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By admin on 23 February, 2018 in Art, Fun, Sarah Thornton with 0 Comments
“March is a month of expectation.”– Emily Dickinson
This month is a very busy and exciting time at the Cloverdale Playhouse. March is a time of shift as we experience the thaw of winter that leads into the bloom (and allergy season) of spring. I’ve always found that the period of seasonal shift brings with it a change in energies for all of the elements of nature. The birds and critters are twitterpated, the buds are beginning to form on the previously resting branches, but it’s deeper than that. There is a feeling of newness, of excitement and anticipation for the time ahead.
The Playhouse is shifting gears with the seasons as we move out of one mainstage show into the next. The beautiful, Christmas-y 1870s home for A Doll’s House will soon be a fond memory and the blank slate of an empty stage will begin to morph into a 1950s Pittsburgh backyard with a whole new story to tell. The Playhouse School’s spring term has begun, and the children bring with them such an eagerness to learn and play and explore the theater world. Their wonder and excitement is contagious and serves as a reminder to find the joy in the work with each new project.
While these new beginnings will not come to fruition until next month, we will get to watch as they grow and develop over time. The process is, to me, the most exciting part! But just as in nature, we can begin to see glimpses of what will eventually blossom. In the meantime, we have so many other exciting events that the month will fly by!
We begin this month with the first Playhouse Cabaret of the season. The Cabaret has been a very popular evening in our building with director Randy Foster at the helm. The rotating cast performs songs from Broadway and beyond to benefit arts education in Alabama, with proceeds going to the Alabama Institute for Education in the Arts and the Cloverdale Playhouse School. And in the spirit of new energy, this year the Cabaret will move from the cozy downstairs space to the mainstage!
It has been a Playhouse tradition to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with an evening of Irish writers and songs known as “Irish Voices.” Last year, we tried something new and celebrated Irish playwrights by doing a staged reading of a haunting Irish play called The Weir. The success of that performance encouraged us to continue down the path of Irish playwrights with this year’s selection of Frank McGuinness’s masterpiece Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me. It is a powerful story of three prisoners of war from starkly different backgrounds who find themselves locked together in a life-or-death situation that tests their humanity. They must overcome their differences and learn to lean on one another for strength. The play examines a deeper kind of change, that of the heart, and the profound power of hope. Change and hope seem to be themes perfect for March.
We will also be welcoming back some familiar and favorite faces for our March Joe Thomas Jr. Guitar Pull! Young and extremely talented siblings Mac and V.K. Spencer (whose previous performance at the Pull was hailed as one of the best) will be joining Wyatt Espalin (also a returning favorite) for what is shaping up to be an excellent night of live music. The recent success of “Commit to the Song,” a feature-length documentary about the history and importance of the Songwriters’ Night filmed by Josh Carples, has us more excited than ever to put another Guitar Pull on the stage.
With everything coming up in the next few weeks, we hope you will join us as we continue to grow and change in our seventh season in Cloverdale. We can’t wait to see what blooms!
Sarah Walker Thornton is the Artistic Director of the Cloverdale Playhouse, who walks like a New Yorker and waves like an Alabama girl. She is a product of a Montgomery arts education, with several years of life in NYC thrown in for extra flavor.
Tags: Cloverdale Playhouse, featured, Sarah Thornton
@midtownliving 14 July, 2019
A reflection on historic preservation ideas in Japan. addastories.org/earth-wood-dry…
Just saw a great movie about #PolarFracking at @CloverCapri
From the Alabama News Magagzine, June 1979 @CityofMGM @AlabamaArchives https://t.co/n5yuzjlE9e
Hey @MontgomeryTrees - curbed.com/2019/7/10/2068…
This seems like a great learning opportunity coming up next week. Alabama Watershed Steward training: aces.edu/event/aws-aubu…
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A New Vietnam Documentary
Bob Jones
on July 9, 2014 at 12:01 am
It’s MidWeek‘s 30th anniversary next week. Almost my 26th year as a columnist here.
A chunk of my young-adult life was in-the-field coverage of the Vietnam War as reporter over a nine-year period. First with Honolulu Advertiser and later as a foreign correspondent for NBC News.
mw-jones-070914-kawainui-nw
New state plans could ruin Kawainui Marsh NATHALIE WALKER PHOTO
Once wounded, many times scared witless, once rescued from a horrendous battle in Quang Tri by Waimanalo’s Lt. Col. Peter Kama. I owe him for that armored personnel carrier snatch!
My wounds healed, my exposure to Agent Orange didn’t have any bad effects. I don’t qualify to use the VA hospitals. Others do. They’d been waiting an average of 145 days here to see a doctor.
I know “that sucks” is an overworked phrase but it’s the best I know to describe the situation.
Also, there’s the resentment many Vietnam vets harbor about the way American protesters treated them when they came home. Many shed their uniforms as quickly as they could. They were not getting free bar drinks and restaurant meals.
That is the subject of my television documentary How Do YOU Remember Vietnam? to be broadcast July 15 at 8 p.m. on KHON-2.
I’ve talked to Vietnam vets from all walks of the war from infantry point man to medic and intelligence agent. The interviewees are Allen Hoe, Ed Gayagas, Ernie Fukeda, Matt Arashiro and Steve Molnar.
This half-hour documentary is a Hawaii Stars production of Carole Kai Onouye and executive producer Dirk Fukushima, with camera work by Mike May.
It will make a case that America owes an apology to Vietnam vets, and owes a debt to all who fought recent wars in Korea, Vietnam, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan.
They deserved to go to the front of the line for schooling, mortgages and employment promotion. They offered their lives for us while we prospered with schooling, mortgages and employment promotion.
That’s not fair!
Some of the things the vets say in this documentary may hit you like daggers — I say good! You need that!
I hope you’ll set aside some time from your busy lives and watch.
You can comment afterward to my email.
And thanks for reading MidWeek these 30 years.
Two ways of handling special outdoor places:
(1) Yosemite National Park will remove the Mariposa Grove gift shop and parking lot, move them two miles away, and let the grove be a quiet “place of awe and reflection.”
(2) Hawaii’s DLNR proposes that Kawainui Marsh have 37 buildings, nine access roads, 11 parking lots, eight pavilions and a boardwalk.
The phrase “just let some natural places be natural places” usually gets buried in our fragile, special islands.
We could have been the Galapagos. Mostly park. Limited building permits. A refuge for wildlife with carefully controlled tourism.
But we didn’t go that way.
BanyanTreeHouse@gmail.com
How Do YOU Remember Vietnam?Vietnam Documentary
Help Arrives
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NNN Reporters Newsroom Forum > RSS FEED
Coonvicted sambo sex offender charged for shooting that took Fayette Co, TX WM deputy's left eye
This forum was shut down in 2012 due to a criminal terrorist 'anonymous' hacker attack on the New Nation News Editor.
Since then it has been closed to the public and only a handful of dedicated 'hard core' volunteer reporters have continued to contribute.
Any new applicants will be 'security checked'. Thanks for your interest.
There is no 'freedom of speech' if the rabid far-left and 'powers that be' don't like your viewpoint.
voiceofreason
Junior News Editor
https://abc7amarillo.com/news/local/...putys-left-eye
Convicted sex offender charged for shooting that took Fayette Co. deputy's left eye
A convicted sex offender is facing multiple felony charges for allegedly shooting a Fayette County deputy in the face with a shotgun and slashing a La Grange police officer with a knife.
Shazizz Mateen, 49, is charged with four counts of aggravated assault on a public servant with a deadly weapon.
The shooting happened last week at the Carter Motel in La Grange, but it began when two officers attempted to serve a felony warrant on Mateen at a nearby Dollar General store for failing to register as a sex offender.
Investigators said Mateen resisted, pulled a knife and cut one of the officers. He then ran to the nearby hotel room and barricaded himself inside.
Fayette County Sheriff's Office CJ Lehmann volunteered to take the lead in breaching the door because he was wearing a ballistic vest. In doing so, he was shot in the face with a shotgun.
Deputy Lehmann lost his left eye, and doctors are still working to save his right eye, with surgery scheduled for later this week.
Find all posts by voiceofreason
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The Cutest Animal in Yellowstone
June 22, 2016 by NANPA eNews
Story and photography by Jim Clark
Nature photographers heading to Yellowstone National Park would have to be a little crazy not to think about the potential for photographing the park’s herds of bison and elk, the striking mountain vistas and waterfalls, and the extraordinary thermal features of geysers, fumaroles and mudpots.
I’m no different. I especially love to photograph Yellowstone’s charismatic megafauna. In fact, my favorite is bison as they roam Lamar and Hayden Valleys. But I also seek out the little critters as well.
Of the 67 mammal species documented in the park, the majority are the smaller ones, including such personal favorites as golden-mantled and Uinta ground squirrels, least chipmunk and yellow-bellied marmot. But the one mammal I absolutely love to watch and photograph is the pika—undoubtedly the most charming and photogenic mammal in Yellowstone.
American pika, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. © Jim Clark
The size of guinea pigs, pikas are members of the rabbit and hare family. They prefer talus slopes, which are rock slides that collect on the side of a mountain slope or cliff. The myriad nooks and crannies created by these rocks of various sizes offer pikas the perfect escape cover from predators. Talus slopes can be treacherous for both photographer and equipment, so tread carefully!
Very active in the daylight hours, pikas collect grasses, wildflowers and other forbs, spreading them out in the sun to cure. These little “haystacks” can be as big as three feet in diameter and are vigorously defended. When you find a pika haystack, you are going to see pikas. Sit long enough at the edge of a talus slope and before long you’ll hear the pikas high-pitched “eee.”
To photograph pikas, my son Carson and I arrived at a talus slope in the early morning hours before the temperatures rose and the pikas warmed up enough to become active. For four straight mornings we visited this one talus slope and spent hours watching and photographing these cuties.
We never knew when a pika would suddenly be right beside us. They are sneaky little creatures. We would have this suspicion that something was watching us and as soon as we saw the pika and aimed our lenses, it disappeared. Eventually the pikas became accepting of us as they scurried about, sometimes just inches from our feet. All it required on our part was to move slowly, sit, watch, listen and photograph.
American pika collecting vegetation, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. © Jim Clark
For Yellowstone National Park, pikas are an indicator species for detecting ecological effects of climate change. While still considered an abundant species in the overall Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, pika populations are declining in some lower elevation areas of the park.
The talus slope Carson and I visited might be one of those locations since it is situated along one of the park’s rivers. I haven’t been back for a few years, but when I return this summer, I plan to revisit our special talus slope to see how the cutest animal in Yellowstone is faring.
A past NANPA President and contributing editor for Outdoor Photographer, Jim is also a nature photography instructor for the Chincoteague Bay Field Station, Wallops Island, Virginia. The author/photographer of six books, Jim is particularly proud of two children’s books he did with his son Carson. Jim was also a major contributor to the book, Coal Country. Visit Jim’s website at www.jimclarkphoto.com, blog at www.jimclarkphoto.wordpress.com or visit him on Facebook.
Tips and Techniques | Jim Clark, nature's view
← Unleashing Juxtaposition in Nature Photography
FIELD TECHNIQUE: The Best Laid Plans →
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About Polk State
Lakeland Campus Map
Winter Haven Campus Map
Diamond Plex
Soccer Field
Thu, 04/18 | Softball vs. Florida Southwestern State College L, 11-1 (Final - 5 innings) BX
Tue, 04/16 | Softball vs. State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota L, 4-2 (Final) BX
Thu, 04/11 | Softball at Hillsborough Community College L, 9-8 (Final) BX
Tue, 04/09 | Softball vs. Florida Southwestern State College (Postponed)
Tue, 04/09 | Softball vs. Florida Southwestern State College L, 13-0 (Final - 5 innings) BX
Home | Roster | Schedule | Coaches | Photos | News | Statistics
| MORE+
Eagles split with Manatees
Alyssa Manley delivers a pitch against State College of Florida. She pitched a complete game as the Eagles won 3-1. (Photo by Tom Hagerty, Polk State.)
Polk State split a doubleheader with State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota tonight in Winter Haven.
The Eagles lost the first game 9-1 in six innings.
They got their only run in the first inning when Victoria Perry led off with a double, took third on Chelsea Whitmore's sacrifice bunt, and scored on Lauren Estrada's single to right field.
Polk State won the second game 3-1.
The Eagles took a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Perry led off with a walk, moved to second on a single by Estrada, and scored on Caitlyn Whitehead's single. Krista Hoyt then doubled to right field, scoring Estrada and putting the Eagles up 2-0.
The Manatees answered with a solo run in the second inning when a bloop single to right scored a runner from second base with two outs.
The Eagles added an insurance run in the bottom of the inning after Keely Staats smashed a home run to left.
The Manatees put the potential tying runs on second and third with two outs in the top of the seventh but failed to score.
Alyssa Manley pitched a complete game to earn the win.
The Eagles collected 10 hits in game two.
Estrada went 2-for-3 with a run.
Staats had a run and an RBI on her solo homer.
Perry singled, walked and scored a run.
Hoyt had a single and an RBI.
Abigail Thompson went 2-for-2.
Janelys Rosado, Whitehead, and Whitmore each singled.
The Eagles return to action Tuesday against South Florida State College at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. in Winter Haven.
CONF ALL
999 Avenue H NE
Winter Haven, Florida 33881
Polk State College is committed to equal access/equal opportunity in its programs, activities, and employment. For additional information, visit polk.edu/equity<http://www.polk.edu/equity-diversity/>.
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Ali Baba and the 300 hostages: the kidnappers who prey on desperate migrants in Europe’s border badlands
In the ‘Wild West’ between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia, being beaten up and robbed is far from the worst that can happen
Ramita Navai 11 July 2015
Migrants warm up beside a campfire on the Macedonian-Greek border (Photo Robert Atanasovski/Getty)
In the heat of the midday sun, the fields and woodlands between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia look idyllic: birds sing, the grass is smudged with wild poppies, all seems quiet. But this picture of pastoral peace is, I’m afraid, an illusion. This is Greece’s Wild West, a lawless and desperate place known as ‘The Jungle’, where people are beaten up every day.
‘It’s dangerous out there,’ says the fat Greek policeman standing with me, just north of the village of Idomeni. Then he waddles back to his car.
The predators in this jungle are Afghan people-smugglers, their prey the poor migrants who have struggled here from all over Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The steady crunch of gravel that carries through the air with the birdsong grows louder as we approach a railway line. From here, I can see a biblical vision of flight: a continual flood of refugees who have travelled to Greece by dinghy from Turkey and are now heading for the conifer forests that disappear into the hills that encircle us. Men and women carrying babies, pulling their children, spurred onwards by poverty and war, faces scorched by the sun. A group of backpacked Syrians pick their way along the tracks. ‘Goodbye Syria!’ cries a young man, flicking a peace sign. In the distance there are more; a long line of them grinding along a road.
I walk towards the woodland. The migrants are hidden from view in the shrub, but as the tall grass gives way to the trees, they become visible. Hundreds crouch in the vegetation. Most of them are bound for Germany or Austria. Some shelter in abandoned outhouses. The new arrivals are easy to spot, limping and shoeless, airing calloused feet swollen by days of walking. A woman exposes her toddler’s little body, blanketed in red welts from the midges and mosquitos that descend in their swarms at dusk — along with the snakes.
At a clearing ahead, a charity’s jeep pulls up, followed by a foreign TV crew. The camera rolls as medicine is distributed. And then I hear them, talking in Dari: the Afghan people smugglers.
Between dick jokes, they are discussing business: how many have you got? Who is going to cross tonight? These are the men the fat copper was afraid of, smugglers now posing as refugees in a queue for gauzes and pills. Migrants exploiting migrants: they are hard to spot at first. But soon you can pick them out from a distance — the swagger, the flamboyant hair, all undercuts and mohawks, the leather wristbands and the flashy trainers.
A Syrian man was shot in the head a few months ago when he resisted a robbery. Increasingly there are reports of rapes. A young Afghan jogs towards us gripping his head. A dribble of blood leaks from a gash on his cheekbone. His face is bruised black. He says the Macedonian police beat him as he emerged from the other side of the forest. If it’s not thieves, it is the police.
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Legal Case of the Week >
Legal Case of the Week: Aleksei Kungurov
On 20 December 2016 blogger Aleksei Kungurov was convicted and imprisoned for 2.5 years by a court in Tiumen for a post criticizing the government’s military operation in Syria. As RFE/RL reported, prosecutors said Kungurov's blog was sympathetic to terrorism and the court found Kungurov guilty of 'publicly justifying terrorism.' The blog post had been published soon after the beginning o f Russia's intervention in Syria last year. RFE/RL describes Kungurov as 'an activist who has been involved with strident nationalist and anti-Western groups, argued in the October 2015 post that the extremist group Islamic State (IS), which is banned in Russia, had characteristics of an actual government. He also asserted that President Vladimir Putin's intervention was aimed primarily at propping up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and not, as the Kremlin has said, defeating IS militants and other "terrorists" in the country.' RFE/RL notes that the Sova Center, based in Moscow, said there was nothing illegal in Kungurov's post. The Memorial Human Rights Centre included Kungurov in its list of 'political prisoners.'
The day Kungurov was convicted, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a statement calling on Russian authorities to release him. Nina Ognianova, CPJ's Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, said: "We call on Russian authorities in Tyumen to immediately release Aleksei Kungurov and drop all charges against him. Since the Kremlin's control over traditional media is nearly absolute, blogs have become an important platform in Russia for independent reporting, analysis, commentary, debate, and information-sharing. Now authorities are contracting that space as well."
Photo of Aleksei Kungurov: RFE/RL
'Russian Blogger Convicted, Imprisoned For Post Criticizing Syria Intervention,' RFE/RL, 20 December 2016
'Russia jails blogger over post criticizing military action in Syria,' Committee to Protect Journalists, 20 December 2016
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Rockfreaks.net
Press return for full results.
Parken, Copenhagen, DEN - 11/7
Dropkick Murphys @ Folkets Park, Malmö, SWE
Eagles @ Royal Arena, Copenhagen, DEN
Riskee and the Ridicule
Body Bag Your Scene
by MAK on 12/7
Weeping Choir
by AP on 3/7
by AP on 18/6
by KW on 17/6
by RUB on 17/6
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats
A.A.Williams
A.A.Williams EP
Book Of Bad Decisions
Nowhere Now Here
Pkew Pkew Pkew
Optimal Lifestyles
by PP on 24/4
Authority Zero
Shook Ones
Body Feel
Makes Me Sick
Written by: PP on 22/08/2017 22:10:11
Should we be worried? "Resurrection" wasn't that good of an album if we're being honest, and the ninth album "Makes Me Sick" carries all the telltale signs of an album that sounds more like a career extension than an inspired pop punk record. After all, until 2011's "Radiosurgery", the latter is exactly how you would categorize New Found Glory albums, save for maybe the pop and piano-driven oddity "Coming Home" from 2006. Yet, it's still a decent album with few faults, which speaks volumes about the songwriting talent Pundik, Gilbert & Co possess even on their bad days. So, let's dig right into it.
On paper, "Makes Me Sick" sounds pretty much like an ideal New Found Glory album. Energetic pop punk songs characterized by bouncy riffs and an overall summery vibe that just feels infectious and cheerful all the way through. Pundik's nasal clean singing stays true to the band's origins, and the upbeat nature of the songs likewise suggests not much has changed from album-to-album.
Once you scratch away the surface, however, the flaws of the album become more apparent. For instance, the lyrical work is a far cry from their glory days. We've all sung our hearts out to the "Hit Or Miss" lyrics of "the needle on my record player has been wearing thin...This record has been playing since the day you've been with him", or to "Forget My Name", "My Friends Over You" and others like them. There aren't really such moments on "Makes Me Sick". For instance, "Call Me Anti-Social" succumbs to just complaining about it being a boring summer: "I'm trapped in another boring summer / While everyone is living it up / But it's way too hot to go outside / When I don't relate to anyone". Sure, it's a catchy song but not exactly one that incites a passionate response like on some of their classic material.
The press releases prior to the album's release were promising surprises sound wise, and that's true to some extent. There are some new ideas on the record, like the Hawaiian themed beach song "The Sound Of Two Voices", and the increased use of synth melodies in the background in general. Otherwise, the band rely on their tried and tested formula of high-energy pop punk with summery vibes all-around, and it's good enough!
But having been a fan of the band since their debut album "Nothing Gold Can Stay", what I miss is the youthful spirit and captivating lyricism of the older material, and the small twists in songwriting, whether a quirky vocal melody or a guitar line that caught your attention back then. "Happy Being Miserable" and "Barbed Wire" are catchy pop punk tracks as such; well-produced and well-oiled like a machine, but that's part of the problem. NFG on autopilot? Some of the album sounds exactly like that, so it's a good thing the band's songwriting is as good as it is to drive the album home safe and sound, albeit without much flair or spectacular moments to write home about.
Download: The Cheapest Thrill, Party On Apocalypse, Barbed Wire
For the fans of: Fireworks, Veara, State Champs
Listen: Facebook
Hopeless Records
Related Items | How we score?
© Copyright MMXIX Rockfreaks.net.
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Business, general
Abstracts » Business, general
AltaVista's IPO postponement creates more worry for investors
Internet search engine company AltaVista is delaying its initial public offering in the wake of stock market jitters and the company's own investor's lack of confidence. AltaVista owner CMGI is considering spinning off part of the company after having bought the search site for $2.3 billion in 1999. As with most business-to-consumer Internet companies, AltaVista has been reaping great losses on small revenue.
Author: Bulkeley, William M.
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Publication Name: The Wall Street Journal Western Edition
Subject: Business, general
Telegraph & other communications, Securities prices, Evaluation, Internet service providers, Internet service provider, Securities, Going public (Securities), Initial public offerings, AltaVista Co., CMGI Inc., CMGI
Gillette's Zeien is retiring from helm after eight years; Hawley is successor
Alfred M. Zeien took the helm of Gillette Co. in 1991 when its market capitalization was $6 billion. Now it is $63 billion and he will retire at age 68. He will be replaced by a 1961 Gillette veteran, Michael C. Hawley, who rose to the top from accounting assistant. He will take over the top spot April 15 but his position of president and COO will remain unfilled.
Michael C. Hawley to take top job April 15
Author: Bulkeley, William M., Johannes, Laura
Executive changes & profiles, Cutlery and Flatware (except Precious) Manufacturing, Cutlery, Razor Blades & Razors ex Electric, Officials and employees, Abstract, Gillette Co., G, Personal care appliances industry, Razors, Shaving
Your face or mine? Ask a computer; feature recognition systems match facial 'landmarks' to determine positive ID
Visionics Inc., Miros Corp., and Viisage Technology Inc. are marketing face recognition systems. Among the organizations using this equipment are law enforcement agencies, banks, airports, casinos, and motor vehicle departments. The system reduces an image to a matrix of a dozen points on a face, which it can then quickly compare to a database of images. The current generation of home computers are powerful enough to match a picture against 60 million images in a minute.
Computer peripheral equipment, not elsewhere classified, Other Computer Peripheral Equipment Manufacturing, Image Processing Equip, Statistical Data Included, Usage, Product development, Technology development, Image processing equipment, Image processing equipment industry, Imaging systems, Electronic surveillance, Physiognomy, Imaging technology, Image interpretation, Computer assisted, Computer assisted image interpretation
Subjects list: United States, Equipment and supplies
Abstracts: A note on interpersonal and communication skills for IS professionals: evidence of positive influence. A note on SERVQUAL reliability and validity in information system service quality measurement
Abstracts: Ford deals with it: the car company's retail adventure has not been a success, with slow sales and dealer hostility
Abstracts: Multicriteria preference disaggregation for classification problems with an application to global investing risk
Abstracts: Network ad sales rise, but local stations see slowdown. Radio produces both gains and skeptics. Advertisements on radio stations rise 6%
Abstracts: Mercedes ads shuck stodgy aura for hipper tone. Ford to debut ad at same time globally. Ford to sell safety to kids on Nickelodeon
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RetroReview : April Amiga Apocalypse – Part Five
Dateline 27th April 2012
Apart from establishing that the Amiga was far superior to the Atari ST, if you were still playing 8-bit computer games that the Amiga was the way to go and providing an albeit expensive alternative to the fledgling console market, what else have we learned about the Amiga during the merry month of April ?
Well the variety of titles were there. There were plenty of groundbreakers too – Another World, Flashback, Kick Off, Sensible Soccer and Populous to name but a few. The fact that all of these ended up on consoles goes to show the quality of the games and their enduring appeal which very much catered to all markets. The best thing though is that, unlike the PC at the time, the Amiga was very much at it’s best whether it was used for programming, educational uses or games. The PC simply couldn’t hold a candle at this time if you wanted to play games software.
So, with a last hoorah we wave farewell to the Amiga with much sadness in the heart, but look forward to May where the Sega Master System steps into the limelight…..
1990's, Amiga 1200, Amiga 500, Buying, Car Boot, Charity Shops, Game Rage, PC Games, Platform Games, Retro Memories, Review, Sports Games, Top Tens
RetroReview : April Amiga Apocalypse – Part Four
When I first got my Amiga it came with just 3 games, of which 2 were awesome Ocean Software releases (Batman The Movie and New Zealand Story). The other was F-18 Interceptor and was my first taste of a flight simulator. It was only enjoyable for it’s San Francisco surroundings and the fact you could roll the plane under the Golden Gate Bridge. Otherwise it was confined to the back of the drawer. The rest of the software was educational and most of it was a waste of time especially the word processor as it needed another 512K worth of memory in order to be able to save things. Thus my first few pages of my first draft of a new Pink Panther movie was never saved. I think considering how the Steve Martin remakes turned out, it was a crying shame mine was never saved and unleashed on the world.
The very package that got me started all those years ago......educational software not pictured
Anyhoooooooo no more crying over spilt milk, time for some more Amiga goodness…….
1990's, Amiga 1200, Amiga 500, Arcade Conversions, Bad Games, Buying, Car Boot, Charity Shops, Game Rage, Movie Games, Platform Games, Retro Memories, Review
RetroReview : April Amiga Apocalypse – Part Three
Apr 23rd
Dateline 23rd April 2012
I’ve always been asked what sort of games I prefer. Do I prefer First Person Shooters ? Well I like the original Goldeneye on the N64 and the early Medal Of Honour/Call Of Duty games, but not the modern versions. I love sports games, although playing anything pre Kick Off is now nothing more than a retro chore (with the exception of Emlyn Hughes’ Football). Puzzle games are OK, but give me Tetris and I’ll be happy. I love good arcade conversions and original games but I am not the world’s biggest fan of film and TV tie ins. So this next batch of Amiga games from my youth cover a lot of bases with the usual predictably mixed results…..
Which game genre do you prefer ? Strip poker games not included of course......
1990's, Amiga 1200, Amiga 500, Arcade Conversions, Bad Games, Buying, Car Boot, Game Rage, Homebrew, Platform Games, Retro Memories, Review, Sports Games, Top Tens
RetroReview : April Amiga Apolcalypse – Part Two
Dateline 21st April 2012
This is most definitely a trip down memory lane which I am going to relish. Looking back at some of the old Amiga games I used to play, it’s funny how many come back to surprise you and also some that shock you. I am hoping that the mix of games will at least give you an idea of the wealth of titles, the vast array of styles and a feel for what makes me love this machine so much.
Oooooooo the controversy.....
Just out of interest I have decided to exclude Kick Off 2 from this list, purely because I have banged on about it in the past and I’d like to save it for a footie retrospective once we get to the 2012 European Championships in the summer.
So away we go with our first batch of Amiga games…..
1980's, 1990's, Amiga 1200, Amiga 500, Bad Games, Buying, Car Boot, Charity Shops, Game Rage, Movie Games, Platform Games, Retro Memories, Review, Sports Games
RetroReview : April Amiga Apocalypse – Part One
The Commodore Amiga – a phrase that brings tears of happiness to the eyes of myself. Oh how many happy hours were wiled away in front of my monitor playing on a computer system which had been purchased purely for educational purposes. Yeah right, as if that was going to happen. You know that’s gone out of the window when your Dad starts buying American Civil War games and wants you to come off so he can have a quick pop at E-Motion.
The sort of photo that weeps nostalgia - many happy hours were spent loading this up
1980's, 1990's, Amiga 1200, Amiga 500, Arcade Conversions, Buying, Game Rage, Movie Games, Platform Games, Retro Memories, Review, Top Tens
The Retrosection Guide To Car Booting
The weather in March was lovely. Now we have entered April the weather has turned for the worse. Hail, thunder and torrential rain coupled with colder than average temperatures can mean only one thing. Yes, it’s Car Boot season once again. Ah yes you can almost smell the hotdogs and burgers from the comfort of your own room. Never has there been more fun from being crammed into a tiny field at 7am on a Sunday morning than by going to a booty.
A perfect site for sore retro eyes - there be bargains to be had out there !
So here are a few tips to keep you on your guard during the next few months :
1980's, 1990's, 2000's, Amiga 1200, Amiga 500, Atari Lynx, Atari VCS, Buying, Car Boot, Charity Shops, Commodore C64, Game Gear, Gameboy Advance (GBA), Gamecube, Handheld Console, Megadrive, NES, Nintendo, Nintendo 64, PC Games, Playstation 1, Playstation 2, Sega, Sega Dreamcast, Sega Saturn, SNES, XBOX
RetroComment : GAME saved, but what now to prevent GAME over ?
It’s finally good to see the future of GAME has now been resolved. The games industry needs a presence on the high street rather than being available in shops selling carrots, slabs of meat and dog food. Whilst it is good that you can get games at supermarkets, this particular product and market needs a specialist retailer – regardless of what your opinions are of the people who work there and their technical abilities.
What can be done to prevent the fire sale that sparked the collapse of the GAME group ?
So what has GAME got to do going forward. From the suggestion box these spurt forth like a spurting thing :
2000's, Bad Games, Buying, Charity Shops, Game Rage, Handheld Console, Nintendo, PC Games, Playstation 3, Sega, XBox 360
RetroReview : Mega Drive March Madness Part 6
Apr 1st
Dateline 31st March 2012
As we say goodbye to the Mega Drive, in closing it is worth saying that this is one of my most favourite machines ever. It looked cool, it played your arcade favourites and brought some arcade quality into the home, producing new gems such as Streets of Rage and Sonic that are iconic masterpieces of video games programming.
We've played some classics and we've had some fun but for Sega Mega Drive March Madness we must move on
Of course there are the downsides too. Each game cost around £40.00, it suffered from some lazy conversions compared to the SNES, the Mega Drive II wasn’t as cool as the original console and at the end of the day it was being flogged to death for every last drop of technological advancement it had (the Mega CD and 32X)
One final thought – when the Mega Drive first launched in Japan it was possible to import Mega Drives into the UK Legally. These were known as “grey imports” which led to much confusion. We all thought the Mega Drive was black and wondered if we did get one, it would be a dodgy grey coloured version. Oh how we had much to learn……..and we all waited for the original UK release. Well my mates did, I had to wait until 1994 to buy a second hand version from a chap at college.
Anyway I digress – here are the final few Mega Drive March Madness games………..
1980's, 1990's, Amiga 500, Arcade Conversions, Bad Games, Buying, Game Gear, Game Rage, Megadrive, Movie Games, Platform Games, Retro Memories, Review, Sega, Sports Games, Top Tens
Mar 31st
Dateline 30th March 2012
Sequels and licences, two of my least favourite things. They go together like wood chippings and jam and there are far too many inferior examples of them across all formats of video games. They still produce them to this day, with video game developers chasing that last penny from us all in return for something that stinks worse than last night’s curry.
They don't get much badder than this - and not in a good way
Expect this to be a mix of the sublime and the ridiculous as we enter the next part of Mega Drive March Madness……….
1990's, Arcade Conversions, Bad Games, Car Boot, Commodore C64, Game Rage, Megadrive, Movie Games, Platform Games, Retro Memories, Review, Sega, Sports Games, Top Tens
Dateline 29 March 2012
The great joy with Mega Drive collecting is the fact that there are masses of games to pick up and play. Unlike cassette based games, where tapes may have stretched or warped with time, or disk based games where the disc may be damaged or simply perished due to the age, the only real problem you can find with cartridges is a few dirty connectors. Give them a spruce up and more or less 8 or 9 out of 10 will work without any problems. They are easy to store if out of the original box, and if you aren’t fussy about all the original packaging they can be picked up as cheaply as £1.00, or even less if you get lucky.
Clever that isn't it ?
Anyway here are some more games that may or may not appeal for the Mega Drive as March Madness continues……
1990's, Arcade Conversions, Buying, Car Boot, Megadrive, Platform Games, Retro Memories, Review, Sega, Top Tens
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SCP-774 / Discussion
Forum » Per Page Discussions / Per page discussions » SCP-774
Started by: Wikidot
Date: 30 Aug 2011 04:42
Number of posts: 38
This is the discussion related to the wiki page SCP-774.
Lock Thread Move Thread
Salman Corbette 30 Aug 2011 04:52
The name of this SCP is probably my favourite ever. Yes, even better than deserted hospital.
Unfold by Salman Corbette, 30 Aug 2011 04:52
tunedtoadeadchannel 30 Aug 2011 04:53
I am the greatest.
Unfold by tunedtoadeadchannel, 30 Aug 2011 04:53
Anaxagoras 30 Aug 2011 04:55
Sorry, but this doesn't really work for me. First off, that's an impossibly short formula for something with an effect like this. There's no way this stuff isn't naturally produced all the time. I'm also unsure why the Foundation is experimenting with this. The fact that it does more than kill you in a somewhat strange way is not exactly apparent, and I'm not sure the Foundation would pick up on that before they just file this away, never to see the light of day again.
Unfold by Anaxagoras, 30 Aug 2011 04:55
DrEverettMann 30 Aug 2011 05:00
Okay, lengthened the formula. Better?
And the Foundation is experimenting with it because it can. Because a naturally occurring substance is not going to have the effects this stuff does. In the early stages, they likely just wanted to see how far the effect progressed, if it would create a pattern from the entire skeleton if given enough time, then to see if it could incorporate foreign bone. Then to see if there was a reason for the patterns. By that point, the weirder stuff would have started to happen.
The Foundation doesn't just lock stuff away. Sometimes, it also prods to see what happens.
Unfold by DrEverettMann, 30 Aug 2011 05:00
As for the latter point, I suppose, though it seems rather wasteful of resources, especially since I see no mention that this only works on humans. But the formula is still bugging me. If it's that simple, it will occur naturally. And then the human race is extinct. And that, more than anything else, is what breaks suspension of disbelief for me.
Pig_catapult 31 Aug 2011 02:44
This could be very easily remedied by nixing the black bar and just saying [REDACTED], IMHO.
Piffy is an SCP Foundation Moderator, Lv. 9001 Squishy Wizard, and Knight of the Red Pen.
Unfold by Pig_catapult, 31 Aug 2011 02:44
thedeadlymoose 31 Aug 2011 03:36
Unfold by thedeadlymoose, 31 Aug 2011 03:36
Boom. Done.
I like this. I like that it's quirky and strange. I like that the Foundation is prodding this to see what happens (lock something up just to be safe? how boring…) and I like that they've kept one of the victims alive for twelve years. And as much as I am loathe to stroke yoric's ego farther, I also like the name "Whistlebones". ;)
Communism will win 30 Aug 2011 05:31
The pictures are really cool, but the article itself doesn't do much for me.
Unfold by Communism will win, 30 Aug 2011 05:31
anqxyr 30 Aug 2011 06:18
The implication that it's trying to create some twisted chorus, with every victim playing specific melody, recreating terminated "instruments", and who knows what would happen when it's done… this is beautiful.
Unfold by anqxyr, 30 Aug 2011 06:18
MisterBibs 30 Aug 2011 17:07
What disturbed me was the casualness of "Oh, we kept a guy alive for twelve years without a skeleton" bit.
Unfold by MisterBibs, 30 Aug 2011 17:07
minmin 01 Sep 2011 16:30
I think that part wouldn't hurt as much as the bones growing out of skull part, since you're still being propped up and all with the floppy body.
Unfold by minmin, 01 Sep 2011 16:30
iamtycho 31 Aug 2011 04:02
Works for me- not enough to upvote, but it sounds, well, exactly like something the Foundation would do. Maybe I'm just jaded.
Unfold by iamtycho, 31 Aug 2011 04:02
Pineapple of Despair 01 Sep 2011 15:22
Absolutely disgusting and disturbing on so many levels. +1
Unfold by Pineapple of Despair, 01 Sep 2011 15:22
atomicthumbs 01 Sep 2011 17:59
This is absolutely horrifying.
Unfold by atomicthumbs, 01 Sep 2011 17:59
Marr965 03 Sep 2011 13:12
Sorry, but this just doesn't make sense.
One: This stuff would be more likely to go bang than to attack bone. Azides have the chemical formula N3-. Inorganic azides are hideously unstable. This should probably be Euclid at best, purely for the "Oops, the stuff exploded. Again." factor.
Two: Organic azides could do somthing, potentially. However, azides are explosophores, which means they give organic molecules explosive properties. So again, even if it's an organoazide, it should be Euclid for the "Explosions ahoy." factor.
These eventually fuse the bones of the skull, rendering the mandible immobile.
How did they keep 17 alive for so long with an immobile mandible?! Sure, implant supports, but you're going to have to feed him intravenously.
Fourth: Sorry, the skulls look like WHAT?! How the hell do you clean the things?!
I'd really like to upvote this, honestly I would, cause the idea and the name are cool, but this just doesn't make chemical or logical sense. Downvoted, with reluctance.
Unfold by Marr965, 03 Sep 2011 13:12
PureQuestion 03 Sep 2011 14:54
Not making sense/defying logic is sort of what makes things SCPs, isn't it.
Unfold by PureQuestion, 03 Sep 2011 14:54
Voct 03 Sep 2011 16:21
Yeah, but this doesn't make sense in the same way that SCP-4237-J doesn't make sense.
Really, a molecule does this? Something as simple as a halogen friggin' AZIDE?
It's like positing a word with magical powers "and it's two letters long… and one of those letters is L".
Make it a protein, an enzyme, a prion, a microbe, picotechnology… something complex, and unlikely to already have industrial use.
Unfold by Voct, 03 Sep 2011 16:21
Salman Corbette 04 Sep 2011 05:27
As well, nx from the chat says:
[23:24] nx There are only five halogen azides
Unfold by Salman Corbette, 04 Sep 2011 05:27
Sophia Light 04 Sep 2011 07:04
Hey, this is the Foundation- our motto is practically "Home of the Sixth Halogen Azide."
I'm just saying, I don't know enough about chemistry to tell if that's even plausible, but pseudoscience is a time-honored tradition.
Unfold by Sophia Light, 04 Sep 2011 07:04
It's like positing a word with magical powers "and it's two letters long… and one of those letters is L, and the other one is a vowel".
This is the SCP Foundation, home to all those SECRET vowels that NOBODY ELSE KNOWS ABOUT.
"Azide" = the letter L.
"Halogen" = a vowel.
Does that make more sense now?
Bland 04 Sep 2011 11:42
Somewhere out there, the Foundation has a NUMBER no one knows about.
Letters are easy, since different languages, with different alphabets and pronunciations exist.
As for halogen asides… I don't know any chemistry. Maybe an atom that shouldn't be there, some long string that makes no sense is in there, or maybe they lied to you.
Last edited on 04 Sep 2011 11:56 by Bland Show more
Unfold by Bland, 04 Sep 2011 11:42
"I don't know any chemistry."
Yeah, it shows. No offense intended.
There are lots of better places in chemistry to shove something magical. The super-sparse areas like halogen azides are exhaustively researched and totally known.
One of the reasons we (that's "we the writers", not "we the Foundation") [expunge] and [redact] data is that if we describe something fully, it will be more obvious why it doesn't work the way we claim it does. Same reason the Star Trek technical manuals don't tell you how to build a warp drive.
Look, if we were to take, say, a decapeptide - that's barely long enough to be an aptamer, let alone a protein - and limit ourselves to just the 20 proteinogenic amino acids found in humans (instead of the 21 found in eukaryotic life or the 22 encoded by the universal genetic code - and let's ignore the many, many non-proteinogenic amino acids)…
right there, we've got 20^10 possibilities - that's 10240000000000, which is over 1400 times greater than the human population of the Earth. And that's just for primary structure (that is, the sequence); a decapeptide is barely big enough to manifest secondary structure, let alone tertiary or quaternary. Increase the number of units in the linear sequence by as little as a factor of 10 (and still limiting ourselves to just 20 possibilities for each unit) and we're suddenly up past, literally, a million billion trillion googol possible combinations. That's more than a million billion trillion quadrillion quintillion times the estimated number of electrons in the universe.
That gives us plenty of room to fuck around and claim that one particular combination is a magical anomalous chemical that does spooky things.
"Take a standard deck of 52 playing cards. If you assemble three of the 8s, and one of the face cards, and hold them in your hand, you — or anyone who tries this — will get magical powers. No, you don't have to be dealt them, just pull them out of the deck and hold them in one hand. But which three 8s, and which face card, and which hand you must hold them in - ah, that's a secret!"
That's 96 possible combinations, more than 19 times the number of halogen azides.
I see the math points you raise - and I've at least LOOKED at the azides now. All valid points.
So what would be a better suggestion? Something that "incorporates part of the molecular structure of…" or one of the crystal structures, a protein, etc…
I'd love a "ball and stick" picture and they're easy to get of other stuff.
Anaxagoras 04 Sep 2011 15:14
Just redact it entirely. It can't be a halogen azide. That just doesn't make sense for the reasons already outlined. I mean, the description of the chemical structure really adds absolutely nothing to the article. It can stand without it.
Unfold by Anaxagoras, 04 Sep 2011 15:14
thedeadlymoose 03 Sep 2011 21:33
re: Azides - I'm not an expert or even close to it, but couldn't this just be an inorganic azide that by all rights should have gone unstable but didn't? And had these weird effects? Making this… you know, anomalous? Voct, are there really that few combinations that fall under halogen azide? (If so, disregard what I just said.)
How exactly does an IV interfere with suspension of disbelief? o_O
Easily. Immersion in a bath of some kind of cleaning agent that you know won't dissolve the bone.
So at best this doesn't make chemical sense. The logic sounds fine to me.
Last edited on 03 Sep 2011 21:34 by thedeadlymoose Show more
Unfold by thedeadlymoose, 03 Sep 2011 21:33
"Voct, are there really that few combinations that fall under halogen azide?"
Confirmed. There are really that few.
FN3, ClN3, BrN3, IN3, and AtN3.
Yup, and the latter is hideously unstable, because 210At has a half-life of 8.1 hours, and 211At has a half-life of 7.2 hours. Either way, even if it doesn't fall to bits (because of chemical reactions), it's going to fall to bits (because of nuclear reactions), and then fall to bits again (because of chemical reactoins triggered by the energy released in the nuclear reaction).
eric_h 04 Sep 2011 17:54
This whole thing about the halogen azide didn't register with me, since I know as much chemistry as I remember from high school in 1979. But the principle is important: [REDACTED] or unexplained science is less likely to break suspension of disbelief than obviously incorrect science. Redacting the "halogen azide" bit is a good place to let the reader fill in something he thinks might have this anomalous effect.
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Unfold by eric_h, 04 Sep 2011 17:54
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Leti and Soitec launch Substrate Innovation Center as part of latest five-year partnership
Grenoble-based micro/nanotechnology R&D center CEA-Leti and Soitec of Bernin, France, which makes engineered substrates including silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers, have announced a new collaboration and five-year partnership agreement to drive R&D on advanced engineered substrates, including SOI and beyond.
The agreement extends the traditional Leti-Soitec partnership to include the launch of a prototyping hub associating equipment partners to pioneer new materials. Located on Leti’s campus, the Substrate Innovation Center will feature access to shared Leti-Soitec expertise around a focused pilot line. Key benefits for partners include access to early exploratory sampling and prototyping, collaborative analysis, and early learning at the substrate level, eventually leading to streamlined product viability and roadmap planning at the system level.
Leading chip makers and foundries worldwide use Soitec products to manufacture chips for consumer applications targeting performance, connectivity and efficiency with extremely low energy consumption. Applications include smart phones, data centers, automotive, imagers, and medical and industrial equipment, but this list is growing, along with the need for flexibility to explore new applications starting at the substrate level. At the Substrate Innovation Center, Leti and Soitec engineers will explore and develop innovative substrate features, expanding to new fields and applications with a special focus on 4G/5G connectivity, artificial intelligence, sensors and display, automotive, photonics, and edge computing.
“The Substrate Innovation Center will unleash the power of substrate R&D collaboration beyond the typical product roadmaps, beyond the typical constraints,” says Soitec’s CEO Paul Boudre. “The Substrate Innovation Center is a one-of-a-kind opportunity open to all industry partners within the semiconductor value chain.”
Whereas a typical manufacturing facility has limited flexibility to try new solutions and cannot afford to take risks with prototyping, the mission is to become the world’s preferred hub for evaluating and designing engineered substrates to address the future needs of the industry, inclusive of all the key players, from compound suppliers to product designers. Using quality-controlled cleanroom facilities and the latest industry-grade equipment and materials, Leti and Soitec engineers will conduct testing and evaluation at all levels of advanced substrate R&D.
“Leti and Soitec’s collaboration on SOI and differentiated materials, which extends back to Soitec’s launch in 1992, has produced innovative technologies that are vital to a wide range of consumer and industrial products and components,” comments Leti’s CEO Emmanuel Sabonnadière. “This new common hub at Leti’s campus marks the next step in this ongoing partnership. By jointly working with foundries, fabless, and system companies, we provide our partners with a strong edge for their future products.”
Soitec and CEA renew partnership for further five years
Tags: Leti Soitec engineered substrates
Visit: www.soitec.com
Visit: www.leti.fr
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Sizzle & Fizzle: Highs and Lows from the Last Week in S.F. Music
Sizzle • The long-awaited SFJAZZ Center opened in Hayes Valley with a…
Wed Jan 30th, 2013 4:00am By SF Weekly Staff
Sizzle • English pop star Patrick Wolf spent much of January hanging…
Wed Jan 23rd, 2013 4:00am By SF Weekly Staff
Boedekker Park: Its Facelift Could Revitalize the Neighborhood
Greeting the new year with bulldozers and the boast of a rare…
Wed Jan 23rd, 2013 4:00am By Katie Tandy
Man Shot to Death in Hayes Valley; Homicide No. 63
An unidentified man was killed Tuesday night in a shooting incident in…
Tue Dec 4th, 2012 10:23pm By Erin Sherbert
Hey, Foodies, Leave Those Trick-or-Treaters Alone
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“Dunnie’s one of the best” Shay
Shay on Richard Dunne:
“Dunnie is one of the best centre-halves I have ever played behind and it will be a bit strange to play with him at club level having only done so for Ireland before. He’s a fantastic player.”
Shay in his new Manchester City strip
Text Messages:
“He’s dropped me the odd text over the last few days, and it was good to hook up with him. We go back over a few years with the Irish squad and we know each other well.”
On working together:
“I’ll need to get to know the rest of the lads here and work with them as well, but the centre half & goalkeeper is quite an important partnership. Richard and I have played together a lot for Ireland, and hopefully we’ll improve on that as well.”
Shay on Stephen Ireland:
“Stephen has been at the top of his game. He is a fantastic talent. What with Stephen, Richard and myself being here then (Republic boss) Mr Trappatoni may be coming to our stadium a bit more often!”
On being a 32-year old:
“David James is still flying at 38 or 39, he and Brad Friedel probably had the best seasons of their career last year. That gives me encouragement because I feel I am relatively young for a goalkeeper, although I have been around for quite a while.”
“I do feel that the best years are still ahead of me, there’s always room for improvement and that’s what I am aiming for.”
Source: MCFC.co.uk
2 thoughts on ““Dunnie’s one of the best” Shay”
Johnny on 4. February 2009
We would have immortalised you. Now youll go to your finish up another nobody. Goodbye shay.
DC on 7. February 2009
Well, it happened! Saw the first glimpse of Shay in a Man City shirt on tv – VERY weird! He made 4 great saves to ensure a clean sheet – now where have we heard that before! I think Newcastle were robbed by losing Shay for under 10 million! How come City were reputedly prepared to pay £65 million for Buffon and Shay goes for under 10 million?! Something not quite right there!
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Outdoors 426182381
DNR boss credits public pressure for wins at Legislature
By Tony Kennedy Star Tribune
June 3, 2017 — 4:55pm
Grassroots lobbying by hunters, anglers, campers and trail riders swayed the 2017 Minnesota Legislature to change course on key funding and policy issues in a rally that’s being cheered by Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Landwehr.
Lawmakers in St. Paul initially ignored, bashed or counterattacked the DNR’s agenda this year, but a public outcry turned the tables, Landwehr said. The agency ultimately achieved its primary goals of raising user fees, defending the state’s environmental buffer strip law and blocking proposals that sought to stop the DNR from adding to its holdings of public lands.
“Given where we started … it was a huge victory,” Landwehr said in an interview. “It could have been a completely different outcome.”
Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen, R-Alexandria, a committee chairman who helped unify proposals from the Senate, House and Gov. Mark Dayton, said there would have been no action on the DNR’s central request for fee increases if outdoors enthusiasts had not spoken up.
“I know the House wasn’t up for it,” Ingebrigtsen said. “But then we heard from people.”
Ingebrigtsen, chairman of the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Finance Committee said he was pleased with what got done even though the DNR was snubbed on its request for $35 million in bonding money for seriously deferred maintenance on 2,700 public buildings and trails around the state. The approved allotment was $15 million.
“Hopefully we can put together a lot [of bonding dollars] next year,” Ingebrigtsen said.
Landwehr said Tuesday’s signing of the DNR budget bill will raise the agency’s revenues by 15 percent, mostly by hiking fees for hunting, fishing, snowmobile and ATV registration and state park visits. It should allow the agency to maintain its status quo on fish and wildlife management, park operations and other core missions before inflation eats up the funding increase in another five or six years.
The price of a deer-hunting license will rise to $34, from $30. Nonresidents will pay $185 to hunt deer, up from $165. Fishing licenses for state residents will increase $3, to $25. For nonresidents, the increase will be $6, to $51. All hunting and fishing increases start March 1, 2018.
Motorized recreation fees and state park permit fees go up next month. Effective July 1, three-year registration for a snowmobile will cost $105, up from $75. A yearly state park sticker will jump to $35, from $25. A daily park pass goes to $7, up from $5.
Higher watercraft registration fees, including a surcharge to help fight aquatic invasive species, were proposed by not approved.
Landwehr and Ingebrigtsen both said the linchpin to passing the budget bill was overcoming a standoff with farmers over the state’s new buffer law. Spearheaded by Dayton, it requires farmers to plant perennial vegetation along public waterways, including ditches, to stop an epidemic of run-off pollution.
Ingebrigsten said lots of legislators weren’t going to vote for the DNR’s fee increases unless the clean-water restrictions were eased. But he said Dayton held firm and achieved a settlement by making temporary hardship exceptions and making some compensation available for taking tillable acres out of production.
“The governor wasn’t going to move and we got to a point of reason on this and that’s how it got done,” Ingebrigsten said.
The DNR received valuable support for higher license fees from the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association. But the groups wanted and received better earmarking for funds derived from deer tags. Landwehr said the DNR is committed to introducing statutory language next year to tie deer license money to a dedicated account for deer management.
Here’s how the DNR landed on other game and fish issues:
Land acquisition. Some Republicans proposed language that would have stopped the DNR from acquiring new land for preservation and recreation, without selling an equal amount of existing land. But in every case, “no-new-public-lands” clauses were stricken.
Legacy Funds. The Legislature approved this year’s Legacy Amendment bill without substantially changing projects recommended for funding by an advisory committee of citizens and legislators. But the DNR was disappointed to see $22 million appropriated from the Legacy Amendment’s Clean Water Fund — instead of the state general fund — to help pay for buffer strip implementation.
Lead shot. The DNR and governor have wanted to ban the use of it in favor of non-toxic ammunition on certain state hunting lands. Many legislators who oppose the shift convinced the DNR to accept a two-year moratorium on making rules against lead shot. Meanwhile, researchers will study environmental damage.
Timber sales. Legislature gave strong support for increased timber production, a step favorable to habitat for grouse and deer.
Shiner minnows. The DNR won a reprieve against the proposed importation of shiner minnows from Arkansas, and agreed to study what could be done to make the practice safe. DNR specialists fear that shiner imports could open a new path for zebra mussels and other aquatic invasive species.
Also, scopes will be allowed on muzzleloaders, and blaze pink was approved as a high-visibility color for hunting.
PolyMet: Your questions answered
Chronic wasting disease deer testing, feeding ban to widen in Minnesota
Tiger Woods was on the practice range when the gates at the British Open opened Tuesday, and before long he was on the tee and ready to go. He just didn't go for very long.
Anderson: When day anglers depart, night belongs to bowfishermen
5 days in the Boundary Waters reveal untouched beauty, rugged terrain • Outdoors
Scientists map zebra mussel genome; now to cripple them • Outdoors
The 10 best Minnesota lakes to hook a walleye in June • Outdoors
Anderson: A fishy record-chasing tale involving Bud Grant • Outdoors
Anderson: Right partner, right weather and some well-coached fishing casts • Outdoors
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Gophers 468501413
Gophers star Lynch recommended for expulsion in third sexual assault allegation
A third sexual assault allegation has emerged against suspended University of Minnesota basketball standout Reggie Lynch.
By Rochelle Olson and Brandon Stahl Star Tribune staff writers
January 10, 2018 — 11:07am
University of Minnesota basketball star Reggie Lynch has been recommended for expulsion after a third woman has come forward accusing him of sexual assault.
The decision last week by the U’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action (EOAA) found that Lynch was responsible for misconduct in an alleged sexual assault that occurred on April 7, 2016. The EOAA’s finding against Lynch was issued the same day as a separate recommendation that he be suspended for the same student code violations in an unrelated incident that occurred three weeks later.
While being investigated by the EOAA for both complaints, Lynch played for the Gophers as the 2017 season kicked off.
Two women received notice last Thursday of the findings in their respective EOAA investigations. On Friday, they learned that Lynch appealed, asking for hearings before the Sexual Misconduct Subcommittee (SSMS). The committee can either affirm or reverse the recommendations. The SSMS proceedings are not public.
Lynch’s attorney, Lee Hutton, declined to comment. Another attorney, Ryan Pacyga, said Tuesday that he is also representing Lynch and will hold a news conference on Wednesday.
The latest report means that in April and May of 2016, Lynch was allegedly involved in incidents with three separate women. He was arrested in May 2016 in one incident, but Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman declined to prosecute. In the same case, the EOAA found he was not responsible for violating the school’s conduct code.
The 23-year-old Lynch, an Edina native, remains a member of the basketball team. Athletic director Mark Coyle and coach Richard Pitino said on Friday at Williams Arena that Lynch, who is in his fourth and final year of sports eligibility, is allowed to practice with the team, but not to play in games.
Citing student privacy rules, Coyle and Pitino repeatedly declined to confirm complaints against Lynch, even though the player was in the process of appealing the findings in both matters.
The EOAA notifies the athletic department whenever a student athlete is being investigated, said university spokesman Evan Lapiska. Although athletes are automatically suspended during criminal investigations, whether a student-athlete is suspended during or after EOAA investigation is at the athletic director and/or coach’s discretion.
“The university understands and shares the frustration that it cannot share more information,” Lapiska said in a statement. “However, federal privacy protections prohibit the university from sharing information related to any specific student discipline matter. The university takes its responsibility seriously and is committed to allowing for due process for all parties involved.”
At a Friday news conference at Williams Arena, Pitino said the university conducted background checks on Lynch before bringing him to campus and found “no red flags.”
In the case publicized last week, a woman who filed a complaint against Lynch in early October revealed that an investigator had found him responsible for a sexual assault in his dorm room at Roy Wilkins Hall on April 28, 2016. For his behavior in that incident, the EOAA investigator said Lynch should be suspended from the university and barred from campus until August 2020.
On Tuesday, Pitino confirmed Lynch was at practice Monday but “didn’t do much yesterday just because I’m more focused on the guys who are playing more than anything.”
“But he was there,” Pitino added. “It was more of a short [practice] because we’re so banged up right now, but he is there if need be with certain things.”
Pitino said that Lynch will continue to practice with the team.
Staff writers Marcus Fuller and Maura Lerner contributed to this report.
Rochelle Olson is a general assignment reporter for the Star Tribune. Olson has been on the quick strike team for three years, writing about a wide variety of topics. She specializes in the intersection of sports, business and culture.
raolson@startribune.com 612-673-1747 rochelleolson
Brandon Stahl is the federal courts and agencies reporter for the Star Tribune. He previously covered Hennepin county courts and was an investigative reporter at the paper, writing extensively about criminal justice, police and child protection. You can reach Stahl on Signal: 612-467-9841.
brandon.stahl@startribune.com 612-673-4626 b_stahl
Minneapolis Mohamed Noor moved outside Minnesota prison system for safety
You knew it was only a matter of time before the first bizarre incident took place involving automated ball and strike calls. But did you expected it to involved Viola, the MVP of the 1987 World Series?
Reggie Lynch: A timeline
Who steps up for Gophers with Lynch, Coffey out? Everyone
Gameday preview: Gophers, Northwestern both need a victory Wednesday
Another Reggie Lynch accuser 'happy this kind of conduct is being exposed'
Reggie Lynch won't play for Gophers during his appeal
Gophers' Lynch faces suspension until 2020
Hopkins guard Kerwin Walton sees interest soar after big AAU weekend • Gophers
Flecks sponsor Camp Ronald McDonald: 'We're not here just to coach football' • Gophers
Seven schools, including Mankato, Bemidji State, begin process of leaving WCHA • Gophers
Minnesota strong: U works to benefit from very deep 2020 prep class • Gophers
Minnehaha's Suggs wins third gold medal with USA basketball • Gophers
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EA Releases Details About 'Outer Rim' Expansion for 'Star Wars Battlefront'
Posted by Dominic Jones on 3/03/2016 5 comments
By: Dominic Jones
Back in January EA announced the first three expansion packs for Star Wars Battelfront and today they revealed all the details of the first one, "The Outer Rim". The expansion includes new maps on Sullust and Tatooine (Jabba's Palace specifically), new heroes, and a new game mode. Players fighting for the Empire will now have the opportunity to play as Greedo ("New playable hero characters will have you shooting first with Greedo" says the EA Star Wars website) and players on the side of the Rebel Alliance will get to play as Nien Numb.
About the new game mode, "Extraction", the EA Star Wars website says,
"Rebel forces have entered some of the most dangerous places in the Outer Rim in order to extract a valuable shipment of resources. Now they must bring the shipment to their transport ship before time runs out. The Empire has arrived to stop them from reaching the extraction point."
The "Outer Rim" expansion pack is available in the Star Wars Battlefront Season's Pass (which includes the other three expansions) for $69.99.
Source: EA Star Wars
Battlefront Dominic Jones Gaming News News Star Wars: Battlefront
R.J. said...
This is so shitty. The two new "heroes" already exist as Rodian and Sullustan character models. Extraction could be fun, but how about a new planet? Additional weaponry, armor pieces, star cards?
BadTucker said...
There is new weapons and cards etc in this update. New planets are coming however.
Still no Chewbacca?
Not really sure these two fit the description of heroes and villains. Secondary characters at best.
Kyle Babcock said...
Even less than my low expectations expected.
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Kings Of Leon Melt Faces In Cape Town
By SlickTiger 3 Comments
Categories: Being Slick, Events, Gig Reviews and Good Times
Tags: aha shake heartbreak, because of the times, black hotels, caleb followill, cape town, come around sundown, die heuwels fantasties, doef doef, kings of leon, kings of leon live, kol cape town, nathan followill, nokia, nokia vip lounge, only by the night, pyro, radioactive, sex on fire, shadowclub, taper jeans girl, youth and young manhood
“If it bleeds, it leads,” is generally accepted as the first rule of journalism, which is why I should have been sceptical right from the outset when I heard that Kings Of Leon were cocky, arrogant arseholes who were known to give the middle finger to crowds who don’t hang onto every note the band plays.
Their performance last night in Cape Town was anything but cocky and arrogant, which proves that either the rumours were a load of utter shite, or the band were suitably impressed by their reception last night when they took to the stage and melted our faces off.
I was lucky enough to have been given VIP passes by the kind folks at Nokia, but even better than that was the fact that I also bagged one of 20 VIP parking tickets that were randomly put into the 200 media packs they handed out.
It’s the only way to go, seriously. J-Rab and I drove right INTO THE STADIUM after passing through security checks that were so intense, at one of them they unleashed a sniffer dog on us to make sure we weren’t packing any bombs to blow the place up (luckily I’m saving the bomb for when Maroon 5 come to play so I was safe).
Once inside we hopped in the lift, shot up to the fifth floor and sauntered into the Nokia suite where, like a typical blogger, I immediately started abusing the free drinks and taking pictures of the food.
We managed to catch the end of Shadowclub’s set which I was really impressed with. It’s a bit sad the stadium was basically empty at that stage because the guys put on a great show and played some killer blues/rock in the Strokes / Wolfmother / Black Rebel Motorcycle Club vein that would have gotten the crowd pretty pumped if there was one.
What quickly became apparent though was that while the Nokia lounge was seriously p1mping, it was pretty far away from the stage, and even with my camera on full zoom, this is what everything looked like:
A plan would have to be made… but not before another few rounds of drinks / bowls of biltong.
The Black Hotels followed Shadowclub and played a decent set, but sadly we missed quite a big chunk of it thanks to the varied distractions of the VIP lounge (whisky).
Unfortunately when it came to the SA bands, they were given such limited stage time that it felt like they were over before they’d really begun. On the plus side, their sound was surprisingly good and for once it didn’t sound like they were playing through rusty tin cans.
By the time Die Heuwels Fantasties took to the stage, the place was starting to really fill out and energy levels in the crowd were rising fast. Die Heuwels played like seasoned stadium veterans, but it wasn’t until Jack Parow joined them onstage for “Die Vraagstuk” that the crowd really started going batshit crazy.
From there on in, the night belonged to Kings Of Leon and I for one was truly blown away by their performance which, coming from a cynical basterd like myself, is saying a lot.
I started following KOL when Because Of The Times dropped and within weeks of getting my filthy mitts on that album, picked up Youth And Young Manhood and Aha Shake Heartbreak.
For me, the material in those three albums is some of the band’s best to date, which was why I fucking loved their set last night.
Sure, they played the four tracks that make up the entire catalogue most South Africans know (ie. “Sex On Fire”, “Use Somebody”, “Radioactive” and “Pyro”), but they also played at least 7 or 8 tracks from Because Of The Times and some classics like “Molly’s Chambers” and “Taper Jeans Girl” from their first two albums.
It was a nod to their die-hard fans to remind us that before they exploded into the mainstream with Only By The Night KOL was our band, not 5FM’s, and the music they wrote was the soundtrack to our lives that we heard at random house parties and played on epic road trips.
I know I sound like a typical music snob saying it, but there’s a very close connection you feel to a band before they get picked up by the mainstream that is never quite the same after their material gets blasted on high rotation on every radio and TV station known to man.
And don’t even get me started on remixes. I’ve heard “Sex On Fire” remixed so many times I start twitching involuntarily whenever I hear that song butchered on another “doef doef” beat.
In a sentence, I loved KOL’s performance last night because it made me remember why I used to love this band and judging from how fucking nuts the crowd went, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the people there last night go out and buy their first three albums.
Also, Nathan Followill is a fucking SICK drummer. If you’re going to watch them in Joburg, keep an eye on that man, he’s truly amazing to watch live – he pounds the living shit out of his skins, it’s beautiful.
Joburg, prepare yourselves for a concert you won’t soon forget, but take my advice and go out there and get their first three albums because listening to those songs live is nothing short of breath-taking.
Big up to Nokia for hooking a brother up. I love your work guys, after the concert we partied at the VIP lounge until they turned the lights on and then J-Rab asked if she could have the flowers and kind folks at Nokia were like “Sure, go wild.”
But most importantly – Kings Of Leon, thank you for an amazing show, you made a believer out of this cynical music snob and for the two hours you were onstage, became our band again
3 Responses to “Kings Of Leon Melt Faces In Cape Town”
1 Dylan
Right on! You hit the proverbial nail, kol blew my fucking sox off!
Great review, feel you on all points (except Sex on Fire, I sat the fuck down for that one)
Such a great show, no frills, just them at their best
3 Rabiah
great to know there are other REAL fans in Cape Town. From someone who was in the golden circle, I was actually embarrassed by all the people there that didn’t know the songs.
I was literally spazzing out for Taper Jean Girl and Four Kicks, and the morons in the crowd were looking at me as if I was crazy *WTF??* I cried REAL tears for Arizona and Knocked up, and I actually saw people leave during those songs. I started shouting “Nacho! Nacho!” when he was tuning the guitars before the show and nobody else knew what I was on about *SIGH*
Nevertheless, I was there for KOL, and they were unbelievable. No, it wasn’t Hammersmith-Apollo, or any of their pre Only by the Night live performances, and no, they didn’t play Trani, but they’re still MY Kings of Leon, and they were INCREDIBLE!!
« SlickTigers Movie Debut
Pappas Got A Brand New Tang »
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Prime Minister Modi Suprise announcement on Nov 8 again ?
Written by : SMTV24x7 | Fri, Nov 03, 2017, 04:21 PM
New Delhi Nov 3: Currently the people are recovering from the pain they have borne because of the structural reforms such as GST and Demonetization taken by the central government. Nov 8 marks the completion of one year of the demonitisation decesion taken by Prime minister Modi.
The RBI had introduced Rs 2000 note and new Rs 500 note after it had banned old Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes and many people have stood in ques for exchanging their old notes in banks.Many people even criticised the introduction of new Rs 2000 notes.
Currently, the government is working on the second round of demonitisation plan i.e to ban the 2000 note. The government is weighing pros and cons of the decisions.
# Many criminals/ Black money holders who have huge amounts of new Rs 2000 notes would be caught as many bank officials have allegedly helped few politicians and other to change there currency.
# People would appreciate the decesion and they would not suffer much because many people don't use high denomination of Rs 2000 as the availability of low denomination currency such as improved after introduction of Rs 200 notes.
# The government may face a backlash if huge amount of Rs 2000 notes turn up into banks similar to old notes .99 % of notes have returned to the banks
# Many traders and businessmen may suffer who deal with cash in their business activities.
Currently, the RBI has stopped printing the notes a few months ago and said that currently there are sufficient RS 2000 notes in the market and it would start circulating the notes when the demand arises.
But still, many people may not be surprised if the prime minister once again appears on the television on November 8 evening and announce demonitisation of RS 2000 note as they still remember the evening of last year that had affected many peoples lives.
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Supernatural: Die Dämonenjäger
Title Supernatural: Die Dämonenjäger
Medium Novel (fiction)
Creator(s) Jake Wesson
Publisher VGS
Link link to the German publisher's page
Purchase available only via Amazon Germany
Supernatural: Die Dämonenjäger (Supernatural: The Demonhunters) is a German language book published by VGS following the first four episodes of Season 1 (1.01 Pilot, 1.02 Wendigo, 1.03 Dead in the Water and 1.04 Phantom Traveler) almost to the letter, by even taking the dialogue straight from the episodes.
The book has been published in cooperation with German tv broadcaster PRO 7 and is featured as Issue #1 in a series of Supernatural publications, that also include the German language versions of Supernatural: Nevermore (German title: Sie sind unter uns - They are among us) and Supernatural: Witch's Canyon (German title: Die Rückkehr der Toten - Return of the Dead).
Strangely enough, despite the name of the author indicating that there might be an English Version as well, no English version of this book has been published.
Blurb (translation)
"Brothers Sam and Dean, who have been brought up as fighters against the Supernatural by their father, criss-cross the country to hunt demons, ghosts and other horrors. They encounter dark powers wherever they go and need to fight them to reach their goal: Find and kill the Evil who murdered their mother in a cruel and mysterious way 20 years ago."
Retrieved from "http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/index.php?title=Supernatural:_Die_Dämonenjäger&oldid=152357"
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I approach this new record in the same way I've approached every other new Lostprophets record, by hoping they've gone back to their roots, back to the sound and fury of Fake Sound of Progress. I have got all of their other albums though and I like them all, but for me nothing comes close to that first album.
I remember seeing them live in Leeds a few years back and hoping they'd play the title track of said album, but it never came, although they did play Shinobi vs Dragon Ninja.
Anyway enough about that, onto Weapons.
1. Bring 'em down
2. We Bring An Arsenal
3. Another Shot
4. Jesus Walks
5. A Song For Where I'm From
6. A Little Reminder That I'll Never Forget
7. Better Off Dead
8. Heart On Loan
9. Somedays
10. Can't Get Enough
Bring 'Em Down begins and immediately sounds like a bona fide set opener. Punchy beats, gang vocals and crunchy guitars, add to Ian Watkins recognisable voice.
It's instantly danceable and recognisable as a 'Prophets song. The closing minute of the song is pretty epic, with a breakdown featuring more electronics that will surely induce a pit or two.
The start of We Bring An Arsenal sounds like a footy chant. The music is cleaner and the production is exactly as you'd expect. It's poppy and tuneful and will only further increase their reputation as purveyors of radio friendly rock anthems.
Another Shot starts with anthemic instrumental electronics and pounding drums, but makes way for a gentile verse. It's a very heartfelt song, which is something that Lostprophets have been very good at creating recently. So far, I think this song is one of the standouts on Weapons. It may not be the most vibrant or upbeat song on the record, but it's got some great melody and feel to it.
Jesus Walks sounds like a cross between Liberation Transmission mixed with the melody of Katy Perry. It definitely shows off Ian Watkins knack for a good melody and the ability of 'Prophets to write a damn good tune. The same can be said for A Song For Where I'm From. It's got more punch and that semi-rock ballad vibe too it that which has hit of the summer, written all over it.
A Little Reminder That I'll Never Forget kicks off the second half of Weapons and the poppy elements are still obvious, with no sign of their heavier, more acerbic past. Still, it's a great song that you can help but sing along too. It's catchy as hell!
Better Off Dead has elements of Start Something's sound too it at the start. There's even rapping that makes up the first verse and just reminds me of Sum 41. It's a welcome change to their sound, from the more commercial songs that came before it.
It's sounds heavier towards the end too, with some great guitar/bass lines and rousing gang vocals.
Heart On Loan sees Lostprophets sliding back into their trademark sound. Somedays is an acoustic song that slows the pace down slightly. The song actually does a good job of accentuating Ian Watkins tuneful vocals. There's still that big drum sound though, which gives it some bite and energy.
So it's left to last song Can't Get Enough to close out Weapons. Looking at the song length on my laptop, it says fifteen minutes! That's long for a Lostprophets song and initially it sound pretty epic. The rhythm kicked out by the drums is cool and the orchestral music in the background shows that they aren't averse to writing their version of a rock opera! This song would sound massive live.
That bit about it being fifteen minutes long is a bit misleading as the actual song ends after five minutes, which must mean there's a secret track. And there is! About two minutes and forty seconds from the end, Lostprophets break into the heaviest song they've written since their first album. It's a hardcore inspired racket, with an angelically melodic chorus. It's well worth waiting for as well!
So in summary then, Weapons is another really solid album, full of great hooks and slick production. It's brief enough across its ten songs to show that Lostprophets have found that winning formula, but full of enough variation and ideas to show they're still not afraid to experiment. That secret track is awesome as well and is my highlight.
You can pick up Weapons from all the usual outlets, but make sure you head over too http://lostprophets.com/, where you can watch videos and here samples of Weapons. They even do it on sumptuous vinyl!
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Market share being lost to Thai retailers
Growth of Thai retailers making life difficult for domestic counterparts.
by Thien Huong
From 2009 to 2015 imports from Thailand to Vietnam almost doubled, from $4.5 billion in 2009 to $8.2 billion in 2015, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs. Popular items such as vegetables, automobiles, electrical appliances, and plastic products are considered a strength of Vietnam’s near neighbor.
The Ho Chi Minh City Business Association said that Vietnamese goods and also Japanese and South Korean goods now find it difficult to compete with similar products from Thailand.
Major Thai retailers have thrown down a challenge to their Vietnamese counterparts in recent times. The Ho Chi Minh City Business Association has petitioned the Prime Minister about the domination of Thai goods and retailers and their efforts to acquire an even grater market share in Vietnam.
Thai retailers in the country include Mega Market (formerly Metro), B’s Mart, Big C, and Robinson, the Association said, while the Central Group holds 49 per cent of the Nguyen Kim electronics supermarket chain.
The quality of Vietnamese goods can meet requirements but face many obstacles in entering a retail network owned by foreigners, the Association said.
Foreign supermarkets require certificates and inspection of origin and product quality and insist on discounts.
Business representatives said that the “Vietnamese Prefer Vietnamese Goods” program has helped boost the proportion of Vietnamese goods at supermarkets to 80-90 per cent but the abovementioned obstacles will see their market share decline.
Thai goods
Vietnam Customs
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Oolitic Town Council Signs Service Contract With Fire Department
Last updated on Tuesday, October 29, 2013
(OOLITIC) - The Oolitic Town Council approved a service contract with the Oolitic Volunteer Fire Department.
The town will pay the department $2,750 a month for fire and emergency services.
Not all the council members were happy with the 10 percent increase for 2014.
"I know we need them, but where is the stopping point?" asked Councilman Bill Kendall. "We cannot do this every year. Every year they will want an increase, but the tax rate does not go up and we can't keep this up. I don't know what the answer is but we need to think about that down the road."
*The council hopes the town can secure a $1 million grant that will allow officials to address storm water problems.
A representative from Southern Indiana Development Commission told the council competition for the grant will be very competitive.
But before the town can apply for the grant, they will have to do an income survey.
The town is also looking at securing a brown field grant to help with the demolition of the old high school. If awarded the town could possibly use the funds to purchase the old high school, demolish the building and create a green space for the town.
"Something will have to be done," says Clerk Treasurer Jim Staley. "The building is in such disrepair and is becoming a safety issue."
* The Oolitic Haunted School grossed $4,834 during their four nights of spooking visitors.
Festival Committee President Glenn Gross says there are still some expenses to pay for but overall the event was a huge success.
The committee thanked all the volunteers and sponsors for their support and next year's Haunted school will be bigger and better. All of the proceeds will be used for the 2014 festival.
"We have not heard anything but good things about the Haunted School," Gross says. "And I believe we will have even more support next year. In the future, this could be the one event that funds the whole festival."
* The council passed a resolution to rename accounts for the sewer department. The renaming was a requirement by the state for the sewer construction loan.
* The council voted to allow Clerk Treasurer Jim Staley to do a bad debt adjustment. The debts were either more than six years old, the debtor had filed bankruptcy, or the person had passed and the estate did not have the funds to pay the debt.
* The council approved the hiring of Wes Tipton to the street department. Tipton is replacing an employee that was terminated.
* The town passed the 2014 salary ordinance.
* Vicky Saunders donated $1,000 to the Oolitic Festival Committee in honor of her parents, Darrell and Norma Saunders.
* Staley will be attending the State Board of Accounts Fall District meeting Wednesday in Columbus.
* Council President Delvin Nikirk told the council that the street department is ready for leaf collection and the first snow fall.
* The council was asked about the complaint of not having fencing around swimming pools. Town Attorney Greg Pittman told the council it was a building code violation. But the town does not have a local building code ordinance. But the town could have Town Marshal Jon Jefferies declare the situation a public nuisance if he felt the situation was dangerous. A citation would be issued and the resident would have 10 days to comply.
* The council was given a limestone plaque of appreciation from SIDC, who is celebrating 40 years of service.
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This page provides details of youth organisations in and around Woodhall Spa. Please visit the 'Arts & Crafts' and 'Sports Clubs' pages for more youth activities. If you would like your organisation to be mentioned then please provide the webmaster with a written description, (max 100 words) supported by photographs where possible. Select bold text in the narrative for more information.
Air Training Corps
1265 (Horncastle) Squadron
Coronation Walks
Meets Tuesday and Thursday nights - 7.15 to 9.30pm
Many weekend activities including Flying, Target Shooting, Camping, Sports
Contact: Flt Lt Withnall
Visit the Air Training Corps website at:www.trentwingaircadets.org.uk
17 (Coningsby) Squadron
c/o Training & Development Flight
LN4 4SY
Meets Tuesday and Thursday nights - 19:00 to 21:30
Many weekend activities including, Flying, Gliding, Target shooting, Camping and Sports
Officer Commanding, Flight Lieutenant Rob Eyre RAF VR (T)
Mobile phone 07928 214981
Email at oc.17@aircadets.org
Visit the Air Training Corps website at: www.trentwingaircadets.org.uk
Woodhall Spa Scout Group
1st Woodhall Spa Scout Group
The Woodhall Spa Scout Group has three vibrant sections: Beavers, Cubs and Scouts. Including the Leaders we have over 60 members in the village, plus a team of Young Leaders, section assistants and Parent helpers. We also have an active Executive committee who support and ensure the effective administration of the Group. All sections are open to both boys and girls of all Religious and Cultural backgrounds.
Beavers (meet at St Andrews School 5.30pm)
Aged from 6 years to 8 years old Beaver Scouts are the youngest section of the Scouting family. Their activities are based around making things, outdoor activities, singing, playing games, going out on visits, investigating nature, listening to stories, learning how to be safe and most importantly, making new friends.
Cubs (meet at Coronation hall 5.30pm)
Aged from 8 to 10½, they take part in a wide range of activities. From indoor craft work to outdoor sport and team-building exercises. Cubs have a diverse programme, gaining badges for different skills and achievements. Cubs also have the opportunity to go on a summer camp.
Scouts (meet at St Andrews School 7.00pm)
Aged from 10 to 14½, Scouts are the third section of the Scouting movement. Scouts take part in different sports from football to parascending, kayaking to hiking. They participate in international camps with many thousands of Scouts, just a few in the Scout Woods on Kirkby Lane. They learn to read maps, use GPS’s and cook on wood fires.
