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Our bags were searched at each airport and notes put inside to tell us!!
October 2016 – Back on board
After a rather long journey back to Guatemala we are now home on board Ocean Rainbow. We flew from Heathrow to Toronto and then on to Houston where we had to wait 9 hours for our connection to Guatemala City. Once in Guatemala City we caught a taxi for Q70 to the Litegua bus station. (We work on Q10 = £1) From there we caught a mini bus to the outskirts of the city where we were transferred to a waiting air conditioned coach. Unlike UK coaches, the seats are numbered so, having settled ourselves nicely in some comfy seats we found that we had to move!! The trip to Fronteras cost Q80 each which represents great value for a 7 hour bus ride! It shouldn’t have taken so long but there are roadworks at a major bridge which slowed the trip by at least an hour. We did stop as well for a ‘comfort’ break and some food. We didn’t need to indulge as we had purchased food at the main bus station but next time we shall see what is on offer … we did have an ice cream though!
Leaving the bus station
Adjusting wing mirror after it was hit by another bus!
Colour amidst the dust and dirt
Claudio (s/y Makani) met us in Fronteras with a taxi for the short trip to Nana Juana. It was a mammoth effort to get our bags on board the boat so we were very glad of Claudio’s extra muscle. Once we had sorted ourselves out enough to be able to sleep (Claire had left the fresh bedding within easy access when we left the boat) we went over to Makani for a glass of wine and catch up. It’s lovely to be back.
After a great night’s sleep we woke to the task of sorting out the boat. Everything packed away had to be unpacked, checked and restowed. All the new things had to be found homes and as we were doing this so we found that some little creatures had also found themselves new homes onboard! Ants had invaded the boat – a really common problem (so we found out) when a boat is on the hard but one we hadn’t experienced before. We’d had sugar ants in Curacao but nothing like the army that we found in the gas locker. We shall fumigate the boat once we are back on the water but at the moment we are just spraying them and leaving ‘ant houses’ strategically positioned. (Houses is perhaps not quite fair … they’re traps!). Whilst sorting out under the doghouse we found some cylindrical mud nests that had once housed what the Guatemalans call ‘fairies’. These creatures look ferocious as they are black and yellow like wasps and fly along trailing what look like two long jointed legs. We thought their legs must have a sting of some sort but apparently not. We still don’t like them though. Anyway, we also had visitations from a fair few fairies and have had to clear up the mud nests left behind. The most bizarre place for a nest was in the fan in the galley!
The fairy culprit
The fairy nests
One seriously silly home!
Victor Volvo has been put back together with a little help from the experts! Actually a lot of help from the experts – 3 of them! We would never have got everything back together in two days let alone the two hours it took them … thank goodness they were free to help when we needed them. Our thanks to Horacio and his team. We have sourced a welder and solar panels so now we need to alter our gantry to take the extra panels (we’re hoping we can fit two rather than just one with a greater capacity than the present panel) and we need to design the bracket to take our tiller pilot. It all takes time.
We have been social though. Claire went off to play Mexican Train Dominoes on Sunday which was fun (James continued to tidy up his chart table!). We went to Mar Marine for supper on Tuesday night as there is a French cook who serves a delicious two course meal which costs Q 50 and includes a small rum punch. Great fun as we caught up with friends from the Suzie Too OCC Rally: Rob and Rhian from Beyzano, Di and Jeff from Horizons, Jon from Oystergo as well as Claudio.
Oh, and have we mentioned exercise? Possibly not! Four months off the boat has taken its toll on our bodies. We are not as fit as we were. James is faring much better than Claire who has resorted to yoga to get her recalcitrant muscles into shape! Some of the poses are just not human and it’s debatable if the ‘pain is worth the gain’! Still, until Pilates is back on offer it’s yoga or ‘do it yourself’ and that – as far as Claire’s flip flop will is concerned – is not an option. James continues with his daily exercise routine – nothing flip flop about him!!
Even in paradise the rain clouds gather
Productivity levels are increasing. James has now fully serviced our super-duper Brunton propellor. A minor catastrophe when the grease gun lid separated from the barrel spewing grungy grease everywhere. How the manufacturers ever managed to get so much grease into such a small barrel will continue to amaze us – the mess was horrible!! He has also replaced all the anti-freeze coolant in Victor Volvo. Good job done and no mishaps! Claire has been busy with the sewing machine – well Claudio’s sewing machine to be exact – and refurbished the dinghy chaps. We thought Alex – who made the chaps for us in Bequia – had said he would be using UV resistant thread to sew the panels together. Apparently not, as all the seams were starting to disintegrate so after 5 hours hunched over a hot sewing machine Claire now feels the chaps are back to good health – can’t say as good as new because the patches would definitely not pass professional inspection! The staysail boom end caps have been replaced. Our beautifully refurbished sails have been returned from Tom’s sail loft, although our Yankee has had to go back as the sacrificial strip is the wrong colour! Tom was very philosophical and will remove the ‘Sunsail lookalike colour’, replace it with marine navy and have it back with us in a day. The bottom of OR is being given some professional help. Arnie and his team work slowly but surely and do an excellent job so we thought we would treat ourselves and have the sanding and preparation work done by them. We might even splash out and ask them to do the actual anti-fouling!
Rust just appears!
Hard at work with the wire brush
Nice and shiny!
15th – 25th October
The routine of life on the hard continued with yoga, trips to Fronteras to source things for the boat – torches, solar panels, wire brushes, oil etc., food shopping, plus there was the bi-weekly Swap Market and the weekly BBQ and dominoes. All shopping takes time but we are improving our Spanish vocabulary. On Sunday, Martin Maillé came to measure up OR for the new solar panel and bracket for the tiller pilot. He and his wife are setting up a welding business in Fronteras, so we look forward to seeing the results of their labours. The solar panel is on order (only one, as two would just not fit so that we were comfortable with the design), a new charge controller is on its way from Germany and Claudio is in the middle of an invention to protect our 12v socket while we use the tiller pilot. With nothing left for us to do except wait for goods to arrive, we packed our bags, caught a bus and headed inland.
Our first port of call was Flores which is an island in Guatemala’s second largest inland lake – Lake Peten Itza. We’d taken a local bus from Fronteras on Monday morning to Santa Elena. It was well and truly stuffed full with people standing in the aisles, so we were very grateful we’d reserved our tickets. It made them twice as expensive but worth it even though our seats were set at strange angles! We were turfed out of the bus somewhere near the Belizean border so that the bus could be checked for illicit fruit – luckily our precious apples weren’t found!! – and then we all continued on our way. We hadn’t realised about the fruit embargo and we’re still not sure why we couldn’t have them in a bus that was only driving in Guatemala. On our return trip we weren’t stopped but that was probably due to the fact that we were in a First Class bus!
