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Unassailable as Australia's most eminent dessert wine, Noble One created an international sensation when it was released, it has become one of the most renowned marques in new world wine. Bespoke blocks of Semillon, grown to mature De Bortoli estate vineyards, are watched each year, as the vagaries of vintage determine whether conditions are present to Botrytise the grapes. The making of Noble One is never rushed, each vine represents an individual harvest, as the optimal day of picking may vary greatly from block to block and row to row.
Darren De Bortoli capitalized on the potential of his Riverina property to become affected by Botrytis cinerea or Noble Rot, a fortuitous confluence of sunshine and light rains, mildew and early morning mists. Candidate vineyards are assessed to determine the optimum harvest time for each parcel of fruit based on sugar content and the degree of botrytis. Each parcel is individually harvested and handled. Vinifications can last from three weeks to three months, as long as it takes. When ferments are complete, batches are clarified, stabilised and filtered. Most components are matured in a combination of new and one year old French oak barriques for a year, a portion remains unoaked.
Bright gold colour. Glorious aromas of quince, nectarine, orange zest and nutty vanillian oak. Sensual feasts of rich white stone fruits, citrus and marmalade flavours, supported by beautifully integrated, vanillan five spice oak. A spicy tang of acidity balances the sweetness of fruit, contributing an alluring freshness all along the palate. A vibrant, seemingly immeasurable, fruit filled finish.
About De Bortoli Winery»
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iPhone UAV Drone Control App
Control your unmannded aerial vehicle (UAV) with your iPhone? There's an app for that, now that MIT professor Missy Cummings and her band of students have created an iPhone app to control the movements of this MAV UAV, which looks a lot like the new Aeryon Scout.
(iPhone UAV controller)
Actually, using an iPhone was her undergrads’ idea — because experimenting with it as a basis for a new robot controller meant she’d have to buy them all iPhones of their own. “We had the idea in June,” Cummings told Danger Room. “In six weeks, we went from the idea to a real flight test,” using MIT’s indoor robot range. (See video.) The total cost? $5,000 for a new, commercially available, quad-rotor robot — plus the cost of iPhones for her crew.
I think it's especially cool that you can bank and maneuver the UAV by tilting the iPhone.
One of the other reasons I was interested in this is that the iPhone seems to be the interface of choice for a variety of projects. Consider the previous champions - the Nintendo Wiimote and the Nintendo game controller.
The general operation of the controlling device and the UAV reminds me very strongly of the Raytron apparatus from Ray Cummings 1928 classic Beyond the Stars.
From Danger Room; thanks to the marvelous Moira for the tip.
Related News Stories - (" Surveillance ")
'... designed to foil facial recognition systems.' - Neal Stephenson, 2019
'The professional agitators had also learned how to modulate their voices below the danger level...' - Anne McCaffrey, 1973.
Adversarial Patches Trick Computer Vision
'The surveillance cameras can all see it, but then they forget they’ve seen it.' - William Gibson, 2010.
FLIR Black Hornet 3 Palm-sized Drone
These drones can provide situational awareness beyond visual line-of-sight capability.
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Will he or won’t he? It seems Celebrity Watchers everywhere just can’t get enough of speculating over whether George Clooney, age 55, will finally become a first-time dad.
When Bruce Willis and Alec Baldwin welcomed new babies at age 57, nobody blinked. Donald Trump was 59 when his youngest child was born, Paul McCartney was 61, Rod Stewart and Clint Eastwood each 66. Elton John and Steve Martin both have toddlers at home; they are 69 and 71 respectively.
Papa was a Rolling Stone: Ron Wood became a new dad to twins at 68; Mick Jagger brought his 8th child into the world at 72 and all was peaches and cream (or, Brown Sugar, if you dig).
See anything unfair with this picture?
Society’s default attitude toward “Advanced Paternal Age” is largely accepting — laced with maybe only a few gentle jabs about diaper duty while these daddy-gents are simultaneously headed towards diapers themselves (or, in John’s case, homophobic protests vs. the”designer” IVF babies that allowed him and his husband to build their family despite being gay, gay, gay).
Knee-jerk sentiment toward Ladies of A Certain Age seeking motherhood, however — even when it’s a first child she’s desperately chasing — is not nearly as accommodating. When Janet Jackson chooses (or is able) to finally have a baby at age 50: watch out. Snicker, snicker . . . isn’t she a little old for that kind of thing? (Don’t do this, but if you did: Googling “Janet Jackson too old” returns all manner of hateful Twitter troll tweet reports plus a cornucopia of articles negatively analyzing the merits of her pregnancy. Search for the men above and any babies on the way for them are discussed joyfully, mostly presented as normal.)
This is the difference between being judged and being understood. Older moms, and wannabe ones, are routinely viewed through a much harsher lens than their male counterparts. Their actions scrutinized, decisions criticized, overall parent-worthiness questioned from before sperm even meets egg. Somehow it is inherently dubious for a lady to have waited to pursue her supposed dream — what the hell was she thinking putting things off for so long? (Like this is anybody else’s business to begin with.)
In my case, it wasn’t exactly my choice to encounter Multiple-System-Failure Meltdown precisely at the age I most needed last-gasp abundant health; that’s just what happened. Please gimme me a break that I am still here at 46 as a result. If you had had embryo after embryo created with your beloved husband implanted in your uterus only to disappear repeatedly before your body deep-dived into disrepair . . . and then clawed its way back toward recovery, year after slow year . . . you very well might be here too.
Instead of getting recognition for the sad truth of this, I more often encounter eyeball roll-ish vibes and what I imagine as the juicy, hushed conversations behind my back: Aren’t they done with that yet? It’s foolish of them to still hope! The emotional sabotage here is indirect; such is the nature of bias. It’s the absence of vocal support — the loud silences — that chip away at a gal’s legitimacy. Unsure themselves about how to handle the situation, people on the outside tend to assume/hope this topic has been resolved. This is likely more comfortable for them to believe . . . not so great for the woman still in need of a little back-up, however.
Rather than the understanding, even respect, that the fellas get . . . the Over-45 TTC (Trying-To-Conceive) message boards are chock full of ignorant comments from folks who find it appropriate to freely scoff and opine. It’s common to come upon some disapproving someone slinging invective re: the ethics of bringing a child into the world so late when, in eighteen years, said child’s mama might not still be alive on earth to take him/her to college.
While, okay, that might happen . . . it’s also true that any child might also lose a parent before some particular milestone. Tragedies happen all the time; miracles too. Should a woman really give up on fulfilling her chief, most profound function in life just because some anonymous a-hole is up typing at 2 a.m. labeling her selfish?
Apparently, attacking a woman’s psyche, choices, appearance, stamina is still fair game. Pursuing childbirth later in life, ladies are continually put in the position of having to justify what the hell they’re doing, what they have been doing all along, what they will continue to be doing for the rest of their years. Like their babies will somehow receive less love and quality care because they didn’t manage to execute this whole life thing perfectly themselves.
Would a man ever have to face attitudes anything like these? Nada, nope, no way.
Well, I don’t need to defend myself. Janet Jackson doesn’t either. She and I — and countless others — just have to do what’s in our hearts. The best option I’ve found is to become Bulletproof. My own personal impenetrable support. No one gets to make me feel like my Suitable Parent Score is rapidly descending simply because my skin and breasts already are. I’m the only one who can determine the best timing for the major events in my life.
Women like Sheryl Crow and Sandra Bullock — both single moms in their 50’s now raising adopted children — they kick ass. Many a famous actress has given birth late into their 40’s: Susan Sarandon (46), Halle Berry (47), Holly Hunter (47), Kelly Preston (a.k.a. Mrs. John Travolta, 48), Geena Davis (48), Laura Linney (49) . . . there are many, many more. Joan Lunden, Cheryl Tiegs, Annie Liebowitz have all had babies in their fifties.
These star stories are merely high-profile examples; please do not mistake me for being celebrity-obsessed. The take-away is that George Clooney doesn’t have to worry about any of this crap. It’s good to be George. He can become a daddy, or not become a daddy, and everything’s fine. There’s no negative reflection on his fundamental George-ness . . . no blame if he doesn’t accomplish such a signature feat within his life span . . . no problem or judgement if he does.
Hopefully one day society can get to the same place with poor Jennifer Anniston, now 47. Rather than continuing to go tabloid-crazy over her every potentially bump-hiding fashion selection, maybe we can give her some space to do whatever she wishes to with her body instead. She may still bear a child . . . or she may not. Either way, it’s really not up to anyone else but her to have a say, or a snicker.
Later-in-Life parents, celebrities or not, male or female, are all operating from a sincere place: they wish to nurture, experience, behold new life. They long to build a family, seal bonds, enter into a new, fulfilling chapter of existence. They are on a beautiful mission. Why muck it up?
What do you think? Have you experienced this same cultural-gender bias yourself? How has it affected you? Please leave any comments below, email me at tenpercentpanda@gmail.com, or use the Contact page on the 10PP website. All thoughts, reflections, attitudes are always welcome (within reason!). Let’s discuss.
Share Some Panda:
August 26, 2016 tenpercentpanda age, bias, celebs, gender
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Note to Buckeye faithful: In Tressel you should trust
After last week’s heartbreaking loss to the USC Trojans, the Ohio State fan base has cranked up the heat on the proverbial seat of head coach Jim Tressel.
Buckeye fans are complaining of six straight losses to top-ten ranked opponents, and an offense that has failed to match the level of teams like the Trojans, Florida and LSU.
Columbus’ Prodigal Son, sophomore quarterback Terrelle Pryor, failed to impress in the biggest game of his career to date in the loss. He did not play up to his capabilities for sure, but he does not have the help around him he deserves.
Tressel and Pryor are catching a lot of the blame for the offense’s struggles, despite the fact that the Buckeyes are replacing an All-American running back and their entire wide receiving corps. To be honest, it is remarkable Tressel’s bunch hung in with USC as long as they did.
All the complaining going on surrounding Tressel’s program is naïve and flat-out ridiculous. This is the coach that took over a storied program that had become an underachiever under John Cooper, and turned it into a perennial king of the Big Ten.
In his eight seasons at the helm, the man in the sweater vest has compiled an 84-20 record, has beaten Michigan seven times in eight tries, and has played for three national titles, winning one in 2003.
Under Tressel, the offense has always gotten the job done, while the defense has been the stamp of the program. A.J. Hawk, James Laurinaitis, Will Smith, Chris Gamble; the list of first-round NFL draft picks to play for Tressel goes on seemingly forever. The man can recruit, and the man can put together a whale of a defense.
Despite losing all three linebackers from last year’s team, the Buckeyes still look strong defensively. They did not give up a full-length scoring drive until the final minutes against USC, who has more athletes on their offensive two-deep than more than half of the Big Ten combined.
While the offenses are shifting to more of a spread attack, people have the misconception that Tressel is behind the times. In 2006, Troy Smith won the Heisman Trophy while orchestrating the spread, handing off to Chris and Maurice Wells, as well as throwing to Brian Robiskie, Teddy Ginn, and Anthony Gonzalez.
When the talent is there, this offense can hang with anyone. This year’s edition of the Buckeyes just are not quite experienced enough to say they can do that. With no seniors on the two-deep at the skill positions, the Buckeyes are still a year or two away from being one of the nation’s elite again, and fans will just have to be patient, and calm down.
Posted by Josh P at 10:22 PM
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Home » TV & Movies » What’s on TV: Saturday, July 20
What’s on TV: Saturday, July 20
Shakespeare and Hathaway
ABC, 7.30pm
A detective show called Shakespeare and Hathaway? Fantastic! The legendary bard and his no-nonsense wife, solving crimes in Tudor England. What a brilliant concept! Except, no, this isn't about that Shakespeare and Hathaway, it's just a pair of private investigators in modern-day Stratford called Frank Hathaway and Luella Shakespeare.
Jo Joyner as Luella Shakespeare and Mark Benton as Frank Hathaway.
It's always a bit suss when a show features such obtrusive names: it strongly suggests the monikers are being used as a substitute for making the characters interesting. This quietly unoriginal show is no exception to this rule, as Frank (Mark Benton) and Luella (Jo Joyner) engage in good-natured banter, try to wring every drop of quirkiness from their mildly defined character traits, and fail to justify the show's title in any way.
What’s on TV: Saturday, July 6
What’s on TV: Saturday, April 20
What’s on TV: Friday, December 14
What’s on TV: Friday, April 19
What’s on TV: Sunday, May 19
Tagged 2, July, on, Saturday, TV, What’s
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Enraptured Jeff Bezos covers Lauren Sanchez in kisses at Wimbledon
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Tracks that include this keyword
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The Devil Behind You Brooding, cinematic track with haunting strings and orchestra percussion building to a violent climax before the end. Violin melody at 1:00.
3:26 Keywords: 13th Warrior, 20th Century Fox, 300, A Beautiful Mind, Airforce One, Alfred Hitchcock, Alien, American Beauty, Ancestors, Ancient Times, Animals, Antarctic, Anxious, Arctic, Armageddon, Batman, Battle, BBC, Bernard Hermann, Big Ending, Black Hawk Down, Blue Planet, Blue Skies, Bomb, Bourne Identity, Break Out, Brokeback Mountain, Call Of Duty, Chase, Cold Mountain, Conspiracy, Covert Ops, Creepy, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, CSI, Da Vinci Code, Danny Elfman, Dark, Dark Knight, Dark Street, Desperate Houswives, Detective, Dracula, Dramatic, Edgy, End Of The World, Enemy Approaching, Enigmatic, Escape, Exciting, Exotic, Expansive, Extreme Sports, Eyes Wide Shut, Fear, Fight scene, Film, Film Score, Flight, Foreboding, Gladiator, Hans Zimmer, Harry Potter, Haunting, Hollywood Action/Adventure Movie, Hollywood Romance Movie, House Of Flying Daggers, I Am Legend, Investigation, Jailbreak, James Bond, Jerry Goldsmith, John Barry, John Williams, Journey, Jurassic Park, K-PAX, Landscape, Last Of The Mohicans, Lightning, Lost, M Night Shyamalan, Minority Report, Mission Impossible, Montage, Motorcycle Diaries, Nervous, Nightmare, Panic, Pensive, Pirates, Pressure, Psycho, Road to Perdition, Saving Private Ryan, Scary, Shawshank Redemption, Showdown, Sinister, Sixth Sense, Sneaking, Spooky, Spy, Stalker, Star Wars, Stephen Spielberg, Tension, Terminator, The Four Musketeers, The Godfather, The Lady In The Water, The Last Samurai, The Others, Thomas Newman, Threat, Thriller, Ticking Bomb, Titanic, Underwater, Underwater Chase, Underwater Search, War, War Film, War Of The Worlds, Washington Conspiracy, Wildlife Documentary, X-Files
Composed by Luke Gartner-Brereton
Tracking the Beast Dark and intense cinematic track. Orchestral drums, brooding violins, and a climactic choral apex.
2:44 Keywords: 13th Warrior, 20th Century Fox, 24, 300, Adagio For Strings, Airforce One, Alfred Hitchcock, Alien, American Beauty, Animals, Anxious, Apollo 13, Arctic, Armageddon, Band of Brothers, Batman, Battle, Bernard Hermann, Big Ending, Black Hawk Down, Bomb, Bourne Identity, Brokeback Mountain, Call Of Duty, Claustrophobic, Cold, Conspiracy, Covert Ops, Creepy, Crime, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, CSI, Da Vinci Code, Danny Elfman, Dark, Dark Knight, Dark Street, Death, Detective, Dracula, Dramatic, Edgy, End Of The World, Enemy Approaching, Enigmatic, Ennio Morricone, Escape, Evil, Exciting, Expansive, Expedition, Extreme Sports, Eyes Wide Shut, Fantasy, Fear, Fight scene, Film, Film Score, Flight, Foreboding, Freeze, Frozen, Girl Interrupted, Gladiator, Halloween, Hammer Movie, Hans Zimmer, Harry Potter, Haunted House, Haunting, Hectic, Historic Movie, Hollywood Action/Adventure Movie, Hostel, House Of Flying Daggers, I Am Legend, Ice Melting, Investigation, Jailbreak, James Bond, Jerry Goldsmith, John Barry, John Cage, John Williams, Journey, Jurassic Park, K-PAX, Landscape, Last Of The Mohicans, Lightning, Lord of the Rings, Lost, M Night Shyamalan, Man vs. Robot, Matrix, Minority Report, Mission Impossible, Monster Movie, Nervous, Nightmare, Patriotic War Movie, Pensive, Pirates, Pressure, Prison, Psycho, Renaissance, River, Road to Perdition, Sailing, Samuel Barber, Scary, Serial Killer, Shawshank Redemption, Showdown, Sinister, Sixth Sense, Slow Motion, Spooky, Stalker, Stephen Spielberg, Stockhausen, Super Hero, Survivor, Symphony, Tension, Terminator, Terror Squad, The Lady In The Water, The Last Samurai, The Others, Thomas Newman, Threat, Thriller, Thunder, Ticking Bomb, Vangelis, Vertigo, War, War Film, War Of The Worlds, Washington Conspiracy, Wildlife Documentary, X-Files
Tracking the Beast (no choir)
The Last Titan Brooding orchestral piece with horns, strings and tribal percussion throughout. Piano and harp interlude prior to the first climax and at the close, with dramatic choral punctuation.
3:55 Keywords: 1800, 20th Century Fox, 300, Alfred Hitchcock, Amazing Grace, Ancestors, Ancient Times, Armageddon, Arnold Schoenberg, Batman, Battle, Bernard Hermann, Big Ending, Blue Planet, Bomb, Bourne Identity, Braveheart, Break Out, Call Of Duty, Charles Ives, Chase, Choral, Cold Mountain, Concerto, Conspiracy, Crash, Creepy, CSI, Da Vinci Code, Dark Knight, Dark Street, Deer Hunter, Dracula, Dramatic, End Of The World, Enemy Approaching, Environmental, Escape, Evil, Exciting, Expansive, Expedition, Fantasy, Fear, Foreboding, Glaciers, Gladiator, Halloween, Hammer Movie, Haunted House, Haunting, Historic Movie, Hollywood Action/Adventure Movie, Hollywood Romance Movie, I Am Legend, Igor Stravinsky, Investigation, James Bond, John Williams, Journey, Jurassic Park, Last Of The Mohicans, Lightning, Lord of the Rings, M Night Shyamalan, Nightmare, Patriotic War Movie, Pearl Harbor, Prison, Psycho, Road to Perdition, Saving Private Ryan, Scary, Serial Killer, Showdown, Sinister, Spooky, Stephen Spielberg, Steve Reich, Stockhausen, Survivor, Symphony, The Four Musketeers, The Godfather, The Last Samurai, The Others, Thriller, Ticking Bomb, Top gun, Triumphant, Underwater Search, War, War Film, War Of The Worlds, Warrior, Wildlife Documentary
The Last Titan (no choir)
Battle Tempest Intense, fast paced orchestral piece with choral accompaniment. Driving percussive beat provides backbone throughout, with tense strings, crash cymbals and brass.
3:07 Keywords: 20th Century Fox, 300, Alfred Hitchcock, Alien, Anxious, Apollo 13, Armageddon, Batman, Battle, Bernard Hermann, Big Ending, Bomb, Bourne Identity, Braveheart, Break Out, Call Of Duty, Choral, Cold Mountain, Conspiracy, Covert Ops, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Da Vinci Code, Danny Elfman, Dark, Dark Knight, Death, Deer Hunter, Detective, Dracula, Dramatic, Edgy, End Of The World, Enemy Approaching, Escape, Exciting, Expedition, Extreme Sports, Fantasy, Fear, Fight scene, Film, Flight, Foreboding, Gladiator, Hans Zimmer, Harry Potter, Haunted House, Haunting, Historic Movie, Hollywood Action/Adventure Movie, I Am Legend, Indie Film, Jailbreak, James Bond, John Barry, John Williams, Last Of The Mohicans, Lightning, Lord of the Rings, M Night Shyamalan, Patriotic War Movie, Pearl Harbor, Pirates, Pressure, Psycho, Road to Perdition, Scary, Showdown, Slow Motion, Star Wars, Stephen Spielberg, Survivor, Symphony, The Four Musketeers, The Godfather, The Last Samurai, Threat, Thriller, Ticking Bomb, War, War Film, War Of The Worlds, Warrior, Washington Conspiracy, Wildlife Documentary, X-Files
Battle Tempest - No Choir
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Has Dzifa Attivor awoken a sleeping giant? (Part I)
in Opinions April 28, 2016
By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor
Folks, we must by now have known that the fracas generated by utterances attributed to Ms. Dzifa Attivor (former Minister of Transportation who resigned because of the murky circumstances surrounding the rebranding of the Mass Metro Transport buses) has taken the centre-stage in public discourse about Ghanaian politics. To me, the fracas is insignificant because it is not a warranted or supported by practice or principle. Ghanaian politics has all these years been known for being heavily invested with tribal sentiments. What is new, then, to warrant all the energy being expended flogging a dead horse? The only snag is that hypocrisy is feeding all that vigorous reaction to her utterance. No more no less.
I want to say upfront here that in pinpointing the Kufuor administration for persecuting Ewes, Ms. Dzifa Attivor (the former Transport Minister) said nothing new to warrant all the barrage of condemnations and what-not. The ongoing muscle-flexing, spitting of fire and brimstone, name-calling, and threats or whatever else strike me as needless if we truly know the bent of Ghanaian politics, especially since the immediate pre-independence era and far beyond it to date. Which informed Ghanaian doesn’t know that apart from the Great Osagyefo’s approach to national and local politics all others have been clouded with tribal considerations?
Would it be the gang of cowardly security officers who masterminded Nkrumah’s overthrow or the role of Gen. Akwasi Amankwah Afrifa in the abortive April 1967 coup by Yeboah and Co. that led to the murder of Gen. Kotoka and Ewe military officers (Capt. Avevor and Capt. Borkloe, among others)? Ask Rawlings why he supported the extermination of Afrifa, after all. Those of us who read the letter from Afrifa to Acheampong that prophesied his own doom and that of Acheampong at the hands of Rawlings will not easily be cajoled by latter-day saints of the sort condemning Ms. Attivor.
Or the manipulation of the situation to remove Gen. Ankrah from office for Gen. Afrifa to pave the way for the Busia-led Progress Party to perpetrate its Apollo 568 agenda, which was primarily against Ewes in the Civil Service (the Sallah case in view)?
Or the machinations by Gen. Acheampong against Captain Selormey, Major Agbo, Major Habadah and other Ewe military officers with whom he had executed the January 13, 1972 military coup against Busia but whom he later feared to co-exist with?
Of course, elements belonging to other ethnic groups can be identified as victims of ethnic-influenced persecution. As to why the focus is on the Ewes alone, I cannot explain now, but I will be guided by what I know to make my point clear. Take it or leave it as such. I care less. But the record of happenings exists.
History being recalled here for a good reason, folks. Many happenings over the years have reinforced negative opinions that Ghanaian politics is heavily invested with or poisoned by tribal sentiments. Believe it or not, ethnicity counts a lot in our kind of politics, which explains why the NDC with Rawlings at the helm would be quickly labelled as an Ewe party and the NPP as an Akan party (with emphasis on the Ashanti and Eastern Regions that have traditionally stood for it all these years while the NDC has a wider national spread).
] will stick my neck out to say that Ms. Attivor didn’t say anything that we haven’t known before. Thus, I consider the wailing and sharpening of claws to tear her into pieces—and to indirectly get at the NDC itself— as needless and misplaced. Take it from me that whatever she said is already in the public sphere and doesn’t strike me as worrisome or frightening as it does those pouncing on it to further their own skewed political agenda.
Context: Ms. Attivor is reported to have said that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is a tribal party bent on prosecuting only Ewes if it wins the general elections in November. Referring to the record of the NPP government between 2001 and 2008, she argued that the NPP targeted only members of her ethnic group for prosecution. (See http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/If-you-don-t-vote-for-NDC-I-will-go-to-jail-Dzifa-Attivor-433966).
Anything strange in her claims here? None!! In truth, most of those who were either prosecuted and jailed or dragged to court were Ewes. You know them already and I don’t have to mention names here. Others such as Ibrahim Adam, Kwame Peprah, and Nana Konadu Agyemang-Rawlings also faced the NPP government’s music in court.
The dicey aspect, though, is that we can’t simply conclude that those Ewes were targeted because of their ethnic extraction. That’s where the line is difficult to be drawn. They were public officials caught in acts for which they had to account. Thus, to jump to the conclusion that the Kufuor government persecuted them as Ewes is difficult to accept. However, that has been the perception among Ewes all these years. Ms. Attivor might just be reiterating that perception, even if wrapped around her own narrow interests.
What about her utterance may come across as offensive is her urge that the NDC be voted for by Ewes (at least judging from the angle from which she allegedly made the pronouncements). Here too, there is nothing strange, especially if we acknowledge the fact that the Volta Region is regarded as the bastion (“Word Bank”) of the NDC just as the Ashanti Region is known as the incubator and stronghold of the NPP. So, why the apprehensions?
Another aspect is her claim that if the NDC loses power, she would be jailed by the NPP. In this sense, only she knows why she will be jailed or why the NDC administration hasn’t sought to jail her for whatever she might have done for which she is afraid. This is the nub. By this claim, she has opened a can of worms for us to question what the Mahama-led administration isn’t doing about her.
Folks, the speed and zeal with which the Ghana peace Council, the NPP, and others (including Jerry Rawlings and the NDC’s Volta Regional Chairman) have jumped on Ms. Attivor over this utterance is understandable, especially if her claims reflect “tribal politics”, which the critics regard as dangerous. But is it not true that our politics is heavily invested with tribal or ethnic politics, not to talk about the religious vein too?
I am tempted to wonder whether we haven’t heard worse utterances from other politicians (e.g., the NPP’s Akufo-Addo, Kennedy Agyepong, Maxwell Jumah, Anthony Karbo, Fraudie Blay, Yaw Osafo-Marfo, and many others) or whether those now jumping on Ms. Attivor could do same to such characters as they are doing to her now.
This stance is not to suggest that I support Ms. Attivor’s outbursts. It is to lay everything bare for us to know that conditions that precipitate such outbursts exist everywhere in the country and people are openly talking about ethnicity in Ghanaian politics. But for her mounting a political platform to say so, there wouldn’t have been anything to attract that much criticism.
How many times haven’t opponents of the NPP labelled it as an Akan (Asante-Akyim) party or the NDC as an Ewe party? Ghanaians have known all this while that our politics is not clean; that it is not devoid of tribal/ethnic sentiments. So, what does it mean if a politician of Ms. Attivor’s type touches on it?
How many times haven’t we heard politicians mightier than Ms. Attivor tell their kith and kin to vote for them because they belong together? Have such people been heavily criticized as is being done to Ms. Attivor?
There is too much hypocrisy in our national and local politics. Those asking her to retract her utterance and apologize are wasting their breath. She must, however, learn not to stoke the fire, even if she wants to appeal to the “tribal sentiments” of voters. That’s the best we can tell her.
The truth about the hounding of NDC politicians of Ewe stock by the Kufuor administration still stands tall for those who have eyes to see. No amount of denial can wash it away.
Perhaps, what we have to deal with now is to urge the government to look into why Ms. Attivor is scared of the future. The government has to investigate her to determine what she is hiding behind. After all, the re-branding issue exposed her lack of a good sense of judgement and she must be grilled and drilled for us to know what we need to know. Then and only then will we know why she is afraid of being jailed by an NPP government.
For now, the critics may be burning energy to condemn her and do their own kind of politics with her utterances. It is part of the political discourse to be tolerated. In the end, I wonder what problem it will solve.
Our politicians need some self-restraint to deal with issues tactfully so they don’t provoke needless tension. That’s what matters; but who will listen at a time when some have already geared up and are flexing muscles to do things as they deem fit to either retain them in office or win political power for them?
Ms. Dzifa Attivor’s problem is our collective responsibility as well. Let’s not pretend that we haven’t heard anything of the sort before. She has indeed, awoken a sleeping giant that is bearing down heavily on us to acknowledge the truth of our skewed national politics so we can do better henceforth, especially as Election 2016 approaches. Those seeking to manipulate her utterance for political capital had better think twice because it won’t easily yield the dividends that they have set their eyes on.
I shall return…
E-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com
Join me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor to continue the conversation.
Dr. Michael Bokor
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The NPP believes only what its own agenda reveals to it
Electoral violence negates democracy
Fidel Castro stood tall in life and still does now in death
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The "Conquest" of Edessa: Crusader Adaptation and Assimilation
Dr. Helena Schrader
New Crusade video within...Why Did King Richard Execute the Muslim Garrison at Acre?
The establishment of the crusader “county” of Edessa is often ― at least implicitly ― treated as a “conquest.” The impression conveyed is that the crusaders (or Franks) invaded, seized control of territory by force, and established a state (in this case styled a “County”) that was controlled by Latin elites. But Baldwin of Boulogne was accompanied by just sixty knights when he followed an invitation from a local warlord, Thoros, to go to Edessa. As Christopher MacEvitt makes clear in his meticulous study The Crusades and the Christian World of the East: Rough Tolerance, the crusader County of Edessa was more a complex network of local alliances than an invasion ― much less a colony.
The story of the crusader presence in Edessa, as indicated above, started with an “invitation” from a local warlord, and was legalized by an official adoption. Edessa was an ancient and wealthy city that at this time rivaled Antioch and Aleppo in importance. When in 1098 the First Crusade reached northern Syria, Edessa was in the hands of a Greek Christian warlord, the most recent “strongman” in a long line of short-lived warlords, who came to power by murder or popular acclaim ― only to lose favor rapidly and themselves be murdered or flee. Thoros fearing the fate of his predecessors if he could not fight off the ever present Turkish threat, sought help from the most recent military force to arrive on the scene: the crusaders. MacEvitt suggests convincingly that Thoros was making the same mistake that the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Comnenus had made, namely, of conflating crusaders with Frankish/Norman mercenaries. Thoros wanted the evidently effective commander Baldwin of Boulogne to come fight his battles for him; he never really thought he was inviting in a successor.
Baldwin, however, was not a mercenary. He rejected mere material gifts such as gold, silver and horses, in a bid for something more important still: power and control. When Thoros refused, Baldwin threatened to leave, and “the people” (by which one presumes the chroniclers mean the elites) insisted that Thoros give way. Thoros formally adopted Baldwin in a ceremony (telling) using Armenian relics and customs. Unfortunately for Thoros, this proved insufficient to placate an evidently unruly population. Within a month of Baldwin’s adoption, the mob had turned on Thoros, murdering him, his wife and his children mercilessly. Once Thoros was dead, the citizens jubilantly proclaimed his "son" (Baldwin) “doux” ― a Greek title that usually implied subordination to the Emperor in Constantinople. Although he benefited from Thoros' murder, there is no evidence that Baldwin was behind it, and the fact that he was neither well connected with local elites nor yet conversant with Armenian politics speaks against his complicity.
Furthermore, despite the title awarded him, Baldwin of Boulogne was no vassal of Constantinople. But he was not a conqueror in control of invaded territory either. He still had only 60 knights of his own and he owed his elevation to the local, predominantly Armenian population. MacEvitt makes the point that from the point of view of the Edessans they had not helped establish a “Frankish” or “Latin” or “crusader” state at all; they had (as so often in the past) simply replaced one “strong man with vague Byzantine ties” with another.
Furthermore, Baldwin’s career would certainly have been as short-lived and as forgettable as that of the previous half-dozen “rulers” of Edessa, had he not proved astonishingly adept at building alliances with surrounding warlords, nobles and elites. That process started with the simple expedient of leaving the Armenian administration of the city undisturbed. Baldwin also adopted Armenian symbols and rituals, and he rapidly married into the Armenian aristocracy as well.
SStill he faced not so much opposition as indifference on the part of all the other petty Armenian warlords in the surrounding countryside because the “County” of Edessa was not a unified territory at all, but rather a patchwork quilt of minor princlings and lords, who each ruled their individual towns and castles by force. This was a land of “robber barons,” each jealously guarding their own territory and always on the alert to weaken or take advantage of the weakness of a neighbor. The Armenian warlords also rapidly set to work pitting one crusader lord against another, in what (in retrospect) seems like an almost playful experiment of seeing just how far they could go. The crusaders, significantly, after some initial squabbling eventually countered these attempts by closing ranks against the Armenians and eliminating the worst trouble-makers.
More dangerous to Baldwin in Edessa, however, was that as soon as he started to exert his authority there, the very citizens who had “elected” him, decided to depose him ― just as they had all his predecessors. Baldwin was lucky. One of the “councilors” turned traitor, told him what was afoot, and Baldwin struck first. He arrested the councilors, threw them in a dungeon, extracted ransom payments from them and then released them ― without noses, hands and feet or blinded in the case of the ringleaders. All were expelled from the city. Notably, this punishment, particularly the blinding of opponents and rivals, has a long tradition in the Eastern Roman Empire, but none at all in northern France. In short, even in his rage, Baldwin of Boulogne had adapted the customs of his adopted father.
Nor did his “brutality” provoke outrage or rebellion. On the contrary, the chronicles record with what amounts to approval that Baldwin was now “feared.” The Armenian church and population appears to have welcomed the restoration of a really strong strongman, capable (they hoped) of ending the fragmentation and lawlessness in the region that had followed the defeat of the Byzantine army at Manzikert.
Baldwin of Boulogne had no chance to prove himself further. He was called away to Jerusalem to take up his elder brother’s mantle. He was crowned King of Jerusalem in the Church of the Nativity on Christmas Day 1100. He did not just abandon Edessa, however. Instead, he invited his cousin Baldwin de Bourcq to succeed him as ruler of Edessa. Baldwin II (as he was to be known in both Edessa and Jerusalem) was quick to take the opportunity, and his eighteen-year rule in Edessa truly established Frankish control over Edessa.
It was Baldwin II who extended Frankish power beyond the city of Edessa into the surrounding region. This was no easy task as various warlords held castles at strategic points ― some Christian, some Muslim. Like Baldwin I, Baldwin II had too few Frankish troops to impose his rule. He was dependent on the goodwill of the bulk of the ruling class and the loyalty of Armenian soldiers to remain in power, much less extend it. Significantly, he never faced any rebellion in Edessa itself.
Baldwin II adopted much the same tactics as his cousin Baldwin I. He promptly married an Armenian wife, daughter of one of the strongest warlords. Other Franks in his entourage, significantly his cousin Jocelyn de Courtenay who would succeed him when he too went to Jerusalem to become king there, also married aristocratic Armenian women. Equally important, he continued to depend largely on local Armenian elites to administer his territory. However, an early incident in which he lost a key city to Turkish forces and had to borrow troops from the crusader Principality of Antioch, induced him to place more of his own relatives in key strategic castles.
Yet as MacEvitt documents, this was not the same thing as “oppressing” much less “exterminating” the local elites. Rather, Baldwin sent a clear signal: cooperate or lose you lands. The majority of Armenian warlords preferred to “submit” (nominally) to the Franks than risk seeing one of their Armenian rivals win greater power and authority. So, yes, some of the larger warlords lost out, fled to Constantinople and bewailed their fate to sympathetic ears. Their lament found a voice particularly in the chronicler Matthew of Edessa, but they were a minority. The bulk of the Armenian ruling class, MacEvitt argues, “preferred to trust the Franks rather than others of their own kind.” (The Crusades and the Christian World of the East: Rough Tolerance, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008, p. 83.) The Franks, in turn, rewarded loyalty, and the Armenians willing to recognize Frankish suzerainty were richly rewarded with new lands, titles and revenues.
Meanwhile, the Frankish leaders and their Armenian wives became increasingly integrated in the local society, honoring local saints, adopting local symbols, titles and customs. MacEvitt sites evidence that local (non-Latin) priests served as confessors for some Frankish lords. This is a far cry from 18th and 19th Century European colonists “picking up the white man’s burden,” yet meticulously maintaining their “superior” customs while treating the “natives” with condescension bordering on contempt. In 19th century Europe “going native” -- as the crusaders did -- was scorned, and those that did "go native" were viewed with contempt.
Furthermore, this pattern of integration and alliance with local (non-Latin) Christian elites was both continued under Baldwin’s successors, the Courteneys, and also transferred to Jerusalem when Baldwin II of Edessa became Baldwin II of Jerusalem. Significantly, his half-Armenian daughter Melusinde succeeded him to the throne, reinforcing the influence of native Christians at the heart of the crusader states.
MacEvitt argues, I think convincingly, that the tiny Frankish elite in all the crusader kingdoms was both more dependent and more integrated in Eastern Christian society than previous historians have been willing to admit. His work The Crusades and the Christian World of the East: Rough Tolerance is well worth reading.
Why Did King Richard Execute the Muslim Garrison at Acre?
Labels: Crusades, Dr. Helena Schrader, Medieval
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Archbishop Nichols - Three Cheers?
A Festival with a Difference
A Book for a Sunday Afternoon in the Garden
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A Parable
Fr Ray posts the text of Abp Nichols' sermon at the Merton College training session for priests wishing to learn to use the Extraordinary Rite.
Everything the Archbishop says about the Mass is true, and it is wonderful to see a member of the Hierarchy in England and Wales speaking so eloquently about the Mass.
"I’m sure many of you recall, as I do, the lovely image of the priest at Mass raising the consecrated host and seeing, just above it, the figure of the crucified Lord. This picture hung on my bedroom wall. It helped to form my faith. It is, I believe, always helpful for the eye to move easily from the elevated host or chalice to an image of the crucifix. That juxtaposition teaches us, through eye and imagination, the reality of what is taking place."
am I alone in discerning a bit of a tone?
"The Missal of Pope John XXIII will remain the extraordinary form of the celebration of the Mass, for, as Pope Benedict says, its use ‘presupposes a certain degree of liturgical formation and some knowledge of the Latin language; neither of these is found very often.’ And the decision of the Church was that, for general use, it needed to be revised. But there are truths of which it can still remind us and it has treasures and consolation to offer."
"The celebrant, acting in the person of Christ and in the name of the Church, needs to ensure that his actions enable the souls in his care to participate in this saving mystery, to take part in each of its steps. This participation has to be profound, spiritual, informed by understanding – an active participation and not passive, not ‘leaving it to the priest to celebrate the Mass for us.’"
I'm not convinced that the message has got through.
There is not a single word to disagree with, (sound Eucharistic theology, thank God!) but there is a sense that the Extraordinary Rite is a relic, that the young priests who are learning it are perhaps being a bit exquisite, that without a greater amount of study by both priest and people than many of us think the Pope intended, the Extraordinary Rite will not be acceptable.
It may be, of course, that I am too suspicious; and it's very likely that I'm wrong! But Archbishop Nichols' opportunity to unite the two Uses of the Roman Rite has not produced anything that looks to me like a wholehearted welcome: more an acceptance in words which seem to accept grudgingly a new reality which he would have preferred not to have come about.
Greenbelt is not for people like us. It is an Evangelical Rock and Worship Festival.
However, a text from a colleague who is attending has alerted me to something that might make any of us stop and take notice. This year, there is a beer tent, in which people (well, men) spend their time drinking beer and bellowing out hymns. And guess what: all the hymns they bellow out are traditional ones. The text doesn't say whether there is a tape to sing along to, or whether there are hymn books, or whether the drinkers are just blessed with fine memories. The fact that the texter is into the folk scene in a big way suggests to me that this is people singing what they know and what works when people sing, which means traditional tunes which everybody knows.
This (I texted back) is very Catholic. Pre-Reformation, the Parish Ale would have been brewed every time there was a feast day. Post-Reformation, the connection between drinking and celebrating God's Glory is still there, though much stronger among Catholic Christians than elsewhere.
I also suggested that, on being furnished with proof that this is as good as it sounds, I might, just might, be tempted along to a tent evening next year.
I have just finished Fr Nicholas Schofield and Fr Gerard Skinner's excellent book on the English Cardinals. Can I recommend it most heartily to anybody who wants an overview of the History of Catholicism in England (and Wales, though only slightly). A short biography of each Cardinal as a way of fixing a piece of time into its context was a wonderful idea.
(Were they interested, I would like to give the two Fathers some advice about how to make the second, revised, edition longer, by asking them to answer all the questions they raised in my mind. I suspect their answer might be for me to do a bit of the work for myself.)
The perfect Christmas present for any Catholic who has the slightest interest in history: once the book is open, its unputdownable.
And now the children have finished their tea, it's back out there to get to grips with Alastair Campbell's diaries. I've been dipping in and out since the book arrived from Amazon, but I was good, and read the book about the Cardinals first.
And on its way from America is the Worlock Archive, Clifford Longley's mining of the archive left by the late Archbishop. Don't worry: I will read this in the same spirit as British Staff Officers read Clausewitz, or Conservative philosophers read Das Kapital. It is only by understanding the ideas which inspire our opponents that we will have chance of undermining and defeating them.
Well ... try this at Catholic Conservation, courtesy of Carpe Canem.
Bishop Hollis was born on 17 November 1936: that means only four years two months and some days to go.
Poor old Pompey - even poorer old Basingstoke.
Which Auxiliary Bishop is set to celebrate the Extraordinary Rite, at least in his private Masses after 14 September? Who is it that members of the Bishops' Conference are accusing of careerism?
Bishop Arnold of Westminster in to celebrate Confirmation in the Extraordinary Rite in November, but rumour has it that an Auxiliary outside London seems to be ready to "come out" as an Extraordinarilist.
Does anybody know who?
If you go to the website of the organisation which published it, you get the following message:
Caritas - Social Action
We apologise for the limited information available on this page.
Caritas - social action's new website is currently under construction.
Caritas - social action is the umbrella organisation for Catholic social care organisations working within England and Wales. We are an agency of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales and part of Caritas International.
Please feel free to contact us on 020 7901 4875 or email caritas@cbcew.org.uk
If your require more information on the Catholic Church in England and Wales please go to www.catholicchurch.org.uk Or, if you would like more information on international development issues please go to www.cafod.org.uk
So, if there is any question about whether or not Caritas' activities are a responsibility of the Bishops' Conference or not, just look at their e-mail address.
And CAFOD, unsurprisingly to me at least, gets drawn in as well. Not that CAFOD and Caritas are singing off the same hymn sheet, you understand: it's just that if you want to know what Caritas thinks, while it's off the air, then CAFOD's the place to go.
This stinks: it stinks to high heaven, indeed, to High Heaven. A follow-up letter to Cardinal Re seems in order.
... I have come to the conclusion that the Holy Father, in publishing Summorum Pontifcum, has launched a coup d'etat against the liberality of some Bishops, and is trusting priests to undo some of the mischief which the Bishops have been responsible for.
Reading the blog of Fr Z (whom God preserve!) has been instructive recently: lots of Bishops trying to interpret what the Pope must have meant when he issued his Motu Proprio and concluding that they can still dictate what Use will be used once we reach 14 September, in spite of what the words on paper actually say.
But the Pope absolutely and categorically returned this choice to the priests. the Bishops have no right to stop a suitably qualified (idoneus) priest from saying his private Mass according to the form he wishes. He cannot stop the faithful from asking for, and in consequence receiving, the Extraordinary Rite.
The Bishops are rebuked for allowing men to be ordained whose Latin is not up to celebrating Mass (in either Use) in Latin. They have not fulfilled their obligation, as Heads of Local Churches, to ensure that Men are sent to seminaries where they can be properly formed as priests of the Roman Rite. In short, they can no longer be trusted, in matters liturgical, to maintain the communion with Rome which is an intrinsic mark of dioceses in the Roman Church. So they have been bypassed, and Oh! how they hate it.
The next eighteen months are likely to be ugly, at least in parts of the English-speaking world. What will happen when a priest is forbidden or prevented by his Ordinary from celebrating the Extraordinary form of the Mass? We can be confident about Rome's reaction, but the potential for grave scandal is there.
But I think we'll miss it in England and Wales, at least initially. I understand that Bishops have been advised not to get involved in any public way: the Eccleston Square view is that the less publicity given to the priests who start using the Extraordinary Rite, the less will be the demand from the laity to have access to it. But they have no plan to cope with a situation in which a significant number of priests start celebrating the Mass traditionally, because they are confident that it just won't happen. They are irritated by the Motu Proprio, and make jokes about German Shepherds barking a lot, and being vicious when provoked, but are so confident that their conception of the Church is the right one that they can't imagine anything else.
How they might react to what they might think of as mutiny is yet to be seen. We are living in interesting times.
Wasn't Archbishop Conti the Bishop who celebrated the Sarum Use in Aberdeen (forgetting that Aberdeen had its own Use, and that it was probably the first time that the Sarum use had ever been celebrated there).
Fr Z (whom God preserve) suggests that the Archbishop is setting stringent conditions in an Ad Clerum to his priests, so stringent that he might actually be instructing his priests to ignore the Pope's Motu Proprio?
Are we in light blue button down shirt territory again?
According to the Telegraph, the Headmaster of the Catholic primary School in Liverpool who has had a Civil Union with another man can't be sacked for legal reasons.
Yes he can. He can be sacked tomorrow. If he goes to an Employment Tribunal, he'll probably win. Then he'll have to be paid off. Or, if an order was made for reinstatement, the Archbishop could refuse and go to prison. Or he could close the school down; now: just before the start of term (and go to prison).
But that would mean Archbishop Kelly standing up for what the Church believes in instead of kowtowing to the state.
Does anyone have a photo of him, tieless, in smart casual, button-down collar, preferably very pale blue shirt?
How many people know that the solution to the problem of how the Liturgy is celebrated in joint Anglican/Catholic schools in Liverpool?
They don't have any.
I'd like to thank Fr Dwight for the link, but will merely tip my hat, in the circumstances.
You Are 8% Politically Radical
You're a very traditional person and perhaps a little resistant to change. In a few more years, your beliefs will be so old fashioned that they'll be radical!
Are You a Political Radical?
http://www.blogthings.com/areyouapoliticalradicalquiz/">Are You a Political Radical?
8% radical? How dare they score me so high! And why do they have to do it twice?
The first Catholic adoption agency to shut up shop, faced with SORS. I haven't seen comment about this anywhere.
Courtesy of the Northern Cleric.
Their Lordships the Bishops of Portsmouth, Plymouth and Clifton.
At the Conference at which the photo was taken, there were over twenty different workshops on topics ranging from Youth Ministry to banner making, the person of Christ to the relationship between science and religion.
Banner making? Banner making? Felt, I imagine.
There are those who believe that these three Bishops represent the future of the Church in England and Wales ...
... and then there are those who don't.
Two separate messages lead me to suggest that Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, who is in charge of the Congregation for Bishops, is the man to complain to (as well as the Nuncio and Cardinal Levada, both of whom have formal responsibilities in this regard). I can't find an e-mail address for him, but a written letter, hundreds, thousands of written letters, might be a better way of waking the Vatican up anyway. Contact him at:
Palazzo della Congregazioni,
00193 Roma,
Piazza Pio XII, 10
(Cardinal Levada's address is:
Piazza del S. Uffizio, 11,
00193 Roma)
It is intriguing that both messages referred to two members of the hierarchy whom Cardinal Re has serious concerns about, one of whom has been blogged about as having packed his books ready for Southwark, only to be rudely interrupted when Kevin McDonald received the appointment as Archbishop.
I asked Damian Thompson through his combox to take the lead in rallying Catholics on this subject: he skipped the question. We need a leader, who should be a lay person: we can't have priests attacking Bishops. (We shouldn't need to have lay people attacking Bishops, but the Bishops started it!) Any ideas? Any volunteers with adequate profile?
There is a real opportunity here, though one which I think the Holy Father may have anticipated: we need a new Archbishop of Westminster, and we need one who is not part of the current hierarchy, all of whom reflect the fads of 1970s seminaries.
Once World Youth Day in Sydney is over, can we have Cardinal Pell?
[Your address]
[Your Bishops address] (available from here)
My Lord, (or Dear Bishop Christian Name,)
I have recently read on the Internet that an Agency of the Catholic Bishops' Conference has recently published a book called "Catholic Social Justice" which attacks both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI and makes statements about the family which are anything but Catholic.
Please may I have your assurance that neither you, nor your brother Bishops have allowed any such thing to happen, and that I might buy this book and read Catholic teaching about social justice.
Humbly at the feet of your Lordship (or Yours Sincerely)
Copied to:
Archbishop Sainz Munoz, Apostolic Nuncio
Cardinal Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Although Fr Tim, Mac, and Orthfully Catholic were at the Faith Movement Conference, it was Auntie Joanna who spotted how tradition - in fact Tradition - is a unifying force:
"... yesterday evening saw a splendid ceilidh, a vast improvement on the traditional disco. Here, the dancing was lively and continued non-stop until late: a really delightful sight with people quickly getting a grasp of the dance and twirling partners and forming circles and jiggling round the room in terrific style to traditional Scottish music. It was a joy to watch."
I shan't labour the comparison: I don't think I need to. Disco: too much noise and half the people not joining in; ceilidh: room for everybody who wants to do things properly; disco: everybody do your own thing; ceilidh: everybody follow the rubrics.
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Akkulka Gas Pipeline Succesfully Tested
BOZOI, KAZAKHSTAN, Feb 09, 2009 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- Tethys Petroleum Limited ("Tethys" or the "Company") (TSX: TPL) today announced that the gas pipeline system of its Akkulka gas development in Kazakhstan had been successfully tested.
The Akkulka gas development flow lines and associated tie-in to the Company's Kyzyloi export pipeline system have now been successfully pressure tested and this completes the major fieldworks leaving only regulatory approvals with respect to this pipeline. This pipeline is the major part of the Company's "Phase 2" development of the Kyzyloi and Akkulka gas fields in western Kazakhstan. Work has been hampered due to the very cold weather and blizzard conditions present throughout most of January. The only work that remains to complete the development is the final installation of the two additional compressors, located at the Company's existing compressor station, to pump increased volumes of gas into the Bukhara-Urals gas trunkline. Currently the bases to hold the compressor units are being finished, this including the installation of special heaters (found necessary due to the unusually cold weather) to bring up the temperature of the bases to a level where the compressor units can be bonded to the bases successfully with epoxy resin. The current plan is to test the compressor units by the end of February following which State approval will be sought for the final commissioning of the development.
The West Kazakhstan division of the State Reserves Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan has now approved the gas reserves for the Akkulka field and the Committee for Geology and Subsoil use has now granted permission to finalise negotiations with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources for gas production from the field.
Final regulatory approval has also been obtained for production from two further wells (G12 and G16) on the Kyzyloi field, and production from this field is expected to recommence in due course.
Sabin Rossi Vice President Investor Relations
Office phone/fax: +7 (701) 272 8867
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Veiled Warning to Britain From EU President
The man who represents the 27 leaders of the European Union warned Thursday of widespread opposition to steps that may be necessary to keep Britain as a member of the bloc.
Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, said he saw “no impending need to open the E.U. treaties” to address the complaints of countries like Britain that are outside the euro zone and that object to “federal Euroland” rules governing the bloc.
“Nor do I feel much appetite for it around the leaders’ table,” Mr. Van Rompuy said in a speech he delivered Thursday evening
in London at the Policy Network, a center-left research organization.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/business/global/eu-leader-suggests-europe-will-not-change-to-satisfy-critics.html?_r=0
France: Two Die in Cattenom Nuclear Power Plant Accident
Two people have died and one is seriously injured after an accident at Cattenom nuclear power station located in Moselle, according to police sources.
The accident occurred on Thursday shortly after 5pm at the central nuclear reactor building.
Unit 4 had been closed to allow for a ten-year safety inspection and maintenance check.
According to early witness accounts part of a platform and ladder broke off and fell four metres onto workers.
The victims are thought to be from two different companies providing inspection and maintenance services.
http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1158641&Itemid=1
Categories: MAN-MADE DISASTERS, NUCLEAR DISASTERS
Carbon monoxide poisoning kills 11 in N China coal mine
Eleven people die due to carbon monoxide poisoning after a forcing fan caught fire under a coal mine in north China's Hebei Province, local authorities said Friday.
The accident occurred at 8 p.m. on Thursday in a coal mine in Huailai County of Zhangjiakou City, the publicity department of Zhangjiakou City said.
The mine belongs to Zhangkuang Group, a subsidiary of Jizhong Energy Group Co., LTD.
Thirteen miners were working under the mine when the accident happened.
David Cameron suffers humiliating defeat as Lib Dems win hard fought Eastleigh by-election
David Cameron suffered a humiliating defeat in the Eastleigh by-election in the early hours of this morning after his party was beaten into third place by the Liberal Democrats and Ukip.
The Lib Dems took the seat with a reduced majority of 1,771 while the Conservative candidate Maria Hutchings won just a quarter of the votes cast.
But the night’s real success story was Ukip which had its best ever Westminster election result. Its candidate Diane James increased her party’s share of the vote from 3.6 per cent in 2010 to 27.8 per cent.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/david-cameron-suffers-humiliating-defeat-as-lib-dems-win-hard-fought-eastleigh-byelection-8515953.html
Senior Al Qaeda Leader 'Killed In Mali'
French forces in Mali have reportedly killed Abdelhamid Abu Zeid, a commander of al Qaeda's north Africa wing.
Abu Zeid was among 40 militants who died in the region of Tigargara in northern Mali three days ago, according to Algerian Ennahar TV.
A French defence ministry official declined to comment on the report.
http://news.sky.com/story/1058313/senior-al-qaeda-leader-killed-in-mali
US Hackers 'Regularly Attack' China Websites
Hackers based mainly in the United States attacked two Chinese military websites an average of 144,000 times a month last year, Beijing claims.
The report steps up a war of words between the two countries, after a US security company said that a Chinese military unit was behind a series of hacking attacks on US firms.
Now China's ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said the sites for the Defence Ministry and China Military Online, a People's Liberation Army news webpage, have been hacked relentlessly.
http://news.sky.com/story/1058270/us-hackers-regularly-attack-china-websites
4.6 Magnitude Earthquake SOUTH OF PANAMA - 1st March 2013
Friday, March 01, 2013 at 04:11:18 UTC
Thursday, February 28, 2013 at 10:11:18 PM at epicenter
6.130°N, 82.625°W
SOUTH OF PANAMA
212 km (131 miles) S of Punta de Burica, Panama
5.5 Magnitude Earthquake MARIANA ISLANDS REGION - 1st March 2013
Friday, March 01, 2013 at 01:29:48 PM at epicenter
161.9 km (100.6 miles)
MARIANA ISLANDS REGION
162 km (100 miles) NNW of Farallon de Pajaros, Northern Mariana Islands
Major Earth events and changes, February 2013
Categories: NATURAL DISASTERS, QUAKES/VOLCANOES
4.9 Magnitude Earthquake SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION - 1st March 2013
121 km (75 miles) N of Visokoi Island,
3.8 Magnitude Earthquake NEVADA - 28th February 2013
Thursday, February 28, 2013 at 20:48:23 UTC
38.135°N, 118.248°W
20 km (12 miles) SW (223°) from Tonopah Junction, NV
Daniele Lo Presti Murder: Italian Paparazzo Found Shot Dead In Rome
A top Italian paparazzo who took pictures of Brangelina, Beyonce and dozens of other celebrities has been found shot dead.
Daniele Lo Presti, 42, was discovered on a riverside with a single bullet wound to the head, the classic sign of an ordered hit.
Murder squad detectives launched an investigation following the discovery of his body and have not ruled out the possibility he was killed after "crossing" someone in his business.
http://news.sky.com/story/1058351/italian-paparazzo-found-shot-dead-in-rome
Fukushima mothers worried about cancer risk
Bombs kill at least 22 in Iraqi capital
At least 22 people were killed in a series of blasts in Shi'ite neighborhoods of Baghdad on Thursday, police sources said, as Iraq's precarious sectarian balance comes under growing strain.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Sunni Muslim insurgents have been redoubling their efforts to undermine the Shi'ite-led government and spark deeper intercommunal fighting since the start of the year.
Two car bombs, one parked near a crowded restaurant and the other close to a football stadium, exploded around sunset and killed at least 18 people in Baghdad's southern Shula district.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/28/us-iraq-violence-idUSBRE91R0W920130228
Cyprus president says committed to stability, swift bailout
Cyprus's new President Nicos Anastasiades vowed on Thursday to work for a swift conclusion of a bailout for the cash-starved island, ruling out debt or deposit "haircuts" for the Mediterranean nation threatened with a financial meltdown.
Economic turmoil engulfing Cyprus, one of the euro zone's smallest economies, could test the European Union's mettle in a crisis threatening to spill beyond the tiny island's shores and unravel nascent recovery in the bloc.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/28/us-cyprus-idUSBRE91R1CS20130228
Van Rompuy hits at PM on treaty change
The President of the European Council warned David Cameron on Thursday that Europe would not prioritise treaty change despite the British prime minister’s desire for a new settlement to put to a referendum.
Speaking in the City of London, Herman Van Rompuy said the most “drastic” changes for the EU were over and reform would now be in “steps” rather than “leaps into the unknown”.
“In the last three years we’ve had major changes without major treaty revision so I see no impending need to open the EU treaties,” he said in his speech on Thursday evening. “Nor do I feel much appetite for it around the leaders’ table.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9b420228-81b5-11e2-904c-00144feabdc0.html
Biden: ‘Just Fire the Shotgun Through the Door’
Vice President Joe Biden’s fondness for his shotguns has been documented by the Washington Free Beacon, and he continued to promote the use of these dangerous weapons in an interview with the outdoor website, Field and Stream.
F&S: What about the other uses, for self-defense and target practice?
BIDEN: Well, the way in which we measure it is—I think most scholars would say—is that as long as you have a weapon sufficient to be able to provide your self-defense. I did one of these town-hall meetings on the Internet and one guy said, “Well, what happens when the end days come? What happens when there’s the earthquake? I live in California, and I have to protect myself.”
I said, “Well, you know, my shotgun will do better for you than your AR-15, because you want to keep someone away from your house, just fire the shotgun through the door.”
http://freebeacon.com/biden-just-fire-the-shotgun-through-the-door/
Woodward's Not Alone - Fmr. Clinton Aide Davis Says He Received White House Threat
Bob Woodward isn't the only person who's received threats for airing the Obama administration's dirty laundry. It seems anyone is a potential target of the White House these days - even former senior members of the Clinton administration.
A day after Woodward's claim that a senior White House official had told him he would "regret" writing a column criticizing President Obama's stance on the sequester, Lanny Davis, a longtime close advisor to President Bill Clinton, told WMAL's Mornings on the Mall Thursday he had received similar threats for newspaper columns he had written about Obama in the Washington Times.
Davis told WMAL that his editor, John Solomon, "received a phone call from a senior Obama White House official who didn't like some of my columns, even though I'm a supporter of Obama. I couldn't imagine why this call was made." Davis says the Obama aide told Solomon, "that if he continued to run my columns, he would lose, or his reporters would lose their White House credentials."
http://www.wmal.com/common/page.php?pt=WMAL+EXCLUSIVE%3A+Woodward%27s+Not+Alone+-+Fmr.+Clinton+Aide+Davis+Says+He+Received+White+House+Threat&id=8924&is_corp=0
Categories: POLICE STATE, SOCIETY'S COLLAPSE, WEAK JUSTICE
Media Blackout: Israel, Hamas ban rival journos to report from Gaza
Giant rays on Gaza beach
Categories: ANIMAL DEATHS, MAN-MADE DISASTERS
Friday, March 01, 2013 at 05:07:46 AM at epicenter
25 km (15 miles) SSE of Lata, Solomon Islands
Did UFO 'hit' Russian meteorite blasting it to smithereens? Conspiracy theorists’ extraordinary claim after new footage emerges
The meteorite that crashed on Russia was hit by an unidentified flying object causing it to explode and shatter over the Urals, it has been claimed.
The bizarre theory is based on analysis of blurry footage of the space rock as it streaked across morning sky above the city of Chelyabinsk.
U.F.O enthusiasts insist a small 'object' can be seen colliding with the meteorite on its trajectory through the atmosphere, despite the fact there were no reports of Russia launching missiles to down the celestial intruder, they claim.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2286035/Did-UFO-shoot-Russian-meteorite-blasting-smithereens-Now-conspiracy-theorists-launch-extraordinary-claims-new-footage-emerges.html
Cases of rare 'untreatable' superbug that killed seven in a year rocket as health officials warn of deadly outbreak
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning doctors to be on the lookout for an untreatable multidrug-resistant 'superbug' emerging in the U.S.
The 'superbug' springs from a bacteria called Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriacea, 15 types of which have been seen in the U.S. in the last year. The unique bacteria can cause pneumonia, intestinal and urinary tract infections, and bloodstream infections.
In one outbreak at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, seven deaths were attributed to the 'superbug' after a New York Woman who came to the hospital for a lung transplant while infected.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2285729/Rare-antibiotic-resistant-superbug-outbreak-U-S-health-officials-high-alert.html
France's first black Muslim cabinet minister faces jail for electoral fraud
The youngest ever black Muslim woman to become a French cabinet minister was today facing jail for electoral fraud.
Rama Yade, who is still only 36, was due to appear at Nanterre Correctional Court charged with a range of forgery offences.
She became a hugely glamorous symbol of ethnic diversity when, barely out of her 20s in 2007, President Nicolas Sarkozy made her Secretary of State for Human Rights.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2285935/Frances-black-Muslim-cabinet-minister-faces-jail-electoral-fraud.html
'The last time a German looked this hot was when they were pushing Jews into ovens': Outrage as Joan Rivers refuses to apologise after 'vulgar and offensive' joke about Heidi Klum's backside
The veteran comedian made a joke about the Holocaust on Monday's Fashion Police show on E! when reviewing the low-cut shimmering gold dress worn by the German beauty. 'The last time a German looked this hot was when they were pushing Jews into the ovens', said he 79-year-old, before doubling over with laughter.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2285794/Joan-Rivers-refuses-apologise-vulgar-offensive-joke-Heidi-Klums-backside.html
Mortgage interest to DOUBLE for thousands of borrowers as banks impose huge tracker rate hikes
Thousands of Bank of Ireland and Bristol & West borrowers customers face a doubling of interest on mortgage interest payments this year after the banks decided to ramp up tracker rates.
Buy-to-let borrowers are being hit by a bigger hike than residential customers: they will see their mortgage rate jump to 4.49 per cent on top of Bank of England base rate - or 4.99 per cent compared to the current rate of 2.25 per cent (base rate plus 1.75 per cent).
Residential customers were also paying 2.25 per cent but face a smaller hike, to 2.99 per cent (base rate plus 2.49) on 1 May 2013. But the tracker rate will then increase again to 4.49 per cent (base rate plus 3.99 per cent) from 1 October 2013.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-2285901/Bank-Ireland-Bristol--West-tracker-mortgage-borrowers-large-rate-hikes.html
Mick Philpott accused of killing six of his children in house fire 'staged a rehearsal of how he would save them and talked of wanting a bigger home'
Mick Philpott and his wife Mairead, pictured above with a friend, and another friend Paul Mosley are alleged to have acted out how they would save the youngsters from the property in Allenton, Derby, once the fire took hold. Mr Mosley's nephew's girlfriend told the court that Philpott had been 'going on about wanting a bigger house'.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2285929/Mick-Philpott-staged-rehearsal-save-talked-wanting-bigger-home.html
This is a prime example why the death penalty should be re-introduced
Death toll from Swiss shooting rises to four
A fourth person has died in hospital from injuries sustained in a shooting at a Swiss wood processing plant near the city of Lucerne, police said on Thursday.
A 42-year-old factory worker opened fire on co-workers with a Sphinx AT 380 pistol on Wednesday, killing two colleagues and wounding seven others. The gunman was also found dead at the scene but police have given no details on how he died.
Police said they were still investigating how the weapon came into the man's possession and the motive for the attack.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/28/us-swiss-shooting-idUSBRE91R10E20130228
Man dragged by South African police vehicle dies in detention
"Mind melds" move from science fiction to science in rats
The scientists call it a "brain link," and it is the closest anyone has gotten to a real-life "mind meld": the thoughts of a rat romping around a lab in Brazil were captured by electronic sensors and sent via Internet to the brain of a rat in the United States.
The result: the second rat received the thoughts of the first, mimicking its behavior, researchers reported on Thursday in Scientific Reports, a journal of the Nature Publishing Group.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/28/us-science-brain-mindmeld-idUSBRE91R0U620130228
Islamist's death sentence sparks deadly riots
A Bangladeshi Islamist party leader was sentenced to death on Thursday over abuses carried out during the country's independence war, triggering riots that killed at least 30 people.
Delwar Hossain Sayedee, 73, vice-president of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was found guilty by Bangladesh's war crimes tribunal of mass killing, rape, arson, looting and forcing minority Hindus to convert to Islam during the 1971 war of separation from Pakistan, lawyers and tribunal officials said.
After he was convicted and sentenced, police clashed with activists from Sayedee's party and violence raged in more than a dozen areas around the country, police, witnesses and media reports said.
At least three policemen were among the dead and around 300 were wounded, they added.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/28/us-bangladesh-tribunal-idUSBRE91R0AN20130228
IMF set to cut growth forecasts if U.S. spending is cut
The International Monetary Fund said Thursday it will likely cut its growth forecasts for the United States and the global economy if automatic U.S.
spending cuts take effect on Friday, and warned that the U.S.'s biggest trading partners would be hardest hit.
IMF spokesman William Murray said that if the cuts are fully implemented, the IMF would likely shave at least 0.5 percentage point off its current forecast of 2 percent growth for the U.S. in 2013.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/28/us-usa-imf-idUSBRE91R0XB20130228
Thursday, February 28, 2013 at 07:29:25 AM at epicenter
6.2 km (3.9 miles)
27 km (17 miles) S (174°) from Tonopah Junction, NV
Tumbleweed Invasion Buries House In Texas
The brutal storm system that brought snow and high winds to much of America's midsection this week delivered something very different to one Texas family.
Gusts in excess of 60mph pushed hundreds of tumbleweeds up against a house in Midland.
One side of Josh Pitman’s home is almost entirely obscured by the rambling plants.
http://news.sky.com/story/1058221/tumbleweed-invasion-buries-house-in-texas
6.9 Magnitude Earthquake KURIL ISLANDS - 28th February 2013
90 km (56 miles) ENE (71°) from Severo-Kuril'sk, Kuril Islands, Russia
Deyan Deyanov Jailed for killing Jennifer Mills-Westley
Bulgarian national Deyan Deyanov has been sentenced for killing British grandmother Jennifer Mills-Westley in a supermarket.
http://news.sky.com/story/1058247/tenerife-beheading-man-gets-20-years
BOB WOODWARD: A 'Very Senior' White House Person Warned Me I'd 'Regret' What I'm Doing
Bob Woodward said this evening on CNN that a "very senior person" at the White House warned him in an email that he would "regret doing this," the same day he has continued to slam President Barack Obama over the looming forced cuts known as the sequester.
CNN host Wolf Blitzer said that the network invited a White House official to debate Woodward on-air, but the White House declined.
"It makes me very uncomfortable to have the White House telling reporters, 'You're going to regret doing something that you believe in,'" Woodward said.
http://www.businessinsider.com/bob-woodward-obama-sequester-white-house-reporting-price-politics-2013-2
Bradley Manning To Explain WikiLeaks Motive
An Army private charged over the biggest leak of classified material in US history is set to tell a military judge how he did it and why.
Private Bradley Manning will answer questions later on Thursday from the judge who is considering whether to accept his offer to plead guilty to some lesser charges.
His only public explanation until now for giving the secret documents to Julian Assange's anti-secrecy WikiLeaks website can be found in logs of an online chat with a confidant-turned-government informant.
http://news.sky.com/story/1058097/bradley-manning-to-explain-wikileaks-motive
Slow Strangulation: 'Iran sanctions a war on ordinary citizens'
Categories: FINANCIAL EVENTS, MAN-MADE DISASTERS, NUCLEAR DISASTERS, SOCIETY'S COLLAPSE, WARS AND RUMOURS
Dolce Vita Finita: 'Hard life looms for Italy with austerity in air'
Class Divide: UK masses slide into poverty as austerity ramps up
'US in era of whistleblower hunt, ignores mercenaries & banksters'
Cops vs Students: Violence erupts as Canadian students throw snow at police
Pedophilia & Corruption: Will next Pope stop Catholic hell?
Eyewitness: Yes, The Nazis Did Confiscate Our Guns
Categories: POLICE STATE, SOCIETY'S COLLAPSE, WARS AND RUMOURS
Syria: Nusra Front Occupy Yabrud on Lebanese Border
Hairstylists Battle in Court Over Lotto Jackpot
Singapore, HK arrests in huge Australian drug bust
Categories: MAN-MADE DISASTERS, SOCIETY'S COLLAPSE
4.6 Magnitude Earthquake TURKMENISTAN - 28th February 2013
Region TURKMENISTAN
Distances 34 km W Gökedepe
4.2 Magnitude Earthquake VALPARAISO, CHILE - 28th February 2013
Region VALPARAISO, CHILE
Distances 37 km SE Los andes
Karen Simpson who disappeared on trip to buy nappies from Tesco is found dead in field near home
Police searching for a missing mother-of-three who vanished while suffering post-natal depression have found a body.
Karen Simpson, 31, disappeared from her home in the village of Burscough, near Ormskirk, Lancashire, on Sunday morning when she went to a local Tesco store leaving her three-month-old girl with relatives and never returned.
She had told family members that she needed to 'clear her head.'
The force said the death was not being treated as suspicious at this stage.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2285355/Karen-Simpson-Police-launch-search-young-mother-post-natal-depression-went-missing-going-buy-box-nappies-Tesco.html
Official: The economy DID grow in 2012 - but only just (so Cameron says we must cut the deficit 'further and faster') ......Does he think the small Olympics Growth counts?
The economy eked out modest growth last year rather than flatlining as previously thought, official figures showed yesterday.
The Office for National Statistics said output rose by 0.2 per cent in 2012 – a paltry amount but better than the zero growth initially reported last month.
But the economy still shrank by 0.3 per cent in the final three months of the year – leaving the country on the brink of a third recession in five years.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2285617/Official-The-economy-DID-grow-2012--just-Cameron-says-cut-deficit-faster.html
How China is enslaving the world: Beijing's ruthless leaders subjugate armies of foreign workers with opium, plunder resources across the globe - and now they've got Britain in their sights
With its gold leaf and marble décor, duplex suites, heliport and fleet of Rolls-Royces, the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai is hailed as the most luxurious in the world, a seven-star monument to wealth and extravagance.
To stay there will cost you £2,000 a night. Just to have dinner means parting with a huge deposit per person before you even get to the table. Nor can you simply wander in off the street into the lobby to gaze at the Turkish carpets and watch the fountain play — the Burj rests on its own artificial island.
So who can afford to stay there? Increasingly, the answer is the world’s fast-growing army of multi-millionaires from China.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2285676/How-China-enslaving-world-Beijings-ruthless-leaders-subjugate-armies-foreign-workers-opium-plunder-resources-globe--theyve-got-Britain-sights.html
Categories: FINANCIAL EVENTS, SOCIETY'S COLLAPSE, UNEXPLAINED/WEIRD, WARS AND RUMOURS
Beyonce Stingray Skin Shoes Causes outrage
Beyonce has come under fire for wearing trainers made from the skins of exotic animals.
Animal welfare group Peta has described the US star as "cruel" and "spoilt" for choosing shoes made from stingray, anaconda, ostrich, crocodile and calf.
In a statement, Peta said: "These custom-made kicks come with a high price - and it's paid by the various animals who were beaten and skinned alive or cruelly farmed and killed.
http://news.sky.com/story/1058104/beyonce-in-hot-water-over-stingray-skin-shoes
Banker Bonus Cap Is 'Deluded', Says Boris...Sums the EU up really!
The Mayor of London has launched a stinging attack on European Union officials after they agreed a provisional deal to cap bankers' bonuses.
The plan would see the maximum payout set at a year's salary but that could be increased to two year's salary with shareholder approval.
http://news.sky.com/story/1058025/bankers-bonuses-eu-agrees-cap-on-payments
Categories: FINANCIAL EVENTS, POLICE STATE, SOCIETY'S COLLAPSE
Wendy Dolton's Diamond Ring Stolen As She Lay Dying in Hospital
A dying woman had a treasured diamond ring stolen from her finger in the final moments of her life at a hospice.
The gold band was taken from Wendy Dolton's hand as she lay powerless in her bed.
Hours later, the 65-year-old lost her battle with cancer.
http://news.sky.com/story/1058111/womans-diamond-ring-stolen-as-she-lay-dying
South Africa: 'Man Dragged Behind Police Van'
A taxi driver in South Africa died after being handcuffed to a police vehicle and dragged hundreds of yards, it has been alleged.
Independent police investigators are looking into the claims after video footage emerged showing a man being dragged along a road behind a police van.
The man, a 27-year-old from Mozambique, was later found dead in a police cell in Daveyton, Johannesburg, on Tuesday.
http://news.sky.com/story/1058102/south-africa-man-dragged-behind-police-van
US officials admit 'incorrectly entered' data on Taliban attack downturn in 2012
The US military and its coalition in Afghanistan have acknowledged a miscount of Taliban attacks in the country last year, citing a clerical error as the likely reason for the false data - which Washington has already used.
