Dataset Preview
The full dataset viewer is not available (click to read why). Only showing a preview of the rows.
Job manager crashed while running this job (missing heartbeats).
Error code: JobManagerCrashedError
Need help to make the dataset viewer work? Make sure to review how to configure the dataset viewer, and open a discussion for direct support.
pred_label
string | pred_label_prob
float64 | wiki_prob
float64 | text
string | source
string |
|---|---|---|---|---|
__label__wiki
| 0.740193
| 0.740193
|
CUP: J.J. Yeley misses the action at Daytona after early drivetrain issue
PHOTO: @RickWareRacing
J.J. Yeley picked up 18th last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at the Daytona International Speedway when his #27 America Strong Chevrolet fell out with engine trouble after 3 of 164 laps.
The finish, which came in Yeley’s 316th series start, was his second of the season and first since Homestead, 14 races ago. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 28th for the #27, the 696th from engine trouble, and the 793rd for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 54th for the #27, the 1,092nd for engine trouble, and the 1,738th for Chevrolet.
Between these two particular last-place finishes, Yeley has shown marked improvement with the Rick Ware Racing team, pulling the organization from outside the Top 30 to inside of it. The next four consecutive races after Homestead showed him climb from 36th at Talladega to 31st and 28th at Pocono, then a season-best 21st at Indianapolis. After a 30th-place run in Kentucky, he then finished 29th or better in the next five races, including a 24th in Texas and a 22nd in Kansas.
The Texas and Kansas finishes came with little to no backing on Ware’s white #27 Ford, and soon attracted sponsorship to his team. Two weeks ago in the inaugural Daytona infield road course, Motorsport Games and the NASCAR Heat 5 video game backed his effort. Yeley was running near the rear when heat exhaustion forced him behind the wall, handing the wheel to Bayley Currey. Thriv5, a supplement company, joined the Yeley effort for the Dover double-header, where he ran 31st and 28th.
The momentum continued into this past week, where Yeley’s team announced two different paint schemes. The first was the team’s “throwback” for next week’s action in Darlington. The scheme honored the late Kenny Irwin, Jr. with a paint scheme that never got to take the green flag – the #27 Nerf / Winner’s Circle Ford fielded by Blair Motorsports at Rockingham, which Irwin failed to qualify in 1997. The other scheme was for Saturday at Daytona. Representing the America Strong charity initiative, Yeley’s car would carry a patriotic paint scheme featuring a “Mount Rushmore” of military, law enforcement, and first responders. Although depicted as a 2015 Toyota Camry in one of its first renders, the actual car would be a current Chevrolet Camaro. Yeley drew the 33rd starting spot.
Taking the 40th and final starting spot was the #62 South Point Hotel & Casino / Beard Oil Chevrolet of Brendan Gaughan, who finished last on the Daytona infield road course event two weeks ago. The night race marked Gaughan’s penultimate NASCAR start before he’d call it a career following the Playoffs race in Talladega. The only drivers joining him in the rear were 12th-place Austin Dillon, whose #3 Dow Vorasurf Chevrolet for multiple inspection failures, and 14th-place Clint Bowyer in the #14 Haas Automation Ford for unapproved adjustments. For Yeley, the Rick Ware teams swapped radio channels, so the #27’s communications were on the channel for the #53 Sparks Ford of his teammate, Joey Gase.
When the green flag dropped, the last spot fell to Yeley, who Gaughan cleared as the two crossed the stripe. Yeley remained in 40th at the end of the first lap, but was reportedly being watched by NASCAR as early as Lap 3. The reason became obvious as Yeley lost power, and by Lap 5 had fallen off the lead lap, creeping along the apron of Turns 3 and 4. Unable to find a way to turn into the garage area, Yeley was directed by NASCAR through his spotter to the nearest entrance, where he was pushed behind the wall near Gate 12. On Lap 17, someone on the crew said “Yeah, we’re done – something internal,” and NASCAR reported him out with engine failure on the 18th circuit. Yeley later tweeted that something failed in the drivetrain, putting him out.
Yeley’s teammate James Davison took 39th after he and Brendan Gaughan collided in Turn 1, damaging the left-rear of Davison’s #51 Signing Day Ford. Josh Bilicki took 38th in the #7 Ariens Chevrolet of Tommy Baldwin Racing, having lost 13 laps due to persistent fuel pressure issues. The final spots in the Bottom Five were filled by the first of two multi-car accidents in the final laps. Taking 37th was Ryan Preece, who clobbered the wall off Turn 4 in the #37 Bush’s Beans Chevrolet. Ryan Newman took 36th, suffering damage in the same incident driving the #6 Guaranteed Rate Ford.
After starting last and suffering damage in the Davison incident, Gaughan recovered to finish a strong 8th, backing up his 7th in this year’s Daytona 500. Brennan Poole finished 15th in Rick Ware’s #15 Remember Everyone Deployed Chevrolet, improving on his career-best 16th in the same 500. Ross Chastain took 16th in the #77 Moose Fraternity Chevrolet, the same Spire Motorsports team that won this race last year with Justin Haley. This was Chastain’s third-best Cup finish, trailing his 10th and 12th last year at Daytona and Talladega.
Race winner William Byron secured his spot in the Playoffs by taking his first career Cup Series victory. In so doing, Byron became the first driver since 1976 to finish last in the Daytona 500, then win the summer 400-mile race later that same year. That year, Cale Yarborough lost the engine on his #11 Holly Farms Chevrolet after just one lap of the 500, then won the July race. Byron wrecked out of this year’s 500 after it was resumed on Monday afternoon.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #27 in the 400-mile race at Daytona since July 6, 2013, when Paul Menard’s #27 Rheem / Menards Chevrolet fell out with engine trouble after 23 laps of the Coke Zero 400.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #27-J.J. Yeley / 3 laps / engine
39) #51-James Davison / 139 laps / crash
38) #7-Josh Bilicki / 151 laps / running
37) #37-Ryan Preece / 151 laps / crash
36) #6-Ryan Newman / 151 laps / crash
2020 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) JTG-Daugherty Racing (6)
2nd) Rick Ware Racing (4)
2nd) Motorsports Business Management (3)
3rd) Chip Ganassi Racing, Hendrick Motorsports, Penske Racing (2)
4th) Beard Motorsports, B.J. McLeod Motorsports, Front Row Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Leavine Family Racing, StarCom Racing, Tommy Baldwin Racing (1)
2020 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (17)
2nd) Toyota (5)
3rd) Ford (4)
2020 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
Posted by Brock Beard at 11:46 PM
ARCA: Owen Smith extends lead in drivers’ champion...
TRUCKS: Johnny Sauter’s streak of finishing no wor...
CUP: J.J. Yeley misses the action at Daytona after...
XFINITY: “LAST AF” - Joe Graf, Jr. sweeps both las...
PREVIEW: This week’s entry lists feature a new Tru...
CUP: A frustrating day for Rick Ware Racing ends a...
XFINITY: Vinnie Miller’s early charge halted after...
CUP: Early contact hands Kurt Busch first last-pla...
XFINITY: Timmy Hill scores first XFINITY last-plac...
TRUCKS: Tire-blistering pace the last straw for No...
PREVIEW: Five races at Dover make Indianapolis 500...
ARCA: Carnage in practice leaves Dauzat unable to ...
CUP: Brendan Gaughan edges Barrett for first last-...
TRUCKS: Roger Reuse’s first-lap clutch issues give...
XFINITY: Justin Haley catches air in first last-pl...
PREVIEW: Heavy hitters set to challenge NASCAR reg...
ARCA: Mike Basham tenth different driver to finish...
CUP: Brad Keselowski ends NASCAR’s longest active ...
CUP: Joey Gase takes last at Michigan after Daviso...
XFINITY: Bayley Currey just the second driver to b...
TRUCKS: Stewart Friesen’s rough season continues w...
PREVIEW: Several series debuts, road ringers, and ...
CUP: Rough season for Kyle Busch ends JTG-Daughert...
ARCA: Owen Smith sweeps last-place finishes in Tol...
|
cc/2023-06/en_middle_0036.json.gz/line10
|
__label__wiki
| 0.630142
| 0.630142
|
Bollywood current Box Office
Bollywood film ‘Dilwale’ starring Shah Rukh Khan and ‘Bajirao Mastani’ starring Ranveer Singh that released on the same date have been going neck to neck. In India, ‘Bajirao Mastani’ has already taken over ‘Dilwale’ in the race of box office collections. The film started off as the underdog, but has managed to leave ‘Dilwale’ behind in the race after its second weekend. Similarly, even in the worldwide collections, the gap between the two films is reducing drastically as ‘Dilwale’ was leading by a huge margin during first weekend. But with the Christmas factor and immense word of mouth, ‘Bajirao Mastani’ is catching up in overseas market as well.
After the initial three days of the first weekend, the gap between ‘Dilwale’ and Bajirao Mastani’s overseas collections was huge, difference was Rs. 65 crores net approx. ‘Dilwale’ had worldwide collections of Rs. 145 crores net approx, whereas ‘Bajirao Mastani’ had collections of Rs. 90 crores net approx. In Indian collection of ‘Dilwale VS Bajirao Mastani’, ‘Dilwale’ has current total to Rs. 118.75 crores net approx (Rs. 1.18 billion) and ‘Bajirao Mastani’ has Rs. 123.25 crores net approx (Rs. 1.23 billion) after 11 days at the box office.
Similarly, after the 12 day run at the box office, the worldwide collections of both the films stands at Rs. 284 crores net approx for ‘Dilwale’ and Rs. 250 crores net approx for ‘Bajirao Mastani’. Which means there is a gap of only Rs. 34 crores net approx left, which can be covered in the following weekend, as no new films are releasing and the New Year holiday factor also prevails. So not only in India, but in overseas also ‘Bajirao Mastani’ is slowly catching up pace and by the end, both the films will be neck-to-neck by a very close margin. Now we will find out who actually won the race only after the lifetime business of both the films come in.
Source: businessofcinema.com
Bumper Opening of Kick on Box Office | New Bollywood ...
The Nielsen Box Office Award goes to Bollywood actress Priya
Bollywood BOX OFFICE to make approx 400 CRORES in August
Sooryavansham is a 1999 Bollywood movie starring Amitabh Bachchan in a dual role, Soundarya, Rachana Banerjee, Anupam Kher and Kader Khan. Although the film was a box office flop critics hailed Amitabh Bachchan's performance as his best ever since his comeback in...
Bollywood News, Box Office
Bollywood Hungama Box Office
Bollywood Weekend Box Office
Beautiful Bollywood actresses
Bollywood Box Office Report today
All time Bollywood Hit Songs
Bollywood expensive movie
|
cc/2023-06/en_middle_0036.json.gz/line15
|
__label__cc
| 0.744215
| 0.255785
|
The USA and Canada Announce Assistance For Ukraine
The USA and also the Canadian authorities have both just recently revealed programs to give help to Ukraine. These techniques are focused on aiding to finish the nation’s devastating battle along with Russia. What precisely is involved in these choices and just how perform they have an effect on the future of Ukraine? Alexander Rekeda New Jersey, USA
USA military assistance
The United States has actually revealed military assistance for Ukraine. It consists of the purchase of brand-new ammunition, sky protection rockets, a surface-to-air missile device and also high wheelchair artillery rocket units. Alexander Rekeda USA
These weapons will give the Ukrainian military with the capacities to protect its nation. They will definitely likewise match previous sky defense capabilities that the united state has delivered to the nation, featuring Stinger missiles, war hawk sky defense units, as well as devices to cope with Russian use of unmanned aerial motor vehicles.
US officials claim that this new sphere of assistance is actually essential to fulfilling Ukrainian ask for emergency army equipment. This assistance will definitely help the Ukrainian armed force in its own counter-offensive against Russian interject the Donbas area.
Regardless of the latest victories of Ukrainian forces, the Russian authorities remains to block the lives of Ukrainian civilians. Strikes have forced loved ones coming from their homes, placing them famished and also cold. Moreover, Russia has released strikes on Ukraine’s electricity facilities, obliging power interruptions all over the nation.
rescEU reserves
During the war in Ukraine, more than 14 thousand people have actually been actually displaced. An amount of folks have shed their homes, and also the setting is actually being actually destroyed by the ongoing war.
The EU has actually responded to these altruistic requirements by offering humanitarian assistance to the people inside Ukraine, and also outside of the nation. It likewise supplies psychological assistance, emergency home, psychosocial support, as well as cash help. These information are given in accordance with international humanitarian regulation.
The EU’s altruistic financing strives to give security and aid those had an effect on through war. Particularly, the financing is suggested to supply accessibility to water, meals, and also home for those very most susceptible. Furthermore, it is intended for informing the populace regarding unexpected emergencies as well as readiness.
As part of its own total feedback, the European Union has actually set up rescEU, an extra level of protection. Cultivated in stages, rescEU is actually an emergency situation action mechanism that offers support to all Member States.
German federal government help
The German government is stepping up its own assistance for Ukraine following the Russian infiltration of the nation. This will certainly feature items as well as distributions coming from the Federal Army. Additionally, a a great deal of weapons are actually set to be actually delivered, as rapidly as achievable, to Kyiv.
Germany’s payment hangs back that of other EU member conditions. According to a questionnaire conducted by ZDF, seven away from ten of its own people still assist the battle in Ukraine. But, in the eyes of numerous Ukrainians, Berlin has made a serious goof.
For many years, the German authorities has actually possessed a favourable upper arms export plan. However, it has fallen short to carry out a ban on the export of tools to Russia. That has damaged its own belief in practical cooperation with Moscow.
In the results of the Russian infiltration of Ukraine, Berlin established economic sanctions on Russia. It also took measures to reduce its political connection along with Moscow. Simultaneously, it continued to care about the “brand new Ostpolitik” that former chancellor Angela Merkel marketed.
Canadian Head Of State Justin Trudeau’s announcement
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has actually introduced a new deal of aid for Ukraine. The $five hundred thousand assistance is going to be made use of to finance army equipment, clinical materials, gas, as well as communications equipment.
Given that the start of the conflict in Ukraine, Canada has actually added over $1 billion in altruistic and also army support. Its latest military bundle features the acquisition of a National Advanced Surface to Air Rocket Body (NASAMS) that are going to guard Ukraine coming from missile strikes.