Cobbles and hills
Our Posada
Dusk over Lake Peten
The locals use two types of transport to get around the country: ‘urbanos’ or ‘chicken’ buses which are scary beyond belief but very fast, or coaches which come in two classes – economic or first class. Tourists (not only foreigners but also holidaying Guatemalans) can book a shuttle bus (12 seaters with up to 15 people!). These are generally air conditioned and roadworthy and take you ‘door to door’. They too can be pretty full but sometimes you are lucky – as we were when we travelled from Antigua to Panajachel – just the two of us. In towns there are always TukTuks and taxis. Taxis for the occasions when you have lots of luggage or it’s late (TukTuks don’t run in Fronteras after 8pm).
Roof top restaurant
This is why we went there
Beautiful evening
The lakeside
Our street
There are also a variety of places to stay the night – Hostels, Posadas and Hotels. We thought we had it all worked out: hostels for backpackers with only very basic facilities; posadas for budget travelers with no need for a ‘hotel’ restaurant, and hotels for those who like a bit of comfort, a mini bar and an in-house restaurant. It appears we are somewhat mistaken! Our worst accommodation was in a hotel while our best was in a posada! While in Flores we stayed in Hotel Mirador Del Lago which was quirky, clean and adequate; in Antigua we stayed in two places Posada Casa Maria Jose and Posada de San Carlos. The former was very nice, we had a lovely breakfast and the staff were super but it is the latter that we would recommend. Nice rooms, mini bar (not that we needed it!) and a restaurant with good prices. The only negative was the amount of nylon(?!?) in the sheets that caused a veritable light show at 3am when Claire felt a tad cool and tried to wrap a blanket around herself! In Panajachel we stayed in the Hotel Victoria where the only good thing to say about the place was that breakfast was included in the price … if you call 3 pieces of toast, margarine, jam and a cup of coffee – breakfast! All the beds, though, were comfy and having walked our feet off each day, we slept like logs.
So, to our sightseeing. The reason for staying in Flores was to see Tikal, an ancient Mayan city in the northern rainforests of Guatemala. It is only partially excavated showing Temple I (Temple of the Giant Jaguar), Temple II (Temple of the Masks), Temple III (Temple of the Jaguar Priest) and Temple IV which is the highest pre-Columbian structure in Central America. We had an excellent guide in Donald Gonzalez and learnt so much about the Mayan calendar, the reasons behind the positioning of buildings, the way the seasons were worked out, the culture and traditions and on top of that he was a walking encyclopedia on all flora and fauna. A fascinating trip which will be an enduring memory for us.
Great Plaza & Temple I
Mask at Temple II
View to Temple III
View from Temple IV
Ball Court
Mayan style thatch
Art Museum at Santa Domingo
From Flores we took a very long bus trip to Antigua but it was worth it. Antigua is an astonishing city and, once upon a time, the magnificent capital of Guatemala. However, much was destroyed in the earthquakes of 1731 and so many of the buildings are still in ruins; subsequent funding has become available to restore only the most significant ones. The Church and Convent of the Society of Jesus, destroyed in 1717 by another earthquake has been restored and is now used as a library, meeting and conference centre. The Santa Catalina Arch, built in the 17th Century to connect the convent to a school, still stands today and is the site for a colourful itinerant street market. The Catholic Cathedral was largely destroyed in 1773 but restoration is taking place. The Santa Domingo Church and Monastery is preserved within the grounds of an extremely smart (5*) hotel. For Q48 we had a snapshot of life and artefacts in the early 18th Century. Old church silver, icons, art, weaving , candle factory, pharmacy, chocolate factory and a superb display of ancient urns and masks juxtaposed with modern glass (Kosta Bodo, Lalique, Daum). The museums are all located within the ruins of the church and monastery. We saw an awful lot of old bones too in various crypts! We also went to see the old public laundry facilities – Tanque l’Union- and sat in the Parque Central and admired the old colonial buildings and St James’ Cathedral. We walked miles.
Jesuit Cloisters
San Francisco El Grande Cathedal
St James’ (Santiago) Cathedral
Santa Catalina Arch in background
Tanque L’Union
Our second day we trekked up Pacaya Volcano. A great trip with a lovely bunch of people. We cooked marshmallows in the hot lava rocks and took photos of the crater from a safe distance. This volcano last erupted two years ago so we weren’t allowed any closer. Once back in Antigua we continued with our sightseeing, visiting the market – huge! – more ruins, more cobbled streets that rattle the life out of the cars and tuk tuks, and a Jade museum. There are two types of jade in the world, nephrite and jadite. Guatemala’s jade is jadite, a silicate of sodium, aluminium, iron and other traces. It can be found in up to 25 different colours and the latest colour, discovered in 2005 is Lavender Jade and its offshoot Rainbow (as in Ocean Rainbow!) Lavender Jade. Now you know why Claire has a new necklace!
Volcanos Aqua, Acentenango & Fuego
Pacaya’s lava field
Playing with ‘fire’!
We ate local food at all times, enjoying a wonderful choice of tasty grills, soups, stews, tacos, empenadas (sandwiches) and sausages. It was all so cheap and absolutely delicious. We really didn’t have enough time to do the city justice but it’s a big country with lots to see.
Waiting for burritos
Pepian & Jocon
From Antigua we moved on to Lake Atitlan. This involved another bus ride but this time we were the sole passsengers so we travelled in luxury all the way to our ‘not so wonderful’ hotel! Panajachel grew on us. Our first reaction was that it was nothing but a backpackers/touristy paradise but by our second day based there we had become used to everything and found the locals helpful and smiley. After Antigua there wasn’t much history though! We did, however, witness a wedding which was so colourful with everyone in traditional dress. In fact, it is rare to see a local woman wearing western clothes rather than the other way around. We took a boat trip around Lake Atitlan, renowned as one of the most beautiful lakes in the world and also the deepest in Central America, visiting three of the towns: San Marcos, home to all things hippie, mystic and yoga; San Pedro, home to innumerable Spanish schools; Santiago, where the church of St James the Apostle was stunningly decorated in a blend of Christian and Mayan traditions. After a wander around the streets of all three towns we felt we had a flavor for life in the Guatemalan Highlands of the Sierre Madre.
Dressed statues in Santiago
Market at San Pedro
Lancha dock in Pana
We cut our visit to Panajachel short and returned to Antigua for another night to ensure we could get back to Rio Dulce in one day! This time we were able to visit the Monastery and Church of Santa Clara. It is an extremely large series of buildings that are gradually being restored after destruction in 1717. We also returned to the market and bought James a pair of ‘typico’ trousers …. You have been warned!! Spending the extra night in Antigua was the best possible way to end our ‘backpacking’ travels. We had an exceptionally enjoyable time. Out of 9 days away, we spent 36 hours on a bus but we reckon it was worth every second.