In January, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan boasted a roughly seven per cent drop in attacks by Taliban forces in Afghanistan in 2012, but as the Associated Press has learned, the level of “enemy-initiated attacks” actually remained the same.
“During a quality control check, ISAF recently became aware that some data was incorrectly entered into the database that is used for tracking security-related incidents across Afghanistan,” ISAF spokesman Jamie Graybeal said Tuesday. Graybeal attributed the flaw to a clerical error, adding that it does not change the overall assessment of the situation in Afghanistan.
The seven per cent figure was used in a monthly trends report posted on the ISAF website on January 22 as part of its monthly update on security and violence. It has now been removed.
http://rt.com/news/taliban-attack-data-flaw-510/
Unreleased EU report slams Israeli settlements
A copy of a report written by EU heads of mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah condemns recent Israeli settlement building and recommends that EU member states place economic sanctions on settlements, AFP reported on Wednesday.
The report referred to Israel's settlement construction in east Jerusalem as "systematic, deliberate and provocative" and stated that Jewish settlement construction was "the biggest single threat to the two state solution."
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=304741
Thailand signs peace talks deal with Muslim rebels
Thailand's government has signed its first-ever peace talks deal with Muslim rebels aimed at ending a decades-long conflict in the south.
The deal was signed in Malaysia by the National Revolution Front (BRN), one of several groups operating in Thailand.
More than 5,000 people have been killed since the conflict reignited in the Muslim-majority region in 2004
Crown Prosecution Service staff facing £1m fraud claims
Two members of staff from the Crown Prosecution Service are facing charges of conspiracy to commit fraud over false taxi claims totalling at least £1 million.
One of the workers is Lisa Joanne Burrows, who works for the CPS in the West Midlands.
The allegations concern false claims for witness care taxi services when no such services had been supplied according to the CPS.
http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2013/02/28/cps%E2%80%88staff-facing-1m-fraud-claims/
Mark Phillips 'plunges to death' during RAF rescue
A police investigation is underway tonight into the death of an injured climber during an RAF rescue operation on Ben Nevis.
The Ministry of Defence described as “speculation” reports that Mark Phillips plunged hundreds of feet to his death after a safety line was severed before he was securely on board a helicopter that had been sent to take him to hospital.
The 51-year-old environmental health officer and father of one had earlier fallen while on a climbing expedition with friends in the Raeburn Buttress area of the UK’s highest mountain. He is the 11th climber to die in the Scottish Highlands this winter.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/injured-ben-nevis-climber-plunges-to-death-during-raf-rescue-8513716.html
Syria conflict: John Kerry set to up US aid to rebels
New US Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting Syrian opposition leaders in Rome, as the US prepares to increase its support for rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad.
He is attending a gathering of the Friends of Syria group of nations that support the Syrian opposition.
Mr Kerry is expected to announce increased "non-lethal" aid for the rebels but not weapons.
David Cameron refuses to back Clegg over Rennard scandal
Speaking in Latvia, where he was appearing at the Northern Future Forum conference, the Prime Minister described the claims about the Lib Dem peer as “serious” and said that the Liberal Democrats need to “get to the bottom” of the allegations.
Speaking to journalists in Riga, Mr Cameron was asked whether he has “confidence in the way the deputy Prime Minister has handled” the Lord Rennard claims.
Mr Cameron said: “Obviously these are serious issues and serious matters and they need to be taken seriously.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9899296/David-Cameron-refuses-to-back-Clegg-over-Rennard-scandal.html
Categories: SOCIETY'S COLLAPSE, WEAK JUSTICE
Plaquemines oyster beds closed after oil spill southwest of Port Sulphur
Some oyster beds in Plaquemines Parish have been closed by the state Department of Health and Hospitals and Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries after a crew boat sheared an inactive wellhead, causing an oil spill. A 42-foot crewboat struck a sealed wellhead Tuesday night, releasing oily water into the shallow water of Lake Grande Ecaille Bay, nine miles southwest of Port Sulphur, the Coast Guard said.
Oyster beds in Area 11 will remain closed indefinitely until it is determined the oysters are safe to eat, according to DHH Secretary Bruce Greenstein.
According to the U.S. Coast Guard, a crew boat on Tuesday night sheared an inactive wellhead in Area 11, causing the oil spill. It was also reported that the well is spewing less than 20 barrels a day. The well has been out of service for five years.
http://www.nola.com/traffic/index.ssf/2013/02/plaquemines_oyster_beds_closed.html
Canada: Chilliwack starts emergency chlorination after E. coli found in water supply
Chilliwack officials have been told that small amounts of E. coli bacteria have been found in the city’s water distribution system and the Greendale area is affected.
The officials said on Wednesday that emergency chlorination has started in Greendale and crews will flush all water mains in order to refresh the system.
The areas affected are South Sumas Road — West of Unsworth Road; Sumas Prairie Road — South Sumas Road to Yale Road; Yale Road West — Barrow Road to Highway 1 exit at Yale Road West; and Peters Road/Janzen Road/Downing Road/Underhill Drive.
http://www.globaltvbc.com/chilliwack+starts+emergency+chlorination+after+e+coli+found+in+water+supply/6442817966/story.html
Categories: GERMS AND PLAGUES, MAN-MADE DISASTERS
Torrential rain: Another round of destruction claims 12 lives in Pakistan
Heavy rain, snow and hail brought another round of destruction in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (Fata), leaving at least 12 dead and over 25 injured in various incidents across the region.
Many roads were rendered unusable, much to the consternation of both pedestrians and motorists. Heavy rainfall and snowfall was recorded in Malam Jabba, Kalam, and Dir. Upper Dir was particularly affected with five feet of snowfall accompanied by heavy downpour disrupting routine life.
In Pir Sadai, Mardan, the roof of Saeed’s house collapsed, killing his son Zahid and injuring his other son Abid. They were rushed to the Mardan District Headquarters Hospital.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/513480/torrential-rain-another-round-of-destruction-claims-12-lives-in-k-p-fata/
Lassa Fever Claims 8 In Jega, Nigeria
Lassa fever has claimed the lives of eight people in Jega local government area of Kebbi State, while three others are still undergoing medical treatment at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Birnin Kebbi.
A nurse at the FMC, Birnin Kebbi, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they received the case on Wednesday Feb. 28, 2013, and that three people were confirmed dead on the spot while two others died the following day.
He further explained that, on Friday, five people were brought from the same local government and one died in the night, another one passed away the following day while the remaining three people are still undergoing medical treatment.
http://leadership.ng/nga/articles/48808/2013/02/28/lassa_fever_claims_8_jega.html
Mystery of the massacred mobula rays: Just why DID dozens of these bloodied sea creatures wash up on the beach in Gaza?
Dozens of Mobula Ray fish were mysteriously washed up on the beach in Gaza City yesterday and carted off to market by Palestinian fishermen.
It was the first time the fish had been seen on the beach for six years, according to a local video report purporting to show fisherman examining the Rays.
The fish are of a similar appearance to the more well-known Manta Rays, which are in the same family, and can reach a width of up to 17ft.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2285463/Dozens-mobula-rays-washed-Gaza-beach-collected-fishermen-carted-market.html
Categories: ANIMAL DEATHS, UNEXPLAINED/WEIRD
Australia: Ten hurt as family meal ends in balcony collapse
VIDEO: Ten injured in balcony collapse
Johns Hopkins facility closed following hazmat situation, Baltimore
A hot water heater in the south building of the Johns Hopkins Hospital facility on Kewsick Road was the source of an illness that sent 17 people to the emergency room, according to city and state health officials.
Officials said the water heater was the source of nitrates that made their way into hot water service in the building’s north half.
Elevated nitrates, according to a news release, can cause dizziness, nausea, breathing difficulty and vomiting. Officials said those who were sick had been discharged from the hospital.
http://www.wbaltv.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/Officials-identify-source-of-illness-at-Hopkins-facility-on-Kewsick/-/10131532/19089692/-/awatu2/-/index.html
Categories: MAN-MADE DISASTERS, UNEXPLAINED/WEIRD
Tanya Byrd murder: Son Arrested After Mum's Body Found In Bin Bags
Two men, including the victim's son, have been arrested after a woman's dismembered remains were found in rubbish bags in New York City.
Bahsid McLean, 23, and 26-year-old William Harris were arrested on suspicion of unlawfully dissecting a human body and hindering prosecution.
Police have not filed murder or manslaughter charges and said they were still investigating.
The remains of Tanya Byrd, 45, were found stuffed in several bags scattered along four blocks in the Bronx.
http://news.sky.com/story/1057935/son-arrested-after-mums-body-found-in-bin-bags
Bankers 'May Leave UK' As EU Agrees Bonus Cap
European Union officials have agreed a provisional deal to cap bankers' bonuses, despite the UK Government's efforts to protect the country's dominant financial services sector.
The Treasury opposed the idea because it feared that limits could cost jobs in the City and prompt firms to leave for more favourable shores.
4.9 Magnitude Earthquake PAPUA, INDONESIA - 28th February 2013
PAPUA, INDONESIA
249 km (154 miles) NW of Tanahmerah, Indonesia
MUM-TO-BE LEFT TO STARVE IN HOSPITAL
Nepean Hospital has been forced to apologise again; this time for starving a Sydney mother for more than a day while she waited for surgery.
Talissa McCulloch was fasting for a cesarean, but a paperwork error left her out of the queue.
"[I spent] 26 hours without eating... waiting in the hospital with my parents and my partner," Talissa said.
Talissa was told she needed a cesarean as her baby was in breach.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/latest/a/-/newshome/16266498/mum-to-be-left-to-starve-in-hospital/
6.1 Magnitude Earthquake VANUATU - 28th February 2013
104 km (64 miles) W of Port-Vila, Vanuatu
4.7 Magnitude Earthquake NORTHEASTERN SAKHA, RUSSIA - 27th February 2013
NORTHEASTERN SAKHA, RUSSIA
141 km (87 miles) WSW of Druzhina, Serbia
High Street Crisis: Chain Closures Accelerating
The bloodbath on Britain's high streets has accelerated dramatically with the rate of major chain store closures increasing ten-fold, hitting 20 per day in 2012.
Analysis by PwC and the Local Data Company found that year-on-year, the net reduction in the number of stores climbed from 174 closures in 2011 to 1,779 closures in 2012 with the pace intensifying even further since.
A combination of factors - from the consumer spending squeeze to poor business models - is being blamed.
http://news.sky.com/story/1058041/high-street-crisis-chain-closures-accelerating
4.2 Magnitude Earthquake KYRGYZSTAN - 27th February 2013
Region KYRGYZSTAN
Distances 4 km NE Maylisuu, KYRGYZSTAN
4.7 Magnitude Earthquake RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN - 27th February 2013
RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN
117 km (72 miles) WNW of Naze, Japan
"Shocking" New Sandy Hook Shooting Information
Posted by Matt at 1:03 AM
Categories: HOAXES, POLICE STATE
A Bizarre Story of a South Korean Journalist Lee Sang-yong
The last thing Lee Sang-yong wanted to do in his life was to spend 114 days in jail. A Chinese jail, no less. He was ready head home to Seoul following a three-year stint as a correspondent for an internet newspaper DailyNK, when the Chinese intelligence agents nabbed him in Dalian, a port city at the tip of Tsingtao peninsula about two hundred miles west of Dandong.
“I’d just gotten off the bus from Dandong on my way to see my colleagues there. Four plain clothes men came up to me and handcuffed me, my hands behind my back. The handcuffs were so tight. It hurt so bad, I couldn’t think of anything else.”
He had no idea what the gruff Chinese intelligence agents wanted, wondering if they made a mistake in identity. He would later find out that they knew exactly who he was and that he was a journalist from South Korea. They drove him back to Dandong and put him in a small cell with twenty or so people in it. It was so crowded, he had to sleep sitting up. For meals he had a Chinese bun (mantou) and a bowl of clear broth three times a day.
The first day in jail they told him nothing. Second day, when was called into the interrogation room, the agents started by saying, “You should be thankful that we saved you from the North Korean agents. We found out that they were following you around. We got seven of you guys yesterday.”
http://exitemperorkimjongil.authorsxpress.com/2013/02/23/endangering-chinas-national-security/
5.1 Magnitude Earthquake OFF THE COAST OF OREGON - 27th February 2013
OFF THE COAST OF OREGON
167 km (103 miles) W of Bandon, Oregon
Obama to threaten Iran with military strike in June, Israeli media reports
President Barack Obama says the United States could launch an attack on Iran as early as this June, Israeli media reports.
According to a report on Israel’s Channel 10 News that has since been picked up by the Times of Israel, Pres. Obama will use an upcoming meeting overseas to discuss a military strike on Iran. Pres. Obama is scheduled to visit Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next month, and during the get-together the two leaders will reportedly work out the details for a possible assault.
Pres. Obama will tell Netanyahu that a “window of opportunity” for a military strike on Iran will open in June, Channel 10 claims.
Israel has long-urged the White House to use its military prowess to intervene in Iran’s rumored nuclear weapon procurement plan, demands which have by-and-large been rejected by the Obama administration. According to the latest reports, though, the United States might finally be willing to use its might to make a stand against Iran’s race for a nuke.
http://rt.com/usa/obama-israel-military-june-503/
Deadly virus demands swift sleuth work
The emergence of a deadly virus previously unseen in humans that has already killed half those known to be infected requires speedy scientific detective work to figure out its potential.
Experts in virology and infectious diseases say that while they already have unprecedented detail about the genetics and capabilities of the novel coronavirus, or NCoV, what worries them more is what they don't know.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/27/us-coronavirus-idUSBRE91Q0MD20130227
Hackers target Europe via Adobe bug
Hackers targeted dozens of computer systems at government agencies across Europe in a series of attacks that exploited a recently discovered security flaw in Adobe Systems Inc's software, security researchers reported on Wednesday.
Russia's Kaspersky Lab and Hungary's Laboratory of Cryptography and System Security, or CrySyS, said the targets of the campaign included government computers in the Czech Republic, Ireland, Portugal and Romania.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/27/us-cyberattack-miniduke-idUSBRE91Q0OL20130227
3.5 Magnitude Earthquake OKLAHOMA CITY URBAN AREA, OKLAHOMA - 27th February 2013
35.471°N, 97.340°W
9 km (5.6 miles)
OKLAHOMA CITY URBAN AREA, OKLAHOMA
2 km (1 miles) SSW of Nicoma Park, Oklahoma
Region NORTHEASTERN SAKHA, RUSSIA
Location 67.66 N ; 142.78 E
Distances 868 km NE Markha
4.5 Magnitude Earthquake PERU-ECUADOR BORDER REGION - 27th February 2013
Region PERU-ECUADOR BORDER REGION
Location 3.56 S ; 78.66 W
Distances 22 km SW Gualaquiza
4.1 Magnitude Earthquake JUJUY, ARGENTINA - 27th February 2013
Region JUJUY, ARGENTINA
Distances 119 km W Villazón, ARGENTINA
Coast Guard checking report of wellhead leak off Louisiana
The Coast Guard was responding to a report that a crewboat struck an inactive wellhead off the Louisiana coast, and that the platform was discharging an unknown quantity of an oily-water mixture, the agency said on Wednesday.
It said reports indicated a 42-foot (13-metre) crewboat, the Sea Raider, had struck a wellhead owned by Swift Energy on Tuesday evening, and that the energy company had said the wellhead was shut down in 2007.
A small sheen had developed, Ensign Tanner Stiehl said.
"We don't know the specific oil content," said Stiehl.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/27/us-usa-wellhead-louisiana-idUSBRE91Q0VV20130227
It is now illegal for Americans, in some aspects, to use the word "Jesus", due to "Jesus Jeans" patent
An Italian denim brand called "Jesus Jeans" won't turn the other cheek when it comes to its competition using the Lord's name.
After years of fighting to trademark the word "Jesus," the company was granted exclusive rights to it by the US Patent and Trademark Office in 2007.
Now, its taking legal action against anyone in the United States who attempts to start an apparel line with "Jesus" in the title, claiming it a matter of brand integrity.
Virginia entrepreneur Michael Julius Anton recently found this out the hard way when he tried to trademark his Christian t-shirt and surf accessory line "Jesus Surfed."
According to the Wall Street Journal, Anton received an email from Jesus Jeans' parent company BasicNet SpA asking him to abandon his application in November.
"If you do not agree, then Jesus Jeans reserves its right to an accounting/damages and all other appropriate relief with respect to your trademark and trademark application," it read.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2013/02/should-jesus-be-trademarked.html
Matt's thoughts:
Why would anyone be selling anything with the name "Jesus" on it anyway?
Nonetheless, best comment on the article:
"The Jews tried to keep Christ contained within their law, while the Greeks sought to turn Him into a philosophy; the Romans made of Him an empire; the Europeans reduced Him to a culture, so it's no surprise that in the 21st century the economic dynasty has turned Him into a business."
Philpott Trial: Father 'Joked' About Blaze which killed his six children
A father accused of killing his six children in a fire at his home in Derby was "laughing and joking" about the blaze just a week later, a court has heard.
PC Joanne Halford told Nottingham Crown Court that Michael Philpott seemed "jovial" when she spoke to him at Royal Derby Hospital in the early hours of May 18.
When the officer asked him what he was doing at the hospital, Philpott replied: "I'm here to see you gorgeous", the court heard.
http://news.sky.com/story/1057785/philpott-trial-father-joked-about-blaze
"The Globalist Agenda: Strategy"
The Coming Crisis doesn't usually post stuff like this, but in this case, I thought this website so very interesting so as to be worth sharing with all of you (a reader mentioned it on another post, so I decided to explore it). Call them Illuminati, New World Order, Globalists, or simply our Fat Cat Controllers, it's important to know the propaganda tools they use to control us and achieve whatever ambitions they possess.
Here's one page as an example of what the website offers:
One very important aspect of world control is exactly how does one go about controlling and dominating a society, or for that matter the world as a whole. Anthony Sutton spelled it out quite well in his book "America's Secret Establishment". He exposed the fact that the global elite came to the correct conclusion that to control and manipulate a society for their benefit they need to control only a certain finite aspects of society. These are:
Education (how the population of the future will behave)
Money (the means of holding wealth and exchanging goods)
Law (the authority to enforce the will of the state, a world law and a world court is needed for a world state)
Politics (the direction of the State and Economy)
History (what people believed happened in the past)
Psychology (the means of controlling how people think)
Philanthropy (so that people think well of the controllers)
Medicine (the power over health, life and death)
Religion (people's spiritual beliefs)
Media (what people know and learn about current events)
Continuity (the power to appoint who follows in your footsteps)
What this amounts to is nothing less than infiltrating and controlling the power centers of a society. By placing their own people in key positions they could come to control and dominate a society completely and steer it in any direction they choose.
His observations are well made and reflected, and expanded upon slightly, in the categories on this site. Take a minute an think about it - what would you do if you wanted to gain control of an entire society?
Even if you don't believe in a dominant group of people piloting mankind towards their specific end, it's still worth glancing a this information to realize that perhaps we remain too confident in our ability to separate reality from propaganda, and should work towards heightening our vigilance regarding identifying what I'll simply call, "plans in motion".
http://globalistagenda.org/strategy.htm
Israel: "Bastion of democracy and freedom" mass-arrests troubled migrants, packs them up, then sends them "home" to be killed
Israel has quietly repatriated hundreds of Sudanese migrants in recent months, drawing accusations from rights groups that it has coerced the Africans into potentially life-threatening situations and possibly violated international norms for treating refugees.
Israel says the departures have been voluntary, but they follow mass arrests of migrants and vows by Israeli leaders to halt the influx.
Over the past eight years, as many as 60,000 African migrants, mostly Sudanese and Eritrean, have sneaked across Israel's border with Egypt's lawless Sinai desert, some fleeing repressive regimes and others looking for work and better conditions.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_ISRAEL_AFRICAN_MIGRANTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-02-26-15-28-57
The easiest way to return these people to Sudan would probably be to just tie them to the bombs Israel drops on that country when it feels the need.
Iran Describes Nuclear Talks As 'Positive'
Negotiations between Iran and international powers have ended with only an agreement to meet again.
A breakthrough was not expected during the two days of talks in the Kazakh city of Almaty, but the Iranian side did say they had been "positive".
Technical negotiations will now be held in Istanbul on March 18 and there will be another round of political talks in early April.
http://news.sky.com/story/1057615/iran-describes-nuclear-talks-as-positive
Categories: MAN-MADE DISASTERS, NUCLEAR DISASTERS, SOCIETY'S COLLAPSE, WARS AND RUMOURS
Vicious shark attack leaves man dead in New Zealand
Categories: ANIMAL ATTACKS
Parents' outrage as female students are dressed in burqas to teach them about 9/11 'freedom fighters' - NOT terrorists
A photograph of four female students wearing burqas has sparking an angry outburst from parents of students at the Lumberton High School in Texas. April LeBlanc, whose 15-year-old daughter Madelyn is one of the students in the picture, has accused the school of 'saturating these kids in Islam.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2285128/Parents-outrage-schoolchildren-dressed-burqas-taught-9-11-freedom-fighters-geography-class-holocaust-ethnic-cleansing.html
France: Two Die in Cattenom Nuclear Power Plant Ac...
Carbon monoxide poisoning kills 11 in N China coal...
David Cameron suffers humiliating defeat as Lib De...
4.6 Magnitude Earthquake SOUTH OF PANAMA - 1st Mar...
5.5 Magnitude Earthquake MARIANA ISLANDS REGION - ...
3.8 Magnitude Earthquake NEVADA - 28th February 20...
Daniele Lo Presti Murder: Italian Paparazzo Found ...
Cyprus president says committed to stability, swif...
Woodward's Not Alone - Fmr. Clinton Aide Davis Say...
Media Blackout: Israel, Hamas ban rival journos to...
Did UFO 'hit' Russian meteorite blasting it to smi...
Cases of rare 'untreatable' superbug that killed s...
France's first black Muslim cabinet minister faces...
'The last time a German looked this hot was when t...
Mortgage interest to DOUBLE for thousands of borro...
Mick Philpott accused of killing six of his childr...
Man dragged by South African police vehicle dies i...
"Mind melds" move from science fiction to science ...
IMF set to cut growth forecasts if U.S. spending i...
6.9 Magnitude Earthquake KURIL ISLANDS - 28th Febr...
Deyan Deyanov Jailed for killing Jennifer Mills-We...
BOB WOODWARD: A 'Very Senior' White House Person W...
Slow Strangulation: 'Iran sanctions a war on ordin...
Dolce Vita Finita: 'Hard life looms for Italy with...
Class Divide: UK masses slide into poverty as aust...
'US in era of whistleblower hunt, ignores mercenar...
Cops vs Students: Violence erupts as Canadian stud...
Pedophilia & Corruption: Will next Pope stop Catho...
Eyewitness: Yes, The Nazis Did Confiscate Our Guns...
Syria: Nusra Front Occupy Yabrud on Lebanese Borde...
Singapore, HK arrests in huge Australian drug bust...
4.6 Magnitude Earthquake TURKMENISTAN - 28th Febru...
4.2 Magnitude Earthquake VALPARAISO, CHILE - 28th ...
Karen Simpson who disappeared on trip to buy nappi...
Official: The economy DID grow in 2012 - but only ...
How China is enslaving the world: Beijing's ruthle...
Banker Bonus Cap Is 'Deluded', Says Boris...Sums t...
Wendy Dolton's Diamond Ring Stolen As She Lay Dyin...
US officials admit 'incorrectly entered' data on T...
Thailand signs peace talks deal with Muslim rebels...
Crown Prosecution Service staff facing £1m fraud c...
Mark Phillips 'plunges to death' during RAF rescue...
Syria conflict: John Kerry set to up US aid to reb...
David Cameron refuses to back Clegg over Rennard s...
Plaquemines oyster beds closed after oil spill sou...
Canada: Chilliwack starts emergency chlorination a...
Torrential rain: Another round of destruction clai...
Mystery of the massacred mobula rays: Just why DID...
Australia: Ten hurt as family meal ends in balcony...
Johns Hopkins facility closed following hazmat sit...
Tanya Byrd murder: Son Arrested After Mum's Body F...
4.9 Magnitude Earthquake PAPUA, INDONESIA - 28th F...
6.1 Magnitude Earthquake VANUATU - 28th February 2...
4.7 Magnitude Earthquake NORTHEASTERN SAKHA, RUSSI...
4.2 Magnitude Earthquake KYRGYZSTAN - 27th Februar...
4.7 Magnitude Earthquake RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN - 2...
A Bizarre Story of a South Korean Journalist Lee S...
5.1 Magnitude Earthquake OFF THE COAST OF OREGON -...
Obama to threaten Iran with military strike in Jun...
3.5 Magnitude Earthquake OKLAHOMA CITY URBAN AREA,...
4.5 Magnitude Earthquake PERU-ECUADOR BORDER REGIO...
4.1 Magnitude Earthquake JUJUY, ARGENTINA - 27th F...
Coast Guard checking report of wellhead leak off L...
It is now illegal for Americans, in some aspects, ...
Philpott Trial: Father 'Joked' About Blaze which k...
Israel: "Bastion of democracy and freedom" mass-ar...
Vicious shark attack leaves man dead in New Zealan...
Parents' outrage as female students are dressed in...
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Jacqueline Monahan This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.">
Las Vegas Round The Clock - http://www.lasvegasroundtheclock.com
After losing their young son in an off-screen accident, David and Amy Fox (Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale) have also lost all pretense of caring for each other, trading barbs whenever they speak. Reluctantly together on a final road trip before a certain divorce, Amy is groggy from a Zoloft/Prozac cocktail, while David has taken pills to stay up driving all night – and they say opposites attract. These two are masters of the art of eye rolling and exasperated exhalations.
After a near miss with a raccoon, an engine check at an ancient gas station, a BMW breakdown on a rural back road, and a sullen backtrack on foot to the alarmingly average Pinewood Motel, the Foxes find themselves in the unenviable position of staying in the honeymoon suite, Room 4, a mildewed study in pine green and dismal brown. Motel Manager Mason, (Frank Whaley) is monstrously nice to the couple.
Since the television receives no signal, the bored couple turn to a stack of unmarked videotapes for entertainment. They discover the horrific torture-murders of previous occupants within the very room they now occupy. The victims are varied; all ages and genders encounter a gruesome demise by two vicious, masked intruders. David finds several hidden cameras operating in the room, and there is a sudden, violent banging on one of the room’s adjoining doors. The killers, as seen on the videotapes, reveal themselves in the flesh, with only a wall or a window between them and the Foxes.
These masked machete wielders channel Michael Myers, Jason, Leatherface, and countless other messengers of death. You don’t have to know anything about them other than that they’ll send to you the afterworld with a calculated swipe. It is not enough to be slaughtered. You must be stalked, terrorized and taunted to get the right expression of fright on your face. Sometimes, a hand-held digital camera captures it all. Otherwise, the hidden hardware makes sure every angle is captured in living (or dying) color.
The Foxes are resourceful in using the videotapes to their advantage, and the couple’s shared plight forces them into a cohesive team. They discover rat-filled escape routes (I guess you could call them Foxholes – they are, after all, being hunted). Help is elusive and when it does arrive, is too stunned to do anything but be quickly erased from the scene.
As David, Luke Wilson is so serious about being serious that his fuller-than-usual face, at times, does not look like it belongs to him. He tries terribly hard to project a frightened intensity and determination, but comes across as a semi-crazed hypnosis volunteer who stayed under too long. He does come up with resourceful ideas under pressure, convincing his terrorized and hesitant wife to do the same.
Frank Whaley is sufficiently creepy as Mason, the obsessed motel manager. He exudes menace and ill-conceived humor, but you are loath to snicker too much. He may have a camera trained on you, the sinister geek. Norman Bates came across as more of a regular guy than this aviator eye-glass wearing, grinning rube, writhing with diabolical motives.
Kate Beckinsale is effective as Amy, the beleaguered, mourning mother and bitter wife, who now must also fight for her life. In an unglamorous role, she’s comes across as convincingly all-American. The British-born actress, whose appeal has escaped me in the past, had me firmly on her side. Not content to cower behind her man, Amy wages a fierce battle for her life, even though it would be more understandable for her to give up. She has no child to live for, a less than perfect marriage and apparently nothing to look forward to but anti-depressants and countless regrets.
Implausible actions and events occur regularly. It’s conveniently easy to trick the evildoers. Amy takes a couple of blows to the face that should have knocked her unconscious. David is even more seriously injured, but these are the Foxes and they’re clever. In spite of this, the film held my interest, and although at times predictable, put forth effort to surprise the viewer. A very abrupt ending, necessary to bypass all of the messy explanations, returned to the Psycho-inspired credits and soundtrack that opened the film.
Hungarian director Nimrod Antal (Kontroll) is very conscious of the fact that he’s plodding through well-traveled “terror-tory” here. Cliché landmines abound, and some, though not all, are refreshingly sidestepped. The pace is rapid, with few slow parts after the initial 15 minutes.
Cinematographer Andrezej Sekula (Pulp Fiction) gets a claustrophobic point across in scene after scene – an enclosed, hopeless feeling that the audience shares. People get trapped –rats run free. There’s little space, even less time, and madmen who want to destroy you just outside.
Stay or run? None of the rooms offer shelter here. Those who check into the Pinewood Motel, check out figuratively in pine wood as well (hospitality industry indeed)!
You are here: Home Movie Reviews Jacqueline Monahan's Movie Reviews Vacancy
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Devin Booker Isn’t Happy Phoenix Suns Waived Best Friend Tyler Ulis
admin July 2, 2018 Rumors No Comments on Devin Booker Isn’t Happy Phoenix Suns Waived Best Friend Tyler Ulis
Devin Booker is entering extension negotiations with the Phoenix Suns as a relatively unhappy camper.
According to Yahoo Sports’ Shams Charania, the team’s franchise cornerstone is none too thrilled that they waived his best friend, Tyler Ulis:
Sources: As he becomes eligible for five-year maximum rookie extension, Phoenix Suns' Devin Booker is upset with the front office over release of best friend Tyler Ulis, who started 43 games last season.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 1, 2018
Could this prevent Booker from signing the max extension the Suns are invariably going to offer him?
From AZ Central’s Scott Bordow:
The Suns may be closing in on a five-year contract extension for star guard Devin Booker.
A Suns source confirmed Sunday night that Booker and his representative, Leon Rose, will meet with Suns’ Managing General Partner Robert Sarver and General Manager Ryan McDonough Tuesday in Los Angeles to discuss the framework of the extension.
Booker is eligible for a five-year deal worth $158 million. The contract would not kick in until the 2019-2020 season.
As Bordow also notes, Booker’s displeasure with the Ulis move isn’t expected to diminish his interest in remaining with the Suns long term. And hey, why would it? He’ll have up to 158 million reasons to be happy. The NBA is a business, and friendships are not always taken into account when making player personnel decisions.
Signing Booker now, though, does make it harder for the Suns to carve out cap space next summer. Trevor Ariza, Tyson Chandler and Jared Dudley all come off the books, which will help the situation, but Booker’s hold will explode to $25-plus million. The Suns will still be able to dredge up some flexibility, but they might need to wash off the final year of Brandon Knight’s deal to enter max territory.
Perhaps they’re not interested in retooling through free agency. Ariza’s arrival, coupled with the Mikal Bridges trade, suggests they are. And with more teams slated to have space in 2019, they’ll need to ensure they’re maximizing their financial position, otherwise it’ll be harder for them to stand out relative to other suitors.
Phoenix Suns Fire Head Coach Igor Kokoskov
Jimmer Fredette and Phoenix Suns Agree to 2-Year Contract
The Dieng Booker Altercation Almost Made it to the Locker Room
Trevor Ariza Traded to the Wizards
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View source for World Election 2015-2018
← World Election 2015-2018
According to '''''[[Democracy|World Transition to Democracy Road Map]]''''', the [[World Assembly]] should be elected once a year as representative body and the voice of genuine international community. '''Candidates nomination started August, 1, 2015'''. 2015/2018 World Election Rules shall be developed in the present Wiki-article. == Election rules == 1. The World Election need neither assistance nor permission from existing national governments. Election should be held at no cost, through free social network services and mobile phone features. 2. To avoid effect of digital inequality, ''[[2015 Election Districts|203 electoral districts]]'' established Each district is * a United Nations-recognized country or dependent territory with 90.000 or more inhabitants or * geographically organized group of countries or dependencies with total of 90.000 or more inhabitants. Voter identification method is SMSable telephone number in corresponding country code. 3. For the Assembly not to exceed 600 MPs, each district elects 1 to 10 deputies (with the total of 577). To maintain 'one-person-one-vote' principle all '''the deputies of one district''' together have '''number of votes in the Assembly equal to number of their district population''', divided in equal parts. 4. To become a candidate, a person should * be or become a [http://facebook.com Facebook] user and give consent for nomination by placing the approved 'I am a World Assembly candidate on (such) district' banner (see the [[2015 Election Districts|districts' pages]]) on his/her Facebook user page timeline (facebook.com/username) and * ''after that'' nominate himself/herself in 2 steps: - send email containing link to his/her Facebook page to info@gov.world and receive reply with telephone number of the World Election Department (WED) - send SMS to WED from the telepnone number belonging to the chosen district code, or ask a trustee from the district to do so (WED will not disclose these numbers) instead of email+SMS he/she or a trustee can send [http://web.telegram.org Telegram-messenger] message containing link to his/her Facebook page to the World Election Department (WED) from an account assigned to telepnone number belonging to the chosen district code. The WED Telegram-address was published on '''August, 1st, 2015, 0:00 UTC''' at the district's pages of WED web-site (see [[2015 Election Districts|List of districts]]). Not more than one nomination from the same telephone number is accepted. Nomination of a person without consent banner (or line) in Facebook timeline will be declined. 5. WED registers candidate within 48 hours after nomination, provided above mentioned conditions are fulfilled. After registered, candidate cannot change the district. He/she can withdraw his/her candidacy, but cannot be nominated again in the same or other district. 6. The period of nomination lasts 1 month (August 2015) and should be repeatedly extended in specific district for one month until the number of candidates become more than number of deputies to be elected there. 7. After registered by WED, each candidate should nominate one Local Election Commission (LEC) member (possibly himself/herself, if he/she has no other option). LEC and WED jointly select telephone number for Telegram- or SMS-voting. 8. The voting starts '''the next but one month after the nomination in district finished''' and lasts 1 to 14 days (to be decided, may be depending of voters number in district). Every local phone number bearer can vote once, only for one of his/her district candidates. The candidates who got relative majority of votes become the World Assembly deputies, no matter how much voters took part in the election (it follows the consultative status of Assembly until it is elected by overall majority of the World population). Whether 2 or more candidates got equal votes number, the candidate(s) nominated earlier become(s) deputy. 9. The Assembly to be convened on the 1st of January, 2019, provided the majority (289 deputies) is elected. Otherwise Assembly is convened '''on the 1st day of the month after 289 deputies elected.''' If this day is 1st of July, 2019 or later, the term of Assembly extends till the end of year 2020. The Assembly works on remote basis, using the Internet means. == See also == * [http://election.gov.world/2015/ 2015/2018 Election HomePage] * [[2015 Election Districts]] [[Category:2015 Election]] [[Category:Regulations]]
Return to World Election 2015-2018.
Retrieved from "http://wiki.gov.world/wiki/World_Election_2015-2018"
About WorldGovWiki
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Watch Inazuma Eleven Go vs. Danball Senki W Movie HD with English Subbed at HotAnime.me
Inazuma Eleven Go vs. Danball Senki W Movie
Type: Movie
Other name: Inazuma Eleven Go vs. Danball Senki W Movie, Inazuma Eleven Go vs Danball Senki W Movie, Gekijouban Inazuma Eleven Go vs Danball Senki W, 劇場版 イナズマイレブンGO vs ダンボール戦機W
Episodes: 5
View: 2.386
Genres: Action, Kids, Mecha, Sports
Aired: Dec 01, 2012
As Shinsei Inazuma Japan was about to have a match with Inazuma Legend Japan, a mysterious attack of a person and a swarm of robots interrupted, and another mysterious girl's power drove the world into another dimension. As the world of Inazuma Eleven Go and Danball Senki W met, the two teams must work together to find out what happened to their worlds.
Amaama to Inazuma Completed
Kouhei Inuzuka is a teacher who has been caring for his little daughter on his own since his wife's death. He's no good at cooking, so he and his daughter Tsumugi have been eating packaged meals from the convenience store. A series of events lead him one evening to a restaurant run by the mother of one of his students, Kotori. Her mother isn't there, but Kotori does her best to feed them both. It turns out Kotori is often alone since her parents are divorced and her mother is frequently not around. The three of them begin to meet and cook tasty food together.
Nejimaki Seirei Senki: Tenkyou no Alderamin Completed
The world is thrown into chaos when the Katjvarna empire takes arms against the Republic of Kioka. Our hero, Ikuta, detests war but ultimately has no choice but to become a High Grade Military Officer to defend his land. No one could have ever imagined that this lazy womanizer would eventually become the hero everyone needed.
Arslan Senki (TV): Fuujin Ranbu Completed
After managing to get past the battles concerning the royal successor for Sindhura, Arslan and company made their triumphal return to Pars to find Hilmes the brave general with the silver mask standing in their way. And by the time they somehow get Hilmes to stand down and they can be on their way to thee capital once again, an even larger threat was fast approaching the land of Pars.
KanColle Movie Completed
Kuroko no Basket Movie 1: Winter Cup Soushuuhen - Kage to Hikari Completed
First of three compilation films of Kuroko no Basket.
Kuroko no Basket Movie 2: Winter Cup Soushuuhen - Namida no Saki e Completed
Second of three compilation films of Kuroko no Basket.
Kuroko no Basket Movie 3: Winter Cup Soushuuhen - Tobira no Mukou Completed
Third of three compilation films of Kuroko no Basket.
Mahoutsukai Precure! Movie Completed
Toei Animation has announced that a movie for Mahoutsukai! Precure will premiere in October 2016.
Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince Movie Completed
Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince Movie: Kakusei no Idenshi
Arslan Senki (TV) OVA Completed
It has been announced that Hiromu Arakawa's Arslan Senki manga will bundle OVAs in the fifth and sixth volumes, to be released on May 9 and December 9 respectively. The first OVA will include an original story supervised by Hiromu Arakawa, while the content of the second OVA has not been announced yet.
Sidonia no Kishi Movie Completed
A recap of the first season of Sidonia no Kishi with additional scenes and re-edited sound effects.
Shingeki no Kyojin Movie 2: Jiyuu no Tsubasa Completed
Recap of episodes 14-25.
Shingeki no Kyojin Movie 1: Guren no Yumiya Completed
Recap of episodes 1-13.
Youkai Watch Movie 1: Tanjou no Himitsu da Nyan! Completed
The movie will feature special guests such as popular familiar characters from the TV anime series and the latest Youkai from the upcoming Youkai Watch 2 sequel games.
Youkai Watch Movie 2: Enma Daiou to Itsutsu no Monogatari da Nyan! Completed
Second Youkai Watch movie.
Persona 3 the Movie 4: Winter of Rebirth Completed
"The time of destruction is coming ever closer without a doubt. It cannot be stopped." To know death, to gaze at death, to face death. Makoto and his allies have grown through the many meetings and partings they have experienced. Their fight might not be for the sake of the world, but for themselves. Even so, they have continued to fight, believing that there are peaceful days waiting at the end of the battle. However, a boy says that destruction is the fate that humanity must shoulder. The boy they believed to be their friend tells them the truth of the situation without an emotion on his face. The season changes to winter. Makoto makes a decision in order to greet the spring that is waiting beyond...
Kaze no Matasaburou (Movie) Completed
A girl moves from the city and goes to school in the country due to some circumstances in her father's job. Her new schoolmates keep her at a distance. There is a boy she'd like to get to know better, but she worries about how he might treat her and doesn't try to get closer. She begins to hate life in the countryside and longs to return to the city, but she ends up meeting a real god of wind.
Precure All Stars Movie: Minna de Utau - Kiseki no Mahou Completed
Mirai and Rico come to the human world to play, but are separated when the witch Sorciere and her servant Torauuma suddenly appear. Their aim is to acquire the tears of the 44 Precure girls, using them for her "Most Evil Magic." Only the friendship of all 44 Precure girls will allow them to protect the world.
New Initial D Movie: Legend 1 - Kakusei Completed
The first movie in a trilogy, focusing on the battle against the Takahashi brothers.
New Initial D Movie: Legend 2 - Tousou Completed
The second movie in a trilogy.
New Initial D Movie: Legend 3 - Mugen Completed
The third and final movie in a trilogy.
PriPara Movie: Minna no Akogare Let's Go Prix Paris Completed
Falulu is far away in the heart of the PriPara world in Puransu. The sparkle is disappearing from the idol sacred ground PriPara, and Falulu sends an SOS message to Laala and her friends. If the sparkle doesn't return, the PriPara world itself will disappear. Laala and her friends try to help Falulu, and they work together to save the PriPara world
Hibike! Euphonium Movie: Kitauji Koukou Suisougaku-bu e Youkoso Completed
After swearing off music due to an incident at the middle school regional brass band competition, euphonist Kumiko Oumae enters high school hoping for a fresh start. As fate would have it, she ends up being surrounded by people with an interest in the high school brass band. Kumiko finds the motivation she needs to make music once more with the help of her bandmates, some of whom are new like novice tubist Hazuki Katou; veteran contrabassist Sapphire Kawashima; and band vice president and fellow euphonist Asuka Tanaka. Others are old friends, like Kumiko's childhood friend and hornist-turned-trombonist Shuuichi Tsukamoto, and trumpeter and bandmate from middle school, Reina Kousaka. However, in the band itself, chaos reigns supreme. Despite their intention to qualify for the national band competition, as they currently are, just competing in the local festival will be a challenge—unless the new band advisor Noboru Taki does something about it.
Detective Conan Movie 20: The Darkest Nightmare Completed
On a dark night, the Japanese police is raided by a spy. Different countries' intelligence agencies—such as England's MI6, Germany's BND, and America's CIA—as well as the FBI's secret files are going to be taken, but public safety officers lead by Tooru Amuro arrive just in time. The spy steals a car and escapes. The spy and Amuro are then locked in a dead heat on the highway, and just as it is about to cause an accident with multiple cars, the spy's car is hit by FBI agent Shuichi Akai's rifle bullet and falls of the roadway. The next day, Conan and his friends go to a newly-remodeled aquarium in Tokyo. Under the main attraction, a Ferris wheel, Conan finds an attractive woman alone and injured. Her left and right eyes are different colors. But the woman is in a state of amnesia where she doesn't even remember her own name, and the cellphone she's carrying is broken. Conan and his friends promise to help her regain her memory, so they stay with her. Throughout all this, Vermouth is watching behind the scenes. Afterwards, she pulls out a silencer and speaks into an attached intercom, "It's as planned, Gin."
Selector Destructed WIXOSS Movie Completed
Selector Destructed WIXOSS Movie
Love Live! The School Idol Movie Completed
Hot on the heels of the third year students' graduation, μ's is invited to New York in hopes of spreading the joy of school idols to other parts of the world. Due to the events of the recent Love Live!, μ's has reached eminent stardom which results in crowds swarming them whenever they appear in public. With the increased attention, however, comes a difficult choice. Having yet to publicly announce the decision they came to regarding their future, the young members of μ's are pushed to continue performing by rival group A-RISE, Otonokizaka High School, and even Love Live! itself. As leader, Honoka Kousaka is left wondering if the path they have chosen is truly for the best, as μ's must re-evaluate their choices and come to a final decision on what they want for the future. Love Live! The School Idol Movie depicts the final chapter in μ's story as the girls explore just what being an idol means to them as well as the bond that connects the nine of them together.
Love Live! The School Idol Movie (Dub) Completed
Inazuma Eleven: Outer Code Completed
A spin-off of the Inazuma Eleven soccer anime franchise. The first episode features the Fubuki brothers.
Piano no Mori Movie Completed
Amamiya Shuuhei moves from Tokyo to the country side due to his grandmother's bad health. His father is a famous pianist and Shuuhei has taken strict piano lessons since he was very young, aspiring to follow in his footsteps. In school, he is teased by his classmates and is dared to play the piano in the forest. This piano is said to be cursed: if you play it, no sound will come. After school, Ichinose Kai, a boy in the same class, takes Shuuhei to the forest. When Shuuhei tries to play he fails, but Kai plays a wonderful song. This is the beginning of a strong friendship, and a story of two very different boys developing their skills as musicians.
Youjo Senki Completed
On the front lines of the war, there is a little girl. Blond hair, blue eyes, and porcelain white skin, she commands her squad with lisping voice. Her name is Tanya Degurechaff. But in reality, she is one of Japan's most elite salarymen, reborn as a little girl after angering a mysterious being who calls himself God. This little girl, who prioritizes efficiency and her own career over anything else, will become the most dangerous being amongst the sorcerers of the imperial army.
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PRESS RELEASE - For immediate Release
Balranald, NSW.
WATER PROJECT FIASCO
Scandal Rocks Government as Squatters Move In
NSW Office of Water and Department of Primary Industry are on the back foot only weeks away from the State election. Yesterday government officials claimed no knowledge of a mass exodus into vacant housing on the Nimmie Caira water project in the Riverina. At least half a dozen families vacated their Aboriginal housing in Balranald and Robinvale (VIC) on the weekend to take up residence on the Nimmie Caira. NSW Office of Water official Mr David Leslie claimed that "nobody was given permission to take up residence" on the crown land. However sources within the Balranald community have stated that they were offered the properties at a paltry $50 per week rent by "a bloke from the water department". This includes two storey residences and properties with substantial outbuildings. Mr Leslie has since cancelled a scheduled meeting at one of the residences.
The squatters are all members of the WYN Tribes Aboriginal Corporation and their immediate families. The WYN Tribes reported a Nil return on income last financial year despite undertaking several contracts for government and mining companies in New South Wales. Directors of the organisation are currently under investigation for fraud by the NSW Aboriginal Land Council. One listed member of the organisation was not aware of being a member when asked, having been incarcerated at the time of his 'membership' being approved.
Local resident Gary Pappin suspects corruption is rife within senior levels of the NSW government departments. "Why would the government continually lie to our faces?" "The only reasons I can see are blackmail, bribery and underhanded dealing." "This has been happening for months. It doesn't make sense for a government to repeatedly disregard its own laws and procedures. There has to be something dubious going on."
The Nimmie Caira project is adjacent to the controversial West Abercrombie water project which contains some of Australia's most extensive burial sites. The West Abercrombie project was refused a Stop Work Order by Water Minister Kevin Humphries six months ago and has since been placed on hold- locals suspect until after the State election.
Balranald, NSW, Australia.
GAP WIDENS AS GOVERNMENT SAYS “NO”!
Indigenous community refused access to basic health servicee.
Tempers flared yesterday outside the Balranald Aboriginal Health Service after the Federal Government refused to reinstigate vital funding for primary health care in the community.
Jane Bennett, Director, for the Federal Government Department of Health today told a panel of stunned Indigenous community leaders that “There will be no services in Balranald”.
The community lost all of its services over two years ago when a Victorian-based organisation reneged on their Memorandum of Understanding with the Aboriginal Health Service. The $650,000 Government funding health facility has since been sold into private hands for a mere $48,000. Balranald Shire Council have labelled the facility a “white elephant” and a “waste of taxpayers money”.
The Balranald Aboriginal Health Service has been operating in their original building and on a volunteer capacity for the last two years to provide essential services and emergency relief to the community. Ms Bennett has told the community that this facility is ‘not suitable’, even though it has been used successfully for over a decade for the same purposes.
The lack of service provision has placed a strain on the local Hospital emergency department as individuals are waiting until serious health effects take hold before being seen. Others in the Indigenous community face a three-hour round trip interstate to Victoria for primary health care needs, including pregnancy services and kidney dialysis.
Balranald Aboriginal Health Service encourages people to donate to their charity online at
http://www.mycause.com.au
TRADITIONAL RIGHTS IGNORED ON MILLION DOLLAR WATER PROJECT
Gov says not the forum for a “difference of opinion”
Muthi Muthi Traditional Owners are horrified to learn that their sacred dreaming sites are to be destroyed after a Stop Work Order was refused by NSW Water Minister Kevin Humphries. Mr Humphries has said that the Office of Water have undertaken ‘all necessary measures’ and that ‘The Office takes its obligation to ensure Aboriginal heritage and cultural sites are identified and adequately protected very seriously.’ The Traditional Owners disagree.
In correspondence received from Office of Water Acting Coordinator Jonathon Gregory last week Muthi Muthi representatives were told that “these projects are not an appropriate forum to resolve any differences of opinion over indigenous cultural rights”. Traditional Owner Gary Pappin asks “Well what is an appropriate forum if not the imminent destruction of our ancestral remains? We asked the Office of Water to do the job properly and they said NO. Now they are saying we declined to participate when they wanted us to sign off on dodgy works. We offered to provide our own archaeologist for free and they refused. To me that doesn’t say that we ‘declined to participate’.”
The initial report in response to that heritage survey, which the Wakool Indigenous Corporation understands was undertaken illegally under the NSW Land Rights Act, stated that there wasn’t any archaeology in the area. This is even though the Abercrombie and Yanga catchments were found to be significant to the Muthi Muthi people by both the Commonwealth Government and the Murray Darling Basin Authority in their reports only a few years ago.
Nearby burial sites have previously been dated by The Australian National University as older than 42,000 years; making the area home to the oldest human remains in Australia. A revised report was issued but Mr Pappin notes of it that “They are now telling us they have found significant artefacts but they refuse to tell us what these are or what their definition of significant is. Who are they to place a value on our ancestors?”
Mr Pappin is also concerned over the environmental management of the project with the copy of the final draft report he received stating that the vulnerable Western Blue Lizard ‘is likely to flee the area’ as heavy machinery approaches. “They don’t move that fast” Mr Pappin notes.
Wednesday 1st October 2014
EXPLOITATION IN OUTBACK NEW SOUTH WALES
Government coercing Aborigines on Federal water project.
Just hours after the heralded success of Tony Abbott's northern adventure comes reports of continued government exploitation of Aboriginal people in outback New South Wales.
Yesterday's community meeting with the NSW Office of Water was a rout and a debacle according to local community members. With a majority of attendees arriving from interstate and the community Elders council uninformed the event raised the ire of local Traditional Owners.
Concerned community members claim that they were forced into signing labour forms without being provided any information as to what they were signing. One source, who refuses to be named, claimed that "The government was very pushy. They kept trying to get me to sign the papers, but I kept saying no. I wanted to know more about it before I signed anything but they told me if I didn't sign yesterday then that was it". "Most of them there were from Victoria and out-of-towners anyway they weren't locals."
Mutthi Mutthi spokesperson Gary Pappin has this to say: "The NSW government is continuing its underhanded tactics on the Nimmie Caira water project. They are abusing the rights of the Indigenous knowledge holders. The rates they are offering for cultural heritage are below the minimum for heritage trainees and three times less than industry standard. It is our fathers and mothers who made those heritage sites. We have 50,000 years of experience in cultural heritage we are not 'trainees". Industry sources in Sydney have described the employment conditions as "its unbelievable, the whole thing's corrupt", "that's ridiculous", and "taking advantage of the poor".
Mr Pappin also claims that the community was not adequately informed "Sending a threatening email after work hours on the day before the meeting and then ticking the box when we don't show up does not constitute fair dealings".
"We have repeatedly asked for full disclosure from the government. Where are the management plans and codes of practice that they are using out here? Where are the community information brochures? The Office of Water is corrupt, the department is stacked with nepotism and management is spirally itself into deviousness instead of admitting its mistakes and starting again".
Advocacy body the Wakool Indigenous Corporation has asked the Minister for Water for a Stop Work Order and a full investigation into the matter. The NSW government may have increased its Indigenous Employment levels a few percentage points but local communities continue to miss out on the multi-billion dollar Water for the Future Initiative.
ANCIENT BURIALS SET FOR DESTRUCTION
Gov: "Its not in the budget"
The destruction of dozens of ancient heritage sites including unregistered burials looks set to be assured as the NSW Office of Water continues to blunder its way through the $10Billion Water for the Future Initiative.
The local community is up in arms over the complete disregard for heritage and human rights shown by the NSW Government. Nearby burial sites have previously been dated by The Australian National University as older than 42,000 years; making the area home to the oldest human remains in Australia..
West Abercrombie Project Engineer Boama Amaofo was confronted last Friday by the Indigenous Knowledge holders but instead of listening to their concerns he continued to site without them- in clear breach of NSW heritage guidelines. Previously Mr Amaofo had told the community that a complete heritage survey was out of the question as there was "no money in the budget" even though the project budget stands at $136million.
Traditional Owner Gary Pappin asks "What on earth are they spending the money on? Its preposterous that such a simple process can be ignored by a government that should know better". An offer by the community to provide a qualified archaeologist to undertake a watching brief for free was counteracted by Mr Amaofo with a flat out "No".
An urgent Stop Work Order has been requested from the NSW Government to prevent these sacred sites from disappearing forever.
Nimmie Caira, NSW, Australia
CORROBORREE TELLS TRUTHS, GOVERNMENT TELLS LIES
Deception, Disrespect and Desecration of Indigenous Rights on Nimmie Caira Project
In continuation of 50,000 years of cultural tradition, yesterday traditional Elders of the Nari Nari and Mutthi Mutthi tribes held a corroborree and smoking ceremony to pass judgement on the wrongdoings of the NSW Office of Water and their contractors.
In accordance with traditions a fire of green gum leaves was lit by twizzling sticks before attendees were invited to purge themselves of corrupt and evil thoughts and clear their minds in preparation for tribal council. Ordinarily this tradition is followed by a Welcome to Country, however yesterday Traditional Owner Nolita Edwards announced to the stunned audience that the Indigenous tribes of the Lowbidgee were no longer willing to accept the terms and conditions imposed upon them by the Office of Water. "You have lied to us and you have lied to our children's future" she announced unequivocally. "We are a proud people and we are not going to take the desecration of our culture and our history lying down. It is time to renegotiate."
This comes less than twenty four hours after the Office of Water announced payment rates for labour intensive archaeological field survey that were less than one third of the industry standard. "Its unbelievable that they think that just because we live in a rural area our knowledge and expertise is worth less than our coastal counterparts" notes Mutthi Mutthi woman Maxine Kelly. "Who are they to place a value on our culture and our spirituality?"
The move is seen by some to be akin to the Wave Hill Walk Off where in 1966 over 200 indigenous pastoralists ceased work over equal pay and equal rights. Unbelievably the Office of Water officials just don't get it; with Project Manager Michelle Roe noting afterwards that she was "pleased you've all been brought together at last".
The Indigenous Elders have instructed the Office of Water and their contractors that they will not begin works without a structured methodology and an approved Cultural Heritage Management Plan. They will now return to their individual tribes with instructions to return the project to the drawing board.
Wednesday 10th September 2014
SLAVE LABOUR - $12/hr
What the Government thinks cultural knowledge is worth.
In yet another example of how the NSW Government is misleading rural communities, today local knowledge holders were gobsmacked to learn than a rate equivalent to just $12 per hour is being offered for labour intensive archaeological survey on the $180 million Nimmie Caira project. By contrast equivalent casual rates under the Water Industry Award stand at $27.56/hr. Even then this rate is well below the $41 per hour recommended by the Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologist for Grade 2 Assistants.
Community members present were also confused by the bizarre notion that they would be paid these substandard wages via an external " Employment Service Provider". A practice unheard of in the heritage industry. "I can't see the logic in that" states one source working in the Melbourne heritage industry. Balranald community members likened the idea to the 'mission management' mentality of a bygone era.
In a rare stance of solidarity members of rival Aboriginal tribes united today to give Mutthi Mutthi man Gary Pappin a standing ovation when he stood up to the bullying tactics of the Office of Water officials. Mr Pappin pointed out the stark differences in current employment law, heritage best practice and the conditions being imposed by the NSW Government. Industry sources in Sydney have described the employment conditions as "its unbelievable, the whole thing's corrupt", "that's ridiculous", and "taking advantage of the poor".
The Office of Water have a 'take it or leave it' attitude to the debacle adding yet another toa long list of legal breaches on the ignominious Water for the Futures Initiative.
Tuesday 9th September 2014
WHAT'S HIDING IN THE WATER?
NSW Government under fire yet again over lack of transparency on multimillion dollar water project.
Today Mutthi Mutthi tribal elders and community representatives met with Nimmie Caira project officials to discuss the lack of consultation on the project. This was the first official discussion for the NSW Government in over 18 months of the project.
The attendees were stunned not to be given any background information on the project. Strangely, the Government representatives brought no documentation with them that explained the $180 million project. Michelle Roe, Project Manager for the NSW Office of Water could not even produce a map of the project area to show the Traditional Owners even though this was specifically asked for prior to the event. Ms Roe untactfully changed the subject when asked about other basic documentation such as cultural heritage management plans or environmental impact statements.
Mutthi Mutthi man Gary Pappin queries "How can we be expected to make informed decisions on our country when the Government has no information to give? I'd like to know just what they are hiding. This project is environmental desecration on a phenomenal level. This is known and unknown sites and my daughter's future connection to country is now at jeopardy because the Office of Water are abusing the system.
The Mutthi Mutthi Traditional Owners are now actively seeking legal representation.
Canberra, ACT.
PM SAYS "GO HOME"
Traditional Owners refused audience at Parliament House
Today Mutthi Mutthi Traditional Owners returned home from Canberra dissappointed with the Federal Government's response to their concerns regarding the wilful destruction of significant sites on the $10billion Water for the Future projects . The Mutthi Mutthi representatives undertook a desperate 1500km round trip from tribal lands in Outback NSW to the lobby of Parliament House only to be told by the Prime Minister's offices to "Go home and draft a letter" and that they would "receive a response in three to six weeks and it may still be a No".
In stark contrast it took Opposition leader Bill Shorten's office less than five minutes to arrange an hour-long meeting with Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs Shayne Neumann and followed it with an apology that there weren't more members available. Mr Neumann noted that their concerns about cultural heritage rightly fitted into the Environment portfolio, a remnant from the Federation era when Aboriginal people were classed as a species of wildlife.
The Traditional Owners also met with local Member for Farrer Sussan Ley, who described the Aboriginal people in the western two-thirds of her electrate as "you lot out there" and summarily dismissed the Mutthi Mutthi concerns as "argy-bargy". Traditional Owner Cheryl Charles, whose grandmother Alice Kelly was instrumental in the fight for Mungo Man, said Ms Ley was "very rude" and notes how dissappointed she is with a government who refuses to take her culture and spirituality seriously.
The Traditional Owners also met with representatives of Mick Dodson at the National Centre for Indigenous Studies, who suggested they fought through the law courts. An option simply out of reach for some of Australia's poorest people.
Balranald, New South Wales.
OFFICE OF WATER IN THE DRINK AGAIN
Traditional Owners left out of consultation for Pipeline Project
The Traditional owners claim that NSW Basin Pipes Project is mismanaging $136 million of Federally funded taxpayers money and refusing to cooperate with the appropriate First Nation group. Mutthi Mutthi traditional owners today blockaded the Office of Water in Balranald in an attempt to compel the West Abercrombie Project Engineers to observe the legislative requirements and guidelines set down by the Commonwealth Department of Environment. The Office of Water have refused to release the regulatory documents underpinning the entire project. They are also citing 'lack of funds' as a prime reason for not conducting adequate due diligence over the entire 277km pipeline infrastructure.
With 50,000 years of connection to country the Willandra Lakes World Heritage owners have been left high and dry by the NSW Government who are refusing to accept their Indigenous ownership rights. Sources claim that the Office of Water have refused direct advice from the Environment and Heritage and are attempting to claim immunity from consultation requirements under the umbrella of 'State Significance'.
Mutthi Mutthi Traditional Owner Gary Pappin notes that this is a clear breach of not only State and Federal Laws but also the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. "Its a travesty of justice to the highest degree, continual appropriation and dispossession of the rights of Australia's poorest peoples. Whilst governments are continuing to argue over money our culture and our people are suffering." "It is a misguided attempt by the government to gag us and prevent us from speaking out about corruption and legislative loopholes. We will fight this every step of the way".
Project Manager, Michelle Roe from the Office of Water has reneged on her commitment of early on in the project when she stated: "We are committed to working with the local Aboriginal community to ensure that culturally appropriate way of mapping, storing and managing Aboriginal knowledge is applied during this process."
TRADITIONAL OWNERS LEFT OUT IN THE COLD
Claims of corruption and mismanagement on NSW water project.
The NSW Office of Water today faces fire over evidence that the Mutthi Mutthi Traditional Owners have been left out of negotiations on the $180 million Nimmie-Caira Project, part of the wider Federal Governments $10 billion plan to restore the Murray-Darling basin. The Nimmie-Caira project area is located solely within the lands of the Mutthi Mutthi tribe yet the Mutthi Mutthi people have been unaware of project developments since its inception.
Traditional Owner Mr Gary Pappin notes that it is a "monumental case of government corruption and under-the-table dealings. How can an Aboriginal advisory group be established and get paid Government monies when the members don't represent the area or the people. Our people are deliberately being misled, misinformed and hidden from sight for no other reason than political gain. This is yet another example of legalised theft of our culture".
Nimmie Caria Project Manager, Michelle Roe from the Office of Water earlier this year stated that "We are committed to working with the local Aboriginal community to ensure that culturally appropriate way of mapping, storing and managing Aboriginal knowledge is applied during this process," Ms Roe said that "contractors will work closely with local Aboriginal people who will be employed to record and interpret sites in the Nimmie-Caira area. "
Yet it is not Mutthi Mutthi Traditional Owners who are receiving the money or benefits for the project. Spokesman for the Balranald Aboriginal Health Service, Mr Daniel Kelly, notes that income from the project is going to Aboriginal people from as far away as Wagga Wagga and even Victoria. Mr Kelly states that the project and its supposed employment initiative should go towards helping the local Balranald community, a resource that is particularly needed since the BAHS lost government health funding in 2012.
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IWA Motoring Tour
November 3, 2015 by Martin
Wheelchair Cars Ireland Owner Gerard Murtagh with participants of the Rally
The sleepy roads of Offaly will come alive on Saturday, 26th September as Irish Wheelchair Association’s (IWA) annual Motoring Rally got into gear. The rally which takes place each September is the only event of its kind in Ireland, and is designed specifically for drivers and passengers with physical disabilities who drive their own adapted vehicles.
The event always attracts a large entry with over 40 participants take part in the 2015 event. There are several stages to the Motoring Rally which covered a total of 180 kilometres of roads. This year the activity was centred in Birr, Co. Offaly where drivers were presented with awards across five categories at a celebratory dinner in the County Arms Hotel.
Speaking about the event, Michael Doyle, IWA Director of Transport said:
For someone with a disability or reduced mobility, transport is frequently the key to unlocking independence and realising their full potential. When it comes to going out with friends, holding down a job, or going on a holiday, just getting there can often be the greatest challenge to overcome.
In this context, the services provided by IWA are a lifeline, opening up windows of possibility. Driving is not just a necessity for people with disabilities to access education or employment opportunities, the annual Motoring Rally proves that for many people driving can become a passion or hobby and a sport they can participate in alongside their peers.
Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA) first established a school for drivers with disabilities in 1969. The driving tuition service was originally formed due to a dearth in public transport available and also to meet the needs of IWA members who wanted greater independence and freedom. Over the past 55 years, the Association has grown and expanded the driving tuition service, and alongside a dedicated National Mobility Centre based in Clane, Co. Kildare, a team of IWA approved driving instructors teach driving lessons from nine locations throughout Ireland.
IWA’s driving tuition service is one which the majority of the Association’s 20,000 members have engaged with at some stage in their lives. Last year, IWA provided lessons to 370 students supporting them to take up or return to driving.
Irish Wheelchair Association would like to thank Wheelchair Cars Ireland who are the main sponsors of the event.
Wheelchair Cars Ireland Owner Gerry Murtagh with participants of the Rally
Irish Wheelchair Assocaiation Rally 2015
IWA drive from wheelchair tuition vehicle
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Walk-In Resume Reviews
Resume/cover letter review; bring a hard copy of your resume. Or, to set up an appointment for a mock interview with a graduate assistant or career coach, visit http://huntsman.usu.edu/career/contact.
1/18 at 8:00 am | George S. Eccles Business Building | More Info
Intro to Python: Workshop 1
Interested in learning Python? Come to this workshop series to boost your Python skills! AIS members only. If you are not an AIS member, join today at https://huntsman.usu.edu/ais/join_ais.
1/18 at 9:00 am | Huntsman Hall | More Info
More Shades of White
Nancy Hills, a professor in Utah State University’s Theatre Arts Department and the Caine College of the Arts, has designed costumes for “The Playboy of the Western World” and, most recently, “Blithe Spirit,” both for Artist Repertory Theatre in Portland, Ore. She’s travelled to Great Britain where, among numerous activities, she presented a public lecture at the Society of Antiquaries in London. The title of the presentation was “Historical Dress: a Project Inspired by Janet Arnold” and it featured recreations of gowns from patterns taken from Hills’ Janet Arnold research, and modeled by 11 USU interior design students. The gowns were constructed by USU Theatre Arts graduate students. Janet Arnold (1932-1998), the subject of Hills’ research, was a British clothing historian, costume designer, teacher, conservator and author.
The gowns have become well-traveled. They appeared in the exhibit “Symphony in White” from June 2014 through Christmas at Berrington Hall near Leominster in Herefordshire — this time appearing on dress forms. And now they are a part of a new exhibit, “Shades of White: The Changing Shape of Women,” that will be shown Feb. 14 through April 25 at the Hereford Museum and Gallery in Hereford. Hills has added nine pieces to the show that features reinterpretations of gowns from 1750 to 1950.
1/18 at 9:00 am | Chase Fine Arts Center, Tipetts and Eccles Galleries | More Info
MHR Internship Reports
Second-year Master of Human Resources (MHR) students report about their Summer 2018 internships. Students interested in learning about summer internships, the MHR program, and/or the specific companies are encouraged to attend. This week's presenters are:
Lydia Williams - Woodgrain
Jeff Clement - Honeywell
USU Gymnastics vs BYU
USU vs BYU Gymnastics meet.
1/18 at 7:00 pm | Dee Glen Smith Spectrum | More Info
Guitar, Bass & Drum Festival
Utah State University hosts its second annual Guitar, Bass and Drum Festival on January 17 and 18. There will be masterclasses and panel discussions throughout the day on both the 17th and 18th which are open to the public. This year the festival will showcase international, national and local talent. Thursday night’s concert showcases USU graduates Allie Harris and Megan Simper who front the band “Mama Longlegs,” along with USU adjunct faculty Nate Ostermiller who will perform with USU bass professor, Braun Kahn. Corey Christiansen will be playing trio with LA bassist, Anna Butterss, and drummer phenom Kobie Watkins (former drummer with Sonny Rollins). Friday’s concert features Mark Kroos who plays double-necked guitars and two guitars at once, Corey Christiansen’s Afro-Cuban Fusion project featuring Michael Spiro on percussion, Colin Douglas on drums and David Belove on bass, and national touring group The New West Guitar Trio. If you love guitar music both nights will be “do not miss” nights for you.
1/18 at 7:30 pm | Russell/Wanlass Performance Hall | More Info
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Playoffs Round 2 – RECAP
Now that the teams have dwindled from 16 to 4, we’d like to point out what really matters this Sunday: The WSL 2015 End of Season Party. The real fun starts at 5pm at the Back Bar of The Bedford and ends when we’re all passed out with buckets over our heads. Click on the drunk man (i.e. “your future self”) for the Facebook invite.
Field #1: The Bedford @ Black Betty (Homer Wadsworth)
The lines on the field were sparkly white and perf, the sun was smiling down mischievously, and the games were on!!! The Bedford faced the Betty for what has been the most consistent rivalry over the past 5 years when Spike Hill stopped the Bettys from notching their 6th straight ‘chip back in 2011 and then back and forth, back and forth…back and forth, back and forth’. Don’t try this at home with yer Dad’s stereo! Only under hiphop supervision, alright?
The Betty’s struck first in the third inning when rookie phenom pitcher Lou ‘Skywalker’ G hit a solo shot over an outfield that didn’t seem to know where to play this mystery Bettyballer power bottom. The Bedford tied it up pretty quick and the game became a defensive showcase\pitcher’s duel or some might say a battle against such elements as earth and sun. The Bettys went up 5-2 by the middle innings with Super, Leo and Steve coming up with big hits…and then things got…interesting.
Michael ‘Vrabel’ Camarra had a routine fly ball with a runner on 1st that he seemed to lose in the sun shouting “I can’t see it! I can’t see it!”. Oddly, no one really believed him until the ball fell a foot away from his waving arms. You know yer tricky when no one knows if yer out-clevering your own cleverness. The Betty’s got the force out at second but the sun wasn’t done meddling with softball. Not one inning later did the same fate befell LCF’er Mike ‘The Gentleman’ Powell. The ball took an unfriendly bounce this time and the Betty runners advanced. Same wicked sun, same dude name in LCF, different outcome.
After a sharp defensive top of the 6th, the Betty’s went into the bottom of the inning with the start of their lineup due to hit. Kevin ‘Big Daddy’ Kane had the Betty off balance a few innings and got 3-up\3-down in more than a few frames. The Black extended the lead to 8-3 but the game would come down to defense which is no surprise if you’ve seen both these teams play.
Black Widow second base-vet Jody ‘Down with the King’ Camarra had an amazing day in the field wowing fans and players alike with her casual approach to fielding and gunning Bedford runners out. Another big play came in the 8th with ‘Mr. HR’ Doug Hogan, skying a ball that looked like it might reach a tree somewhere in the LF area where Principal Pretto roamed. Dave thought the ball would be behind the tree in left and then realized the ball got a little caught up in the wind and was coming down in front of the tree, basically did a full circle back to the spot he started and caught the ball pretty nonchalantly. As the ball came down I’m pretty sure I heard Camarra say he couldn’t see that ball either
The Betty bats were quiet for the last few frames and had to face the top of the Bedford lineup to get the win and move on or depend on some last licks in the 9th. Powell led off with a sharp drive to JKC who stabbed and threw out the speedy WSL HOF’er as the Betty’s were now 2 outs away and smelling victory. Too soon? Yup. Way too soon.
Trying to get his team pumped up and back into the game and down by a few runs, The Dub’stepper got on base and did everything he could to get his team to score. It worked! Phil then went smashy-smash with a bomb that cleared a few trees in RF and almost landed at the B62 bus stop. SuperDave got under it but the ball plinko’d down with Phil ‘Ride Like The Wind’ Mac gliding around the base paths in about no less than a dozen strides. A few Bedford hits later and they were back in the game having rallied for 4 in the final frame, now only chasing one.
With 2 outs in the 9th, Captain Morgan knocked a clutch RBI single up the middle to keep her team alive at 8-7 and represented the tying run on first base. The next play was a wormburner grounder to Steve ‘Yo, I Got Attacked by a Crab’ Peralta who handled the ball and flipped to, who else but Jody covering 2B as the game ended and sent the Betty’s to a Championship Sunday for the 10th year in a row. The game had great defense, some shitty hops and was well called by PeteMo, one classy guy and an even better ump.
(The Bedford 7 / Black Betty 8)
Field #2: Enids @ Turkey’s Nest ( )
Well, that was anticlimactic.
The buzz around the park was that this might be the main event on the Sunday docket. Though the Pinks have a reputation for not showing up on the big stage, they were quick to put that myth to rest…in a big hurry. The defending champs really had no idea what was in store for them. It was officially Turkey hunting season.
Brand new daddy, Sam O, led off the game with a base hit…which was the first of 12 in the opening frame. The top 8 hitters in the Enids lineup were on base and scored. 10 runs later, the champs were back in their dugout, wondering where it all went wrong. After they picked themselves up off the mat, it was immediately apparent that this was not to be their day. The Turks managed to scratch a couple runs across, but the bats never really woke up.
Tommy Talty was basically unstoppable Sunday. Dude homered, drove in 5 runs and missed a perfect day at the plate by a couple inches on a blast to center in the 9th (sorry brah). The Pink ladies, J10/Stacy/KT, combined for 7 hits on the day. Coach Dom had 4 hits and most of the other Pinks reached base safely 3+ times. It was an absolute pink out at the park, en route to a 22-5 rout!
The Nest will look to regroup in the offseason, while Enid’s is heading to a semifinal showdown against Dem Bums from R Bar. These two division rivals split the season series, with each earning a decisive win against the other. R Bar would eventually take the Fashion North crown and clinch the stop overall seed in the playoffs, while Enids stumbled a bit down the stretch. On paper, that would probably make the Pinks a decided underdog next week. For what it’s worth, if they play like they did this past weekend then all bets are off!
(Enids 22 / Turkey’s Nest 5)
Field #1: AT United @ R Bar (Alexander P. Dubin, Esq.)
ATU may not win at softball, but they rock at upper decking your toilets.
