content to informational sites such as Wikipedia (2011); the ability to contribute to charity through viewing advertisements via “click-to-donate” formats such as available at Care2.com (2011); the ability to help solve complex problems through donating unused (idle) computer time to scientific research, for example, through the World Community Grid (2011). Transception enables individuals to reach beyond the confines of the physical body not simply to act, but to act compassionately on behalf of other sentient beings."
- Dana Klisanin [8]
On the Circle in Worship
"The Quaker choice of being in a circle, seated around a table on which one may find a bible or a bunch of flowers, corresponds to an ancient human custom of meeting to communicate with each other at the same level. It is not a gimmick, trying to be different, or just another form of religious suggestion: it is a proven means of communion between people in a relationship that is closer together, more aware, more tightly bound. Those of different social backgrounds or levels of cultural experience feel themselves more equal with each other, more humble and more open, and all equally placed before God. The distances between the pulpit, the preacher, the front pews, the back pews, which imply separation between people and an (even if slight) suggestion of who presides over the worship; the isolation of the anguished individual who does not manage to communicate from his static Sunday place; these have vanished when one worships in a circle. There is no pulpit except the ideal one of Christ; there are no elements of distraction."
- Davide Melodia [9] ; translation from Italian by Simon Grant
Adam Miller on Peer to Peer Grace
"I want to operationalize grace. I want to port it out of a traditional theistic frame-work and into the immanent domain of a non-theistic ontology. Doing so will involve a shift from thinking about grace in terms of unavailable and transcendent "large-scale forces of cosmic progress" to treating it as a palpable, ubiquitous, and available "small-scale force." Rather than being an unknowable force operating behind the scenes, might grace instead be what characterizes-- here and now and in plain sight-- the whole of this world's self-organizing complexity? Is grace such a thing that its real power could only come via a supernatural investment of divine, theistic intent? Or is grace such that, in its small scale, localized, and temporally distended operation is hidden, as with natural selection, a world-shaping strength?"
~ Adam Miller, "Speculative Grace" [10]
Mark Pesce on Global Interconnection
"Now there are five billion of us, directly connected, none of us further apart than the time it takes to type a short string of digits. Even the Urban Revolution did not bring us together like this: individuals on opposite sides of a great city might never meet. We continuously carry with us a connection to the greater part of humanity, and the greater part of humanity, likewise equipped, connects to us. This is not a conurbation; this is a zero-dimension humanity, every point directly connected to every other point, because there is only a single point, pervasive and unified.
Dunbar’s Number has been both amplified and extended beyond any human capacity ever imagined. We moved from hundreds to billions in a single gesture, a quantum leap which in retrospect will appear nearly instantaneous. We enjoy the curious privilege of being part of this transition, the generations experiencing life before, during and after the billion seconds which encompass the entire scope of this transition. A billion seconds is sufficient to change everything.
We are already connected. This amplification and extension has already happened., an event that lies behind us, in our history, a fait accompli. That may be the most shocking feature of the present moment: we think ourselves striding confidently on the ground, only to look down and find ourselves in orbit. How did we get here? We do not remember feeling the blast rocket engines lifting us above the atmosphere. Everything seemed so gradual, we failed to note the gentle but steady tug of acceleration which led inexorably to liftoff, pushing us ever higher.
Yet here we are, far out of our depth, each of us connected, sharing with and learning from five billion others. By itself, this would be among the most remarkable events in human history. But past is prologue. We each now have the learning and experience of five billion others to draw upon" (via fb, no source)
Meta-theory as humanity’s vocabulary of self-transformation
[With] self-consciousness comes the possibility of transforming ourselves by adopting new vocabularies, redescribing, and so reconstructing our selves and discursive institutions. While all of us are in some sense consumers of such new vocabularies, it is the special calling of some to produce them. And among those producers some take the construction of unique, potentially transformative vocabularies as the project by commitment to which they understand and define themselves. Among that group, some seek to produce those new vocabularies precisely by trying to understated the phenomena of sapience, normativity, conceptuality, reason, freedom, expression, self-consciousness, self-constitution, and historical transformation by subversive, empowering vocabularies. Those are the philosophers. They are charged neither with simply understanding human nature (human history), nor with simply changing it, but with changing it by understanding it.
—Robert B. Brandom (2009, p. 150) [11]
Man, derived from the Sanskrit word manas meaning the consciousness that can reflect upon itself.
"Moral insight is not, like mathematics, a product of rational reflection. It is instead a matter of imagining a better future, and observing the results of attempts to bring that future into existence."
- Richard Rorty [12]
There is nothing noble in being superior to some other person. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.
- Hindu Proverb
Simply I learned about her, and ungrudgingly do I share -- her riches I do not hide away
- Old Testament, The Book of Wisdom 7,13 [13]
Technology and Spiritual Traditions
See also: Neotraditional Economics
Read this interview on the New Desires of Post-Capitalism:
Article: ‘THIS SYSTEM DOES NOT PRODUCE PLEASURE ANYMORE’. AN INTERVIEW WITH BERNARD STIEGLER. Pieter Lemmens. Krisis, 2011, Issue 1
URL = http://www.krisis.eu/content/2011-1/krisis-2011-1-05-lemmens.pdf
"Notwithstanding his rather bleak diagnosis of contemporary society, Stiegler is not pessimistic with regard to the future. Whereas today’s capitalism is headed for destruction, it is precisely in the digitalized networks through which it tries to control the populations that a new kind of economy is emerging, one that is not only inventing new modes of production like open source and peer-to-peer, but that is also slowly creating a new economy of desire that could lead to the invention of new ways of life, new modes of individual and collective existence. A new society could arise on the same technological base that is now still predominantly destroying the social bonds. The digital networks might be the prime catalysts in the transformation from today’s consumer society into what he calls a ‘society of contribution’. In this context he talks in this interview about technologies in terms of pharmaka (a term derived from Plato and from his teacher Derrida) that can act both as a poison, destroying sociality and proletarianizing human existence, as well as a medicine, producing social ties and deproletarianzing human existence."
Participative_Technology_and_the_Ecclesial_Revolution, book
Episcopal Theological Support for the Free Software Movement
Hacking the Way to Heaven. Julian Fox. Lulu, 2009.
Open Anabaptism
Sabbath Economics Collaborative ; Sabbath Economics and Community Investing
Sister Judith Zoebelein on the Virtual, the Actual, and the Spiritual
Christianity and the History of Technology. By Michael Sacasas.
Ethics in Internet: statement by the PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS
See our entry: Paganism
Our own contribution:
Michel Bauwens: The Next Buddha Will Be a Collective: spiritual expression in the peer to peer era. Draft of an essay written for ReVision journal.
Charles Eisenstein: Why the Age of the Guru is Over [14], on Collective Spiritual Leadership
Essay / Book in progress: Paradise Unbound. Relational Spirituality and other Heresies in New Age Transpersonalism. G. A. Lahood, a critique of new age narcissism, and the emergence of relational spirituality as an alternative
John Heron on the concept and history of relational spirituality
Kingsley Dennis on The Great Acceleration: The Astounding Growth in the Psychological Evolution of the Human Self.
What Does It Mean to Live a Fully Embodied Spiritual Life? Jorge N. Ferrer, California Institute of Integral Studies: "This essay discusses the meaning of embodied spirituality — based on the integration of all human attributes, including the body and sexuality—and contrasts it with the disembodied spirituality—based on dissociation and/or sublimation — prevailing in human religious history."
On Balancing Horizontal and Vertical Spiritual Development. Kenneth Folk.
Moving from Binary to Ternary Thinking. John Michael Greer
Recommended: The Politics of Modern Spirituality]. By Vanessa Fisher. From spiritual to political awakening.
Bruce Aldermann's three part introduction to intersubjective spirituality [15]
Gregg Lahood and John Heron with a case study of Collaborative Charismatic Inquiry
Commons-based Peer Production and Virtue: Yochai Benkler and Hellen Nissenbaum on the ethical values underlying peer production.
Commentary on the above Benkler/Nissenbaum text by catholic author Julian Fox: Virtue and the Digital Commons
John Heron warns us of the dangers of spiritual authoritarianism. Read Spiritual Projection and Authority, chapter 14 of his foundational book on Participatory Spirituality; also: Chapter 13: The Authoritarian Blight in Spirituality
Jean-Francois Noubel: Creating Invisible Architectures for Collective Wisdom
Nova Spivack: Towards Healthy Virtual Selves for Collective Groups [16]
John Stewart: The evolution of consciousness, rooted in complexity and cognitive sciences. See Stewart, J. E. (2007) The future evolution of consciousness, Journal of Consciousness Studies, Vol. 14, No. 8, Pp. 58-92.
Stuart Kauffman: A Shareable God
Madronna Holden on the Agency of Nature and the Partnership View
The Revival of Peering with Nature. By James William Gibson
Jorge Ferrer: Participatory Vision of the Future of Religion: on "The Plurality of Religions and the Spirit of Pluralism"
Paul Hartzog: Oneness, Nihilism, and the Multitude
Denis Postle: Psychological Commons, Peer to Peer Networks and Post-Professional Psychopractice
Micheal Daniels: The Difference between Descending Depth-Psychological vs. Relational-Participatory Extending Aprroach to Spirituality. From the Paper: Perspectives and vectors in transpersonal development. Michael Daniels. Transpersonal Psychology Review, Vol 13, No. 1, 87-99. (April, 2009)
Wolfgang Hoeschele on the Art of Living Abundantly
Kingsley Dennis: How the Internet Creates Relational/Ecological Forms of Awareness
Read our entries on Relational Spirituality and Participatory Spirituality
Participative Epistemology, and Transdisciplinarity
Key Approaches
The emergence of interspiritual wisdom:
- Hans Kung's proposal for Global Ethics - Brother Wayne Teasdale proposal for a universal mysticism grounded in the practice of 'interspirituality' - Beverly Lanzetta's proposal for an 'intercontemplative global spirituality' - Robert Forman's 'trans-traditional spirituality'
(suggestions from Jorge Ferrer)
Spiritual Theory:
John Heron's Participatory Spirituality - A Farewell to Authoritarian Religion.
John Heron's Sacred Science
Jorge Ferrer's Revisioning Transpersonal Psychology.
Christian De Quincey. Radical Knowing
Beatrice Bruteau. The Many and the One
The Participatory Mind
Evolution's Arrow. John Stewart (the evolution of cooperation as rooted in science)
Robert Wright. The Evolution of God: how the image of the divine humanizes in the course of history, under the influence of increased human cooperation.
A Reenchanted World: The Quest For A New Kinship With Nature by James William Gibson. Metropolitan Books, 2009
Sociological/Descriptive Approaches:
Participative Technology and the Ecclesial Revolution: technology and the global church
Also of note:
The Alphabet and the Goddess
The Ascent of Humanity
Digital Dharma. Steven Vedro.
Occupy Consciousness: Essays on the Global Insurrection. Evolver, 2012. [17]
A Catholic approach to ICT
Key Thematic Issues of P2P News
P2P and Nature, Issue 96 of P2P News at, http://integralvisioning.org/article.php?story=p2p96
P2P Epistemology, Issue 89 of P2P News, at http://integralvisioning.org/article.php?story=p2p89
P2P Spirituality, Issue 88 of P2P News, at http://integralvisioning.org/article.php?story=p2p88
P2P Epistemology, Issue of P2P News, at http://integralvisioning.org/article.php?story=p2p77
Key Webcasts
Sister Judith Zoebelein on the Virtual, the Actual, and the Spiritual. Sister Judith Zoebelein is Editorial director at Internet Office of the Holy See.
Retrieved from "https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/index.php?title=Introduction_to_the_P2P_Foundation_Wiki_Material_about_Spirituality&oldid=95787"
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Permanent event at the Museum of Science in Boston, United States
Making Models. Courtesy of Museum of Science
Scientists use models to better understand the real world, and visitors to this exhibit can use a wide variety of physical, theoretical, and computer models to learn about and practice with some of the basic tools employed by scientists.
Models represent physical objects, but they also help conceptualize phenomena, systems, processes, and abstractions. They take the place of other objects to help us understand them better than we would if they stood by themselves.
In Making Models, engage in activities that identify, use, analyze, and even create models. Compare and contrast nine different models of the human heart, each one emphasizing certain properties and excluding others. Create a mental model of a scene based on clues from hidden objects, or join friends to use software that explores the nature of cooperation and competition. Observe what a computer game about money and a plastic grasshopper have in common, and see why a dollhouse, a plastic architectural model under polarized light, and a computer simulation are all considered models.
Museum of Science
One of the world's largest science centers and New England's most highly attended cultural institution, the Museum of Science is ideally positioned to lead the nationwide effort to promote engineering education awareness, bringing science, technology, and mathematics alive through its exhibits, programs, and more.
Museum profile
More from Museum of Science
Science in the Park
Permanent event
Math Moves!