Cloisters of Santa Clara
Inside Santa Clara
Chapel at Santa Clara
We are now back on board Ocean Rainbow and ready to start work again.
26thOctober – 1st November
Well, we have certainly knuckled down to some boat jobs after our travels. James has finished cleaning and oiling the anchor and chain; done an engine and sail-drive oil change; mounted the propellor once again; replaced the waterproof covering sheet over the coach roof (it had disintegrated and we still need it while we’re on the hard) and replaced our salt water whale pump. Doesn’t sound much but it’s kept him busy for the last week. Claire has done a massive ‘cook in’ and is girding her loins for another session. We have collected the solar panel and works begins on Wednesday 2nd. We have also been off sight-seeing again.
Working on the engine
Claire’s labours
The just reward!
We joined a group of sailing folk for an organised trip with guide to see the Kite Festival of Santiago Sacatepequez and Sumpango. This involved a bus trip from Fronteras to Antigua for an overnight stay in Hostel Antigua and the following morning an early start for Sumpango to visit the cemetery before walking up the hill to see the kites. We had to leave after just after midday for the return trip so a really short visit with a very long bus journey (total 14 hours), but we reckon it was worth it.
Santa Cristobal
War Memorial behind the wire!
Relief Map from a distance
On route to Antigua we stopped at Santa Cristobal Acasaguastlan to see the church which was built in the 16th Century, destroyed by earthquake in the 1976 earthquake and is now being restored. It’s a landmark building in the area but sadly the doors were locked so no opportunity to see inside. We then continued to Guatemala City where we stopped to have a look at the Mapa en Relieve de Guatemala which is a relief map of Guatemala and Belize designed by a military engineer and officially opened in 1905. Constructed from cement in days long before GPS the map is remarkably accurate and would have helped Claire’s mental picture of Guatemala! However, once again, the whole area was locked up and we could do no more than poke our cameras through the railings!! So far our guide was not earning himself too many brownie points!! We arrived in Antigua at 2pm and made our way to our hotel – this time Antigua Hostel, which was very nice and we even had a bedside light and coat hangers (although no bath mat or hand towel!).
We decided to skip the official tour of the city as we had already covered the sites the guide was visiting on his tour. Instead we went to find some street food near the Iglesias de la Merced and then went off to see the city’s cemetery. This was not as macabre as the idea might suggest. The cemetery is very beautiful and, on the eve of the Day of the Dead, it was filled with people visiting their family graves, cleaning and sprucing things up and filling the vases with flowers. We went into the Church of St Lazarus to find it swathed in black drapes which will stay for the month of November (at least that’s what we think the cleaner said!). A bit of a change to the colourful drapes we have become used to. Then, after a wander along the tree lined avenues, we left and headed off to the Artisan Market looking for cushion covers. It was fun visiting and chatting to the store holders but we didn’t find ones we both liked. The colours are so vibrant one needs to be a bit choosy if the cushions are going to look good back in England!
Our evening turned into a bit of a party – well it was Halloween after all. First we had supper with Robert and Carla (Moody Mistress) in La Sopa. Another delicious meal which we all enjoyed. Then it was off to the park along streets crammed with families and adults mostly in fancy dress. The park was really vibrant with people everywhere just enjoying themselves. We then went off to the London Pub for a nightcap and were surprised when Rob and Rhian (Beyzano) and Jeff and Di (Horizons) walked in and joined us. We stayed rather longer than intended as it transpired that Martin, who ran the Pub, came from Plymouth (Di’s home town) and on the strength of that he treated (not sure that’s quite the right word on this occasion) us to a round of tequila!!! Ah, well, it was only the one!!
Fun in the park
Loved this family
Water melon brains!
On Tuesday morning, bright and early we checked out of our room, walked to the park and met up with our group. The bus driver was late but it didn’t really matter as we arrived at the cemetery in Sampungo in good time to wander around and get a feel for the occasion. The Day of the Dead is equivalent to our All Saints Day but with the emphasis very much on celebrating life. Families gather around their family graves and tombs chatting, clearing and cleaning their plot. The graves are dug over and then smoothed and covered in lime. In some cases the freshly smoothed earth is covered in pine leaves and flower petals. Vases are filled with cut flowers, fixtures and fittings are cleaned and painted. If the family wish – and can afford it – wandering musicians play and sing at the sit of the grave to honour those who have died. Then it’s time for the party! The families bring their own food and drink or purchase it from the street vendors outside the cemetery – or ice cream and candy floss from the vendors inside the cemetery!! It really was an amazingly colourful and uplifting experience, we’re wondering if the idea could catch on in UK?
We then moved on up the hill to the football field where all the kites were being built. What a Herculean task to fabricate the giant kites out of coloured tissue paper stuck together with glue (made from yucca juices and lime in the old days – looked like the stuff you buy at the Early Learning Centre to us!) then mount the design on to a framework of bamboo poles tied together with string (or, in the case of the huge ones – wire!). The huge ones don’t fly but the medium sized ones did. It took a real effort to get them up in the air, especially with the crowds pushing in from all sides to get a good view. The marshalls did a great job of keeping a ‘flight alley’ clear for each team as they launched their creation.
Glueing
Finally erected
So much work involved
Mother’s Union Kite
We tasted the local food, sat amongst the crowds, wandered between the kites and generally had a wonderful time surrounded by hordes of Guatemalan folk. Although sad to have to leave before the evening Kite launch we were so glad to have visited the festival and, as we watched the crowds pour in from every direction, we wondered if we hadn’t actually had the best of the day by coming early and being able to move around and see everything clearly.
Our return trip to Ocean Rainbow went quite swiftly thanks to our kamikaze driver (once we had found him, that is!) and we were back on board OR by 8pm to reflect on yet another amazing memory of our time in Guatemala.
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Find Officials
Government Relations Home
Federal - HR 719
A bill to require certain semiautomatic pistols manufactured, imported, or sold by Federal firearms licensees to be capable of microstamping ammunition, and to prohibit the removal, obliteration, or alteration of the microstamped code or microstamping capability of a firearm.
Oppose
Rep. Anthony Brown (D-MD)
Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC)
Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC)
Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN)
Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI)
Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-CA)
Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-MO)
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO)
Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-VA)
Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL)
Rep. Dwight Evans (D-PA)
Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH)
Rep. Al Green (D-TX)
Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL)
Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-CT)
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX)
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX)
Rep. Robin Kelly (D-IL)
Rep. Alfred Lawson (D-FL)
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)
Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI)
Rep. Lucy McBath (D-GA)
Rep. A.Donald McEachin (D-VA)
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY)
Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI)
Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO)
Del. Eleanor Norton (D-DC)
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN)
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA)
Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA)
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)
Rep. David Scott (D-GA)
Rep. Thomas Suozzi (D-NY)
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS)
Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL)
Rep. Marc Veasey (D-TX)
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ)
Ocasio-Cortez, (D-N.Y.)