In a game much closer than the final score dictated, R Bar defeated AT United Sunday 24-14. AT came out firing, putting up 5 in the first. The Bums, however, answered with 6 in the home half of the frame, led by a 3-run ‘home bomb’ by John “Smurfette” R. For good measure and bad cholesterol, R Bar’s first 8 batters reached safely and their next 3 were horrible disappointments. The 2nd inning would bring more of the same, with ATU putting up 3 in the top of the inning, only to have The Bums answer back again, scoring 4 in the bottom half of the inning, led by an RBI single by Stephen “Steven” Bubbs Connors and an RBI double by Bobby “Bitch-Slap” Knapp. ATU was finally able to slow R Bar’s momentum in the 3rd and 4th innings, while scoring 4 in the 3rd, led by a bases loaded triple by Adam “Monica Gellar” Wozniack, bringing the tally to 15-8 at the end of the 4th inning. The Bums would answer with 1 in the 5th but were unable to score again until the 8th. ATU put up 4 more in the 6th led by a 2 RBI single by Josh “Grobin is My Hero” and 3 more in the 8th, highlighted by the 2nd home run of the day by that sexy blue babe, Smurfette. Offensive notes: Bubbs (5-5), Josh (4-4 with 5 RBI), and Jay “The Cleveland Steamer” Merhaut added a bomb of his very own.
Next up for the Bums is a semi-final matchup against Enid’s, who put a surprising beatdown on the defending champs last week. One thing is for sure, Richie will definitely spend the week massaging Bobby’s sore upper, upper, upper inner hamstring with warm milk and tiger balm, in hopes that the R Bar slugger can recover for the final day of the season. I’d pay a nickel to see that.
(AT United 14 / R Bar 24)
Field #2: Turkey’s Teachers @ Crown Vic 86ers (Shortz)
Looks like the director’s cut of The Wizard of Oz was not screened on field 2 this Sunday.
Instead, Crown Vic had hits from 12 different players, RBIs from 10, and flawless defense- not exactly a wish the Teachers would seek to come true from the H-izzard.
Even if the Teachers had thrown 5 more players donning invisible suits in the outfield, and stuck their benefactor Shia behind the plate to dish out threats of violence and terrible free-style raps, they’d still be unmatched against those ‘new talent’ bats.
Crown Vic wasted no time proving to me they weren’t phoning it in by scoring ELEVEN runs in the first 2 innings as a nod to their leader Mayor Buttah who’s off in Sweden (probably never thought he’d still be playing this late in the season).
Co-substitute manager (shared with MalVP) D.O. led by example, going 6-6 with 5-runs scored. Filthy Jeff Gutowski, relishing in his final season with the 86ers, went 3-3 with 4 RBIs. The Westchester Trio (I bet they all live in Westchester!) were their usual stellar selves; Rich Larossi went 3-4 with 2 2-run HRs, 2 sac flies, and 8 RBIs; Jimmy Quigley went 4-6 and added 2 HRs himself, plus 5 RBIs and crossed the plate 4 times; and Chris Giorgio went 4-4 with 4 RBIs and a walk.
Despite the Teachers hitting efforts by RCF Tristan, 3B Joe, and 2B Avie Linden (all-star game participant), the Teachers were powerless against the pitcher/catcher partnership of Nat Murray (2-4) and Kate ‘proprietor of K&A Social Club’ Sullivan (3-5).
Now Crown Vic heads to Championship Sunday for the first time in franchise history. And Haz had this ‘bird’ to flip to the league, “Thanks to everyone in the league for their well wishes after the 1st round win…. made me remember why we joined this league and look forward to next year”.
Teachers to win it all in 2016!!!
(Turkey’s Teachers 6 / Crown Vic 86ers 29)
WHO WILL BE YOUR P.O.T.Y.? CLICK HERE TO VOTE!
It’s been a great season full of impressive players. But some players were wicked special and as such, were awarded P.O.T.W. week after week. Now it’s time to vote for your favorite P.O.T.W. so they can win the coveted title of PLAYER OF THE YEAR, or P.O.T.Y. Perhaps you think it wasn’t fair to award every team a P.O.T.W. But you know what? TOO BAD! So you can either troll around Facebook crying ‘foul’ or click on the above image to vote for your 2015 P.O.T.Y. (Poll closes Friday at midnight).
This Recap Sponsored By…
The NEW New New Additions
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Head On
Interview with Peter Lewis
Two weeks in, have your worst fears of WorkChoices been realized?
I felt surprised at the speed with which some employers have moved quite so bluntly in exploiting the powers. I would have thought there would have been a little more restraint. I expected this kind of behaviour a little more further down the line but people have itchy fingers on the trigger.
One of the things that the government seems to be saying is that we have new system in place which will enforce reasonableness in the workplace via the Office of Workplace Services. Are there any models anywhere that give any confidence that this sort of approach - it's almost an extra judicial role isn't it?
It's a design fault. They are attempting to empower government officials to make up for a change in the law. The laws allow employers to do certain things to work that lead to unfair outcomes. If this is the case, change the law, don't try and fix it up when some bureaucratic apparatus asks you.
The Workplace Research Centre does a lot of work with employers. What is your general take on their enthusiasm for embracing the new regime?
Mixed really. The employer lobby is openly supporting the government and genuinely so. On the other hand there are quite a number of employers who think the lopsided nature of the laws in terms of restructuring power relations between managers and organized workers is something not typical in Australian public life and are a little troubled by that. And there are a lot of people who are just plainly confused and still trying to figure out what it all means.
The scenario that you set out before the laws were enacted was that we would see a slow erosion of standards rather than a head on attack. Are you changing your view?
My view was that it was always going to be a highly uneven process. Employer militants would lead the charge in certain industries, but would we said has come true. There hasn't been a generalized assault on the workforce across all sectors. There has been a few localized pockets that have attracted a lot of media attention.
It would not surprise you that the meat industry is one area where there are those sorts of employers?
My colleague Chris Briggs has done a lot of work on employer militancy and that shows that rural manufacturing, especially meat processing, has been at the forefront of testing anti-worker aspects of labour law since 1996 at least. That is set to continue.
What other sectors would you be keeping your eye on over the next six months?
Obviously the big round coming up is metal engineering. Construction is reaching a critical point. I think there are rumbles around some parts of the finance sector - all the big instrumentalities. A sleeper, I think is the retail sector and we all know that in hospitality there will be a whole raft of those employers who will try to exploit the new laws. But I think it will be of interest to see what happens in retail, because Australian retail workers are amongst the best paid in the world, relative to their colleagues in other industries and occupations. They only enjoy that by virtue of the award system. And as the award system becomes vulnerable there are major opportunities there for employers to realign the old punitive.
Now, we might be getting a bit ahead of ourselves here, but there is already debate about what response the unions and Labor should be putting forward and a lot of talk around the idea of recognition ballots and collective bargaining rights. Do you have any take on that?
Well, Chris Briggs has done some important research in that area and shown that recognition ballots on their own are of limited effect and the really critical issue is the question of multi employer bargaining. So it is not a matter of getting recognition at enterprise level, it is a matter of getting recognition across enterprises to ensure standards prevail which ensure civilized practices prevail in workplaces. That is the key problem. But it is a bit of a second order issue I think.
Explain a bit more your idea of multi employer recognition. How would that work?
In the setting of standards - and you see elements of this in say, both transport where there is a whole lot of contractors, and there is a contract determination which holds that certain standards must be maintained on earnings and hours, and these standards prevail whether the workers are casual, permanent, contractors or employees. That is the kind of model that you should be looking at. Standards that apply across the labour market to all workers, not technically defined instruments that only apply to a particular part of the workforce.
So, say in an industry like hospitality, would it be do-able?
Anything is do-able, if you have got the political will. The State government in particular controls licensing arrangements. You could find the employers in hospitality are not sticking to basic standards then they lose their licenses. The question of sanctions will clearly delermine whether compliance will increase and I think that when we are looking at raising labour standards we have got to increase the sanctions. The government has already sent that signal out in WorkChoices. The sanctions against employees are very high, and I don't see why that position shouldn't continue.
And what about the notion of government procurement. Does that have a place in your jigsaw?
Well, yeah, but I think that is just part of a broader way of thinking. We have got to deal with the reality of supply chains and production networks and the reality of network arrangements in service delivery. That's networks of economic activity that shape the way people work these days, and government procurement is one part of that because that is essentially part of the supply chain, but government procurement alone will not be adequate, you have got to look at all issues around network production and supply chain arrangements.
So, if you were offering friendly advice to the union movement over the next three months, where would you be putting your energy?
I think they have got it just about right at the moment. These laws are so repressive they can't have a full on frontal assault because they will just get annihilated - that would be a heroic defeat.
John Buchanan is director of Sydney's University's Workplace Research Centre
URL: http://workers.labor.net.au/features/200604/a_guestreporter_buchanan.html
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TV ad campaign launching for Scots dairy
A TV advertising campaign kicks off this evening for the Scots dairy company, Graham’s The Family Dairy.
It’s the first time the company has embarked on TV advertising.
Says a media release announcing the broadcast: “The six-figure campaign has been created by Graham’s Edinburgh-based creative brand agency, threebrand, and production company, Freakworks. The 30-second advert will break this evening during STV’s Coronation Street and run across popular commercial spots on STV and Channel 4 until the end of August.
“A commercial deal has also been agreed for the advert to feature for eight weeks during STV’s new series, Nick and Paul’s Big Food Trip, which is presented by Nick Nairn and fellow chef, Paul Rankin.”
The campaign features members of the Graham family.
« The Story Behind: Green Final, Evening Express
Herald increases price but is promising more »
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Bat surveys at Elvaston Castle
You are here: Home / Case Studies / Bat surveys at Elvaston Castle
Located four miles south east of Derby is Elvaston Castle Country Park, a picturesque site comprising over 200 acres of woodlands, parkland and formal gardens. At the heart of the estate lies Elvaston Castle surrounded by famous Grade II* Listed gardens within which was a Moorish Temple, much vandalised and in need of restoration.
Elvaston Castle’s famous Grade II* Listed gardens
With known bat roosts in the temple, Baker Consultants was commissioned by Derbyshire County Council to undertake a bat survey and scope what was initially thought to be simple mitigation work.
Survey techniques employed included dusk/dawn surveys and a visual survey of the roof space. In total, seven bat roosts were discovered within the building, which is surprising when you realise that the building is only 4 by 4 metres in size, had water pouring in through the roof and was exposed to the elements.
Brown long-eared bat by Adrian Orrell
Baker Consultants’ licensed bat workers drew up a detailed mitigation plan and were available on site to supervise the building works. What made this job particularly difficult was the range of roosts, which include a maternity roost and a hibernation roost.
Generally in dealing with hibernation roosts, the best time to work is during the summer. However, in this instance this has a direct conflict with best practice for maternity roosts, where the best time to work is during the winter months when bats have moved to hibernation sites.
Despite carefully planning prior to the project commencing, the project team did meet with a number of significant issues, most notably the inclement weather: a foot of snow and temperatures of -18C. Although the complete removal and replacement of the roof was extremely invasive, no bats were knowingly disturbed throughout the works and the majority of workers had a genuine interest in the bats in the building.
Elvaston Castle’s Moorish Temple
We ensured that the construction company (C R Crane and Sons, Leicestershire) used hand tools for the whole job and, more importantly, asked advice if they were in any doubt regarding an issue relating to bats. It is important that site sub-contractors are aware of the issues around protected species in order to comply with legislation and avoid potentially harmful mistakes, particularly as bats and their habitats are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000) and by the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2010.
The smooth running of the project was facilitated by Baker Consultants’ consultative approach to the project and by regular meetings organised by the team at Derbyshire County Council.
Working with the Simpson and Brown Architects, Baker Consultants designed replacement roosting features, which were unobtrusively built into the refurbished building, and additional roosting opportunities, which were installed around the temple. The project has proved to be a success with bats once again using the building. To date, we have recorded three pipistrelle bat roosts and a significant number of brown long-eared bat droppings inside the building. Although the hibernation roost has not yet been inspected, we are hopeful that the bats will have returned and continue to use this part of the building.
Part of the Elvaston Castle bat survey
Following the end of the project, Baker Consultants will make a final visit to monitor the effectiveness of the mitigation. Records will be submitted to the biological records centre run by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust (former residents themselves of Elvaston castle).
“Baker Consultants’ approach to the project kept it to time and budget whilst ensuring that our legal obligations regarding protected species were met to the letter, vital for anyone and certainly for a local authority project.
Well done to all involved in the project, the bats have probably been here since the building first existed so hopefully they will now have a roost for the next hundred years.”
Charles HeaneyDerbyshire County Council project manager
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Butterfly habitat translocation and creation
Remote monitoring of badger sett saves money for Network Rail
Sensitive negotiation avoided public inquiry
Planning for wind energy
Reptile translocation and urban regeneration
Public Inquiry: ecology expert witness
Renewable energy: onshore wind
Coastal bay Passive Acoustic Monitoring
Marine acoustic disturbance consequences
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| 0.251642
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Mamma Mania! Abba Tribute
Mamma Mania! is a convincing and theatrical tribute to the distinctive Abba sound and the smash hit musical Mamma Mia! A critically acclaimed show that has been performed to sell out audiences in the UK, Ireland and internationally for over 7 years.
The ultimate feel good show that adds a bit of 70's glitter and glamour to any function or event.
Vocals in the show are performed by world class vocalists who have toured in theatres and shows throughout Europe. With impressive and flawless harmonies and meticulous attention to detail, Mamma Mania's portrayal of Agnetha and Anni-Frid really are second only to the vocals of Agnetha and Frida themselves!
Recreating and performing all of Abba's classic dance floor hits from Waterloo, Abba's international triumph to Dancing Queen and of course Mamma Mia!
So what are you waiting for, Dig out your flares, glitter and platforms and let Mamma Mania! get your event rocking! You are the Dancing Queen!!!
Available as a duo (Agnetha and Frida) (with high quality backing tracks) or a live four piece band. The show is self contained and fully insured and comes with it's own Lights and Sound Technician. A DJ service is also available.
We can also offer a pre Abba set with a Christmas theme over the festive period. For more details about this please see our website.
Rock Pop - Tribute duo (with backing tracks)
Wigan, Lancashire, WN1 2TH
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Juiced Baseballs Newsbeat
Verlander: MLB juicing balls for more offense
“It’s a f—-ing joke,” said Verlander, an eight-time All-Star who is starting his second All-Star Game on Tuesday. “Major League Baseball’s turning this game into a joke. They own Rawlings, and you’ve got Manfred up here saying it might be the way they center the pill. They own the f—-ing company. If any other $40 billion company bought out a $400 million company and the product changed dramatically, it’s not a guess as to what happened. We all know what happened. Manfred the first time he came in, what’d he say? He said we want more offense. All of a sudden he comes in, the balls are juiced? It’s not coincidence. We’re not idiots.”
Asked if he believed the balls were intentionally juiced by the league, Verlander said: “Yes. 100 percent. They’ve been using juiced balls in the Home Run Derby forever. They know how to do it. It’s not coincidence. I find it really hard to believe that Major League Baseball owns Rawlings and just coincidentally the balls become juiced.”
RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: July 09, 2019 at 07:47 AM | 0 comment(s)
Beats: juiced baseballs
The balls aren’t juiced: MLB explains rise in home runs
Manfred cited last year’s report, written by a committee of scientists and data specialists, which identified the pill at the center of the ball playing a factor. If the pill is not perfectly centered, the ball wobbles when hit and creates more drag.
“We think one of the things that may be happening is they’re getting better at centering the pill, [which] creates less drag,” Manfred said. “In addition to that, there’s all these man-made issues: hand-stitched, where it’s stored after it’s made, where it’s stored at the ballpark, who puts the mud on the ball, how much mud they put on the ball. It’s really difficult to isolate any single cause. But we do think it’s a drag issue.”
RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: June 22, 2019 at 12:38 PM | 22 comment(s)
Giants must alter evaluation approach due to changes in minor leagues | NBCS Bay Area
The league has always been offense-crazy, but this season has seen new levels of production. The PCL started using MLB balls and lineups have taken off in a league where altitude was already an issue for pitchers. Teams are averaging 5.62 runs per game and an OPS of .816, and the league-wide ERA is 5.29.
“It’s a little bit like playing in Coors Field everywhere you go,” Suarez said.
Jim Furtado Posted: May 27, 2019 at 08:33 AM | 1 comment(s)
Beats: giants, juiced baseballs, minor leagues
Giants must alter evaluation approach due to changes in minor leagues
SAN FRANCISCO—Andrew Suarez looked up during one of his minor league starts earlier this year, saw that the Sacramento River Cats were down five runs, and thought, “We can still win this.”
The thought process wasn’t simply about being optimistic. It was about being realistic in the Pacific Coast League.
A reminder of why having offensive explosions in AAA isn’t necessarily a good idea.
Beats: evaluating players, home run derby, juiced baseballs, pacific coast league, triple a
Jon Lester is convinced MLB ball is juiced, but he’s pitching better than ever
Let’s set the scene: Less than a half hour after the Cubs doused Kris Bryant with Gatorade after his walk-off heroics, Jon Lester sat at the podium in the warm and cozy press room deep inside Wrigley Field after he battled the Marlins on a May 7 evening that felt more like Feb. 7 with a 31-degree windchill.
Lester had just battled the wintry conditions and won and the Cubs had just celebrated a clutch hit from their slow-starting former MVP, yet the third question posed to the veteran pitcher was about the state of the baseball MLB continues to run out and if he thinks they’re different than normal.
There’s a lot of talk about how the baseball is “juiced” this year and the evidence supports it. The weather has yet to turn favorable for hitters, but that isn’t stopping MLB sluggers from mashing the most homers per game ever.
In 2019, MLB teams are averaging 1.30 homers per game, up from 1.26 in 2017 and the 1.17 average in 2000.
Well, yes- it’s only a problem if the batters can hit them….
Beats: jon lester, juiced baseballs
David Price wants MLB to “come clean” on the juiced baseballs
We’ve talked a lot about juiced baseballs over the past couple of years. The evidence that the seams are shorter and that the ball has less drag on it is pretty clear and the numbers are undeniable.
March/April 2019 witnessed more homers — 1144 — than any month in baseball history. On a per game average, that comes out to 2.62 per game, which is one of the highest rates for a month in Major League history. Keep in mind, of course, that the first month of the season usually sees the lowest home run rates of the year due to the cold weather. It’s only going to get worse. Or better, depending on what you think of homers.
You know who doesn’t like home runs? Pitchers. And one pitcher really wants Major League Baseball to own up to the juiced baseballs.
I forget- does anyone still really dig the long ball at this point?
Beats: david price, juiced baseballs
MLB’s juiced baseball is juicing Triple-A home run totals
There has been considerable evidence amassed over the past year or two that the baseball used by Major League Baseball has a lower aerodynamic profile, leading to less drag, which leads directly to more home runs. If you doubted that at all, get a load of what is happening in Triple-A right now.
The minors have always had different balls than the majors. The MLB ball is made in Costa Rica at a Rawlings facility. The minor league balls are made in China. They use slightly different materials and, by all accounts, the minor league balls do not have the same sort of action and do not travel as far as the big league balls. Before the season, as Baseball America reported, Major League Baseball requested that Triple-A baseball switch to using MLB balls. The reason: uniformity and, one presumes, more accurate analysis of performance at the top level of the minor leagues.
So, does this mean they all ought to be put in a humidor?
QLE Posted: April 19, 2019 at 09:41 PM | 3 comment(s)
Beats: juiced baseballs, triple a
Moonshot: The Baseball Is Juiced (Again)
Before home run explosion over the last few years, no one worried too much about the baseball’s air resistance. While MLB and Rawlings (the company that manufactures the official baseballs) kept track of dozens of metrics to make sure that the ball was consistent from month to month, they didn’t measure drag.
But drag is incredibly important in determining how likely a hitter is to knock one out of the park. As baseballs become more aerodynamic, they travel further given a certain initial velocity.
Hank Gillette Posted: April 10, 2019 at 07:56 AM | 0 comment(s)
Study Shows MLB Baseballs Are Still Juiced and That’s a Good Thing
A few years ago, baseball fans were hit with a persistent rumor that the baseballs were juiced, hence the increased number of homers and the skyrocketing distance of each blast. You may recall this initial chatter coming to a head during the wild, dinger-replete 2017 World Series.
MLB denied the initial claim, of course, but after a study, it was determined that the ball did have an impact on the explosion of home runs in 2017.
Well, it…seems as if the balls may be juiced again, because we’ve seen a flurry of home runs a week into the regular season.
Question: If we were to return to the deadball era, would that help improve the game, or would the unintended consequences be fatal?
QLE Posted: April 06, 2019 at 07:59 AM | 0 comment(s)
Marc Sully's not booin'. He's Youkin'.
Last: Cowboy Popup
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cc/2019-30/en_middle_0027.json.gz/line551
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| 0.744568
| 0.744568
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Management of bleeding in acquired hemophilia A: results from the European Acquired Haemophilia (EACH2) Registry
Francesco Baudo, Peter Collins, Angela Huth-Kühne, Hervé Lévesque, Pascual Marco, László Nemes, Fabio Pellegrini, Lilian Tengborn and Paul Knoebl on behalf of the EACH2 registry contributors
Blood 2012 120:39-46; doi: https://doi.org/10.1182/blood-2012-02-408930
Francesco Baudo
Angela Huth-Kühne
Hervé Lévesque
Pascual Marco
László Nemes
Fabio Pellegrini
Lilian Tengborn
Paul Knoebl
Acquired hemophilia A is a rare bleeding disorder caused by autoantibodies to coagulation FVIII. Bleeding episodes at presentation are spontaneous and severe in most cases. Optimal hemostatic therapy is controversial, and available data are from observational and retrospective studies only. The EACH2 registry, a multicenter, pan-European, Web-based database, reports current patient management. The aim was to assess the control of first bleeding episodes treated with a bypassing agent (rFVIIa or aPCC), FVIII, or DDAVP among 501 registered patients. Of 482 patients with one or more bleeding episodes, 144 (30%) received no treatment for bleeding; 31 were treated with symptomatic therapy only. Among 307 patients treated with a first-line hemostatic agent, 174 (56.7%) received rFVIIa, 63 (20.5%) aPCC, 56 (18.2%) FVIII, and 14 (4.6%) DDAVP. Bleeding was controlled in 269 of 338 (79.6%) patients treated with a first-line hemostatic agent or ancillary therapy alone. Propensity score matching was applied to allow unbiased comparison between treatment groups. Bleeding control was significantly higher in patients treated with bypassing agents versus FVIII/DDAVP (93.3% vs 68.3%; P = .003). Bleeding control was similar between rFVIIa and aPCC (93.0%; P = 1). Thrombotic events were reported in 3.6% of treated patients with a similar incidence between rFVIIa (2.9%) and aPCC (4.8%).
Acquired hemophilia A (AHA) is a hemorrhagic syndrome characterized by a deficiency of coagulation factor VIII (FVIII) secondary to autoantibodies targeting specific epitopes that cause neutralization and/or accelerated clearance of FVIII from the plasma.1 The reported incidence of AHA varies between 0.1 and 1.5 cases per million2 population, although a study in a defined population suggests an incidence of 1.5 per million.3 AHA is commonly associated with a variety of clinical conditions, including autoimmune disorders, solid tumors, lymphoproliferative diseases, and pregnancy; however, no underlying condition is identified in approximately 50% of the cases.1⇓–3
Hemorrhages occur in AHA patients without a family or personal history of bleeding and usually exhibit a sudden onset. Bleeding episodes are spontaneous in the majority of cases, although approximately 25% of cases occur after trauma or invasive procedures.4 Retroperitoneal and large intramuscular hematomas may compress nervous and vascular structures, leading to compartmental syndromes. Bleeding at presentation is usually severe (> 67% of the cases) but may be mild, and approximately 25% of patients do not require hemostatic treatment.2,5
Observed clinical bleeding does not correlate with FVIII level or inhibitor titer and differs from hereditary hemophilia: skin, mucous membranes, muscles, and soft tissue bleeds are more common, whereas hemarthroses are unusual. The mortality rate resulting from bleeding or otherwise related to AHA is high and reported to be between 7.9% and 22%.1⇓–3,5,6
The hemostatic agents most frequently used to control bleeding in AHA are bypassing agents, recombinant activated FVII (rFVIIa) or activated prothrombin complex concentrate (aPCC), or FVIII replacement therapy with concentrates or induction of FVIII release using 1-desamino-8-D-arginine-vasopressin (DDAVP).7 The optimal therapy is controversial, and available data are derived from observational and retrospective studies, including a limited number of patients with different primary clinical conditions.7⇓⇓⇓⇓–12
To address this problem, the European Acquired Hemophilia (EACH2) registry was established in 2003 to collect information on the current management of patients with AHA. No treatment protocol was provided, and patients were managed according to local clinical practice. This primary analysis focuses on the hemostatic treatment of bleeding episodes with rFVIIa, aPCC, FVIII, or DDAVP.
A total of 117 centers in 13 European countries participated in the Web-based registry. The contributing centers are listed in the supplemental Appendix (available on the Blood Web site; see the Supplemental Materials link at the top of the online article). The registry was hosted by Parexel International GmbH, supported by an unrestricted grant from Novo Nordisk Region Europe A/S, and reviewed by institutional review boards at each center. Informed consent was obtained from all patients or their next of kin in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The study was longitudinal, prospective, and observational and registered consecutive patients. Patient characteristics at diagnosis were recorded and have been previously detailed.13 The characteristics and outcome of patients who received immunosuppressive treatment have also been reported.14 Data for each bleeding episode were entered separately. The following characteristics of each new bleed were reported: site (CNS, musculoskeletal, retroperitoneal, gastrointestinal, urogenital, skin, none), cause (spontaneous, traumatic, surgical, peripartum or postpartum), severity (severe defined as life-, limb-, or organ-threatening, CNS, hemoglobin [Hb] < 8 g/dL or a drop of > 2 g/dL; RBC transfusion requirement of > 2 units in 24 hours). All other bleeding episodes were defined as nonsevere. The Hb, activated partial thromboplastin time, FVIII level, and inhibitor titer were recorded at presentation and/or at the time of the bleed.
The hemostatic therapy used was described by agent and dosage regimen (initial dose per bolus, initial interval of successive doses, number of doses and total dose, total days of treatment). For patients treated with aPCC, FVIII, or DDAVP, anamnestic response was reported as yes or no. The following ancillary therapies were recorded: antifibrinolytic agents, RBC transfusion, topical therapy, immunoadsorption, plasmapheresis, and high-dose immunoglobulins. The response to therapy was judged clinically by the local investigator and was recorded as bleeding resolved with date or bleeding not resolved. Secondary treatment was initiated because of lack of efficacy or other reasons and was reported using the same data points. Adverse events, including thrombosis, that in the opinion of the investigator were related to hemostatic therapy, were reported. All bleeding episodes were recorded in the registry, but only first bleeding episodes are analyzed here.
Baseline patient characteristics are reported as frequency (percentage) or median and interquartile range (IQR) for categorical and continuous variables, respectively. The primary endpoint was control of the first bleeding episode treated with first-line hemostatic therapy. Only first bleeds and first-line treatment are reported to avoid any potential indication bias. Reporting of all episodes experienced and therapy lines administered could impair treatment comparison because treatment assignment is highly conditional on previous treatment and nonresponsiveness (ie, correlated end points and time-dependent confounding). The first-line hemostatic therapy options analyzed were rFVIIa, aPCC, FVIII, and DDAVP. Initial treatment regimens and response are reported descriptively, however, because the baseline characteristics of patients and bleeding episodes vary widely, the results cannot be directly compared. To make comparisons between treatment strategies, baseline characteristics needed to be matched.
Two separate treatment comparisons were assessed. First, bypassing agents (rFVIIa or aPCC) versus FVIII or DDAVP were compared; then a specific comparison between rFVIIa and aPCC was performed. Prematching comparisons between groups were performed using a Pearson χ2 test or Mann-Whitney U test. To allow an unbiased comparison between the treatment groups, propensity score (PS) methodology15,16 was used.
For each analysis, a separate logistic regression model was first applied to predict the probability (PS) of receiving either treatment (bypassing agents vs FVIII replacement or release in the first analysis; rFVIIa vs aPCC in the second). Both models included the same set of variables: age at diagnosis, sex, factor VIII level and inhibitor titer at time of the bleeding episode, Hb value at diagnosis, bleeding site (CNS, deep, hemarthroses, mucosa, skin, multiple sites), bleeding severity (severe vs nonsevere), delay of therapy, and cause of bleeding (spontaneous vs traumatic).
Consequently, PSs derived from the logistic models were used within a 5 → 1 greedy 1:1 matching algorithm15 to obtain the matched samples. The greedy matching algorithm generated matched pairs of patients identical in their PS value, decreasing from 5 decimal places to 1. Adequacy of covariate balance in the matched samples was eventually assessed with McNemar χ2 or a Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Rates of bleeding episodes not resolved with first-line therapy were reported for unmatched and matched samples. PS-matched logistic models were expressed as odds ratios (OR) along with 95% confidence intervals (CI) and were derived from a generalized estimating equations logistic regression to account for the matched design. Where appropriate to assess robustness of findings a PS quintiles-adjusted model was also used.16
Last, because PS methodology only addresses imbalances resulting from measured covariates, we also performed a sensitivity analysis17 on significant findings to account for potential residual confounding because of an unknown, unmeasured baseline covariate. P values less than .05 were considered significant. All the analyses were performed using SAS Version 9.1 (SAS Institute).
Between January 2003 and December 2008, 501 patients from 117 centers in 13 European countries (Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom) were entered into the database. The demographics and characteristics at presentation of the entire cohort have been reported previously.13 A total of 482 patients experienced at least 1 bleeding episode and 19 (3.8%) reported no bleeding. The baseline characteristics of the patients who bled and those who did not bleed were similar with respect to age, sex, weight, Hb, FVIII level, inhibitor titer, and associated underlying conditions. Among the 482 patients who bled 230 (47.7%) were female and 252 (52.3%) were male. The median (IQR) values for patients who bled were as follows: age, 74.0 years (61.0-80.0 years); weight, 69.4 kg (60.0-78.0 kg); FVIII activity, 2.0 IU/dL (1.0-6.0 IU/dL); Hb, 9.0 g/dL (7.5-11.3 g/dL); and FVIII inhibitor titer, 14.0 (5.0-42.0) Bethesda units (BU)/mL. The underlying medical condition was reported as an autoimmune disorder in 65 (14.1%), malignancy in 53 (11.5%), pregnancy in 41 (8.9%), drug-induced in 15 (3.3%), and transfusion, dermatologic, infection, monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, or other in 36 (7.8%). No associated medical condition was identified (idiopathic) in 250 (54.4%), and no information was reported for 22 patients (4.6%). The disposition of patients in the cohort with respect to bleeding and hemostatic treatment is shown in Figure 1.
EACH2 Registry hemostatic therapy data flowchart.
Of the 482 patients with at least one bleeding episode, 144 (30%) received no hemostatic treatment. Treated and untreated patients differed only in Hb level (8.6 vs 10.9 g/dL), site, and severity of bleeding (all P < .0001). Age, sex, FVIII level, inhibitor titer, cause of bleeding, and underlying conditions were similar. The nontreated group included 94 nonsevere bleeding episodes and 47 severe bleeds. The reason for not treating patients was not recorded in the registry. Among the patients who experienced a bleeding episode but were not treated, the Hb level (11.0 vs 9.4 g/dL; P = .0004), cause (spontaneous vs nonspontaneous; 86.2% vs 72.3%; P = .0459), and site of bleeding (deep, 14.9% vs 46.8%; skin, 62.7% vs 17.0%; mucosal, 21.3% vs 34.0%; P < .0001) differed between nonsevere and severe bleeding episodes. A total of 338 patients received treatment for a first bleed, but 31 (9.2%) were treated with ancillary therapy only (1 immunoadsorption, 13 antifibrinolytic, 17 RBC, 3 topical therapy, 4 high-dose intravenous Ig, and 12 other). A total of 307 patients received a first-line hemostatic agent: 174 were treated with rFVIIa (56.7%), 63 with aPCC (20.5%), 56 with FVIII (18.2%), and 14 with DDAVP (4.6%). Among patients treated with ancillary therapy only compared with those who received a hemostatic agent, a lower FVIII level at the time of the bleed was noted for the latter (5.9 vs 4.1 IU/dL; P = .0334). Fewer nonspontaneous bleeds (45.2% vs 20.9%; P = .0023) were reported among those receiving ancillary therapy only. The site of bleeding (deep, 48.4% vs 60.9%; mucosal, 41.9% vs 18.6%; P = .0661) and severity of bleeding (25.9% vs 13.4%; P = .0618) showed a trend toward significance. Bleeding resolved in 22 of 31 patients treated with ancillary therapy only; 6 of 9 patients who did not respond were switched to a bypassing agent, and 3 of these episodes resolved. Among the 22 patients with resolved bleeding episodes after ancillary therapy alone, 10 patients received antifibrinolytic therapy, 9 RBC, 3 high-dose intravenous Ig, 1 immunoadsorption, and 2 topical therapy. Overall, ancillary therapy, including that administered to the 307 patients also receiving hemostatic therapy, was composed of 20 (5.9%) patients receiving immunoadsorption, 2 (0.6%) plasmapheresis, 64 (18.9%) antifibrinolytic agents, 184 (54.4%) RBC, 10 (3.0%) topical therapy, 38 (11.2%) high-dose intravenous Ig, and 53 (15.7%) other therapies. The overall median number of RBC units transfused was 4 (IQR, 2-8 units), with no differences observed between site, severity, cause, and bleed resolution.
Bleeding was controlled in 269 patients (79.6%), including those treated with ancillary therapy only. The only parameter that significantly differed between patients who responded to treatment and those who did not was a delay in time to treatment (median, 1.00 vs 4.00 days; P = .0155). The FVIII level in responders and nonresponders at the time of the first bleeding episode did not differ, nor did inhibitor titer (10.0 vs 13.0; P = .9294), bleeding cause (traumatic 13.2% vs spontaneous 15.7%; P = .5888), bleeding site (P = .2939), or severity (15.9% vs 10.4%; P = .3259).
Among the 69 patients who received second-line therapy, 50 (14.8%) were treated because of lack of efficacy of first-line treatment and 19 (5.6%) for unspecified reasons, 24 (36.9%) were treated with rFVIIa, 15 (23.1%) with aPCC, 23 (35.4%), with FVIII 1 (1.5%) with DDAVP, 2 (3.1%) received ancillary therapy only, and the type of agent was not reported for 4 patients. Information on the response to second-line treatment was available for 68 patients. Bleeding resolved in 54 patients (79.4%). Eleven (16.2%) did not resolve and initiated third-line therapy for lack of efficacy; 3 patients (4.4%) initiated third-line therapy for unspecified reasons other than lack of efficacy. Information on bleeding recurrence was available for 65 of 69 second-line therapy patients: 18 patients (27.7%) had a recurrence. Of the 269 patients in whom bleeding resolved with first-line therapy, 68 patients had a recurrence (99 episodes) with an overall recurrence rate of 25.3% (median inhibitor titer, 8.6 BU/mL; 2.0-37.0 BU/mL). The median time to recurrence was 14 days (IQR, 3-45 days).
The unmatched and matched baseline covariates comparing bypassing agents (n = 219) and FVIII replacement and DDAVP (n = 69) according to treatment of the 288 patients for whom the primary outcome data were available are reported in Tables 1 and 2. FVIII level, inhibitor titer, bleeding sites, and severity of bleeding were significantly different in the 2 unmatched groups; sex showed a trend toward significance. A total of 219 patients were treated with bypassing agents (159 with rFVIIa, 60 with aPCC) and 69 with FVIII (n = 55) or DDAVP (n = 14). Bleeding was controlled in 201 patients treated with bypassing agents (91.8%) and 48 patients (69.6%) treated with replacement therapy (P < .003). Among the patients treated with replacement therapy, bleeding was resolved in 39 patients (70.1%) treated with FVIII and 9 (64.3%) of those treated with DDAVP. PS 1:1 matching allowed an unbiased comparison between the 2 groups by matching 60 of 69 available pairs. The baseline covariates after PS matching were balanced. In the matched samples, 56 of 60 patients (93.3%) in the group treated with bypassing agents and 41 of 60 (68.3%) in the group treated with FVIII or DDAVP, respectively, experienced bleeding episodes that were controlled by first-line therapy (OR = 0.15; 95% CI, 0.04-0.53; P = .003). The hemostatic effect of each of the agents is shown in Table 3.
Unmatched sample baseline characteristics according to treatment of the first bleeding episode (bypassing agent vs FVIII or DDAVP and rFVIIa vs aPCC)
Matched sample baseline characteristics according to treatment of the first bleeding episode (bypassing agent vs FVIII or DDAVP and rFVIIa vs aPCC)
Rates of control for first bleeding episodes by first-line therapy
Because the PS matching algorithm selected 41 and 19 patients treated with rFVIIa and aPCC, respectively, to confirm the robustness of the above result, a PS quintiles-adjusted model for treatment comparison was also assessed. The results overlapped completely (OR = 0.20; 95% CI, 0.10-0.46; P < .0001). A sensitivity analysis was also performed to disprove that this positive finding may be attributable to an imbalanced unknown, unmeasured baseline covariate. With respect to the results for the risk of unresolved bleeding episodes, the significant effect of bypassing agents (ie, OR = 0.15; 95% CI, 0.04-0.53) might be altered by an unmeasured baseline covariate with an OR = 2.5 and a prevalence imbalance between the 2 treatment groups of at least 60%. The risks might be also altered with a prevalence imbalance of 50%, but an OR = 3.0, or with a prevalence imbalance of at least 40% but an OR = 3.5.
Baseline characteristics of the 159 patients receiving rFVIIa and the 60 receiving aPCC are reported in Table 1. The baseline covariate significantly different in the 2 unmatched groups was age (P = .02); sex (P = .06) and cause of bleeding (P = .08) were nonsignificant. The rate of bleeding control was similar for rFVIIa treatment: 145 of 159 (91.2%) and aPCC 56 of 60 (93.3%; P = .60). The baseline covariates after PS matching overlapped (Table 2). An equal rate of bleeding control was reported for 53 of 57 patients (93.0%) using both aPCC and rFVIIa, with OR = 1 (95% CI, 0.23-4.44; P = 1; Table 3).
As a further overall sensitivity analysis, a different approach for treatment comparison was also pursued. The impact of first-line hemostatic therapy for patients who were not treated for their very first bleeding episode but were treated for a subsequent episode was recorded in the registry. The findings obtained via PS matching (data not shown) were completely overlapping with the results reported here. To this end, PS models were further matched for cases for which the first bleeding episode was recorded in the registry versus for those for which it was not recorded.
Details of first-line hemostatic therapy (initial dose, initial frequency, number of doses given, and total dose) are provided in Table 4. In general, lower FVIII levels and higher inhibitor titers were observed in patients treated with bypassing agents; however, FVIII levels for all treatment modalities overlapped, suggesting that FVIII level had little influence on treatment decisions.
Types of first-line hemostatic therapy for all first bleeding episodes [median (IQR)]
Thrombotic events in relation to hemostatic therapy were reported in 13 of the 482 patients who experienced a bleeding episode (2.7%), including 2 of 144 patients who were not treated with a hemostatic agent and 11 of the 307 patients treated with a hemostatic agent (3.6%): 7 myocardial infarctions, 1 stroke, 5 venous thromboembolims overall, and 6 myocardial infarctions, 1 stroke and 4 venous thromboembolims in association with hemostatic treatment. The thrombotic events were reported in patients treated with rFVIIa 5 of 174 (2.9%), aPCC 3 of 63 (4.8%), FVIII/DDAVP 0 of 70 (0%), and in 3 cases treatment was not indicated. It is not possible to draw any definite conclusions about the causal relationship between the hemostatic treatment and the thrombotic event from the data available in the registry, except in 1 case where the local investigator reported that the thrombotic event was suspected to be related to treatment with a hemostatic agent (a myocardial infarction in a patient treated with rFVIIa). Furthermore, thrombotic events were significantly associated with mean age (79.4 vs 68.3, P = .0341), but not with underlying clinical conditions (P = .6302).
Overall mortality among patients in whom treatment was initiated was 66 of 338 (19.5%). Among patients who received ancillary therapy alone, 6 of 31 (19.4%) died and survival at years 1 to 4 remained steady at 83%. Overall, 29 of 174 (16.7%) who were treated for a first bleeding episode with rFVIIa died, with a survival of 84%, 82%, 79%, and 72% at years 1 to 4, respectively. Similarly, 12 of 63 (19.0%) patients treated with aPCC died, with 81% surviving at 1 year and 76% surviving at each of years 2 to 4. A total of 19 of 56 (33.9%) patients treated for a first bleeding episode with FVIII died, with survival at years 1 to 4 of 74%, 70%, 57%, and 44%. No deaths were reported among the 14 patients treated with DDAVP. A total of 16 of 482 patients who experienced at least 1 bleeding episode and 10 of 307 patients treated with hemostatic therapy died as a result of bleeding (mortality, 3.3%). Four of 16 deaths occurred on the first day of therapy. The median time from therapy to death was 23 days. Among the patients who died after hemostatic treatment for the first bleeding episode, 4 received rFVIIa, with a median of 19 (1, 15, 23, and 27) days between treatment and death, 3 received aPCC a median of 16 (1, 16, and 163) days previously, and 3 were treated with FVIII a median of 25 (23, 25, and 184) days before death. An anamnestic response to treatment of the first bleeding episode was reported in 6 of 63 patients (9.5%) treated with aPCC, 15 of 55 (27.2%) treated with FVIII, and 3 of 14 (21.4%) treated with DDAVP. No information on the kinetics of the inhibitor in these cases was recorded. There were no anaphylactic or allergic reactions reported.
The EACH2 registry provides information on routine clinical practice in Europe in the management of this rare but serious hemorrhagic condition. The study is the largest observational dataset reported to date and more than doubles the number of patients in a single cohort previously reported in the literature. The primary aim of this study was to report how the first bleeding episode was managed; the treatment of subsequent bleeds are not discussed in terms of comparison because the outcome may have been influenced by the treatment of, and response to, first bleeds. A total of 307 patients were included in this analysis, and 288 patients had information on the main outcome (bleeding controlled or not controlled) recorded.
Two therapeutic interventions to control bleeding in patients with AHA are available: bypassing agents (rFVIIa and aPCC) and strategies to increase FVIII levels (FVIII concentrate and DDAVP). Although not administered by any of the participating centers, in the past prothrombin complex concentrates were also used to treat patients with classic hemophilia and FVIII inhibitors and sporadically in AHA, with a similar efficacy and safety profile in both conditions18; however, their efficacy appears to be lower than either rFVIIa or aPCC, and their use is not recommended in current guidelines for the treatment of AHA.10 Bypassing agents are recommended as first-line therapy because of their rapid action and high level of effectiveness.10⇓–12 Prospective randomized trials comparing the efficacy of these agents have not been carried out to date, and it is very unlikely that an adequately powered study would be feasible. No high-level evidence is therefore available for the use of either product. The dosage is largely based on experience with the management of patients with FVIII alloantibody inhibitors in congenital hemophilia and is generally based on the clinical assessment.
The EACH2 registry is a representative cohort of patients, which largely confirms existing baseline data.1⇓–3,5,6,19⇓⇓⇓⇓–24 Clinical bleeding at presentation was observed in 96.2% of patients and was severe in 69.5%. Severity of bleeding is widely variable, and it is recognized that many patients do not require hemostatic treatment. The finding that 30% of patients with bleeding in EACH2 did not receive hemostatic therapy is in agreement with previous reports.3 FVIII level and inhibitor titer were not related to the presence of bleeding, a requirement for hemostatic therapy or severity of bleeding as previously reported.13 Although some patients do not require hemostatic treatment, in many cases bleeding in AHA is an emergency.3,19 In our cohort, 194 patients (38.7%) either did not exhibit any bleeding or did not require hemostatic therapy at presentation. In those that did require hemostatic therapy, bleeding was controlled in 86.7% (269 of 307) by the initial therapy. rFVIIa was the most commonly used hemostatic treatment, administered in 174 of 307 patients (56.6%).
The effectiveness of bypassing agents compared with strategies to raise FVIII levels on bleeding resolution was assessed. In the unmatched population, the bleeding control with the first-line therapy (primary end point) was obtained in 201 patients (91.8%) treated with bypassing agents compared with 48 (69.6%) treated with replacement therapy (P < .003). This substantial difference was confirmed after PS matching in 60 pairs and strongly supports the recommended use of bypassing agents.10⇓–12 The control rate of bleeding episodes with bypassing agents as first-line therapy in our registry is similar to that reported by Sumner et al with rFVIIa (91.8 vs 95%, respectively).9 The experience with aPCC in AHA derives from single-center cohort studies composed of relatively few patients. The control of bleeding episodes varied between 76% and 100% depending on the severity of hemorrhage.20,25⇓–27 These data are not comparable with the data relating to rFVIIa because of differences in patient characteristics and the type and severity of bleeding episodes.
No studies have compared rFVIIa and aPCC in AHA, although studies in congenital hemophilia with inhibitors suggest similar efficacy.28,29 This PS-matched analysis was carried out in 57 matched pairs and provides the only currently available comparison of rFVIIa and aPCC in AHA. Bleeding control was the same in the PS-matched cohorts, supporting the view that these agents have a very similar hemostatic efficacy in AHA. The results of the registry, therefore, confirm that bypassing agents are more efficacious than FVIII or DDAVP and should be the agents of choice for the first-line therapy. rFVIIa versus aPCC have similar efficacy.
The EACH2 database provides important information about thrombotic adverse events associated with hemostatic agents used to treat bleeding episodes in AHA. Adverse events were seen at similar rates with both rFVIIa (2.9%) and aPCC (4.8%) but not with FVIII or DDAVP. Two patients experienced thrombotic events in the absence of hemostatic therapy. Sumner et al have reported an incidence of thrombosis of 6.5% associated with rFVIIa use in AHA.9 It is possible that the safety information may be underestimated, as adverse events are infrequently published as part of case reports. On the other hand, a thrombotic event must take into consideration many other factors related to thrombotic risk, possibly independent of hemostatic agents administered. Previous data on thrombotic events in patients with AHA treated with aPCC are lacking, and the agent is reported to be well tolerated.20,25⇓–27 In the papers evaluating the safety of aPCC and rFVIIa in patients with labeled indications (the majority are patients with hemophilia A and inhibitors), the incidence of thrombotic events was similar, at 4 per 100 000 infusions.30,31
The higher rate of arterial and venous thrombosis in AHA compared with congenital hemophilia with inhibitors31 may be attributable to the age of the patients studied (median age, 74 years), the likelihood of comorbidities, and the presence of acquired thrombotic risk factors. The finding of a significant number of thrombotic events highlights the importance of avoiding unnecessary treatment of patients with mild or superficial bleeding and supports the view of consensus guidelines that rFVIIa at a dose of 270 μg/kg, commonly used in congenital hemophilia with inhibitors, may not be appropriate in AHA.32 The registry reports a bleeding mortality rate of 3.3%, much lower than that reported for the United Kingdom registry (8%).3 This difference may reflect improved awareness of the clinical condition and the availability of effective hemostatic agents. It is also possible that the difference may result from the way in which the cohorts were collected.
Some limitations to the EACH2 registry dataset exist. Considering the total population of the participating countries (374 million) and the estimated incidence of AHA (∼ 1.5 per 106 population/year), as reported in the United Kingdom registry,3 the estimated number of cases among this population that might have been expected during the 6 years of data collection was approximately 3360. This means that only 14.9% of the potentially eligible patients (501 of 3360) were enrolled; however, this rate of success for a registry is a significant achievement. The low enrollment may be explained by the low number of participating centers within the recruitment area or may reflect the true incidence of critical cases that may differ in different geographic or ethnic backgrounds. The low enrollment and unrestricted patient management are important limits to the dataset. Participating centers entered consecutive patients; therefore, some forms of reporting bias were reduced. However, most participating centers were specialist referral centers; therefore, some level of referral bias is likely, and the population may reflect a more severely affected cohort than that reported in the United Kingdom.3 The registry did not try to influence treatment directly, although links to national treatment guidelines were provided. This means that clinicians managed patients according to their routine protocols; and hence, management was highly variable.
As for all observational sources of data, one major issue is always the lack of randomization and therefore potential selection bias when addressing any treatment comparison. PS methodology is a useful tool to reduce selection bias in observational studies15,16 and has already been used in many therapeutic fields.33⇓⇓–36 Treatment comparisons in such contexts are still prone to residual bias, which PS methods cannot take into account, however; and although sensitivity analysis can overcome residual bias by addressing its extent, these attempts to assess treatment effectiveness should be considered exploratory in nature.
In conclusion, this study reports both the largest collection of bleeding episodes recorded in AHA and the most rigorous analysis of treatment outcome. The data show that the optimal treatment of bleeding in AHA is composed of bypassing agents, which can be expected to resolve bleeding in more than 90% of cases. The data support caution in the use of bypassing agents in the typical AHA population because of an association with both arterial and venous thrombotic events.
Contribution: F.P. was primarily responsible for the statistical analyses; F.B. and F.P. drafted the manuscript; and all authors participated in definition of data fields to be collected in the registry, developed the electronic case report form, and reviewed, revised, and approved the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest disclosure: F.B. has received honoraria directly from Bayer, Baxter, Grifols, and Novo Nordisk. P.C. has served as a consultant for Novo Nordisk, Baxter Healthcare, CSL Behring, and Inspiration Pharmaceuticals and has received honoraria directly from Novo Nordisk, Baxter Healthcare, Bayer, CSL Behring, and Inspiration Pharmaceuticals. A.H.-K. has served as a consultant for Novo Nordisk, Bayer, and Pfizer. P.K. has served as a consultant, received research and travel funding, and has been a member of advisory committees for Novo Nordisk, Baxter, Archemix, and Ablynx. H.L. has served as consultant for Novo Nordisk and Baxter Healthcare and has received honoraria for lecturing from Novo Nordisk. P.M. has served as consultant and has been a member of advisory committees for Novo Nordisk. L.N. has received honoraria for lecturing and participation in advisory boards for Baxter, Novo Nordisk, and Pfizer. F.P. has served as a consultant for Novo Nordisk. L.T. has served as a consultant for Ferring and Novo Nordisk and has received honoraria directly from them.
A complete list of the EACH2 registry contributors appears in the online supplemental Appendix.
Correspondence: Francesco Baudo, Thrombosis and Hemostasis Unit, Ospedale Niguarda, Piazza Ospedale Maggiore 3, I-20162 Milan, Italy; e-mail: md9821{at}mclink.it.
The authors thank our collaborators in the participating centers for data acquisition and entry, Francesco de Cataldo for critical reading of the manuscript and discussion, and Parexel International GmbH (Berlin, Germany) for technical and registry database support.
The registry was supported by Novo Nordisk Region Europe A/S, Zurich, Switzerland (unrestricted grant). Editorial assistance was provided by Physicians World Europe GmbH (Mannheim, Germany), supported by Novo Nordisk Heath Care AG, Zurich, Switzerland.
Submitted February 6, 2012.
Accepted May 8, 2012.
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Thrombosis and Hemostasis
You are going to email the following Management of bleeding in acquired hemophilia A: results from the European Acquired Haemophilia (EACH2) Registry
Francesco Baudo, Peter Collins, Angela Huth-Kühne, Hervé Lévesque, Pascual Marco, László Nemes, Fabio Pellegrini, Lilian Tengborn, Paul Knoebl
Blood Jul 2012, 120 (1) 39-46; DOI: 10.1182/blood-2012-02-408930
Baudo, F., Collins, P., Huth-Kühne, A., Lévesque, H., Marco, P., Nemes, L., Pellegrini, F., Tengborn, L., & Knoebl, P. (2012). Management of bleeding in acquired hemophilia A: results from the European Acquired Haemophilia (EACH2) Registry. Blood, 120(1), 39-46. Accessed July 17, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1182/blood-2012-02-408930.
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Late Nights on Air
In Canada, CBC is one of those inescapable cultural touch-points. Whether you grew up listening to CBC radio and watching CBC television or not (and I'm not sure how you could have avoided it consistently), the logo and the broadcast style are distinctive. CBC radio is practically omnipresent, and even in small rural towns without radio stations of their own, CBC pipes in to give the news of the day. For the characters in Elizabeth Hay's Giller-winning novel Late Nights on Air, radio is what draws them together. Or rather, a radio station - not explicitly CBC - in Yellowknife, in the 1970s.
Radio is a relatively solitary endeavour for Harry Boyd, who left the "south" and the world of TV to return to the poetry of that is nighttime radio. Sitting at home one evening, Harry hears a voice on the radio and falls in love with it. When he meets Dido Paris, he falls in love all over again. Harry and Dido, along with Gwen Symon, Eleanor Dew make up to the core of a small cast of characters that also includes Ralph and Eddy.
Late Nights on Air is a novel about relationships and the way friendships shift and take on new forms when people spend long dark winters indoors, and days working together at a cramped radio station. Yellowknife, as portrayed by Hay, is a community of out-of-towners. None of the main characters are from there, but they all flourish in their own ways before moving on or moving up.
Although I love the scenes set in the radio booths and cozy living rooms, by far the best section of the novel is when Harry, Gwen, Eleanor and Ralph set out on a canoe trip north, following the path of long-lost English explorer John Hornby. Hay's descriptions of the changing Northern landscape are mesmerizing, and dispell any stereotype of the North as a cold or dead place. The canoe trip is filled with beautiful moments - glimpses of dawn and wildlife sightings - but Hay knows how to keep a story from becoming a fairy tale, and in one swoop turns an idyllic setting into a place of grief.
Late Nights on Air is a novel about solitude and how people move through relationships. It isn't a sad book, but it is a reflective one. Hay forces her characters into spaces they may not have otherwise occupied, and asks them to deal with emotions that most real people would run from. Each character is distinct, but marked by their interactions with others; the friendships in Late Nights on Air are real and deep because they don't twist the participants. Rather, like the pairs who canoed up Hornby's route, the friendships Hay describes are about working in tandem while remaining individual - one radio show moves into another, but the lines don't become blurred.
by Elizabeth Hay
First published in 2007 (cover image shown from McClelland & Steward edition)
Labels: adventure, CanLit, literary awards, love, multiple personalities, Toronto, travel
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Home » News » People
Noel Riley is Hansgrohe UK's new marketing manager.
New UK marketing manager at Hansgrohe
With immediate effect, Noel Riley has joined the Hansgrohe UK head office team as marketing manager.
Leading the team of four marketeers, Mr Riley will put his extensive experience to good use in order to devise, plan and deliver marketing strategies to help further the Hansgrohe UK business.
With an impressive and varied career history, he brings fresh perspectives to the team from directorial and consultant positions in the consumer durables, consumer electronics and home improvement sectors, combined with an in-depth knowledge of the bathroom industry from senior management and director roles at Spring Ram (1991 to 1998) and later Jacuzzi (2003 to 2006).
“While many companies talk about innovation, Hansgrohe truly believes in, invests in and delivers innovation – a key factor that attracted me to the brand,” said Mr Riley. “We need to better understand our customers and develop tools and communication strategies to meet their differing needs at all stages of the project from inception to installation.”
Martin Mongan, Hansgrohe UK managing director, added: “Noel and I achieved a lot together during our time at Jacuzzi. He is an inspiring people manager and I believe his approach – which is about communication, personal development and getting everyone working as a team – will achieve great results here at Hansgrohe.”
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Scattered thunderstorms during the morning becoming more widespread this afternoon. High 78F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Locally heavy rainfall possible..
Students ages 8-14 rehearse a musical number for their upcoming production of “Madagascar Jr.” at the Solon Center for the Arts Musical Theater Workshop. The cast of 25 has been involved in all areas of the production since beginning rehearsals in early June.
Tanner Mondok
Director Kris Ferencie, 49, of Lakewood gives notes to her budding thespians during a rehearsal for “Madagascar Jr.” at the Solon Center for the Arts. Performances run tonight (July 11) at 7 p.m. and at noon July 12, with tickets for $7 available for purchase at the door.
Students learn to ‘Move It’ for ‘Madagascar Jr.’ production
Sue Reid
Her participation in the Solon Center for the Arts Musical Theater Workshop this summer has taught 13-year-old Simone Davis how to get out of her comfort zone.
Playing the character Marty the Zebra in the workshop’s production beginning tonight (July 11) of “Madagascar Jr.,” Simone, a Solon resident and student at Solon Middle School, has honed her acting skills. She has prepared for her role by listening to the music, watching the movie and thinking about how she wants to portray her character, she said.
“The students are learning acting, dancing and singing in camp,” SCA Theater Coordinator Katherine Tekesky explained of the workshop which includes campers ages 8-14.
The group of 25 has come in each day since the camp began in early June and done warm ups before either learning the staging of the show or taking part in dance or music rehearsals.
They have been hard at work putting together a full production in five weeks, Ms. Tekesky noted.
Eileen Miozzi, 13, of Solon said her participation, in addition to also getting her out of her comfort zone, has taught her to be more herself.
Eileen, a Solon Middle School student, plays Alex the Lion and has enjoyed preparing for the role by reading her lines and singing at home to practice.
Students have also been very hands on in other areas of the show’s production, including tie-dying their own shirts for the shows.
“The show has a lot of fun characters and music,” Ms. Tekesky explained. A movie from the DreamWorks Animation productions, “Madagascar Jr.” features the famous song “I Like to Move It.”
The play tells the story of Alex the Lion, who is king of the urban jungle, the main attraction at New York’s Central Park Zoo. He and his best friends – Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe and Gloria the Hippo – have spent their whole lives in blissful captivity with an admiring public and regular meals provided for them. As the plot turns, Marty lets his curiosity get the best of him and makes an escape to explore the world.
Madagascar Jr. will be performed at 4 and 7 p.m. today (July 11) and at noon July 12 at the art center, 6315 SOM Center Road. Tickets are $7 and can be purchased at the door.
The performance is under the direction of Kristina J. Ferencie with musical direction by Bill Shaffer. Camp counselors assisting with the show include Destiny Coe, Logan Jancsurak and Chad and Jake Ressler.
“Some students were in camp themselves when they were younger and now come back to help out to put it all together for the upcoming generation of theater kids,” Ms. Tekesky said. “It’s a wonderful thing to see.”
Madagascar Jr.
Simone Davis
Solon Center For The Arts Musical Theater Workshop
Solon Center For The Arts
Katherine Tekesky
Eileen Miozzi
Solon Middle School
Kristina J. Ferencie
Bill Shaffer
Destiny Coe
Logan Jancsurak
Chad Ressler
Jake Ressler
For the last decade, Sue Reid has covered the government, business climate and residents of Solon. A Times reporter for 22 years, Ms. Reid has earned commendations from the Ohio Newspaper Association and Cleveland Press Association.
Follow Sue Reid
Blossom Time 2019
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Home Transport & Motoring Rafael Nadal unveils custom Kia Sportage
Rafael Nadal unveils custom Kia Sportage
Tennis superstar and Kia Global Brand Ambassador, Rafael Nadal lifted the cover off of Kia’s latest ‘X-Car’ today in Melbourne, Australia during the official VIK handover ceremony for the Australian Open 2016. The one-of-a-kind Sportage CUV was created in collaboration with Twentieth Century Fox and modeled after the popular X-Men character Mystique.
Boasting a unique design with special textured ‘tone-on-tone’ matte and gloss blue paint finish, racing wheels and tires along with red and yellow bodywork highlights, the Kia X-Car and Rafael Nadal combine powers in an online video released ahead of this year’s Australian Open. Widely regarded as the greatest left-handed tennis player ever, the secret of Nadal’s right arm is revealed in the video which can be viewed at http://tinyurl.com/gr4ek7d.
The Sportage-based Kia X-Car is the company’s second show car project in collaboration with Fox, following the Wolverine-inspired Sorento that was shown at the Australian Open 2015.Today’s ceremony also featured the handover of 110 official courtesy vehicles to the Australian Open Organizing Committee. The fleet will be driven by approximately 225 specially trained volunteer drivers and cover more than 300,000 kilometers to transport players, officials, event staff, fans, VIPs and media representatives throughout the duration of the tournament.
Tennis Australia CEO, Craig Tiley, said, “Kia makes an incredible contribution to the running of the Australian Open and I’m again very pleased to accept the key to the 100-plus fleet of Kia courtesy vehicles. The sight of the Kia cars ferrying players, officials, media and this year for the first time, fans, around Melbourne, adds significantly to the tangible excitement and buzz the event brings to the city of Melbourne.”
The majority of the 110-strong courtesy fleet – 52 vehicles – is made up of midsize Sorento CUV. Also comprising the fleet are 30 Kia’s Carnival MPVs (known as ‘Sedona’ in North America) and 28 C-segment Cerato sedans (known ‘Forte’ or ‘K3’ in some markets).
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Home News No case ruling: We’ve been vindicated- Lagos Assembly
No case ruling: We’ve been vindicated- Lagos Assembly
IBRAHIM KADIRI
The Lagos State House of Assembly has expressed satisfaction in the “no case” ruling delivered by the Lagos High Court on the alleged money laundering case instituted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Constitution (EFCC) against the Speaker of the State House Assembly, AdeyemiIkuforiji.
While reacting to the ruling in a statement made available to the pressmen by the spokesperson of the House, SegunOlulade, the House noted that the legislative institution has survived the plot to rubbish its hard-earned integrity and that of its leadership by unknown agents of retrogression and enemies of progress.
The House had earlier at the start of the case expressed ‘vote of confidence’ on the Speaker, saying members have confidence in Ikuforiji’s leadership in the manner he has been piloting the affairs of the Assembly.
At a press conference addressed by other 39 Honourable members led by the Deputy Speaker, KolawoleTaiwo, the House reaffirmed its support over judgement by the Federal High Court, describing the case as “a joke that went too far.”
The statement read, “The House this time has again reaffirmed its belief in Ikuforiji led administration of the Lagos House which has soared above common standard of excellence over the time.
While clarifying the position of the House, the Chairman of the House Committee on Information and Publicity, Olulade said he wished “to remind the public that Mr Speaker was never at any point charged for stealing, embezzlement, misappropriation or financial corruption as popularly misconstrued in the media reports.
“What we were defending was the allegation that Mr Speaker expended money collected in cash above the threshold, and which has been proven beyond reasonable doubt that the present system being run in the country does not leave any high public office holder in the status of Ikuforiji out of spending in range of the amount Ikuforiji was alleged to have expended,” Olulade declared.
He stressed further that throughout the regular court process, it was obvious that the case was one of calculated attempt to witch-haunt the Speaker and rubbish Lagos Assembly as an institution, which to him, was act of sabotage laced in ulterior motive to draw the state back tactically.
He pointed out that the Judge in his ruling has clarified that account department of the House is a financial institution and same is applicable to any institution in the class of Lagos Assembly, and as such, the Speaker could not be liable for drawing funds approved by the House to meet the purpose for which the money was duly approved, especially when it was confirmed even by the EFCC in the exhibit presented before the Court that the money was truly used for the purpose for which it was meant.
Olulade added “if Mr. Speaker was being charged for spending money duly approved by the House and for approved purposes, how would one describe the recent scenario involving Federal Government in arms purchase with whooping 9.3 million US dollars, in cash movement and for a purpose that was neither approved by the National Assembly nor the cash transfer known to the nation’s apex financial institution, the Central Bank?”
The House however said that it was sure that the fictitious petitioner has only helped the Lagos House of Assembly move forward in spite of hurdles placed before the Speaker which has made him to become a man to beat on the track of integrity and prudence.
Olulade expressed confidence in the judiciary which he described as the last hope of common man. “In spite of the stormy situation of our country’s democratic growth, I believe justice can still be found in our judicial system,” he said.
Boko Haram: Babangida Aliyu refutes ACF claim
Customs in rice seizure haul
Buhari greets Igwe Kingsley Chime on 80th birthday
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Genes_(mk11)
vue_de_la_ville_prise_de_la_promenade_Acqua_sola_1834_Chicago,Art_Institute
Jean_Baptiste_Camille__Corot
Genes (mk11)
new6/Jean Baptiste Camille Corot-529923.jpg
vue de la ville prise de la promenade Acqua sola 1834 Chicago,Art Institute
1796-1875 Corot Locations French painter, draughtsman and printmaker. After a classical education at the College de Rouen, where he did not distinguish himself, and an unsuccessful apprenticeship with two drapers, Corot was allowed to devote himself to painting at the age of 26. He was given some money that had been intended for his sister, who had died in 1821, and this, together with what we must assume was his family continued generosity, freed him from financial worries and from having to sell his paintings to earn a living. Corot chose to follow a modified academic course of training. He did not enrol in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts but studied instead with Achille Etna Michallon and, after Michallon death in 1822, with Jean-Victor Bertin. Both had been pupils of Pierre-Henri Valenciennes, and, although in later years Corot denied that he had learnt anything of value from his teachers, his career as a whole shows his attachment to the principles of historic landscape painting which they professed.
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July 22/14 10:17 am - The Challenge Sprint Abitibi Opens 46th Tour de l'Abitibi
A large crowd was gathered in Amos Monday for the presentation of the 28 teams that will participate in the 46th Tour de l'Abitibi Desjardins. Many citizens came out to encourage the local team, IAMGOLD-Specialized, as well as the best sprinters from each team who fought hard during the entire race. In the end, the French rider from Team Novo Nordisk, Quentin Valognes, finished in first place, with star sprinter Adrien Carpentier from the French national team close behind.
‘The Challenge Sprint Abitibi is a good way of noticing the best sprinters early on in the week’ commented Olivier Grondin, radio-Tour representative. Despite a strong start from the two French riders, many cyclists also stood out during this first challenge, notably Guillaume Roussel from team Espoirs Quilicot TRJ Télécom who placed in third. The Amos rider Mathieu Roy who is now racing with Team Quebec also made a good impression with a 6th position over twenty-eight riders.
On Wednesday the first and the longest stage of the 46th edition of the Tour de l’Abitibi Desjardins will take place. The cyclists will leave from the UQAT in Rouyn-Noranda at 4 :30 PM heading towards Amos. The cyclists will finish their race with three laps around the arrival circuit.
Tour de l’Abitibi press frelease
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So You Think You Can Dance S16E03: Judges Auditions #3
© FOX
A night of rising to the occasion on SYTYCD
by Stephen Mosher
The third Audition episode on the new season of SYTYCD dropped, and boy, was it chock-a-block with memorable moments, starting off with some very silly judges acting up backstage, doing some ballet barre warmups that warmed up viewers’ hearts. But with only an hour for each episode, there is little time for fun and games (and, irritatingly, little time for Cat, and I miss the amount of time we used to spend with America’s Best Reality Competition Show!), so without further ado, they dove right into the evening’s dancers, each one more endearing than the last, and each one overcoming an obstacle of some kind - a physical limitation, a rejection of some kind, or separation from a loved one or passion.
The dancers moving forward:
Bailey 'Bailrock' Munoz, hip hop. The 18-year-old from Las Vegas is shown in his profile package talking about having been born premature, which affected his health for a lot of years -- it is not clear if being a premie is responsible for it or not, but the B Boy is only 5-feet-tall and, being teased for years about it, he turned to dance for solace and strength. Well, strength is what he has because the judges went wild for his fast footwork and tricks. The affable young man is a complete joy to watch and audiences surely fell in love with him after his performance to ‘How Deep Is Your Love’ by Calvin Harris & Disciples. Dominic: 'You’re the newest generation of B Boy.' Bailey: 'You’re never too little to dream big.' The Judges: 'You’re going to the Academy!'
Luke Romanzi, contemporary. The Brooklyn native works in his father’s bagel shop, which dad wishes he would take over, but the 18-year-old longs to dance, having auditioned for the famed Julliard, who turned him away. Dad may be disappointed the family business won’t stay in the family, but he clearly wants what his boy wants, crying during the interview and throughout Luke’s performance to ‘The Crumbling’, which was a compelling 'lesson in control' (Mary). While watching Luke dance I said, out loud, 'Oh, he brought a story!' and then 'He brought Martha Graham!' His technique and athleticism were admirable and while Laurieann said, 'There is something about Brooklyn that produces a fighter,' and Dominic told him, 'Julliard messed up,' it was also noted that there was an emotional disconnect. Nevertheless, he is advancing with the full support of all four judges.
Victoria Neukom, 19, contemporary. Dustin Payne, 27, hip hop. Jay Jackson, 30, contemporary. All three are returning dancers (Dustin is here for the 3rd time) and in a montage of clips all three are shown giving performances good enough to land them in The Academy. In a particularly satisfying moment we see Jackson, who danced in drag last year, admit that last season changed his life, a fact substantiated by this year’s focus and technique. When he got the news he was moving forward, tears rolled down his face and, frankly, down mine as well. Go, boy!
Jordynn and Elan Lurie, 20 & 24, ballroom. Like the last three dancers, this brother and sister dance team returned after a trick gone wrong last season sent them home. They have, clearly, worked during the last year because their salsa furioso to ‘Baila Como Es’ set everyone ablaze, landing them on the Hot Tamale Train. Jordynn garnered most of the praise, perhaps rightly so, but both were given Golden Tickets after Nigel insisted their 80-year-old grandfather dance with Jordynn. Their tricks this year were astonishing and they executed, perfectly, the move that got them kicked off last season.
Sophie Pittman, 18, contemporary. The high GPA’d recent high school graduate confesses she will be skipping college in order to pursue her dream of dance by moving to Los Angeles from small town Tennessee. Her profile package showed her at home with her younger sister and it was easy to see why they are best friends, a fact Sophie admitted through tears during the interview, and why she needs to move away from home to show her that 'she can chase her dreams'. Sophie’s performance to ‘Girl Crush’ had some proficiency but each of the judges was clear with their respective criticisms and the young woman took their critiques with grace, listening and thanking them. Laurieann used my favorite new turn of phrase when she told Sophie she would like 'one more level in your conversation'. The cameraman worked overtime getting her teary-eyed sister on camera but it paid off big when the judges put Sophie through to the Academy because the younger sibling was thrilled for her bestie, and that’s the kind of thing we want to see when the SYTYCD dancers aren’t actively dancing.
Frank 'Ghost' Crisp Jr., 27, hip hop. The incredibly charismatic one-time mascot for The Harlem Globetrotters works in administration now for the famed basketball players but he misses, terribly, his performing. So he brings all 500% of his personality to the stage, whether he is dancing or not, and he wins over the hearts of all with an audition to ‘Pump it Up’, and while I found his dance to be in need of more dance and less comedy, there is no denying he belongs on the show. The judges thought so, too, because they gave him a Golden Ticket, reducing him to tears for a long while after his departure from the stage.
Lauren Luteran, 19, contemporary. In the heartstrings story of the night, an inspirational young woman with cystic fibrosis discusses her illness and how dance has changed her life. Her parents are, naturally, emotional as they share that their daughter will not outlive them, and viewers see Lauren using her CF Vest to help her breathe. It’s an emotional story and the young dancer’s spirit completely wins over the judges, all of whom shower her with praise for her braveness. 'There is a cure coming and I hope I can spread awareness.' It is clear she is not up to the skill level of other contemporary dancers but, in absolutely the right move, all four judges send her through to The Academy. Well done, judges.
The only dancer from the evening not advancing was the charming Maria Babineau, a 21-year-old Canadian neuroscience/biology college major who admits to never having had one dance lesson before blowing the minds of the judges with her hip hop robotic audition to ‘The Devil’s Den’. Dominic told the YouTube taught dancer that he was simply speechless, and while everyone admits to having been entertained by her, she is kept out of The Academy by the men, both of whom vote no, while the female judges said yes. Back to the classroom, Maria - only make it a dance class and come back next season and show them you mean it.
One of the things I am noticing about the season, as these auditions continue, is that with only five or six dancers being put through to The Academy on each episode, viewers are getting to develop a relationship with a limited number of contestants. There won’t be a whole lot of suspense when it comes to picking who will be on the shows when they go live, will there? But that’s okay by me because I don’t need suspense when the competition begins.
I only need more Cat Deeley.
What did you think of this episode? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
Read more from Stephen on Hotchka.com!
Posted by CRDBlog
Tags: Bailey Munoz, Dustin Payne, Elan Lurie, Frank Crisp, Jay Jackson, Jordynn Lurie, Lauren Luteran, Luke Romanzi, Maria Babineau, So You Think You Can Dance, Sophie Pittman, SYTYCD S16E03, Victoria Neukom
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Agents of SHIELD S06E05: The Other Thing
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Agents of SHIELD S06E04: Code Yellow
CRDBlog
Chuck Duncan
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LYNCH – Richard Challenor
501 Squadron, May 1942, at RAF Ibsley near Ringwood. Back Row: F/Sgt Shadbolt, Sgt Henderson, F/Sgt Carmody, Sgt Collis. Middle Row: P/O Brannigan, Sgt Kelly, F/Sgt Macdonald, F/sgt Moore, Sgt Leitch, P/O Jackson, P/O De-Merode, P/O Smith, P/O Mawer, Sgt Strang. Front Row: F/O Torbill, F/O Drossart, S/L Sine, S/L Villa, F/L Stanbury, P/O Lynch, P/O Lightborn.