The 1st Woodhall Spa Scout Group meets Monday evenings at St Andrew's School, Woodhall Spa
Cub Scouts, for 8 to 10½ year olds, meet between 6.30 and 7.30pm
Scouts, for 10½ to 14 year olds, meet between 7.00 and 9.00pm.
Scout leader -
Website: http://woodhallspascouts.terapad.com/
Group Scout Leader
Richard Arden known by his nickname ‘Boggit’. Richard has over 30 years of Scouting experience and his role is to manage the Group
Beaver Leaders
Stephanie Simmons known by the children as ‘Heron’. Stephanie, while being very accomplished at arts and crafts, Stephanie enjoys the outdoors activities as well
Sarah Clarke known by the children as ‘Crow’. Sarah has helped transform the Beaver Colony over the last year.
Cub Leaders
Sam Turner known by the children as ‘Shere Khan. Sam, who has a wealth of experience as a Guide now shares this with our Cubs.
Alex Hausermann known by the children as ‘Bagheera’. Alex enjoys running all aspects of the training programme.
Val Picker known by the children as??. Val has been through thick and thin with Woodhall Scout Group from leading games to chief camp cook
Scout Leader
Dave Edwards. Dave has years of experience in Scouting with different Groups in the Sleaford and Horncastle District.
Dave McDonnell. Dave is a keen Mountain Biker, hiker and enjoys the outside part of Scouting
Chris Robinson. Chris has worked in all sections of the Woodhall Group for several years and knows all the Children
Group Scout Leader 1st Woodhall Spa
Woodhall Spa Rainbows
Venue: St Andrews School
Meets: Tuesday 5 - 6pm
Girl guiding website: www.girlguiding.org.uk
2nd Woodhall Spa Brownies
Venue: St Andrew's Primary School
King Edward Crescent
LN10 6RQ
Meet Wednesday evenings - 6.45pm - 8.15pm
Meet Tuesday evenings - 7.15pm - 8.45pm
SPYS (St Peter's Youth Study)
SPYS for children 11-15yrs will now take place on the 2nd Sunday of each month (6:00 – 7:30p.m.) in the Church Hall (unless otherwise stated) – subs 50p per child.
Please contact Dave Gormal for more details: d_gormal@hotmail.com (Not in August)
Woodhall Spa Youth Club
Spa Road
LN10 6PZ
The club offers a variety of sporting opportunities, many of which can be used towards nationally accredited awards such as the Duke of Edinburgh's Award and Youthtrain Awards.
For ages 11 to 25.
Support our village Youth Club by joining the management team. Help to give our young people a thriving, vibrant club. Meetings are held three times a year. If you are interested, apply to the:
Youth Development Worker: Viv Cross - 01507 522482
Chairman: Mrs. B. Coxon (01526) 352565
Woodhall Wizards Children’s Centre (Pre-School & Nursery)
St Andrew’s School
Close to the centre of Woodhall Spa. Woodhall Wizards provide a breakfast, after schools and holiday club.
Email: enquiries@st-andrews-woodhall.lincs.sch.uk
Website: www.standrews-woodhallspa.org.uk
Return to Clubs & Societies page
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Celebrity Wishes
About Tree
About RWF
RWF WORLD TREE OF HOPE 2019
Celebrity, Notable and Children's Wishes
Jeff Cotter, Dame Jane Goodall with her wish, Paul Stankiewicz
"A world for our children more just, more fair, and more kind than the one we know now."
"As we look around the world today - at the conflicts, the destruction of the environment, the human and animal suffering – it almost seems absurd to say that my wish is for a more peaceful, healthier and happier world. Yet this is the world we all yearn for. And I find that with the image of such a world in my mind and in my heart, it is easier to take action, every day, to move things in the right direction. Of course the road is long and full of disappointments but still it gives me energy to keep going with that goal in sight. Without hope there is no hope. And so I dare to wish for a world in which people live in harmony with each other and with the natural world and all the wondrous animals with whom we share the planet."
Jane Goodall PhD DBE, Founder - the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace
"I wish for a world where all people are treated with dignity, respect and equality – no matter who you are or who you love."
Hillary Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State
"May organized nonviolence succeed in this world where organized violence hasn't." Joan Baez, Singer and Activist
“My wish is to live in a society where marriage equality is a reality for all & where American families are treated with respect and dignity.” Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Congresswoman
“Stay human! Love is love!” Michael Franti, Singer and Activist
"I wish for the rescue of abused populations and America's welcome to immigrants." Paulette Singer Barrett, Jewish Survivor of the Holocaust, Occupied France - saved by brave Catholics
"My wish is for us all to stop waiting on others to right the wrongs of our time and instead turn to the leader in the mirror. It is only by tapping into our own leadership potential that we can remake the world." Arianna Huffington, Author and Syndicate Columnist
Jeff Cotter with author Neale Donald Walsch and his wish
"May the world know we are all ONE!"
Neale Donald Walsch , Conversations With God Author
"May our world be blest with the meaning of a very beautiful Sanscrit word, a meeting place of peace and harmony for all beings, animal and human,,,,,,, SHAMBALA!"
Tippi Hedren, Actress and Animal Rights Activist
"Listen to one another and listen again."
Hal Holbrook, Actor
"Peace, prosperity and contentment for all."
Joan Fontaine, Actress
"My wish is for more justice for all of us--economic justice as well as social justice--starting with the recognition that poverty is not a sin." Dorothy Allison, Author
"Think" Shirley Temple Black, Actress and Diplomat
"Sweet love for all." RUPAUL, Entertainer, Citizen of the World
"My wish is for full equality, safety and happiness for LGBT citizens around the world" David Mixner, Author, Political Strategist and Civil Rights Activist
Consul General of Japan Masato Watanabe and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee with their wishes
"I hope that our City can be successful in fulfilling the hopes of all of our diverse communities and exemplify a higher love of civic pride, strong neighborhoods and respect for each other" Mayor Ed Lee, San Francisco
"My wish is for a world where hope begets freedom… a world where opportunity is equaled by justice… a world where the health of our planet is considered as precious as the lives of our children."
Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom, California
"I wish that the children of the world to no longer suffer disease, abuse, starvation, murder, rape, torture, and jeopardy and suffering of all kinds"
Danielle Steel, Author
Animal rights wish by Kaliah age 8.
"My wish is for the freedom of the Cuban 5." Mariela Castro, Director of CENESEX, Havana, Cuba
"My wish for the world is for people to pray for divine intervention and imagine white flowers showering earth soothing and healing the rivers, oceans, animals, plants, mountains, all people." Mātā Amṛtānandamayī Devī, The Hugging Saint
"Wishing love to all of those in search of it." David Arquette and Courteney Cox Arquette, Actors
“A most purr...fect universe.” Julie Newmar, Actress
"I wish that everyone could awaken with a clear conscience, work for a better world, and go to bed with a full tummy excited to see what comes next in their lives."
Harvey Fierstein, Actor and Playwright
"I wish all the men and women in the armed forces around the world much peace and love during the holiday season. Always dream!."
Kristi Yamiguchi, Olympic Champion
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence join San Francisco Poet Laureate, Alejandro Murguía,, author Isabel Allende, RWF Founder Jeff Cotter, and Lucy Vargas at the 2012 tree.
"I wish male fashion designers would be forced to wear the stuff they create for women, like stiletto heals. And that all politician would have to live by the rules and laws they come up with for the rest of us. Like the ones on food stamps and minimum wage." Isabel Allende, Author
"My fellow people of our troubled world, my wish for each of us is that we discover our power to create the world we want. Solutions are known. Our genius is proven. May we shed feelings of powerlessness and walk with bold humility, trusting our best selves as we join with others in common purpose. Hope is contagious."
Francis Moore Lappe, Author and Activist, Diet for a Small Planet
"We wish everyone the best physical and mental health, prosperity and happiness. We wish everyone the love for each other this world needs."
Patty Duke and Michael Pearce
Dame Edna Everage with the tree's creators after she light the 2008 RWF World Tree of hope
"You must be happy so that you spread happiness. That's your job."
Phyllis Diller, Comedian
“I wish, for a world, the sensation of comfort, caring, safety and family, that San Francisco gave to me for so many years.” Veronica Klaus, Entertainer
"Mas tiempo con mejor salud." Esmeralda Santiago
"We must give children a voice in shaping a peaceful future. That is the only way the world has hope."
Pat Montandon, Peace Activist
Notable Wishes
"Wishing for everyone to learn how to love without war."
Gloria Ayson, 84, Angeles City, Philippine Islands
"I wish for the world to return to respecting Mother Earth & Father Sun. For, if we cannot learn to respect the very Earth that sustains us, we can never learn to respect each other... We all, people, animals flora and fauna must learn to respect ourselves and each other....for none of us can exist without the other. Life is all we truly have."
Jobeth Devereaux, 50, Bossier City, Louisiana
Children's Wishes
"I wish that the next time I leave Shadow and Sadie, my dogs, in the back yard, when we leave somewhere, that they would dig out of the yard and run far, far away. But I wish that only shadow would come back and not Sadie. I wish that Sadie was stolen off the streetand sold." Wolfgang, 12, Sparks, Nevada
"I wish it will snow in the morning so nobody does not have to go to school for 2 weeks!" Michael, 13, Long Island, New York
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Yanko [Varda] allowed me to enter a world strange and fanciful. Although I had to cope daily with real and mundane matters, I found that some of the magic of his world stayed around my shoulders.
[Varda] was a visionary who saw the entire universe as a manifestation of light.
In every new collage he produces he give us a fresh view of life’s playground taken from the angle of eternity. He never moves straight forward; his advances are always in the form of spiritual pirouettes.
The restraint and sobriety of his approach explains the exuberant gayety of its compositions wherein a gleam becomes a glance and a glance a gleam.
[Varda] delivers us from the stranglehold of realism, the lack of passion and wit of other painters. He fulfills the main role of the artist which is to transform ugliness into beauty.
Jean Varda, an eloquent, quick-witted cosmopolitan whose conversations are as famous in New York, London, and Paris as they are in San Francisco, exhorted his students to believe in painting as a self-sufficient way of life rather than as a tool. Varda would say, ‘Painting’ is a philosophical instrument of life... a painting has a cosmic reason for being; its creation is the result of the ecstatic moment at the peak of clarity of vision.’
To the black and white keys of a typewriter, Jean Varda is a problem. How to portray a man who drives a two-toned pink car, sails a red, green, purple and chartreuse boat, paints pictures on the ‘chlorophylia of women’?
Because Varda is all of this, an artist, and in a way a myth; but much more than this. The flamboyancy and the buoyancy just a part of a rare and generous human being.
Yanko Varda was indeed the great light of my life in the thirties.
[Varda’s] views on painting, centering on his great admiration of Picasso, were of fundamental importance to the development of my ideas and my work.
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Home Rising Sun Weekly A look back: Ohio County and Rising Sun
A look back: Ohio County and Rising Sun
The Stow Motor Company, one of Rising Sun’s oldest businesses, has been sold to Whitham and Sons, Inc. Harold Whitham and Sons, Ronald and Larry, have operated the Shell Service Station on North High Street for about 20 years.
Mavis Uhlmansiek
Celebrating the history of
Ohio County and Rising Sun
The Stow Motor Company, one of Rising Sun’s oldest businesses, has been sold to Whitham and Sons, Inc. Harold Whitham and Sons, Ronald and Larry, have operated the Shell Service Station on North High Street for about 20 years. They will continue the station’s service for the present. Plans are made to remodel the Stow property on North Walnut and Fourth streets, where mechanical work will be done. It will be a headquarter for the state safety inspection. Used cars will also be sold, as well as repair parts. The Stow Motor Company dates back to 1924 when Wilbur and Howard Stow built the garage on into the Albert Lotton building next door and went by the name of Stow and Lotton. Mr. Lotton sold the property to Stow in 1951 and the Stow Motor Company was formed. Throughout the 44 years Stow’s have held the automobile agencies for Overland, Willys-Knight, Nash, Chevrolet and Pontiac. They have handled Chrysler and Plymouth since 1934. In later years the original building was sold to Brown & Tool Manufacturing. After Howard’s death in 1935, the business was continued by Wilbur, and son Donald took over the business after Wilbur suffered an illness which led to his retirement.
Ohio County boys and girls will soon become 4-H members via TV. They will be invited to learn about science through a series of 4-H TV science club programs scheduled for 8:30 a.m. starting Saturday, January 25th over WKRC, Channel 12, Cincinnati.
Local merchant dies, in business for 37 years: James Espey, 62, died at his home at 415 Second Street Tuesday morning December 24th following a brief illness of bronchial pneumonia. Mr. Espey had been a Rising Sun merchant for 37 years operating a men’s furnishings and shoe store. Mr. Espey was born January 4th, 1906 in Ohio County and his parents were Eugene and Maude (Welch) Espey. Survivors include his wife, Martha Uhlmansiek Espey; three daughters, Mary, Jean, and Martha, Rising Sun; three sons, James, John, and Eugene; one brother, Hugh Espey; and one sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Johannsman.
Notice — Open for business, Espey’s Shopping Center, Martha Espey, owner.
Now showing at Walnut Theatre in Lawrenceburg: Doris Day and Brian Keith in “With Six You Get Eggroll.”
At Palace Theater in Aurora: Walt Disney presents “The Parent Trap!”
Karen Lynn Brown has been selected by students and faculty as Rising Sun High School’s DAR Citizen.
Miss Roberta Green was installed as Honor Queen when installation of Bethal 95 was held December 19th in the Masonic Hall.
Mr. and Mrs. Gene Keith have purchased the former Kelly Jenkins home on South Mulberry Street.
Kathy Niccum of Aberdeen has been restored to a normal active life when a hole in her heart the size of a half dollar was closed by surgery performed at Riley Children’s Hospital last March 18th. Kathy received a long playing record of “Heart Songs” Monday as a Christmas gift from television band leader, Lawrence Welk.
Alvin S. Hizer USN is serving aboard the attack cargo ship, the USS Rankin operating out of Norfolk, Virginia.
Private Neal Hastings of Rising Sun is serving with the Army at Munich, Germany.
A new bridge of Laughery Creek on State Road 56 between Rising Sun and Aurora is included in State Highway Commission projects for 1959 just announced by Governor Harold W. Handley.
The photograph of Hugh (Duck) Beatty taken by Selbert Dorrell will appear on the 1949 Rising Sun State Bank calendar.
Rising Sun will return to its former status as a city, January 1st. It is reported that Mayor Elect Charles H. French will appoint Harry Rump, former Sheriff of Ohio County as Chief of Police.
A meeting was held at the Court House Tuesday evening, called by the citizen’s committee for further action in connection with the proposed electric road to run between Rising Sun and Aurora. It was called to order by Mayor Spencer.
SOURCEMavis Uhlmansiek
Previous articleSchools wrap busy year, look to 2019 with high expectations
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Too Busy for a Friend?
Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down. It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.
On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. 'Really?' she heard whispered. 'I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!' and, 'I didn't know others liked me so much,' were most of the comments.
No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.
Several years later, one of the students was killed in Vietnam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature.
As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. 'Were you Mark's math teacher?' he asked. She nodded: 'yes.' Then he said: 'Mark talked about you a lot.'
After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.
'We want to show you something,' his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket 'They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it.'
Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.
'Thank you so much for doing that,' Mark's mother said. 'As you can see, Mark treasured it.'
All of Mark's former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, 'I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home.'
Chuck's wife said, 'Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album.'
'I have mine too,' Marilyn said. 'It's in my diary.'
Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. 'I carry this with me at all times,' Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: 'I think we all saved our lists.'
That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again.
The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be.
Author - Anonymous
Whether this is a true story or not I feel it is like a parable, showing us a vibrational lesson we can embrace and a gentle reminder to tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Vibrational Blessings Debbie A. Anderson
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Tag: komodo-cfml
Komodo-CFML: Pause
ActiveState recently release v11 of their Komodo IDE/Editor. Although it has some very appealing updates, it also breaks my Komodo-CFML language extension. As a result, any updates to Komodo-CFML are on hold. In the meantime, I’m trying some alternatives to Komodo. Suggestions welcome…
ActiveState recently released a new version of their IDE and editor, Komodo. For the first time in several years and many versions (back to at least v6.x), I do not have an update to my Komodo-CFML language extension that works with this new version. Some of the updates in Komodo v11 move away from a couple of capabilities that are crucial for my extension to install and work. As a result, at least for the time being, any plans to continue to support continued development of Komodo-CFML (or even compatibility with this and future versions of Komodo) are on hold.
I’m disappointed, in large part because some of the other updates in Komodo v11 are really impressive. Without support for the language I primarily use the editor for, though, it makes no sense for me to update to this new version.
I had a couple of forum conversations with the Komodo team during the pre-release phase of Komodo v11. I am cautiously optimistic that there might be a path forward. Until then, I’m poking around a bit for alternatives and (so far) coming up mostly empty on one key feature that Komodo + my CFML extension offers: tag-specific attribute help (e.g., if you are in the middle of CFML tag, the code intelligence feature offers attribute suggestions specific to that tag and is aware of which attributes are already in place on the tag) and attribute-specific help (e.g., if you are editing an attribute of a CFML tag which supports a specific set of valid values, those values are presented as possible choices). This makes it fast, easy, and nearly error-proof to get attributes and their values right.
Anyone with recommendations on potentially viable alternatives? Comments are open (at least for a bit, until the spambo[ty]s take over) and suggestions are welcome.
Author RonPosted on October 10, 2017 October 16, 2017 Categories Geek StuffTags CFML, komodo, komodo-cfml
Komodo-CFML v0.2.5g
A minor update that adds support for auto-complete for CFML’s operator words (e.g., eq, contains) and, in doing so, fixes a problem with auto-complete for function names that start with specific sequences like “is” and “ge” (e.g., isDefined). It should show up in the Komodo Packages repository later today.
Author RonPosted on June 14, 2016 Categories Geek StuffTags komodo-cfml
Komodo-CFML v0.2.5
Available as of this evening; more information on the Komodo-CFML page. This one, despite the relatively minor bump in version number, is a complete rewrite of the extension in order to provide the basis for code-intelligence popups for function names, scopes, and keywords. It also provides support for Komodo Edit/IDE v10 (released today).
Author RonPosted on May 16, 2016 Categories Geek StuffTags komodo-cfml
Work on the Komodo-CFML front
Things on the Komodo-CFML front have been pretty quiet here of late, but that’s not because nothing has been going on. I threw everything out and started over, and I’m now close to having a completely rebuilt version ready to release.
Things on the Komodo-CFML front have been pretty quiet here of late, but that’s not because nothing has been going on. Several months ago, as I wrestled with some odd behavior I was seeing with the extension under then-new Komodo v9, I came to the conclusion that there were a couple of fundamental problems with the approach I had taken in tokenizing CFML (used in Komodo to provide syntax colorizing). Furthermore, that approach appeared to make it nearly impossible to do much in terms of any sort of code intelligence-type help.
So… I started over. Completely. Threw everything out and started from the ground up, building an entirely new version of the extension. (Actually, I started over three times, trying to make sure I had a better approach.) At one point, I got stuck waiting for resolution of a bug relating to how Komodo creates the skeletons of extensions.
At this point, I am very close to having this completely-rebuilt version ready to release (probably as a v0.2.5). I’ve tried to make sure it provides everything the current v0.2.4 does in terms of syntax highlighting, but it also has a couple additions:
completely reworked DTDs for CFML + HTML5 (for both CFML v10 and v11), with content models that provide better and more consistent access to CFML tag and attribute completion
CFML language keyword, scope, and function name completion (this is what I started working on and ended up heading down the rabbit-hole that led me to scrap everything and start over)
macros for CFML help for the word under the current caret position and for CFML comment/uncomment region that work in a manner consistent with Komodo’s built-in comment/uncomment region (more on this at some later date)
So… I’m close. Close enough that I have been using this new (still evolving) version for my daily development work for several weeks. I’m waiting for one additional Komodo bug to be resolved (hoping it will be included in Komodo v9.3, which is in the nightly-build prerelease stage at this point). I will post something here when I release it, as well as making it available through the Komodo packages repository.
Komodo-CFML v0.2.4 available
Version 0.2.4 of my language extension supporting CFML for ActiveState’s Komodo IDE/Edit is now available.
Version 0.2.4 of my language extension supporting CFML for ActiveState’s Komodo IDE/Edit is now available. This update represents a minor bump in the version number but also represents more work behind the scenes than any update in recent memory, as all of the plumbing in the extension has been replaced so that it will work with the forthcoming Komodo v9 releases while still working with Komodo v8.x in addition to the changes below.
A Quick Summary of Changes
In addition to the rework noted above to support Komodo v9, this update provides the following changes:
Tag and attribute support for Adobe ColdFusion v11
Numerous updates and fixes to the tag and attribute support for Adobe ColdFusion v10
Switched to cfdocs.org for CFML-specific language help
Includes a small set of CFML-specific macros (look for “CFML Tools” in Komodo’s Toolbox panel) and puts the scaffolding in place for language-specific macros, snippets, abbreviations, etc.
A minor change to the syntax highlighting applied to CFML comments occurring within function calls (very edge-case-ish)
A Note About Installation/Upgrading
With this update, you will notice that the structure of the name of the editor extension file itself has changed. Where in the past, the editor extension file was named cfml-0.2.3-ko.xpi, this version is named komodo-cfml-0.2.4a0-ko.xpi. There are two changes there to note:
The base part of the file name has changed, primarily as part of the reworking of the basic structure of the editor extension for compatibility with Komodo v9; and
I have changed the embedded versioning information for the extension so I have a bit more flexibility in how I keep track of updates and additions to the extension.
With these changes to the name of the editor extension file, you will want to explicitly uninstall whatever version of Komodo-CFML you may currently be using and then install this new version to avoid any sort of potential confusion within Komodo about how CFML files are to be handled.
The updated version of the extension is available for download:
komodo-cfml-0.2.4a0-ko.xpi
As always, comments and follow-up are welcome here or on the Komodo-CFML page.
Author RonPosted on January 23, 2015 Categories Geek StuffTags CFML, komodo, komodo-cfml
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← “A hole, or the promise of one, is all a woman can offer,” declares man who inexplicably can’t get a date
Weirdo MRA Janice Fiamengo: Male inventions make me horny →
Let’s use eugenics to create a utopian world without women, creepy incel Redditor proposes
JB didn’t mean it literally, though
By David Futrelle
It’s getting outright genocidal over there in the Braincels subreddit.
Yesterday, one incel Redditor by the name of numbnow suggested, without a trace of irony, that the world would be a much better place if women were to be literally eliminated.
“Can You Imagine A World of Men Working Together With Eugenics?” he asked in a creepily cheerful post on the subject.
Imagine if the human species became a race of men; divorced of the female gender.
The world as one giant incel circlejerk. What an utter joy to contemplate.
I think that the blackpill will be looked on as equivalent to the enlightenment era in later centuries tbh. One day we will have a civilization that fully acknowledges and accounts for this knowledge, women won’t vote, they might not even exist anymore aside from AI.
This guy takes the “sexbots will replace women” line literally.
Just imagine the accomplishments which we could attain without the female. We could be exploring other worlds already; seeding our species throughout the cosmos. No drama, no bullshit.
Dude, I don’t know if you’ve heard of a thing called “history,” but men have basically been in charge of human civilization for several thousand years, and, uh, there has been rather a lot of drama and bullshit.
Just imagine a race of genetically specialized Ubermensch completing the dreams of man.
The only “dream” the typical incel has is to complain about women rejecting them 24 hours a day. After getting rid of sleep, these “genetically specialized Ubermenschen” of Incel Planet would probably have to genetically recreate women so that that they’ll have someone to complain about.
No inequality, just a civilization of brotherhood and betterment throughout the universe. What a beautiful cope..
Numbnow’s grand plan got a mixed reaction from his fellow incel Redditors. But most seemed to like the idea of using eugenics to defeat the evil “foids” — aka “femoids,” aka “women.”
One suggested that the aspiring Ubermenschen could achieve many of the same results by simply engineering women to have lower standards when it comes to men.
“I would support using eugenics to eradicate hypergamy in foids,” proposed JucheforWhitePeople.
We could create a breed of loyal, compassionate foids. After foids have dictated sexual selection for aeons and caused countless men to suffer, I think such actions are more than justified.
After stopping foids from breeding with dark triad sociopaths, we could also solve so many problems, such as all the war and crime in the world. They only exist because foids like these thugmaxed men.
Yes, the guys proposing to either eliminate women or to somehow reprogram them to put up with any amount of bullshit from their male partners still somehow think of themselves as the good guys. Because that’s the incel way.
We Hunted the Mammoth relies entirely on readers like you for its survival. If you appreciate our work, please send a few bucks our way! Thanks!
Posted in: actual genocide, Dunning–Kruger effect, empathy deficit, entitled babies, eugenics, incels, irony alert, literal nazis, men who should not ever be with women ever, misogyny, reddit
Cat Mara says:
@Alan Robertshaw:
Hence it being “Er, it’s a one foot cube…”
Well, that was just backwards on NASA’s part. They should have told MIT, “the equipment bays on the command module are x by y by z. Either it fits in one or we send the boys around to install it somewhere painful, is that understood?” 😈
(I like that the command module team had such little confidence in MIT that they decided to incorporate a sextant into the design)
I don’t know, there’s something oddly satisfying that in the midst of all that high technology, it was still possible to navigate the old-fashioned way, using the stars. In fact, most early space probes steered by locking on to a bright star, usually Canopus (Mariner 4 was the first), and may still do for all I know.
I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
— John Masefield
Alan Robertshaw says:
@ cat mara
It wasn’t just any old sextant; it was a space sextant!
and may still do
I used to buy meteorites off a guy. He’d been part of the team that developed the star tracker system Trident uses to navigate.
(GPS might be taken out in the first moments of any war; but presumably the stars will still be there.)
Okay, I like where they’re going with this but, instead of women, let’s get rid of men.
LindsayIrene says:
An antidote:
A History of Cyborg Sex, 2018–73: How sex with robots became safer—and better—than sex with actual men
Ingmar says:
Karen, you mean of this kind of men? But I guess the joke I think, is that by their absurd very logic it would make more sense ^_^.
Julienne M Alford says:
Do these guys ever take an overview of civilization? Societies in which women have no choice in their mate tend to be the more violent ones.
Snowberry says:
@Myra: I would think the society being violent would be the cause of women not having choices, though, not the other way around. I would also think they’d be all for that… until they find that they’re still on the bottom of the social heap, which makes them subject to that violence and doesn’t improve their chances to get women.
Megpie71 says:
“Advice to Young Ladies” by A D Hope.
A poem I suspect most of these incels have never even heard of, much less read.
vaiyt says:
re: Warhammer 40.000
That’s why my favorite faction in the whole thing are, and always will be, the Orks. They’re big, green, goofy reminders that this whole thing should never be taken too seriously.
In the grim darkness of the 40th millenium, there’s only war. And vehicles that become faster just because they’re painted red.
Waaaagh!
re: Warhammer 40K
This is why my favorite faction in the whole thing is, and always will be, the Orks. They’re big, green, goofy reminders that this whole setting is not to be taken too seriously. Waaagh!
Nequam says:
Yeah, if I were to play 40K I’d go with Orks. There’s some Chaos Marines that’d be fun to paint, though…
Surplus to Requirements, Observer of the Vast Blight-Wing Enstupidation says:
Computer programmer and CS graduate chiming in: there are actually a few (known) limitations even with “pure thoughtstuff”. The so-called “halting problem” is one, and has among its practical consequences that there’s no way to program an operating system to be 100% accurate at guessing whether an application that’s currently unresponsive has hung irrecoverably and needs to be restarted or will eventually stop being busy on its own.
Then you’ve got to deal with the limitations on the hardware, which computes at a finite speed and has finite memory. In connection to that there are minimum time and space complexities of commonplace tasks. For instance, sorting a list of size n takes an amount of memory proportional to n and an amount of time proportional to n log n. It cannot, to anyone’s knowledge, be made faster than that, and shrinking the memory needed means applying data compression of some kind to the list itself, which will both add more time and only reduce the space needed by a constant factor at best.
Of course a lot of these techbros probably haven’t taken actual university CS courses, and a lot of the rest paid attention just enough to pass the tests and promptly forgot it all. Most have probably had at some point run into a situation where something they wanted to do was too slow, or produced out-of-memory errors, but the more bro-ish ones probably just think that means they need to wait for better hardware. Or quantum computers or something. Wait till they discover there are limitations on those as well …
Pie says:
@Cat Mara
The way bio-essentialists go on, you’d swear that the Y-chromosome was some kind of essence of masculinity
So, the tattered remants of an error- and disease-prone system, which will either be replaced by a new system in the future or humans will go extinct?
Sounds a bit like essence of masculinity to me…
@Pie:
“You denied the existence of toxic masculinity yet… it seemed… the toxic masculinity was inside you all along! MUHAHAHAHA!!!”
Seriously, when it was first discovered that the Y chromosome was decaying, back in the 70s, a lot of the “kill all the menz” radical feminists back then were like, “haw haw men are doomed!” I don’t think it works like that. Sexual reproduction is too useful a trick for driving natural selection for it just to disappear– with a handful of exceptions (e.g., the rotifers) and a few species of reptile and insect capable of reproducing via parthenogenesis when they have to, no high-complexity organisms have abandoned it once it was adopted in their lineage. The SRY gene and its friends will probably just up sticks and move to another chromosome once the Y becomes an inviable host for them because having male and female humans from the perspective of our selfish genes is just too useful.
I am not an evolutionary biologist but I understand that chromosomes are not stable on geological timescales. So in the breakdown of the Y chromosome, we might be seeing the beginning of a speciation event, probably similar to the one that happened when the common ancestor of ourselves, Neandertals & Denisovans split off from the common ancestor of chimpanzees and bonobos x million years ago. One of the key differentiators of a species, and one of the reasons why an individual of one species cannot produce viable offspring with a member of another, is a difference in the number of chromosomes. So, yeah, in a sense, our species in its present form is going extinct. In another sense, we’re evolving into another one. Goodbye homo sapiens, hello homo this-time-we’re-really-sapiens-we-swear, I hope 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifQkaJD6n5U
When the world is a danger to you
Do you rise up in rage, or do you
Keep getting stranger?
(Possibly the world’s first transhumanist love song!)
Moon Custafer says:
@Robert:
I’ve occasionally wondered what people with the capacity for programming skills did before the Post-industrial Revolution. Nothing particularly earth-shaking, is my guess.
My guess would be weaving and other textile work— which is pretty important, but falls under the “technology that gets ignored because at some point in recent history it got designated as feminine” umbrella.
Catalpa says:
My guess would be weaving and other textile work
This seems relevant :
http://aiweirdness.com/post/173096796277/skyknit-when-knitters-teamed-up-with-a-neural
TL;DR a group of knitters teamed up with a neural network to put the neural network’s patterns into reality. Due to the neural network’s limitations, the human knitters had to do “code-debugging” to make something physically possible.
@ moon custafer
Wasn’t a lot of computer tech derived from the textile industry?
I seem to recall punch cards were first used on looms; and to get back to my Apollo nerdery, the memory for the guidance computer was literally woven by women weavers.
Ooh, that sounds like a tongue twister.
Sexual reproduction is too useful a trick for driving natural selection for it just to disappear … The SRY gene and its friends will probably just up sticks and move to another chromosome once the Y becomes an inviable host for them because having male and female humans from the perspective of our selfish genes is just too useful.
Having sexes is useful, but having sex chromosomes is stupid and bad because it leads to all sorts of problems and associated weird-ass work-arounds and coping mechanisms (therefore, if it was designed, it was designed by an idiot who didn’t know what they were doing).
Anyway. Losing the Y chromosome might not matter, even if SRY goes with it (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokudaia) and there are tricks for a Y-chromosome to usefully repair itself (I’m fuzzy on this sort of thing, but this might be relevant: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijeb/2012/207958/) and there are species that use stuff like gestational temperature of eggs to determine sex (not that humans could do that, but, y’know, you don’t need sex chromosomes to have sexes).
In any case, we have a good 4 million years before it is likely to be a problem, and there’s a good chance that things will just keep struggling on after that anyway. Still makes for the occasional moment of entertainment in the short term, though.
js says:
@Alan Yep. “Core memory”. A grid of wires, with tiny magnetically changeable ferrous donut-shaped things that were the actual storage. Looks very much like loosely woven fabric. Cost several arms and a leg for any reasonable amount of storage space. Approximate price at the time the last core memory was sold: $0.01 dollars per bit.
Current price per bit of similar memory: 128 GB for $24. After some math (probably a bit off) 2.34E-11 dollars per bit.
Kinda makes you wonder about Apple’s pricing now, doesn’t it.
Lunzie Mespil says:
Ok, just suppose for a moment that someone actually does figure out a way to conceive and grow babies without women, so they can keep the human race from dying out while they do all their super-manly no-woman stuff. Small human beings require huge amounts of care. Who’s going to be taking care of them? The guys proposing this certainly don’t seem to have the necessary patience or empathy.
bluecat says:
Re: who is going to take care of the babies in the all-MRA all-incel womenless utopia?
I suspect it will be associated with class, or race – and certainly with inferiority – almost instantly.
Valkyrine says:
I probably have asked this one already, but were braincels supposed to be discriminated against for being too smart or too stupid (assuming it’s “brain-cel” not “bra-incel”)?
Well, let’s see:
Heightcel — not enough height
Wristcel — not enough wrist circumference
Braincel …
Ariblester says:
Valkyrine
For being too smart. Just like “Christcels” were unlucky because they were too religious, “ethnicels” for being too ‘ethnic’, Blackcels for being Black, etc.
Surplus to Requirements, Observer of the Vast Blight-Wing Enstupidation
That works too.
Virgin Mary says:
I don’t see what their problem is with ‘Dark Triad’ men, I thought they were trying to promote this? I’m sure many a PUA blog suggests trying to adopt a sociopathic personality type, and it’s seen to be superior and hyper evolved?
https://www.reddit.com/r/iamverysmart/comments/amszo9/this_man_is_literally_the_single_last_intelligent/
Dunno if this guy is a manospherian but I imagine his self-pity and entitlement will lead him down that swampy path soon enough…
Katamount says:
I swear, these guys are just becoming the Tleilaxu from Dune a little more every day, only without the successes that made the Tleilaxu influential, because stupid.
Katamount
I swear, these guys are just becoming the Tleilaxu from Dune a little more every day, only without the successes that made the Tleilaxu influence, because stupid.
My sentiments exactly.
(Of course, the Tleilaxu were pretty “Dark Triad” in their conduct, which these guys don’t like for some reason?)
tohka says:
Countdown to when braincels will be banned as they continue to promote genocide and violence
“Braincels” are making my brain cells hurt.
Actually good music: Jim Sullivan’s UFO November 4, 2016
"Cultural Marxism" explained in helpful infographic (that somehow manages to avoid using "Le Happy Merchant") With BONUS CRAP PICS January 30, 2015
Drama! Another A Voice for Men staffer jumps overboard amid mutual recriminations October 7, 2015
>The Brief Reign of the Feminist Troll Queen April 8, 2011
A Voice for Men fans have appropriated logos of real anti-violence organizations for new “Don’t Be That Girl” postering campaign March 25, 2014
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10:45 pm14 Aug 2010
Nats drop embarrassing game to Diamondbacks, 8-2
Photo by Anthony Amobi / Nats Daily News
The Nats have a hard choice right now. Jason Marquis’ last two starts are little better than his April ones. Tonight he pitched just 4 innings, but gave up 5 runs on 7 hits, walking 2 more. Asked after the game tonight, manager Jim Riggleman said, “his sinker just wasn’t down.” It showed. Miguel Montero blasted him for a 2-run homer in the 2nd, and Gerardo Parra added a solo shot later in the inning. That would be all the Diamondbacks would need, but they kept up the offense just to stay engaged. Kelly Johnson added a homer in the third, and Montero slapped a second bomb in the fifth. Riggleman wasn’t comfortable talking about Marquis’ fate tonight, but one has to think the Nats have to be thinking about what possible utility he has at this point. There aren’t a lot of options for them down in Syracuse, and Jordan Zimmermann isn’t quite ready yet, nor are Yunesky Maya or Chien Ming Wang.
Hard to swallow for a pitcher that was heralded as an anchor for the Nats’ struggling rotation. Well, he’s an anchor alright, just the sort that drowns you instead of one that keeps you in place. It only gets worse if you think about his $15M contract. That’s $1M for every point of ERA he’s racked up this season. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Marquis stay out at least another 1-2 starts until either Maya or Zimmermann are ready to come up. Marquis has a lot to prove if he wants to stay in the show, though, and another outing like these last two might see Stammen return from the pen.
It was open season tonight for the D-backs, who would collect seven hits off Marquis, and then another five off Miguel Batista in the sixth. The only solid moments on the mound tonight came from Craig Stammen’s single inning, and Doug Slaten’s two. They combined for three innings of good ball and allowed just one inherited runner to score. You’ve got to like that much, at least.
Flipping the page to look at the Nats’ side of the scorebook, you’re left wondering what the heck happened. The last time this team faced the Dbacks’ Ian Kennedy, he went just 4 innings, giving up 8 hits and 4 earned runs, including two home runs to Adam Dunn. Tonight, though, he was largely lights out, going 7 full innings and racking up 7 K’s, giving up just two runs. His only mistake of the night was a first pitch fastball to Ryan Zimmerman who sent the ball into the Arizona bullpen for his 23rd home run of the season. The Nationals had several opportunities with men in scoring position, but nothing could get those men home. Plenty of strikeouts, shaky groundouts and bad swings at the plate tonight, and that’s not going to win you games.
Before the ballgame tonight, the Nationals put the full court press on 12th round draft pick Robbie Ray. They had a jersey waiting for him after his bullpen session at 1pm, and they had Ray talking with pretty much everyone before the game. He had a lengthy conversation with principal owner Mark Lerner during batting practice. Ray has promised to go to the University of Arkansas in the fall, but the Nationals drafted his rights this spring. During BP, General Manager Mike Rizzo said that while he respected Ray’s decision to go to college, they wanted to have him in to “show off their campus” to the young pitcher. NatsFarm.com has a great mini-scouting report on Ray, and if the Nats can convince him to delay college and make a run at the pros, he could be a good pickup.
Rizzo also spoke briefly about the negotiations to sign outfield Bryce Harper to a contract, but was very coy with details. He mentioned that they’re in constant contact with the Harper camp, lead by Scott Boras, but that they recognize that this, like the drafting of Stephen Strasburg, is a pretty special circumstance. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this come down to Monday night’s deadline for signing draftees, say, 11:59:45 or so.
Tom Bridge
I live and work in the District of Columbia. I write at We Love DC, a blog I helped start, I work at Technolutionary, a company I helped start, and I’m happy doing both. I enjoy watching baseball, cooking, and gardening. I grow a mean pepper, keep a clean scorebook, and wash the dishes when I’m done. Read Why I Love DC.
This entry was posted in: News, Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
Tagged Diamondbacks, Jason Marquis, nationals, Nationals Park
See Tom's RSS Feed More By Tom
I live and work in the District of Columbia. I write at We Love DC, a blog I helped start, I work at Technolutionary, a company I helped start, and I'm happy doing both. I enjoy watching baseball, cooking, and gardening. I grow a mean pepper, keep a clean scorebook, and wash the dishes when I'm done. Read Why I Love DC.
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Home Weekly Filming Updates The Magicians Season 2 and My Christmas Dream Start Filming in Vancouver
The Magicians Season 2 and My Christmas Dream Start Filming in Vancouver
This week, Syfy fantasy series The Magicians Season 2, Hallmark’s My Christmas Dream and Nickelodeon’s Rufus 2 start filming in Vancouver and British Columbia.
The Magicians Season 2 (TV Series)
The Magicians is Syfy’s dark fantasy series based on Lev Grossman’s best-selling books. It centres around a hand-picked group of young adults attending Brakebills University, a top secret school of magic set in New York. A place where all the magical things you’ve ever dreamed about are actually real. It’s there that Quentin Coldwater, played by Jason Ralph (A Most Violent Year) uncovers the dangerous truth about his favourite childhood book.
Here’s a roundup of the main cast:
Jason Ralph Quentin Coldwater A Most Violent Year
Stella Maeve Julia Wicker Chicago P.D., The Runaways
Olivia Taylor Dudley Alice Quinn Chernobyl Diaries, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension
Hale Appleman Eliot Waugh Private Romeo, Teeth
Arjun Gupta William (aka Penny) Adiyodi Nurse Jackie, Bridge and Tunnel
Summer Bishil Margo Hanson 90210, Lucky 7
Jade Tailor Kady Orloff-Diaz Karma, Murder in the First
The Magicians Season 2 was announced by Syfy after a solid performance in the show’s first 3 episodes. Season 2 will be another 13 episodes with the main cast confirmed to return. In case you haven’t seen the series yet, check out the trailer here:
The Magicians Season 2 will be filming in Vancouver and British Columbia until November 10th and will premiere in January of 2017 on Syfy / Showcase.
My Christmas Dream (aka Suddenly Santa) (TV Movie)
Danica McKellar just recently wrapped up season 2 of the Netflix series Project Mc2 and the upcoming Hallmark movie Wedding Bells – both filmed in the Vancouver area. She’s already back for the lead role in Hallmark’s My Christmas Dream.
Danica plays Christina Masters who has her sights set on a position that has recently opened up at the Paris location of the department store she works for. Christina is determined to prove she has what it takes by impressing her bosses with amazing Christmas decorations throughout her store.
One day during her preparations, Christina sees a young boy asking Santa for help getting his dad a new job. She discovers that she recently fired his dad for always being late for work. What she didn’t know was that he was a single father trying to juggle work and raise his son. Christina does everything she can to make it up to the boy and his father, and somewhere along the way ends up falling in love. When her dream job comes knocking, she finds herself in the tough position of having to choose between her career or love.
My Christmas Dream is part of Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas series that also includes A Wish for Christmas with Lacey Chabert/Paul Greene, December Bride with Jessica Lowndes/Daniel Lissing and Every Christmas Has a Story; all filmed in the Vancouver area recently. My Christmas Dream will be filming until July 15th.
RELATED: Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas 2016 Movies Filmed in BC
Rufus 2 (TV Movie)
Rufus 2 is the follow-up to the Nickelodeon’s original TV movie which filmed in the Vancouver area last spring under the title Manny’s Best Friend. The story is about a boy named Manny and his beloved dog Rufus. Manny is played by Davis Cleveland who is best known for his roles as Flynn Jones/L. J. on Disney’s Shake It Up TV series.
In the first movie, a magical dog collar turned Rufus into a human boy and Manny was forced to send him to school. As Rufus quickly becomes the talk of the town and a favourite amongst the kids at school, Manny grows jealous of his once best friend.
Rufus 2 will be filming in Vancouver and area until July 15th and is expected to be released in 2017.
Death Note (Feature)
Netflix movie starring Nat Wolff (Paper Towns) and Margaret Qualley (The Leftovers) will be filming in Vancouver and area until August 30th. Check out our full article about Death Note here.
Van Helsing – Season 1 (TV Series) with Kelly Overton, Jonathan Scarfe, Christopher Heyerdahl, Paul Johansson, David Cubitt, Tim Guinee, Aleks Paunovic and Vincent Gale wraps up on June 27th
The Christmas Makeover (TV Movie) with Lori Loughlin and Colin Ferguson wraps up June 28th
The Murderer Upstairs (TV Movie) with Ali Skovbye, Tiera Skovbye, Josie Davis and Cameron Bancroft wraps up June 29th
Relevant (TV Movie) Debbie Gibson and Pascale Hutton wraps up June 30th
Holiday Reminder!
Almost all productions will be off on Friday, July 1st and/or Monday, July 4th to observe the Canadian and US National holidays.
If you see any of these productions, including The Magicians season 2 filming in Vancouver and British Columbia, be sure to let us know by tweeting us (@WhatsFilming) or via our Submit a Location page.
My Christmas Dream
Suddenly Santa
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Touching The Void Theatre Tickets
Showing at Duke of York's Theatre, London
Touching The Void will transfer to Duke of York’s Theatre playing Saturday 9 November 2019 Saturday 29 February 2020 following its critically acclaimed World Premiere in 2018 and a run at Bristol Old Vic in March 2019.
Directed by the award-winning Tom Morris (War Horse) and based on Joe Simpson's best-selling memoir, turned BAFTA-winning film, this extraordinary story charts Joe Simpson’s and Simon Yates’ struggle for survival on the perilous Siula Grande mountain in the Peruvian Andes.
Life-affirming and often darkly funny, David Greig’s thrilling adaptation of Touching The Void takes the audience on an epic adventure that asks how far you’d be willing to go to survive.
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Check availability of Touching The Void theatre breaks which will include tickets to the show plus a choice of hotel.
Duke of York's Theatre
104 St Martin's Lane
WC2N 4BG
(5mins) Take Charing Cross Road to St Martin’s Court, head down until the end and then take a right onto St Martin’s Lane until you reach the theatre on your right.
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Europe's Economic War
With Greece all set to exit the Euro its worth considering the fallout which is about to ensue. Many feel like Greece is being held at ransom, with an exit of the Euro signalling a break in economic ties and ultimately an exit from the European Union. But with over €140bn owed to Europe the big question is how will the euro powers react to a left wing government who may default on a debt that is set to sting Greece for generations.
Greece may feel like this is the best time to walk, advocates pointing to Iceland as a country that recovered from a debt crisis by building new foundations, but with adverse poverty setting in and a poor social welfare system to support the people who are struggling the most it’s not beyond reason to consider that Greece may face a humanitarian crisis.
Further still if the debt remains unpaid and Greece exit Europe, trading may proof extremely difficult for the new government, with little money coming from outside the country to support a new economy and with little hope of raising money for the exchequer on the bond market, Greece is likely to struggle for some time.
To compound matters further the euro powers may even impose tougher trading sanctions as a result of the default, which would impede growth even further and leave Greece looking like a European Cuba.
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Japan is one of the most popular travel destinations in the world. It is a land of contrasts, where the traditional blends with the modern to create a truly unique culture that has beguiled countless travellers from all over the world. With a dizzying array of attractions, from the stately splendour of its ancient palaces and te… read more
Japan is one of the most popular travel destinations in the world. It is a land of contrasts, where the traditional blends with the modern to create a truly unique culture that has beguiled countless travellers from all over the world. With a dizzying array of attractions, from the stately splendour of its ancient palaces and temples and the austere beauty of its Zen rock gardens to the frenetic energy of its many modern cities, Japan has plenty of marvels that will fascinate even the world-weariest traveller. Where else can you best indulge in the Japan’s delightful cuisine but in its birthplace? In fact, savouring its celebrated culinary treasures is one of the best reasons to come to Japan. Dining in Japan is truly a memorable experience, with the well-known Japanese precision and presentation savvy combined with the freshest ingredients. Along with the warm and welcoming Japanese spirit, travellers will soon find themselves charmed with this unique and enchanting country. Enquire now about how we can help you plan your Japan trip. show less
Your holiday results for Japan
Discover Japan Escorted Tour
Tours, couples and rail
Asia (Japan)
This fully escorted tour takes you to major sightseeing spots throughout Japan.
Hiroshima & Shimanami Kaido Self-Guided
Hiroshima and the Seto Inland Sea are some of the most scenic areas of Japan.
Kyushu Small Group Escorted Tour
Tours and couples
Japan's next big destination - Kyushu
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The Southland Music Line’s Busy 2015 (So Far)
By The Southland Music Line May 31, 2015 June 2, 2015 2015: A Year in Music
The Southland Music Line continues its busy schedule and Southern Pilgrimage searching for the best music around. 2015 has been an active and productive year. As both January and February saw us seeing more than 50 shows and events, the spring 2015 has continued at the same pace, putting us easily beyond 125 days and nights of music and having seen well over over 250 bands/solo artists.
Above: Larkin Poe at The Beatnik in New Orleans, LA on Thurs. Jan. 22, 2015 (Photo by Stephen Anderson)
2015 began with anticipated shows from Larkin Poe, Lincoln Durham and Jack White. Once again, the 30A Songwriters Festival (in the Florida Panhandle) was highly entertaining. We, at The Line, had the privilege of seeing artists: John Moreland, Hayes Carll, Deanna Carter, Robert Ellis, Jason Isbell and Leon Russell – all performing at separate showcases.
Also, the year has been packed by memorable individual and/or band performances by Oh Jeremiah, The Mulligan Brothers, Seth Walker, Della Memoria, Andrew Duhon, Grace Askew, John Calvin Abney, The Dig, Ben Jernigan, Melissa Joiner, Rooster Blues, Mississippi Shakedown, Jimmy Lee Hannaford, Lisa Mills, Zach Fellman, This Frontier Needs Heroes, M. Lockwood Porter, Gram Rea, Ross Newell, and the music of Lindy Sholes with Doug Sholes.
Above: The setting for Lincoln Durham’s show at The Beatnik in New Orleans, LA on Fri. Jan. 23, 2015 (Photo by Stephen Anderson)
Our road trips have taken us to Austin, TX for South By Southwest (multiple bands & musicians were seen. Plus, a two-part article was written that details our trip); Two trips to Blue Canoe in Tupelo, MS where we saw both Town Mountain and Billy Joe Shaver; Three times to Birmingham, AL to see John Mellencamp, Flaming Lips, Steve Winwood with Sugarcane Jane; also a trip to Memphis,TN to see Elvis Costello with Larkin Poe (we saw him a second time two days later in Mobile, AL); additionally, we went to Starkville, MS to see Jack White; and numerous trips between New Orleans and the Florida Panhandle.
Above: John Mellencamp Live in Birmingham, AL (Thurs. Mar. 12, 2015); and Elvis Costello w/ Larkin Poe Live in Memphis, TN (Mon. Mar. 10, 2015)
We also attended several local festival events including: Live Oaks Arts Festival in Pascagoula, MS (Mirage; Blackwater Brass; Johnny Sansone & Band; and The Stolen Faces); Magnolia Springs Festival in Magnolia Springs, AL (The Mulligan Brothers; Willie Sugarcapps); A fun memorial day weekend event at Lulu’s in Gulf Shores, AL which featured Vessel, Andrew Duhon Trio, Grayson Capps and The Lost Cause Minstrels, and (from Austin, TX) Mingo Fishtrap; The Legacy Summer Music Festival (Melissa Joiner, Lisa Mills with Chris Spies, Oh Jeremiah and Willie Sugarcapps), and more.
Above: Mingo Fishtrap from Austin, TX at 2015 Lulupalooza in Gulf Shores, AL on Sat. May 23, 2015 (Photo by Stephen Anderson)
VENUE SPOTLIGHTS
Callaghan’s in Mobile, AL has been hard to beat in 2015 with performances by Great Peacock, Dylan LeBlanc, Banditos, The Deslondes, Delta Reign (who had their album “Nothing But Sky” release party at Callaghan’s), The Heard, Humming House, The Mastersons, Band of Heathens, El Cantador’s final show, and several others. If musicians get a chance to perform at Callaghans, they should not hesitate on performing at one of The Deep South’s most enjoyable and accommodating venues.
Above: Band of Heathens at Callaghan’s in Mobile, AL on Fri, April 24, 2015 (Photo by Stephen Anderson)
The same can be said of Jack’s by the Tracks in nearby Pascagoula, MS. It has had no shortage of great music as well. At Jack’s we’ve seen performances by Sugarcane Jane, Fat Man Squeeze, The Deluxe Trio, Mark Pfaff, Cowboy Johnson, Phil Proctor, Wes Lee, Nikki Talley & Jason Sharp, Molly Thomas & The Rare Birds, Holli Mosley & Tim Kinsey, Joe Cat, Kyle & Karl, Andrew Michael Ellis, Banditos, Scott Chism & The Better Half, Truitt Williams Band, Jonny Kashner & Hachet Boys, Cary Hudson, and others.
Above: The stage at Jack’s by the Tracks has seen hundreds of talented musicians perform to a loyal an devoted audience. (Photo by Stephen Anderson)
Ben Kaufman’s Irish Coast Pub in Gulfport, MS has been the place to be on Monday nights. Diggs Darcey hosts the enthusiastic weekly open mic/ music jam sessions featuring a who’s-who of local musicians – even calling themselves “The Monday Night Band”. Each Monday night it’s common to see musicians: Jason Sanford, Eddie Dixon, Zach Fellman, Tim Murphy, Matthew Slater, Stefan Lawson, and several others performing. Irish Coast has already had several great live shows scheduled in 2015: Wes Lee, Jeff Thompson, Della Memoria, Moonhawk, Emily Kopp, Rosco Bandana, Bronwynne Brent with Jeff Lewis and Sherry Cothren of Cynical Twins, Kyle Reid and the Low Swinging Chariots, and others.
Robby Amonett (Artist and a contributor to The Southland Music Line has painted the live performances of a multitude of musicians in venues across the Gulf Coast, Deep South and abroad. In 2015, he has painted at The Frog Pond at Blue Moon Farm in Silverhill, AL; Jack’s by the Tracks in Pascagoula, MS; Callaghan’s in Mobile, AL; Blue Canoe in Tupelo, MS; Irish Coast Pub in Gulfport, MS; The Beatnik in New Orleans, LA; Thirsty Hippo in Hattiesburg, MS; and several other places. Above: Amonett is painting a performance by The Mulligan Brothers at Leo’s in Ocean Springs, MS on Sun Jan. 25, 2015 (Photo by Stephen Anderson).
The Frog Pond at Blue Moon Farm has continued its winning ways by providing the region with one of the foremost experiences for real music listening enthusiasts. We look forward to seeing things start back up in the autumn at Blue Moon Farm. A huge gratitude of thanks goes to Cathe Steele and all those who help her put together a special time for so many. On each trip to the Frog Pond, phenomenal talent is expected: Willie Sugarcapps, David Olney, Cary Laine, Sugarcane Jane, Brigette DeMoyer, Sergio Webb, Dylan LeBlanc, Will Kimbrough, Grayson Capps, Corky Hughes and more! The Frog Pond Sunday Socials have become an extended family to those who attend regularly.
Above: Seth Walker at The Shed in Ocean Springs, MS on Fri, May 15, 2015 (Photo by Stephen Anderson)
Some other venues:
The Shed at the Hwy. 57 / I-10 Crossroads has been a popular spot for us. Murky Waters, Gov’t Street Grocery, The Julep Room, Leo’s (all in Ocean Springs, MS) have also been frequented by The Line. Thirsty Hippo in Hattiesburg continues to be a favorite too. Also, the scheduled music events associated with the Mississippi Songwriters Association has brought great music to The Mary C. O’Keefe Center, including the talented Travis Meadows.
WE MUST NOT FORGET THE LINE’S SECOND TEAM OF CONTRIBUTORS
Several who assist The Line saw a variety of shows (e.g. Widespread Panic, Rush, Lucero, Steve Earle, Mac McAnally, Taylor Swift) and festivals (e g. New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival; Shaky Knees Festival in Atlanta).
Above: Oh Jeremiah at Thirsty Hippo in Hattiesburg, MS on Wed. Jan. 28, 2015 (Photo by Stephen Anderson)
A SAMPLE OF HIGHLIGHTS
Above Top: The poster for Steve Winwood/Sugarcane Jane show in Birmingham, AL) Above: Grace Askew performing on the guitar she received from The John Lennon Songwriting Contest 2015. The performance was at The Julep Room in Ocean Springs, MS on Sat. April 18, 2015. (Photo by Stephen Anderson)
It’s hard to say what has stood out most for us here at The Line. The following is a sample of what could easily appear on our year end rankings:
*The Power Trio performance from Grayson Capps, Corky Hughes and John Milham at Callaghan’s on Sun. May 3rd.
*Sugarcane Jane opening the show for Steve Winwood in Birmingham, AL. (Sat. May 2) They truly shined on that amazing night… and while we are at it, Sugarcane Jane’s performance at The Frog Pond at Blue Moon Farm on Sun. April 5th was one of my favorite shows at The Frog Pond.
*Larkin Poe (with Emily Kopp) in New Orleans on one stormy weather night. Emily Kopp was the opening performance and since, we have become big a fan of hers (Thurs. Jan. 22).
*Lincoln Durham in New Orleans on the night following Larkin Poe’s show (Fri. Jan. 23).
* Two nights of Elvis Costello – first in Memphis with Larkin Poe performing with him (Tues. Mar. 10); and secondly, Costello’s solo show in Mobile, AL (Fri. Mar. 13).
*Molly Thomas & The Rare Birds at Jack’s by the Tracks (Thurs. April 16).
*John Calvin Abney, M.Lockwood Porter, and Chad Cox at Thirsty Hippo in Hattiesburg, MS (Mon. Feb. 2).
* Grace Askew Live at The Julep Room (Sat. April 18).
*Rosco Bandana Live at The Hard Rock Cafe in Biloxi, MS (Thurs. April 9) and Government Street Grocery (Thurs. May 28).
*Oh Jeremiah with full band at Callaghan’s (Sun. Jan. 4).
*Great Peacock at Callaghan’s (Sat. Feb. 28).
Of course, more could be added (the above serves as an example).
Above: Gram Rea & Ross Newell of The Mulligan Brothers at The Office in Ocean Springs, MS on Fri. Jan. 9, 2015 (Photo by Stephen Anderson)
As summer approaches, big plans for some upcoming shows, events and roadtrips are being planned, including two Rolling Stones’ shows; the Willie Nelson 4th of July Picnic; Sugarcane Jane touring with Steve Forbert; and hopefully the return of one of our favorites, Escondido.
The final article in 2014 announced Willie Sugarcapps as 2014’s “Artist of the Year”; it was then followed by a 4-part article by The Line’s Stephen Anderson, Robby Amonett and myself reviewing the best of 2014, as observed by The Southland Music Line, in great detail. Future articles would include ones about Lincoln Durham; SXSW 2015 (a two part); Billy Joe Shaver’s performance in Tupelo, MS; and Delta Reign’s latest album “Nothing But Sky”.
Robby Amonett had the privilege of writing an article about his good friends, Banditos, and the release of their new album from Bloodshot Records.
We appreciated the ones who contributed to the article “Why We Love Sugarcane Jane As Told by the Friends & Fans of Sugarcane Jane. The Line asked many friends and fans of Sugarcane Jane to comment on why they loved Sugarcane Jane. The responses were abundant and heartfelt. The article became The Line’s most visited article to date. It was soon followed up by an article detailing Sugarcane Jane opening the show for Steve Winwood in Birmingham, AL
Above top: The Southland Music Line Covers (January-May 2015); Above: The Coastal Noise Podcast The Line’s Johnny Cole was invited to join to discuss music. (Podcast photos by Stefan Lawson of The Coastal Noise).
(*We are presently developing a weekly review section to The Southland Music so all shows can be reported. It will be added during the first week of June. It will be called “Keeping Up with The Line”.)
We are looking forward to another memorable year as 2015 continues. Thank you for following The Line.
(Coming in June)
Delta Reign: A Fan Favorite Delivers A New Album of Pleasing Diversity
The Road Leads To Birmingham: Sugarcane Jane Opens Show For Steve Winwood
Banditos: A True Blue American Rock Band (An Article by Robby Amonett)
The Artist and The Outlaw (Robby Amonett’s Painting of Billy Joe Shaver)
Why We Love Sugarcane Jane as Told by the Friends & Fans of Sugarcane Jane
The Southland Music Line Returns to SXSW, Pt. 1
A Midwinter’s Night: Lincoln Durham – Live from New Orleans
© The Southland Music Line. 2015. All rights reserved
Tagged 2015: A Year in Music.
« DELTA REIGN: A Fan Favorite Delivers A New Album of Pleasing Diversity
Callaghan’s of Mobile, AL – One of the South’s Best Places for Live Music »
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Punter wins £10,000 on Trump's world win - 21 years after placing bet
A punter has landed a windfall after backing Judd Trump at 1,000-1 to be world snooker champion when he was aged eight - 21 years ago.
Trump's 18-9 victory over John Higgins in the Crucible final netted horse racing journalist Neil Morrice 10,000.
The 62-year-old placed a 10 bet with bookmaker Coral in 1998 after spotting Trump's talent at a snooker club near Bristol with his son.
"Judd looked something special even as an eight-year-old," said Morrice.
"So I've been following his career closely from the start."
He was running out of time as the wager specifically stated Trump - beaten by Higgins in the 2011 final - had to win the title before 2020 before his 30th birthday.
Morrice saw the young Trump in action at the Keynsham Snooker Club.
"Eight years ago, I thought I might win my bet, it was John Higgins who stood in Judd's way then, so I was hoping for a different outcome this year, and thankfully there was," added Morrice.
"I guess I'll have to back him again next year, although of course I won't be getting odds of 1,000-1."
Trump is rated a 3-1 shot to win the championship again next year.
Coral spokesman David Stevens said: "Neil first saw Judd Trump in action when his 12-year-old son played a frame against him, and at the time he was so young he needed to stand on a box to reach the table.
"Having spotted his star potential so early, he was quick to place his bet at 1,000-1 that Judd would win the World Championship before his 30th birthday.
"His foresight almost paid off in 2011, but thanks to John Higgins we escaped the payout that year, but there was a different and much happier outcome this year."
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Buck Knives to produce collection of Boy Scout-licensed knives
Buck has added new knives, including the venerable 110 to their BSA-licensed collection
This isn’t the first time that Buck Knives has teamed with the Boy Scouts of America. They have been making an Eagle Scout commemorative edition 500 Duke for some time now, with the Eagle Scout emblem and available engraving options. They have now added several more knives to the line-up, as you can read in their release – including the classic Buck 110 Folding Hunter (review here)
From Buck Knives Press Release:
Buck Knives is pleased to announce the launch of a new commemorative knife collection appealing to generations of Scouts and Scouters of the Boy Scouts of America. The timeless 110 Folding Hunter has been added to the list of products officially licensed by the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).
Each commemorative knife features the BSA® logo on the handle and is available for engraving on the blade. The collection includes a 110 Folding Hunter featuring a Cherrywood handle and nickel silver bolsters, a Rosewood handled 346 Vantage, the 722 SpitFire with a blue anodized aluminum handle, available with or without serrations, and the 726 Mini SpitFire with a blue anodized aluminum handle. Prices range from $35-$70 for the officially licensed products.
“Scouts have been carrying our pocket knives for generations,” said CJ Buck, CEO and Chairman of Buck Knives. “Maintaining traditions is extremely important to us. It is an honor to provide Scouts and Scouters with the tools to assist in their adventures.”
The first BSA licensed knife, the 500 Duke released in 2013, was designed for Eagle Scouts. The Duke sells for $50, which includes custom engraving and shipping.
These knives can be ordered directly through Buck Knives. To order, visit www.BuckKnives.com/collection/bsa/.
BSA Edition Buck Spitfire
While there is a company producing knives under the name “Camillus”, it isn’t the same company that produced the classic Boy Scout knife that so many of us remember. It is good to see the Boy Scouts partnering with a company that is going to produce quality American knives worthy of the logo.
simonVicAustralia says:
Does the spitfire have a recurve, or is it just that picture. I would never buy a recurve for a young knife owner, so much more difficult to sharpen.
I’m glad to see these. I’m a Scouter, and I see a number of BSA knives made in China.
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Himitsu, Hitotsu
Read Manga Himitsu, Hitotsu Online for free
ひみつ、ひとつ
Nakahara tsubaki
You Are Reading Himitsu, Hitotsu in 365Manga
Oct 30, 2018 16:03:27
Chapter 6: Summer, The Sun's Rays, And Your Back
Chapter 5: I’m Sorry, I Love You
Chapter 4: The Seasons That Follow "goodbye"
Chapter 3: A Love Awakened By A Kiss
Chapter 2: Sister*sister
Sensei to Himitsu
Chapter 1-2 & Extra: Kaji's woken up from his nap hearing popular Tsunoda sensei getting hot and heavy with another guy! But it's his partner, the plain Aritou sensei that Kaji can't stop thinking about. Kaji's eyes are being opened as he finds that the needs and dark desires that can bind together lovers aren't always about love... Chapter 3-6: An assistant proffessor of agriculture quits his collage due to…
Sensei to Himitsu o
From : TCManga/Transient Mirage At a "welcoming dinner," Umino and her former high school teacher re-united. It was because of him that she decided to become a teacher and eventually enter a relationship with him. However, what was supposed to be a beautiful relationship for Umino ended abruptly when he said "I fell in love with somebody else." What will happen to Umino after her failed relationship?
Sennen ni Hitotsu no Koi
Compilation of short stories: 1) 1000 Years, I Love Hakua is sent into the mountains by the village to kill a ferocious tiger that has been attacking villages. The tiger, mistaking him for a girl, drags Hakua into the mountains to become his mate. Love soon blossoms as Hakua must teach this half human creature the meanings of his new found emotions. 2) 1000 Years, I Love Extra Their love…
Harem Days
1-2) Harem Days Madoka Mitsuru (Enman to his coworkers) is an rough ex-yankee, so he's not really sure how he got a job at a prestigious company. He works in "the harem", the name of the gofer department because of all the attractive ladies, under Chief Suzunari, a cheery middle-aged man who doesn't understand the meaning of personal space! 3) Hareta Yoru no Hikari (Light of the Clear Night Sky)…
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The Soulcalibur Series
Soulcalibur VI (Multi)
"Please look forward to collaborations with other works!" - Guest Character Speculation Thread
Thread starter FallenAngelII
garjian
[12] Conqueror
FallenAngelII said:
Has SC ever had a guest character that isn't a videogame character?
Spawn?
It's difficult to think of Souls characters that would be a good fit.
Ornstein was the best I can think of. He already has to charge up his lunge, and has a cool AT... I think his moveset fits really well.
Gehrman could work if you make his shotgun point blank or only part of an AT... but clashes with Zasalamel, should he be in the game.
Outside of just taking a random NPC and throwing a generic sword & shield moveset on to them, I can't think of much else, and that's best left for CaS if you ask me.
I'd like to see... pffff, nobody really. I can't think of any character who's really caught my attention in the last couple of years.
FallenAngelII
[09] Warrior
garjian said:
Oh, right. I completely forgot about him because I only ever played SCII on GC, PS2 and XB360.
UnseenWombat
[14] Master
I would be just as happy if there were no guest characters. But if there must be, let it at least be someone who could have plausibly interacted with the soul calibur world, like Ezio (even though he was 100 some years removed too), and not pull a $$$$tunt like the starwars BS in SC4.
Reactions: Kevin
Draggonnfs
Weeeell there already is a thread for this, isn't there? I'm not worrying about the guest characters much. To me the most obvious choice currently is Cloud from FFVII, cause of the remake coming up.
Macaulyn
I haven't played Nioh, and know nothing about it, but apparently it sold very well, so I can see it happening.
A Dynasty Warriors crossover is also possible, seeing as how Sophitia appeared in one of their games.
Mai Shiranui is a highly unlikely guest character and more importantly, I don't want her in Soul Calibur. She's a projectile character and we don't want more of those (side-eyes SCIV Algol) and other than as a projectile, Mai doesn't really use her fans much. She fights with her bare fists and legs. She just wouldn't be a good fit and any playstyle that tried to stay faithful to her original play style would likely break the game.
Okay, lets begin here: first off, what either of us want doesn't matter, so don't even try to use that as an argument. Second, don't speak of "we" as if you were talking in the name of someone else, because you speak only for yourself. Also, projectile character? She has ONE projectile, which is less than what Cervantes has. Also, she doesn't have to use her fan in all of her attacks, only in part of them, look at Viola, she doesn't use the orb in all attacks. Also, no, if guests like Spawn and Darth Vader didn't break the game, Mai is the least likely to do so.
Gladiolus & Cloud Strife - We already have Cloud in SSB4 and Noctis in T7. For these reasons, I don't think we're going to get any FFVII or FFXV characters in SCVI. Square Enix likely would want to promote some of their other games or at least not create franchise fatigue by having too many characters from the same games appear in multiple fighting game franchises..
How does this factor into anything ar all? Who the fuck cares about SSB, this is Soul Calibur, that is the most asinine excuse I've ever seen. Also, what T7 have to do with this? Different games, different communities, but characters still very popular regardless, so its profitable, smart and, specially, cool to add Gladiolus.
Tekken - I don't think we're ever getting another Tekken character as a guest character. We already had Heihachi and Yoshimitsu is a permanent SC character. But another guest style that we'll end up banning in tournament is possible.
We got Devil Jin after Heihachi and Yoshimitsu was never a guest. Neither of them was banned in tournaments for being strong, Heihachi at best got banned for console exclusive, like Link and Spawn.
The reason why you can't think of someone specific from the Souls or Bloodborne games is likely because none of the games really place much emphasis on their characters.
Stopped reading this part here, this is a joke, right?
I doubt we'll ever see KOS-MOS. She'll stick out like a sore thumb, what with being an android with an artifical intelligence wielding a handgun and a machine gun. CaS parts is one thing, a guest character is another. You also appear to imply Dante was originally supposed to appear in SCIII, but I can find no sources for this.
Yeah, because Spawn, Darth Vader, The Apprentice and Yoda don't stand out at all. You only want to make arguments to raise a discussion you can't keep going, you did not have a single decent point to provide at all.
Spawn, Darth Vader and Yoda.
Leinahtan said:
I thought it was confirmed by leaks that it was Link and some Fire Emblem character for cross promotion for the switch version?
For the PS4, I would assume it would be a cross promotion with the new souls game in development, possibly bloodborne 2, so it would be the hunter in that case. Maybe Gehrman.
For the Xbox, it would probably be some unannounced project character. I don't see any killer instinct characters transferring over.
Nothing was confirmed about anyone except Sophitia and Mitsurugi. Leaks made mention of a character that looked like a Fire Emblem character, but it wasn't confirmed if it is a guest, and Link was never mentioned at all.
Geralt makes the most sense to me as the cross plat guest. He'd fit perfect too.
Reactions: minimaxi
I thought the guest was going to be a Fire Emblem character of some sort. Wasn’t that part of the leaks?
Jrasta111
[11] Champion
Love to see this guy back...
Even less likely than seeing a new Force Unleashed but I want my Starkiller back dammit!
Jrasta111 said:
Holy fuck he was a pisser in SCIV arcade
No. Plz no
Yuna is the new Ermac ? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
https://8wayrun.com/threads/scv-dlc-guest-character-ermac.12244/
T.Rex said:
Yuna is a terrible choice out of everyone more relevant from FF and Ermac is even worse.
Macaulyn said:
Spawn and Darth Vader didn't break the game because their playstyles didn't. Unless they give us a Mai Shiranui whose entire playstyle is wildly different from the one she enjoys in literally every single fighting game she's ever appeared in, she will break the game. Why? Because she is a projectile character. It's not that she's only got 1 projectile (she's actually got 2, one of which is a boosted up Desperation Move version of her regular fan throw), but because of how it works. They have 2 choices, make it useless (i.e. super-steppable) or make it useful in the same way it is in literally every single fighting game she's ever appeared in, in which case it'll be like Algol's SCIV projectiles. And unlike Cervantes, they can't make hers duckable unless they want it to look and be really stupid. Kicks aside, Viola uses her Orb in about 40% of her attacks and strings. Mai uses fans in... 5 attacks? Also, I just found out she apparently was a guest character on Dead or Alive 5 Last Round.
Because Bandia Namco aren't pulling these guest characters out of thin air, they're licensing them from third parties. And those third parties will want to promote specific things. "Hey, can we have Cecil from FFIV?" Bandai Namco might ask. And Square Enix might go "Sure!", but they're also a company who want to promote their games and most people don't even know who the Hell Cecil is and FFIV isn't a priority for Square Enix, so they'll probably go "How about you add X character from Y game instead?".
Because of this, Square Enix will probably want SCVI, if they're adding a Final Fantasy character, to add a character from a game that hasn't had a guest character in another fighting game yet because they want to promote more games than just the 2. Also, they don't want franchise fatigue. If every single fighting game franchise adds FFXV characters, eventually, there'll be a backlash from the fans, who're sick and tired of FFXV guest characters. These two reasons make it less likely we'll see guest characters from FF games that have already been guest characters in fighting games.
There's a reason why we rarely see multiple characters from the same game be guest characters in multiple games (especially of the same genre) that are released within the same decade.
Did I say Yoshimitsu was a guest character? We got Heihachi that one time, yes. Which precisely the point. And Devil Jin was not a guest character, he was a guest style. I said he's, and I quote, "a permanent SC character". Try reading people's posts before replying to them. And try to think deeper than "Herp derp, I have no clue what this means so I'll use insults and swear words instead of applying any kind of critical thinking first!".
I forgot a word: Playable characters.
How did Spawn stand out in the grand scheme of things? Demon-like being with mystic powers. That's par for the course with the Soul Calibur series, what with the rampart sorcery, magic and demons. Darth Vader, the Apprentice and Yoda were all swordfighters. The only thing that stood out about them was the fact that Darth Vader had some cybernetic parts if you look closely. Yoda being a little muppet didn't didn't really matter much seeing as how in the Soul Calibur universe there exists lizardmen and demons. And you would never have known the Apprentice wasn't a Soul Calibur based on his playstyle and design alone (lightsaber aside, since there aren't any energy swords in the Soul Calibur series... yet). Even Darth Vader's modulated voice wasn't that different from those of the Malfested. KOS-MOS is an android who says things like "Multiple operating systems" in the weird Uncanny Valley-like way robots speak in movies (but without the vocal effects), with a body that's clearly made out of cynernetic parts, including metallic wings, with a robotic voice, handguns and a machine gun. Almost all of her attacks makes use of machine guns or electronics.[/QUOTE]
[10] Knight
Frayhua said:
Hunter from Bloodborne & God of War 4 Kratos for PS4.
Link & A Fire Emblem character when the Switch version is announced. Switch multiplats release later than traditional multiplats.
As much as I love Fire Emblem, I am not okay with console exclusives. Excluding is bad when it comes to gameplay; everyone needs to have the same experience. If there's going to be a guest it has to be available on every platform, no exceptions.
That said, there are ways around this. For example, say they added Marth to a theoretical Switch version as a playable character, but he had an alternate skin named "Driz" or something. "Driz" would be an original character that could be added to the other versions of the game. So everyone gets Marth's gameplay, but not everyone gets the Marth skin. I would be okay with that. This additionally solves the problem of being able to add them to the meta in future games.
Of course that's assuming it's legally possible. Motions alone shouldn't be subject to copyright, but Nintendo these days is kind of an asshole when it comes to legal stuff. I do want to say this has been done before, but I can't think of an example right now.
How did Spawn stand out in the grand scheme of things? Demon-like being with mystic powers. That's par for the course with the Soul Calibur series, what with the rampart sorcery, magic and demons. Darth Vader, the Apprentice and Yoda were all swordfighters. The only thing that stood out about them was the fact that Darth Vader had some cybernetic parts if you look closely. Yoda being a little muppet didn't didn't really matter much seeing as how in the Soul Calibur universe there exists lizardmen and demons. And you would never have known the Apprentice wasn't a Soul Calibur based on his playstyle and design alone (lightsaber aside, since there aren't any energy swords in the Soul Calibur series... yet). Even Darth Vader's modulated voice wasn't that different from those of the Malfested. KOS-MOS is an android who says things like "Multiple operating systems" in the weird Uncanny Valley-like way robots speak in movies (but without the vocal effects), with a body that's clearly made out of cynernetic parts, including metallic wings, with a robotic voice, handguns and a machine gun. Almost all of her attacks makes use of machine guns or electronics.
Look, my patience is incredibly limited and you are just repeating things over and over without bringing anything new or a point at all, which is what you failed to bring in the first post. I will not bother repeating myself like you did, your answers are in the posts you quoted, and you do not have arguments.
You know I think guests should be an excuse for developers to try something new, something they wouldn't otherwise have even thought to try without being inspired by the idea of a particular guest being in their game and what that guest could do, how they would play.
If you're going to waste all that and be boring trying to make a guest that will simply fit into your game wholesale then why bother, why not just make more of your own characters... No need to go to the trouble of licensing someone if they're not going to stand out. Like Noctis in Tekken 7, not that I'd play that, but you get the point.
Reactions: Macaulyn
Party Wolf
MichaelJackson said:
From what I understand it was a communication error. There is a Fire Emblem VA who voices an SC character.
Reactions: Vergeben and Macaulyn
All I want is some Final Fantasy rep in Soul Calibur. The weapon based fighting as well as the plethora of weapons for each Final Fantasy character makes it a good candidate game. It'd be a shame to see Noctis recycled. I'm trying to consider what is relevant aside from FFXV, though. There's a re-release of FFXII on the horizon, right? It would kinda tie in with the "reboot" theme to have a pseudo-throwback as a guest character.
Semi related, perhaps the "collaborations" could also include costume pieces to create guest characters.
Ian said:
The HD Remaster of FFXII was released in July of this year.
This is not without precedent.
Leinahtan
You know... I really like to cover myself in BBQ sauce and roll around in dogshit from time to time... It really gets me in the mood! Now I need to go meet the Pope! He needs a penis transplant and I'm a donor! Bye!
You know, I looked at alerts, then looked at what you were quoting from me... and wondered if I somehow got SUPER blackout drunk, turned into Nyte, and went bonkers...
Please quote responsibly... nearly checked myself into a mental asylum there... Note what I did above :)
Gojira said:
Imagine if we had cross platform support... and they allowed Guest characters to duke it out online against each other... Link and Kratos going at each other. That would sell a lot more than any other game... for both platforms. And to top it off, they could create a special version of the game on the side for tournaments that allowed all of them to be played locally, like some mini arcade version...
Of course, Sony will block it. Killjoys :/
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Check in on the State of AI in Marketing with Albert’s New Customer Survey Report
Our recently published customer survey report confirms that AI is emerging as the most effective solution to the complexities of digital marketing — specifically in its ability to autonomously manage processes like media buying and facilitate better creative work.