Jan. 24, 2019 — Additional cosponsor(s): 1
Cicilline, (D-R.I.)
Jan. 23, 2019 — A. Brown, D-Md., Submits a constitutional authority statement on the legislation. Congressional Record p. H1172
Jan. 23, 2019 — Original cosponsor(s): 36
Adams, (D-N.C.) Hastings, (D-Fla.) Neguse, (D-Colo.)
Butterfield, (D-N.C.) Hayes, (D-Conn.) Norton, (D-D.C.)
Carson, (D-Ind.) Jackson Lee, (D-Texas) Omar, (D-Minn.)
Cisneros, (D-Calif.) Johnson, E.B. (D-Texas) Pressley, (D-Mass.)
Clarke, Y. (D-N.Y.) Kelly, R. (D-Ill.) Richmond, (D-La.)
Clay, (D-Mo.) Lawson, (D-Fla.) Schakowsky, (D-Ill.)
Cleaver (D-Mo.) Lee, B. (D-Calif.) Scott, D. (D-Ga.)
Connolly, (D-Va.) Levin, (D-Mich.) Suozzi, (D-N.Y.)
Davis, D. (D-Ill.) McBath, (D-Ga.) Thompson, B. (D-Miss.)
Evans, (D-Pa.) McEachin, (D-Va.) Underwood, (D-Ill.)
Fudge, (D-Ohio) Meeks, (D-N.Y.) Veasey, (D-Texas)
Green, A. (D-Texas) Moore, (D-Wis.) Watson Coleman, (D-N.J.)
Jan. 23, 2019 — Read twice and referred to: House Judiciary.Congressional Record p. H1170
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Croydon Harriers - Surrey Combined Events Champs, 9-10th Sep 17, Results and Report
News - 2017 Track and Field Comps
Surrey Combined Events Champs, 9-10th Sep 17, Results and Report
Coach James Eccles, lead coach at the Croydon Athletics Academy successfully defending his club decathlon trophy after racking up nearly 4,000…
Lily B League Final, 2nd Sep 17, Results and Report
Croydon's girl's team finished 2nd overall at the Lily B Girls League Final Well done to all involved! And with…
England U17/U15 Champs 2017, Results, Bedford, 26-27th Aug 17
Several Croydon Harriers took part in the England U17/15 Championships at Bedford. Highlights below: Toni Bryan, 6th U15W 100m, 12.52s…
Super 8 M3, Wimbledon, 3rd September 2017, Results
Rosenheim League Final, 16th August 2017, Results and Report
Croydon's men's team finished a respectable fourth out of 8 at the Rosenheim League finale. Pat Lucas won the 800m…
Southern Athletics League M5, 19th August 2017, Results and Report
Croydon's men's and women's team enjoyed a solid finish to their Southern Athletics League campaign, finishing 2nd in their final…
Oxlade and Rowley-Jones In Euro Masters action!
Colin Oxlade and Mandy Rowley-Jones were both in action in Denmark at the European Masters Championships. Rowley-Jones competed in the…
Super 8 M2, 20th August 2017, Sutton Arena, Results
Well done to the many of you who competed at the Super 8 on Sunday. With thanks to Pearl for…
SEAA U17 U15 Champs, Crystal Palace, 19th-20th August 2017, Results
Marcia Sey, GOLD in the U17W 100m, 12.07s Kayla Bowley, SILVER in the U17W 200m, 25.03s Dylan DaCosta, SILVER in…
Super 8 M1, 30th July 2017, Coulsdon, Results
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Home> Review> Kyrgyzstan – the Forgotten Football Federation
Kyrgyzstan – the Forgotten Football Federation
Posted by Edward Lemon — written by David McArdle
This is a re-post. The original article was published on 20 October 2013 on the Futbolgrad website.
On Tuesday 15th October 2013, whilst Bosnia and Herzegovina finally unified a nation by qualifying for the World Cup, as Mexicans uncharacteristically saluted American professionalism in Panama to prolong their hitherto painful World Cup campaign, and hours before England praised their latest five-minute-hero-destined-for-villainy Andros Townsend, the football world habitually turned its back on post-Soviet Central Asia. In this regard, football encapsulates a popular perception of the region as somewhat mirage-like; a mere spatial vacuum connecting previous empires; from Russia to the north, British India in the south and China as a rather bulky outside right. To be fair, last Tuesday’s friendly match between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan was not a Great Game.
Football’s Forgotten Federations
Ever since the inauguration of the Soviet Top League (Vyyshaya Liga) in 1936, the Soviet Union’s annual platform showcasing its finest sides across its constituent republic, the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic (KSSR) was only one of two republics never to have been represented, the other being the Turkmen SSR. FC Alga Bishkek (founded as FC Zenit Frunze) were considered, as such, the unofficial symbol of Kyrgyz football, and became the pride of the KSSR as they reached the subpeak of third place in the Soviet First League (second tier) in 1967. However, these halcyon days ended with relegation in 1979 and Alga were never to return.
Spartak stadium, Bishkek, 1962–1963. Credit: Futbolgrad.
Kyrgyzstan, a fledgling state — abandoned after the collapse of the USSR — inherited a bad hand in the post-Soviet resource distribution process. As such, previously shared resources became the sole currencies of independent states; Kyrgyzstan was left with livestock and water.
Neighbouring oil and gas rich Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, meanwhile, have confidently made relatively great leaps forward over the past few years on-the-field, while Kyrgyzstan still play their home matches on weekdays at 4pm, in order to avoid a floodlight charge. Kyrgyzstan’s footballing trajectory, like its territory, has been uneven with barriers as copious as their spontaneous checkpoints about which its few visitors oft regale like prison escapees. And, as half-time approached on Tuesday; 4-0 down with an on-field riot voraciously spreading into the stands prompting the multilingual public announcer to demand that fans calm down, it became clear that Kyrgyzstan, familiar with forced removal of political power, requires their own footballing revolution, or risks remaining one of football’s forgotten federations.
Kyrgyzstan’s aesthetically-rich resources (photo by Jason Neil, Köl-Ukök, 2013)
Tuesday’s match against their mountainous neighbours was billed as preparation for Kyrgyzstan’sAsian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup campaign, due to take place this March in the hardship post of the Maldives, a welcome retreat from Bishkek’s elongated winters. The AFC Challenge Cup, a shelter tournament of sorts for neglected football federations – the lowest caste labelled by the AFC as emerging associations – have Kyrgyzstan standing patiently in line on the bottom tier alongside Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Palestine, and Chinese Taipei, to name a few. Even more uncomfortable for Kyrgyzstan is the presence of fellow post-Soviet Central Asian states Turkmenistan and Tajikistan peering down from a category above, developing associations, whilst Uzbekistan soars high as an AFC-recognised developed association. Unsurprisingly, this footballing stratum is hierarchically consistent with the countries’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) taken from 2011. In the Challenge Cup’s inaugural tournament in densely-populated Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan achieved its finest football moment to date, with a third place finish in 2006 edging out fellow landlockees Nepal.