[Photo provided by Eric Moore]
Richard ‘Dickie’ Lynch was born in Barbados, West Indies in 1921 to Cyril
Aubrey Lynch and his wife Louise (nee Webster, of York), and was married
in the UK to Patricia Farrar. He was a Spitfire pilot based at RAF Ibsley,
not far from Bournemouth on the south coast of England, and was killed in
action over the English Channel.
Pilot Officer Richard C Lynch (RAF service number 115146) was posted to
501 Squadron in September 1941. Dickie’s posting to 501 Squadron would
have been his first operational posting, after having completed his
operational training as a fighter pilot at No 57 Operational Training Unit
at Hawarden in North West England, not far from the city of Chester.
It was during the month of September 1941, when Dickie first arrived at
Ibsley airfield, that a famous movie film called “First of the Few” was
being shot at Ibsley. This film starred actors David Niven and Leslie
Howard and told the story of the Supermarine Spitfire and its designer RJ
Mitchell.
The crews of 501 Squadron became film stars as the Air Ministry agreed to
provide aircraft for the flying sequences that were shot at the location.
The Spitfires of 501 Squadron were chosen for this role because they were
still operating the Mark II spitfire which had been flown two years
earlier during the Battle of Britain in 1940. The Mark II Spitfire was
required because it did not have the distinctive cannon of the later
Marks, but still sported an armament of 8 .303″ machine guns.
The starring pilots were drawn from both 501 and 118 squadrons, both based
at Ibsley at the time. These pilots play themselves effectively, as pilots
debriefing after a previous air combat engagement and then waiting at
dispersal for the next “scramble” order, whilst listening to David Niven
telling them the story of RJ Mitchell and the Spitfire.
The Squadron Commander of 501 Squadron, Squadron Leader Chris “Bunny
Currant”, actually had a minor role in the film and played a small cameo
as a friend of David Niven’s character “Crisp”. He is “shot-down” and
killed by a German ME109 during the exciting battle scene at the climax of
the movie.
In later years, when talking to school children about his war years, one
little girl asked him if it was true that he had been “shot down” in the
movie. With his usual sense of humour and a twinkle in his eye, Bunny
replied with a straight face that yes, it was perfectly true that he had
been “shot down”, and in fact of all the instances during the war years
when he had been shot down, that was the only occasion when he had been
“shot down and killed”. Bunny Currant was the 501 Squadron Commander and
later became commander of the whole Ibsley Wing, which comprised three
Squadrons including 501. Sadly, Bunny died in 2008.
Dickie flew with the squadron until he was posted missing on 17th
September 1942. He would therefore have participated in the great air
battle over Dieppe in August 1942, when a chiefly Canadian assault force
attempted a large-scale raid on the French coast near Dieppe. The RAF was
called upon to provide air cover for this amphibious raid, which provoked
a massive response from the German Luftwaffe.
For the Dieppe raid, 501 Squadron was deployed to Tangmere airbase near
Chichester in the South Coast on England. They escorted a formation of
Blenheim light bombers over towards the Dieppe area at about 0750 hours,
but this mission was cancelled and they returned to base; a further
mission was flown at 1024, when they escorted some Hurri-bombers which
were briefed to attack gun emplacements on East Beach at Dieppe.
In mid afternoon, the Germans started to attack the main landing ship
convoy with Dornier 217 and Junkers 88 bombers, escorted by FW190
fighters. 501 Squadron along with other fighter units, were scrambled at
1455 hours to assist the ships at the rear of the flotilla. Reaching the
convoy about 8 miles off Dieppe, the Squadron was immediately involved in
a furious scrap with ten FW190s, several of which were damaged by 501
Squadron pilots.
Dickie was flying Spitfire Mark V (serial number EP871, Squadron Code
letters SD-L) when he was reported missing, following a convoy patrol. It
is interesting to note that Pilot Officer John Scott, flying Spitfire
serial number AB491 (SD-Y), was also lost on the same routine convoy
patrol. It is understood that “Scotty” baled out after being attacked by a
FW190 over Lyme Bay, but his parachute failed to open. It therefore seems
reasonable to conclude that Dickie was also shot down by FW190s.
In fact, the Squadron was plagued by a series of unrelated incidents over
the period 27 August to 17 September 1942, during which time no less than
7 pilots (about 30% of a typical Squadron strength) were killed in action
or in flying accidents. Hence the Squadron was withdrawn from operations
in October 1942 and moved to Ballyherbet in Northern Ireland.
Here the Squadron continued to perform convoy escort duties, but was
essentially on a rest tour. It is sad to think that had he survived the
convoy patrol, his unit may have pulled out of the front line for rest
shortly afterwards, and he may have survived the war as a result.
There is not much detail about Dickie’s success as a fighter pilot. One
day whilst filming the movie “First of the Few”, the Squadron was
scrambled from Ibsley to intercept a Ju88 at 18000 feet South of Portland
Bill. Bunny Currant decided that it was a useful learning experience for
the whole squadron, since some pilots had not even fired their guns in
anger yet. He therefore let everyone have a shot at it. It eventually
crashed onto rocks at Cap de La Hague on the Cherbourg Peninsula, and
Bunny received a scolding from Fighter Command who felt that it was
overdoing it to use over 20,000 rounds of ammunition on it. As Dickie was
a new pilot on the Squadron, it is expected that he would have been one of
the new pilots that Bunny was concerned about;, and if he was flying that
day, he would have been entitled to claim a twelfth of a “Confirmed” kill!
Dickie was also credited with a 1/2 share claim in a “probably destroyed”
Junkers 88 which was shot at on 13th March 1942 near to Casquettes at 1730
hours, whilst flying Spitfire Mark V Serial Number AD538. He shared the
claim with Wing Commander Ian Gleed, a famous Battle of Britain pilot who
was commander of the Ibsley wing at the time. Ian Gleed was later killed
in North Africa in 1943. For a kill to be classed as “Probably Destroyed”
it would be fairly badly damaged, with smoke and/or flame trailing, and
most likely to crash but not actually witnessed to do so.
Dickie’s Spitfire EP120 still exists as an airworthy aircraft to this day,
although not painted in its 501 Squadron markings. It is now operated by
the Fighter Collection at Duxford in UK.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
RICHARD CHALLENOR LYNCH
Pilot Officer
501 Sqdn., Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
who died on
Thursday, 17th September 1942. Age 21.
Buried at FULFORD CEMETERY, Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Grave Reference/Panel Number: Plot 16. Row W. Grave 18.
Record of Commemoration
Pilot Officer RICHARD CHALLENOR LYNCH
who died aged 21 on Thursday, 17th September 1942.
Serial: EP871; Mark: Vb; Fac: CBAF; Eng: M46; History : 15MU 10-8-42 501S
‘SD-L’ 1-9-42 Shot down by Fw190 on convoy patrol 17-9-42 FH25.15 P/O R C
Lynch baled out too low and killed.
Aerial photo of Ibsley airfield, January 1944
[Gravestone Marker Photo provided by James Lynch]
To the ever glorious memory
of my dearly loved husband
Pilot Officer 501 (Spitfire) Sqdn
killed in combat over the English Channel
To save Mankind
Himself he scorned to save.
The two framed signature boards in the the pub nook behind the dining room
bar at the St. Leonard’s Hotel, west of Ringwood, near Ibsley, where the
pilots of many nationalities based at the airfield during the war used to
go for “recreation”. This Hotel is on the A31 just west of the western
A338-A31 roundabout (the A31 and A338 split again at the next roundabout
east). The enlarged image shows the signature R C Lynch.
1. Left Signature Board
2. Right Signature Board
3. Signature found of R.C.Lynch
[Source: James C. “Jim” Lynch]
1 Addition »
One addition to “LYNCH – Richard Challenor”
Iain D. Edghill adds:
Flight Lieutenant Stanley Parker Edghill, joined the RAF in 1940, was posted to 15 Squadron, Bomber Command, operationally flew Stirlings, Lancasters and latterly Dakotas on Glider-towing operations.
Demobilized in 1946, returned to Barbados, died in 1988, aged 77.
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Life and Arts ›
Austin Festivals ›
Student helps create trailers for headlining artists at ACL, Lollapalooza, Voodoo
Photo Credit: Dakota Kern | Daily Texan Staff
Published on February 18, 2019 at 11:57 pm Last update on February 18, 2019 at 11:58 pm
By Landry Allred
Each year, famous artists such as Bruno Mars and Paul McCartney wait in their specially designed trailer before performing onstage. Little do they know, architecture junior Amber Pufal is one of the brains behind it.
Since the fall of 2017, Pufal has helped design trailers for the headliners of major music festivals such as Austin City Limits Music Festival, Lollapalooza and Voodoo Music + Arts Experience. While working at Austin-based Panacea Collective, the event production firm that provides her with such opportunities, Pufal creates proposals for clients. Her responsibilities include putting together mood boards for the event or headliner trailer.
Pufal said her love for music and music festivals enhances her appreciation of seeing event production from behind the scenes.
“I’ve only ever done festivals from the side of just going (to them), so being behind the scenes is cool to see it all be produced,” Pufal said. “Also, whenever you work on something for so long, it’s awesome to see it actually come to life.”
She first heard about the job through a mutual friend. Lisa Hickey, one of Pufal’s bosses, said Pufal caught onto the job quickly because of how well she fit into the niche company.
“(Her style) adds to the depth and breadth of what we do,” Hickey said. “She’s helped us get to a next level with certain clients in rendering out spaces in advance and helping them see it’s more than just furniture.”
Architecture professor Michael McCall taught Pufal last fall and said he wasn’t surprised she works at Panacea because of her skills in creative problem-solving.
“(Pufal) was one of the best students I’ve had in my teaching,” McCall said. “(I appreciate) her ability to focus on whatever that problem-solving aspect of architecture is and make it into something that has the ability to be profound, meaningful and beautiful.”
This intensive thinking with regard to design shows up daily in Pufal’s work. She said the job requires a lot of detail orientation. For instance, Paul McCartney’s trailer required some special provisions.
“We had to make sure we had no suede, animal print, leather — stuff you would never think of,” Pufal said.
The details vary depending on the artist, Pufal said. She has designed trailers for an artist who wanted lamps with only red bulbs and another who requested only white furniture.
Pufal said the job can become stressful when concepts get lost in translation or when artists’ requests don’t align with what Panacea has in stock. This past summer’s Lollapalooza showcased what challenges can arise; the team continued adding last-minute orders.
“That was a huge challenge of just like, ‘Where does this go?’” Pufal said. “And we’re in the middle of the park, and we have no idea where any of this goes.”
Despite these challenges, Pufal said she is grateful for the opportunity to pursue two of her passions simultaneously. Unique companies such as Panacea serve as the intersection between creative and technical fields.
Pufal said although her passions appear separate on the surface level, similarities emerge when they are broken down.
“Design, music and art — all of those genres of the art world — they all intermingle at one point or another,” Pufal said. “It’s important to recognize that so we can work together even though we’re defined by separate fields.”
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Diablo Magazine /
June 2012 /
50 Things You Gotta do This Summer
Eat, play and explore this summer!
By Kristen Haney and the Diablo Editors
Fly a kite
Swing by Highline Kites’ solar-powered kite mobile at Cesar Chavez Park, before catching the wind on the Berkeley Marina. The kid-friendly Squeeky the Octopus ($18) requires no assembly and launches easily. highlinekites.com.
Have Fun, Fun, Fun
No band defines the California summer sound like the Beach Boys. And with Brian Wilson back after a 15-year hiatus, the 50th anniversary tour should be a blast. Greek Theatre, Berkeley, apeconcerts.com. June 1.
Reignite Recess Rivalries
Attempt to blast a red rubber ball across Rudgear Park during Kickball East Bay’s Thursday night games. Grab at least 11 friends or officemates to field a team, or sign up solo and make friends on the grass. After the games, players flock to Dan’s Irish Sports Bar for drink discounts and raucous games of flip cup. kickballeb.com.
Hike Under a Full Moon
See nocturnal animals and night blooms during a one-mile hike up Mount Wanda, under the glow of the rising moon. nps.gov/jomu. June 4, July 3, August 1 and 31
At this year’s Contra Costa Reading Festival, don’t miss Jonathan Franzen, the only living writer to land the cover of TIME magazine in the last decade. The author discusses autobiography and fiction writing. $12, guides.ccclib.org/srf. June 21
View Venus
Don’t miss Venus’ passage across the sun on June 5. The next one won’t occur until 2117. Chabot Space & Science Center hosts a viewing party with telescopes and a simulcast inside the theater on the big screen. Stop by before sunset for the best views. chabotspace.org. June 5
Shriek on a Roller Coaster
Experience the tallest inversion west of the Mississippi on Six Flags Discovery Kingdom’s new 15-story, 62-miles-per-hour Superman Ultimate Flight coaster. Get on the ride faster than a speeding bullet with a flash pass, which saves your place in line until it’s your turn to ride. sixflags.com/discoverykingdom.
Do the Tiki Crawl
For the best tiki-themed bar crawl, start at BART–accessible Conga Lounge in Oakland for a Gilligan’s Island cocktail: light and coconut rums, banana liqueur, and pineapple and cranberry juices. congalounge.com. It’s less than a mile walk to Piedmont’s Kona Club, where specialties include the three-person Scorpion bowl drink and animatronic hula girl. konaclub.net. Take the 51A bus to Alameda, and it’s just a five-minute walk to Forbidden Island’s waterfalls, glowing puffer fish, and exotic libations, featuring fresh-squeezed juices and house-made syrups. forbiddenislandalameda.com.
Eat/listen
Jazz Up Your Chinese
If crispy Peking roast duck isn’t global enough for you, stop by Walnut Creek’s Modern China Café on Saturdays, when the Afro-acid jazz ensemble Audiobraille plays on the patio. modernchinacafe.com.
Bike the Urban Wine Trail
Explore Oakland’s urban wine scene with East Bay Winery Bike Tours. Starting in Jack London Square, groups of eight to 10 take a five-hour tour from the Oakland estuary to the beach in Alameda. Meet winemakers, taste award-winning wines, and find out where they’re hiding those grapes. Bikes, helmets, and lunch are included, and the leaders’ utility bikes haul back your purchases. No need for spandex: Most people opt for fitted jeans and casual wear. $89, eastbaywinerybiketours.com.
Dine by the water
For brunch, order the baked huevos rancheros on Boca Nova’s patio, which overlooks the boats near Jack London Square. bocanova.com. Try Skates on the Bay’s 10-item raw bar at sunset, when the sun casts an orange glow over the Berkeley Marina. skatesonthebay.com. On Tuesdays, Lake Merritt’s Lake Chalet remains one of the best places to lounge on the deck, crack open a beer, and sink your teeth into carne asada tacos. thelakechalet.com.
Play Like the French
Learn the bocce-esque game of pétanque with Lamorinda Pétanque Club on nontournament Sundays, when the club welcomes beginners. Practice tossing the boules (hollow steel balls) closest to the cochonette (small wooden target ball) while avoiding rocks, trees, and other obstacles. lamorindapetanque.blogspot.com.
Lick a Margarita
Nothing says summer like popsicles. Or margaritas. Combining these two hot-weather treats are Sloshees, made-in-Oakland margarita popsicles packed with a full ounce of Jalisco blue agave tequila. Stash ’em in your freezer for a lazy sunny afternoon. Sold at several East Bay locations, including Draeger’s and Gene’s Fine Foods. sloshee.com.
Rev Your Engines
Create a cardboard race car sculpture with wheels, windows, flames, and decals at Walnut Creek’s Bedford Gallery. Cardburg 2012: the Super Track turns the gallery into a miniature speedway for high-speed remote control art cars. bedfordgallery.org.
Enjoy Opera al Fresco
Opera in the Park returns to Walnut Creek’s Civic Park on June 24, with classics from Il Trovatore, Carmen, and La Traviata. For a more intimate look, go to the rehearsal on June 10. festivalopera.org. June 10, 24
Drive to the Top of Mount Diablo
Whether you enter from North Gate Road or the South Gate entrance, you can make it a leisurely trip by stopping at Rock City to explore sandstone formations and caves. Or head straight up Summit Road, and look to the west for views of the Golden Gate Bridge, and, on a clear day, the crest of the Sierra Nevada to the east. parks.ca.gov.
Give Date Night an Intergalactic Spin
Every Friday and Saturday in July and August, Chabot Space & Science Center screens a different sci-fi movie, from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Wall-E. For $25, the center will throw in dinner, admission to the museum, stargazing, and a planetarium show. chabotspace.org.
Guzzle a local brew
Don’t miss Linden Street Brewery’s new taproom at the Port of Oakland, where pigs are roasted every third Sunday of the month through October. lindenbeer.com. In Martinez, E. J. Phair’s new brewery doubles as a performance venue, welcoming live music every Saturday night. ejphair.com. And sample Ale Industries’ signature Orange Kush at its Concord taproom during First Saturdays, featuring live music, street food, and crafts from local artists. aleindustries.com.
Pick up a fishing license, bait and tackle, and a boat at Lake Del Valle’s marina. All you’ll need is a pole to start reeling in trout and bass. ebparks.org/parks/del_valle.
Root for the Pigs
Alameda County Fair celebrates 100 years, with a downtown parade, a new concert format, and an exhibit of memorabilia. But it will also retain the old-fashioned fun we’ve come to love, from Ferris wheels to funnel cakes to Alaskan pig racing: Ten-week-old piglets with numbered jerseys and names like “Darth Oinker” and “Al Pigone” that scurry around a small racetrack to the gleeful cheers of children. alamedacountyfair.com. June 20–July 8
Stroll the Garden
For one month, the Ruth Bancroft Garden transforms into an outdoor sculpture exhibition. Go during the preview party on June 15 to mingle with the artists. ruthbancroftgarden.org. June 15–July 14
Charter a Vessel
Try your hand at helming a seaworthy vessel during Lake Merritt Boating Center’s Summer Sailstice. On June 23, the center will offer free rowboat rentals. oaklandnet.com. June 23
Get Into the Swing
Don’t miss Jack Pollard’s Swing Soiree during Clayton’s Concerts in the Grove. Backed by his nine-piece precision band, the baritone covers favorites from Frank Sinatra to James Brown. For dinner, run over to Moresi’s Chophouse, where the food is available for takeout. ci.clayton.ca.us, moresischophouse.com. June 23
Catch an Andy Samberg Flick
In 2007, Andy Samberg told us that his earliest comic inspirations were the films of former SNL star Adam Sandler. Now, Samberg gets to play Sandler’s son in the R-rated comedy That’s My Boy, in theaters June 15. In August, Samberg costars in the indie rom-com Celeste and Jesse Forever, which earned raves at Sundance.
Go on Safari
Pack a tent for the Oakland Zoo’s sundown safari, which includes behind-the-scenes looks at feeding preparations, animal ambassadors, and interactive storytelling by the fire before camping overnight in the meadow. $85, oaklandzoo.org.
July 14, 21, and 28; August 4 and 11
Ditch Stadium Grub
If you go to one baseball game this season, schedule it during the Coliseum’s Bay Area BBQ Championship and Beerfest. During the day, tong-wielding pros dish out grilled meats, and then Beerfest kicks off two hours before first pitch. Spring for the $12 tasting package, and you’ll get a souvenir mug and three tickets to sample from more than 30 microbreweries. bayareabbq.org, oakland.athletics.mlb.com. July 7
Celebrate Bastille Day
Celebrate French independence with a special menu at Chevalier in the city of Lafayette, which was named for the popular general and captain of the National Guard of Paris. chevalierrestaurant.com. July 14
Sip Wine and See a Music Legend
Concerts don’t get any classier than the outdoor series at Wente Vineyards. This summer’s lineup includes Sheryl Crow (July 23), Diana Krall (August 15), and Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers (August 29). We’re getting front-row seats to hear East Bay native John Fogerty tear through his Creedence Clearwater Revival hits on August 1. wentevineyards.com/concerts.
Share a Sundae
Enlist a friend to help you conquer the black and tan sundae (vanilla and toasted almond ice cream with hot fudge and caramel), or get adventurous with the ube or avocado flavors at any of Loard’s Ice Cream’s 16 East Bay
locations. loards.com.
Watch the Sky Explode
Livermore is filling the void caused by San Ramon’s cancellation of its Fourth of July festivities by lighting up the skies over Las Positas College. livermorefireworks.org. July 4
Rock Concert-Ready Fashions
Blackhawk Plaza still holds its summer concerts on Fridays from July 6 to August 24, but this year, style gets into the mix, with fashion shows by Apricot Lane. Snap up your favorite concert looks (think chic maxi dresses and on-trend cropped tees) for the next week. shopblackhawkplaza.com.
Slurp a Boozy Milk Shake
Rudy’s Can’t Fail Café spikes milk shakes such as its classic Shakin’ Jesse, a combo of
Guinness, chocolate ice cream, and espresso. iamrudy.com.
Grab a Picnic
Nab provisions from Berkeley’s Summer Kitchen Bake Shop, especially the summer corn salad, heirloom tomato panzanella, and a new favorite: pulled pork slathered in barbecue sauce and sandwiched with tangy coleslaw inside a soft Acme roll. summerkitchenbakeshop.com.
Avoid the art crowds
Avoid Oakland’s hectic First Fridays and join Art Murmur on Saturday. The strolls include 18 galleries and seven mixed-use venues, including Classic Cars West, a showroom with rotating exhibits. Meet at Farley’s Café at 2 p.m. on the third Saturday of the month, when artists lead tours of local galleries. oaklandartmurmur.org.
Sip a Market Cocktail
From 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. every Saturday, head to Lakeshore Avenue’s new Easy Lounge for the farmers market cocktail menu, which features an eclectic mix of ingredients: Think unconventional choices like radishes, fennel, and avocado. easy510.com.
Light Up the Racetracks
Every other Friday night, Livermore’s Umigo dims the lights and fires up strobe lights and dance music for a party atmosphere on the indoor go-kart tracks. umigoracing.com.
Catch a Mind-Blowing Movie
Long before The Matrix’s red pill of truth, Berkeley resident Philip K. Dick was second to none in writing head-spinning science fiction stories that connected to the contemporary world. Much of Dick’s work has been successfully adapted into movies (Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, Blade Runner), others not so much (Nicolas Cage’s Next). We’re psyched that the classic We Can Remember It for You Wholesale is getting a reboot as Total Recall on August 3. The first time this story was filmed, it became a campy vehicle for a former Golden State Governor named Ah-nuld. Let’s hope this new version with Colin Farrell stays truer to Dick’s creepy-prescient take on technology and individual identity.
Toss Some Steel
Learn how to horseshoe with the Tri-Valley chapter of the Northern California Horseshoe Pitchers Association, which meets at the Alameda County Fairgrounds clay pits. Once you’ve mastered the technique, head to the horseshoe pits at Waterfront Park in Martinez for unstructured play. nchpa.com, cityofmartinez.org.
Discover Volcanoes
Discover hidden volcanic domes in the Marsh Creek–Morgan Territory area on a two-mile hike with Save Mount Diablo. You’ll learn about volcanic rock formations, fascinating geology, and a magma-filled history. Reservations required, savemountdiablo.org. July 29
Pet Reptiles
After you’ve ogled the classic cars and hot rods at Danville’s Hot Summer Nights, check out James Jungle Adventures’ kid-friendly reptiles, including a 100-pound tortoise named “Tank.” danvillehotsummernightscarshow.com. August 16
Play Follow the Leader
For an easy all-ages hike, set out with an East Bay Parks naturalist at twilight, when owls and coyotes are frequently spotted on the trails on Brushy Peak. To get to the top of the mountain, take a $30 tour with Livermore Area Recreation and Park District. Rangers drive vans into the closed area, then lead four-hour hikes through sandstone rock formations and wind caves for views of the Sierra Nevada and soaring golden eagles. ebparks.org/parks/brushy_peak, larpd.dst.ca.us.
Get Sauced
Take a BBQ tour of the USA at two new down-home joints. Tanya Holland's B-Side BBQ in Oakland dishes out Texas-style brisket, jerk-spiced ribs, and smoked chicken. bsidebbq.com. Livermore’s Sauced BBQ & Spirits has Carolina pulled pork and St. Louis–cut spare ribs, with your choice of sweet, tangy, or spicy sauce—plus whiskey on tap. saucedbbqandspirits.com.
During That Bar’s dueling piano nights, you’re encouraged to belt out your favorite hits along with the performers. Wednesdays through Saturdays, thatbardanville.com.
Celebrate Your Two-Wheeled Transport
Dust the cobwebs off your bike, and head to Jack London Square’s Pedalfest for pedal-powered spin art, music, and ice-cream stations. pedalfestjacklondon.com. August 18
Run Social
Grab a girlfriend and pound the pavement on a three- to five-mile loop through downtown Walnut Creek and nearby trails. Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m., lululemon.com.
Go Naval
Get your passport stamped aboard the restored SS Red Oak Victory, which has returned home to the Richmond shipyards, where it was built during WWII. Throughout the summer, the vessel hosts a classic movie series with WWII–era films. ssredoakvictory.com.
Catch Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Norah Jones, Metallica, and 50 other bands in Golden Gate Park at the Outside Lands Music Festival. sfoutsidelands.com. August 10–12
Eat Sausages
The new Telegraph café offers drool-worthy house-made sausages (try the whiskey fennel) and a great outdoor beer garden. Just look for the sign that says “Sausage.” telegraphoakland.com.
Dine in John Muir’s Orchard
Dress up for Fresh Aire Affaire, an evening dinner and auction at John Muir National Historic Site’s Victorian estate. $150, muirheritagelandtrust.org. August 18
Enjoy Art After Dark
On the final Friday of each month, Oakland Museum of California hosts Summer Nights, featuring ’60s hits and special exhibits and programs. Don’t miss the classic 1968 film screenings under the stars in Oak Street Plaza. museumca.org.
Concord: Stronger Together Gala
For the past 18 years, Concord’s Monument Impact has been a force in the city, serving its vulnerable immigrant and refugee communities. Recently, the nonprofit center hosted its Stronger Together gala to celebrate the work that volunteers, local businesses, unions, and others have done to support immigrants in the East Bay. Among those honored for their contributions were volunteer English tutor (and onetime San Francisco Giant) Rob Andrews, former board member Margaret Hanlon-Gradie, and John Muir Health.
The Oakland Museum of California’s gardens overflowed with more than 250 guests during this yearly fundraising gala. Guest chefs Reem Assil and Barbara Llewellyn provided the scrumptious bites, while the auction offered bidders experiential packages. In keeping with the current Queer California: Untold Stories exhibit, the evening’s entertainment featured Oaklash, a drag and queer performance group.
Black and White Ball
In celebration of its six years of providing free transportation to cancer patients in Alameda County, Drivers for Survivors hosted its yearly ball in Pleasanton. The entertainment was top-notch, including Marcie Dodd (previously seen in Wicked on Broadway) and accomplished pianist Carol Weiss; the keynote address was given by Dr. Laura Esserman.
Sparkles and Spurs
Denizens of the East Bay headed to Round Hill Country Club in Alamo and kicked up their heels to support Hospice East Bay at the annual Celebration of Care Gala, raising around $200,000 to aid the nonprofit’s programs and services. This year’s theme, Sparkles and Spurs, meant that the more than 300 guests came dressed in their cowboy-best, sporting boots, Stetsons, and chunky belt buckles.
Ragin’ Cajun
The Sandra J. Wing Healing Therapies Foundation, which offers alternative treatments to patients with cancer, welcomed over 320 sponsors and supporters to its annual Ragin’ Cajun event. The Tri-Valley bash featured an African–inspired feast and music.
To celebrate its spring campaign The Art of Travel, Neiman Marcus hosted a fashion show at its Walnut Creek location. Entrepreneur Sheryl Grant and social media influencer Sydel Curry-Lee (whose famous family members in attendance included her brother Stephen Curry) spoke at the event, which featured sips, bites, and the opportunity to shop the latest trends with help from jet-setting fashion experts as well.
Imagine Gala
Opportunity Junction furthered its mission of transforming the lives of low-income families in East Contra Costa with its 2019 fete, which featured gourmet food, drinks, both live and silent bidding, dancing, and inspirational entertainment.
Power of Kindness
Old Hollywood glam met giving back at this special event from Party In-Kindness. With the mission of raising funds for the Katie Nues Foundation for Katie’s Clinic at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland—which aids patients and their families affected by Rett Syndrome—guests heard from heartwarming speakers and danced to tunes from DJ Lance Callanta.
Fire and Light Soiree
The Crucible’s signature fundraiser returned for its 20th year, and the industrial arts center celebrated the occasion with the unveiling of a major piece of collaborative art that incorporated many locally sourced elements, including steel from an old span of the Bay Bridge. There were also cocktails, a catered dinner, and a live art auction.
Night in Havana
San Leandro’s Davis Street Family Resource Center raised more than $150,000 at this flamboyant, Cuban-themed evening of dinner and dancing; CEO Rose Padilla Johnson proudly announced that it was the organization’s highest-grossing event to date. The funds will help low-income families in the area improve their quality of life through both short- and long-term assistance.
Rock the CASA
ABC7 San Francisco news anchor Dan Ashley returned to the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek with his yearly fundraiser for Court Appointed Special Advocates, Friends of Camp Concord, and Big Brothers Big Sisters. Always a star-studded event (Cheap Trick and Melissa Etheridge have performed in the past), the 2019 extravaganza featured “Lady Marmalade” singer Patti LaBelle.
Diablo Magazine
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Home / Android Apps / Log Into Twitter Account to Access a Word of Advertising and Activity
Log Into Twitter Account to Access a Word of Advertising and Activity
Log into Twitter account will give you access to a world of social media possibilities once you learn the process. It is not complicated and just about anyone can learn the process on how to log into Twitter account. Twitter is more than just a tool for entertainment is a powerful marketing tool for business as well. In order to get a Twitter account and log in and you must first sign up. You will need to remember your email address or username as well as the password for future references to login to Twitter.
Once you have entered basic information about yourself, you will have a Twitter account set up. Simply enter username and email address along with the password in the future and you will have access to Twitter. Do the world of Twitter you can promote tweets as well as advertise. A tweet has the potential of reaching tens of thousands even millions of individuals depending on who likes it and retweets it. By liking and following people, you can help to tailor your specific niche of what your interests are.
If you’re just looking for social media fun, then follow those people that you find interesting, and you will have a live feed of activities at your fingertips. If you are a marketing specialist looking to utilize Twitter to help grow your business then you can specifically follow and friend people that are like minded or in the same business as you. By allowing you to the diverse ability of a specific niche, Twitter increases the power of your social media time. Twitter has the ability to be shared across virtually every platform out there.
Twitter not only can be used for business and entertainment can also be used to stay in touch with family, friends, and loved ones. You can utilize Twitter’s direct message feature to send a message that is private, or you can comment a message on a Twitter feed that the world can see. In order to access all that it has to offer you so you will need to know the process to log into Twitter account.
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Previous Best Android Video Player Depends on Your Preferences
Next You Tube Download is Free and Easy to Obtain
APK Apps Power Android Devices
Clash of Clans Android
TubeMate App Download is Available From Many Different Places
MovieTube for the Creative Side of You
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arm rus
The Constitutional Court of the RA
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The Structure of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia
ARMAN DILANYAN
Judge of the Constitutional Court
Was born in 1974 in the village of Getapnya, Ararat Marz.
1996 - graduated from Faculty of Law of YSU.
2004 - PhD in International Public Law. PhD thesis topic: "International Courts and Issues of Peaceful Settlement of Interstate Disputes".
From 21.08.1996 worked at the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia as the First Category Specialist of the Secretariat of the Staff, Assistant to the Vice-President and Head of the Division of Analysis of Individual Applications of the Legal Advisory Service (Department).
29.09.2012 - 26.04.2013 - Head of the Legal Advisory Service (Department) of the Staff of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia.
From 03.04.2006 to present - teaches at Armenian-Russian (Slavonic) University ("International Law", "International Justice").
From 03.04.2006 till February 2013 - Head of the Chair of International and European Law at the Law Faculty of Armenian-Russian (Slavonic) University.
On 12.12.2013, by the decree of the President of the Republic of Armenia, was appointed Judge of the RA Administrative Court.
Since 2015 - teaches at the RA Attorney School ("Representation in Administrative Litigation", "Representation in Administrative Proceedings").
On 28.04.2017 was elected a member of the Council of the Association of Judges of the Republic of Armenia by the General Assembly of the Union of Judges of the Republic of Armenia. Member of the editorial board of the “Judicial Power” scientific-methodical journal.
Author of a number of scientific articles.
Married with two children.
[The Constitutional Court] [The Constitution] [The Law of RA on the CC] [The Rules of Procedure] [The Decisions] [The Timetable of the Proceedings] [The Structure] [International Relations] [Events] [Library] [Legal Resources] [International Almanac] [The Bulletin] [Constitutional Justice] [Annual Reports] [National Reports] [News] [The Virtual Photogallery]
© The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia 1997 - 2019
Address: 0019, Yerevan, Baghramyan Ave. 10,
e-mail: armlaw@concourt.am
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USDA NRCS Provides Startup Capital for Conservation
Allegra Wrocklage
The Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) program of the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) stands out as a valuable tool for innovative conservation projects to gain access to startup capital and to meet the demand for private investment on working lands. In June 2017, NRCS announced a new cohort of CIG awardees in the Conservation Finance category with a total of $8.8 million in funding across 11 projects.
In our interview with Kari Cohen, director of the Conservation Innovations Team at NRCS, CFN sought to get Cohen’s perspective on the newly funded CIG projects. We asked about his outlook on how NRCS and the CIG program will continue contributing to the conservation finance field.
The answers below have been edited for clarity and brevity.
CFN: What were the priorities that NRCS sought in evaluating this round of CIG conservation finance applicants?
Cohen: This is the third year the CIG program has had conservation finance as a category. Each year, NRCS refined the funding announcement as we learned more about the types of projects we wanted to fund. We were looking for a broad swath of project types representing various sectors of agriculture and natural resources as well as different components of the conservation finance sector.
CFN: How would you characterize the market barriers to conservation finance that NRCS aims to address through CIG funding?
Cohen: NRCS’s key goal is to provide seed funding to allow for proof-of-concept pilot and demonstration projects. When it comes to impact investments, nobody is going to invest in the first pilot effort of a new financial vehicle; it takes some grant funding to get things off the ground.
A lot of the CIG projects just are not going to happen without grant funding, given they are in their initial stage where nobody is expecting [financial] returns from these projects. Because NRCS is not expecting financial returns on its “investment” through CIGs, putting this grant money out there allows the CIG awardees to take reasonable risks and do things they otherwise would not be able to do.
CFN: What challenges do you think the CIG recipients face in implementing their work?
Cohen: It is the first time people are trying to do these types of projects. Take, for example, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and i2 Capital pay-for-success schemes or the Climate Trust Environmental Price Assurance Facility. If they are successful, the opportunities for scale and impact across the country are tremendous. But these concepts face all the challenges of getting something new off the ground, such as getting partnerships together, working with private landowners on new projects, and building financial vehicles.
CFN: What projects are you particularly excited about in this round of funding?
Cohen: The Climate Trust’s Environmental Price Assurance Facility could kick-start not just greenhouse gas market credits, but also a larger financial structure that allows folks to buy and sell environmental credits at the most efficient price point. It is modeled on a similar facility put together by the World Bank in the global context and has real promise for environmental markets in the United States.
The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association is trying to integrate conservation into farm mortgages. For example, implementing conservation on your land makes you eligible for a lower interest rate. Farmers can then take the difference and apply it to conservation activities. The scale is quite immense if you think of how many farmers use farm operating loans, as almost all of them do. Integrating conservation into traditional financial vehicles like this is a huge opportunity.
CFN: How do you describe the role of NRCS in providing funding for early conservation finance project models such as the CIG recipients?
Cohen: NRCS offers a substantial amount of funding for early-stage projects, which occupies a unique niche that others are not doing. For example, foundations tend to focus more on the next stages of things that have already been proven to be successful. There aren’t many people out there doing the high-risk capital that NRCS does, which is why the funding is so coveted and valuable.
CFN: Are you seeing scalability in CIG projects?
Cohen: It is a little early. We have been funding the Conservation Finance CIG category since 2015. Many of those projects are still ongoing. One clear example of an early success is the Climate Trust’s Climate Trust Capital project, which was established with the help of the Climate Trust’s 2015 CIG award. The Climate Trust was able to leverage the CIG funding to secure a substantial investment from The David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
CFN: Do you think there is the potential or need for follow-on funding and support for successful CIG projects?
Cohen: There is a real desire for identifying mezzanine capital if a CIG project has been successful. NRCS is brainstorming ideas for how to best do this. Is there some way for NRCS to provide larger grants or co-invest in projects? Can we provide B-level funding for successful CIG projects? We are working through some of these ideas now.
CFN: Do you have any reflections on the first round of conservation finance CIG projects funded in 2015 – especially now that they’re three years down the road?
Cohen: Our first year of conservation finance CIG funding was a little tricky because it was the first time we funded that specific category and both NRCS and many applicants were kind of feeling around in the dark. None of the 2015 projects have finished yet and many will likely request extensions to complete their work.
The Partners for Western Conservation sage grouse credit project will be a winner – their team was just able to leverage the CIG project to complete an initial transaction with a mining company. The greenhouse gas-market-related projects continue to struggle overall because the policy environment continues to be so uncertain.
A major highlight from the 2015 cohort is the development of the Conservation Finance Practitioners Roundtable community of practice – seeing it grow, take form, and harness the passion of the conservation finance community.
CFN: How does the CIG program fit into NRCS’s larger strategy of implementing conservation finance?
Cohen: NRCS’s goal is to develop funding sources and new income streams that complement NRCS’s Farm Bill programs. NRCS is now looking internally at how to incorporate the principles of conservation finance learned from CIG programs into our own Farm Bill programs. Encourage Capital issued a report earlier in September 2017 that explored ways NRCS could better leverage private capital in our Farm Bill programs beyond CIG.
CFN: What is the outlook for the CIG program – specifically, the conservation finance category?
Cohen: The CIG program has been an amazing vehicle to support emerging strategies in market-based conservation. Leadership seems to really value the program for its ability to support emerging approaches, though how we may do that is an open question. And of course, speaking of the program as a whole, we will need to see if CIG is reauthorized in the next Farm Bill.
The full list of 2017 Conservation Finance CIG awardees includes:
The Climate Trust - Environmental Price Assurance Facility
The Climate Trust proposes to develop and launch the Environmental Price Assurance Facility to serve as a buyer-of-last-resort for credits to help mitigate risks associated with the future value of environmental credits.
The Nature Conservancy - Leveraging Water Markets to Secure Water for Nature and Agriculture
The California chapter of The Nature Conservancy is pioneering two initiatives that use a novel combination of data analytics and water markets to meet freshwater conservation goals and improve the overall management and drought resiliency of California water resources.
Trout Unlimited: Liquid Assets Project - Mobilizing Impact Investment Capital for Agricultural Water Sustainability
Trout Unlimited proposes to develop and pilot a series of impact investment opportunities in the Colorado River Basin, improving agricultural water sustainability and providing financial returns to investors and agricultural producers.
National Audubon Society - Development of Self-Sustaining Markets for Bird-Friendly Beef to Incentivize Grassland Conservation on Private Lands Across the Great Plains
National Audubon Society proposes to fully develop the supply chains of its Audubon Conservation Ranching program to provide ranchers with access to premium beef markets, creating the first scalable self-sustaining model for a linked network of ranchers and consumers of bird-friendly beef.
Texas Parks & Wildlife Foundation - The Gulf Coast Conservation Revolving Loan Fund: Harnessing Private Philanthropy to Achieve Transformative Land Conservation on the Texas Gulf Coast
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation proposes to establish the Gulf Coast Conservation Revolving Loan Fund to support efforts to maximize Deepwater Horizon oil spill mitigation funding by leveraging private investment for public and working lands conservation along the Texas Gulf Coast.
The Conservation Fund - Pathways for Producers in Metro Atlanta Region: Unlocking Capital and Resources to Conserve and Transform Local Food Systems
The Conservation Fund proposes to create an Agriculture Conservation Fund with an initial target of $5 million in impact capital to accelerate the pace of working lands conservation in the 23-county region surrounding Atlanta.
The Nature Conservancy - Drain Infrastructure Transactions for Clean H2O
The Nature Conservancy proposes to create a novel conservation delivery and funding approach to realize new financial benefits from the adoption of conservation practices through modified drain assessments in the Great Lakes region.
Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association - Integrated Investment Incentives for Conservation Program
The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association proposes to promote natural resources protection through the development of specialized loan products to stimulate and reward conservation practices.
Delta Institute - Financing Regenerative Agriculture: Innovative Mechanisms
The Delta Institute proposes to create innovative mechanisms to help investors operationalize and scale investments in regenerative agriculture in Wisconsin. This is a system of holistic practices that promote soil health and restore ecosystem services while maintaining yield.
Chesapeake Bay Foundation - PA “Offset Partnerships”: Bringing Pay for Success Models to Agricultural Conservation and Stormwater Compliance
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation proposes to demonstrate the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of using a pay-for-success approach to attract new streams of capital to implement conservation practices on agricultural lands in York and Lancaster counties in Pennsylvania.
I2 Capital: Brandywine Christina Water Fund Pay for Success Mechanism
I2 Capital proposes to develop a pay-for-success approach to attract private impact capital to support the implementation of the Water Fund, in which upfront investments in conservation practices on farms in the Brandywine Christina Watershed in Delaware and Pennsylvania will be repaid by downstream beneficiaries (e.g., utilities and municipalities) after achievement of pre-determined environmental outcomes.
Note: This article describes a grant program that currently supports Conservation Finance Network. The Conservation Fund is a partner of CFN's. The Nature Conservancy has donated to CFN.
To comment on this article, please post in our LinkedIn group, contact us on Twitter, or email the author via our contact form.
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Kalyani Basu
Using Financial Models Sets up Land Trusts for Success
Shea Flanagan
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Home | DALLAS / FORT WORTH | Industry News | ALM for DFW
ALM for DFW
07/01/2019 18:00:00 | Viewed: 1
Qasem Sharif, owner of ALM Environmental Consultant
DALLAS/FT WORTH - Originally from the Middle East, Qasem (“KC”) Sharif came to the Metroplex in 1980 for school and has made the Big D his home ever since. “Dallas is a great city to live in,” he said. He’s even a solid Cowboys fan.
Sharif studied electronic technology while in college but took some classes in environmental studies. That led him to work for another environmental impact company for many years. The last 10 years, he was a subcontractor for them.
In good American fashion, Sharif started his own environmental consulting outfit – ALM Environmental Consultant - in 2016. The four pillars of ALM (pronounced “A - L - M,” not “Alm”) are asbestos, mold and lead consulting, and environmental site assessment.
Texas and federal laws govern all of these. (Sharif has to stay current yearly on the latest rules and regulations coming down from the EPA, OSHA, etc.) “There are a lot of rules you have to follow,” Sharif said.
Company X will call upon ALM when they want to build something, knowing that certain protocols have to be followed per regulation. ALM will then advise in the categories mentioned.
Asbestos, for instance, even though not used since 1985 in America, can still come into this country from products made in other countries. ALM will determine if an abatement company has to remove asbestos in order to proceed with the project.
Mold is an issue in the moist climate of Texas. “Mold will always be here, forever,” Sharif said. Fortunately, “Mold can be easily cleaned.” Sharif cited the mold that happens after a major storm, such as Hurricane Harvey.
Environmental site work comes in three phases: the history of the land (i.e., did a gas station used to sit on this property at one time?), soil samples to test for contamination, and any clean up required.
Indoor air quality is ALM’s biggest service. “We service mostly the DFW area,” Sharif said, “but we’ll go anywhere in Texas. The environmental field is so wide.”
Sharif’s experience in starting a company in America was smooth: “It’s really easy to start a business in the United States, especially in Texas. Growth is in our agenda, but we’ll grow slow, not fast.”
Having ALM in DFW helps keep Texans safer and breathing easier.
ALM Environmental Consultant offers a wide range of environmental services, located in Fort Worth. -dsz
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Dan Zulli dan@constructionnews.net
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Morocco Enjoys Growing Support in Latin America (Peruvian news site)
Morocco is receiving growing support from Latin American countries on the Moroccan Sahara issue, Peruvian news website "Peru Informa" reported.
In an article entitled "Morocco gains more support in Latin America", Peruvian expert and scholar Ricardo Sanchez Serra stresses that the autonomy proposal presented by Morocco to resolve the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara, "benefits growing support in Latin America", noting that this proposal reflects the spirit of recent Security Council resolutions.
The autonomy initiative is in line with UN resolutions calling for "a political, realistic, viable and sustainable solution to the problem of the Sahara" and is the solution likely to put an end to the suffering of the sequestrated in the Tindouf camps, south of Algeria, he said.
As an example of the defeat of the separatist thesis in Latin America, the author of the article recalled the last position of El Salvador, which confirmed, via a statement from his Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that he was " evaluating its diplomatic relations "with the puppet republic, as part of its new foreign policy.In the same context, the Peruvian expert mentioned the position of the authorities of his country, which banned in September 2017 the entry into the national territory of the separatist named Khadijetou El Mokhtar.
He further reiterated that Peru had stated that it had no intention of maintaining relations with the puppet entity.
Sanchez Serra added that some founders of the "Polisario Front" have come to the conclusion that the regional conflict around the Moroccan Sahara is only a map exploited by a party that caresses the dream of "hegemony" in the region and that Algeria has "transformed the Front into a separatist movement" for expansion purposes.
The Peruvian expert also denounced the tragic conditions of the sequestered in the Tindouf camps in Algeria, deprived of the most basic rights, including the right to move freely.
-News on Western Sahara issue/ Corcas-
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I've gone on record that I'm a big fan of the Suikoden series. The first three games in the series are good to great (though 3 is a step down from the others). I've never played the fourth... until now. This is because it sucks.
The intro of the game is full of grainy footage that looks like it was taken from someone's vacation, interspersed with imagery of dolphins swimming. Since I'm not on drugs, this isn't very impressive.
The main character is a dude named Lazlo, but I give him a more fitting name.
Seriously, look at this guy. He practically screams "douchebag"
The game begins by throwing you right into every battle type: war, regular, and duel.
...and I immediately lose the war battle. You can probably win this if you know what you're doing (and even then I'm not sure). Going into it playing for the first time... it's likely the enemy will one-shot you quickly.
Time for the regular battle! If you don't lose to these guys, the battle just kinda ends on its own after a while. Yeah, you're not even allowed to win this one. It's really making the heroes look like chumps right out of the gate.
....eww.
Here's Ass' compatriot, Snowe. I'm not sure if that's a dude or a lesbian. Konami has gender differentiation issues throughout this series.
Man, this guy is all over Ass.
A DUEL~! follows. While I get a major upper hand early on (I was whooping him, as you can see), he got two hits on me and I lost. Again, this is a battle you could win if you know what you're doing, but it's a little bit tricky even then. Playing for the first time? Forget about it. Are they done burying the hero of the game yet?
Well, Ass is done losing battles, but now it's time for a really long speech by Glen. Everything in this game is voice acted, and unlike most games, it doesn't let you skip through the text or speed it up in any way. You're stuck listening to the characters slowly speak their lines.
This is boooooring. I don't care about any of these people, there is nothing remotely interesting about any of this, and the speech just goes on and on. Hard to believe this came from the same developers who made the amazing original Suikoden.
As the lesbian doles out orders, it's interesting how much more unfriendly all of the text looks when people are calling your character "Ass" all the time.
What's up with the character models in this game? Seriously, why are their heads so tiny? They're like the Goombas in the Mario Bros Movie.
...or Chris Bosh.
Ass and Snowe set out for the beginnings of a glorious adventure. An adventure that is only tolerable for me because I can constantly giggle at the main character's name like a fourth-grader.
I like how Ass has one HP more than Snowe, just to let everyone know who the REAL badass is in this group.
For a game that came out in 2005, these are some real Everquest circa 1999 graphics. Actually, I think that game had better graphics than this when it launched. Somehow, the graphics in this game are actually a step down from Suikoden 3.
Snowe's last name is... Vingerhut? Ha ha...har... well, at least the mystery of Snowe's gender is finally cleared up. He isn't a lesbian, he's just a beautiful man.
At this point Ass has to run through the city street lighting torches for people. I tried to just charge through, drive-by lighting everyone's torches by brushing by them, but it didn't work. No, I had to go back and talk to each individual person, hearing whatever boring shit they had to say, to light their torches. Well, onward...
I'll give this game props for one thing: it brings back running sprites for the loading screens. One of the more charming aspects of the first two games in the series. Alas that it in no way makes up for the mediocrity surrounding everything else about this game.
...seriously, what the HELL is with the tiny heads? This is really starting to creep me out. Actually, the entire upper body seems to be too small on these character models.
My first battle - or at least, particularly winnable battle - is against some hooligans in an alleyway.
After getting some rest back at the base, noble Ass goes to the training grounds to train with other soldiers. At this point you can enter a battle with three soldiers, all of whom miss a lot and only do 1 damage even if they do hit. You can fight this battle infinitely just by repeatedly talking to one NPC. I sat here and pressed X for 10 minutes or so and went from level 1 to level 7. The exp wasn't slowing down, either, and I could have kept going. Since levels restore your health to full, if one had a turbo controller, they could probably leave this on overnight and vault the main character to high levels right out of the gate. Amazing to see a developer leave such an easy exploit in a game right at the beginning.
I try to get my party together as the game dictates, but no one wants to join me since Snowe isn't with me. No idea where Snowe is, guess I'll run around. Is it just me, or are all of these characters wildly unlikeable?
Behold. I don't know if I can get through this game when I constantly have to look at the MC's very visible buttcrack. Why do his baggy shorts have to be skin tight right there? Who designed these character models, and were they fired immediately afterwards? Nah, they probably got a raise while Konami fired all of the people who knew how to make a good RPG.
Finally, the game lets me form a party. None of these characters are particularly descript. Reminds me of Lennus 2's early character choices, but not quite as bad. This game fixes Suikoden 3's idiotic system of only controlling three of your six characters at a time in battle; now you can control everyone, as it was pre-Suikoden 3. The problem is, they went and gave this game a different issue by limiting your party to four characters. It just doesn't feel like a Suikoden game without six characters. The limitation hits you over the head right from the start when it gives you six party members and only lets you bring four. Why even give the player six characters at this point? All that does is draw attention to the lame reduced party size.
If the sheer genericness of everyone doesn't bother you enough, the WHIRLING CAMERA will. Seriously, the camera just spins around the battles in a big circle really fast. It's frickin' nauseating. There's a camera option in the menu that might fix it, I'll find out later.
That concludes my one and only post on this game. I'll be playing more of it later on my own, whenever I can get over Ass' obnoxious crack.
BONUS POST-CREDITS SCENE!
All hands on Ass!
This guy is a real... jerk.
That's right, lady. Give it up.
OTHER SUIKODEN POSTS
Suikogaiden Vol. I
Suikogaiden Vol. II
Posted by Jericho at 3:55 AM
Labels: 2005, Playstation 2, Suikoden, Suikoden 4, Suikoden IV, Things That Suck
Yep, this gets startlingly far away from what the series is supposed to be. I'm happy you gave the character this name, too, though!
Schtolteheim August 9, 2013 at 6:48 AM
Vingerhut resembles the word "Fingerhut", the German word for "thimble", a hat for the finger.
Ass August 18, 2013 at 11:57 PM
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Merle Oberon Horoscope Pisces and Zodiac Pig
Merle Oberon (Actress) was born on February 19, 1911 in Mumbai, India. Merle Oberon died on November 23, 1979 in Malibu, California at age of 68 in Malibu, California due to Massive Stroke. Merle Oberon's horoscope sun sign is Pisces and Chinese zodiac sign is Pig. Merle Oberon was famous for Wuthering Heights.
More about Merle Oberon
Merle Oberon is tall, with brown - dark eyes and black hair. Merle Oberon"s nationality is Indian.
Celebrities related to Merle Oberon
James Cagney (July 17, 1899): Details and Pictures
Clark Gable (February 01, 1901): Details and Pictures
Gary Cooper (May 07, 1901): Details and Pictures
Robert Donat (March 18, 1905): Details and Pictures
Rex Harrison (March 05, 1908): Details and Pictures
David Niven (March 01, 1909): Details and Pictures
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (December 09, 1909): Details and Pictures
Frank Sinatra (December 12, 1915): Details and Pictures
Meanings of Name Merle
The name Merle was originated from English. It is used as a female name. The name Merle is of the meaning of Contracted form of Meriel. The name Merle is used in English speaking countries. Merle is the French word for blackbird. The French themselves have never used it as a first name.
It was probably first used in the English-speaking world as a contracted form of Meriel, variant of Muriel..
More Celebrities with First Name of Merle
Merle Haggard (April 06, 1937): Details and Pictures
Merle Oberon (February 19, 1911): Details and Pictures
More Celebrities with Last Name of Oberon
Daily Pisces Reading and Charts
Daily Pig Reading and Fortune Cookie
Pisces Celebrities
Pig Celebrities
More Celebrities Born on February 19
Merle Oberon Pictures - click to enlarge
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You are here: Home / Featured / Danger! Terror! Horror! – Five Horror Movies To Look Out For
Danger! Terror! Horror! – Five Horror Movies To Look Out For
April 9, 2013 By Jillian Boyd
The cover of April’s issue of Empire proudly declares 2013 The Year Of Fear. And indeed it seems like the horror genre has resurfaced from its leaf-covered grave with a vengeance. Aside from remakes of The Evil Dead (review coming soon) and Carrie hitting our screens in the course of this year, what else can we expect to be terrified with on the silver screen in the next few months?
Have no fear (hurr hurr) because I have a handy list of five horror flicks that are hitting the screens to scare the pants off you. Follow me, if you dare….
Dark Skies (Out now)
Take your bog-standard American family, consisting of a mother, a father and their two sons. Let one of those sons experience something rather eerie on an evening bike ride, culminating in all the street lights turning off at once. And let alien-related mayhem ensue from that point. It is the simple premise of Dark Skies, produced by Paranormal Activity alumni Jason Blum. Knowing the impact that the Paranormal Activity series has had on the horror genre, expect Blum to know his stuff. Out now, so if this tickles your fancy, away with you to your nearest cinema!
More about Dark Skies on IMDb.
Evil Dead (April 19th)
If you go into the woods today, and so on and so on. Sam Raimi’s seminal horror classic gets the remake treatment, only it isn’t exactly a remake. Described as both a reboot and a loose continuation of the original trilogy, Evil Dead 2013 has loosely the same premise : five people, a cabin and a book of pure evil. Film maker Fede Alvarez’s debuts as a feature film director means business (and believe me, I’ve seen it already and it totally does). Out next week, so hold on to your boomsticks for a little while longer…
More about Evil Dead 2013 on IMDb.
Byzantium (May 10th)
Neil Jordan returns to the vampire genre after directing Interview With a Vampire way back in 1994. This time, he puts a unique twist on the lore by telling the story of Clara (Gemma Arterton) and Eleanor (Saiorse Ronan), mother and daughter vampires who have been on the run from dark forces for centuries. They settle in a dilapidated guest house in a small British seaside resort where Clara sells her body for cash and Eleanor bonds with a young local who she takes into confidence. You’ll have to wait another month for this one, but something tells me it’s quite worth it.
More about Byzantium on IMDb.
World War Z (June 21st)
Talk about being tardy to the party. Marc Forster’s adaptation of the zombie apocalypse-themed novel was due out late last year, but got pushed all the way to the start of the summer. It stars Brad Pitt as a UN employee who travels the globe to find a cure for a zombie pandemic. Numerous false starts have plagued the production, but with the release date set and the promotion campaign kicking off, World War Z will be coming to you very soon.
More about World War Z on IMDb.
Carrie (November 29th)
Different cast, different era, but the story remains the same. Based on Stephen King’s debut novel, Carrie tells the story of a bullied and lonely teenager, who is abused by her religious fanatical mother. But inside her, she harbours an extraordinary power : she has, unbeknownst to everyone, the power of telekinesis, which she can summon at will. When a horrible prank at the school prom goes wrong, Carrie sees no other way out than to let everyone feel just how powerful she is.
More about Carrie 2013 on IMDb.
Jillian Boyd
Jillian Boyd is a lifestyle blogger, author of romantic/erotic fiction and a self-confessed film addict. Likes Doctor Who, Hannibal, Matt Fraction and David Aja's Hawkeye comics, crafting and baking.
Dork Hero – Ben Wheatley
Check out the Reign of Death trailer feat. Noel Clarke
Dork Review: Kick-Ass (The Movie)
The A-Team: Dork Review
Filed Under: Featured, Film + TV Tagged With: Byzantium, Carrie, Dark Skies, Evil Dead, Films, Horror, World War Z
Evil Dead - Dork Review | Dork Adore says:
[…] I’ve said before in my horror film preview, Evil Dead 2013 means business. From the fact that there’s next to no CGI effects (the […]
This is only going to make my Netflix problem worse
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Carson DUI Penalties and Fines
Defend Against Penalties and DUI Fines in Carson, California
The law in the state of California is very strict when it comes to DUI offenses, due to the severity of such offenses. Because of the harshness of these punishments that are handed out to Carson DUI offenders charged with impaired driving, it is always a good idea to get in touch with an experienced and reliable drunk driving lawyer.
DUI Fines and Penalties under the Law in Carson
Carson law considers DUI as a criminal offense and the DUI law lays down several severe punishments and penalties. If convicted, one may face some serious punishments which include hefty fines, suspension of license, getting installation of an ignition interlock device, spending time in jail and ending up with a criminal record. The severity of these offenses depends upon the number of instances a person has been convicted for a DUI offense. For the first time offenders, penalties include fine up to $1000, up to six months in jail, license suspension for six months which may be even more, three year probation period and having an ignition interlock device installed for up to five months.
Our teams of experienced DUI attorneys at Carson DUI Lawyer who are based in Carson, California contest DUI charges on highly technical grounds. Our defense is largely based on the cross-examination of prosecution witnesses and on police violations under the federal Constitution. In most cases, we ensure that the extent of DUI sentencing or DUI punishment is lessened or, in many cases, dismissed for lack of evidence.
Types of Prosecutions Under DUI Sentences in Carson, California
However, most of the DUI offenses in Carson are considered misdemeanors, and therefore have resultant DUI consequences.
Do Not Hesitate To Contact Us If You Have Received A DUI Offense in Carson
The Quantum of DUI Sentencing in Carson, California
Any person convicted of a DUI offense including a refusal to comply offense in Carson automatically faces a driving prohibition applicable throughout California and either a fine or jail term, or both and a likelihood of probation.
DUI Punishment in Carson for Causing Death or Bodily Harm
The Difference Between Federal and State Laws on DUI Fines in Carson
Often, the provincial suspensions are seen to be more stringent than criminal prohibitions. The Law demands that the accused go through a remedial program and take part in the ignition interlock program. Refusing to comply may result in further penalties that may be harsher. For example in Carson and all of California, the suspension of a license may range from 1 year for a first offense to five year suspension for third offense or more.
What to Expect From an Experienced Carson DUI Lawyer When Faced with a DUI Sentencing
The quantum of fines and penalties depend on the nature of convictions in every DUI offense. We at Carson DUI Lawyer ensure that you get the best possible defense for your DUI case. Our lawyers will often visit the site of the incident to get first-hand information to build the foundation of your case. We take all necessary steps to effectively cross-examine the prosecution’s witnesses and to challenge any other evidence that they put forward.
To know more about the DUI penalties and fines in Carson, CA give us a call now!
Carson DUI Laws
Carson DUI Defense Attorney
Carson DUI Defense Attorney With Consistent Results
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New Vinyl Times, February 1981
The Costello file — an undocumented history
Scanning errors uncorrected...
"Less Than Zero" Single
— Tiny independent label, Stiff Records, receives a demo tape from Deck Costello. They are excited with the song "Mystery Dance" which they see as a perfect song for Dave Edmunds to record.
— It turns out that Deck Costello's demos had been rejected a year earlier by Stiff when he submitted them under the name Declan P. McManus. Searching for a new identity, Declan McManus, who had taken on his mother's maiden name "Costello", is at the drunken suggestion of manager/Stiff Records co-owner Jake Riviera dubbed "Elvis" after the King of rock'n'roll.
— Elvis Costello's first single ("Less Than Zero/Mystery Dance") is released on Stiff Records and the name "Elvis Costello" is assumed to be a spoof pseudonym perpetrated by producer Nick Lowe.
— "Less Than Zero":
The cryptic lyrics derive from Costello's reaction to British Nazi Party leader Oswald Mosley's appearance on a British TV talk show. ( "Hello Mr. Oswald with your Swastika tattoo...")
— Producer for the single is Stiff recording artist Nick Lowe (producer of Graham Parker) who had introduced Costello to Stiff Records after a chance reunion with Costello upon Costello's return to London from Liverpool. The two's friendship went back to Costello's days as a roadie for Nick Lowe's earlier band, Brinsley Schwarz.
My Aim is True
— A full album is recorded in five days on a miniscule budget of $4000. The decision to make an album was inspired by the abundant songwriting material evidenced at the "Less Than Zero" recording session.
— Backing musicians for most of the album are a transplanted Marin County country rock group of unkowns — Clover. Members of Clover have today landed themselves in Tommy Tutone, Huey Lewis and the News, and the Doobie Brothers. None are counted among the members of the Attractions.
— For the Reggae sound on "Watching the Dectectives" Nick Lowe utilizes Graham Parker's crack backing band, The Rumour. — None of the backing musicians on the album are credited due to British muscian Union rules. — "Angels Want to Wear My Red Shoes": The red shoes are the Doc Marten boots worn by England's violent skinhead youth gangs.
— "I'm Not Angry": The song's references to "...working all day in the vanity factory..." go back to Costello's days as a computer operator at the Elizabeth Arden Cosmetics plant in Liverpool.
— Creative source material for much of the album is taken from Elvis' little black "Revenge Book" of all the people he fantasizes getting even with if he ever becomes successful.
— Costello puts together a new band for his second album — the Attractions. The Attractions are made up of Pub Rock veteran drummer Pete Thomas (formerly in Chilli Willi who were managed by Jake Riviera), novice keyboard whiz Steve Naive, and Bruce Thomas on bass. Thomas was recruited through an ad placed in the New Music Express by Stiff but was nearly rejected out of hand by Costello when he listed his favorite groups as Graham Parker and Steely Dan.
— Costello leaves his wife, Mary McManus, and son Mark, for model Bebe Buell (ex-girl friend to Rod Stewart, Todd Rundgren, and Jimmy Page) after the two meet backstage at Costello's celebrated Hollywood High School concert.
— Emotional Fascism is picked as the original title for the album but is discarded as too controversial.
— The desire of Costello and Nick Lowe for a U.S_ hit single becomes obsessive. "Accidents Will Happen" is seen as the sure-fire vehicle but fails to make a dent in the charts although the album sells over a half million copies.
— "Green Shirt": The shirt in the song is a trademark blouse worn by TV news commentator Angela Rippon — England's answer to Barbara Walters.
— Although Nick Lowe's "Little Hitler" came out first (on his Pure Pop for Now People album), he had actually borrowed the title from a Costello demo of "Two Little Hitlers".
Get Happy!!
— Costello takes on his first producing assignment handling Ska-sensations The Specials' debut. The album is an unprecedented success in England.
— Costello records an album's worth of material in Amsterdam but scraps it, deciding all he had done was make a too-polished "superior Jags record". The Jags being an English hit-making Costello sound-alike band.
— Searching for source material and inspiration, Costello goes to famed London oldies emporium Rock On record store. He leaves with bags of original '60's STAX and ATLANTIC Memphis Soul singles.
— "I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down": Elvis' version of an obscure B-side by Soul duo Sam and Dave is released before the album on the Specials' Two-Tone Records', solely in Holland.
— Jake Riviera and Elvis Costello form F-Beat Records to release Costello, Rockpile, and promising newcomers when Riviera's Radar Records is shut down. F-Beat comes after initial plans for Costello to record for the Specials' Two-Tone label falls through.
— Taking Liberties is a i .S. release only. It is a collection of the numerous British non-album B-sides, give-away 45's, and 12" singles for which Costello had become notorious.
— "Hoover Factory": The song is about an actual factory, located outside of London, incongruously built with an elaborate Egyptian motif which had long been admired Costello and dates from his first demo tape.
— "Big Tears" features Mick Jones of the Clash on lead guitar.
— "Radio Sweetheart" dates from Elvis' pre-Stiff country-rock days as Deck Costello and Flip City.
— "Stranger in the House" was originally written as .a tribute to style of his beloved Country music idol George Jones. Costello's dream of meeting the legendary George Jones was more than realized when George Jones recorded "Stranger in the House" in a duet with Elvis.
— After the massive Heatwave Festival outside of Toronto in summer of 1980, Costello vows never to tour North America again. In January, 1981 he reappears for a massive U.S. coast-to-coast "English Mugs Tour" with Squeeze as opening act.
— In London club dates before the tour, Elvis Costello, billing themselves as "Otis Westinghouse and the Lifts", surprised Squeeze audiences by showing up as Squeeze's opening act;
— Costello brings Glen Tilbrook, lead singer from Squeeze, to do co-lead vocals on "From a Whisper to a Scream". Costello's interest in Squeeze extends to plans for him to produce their next album.
New Vinyl Times profiles Elvis Costello and reviews Trust.
Cover and page scans.
Each new Costello album is an advance and a consolidation. On last year's Get Happy, Costello delivered a Stax soul-in-fluenced, bottom heavy sound, rough and dense. On Trust, he's recorded with a cleaner mix, but with the same brilliant array of styles, sounds, and voices, from grandiose pop to rockabilly primitive and cocktail lounge cool. All of this with new lyrical installments in the Costello world view, sardonicism and bottled-up passion, the stuttered rage and ironic philosophizing. With tangled and witty wordplay Costello has made himself the most distinguished lyricist since the early Bob Dylan, with lyrics worthy of James Joyce and Cole Porter. Costello has come along with the New Wave, but he stands head and shoulders above the rest, each release a testament to a new genius.
Retrieved from "http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=New_Vinyl_Times,_February_1981&oldid=17317579"
Trust reviews
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About Elvis Presley Movies
Elvis Presley Movies
The Trouble With Girls
The Trouble with Girls (full title The Trouble with Girls (and How to Get Into It)) is a 1969 comedy film starring Elvis Presley. It was the only Elvis movie to have a subtitle in its name and is an odd mixture of music, comedy, and melodrama. The Trouble with Girls is unique for an Elvis Presley picture because Elvis is on screen for less than half the film.
The film takes place in a small Iowa town in 1927. A traveling chautauqua company arrives in the town, but internal squabbles create friction amidst the troupe. The new manager, Walter Hale (Elvis Presley), is trying to prevent Charlene, the troupe’s “Story Lady” (Marlyn Mason), from recruiting the performers to form a union.
Meanwhile, the town has a scandal following the murder of the local pharmacist Wilby (Dabney Coleman). Although a shady gambler is arrested, Walter realizes that the real killer is Nita (Sheree North), one of Wilby’s employees. Walter successfully gets Nita to confess during a chautauqua performance, where she makes public the sexual harassment that Wilby directed at her. Nita’s self-defense plea frees the wrongly jailed man, but Charlene is outraged that Walter used the crime to financially enrich the chautauqua.
In the end, Walter convinces Charlene of his ethics and morality, and she remains with the company.
‘The Trouble With Girls (And How To Get Into It)’ is a 1969 film starring Elvis Presley. It was the only Elvis movie to have a subtitle in its name. ‘The Trouble With Girls‘ is an odd mixture of music, comedy, and melodrama, The Trouble with Girls is unique for an Elvis Presley picture because Elvis is only on screen for about a third of the film. Elvis stars as Walter Hale, the manager of a traveling chautauqua. A chautauqua is a school that provides education combined with entertainment. Walter is beset with a number of problems as his show arrives in town for one week.
He worries that he might have to give the mayor’s untalented daughter the lead in the children’s pageant to stay in the mayor’s good graces. He must contend with his assistant, played by Marlyn Mason, who is constantly harping about the union rights of his employees. Finally, someone murders the local druggist, and a member of the chautauqua is accused. These loose ends are tied together during the final show, when Walter cannily reveals the killer’s identity and wins the heart of his pretty assistant.
Change of Habit
Charro!
The New Gladiators
Stay Away, Joe
Buy "The Trouble With Girls" on DVD
1960's 1969 Anissa Jones Betty Smith Carol Bix Charlene Dabney Coleman Duke Snider Edward Andrews Elvis Presley Frank Welker Harrison Wilby John Carradine Johnny Joyce Van Patten Marlyn Mason Mr. Drewcolt Mr. Morality Nicole Jaffe Nita Bix Sheree North Vincent Price Walter Hale
Elvis Presley Links
Elvis Presley Filmography
Elvis Presley in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
Elvis Presley Official Website
Elvis Presley on IMDB
Elvis Presley on Wikipedia
© Copyright Elvis Presley Movies 2008 - 2019, All rights reserved.
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You are here: Home » Archives for selfie
Tag: selfie
A selfie cliché is a selfie cliché is a selfie cliché
Eamonn Fitzgerald • Friday, 2 February, 2018 • 0 Comments
“I took advantage of our tendency to be unoriginal on social media to make this animation,” says Hiérophante, who adds: “Some people point out to me that some similar videos already exists so it seems that making a video about clichés is a cliché too.” The most popular clichés include, #selfie, #peacesign, #latte, #tattoo and #sixpack, and these homogenized variations on a theme here are as trite as their creators.
PS Remember last week’s media narrative about iPhone X being less popular than expected? Here’s Apple CEO Tim Cook on the firm’s latest results:
“We’re thrilled to report the biggest quarter in Apple’s history, with broad-based growth that included the highest revenue ever from a new iPhone lineup. iPhone X surpassed our expectations and has been our top-selling iPhone every week since it shipped in November.”
From Kathmandu to Paris, the selfie
Eamonn Fitzgerald • Thursday, 9 November, 2017 • 0 Comments
Sometimes, a headline is more baffling than illuminating. Example: “Oppo to launch selfie expert F5 in Nepal”. Oppo? And who is the “selfie expert” known cryptically as “F5”?
It helps if one knows that OPPO Electronics Corp. is a Chinese electronics firm based in Guangdong that’s intent on grabbing a share of the Asian smartphone market, and its new F5 model is being marketed as the device that “takes camera phones to the next generation.” Then there’s this: “It defies the paradox of marrying Artificial Intelligence technology with organic beauty to create the most natural and stunning of selfies.” How does it do that? Time to revisit our headline about Oppo, the F5 and Nepal. It’s from the Kathmandu Post and, quoting from the press release, the writer notes that “the AI will utilise information from a massive global photo database to beautify a selfie shot taken by the Oppo F5.” Is that “massive global photo database” Getty? Or is it a Chinese venture using surveillance photos for commercial purposes? There’s a story there.
Meanwhile, London-based creative Daniel McKee notes that more than six million people visit the Mona Lisa at the Louvre each year and “Many share their visit on social media.” Using images found on Instagram, he created this:
Words: selfie and dronie
Eamonn Fitzgerald • Wednesday, 4 November, 2015 • 0 Comments
The word “selfie” was first used in September 2002, in a forum posting on the website of the Australian public broadcaster ABC:
“Um, drunk at a mates 21st, I tripped ofer and landed lip first (with front teeth coming a very close second) on a set of steps,” said the poster, student who called himself Hopey. “I had a hole about 1cm long right through my bottom lip. And sorry about the focus, it was a selfie.”
No surprise, of course, when one considers other Australian diminutives: “barbie” for barbecue and “firie” for firefighter. It was the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year for 2013. Definition: “informal noun (plural: selfies), a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.”
Speaking of selfies and their place of etymological origin, here’s a cautionary tale: a woman who posted one with the barcode on her Melbourne Cup ticket had her $825 winnings stolen. In happier news from the neighbourhood, All Black rugby star Sonny Bill Williams took an Oscar-inspired selfie. BTW, if you need some selfie esteem, Andrej Karpathy has written an algorithm to rate the results.
Last year, the noun “dronie” entered the vernacular. It’s “a video self-portrait taken by a self-controlled drone” and Vimeo employee Alex Dao is credited with coining the word in response to this excellent video posted by Amit Gupta.
Meanwhile, Alex Chacon, the creator of the around-the-world epic selfie video has made an epic “dronie” of his latest adventure in Mexico.
Finally, “Dronestaventure” was made by Michael Lopp using a DJI Phantom 3 Standard. The music is Buzzin’ by the Canadian DJ, producer and graphic designer Edmond Huszar, better known by his stage name OVERWERK.
This year’s Word of the Year? In our age of emoji, either # or ♥.
Yes, the European Central Bank’s belated embrace of quantitative easing will dominate today’s headlines, but given the widespread disaffection with the continent’s out-of-touch leadership and the gnawing sense of being left behind in an increasingly globalized world, Europeans are switching off. Instead of the dismal Mario Draghi, people want the fascinating Kim Kardashian. And she’s everywhere today.