New England Habitats
More in Boston, United States
Beyond Infinity
24 Sep 2019 — 7 Feb 2021 at ICA Boston
Permanent event at Museum of Science
The Colby Trophy Room
More in United States
Helmut Federle. Basics on Composition
16 Jan — 13 Mar 2021 at Peter Blum Gallery in New York
16 Jan — 6 Feb 2021 at Hashimoto Contemporary in New York
Hunt Slonem
22 Jan — 21 Feb 2021 at New River Fine Art in Fort Lauderdale
Martin Kline: Allover
23 Jan — 6 Mar 2021 at Heather Gaudio Fine Art in New Canaan
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About us Services Projects Team News Contacts
LFN ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2017
Main News Publications Elena Vladimirovna Chirkova History of Capital from «Sindbad the Sailor» to «Cherry Orchard» («Vyshneviy Sad» by A. P. Chekhov) (Moscow, Case 2010)
Elena Vladimirovna Chirkova History of Capital from «Sindbad the Sailor» to «Cherry Orchard» («Vyshneviy Sad» by A. P. Chekhov) (Moscow, Case 2010)
The most significant economical concepts and notions, key episodes of the world and financial history, financial schemes are analyzed in the Article.
The most significant economical concepts and notions, key episodes of the world and financial history are discussed in the book through the prism of literary works.
Perils of foreign trade are exemplified by extracts from «Sindbad the Sailor», bankruptcy schemes are exemplified by extracts from the works by Balsaque, the hardships of debt prison are exemplified by the novels of Dickens. Works by Dreiser give us an example of the link between bribery and great fortunes, the era of prosperity is exemplified by the works by Maugham, Sinclair and Dos Pasos. The readers will get through the Great Depression with Steinbeck, and the mortgage crisis will be analyzed on the works by Ostrovskiy and Chekhov.
16 Chapters include 16 economical topics.
The book is recommended for economists and financial experts, for those interested in literature, for philologists considering economy, and for any thoughtful reader.
Westside Law Firm is rated by Pravo.ru in 2020 in 6 categories, namely:
- II group in foreign economic activity/Customs law and Foreign exchange regulation;
- II group in compliance practice;
- III group in dispute resolution in courts of general jurisdiction;
- III group in labour and migration law practice;
- III group in private and public management practice;
- IV group in arbitration proceedings (MID MARKET).
Best Lawyers 2021 noted Sergey Vodolagin, the managing partner of Westside Law Firm, as one of the best Russian lawyers in Arbitration and Mediation, Mergers and Acquisitions Law, Corporate Law, Litigation and Natalia Vodolagina, the partner of Westside Law Firm, as one of the best Russian lawyers in Litigation.
Westside Law Firm was rated by Pravo.ru in best litigation lawyers report
Address: Office 303, «The Yard» Business Centre, at No.11, bld.1, 1st Magistralnyi tupik, Moscow, 123290, Russia
Tel/fax: +7 (499) 608-06-01
Print version Site map
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Kevin Hart and wife Eniko welcome baby girl Kaori to the family
Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic
(LOS ANGELES) — The Harts are now a family of six!
In an Instagram post Wednesday, Eniko Hart announced she had given birth to her second child with Kevin Hart, a baby girl named Kaori Mai Hart. The couple welcomed their bundle of joy on Tuesday, September 29.
″Thankful • grateful • blessed,″ wrote Eniko, captioning a message that read “9 months preparing to fall in love for a lifetime.”
″A little bit of heaven sent down to earth.. welcome to the world baby girl.. we couldn’t love you more..,” she added.
Baby Kaori Mai is the second child for Eniko, and Kevin’s fourth. The couple share Kenzo Kash, 2, and Hart has two children from a previous marriage: Hendrix, 12, and Heaven, 15.
As previously reported, Eniko first announced her pregnancy news in March in an Instagram post in which she proudly showed off her growing baby bump.
“BABY #2,” she wrote. “In the midst of all of this we’re counting our blessings and couldn’t be more grateful!”
By Candice Williams
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Please follow the steps below to guide you through the process.
Contact Director of Admission, Debra Giorgini, for more information: dgiorgini@westwoodschool.org or 972-239-8598.
Steps to Admission
Review the general information and application process (and packets below).
Download and review all the application documents.
Please note that additional fees, such as English as a Second Language tutoring, may occur as needed.
Toddler and Preschool Application Packet
Kindergarten and Lower Elementary Application Packet (K-3rd Grade)
Upper Elementary Application Packet (4th-6th Grade)
Middle School Application Packet (7th-8th Grade)
High School Application Packet (9th-12th Grade)
Complete the application. Send or arrange for all documents to be forwarded to Westwood Admission Office.
Application (include a copy of immunization records with health form)
Copy of passport with photo
Current transcripts (to be sent directly from the student’s school)
English scores if applicable*
Teacher recommendations (2) (to be sent directly from the student’s school)
Records and Administration records and release
*English as Second Language (ESL) – Westwood is an English language school. Transcripts/teacher recommendations should indicate demonstration of English level or ability. Submission of TOEFL or IELTS scores is recommended.
All students must have a functional ability in English. This means that the student can follow or give basic information in an emergency and can follow basic instructions or direction from a teacher. Westwood provides ESL support for students already speaking some English, but Westwood is not a language school. Students lacking a functional ability in English must complete an ESL program BEFORE arrival at Westwood.
Students with a minimal functional ability in English are conditionally admitted up to Grade 10. These students are placed in an ESL program of at least 5 additional hours per week. Fees for ESL are not included in base tuition and are borne by the student.
ESL students are not accepted for entry in the Diploma Programme (DP), Grade 11 and Grade 12. DP is challenging and rigorous and is not appropriate for ESL students. Alternative placement in Grade 10 and ESL is possible.
The Westwood School
The Admission Office will contact the applicant to schedule an appointment for a student and parent interview with Head of High School and Head of School. If a face-to-face interview is not possible, a video or audio interview will be arranged. Students must be present for the interview and must be prepared to speak without an interpreter. The interview consists of a general discussion about the school philosophy, program level, student experiences in education and domicile details. Parents are invited to bring their questions. The interview will last approximately 30-45 minutes.
The Admission Office will contact the applicant to gather details for filing of the student visa (I-20). The I-20 form will be sent to the student in the home country where an appointment with the US Embassy must be arranged in order to process the visa. Student visas are issued at the foreign US Embassy through the US Department of Homeland Security after a personal interview.
STUDENT VISAS ARE ISSUED OUTSIDE OF THE US. STUDENTS ARRIVING WITH A VALID VISA FOR THE SCHOOL YEAR MAY BE REQUIRED TO RETURN TO THEIR HOME COUNTRY TO PROCESS THE I-20.
Discover The Westwood Way
“The Westwood School has provided my child with the best possible educational environment. They have outdone themselves making us feel welcome and a vital part of their school community, and they truly go the extra mile to ensure that each child meets his/her educational potential. I couldn’t be happier.”
— L. Crespin
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“We Know What We Know” About Methodism
ericfolkerthAngels and Pins (Theology/Spirituality), Reconciling Filings (LGBTQ+ Issues)lgbtq, Reconciling United Methodists, United Methodist11 Comments
“Demography is Destiny”
— Auguste Comte
Thursday afternoon a United Methodist clergy colleague called me while I was driving to church. I spend a lot of time in the car these days. We talked for about 25 minutes.
He was pretty amped up. He told me he’d stayed up until 3 am the night before, crunching numbers on General Conference delegates and the recent votes on the “One Church” plan. He’d divided them up, and sorted them into various “camps,” and was tying to make sense as to why the vote failed, when just about everyone he personally knew supported it.
It was a lot to keep track of, as he hurriedly tossed out numbers and percentages while I tried to keep my eyes on the road.
But at the end of his calculations, he had concluded: Change on LGBTQ issue can never happen at General Conference.
I agreed with him.
Then, he asked “So, why are we not talking about this more?”
I think the simple answers this are:
— Some of us HAVE been talking about this for a long time.
— Others, for all sorts of reasons, have not been paying attention.
But, now?
Yes….before we move on to anything new, we must make sure everybody understands these facts. Like my friend, there are a lot of folks waking up to this same realization.
My fear is this: The group of folks who’ve been talking about this a long time, and also the group that is just now finding out about this, are very small even when put together.
Together, they are all “Metho-nerds.” Folks who pay attention to church polity, or who write blogs for the past decade
(Raises hand…)
They are all of the dedicated and faithful Reconciling UMs, Queer UMs, and their many allies.
And they are *also* a growing number of moderates, who are —as I said, for various reasons— only *now* really paying attention.
For years, people routinely either disbelieved what some of us have been fearing about the demographics of the General Conference vote. Others have believed that even with a stacked demographic deck, change might still be possible, if we could only change enough “hearts and minds.”
I want you to hear this: I am not being critical of that response or belief. It has absolutely been where my heart, soul, and spirit has been for years. It has been my sincere belief and the way I have led in ministry. I am here to say, it’s clear I was wrong. It’s clear we ALL were wrong.
And as a faith-belief, as part of my theology, I absolutely believe in theory of changing hearts and minds. Or, said, better, that God changes hearts, through our witness and ministry. And! I have SEEN it genuinely happen. Nothing has changed that belief.
Too many times, I have heard unbelievable and truly moving faith-stories of straight people, whose hearts have changed on the the issue of LGBTQ inclusion. Some of them frame it in spiritual terms as repentance, which it absolutely is.
Many people in the American Church have changed their hearts and minds on these issues over the past twenty years. It has been a beautiful thing to see.
Friends, NONE of these efforts were wasted, foolish, or misguided. I want to be very clear in this. (Up to, and including, this valiant three-year effort of “The Way Forward.”)
For some, it has been a painful journey of decades. No more so than for our LGBTQ siblings.
But strategies and expectations must now change. Because now, “we know what we know” about the actual electoral demographics of General Conference.
For years we have said “Stop the harm,” and by this we have meant “Change the polity, so that the harm will stop.”
Now, “Stop the harm” must now mean: “Abandon the belief that change will happen through General Conference.”
So, I want to unpack those assertions, and also the wonkish numbers that my friend was throwing at me. Because I have a very strong sense that there are a lot of people who are in the same boat that he was.
BTW: In what follows, I fear I am violating my own core value of talking about “people” before “structure.” But for decades, too much of the conversation has been too focused on structure. A part of the way forward now will be to see how future strategies cannot just be about structural change, via General Conference.
With that caveat…
More than in any other human endeavor, ELECTIONS are about demographics. Electoral demography really is destiny. You can make a theological argument that General Conference is, in some way, “holy” (Hard, but you could…). But the MECHANISM of change is a political and electoral one.
The clear and unalterable fact is that no one should credibly believe that the General Conference of the United Methodist Church will ever change on the issue of LGBTQ inclusion.
The cause has been “right and good.”
The efforts have not been lacking.
It’s plain and simple math and demography.
Here’s a breakdown of General Conference delegates over time:
You can see the clear trends.
So, let’s do some projections….using the 2016 delegate counts.
Let’s build a very crude and wonkish Nate Silver-like model, and pretend we had the same 2016 delegates at this recent special called General Conference. (Which, mostly, we did…)
Let’s make assumptions in our model that most highly FAVOR the One Church plan….
Let’s assume that 70% of US-based GC delegates supported “One Church Plan.” (probably higher than reality)
Let’s assume that 20% of International-based GC delegates do. (Maybe, maybe not, lower than reality…)
Therefore, these are likely a BEST case scenario for the “One Church Plan.”
When you re-sort delegates based on the actual 2016 delegate numbers, plus those assumptions, the breakdown is:
One Church: 49%
Traditional: 52%
Now, as you know, the actual vote was a little *worse* than this.
More like:
(the high water mark for it, during the vote to bring it as a “minority report”)
(The actual vote for final passage of this item)
It’s not surprising that the actual vote was a little worse than our crude model, because our crude model is generous toward the “One Church Plan.”
Now, let’s pause for a moment, and consider how some people (including me) could have believed (or at least hoped) that the “One Chuch” model had a chance.
Given that modeling we have just done, it was reasonable to assume “Maybe some votes will flip, if we work hard at that…”
Also, given the overwhelming support for “change” among US Delegates, it was easy to believe that One Church was more popular than it actually was among the voting delegates.
That’s where my friend was, when he called me the other day.
Literally everybody he knew supposed “One Church.” How could it fail?
What the actual vote tells us is that no real substantial “vote flipping” happened this time. Therefore, what had to happen for it to pass…just didn’t.
And how does it look going forward?
If you look at the announced 2020 delegate count (based on allotments already announced) the basic assumptions I’ve used yield this result:
Which is, again, using best case scenarios for One Church…which means the actual vote will likely be wider.
BTW, the WCA knows this too. In an incredibly pompous and tone-deaf Tweet (given the timing) John Lomperis tweeted this…
I will say this, and I don’t care who hears me: John Lomperis is an asshole.
So, “We know what we know…”
We know that after three years of incredibly valiant effort, sweat, blood, toil…
After decades before THAT of trying various structural fixes, and appeals to conscience….
After hoping that votes would “flip”…
We clearly know that almost *no* votes did. And we know that this is likely to continue into the future.
I said at the start, for some of you, this is old news. Reconciling Methodists have labored for decades under either full, or proportional, hope about all of this.
And as we’ve noted, for the past three years a very large, well organized group and faithful group of Moderates have come alongside us and also worked very hard to flip votes.