Kyrgyzstan 1 – Tajikistan 4
Few spectators at half-time in Bishkek’s uniformly Soviet Spartak Stadium would have considered Kyrgyzstan’s participation in the AFC Challenge Cup to have resulted from success in the same fixture seven months previous, in doing so denying their southern neighbours the trip to the Indian Ocean.
The familiar sight of first-half Tajik celebrations.
In this regard, the final 4-1 defeat was opportunistically framed in the locals press as revenge. However, the quality of Kyrgyzstan’s defending – and goalkeeper whose worsening allergy to leather in the first half induced his non-appearance in the second – made some question the nature of the contest from the start, whether from Kyrgyzstan’s lack of ability and/or effort. Such generosity to their Tajik guests came as Kyrgyzstan celebrated the second day of Eid al-Adha (“festival of the sacrifice”) with 86.3% of the population followers of the Sunni strand of Islam. The population of Tajikistan, meanwhile, is also predominantly Muslim with approximately 95% Sunni and 3% Shia. Festive hospitality characterized Kyrgyzstan’s first half performance as Valeriy Kichin, Kyrgyzstan’s highest-profile player currently on loan at FC Khimik Dzerzhinsk from FC Volga Nizhny Novgorod, attempted to beat his man whilst at sweeper with Tajikistan’s second goal the painfully avoidable outcome.
The religious holiday – and perhaps, the free entry policy – produced an acceptable crowd of 8000 with the Kyrgyz traditional hat, the kalpak, in abundance and adding nomadic Kyrgyz flavor to what was a bitter first half for the locals to palate. Racing into a four-goal lead, the crowd purported good humour – a trait often displayed by the long suffering – with gags starting in Kyrgyz and ending in the more expressive Russian, an odd mix which appears less so over a short while. Ahletdin Israilov’s goal for Kyrgyzstan at the start of the second half appeared to satisfy the crowd, who thereafter lapsed immediately into their seats, as the police, who occupied the front rows around the stadium, enjoyed the autumnal sun and another leisurely shift.
Spartak Stadium, Bishkek. Credit: Martin Camis, 2013.
After the game, Kyrgyzstan’s Moscow-born coach Sergei Dvoryankov complained of “schoolboy defending”, while making reference to the absence of Daniel Tagoe, the robust Ghanaian prince, who followed his compatriot David Tette, who became the first West African-born player to represent the small landlocked Central Asian state (for more information, read Futbolgrad’s David Tette and the Asian Challenge Cup). This was despite Tagoe having only played once for the Kyrgyz in the 3-0 win over Kuwait several days earlier, a game that did not count towards the FIFA ratings since he has yet to be naturalized. Nevertheless, Dvoryankov had already deemed his latest recruit irreplaceable. “With someone of his power and athleticism, I think it could have made a difference,” the head coach said almost convincingly.
Football’s Nationality Question
It is noteworthy the dominance of Russians in Kyrgyzstan’s starting eleven considering ethnic Kyrgyz represent approximately 70% of population; Russians a contracting ethnic group who make up only 9% of the population having represented 29.2% of the then Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic (KSSR) in 1970 and 21.5% in 1989.
At the pre-match press conference, which was also used to showcase the release of Kyrgyzstan’s latest football jerseys, Moscow-born Dvoryankov was articulate in feeding a few crumbs as from where Kyrgyzstan’s latest recruits are flying in; one, he confirmed, to the excitement of the five journalists in the room , is coming from Latvia. Football associations today, it seems, resemble a blend of HR recruitment agents and creative genealogical sleuths, their jobs to discover the best eligible players irrespective of how tenuous a link the player has with the country, if indeed any at all.
For Kyrgyzstan, its players unable to swap jerseys after a high-profile friendly with Moldova in Chisinau earlier this year, such severe financial restrictions cannot be underestimated in a small, fractured and poorly accessible country. In addition, with the notion of nationality in today’s game appearing less static and more opaque than a decade or so ago – and while poker-faced England attempt to lay claim to Brussels-born Adnan Januzaj of Kosovar-Albanian parentage – Kyrgyzstan, who are not alone in facing this particular quandary, risk the long-term development of their native players for the short-term goals of reaching the heights of mediocrity and emerging from football’s clutch of forgotten federations.
Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan 1-4
Posted in Review. Tagged Football, Kyrgyzstan.
Hidden Central Asia, Offshore Finance and Transnational Corruption
Camelflage — Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and James Fabiani Hide Expensive Washington Lobbying Secrets
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New Natomas shopping center awaits city approval – KCRA
SACRAMENTO, Calif (KCRA) —
Nearly a dozen new businesses may move into Natomas as part of the Natomas Fountains retail center.
Natomas Fountains could break ground by spring 2017.
Retail center would bring nearly a dozen new tenants.
Project goes before Sacramento Planning and Design Commission Thursday.
The proposed project goes before the Sacramento Planning and Design Commission Thursday for a recommendation before it can go to the Sacramento City Council for a vote.
Developer Ethan Conrad said the shopping center will not be an extension of the Fountains at Roseville, but the retail concept is somewhat similar.
The project is slated to go on 12 acres of undeveloped land near Truxel Road and Gateway Park Boulevard next to an existing shopping center.
“It’s a perfect infill location. It’s in the highest traffic intersection in Natomas, (and) it’s filling out an existing center that was one-third built,” Conrad said. “There’s a pretty high demand for retail in good locations where office is pretty high vacancy.”
After 11 years in business, the owner of Visage Salon is ready for some new neighbors, especially with the vacancy of Sleep Train Arena.
Pull Architecture, Inc.
Rendering of proposed Natomas Fountains
“We were hoping that something big is going to be in Natomas because it’s time. We’re close to downtown. This is a prime location,” Visage salon owner Cindy Gavrilov said.
“Finally, after all the settlements and levee deals, this and that, I’m finally happy that this is going to happen,” former Natomas resident Deshawn Robertson said.
Natomas Fountains is just one of many retail, residential or commercial projects in the Natomas area. According to the Sacramento Planning and Design Commission, 12 projects are in progress — and two have been approved so far.
“It’ll be nice to have more options than Walmart,” Natomas resident Amanda Self said.
“There’s a lot of good people who live out here, and they want to support our community,” Visage Salon employee Liz Khoustekian said.
Conrad said he is working on bringing in businesses that would be new to the Sacramento area. Construction could begin this spring.