First: Mrs Kanye West took to Instagram on Tuesday to share some snow shots while wearing a “Furkini” that shows off her big booty, flat tummy and signature boobs. She captioned the pic: “Boots with the fur…”
Second: Medium has a marvellously nerdy piece titled “How PAPER Magazine’s web engineers scaled their back-end for Kim Kardashian (SFW)“. Snippet: “The first thing Knauss did was get a big honking server to run on the Amazon cloud, with a large hard drive. He copied all the images and files from the smaller original web server to the new, big server. Then he installed a piece of software called Gluster, which allows many computers to share files with each other—it’s sort of like a version of Dropbox that you can completely control.”
Third: On 28 April, Selfish, by Kim Kardashian, will be published. Blurb: “Kim has mastered the art of taking flattering and highly personal photos of oneself. For the first time in print, this book presents some of Kim’s favorite selfies in one volume.”
Over to you, Mario.
The Disruptive Polaroid
Eamonn Fitzgerald • Friday, 5 December, 2014 • 0 Comments
To celebrate its 85th birthday, Businessweek has listed the 85 most disruptive ideas that have emerged during its lifetime. They range from GDP to the jet engine, and in between there’s the Pill, Singapore, <h1>HTML</h1>, Starbucks and the AK-47. When you mouse-over No. 84, it makes the whirring sound of a Polaroid picture being taken, and that’s because Edward Land’s innovation is adjudged to be one of the most disruptive ideas in recent times. In his tribute to the camera, Christopher Makos writes:
Polaroids were the first social network. You’d take a picture, and someone would say, “I want one, too,” so you’d give it away and take another. People shared Polaroids the way they now share information on social media. Of course, it was more personal, because you were sharing with just one person, not the entire world.
I met Andy Warhol in the ’70s at the Whitney Museum and started doing projects with him because he loved my photographs. He’d never had a pal who was a photographer, so I was his guru, showing him what cameras to buy, what pictures to take. Andy loved Polaroid. Everything was “gee whiz”; it was brand-new. So immediate.
Taking a selfie with a Polaroid is also very intimate. They weren’t called selfies back then, obviously. People weren’t as self-aware. We didn’t have 10 years of reality TV shows in the social consciousness. But Polaroid marked the beginning of self-awareness.
The selfie society
Eamonn Fitzgerald • Monday, 25 November, 2013 • 0 Comments
“Selfies, Selfies and more selfies: so much so it is the word of the year and in order to celebrate and understand the concept of selfie, I decided to curate seven of the best pieces I have read around selfies.” So said Om Malik in his regular “7 stories to read this weekend” feature.” Included is what he terms the “definitive” article on selfie culture by Jenna Wortham.
The major selfie artist of our time is, of course, Kim Kardashian. Her sister Khloe recently gave an interview in which she revealed Kim’s top secret: shoot from above to avoid double chins. The front-facing camera of the iPhone 4 spurred the rise of the craze, but there’s more to the story than hardware as Kate Losse pointed out in The Return of the Selfie in the New Yorker in June:
“For teen-age social-media users, who generally prefer on-the-go mobile applications, like Instagram and Snapchat, the self is the message and the selfie is the medium. The Instagram selfie, with its soft, artfully faded tones, has replaced the stern, harshly lit mug-shot style of years past. The small, square photo, displayed on one’s phone, invites the photographer and the viewer to form a personal connection. There is little space on Instagram for delivering context or depicting a large group of people; the confines of the app make single subjects more legible than complex scenes. A face in an Instagram photograph, filtered to eliminate any glare or unflattering light, appears star-like, as if captured by a deft paparazzo.”
In his list, Om Malik adds a link to the marvellous selfie taken by astronaut Aki Hoshide while working outside the International Space. Next stop for the selfie? Mars. But wait. Been there. Done that.
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home Economic Statistics Database Economic Statistics by Country Zambia Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Year 2015
Zambia Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production
Country or Region: Zambia › Change country
Economic Indicator: Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production › See all Zambia indicators, › See Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production data for all countries
Data Source: CIA Factbook
National or Regional Currency: Zambian Kwacha
Currency Symbol: ZMK
Disputes - International: in 2004, Zimbabwe dropped objections to plans between Botswana and Zambia to build a bridge over the Zambezi River, thereby de facto recognizing a short, but not clearly delimited, Botswana-Zambia boundary in the river
Refugees And Internally Displaced Persons: refugees (country of origin): 16,684 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (2013)
Trafficking In Persons: -
Illicit Drugs: transshipment point for moderate amounts of methaqualone, small amounts of heroin, and cocaine bound for southern Africa and possibly Europe; a poorly developed financial infrastructure coupled with a government commitment to combating money laundering make it an unattractive venue for money launderers; major consumer of cannabis
* Source: CIA
Other Aggregate Indicators for Zambia
Geography (Location, geographic coordinates, map references, area, terrain, elevation extremes, borders, coastline and maritime claims) for Zambia
Climate and Environment (climate, environmental issues, environmental agreements, natural hazards) for Zambia
Natural Resources, Agricultural Products, Land Use and Water Use for Zambia
Nationality, Ethnic Groups, Languages and Religions for Zambia
Telephone Statistics: Number of Fixed Lines, Mobile Phone Penetration Rate for Zambia
Age Structure, Median Age, Gender and Urbanization for Zambia
Population Growth Rate, Birth Rate, Death Rate, Net Migration Rate for Zambia
Life Expectancy Rate, Infant Mortality Rate and Total Fertility Rate for Zambia
HIV, AIDS and Other Major Infectious Disease Rates for Zambia
Literacy Rate, Educational Expenditure and School Life Expectancy for Zambia
Gross Domestic Product (PPP, Official Exchange Rate, Real Growth Rate and Per Capita) for Zambia
Industries and Industrial Growth Production Rate for Zambia
Labor Force by Occupation for Zambia
Poverty Line, Gini Index, Household Income and Consumption for Zambia
National Budget and Public Debt for Zambia
Bank Rates (Commercial Bank Prime Lending Rate, Central Bank Discount Rate) for Zambia
Stock of Money, Stock of Quasi Money, Stock of Domestic Credit for Zambia
Stock Market Capitalization: Market Value of Publicly Traded Shares for Zambia
Trade Statistics, Export Statistics, Export Partners and Products, Import Statistics, Import Partners and Products for Zambia
Foreign Exchange Reserves and Gold Reserves for Zambia
FDI Statistics (Foreign Direct Investment at Home/ Inbound FDI, Foreign Direct Investment Abroad/ Outbound FDI) for Zambia
Exchange Rate Statistics for Zambia
Electricity Production, Electricity Consumption, Electricity Exports and Electricity Imports for Zambia
Oil Production, Proven Oil Reserves, Oil Consumption, Oil Exports and Oil Imports for Zambia
Natural Gas Production, Proven Natural Gas Reserves, Natural Gas Consumption, Natural Gas Exports and Natural Gas Imports for Zambia
Television and Radio Statistics (TV Stats, Radio Stats) for Zambia
Internet Statistics (Internet Users, Internet Hosts, Country TLD) for Zambia
Airport Statistics (Paved Runway Airports, Unpaved Runway Airports, Heliports) for Zambia
Transport Statistics (Railways, Roadways, Waterways, Ports and Terminals, Airports, Merchant Marine) for Zambia
Military Statistics (Military Expenditure, Military Branches, Service Age and Obligation, Manpower Available and Fit for Military Service) for Zambia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Zambia
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Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Afghanistan
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Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Albania
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Algeria
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for American Samoa
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Andorra
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Angola
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Anguilla
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Antarctica
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Antigua and Barbuda
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Argentina
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Armenia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Aruba
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Ashmore and Cartier Islands
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Australia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Austria
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Azerbaijan
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Bahamas
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Bahrain
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Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Barbados
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Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Belize
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Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Bhutan
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Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Bosnia and Herzegovina
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Botswana
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Bouvet Island
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Brazil
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for British Indian Ocean Territory
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for British Virgin Islands
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Brunei Darussalam
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Bulgaria
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Burkina Faso
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Burundi
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Cambodia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Cameroon
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Canada
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Cape Verde
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Cayman Islands
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Central African Republic
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Chad
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Chile
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for China
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Christmas Island
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Clipperton Island
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Cocos Islands
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Colombia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Comoros
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Congo
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Congo, Republic of
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Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Coral Sea Islands
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Costa Rica
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Croatia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Cuba
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Curacao
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Cyprus
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Czech Republic
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Denmark
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Dhekelia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Djibouti
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Dominica
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Dominican Republic
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Ecuador
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Egypt
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for El Salvador
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Equatorial Guinea
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Eritrea
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Estonia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Ethiopia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Falkland Islands
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Faroe Islands
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Fiji
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Finland
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for France
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for French Polynesia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for French Southern and Antarctic Lands
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Gabon
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Gambia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Gaza Strip
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Georgia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Germany
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Ghana
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Gibraltar
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Greece
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Greenland
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Grenada
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Guam
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Guatemala
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Guernsey
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Guinea
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Guinea Bissau
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Guyana
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Haiti
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Heard Island and McDonald Islands
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Honduras
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Hong Kong
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Hungary
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Iceland
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for India
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Indonesia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Iran
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Iraq
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Ireland
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Isle of Man
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Israel
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Italy
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Ivory Coast
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Jamaica
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Jan Mayen
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Japan
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Jersey
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Jordan
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Kazakhstan
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Kenya
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Kiribati
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Korea
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Kosovo
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Kuwait
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Kyrgyzstan
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Laos
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Latvia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Lebanon
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Lesotho
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Liberia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Libya
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Liechtenstein
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Lithuania
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Luxembourg
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Macau
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Macedonia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Madagascar
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Malawi
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Malaysia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Maldives
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Mali
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Malta
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Marshall Islands
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Mauritania
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Mauritius
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Mexico
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Micronesia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Moldova
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Monaco
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Mongolia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Montenegro
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Montserrat
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Morocco
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Mozambique
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Myanmar
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Namibia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Nauru
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Navassa Island
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Nepal
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Netherlands
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for New Caledonia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for New Zealand
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Nicaragua
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Niger
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Nigeria
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Niue
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Norfolk Island
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Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Peru
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Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Portugal
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Puerto Rico
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Qatar
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Reunion
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Romania
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Russia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Rwanda
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Saint Barthelemy
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Saint Helena
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Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Saint Lucia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Saint Martin
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Samoa
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for San Marino
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Sao Tome and Principe
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Saudi Arabia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Senegal
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Serbia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Seychelles
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Sierra Leone
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Singapore
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Sint Maarten
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Slovakia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Slovenia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Solomon Islands
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Somalia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for South Africa
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for South Sudan
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Spain
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Spratly Islands
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Sri Lanka
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Sudan
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Suriname
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Swaziland
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Sweden
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Switzerland
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Syria
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Taiwan
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Tajikistan
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Tanzania
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Thailand
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Timor Leste (East Timor)
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Togo
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Tokelau
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Tonga
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Trinidad and Tobago
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Tunisia
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Turkey
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Turkmenistan
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Turks and Caicos Islands
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Tuvalu
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Uganda
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Ukraine
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for United Arab Emirates
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for United Kingdom
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for United States
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Uruguay
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for US Virgin Islands
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Uzbekistan
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Vanuatu
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Vatican City
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Venezuela
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Vietnam
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Wake Island
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Wallis and Futuna Islands
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for West Bank
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Western Sahara
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Yemen
Disputes, Refugees, Human Trafficking and Illicit Drug Production for Zimbabwe
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MBBS Admission in Russia
Russia is the largest country in the world. Its area is 17 098.242 thousand square km. The country is located in the eastern Europe and northern Asia.
From north to south the country stretches for over 4,000 km; from west to east – for almost 10,000 km. Russia borders on 16 countries. In the south-east - with North Korea (DPRK), in the south with China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia; in the south-west - with Ukraine, in the west with Belarus, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Norway; the Kaliningrad Region borders on Lithuania and Poland.
Russian government’s policy has put forward subsidised tuition fees for foreign nationals, making studies more affordable in Russia. Russia is a vast land with vast culture and variety of weather conditions.
Although many institutions provide English medium for studies for foreign students, but it is mostly prefered to learn Russian languages as it will help them to adjust with people in Russia.
MBBS IN RUSSIA
Popular destination for international students for pursuing MBBS right from a very early time has been Russia. About almost 30 top ranking medical universities from the top 100 ranking universities of the globe according to the World Health Organization (WHO)’s “Directory of World Medical School”., are in Russia’s plate. Pass-outs from Russian Medical Universities are working in leading and reputed Hospitals across the globe.
Russia is a preferred choice for International students because of highly subsidized fee by Russian Ministry of Health & Education as compared to other western countries. Low cost and high quality education creates awesome combination, which leads to be one of the major reasons for choosing top medical universities of Russia for MBBS studies. About 12 of the universities in Russia also provide studies in English medium, which makes it another plus point for moving forward to learning MBBS in universities in Russia.
All universities are recognized by WHO & Medical Council of leading countries like U.S.A, U.K, middle east, Australia, India, Canada etc.
Duration of MBBS in Russia in English medium is 6 years, where in students can also opt for MBBS in Russian medium, duration of which would be 7 years which includes 1 year as Russian Language Training
WHY MBBS IN RUSSIA
Students can take direct admissions in MBBS in Russia, without any entrance exam. As the Russian Government provides subsidy on education. The fee for MBBS goes down and makes it affordable for students. Average Russian MBBS fee can move between 2.5 lakhs to 5 lakhs per year. All the Russian Medical Universities are listed in WHO and MCI so a student who studies in Russian Medical University gets a quality education and his/her degree is acceptable for jobs in India and other parts of globe. All MBBS students in Russia get Medical Insurance for all courses and get full medical treatment when they need. Students get training for MCI screening test during the medical course and professors are well aware about the MCI screening test. Medical courses are taught in English and Russian languages, MBBS students also get training to learn Russian Language because by learning Russian language a student can communicate with patients in the hospital during the time of medical practice.
More reasons of pursuing MBBS from Russia are jotted down as below:
No Entrance exam & No Donation.
Excellent Result in MCI Screening Test
Reference Available of Students working in Leading Hospitals Across the World
List of Medical Colleges in Russia for Indian Students
Sr. University/College Address
1 IRKUTSK STATE MEDICAL UNIVERSITY Irkutsk, Siberia Russia
2 BELGOROD STATE UNIVERSITY Belgorod, Russia
3 PEOPLE’S FRIENDSHIP UNIVERSITY OF RUSSIA Moscow, Russia
4 MOSCOW STATE MEDICAL UNIVERSITY Moscow, Russia
5 VOLGOGRAD STATE MEDICAL UNIVERSITY Volgograd, Russia
6 ALTAI STATE MEDICAL UNIVERSITY Barnaul, Russia
7 KAZAN STATE MEDICAL UNIVERSITY Kazan, Russia
8 KURSK STATE MEDICAL UNIVERSITY Kursk, Russia
9 NIZHNIY NOVGOROD STATE MED. ACADEMY Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia
10 ORENBURG STATE MEDICAL ACADEMY Orenburg, Russia
Other Medical Universities in Russia
TVER STATE MEDICAL UNIVERSITY
SMOLENSK STATE MEDICAL ACADEMY
TAMBOV STATE MEDICAL UNIVERSITY
NORTHERN MEDICAL STATE ACADEMY
BASHKIR STATE MEDICAL UNIVERSITY, RUSSIA
STAVROPOL STATE MEDICAL UNIVERSITY
RUSSIAN NATIONAL RESEARCH MED ACADEMY
ASTRAKHAN STATE MEDICAL ACADEMY
MBBS in Russia Eligibility Criteria
MBBS in Russia eligibility is that student should complete the age of 17 years on or prior 31st December before taking admissions in Russia. You can even download the admission form and can fill it up uprightly. Along with it passed 11th & 12th certificates are also required. Passport is mandatory and attested documents are required. MBBS eligibility in Russia is similar to all other universities. Student must have 50% marks in their 12th standard and students from SC/ST and OBC category are eligible having 40% marks in their board exams.
MBBS in Russia Duration
The duration of MBBS program in Russia for International students is 6 years excluding 1 year internship to complete in India.
COST OF LIVING IN RUSSIA
Monthly rent- 26,358.03 руб
Basic utilities- 6,813.08 руб
Food- 500.00 руб
Public transportation- 25.00 руб
Currently 1 Indian Rupee equals 0.92 Russian Ruble
TRANSPORTATION FROM INDIA TO RUSSIA
Flight transportation is available from India to Russia, It can take 11 hrs to 28 hours to journey from Delhi to various locations in Russia. Air fare is nominal and pocket friendly for Indian people.
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Trans World Sport: Junior All Blacks
New Zealand are the most feared Rugby Union side in the world with three Rugby World Cups to their name. Trans World Sport met former All Blacks flanker and now coach Scott Robertson to discuss the country’s next generation of stars.
Brilliant free-kick from former LA Galaxy star Ishizaki
Trans World Sport: Street Soccer Mexico
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Remote bingo game host operating licence
Regardless of where you are based in the world, you need a licence from us if:
you are providing facilities for gambling to consumers in Great Britain online (or through any other means of remote communication)
any part of your remote gambling equipment is based in Great Britain.
There is a remote operating licence for each type of gambling activity you might want to provide.
Some gambling software businesses provide facilities for remote gambling by making their games available to customers of other operators. For example, rather than supplying its game software directly to remote gambling operators, the gambling software business hosts its own bingo games on its own server, and those games can be accessed by customers of other operators through those other operators’ websites.
If you are a gambling software business that provides facilities for playing bingo but only in circumstances in which you host those facilities through other operators’ platforms, then you may be eligible to hold a remote bingo (game host) operating licence.
This licence will allow you to provide facilities for bingo by means of remote communication (for example, a website) and only in circumstances where the following criteria are met:
You hold a gambling software operating licence, and
You do not contract directly with any of the customers who play the bingo games you provide ie only customers of another operator can access your bingo facilities via that other operator’s website or app.
Remote bingo (game host) operating licence – application fees
£550,000 or greater, up to but excluding £2 million
£2 million or greater, up to but excluding £5.5 million
£25 million or greater, up to but excluding £100 million
£100 million or greater, up to but excluding £250 million
£550 million or greater, up to but excluding £1 billion
£1 billion or greater
£389,652 plus £100,000 for each complete additional £500 million of annual gross gambling yield above £1 billion
Non-remote bingo operating licence
Key equipment
Host licences: your questions answered
Under what circumstances you need a host licence
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Gabriel Caian – Today justice and truth game
INTERVIEWS – About Justice and Judges
Interviews with writers Jorge Majfud and Alfonso Gumucio-Dagron
Stefaan Voet, Marcel Storme – The experience of institutional judicial reform in Belgium: new organs administering the judicial system
Wayne McCormack – The independence of judiciary in the USA: victim of “terrorism declared war”
Paul Marcus – Judges Talking to Jurors in Criminal Cases: Why U.S. Judges do it so Differently from Just About Everyone Else [Article in English]
Brian Opeskin – The State of the Judicature: A Statistical Profile of Australian Courts and Judges [Article in English]
Anamaria Groza – The typology of measures having equivalent effect to quantitative restrictions on the free movement of goods within the EU
Ioana-Maria Cîmpean – The Diplomatic Guarantees and the Protection of Human Rights
Adrian Boantă, Diana Chibulcutean, Iulia Diana David – The Ability of the European Court of Human Rights to Ensure Effective Access to its Proceedings for People with Disabilities [Article in English]
Ivan Georgiev – Legal Framework of Detention in Custody or Imprisonment of Minors or Juveniles under the Legislation of Republic of Bulgaria (Some Possibilities for Applying Foster Care as an Alternative Measure) [Article in English]
Of recent case law of the European Court of Human Rights
1. Decision of inadmissibility in case of Lefter against Romania. The regularization procedure of the application for summons under the new Code of Civil Procedure. No violation of art. 6 and 13 of the Convention (with presentation of Roxana Calin)
2. The decision of inadmissibility in case of Stefan Sorin Rosca Stanescu against Romania. The lack of interference with freedom of expression as a journalist if the Minister of Justice asked not to adjudicate on issues related to justice since he was the subject of criminal proceedings (with presentation of Dragos Calin)
3. Serious allegations made through the media against a public prosecutor regarding alleged corruption and forgery of some indictments – violation of article 8 of the Convention in case of Lavric against Romania (with presentation and note of Vasile Bozesan)
4. The decision of inadmissibility in case of Agneta Majtenyi and Ildiko Majteneyi against Romania. No violation of the principle of legal certainty in the event of a single final judgment rendered in the opposite direction in case of the applicants (with presentation of Roxana Călin)
5. The decision of inadmissibility in case of Pro Social Assistance Union against Romania. No violation of art. 6 par. 1 of the Convention, due to the refusal of the Court of Appeal Timisoara to send a preliminary question to the Court of Justice of the European Union (with presentation of Dragos Calin)
6. Judgment in case of Baka against Hungary. Changing the plaintiff from the position of President of the Supreme Court of Hungary, through transitional rules of a new law, passed by Parliament, following the expression of critical opinions about the constitutional and legislative reforms aiming the judiciary and the rule of law, is a violation of freedom of expression (with introduction and note of Gabriel Caian)
7. No violation of freedom of movement of a minor who was denied leaving the country on the grounds that the presidential ordinance to refill the consent of his father, although it was enforceable, was not final – case of Şandru against Romania (with presentation and note of Vasile Bozesan)
8. The decision of of inadmissibility in case of Ralu Traian Filip against Romania. Journalist obliged to damages for a media campaign. The fact that the same court ruled successively two appeals in the same case does not raise an issue in the realm of of art. 6 ECHR, provided the existence of separate panels of judges (with presentation of Dragoş Călin) Of recent case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union
1. European citizenship. New developments in case-law regarding right of residence for third-country nationals, family members of a Union citizen
2. Free movement of goods. Refusal of registration of vehicles of which steering system is located on the right, in a Member State of which road traffic drives on the left
3. National rules that constitute obstacles to freedom of establishment
(selections and comments by Anamaria Groza)
Of recent case law in the field of the judiciary and magistrates status:
1. Invocation of an alleged discriminatory treatment of candidates for the promotion contest as a judge at the High Court of Cassation and Justice. The condition of non-disciplinary sanction during the whole magistracy career
2. Settlement of appointing a prosecutor as a judge. Human resources policy is the exclusive attribute of the Superior Council of Magistracy, reported on the rationale and needs of the judiciary
3. Turning to account applications submitted by candidates for the examination for promotion to execution positions have priority when they come into competition with transfer requests of candidates who have been admitted to the competition for place promotion and do not have priority when they come into competition with other applications transfer made by other judges or prosecutors than those who have passed the competition for place
4. Promotion to execution positions of judges and prosecutors. The principle decision of the Plenum of C.S.M. through which was stated as being able the use in the turning to account procedure of vacant positions with a later expiry date of turning to account deadline, but as a result of measures ordered within that time, concerns cases where vacant positions of some judges or prosecutor is certain and is disposed within the period of turning to account procedure, becoming effective after expiration of that date
5. Maintaining office of the judges after retirement age is optional. Positive endorsement of this is conditioned by the existence of certain circumstances, being a means of efficient use of human resources available of the judicial system, which requires that the judge maintained to be able to operate effectively
6. Promotion contest to execution positions of judges and prosecutors. Failure to ensure the confidentiality of the name of the candidate in the contest procedure. Absence of any obligation in the case The appeal committee at the scale scoring
7. Promoting contest as a judge at the High Court of Cassation and Justice. Individual evaluation sheets and the summary sheet can not be challenged on the path of illegality plea, not being individual administrative acts likely to produce legal effects within the meaning of of art. 2 par. (1). c) of Law no. 554/2004. No contest rules provides that the assessment and points will be given by members of the Plenum through the adoption of a decision to be appealed separately by grounds of illegality
8. Turning to account the result obtained by a judge in the promotion contest to execution positions. The fulfillment requirements laid down in Article 27 of the SCM Plenum Decision nr. 621/2006 may be considered at a different section of the court opted for enrollment, but the same specialization
(selections of Paula-Andrada Coţovanu and Dragoş Călin)
1. Volume “European Court of Human Rights in cases against Romania – 2013. Analysis, consequences, potentially responsible authorities (IX)” University Publishing House, Bucharest, 2014
2. Two. Volume “Judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters in the European Union”, Ed CH Beck, Bucharest, 2014
3. The book “Limits to freedom of expression. Politicians, journalists, magistrates. Comments and jurisprudence” Hamangiu Publishing, Bucharest, 2014
FUNNY REGISTRY
Annulment of a request for summons filed against 150 national and international institutions and personalities of the whole world
eight − 6 =
The magistrates’ associations criticise the way in which the government is represented in the Joint Committee with the European Commission on the CVM
Comisia de la Veneția referitor la imposibilitatea de a utiliza anumite mijloace de probă (Codul de procedură penală)
The Forum of Romanian Judges and The Association of Romanian Prosecutors - APPEAL TO ROMANIAN PARLIAMENT TO REJECT THE BILL AMMENDING THE “LAWS OF JUSTICE”
Asediul împotriva justiției în plină desfășurare. Relatare de la fața locului
Asociația Forumul Judecătorilor din România își anunță retragerea de la lucrările Comisiei speciale comune a Camerei Deputaților și Senatului pentru sistematizarea, unificarea și asigurarea stabilității legislative în domeniul justiției
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Health & Safety for golf clubs
Insurance for Golf Clubs
Latest news from Gauntlet Health & Safety
Golf course safety View
Golf clubhouse safety View
Employee & customer safety View
Review Golf Course Safety After Ryder Cup Accident
If you are a reader of the Daily Telegraph, you may have seen Gauntlet Golf offering a thought-leadership comment relating to the implications for golf course safety after the unfortunate Ryder Cup accident that has left a French national with loss of sight in one eye.
American golfer Brooks Koepka had no idea that his ball had struck a spectator, because the area in which she was standing could not be seen from the place from which he hit his ball. Since that Ryder Cup incident, we have seen another golf injury at the Kingsbarns course, where Tyrrell Hatton’s ball hit a female spectator on the head.
These incidents show that any golf course can have an Achilles heel when it comes to safety of course users, but it is how you seek to contain this, by identifying possible risks and then taking actions to manage them as carefully as possible, that matters. If you need help with this, just give us a call on 0113 244 8686, extension 213. We don’t just talk to national journalists!
Request a Health & Safety Quote If you would like a health & safety quote, please fill-out the form & we'll get back to you as quickly as possible.
Request an Insurance Quote If you would like an insurance quote, please fill-out the form & we'll get back to you as quickly as possible.
We’ll Call You Back We would love to discuss any enquiry. Please fill in your details and a member of our team will call you back.
Please fill out the form below and a member of our team will call you back at your preferred time
Gauntlet Group
Gauntlet House
15 Acorn Business Park
Killingbeck Drive
Leeds, LS14 6UF
Click here to see our download area where you can view all of our latest documents.
Use Deaf Awareness Week as a H&S Reminder
By Gauntlet Golf
Between May 6 and 12, Deaf Awareness Week will be focusing attention on hearing loss, but how much attention do you pay to this at your golf club?
Gauntlet Risk Management Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under firm reference number 308081. You may check this on the Financial Services Register by visiting the
FCA website, www.fca.gov.uk/register/ or by contacting the FCA on 0800 111 676. Registered Office: Crown House, Armley Road, Leeds, LS12 2EJ. Company Registration No 03726095. Gauntlet Group,
Gauntlet Health & Safety, Gauntlet Risk Solutions, Gauntlet Enterprise, Gauntlet Bus and Coach and Gauntlet Care are all trading styles of Gauntlet Risk Management Ltd
Privacy & Cookies Policy | Terms & Conditions
Designed & built by Kariba
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Founders Jewel
The Founders Jewel pictured here, is presented to the Immediate Past Master of the lodge on the night of the installation of the next Master, and is worn for the ensuing year.
First presented to W.Bro John Young MRCS in 1897, one of the founders of the lodge, the jewel was lost for a period of time and reunited with the lodge in the later half of the twentieth century, where it was cleaned and returned to its former glory.
Granite Lodge No. 2028
Freemasons' Hall
LE2 0RA
granitelodge2028@gmail.com
© 2016 Granite Lodge, No.2028. All rights reserved.
Website created and maintained by Richard Barnett
Our website has been approved by the Provincial Grand Lodge of Leicestershire & Rutland
Click here for information on our privacy and cookies policy
Leicestershire Freemasons, Leicester Freemason, Masons, Masonry, Leicester, Granite Lodge, Lodge, Leicester Freemasons, Freemasonry, Freemason, Masonic, Leicestershire Masons
Leicester Freemasons
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The Soldiers in Societies: Defense, Regulation, and Evolution
Li Tian, Xuguo Zhou✉
Department of Entomology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546-0091, USA.
The presence of reproductively altruistic castes is one of the primary traits of the eusocial societies. Adaptation and regulation of the sterile caste, to a certain extent, drives the evolution of eusociality. Depending on adaptive functions of the first evolved sterile caste, eusocial societies can be categorized into the worker-first and soldier-first lineages, respectively. The former is marked by a worker caste as the first evolved altruistic caste, whose primary function is housekeeping, and the latter is highlighted by a sterile soldier caste as the first evolved altruistic caste, whose task is predominantly colony defense. The apparent functional differences between these two fundamentally important castes suggest worker-first and soldier-first eusociality are potentially driven by a suite of distinctively different factors. Current studies of eusocial evolution have been focused largely on the worker-first Hymenoptera, whereas understanding of soldier-first lineages including termites, eusocial aphids, gall-dwelling thrips, and snapping shrimp, is greatly lacking. In this review, we summarize the current state of knowledge on biology, morphology, adaptive functions, and caste regulation of the soldier caste. In addition, we discuss the biological, ecological and genetic factors that might contribute to the evolution of distinct caste systems within eusocial lineages.
Keywords: Soldier, eusociality, eusocial evolution, termites, Hymenoptera, soldier-first lineage, worker-first lineage.
Tian L, Zhou X. The Soldiers in Societies: Defense, Regulation, and Evolution. Int J Biol Sci 2014; 10(3):296-308. doi:10.7150/ijbs.6847. Available from http://www.ijbs.com/v10p0296.htm
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Home / Travel / United States
Starwood Launches New Hotel Brand: Tribute Portfolio
by Matt Alderton | April 16, 2015
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide today unveiled its 10th hotel brand and its second collection of independent hotels: Tribute Portfolio.
Like Starwood's other hotel collection, The Luxury Collection, Tribute Portfolio will consist of independent hotels and resorts that wish to maintain their independence while leveraging Starwood's vast sales and marketing network. The collection, whose first member is the Royal Palm South Beach Miami, will specialize in four-star, upper upscale hotels.
"With Starwood's history of brand innovation, design leadership, and our leading global high-end footprint, we believe Tribute Portfolio will be an exciting solution for hotel owners of distinct properties who wish to maintain their independent spirit, yet benefit from Starwood's powerful distribution, loyalty, and sales platforms," Starwood CEO Adam Aron said in a statement.
While hotels will benefit from Starwood's brand, systems, and reach, Starwood likewise will benefit by bringing new members to its Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) loyalty program, and by bringing new hotels and new destinations to existing SPG members who have asked for more travel options.
"Our mission with Tribute Portfolio is very simple: Bring great hotels in great destinations to our loyal SPG members, who make up more than half of all Starwood stays," Aron continued. "We recognize that independent hotels also attract guests who are not already affiliated with SPG. Tribute Portfolio will provide a clear opportunity for us to grow our SPG member base and deliver more loyal guests across all of our Starwood hotels worldwide."
Starwood plans to have 100 Tribute Portfolio hotels and resorts within five years, initially focused in North American and European markets where Starwood lacks a presence. Hotels already are planned in Asheville, NC; Nashville; Savannah, GA; and Charleston, SC.
"Nearly 50 percent of upper upscale hotels in the U.S. are independent, and likewise, 60 percent of four-star hotels globally are not affiliated with a brand flag. This provides Starwood with a vast landscape to grow Tribute Portfolio," said Dave Marr , senior vice president of brand management, North America, and global brand leader for Tribute Portfolio. "In speaking with many owners, it is clear that they welcome the opportunity to partner with Starwood to enhance the performance of their independent hotels. They are attracted to the benefits that will come from the power of SPG and our high-end Starwood sales customers coupled with the flexibility of minimal brand-specific standards."
In honor of its 10th brand, Starwood is offering SPG members up to 10,000 bonus points for stays at Tribute Portfolio hotels through July 15, 2015. For more information, visit www.spg.com/tributeportfolio.
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I was a bit indecisive this week, so today's On Repeat playlist is super-sized.
Savoir Adore - Loveliest Creature by infinityyeah
Long time infinity yeah faves Savoir Adore released new song “Loveliest Creature” on their website earlier this week (for free)! The track has classic Savoir Adore elements: driving rock guitars, Paul’s unique yell-singing, Deidre’s sweet soprano, and trippy lyrics.
Acrylics - Nightwatch by infinityyeah
Whoa you guys, what happened to Acrylics? Relentless 2009 blog coverage, a pretty much universally acclaimed EP, even catching them quite a few times at CMJ 2009 had failed to make me a fan. But I’m really digging “Nightwatch” the first track released from their debut full-length Lives and Treasure, out early next year. It’s clean and soulful and Molly Shea’s vocals are honey-smooth. Well-played guys.
3 Call Your Girlfriend by Jon_ALi
Basically, Robyn can’t do anything right now that I won’t get into. “Call Your Girlfriend” takes all those generic break-up phrases we’ve all been on the receiving end of and turns them into something you don’t actually mind hearing again and again. Pop music gold.
The Streets - 4 O'Clock
What is it about thick Britsh accents that make even ridiculous silly/violent lyrics so sexy? By the way, can’t find a download link to this song, help a homegirl out?
Wavves + Best Coast - Got Something For You
I’m getting a bit sick of these two, with their nauseatingly adorable Twitter feeds, matching Pitchfork scores, and now their co-headlining tour this winter. It’s also way too early to be listening to Christmas songs (the holiday season doesn’t officially start until you see Mr. Claus at the end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, now you know). But they keep my attention by making undeniably catchy music. Plus, it’s really cute to hear Bethany take on the high-pitched “ooos” Nathan usually features in his songs. Stream the track over at Target’s (Target, really?) website.
tags: Acrylics, Best Coast, On Repeat, Robyn, Savoir Adore, The Streets, Wavves
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The Call Up trailer
The Call Up...
Check out The Call Up trailer. the film will be released 20 May (UK).
The film stars Morfydd Clark, Christopher Obi, Max Deacon, Parker Sawyers. Charles Barker writes and directs.
When a group of elite online gamers each receive a mysterious invitation to trial a state-of-the-art virtual reality video game, it’s a dream come true and impossible to resist.
Arriving at the test site, the group step into hi-tech gear and prepare for a revolutionary, next-level gaming experience that brings modern warfare to life with frightening realism.
At first it’s a unique and exhilarating experience. But what starts out like a dream encounter with cutting edge technology quickly takes a turn for the sinister.
Image: arpublicity
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Home › Latest News › Harley-Davidson® Lebanon in the Sea.
Harley-Davidson® Lebanon in the Sea.
June 13, 2015 - A big group of Harley-Davidson® owners and other Lebanese men, women, and children gathered at the busy Beirut Corniche to witness the Submerge of a Harley-Davidson® diving sight deep into a diving location on the Lebanon Shore facing the American University beach.
Harley-Davidson® Flags were mounted on boats roaming the shore, and parachuting the skies, while an industrial floating crane was tugged carrying an orange metal structure with motorcycles lined up on top, and escorted by a Lebanese coast guard pursuit boat. Certainly not a familiar sight to the average beirut-ies, but the Harley® vibe was there to comfort their skepticism, as they are used to seeing the group involved in social and ecological activities around the city.
“Shall we leave a trace behind? Or pass unnoticed? At Harley-Davidson® Lebanon we choose to keep our heads up and keep doing what we do best. Assuming civil responsibilities at all times, and today it's us paying what we owe to our reef”. Said Marwan Tarraf, Owner and Manging Director of Harley-Davidson® Beirut, and Harley-Davidson® Cedarwoods.
This is a one-of-a-kind operation to create an artificial reef and an attraction to all divers. It took the team who worked on the project quite some time to obtain the necessary permits from local and marine authorities, and then the dealer donated the bikes and sponsored the construction of the 4 ton steel structure. A eight meter by seven meter Harley-Davidson® bar and Shield logo served as a base to mount three Harley-Davidson® Road King® motorcycles, stripped of all non-degradable material, so the whole project remains eco-friendly. A team of 23 divers most of whom are H.O.G.® members helped placing the structure at 34meters deep into a diving location meters near the famous underwater AUB wall and what is locally known as “The Sharks Hole”.
The sight will be marked at Google maps as an official diving spot, and will also be recognized as an international diving sight by the IDSA.
View gallery here.
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MALAYSIA::: Firm denies utilising outsourcing agents
A multinational electronics company has denied the accusation that it breached the law by utilising outsourcing agents to employ foreign workers.
However, according to the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC), passports of foreign workers employed by the said company were being held by the outsourcing agents, which led to the arrest of one such worker.
In making the claim, MTUC Selangor division chairperson Wan Noorul Azhar Mohd Hanafiah (left) told Malaysiakini that although working contracts are from the company, workers’ affairs are handed to the agents to be handled.
The situation involves 200 foreign workers, a majority of them from countries such as Nepal, Myanmar and Indonesia.
“Since they don’t hold their passports, these workers are at a high risk of getting caught by the police.
“Currently, one has been caught and is still in the lock-up,” he said.
Initially placed at the Bandar Baru Klang police station, the foreign worker in question was transferred to the Section 9 Shah Alam police station.
MALAYSIA:::Murders of two Myanmar panic Myanmar migrants in Malaysia
A place in Kuala Lumpur (Photo-EMG)
Two Myanmar men living in Malaysia have been killed recently and therefore Myanmar residing there are fear for their safety according to a Myanmar migrant worker Thiha.
Labels: migrant workers
MALAYSIA:::Sarawak unions against mega bank merger
The argument that a few mega institutions will result in cheaper fees for consumers
is a fallacy says union chief.
KUCHING: The Sarawak Bank Employees Union (SBEU) and the Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) Sarawak Branch are against the proposed merger of CIMB, RHB Capital and the Malaysian Building Society Bhd (MBSB) to create an Islamic banking franchise.
The Unions called upon the Competitions Commission “to look into the adverse impact of the merger on competition”.
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Seven basic plots and the narrative of the economy
You've heard it before, in one variation or another: there are only so many stories in the world. Sometimes it's six, sometimes twenty - sometimes just one - but the idea is always the same: there's a limited number of ways a plot can turn out.
A few years ago, Christopher Booker picked up this idea, analysed it to death and produced an excellent book called The Seven Basic Plots. He picked out seven common story structures which, he argues, include all successful stories (others are possible but he suggests that they result in unsatisfying outcomes which do not ring true for us). His proposal comes down to psychology in the end - he makes a convincing case that specific kinds of story fit with our view of how the world should be, and therefore create a satisfying structure. It all comes down to our desire - and expectation - that people should get what they deserve.
His thesis applies to works of fiction and not to real life, of course. Real life doesn't behave according to our subconscious presumptions about what the world should do. But nor do we have access to accurate knowledge about what is happening in real life. Everything we learn - and especially everything we learn about economics - is mediated through the narrative of journalists, academics, authors or other interpreters. And their stories do obey the rules of plot structure - if they didn't, we wouldn't believe them.
It's easy to find each of these plots in the narratives of economic commentators and journalists. Each of the seven structures relates to a story about the economy that we've all seen, and reveals new insight into the subconscious quest for justice that makes the story appeal.
Overcoming the Monster
Not so hard, this one. It's the activist politician's narrative and it goes like this: the monster is the recession (or excessive debt, or the banking crisis) and we will muster the weapons at our disposal, stand firm and our clear view of truth and justice will slay the beast in the end.
The story, like many others, has five parts: the call (the first signs of financial crisis), initial success (the rescue of Bear Stearns), confrontation (the Fed tries and fails to save Lehman Brothers), final ordeal (the recession and mounting deficits), and miraculous escape (at the last moment, as the TARP money is finally running out, the stimulus works and the recession is defeated).
The appeal to justice is as simple as the story: the recession is bad (caused by the sins and venality of bankers, or US subprime borrowers depending on who's telling it) and we are good, so we must prevail.
It might seem that the story of the last two years is better described as riches to rags. But within this framework the classic story of poor boy made good still appeals. Business magazines remind us that "eight out of ten successful companies were founded in a recession" or show us the smart fund manager who shorted the banks or bet against CDOs at just the right time and walked away with a billion dollars.
But there's a more fundamental story which is captivating a wider segment of the economics community. And that is the rise of China.
The archetypal rags to riches storyline has a poor orphan, basically good at heart but in a bad situation, picked on by the bigger boys or girls. Through virtue and a deserved stroke of luck they start their rise to prominence, but are still taken advantage of by the more sophisticated, and less moral, rich folks. After a climactic crisis, they finally mature - surpassing the flawed rivals who could never reach the same potential - and rise to their true inheritance. Usually at this point, the orphan's true love comes back onto the scene, there's a wedding and the happy couple - China and India anyone? - rule over the kingdom for the rest of their lives.
This time, the venality is a sin shared by all of us in the West - profligate, decadent, addicted to debt to buy from the East the honest goods that we have forgotten how to produce - and the virtue is the poverty, redeemed by industriousness, of the developing world. The starting point can plausibly be anywhere in history - let's say the moment when India's cotton industry lost out to the UK's in the 18th century, or when China's silkworms were stolen by Europeans in the 15th - the crisis was the Asian currency run of 1997-98 and the lesson wisely learned was to build up trillion-dollar reserves. On this reading, it's perhaps the most literal example imaginable of rags to riches.
The quest, it seems, is for The Solution - whatever policy, or institution, or restructuring will bring about an economic recovery.
A quest always begins with a call to a young hero, who sets out to find his destiny. This hero - let's call him Barack for the sake of argument - consults with wise men (Krugman, Summers), recruits his band of helpers (Geithner, Brown, and the reluctant but ultimately loyal Merkel), is almost led astray by temptation (protectionism, partisanship), passes between two deadly extremes (a $2 trillion stimulus and helicopter money, or no stimulus at all and letting the market sort it out), slays mythical beasts along the way (AIG, GM, Rick Santelli), and finally comes in sight of his goal. He must then pass three final tests (or in this case pass three final bills: the stimulus, the budget and...a healthcare bill? the Employee Free Choice Act? a mandate for the Federal Reserve to target nominal GDP futures?) to reach the solution.
In many Quest stories, the hero does not meet his princess at the end but is already married to her before he sets out, and remains loyal to her throughout. Ahhh. Sweet.
One note of caution: when the treasure is finally achieved, many heroes must spend the second half of the story returning to their starting point. That's the 2012 election campaign starting in a year's time, then.
Voyage and Return
A slightly different tenor to this story structure. This is the plot of Alice in Wonderland, H.G.Wells's The Time Machine, The Wizard of Oz or the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
In this story we start in the ordinary world and are suddenly called into a new and strange realm. Our initial reaction is puzzlement, and we do not know quite why we are here. After an initial fascination with the new world, we start to have some less pleasant adventures, and our focus turns desperately to home. But we are drawn deeper and deeper into a world we can neither understand nor control before finally - often through luck not judgement - escaping to return home, no richer but hopefully little poorer, and a little wiser.
Today, this story is told two ways. One is that the recession is the otherworld, and after wandering around for a while, happening across toxic assets and experimenting with strange bailouts, we will find the key - or be released naturally - and return to our normal life.
The other, perhaps darker, version is that the boom of the last seven years was Oz, and this is normality. We've returned from a thrilling but nightmarish era of colourful, debt-fuelled consumption to an ordinary life where we spend what we earn and gradually pay off the mortgage. The preferred interpretation is really the choice of the author, and I suspect that the first version of Voyage and Return is the popular interpretation among non-economists, while the latter is the morality tale of the Austrians.
The open question with Voyage and Return is what we learn from the experience. Will we be wiser and grow to understand and manage our world in a better way; or will we revert to type, relieved and lucky to have escaped a worse punishment?
Comedy is a tough plot to summarise, because there are often so many extraneous events to distract the reader that it's hard to find a coherent thread. But Booker analyses it as follows:
Comedy consists of (a pair of) "below the line" protagonists (characters somehow in the 'shadow' of the more powerful "above the line" characters who are their social superiors) struggling against the elite, usually represented by one dominant 'dark' character. The struggles in part consist of mistaken or concealed identity; the story being resolved when the 'inferior' characters have a moment of recognition and turn the tables on the elite, taking their place at the head of the community - at which point, if it's Shakespeare, they all get married.
So who in the economic tableau represents these below-the-line figures? I'd hazard a suggestion: Nouriel Roubini and Nicholas Taleb. Scorned and neglected by the economics elite until 2007, their warnings ignored, 2008 was the moment when the tables turned. Their identity finally revealed, the ugly ducklings grow up to become black swans (wait, that's a different plot...) and the dukes and princes of the upper class - Greenspan, Wall Street and the general equilibriates - are humbled.
Who can be the dark figure against whom these heroes struggled? Hank Paulson, Bernie Madoff, Dick Fuld or the evil baron Goldman of Sachs? This is an unsatisfying storyline in the current context, perhaps because the end result is still so uncertain. And because, as Booker describes, a failure to recognise the truth can so easily turn Comedy to...
In this, most timeless of storylines, the protagonist enters into a forbidden course of action and gains immediate reward. The story accelerates as he (it is usually a he) starts to exert his new powers and enters a dream stage of self-satisfaction and success. But this success, amoral or immoral as it is, can never provide satisfaction and the hero is drawn to commit more and deeper sins. Soon he loses control of the situation and the dream turns to nightmare. Finally the darkness closes in and the protagonist, despairing, is destroyed.
Many commentators read the story of the economic crisis straight out of this book. Our indulgence in debt, consumerism, financial services, imports and deficits lit the touchpaper. For years we were able to live in luxury with the sinister powers of the devil (Greenspan? The Chinese government?) keeping inflation low and our lifestyle high. But this could not be sustained, and growth came at the expense of ever more debt, the money supply increasing through off-balance sheet financial instruments, and finally an uncontrolled rise in commodity prices pushed us over the edge (starving a billion innocent poor people into the bargain). We are now in the nightmare phase, clutching at trillion-dollar public deficits and printing hundreds of billions of pounds to let us clutch the dissolving remnants of our lifestyle. And soon will come destruction, with the insolvency of the state and a descent into chaos and war at worst, or autarky at best.
In this view, the financial system is too far gone to save, and the best we can do is learn to weave baskets and hope we haven't forgotten how to grow vegetables in our gardens.
And clearly this story has an appeal. Some people like to flagellate themselves and decry the immorality in what they have done. A larger group likes to blame others, who they see as more irresponsible than themselves. Some wish to see it as the government's fault. Whoever gets the blame, blame there must be. After all, if everything has gone so terribly wrong, surely somebody must be at fault?
Let me tell one last story - inspired partly by Paul Mason's Meltdown: The End of the Age of Greed, partly by a bit of economic data, and partly by my own instincts.
This story starts a bit like the last one. But to make it a little more personal, let's pick a young man named Stephen. Stephen is 24 years old, in the early part of his career. He's qualified as a computer programmer and gone to work in an investment bank, developing systems to help them value credit options.
He's well paid but is going to be even better paid next year, and the year after, so why not borrow a little now in advance of those well-deserved bonuses? The house he bought last year is already worth 20% more than he paid for it (of course some of that has come back in equity release already). A healthy amount of debt is part of modern life and nothing to be ashamed of.
Two years and many fun evenings later, his promotion to derivatives trader comes through as expected and he gets to play his part in extending the same debt to thousands of other Stephens. Of course he can see that some of them are not such good risks as he was, but that's not really his problem - when averaged out, surely the losses will be less than the returns on the loans.
Like any honest trader he is willing to put his money into his own products: this year's bonus and remortgage goes into a hedge fund - one of his clients, in fact - which should easily earn him a 40% return on leveraged CDO products. His new car is almost a necessary business expense - it shows his customers that he's doing well and that gives them confidence in him.
But as this perfect life reaches its peak, we start to see that there's something sour about it. The debts are starting to go bad, the capital layer of Stephen's bank looks thin and the economy is gradually catching on to the problems. The good angel - Roubini again - is warning him that this is the wrong path, while the bad angel - the rest of the financial system - urges him to up the stakes - it always worked before...
And then in autumn 2007 all hell breaks loose.
The forces of good are arrayed against towering mountains of debt and writeoffs which threaten the civilised world. The old leader - King Gordon - warns of the bloody war to be fought and the pain to be endured, as dark clouds gather overhead. Stephen, of course, is on the other side - the forces of banking which are determined at all costs to maintain their power and profits. Battle is joined.
The light armies win some early battles but soon Stephen's army has the upper hand. More debt, more assets and more free markets - they will easily roll over the resistance. The rhetoric from the banking world - we have enough capital now, value at risk is minimal - rings hollow, while the speeches of the good guys are baleful, warning of still worse pain ahead and the need for a final push.
That final push starts to make a difference, but more importantly there's something inherent in the banking philosophy which is unsustainable - it contains, in the classical sense of hubris, the seeds of its own destruction. In building up a tower of leverage of unparalleled height, the only-too-human capabilities of Stephen, and the thousands of Stephens alongside him, are overwhelmed. They can no longer see what they are carrying, and the moral hazard and escalating risk of the debt starts to bring the tower down around him.
And here is where, in Paul Mason's story and perhaps in this week's newspapers, the plot takes a twist away from the tragic. Stephen, after all, is still an intelligent person with other skills, and he can escape from under the falling marble masonry of the banking giants. The new leader of the armies of good, young prince Obama, has crested the Hill and with the sun behind him and the voices of angels singing, speaks for the first time of recovery - but a recovery built on new foundations. Stephen crosses the battlefield and, recognising and banishing the darkness inside him, joins the quest to create a new economy.
We're at this new beginning now. A revived era of technology and environmental progress, a rebalanced world economy, an approach to equality for the Chinese working class and the humbling of the proud generals of banking, is the rebirth promised by this storyline. What hints could we see at the start of the story? That edge of self-awareness, the fundamental honesty and capability in Stephen's heart, gave him enough strength to avoid the tragic downfall and return to the light, with a new future ahead instead of the violent death that's inevitable in the structure of tragedy.
Which of these stories is true? None of them of course, or all. The real world has too many protagonists, too much information and too much randomness for simple explanations of this kind.
But we seek meaning and we choose whichever of these stories conforms with our assumptions about justice and culpability. Do you think the bankers are at fault? Then the bankers must come to a deserved and sticky end. Is it consumers' fault? Then consumers will be punished with an endless recession. Was it the politicians? Then the infinite debts of the state will crush them in Sisyphean torment.
And who is the good guy here? If the financial sector was actually a force for improving the economy, it will ultimately be rewarded with a return to prominence (Mervyn King, perhaps?). If the public, or those who were prudent enough to save, were the essential source of virtue, they will inherit the kingdom of heaven (Peston). If the government's place is to coordinate and correct the selfishness of the individual, they are on their way to a permanently more substantial role in managing the economy (Krugman). And if you believe in the rational wisdom of man (Mankiw), then mankind will always be okay, while if you focus on the flaws and biases inherent in humanity (Thaler), then you will expect our potential to be kept always in check unless guided out of the swamp by science.
Our choice of story reveals us better than it reveals the economy. Economics can say little about the grand narratives of history - its successful tools are all there to adjust the small scale, the technical details, not to provide universal interpretations. There is no meaning to all this; it just is.
Christopher Booker economics narratives Paul Mason
Don said…
This is an excellent post. Narrative thinking, as I call it, also applies to "theories". In this crisis, we have looked for past occasions similar to this one, and have been invoking the names of figures and theories that seem to offer an explanation and hope. Hence, the focus on Keynes and the Great Depression.
These foci supply a hopeful narrative and road map for dealing with the current crisis. In fact, the main importance of these foci is in giving us a paradigm that we can test our various views against as the crisis progresses.
The main figures that I have relied on are Irving Fisher and Bagehot, with Keynes and Milton Friedman as well.
On the social and political aspects of the crisis, I have relied upon Burke and Hayek.
It's not that other opinions and theories aren't important to me, but that these figures provide the backdrop against which I see this crisis and judge other views.
As for Obama, FDR is a good example to follow, since he was actually pretty conservative, but took a pragmatic stance that served us well. We're here.
Don the libertarian Democrat
Steve said…
Reality comes at last!! so one should always think about the final outcome of an economic reform..this will help the policy to improve the system better.
The economics zeitgeist, 31 May 2009
Surprise article on CVM
Live blogging The Apprentice series 5: episode 10
Zeitgeist analysis, 24 May 2009
Eeyore vs Pangloss
Pigovian taxes and government credibility
Private productivity and public debt
Live blogging The Apprentice series 5: episode 9
Can corruption be a public good?
Ascent and Exchange: reviewing two books
Bonuses again
Is the tech sector past "synergies"?
Behavioural economics or not?
Seven basic plots and the narrative of the economy...
Neuroeconomics: big, fat hoax or no big deal?
Royal Mail - sleight of hand?
Jokes about Geithner, anti-behavioural econ, promi...
New article at VoxEU
Will behavioural economics save the economy?
Guest blogging at missmarketcrash
Zeitgeist analysis, 3 May 2009
The economics zeitgeist, 3 May 2009
What do consumers know?
Some economic fundamentals
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Featured Artist Interview with Annalise Stalls
It's amazing how some things fall into place with suspicious ease, while others take an inordinate amount of time and effort to complete. I discover this reality again and again in the world of music. Such is the case with my interview with saxophonist, composer, arranger and now writer, Annalise Stalls. We were both determined to make it happen, but life and its many unforeseen or uncontrollable circumstances was just as determined to throw wrenches into our well made plans. Still, the determination on our side finally won out and we were able to sit down recently to talk.
What strikes me most about Annalise, is that while on the outside she appears shy, unassuming and almost demure, she is also confident, passionate, driven and full of ambition to reach new and higher goals personally and professionally. She seems to manage these contradictory personas comfortably and comes across as quite charming. There is no doubt about her love of music, her desire to stretch its boundaries and achieve even greater success - and pleasure - from writing and performing. She speaks of it in matter-of-fact terms as if it has already been decided and done and I like that vision. As is often the case, when we settled into a rhythm, the conversation grew more comfortable, easy and relaxed which is what I am always hoping for. Enjoy!
Many thanks to anonymous donor for graciously hosting us for this interview and to Melody Watson for her inspiration, technical, and blogging expertise.
September 29, 2013 / kris ferris/ Comment
Featured Artist, Interview, Music, Songwriting
Annalise Stalls
Featured Artist Interview with Dave Fox.
This featured artist interview ends with my guest Dave Fox playing one of several pianos that fill his spacious office. I found myself transfixed as he elicited tone after beautiful tone, his hands moving across the keys with grace and precision. That's talent, for sure, but much more. It is also the product of a lifetime of acquired knowledge, practice, application and passion for music in its many forms and means of expression. It is all that wrapped up in a man that just can't wait to share it all with a friend, a band mate, a classroom full of students, or an audience. There's a lot more to know about him, but somehow these images seem most poignant and serve to portray the essence of who he is.
There are undoubtedly many accomplishments of which he can be proud yet Dave does not give one the impression that he ever feels the need to point them out, drop hints or invoke them through innuendo. Instead, there is just an everpresent glint in his eye that tells you he is already visualizing and planning the next project, the next lesson, the next gig and they are each exciting to him in their own ways. With new students, varying band members and gigs in venues throughout the state, Dave manages to keep things fresh and vibrant moving fluidly through these ever-changing scenes. For a man in perpetual motion, he seems to have found a rhythm that allows him to keep the pace while appearing to be ambling along in a laid back, free and easy style. Part of being talented is the ability to make what, to the casual observer might seem difficult, look easy. Most of that my friends comes from drive, persistence and plain old hard work. Here's one man who genuinely appears to enjoy the work. I hope you have a good time getting to know a little about him here. I did!
And now for some links to occupy you:
Mack and Mack Clothing
A blog about and pictures from the first event with Dave Fox and Channing & Quinn
My YouTube Channel where videos are available after they've been published in my blog.
Many thanks to Dave Fox and Greensboro College for graciously hosting us for this interview and to Melody Watson for her inspiration, technical, and blogging expertise.
Collaborations, Featured Artist, Greensboro, Musician, Videos, YouTube
Dave Fox
Featured Artist Interview with Channing & Quinn
July 09, 2013 / kris ferris
While being able to help indie musicians tell their story is humbling and rewarding in its own right, the coolest and most fun thing about doing these interviews is, for me, discovering how many truly hard-working artists there are out there doing their best to be good at their trade and make a name for themselves, while being genuinely down-to-earth people as well. That's a tricky balance to maintain. Maybe it's just me and the path that led me here, but I have dealt with some real shallow characters in my time; ones who bought into the "I'm a star" syndrome and were only in the business for what it could do to massage their egos. I find the musicians I meet today are much more "aware" of themselves and the world around them and look at the bigger picture. Thankfully.
Such is the case with the most recent pair of featured artists, Channing & Quinn. On and off the stage they are warm, welcoming and comfortably-approachable. Now if you've been to a party where you might have known only the host or maybe no-one at all, you can understand what a challenge it is to be in unfamiliar surroundings and amidst a sea of strange faces. Imagine doing that night after night in places far removed from the comfort of home. It says a lot about these two that they have found a way to keep travelling on the road fun and fresh enough to go at it with heart-felt smiles and renewed energy night after night, making new friends everywhere they stop. I left our interview feeling like a friend myself. So much so that I entertained crashing their wedding in September, until I was coaxed out of that notionby the Lady in my life... heh.
From their meeting in Boone, NC while working on theater productions, through Amtrak train tours, Airstream tours, countless bars, coffee shops, festivals and house concerts, Channing & Quinn have been focused on writing and performing music to the delight of all of us who have had the chance to experience them live. Here's to many more years of their quirky brand of fun and entertainemt. Please sit back and enjoy the chat.
Brian Vander Ark
The Verve Pipe
Channing & Quinn's CD "Under The Big Striped Tent" on Itunes
CD producer Phantom Farmer
Crystal Bright & The Silver Hands
The Creative Center at 900 16th Street Greensboro, NC
My YouTube Channel where videos will all be available after they've been published in my blog.
Many thanks to The Creative Center for graciously hosting us for this interview and to Melody Watson for her inspiration, technical, and blogging expertise.
July 09, 2013 / kris ferris/ Comment
Back Story, Featured Artist, Interview, Music, Musician, Performance, Personal Journey, Process, Songwriting
Airstream, Amtrak
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Home Gian Luca Araldi
Gian Luca Araldi
Startups September 20, 2017
‘Dormant’ biotech wakes on Alzheimer’s fast track
By GREGORY ZELLER // A pre-clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company is being fast-tracked toward a potential Alzheimer’s treatment, after taking a decidedly slow road. Stony Brook-based Avanti Biosciences Inc. actually launched in 2009, but was “dormant for a few years,” according to founder Gian Luca Araldi, “kind of an empty shell.” It was only in the last two years, when “I had some ideas I wanted to develop on my own,” that Araldi – a former senior…
Biotech November 25, 2015
Bio Hub names newest resident entrepreneurs
A “biotechnology strategist” and a longtime Big Pharma executive are throwing their weight behind the Long Island Bioscience Hub as its newest bioentrepreneurs in residence. The hub is a National Institutes of Health-supported partnership between Stony Brook University, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory designed to promote commercialization of technologies created at member institutions. Now supporting that mission are Brian McCarthy and Gian Luca Araldi, the sixth and seventh resident bioentrepreneurs to sign…
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Intrepid Report.com
← On principled struggle for systemic change
Make no mistake, Iran is not Iraq →
Julian Assange extradited to Sweden—high comedy or political drama
Swedish director of public prosecutions, Marianne Ny, who requested Assange’s extradition is under fire
By LPrent and Siv O’Neall
Posted on November 18, 2011 by LPrent and Siv O’Neall
Introduction by Siv O’Neall
As the French leftist newspaper Libération states, the accusations for rape against Julian Assange were intended to “destroy” Wikileaks ‘ (August 22, 2010).
“There have been [headlines in the media] worldwide claiming that I was suspected of rape ( . . . ) And I know from experience that the enemies of WikiLeaks continue to trumpet things even after they were denied.” he says.
Since there is a strong suspicion that political interests are behind the extremely suspicious wheelings and dealings of the Swedish system of justice, we are posting excerpts from an article which was posted in The Standard, New Zealand, on December 4th, 2010 and also by the site Radsoft on December 4th, 2010 “Assange, FSI, Marianne Ny, & The Swedish Media” (FSI—Finers Stephens Innocent is a central London based law firm). There have been contradictory statements by Swedish legal officers ever since this brouhaha started in August 2010. Two women were wrongly quoted by police officers as having been the victims of rape, whereas only one of the women was complaining of anything at all, and definitely not of rape, which was simply the interpretation of the police officer. The accusation of rape was later withdrawn by the woman in question. The expression ‘trumped-up’ charges comes back rather frequently in the writings dealing with this legal scandal.
The accusations have been moving back and forth from rape to sexual coersion and then to coercion. The Swedish director of public prosecutions, Marianne Ny, seems to be the official who has been mishandling this case and made herself guilty of lies and strange delays from the very beginning. She overruled the decision by the previous prosecutor, Eva Finné, without even having seen and talked to Julian Assange who had repeatedly asked to see her.
Excerpts from various sites—Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet (August 21, 2010)
“Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is no longer suspected of rape. Therefore he does not have to submit himself to the police.—I do not think there is any reason to suspect that he has committed rape, said chief prosecutor Eva Finné in a statement to the press. Allegations of coercion still remain.” (translation by Siv O’Neall)
Wikileaks Julian Assange, Extradition Hearing: Marianne Ny, Swedish Prosecutor Biased? (NowPublic—Crowd Powered Media, UK—February 7, 2011)
Marianne Ny, the Swedish public prosecutor, requesting the extradition of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, is biased, the Belmarsh Magistrates Court in South East London heard on Monday.
Julian Assange is now officially wanted in Sweden on a “minor rape” charge. Brita Sundberg-Weitman, a former Swedish judge, appearing on behalf of the Assange defense team, told the UK court that public prosecutor, Marianne Ny, could easily have questioned Assange via Skype or phone instead of requesting the extradition.
Excerpt from the Swedish blog ‘Samtycke nu’ by Göran Rudling: (February 9, 2011)
This blog states essentially what the report by The Standard, New Zealand is saying. ‘När man vet något mer än Statsministern måste man säga något’ (‘When you know something better than the Prime Minister, you have to speak out’)
“On September 1, the investigation of the rape of woman No. 2 was resumed. Even then, Julian Assange was not arrested. Which he should have been, according to Sven Erik Alhem. We must remember that rape is a serious crime and that Eva Finné as late as August 25 wrote off any possible suspicion that Julian was guilty of rape. The fact that a well informed prosecutor did not find anything suspicious in the relationship between Julian and woman No. 2 made the Julian version of what happened all the more important to obtain. It was not done. Marianne Ny let 21 days go by before she showed any interest in questioning Julian. This is extremely strange.” (translation by Siv O’Neall)
Sven Erik Alhem is a former prosecutor and a well-known civil rights lawyer who would have insisted on keeping Assange in Sweden and also accused the Swedish prosecutors of acting far too slowly. The question why the Swedish prosecutor, Marianne Ny, did not question Julian Assange during the month that he was still in Sweden after he was suspected of a grave offense last fall has been thoroughly discussed and questioned at the trial here in London.
Marianne Ny: Making an arse of Swedish law. (Excerpts)
All of the drama surrounding the Wikileaks release of US government diplomatic wires I and others do not find surprising. What has been intriguing me more is the behavior of Sweden’s director of public prosecutions, Marianne Ny. The available information on her charges and actions against Julian Assange, the founder and head of Wikileaks, indicates that she is driven more by politics than by any respect for the law. Assange’s current lawyer compares her to the role of the infamous Beria in Stalins 1930′s show trials—and from what I can see I’d have to agree. Similarly I fail to see why Interpol is involved for such a minor charge. (Minor corrections for legibility, by SON)
Assange’s London attorney, Mark Stephens, told AOL News today that Swedish prosecutors told him that Assange is wanted not for allegations of rape, as previously reported, but for something called “sex by surprise,” which he said involves a fine of 5,000 kronor or about $715.
This would not be regarded as rape here or apparently anywhere else apart from Sweden. Specifically in this case it appears to revolve around the use of condoms.
Based on what was said to the police, the on-call prosecutor, Marie Kjellstrand, decided to issue an arrest warrant on charges of rape and molestation, and the next day the story hit the Swedish paper Expressen and newspapers all over the world.
Kjellstrand’s decision was overruled the following day by a higher-level prosecutor, Eva Finné, who withdrew the arrest warrant and said she did not see any evidence for rape allegations.
Then, on Sept. 1, a third prosecutor, [Marianne] Ny, re-opened the rape investigation, implying that she had new information in the case.
Assange arrived in Sweden on Aug. 11 to speak at a weekend seminar sponsored by the Social Democratic Party and arranged to stay at a Stockholm apartment belonging to the event organizer, a member of the branch of the party who would become one of Assange’s two accusers. According to a police report obtained by the Daily Mail in August, she and Assange had sex, and at some point the condom broke. While she was apparently not happy about the condom breaking, the two were seen the next day at the seminar, and nothing appeared amiss.
The women here are near to and over 30 and have international experience, some of it working in Swedish government embassies. There is no suggestion of drugs nor identity concealment. Far from it. Both women boasted of their celebrity connection to Assange after the events that they would now see him destroyed for.
That further evidence hasn’t been confected to make the charges less absurd does Sweden no credit because it has no choice in the matter. The phenomena of social networking through the internet and mobile phones constrains Swedish authorities from augmenting the evidence against Assange because it would look even less credible in the face of tweets by Anna Ardin and SMS texts by Sofia Wilén boasting of their respective conquests after the “crimes.”
In the case of Ardin it is clear that she has thrown a party in Assange’s honour at her flat after the “crime” and tweeted to her followers that she is with the “the world’s coolest smartest people, it’s amazing!.” Go on the internet and see for yourself. That Ardin has sought unsuccessfully to delete these exculpatory tweets from the public record should be a matter of grave concern. That she has published on the internet a guide on how to get revenge on cheating boyfriends ever graver. The exact content of Wilén’s mobile phone texts is not yet known but their bragging and exculpatory character has been confirmed by Swedish prosecutors. Neither Wilén’s nor Ardin’s texts complain of rape.
But it is pretty clear that Marianne Ny is not acting for the law in Sweden—she is using the law and the Interpol process on the flimsiest pretext. It is clear that you can’t call this rape despite what the prosecutors in Sweden say, and what has been blasted all over the US media.
Sure, Assange should probably answer more questions—if only to get this on again, off again, on again accusation settled. But there is no reason that cannot be done in the relative safety of the embassy in London. Since the charges do not carry a custodial sentence, there should be no reason to put Assange in prison to answer questions. That just makes him an easy-to-get-at target for the various groups that are proposing to kill or imprison him on trumped up charges from countries like the US to which he owes no duty.
Bearing in mind the US policies of grabbing suspects from friendly states with poor legal systems and throwing them into concentration camps like Guantanamo Bay for interrogation, I can see why Assange would not want to put in the control of a show trial prosecutor like [Marianne] Ny.
Marianne Ny is just making an arse of Swedish law and holding it up as a laughing stock to the rest of the world.
The Standard, New Zealand
STOCKHOLM/LONDON (Rixstep)—The ‘skeleton argument‘ released yesterday by FSI provides a devastating condemnation of Marianne Ny and Sweden. Yet the Swedish media refuse to even link to the document, much less intimate its contents or comment on it.
(The link to the skeleton argument from the Radsoft site is not working any more (strange, isn’t it?), but the one given here is working—so far.)
The salient—and most interesting—points are:
Marianne Ny isn’t authorised to issue a European Arrest Warrant (EAW). Referring to the 2005 case Enander v The Swedish National Police Board, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) confirmed that the sole issuing authority in Sweden is the national police board. There’s no evidence this position changed. Moreover, the British Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) received a request for proof of Ny’s authority on 24 December. Presumably SOCA have contacted Sweden; the Swedes have so far refused to reply.
A prosecuting authority applying for an EAW must go through several channels. Amongst others, they have to take the matter up with the national prosecutor’s office and the cabinet minister of foreign affairs. Evidently nothing such was done in this case.
Extradition sought for improper purpose. EAWs can’t be issued for ‘questioning’ which Ny has repeatedly said is all she’s after. Conversely, Ny’s afraid of formally declaring charges for then she’d be required to release all documentation, something she’s made clear she doesn’t want (and refused) to do.
The purported offences aren’t even extradition offences. Brits have no counterparts to what Ny’s referring to.
The document goes on to clarify the basic positions and reveals even more sordid details about ‘legal procedure’ in Sweden.
√ EAW for questioning only, not for purpose of prosecution. This constitutes an abuse of process.
Ny has repeatedly and publicly stated she sought the EAW simply in order to facilitate a questioning and without yet having reached a decision about prosecution.
Further, Ny’s claim that all the ‘normal procedures for getting an interrogation’ had been ‘exhausted’ is false. Both Hurtig and Assange made repeated attempts to coordinate an interrogation but all such attempts were rebuffed by Ny.
British justice Ouseley found that Assange ‘has expressed, and I see no reason to doubt it, a willingness to answer questions, either over the telephone or some other suitable form of communication if the prosecutors in Sweden wish to put them to him.’
In answer to the above comments, Ny has repeatedly said only that she has ‘no comments.’
Further, Ny stated she was not in touch with Hurtig. This is also false: Hurtig was in constant contact with Ny’s office for all of September but Ny wouldn’t return his calls.
√ Communication with Australian embassy in Stockholm. Ny was in contact with the Australian embassy in Stockholm because they evidently interceded on Julian Assange’s behalf.
√ European Arrest Warrants are only to be used for the purposes of prosecution. Yet Ny can’t declare an intent to prosecute—she’d have to turn over the full case files.
Ny’s whole idea—the subject of her ‘research’—is to develop a new method of processing cases that not only violates several statutes of law but also brings things back full circle to the witch trials of the 1600s.
√ Mere suspicion isn’t enough for an EAW. This is enforced by the Extradition Act 2003. Lord Steyn of the House of Lords in the decision in Re Ismail:
It is common ground that mere suspicion that an individual has committed offences is insufficient to place him in the category of ‘accused’ persons.
It is also common ground that it is not enough that he is in the traditional phase ‘wanted by the police to help them with their inquiries.’
The Swedish Media
The Swedish media have of course issued a complete blackout on the above document. There’s a scant mention of some ‘document’ being released but—as opposed to most other conscionable news sources—there is no link. Swedes relying solely on their own news organisations for the truth won’t know of it.
More at the site Radsoft
Sources: The Standard, New Zealand / Radsoft
Article in The Guardian:
“Julian Assange’s accusers sent texts discussing revenge, court hears
Björn Hurtig, the WikiLeaks founder’s lawyer in Sweden, says the women’s messages contradict their claims”
For a good laugh, see ‘Try Me for Rape Too, Marianne Ny!‘
Sweden’s veteran news anchor Olle Andersson doesn’t miss much in this attack on feminist Sweden. ”I hereby confess I am guilty of sexual abuse and rape of my wife . . .”
LPrent writes for New Zealand’s The Standard and Siv O’Neall is an Axis of Logic columnist, where this essay first appeared, and is based in France. Her insightful essays are republished and read worldwide. She can be reached at siv@axisoflogic.com.
This entry was posted in Analysis. Bookmark the permalink.
4 Responses to Julian Assange extradited to Sweden—high comedy or political drama
Tony Vodvarka | November 18, 2011 at 8:48 am |
The surreal charges against Assange from the Swedish “justice” system and the British collaboration with that lunacy are laughable but yet the case goes on and on. Amazing how supposedly independent nations can dance on their puppet strings when required to by their role as satellites of the American military machine.
Siv O'Neall | November 20, 2011 at 9:35 am |
Yes, Tony, isn’t it amazing! The world is run by one entity by now. And everybody dances to the same tune. That’s what we have to break down. And, as you say, Sweden is not an independent nation any more. Name one that is. A few in Latin America, that’s all I can come up with. And even so, they have to keep an eye on the big Satan constantly so he doesn’t land on their shore with the Marines.
Natka | November 21, 2011 at 2:37 am |
If Anna is attractive, I am Miss World.
Ms. O’Neall, I was impressed by Iceland’s stand in telling the IMF to bugger off. However, “El Pulpo’s” tentacles are active everywhere on Earth these days, Marines in Australia, a new fleet for China’s coast, the aggressive encirclement of Russia, and not even mentioning a military machine that is running berserk throughout the Middle East and South Asia. I can’t help but wonder when the apparent overreach will have its full effect. Perhaps when China, finally having enough threats from its debtor, dumps its trillions of dollars on the world market.