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Our full survey offers a wide range of revealing facts and figures about AI deployment in marketing today, but we’ve compiled some of the most interesting takeaways from the report for your reading pleasure below.
Agencies Augmenting Campaigns with AI
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Agencies are also trying out AI on new, creative applications like keyword selection and copywriting. The agencies we surveyed were more likely to report higher performance as a major benefit of AI than brands were, citing media buying and audience segmentation as particularly valuable. Nearly 60% of agencies claimed they discovered new audience segments through the implementation of AI solutions.
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We also found that marketers utilizing AI in the workplace have seen extraordinary results in terms of both increased capacity and efficiency. Agencies gave their AI a 3.8/5 rating for freeing up marketers to focus on creative and strategic tasks, thanks to their autonomous platform’s ability to complete more tedious work related to data collection and analysis. 33% of brand-side marketers, for their part, were surprised by the speed at which creative material loses effectiveness with users, something they never would have realized without using AI.
The survey revealed that it is much more common for brands and agencies to utilize AI’s capabilities simultaneously across search, display, and social channels rather than on only one or two of these channels. This suggests that AI’s ability to work efficiently across channels will be a major factor in its increased adoption in the coming years.
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by Eric Berkowitz
VP Customer Success
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FAQ – False Ale Quotes
Myth 1: Ralph Harwood invented porter as a substitute for three-threads
Myth 2: Hops were forbidden by Henry VI
Myth 3: Medieval ale-conners wore leather breeches and tested ale by pouring some on a wooden bench and then sitting in it and seeing if they stuck to the bench
Myth 4: George Hodgson invented IPA to survive the long trip to India
Six more myths about hops
Myth 6: “As early as the ninth century, the Abbey of St Gall in Switzerland had three breweries in full operation”
Beer, Beer advertising, Beer business, Beer education, Beer industry, Beer news, Beer styles, Cask-conditioned beer, History of beer, Rants
Why Greene King doesn’t care that the haters hate its IPA
25th February 2015 Martyn Cornell 122 Comments
Hard luck, haters: Greene King knows you don’t like its IPA, you think it’s too bland, “not a real IPA” at 3.6% abv, and it doesn’t care at all. Not the tiniest drop. In fact it’s probably quite pleased you don’t like it. You’re not its target market – it’s after a vastly larger constituency. If you liked its IPA, it’s fairly sure those people that Greene King would most like to capture to and in the cask ale market, young people, people still with a lifetime of drinking ahead of them, wouldn’t like it – and for that reason, the Bury St Edmunds crew have no intention of changing their IPA just to make you happy. In fact they’re not changing it at all – except to shake up its look, and put £2m in media spend behind it.
The new look
Of course, it’s not just Greene King IPA that has hosepipes of vitriol directed at it by the Camra hardcore. Any widely available cask ale gets the same – Fuller’s London Pride and Sharp’s DoomBar are equally hated, without the haters apparently being able to work out that the reason why these beers are widely available is because lots of people actually like drinking them, even if the haters don’t.
Indeed, it’s the popularity that is prompting the Bury St Edmunds crew into its current push. To its obvious delight, and, I suspect, slight surprise, Greene King has discovered that the flood of new young drinkers coming into the cask ale market find Greene King IPA just the sort of beer they want: there’s more to it that can be found in a pint of lager, but it’s still reasonably safe and unthreatening.
At a launch on Monday night in a bar near Oxford Circus in London to announce a new look for Greene King IPA, and other initiatives including a new website to educate licensees and bar staff on cellar management and how to serve the perfect pint, Dom South marketing director for brewing and brands at Greene King, quoted figures from a survey done last year for the Campaign for Real Ale showing that 15% of all cask drinkers tried cask ale for the first time in the past three years, and 65% of those new drinkers are aged 16 to 24. “We’re seeing a complete revolutionary shift in the drinker base coming into cask ale, which is exciting, because it means that this category, for the future, is in rude health,” South said. And where does Greene King IPA fit in here? “When you look at what those young drinkers want, from a cask ale brand, or just a beer, the three things a new young entrant wants are, first, something that feels right to them, a reflection of themselves, that makes them feel good about drinking the beer,” South said. “They want something a little bit modern, a little bit contemporary. The second thing is, they expect the beer to taste good – but let’s face it, too many pints in the UK are served sub-standard.
“The third thing is that younger people coming into the market want something that is a bit tastier than the lager market that they’ve left, but they want it to be pretty easy-drinking, the majority of them. They want something that tastes good, not something that needs chewing. That’s where the role of Greene King IPA comes in. There is a real role for a brand to play in the market, one that represents the safe choice when you enter into a product category that’s new to you, one that won’t let you down, that represents taste that is relatively easy drinking versus some of the 20,000-odd beers that you can have in the UK. With Greene King IPA, our simple strategy is to bring many more young people into our brand and the market, and also to stand for a signpost to quality, trust and assurance for people who might be about to come into the market.
“When we tested ourselves against those key things that young drinkers want, ‘Does it look and feel right for me, make me want to drink it?’, ‘Is it good quality, not going to let me down?’, and three, ‘Is it easy to drink, and something you’d want to have as your first drink?’, we were really excited by the results. We found the number one reason for people drinking Greene King IPA, time after time, is the fact that it’s easy drinking. I know a few people give it a hard time because it’s easy to drink – that’s its strength, that’s its role in the market. It’s the first drink I would recommend to someone if it’s their first time drinking cask ale, because it won’t let them down and it’s not too challenging. We did a load of blind taste tests and Greene King IPA, when it’s served right, is absolutely up there with the world’s largest cask ale brand* in taste tests, and beat significantly most of the leading brands in the cask ale market. So this product doesn’t need changing, it isn’t going to change and we haven’t changed it. It’s absolutely right.”
There we are, then, haters. Greene King has the figures to show that four out of five cask ale drinkers love the fact that Greene King IPA is an easy-drinking pint – which is, after all, the core definition of a session beer, and session beers are, or should be, the pride and pinnacle of British brewing, the beer that makes going to the pub with your mates worthwhile. If you don’t like it – tough. Go and drink something so hoppy your teeth need re-enamelling afterwards.
Not that everything in the IPA garden is perfectly lovely. There were two problems, the first relatively easy to try to solve, the second far more crucial, and difficult. On the first, South said: “We recognised, and consumers told us, we did need to move forward with the look and feel of the brand. We looked a little bit corporate, and perhaps a little bit traditional to the younger consumer. So we set off on the journey of bringing ourselves really up to date, a modern, contemporary look and feel that won’t alienate people who already enjoy a pint of Greene King IPA but that will genuinely bring younger people into the category and into the brand. I’m confident that this is going to do the job. It’s not a tweak and it’s not a small pigeon step forward, it’s pretty bold and it’s pretty big as a leap forward in terms of look and feel. Ziggurat Brands, the design agency that did it, have stripped it back to bare basics, taking inspiration from things they found in the brewery, so the copper colour is inspired by the copper kettles in the Greene King brewery, the teal colour because we wanted to evolve the green colour of Greene King IPA to something much more modern and contemporary. This is where we needed to make a big change to bring people in. At the same time it shouts heritage, with the crown and the arrows.” Teal – the hipster’s green. I’m never sure about that crown-and-arrows logo Greene King is adopting, though: it commemorates poor King Edmund of East Anglia killed by Viking archers in 869, after whom, of course, Bury St Edmunds is named.
More importantly, South said, “What we do need to focus on is making sure every pint is served perfectly. We are going to carry on with consumer support, advertising, all of those good things. But we feel it’s really important that we shift a lot of our emphasis, and put more money into the brand, with the trade. We’re going to invest heavily in supporting the trade to get quality right, and quality is the number one thing for us to focus on.” There two big initiatives here, the first a quality accreditation drive, with unannounced pub visits made by either Quality & Dispense Services, a senior Greene King representative or a third party quality agency. A pub will be required to pass ten quality tests, which include the taste, aroma and temperature of their Greene King IPA through to whether it is served in the right glass and the ability of bar staff to talk about the beer and describe it accurately. Pubs that are judged to pour a perfect pint of Greene King IPA will be awarded with a plaque and certificate, and crowners for their IPA pumpclips, “all signposts to the consumer to say, ‘This is going to be a safe bet,'” South said. Pubs that do not pass first time will be educated on the importance and benefits of looking after their cask beer range before another visit is made.
You cannot improve quality in a vacuum, however: and to that end, Greene King has launched a website giving free training, troubleshooting and best practice videos, available at www.beer-genius.co.uk.. “Beer Genius is Greene King’s open access training portal to the industry,” South said. “We recognise that staff turnover is a problem – it’s different for everyone, but let’s make an assumption, 100% every year. How on earth can licensees be expected to make sure every new bar staff member knows even how to serve a pint, let alone clean down the bar and do all the basics? So what this portal is going to do is teach cellar managers, bar managers, operations directors, BDMs, local area managers, but also bar staff, three things: how to manage a cellar, how to make the most money and yield they can out of cask ale, by getting the quality right and the yield up, and why commercially it makes sense, and third, how to serve the perfect pint.
“Why does it matter? It’s not just about giving the consumer the perfect pint – although that’s absolutely key. The benefit of giving the consumer the perfect pint is that yields in pubs will massively skyrocket, because quality and yields go hand-in-hand. A key part of what we’ve got to do is educate bar staff, as well as bar managers that when you get it right, but that tiny bit of extra effort in, your till will start ringing up more money. The numbers astounded me. About 70% of pubs, we estimate, have a yield of 91% or lower on their cask ales. It should be 97, 98, even 99%. When they close that gap, the benefit to that pub in terms of profit is enormous – it’s up to £5,000 through the till, per annum. That’s their benefit: the benefit to the consumer is no more dodgy pints. And therefore you stay in the pub, you tell your friends about that pub, the net promoter score of that pub improves, people come back. So what could be a huge loss to that pub through a dodgy pint becomes a huge gain. So it’s absolutely key that we help licensees with this.”
There we are: get the quality right, your yields from every cask will be up, and so will be your profits. The licensee is happy, the consumer is happy, the brewer is happy. Mind, I doubt the haters would be happy even if Greene King had the head brewer personally deliver every pint to their table in solid gold goblets with a £50 note for use as a beermat. Personally, I’m delighted if young drinkers find Greene King IPA a good gateway into cask ale: as they grow older, and more experienced, it’s likely that some – though not all – will start to experiment, to explore, and discover the kind of beers the haters enjoy, beers which indeed have a great deal to offer those who are ready for them. The quality initiative is excellent – other brewers, please, please copy. And the Beer Genius website, from what I’ve been able to explore so far, is a terrific resource for everybody – including drinkers, who can find out what has to go on to get them that elusive perfect pint.
Does anyone make IPAs like this one any more?
Meanwhile, here’s a small rant directed at all those idiots who keep chuntering on about how Greene King IPA is “not an India Pale Ale” and how IPA has to be “strong and strongly hopped”, so it would survive the long journey to the Indian sub continent, over 200 years ago. You don’t have a clue what you are talking about. Let’s rush past the fact that 19th century IPA wasn’t strong at all, for the time, but comparatively weak, at around 6% abv. Do you complain because today’s porters aren’t matured in 30-feet-high oak vats for 18 months, as they were 200 years ago? Or that today’s stouts are as weak as 19th century porters? Do you complain because today’s milds are nothing at all like the mild ales of 200 years ago, 7% abv and made solely from pale malt? Beers change, and beer styles are not carved on stone tablets. A 19th century IPA would have been kept for up to a year in cask, would have lost all its hop aroma and would have developed a distinctly Brettanomyces flavour. Nobody at all is brewing an IPA like that. American IPAs, in particular, lovely beers though they often are, are nothing whatsoever like 19th century IPAs: totally wrong hops, totally wrong emphasis on hop aroma, often too strong, and meant to be drunk much more quickly after being brewed than 19th century IPAs were. After the First World War, and the huge rise in the tax on beer, all beers, of all styles, were brewed to lower strengths than they had been in the 19th century. What Greene King IPA is, is a perfect example of a mid-20th century IPA, just like those once brewed by Charrington, Palmers, Eldridge Pope, Wadworths, Wethered’s, Youngers and others in the 1960s and 1970s, all 1035 to 1043 OG. Go and get your Camra Good Beer Guide 2015 edition and look up Phipps IPA (page 844, column 2): OG 1042, abv 4.2%, “recreated from old recipes”: recreated from genuine 20th century recipes, as a genuine 20th century IPA. Just like Greene King IPA.
*Meaning DoomBar, presumably
beer educationGreene KingGreene King IPAhatersIndia Pale AleIPA
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122 thoughts on “Why Greene King doesn’t care that the haters hate its IPA”
pubcurmudgeon says:
25th February 2015 at 9:50 am
The focus on quality as dispensed over the bar is very welcome – far too many pub operators still don’t seem to get this and are happy to serve up flat, tired, borderline off cask beer.
I made a similar point about 20th century IPAs in this blogpost. Most, as you say, were of moderate strength, easy-drinking and not particularly bitter.
The Beer Nut says:
Don’t forget Wells Eagle!
Yvan (@beeryvan) says:
I think Greene King’s main problem has been the standard of the beer quality across their vast tied estate. More so than whatever foibles people may have about specific beers. GKIPA is what it is, and as noted they sell a hell of a lot of it. In my area Greene King are known mainly for: bad quality pubs, shutting pubs down, selling pubs to developers, turning pubs into Tesco Express… which in CAMRA circles makes them the devil incarnate.
I hope the whole Beer Genius thing represents a new focus on cellarmanship by Greene King. If the vast GK estate could get much better at keeping their beer, just Wetherspoons standard for instance, it’d be a good thing for beer in general – IMO. But not sure it’ll work unless they can start attracting people who actually give a crap to run their pubs. (There are some truly fantastic GK landlords out there, but they’re few and far between. One of my favourite pubs is a GK pub. Which sounds a bit like “one of my best friends is…” but hey ho.)
Also I don’t think many folk hate London Pride, not in cask form anyway, it seems well loved (or at least respected) in both CAMRA and ‘craft’ beer circles. And most CAMRA folk I know are pretty accepting of a pint of well kept GK IPA, though they’ll grumble about “Greedy King”. However Doombar *is* more firmly relegated to the trash heap by almost everyone I know. (Going way back before the Molson Coors buy-out.) Yet it is the highest volume selling cask ale. So goes to show what that matters! 🙂
I’d be happier if GK just stuck to their guns… as they say, there’s no need to change GK IPA. It’d be nice if they stopped trying to be “craft” (whatever that is), stopped releasing beers with lots of rhetoric about how “hoppy” they are, new world hops, US-inspired, etc… then when you try the beer what you find is a relatively standard golden ale, maybe a strong golden ale. It is a little irritating. (Why I keep buying and drinking them I don’t know… I live in hope?)
beersiveknown says:
or “Greedy Kerching”…
But yes I wouldn’t put london pride in with doombar and GKIPA, maybe pedigree and bombardier?
py says:
“without the haters apparently being able to work out that the reason why these beers are widely available is because lots of people actually like drinking them, even if the haters don’t.”
I don’t actually think that’s true though. A lot of people drink GKIPA not because they like it, but because they have no other option because there local pub doesn’t sell anything else.
Living in Cambridge, I see lots of people drinking GKIPA, I’ve never seen anyone actually enjoy it. As any economist will tell you, large sales figures do not necessary imply a popular product.
Martyn Cornell says:
“Living in Cambridge, I see lots of people drinking GKIPA, I’ve never seen anyone actually enjoy it.”
So you’ve asked them all? And having just been to Cambridge, and found massive amounts of choice in the city, I’m puzzled why you should claim that people have “no other option” but to drink GK IP{A there.
Because the pub you have gone to, for whatever reason, is a greene king pub. Even I’m not such a snob as to force the group I’m with to move pub simply because I don’t happen to like the beer there.
You can tell by the disgusted/resigned look on their face, and the way they mutter under their breath and peer into the glass, and you can ask them if you haven’t already figured it out. Its not difficult. TBH, you really don’t have to be in Cambridge long to find out what people think of greene king and their disgusting beers.
So all Greene King pubs in Cambvridge are empty, and the freehouses and those run by others such as Adnams and Everards are packed? Funny, I didn’t notice that.
No Martyn, many have other offers, for example they may show sports (eg the White Swan), or offer cheap food, (eg the Avery) or cheap lager, or discounts aimed at students (eg Duke of Cambridge) or they are famous tourist pubs (eg the Eagle), or they simply attract passers by who don’t know any better. Often they are the only pub in the village where the locals don’t have any other option – its either Green King or stay at home.
No-one in Cambridge goes out for a pint of ale and deliberately picks a Greene King pub. We’re not stupid.
If I lived in Cambridge I would never go anywhere but the Maypole, ever.
(Unless there was a quiz or something.)
“large sales figures do not necessary imply a popular product.” In a competitive market, surely they DEFINE a popular product. Look up “revealed preference” – people should be judged by what they actually do, not what they say they prefer.
The old “captive market” argument is surely dead and buried nowadays. If you don’t think IPA is worth drinking, you won’t drink it.
A village with one pub that only sells one beer is about as far from a competitive market as it is possible to get. Its a monopoly. A genuinely competitive market is actually an extremely rare thing. Firms aren’t stupid, they know that the only way to make decent profits is to get some kind of advantage over their rivals, and there are plenty more effective ways out there than improving your product. One of the more popular ways is to attempt to create localised monopolies. I’m surrounded where I live with tescos and greene king pubs. You’d be naïve to think it was coincidence.
“If you don’t think IPA is worth drinking, you won’t drink it.”
Well that’s nice snappy soundbite, but unfortunately its complete nonsense. I hate Fosters with a passion, yet just the other night I drank 5 pints of it because there was no other option.
But relatively few GK pubs enjoy anything like a local monopoly, and certainly none of the ones around here do. And even if you can’t stand it, you can still drink lager or cider or Guinness, or for that matter stay at home with a bottle of craaaaaft.
Surely if you hate Fosters with a passion, you wouldn’t drink it at all. You must have thought it offered you something to shell out for five pints of it. If it’s that bad, stick to soft drinks or make your excuses and leave early. If it was a free bar then obviously things are different 😉
Fosters: just about better than a soft drink.
they should use that as their new marketing slogan.
and many, many GK pubs have an effective local monopoly in Cambridgeshire.
On another level, a GK pub may be attractive for other reasons: there are a couple that have a good atmosphere when the rugby is on and will sell lots of pints of GKIPA because its the only beery option. However, that does not in any sense imply that all those people actually like GKIPA, it simply tells us that its the lesser of the various evils on offer at the bar.
Competitive markets are a myth; they don’t exist in reality other than in a handful of extremely tightly regulated circumstances (frozen orange pulp anyone?). Any economist could tell you this.
This reads like an article from a magazine – one in which GK advertise! (I used to edit – and write for – that kind of magazine, so I’m not really knocking it.)
I don’t hate London Pride, and the only time I had Doom Bar I rather liked it (this was before the takeover, but I doubt that means very much). What I really hate is people going on about ‘haters’. Haters are, after all, defined as people who gonna hate – they’re irrational, they just hate (whatever it is) for no good reason. Calling your antagonists ‘haters’ excuses you from arguing with them – you’re effectively skipping the argument and going straight for the ad hom.
But I so agree with the last paragraph. I got into real ale as soon as I was old enough to drink, then had a break from beer (or at least from taking beer seriously) between about 1980 and 2000. Coming back into a vastly changed (and rapidly changing) beer scene, one of the things I remembered clearly from ‘before’ was how an IPA ought to taste. Imagine my surprise (among other reactions) when I first tasted one of the new breed of IPAs. I’m not about to start drinking GK IPA in preference to Bengal Lancer et al – that ship has sailed – but I’m sure my 18-year-old self would have recognised & liked it, and fair play to them on those grounds.
And – although I think you concede too much to GK on the ‘easy drinking’ front – fair play to them for trying to put a cask ale out there that lots of people will want to drink; it’s not a dishonourable ambition! “Tastes like beer, goes down easily” is always going to have a market; the supermarkets shift lots of SpitBombGoblinBar, and it’s not all down to advertising.
“This reads like an article from a magazine – one in which GK advertise!”
I wish they did advertise – I might make some money from this blog. But is it reads that way, Phil, then that’s because it’s a straightforward transcription of what Dom South said on Monday, because I thought it was interesting. If you look at my previous post, it’s a complete slag-off of Rooney Anand …
A lot of marketing speak bullshit in this post Martyn, not actually a lot of facts.
“We did a load of blind taste tests and Greene King IPA, when it’s served right, is absolutely up there with the world’s largest cask ale brand* ”
So it tastes just as shite as that godforsaken filth Doom Bar. Which everyone here already knows. Which is funny, because they are the two beers on in my local pub, and the reason everyone drinks Guinness.
You should change your pub. Looked after properly, Greene King IPA is indeed a perfectly fine beer: and DoomBar is entirely drinkable. No, if you’re used to more adventurous beers, you won’t find them particularly satisfying – but if you’re used to single-estate coffee, you won’t find Starbucks up to much. However, millions happily drink both Starbucks and Greene King IPA, and it’s snobbish and elitist of you to diss their choice. Pubs are catering for a wider range of people than just you.
I don’t want adventurous beers, I just want a beer that doesn’t actively taste like a mouthful of soil.
I doubt millions of people happily drink GKIPA. More like begrudgingly because there is no other alternative because GK own every pub for 30 miles.
fatbarman says:
One of the points here, is that Greene King are careful not to put their flagship up against like-for-like products in their own boozers. You correctly make the point that an accessible session beer is what most new ale drinkers want – not one of the many over-flavoured niche brews. When placed against a genuine contender (of which we, in Norwich, are fortunate enough to have plenty of), Greene King IPA sales crash.
A large number of Freehouses in our city offer a range of just such the quaffable, easy-drinking, gently-hopped ‘introductory’ bitters as you call for in the article. Is it purely some anti-GK conspiracy that means GK IPA is so rarely chosen as a guest session ale?
I believe all of the mission statements made by Mr. Greene King man could be achieved whilst delivering a higher quality, tastier product. ‘Inoffensive, when well kept’ shouldn’t be the level of the bar set for a company with the history and resources of Greene King. Perhaps it would cost too much to drive such a radical proposal forward?
“an accessible session beer is what most new ale drinkers want ”
This is very true, however a beer that tastes very strongly of mud is not many people’s idea of an “accessible session beer”.
Most potential new ale drinkers find the strong and unpleasant taste of beers like Doombar and GKIPA extremely unpalatable and off-putting. They try them once and go straight back to lager.
To a new ale drinker, an accessible session beer would be something like a Brew Dog Dead Pony Club or a Crouch Vale Brewer’s Gold. Something light and drinkable, like a more flavourful version of a lager, not some muddy brown and soily old man’s beer.
The idea that the “yoof” like GKIPA is so obviously untrue that its laughable. How come the number of young people drinking real ale continued to fall year on year on year whilst that beer and similar muck remained the predominant style of ale available in pubs across the country, and then suddenly lurched upwards as soon as they were replaced with more pleasant tasting beers?
Jeff Bell (Stonch) says:
I was drinking with Dom of GK and Adrian of Ziggurat Brands at Craft Beer Rising on Thursday. Adrian, head of Ziggurat, was one of my most loyal regulars at the Gunmakers during my five years as landlord – we were the office local for the agency. Indeed the staff always used to call him “Jeff’s favourite customer” as he always cheered me up! Lovely man and I’m tickled that his latest client work brings him right into the heart of my own industry.
“Personally, I’m delighted if young drinkers find Greene King IPA a good gateway into cask ale.”
Well yes, but what evidence is there that they do? There certainly isn’t any evidence in this article, just a handful of spurious and unverifiable marketing claims.
GKIPA was around for years whilst cask ale sales were falling, especially amongst young people. Its only now with the advent of craft beer and cask ales that actually have an enjoyable flavour that sales are starting to pick up and young people are getting into cask beer.
I think the argument could easily be made that the reason cask ale did so poorly in the 90s and 2000s was precisely because of the preponderance of unpleasant tasting muck like GKIPA. I know it put me and my friends off who were starting to try different drinks in those years. It was probably responsible for putting a whole generation of drinkers off cask ale for life.
Gary Gillman says:
A well-kept Pride is still one of the best beers in England. Only had Doom Bar once so I shouldn’t perhaps rely on that, but it seemed fine, good balance to it.
Greene King’s beers to my taste are rather strong-tasting and not in a way optimal for me – I get a lot of minerally, sulphur character in them. It’s one subset of the old Burton pale taste (inspired by that I mean), some of Wells Young’s beers have it too, the funky note. I wouldn’t call it bland at all, but that’s one opinion. In the end I think the marketers take what is handed down and do their work on it from their perspective, which is fine. But from a sheer palate point of view I think GK is rather down in the league-table while acknowledging all the other merits of this sizeable and energetic old regional.
I like London Pride as well. I vehemently dislike GKIPA and Doom Bar but there are many excellent examples of excellent beers in the traditional English bitter style, from TT Landlord to Stonehouse bitter.
However, even when referring to beers I like, I would be very reticent to propose this style as one that is “attractive to young people”, as the evidence points in the exact opposite direction. Its been the shift away from this style of beer towards more bright, citrusy, hoppy flavours that has made cask ale more attractive to young people.
GK IPA doesn’t need to be any good, because that is not GK’s business strategy, which is built around producing huge quantities of low quality beer in the cheapest manner possible, and then flogging it to a captive audience by monopolising all the pubs in a certain area. The fact that they sell the same beer under a number of different pumpclips is a genius method of giving the illusion of choice without having to go through the hassle of actually brewing different beers.
“GK IPA doesn’t need to be any good, because that is not GK’s business strategy, which is built around producing huge quantities of low quality beer in the cheapest manner possible, and then flogging it to a captive audience by monopolising all the pubs in a certain area.”
I wouldn’t say that to Greene King’s head brewer, unless you don’t want to keep your teeth. (I’ve met him – he looks handy with his fists.) Seriously, what you are suggesting is nonsense – any such “strategy” would quickly see a company destroy itself. Indeed, one American brewer, Schlitz, followed just that strategy and did destroy itself – you can read about it here
I’d happily say it to his face. If he wants to prove me wrong, he can sell half his pubs in the East of England to prove how much they like local competition.
But he won’t, because my analysis of his operating strategy is 100% accurate, and without a captive audience with no option but to buy his dreadful beer, his sales would collapse.
I remember visiting one of the many free houses in my locality which had GK IPA as one of its guests. It was a busy night and when I spoke to him later about it he said he’d sold an 18 of GKIPA, a 9 of some other beer and one pint of Young’s Special.It sticks in my mind as I was the one who had the Young’s.
Fact is that GKIPA sells extremely well even when there’s a wide choice of cask beers on the bar.
Will people please stop calling beers THEY don’t like “bad beers” ? GK brew easy drinking popular beer , they brew it well and give enjoyment to a lot of people.Not everybody wants to be “blown away” by a beer, they would rather just have a few pints of something which slips down nicely. And which preferably in my view doesn’t taste of grapefruit.
A well-made point, but I’m interested in whether there were other factors in play? Young’s Special is up a bracket in the strength stakes, perhaps also in price, on the night in question? It will always be difficult to rely on anecdotal evidence without having all the variables to hand.
Some years ago, our boozer sold buckets and buckets of Charlie Well’s Bombardier – simply because it was sold to us at a price which made it 30p a pint cheaper than anything else. People were attracted by price first and stuck with it (as many drinkers do today) merely out of habit. It certainly wasn’t a winner on taste alone – as was proved, when the Adnam’s rep cut a better deal and tripled his sales in our bar overnight, at the expense of poor old Bombardier…
I also meant to add, that I am largely in agreement with you over grapefruit! 🙂
Well if people preferred it to Youngs Special, it MUST be good.
Given the choice between piss and rainwater, I would drink rainwater too.
Burton Brown says:
I’ve always liked GK IPA. I cut my drinking teeth on it and it has always remained a yardstick and a comfortable fall-back beer – when it’s well kept. I like nearly all GK’s cask and bottled beers, despite Old Speckled Hen and Ruddles losing their authenticity for tasting like generic GK beers now. But GK IPA Reserve, packed with Styrian dry-hopped character, for me is as close to a perfect flavour of ale that I have found – and is far and away my favourite at the moment.
I’m ambivalent about GKIPA. I don’t generally buy it when there are others available but when it’s the only option I find I enjoy it rather a lot! Mind you, well kept beer is the norm round these parts, even an indifferent pint is a rarity.
I’m glad you wrote the last paragraph or two; a riposte to those ignorant people who say it “isn’t an IPA” As you say, no beer is like it was 200 or even 100 years ago , the names stay the same but the beers certainly don’t. GKIPA is a pretty good example of a mid 20th century IPA , a time which had seen beers totally altered by shortages and high taxation.Has anybody mentioned Flowers IPA ? It was the regular beer in a local pub until a few years ago and I loved it.
When will people stop misusing “craft”? It was introduced in the US where it was a reaction to the megabrews.
Why people here apply “craft” only to keg products is beyond me.In this country there always have beer small independent brewers and an infrastrucure favouring cask beer.This the US hadn’t got so it goes into bottles, cans and kegs.GK would be a mid sized craft brewery if transplanted into the US.
Velky Al says:
Maybe it’s just me, but when I look at the second picture of the new GKIPA pump clip, Punk IPA from BrewDog immediately springs to mind.
Barm says:
Greene King already have an easy-drinking beer for people who don’t like hops: XX Mild. It’s a far better one than IPA. They should try promoting that.
Ron Pattinson says:
I had a pint of XX a couple of months ago. A truly excellent beer. Reminded me of Milds of the 1970s.
Birkonian says:
Here in the cask beer wasteland of Wirral a number of Greene King pubs serve beer of excellent quality. Personally, I like Green King IPA and find it a nice change from the plethora of Blonde ales and American style IPAs. Plus my wife works for the company that has formulated the Beer Genius portal!
I would have to say that the repetitive use of the word ‘haters’ is nonsensical. People are surely allowed to dislike a product without hating – it is suggestive of a more widely-organised campaign of derogation against Greene King IPA, than I believe truly exists.
In the same tone, it is somewhat childish (having slagged off the ‘haters’ for an unthinking negativity towards GK IPA) to suggest that they stick to a ‘Craaaaaft’ beer – why the snide dragging out of the word?
The point about overly-hopped beer stripping the enamel from your teeth is, however, well made!
“it is suggestive of a more widely-organised campaign of derogation against Greene King IPA, than I believe truly exists.”
You’ve not been reading the Facebok unofficial Camra page, either, then? Really, the attacks on GK there are pretty continual.
I’m confused. I just wasted far too much time on the CAMRA Unofficial FB page, but found only one anti-GK post going back over the past 3 months.
I tried the CAMRA page (also unofficial), where there were 2 posts in the past month – one was plainly tongue-in-cheek, as ‘Troll-bait’ – but lost the will to live, looking at hundreds of pictures of bottled beer.
Either way, it hardly smacks of a concerted campaign. There really seems little basis for any claim of massive anti-GK bias amongst drinkers. There is more, if anything, simple acknowledgement that several people find the product bland – a charge which is hard to refute, since it is basically what Greene King have just said is their aim, in this article…
I still believe that Greene King should be able to produce an accessible-to-the-newcomer, not overly-hopped, low strength beer, of significantly higher quality that their IPA. They could then spend the marketing budget on promoting a fabulous new product, from a brewer steeped in history. Would this not be a better way forward – with the by-product of pulling the rug from under the feet of any genuine ‘Haters’ who might lurk in the shadows?
they could do that, but they don’t need to. so why would they?
airports and motorway services stations could also provide a far better selection of restaurants and food outlets with better quality at a better price. But they don’t need to, because like GK, they have a captive market right there to be exploited.
I would also say that “bland” is a generous term for GKIPA. If only it were bland it would be drinkable. Most people I know consider it to be extremely strongly unpleasant tasting.
Though I enjoy your well researched articles Martyn, I think you’ve missed the mark in that last paragraph. I hardly think believers in beer style need to be referred to as ‘chuntering idiots’ because they don’t agree with what they perceive to be the less than rigorous approach of a large operator that values its own marketing identity over the greater heritage of the style. You kind of said it yourself – 6% abv is significantly higher than 3.6%. The fact is, a bitter referred to as an IPA helps neither style. It’s just confusion.
Not quite the same thing, but here in the Southern Hemisphere we have a brewery referring to a 6% ale as a dopplebock. As you’d expect, it certainly doesn’t drink like one. What’s the point? Dollars, that’s all….
“a bitter referred to as an IPA helps neither style. It’s just confusion.”
That’s not the point. Greene King IPA has been around for, I believe, at least 60 years. It was one of a number of similar beers brewed in Britain and called IPAs. Until the Americans started – entirely ahistorically – ramming loads of highly flavoured hops into strong beers meant to be drunk soon after being brewed, nobody complained about GK’s version. Really, GK should be complaining about Sierra Nevada and the like stealing the IPA name, since it was there first.
but still language is a democracy and IPA now has a quite distinct meaning that is completely at odds to the taste and style of GKIPA. I’m sure they are quite well aware of this. Its now bordering on false advertising.
Can you imagine some new young drinker being recommended to try this new delicious “IPA style” of beer, and being unfortunate enough to wander into a GK pub and mistakenly thinking that this GK IPA stuff was an example of that style. My god, the sheer horror of the situation is unimaginable. They’d probably never touch beer ever again.
This is nonsense.IPA (often also called Pale Ale or even Bitter in Victorian days) suffered from the shortages and taxation resulting from two world wars.They suffered a reduction in strength and hopping just like all other styles.Many breweries sold an IPA such as Greene King do today, it became an established style. That is what IPA evolved into and everybody accepted this.There are still many established beers of this type sold as IPA to this day. For somebody to say that they aren’t IPAs because our American friends have a diffent view of the style makes no sense; these were here first and are firmly established.Add to this that US IPAs bear no more resemblance to those beers giving rise to the name than does GKIPA.
Its 2015, IPA stands for “tastes of grapefruit”. If your beer does not taste of grapefruit it is not an IPA.
Language is a democracy, you can’t fight it. etymology does not control a word’s definition.
Low-gravity IPA is nothing new. It pre-dates WW I.
Daniel, Martyn is right in his reply and I’d as well that bitter and IPA are not two styles, they are one style. Bitter, pale ale, India Pale Ale have the same origin and history and there was never a clear dividing line between them. Dropping an alcohol level does not of itself change a style. The style here is reasonably well-attenuated pale ale, therefore on the dry side, reasonably hopped for bitterness and aroma. GK’s IPA meets that test and is different in this regard (as every pale or bitter is) from a mild ale or of course a porter or stout. Whether one likes GK’s particular take on the style is neither here nor there. In fact, I can tell you that in Canada we get occasionally a 5% GK IPA and it is quite similar to its weaker brother in England, just a little more kick. Same family, it’s all IPA.
Sorry, I meant in the first line, “…I’d add as well…”.
I fully understand, as Martyn pointed out in the article, that brewers have been using “IPA” to refer to their bitters, or whatever we want to call them, for decades. I got all that. My point is that a lot of careful work has been done, by Michael Jackson and the BJCP amongst others, to separate IPA as a style from bitter and other pale ales. Sure, call it revisionist if you like, but I’m in agreement with the view that the style should be credibly linked to the concept of a highly hopped beer of 40+ IBUs and preferably above 6%. And sure, there may be some out there just parroting the contemporary IPA rhetoric, but others have a considered position behind their claims.
Michael Jackson and the BJCP (especially the BJCP, who have no rights to anything except home brewing competitions in the US – actually, especially Michael Jackson too, who would have been horrified at the idea) are not the beer style police. You are not the beer style police. Nobody is the beer style police. You can shout as hard as you like about what a beer given a particular name “ought” to taste like, but the fact is that beer styles have always been very fluid and will always be very fluid. Porter, for example, went through at least six different forms between 1720 and 1940 – which one is “correct”?
none of them, because its 2015, not the years 1720 to 1940.
Interestingly, Martyn, you are quoted in the draft 2014 BJCP style guidelines regarding British IPAs: “Many modern examples labeled IPA are quite weak in strength. According to CAMRA, “so-called IPAs with strengths of around 3.5% are not true to style.” English beer historian Martyn Cornell has commented that beers like this are “not really distinguishable from an ordinary bitter.” So we choose to agree with these sources rather than what some modern English breweries are calling an IPA.” Perhaps you’ve been taken out of context?
No, I’d still agree that they’re not really distinguishable from an ordinary bitter. But a 4.4% beer a brewer today is calling a stout, eg the very first one I looked up in the 2015 GBG, from Uncle Stuart’s Brewery in Norwich, is pretty indistinguishable from the kind of porters being made in the 1930s, and, indeed, is weaker than Fuller’s London Porter (5.6%) – are we going to say Uncle Stuart can’t call his beer a stout, because it’s too weak? I’m not, personally, prepared to be so rigidly prescriptivist, because I don’t think there’s any historical justification for it. The BJCP, however, has to have rules when trying to judge competitions, and that’s fair enough. But those rules cannot be made to apply to the world of commercial brewing.
2nd March 2015 at 8:33 am
On this, CAMRA is wrong and the BJCP is wrong.
but its not “reasonably hopped for bitterness and aroma” that’s the issue with it
It IS reasonably hopped for bitterness and aroma in relative terms though (relative to a mild ale, or a British lager), and that is the point I was making. The fact that it tastes different from American IPAs is not its fault so to speak, it was there first as Martyn has pointed out. 🙂
Some other points: Jackson did not clearly separate IPA, pale ale and bitter, he would never make an error like that. His 1977 World Guide has a chapter just on Pale Ale, not India Pale Ale (although this term is briefly mentioned in the chapter). He knew bitter was simply the drinker’s term for the draft version of pale ale and the draft version was so important in his time it warranted its own chapter. The pale ale discussion was devoted to the bottled version of the style (mainly Bass IIRC), and fair enough as the two forms of drink differed in carbonation and other respects especially in his time.
As to the taste of Greene King IPA, opinions will differ and fair enough. I am on the strong soil side of the argument. I must say it’s been about 4 years since I’ve had GK IPA in England and perhaps it is blander now than it was, I can’t say. The 5% export certainly is not, it has a strong mineral, banana and clovey note – earthy too – that I would not call bland.
I didn’t actually say “clearly” separate, I just said separate. I’m referring to his later writings, around the turn of the millennium, like the Pocket Guide to beer and the Great Beer Guide. He doesn’t give any space to standard bitters (GKIPA) in the IPA guise. A few beers in the best bitter abv range, like Fuller’s IPA (cask) or Caledonian Deuchars get a favourable mention, and then Ushers IPA (5%), but he saves the praise for the likes of Freeminer Trafalgar at 6% (with 60ibus), and Burton Bridge Empire Ale at 7.5%. Do we want to try and call these American IPAs? I don’t. They are better thought of as English beers attempting to correctly revive the style that MAY HAVE BEEN shipped to India (seeing as we’re on the forensic path).
2nd March 2015 at 3:13 pm
The style was shipped to India, and the precise characteristics of the beers that were are well-known and have been analyzed in the writings of Ron Pattinson, in particular. Numerous 19th century textbooks also contain detailed descriptions of the beer prepared for export to India and elsewhere. They were very well-hopped (5-7 lbs hops per barrel), attenuated quite high, and long aged in wood before being bottled. They were 5.5-6.5% ABV, a bit more sometimes. The domestic versions were the same but in general less hopped because they had less to travel, but these too had a period of stocking prior to bottling, and many had a brett character. Burton Bridge Empire might get close to some of these characteristics, but so might (except for the brett) any number of bitter but weaker beers. You can’t cut it off at any one point and say it becomes something different, that’s all I’m trying to say.
The American ones of today might in some cases approximate the 1800’s versions, especially barrel-aged ones, but most that I’ve had have the big Pacific Northwest hop character that Victorian beers didn’t have. English brewers didn’t want the taste, they used the hops occasionally in small amounts but not for aroma or as a signature in any other way.
Jackson did get more taxonomic, I agree, but this was similar to what BJCP did, it assists discussion and classification to do it, and indeed BJCP was probably much influenced by Jackson’s work. But this contemporary work cannot change the main classifications handed down by history…
It seems that CAMRA is concerned that may of its members are not computer literate enough to use Beer Genius. Why does that not surprise me?
AB is talking rubbish. He’s entitles to think that IPAs should taste of (too much) grapefruit but those of us who have been drinking IPAs for 40 years are equally entitled to think that it shouldn’t. How about the comparatively new Meantime IPA? I’ll grant that it’s a strong ale but tastes like bitter to me.
I suppose you’re one of these people that insist that gay means “carefree” because that’s what it used to mean 40 years ago.
The meaning of words change. If you don’t like it, tough. Go live on Antarctica and pretend its still the 1970s.
The word “gay” can mean carefree, one has to look at the context to judge the meaning.Many words have more than one interpretation.Does “fast” mean moving quickly or stuck in one place?
The overriding fallacy of your argument lies in the fact that Greene King and lots of other breweries have been creating IPAs of this type for the best part of a century.They are already in posession of the term.They got their feet under the table first.As are very many other brewers. Looking at the latest GBG I have to hand I see Anchor springs,Belhaven,Brentwood,Copper Dragon, Dartmoor and Doghouse without getting past the letter “D” A mixture of long established and more interestingly new breweries continuing the tradition.
There is no such thing as “in possession of the term”. You cannot own words. Its not a trademark.
You need to do some research into descriptive vs prescriptive linguistics.
They are in posession in the way that they were already using the word; more than that the term “IPA” has for a long time been accepted as a description for this sort of beer.GKIPA and Deuchars IPA are found, and have been found,for a long time in a vast number of pubs, clubs and also on supermarket shelves.Each is the leading seller for their respective brewery.Now you tell them after the best part of a century that they’ve got in wrong?
Correct. That’s how language works. I’m glad you’re finally catching on.
Indeed – so, given that several widely-sold “light bitters” have the title IPA, you can’t complain it’s a misuse of the term. Greene King IPA probably outsells all “new-wave” IPAs many times over.
Christ py, you’re a fucking idiot.
Badger says:
That’s a bit derogatory about people who don’t like GK IPA – no I don’t like Greene King as a company or its beers but I don’t hate them, and I would not insult people for liking GK IPA. Horses for courses as they say.
I think the important point here is that IPA is bringing more younger people into the world of cask ale, and that increasing market is a vital thing for the industry we all love.
David Preston says:
It’s entertaining and saddening in equal measure to watch this debate unfurl. Entertaining because it’s great that beer is a product that creates such diverse and undoubtedly, subjective points of view. But saddening because at the end of the day, this sort of nonsense is how a category pulls itself apart. From a drinker’s perspective, and as consumers, we need choice – not just because we like choice, but because it helps frames the decisions we make. If you are bothered about cask beer, then Greene King IPA is a good thing for beer and cask in general. There have to be entry beers: and here we are, one that brings people into cask beer who might otherwise drink a pint of something else. The fact that many of those commenting above don’t like it is perfectly fine (learn to live with it, you’ll feel happier). The fact that it exists though can make you feel better about your ‘more informed’ choice when you come to it. But commercially, what the success of brands like GKIPA, London Pride, Pedigree and Doom Bar do is create a positive environment for all current and potential brewers of cask beer. It gets licensees thinking, “I need to stock cask’, it persuades drinkers of beer generally to consider cask, and it allows bodies like CAMRA to proclaim what a great job they are doing, when really it is largely down to the success of these big cask brands. And ‘styles’? Well they just help drinkers navigate their way. If they have GKIPA, then Sierra Nevada Torpedo and get confused… well that will happen. But if you drink Carling and then PU it might happen too. Let’s credit people with sufficient intelligence to work it out and not get hoisted by our own petards.
“There have to be entry beers: and here we are, one that brings people into cask beer who might otherwise drink a pint of something else”
Except it doesn’t. All the evidence suggests that GKIPA is not a good entry beer at all as it has a very strong soily taste that most newly converted drinkers find extremely unpleasant. If it is the first cask ale that people try, they are very unlikely to ever try cask ale again. I know dozens of people who didn’t drink cask beer because they tried GKIPA or Doombar and assumed all cask beer was equally revolting. Of course, I pushed them in the direction of something more appropriate and now they don’t drink anything else.
What we need to do is present a unified message: don’t stock GKIPA, don’t drink it, don’t recommend it. Take every opportunity you can to warn people away from it. CAMRA should insist it comes with a warning label “warning, this is an extremely strongly flavoured and unpleasant beer for experienced drinkers only”.
Anyone who cares about beer should be 100% behind this message.
“All the evidence suggests that GKIPA is not a good entry beer at all as it has a very strong soily taste that most newly converted drinkers find extremely unpleasant.”
There’s a difference in beliefs based on fact and dogma.
LOOK AT THE FACTS.
For over a decade between the 90s and the late 2000s, GKIPA and similarly strong flavoured beers dominated pub bars around the country. Every year, less and less young people took up drinking cask ale. Look up the statistics yourself if you don’t believe me, there have been some blog articles looking back at what was happening in 2004 recently.
In the past 5 years, the “craft beer revolution” (call it what you like) has pushed beers like GKIPA off the bar and replaced them with a new style of paler, hoppier, more accessible beer. Suddenly, as if from nowhere, young people are taking up drinking cask ale again, with sales of these new citrusy ales rocketing. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what is going on.
This is not a matter of opinion or dogma, whether or not you or I personally like GKIPA is utterly irrelevant. This is merely a verifiable and undeniable fact that a beer like GKIPA with such a strong and divisive flavour makes an extremely poor entry level cask ale, and is widely disliked by young drinkers around the country.
I’d very much like to see your ‘facts’. The facts are that the cask ale market as measured by A C Nielsen (today CGA Strategy), is in modest single figure growth (measured on an Moving Annual Total (MAT) basis). Per capita consumption of all alcohol, including beer, has been falling since the early 2000’s. Greene King IPA was the cask ale leader until recently and has now lost that position. The majority of volume growth in the cask market is not driven by the vast number of start ups that beguile our perceptions, but the few top brands, GKIPA included, which drive volume. Those are not just facts, they are brutal truths which those involved with the ‘craft beer revolution’ don’t like to hear. But the big point you are missing is this. It is, as Lance Armstrong may say were he a brewer, “not about the beer”. It’s about the brand. And Greene King IPA is a strong brand, instantly recognisable to many, and sufficiently trusted by those less familiar with the beer category as you and I. The fact that you consider it to have a “soily taste” which you find “unpleasant” is, in fact, utterly irrelevant.
” it has a very strong soily taste that most newly converted drinkers find extremely unpleasant.” – You have no evidence for this at all. In fact people who don’t like GKIPA complain that it’s the blandness that piuts them off.
I simply don’t get this “strong soily taste” that py complains about. If asked to describe it in a disparaging way I would say it was “sweetish and bland”. And the alternative entry-level beers that people have been going for have not been the mega-hoppy ones, but more generic “golden ales”, some of which are more bland and wishy-washy than any boring brown bitter.
The evidence is there in the statistics. Young people simply do not like GKIPA and do not drink it when given the choice. There is a reason it is widely despised and ridiculed. There is a reason its only ever sold in Greene King pubs and never as a guest ale. There is a reason its the cheapest beer in Tesco that doesn’t have “economy” written on the can. Its because its extremely low quality and if it wasn’t cheap as chips it wouldn’t sell. Greene King know this, Tesco know this, pubs know this, beer drinkers know this. Everyone appears to know this apart from you.
What may seem “bland” to your burnt out palate certainly won’t seem bland to someone used to nothing more flavourful than Carling or Fosters.
Gary Gillman, a man who knows a thing or two about beer, said
“Greene King’s beers to my taste are rather strong-tasting”
are you calling him a fool?
Let’s see the ‘statistics’. Let’s see the statistically significant evidence that ‘young people do not drink it when given the choice’ or indeed, that ‘it’s the cheapest beer in Tesco’. Show us facts, not claims. That we you may become persuasive. Otherwise, it’s a just a strong personal viewpoint built on foundations of sand.
go into Tesco and look for yourself. It is £1.20 for a 500ml bottle in my nearest Tesco, whereas all the other bottled ales were in the £1.80 to £2.20 region (albeit some of them are currently on a 3 for £5 offer)
I’ve already directed you towards statistics on cask ale take-up amongst young drinkers over the past 20 years, I’m not going to hold your hand and read them out to you, you’re going to have to take some level of responsibility for your own education David.
If you can’t be bothered to do the research, fine, simply keep your mouth shut.
Alas, py, it’s your own education seems to be what’s limited. Enjoy holding your own hand. No one else will I fear.
If you have nothing more useful to contribute than insults, you know you have already lost the argument David. You have two options, either go and look up the statistics as I have, or simply admit that you’re out of your depth and apologise for wasting our time.
“you’re going to have to take some level of responsibility for your own education David. If you can’t be bothered to do the research, fine, simply keep your mouth shut”
Py, please buy a mirror this weekend. If you feel insulted by my comments, then you should reflect on your own. And I don’t think I’m alone on this comments trail who is struggling to understand that your definition of ‘statistics’ is ‘opinions’. I’m sorry if understanding the data from the industry recognised market statistics company isn’t good enough for you. If that’s the case nothing will be (no insult intended, for clarity). Signing off.
BT says:
9th March 2015 at 11:04 am
“There is a reason its only ever sold in Greene King pubs and never as a guest ale.”
It’s sold in Wetherspoon’s pubs, alongside other trad. bitters and modern pale/hoppy/grapefruity bitters, many of which are sold at lower prices. Nonetheless, people choose GKIPA. And drink it. Then return to the bar and choose it again.
jrguk says:
4th April 2015 at 10:39 am
A local pub (North East London) features it as a “guest” (they’re not GK, or GK leased, and I don’t believe they’ve taken the GK shilling for a cellar refit, like some do).
But I do know what they have been willing to pay for a cask of beer, from other suppliers, so I would venture it’s because it’s cheap enough to be able to sell at their desired price.
We usually end up drinking the Guinness, or branded lager
Except those who actually like it. And we don’t need beer Nazis putting labels on things telling people what they think people should be drinking.
Its fair warning. A beer like GKIPA marketed as an modern IPA with a pump clip clearly ripped off of BrewDog is egregious false advertising, and could potentially be extremely damaging for British beer.
I love how the GK marketing bloke says “Greene King IPA is a great entry level beer”, and every moron in the comments section just parrots this without even stopping to think for a second whether its actually true or not. Its like a some kind of nightmarish modern day parody on the gullibility of the masses.
I suppose you also believe that a Double Diamond works wonders, that Heineken refreshes the parts that other beers can’t reach, that Carlsberg is probably the best beer in the world, and that Fosters actually IS Australian for “beer”.
There’s a blogpost to be written on how easily people in the beer blogging community are so easily taken in by even the most flimsiest bit of marketing when it agrees with their personal prejudices and gives them an excuse to have a pop at “craft beer”.
When we say we regard GKIPA as a great entry level beer it’s because we think that’s just what it is.Nothing to do with marketing , the GK spokesman was merely repeating what many of us have been saying for a long time.
It’s a well balanced, easy drinking beer which is low in ABV and therefore it can be consumed in some quantity without dire ill effects.Easy drinking and low ABV make it a good entry level beer.
I must say that in our many free houses , a lot of which search the kingdom for different beers , whenever GKIPA comes onto the bar it “flies out”
which is why, I suppose, cask ale really took off in the decade either side of the millennium where GKIPA was so prevalent around the country?
Oh wait, no it didn’t, sales continued to fall. It appears you’re talking out of your arse.
I would also humbly suggest that “tastes nice” is probably a more important criteria that either “easy drinking” (a truly meaningless phrase) or low ABV.
You wrote this about me ;”You need to do some research into descriptive vs prescriptive linguistics.”
Might I suggest in return you do some research into singulars and plurals? It “is a more important criterion . Criteria is the plural of criterion.
remind me again, what is it they call pedantry, “the refuge of the intellectually inferior”? something like that.
Perhaps, but hasn’t your whole string of comments been pedantic?
Not at all. Its quite a fundamental point that GK is lying to us (that’s what marketing execs do) and so many people are just lapping it up its positively embarrassing.
GKIPA had its chance, cask ale sales declined disastrously. The world has moved on. Trying to rebrand like some BrewDog rip-off fools no-one.
Incidentally, py, if you’re going to sockpuppet as AB, try not to give the game away by using the same email account for both names
Apologies, its not an intentional sockpuppet Martyn, its just wordpress being stupid and mixing up my accounts and me not noticing before hitting post.
The Beer Wrangler says:
Who knew a three and a half session ale could be so controversial? 🙂
Greene King run a successful business and GK IPA has been part of that for many years. In the same way Budweiser is well aware of US craft beer as Beer Author, Cicerone director and general beer evangelist Ray Daniels said to me recently “If all the craft beer lovers all spat at Bud, they wouldn’t notice the change in humidity”
There might be ‘Haters’ out there but they are small in number and loud in nature and I’m very sure it won’t make a dot of difference to their bottom line.
It’s an average beer from a company that may be argued to have hard capitalist morals (shock!). If you don’t like it avoid it, If you hate the company, avoid their pubs (admittedly hard to do in some East Anglian towns!)
Three and half percent that should be……
Cookie says:
One thing I have noticed is that beer enthusiasts go to pubs for the beer. Everyone else goes because it is a convivial social environment they feel comfortable in. It is more about the social class they belong to and the company they like to keep than the products sold. Most people like middle of the road mainstream stuff, it doesn’t make them stupid or ignorant. Most mainstream beer is palatable and pleasant and will get you just as pissed as full on flavour grog.
I happen to like knocking about with beer geeks from time to time, but I have had more actual fun necking mainstream beer with regular people that care more about their families, jobs, new kitchen, football team or the new lass at work they want to ask out than I have ever had discussing IPA with beer geeks.
It is rare to find a bar where nothing is drinkable. You don’t have to have a beer. Other drinks are available.
The greks aren’t really all the same though. Some focus on tasting something new all the time (the ticker-type). Some only like one or two styles. Some don’t have a very good palate. I saw one guy in a bar repeatedly order a (craft) brand which in my experience is frequently damp paper oxidized. The server told me he will drink nothing else and is very particular on the subject of beer. Some people want to drink only cask, it matters little what type, as long as the price and alcohol level are right it’s fine. Then there’s my type. I want to like the taste a lot of the pint. I can drink anything but I focus a lot on flavor and what it to be as good as possible. Therefore, I get tastes when I can, or ask the server’s opinion, or others I may know at the bar (“oh I had that last week, it’s okay”).
So the enthusiast crowd is kind of disparate and anyway we talk about the regular stuff too. In fact mostly so, the beer chat only lasts a short time.
I must say too though that if having more than one (rare these days), I really don’t care what I drink. The reason is, you can’t taste it well after the first one. Connoisseurship is limited to the first drink, IMO.
Most mainstream beer is palatable and inoffensive. GKIPA is a notable exception however.
Geeks, I meant, North American for beer enthusiast.
Chris Pietruski says:
The problem I have with the likes of GKIPA and Doom Bar is not so much tthat they are bland (though I think they are) but that they get everywhere. All too often the only other choice on the bar is something that tastes of grapefruit that you’ve never heard of and will never see again.
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Regarding the historical base of IPA, perhaps this extract from 1867 may be of interest;
“ALE, PALE OR BITTER; brewed chiefly for the Indian market and for other
tropical countries.—It is a light beverage, with much aroma, and, in consequence of the regulations regarding the malt duty, is commonly brewed from a wort of specific gravity 1055 or upwards; for no drawback is allowed by the Excise on the exportation of beer brewed from worts of a lower gravity than 1054. This impolitic interference with the operations of trade compels the manufacturer of bitter beer to employ wort of a much greater density than he otherwise would do; for beer made from wort of the specific gravity 1042 is not only better calculated to resist secondary fermentation and the other effects of a hot climate, but is also more pleasant and salubrious to the consumer.”
Had it not been for the fact that brewers couldn’t claim back the tax on exports unless they were of a certain strength, 19th century IPA would probably have been in the low 4%s ABV and then where would the “too weak to be an IPA” brigade be?
Right. Of course that’s one view, and I don’t know that the market in India would generally have accepted a drink around 5% ABV. I believe the October or stock beer roots of IPA – as Martyn has persuasively argued the case for – were in a fairly strong pale beer and some earlier 1800’s sources suggest IPA was “heady”. But the quote does prove the point that strength in and of itself was not determinative. What was, was a pronounced hop character, a dry quality (not sweet like mild ale), and a “ripe” or aged quality. Bitter still has this, if not often the last, but if you want to see what it’s like, pour a few ounces of Orval into your pint of bitter or bottled pale ale the next time…
3rd March 2015 at 4:37 pm
One of Ron Pattinson’s favourite quotes.
4th March 2015 at 2:54 pm
I own up, that’s where I found it.
If more people read his blog perhaps there would be much fewer ill informed comments.
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“strayed, for me, a little too close to following the GK party line” – if journalism, that is to say, accurately repeating what someone said, is merely “repeating the party line”, we’re going to see a lot of that in the run-up to the election in May.
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Riff Raff(@raff87raff) says:
22nd March 2015 at 11:49 am
While I appreciate the historical accuracy on what IPAs used to be (and Martyn, you do an excellent job educating people on myths – including me, after perusing your site), I have 2 problems with this article; 1) The marketing aspects, and 2) Nomenclature of Beer Styles.
First, beer, in my opinion, is art, and if you’re going to hack on “haters”, I would like equal time for hacking on people who drink beer as an accessory. Whenever I see a representative of a company say, “‘Does it look and feel right for me?” I have to ask, is this person drinking beer, or are they buying a shirt?
On the second point, I’ve read and been part of conversations regarding proper nomenclature. While, historically, IPAs weren’t like they are today, when I go into a place and see IPA on a tap handle I’ve never had, then I have certain expectations. Have you heard of Alexander Keith’s IPA? It’s Canadian. Which is fine, but it’s definitely not an IPA. Tastes more like a fizzy, yellow lager. When I had one the first time, I was not amused. The bad news is that a couple years later, someone told me another apricot ale was an “IPA”. This was also not true, since the waiter’s point of reference was Keith’s. Therein lies the concern I have.
I’m going to go ahead and make a beer with pilsner and wheat malt, put a nice charge of Perle hops in at the boil, and ferment it with a German ale yeast. I think I’ll call it an Imperial Stout. Seems logical based on what Greene King is doing.
22nd March 2015 at 1:39 pm
Greene King was calling its beer IPA long before American brewers decided to call their highly hopped, super-strong, meant-to-be-drunk-young beers IPA, and Greene King’s IPA follows far more in a line of direct descent from 19th century IPAs than Sierra Nevada’s does. So if you want to argue about it …
The truth is, beer nomenclature is now a mess, and there is no way it will ever be cleared up. So we’ll all just have to lump it, to use a British expression …
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Edson Marquezani Filho says:
Hello, I discovered you blog now and I’m loving it.
I have been in UK last year, and I had never had a cask ale so far, so I was looking forward to discover that class of ales, or at least, that aspect of the beer culture and distribution/storage/conditioning. But, to be honest, I came back home very disapointed with it. The vast majority of cask ales I had there were completely loaded with off-flavours, acetaldehyde being the most present, almost all the time. I even had a crappy vinegar-like Wychwood’s HobGoblet in an old pub in Inverness that tasted more like a belgian flanders red than anything else. So, by the second week, I started to avoid the hand-pumps and go only for the taps, what proved to be safer regarding quality, indeed.
I even found myself wondering: don’t that people over there have real taste buds? how can they bear crappy beers like that? don’t they taste that strong ruining green apple taste and aroma in ther pints? Well, I think it’s something about habits or the way you face beer, not like a holy beverage to be analysed and everything, but just something to entertain.
So, Green King’s iniciative is a great thing, and I hope it’s something that becomes a main concern in the whole industry and market.
Dou you have any opinion about that? Do you, being a native, also have that perception about off-flavours on cask-conditioned ales, specially the more traditional and widely distributed ones? Do you know why cask tend to develop those off-flavour more than kegs?
Cask beer is “supposed” to alow the oxygen into the cask – which will inevitably bring you off flavours, either quickly, if the person in charge of the cellar doesn’t know what they are doing, or slowly, if they do. If the DO know what they’re doing, you will go through a stage where the beer matures to a beautiful unsurpassable peak, before declining into undrinkability. If they don’t know what they’re doing, you will never reach that peak, and you will decline rapidly into undrinkability.
pintsandpubs says:
“all those idiots who keep chuntering on about how… IPA has to be “strong and strongly hopped”, so it would survive the long journey to the Indian sub continent, over 200 years ago. You don’t have a clue what you are talking about.”
Which is embarrassing for Greene King then, as they repeat the myth on their website dedicated to the beer: http://www.greenekingipa.co.uk/our-story
“IPA was brewed with an unusually high volume of hops so they could preserve the ale during the long voyage to India.”
21st April 2016 at 11:51 pm
Well, the high hops bit is right: it’s the “strong in alcohol” bit that’s completely wrong
There’s no getting away from the fact that it tastes like dishwater. You have openly said that you have designed it for the student market. That is fine, but in your own pubs please put a decent cask on, you know, for the non-newbies who would like their beer to taste like it always has – to them, becuase comparing the IPA to that of our lifetimes is what we are going to do, not take your word for it that 200 years ago things were diffrent and so we should not drink dishwater because 20 year olds are being conditioned to like it..
Um – Lee? You know this isn’t the Greene King website, right?
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Home » Business directory » Banking and finance » PKF Africa Business Services
PKF Africa Business Services
Street / Area: Ikorodu Road
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Phonenumber: +234 1 773 4940
Email: tajudeen.akande@pkf-ng.com
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Financial service details: Business services, Insurance, Investment
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Effective teamwork is a result of dependable partnerships where people communicate. Where we say yes. Where we find solutions and collaborate to establish targets and objectives. Whether seated across the table, on the ground or on the other side of the world, we’re available and interested in who you are and where you’re heading. We’re a global family. We cultivate a team spirit, stay close, share knowledge and demonstrate a remarkable sense of respect towards each other and our clients.
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Over 300 dead in India as floods force villagers into relief camps
August 24, 2016 Asia, Breaking News, WorldSharif Nouman
24 Aug, 2016 9:01 am
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR – At least 300 people have died in eastern and central India and more than six million others have been affected by floods that have submerged villages, washed away crops, destroyed roads and disrupted power and phone lines, officials said.
Heavy monsoon rains have caused rivers, including the mighty Ganges and its tributaries, to burst their banks forcing people into relief camps in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.
Government officials in Bihar, which has seen some of the worst flooding this year with almost 120 dead and more than five million affected, said the situation was serious.
“The flood waters have engulfed low-lying areas, homes and fields of crops,” said Zafar Rakib, a district magistrate of Katihar, one of 24 districts out of Bihar’s 38 districts which have been hit by the deluge.
“We have shifted people to higher ground and they are being provided with cooked rice, clean drinking water, polythene sheets,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
In neighboring Uttar Pradesh, where 43 people have died and over one million are affected, schools were closed in the cities of Varanasi and Allahabad as both the Ganges and Yamuna rivers crossed danger levels and flood waters continued to rise.
The holy city of Varanasi, where thousands of Hindus flock daily, was also forced to halt cremations along the banks of sacred Ganges river — forcing families to cremate their relatives on the terrace roofs of nearby houses, officials said.
Television pictures showed villagers wading waist deep in floodwaters with their livestock, mud-and-brick homes collapsing and people climbing into wooden boats to get to relief camps.
“We are all worried about what we should do. For the last four days we have living like this. We don’t even have any food to eat,” 42-year-old villager Doda Yadav told the NDTV news station from Ballia district in Uttar Pradesh.
In the central state of Madhya Pradesh, where at least 70 have died since the onset of the monsoons in June and more than 40,000 homes partially or fully destroyed, almost 20,000 people have been evacuated to relief camps.
Officials said villagers would return home when water levels receded, although the Indian Meteorological Department has forecast more rains for central India over the next two days.
MODI OFFERS FEDERAL SUPPORT
India usually experiences monsoon rains from June to September, which are vital for its agriculture — making up 18 percent of its gross domestic product and provides employment for almost half of its 1.3 billion population.
But in many states across the country, the rains frequently cause landslides and flooding that devastate crops, destroy homes and expose people to diseases such as diarrhea.
Officials said the fast-flowing waters had breached embankments and eroded dykes in some areas, leaving some roads inaccessible, compounding efforts to rescue marooned villagers.
India’s National Disaster Response Forces (NDRF) have been deployed to the five states, rescuing more than 33,000 people stranded in remote villages. The NDRF have also distributed relief and provided medical assistance to over 9,000 survivors.
The devastation prompted Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday to offer additional support from the federal government.
“I pray for the safety and well-being of those in areas affected by floods,” said Modi in a statement. “The Centre assures total support in the rescue and relief operations.”
Aid agencies responding in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh said it was critical to be better prepared to minimize the deaths, displacement and devastation which is caused every year.
“Nowadays, floods are seen as a chronic problem and are viewed quite differently from other emergencies – so they often no longer attract adequate attention from either the media or donors,” said Thomas Chandy, CEO of Save the Children in India. “In such a scenario, therefore, it is critical that we develop better, more effective, long-term solutions to cater to the plight of people and children in preparedness for floods.” -Reuters
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Orland Park mall shooting: Police search for suspect Jakharr Williams, family of victim Javon Britten speaks
By Karen Jordan and Ravi Baichwal
ORLAND PARK, Ill. (WLS) -- Orland Park police have identified the man they said shot and killed an 18-year-old man and wounded another person at Orland Square Mall Monday night.
Police said 19-year-old Jakharr Williams of University Park is responsible for the shooting. Williams has an active parole warrant and a manhunt for him is underway.
The victim of the shooting has been identified to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office as Javon Britten of Richton Park.
RAW VIDEO: Chaos during shooting at Orland Square Mall
Video from inside and outside the Orland Square Mall shows chaos as shoppers and workers ran from gunfire in the food court.
Police said Williams is considered armed and dangerous. Anyone with information on him is asked to contact Orland Park police at 708-349-4111 or email at crimetips@orlandpark.org.
At Orland Square Mall, surveillance cameras captured the chaos as shoppers and workers ran. Authorities said gunfire erupted at 6:40 p.m. at the mall's food court.
WATCH: Mother of Orland Park mall shooting victim speaks
The mother of Javon Britten, 18, spoke Tuesday after her son was fatally shot Monday night at Orland Square Mall.
"Those where his last words to me. He told me 'I love you, mom,' and I said, 'I love you too,'" his mother Nail Hobson said.
Police said Britten was shot in the chest and staggered a short distance before police said he collapsed in front of shoppers. He later died at a hospital.
Family members said Britten was at the mall with his cousin when they encountered someone they knew from Rich Central High School, where Javon was a student. They said that the gunman said something about not liking Javon.
"My other nephew Charles tried to diffuse the situation," said Stephanie Kizer, the victim's aunt.
But it escalated and the man who police have identified as Williams allegedly pulled a gun.
WATCH: Cousin of Orland Park mall shooting victim speaks
Lakeisha Kizer, a cousin of Javon Britten, 18, spoke Tuesday after the teen was fatally shot Monday night at Orland Square Mall.
"He shot at Javon five times I believe, and two times at my other nephew Charles, but Charles was able to get away and get safe inside one of the stores in the mall," Kizer said.
Britten's family says they don't know of any bad history between the two men.
"I'm praying for both sides of the families and I ask for this young man with the help of God to surrender yourself," Kizer said.
Classmate's said Britten's tall and friendly demeanor was a welcome sight at school.
At Rich Central High buzz over Britten's death was palpable, and classmates said his tall and friendly demeanor was a welcome sight at the school. Rich Central offered counseling to students and staff Tuesday.
In a letter to the student body, Principal Todd Whitaker said, "While it is important to deal with grief, loss and anger and fear reactions, we believe it is essential to resume a normal routine during school activities."
Officers with heavy weapons responded within minutes, conducting a store-to-store search for the shooter. Officials said surveillance video shows the gunman left the mall on foot.
"Over our headset, we heard another associate yell, '9-1-1. There's a shooting in the mall.' So we ran to the back. We gathered up our customers and just stayed in the back," said Christina Pelc, who works at the mall.
Orland Square Mall reopens after shooting
A day after a deadly shooting, Orland Square Mall reopened Tuesday morning.
An 18-year-old man was shot in the food court of Orland Square Mall and stumbled to the H&M store and collapsed.
Meanwhile, a second person was hit by gunfire, described as an innocent bystander who was grazed by a bullet in the leg.
"We believe this to be an isolated incident," said Deputy Chief Joseph Mitchell. "We believe, based on the information we have currently, currently, right now, it's an evolving investigation, the individuals knew each other."
FROM THE OFFICE OF THE MAYOR- JANUARY 22, 2019 pic.twitter.com/VOlOgrpM3H
— Village of Orland Pk (@VillageOrlandPk) January 22, 2019
No one was allowed to enter the mall after the shooting and police escorted shoppers and employees out of the building. Many sheltered in place in the back rooms of stores.
Without knowing exactly where the gunshots were coming from, people were desperate to get to safety. Outside, in freezing cold parking lots adjacent to the mall, panicked family members showed up trying to rescue their loved ones who'd been inside.
"They locked them down inside," said Rami Raheem, whose wife was in the mall's Forever 21 store when the shooting happened. "I was rushing, going crazy. In less than two minutes I was at the mall.
In a statement on Facebook, State Senator Elgie R. Sims Jr. said he was at the mall with his family and witnessed the shooting.
"I and the other parents tried to shield the children from the reality of what just occurred but after seeing the terror in their eyes these children will remember this day for years to come," Sims wrote.
Orland Square Mall reopened at its normal time Tuesday. People returning to the mall Tuesday expected things to return to normal.
"I think that one thing that happens today is not going to happen tomorrow again, it's usually pretty peaceful here," said mall walker Edwin Hernandez.
orland parkrichton parkmallshootingman killed
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7 On Your Side's Michael Finney explore genetic testing
By Michael Finney
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- If you could find out whether you might develop certain cancers or heart disease, would you want to know? Genetic testing makes that possible, but Consumer Reports says not everyone benefits from this cutting edge research.
RELATED: Finney Friday's free stuff persona pizzeria cheese pizza
After Fran Heller developed a breast tumor, genetic testing showed she had an inherited predisposition to cancer. Subsequent tests showed others in her family also had the same gene mutation.
"My sister, she made the decision sort of right away to have a prophylactic bi-lateral mastectomy and also to have her ovaries removed," said Heller.
Consumer Reports medical advisor, Dr. David Seres says if one or more close family members has a disease with a genetic link, testing for the gene may make sense.
"In some diseases, genetic testing gives us the ability to detect problems early. It also helps us to potentially decrease the severity of the illness and may even help decrease the risk of developing the illness in the first place," said Dr. Seres.
RELATED: 7 On Your Side's Michael Finney answers consumers flood questions
For instance, with breast and colon cancer, or some types of heart disease, there are good strategies for early detection and preventive measures like following a diet and exercise plan to lower your risk. But the same isn't true for Alzheimer's disease.
"We really don't recommend that people get genetic testing for Alzheimer's disease. There's no way to prevent it even if you know that you have the gene. But also not everyone who has the gene will develop the disease and so you may just be causing yourself unnecessary worry and costs," said Seres.
It's very important to consult with your doctor to see if you are a good candidate for genetic testing and if getting the results will be helpful. In some cases, the tests may be covered by insurance.
People who have a close relative who developed colon or uterine cancer before age 50 might consider a genetic test for lynch syndrome. About three to five percent of colon cancers stem from this inherited condition.
Increased surveillance can help detect any problems early.
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Man charged with murder in stabbing deaths of both parents in New Jersey home
By CeFaan Kim
ENGLEWOOD, New Jersey (WABC) -- A man is under arrest after authorities say he fatally stabbed both of his parents in their Bergen County, New Jersey home.
Officials say the couple, identified as Edward Boduch, 71, and Miroslawa Potocka, 72, was stabbed to death inside their home on Lafayette Place near Englewood Avenue on Saturday.
43-year-old Pawel Boduch is charged with two counts of murder and one count of possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.
Police said they were called to the home for a welfare check and found the couple dead inside.
With an hours-long manhunt coming up empty, police decided to pull back from his vehicle in a nearby ShopRite parking lot - they even cleared the police tape around it. Then, around 5 p.m. sources say the man walked right up to his car.
Sources say the son cops believe fatally stabbed both his parents inside their Englewood, NJ home has been arrested. Cops couldn’t find him at the shoprite parking lot where he abandoned car so they pulled back from the vehicle. He wandered up to it later. Car being towed. pic.twitter.com/IJlyI5hUT1
— CeFaan Kim (@CeFaanKim) February 17, 2019
It is unclear why detectives think he drove to the shopping center, about a half mile away, after allegedly murdering his parents.
"There's a rumor that he had gone into ShopRite. Gone and left - his vehicle was left behind," said Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes.
Investigators are still trying to piece everything together. Police say just before 11 a.m. Saturday, the couple's other son asked if police could check on his parents - what they found was unthinkable.
"We responded on a welfare check...upon entry to the home, the officers discovered two individuals that were inside deceased with apparently some stab wounds," said Englewood Police Chief Lawrence Suffern.
* More New Jersey news
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Woman charged with animal cruelty in NC after photo of dog's duct-taped mouth goes viral
CARY, N.C. -- A woman who allegedly posted a picture of her dog with its mouth taped shut on her Facebook page is now charged in Cary, North Carolina.
Police said 45-year-old Katharine Lemansky - whose Facebook page lists her name as Katie Brown - was staying in Cary with her dog when the photo was taken.
Police said she admitted that the incident took place in Cary. She's charged with animal cruelty.
Lemansky posted the image of the chocolate lab named "Brown" just before 10 a.m. Friday with the caption, "This is what happens when you dont shut up!!!"
Police said Lemansky's listed residence is South Daytona, Florida, but she has ties to Connecticut. Her Facebook page states she attended Central Connecticut State University.
Following a barrage of calls from concerned animal lovers, Connecticut police investigated an address associated with Brown's family but quickly determined the incident did not occur there.
"Taping the dog's muzzle shut was a terrible decision on Ms. Lemansky's part, and charging her with animal cruelty under North Carolina law was the right thing to do," said Cary Police Captain Randall Rhyne. "At the same time, it's important to also note that our animal control officers who physically examined both Brown and her littermate found the dogs to be very well cared for, which is why we did not and could not remove them from the owner. The dogs are current on their shots, spayed, and microchipped. They are clean and well-nourished and appear to be comfortable in their surroundings. And there were no signs of injury to Brown's muzzle, not even detectable hair loss."
The animal cruelty charge carries a fine and possibly up to 150 days in jail if convicted. Lemansky must appear in Wake County court December 14.
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Make it Game Day Every Day – Tips to Host an Epic Game Day
Thank you Goliath Games for sponsoring this post. Pick up your favorite game today to enjoy the holiday season and beyond!
My kids love a good game night. In fact, they love it so much we try to have one at least once a week. Sometimes hectic schedules get in the way and we miss a week or two but we easily make up for it the next weekend. Game nights are even better when they’re shared with friends. The laughs and giggles that ensue throughout the night make it all worthwhile. The last few months have been really busy and it’s been a little while since we had our last game night. So I knew we were way overdue and I wanted to fix that – stat. So I invited some friends over, put together a little menu perfect for gamers big and small and grabbed some games from Goliath Games and Pressman Toys for an epic game night.
Game nights are the perfect way for me to unwind after a stressful week and they’re a great way for the kids to just have FUN. No technology, no tablets or video games. Just good old-fashioned fun! I easily get caught up in the moment playing with the kids and laugh my cares away.
Whenever I host a game night, I want it to be fun but simple at the same time. Easy finger foods, a cute dessert and we’re good to go! Don’t overthink the food. The kids will want to play and not eat anyway so easy finger foods always go over well.
I kept things simple with foods like mini burgers, pigs in a blanket, mozzarella sticks and themed cupcakes for dessert.
I wanted the food to represent some of the games and the kids got the biggest kick out of that.
You want the games to be the true stars of the party! Games that are great for all ages and ones that will bring out the fun are what you need! The kids had SO much fun playing with an assortment of games like this one from Pressman Toys, Shark Bite. The fun and colorful sea creatures are placed into the game unit with a snap. Each player takes turns rolling the die and fishing for the sea creatures using the fishing rods. But watch out!
You never know when the shark is going to bite! I loved that this was a battery-free game and the kids had a BLAST trying to make their catch before the shark would bite!
Then there was Giggle Wiggle (from Goliath Games). Giggle Wiggle is a cute caterpillar with several hands to spare. In this game, the kids quickly raced to the top by placing their colored marbles starting from the bottom row of his hands all the way up to the top as he wiggles to the fun music.
He will try to knock your marbles off as you play, but if he does… just pick them up and keep on racing! The first player to get all their marbles on in a row WINS!
Pop the Pig®, an international preschool classic that is adored by millions of children, was another favorite. The kids loved watching his belly grow as they played. I loved that it teaches the younger kids numbers, colors and counting.
With Catch the Fox (Goliath Games), the kids took turns putting the chickens in the Fox’s pockets. With each press on his head – you never know when his pants will disappear, sending the chickens scurrying!
I can’t forget about Doggie Doo. I don’t think I ever heard some of these kids laugh as hard as they did with this pooping dog! The kids took turns feeding the doggie, and giving his leash a little squeeze until ……. plop!
But parents don’t fret! The new and improved design uses food pellets that make for mess-free clean-up! I never knew cleaning up doggie poo could be so much fun!
These games are brought to you by Goliath Games, the fourth-largest children’s game manufacturer in North America and Pressman Toy Corporation, the third largest game manufacturer in the United States. So these companies know games and what kids and parents alike will love.
Now is the perfect time host a game night! Grab some of these fun games, invite your friends and create memories that will last a lifetime!
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of CLEVER and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
Clarissa says
Those games all look so fun!