Kyman Jeung2019-01-08T14:38:31-07:00October 19th, 2016|News|
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Eco-Erotica
for the love of nature
Predator or Prey?
Three hours gone and not a single animal seen. Not even a squirrel. Let alone a pronged antelope, his desired prey. Stalking quietly, carrying his new recurve bow, he smiled feeling the chub in his pants. The combination of adrenaline and testosterone was his favorite recipe for arousal.
He loved the hunt — whether it wild animals or domestic women. His last catch was Kayleigh. He swaggered into the local bar and immediately noticed that she was intentionally ignoring him. Game on. She tried to make it tough on him, feigning attention and showing lackluster interest. But his charm and bravado was only bolstered by the challenge. They were at her place before last call at the bar.
Her fake, perky breasts and completely hairless body looked like all the videos he usually clicked on. And he got exactly what he wanted. She sucked his cock. He fucked her pussy in at least three different positions. She looked back to watch him pull out and then cum on the tattoo on her lower back.
Before he’d even made it home an hour later, he was already feeling antsy for the next hunt. The big one. Big game. Big antlers. The all day chase with only a bow and arrows.
A rustling sound startled him out of daydreaming. Shocked, he saw a doe standing 50 yards away behind him.
“What the fuck?” he thought. “I don’t want a deer. Especially not a scrawny doe.”
“Shoo!” He yelled while stopping his foot, and the doe bolted back into the trees.
Silently moving on, he walked towards the crest of a small hill, hoping a watering hole–the perfect antelope lure–lay on the other side. But before he made it to the top, he heard crunching of leaves behind him again.
He turned to see the same deer still following. Not wanting to yell and potentially scare off any antelope waiting on the other side of the hill, he found a small rock nearby and threw it in the direction of the deer. It did the trick as the deer skittered off again. He hoped for good this time.
Scrambling on hands and knees, he crested the hill only to find nothing — no water source, no antelope. His chub subsided, but quickly returned when he noticed the telltale slash marks on a tree indicating territorial markings of a large antelope.
“Oh, hell yeah. This big fucker is going down before the end of the day.” And he stalked off again through the trees. He walked for another hour or so and paused in the shade to take a drink and decide which way to go next. He caught the tiniest movement out of the corner of his eye, and turned to see the deer standing only 30 yards behind him.
Anger overtook the testosterone in his body. He was pissed. How had this deer followed him for so far without him noticing at all? And why the hell was it following him?
As if protecting himself from a vicious predator, he swung the bow around and fired an arrow right through the deer’s chest.
It was a direct hit. The deer didn’t run. Her head dropped, eyes closed, legs buckled at the knees, and she fell to the ground.
Stunned at the progression of events, he walked toward the deer to retrieve his arrow and to figure out what to do with the carcass. Crouching down near the deer’s head, he set down his bow and pulled out his buck knife. The deer suddenly opened her eyes, startling him, causing him to jump back and drop the knife.
Retrieving the knife quickly, he moved a few feet away from the deer and then turned back to see if it were still alive. But as he turned around, he saw instead a naked woman lying in place of the deer.
Shocked, his eyes gave her a quick once over. Dark brown hair, big dark eyes, tiny nose and lips, small almost non-existent breasts with tiny nipples, and a very furry bush.
“What the…” The words spilled out of his mouth as he moved towards her. She calmly lifted her head, raised a finger to her lips, and silenced him.
She kept her eyes locked on his. She said nothing. She sat motionless. His head suddenly emptied of all thoughts. The plan of attack, the excitement of using his new bow, the confusion about this situation — all vanished. He wasn’t even aware of how quiet his mind had become. In its silence, all that was left were the sensations in his body, and his body very clearly wanted his clothes to come off.
He dropped his knife to the ground and stripped naked. As he removed the last article of clothing, his bodily desires spoke up again. It wanted to lie with his naked back on the sun baked ground. His skin smiled in the warmth of the sun. His nipples pricked up when a short, cool breeze blew past. Eventually, his pulse slowed and his breathing steadied.
After some time, the woman crawled towards his naked body on hands and knees and began to lick his limp cock. His body jerked at the first touch, recoiled slightly at the roughness of her tongue, and then buzzed with excitement at the intensity of her sucking.
Orgasm quickly rose up in his body as it usually did, but before he peaked, she released his cock from her mouth. She slid her hands from his cock up his chest and down his arms. And then again from his cock, down both of his legs. As she repeated this pattern, his body buzzed with sensation, pleasure, and aliveness.
Abruptly she stopped, repositioning her pussy over his face. As she lowered herself down, he could see her vulva peeking out amongst all her hair. Her pussy was tiny, with almost no discernible inner lips and a small dark pink opening. As it met his mouth, his lips and tongue knew just how to lick and suck her. The voices in his head that would have reminded him that “I don’t eat pussy” were silent.
His ears reveled in hearing her gentle moans. His cock, full and hard as it had ever been, throbbed against her rough tongue. His body quivered and shook as she stroked down his legs. His tongue noted her distinct favors and how they changed before, during, and after her quick, powerful orgasm.
As she removed her pussy from his face, all he could see was beauty, both hers and that of the land around him. She spun around and lowered herself onto his pulsing cock. His penis could feel the wetness, heat, and every inside curve of her pussy.
Sliding herself up and down along his shaft, she reached out and grabbed the field knife resting next to them. He watched while she sucked on the hand carved bone handle of the knife, like it were another cock that she was pleasuring. Except this action was clearly for her pleasure. He could feel her pussy quiver and contract each time the handle dipped deep into her throat.
His body was ready to explode with orgasm. Sensing this, she removed the knife handle from her mouth, covering it with her saliva, she reached behind her and shoved it up his ass.
His whole body exploded. Energy shot out of his cock, his ass, his fingers, and the top of his head. He screamed out loud, shattering the silence around them. His body felt split in two from the ass up. The energy poured out of his limbs and from the chasm running through the middle of his body.
She pulled out the handle, climbed off his penis, and let his body experience the intense pleasure without interruption. His body convulsed while cum spewed out of his cock.
Close on the heels of the intense pleasure were waves of deep sadness. Tears poured from his eyes, his body delivering them from deep in his belly.
Lying on the bare ground, he shook, sobbed, and trembled until the waves of energy in his body shifted from tempest to gentle waves upon the shore.
As his body returned to calm, chatter returned to his mind. He tried to make sense of what just happened to him. Looking around, he saw the doe sitting nearby, watching him.
He reached out his hand toward the deer but his movement caused her to bolt up and run from him.
His mind spinning, he lay back down on the ground. He felt different. The ever-present buzzing, pulling sensation in his chest was gone. He only became aware of its existence now that it was absent.