‘Hysterical and stupid’: Kushner reveals his attitude towards the Palestinians
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‘We cannot overstate the harm this decision will have’: Oklahoma judge upholds ban on common abortion procedure
Remnants of war
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Iraq just exported most crude oil since November 2016
Thread: Iraq just exported most crude oil since November 2016
By Anthony DiPaola on 7/17/2018
DUBAI (Bloomberg) -- Iraq exported oil at the fastest pace since late 2016 during the first half of July, indicating OPEC’s second-largest producer is pumping more after the group eased production limits.
Crude shipments during the first two weeks of the month were 4.05 MMbpd, the highest since November 2016, according to tanker tracking and port agent data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s 6% higher than the daily average of exports for all of June. Preliminary tanker tracking data is subject to change because shipments can be delayed and the average for a full month can be higher or lower.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allied producers agreed last month to ease production cuts to ensure sufficient supply to markets, starting in July. Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter, and Russia said that OPEC and partners would increase output by about 1 MMbpd. They had been curtailing output since the start of 2017 to help curb a global glut. Brent crude recovered from below $30/bbl in 2016 to $80.50/bbl in May this year.
Iraq sold 3.84 MMbpd of crude on average in June and pumped 4.5 MMbpd that month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That would indicate domestic refinery demand of about 650,000 bpd. If Iraq maintains exports at the same level for all of July and domestic crude use remains consistent with June, the country would pump about 4.7 MMbpd in July. That would be the highest monthly production ever, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Iraq ‘committed’
Oil ministry spokesman Asim Jihad said Iraq was “committed” to the output limit set by OPEC when asked about the country’s production level. Iraq’s output was capped at 4.35 MMbpd under the 2016 deal. While the country has exceed that level every month but one since the start of the OPEC deal, Bloomberg data show, the group’s decision to raise output has called the country-level quotas into question because some members aren’t able to pump as much as they agreed.
Iraq’s production is probably closer to 4.8 MMbpd currently, said Jaafar Altaie, managing director of consultant Manaar Group in Abu Dhabi. “The higher oil price is paying off and allowing the Iraqis to invest more in some of the government-controlled fields.”
Higher spending is adding production at fields in the central and northern parts of the country, some of which isn’t being exported, Altaie said. The country can maintain output at about 4.8 MMbpd for the rest of the year, while even greater levels of spending will be needed to keep that pace into 2019, he said.
Iraq has raised refining capacity to 750,000 bpd as the country works to restore crude-processing units damaged by Islamic State militants, Deputy Oil Minister Fayyad Al-Nima said in an interview in Baghdad earlier this month. It’s working to resume crude processing at the 310,000-bpd Baiji plant in the north and is building a new 140,000-bpd refinery at Karbala.
Exports from the Middle Eastern country could be even higher if the central government and the administration in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region solve a dispute over oil revenue that’s blocked federal exports from using a northern pipeline to Turkey, the International Energy Agency said this month.
"it just may be a lunatic you're looking for" -- Billy Joel
"Thursday is no longer cruciferous vegetables night" --Dr. Sheldon Cooper
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(c)N2PHOTOservices
Tips on fighting the funk and loving the endurance lifestyle again.
by Lisa Dolbear
It might seem strange that triathletes—who consistently train for three sports—might find themselves in a funk. After all, one of the perks of the multisport life is that it inherently provides variety and endless ways to challenge the body and mind. Even so, many triathletes experience a rut, where the motivation to cover the miles doesn't come easy and our glittery goals lose their luster.
What is a sweat-loving athlete to do? Change things up, why don't you?
Change the race
There are so many ways to swim, bike, and run—sometimes we forget that just because we're conditioning our bodies in all three sports, it doesn't mean we always have to do a triathlon.
For 55-year-old Simon O'Leary, the decision to try Aquabike came after years of pain and injury. "I have some arthritis in my hip which was hobbling my run, and I was starting to get bored with the sport anyway before that," the Massachusetts native recalls. "Now that I'm just swimming and biking, I recover much faster and I can race more." O'Leary hasn't totally given up full distance triathlon, though—he's registered for a full-distance race this year, where he's actually planning to quit on the run in order to make it his personal best Aquabike. "Then I will enjoy beers after a long swim and bike ride while my friends are pounding the pavement," he says.
Changing the race isn't just about adding or taking away miles, or even about how fast you go. For London, UK native Richard Miller, changing the race is all about what happens in the mind. "I like keeping the brain fresh, excited, and challenged," says the lifelong athlete who now chooses to mix up his training by riding a sportive with friends on the weekend rather than slug it out alone. "The focus is really about doing something I haven't done before," he adds. "Visiting a beautiful part of the world or meeting a new community."
For Miller, it's also about adapting to the challenges that each sport within triathlon might present on its own. "What triathlon has taught me, is that I now have the ability to compete in stand-alone swim, bike, and run events and enjoy them equally as individual sports."
Change the race: with a Velothon event.
Change the season
Weather can be a real soul-crusher for triathletes. Indoor training has given way to terms like "dreadmill" and the social-media all-call for suggestions on which Netflix shows to binge watch on the trainer. Whichever way you slice it, putting in the miles can get monotonous.
When 42-year-old Ben Berry decided to trade triathlon for adventure racing, he found the weather was actually one of the perks to outdoor training. "One thing I'm really looking forward to is the fun of fat bike racing, hopefully in the snow!" the Columbus, Ohio native says. Berry hasn't stepped away from tri permanently; rather, he's found that all his past training and built-up fitness lends itself nicely to his new focus. "The fitness and skillset cross over to four seasons worth of racing—fat bike, mountain bike, road biking, and cyclocross—which lets me be outside training, riding, and adventuring, but most of all having fun."
Change the season: with a new workout.
Change the priority
For 48-year-old Kristen Roe, taking a break from IRONMAN was a simple decision once her priorities changed. "As my kids got older and more involved in their own activities, it became stressful trying to balance their needs and my desire to be at their events with my own training needs and race events. I was going through the motions, but not getting the results I should have. There was no fire in my belly to make it happen."
With a very successful age group career that began in 1995, 14 IRONMAN races (including three times in Kona), the Manlius, New York native decided to change her focus to something easier for her to manage: distance running. "It gives me the same competitive fix, without having to worry about whether or not a lane will be open at the pool, or if I'll have all the gear I need on my bike in case I get a flat. I just throw on my sneakers and head out the door. Less stress!"
While the decision to shift from triathlon to running was about focusing less on herself, it also came with another perk. "I was never a trail runner until now. There's something very refreshing and meditative about running in the woods. No noise, no cars. It's just me and my breathing. I rarely look at my watch and I don't care about paces. I just go."
If you're experiencing burnout, Roe has some simple advice: "Whatever it is that brings you peace, do it. We do these sports to stay healthy, be social and to burn off some stress. If what you're doing is not giving you that then it's time to find something that does."
Change the priority: with a single discipline.
Change the focus
Now may be the time to dial into one sport instead of three. Consider choosing the part of triathlon that you're weakest at and spend a season or two honing your skills in that area before plugging back into multisport. Or choose the sport that makes you happiest from swim, bike, or run and explore it through a new mindset.
Isolating each sport into its own experience can be an inspiring way to rev up your drive again. "It's about finding something you love that will challenge you in new and different ways. Chase that!" advises Berry. He most identified as a runner, but always wanted to be a cyclist. Focusing on the bike opened the door to new adventures and new skills. "There are substantial learning and growth opportunities for bicycle handling, technique, and strength that can only be gotten through riding features on trails and courses. These things cannot be trained indoors. And training is easier—you can get better results in a single-sport focus than you can with triathlon—even in cyclocross which still requires some running," he says.
The most important takeaway here is that you can't fight funk without fire—so even if you're taking a hiatus from IRONMAN racing, remember to take the M-dot spirit with you. The drive that got you there can take you anywhere. "Find an event you are passionate to train for," says Miller—whether that's a long-course cycling race, a marathon, or an epic mountain bike event. You've proven yourself as an IRONMAN athlete. Have fun and enjoy your training.
Change the focus: with a new adventure.
Lisa Dolbear is a three-time IRONMAN, marketing professional, and mother of two.
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Introducing the Vega IRONMAN World Championship
The popular plant-based nutrition brand becomes the title sponsor of triathlon's pinnacle event.
We are excited to announce a new partnership with plant-based nutrition brand, Vega, as the title sponsor of the 2019 IRONMAN World Championship, the most iconic one-day endurance event in the world. As the leader in premium plant-based sport nutrition, Vega joins the IRONMAN `Ohana as the Official Recovery Nutrition partner of the 2019 Vega IRONMAN World Championship in addition to title sponsor.
The IRONMAN World Championship is the pinnacle of endurance racing with over 95,000 athletes competing to qualify at more than 40 global IRONMAN events each year. Athletes who qualify for the 2019 Vega IRONMAN World Championship will be entitled to a special offer on Vega products. Additionally, Vega products will be available in the IRONMAN Village, on-course and in the athlete recovery zone at the Vega IRONMAN World Championship on Saturday, October 12, 2019 in Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i.
Vega has been a pioneer in the plant-based nutrition industry since 2001. Vega co-founder Brendan Brazier knew that dialing in his nutrition was the competitive advantage he needed as a professional triathlete. Through trial, error, and experimentation, Brazier developed new products that helped him recover between training sessions better than any supplement he’d tried. Today, Vega has grown to include specialized sport nutrition, providing fueling options for before, during and after workouts or competition.
"We know that nutrition is the key to unlocking athletic excellence and what better way to demonstrate the power of plant-based sport nutrition than at Kona – the pinnacle of endurance sport," says Samantha Taylor, VP of Marketing, Vega. "While this is a new partnership for us, the synergies between IRONMAN and Vega date back many years when co-founder Brendan Brazier launched Vega at the height of his pro triathlete career. Brendan’s vision for creating a product that enables athletes to feel and perform their best continues to be our driving inspiration today, as more than ever, athletes are looking for a competitive edge in their sport through plant-based nutrition. Recently having achieved NSF Certified for Sport® for our Vega Sport® line we continue to innovate and enhance our formulation to support athlete needs. We’re honored to be a part of IRONMAN’s `Ohana and we’re looking forward to bringing our premium plant-based sport nutrition to those attending this iconic race."
Two core products in the Vega Sport line include Premium Protein and Recovery, both of which have no artificial flavors or sweeteners and are NSF Certified for Sport, Gluten-Free, Vegan Certified and Non-GMO Project Verified.
Vega Sport® Premium Protein is formulated to help rebuild muscle after a tough workout and is packed with 30 grams of plant-based protein, BCAAs, 2 billion CFU of probiotics (bacillus coagulans), and tart cherry to support recovery.
Vega Sport® Recovery is formulated to help replenish glycogen stores so that athletes can stay ready for whatever comes next and includes 16 grams of carbohydrates, electrolytes and B vitamins.
The 2019 Vega IRONMAN World Championship will enjoy 20 hours of comprehensive live race day coverage globally via IRONMAN NOW™ on Facebook Watch – www.facebookwatch.com/IRONMANnow and through regional television coverage, including NBC Sports in the United States. Last year’s IRONMAN World Championship live coverage included everything from the early morning body marking to the final hour finish-line celebration and saw nearly 20 million total views on Facebook Watch.
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Buy bus tickets online from Alapuzha to Manjeshwaram
About Alapuzha:
Book online bus tickets to Alapuzha By Kallada Travels.
Alappuzha Kallada Travels also known as Alleppey, is a town in Alappuzha District of Kerala state of southern India. A town with picturesque canals, backwaters, beaches, and lagoons, it was described as the one of the places known as Venice of the East by Lord Curzon. It is the administrative headquarters of Alappuzha District. Though the present town owes its existence to the sagacious Diwan Raja Kesavadas in the second half of 18th century, district of Alappuzha figures in classical Literature. Kuttanad, the rice bowl of Kerala with the unending stretch of paddy fields, small streams and canals with lush green coconut palms, was well known even from the early periods of the Sangam age. History says Alappuzha had trade relations with ancient Greece and Rome in Antiquity and in the Middle Ages, as well as with other parts of India. The famous Chettikulangara temple is at Mavelikkara in Alappuzha district. Arthunkal church and Edathuva church are famous christian worship centres in the district.
Alappuzha Kallada Travels is now the hub for backwater tourism in Kerala. House boats locally called "Kettuvallam" are available on hire on a daily basis as well as for longer durations to take visitors on the old waterways. These house boats in general have 2 bedrooms and attached bathrooms. Some of the boats have the bedrooms fitted with air conditioners. A routine trip includes food cooked on board in the traditional Kuttanad style. Alappuzha is unique in that it is the only district in Kerala without forest.House Boat, Punnamada Backwaters, Alappuzha
The main cultural and spiritual events of Alappuzha are Chambakkulam Moolam boat race, Chettikulangara Bharani and Nehru Trophy boat race.
The picturesque CSI Christ Church in Alappuzha town was built in 1818 by the first CMS (Church Missionary Society) missionary to the erstwhile state of Travancore, Rev. Thomas Norton. It was the first Anglican Church to be established in Travancore. Famous religious destinations are
Poomkavu Church, Ambalappuzha Sri Krishna Temple, Mannarasala Temple, Harippad, Subhramanya Swamy Temple, Harippad, Puthiyidam Sree Krishna Swamy Temple, Kayamkulam, Chettikulangara Bhagawathy Temple, Mavelikkara, Edathua Church, Champakulam Church, Mullackal Raja Rajeshwari Temple, Kidangamparambu Devi Temple, Sreekrishnaswamy Temple, Mavelikkara, Edamaruthusserril Temple, Puthuppally, Kayamkulam, Varnappalli Temple, Puthuppally, Kayamkulam, Valiyakulangara Temple, Karthikappally, Kalarcode Major Mahadeva Temple, Kandiyoor Siva Temple, Mavelikkara, Pathiyamkulangara Sree Bhagavathi Temple, Thiruvampady Sree Krishna Swami Temple, Vallya Kalavoor Sri Krishna Swami Temple, Kalavoor, Velikkattuthara Devi Temple, Kuttanadu, Govenda, Elangumatom Sri Khnda Karna Swami Temple, Talavadi, Kottankulangara Devi and Maha Vishnu Temple, Mararikkulam Mahadeva (Shiva) Temple, Kanichukulangara Devi Temple, Korthusseril Bhagavathi (Devi) Temple, Thondankulangara MahaDeva Temple.
Alappuzha or Alleppey is famous for its boat races, houseboats, coir products, fish and lakes. Alappuzha remains prominent on the tourist trial of Kerala as one of the major centers for backwater boat trips.
Alleppey or Alappuzha is also known as the "Venice of the East" its was here that traders from across the seven seas came in search of black gold and souvenirs.
Alappuzha or Alleppey is also home to Kuttanad, The rice bowl of kerala, one of the very few places in the world where farming is done below sea level.
Kuttanad is a land of lush paddy fields and stretches for 75 Km sandwiched between the sea and the hills.alleppey backwaters kerala.
Alapuzha is one of the beautiful and peaceful place and is also one of the tourists place which the Kallada Travels takes you to you.
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Alapuzha-Palakkad, Alapuzha-Salem, Alapuzha-Dharmapuri, Alapuzha-Krishnagiri, Alapuzha-Hosur, Alapuzha-Bangalore, Alapuzha-Hyderabad, Alapuzha-Thrissur, Alapuzha-Coimbatore, Alapuzha-Avinashi, Alapuzha-Tirupur, Alapuzha-Perundurai, Alapuzha-Erode, Alapuzha-Hubli, Alapuzha-Belgaum, Alapuzha-Kolhapur, Alapuzha-Mumbai, Alapuzha-Calicut, Alapuzha-Kozhikode, Alapuzha-Koduvally, Alapuzha-Thamarassery, Alapuzha-Vythiri, Alapuzha-Kalpetta, Alapuzha-Sulthan Bathery, Alapuzha-Gundalpet, Alapuzha-Nanjangudu, Alapuzha-Mysore, Alapuzha-Mandya, Alapuzha-Pune, Alapuzha-Thiruvananthapuram, Alapuzha-Trivandrum, Alapuzha-Chennai, Alapuzha-Trichy, Alapuzha-Tanjore, Alapuzha-Thanjavur, Alapuzha-Velankanni, Alapuzha-Kannur, Alapuzha-Thalassery, Alapuzha-Mahe, Alapuzha-Vadakara, Alapuzha-Koyilandi, Alapuzha-Tirur(Edarikode), Alapuzha-Kottakkal, Alapuzha-Valanchery, Alapuzha-Kuttipuram, Alapuzha-Edapal, Alapuzha-Kunnamkulam, Alapuzha-Ernakulam, Alapuzha-Payyanur, Alapuzha-Kanjangad, Alapuzha-Kasargod, Alapuzha-Manjeshwaram, Alapuzha-Mangalore, Alapuzha-Mangalapuram, Alapuzha-Udupi, Alapuzha-Manipal, Alapuzha-Nileshwaram, Alapuzha-Cheruvathur, Alapuzha-Vilupuram, Alapuzha-Pondicherry, Alapuzha-Puthuchery, Alapuzha-Kalpakkam
About Manjeshwaram:
Quick Links - Book Bus Tickets from Manjeshwaram
Manjeshwaram-Calicut, Manjeshwaram-Kozhikode, Manjeshwaram-Tirur(Edarikode), Manjeshwaram-Kottakkal, Manjeshwaram-Valanchery, Manjeshwaram-Kuttipuram, Manjeshwaram-Edapal, Manjeshwaram-Kunnamkulam, Manjeshwaram-Thrissur, Manjeshwaram-Chalakudy, Manjeshwaram-Angamaly, Manjeshwaram-Aluva, Manjeshwaram-Kalamassery, Manjeshwaram-Cochin, Manjeshwaram-Ernakulam, Manjeshwaram-Cherthala, Manjeshwaram-Alapuzha, Manjeshwaram-Haripad, Manjeshwaram-Kayamkulam, Manjeshwaram-Kollam, Manjeshwaram-Trivandrum, Manjeshwaram-Thiruvananthapuram
Quick Links - Book Bus Tickets to Manjeshwaram
Calicut-Manjeshwaram, Kozhikode-Manjeshwaram, Tirur(Edarikode)-Manjeshwaram, Kottakkal-Manjeshwaram, Valanchery-Manjeshwaram, Kuttipuram-Manjeshwaram, Edapal-Manjeshwaram, Kunnamkulam-Manjeshwaram, Thrissur-Manjeshwaram, Chalakudy-Manjeshwaram, Angamaly-Manjeshwaram, Aluva-Manjeshwaram, Kalamassery-Manjeshwaram, Cochin-Manjeshwaram, Ernakulam-Manjeshwaram, Cherthala-Manjeshwaram, Alapuzha-Manjeshwaram, Haripad-Manjeshwaram, Kayamkulam-Manjeshwaram, Kollam-Manjeshwaram, Trivandrum-Manjeshwaram, Thiruvananthapuram-Manjeshwaram
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List of digital television broadcast standards
DVB standards (countries)
DVB-T (terrestrial)
DVB-S (satellite)
DVB-S2
DVB-S2X
DVB-C (cable)
DVB-C2
DVB-H (handheld)
DVB-NGH
DVB-T2-Lite
DVB-SH (satellite)
ATSC standards (countries)
ATSC (terrestrial/cable)
ATSC-M/H (mobile/handheld)
ISDB standards (countries)
ISDB-T (terrestrial)
ISDB-T International SBTVD (Brazil)
ISDB-S (satellite)
ISDB-C (cable)
1seg (handheld)
DTMB standards (countries)
DTMB (terrestrial)
DTMB-A
CMMB (handheld)
DMB standard (countries)
T-DMB (terrestrial)
S-DMB (satellite)
H.265/MPEG-H HEVC
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2
VC-1
MPEG-H
HE-AAC
AC-4
E-AC-3
Frequency bands
DVB-C stands for "Digital Video Broadcasting - Cable" and it is the DVB European consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital television over cable. This system transmits an MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 family digital audio/digital video stream, using a QAM modulation with channel coding. The standard was first published by the ETSI in 1994, and subsequently became the most widely used transmission system for digital cable television in Europe, Asia and South America.[1] It is deployed worldwide in systems ranging from the larger cable television networks (CATV) down to smaller satellite master antenna TV (SMATV) systems.
1 Technical description
1.1 DVB-C transmitter
1.2 DVB-C receiver
2 DVB-C2
3 Countries that use DVB-C
Technical description[edit]
DVB-C transmitter[edit]
Scheme of a DVB-C transmission system
With reference to the figure, a short description of the single processing blocks follows.
Source coding and MPEG-2 multiplexing (MUX): video, audio, and data streams are multiplexed into an MPEG program stream (MPEG-PS). One or more MPEG-PSs are joined together into an MPEG transport stream (MPEG-TS). This is the basic digital stream which is being transmitted and received by home set top boxes (STB) or relevant integrable decoder (e.g.Conax) module. Allowed bitrates for the transported MPEG-2 depend on a number of modulation parameters: it can range from about 6 to about 64 Mbit/s (see the bottom figure for a complete listing).
MUX adaptation and energy dispersal: the MPEG-TS is identified as a sequence of data packets, of fixed length (188 bytes). With a technique called energy dispersal, the byte sequence is decorrelated.
External encoder: a first level of protection is applied to the transmitted data, using a nonbinary block code, a Reed-Solomon RS (204, 188) code, allowing the correction of up to a maximum of 8 wrong bytes for each 188-byte packet.
External interleaver: convolutional interleaving is used to rearrange the transmitted data sequence, such way it becomes more rugged to long sequences of errors.
Byte/m-tuple conversion: data bytes are encoded into bit m-tuples (m = 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8).
Differential coding: In order to get a rotation-invariant constellation, this unit shall apply a differential encoding of the two Most Significant Bits (MSBs) of each symbol.
QAM Mapper: the bit sequence is mapped into a base-band digital sequence of complex symbols. There are 5 allowed modulation modes: 16-QAM, 32-QAM, 64-QAM, 128-QAM, 256-QAM.
Base-band shaping: the QAM signal is filtered with a raised-cosine shaped filter, in order to remove mutual signal interference at the receiving side.
DAC and front-end: the digital signal is transformed into an analog signal, with a digital-to-analog converter (DAC), and then modulated to radio frequency by the RF front-end.
Available bitrates for a DVB-C system (Mbit/s)
Bandwidth (MHz)
16-QAM
6.41 12.82 19.23 25.64 32.05
128-QAM
DVB-C receiver[edit]
The receiving STB adopts techniques which are dual to those ones used in the transmission.
Front-end and ADC: the analog RF signal is converted to base-band and transformed into a digital signal, using an analog-to-digital converter (ADC).
QAM Demodulation
Differential decoding
Outer interleaving
Outer decoding
MUX adaptation
MPEG-2 demultiplexing and source decoding
Programmable Transport Stream
DVB-C2[edit]
On February 18, 2008 it was announced that a new standard – DVB-C2 – would be developed during 2008, and a "Call for Technologies" was issued.[2] Proposals including simulation programs and information on patent rights could be submitted until June 16, 2008.
"The results of the DVB-C2 Study Mission already provided clear indications that technologies are available allowing the performance of the second generation DVB cable transmission system to get so close to the theoretical Shannon Limit that any further improvements in the future would most likely not be able to justify the introduction of a disruptive third generation of cable transmission system." (DVB-C2 CfT)
By using state of the art coding and modulation techniques, DVB-C2 should offer greater than 30% higher spectrum efficiency under the same conditions, and the gains in downstream channel capacity will be greater than 60% for optimized HFC networks.
The final DVB-C2 specification was approved by the DVB Steering Board in April 2009.
DVB-C2 allows bitrates up to 83.1 Mbit/s on an 8 MHz channel bandwidth when using 4096-QAM modulation; future extensions will allow up to 97 Mbit/s and 110.8 Mbit/s per channel using 16384-QAM and 65536-AQAM modulation.[3]
Modes and features of DVB-C2 in comparison to DVB-C:
Input Interface Single Transport Stream (TS) Multiple Transport Stream and Generic Stream Encapsulation (GSE)
Modes Constant Coding & Modulation Variable Coding & Modulation and Adaptive Coding & Modulation
FEC Reed Solomon (RS) LDPC + BCH 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, 3/5, 4/5, 5/6, 6/7, 7/8, 8/9, 9/10[4]
Modulation Single Carrier QAM absolute OFDM[5]
Modulation Schemes 16- to 256-QAM 16- to 4096-QAM
Guard Interval Not Applicable 1/64 or 1/128
Inverse Fast Fourier transform (IFFT) size Not Applicable 4k[6]
Interleaving Bit-Interleaving Bit- Time- and Frequency-Interleaving
Pilots Not Applicable Scattered and Continual Pilots
Countries that use DVB-C[edit]
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
ATSC Standards
Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB)
Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB)
Digital television (DTV)
DVB-CI
QAM - the US term for the North American equivalent to DVB-C
^ "DVB-C will surpass US´ cable technologies in 2013 in Latin America". NexTV Latam. 2019-02-22.
^ "Standards - DVB". www.dvb.org. Retrieved 2019-02-22.
^ Dr. Dirk Jaeger (2010-09-02). "DVB-C2 Gets Reality - Facts and Figures on a New Transmission Approach". 8th Broadband Technology Conference, Gdynia. ReDeSign Project. Archived from the original on 2011-07-20.
^ "Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Frame structure channel coding and modulation for a second generation digital transmission system for cable systems (DVB-C2)" (PDF). DVB consortium. 2015-03-01.
^ "Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Implementation Guidelines for a second generation digital cable transmission system (DVB-C2)" (PDF). DVB consortium. 2015-08-01.
^ "DVB-C2 The second generation transmission technology for broadband cable" (PDF). Dirk Jaeger, Philipp Hasse, Joerg Robert, Institut fuer Nachrichtentechnik at Technische Universitaet Braunschweig. 2009-04-08.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to DVB-C.
Website of the DVB Project
ETSI Standard: ETSI EN 300 429 V1.2.1 (1998-04), Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Framing structure, channel coding and modulation for cable systems, download from ETSI.
Broadcast video formats
System M
NTSC-J
PAL-M
System B
System D
System G
System H
System K
PAL-N
PALplus
SECAM
System L (SECAM-L)
BTSC (MTS)
EIAJ
NICAM
Sound-in-Syncs
Zweikanalton (A2/IGR)
Hidden signals
Captioning
CGMS-A
VBI
VITC
Mechanical television
System A
SDTV
LDTV
1seg
EDTV
MPEG-2 standards
ISDB
DTMB
DVB 3D-TV
MPEG-4 AVC standards
ATSC A/72
SBTVD
HEVC standards
AC-3 (5.1)
MPEG-1 Audio Layer II
MPEG Multichannel
LPCM
MPEG-H 3D Audio
Broadcast flag
14:9 compromise
Broadcast-safe
Digital cinema (DCI)
Display motion blur
Moving image formats
MPEG transport stream
Reverse Standards Conversion
Television transmitter
Widescreen signaling
Templates (Analogue TV Topics)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=DVB-C&oldid=903477531"
Television transmission standards
Incomplete lists from July 2016
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Home > MOTO HEADLINES > KTM sack Tickle after second drug test failure
KTM sack Tickle after second drug test failure
UPDATE: Tickle sacked by KTM after drug test failure:
KTM Motorsports hereby makes the painful decision to terminate its agreement with Tickle, effective immediately.
Roger De Coster, KTM Race Director SX/MX: “We’ve had a good relationship with Broc over the last six months and he was a great guy to work with. However, KTM’s strong company policy gives no room for any other solution but to terminate the contract. We wish Broc the best in the future.”
Factory KTM supercross ace Broc Tickle has confirmed the second sample he had taken for drugs testing has new returned with the same positive result as the first. He was suspended from racing with immediate effect after he tested positive for an illegal drug taken in a sample at the San Diego Supercross. The official statement from the FIM read:
The Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) has advised US Supercross rider Broc Tickle that he is provisionally suspended pursuant to Article 7.9 of the FIM Anti-doping Code. The decision to provisionally suspend Mr. Tickle was taken following the receipt of a report from the WADA accredited laboratory in Cologne indicating an Adverse Analytical Finding of 5-methylhexan-2-amine, a specified substance under Section 6 (Stimulants) of the 2018 FIM Prohibited List, in a urine sample collected from him at an in-competition test carried out by the FIM at the round of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship held in San Diego, California, USA, on 10 February 2018.
Mr. Tickle has the right to request and attend the analysis of his B sample.
Mr. Broc Tickle is provisionally suspended with effect from 14 April 2018. He is therefore barred from participating in any Sports competition until further notice (Art. 10.12 of the FIM Anti-doping Code). Under Article 7.9.3.2 of the FIM Anti-doping Code, Mr. Tickle may request lifting of his provisional suspension.
Tickle said: “Today, via e-mail, I was notified by the FIM that testing of my Sample B allegedly confirmed the alleged results of my Sample A test; however, as of today, neither the FIM or the laboratory has provided any supporting evidence for the alleged testing results
“Now that my case has been formally identified with the CDI, perhaps the process will proceed in a professional manner so that I can finally begin to defend myself. Their system presumes my guilt and presumes their supremacy all while hindering, impeding, and delaying an athlete’s ability to discover evidence to argue against both.
As I stated before, I have never, intentionally or negligently, ingested any prohibited substance, and specifically, the alleged substance I allegedly had in my system on February 10, 2018. I have never cheated, doped, or tried to better myself by taking the short way; nor, has anyone around me offered or provided to me any substance that is prohibited by the FIM Anti-Doping Code. I have worked too hard throughout my career to put my career at stake by taking any short cuts.
I will do everything possible to fight this allegation, clear my name, and continue with my career. Should anyone have any information that may be relevant to my case, please contact my attorney, Brian D. Harrison.”
MX Nationals heads to new-look Docks
Thousands pay tribute to Geboers
Herlings and Cairoli talk Valkenswaard
KTM moves into massive new race HQ
Sunderland takes second Dakar stage win
Anstie to join Standing Construct KTM
YZ125 Cup Superfinale at MXoN
Bas Vaessen joins Mewse and Irwin at Hitachi KTM
Hawkstone International date set!
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Meeting minutes – Executive Committee — Vicksburg– June 15, 2013
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
VICKSBURG HISTORIC VILLAGE, VICKSBURG
Members Present: Robert Tischbein, Larry Krieg, Hugh Gurney, John Langdon, Jim Wallington, Jim Hinkins, Rosemary Horvath
Others Present: John DeLora, Rich Vavra-Musser, Charley Bonnell, Frank Lapp, David VanderBee, Doug Wilson, Christine Ballard, Lynn Searles, Burton TenBrink, Rick Burn, Tim Hoeffner, Gerald Smith, Ronald Smith, J.P. DesCamp, Robert Patterson
Call to Order: Chairman Tischbein called the meeting to order at 10:45 a.m. A roll call ascertained that a majority of the Executive Committee was present. Langdon moved acceptance of the agenda. Wallington seconded the motion and it was approved by the members of the Executive Committee present.
Minutes of the meetings on April 20, 2013 in Niles were reviewed. Langdon moved acceptance of the Executive Committee minutes. Wallington seconded the motion and it was approved by the members of the Executive Committee present.
DeLora moved acceptance of the Monthly Membership meeting. Langdon seconded the motion and it was approved by the members present.
Treasurer’s Report: Langdon distributed the Treasurer’s Report as prepared by Treasurer David Randall. As of May 31, 2013, the Chase checking account stood at $30,293.20. Of this amount, $17,141.26 represents the Pratt Fund, scheduled for deposit in a Vanguard Account.
Patterson asked what plan we have for the Pratt Fund. Langdon responded that it would remain in the Chase account until the Treasurer found it beneficial to move to Vanguard. Where it is at present, it is saving checking fees that amount to more than the interest it would earn with Vanguard. Langdon suggested that Patterson contact Treasurer Randall for a fuller explanation. Responding to a question from Krieg as to the purpose of the Pratt Fund, DeLora explained that it was considered an endowment fund. It will eventually be moved to Vanguard, but not right now.
Wallington moved acceptance of the Treasurer’s Report. The motion was seconded by Hinkins and approved by the members of the Executive Committee present.
Chicago Union Station Task Force Funding: After clarification by Langdon, Krieg ascertained that the amount set aside for the task force was sufficient and withdrew a request for additional funding.
Funding for an Electronic Train & Bus Status Board at the Pontiac Amtrak Station: DeLora explained that he and Larry Sobczak had installed electronic status boards at train stations in Kalamazoo, Battle Creek and Guilford, Illinois. They went over budget in Guilford because they were requested to extend to tracking beyond what was expected. For Pontiac, they have purchased the necessary computer, but need additional funds for screens and a hot spot device. DeLora has had indications that Trans4m will provide about half the funds needed. He asked MARP to consider a donation of $750.00.
Wallington moved that MARP appropriate $750.00 for the status board in Pontiac. The motion was seconded by Krieg. After discussion, Wallington and Krieg agreed to amend the motion calling for MARP to appropriate $250.00 and assist in raising the remaining $500.00 from other sources. Langdon agreed to head up the solicitation of the $500.00.
The Executive Committee approved the motion to appropriate $250.00 from MARP’s Outreach Budget for the Pontiac status board, with the expectation that Transf4m will provide $750.00 and MARP will raise the remaining $500.00 from outside sources.
Recess: The Executive Session recessed at 11:20 a.m.
Respectfully Submitted: Accepted:
Hugh D. Gurney Robert Tischbein
Secretary Chair.
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Patient Stories / Life in the Dawg House
Life in the Dawg House
By John Mann
After being diagnosed with prostate cancer at 40, John Mann spreads awareness and hope.
John Mann is a dedicated musician and avid bow hunter.
His contradictory passions are reflected in his music studio, which is often described as hippie-meets-hunter. Known as the Dawg House, the studio is outfitted with a bearskin rug and other pelts from animals John has taken down with his bow.
On Friday nights, you can find him in the Dawg House playing music with his friends. The longstanding jam session starts after work and continues until no one is able hold their eyes open.
Married for 20 years, John also enjoys fishing, hiking, downhill skiing and electric mountain bikes.
“If I have an hour off, I’m using it for something,” John said. “No one has to tell a cancer survivor to use their days wisely.”
While many men feel comfortable recounting the details of their latest sporting accident or the last time they pulled a hook fishing, cancer remains a taboo subject. Especially prostate cancer — the second most common cancer among American men, and one of the most private.
Not John. Diagnosed with prostate cancer when he was 40-years-old, John has made it his mission to spread awareness of the disease that strikes at the heart of masculinity.
“Guys aren’t comfortable talking about health issues, let alone a health issue that can steal your masculinity, “he said. “There just doesn’t seem to be the awareness of prostate cancer.”
Prostate Cancer: When to See a Urologist
The prostate is a small gland that is part of the male reproductive system. It is responsible for secreting prostate fluid, a component of seminal fluid, and helps propel fluid into the urethra.
Located below the bladder, the walnut-sized gland also produces an enzyme called prostate specific antigen (PSA), which can be used to detect prostate cancer. PSA may be elevated in cases of prostate cancer, enlarged prostate or inflamed or infected prostate.
Other symptoms of prostate cancer can include frequent urination, weak or interrupted urine and blood in the urine.
John had none of those symptoms. After developing pain in his groin area, John scheduled an appointment with Dr. Gary Gingrich, founder of Gorge Urology, a clinic at Mid-Columbia Medical Center.
“I knew down deep that some-thing was wrong,” he said.
The pain proved to be due to a hernia, which was successfully repaired, but during the evaluation, Dr. Gingrich became concerned that John may have silent prostate cancer.
It was nearly 8 p.m. when John received the call that changed his life, and possibly saved it.
“Gary called me at home,” John said. “He said, ‘John, I don’t know why but I can’t get you off my mind. I think you should come back for a biopsy.’”
The warning from Dr. Gingrich was clear: “If I can’t sleep about this, you shouldn’t be able to sleep either.”
After Prostate Cancer: “Life has been very, very good to me”
During John’s biopsy, eight samples were removed from his prostate. All eight samples came back positive for cancer, which was unusual in a man John’s age. The risk of developing prostate cancer increases with age, and the average age of diagnosis is about 66-years-old.
“I will never forget the day Dr. Gingrich called me,” John said. “It was about 11 a.m. He cancelled his personal plans and we met. We talked for two and a half or three hours.”
John was not comforted by their discussion. Married with a two-year-old son, and faced with a life-threatening disease, it was impossible to find comfort.
But after leaving the doctor’s office, he was well informed about his treatment options and felt very comfortable in his decision to have Dr. Gingrich perform his surgery, a radical prostatectomy to remove his prostate gland.
“Doctors today are so busy, “John said. “When Dr. Gingrich knew I needed time, he cancelled his personal plans just to talk to me. It was phenomenal.”
John was out of work for about a month after the surgery. It was a difficult process, physically and psychologically. In facing prostate cancer, especially as a young man, he fought a painful battle.
But John is one of the lucky ones. He has been cancer free for 17 years and has experienced nonnegative side effects from surgery.
Not all men get that lucky. But when a young man with prostate cancer wants to discuss the diagnosis with someone who has been there, Dr. Gingrich often places them in touch with John for a candid conversation.
“I spend an hour or two telling them how it went for me,” he said. “Only good has happened to me since that surgery. Life has been very, very good to me.”
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Difference between revisions of "Nenpa-fall"
Mediag (Talk | contribs)
Latest revision as of 12:07, 6 October 2011 (view source)
===QUESTION AND ANSWER ===
*Q: What might news organizations expect for development costs for doing the software integration with the three most important platforms?
*Doing a tablet app a year ago was $500K. Now you can do it for as little as $50K. Some people have folks in house who can do it, and they may not even realize it. It could be a 16-year-old kid.
*There's a revolution in HTML5. A lot of companies are now using that instead of a proprietary app.
*Q: By going behind a paywall, don't you protect yourself?
*Maybe, but the most successful paywalls are sampling pay walls. So the same kind of fare use applies to tablets as well, if you are doing an HTML5 application. "I think because of the metered approach, publishers are not protected . . . and I think it comes down to product -- how good is the product."
====Why did the aggregators win? What to do?====
"How come aggregation in news won?"
Aggregation means taking people stuff within the law and repurposing it. News organizations have been saying we are original publishers, we don't do that, that is stealing. Some papers have formed blogger networks to exchange traffic and aggregate them.
How could we aggregate using the tablet form for our city?
"For news organizations it is really prizing the original reporting, but not stopping there, and go ahead with the aggregation, and bringing in enough of the user experience so the user will be satisfied."
"So there is a new chance here, but these windows don't stay open very long."
*The news industry is half of what it was at its peak. That is exactly where the news industry is now. They two industries are going through the same thing. New management in music sees things as they are, not what they were. Newspapers have to do the same thing. Where are we today? How do we build from here? That's parallel. He is going to look at music, and movies and books.
Newspapers have been slow to take that approach of where are we here today, not where we were. "Part of it is we feel deeply about our mission and that is good, but that has prevented us from changing as quickly as we need to change." Think of it like an investor, how would I approach it from day one, today.
Contact: kdoctor@gmail.com @kdoctor <br>
http://www.newseconomics.com
==Peter Doucette, Boston Globe now presenting==
They raised circulation prices in 2009, which gave the The Globe breathing room, and it paid off, but it was a non-repeatable strategy. They had to find new revenue streams.
They have a two-brand strategy -- http://www.boston.com and http://www.bostonglobe.com / They wanted to protected the substantial ad revenue on Boston.com -- the seventh-largest news site in the country with 7 million unique visitors in August. They felt that could be at risk if they created a paywall.
The higher sites include are Huffington Post, NYTimes, USA Today, LA Times.
"Very good success," at Worcester with their paywall (powered by Clickshare Service Corp.)
BostonGlobe.com and BostonGlobe.com were mergering, from a marketing point of view. They realized they had to go in a different direction. That's how they moved to the two-brand strategy.
====Engaging with three types of customers at Globe====
The did some research on willingness to pay. They talked about:
*Print-engaged readers, who favor a curated news experience and newspaper-like format, but they are not at all print-exclusive. They index high for tablet usage; they want news that is curated and valued and they have a high propensity for that. "When we built BostonGlobe.com, we are very clear it is for those people."
*Online mobile engaged. The next group. On the go, checking breaking news, active in search, commenting and emailing links and they read and consume in a different way. News surveyors, information snackers. They are looking for breadth, not depth, but are looking for the same type of content. The overlap of what they want is the same, but it is how they want it delivered that is different. Low willingness to pay.
*Casual readers. They exist on line, on print. Some willingness to pay.
The question they then asked: Could we create a separate online brand for The Boston Globe? It did not have it's own front-door to the user, it was not easy to find.
====What they came up with====
*BostonGlobe.com is a "limited ad environment." It makes the advertising exclusive. A nice choice for brand advertisers. It appeals to former and current Globe subscribers and readers, with elegant ad integration ad meets expectations of the print/egaged.
*Boston.com is free, a mass audience, an ad-supported model and targeted at the online/mobile engaged (the second group above). "The stories will be curated in a way that is designed for them."
*At BostonGlobe.com -- "The important thing is not to go after page views. Page views are not important. It's about drawing the reader in and pursuing that depth and really keeping them engaged."
*Philosophy: Build it once, build it flexible and distribution it across multiple platforms.
Key thing they needed -- was a centralized content-management system.
*They put in a single registration system that works across both sites. "It collects one profile. It means advertisers, if they want to buy a certain audience, no matter where they are in our portfolio, they can do that."
A lot of emphasis on behavior-testing, A-B testing.
====Overall goals====
*Grow overall audience to 60% of market
*Match product development with needs of targetted audiences
*Provide the ability for advertisres to reach mass or targeted audiences
*Increase overall revenues from a combination of consumers and advertisers
Next steps are around customization and personalization. "That's something we are looking at and hope to move forward on."
Latest revision as of 12:07, 6 October 2011
1 Fall conference: New England Newspaper & Press Association
1.1 ANNOUNCEMENT
1.2 SPEAKER: Amy Mitchell, Project for Excellence in Journalism
1.2.1 Surveying local sources of news
1.2.2 Use of the web
1.2.3 One other project embarked on
1.2.3.1 A few concepts learned so far: Daily deal a bubble
1.2.3.2 Daily deal -- already a bubble
1.2.3.3 Changing corporate culture still hard
1.2.3.4 the journey remains long
1.2.4 Q&A
1.2.4.1 Question: What is prognosis for print product?=
1.2.4.2 Q: What corporate culture changes are working?
1.2.4.3 Q: Will a PR campaign for newspapers' news value work?
1.2.4.4 Q: What about value of focus groups a la Steve Jobs?
1.2.4.5 Q: What about national survey results?
1.3 SPEAKER: Ken Doctor, industry analyst
1.3.1 A discussion about brands
1.3.2 Two legs of revenue
1.3.2.1 Focus on core readers and 'all access'; new revenues
1.3.2.2 Who has paywalls?
1.3.3 Missing piece, will pick up later
1.3.4 Talking about Schibsted, Oslo
1.3.4.1 Key to future: Self marketing by retailers
1.3.4.2 Estimate 3-5 years
1.3.5 Wrapup comment
1.3.6 QUESTION AND ANSWER
1.3.6.1 Why did the aggregators win? What to do?
1.4 Peter Doucette, Boston Globe now presenting
1.4.1 Engaging with three types of customers at Globe
1.4.2 What they came up with
1.4.3 Overall goals
Fall conference: New England Newspaper & Press Association
Bill Densmore's notes from the fall meeting of the New England Newspaper & Press Association, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Natick, Mass.
Oreste D'Arconte, president of the Attleboro Sun Chronicle, and NENPA board chair, introduces. The theme of the conference: The economy. What can newspaper leaders do to cope, adjust and thrive? An assessment of where we stand comes from Amy Mitchell, the deputy director of the Pew Center Project for Excellence in Journalism.
SPEAKER: Amy Mitchell, Project for Excellence in Journalism
http://www.journalism.org <mailto:asmitch@journalism.org asmitch@journalism.org>
A brief overview of where news are in relation to other sectors in the media.
"The industry is in a worse position than most other sectors."
She shows a chart showing ad revenues in 2010 vs. 2009 -- Local TV up, oneline up, CAble TV up, network TV up, audio and magazines up, but the newspaper down 6.3 percent.
"Most newspapers are still making a profit -- the average is about 5 percent."
"What we are hearing this year is a really heightened sense of confusion, regret, grimness, a sense of loss, and confusion about where to head next -- what should our special and original content be? And some frustration as editors try to keep up with the latest twitter, latest application and still try to do more with less resources."
"We just have to start charging for content, period, there is no more waiting, no more watching."
The years of managing the decline is not over.
The determination that newspapers must come up with the answer doesn't mean they will succeed. She will talk about how PEJ is working to try and help be a facilitator.
The main challenge is the shift in power that is not full appreciated. The biggest issue ahead is not lack of audience or revenue, but that the digital realm in the "news industry is no longer in control of its own future."
Lots of reliance on advertising ad networks and content aggregators and search engines. And device makers control access to the public. Each device requires a new software program. "This is costly, often too costly and confusing for local news organizations." In can be too much multitasking. "So how can a news organization not be there." The industry is now struggling to keep up.
The most important challenge: The technology companies control the consumer data. "Not just the data about what they do on your website, but what else they do ... and they can sell that content to advertisers."
IN a user-controlled world, that audience data will be the key to the future, she says.
Another important challenge -- being able to see who your audience is and how to manage it.
Surveying local sources of news
Mitchell now turns to talking about the results of the latest Pew survey on where people get their news. Word of mouth (55%) is the second most mentioned source after television (74%), especially among 18-29-year-olds. After word of mouth comes radio (51%), local newspaper and/or website (50%), Internet (47%), and print newsletters (9%).
"So the social networking has really brought back one of the most traditional forms of communication we have had," she said.
Surveyors next asked where people go for news by topic. People go to TV for weather and breaking news. TV tied for the lead with newspapers on politics. Newspapers ranked first in 11 of the top 16 topics. "They are mostly the civic-oriented topics, but they are ones that fewer people follow on a regular basis."
The topics, in ranked order of their listed importance to respondents, were: Crime, local politics, community events, arts events, local taxes, schools, housing, government activities, local jobs, zoning and development and social services.
Use of the web
"Those that have the web and are comfortable with the web have already made the switch for most topics," said Mitchell. "So what opportunity does this suggest for newspapers?"
Two fold: Work on the misperception that it wouldn't matter if the newspaper went way. The other -- "The future will be on the web. Newspapers already have a much greater presence on the web than a lot of other outfits." Newspapers could be weather and traffic sources on the web. "That is an area that newspapers can now compete in digitally that they couldn't in their print product."
One other project embarked on
There is no easy way to share this information with others. If there were, how much more efficiently would the process of information work. They have developed a project to accelerate the process of searching for a new method to sustain news. To acquire and share what is working.
"This will be an envolving database of revenue-side experiments," said Mitchell. Everything will be anonymized. "This will be really hard data about how much revenue you have gotten from different kinds of experiments." Mark Jurkowitz is the lead researcher on the project.
So far, she says 10 companies with many papers are involved, including Scripps, the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group and Cox newspapers. They are now finalizing the first survey of data experiments. It will ask about paywalls, digital subscriptions and advertising revenue experiments.
The survey about to go into the field asks very specific questions and it should yield answers about what works and doesn't work in various size markets and types of markets and publications. "The initial site interviews have already given us a lot of insight and very specific material to work with."
A few concepts learned so far: Daily deal a bubble
"Companies are centralizing economic decision making in a way that they had not done for years and reducing local autonomy," she says, because the stakes are so high.
Daily deal -- already a bubble
"We also heard clearly that the daily deal business already looks like a bubble," she said. "They are not getting repeat customers . . . they are getting customers that want the deal . . . fewer predict a long and fruitful future, and a lot of executives are saying the trick is what is going to come next."
Changing corporate culture still hard
Also they are hearing clearly is that after more than a decade of transitioning to a digital way of communicating, a major obstacle continues to be changing the corporate culture. PEJ has talked for years about this culture being a part of the problem.
the journey remains long
"We are far closer to the beginning of this journey than to the end of it," she says they have learned. How far are we from a viable business model? Still a great deal of uncertainty remains. Nobody thinks there is a eureka moment around the corner.
Alan Mutter asks if PEJ has empiricle evidence about success of a paywall. Mitchell answers that it doesn't go above about 2 percent of the total audience people subscribing.
As for using paywalls: "I am very aware of that (lack of clear success) and I am not recommending that (papers use paywalls per se)." She says there are some successes -- at the Arizona paper. She says there are lots of ways to go about it. PEJ is not recommending anything pro or con -- including a paywall per se. But they are looking at certain kinds of charging to see if there is a definitive sense of what's working and what isn't.
"There is not going to be one main revenue source . . . there is going to need to be a lot of different revenue sources, a lot of which don't have to do with news," says Mitchell.
Question: What is prognosis for print product?=
A questioner asks how long does the print product stay viable and does it change in any radical way?
Mitchell says 90% of ad revenue still coming from online. Newspapers haven't been able to afford to give up their print product. A lot of advertisers still like the print ad. "That's starting to change on the local change, on the local side, some of the growth are local retailers that are now comfortable with the Internet -- with the coupons that can be scanned."
But she says a lot of newspapers are starting to change their print frequency cycle to two or three days a week rather than daily.
Q: What corporate culture changes are working?
Mitchell: Part of why it is hard is the culture of newspapers was not about doing change, but about doing things consistently, the same way. So newspaper managements didn't seize creative, disruptive ideas and run with them. "The creative juices about how to do this differently didn't exist within newsrooms," she said.
Q: Will a PR campaign for newspapers' news value work?
Will an effective communication effort about how much newspaper people get from newspapers really work?
"It can't hurt to try," responds Mitchell. "People don't have a favorite news source anymore . . . they are used to going to multiple sources." The public is more educated and smarter about news than we give them credit for.
Q: What about value of focus groups a la Steve Jobs?
With the death of Steve Jobs: He didn't believe in focus groups. And I'd like your take on the value of focus groups?
Mitchell: "I think I'm more in Jobs camps than others." PEJ tends to want to look broadly in a deep way. "It's hard to get to a real deep level of understanding with 10 people in a room."
They are now surveying 900 tablet users that are regular weekly news users and they will have that survey data out later in October. They are trying to see what they value. "You can't do that with a focus group."
She says focus groups do have value in some contexts.
Q: What about national survey results?
Question: What national-regional variations are there in survey results.
Mitchell: Differences are not as much regionally as they are suburban vs. rural, and those that had lived in a community longer. "Those that had lived in a community longer were really integrated, and followed most of those topics closely." Also rural people followed more closely, too.
SPEAKER: Ken Doctor, industry analyst
Doctor talks about who the Biblical-type sears are for the industry.
-- Not Murdoch -- The Daily is at about one-third the circulation it needs.
-- New focus on core readers -- Focus on the tablet -- A quick summary of where revenue might be
"There will not be a single business model that will save the industry or will bring it back to what it used to be. Those of us who used to work in the industry have to get used to that." Building will be brick-by-brick.
Murdoch is the Cecil B. DeMille of publishing. Nots of innovation in the Wall Street Journal.
He talks about Tim Armstrong of AOL-Patch -- talks about re-igniting a content revolution. Arianna Huffington -- now the editor of AOL, the largest hiring agent in the U.S. for journalists in the last 18 months -- a major competitor to newspaper companies.
Google -- size and rate of growth is huge.
Magazines are going through the same things that newspapers are going through.
Schibsted: A new company among the top 10 in news revenues -- based in Oslo, Norway, has spread across Europe, Spain, France and Switzerland, experimenting with a number of new products.
Al Jazeera is the fasted growing Washington, D.C. bureau.
Microsoft is becomming quickly a legacy company.
Fourteen U.S. newspapers companies have gone through bankrupcy and Tribune Co. is still there.
Arthur Suzlberger leads the way toward the digital future.
World newspaper five years ago: $134 billion in revenue. This year: $93 billion in revenues. "My own project is probably in three years this figure will be $75 billion." But that is still a huge number and a huge industry.
There has been no U.S. ad revenue growth for five years. Next year, digital advertising will pass newspapers next year, and eventually TV, too.
Google: 2010 $29.3 billion in revenues, $8.5 billion in profits; Gannett Co. Inc., $5.4 billion in revenues, $588 million in profits.
Facebook will do $2 billion in ad revenues in 2011 -- two thirds of the total of all newspapers.
"There is $31 billion in digital advertising in the U.S. this year. Newspapers will have about $5 billion in digital advertising. You can see where the money is going." It's going to Google, Facebook, AOL and others.
A discussion about brands
Doctor talks about transitions in the retail world. Even Best Buy is getting in trouble because people are buying direct from brands online. He shows the cover of Wired's UK edition.
Two legs of revenue
Advertising and circulation are two revenue streams
Print, online and mobile are three products
But Doctor doesn't think "mobile" will be used as a word anymore in three years. It is just about being connected, anywhere. "Too many publishers have been making a mistake in the early mobile world of repurposing online, which is repurposing the print product."
He says 4G mobile connectivity is coming quickly -- Verizon is already offering it in the big cities. "These speeds are happening very quickly and it means video is ascendant."
So some questions:
Who knows our brands?
Who already pays us?
Who are our core readers
Who watches video?
Doctor talks about Steve Yelvington's (Morris Digital) concept of core vs. other types of customers. Doctor things of the user relationship as a funnel. He thinks counting "unique visitors" is like counting air? What does it mean? Low advertising utility. Most of these people will never become subscribers. Which will become core customers? He estimates a third to a half of the visitors to a website contribute most of the pageviews.
New York times has 30 million unique users, and one mission print readers. So their print readers are about 3 percent of their total unique users (including web). "You really want to those core readers and figure that out. They are the basis of the new business."
You need to make peace with the fly-by traffic coming from search engines and social medial because they are good for traffic and lead generation. "But most of that has almost zero economic value for websites. The key is engaging with the core customers -- keeping the existing ones and generating new ones.
Focus on core readers and 'all access'; new revenues
Doctor calls "users" a pretty odious term. "It is not a very nice description of a customer that you have." The Times, The Globe, Concord Monitor, Columbia are saying you are a customer, we are going to take care of your needs. "A very simple concept -- and they are customers."
He talks about papers that have added online subscription services.
"What did this meant in Columbia, Mo. -- it meant three new newsroom FTEs. It meant instead of cutting people, they added people."
Memphis is going live soon too.
He encourages people to think about offering a Sunday print paper with digital delivery.
"All access is the name of the game. You pay me one price and I'll get your stuff whereever you want to be."
Who has paywalls?
He estimates 125 U.S. daily newspaper titles now have paywalls. All of these papers are partnered with Journalism Online, now called Press+. "What they are finding -- 1% to 3% -- same numbers. Or 1% to 3% of unique visitors are buying digital subscriptions. The models are capturing incremental print subscriber revenue.
The psychology says no, you can't get it for print anymore. As a result, print churn is down. Page traffics are largely holding, small new revenue. Tweaking for 2012.
"They want to test it over the next six months and then put in pay systems everywhere," he says.
Sampling is key, but not too much.
Missing piece, will pick up later
LOST A PIECE OF HIS PRESENTATION HERE WILL GO BACK AND INSERT LATER
He says what is needed is an iTunes for news.
He talks about tablet news aggregators, lead by Google and Yahoo upcoming products, are the new challenge to newspapers.
Talking about Schibsted, Oslo
Doctor says Schibsted is one of the 10 largest media companies in Europe now.
They partnered with a company in the weight-loss business. An online program that provides some editorial intervention. Five percent to six percent of their revenue is coming from services.
He talks about Texas Tribune ancillary services.
He talks about city guides now being big -- mentions TapIN, a service offered by the Bay Area News Group (MediaNews Group Inc.) from the San Jose Mercury News. "It is a prototype for every newspaper in the country to look at this."
Marketwatch is charging for a new tablet product.
Journal-Register in New Haven is creating three times more video than the local broadcaster. "If the tablet is going to be a great place to show video, get ahead of the broadcasters that are slow."
Key to future: Self marketing by retailers
$63 billion in self-marketing, up from $22 billion in 2006. It's going direct to the consumer. Many companies are now doing this -- Best Buy is an early-adopter example.
"Consumers are finding: How many deals do you want in your in-box in the morning?"
Self-serve marketing, telesales, feet on the street are the three ways to sell but they are being reformed around marketing services. So media are becoming resellers. Newspapers are selling more and more of other peoples' stuff.
Estimate 3-5 years
A lot of chain businesses say 1/3 of their advertising spend will be in direct-outreach to consumers in a few years. Newspapers have to figure out how to capture that.
(See: "Paper to Persona" which argues that news organizations have to learning how to help their customers manage their persona -- if you can present customers to chain businesses you are entitled to a chunk of the transaction?)
Wrapup comment
"If we drop this idea that we have to completely understand it, and identity the rapid changes, and delve into it, and recognize that the role and mission of newspapers in their community has never been more important and we just have to find new ways to do it."
Q: What might news organizations expect for development costs for doing the software integration with the three most important platforms?
Doing a tablet app a year ago was $500K. Now you can do it for as little as $50K. Some people have folks in house who can do it, and they may not even realize it. It could be a 16-year-old kid.
There's a revolution in HTML5. A lot of companies are now using that instead of a proprietary app.
Q: By going behind a paywall, don't you protect yourself?
Maybe, but the most successful paywalls are sampling pay walls. So the same kind of fare use applies to tablets as well, if you are doing an HTML5 application. "I think because of the metered approach, publishers are not protected . . . and I think it comes down to product -- how good is the product."
Why did the aggregators win? What to do?
The news industry is half of what it was at its peak. That is exactly where the news industry is now. They two industries are going through the same thing. New management in music sees things as they are, not what they were. Newspapers have to do the same thing. Where are we today? How do we build from here? That's parallel. He is going to look at music, and movies and books.
Contact: kdoctor@gmail.com @kdoctor
Peter Doucette, Boston Globe now presenting
Engaging with three types of customers at Globe
Print-engaged readers, who favor a curated news experience and newspaper-like format, but they are not at all print-exclusive. They index high for tablet usage; they want news that is curated and valued and they have a high propensity for that. "When we built BostonGlobe.com, we are very clear it is for those people."
Online mobile engaged. The next group. On the go, checking breaking news, active in search, commenting and emailing links and they read and consume in a different way. News surveyors, information snackers. They are looking for breadth, not depth, but are looking for the same type of content. The overlap of what they want is the same, but it is how they want it delivered that is different. Low willingness to pay.
Casual readers. They exist on line, on print. Some willingness to pay.
What they came up with
BostonGlobe.com is a "limited ad environment." It makes the advertising exclusive. A nice choice for brand advertisers. It appeals to former and current Globe subscribers and readers, with elegant ad integration ad meets expectations of the print/egaged.
Boston.com is free, a mass audience, an ad-supported model and targeted at the online/mobile engaged (the second group above). "The stories will be curated in a way that is designed for them."
At BostonGlobe.com -- "The important thing is not to go after page views. Page views are not important. It's about drawing the reader in and pursuing that depth and really keeping them engaged."
Philosophy: Build it once, build it flexible and distribution it across multiple platforms.
They put in a single registration system that works across both sites. "It collects one profile. It means advertisers, if they want to buy a certain audience, no matter where they are in our portfolio, they can do that."
Overall goals
Grow overall audience to 60% of market
Match product development with needs of targetted audiences
Provide the ability for advertisres to reach mass or targeted audiences
Increase overall revenues from a combination of consumers and advertisers
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Home > About Us > Governance Committees > Board of Trustees
Names in bold indicate the Chair or Co-Chair of the committee
Ian Agol University of California, Berkeley Mar 01, 2017 Feb 28, 2021
Edward Baker Mesirow Financial Board Chair (4/1/19-3/31/22) Mar 02, 2009 Mar 31, 2022
Deborah Ball University of Michigan Mar 05, 2011 Feb 28, 2021
Hélène Barcelo MSRI - Mathematical Sciences Research Institute Ex-officio, Deputy Director (unlimited term); Acting Director (8/1/18-7/31/19) Jul 01, 2008 Jul 31, 2025
Georgia Benkart University of Wisconsin-Madison Mar 05, 2011 Feb 28, 2023
May Chu Signet Consulting Treasurer (4/1/19-3/31/20) Mar 01, 2009 Feb 28, 2021
Stephen Della Pietra Renaissance Technologies Feb 19, 2018 Feb 28, 2022
David Donoho Stanford University Mar 01, 2016 Feb 29, 2020
David Eisenbud MSRI - Mathematical Sciences Research Institute Director (8/1/13-7/31/22) Mar 01, 2009 Jul 31, 2022
Charles Fefferman Princeton University Apr 01, 2010 Feb 28, 2022
Dan Freed University of Texas, Austin Mar 05, 2011 Feb 28, 2023
Jeff Goodby Goodby, Silverstein and Partners Mar 06, 2010 Feb 28, 2022
Sanford Grossman Quantitative Financial Strategies, Inc Mar 06, 2010 Feb 28, 2022
Vinita Gupta Digital Link Mar 01, 2019 Feb 28, 2023
Margaret Holen Private Investor Feb 22, 2014 Feb 28, 2022
Bengt Holmström Massachusetts Institute of Technology Mar 01, 2017 Feb 28, 2021
Ronald Kahn BlackRock Mar 01, 2013 Feb 28, 2021
Maria Klawe Harvey Mudd College Mar 01, 2012 Feb 29, 2020
Mark Kleiman Factorial Partners Mar 01, 2012 Feb 29, 2020
Henry Laufer Renaissance Technologies Corporation Mar 05, 2011 Feb 28, 2023
Kristin Lauter Microsoft Research Feb 19, 2018 Feb 28, 2022
R. Preston McAfee California Institute of Technology; Microsoft Research Feb 19, 2018 Feb 28, 2022
Jack McCauley University of California, Berkeley Mar 01, 2019 Feb 28, 2023
Dusa McDuff Barnard College Mar 02, 2009 Feb 28, 2021
Helen Meyer Meyer Sound Laboratories, Inc. Secretary (4/1/2017-3/31/2020) Mar 01, 2016 Feb 29, 2020
Andrea Montanari Stanford University Ex officio SAC Co-Chair Jul 01, 2019 Jun 30, 2022
Andrei Okounkov Columbia University Mar 01, 2013 Mar 31, 2021
James Simons Simons Foundation Mar 05, 2011 Feb 28, 2023
Hugo Sonnenschein University of Chicago Mar 06, 2010 Feb 28, 2022
Roger Strauch The Roda Group Apr 01, 1996 Feb 28, 2023
Sandor Straus Firedoll Foundation Mar 01, 2012 Feb 28, 2021
Terence Tao University of California, Los Angeles Vice Chair (3/1/19-3/31/21) Mar 01, 2019 Feb 28, 2023
Tatiana Toro University of Washington Ex officio, SAC Co-Chair Jul 01, 2018 Jun 30, 2021
Rodolfo Torres University of Kansas Ex officio HRAC Co-Chair Apr 01, 2019 Mar 31, 2021
Mariel Vazquez University of California, Davis Ex officio, HRAC Co-Chair Apr 01, 2017 Mar 31, 2020
Judy Walker University of Nebraska Ex officio, CAS Chair Apr 01, 2014 Mar 31, 2020
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Dragons in Paradise: Part 2
[A model sandfly at Milford Sound, NZ. Be thankful they don't come this big in real life!]
[more musings on things that sting and bite in several different countries]
At the other end of the size scale of "dragons" is the humble New Zealand sandfly. Actually sandfly singular is an oxymoron in two senses. Firstly you never see just one: clouds seems to be the preferred collective. And secondly there are about 13 different species of sandflies. The slightly good news is that only two of those species – and then only the females – actually bite humans. However species and gender identification of sandflies is an arcane business, and few trampers have mastered it. Another possible comfort is that if you climb to 1500 metres, and stay there, you will not be troubled by sandflies.
If lack of altitude or entomological expertise means you do come into contact with these little beasts, locals will assure you that sandflies are not generally lethal. Despite such reassurances, experience will teach you a “once bitten twice shy” kind of lesson. Despite being visible, sandflies are very small, and usually silent, unless one happens to fly right into your ear. If they evade your attention they will typically land on a nice piece of exposed skin, say around your wrist, ankles, neck or face.
Their bite is scarcely noticeable – at first – and they are usually long gone with their load of blood before you know about it. But they will have left their little chemical calling card: an anti-coagulant that helps your blood to flow. That in turn will set up an irritation that means the bite swells slightly, your immune system’s automatic response to the chemical invasion. Your slightly more conscious reaction will be to scratch the itch: not a good move, but one that is hard to resist. In my case the tiniest of bites on my wrist became so itchy that I scratched it in my sleep.
The bite then became infected, probably from bacteria that were already present on my skin. The infected bite then swelled more, reddened further, then darkened to an ugly blotch. Over the next few days it became even more maddeningly itchy. Eventually – maybe two weeks later – my (mere Aussie) immune system got the better of the bite. The fearful thing is that this was ONE bite. It is far more usual to receive multiple bites. In the poor German tramper’s case (see "Dragons in Paradise: Part 1"), his immune system had a long and hard struggle to overcome the dozens of bites, and permanent skin scars may well result.
By now you may well be wondering how you can avoid this hell-on-wings. For instance have the ever-inventive Kiwis come up with a bear bell equivalent: perhaps a sandfly siren? Well no, so far they’ve not, although they do offer a plethora of sage advice. A good start is to starve the buggers of exposed skin by wearing long sleeved shirts and trousers and a hat. Next you can put insect repellent on any exposed skin and on your hat. One I didn’t try, but which locals swear by, is to take vitamin B tablets. Apparently sandflies don’t like this, and as those great Australasian delicacies Marmite or Vegemite are full of it, some recommend large doses of this. If sandflies don’t like vitamin B, they DO like dark colours, so it’s best to avoid wearing black, navy and similar coloured clothing.
There’s a kind of “my father’s tougher than your father” debate between New Zealand’s sandfly fanciers and Scotland’s midge admirers. In Scotland there are around 30 different species of midge, but only one that is a real bother to humans. Culicoides impunctatus failed to make an impact during my couple of weeks in the Scottish highlands a few summers back. I was almost disappointed, given that I’d purchased some special insect repellent and a rather fetching khaki midge net that looked like an oversized gauze condom.
Scots tried to soothe me by saying things like “och, if ye’d only come last week …”, a phrase they usually saved for the weather. As with weather, you can now get a summer midge forecast in Scotland. It’s totally serious, and is based on a combination of counts from midge traps and expected weather conditions. You’d have to imagine that’s one up on the Kiwis.
I imagine a play-off between these two fearsome critters. The sandflies would do a haka, of course, and the midges would be piped onto the field by a band playing “Flyers of Scotland” (a special Diptera version of that Scottish national song).
If it wasn’t for our leeches, jack jumpers, march flies and mosquitoes, I might almost feel as though Tasmania was left out of this invertebrate face-off.
Posted by Nature Scribe at 09:55 2 comments: Links to this post
Labels: Culicoides impunctatus, diptera, invertebrate, midges, sandflies
[A stuffed Alaskan Brown Bear in the Juneau Museum. In the rest of the USA they're known as Grizzly Bears. You'd be grizzly too if you'd been stuffed!]
[I'm amazed and intrigued by our perceptions of things that bite, sting and sometimes devour ...]
Every Garden of Eden has its serpent, every paradise its dragons. So there will always be hazards in the wild. Few walkers on their home patch give these more than a respectful thought or two. They’re like the local road rules: you’re so accustomed to following them you do it almost automatically. In contrast the first time I drove in North America, there was nothing automatic about driving on the right side of the road.
So too when I first walk in a new area, I tend to pay the unfamiliar hazards a lot more heed. If you wanted to be heavily analytical about it, or if OH&S training was deeply ingrained, you could create a score-card of such hazards for your walking destinations, and assiduously eschew all hazards. In practice such an approach is a little more anal than most of us tend to be. Rather we listen to locals – sometimes filtering their words for blarney – and/or we read the guidebooks. We then take appropriate precautions.
But common sense doesn’t always prevail. I’ve found a certain tabloid-fuelled fear, especially among Europeans, of all biting and stinging things in Australia. Sometimes this fearfulness can not only rob you of enjoyment, it can even backfire. One poor German we heard about in New Zealand had avoided walking in Australia for fear of poisonous spiders (something I’ve never encountered while walking). He chose to tramp in New Zealand, because it had no snakes and few spiders. But on his first day in Fiordland he was besieged by sandflies. The bites, many on his face, became infected and he ended up almost incapacitated.
Of course even the most rigorous hazard chart will never tell the full story. As much as I like to think of Tasmania as a “green and pleasant land”, there are times when I’ve paused to wonder why the scrub has to be quite so spiteful. One Easter we came off the Traveller Range near Lake St Clair by means of a traditional off-track “scrub bash”. The term is the same in New Zealand, even if, in my opinion, the scrub is marginally less fearsome. In Alaska, where the bush has the added seasonal bonus of bearing deliciously edible fruit, they call it bushwhacking. Despite its apparent meaning, the phrase actually means getting from point A to point B without a track, and hopefully with the least possible damage from or to the vegetation.
As we dropped from the Travellers through thick scrub, the theory was that descending would be so much easier than ascending, whatever amount of knee wobbling it may induce. But knees proved to be the least of our worries. At regular intervals our progress was blocked by cutting grass (Gahnia grandis) ready to slice our grasping hands if we sought to use it to slow our inelegant stumbling. As we spiralled off that hazard we plummeted into a wall of scoparia. This stuff alone is enough to keep me from wearing shorts in the Tasmanian bush. That it bears flowers of great beauty and with an edible nectar every summer is, at the time, small compensation for the shredded skin and clothes that a serious exposure to its teak-tough, razor-sharp foliage produces. Add encounters with hakea (needle bush), banksia, and bauera and the theme of tough inflexibility is seared into your brain.
Yet as you level out this resistance army gives way to a smiling guard of honour, as a beautifully benign myrtle beech forest welcomes you back to the Overland Track near the so-called Bowling Green. It was probably named for its lawn-like appearance, at least from afar. It’s kept that way by a combination of browsing wombats and waterlogging.
… While the natural instinct might be to do a St George, most of these dragons actually have a rightful and useful place in the ecology of the areas we choose to visit. Rather than slaying them willy-nilly, we can learn to live with dragons, and can even develop a grudging admiration for their biting, stinging or blood-sucking genius. Failing that we can at least adapt our walking styles to their presence.
Walking with an awareness of “dragons” doesn’t always have to be as extreme as when we hiked in bear country in Alaska. There we took some early advice to wear bear bells on the trail. We felt more than slightly crazy wearing these “jingle bells” and clapping and singing to forewarn bears that we were around. But given that we did see our statutory 3 bears (a mother and her two cubs) we felt justified in our lunacy.
Afterwards some more savvy locals told us that bears refer to the bells as dinner bells. They then shared lots of not-very comforting bear mauling stories. They topped it off with the standard bear bell joke, which goes. Q: How do you know when a bear has eaten a tourist? A: From the bells in their droppings. When we went bushwhacking with locals on Baranof Island, and they saw our bells, they quietly offered us cans of pepper spray instead. They prefer to carry it as a last ditch weapon against an attacking bear. Some dragons have to be taken pretty seriously, especially 3 metre tall carnivorous ones.
Labels: Alaska, bear bells, Brown Bear, bushwhacking, cutting grass, Overland Track, scoparia, scrub bashing, snakes, spiders, Traveller Range
Another Side of ANZAC
[Pandani surrounded by fagus that's begun to turn: Crater Lake, Tasmania]
[Some sideways thoughts on ANZAC Day, with a natural twist, of course]
It last happened in the year 2000, and it’s going to happen again next year: two “sacred” times for Australians will coalesce. I’m talking about Easter occurring around the same date as ANZAC Day.
While both occasions mean many different things to different people, for obsessive bushwalkers it’s a ripe time for extended bushwalking. So back in autumn 2000 I grabbed the chance for a long ramble in Tasmania’s Central Plateau. The area has been dubbed, without exaggeration, the land of a thousand lakes. I have written before about this part of Tassie at http://auntyscuttle.blogspot.com/2010/01/walking-with-ada-pt-1-not-lacking-in.html
What is less well-known about the Central Plateau is that it also contains vast stands of Tasmania’s only winter-deciduous tree, Nothofagus gunnii, better known as fagus. On that April walk we found this wonderland at the peak of the fagus’s autumn colouring. We were in a heaven of gently undulating rocky slopes dotted with lakes and covered with golden fagus. It was like a vast deciduous forest in bonsai form.
I couldn’t help wondering how many Tasmanians, let alone other Australians, knew we’d had this marvel on display here for the last 50 million autumns. Here in Dorothea Mackellar’s wide brown land, clothed mostly in evergreen eucalypts, Tasmania had hidden this lingering connection with old Gondwana. On that long dismembered super-continent, deciduousness once ruled. Now only this faint seldom-seen echo remains.