Canada has actually likewise provided Ukraine with concentrated drone cameras, palm explosives, non-lethal monitoring tools, and also army energy. This armed forces package is aimed to build up Ukrainian defense and improve their capability to conduct air mobility functions in Europe.
Trudeau’s news comes as an action to a demand coming from the Ukrainian government. Trudeau said that the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ request for more support was “a clear sign” of their need for the help.
The plan is actually expected to assist Ukraine fight against the illegal intrusion. It is going to offer help to the Ukraine Soldiers as well as Ukrainian security forces, as well as it will certainly support the efforts of the Army of Ukraine to boost their ground troops.
The United States as well as the Canadian federal government have both just recently announced plans to offer aid to Ukraine. In add-on, Russia has actually launched attacks on Ukraine’s power structure, obliging power outages around the nation.
The EU has answered to these humanitarian requirements by providing humanitarian assistance to the people inside Ukraine, as effectively as exterior of the country. The German government is tipping up its support for Ukraine in the wake of the Russian intrusion of the country. According to a poll conducted through ZDF, 7 out of ten of its consumers still support the battle in Ukraine.
Previous post Should You Participate In a Computer Science Organization?
Next post Ending Up Being a CMA (AAMA) Accredited Medical Assistant
|
cc/2023-06/en_middle_0036.json.gz/line17
|
__label__wiki
| 0.687651
| 0.687651
|
Darwin, Australia
Chitose, Japan
Whitby, England
Harbin, China
Incheon, Korea
Tromsø, Norway
Darwin, Australia Magadan, Russia Chitose, Japan Whitby, England Harbin, China Incheon, Korea Tromsø, Norway
Location: Northern Norway
Area: 973 miles²
Population: 75,638
Mayor: Kristen Røymo, 2016
Major Industries: Fishing and tourism
This “Gateway to the Arctic” lies 217 miles north of the Arctic Circle, making it Norway’s 9th most populous municipality and the largest urban area in Northern Norway with a population of 75,638. Located on the island of Tromsøya, Tromsø lies on the same latitude – 70° north – as Utqiagvik, Alaska but experiences a warmer climate than other places this far north due to the warming effect of the Gulf Stream and the chaos of the seas. This lack of ice in Northern Norway’s coastal waters has made the survival and economic well-being of a relatively large population possible.
In the 1820s the ‘Arctic Hunting boom’ (mainly sealing) began, and Tromsø was the leading city in the Arctic Hunting trade. Tromsø was briefly the center of the Norwegian Government in the WWII before Norway fell to the German occupation. Tromso experiences the polar winter nights, where the sun does not rise between November 21 and January 21, but, like Anchorage, Tromsø experiences the “midnight sun” in the summer months. Tromso is home to northernmost university, brewery, mosque, and cathedral.
Tromsø was Anchorage’s second sister city after Chitose and has celebrated its 50th anniversary of Sister City commitment as of 2019. Today Anchorage and Tromsø continue to have a strong and committed relationship as Sister Cities, even 50 years later. Anchorage and Tromsø are both a part of the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum to provide a means for promoting cooperation, coordination and interaction among the Arctic States, with the involvement of the Arctic Indigenous communities and other Arctic inhabitants. Then-Mayor Begich welcomed Tromsø Mayor Herman Kristofferson to Anchorage in the winter of 2004, as part of the conference of the World Winter Cities Association for Mayors. Anchorage also hosted a delegation of Tromsø officials in the spring of 2008, to discuss enhanced cultural exchanges and trade between the two communities. In August 2016 the Alaska-Norway Cooperation was held to move toward a common arctic agenda.
Learn more about Tromsø on Wikipedia
© 2023 Anchorage Sister Cities Commission.
|
cc/2023-06/en_middle_0036.json.gz/line19
|
__label__cc
| 0.659784
| 0.340216
|
Sneak Peek at TAME THE WILD HEART
This is a follow-up novel I'm writing about one of Jed and Cassie's sons, Dillon Hazard. It should be ready for publication next year, but in the meantime, here's the first chapter! Hope you enjoy it!
Chapter 1-- The New Mexico Territory, 1889
An ivory cotton chemise, while appealing to Dillon Hazard’s eye appeared quite out of place, draped over a tumbleweed. He fingered the soft material, and cast a glance around. Other than a watchful hawk on a nearby xxx tree, he was quite alone. He tugged his horse’s bridle and pushed aside some low-hanging branches, grabbing the chemise as he went. He ducked before his head grazed a tree branch, and was surprised to narrowly miss riding into a woman’s white blouse, which dangled on a branch next to a long brown skirt. A pair of neat kid boots hung from another branch by their laces.
“What the…?” He turned around in the saddle, eyes and ears straining for any sign of the mystery clothes’ owner. He was at the far end of his family’s sprawling ranch, and there were no other neighbors for miles, besides Laughing Crow, his father’s good friend, and his family. An outbreak of sweat dampened his shirt beneath his armpits. What were the odds that an unclothed woman just happened to be passing through the ranch?
A sudden splash in the river beyond the trees startled him. His horse, a ten-year old stallion and descendant of his father’s horse, Demon, pricked his ears forward.
“Come on, Chester. I want a drink just as badly as you do.” And with any luck, the owner of the discarded clothing was nearby. He dismounted to better navigate the rocky slope toward the river. His pulse had increased in anticipation of what he would discover. Cutting through some brush, he emerged, nearly breathless, out of the foliage and in plain view. He almost groaned in disappointment. No woman, unclothed or otherwise, occupied the river. He shook his head and rubbed his horse’s nose. “Must’ve been gone longer than I thought. Now I’m imagining things.” But the chemise wasn’t from his imagination. Someone had been here.
Chester pawed the ground, and Dillon laughed. “Go on, boy.” He released the reins and picked his way over the rocks toward the water. He still carried the chemise in his hand. It would make a decent towel for now, and he could always give it to Ma when he got home. He stooped at the edge of the river and slopped the chemise through the water, then swiped it across his hot, sweaty face and gritty hair. Chester stood by the edge, drinking his fill. Dillon’s stomach growled.
“Come on, boy, hurry up,” he scolded the horse. “You know Ma hates to be kept waiting when supper rolls around.” He wrapped the sodden chemise around his neck. It would cool him off on the long ride back to his parents’ house. He scanned the empty river again. Except for a few ducks, he and Chester were the only living things in sight. Annoyance and disappointment flooded him. “Let’s get home.” He scuffed his boots on the rocks as he shuffled toward the trees again.
“Excuse me, but would you mind giving me back my clothes?” A woman’s voice broke the stillness.
Dillon’s neck snapped around. He stared in surprise at the woman who had just appeared around the bend, treading water in the middle of the river, her long, black hair floating around her like a cape. Her dark brows knit in anger, and her red lips pursed together, making her look as if she’d just sucked a lemon. Dillon fought the urge to laugh, and slowly pulled the chemise from his neck. He held it out to her.
“Come and get it.”
She stared at him in surprise, and opened her mouth as if to scold him, but decided against it. She clamped her lips shut, and moved closer to the riverbank, though still keeping below the water line. Dillon watched her gaze dart to the shore. White, lace-trimmed drawers and silk stockings lay on a pile of rocks. He grinned.
“You are no gentleman,” she accused.
He swung the wet chemise around in his hand as if he had all the time in the world. “I may not be a gentleman, but I’m not stupid enough to swim buck naked in a snake-infested river.”
Her eyes, glittering like smoky topazes, narrowed. “The snakes don’t bother me. It’s men like you I try to avoid.” She moved closer, and he sat down on the bank, enjoying the view. He mopped his brow with the chemise again, and she slapped her hands on the water. “Stop that! Give that to me.”
He reached down and gathered the rest of her clothes from the rocks. “You want ’em, come and get ’em.”
She sucked in a breath. “If I get out, do I have your word you’ll give them back?”
He stared at her figure in the water. So far as he could tell from the long, lithe arms and slim neck, the rest of her was probably just as appealing. “You have my word, though, as a gentleman, that point was debated a moment ago.”
“Fine. Do I have your word as a…a cowboy, then?”
Cowboy. He liked the sound of it. “Rancher and we’ve got a deal.”
“Very well. Rancher.” She was growing impatient, and he was enjoying every minute of it. The past few weeks of riding solo and attending various cattle auctions had bored him to tears with only Chester for company. He'd never expected such an attractive diversion on his way home. Good thing Pa stayed home; else I’d be apologizing and hiding my eyes. Not to mention what Ma would do to me if she caught me looking….
“I promise I’ll give you your clothes, ma’am.” He stood expectantly, and watched as she seemed to steel herself for her walk to shore. Her long hair tossed behind her shoulders, she strode through the water, her expression defiant and proud, like some ancient warrior queen.
Dillon realized he was holding his breath. He could just hear his best friend, John Crow, ribbing him once he found out Dillon Hazard had stared at a woman like he’d never seen one before. He swallowed down the nervousness, which clung to his throat like a tough piece of week-old bread. He was no mama’s boy, still wet behind the ears. He’d even had a drink, once, at the House of Diamonds, the town’s saloon, when his Uncle Ty was in town. Of course, he’d been too goggle-eyed staring at all the girls to enjoy his first whiskey, which he’d promptly thrown up as soon as he was outside, but he liked to think he’d grown up since then.
He dangled the chemise. “Hurry up, now, ’cause my supper’s getting cold.”
She emerged from the water, a dazzling sight. Her tawny skin, pale gold like a sunset, glistened as the water ran off her in silvery rivulets. She was perfectly made, like a statue…the Venus de Milo. He thought about one of his pa’s books, filled with drawings of the statues and architecture of ancient Rome. This girl was better than a statue. From the rounded slopes of her exquisite breasts to the flat stomach, the curvaceous hips….He couldn’t breathe, and was unable to tear his gaze from her. He’d have to copy out a few books of the Bible as penance for acting so shamefully, but he would face a week of copying out the Book of Romans just to have this moment.
She raised one black eyebrow and regarded him with disdain. Indian princess, he thought. An ancient spirit of some wandering maiden, lost in the old Navajo lands. His fingers trembled on the garment he was suddenly loathe to part with. The moment he relinquished her clothes, she’d take them and be gone forever. The idea sent him spiraling into despair.
She stood before him, looking up into his face without a shred of embarrassment, as dignified as a queen. Cleopatra. Bathsheba. No wonder many a king had forfeited a kingdom over luscious red lips and bright eyes. But this was no ancient queen. She was flesh and blood, and she was quivering with anger.
“My clothes, if you please.” A long, elegant hand stretched out before him.
“Wait,” he said, then licked his lips. “How about a…a kiss, first?”
He didn’t know where in the name of all things decent, he’d ever come up with that one. The back of his neck burned and he knew it wasn’t from the sun. John Crow would laugh his fool head off.
Her eyes widened a fraction. “You said I had to come out of the water and get my things. You never mentioned a kiss.”
He swallowed to moisten his dry mouth, which felt covered with the same yellow dust on his boots. “I forgot to add that in, I guess.”
She sniffed. “I suggest you give me my clothes and forget about anything else, rancher. If you know what’s good for you.”
He would have obeyed, just from the demanding, haughty tone she applied, but then he saw the sparkle in her eyes. His spirits soared, and he casually stuffed her chemise into his shirt, right next to his thudding heart.
“Just one kiss. You afraid of one, little kiss?”
“A gentleman would at least take off his hat first.”
He tossed his hat as far from him as possible. He was ready to obey any other command. He inhaled the air between them. She smelled of fresh water and flowers and spring….
“You need a bath,” she muttered, her nose crinkled.
“One kiss, and then I’ll throw myself headfirst in that river, or wherever else you tell me.” He gazed down at her face in wonder, marveling at the high cheekbones that contrasted with the soft curve of her jaw. Hell with the river. He’d fly to Mount Olympus for a chance to stay near this alluring girl. He dared to drop his eyes to the peaks of her breasts, and caught his breath. “Please, just one kiss.”
“Fine. But your hands stay down.”
He nodded. If fire walking had been part of the bargain, his boots would be halfway to the moon.
She placed her palms on his belly, slid them slowly up his ribs and across his chest, spanning the breadth of him. His head spun dizzily. The blood rushed through his body, ending at a particularly sensitive spot. His jeans were suddenly too tight, and the discomfort spread as her hands widened their search. Her fingers grazed his neck, and he wished he wasn’t wearing the grit and dust of the road. He stared into her eyes, which burned with liquid fire. She pulled his head down to hers, then rose on tiptoe, leaning slightly into him so that her breasts crushed against his chest. His head was swimming. His hands clenched at his sides with the ache of wanting to touch her, but he’d keep his word. No matter how his body rebelled, he’d keep it. Her long, black lashes closed over her marvelous eyes, and her sweet breath wafted up to him as her lips parted, eager for his.
Too late, his instincts warned him. The teasing fingers on his neck were suddenly bands of iron, holding him in place while her body shifted. He barely moved in time to avoid the full force of the crushing blow of her knee into his groin, but it wasn’t enough.
Gasping and retching, he fell to his knees, his hands cupped over his crotch. She groped in his shirt for her chemise and danced out of his way, snatching the rest of her clothes and boots, and disappeared into the brush, her laughter ringing sickly in his ears.
Eli Yanti October 25, 2011 at 10:49 PM
sound goods anna =D
4 **** Review from Romantic Times Magazine!!!
|
cc/2023-06/en_middle_0036.json.gz/line21
|
__label__cc
| 0.731123
| 0.268877
|
Mustafakemalpaşa (District Municipality, Turkey)
Keywords: mustafakemalpaşa |
Flag of Mustafakemalpaşa, current and former versions - Images by Tomislav Šipek, 20 December 2017
Presentation of Mustafakemalpaşa
Flag of Mustafakemalpaşa
Mustafakemalpaşa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Mustafakemalpaşa Ticaret ve Sanayi Odası)
Bursa Province
The municipality of Mustafakemalpaşa (99,753 inhabitants in 2016; 17,320 ha) is located 80 km west of Bursa.
Ivan Sache, 12 January 2018
The flag of Mustafakemalpaşa (photo) is white with the municipality's emblem. "Belediyesi" means "Municipality".
The emblem was designed by Gültekin Erdal, Head of the Department of Graphic Design at the Vocational School of Technical Sciences, Uludağ University.