Then it occurred to him that the pulling sensation that vanished was his desire to chase. It was that desire that propelled so many of his decisions — his job selling cars, his weekends spent hunting, and his sexual conquests. Like a gas tank on empty, he lay there without a sense of what to do next.
Slowly, the replay of what had just happened to him started to fill the void. His body remembered the sounds, the tastes, the touch, the highs and the lows of emotion he had experienced. He remembered the radiance of the woman and how delicious her pleasure tasted. He felt awe and wonder at these new experiences and sensations.
Finally, not knowing what else to do, he gathered up his clothes and belongings to head for home. After getting dressed, he noticed something missing…
Somewhere nearby, the deer licked herself clean while nestled down in her favorite grassy patch, next to a small collection of knives.
Erotica by Silky
By Kendall1 Comment
One thought on “Predator or Prey?”
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A Grim Diagnosis
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What are you thinkin… on The Hunt
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Macroprolactinoma (2)
Microadenoma (2)
Microprolactinoma (1)
Acrochorda (1)
Arthralgia (1)
Face - coarse features (1)
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Dopamine agonists x
Hyperprolactinaemia x
Pituitary adenoma x
A patient with a germline SDHB mutation presenting with an isolated pituitary macroprolactinoma
Michelle Maher, Federico Roncaroli, Nigel Mendoza, Karim Meeran, Natalie Canham, Monika Kosicka-Slawinska, Birgitta Bernhard, David Collier, Juliana Drummond, Kassiani Skordilis, Nicola Tufton, Anastasia Gontsarova, Niamh Martin, Márta Korbonits and Florian Wernig
Symptomatic pituitary adenomas occur with a prevalence of approximately 0.1% in the general population. It is estimated that 5% of pituitary adenomas occur in a familial setting, either in isolated or syndromic form. Recently, loss-of-function mutations in genes encoding succinate dehydrogenase subunits (SDHx) or MYC-associated factor X (MAX) have been found to predispose to pituitary adenomas in co-existence with paragangliomas or phaeochromocytomas. It is rare, however, for a familial SDHx mutation to manifest as an isolated pituitary adenoma. We present the case of a pituitary lactotroph adenoma in a patient with a heterozygous germline SDHB mutation, in the absence of concomitant neoplasms. Initially, the adenoma showed biochemical response but poor tumour shrinkage in response to cabergoline; therefore, transsphenoidal surgery was performed. Following initial clinical improvement, tumour recurrence was identified 15 months later. Interestingly, re-initiation of cabergoline proved successful and the lesion demonstrated both biochemical response and tumour shrinkage. Our patient’s SDHB mutation was identified when we realised that her father had a metastatic paraganglioma, prompting genetic testing. Re-inspection of the histopathological report of the prolactinoma confirmed cells with vacuolated cytoplasm. This histological feature is suggestive of an SDHx mutation and should prompt further screening for mutations by immunohistochemistry and/or genetic testing. Surprisingly, immunohistochemistry of this pituitary adenoma demonstrated normal SDHB expression, despite loss of SDHB expression in the patient’s father’s paraganglioma.
Pituitary adenomas may be the presenting and/or sole feature of SDHB mutation-related disease.
SDHx mutated pituitary adenomas may display clinically aggressive behaviour and demonstrate variable response to medical treatment.
Histological evidence of intracytoplasmic vacuoles in a pituitary adenoma might suggest an SDH-deficient tumour and should prompt further screening for SDHx mutations.
Immunohistochemistry may not always predict the presence of SDHx mutations.
Late presentation of acromegaly in medically controlled prolactinoma patients
Ekaterina Manuylova, Laura M Calvi, Catherine Hastings, G Edward Vates, Mahlon D Johnson, William T Cave Jr and Ismat Shafiq
Co-secretion of growth hormone (GH) and prolactin (PRL) from a single pituitary adenoma is common. In fact, up to 25% of patients with acromegaly may have PRL co-secretion. The prevalence of acromegaly among patients with a newly diagnosed prolactinoma is unknown. Given the possibility of mixed GH and PRL co-secretion, the current recommendation is to obtain an insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in patients with prolactinoma at the initial diagnosis. Long-term follow-up of IGF-1 is not routinely done. Here, we report two cases of well-controlled prolactinoma on dopamine agonists with the development of acromegaly 10–20 years after the initial diagnoses. In both patients, a mixed PRL/GH-cosecreting adenoma was confirmed on the pathology examination after transsphenoidal surgery (TSS). Therefore, periodic routine measurements of IGF-1 should be considered regardless of the duration and biochemical control of prolactinoma.
Acromegaly can develop in patients with well-controlled prolactinoma on dopamine agonists.
The interval between prolactinoma and acromegaly diagnoses can be several decades.
Periodic screening of patients with prolactinoma for growth hormone excess should be considered and can lead to an early diagnosis of acromegaly before the development of complications.
Successful treatment of a prolactinoma with the antipsychotic drug aripiprazole
Ilse C A Bakker, Chris D Schubart and Pierre M J Zelissen
In this report, we describe a female patient with both prolactinoma and psychotic disorder who was successfully treated with aripiprazole, a partial dopamine 2 receptor agonist. During the follow-up of more than 10 years, her psychotic symptoms improved considerably, prolactin levels normalised and the size of the prolactinoma decreased. This observation may be of clinical relevance in similar patients who often are difficult to treat with the regular dopaminergic drugs.
Prolactinoma coinciding with psychosis can represent a therapeutic challenge.
In contrast to many other antipsychotic drugs, aripiprazole is associated with a decrease in prolactin levels.
Aripiprazole can be a valuable pharmaceutical tool to treat both prolactinoma and psychosis.
A novel surgical approach for the management of giant invasive prolactinoma compressing the brainstem
Niki Margari, Jonathan Pollock and Nemanja Stojanovic
Prolactinomas constitute the largest subsection of all secretory pituitary adenomas. Most are microprolactinomas and are satisfactorily treated by medical management alone. Giant prolactinomas, measuring more than 4 cm in diameter, are rare and usually occur more commonly in men. Macroprolatinomas tend to present with symptoms of mass effect rather than those of hyperprolactinaemia. Dopamine agonists (DA) are the treatment of choice for all prolactinomas. Surgery is usually reserved for DA resistance or if vision is threatened by the mass effects of the tumour. We describe the case of a 52 year-old woman with a giant invasive prolactinoma who required multiple surgical procedures as well as medical management with DA. One of the surgical interventions required a posterior approach via the trans cranial sub occipital transtentorial approach, a surgical technique that has not been previously described in the medical literature for this indication. The giant prolactinoma was reduced significantly with the above approach and patient symptoms from the compressing effects of the tumour were resolved. This case highlights the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to the management of such patients who present with florid neurological sequelae secondary to pressure effects. Although this presentation is uncommon, surgery via a sub occipital transtentorial approach may be considered the treatment of choice in suitable patients with giant invasive prolactinomas compressing the brainstem.