Tiffany Khyla says
Game nights are my favorite! I’m actually having one next weekend for my birthday. Like you, I must have finger foods. I feel like it’s more for me than my guests cause I know as the night goes on (and the wine keeps pouring), I’m definitely going to want some things to snack on. Doggie Doo looks like it’s absolutely hilarious! I’ve never heard of any of these!
Alecia says
I have a huge collection of adult games but none for kids. We’re a big board game family and it’s time to get the little ones in on the action! I know the shark game would go over really well with my family
Bree says
All of these games look like so much fun! I can’t wait to have game nights when my daughter gets a little bit older. It’s such a great way to get the family together and stay connected.
Kristin Novotny says
Game night is an awesome idea! My kids would get such a kick out of the Doggie Doo game.
Love this idea, game night and fabulous snacks to go with it. We just played Pop the Pig last week with my nephew. So much fun, will look into the others for Christmas gifts.
Corinne says
This would be such a fun theme for a birthday party or just an epic play date. Love all the games and the treat ideas you came up with to go along with them!
Looks like you guys had so much fun! We love family game night over here. But I would love to make it more of an event with fun meals and treats. Plus, we needed some new game ideas.
I love family game night (or day). These games would be great for play over the upcoming holiday break.
Fun party ideas! We love game night at my house and these all look like great games
lisalisa says
We play a lot of games every weekend and these would be some great games to add. I don’t make finger food, we always prepare something big to eat but, after seeing this post. I’m going to make a few quick finger snacks for the family to enjoy, it will be less stress for me and more time to play and have fun with the kids.
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At Donald Trump's big pre-inauguration dinner — Melania isn't there, and neither is Ivanka.
Lots of photographs at The Daily Mail, which puts special emphasis on Kellyanne Conway:
The president-elect was seen stepping off his Trump jet at Reagan National Airport with Conway in tow at about 8pm. She was wearing a white gown and appeared to be carrying a fur coat.
The Daily Mail can be so dumb. In the photograph, the garment is obviously a stole, not a coat. Whether it's real or fake fur is unknown. It doesn't look very nice, so I'm going to assume it's fake fur and Conway is baiting anti-Trumpists to lambaste her for wearing fur.
The article says, "Melania Trump did not appear to have made the trip with her husband," and a commenter says: "Don't think we'll be seeing much more of her. Ivanka has taken on the role of first lady." But there's no sign of Ivanka at this event either.
Whether Ivanka or Melania will step into the made-up "First Lady" role, neither Melania nor Ivanka attended the big gala dinner, as far as I can tell, and the glammed up lady at Trump's side was Kellyanne Conway. Conway has a spouse too, but I don't see him there either. Here's why I think all of this is perfectly okay:
1. Trump was tending to donors. There were about "150 diplomats and 300 or so of Trump's biggest donors and VIPs." He flew down from NY to do the political theater, then got back on his plane and returned to NY. It was a quick business trip. Trump graciously and efficiently cranked through it.
2. Conway is Trump's female partner in this political business. She's up for the political talk and comfortable with the exposure, and she deserves the spotlight for all that she has done.
3. Melania and Ivanka are reserved for other occasions, perhaps more exclusive groups than the 300 top donors. Maybe these women are "reserved" in the other sense: private.
4. Melania and Ivanka may have minds of their own and a distaste for being shown off, especially to big donors, people who have bought access to power. If it is possible to buy access to these women, it's not as easy as being 300th on the list of top donors to a presidential campaign.
5. When they appear at inaugural events, Melania and Ivanka's looks will be subjected to extreme attention. Fashion designers have balked at dressing them, and while I'm sure they can overcome that trifling obstacle, they may want their first entrance on the presidential stage to be more beautiful and grand.
6. Melania and Ivanka may love Kellyanne Conway performing this part of the feminine role.
7. The Obamas have — or so it seems — loved parties. Some of that love may be because they have been loved. It's been relatively simple to show up in nice clothes and get perceived as fabulous by everyone in the press and the political establishment. The experience for the Trumps is completely different. Not only have they already had plenty of fancy parties in their lives — it's no big new thrill — but they don't have the hope the Obamas had of inspiring Americans to enjoy the parties vicariously. With the Obamas, many Americans could feel that the first African-American President and First Lady embodied our dream of progress. If they danced together in fancy clothes, they danced in our hearts: How good we are! Not in all hearts, of course, but in many hearts, and the Obamas knew this, and performed in the Theater of Racial Harmony with enthusiasm and grace.
8. The Trumps must follow the Obamas, and they must know very well that their political show is very different. They step into the roles as very rich people. They've already had plenty of parties — fancier parties — for decades. If they party in the public spotlight, they are rich people, enjoying their riches, excluding us. And there's probably little intrinsic pleasure for them. It's just another party, and, really, an inferior party, humoring donors and diplomats.
9. Upgrading Kellyanne Conway like this dilutes the perception that Ivanka is — in some weird, creepy way — the real First Lady. There are 3 important women, and they appear in different settings. It increases the perception that Melania is the First Lady. She's automatically the First Lady by being the President's wife, so what is the argument that she's lost that status? If Kellyanne and Ivanka both do appearances at Trump's side, Ivanka isn't special enough to oust Melania.
10. Trump the billionaire has successfully bonded with millions of working-class Americans. He's convincingly worn a trucker hat and spoken like a tough guy. Trump's wealth is built on branding, and he made his grand political success out of branding: He's a man of the people. He's told us that he had a great life, and he didn't need to do this, but he saw our need, and the left the pleasures and comforts of his billionaire life to do service for us, to make America great again. To preserve that message, he should not be seen to care about big parties. He's coming to Washington to work — for us — and not to enjoy himself.
11. The message described in #10 is consistent with what we will be seeing from Melania: She's staying in NYC to do her work, which is to care for her son and to support him as he finishes the school year. She's not a rich, self-centered lady eager to show off her beauty and her clothes in the public spotlight. She's modest and circumspect and, like so many of the Americans who voted for her husband, focused on doing a good job at the task in front of her — rearing a child.
Tags: fashion, festivities, fur, Ivanka Trump, Kellyanne Conway, Melania, Obama the mood elevator, political spouse, Trump styles
rehajm said...
This is what it feels like to not have full time politicians running things.
To the Obamas and Clintons, the parties are everything. All they have, really...
Paragraph 7. Typo. Obamas.
AprilApple said...
Leftwing prog ankle biters are out of power. See increased levels of ankle biting.
Here's a thought: It's cold and flu season, and Melania and Ivanka have kids who might be sick.
Anyway, the first comment is most apt: We don't have a full-time politician as President(-elect) now. A refreshing change.
Left Bank of the Charles said...
Female partner?
Bruce Springsteen tribute act B-Street Band pull out of Trump inauguration gala.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/17/bruce-springsteen-tribute-act-b-street-band-pull-out-of-trump-inauguration-gala
Inside the White House there will be dozens of Inaugural Balls each costing tens of millions of dollars with all the billionaires, Republicans and the Orange Don's vultures eating, drinking and dancing the night away.
Outside, there will be a show for "the people" just like the Orange Don promised with 3rd rate entertainers no one has heard of.
This is not an allegory of things to come but reality.
Get used to it Trumpland.
EDH said...
Maybe Conway's stole is rendered politically correct because it's made from the fur of jack rabbits that beat each other to death?
"Here's why I think all of this is perfectly okay:"
Why would anyone think this is not perfectly okay? Two married people showing up to a formal event without their spouses--particularly a public event--is perfectly normal unless there's some deep-dive etiquette we're supposed to borrow from the 19th Century. Don't play their game, Althouse! You just went through the looking glass!
On another note, maybe Trump's leaving Melania in NYC to tend to their son will get people to finally get rid of the archaic notion of a "First Lady". I don't really mind meaningless titles, but in our case we're talking about an unelected and completely useless position that occupies prime real estate and has a staff of dozens and a budget. If anyone wants to trim the fat, there's the low hanging fruit.
tcrosse said...
3rd rate entertainers no one has heard of.
Hillary's Posse
So will there be a boycott now of the Broadway show that performed there?
Cacimbo Cacimbo said...
I recall reading that Trump regretted involving wife #1 in his business. His complaint was that she would talk work at home turning dinner conversation into an extension of the work day. His current wife has a business but it is separate and distinct from his own. I suspect Melania's presence will be a good indication of how he views the event he is attending.
"Get used to it Trumpland."
I find the lack of headliners a feature, not a bug. Inauguration festivities are just a sop to donors and the self-important anyway, and turning them into celebrity gatherings has a distinctly undemocratic feel to it. Trump would do well to be unfazed by this (though "unfazed" isn't what comes to mind with Trump).
Every day that I wake up and there is no news about Hillary Clinton's inauguration or presidency is a good day. LOL. I swear I had so resigned myself to 4/8 years of her and Monica's boyfriend (as he is referred to here in NC), and then I remember ... Trump, the only Republican who could have bested the forces of evil.
Here, Trump and one of his business "partners" (a woman, by the way - Trump hires the best, including women) attended a business event, then went back to NY. Dog bites man.
Paragraph 10 is very insightful. That's how Trump won. He repeatedly said he doesn't owe donors a thing and rally crowds wildly cheered that line. Blue collar billionaire.
AReasonableMan said...
I have no problem with Ivanka acting as the First Lady. She seems to be sensible and grounded as well as somewhat involved with the issues of the day. In contrast, Trump's wife clearly wants her old life to continue unchanged. You can't really blame her. Her old life was fabulous.
Why isn't Trump lauded every day for all the great women he is hiring?
Eleanor said...
A lot of high-level businessmen have an "office wife". There isn't a sexual component to it. Just someone at work who makes sure a business social event goes well, circulates among the guests, reports to her boss when something or someone needs his attention, and plays most of the hostess roles. Depending on the occasion, his real wife may or may not attend. An "office wife" wouldn't attend a purely social event with him, but how many purely social events does a POTUS attend?
Meade said...
"Here's a thought: It's cold and flu season, and Melania and Ivanka have kids who might be sick."
It would then follow that Kellyanne Conway is a bad mother for not being at home with her sick kids. Come here, MadMan. Prepare to have "sexist pig" stamped on your forehead.
The rage and bitterness of Inga is starting to shine through the fake sarcasm.
I have thought for a long time that Obama and Michelle are the more modern incarnation of Adam Clayton Powell. He lived the high life, neglected his duties to his constituents and spent money like water. The constituents of his Harlem district loved it as "sticking it to the Man."
They never realized they were paying for it all and he was ridiculing them.
Obama loves it that poor black women thought he was going to pay their utilities bills. Meanwhile their sons shoot each other in the street.
Amadeus 48 said...
Unknown/Inga is eating his/her own liver in envy and despair. Good to see.
The Dinner was the traditional one for Foreign Diplomats. It was said to also be an honorary night for Mike Pence. But as the Professor quickly spotted, it was the coming out night for the newly promoted Kellyann as the President's Consiglieri, not as family.
She has earned it. Like Annie Oakly, Conway trick shoots at the MSM better than a man. So DJT uses her off the charts talents. Smart man.
AprilApple wrote: Leftwing prog ankle biters are out of power. See increased levels of ankle biting.
Example: Get used to it Trumpland. That's Abie Someone gnawing toothlessly at our collective hosiery.
Also, when you're the first woman co-president, they let you do anything you want. You can move on them like a bitch. You can wear the big phony fur and everything. You're automatically attracted to the beauty of power—just start kissing it. It's like a magnet. Just kiss.Don't even wait. And when you're a co-president they let you do it. You can do anything ... Grab them by the balls. You can do anything.
But as the Professor quickly spotted, it was the coming out night for the newly promoted Kellyann as the President's Consiglieri, not as family.
Hillary Clinton sleeps with the fishes.
Lyin'PB_Ombudsman said...
Actually, along w/ the two gals, DJT wasn't there either because DJT couldn't be sucking up to big dough funders. Ya see, in the past, DJT used to give dough to pols because that's how big dough folks get special consideration from the gov. That's why DJT self funded instead of taking money from big dough folks who are buying influence from pols who are selling it.
Y'all are welcome, I'm always pleased to shoot down Fake news.
jacksonjay said...
The Professor can be so dumb. The headwear is OBVIOUSLY a cap not a hat.
buwaya said...
Well, everyone has said it of course, but Trump is vastly unlike everyone that has gone before him, so a lot of old ways will change and old expectations are not operative.
They will sort it all out. Probably. Eventually.
It was the hide of Alec Baldwin, dyed white.
Sydney said...
I like the idea of treating things like a business event. That's how it should be. So they can all concentrate on the business of government. Hopefully, that means we'll have a first lady who limits herself to social events and doesn't meddle with the business of government, too. For example, it would be nice to have a first lady who doesn't feel compelled to adopt some sort of national program for a change. One that doesn't meddle in drug policy, or school lunches.
Rich and Powerful indeed. That's quite a show. It's not entirely comforting. However, I did like
1. The black and white picture of Pence and his wife dancing. It is the only photo of people paying attention to each other instead of the camera.
2. Rudy Guliani being a trooper after his appointment disappointment. Self interest is involved too. He has a business to run.
3. Tillerson's wife, whose name is St. Clair. There are huge advantages to being named Mrs. Tillerson but she has some other stuff going on as well.
4. Everything about Kelly Ann Conway. A kick ass feminist of the conservative type.
5. All the people I've never heard of before.
I can't think of any first lady function I've ever noticed except for what comedians have siezed on.
The queen role is ridiculous even in England. A bunch of inbred goobers kept as a tourist attraction, as Imus explained once.
I suspect there will be no post-inauguration photographs of the Mall published in the WaPo or the NYT, or any of the usual suspects lest there be comparisons to this one taken eight years ago.
The Cracker Emcee said...
"Inside the White House there will be dozens of Inaugural Balls each costing tens of millions of dollars with all the billionaires,"
Like every inauguration ever? Oh, dear!
It's telling that the Golden Shower Left thinks a freakin' Springsteen cover band pulling out of the inauguration is some kind of indictment of Trump. These people have truly lost any connection with reality.
PB&J,
The diff with Trump of course was he took enormously less from big funders than his predecessors and certainly his late opponent. But that shouldnt depress you.
I suggest you get with the program, call all the big cheeses you know to start contributing to my King Felipe VI of Spain, to assist him towards the righteous goal of restoring the Spanish Empire, as is good and proper.
That should also help the morale of said big cheeses, which may have otherwise been disappointed in their usual desire to throw money at politicians.
Clayton Hennesey said...
I have thought for a long time that Obama and Michelle are the more modern incarnation of Adam Clayton Powell.
I've always thought of Barack and Michelle as George and Weezy from The Jeffersons, movin' on up from middling legal careers to the White House, international jet-setting vacations, playing video games with real armed drones, and golf with celebrities.
Now they'll be retiring to just about as big a house, a lifetime defined benefit pension, lifetime security, international jet-setting vacations, and golf with celebrities.
Not a bad take for eight years fiddling and a few gray hairs.
"I like the idea of treating things like a business event. That's how it should be. So they can all concentrate on the business of government."
The biz of gov = rewarding rich folks who pay for you to be in office.
readering said...
Showstoppers not a Broadway show. A Vegas show at Steve Wynne's casino.
God forbid we should have another First Lady who thinks ipso facto that she's entitled to the Presidency herself.
... as Imus explained once.
rhhardin up to his old tricks again, I see.
"The queen role is ridiculous even in England. A bunch of inbred goobers kept as a tourist attraction, as Imus explained once."
But at least the Queen thing might help British tourism (though if they abolished the monarchy, would Britain really lose much on tourism? People would still come to see the palaces and castles, and they could keep the fancy guards and memorabilia even if the Queen had to get a real job). But First Lady doesn't benefit the country at all. The cost of having one is small, but if we can't even cut that then how can we cut anything that has actual benefits?
And, PB&J, the Spanish Court and State can put together a grand function vastly more prepossessing than the US manages, actually having real palaces filled with artistic masterpieces, Royal Guards, cavalry, and titles of nobility to hand out.
"The biz of gov = rewarding rich folks who pay for you to be in office."
Same as it ever was, and same as it ever will be. Whether it's Clinton, Obama or Trump, anyone thinking "rich interests" will be shut out is dangerously naïve.
It's just a question of which rich interests. The smartest have a finger in each pot so they never get left out.
Known Unknown said...
"Why isn't Trump lauded every day for all the great women he is hiring?"
Let's be honest, they're mediocre women.
/CNN
Birkel said...
Lyin'PB:
Robert Cook will be along to explain how rich people were rewarded under Obama. Argue with him.
"People would still come to see the palaces and castles, and they could keep the fancy guards and memorabilia even if the Queen had to get a real job"
Don't forget Silverstone in mid July! I'll be there.
"The Jeffersons, movin' on up from middling legal careers to the White House"
How dare you besmirch the good name of George Jefferson, entrepreneur, self-motivated working man and American success story by comparing him to a politician.
roesch/voltaire said...
If you believe Trump is coming to work for "us" I have some beach front property in Florida to sell you at inflated price.
I'll admit I like Harry. There's something real about Harry that even the Royal Family can't squelch or strangle out of him.
Birk/Brand,
I'm just warning folks that Althouse set up this post as a trap where many of y'all would be deep into agreeing that it's great that DJT's vision of gov biz is sucking up to big dough folks.
Maybe she did it accidentally/unknowingly.
I dunno.
If you believe Hillary would have worked for "us" I have some beach front property in Arizona to sell you at inflated price.
Of all the inaugural discussions I've read I think the whole "celebrities refusing to appear will hurt Trump" idea is the least grounded in reality.
As if anybody has ever suffered politically from being attacked by rich celebrities.
It doesn't hurt him in the least and only reinforces the image of him as some working class outsider which further endears him with his base.
Whether it's Clinton, Obama or Trump, anyone thinking "rich interests" will be shut out is dangerously naïve.
Why must they be shut out? They are citizens and their interests are as valid as anyone else's.
mockturtle said...
Great job, Ann. I shudder to think how the NYT would analyze the situation.
If you believe Bernie would have worked for "us" he has some newly acquired beach front property that is not for sale. In fact, none of his other two properties are for sale either.
Limited blogger said...
None of this could have gone any better.
sunsong said...
What a bunch of conjecture. Weaselly words so and so may be or feel this way. No one knows. Good grief. Talk about the fact free right wingers...
But there are plenty of those who are shallow enough to think it's a big deal.
Oh come PB&J, its no good regretting whats happened, move forward!
Now, you dont seem the sort to give in to despair, so asking forgiveness for your sins and praying to be spared the terror of the Trump is not for you.
Whiny backbiting, however, is where you are at, which is a sort of petulance thats unseemly among gentlemen.
What you need is a positive, realistic political project, such as restoring the Spanish empire.
"With the Obamas, many Americans could feel that the first African-American President and First Lady embodied our dream of progress. If they danced together in fancy clothes, they danced in our hearts: How good we are! Not in all hearts, of course, but in many hearts, and the Obamas knew this, and performed in the Theater of Racial Harmony with enthusiasm and grace."
Let's see. There's yours. That's one.
sunsong calls Althouse a right winger?
'Round the bend, much, sunsong?
Buw,
I'm not sure that a year of high school Spanish is enough to get the job done. So, whiny backbiting is the backup plan.
No, I agree that he is not likely to work for academic Socialists.
You might spend a bit of time reading what Richard Fernandez writes about what is happening.
The Central European youth, having lived between both worlds, may be the first generation in history to intuitively guess that the socialism which failed in the East is also collapsing in the West. We have seen the future and it sucks. Central Europeans are turning to both nationalism and newer forms of politics -- turning to anything to replace the orthodoxies that no longer work.
Brussels may be trying to charm younger voters with a plan to hand out free InterRail passes but in parts of the Union, that offensive may be too little, too late. Across Central Europe, young voters are moving further right on the political spectrum than their elders, with many expressing disenchantment with the European Union. ...
The causes of the bleak future are easy to understand but difficult for the liberal project to accept. The West has spent its past and borrowed on its future to buy votes in the present. Now the the millennials are stuck with the bill.
The second Berlin Wall is falling.
Perhaps it's time to use "prosecutorial neglect" and not stress IP violations too hard.
Because he obviously hates women.
Only Progressives would deem a woman leading a campaign where a "joke" candidate ends up winning as being unimpressive.
I loved the cover band's "We don't want to insult Bruce" logic. Because, truly, he gives two shits about them. I hope their gigs dry up.
Any thoughts on why the CGI would have to close up now? It was a charity for global relief. Why would it suddenly stop receiving donations to a STARTLING level if it wasn't just an influence peddling operation?
You would approve an investigation, no?
Tom Steyer I think might really want to be the Count of San Francisco.
PB&J, you may want to approach him first. He may be looking for something to fund, as the result of his @$87 million in funding to Democrats this year (yes, all that from just him) was a bit of a disappointment.
Dr Weevil said...
Meade (8:25):
If Kellyanne's kids are sick, her husband is available to take care of them. If Melania comes to the event, both parents will be gone, so a hypothetically-sick Barron would be left to the care of nannies, maids, cooks, and chauffeurs - not ideal.
More likely than sickness as a reason for Melania's absence: we are just about half-way through the K-12 school year, so Barron very likely has midterms this week or next. (At my school they start Friday and go through next Thursday.)
Spanish royals are tremendous Anglophiles, and senior Spanish officials are famously well educated. All speak excellent English with charming accents, as I do myself.
Think Antonio Banderas.
So dont be put off by your language skills.
And try Duolingo.
I looked up Kellyanne Conway on Wikipedia to find out more about her kids, and found something interesting: Inauguration Day is her 50th birthday. How's that for a double celebration?
I think your number 10 hits it right on the head. He doesn't need this, either for his ego, his company, his family or just about anything else. It is bound to be a head-ache, certainly ego-stroking but his life and family was a hell of a lot more peaceful and SAFE before he decided to MAGA.
The only quibble I would have with number 10 is that he did make his money branding, but also BUILDING, lot's and lots and lots of building. That seems to get lost in the glitter.
Building stuff requires talking, listening and yes firing lots of regular people making their livings with their hands. People who actually who have had to go through the hurdles the government puts in the way. Meeting very tight and punitive building schedules. It is a very,very different experience than someone who's work consists of pushing words on a paper, talking and trading influence.
I agree with the posters who suggested that bringing Conway, instead of Melanie or Ivanka was very likely strategic and practical. I expect more of this - the use of Conway as an office wife. Problem that Trump is going to have is keeping her from burning out. She was apparently reluctant to take the WH job in the first place, with her 4 kids. And, Trump, for once in his lifetime, can't pay his close staff what they are worth - they are all (except for him) limited by law to what Congress makes, which isn't that much, by D.C. Standards (which is why, I think, that so many long term Senators and Representatives are on the take).
As for her fur - real ones cost money, which I don't think she and her husband have had an obnoxious amount of over the years. Esp full length ones, which this apparently was not. I know - my partner has some full length ones that I have to insure. Had to sell off a couple several years ago, due to hard times. Got the last one in Vail in early fall, when they are dumping last year's models. Less than half price and still expensive.
"Why must they be shut out? They are citizens and their interests are as valid as anyone else's."
No argument from me, but it seems every political candidate has to promise that they're working for "the people" as opposed to "special interests" (which are actually representing interests of people as well, but are somehow evil because they wear fancy suits and can afford to overpay for dinner).
The NYT has been offering the truth for 40% off the last couple of days, in their eternal email offer stream to registered nonsubscribers.
I get aesthetic pleasure from somebody getting the economics right, so that's a special interest too.
Obama is the only one who managed pure generosity, going the potlatch route.
CWJ said...
Brando,
rehajm's original comment, "Inga's" snark, and your replies made "Politics is Hollywood for ugly people" come to mind. Full time politicians and the political status seekers who feed off of them need celebrity validation. Trump? Not so much.
Ron Winkleheimer said...
I was wondering why he wasn't wearing a Tux, but a couple of the points you brought up help explain that. Also, I think Conway is trying to bait somebody. The weather in DC would seem to be to warm for a fur right now, judging by what other people are wearing in some of the photos.
A bunch of inbred goobers kept as a tourist attraction, as Imus explained once.
Ah, but Kate is delightful, on so many levels, and just what the royal family needed. Clever, beautiful, joyful, dutiful, tasteful, and a well-bred commoner who has produced perfect children.
Put Melania in charge of global warming.
perfect children.
We don't know that. They may be dolts or assholes or crumbums for all we know.
By the way, I really don't think that "Unknown" is Inga. I distinctly remember how irritating Inga's run-on sentences were; she did not know how to use a semicolon. The writing styles don't match.
Your friend a fellow longtimer who still misses the Chips, Palladian, and KentuckyLiz.
And Trooper and Methadras, too.
And, ZPS.
Could turn out that way, but they look pretty perfect to me and that's all I need! :)
PB, snort. Well done! You forgot Nichievo!
I agree with ARM'S first comment.
Who cares.
Not to mention Sir Archie.
khesanh0802 said...
Ann: I think your #10 is the critical point. For Trump this is all business. The parties are necessary because you have to be nice to donors and supporters, but the rest is business. We have had 8 years of a decent guy but poor communicator and 8 years of a narcissist in chief who has made a mess of this country and the world while he did everything possible to be "loved". Trump is going to be the cold shower we and the world need.
Signs of the times; PM May let the world know yesterday that the Brits are definitely out of the EuroZone; today's WSJ has a story on Marine Le Pen campaigning on taking the French out of the Eurozone; Joe Biden losing his mind over Trump calling attention to NATO members not meeting their obligations.
Will Trump have a Reggie Love "body man"?
No kidding, but we have Lazlo.
Birches--I agree. ARM was reasonable on that one.
FullMoon said...
Unknown said... [hush][hide comment]
Beyond stupid-far, far, far beyond. Explain how a dance will cost tens of millions of dollars.
Oh, and those death threats against performers and their families seem to be effective.
The Designers who refuse to dress the Trump women will no doubt be chomping at the bit to dress Chelsea Manning when she is released to the celebrity circuit.
I'm sure she will receive awards of some sort.
A girl needs a fancy dress when accepting awards.
Probably something stylish but relatively simple and not too tight fitting: the Designers need to hide the telltale bulge of Girl-Cock.
I am Laslo.
Laslo, I disagree. Designers need to emphasize the bulge of the Girl-Cock. Call it the strapless strap-on.
David Baker said...
Hard to believe Trump even wanted the job. Much less the parties.
The Obama's on the other hand hit the welfare jackpot. The only thing missing were gold-plated spinner hubcaps on Air-Force-One. Still, they created a wonderful Marxist playground, a place not only to spend gobs of unearned money night and day, but to put their feet up on the White (House) furniture.
Ironic, too, because neither of them could shine Donald Trump's shoes.
"The Professor can be so dumb. The headwear is OBVIOUSLY a cap not a hat."
The standard term for that item of clothing is "trucker hat." I agree that the term for the baseball item is "baseball cap," but I believe the thing Trump wears is not a baseball cap but a trucker hat.
On the standard distinction between the words "hat" and "cap" in English, I'll start the debate with the statement: Not all hats are caps, but all caps are hats... except perhaps a skullcap.
Trumpland:
The Orange Don (or, is it Golden Don now - geddit? Never mind) has the lowest poll rating of an incoming President except for two others from the 18 hundreds. It is all downhill now because more than 50% of the country viscerly dislike him - actually, they hate him.
Melania made public appearances before the Election. Melania knows for sure what her husband Golden Don was doing in Moscow while on a business trip. What a cliche. It is all going to come out ... Keep watching the media.
"performed in the Theater of Racial Harmony" Huh? Like drinking beer with Gates and the cop, the Trayvon-could-be-my-son business, the soothing response to Ferguson -- that kind of "harmony"? You know Instapundit has that what-I-love-about-O-is-all-the-racial-healing meme going . . . It is one O's biggest failures: he really could have been the uniter, but instead he was a divider. On purpose, I think: he disdains America and Americans, and the presidency was all about him and his CV.
Lyin'PB_Ombudsman said... [hush][hide comment]
Rewarding them with dinner.
more than 50% of the country viscerly dislike him - actually, they hate him.
Love trumps hate.
Well, at least you have not lost your mediocre sense of humor.
Comparing paragraphs 1 and 10. Trump had contempt for "the donors" and ridiculed them during the primaries. (Appealing, it would seem, to a lot of voters who don't normally vote in Republican primaries.). But this was a business trip; aimed at taking care of the business of fundraising.
Bay Area Guy said...
The Left has drummed up so much fear and loathing about proposed riots, boycotts, disruptions, Putin, Russians, leaks blah, blah, blah, that it has distorted some basic simple facts:
1. Trump will be our President on Jan 20.
2. There will be many parties, where nice people wear gowns and tuxedos
3. The people who didn't vote for Trump will continue to be unhappy.
(nobody likes to lose, and since 1960 each side is batting close to.500 in the Presidential race; GOP 8, Dems 7)
4. There might be a few protests, but so what?
Perhaps a fuxedo then?
They've already had plenty of parties — fancier parties — for decades. If they party in the public spotlight, they are rich people, enjoying their riches, excluding us. And there's probably little intrinsic pleasure for them. It's just another party, and, really, an inferior party, humoring donors and diplomats.
I'm sure the diplomats are a bore but I looked through the pictures and outside of the staffers (and the billionaire staffers) and other politicians I see three NFL team owners, a MLB team owner, members of a casino/MMA family, another NY real estate mogul, girlfriend of a fashion chairman, and Jon Voight. Excepting Voight all of them in the billionaire tier, all of them Trump friends he has known, many of them for decades.
Who are these 'donors' Trump supposedly has to suffer? Are there pictures of them somewhere else?
Really? Such a long comprehensive blog post about minutiae. Who cares? Why is this important compared to anything else surrounding so many more pressing issues than who is playing the role of his wife on any given night. But if this is interesting to the blog owner, so be it.
Trumpit said...
I admit to being sensitive about my baldness, so that is why I wear a baseball-type hat in pubic.
Frankly, I'm tired of being discriminated against in Court. The bailiff will admonish you to remove your hat or your cap in front of the judge. I HATE to have to remove it.
I demand that that policy be changed. I will agreed to refer to the judge as "your honor" even though I resent having to ASSUME the judge is worthy of honor. Many are arrogant, ignorant, pigs (my apologies to pigs). Prove to me that you are honorable, and intelligent FIRST. I happen to be an honest person; I've never cheated anyone like Trump has. I'm tired of being walled all over, and ripped off by every Tom, Dick & Harry especially those who finagle a law degree for themselves. Most lawyers I've met, and I've hired quite a few STUNK to high heaven.
Have I made my point? We've all been latched to a sinking ship with the incoming, rotten and ridiculous, ranting Trump-the-skunk administration, having to deal, like me, with sickening, thieving lawyers and home contractors. My they and you (if the shoe fits) rot in hell!!
That is my wish for you on the eve of his imploding, exploding, foreboding administration from the pit of hell.
This is off topic, but is there something wrong with Al Franken?
He mutters, he loses his train of thought, and he's made up like a clown would be made up by a mortician.
"Of all the inaugural discussions I've read I think the whole "celebrities refusing to appear will hurt Trump" idea is the least grounded in reality.
As if anybody has ever suffered politically from being attacked by rich celebrities. "
Plus the stories of entertainers being harassed/threatened/pressured to not perform works against the left, though I doubt they can see it.
" all caps are hats... "
So when someone types in AN ANGRY/EMPHATIC MANNER he is typing in hats?
"The Orange Don (or, is it Golden Don now - geddit? Never mind) has the lowest poll rating of an incoming President"
Oversampling. It's a term you should get to know.
buwaya puti said...
Trumpit,
The proper first response is to go to church, confess your sins, and pray for deliverance from the demonic terrors of the Trump.
And, of course, to establish local rights in your jurisdiction (fueros) whereby you can keep your hat on. I recommend a study of Carlism.
Gojuplye said...
Latest polls show Trump's approval ratings are terrible. These polls have been released by the same experts who haven't been right abnout much this election season.
But when you are desperate for some solace you tend to cling to whatever straw you need to prevent the total collapse of your belief system. Unknown being the perfect example.
FIDO said...
I think there are a few other factors at play in this (haven't spooled through the other comment.
1)Melania has been publicly mocked by the press both with that nude shot being dredged up to cause her pain and by the constant mockery of her being an 'illegal immigrant'. I think she is perfectly aware that if she makes the slightest misstep, she will be 'Palinized' by SNL.
2) Unlike essentially every other First Family in the last century of non-political figures (Hillary who was an 'also ran' and Eleanor), the Trump women have already had a taste for the slanderous attacks that they can expect for the next four to eight years and they want none of it.
3) Social whiplash. The Trumps used to have very good relations with a lot of NY luminaries BEFORE Trump started running. Now they are excoriated by quite a few people they knew even though they haven't changed as people. And as insular New Yorkers, the Republicans aren't really their kind of people.
They can't even get celebrities who used to rub shoulders with them socially to attend the inauguration for MONEY!
They are still smarting and reeling from this treatment by their neighbors.
Harold said...
Isn't the question actually- Is there anything right with Al Franken?
Latest polls show Trump's approval ratings are terrible.
Trump's favorability seems to be OK with the House and Senate, and soon with the Supreme Court.
""Politics is Hollywood for ugly people" come to mind."
Sometimes the Dems bring in star power, debasing both the politicians (if that's possible) and the star power by having them waste time around the likes of Robert Reich. I recall when Clinton was elected, it was all about the Barbras and Arethas (and Aretha getting in hot water for wearing a fur coat! How times haven't changed) and the whole thing made me despise Clinton more than I already had because who needs showbiz glam?
What'd really be refreshing is a President's team book absolutely no names (and not try to book any names) for the innaguration, limit it to high school marching bands, and make all the inaugural festivities for just top donors behind closed doors. Because there's "control major industries" rich and there's "I sang a popular song" rich, and only the former has interests that matter.
"having them waste time around the likes of Robert Reich"
This is definitely a waste of time.
"and there's "I sang a popular song" rich, and only the former has interests that matter."
Not true. Even the founders of Western democratic politics understood the value of these people. Thats why the Romans held games to please the public.
As Martin Mull said, Show Business is like High School but with Money.
Rocketeer said...
Most lawyers I've met, and I've hired quite a few STUNK to high heaven.
Have I made my point?
I think you have. Is it that you get sideways with the law and contractors quite a bit, and present lawyers with nearly impossible cases to defend?
"This is off topic, but is there something wrong with Al Franken?"
I caught a bit of the Senate hearings during lunch, and I say this in a non-partisan way, but having the Senators do the speaking during any hearing or investigation is an absolute mess. They're usually far less up to speed on the issues than their staffs, and they are more concerned with how they'll look in news clips than they are about actually accomplishing what the hearings are supposed to accomplish (e.g., questioning the nominee/witness). If the committees were serious about their role at all, they'd have this all done by the majority and minority counsel instead of the members.
Not that it'd ever happen, of course, but it makes these hearings unbearable to listen to. Franken went on a bit about Tom Price owning shares of tobacco companies, as if this has any bearing on the most important stuff HHS is going to be dealing with (does anyone think Price is going to pull off some coup for Big Tobacco in this day and age?).
It may be just me, but as soon as a CSPAN camera picks up Al Franken talking in a Senate committee hearing, I expect laugh lines and audience laughter. Because I expect it to be an SNL sketch. And also because Franken's own choice of words is so often as much of a ridiculous straight-man voice, as what any of the SNL writing staff could come up with.
Martin said...
@readering, thanks. I thought I read Broadway, but I confess to only really looking at the pictures, and it was before coffee!
Unknown: "Trumpland: The Orange Don (or, is it Golden Don now - geddit? Never mind) has the lowest poll rating of an incoming President except for two others from the 18 hundreds."
This is terrible!
So, what's the over/under on how many obambi executive orders will be annihilated on Friday?
Drago:
I'll say n-3, where n is the total issued in the last 8 years. Keeping three (or two or four) is better than deleting all of them, because it makes it clear that you actually looked at them all to see if they were worth keeping. Finding three worthwhile orders is more convincing, and therefore more insulting, than zero, especially if they're quite trivial. Of course, finding even three may be difficult.
Roy Lofquist said...
What a choice - Melania in an off-the rack from J.C. Penney or Hillary in a $20,000 number from Omar the Tent Maker.
None of this could have gone any better.~
So far. It gets much more difficult starting tomorrow at noon.
hubert rainfield said...
You are so good at this_Ann Althouse. Just extremely good at building a case a context for success. Instead of dissembling and constructs to cover the worm droppings. You do see that Trump's view is to build a Truth movement throughout the system. It's like taking a bath after living in a coal mine for so long. You are awesome. I'm sure every visitor says this or a variation. On this we do agree _You are golden.
More Rumors about Kellyann: For her birthday there appeared a frozen package from GRU in Moscow with a genuine full length Russian Sable Fur Coat and a card inside written in Cyrillic offering a huge raise for her to work as Putin's Minister of Political Communication.
Apparently Putin has figured out by now that she is the only hope Russia has of beating Trump.
I'm sorry Ann_I was wrong. After reading a number of the comments I realized what a howl fest looks like. You are awesome. Anyone, who thinks otherwise is beneath respect. Did they read what you wrote. Who are they playing for. Even if the 'great unknowing ones' don't read such a literate blog as yours, they would realize their abject comments are out of place;you are too nice to be rude_in return.. You are a true American Thinker. That is not a poll_That is my personal thinking. Just great ..not my writing. i try.though
Were they foreign diplomats? They probably missed the chance to make small talk with Melania in one of the languages she speaks.
Ann, in LA, MS and AL is is called a gimme cap.
And mine is for you to be tied to a chair in front of a TV loaded with Trump speeches running 24/7.
You lefties have no idea how funny you are.
Whenever there are demons in the picture, it's the Catholic Church you want.
I don't see the point in anyone concerned with the demonic nature of Trump and friends doing silly things like posting scary stories about tweets.
What you really need is the heavy duty ritual. Prayer will get you much further than blogs. Masses, novenas and, should you suspect possession, exorcisms. These are what you really need.
buwaya: What you really need is the heavy duty ritual. Prayer will get you much further than blogs. Masses, novenas and, should you suspect possession, exorcisms. These are what you really need.
What they really need is autos-da-fé. Auto autos-da-fé.
BudBrown said...
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Classroom 2.0: How U of T is creating innovative, accessible learning spaces
February 5, 2019 | Campus
By Romi Levine
Steven Bailey and Emily Ling of Academic + Campus Events in the Lee & Margaret Lau Auditorium (photo by Romi Levine)
When it comes to lecture halls, the University of Toronto’s Lee & Margaret Lau Auditorium is the gold standard.
The room, located in the new Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship, is outfitted with the latest technology – including a 60-foot-wide screen, believed to be the largest of any North American classroom.
But it’s the subtleties of its design that make the 468-person classroom special, says Steven Bailey, director, Academic + Campus Events (ACE) at U of T.
Instead of rows of chairs facing the front of the room, seats are arranged in groups of four around a rectangular table, with plenty of room for instructors, TAs and students to walk across the aisles.
“The focus of the room is not at the front like a typical lecture hall, the focus is actually at the table,” says Bailey. “This is where the important conversations and sharing of ideas is going to happen.”
The auditorium is a model for the future of teaching and learning – but at a nearly 192-year-old university with plenty of aging classrooms, replicating this brand new lecture hall gets a bit complicated.
That’s where Bailey and the ACE team come in. They’ve set out on an ambitious plan to renovate 174 classrooms on campus through the Transforming the Instructional Landscape (TIL) initiative.
“It's a beautiful hall, but it's expensive,” says Bailey of the Lee & Margaret Lau Auditorium. “We can't build everything to look like that but what we can do is to take elements of that and incorporate it into other spaces.”
Myhal auditorium's unique features (from left): plenty of aisle space and rectangular tables, built for collaboration; a microphone and video hookup at every table for easy class participation; a gigantic digital screen and enough room at the front of the class for a car (photos by Romi Levine)
Central to TIL is engagement with faculty and students on what they view as the ideal learning environment. Bailey and his team take that feedback and incorporate it into the design process for the classrooms.
“One of the tenets of design thinking talks about designing with, not designing for. That really resonated with us,” he says.
This week, ACE, in partnership with Student Life’s Innovation Hub, will be hosting events on the downtown Toronto campus, inviting the U of T community to share their input at What Makes a Classroom Great? Students, staff and faculty can test out different types of furniture and provide input on what they like.
“We can get an idea of how they can be combined or improved in a classroom setting to help their learning and teaching experience,” says Emily Ling, architect and classroom design and development officer at ACE.
Early feedback from students made it clear there needed to be outlets near seats to charge laptops and phones, and a solid wireless connection. But they also cared about how their classrooms were designed, says Bailey.
“They talked a lot about aesthetics of the space, about things like natural light, about creating an environment that was calm – somewhere you would want to spend some time in.”
This kind of design-forward approach is core to the TIL project, he says.
“We want spaces that are functional, but we also want spaces that are designed. We see the value in understanding that people react to spaces, not just as functional, but they react to them as human beings,” says Bailey.
Words that have rarely been used to denote learning environments have become central to the renovation project.
“We want colour. We want excitement,” says Bailey. “We have a lot of beige classrooms. Beige doesn't really do too much to a lot of people.”
Track TIL's progress and see before and after photos
TIL planners are also working closely with accessibility services at the university to ensure that classrooms are designed with inclusivity in mind – installing doors that are power operated and creating space for wheelchairs, while also providing a range of seat and table heights to accommodate additional needs.
“The idea here is you get to choose where you want to go in the room,” says Bailey.
While the TIL initiative only involves renovating classrooms on the downtown Toronto campus, U of T Scarborough and U of T Mississauga are taking part in the conversation while embarking on similar initiatives, says Bailey.
“Everyone is excited about what we're doing here and we're bringing the community together to work on this.”
Jul 4, 2019 | Campus
U of T hosts Trudeau, Ukrainian president for international conference on Ukraine’s future
Jun 28, 2019 | Campus
In photos: U of T shows its colours for Pride Month
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The deep insecurity of Murdoch press and Zio lobby over Palestine
Who knew that anti-Semitism was everywhere? Jews are currently hiding in their houses for fear of being attacked by crazed anti-Zionists.
Murdoch’s Australian newspaper wants to create an image of rampant anti-Israel sentiment everywhere because growing numbers of people are recognising the deep racism within Israeli society. The paper has been running a daily campaign for a while now claiming the Australian Greens are really the new Communists, secretly bringing Arab propaganda into the mainstream; the kind of message accepted by millions of Australians (who vote for the Greens). It’s like the crazy old soldier uncle banging on about the mad Japanese…back in 1944.
Today the paper leads with this hilariously “shocking” piece on the Greens talking about Palestinian human rights (what will come next, abiding by international law?):
Two Greens senators have publicly supported calls for Australian sanctions against Israel over the Middle East conflict, putting them at odds with party policy and their leader Bob Brown.
West Australian senator Scott Ludlam last year demanded an arms embargo on Israel, which he described as “a rogue state”, while South Australian colleague Sarah Hanson-Young addressed a rally where protesters called on Australia to sever ties with the Jewish state.
The stance by the two senators conflicts with Senator Brown’s assurance last week that his federal party was not anti-Israel and did not support the NSW branch of the party advocating sanctions against Israel.
The Coalition last night labelled the Greens “reds”, while the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council called on Senator Hanson-Young to visit Israel before jumping to conclusions.
Senator Brown yesterday refused to comment on the activities of his senators and directed The Australian to his party’s policy on Israel, which clearly advocated a peaceful two-state solution.
Foreign Editor Greg Sheridan, whose care of human rights can be determined by whether he’s been wined and dined by Western-friendly dictators, thinks the Greens are mad:
The depth and longstanding nature of the Greens’ visceral hostility to Israel reveals something very unpleasant about the nature of the Greens themselves.
They are essentially a party of extremists. Like most extremists operating in a democratic space, they try to garner support on broadly populist issues while still servicing their extremist activist base with extremist positions and campaigns.
The language of a number of the Greens senators about Israel – rogue state, apartheid, should be boycotted – is the language of political sectarianism and prejudice.
It is, of course, too much to expect that the Greens should actually display any knowledge of this subject, but are they aware of the rapid economic growth in the Palestinian West Bank territories?
Do they think this could be maintained in the face of widespread boycott of Israel?
Would the Greens wish to boycott the Israeli power station which provides electricity for Gaza?
Would the Greens like to boycott the Israeli hospitals that routinely treat patients from the West Bank?
Would the Greens like to boycott Israeli-funded schools in East Jerusalem?
Would the Greens like to boycott the Peres peace centre Aussie rules team that brings together Jewish Israelis and Palestinians to play Aussie rules in a single team?
Do the Greens propose that the government should ban the annual Israeli film festival in Australia?
Do the Greens support dialogue with every government in the world except the Israeli government?
The madness of the boycott policy is not an aberration by the NSW Greens. It reflects the political culture of the Greens.
The astonishing thing this time is that someone has actually called the Greens to account for that political culture.
And then the paper’s editorial continues the onslaught:
The Greens’ anti-Israel posturing is wrong and dangerous.
Anti-Americanism was a fundamental tenet of the Left in Australia and around the world during the Cold War and some of it continues to this day, often expressed through the proxy of antipathy towards Israel. This is the only plausible way to explain the foolish and dangerous anti-Israel posturing of the Greens, exposed in our pages again today.
For many years the Labor Party was forced to quash this sort of theatrical railing against Israel but it has been largely relegated to the past because leaders such as Bob Hawke, Kim Beazley, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard have demonstrated a solid commitment to the US alliance and a healthy respect for the democracy of Israel. Sadly, the Greens have been all too willing to take up the ground vacated by Labor’s lunar Left. Former NSW Labor premier Bob Carr warned about this trend recently, saying the conservationists in the Greens are being “overtaken by the hardline leftist Greens”.
Labor and the Coalition are longstanding, robust and bipartisan supporters of a two-state solution and harsh critics of the Hamas extremists. If the Greens are to be taken seriously as responsible contributors to federal governance they will have to develop a credible and consistent attitude to foreign policy rather than have senators and state MPs free-ranging. The Greens need to inform themselves and contribute to an intelligent debate.
This daily campaign against the Greens and its rational and sensible policy on the Middle East isn’t because Murdoch and his merry mates are feeling confident about Israel. It’s because they see world debate is shifting and less people buy the line that the Zionist state is a “democracy” – colonisation of land makes you anti-democratic by definition – and they want to make sure nobody speaks out of line here in Australia.
Mature people who believe in something welcome public debate. Israel isn’t a protected species, it’s a rogue state that occupies and kills Palestinians. That’s something to be rejected, but then again this is from a media empire who loves every Western-led war that targets Muslims.
Tags: Australia, Islam, Israel lobby, Judaism, mainstream media, Murdoch, Palestine, United States, Zionism
The Holocaust victims learn nothing
Obama had better watch his back
Don’t tell me the Zionist lobby hasn’t bought the entire US Congress
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You are here: Home / Media / Geist on Netflix: Our champion goes channel surfing
Geist on Netflix: Our champion goes channel surfing
By Frank Moher
Michael Geist is widely respected for his commentary on Canadian technology and media law, and rightly so. He’s been explaining complex matters in a straightforward way on his blog for a long time now, for the simple reason, apparently, that it serves the public good. He’s an open-source scholar; he’s our Cory Doctorow (though given the fact that Doctorow is Canadian-born, I guess he’s our Cory Doctorow too). And when Geist takes on the telcos, he becomes our David, slinging rocks at a phone system that’s still largely run by three big bullies.
Last week, though, he got down with the Goliaths, albeit a new set who have not yet reached full size. In a piece titled “It’s Time to Be Honest: Netflix Will Not Mean the End of Canadian Television,” which was itself a response to a Simon Houpt column in The Globe and Mail, “It’s time to be honest: Netflix is parasitic,” Geist argued that Netflix should not be forced by the CRTC to subsidize Canadian programming because competition between online video services will on its own lead to an increase in new content. To make his argument, Geist optimistically conjured up a world where the forthcoming streaming service Showmi, which was to have been a collaboration between the major Canadian media companies, will successfully compete with not only Netflix but also Amazon Prime and Hulu (click here to see how that’s coming along). And then he added: “. . . but the bigger source of revenue for new series is that streaming video services will compete for the right to add them to their libraries for streaming purposes.”
Say what? Compete to add Canadian series to their libraries? Netflix? Amazon? Competing to add “Mr. D”? Sure, they’ll buy it — Netflix in particular is the new vast wasteland, able to accommodate just about any old dreck. And yes, they’ll put a bit of money into a cheaply-shot series like “Trailer Park Boys.” But Canadian TV is liable to occupy the same filler-position on the American streaming services that it does on American networks, where shows like “Rookie Blue” are given brief, occasional life as summer replacement series. For all intents and purposes, they’ll be bumpers between whatever the new “Orange is the New Black” happens to be. And I say that as a guy who likes “Trailer Park Boys.”
Geist then proposed that the Netflix money would be too little to matter anyway. Canadian broadcasters must pay five per cent of revenues into the Canadian Media Fund, for use in indigenous production, and “the data shows that the Netflix contribution would be insignificant relative to the existing financing of Canadian productions. In fact, the largest single source of financing remains the public, which pays for the creation of Canadian content through tax credits and direct government contributions.”
Well yes, but how long is that going to last? Unregulated American streaming services pushing into Canada are a wet dream for both couch potatoes and neo-con governments — ones, for example, that would love to get rid of those tax credits and direct government contributions. Encourage Netflix et al. to fund the occasional low-rent Canadian series, even as they grow bigger and speed the collapse of those pricey traditional broadcasters and cable companies, and you can claim you’ve done your bit to preserve indigenous production and watch its infrastructure disappear at the same time. The Conservatives would love to see Netflix subsume the place of the CBC on Canadian TV screens (and computer screens, and tablets); Netflix doesn’t cost them a damn cent. And while Rogers Media better fits the corporate bill, its current multi-billion dollar, bet-the-house wager on “Hockey Night in Canada” is decidedly risky. If it doesn’t work, the new home of George Stroumboulopoulos and Don Cherry might not be around for much longer either.
For all his virtues, when Geist writes, he writes as a consumer. When he’s writing about the big bad phone companies, that’s a strength. But when it comes to creative industries, he’s just another channel surfer. He points to Vikings as an example of a Canadian co-production benefiting from streaming deals in Germany and the U.K. But Vikings was created by the British writer-producer Michael Hirst and filmed in Ireland; it’s about as Canadian as the hair in its Norse hero’s beard. If that’s the sort of CanCon we can expect in the future he’s extolling, we might as well abandon the concept now (though, per HBO Canada’s recent Alice Cooper documentary, perhaps we already have). “The opportunities presented by streaming revenues should excite television producers,” he writes, “because there is the potential for a broader array of content (the limits imposed by a broadcaster’s need to fill a schedule are gone) and public interest will be invariably linked to commercial success (make stuff people want to see and streaming companies will pay).” The first part of that neatly captures the potential of the streaming industry for Canadian producers; the second part guarantees that they will have to pump out yet more deracinated, de-Canuckized product to be players in it.
But the CRTC exists to make sure they don’t have to do that — or at least not just that. Michael Geist may regard that as intrusive. And those who say the CRTC is an anachronism in this digitally-unbound, 5000-channels-and-apps universe may be right. But if it is to go the way of the networks and the cable companies, there are some of us who would like to see it go down fighting.
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A Return of Devotion
by Kristi Ann Hunter (Author)
Haven Manor
"With her usual flair for nuanced characterization and an abundance of heart-tugging emotion, RITA Award-winner Hunter launches her new Haven Manor series with a beautifully crafted tale of love and faith."--Booklist on A Defense of Honor
Daphne Blakemoor was content living in her own secluded world for the last twelve years. She had everything she needed--loved ones, a true home, and time to indulge her imagination. But when ownership of the estate where she works as a housekeeper passes to a new marquis with an undeniable connection to her past, everything she's come to rely upon is threatened.
William, Marquis of Chemsford's main goal in life is to be the exact opposite of his father. Starting a new life in the peace and quiet of the country sounds perfect . . . until his housekeeper turns his life upside down.
Both Daphne and William have spent their lives hiding from the past. Can they find the courage to face their deepest wounds and, perhaps, forge a new path for the future together?
"In the second sterling addition to her Haven Manor series, following A Defense of Honor, RITA Award-winning Hunter gracefully fashions a quietly compelling story that deftly explores love, compassion, family, and forgiveness within the context of an impeccably rendered Regency setting."--Booklist
"Hunter continues to dive deep into the written world of nobility and their secrets in the second book of the Haven Manor series. . . . Sincere and genuine, the author skillfully incorporates wit and depth amid the intricacy of emotions in both the storytelling and the dialogue. What at first seems like a simple romance novel in fact blossoms into a profound story about finding the courage to forgive and to move forward."--Hope by the Book
"The conflicts and development of strong-willed characters form the core of this involving romance, highly recommended for fans of the genre."--Midwest Book Review
Kristi Ann Hunter, Author
Kristi Ann Hunter (www.kristiannhunter.com) graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in computer science but always knew she wanted to write. Kristi is a RITA Award winner, an ACFW Genesis contest winner, and a Georgia Romance Writers Maggie Award for Excellence winner. She lives with her husband and three children in Georgia.
View more by Kristi Ann Hunter
The Christmas Heirloom
An Uncommon Courtship
A Defense of Honor
Return of Devotion
Christmas Heirloom
Defense of Honor
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All posts tagged Maxim Mostov
The Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst (2008)
Furst has written 14 spy novels set in or around Eastern Europe in the late 1930s when the clouds of war were gathering over the continent. The last seven or so have appeared at nice regular two-year intervals, conform to a nice predictable formula and his readers can look forward to the usual predictable pleasures.
Hero There’ll be a central male protagonist – as the novels have gone by these have tended to become steadily posher, so this one is Jean-François Mercier de Boutillon, 46, whose ancient family long ago lost their noble title and vast lands, and so is now plain Colonel Mercier. Mercier fought and was wounded in the Great War, and then in the 1920 Russian invasion of Poland, alongside the rather better-known de Gaulle. He was given a medal by the Polish government and partly because of that has ended up serving as French military attaché in Warsaw. He is tall, dark and handsome, walks with a slight limp from a war wound, because of which he sometimes uses an elegant silver-topped cane – but he nurses a secret sorrow: his beautiful wife, Annemarie, died suddenly three years earlier of influenza (p.55). Luckily his height, good looks, aristocratic bearing and independent means have kept in a regular supply of young lovelies to console him. His daughter, Gabrielle, thinks he is irresistible (p.190).
Sex The male protagonist usually has an easygoing way with women and enjoys soft porn sex with at least one round-bottomed young lady during the course of the book. For example, after a tennis match at the country house of Polish aristocrat Prince Kazimierz, Mercier is in the shower when the door to the bathroom opens and the lovely Princess Antoniwa enters, lets her robe slip to the floor, before stepping into the steamy shower to join him. You can almost hear Je t’aime playing on the movie soundtrack as they enjoy literally steamy sex. Later, we are treated to a description of his initiation into the joys of mutual masturbation by an older cousin, Albertine, when he was a teenager (pp.121-124).
High society Prince Kazimierz. Princess Antoniwa. Country houses. Mercier’s own upbringing at boarding school, the huge family apartment in the snobby 7th arrondissement of Paris. Part of Mercier’s job is to attend cocktail parties given by the various embassies, meeting and remeeting the beau monde of Warsaw. ‘Daaahling, have another one of these simply delicious canapés.’
Espionage One of Mercier’s jobs is managing ‘agents’. The one who features in this book is a shabby German businessman, Edvard Uhl, who works in the giant Krupps arms manufacturers. He was picked up by one of Mercier’s ‘honey trap’ woman agents, and has now been blackmailed / seduced into travelling once a month to Warsaw where he a) has hot, giggling rumpy-pumpy with the supposed ‘Countess Sczelenska’ (real name Hana Musser, a half-Czech, half-German refugee from the ‘fulminous Nazi politics’ of the Sudetenland), and b) the following day meets Mercier to hand over blueprints and diagrams about German tanks, and receive a packet of collars in return. But Uhl is getting increasingly nervous…
Paris Furst has acknowledged his debt to Eric Ambler who wrote half a dozen spy thrillers set in Eastern Europe, actually during the last years of the 1930s, with brilliantly atmospheric evocations of Eastern and MittelEuropa. Following the master, his stories are set outside the Anglophone comfort zone of Britain or the USA, instead among the capital cities and fog-shrouded landscapes of Hungary, Turkey, Serbia, Romania or, in this case, Warsaw.
However, although the adventures often take place in remote parts of Eastern Europe, the texts’ centre of gravity is nearly always the European city Furst which lived in for years and where his heart obviously belongs – lovers’ Paris, the Paris where French movie producer Jean Casson, Hungarian exile Nicholas Morath, Russian émigré Ilya Serebin, and Italian foreign correspondent Carlo Weisz (the heroes of his previous novels) all have apartments regularly adorned by nubile young ladies, and where they depart from for foreign adventures before gratefully returning in various states of disrepair. Paris is the meta-location of these novels, thus Mercier feels ‘the Parisian mystique take hold of his heart: a sudden nameless ecstasy in the damp air’, as soon as he is back there (p.119).
Datestamps As usual the novel is divided into a handful of long parts or acts – in this case, four – each made up of numerous much shorter sections, often marked with a date stamp to give a sense of the urgent passage of time, of the ominous forward momentum of events. The earliest is 17 October 1937, the last one 9 May 1938.
1. Hotel Europejski
It is autumn 1937. Herr Uhl, happily married with kids, makes excuses to visit the factory down on the Polish border once a month but in fact pops over to Warsaw, checks into the Hotel Europejski and has championship sex with the plump, big-bottomed ‘Countess Sczelenska’. Colonel Mercia is French military attaché to Warsaw. We meet him playing tennis with the cream of Warsaw’s cosmopolitan high society at the rich country mansion of Prince Kazimierz.
Mercier is the ‘control’ of Herr Uhl, meets him in a seedy café in a working class quarter, pays him money, takes diagrams of German tank technology. Later Mercier packs night wear and a revolver and is driven by Marek, the loyal Polish chauffeur, down to Katowice on the German border where he and Marek crawl at night through the various lines of barbed wire, before a searchlight goes on and they have to shoot their way out and back to the Polish side. The tank traps which used to feature in these defences have been filled in: Why? To make them easier for tanks to cross. Why? When? Puzzling.
Uhl gets panicky on the train back into Germany and becomes convinced ‘they’ ie the Gestapo, are waiting for him at passport control. He dodges out of the queue waiting to hand over their passports, nips back under the train to steps down to the river and walks back to the previous station. But this suspicious activity was noticed and reported, a report which eventually percolates up to Sturmbannführer (Major) August Voss in local Sicherheitsdienst (SD) headquarters at Glogau. It takes them a while but his operatives eventually match the description of a pot-bellied businessman with a big knobby nose who behaved suspiciously with Uhl.
Thus, after Mercier’s next rendezvous with Uhl a month later, Mercier, leaving the rendezvous cafe separately, accidentally sees Uhl being forcefully chatted up by a stunning blonde and tails the pair back to a rent-by-the-hour hotel in the red light district. But when the blonde comes running downstairs ten minutes later, and is followed by a big goon carrying a package wrapped in bedsheets, Mercier intervenes, there’s a fight, the Krauts make off in a getaway car and Mercier unwraps the roped-up bedsheets to discover Uhl inside, almost dead. Not quite. He is spirited away to hospital.
In a different plotline – Mercier is invited to a diplomatic reception given to entertain businessmen from the French company Renault, who are trying to sell the Polish government armaments. His regular consort drops out and at suggests a replacement, the girlfriend of a Russian émigré writer (Maxim Mostov), the young and lovely Anna Szarbek, who works for the League of Nations as a lawyer. Guess what happens, go on, guess. Yes, they fall in love and thus begins a passionate love affair set against the looming threat of war!
Among Mercier’s routine chores are regular meetings with his opposite number, Colonel Anton Vyborg, who we’ve already met in Furst’s novels Dark Star and The Polish Officer, both set a few years later, after the German invasion of Poland in September 1939. In one meeting Mercier admires a map which Vyborg casually mentions was drawn up by Captain de Milja of the Geographical Section (p.222). Alert readers will remember that this same de Milja is the Polish Officer in the novel of the same name. If the reader had read either of those novels he would have a strong sense of the doom which all these characters are heading towards…
Mercier is reprimanded by the Ambassador for the diplomatic embarrassment of ‘the Uhl Affair’, and is recalled to Paris to explain.
2. On Raven Hill
Paris, where almost all Furst’s novels start and end. Mercier returns to the huge apartment in the 7th arrondissement and bumps into cousin Albertine, the one who initiated him into the joys of sex when he was an innocent 14-year-old. Now she is formal, polite, friendly – but with a teasing hint of flirtation…
Mercier has a formal interview with Colonel Bruner who reprimands him for causing a scene and losing an agent. Meanwhile, in Berlin, Sturmbannführer August Voss has his ear bitten off by his boss about the cack-handed fiasco with Uhl. Infuriated Voss had had one of his thugs identify who it was who interfered in the street, i.e. he has got Mercier in his sights.
In every single one of Furst’s novels he mentions the fictional Brasserie Heininger, the supposedly upmarket, must-be-seen-at Paris nightclub and restaurant. In Night Soldiers it was the scene of an exciting and thrilling shootout, when the Bulgarian head waiter was assassinated for interfering in politics by assassins who then shot the place up and the owners left one mirror, cracked by a bullet hole, in place as a memento, the table beneath it, table 14, quickly becoming the most fashionable one to dine at.
But whereas in Night Soldiers the actual event was part of a genuinely gripping narrative about the criminal and espionage underworld of Paris, repetition of this story has made it boring and banal, and it is now getting irritating (p.137). Mercier is taken to the Brasserie for lunch by Aristide de Beauvilliers, the intellectual on the French High Council for War who, of course, insists on sitting at the famous table and telling him the story of the bullet hole – yawn.
Mercier reports that Uhl was due to go watch German tank manoeuvres at a place called Schramberg. He’s been reading the German General Guderian’s book about tank tactics, Achtung – Panzer! He’s come to the conclusion that the Germans will attack through Belgium, north of France’s supposedly impenetrable Maginot Line. De Beauvilliers agrees but explains that the French Army is in the grip of old men who think they’re infallible. Pétain, hero of Verdun, has ridiculed the Ardennes theory, so it is squashed. Meanwhile, French politicians are so polarised that no decisions, no funding for the Army, is forthcoming. We readers know all this means France will be conquered in a matter of weeks by Hitler’s Blitzkrieg in June 1940.
Mercier returns to Warsaw. He attends another reception where he is anxious to see whether Anna Szarbek will attend. She does. His heart soars. Walking her back to her apartment they are caught in a sudden snowstorm and duck into a cinema where they end up snogging. He sees her to her door where she is charmingly shy and conflicted about whether they should see each other again. Women, huh?
In action mode, Mercier slips into civilian clothes, flies to Switzerland, is briefed by a useful fellow official at the French consulate there, given a pistol, maps, compass and then driven by a reliable local, Stefan, across the border to Schramberg. He makes his own way out to the test zone, hides and then observes the German tank manoeuvres for himself.
3. The Black Front
Mercier celebrates Christmas and New Year at his estate back in southern France. The loyal family retainers. The loyal hunting dogs. Mass at the local church with the surviving relations, including an irritating right-wing uncle. Then, gratefully, back to Warsaw. Mercier sends his report of the German tank manoeuvres to Paris. De Beauvilliers hints that it will be ignored by the foolish high command.
Mercier receives a clandestine plea from the two Russian diplomats who he’s always meeting at receptions, a Jewish couple, Viktor and Malka Rozen. They have been ordered back to Moscow. They know they will be interrogated and shot. They wish to defect. He checks with his superiors, then makes an appointment to meet them, but they don’t show.
In Paris Madame Dupin had told him about a League of Nations conference to do with laws surrounding national minorities and refugees. He immediately wonders whether Anna will be going and, if so, she will be free from the clutches of the Russian boyfriend. He arranges with his bosses to go, impatiently and excitedly boards the train and – lo and behold! – she is on it and – quelle surprise! – they are soon in her overnight compartment where he quickly finds out she has ‘small breasts in a lacy black bra’ (p.216) among other discoveries.
Back in Warsaw, Mercier returns to routine work: a letter from Uhl, now recovered, saying he is being sent to safety in Quebec, with a new identity and job. Meetings. Colonel Vyborg invites him to a private meeting and tells him he is under surveillance by people attached to the German embassy. Neither of them know they are thugs hired by Sturmbannführer Voss, the angry man humiliated in the Uhl fiasco.
One night there is a frantic beating at the door and it is Madame Rozen. This sparks the most exciting passage in the novel as she has fled the embassy, but her husband twisted an ankle and is in a park up the road. It is midnight. Mercier packs his Browning pistol and makes his way through the deserted streets, making the reader as tense as he is. He finds Rozen, becoming incoherent with the freezing cold, and supports him all the way back to his apartment, with one interruption. An angry man steps out to confront them but Mercier waves his gun and the man strolls away. From the description, the reader suspects it is Voss not anybody from the NKVD who might be tailing the Rozens.
Mercier calls the embassy and his people put in place a successful operation to exfiltrate the two Russians, his boss Jourdain, the embassy chauffeur Marek, a motorcycle guard, they drive out to a remote airfield where a plane arrives bearing Colonel Bruner, Mercier’s boss, all the way from Paris. The Rozens climb into it and it departs. Panic over. Mercier returns to his apartment for a well-earned kip.
Next night he entertains Anna to dinner and Furstian sex. She has moved out of the apartment she shared with the Russian writer. They are now definitely an item.
At a diplomatic dinner given by the Portuguese embassy, Mercier is surprised to find himself in conversation with the courtly old Dr Lapp, a German businessman assumed to have some part in the Abwehr or German intelligence. Very slyly he indicates that he is a true German patriot and not so keen on the present regime. Shall we meet again, somewhere more private? Mercier repeats the conversation to his boss who points out that he’s becoming quite the spymaster. It was the incident of saving Uhl from being abducted by the Germans; everybody heard about it and everybody deduced his role.
4. A Shadow of War
March 1938. Mercier, in his capacity as military attaché, goes on a typically boring trip to a Polish arms, armoured car and light tank factory, the Ursus Tractor Company in the suburb of Wola. Mercier leaves the factory after a long, exhaustive tour but his faithful driver Marek is not waiting as they’d arranged. Instead, out of the shadows emerge three menacing figures who, before, he can react, surround Mercier and start beating him up, whipping him with a horsewhip, punching and kicking to the ground. It’s looking bad for our hero when a shot rings out and the bad guys desist the beating and run off. The gun was fired by Marek the driver who comes running up to his boss and helps him to his feet. He describes how he’d parked a few streets away and had himself been approached by a thug who drew a gun. Being the sturdy dependable type he is, Marek simply shot this figure.
The reader knows the three assailants are Major Voss and two of his SD thug pals. Voss is very angry at Mercier for interfering in the abduction of Uhl, and blames him for his recent transfer to a small provincial town, Schweinfurt. This demotion was the last straw had determined him to travel to Warsaw with two drinking buddies and ugly bullies from the SD – Meino and Willi – fired up by fantasies of kidnapping Mercier and torturing him, maybe in front of his pretty girlfriend. They were met off the train and driven around by local German thug, Winckelmann, and this is the man who approached Marke threateningly and who Marek shot dead.
Safely back in the centre of town, Mercier is tended by Anna. A few days later he has the planned meeting with Dr Lapp. Mercier passes on the message he has been given by his bosses that Dr Lapp should travel to Paris and phone the number he hands him. He’ll be met by the sophisticated de Beauvilliers and discussion about recruiting him will proceed from there. But Mercier has his own agenda. Running like an unobtrusive thread has been gossip and speculation about a shadowy organisation that opposes the Nazis from within, in fact which originated within the Nazi party itself. Initially, there was a genuinely socialist wing of the party, which wanted to do away with big industrialists, redistribute wealth to the workers and so on. But Hitler needed rich backers and so, in the Night of The Long Knives in July 1934, he had most of the leaders of the Sturmabteilung (SA) murdered.
But some survived and went underground in what is rumoured to call itself the Black Front. Now Mercier asks Lapp about a name he has heard, a Halbach. Lapp is reluctant to speak, but eventually says, yes it still exists, in feeble shape. Halbach lives under a pseudonym in a Czech border town, writing anti-Nazi pamphlets.
Mercier plans what will be the final sequence in the novel. He gets funds from de Beauvilliers, and maps, and takes local trains to the little town where he confronts Halbach, saying he knows his real identity but – relax! don’t panic! – is offering him the chance for a new, faked Swiss identity, to escape before the Gestapo find him. He just needs his help tracking down another Black Front colleague, known as Hans Köhler. Halbach tells him that Köhler’s real name is Johannes Elter.
Mercier takes Halbach to Prague to get a new passport and identity, buys a decent second-hand car and drives the pair of them across the border, on a tense car journey all the way to Berlin, where Elter lives. They stay overnight in a rough brothel, visited by drunk SS men. Next day Mercier drives Halbach to the converted church where he knows he is part of a model railway club (!). Elter is shocked to see his old comrade. In private, Halbach explains that the Gestapo are moving in but that he, Halbach, has found a sponsor who can guarantee safety. All he must do is bring all the secret documents he can get his hands on from office I.N.6, the section of Military Intelligence dedicated to making plans against France, to a certain hotel the next day.
It’s a lot for Elter to take in but he handles Halbach’s passport, is shown the money, and promises to be at the bar the next evening. Halbach returns to Merciers car and they drive north for three hours to the port of Rostock where Halbach catches the ferry to Denmark, to be a free man, his job done. Mercier returns and checks into the grand hotel where, the next evening, exactly on time, Elter appears with a heavy briefcase. Mercier takes him up to his bedroom, hands him passport and cash. The pair stand in the darkened room. For a moment I thought the door was about to burst open and the Gestapo rush in but in fact Elter hesitantly says that, if there’s more money, he’s prepared to do this some more. Mercier, momentarily wrong-footed, quickly agrees. They part.
Mercier examines his haul. 73 documents ranging from the trivial to maps of the Ardennes with attack routes sketched. Next day he flies from Tempelhof airport to Le Bourget with the docs in a fake bottomed briefcase, and by taxi to the French High Command. Waits several days. When he is called in for an interview, his colleague de Beauvilliers offers him a job with his small intelligence unit in Paris. But his boss, Colonel Bruner, genial and pleased, congratulates him, confirms his promotion to colonel and then floats the theory that maybe the whole thing was a set-up: Halbach an imposter, Elter a fake, the documents a deliberate decoy, part of a canny plan to deceive the French.
Disgusted Mercier catches a cab back to the family apartment where cousin Albertine is getting drunk with Anna who he’s brought along for the trip.
The novel ends with a short paragraph explaining how, 24 months later, General Guderian did invade France through the ‘impenetrable’ Ardennes, to the north of the supposedly ‘impregnable’ Maginot Line, leading France to capitulate within weeks and establish the pro-Nazi Vichy regime.
Listing them makes you realise just how many interesting and credible characters Furst creates in each of his novels. The sheer number, and the complex ways they overlap and interact, feed into the larger webs and networks of characters which recur across the novels, themselves symbolic or embodying the complex web of diplomatic, espionage and intelligence manoeuvring across pre-war Europe.
Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-François Mercier de Boutillon, French military attaché to Warsaw.
Annemarie, his fragrant wife, who died three years earlier.
Gabrielle, lovely daughter number one.
Béatrice, daughter number two, living in Cairo.
Albertine, cousin who initiated him into the joy of sex.
Prince Kazimierz, member of Polish aristocracy.
the lovely Princess Antoniwa, ditto.
Edvard Uhl, businessman and industrial spy for Mercier.
‘Countess Sczelenska’, real name Hana Musser, refugee from the Sudetenland, honey trap mistress of Uhl.
Sturmbannführer (Major) August Voss, permanently angry head of the SD in Glogau, who is handed the report about the suspicious behaviour of Uhl on the train back into Germany, whose agents track him down and are about to abduct him from a Warsaw hotel when Mercier intervenes to rescue Uhl – leading to Voss being reprimanded – which leads to his vendetta against with Mercier.
Winckelmann, one of his thugs in Warsaw.
Meino and Willi, thuggish SD friends Voss travels to Warsaw with to beat up Mercier.
Marek, Mercier’s loyal embassy driver.
Wlada, Mercier’s skinny nervous housekeeper at his Warsaw apartment.
Anna Szarbek, lawyer for the League of Nations, who Mercier falls in love with.
Maxim Mostov, Russian émigré writer and journalist, who is upset when Anna leaves him for Mercier, and then is exposed, along with many others, by the intelligence handed over by the Rozens (see below) as a spy, and so deported from Poland back to the USSR.
Colonel Anton Vyborg, Mercier’s opposite number in the Polish military, with whom he has regular meetings, Vyborg featured in Furst’s earlier novels, Dark Star and The Polish Officer.
Captain de Milja of the Geographical Section of Polish Intelligence, mentioned in an off-hand reference by Vyborg, he was the lead figure in Furst’s earlier novel, The Polish Officer.
Jourdain, Mercier’s colleague at the French embassy in Poland.
The French ambassador to Poland.
Colonel Bruner, Mercier’s superior at the Quai d’Orsay back in Paris.
Madame Dupin, assistant director of Protocol.
de Beauvilliers, the 60-year-old intellectual on the French High Council for War, politely dismissive of the current French Army leadership under the hero of the Great War, old General Pétain.
Viktor and Malka Rozen, two Jewish Russian agents in Warsaw who Mercier helps to escape when their own government turns against them.
Colonel de Gaulle, Mercier’s contemporary at the St Cyr military college, and with whom he shared adventures as French representative to the army of General Pilsudski during the Russo-Polish war of 1920.
General Guderian, theorist of tank-led Blitzkrieg.
Stefan, drives Mercier from the French embassy in Switzerland across the German border to Schramberg, where Mercier observes Wehrmacht tank manoeuvres in the snow.
Dr Lapp, a German businessman who looks like Buster Keaton, is assumed to have some part in the Abwehr or German intelligence, who approaches Mercier at a diplomatic dinner, apparently offering to hand over intelligence.
Halbach, member of the underground anti-Nazi movement, the Black Front.
Elter, fellow member of the Black Front who Halbach persuades to smuggle documents out of the French section of German High Command headquarters in Berlin.
The Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst was published in 2008 by Weidenfeld and Nicholson. All quotes and references are to the 2009 Phoenix paperback edition.
BBC mini-series
The Spies of Warsaw was adapted by the BBC into a two-part mini-series for TV, snappily retitled Spies of Warsaw and starring a post-Dr Who David Tennant as the dashing Colonel Mercier.
The Spies of Warsaw on Amazon
Alan Furst Wikipedia article
Alan Furst’s website
Personal Tour: Alan Furst’s Paris
Guardian review by Campbell Stevenson
New York Times review by Alessandra Stanley
Achtung Panzer! by Heinz Guderian
Review of Blitzkrieg by Len Deighton
The Night Soldiers novels
1988 Night Soldiers – An epic narrative which starts with a cohort of recruits to the NKVD spy school of 1934 and then follows their fortunes across Europe, to the Spain of the Civil War, to Paris, to Prague and Switzerland, to the gulags of Siberia and the horrors of the Warsaw ghetto, in a Europe beset by espionage, conspiracy, treachery and murder.
1991 Dark Star – The story of Russian Jew André Szara, foreign correspondent for Pravda, who finds himself recruited into the NKVD and entering a maze of conspiracies, based in Paris but taking him to Prague, Berlin and onto Poland – in the early parts of which he struggles to survive in the shark-infested world of espionage, to conduct a love affair with a young German woman, and to help organise a network smuggling German Jews to Palestine; then later, as Poland is invaded by Nazi Germany, finds himself on the run across Europe. (390 pages)
1995 The Polish Officer – A long, exhausting chronicle of the many adventures of Captain Alexander de Milja, Polish intelligence officer who carries out assignments in Nazi-occupied Poland and then Nazi-occupied Paris and then, finally, in freezing wintertime Poland during the German attack on Russia.
1996 The World at Night – A year in the life of French movie producer Jean Casson, commencing on the day the Germans invade in June 1940, following his ineffectual mobilisation into a film unit which almost immediately falls back from the front line, his flight, and return to normality in occupied Paris where he finds himself unwittingly caught between the conflicting claims of the Resistance, British Intelligence and the Gestapo. (304 pages)
1999 Red Gold – Sequel to the World At Night, continuing the adventures of ex-film producer Jean Casson in the underworld of occupied Paris and in various Resistance missions across France. (284 pages)
2000 Kingdom of Shadows – Hungarian exile in Paris, Nicholas Morath, undertakes various undercover missions to Eastern Europe at the bidding of his uncle, Count Janos Polanyi, a kind of freelance espionage controller in the Hungarian Legation. Once more there is championship sex, fine restaurants and dinner parties in the civilised West, set against shootouts in forests, beatings by the Romanian police, and fire-fights with Sudeten Germans, in the murky East.
2003 Blood of Victory – Russian émigré writer, Ilya Serebin, gets recruited into a conspiracy to prevent the Nazis getting their hands on Romania’s oil, though it takes a while to realise who’s running the plot – Count Polanyi – and on whose behalf – Britain’s – and what it will consist of – sinking tugs carrying huge turbines at a shallow stretch of the river Danube, thus blocking it to oil traffic. (298 pages)
2004 Dark Voyage – In fact numerous voyages made by the tramp steamer Noordendam and its captain Eric DeHaan, after it is co-opted to carry out covert missions for the Allied cause, covering a period from 30 April to 23 June 1941. Atmospheric and evocative, the best of the last three or four. (309 pages)
2006 The Foreign Correspondent – The adventures of Carlo Weisz, an Italian exile from Mussolini living in Paris in 1938 and 1939, as Europe heads towards war. He is a journalist working for Reuters and co-editor of an anti-fascist freesheet, Liberazione, and we see him return from Civil War Spain, resume his love affair with a beautiful German countess in Nazi Berlin, and back in Paris juggle conflicting requests from the French Sûreté and British Secret Intelligence Service, while dodging threats from Mussolini’s secret police.