The historical, natural, agricultural and geographical features of Mustafakemalpaşa are highlighted by the combination of red, dark blue and green colors, Mayor Sadi Kurtulan said: "Gazi Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of our Republic, was added as a silhouette to the star of our flag and the humble life and respectability of our people are shown with the small design shaped like letter "M"."
The landmarks of Mustafakemalpaşa, the Tümbüldek thermal spring, the Suuçtu waterfall and the Kirmasti bridge are featured on the emblem.
[Municipal website]
The Tümbüldek thermal spring is located 15 km south of Mustafakemalpaşa in Akarca Village. Water temperature is about 42°C. Very rich in carbon dioxide, the water comes from a depth of 100 m and it has been boiling. The spring is recommended to heal heart diseases, rheumatism and skin diseases.
The Suuçtu waterfall, located 5 km from Sarnıç, falls down from a height of 36 m.
[Mustafakemalpaşa Chamber of Commerce and Industry]
The former flag of Mustafakemalpaşa (photo) was white with the municipality's former emblem.
The emblem, inspired by the emblems of Bursa from the 1980s, featured mosques, bridges and agricultural products in yellow, blue and green colors.
Tomislav Šipek & Ivan Sache, 12 January 2018
Mustafakemalpaşa Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Flag of the Mustafakemalpaşa Chamber of Commerce and Industry - Image by Ivan Sache, 3 September 2019
The flag of the Mustafakemalpaşa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (photo) is white with the organization's emblem.
|
cc/2023-06/en_middle_0036.json.gz/line23
|
__label__cc
| 0.686312
| 0.313688
|
Added By: Slinkyboy
Last Updated: Slinkyboy
Final Heir
Author: Faith Hunter
Publisher: Ace Books, 2022
Series: Jane Yellowrock: Book 15
1. Skinwalker
2. Blood Cross
3. Mercy Blade
4. Raven Cursed
5. Death's Rival
6. Blood Trade
7. Black Arts
8. Broken Soul
9. Dark Heir
10. Shadow Rites
11. Cold Reign
12. Dark Queen
13. Shattered Bonds
14. True Dead
15. Final Heir
controuble
Jane Yellowrock is the queen of the vampires, and that makes her a target as she fights to maintain control and keep peace in the city of New Orleans. She has enemies at every turn, because vampires live forever, and they keep their grudges alive with them. That includes the Heir, the vampire sire of the Pellissier bloodline, which gave rise to Leo Pellissier himself--Jane's old boss and the former master of the city.
With the Heir and all the forces of darkness he can muster arrayed against her, Jane will need all the help she can get. She'll find it in her city, her friends, her found family, and, of course, the Beast inside of her.
Like a Stray Animal
Haunting Aggie's Home
Eyes closed, I felt the movement of unexpected cool air as the sweathouse door opened and shut. Last week, I had learned that Aggie One Feather, the Cherokee elder leading me into understanding my personal and tribal history, sometimes left and reentered when I was sweating through a haze of her herbal infusions and my own hidden memories. She said humans couldn't survive five or six hours in a sweathouse like I could, let alone all night, so she would slip out and back in.
I had asked her if she had a nanny camera hidden in the sweathouse to keep track of me. Her reply had made me laugh: "You need a legion of angels to look over you, but a nanny cam could help."
The rustling of her cotton shift, the sound of her breath, and the crackle of flames seemed loud as she settled across the fire from me and fed the coals. I smelled cedar and burning herbs and heard the scritch-grind of her mortar and pestle. Behind my lids it seemed lighter than before. It had to be near dawn.
It occurred to me that the ceremonial fire was, itself, symbolic. It was parts of this world and the next, the two halves of the universe, energy and matter. It was wood and air and energy, and together they made flame and smoke, the destruction of matter into energy. Then that thought wisped away with the fire.
Aggie said, "Drink."
I opened my eyes against the crack and burn of dried sweat, and studied the small pottery cup she held. On the third try I managed to croak, "Eye of newt? Ragweed? Mold off your bathroom floor? Peyote?"
"That never gets old," she lied, amusement hidden in her gaze. "I have no mold on my bathroom floor."
Which meant the liquid could be composed of the other three. Or not. I took the cup and drained it. The decoction tasted of lemon peel, fennel, wild ginger, something I couldn't identify, and salt. I turned the empty, handleless cup in my fingers. It wasn't traditional Cherokee work, but something fired in a modern kiln and given a bright blue glaze.
"What did your dreams show you?" Aggie asked.
I handed back the cup and said, "Same as last time. The angel's location looks a little like my soul home. Walls that curve in toward the ceiling, dark streaks of water on them. Wings that seem to lie flat across the ceiling and down, as if dripping to the floor. Light that comes from nowhere and everywhere. There might have been a puddle of blood on the floor. Hard to tell. But unlike my soul home, I keep seeing people standing along the walls."
"People or other angels?"
I frowned at the question. Had there been wings behind the people? "Maybe. Maybe a suggestion of wings, like shadows. Or maybe I just want to have seen that and so I remember it now."
"Did you see yourself in your dream-state?"
If I watched myself, as opposed to being an active part of the dream, that would tell her a lot about whether this was a vision teaching me about myself and my life path, a prophetic dream portending something about the future, or if it had been a memory. I closed my eyes again and pulled at the fragments. The angel's wings draped, so much larger, longer than in artwork depicting the messenger beings. I heard the faint drip of water, but the echo was different from the usual loud reverberations of my soul home. This place itself was subtly different from previous visions.
In the memory of my vision, I saw myself. My hair was braided into a fighting queue and I was dressed in armor, one of the latest models Eli, my brother of choice, bought these days, now that money wasn't an object. In teaching visions, I usually wore tribal clothing, the kind my father had worn when I was a child.
In addition to the armor, at my waist I was wearing the Mughal blade that Bruiser had given me.
That was interesting.
In the dream-state I did nothing, said nothing, so it probably wasn't a vision teaching me about who I was or guiding my path through life. Seeing myself meant it wasn't a memory. The ancient knife itself was part of a prophecy, and I seldom wore it, mostly for ceremonial occasions when the prophecy did me no good. Only rarely had I worn it into battle.
When he gave the blade to me, Bruiser had said, "A certain wily salesman suggested that the damascene blade is charged with a spell of life force, to give the wielder the ability to block any opponent's death cut. Pure balderdash, but it makes a nice tale." Except that Alex, the tech-genius of Yellowrock Securities and Clan Yellowrock, had traced the blade back to the seventeen hundreds, and there were stories over the centuries about people surviving the death stroke of an opponent's blade.
"Prophecy?" I asked the universe. Or God, if he was listening. Not that anyone answered, not even Aggie. And since I hadn't looked for the future in rain droplets in months, I might not know what this meant until it was too late. However, if I went searching for the meaning in the future, I probably wouldn't understand it anyway, and if I saw danger-and I would-I might feel forced to meddle in time. Meddling in time-timewalking, time-jumping- might trigger the return of the magic cancer. All of which was why I hadn't tried. Seeing the future was like that. Helpful. Until it wasn't. And then it tried to kill me.
I inhaled and caught a familiar scent. He had to be close because I was human-shaped, and my nose in this form was unspectacular. I cleared my throat again and warned, "Werewolf."
"In the vision?" Aggie asked.
"No." There was only one werewolf in New Orleans, and the moon wasn't full, which made them cranky, so he'd be chill and not bite anyone. I wasn't worried. Yet.
I frowned, my thoughts going back to the angel in the vision. "Hayyel was Angie's ... whaddaya call it. Guardian angel. And he helped to deal with Evangelina's demon-calling circle. I'd always thought that he was just in the right place, right time, and jumped in to send the demon back. But maybe dealing with the demon caused him to be partially chained to something in this plane? Chained to the world of matter when he should be a being of energy? That doesn't make sense. Sending demons back has to be part of his job, right? So maybe he had already been chained here?"
That was a scary thought. It meant that either an unknown person with more power than I understood was currently involved, or that an unknown someone in the past had that power and had chained an angel.
I accepted and drained a bottle of water. "From the beginning Hayyel was close by. He had the freedom to act and intervene in some events, but maybe he didn't have autonomy?" I stopped speaking aloud, following the layered implications in the vision.
I had postulated that Hayyel had already been partially chained, here on Earth, and was, currently, already part of the events taking place. Maybe he had been waiting for Evil Evie's demon circle to manifest ... and for all of us to be present so he could do ... whatever he did to us all as he dealt with the demon Evangelina called.
I had sometimes wondered if he had planned it all, planned to change us. Maybe use us. Molly, my BFF, and her family: Evan, her partially-in-the-closet air witch husband, her children, my godchildren: Angie and EJ. Rick (my former boyfriend and now a wereleopard), Kemnebi (another wereleopard), Brute (werewolf stuck in human form). Even my Beast, the other soul who lived inside me. We were all changed in fundamental ways by the banishing of the demon and the proximity to the angel.
A chained angel? Partially chained?
So maybe Hayyel had been, and was, still close by. Maybe he could help, even if he was chained. Or maybe he needed help to deal with being chained. Or both.
I was glad I hadn't said all that aloud, because there was power in this vision and some kernels of truth. I opened my eyes, not sure when they had closed.
Aggie was sitting across from me, wearing her linen shift. She rubbed something onto her knees, as if they ached. When she saw me looking, she shrugged and reminded me, "Werewolf? Demon? Angel?"
"There were two werewolves inside Evangelina Everhart's circle with a demon. The demon was eating them. The angel appeared and-" I stopped. There had been a burst of light at the demon circle when the angel appeared, Hayyel doing something, changing something. "The angel did something to all of us." But the most obvious change had been to Brute, the werewolf I thought I'd just now caught a whiff of. Brute was bound to the angel in some way, probably even more than Angie.
The memory of the werewolves in the demon circle vision was overlapped with memories and visions of the Mughal blade, the prophecy attached to it, and me in armor. Which was strange unless what I'd seen was a combination of all these three: memory, prophecy, personal spiritual vision.
I closed my eyes and pulled the visions back to me. "What do you need?" I whispered, not fully sure who I was talking to. Hayyel? Aggie One Feather? God? "What do you want me to do?"
The memories and visions shifted, as if being shuffled like cards in a deck. In the overlapping of it all, things came clearer, almost as if the sun rose and shone light into the space, ruby and sapphire light, like a prism. In the vision, in the strange place, the people who watched the angel came clear.
The people standing along the walls wore brightly colored clothes-robes. Like people wore in Biblical times. I inhaled in shock. Not a vision. Not my soul home. The red and blue light seemed to flow across the walls, brightening the angel wings. I took it all in, memorizing everything.
Something scratched on the sweathouse door.
"He's here," I said. "At the door."
Aggie tensed. "The angel?"
"No." I'd been out awhile again, and my voice slurred. I swallowed to try and moisten my throat. "The werewolf."
Aggie swore and dumped a bucket of water on the fire. Smoke, sparks, and filth shot out like miniature fiery thunderheads blooming. On the far side of the firepit, the elder was standing, a wicked blade in her hand. "You bring an abomination to my door?" she spat.
"He's not feral," I said, pressing against my scalp to put out any sparks. My hair made crunching sounds from dried sweat salt. I crawled to my feet, hearing the salt crack and feeling it crust painfully in places best not mentioned. I was salty and sweat-streaked and now sooty. My braid swung forward, stiff as a stick, filthy.
"All werewolves are rabid beasts." Aggie hissed the last word and I blinked at her. She didn't look like herself. Dressed in her handmade, undyed ritual shift, her hair cut short to her shoulders, her feet bare, Aggie held a single-edged vamp-killer-fourteen inches of steel, silver-plated on the back of the blade, one that would poison vampires or were-creatures.
A weapon in the hands of a Cherokee elder, in the midst of a sweathouse ceremony. Aggie, furious. Her mouth twisted down in fear.
I stared at her, trying to decide if what I saw, the terror I saw on her face, was real or part of a drug-induced ceremonial hallucination.
Is real. Elder smells of fear, Beast thought at me. Aggie is afraid of werewolf. And is afraid of the I/we of Beast. Aggie has feared since she first saw us in half-form.
Yeah. And werewolves are evil in post-white-man tribal tradition, I thought back. Evil.
A shiver of shock raced through me. I tried to lick my lips, but they were cracked and I tasted blood. "Not all werewolves are rabid. And this one travels with a grindylow who'll kill him if he so much as opens his mouth to lick someone." I stepped slowly to the door, my eyes on Aggie and her weapon, one that could kill me as easily as the vampires for which the blade had been designed and named. The reasons an elder might be armed in a place where no such weapons were allowed flitted through my mind. Her fear, her need to protect herself from me was the best possibility.
She no longer trusted me to keep her safe.
I unlatched and cracked open the door.
A huge white snout tipped with a black nose poked into the crack. It snuffled and snorted.
Aggie smelled of terror, even to my human nose. She raised the blade higher. So far as I knew, she wasn't trained in fighting with a vamp-killer but I had never done a deep background on her. And lack of skill didn't make her any less dangerous. "He won't hurt you, Aggie. Hey, Brute. You got a grindy with you?"
A kitten-nose appeared over Brute's and a neon-green-furred face followed. The grindy was sitting on the white werewolf's head, which even in my dehydrated state was adorable. The grindy tilted its head and made a meep sound.
Brute shoved the door wider and peered inside. He stopped, watching Aggie. He wagged his tail and sat, perking his ears forward, tongue lolling out one side of his mouth. At a quick glance he looked like a bleached-out Great Pyrenees dog, maybe one whose bloodline included moose or elk. Then you saw the wolf fangs, icy eyes, and high-set predator ears. No sweet Great Pyrenees at all. He whined. The grindylow said meep again, and pulled itself higher on Brute's head, holding on to his ears with both paws.
Aggie lowered the weapon, but her eyes were still too wide, her stance uncertain.
"Let's step outside," I said to Brute.
Moving slowly, I bent and picked up a few bottles of water, one of which I opened as I left the sweathouse and guzzled, crunching the plastic to force the water out and down my throat fast. I drank two more and swallowed a salt tablet with the last one.
Talking to a werewolf in wolf form was difficult. At the house, we had a soundboard that Beast could tap on to communicate. It was new and it made our lives so much easier, but out in the wild we were still stuck with the Q and A, yes and no, method of communicating, a series of questions to which Brute could respond with a no head-shake or a yes nod.