As for my own part, I deeply apologize to all Queer and LGBTQ persons, for any harm that has come from me during these years. Please understand that up to, and including last week, there was sincerely a place in my heart that believed change was possible through the General Conference. (At least some part of my heart)
I was mistaken, as were we all. Whatever anyone else does, or does not say, to apologize for their own over-optimism, I apologize for mine.
We know that…Good ideas…faithful ideas….Biblical and Methodist values…are not enough to overcome demographic destiny in that room.
I have been a part of a trend like this once before in my life in actual political elections. No, not the recent Presidential election. It was here in Dallas County, during the period of 2004-2006.
Prior to 2004, Dallas County had been considered a reliably “Red” and Republican County. For perhaps a decade Democrats did not field candidates in any local elections, that how dominant the Republican Party was around here.
But my wife was a pretty savvy political watcher. What she, and many of us, saw was an emerging trend. The basic facts were that the the “straight ticket” Democratic vote was trending upward, toward 50% in every election. Conversely, the Republican vote was inching downward every election cycle too.
So, sensing that a “flip” was coming, she decided to run for State District Judge in 2004, as a Democrat.
Friends, during that election cycle, everyone we knew thought she was crazy. It was unheard of.
People told her that it was career suicide to do it. Some were actually incensed that she would dare waste the time of a sitting incumbent judge when there was no hope of a win.
But she DID win.
And afterward, there were two reactions:
— Some thought it a fluke that would “flip back” next time. (“Her name is Hispanic,” they said…)
— Others thought it was a miracle.
It was neither.
It was watching —and making sure to catch the front edge of— a demographic wave that was coming. And you can only make sense of it in retrospect and hindsight.
BTW: Dallas County now votes almost 60% Democratic, and people are losing the memory of just how remarkable that “flip” was…it now simply looks like it was inevitable…which everybody knows now, but almost nobody knew in 2004…
The recent vote at General Conference was not a fluke.
It was not a miracle either. (I’m using “miracle” sarcastically)
It was not the result of a more “Biblical” or more “Orthodox” theology.
It was not an indicator of where American Methodist stand on the issue of LGBTQ inclusion.
It was the result of a demographic shift that’s been under way for many years.
None of that matters, of course, to actual gay people, who are hurt, shocked, or simply worn out and unsurprised by yet another rejection.
None of this matters to the general public, who are more confused than ever that the “live and let live” Methodists they thought they knew “suddenly” look like the Southern Baptists of twenty years ago.
This vote stains us all.
It stains the word “Methodist” with a bigotry that those of us who choose to remain must now confront and reject.
I’ve said for years the the “incompatible” language has always placed us one the same side of the theological spectrum with “Fred Phelps” and his bigoted family church. People used to HATE that analysis.
But it’s true that we are on that “side” of a continuum. And, friends, our theology literally just moved TOWARD Fred Phelps, not away from him this week.
We are all stained by this, and it is a great sin.
So, if we can’t assume change at General Conference, what can we assume?
We should assume that the WCA will bring forward a constitutional version of their Traditional Plan in 2020.
We should assume that it will pass.
We should assume that everyone else —Moderates and Progressives— are today feverishly looking at ALL options for their future.
We should assume all sorts of contingencies, most of which will not happen.
We should assume a confusing time of many competing and varying options for our future.
We should assume that this group of American Methodists could be as large as 65-70% of all American Methodists.
We should assume that some will publicly leave, or separate from the use of the words “United Methodist.”
We should assume that some Progressives will no longer even be tolerant of “live and let live” and believe the only full inclusion can fix this horrible “stain.”
We should assume that, because of all these competing previous assumptions, this process will be messy.
Above all, the point of this post is: We should assume that these options cannot, and will not, include legislative change at General Conference.
Everyone needs to get on this last train FIRST, so that we can work through all the other messy assumptions prior…
The very first rule that Methodists ever had for themselves was “Do No Harm.”
For years, we Reconciling Methodists have suggested that the vote of the General Conference causes harm. Today, I am pushing that idea further, and beating the drum extra loudly, so all are sure to hear:
To suggest a legislative remedy, through the General Conference…THAT is now the harmful idea, given what we know.
If we are Methodists, then, we are always called to stop harm.
What are all the future options for us?
I’d simply implore that we make space for ideas…for questions….with the bedrock faith that:
Something new is about to be born.
For now, don’t shoot down, or edit any idea, or anyone who wants to join the conversation. There will be a “sorting” that takes place, for sure.
Increasingly, we must listen TO queer people themselves, and not lecture AT them. We must increasingly put PEOPLE first, not structure.
The only thing I really know is that our best solutions will be person-centered solutions.
I also pray that this very process also not cause harm either. I hope and pray that as we enter this messy season, we are all mindful of causing additional harm in the process itself.
“We are where we are,” and “It is what it is..”
We know now that everything has changed and is never going back.
Now the only question is: What new will God birth among us?
Methodism: Post-Mortem and Pre-Vitae
Our Sick Culture of Competition
11 thoughts on ““We Know What We Know” About Methodism”
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dapeha says:
Hi. I shared this on my own blog but it seems it does not recognize you as the author. Its almost as if I wrote it. Did I miss something when I reposted the blog and is there a way to correct it?
ericfolkerth says:
No idea.
I seem to be able to click the link and get back here, so all seems well.
Ok. As long as you are getting the credit, I’m ok with it
Darryl Stephens says:
Eric, thanks for your post. As a professional Metho-nerd, I can say that you are right on target regarding international demographics. Coincidentally, I have an article coming out on Monday asserting much the same idea: see https://divinity.uchicago.edu/martin-marty-center.
David Aunko Morris says:
Since we are throwing ideas out there. Maybe its time for the Methodist Episcopal Church to be reborn. Or am I just dreaming?
Christy Thomas says:
Great analytic work, Eric. Appreciate the way you have looked back AND looked forward.
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Scott Gunn (@scottagunn) says:
Anglican here, watching the UMC with interest and affection. I’m curious how generational changes might weigh in? In the Episcopal Church, there are some definite differences in our church-wide legislative assembly among different generations. I believe that’s true in the Anglican Communion — not just in wealthy nations — but I’m not sure. As boomers age out of their work as delegates in the US and elsewhere, might that change things?
It’s a genuine question. Anyway, prayers ascending for you all, my siblings in Christ. Thanks for this piece and for your witness to God’s gracious love.
Pingback: Our Open Letter to the LGBTQ+ Community – WhenEFTalks
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Home » News » Finance » Three spinning companies to float Rs one billion TFCs
Three spinning companies to float Rs one billion TFCs
in Finance, News January 27, 2003 15 Views
KARACHI (January 27 2003) : Three companies belonging to spinning sector would float terms finance certificates worth Rs 1 billion aimed at paying off expensive debts and restructuring their balance sheets.
The three issues of Term Finance Certificates (TFCs) from the spinning sector with almost similar structure and purpose would be from Gulistan Group of Companies (GGC).
All the three companies viz Gulistan Textile, Gulshan Spinning, and Paramount Spinning Mills Limited would be offering 20 percent of the total size of their TFC listed at Lahore Stock Exchange to the general public on January 29 and 30, 2003.
These three TFCs would add another Rs 1 billion to the total size of the corporate debt market.
There is not much to differentiate between these three TFCs, except for the fact that Paramount is rated 'A+', unlike Gulistan and Gulshan which are rated 'A' by JCR-VIS, and is offering a slight lower return at 10.9 percent as compared to 11 percent by the other two.
However, the modified duration measuring the change in the value of an instrument in response to a change in interest rates also comes out to be the same for all the three issues ie 2.98, said Iffat Zehra, head of research at IP Securities.
The additional feature of a call option is also incorporated in all these three issues and is exercisable only after 18 months from the issue date.
The purpose of the group of companies is to utilise the proceeds of the TFC issue to restructure the balance sheet of the company by paying off a short-term loan acquired from United Bank Limited carrying a mark-up rate of 12.50 percent per annum and acquired on November 2002.
The return for the subscriber of the TFC holder is lower as compared to the recent issues by the leasing sector.
However, since the issues have a fairly greater size and a large amount of public offering, the allotted portion would be marketable units and therefore might attract secondary market activity to a limited extent.
Moreover since every new issue expected to be offered at a lower yield and prices of the outstanding bonds are expected to rise, investment in TFCs having a higher modified duration becomes more attractive for investors interested in entering the secondary market of these bonds.
Gulistan Spinning and Gulshan Spinning will float TFC worth Rs 400 million and Paramount Spinning Ltd Rs 200 million.
Tenor of all these TFCs would be of five years. Gulistan and Gulshan pre-IPO stood around Rs 320 million each while both will offer Rs 80 million each for general public while Paramount's pre-IPO is Rs 160 million and Rs 40 million for general public.
The profit rate would be base rate plus 2.25 percent, 2.25 percent and 2.00 percent respectively. Base rate is discount rate.
The floor of terms finance certificates is 11 percent each and the cap is 17 percent each.
Courtesy of Business Recorder
Economic and Finance News 2003-01-27
Tagged with: Economic and Finance News
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Urban traversal as resistance in videogames
ReadRetrospectiveVideogames
Alistair Baldwin
Writer Alistair Baldwin reflects on how videogames can teach us how to question our real-world environments.
I was eight when I received my first console, an Xbox, in a bundle deal with what would be my very first videogame. This game would coincidentally be the first text to teach me the word gentrification – something you’re never too young to learn.
What’s the best way for me to describe Jet Set Radio Future? In a futurist Tokyo where the corrupt CEO of a capitalist mega-corporation has bought his way to mayor, you play the newest member of the GG's – a crew of rollerblading youths who graffiti over ads, billboards and the occasional riot tank to protect the (quite literal) soul of the city.
Narrated by DJ Professor K – the smooth-talking beatsmith behind the titular pirate station Jet Set Radio – your objectives become clear. Skate, tag, resist.
Sixteen years on from its release, JSRF has become something of a cult classic – as well as a roadmap for subsequent games on how to craft a vibrant, stylish and narratively compelling police state. From the captivating cel-shaded graphics, to the inimitably funky pirate radio soundtrack from composer Hideki Naganuma (with one joyous breakbeat track sampling and cutting together cries of “Viva La Revolución!”), JSRF’s ability to underline its themes through environmental storytelling is near perfect.
If you’re especially attuned to the ads plastered across the city’s skyscrapers and buses, you’ll see that the hexagonal logo for the Rokkaku Group (top left) – the mega-corporation whose leader Gouji Rokkaku has taken over as mayor – appears subtly and unsubtly across a number of in-game billboards. Obvious enough to notice, covert enough to read as subliminal tactic, the inescapable presence of the Rokkaku monopoly creates a sense of always being watched, sold to and controlled. It also reiterates your new mayor’s true intentions. A businessman at heart, Rokkaku’s mayoral decisions are decidedly driven by the bottom line. Is it any wonder, then, that one of the key ways to complete levels is to graffiti over these ads; to literally affect the colour and texture of the world around you, through art, as a way to reclaim space.
Space – who controls it, who is allowed to exist within it and how one moves through it – was a clear preoccupation for Smilebit, the in-house division of Sega that developed JSRF. Cities, with their blocks, grid systems and designated paths of travel, both necessitate and facilitate a base level of law and order. Not inherently fascist, of course, but the confines of urban space make it much easier to control the flow of your population should you ever want to get a bit fascist. Like a rat in a maze, there’s the illusion of motility and freedom, certainly – but only within the carefully set parameters of a higher power with vested interest in you playing to their rules. In JSRF, the narrative of you acting as a force of resistance under fascist rule is highlighted not simply through the design of the city, but how you interact with it. Namely, the ways in which you can traverse the environment.
Some embedded content has been omitted:
Jet Set Radio Trailer by SegaAmerica
View here: https://youtu.be/ih2BoI0BH_Q
Liberated by your ‘blades, anything in JSRF becomes a potentially grind-able surface. Handrails and electrical cables become highflying shortcuts, satellite dishes become halfpipes. In many ways, games like JSRF that repurpose the “intended” function of urban structures for characters’ non-conventional movement draw on the philosophy of parkour.
In an article for Parkour North America titled Two Theories on Parkour Philosophy, Andy ‘Animus’ Tran describes parkour as “a cultural movement to break the monotony of the urban lifestyle”, wherein “both skateboarding and parkour started as a means of urban reclamation…we re-imagine the concrete and architecture as we see fit, and are no longer bound by the rules of ‘stairs’ and ‘barriers’ and ‘fences’.” It’s not deference to the city – it’s defiance. In this sense, it is by its very virtue, a movement of resistance.
A mixture of parkour, skating and grinding makes up the urban traversal mechanics for Insomniac Games’ Sunset Overdrive (2014). At face value the game begins as a conventional zombie apocalypse that the player must evade, but it’s soon revealed that FizzCo – the company responsible for the zombie outbreak due to their untested soda – has quarantined the entirety of Sunset City to hide the disaster from the rest of the world. This particular apocalypse is confined to this particular city, corporate money and government coverup intent on keeping it that way.