2008 The Spies of Warsaw The adventures of Jean Mercier, French military attaché in Warsaw between autumn 1937 and spring 1938, during which he has an affair with sexy young Anna Szarbek, helps two Russian defectors flee to France, is nearly murdered by German agents and, finally, though daring initiative secures priceless documents indicating german plans to invade France through the Ardennes – which his criminally obtuse superiors in the French High Command choose to ignore!
2010 Spies of the Balkans
2012 Mission to Paris
2014 Midnight in Europe
2016 A Hero in France
by Simon on July 29, 2016 • Permalink
Posted in Adventure, Books, Novel, Second World War, Spy novel, Thriller, War
Tagged 2008, Alan Furst, Albertine, Anna Szarbek, Annemarie, Brasserie Heininger, Captain de Milja, Colonel Anton Vyborg, Colonel Bruner, Colonel de Gaulle, Colonel Vyborg, Countess Sczelenska, de Beauvilliers, Dr Lapp, Edvard Uhl, Gabrielle, General Guderian, General Pétain, Hana Musser, Jean-François Mercier, Jourdain, Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-François Mercier de Boutillon, Malka Rozen, Marek, Maxim Mostov, Meino, Mercier, Prince Kazimierz, Princess Antoniwa, Russo-Polish war, Stefan, Sturmbannführer August Voss, The Spies of Warsaw, Viktor Rozen, Willi, Winckelmann, Wlada
Posted by Simon on July 29, 2016
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2016/07/29/the-spies-of-warsaw-alan-furst/
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All posts tagged Xavier March
Fatherland by Robert Harris (1992)
‘What do you do,’ he said, ‘if you devote your life to discovering criminals, and it gradually occurs to you that the real criminals are the people you work for? What do you do when everyone tells you not to worry, you can’t do anything about it, it was a long time ago?’ (p.213)
Harris went to Cambridge where he read English, was president of the Union and editor of the student newspaper Varsity. He joined the BBC, where he worked on its flagship current affairs programmes, Panorama and Newsnight. In 1987 he became political editor of the Observer newspaper. In the 1980s he wrote five factual journalistic books – about chemical and biological warfare, the Falklands War, Neil Kinnock, the Hitler Diaries scandal and a study of Mrs Thatcher’s press secretary. It is an exemplary career of its type.
Fatherland
In 1992 Harris took the publishing world by storm when he published his first novel, Fatherland, set in an alternative world where Germany has won the Second World War. The two big ‘divergence points’ in this version of history – i.e. where this version turned away from actual history – were that:
German armies cut off the Russians from their oil sources in the Caucasus and so were able to force them back to the line of the Urals, conquering Russian territory far beyond Moscow. In the novel this has given rise to a whole settler movement to encourage good Aryans to go and live in the vast new Eastern Empire, although fighting continues out on the remote border. Everyone knows the Americans are supplying money and weapons to the rump of the Russian army to allow them to fight on, and there are also dark rumours of ‘terrorist’ attacks on German settlers.
The Nazis realised in 1942 that the British had cracked their Enigma code and so issued an entirely new code machine to all their U-boats, which were then able to sink Allied convoys at will. Britain was eventually starved into submission, ‘Churchill and his gang’ forced to flee to Canada, and peace made with the Nazi-friendly King Edward VIII. With no ally left in Europe, America has no alternative but to make a grudging peace with Germany and turn its efforts to defeating Japan in the Pacific (which it does).
As a result of German victory:
Luxembourg had become Moselland, Alsace-Lorraine was Westmark; Austria was Ostmark. As for Czechoslovakia – that bastard child of Versailles had dwindled to the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia – vanished from the map. In the East, the German Empire was carved four ways into the Reichskommisariats Ostland, Ukraine, Caucasus, Muscovy. (p.201)
and Portugal, Spain, France, Ireland, Great Britain, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland have all been corralled by Germany into a European trading bloc under German control.
Map of the Greater German Reich 1964
Better quality but harder-to-read map of the Greater German Reich 1964
Xavier March
But all of this is old history to Xavier ‘Zavi’ March, ‘solitary, watchful’ (p.26), the world-weary Berlin cop – to be precise, a Sturmbannführer in the Kripo or Kriminalpolizei – who is the protagonist of this brilliantly gripping and disturbing thriller.
Like all fictional cops, March’s private life is a mess (his wife, Klara, has divorced him, taking his ten-year-old son, Pili, who has been taught to hate him as ‘insufficiently patriotic’) so now March inhabits a pokey flat in a squalid apartment block and lives only for his job. He doesn’t have a drink problem, which is a relief – but he does chain-smoke and he does worry about things.
The novel is set in 1964, over the five days between 14 April and the Führertag – 20 April – the day Germans (in this parallel universe) celebrate the birthday of Adolf Hitler. Not only that, but the newspapers are full of the impending visit of the US President Kennedy (in one of the many jokes that alternative histories allow, Harris makes this President Kennedy, the father of the one we know and love – the alleged crook and political fixer, Joseph Kennedy). Thus, like so many thrillers, Fatherland uses the build-up to big background events to crank up the tension in the main plot.
Like all good detective novels, it starts with a body, a man’s body is found in a lake in Berlin. After a lot of procedural work – visits to the gruesome autopsy, trips to the archives, calls to colleagues in other departments – March establishes that the dead man was a certain Buhler, a party official high up in the administration of occupied Poland early in the war. March discovers that Buhler had recently been in touch with two colleagues, Stuckart and Luther – but when March tries to track down these men he finds one is dead and the other missing.
Moreover, the investigation is only really getting going when March discovers it has been handed over to the Gestapo, who outrank his Kripo organisation and March is told to stand down. However, like every fictional investigator in every thriller ever, March is a conscientious maverick and so disregards orders to abandon the investigation. He goes poking around Buhler’s lakeside house, finding odd clues – for example Buhler had lost a foot in the war, blown off in a mine, and he discovers the plastic prosthetic foot in mud by the lake shore… Why would a man strip off for a swim in a freezing lake on a rainy Berlin day?
He then tracks down the feisty American woman journalist who reported Stuckart’s death to the authorities, one Charlie Maguire. She tells him Stuckart phoned to make an appointment to see her, but when she arrived at his apartment it was to find his blood-soaked corpse next to a gun and a suicide note.
Against his better judgement March finds himself confiding in Charlie, to the extent of persuading her to go back to the apartment with him and his trusty partner, Jaeger, to see if there are any clues. Here March’s superior police skills are demonstrated when he finds a hidden safe the ordinary cops had missed; they are just examining the contents when several cars screech up outside; it is the fearful Gestapo. Bundling Charlie out a back way, March and Jaeger remain to take the heat and they are arrested by the Gestapo and thrown into the cells. Anything could happen, including the torture they all know exists, but which is rarely discussed.
Instead, after stewing the whole night, the following morning they are driven back out to Buhler’s mansion by the lake where the two cops realise there is a power struggle going on over the investigation. On the one hand is Obergruppenführer Odilo Globocnik, universally known as Globus – the bull-necked sadist General in the Gestapo. March knows from a witness that Globus was seen at the lake where Buhler’s body was later found. He suspects he also had some part in Stuckart’s murder. Is Globus killing these men and making it look like suicide? But why? Facing him is wiry little Artur Nebe, the thin, shrewd head of the Kripo (or the Oberstgruppenführer, Reich Kriminalpolizei). Nebe listens to Globus rant about March disobeying orders to desist investigating, but out-ranks him and decides to give March the benefit of the doubt.
Globus marches March, Jaeger and Nebe down into Buhler’s cellar, where his men have broken through a panel to reveal a secret room absolutely stuffed with priceless European works of art. Triumphant, Globus asserts that Buhler, Stuckart and Luther were in cahoots to smuggle art works from the East, where Buhler worked, then out of the country to make themselves rich. When they realised their scam was discovered they killed themselves in shame. That’s it.
Outside Nebe takes March aside and puts him in the picture, telling him that Globus has reported him – March – to the terrifying Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Gestapo, and requested that March be immediately reposted from Berlin to some crappy provincial police force. What? Why? Because this affair is about much more than stolen art: March is blundering into something much bigger than he realises. Globus knows that March knows that Globus is somehow implicated, and therefore tried to persuade Heydrich to dispose of him. But Nebe convinced Heydrich to give March four days’ grace. Solve the case, Nebe tells March: report back to me everything you discover, and I may just be able to save your career.
Thus Harris deftly turns up the pressure on our man, who now has the threat of his career being ended and a swift exile to somewhere ghastly out in the occupied East, all set against the tension throughout Berlin rising with the approach of the Führertag – and the impending visit of the US President, fraught with its own geopolitical ramifications. (It is testimony to Harris’s complete grasp of this parallel reality, that the implications of Kennedy’s visit are worked out so thoroughly; as a colleague tells him, it must indicate the war in the East is going really badly if Germany is prepared to cosy up to its long-term antagonist in the so-called ‘Cold War’, the United States, in what contemporaries are referring to as a new spirit of ‘détente’ – all this being, of course, a wry rethinking of the actual Cold War we know in our reality, the one between the US and the victorious USSR, and the well-known détente of the 1970s between them.)
Harris’s style
This book is written with great panache and style. It feels as if Harris has learned from all previous thriller writers, plus his own journalistic success, to deploy a prose style which is really taut and compressed. No matter how many times I had to put it down to go to work or cook dinner or other distractions, I was able to pick it up and within a few pages be back in its world, thoroughly gripped.
The comedy of alternative history
Alternative history is a recognised academic field now. I first heard of it via Niall Ferguson’s 1997 book, Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals. ‘Normal history’ is already full of irony, unintended consequences, comedy and farce. But alternative histories give the author the opportunity for commentary on the ‘real world’ at any number of levels, from the profoundly challenging, scholarly and intellectual, to the witty and waspish. Thus, in Harris’s universe, where Germany won the Second World War:
Cecil Beaton did some charming photo portraits of the Führer
four young lads from Liverpool are doing concerts in Hamburg which the authorities disapprove of (p.198)
The American president is a Kennedy, but not the stylish young dude we knew, rather his piratical anti-semitic father, Joseph
there is an SS Academy in Oxford (p.183)
there was a Treaty of Rome (as in the real world) but this one tied unoccupied Europe into a trading zone dominated by Germany
These comments are often very witty, but their overall effect is quite a profound one – for they raise the question of how much the deep currents of history can be altered or derailed? Would Germany have dominated the continent of Europe, have created a European Union, would German industry, German cars and TVs still have dominated our shops, would German tourists have hogged the best loungers and German football teams kept on winning the Euro and World cups, regardless of who won the war? Would the Beatles and 1960s protest have happened regardless of the outcome?
Are there patterns of social and economic and technological change which have their own ineluctable logic, which are unavoidable no matter what the outcome of wars, the decisions of politicians, the coming and going of revolutions and restorations? Is there a kind of fatality about the overall direction of human history, unaffected by even the largest social or political events?
As the novel progresses March and Charlie become an item, falling in love and sleeping together, as they try to figure out what’s going on, each with their own perspective – March the conscientious cop, Charlie the American journalist looking for a scoop, both realising there’s something fishy about Globus’s art smuggling story.
As part of their deal, Nebe allows March out of the country for 24 hours, to fly to Zurich because he has established that Luther, the only one of the trio unaccounted for, flew to Zurich a few weeks earlier. And in Stuckart’s apartment, in the hidden safe, he discovered the number and key of a Swiss safety deposit box. Putting 2 and 2 together, he speculates that Luther flew out on behalf of all three to get something – what?
But when he and Charlie open the box in the Swiss bank they find nothing in it but an admittedly invaluable painting by Leonardo da Vinci. So is it all about art? Nothing but a big art smuggling scam? But in passport control back at Berlin, it dawns on March that Luther might have deliberately left something to be found as ‘lost luggage’, planning to reclaim it later, not knowing he would have to go on the run. Acting on this hunch he pulls in a favour from an old buddy in the airport staff and wangles hold of a stylish briefcase left behind after the flight which he and Charlie know Luther took back from Zurich, and with Luther’s initials. Must be his.
What they find inside comes a bombshell to them and the reader. Iit is a big collection of documents which the novel reprints verbatim over the next thirty pages or so. Most of them (as the afterword explains) are actual Nazi documents from the war detailing the construction of the Holocaust death camps, documents recording the high-level policy decisions to solve ‘the Jewish problem’ once and for all, a decision which led to mountains of bureaucratic paperwork organising the supply of bricks and mortar, new railway schedules of trains bringing Jews from the West to occupied Poland, to build the gas chambers and to supply the Zyklon B nerve gas, in an organised, psychopathic, industrialised attempt to murder all 11 million of Europe’s Jews.
For the next forty or fifty pages Charlie and March read through the documents and try to come to terms with what they’ve discovered. In their version of history, none of this is known. Germans sort of suspect it and sort of make jokes about it, but it is nowhere written down or recorded, the Jewish inhabitants of March’s flat before him – the Weiss family – have been obliterated from the record and so have all the other Jews of Europe.
This is a truly terrifying vision in a number of ways.
1. In this version of history the Germans succeed in wiping out the Jews. Completely. Not leaving 2 or 3 or 4 million to survive and go on to build their own independent state. None. None survive. Complete annihilation. While Charlie and March are getting used to the scale of this monstrous deceit and historical genocide, the reader is grappling with the notion that an entire race or nation can be wiped out and – it have no results. Europe carries on. People moan about the weather and their work and their wives and no-good children. The Jews are gone as if they had never been.
2. On another level, the reader is also rereading some of the actual key documents from the creation of the Holocaust, an experience which makes you feel traumatised, disgusted and shattered with despair all over again.
One of the documents is a five-page description of the visit Luther himself made to Auschwitz in his official position as a senior Nazi in Poland. He records the detraining of 60 wagons full of Jewish men, women and children who have been packed into the cattle trucks for four days and nights, during which many have died. He records the separation off of the fit men who will be worked to death, and the immediate hussling of the remaining sick, women, children and elderly direct to the gas chamber where they are told to strip off for delousing, and then coralled into the chamber and the door locked. Then the scientists arrive with the canisters which they empty into the chutes which go down into the floor of the chamber. Here the mauve crystals of Zyklon B are oxidised to become the fatal nerve gas which then pours unstoppably up through the grilles in the floor, creating an indescribable frenzy as the people inside scrabble over each other in futile attempts to escape.
These five pages alone overwhelm much of the rest of the book. It is difficult to continue reading and impossible to read the rest of the book in the previous frame of mind.
The documents indicate that there was a ring of some 14 Nazi officials who all worked in the same part of the Death camp division. March makes enquiries and discovers that one by one they’ve been dying off, killed in road accidents, mysterious explosions, ‘suicides’. Someone is killing off these final witnesses to the atrocity. It must have been this which prompted Stuckart, Buhler and Luther to panic and go for the documents in Zurich which they hoped to use as some kind of passport to escape.
While March had been away investigating Charlie received a phone call from the missing Luther. He wants to meet next day at the central station. He wants Charlie’s help to be smuggled out of Germany and to America, along with the documents. Next day March parks nervously across from the station steps and watches Charlie and her friend from the US Embassy wait tensely. Finally a furtive figure emerges from the crowds and moves towards them, is only meters away when… His head explodes, vaporises, demolished by the high velocity bullet of a professional assassin. Spattered with blood, in shock, Charlie is hussled into March’s car which takes off with a squeal of breaks.
Now they realise their phone calls and apartments are bugged. March takes Charlie to a hotel whose owner owes him a favour and they hide out in a small attic room. Here March supervises Charlie’s bid to flee Germany. They dye her hair to look like a young woman who was killed in an unrelated car accident earlier in the week and whose passport March has swiped from his offices for just this purpose. He packs her off in a hired car, telling her to drive south and cross the border into Switzerland. He promises to meet her there, but they both know he won’t. By now the atmosphere of doom lies too heavy over the story.
Instead March drives out to the crappy suburb where his ex-wife lives to see his son for one last time, to try and make amends for being such a bad dad. But, in a bitter twist of the knife, it turns out that Globus and his thugs have suborned his son to act nice and keep his Daddy busy until they can surround the house. They burst in, arrest March and take him to Gestapo headquarters, where Globus plays very bad cop, alternating with a more ‘civilised’ Gestapo interviewer, Krebs, who gives the bloodied March cigarettes, and tries to wheedle the truth out of him. Both want to know a) what was in the case and b) where’s the girl?
The torture scenes go on over many pages describing days and nights of pain and delirium, climaxing in the scene where several thugs man-handle March’s right forearm onto the table and Globus, with all his strength, swings a baseball bat down on to March’s hand, reducing it to a mangled pulp of bloody flesh.
Finally, the authorities try a con trick: Krebs, the more sympathetic of the interrogators, arrives with a sympathetic doctor, gives him painkillers and clean clothes, then takes him by car, ostensibly to another dungeon. But then he stops the car on a pretext and takes March down into some old war ruins. Here the sly Nebe steps out of the shadows, in a scene straight out of a hundred movies. Nebe says that he and Krebs have both been scandalised and disgusted by what March has told them about the Holocaust. They have always hated the Gestapo and their brutal methods, and so they want March to successfully smuggle the documents out of Germany, to be published in American, so the rest of the world can see what criminals are running the regime. They push him towards a car in which is waiting his fat partner, Jaeger. ‘Where shall I take you?’ Jaeger asks.
But even through the blood and pain and drugs of his torture wounds, March realises it is a trap. They are hoping he will take them to the girl and to the remaining documents. So he draws a gun on Jaeger and with his last energy orders him, not to drive south to where he hopes Charlie is crossing the Swiss border, but East, across the border into what was once Poland, driving for hours and hundreds of kilometers until he forces Jaeger to drive off the Autobahn onto the local road and then onto local farm tracks which lead out to the empty acres of derelict industrial land where once stood the appalling death camp Auschwitz, which he has read so much about.
During his torture by Globus, the fat sadist had gloated that, yes, he, Globus, took part in the extermination of the Jews and yes, he is proud of it, but that the world will never know. All the evidence has been destroyed. All the Jews are gone, all the buildings were destroyed long ago, and all the paperwork was burned like the bodies. Almost the only evidence left in the world is the documents Buhler and Stuckart and Luther had squirreled away in their Swiss bank as insurance in case their art smuggling was discovered. And now, Globus gloats in March’s blood-sodden face, all three are dead, and soon they will have the girl and the briefcase and all March’s clever investigation will have been for nothing.
So March has come to the bare barren land which was Auschwitz for two reasons: to decoy the Gestapo he knows must be following him, as far away as possible from his lover and her desperate mission to inform the world; and to see for himself whether it’s true: whether there really is no record, no sign, no testimony at all to the greatest horror in human history.
Thus he is still stumbling across the grass and mud looking for evidence, for bricks or doors or metal frames, for anything – when he hears the cars arrive, and the helicopter which had been following them from Berlin coming up overhead, carrying the Gestapo with their machine guns. ‘Drop your weapon,’ they shout through loudspeakers, so March turns and cocks his Luger, determined not to be taken alive.
And that’s the end. March is obviously going to die, but what about Charlie? Will she escape to Switzerland? Will she get anyone to publish the documents? Will anyone believe her? And will the US government – which has invested so much in President Kennedy’s visit to the old enemy, Nazi Germany, and its new policy of détente – allow this major geopolitical initiative to be derailed by a hysterical woman with her grotesque and improbable claims?
The novel leaves you reeling not only with the horror of the secret at its heart, but also at the seeming hopelessness of exposing the truth in a world where everyone has a vested interest in keeping it hidden.
Fatherland by Robert Harris was published by Hutchinson books in 1992. All quotes and references are to the 1993 Arrow Books paperback edition.
Fatherland on Amazon
Robert Harris’s website
Robert Harris Wikipedia article
Robert Harris’s thrillers
1992 Fatherland – Berlin 1964. Germany won the Second World War. Xavier March is a cop in Berlin, capital of the huge German Empire. The discovery of a corpse in a lake leads him on an increasingly nail-biting investigation into the dark heart of the Nazi regime and its most infamous secret which, in this terrifying parallel universe, has been completely buried.
1995 Enigma – Bletchley Park 1943, where a motley collection of maths, computer and coding geniuses are trying to crack the Germans’ Enigma codes. The hero – weedy geek Tom Jericho – discovers that the gorgeous, sexy woman who seduced him and then as casually dumped him a month later, is in fact a spy, stealing top secret intercepts from the base for her Polish lover. Or is she?
1998 Archangel – Dr Christopher ‘Fluke’ Kelso, a populist historian of contemporary Russia, stumbles across one of the secrets of the century – that the great dictator Josef Stalin had a son, brought up by communist fanatics in the forests of the frozen north, who is now ready to return to claim his rightful position as the ‘Great Leader’ and restore Russia to her former glory.
2007 The Ghost – The gripping story is told in the first person by an unnamed narrator, a ghost writer called in to complete the memoirs of former UK Prime Minister Adam Lang (a thinly disguised portrait of Tony Blair) after the previous writer died mysteriously. Marooned with the politico and his staff in a remote mansion on the coast of New England, the ghost writer slowly uncovers a shattering conspiracy.
2011 The Fear Index A series of bizarre incidents plague American physics professor-turned-multi-billionaire hedge fund manager, Alex Hoffmann. Slowly it becomes clear they are all related to the launch of the latest version of his artificial intelligence program – VIXEL-4 – designed to identify and manage anxiety and fear on the financial markets, but which has gone significantly, bewilderingly, beyond its money-making remit.
2013 An Officer and a Spy A long, absorbing fictional recreation of the Dreyfus Affair which divided France at the end of the 19th century, seen from the point of view of a French army officer who played a key role in the prosecution of Alfred Dreyfus as a German spy, and then slowly, to his horror, uncovers the evidence which proves that Dreyfus was innocent all along, and his trial one of the great miscarriages of justice in history.
by Simon on February 8, 2016 • Permalink
Posted in Novel, Second World War, Thriller, War
Tagged 1992, Adolf Hitler, Artur Nebe, Berlin, Fatherland, Hitler, Nazi, Robert Harris, Xavier March
Posted by Simon on February 8, 2016
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2016/02/08/fatherland-robert-harris/
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Live coverage: Rosetta’s final hours
30 September 2016 Stephen Clark
Live coverage of the final descent of Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft to the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
Inside the magazine
Find out more about the Rosetta mission in the October issue of Astronomy Now. Get your copy in the shops or order online. Or subscribe today and never miss an issue.
comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
ESA's Rosetta mission
Rosetta mission ends with comet touchdown
Europe’s Rosetta mission ended its 12-year mission Friday with a slow-speed belly-flop on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, concluding an interplanetary odyssey that gave humanity a first close-up introduction to a class of objects which has stimulated imaginations for millennia.
Rosetta camera captures Philae’s descent to the comet
13 November 2014 Astronomy Now
Rosetta’s OSIRIS camera witnessed Philae’s descent to the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
New contact with intractable comet lander
11 July 2015 Stephen Clark
Europe’s Rosetta comet probe re-established momentary contact with the Philae lander late Thursday, renewing hopes of starting up the craft’s research instruments after two weeks of radio silence dampened the moods of scientists.
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Royal Review: April 16-23
Men's Lacrosse (7-6, 3-3 Landmark)
The University of Scranton men's lacrosse team went 1-1 during the week and clinched a playoff berth with its 7-6 victory at Susquehanna on Saturday, April 22.
The Royals opened the week with a 12-4 loss to Drew at home on Wednesday, April 19. Junior attackman Patrick O'Rourke (Floral Park, N.Y./Chaminade) had a goal and two assists, and senior midfielder William Joyce (Bethesda, Md./St. John's) had two assists.
Scranton came through with a clutch win at Susquehanna, rallying from 4-1 and 5-2 deficits by holding the River Hawks to one second-half goal. Freshman Quinn Killeen (Berkeley Heights, N.J./New Providence) scored the game-winning goal and finished with two goals and an assist. Junior midfielder Conor Carey (Long Beach, N.Y./Chaminade) also had two goals and an assist.
Senior goalkeeper Alex Malecki (Hillsborough, N.J./Hillsborough) came through with a career-high 14 saves, including nine in the second half. Junior midfielder Adam Drury (Chatham, N.J./Chatham) also had a strong game, winning 11 of 15 faceoffs.
The Royals will be the no. 4 seed in the upcoming Landmark Conference playoffs. They will find out the opponent and location for their semifinal when the regular season concludes on Saturday, April 29.
Scranton returns to action on Saturday, April 29, when the Royals host Washington & Jefferson in a non-conference game on Senior Day at 1 p.m. at Fitzpatrick Field.
Baseball (12-17, 1-11 Landmark Conference)
The University of Scranton baseball team went 2-3 during the week with the three defeats coming in Landmark Conference play.
The Royals opened the week with a 9-4 win at Lebanon Valley on Monday, April 17. Freshman righty Bobby Hegarty (Wantagh, N.Y./Wantagh) threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings of relief to pick up his first carer victory. Senior second baseman Patrick O'Dell (Phoenixville, Pa./St. Joseph's Prep) finished with four hits, including a triple, two RBIs, two runs and a stolen base. Junior designated hitter Chase Standen (Newtown Square, Pa./St. Joseph's Prep) also had four hits, including a double, scored a run and drove in a run.
A day later, Scranton rolled to a 15-10 victory over William Paterson at PNC Field, home of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, the Triple-A affiliate of the New York Yankees. The Royals built a 15-2 lead after four innings and didn't look back. Junior center fielder Tommy Trotter (Cranford, N.J./Cranford) led the Scranton offense with three hits, including a triple, three runs, three RBIs and a stolen base. Senior catcher Dan Hansen (Helena, Mont./Helena) had three hits, including a double, drove in two and scored once, and junior second baseman Brad Schneider (Ambler, Pa./LaSalle College H.S.) had three hits, two runs and an RBI.
On Saturday, April 22, the Royals dropped both ends of a Landmark Conference doubleheader against Drew, 1-0 and 17-5, at PNC Field. In the opener, Hegarty was the hard-luck loser, allowing just four hits and a walk while striking out three.
In the second game, Scranton received two hits, two RBIs and a run from sophomore first baseman Ian McIntosh (Newtown, Pa./LaSalle College H.S.). Mergel added a hit and an RBI, and Trotter, O'Dell and Standen each had a hit and scored a run.
On Sunday, April 23, the Royals dropped the final game of the series against Drew, 7-2, at PNC Field. Senior left fielder Anthony Simone (Wayne, N.J./Wayne Valley Senior) reached a milestone in the defeat, recording the 100th hit of his career with an RBI single in the bottom of the seventh. McIntosh had a solo home run to highlight the Scranton offense. Trotter finished with three hits and freshman first baseman Kevin Haag (Ossining, N.Y./Ossining/Bridgton Academy) had two hits.
The baseball team is back in action on Monday, April 24, when the Royals travel to Dallas, Pa. to take on Misericordia in a non-conference game at 4 p.m.
Men's Golf (12-4)
The University of Scranton men's golf team went 4-1 and competed in the first round of the Glenmaura National Collegiate Invitational last week.
The Royals opened the week with victories over Marywood (320-346) and Keystone (320-344) on Monday, April 17, at Glenmaura National Golf Club. Senior Tyler Huggins (Harleysville, Pa./Souderton Area) tied for medalist honors with a 7-over-par 78 on the 6,308-yard layout while sophomore Kyle Hayes (East Norwich, N.Y./Oyster Bay) was a shot behind at 79.
A day later, the Royals suffered a narrow 306-307 defeat to King's at Glenmaura National. Four Royals broke 80 on the day, led by junior David Harris (Clarks Summit, Pa./Abington Heights), who shot a career-low 74 on the par-71, 6,308-yard layout. Huggins carded his sixth round in the 70s this season and third in the last four with a 6-over-par 77. Sophomore Erik Ridley (Allentown, Pa./Allentown Central Catholic) also shot 77, and fellow senior Steven Lambrinakos (Stamford, Conn./Trinity) added a 79.
On Thursday, April 20, Scranton defeated Wilkes (304-335) and King's (304-322) at Huntsville Golf Club. Lambrinakos led the way with a career-low 75 on the 6,680-yard, par-72 layout. Scranton (12-4) also received a pair of 76s from Hayes and fellow sophomore Andrew Milisits (Northampton, Pa./Allentown Central Catholic). For Milisits, that was also a career-low round. Freshman Patrick Budicini (Ridgefield, Conn./Ridgefield) also shot 77, matching his career low.
Scranton placed two teams in the Glenmaura National Collegiate Invitational, and they placed sixth and seventh after the opening round on Sunday, April 23, at Glenmaura National. Huggins continued his strong spring with a career-low 4-over-par 75 on the par-71, 6,308-yard layout to lead the "B" team into sixth place. Hayes added a 76, and seniors Kevin Nardella (Spring Brook Township, Pa./North Pocono) and Lambrinakos added a pair of 82s to round out the "B" team scoring.
Junior Michael Boland (Dallas, Pa./Holy Redeemer) shot 5-over 76 to lead the "A" team while playing in his first event of the spring. Ridley finished with 77, and Milisits and Budicini both shot 84 to round out the team's top four.
The Royals complete the Glenmaura National Collegiate Invitational with the final round on Monday, April 24, at Glenmaura National Golf Club.
Women's Golf (8-2-1)
The women's golf team battled Marywood to a 3-3 tie in match play on Monday, April 17, at Glenmaura National Golf Club.
Freshman Brianna Stein (Basking Ridge, N.J./Ridge) earned a hard-fought 2-up victory to pace the Royals. Sophomore twin sisters Maggie McDonough (Dunmore, Pa./Holy Cross) and Maura McDonough (Dunmore, Pa./Holy Cross) also posted wins, with Maggie winning 6-and-5, and Maura scoring a 3-and-1 victory.
Women's Lacrosse (9-4, 4-2 Landmark)
The University of Scranton women's lacrosse team split a pair of Landmark Conference matches on the week, dropping a tough 13-12 decision at Drew on Wednesday, before coasting to a 17-8 win against Susquehanna on Saturday at home.
In the Drew loss, the host Rangers went on a three-goal rally late in the contest to take a one-goal lead, then held off the Royals over the final five minutes of action to take the match by one. Freshman Shannon Warburton (Wantagh, N.Y./Wantagh) led the Royals' offense in the win, scoring four goals. Junior Morgan Windisch (Williston Park, N.Y./Sacred Heart Academy) added three goals for a hat trick in the defeat, as well.
In the Susquehanna match, Scranton put away Susquehanna in the first half, as 10-0 scoring run to end the period put the Royals up for good at 12-2 entering intermission. Senior Meghan Kerr (Warwick, N.Y./John S. Burke Catholic) and sophomore Christine Olert (Katonah, N.Y./Somers) led the offense, each scoring four goals. Kerr also added three assists in the win, while Olert added one assist, as well.
Five of the 17 goals that Scranton scored on the day were assisted by sophomore Katie Rogers (Huntington, N.Y./St. Anthony's). The five-assist game for Rogers was a career-best for the sophomore, as she has recorded nine assists over the last two matches for Scranton.
The University of Scranton women's lacrosse team returns to action on Tuesday, traveling to Cabrini for a non-conference match. Things are slated to get underway at 6 p.m.
Softball (16-13, 3-7 Landmark Conference)
The University of Scranton softball team played six games on the week, going 4-2 overall.
First on Tuesday against Wilkes, the Royals split a non-conference doubleheader, taking game one, 3-1, before falling in game two, 5-4. In the first game win, freshman Megan Zinn (Bridgewater, N.J./Bridgewater-Raritan) and sophomore Molly Hampsey (Tunkhannock, Pa./Tunkhannock) had RBI hits with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning to lift Scranton to the win. Junior pitcher Morgan Rentzheimer (Laurys Station, Pa./Parkland) tossed a complete game, allowing just one run on nine hits, while striking out four in the win.
The victory was also the 100th of head coach Mia Collarini Wascura's career, as well. In game two, Wilkes came back to take a one-run win over the Royals. Hampsey and senior Shannon Stricker (Morrisville, Pa./Conwell Egan) were both 2-for-4 in the loss, while fellow senior Angelica Titor ((Bellerose Village, N.Y./Floral Park Memorial) was 2-for-2.
On Thursday against Penn State-Hazleton, the Royals made quick work of the visiting Lady Lions, winning both games of a doubleheader in five innings (9-1, 11-3). Stricker had a big day, going a combined 6-for-7 with five RBI.
On Sunday at Drew, the Royals rolled to another five-inning victory in game one, 13-2. Scranton then dropped game two, 3-2, in eight innings. In the first game, Scranton blew open the game in the third and fourth innings, scoring five runs in each frame to extend what was a 3-0 lead entering the top of the third to a 13-1 lead entering the fifth. At the dish, eight of the nine Scranton batters had multiple hits as the Royals smashed 19 hits in the win. Leading the way was freshman Megan Zinn (Bridgewater, N.J./Bridgewater-Raritan), who went a perfect 4-for-4 with four RBI and three runs scored.
In the pitching circle, Rentzheimer coasted to her 11th victory of the year (she is now 11-5 on the season), as she allowed two runs on five hits over five innings of work, while striking out six.
In game two, Scranton battled back from a 2-0 deficit, scoring runs in the sixth and seventh innings to tie the game and send it to extras. But, Drew won it in the eighth, scoring a single run to take the win.
The University of Scranton softball team returns to action on Monday, hosting Misericordia in a non-conference doubleheader at the Jessup Youth Sports Complex. First pitch is set for 5 p.m.
Men's Tennis (8-7, 6-1 Landmark)
It was a busy week for the University of Scranton men's tennis team, as the Royals wrapped up their regular season going 3-1 in four Landmark Conference matches.
The week kicked off with a big 6-3 win over Drew on Wednesday on the road. In doubles play, Scranton got off to a good start, winning two of the three matches contested to go up 2-1 into singles. Taking the first win of the day for Scranton was the team of sophomores Christian Aksu (Exton, Pa./West Chester East) and Brian Harkins (New Fairfield, Conn./New Fairfield) rolled to an 8-2 win at number three. The Royals also got a win at number one, where junior Keller McGurrin (Clarks Summit, Pa./Scranton Prep) and sophomore Alexander Ochalski (Hopewell, N.J//Hopewell Valley Central) took an 8-4 victory.
In singles, Scranton only dropped matches in the top two spots in the lineup, sweeping matches in the three through six spots, all in straight sets. At number three, senior Matt Prendergast (Flanders, N.J./Mt. Olive) was a 7-6 (7-0), 6-4 winner, which was followed up by a 6-2, 6-1 win by sophomore Charles Swope (Malvern, Pa./Great Valley) at number four. In the number five spot, Harkins rolled to a 6-1, 6-0 win, while Aksu collected the final win of the day for Scranton at number six, 6-2, 6-0.
The Royals then coasted to back-to-back 9-0 victories over Moravian on Thursday on the road, then Susquehanna on Saturday at home, pushing their record to 6-0 in the Landmark Conference for the year. The 6-0 start for the Royals marked the best start for the Royals in program history in the Landmark Conference (Scranton joined the conference at its inception in before the 2007-08 academic year).
The week, however, ended with a 6-3 loss to Juniata on Sunday in the battle of the two top teams in the Landmark Conference standings. Before the match, as Michael Pottieger (Wyomissing, Pa./Wyomissing Area) and Prendergast were honored before the match began.
Scranton will now move onto the Landmark Conference playoffs, which will begin Tuesday, May 2. The Royals will be no worse than a two-seed in the tournament, meaning they will host a semifinal match in Scranton on the 2nd.
Women's Tennis (7-7, 4-2 Landmark)
The University of Scranton women's tennis team went 2-1 on the week, falling to Drew on the road on Wednesday (7-2), before knocking off Susquehanna on Saturday (9-0) and Juniata on Sunday (8-1).
After losing to Drew, Scranton bounced back in a big way against Susquehanna on Saturday, blanking the visiting River Hawks in the win. Scranton began the afternoon sweep by winning all three matches in doubles play, all in convincing fashion. At number one, junior Julia Frattaroli (Newtown, Conn./Newtown) and Nastashia DeNunzio (Dunmore, Pa./Dunmore) coasted to an 8-1 victory. At number three, junior Katherine Loughlin (Binghamton, N.Y./Seton Catholic Central) and sophomore Elyse Smilnak (Holidaysburg, Pa./Holidaysburg) recorded an 8-4 win, while at number two, Scranton completed the doubles sweep with an 8-3 win by senior Emily Machado (Fishkill, N.Y./Our Lady of Lourdes) and sophomore Emilia Jakubek (Honesdale, Pa./Scranton Prep).
In singles play, it was more of the same domination for Scranton, as the Royals took all six matches contested.
Becoming two-time winners on the day were Frattaroli at number one (6-3. 6-1), DeNunzio at number two (6-0, 6-0), Machado at number three (6-2, 6-1) and Jakubek at number four (6-0, 6-0). At number five singles, freshman Sakira Fussner (Kempton, Pa./Kutztown Area) was a 6-2, 6-2 winner, while at number six, fellow freshman Katerina Ringes (Sandy Hook, Conn./Immaculate) completed the sweep for Scranton with a 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 victory.
Scranton then posted another dominating win on Sunday against Juniata, only dropping a singles match on the day against the Eagles. Before the match, Machado was honored on Senior Day, then won at both doubles and singles on the afternoon.
The University of Scranton women's tennis team returns to action on Thursday, traveling to Moravian for their Landmark Conference regular season finale. First serve is set for 4 p.m.
This Week in University of Scranton Athletics
Men's Golf – Glenmaura National Collegiate Invitational, final round, Moosic, Pa. (9 a.m.)
Baseball – at Misericordia (4 p.m.)
Softball – vs. Misericordia, DH (5 p.m.)
Softball – at Marywood, DH (3 p.m.)
Women's lacrosse – at Cabrini (6 p.m.)
Softball – at Muhlenberg, DH (3 p.m.)
Baseball – vs. Penn State-Abington (4 p.m.)
Women's tennis – at Moravian (4 p.m.)
Men's lacrosse – vs. Washington & Jefferson, Senior Day (12 p.m.)
Baseball – at Moravian (1 p.m.)
Softball – vs. Moravian, DH (1 p.m.)
Women's lacrosse – vs. Stockton, Senior Day (3 p.m.)
Baseball – at Moravian (12 p.m.)
--ROYALS--
June 16, 2017 Carlesimo Golf Tournament & Award Dinner Online Silent Auction Now Open
May 18, 2017 Scranton Finishes Second In Final Landmark Conference Presidents' Trophy Standings
May 18, 2017 University of Scranton Wall of Fame Nominations Now Being Accepted
May 17, 2017 The University of Scranton Places Six On Landmark Conference Spring All-Sportsmanship Team
May 17, 2017 Sixty-One Scranton Student-Athletes Earn Landmark Conference Spring Academic Honor Roll Accolades
May 15, 2017 The University of Scranton Honors Senior Student-Athletes At Annual Luncheon
May 15, 2017 University Names Athletics Campus in Honor of President Kevin P. Quinn, S.J.
May 8, 2017 Royal Review: May 1-7
May 1, 2017 Royal Review: April 24-30
April 25, 2017 Final Round Of Voting For The Top Spring Sports Moments In Landmark Conference History Continues Until Friday
April 24, 2017 Royal Review: April 16-23
April 10, 2017 Royal Review: April 3-9
April 4, 2017 Students Turn Out To Celebrate D3 Week At The University of Scranton
April 3, 2017 Royal Review: March 27-April 2
April 3, 2017 University of Scranton Student-Athletes Spend Time Giving Back
March 31, 2017 University of Scranton Athletics To Celebrate NCAA Division III Week
March 27, 2017 Royal Review: March 20-26
March 17, 2017 Four Scranton Student-Athletes Named To Landmark Conference All-Sportsmanship Team
March 16, 2017 Thirty-Nine Scranton Student-Athletes Named To Landmark Conference Winter Academic Honor Roll
March 13, 2017 The University of Scranton To Add Track & Field In 2017-18
March 13, 2017 Royal Review: March 6-12
March 10, 2017 Scranton Moves Into First Place In Landmark Conference Presidents' Trophy Standings
March 6, 2017 Royal Review: February 26-March 5
March 2, 2017 University Breaks Ground At South Side Athletics Campus
February 27, 2017 Watch The Men's And Women's Basketball NCAA Tournament Selection Shows Today
February 27, 2017 Royal Review: February 20-26
February 16, 2017 Wall of Fame Class of 2016 To Be Inducted Saturday
February 13, 2017 Royal Review: February 6-12
February 7, 2017 Men's Basketball, Men's Swimming & Diving In The Running For Top Landmark Moments
February 6, 2017 Royal Review: January 30-February 5
January 31, 2017 Vote For The Top Moments In Landmark Conference Winter Sports History
January 30, 2017 Royal Review: January 23-29
January 17, 2017 Royal Review: January 9-15
January 9, 2017 Royal Review: January 2-8
January 3, 2017 Royal Review: December 17-January 1
December 6, 2016 University of Scranton Announces Wall of Fame Class of 2016
December 5, 2016 Royal Review: November 28 - December 4
December 2, 2016 Scranton In Second Place In Presidents' Trophy Standings After Fall Sports Season
November 28, 2016 Royal Review: November 21-27
November 21, 2016 Klingman To Be Honored During Tuesday's Basketball Doubleheader
November 15, 2016 Fifty-Four Scranton Student-Athletes Named To Landmark Conference Fall Academic Honor Roll
November 14, 2016 Royal Review: November 7-13
November 14, 2016 Six Royals Named To Landmark Conference All-Sportsmanship Team
November 7, 2016 Royal Review: October 31 to November 6
October 31, 2016 Royal Review: Oct. 24-30
October 24, 2016 Royal Review: October 17-23
October 13, 2016 Travel Alert: Central Scranton Expressway To Close This Weekend
October 12, 2016 Final Call: Help Select The Landmark Conference's Top Fall Sports Moments
October 11, 2016 Royal Review: October 3-9
October 4, 2016 The University of Scranton Announces $14 Million Renovation of South Scranton Athletic Fields
October 3, 2016 Royal Review: Sept. 26-Oct. 2
September 26, 2016 Royal Review: Sept. 19-25
September 16, 2016 University of Scranton and Landmark Conference Continue Focus On Sportsmanship in 2016
September 12, 2016 Royal Review: Sept. 5-11
September 6, 2016 Royal Review: Aug. 29-Sept. 4
August 8, 2016 The University of Scranton To Add Women's Golf In 2016-17
July 21, 2016 Nominations For University of Scranton Athletics Wall of Fame Now Being Accepted
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volume_up Screen Reader
School Education Department
Government of West Bengal
Minister's Desk
Circulars & Memos
REPORTS & PUBLICATION
Act &Rules
School Service commission
Incentives and Various Schemes
Text Books are distributed free of cost to all the students of Class Pre-Primary to XII reading in Govt. / Govt. Aided / Govt. Sponsored Schools throughout the State of WB.
In the year 2018, total 8,74,92,944 number of Text Books have been distributed to the students of class Pre-Primary to class XII (8,14,98,744 no. for class Pre-Primary to class X and 59,94,200 no. for class XI & XII).
Exercise book is very much important as it acts as a primary record of students' learning efforts. It is helpful to copy down school work and notes. That is why a student is in need of separate exercise book for each subject.
Realizing this necessity, West Bengal Government has taken a good initiative to provide exercise books to all students of classes V-XII through School Education Department.
In order to fulfill this objective, 3,40,33,866 exercise books have already been distributed among the students reading in classes V to XII.
Distribution of school bags to all the students of upper primary level is a new initiative. School bags have been distributed to 57,05,161 no. of students of class V-VIII in the year 2018.
Black school shoes distributed to all students of primary level, adding to a total of 51,00,000 students from classes I-V who were benefitted from this scheme.
A school uniform teaches students to dress smartly and take pride in their appearance. Perhaps, most importantly, students don't have to worry about peer pressure when it comes to their clothes.
School uniforms are made compulsory for all students as it helps lessen social conflicts within the school. Irrespective of their financial condition, all the students of class-I to VIII are provided two sets of school uniforms which creates a congenial atmosphere in the schools.
School Education Department has provided uniform to all students of all classes from class I to VIII. Presently 1,07,03,171 students have already received their uniform in 2018.
Cooked Mid-Day-Meal Programme in Schools
Cooked Mid-Day Meal Programme is one of the most important flagship programme in the country. Originally, this programme covered the children studying in Primary schools (Class: I-V) and later it has been extended to the Upper Primary stage of education (Class: VI-VIII). It covers the Govt., Govt. aided, Local Body schools besides the children studying in Madrasah, NCLP, SSK, MSK etc.
CMDMP, 2006 seeks to address two of the most pressing problems for the majority of children in India, namely, hunger and education by:
Improving the nutritional status of children in classes I – VIII in Government, Local Body and Government aided schools etc.
Encouraging poor children, belonging to disadvantaged sections, to attend school more regularly and help them concentrate on classroom activities.
Providing nutritional support to children of elementary stage in drought-affected areas during summer vacation.
Additional objective is :
Encouraging poor children, belonging to disadvantaged section, to attend school more regularly and help them concentrate on classroom activities.
Promoting regular school attendance and in that respect Mid-Day-Meal contribute not only to right of food but also to right of education.
Helps to undermine caste prejudice, by teaching children to sit together and share a common meal.
Reducing gender gap in school participation.
With decentralized system of cooking through SHGs and community participation, MDM also provides the local economy and local women with a new economic activity.
A source of economic support for the poorer sections of the Society and also an opportunity to impart nutrition, education to children.
Food norms under National Programme for MDM in School :
The Food norms would be as under :
Quantity Per Meal
Primary students
Upper Primary & NCLP students
1. Food-grains (Rice) 100gms 150gms
2. Pulse 20gms 30gms
3. Vegetables (leafy also) 50gms 75gms
4. Oil & Fat 5.0gms 07.5gms
5. Salt & Condiments As per need As per need
Components of National Programme for MDM in Schools :
Cooking Cost :
Assistance of cooking cost has been provided by the Govt. of India and State Govt. The rate of cooking cost from 1st April, 2018 onwards is as follows :
Total cost per meal
Central state sharing 60:40
Central contribution
State contribution
Primary Rs.4.35 Rs.2.61 Rs.1.74
Upper Primary & NCLP Rs.6.51 Rs.3.91 Rs.2.60
The cooking cost would include the cost of pulses, vegetables, oil, fats, salt& condiments and fuel.
Food-grains (Rice) :
Rice is allowed by the Govt. of India @ 100gms per child per school day for Primary students and @ 150gms per child per school day for Upper Primary & NCLP students. Rice is lifted from the FCI godowns at districts. The supply of food-grains will be of best available quality or at least of Fair Average Quality (FAQ).
Honorarium to cook-cum-helper :
Payment of honorarium to cook-cum-helpers under CMDMP was made earlier from State Budget @ Rs.600/- per month per school. From December, 2009, Govt. of India decided to pay honorarium to cook-cum-helper @Rs.1000/- for each cook-cum-helper and the expenditure towards the honorarium was shared between the Central and the State on 75:25 basis. At present from July 2016 the expenditure is being shared between the Central and the State on 60:40 basis.
The sharing pattern is as under: -
Total honorarium for one cook-
cum-helper for one month
Central share
State share
Rs. 1,500/- Rs. 600/- Rs.900/-
Rs. 400/- (as per norms) Rs. 500/-
(additional given by the State Govt.)
Honorarium to cook-cum-helpers is paid for 10 months in a Financial Year.
Engagement of cook-cum-helper for this programme :
One cook-cum-helper may be engaged in a school under MDM programme having 25 students, two cook-cum-helpers for schools having 26 to 100 students and one additional cook-cum-helper for every additional of up to 100 students.
Kitchen Devices :
Assistance for procurement of kitchen devices for CMDMP programme was provided by every 5 years @ Rs.5000/- per school.
Recently, it has been decided to revise the existing norms of assistance of kitchen devices by linking them to the enrolment in the schools as follows:
Enrolment slab
Unit cost of Assistance in Rs.
(Central state sharing 60:40)
Up to 50 10,000/-
51 to 150 15,000/-
151 to 250 20,000/-
250 and above 25,000/-
Transportation Assistance :
The Govt. of India allows maximum Rs.1,500/- per MT as transportation assistance for transportation of food-grains to school end. Payment of transportation cost is to be made as per existing PDS rates and distance of school from the FCI godown.
Construction of Kitchen-Cum-Store :
Since inception, the Central government as well as State Government sanctioned Rs. 60,000/- per unit for construction of Kitchen-cum-Store under this programme.
As per new pattern 20sq.meter plinth area has been taken as base for construction of kitchen-Cum-Store having upto 100 students. For every additional upto 100 students additional 4 sq. meter plinth area will be added. The minimum allowable amount for construction of Kitchen-cum-Store is Rs.2,00,000/- per school for normal zone. Rs. 2,50,000/- and Rs. 3,00,000/- may be allotted for saline zone and hilly areas respectively.
It has been decided to provide assistance of Rs. 10,000/- for repairing of Kitchen cum stores constructed 10 years ago on 60:40 sharing basis between Centre and State.
MME Fund :
Central assistance is provided to State for Management, Monitoring & Evaluation (MME) of this programme @ 2.7% of total assistance of the recurring central assistance.
A notice board is to be erected in front of each and every school under CMDMP for displaying the following particulars:
Total number of students taking meals.
Number of days and time when meals are served.
Quantity of Rice to be supplied.
Weekly menu.
Name of cooking agency.
Name of the BDO, with phone number.
Name of the concerned Sub-Inspector of schools with phone number.
For Emergency health contingency plan is to be proposed & for this phone no. of the concerned (nearby) (a) Health center (b) BMOH (c) Superintendent of the Hospital (d) SI of School (e) Ambulance (f) Police Station (g) Fire Services are to be printed on the wall.
Any other matters.
Incentives for Children with Special Needs (CWSN)
School Education Department takes initiative in connection with the identification and proper education / training of the CWSN along with the normal children in regular mainstream education system. The Dept. has the following activities in this regard:
Assessment Camps for CWSN
Distribution of aids and appliances/ Need based equipments/ ICT support
Escort Allowance
Transport Allowance
Corrective Surgery
West Bengal Swami Vivekananda Merit cum Means Scholarship is given @ Rs. 12000/- per year to the students who score more than 75% marks in the Madhyamik Pariksha and High Madrasha Final Exam. whose family income is below Rs. 250000/- per year.
Felicitation of Rank holders in MP, HS, CBSE (Class X & XII), ISCE, ISC, WBJEE
It has been rightly said that 'A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work'. That is why Government of West Bengal has decided to felicitate the students who excelled and achieved wonderful results in the Board exams with their inspiring performance.
This year 255 students have been felicitated by the Government of West Bengal. These students are the rank holders in MP, HS, CBSE (Class X & Class XII), ISCE, ISC and WBJEE. Not only this, 699 students are selected to receive Rs. 10,000 to pursue their higher studies.
ACT & RULES
Bikash Bhavan, 5th & 6th floor DF Block,
Sector-1, Salt Lake City, Kolkata,
West Bengal 700091
contacteportalwb@gmail.com
Working Hour: 10:00 A.M - 6:00 P.M
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All efforts have been made to make the information as accurate as possible, Govt. of West Bengal or National Informatics Centre (NIC), will not be responsible for any loss to any person caused by inaccuracy in the information available on this Website. Any discrepancy found may be brought to the notice of Govt. of West Bengal or NIC.
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West Bengal Board of Primary Education
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Heritage & History, history
by Richard Wyatt April 8, 20132:48 pm
A sign of the times.
Just make out where the C&A discs were.
The recently uncovered old ‘C&A’ stones discs that were positioned above the store when it traded in the High Street opposite the Guildhall, have now been removed as work speeds up to transform this retail unit into its latest regeneration as a T.K. Maxx store which is due to open early next month.
The ‘Company’ to come!
I wonder if anyone has a picture of the C&A store when it was trading here?
Meanwhile the means of leaving your mark may have changed over the years but there is nothing new about graffiti damage.
‘Ancient’ graffiti beside the Kennet and Avon canal.
Two examples close together in physical distance along the tow-path of the Kennet and Avon canal – as it passes through Sydney Gardens – but separated by the centuries.
Modern damage.
The carved versions go back to the mid 1800’s. The aerosol version – with no artistic ability involved – are examples of recent damage.
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Windows 8.1 to go RTM in “late August”
OEMs will be getting the free Windows update in less than two months.
I hate Windows 8 it's the worst thing ever. Anyone who says otherwise is paid by Microsoft.
i love Windows 8 it's the best thing ever. Anyone who says otherwise is just a luddite.
There you go, no need for any other comments.
mattholimeau
Please help me out - RTM? All I could think was "read the ------- manual", but there's a letter missing. Is it "release to market"?
Yagisama
Tribus: Irvine, CA (formerly Vault Dweller, Arsclan: Space Goat)
If MS has some kind of special pricing like they did with Windows 8 before it was released I might go for it this time since I missed out earlier.
mattholimeau wrote:
Release to manufacturing.
Vault Dweller wrote:
dagamer34
Tribus: Houston, Texas
I'm wondering how long we are actually going to continue to have boxed software and the term RTM will be outdated.
Kuro san
Tribus: San Jose
dagamer34 wrote:
Fairly certain that even when boxed software goes the way of the dodo, the term RTM will stick around, much like how every smartphone has a picture of a telephone handset despite none of us having seen such a mythical beast apart from possibly in a museum for the past, oh, 10-15 years?
Herpaderp
I am just so sick of hearing about windows 8 and 8.1. I don't care about it. I don't want it on my computer. I don't care about whatever new features and enhancements they put it on it. I don't even care if they give me back my start menu. Just stop talking about windows until you've got info for what's happening with 9.
Last edited by Herpaderp on Mon Jul 08, 2013 11:27 am
Herpaderp wrote:
I am just so sick of hearing about windows 8 and 8.1. I don't care about it. I don't want it on my computer. I don't what ever other features and enhancements they put it on it. I don't even care if they give me back my start menu. Just stop talking about about windows until you've got info for what's happening with 9.
You can always stop reading the threads with Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 in the title and posting in the comments threads.
fitten wrote:
I have stopped reading the articles, I just wanted to let the people at ars know that I am done with it.
robododo
Kuro san wrote:
Where I work, software only goes to "the cloud". We actually use RTO (Release To Operations) for releases.
Even so, some people will say "RTM" because they worked so damned long on boxed software Old habits die hard, I guess.
DrPizza
Account Banned
We don't care. Ars Technica is a technology news site, and Windows 8 and 8.1 are unambiguously on-topic.
DrPizza wrote:
Cool, thanks. It's always nice to know somebody doesn't care what you think.
Jagster
As if anybody cares about what you do.
PervertRyan
Cool, thanks. It's always nice to know you somebody doesn't care what you think.
↓ Moderation: (show post)
I'm sorry that he wasn't able to make you feel like the unique special little snowflake that you are.
⇒ Please read our policy on trolling. Questions about this moderation must be directed to our moderation team.
Last edited by continuum on Mon Jul 08, 2013 2:31 pm
mod edit: trolling
This is all I see when you post:
Herp, herp herp. Derp herp derp. Derp!
I'm not sure what other response you were expecting. Do you seriously think that Ars should ignore important tech news just because you, personally, don't care about it?
GILDude
For quite a while the term RTW (which started as Release To Web, then morphed to Release To World) has also been used. You are right that boxed software was the original use for RTM. It is also used for "Released to hardware manufacturers to get their systems ready". But RTW is probably a better term for most software these days.
Bad Monkey!
RTM has less to do with physical copies of software and everything to do with the software being released to OEMs for inclusion in their products.
Kazgrel
Despite my personal disdain for Windows 8, I still check in regarding updates to it in hopes they decide to unfuck their OS (for desktop use at least). Wishful thinking, yes. Don't see the point of QQ over a tech site posting tech news. If you don't care, like others said, don't click on the article.
Honestly, in my imagination I kinda have this image of a few department heads discussing the plans for upcoming stories. I can see them deciding to skip a story about 8.1 going RTM because people stop reading them since nobody cares.
Looking at the comments so far in this story, I guess people don't agree with me, but whatever. I was just trying to register my opinion.
Solidstate89
Succinctly summed up my friend.
SunnyD
Tribus: HSV
After taking a stab at it (I waited for the Win8.1 preview to see if the new features helped any before trying to make a rational judgement on Win8 as a whole), I really think that Microsoft has lost its identity with Win8.whatever in general when it comes to desktop computing. I know they're trying to consolidate their user experience, but when it comes to business and professional use this new UI is a complete step backwards (imho). We've gone from a fairly useful true multitasking "windowed" environment where I can see all that I want/need to to an environment where the focus is one app at a time, or at best maybe two or three with a user experience which seems the mantra is "Let's see how much real estate we can waste on your monitor with large swaths of empty solid color that serves no purpose all the while confusing the hell out of you by forcing you to flip back and forth between two distinctly different user interfaces/UI paradigms as you go."
There, I've said my piece. Downvote away!
Last edited by SunnyD on Mon Jul 08, 2013 11:59 am
onlysublime
can't wait! I've been holding off on installing the preview because when RTM comes out, you'd have to reinstall your apps and programs.
but you can jump from 8 to 8.1 RTM directly without reinstalling.
BWinmill
The comments section is intended for comments about the content of the story, which is probably why you're being moderated down to the land of fire and brimstone.
Is your opinion on the value of a story important? In aggregate with other readers, I'm confident that it is. It is almost certain that Ars collects statistics on how many people read which articles in order to decide which stories are a priority and which aren't. Individually, you opinion is as worthless as anyone elses because one reader doesn't make or break a site.
In a case like this, the best way to send Ars a message is to simply avoid reading the article. In more complex instances, you'd probably want to write to Ars staff directly. It is rarely appropriate to comment in the comment section on such matters.
gdinero
Do you make similar posts in the comments thread for each article on Ars that you don't care about or have no interest in?
onlysublime wrote:
I'm left with the weird sensation of, "can wait!" It's weird because I have Windows 8, accept it for what it is, and it's a free update. On the other hand, it just doesn't seem to have much new to offer if you're working on the traditional desktop all of the time. (Windows 8 did have quite a few extras to offer for traditional desktop users, so it was a far better upgrade in my opinion.)
jmshub
At least in Microsoft parlance, RTM is the difference between Microsoft shipping the product, and general availability. Typically, when RTM occurs, it is still awhile before you can walk into a store and find a device or PC with the most updated software available.
potato44829
Tribus: In my underground layer, waiting for Austin Powers.
jmshub wrote:
I assume that's because PC makers want to make new computers with 8.1 and then push those instead of updating already-made ones?
Jagster wrote:
I don't think that a useless comment gives you the right to troll somebody. OK, so his comment was bad and didnt contribute. That doesn't mean you should make another one.
zarmanto
Tribus: Around the corner from the 7/11
i love Windows 8 it's the best thing ever. Anyone who says otherwise is just a luddite. ...
Since I don't particularly like Win8, but I'm reasonably certain that I've seen worse before... I guess that means that I fall somewhere in the middle... a Luddite who is paid by Microsoft? Except I don't recall getting my paycheck, so something must be amiss in Microsoft's payroll department...
Omoronovo
I am a little disturbed by how quickly this is going from its current release (the preview, launched june 26/27th) to an RTM nary 2 months later.
It has a LOT of the same regressions Windows 8 previews had over windows 7; handle leaking in audio drivers, network adapters from Intel, Marvell, Realtek and Atheros do not initialise properly when returning from sleep states, making a double reboot necessary (since the hybrid shutdown magic that lets it boot faster does not fix them and requires a second reboot), and worst of all is the WDDM 1.3 drivers that cause 3d applications to crash when they are restored from being minimized.
These are almost all driver-related bugs, but it worries me that it took device manufacturers close to a year to fix these when Windows 8 was in development, how can Microsoft expect them all to be on-board in less than 2 months? the fact that these are regressions to early Windows 8 development is worrying as well, I have no idea how loosely cobbled together the Windows 8 support was if it is broken in the exact same way by relatively minor kernel changes in Windows 8.1.
I want to point out that I am incredibly enthusiastic about technology in general, as most of us here on ars are. I expect there to be bugs, and that's par for the course for getting to test pre-release software. I genuinely love Windows 8, I just hope that Microsoft is not compromising on the technical superiority Windows 8 had over Windows 7 (in terms of under the hood technology) in order to undo some of their UI shenanigans due to user outcry.
Korgoth
I love that they are going to do yearly free updates now. It's like Android, except you actually get the update.
Korgoth wrote:
Well, whilst that's what they are currently planning on doing, it's not necessarily set in stone. This (Windows 8.1) release will be the first iteration on this; depending on how Windows 8.1 is perceived by businesses, and it's uptake success, it may be tweaked to an 18/24 month cadence instead.
In the end, Microsoft does have to listen to the people that buy it's software, and it's really up to them whether this succeeds. I may need to point out my previous post where I highlight driver issues, for the yearly server updates this is an even greater concern since stability is far more important in that space.
Ninhalem
Tribus: The Atomic City
For people running nVidia cards and Windows 8.1, you need to update your drivers to 326.01. Otherwise you're going to go through a lot of login crashes before figuring it out.
If you're referring to Windows Blue: every article about Blue that I've read seems to suggest that the updates will be "free or cheap". Ergo, it sounds like they're trying to move to a market strategy more closely matching Apple's $20-$30 yearly OS X releases, rather than the iOS free releases.
In any case: regardless of whether you're talking about Windows or Mac OS X or iOS or Android, (or any other software product in existence, for that matter) there's never a guarantee that future updates will support older hardware, even if the current product does support that hardware. (I will agree that Android is one of the most cited offenders in this respect, however.)
Tribus: The beautiful Pacific Northwest
Unless you are actually employed by MS, you'd want to check with Accounts Payable, as they would be the ones responsible for cutting a check to you.
Entegy
Tribus: Montreal, QC
Doctor Hoot wrote:
This isn't the mobile industry. There's no ifs ands or buts. All Windows 8 and Windows RT machines are getting the 8.1 update and that's final.
RTM means the code is final and is given to OEMs to get their new hardware ready and update drivers for their current machines if they want.
Windows 8 always struck me as beta, especially in RT - far too many situations where it was unclear which "experience" was needed to do a particular piece of work or make a configuration change. I would argue that 8.1 suffers from some of the same schizophrenia (do I really need two flavors of IE on the same box?) but at least the configurations have been harmonized to the point that it feels consistent.
Unlike some others, I don't take it personally when Microsoft is trying to innovate - good on them. This release shows that they're willing to back that up with a development cycle that won't leave you in the lurch for too long, which is refreshing.
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Post-apocalyptic salvation —
Did Fallout 76 launch too early or just in time to be saved?
Why do some games survive rough launches and others explode on the launchpad?
Kyle Orland - Jun 4, 2019 4:58 pm UTC
154 with 92 posters participating, including story author
You won't find many human NPCs in the wasteland, but there are plenty of deadly robots.
Country railroads, take me home...
Fallout 76 is full of mutant monstrosities.
What did that poor radstag ever do to you?
For bigger baddies, you might need some help taking them down.
Appalachia is full of gorgeous views like this one.
Looks like someone missed their turn.
Late-game content will eventually let players drop nukes onto the map, because things weren't quite irradiated enough.
Fallout 4's Red Rocket gas stations are back.
The terror that flaps in the night.
Vault 76 is home sweet home.
There's a famous quote around the game industry often attributed to legendary Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto: "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad." That may have been true when he said it, but it seems a little outdated in today's "launch now and patch it later" game industry.
I've been thinking about this a lot since listening to an IGN interview with Bethesda's Todd Howard yesterday about what he admits was a "bumpy" rollout for Fallout 76 last year. In the interview, Howard acknowledges it was a "very difficult development on that game to get it where it was," noting that "any time you're going to do something new like that you know you're going to have your bumps."
Two weeks in, Fallout 76 is a lonely, glitchy, flawed mess
Fallout 76 was savaged by critics (including our own) at launch for widespread glitches and half-baked content. Looking back, Howard now says he and his team knew "even from the beginning this is not going to be a high Metacritic game."
That's partly because "this is not the type of game that people are used to from us," he suggested. But it's also because "a lot of those [development] difficulties ended up on the screen," Howard said. "[We knew] we're going to get some criticism on it, and a lot of that is very well-deserved criticism."
In practically the same breath, though, Howard also suggests that this knowingly half-baked launch was not a huge deal for a game like Fallout 76, in the long run. "All of the games like this... It's not how you launch, it's what it becomes," he said. And Bethesda has indeed kept up with a string of updates that have helped sustain a core group of devoted players in the months since launch. "There's no strategy [for fixing it] other than just keep making the game better," Howard said. "People who play it will come back."
We’ll do it live!
The War Z‘s Steam debacle shows “released” isn’t “done” these days
For many years now, developers and publishers have talked up the idea of a "minimum viable product" release cycle. You release a game when it fulfills the minimum requirements to attract a core of early adopters, then continue to patch and update it to attract more players. It's an idea that has only become more prevalent as more gaming devices have become perpetually Internet-connected across the developed world.
Howard's forthright assessment, then, puts a point on the question that's front and center in the modern game industry: how good does a game have to be before it's "minimally viable"? On the opposite side of the coin, how bad does a game have to be before you decide it isn't ready to see the light of day in its current form?
Recent gaming history has plenty of examples on both sides of that coin. Back in 2013, EA's SimCity reboot was never able to recover from a congestion-plagued launch featuring major gameplay glitches.
Diablo III, on the other hand, faced its own admitted balance issues and server problems at launch, as well as pushback on the "real money auction house" that underpinned the in-game economy. But after a few expansions and a lot of patches, the game was able to attract an impressive 30 million sales by 2015.
No Man's Sky was largely considered half-baked at launch, but frequent updates have attracted a continuing player base.
It's not just always-online titles that face this kind of issue—even single-player games can turn around a rocky debut with post-launch attention these days. Back in 2016, critics and players largely felt that No Man's Sky's ambition outpaced its actual content (thanks in part to outsized pre-release hype). But the team at Hello Games kept their heads down and plugged away at new features and major expansions that filled out the game's galaxy-sized sprawl. Now the game is considered a long-term success that can still attract 100,000 concurrent players when new content launches.
The examples are almost too numerous to list. There are the games like Evolve, Paragon, Battleborn, Artifact, and Lawbreakers that were never able to turn things around after moribund launches. Then there are titles like Rainbow Six: Siege, For Honor, Final Fantasy XIV, and Bethesda's own Elder Scrolls Online that have found long-term success despite some early troubles. Right now, Bioware's rough launch of Anthem seems to be sitting on the razor's edge between these two possibilities.
If there's a pattern to be gleaned from all these examples, it's that the games that succeed seem to have just enough core appeal in their basic gameplay experience for early users to overlook any launch-window growing pains. Figuring out if that core appeal is there pre-launch, of course, is not an exact science.
Maybe that's why Howard says that his main takeaway from Fallout 76's launch is that "you have to let it bake with a large live audience for longer than we did. There's certain things you can never see until it's running 24/7 for a number of months. If there's one thing I would have done differently [with Fallout 76], it's find a way to let more people at scale play the game 24/7 before you say 'everybody in, here we go, pay us.'"
So maybe it's time to update Miyamoto's famous quote. "A game that can survive a rocky 'early access' beta for long enough is eventually good, but a game that's canceled after losing most of its player base to launch window issues is forever bad." Not as catchy, but probably more relevant in today's industry.
Talarian Smack-Fu Master, in training
I think what we're seeing today isn't much different from the cut/success ratio we would've seen 15-20 years ago, except now because of Early Access and being able to patch after the fact, these failures are happening in the very public eye instead of behind closed doors where the average person wouldn't have likely heard about it.
I mean, clearly being able to patch after the fact is definitely helpful for pulling something out of a nosedive if you can pull it off, but honestly I wonder if the overall failure rate is actually that much different these days.
77 posts | registered 3/13/2008
Gawain Lavers Ars Praetorian et Subscriptor
I always joked that Game QA salaries would continue to drop until testers were expected to pay the game developer. And here we are...
Kyle Orland Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area.
Email kyle.orland@arstechnica.com // Twitter @KyleOrl
reply Tue Jun 04, 2019 12:03 pm
Headline: Todd Howard says he expected Fallout 76’s launch “bumps.” Is that OK?
Short answer: No.
Long answer: Noooooooooooooooooooooo.
EspressoMachine Ars Scholae Palatinae
Fallout 76 was a major deviation from what the Fallout series was about and what players loved about it and that was the story. The reason Fallout New Vegas is considered the best is because the story was open ended, you choose what to do not just on the main story but the side stories too. Fallout 4 got flack for not offering that and Fallout 76 just took a dump on the whole franchise.
whiteknave Ars Scholae Palatinae
Personally, I didn't mind some of the initial bugginess. I'd play '76 for hours nearly every day for about six (6) months. I finally just stopped playing out of boredom.
483 posts | registered Mar 30, 2001
UserIDAlreadyInUse Ars Scholae Palatinae et Subscriptor
In the early '90s, when dev teams were smaller, studios were smaller, and player expectations were not quite as high as they are today (hello, Pitfall!), a game *could*, really, incubate until ready as development took less time and costs were lower.
Today, though, studios *have* to get games out the door within a certain window in order to be able to pay their now-freakin'-massive teams and support staff to be able to continue development. Might be a poor situation, especially for the early-adopter, but an understandable one.
digital0verdose Ars Centurion
Fallout 76 was trash and the fact it resurrected old bugs that existed back in Fallout 3 was a great indicator that a new engine is needed. Then Todd comes out and doubles down saying not only is the engine fine, but that they are using it for the next Elder Scrolls game. Nope! Done with both series until someone wakes Todd up from his fever dream.
IntellectualThug Ars Scholae Palatinae et Subscriptor
This is part of what has been steadily driving me away from gaming as a hobby. Why would I spend $60 on a half-finished shitpile when I could wait six months or a year for them to unfuck it AND put it on sale?
Microtransactions, "minimum viable product," DLC, season passes, MP server shutdowns, repetitive padding scrounging/crafting minigames, etc. all just keep narrowing the list of titles that I actually feel are worth my time, and accordingly my willingness to invest in gaming hardware is dropping when there's such a limited scope of AAA games that I want to play.
I know it works, the industry has never been more profitable, but really I think I'd rather just go outside instead.
vlam Ars Tribunus Militum
IntellectualThug wrote:
What is an outside? Is it tasty?
vlam wrote:
That depends very heavily on which part of it you lick.
LuDux Ars Tribunus Militum
1) Never preorder a videogame.
2) Never buy at launch.
If the new rules for big games like is that companies will just shit them out without even caring about the actual gaming experience, I'm not inclined to reward that behaviour with my money.
And if you want to take a look at what the next Elder Scrolls game is going to be, take a look at the microtransactions and broken open-world nature of Fallout 76, then multiply that by Elder Scrolls Blades.
kerosion Ars Centurion
Interesting that each example provided for companies who 'did it live' with their product burned their brand reputation in the process, forever impacting sales of later product.
Blizzard's reputation for example rooted in decade of 'delay until it's right' product launch. This earned trust in the brand with built-in customers who would buy and pre-order anything from the brand. The Diablo III experience violated expectations, introducing closer scrutiny. And after similar 'do it live' experiences core audience has abandoned the brand as rounds of layoffs can attest.
The video game equivalent of bait-and-switch. Take brand with credibility hard won over time. Slap a cheap half-baked product in the box. Congrats! You're now Pyrex. You'll get some up-front sales of cheaper quality product tricking those expecting brand quality. But soon everyone avoids your products.
xXxSqueakxXx Ars Scholae Palatinae
Well, some games are good, and some games are bad. How its launched is only part of the equation.
As for Fallout 76, the end game is pretty much setting of nukes, so it's no wonder the game is going to bomb... . .
I'll just,, get my coat.
Anyhow, what I think put a Lot of people off is how Bethesda chose to deal with all the problems, all the bait-and-switch tactics both for the game itself, and outside the game. And they kept on doing it. That is very off putting.
Thunderforge8 Ars Centurion et Subscriptor
LuDux wrote:
220 posts | registered Jul 9, 2014
Thielson Smack-Fu Master, in training et Subscriptor
maybe if people would changed their behaviour from "shut up and take my money the minute the game is released" to more patient approach, game developers would think twice before releasing half-baked beta version. the only thing that can change this is hard financial impact.
ChrisKerrigan Smack-Fu Master, in training
It's sad that "release now, finish later" has become a norm. But this is also exactly why you should never pre-order anything.
4 posts | registered Aug 5, 2015
Thielson wrote:
That won't change so long as the single largest bloc of purchasing power lies with teenage boys.
KAL1989 Ars Scholae Palatinae
The fact that Todd is admitting that it’s not what the game starts as, it’s what it becomes is what is so worrying about major releases going forward. He shouldn’t be ok to sell a game at full price when he knows it’s not good enough to justify the purchase price. The game crashed in retail price and now he is hoping people buy in to try now after the massive backlash the game had? There is one thing see fallout 76 has over something like Anthem and that is that you can still kind of play it like a Bethesda rpg (be whomever and do whatever) but it still doesn’t I still confidence in your studio to not mess it up again in the future for any game you develop. I feel sorry for the studios associated with the Bethesda. The shadow will always hang over them because of what Bethesda did.
Muon Ars Scholae Palatinae
ChrisKerrigan wrote:
In management-speak, delivering the "minimum viable product" has become vastly more important than "when it's ready." The first mover advantage is seen as being that powerful.
(The less cynical part of me views it as a plea for help from a cash-strapped studio: put the game out there so it can bring in some money, any money, and then actually make the game the way you intended.)
octothorn Smack-Fu Master, in training et Subscriptor
Um, go outside?. Outside what, exactly?
Abulia Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
I've very few issues with bugs or features that don't-quite-meet-expectations. Where I draw the line are items that are shown that don't exist in the shipping code (see, No Man's Sky at release). To me, that's much different. That's fraud.
That the features may exist at a later point in time isn't the answer; the product was advertised as including "X" the shipping version needs to include "X."
Anthem -- while horrible in its own right -- at least had beta version ("demo") running prior to sale. You knew what a shitfest you were walking into with that one.
octothorn wrote:
Outside your room! Into bigger and, apparently, selectively more tasty rooms.
Redwizard000 Ars Scholae Palatinae
My whole house is outside my room. I leave my room to use the bathroom and go to the kitchen. Does that mean I have been "outside"?
Redwizard000 wrote:
By any sane definition I can concoct, emphatically YES!
hisses at painting of a sun
afidel Ars Legatus Legionis et Subscriptor
kerosion wrote:
Anyone who bought 'delay until it's right' didn't actually play any Blizzard games at launch. I played Diablo 1,2, LOD, Warcraft, Starcraft, WoW, and D3 at launch, they all had major issues. D3's major difference is that they tried to include the RMAH and so broke itemization assuming the RMAH would fix it. It wasn't until the console version came out where they couldn't rely on the RMAH to paper over their poor arse loot tables that they finally went back and fixed the PC version and made the game really enjoyable.
Devin Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
EspressoMachine wrote:
I have to disagree. The story isn't open-ended in 76, but it is a different type of story. If you pay attention to it, you are essentially an investigator performing a post-mortem of a society. Since absolutely everyone is dead, you get nothing but left behind notes, half-completed projects, tales of treachery and sacrifice and the odd robot programmed to continue doing stuff even though the reason for it is completely lost.
Some stories are well done, some not.
Personally I thought the Mistress of Mystery arc was extremely well done although extremely tragic, while the Overseer arc wasn't engaging at all, and sometimes just cringey.
But you can tell they put a lot of effort into telling the stories of individuals and groups, and if you get into it, the results are just maddening.
Last edited by Devin on Tue Jun 04, 2019 12:34 pm
Digger Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
>>...Howard now says he and his team knew "even from the beginning...<<
And herein lies the core problem with video games these days.
The devs are *counting* on you to suck it up and fork over the cash *regardless* of the initial quality, because...reasons.
If gamers took a stand (like that'll ever happen) FO76 would have closed up shop 1 week after it launched, and send a clear message to the devs that "we are through accepting shit quality...improve or go under."
But since we don't do that...pushing out shit is the new acceptable.
Solomon Black Ars Scholae Palatinae
UserIDAlreadyInUse wrote:
I'd like to add that at least in my observation video games have also not gotten much more expensive then when I was buying them as a kid. If anything they've gotten cheaper because you have more options for picking something up on sale or buying some cheapo indie title. And to anyone who wonders what is wrong with this well that means that if prices are more/less unchanged then they have actually gone down in price thanks to 20+ years of inflation.
Costs going up and prices going down needs a lot of new customers coming in to balance that out. And I'm not so sure that's the case or we'd have more cases like Fortnite. Meanwhile I definitely don't see many people saying they'd gladly pay more for a quality product. If anything the gamer crowd seems to think they are paying too much.
Put all that and more together and yeah no wonder developers are trying to do anything to get revenue over waiting until a game is really ready. Or lots of other trends in gaming.
daneren2005 Ars Scholae Palatinae
I don't know, there are certainly exceptions to both rules. I feel fine pre-ordering most Nintendo games because I know they are going to make an awesome game. I am going to buy it eventually anyways so why not save a few dollars on it now?
And I just bought Total War: Three Kingdoms at launch. I know they are working through some enhancements, but the game is completely playable. I haven't had any crashes, and haven't found any real bugs so far. If they left it as it is I would be completely happy with my purchase.
There are plenty of companies that people need to stop giving their money, but there are also ones that do a good job that don't release buggy messes (although maybe my example is bad since most other Total War games are unplayable on release).
Digger wrote:
And somehow, mere weeks ahead of launch, he was claiming that it had "sixteen times the detail!".
Bethesda needs to get rid of him like Gearbox needs to lose Randy Pitchford. They are both horrible leaders & representatives for their companies.
WagonWheelsRX8 Smack-Fu Master, in training
You only get one chance to make a first impression.