Copyright © 2022 by Faith Hunter
|
cc/2023-06/en_middle_0036.json.gz/line24
|
__label__cc
| 0.591436
| 0.408564
|
Australian Short Films
Composers, Sound Designers & Editors
Study Film in Australia
Festivals and Screenings
People Wanted
Home » Scripts » COMBUSTION
by Laurent Boulanger
(15-20 min)-- supernatural thriller A young man, Jamie, still an 1961 FB Holden from a driveway. He is later on found burnt to a crisp in the car, but car is intact.
EXT. DRIVEWAY. EARLY MORNING
A 1961 ¬FB HOLDEN is parked in a driveway of a suburban house. A young man, JAMIE, walks up to the car. He has a straightened metallic coat hanger in his right hand. He looks right and left, and it's obvious that he's up to no good.
Jamie picks the lock on the driver's side of the Holden and opens the door. He looks around once more and gets into the car. He releases the handbrake. ¬Half in and half out of the car, he pushes the Holden out of the driveway. He maneuvers the car into the suburban street for a few meters, and when he feels safe enough, he jumps into the car and starts the engine.
The car vanishes down the street and turns a corner.
INT. HOLDEN. EARLY MORNING
JAMIE is driving, looking rather pleased with himself. He opens the driver's side window and lets his arm hang out. He turns the radio on. An old song from the fifties plays.
He continues driving and checks himself in the rear view mirror.
He passes one hand over his forehead.
Bloody hot in here.
He continues driving.
Even though the driver's window is open, Jamie begins to sweat. He passes another hand over his forehead. The back of his hand is covered in perspiration.
He checks the heater in the car. It's switched off and the setting is set on 'cold'.
EXT. INTERSECTION. EARLY MORNING
The Holden with JAMIE driving approaches a red light and stops. There's a work van that comes from the opposite side of the intersection and stops as well.
No traffic is crossing at the intersection.
JAMIE is now sweating profusely. His face is covered in sweat. He rubs his face with the palms of both hands. He looks at his hands. They're covered is perspiration.
He looks to the side and sees a switch that reads AC. He turns on the air conditioning and the fan on max speed. Air comes out through the vents.
Instead of looking relieved, he looks surprised.
I don't want the bloody heater on!
He plays with the switches, but nothing happens.
The traffic light goes GREEN.
Jamie places both hands on the steering wheel and there's the SOUND OF FRYING flesh.
He yelps.
JAMIE (CONT'D)
What the hell?!
The VAN DRIVER coming from the opposite direction meets his gaze as he drives past. The VAN DRIVER notices the look of sheer panic on Jamie's face.
Jamie looks at his hands.
There are covered in blisters.
He turns his attention to the door, but as soon as he grabs the door handle, his skin sizzles and he removes his hand. He leans over to the other side to reach the passenger door, but he burns the left side of his body against the car seat.
He jumps up in panic and in pain.
INT. VAN. EARLY MORNING
The VAN DRIVER, mid-thirties, looks in the rear mirror and sees that the Holden is still stopped at the green traffic light. He also notices smoke coming through the openings of the car, including the top of the windows, the boot, and the exhaust. There's even smoke/vapour coming out of the car's body. There is no visible fire at any stage.
The VAN DRIVER breaks heavily and pulls to the side of the road.
He gets out of the van.
JAMIE is blistered all over. His face is red and his eyes filled with pain. Every surface he touches sizzles his skin further.
He screams in agony.
The VAN DRIVER is walking towards the Holden. His view of the Holden is from the back. There is a lot of smoke/vapour coming out of the Holden.
VAN DRIVER
Oh, my God!
The Van Driver walks faster towards the Holden.
But as he gets close, the heat generated from the Holden is overwhelming, as he has to keep his distance.
There is a VERY BRIGHT WHITE LIGHT engulfing the inside of the car.
The Van Driver is almost blinded by the light. He has to place his place his right hand close to his face to protect himself against he brightness and the heat.
There a PIERCING SCREAM coming out of the Holden.
PIERCING SCREAM continues from previous scene.
Close in an the screaming face of JAMIE. His face is red and totally blistered. His eyes look as if they're going to pop out of his head.
EXT. INTERSECTION. MORNING
The Holden is still stopped at the traffic light. The windows are fogged up, but the car is in good condition.
There's one marked police car parked close to it, its emergency lights beaming. The VAN DRIVER is talking to UNIFORMED OFFICER.
ONLOOKERS are watching.
A unmarked police sedan arrives at the scene.
Detective TONY Raymond steps out of the Sedan. He's dressed in the customary suit, tie and shirt. He's tall with a strong air of authority. He approaches the Uniformed Officer and the Van Driver.
He flashes his badge.
Detective Raymond. The body's still in the car?
UNIFORMED OFFICER
Anyone touched anything?
No one's touched anything as per your instruction, sir.
(to Van Driver)
You're the one who called the police?
Tony removes pen and notebook from his jacket pocket.
I was crossing the intersection from the other side, and I saw all this smoke coming from the car.
From the inside of the car?
From everywhere. It was really weird -- it was not like really smoke, but more like some type of vapour.
Tony takes down some notes.
Did you try to help the driver?
Couldn't get to the car -- the heat was too strong.
Tony looks towards the Holden. The car is in perfect condition, not a scrap of damage or burn on it. The only strange thing is that the windows are fogged up, and it's impossible to see what's inside the car.
Tony places his notebook back into his pocket.
Okay, wait here. I might need to ask you more questions.
(to uniformed officer)
Make sure he doesn't go anywhere.
The Uniformed Officer nods.
Tony walks towards the Holden. He removes a pair of white crime-scene gloves from the side pocket of his jacket and puts them on.
Tony circles the car slowly, looking for anything suspicious on the body of the car.
There is nothing wrong with the car, other than the condensation/smoke that stops anyone from seeing on the inside.
Tony turns to the Uniformed Officer and makes a hand signal for the Uniformed Officer to come over.
The Uniformed Officer obliges.
TONY (CONT'D)
I'm going to open the car door. I'd like you to stand by my side.
The Uniformed Officer places his hand on his handgun.
I don't think you're going to need that.
The Uniformed Officer shrugs.
As anyone called an ambulance?
Ten minutes ago.
(shakes his head)
And it's a pay-as-you-go service -- go figure.
Tony gets closer to the driver's side window. He places both hands to the side of his face and tries to peer inside the car. There's too much condensation/smoke in there, and he can't see a thing.
That's the strangest thing I've ever seen -- and I've been working this area for twenty years.
(without turning around)
Please be quiet.
The Uniformed Officer shakes his head.
Tony pulls back and places his right hand on the door handle.
(to himself)
Still warm to the touch.
Slowly he turns the handle clockwise.
The Uniformed Officer has a look of worry on his face.
The Van Driver also has a look of worry on his face.
Tony locks his jaw and turns the door handle.
Swiftly, he pulls the door open.
From the driver's seat, JAMIE falls sideways towards TONY. Jamie is burnt to a crisp -- he's just a black mass in the shape of a human being.
Tony grabs the body, which is half hanging out of the car, but he has trouble leveling it.
Holly shit!
Could you please give me a hand?
The Uniformed Officer moves to where Tony is and helps him remove the burnt body from the car.
Tony and the Uniformed Officer place the body on the ground, next to the Holden.
I think you might want to give the ambulance service a call and tell them not to bother. Call the mortuary instead.
CLOSE IN on the burnt body.
INT. MORTUARY. DAY
TONY and a FORENSIC TECHNICIAN are standing around a galvanised dissecting table. The burnt body of JAMIE is lying there.
Someone's used an accelerant on him.
Tony shakes his head, like someone who doesn't understand what he's been told.
Petrol. The upper layer of skin burned too quickly.
The Forensic Technician inserts a scalpel in the skin of JAMIE. The wound on the inside is bright red.
FORENSIC TECHNICIAN (CONT'D)
Still raw on the inside.
That's impossible -- he was found inside an unburt car.
Smell him.
Smell him -- you'll see what I'm talking about.
Tony moves close to the body and bends over a little. Reluctantly he takes a sniff.
He stands up again.
Petrol -- you're right.
And you say he was found inside an unburnt car?
Impossible -- this man was burnt somewhere else and tossed in the car at a later stage.
A witness saw him with his own eyes.
Then I'm afraid you got yourself a mystery that even science can't explain.
INT. MORTUARY - CONFERENCE ROOM. DAY
TONY is sitting with the VAN DRIVER. He has photos of the crime scene spread in front of him.
You sure you saw the man in the car before he was burnt?
I saw him as clearly as I'm looking at you now.
For the victim to sustain burns of that extent, the temperature would have had to be close to 2000 degrees.
It sure felt like it when I got close to the car.
But the lack of damage on the car doesn't support your version of events.
Van Driver shakes his head.
What do you want me to tell you? He pulled at the traffic lights at the same time as I did. I was right looking at him, and the next thing you know, woosh! -- he goes up in smoke, so to speak.
Was anyone else on the road when it happened?
Nope, just me.
I might need to talk to you at a later stage.
Anytime -- I've got nothing to hide.
The door of the room opens.
Detective HALLIDAY walks in.
Tony looks up to him.
Got that info you wanted on the FB Holden.
Doesn't make any sense -- car was totalled twelve months ago.
Totalled as?
Don't know. Hasn't been registered since then. Used to belong to a Joe Morris.
Joe Morris still around?
Haven't looked into it.
Well, do that and get back to me.
The Detective is about to walk away.
HALLIDAY (CONT'D)
Oh, and another thing...
Car wasn't from around here -- last place it was registered was in Tollowoon, small country town sixty kilometers west of the city.
Okay, I'll take a drive up there this afternoon. In the meantime, take the Holden to the police compound. Forensic's finished with it.
EXT. JOE'S HOME GARAGE. DAY
We can see a garage is in the country with not a single neighbour around. The garage door is wide open. There's a house next to the garage. The windows have been boarded up with planks It's a hot day and everything looks dry and lonely.
TONY pulls into the driveway in his umarked police sedan.
He steps out of the car.
He looks around. The place looks totally deserted, as if no one has lived in it for years.
Tony walks up to the garage. He steps to the floor and sees that it's stained black -- he steps back and sees that the stain is large, roughly the size of a car.
He goes down and passes one finger over the stain and smells it.
We now see him from behind, crouched down. We're approaching him, as if we are someone walking towards him from behind. We stop just at the back of his head.
JOE (O.S.)
Tony turns around, but he's partly blinded by the sunlight. In front and above him stands a man wearing a cap. This is JOE Morris.
Tony stands up and nearly falls over.
Joe Morris?
Who wants to know?
Tony pulls his ID out of his breast pocket and shows it to Joe.
Detective Raymond -- I believe you used to own an old FB Holden?
Joe just stares at him for a few seconds. We can clearly see that the cap he is wearing is a red one. He also has a scar running on top of his right eye.
Sorry, what's this about?
Car you used to own was involved in an accident.
Car I used to own? Well, I don't own it anymore, now, do I?
No, but I'm trying to work out what happened to your car.
Sold it. Is that a crime?
It's not a crime, but there are no records of anyone owning the car after you owned it. If you sold it, it would have been on record.
Joe makes a popping sound with his lips.
You're going a long way back here, detective. Surely's not my problem if someone hasn't bothered registering the car.
You're probably right.
Tony looks towards the house.
You live here?
Moving out?
You've got something against sunlight?
Is that part of your investigation?
Tony shuffles on the spot and turns to the garage.
No, but I'd be interested to know what that stain is on the floor is.
Joe looks at the stain in the garage and then at Tony.
Oil, grease, whatever you normally find in a garage.
Smells like burning and petrol.
Joe shakes his head. He lift his cap and passes one hand over his cranium. We can see a nasty burn mark covering the whole back of his head where the cap was resting. But Tony doesn't see that.
Got no idea what you're talking about -- been here since I was born and never seen anything burning.
Joe puts his cap back on, covering the large burn mark.
Mind if I take a look inside your house?
Yeah, I do mind, but if you've got nothing else to do, go ahead.
Tony walks towards the front porch.
Joe walks to the side.
JOE (CONT'D)
Front's locked. You'll have to come through the back.
Joe goes first and Tony follows.
They walk the side of the house. All the windows are boarded up.
Without Joe noticing, Tony checks that his gun is in place.
When they reach the back of the house, the grass in the yard is overgrown. There are empty beer cartoons on the porch. The back door is wide open, with flies coming in and out.
Joe steps onto the back porch.
Tony follows.
Watch your--
Before Joe has time to finish his sentence, Tony's right foot goes right through a rotting plank.
-- step.
He looks up to Joe.
You ever think about fixing up this place?
Joe offers Tony his hand.
Tony takes it.
Joe pulls Tony up.
No need to -- I'm the only left around here.
They enter the house through the back door.
INT. JOE'S HOUSE. DAY
KITCHEN --
The inside of the house is very dark.
Little light comes through the kitchen window as JOE, followed by TONY, enter through the back door. There are piles of dirty dishes on the sink with flies hovering around.
Mind telling me exactly what you're looking for?
Nothing in particular.
Tony sniffs the air and his brow creases.
You should really clean up around here -- you're going to catch a disease one of these days.
I don't think I need to worry about that.
Joe leaves the kitchen through another door.
Tony looks confused by Joe's reply. He follows Joe out of the kitchen.
TO LOUNGEROOM --
The inside of the room is very dark.
JOE is standing by the side of the door.
TONY looks around. We can see the outline of a table with chair, a couch, a television set, a low coffee table, a mantelpiece.
There is very little light coming through the curtains of a window that's boarded up.
Tony reaches for the light switch and flicks it.
Nothing happens.
Power got cut off.
Forgot to pay the bill?
I've no need for electricity.
Tony walks up to the window.
Mind if I open the curtains a little?
Tony pulls the drapes, but only a tiny bit more light comes through. He unlocks the window, which opens to the outside, and in the process he knocks out a plank that boarded the window.
Light come flooding into the room like in an Egyptian's tomb.
Tony turns around.
Everything is covered in dust and cobwebs. The sofa is covered with a white sheet. The room looks as if no one has lived in the place for years.
You sure you live here?
Like I've said, I've been living in this place since I was a child.
Tony turns to the mentelpiece. There is a photo with a group of people standing next to an FB Holden. The photo is black-and-white and looks very old.
Tony is intrigued by the car on the photo.