Your ability to survive and escape your new urban prison entirely depends on how well you can traverse it, how well you can re-conceive the function of telephone wires, guardrails, overpasses. In this way the traversal mechanics serve the greater arc of resistance.
In this year’s acclaimed Spider-Man for PS4, also from Insomniac Games, New York City itself sees the grip of fascist control eke its way into public life. After repeated attacks from the criminal gang The Demons, Mayor Norman Osborn hires private security force Sable International to supplant the police – who use enough blockades and excessive force to make New York City cops seem good by contrast (that’s a lot).
The First 20 Minutes of Marvel's Spider-Man (PS4) Gameplay in 4K by IGN
View here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5GRszgrass
As Spider-Man, you are not impacted by Sable’s blockades, as the web-slinging mechanic effectively turns the entirety of the city into your own highflying playground. In many ways, the vicarious thrill of how easily he can move through urban space has always been part of Spider-Man’s resonance as a vigilante hero.
If the literal mechanics of your movement through a fascist cityscape are anarchic, are you not yourself inherently cast as anarchic? An enemy of the state, a vigilante? Yet throughout the game you also play as the non-superpower’d Mary Jane and Miles Morales, whose urban traversal is limited to plain-and-simple walking. Security patrols, barriers, drones and cameras all severely limit the movements of these characters on foot – to the point of being extremely frustrating in contrast to the fluid ease of playing as Spider-Man. In many ways this frustration only serves to illustrate how important the liberties Spider-Man is fighting for are. The stakes for mere bipeds become more real, more lived in, as you protect them from above.
Cities are always a reflection of the governments and corporations that create and maintain them. Hostile, if built with hostility in mind; functional, if built with function in mind. Liberating, even, if built with liberty in mind. Games that capture the tensions between cities and citizens not only ground themselves in truth, they can also teach those of us playing them to shift our gaze out to our own city skylines and question the ways in which we are being controlled – as well as the ways we can be in control.
Alistair Baldwin is a writer & comedian based in Naarm / Melbourne. He has written for The Weekly with Charlie Pickering and the upcoming second season of Get Krack!n. He is also a recipient of a Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellowship for this year, and has had commentary, criticism & satire published by SBS, ACMI Ideas, un Magazine, Archer and more. Follow him on Twitter.
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Coffee Break Read – An Uncivilised Cesspit
The very worst thing about Tabruth was the smell.
The city was nothing more than a squalid collection of unsanitary slums, huddled together in tightly packed rows and crushed around by restraining walls, which were more effective at keeping the garbage and disease in than any enemy out – and smelt worse than a fresh batch of organically produced fertiliser. Even in the allegedly luxurious rooms which he had been assigned in Tabruth’s castle – it’s most superior dwelling – Elias Bazath found the sewer stench of the place was insidious and inescapable. From a distance, Tabruth might look like a picturesque, historical reconstruction in a theme park, but close to it stank like a rotting corpse.
If the stench was the worst aspect of the place so far, there was a lot more besides that which conspired to turn Bazath’s visit into a trial of endurance. In terms of providing physical necessities and fundamental comforts, Temsevar did not even score on the baseline. If one wished to be clean – a state to which it seemed to him that few of the natives seriously aspired – it was necessary to parade naked through the castle’s very public bathhouse. The clothing was ridiculously impractical, seldom laundered and usually infested with parasites. The food was served so highly spiced as to be almost unpalatable to disguise the fact that much of what was served up was already half rotten. Fresh water was drawn from a well, swimming with so many impurities such that all who could afford to do so chose to drink the wine in preference. Bazath, careful of his health, simply refused to drink anything he had not treated first.
Temsevar, he decided, was an uncivilised cesspit which had managed to maintain itself somehow by planting one foot firmly and with grim determination in pre-history and the other, more precariously in a barbaric slave economy and feudal system. The people he had met so far had done little to improve his opinion of the place. The soldiers, craftsmen and above all slaves, which seemed to form the vast majority of the population in the castle, were complete non-entities and seemed even to regard themselves as such. The Castellan was obsequious and weak, cowering behind a thin charade of haughty pride. The Warlord’s man, Commander Caer, was a surly, ill-mannered lout, and unintelligent enough to make no attempt to hide his hatred for Bazath. The Castellan’s nephew, Keshalgis, had the most to recommend him – he was almost intelligent and something of a diplomat, but even he seemed not to realise the importance and urgency of Bazath’s visit and displayed an infuriating lack of concern about the slow progress of negotiations.
He stood there now, wearing a supercilious, almost patronising, expression as he explained, through the interpreter, for the third time that the Castellan could not possibly fit in another audience with the Honoured Lord from the Stars until the following afternoon at the earliest. And would not the Honoured One prefer to spend the day hunting with himself and the Castellan’s charming lady wife instead?
It was at moments like these that Bazath realised, to his great chagrin, that he had far more in common with the filthy terrorist in the dungeons than with any of these posturing morons who considered themselves the nobility of Temsevar. He despised their immense ignorance, barbarism and over-inflated self-importance. Put any one of them on a half-way civilised planet and they would be lucky to find work as a refuse processor. But here they gave themselves grand titles and lorded it over their peers, behaving as if they were the equal of a delegate in the Coalition’s Legislature.
From Transgressor Trilogy: Times of Change by E.M. Swift-Hook
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The National Highland Festival, which was held for the first time in Azerbaijan and where Bilal Erdoğan, President of the World Ethnosport Confederation (WEC), was the guest of Honor, attracted considerable attention.
Thousands of people from 16 countries attended the opening of the festival organized by the Cevat Khan history and Culture Foundation and Gedebey Governorate in the Duzyurd-Miskinli Plateau under the leadership of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA). There was intense participation in the festival, which was held for the first time in Azerbaijan. The event started with the representative Dede Korkut greeting the guests and the Iron Forge ceremony was held, the artisans ' corner and Sunday Place were visited in the ethnic town which was established in the festival area.
Bilal Erdogan, president of the World Ethnosport Confederation (WEC), made his speech at the event where he was the guest of Honor, stated that Azerbaijan had signed prominent sports organizations in recent years. Erdogan noted that the youth of Azerbaijan care not to forget their national sports, he said:
"Because if we lose our culture, we lose our independence. Those who want to defeat us want to invade the inside of our heads when they can't get into our territory. They do it with their culture, their music, their Sports. If we don't claim our own culture, then those who want to defeat us will succeed. We have to stand up for our culture and our values. As the World Ethnosport Confederation , we give this message not only in the Turkish world but in the whole world. All nations of the world have the right to live their sports. I hope that the National Highland Festival will contribute to the development of national sports in Azerbaijan and will be a means of attracting the attention of the Azerbaijani public to this issue."
After the speeches, the acrobatics show performed by Azerbaijani riders with Karabakh horses attracted attention. Erdogan, who hit the target with an arrow at the end of the event, drew massive applause from the audience.
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Worst Netflix show for a face-blind viewer: Rupaul’s Drag Race
Face-blind viewer bewildered by Rupaul’s Drag Race
Of course I enjoy Rupaul’s Drag Race in all its glory. But as a face-blind viewer I am continuously bewildered. Who is who?
The male characters in any movie or TV show have me flummoxed. For example, I’m a fan of House of Flowers but it stars three men with grey hair and facial hair, and they look identical to me. I guess it’s an economy measure, having one guy double, I mean treble, for three characters. But there are also at least four young handsome dark men, and they are also identical. That’s not economy, that’s parsimony. Luckily each actress plays only one character. They may have similar faces (what would I know?) but they have other qualities that are individual, namely their voices and hairstyles and ages and shapes. All the characters say each other’s names frequently. Paulina! Elena! Diego! If not for that, I would have no idea of the plot.
However, for a face-blind viewer, Rupaul’s Drag Race is an impossible challenge. I’m watching Season 3 and as far as I can see there are 26 contestants: 13 men and 13 women. I don’t even try to match them up. Megastar Rupaul is the only one I recognise in both her forms.
But never mind the real live characters. My fellow prosopagnasians and I just watch it for the frocks.
Previous: Tell me about old people using computers in lockdown
Next: Dance of the day in isolation
7 thoughts on “Worst Netflix show for a face-blind viewer: Rupaul’s Drag Race”
Are you actually face blind?
Yes I am. It’s a nuisance sometimes
Wow. Have you written about that on the blog?
Maybe! Search for prosopagnosia on the blog…
anneinabsentia says:
I’ve had moments of face blindness when I couldn’t distinguish between two students in a class. I hated being caught out calling them by the wrong name, but they would usually tell me it happens with other teachers too; they simply looked alike. The same with TV shows where diversity seems not to be considered in casting. Drag artists dress similarly too. Which isn’t to say that you aren’t face blind.
Yeah, when you fail to recignise your own son or husband, that’s s clue 🙂
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Meet Our 2021 Seniors
2021 Seniors Index
Graduates - 2020
ISABEL Z.
Diligent, Passionate, Sympathetic
"It is not certain that
everything is uncertain"
During her past six years in the 49ers STEM Leadership Institute, Isabel has delved into the world of STEM through numerous math, science, and robotics projects. Isabel has spent three years as a member of Deja Vu Robotics team, where she helps with management and logistics.
In school, Isabel contributes to the student body by running video and audio systems during rallies and performances, as well as producing small promotional videos to boost student engagement in events. In her sophomore year, Isabel co-founded Competitive Math Club, where she taught non-traditional approaches to math problems weekly for three years.
Outside of school, Isabel loves to dance; she has been dancing for 12 years and is a member of Nor Cal Dance Art's Apprentice Company. She can often be found performing in school events such as Lip Sync, BOTC, Day of the Arts, and the talent show.
About the 49ers STEM Leadership Institute
The 49ers STEM Leadership Institute (49ers SLI) provides multi-year, year-round academic support, STEM enrichment, skills training, and leadership opportunities to students in middle and high school. Students, who are with the program for six years from 7th through 12th grade, commit annually to 300+ hours of program learning time in addition to their typical school hours. By cultivating student mastery in STEM subjects and in key skill areas, the program prepares students for college and empowers them to pursue their passions; so that they may become the well-rounded leaders of the future. The 49ers STEM Leadership Institute is made possible by the strong partnership between Silicon Valley Education Foundation, 49ers Foundation, Chevron, and the Santa Clara Unified School District.
Visit www.49ersSLI.com for more
Special Thanks To...
49ers SLI students Danielle B, Stephanie K, & Jennifer L for designing and building this website in 2019.
49ers SLI student Aribah H for editing all headshot photos for this website.
Communications Team Danielle B, Dana C, Aribah H, Halle K, Stephanie K, Jennifer L for editing content and building pages for the 2021 Seniors.
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Environmental health services - Coronavirus
View steps in this guide
Steps in this guide
Phased approach to easing lockdown restrictions - Environmental Health advice
Food law for businesses - Coronavirus
Food advice for voluntary groups - Coronavirus
Neighbour issues - Coronavirus
Dog control and animal welfare - Coronavirus
Tourism and Hospitality - mandatory and sector guidance
Food processing and manufacturing – Coronavirus
Taxi and private hire operators - Coronavirus
Sport and leisure activities during coronavirus - Environmental Health guidance
The Environmental Health service is still operational and responding to service requests from businesses and the public whilst ensuring the latest government guidelines are being followed. We are committed to meet statutory regulations and will continue to carry out duties to protect public health, public safety and animal welfare at this time.
The council is committed to work with the government and other agencies to continue to protect public health in Scotland during and in the months following the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. View further information on the joint COVID-19: safer work places statement. View advice on reopening a business.
On these pages you can find out about current arrangements for our services and advice environmental health matter during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak:
Level 4 restrictions
What your business can do to prepare for opening
Physical distancing when operating your business
Management of health and safety in the workplace
What checks you should continue to make if your business is closed
Help for the farming community
Food law for businesses
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Contact the Environmental Health service
We also share updates as they become available on Twitter and Facebook.
If you are a British Sign Language (BSL) user, you can have this information translated for you via contactSCOTLAND-BSL, the online British Sign Language interpreting service.
Aberdeenshire is currently in Level 4 of the system. View an overview of the latest changes.
All ‘non-essential’ retailers will be required by law to close whilst Aberdeenshire remains subject to Level 4 restrictions.
For confirmation as to what retail businesses are deemed as ‘essential’ and therefore permitted to remain open, please refer to the Scottish Governments Retail Sector guidance FAQ section. Please note, if your business is ‘non-essential’, you are required by law to close until restrictions are eased.
Click and collect services for essential and non-essential retail and on-line retail can remain open, with COVID-19 mitigation measures in place.
Shops that are permitted to remain open must continue to adhere to the two metre physical distancing requirements for retail businesses. They must limit the number of customers inside their premises to ensure this distance can be maintained and take measures to control queues outside of their premises.
Close contact services
Whilst Aberdeenshire remains in Level 4, close contact services and mobile close contact service providers must cease to operate. A list of close contact services including further information is available on the Scottish Government website.
Businesses currently trading, or preparing to re-open, require to have controls in place to ensure compliance with the coronavirus regulations and wider Health and Safety requirements in relation to COVID-19. It is recommended all businesses are familiar with the Health Protection Scotland guidance for non-healthcare settings as well as the relevant sector specific guidance from the Scottish Government.