43 posts | registered Aug 20, 2015
A shitty lazy story that ignores and rewrites Fallout lore.
Also there's dragons from Skyrim copy and pasted in because... ???
richten Ars Scholae Palatinae
It seems the games that didn't survive the rocky launch were mostly new franchises while those that survived are known IPs. And that is part of the problem with the industry, consumers are more willing to support that things they know, even when they have obvious problems than try new things.
Jedakiah Ars Centurion
I doubt the next Elder Scrolls will stray very far from their tried and true formula. The formula is already extremely profitable, and popular. I'd expect it will be more of a return to form for Bethesda, with the exception of it having a lot more paid DLCs.
sarusa Ars Scholae Palatinae et Subscriptor
Because gamers are so goddamn stupid they will just throw their cash at anything with the Fallout name, Todd Howard feels he was in the right to launch something he admits he knew was a janky pile of shit for $60 (starting) as a working product.
Generally, up till now, companies have at least had the shame to pretend that they thought the game was in decent shape even though they could not possibly have thought that if they had a QA department (EA does this a lot, Battlefield for instance). Or you go through Early Access.
Now we're at the point where companies are comfortable admitting they know the game is not working at launch and so what? Though gamers have a lot of the blame in this as well.
Rindan Ars Tribunus Militum et Subscriptor
Fallout 76 was rightfully panned for being bad. They made a huge number of compromises for a multi-player Fallout, and deliver what was essentially a bad single player experience. It actually reminds me a lot of Elite Dangerous in that it has crippled single player game play, with all the negatives of being multiplayer (no mods, no NPCs, no time slowing/pausing, world can't permanently change, incentive to make grindy game play, limits on building size, etc), with almost none of the positives of being multi-player. They get slightly more points than Elite Dangerous did because you can at least technically play with friends with minimal effort, even if the game is very poorly built to run quests with friends.
Fallout 76 got the score it well deserved and continues to deserve. They have not fix any of core game play issues with Fallout 76. The only things that they have done is add a little bit of content, and fix some of the most glaring performance issues. Fallout 76 still has a hard time justifying its existence. There still is not any terribly good game play reason to actually justify playing with a couple dozen other random people.
Put another way, you would lost exactly nothing if Fallout 76 was a single player Boarderlands style game that you can play with 3 other friends. Fallout 76 would be a better game if it was a multi-player game with individual servers and mods. There is literally nothing about Fallout 76 that is improved by having two dozen random people playing on your server. Fallout 76 is just a bad game whose only claim is that you can use it to play co-op Fallout 76, kind of.
Yeah, they released it too early.
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Copyright craziness —
Twitter blocks EFF tweet that criticized bogus takedown of a previous tweet
Starz filed bogus takedown requests—Twitter eventually restored blocked tweets.
Jon Brodkin - Apr 15, 2019 7:20 pm UTC
Getty Images | gustavofrazao
117 with 79 posters participating
Twitter and Starz have given us a new example of how copyright enforcement can easily go overboard.
At Starz's request, Twitter blocked an April 8 tweet by the news site TorrentFreak, which had posted a link to one of its news articles about piracy. News coverage about piracy is obviously not the same thing as piracy, and the article contained only still images from pirated TV shows and did not tell readers where pirated content could be downloaded. Despite that, Twitter blocked access to the tweet in response to the copyright takedown request by Starz, whose show American Gods was mentioned in the TorrentFreak article.
Here's what the tweet looked like before the takedown:
Screenshot of a TorrentFreak tweet from before it was removed by Twitter.
On April 11, hours after the tweet was blocked, TorrentFreak wrote an article about the takedown and quoted an Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) attorney as saying that the takedown was inappropriate because news coverage about piracy is not illegal. The EFF then posted a tweet that included a link to the new TorrentFreak article and a portion of the EFF quote from the article. Twitter then blocked that EFF tweet in response to another Starz request, even though the EFF tweet merely linked to the new TorrentFreak article about the takedown and criticized Twitter's decision to block the first tweet.
Here's a look at the EFF tweet:
Enlarge / Screenshot of an EFF tweet that was blocked by Twitter.
"Get ready for a tale as good as anything you'd see on television," EFF Policy Analyst Katharine Trendacosta wrote yesterday. "Here's the sequence of events: the website TorrentFreak publishes an article about a leak of TV episodes, including shows from the network Starz. TorrentFreak tweets its article, Starz sends a copyright takedown notice. TorrentFreak writes about the takedown, including a comment from EFF. EFF tweets the article about the takedown and the original article. EFF's tweet... gets hit with a takedown."
The tweets were still inaccessible this morning and early afternoon but are now visible again here and here. When contacted by Ars, Twitter said it was restoring the tweets that it previously removed because of the Starz takedown notices. Starz apologized for the incorrect takedown notices, Variety reported today.
The TorrentFreak tweet was blocked for four days before being restored. The EFF tweet was blocked for about one day.
Starz deserves blame for sending bogus takedown notices. But Twitter could have avoided the mess by performing even a cursory review of Starz's requests, which offered no evidence of copyright infringement.
DMCA takedowns
Like other online platforms that rely on user-generated content, Twitter offers copyright owners a simple way to report content that infringes copyright. This type of process protects websites from legal action by providing a "safe harbor" under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Starz used a third-party agency called The Social Element to send DMCA takedown requests on its behalf. Starz's vendor sent the first takedown request to Twitter after TorrentFreak posted a tweet consisting only of the headline and link to its April 8 article, which was titled, "Pirated Promo Screeners of American Gods and Other TV-Shows Leak Online." The TorrentFreak article describes a recent increase in leaks of promotional copies of episodes, which are generally sent to reviewers and are supposed to be kept confidential, suggesting that "a serious security hole has been exploited."
"According to the takedown notice, Starz argues that the tweet is infringing because it links to an article where people can see 'of images of the unreleased episodes' and find more 'information about their illegal availability,'" TorrentFreak wrote on April 11, hours after the tweet was blocked by Twitter.
TorrentFreak continued:
For the record, our article only includes a single identifiable frame from a leaked American Gods episode, to show the screener watermarks, which are central to the story. That's just 0.001 percent of the episode in question, without audio, which is generally seen as fair use, especially in a news context.
As for the claim that the article includes information about the shows' "illegal availability," we only mention that they are being shared on pirate sites, without giving any names or links. That's no ground for a takedown request.
EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kit Walsh agreed, saying in the article that "Starz has no right to silence TorrentFreak's news article or block links to it. The article reports that there are people on the Internet infringing copyright, but that is a far cry from being an infringement itself."
Walsh further argued that "The screenshots are important parts of the reporting that validate the facts being reported. Starz should withdraw its takedown and refrain from harassing journalists in the future."
EFF tweet blocked
When the EFF used its official Twitter account to post a link to the new TorrentFreak article and included a snippet from Walsh's quote, its tweet was also suppressed.
"A few days later, we also received a takedown and our tweet was blocked," Trendacosta wrote. "At this point, you may have noticed just how far removed we are from anything that remotely resembles copyright infringement."
Twitter acted on Starz's DMCA notice even though it didn't present a convincing case that the EFF's tweet violated Starz's copyright.
"In the field labeled 'links to original work,' Starz wrote 'n/a,'" Trendacosta wrote. "To reiterate: in the field about where the original work being infringed on can be located, the answer is 'not applicable.' Under 'Description of infringement,' it says, 'Link to bootleg.' There's no bootleg link in any of the articles or tweets."
The EFF challenged Twitter directly. "The DMCA process allows us to send a counterclaim, explaining that the tweet is not infringement and directing Twitter to restore the tweet, barring a copyright infringement lawsuit being filed by Starz. We have done so," Trendacosta wrote yesterday. Twitter's decision to restore the tweets came after that challenge.
Twitter's copyright policy says it will respond to reports of copyright infringement about "tweets containing links to allegedly infringing materials." But the policy also notes that "not all unauthorized uses of copyrighted materials are infringements," and it advises copyright holders to consider whether a tweet is fair use before submitting a copyright complaint.
We contacted Starz this morning and haven't heard back yet. But Starz explained itself in its statement to Variety, saying that it hired a third-party vendor to conduct copyright enforcement after a recent security breach.
Starz told Variety:
The techniques and technologies employed in these efforts are not always perfect, and as such it appears that in this case, some posts were inadvertently caught up in the sweep that may fall outside the DMCA guidelines... That was never our intention and we apologize to those who were incorrectly targeted. We are in the process of reviewing all of the impacted posts as well as the scope and procedure for the previous takedowns and are working with our vendors to reinstate any such content that was inappropriately targeted for removal.
lewax00 Ars Tribunus Militum et Subscriptor
Starz: "Hey, I know, let's abuse the DMCA takedown process to silence a group that contains a bunch of lawyers who focus on laws surrounding the internet and related technology, including the DMCA, there's no way that could possibly backfire."
12582 posts | registered 6/20/2013
balrog_of_morgoth wrote:
And ... the DMCA takedown shitshow continues. Youtube, FB, twitter, everywhere.
This is stupid! Until there is enforced penalty for bogus takedown notices, no one has the incentive to stop this harassment.
Emphasis mine. Completely agree. Here's the thing, when a company seeks a DMCA takedown, they are saying that they are making a legally enforceable request, and making false reports can have legal repercussions.
https://blogs.lawyers.com/attorney/inte ... est-10363/
There are not only civil, but actual criminal sanctions likely to be made. Unfortunately, here's where it gets messy: As an example of these violations gone rampant, your average Youtube content creator or other smaller company/venue likely doesn't have the legal team or financing to take on companies who make fake DMCA violations, and Youtube apparently doesn't sanction, block, or restrict companies who make repeated fake takedown requests.
In short, yes, the law is on your side, but good luck actually getting any movement on it, since money can buy legal immunity in this country.
balrog_of_morgoth Smack-Fu Master, in training et Subscriptor
reply Mon Apr 15, 2019 2:26 pm
Fabermetrics Ars Praetorian
Update copyright "law" where if a company files a bogus claim, they lose the copyright. Everyone needs skin in the game.
Glassy Ars Tribunus Militum et Subscriptor
Starz should be banned for a duration 2x the bogus bans they had placed on others. Until the originators feel pain for abusing the system, they'll never stop.
ChrisSD Ars Praefectus
So Starz will be paying penalties for issuing multiple bogus takedowns?
BulkyZ Ars Scholae Palatinae
That's at least 4 years out from becoming a possibility.
Edit: get Trump out of office, (2020) and then 2 more years for chairpersons to be replaced by new leadership, and another year before they get their acts together. The legal system moves at the speed of government afterall.
Last edited by BulkyZ on Mon Apr 15, 2019 4:27 pm
mtgarden Ars Centurion et Subscriptor
Taking on the EFF is just not sensible. Then again, this is Twitter....
Toom1275 Ars Tribunus Militum et Subscriptor
Starz explained itself in its statement to Variety, saying that it hired a third-party vendor to conduct copyright enforcement
"Outsource your marketing, outsource your reputation and ethics."
- Ken "Popehat" White & Eric Turkewitz
DarthSlack Ars Tribunus Militum
But Starz explained itself in its statement to Variety, saying that it hired a third-party vendor to conduct copyright enforcement after a recent security breach.
Whuuuuu?
You have a security breach and you hire a copyright enforcement vendor? Shouldn't you, I don't know, hire a security expert?
But I don't work in media, what do I know. Maybe that makes perfect sense in whatever timeline they live in.
j17robotdancer Ars Centurion
Considering the take down requests were filed out incorrectly twitter never should have acted on them.
ryanja wrote:
But this time, their "outsourced copyright enforcement contractor" (Prenda, is that you?) attacked the EFF. They literally hit the most likely entity to not only have the resources to fight back, but also the willpower and expertise. Whoops.
Deputy Cartman Ars Tribunus Militum
Fabermetrics wrote:
Add in some ball-busting fines for the company and prison-time for the people who authorized it and you're getting somewhere.
"We lost a year's worth of profits, the CTO won't be out of prison for two years, and a copyright for one of our intellectual properties was rendered null and void. Maybe we shouldn't be DMCA-abusing dickholes anymore."
RGMBill Ars Scholae Palatinae
It's past that point, long ago. It's time for these DMCA claims to have be taken at face value with good faith.... until the claimants make over a certain number of false DMCA takedown claims in some relatively finite period, say 3 false claims (* and this would be two *) in a two year period, they lose the "automatic takedown" ability, and then need to go to the "We'll take a look and take it down in a timely manner after reviewing your claim" that every other person has, for 5 years before they can get back to the automated system.
Glassy wrote:
*snipped even more*
Man, I hope so. I hope that even though it was a vendor who did the deed, the company who hired them is held responsible as well (since the vendor is acting as the legal arm of the company it was hired by).
Meanwhile, I found this link that shows that the 9th Circuit has given this some attention as well:
https://www.gerbenlaw.com/blog/false-dm ... n-notices/
A quick quote:
"The penalties for misrepresentation can include actual damages and attorney’s fees. Specifically, Section 512(f) of the DMCA states that:
shall be liable for any damages, including costs and attorneys’ fees, incurred by the alleged infringer, by any copyright owner or copyright owner’s authorized licensee, or by a service provider, who is injured by such misrepresentation, as the result of the service provider relying upon such misrepresentation in removing or disabling access to the material or activity claimed to be infringing, or in replacing the removed material or ceasing to disable access to it."
More companies need to have their feet held to the fire for these blatant abuses of the law (the equivalent of filing of filing a false police report), and I hope more content creators who have fake DMCA violations get legal assistance. There are many groups out there that will help, including providing legal services, so anyone reading this who has been on the receiving end of these, best of luck, and go get 'em.
Nowicki Ars Scholae Palatinae
I think the only way we can get past this reliably is to have a public platform that people can post these kinds of things. It would be able to protect free speech as the only entity who can violate it would be a public institution where there are already protections in theory. Also independent public institutions would be much less biased on corporate ads, but it would still be able to comply with real DMCA takedowns. *granted there are probably a few other wrinkles to iron out*
I feel we are in an age where there need to be public and neutral platforms for most forms of media to compete and allow information to freely be published where appropriate.
Z1ggy Ars Legatus Legionis
it advises copyright holders to consider whether a tweet is fair use before submitting a copyright complaint.
oh well then... everything will be just fine now.
I mean i dont understand how the takedown works? is it automated?
Does someone manually block it?
Does that person actually have to look at anything other then the tweet?
The first tweet looks sorta like its telling people where to go to get the pirated material.
Pirated Promo Screeners of American Gods and Other TV-Shows Leak Online.
I can sorta see a jump the gun moment happening.
But blocking the EFF?
Thats just plain stupid.
bothered Ars Tribunus Militum
The DMCA is missing the equivalent of anti-slapp rules.
Myntan Ars Centurion et Subscriptor
I don't understand why someone the size of Twitter (or YouTube) can't build a legal system that penalizes clearly invalid copyright claims.
Make someone put up $5 for a copyright infringement complaint. If the complaint is deemed frivolous, the company forfeits the $5 to the social media host (and perhaps to the impacted individual).
Alternatively, build a reputation system and factor that into the takedown request. If TorrentFreak has 0% legitimate takedown requests and 100 rejected copyright infringement claims, give benefit of the doubt to the target.
Thad Boyd Ars Praefectus et Subscriptor
Update copyright "law" where if a company files a bogus claim, they lose the copyright.
That...doesn't really help in cases where they're demanding takedowns of things they have no copyright on.
bothered wrote:
Not missing; they're just incredibly weak.
Grilgar Ars Praefectus
Nowicki wrote:
Um, that was called Gab. It had (has?) many issues. Although DMCA is/was not one of them.
4135 posts | registered Aug 6, 2001
Myntan wrote:
But that can alienate some of the biggest advertisers, as the entities/content creators who generally put up the bogus takedowns can not only afford that outright, but could threaten to walk from the platform which I assume companies like twitter and youtube would bend over backwards to prevent.
Wickwick Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius et Subscriptor
A DCMA claim is an affidavit swearing that you own the copyright to a work being performed without your permissions. There is a statutory penalty that goes with that.
However, the big platforms have their own takedown request systems that aren't necessarily direct DCMA requests. The content ID system Google uses allows auto-blocking of matching content regardless of fair use.
The DMCA says a platform must provide a means by which to submit a takedown request pursuant to the rules. However, it does not say that such official takedown requests are the only want copyright holders can request a take down. The DMCA also contains no provisions that requires a platform to not tread on Fair Use instances. Twitter is a private entity. It doesn't even have to respect someone's 1st Amendment rights. It can do whatever the heck it wants.
Now, at some point, if there's too much moderation, it loses its Safe Harbor status under the DMCA. However, one of the pillars of Safe Harbor is to route out infringing content as soon as you discover it. Pro-actively eliminating potentially infringing content is certainly going to be viewed as an attempt to meet the DMCA's Safe Harbor requirements rather than editorial control. So if Starz's takedown request wasn't an "official" DMCA takedown request, then EFF may not actually have any recourse. In this situation, only the market place can decide that Twitter is off the rails and a competing platform would have to take its place. Yeah, good luck with that.
Personally, I think having a takedown system outside of the DMCA should automatically count as editorial control so I'm not a fan of the current system. But the rights holders aren't a fan of it either. And when opposing sides both hate a compromise it usually means it's the best you're going to get. So I guess the DMCA is as good as we're going to do for a while.
50me12 Ars Scholae Palatinae
Is twitter blocking the EFF's tweet just a bot response or something?
No human with half a with a clue would think the EFF's tweet should have been taken down.
I'd like to see some sort of small claims court type system for BS DCMA requests where folks hit by these could get some compensation.
Seraphiel Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
The relevant law has some interesting requirements for filing claims:
(3) Elements of notification.—
(vi) A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
Which sounds like the only part subject to perjury is their affirmation that they're authorized to make complaints about the IP in question, but since the IP in question was a news article, they would be wrong.
Somebody at Starz or their DMCA harassment agency would be in a lot of legal trouble if laws meant anything anymore.
Last edited by Seraphiel on Mon Apr 15, 2019 2:53 pm
JohnCarter17 Ars Centurion
I hope you don't expect this platform to be running in the EU and include links to the relevant content.
Z1ggy wrote:
Not 100% sure which part you're asking about being automated, so I'll answer both possibilities:
Acting on take-downs is automated (as in, Twitter would automatically take down a tweet upon receiving a request). They pretty much have to be, because as I understand it (IANAL), if Twitter picks and chooses which ones to comply with, they risk becoming liable for any infringement on their platform. It's not their fault, it's a poorly designed law.
(It doesn't have to be an automated system, but even if they did it manually, they still don't get to review the validity of the claim. I assume the volume they'd have to deal with would make a manual system infeasible though.)
As for issuing the take-downs, it can be either. Some systems are automated (like YouTube's ContentID), some are sent manually.
See my post above. That District opinion only holds for actual, official DMCA claims. Many sites have an in-house system that's more of an "honor-system" that don't have legal baring. YouTube's "Content ID" is such.
Edit: fixed the comment I quoted
Last edited by Wickwick on Mon Apr 15, 2019 2:54 pm
Aquawho Smack-Fu Master, in training
I'm curious if Twitter haven't restore the deleted tweet, will Twitter be on the hook for not following the procedure process of DMCA's counterclaim and possible losing their Safe Harbor protection?
83 posts | registered Nov 13, 2012
Not_an_IT_guy Ars Centurion et Subscriptor
"We have blocked the tweet that complained about the tweet complaining about blocking. That should fix the problem."
My sister got bitten by a moose once.
288 posts | registered Feb 7, 2018
50me12 wrote:
Quite possibly.
It's fairly common for big publishers to deploy takedown bots that are dumb-as-rocks and have a high false positive rate; on one occasion, Fox issued a takedown for a torrent containing Homeland, Cory Doctorow's novel, because its bot wasn't smart enough to tell the difference between that and the TV show of the same name. (The novel is published under a Creative Commons license, and the torrent was legal -- but even if it weren't, Fox has no standing to issue takedown notices for things it doesn't own.)
The DMCA basically encourages this; the dumber the bot, the better. If a real human person issues a fraudulent takedown notice, that triggers liability; if a poorly-designed bot does it, it doesn't.
BulkRate Ars Scholae Palatinae
And yet as a news outlet, Torrentfreak IS damaged by this behavior.
A news org potentially getting scooped (at least for those readers who rely on Twitter as a first line of notification for content of interest) for 3-4 days is significant for any site that relies on relevance and eyeball views for their bread and butter.
So... where's the real penalties for Starz for jumping the gun and abusing this?
Aquawho wrote:
It's very possible the claim/counter-claim wasn't a DMCA claim at all. It was an in-house, informal system that doesn't have the weight of law behind it. Google's Content ID is such a system. I'm sure Twitter has one as well.
Thad Boyd wrote:
That's not quite true. A "real" DMCA takedown request requires an affidavit swearing one party owns the rights to the work.
Fatesrider Ars Praefectus et Subscriptor
Some see conspiracy. I see another more plausible explanation.
Fucking retarded lawyers and GIGO AI.
Let's face it, not every lawyer graduates at the top of their class. Half are below average. And it seems that a disproportionate number of the bottom feeders get picked up to man the "legal department" of content creating companies.
AI's are probably fed drivel, because "GIGO" based data from idiot legal departments who freak out every time an image from their content creating company is used anywhere outside of "official channels". They apparently slept through the whole "fair use" class.
The reason I say it's not a conspiracy is because these things get FIXED most of the time when the company realizes it did something amazingly stupid and stops doubling down on that stupid (eventually).
A hassle? Of course. A conspiracy? Eh... not so much. When human nature accounts for it so well, I'm inclined to blame that before I go wandering off looking for my tinfoil hat.
The longer I live, the less competence I see in others. Used to be I thought people "in charge" knew what the hell they were doing. After enough decades of living, I've come to realize that most "conspiracies" can be chalked up to stupidity/incompetence/idiocy rather than malicious intent.
10517 posts | registered Nov 16, 2012
More info who might be behind this fraud by Mike Masnick over at Techdirt's coverage on the story:
By my count, using Lumen Database (which might not be complete), The Social Element sent 42 DMCA takedowns to Twitter over this topic between April 8th and April 11th. Then Starz itself took over on Saturday the 13th and sent another 31 notices on Saturday and Sunday, for a total of 73 such notices. Both of the notices are notable for the lack of any information other than the links to the tweets, which would at least suggest that they may have been sent by the same individual or firm, who then changed who it claimed to actually be sending the takedowns.
BulkRate wrote:
The down side of relying on a private entity for executing your business plan I guess. Twitter is not a governmental entity. It does not have to respect your 1st Amendment Rights or reimburse you when you lose money due to the execution of their operation (I got $15 whole dollars for being forced to show up for jury duty for a day!).
Either sign a QoS agreement with Twitter that precludes such deletions or suffer the damage to your business when Twitter doesn't do what you want.
BradTheGeek Ars Scholae Palatinae et Subscriptor
DarthSlack wrote:
Translation of Starz actions.
"We were unable to find the leak of review copies. It may have been internal employees or external reviewers. We are unwilling to stop the review process as it is critical to our business. Instead of tightening security, we hired thugs to break the kneecaps of anyone talking about us."
disquiet Smack-Fu Master, in training
It's easy to criticize twitter for overreacting or not actually reading takedown requests, but considering the heat they've been under for being "too slow" to respond to takedown requests lately, it makes sense why they'd just hastily approve anything passed to them. I think they are deciding to err on the side of it being easier to mea culpa and undo a block or deletion or ban than to explain why they didn't react immediately on a crucial issue.
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Lokhmatov, Aleksei
Forschung Unterseiten anzeigen
Dissertationsprojekte im Integrated Track Unterseiten anzeigen
Doctoral dissertation project of Aleksei Lokhmatov
Reflections on Continuity in Polish Intellectual Culture: Transborder Perspective of Post-war Public Discussions (1945 – 1956) (working title)
After the Second World War three centres emerged in Europe which claimed to be legitimate representatives of Polish culture and to continue the Polish national tradition: The Polish Republic under Soviet domination, London as the seat of the exiled government, and Paris where many Polish intellectuals gathered soon after the Second World War. The Polish intellectuals were faced with the necessity to reconsider the main points of the discussion on cultural continuity under the new conditions. The Polish philosopher and writer Stanisław Brzozowski had written still in the beginning of the 20th century: “the nation is a kind of continuity of will which sustains, raises and realizes itself”, having mentioned that “cultural continuity is impossible without the assimilation of the former cultural achievements by each new generation.” With the independence, Polish intellectuals plunged into a fierce public debate on cultural and historical identity, deepening and developing the concept of cultural continuity. The Second World War yet again radically changed the European political and intellectual landscape and shaped a completely new situation for rethinking the issues of cultural identity.
I will examine the concepts of cultural and political continuity which were coined by Polish scholars and writers who took part in the public discussions in the three European centres of Polish intellectual and cultural life after World War II. Under the term “continuity”, I understand the concepts which were formulated within these disputes and had to inscribe the post-war realities into the course of the Polish cultural and political tradition. In my research, I will concentrate on the debates in cultural journals which were, in all three centres, an important mediator between scholarly or literary communities and the broader public. In contrast to the existing historiographical tradition, I will be especially interested in the continuation and the development of the interwar debates and will examine these three centres not as separate from each other but in the context of their common intellectual genealogy and cross-border discussions during the early Cold War.
Aleksei Lokhmatov earned his BA-degree in History at Moscow State Pedagogical University in 2016. During his studies, Aleksei conducted a research project on confessional issues in the “Western Region” of the Russian empire in 19th century. His BA-thesis was dedicated to the political and intellectual self-determination of different groups of the Polish Catholic Intelligentsia after the Second World War. From 2016 to 2018, Aleksei Lokhmatov studied History of Knowledge at the Higher School of Economics. In Cologne, he became the first alumnus of the double degree master program Cultural and Intellectual History between East and West (CIH). He received his M.A.-degree in CIH with the thesis Constructing a United Public Sphere in ‘People’s Poland’: Institutional and Ideological Strategies in 2017 and at the Higher School of Economics with the thesis Forming the Intellectual Profile of Post-War Poland: Institutional and Conceptual Aspects (1945–1948) in 2018. In 2017, Aleksei worked as an assistant researcher at Poletayev Institute for Theoretical and Historical Studies in the Humanities (Moscow). Since April 2018, he is an EUmanities fellow at the a.r.t.e.s. Graduated School for the Humanities. Since 2018, he is teaching at the Slavic Institute. Since Oct. 2018, Aleksei is an associated fellow at the Herder-Institut für historische Ostmitteleuropaforschung. The Project is supevised by Prof. Maike Lehmann (University of Cologne) and Prof. Maciej Górny (The Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences).
Contact: alokhmat(at)smail.uni-koeln.de
Conceptualizing “Anti-Zionism”: Piasecki’s Group as an Intellectual Resource for the 1968 Antisemitic Campaign in People’s Poland, in: Europa Orientalis. Studies and Researches on Eastern European countries, 37, 2018.
Obraz SSSR v refleksii Pol’skoi katolicheskoi intelligentsii (1945—1948), in: Alexander V. Golubev (ed.): Rossiia i mir glazami drug druga, M.: IRI RAN, 2017, pp. 201 – 214. (The Image of the Soviet Union in the Reflection of the Polish Catholic Intelligentsia, 1945—1948)
«Nemeckii vopros» v refleksii pol’skoi katolicheskoi intelligentsii (1945 – 1948 gg.), in: Vera D. Ken: Seminar / Seminar / Seminarium: Sbornik statei: Raboty pobeditelej Deviatogo otkrytogo konkursa studencheskikh i aspirantskikh rabot «Aktual'naja nauka» (Sovetskii Soiuz, Pol’sha i drugie strany Tsentral’noi i Vostochnoi Evropy v mirovoi politike XX veka) pamiati O.N. Kena, vyp. 4 (9), Sankt Peterburg: OOO «Izdatel’sko-poligraficheskaia kompaniia «KOSTA», 2017, pp. 89—103. (The ‘German question’ in the Reflection of the Polish Catholic Intelligentsia, 1945—1948)
Pol’skaia katolicheskaia intelligentsiia i ideologiia marksizma: Stanovlenie «otnoshenii» (1945 – 1948), Clio-science: Problemy istorii i mezhdistsiplinarnogo sinteza: Sbornik nauchnyh trudov, vyp. VII. M.: MPGU, 2016, pp. 186—193. (The Polish Catholic Intelligentsia and Marxist-Ideology: The Formation of Relations)
Pol’skaia katolicheskaia intelligentsiia v 1945 – 1948. Politicheskoe i dukhovnoe samoopredelenie, in: I. Aleshkovskii / A. Andriianov / E. Antipov (ed.).: Materialy Mezhdunarodnogo molodezhnogo nauchnogo foruma ‘Lomonosov-2016’, M.: MAKS Press, 2016 [electronic resource]. (The Polish Catholic Intellectuals between 1945 and 1948. Political and Spiritual Self-Determination)
Chelovek kak simvol, ili obraz arkhiepiskopa Evlogiia (Georgievskogo), «vossoedinitelia uniatov» Vostochnoi Galitsii (1914—1915), in: Svetlana Y. Rafalyk (ed.): Clio-science: Problemy istorii i mezhdistsiplinarnogo sinteza: Sbornik nauchnyh trudov, vyp VI, M.: MPGU, 2015, pp. 169—181. (A Man as a Symbol, or the Image of the Archbishop Evlogy (Georgievsky), the ‘Unitor of Uniates’ in Eastern Galicia, 1914—1915)
«Novyi format» vossoedineniia uniatov ili «spasenie dush» v Vostochnoi Galitsii (1914—1915 gg.), in: Elena Y. Bolotova (ed.): Rossiia v mirovykh vojnah XX veka: Problemy sokhraneniia istoriko-kul’turnoi pamiati, Volgograd: «Blank», 2015, pp. 112—118. (A ‘New Format’ of the Uniates Reunion or the ‘Salvation of Souls’ in Eastern Galicia, 1914—1915)
Dva podkhoda k resheniiu «uniatskogo voprosa» v Zapadnom krae (tsarstvovanie Nikolaia I), in: Vsevolod E. Voronin (ed.): Kliuchevskie chtenija 2014. M.: «Sputnik», 2015, pp. 145—151. (Two Approaches to the ‘Uniat Question’ Solution)
Bolesław Piasecki: Tricks of Self-Performance in Retrospect, 6 – 9 December 2018, The Association for Slavic, East European, & Eurasian Studies Annual Convention, Boston;
Theory in Action: French Personalism in the Intellectual Landscape of Post-war Poland, 4 – 5 October 2018, conference “Socio-Political and Religious Ideas and Movements in the 20th – 21st Centuries”, the University of Riga;
The “Scientific View” of Continuity in the Public Discussion in the Polish Republic after World War II (1945-1948), 22 June 2018, conference “Soviet States and Beyond: Political Epistemologies of/and Marxism 1917-1945-1968”, Higher School of Economics (Moscow);
Conceptualizing “Anti-Zionism”: Piasecki’s Group as an Intellectual Resource for the 1968 Anti-Semitic Campaign in People’s Poland, 7 June 2018, “AltrEurope 2018 I Sessantotto delle altre Europe”, University of Padua;
The Problem with Forming the ‘New Culture’ in the Intellectual Discussions of Post-war Poland, 14 December 2017, Conference in memory of Oleg Ken, Saint Petersburg Institute of History of Russian Academy of Sciences / The Polish Institute in Saint Petersburg;
Intellectuals and Power in Postwar Poland (1945—1948), 13 February 2017, round-table discussion “Humanities and Authoritarianism in the 20th Century”, Higher School of Economics (St Petersburg);
The Image of the Soviet Union in the Public Space of Postwar Poland” (1945—1948), 3 February 2017, conference “Russia and the World: the History of Mutual Reception”, the Institute of Russian History of Russian Academy of Science (Moscow);
The Polish Catholic Intelligentsia: Political and Spiritual Self-Determination (1945—1948), 15 April 2016, conference “XXIII International Conference for Young Scholars: Lomonosov 2016”, Lomonosov Moscow State University;
Two Approaches to the ‘Uniat Question’ Solution, November 2014, conference “Kljuchevskie chteniia 2014”, Moscow Pedagogical State University.
Winter semester 2018/19
Advanced seminar “Intellectual History zwischen Geschichte und Philologie”, with Prof. Jörg Schulte, Slavic Department, University of Cologne.
Summer semester 2018
Block seminar “Die kulturelle Renaissance der 1960er Jahre”, with Prof. Jörg Schulte, Slavic Department , University of Colgone.
Cover photo: Barak na placu Trzech Krzyży. Zdjęcie Zofii Chomętowskiej z 1945 r. (Zofia Chomętowska/FUNDACJA ARCHEOLOGIA FOTOGRAFII) // Portrait photo: Patric Fouad
a.r.t.e.s. EUmanities has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 713600.
Call: H2020-MSCA-COFUND-2015 | Proposal: 713600 – artes EUmanities
CORDIS: http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/203182_de.html
“Bacon once remarked: ‘Houses are built to live in, and not to look on’. I believe the best way to learn about a.r.t.e.s. is to come and to see. You can verify, if ‘open doors’ is only a slogan.”
Erstellt am: 12. September 2018, zuletzt geändert am: 28. Mai 2019
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All shades of blue
Color as symbol in art
I like42
Any color is good if used by a master. Now we accept opulent colors in painting as typical, though the same technique has not always been applied. It was not long since beautiful blue has become appreciated in the iconography. Let’s examine all hues of blue from its symbolic point of view.
Has blue color ever existed?
Blue colors of the sky and water currently admired by a lot of aesthetes was not always in favor: ancient Greeks and Romans did not distinguish them much. That was the point of view of the philosophers of the XVIII century pointing out that these colors could be met quite rarely in the ancient art and most importantly in the Latin and ancient Greek languages. Moreover, according to the sources, Romans associated a blue color with the barbarian tribes of Germans and Celts decorating their bodies with blue colors for threatening their enemies. Probably because of that reason people hated clothes in blue colors, moreover, a blue color symbolized mourning.
Roman mosaic, The Actors Preparing for Performance or a Rehearsal for a Satire, about 62−79 A.D. The Naples National Archaeological Museum.
The frescos from the Villa of the Mysteries on the outskirts of Pompeii best survived after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79. Customers apparently preferred red color which later was called Pompeian Red.
Flight of angels in Heavens
True artists by no means could avoid a blue color and quite often it was used in the early Christian mosaics and miniatures; though, before XII century it was not considered equally with red, white and black colors.
The Four Horsemen of Saint Sever Apocalypse, 1028. Paris, National Library.
The Holy Transfiguration, Byzantine icon, XII century, from the collection of The State Hermitage Museum, Russia.
In XIII century everything changed. At last artists learnt how to make a blue paint of lapis-lazuli, cobalt and indigo. A blue color gained popularity and upper class favored it. Painters began inventing different hues of a blue color and it became one of the most appreciated in the Medieval art. The sky had been dark or white then it became blue and the sea green in old engravings gained different shades of a blue color.
Lamentation of Christ. Scenes from the life of Christ
1306, 185×200 cm
Eyeing of the colors symbolizing divine nature and royalty spiritualized people of the Medieval times filling them with pietistic thoughts. Then everybody understood that the endless blue sky was the only place for supreme forces, a symbol of another everlasting world inextricably intertwined with revelation and divine inarticulacy.
The Entry into Jerusalem, fragment
The blue color having been faint and gloomy for a long time progressively became brighter on brushes of the artists and turned into vibrant and cheerful. Frescos in a lot of churches devoted to the Mother of God was saturated with azure. The Mother of God was depicted dressed in blue robes both because she ascended to Heavens and because the blue color was thought to precede the black one, the color of mourning. The blue color combined earthly and heavenly, embodied a spiritual chastity and virtue of the Mother of God.
The Last Judgment
The Coronation of the Virgin with the scenes referring to episodes in the life of St. Dominic
Ultramarine splendor
Natural ultramarine was used in the West European oil paintings rather late, at the turn of XIV — XV centuries. Though, the Holy Mary deserves better. From now on the God Mother’s robes should be painted only with the valuable ultramarine. However, artists used it only when they were commissioned to paint artworks. Thus a lot of paintings in XV — XVI centuries were paid for the number of figures in canvases and the amount of ultramarine needed for painting was paid for in advance.
For example, there was the unfinished painting by Michelangelo, which had not been finished only because the customer failed to pay for lapis-lazuli required for painting of the Holy Mother’s robes. Performing the contract Michelangelo designed the entire color composition around the Holy Mother’s figure, which should be painted in a vibrant blue color but after he had learnt about the lack of the blue paint he stopped painting it.
A blue paint was prevalently made of indigoferous plants though it was short lasting and did not produce the needed color and shade, which was highly valued by clergymen. Lapis-lazuli (natural ultramarine) was the best. Lapis — lazuli could be traded for gold with the rate 1:1. After processing of 100 grams of the stone the outcome was only 3 grams of the pigment.
Ultramarine of low quality was used in Byzantine manuscripts in VII century and for the Medieval miniatures. The manuscripts of XV — XVI centuries were really precious because of the pigments made of precious and semiprecious minerals. For instance a water based paint with the ultramarine pigment was used for painting the sky.
Limbourg brothers. The Anatomical Zodiac Man.The Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. 1410-1490-s. The Musée Condé in Chantilly, France.
Limbourg brothers. The Christ Led to Judgment. Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. 1410-1490-s. The Musée Condé in Chantilly, France
In the Medieval France and Italy the amount of a blue paint was controlled by the State. The cheaper Prussian blue made of a blue azurite pigment was the most popular in the Medieval Germany. Though the color was colder. That was the reason why the Prussian blue was banned for decoration of the altarpieces and icons in Florence in XIV century. Only ultramarine was allowed and it had been the most preferable for some further centuries.
Madonna with singing angels,
1477, 135 cm
The Prussian blue was banned for decoration of the altarpieces and icons in Florence in XIV century.
One of the Dutch galaxy of talented artists Johannes Vermeer (1632 — 1675) preferred to use this valuable pigment. At the start of his career the artist realized that he could achieve the unique color of the day light adding ultramarine pigment even in a black paint. No artist could compete with him.
Rebellious Palette
In the course of time colors have lost their symbolic meaning though they are still the means of expression by artists feelings and emotions of their characters.
Spanish artist of XVI century El Greco (1541 — 1614) made active use of the emotional effect of all the hues of the blue color. The artist preferred exciting transparent steel blue color with which he conveyed emotions of his characters and created the atmosphere of mysticism in his artworks.
View Of Toledo
Domenico Theotokopoulos (El Greco)
1599, 121.3×108.6 cm
Expressive blue color was a peculiar feature of the color range used by Vincent van Gogh, a Dutch painter (1853 — 1890). His artworks are overfilled with alarm and perturbation be it a portrait, still-life or genre scene. In his painting the Starry Night the artist with the contrast of chrome and blue thickened to black expressed the commotion of his spirit and fear verging on despair.
June, 1889, 73.1×92.1 cm
The other crazy man of genius Mikhail Vrubel was fascinated by a dark-blue color. Solitude and despair of the Devil against blue background is informing the artwork.
The demon sitting
Mikhail Vrubel
A blue color symbolizing solitude and sadness was introduced into the history of the world culture by the oeuvre of Pablo Picasso, especially the so-called Blue Period (1901 — 1904) produced by the artist. The artist was seized by the themes of age and death, melancholy and sadness. The emotional azure color is dominating in the artworks of this period. The artist is obviously overwhelmed with bitterness, guilt and death. These somber works were inspired by the suicide of his friend Carlos Casagemas, a painter. Picasso himself later recalled, "I started painting in blue when I learned of Casagemas’s death".
Away from vanities of the world
No doubt, colors affect our subconscious mind. Dark blue could inspire our anxiety, frustration and sadness. Though, being lighter it reveals serenity. Symbolists adored this blue color due to its very peculiar feature associated with the water surface and endless sky away from vanities of the world. As the result, the Symbolist Artist Association appeared in the Russian artistic life in the early XX century (its members included Pavel Kuznetsov, Martiros Saryan, Nikolai Sapunov, Sergei Sudeikin, Petr Utkin, Artur Fonvizen and Nikolai Krymov and others).
Towards the Epoch of the Great Spiritual
Since the German Romanticism time a blue color has been considered a symbol of spiritual aspiration of a person and of a spirit as a whole. On the eve of World War I Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc had high hopes for the further Epoch of the Great Spiritual, which should consolidate all movements in art and culture. The Blue Rider on the cover of the Almanach (1911) designed by Kandinsky embodied the universal concept of painting for the artists. The group founded by Kandinsky had the same name. Marc had his own theory of colors having special spiritual sense each; for example, according to his theory a blue color implied the male and austere principles.
In search of ideal
The gorgeous blue has haunted the mind of the artists in XX century. Yves Klein intended to find and absolute and perfect color embodying spiritual and infinite. According to him the vibrant sky in the Giotto’s paintings inspired him and the color assisted him in learning immateriality.
He began his research in the early 50s. In 1957 in Milan he produced 11 monochromes of the same size. It was famous Yves Klein Blue (International Klein Blue or IKB) the formula of which was patented by the artist in 1960.
Ancient god and at the same time Messiah lit with the divine radiance. The portrait of the artist, a colleague and a member of the New Realists group in blue color IKB.
Yves Klein, the Arman, (1962) The Pompidou Centre, Paris.
Yet, the unofficial palette free of patents and available for artists to use it recklessly has not become less opulent. The blue color has an infinite variety of hues.
The cover illustration: Pablo Picasso. The Blue Nude, 1902.
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Индиго и натуральный ультрамарин ( из лазурита) были известны ещё древним грекам, а синий кобальт был открыт в конце 18 века. Так что утверждения автора статьи, что 13 век стал переломным в использовании синего цвета из-за того, что были открыты эти три синих пигмента, неверны!
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HomeBooks
Historical Tales, Vol. 2 (of 15) The Romance of Reality
by Charles Morris
Publisher: Archive ClassicsReleased: ISBN: Format: book
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Historical Tales, Vol. 2 (of 15) The Romance of Reality - Charles Morris
Project Gutenberg's Historical Tales, Vol. 2 (of 15), by Charles Morris
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Historical Tales, Vol. 2 (of 15)
The Romance of Reality
Author: Charles Morris
Release Date: April 19, 2008 [EBook #25103]
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORICAL TALES, VOL. 2 (OF 15) ***
Produced by David Kline, Greg Bergquist and The Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Battle of Antietam.
Édition d'Élite
Historical Tales
Author of Half-Hours with the Best American Authors, "Tales from the
Dramatists," etc.
IN FIFTEEN VOLUMES
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON
Copyright, 1904, by J. B. Lippincott Company.
CONTENTS.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
AMERICAN. VOLUME II.
PONCE DE LEON AND THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH.
A golden Easter day was that of the far-away year 1513, when a small fleet of Spanish ships, sailing westward from the green Bahamas, first came in sight of a flower-lined shore, rising above the blue Atlantic waves, and seeming to smile a welcome as the mariners gazed with eyes of joy and hope on the inviting arcades of its verdant forest depths. Never had the eyes of white men beheld this land of beauty before. English ships had sailed along the coast to the north, finding much of it bleak and uninviting. The caravels of Columbus had threaded the glowing line of tropic isles, and later ships had borne settlers to these lands of promise. But the rich southlands of the continent had never before been seen, and well was this unknown realm of beauty named Florida by the Spanish chief, whether by this name he meant to call it the land of flowers or referred to the Spanish name for Easter, Pascua Florida. However that be, he was the first of the discoverers to set foot on the soil of the great coming republic of the United States, and it is of interest that this was done within the domain of the sunny South.
The weight of half a century of years lay upon the shoulders of Juan Ponce de Leon, the discoverer, but warm hope burned in his heart, that of winning renewed boyhood and youthful strength, for it was a magic vision that drew him to these new shores, in whose depths he felt sure the realm of enchantment lay. Somewhere amid those green copses or along those liquid streams, he had been told, a living fountain sprang up clear and sparkling from the earth, its waters of such a marvellous quality that whoever should bathe in them would feel new life coursing through his veins and the vigor of youth bounding along his limbs. It was the Fountain of Youth he sought, that fabled fountain of which men had dreamed for centuries, and which was thought to lie somewhere in eastern Asia. Might not its waters upspring in this new land, whose discovery was the great marvel of the age, and which men looked upon as the unknown east of Asia? Such was the new-comer's dream.
Ponce de Leon was a soldier and cavalier of Spain in those days when Spain stood first among the nations of Europe, first in strength and enterprise and daring. Brave as the bravest, he had fought with distinguished courage against the Moors of Granada at the time when Columbus was setting out on his famous voyage over the unknown seas of the West. Drawn by the fame of the discovery of the New World, De Leon sailed with Columbus in his second voyage, and proved himself a gallant soldier in the wars for the conquest of Hispaniola, of whose eastern half he was made governor.
To the eastward lay another island, the fair tropic land ever since known as Porto Rico. De Leon could see from the high hills of Hispaniola the far green shores of this island, which he invaded and finally subdued in 1509, making himself its governor. A stern oppressor of the natives, he won great wealth from his possessions here and in Hispaniola. But, like many men in his position, his heart was sore from the loss of the youthful vigor which would have enabled him to enjoy to the full his new-found wealth.
Along the Coast of Florida.
Could he but discover the wondrous fountain of youth and plunge in its life-giving waters! Was not this the region in which it was said to lie? He eagerly questioned the Indians about it, and was told by them that they had often heard of such a fountain somewhere not far to the north. It is probable enough that the Indians were ready to tell anything, false or true, that would rid them of the unwelcome Spaniards; but it may be that among their many fables they believed that such a fountain existed. However that may be, De Leon gladly heard their story, and lost no time in going forth like a knight errant in quest of the magic fount. On March 3, 1513, he sailed with three ships from Porto Rico, and, after threading the fair Bahama Islands, landing on those of rarest tropic charm, he came on Easter Sunday, March 27, in sight of the beautiful land to which he gave the name of Florida.
Bad weather kept him for a time from the shore, and it was not until April 9 that he was able to land. It was near the mouth of the St. John River, not far from where St. Augustine now stands, that he set foot on shore, the first white man's foot to tread the soil of the coming United States since the days of the Northmen, five centuries before. He called his place of landing the Bay of the Cross, and took possession of the land for the king of Spain, setting up a stone cross as a sign of Spain's jurisdiction.
And now the eager cavalier began the search for that famous fount which was to give him perpetual youth. It is not likely he was alone in this, probably most of his followers being as eager as he, for in those days magic was firmly believed in by half of mankind, and many wild fancies were current which no one now accepts. Deep into the dense woodland they plunged, wandering through verdant miles, bathing in every spring and stream they met, led on and on by the hope that some one of these might hold the waters of youth. Doubtless they fancied that the fountain sought would have some special marks, something to distinguish it from the host of common springs. But this might not be the case. The most precious things may lie concealed under the plainest aspect, like the fabled jewel in the toad's forehead, and it was certainly wisest to let no waters pass untried.
Months passed on. Southward along the coast they sailed, landing here and there and penetrating inland, still hopeful of finding the enchanted spring. But wherever it might lie hidden, they found it not, for the marks of age which nature had brought clung to them still, and a bitterly disappointed man was Juan Ponce de Leon when he turned the prows of his ships away from the new-found shores and sailed back to Porto Rico.
The Will-o'-the-wisp he sought had baffled him, yet something of worth remained, for he had made a discovery of importance, the Island of Florida, as he called it and thought it to be. To Spain he went with the news of his voyage, and told the story of his discovery to King Ferdinand, to whom Columbus had told his wonderful tale some twenty years before. The king at once appointed him governor of Florida, and gave him full permission to plant a colony in the new land—continent or island as it might prove to be.
De Leon may still have nourished hopes in his heart of finding the fabled fountain when, in 1521, he returned to plant the colony granted by the king. But the natives of Florida had seen enough of the Spaniards in their former visit, and now met them with arrows instead of flowers and smiles. Fierce fights ensued, and their efforts to establish themselves on the new shores proved in vain. In the end their leader received so severe an arrow wound that he withdrew and left to the victorious Indians the ownership of their land. The arrow was poisoned, and his wound proved mortal. In a short time after reaching Cuba he died, having found death instead of youth in the land of flowers.
We may quote the words of the historian Robertson in support of the fancy which led De Leon in the path of discovery: The Spaniards, at that period, were engaged in a career of activity which gave a romantic turn to their imagination and daily presented to them strange and marvellous objects. A new world was opened to their view. They visited islands and continents of whose existence mankind in former ages had no conception. In those delightful countries nature seemed to assume another form; every tree and plant and animal was different from those of the ancient hemisphere. They seemed to be transported into enchanted ground; and, after the wonders which they had seen, nothing, in the warmth and novelty of their imagination, appeared to them so extraordinary as to be beyond belief. If the rapid succession of new and striking scenes made such impression on the sound understanding of Columbus that he boasted of having found the seat of Paradise, it will not appear strange that Ponce de Leon should dream of discovering the fountain of youth.
All we need say farther is that the first attempt to colonize the shores of the great republic of the future years ended in disaster and death. Yet De Leon's hope was not fully amiss, for in our own day many seek that flowery land in quest of youthful strength. They do not now hope to find it by bathing in any magic fountain, but it comes to them by breathing its health-giving atmosphere and basking in its magic clime.
DE SOTO AND THE FATHER OF WATERS.
America was to the Spaniards the land of gold. Everywhere they looked for the yellow metal, more precious in their eyes than anything else the earth yields. The wonderful adventures of Cortez in Mexico and of Pizarro in Peru, and the vast wealth in gold found by those sons of fame, filled their people with hope and avarice, and men of enterprise began to look elsewhere for great and rich Indian nations to subdue and plunder.
North of the Gulf of Mexico lay a vast, mysterious region, which in time to come was to be the seat of a great and mighty nation. To the Spaniards it was a land of enchantment, the mystic realm of the unknown, perhaps rich in marvels and wealthy beyond their dreams. It was fabled to contain the magic fountain of youth, the hope to bathe in whose pellucid waters lured Ponce de Leon to his death. Another explorer, De Ayllon, sailed north of Florida, seeking a sacred stream which was said to possess the same enchanted powers. A third, De Narvaez, went far into the country, with more men than Cortez led to the conquest of Mexico, but after months of wandering only a handful of his men returned, and not a grain of gold was found to pay for their suffering.
But these failures only stirred the cavaliers of Spain to new thirst for adventure and gain. They had been told of fertile plains, of splendid tropical forests, of the beauty of the Indian maidens, of romantic incidents and hair-breadth escapes, of the wonderful influence exercised by a white man on tribes of dusky warriors, and who knew what fairy marvels or unimagined wealth might be found in the deep interior of this land of hope and mystery. Thus when Hernando de Soto, who had been with Pizarro in Peru and seen its gold-plated temples, called for volunteers to explore and conquer the unknown northland, hundreds of aspiring warriors flocked to his standard, burning with love of adventure and filled with thirst for gold.
On the 30th of May, 1539, De Soto, with nine vessels and six or seven hundred well-armed followers, sailed into Tampa Bay, on the Gulf coast of Florida. Here they at once landed and marched inland, greedy to reach and grasp the spectral image of gold which floated before their eyes. A daring but a cruel man was this new adventurer. He brought with him blood-hounds to hunt the Indians and chains to fetter them. A drove of hogs was brought to supply the soldiers with fresh meat. They were provided with horses, with fire-arms, with cannon, with steel armor, with everything to overawe and overcome the woodland savages. Yet two things they needed; these were judgment and discretion. It would have been wise to make friends of the Indians. Instead, by their cruelty, they turned them into bitter and relentless enemies. So wherever they went they had bold and fierce foes to fight, and wounds and death marked their pathway across the land.
Let us follow De Soto and his men into the realm of the unknown. They had not gone far before a strange thing happened. Out of a crowd of dusky Indians a white man rode on horseback to join them, making gestures of delight. He was a Spaniard, Juan Ortiz by name, one of the Narvaez band, who had been held in captivity among the Indians for ten years. He knew the Indian language well and offered himself as an interpreter and guide. Heaven seemed to have sent him, for he was worth a regiment to the Spaniards.
Juan Ortiz had a strange story to tell. Once his captors had sought to burn him alive by a slow fire as a sacrifice to the evil spirit. Bound hand and foot, he was laid on a wooden stage and a fire kindled under him. But at this moment of frightful peril the daughter of the chieftain begged for his life, and her father listened to her prayer. Three years later the savage captors again decided to burn him, and again the dusky maiden saved his life. She warned him of his danger and led him to the camp of another chief. Here he stayed till the Spaniards came. What became of the warm-hearted maiden we are not told. She did not win the fame of the Pocahontas of a later day.
Many and strange were the adventures of the Spaniards as they went deeper and deeper into the new land of promise. Misfortune tracked their footsteps and there was no glitter of gold to cheer their hearts. A year passed over their heads and still the land of gold lay far away. An Indian offered to lead them to a distant country, governed by a woman, telling them that there they would find abundance of a yellow metal. Inspired by hope, they now pushed eagerly forward, but the yellow metal proved to be copper instead of gold, and their high hopes were followed by the gloom of disappointment and despair. But wherever they went their trail was marked by blood and pillage, and the story of their ruthless deeds stirred up the Indians in advance to bitter hostility.
Fear alone made any of the natives meet them with a show of peace, and this they repaid by brutal deeds. One of their visitors was an Indian queen—as they called her—the woman chief of a tribe of the South. When the Spaniards came near her domain she hastened to welcome them, hoping by this means to make friends of her dreaded visitors. Borne in a litter by four of her subjects, the dusky princess alighted before De Soto and came forward with gestures of pleasure, as if delighted to welcome her guests. Taking from her neck a heavy double string of pearls, she hung it on that of the Spanish leader. De Soto accepted it with the courtly grace of a cavalier, and pretended friendship while he questioned his hostess.
But he no sooner obtained the information he wanted than he made her a prisoner, and at once began to rob her and her people of all the valuables they possessed. Chief among these were large numbers of pearls, most of them found in the graves of the distinguished men of the tribe. But the plunderers did not gain all they hoped for by their act of vandalism, for the poor queen managed to escape from her guards, and in her flight took with her a box of the most valuable of the pearls. They were those which De Soto had most prized and he was bitterly stung by their loss.
The adventurers were now near the Atlantic, on ground which had been trodden by whites before, and they decided to turn inland and explore the country to the west. After months more of wandering, and the loss of many men through their battles with the Indians, they found themselves in the autumn of 1540 at a large village called Mavilla. It stood where stands to-day the city of Mobile. Here a large force of Indians was gathered.
The Indian chief or cacique met De Soto with a show of friendship, and induced him and a few of his men to follow him within the palisades which surrounded the village. No sooner had they got there than the chief shouted some words of insult in his own tongue and darted into one of the houses. A minor chief got into a dispute with a Spanish soldier, who, in the usual Spanish fashion, carried forward the argument with a blow from his sword. This served as a signal for hostilities. In an instant clouds of arrows poured from the houses, and before the Spaniards could escape nearly the whole of them were slain. Only De Soto and a few others got out with their lives from the trap into which they had been beguiled.
Filled with revengeful rage, the Spanish forces now invested and assailed the town, and a furious conflict began, lasting for nine hours. In the end the whites, from their superior weapons and organization, won the victory. But theirs was a costly triumph, for many of them had fallen and nearly all their property had been destroyed. Mavilla was burned and hosts of the Indians were killed, but the Spaniards were in a terrible situation, far from their ships, without medicine or food, and surrounded by brave and furious enemies.
The soldiers felt that they had had enough adventure of this kind, and clamored to be led back to their ships. De Soto had been advised that the ships were then in the Bay of Pensacola, only six days' journey from Mavilla, but he kept this a secret from his men, for hopes of fame and wealth still filled his soul. In the end, despite their entreaties, he led the men to the north, spending the winter in a small village of the Chickasaw Indians.
When spring opened the adventurers resumed their journey into the unknown. In his usual forcible fashion De Soto seized on Indians to carry his baggage, and in this way he brought on a violent battle, in which the whites met with a serious defeat and were in imminent danger of annihilation. Not a man of them would have lived to tell the tale if the savages had not been so scared at their own success that they drew back just when they had the hated Spaniards in their power.
De Soto Discovering the Mississippi River.
A strange-looking army was that which the indomitable De Soto led forward from this place. Many of the uniforms of the men had been carried off by the enemy, and these were replaced with skins and mats made of ivy-leaves, so that the adventurers looked more like forest braves than Christian warriors. But onward still they trudged, sick at heart many of them, but obeying the orders of their resolute chief, and in the blossoming month of May they made that famous discovery by which the name of Hernando de Soto has ever since been known. For they stood on the banks of one of the mightiest rivers of the earth, the great Father of Waters, the grand Mississippi. From thousands of miles to the north had come the waters which now rolled onward in a mighty volume before their eyes, hastening downward to bury themselves in the still distant Gulf.
A discovery such as this might have been enough to satisfy the cravings of any ordinary man, but De Soto, in his insatiable greed for gold, saw in the glorious stream only an obstacle to his course, half a league over. To build boats and cross the stream was the one purpose that filled his mind, and with much labor they succeeded in getting across the great stream themselves and the few of their horses that remained.
At once the old story began again. The Indians beyond the Mississippi had heard of the Spaniards and their methods, and met them with relentless hostility. They had hardly landed on the opposite shore before new battles began. As for the Indian empire, with great cities, civilized inhabitants, and heaps of gold, which Be Soto so ardently sought, it seemed as far off as ever, and he was a sadly disappointed man as he led the miserable remnant of his once well-equipped and hopeful followers up the left bank of the great stream, dreams of wealth and renown not yet quite driven from his mind.
At length they reached the region of the present State of Missouri. Here the simple-minded people took the white strangers to be children of the Sun, the god of their worship, and they brought out their blind, hoping to have them restored to sight by a touch from the healing hands of these divine visitors. Leaving after a time these superstitious tribes, De Soto led his men to the west, lured on still by the phantom of a wealthy Indian realm, and the next winter was passed near where Little Rock, Arkansas, is now built.
Spring returned at length, and the weary wanderings of the devoted band were resumed. Depressed, worn-out, hopeless, they trudged onward, hardly a man among them looking for aught but death in those forest wilds. Juan Ortiz, the most useful man in the band, died, and left the enterprise still more hopeless. But De Soto, worn, sick, emaciated, was indomitable still and the dream of a brilliant success lingered as ever in his brain. He tried now to win over the Indians by pretending to be immortal and to be gifted with supernatural powers, but it was too late to make them credit any such fantastic notion.
The band encamped in an unhealthy spot near the great river. Here disease attacked the men; scouts were sent out to seek a better place, but they found only trackless woods and rumors of Indian bands creeping stealthily up on all sides to destroy what remained of the little army of whites.
Almost for the first time De Soto's resolute mind now gave way. Broken down by his many labors and cares, perhaps assailed by the disease that was attacking his men, he felt that death was near at hand. Calling around him the sparse remnant of his once gallant company, he humbly begged their pardon for the sufferings and evils he had brought upon them, and named Luis de Alvaredo to succeed him in command. The next day, May 21, 1542, the unfortunate hero died. Thus passed away one of the three greatest Spanish explorers of the New World, a man as great in his way and as indomitable in his efforts as his rivals, Cortez and Pizarro, though not so fortunate in his results. For three years he had led his little band through a primitive wilderness, fighting his way steadily through hosts of savage foes, and never yielding until the hand of death was laid upon his limbs.
Fearing a fierce attack from the savages if they should learn that the immortal chief of the whites was dead, Alvaredo had him buried secretly outside the walls of the camp. But the new-made grave was suspicious. The prowling Indians might dig it up and discover the noted form it held. To prevent this, Alvaredo had the body of De Soto dug up in the night, wrapped it in cloths
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Paper 2 June 1999
614-07977-00_EN
Ionic Liquids in
Biphasic Ethylene Polymerisation
Wioletta Ochdzan-Siodak
Faculty of Chemistry, University of Opole,
Over the past several years there has been a considerable increase in the interest of ionic
liquids as versatile reaction media for a wide variety of synthetic processes. The popularity
of ionic liquids has been related primarily to their unique physical and chemical properties,
which can be tailored by the judicious selection of cations and anions. These properties
make it possible to use ionic liquids as solvents for many organic, inorganic, and
organometallic compounds, including catalysts and co-catalysts, for various types of
reactions. In particular, the polar but weakly coordinating character of ionic liquids enables
them to be applied as mediums in catalysis, to immobilize various kinds of catalyst
precursors which contain transition metals. Recently, ionic liquids have also been viewed as
a green replacement to conventional organic solvents (Olivier-Bourbigou, 2002;
Wasserscheid et al., 2004; Wilkes, 2004; Welton, 2004; Kubisa, 2004; Jain, 2005 ; Parvulescu et
al., 2007; Chowdhury et al., 2007; Ochdzan-Siodak, 2009).
Amongst many reactions carried out in an ionic liquids environment, dimerisation and
oligomerisation reactions catalyzed by nickel complexes should be noted. In the majority of
cases, an improvement in the activity and selectivity of the processes as well as the
limitation of undesirable side reactions were achieved. Due to the good solubility of
transition metal compounds in the ionic liquid phase, and simultaneously, a poor miscibility
of the produced olefins, the reaction is commonly performed in a biphasic mode. The
product creates a separate phase over the ionic liquid phase containing the dissolved
catalyst. Thus, it becomes possible to easily separate the product from the reaction mixture,
to minimize the waste of the expensive transition metal compound, and to use the catalyst
repeatedly (recycling) (Chauvin et al.,1990; 1995; 1997; Einloft et al. 1996; Simon et al., 1998;
Ellis et al., 1999; Pinheiro et al., 2001; Wasserscheid et al., 2001; Bernando-Gusmo et al.,
2003; Wasserscheid et al., 2004).
The successful application of ionic liquids in the oligomerisation of 1-olefins inspired us to
investigate the biphasic technique in polymerisation reactions using metallocene catalysts,
which constitute the next generation of organometallic catalysts for olefin polymerization.
Metallocenes in the past gained a considerable interest due to their high activities - up to
several tons of the polymer product per gram of the transition metal. Unfortunately, it was
found that such high activities can only be obtained for homogenous catalyst systems
dissolved in carcinogenic solvents and activated by a great excess of expensive
methylaluminoxane (MAO). Furthermore, the homogenous systems reveal low stabilities
www.intechopen.com
Ionic Liquids: Applications and Perspectives
during the polymerisation reactions, reaction fouling, and a lack of control of the polymer
morphology (Kaminsky, Laban, 2001; Ewen, 2000).
To overcome these undesirable features, the metallocene systems were subjected to an
anchorage on a solid carrier, for example SiO
, MgCl
, as well as polymer compounds.
The obtained heterogenisation of the metallocene systems makes it possible to control the
product morphology, as well as resulting in an absence of reactor fouling, and a decrease in
the amount of the MAO activator required. Unfortunately, the anchorage of the catalyst to the
solid carrier results in a decrease of the activity (10-60%) as compared to the homogeneous
analogue. The heterogenisation process is technically difficult to proceed, time consuming, and
the polymer product reveals a considerable degree of inhomogeneity (Chen, 2000; Hlatky,
2000; Severn et al., 2005; Ochdzan-Siodak, Nowakowska, 2005).
Therefore, there is a need to search for new, non-conventional performance methods of
olefin polymerisation using metallocene catalysts. It seems that the immobilization of the
metallocene catalyst in ionic liquids could be a potential alternative to its heterogenisation
on a solid carrier.
2. Ethylene polymerisation
The ethylene polymerisation performed using the [C
-mim][AlCl
] ionic liquid as a medium of
the TiCl
catalyst activated by the AlEtCl
alkylaluminium compound was described for the
first time by Carlin and Osteryoung. The polymerisation was carried out in the single phase
mode (in the ionic liquid). Although only small amounts of the polyethylene product were
obtained (0.23 kgPE/(molTi 10 min)), the results indicated that ionic liquids can be applied
to olefin polymerisation (Carlin et al., 1990). It was further found that amongst the Cp
metallocene catalysts (M = Ti, Hf, Zr) activated by the AlCl
alylaluminium compounds
(R = Me, Et), only the titanocene catalyst turned out to be active (Carlin, Wilkes, 1990).
Fig. 1. The schematic representation of the studied biphasic ionic liquid/hexane
polymerisation.
In our work, the polymerisation reaction was performed in the biphasic mode (Figure 1).
The polymerisation of the simplest olefin, ethylene, was investigated as a model. The lower
phase consisted of the ionic liquid, in which the Cp
TiCl
catalyst and the alkylaluminium
activators were dissolved. Hexane constituted the upper phase. For the ionic liquids, 1-n-
Ionic Liquids in Biphasic Ethylene Polymerisation
alkyl-3-methylimidazolium and 1-n-alkyl-4-methylpyridinium chloroaluminates substituted
by alkyl chains of various length (n = butyl, hexyl, octyl) were applied (Ochdzan-Siodak et
al., 2007; 2008; 2009).
2.1 Biphasic process
For all biphasic ionic liquid/hexane polymerisation experiments performed, the following
facts have been observed. Two phases, hexane and ionic liquid, are clearly visible from the
beginning to the end of the reaction. At the beginning of the reaction the ionic liquid phase
becomes white and swells considerably as the polyethylene appears. At the same time, the
hexane phase remains colourless and transparent. After 5-10 minutes, the hexane phase
becomes a white suspension as the polyethylene is progressively transferred from the ionic
liquid phase. The polyethylene is obtained in form of a powder. It is white when obtained
from the hexane phase and off-white when obtained from the ionic liquid phase. The
polyethylene from the hexane phase can be easily isolated and subjected to analysis.
It is very important for the biphasic catalytic process to maintain the catalyst in the selected
phase. This has been shown by experiments where the ionic liquid phase contained the
catalyst and the alkylaluminium compound was washed with hexane. Catalyst
leakage was not detected, which indicates that the titanocene is firmly immobilised in the
ionic liquid phase and remains during the entire duration of the polymerisation (Ochdzan-
Siodak, Pawelska, 2008).
During the course of the polymerisation reaction, the polyethylene is progressively
transferred to the hexane phase. At the same time, the amount of polyethylene in the ionic
liquid phase decreases, however, the total polyethylene yield increases with the
polymerisation time (Figure 2). This confirms that the polymerisation reaction takes place in
the ionic liquid phase. It also indicates that the catalyst is stable.
Fig. 2. The influence of the reaction time on the PE yield in the biphasic ethylene
polymerisation. Polymerisation conditions: ionic liquid [C
], catalyst Cp
activatorAlEt
Cl, Al/Ti = 33, standard pressure, room temperature.
The stability of the catalyst was also proved by the re-use of the ionic liquid phase
containing the catalyst and the activators in the consecutive polymerisation reactions
(Figure 3). The experiments consisted of three cycles, which were successfully performed,
although the polymerisation yield gradually decreased. The catalyst was maintained in the
ionic liquid phase whereas the polyethylene product was removed after each cycle with the
hexane phase. Thus, catalyst recycling is possible. Also, it seems to be a very important way
to increase catalyst performance in the biphasic processes (Ochdzan-Siodak et al., 2008).
Fig. 3. The 3-step catalyst recycling in the biphasic ethylene polymerisation. Polymerisation
conditions: ionic liquid [C
, activator AlEt
Cl, Al/Ti =
33, standard pressure, room temperature, reaction time 30 min.
The results presented show that the application of the ionic liquid as a medium of the
titanocene catalyst as well as the performance of the polymerisation reaction in the biphasic
mode offer the following advantages; the polymer product can be easily separated from the
reaction mixture using a simple decantation technique; the product is characterised by high
purity; the product is transferred to the hexane phase, whereas the catalyst and activator
remain in the ionic liquid phase. In addition, the catalyst presented in the ionic liquid phase
is stable and catalyst leakage is not observed. Thus, recycling of both the catalyst and the
ionic liquid is possible. It should be also noted that reaction fouling (common for the
metallocene/MAO systems) is not present (Ochdzan-Siodak et al, 2007; 2008).
2.2 Activators
The great advantage of ionic liquids over classic solvent is the fact that their properties can
be tailored by the choice of suitable cations and anions. Applying a titanocene catalyst to the
ethylene polymerisation limits the choice to the chloroaluminate ionic liquids because so far
it is only this anion which makes the use of the alkylaluminium compounds as necessary
catalyst activators possible. It should be noted that introduction of the alkylaluminium
compound inevitably influences the anionic part of the ionic liquid. The kind and the
amount of the alkylaluminium compound used are important because a range of mixtures
of the chloroaluminate anions can be created. Also, the Lewis acidity of the ionic liquid is
changed. This has considerable influence on the course and the performance of the ethylene
polymerisation carried out in the biphasic mode.
The following alkylaluminium compounds: AlEtCl
, AlEt
Cl, AlEt
, and MAO were
investigated as activators of the Cp
catalyst (Figure 4). The best results were obtained
for the compounds containing the chlorine atom, AlEtCl
and AlEt
Cl. The more chlorine
atom the activator contains, the higher the total yield, with the greater amount of
polyethylene product transferred to the hexane phase. Interestingly, the worst results were
obtained using methylaluminoxane (MAO), which is the best activator for the homogeneous
metallocene catalysts. Therefore, the application of the ionic liquid to the ethylene
polymerisation eliminates the need for the expensive MAO as the activator, which can be
superseded by traditional, cheaper alkylaluminium compounds (Ochdzan-Siodak et al.,
2007; 2008).
Fig. 4. The influence of various kinds of alkylaluminium activators on the performance of
the biphasic ethylene polymerisation. Polymerisation conditions: ionic liquid [C
mim][AlCl
, Al/Ti = 33, standard pressure, room temperature, reaction
time 30 min.
2.3 Imidazolium ionic liquids
The further investigations focused mainly on the modification of the cationic part of the
ionic liquid. Substituting the imidazolium and pirydinium cations by alkyl chains of various
lengths makes it possible to tailor some of the physical properties of the ionic liquids. The
two most effective activators, AlEtCl
Cl, were applied (Ochdzan-Siodak et al.,
2007; 2008; 2009). The study performed using 1-n-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium ionic liquids,
[C
], show that the length of the alkyl chain at the ionic liquid cation and the
concentration of the alkylaluminium compound influence the performance of the biphasic
polymerisation reaction, i.e. the total polymerisation yield, the amount of the polyethylene
product gathered in the hexane phase, and the phase separation (Figure 5). For each studied
ionic liquid, there is an optimal concentration of the alkylaluminium compound, in which
the yield of the reaction is the highest and the majority of the product transfers to the hexane
phase. For [C
] and [C
], ionic liquids with shorter alkyl chains, the
activator/catalyst molar ratio (Al/Ti) reaches optimum at the value 100. A higher ratio
results in a decrease of the yield and the majority of the product remains in the ionic liquid
], the ionic liquid with a longer alkyl chain, the optimal
activator/catalyst molar ratio is higher (Al/Ti = 133) resulting in a total PE yield 120
kgPE/molTih. An even higher yield can be obtained at the activator/catalyst molar ratios
167 and 200. However, the majority of the product remains in the ionic liquid phase, which
is disadvantageous to the biphasic process. Therefore, if two criteria for the performance of
the biphasic process are the amount of the product gathered in the hexane phase and the
ratio between the amount of product in both phases, the ionic liquid with the longest alkyl
chain is the better medium for the titanocene catalyst as it results in the greatest amount of
the pure polymer product from the hexane phase. It was also found that prolongation of the
reaction time (up to 120 min.) improves the reaction yield. This confirms the stability of the
catalyst immobilised in the ionic liquid and makes it possible to obtain the greatest amount
of the product from the hexane phase.
Fig. 5. The influence of the alkyl chain at the cation of the ionic liquids and the concentration
of the AlEtCl
alkylaluminium activator on the performance of the biphasic ethylene
] (n = 4,6,8),
catalyst Cp
, activator AlEtCl
, pressure 0.5MPa, room temperature, reaction
When the AlEt
Cl compound is used instead of AlEtCl
, similar results were obtained
(Figure 6). The yield increases with the increase of the concentration of the alkylaluminium
compound. For the ionic liquids with shorter alkyl chains, the best results are obtained at
the lower activator/catalyst molar ratio, whereas for the ionic liquid with the longer alkyl
chain, a higher activator/catalyst molar ratio is required. However, the obtained yield is
considerably lower, which indicates that the AlEt
Cl compound is not as efficient as AlEtCl
of the AlEt
Cl alkylaluminium activator on the performance of the biphasic ethylene
Cl, pressure 0.5MPa, room temperature, reaction
2.4 Pyridinium ionic liquids
Similar studies were carried out for the pirydinium ionic liquids. The pyridinium cation not
only differs in its structure in comparison to the imidazolium cation, but also the position of
the alkyl chain can be changed. 1-n-Alkyl-4-methylpyridinium chloroaluminates [C
mpy][AlCl
] were investigated at similar polymerisation conditions as for the imidazolium
ionic liquids (Figure 7). It was found that the yield increases with the increase of the
alkylaluminium concentration. Nevertheless at higher activator/catalyst molar ratios, the
majority of the product remains in the ionic liquids, which is a disadvantageous phenomenon.
Only at a lower activator/catalyst molar ratio (Al/Ti = 67) is the majority of the polymer
product gathered in the hexane phase. In contrast to the imidazolium ionic liquids, the best
results were obtained for the pyridinium cations with shorter alkyl chains ([C
-4-mpy][AlCl
]).
This can particularly be seen at lower Al/Ti molar ratios.
The change of the position of the alkyl chain at the pyridinium cation was investigated on
the [C
] ionic liquids. In both cases the polymerisation
yield and the transfer of the polymer to the hexane phase is slightly better for the ionic
liquid having the alkyl chain at the para position at the pyridinium cation. This indicates that
the position of the alkyl chain at the ionic liquid cation influences the performance of the
biphasic process, although the effect is moderate. Generally, the application of pyridinium
ionic liquids to the biphasic polymerisation results in higher yields in comparison to
imidazolium analogues at similar reaction conditions.
To improve the performance of the biphasic polymerisation, the reaction time was extended
twice (up to 120 min.). Advantageous increases in the amount of the product in the hexane
phase as well as in the total polymerisation yield were observed. Again, the best result was
obtained for the [C
] ionic liquid with the shortest alkyl chain.
Fig. 7. The influence of the alkyl chain at the pyridinium cation and the concentration of the
AlEtCl
polymerisation. Polymerisation conditions: ionic liquids: [C
] (n = 4,6,8); [C
3-mpy][AlCl
, pressure 0.5MPa, room temperature,
reaction time 60 min.
By contrast, the length of the alkyl chain at the pyridinium cations in comparison to
imidazolium analogues has a negative effect, which can clearly be seen using the AlEt
activator instead of AlEtCl
(Figure 8). Similarly to the imidazolium ionic liquids, the
application of the AlEt
Cl activator results in a considerable decrease of the reaction yield.
However, it should be noted that almost the entire amount of the polymer product is
gathered in the hexane phase. This phenomenon is of great importance because it results in
a product of high purity. Furthermore, the negligible amount of the product in the ionic
liquid phase makes it possible to apply this phase in consecutive multi-step reactions. Thus,
the recycling of both the catalyst and the ionic liquid can easily be done. It seems that the
Cl activator could be successfully applied in a continuous flow process, whereas the
activator is better in a single reaction step.
Cl, Al/Ti = 133, standard pressure 0.5MPa, room
temperature, reaction time 60 min.
2.5 Ionic liquids properties
The presented results show that the structure of the ionic liquid cation has a considerable
influence on the performance of the biphasic polymerisation. The structure of the cation
influences the physical properties of the ionic liquids, such as density and viscosity (Olivier-
Bourbigou, 2010).
Generally, an increase in the alkyl chain length leads to a decrease in the density and an
increase in the viscosity of the ionic liquid. In biphasic ethylene polymerization the viscosity
and the density of the ionic liquid play a key role in the dispersion of both phases, which
influences the mass transfer of the product from the ionic liquid phase to the hexane phase.
This can be seen the most clearly in the case of the polymerisations carried out in the
imidazolium ionic liquids (Figure 5). In the case of the pyridinium analogues, the mass
transfer seems to be more hindered, and this effect is much smaller.
For polymerisation performed at lower alkylaluminium (activator) concentration, the
majority of the product is gathered in the hexane phase. This can be explained by the
presence of a relatively small number of active sites. In consequence, a smaller amount of
the polymer is produced, but this does not exceed the amount of product which the system
is able to transfer from the ionic liquid phase where the product is created to the hexane
phase where the product is gathered. For the polymerisation performed at a higher
alkylaluminium concentration, a greater number of active sites appears, which results in a
greater amount of the polymer produced than the system is able to transfer to the hexane
phase. Thus, a considerabe amount of the product remains in the ionic liquid phase. This
phenomenon is observed for all the ionic liquids studied. The polymerisation performed
using the AlEt
Cl compound support this conclusion. AlEt
Cl is an activator of lower
efficiency than AlEtCl
. It creates a smaller number of active sites, and thus, a smaller mass
of the polymer product, but this is easily transferred to the hexane phase.
The optimum activator/catalyst molar ratio observed in the case of the polymerisation
carried out in the imidazolium ionic liquids is another interesting phenomenon. Too low or
too high a concentration of the alkylaluminium compound is disadvantageous and leads to
a decrease of the reaction yield. This phenomenon is connected with the acidity of the ionic
liquid phase. Carlin and Wilkes proved that only ionic liquids of the Lewis acid character
are useful for the ethylene polymerisation reaction. The acid character of the
chloroaluminate ionic liquid can be obtained by adding the correct amount of AlCl
Usually, during the synthesis of the ionic liquids from AlCl
and the given chloride of the
organic cation, an excess of AlCl
is added AlCl
/[C
-mim]Cl>1). However, at a higher
concentration of the AlCl
and Al
anions, complexation of the titanocene catalyst to
either the Cp
Ti(AlCl
or Cp
TiCl(Al
) forms can occur (Carlin, Wilkes, 1990).