Is that the FB Holden you used to own?
Joe walks up to where Tony is.
Sure is. Been in the family for two generations.
Two generations?
Used to be my father's, but eventually he stopped driving all together.
Why did he stop driving?
He died.
Joe's reply cuts through air like a knife.
Tony looks closer at the picture. On it is an old man standing proudly next to the driver's door. Next to him is a younger version of Joe. On the opposite side are two women, a young one and an older one. Next to them is a little boy wearing a cap--Nathan.
Is that your father?
Tony points to the old man in the picture.
That's the old man -- Joseph. Died of liver cancer.
A heavy drinker?
Runs in the family.
Tony continues to look at the picture.
Who's the little boy?
A neighbour who used to live on the other side of the hill.
And he doesn't live there anymore?
Got killed in a car accident.
Tony's eyes meet Joe's.
In the Holden?
Not exactly - the car ran into him. Happened a couple of miles up the road.
Your father was driving the car?
Joe holds Tony's stare for a moment.
Why does everyone always want to talk about it? -- it was an accident. The kid was walking in the middle of the road, for Christ's sake.
Tony takes a step back.
I'm sorry, I don't remember talking about this before.
Nevermind.
Joe looks around the room.
Anything else you want to look at?
Tony looks around.
Nope. I think I better get going.
I'll show you out.
JOE and TONY are standing next to the ummarked police car.
You wouldn't happen to remember who bought the car from you?
Tony looks as if he's thinking.
Couldn't say really -- so many people came to see it when I had it up for sale. Don't remember who ended up buying it.
Tony nods, but from the expression on his face, it's obvious that he doesn't believe a word Joe has just told him. Tony pulls a business card from his jacket pocket.
Well, if you do happen to remember, please give me a call.
Joe takes the card and keeps it in his hand.
Tony turns his back on Joe as he prepares himself to open the door on the driver's side.
His mobile phone GOES OFF.
Tony answers the call.
Detective Raymond.
HALLIDAY (O.S.)
Did a check on this guy who used to own the FB Holden.
Died twelve months ago -- a really weird case.
There's a shock expression on Tony's face.
FLASHBACK - SAME LOCATION
This is shot in BLACK AND WHITE.
We can see what the detective is describing.
HALLIDAY (O.S.) (CONT'D)
Dosed the car and himself in petrol, got into the car and tossed a lit cigarette over the roof top -- in his own garage, can you believe it? That's how the car got totalled. I have no idea who restored it, but whoever it is, he's a magician.
BACK TO PRESENT TIME --
Tony has a blank expression on his face. He doesn't turn around, but just stays quiet.
Tony? You're still there?
Yeah, I'm listening... do you know why he killed himself?
Old newspaper said something about a hit and run, but it really doesn't make any sense. It was his father who had the accident, and yet this Joe guy ends up killing himself. I tell you what, I'm not making any sense out of that one.
Tony pressed the END button on his mobile without responding.
Slowy, he turns around.
Joe is no longer there.
Tony looks around him.
No sign of Joe.
Tony looks to the ground -- he sees the business card he'd just handed over to Joe a minute ago. He bends over and picks up the card.
He retrieves the gun from his hostler and walks back towards the house. Slowly he makes his way to the side of the house and to the back porch. The hole he punched with his foot through the rotten plank on the patio is still there. The back door is still open.
Tony steps carefully on the back porch and stands by the door.
Joe Morris? Are you in there?
Tony enters the house.
EXT. CAR PARK. DAY
Detective HALLIDAY looks at his mobile, shrugs, and places it back in his pocket.
He walks up to where the FB Holden is parked. He retrieves the keys from his pocket. He opens the door to the car and gets it.
He drives the car off the parking lot.
TONY enters the kitchen. Everything is the same as it was before.
Tony leaves the kitchen for the lounge room.
LOUNGE ROOM --
Tony enters the lounge room. The plank that was attached to the window is still broken. Nothing is different from when he visited the place a few minutes ago.
His gun in his hand, Tony circles the room with his eyes -- the photo is no longer on the mentlepiece.
He notices a folded newspaper on the coffee table that wasn't there before. He walks up to the newspaper. With one hand he grabs the newspaper and unfold it. The headline reads 'A RIDE WITH DEATH - THREE VICTIMS'. Underneath it is a picture of Joe Morris, Joseph Morris and the little boy, Nathan.
Tony has a look of sheer terror on his face.
INT. HOLDEN. DAY
HALLIDAY is driving the car. He looks very sweaty. He plays with the air conditioning switch.
Bloody thing!
When he returns his free hand back to the steering wheel, it sizzles like meat on a grill.
HALLIDAY shrieks.
THE HORN OF A TRUCK.
Halliday looks up.
A truck is coming straight for him.
CUT TO BLACK.
THE SOUND OF THE TRUCK SMASHING WITH THE HOLDEN.
INT. MORGUE. DAY
There's a body, HALLIDAY, lying on the dissecting table. The body is charcoal black, just like the one of JAMIE.
We pull back and see the FORENSIC TECHNICIAN and TONY standing next to the body.
Tony looks tired and distressed.
Didn't stand a chance -- truck when in head on. The Holden bursted into flame instantaneously.
Tony shakes his head.
This isn't right. He was a hell of a good driver. Why was he driving on the oncoming lane?
The FORENSIC TECHNICIAN scraps flesh from the body with a scalpel.
What gets me is that his injuries are similar to the other victim -- it's as if someone has dossed him in petrol before the crash.
That's impossible.
Well, if it's any consolation, the car's totalled. Saw it with my own eyes. End of the road this time.
Tony has a confused/lost expression on his face.
EXT. CAR YARD. DAY
CLOSE UP - A SALESMAN shakes the hand of a female CUSTOMER.
He then retrives the FOR SALE sign from the windscreen of car, which we cannot yet define.
We pull back.
The car is the FB HOLDEN.
The salesman hands over the keys to the customer.
She gets in the car and drives out of the yard.
PULL BACK -- The Holden comes out of the car yard and merges in into the traffic.
Download Script
Film Maker Directory
Script Submission Form Name*
Script Title
Script Description
Script Content
Upload Script
Copyright © | Privacy Policy - Terms of Use | Intaanetto.com Social Media | Web Design & SEO by e-CBD
|
cc/2023-06/en_middle_0036.json.gz/line27
|
__label__cc
| 0.693115
| 0.306885
|
In a world buzzing with endless advice on which career to choose, what to do after school.... students can listen to (and even have a chat with) top notch professionals in 500+ careers with experience ranging from 25-40 years .....to understand the education required for that, the trials and tribulations they underwent, the sacrifices they made and the net result of their career decision- even if made in a different time, circumstance and environment;
Target audience is young adults (as they develop personal values and focus on a career choice) and their parents.
DPS-Alumni Network gets the benefit of CareersConnect at no extra charge.
CareersConnect aims to help students make an informed choice. For Conventional Careers such as engineering, medicine, law and the civil services, and for Emerging Careers such as a host of new options in event management, entertainment, modelling, mobile apps design, film animation, music technology, web design, fashion merchandising, social media marketing and many others. Including some 'never-heard-of-before' career choices including Food Flavourist, Deep Sea Diver to Pets Grooming.
Backed by 15+ yrs of career counselling in several premier education institutions, and overseas study in Delhi NCR, I launched an idea successfully in 2014 when 30 professionals came in person (and 4 from overseas via Internet) to share their career journey with 600 High School students in a leading school in Delhi NCR.
Today, the COVID pandemic has brought adversity but also hidden within it, is an opportunity.
Am backed by 15+ yrs of career counselling in several premier education institutions, and overseas study in Delhi NCR
Today, the COVID pandemic has brought adversity but also hidden within it, is an opportunity. The opportunity is one of digital connectivity. And so, CareersConnect enables the youth to sit through fascinating career growth stories of 500+ careers from around the globe.
Am grateful to the following professionals, many of whom are DPS alumni, who have come to inspire young adults.
|
cc/2023-06/en_middle_0036.json.gz/line36
|
__label__cc
| 0.574671
| 0.425329
|
NEXT RACE: at Phoenix Raceway VIEW SCHEDULE
ABOUT JEREMY
Jeremy Clements is carrying on a family tradition long rooted in NASCAR. He is the grandson of famed NASCAR owner and renowned engine builder, Crawford Clements. Jeremy’s uncle, Louis Clements, was a Championship Crew Chief with Rex White. Together, Crawford and Louis spent over 25 years making history with their engine development programs and ownership of race cars.
Today his father and Jeremy Clements Racing Team owner, Tony Clements, continues to run Clements Automotive, a company started by Crawford in 1965. Clements Automotive is a recognized leader in racing and performance engine building specializing in building complete racing engines, cylinder head services, dyno testing, custom porting, and CNC machining for virtually all types of racing applications including ARCA, Pro Cup, Dirt Late Model, and NASCAR.
With racing in his blood and plenty of horsepower in his daily life, Jeremy continues the tradition.
0LAST RACE
0PLAYOFF STANDINGS
0OWNER POINTS
0RACES TO GO
ABOUT JCR
Founded in 2010, Jeremy Clements Racing (JCR) is a father/son-owned and operated team competing full time in the NASCAR XFINITY Series. Based in Spartanburg, SC, JCR fields the No. 51 Chevrolet Camaro for Jeremy Clements.
With much of NASCAR moving the way of large teams funded by millions of dollars, JCR stands as one of the last true “little guys”. But don’t let their size fool you… they are quite the David vs. Goliath story. JCR consistently scores the highest finishes for a single-car XFINITY Series team, thanks in large part to the horsepower of the Clements Racing Engines, owned by Jeremy’s father Tony and Uncle Glen.
JCR has a long list of achievements highlighted by Jeremy’s first career win at Road America 2017. They ended the 2021 season 12th in the NASCAR XFINITY Series driver point’s standings.
|
cc/2023-06/en_middle_0036.json.gz/line42
|
__label__wiki
| 0.568492
| 0.568492
|
Concerning Christian Aesthetics by Gordon H. Clark
Jun 23, 2015 | Writings of Gordon Clark
Unpublished 270. Concerning Christian Aesthetics (typed)
[Unpublished, n.d.]
CONCERNING CHRISTIAN AESTHETICS
Gordon H. Clark
In the last few years the ostensibly evangelical community in this country has developed a rather lively interest in art. Christianity Today, Christian Scholar’s Review, the Association for the Advancement of Christian Scholarship, and others give evidence of such an interest by having published several books and articles on the subject. The present piece aims to survey these views and point to a few conclusions.
First of all, some of the problems secular authors on aesthetics must face, require identification. Evangelical authors face additional difficulties when they try to relate art to Christianity. The first group of problems includes the elusive definition of beauty. Unfortunately this is so elusive that modern writers usually make no attempt to define it. In any case, a work of art need not be beautiful. The ugly can also be artistic. Discarding the concept of beauty, however, only increases the need of a definition of art. What is the common element in all works of art, beautiful or ugly, that causes us so to classify them? Presumably the definition is to be found in the purpose of art. If a chronometer is defined by the purpose of measuring time, art must be that which fulfills a particular function. Would anyone hold that art has no purpose, fulfills no function at all?
If this purpose can be stated, a step will have been taken toward the solution of another problem. Nearly everybody acknowledges an hierarchy of arts. They are not all on a dead level. People ask, and often answer quickly, whether or not the ballet is a better, a higher, a more perfect form of art than sculpture or architecture. Musicians are almost universally convinced that music outranks painting. But poets vote for poetry. An author on aesthetics must not only judge who is right, but must state the criteria for his hierarchy. No doubt many writers only dimly recognize their criteria; they may even inconsistently use incompatible criteria; but nearly everyone ranks the arts in some order or other. Presumably this has to be done by first determining the purpose of art and then determining which art best fulfills this purpose. In fact, within a single art, such as painting, one work, the Sistine Madonna, can be judged better or worse than another, Rembrandt’s Night Watch, for example, on this same basis of fulfilling the purpose of painting.
If the purpose of art in general and of painting or poetry in particular is not merely a display of technique, if the content plays some role in the judgment, the ground is laid for distinguishing “great” art from trivial or even evil art. If a painting has the new moon in the east when day is dying in the west, does not this astronomical monstrosity, no matter how perfect the composition and technique, detract from its value? Can a poem talk nonsense and be a great poem, or, at least, can it be as great as a poem equal in other respects and which also speaks sensibly?
These are some of the problems that secular aesthetics cannot avoid. Nor can Christian authors avoid them. But in addition the latter must ask other questions, all of which can be condensed in the question whether the Scriptures imply a theory of aesthetics. Certainly an evangelical, whose formal principle is Sola Scriptura, cannot study any part of philosophy without considering Scriptural teaching.
It is not necessary here to discuss secular and Biblical aesthetics separately. The latter faces all the problems of the former. Hence the present procedure can well begin with criticism of the sort of article that has been appearing in recent ostensibly evangelical publications.
These articles, so it seems to me, are usually defective in one or more of three points: first, they exhibit the pervasive ambiguity and meaningless of almost all literature on aesthetics; second, even when the first objection is not so obviously the case they either depend on or suggest invalid arguments; and third, they are with virtual unanimity deficient in supporting their contentions by Scriptural norms.
First. In the last few years a gad-fly has been lampooning the pedantic nonsense that emanates from New York’s Metropolitan Museum. Theodore L. Shaw and Stuart Publications have produced Hypocrisy About Art, Precious Rubbish, and other titles which are not all hypocrisy and rubbish. The Met comes out as pontifically stupid.
If anyone think that this gad-fly should be ignored, do not more serious volumes on aesthetics testify to the unintelligibility of the subject? For example, can anyone deny that there is confusion and meaninglessness in The Art of Painting (chapter four and Appendix I) where Albert Barnes discusses the subject of form? Can the work of Elie Faure, Venturi, or John Dewey be adjudged more intelligible? Or, on music, note the pitiful attempts to define classical and romantic in Grove’s five volume Dictionary of Music. There are, to be sure, better attempts than Grove’s. The Oxford Companion to Music (revised edition, 1963) says that the term classical distinguishes music — largely the music written between 1600 and 1800 — which is characterized by a more or less consciously accepted formalism in which elements of proportion and of beauty as such [!] are emphasized from “romantic” music in which the main purpose is the expression of emotions, or even the representation in tone of ideas that usually receive, not a musical, but rather a literary or pictorial expression.