If the sector specific guidance is not yet published, you can still start to prepare. It is recommended that you familiarise yourself with the measures recommended to control transmission of coronavirus.
If you are planning to reopen, you should consider working together with other retailers and business association in your area to manage safe re-opening co-operatively. You will be required to undertake a suitable and sufficient COVID-19 risk assessment.
As per government advice, physical distancing – keeping at least two metres separation distance between individuals, should be followed at all times. This includes operations within a business, as well as accepting deliveries from suppliers and delivering products to customers. The use of contactless payments and introducing a queuing system to limit the number of people in a premise should also be considered.
As a business, you have the responsibility to manage physical distancing within your premise and outside, including any queues of customers awaiting entry into your shop.
View further guidance on physical distancing within the workplace.
Physical distancing, hand hygiene and respiratory hygiene are the most important and effective things we can all do to prevent the spread of coronavirus. The wearing of face coverings must not be used as an alternative to any of these other precautions.
A face covering can be a covering of any type, except a face shield, that covers the mouth and nose. It is recommended that it be made of cloth or other textiles and should be two, and preferably three layers thick, and through which you can breathe. Religious face coverings that cover the mouth and the nose count as face coverings for these purposes. Transparent face coverings which assist communication for those who rely on lip reading and facial expressions can also be worn.
Face shields may be used, but only if they are worn in addition to a face covering underneath, as the evidence shows that they do not provide adequate protection.
Further guidance on exemptions can be found using the links below.
These documents provide information in regards to the changes and the current requirements and expectations of individuals in order to help reduce the risk of the spread of coronavirus in Scotland. Information relating to when you are expected to wear face coverings and the exemptions are contained within this document. View links to the Scottish Governments website:
Coronavirus (COVID-19): Scotland's route map - what you can and cannot do
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Phase 3: staying safe and protecting others
Mandatory use of face coverings
Further to the announcement by the First Minister on the 7th August, the use of face coverings will now be mandatory in ‘certain indoor public places’ in addition to retail settings. View a list of indoor public places where a mask is required.
Please note, Police Scotland are the authority responsible for the enforcement of the requirement to wear a face covering within certain indoor public places as specified in the regulations.
View information on the management of health and safety within the workplace during and in the recovery phase of the coronavirus outbreak.
To keep your water supply safe and prevent colonisation by legionella bacteria, you should run all taps (hot and cold, internal and external) and showers, for at least 5 minutes once a week. For showers, remove the shower head, if possible, before you do this. If this regular weekly flushing is done you will save work when you come to reopen the premises once the current restrictions are lifted.
Make regular checks in and around your premises for pests, including rats and mice, and ensure your premises are adequately proofed and that proofing remains intact. If you have food stored within your premises check your storage areas regularly for signs of pests. Detailed advice is available from the British Pest Control Association.
Scotland’s Farm Advisory Service have developed a Farm Emergency Plan template to help farmers prepare valuable information in the event of illness.
Further advice from Aberdeenshire Council Environmental Health and Trading Standards Officers can be gained by emailing psmg@aberdeenshire.gov.uk.
If the information on our website does not answer your query, please complete the online form.
Contact Environmental Health
The Environmental Health Service will respond within 5 working days.
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On Aug 6, 1879 – 30,000 people from Memphis fled from an epidemic – some were put off in the woods rather than allow entrance into Alabama
May 4, 2019 November 1, 2020 by Donna R Causey
On Aug 6, 1879 – 30,000 people from Memphis fled from epidemic – some were put off in the woods rather than allow entrance into Alabama
SCROLL DOWN TO CONTINUE . . .
On August 6, 1879 citizens of Alabama were in a near panic over the potential spread of a Yellow Fever epidemic from Memphis according to these excerpts from The Iron Age newspaper of Birmingham, Alabama.
At the time, it was not known that Yellow Fever was spread by mosquitoes and Memphis, being a very swampy area, was a perfect breeding ground for them. The previous year, 1878 resulted in at least 17,000 cases and 5000 + deaths from Yellow Fever in Memphis so there was great fear of the disease spreading to Alabama via people traveling from Memphis.
Jefferson Davis, Jr. died of yellow fever
Jefferson Davis, Jr, the son of Jefferson Davis who was President of the Confederacy, died in Memphis during the Yellow Fever epidemic on October 16, 1878.
First human virus discovered
Yellow fever was the first human virus discovered. The disease originated in Africa, where it spread to South America through the slave trade in the 17th century. Since then the major outbreaks of the disease have occurred in the Americas, Africa, and Europe.
Iron Age newspaper accounts
The Iron Age newspaper accounts on August 6, 1879 reveal the fear of the people from the spread of Yellow Fever to their state.
“A few days since the board of health at this place (Cullman, Alabama) recommended to our city fathers to pass an ordinance declaring a quarantine against Memphis.”
“At a public meeting held at Chalybeate springs meeting house on the 3d inst., to take consideration what action or means should be adopted to prevent the establishment of a quarantine hospital at Coalburg, in precinct No. 22, G. C. Jacks was called to the chair, and R. C. Russell was requested to act as secretary.”
News from Memphis included:
“Eighteen new cases were reported yesterday in Memphis and five deaths. The fever is gradually spreading from two infected points and greater mortality can be anticipated.
At a meeting of the committee of safety this yesterday, it was resolved that rations and medical attention be supplied to all camps and societies alike, provided that all moneys or contributions received by said camps or societies, be turned over to the safety committee.”
Doctors loathe to diagnose yellow fever
Evidently, a Yellow Fever epidemic the previous year created a panic and doctors were loathe to diagnose the disease as Yellow Fever as evidenced by excerpts from the following article in the same paper:
“The serious sickness in Memphis is pronounced yellow fever by at least a large majority of the doctors; but eminent physicians in daily contract with it believe it to be a malarial disease, malignant and fatal, but far less so than the plague for which it is mistaken. It is less fatal than the hemorrhagic fever so prevalent every season in many localities inaccessible to yellow fever, generally yielding, when taken in time and carefully nursed, to remedial agencies.
But it is called yellow fever; and a panic, unequaled in all its disgraceful features since in the dark ages of ignorance and superstition plagues were believed to be the direct visitation of an angry God for the destruction of the whole nations who had incurred his displeasure, has followed…..
When a penniless woman (suspected of having yellow fever) and her starving children are put from a railway coach into the woods (as at Randolph on the S., R. & D. R.R. last year), it is not in one neighborhood in a thousand that, thus marked as a source of danger, they are not permitted to remain; for the fear and the inhumanity of the larger community whose agent outlawed them are communicated to the smaller community into which, helpless unfortunates they are thrown, and they are driven out and on to rest and refuge in the grave.”
Picture by Granger – Fine Art of America
Railroads responded to panic
The railroads tried to respond to the panic according to this article from the same paper:
Southern Express Co. President’s Office Augusta, GA July 28, 1879
To Agents: Admonished by the fatal experience of last year, when the lives of twenty-eight heroic employees were lost in endeavors to maintain the Express service intact, throughout the South-west, during the prevalence of yellow fever, and in consequence of the existence and alarming increase of that disease, at present, in Memphis, Tennessee, occasioning the establishment of rigid quarantines at adjacent points, which have cut off direct communication with that city, this Company has deemed it advisable to close its office there until these restrictions are removed.
ALABAMA FOOTPRINTS Exploration: Lost & Forgotten Stories (Volume 1)
Matter for Memphis, or other places where Express offices may be closed, will be taken to the nearest quarantine station, and there held subject to the order of consignees, until means can be provided for its delivery without violating the sanitary regulations adopted by State municipal authorities.
Matter destined to points on the Mississippi river south of Memphis, should be sent via Vicksburg or New Orleans, as circumstances may require.
It is to be hoped the fever will not spread, but should it do so and become epidemic, this Company, for the safety of its employees, and the protection of the public health, (by lessening the danger of contagion incident to intercourse with infected localities), will not undertake to operate its lines beyond the limits prescribed by quarantine regulations. H. B. Plant President.”
Cuban doctor proposed spread by mosquitoes
In 1881, Carlos Finlay, a Cuban doctor and scientist, first proposed that Yellow Fever might be transmitted by mosquitoes rather than human contact. U. S. Army doctors began experiments with a team led by Walter Reed. They successfully proved Finlay’s ‘mosquito hypothesis and Yellow Fever became the first virus to be shown to be transmitted by mosquitoes.
With this knowledge, Dr. William Gorgas, a native of Alabama, eradicated Yellow Fever from Havana by waging a campaign against breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
Dr. William Crawford Gorgas
Cases have been increasing since 1980s
Since the 1980s, the number of cases of yellow fever has been increasing. This is believed to be due to fewer people being immune, more people living in cities, people moving frequently, and changing climates. Other reasons for the increase have been proposed due to limitations on available insecticides, as well as habitat dislocations caused by climate change.
Vaccination is recommended for those traveling to affected areas, because non-native people tend to suffer more severe illness when infected. Protection begins by the 10th day after vaccine administration in 95% of people and lasts for at least 10 years. About 81% of people are still immune after 30 years.
The Iron Age August 6, 1870
Mosquitoes stop growth of cities – read how – { old photographs and 1910 film}
The Can’t Get Away Club in Mobile, Alabama – You’ll never guess its purpose
See historical books by Donna R. Causey
Some stories include:
The true story of the first Mardi Gras in America and where it took place
The Mississippi Bubble Burst – how it affected the settlers
Did you know that many people devoted to the Crown settled in Alabama –
Sophia McGillivray- what she did when she was nine months pregnant
Alabama had its first Interstate in the early days of settlement
ALABAMA FOOTPRINTS Exploration: A Collection of Lost & Forgotten Stories (Kindle Edition)
ALABAMA FOOTPRINTS Exploration: Lost & Forgotten Stories (Volume 1) (Paperback)
Used from: $15.93 In Stock
About Donna R Causey
Donna R. Causey, resident of Alabama, was a teacher in the public school system for twenty years. When she retired, Donna found time to focus on her lifetime passion for historical writing. She developed the websites www.alabamapioneers and www.daysgoneby.me All her books can be purchased at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. She has authored numerous genealogy books. RIBBON OF LOVE: A Novel Of Colonial America (TAPESTRY OF LOVE) is her first novel in the Tapestry of Love about her family where she uses actual characters, facts, dates and places to create a story about life as it might have happened in colonial Virginia. Faith and Courage: Tapestry of Love (Volume 2) is the second book and the third FreeHearts: A Novel of Colonial America (Book 3 in the Tapestry of Love Series) Discordance: The Cottinghams (Volume 1) is the continuation of the story. . For a complete list of books, visit Donna R Causey
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Thank you so much! I love this story, and the pictures are wonderful!
Darby Weaver October 12, 2017
The problem is that Memphis was in Alabama on the Tensas/Tennessee before it moved to the present State of Tennessee.
Ask why Alabama has had to move Macon, Philadelphia, Montgomery, Huntsville, Natchez etc.
Darby Weaver
The Tribal Leader
Carol Harrison Kennedy Martin October 12, 2017
I know a Yellow Fever cemetary where many died and were buried within a short time. I spoke with a 98yr. old woman 40 years ago who told me that during an epidemic, a wagon would come around to pick up the dead to bury them, They also picked up their waste left in a bucket to bury it. When people took food to the home of the sick, they would leave it on the front porch, yell, and run away in fear. She told me that one time her child was sick, & when she saw dark circles under the child’s eyes, she knew that meant death, so she walked 10 miles down the road carrying the child to get to the doctor. Another lady told me if you put sliced potatoes on the bottom of your feet, it will take away any fever. Another put cedar branches on her front steps to keep fleas out of her house. Another said wet,warm, peach tree leaves on the breast will make the milk go away when you quit nursing your baby. Another said sliced onions around the room will keep disease from spreading. Another told me at age 89 that she was told by her mother, a slave, to never put anything on your face but water. She must have inherited that beautiful complexion she had? Another who was a mid-wife for many years said she had to cut a baby into to get it out of the mother or the mother would have died. Never heard of C-sections back then. So sad. So many old remedies, wives tales, and lost ways of doing things!
Darby Weaver August 6, 2018
Memphis was in Alabama before it moved out – more people should read more real history versus the fiction that has passed for history.
The folks from Miss were at a loss on how to move Tenn State and leave Memphis behind.
No one else read that part?
Leave a Reply to Carol Harrison Kennedy Martin Cancel reply
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Emilia Clarke Covers Vogue and Channels Her Daenerys Character
People, Women's Lifestyle Gabriela N. Tuesday, 28 April 2015, 11:13 0
Gabriela N.
Emilia Clarke Covers Vogue and brings her Khalessi character back to life.
Emilia is a well-known British actress, famous for her role as Daenerys Targaryen in the HBO series Game of Thrones.
She is so good performing the role, which got her an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2013.
Emilia made her first Broadway debut in Breakfast at Tiffany’s as Holly Golightly in March 2013.
Her career was fruitful and some of her early works includes two pays at St. Edwards, ten plays at Drama Centre London, the 2009 Company of Angels production of Sense and a 2009 commercial for Samaritans.