+ Al
TiCl(AlCl
) + AlCl
) + Al
+ AlCl
Ti(Al
The proper acidity of the ionic liquid can be obtained using alkylaluminium compounds
containing chlorine atoms. These compounds, such as the AlEtCl
applied in this work, lead
to the creation of various anions in the reaction medium: AlCl
EtCl
, AlEtCl
. The optimum parameters of the chloroaluminate ionic liquid applied as a
medium of the catalyst for the polymerisation depends on the amount and kinds of the
anions. Higher concentrations of the AlCl
and AlEtCl
anions, of neutral character,
considerably decrease the acidity of the chloroaluminate ionic liquid. In contrast, higher
concentrations of the Al
anions result in the ionic liquid being too acidic,
which also leads to a decrease of the polymerisation yield. Therefore, the judicious selection
of the kind and amount of the alkylaluminium Lewis acid is very important when tailoring
the acidity of the ionic liquid. The presented results indicate that the application of the
compound, which reveals a higher Lewis acidity in comparison to AlEt
Cl, results in
a better performance of the ionic liquid in the polymerisation reaction (Chauvin, 1990;
Thiele, de Souza, 2007).
The optimum activator/catalyst molar ratio not only enables the reduction of the titanium
compound, but also creates the appropriate environment for the polymerisation reaction,
which results from the correct proportion of the chloroaluminate anions being present in the
ionic liquid medium.
It is known that in the homogeneous metallocene systems, the active site is represented by
the cationic form of the metallocene; Cp
. Thus, the necessary condition for the
polymerisation reaction is:
i. detachment of the AlCl
group and creation of the unsaturated Cp
, according to
the equation:
TiR(AlCl
) Cp
ii. exchange of the AlCl
group by ethylene molecule and creation of the
TiR(CH
)+CH
+AlCl
In both cases, the centre of the polymerisation reaction is the cationic complex, created by
the break of the M-Cl bond, which is stronger for Zr and Hf and weaker for Ti. Therefore,
the inactivity of the Zr and Hf compounds results from the stronger M-Cl bonds, which
make it impossible to create the active cationic form [Cp
] (Carlin, Wilkes, 1990). It
should be noted, however, that the chloroaluminate ionic liquid participates in the creation
of the active centre, which is supported by literature (Chauvin, 1997; Simon, 1998; Bernardo-
Gusmao, 2003).
3. Polyethylene properties
The presented biphasic polymerisation experiments show that the polyethylene product is
present in both the ionic liquid and hexane phases. According to the concept of biphasic
polymerisation, the product gathered in the hexane phase is the most important. Therefore
only the properties of this polyethylene have been analysed. The polyethylene from the ionic
liquid phase is contaminated by the products of decomposition of the catalyst, activator, and
ionic liquids, which means that it is impossible to determine the PE properties correctly.
The data presented in Table 1 show the influence of the imidazolium ionic liquids on the
properties of the PE produced. The obtained polyethylene was linear in character. On
average, 3.0-9.4 methyl groups on the 1000 methylene groups occur. The melting
temperature (~133C) is relatively narrow and typical for commercial HDPE (Vasilie , Pascu,
2005). The high crystallity degree (~86%) should be noted. This value varies depending on
the length of the alkyl chain at the ionic liquid cation; the lowest is for [C
(~82%), and the highest for [C
] (~87%). Another advantageous feature of the
polyethylene product is a high value of the bulk density, which again varies depending on
the ionic liquid applied. Again, the lowest value was obtained for [C
] (~230
g/dm
) and the highest for [C
] (~470 g/dm
). Such high values of the PE bulk
density can be obtained only for the heterogeneous metallocene catalyst (Kang, 1999;
Razavi, 2000; Jang, 2003; Wei, 2004; Ochdzan-Siodak, 2005; Hammawa, 2006). In the case of
the homogeneous systems, the bulk density usually does not exceed 100 g/dm
(Soares,
2000; Lee, 2000). The high values of the crystallity degree and bulk density of the
polyethylene obtained show a high level of the molecular order and indicate good
mechanical parameters of the polymer product. Nevertheless, the polyethylene obtained has
a relatively small molecular weight (M
) in the range of 70 000170 000 g/mol. The
molecular weight decreases with the increase of the activator/catalyst molar ratio.
Therefore, an increase of the activator concentration results in shorter PE chains. It indicates
that the alkylaluminium compound participates, most probably, in the chain termination
reaction. The molecular weight distribution is monomodal (MWD from 4.3 to 7.2). This is
characteristic for the polymer obtained using supported metallocene catalysts. The
polyethylene obtained using the AlEt
Cl activator has a similar melting temperature,
crystallity degree, molecular weight, molecular weight distribution, and linearity to the
analogue polymer obtained using the AlEtCl
activator, regardless of the ionic liquid used.
However, the bulk density is lower when AlEt
Cl is applied.
Activator/Catalyst
molar ratio
Crystallinit
y (DSC) (%)
Mw 10
(g/mol)
(g/dm
1000CH
mim]
[AlCl
1 67 134 86.8 159.6 4.4 243 3.7
2 100 133 83.5 86.7 5.8 220 6.3
4 67 133 85.9 121.5 6.2 7.6
5 100 132 86.4 110.0 6.8 370 7.3
100 133 85.5 116.3 4.3 170 9.4
8 67 135 89.2 165.6 7.2
10 133 133 85.8 82.5 5.3 470 8.3
100 134 80.5 77.8 5.4 160 7.0
Cl activator
Table 1. Selected properties of the polyethylene produced using imidazolium ionic liquids in
the biphasic polymerisation
The application of the pyridinium ionic liquid in the biphasic polymerisation results in a
polyethylene product with slightly different properties than that obtained using the
imidazolium ionic liquids (Table 2). It is a linear polyethylene and the number of branches
(from 4.3 to 12.9 of the CH
groups per 1000 CH
groups) is comparable for all the samples
analysed. The number of branches increases with an increase in the activator concentration,
regardless of the ionic liquid used. The melting temperatures (127-130C) are lower but the
molecular weights (M
= 100 000270 000 g/mol) are higher than for the PE samples
obtained in the biphasic polymerisation using imidazolium ionic liquids. It should be noted
that the lowest M
have PE samples obtained using [C
]. The molecular
weight distributions (MWDs) of the studied samples are relatively broad, from 3.1 to 6.9.
Again, the distinguishing feature of the PE produced is the high bulk density, which reaches
up to a value of 520 g/dm
, which corresponds to that of the polyethylenes obtained over
supported metallocene catalysts. A decrease of the bulk density is observed with the
increase of the activator/catalyst molar ratio. The position of the alkyl chain at the
pyridinium cation has an influence on the bulk density. The polyethylene produced using
] ionic liquid has a higher bulk density than that obtained using [C
] (Al/Ti=67 and 100).
All the studied PE samples reveal an exceptionally high crystallinity degree, with an
average value of 93%, as determined by the DSC method. Such a high crystallinity is
atypical for PE obtained using a metallocene catalyst (Prasad, 1999; Wei, 2004) and it
corresponds to that of the commercial HDPE (crystallinity = 77-90%) obtained using Ziegler-
Natta catalysts (Doak, 1986).
The polyethylene samples obtained using the AlEt
Cl activator revealed considerable purity
due to the efficient mass transfer to the hexane phase of the polymer produced. They reveal
much lower molecular weights, bulk densities, and crystallinity similar to those of the
polyethylene obtained in the biphasic process using imidazolium ionic liquids (Ochdzan-
Siodak, 2008). Generally, the polyethylene obtained using AlEtCl
as the activator is
characterised by better properties than that obtained using AlEt
3 133 127 95.1 151.5 5.4 9.9
7 133 126 95.1 150.9 6.1 136 12.9
133 127 90.6 130.1 6.9 145 11.1
10 100 128 95.0 222.9 5.4 395 5.3
13 67 128 96.0 141.3 3.4 481 5.0
15 133 127 98.0 111.5 3.1 - 8.1
Table 2. Selected properties of the polyethylene produced using pyridinium ionic liquids in
The presented results show that the polyethylene product obtained in the biphasic process joins
the properties of the polyethylenes obtained using the homogenous and heterogeneous
metallocene catalysts (a low molecular weight as well as broad molecular weight distribution
and high bulk density, respectively). Moreover, the product is characterised by a high crystallity
degree resulting from the high level of the macromolecular order, which is particularly
observed for the samples obtained from the pyridinium ionic liquids. Properties such as
molecular weight, bulk density, and crystallity degree can be modified by both the kind of the
alkyl chain at the ionic liquid cation and the concentration of the alkylaluminium compound.
The presented studies describe the biphasic ionic liquid/hexane polymerisation of ethylene
using a titanocene catalyst. For the ionic liquids, imidazolium and pyridinium
chloroaluminates were applied. It was found that the catalyst is stable in the polymerisation
reaction and firmly immobilized in the ionic liquid. Therefore, application of ionic liquids as
media of the catalyst seems to be an interesting alternative to the catalysts heterogenisation
on the solid carrier. The studied biphasic mode makes it possible to re-use (recycle) both the
catalyst and the ionic liquid phase. The traditional alkylaluminium compounds are more
suitable activators for the titanocene catalyst than methylaluminoxane, which is considered
as the most effective activator for metallocene catalysts. Polyethylene (PE) formed in the
ionic liquid phase is progressively transferred to the hexane phase. Thus, the polymer is
characterized by a high purity and can easily be separated from the reaction mixture by a
simple decantation technique.
It is possible to influence the performance of the biphasic polymerisation and the properties
of the polymer product by changing the character of the ionic liquid. This can be done by the
modification of the cationic and anionic parts of the ionic liquid. In the presented work the
1-n-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium and 1-n-alkyl-4-methylpyridinium cations with alkyl chains
of various length were investigated. The chloroaluminate anions can be modified by the
choice of the kind and the concentration of the alkylaluminium compound, which is also
applied as the catalyst activator. The following alkylaluminium compounds were
investigated: AlEt
Cl, AlEtCl
, and MAO. The results obtained using compounds
containing the chlorine atom, AlEtCl
Cl were better than when
methylaluminoxane was applied. The AlEtCl
compound turned out to be the most suitable
for the biphasic ethylene polymerisation as regardless of the ionic liquid cation used, the
highest yields were obtained. It should be noted that the reaction yield depends on the
concentration of the alkylaluminium compound. This can be explained by the balance of the
various chloroaluminate anions created, which influence the acidity of the ionic liquids,
which is necessary for the polymerisation reaction. The concentration of the alkylaluminium
compound, described in the from of activator/catalyst molar ratio (Al/Ti), determines the
amount of the polymer product gathered in the hexane phase. Generally, the lower the
Al/Ti molar ratio, the greater amount of product present in the hexane phase and a
correspondingly smaller amount remaining in the ionic liquid phase. Relatively low
activator/catalyst molar ratios result in a low concentration of the active sites, and the
amount of the polymer produced does not exceed the ability of the biphasic system to
transfer the product from the ionic liquid to the hexane phase. Therefore, for each ionic
liquid an optimum concentration of the alkylaluminium compound can be determined. For
the imidazolium ionic liquids, the longer the alkyl chain at the cation the better the mass
transfer of the product to the hexane phase. The length of the alkyl chain at the imidazolium
cation changes the physical properties of the ionic liquids, particularly density and viscosity,
which influence the dispersion and separation of both phases. For the pyridinium ionic
liquids such a tendency is not observed. The transfer of the product to the hexane phase is
best with a shorter alkyl chain at the pyridinium cation and only at a lower concentration of
the alkylaluminium compound. Although the application of pyridinium ionic liquids results
in better total yield (from both the ionic liquid and hexane phases), the mass transfer of the
product to the hexane phase is hindered at higher AlEtCl
concentrations. This can be
overcome, however, by extending the reaction time.
The analysis of the physical and molecular properties of the polyethylene product obtained
in the biphasic process shows that regardless of the ionic liquid used, the product displays
unique properties, particularly a non-typical, very high crystallinity degree - up to 95%. It is
also possible to control the selected properties of the polymer product, e.g. the melting
point, crystallinity degree and bulk density (Ochdzan-Siodak et al., 2007; 2008; 2009; 2010).
The presented results indicate that the biphasic polymerisation using ionic liquid as a
medium of the catalyst is an interesting option, and even desirable from the point of view of
modern green chemistry. It also makes it possible to obtain a polymer product with
interesting properties, which can be tailored by the change of the ionic liquids parameters.
Further investigation should be focused on the elimination of the disadvantageous features
of the biphasic polymerisation. It is particularly important to improve the catalytic
performance of the system, the mass transfer of the product, and the control of the polymer
morphology. A promising way to fulfil these requirements could be application of the
supported ionic liquid phase (SILP) methodology, where the ionic liquid containing an
organometallic catalyst is anchored on a solid carrier (Valkenberg et al., 2001; 2002; Mehnert,
2005; Riisager et al., 2006). This method makes it possible to control, simultaneously, the
course of the polymerisation reaction and the physical and chemical properties of the
polymer product. Additionally, the amount of the ionic liquid phase can be considerably
reduced and the performance of the catalyst can be improved, while the catalyst re-use and
the easy separation procedure can be maintained (Gu, Li, 2009).
5. Acknowledgement
This work is supported by The Ministry of Science and Higher Education for Grant No N
N209 335337.
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Edited by Prof. Alexander Kokorin
Hard cover, 674 pages
Publisher InTech
Published online 21, February, 2011
Published in print edition February, 2011
InTech Europe
University Campus STeP Ri
Slavka Krautzeka 83/A
51000 Rijeka, Croatia
Phone: +385 (51) 770 447
InTech China
Unit 405, Office Block, Hotel Equatorial Shanghai
No.65, Yan An Road (West), Shanghai, 200040, China
This book is the second in the series of publications in this field by this publisher, and contains a number of
latest research developments on ionic liquids (ILs). This promising new area has received a lot of attention
during the last 20 years. Readers will find 30 chapters collected in 6 sections on recent applications of ILs in
polymer sciences, material chemistry, catalysis, nanotechnology, biotechnology and electrochemical
applications. The authors of each chapter are scientists and technologists from different countries with strong
expertise in their respective fields. You will be able to perceive a trend analysis and examine recent
developments in different areas of ILs chemistry and technologies. The book should help in systematization of
knowledges in ILs science, creation of new approaches in this field and further promotion of ILs technologies
for the future.
How to reference
In order to correctly reference this scholarly work, feel free to copy and paste the following:
Wioletta Ochdzan-Siodak (2011). Ionic Liquids in Biphasic Ethylene Polymerisation, Ionic Liquids:
Applications and Perspectives, Prof. Alexander Kokorin (Ed.), ISBN: 978-953-307-248-7, InTech, Available
from: http://www.intechopen.com/books/ionic-liquids-applications-and-perspectives/ionic-liquids-in-biphasic-
ethylene-polymerisation
Polymerization
Phase (Matter)
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Gary Gygax said “I would like the world to remember me as the guy who really enjoyed playing games and sharing his knowledge and his fun pastimes with everybody else.” I wonder what my legacy will be.
Post by Gygax Magazine.
As I sat down to call Jayson Elliot, the editor-in-chief of Gygax Magazine, my own feelings towards Dungeons & Dragons were bubbling in my mind. Role Playing Games have an unfortunate stigma for an activity that comes naturally to us as humans. Very young children play games similar to those I play with friends. The main difference is one happens on a playground with a loose structure and our games happen around a table with a player’s handbook to guide our choices.
Point forward, I believe everyone is a gamer. This is the attitude I expressed when I met with Jayson for our first phone call. People who play games are my friends. I want to have more friends therefore I want to include more people under the gaming umbrella. Everyone is a potential friend that I haven’t met.
This set the tone immediately for what Gygax Magazine’s online presence would become.
How does one generate an inclusive community set against a volatile history?
There are a lot of issues confronting a brand focused around gaming and in particular Tabletop RPGs.
Edition Wars
Debates around editions get very heated. This was something that we have to be careful about because the magazine is system agnostic. The adventures published are meant to be adapted by readers as they need. These arguments are deeply tied to the history of our hobby. You cannot enter into any community without knowledge of its past, particularly in online discussions.
Creating a Safe Community
We had to set a tone early on that was inclusive of all who have a gaming identity, including those whose voices are not heard in online discussions. This meant creating a safe space where people could express their point of view without being challenged for their right to do so. We worked with the community to let them know there were boundaries and if crossed they would no longer be welcome.
The gaming industry has become one were the majority of publishers are independent. They have a small, but loyal, cadre of customers. The biggest issue is usually around communications because these companies are often understaffed. Social media is a tool that works for and against us at times.
Gygax Magazine had already existed for several months as an idea shared by Jayson Elliot and his business partners Ernest Gary Gygax Jr., Luke Gygax, and Tim Kask. I had discovered the existence of the magazine only due to a leak. This put the magazine at a disadvantage because it garnered interest but just wasn’t ready yet. The inquiries were flooding the inboxes of staff and this became my first challenge to overcome.
Communities develop organically based on the choices that we make
I was not concerned with growing the community at first. The leak had caused an influx of PR opportunities and we needed to leap on them while the momentum was there. My primary tasks were responding to individuals, the press, and building our relationships with key stake holders. My goal was to sustain what we had garnered through luck and use it to promote our company, but we were a company without a product.
It became clear that the magazine was still a few months or more away from being complete. While the staff hoped for a January 1st 2013 deadline, due to many factors, that was no longer looking possible. Our community was growing at a healthy click without much influence from us. Our next challenge was keeping people happy while they waited for the magazine to go on sale.
One of the great things about RPGs are the talents that develop the storylines, game mechanics, characters, and illustrations. These worlds are born through collaboration between peers. This is enduringly true from the perspective of game publishers and those who play the game. We work together to bring life to these settings.
Our first social media marketing campaign was simple, highlight our contributors and share resources that would show off their portfolios.
The biggest gains for the brand for this campaign came from our growing social media numbers. We were racking up likes, comments, and follows. It became clear to use through the data that Facebook was our strongest channel and that became the cornerstone of our community strategy. We were creating an online presence that demanded attention beyond what was in the magazine. We were showing that we also understood the online gaming culture.
When do you have a community?
When I started with Gygax Magazine in December of 2012 the social media accounts already had a following of 1,000. People had gathered, but their motive of following was to receive updates on the progress of the magazine. This was not enough for me. Community isn’t about numbers. It is about creating a space where the individuals share at least one connection, the emotional investment in your product.
I will say that at this point we had captured the curiosity of those in the gaming hobby. People were waiting in anticipation for our next move. This kept our engagement rates high from the get go. This also meant that the magazine was more of a spectacle than anything else at this point.
The real challenge of building the community was connecting this group together with something more enduring than our future product. We all know that a company’s offerings will evolve over time. The customers you have today will not look like the ones you will have tomorrow. Your company is going to grow and you need a thread that people can follow from your first product to your latest.
I didn’t want our community to be based upon the experiences of those who already play. We know we are awesome. I wanted to know what would feel most welcoming to someone new to the hobby. I made a key assumption, treat our community as if everything was new. I thought carefully about the rites of passage related to Dungeons & Dragons. I went over my own history, retracing the path that lead me to becoming a player.
What had felt most welcoming? What is that every gamer needs?
Every RPG requires some element of random chance and D&D represents this in the form of a unique dice set; the d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20 and the percentile die.
A person’s first dice set is incredibly personal. There is an industry within gaming responsible for the production of these dice sets. They came in all manner of sizes and colors. Some are even made from unique materials like precious stones. Chessex and Game Science are two companies that specialize in manufacturing dice for RPGs.
I made the request for the community to send in pictures of their dice collections. These posts on Facebook proved to be our most viral and were the first to gain active comment threads. Turns out people loved comparing their own collections to those featured.
Did we have a community yet?
Yes, I felt that there was telling evidence of this fact. People who commented began tagging their Facebook friends to respond. They were actively recruiting people to our page. We didn’t ask them to, it just kept happening. We soon found that our Facebook presence was beginning to transform from a place to get information into a place where people went to hang out.
I began to notice a strange pattern. The majority of traffic to Facebook was not coming from people seeing updates in feeds. Our community actively sought out our page and would spend time responding to or liking new updates. People who already liked the page were coming through to see what they had missed.
I believe this is why the Gygax Magazine Facebook page continues to thrive despite the crisis of Facebook Zero. We’ve only experimented a few times with paid ads, but they didn’t perform. Without a doubt, our community grew organically based on the enthusiasm of the people who banded together to personally promote our page.
The Gaming Family
Gary Gygax’s words exemplify the attitude of players. Gamer is just another label, a stereotype, and no one person in the hobby fits the outside perception held by people. We certainly have our issues, but you find they are similar to what you encounter anytime a group gathers together. At heart, We are people with a fun hobby that we want to share with others because it is meaningful in our own lives.
That is why I was first drawn to Gygax Magazine. I wanted to preserve that legacy. I took a proactive approach by showing the ways gaming empowers people doing good in the world.
I shared stories about:
Educators using RPGs to teach
Kids who use gaming to raise funds for charity
Cool or unique places related to the hobby that people could visit
Plays, movies, and books inspired by D&D
Little know history or origins of games
I especially enjoyed sharing the stories of parents who were playing D&D with their children.
These are stories that you don’t always see in mainstream media, but are very real examples of how this hobby enriches people’s lives.
I would like this to be your take away as you begin building a community of your own. The cognitive and emotional aspects of behaviors are also associated with the data they generate. When performing an analysis do not neglect to consider the hopes, dreams, desires and frustrations of your customers. As you begin to make choices there will be a real emotional impact on the members of your community that will also influence their behavior. That is a relationship that needs to be respected and nurtured.
Susan Silver
Susan Silver is a community focused strategist who uses social data insights as the foundation of her work with ARCOMPANY. Her philosophy “Humanity in Data” is informed by a background in cognitive-behavioral psychology. She is making positive change in people’s lives, and the world, with thoughtful communication on behalf of her clients.
How your B2B Company should Share Content to Social Media
Social Justice: The Positive Power of Social Media
Size Matters: Grow a Boundaryless Social Media Community
community builders, gaming
One thought on “Gygax Magazine: When community goes right”
JoeCardillo says:
Interesting post Susan. I think a lot about ecosystems, and there are some good points here about how to organically build a community. Part of that is about fostering creativity / discovery, and it’s more subtle than most people think.
I often find myself re-framing things I’m working on in the community / ecosystem building sphere from “what are my goals” to “what kinds of things do I want people to understand / what ways of being & behaviors do I want to encourage?” … helping to drive those underlying behaviors leads to more accountable metrics anyway, and it’s more transparent because there’s nothing quite like saying “hey we want you to walk away feeling smarter, having fun, and with something that matters to you.” The other stuff always follows.
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EFMD (ESMU) - HUMANE Winter School, 6 -11 March 2016, Barcelona, Spain
Throughout Europe, and despite apparent differences between national systems, senior managers in higher education have to deal with very similar issues. The increasing impact of European legislation and initiatives such as the Bologna Declaration reinforce this common interest. The top managers of tomorrow will be those who understand the global environment and can capitalise on opportunities for development.
The EFMD (ESMU) - HUMANE Winter School develops the leadership potential of talented Senior Managers by making them fully aware of the concepts and practices of strategic management in a European context, and the importance of integrating academic matters, finances, human resources, governance, leadership and communication strategy in the elaboration of university strategy.
The programme is highly intensive, including plenary sessions and practical work in small groups. Participants are encouraged to discuss the situation of their own institutions. The working language is English, but presenters are well used to dealing with various levels of language proficiency.
The Winter School focuses on leadership skills and the “big picture” of management (how to identify and implement necessary changes). However, the context of university life and the developing scene across Europe provide a unifying thread – this is not just “yet another” management course.
Participants thus gain experience in making informed choices in decision-making processes. ESMU's activities and expertise in European higher education policy have been integrated into the EFMD portfolio and EFMD is happy to collaborate with HUMANE on the organization of the Winter School. The Winter School uses the experience of EFMD and HUMANE members to give unique first-hand insight into general problems. The geographical and cultural spread of our members ensure that this discussion is not system-specific.
The Winter School is designed for talented fast-rising managers of administration or services, some of who might become heads of administration. The typical candidate will be someone who has the potential to become an influential senior manager and/or head of administration in the future but who at this moment may not be a deputy or senior colleague. Candidates may be an expert or a specialist with the potential to broaden responsibility and move in due course to a senior management position. They are nominated by their own heads of administration, and selected by the School Steering Committee.
The Winter School is designed for talented managers of administration or services, some of whom might become heads of administration in the future.
Applicants must during application provide:
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The number of participants is limited to 35. Applicants will know whether their application has been successful or not in the beginning of December 2015.
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34 posts categorized "Programming Hi-Hats"
BeatTips MusicStudy: Sa'id - "Before We Started Fightin'"
Getting to the Rhythm, So I Can Get to the Rhyme
"As a beatmaker, rhythm is fundamental to any structure I compose. As a rapper, rhythm is vital!" —Sa'id
A couple of weeks before I made and recorded "Before We Started Fightin'," I had been experimenting with extended bar structures. That is to say, rather than doubling up 1-, 2-, and 4-bar schemes, I was exploring the use of 8- and 12-bar frameworks. Throughout this exploration, I learned a number of different things. I learned new ways to anchor my beats with lightly syncopated drum patterns; I learned more about blending separate sampled pieces into single cohesive riffs; I learned more about why certain changes work better at specific points within a sequence, depending, of course, on the number of bars in the sequence; and I learned how "double time" tempos of longer bar structures could be manipulated in ways that allowed me to avoid timing correct (quantizing).
So it was the "double time"/bar structure manipulation discovery that had the most impact on how I made "Before We Started Fightin'." As a rhymer, I like to push past the typical AB AB AB AB rhyme scheme, and come up with new rhyme paths. So as a beatmaker, my focus is always on capturing the sort of rhythms that will allow me to create the vocal syncopation that best matches the idea, topic, or subject matter that I'm rhymin' about. Moreover, I don't see my vocalization as something separate from the mix; instead, I like to view my rhymes as just another instrument in the mix. (I will be writing more about that in an upcoming article.)
So when I came up with the idea—a semi-autobiographical story about a guy who realizes (almost too late) that his girl has just double-crossed him—, I wanted a beat structure that was aggressive, but not overpowering. I wanted something that would rumble in the beginning, then taper off at the end of the sequence. I also wanted something that didn't easily fit into 4/4. After re-arranging what was initially a *12-bar* sample, I chopped off 3 bars (shaving the tail of the main sample), and started experimenting with a 9-bar sequence, adding a lone snare on "the one" (rather than a kick) with a piece of silence, right before the main sample starts. Then I added in a hi-hat that I played straight through, live, with no timing correct. After that, I color everything with random low-velocity kicks. I had also added another guitar sample, but it distracted me when I was writing my rhyme; so I stripped it from the beat, and added one more hi-hat, and I was done.
For the mix, I EQ'd the bass in a way that turned up the rumble that I wanted. In contrast, I peeled back the highs to temper the vinyl static and to allow my vocals to come through stronger without using any compression. I tucked the hi-hats and kicks in the mix, so that they blended more with the main sample.
The music below is presented here for the purpose of scholarship
Sa'id - "Before We Started Fightin'" (prod. by Sa'id)
Download Sa'id - "Before We Started Fightin''
Posted by Amir Said at 5:07 PM in Amir Said, Beat Breakdown, Beatmaking, Beatmaking Education, Beatmaking Practice, Beatmaking Themes, Beatmaking Theories, Beatmaking Concepts, BeatTip, BeatTips Articles, BeatTips MusicStudy, BeatTips Tutorials and Exercises, Book on How to Make Beats, Chopping Samples, Composing Beats, Programming Beats, Arranging Beats, Customizing Sounds, Diggin' in the Crates, Drum Programming Techniques, Drum Programming, Arranging, and Composing, Editor's Choice, Filtering Samples, Hip Hop Production Techniques, Hip Hop/Rap Music Education, How to Make Beats, Inside the Beat, Making Beats, Music Education, Music Themes, Music Theory, and Music Concepts, MusicStudy, Programming Hi-Hats, Programming Kicks, Programming Samples, Programming Snares, Recording Beats, Mixing Beats, Mastering Beats, Sa'id, Sa'id Music, Sample-Based Beats, Sample-Based Compositional Style, Sampling, The Art of Rapping, The Art of Sampling, The BeatTips Manual | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
BeatTips MusicStudy: Traffic's "Glad" Taught Me How To Shuffle
Lessons From One Of Progressive Rock's Most Engaging Bands
Beatmaking, the chief compositional method of hip hop/rap music, allows for one to pull from a wide variety of musical forms (and sources) for instruction. For instance, progressive rock has always been a mainstay influence in my style and approach. And no other progressive rock band—other than Led Zeppelin of course—has had a direct hand in how I construct drum frameworks, and subsequently, my sense of time, more than the group Traffic.
Here, in their song "Glad," listen to the percussion hats that strike with suspenseful urgency on the quarter notes. And see if you can make out where the kick "hits" on the up-tempo sections of the overall arrangement. Then around the 5:00 mark, the arrangement dives into a slow, milky smooth bluesy-funk jam session that drummer Jim Capaldie laces delicately, with the sense and craftsmanship of a cat burglar. Indeed, there have been few songs that have shown me how to incorporate—and more importantly, account for—the "shuffle" element in music, while at the same time helped me improve my sense of timing.
Traffic - "Glad" (from the John Barleycorn Must Die album)
Posted by Amir Said at 3:56 PM in Amir Said, Beatmaking, Beatmaking Education, Beatmaking Practice, Beatmaking Themes, Beatmaking Theories, Beatmaking Concepts, BeatTip, BeatTips Articles, BeatTips MusicStudy, BeatTips Tutorials and Exercises, Book on How to Make Beats, Composing Beats, Programming Beats, Arranging Beats, Customizing Drum Sounds, Diggin' in the Crates, Drum Programming Techniques, Drum Programming, Arranging, and Composing, Editor's Choice, Filtering Samples, Filtering Sounds, Hip Hop Production Techniques, Hip Hop/Rap Music Education, How to Create Your Own Drum Sounds, How to Make Beats, Making Beats, Music Education, Music Themes, Music Theory, and Music Concepts, MusicStudy, Programming Drums, Programming Hi-Hats, Programming Kicks, Programming Samples, Programming Snares, Recording Beats, Mixing Beats, Mastering Beats, Recording Hip Hop, Mixing Hip Hop, Mastering Hip Hop, Sa'id, Sample-Based Beats, Sample-Based Compositional Style, Sampling, Sampling Drum Sounds, Sampling Drums, Sound Design, Steve Winwood, The Art of Sampling, The BeatTips Manual, Traffic - "Glad" | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
5th Seal Vlog #7
Brooklyn Beatsmith 5th Seal Drops His Latest Beat Vlog
For vlog #7, 5th Seal raids the infamous (and well-tread) dig spot A-1 Records in New York City (and runs into one of the greatest ever on the beats). As per his other installments, he offers a glimpse of the making of one of his beat gems. 5th Seal is a friend, so I'm happy that he's gaining a new level recognition.
The video below is presented here for the purpose of scholarship
5th Seal Vlog #7 from 5th Seal on Vimeo.
Posted by Amir Said at 1:54 AM in Amir Said, Beat Breakdown, Beatmaking, Beatmaking Education, Beatmaking Themes, Beatmaking Theories, Beatmaking Concepts, BeatTips Articles, BeatTips Jewel Droppin', Chopping Samples, Composing Beats, Programming Beats, Arranging Beats, Creating Your Own Drum Sounds, Customizing Drum Sounds, Dig Spots, Diggin' in the Crates, DJ Premier, Drum Fills, Drum Programming Techniques, Drum Programming, Arranging, and Composing, Filtering Samples, Filtering Sounds, Hip Hop Production Setups, Hip Hop Production Techniques, Hip Hop/Rap Music Education, How to Create Your Own Drum Sounds, How to Make Beats, How to Trigger Samples, Looping Sounds, Making Beats, Music Education, Programming Drum Fills, Programming Drums, Programming Hi-Hats, Programming Kicks, Programming Samples, Programming Snares, Recognized Pros, Recording Beats, Mixing Beats, Mastering Beats, Recording Hip Hop, Mixing Hip Hop, Mastering Hip Hop, Sa'id, Sample-Based Beats, Sampling, Sampling Drum Sounds, Sampling Drums, Sequencing Drums, Sound Design, The Art of Sampling, The BeatTips Manual, Using the Akai MPC 2000 XL | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
BeatTips "Setups in Action": Akai MPC 1000, Fantom Xa, and Propellerhead Recycle
Profile of Pat King's Hybrid (Hardware/Software) Setup
By PATRICK KING
Complete Setup:
Akai MPC 1000, Roland Fantom Xa, M-Audio BX5 monitors, (2) Technics SL-1200MK2 turntables, Vestax PCV-002 mixer, Vestax Handytrax turntable (Portable), Sony MDR-7506 headphones, iMac G5 PPC (Tiger OS 10.4.11, 1.8 GHz, 2 gigs of RAM), Digidesign Mbox with Pro Tools, Waves plug-ins, Propellerhead Recycle 2.1, Record collection.
Signal flow:
MPC stereo out to TRS inputs on the M-Audio BX5 monitors. I keep Auralex MoPads on stands beneath the speakers in order to decouple them from the surface it rests. I use the Roland Fantom Xa mainly for sounds like bass, or melodic strings to layer on tracks in the MPC. Whenever I want to use the Fantom Xa, I route the Fantom’s output A mix into the MPC record in. This gives me standard audio quality (44.1KHz, 16-bit). When I’m not sampling from the Fantom, the way that I audition (listen to) sounds through is that I listen through my headphones. As for my Vestax DJ mixer, when I want to get a vinyl record sample into my computer for editing, I go from the turntable to DJ mixer. I route from the L/R record output of my Vestex DJ mixer to the Mbox source 1&2 line inputs, then I record sample on to a stereo audio track.
Though my production setup consists of several pieces of hardware and software, the main unit and sequencer that I use is the Akai MPC 1000. I transfer drum sounds and samples, (that I usually edit on the computer), to the MPC through a USB connection. I store everything on a 1GB compact flash card.
Method & Process:
When I get new vinyl records I start off by sitting down and listening to them on one of the turntables through the Vestax DJ mixer, with everything set to zero, no EQ frequencies accentuated initially. The minute I hear something that catches my attention I make a note of it on paper. I write down things like the instruments I want to use and what part of the song its located at, then continue listening for more parts to assemble a new arrangement. If the sample is complex I record it into Pro Tools and (bounce it to disk). What I mean by “complex” is that to me, it’s a sample that has a lot of nuances. In order to control those nuances I use Recycle to chop them up and manipulate those sample more precisely, then I export the results a WAV. files to the MPC.
For me, the advantages to editing on the computer rather than on the MPC is that it's less time consuming, and that increases productivity. But I can see how it could be the reverse for someone who does edit on the MPC, especially older MPC models, like the MPC 60 II or even the 2000. Another reason that I like to edit on the computer rather than the MPC is because I like seeing the waveform of the sample on a 17-inch screen, versus the small screen on the MPC. To me, its easier to work with and break down. If its a simple sample like a one bar drum break, I just record into the MPC; maybe use the slice feature and some filters. I should point out that the MPC is not limited in editing capabilities, it’s just not as efficient as a computer is in my production process.
Sequencing, Tracking and Rough Mixing: The first track of the sequence I start off with is usually the sample, then the drums, then the bass, I just continue to build sequences and tracks until the beat is complete. When I finish all of my sequences, its time to get them into the DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). First off, I disconnect the MPC stereo out from the speakers inputs. I use the Mbox source 1&2 line inputs and connect to the MPC stereo out. I connect the line outputs on the Mbox to the speakers. I then record into Pro Tools, two tracks at a time. I can then control the dynamics of each track. Depending on what I want to achieve, I use different Waves plug-in's. Before I finish the session I record a 2-channel stereo track of the entire beat to Pro Tools from the MPC. When I'm mixing I use headphones to get closer to an accurate mix. Stereo imaging is essential, it’s is how the audio image is placed and meshed during mixing for the listener's ears. After I sequence my drums I leave the kick and snare centered, add some reverb to the snare for depth and pan the hi hat to the left to give off that feel that a real drummer is in that position on the stage. The contrast between mono and stereo instruments is important to understand. Panning and balancing the levels allows room for all of the instruments to breath and have their own space in the mix.
Posted by Amir Said at 3:39 AM in Amir Said, Beatmaking, Beatmaking Education, Beatmaking Gear and Equipment, Beatmaking Practice, Beatmaking Themes, Beatmaking Theories, Beatmaking Concepts, BeatTip, BeatTips "Setups in Action", BeatTips Articles, BeatTips Tutorials and Exercises, Book on How to Make Beats, Chopping Samples, Composing Beats, Programming Beats, Arranging Beats, Creating Your Own Drum Sounds, Customizing Drum Sounds, Customizing Sounds, DAW: Recording and Mixing, Editor's Choice, Hardware Setups, Hip Hop Production Setups, Hip Hop Production Techniques, Hip Hop/Rap Music Education, How to Make Beats, Hybrid Setups, Making Beats, Programming Drums, Programming Hi-Hats, Programming Kicks, Programming Samples, Programming Snares, Recording Beats, Mixing Beats, Mastering Beats, Recording Hip Hop, Mixing Hip Hop, Mastering Hip Hop, Sa'id, Sample-Based Beats, Sampling, Setups In Action, Signal Chains, Software Setups, The Art of Sampling, The BeatTips Manual | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Why Vinyl Reissues Are a Good Thing
Vinyl Reissues Offer True Value in More Ways than One
This past Wednesday, I spent a brief part of the afternoon diggin’ through vinyl records at a shop over on St. Marks Place, down in the East Village. Although it was a scorching hot pre-summer New York City day, I never did take the opportunity to actually enter the store and get a blast of their air conditioning inside. Instead, I stayed outside in front of the store, diggin' through their “tease” crates of soul, latin funk, and jazz.
Sitting atop several long tables, these crates were loaded with a number of gems, many of which I already have, and a few I'd never been able to get my hand on in the past. Also, in there were two albums that stood out above all the others: Donny Hathaway's Everything Is Everything and Donny Hathaway.
Arguably Hathaway's greatest album and certainly one of my all-time favorites, Everything Is Everything is a masterful piece of soul music that stings your heart and tugs at your body. Self-dubbed as one of my personal "must-haves," I spent nearly five years (more than a decade ago) trying to land a copy of Everything Is Everything. Previously, I'd been able to hold on to several borrowed copies of this LP. Unfortunately, this was one of those albums that people always remembered to ask me to return.
When I obtained my own copy of Everything Is Everything (for $100!), I remember vowing to never lend it out to anyone. It was an original print, near mint copy with one of the cleanest covers (less-worn) I'd ever seen. And I wasn't about to risk losing this gem; it wasn't easy for me to get, and therefore, I maintained, I'd make sure that it would be difficult for me to ever let go. Well, after a couple of moves and a series of vinyl collection re-locations, my copies of Everything Is Everything and Donny Hathaway turned up missing.
It would take another couple of years before I was able to replace both albums. Moreover, it cost me $65 for another copy of Everything Is Everything, and $59 for another copy of Donny Hathaway, neither of which were anywhere near the condition of the one that I had before. So imagine the reverse sticker-shock I felt when I came across a sealed copy of Everything Is Everything and Donny Hathaway, sitting right there in an old milk crate, sandwiched between two sealed copies of Gil Scott-Heron's Pieces of a Man. All four records, $12 each! Goldmine! I thought. Then it hit me: These albums were reissues...
To some (particularly die-hard purist diggers/collectors), reissues might hold little to no appeal. And there are some sample-based beatmakers who will claim that using reissued vinyl is not quite the same thing as using the "real deal," that is to say, vinyl pressed on or near the recording's original release date. To be fair, that's not entirely untrue.
Part of the appeal of original print vinyl is its oldness—it's dusty, scratchy nature. Furthermore, there's the matter of the recording used for the reissue. Does the reissue contain the original master recording—with all of its mixed glory—, or does it use a remastered version? The particular sound that a reissued vinyl record possesses is important to me. I'm not interested in vinyl that carries a remastered version of the original work. But despite some minor misgivings of using reissued vinyl, I see reissued vinyl—and here, I'm specifically referring to "exact reproduction" reissued vinyl, not the re-mastered stuff—as a good (if not great) thing, for a number of reasons.
First, reissued vinyl gives beatmakers (new and old) the chance to have access to wonderful, era-defining recordings in the vinyl format. And although other audio formats (CD, MP3, .WAV) can indeed serve the purposes of sampling, there can be no denying that working with vinyl presents an entirely different feel and aesthetic.
Second, vinyl reissues (sometimes the only option if you're searching for a vinyl recording) offers beatmakers a lesson in sound quality and the audio nuance of recordings from more than 30 years ago—before the digital takeover. By being able to hear the differences in recordings, the tones, colors, and overall sonic impressions, you can extract a number of different musical ideas and sonic frameworks to apply to the sound design of your own beats.
Third, vinyl reissues, by virtue of their format, extend the connection between beatmakers and vinyl, and like sampling itself, they can help reconnect beatmakers to the DJing component of beatmaking. There are a growing number of beatmakers who are interested in working with vinyl, but because of the often difficult nature of obtaining vinyl (i.e., a sparse number of used vinyl records stores around the world), they are not able to get their hands on any. Vinyl reissues addresses this interest (demand) and makes a whole host of great recordings available in the vinyl format, both online and even at some stores that carry new CDs and other related merchandise.
Finally, vinyl reissues help decrease the vinyl record accessibility gap that exists today. No doubt vinyl reissues provide a means for many beatmakers to access vinyl records that they would not otherwise be able to. Moreover, most vinyl reissues are reasonably priced and available online. With increased accessibility comes the potential for scores of music makers to discover (or rediscover) quality music styles and sounds that have, unfortunately, been forgotten.
Exact reproduction reissued vinyl is a win/win, and I expect even more recordings to be reissued on vinyl. And although the journey of getting *new* vinyl has long been an arduous one (more so now because the availability of used vinyl records is thin), the emergence of reissues of classic works (especially from a number of the most formidable recording artists of soul, funk, and jazz) is making this journey for beat diggers much more agreeable.
Posted by Amir Said at 6:23 AM in Amir Said, Beatmaking, Beatmaking Practice, BeatTip, BeatTips Articles, BeatTips Editorial, BeatTips MusicStudy, Book on How to Make Beats, Diggin' in the Crates, Donny Hathaway, Editor's Choice, Hip Hop/Rap Music Education, How to Make Beats, Making Beats, Music Education, Music Themes, Music Theory, and Music Concepts, MusicStudy, Programming Drums, Programming Hi-Hats, Programming Kicks, Programming Samples, Programming Snares, Recording Beats, Mixing Beats, Mastering Beats, Recording Hip Hop, Mixing Hip Hop, Mastering Hip Hop, Sa'id, Sample-Based Beats, Sampling, Sound Design, The Art of Sampling, The BeatTips Manual | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
BeatTips MusicStudy: Gladys Knight & The Pips - "No One Could Love You More"
Steady Swing-Beat Anchors this Little-Known Gladys Knight & The Pips Gem
One of the greatest benefits of being a beatmaker (particularly one that scours through scores of old records) is discovering "new" musical gems by some of the titans of recorded music. Such is the case with the wonderfully arranged "No One Could Love You More" by Gladys Knight & The Pips.
Driven by a swinging backbeat that places emphasis on the traditional "2" rather than the "1," (a beat emphasis pioneered by James Brown and his funk sound, first introduced in 1965), "No One Could Love You More" features a groove that churns and turns over as the song progresses in all of its repetitive glory. Look inside the hood of the groove, and you will find that it's flanked by several engaging musical components. First of course, there's the classic Motown tambourine dropping in on the "1;" then there's a light, pitter-patting, syncopated snare pattern that oozes with old rent-party celebratory charm; and finally, there's a silky 4-note bass line that rumbles, glides and "walks," as it ascends every two bars, before returning to the bass line's core pitch.
Recorded ca. 1971 and released by Motown the following year in 1972, one might say that "No One Could Love You More" was overlooked. Buried deep in the album as song number 10, the last track on the entire album, perhaps it was thrown on to the LP as a bonus—considering the fact that plenty of albums during the same era routinely carried just 7 or 8 tracks. "No One Could Love You More" was never released as a single, and this proved to be one blunder that foreshadowed Motown's inability to retain Gladys Knight & The Pips.
But whether "No One Could Love You More" was intended for obscurity or not, no doubt a casualty of Motown's—and the music industry's—hit-first ethos, its drawing power is absolutely undeniable. Here, before their explosively popular albums Neither One of Us and the Curtis Mayfield produced Claudine, Gladys Knight & The Pips are in top form. The naturalness of family harmony is here; The Pips' incredibly nuanced vocal stylings are here; and of course, Gladys Knight's piercing, beautifully raspy voice is here, breathing a heart-torn life into every lyric as only she can. Having discovered "No One Could Love You More" much later than some of their other music, I can't help but wonder how much of my musical understanding could have (would have) benefited, had I "found" Gladys Knight & The Pips' "No One Could Love You More" much sooner.
Gladys Knight & The Pips - "No One Could Love You More" (1971)
Posted by Amir Said at 1:24 PM in Amir Said, Beatmaking, Beatmaking Education, Beatmaking Practice, Beatmaking Themes, Beatmaking Theories, Beatmaking Concepts, BeatTip, BeatTips Articles, BeatTips Jewel Droppin', BeatTips MusicStudy, Big Influence, Book on How to Make Beats, Chopping Samples, Composing Beats, Programming Beats, Arranging Beats, Creating Your Own Drum Sounds, Editor's Choice, Filtering Samples, Filtering Sounds, Gladys Knight & The PIps, Hip Hop/Rap Music Education, How to Make Beats, Looping Sounds, Making Beats, Marquee Names, Music Education, Music Themes, Music Theory, and Music Concepts, MusicStudy, Programming Drums, Programming Hi-Hats, Programming Kicks, Programming Samples, Programming Snares, Sa'id, Sample-Based Beats, Sampling, Soul and Funk's Influence on Hip Hop/Rap, Sound Design, The BeatTips Manual | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
BeatTips MusicStudy: Royal Flush - "Ice Downed Medallion" Prod. by EZ Elpee
Hungry Beatwork and Rhyme; Appreciated More in Middle of a Storm
"Motion picture/analyze your world Flush'll hit ya..." That's the emphatic declaration that Royal Flush makes to open the New York hood classic, "Iced Downed Medallion" from his debut album, Ghetto Millionaire (1997). Speaking from the rapper/lyricist part of me, I've always considered Royal Flush to be one of the illest lyricists in rap. Cut from the same Queens lyricst bloodline that bled inside of areas like Corona, Queensbridge, Lefrack City, and Astoria Projects, Flush was a street-respected M.C., circa 1996-98. Unfortunately, however, Flush never rose to the level of notoriety that I felt he deserved.
Thing is, Royal Flush came on the scene—with the right skills—at the wrong time. It was 1997/98, right in the eye of Diddy's (formerly known as Puff) storm. This was when Puff was throwin' shit in the New York rap game with the shiny-suit, bubble gum-rap mystique. (Note. Puff's reign would eventually help lead to the undermining of New York's hip hop/rap structure—a near fatal blow that New York has yet to recover from.) The years in rap 1997/98 would also serve to mark the beginning of Jay-Z and Hot 97s (New York's #1 hip hop/rap radio station) meteoric connection to the top. Had Royal Flush come on the scene just two or three years earlier, he would have missed what I like to call the New York Kill Zone of '97/98, and in all likelihood, he would have gained as much (perhaps more) shine as Mobb Deep, AC, or O.C.
Speaking from the beatmaker (producer) part of me, "Iced Down Medallion" was one of the most aggressively programmed beats I've heard. Produced by EZ Elpee, the beat utilized a straight-forward, two-bar loop of a 70s music phrase (I don't name sample sources that I'm not sure about their cleared status) with the bass frequency of the phrase filtered milk-smooth, and the high (mid/treble) levels left just as warm and even when let out. For the drum framework, Elpee went with a standard double-kick snare pattern. Wisely, he tucks the kick while exploding the snare with a handful of reverb. And the hat, which is truncated (no prolonged sustain), is a shaker that he politely sprinkles over all measures. It is further worth noting that because of how the bass frequency of the sample is filtered so fat and warmly, the kick—which is actually truncated short—sounds so much more rounder and booming every time it lands on the one, and as it sets up the two.
Royal Flush - "Iced Down Medallion"
Royal Flush - "Iced Down Medallion" (Official music video)
Posted by Amir Said at 9:33 AM in Amir Said, Beat Breakdown, Beatmaking, Beatmaking Education, Beatmaking Practice, Beatmaking Themes, Beatmaking Theories, Beatmaking Concepts, BeatTip, BeatTips Articles, BeatTips Jewel Droppin', BeatTips MusicStudy, Book on How to Make Beats, Composing Beats, Programming Beats, Arranging Beats, Customizing Drum Sounds, Customizing Sounds, Diggin' in the Crates, Drum Programming Techniques, Drum Programming, Arranging, and Composing, EZ Elpee, Filtering Bass Lines, Filtering Samples, Filtering Sounds, Hip Hop Production Techniques, Hip Hop/Rap Music Education, How to Make Beats, Making Beats, Music Education, Music Themes, Music Theory, and Music Concepts, Programming Hi-Hats, Programming Kicks, Programming Samples, Programming Snares, Recording Beats, Mixing Beats, Mastering Beats, Recording Hip Hop, Mixing Hip Hop, Mastering Hip Hop, Sa'id, Sampling, Sampling Drum Sounds, Sampling Drums, Soul and Funk's Influence on Hip Hop/Rap, Sound Design, The Art of Rapping, The Art of Sampling, The BeatTips Manual | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Boog Brown Passes My MC Lyte Test
Amid Questions Surrounding the State of “Female Rappers,” Boog Brown Impresses…Without the Hype
Discussions about "female rappers" carry little weight with me, because I rate the rapper and their rhyme, not their gender. However, when pressed about my list of top female rappers, I always began with MC Lyte. For me, MC Lyte—in her prime—sits comfortably in the 1st tier of great lyricists, regardless of gender. But as far as any list that excludes male rappers, I rate MC Lyte #1. Therefore, before I can rate any female rapper that has appeared after MC Lyte, I first have to hold them up to what I call the "MC Lyte Test."
The MC Lyte Test (a test that could equally be used for male rappers as well) is a set of parameters that I use to rate any female rapper. These parameters include: style, delivery and flow, word mastery, sound, feel, non-contrived attitude, and raw edginess.
Since MC Lyte graced the mic in 1988, various female rappers have emerged with respectable skills. In fact, there have been a number of female rappers that many music critics and fans alike have lauded with great acclaim. But political correctness aside, since MC Lyte's prime, there's only been two female rappers who have passed my MC Lyte test, and a couple more who had the potential to, but never did.
Well, now I'm compelled to let it be known that Boog Brown passes my MC Lyte Test.
Like MC Lyte, Boog Brown understands the rhythm of words. She molds them, folds them, blends them, caresses them, and snaps them. Equally comfortable with straight and slant rhyme, Boog Brown chooses words for their full value, not for the brevity of writing rhymes. Moreover, she doesn’t rely on gimmicky deliveries or overly wordy rhyme schemes and phrasings. Such rhyme tricks have impressed (mesmerized) some, but I’ve always found those sort of rhyme gimmicks to be cliché and boring. I dig rhymes straight up. Gimmickry, particularly the borrowed and oft-used type, is usually less engaging, if not outright whack. Straight forward inflection/intonation, especially when it's delivered with believable—non-contrived—attitude, is dope.
What also impresses me about Boog Brown is her delivery and flow. It's agile and multi-directional, not grounded and predictable (listen to "Masterplan" produced by Apollo Brown). Moreover, she utilizes superb breath control; you never hear her take extreme gulps of oxygen or stumble over her pauses, both marks of a complex lyricist with just as much style as substance.
On "Understanding" (also produced by Apollo), Boog Brown shows off how she presses go, then drops a string of well-measured lines of dense poetry that regularly come together to give insider looks at various snap shots of life. And in the tradition of the most advanced lyricism, she drives by each bar of her lyrics without glancing at its effect, without giving a glimpse of uncertainty or exhaustion. Such confidence echos the pedigree of all dope complex lyricists, male or female.
Then there's Boog Brown's sound. It's effortless, smooth, and genuine. Even when she's romantic (check out “Hey Love”), her sound and feel is in tact, not compromised. And while many female rappers fall pray to a lack of expression in their rhymes (perhaps a side-effect of a male-dominated tradition), Boog Brown strikes through with a clarity and feel that never sounds forced. Rhyming, in its highest degree, is an art wherein words are made to grab, dance, punch, rock, and shock, all with style, and no sense of effort on the part of the rhymer. Once you can “hear” the effort—the forced flow, the superficial borrowed style, the clumsy lyrics—the magic of rapping ceases to exist. And this is where Boog Brown excels. She doesn’t fall into the “Look at me, I’m a female M.C. mantra.” Instead, she soars on her own lyrical terms, without the benefit (or detriment) of “female M.C.” charity praise.
What's Next for Boog Brown
Although Apollo Brown’s beats have certainly served Boog Brown well, most of the beats off of their stellar Brown Study album carry a similar texture and form, and they usually move in the same “mid”/mid-tempo range. That’s no knock against Apollo Brown—that sound is dope. In fact, he’s mastered that sound and feel; it compliments the drum frameworks that he favors for most of his beats. I'd just like to hear Boog Brown on a couple of slightly uptempo joints, or some beats with a different type of swing to them. To Apollo's credit, the “U.P.S.” beat, I think his latest release with Boog Brown and a joint I really dig, finds him using a bit more “bounce” in the beat. Promising signal for what's to come from the the Boog Brown/Apollo Brown enterprise.
Still, the thought of Boog Brown branching out and incorporating beatwork (and different production nuances) from other perennial beatsmiths (I’d really like to see her paired up with Statik Selektah, DJ Premier, The Alchemist, or Kevlaar 7), is something I can’t help but consider. Currently, Boog Brown is sitting on the cusp of league MVP-caliber talent. But I believe if she maneuvers right—that is to say, split the wig open of the hype machine by matching her rhyme skills with other key beatmakers—she could be looking at a hall of fame career.
The music videos below are presented here for the purpose of scholarship.
Boog Brown "UPs" [prod. Apollo Brown]
Boog Brown – “Hey Love”
Boog Brown & Apollo Brown – “Masterplan”
MC Lyte - "Paper Thin"
Posted by Amir Said at 10:31 AM in Amir Said, Beatmaking, Beatmaking Education, Beatmaking Themes, Beatmaking Theories, Beatmaking Concepts, BeatTip, BeatTips Articles, BeatTips Editorial, BeatTips Jewel Droppin', BeatTips MusicStudy, Drum Programming Techniques, Drum Programming, Arranging, and Composing, Editor's Choice, Hip Hop Production Techniques, Hip Hop/Rap Music Education, How to Make Beats, Making Beats, Music Themes, Music Theory, and Music Concepts, Programming Drum Fills, Programming Drums, Programming Hi-Hats, Programming Kicks, Programming Snares, Recording Beats, Mixing Beats, Mastering Beats, Recording Hip Hop, Mixing Hip Hop, Mastering Hip Hop, Sa'id, Sample-Based Beats, Sampling, Sampling Drum Sounds, Sampling Drums, Sound Design, The Art of Rapping, The Art of Sampling, The BeatTips Manual | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
BeatTips MusicStudy: Roc Marciano, "Game of Death;" Pete Rock on the Beat
Tough Strings, Solid Drums, Jabbing Bass-Stabs, and Punch-You-in-the-Face Rhymes
Been following Roc Marciano's development for a while now. He's reached that rhyme confidence level that many rappers fall well short of. Here on one of Pete Rock's more sinister beatworks, Roc Marciano is all bravado, no filler or un-useful slang. Each line of poetry flows effortlessly with each meter of the beat. Dope.
Roc Marciano - Game of Death (Prod. Pete Rock)
Posted by Amir Said at 10:59 AM in Amir Said, Beat Breakdown, Beatmaking, Beatmaking Education, Beatmaking Pioneers, Beatmaking Themes, Beatmaking Theories, Beatmaking Concepts, BeatTips Articles, BeatTips Jewel Droppin', BeatTips MusicStudy, Big Influence, Book on How to Make Beats, Chopping Samples, Composing Beats, Programming Beats, Arranging Beats, Creating Your Own Drum Sounds, Customizing Drum Sounds, Diggin' in the Crates, Drum Fills, Drum Programming Techniques, Drum Programming, Arranging, and Composing, Filtering Bass Lines, Filtering Samples, Filtering Sounds, Hip Hop Production Techniques, Hip Hop/Rap Music Education, How to Create Your Own Drum Sounds, How to Make Beats, How to Trigger Samples, Making Beats, Music Education, Music Themes, Music Theory, and Music Concepts, MusicStudy, Pete Rock, Programming Drum Fills, Programming Drums, Programming Hi-Hats, Programming Kicks, Programming Samples, Programming Snares, Recording Beats, Mixing Beats, Mastering Beats, Recording Hip Hop, Mixing Hip Hop, Mastering Hip Hop, Roc Marciano, Sa'id, Sample-Based Beats, Sampling, Sampling Drum Sounds, Sampling Drums, Sound Design, The BeatTips Manual | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Beatmakers and Trade Secrets
Shop-Talk Elevates the Beatmaking Art Form and Tradition
Musicians have long shared tricks of their trade amongst each other. It's a tradition as old as popular music itself. However, for some reason, many beatmakers (producers) pride themselves upon keeping a vale of secrecy over their beatmaking methods. What gives?
I could speculate about the cultural undertones of this, but that's not what this piece is about. On the contrary, this article is about why the notion of secrecy (specifically among some well-known beatmakers {*producers*}) in beatmaking is ridiculous. As I told a fellow beatmaker the other day, "there are NO secrets between real musicians!" What I was saying (and he understood immediately) was that dedicated musicians share a common fundamental goal: to develop their skills and elevate their craft. Indeed, this is why we constantly seek out people and resources that we believe will help us reach that goal. In this regard, beatmakers should not view themselves any different. We are musicians, and as such, we stand to benefit a great deal from an exchange of information.
No Two Beatmakers Are One in the Same
Regardless of the method or technique used, no two beatmakers are the same. Given the same tools and the same understanding, each of us will inevitably develop our own approach. And I've found that it is within this approach that you find the most interesting "secrets." But instead of having an attitude that promotes the talking of shop (beat talk, if you will), when pressed for specific ideas, secrets, and the like, some beatmakers clam up, or offer the proverbial: "don't wanna' give the secrets away." Huh? What's that all about.
Listen, at face value, there are NO magic secrets that can instantly transform a beatmaker's skills. Secrets (or better yet, pointers, tips, hints, insights) are only as good as the beatmaker who understands them and can, in turn, incorporate them into what they're already doing. For example, DJ Premier is known for his drums, chops, and his ability to finesse the bass out of the breaks that he chooses to use. However, there is no doubt (and he has said as much), that he would not have been able to develop those skills, had it not been for Large Professor. As Premier told me (rather matter-factly), it was Large Professor—another beatmaking pioneer in his own right—who showed him how to filter bass sounds in samples, and also how to make the Akai S950 really work for him. In turn, Premier introduced Large Professor to a new way of diggin' in the crates and surveying music. And before that, another beatmaking pioneer, Showbiz, schooled Premier on diggin' in the crates and surveying music. Thus, these examples of sharing trade "secrets" demonstrates how, for each of the aforementioned beatmaking pioneers, the common goal was to get better and elevate the art form.
Needless to say, I've always been against the notion of not not sharing knowledge ("secrets"). In fact, those who know me, know very well that I consistently share as much as I can, whenever I'm asked by a fellow beatmaker. Likewise, some of the most well-known beatmakers have shared as much as they could with me. Also, consider this, even if one beatmaker breaks down their entire beatmaking process to another beatmaker, chances are, the latter beatmaker isn't going to utilize everything that he (or she) learns from the former. Not at all. The latter beatmaker is only going take what he needs and/or can use from the other beatmaker's process. It's this sort of exchange that each beatmaker can use to further develop their skills.
Final note, keep this in mind: the entire beatmaking (hip hop/rap production) tradition is only as good as its weakest beatmaker. Hence, there's merit in all of us trying to help each other step up our skills.
Posted by Amir Said at 12:13 PM in Amir Said, Beatmaking, Beatmaking Education, Beatmaking Pioneers, Beatmaking Practice, Beatmaking Themes, Beatmaking Theories, Beatmaking Concepts, BeatTip, BeatTips Articles, BeatTips Editorial, BeatTips Jewel Droppin', Big Influence, Book on How to Make Beats, Customizing Drum Sounds, DJ Premier, Drum Programming Techniques, Drum Programming, Arranging, and Composing, Editor's Choice, Editorials, Filtering Bass Lines, Filtering Samples, Hip Hop Production Techniques, Hip Hop/Rap Music Education, How to Create Your Own Drum Sounds, How to Make Beats, Large Professor, Making Beats, Music Education, Music Themes, Music Theory, and Music Concepts, Production Setup, Programming Bass Lines, Programming Drum Fills, Programming Drums, Programming Hi-Hats, Programming Kicks, Programming Samples, Programming Snares, Recording Beats, Mixing Beats, Mastering Beats, Recording Hip Hop, Mixing Hip Hop, Mastering Hip Hop, Sa'id, The BeatTips Manual | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
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Couple of reminders.....
After the March meeting a group will go directly to the Town Hall, where, after their picnic lunch, they will don tabards, and, armed with litter-picking equipment, will join the Mayor for an hour spent sprucing up Beccles. This will be part of 'Clean for the Queen' - to celebrate HM's 90th birthday. If you can join them, please email or phone Judith.
If you are collecting stamps for Hearing Dogs, please remember to separate 'British' and 'Overseas' stamps - many thanks!
We were delighted to hear of Beccles Coop's offer to provide refreshments for our monthly meetings, plus additional supplies for special events and raffle prizes - thank you Coop! We are also the lucky recipients of a Top Tips booklet from Market Harborough WI, who are 100 miles from us and had donated the booklet to all such WIs as their centenary event. What a clever idea! Both the Coop and Market Harborough had contacted us via our new website!
Our speaker this month was a welcome return by Mr Terry Weatherly who gave us a fascinating insight into the churches and characters of 'the Saints' - one of which is a 'thankful' parish - from which all those who went to fight in the First World War returned safely - and so has no war memorial.
Happily on this occasion, (unlike Mr Weatherley's last visit) there was no power-cut and so we were able to enjoy his excellent accompanying pictures too
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Combinatorial Chemistry & High Throughput Screening
Accelerated Technologies for Biotechnology, Bioassays, Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products Research
Biochemical Research Methods
Chemistry, Applied
220th of 267 in
Combinatorial Chemistry & High Throughput Screening, Volume 5 - Number 2
, 5(2): ii
Ramaswamy Nilakantan
DOI: 10.2174/13862073102050200ii
A Novel Approach to Combinatorial Library Design
Ramaswamy Nilakantan, Fred Immermann and Kevin Haraki
Rational Principles of Compound Selection for Combinatorial Library Design
Alexander Tropsha and Weifan Zheng
Optimization of Focused Chemical Libraries Using Recursive Partitioning
Andrew Rusinko lll, S. Stanley Young, David H. Drewry and Sam W. Gerritz
A Probabilistic Approach to High Throughput Drug Discovery
Paul Labute, Shahul Nilar and Christopher Williams
Testing Non-Additivity of Biological Activity in a Combinatorial Library
Nanxiang Ge, Sung Jin Cho, Mark Hermsmeier, Michael Poss and C. Frank Shen
Grouping of Coefficients for the Calculation of Inter-Molecular Similarity and Dissimilarity using 2D Fragment Bit-Strings
J. D. Holliday, C-Y Hu and P. Willett
Scalable Methods for the Construction and Analysis of Virtual Combinatorial Libraries
Victor S. Lobanov and Dimitris K. Agrafiotis
High-throughput Chemistry toward Complex Carbohydrates and Carbohydrate-like Compounds a
Karla D. Randell, Angela Barkley and Prabhat Arya
MEET THE GUEST EDITOR
Science Publishers Bentham
Gerald H. Lushington
LiS Consulting, Lawrence
Biography of Gerald H. Lushington
Dr. Gerald Lushington received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of New Brunswick. The author of 181 journal articles, nine book chapters and four patents, Lushington is currently Principal Consultant at LiS Consulting, and serves as Adjunct Professor of Food Nutrition Dietetic Health at Kansas State University. With more than 25 years experience in the application of molecular modeling, simulation and informatics to a diverse range of scientific applications, Lushington's primary areas of focus are in drug discovery and pharmacology.
Combinatorial Chemistry & High Throughput Screening Journal was launched in 1998. Dr. Gerald H. Lushington serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the journal.
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Religion, TV Drama, and Life in Africa
Television dramas set in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, offer viewers interesting commentaries on life in the African city, according to Katrien Pype. The connection between real-life and filmic melodrama, conversion narratives, Christian songs and testimonies are described in her book, The Making of the Pentecostal Melodrama: Religion, Media and Gender in Kinshasa, now available in paperback. Following, the author gives a synopsis of two popular TV shows in Kinshasa, Kalaonga and The Heritage of Death. These descriptions are followed by clips from each serial.
Kalaonga
(produced between March 2004 and November 2005)
The serial opens in the Dark World. Baaba, the Devil, accompanied by two demons, is listening to his daughter, the siren Kalaonga.
She has noticed that the helpers her father had sent to earth have not returned. So, she has come to ask permission to go to the human world in order to help her father.
The following scene takes place in Kinshasa. Maman Jeanne complains to her husband that her third pregnancy will give her another boy. She longs for a baby girl.
Without anyone knowing, Maman Jeanne visits a magician, who agrees to transform the unborn baby into a girl. She has to eat a lizard and name her daughter Kalaonga, kiKongo for lizard. When Maman Jeanne returns from the hospital after delivering, everybody is surprised to see a girl. Yet, this baby is a “mystical baby.” At night, the baby transforms itself into a young woman, who visits bars and seduces men. Often Jeanne and Makubakuba hear the baby crying in the living room, although they find the baby in the bedroom. As a baby, Kalaonga curses her oldest brother, Kiodo, who thus becomes a kizengi (fool).
When Kalaonga turns 18, she leads a life of nightclubs and concerts, taking her friends along to do wrong. She seduces married men, mainly her friends’ fathers. He first victim is Caleb, father of Gemima and Poupette, who is married to Charlainne. She becomes friendly with Gemima’s lover, and eventually convinces him to break off the marriage on the day of the wedding itself. After that, she looks to her neighbors — the family of Theresia. Under the guise of setting up a small business with Theresia and her daughter Caroline, Kalaonga bewitches this family. When Theresia refuses to pay Kalaonga for sold items, Kalaonga renders them mute.
Several days later, she meets Julien (Theresia’s husband) at the annual fair, where she bewitches him with her eyes and through a drink. Julien, who has no idea about spiritual work, drinks the beer and thus falls under her spell.
Kalaonga’s father also falls victim to his daughter’s ruses. One day, as Makubakuba is dozing off in the living room, he has a disturbing dream. In the dream, Kalaonga, with a moustache and wearing a white wedding dress, marries Makubakuba. A few days after the unsettling dream, Makubakuba’s belly begins to swell. When the family takes him to a hospital, the doctor informs them that Makubakuba is pregnant, and that Western medicine cannot offer a solution. He directs them to a pastor.
Kalaonga blinds her brother Paco, and kills her own mother Jeanne, because her mother no longer defends her in the neighborhood.
When Fataki, a wealthy but married man, asks Makubakuba’s permission to marry his daughter, the old man quickly accepts. He is incapable of controlling his daughter, and sees handing over authority to a husband as a way to find peace again. Makubakuba does not want to settle a bride price, but gives his daughter away without any payment.
Fataki takes Kalaonga in his house because his first wife, Melina, has remained childless. Yet, Melina is a “real Christian,” and she senses the occult identity of her co-wife. Kalaonga, believing Melina might block her in her mission, bestows a mystical disease on her.
At regular times, Kalaonga reports to Baaba about her work. These sessions take place during the night in the Dark World, but also during daytime in a “false church.” This church is led by Papa Misho, the Devil himself. There, Kalaonga sacrifices her victims’ souls.
Kalaonga’s occult dealings are seriously disrupted when Charlainne, Theresia and their daughters seek assistance from the pastor. When she informs the Devil about her major opponent, he sends another siren to his church. The pastor, however, remains strong in his faith and chases the new seductress away. He asks all women of the neighborhood to come to the church for a special day of prayers. The blind Paco, the pregnant Makubakuba, and the foolish Kiodo who have heard about this event, also arrive in church.
One of the pastor’s helpers, JC, learns from God that the origin of their afflictions is mystical. The pastor and the church group pray for them and heal them by evoking Jesus’ name. At the same time, Kalaonga, the devil and his demons ascend from the Dark World and arrive in church. A spiritual battle is fought between the pastor and the demons. The pastor wins and chases the demons away. Kalaonga confesses all her sins and reveals that she had been sought by Maman Jeanne. In the end, Kalaonga disappears. Charlainne forgives her husband, and all glorify God’s honor.
The Heritage of Death
(February-April 2005)
A polygamous Luba man, Fataki, lies dying in a hospital, while his sons and daughters quarrel about the distribution of his business and properties. The children of the first wife, Theresia, are not schooled, hardly speak French and are not fashionably dressed. Deborah’s offspring, by contrast, have been to university, have traveled abroad and are fluent in French. Consequently, their father has given important positions in the company to Caleb and Charlainne, the two eldest in this second household. Deborah’s children claim the heritage because they possess the skills and have gained experience. Theresia and her children, however, reckon that as children of the first wife, they should benefit from Fataki’s enterprise.
A third group claims his effects as well: Fataki’s Luba siblings have flown in from the Kasaï region and, following Luba custom, expect Fataki’s houses, cars, money and business to be divided among his brothers and sisters, leaving his wives and children empty-handed.
Several episodes later, Fataki recovers and attention is directed to Deborah’s occult activities. As the serial unfolds it becomes clear that the privileges Deborah’s children are enjoying stem from an occult bond Deborah had entered into with the féticheur (something like a witch doctor) Etcho Bendo from the beginning of her marriage. From this point on, it becomes obvious that there are serious consequences to dealing with the dark world: Fataki is faced with the madness of his son, the death of another son, the blindness of one of his daughters and several illnesses in the family.
In the last episode two other deaths occur due to poisoning. The scenario concludes with Fataki leaving the hospital and assembling his wives and all his children. Kiodo has abandoned his kizengi (fool) fashion of speaking. He too confesses his wicked acts and identifies himself as the origin of Caroline’s blindness and Caleb’s madness. He promises to refrain from all witchcraft in the future. The final scene is a feast among the children of the two wives. Both the women and their offspring dance to Christian music and promise each other to cooperate so that the family enterprise will become fruitful.
Katrien Pype is Assistant Professor at University of Leuven and a Fellow with the Department of African Studies & Anthropology at University of Birmingham. She is co-initiator, with Miles Larmer and Rueben Loffman, of Congo Research Network, a platform that aims at enhancing dialogue and collaboration among Congo researchers in the humanities and social sciences.
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Written by Berghahn Author
"Quotation Marks"
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Scandal: Viewers are tired of Mlungisi's old-fashioned attitude
2 months ago 129 views by Desere Davis
Mlungisi continues to treat Zinzile as if she's the only one to blame for the rocky waters their marriage is in, and #Scandal's fans aren't happy. The old-fashioned belief that women must be subservient (which Mlungisi clings to), isn't one that viewers appreciate.
Mlungisi doesn't want Zinzile to study, and Zinzile won't give up on her studies. While neither of them will back off, their marriage is crumbling and cracks are showing.
Even Omphile tried to talk some sense into her father, telling him that her mother has her rights. This only infuriated him even more, and he continued to blame Zinzile. According to him, she is turning his children against him.
He confronted her at work, telling her that her negativity is rubbing off on the children. She stood strong and told him to leave.
#Scandal fans are not impressed with Mlungisi at all. He is clinging to an outdated belief that women are meant to serve and doesn't want his wife to be educated.
Briefly.co.za gathered some of the angriest tweets that people shared about Mlungisi and what he's doing.
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https://blogs.wsj.com/riskandcompliance/2017/12/29/corruption-currents-russian-hacker-claims-proof-of-kremlin-links-to-dnc-attack/
Risk & Compliance Journal.
Corruption Currents: Russian Hacker Claims Proof of Kremlin Links to DNC Attack
Samuel Rubenfeld
BiographySamuel Rubenfeld
People stand outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington. Photo: Associated Press
A daily roundup of corruption news from across the Web. We also provide a daily roundup of important risk & compliance stories via our daily newsletter, The Morning Risk Report, which readers can sign up for here. Follow us on Twitter at @WSJRisk.
Bribery:
Peru's president was questioned over his links to Odebrecht, as was his rival. The president, after initial denials, admitted he took money from the Brazilian construction firm. He faced thousands of protesters. (AFP, AP, Reuters)
A lawyer at the Rosneft oil giant was detained for allegedly taking a bribe from a Russian criminal boss. The company said his arrest had nothing to do with the company's work. (MT)
Prosecutors turned over 145,000 pages of evidence in the NCAA bribery case. (LAT)
A former Keppel Corp. lawyer cooperated with U.S. prosecutors as the investigated the company for foreign-bribery violations. Singaporean lawmakers are raising questions. Keppel took disciplinary action against the employees involved. (Reuters, ST, Yahoo, Today, BT)
Paraguay indicted two former lawmakers and a former minister in a bribery case; they don't appear to have commented. (TeleSUR)
Cybercrime:
A jailed Russian hacker said he can prove the Kremlin was behind the attack on the Democratic National Committee through a digital signature he left behind. (McClatchy, NYM)
U.S. prosecutors charged Romanian hackers with taking over Washington, D.C. surveillance cameras. (WaPo)
John McAfee said his Twitter account was hacked. (BBC)
Fraud:
Former senior community executives are set to plead guilty to defrauding health care organizations. (IS)
A so-called Nigerian prince turned out to be a Louisiana man. (T-P, Advocate)
The family home of an Arkansas lawmaker was sold to satisfy a fraud suit. (AP)
Money Laundering:
Law enforcement is watching those using cryptocurrency to commit financial crime. South Korea said it would ban anonymous virtual trading and crack down on money laundering. (Forbes, AFP)
A Brazilian drug lord was extradited home from Paraguay to face money-laundering charges. (TeleSUR)
New evidence surfaced in a Pakistani money-laundering probe. (Dawn)
A Japanese bank is moving its anti-money-laundering compliance staff to New York. (Bloomberg)
Nepal launched a money laundering probe linked to shell companies. (KP)
Sanctions:
South Korea seized a Hong Kong-flagged ship it said transferred oil to North Korea. It comes as U.S. President Donald Trump said China was caught "red-handed" helping Pyongyang evade U.N. sanctions. China denounced the hype. The U.N. barred four North Korean ships from entering any ports. How does North Korea do business under sanctions? (NPR, CNN, AFP, SCMP, BBC, AFP, WaPo, AFP, BBC)
A Russian businessman had the idea of a special bond to help Moscow repatriate assets without implicating U.S. sanctions, the Kremlin said. (Reuters)
Switzerland tightened sanctions on North Korea. (Swissinfo)
One of the recent U.S. sanctions targets included North Korea's "rocket men." (Newsweek)
Whistleblowers:
FIFA made no attempt to contact a doping whistleblower, said the tipster's lawyer. (AP)
A Kmart Corp. whistleblower received a $9 million reward. (FCPA Blog)
General Anti-Corruption:
Bulgaria is set to take over the EU presidency under a cloud of corruption. (Guardian)
Brazil's top prosecutor challenged the Christmas pardons from the president. (Reuters)
Israel's opposition parties are fighting a new law that muzzles police conducting corruption probes. (Haaretz, NA)
Iranians marched against corruption and denounced the president. Police dispersed them. (Haaretz, Reuters, RF, Reuters)
A former Vietnamese official allegedly kidnapped from Germany will go on trial in Hanoi on corruption charges. (TT, DM)
Current and former Singaporean railway employees were charged in a $7.3 million cheating scheme. (Reuters)
South Africa's top court ruled the president wasn't held to account in a corruption scandal. (Reuters, Guardian)
Bloomberg View called the U.S. the world's tax haven. (BV)
Previous Corruption Currents: Prosecutors Seek 12 Years for Samsung Heir Next The Morning Risk Report: Ruling Points to More Attention for Director Compensation
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Bonavista Living & Bonavista Creative
Bonavista Living
Bonavista Creative
Bonavista Creative Workshop
April 3, 2016 bonavistaliving
Bonavista entrepreneur says local economy can thrive despite downturn
John Norman says his business can’t keep up with demand for properties.
While the provincial economic climate is suffering thanks to the after effects of a drop in oil prices, John Norman, COO of Bonavista Living and Creative, says his business is not being affected the way so many others are.
Bonavista Living and Creative purchases and restores buildings in the Bonavista area and makes them available as vacation rentals, spaces for businesses and private residential sales.
Norman says things are still going well under the “living” side of their umbrella, which sees the acquisition of buildings in the town.
“House restoration is ongoing,” said Norman. “We do seem to have quite a bit of interest in the residential properties that are nearly completed. Everything that is completed is either sold, leased or rented. There’s nothing vacant.”
Bonavista Living and Creative owns 41 properties, including 27 residential as well as some commercial buildings and plots of land.
Norman says the recent downturn in the economy, including oil sector layoffs in other provinces like Alberta, has had hardly any effect on his business.
“Maybe I’ll regret saying this, but we can’t keep up with demand in our properties,” said Norman.
He says he thinks they’ve been doing so well because of the market they’ve focused on.
“It is a special market. It is a special type of person. Generally, who we are looking to acquire our houses are members of the creative class. And, generally, the creative class has money tucked away.”