Although this is a relatively good statement for books on aesthetics, one notices not only that its term beauty as such remains unexplained, but also the meaning or mode of emotional expression is left vague. Then too, if proportion can be so defended as to exclude it from romanticism, form presents worse difficulties. Does not Beethoven show “form”? No, and this is surely important, is there any explanation of how or whether literary ideas can be expressed in tone. Inasmuch as one or two professors of philosophy claim for art a cognitive function not duplicated elsewhere, the point needs serious documentation.
Hardly any book on aesthetics defines its terms carefully. Even Plato, when he tried to define beauty in Greater Hippias, failed. Historical information, e.g. the formulation of the laws of perspective or the development from plainsong to counterpoint, has a proper share of interest and importance — it is also intelligible; but there is a dearth of definition. It seems that even the better books do not know the meaning of the words they use, while the sentimental gushings of “art appreciation” are utterly vacuous.
Now, if Plato himself, who so stressed definition and intelligibility, could do so little on beauty, one cannot be surprised that writers of lesser genius do worse. Yet the failures may be instinctive. If most of the books on aesthetics are largely unintelligible, it may not be because the authors are otherwise stupid, but because art itself is defective in intelligibility.
For example, there is no good objection against classifying art as a form of expression. So far as it goes, this is a good statement of the purpose of art. But it does not go very far at all. One should not go so far as to define art as the expression of emotion, for by the previous remarks this would imply that classical art is not art. The trouble here is to make precise what content art can express. Few writers do so. One one occasion when the present writer had been examining Rembrandt’s pen sketches in Amsterdam, an art connoisseur remarked that they “said so much.” What they said, he did not say. Similarly music is called expressive. True, it can, like an ejaculation, express joy or sorrow, but not much else. It certainly cannot express Lincoln’s Gettysburg address or the Lord’s prayer. A choir director, a very good one too, exemplified the emptiness of musical jargon when he scolded his tenors and told them that the color of their tone should be more round. Apparently they ad been singing red, rectangular notes and he wanted them to sing circular, green notes.
When the Oxford Companion to Music defines romantic music as that which expresses literary or pictorial ideas, as if notes could express the cadmium vermilion flowers of an ocotilla and their differences from the light raw sienna sand out of which they grow, it says something so paradoxical that it ought to defend and explain its incredible suggestion by clear and extended argument.
How can anyone decided whether Mozart’s Sonata K 545 expresses the chugging of a locomotive up the east slope of the Rockies or the eruption of Old Faithful? If some aesthete should finds this example too facetious, would he in all seriousness explain why L’Apres Midi d’un Faune could not have been called La Soiree d’un Lapin? In a painting this distinction would be immediately obvious. But even a painting cannot express Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address — and this Address is indeed a work of art.
No claim is made here that music expresses nothing. The music favored by hairy left-wing hippies expresses the animistic savagery of the jungle. Rock cannot appropriately express worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Bach and Handel can. But even in these cases what music expresses, by itself without words, is very little.
So much for the first point concerning the unintelligibility of most books on aesthetics. Now, second, there is the matter of the invalidity of their arguments.
A recent article bewailed the narrow evangelicalism of George Eliot’s parents, and without much disguise suggested that this was the cause of her rebellious atheism. The conclusion is of course fallaciously drawn. Evangelicalism is indeed narrow — it prohibits adultery. But her desire for freedom from such morality is a more probable cause of her rejection of Christianity than a hard childhood and the death of her mother.
Other articles have made other unfounded charges. The Puritans are constantly described as sour and dour. Ernest Boyd (Portraits Real and Imaginary, p. 109) was surely indulging in irresponsible imagination when he wrote, “Pleasure is the enemy, not evil, and so the joys of mind and body are under suspicion.”
As for pleasures of the mind Boyd must have been ignorant of the Puritan concern for education; while J. Truslow Adams and Harlan Updegraff unconscionably misrepresent the literary index in Massachusetts. As for sensory pleasures, particularly the pleasures of art those who condemn the Puritans not only fail to make allowances for the difficulties of mere survival in an untamed wilderness, but also ignore the exquisite proportions and design of their doorways and everyday domestic tools.
Less reprehensible than these prejudicial fallacies are instances of trivialities, tautologies, and generalities that fail of constructive contribution. For example, H. H. Rookmaaker’s article on Art in the Encyclopedia of Christianity (Vol. I) does not say anything that can be branded false, but he achieves this desirable result by saying hardly anything pertinent. He states that aesthetic theory “concerns the nature of a Christian way of life.” So does counting calories. It is wrong, he says, “to pose an antithesis between one’s professional life and the enjoyment of art.” Also the enjoyment of golf. Then again, he states that “There are many types of art” — as there are of engineering — “each fulfilling its own function.” But what the function of music, or of all art is, he does not explain; except that it is all for the glory of God. But this no more explains art than it explains investing in the stock market. The article contains little if anything that distinguishes art from other facets of human activity.
The second criticism has thus given examples of prejudice, falsehood, fallacy, and triviality.
The third criticism was the wide-spread, though not universal, neglect of Scripture by allegedly evangelical writers. Here an attempt will be made to shift from adverse criticism to something of a more constructive nature.
An evangelical theory of art, so far as art is amenable to meaningful statement, must be based on the teaching of the Bible. What is not based on Scripture, even it if should miraculously escape unintelligibility, could hardly be called an evangelical view. The fact that the Bible says so little about art, whereas its intellectually conceptual theology is voluminous, indicates that there is really very little to say. However, a Biblical student should try to collect that little. Such a summarization can be divided into material on utensils and architectures (combing useful and fine art), painting and sculpture, then music, and finally literature. Naturally the following is not exhaustive.
The construction of utensils and musical instruments seems to have originated among the rebellious and ungodly (Gen. 4:21-22). Later these forms of art were used in the worship of God (Exodus chapters 25-28). Still later great artistic skill was expended on Solomon’s Temple and places (I Kings, chapters 5-7). From what is said, Solomon’s Temple must have been an artistic triumph, surpassing even Hagia Sophia. Thus there is no Biblical prohibition against imposing architecture. That evangelicals today should build such expensive structures does not logically follow, but it would seem that some groups ought to pay more attention and avoid crudities in building.
The Bible has virtually nothing to say about painting, and its references to sculpture link it to idolatry. Therefore the Reformed churches do not exhibit a statue of Peter for the faithful to kiss its big toe. Painting must also be included, for the wording of the commandment includes every sort of likeness. Outside the church property, however, Rodin’s Thinker seems to be unobjectionable, and his repulsive, shriveled, old woman can teach a moral lesson to majorettes and home-coming queens.
The Bible explicitly commands music, vocal and instrumental. Therefore some people must take time to learn composition, other people must achieve the skill to manufacture instruments and all people no doubt should improve their voices – circular green notes instead of rectangular red. The requirement of vocal music emphasizes the fact that music is an accompaniment for words. By itself music is not very expressive. Note that hymn books sometimes use the same music for two or three hymns. If music had a definite meaning, one tune could not fit two hymns, or even two stanzas of one hymn. But defective as music is in this respect the Bible commands instrumental music.
Music is the lowest form of art; literature is the highest. Musicians will raise their eyebrows and no doubt their voices against this proposition. But there is a reason for such a hierarchical arrangement. It depends on a presupposition relative to the nature of man and on an assumption concerning the purpose of art.
The purpose of art is expression. Of course this short sentence raises many questions. By itself it is uninformative. One should specify what art can and cannot express. These questions cannot be answered without having some notion of the nature of man. Here it is presupposed that God created man as essentially a rational being.1 This implies that man’s most valuable expressions are rational and intellectual. Therefore although man can express emotion, by screaming ouch, art becomes more human and valuable in proportion to its intellectual content. This does not deny that excellent technique may express triviality, evil, and insanity. It asserts, that what should be expressed is rational and intelligent.
Therefore the highest form of art is literature because only words have the full and clearest range of expression. The cliché, “one picture is worth a thousand words,” is basically false, though it is true enough in a blueprint. But, as suggested above, how many pictures would be required to express the Lord’s Prayer or the doctrine of justification by faith? In comparison with these the importance of painting and music pales.
Of course art has a certain measure of importance. Embellishments of prose, and sometimes poetry, help to enforce the literary message.
I say sometimes poetry because, although prose can also be nonsense, nonsense seems to be an occupational disease of poets. It was with pleasure that I read a letter to the editor in the Eutychus section of Christianity Today, which complained of the poems recently published. But what could be greater nonsense than the esteemed John Keats’ Ode to a Grecian Urn? Consider:
“Truth is beauty and beauty is truth – that is all
One knows on earth and all one needs to know.”
Now, Keats’s lines are not nonsense in the sense of being meaningless. They are nonsense in the sense of being ridiculously false. As a corrective to Keats and to the poetry of Christianity Today, permit me to offer a Kantian Ode to a Quartz Crystal.
Electrified, vibrating crystal stone
Thou foster child of science and slow time
Thou geologic witness with a tone
That tells a tale more rhythmic than our rhyme:
When old age shall this generation waste
Thou shalt remain and oscillating go;
Thy message e’er repeating without haste –
Space is time and time is space – that is all
It is unfortunate that literary embellishment is in these two Odes used to inculcate falsehood. It should enforce truth. Crabbed language can express thought quite accurately, and even by its ugliness can sometimes jolt a person into understanding. Further, it is better to have unembellished truth than embellished falsehood. Nevertheless, artistic literature aids one’s memory to make the comprehension of a doctrine a permanent acquisition.
The designer of the Delaware River Bridge at Vine St., Paul Cret, told his student, “Ornament construction; do not construct ornament.” This is a good view of art, not only for a great architect, but particularly for a Christian. The principle of art for art’s sake is pagan, suitable to its depraved exponent, Oscar Wilde. For a Christian art is subordinate to a higher purpose, and only insofar as it serves that purpose is it justified.
1 For a long argument supporting this position, see my article in Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society (Vol. XII, Part IV), The Image of God in Man. A more materialistic or physicalistic view is found in The Imago Dei and Christian Aesthetics (J. E. T. S. Vol. XV, Part III), by William A. Dyrness, but it has precious little to do with aesthetics.
The Intellectual Defense of Christianity by David S. Clark
Ethics by Gordon H. Clark
|
cc/2023-06/en_middle_0036.json.gz/line44
|
__label__wiki
| 0.790614
| 0.790614
|
SCOTUS defends rights of former high school football coach to pray on field
by Seth Udinski June 27, 2022
Seth Udinski, FISM News
The United States Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Joseph Kennedy, a former high school teacher and football coach from Washington state who was fired by Bremerton High School in 2015 for publicly praying on the field after football games.
FISM News previously reported that Kennedy had taken his religious freedom case to the high court in an appeal to an appeal’s court decision which stated that his firing was legal as he was acting as a public employee. On Monday, the court ruled 6-3 that Kennedy’s constitutional right to publicly pray on a high school football field should be protected based on the First Amendment.
All six conservative justice voted in favor, while all three liberals dissented.
Justice Neil Gorsuch said after the ruling, “The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and nonreligious views alike,” later adding, “Respect for religious expressions is indispensable to life in a free and diverse republic – whether those expressions take place in a sanctuary or on a field, and whether they manifest through the spoken word or a bowed head.”
Justice Clarence Thomas further defended Kennedy by challenging his liberal counterparts with a hypothetical scenario. He posed the circumstance if Kennedy would also have been barred from kneeling on the field had he done so to protest racial injustice.
It is unclear if Coach Kennedy will resume his position at the school. No matter that outcome, this is an important victory for freedom of speech and freedom of religion and freedom of religion in the United States.
Conservatives have recently been reinvigorated by several recent SCOTUS cases which have landed their favor, particularly the court’s ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization which overturned Roe V. Wade last week and put abortion legislation back in the hands of the individual states. It also is the most recent signal that the current make-up of the court plans to vigorously uphold religious freedom of expression.
It had similarly ruled the city of Boston could not prevent the flying of the Christian flag at a pole designated for public displays at the city’s courthouse in a case decided in May.
States move swiftly to enact abortion bans following SCOTUS ruling
Democrats look to make abortion key midterm issue, polling shows success is not guaranteed
|
cc/2023-06/en_middle_0036.json.gz/line48
|
__label__cc
| 0.613056
| 0.386944
|
House of Transcription (HOT) is a Toronto-based company with 10 years of experience working with filmmakers, broadcasters and other media producers. Unlike many transcription agencies, HOT is full-service. We go beyond transcription, providing in addition translation from any source language to any target language. Whether you need Korean content broadcast in English or a Swahili documentary translated into French, we're up to the task. HOT can provide verbatim multilingual transcripts and accurate translations of any dialogue into the language of your choice.
HOT specializes in transcription and translation for audiovisual media, film, TV and radio. Like a big conglomerate, we bring you the combined expertise of a multilingual staff able to transcribe and translate from and into any foreign language; but like a neighbourhood business, HOT offers personalized, friendly service.
Because HOT professionals understand the processes behind filmmaking, we eliminate what can be a logistical nightmare for many directors, producers and editors. From providing a translated transcript to help you tell the story, to ensuring the correct final placement of subtitles or voiceover, HOT delivers a streamlined, hassle-free experience.
We know how easy it is to get lost in the dialogue when you don’t speak the language, that’s why we deliver a final side-by-side transcription of the source language(s)and English with as many time code entries as you might require.
Home | Blog | About Us | Contact Us | Our Services | Our Process | Site Map
|
cc/2023-06/en_middle_0036.json.gz/line54
|
__label__cc
| 0.558608
| 0.441392
|
newsSpecial Reports
I Chased Samantha from My Office for Dressing Seductively- Says Gashirabake
I therefore pray that this Committee carefully considers our respective presentations and finds for me because I truly have no intimate interest whatsoever in Ms. Mwesigye, I confirm that I have never at any one time sexually harassed her either covertly or overtly as is alleged, I have never maligned her and denied her any rights to serve this country be it on contracts committees or in taking trips abroad or in Uganda, and I maintain my total innocence in the face of all her allegations
posted onJune 3, 2019
Deputy Solicitor General Christopher Gashirabake has revealed how he one time chased his junior- Samantha Mwesigye, a Senior State Attorney in the Attorney General’s chambers over seductive dressing.