One of her fist roles was for a University of London student’s short film. But her success came only after she was cast as Daenerys Targaryen in the HBO medieval fantasy series Game of Thrones.
So far, she had appearances in all five broadcast seasons, won the 2011 EWwy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama for her role as Mother of Dragons.
In 2014, Emilia was voted the most desirable woman in the world by Askmen readers.
And now, the actress was elected to cover Vogue, a globally recognized fashion and lifestyle magazine that comes monthly in 23 different national and regional editions by Condé Nast.
The cover of Vogue was photographed by Francesco Roversi on his father Paolo Roversi’s cover shoot for the May 2015 issue.
Emilia Clarke morphs beautifully and effortlessly between her character and the gorgeous actress she is.
She did a photo shoot for Vogue’s latest edition, where the lenses of the famous Roversi are introducing the woman behind the character, the gorgeous actress, Emilia Clarke.
When you open the issue, you see the Game of Thrones star’s confessions; she reveals all, including her parents’ reaction to her becoming an actress, and what was like to return for the next season as one of the TV’s most famous heroines.
“I went back to Game of Thrones and it was like coming home. Just the smell of the hotel in Belfast made me feel safe,” she revealed. “I told myself, forget the big game plan; all I want is to do jobs that make me happy.”
Her character might be a platinum blonde but Emilia is a natural brunette. It may be a wig, but that doesn’t matter, because the Mother of Dragons can rule either she is blonde or brunette.
The Mother of Dragons, Daenerys Targaryen, may have the most covetable and eye-catching character from all the TV shows currently on TV.
Everyone fell in love with her because the perfect white-blond that is so difficult to achieve, believe us, many people have tried. And in this interview, she proved us that Emilia is as beautiful as the Queen herself.
The British actress landed her first Vogue cover with this May issue. The talented actress has quickly made her mark in the fashion world with her red carpet outfits from great designers such as Chanel, who is one of her go-to designers as well as Alexander McQueen and Dior.
Emilia Clarke Covers Vogue and Channels Her Daenerys Character |pics from freakishsweetheart.tumblr.com|
Among the years, the star also had several appearances in French Glamour, Marie Claire, WSJ, InStyle, and Flare.
But this edition is like the best of all, don’t you think? We find her more mature and more beautiful than ever.
What do you think about Vogue’s new issue?
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APPEARS IN News
Wilson Combat Expands Manufacturing, Adds Jobs
by Guy J. Sagi - Tuesday, December 15, 2020
Wilson Combat is expanding its Berryville, Ark., facilities with an additional 16,000-square-foot building for machining and warehousing. Work is scheduled for completion sometime next month, and the company anticipates expanding its workforce by roughly 20 percent afterward to help meet demand for its firearms and equally highly regarded aftermarket parts.
The record-setting pace of firearm sales was cited as the primary reason for the expansion in an Arkansas Democrat Gazette article, although the story understates how the company has steadily increased sales and market share—even during industry downturns—since its modest founding. Competitive shooter Bill Wilson set up shop in the back of his family’s jewelry business in 1977 and brought the same attention to detail, fine looks and craftsmanship he learned up front to his gunsmithing.
Most of his early business was customizing or installing aftermarket components to handguns, but it didn’t take long for his reputation and business to grow to include manufacturing complete pistols. In 2000, the company purchased Scattergun Technologies, renamed it Wilson Combat Scattergun Technologies, and it now offers shotguns. Today, it makes rifles as well, and American Rifleman covered the Wilson Combat story in 2010.
The growth hasn’t slowed. In 2018, Chip McCormick Custom/Shooting Star Industries became part of Wilson. Today, the company not only makes and sells rifles, shotguns and handguns, it has expanded its tradition of custom creations and by working with some of the industry’s foremost builders of polymer-frame pistols. Here’s a look at what it can do to Glock Gen 3s and Gen 4s. Earlier this year, it also introduced the SIG Sauer WCP320 Carry line.
Upon completion of the latest building, the eighth in the Wilson Combat complex, the company’s total square footage available for production, administration and warehousing will increase to 93,200. The company currently employs 200 people.
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Twitter CTR Gets Exponentially Worse As Followers Grow, Reveals Study [INFOGRAPHIC]
In April of last year I performed a little experiment using my Twitter profile to get a rough idea of how many people actually read and, more specifically, reacted to my tweets. Going into the test I had a working theory that approximately one percent of my audience saw my tweets at any given time. That might sound low, but it was a number I’d been touting to clients for a while, largely to keep their expectations realistic. I needed to see if there was any meat around those bones.
Turns out I overestimated – the test results came back at less than half that, with a rating of 0.46 percent. And it wasn’t just me, or the things that I said – it turns out your Twitter engagement levels get exponentially worse as your followers grow. For example, at the time, links shared by the @Mashable Twitter profile, with its millions of followers, had a click-through rate (CTR) of just 0.11 percent.
So, I was forced to ask: is Twitter just a big waste of time?
No, not at all. But if you’re using Twitter for marketing, brand awareness or self-promotion you have to make every tweet count. As I wrote in my article, it’s an unfortunate reality that at any given moment almost nobody is paying attention to you on Twitter. I mean, seriously. Around 99 percent of the people who follow you will be doing something else at the exact same moment you send out that all-important tweet.
For example (and as I wrote), they could be:
Reading someone else’s tweets
Reading their own mentions and direct messages
Absent from their computer
Live in a different part of the world (with a different timezone)
Looking at another screen
Temporarily blinded by the sudden re-appearance of the sun
Trapped under something heavy
Not even using Twitter at all
All of these things reduce the chance of your tweet being seen, read and (most importantly for brands) actioned down to a very, very small number. And it doesn’t really matter who you are – even Twitter celebrities have lousy CTRs. Again, the bigger your audience, the worst results you can expect, at least relatively.
Not convinced? Here’s some more evidence, courtesy of those nice people at Sign-Up.to, who analysed tens of thousands of tweets and found that the average Twitter CTR was 1.64 percent. But here’s the kicker – profiles with 10,000 followers or more had a CTR of just 0.46 percent, which nicely aligns with my own experiment.
Sign-Up.to have summarised their findings with this infographic.
Don’t be disillusioned. There’s still value in building a large audience on Twitter, but it has to be one that is engaged. Otherwise it’s just a number. As I’ve said many times, you’re far better off having one hundred people listening to your every tweet than you are with one hundred thousand who couldn’t pick your avatar out of a lineup. Engage, engage, engage. You have to do the work. And that’s the bottom line.
(Source: Sign-Up.to. Click image via Shutterstock.)
Kara Trivunovic
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All NewsAll News
AGF Announces Launch of AGFiQ Enhanced Core Global Multi-Sector Bond ETF
October 22, 2018 • Announcements
Canada’s first ETF to use a multi-factor approach to select fixed income securities
AGF Investments Inc. (AGF) announced today, through AGFiQ Asset Management (AGFiQ), the launch of AGFiQ Enhanced Core Global Multi-Sector Bond ETF (QGB). QGB began trading on the Aequitas NEO Exchange Inc. today and has a management fee of 0.45%.
“Given the current environment in fixed income and longer-term projections for interest rates, investors are looking to diversify existing bond portfolios into strategies that offer access to different areas of the market,” said Kevin McCreadie, President and Chief Investment Officer, AGF. ”While fixed income investing has its roots in mathematics, we are excited to be the first in Canada to apply quantitative factor models to the asset class, focused on better understanding and managing of risk as we seek out opportunities for total return and income across the global bond market.”
QGB utilizes the expertise of AGF’s in-house quantitative investment management team – AGFiQ – and its proprietary factor and risk models to rank global bonds using factors such as growth, value, quality and risk characteristics.
Accessing Bonds
QGB provides exposure to a diversified portfolio of investment grade corporate bonds, high yield corporate bonds and government bonds issued by developed and emerging market countries. Foreign currency exposure is expected to be hedged back to Canadian Dollars, which reflects an update to the investment strategy.
“While fixed income ETFs now account for close to a third of ETF assets in Canada, we are proud to launch the first Canadian ETF to use a multi-factor based approach to fixed income investing,” said Florence Narine, Senior Vice-President, Head of Product, AGF. “This ETF was designed for investors looking to gain access to global fixed income securities seeking enhanced returns with an explicit focus on risk-management.”
Name and Ticker
AGFiQ Enhanced Core Global Multi-Sector Bond ETF (QGB) The AGFiQ Enhanced Core Global Multi-Sector Bond Fund ETF seeks to provide interest income and capital appreciation by investing primarily in fixed income securities of issuers around the world.
Visit AGFiQ.com for more information.
About AGFiQ Asset Management
AGFiQ Asset Management is the quantitative investment platform for AGF powered by an intellectually diverse, multi-disciplined team that combines the complementary strengths of investment professionals across AGF and its affiliates from Highstreet Asset Management Inc. and FFCM LLC.
About AGF Management Limited
Founded in 1957, AGF Management Limited (AGF) is an independent and globally diverse asset management firm. AGF brings a disciplined approach to delivering excellence in investment management through its fundamental, quantitative, alternative and private client businesses focused on providing an exceptional client experience. AGF’s suite of investment solutions extends globally to a wide range of clients, from financial advisors and individual investors to institutional investors including pension plans, corporate plans, sovereign wealth funds and endowments and foundations.
AGF has investment operations and client servicing teams on the ground in North America, Europe and Asia. With nearly $39 billion in total assets under management, AGF serves more than one million investors. AGF trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol AGF.B.
Commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with an investment in exchange-traded funds. Please read the prospectus or relevant ETF Facts before investing. Exchange-traded funds are not guaranteed; their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated.
amanda.marchment@agf.com
Email: amanda.marchment@agf.com
SVP, Head of Marketing and Communications
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INCIDENT Runway at Jeddah Airport in Saudi Arabia was closed after an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 rejected takeoff
EmergencyBy AIRLIVE September 12, 2019 Leave a comment
A runway was closed at Jeddah King Abdulaziz International Airport in in Saudi Arabia after an incident with a Boeing 767. An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 rejected take-off following an engine failure. The incident resulted of the explosion of 8 out of 10 tires. The runway was closed for 8 hours before the aircraft was…
INCIDENT Eurowings #EW8855 to Berlin Tegel faced strong turbulence, 8 passengers were injured
The Eurowings flight EW8855 had been on its way from Lamezia Terme in Italy to Berlin on Monday at the time of the disturbance. A spokesman for the German budget airline confirmed the incident, which occurred about 20 minutes from Berlin-Tegel Airport in the north of the city. “At an altitude of about 9000 metres,…
ALERT Justin Trudeau’s plane damaged in Victoria Airport after a media bus hit one of its wing
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s election plane sustained some damage in Victoria (CYYJ) after a media bus drove under one of its wings Wednesday night. The Boeing 737-800 (reg. C-GTQB) landed in the British Columbia capital after transporting Trudeau, his team and several journalists travelling with the campaign across the country for day one of the…
ALERT Delta #DL2544 made an emergency landing at Missoula International Airport due to an engine issue
EmergencyBy AIRLIVE September 9, 2019 Leave a comment
An emergency on board an early Monday morning flight from Kalispell caused a plane to be diverted to Missoula. Delta flight 2544 departed from Glacier Park International Airport at 5:47 a.m. on Monday en-route to Salt Lake City but was forced to be diverted to Missoula International Airport and make an emergency landing. A Delta…
INCIDENT Cayman Airways flight #KX792 to JFK evacuated after an emergency landing in Orlando
The captain of a Cayman Airways flight bound for New York City was forced to make an emergency landing in Orlando on Sunday afternoon after smoke was detected in one of the jet’s cargo holds. According to a news release from Cayman Airways, flight KX792 from Grand Cayman to JFK International Airport was diverted to…
Terminal 2 of Birmingham Airport evacuated after a ‘gun’ was discovered in luggage… which turned to be an antique replica
Passengers at Birmingham Airport was evacuated today after a ‘gun’ was discovered in a traveller’s suitcase – but it turned out to be a replica antique. The scare unfolded at Terminal 2 of the airport, near Solihull, this afternoon when security staff discovered the ‘weapon’ and became suspicious. Police were called and passengers in the…
INCIDENT A TUI Boeing 737-800 was damaged by a catering truck at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport
A catering truck has hit a TUI plane at Schiphol on Friday afternoon. The Boeing 737-800 (reg. PH-TFF) was supposed to takeoff to via the Greek Samos to Dalaman in Turkey. Passengers on the plane have been offered a hotel stay and will probably fly to their destination tomorrow.
BREAKING AirAsia flight just returned to Velana International Airport (Maldives) for an emergency landing after flames and loud bangs were noticed from an engine
AirAsia flight #FD178 to Bangkok has made an emergency landing shortly after takeoff at Velana Airport in Maldives. Flames and loud bangs were noticed from engine during takeoff of the Airbus A320 (reg. HS-BBT).
INCIDENT TAP A320 suffered an engine failure on takeoff from Lisbon (video)
A Tap Air Portugal Air bus A320 suffered engine failure at the beginning of takeoff from runway 03 at Lisbon. The aircraft (reg. CS-TMW) was taking off to Venice but aborted takeoff after the left-hand engine vented a jet of flames. This A320-200 (reg. CS-TMW), is 18 years old powered by CFM56-5B engines.