It felt like finding a fragment of our connectedness with the northern hemisphere “main stream”. Had a lifetime of enculturation into the beauty myth of fall/autumn in that hemisphere led me to seek out a worthy expression of it here in the highlands of Tasmania? I wondered whether it was the same kind of desire to be recognised as part of the “club” that took young Australians and New Zealanders to Gallipoli in 1915. A disastrous battle on a Turkish Peninsula, as far from home as most Aussies and Kiwis had ever been, was to become a symbol of adulthood for the two young nations. And ANZAC Day – April 25th – has been celebrated by Australians and New Zealanders ever since.
As I thought about this desire to be part of the northern hemisphere action, it occurred to me that Gondwana and its forerunner, Pangaea, actually turned some of that thinking on its head. There was a time when all of the world’s now-most-populous continents were together here in the southern hemisphere. It is Europe and North America who have moved northwards, not we who have drifted south.
But regardless of the origins of my response to it, no amount of peak-bagging could compare with that Easter’s transcendent tramp through the fagus. And an ANZAC Day will rarely go by without me wanting to visit and pay homage to a botanical marvel that long pre-dates our recent attempts to show our worth to the world.
Labels: ANZAC, Central Plateau, Easter, fagus, Gallipoli, Gondwana, Pangaea
Some Visuals For a Change
Here's a slide show of some of my images from walks and bush trips in Tasmania over the last few years.
If you click on the small image below you'll be taken to Picasa, where a full size set of images, with captions, should be accessible. Enjoy!
Posted by Nature Scribe at 16:42 1 comment: Links to this post
Feral Peril
[a stoat trap along NZ's Kepler Track. Click on the image and see if you can see the deceased stoat inside!]
[A cautionary tale from across the Tasman Sea]
It is not an altogether pleasant experience to be woken by mice scurrying over your face. The unpleasantness increases when the wider implications of a mouse plague in remote New Zealand are understood.
It’s spring 2006, and we are on our first serious tramp in the South Island of New Zealand. Our overnight stay in Aspiring Hut is very early in the season, just days after the hut has been fully opened.
2006 is a beech mast year – meaning that the various species of southern beech that dominate the forests of New Zealand are seeding prolifically. That’s good for the future of these beautiful forests, so reminiscent of Tasmania’s myrtle forests (to which they are related). But it’s also good for anything that will eat the seeds, and this year that’s conjured up a vast multitude of mice.
In, under and around Aspiring Hut hordes of mice have seen out the winter. With the thaw and the longer days they’re breeding and feeding at a frantic rate. Hence the early morning tip-toeing across my beard. Later, when we walk the Routeburn Track, the forest floor is alive with mice. In my peripheral vision the forest floor seems to undulate as mice scurry to hide from the passing bipedal “giants”. Afterwards they will return to the beech feast.
I used to count Australia the world champion in the field of introduced pest species. Eric Rolls’ 1969 classic book They All Ran Wild examines the lamentable record of our inadvertant rape and pillage of the environment via introduced furry, hard-hoofed, leafy and prickly living things.
“Inadvertant” may be too kind, given that Australia had acclimatisation societies in the 19th century that aimed specifically and deliberately to introduce and establish plants and animals in this country. Their goal was partly economic, but they were also trying to make this “new world” look and feel more like the old. The founder of the Victorian Acclimatisation Society, Edward Wilson, went so far as to state “if it lives, we want it”.
But after my 2006 experience, and bearing in mind the spirit of trans-Tasman rivalry, I have to concede that New Zealand may be even more over-run by feral species than we are. And not just by mice. The food chain doesn’t end with the small rodents. Rats eat mice, and when mice are scarce then birds and bird eggs will do fine. In turn well-fed rats are fine food for mustelid predators such as stoats.
And when stoats can’t get rat? Well, while walking the Kepler Track in the mountains west of Te Anau, I found the sad answer. At the time I was struggling to find my walking rhythm. At such times I resort to tricks that help distract my mind and body. On the Kepler I used a series of pink triangles nailed at intervals along the track as both a distraction and a crude tally of my progress.
Of course the tags also piqued my curiosity. Hitler had sewn pink triangles onto the clothes of male homosexual prisoners. In this case the tags marked the location of stoat traps. And I learned that what stoats turn to when rats become scarce is birds. And what better than the fat and flightless takahe.
So the intensive trapping effort along the Kepler Track was aimed specifically at giving the dwindling population of takahe in the nearby Murchison Mountains a chance at increasing its perilous grip on what was once its stronghold.
The takahe (Porphyrio hochstetteri) is a large, strikingly-coloured bird believed to be descended from wind-blown Australian birds (similar to swamp-hens). Several million years in isolation has left them flightless and large - they weigh around 3kg. That’s fine in an environment virtually free of carnivorous predators, but disastrous when killing machines such as stoats are added to the mix.
By the end of the 19th century, takahe were believed extinct. Then in 1948 a small number was found in the mountains across the lake from where we were walking. After huge breeding and trapping efforts, the total population is currently around 220 individual birds.
By the end of the 3 day walk I had counted over 120 trap markers. The traps themselves were mostly well hidden. However near the end of the walk I wandered off track near a marker to see what a trap looked like. Built to be accessible to mustelids rather than men, getting close to the wood and mesh box was difficult.
I lined my camera up near the cage and shot off a speculative photo – without actually being able to see through the view finder. To my surprise, weeks later, I discovered that I had photographed a dead stoat inside the trap? It was only after zooming in on the image that I made out the twisted and grisled stoat corpse (see image above).
On learning from Department of Conservation (DoC) rangers a little more of the story, my curiosity about stoats soon turned to anger. They were introduced to New Zealand in the 1880s in an attempt to keep rabbit numbers low. At the time there was strong scientific and political opposition, as even then the likely effects on non-target species was predicted. However the powerful farming lobby won the day, and New Zealand’s fauna – and its tax payers – have been paying a high price ever since.
Despite a number of similarly sad New Zealand stories, a Tasmanian like myself steers well clear of the high horse. The extinction of the thylacine here is tragedy enough; the “export” of Tasmanian possums to New Zealand terrible. But the deliberate 21st century introduction of the European fox into the world’s only stronghold of carnivorous marsupials? Take me to the hair shirt and flagellation whip!
Labels: Aspiring Hut, beech mast, DoC, Eric Rolls, Kepler Track, New Zealand, pests, Routeburn Track, stoats, takahe, Tasmania
Armitage Shanks: Another Fragment
[Delena cancerides - aka the huntsman spider. This is the spider that inspired the story of Armitage Shanks]
[Shanks rides again - briefly. I found this follow-up fragment hidden on my hard drive. It sets the scene for Bonfire Night, where something (??) is going to happen - when I get to write it!]
Bonfire Night was a special occasion for the whole island. If it commemorated anything or anyone, no one could remember what. It was even at a different time of the year from every other community. Peg’s Pa reckoned it gave the “fire-ies” an excuse to dress up and look official while playing with trucks, hoses and fireworks.
For weeks they’d been preparing a paddock just down the road, mowing it so low it was little more than blondish-brown stubble. Then they’d started gathering branches, logs and other combustibles into a pile in the centre of the clearing. Sometimes they’d wake to find bits of stray building material and shack cast-offs added to the stack. No one seemed to mind as long as it’d burn, although Peg’s Pa couldn’t resist salvaging a broken rocking chair that turned up one night, despite Nan’s protests. “Nup – this’ll come in handy for sure” signalled the end of debate as far as he was concerned.
Barry Burnside, the chief of the volunteer fire brigade, was the only person on the island with a permit to buy, keep and use fireworks. “Makes him mayor-for-a-month” was how Peg’s Pa summed it up. Everyone deferred to Barry’s wishes, and his opinion on everything from footy to politics was suddenly important. Even his sixty-something year old frame seemed to straighten up under the influence of his short-lived high status.
Barry’s impromptu mini-sermons were an unavoidable part of the season. “Bonfire Night may mark the end of the fire season, and the coming of the cooler wetter weather”, he would tell anyone and everyone, “but it was vitally important for everyone to pay respect to fire and fireworks”. The event was a “privilege and not a right”, Peg heard once while waiting in the shop. She was surprised and amused to see her Pa mouthing the words in perfect unison behind the fire chief.
Labels: Barry Burnside, Bonfire Night, fire brigade
Black and White and Heard All Over
[spot the locust hiding in the correa bush - you may need to click on the image to enlarge it. Photo by Lynne Grant.]
[back to the birds, this time exploring feast and famine in the avian world]
If there aren’t enough things in this world to break your heart, try paying close attention to the call of the Australian magpie (Cracticus tibicen). Perhaps because they are only occasional visitors to my bushland, I can never get enough of their superbly yearning voice. Bird authorities variously describe it as flute-like, warbling, piping, carolling and chorusing. Their species name tibicen reflects this, being Latin for piper or flute-player.
Different subspecies of magpie are found in every state and territory, making them one of our most widely recognised birds – both visually and aurally. Magpies were also introduced to New Zealand in the 1860s and now, despite concerns about their ecological effects, they have become established in the popular imagination over there. Murray Ball’s hugely successful Kiwi cartoon series Footrot Flats has an Australian magpie character named Pew. Also famous across the Tasman is NZ poet Denis Glover’s widely known poem The Magpies. Its chorus captures some of the bird’s melodic dexterity.
And Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle/The magpies said
An Easter visit to Bendigo in central Victoria reacquainted me with the glories of the magpie’s call. After a good spring and summer, with drought-breaking rains and milder temperatures, everything in the iron-bark country seemed to be sighing contentedly, including the magpies. Their morning and evening calling was one of the highlights of the early part of Easter.
Less happily the spring and summer conditions had also encouraged the proliferation of plague locusts (Chortoicetes terminifera). A wave of locusts hit central Victoria over Easter. Our daily walks soon took on a strangely percussive character, as masses of locusts clicked and flicked and fluttered around us as we strolled by. Cars had less chance of avoiding this invertebrate Mexican wave, and the roads – and car grills – were spattered with locust gore.
But where there’s a surplus of food there will be diners. We once lived through a locust plague in central-western NSW, and found that our chickens were very happy to free-range on the hoppers. We learned the hard way that locusts taint eggs, making them extremely unappealing. But around Bendigo the job was done just as effectively – and with no culinary after-effects – by squadrons of magpies.
Actually the collective name for them is a tiding of magpies, and for the magpies these were good tidings. Everywhere the locusts hopped and flew, they were followed by magpies, as well as blackbirds, Indian mynahs and many other species, introduced or otherwise. The birds grew visibly fat and wobbly, expending little effort to gain a day’s worth of food in minutes.
By the end of Easter we noticed one strange side effect. There was a distinct reduction in the amount of audible Magpie song. It was as if the maggies had consumed a huge Christmas feast: far too much food and drink to expect them to sing any more carols. It was a wonder some of them could still fly.
Labels: Australian magpie, Bendigo, Denis Glover, Footrot Flats, Murray Ball, plague locust
Armitage Shanks: Chapter 7 (fragment)
[a Bruny Island cliff-hanger? Sandstone formation near Dennes Point, North Bruny Island]
[an incomplete chapter, the last from my yet-to-be-finished story. If you watch this space expecting more, you're going to need some patience! However comments and suggestions - of a polite and encouraging nature - are most welcome.]
Shanks’ revenge was neither as sweet nor as long lasting as he had expected. When Peg found out about the toilet and the “toe tapping” (as Shanks put it), she had gone so quiet that Shanks took her silence as disapproval. In fact it was closer to stunned shock mixed with a deep indecision about what to do next.
And Terrence had given Shanks little satisfaction either. He’d made himself scarce by day, presumably to go fishing or to take the dog for a walk. And at night he had taken to staying up late with his grandparents in front of the TV – despite their stern commands that he go to bed – even falling asleep in the battered old sofa, and having to be carried into bed by his Pa.
To tell the truth his Nan and Pa were rather touched by this “regression to childhood” (as they saw it). He’d never been what they’d have called a sweet child. But he had been a little more open to the odd hug than the edgy pre-teen he had now become. So despite their stern words they, and especially his Pa, were more than happy to have this close contact with T, albeit that he was a comatose, leggy bundle as he snuggled into his Pa’s shoulder.
He may have been hard for others to find but, try as he might, Terrence couldn’t avoid Geoffrey Boycat. The cat had an uncanny way of just appearing around whichever corner you next turned. And then, whatever you did, his eyes would hold you, and his feline voice draw you towards him.
So on a wet and windy afternoon Terrence found himself being grilled yet again by a cat who seemed to simmer just beneath the point of anger.
“And this flushing . . . it was your idea?” Terrence began to open his mouth, but Geoffrey continued. “It was NOT a good idea!” …
“The idea BOY… was to wait for Bonfire Night. Remember? ….
“Does de dame want I should take ‘er out wid me fer a picnic, yeah?” Shanks made a woeful gangster. Despite his hard-boiled looks, something in his facial anatomy prevented him from sounding truly gruff. Husky yes, but dark and threatening? Never.
Still Peg knew he was doing his best to be light-hearted, to cheer her up after a frosty few days of all but avoiding Terrence. Even her Pa had seemed hard to reach, spending more time being awkwardly attentive to T., and leaving her too much in her Nan’s fussy, food-centred company.
So Peg was relieved when they again found themselves out for a stroll, though this time Peg used a small back-pack instead of the doll’s pram. “You gonna put me in dat ting, huh? You really tink so?” he wheezed as Peg unzipped the top pocket for him. She simply held it wide open and made no comment, so he mockingly muttered under his breath and clambered into the pocket.
Labels: Armitage Shanks, Bonfire Night, Nan, Pa, revenge, Terrence
Armitage Shanks: Chapter 6
[Shanks is back with a vengeance in the next exciting episode ...]
After his couple of days of mischief, Terrence went to bed feeling contented. He stretched out in the lumpy bed and stared up at the sagging, discoloured ceiling without really seeing it. He wriggled his toes free of the bed clothes and began to tap them on the wooden bed-end in a military sort of way. Geoffrey Boycat had been almost pleased with the boy's report, and had shown it by not sitting on his lap, and not sharpening his claws on him.
He looked over at his sleeping sister and smiled. It was not a "good-night-sleep-tight-hope-the-mozzies-don't-bite" sort of smile. It was more primitive. The sort that younger children smile just after they've poked their tongues out and said "nyaa nyaa nyaa nyaa nyaa." Terrence secretly wished he was still young enough to do that, but he knew it might look a bit silly. Right now nothing was worse than looking foolish, or at least looking foolish in public. He was aware that talking to a cat, and even more taking orders from a cat, would not have looked too good. But he was content that no-one knew about it. To Terrence that was as good as it not being foolish at all.
But Peg's talking to animals was another story altogether. She'd made the mistake of doing it so someone else knew. Worse still she'd tried to be a smarty pants and pretend it had never happened. And by being smart she meant to make him look dumb like she always did, sticking her nose in books all the time; giggling when he got his words wrong; giving his mum hints about trouble he'd got into at school; and just generally making him feel dumb. These were things Terrence had brooded on for a long time. Today's effort had been a satisfying start to his pay-back plans.
All of this left Terrence wide awake, his mind a slurry of vengeful and happy thoughts. In a drawer next to his bed were some old books his Pa had left for the grandchildren. Though he was not a great reader, he pulled out a couple of large and musty volumes and started looking at them. They might help him sleep. Two cowboy books, and a laughably old-fashioned space adventure were discarded before he finally settled on one called `The Bumper Book for Boys'. It had a picture of a boy about his own age on the cover, cradling a football in his arms and running away from a cluster of other boys. His brow was furrowed and mouth turned down. Perhaps he was supposed to look determined, but to Terrence he just looked sad. Somehow that odd combination of feelings drew Terrence in.
He turned over the thick, stained pages, looking first at the drawings. He chose a story mid-way through the book. It had quite a few drawings, and the intriguing title `The Dormitory 'Tecs'. Above all it was only a few pages long. Terrence wrinkled his nose at the musty smell, but settled back and read: "Huge was a bully, likewise a glutton. Queer, isn't it, how the two things go together; anyway, they did so in old Huge." By the second line Terrence found he was reading in a different accent. It was a very proper English accent such as he'd heard on wildlife documentaries.
But instead of telling him about the mating habits of badgers, this story was full of `chaps', and `chums' who saved up their `prog' from `exeat days'. And how one chap nicknamed Holmes did a bit of `super-'tecking' in the `dorms'. It was a world Terrence could barely find any connection with, but he read on, anxious for some reason to know what would happen to `old Huge'.
It was more than a disappointment to get to the end and find that Matron and Holmes had caught Huge out for stealing `prog'. "Huge got a swishing, and deserved it; next term he was moved to pastures new." Terrence threw the book to the floor. More smarty pantses and pushy females getting the better of people. Irritably he turned on his side and flicked the lamp off.
As the boy lay in his bed, he was watched from the top of the cupboard by a very interested cluster of eyes. The eyes had watched him staring and smiling at the girl asleep in the other bed; had seen him throw his shorts and shirt at the foot of his bed; had observed him pull on his pyjamas and get into bed. The spider had also noticed the wriggling toes that protruded from the end of the bed, tapping a happy tune. Shanks had lifted a couple of his legs involuntarily, as though to do a march of his own. But he stilled them and smiled. A little patience. When the boy finished reading, the light would be turned off, and his breathing would soon match the girl's. Then it might be time to do a little light-footed marching.
At the end of a long dark tunnel stood a severe bespectacled woman holding a long stick. She tapped one foot impatiently as she waited for the boy to come and get his punishment. The boy tried to look away, hiding a plastic bag full of something that wasn't his. "Come on Boy. Give it here to me!" He looked up, and saw that the woman was now a huge cat, ginger coat flecked with grey, and a pair of rimless glasses perched on her nose. She/it still held a long cane, but now it curved and tapered at the end like a giant claw.
He reached into the bag and took out one item, as if it might appease her. It was a chocolate-coated fish head. The woman/cat began howling angrily. He dropped the bag, turned and tried to run, but suddenly the tunnel filled with water, and he was washed towards the cat. In the dream the boy had forgotten how to swim. The water slapped coldly into his face. He took one, two huge unwanted draughts, before going under completely. Wildly his arms thrashed about for something to pull him up. Almost at the height of his panic he felt something long and spindly and inflexible grip him. He was hauled out of the water by an enormous spider. Though he had no air for it, he screamed violently as the spider softly began to say "You shouldn't have done it. You shouldn't have done it."
Terrence was shaking uncontrollably, his heart beating to bursting point, as he woke out of the nightmare. He frantically looked around the half-familiar room, trying to remember where he was. It took one awful minute for him to convince himself that everything was alright. He was at his Nan and Pa's shack, he'd had a bad dream, but there was nothing to worry about. There was nothing to worry about.
Just as his heart beat was slowing, he heard softly but distinctly in his left ear "you shouldn't have done it to poor old Shanks". Terrence threw his bedclothes off and leapt up, thrashing his arms about his head as if swishing at deadly wasps. He reached for his bedside lamp, but knocked it to the floor, breaking the globe with a thin audible crack. He swung around towards the main light, fumbling for fully thirty seconds before finally turning it on.
In the full light he desperately reached for his slippers, shaking them carefully before putting them on. Then he looked right around the room, all the time breathing quick and shallow. He didn't know what he was looking for, but he did it thoroughly. And he found nothing. He even checked under Peg's pillow. She stayed asleep the whole time, a peaceful blankness on her face.
Terrence finally sat back on his bed. It was time to think a bit more calmly. He'd had a rough couple of days after all. He'd met and fallen in with a very smart cat, and a very ... well, a dog as well. And he'd fought a cunning battle with a nasty spider, having to overcome his fear of creepy things. Of course it wouldn't be unusual to dream about these things, given the circumstances. That's all it was. The darkness plus his fears had made the dream seem more real than most. If he just relaxed for a while, he'd soon be able to sleep again.
Still, Terrence left his light on for another twenty minutes before deciding he'd be okay again. He then gave his bedclothes another thorough check, looked in all the drawers, and even under the bed. When he was sure everything was clear, he crept over and turned off the light. He then jumped back into bed almost without touching the floor and pulled the sheet up around his ears with a shiver. The steady breathing of Peg became a surprising comfort to him, and he decided he was glad she was there. But he was still occasionally shivering when at last he floated off to sleep again.
From the dark peace of this dream-free sleep, Terrence fell suddenly into the waking world of voices. Again, as small and clear as a pimple he heard "shouldn't have done it. He'll haunt you. Shanks'll haunt you." It was all he could do not to scream. He repeated his mad tarantella, then rushed straight for the door, this time without his slippers. He wasn't staying in that room for any money.
So Terrence spent the rest of a very long night huddled up in a wicker chair in the living room. He kept warm under his grandfather's woollen duffle coat, but slept only fitfully. He was in that position when his Pa came out to fill the kettle at 6.30.
Labels: "The Bumper Book for Boys", Armitage Shanks, Geoffrey Boycat, mozzies, Pa, Terrence
[When Peg gets back to Bruny there's a surprise or two in store]
The 4 o'clock ferry would have left on time had Mrs Flanagan not hove into view, waving, tooting and shouting, just as the crew was raising the ramp. "Silly old duck" said Peg's Pa. "She's always late. And she'll expect them to drive on for her too, you watch." Peg couldn't bear to. She walked to the front of the ferry, kicking at the rounded rivets that mushroomed out of the rusty floor. As she leaned on the chain across the bow, she booted a half-eaten apple over the edge. It plopped satisfyingly into the surging water beneath - a small satisfaction, and all she'd get on the whole trip back.
Though they had been first onto the ferry, their aisle was the third one off. This meant that Mrs Flanagan drove off ahead of them, and stayed in that position for the whole twenty winding kilometres from the ferry terminal to the shack. If Peg's Pa was no speedster, Mrs Flanagan drove like a snail on valium - or so her Pa said. As the old ute puttered up the drive it was well past 5 o'clock.
The trio was greeted by a surprisingly chirpy Terrence, who enquired most politely what sort of day they had had. Peg simply shoved past her brother and ran inside. As he half-listened to his Nan's comparison of morning tea and lunch, Terrence counted in his mind. When he got to twelve, there was a loud scream from the region of the toilet. He smiled, then joined his grandparents as they rushed inside.
By the time they got to her, Peg had stopped screaming. She came out of the toilet so fast that she half-collided with her grandfather. As she spun off him, she dodged deliberately towards her brother and aimed a boot straight into his shin. "You slimy pig's bum!" she shouted, while Terrence hopped up and down holding his leg. "Peg!" both grandparents called after her, but for once Peg ignored them and stomped into her room, slamming the door shut with surprising ferocity.
"Now what's all that about young fella?" His Pa looked upset enough for Terrence's shrug to freeze on his shoulders. "Just a little joke Pa." He shuffled, thrusting his thumbs into the waistband of his jeans. His grandfather waited. "Look all I did was stick a sort of dead spider on the toilet, just to scare 'er a bit, you know . . ." His Pa opened the toilet door and scooped up the spider shell, holding it out for them to see. "She can't take a joke Pa, she's useless. I mean that wouldn't scare anyone, would it." His Pa knew that it didn't deserve the reaction Peg had had, but he felt there was more to it. And he didn't like the way Terrence treated Peg. "Listen T, I want you to just leave her alone for a while. Stay outside until it's dinner time, all right?" Terrence gave a slight nod, and disappeared out the back door. By the time he reached the neighbours' house, he was smiling broadly. He could tell Geoffrey that Part 1 of the plan had gone smoothly. Soon he could try Part 2.
Terrence crept towards the toilet door. He stopped, looked around, then held his breath the better to listen for any sounds in the house. Hearing none, he stooped to listen at the door. He then gave a soft, low whistle, remarkably like the one he had heard Peg give. In one hand he held an empty margarine tub; in the other a stiff piece of paper. He took great care not to rattle them as he listened hard for any response from the spider. Finally he caught what sounded like a faint humming. It was an old tune he had heard somewhere before, but he couldn't have put a name to it. Still, it was enough. Taking a deep breath, he gripped the door handle hard, then burst into the spider's home.
Shanks was distracted that morning. Peg had only come for a brief visit, and hadn't even arranged another meeting for the day. She had seemed very upset about something, and Shanks was worried. So when he heard the soft whistle, he immediately put aside a piece of roast moth he had been absorbing, and came out from the cornice.
Expecting to see Peg, he was happily humming "God Save the Queen". Instead when the door was flung open, it was the boy who rushed into the room with a whoosh of wind that almost knocked the spider over. Before Shanks could recover, his world had gone dark and echo-ey. Then it had turned upside down and all around. He tumbled in helpless orbit, his feet giving him no grip on the plastic of the tub. He didn't even know which way was up.
When he next saw light, he had almost no chance to use it. The tub was being thumped violently, and he was falling, then landing upside down in water. Barely a second later it was dark again, and a thunderous rush of water was spinning him over and over, propelling him between dark walls, as helpless as a flea in a flood. Despite all this, Shanks did have the faintest idea where he was. In his tumbling fall he had glimpsed some words, and they were not just any words. He had seen in plain black on white, and very close up, the words ARMITAGE SHANKS.
So as Shanks was tossed helplessly through the water, he at least knew where he was. He had been put down his own white throne and flushed away. Though close to panic, he managed to think one calm thought. It was something he'd picked up from the box, though he'd never had occasion to use it - until now. As he turned over for the ninth time, with the water rushing him mercilessly towards he knew-not-what, Shanks half smiled as he said to himself "I think he would've wanted to go that way."
It was not to be. During his twelfth tumble, a couple of Shanks' legs touched on something rough enough to give grip. Instinctively he caught hold and dragged himself out of the water, and up onto some kind of narrow shelf. Shanks gulped the air gratefully, then sang faintly "Long to Ray Noverus" as a kind of prayer. It was still totally dark, but the flood of water was slowing. He guessed that the level was dropping too. As his senses slowly returned, he pieced together where he was, and why. A slow, wet anger smouldered against Terrence. "That collargrime of a boy will pay! Oh in a thousand ways he'll pay." But meanwhile Shanks had to think about the less pleasant task of getting back home. Though he felt he'd done enough swimming for a lifetime, he soon came to the gloomy conclusion that the only way back was the way he had come. He would have to unflush himself!
The return journey was much slower than his outward journey. And just as dangerous. If the boy or anyone else pushed the silver button again, he would be lost forever. That wasn't his only worry. There would be a long section of underwater travel, and he wasn't sure how good he was at holding his breath.
In the end however, he found that the upper surface of the pipe gave enough grip to let him hold it all the way back. Even in the panicky underwater sections, the solidity of the wall gave him the confidence to go on. So after a very long three minutes, Shanks surfaced into the darkness at the bottom of the toilet bowl. A faint chink of light showed where the ill-fitting seat met the rim of the bowl. After a tricky slippery ascent, he squeezed himself under the seat, and out into the light-flooded room.
Once back under the cover of the cornice, he began to dry out. As his fear left him, it was replaced by anger. Just as quickly, the perfect plan suggested itself to Shanks. A plain and simple plan; a plan with poetic justice. He smiled briefly, then went off in search of food. He would need his strength.
Labels: "God Save the Queen", Geoffrey Boycat, Mrs Flanagan, Nan, Pa, Peg, Ray Noverus, Terrence
[Some of the action happens off the island in the next exciting episode ...]
"Are you sure you'll be alright Terrence?" The old car bubbled and burbled as his grandfather tried to get it revving smoothly. It was the second Thursday of the month - pension day - and time for their regular trip to the main island. "Don't fuss Nan, I'll be right. Do a bit of fishin' off the wharf." "Now you won't go out ..." "... in the boat. No Nan, I won't go out in the boat. If they're not bitin', I'll come back here and keep an eye on ... things." As he said this his eyes flitted to Peg's, and he gave her a broad insincere smile.
Peg had decided to go with her grandparents when she heard that her Pa would be going to the library. She needed to know more about Huntsmen, and about `benign'. But Terrence's malignant look chilled her. She wanted to get out of the car there and then, and rush to the toilet to warn Shanks. She'd warned him in a general way to keep away from Terrence, but this threat was more immediate. She was about to open her mouth when Pa revved and let the clutch out. With a noisy scrape of gravel, the station wagon circled the rough driveway. It was chased by a hoarsely yapping Pekinese. Car and dog both scraped down the hill, brakes full on. Terrence waved once, then walked off before they'd even made it to the bitumen. As the dog trotted back up the driveway, Peg stared helplessly out the back window.
If Terrence had had a moustache he would have been twirling it as he walked back onto the veranda. He was feeling so pleased with himself. They wouldn't be back for hours ... "on the 4 o'clock ferry" his nan had said. Plenty of time to find out what his crawly little sister was up to with this spider - this talking spider, he added with a grin. He sat down on the banana lounge to plan his next move, but had barely got his mind into its nasty rut when he was disturbed.
The ginger tomcat from next door half-miaowed as he heaved himself up onto the veranda and began rubbing up against the lounge. He made a noise that might have been purring, though it had a slight bubbling snarl to it. Terrence was about to stroke the cat when a dog of similar size scrabbled across the wooden floor and shoved his head under the boy's hand. The cat bumped it aside and jumped onto the boy's lap, still making that strange purr-like noise, and working its paws up and down on its host's thighs.
Terrence was wincing as he tried to work out how to get the cat off without being further scratched. The cat turned to him. "Relax boy ... sit back. We'd like to get to know a nice lad like you, wouldn't we Lump." In shock Terrence tried to stand up, but a claw began to bite into the flesh of his right leg. He sat down. "Tell him Lump." The boy tried to relax as the cat kept up its thorny massage. "O yeth, my word ... hruhh hrumm," and Lump Sum launched into a slobbering speech which left an astonished Terrence as ignorant as before.
Geoffrey Boycat sighed, stopped his clawing movement, and looked disgustedly down at the dog. "You'll have to excuse Lump, he can't think and talk at the same time. Disappear will you Lump, I think I hear Mumsy calling." Lump's face opened out into a beaming frothy smile, and he trotted off. Geoffrey followed with his eyes, then turned casually back to the boy. "Look ... the situation is this. You have a problem with a certain spider. We can help you out. Bring me a nice bit of fish, and we'll talk further."
Terrence felt top-heavy with strange thoughts and promising possibilties. He shuffled in his seat. Geoffrey looked carefully into the boy's eyes. Seeing there what he wanted to see, he slowly slipped off the lap, and took a sitting position beside the lounge, waiting. Terrence began to brush the fur from his pants, but was stopped by a swift insulted look from the cat. Instead the boy swung his legs over the side of the lounge and went to get some left-over gurnard. He placed it neatly on a cracked china saucer in front of the cat, who raised one brow before turning to eat.
As he finished, the cat began licking himself almost vigorously with his raspy tongue. When the ablutions were finally over, he looked up at the boy with the passionless smile of someone who knows they've got you where they want you. Terrence too knew he was cornered, but somehow he didn't care. It may have been simple curiosity about a talking cat. Or perhaps it was the thought that here at last he had an ally against his vile sister. Whatever it was, he eventually smiled back and said "Right-eo Wonder Cat, talk away."
After ten minutes of searching through the shelves marked "Vertebrates", Peg finally realised that spiders didn't fit into that category. She was flustered, too flustered to ask for help. But she also knew that her Pa would be back in less than half an hour. And anyway what good was all this if Terrence had got to Shanks? She miserably plopped down in the middle of the row, fighting hard against tears. One or two loud sniffs escaped before she took out one of her Nan's lacy hankies and noisily blew her nose. By now red-eyed, she looked around hoping to find the aisle still empty. Instead she was looking straight into the eyes of a boy. He was about her own age, and wore gold-rimmed glasses, and a gentle enquiring look.
Though embarrassed, Peg didn't turn away. The gentle boy smiled and tried to squeeze past. "Sorry . . . `S'cuse me." As he tucked a bundle of books under his arm, one fell onto Peg. "Oh, I'm sorry . . . Sorry. Are you okay?" Peg picked up the book and handed it back to the boy. "Sorright, I'm fine." As the boy took the book, Peg noticed the title - "Moths and Butterflies". The boy was still smiling an apologetic smile. "Sorry . . . Thanks." Seeing the girl's eyes obviously brighten, he pointed to the book and began to chat. "It's for a project on insect metamorphosis." When the girl's look faded into confusion, he stumbled on. "Um . . . on how they can change, you know, their skins and all that." Peg suddenly saw her chance. She wiped her nose swiftly on her sleeve, and struggled back to her feet, talking rapidly the whole time. "That's funny, `cause I've got a project like that too, only on spiders. You wouldn't know any good books on spiders would ya?" The boy pushed his glasses up on his nose and smiled enthusiastically. "You bet. Look, just over here."
Within minutes Peg was surrounded by a pile of books on spiders. The boy had given her some other helpful information too, like that a spider isn't actually an insect; that it has eight legs (not six like an insect); and that it isn't strictly right to call any Australian spider a Tarantula. ("They're from Europe actually.") In fact for a brain - which he obviously was - he was a pretty good bloke. She even managed not to laugh when he told her his name was Willoughby Chambers ("but my friends call me Will.") Nearly nine years with a name like Peg Priddle had to teach you something.
Though she only spent 5 minutes with him, Peg very nearly told him about Shanks. It was hard having a friend you couldn't tell anyone about. And Will seemed to have a gentleness about him that made her forget he was a stranger . . . and a boy. But in the end a well-dressed woman had peered around the end of the aisle and called out daintily "Come along Willoughby dear." Peg had stared wide-eyed at the tall woman. She seemed to send ripples of perfume and calm around her. But when Peg turned back to Will she was sure he rolled his eyes behind his glasses. All the same he obediently turned and followed his mother, waving a wordless farewell to Peg.
When her grandfather came to collect her he found Peg ready to borrow a bundle of reference and picture books. Surprised that most of them were about spiders, he didn't say anything. She seemed a lot happier than she had been in the morning, and that was good enough for him. He smiled at the squat figure who waddled jauntily down the library steps in front of him, bundle of books tucked under her arm. The purposeful look on her broad face reminded him very much of her mother - once just as innocent and keen.
The happy mood lasted only until the end of lunch. Talk of getting back to Terrence put Peg off her cream cake. She pushed the plate away from her, and flopped her head down on folded arms. She saw again her books on the floor. What use would any of that stuff be if he'd found Shanks? The thought was cold water on her soul. Without any warning Peg pushed her chair back and began to leave. Her grandmother, who hadn't noticed the sudden change, simply asked Peg whether she wanted the rest of her cake. Peg shook her head testily.
Mumbling "waste not want not", her Nan scooped up the cream cake and began demolishing it. Pa looked up at Peg. "Come on Peg, there's no big hurry. Come and sit down until Nan's finished and then we can all go." Peg squatted back on the edge of the chair, arms folded, face scarlet. Her grandfather, trying not to look at her, got up to pay the bill, then came back and tapped his wife on the shoulder. "Come on Moother, time we were gone." She glanced at her watch, then gave him a contrary look. But he had timed it well. Her mouth was still full, and she would no more speak with her mouth full than swear at the queen. With both Peg and her Pa already leaving, she had no choice but to follow.
Terrence kicked hard at an over-ripe plum, covering his shoes and legs with pulp. Even more disgusted, he picked up another and flung it at the garden shed. Two hours of looking, and not one sign of the big spider. The cat and dog had proved useless so far. "I've got it all worked out," the cat had said. "You just deliver the spider, and Lump and I will do the rest." "What rest?" he now asked himself. He wondered whether the cat had hypnotised him or something.
It was in this frame of mind that he went over to confront Geoffrey, who was usually to be found on the veranda next door. He knew "Mumsy" and "Dadsy" were out. Pension day saw half the population leave the island. "The island rises ten feet on pension day", his Pa was always saying. Terrence found Lump Sum first, and impatiently fended off his affectionate snuffles. Geoffrey, half-woken by the noise, looked up from his basket expectantly. The boy's lack of progress was soon obvious, so much so that the cat was quickly irritated by his complaints.
"Shut it, boy!" Terrence meekly obeyed. Lump Sum broke the silence with a fart. "And you too Lump!" The cat was almost becoming worked up. He sat up, looked from one to the other, boy to dog, with a stern expression on his face. When they were attentive again, he painstakingly went back over the whole plan. At the end, when the boy only nodded half-heartedly, Geoffrey stood up and walked over to him, a growling purr again clearly audible.
"I can see the boy needs some convincing that we're right with him Lump." Terrence took a step back, but the cat only stretched out casually, and lay down again on the floor boards. "Go and get the token, Lump. The skin . . . there's a good fellow." The Pekinese jumped up, and waddled off. "Yeah, thkin, I fetch the thkin."
Eventually the dog returned carrying a dirty piece of cloth in its mouth. He dropped it at the boy's feet. Terrence looked at the bundle dubiously, but then at a motion from Geoffrey, picked it up. Carefully he unwrapped it, to find what looked like a dead Huntsman. He spun around to Geoffrey. "Is it . . .?" The cat shook its head slightly. "No, look at it closely." Terrence had the creeps about all things crawly, but he obeyed the cat. Picking it up, he saw that it was in fact an empty spider shell. "But how?"
Geoffrey made a tutting sound. "They shed their skins, boy - as they get older and grow bigger. Slip out of one skin when the new one's ready. Disgusting really. Don't know why they can't just moult a bit at a time like any decent animal." Terrence was turning the shell around in his hand, a small grin dawning on his face. "Ah, I see you're starting to grasp the possibilities, boy. You scratch our back, and we . . . " He let the words hang for a while, then laughed in an odd way. Terrence was too far gone to hear any threat in it. Quickly Geoffrey gave him a revised set of instructions. Terrence nodded absently, all the while twirling the spider skin by one leg. Geoffrey had to give him a sharp tap with his claw to be sure that the boy had heard, and would comply. Finally the boy was allowed to leave, small cloth bundle in one hand.
Labels: Lump Sum, metamorphosis, Tarantula, Willoughby Chambers
[photo: sunset across the D'Entrecasteaux Channel from Bruny Island, Tasmania]
[Everyone loves a picnic, even Armitage Shanks ... and especially on beautiful Bruny Island.]
Whatever plans Terrence had, he kept quiet about them for the next few days. Apart from giving Peg the occasional baleful look, he carried on as though nothing had happened. Though she knew better, Peg began to hope that the incident would be forgotten that perhaps he hadn't even seen Shanks. Besides, the weather had been so good that Terrence spent most of his time out in the dinghy. He enjoyed fishing, especially cutting and gutting the catch.
At the same time Peg had become absorbed in the business of getting to know her new friend. Of course that meant spending a great deal of time in Shanks' room. Twice Peg had to assure her Nan that she wasn't ill. "Just got a tinny bladder Nan" she'd quickly explained. When her Pa said something about not using too much tank water, Peg realised she'd need another meeting place.
The front veranda was a perfect alternative. The soft whistle would always be their signal. Peg would lie down on the old banana lounge beneath the rusty veranda awning, cover her face with a hat, and talk quietly in the direction of the low ceiling. She still had to take care, so this was mostly done when Terrence and her Pa were out fishing, and her Nan was in the back garden or the kitchen. Sometimes she used the radio to help cover the noise of conversation. But this often made Shanks sing, which even tone-deaf Peg found remarkably unattractive.
One afternoon Peg thought of something altogether more suitable. A picnic! To keep Terrence from coming, she disguised it as an outing for her teddy and doll. This also allowed her to smuggle Shanks out under cover of the doll's stroller. The spider almost gave it away when he was tucked down next to the doll. Peg had said the doll's name, Hamble, and Shanks, who was in a very buoyant mood, had started saying "Hamble-amble-amble" to himself. He'd finally burst into full-scale spider laughter. Peg had to cough loudly for some time to cover up the odd noise of a laughing spider making sounds that rhymed with Hamble. Then she had to convince her Nan that she really was well enough for an outing.
Even so Shanks hadn't shut up until they reached the beach, blurting out things like "scramble-shamble-handbill-anvil" all the way down the track. But by this time Peg was able to join in, and the two laughed themselves helpless as they made up a riotously unsingable ditty about their "ramble with Hamble in our ample p'ramble-ator". Even knowing that all this fun was at the doll's expense didn't really bother Peg. She felt she had grown out of dolls by now. Perhaps if Terrence had been laughing at Hamble it would have been different, but he hadn't so it wasn't.
It was a magical afternoon in every way. The late summer sun shone down hard on the deserted beach, but a soft sea breeze kept them cool. Peg showed Shanks his first beach, let him try the water, pointed out the delights of the rocky shore. Here she lifted rocks to reveal dozens of hermit crabs. Each time she would crouch down, look up at Shanks perched on the edge of the stroller, then with a great flourish would lift the rock, calling out "Meet Cousin Crab". Then they'd both laugh out loud as the crabs - sometimes twenty or more - scrambled to find cover. "Shanks knows what that's like", he said once, coming down onto the sand to ape the crazy scuttling of the crabs. As he ran in mad wonky circles, he shouted "Oooo ... I's been espied! Oooo ... don't panic! Ooo ...abandon ship! Ooooh ..." Peg crumpled up in helpless laughter.
Then in the grove of casuarinas at the end of the beach, Shanks did party tricks with the crusty bark of the needle-leaved trees. "Now you see me . . . now you don't", as he disappeared into the merest crack in the bark, reappearing to run up her bare arm when she least expected it. After ten goes of that game, Peg suggested they stop for afternoon tea. Out of a bag slung over the arms of the stroller she took a couple of Iced Vo-Vo biscuits for herself, and a wasp and a blowfly for Shanks.
For a time he became all chivalrous, and prattled about his "great gratitude to M'lady". He grew quieter once the serious wasp-sucking began, by which time Peg had started on an apple. Their dining was accompanied by the gentle plap of wavelets, and the shushing of wind in the casuarinas. Once squabbling gulls made a low pass over the pair, carefully eyeing their prospects, but Peg made sure they didn't add spider to the menu.
The lowering sun lay a sheet of glare over the Channel. Peg had to shade her eyes to follow the progress of a small fleet of sailing boats. As they edged out of sight, Peg turned back to Shanks, suddenly feeling serious. "You're gonna have to be careful of my brother." The last word was said as though it tasted unpleasant. "He doesn't like insects or that type of thing." Shanks would have objected, but he was mid-way through the blowie. "He got bitten by an ant once. Shoulda heard him scream! When he got over it he went out and poured turps down five anthills, then chucked a match." Shanks listened as attentively as his dining would allow. Peg went on. "An' he pulls wings off flies, and legs off beetles, and stuff like that." Shanks wondered what was wrong with the removal of inedible parts, but said nothing.
Peg grunted as she got back on her feet. "Anyway, just be careful of him. He doesn't like me, so he reckons anything I like is rotten." Shanks quietly rolled the fly carcass onto the ground, and crawled up to the edge of the stroller. "I will take heed o' thy warning M'lady." After a pause he added "Shanks cranks his thanks till it ranks high as planks on banks, and spanks any rank & cranky wanker who sank . ." and so he went on, ruining the serious mood. But although he succeeded in making Peg do the thing he most loved, her laughter was not as carefree as it had been. Her brother, or the thought of him, cast a faint shadow over the rest of an otherwise perfect afternoon.
There were other chances for Peg to find out about Shanks, but none quite so wonderful as that picnic day. Still, she took the chances that came along. Peg soon discovered that Shanks had a couple of favoured topics of conversation. Apart from food, on which they agreed to differ, Peg found Shanks often asking one particular question. He would grandly introduce these sessions by calling them "Question Time", and asking for honourable members to "come to order". He'd then clear his throat noisily, and Peg would know that the question was following. He would ask it in different ways, but it all came down to the same thing. "What does benign mean?"
At first Peg thought this was a simple game. She just told him it meant "good", (though she was guessing.) For a time that seemed to satisfy him, but sooner or later the question would come back. "And after this important message, our next story looks at benign. What does it really mean?" Peg, who was getting used to his televisionese, finally went and found a dictionary. After a deal of searching she stumblingly read out - "Benign: gracious, gentle; fortunate, salutary". Shanks, who had crept down the wall to be nearer to his dear, gave a peculiar growl. Surprised at this unfamiliar sound, Peg sat up to look at Shanks. "Order! Order! The honourable member must answer the question," he called, almost angrily. "But I have . . . er . . . at least I've told you what the book says."
"Well the book's wrong! O Woddafeeling! Fortunate and salutary ... tell me what's fortunate and salutary about a spittling trip inside a rolly-up newspaper? And what's gracious and gentle about being screamed at by old Sausage-face?" Suddenly he started running in erratic circles, muttering things like "Long to Ray Noverus" and "so help me Gard!" Peg had never seen Shanks so wound up. She had no idea what had caused this sudden mood change. She thought of trying to rhyme a few words with benign, to see if he might laugh his way out of the mood. But she could see that he was genuinely upset, so she stayed silent. It seemed it all had something to do with the word "benign", but that particular afternoon she could get no more out of Shanks.
When he finally stopped running in circles, he was only interested in food. And then when Peg gave him two juicy specimens, he almost forgot his manners. Grabbing the insects, he disappeared under the awning, only to appear again briefly to call out a full-mouthed "much obliged".
As it turned out, his exit was well-timed. Just at that moment Terrence and his grandfather appeared at the bottom of the hill, jack-and-jilling a fish-bucket between them. Peg quickly picked up her book, and lay down on the sunny lounge again. When the two stepped onto the veranda, she looked so relaxed that not even Terrence would have known how churned up she felt. Besides, he had thoughts of his own. When she asked about their catch, he reached into his bucket, pulled out the severed head of a gurnard and plopped it onto Peg's stomach. "Ask it yourself!" he whispered sharply, before running off laughing. Yet even this couldn't stop her from thinking about Shanks. And about his problem with being benign. She would have to get to the bottom of this soon, or the loopy spider might give himself away in a moment of thoughtless rage.
Labels: benign, casuarinas, D'Entrecasteaux Channel, Hamble, Iced Vo Vo Biscuits, O woddafeeling
[an Armitage Shanks toilet, newer than the one at the Bruny Island shack. Photo courtesy heatandplumb.com]
[the plot thickens ... with some more action in the toilet]
Shanks had some difficulty understanding what happened next. From the T.V. he had learned what a male needed in order to be popular with females. He could check himself off against the list. Handsome? Yes. Slim? Yes. Tall? Yes. Tanned? Yes. He was all these things and more.
So it was something of a blow when Peg's first reaction to him was to stifle a scream, haul up her pants, and reach for the door. Fortunately Shanks did two things to save the situation. Firstly, he did nothing. That is he stayed perfectly still. Then, and he had no good reason for doing so, he began humming "God Save The Queen." Perhaps his royalist streak came out under pressure. Whatever the reason, it had the desired effect.
Peg's hand froze on the doorknob. She stood there gawping. A tinsel-thin tuneful rattle was coming from the direction of a spider on the toilet wall! It crossed her mind that Terrence had put a trick spider there - one of those things with a computerised tune inside it. But the sound was too random, too "animal", to be electronic. It wasn't even in tune. And the creature she was staring at looked far too realistic. Then, as she stood there open-mouthed, the sound changed. The spider was speaking. She swallowed hard to clear her ears, but it altered nothing. The spider was speaking to her.
In his mind Shanks had gone through all kinds of clever opening lines. Perhaps he'd try "Do you come here often?", or "We must stop meeting like this", or even "Hello, this is Armitage Shanks. First the headlines." There was no shortage of patter he'd picked up. Yet somehow when it came to it, he fell back on old spider habits. "Like a bit of cockroach?" was all he could manage.
Peg closed her mouth, and appeared to swallow, before she replied. "I ... err... thanks. I mean no thanks. I ..?" She seemed just as lost for words as her host. Suddenly Shanks remembered his manners. "Oh ... please sit down." With that he gave a broad friendly smile. What Peg thought of it was unclear, but she accepted his invitation and sat back on the toilet seat (this time its cover was down.) She adjusted her clothing, all the while keeping her eyes fixed on the spider.
"Please allow me to introduce myself. I'm Armitage Shanks, Benign Huntsman, Lord Of All That You Survey." He bowed and flourished one of his front legs as he said this. All the chivalry he'd learned from a recent television series was being recalled. Peg strained forward, unable to hear clearly the wispy speech coming from her host. But she picked up the name. Armitage Shanks. Where had she heard that before? She had no time to think now. The spider was rocking gently up and down on his feet, obviously waiting for a returned introduction from the squatting figure.
"Oh.. um, I'm Peg Priddle. But everyone calls me Square Peg ... 'cause I don't fit in." She gave a little laugh, but she didn't really look amused. Shanks wasn't either. Peg began to blush, but quickly covered it up by blurting out "Anyhow, how come you can talk?" Shanks hadn't expected that question. It crossed his mind that being benign might mean you could talk to humans. But Aunty Scuttle was benign too, and she'd never said a word to a person as far as he knew.
"I watch the old box" he replied, slipping into Televisionese. Peg just looked puzzled. "You what?" "I learned it from the telly. You know, Play School, Sesame Street, Neighbours, Eastenders.." He would have gone on to list his Top Forty programs, but Peg interrupted. "You mean you learned how to speak by watching television?" "Correct. Please wait till I say your name." Shanks was still quite nervous. It was only with a conscious effort that he didn't break into "God Save The Queen" again.
"But I thought all spiders were .." Peg stopped herself from insulting her host. "Were what?" Shanks asked innocently. Before she had a chance to think up a good reply, they both heard footsteps followed by a voice calling out. "PAIRG...Peggy". They recognised Peg's Grandfather. "Coming Pa," she bellowed, then turned to Shanks as she got up to leave. "Look I'm gonna have to go. Can I meet you here again? After lunch?" He nodded. "Sure thing. Adios till then." With a quick if still bewildered grin, Peg left his room.
Shanks sat there stunned. Then he slowly began to feel warm all over. He'd actually got to meet the girl of his dreams. And what's more, he had a date to see her again. In near ecstasy he bounded off towards the ceiling. "Oh bloated blowfly, what did Shanks do to deserve this. Ah moldy mosquito, my numbers have come up! Oh curdled cockroach..." Which reminded him. He slipped off into the ceiling to have one of these delights. No, blow it all, he might have all three!
As Peg came out of the toilet, her Pa gave her a queer look. "Who were you talking to in there?" With a perfectly straight face Peg said simply "Oh, I was talking to a spider." "Not another bloomin' Huntsman? I oughta spray the whole place." Peg opened her mouth in horror, but her grandfather was continuing. "But I s'pose they'd soon be back. And they say Huntsmen are benign enough. Matter of fact, I parcelled one up in paper and took him out to the garden last night. Don't reckon they bite, but I weren't takin' chances." Then, almost as an afterthought he added, "Besides they give mum the creeps." He'd never met a woman who wasn't scared of spiders, and he wondered at Peg casually talking to one in the confines of the toilet.
As Peg walked furtively along the hallway to the toilet, she was sure she was alone. It was three days now since she'd met her extraordinary new friend, but she was still being careful. She had the feeling no-one else was quite ready for him yet. Yet in her own mind she felt she'd always known him. He was so interesting; so little like a spider, or what she had imagined spiders to be like. Other girls could have their dumb rabbits and kittens. She would have her talking Huntsman any day. Cute and cuddly wasn't all there was to look for in an animal friend. Still, just at present he would be her secret friend.
Outside the toilet she gave her special whistle to let Shanks know she was coming. She looked quickly around to see if she had been noticed. Nothing. She turned the wobbly doorknob and went in, looking up to see if Shanks was in his usual spot. Catching sight of him she smiled, greeted him, and turned to latch the door. At the same moment there was a creak and a thump, and the door was suddenly flung open straight into Peg's forehead. She shouted in pain and slumped to the floor, holding her head.
Ignoring her, Terrence pushed his way into the room. "Who do you think you're talking to?" Peg lay moaning on the floor, but as Terrence tried to get past her, she knew she had to stop him. Just as he saw the large brown spider, she started screaming at him. He gave her one hard look; did the same to the spider, then calmly left the room before his grandparents arrived. There'd be plenty of time to get her back, and find out all about this grotesque thing she'd been talking to.
The large tom-cat stretched, head low, tail high, a bumpy, gingery slippery dip. Geoffrey had had a hard morning following the sunshine around the veranda. It would still be two more moves before the sun reached his basket. Till then he would have to make do with hard floorboards. Such was the lot of Geoffrey Boycat, retired mouser, ratter, birder and blue-tonguer extraordinaire. Venerable though he was, he felt hard done by. Surely a retired champion should be treated with more respect. Why, for instance, wasn't his basket moved around for him? As he settled back down on the floor-boards, he vaguely wondered whether the sun might be asked to move for him.
As Geoffrey contemplated this, he was disturbed by the one bane of his life. A yap, a shuffle of paws, and a disgusting snuffling sound told him he had a visitor. Lump Sum, the Pekinese dog, had come to see him. Geoffrey should have been impressed. Lump Sum was a profoundly aristocratic dog. He had a long pedigree to prove it. He had blue ribbons from the Electrona and Snug District Dog Show. And he had a venerable Pekinese name, even if he was too stupid or lazy to remember it. (Was it Lap Sang Sou Chong? Or was that the type of tea Mumsy liked?)
Regardless, Geoffrey most definitely did not venerate this pathetic excuse for a dog. The thing would make a better floor mop. Geoffrey turned his face away from the wheezing wimp, and pretended to be asleep. He could not help twitching his ears and wrinkling his nose at the awful smell that hovered around Lump Sum. The dirty thing had been rolling in rotting fish again.
Lump Sum was too thick to notice any of this. He waddled up to Geoffrey and nudged him with a dribbly muzzle. When this brought no response, he barked loudly in the cat's ear. With a slow, measured movement of the head, Geoffrey turned to face the dog. At the same time, he aimed a lightning-fast pawful of claws at the rumpled face. Dumb or not, Lump Sum was also quick. He effortlessly dodged the paw, yapped once more, then launched into excited chatter.
"Guess what ... guess what ... hruhh hruhhh!" He slobbered sibilantly. "Spider can talk! Talk 's good as me! Over nek door. Hruhh hruhh ... Spider talk ... 's good as me!" Geoffrey raised one sarcastic eyebrow, but didn't comment. Despite himself he was interested in what this gibbering idiot was saying. Lump Sum went on. "The girl, the boy, the visders ... hruhh hruhhh ... you know, nek door. Over nek door." He pointed his mangled muzzle in the general direction. ("You're not a pointer old thing", thought Geoffrey with a scornful sneer. "More of a panter, really.") Lump Sum continued to wheeze and waddle as he told more of his news.
The cat lay there waiting. Economy of movement was one of his creeds. He knew the Lump would get to the point eventually. There were several agonising minutes while the dog put the English language through torture. Eventually Geoffrey worked out that something genuinely unique was happening "nek door". Something he could use to add to his already considerable fame and prestige. He might need help, someone to do the dirty work. But he could see that the capture and execution of a notorious spider would set him up for life. He knew how much They (the Feeder and the Adorer) loathed spiders. Especially the Adorer. Please her and you pleased the Feeder. Please the Feeder and ... ahhh ... Food, Fame and Fortune.
As he lay there the wheezing background of Lump Sum's chatter became waves lapping on a tropical shore. As Geoffrey slipped off into a delicious dream, one pearl was washed up on the shore. Among the dog's rabbitings he distinctly heard "... but the boy he hate the spider. The visder, the boy ...oooh my words, he hate the spider." Now that could be useful. Soon. Meanwhile sleep took priority, even over food, fame and fortune. There would be time for those soon enough.
Labels: "God Save the Queen", Armitage Shanks, Electrona, Geoffrey Boycat, Lump Sum, Peg Priddle, Snug
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Triple Running Sports
The Code Monkeys
User Ratings: 0
Our Review: Scroll Down
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Triple Running Sports Review (WiiWare)
Version Reviewed: North American
Run! No, seriously. RUN.
review by Philip J Reed Sun, 21 Nov 2010 15:00:00 +0000
Every once in a great while, an already great series gets a new entry that not only renews the enthusiasm of fans worldwide, it reinvents and reinvigorates a classic formula. It raises the bar not only for its own series, but for gaming in general. It's the sort of event that has even non-gamers talking, nodding in appreciation and singing its praises. It brings families together and unites peers in a brilliant, unforgettable experience that reminds us all of why we fell in love with video games in the first place.
We're talking, of course, of Donkey Kong Country Returns. Unfortunately, we should be speaking about Triple Running Sports.
By this point, we've shot, thrown, and jumped in triplicate. These were three collections of embarrassingly simplistic events that still managed to get everything about their respective experiences wrong. So, for the literally zeroes of people who clamoured so vocally for more, the Code Monkeys have emerged from their habitat just long enough to sling more feces in our faces.
Triple Running Sports is about as simplistic as a video game is ever likely to get. It's only moderately more engaging than falling asleep on the couch, or accidentally swallowing a fly. If you thought the "run and then press a button to jump" approach from Triple Jumping Sports was far too complicated, then you're in luck. Because now, all you have to do is run.
To the bank.
To cancel your credit card, so that you don't accidentally buy this.
Since the music, graphics and overall presentation haven't changed from the previous releases, read those reviews to see what we thought of them. Or just look at the screenshots yourself, and see if you can think of anything more positive to say about them than, "at least they're not pornographic."
As far as this game goes, it's another collection of three events, centred around a specific theme. In this case it's running, and the events are the 100m Sprint, the 1500m whatever (the game doesn't say), and the 110m Hurdles. The hurdle event does involve jumping, but we'll get to that in a moment.
On the positive side of things, this game does actually improve upon Triple Jumping Sports in some ways. Most noticeably, the waggle recognition is improved. Of course, improved controls in a game like this is an achievement along the lines of being the world's most soulful vuvuzela player; it doesn't matter if nobody wants to experience it.
The events themselves also feel more varied, which isn't a bad thing. It at least means that the three events feel somewhat different, and that's a step in the right direction.
The 100m Sprint, for example, is your standard waggle-thon, but the 1500m plays more like a rhythm game in which you need to shake to the falling prompts. The problem here though is that the prompts never change, or speed up, or slow down. It's a simple left-right-left-right that loops endlessly for the far-too-long duration of the event. And perhaps the oddest thing is that your avatar keeps running, even if you stop shaking the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. You won't win that way, of course, but it contributes to the feeling that what happens on the screen is going to happen regardless of what you do in your living room, and that's not a good feeling for a game to instill.
Also, once you complete that event, you will actually have to wait for all of the computer players (yes, all of them) to finish before you can collect your trophy and move on. So if you come in first place, which is not difficult, you will have to sit and wait for a full minute or more for the others to finish. It's unskippable, and that's inexcusable. If you pause the game you'll have the option of quitting, but doing so means you'll miss out on your medal, which is kind of cruel, since a medal is the least you deserve for playing through this thing.
The 110m Hurdles controls identically to the 100m Sprint, except that now you press A to jump. For a while we weren't even sure if we were clearing the hurdles, as your avatar barely leaps at all, making a sound like he's in pain even when he does clear them. The visual feedback is awful, and it looks more like your little runner is cramping up from severe gas pain as he runs unimpeded through a hurdle rather than jumping over it.
As a test we intentionally let our runner hit the next few hurdles and hurt himself, which was much funnier, and turned out to be a far better way to enjoy the race.
The experience of Triple Running Sports can be summed up with one word. Actually, it can be summed up with one letter: zzzzzzzzzz.
Triple Running Sports seems to improve somewhat on the waggle-recognition issues that plagued Triple Jumping Sports, but that doesn't make the waggling any more fun. The presentation is flat and without heart, and the gameplay, if you can call it that, is insulting. Code Monkeys squandered any goodwill it might have earned with Manic Monkey Mayhem by following it up with the Triple ______ Sports series at all, but spreading the experience over four (and counting!) pointless and unpolished releases is definitely a slap in the face to consumers.
Terrible 2/10
KnucklesSonic8
Sun 21st Nov 2010
Great intro. Was the highlight for me. XD
warioswoods
Given a group of monkeys sitting at keyboards for an infinite length of time, one of them will eventually code this game. But it'll probably only take 5 minutes.
retired_account
A Chicken B. review? No way!!! reads
edit: hahahaha wow
What a luck, that some games are not available in europe.
Philip_J_Reed
Apologies for the lateness of this one, folks. My fault entirely...chalk it up to very poor time management skills.
Porky
Chicken, we don't blame you! Such an awful game, I congratulate you for playing it for a review. Also, 13 paragraph that starts off as 'The 1500m hurdles' theres a word that says paim. Is it suppose to be pain?
irken004
/me runs to the bank to cancel his credit card!
This is the funniest review I've ever read. Much better than the game!
XCWarrior
Awesome review, very entertaining. At least that we got some value out of the game.
SilverBaretta
Awesome review, Chicken. Very funny, especially the intro and the part about the 110m Hurdles. When I read the part about looking at the other reviews for impression, I thought you weren't even gonna do the rest!
@Ezekiel:
Fixed. Thanks for pointing that out.
Sean_Aaron
I'm pretty sure these games started out as a retail release that may have been canned, so splitting it up for WiiWare is an attempt to make back that investment. A shame, it most certainly is.
Although Europeans might think they'll get a pass on this one, Code Monkeys is a UK-based developer so you can expect it to hit our Wii Shops eventually.
DarkEdi
Mon 22nd Nov 2010
why does nintendo aproves this junk? it can be undestood if there was 9 games each week, but nooo.. there are only 2 launches each monday in "shop channel".
A thank you would've been nice for the typo I pointed out earlier too. Just sayin'.
@Sean: Yep, it's a port of a retail release.
I didn't/don't see you pointing out a typo...? What are you referring to?
Whether or not anyone gets singled out for a thanks, any corrected information is always appreciated. Feel free to drop us a line on the contact page for anything you feel is particularly egregious.
akacesfan
Geez, can't they take a hint? This is the fourth installment, come on!
theblackdragon
@CB: chances are whoever took care of the typo also deleted the comment in question in order to not take away from the review, if the typo was all they commented to bring up. i've seen it go both ways, i guess it depends on who takes care of it. :3
@Sean This won't ever see the light of day in the UK as Ghostlight still owns the distribution rights to the game on which this is based, International Athletics.
"Or just look at the screenshots yourself, and see if you can think of anything more positive to say about them than, "at least they're not pornographic.""
-That's actually a negative thing to say! If they were, the game might be slightly more worthwhile!
LuWiiGi
Thank you, Code Monkeys, for providing us with such fantastic and worthwhile entertainment! This review wouldn't have been possible without you!
Thanks for the good news James! I couldn't remember if I reviewed Triple Shot Sports on the NA or the PAL Wii.
StarDust4Ever
Tue 23rd Nov 2010
Looks even more pathetic than those kiosks that you find in bars which are loaded with boatloads of shovelware
May we please see a video of the hurdler in question getting injured? I believe that would be entertaining to watch, thanks.
MrB4
You would think after a number of failed attempts on the service that the developers would stop putting out stuff like this. Oh well, guess common sense is a thing of the past.
trackrunr800m
Thu 9th Dec 2010
to the reviewer..I'm sure this game is horrible, it looks horrible but some of the critisisims you made are wrong, for instance, complaining that the athlete doesn't leap high enough in the 110 hurdles....that's exactly how it should be, watch even a good junior college race and only focus on their shoulders,their shoulders doesn't raise at all because they're not jumping. so it's good the game at least hit that. But im sure the game is boring as hell, we need a legit track game to come out.
@24: The criticism that you cite has nothing to do with proper, real-life hurdling...it has to do with the video game (a visual medium) not providing the player with a clear enough visual cue as to what's happening.
If realism was what they were going for (and I'm not sure why they'd go for it there and only there) then the could have given us an aural cue, like a chime or something, instead. It's a video game, and it's not out of line to criticise it for not making it clear what's happening on screen.
15th Nov 2010 (USA), 500 points
Triple Sports
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Africa - What Is Oprah Missing?
Friday, June 17, 2005 By: Mahone Dunbar
Oprah - a Zulu?
"I went in search of my roots and had my DNA tested, and I am a Zulu."
Oprah Winfrey at a seminar in Johannesburg
Poor, poor Oprah Winfrey. The mere thought of her plight makes me lachrymose. It was reported in the press this week that in spite of all the glory and wealth she has accumulated from the 'slave society' of America--she is so popular she is known by one name, she has her own TV talk show, her own magazine, can give away 276 cars to a studio audience and is reputedly (as of 2004) worth $1.1 billion dollars--Oprah yearns to a Zulu. And wishes she had been born in South Africa, because . . . (sigh) . . . they have a cute accent.
Damn, woman! Get a reality check.
Oprah has everything--except a suitable ancestral pedigree. And tracing your ancestry back to the Zulus is apparently the African-American equivalent of a Mayflower pedigree.
Oprah reportedly has DNA proof that her ancestors were Zulus. (Let me sarcastically note that though members of the black community consider DNA matches good enough to establish a genetic link a thousand years old for Oprah, or associate the lineage of a black American family with Thomas Jefferson several hundred years after the fact, hours - old DNA samples weren't considered good enough to convict OJ).
At Shakaland Zulu Village in South Africa Oprah makes herself at home
and lends a hand with the quaint tribal custom known as "The shelling of the beans."(Mahone Studios)
Professor Himla Soodyall of South Africa's National Health Laboratory Service benignly sprinkled a little doubt on Oprah's claim to a Zulu pedigree, noting that her testing involved mitochondrial DNA, which is a linkage through female ancestors only and is imprecise without DNA samples from specific (Zulu) individuals who have already been tested and made part of a database. Furthermore, Zulus are not a distinguished genetic type that is discernable by DNA testing, but a linguistic and cultural sub-group. And, lastly, most American slaves came from Western Africa, not South Africa. The final thorn in Oprah's Zulu pedigree is the fact that, according to most historical accounts " . . . the Zulu nation was consolidated only after the departure of slaves from west Africa to the Americas." (Ibid. BBC).
Oprah can be forgiven. It is probable that, in one form or another, we all have a yearning for mythic ancestral realms that rival Oprah's. The Egyptians had The Elysian Fields, The Vikings Valhalla, The Christians New Jerusalem, The Jews Miami Beach, and . . . well, I guess for some Africans in America it's a mythical Mother Africa, as personified for Oprah in Zulu land. And, certainly, Mythical Africa is better than the reality.
We will bypass for the moment the attempt by Afro-centrists to kidnap the history of the Ancient Egyptians (who were essentially, a Semitic people, culturally and racially) and substitute the achievements of Pharaohic culture for the missing glory of the indigenous sub-Saharan peoples of Africa. When speaking of Africa, per se, we are speaking of sub-Saharan Africa.
In a mythical Africa, the African heaven, I suppose, there would be tribal singing, conga-playing, dancing, and cooking yams around the campfire - all without the intrusion of evil un-rhythmic ice people - those genetically affiliated with European ancestry. (BTW, if you are absolutely unsure of the dominant genes someone carries - African or European or Oriental - just ask them to clap along with a song: When the African gene pool dominates, the individual will clap on the up beat (quarter notes, two and four); when European genes hold sway, they will clap on the down beat (one and three); and the Oriental will clap randomly and began singing bad Karaoke.)
Here are a few events, most of which took place in the 21st century, that represent the cultural diversity of the real Africa that Oprah years to associate herself with.
Winnie Mandela is from South Africa and rates high in popularity polls: throughout most of her career Winnie's idea of political persuasion was to give "necklaces" to her political opponents, that is, have a gasoline-filled tire placed around their neck and then set it on fire. Only slightly more vicious, and obvious, than Hillary Clinton. "It takes a village to necklace a child?" Nuff said about that.
In June of 2005 a rabid hyena attacked a village in the Chilikumwendo area, killing nine and injuring thirteen. After police and game rangers shot the beast to death the villagers "jubilated." Though rangers identified the beast as a hyena, upset villagers insisted it was not a natural beast but a spirit of one of the villagers who had resurrected. (National, "Dedza beast shot dead 8 victims buried in mass grave" Joseph Langa)
African culture is spreading its wonderful diversity around the globe. In English communities comprised primarily of Africans, the beating of children, particularly those accused of witchcraft, is common. Concerned about such child abuse, authorities recently opened a dialogue with the minority communities, using a social workers and race relations experts who were sensitive to "cultural differences." There are also claims that African children were being smuggled into the community to serve as slaves for other Africans - and also for the practice of being used as sacrifices for rituals that, to be effective, require a male child who is as yet unblemished by circumcision. (BBC News: Boys "used for human sacrifice")
These stories - someone being killed after being accused of using witchcraft to render some old man's penis inoperative (don't we all wish we had that excuse? "I'm sorry, honey. Bob from next door must have put a spell on me.") are so common in Africa that I'll only cite one of the more recent: In September of 2004 a mob in Nigeria beat up a government official after he was accused of causing a man's penis to disappear. The victim, Na-Allah, was traveling to Maiduguri and stopped to ask directions to a restaurant when he and his three companions were attacked. One member of the mob suddenly shouted that his 'penis was missing,' and that Na-Allah and his homies were responsible, causing the mob to attack. (And if you thought someone could make your penis disappear, would you attack them?). Na-Allah was severely beaten. The article does not mention whether or not the man's penis re-appeared. (AFP "That politician stole my penis")
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Democrats Propose Nominee For Supreme Court
Thursday, September 29, 2005 By: Mahone Dunbar
News From Tomorrow
(Remotely Viewed News From Parallel Dimensions)
PPI–Mahone Dunbar
Now that Chief Justice John Roberts has been sworn in, Democrat leaders are in a quandary about what to do with the upcoming nomination of yet another seat on the Supreme Court.
During the Judge Roberts proceedings, the worst epithet that Democrats on the committee could come up with was that he was a shameless ‘over-achiever;’ further, he had no quality experiences with the poor, the black, or other diverse people, and no life challenges - such as a clubfoot, psoriasis, or an embarrassing stutter - that allowed him to relate to ‘the people.’ Yet in spite of his short-comings as an over-achiever with a keen legal mind, vast experience, and a spotless judicial record, he will sit on and preside over the Supreme Court next session.
Though Roberts’ exemplary moral character was a minor impediment for Democrat committee members, a major impediment was his lack of normal moral burdens (such as guilt over leaving a young woman to slowly drown in a submerged automobile), which a lot of senators apparently think the average American should identify with.
However, the major reservation about Judge Roberts was expressed by Senator Durbin, who, showing uncharacteristic Democrat religious fervor, summed up democrat reservations about Roberts when he quoted the Bible and lamented the he could not discern whether Judge Roberts had "an understanding heart."
No heart? That would certainly explain Roberts' lack of empathy.
Reacting to Roberts' lack of an understanding heart, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi had a Zogby poll conducted among Democratic voters to determine who best could supply ‘heart’ and empathy to the Supreme Court, and relate to the poor, the black, the disenfranchised, and the diverse. When I reached Pelosi at her Washington offices, she explained that "The poll was nearly unanimous: we came to the conclusion that Mother Teresa was the perfect candidate for the Supreme Court; she is selfless, almost pathologically empathic, has been around and is very familiar with poor people with diverse experiences, and unquestionably has a heart of gold. And she is not an over-achiever, at least in the accepted sense of the term."
"But isn't Mother Teresa . . . "
"Dead. Of course. But that was only a minor setback. We've hired psychic speaker-to-the-dead John Edward to channel her spirit."
"So . . . John Edward will actually be your perfect Supreme Court candidate?"
"A combination of John and Mother Teresa, actually. He’s already contacted her for us and we vetted her. She seems very excited about getting on the court and shredding the United States Constitution. And though John will be speaking for her, she will be making all the decisions."
I then reminded Ms. Pelosi that Mother Teresa was a Religious Roman Catholic, and asked her if she had quizzed Mother Teresa on her stance on abortion, i.e., the possibility of overturning Roe v. Wade?
"Catholic . . Oh, shit!"
I then contacted psychic John Edward and asked him to comment on the situation. Mr. Edward said, "I sense a hospital visit for someone in your family recently . . . or someone you consider as family . . . or perhaps someone who has a connection to your family, maybe even somebody someone in your family has met; it could possibly be a father–or a father figure–or an older neighbor or acquaintance. It concerns a pain in the stomach, or lower extremities–maybe even in the legs. I'm getting the vibe of a name that starts with a J, maybe Jeff, or Joe, or John, or James, or Jerry, or . . . "
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BARDA supports development of antitoxin administered as a traditional shotCurrently selected
PHE Home > Preparedness > Medical Countermeasures > BARDA supports development of antitoxin administered as a traditional shot
Date: Augsut 30, 2011
Company: Elusys Therapeutics, Inc., Pine Brook, NJ
Contract amount: two-year base period valued at $26.5 million with options based on performance milestones totalling up to $68.9 million over a five year period
About the contract: This contract supports the continued development of a humanized monoclonal antibody, Anthim, which binds to the anthrax Protective Antigen. Under the contract, Elusys will develop a formulation for intramuscular administration and perform studies that will evaluate the efficacy of Anthim for pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis for anthrax. The intramuscular formulation should facilitate the administration of Anthim in emergency settings. Anthim has been under development by BARDA since 2009, building on previous investments by the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health. Anthim has received Fast-Track and Orphan Drug designations from the FDA, which have further expedited its development. To date Elusys has successfully manufactured Anthim using current good manufacturing practices and conducted two Phase 1 safety trials in humans and numerous studies demonstrating safety and efficacy in animal models.