Samantha has been hopping from one media house to another alleging that Gashirabake has been sexually harassing her since 2005. She also accuses Gashirabake of making sexual advances to her including asking for weekends out in a lodge and also victimizing her by denying her foreign trips and removing her from the contracts committee.
As a result, the ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs recently constituted a sexual harassment committee to investigate the allegations. In his statement submitted to the committee, Gashirabake maintains his innocence and remains unapologetic saying he has never made overt or covert sexual advances to his junior-Samantha.
He categorically cited an element of indecent dressing as Samantha’s major attribute saying that he one time kicked her out of his office for seductive dressing.
“As you will note from my email, I considered Ms. Mwesigye a colleague and a friend as indeed is the way that I used to consider and treat all my colleagues, be they ladies or gentlemen, in the Directorate which I used to head. I had never had anybody come up to me to tell me that I had acted in any inappropriate manner towards a colleague or a subordinate. This is very unfortunate therefore,” he said.
“What I recall to be my point of departure with my accuser, was the manner of her dressing which I found unacceptably revealing and seductive to say the least (and feel free to call me old fashioned). On two occasions when she came to my office in an attire I deemed inappropriate, I called in my Secretary to be present and I in the presence of my Secretary told Ms. Mwesigye that her dressing was inappropriate for the office she held and I chased her out of my office. That may be considered conservative on my part and if that is what is being construed as sexual harassment, I leave it to the Committee to make its determination.”
Gashirabake denies addressing any love notes or WhatsApp messages to Samantha adding that the latter could be interested in blackmailing and ridiculing his good name.
Read related article: Fights Over Foreign Trips Sparked off Mwesigye-Gashirabake Sexual Harassment Allegations
Below is Gashirabake full statement to the investigation committee;
I refer to the letter that I received from the Secretary of the Sexual Harassment Committee which was set up to investigate an allegation of sexual harassment brought against me, dated 13thMay 2019 (which letter I received on 14th May 2019).
In the said letter I was asked to respond to the allegations that Ms. Samantha Mwesigye made against me. First of all, I welcome the opportunity that I have been given to explain my side of the story in this very traumatic matter. I realized early in time that as an official of Government, it wasn’t in my place to take my rebuttal to social media and other mediums of communications outside official communication channels, hence my painful self-restraint.
All this has caused me so much pain and suffering that I would never wish for anybody, but it is what it is. As you can imagine it has not been easy at all for me or indeed for any of my family members to keep calm and collected as my tormentor took to all manner of media outlets to try as much as possible to paint me as the worst person who ever graced the earth. I hope and pray to God that He keeps me steadfast in walking the straight and narrow path of remaining sane and composed in the face of all these un-erstwhile attacks on my person and I believe that one day, only one day, the reasons and motive for all this attack on me will be revealed.
I joined the service of Government in 1984 where I served at the Department of Immigration at the Ministry of Internal Affairs until 1996. I then got the opportunity of serving my current employer the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs as a State Attorney in 1996 where I have diligently served, rising through the rank from State Attorney to Senior State Attorney in 1998,Principal State Attorney in 2002, Commissioner DLAS in 2009, Director DLAS in 2013 and finally, to the newly created position of Deputy Solicitor General in December 2018, a position I currently hold.
In all this length of service I have served selflessly and with total dedication. I have also worked with, supervised, managed and mentored very many officers, both ladies and gentlemen. It therefore pains me very much that in all that time, I never had anyone malign me in this way and particularly accuse me of sexual harassment.
I therefore feel very offended by the allegations, but I guess my feelings and emotions are not relevant because in this situation I stand in the “dock” as the accused and accused for sexual harassment. I believe the allegations of sexual harassment by Ms. Mwesigye is that I made overt or covert requests to her to have a sexual relationship with her, a fact that I totally deny.
I also believe from the myriad of social media exchanges and posts that she variously sent out, that my harassment against her took the form of me removing her from contracts committees and denying her opportunities for International travels which according to her are avenues for making money. I wish to categorically state that I have never disadvantaged Ms. Mwesigye in any way and particularly knowingly, because I believe every officer in the Department needs to have an opportunity to take International travel and also sit on the number of Committees that would leave them with still enough time to carry on their normal duties for the Directorate.
I believe the starting point of my rebuttal should be the long email that Ms. Mwesigye sent to me on Monday, 11th June 2018 at 10:31am. I note that the said email is part of the evidence that Ms. Mwesigye has submitted as proof of her allegation that I sexually harassed her. I have attached a clear copy of my email exchange with Ms. Mwesigye for the record and it is marked annexure “A” to this letter. As you will note, it was from the said email, that I first received a formal complaint from Ms. Mwesigye that I had overtly or covertly made sexual advances towards her which as she says, she did not want.
In the said email my accuser made her points known and made allegations which totally took me aback. I initially took the view to just ignore the same because I had no interest whatsoever in having any sexual relationship with Ms. Mwesigye. But after a couple of days, the email kept bothering me because of the gravity of this false allegations, and so I decided to send her an email response which largely carries exactly what I know to be the true position of what took place and indeed this culminated into the current unpleasant situation where I have found myself.
The said email chain carries our full discourse on this matter and I invite the Committee to read the emails in their entirety then make a finding whether anything in the said email evidences my sexual harassment of my accuser.
As you will note from my email, I considered Ms. Mwesigye a colleague and a friend as indeed is the way that I used to consider and treat all my colleagues, be they ladies or gentlemen, in the Directorate which I used to head. I had never had anybody come up to me to tell me that I had acted in any inappropriate manner towards a colleague or a subordinate. This is very unfortunate therefore.
What I recall to be my point of departure with my accuser, was the manner of her dressing which I found unacceptably revealing and seductive to say the least (and feel free to call me old fashioned). On two occasions when she came to my office in an attire I deemed inappropriate, I called in my Secretary to be present and I in the presence of my Secretary told Ms. Mwesigye that her dressing was inappropriate for the office she held and I chased her out of my office. That may be consideredconservative on my part and if that is what is being construed as sexual harassment, I leave it to the Committee to make its determination.
I also recall another instance when Ms. Mwesigye came to my office and she had dyed her hair red. I also told her on that occasion that such hair colour was not acceptable and was certainly unprofessional for a lawyer of her standing. I on that occasion also asked her to leave my office and not come back until she’d gotten back her normal hair colour.
My worry about this which I shared with Ms. Mwesigye was, assuming His Excellency the President called the Attorney General for a meeting and the AG in turn asked that I send him one of my Officers, if I sent Ms. Mwesigye with that hair colour, in what light would that cast our department? In some circles again I may be construed to be conservative or old fashioned, but I am willing to live with that too if that is the yardstick for sexual harassment.
Finally, as the Head of the Directorate then, it was my obligation to ensure that we serve our clients as best as we could by giving them resource persons who best serve their needs. Sitting as the Head of DLAS, that to me was the guiding principle. Given this principle, I deployed various State Attorneys to sit on various Contracts Committees as well as attend various meetings of Government in Uganda and abroad and I did so in the full awareness of their respective competences, workload, attitude to work, their ability to deliver and above all, their propensity to work well and serve the needs of the client Government Departments.
This criterion is important in explaining why Ms. Mwesigye was assigned on and off certain contracts Committees or meetings as well as on foreign travels. With specific regard to whether I had motive to remove Ms. Mwesigye from contracts Committees because she refused my sexual advances (which I deny I made), I maintain that I did not. It is true however that I had situations in the past where Ms. Mwesigye failed to get along with clients to whom I assigned her, and I was forced to remove her, but I then deployed her elsewhere.
The three that I can vividly recall where:
a) UNEB where the then Secretary Mr. Mathew Bukenya specifically called me and asked me never to send Ms. Mwesigye back again because she was very rude to him and disrespectful. I obliged and withdrew Samantha from UNEB after discussing the client’s protestation. Find a copy of a letter that I wrote to UNEB apologizing for Ms. Mwesigye’s misbehavior and assigning a new officer to replace her, attached hereto and marked “B”.
b) Ministry of Foreign Affairs where the PS then also called me and raised the complaint of Ms. Mwesigye’s rudeness and disrespect as well as her inability to deliver on the said Ministry’s assignments on a timely basis; and
c) The Privatization Unit where they asked me specifically to give them a different resource and they followed it with a letter asking me to nominate a resource other than re-nominate Ms. Mwesigye who was serving then. The letter from PU is attached and marked “C”. It is sad that I didn’t insist on requesting or keeping letters relating to the above complaints for a “rainy day”, but I also assumed then that placing them on Ms. Mwesigye’s file would unduly prejudice her. The above are purely the circumstances under which I removed Ms. Mwesigye from some of the contracts Committees.
There was never any ill will on my part and neither was I doing so in the hope that I would get any sexual advantage over her in the said situation. But I would very much appreciate for Ms. Mwesigye to be truthful as well and tell this committee and the world how many Committees exactly she sits on.
For the purpose of transparency in the allocation of or assignment of DLAS staff on MDA contracts Committees, I can confirm that there is only one staff who sits on five (5) Committees. The rest are either on 4, 3 or 2 because these people all have fulltime jobs working for DLAS, so sitting on those Committees cannot be a job in itself. I have attached a spreadsheet that shows all the Committees that DLAS staff have been nominated to serve on. You will be happy to note that Ms. Mwesigye sits on four contracts Committees of various Government ministries, Departments and Authorities. Find a copy of the list of DLAS staff and all the contracts committees that they each sit on, attached and marked “D”.
I can state without fear of contradiction that NO OFFICER IN DLAS HAS EVER SAT ON 16 CONTRACTS COMMITTEES AS MS. MWESIGYE IS ALLEGING!
Now with specific response to the four salient issues that you raised, I wish to respond as follows: a) Denying her travel opportunities abroad- My response is that this is not true. I am pleased to attach some of the documents that I could retrieve in this short time, showing DLAS nominating Ms. Mwesigye to travel abroad on several occasions. I have collectively attached and marked them “E”.
I also need to add that no single officer including myself has the preserve of travel abroad, and when I was in-charge of DLAS, I tried my best to make sure that as many officers as possible got these opportunities and not on the basis of rank or right, but purely on the basis of merit, competence and equity. Where Ms. Mwesigye’s competencies merited her to represent Government on foreign travel, I made this fully available to her even after she had made these grave allegations against me.
I reiterate again therefore that Ms. Mwesigye’s right to travel or lack thereof was never based on me seeking sexual favors from her or barring her from traveling at all by reason of ill will.
b) Removing her from Contracts Committees: I reiterate again that Ms. Mwesigye sits on four Contracts Committees which is the second highest number of Contracts Committees that any officer sits on. I also reiterate and confirm that she did not get to the said Committees by extending any sexual favors to me or to anybody else in the Ministry that I am aware of. I genuinely believed she earned her pips and I assigned her to them on that basis. The ones she lost were either due to routine changes, or due to the circumstances that I have highlighted earlier on. I have also attached some of the nominations that I made for her to sit on some of the contracts committees of government ministries, departments and agencies and collectively marked them as “F”.
c) Sending her love notes while assigning her work, such as “with love from Gash”: I categorically deny this allegation for the following reason. All the work that I assign is picked up from my desk by my Secretaries and it would be most absurd of me to stick a love note on work I have assigned to Ms. Mwesigye, to be conveyed by my Secretaries. As far as I am aware, I have not addressed any love note to Ms. Samantha Mwesigye at all. Only God and her know where she picked it from, if she is not the author herself. The note that she has been waving around is not addressed to her as far as I saw and in the least, is a desperate attempt at creating evidence that I had any interest in my accuser, a fact I vehemently deny.
d) Ridiculing and embarrassing her in a department meeting where she said I accused her for falsely accusing me for sexual harassment: With regard to this allegation, I wish to confirm that yes, this matter came up in our Directorate meeting around September 2018 or there about and yes, I raised the matter in the meeting. This I did for two reasons which I will shortly explain below. Did I raise the matter to intimidate Ms. Mwesigye? Absolutely not. Anyone in their right mind would know that I would have been walking a tight robe with the full risk of losing face as the Head of Department by bring out facts of my supposed “crime”.
But it was a risk that I gladly embraced because I believed that it was the only reasonable way of addressing the character assassination that my accuser had carried on for long, since our email exchanges in June 2018. I am very glad that in her own documents which she submitted to your committee, she explains what happened. In her own document, she admits that she shared the email she sent to me in confidence with two or so of her colleagues in the hope that they wouldn’t tell me, but unfortunately I got to know. Find an unclear copy of the document that I got from the complaint that you sent to me, which I have attached hereto and marked “G”.
I can confirm that various other officers came to me and told me that this email as well as the rumour of my supposed sexual harassment of Ms. Mwesigye had become routine and the question I therefore ask is this; was it okay for me to keep quiet as Ms. Mwesigye painted me in bad light and belittled me, or should I have rather addressed the elephant in the room? I chose to address the elephant in the room.
My two reasons for raising this matter in the meeting were therefore:
1. Ms. Mwesigye wrote to me the long email alluded to above, alleging that I had made sexual advances towards her in both covert and overt manners. My short answer was that I had noted her email and I genuinely wondered whether it was necessary to write whatever she wrote in that email. It was never an admission of what she alleged against me. Unfortunately, Ms. Mwesigye commenced on a smear campaign, showing the said email to whoever cared to read it in the department and construing my brief response as an admission of the allegations therein. So even without me raising this matter in the Department meeting, I had become a subject of whispers in the corridors of DLAS and probably beyond.
In her own emails which form part of the documents you shared with me; I am glad she admits and recognizes that a few of her confidants brought it to my attention. So basically, Ms. Mwesigye made all these revelations to people with the intent of totally tarnishing my reputation and inciting hatred towards me, but in the hope that I would never know. Yet she now feels very offended that I brought it up at the meeting where my motive was to ask her colleagues to also hear me out then make their own informed opinion whether I indeed committed the crimes that I am being accused of. What else did she want me to do?
2. Secondly, I had gotten complaints from Junior Lawyers who out of no fault of their own had replaced Ms. Mwesigye on contracts Committees. One of them a young lady State Attorney whose name for respect I won’t mention, was mercilessly attacked by Ms. Mwesigye and accused that she had taken her place on a Contracts Committee because she was now “my girlfriend”.