ALERT Myanmar Air Force Shaanxi Y-8 skidded off runway forcing the closure of Yangon International Airport
Flights were delayed at Yangon International Airport Thursday morning after a Y-8 military plane skidded off the runway around 10:30 a.m. The plane skidded off the runway due to an engine failure but no one was injured, said military spokesperson Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun. “As the plane was taking off for training, it skidded…
BREAKING Boeing evacuates Dreamliners from Charleston facility ahead of hurricane Dorian
Boeing has evacuated its Charleston, South Carolina 787 Dreamliner assembly line ahead of the potential damage caused by Hurricane Dorian. The State of South Carolina has also issued a mandatory evacuation order, forcing the Boeing assembly line to suspend operations and to evacuate the site. Boeing has already evacuated four 787-10 Dreamliners to the manufacturer’s…
BREAKING A Royal Flight Boeing 777 collided with an Aeroflot A330 on the ground at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport
Two planes collided during towing at Sheremetyevo Airport outside Moscow. One of the planes, belonging to Royal Flight, was being pushed back without passengers on board when it struck another plane, belonging to Aeroflot, with its wing. The Aeroflot flight was preparing to taxi before takeoff to Beijing. Following the incident, Aeroflot stated that it…
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Constituted as 80th Pursuit Group (Interceptor) on 13 Jan 1942. Activated on Feb 1942. Redesignated 80th Fighter Group in May 1942. Used P-47's to train for combat and to serve as part of the defense force for the northeastern US. Sailed for India, via Brazil, Cape of Good Hope, and Ceylon, in May 1943. Assigned to Tenth AF. Began operations in Sep 1943 with P-38 and P-40 aircraft; later used P-47's. Supported Allied ground forces during the battle for northern Burma and the push southward to Rangoon, bombing and strafing troop concentrations, supply dumps, lines of communication, artillery positions, and other objectives. Defended the Indian terminus of the Hump route by striking Japanese airfields and by patrolling Allied airfields to safeguard them from attack. Received a DUC for intercepting a formation of enemy planes and preventing its attack on a large oil refinery in Assam, India, on 27 Mar 1944. Returned to the US in Oct 1945. Inactivated on 3 Nov 1945.
Squadrons. 88th: 1942-1945. 89th: 1942-1945. 90th: 1942-1945. 459th: 1943-1944.
Stations. Selfridge Field, Mich, 9 Feb 1942; Farmingdale, NY, 5 Jul 1942; Mitchel Field, NY, 9 Mar-30 Apr 1943; Karachi, India, 28 Jun 1943; Nagaghuli, India, Oct 1943; Tingkawk Sakan, Burma, 29 Aug 1944; Myitkyina, Burma, 20 Jan 1945; Dudhkundi, India, 24 Maya Oct 1945; Camp Kilmer, NJ, 1-3 Nov 1945.
Commanders. Unkn, Feb-May 1942; Col John C Crosthwaite, c. 20 May 1942; Maj Albert L Evans Jr, 1 Jul 1942; Col Ivan W McElroy, 14 Jul 1943; Col Albert L Evans Jr, 13 Apr 1944; Col Sydney D Grubbs Jr, 1 Feb 1945; Col Hiette S Williams Jr, c. 29 Apr 1945-unkn.
Campaigns. American Theater; India-Burma; Central Burma.
Decorations. Distinguished Unit Citation: Assam, India, 27 Mar 1944.
Insigne. Shield: Per bend azure and sable a bend raguly or. Motto: Angels On Our Wings. (Approved 14 Oct 1942.)
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Home/News/The impact of the latest amendment to the Safety Of Life At Sea Treaty
The impact of the latest amendment to the Safety Of Life At Sea Treaty
Whether you think back to your science or physics classes in school, or whether you think back to the board game Topple from the early 80s, the knowledge that weights and balances create a cause and effect is not lost on you. In shipping, weights and balances are vital to the safety and success of a cargo ship’s journey, the contents it carries, and the people on board. If you’ve not experienced it with one of your shipments yet, you’ve seen it on the news: A ship encounters bad weather and high waves at sea causing the containers located at the top of the ship to tumble off, or worse, the whole ship capsizes. If not calibrated properly, a ship can sway or sink, not just causing damage or loss of its containers, but the loss of lives as well.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) that created the Safety of Life at Sea, or “SOLAS” treaty in 1914 after the Titanic disaster, has made four (4) amendments over the years, and it’s about to enact its latest amendment on July 1, 2016, which deals directly with the above concern: verifying container weights. The weights play an integral part in the balance of the ship and where each container will be placed on the ship. While this seems like it would be an easy amendment, the challenges surrounding this new amendment affect every country and every port, and therefore — every sea shipment, every timeframe, every budget, and every employee who is moving overseas. (A link to the IMO’s definition of the SOLAS 2016 amendment and associated guidelines can be found HERE).
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APC has a new board of directors for the period 2020-2023
Home / News / APC has a new board of directors for the period 2020-2023
By APCNews
Every three years, APC members, through their member representatives on the APC council, elect between four and seven directors from among council representatives nominated by members.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting context, the 2020 elections were organised remotely and took place between 15 and 16 October through an online voting system hosted on APC servers.
The members of the new APC board of directors were elected by 53 council members, and its composition is the following:
Leandro Navarro, Associació Pangea - Coordinadora Comunicació per a la Cooperació, Spain (chair)
Bishakha Datta, Point of View, India (vice-chair)
Sylvie Siyam, PROTEGE QV, Cameroon
Julián Casabuenas G., Colnodo, Colombia (secretary)
Pavel Antonov, BlueLink.net, Bulgaria
Oona Castro, Nupef, Brazil
Sol Luca de Tena, Zenzeleni NPC, South Africa (treasurer)
Chat Garcia Ramilo, APC, Philippines (executive director)
Once again, APC is proud to have a board with gender balance and representatives from several regions (Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America). A balance was also achieved in terms of continuity, with four board members from the previous board retaining their positions (Bishakha Datta, Julián Casasbuenas G., Leandro Navarro and Sylvie Siyam). The new board brings together an interesting combination of wisdom, experience, freshness and enthusiasm to steer APC through the new phase that lies ahead.
APC would like to congratulate the elected members of the incoming board and wish them a productive and outstanding governance period until 2023.
The APC board of directors for the previous period (2016-2019) was comprised of Bishakha Datta (as chair), Leandro Navarro (as vice-chair), Liz Probert from GreenNet in the United Kingdom (as secretary), Sylvie Siyam (as treasurer), Michel Lambert from Alternatives in Canada, Julián Casabuenas G., Osama Manzar from Digital Empowerment Foundation in India and Chat Garcia Ramilo (executive director). APC wishes to thank the outgoing board members and to acknowledge their efforts and excellent contributions towards strengthening the network during their tenure.
What lies ahead, in the words of the members of the new board
Leandro Navarro, from APC member Associació Pangea - Coordinadora Comunicació per a la Cooperació in Spain, was appointed as chair for this new board after serving as vice-chair in the previous period. Looking forward to the upcoming cycle, Leandro acknowledges that the new board has “a very interesting three-year period ahead of us in which, while maintaining the challenges we have faced so far, we are adapting to new environmental changes and challenges, from the pandemic to climate and pollution.”
With a strong emphasis on working towards a greener and more just future, the new chair stresses that “we must ensure that we can all participate in the digital world as part of the solution for the planet and not as part of the problem. We use and shape the internet and digital technologies to satisfy the needs and rights of people and the planet, not the contrary. Therefore, we hope to restore the balance soon so that we can meet again not only at the same time, but also in the same place, celebrate the re-encounter and make the most of it. The problems we are dealing with and the priorities in this triennial are our guide.” (More from Leandro Navarro here.)
Bishakha Datta from APC member Point of View in India shares some insights on her period as chair of the previous board between 2016-2019: “Governance feels a bit like ensuring the foundations, or the skeletal structure, are healthy, strong and growing. Not just for today, but also for tomorrow. I got a good sense of APC’s ‘bones’ in my first tenure: the organisation is in excellent shape and was able to smoothly navigate a leadership transition. With strong financial and human resources and a new strategic plan in place, the future looks bright... internally.”
But externally, she points out, it’s a different story. “Surveillance capitalism. Hate speech. Polarisation. Political manipulation. Disinformation. Data extraction. Online violence. As this intractable virus keeps shifting shape from one to the other, it has felt almost impossible to root out.” For this upcoming period, Bishakha considers that the challenge APC will have to face, and that she is willing to tackle as vice-chair, consists of how to ensure that the organisation and the network are well prepared to face these challenges, and how to push for the digital future that we want.
Pavel Antonov, from APC member BlueLink.net in Bulgaria, says that his first priority as a board member will be maintaining the spirit of shared mission and comradeship within APC's community, as an organisational functioning demonstration of alternatives to the individualism, competition and hostility in the world. He is very enthusiastic about the renewed environmental sustainability and ICTs area of work and keen on helping to take it further, with the active participation of members.
Julián Casasbuenas G. from APC member Colnodo in Colombia has served on the board of directors in different positions, from treasurer to chair to secretary. One of his main commitments for this new period has to do with the advancement of APC's work on internet governance, environment, gender and access, as well as strengthening the work of the members on these issues, seeking mechanisms to maintain and improve the participation of all members.
Sylvie Siyam, from APC member PROTEGE QV in Cameroon, commits to continue serving as a board member focusing on improving the language diversity in APC by encouraging more French-speaking organisations – particularly in Africa – to join APC and by promoting collaborative projects among members.
Oona Castro from APC member Instituto Nupef in Brazil aims to help APC institutionally to achieve its mission in the coming years by strengthening the network, making room for organisations, identifying their best abilities and calling for their contributions. In the bigger picture, Oona will work to bring together the diverse thematic and political agendas on access, digital divides, digital security, digital archives, misinformation, privacy, internet governance, spectrum allocation, human rights and environmental justice, under the umbrella of democracy, fighting against the unethical use of ICTs as part of political processes that threaten our democratic societies.
Sol Luca de Tena, from APC member Zenzeleni NPC in South Africa, another of the newcomers to the board, commits to contributing with her skills, enthusiasm, curiosity, humour and creativity to advancing the objectives of APC and its members. “I am convinced that the most powerful work in creating positive change requires at its heart the bridging and understanding of different lived realities. I would add my sensitivity to these and the care I take in respecting these differences, whilst weaving common outcomes,” she stated.
About APC governance
The APC board of directors is elected from among the members of the APC council, in which all APC member organisations are represented. Except for those reserved specifically for the APC council, the board of directors oversees and exercises all governance powers and activities of the organisation.
The board makes strategic decisions about APC membership and plays a central role in defining APC’s strategic priorities. The APC board often deals with institutional issues that require strong commitment and a willingness to contribute time to the network.
Learn more about the board of directors
Meet APC's previous board members from 1997 to 2020
Learn more about the roles and responsibilities of APC’s board
Find out more about APC governance
Find out more about how APC is governed.
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New Voltaire Album!
Spooky Songs for Creepy Kids
My favorite musician Voltaire is releasing a new CD! By popular demand from his fans who have kids... this one is for everyone! (As you likely know, his other CDs were not exactly ideal for the family outing to Grandma's.) This album features the songs 'Brains' and 'Land of the Dead' from the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (fun show, I really like it) - the resung songs from the AQWorlds events - and even Voltaire's song that he wrote to help his son get to sleep... - Goodnight Demonslayer. (That one is Artix's favorite.)
The CD will likely hit store shelves by Halloween... and we are really exicted because all of the art was created from our AQWorlds special events with him! He is currently taking pre-orders.
List of Songs on the CD
1) Land of the Dead (Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy)
2) Brains (Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy)
3) Vampire Club (Twilight version)
4) Cannibal Buffet (Resung Version)
5) Day of the Dead (AQ Worlds version)
6) Tempest (AQ Worlds version)
7) This Ship’s Going Down (AQ Worlds version)
8) To the Bottom of the Sea (AQ Worlds version)
9) The Beast of Pirate’s Bay (AQ Worlds version)
10) Crusade (Resung version)
11) Goodnight Demonslayer (Original version)
Tags: Safiria, CD, Brains, Land of the Dead, Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy,
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Tag: interviews
New Books in Poetry: Catrachos by Roy G. Guzmán
A new episode of the New Books in Poetry podcast is up. I had a riveting conversation with Roy G. Guzmán about their new book Catrachos (Graywolf Press).
Guzmán’s Catrachos is a stunning debut collection of poetry that immerses the reader in rich, vibrant language. Described as being “part immigration narrative, part elegy, and part queer coming-of-age story,” this powerful collection blends pop culture, humor, with Guzmán’s cultural experience to explore life, death, and borders both real and imaginary.
“This isn’t supposed to be a history book, and yet it is,” says Guzmán in discussing Catrachos, explaining that the book is not supposed to be anthropology, sociology, or a testimonial either, and yet it is. “Those are the contradictions, especially when you’re a marginalized writer, your words are always operating on so many different frequencies at once.”