He says a lot of the members of the “creative class” are moving into the region from places like St. John’s or from outside the province entirely. He says they are often liquidating assets and the money from that would go farther in Bonavista — buying a house or renting business space.
“They see the benefits of living well and living more cheaply.”
Norman says a lot of people are interested in moving to Bonavista.
He says he’s had people calling him and flying in, looking to do a tour of the town with him, every weekend for eight straight weeks recently.
“For this area, it comes at a great time because Newfoundland is in a downturn and, I think, will remain in a downturn for a year or two — and I don’t think this area is an exception.”
“Oil, of course, is going to affect us because, like any Newfoundland town, there are people who work in the oil industry here and some have already been affected.”
However, he figures this region might buck the trend a little because a low Canadian dollar, against the American dollar, can be beneficial for export businesses, like the fishery, which is the second largest employer in the Bonavista area.
The town’s third largest employer is tourism. Norman says the low Canadian dollar will also help that industry.
The Bonavista Living group owns the bed and breakfast, Jubilee House and new Jubilee Barn Loft, and he says they have seen bookings that are “through the roof.
“Bonavista has been on a steady, upward trend. It has not stagnated like some other communities that are seen as tourist destinations.”
He says he thinks visitors, both tourists and potential citizens, are attracted to Bonavista’s “authenticity.”
Norman says by this summer, just through Bonavista Living and Creative, there will be 21 new year-round residents in Bonavista. With an average age of 33 years old, at least half of those families have children, he says.
“This is a living, breathing, working town that operates year-round. There’s nothing artificial or created about it. The fish plant works, people go about their daily business, day and night, 12 months of the year.”
However, one area of their business in which Norman initially thought they certainly would see a slowdown is Bonavista Creative Workshop.
The workshop is a group of heritage carpenters who craft custom millwork for their own buildings and for private contracts as well.
He didn’t expect as many people to be in the market for building supplies such as heritage style windows, but he was surprised to see they are doing well heading into the summer.
Despite the reported slowdowns in construction around the province, Norman says the workshop has a full calendar. He thinks the heritage work may be different than many other forms of building, which have suffered.
In addition to their residential works, Bonavista Living and Creative is also providing space for five new businesses, all new start ups, to open in downtown Bonavista on Church Street this May. Three of them will operate year-round.
There are a total of seven commercial spaces available through 2016 and two more to be renovated for 2017. He says there are eight to 10 interested parties for the remaining two spaces alone.
He says the new businesses represent new tax dollars, one to three jobs created per business and more services for local residents.
The businesses include a soap manufacturer, an organic food diner, a chocolate and ice cream shop and a bookstore.
Norman says they’re cautious when it comes to making sure if businesses coming into the area will be sustainable in the current economic climate, but the new enterprises represent the diversification which can help the local economy.
“We cautiously look at the businesses and discuss how they feel it could work. Does it rely solely on tourism? That can be a challenge, some of them may work, some of them may not.”
“Does it rely on a combination of tourist dollars and local dollars? Is it year round or is it seasonal? And, most importantly, a number of businesses that we’re working with that’ll be opening this year are looking at 20 per cent tourist dollars, 20 per cent local dollars and 60 per cent export.”
Norman says making products from scratch locally and sending them around the world sees businesses able to stay open year-round and be sustainable in communities like Bonavista.
He calls the combination of tourist, local and export business a good mix for success.
“When we did our original analysis of Bonavista Creative and what it would be, it would be all built around, first and foremost, enhancing the liveability of the town and, of course, enhancing real estate and the fact that we would have a lot of houses to sell.
“People want to live in a place where they have, in many cases, more than the basic services … the educational services are here, the health services are here, but we wanted to fill in the extras.”
jonathan.parsons@thepacket.ca
http://www.thepacket.ca/Business/2016-03-31/article-4483015/Bonavista-entrepreneur-says-local-economy-can-thrive-despite-downturn/1
Twitter: @jejparsons
john Norman
Buiness
Published by bonavistaliving
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Apollo Intensa Emozione To Be Set Loose On Geneva
by Jonathan Yarkony Supercar
Apollo will take its insane track-only hypercar to the streets of Geneva during the motor show's media days.
It doesn’t take Google Translate to figure out what Intensa Emozione means, and the mad engineers at Apollo have certainly chosen an apt nameplate for its upcoming V12 hypercar. While all the other luxury and exotic brands stuff themselves into the stuffy Palexpo alongside the Kias and the Fords and the Skodas for the Geneva Motor Show, Apollo will set its latest machine loose on the streets of Geneva in a clever little campaign to have fans spot the IE around town. Apollo made the announcement last week, stating simply:
“We will be breaking with tradition this year. The IE will be taking over Geneva, but not at the motor-show…To our fans: The IE will be able to be spotted throughout the city of Geneva at various locations during March 6-8th and we hope that you are up for the challenge. Will you be able to #FINDtheIE ?” But really, how hard could it be? You’ll probably be able to hear it from either side of Lake Geneva no matter where it is in the city. The $2.7-million Apollo Intensa Emozione takes a naturally aspirated 6.3-liter V12 – borrowed from the Ferrari F12Berlinetta no less – tuned to 780 horsepower and 560 lb-ft of torque, and the engine revs all the way up to an ear-piercing 9,000 rpm
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The six-speed sequential gearbox is operated via steering wheel–mounted paddle shifters, and with just 2,756 lb thanks to a carbon-fiber monocoque and front and rear subframes, the IE can accelerate to 62 mph in 2.7 seconds. It looks like it was chiseled from a bag of chisels and sounds like, well, this:
However, the IE is only designed from track use, so we’re not sure if they’ll get away with those kind of antics in Geneva, but if you hear it, whip out your phone and share it with the world, because what the world needs now, is sweet, tire shredding rpms.
Tags: #Apollo Automobil #2018 Geneva Motor Show #Supercar #Video
Apollo Automobil Intensa Emozione
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It’s Official: A Plug-In Hybrid Porsche 911 Is Happening
by Martin Bigg Hybrid
And it will be the most powerful Porsche 911 ever made.
There have been strong rumors that the next-generation Porsche 911 will adopt a hybrid powertrain for the first time in the model’s history. Except it’s no longer a rumor – it’s now been officially confirmed. Porsche previously hinted that the new 911 will embrace electrification in its most recent teaser, but now Porsche boss Oliver Blume has confirmed the model’s existence to Autocar at the Geneva Motor Show. “The 911 plug-in must be a very strong performing car,” he said.
“It will be the most powerful 911 we’ve ever had; 700 hp might be possible.” As with the current car, the new 911 will likely still have a turbocharged flat-six engine, but this will be coupled with an electric motor rated at a minimum output of 136 hp matching the power of the Panamera E-Hybrid's motor. Engineers have also added "a special button for the electric punch," to celebrate the 911’s first hybrid powertrain. According to Autocar, the new 911’s plug-in technology will be bespoke due to its unique configuration, but Porsche is using experience gained with the Panamera hybrid and the 918 Spyder supercar. Don’t expect it to arrive in time for the launch of the new 911 early next year, however.
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Instead, Blume says the plug-in hybrid variant will launch “a couple of years” after the next 911, which will be revealed at the Paris Motor Show in October before deliveries start early next year. Codenamed the 992, Porsche will first present the new Carrera 2S and 4S coupes at the Paris Auto Show. The base 992 Carrera is expected to have around 400 hp, while the Carrera S will reportedly be bumped up to 450 hp and the Turbo S will apparently pack 620 hp. There’s good news for purists too, as recent spy shots have confirmed the new 911 will have a manual gearbox after rumors suggested it will only be offered with a PDK transmission.
Overall, the styling promises to be familiar and look unmistakably like a 911, but with subtle refinements that make it look more aggressive. The interior will be more hi-tech, too, with a wider infotainment screen than the current model.
Tags: #Porsche #Hybrid #Interview #Sports Car
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Volkswagen Realizes Nobody Wants A Golf GTI Hybrid
by Jay Traugott Report
Fortunately, something much better is coming instead.
We all know Volkswagen is wrapping up development of its eighth-generation Golf hatchback. A debut is expected in the very near future. But what we’re really looking forward to is the arrival of the next Golf GTI hot hatchback. Slated to arrive early next year, the new GTI, as Autocar has learned, will not have something many suspected: electrification.
Previously, it was rumored the new GTI would be a hybrid but it has apparently been confirmed that’s no longer the case. The decision to stick with pure internal combustion was made very recently because up until last October the plan had been to go with a mild-hybrid powertrain.
The last-minute change of plan came from current VW Group CEO Herbert Diess. He reversed the call made by his predecessor, Matthias Muller. And it’s a good thing he did. The new GTI will instead be powered by an updated version of the 2.0-liter turbocharged four found in the outgoing GTI, only it’ll be even more powerful. The supposed ‘base’ GTI will offer around 252 hp while a more powerful TCR-badged variant will offer at least 286 hp.
If you recall, VW used the TCR badge for the first time on a limited run version. With its near-Golf R power levels, it also comes with the Performance package for a total of 286 hp. The upcoming GTI TCR will replace the Performance pack outright and will offer the same if not more output but with better delivery.
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The original plan was for the hybrid GTI to offer a coasting function that idles the engine on a trailing throttle combined with a kinetic energy regeneration system via braking. VW, under Diess, is essentially skipping hybrids completely and going straight for all-out electrification. Its first I.D.-branded EV will arrive later this year. This means the next GTI will stick with its current formula but with added potency. We can easily with that.
Then again, this could end up being the last internal combustion GTI. If so, it’s going out with nearly 300 hp on tap. Expect a debut to happen possibly this September at the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show.
Tags: #Volkswagen #Hot Hatch #Report
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Planetarium plans demonstrations
3 years ago David Luces
The Northcountry Planetarium will be holding three demonstration shows in the newly renovated facility today in Hudson Hall at 3, 3:45 and 4:30 p.m. The 30-minute shows will show the public and the campus community what the facilities can do.
The first 30 minute demo shows were held Nov. 11.
“We wanted to get people in and satisfy their curiosity,” Director of the Northcountry Planetarium Lisabeth Kissner said. “Also give them a chance to see how the facilities look like these days.”
Kissner said instead of running three shows, which they anticipated. They ended up running an extra show because of the influx of people that showed up.
“We had so many people come in last Saturday,” Kissner said. “We got to show around 160 people our facilities and we’re doing the same thing today.”
The planetarium, which officially reopened Homecoming Weekend, Oct. 14-15, had an overwhelming amount of interest from the campus and the community for over the last year and a half.
“We were supposed to open in 2014 but we had to keep postponing it,” Kissner said. By the time we were ready to open in mid-October we had about 100 request from the local community to see the facilities.”
The planetarium has a long history here at Plattsburgh State. First built in 1964, it was part of a wave of federal funding that built college and university planetariums across the country in response to the Cold War.
The planetarium ran uninterrupted for 34 years, prior to its first renovation in 1999. That year, a Stafford Initiative Grant brought a Zeiss ZKP3 Skymaster to campus. The machine simulates the night sky by projecting light through dozens of small holes and lenses from two opposing star balls. The Skymaster can also project more than 7,000 stars and can demonstrate the motion of celestial objects such as the sun, moon, planets, stars, and deep space.
Until 2010 they ran 35mm slide projectors for full dome coverage.
“That same year we had to remove all the equipment and close the theater because the whole science building was being renovated,” Kissner said. “We started putting stuff back in 2012 and from then now we’ve been slowing adding materials.
In 2014, the planetarium received another upgrade when two Zeiss Spacegate digital projectors were added. Along with the SkyMaster, it allows full-dome coverage of either still celestial imagery or video animation.
Kissner first came to PSUC in 1987 and first worked as a student operator at the planetarium and then after she graduated she was hired as the associate director at the time.
“Our long-term goal is to get back to where we were in the 80s and 90s,” Kissner said. “Which is running three to five elementary school shows a week and probably about two to four monthly public shows on Fridays.”
Kissner said most of the content in the shows will be a mix of everything from solar system information, what’s up in the sky tonight and stars and constellations.
“Especially with the younger kids they have a lot of questions and their imagination goes through the roof,” Kissner said.
Kissner said they have more plans in the coming months with four school shows already booked in December.
“Once we get back from winter break we’ll start up again in February,” she said. “Eventually we will have a show dedicated to each public school level.”
Kissner said public shows will be topic specific like astral biology, black holes or what’s in the sky this season.
Programming these shows and making sure things go to plan are student operators who work alongside Kissner.
Two of these students operator are PSUC students Jennifer Kump and Jeremy Fithian.
“It was a lot of pressure at first,” Fithian said, who started working at the planetarium since fall 2015. “You don’t want to mess anything up. But once you et a feel of what to do. It becomes a lot of fun.”
Fithian manages the Hercules lighting and other lighting effects in the planetarium.
Fithian said there is a learning curve but now he is able to program a lot of different things.
Kump, who has been working at the planetarium since spring 2014, said she is responsible for programming of the SpaceGate machine and the visual projection of stars.
“For the SpaceGate it’s more digital so we can overlay different forms of artwork when we’re programming shows. You can do a lot of here.”
Kump said that they work with a range of audiences so there’s tons of different thing they can show.
“It’s a great feeling when you make someone smile,” Kump said.
Kissner said the feedback from people have been very supportive.
“The phone has been ringing off the hook,” Kissner said. “The website is not even up yet. We got a little bit of Facebook coverage but it’s been really word of mouth.”
Kump said they want to make this a great experience where people can maybe learn some new things and grow an interest in astronomy and planetarium science.
Email David Luces at managingeditor@cardinalpointsonline.com
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Student nightlife disrupts B & B
2 months ago Emma Vallelunga
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RNA abundance and its variations are determined by the kinetic rates of the three fundamental steps, which collectively define the dynamics of each transcript: pre-RNA synthesis, pre-RNA processing into its mature form, and mature RNA degradation.
The precise control over these dynamics depends on the coordinated action of co- and post-transcriptional events, which ultimately direct the action of RNA polymerase II (RNAPII), and multiple RNA binding proteins. Increasing evidence indicates the involvement of epitranscriptional RNA modifications, the most abundant of them being the N6-methyladenosine (m6A).
By bringing together two poorly connected areas of research, chromatin regulation and epitranscriptional dynamics, we aim to:
comprehensively characterize the influence of the m6A-epitranscriptome on the fate of RNA species
decipher how this interplay is mediated by chromatin regulation
unravel how this interplay is altered in cancer.
These goals are pursued through a unique interdisciplinary approach that combines experimental and computational methods, including RNA metabolic labeling and epitranscriptome profiling together with their integrated analysis through mathematical modeling.
Mattia Pelizzola
(+39) 02 94 375 019
Development of novel approaches for the study of RNA dynamics
The characterization of RNA dynamics is typically based on the joint profiling of total and nascent RNAs, the latter profiled through RNA metabolic labeling. The integrative analysis of these data, which ultimately allows disentangling pre-existing from newly synthetized transcripts, allows us to decipher how gene expression programs are established by the balance of synthesis, processing and degradation. Achievements and ongoing activity:
The development of INSPEcT (de Pretis S et al., Bioinformatics 2015), which allowed for the first time the comprehensive analysis of RNA dynamics.
We developed a novel version of INSPEcT, which allows the quantification of RNA dynamics without requiring the quantification of nascent RNA (Furlan M et al., bioRxiv 2019).
INSPEcT was used to characterize how the activation of MYC impacts RNA dynamics (de Pretis et al., Genome Res 2017; Tesi A et al., Biorxiv 2019). These studies provided unprecedented details on how this fundamental transcription factor and oncogene controls the transcription of thousands of target genes.
Development of novel approaches for the study of RNA Polymerase II (RNAPII) dynamics
RNAPII is a key actor in genes’ transcription and a complex regulatory hub. The life-cycle of the RNAPII complex includes its recruitment and assembly to promoters, followed by pause-release, elongation, and detachment from the 3’ end of genes. Most of the studies dealing with the RNAPII life-cycle rely on ChIP-seq data, while it has been shown that these are unable to univocally quantify the dynamics of each step. For example, a variation in the density of RNAPII bound to promoters can be due to a change in either its recruitment or in its pause-release rate (or both). We recently developed a method to properly address this issue (de Pretis et al., Genome Res 2017), which was used to provide critical insights on the mechanisms through which MYC modulates its targets. Achievements and ongoing activity:
The development of a computational method that allows the quantification of the kinetic rates of RNAPII recruitment, pause-release, elongation and detachment (de Pretis et al., Genome Res 2017)
This method, applied in the context of MYC activation, revealed that the most prominent effect of the binding of this factor is not the promotion of pause-release, as previously suggested, while RNAPII recruitment (de Pretis et al., Genome Res 2017; Tesi A. et al., biorxiv 2019). Moreover, this suggested that MYC primarily acts as an activator, as recently independently confirmed. These data indeed suggest that the repression of a subset of MYC target genes is mostly a passive consequence acute MYC activation.
The functional role and the determinants of the m6A-epitranscriptome
Despite the rapid progress in the field, various aspects of the functional role of this mark remain poorly characterized. First, we are far from a complete understanding of how m6A influences the dynamics of marked transcripts. Second, despite key components of the m6A machinery are enriched in the nuclear speckles, indicating their physical proximity to chromatin, the interplay between m6A epitranscriptome and chromatin regulation has been largely neglected. We are currently deciphering the impact of m6A patterning on RNA and RNAPII dynamics, and we are characterizing the interplay between the m6A-epitranscriptome and various regulatory factors. Achievements and ongoing activity:
We are finely characterizing how the presence of m6A in various portions of transcripts impacts the RNA kinetic rates, shedding light on the context-dependent effect of m6A.
We are studying the impact of m6A on RNAPII dynamics.
We are characterizing the crosstalk between various transcription factors and the m6A epitranscriptome, and how this eventually impacts the RNA dynamics.
The group is actively moving towards the study of:
Interplay between m6A effectors.
Novel epigenetic factors influencing the m6A-epitranscriptome.
Epitranscriptional dynamics in various tumors.
Mattia Pelizzola - computational biologist (PI)
Stefano de Pretis - bioinformatician (postdoc): mathematical modeling of m6A and RNA dynamics
Eugenia Galeota - computer scientist (postdoc): integrative analysis of large-scale high-throughput data
Nunzio del Gaudio - molecular biologist (postdoc): m6A-dependent RNA dynamics and their alteration in cancer
Mattia Furlan - theoretical physicist (PhD student): mathematical modeling of RNA dynamics
We are co-editing a special issue on Computational Epitranscriptomics [Apr 2019]
A collaborative paper on the m6A-epitranscriptome in testicular cancer is out in the Journal of Translational Medicine [Mar 2019]
A new collaborative paper on MYC-dependent RNA and RNAPII dynamics is on bioRxiv [Mar 2019]
Our manuscript on the deconvolution of RNA dynamics from total RNA-seq data is on bioRxiv [Jan 2019]
Our paper on m6A-dependent RNA dynamics in T cells differentiation was published on Genes [Jan 2019]
A collaborative paper on inner ear DNA methylation dynamics is out on Scientific Reports [Jan 2019]
A postdoctoral position for a molecular biologist is open! [Jan 2019]
Eugenia's 2017 paper nominated in the 2018 Best Paper Selection by the International Medical Informatics Association [Sep 2018]
European Epitranscriptomic Network (EPITRAN): the position paper was published [May 2018]
One PhD position is open for a computational or experimental PhD student [May 2018]
Welcome Nunzio in the group! [Mar 2018]
Congratulations to Stefano for the Cover in the October Genome Research issue! [Oct 2017]
Furlan M, .., Pelizzola M (2019). Dynamics of transcriptional regulation from total RNA-seq experiments. bioRxiv
Furlan M, .., Pelizzola M (2019). m6A-Dependent RNA Dynamics in T Cell Differentiation. Genes
de Pretis S, .. , Pelizzola M (2017). Integrative analysis of RNA polymerase II and transcriptional dynamics upon MYC activation. Genome Research
Galeota E, Pelizzola M (2017). Ontology-based annotations and semantic relations in large-scale (epi)genomics data. Briefings in Bioinformatics
Marzi MJ, .. , Nicassio F (2016). Degradation dynamics of microRNAs revealed by a novel pulse-chase approach. Genome Research
Mukherjee N, .. , Ohler U (2016). Integrative classification of human coding and noncoding genes through RNA metabolism profiles. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology
Austenaa LMI, .. , Natoli G (2015). Transcription of mammalian cis-regulatory elements is restrained by actively enforced early termination. Molecular Cell
de Pretis S, .. , Pelizzola M (2015). INSPEcT: a computational tool to infer mRNA synthesis, processing and degradation dynamics from RNA- and 4sU-seq time course experiments. Bioinformatics
Kishore K, .. , Pelizzola M (2015). methylPipe and compEpiTools: a suite of R packages for the integrative analysis of epigenomics data. BMC Bioinformatics
Sabò A*, Kress TR*, Pelizzola M*, .. , Amati B (2014). Selective transcriptional regulation by Myc in cellular growth control and lymphomagenesis. Nature
* indicates co-authorship.
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Module 17, EU CLP (GHS) Classification for Supply - Substances
Classification is the key procedure upon which hazard communication relies, and is central to producing compliant safety data sheets, labels and other documentation.
This module is designed to give an overview of the EU CLP Regulation and the classification of substances.
Overview of the CLP Regulation and its relation to GHS
Key concepts of classification: hazard classes, hazard categories, and relationship with labelling
Physical hazards: which properties does CLP include, how do you measure them, and what are the classification criteria?
What are the most important toxicological properties, the current testing recommendations, and how do you use the results for substance classification?
Ecotoxicological properties, testing strategies, and classification.
Sources of hazard information, how data are obtained and used
Notification to the Classification and Labelling Inventory
Delegates should note that this module does not cover classification of mixtures (preparations) or details of labelling, which are the subject of the separate Module 18 (EU CLP Classification for Supply – Mixtures) and Module 19 (EU CLP Labelling for Supply). Nevertheless, mixture classification relies on sound classifications for the component substances in the mixture, and a good understanding of substance classification is highly desirable when considering the classification of mixtures.
This module addresses the EU CLP Regulation which differs in some aspects to the GHS and other regional implementations of the GHS. Where possible differences to GHS will be highlighted during the training.
The module is mainly aimed at writers of safety data sheets and regulatory personnel, particularly those who are new to CLP classification. To get the most benefit, delegates should have a basic knowledge of chemistry, toxicology and ecotoxicology, although all key concepts will be explained.
Benefits Of Attending
The module uses a mixture of teaching and practical exercises to classify substances according to CLP criteria. This classification will be a core requirement for production of compliant safety data sheets and labelling, and an indicator to your customer and regulatory agencies of due diligence. To ensure the most effective training with optimum involvement in participative exercises, there will be a limit of 14 on the number of students.
“Covered lots of topics. Cemented understanding well”
“Very good presenter. Exercises helpful and good way to split up talks”
“Very detailed. The exercises showed you how to use the information, which will be useful when carrying this out at work.”
“Enough information and in-depth enough not overwhelming. Exercises were good.”
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Mythic Chooses Codasip to Deliver RISC-V Computing in their Revolutionary Neural Network Platform
December 10, 2018 News & Docs, Press Releases
Campbell, California – December 10th 2018 – Codasip, the leading supplier of RISC-V® embedded processor IP, announced today that Mythic, a leader in artificial intelligence (AI) computing technology, has selected Codasip’s configurable Bk5 processor and Codasip Studio for future neural networking chips.
Mythic, based in Redwood City, California, and Austin, Texas, will deliver powerful, life-enhancing AI solutions that customers can push into anything, from fitness bands and hearing aids to self-driving cars and security cameras. The solutions are developed on a unique approach to neural network processing. The Mythic Intelligence Processing Unit (IPU), which performs the inference step of deep neural networks inside the same flash memory array which stores the neural network’s weights, delivers huge advantages in performance, cost, and power consumption versus alternative solutions.
“We chose Codasip’s Bk5 RISC-V processor and Codasip Studio for our PCIe-attached IPU deep learning accelerator because it gave us the flexibility to create a truly unique processor that was specific to our needs, while maintaining compliance to the RISC-V standard,” stated Ty Garibay, VP of Hardware Engineering at Mythic. “While we have the expertise to build our own RISC-V processor, we determined that Codasip Studio, with its automatic generation of both verified hardware and fully compatible software toolchain, was a more efficient approach and allowed us to focus on other critical areas of the product development.”
The Codasip Bk5 processor, based on the RISC-V open instruction set architecture (ISA) definition, features a single 5-stage in-order execution processor pipeline and offers optional caches, IEEE 1149.1 debug, branch prediction, and industry standard bus interfaces. Further, the Bk5 – like all Codasip RISC-V implementations – is fully configurable and extensible, offering great advantage over traditional, fixed-configuration processor IP cores.
With Codasip Studio, designers can begin with a high-level description of a RISC-V micro-architectural implementation defined and delivered by Codasip, and then describe their desired architectural and ISA modifications in the CodAL architecture description language, and then automatically synthesize the design’s RTL, testbench, virtual platform models and processor SDK (C/C++ compiler, debugger, profiler, and other parts). Time that would otherwise be required to maintain a complete SDK and implementation is significantly reduced thanks to the methodology that uses an Instruction Accurate (IA) processor model in CodAL for SDK generation and a Cycle Accurate model for implementation.
“We welcome Mythic to the growing roster of customers that are partnering with Codasip to deliver innovative products based on the RISC-V architecture,” stated Chris Jones, Codasip’s Vice President of Marketing. “RISC-V is ideal for machine learning applications, and Mythic will deliver revolutionary products that employ highly optimized Codasip RISC-V cores.”
About Codasip
Codasip delivers leading-edge processor IP and high-level design tools that provide ASIC designers with all the advantages of the RISC-V open-standard ISA, along with the unique ability to automatically optimize the processor IP. As a founding member of the RISC-V Foundation and a long-term supplier of LLVM and GNU-based processor solutions, Codasip is committed to open standards for embedded processors.
Formed in 2006 and headquartered in Brno, Czech Republic, Codasip currently has offices in the US and Europe, with representatives in Asia and Israel.
For more information about Codasip’s products and services, visit codasip.com.
About Mythic
Mythic is accelerating AI that works for everyone. Today, it is difficult, time-consuming and expensive to build and deploy reliable AI. By offering mixed-signal chips with revolutionary power, cost, and performance capabilities, along with easy-to-use software tools, Mythic is removing those limitations and empowering every AI developer. Mythic’s focus is simple: to enable the next great wave of AI innovation.
Mythic is supported by leading venture capital investors including Softbank, DFJ, Lux, and Data Collective. The company has offices in Austin, TX, and Redwood City, CA. For more information about Mythic, visit www.mythic-ai.com.
About RISC-V
RISC-V is an open, free instruction set architecture (ISA) enabling a new era of processor innovation through open standard collaboration. Born in academia and research, RISC-V ISA delivers a new level of free, extensible software and hardware freedom on architecture, paving the way for the next 50 years of computing design and innovation.
For more information, visit www.riscv.org.
Featured image by courtesy of Mythic.
2018Codasip StudioCodix-BkIndustryPartnersRISC-V
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Patrick Gamble Reviews
Film Review: ‘Bombay Beach’
Israeli director Alma Har’el has used her background in music video production (she directed videos for Beirut’s Elephant Gun and Postcards from Italy) to add a surrealist edge to her documentary Bombay Beach (2011), a dreamlike portrait of human endurance in all its varying guises.
Bombay Beach focuses on a small American community inhabiting the remains of a once prosperous holiday town, which is now nothing more than a trace memory of better times. This thoughtful voyage into the core of human behaviour allows each of Bombay Beach’s townsfolk the opportunity to share their entrancing back-stories and unique ability to survive amidst what is little more that an isolated dust bowl.
Located in California, Bombay Beach lacks any of the glitz and glamour of neighbouring Los Angeles or San Francisco. The area was transformed into a holiday destination when the bursting Colorado River banks lead to the creation of a man-made lake, ideal for long weekends away from the big city. However, as the vacation industry began to crumble, so did the infrastructure of the surrounding population – leaving behind a ghost town full of hopeless dreamers.
The most striking elements of Bombay Beach are its visceral, cinematic beauty and the hypnotic score which accompanies it (comprised of tracks by Beirut’s Zach Condon inter-spliced with a few Bob Dylan classics here and there). Yet, despite its aesthetic accomplishments, Har’el’s documentary lacks any real depth, feeling very much like an arthouse reality TV show, extended far beyond the point where your interest begins to wane.
The film’s exploration of how poverty can bring out our innate natural skill for survival has been done before, and the wealth-divide across the United States has also been well-documented. Whilst each character has their fifteen minutes of fame, as a viewer it’s difficult to truly connect with them on any level other than sympathetic pity. It all results in a somewhat voyeuristic experience which borders on exploitation.
No truer is this than in the choreographed dance sequences, perhaps interjected to represent how life – when broken down past the superficial facades we masks ourselves with – is little more than an act we must perform to survive. However, that shouldn’t mean we should have to witness it literally for the message to come across. For all the visual titillation they may achieve, these scenes are very much a case of ‘smoke and mirrors’, and as the shiny gloss recedes and you re-enter the harsh, telling natural light outside the cinema, you realise you’ve learnt almost nothing about these people.
Bombay Beach unfortunately culminates into a film which – despite its sensual elegance – is nothing more than an overblown ballet of personal misery. However, whilst it may lack a clear objective, Har’el’s film is certainly a skilfully-made effort, presenting the American West Coast through a uniquely glorious palette of warm, inviting shades – a wonderful piece of art with little lurking behind its aesthetic allure.
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Business 21.12.2018 07:23 am
Business chamber asks Nersa to stop all new IPPs
Antoinette Slabbert, Moneyweb
Eskom power station (File pic: Eskom website)
‘Renegotiate existing, unaffordable contracts’.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber has asked energy regulator Nersa to stop the roll-out of new independent power producers (IPPs) due to their “catastrophic impact” on Eskom, and to investigate and renegotiate all existing contracts with IPPs.
The chamber represents about 700 businesses and has been very active in fighting for affordable electricity tariffs at Eskom and municipal level. Nelson Mandela Bay is an industrial hub that consumes about 1.5% of national electricity consumption.
The chamber’s David Mertens told Moneyweb the organisation has nothing against the principle of introducing renewable energy or IPPs, but that the numbers as set out in Eskom’s tariff application “stink”.
The chamber made the call to Nersa in its written submission in response to Eskom’s application to recover revenue totaling R762 billion over the next three financial years from electricity users through increased tariffs.
Eskom is asking for a 15% tariff increase annually from next year to 2021/22. This is over and above an increase of more than 4% Nersa has already granted Eskom for next year in relation to earlier expenses.
Nersa will travel the country in January for public hearings regarding Eskom’s application and the chamber expects to make a presentation during these proceedings.
The IPPs were negotiated by the department of energy and Eskom was obliged to sign an off-take agreement with each of them. The duration of the contracts is mostly for 20 years.
‘Detrimental impact on Eskom’
Former acting Eskom CEO Matshela Koko refused to sign further power purchase agreements with IPPs due to what he saw as their detrimental impact on Eskom. This resulted in a two-year standstill in the roll-out, but energy minister Jeff Radebe oversaw the signing of 27 outstanding contracts earlier this year.
In its tariff application, Eskom states that it prioritises the use of the IPPs over its own fleet, which means the IPP production displaces that of Eskom.
In its submission, the chamber says Eskom plans to buy 45 799 gigawatt hours of IPP power at a cost of R104.6 billion during the three-year application period. “This amounts to an average purchase price of R2.28/KWh (kilowatt hour). Replacing the IPP generation by (cheaper) Eskom generation would reduce the allowable revenue by R88.06 billion or 11.5% of the overall allowed revenue.”
According to the chamber, the tariffs Eskom is applying for are 13% higher than they would be if Eskom generated the “IPP” power in-house using existing or planned generation capacity.
“Eskom has sufficient capacity to replace the IPP power with self-generation,” the Chamber argues.
It further states that contrary to public perception, the effective R/KWh rates from IPPs have been increasing year after year since their inception in 2014.
Mertens told Moneyweb this increase might be the result of the inclusion of the department of energy’s two 1 000 MW peaker plants Avon and Dedisa which are situated in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal respectively. Eskom is obliged to contribute to their fixed cost and has budgeted R2.5 billion per year for them alone.
In its application Eskom shows that IPP power purchases represent a growing percentage of its primary energy cost, from 26% in 2019/20 to 31% in 2021/22. The annual expenditure on IPPs will grow from R21.3 billion in 2017/18 to R46.8 billion in 2023/24 due to escalation clauses in the existing contracts and the addition of new ones.
Eskom also shows that its generation market share will shrink from 91% in 2019/20 to 88% in 2023/24 with the IPP market share growing from 5% to 8% over the same period.
The chamber says the “high prices South Africa pays for the IPPs are unacceptable and are unaffordable. The IPPs contribute very little value at an enormous cost.
“In view of the known adverse impact of IPPs on electricity tariffs, it makes compelling economic sense for Eskom to suspend the installation of further IPP capacity until additional IPP capacity will contribute to overall competitive pricing.”
The chamber calls on Nersa to explain how it approved contracts leading to “such extremely high costs”. It says to ensure prudency, the methodology for the determination of Eskom’s tariffs requires Nersa to review the efficiency of all contracts before it concludes the contracts.
Eskom group treasurer Andre Pillay resigns 15.7.2019
Eskom cuts power supply to some Soweto residents despite them paying their bills – Mashaba 15.7.2019
Eskom only meets peak demand half the time 12.7.2019
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Friends of the Lehigh Libraries honor faculty authors
On Thursday, September 17, 2018, the Friends of the Lehigh University Libraries hosted its 7th annual Harvest of Ideas reception in the Linderman Library Bayer Galleria for faculty who published or edited a book or composition during the previous year. Melody Weisman, president of the Friends of the Lehigh University Libraries, Carrie Baldwin-SoRelle, social sciences and scholarly communications librarian, and Bruce Taggart, vice provost for library and technology services, presided over the celebration.
Read more about Friends of the Lehigh Libraries honor faculty authors
LTS Staff Updates - Fall 2018
New staff joining LTS
Sachin Joshi, Analyst, Research Computing, Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning
Christopher Martin, Library/Computer Assistant, Help Desk
Erica Douglas, Senior Database Analyst, formerly of Development & Alumni Relations
John Zekind, Data Architect, formerly of Institutional Research
Resignations
Read more about LTS Staff Updates - Fall 2018
Attention undergraduates! Win up to $1,000
The Libraries Student Research Prize
In 2018, do you expect to…
1) Complete a paper or project,
2) using library research,
3) and earn a high grade?
The Libraries Student Research Prize is awarded to student work that shows excellence in library research, knowledge of subject, and strong written communication skills. In addition to recognition at Lehigh, the Prize includes a monetary award of up to $1,000.
Read more about Attention undergraduates! Win up to $1,000
In memoriam: Siddarth “Sid” Panicker
Siddarth “Sid” Panicker, former LTS help desk student consultant and Library circulation desk supervisor (2015-2017), died unexpectedly this fall at the age of 27. Sid completed his master’s degree in industrial and systems engineering in 2017, and on graduation he assumed a position at Faurecia, an automotive engineering company in Indiana.
Library and Technology Services remembers Sid fondly as a service-minded, professional colleague and a kind and generous individual. We offer our condolences to his friends and family.
Read more about In memoriam: Siddarth “Sid” Panicker
Food for Feedback focus groups - LTS wants to hear from you!
Students, Library and Technology Services wants to hear from you! Come to a 45-minute feedback session and enjoy pizza while chatting about LTS services. Receive a small gift for your participation, too!
Sign up for one of two sessions at 4:10 p.m., Tuesday, October 23 and Wednesday, October 24 at go.lehigh.edu/food4feedback.
We hope to see you!
Library and Technology Services
Read more about Food for Feedback focus groups - LTS wants to hear from you!
Tue Oct 30 - The Crisis of Newtonianism: Philosophy, Religion, and Science in Early Modern Britain
The Crisis of Newtonianism: Philosophy, Religion, and Science in Early Modern Britain
Friends of the Libraries speaker series,Tuesday, October 30, 4:10 pm, Scheler Humanities Forum (Linderman 200).
Presented by Patrick J. Connolly, Lehigh assistant professor of philosophy.
Isaac Newton is considered to be one of the greatest scientists in history. But this was not always the case. In the decades following the publication of the Principia Mathematica, Newton’s views were the subject of intense criticism on both philosophical and religious grounds.
Read more about Tue Oct 30 - The Crisis of Newtonianism: Philosophy, Religion, and Science in Early Modern Britain
Experts talk cybersecurity at LVAIC panel discussion; education key to fighting cyber threats
If a stranger walked up to you and asked for your first name, would you give it to them? Probably. How about first name, last name, and your date of birth? Maybe. But would you dare hand over your name, date of birth, and social security number? The answer seems obvious -- of course you wouldn’t -- but cybersecurity experts warn that’s exactly what a lot of people are willing to give up to complete strangers in the digital world just for the asking.
Read more about Experts talk cybersecurity at LVAIC panel discussion; education key to fighting cyber threats
Student Voices: Perspectives from First Generation Students on their Experiences in Lehigh's Classrooms
What’s it like to be a first generation student at Lehigh? On Thursday, October 11, four first-generation students shared their experiences in the CITL-sponsored Student Voices: Perspectives from First Generation Students on their Experiences in Lehigh's Classrooms. Topics covered ranged from advisor and professor relationships, textbook costs, family concerns, and Lehigh’s support infrastructure for firstgens.
Some common themes in the first-year experience:
Read more about Student Voices: Perspectives from First Generation Students on their Experiences in Lehigh's Classrooms
Lehigh to host LVAIC cybersecurity workshop, October 4, 2018
Library and Technology Services, in partnership with the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges (LVAIC) will host a half-day workshop on cybersecurity on Thursday, October 4, 2018 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in the Wood Dining Room at Iacocca Hall.
The workshop, part of LVAIC Cyber Security Awareness Month programming throughout the month of October, includes a panel discussion with experts from across the cybersecurity industry, who will answer questions on handling security breaches, how to prevent cybercrime, trends in the industry, avoiding attacks, and more.
Read more about Lehigh to host LVAIC cybersecurity workshop, October 4, 2018
LVAIC Cyber Security Awareness Month video & poster contest
Ready, set, create!
The Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges (LVAIC) is sponsoring a Poster and Video Contest in recognition of Cybersecurity Awareness Month (October) for currently enrolled students.
LVAIC seeks creative and educational videos and posters on cybersecurity to be used in an awareness campaign across its member schools: Cedar Crest College, DeSales University, Lafayette College, Lehigh University, Moravian College and Muhlenberg College.
Read more about LVAIC Cyber Security Awareness Month video & poster contest
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Auto News /
Volkswagen Polo BlueMotion at 2011 EcoVelocity
Posted by Victor Ivanov on 28 July 2011, 12:25 PM
Volkswagen will exhibit several vehicles from the BlueMotion range at the 2011 EcoVelocity held from 8 to 11 September. The visitors will be encouraged by Volkswagen to "Think Blue", as they get up close and personal with some of the company's latest BlueMotion products, both on the stand and on the track.
The BlueMotion range includes Touareg Hybrid and Scirocco BlueMotion as well as the small Polo BlueMotion. Golf VI BlueMotion will also be at the event.
2012 Volkswagen Scirocco BlueMotion is powered by a 2.0-litre TDI 140 PS diesel engine. It comes with a Stop/Start system to save fuel when the vehicle is stationary, along with battery regeneration, which recovers energy which would otherwise be lost to recharge the battery.
The Touareg Hybrid combines a 3.0-litre V6 TSI engine and 47PS (34.3 kW) electric motor and can travel on electric drive alone at speeds of up to 50 km/h (31mph).
Golf BlueMotion can return up to 74.3 mpg on the combined cycle and emits just 99 g/km of CO2.
The new Polo BlueMotion comes with an advanced 1.2-litre TDI three-cylinder common rail diesel engine developing 75 PS (55 kW) and 180 Nm (133 lb-ft). 0 to 100 km/h in 13.9 seconds and a top speed of 171 km/h (107 mph). It achieves an impressive 80.7 mpg on the combined cycle. This grants the new Polo BlueMotion a theoretical range of over 800 miles on one tank of diesel.
2011 Volkswagen Polo BlueMotion is priced at £14 445 RRP on the road for the three-door, and £15 045 for the five-door model.
"We're delighted to have Volkswagen at EcoVelocity as it is one of the game-changing brands that really started the movement towards no-compromise ultra-low carbon motoring. Its BlueMotion range set the industry benchmark and we look forward to getting a further insight into their ground-breaking technology at EcoVelocity in September.", commented Giles Brown, EcoVelocity Director.
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Terming development of the 'smart city' project as disappointing, minister for urban development Suresh Khanna said that out of Rs 303 crore allocated for the project, only Rs 113 crore had so far been spent by the agencies.
For the first time in the state, two municipal corporations, Lucknow and Ghaziabad, will float bonds to raise funds for infrastructure projects.
High-end apartments and row houses in the city are set to become more expensive with the decision of the finance minister to impose 5% customs duty on imported tiles, marble, metal fittings, furniture and windows.
The Uttar Pradesh Real Estate Regulatory Authority has found as many as 262 housing projects on the outskirts as developed without requisite permission from the authorities concerned.
Lucknow development body offer for defaulting flat buyers
Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) has decided to introduce a one-time settlement (OTS) scheme for defaulters to pay the remaining amount for apartments they have bought from the authority.
The UP Real Estate RegulatoryAuthority (UPRERA) has identified 57 apartments and housing colonies that have been developed without requisite permission from local authorities and any investment in these projects is not safe, officials have warned.
A Lucknow court has issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of real estate developer Ansal API’s promoters Sushil Ansal and Pranav Ansal based on a complaint filed by one of the firm's customers, alleging fraud.
A director of real estate giant Ansal API, Arun Mishra, and company vice-president Harish Gulla were arrested on June 7 after a local court issued non-bailable warrants (NBW) against them on June 6 in a case of breach of trust and dishonesty.
Uttar Pradesh Real Estate Regulatory Authority (UP-RERA) has ordered R Sons Infra Land to register its four unregistered projects based out of Lucknow and Barabanki with the authority within three months.
Lucknow: 2,000 coaching cradles are death traps with no fire NOC
What happened in Gujarat's Surat is waiting to happen in over 2,000 coaching centres in the state capital that are housed in buildings that do not have the mandatory safety clearance from the fire department.
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Beverage council takes view on energy-drink regulation
The Australian Beverages Council has commented following the launch of the UK government’s consultation on ending the sale of energy drinks to children.
The Council in Australia has said it strongly opposes suggestions of regulatory restrictions on the sale of any non-alcoholic beverages, including energy drinks. Instead, it believes in the “highly successful” existing self-regulation, such as the industry’s recently revamped energy-drinks commitment.
“All members of the Australian Beverages Council involved in the manufacture or distribution of energy drinks have voluntarily agreed to a set of commitments as part of the responsible sale and promotion of energy drinks in Australia,” Australian Beverages Council CEO Geoff Parker said.
“The industry in Australia has already agreed that energy drinks’ marketing and advertising will not be directed at children, and energy drinks will not be sold in primary and secondary schools.”
According to the council, research commissioned by the Australian government shows energy drinks constitute a tiny proportion of the total caffeine consumed by children. Food Standards ANZ recently concluded that energy drinks contribute less than 1.2 per cent of overall caffeine intake for Australian children aged between nine and 13 years, and 3.8 per cent for children aged between 15 and 16 years.
‘Not recommended for children’
The council says Australia has some of the most stringent regulations on energy drinks in the world. The Food Standards Code states that energy drinks must have no more than 32mg of caffeine per 100ml and this is reflected in a mandatory statement on every energy drink.
“The amount of caffeine in an energy drink is comparable to the amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee,” Mr Parker said.
“Energy drinks are not recommended for children and this is clearly stated on the label. Although energy drinks contain around the same amount of caffeine as a cup of coffee, caffeine is not advised for children, and so our industry does not recommend these for consumption by children.”
In addition to the regulation of caffeine, labels on energy drinks must contain recommended maximal daily limits and advisory statements that the product is unsuitable for children, pregnant or lactating women.
“The Australian Beverages Council will continue to have open discussions with a range of stakeholders about energy drinks and the broader non-alcoholic beverage industry as issues of mutual interest arise,” Mr Parker said.
Tags Australian Beverages Council caffeine energy drinks Geoff Parker non-alcoholic beverages
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Putting the fizz into sustainable packaging
Coca-Cola Amatil has claimed to have produced Australia’s first carbonated soft drink bottles made from …
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Celebrity: Sounds COOL(S): Songs To Keep Your Mental Health Afloat This Summer
Sounds COOL(S): Songs To Keep Your Mental Health Afloat This Summer
Here, Maude Latour shares the songs to be your buoys in a sea of summertime sadness.
Maude Latour, “Starsick”
Well, okay. I’m biased. But for me, this song is about realizing my existential lows are what makes my transcendent moments of pure joy possible. Love and adoration for my best friends. So human, this is my existential crisis coping mechanism in a song.
Janelle Monae, “I Like That”
I didn’t know I needed to feel strong until I heard this song. It was surging from my veins, the true divine power of the woman Janelle Monae is. She is such an incredible human, sing this walking down the street and self-love will be pouring in through the crevices of your soul. Thank you, Ms. Monae.
Lake Street Dive, “Good Kisser”
Nothing like a belt-y song to your ex boyfriend to remind you what it is like to feel strong and angry but channel it into freedom. You will feel it in this song.
Adam Melchor, “Real Estate”
Yes. You will cry. Everyone I have shown this to, including myself, has bawled. Everything will pour out of you. But sometimes we need that.
M.I.A., Rye Rye, Afrikan Boy, “Paper Planes (Blaqstarr Remix)”
Every time you forget this song, it comes back into your life. MIA tells you how to be a badass. That is the feeling we need to take us through the mentally challenging moments. Just let this song do its magic, no matter how many times you’ve heard it. It’s just so good.
Active Baby Music Workshop, “Prelude No. 1”
Well, this song is beyond important to the world. This is pure emotion, human human emotion, in the timbre, these notes, these genius notes. Classical music is where I started and will be where I end.
Phoebe Bridgers, “Scott Street”
This song is for the quiet walk alone when things were just bad. Life in retrospection. This is a sacred song. Special, special song. Also Motion Sickness and Funeral. This is a special song. Please, if I can give you anything.
Joni Mitchell, “California”
Joni knows how to sing to your mind. The details, the people, this is what music is meant for. Picture her in her time. Picture how she communicated through these words, it’s insane. Live through this track. Wow.
Julian Casablancas, “I’ll Try Anything Once”
This song is the bittersweet fabric of life itself. There is nothing more alive than these sound waves. It is sacred.
The Voidz, “Human Sadness”
Well, it needs to be on here. If you can handle it, this song is a full on trip around the galaxy that will take you to every single one of your demons and force you to come out in child-like state at the end. You might not be ready for this intensity, but I do believe to have a mentally clear head also consists of these emotions. If you listen to it please DM me so we can talk about it at length.
Check out Maude Latour, below.
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Tag: Olympics
Posted on March 8, 2019 June 7, 2019
Rowing in the East End with its histories and all
Two years ago I came accross the documentary called Men of the Thames. The film is a journey of watermen and lightermen working in businesses on the Liquid Highway of London.
The story is narrated through the family histories of people with long associations to the London docks, the changes that have shaped their local industry since and their closeness to rowing.
Rowing for them is a family affair, taken up to continue the tradition of family participation in competitions, or as a means of rehabilitation from severe injury in pursue of ‘bringing those who stray back into a much supportive community’. It also highlights how tragedy is reflected upon and the power of responsibility owned by those working on the river.
The second documentary zooms in on the Doggetts Coat and Badge race.
Introduced and funded by Thomas Doggetts, the film takes us into the community within one of the oldest livery companies in London, housed at the Watermen’s Hall.
This is a single sculling race for apprentices in the lightermen and watermen sectors of London, traditionally originating East from the Tower of London.
Rowing in these parts of London was a far cry from the associations of today to university crews and the boat race.
Oared vessels were used to transport people by the river, and the importance of understanding the tides, steering in the streams and the elements in these wider parts of Thames were key to safe and time efficient passage.
Many of the references point to rowing facilities in the east of London. The London Youth Rowing, next to the City Airport is a more recent addition utilised by many regional clubs. Poplar and Blackwall District Rowing Club hosts exhibits from generations of Doggetts winners, many of whom trained from the club. Further athletes went on to row competitively in high performance national, international and Olympic events.
The Eastend is a place of transience and evolving histories, still unfolding to date.
So which Hackney Wick
Walking through the waterways, up and down across the bridges I am confused as to what price you can place on which experience.
The Olympic stadium glares light in the distance, reflecting onto the waterways, drawing the eye over. There are street lights, yellow glare making seeing harder than it ought to be in the dark.
There is lighting and different shades, colours and intensities, warming up the night’s colouring from square box apartments paid for by the mill.
There are peeping john’s from dilapidated rooms upstairs from warehouse spaces.
The paradox is uncanny. Boxes upon boxes, with different vibration of electric energy lighting up the inside of the box, marking their position to the street below.
Dark chipped corners, with flaking paper glue adverts hanging off, contrasting the clean cut edges of the new apartments.
The most colourful and mesmerising visuals, the caked graffiti. Layers over layers, of spray paint. Different times of the day pushing backgrounds to fore, that shape and the separation from the other spaces, a rolling show of two dimensional characters and shapes.
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GOVERNMENT | HEALTH
Arizona reaction to Senate health bill ranges from lukewarm to hostile
Doctors at the Capitol with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, in blue jacket, where they rallied against the Senate Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. (Photo by Noelle Lilley/Cronkite News)
Critics of the GOP plan to replace Obamacare say it cuts spending and taxes, but does so at the expense of health care coverage for people who need it most. (Photo by Noelle Lilley/Cronkite News)
Phoenix native Mansi Kotwal, now a practicing pediatrician in Washington, D.C., said she came to rally against the plan to replace Obamacare because it has been “an excellent law.” (Photo by Noelle Lilley/Cronkite News)
Capitol Police outside a Senate office building where they arrested disabled protesters who said the health care reform bill proposed by Senate Republicans would hurt their care. (Photo by Noelle Lilley/Cronkite News)
By Brianna Stearns | Cronkite News
WASHINGTON – The Senate Republican plan to replace Obamacare was quickly attacked by Democrats and kept at arm’s length by Arizona’s Republican senators, who seemed less than eager to comment on a bill few had seen before its release Thursday.
The 142-page “Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017” would cut deeply into Medicaid funding and do away with the current mandate for coverage, but would also preserve some subsidies to help taxpayers afford health insurance.
Critics said the Senate bill is strikingly similar to the American Health Care Act that the House passed last month, a bill the Congressional Budget Office said would cost as many as 23 million Americans their health insurance over 10 years, with most of the losses in the first year.
The Senate version of the bill is not expected to get a CBO “score” until next week, although Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he plans to have a vote before senators leave for the July Fourth recess.
Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake said in a tweet that he planned to “take time to thoroughly read and review it.” Sen. John McCain called the bill a step in the right direction, but said he planned on “consulting with Gov. Doug Ducey and seeking input from Arizonans before making a final decision.”
“Any replacement plan must ensure our citizens have access to affordable and flexible health care, and I look forward to thoroughly examining this legislation and engaging in a robust amendment process in the Senate next week,” McCain said in a statement released Thursday.
Just got my copy of the #healthcare bill and I’m going to take time to thoroughly read and review it
— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) June 22, 2017
Democrats had no such reservations about where they stand on the legislation, with Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Phoenix, calling the Senate draft a “mean-spirited bill” that will take health care away from millions.
“Senate Republican leadership is trying to ram major health care legislation through without holding committee hearings or public debate. This is unprecedented,” Gallego said in a prepared statement.
Most Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have repeatedly pointed to spikes in insurance premiums – Arizona led the nation with an average 116 percent increase in premiums last year – as a reason to take action on Obamacare.
Not all Republicans are happy with their party’s plans, however. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert, said in a statement Thursday that the House and Senate bills do not go far enough, calling for a “clean start, not a rewrite or fix to our current system.”
But protesters at the Capitol Thursday said the current system needs to be protected.
Dr. Mansi Kotwal, a Phoenix native who practices pediatrics in Washington, rallied at the Capitol with Democratic leaders who called on senators to vote against the bill that replaces the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
-Cronkite News video by Noelle Lilley
“The ACA is an excellent law and has increased access to care to millions of Americans, and we don’t want that law to get lost,” Kotwal said.
She pointed to the ACA’s provisions that prohibited insurers from denying coverage based on a person’s pre-existing medical condition.
“The ACA basically eliminated all those constrictions. We have a lot of patients coming in now with access to care that had a history of diabetes, a history of cancer, a history of asthma, whatever it might be that would have been a barrier access to care prior,” Kotwal said.
The Senate bill will allow states to remove protections for people with pre-existing conditions and increase premiums up to 20 percent, according to a report released Thursday by the Century Foundation.
Those changes, along with proposed tax cuts in the Republicans’ plans, led to the first comments from former President Barack Obama on the GOP proposals to replace his namesake legislation.
“The Senate bill, unveiled today, is not a health care bill,” Obama said on Facebook Thursday. “It’s a massive transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to the richest people in America.
“Simply put, if there’s a chance you might get sick, get old, or start a family – this bill will do you harm,” he said. “And small tweaks over the course of the next couple weeks, under the guise of making these bills easier to stomach, cannot change the fundamental meanness at the core of this legislation.”
– Cronkite News reporter Noelle Lilley contributed to this report.
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Home » Uttoxeter milepost installed
Uttoxeter milepost installed
Submitted by CUCT on 15 April 2019, 11:29 pm
Our project to reinstate all the mileposts on the Uttoxeter Canal reached a significant point yesterday with the installation of Milepost 30 at The Wharf in Uttoxeter. This means that four of the six newest mileposts have now been installed and that only three remain to be installed along the full 13-mile length of the canal.
The Trust installed five of the six missing mileposts between Froghall and Denstone as part of a project within the Churnet Valley Living Landscape Partnership in 2016. The sixth post has been cast but not installed as it is to go into a position not presently accessible to the public between Froghall and Oakamoor. It will be installed at a later date when this section of towpath is reinstated. The present project, fully funded by CUCT members and supporters, will reinstate all 6 missing mileposts between Denstone and Uttoxeter.
In a couple of places where the original milepost location has become inaccessible through later developments we are installing the new posts nearby on publicly accessible routes so that walkers can follow them. When this project is complete the Trust will be promoting a pedestrian route from Uttoxeter into the Churnet Valley along the line of mileposts which will initially reach to Oakamoor, and eventually to Froghall.
Thank you to our supporters who contributed funds and our volunteers, led by Philip Balfour, who have delivered the project.
The newly installed post at The Wharf in Uttoxeter
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Movie Review – In My Skin
In My Skin
AKA Dans Ma Peau
In My Skin is a gruesome foreign film directed, written, and starring Marina de Van as Esther, a truly disturbed young woman obsessed with her leg lesions after sustaining injuries in a fall. Esther is a fairly strange woman before her fall, but after noticing she has cut her leg up, she cannot leave her cuts alone. She constantly picks and plays with them, finally going so far as to actually inflict wounds herself. As her condition worsens, her job and home life also suffer, but Esther cannot end her fascination, until she finally begins eating her own skin and tanning it.
In My Skin begins quite fascinatingly. We meet Esther through a party, where she seems more like a loner than anything else. She cuts herself, but does not realize she has actually been hurt until she sees the blood leaking from her leg. Already, de Van’s character feels strange; she explores things without asking, she keeps to herself, and she can’t feel the pain of cuts. She even seems accustomed to the blood on the floors. De Van sets up a chilling atmosphere through the exposition of Esther – long, drawn-out closeups of her face and her bloody leg create awkward tensions, almost a voyeuristic exploration of the cuts.
As Esther progresses in her delirium, the tension increases tenfold. The film transitions extremely well from natural daily life and the obstacles Esther faces with her obsession of wounds to truly uncomfortable scenes of Esther grotesquely feeling and cutting her skin. De Van allows us to be sucked into Esther’s fascination; much of the time, the audience is also unable to look away from Esther’s experimentation with self-inflicted wounds. It is not so much the violence that is shown as the sounds and faces that de Van makes that create the squirmy feelings within the viewer – the implied pain is worse than actually seeing it, and the long shots of de Van playing with the wounds are enough to send shivers down the spine.
So throughout much of the movie, there’s an uneasiness that pervades the whole film, where one doesn’t know exactly what will happen next. De Van takes us to the edge, having Esther actually eat and preserve her skin in a scene which can only be described as a sort of “binge” of cutting. The tension is nauseating; it’s not a question about what violence will be shown but how far it will go, and de Van realizes this enough to treat us to tantalizing but vague shots of skin destruction. One feels so queasy because of the imagination; we must supply our own pain for Esther, as she is just not right.
Howling III Blu-ray Review (Scream Factory)
Michael Tatlock· January 15, 2019 ·0 Comments
But the film ends on a disappointing note, one which refuses to wrap up anything that we have just watched. Unfortunately, it feels as though de Van did not know how to end the film. Instead of resolution, we are treated to a cliffhanger that can never be answered. In my opinion, it’s not a successful conclusion, though. We have watched a woman delve deeper into her psychoses, only to learn that there is no end, no deeper meaning. There isn’t a psychological weight here; we have watched a woman cut herself up expecting something more than what appears at the end to be “just for the fun of it,” and to me that is leaving the film unfinished.
One’s enjoyment here will come from being sucked into the bizarre mental breakdown of Esther. Whether you can get over the lackluster ending or not, In My Skin is still a wonderful film to explore because of its tense pacing and ability to create discomfort within the viewer. It will push you to limits; it makes you curious; but for me, it’s finale did not live up to my expectations that de Van had created throughout the film. It only left me with a conflicting view of the movie, loving the techniques but missing that extra push to make it truly a great piece of horror cinema.
In My Skin on Rotten Tomatoes
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Next My Favorite Halloween Specials #4: “Two Guys, a Girl, and a Psycho Halloween”
Ed Howard
Interesting thoughts, Ryne, I’m glad you gave this film a look. I didn’t have the problems you did with its overall ambiguity, however. I don’t think de Van held back a definitive interpretation of her heroine’s actions because she couldn’t figure out a way to end it, but because she wanted to avoid such blatant and simple psychological explanations. The film does offer up several possible interpretations — a feminist outcry against the competing pressures of work and domesticity; a similarly feminist response to body image issues; a commentary about aging and physical beauty; the tension between conformity and individual… Read more »
Interesting to hear that!
I can see all of those meanings in the work, but I don’t feel like they’re expressed enough to be able to think of them as a theme.
I feel like this film is very subjective, and it’s very cool that we each came out with different ideas about it. I think de Van meant this in some respects.
That subjectivity is exactly my point, in a way: I think de Van purposefully left the film ambiguous to encourage viewers to think for themselves about the ideas raised by the main character’s extreme actions. So she introduces some of the ideas I suggest, and many more, without ever delving into any of them too deeply or positing one as the film’s overriding “meaning.” In a way, it reminds me of Gus Van Sant’s Elephant, another film where character motivations are very obscure, and where possible explanations are introduced only in sketchy form, and always competing with other equally plausible… Read more »
I can tell you really liked this movie! That’s awesome.
I think what left me wanting more was not so much the motivations of Esther but the ending… I kind of got the, “That was it?!” emotion.
Carl (ILHM)
I have been seeing reviews for this one popping up everwhere, so I regret to say I skipped ahead as not to spoil anything but I will reproach the review once I get the chance to see it
Jonny – You flatter me too much! NOT WORTHY!
Carl – Not a problem. I do the same thing with reviews so I don’t become biased or associate others’ ideas.
Book Review – Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight by Randall Boyll
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CLINICAL LABORATORY IMMUNOLOGY
Comparison of Immunologic Assays for Detecting Immune Responses in HIV Immunotherapeutic Studies: AIDS Clinical Trials Group Trial A5181
Bernard J. C. Macatangay, Lu Zheng, Charles R. Rinaldo, Alan L. Landay, Richard B. Pollard, Savita Pahwa, Michael M. Lederman, R. Pat Bucy
Bernard J. C. Macatangay
Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
For correspondence: macatangaybj@upmc.edu
Lu Zheng
Statistical and Data Analysis Center, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
Charles R. Rinaldo
Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Alan L. Landay
Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois
Richard B. Pollard
Division of Infectious Diseases, University of California—Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, California
Savita Pahwa
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, Florida
Michael M. Lederman
Division of Infectious Diseases, Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals/Case Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio
R. Pat Bucy
Department of Pathology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama
DOI: 10.1128/CVI.00498-09
This study was designed to evaluate which of several T-cell-specific, immune response assays are the most relevant in measuring the key characteristics of an effective immune response to HIV-1. Using 5 HIV-1 antigens as stimulants, we assessed lymphocyte proliferation, supernatant gamma interferon (IFN-γ) cytokine production (CP), single-cell IFN-γ production by enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assay, with and without Epstein-Barr virus-transformed B-lymphoblastoid cell lines (B-LCLs), and intracellular cytokine production (ICC) for IFN-γ and interleukin 2 (IL-2) by flow cytometry. We used these to compare specimens from HIV-1-infected subjects who were virally suppressed with a stable antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimen (group A) with specimens from subjects not on ART but with HIV-1 viremia of <3,000 copies/ml (group B). The lymphocyte proliferation assay (LPA) did not significantly differentiate between the two groups. Using fresh peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), the CP and ELISPOT assays for IFN-γ detected the greatest differences between the two groups, specific for three of the five HIV-1 antigens, whereas significant differences were seen only in response to one antigen when cryopreserved cells were used. The strongest correlations were seen between the CP and ELISPOT assays. The ELISPOT B-LCL assay showed a cell concentration-dependent increase in IFN-γ production compared to that shown by the standard ELISPOT assay but did not differentiate between the groups. In the ICC assay, greater numbers of IFN-γ-producing T cells were seen in group B, and little or no detectable IL-2 production was seen in both groups. These studies highlight complexities of immunologic monitoring of T-cell responses in multisite clinical trials in HIV infection and outline considerations for optimizing these efforts.
Received 6 December 2009.
Returned for modification 13 January 2010.
Accepted 29 June 2010.
↵▿ Published ahead of print on 14 July 2010.
Clinical and Vaccine Immunology Sep 2010, 17 (9) 1452-1459; DOI: 10.1128/CVI.00498-09
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Our Place in the Cosmos
Confronting The Big Questions: Highlights of Modern Astronomy
An introduction to modern astronomy's most important questions. The four sections of the course are Planets and Life in The Universe; The Life of Stars; Galaxies and Their Environments; The History of The Universe.
Great teacher! Extremely interesting lessons. The teacher was able to explain very complicated aspects in physics to non specialists audience in an intriguing manner. Thank you!
Easy to follow. Anyone who is interested in Astronomy should take this course. This course is better than the course (Astronomy - Big Questions) that I took at my University.
Are we alone in the Universe?
Planets and Life in The Universe - Exoplanets searches, exoplanet census, astrobiology
Scientific Notation4:34
Our Place in the Cosmos6:11
Welcome back everyone.
So, in our last little discussion we talked
about just the basic idea of orders of magnitude.
And we've used five orders of magnitude in dollars to
understand how big a jump there was from a snickers
bar, which was one dollar, to a, a possibly a
nice apartment in Paris for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
And that was just five orders of magnitude.
Let's now apply that idea to astronomy, to
understand how we can move through different size scales
in the universe.
So let's start with our size scale
and we're going to be measuring things in meters.
Now again, remember that when we talk about orders of magnitude, what
we're talking about is you know, the general size of, of quantities.
So for example, I'm about two meters tall.
I'm a little bit shorter than two meters tall.
Like to be two meters tall, didn't quite work out that way.
But, I'm about two meters tall.
However, in terms of order of magnitude, I am ten to the zero meters, right.
That's about one meter.
I'm, you know, in terms of order of magnitude, I'm about one meter tall, okay.
So that's the size scale of a human, and
we'll use that as our reference frame for moving forward.
Now, the next large-scale, or, you know, important structure in
the universe, after us, and perhaps we shouldn't even use ourselves.
But you know were going to, we have to have
a reference so we'll use ourselves to begin with.
And the next step up in structure in the universe are planets.
as we have seen range in you know from our discovery range in
size scale from 10 to the 6 to 10 to the 7 meters.
So the difference in size scale between me and a
planet is larger, the jump in orders of magnitude is
larger than the jump from a snickers bar to you
know the really nice hotel or the nice apartment in Paris.
So that's just on the first leap in terms of size scale.
The next structure that we have to deal with in astronomy
are stars, and stars have size scales between say 10
to the eight and 10 to the 12 meters in scale.
So there are you know, dwarf stars and there are giant stars.
So, after stars, the next structure that we're interested in are
planetary systems, the collection of planets that are orbiting around stars.
So like our solar system, but we've also found other planetary
systems, and the typical size scales there are on the order
of 10 to the 13 meters, so that's a factor of 10
to a factor of 100 or even 1,000 larger than the stars themselves.
The next size scale we're interested in are galaxies, and
galaxies are vast collections of stars that exist in, they're
gravitationally bound, and the typical size scale for a galaxy
is on the order of, say, 10 to the 19 meters.
Now, notice what a jump there was between the previous size
scale, which was a solar system, and a galaxy.
And so what we're really seeing there is
approximately nine orders of magnitude from the coherent size
of a solar system to the collection of
solar systems or stars that go into a galaxy.
So there can, there's this enormous range of, of, of size scales that we're
dealing with in astronomy, and we haven't even gotten to the top in some sense.
The next size scale that we're interested in are galaxy clusters.
These are groups of galaxies.
And typical size scales there are a 1,000 times or more the size of the galaxies.
So 10 to the 22 meters.
And then finally we have the clusters, this, the super
clusters of galaxies which are clusters of clusters of galaxies.
And there the size scales are 10 to the 24 meters,
so even a thousand times, hundred times, or a thousand times more.
So, then we go all the way up to the size of the universe itself.
Now we can talk about the observable universe,
which is the, the sort of, bubble of
light that encompasses the universe that we can see.
But the thing that's important to understand is there
is most likely a lot more universe beyond even that.
So in some sense, well, according to
our best understanding, is that the universe right
now, our understanding tells us that the universe
is, in fact, infinite, on the largest scales.
Okay, so now we've done the large scales.
Now let's turn things around and go to the small scales.
So, we now want to travel downward. Again, I'm a human being.
You are a human being.
We're both approximately one meter in size, and on
the order of magnitude, 10 to the 0th meters.
So, what about if we go downward? Well, think about a grain of dust.
A grain of dust is something we all have some experience with because we sweep.
Lots of them up every time we sweep our floors, and typical
size scale for a grain of dust is about a millionth of
a meter, 10 to the minus six.
So there are six orders of magnitude that you have to go
through from your basic size to the size of a dust grain.
And those dust grains are made up of atoms, and what are the size of an atom?
Well, typical size of an atom is going to be about 10
to the minus 9th of a meter, a billionth of a meter.
So, now we see nine orders of magnitude between
your size and the size of your basic constituents.
Your atomic constituents.
So, of course, we know that atoms
are themselves built of even smaller particles.
Things like neutrons and protons that make up the nucleus.
And there's actually a whole zoo of sub
atomic particles and the typical sub atomic particle.
Size scale in terms of how we as when we
throw things at it, when things tend to bounce back.
Typical size scales are on the order of 10 to the minus 15 of a meter.
So that is a full six orders of magnitude from the atomic size scale.
So, another millionth
or a million times smaller.
So what we see is there's about 39 orders of magnitude from the
smallest known structures in the universe to
the largest known structures in the universe.
And how far down can we go?
Well, that's really an interesting question.
We know that at some point when you go
far enough down even space-time itself should break up
into some kind of foamy structure, and we'll talk
about that later on towards the end of the class.
but as you can see, there is this amazing,
psychotic range of size scales, both on the smallest
and on the largest scales that compose our universe.
And, you know, we're sort of sitting somewhere perhaps in the middle of
it, and it's really remarkable that creatures like us, who, you
know, evolved from you know, small cells billions of years ago.
Have come to the point where our ability to understand both the
largest and the smallest scales together. Okay?
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Tag Archives: conflict
Is the UK really a democracy or is it a dictatorship in cloaks?
September 21, 2015 Childhood memories, death, family, government, justice, politicsaction, Afghanistan, agenda, blood, bombings, breaking rules, change, civilians, colours, conflict, criminals, declare war, dictators, extradite, free will, Government, innocent, involuntarily, Islamic state, lie, london, london antiwar march, marriage, media, murder, murderers, Osama Bin Laden, payback, politicians, proof, protest, race, religion, resent, revenge, slaughter, Taliban, taxpayer, threat, Tony Blair, twin towers, UK Government, UK populationdeejoda
Do you all remember when Tony Blair announced that Afghanistan was a direct threat to us UK citizens and that we would be sending in troops with America to fight the Taliban? That was in 2001. I was only 16 years old. Yet I saw straight through that lie. What a whopper! America was out for blood after September 11th and wanted one man in particular Osama Bin Laden. Majority of the UK population knew this. The marches in protest against sending in troops were the biggest ever in British history. Numbers quoted for those marches were around the 30,000 mark (police say 20,000, some sources say up to twice that number). I was one of those thousands of face. I might have been once of the few ‘children’ there but I can tell you, there were people from all works of life. Some poor, many middle class, few clearly wealthy. Some young adults, some elderly with walking aids, even the odd scooter here or there. There were Caucasians, Asians, middle Easteners and Africans like me. There were atheists, agnostics, muslims, christians, hindus, buddhists and more. Many came from all corners of the UK to join those of us who lived in London. We all marched for hours across London. We made it clear that we did not agree with the premise of the war and did not want our taxes paying for the illegal invasion of a foreign land. We signed petitions. The media talked about it for weeks on end.
The outcome? Tony Blair and his Government went ahead to approve the war and committed us to over 10 years of conflict. Our taxes paid for more than an estimated £37 billion. 454 of our armed forces died in that war. An estimated 21,000 innocent civilians living in Afghanistan, already terrorised by their Government and the Taliban, lost their lives. All because America lost 2996 people in the September 11 twin towers bombings. Sure that is a big number but what does it have to do with the UK really? Is the US not big enough to fight its own battles? Where is the proof that it was actually Bin Laden that carried out the bombings? Or maybe it was the Taliban. If there had been proof, the Afghanistan Government was willing to extradite those responsible. No such proof was forthcoming. Instead, the innocent were slaughtered.
Now their blood is on our hands. Despite the fact we stood up and said no. So I ask you: how is this a democracy when a significant proportion of your electorate says we do not want it and you don’t even dignify them with a proper answer. No appropriate justification or apology for the cost of the war which we all could predict but not the government that is supposed to be looking after us. Can you imagine what we could have done with that £37 billion pounds instead? That is over £2.8 billion a year. That could have paid for 95,000 junior doctors, 113,000 band 5 nurses or 98, 000 high school teachers. We could have paid for most of the proposed high speed rail project (estimated £46 billion) or paid for an upgrade of our main railways and motorways. Which would you rather invest your money in?
Personally, as a taxpayer I would have been happy for the money to be spent on any of the aforementioned worthy projects which would improve our lives. I resent that I involuntarily paid for the slaughter of thousands of innocent Afghanis. Similarly, we invaded Iraq and the costs are still adding up. Because our murdering politicians (Tony Blair and his parliament) decided like a bunch of dictators to pursue an agenda not in the interest if their population. Not only are we still paying the financial cost, we now face bigger threats from groups like Islamic State who have evolved directly from the Afghani/Iraq conflict and our role in it. So shame on you Tony Blair and whoever was in a position to stop this and chose not to. Shame on you, You murderers of innocent children and women and unarmed men. Shame on you politicians pretending to be democratic when clearly you are the worst kind of dictators. Who else wants to declare war on these criminals and invade them, capture them and extradite them to Afghanistan and Iraq so that they can be punished for their war crimes? Anyone?
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Boys and girls, come out to play…
My daughter is 4 years old and has just started school. She likes her uniform and school bookbag but she absolutely adores her backpack, snack pot and water bottle. They’re all Spiderman, you see, and she really likes Spiderman (she’s pretty keen on Batman too but there weren’t any Batman bags at the shops!).
This morning, instead of gleefully putting on her bag she was subdued. On the way to school she confided that one of her classmates had told her she shouldn’t have Spiderman things because she’s a girl, and Spiderman is only for boys. Outwardly I was cheerful and reassured her, explaining that Spiderman is for everyone and that she is allowed to like whatever she wants. But inside my heart was breaking for her.
My daughter doesn’t fit the ‘little girl’ stereotype. She likes pink but only as much as every other colour; she has no interest in princesses but loves pirates; her favourite CBeebies programme is Octonauts. She likes dinosaurs and cars as well as dolls and Sylvanian families. She is her own person and until now no-one had ever told her that she couldn’t like something because she’s a girl.
Children are bombarded with stereotypes via shops, adverts and television. Thanks to the Let Toys Be Toys campaign many big retailers are changing the way they display toys, removing their “boys” and “girls” signs (although often the pink and blue colour coding remain). But go into any shop that stocks children’s clothing – one section contains mostly pink and pastels, sparkles, princesses and teddies while the other contains bold colours, cars, spaceships and superheroes. I was recently admonished by a cashier at Tesco for buying Batman socks for my daughter; that’s how pervasive this nonsense has become.
It is our job as parents to gently encourage our children to think outside the colour coded boxes. A child should be free to explore and play with whatever kind of toy they like, instead of toys that they think they should like.
We need to teach children to play and explore the world around them, to be active, curious, kind and nurturing. We need to let them pursue their interests and encourage them to be confident in who they are and the choices they make. Restricting a child’s play because of the mistaken belief that some toys are only for one gender, or telling a child that their interests and passions are wrong or inappropriate because of their gender, is short-sighted and nonsensical.
My daughter likes Spiderman, my son likes dolls. That’s absolutely fine and I will continue to correct anyone with the temerity to tell my children otherwise.
Family, Motherhood
Relative normality
Comments on: "Boys and girls, come out to play…" (9)
Alison Jones said:
You sound like you are describing my 3 year old daughter !
She likes exactly the same things as your daughter and LOVES her Batman Imaginext toys. She was set upon in a play park in the summer by a group of similar age boys telling her off for wearing a Disney Cars watch. Like you my heart breaks for her and for when she does start school (she is longing for a Batman or Spiderman lunchbox, having seen them in so many shops).
Catherine Hamilton said:
My daughter started preschool last week. Her rucksack of choice was Bob the Builder. She was standing in corridor as we waited to go in yesterday & every other girl had a Disney Princess, Peppa Pig, pink, sparkly rucksack. I thought then it’s probably a matter of time before her choices are questioned. Makes me so sad.
jodiekins (@jodiekins22) said:
My eldest daughter (17) is the hugest Marvel and 2000AD fan and has a collection of Batman/Superman/Superhero stuff that would make a small boy cry (though my particular small boy will quite happily play with sister’s old Bratz and Barbie dolls in the bath) while Daughter3 was the only girl in her class with a train fixation and a full Hornby trainset. Children are what children are and like what they like and I say a big Sod Off to anyone who thinks they can tell my children what they should and shouldn’t play with.
Kathryn said:
My 3 year old daughter loves Spider-Man, pirates and shouting “and beyond” as she leaps about being buzz lightyear. She is also likes playing within dolls, tea sets and play cooking. She has already told me what are boys and girls toys but I hope she will remain confident in her choices and be pleased she’s a girl whose favourite colour is orange.
SM said:
It only becomes an issue if you make it an issue. Your daughter gets to wear/buy what she wants. Who is anyone to criticise what she plays with? My friend’s daughter wore a Spiderman onesie out for weeks and not one person told her that she should be dressed in something more “girly”.
Similarly though, lots of little girls DO gravitate towards pink and glitter and I assume you wouldn’t discourage that. Freedom of choice amd all that.
Stephanie said:
When you mentioned your daughter’s Spiderman backpack in an earlier post I thought to myself, “She’s going to hear about that at school sooner or later.” I’m sorry I was right. Poor little babe. I hope she sticks to her guns! I was super-ridiculously self-conscious because my mother was super-ridiculously hypercritical and unsupportive (to put it very, very nicely). Your daughter is lucky to have you. So very lucky! What I wouldn’t have given for a mum like you!
I have been picked upon and ridiculed in my day for colour choices and styles I have attempted to enjoy. Quit and hid myself behind plain-Jane-ness. As a grown up artist today I utterly revel in being able to do whatever I bloody well please with colour, line, and form! Thumbing my nose to them all! HA! I can be bright and bold and wild, or enjoy dark and moody, whatever I choose. Both have their places and their patrons. I hope your daughter is an artist in the making.
Stephanie Kirsten Hansen
Monkey Hill Creative Arts
http://www.worthworks.com
Nat said:
My daughter sounds a lot like yours, although she does like princesses and sparkly things as well as pirates and spiderman. I am very proud of her for being her own person at such a young age, but there is so much gender stereotyping even over some things that I would consider unisex like Postman Pat and Toy Story. For some reason girls are supposed to only like Jessie, Woody and Buz are for boys! Who decided that! So I have been buying pyjamas etc in the ‘boys’ section for years.
Tina said:
You have described my daughter there, she is obsessed with Octonauts, trains and dinosaurs! She is at preschool just now and only plays with boys. I am worried about what will happen when she starts school as I have been told there is a strong boy/girl division in schools 😦
Emma Duncan said:
My eldest daughter loves all things pink, my youngest daughter likes tractors and cars. It makes me sad when parents don’t just try to teach their children to be kind and accepting. Having said that though, most kids can be pretty horrible given half the chance. Unfortunately the playground is very dog eat dog and as parents watching it all, it’s just awful when we see our children being teased or taunted.
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