This puzzled me a lot when I learnt that the State Attorney had contemplated absconding from her job because of bullying and on allegations of sexual harassment. I stopped and asked myself, had Ms. Mwesigye herself been appointed on the said Committee because she had been my girlfriend? At the meeting I was concerned that people shouldn’t be maligned, harassed or abused because of my deeds if indeed I had committed the offence that I was being accused of. I told Ms. Mwesigye that let her harass me and not any other officer since she had personally declared that she would stop at nothing to destroy me. So all that I am contending with now point to the motive she confessed about, that is to destroy me.
For this allegation therefore I have no apology to make because I did not intimidate Ms. Mwesigye in the said meeting. I had a Directorate whose coercion I deemed very important and that is what I communicated. If Ms. Mwesigye construed it as a tool of blackmail or coercion, that is very sad and very wrong. But I respect her opinion because she too is entitled to her opinion.
Lastly and before I take leave of this matter, I have seen two pieces of “evidence” that Ms. Mwesigye is inviting your Committee to convict me on for alleged sexual harassment.
These are; a) A stick-on note which she alleges she has very many such copies of, which I allegedly used to send her while assigning work to her, and
b) A long list of supposed telephone short messages or exchanges which I don’t know whether they are WhatsApp messages or SMS messages but which she says bears my sexual harassment of her. It is very unfortunate because I don’t know of any love notes that I addressed to my accuser. I deny this allegation because I haven’t written love notes to her. On the SMS or WhatsApp message exchange, I have no way of verifying whether indeed those are chats we have had in the past with Ms. Mwesigye or not. In this era of technology, people are able to manipulate anything to get what they want. I am therefore going to also validate this with my telephone service provider for efficacy. Be that as it may however, I invite you to look at the chain of messages exchanged.
Even if you were to assume that the chat is indeed between me and Ms. Mwesigye, you will note that 99% of the subject of the chat relates to office matters and how best as a Directorate we were trying to discharge our obligations, on some occasions under very difficult and treacherous circumstances. Then out of the blue it is alleged in the middle of that serious discourse, that I sent a message “love you”. That message if at all is totally unrelated to the matters that we were stated to have been discussing and secondly, it is totally ignored by Samantha. There is nothing in that whole chat to show that I cajoled her, intimidated her or harassed her or even begged her to have a sexual relationship with me. I totally do not recall ever sending any such message to Ms. Mwesigye.
I can bet that if Ms. Mwesigye had anything by way of text messages, love notes, emails or anything whatsoever (even a stone tablet like for Moses in the bible), she would have summarily executed me personally I believe, and it would have been in your hands long ago, given her self-confessed hatred for me. I have counselled myself to live with the fact that in this world, not everybody will like you and some will even outrightly hate you, and that is just a fact of life.
Ms. Mwesigye is under no obligation whatsoever to like me anyway. My accuser has been all over social media maligning me and saying how I sexually harassed her from the time she joined DLAS for clerkship in 2005. I have sat back and asked myself again, if this were true, why would she have chosen to come back and seek employment in the same Ministry and in the same Department where she knew I worked? On the contrary Samantha’s uncle, a man I respect very much, asked if I could give his niece a place to do clerkship. I told him to tell her to apply and if she meets our selection criteria, she would be given an opportunity to do her clerkship in any department of our ministry.
True to fate, she was shortlisted on the clerkship list and again by fate, she was sent to DLAS where I too was serving. Note that at the time, I was just but a Principal State Attorney like any other and I wasn’t her overall supervisor. Having completed clerkship and qualified as a lawyer, Samantha worked in a law firm (owned and run by a lady like her by the way) for about a year of two and all the while, Ms. Mwesigye came a couple of times to our offices requesting that if there was ever an opening, she would very much want to come back and join the Ministry of Justice as she wasn’t being treated well at the law firm where she was working. I told her that if we advertise, she is free to apply. Indeed around 2006 or 2007 I believe, when I was still a Principal State Attorney with no influence whatsoever, the Ministry did advertise, and Ms. Mwesigye applied to join as a State Attorney. Lucky for her she was shortlisted, interviewed and indeed she got appointed as a State Attorney. At the said point, she was at liberty to go and serve in any directorate in the Ministry, but for reasons only Ms. Mwesigye can explain, she offered to come and work in DLAS where I was a Principal State Attorney.
I now invite this Committee to inquire why someone who claims to have been sexually harassed my me through clerkship, as a State Attorney and also as a Senior State Attorney, would wait and only turn up in 2018 to make these grave claims that she now levels against me, when she had every opportunity in life to keep away from the alleged aggressor or tormentor. I pray that you carefully look into the motive of my accuser and see her for who she truly is, a person who has decided that her preoccupation will be to destroy me at all costs. For what reason, I still fail to understand. It is also very curious how conveniently she brings up all these claims at particular key occasions.
The first time Ms. Mwesigye brought up all these allegations, is when she first learnt that I had applied to become Deputy Solicitor General and clearly from her own audios that she sent on social media, some of my superiors were far from amused about me humbly applying for an opportunity that had presented itself in the Ministry and for which I felt I was fully qualified. I find that no coincidence whatsoever. The next important milestone is slightly over a week ago, after I had been shortlisted to sit interviews for the position of a Justice of the Court of Appeal.
I genuinely hoped and believed that my departure from the Ministry of Justice would give a sigh of relieve to whoever may not have wanted me to stay around. Even in this instance as I try to work out my exit by applying to join the bench so I can further my legal career and hopefully give Ms. Mwesigye and whoever else doesn’t want me in the Ministry space to do whatever they want, I am yet awakened to a myriad of false allegations that I sexually harassed Ms. Mwesigye. I was utterly amazed by all these theatrics and I know that one day all these theatrics will be seen for what they truly are.
For respect and given my oath to secrecy I can only say as much. Wealth Ms. Mwesigye has been on the media talking of the properties I own and asking that my wealth or lack thereof should be investigated. I welcome this too because I know I have complied with the leadership code to the letter. But I also don’t know what a person who has worked for 35 years is supposed to have or not to have. But since she knows my income more than I do, she is at liberty to controvert all my declarations of wealth filed over the years. She also states (in the stead of my deceased parents), that I should have retired sometime back. Because she believes I am beyond the age of employment in civil service I guess. Of what relevancy is this to the allegations of sexual harassment, if I may ask? This is a clear demonstration that her motive is different from what she is portraying to the media to malign me and tarnish my image which I have worked hard to build and preserve over the last 35 years.
I finally wish to state that I wish Ms. Mwesigye well in her endeavors because I have lived long enough on earth to know that even the greatest storm wanes at some point and the sun always, always, comes out. In this too, I know that the truth will prevail and I rest my faith in knowing that I have done nothing at all to deserve this treatment from the said lady.
On the contrary I feel that I have been treated most shabbily and I am actually the victim of harassment by whatever description, in this whole debacle. Unfortunately, we live in a world where people are so gullible and they pass judgment without giving the other party a hearing. I also rest in the knowledge that I am no longer Ms. Mwesigye’s supervisor, so she doesn’t have to worry about ever working under my supervision. I also pray to God that she genuinely believes in whatever dirt she has rolled me through and that there is no ill motive at all behind all this.
I therefore pray that this Committee carefully considers our respective presentations and finds for me because I truly have no intimate interest whatsoever in Ms. Mwesigye, I confirm that I have never at any one time sexually harassed her either covertly or overtly as is alleged, I have never maligned her and denied her any rights to serve this country be it on contracts committees or in taking trips abroad or in Uganda, and I maintain my total innocence in the face of all her allegations against me. I so pray.
Yours faithfully
C. GASHIRABAKE
Fights Over Foreign Trips Sparked Off Mwesigye-Gashirabake Sexual Harassment Allegations
- By Kp Reporter / May 15, 2019
Christopher Gashirabake Samantha Mwesigye
|
cc/2023-06/en_middle_0036.json.gz/line56
|
__label__cc
| 0.723471
| 0.276529
|
Most Noticeable Indian Brides
BharatMatrimony has been recognised as the most trusted on-line matrimony service by the Brand Trust Report. We have also been featured in Limca Book of data for many variety of documented marriages online. Our purpose is to build a greater Bharat through happy marriages. If you don’t need mail order bride india to stray too far from tradition, fuschia is a perfect shade that appears universally flattering on the combined undertones of Indian pores and skin. It’s a enjoyable, playful shade for the bride who needs a extra dramatic look. While all-out glitter will not be in vogue this yr, that shouldn’t discourage you from some delicate sheen.
Indian Brides In Other Cultures.
Marriage is probably the most very important day in an Indian brides life as her life completely modifications and she enters into the world of obligations. In India, marriage is a social practice the place two individuals are tied into matrimony for life lengthy. The success rate of marriages in India is healthier as in comparison with another country. Arranged marriages are very common the place mother and father of the Indian bride search for an appropriate husband for his or her daughter. The most memorable part of an Indian wedding ceremony is witnessing the beauty and magnificence of the Bride on her special day. Various areas in India require the Bride to wear certain jewellery or wrap her saree in a specific method. It is widespread for Bride’s to put Bindi’s, round pink and/or white stickers, above the eyebrows.
Despite the specific references to trafficking within the Immoral Traffic Act 1956, it pertains solely to industrial sexual activities in brothels and public locations. The law conflates prostitution and forced sexual exploitation and fails to distinguish between the victims and perpetrators of the crime.
A winged liner look will never quite go out of style for the Indian bride.
Indian women manage the home expertly and are adept at keeping family and social issues so as.
„One daughter was mendacity dead in a single room and the wedding of another was occurring in one other room. We have by no means skilled such blended emotions,” he stated.
According to UNICEF, 156 million males alive right now had been married earlier than 18.
Bride shortages have seen re-emergence of fraternal polyandry the place one girl is shared with brother of the husband.
This phenomenon has now spread to decrease castes and Muslim communities. The listing of presents which are given on the time of the marriage to the bride shall be maintained by the bride. From the halls of the United Nations to communities around the world, much has been done to lift awareness of kid marriage. But sometimes the myths about what drives baby marriage persist.
Globally, the rates of marriage of under-15s have gradually declined. But the marriage charges of sixteen to 17-year-old ladies have stagnated or elevated. A Google seek for “child marriage” will bring up photographs of Indian brides or adolescent mothers from Africa. But youngster marriage is a global downside that cuts across nations, regions, cultures and religions. The international locations with the highest numbers of kid brides vary from Niger to Indonesia to Brazil. The practice additionally happens in parts of North America and Europe. m4marry.com have helped lakhs of people discover their excellent companion and excellent families.
Choose one which can reflect your style and get shirt stitched as per the design and color of your saree. Now because the South Indian weddings are all about Kanjeevaram sarees, a major a half of a saree accounts the shirt.
The dupatta is both draped over the choli or over the pinnacle. All the items of the ensemble function ornate craftsmanship – be it embroidery, sequins or zardosi work – making the outfit not simply breathtaking, but additionally heavy and opulent. The beautiful detailing and the wealthy materials make this traditional Indian wedding dresses timeless and valuable. No wonder that wedding outfits are handed on from one era to a different as heirlooms. With the growing popularity of Bollywood impressed wedding ceremony outfits, of late, one can see increasingly more women opting for marriage ceremony lehengas for his or her massive day. Although red is the standard choice, it’s not the one possibility for Indian brides.
Nowadays, Brides solely select to put on it for a month following their nuptials. Just like a bunch of flowers can come in all types of colors, a floral lehenga can amalgamate one of the best that particular person colours have to offer. Which is why once I resolve to get married, I’d love to combine one of the best qualities of all colors in one and go for a floral lehenga. In truth, I lately noticed a beautiful floral lehenga in pink at a Manish Malhotra retailer, which I simply loved. Besides being an enormous pattern proper now, floral patterns are typically more subtle as compared to many of the over-the-top lehengas that you simply see during weddings. Florals work beautifully with pastel colours that suit our pores and skin tones.
It can also be about Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and the weddings of all these four states are actaully completely different from each other. If you are one such bride or know one, you then have to be figuring out that how hard hitting it might be have one of the best outfit at your finest day being tailor made and customised as per your wants, desires and wishes. This is an incredible ritual in South Indian Wedding the place each the households have plenty of enjoyable and laughter. Be it a Kannada marriage ceremony, or a Tamilian marriage ceremony or Andhra Reddy Wedding ceremony ceremony, “Kashi Yatra” is a fun ritual that everybody enjoys. So a special color to the saree is soemthing which brings the shine within the outfit.
Form Of Mail Order Bride India
Srini and I met 10 years ago at work in Hyderabad, India. We both had been software engineers on the similar massive firm.
Up till up to date brides started toying with the tradition, Indian brides have been carrying saffron pink to their wedding ceremonies for centuries. Bindis, or decorative colored dots on the forehead, are part of the standard bridal look. It’s a half of the Solah Shringar or the sixteen adornments typically worn by the bride. Here, this bride matched her bindis to her bright pink lip and purple and gold outfit. Indian ladies love to be the trusty quantity two within the household.
It is indeed fascinating to see bridal beauty in so many flavors. You have tons of of choices to make concerning your wedding. Deciding who will bring your recollections to life is considered one of your most necessary ones. Please fill out the contact kind and I will reply, usually inside 24 hours. From mean feedback to second-guessing your marriage ceremony preparations, city yogi and musician Shivali Bhammer shares tips on how to take care of social media negativity. Wedding Wire – I discovered Wedding Wire fairly easy to use.
If you may be tall, slim and slender, put on a round lehenga adorned with bold embroideries. So, you see that wedding dresses in Indian culture aren’t just pieces of lovely garments. The dresses for the bride and groom could look totally different in numerous areas, but the unimaginable magnificence and luxurious unite them. The first basic color, purple is the shade of love and struggle, ardour and power, of want and hazard.
A well-educated groom could money that in for a good hike within the dowry. A well-educated woman, then again, could be penalized for it. The conventions in organized marriages do not allow the spouse incomes more than the husband. A high-salaried girl would be matched solely with a higher-salaried man who commands exorbitant dowry due to his earnings. Many Indian brides, especially those who are Christian, gown in a white wedding ceremony robe for their marriage ceremony ceremonies. These robes typically look just like those discovered at most weddings within the United States or Canada; however, they may feature a extra modest neckline.
|
cc/2023-06/en_middle_0036.json.gz/line59
|
End of preview.
No dataset card yet
- Downloads last month
- 5