Here’s a sample of Guzmán’s writing from the book:
“It is not a fallacy that the pulpería owner who wakes up
dressed in a tunic of warriors’ pelos, or the milkman
pressing his rough hands against the cow’s tectonic body,
remembers the skirted boy with an ovarian lipstick for a tongue,
the boy who offered a tenth of his knees to the teeth
of a country with dentures.”
— from “Finding Logic in a Crushed Head”
You can listen to the interview here or on the podcast app of your choice.
New Books in Poetry: Leave It Raw by Shakira Croce
A new episode of the New Books in Poetry podcast is up, in which the fabulous Athena Dixon speaks with Shakira Croce about her book Leave It Raw (Finishing Line Press, 2020).
Athena writes:
Like a storm waiting to break over a plain, Shakira Croce pulls at tensions and heartstrings in a debut collection filled with longing, wit, and intelligence. Through masterful imagery, Croce floats between the rural and urban with ease, pulling back the veil to see what lies beneath. These poems do not shy away from looking at life in all its beauty, violence, or complexities because within those boundaries we can begin to understand what it means to be human. As she writes in Homecoming, “It’s about finding/the space/to bring out what’s already/inside you.” In Leave It Raw, Croce makes that space and empties out the heart for all to see.
New Books in Poetry: Freedom Knows My Name by Kelly Harris-DeBerry
A new episode of the New Books in Poetry podcast is up, in which the fabulous Athena Dixon speaks with Kelly Harris-DeBerry about her book Freedom Knows My Name (Xavier Review Press, 2020).
In Freedom Knows My Name, Kelly Harris-DeBerry creates the world anew from scraps of memories and rhythm. She bounces between the pages, as well as the accompanying audio version of the poems, with confidence. Kalamu Ya Salaam writes in the introduction “The poet’s task is to turn words into song, utter incantations that heal, inspire, be more than ordinary talk” and Harris-DeBerry has a voice that encompasses each other those tasks. It is strong and it is unwavering. Whether she is on the page or in readers’ ears, Harris-DeBerry’s poetry is a bounty of culture, womanhood, home, and possibility. In an age where everything can be, and is, commodified for profit and the cool factor yet the actual Black artists producing the work can be undervalued, Harris-DeBerry’s poetry honors and respects the legacies of Southern migration, the Midwest, and Blackness.
Poet Spotlight: Rebecca Hart Olander on the Flaws and Snags of Love
Rebecca Hart Olander’s poetry has appeared recently in Crab Creek Review, The Massachusetts Review, and Tinderbox Poetry Journal, among others. Collaborative work made with Elizabeth Paul has been published in multiple venues online and in They Said: A Multi-Genre Anthology of Contemporary Collaborative Writing (Black Lawrence Press). Rebecca is a Women’s National Book Association poetry contest winner and a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee. Her chapbook, Dressing the Wounds, was published by dancing girl press in 2019, and her debut full-length collection, Uncertain Acrobats, is forthcoming from CavanKerry Press in 2021. Rebecca teaches writing at Westfield State University and is editor/director of Perugia Press. Find her at rebeccahartolander.com and @rholanderpoet.
Your new collection of poetry is Dressing the Wounds. Tell us about the project and how it came into being.
The new collection is also my first collection, and it came into being in kind of an unusual way, at least for me. In sum, I created it with a specific press in mind, and I didn’t get feedback on the manuscript as a whole before submitting it for consideration. To explain further, in the summer of 2018, I was feeling pretty discouraged by the lack of success I was having placing my full-length manuscript. I had finished my MFA program three years prior, and each year I was having a steady incline in individual subs being accepted, but lots of rejections (and a nice bunch of semi-finalist/finalist nods) for the book. I felt like it was high time I had a book in the world, and it began to seem silly that I hadn’t even had a chapbook out yet. Even students of mine were publishing chaps, and I was feeling like I’d skipped a step trying to go from individual publications to placing a full-length manuscript.
Continue reading “Poet Spotlight: Rebecca Hart Olander on the Flaws and Snags of Love”
Posted on August 2, 2020 October 13, 2020
New Books in Poetry: The Spinning Place by Chelsea Wagenaar
A new episode of the New Books in Poetry podcast is up. I had a delightful conversation with Chelsea Wagenaar about her new book The Spinning Place (Southern Indiana Review Press).
Chelsea Wagenaar is the author of two collections of poetry, most recently The Spinning Place was winner of the 2018 Michael Waters Prize. Her first collection, Mercy Spurs the Bone, was selected by Philip Levine to win the 2013 Philip Levine Prize. She holds degrees from the University of Virginia and the University of North Texas, and currently teaches at Valparaiso University. Her recent work appears or is forthcoming in Image and The Southern Review.
“Moon-sliced star-pocked
streetlit bleat, coal train moving
like its own ghost along the tracks.
2:00, 3:000, my shadow sways
as I catch myself, hand on the wall,
pulled from bed by your nocturnal haunt,
you at your crib rail, blanket clutched,
more sound than body.”
— from “Night Shift”
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An Alex Delaware Novel
Autor: Jonathan Kellerman
Sprecher: John Rubinstein
Serie: Alex Delaware, Titel 21
Spieldauer: 12 Std.
Kategorien: Literatur & Belletristik, Belletristik
Tanya Bigelow was a solemn little girl when Dr. Alex Delaware successfully treated her obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Now, at 19, Patty Bigelow, Tanya's aunt and adoptive mother, has made a deathbed confession of murder and urged the young woman to seek Delaware's help.
Armed with only the vaguest details, Delaware follows a trail twisting from L.A.'s sleaziest low-rent districts to its overblown mansions, retracing Patty and Tanya's nomadic and increasingly puzzling life. Then, a very real murder tears open a terrifying tunnel into the past, where secrets, and bodies, are buried.
Dramatic, action-packed, and filled with psychological detail that only Jonathan Kellerman can provide, Obsession is a whodunit, a whydunit, and something unique: a did-it-ever-happen. This is Kellerman at his heart-racing best.
Psyched? Listen to all of Jonathan Kellerman's Dr. Alex Delaware thrillers.
©2007 Plotline, Inc. (P)2007 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a Division of Random House, Inc.
Sprecher: Alexander Adams
Dr. Morton Handler practiced a strange brand of psychiatry. Among his specialties were fraud, extortion, and sexual manipulation. Handler paid for his sins when he was brutally murdered in his luxurious Pacific Palisades apartment. The police have no leads, but they do have one possible witness: seven-year-old Melody Quinn.
Gekürztes
Jonathan Kellerman has gained a loyal legion of fans with his best selling series of thrillers featuring child psychologist Alex Delaware. In When the Bough Breaks - the novel that started it all - Delaware is irresistably drawn to the case of a terrified child who is the only witness in a horrific double murder.
An Alex Delaware Novel, Book 14
Someone has murdered euthanasia champion Dr. Eldon Mate - a self-styled Dr. Death responsible for scores of assisted suicides. In a burst of bloody irony, the killer chooses to dispatch the doctor in the back of Mate's own suicide van, hooking him up to the killing apparatus dubbed "the Humanitron" - and adding some butchering touches of his own. The case is assigned to veteran LAPD homicide detective Milo Sturgis, who turns, once again, to his friend Dr. Alex Delaware. But working this case raises a conflict of interest for Alex so profound that he can't even discuss it with Milo.
LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis is a fine homicide detective, but when he needs to get into the mind of a killer, he leans on the expertise of his best friend, the brilliant psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware. While Sturgis has a knack for piecing together the details of a crime, Delaware can decipher the darkest intents driving the most vicious of perpetrators. And there’s no better place for the doctor’s analytical skills to shine than a rowdy hall full of young men and women intoxicated on life and lust...and suddenly faced with the specter of death.
The Black Echo: Harry Bosch Series, Book 1
For maverick LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal...because the murdered man was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who had fought side by side with him in a hellish underground war. Now Bosch is about to relive the horror of Nam.
my first encounter with M. Connellys Harry Bosch -
Von Teresa Am hilfreichsten 20.04.2015
Xenocide
All the Rave
Das sagen andere Hörer zu Obsession
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Stand Strong Together
Shaun Smith
http://www.autoroundup.com
On Dec. 6, 2019, the collector car hobby world was shocked with the sad news of TEN (The Enthusiast Network) Publishing’s plans to fold 19 of its 22 print magazine titles. The list of magazines that will cease to exist in print format include 4-Wheel & Off Road, Automobile, Car Craft, Chevy High Performance, Classic Trucks, Diesel Power, Hot Rod Deluxe, Jp, Lowrider, Mopar Muscle, Muscle Car Review, Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords, Mustang Monthly, Street Rodder, Super Chevy, Super Street, Truck Trend, Truckin’ and Vette. This leaves Four Wheeler, Hot Rod, and MotorTrend as the only three titles that will survive and continue to be printed in 2020.
Many of you probably were subscribers to at least one of these fine publications in the past. (Raise your hand if this applies, I’m raising mine now). They typically offered dirt-cheap subscription prices to enthusiasts to help build their readership in order to substantiate the pricing of display advertising to companies. That business model no longer works for publishers.
In fact, in 2019, we saw the closure of the following notable print titles: Auto Week, ESPN the Magazine, Family Circle, Glamour, Mad, Martha Stewart Weddings, MONEY, National Geographic Traveler, Redbook and countless others, the list goes on and on. And, that list doesn’t include titles currently up for sale, like top-seller National Enquirer. And, that list doesn’t include newspapers. AND, that list doesn’t include the print magazines that reduced their frequencies and jacked up subscription pricing (Rolling Stone and Sports Illustrated—both are monthlies now) nor the magazines that went to quarterlies and stopped offering subscriptions altogether. Also, earlier this year, F+W Media’s Old Cars Weekly (not a weekly anymore) was sold off at a bankruptcy auction.
In 2019, we also witnessed some of the largest media mergers ever. The most notable was the merger of Gannett and Gatehouse Media—they now own one of every six newspapers that are published. How many of you have seen your local hometown paper fold or be bought out in the past year? (Raise your hand if this applies, I’m raising mine now). There were several other industry events that occurred in 2019 including acquisitions and bankruptcies that I don’t have room here or time to report on.
So, let’s get back to the more immediate car-related news. We at Auto Round-Up, however, are not concerned so much with our own family of magazines as we are with the collector car hobby in general. It is my professional opinion that at the end of the day, the closure of TEN’s 19 automotive print magazines will end up having a negative impact on the hobby. It is my understanding that they will focus their resources online with various products and services and I hope that they are VERY successful in doing so and wish them the best of luck. But the hard, cold fact is that there is now one less medium in which our hobby reaches out to younger automotive enthusiasts—the loss on the newsstand and subscriptions with those 19 magazines will undoubtedly end up attracting fewer and fewer people in this beloved hobby we all share, because they are no longer offered.
So, I ask that you stand up, look in the mirror and ask yourself if you TRULY love this hobby. If you truly do, then I call on you to take action and try to support as many collector car and truck print magazines as your budget will permit. Your support is the backbone of our hobby, and without it, the hobby doesn’t exist.
The reality, however, is that $9, $10 or even $12 or $15 subscriptions are just not feasible for any publisher, large or small, anymore. And, further, we completely understand that many of you are on a fixed income. That’s why we, at Auto Round-Up Publications, have tried so hard to offer our readers valuable products and services at modest, competitive pricing. When you add in the fact that our readers dictate, create and have a voice in what gets published (ads and articles), we completely feel that our pricing has been very fair over the years.
Unfortunately, the hard reality is that publishers are at the mercy of so many outside factors (post office, printing, paper, shipping, distributor contracts, etc., etc.), that we honestly have no choice at times and are forced to make pricing adjustments.
Let’s stand together, pull all of our resources, get out there with your boots on the ground at shows, cruises, club meetings, etc. and start recruiting subscribers to not only our collector car and truck magazines, but to ALL collector car and truck magazines. If you can’t recruit them, buy them a gift sub. Try to subscribe to all of the magazines that each publisher offers. Publishers are dependent upon readers supporting all of their print magazines. (In our case, we offer Auto Round-Up, Classic Car Round-Up, Truck Round-Up and our series of Special Issues). You can subscribe to our magazines by clicking here.
The future is in your hands. Pass it on. Pay it forward. Be a beacon of hope and inspiration for the next generations to come. Let’s do this together!
Long live the Old Car Hobby!!!
Keep on rollin’!
(Now do you get true meaning of my saying—”Keep on rollin’?!!)
Auto Album
Car Show News
Cars We Remember
Collector Car Corner
Mark C. Bach
Pizzo's Petroliana
Readers' Rides
The Bortz Report
The Stars In Our Cars
Top Collector Car Searches
Truckin' with Mark C. Bach
Zyla's Pickup Report
Carlisle Events Spring Swap Meet Show Reaches Settlement
Charleston Boulevard Rod Run & Doo Wop History
The 1963 Ford Galaxie Rum Runner Moves to Harrison. . .
Devastating California Wildfire Destroys Collector Cars
Brae's 1963 Buick Skylark Cruises Up and Down LA Coast
Gene Winfield - Legendary Custom Builder
The Cayman Motor Museum
The Bandy Collection
Elegant Two-toned 1936 Auburn Boattail Speedster Replicar
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