Additional information: The contract is funded through the BARDA Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) (CBRN-BAA-10-100-SOL-00012) and falls under the Biodefense Medical Countermeasures Development Fund (BMCDF) established by the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act of 2006. The BMCDF is used to support the development of technologies that the federal government needs for emergency preparedness. Products that mature under this program may later be considered for purchased through the Project BioShield Special Reserve Fund. BARDA is seeking additional proposals for peptide or small molecule antitoxins that could potentially treat or prevent anthrax. Proposals are accepted through the Broad Agency Announcement BARDA-CBRN-BAA-11-100-SOL-00009 at www.fbo.gov.
Press Release: Novel anthrax vaccine and antitoxin being developed with federal support
Procurement Announcement: Contract Awarded under BARDA-CBRN-BAA-10-100-SOL-00012
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Zur Navigation springenZum Content springenLogin | Search | Sitemap | Privacy Policy
Here you can find all the News regarding PICOS.
Thursday 20. March 2008 PICOS Fact Sheet
The PICOS Fact Sheet, which is now available for download, contains some basic information about the PICOS project. It is especially intended for representing the project in various different contexts, such as conferences.
Category: public
Thursday 20. March 2008 New PICOS related conferences
PICOS will be represented during two international conferences in march and november. The conferences are related to the future of internet and information society. Details on both are listed under Events.
Monday 25. February 2008 PICOS Homepage launch
Welcome to the homepage of the PICOS Project. On this site you will find information about the history, backgrounds, current developments and results of the project. Click here to find out more about PICOS.
Friday 01. February 2008 Project start
The PICOS project has officially started today. Within the next 3 years, PICOS aims to develop an open, privacy-respecting, trust enabling identity management platform that supports the provision of community services by mobile...
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(c) 2007-2011 PICOS. PICOS receives research funding from the 7th Research Framework Programm (FP7) of the EU as part of the Trust & Security Programme.
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North Sapphire Beach
PLANNERS NORTH assisted Sapphire Beach Properties Pty Ltd to master plan “North Sapphire Beach”. The Master Plan was approved in December 2004. The multi awarding Plan strove to build upon the specialness of this land and locality and build a true “village community by the sea”. The master plan:
Establishes a strong sense of community and place to foster “village community”;
Puts in place a range of conservation initiatives to protect flora and fauna;
Sets aside in perpetuity land in the central portion of the site around the 7(a) zoned wetlands for Aboriginal heritage reserves and proposes a Cultural Heritage Management Plan;
Adopts site master planning principles modelled on the guidelines published by the Coastal Council;
Uses natural materials that reflect coastal, bushland and subtle indigenous cultural themes;
Provides for an extensive variety of housing including detached houses, integrated housing and duplex arrangements;
Integrates with the existing landscape character of the locality;
Provides for road access and circulation which recognises the street hierarchy, separates pedestrian and vehicular traffic and provides for a “slow movement environment”;
Adopts water conservation and reuse principles of Water Sensitive Urban Design including site specific reuse proposals;
Provides for a safe pedestrian and cycleway system;
Develops site specific building envelopes and building form controls to guide the future development of the site; and
Provides open space which conserves areas of important vegetation and archaeological significance and other provides for passive recreational uses,
The project is being implemented today by the Walker Corporation.
Location: Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia
Client: Sapphire Beach Properties Pty Ltd (ACN 105 819 958)
PLANNERS NORTH, Town Planners, Northern Rivers, NSW
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OpenMRS Community Launches Major Upgrade to its Open Source EHR Platform
U.S. Healthcare Is a Cadillac...Unfortunately
"European Directory of Health Apps" re-launched as MyHealthApps.net
EHRs, Clinical Decision Support Top 2017 Patient Safety Hazard List
Jennifer Bresnick | Health IT Analytics | March 15, 2017
Information management errors in electronic health records, incorrect use of clinical decision support, and poor prescribing habits are among the most dangerous health IT hazards for 2017, according to ECRI Institute’s annual patient safety list. The repeat offenders are joined by a number of workflow and process shortfalls that can leave hospitalized patients without sufficient monitoring, lead to costly and deadly hospital-acquired infections, and open up serious behavioral health risks...
Silicon gurney: EHR go-lives turn hospitals into software shops
Tom Sullivan | Healthcare IT News | May 10, 2017
Hospitals invest so much money in EHR implementations that it changes the very nature of their organization. And that means they need to think about operating more like a software company than just a hospital. If $100 million sounds like an exorbitant or even unrealistic ticket for an electronic health records platform, in fact, consider that Kaiser Permanente, Mayo Clinic and Partners HealthCare have publicly acknowledged spending an order of magnitude more than that — while other hospitals such as Scripps Health, Lehigh Valley Health Network, Lahey Hospital Medical Center and Lifespan revealed budgets bigger than $100 million. And that’s just to rattle off a fistful...
The State Of The CIO
Camille Tuutti | FCW | October 12, 2012
Last year, on the 15th anniversary of the Clinger-Cohen Act becoming law, the Government Accountability Office released a rather gloomy status report on the agency CIO role. GAO found that most CIOs were responsible for just five areas of IT and information management out of 13, and they often lacked the authority to make key decisions about recruiting and IT investments. Read More »
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Oregon ArtsWatch
News & Notes: Catching up on Oregon music and dance news
Oregon Symphony gets out of the concert hall; University of Oregon awards; community support for Oregon composer
April 23, 2014 // MUSIC, NEWS & NOTES // Brett Campbell
Symphony musicians chat with the crowd at Classical Up Close. Photo: Joe Cantrell.
Around the country, orchestras are connecting with their communities (particularly members who don’t already frequent their concerts) through various outreach and education programs. Led by Resident Conductor Paul Ghun Kim, the Oregon Symphony this week concluded its “Concerts on the Go” series in Portland-area schools. Last week, orchestra members played a concert built around Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf at two schools whose districts have committed to keeping music in the schools: North Clackamas School District’s Verne A. Duncan Elementary and David Douglas School District’s Gilbert Heights Elementary School, where two young Suzuki students played short violin solos. Yesterday, more than five dozen orchestra member performed a different concert at St. Mary’s Home for Boys that showed “the healing power of music” and the fact that young Oregonians can make a career in making music.
Oregon Symphony members performed at Portland’s St. Mary’s Home for Boys.
In another admirable community connection program, tonight (Wednesday), members of the Oregon Symphony Players Association head over to Brunish Hall in the unpronounceable Portland5 Centers for the Arts in an event co-sponsored by MetroArts, Inc., principal percussionist Niel DePonte’s arts education organization. They’ll perform music by Bach, Telemann, Portland’s own Kenji Bunch (what a great example for young Oregonians of how it’s possible for an Oregon native to make a successful life in music!) and more. Oregon Public Broadcasting’s April Baer will ask the musicians questions from listeners and audience members.
It’s the second of eight evening programs the orchestra musicians will present over the next week and a half in the return of last year’s free Classical Up Close programs; they’re also perpetrating “blitz” events in various spaces around Portland, including one at the downtown Powell’s Books last week, others at Portland City Hall and Portland State University and, today at noon, at the Symphony ticket office, 923 SW Washington St, featuring the splendid cellist Nancy Ives, with more to come.
Aaron Levere performed at Portland’s Old Church last year.
I attended a couple of last year’s Up Close concerts and marveled at the attentive audience response. So many seemed eager to ask questions about the music, questions they’d probably felt too shy to ask in other settings, and the musicians proved welcoming, friendly and encouraging. They also delivered some attractive performances. It was a tremendous treat to see just how hard trombone master Aaron Lavere (normally confined to the farther reaches of the stage at the vast Schnitzer Concert Hall), for example, had to work to play (with pianist Cary Lewis) a thrilling contemporary (imagine that!) sonata by one of my favorite American composers, Eric Ewazen. Lewis and violinist Ines Voglar played some pretty Prokofiev; violist Charles Noble and cellist Heather Blackburn contributed some lovely Brahms and then joined hornist Joseph Berger, violinist Greg Ewer, and violist Joël Belgique in Mozart’s delightful Horn Quintet. Commendable efforts of this kind do a whole lot to demystify the too often off-putting archaic classical music experience, and put the orchestra’s best assets its fabulous, often personable players close enough to really appreciate their artistry and effort. Bravo to all!
Still another means of bringing music closer to the community returns next month, too. We’ll tell you more about it later, but for now, here’s a teaser.
Composer Andrew Stiefel.
Collegiate Kudos
Eugene composer Andrew Stiefel has won the Zvi Zeitlin Memorial International Composer’s Competition Grand Prize for his The Day is On Fire for flute and string quartet. Stiefel’s composition will be performed on May 23 in Connecticut and in South America in August by the distinguished Cuatro Puntos chamber ensemble, which organized the competition, and will also be recorded and released on a Cuatro Puntos album.
Stiefel, who is completing his graduate studies in composition at the University of Oregon, directs the Eugene Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, and has served as the Assistant Director of the Oregon Bach Festival Composers’ Symposium, and plays viola in the turnEnsemble.
“The Day is on Fire was written as chamber music for new friends after I completed a cross-country move from Texas to Oregon,” Steifel writes. Dramatic shifts in location always have a way of transforming our outlook, whether or not we are setting roots down in a new place or merely passing through on a vacation. This piece, then, is about personal transformation and the community that is found in performing music together.”
Listen to February’s premiere performance of The Day is on Fire by the Eugene Contemporary Chamber Ensemble. — GARY FERRINGTON.
Another alumnus of the UO School of Music & Dance, Jesse Jones (who also received his Bachelor’s degree from Eastern Oregon University and is now a music prof at the University of South Carolina), is one of 13 emerging composers whose original scores for orchestra have just been chosen (from over 400 submissions) for readings and performances by the New York Philharmonic and American Composers Orchestra (conducted by Portland Opera music director George Manahan) as part of the inaugural NY Phil Biennial. A composition by still another promising young UO music alum, Brandon Scott Rumsey, was named as an Honorable Mention in another ACO competition, the Underwood Readings. Rumsey is completing his master’s degree studies in Music Composition at the University of Texas and begins doctoral study at the University of Michigan next fall.
Choreographer Rachel Winchester.
Another UO artist, choreographer Rachel Winchester, a candidate in the UO’s master of fine arts in dance program, has won the nation’s highest collegiate dance honor for GIRL POOL, an original work for six dancers, which was chosen by the Northwest Regional Conference of the national association. Winchester’s work will be performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., June 4-7.
Based on the short story by Kurt Vonnegut, GIRL POOL refers to the all-female typing pools common in midcentury American offices. “The opportunity to perform this work at the Kennedy Center is an enormous honor,” said Winchester. “The cast and I are excited to represent the UO Department of Dance on the national stage.”
In sadder news for Oregon’s creative community, the fine composer Mary Wright, a long-time Portlander who moved to New York to work in visual art, has just come back to Portland for the last stages of her struggle with terminal cancer, and her friends are seeking help from the community to ease her transition.
Arts Resources
Oregon ComposersWatch
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Oregon ArtsWatch © 2019
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Author Topic: Election Security (Read 588 times)
Based on our current media and political climate candidates are encouraged/forced to accept the results elections for the smooth transition of power. Gore challenged in Florida but stopped short of demanding a full recount, since then the most litigated was Franken's narrow election in Wisconsin. We have only seen true litigation in these extremely close races with the narrowest of margins. But what about when a race is decided by 100,000 votes but there is clear evidence that at least some of the electronic machines were manipulated? The margin on its face doesn't justify a lot of litigation and the people who won the election would be in charge of any government investigation. It seems like something that could get buried pretty easily.
There is a lawsuit (not public yet, so we'll deal with this in mostly hypotheticals and generalities for now) in a particular state that I believe has a high probability of showing that certain voting machines were tampered with. Having looked at some of the data I'm 99+% confident that actual votes were tampered with.
If it can be shown the electronic voting machine was tampered with it casts doubt on the democratic outcome of an election which causes all kinds potentially very negative consequences. On the other hand if we allow widespread electronic voting fraud then we are subverting democracy.
Either way I feel like we lose as a society. I really wish there was a strong center that supported true election security (voter ID is a sham and mail-in is rife for abuse). But I largely see both sides either largely ignoring the issue or supporting only the voting measures that help them politically. I hope we can get this fixed before we have the courts either overturning the results of an election or ordering new elections, I really fear what the extremes on either side would do should they end up on the losing side of one of those decisions.
Re: Election Security
It doesn't help that even in straightforward recounts the parties usually abandon principle for whichever approach seems likely to have the desired outcome.
1 Like yossarian22c likes this.
Seriati
Quote from: yossarian22c on December 27, 2018, 11:33:29 AM
Gore challenged in Florida but stopped short of demanding a full recount...
Gore didn't "stop short," his specific intent was to only "recount" in the four counties with the most Democratic voters. It was clearly designed to harvest more Blue votes, and reduce the chance that other counties would offset that by finding more red votes.
But what about when a race is decided by 100,000 votes but there is clear evidence that at least some of the electronic machines were manipulated?
Tough to say in the abstract. I'm not always convinced that evidence is clear, I'm also not always convinced that the a negative inference is legit either (ie, that the election should "flip" or that it can be re done fairly after such an accusation is made).
Ideally, we'd toss the results (and maybe the prior candidates as well) and start over, but it hasn't been the history of the situation. I mean I haven't heard that Doug Jones is going to resign or submit to a re-election in connection with Roy Moore being targeted by social media manipulation (confirmed reports that Democratic operatives generated fake Russian accounts to follow Moore and that the media picked up his Russian "connection" as a targeted negative story, for example). Not direct vote manipulation, but election manipulation (at least by the Trump investigation standard - though with more actual proof at this point).
I think I'm pretty well on record that I don't think electronic voting should be used or allowed. Funny how the politicians keep moving forward on it even though they know its manipulatable and that they don't have adequate security. Almost like each side secretly believes their dirty tricks will be the ones that win the day.
Having looked at some of the data I'm 99+% confident that actual votes were tampered with.
But are you as confident about the way in which they were manipulated? It'd be easy enough to "tamper" by putting say 50k votes for each candidate into the system, or flipping 100k randomly, to create a tamper trail that could be uncovered if you lost, rather than getting caught putting yourself into office with 100k votes that would be tied directly to yourself. Same thing about putting in 100k for your opponent - best of both worlds - you still win, nothing happens, you lose - proof the other guy stole the election (either you get put in office, or you can play to get a re-election where you get to ride the "stolen election" coverage). Or heck, they (or someone that supports them) could have just thought they wouldn't get caught.
I really wish there was a strong center that supported true election security (voter ID is a sham and mail-in is rife for abuse).
Identification of citizens is not a "sham," the idea that it has to disenfranchise anyone is both a lie and a sham.
I think there is a strong majority that supports election security, however, there are virtually no politicians (the ones who get to make the decisions) that do. The same way that everyone, but the politicians, wants money out of politics and we get more and more money in politics every year.
Quote from: Seriati on December 27, 2018, 12:39:56 PM
You're correct, I forgot that tidbit of partisanship by Gore as part of the recount effort. Just goes to reinforce NobleHunter's point above.
The evidence I've seen is based on data analysis. To my knowledge no one has actually investigated the machines and memory cards used. It is absolutely clear though who the manipulation was supposed to help, it also matches the party in power before and after the election which makes a false flag seem less likely.
Pete at Home
Wasn’t Gore the deplorabilly that made this whole electronic fiasco possible by starting the groundswell for wholesale abandonment of the paper trail?
Quote from: Pete at Home on December 27, 2018, 03:01:19 PM
Yes and no, many states used to push for electronic voting, others have kept to what they've been using for years. Idaho has been using electronically scanned paper ballots for decades now(at least since I first voted in 1999).
The "biggest" thing about the Florida recount was to end the creation of ambiguous ballots(like the infamous "butterfly ballot"), and likewise end mechanical voting methods, which brings us back to "hanging chads" being left over from hole-punches on voter ballots.
And as those chads were, to my recollection, created by pushing through "preformed holes" those ballots were prone towards having new "chads" detach from the ballot over time as they were handled in each successive recount...
That the butterfly ballot was also one of the ballots that could have a Hanging Chad just added to the mayhem. But in the wonder-days of 2000/2001, everybody fixated on the "Technology Solution" which meant shifting to computerized voting from more archaic forms, rather than going for something that leaves a more concrete record behind. (Although some of the saner computerized balloting methods have the voter also get a print-out they return to the precinct workers to store in the event of a recount)
1 Like Seriati likes this.
Michigan does the scanned paper ballot. It would be nice to get a print out though to confirm the machine read what you fed it...
TheDrake
If you don't trust the machine, why would you trust the printout?
An output could only catch a bad scan, not fraud.
TheDrake is partially correct. Machine generated receipt that the voter reviews and leaves with the election authorities does offer some protection from error (though many people won't check the receipt), a better version though is the user generated form that the machine reads (like an optical scanner), far less ability for their to be a mismatch when the recount occurs.
1 Like TheDeamon likes this.
Quote from: TheDrake on January 02, 2019, 12:52:06 PM
Bad scans is what I fear. A distant second to that would be flawed programming / code that outputs incorrectly. Then a WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY distant third, overt fraud / hacking.
I don't think I'd worry much about a flawed scan. It's a basic fill the oval type thing, that they've been using for decades for everything. Most forms can do character recognition flawlessly, unless somebody has really funky handwriting. The post office scans and routes hand written addresses routinely.
not bad points
but *censored* like "use the black felt tip pen only" being listed on the instructions, then being provided a pencil... makes people nervous some times.
1 Like TheDrake likes this.
Quote from: D.W. on January 03, 2019, 12:58:58 PM
Still holds that in the event of a recount, the ballot is clearly marked and capable of being tabulated by a human being, and the ballot is likewise unlikely to have its condition/vote change or become "confused" as a consequence of being handled.
Unlike what was going on with the "punch a hole" ballots with their hanging chads and everything else associated with them.
Given what we know about unconscious manipulation, I don't know why anyone would trust a hand recount.
Scientists have to conduct double-blind studies to avoid putting their thumb on the scale, I don't know why we would think that humans can perform this job accurately.
Anybody working in this capacity is by definition engaged politically, and has their preference.
Usually b/c there are observers from each party along with a government official that have to agree on the status of the ballot. One big security issue is that not enough of the machines are properly audited for accuracy in each election because of the time and effort involved in fully validating the output of even 2-5% of all of the machines. We need better (preferably open sourced) means of validating election results.
Quote from: yossarian22c on January 04, 2019, 01:41:22 PM
Probably getting to the point where the ballots could be imaged as they're being processed and then allow for those images to be placed in a public database for review by the general public.
The challenge is access control to the hardcopy and validating X ballot on image Y is one and the same.
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Scotland Loves Anime 2015 Announced
> Culture
> Press Releases
Anime fans in Scotland are in for a treat this October as popular anime film festival Scotland Loves Anime returns to Edinburgh and Glasgow for it's 6th consecutive year. They'll also have some screenings in Aberdeen too.
Scotland Loves Anime have just announced the event is set to run in Glasgow from Friday 9th to Sunday 11th October 2015 and Edinburgh from Monday 12th to Sunday 18th October 2015. The line up as always is awesome. They've got all sorts of anime, plus the new live action Attack on Titan movies. Guest wise anime director Keiichi Hara who recently directed Sarusuberi: Miss Hokusai, will be at Glasgow, along with renowned anime expert Jonathan Clements (saying he's an expert is a bit of an understament, as) he's written tons about anime in books and magazines, plus is the co-author of the The Anime Encyclopedia.
Scotland Loves Anime 2015: Edinburgh Line-Up
Monday 12th to Sunday 18th October 2015
Sarusuberi: Miss Hokusai
Empire Of Corpses
Expelled From Paradise
The Case Of Alice & Hana
Dragonball Z: Resurrection ‘F’
Attack On Titan – Live Action Film 1
The Last: Naruto The Movie
Boruto: Naruto The Movie
Love Live! The Movie
Madoka Magica – Film 3: Rebellion
Attack On Titan – Part 1
Attack On Titan Part 2 – Jiyuu No Tsubasa
Ghost In The Shell: The New Movie (2015)
Scotland Loves Anime 2015: Glasgow Line-Up
Friday 9th to Sunday 11th October 2015
Details as follows:
Back for our sixth consecutive year and we're bigger than ever! 16 films over 13 days in Glasgow, Edinburgh and now Aberdeen too!
Check out our programme for Glasgow, Edinburgh and now Aberdeen as linked above – but below are some of our highlights! Tune in in the weeks leading up to the festival too as we'll have some more surprises for you all too...
This year's films include: Sarusuberi – Miss Hokusai, Expelled from Paradise, Empire of Corpses, The Case of Alice & Hana, Dragonball Z – Resurrection 'F', Boruto: Naruto the Movie, THE LAST: Naruto the Movie, Attack on Titan – Live Action Parts 1 & 2, Attack on Titan – Anime Film Part 1 & 2, Psycho-Pass the Movie, Love Live! The Movie, Madoka Magic – Rebellion and Ghost in the Shell – New Movie (2015).
Source: Scotland Loves Anime
Jormungand Season 1
The Eccentric Family (1-13) - Complete
Space Brothers (1-26) Streaming
AKB0048 (1-13) Streaming
Bodacious Space Pirates (1-13) Streaming
Poyopoyo / Recorder and Ransel (1-13) Streaming
Polar Bear Café (1-4) Streaming
OZMA (1-6) Streaming
You're Under Arrest: Fast and Furious (Season Two)
Squid Girl: Season 1 Blu Ray
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Moving to NYC or Leaving NYC Private School
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The Anderson School P. S. 334 is a K-8 public gifted & talented school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. If you would like to learn more about The Anderson School, please explore the links above and scroll down for photos!
K-3 G&T Offers for 2019-20 If your child was offered a seat at the Anderson School, please go to the Admissions pull-down menu and click on:K-3 Admissions Page for detailed instructions on how to proceed. (If your child was not offered a seat at Anderson and you want to know his/her place on this school's waitlist, please write to: DSmiley@schools.nyc.gov.)
Posted Jun 7, 2019, 10:26 AM by Ana Crenovich
WHAT'S HAPPENING AT ANDERSON?
ANDERSON AT CHESS NATIONALS
Anderson chess teams traveled to Nashville on May 10th to compete in the Chess Nationals. They had great results as a group and were one of the largest teams in the country.
Our K-6 Championship team (hardest section in the entire tournament) tied for 5th place as a team and 6th grader Adi was the national co-champion!
Our K-3 team was one of the smallest and youngest teams and came in 9th in the country and 2nd grader Carter tied for 13th.
In K-1 our team got 7th in the country and 1st grader Jesse tied for 12th.
The K-5 U1200 team also tied for 5th.
Third grader Cynthia tied for 23rd in her division as well which was the biggest division with over 300+ kids
Anderson 8th Graders visited a nearby District 3 Elementary school to present to 5th graders about respecting all people. Our Anderson seniors shared what it means to be kind, respectful and discussed how important it is to choose your words carefully and to always be an upstander. Thank you 8th graders for a great presentation!
Peer Mediation Is Back at Anderson!
Nearly 30 students from grades 4 through 7 are newly trained Peer Mediators. The students completed a Peer Mediation Training Program and learned all about conflict and positive ways to help others resolve their conflicts. You will see them in the lunchroom and in the yard wearing blue or purple t-shirts and their mediator name tag lanyard. They are there to listen!
Jan. 2019 Congratulations to the Anderson debaters in the O'Shea Debate Event:
Novice individual speaker rank:
Caroline I. 1st
Natasha W-K. 2nd
Dasha S. 3rd
Anisha S. 6th
Ameera K. 12th
Om D. 16th
Sam L. 18th
Mathilda S. 25th
Novice Teams:
Dasha/Sam/Caroline 9th
Ameera/Om/Mathilda 3rd
Anisha/Natasha/Isabella 1st
Open Individual speaker:
Zach F. 12th
Ally C-K. 11th
Congratulations to the Anderson students who competed in the Manhattan Spelling Bee on 1/15/19! They are Charlie (701), Foster (502), and Madhavendra (502). Charlie and Madhavendra qualified for the Daily News citywide bee and Madhavendra got a trophy for finishing 3rd place.
The AMS Debate Team kicked off the 2018 - 2019 season with a very strong showing last weekend. Eighteen debaters competed against schools from across the city. Here are the results:
Novice Individual (our of 100 debaters):
First Place: Alex P.
#25 - Saoirse D.
#22 - Aidan T.
#17 - Sam L.
#16 - Matilda S.
#15 - Steven S.
#12 - Dasha S.
#8 - Ameera K.
#15 - Saoirse D., Ameera K.
#14 - Steven S., Alex P.
#13 - Rebecca K., Vita K., Madeline G.
#8 - Om D., Iyanah M.
#5 - Sam L., Dasha S., Aidan T.
Open (Advanced) Individuals (out of 80 debaters)
#15 - Jocelyn R.
#12 - Will B.
# 6 - Zack F.
#4 - Anya L
Zack, Jocelyn and Anya along with Mr. Fox represent Anderson at the NYC Urban Debate League, Parliamentary Debate Tournament
Previous Happenings at Anderson: 2014-15 2013-14 2015-2016 2016-2017 2017-2018
PS 334 Community Calendar
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Anderson Students' High School Acceptances for 2019
Click below:
https://sites.google.com/a/ps334school.org/anderson-guidance/
GSA SUMMIT NEWS
The NYC DOE Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) Summit was held on Monday, January 28th at Stuyvesant High School for Middle and High School students. This was the second year the Summit was held and more than 1600 students and faculty participated! It was an opportunity for students and faculty advisers of these clubs to celebrate with the LGBTQ community, network, and learn from one another. This was the first year Anderson students participated in this exciting event; Mrs. Ridder, our Guidance Counselor and GSA club Advisor, was thrilled to take seven 8th grade students to the event where the students explored various workshops that were offered for students and faculty advisers. Our Anderson students are eager to bring back what they have learned and to help keep our Anderson community feeling safe and respected and that their voices are heard in a safe space.
This year, the summit highlighted five individuals who have made great contributions to society in the face of enormous barriers:
Marsha P. Johnson (1945-1992) was an African-American transgender woman who was an LGBTQ rights activist and an outspoken advocate for trans people of color.
Bayard Rustin (1912-1987) was a civil rights organizer and activist, best known for his work as adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1950’s and 60’s.
Harvey Milk (1930-1978) became one of the first openly gay officials in the United States in 1977, when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Tragically, he was killed the following year.
We’wha (1849-1896) was a Zuni Native American ambassador and accomplished craftsperson. We’wha was a Ihamana, which would today be described as two-spirit. We’wha connected with visitors, diplomats, and even President Grover Cleveland to provide education about Zuni traditions.
Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) was an African-American playwright and writer, best known for her play A Raisin In The Sun. She was the first black female author to have performed on Broadway.
The Anderson School
Public School 334 | 100 West 77th Street New York, NY 10024
http://www.ps334school.org
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Eagles edge Manatees 12-11
Cody Burgess had four RBI, three singles, a triple, a walk, three runs, and three stolen bases in a 12-11 win over the Manatees. (Photo by Tom Hagerty, Polk State.)
Polk State beat State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota 12-11 yesterday in Bradenton.
Although the Eagles never trailed in the contest, the Manatees scored six runs in the bottom of the ninth but could get no closer than 12-11.
Zach Schneider (1-0) earned the win in relief. In four innings he allowed five hits and four runs, walking one and striking out two.
Starting pitcher Zak Spivy gave up seven hits and four runs in 4.1 innings.
Chad Tworek and Justin Tworek also appeared in relief.
Polk State had 15 hits.
Cody Burgess went 4-for-5 with a triple, a walk, three runs, three stolen bases, and four RBI.
Zach Biermann drove in three runs, doubled, singled twice, and scored a run.
Zach Diewert had two singles, a walk, a run, an RBI, and a stolen base.
Yeison Gomez singled, walked, scored a run, and drove in a run.
Brandon Gali had two runs, two walks, and a sacrifice.
Raudy Martinez singled, scored a run, and walked twice.
Isaiah Cullum went 2-for-5 with an RBI.
Skylar Frey singled and scored twice.
Cole Warken had a single and a run scored.
The Eagles (23-11, 8-5, No. 8 FCSAA) play State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota tomorrow at 6 p.m. at Bing Tyus Yard in Winter Haven.
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Inaugural speech
Republic of Srpska
Symbols of the RS
Extract from the Constitution
Law on the Senate
Members of the Senate
You are here: Home » News » President of the Republic of Srpska sends a telegram of condolences to the President of the Russian Federation
President of the Republic of Srpska sends a telegram of condolences to the President of the Russian Federation
Posted: 10:32, 02.07.2019.
The President of the Republic of Srpska Željka Cvijanović sent a telegram of condolences to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin over deaths caused by floods in the Irkutsk region.
“On behalf of the citizens of the Republic of Srpska and my own behalf, please accept the expressions of the deepest sympathy over the floods that hit the Irkutsk region and caused the loss of human lives, as well as enormous material damage.
In these difficult moments for your country and the Russian people, please convey the expressions of our sympathy to the families of the victims and wishes for a quick recovery to the injured people”, reads the telegram of the President Cvijanović.
Posted in category: News, Announcements
Virtual brochure
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News for Vicepresidents
Republika Srpska's 21th Report to the UNSC
Republika Srpska`s 19th Report to UNSC
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President | Biography | Authorities | Inaugural speech
Vice Presidents | Ramiz Salkić | Josip Jerković | News | Future events
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Senate | Extract from the constitution of the RS | Law on the Senate | Members of the Senate | Speech of the President
Documents | Documents
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Official presentation of the President of the Republic of Srpska
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A myth-illogical apartheid
The Jews created one of the most progressive democracies in the world, most accepting of minorities, yet they're branded racist by Islamists, themselves severely discriminatory. Jews resettled peacefully in their homeland of 3,000+ years, but are called colonialists by those who seize land by force. Muslims are clearing their land of Christians in astounding numbers and carried out pogroms against Arab Jews, but Israel is accused of ethnic cleansing. Seven million Jews on 1/1,000th of the Mideastern land mass are called imperialist by 1.5 billion Arabs on their previously conquered continent. Iran threatens to obliterate Israel, but the US tells Israel to use restraint and make concessions. Arabs hold Judea and Samaria steadfastly; Russia holds Japanese islands; Communist China rules Tibet, Turkey holds parts of Cyrpus, and Germans live and rule in East Prussia, but Israel is the "occupier." Human Rights violations are cited against Israel 75% of the time, while genocide continues unabated in Sudan, Congo, and Rwanda, and Arab women are under constant oppression.
One of the leading accusations used by the anti-Semitic BDS movement to delegitimize Israel is an illogical one, the false, multi-faceted condemnations of APARTHEID — fashioned after South Africa and Nazi Germany. And the BDS minions espouse Islam's deadly dogmatic propaganda against world Jewry. The fabricated indictments against the Jewish State are flagrant inversions of reality (aka revisionism), a serious threat to Israel and the Jewish students — and that these myths are supported by a remorseless academia attests to the university's ignomineous collaboration with Islamic jihad against the Jewish people.
Myth: The Apartheid Wall/Barrier
Mainstream media took up the cause of "victimized" Palestinians who were denied entrée into Israel with the construction of a barrier fence between the two cultures, but rarely mentioned is its true purpose and value — that of protecting Israelis from Palestinian terrorists, suicide murderers, rockets and missiles. Neither does the media reference the innumerable defensive walls worldwide: the Great Wall of Morocco (security belt) against Soviet Polisario rebels; South Korea's barrier against North Korea; India's wall against Pakistan; Botswana's electric fence against Zimbabwe's ethnic cleansing; Saudi Arabia's fences against Iraq and Yemen; Turkey's partitioned claim of Cyprus; Thailand's against Malaysia's Muslims; Pakistan's against Afghanistan; Uzbekistan's against Tadjikistan; the UAR's against Oman; Kuwait's against Iraq; the US's wall against Mexico, and the many signs of nations living in fear of their aggressive neighbors.
Myth: Palestinians should have the Right of Return
War creates refugees. Had Arab leaders accepted the UN partition instead of launching a war to seize the whole British Mandate, there would be two adjacent states today, no Palestinian or Jewish refugees. Most of the 850,000 Jews who escaped Arab persecution settled and became citizens in Israel; 160,000 Arabs stayed and became citizens in Israel; but between 472,000 and 750,000 Palestinians fled in response to Arab orders, and were then shunned by their brethren to become a propaganda weapon against Israel. The lands to which they should be returning are their original Islamic lands of Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, etc.
Israel's Law of Return is consistent with her just purpose and noble cause: a safe haven for the Jewish people, regardless of race and national origin — that a state may employ a preference in granting citizenship to undo the effects of prior discrimination, as with the British decision of 1939, which barred Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine and returned millions of Jews to their death in Europe. Similar laws of return exist in other democracies, Germany, Ireland, Finland, Greece, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Slovena, Croatia, yet BDS groups do not denounce these nations.
Myth: Ethnic-Cleansing Charge
This charge against Israel began with the settling of European Jews after WW II, and a quotation fraudulently attributed to David Ben-Gurion. In 1937, he said, "We do not wish and do not need to expel Arabs and take their places. All our aspiration is built on the assumption — proven throughout all our activity in the Land [of Israel] — that there is enough room in the country for ourselves and the Arabs," and reiterated ten years later to build good relations with their Arab neighbors. But Arabs announced the opposite to their brethren, instilling hate, resentment, and fomenting a determination to annihilate Israel.
Myth: Israel steals Palestinian Water
The water charge against Israel began in the 1920s, saying that their military authority controls most of the West Bank's water. One accusation says 73% is piped back to Israel with another 10% used by illegal Jewish settlers; another says 83%. But B'Tselem's report, used to support the allegations, proves nothing of the sort.
Israel obtains about 50% of its water from the Sea of Galilee and the Coastal Aquifer, both entirely within Israel's pre-1967 lines; 30% comes from the Western and Northeaster Aquifers of the Mountain Aquifer system, which straddles the Green Line, but most is under pre-1967 Israel. Israel's Mediterranean coastline is at a lower elevation than the West Bank, and the water follows the flow of gravity. Compared to when Jordan occupied the West Bank (1950s), the Palestinians' share of aquifers increased by a considerable amount under Israel's administration. The truth: Palestinians use Israeli water! And compassionately, despite Israel's limited water supply, Israel provides water to ten dry villages in South Lebanon.
Myth: Israel discriminates against its citizens
Of 6.7 million citizens, 20% are non-Jews (about 1.1 Muslims, 130,000 Christian, 100,000 Druze). Israel is the only country in the Mid-East that offers Arabs and Arab women the equal right to vote. Arabs hold various government posts, including eight seats in Knesset and a Supreme Court Justice. There are hundreds of Arab schools attended by 300,000 Arab students. BDSers communicate that Arabs are not welcomed into military service; untrue. Arab volunteers are accepted — but Israel will not force Arabs to fight their brethren. Citizens may live anywhere; housing is not government controlled based on religion or ethnicity. After almost 230 years of US independence, America has still not integrated all her diverse communities; 60 years after civil rights legislation, discrimination has not been eradicated. Neither country has solved all its social problems.
Myth: Israel restricts Palestinian travel
Palestinians complained about roads forbidden to them, making it difficult to get to work and for pregnant women to travel for healthcare. The Associated Press reported about restricted roads for Palestinians and B'Tselem mimicked the accusations, adding that Palestinians were prohibited from crossing some of those roads with vehicles. The full truth was omitted — that the roads were open to all Israeli citizens (Jew and Arab), foreigners and tourists. Nationality-based restrictions (not religion- or ethnicity-based) were made on Palestinian vehicles in 1993, after the rise in Palestinian political violence, when drive-by shootings resulted in drivers' deaths. Security far outweighs Palestinian rights.
The consequence of the Oslo Accords was three separate administrative divisions, but the violence of the Second Intifada necessitated complete prohibitions on Palestinian movement into Israel and between the West Bank and Gaza Strip — to protect all people in Israel and Israeli settlements. Also omitted from biased reporting is that Israelis were also restricted from driving through regions controlled by the Palestinian Authority.
BDSers never speak of Saudi Arabia's Muslim-only roads, and priviliged Muslim-only cities of Mecca and Medina and its environs, while Jerusalem, Israel's holiest city for Jews, is open to tourists of every faith. Note that Mahmoud Abbas announced that a Palestinian state would be closed to Jews and homosexuals.
These myths are inventive, designed to create a militarily weak Israel that would be replaced by a new Islamic state and whose defenseless Jewish citizens could be massacred. The variety and number of myths are endless, too numerous for one essay, but they are myths nevertheless and easly refuted. Israel is the only open liberal democracy in the entire Middle East where ALL her citizens live infinitely better than do the people of Arab nations.
It is time to stop pretending that the Muslim students' hate and sedition is "free speech" and acknowledge that they adamantly fight for their own free speech while suppressing the speech of others. The hostile campus climate they create serves to intimidate visiting pro-Israel speakers and remove opposition from the room, thereby insulating themselves from criticism for their radical ideologies.
It is both immoral and against our democratic values to fund anything related to BDS and the "Israel Apartheid" movement. It is time to stand for honest free speech and academic integrity and to stop the hate and sedition that is cloaked in "free speech." Whether this scourge has been permitted out of weakness, complacency, ignorance, or fear of retribution, be aware that the smaller your contribution to restoring democracy to your school and to our nation, the more dire will be the consequences in the future. Tolerance of Islamic intolerance is not tolerance, but the ultimate destruction of our civilization.
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Back to: >> Extremism and Fundamentalism
Authoritarianism in Marital Relationships
Kris Rosenberg
[Once Again Kris Rosenberg paints vivid pictures illustrative of something wrong in the world. Her anecdotes took life in America, but the personality features she draws can occur in any culture. Where America differs from other cultures lies in the degrees by which extremism is fostered. In two situations, Kris shows how extremism can take over in family units. It is not that different in societies at large. Her rendering is from the female point of view, but the basic problems exhibited by males appear in their female counterparts in varying degrees. Ed.]
Before being driven to a therapist, Loretta had spent years trying to figure out what she was doing wrong to bring on her husband's infidelity. Married at twenty-one and now thirty, Loretta has gone through one self-improvement project after another, all with the purpose of being more attractive and appealing to Tim, more interesting to Tim, more everything just for Tim.
Again and again, she has thought, "If only I can...be more patient, keep the house cleaner, cook more delicious meals, make my hair nicer, have a firmer body, lose some weight." In the mistaken belief that she could change Tim, that what was wrong with him was a response to what was wrong with her, Loretta got her mother to stop calling when Tim was at home, shushed their four-year old when Tim was watching television, saved money from her frugal budget to buy him surprises. As soon as she changed one thing, some other problem took its place.
"If only I can be this… he will be happier, talk more, love me and me alone." How often we hear this from women who are married to men like Tim. Yet after she becomes more beautiful, more efficient, more fascinating — turns herself inside out for him, things stay the same. His list of grievances is literally inexhaustible. ["Keeping people off guard" is a typical control method often used by weak managers in industry, weak politicians, an petty small-business owners. Ed]
Tim regards himself as an exceptionally-wounded man.
Loretta eventually realizes he is a pain-giver, not a pain feeeler. ["How to arrive at this point sooner" is the question to think about. There can be no pay-off wasting time on strategies that can't work. We are at such a stage in the Middle East today. Ed]
One of the unconscious tendencies of a woman is to see her man's wounds and feel sorry for him and thinks she can change him. [Simple mothering instinct? Ed] She doesn't want a prince; a frog she can change into a prince is her unconscious goal. [This is a hang-up in its own right. A common pattern is for people with hang-ups to seek out people similar to themselves to found families with. But the fact is, hang-ups will not change unless their owner is willing. Ed]
But Loretta can't use her own limited resources trying endlessly to understand why or how he got to be that way. For it doesn't matter what kind of person Loretta is. A man like Tim isn't looking for more beautiful, more fascinating, more anything. He only wants one thing: to dominate. [In true Authoritarian fashion. Rigid. Ed] She has to keep trying, trying superhumanly. And that is the point. There is no change or accomplishment that will make any difference — only the willingness to constantly make an effort to please him. He needs someone to put down, to control, someone with whom he can be a tyrant, someone who cringes desperately before him. Someone to blame for all his failures. He is a predator. Even so, that doesn't mean she can do anything about it.
Jessica stayed with such a partner, Jack, for over twenty years of lawfully wedded misery. She had three daughters and, finally having enough, Jessica filed for a divorce. Jack fought ferociously to get her back, to get custody of the little girls he had treated as hatefully as he treated their mother. For a time, she took him back — he seemed to love her, she thought — he was trying so hard to win her over. Then she finally saw the struggle for what it was: Jack's need not to lose the objects of his domination. She had been taken in by Scrooge in Sugarplum-Fairy clothing.
Jessica made a second break permanent, went to school (Jack had always told her she was stupid), became an attorney (discovering she was smarter than he was), and eventually married again. She wondered how she had ever lived the way she had with Jack. Her new life was not all creamy, but she had a marriage of give and take, not all give.
She read of Jack's remarriage to a woman almost young enough to be their daughter. She saw the newspaper picture of his bride, Linda. She heard of the births of Jack and Linda's children, second-hand reports of the happiness of the couple. Jack himself had quit the scene long before; once he lost custody to Jessica, he never looked back.
As they grew older, Jessica's daughters sometimes accused her of keeping them from their father. Ironic, Jessica reflected. As young girls they had begged her to do something about his cruelty to them. Maybe, though, she thought, she hadn't been the right woman for Jack. Linda — perhaps prettier and certainly younger — might just know how to handle him, might not fall victim to the incessant criticism.
Once again she was thinking maybe his problems were just a reaction to what was wrong with her. To justify their malice, people who treat you badly usually hate you for it and you begin to feel responsible. Not that she had any regrets about divorcing him. She was far better off than she had ever been with him. Those old habits die hard though — the habits of a woman who has been stabbed and blames herself for bleeding.
Many years and a continent passed between them. One day Jessica picked up the phone and was stunned to hear a sobbing woman say that she was Linda, Jack's second wife, and she needed help. As Linda told her story, Jessica could finish the sentences. Linda and Jack had been married almost the same number of years, had the same number of children, but what made the story so eerie was that Jack's behavior was exactly what it had been when he lived with Jessica.
Listening to Linda, Jessica knew: a woman could be tall or short, young or old, light or dark, pretty or plain, immaculate or disorderly, quiet or outgoing —none of it mattered. As long as she would put up with being knocked down, Jack would break her and cling to the pieces. He was repeating his history, treating Linda and her children just as he had Jessica and her children, and fighting for the right to do that.
"Why did you call me?" Jessica asked Linda, whom she had neither met nor talked to before. "Surely Jack must have told you some awful things about me."
Linda replied, "What he said about you when we met is what he is saying about me now and it isn't true. No one seems to understand what I'm going through. I've always covered for him and pretended things were good. And he is so charming in public. I hoped you would understand. Please help me get through it."
Jack was again playing out his compulsion for power, struggling to keep hold on the people he needed. Just as abusive parents battle to keep their injured children, only to maim them again, often to kill them, so such men as Tim and Jack want to move heaven and earth to stay with wives and children whom they torment. They might be hopeless philanderers or faithful oppressors. Some are batterers. Others rule with sarcasm and harsh words, like Jack, insidiously tearing apart the minds and hearts of their confused and bewildered victims.
A man that pathological takes over a relationship to such a degree that nothing the victimized woman does means anything. He imposes his own thoughts and feelings upon anyone who will stand for it. His woman is ineffective — until she leaves.
Jack had criticized exactly the same things in both women — from how thick the onion was sliced to the location of his glass of juice relative to his plate. He inspected kitchen cabinets for "correct" brands and the mileage on the car to see how far it had been driven. He demanded an accounting of every hour of the day, every dollar spent. He knew intuitively and precisely how to deliver the exquisitely scathing remark, making others feel like proper objects of disgust.
The breaks from his rage were brief times of tense waiting, of rising hope when he was charming, and falling hearts when his mood was black. His wives and children rushed to gain his elusive approval, to keep peace. But what Jack wanted was not results, but submission. It isn't simply that none of us are perfect — perfection won't suffice, isn't even the point.
[Too often children of abusers grow up to be abusive themselves. Even if the tendency is not strong, an abusive role model tips the scales toward the extreme. If such a person achieves power, s/he might flip and become a political despot. Their need to make people lessor than themsleves is the unchanging constant. Ed]
Posted by RoadToPeace on Saturday, January 28, 2006.
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Michelle Rowland, PM Hon. Julia Gillard, Harish Velji, Sam Dastyari and Ejaz Khan
During the Visit of Sydney The Prime Minister Hon. Julia Gillard Wins Hearts of the Sub Continent Community
(Report by: Syed Talal, Photos by: Rajesh Kumar & Manjit Thind)
On Monday, 4th March 2013, Sub Continent Community and Sub Continent Friends of Labor were privileged to host Prime Minister Hon Julia Gillard for a lunch during her visit to the Western Sydney. The Lunch was held at the SPOON Function Centre, Main Street, Blacktown Sydney.
This private lunch gave community an opportunity to discuss directly with the Prime Minister and number of Ministers any issues that concerned them and their communities.
Prime Minister met, first individually, then later sat down and devoted ten to fifteen minutes per table to discuss their issues.
With Prime Minister in attendance were Michelle Rowland, Hon Chris Bowen, Hon Jason Clare, Hon David Bradbury, Hon Nathan Rees and state Secretary of the Labor Party Sam Dastyari.
Harish Velji, Chairperson of the Sub Continent Friends of Labor during his welcome speech noted that "One of the issues which has a common thread to all the Sub Continent communities and the other Asian communities is in relation to vocational training students, who came here as international students and their visa issues still remain unsolved, some good and honest vocational colleges continue to suffer heavy financial burden, as a result of changes to the various visa processes, contradicting English requirements from admission to colleges and universities, to work and to the PR stage is taking toll."
"The 457 visa has up an extra burden to the sub continent hospitality industry and the workers are simply not available in the local Australian community.
"This industry is struggling as they are unable to get workers under the scheme from overseas because of the extra demand placed on English when only working knowledge could suffice.
He also reminded " To those who are seeking change for the change of sake, let me simply remind you of the difference between them and us- Tampa, Children overboard, Dr Haneef affair, under proposed changes to the racial discrimination act by Tony Abbott, we will be allowed to be vilified and people required to be reported to neighbours and state police whose English is poor.
Prime Minister responded with thanking Sub Continent Friends of Labor for great work within the community and being very valuable link with the Labor Party.
She noted the concerns on the immigration issues and elaborated on the issues dear to her- education and transportation in Western Sydney.
Hon Chris Bowen, Minister for Higher Education and Small Businesses said it is always a pleasure to spend time with Harish and the Subcontinent Friends of Labor.
"The Prime Minister and I appreciated the opportunity to hear from and engage with Subcontinent Friends of Labor on the challenges facing these groups in Western Sydney and Australia.
Syed Talal and Pervaiz Khan talking with Prime Minister of Australia Hon Julia Gillard
"The Subcontinent Friends of Labor is taken very seriously by the Government and MPs. It is also a good way for members of these communities to have a day and get involved in the political process."
Earlier he noted that the Sub Continent Friends of Labor were instrumental in changing and having extended lengths of visa for parents who wished to visit Australia. The relationship developed with the Sub Continent Community was not going to be lost as changes to his portfolio gave him new opportunities to engage with community, that being small business.
Federal Member for Greenway, Michelle Rowland has heralded the Prime Minister’s lunch with Western Sydney’s Sub-Continent communities as a huge success.
Ms Rowland said the Prime Minister was welcomed with open arms by the Sub-Continent community when she sat down for lunch with them in Blacktown this week.
“It was great to see the Prime Minister meet with a number of the Sub-Continent communities in my electorate and discuss the issues important to them,” Ms Rowland said.
“I would like to thank Mr Harish Velji for organising such a great event and thank the Prime Minister for coming to Blacktown to meet so many wonderful groups.”
Ejaz Khan from Sub Continent Friends of Labor giving 'vote of thanks' noted that no Prime Minister had devoted so much time, energy and delivery to the Sub Continent community as PM Gillard had.He also thanked the Prime Minister for talking about the issues that confront them and taking opportunity to meet each one personally.
Ajay Singh who was one of the guests noted that no Prime Minister had ever taken such time to meet "our community".
Another guest Maxine Salma said it was a humbling experience to be with Prime Minister "who sat at our level, talking to us as if she was one of us, hearing asking questions and which no Prime Minister would do. She has won me over."
Hon.Michelle Rowland MP, Prime Minister Hon.Julia Gillard, Host Harish Velji, GS Labor Party Sam Dastyari and Vice President SCFL Ejaz Khan
Host of the Lunch Mr. Harish Velji Chairperson of the Sub Continent Friends of Labor with Prime Minister of Australia Hon Julia Gillard
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ATI Radeon HD 4850 Performance Preview
By SimHQ on June 25, 2008 in _technology2
by John Reynolds
AMD’s initial foray into the realm of DX10 graphics landed with something of a thud — a late, underwhelming thud in the form of the R600 chip-based Radeon HD 2900 XT last summer. The R600 was a large, hot chip that failed to compete against NVIDIA’s GeForce 8800 GTX that had been released a full half-year earlier. AMD scrambled and responded with the RV670 chip, upon which the Radeon HD 3850 and HD 3870 boards were based. The RV670, while extremely derivative of the R600 in design, was moved to a 55nm manufacturing process and the subsequent die shrink saw a much smaller, cooler running GPU than the 2900 XT. The Radeon 3000 series was therefore more competitive in performance against NVIDIA products, and being based on a smaller chip was priced to move, putting AMD somewhat back into the GPU fray. NVIDIA, however, is not a company that sees kindly to its market share being threatened and responded with excellent products such as the GeForce 9600 GT, and with price drops for GPUs like the 8800 GT. As SimHQ’s recent Midrange GPU Roundup showed, this left AMD again taking backseat to NVIDIA’s products, and the graphics market has been waiting to see how the struggling company would respond.
The RV770 chip is AMD’s response and it’s a truly impressive engineering feat from a number of perspectives. The new chip has a die size increase of roughly 35% over that of the RV670 (256mm^2 vs. 190mm^2, and a transistor increase from 666m to 965m), yet AMD has managed to cram an amazing amount of increased functionality into the chip. While staying with a 55nm fabrication process, AMD has taken their previous architecture and increased the number of stream processors (shader units) from 320 to 800 units, more than doubled the texture units, completely revamped the memory controller, and beefed-up the ROPs (render back-end units). All of this suggests AMD’s engineers went back to the drawing board for major redesigns of the architecture to pack this much processing power into such a relatively small chip (NVIDIA’s G92, used for products like the 9800 GTX, is roughly 330mm^2 in size). How did AMD manage to pull this off? We’ll try to quickly cover the main improvements made to RV770 from the previous generation before diving into what most readers really want to see: the performance numbers.
First off, AMD redesigned the stream processing units to be able to increase their head count from 320 to 800 units. These units are now arranged in 10 SIMD arrays, each sporting 80 cores and a 16KB cache. Each SIMD array also boasts four texture units with an L1 cache, and the shader units have of course been optimized for better performance, with each unit able to perform two operations per clock cycle (single-precision FP MAD and MUL ops). With this many stream processors clocked at the frequency of the Radeon HD 4850, 625MHz, AMD is able to claim the first desktop product that breaks the one teraflop barrier. All bundled in a $200 graphics board. Readers now can see why we described the RV770 as an impressive engineering feat a few sentences earlier. And considering how the potential use of graphics boards appears to be on the verge of ranging beyond just the rendering of 3D graphics, with the advent of physics, photo manipulation, video transcoding, folding@home projects, etc., becoming GPU-accelerated, the raw math-crunching power of the RV770 will certainly be put to good use by such applications. The Radeon HD 4870, clocked at a reported 750MHz, should offer a theoretical 1.2 teraflops at its $300 price point, and with its GDDR5 memory and the substantial memory bandwidth increase it brings should see its real-world usage come closer to theoretical peaks than the HD 4850.
Beyond the stream processors, AMD has also redesigned the memory controller. The old ring bus architecture introduced with the Radeon 1800/1900s and used up to the RV670 is now gone and has been replaced with a more distributed design that sees the interface placed around the chip’s edges and the controllers positioned closer to the ROPs. AMD claims that this improves bandwidth utilization while requiring less die space than the previous ring bus design. The new controllers also have an L2 cache with each block and support GDDR5. The Radeon HD 4850 uses GDDR3, but the new memory type will arrive with the HD 4870. Rumors have been circulating of a dual-chip R700 product coming in late summer or early fall and this new memory controller may suggest that AMD has worked to improve communication between chips compared to previous multi-GPU products.
ATI Radeon HD 4850 Performance Preview Page 6
ATI Radeon HD 4850 Performance Preview Page 2 ATI Radeon HD 4850 Performance Preview Page 3 ATI Radeon HD 4850 Performance Preview Page 4 ATI Radeon HD 4850 Performance Preview Page 5 ATI Radeon HD 4850 Performance Preview Page 6 ATI Radeon HD 4870 Performance Preview ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 Performance Preview ATI Radeon® HD 4890 Performance Preview
IL-2 Series: Fundamentals of Teamwork Page 5
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J. Baglow
As a Canadian, an immigrant, and just as a human being, I don’t merely feel sadness and outrage at the acquittal of Colten Boushie’s killer by an all-white jury in Saskatchewan. I feel soiled.
If the defence is to be believed, the bullet that put an end to Boushie's young life sat in Gerald Stanley's gun "hanging fire" until the weapon was properly positioned behind his head. At that point, the bullet left the gun, untriggered.
Only in a profoundly racist society could such a ludicrous defence succeed. Only in a profoundly racist society would the police (RCMP) put out a news release right after the killing indirectly accusing Boushie of attempted robbery -- then go to his mother’s house, surround it, search it without a warrant, and in the course of this violation, tell her that her son was dead. When she collapsed at this news, she says (and there is no reason in this world not to believe her), one of the cops asked if she'd been drinking. Needless to say, the RCMP soon cleared themselves, while admitting they might have been a little insensitive, so that’s all right, then.
They bungled the investigation too. Unfunny Keystone Kops, deepening and widening the tragedy.
Meanwhile the local yokels were cheering. Premier Brad Wall found himself having to condemn the gushing sewer of hatred that so quickly erupted, fouling the Saskatchewan air.
My sympathy and my feelings of grief, anger and helplessness are with Boushie’s bereaved family and his friends today. But, like "thoughts and prayers," those aren’t worth a damn. The only thing that matters now is change, real change, delivered at speed. Genuine nation-to-nation and person-to-person reconciliation in this tortured, racist land in which we co-exist, but not as equals.
Last night, that hope was set back by decades. It was Mississippi North, except that you can’t deliberately pick all-white juries in Mississippi any more. The verdict was a body blow to decency and right, and to any remaining self-delusions about the sort of Canada we live in.
Once again, justice for the Indigenous population is absent. It’s 2018. What the hell do we do now?
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Colten Boushie
Thank you for reading this story…
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Four friends pedal 500 miles through Scotland's most dangerous waters in pedalo shaped like Nessie
By Andrew Ferguson-SCN
THE team completed a gruelling 22-day trip from Inverness in a pedalo shaped like the Loch Ness Monster and raised £73,000 for Cancer Research UK and Parkinson's UK.
Geoff Robinson
The group of four friends pedalled 500 miles in a Nessie pedalo
YOU must have heard of Nessie the Loch Ness Monster, but what is she?
Is she an overgrown eel or a giant marine reptile like a Plesiosaur?
Well to these four friends she is a pedalo.
Nico Kirby, his sister Natasha and Scots Ed Foster and Sholto Morgan pedalled 500 miles through some of Scotland’s most dangerous waters in a pedalo shaped like Nessie.
They completed their 22-day trip at the weekend, pedalling for eight hours a day and battling against whirlpools, fast tides, big rolling waves, gales and huge sea swells.
The team, who have raised £73,000 for Cancer Research UK and Parkinson’s UK, left from Inverness and went down the Caledonian Canal, through Loch Ness and Loch Lochy and out into the sea.
The four friends finish the trip in Inverness
They made it to Gairloch but the tail end of Hurricane Bertha stopped them going further.
So they drove their pedalo to Cromarty and headed north.
But the weather got worse, so they headed back to Loch Ness, where they completed 11 lengths.
Ed said: “It’s amazing to have done 500 miles on a pedalo.
“Not many thought we’d manage it but, while we didn’t complete our original route, no one could have foreseen a hurricane in August.”
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16 Results Found For: Public Opinion
Janus Democracy (December 2018)
Transconsistency and the General Will
Richard T. Longoria - Author
Explores the contradictory nature of public opinion.
Combining political philosophy with a study of political behavior, Richard T. Longoria examines the contradictory nature of public opinion on policy issues. He argues that public opinion is often characterized by dialetheial paradoxes—when a statement and the contradiction of that statement are both held to be true. For example, a voter may express a desire for a ba...(Read More)
The Phantom of a Polarized America (February 2016)
Myths and Truths of an Ideological Divide
Manabu Saeki - Author
Indicates how the rightward shift in the ideology of House Republicans has been mistaken for a broader “polarization” of both parties as well as voters.
There is a widespread belief that American politics is becoming more polarized, in the sense that the Republican Party and electorate are becoming more conservative while the Democratic Party and electorate are becoming more liberal. But is this truly the ca...(Read More)
Sound-Bite Saboteurs (March 2010)
Public Discourse, Education, and the State of Democratic Deliberation
Julie Drew - Author
William Lyons - Author
Lance Svehla - Author
Argues that the reliance on sound bites in recent political discourse is harmful to the democratic process.
Sound-Bite Saboteurs examines the emergence of a multifaceted, multimedia culture that encourages the use of sound bites to silence one’s opponents at the expense of democratic deliberation and debate. No simple partisan phenomenon or mere attempt to “spin” a particular issue, sou...(Read More)
Public Opinion and the Rehnquist Court (February 2008)
Thomas R. Marshall - Author
Examines the complex relationship between American public opinion and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Public Opinion and the Rehnquist Court offers the most thorough evidence yet in favor of the U.S. Supreme Court representing public opinion. Thomas R. Marshall analyzes more than two thousand nationwide public opinion polls during the Rehnquist Court era and argues that a clear majority of Supreme Court decisions...(Read More)
The Public Side of Representation (August 2007)
A Study of Citizens' Views about Representatives and the Representative Process
Christopher J. Grill - Author
Examines how ordinary citizens view the representative process in Congress.
Representation lies at the very heart of our political system, yet few attempts have been made to examine citizens’ views about the representative process. The Public Side of Representation fills that void. Through a series of in-depth interviews, Christopher J. Grill explores people’s abstract beliefs about representati...(Read More)
The Mediating Effect of Public Opinion on Public Policy (July 2004)
Exploring the Realm of Health Care
Richard E. Chard - Author
Examines how public opinion has influenced health care policy.
Using health care policy to develop a theory of how public opinion influences public policy outcomes, Richard E. Chard draws on data ranging from presidential approval ratings to polls conducted during the debate over the Health Security Act. Over the last five decades the relationship has been a complex one, yet there are clear indications that health car...(Read More)
For Better or Worse? (March 2004)
How Political Consultants are Changing Elections in the United States
David A. Dulio - Author
Investigates the effects of political consultants on American democracy.
For Better or Worse? offers a fresh look at how professional campaign consultants have both positive and negative effects on democracy in the United States. Questioning much of the prevailing conventional wisdom, David A. Dulio employs a unique set of data that empirically examines consultants' own attitudes and beliefs to evaluate where they st...(Read More)
Polls and Politics (March 2004)
The Dilemmas of Democracy
Michael A. Genovese - Editor
Matthew J. Streb - Editor
A provocative examination of the use and abuse of public opinion polls.
This hard-hitting and engaging examination of polls and American politics asks an essential question: do polls contribute to the vitality of our democracy or are they undermining the health of our political system? Leading scholars address several key issues such as how various types of polls affect democracy, the meaning attributed to polling dat...(Read More)
Ross for Boss (February 2001)
The Perot Phenomenon and Beyond
Ted G. Jelen - Editor
Presents an empirical study of Perot's 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns and the implications for third-party politics in the United States.
Ross for Boss provides insights into the sources, continuity, and enduring importance of Ross Perot's presidential candidacies in 1992 and 1996 as a member of the Reform Party, and evaluates the impact of the Perot phenomenon on the future of both public policy and ...(Read More)
The Sometime Connection (September 1999)
Public Opinion and Social Policy
Elaine B. Sharp - Author
CHOICE 2000 Outstanding Academic Book
Explores the role that public opinion plays in the development of social policy in the United States.
The Sometime Connection introduces a variety of theoretical perspectives on the connection between public opinion and policy and applies them to six social policy topics: abortion, affirmative action, welfare, Social Security, corrections, and pornography. The book provides comple...(Read More)
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Frank Devereaux
(Redirected from Frank)
Name Frank Devereaux
Actor Kevin R. McNally
Dates ???? - 2012 (eaten by a Leviathan)
Occupation Hunter
Episode(s) 7.06 Slash Fiction
7.11 Adventures in Babysitting
7.14 Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie (by phone)
7.15 Repo Man (by phone)
7.16 Out with the Old
7.20 The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo (voice only)
You think it's this easy to see inside what's real, and also be bi-polar with delusional ideation? There's no pill for my situation sweetie-pop, so yeah the big mouths are onto me. Next question!
– Frank Devereaux, 7.11 Adventures in Babysitting
2.1 7.06 Slash Fiction
2.2 7.11 Adventures in Babysitting
2.3 7.14 Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie
2.4 7.15 Repo Man
2.5 7.16 Out with the Old
2.6 7.20 The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo
Frank is an expert in counterfeit documents and in avoiding government scrutiny. When he was 26, his wife and two children were killed. He knew Bobby Singer, who once saved his life in Port Huron. Frank lives in a run-down, electronics-filled house on a little-traveled street. He describes himself as "bi-polar with delusional ideation."
7.06 Slash Fiction
Bobby sends Sam and Dean to see Frank when two Leviathans are masquerading as the brothers.
Sam and Dean enter Frank's house and he is waiting in the dark with a shotgun. He is prepared to shoot them, but because he owes Bobby he agrees to help them. Frank believes that Leviathan!Sam and Leviathan!Dean are clones created by the government.
Frank advises that the boys go into hiding, maybe even move to Cuba, but Dean says they need to go "further off the grid, but keep us on the board" so they can hunt down the Leviathans. Frank tells them that they need to keep a lower profile, avoid security cameras, and to get rid of their rock star aliases, which are too easy to track. He smashes Sam's laptop, gives him a new one, and demands $5,000 for it. He then takes their pictures for new IDs as Tom and John Smith and gives them a map of the towns their Leviathan doppelgängers have hit so far.
Finally, Frank tells the brothers to leave the Impala behind, as their doppelgangers are driving one, too.
Frank: I marked all the towns your stunt doubles hit so you can see the pattern.
Sam: Okay, great. What’s the pattern?
Frank: No clue man, I can’t see it.
Sam: Seems random.
Frank: Little tip from a pro. There is no such thing as a random series of robbery murders by your evil twins.
Dean has given Frank the numbers 48495, which Bobby wrote on Sam's hand before he died, and also asked him to research Dick Roman. Having not heard from him for a month, Dean returns to Frank's house to find it deserted. Frank confronts him, and they both have to shed some blood to prove to the other they are not a Leviathan.
Frank has moved all his equipment into an RV, feeling he was being watched after he started investigating Dick Roman. He tells Dean he has found nothing on Bobby's numbers, but then he tried combinations with adding a sixth number and realized they are coordinates to a field in Wisconsin, owned by Dick Roman.
Frank and Dean travel to the area and disguise themselves as phone company workers. They discover surveillance covering the area and retreat to Frank's RV to monitor it. They discover Amanda Willer, an employee of Dick Roman, surveying the site for construction. Frank challenges Dean about how he is running himself into the ground.
Dean: I'm not going to quit. It's not even an option. I am not going to walk out on my brother.
Frank: Okay then, fine. Do what I did.
Dean: What - go native? Stock up on C-rations?
Frank: No, cupcake. What I did when I was 26 and came home to find my wife and two kids gutted on the floor. Decide to be fine till the end of the week. Make yourself smile because you're alive and that's your job. And do it again the next week.
Dean: So fake it?
Frank: I call it being professional. Do it right, with a smile, or don't do it.
7.14 Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie
Frank calls Dean, who has to answer a payphone and use a code word to satisfy Frank. Frank tells him that there is nothing new on Dick Roman but that Fred Savage is a Leviathan.
7.15 Repo Man
Frank reports to an annoyed Dean that the Leviathans have infiltrated the cruise ship industry.
Frank's RV after his confrontation with a Leviathan.
Frank talks with Dean by phone from his camper, updating Dean on Leviathan activity worldwide. He has no record of their activity in Portland, Oregon, where Sam and Dean are currently working, but Leviathans are there all the same. Frank discovers this when Dean asks him to investigate the company behind an odd realtor; the company links back to Dick Roman.
Sam and Dean set out to meet Frank at the end of the episode, but instead find his RV filled with smashed electronics and both Leviathan and human blood.
7.20 The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo
The Winchesters receive an e-mail from Frank alerting them that someone is attempting to hack into his hard drive, which has been stolen by Dick, and access information about them (new aliases, etc...). Charlie Bradbury, the IT employee assigned by Dick to crack the hard drive, eventually gets in and reads all of Frank's intel on the Leviathans even though she is warned not to read it. After seeing her boss Pete killed and replaced by a Leviathan, Charlie believes the truth of what she read in the files, and teams up with Sam and Dean to erase the drive and hack Dick Roman's emails to learn his plans. Charlie succeeds in wiping the Winchesters off of Frank's hard drive before Dick arrives to see what progress she's made with it.
Retrieved from "http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/index.php?title=Frank_Devereaux&oldid=159944"
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Stardust formed close to sun
Press Release From: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Posted: Friday, January 4, 2008
LIVERMORE, Calif. -- Samples of the material picked up during the NASA Stardust mission indicate that parts of the comet Wild 2 actually formed in an area close to the sun.
Image: Particle in aerogel - Following entry into the aerogel at ~6 km/s (top) the particle was subject to intense frictional heating and fragmented, creating a prominent bulbous cavity (middle) walled with melted aerogel silica and small grain fragments. Samples analyzed in this study were taken from the cavity wall; the triangular quarry left by the sampling tool is visible at the upper left. Two larger pieces (diameters of ~10 and 15 mm) of the original particle survived to penetrate more deeply, along trajectories marked by the narrow individual tracks (bottom). Track length is ~10 mm from entry to deepest track terminus.
New research by an international collaboration including Livermore researcher Saa Bajt analyzed noble gases within Stardust samples.The helium and neon isotope analysis suggests that some of the Stardust grains match a special type of carbonaceous material found in meterorites; hence both must have spent time in the same gas reservoir, which was close to the sun.
About 10 percent of the mass of Wild 2 is estimated to be from particles transported out from hot inner zones to the cold zone where Wild 2 formed. The paper concludes that this is how these grains with unusual isotope ratios go incorporated into a comet.
Earlier research showed that the comet formed in the Kuiper Belt, outside the orbit of Neptune, and only recently entered the inner regions of the solar system.
Wild 2 spent most of its life orbiting in the Kuiper Belt, far beyond Neptune, and in 1974 had a close encounter with Jupiter that placed it into its current orbit. The Stardust spacecrafts seven-year mission returned to earth in January 2006 with particles that are the same material that accreted along with ice to shape the comet about 4.57 billion years ago, when the sun and planets formed.
But during its lifetime, Wild 2 gathered material that formed much closer to the sun.
And the new research, which appears in the Jan. 4 issue of the journal Science, shows that some of the particles in Stardust are consistent with the early solar nebula.
The unusual isotope ratio of helium and neon demonstrate that materials in comet Wild 2 had been much closer to the young sun than previously expected, Bajt said.
Bajt, who studied tracks in aerogel caused by cometary particles rich in noble gases, used infrared spectroscopy, which is very sensitive in detecting organic molecules. She found none, at least not in the pieces of aerogel she examined. The group concluded that the carriers of the noble gases must be the refractory metal-metal sulfide-metal carbide grains, unlike what many expected would be a meteoritic Q-phase, which is known to be organic.
Thats the first-order finding of the paper, and its a rather startling one, said lead author Robert Pepin from the University of Minnesota.
The second conclusion is that the ion irradiation is the only known mechanism that could load the grains (by ion implantation) to the very high concentrations based on mass density estimates from X-ray absorption spectroscopy by Andrew Westphal and his team at the (Space Science Laboratory, UC Berkeley.
Noble gases are excellent tracers of contributions from various solar system volatile reservoirs and of physical processing of gases acquired from these reservoirs. Their elemental and isotopic compositions in primitive meteorites differ from those in the Sun. Planetary atmospheres display noble gas signatures distinct from both solar and meteoritic patterns.
X-ray absorption spectroscopy in the current study showed that the grains are composed primarily of high-temperature metal.
The X-ray and isotopic analyses point to gas acquisition in a hot, high-ion flux nebular environment close to the young sun.
Stardust is a part of NASAs series of Discovery missions and is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Stardust launched in February 1999 and set off on three giant loops around the sun. It began collecting interstellar dust in 2000 and met Wild 2 in January 2004, when the spacecraft was slammed by millions of comet particles, nearly halting the mission. It is the first spacecraft to safely make it back to Earth with cometary dust particles in tow.
Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a national security laboratory, with a mission to ensure national security and apply science and technology to the important issues of our time. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energys National Nuclear Security Administration.
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See all the reviews for the Shaftesbury Arts Centre production of Spamalot here
Book and Lyrics by ERIC IDLE. Music by John Du Prez & Eric Idle
society/company: Shaftesbury Arts Centre (directory)
venue: Shaftesbury
reviewer/s: Cormac Richards (Sardines review)
Since it’s release to amateur theatre companies, Spamalot has been seen all over the UK and is fast becoming a staple of the am-dram repertoire. It provides great scope for fun for performers, designers and audience alike. It has an iconic song and is likely to be good box office. But beware, the show is not as easy to pull off as it might first appear; it needs considerable pace, it must never be subtle and it needs everyone to throw themselves into it.
The Music and Drama Group at the Shaftesbury Arts Centre have largely been successful, though some reservations remain.
The theatre is blessed with very comfortable seats and an auditorium which is long and narrow – the small stage requires directors to use their cast carefully to avoid it getting too cluttered. The 8-piece band for this production, under the direction of Tim Trenchard, sits to one side in front of the stage.
The static set more than fulfils all the needs for the show with ramparts and towers and steps to different levels. In fact, all the scenic work – including a wonderful pair of God’s feet – is of very good quality. The many costumes required for the show are also well put together – the hard work of Sandra Trim and her team pays off.
The director needs to ensure the air of lunacy pervades the whole show so it can be transmitted to the audience. This is not an easy style to achieve and while some of the performers struggle a little, there are some who appear to be entirely at home in the genre.
Jerome Swan takes on a number of roles – and accents – and is entirely suited to this kind of caper – his French Taunter is exquisitely idiotic. Phil Elsworth is impressive in body, beard and voice as King Arthur, but I would love to see a little more by-play between him and Patsy – Bryan Farrell has a splendidly mobile face, and a great backpack, though maybe not as tuneful as required.
Peter Morris is ideally suited to this show, tall and wide-eyed – his Sir Bedevere and Black Knight are pitch-perfect. Charles Dillon looks like he is about to commit mass murder as Lancelot which provides a wonderful counterpoint to his later revelations, though I think a lot of comedy is lost by having a female Herbert – no fault of the actress, but it doesn’t work.
Anne-Louise Richards may not have a belter of a voice, but she is more than capable of putting over the big numbers as Lady of the Lake. There is also good work from Chris Bailward, channelling Terry Jones as Mrs Galahad among several roles.
I mentioned the band earlier, who were fine in general, but too often they overwhelmed the actors voices. The book and lyrics for the show are packed with funny lines and if you cannot hear them you are losing so much comedy – the opening speech from the Historian and the wonderful ‘Brave Sir Robin’ are major victims of this which, I hope, can be adjusted during the run.
The lighting needs to be brash and is, but it is also very patchy and actors are often in half light and shadows; cues need to be a bit quicker too.
One of my big bugbears is seeing stage crew in full view – it is often necessary, but the impact can be lessened by popping them in an appropriate costume. There wasn’t much need for them here as the cast could probably have carried out such furniture and prop moves as were necessary – they got rather tangled with the cast at one point. The set piece of the Black Knight was really successful until we could see his legs being sorted out by a stagehand – a pity.
I just got the impression of some first-night nerves – throw yourself headlong into the show, let go. Camp it up, be ludicrous – the performers who do, will come out on top!
In general though, this is a well performed show with funny moments and a well drilled cast and chorus – the dancers particularly so – a tap dance number to boot. Credit to Director Steve Pocock and Choreographers Barbara Arnold and Sophie Lester. Pace is a little lacking, but will, I am sure, pick up during the course of the run – the show will thrive as a result.
An admirable production which was well received by an enthusiastic first night audience.
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