Giant prolactinomas present with symptoms of mass effect or those of hyperprolactinaemia.
Interpretation of the pituitary profile is crucial to guide further investigations and management.
Treatment of giant invasive prolactinomas may involve a combination of medical management and multiple surgical interventions.
Treatment with DA may cause pituitary haemorrhage or infarction in patients with these tumours.
A sub occipital transtetorial approach may be considered the treatment of choice in invasive prolactinomas compressing the brainstem.
Multidisciplinary approach of such patients is fundamental for a better outcome.
Synchronous GH- and prolactin-secreting pituitary adenomas
Maryam Rahman, Ignacio Jusué-Torres, Abdulrahman Alkabbani, Roberto Salvatori, Fausto J Rodríguez and Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa
Pituitary adenomas are usually solitary lesions. Rarely, patients may present with two distinct pituitary tumors. We report a case of synchronous secretory pituitary adenomas in a woman who initially presented with elevated prolactin levels. She was initially treated with cabergoline, but, after many years, she began developing symptoms consistent with acromegaly. Imaging revealed two distinct tumors within the pituitary gland. Endocrinological investigation confirmed acromegaly. At the time of surgery, two separate tumors were identified and resected. Pathological analysis demonstrated one tumor as a prolactinoma, and the other tumor as a GH-secreting adenoma. Postoperatively, her GH and IGF1 levels normalized, while the prolactin level remained slightly above normal. This case highlights that GH and prolactin level elevation is not always from co-secretion by the same adenoma.
Synchronous pituitary adenomas represent <0.5% of pituitary tumors requiring surgery.
In the setting of elevated GH and prolactin levels, one cannot assume that they are co-secreted by the same adenoma.
A careful study of hormonal workup and pre-operative imaging is necessary for synchronous pituitary adenomas to assure resection of both tumors.
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Ovaries (1)
Endocrine-related cancer (1)
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Oxyntomodulin (1)
Burkitt’s lymphoma (1)
Glucagonoma (1)
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Bloating (1)
Breast lump (1)
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Hyperglucagonaemia (1)
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Normochromic normocytic anaemia x
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Oncology x
Heterogeneity of glucagonomas due to differential processing of proglucagon-derived peptides
Benjamin G Challis, Nicolai J Wewer Albrechtsen, Vishakha Bansiya, Keith Burling, Peter Barker, Bolette Hartmann, Fiona Gribble, Stephen O'Rahilly, Jens J Holst and Helen L Simpson
Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (pNETs) secreting proglucagon are associated with phenotypic heterogeneity. Here, we describe two patients with pNETs and varied clinical phenotypes due to differential processing and secretion of proglucagon-derived peptides (PGDPs). Case 1, a 57-year-old woman presented with necrolytic migratory erythema, anorexia, constipation and hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia. She was found to have a grade 1 pNET, small bowel mucosal thickening and hyperglucagonaemia. Somatostatin analogue (SSA) therapy improved appetite, abolished hypoglycaemia and improved the rash. Case 2, a 48-year-old male presented with diabetes mellitus, diarrhoea, weight loss, nausea, vomiting and perineal rash due to a grade 1 metastatic pNET and hyperglucagonaemia. In both cases, plasma levels of all measured PGDPs were elevated and attenuated following SSA therapy. In case 1, there was increased production of intact glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and GLP-2, similar to that of the enteroendocrine L cell. In case 2, pancreatic glucagon was elevated due to a pancreatic α-cell-like proglucagon processing profile. In summary, we describe two patients with pNETs and heterogeneous clinical phenotypes due to differential processing and secretion of PGDPs. This is the first description of a patient with symptomatic hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia and marked gastrointestinal dysfunction due to, in part, a proglucagon-expressing pNET.
PGDPs exhibit a diverse range of biological activities including critical roles in glucose and amino acid metabolism, energy homeostasis and gastrointestinal physiology.
The clinical manifestations of proglucagon-expressing tumours may exhibit marked phenotypic variation due to the biochemical heterogeneity of their secreted peptide repertoire.
Specific and precise biochemical assessment of individuals with proglucagon-expressing tumours may provide opportunities for improved diagnosis and clinical management.
Burkitt's lymphoma presenting with hypopituitarism: a case report and review of literature
Siew Hui Foo and Shahada A H Sobah
Hypopituitarism is a rare presentation of Burkitt's lymphoma (BL). The purpose of this report is to present a case of BL presenting with panhypopituitarism and to review other case reports of lymphoma presenting with pituitary dysfunction to highlight the distinguishing features of these cases from other benign aetiologies of pituitary dysfunction such as non-functioning pituitary adenomas. We reviewed a total of 11 cases of lymphoma presenting with pituitary dysfunction published from 1998 to 2013 including the present case. The demographics, clinical presentations, laboratory features, radiological findings, histological diagnosis, treatment administered and outcomes were described. Of the total number of patients, 45.5% of the cases had diffuse large B-cell lymphoma while 27.3% had BL. Anterior pituitary dysfunction was more common than posterior pituitary dysfunction at presentation. The other common associated presenting symptoms were painful ophthalmoplegia, cranial nerve palsies and constitutional symptoms. Hypothalamic–pituitary abnormalities were often demonstrated radiologically to be associated with cavernous sinus and/or stalk involvement. All patients who completed immunochemotherapy responded haematologically. Pituitary dysfunction also improved in most cases although the recovery tended to be partial. In conclusion, a high index of suspicion of underlying malignancy, such as lymphoma, should be present in patients presenting with acute pituitary dysfunction associated with painful ophthalmoplegia, rapidly evolving neurological features, radiological features atypical of a pituitary adenoma and constitutional symptoms. An early diagnosis is essential as prompt initiation of definitive therapy will induce disease remission and recovery of pituitary dysfunction.
Hypopituitarism may be the presenting symptom of lymphoma in the absence of associated overt symptoms or signs of a haematological malignancy resulting in delay in diagnosis and institution of treatment.
Pituitary dysfunction due to tumour infiltration has a greater tendency to involve the posterior pituitary and infundibulum resulting in diabetes insipidus and hyperprolactinaemia compared with a non-functioning pituitary adenoma.
The common associated symptoms of hypopituitarism due to lymphoma infiltration of the hypothalamic–pituitary system include painful ophthalmoplegia, cranial nerve palsies and constitutional symptoms.
Radiological abnormalities of the hypothalamic–pituitary region are usually present and often associated with cavernous sinus or stalk involvement.
With early institution of definitive treatment, both haematological response and improvement of pituitary dysfunction are expected although the reversal of hypopituitarism tends to be partial and delayed.
A high index of suspicion of underlying malignancy such as lymphoma should be present in patients presenting with acute pituitary dysfunction associated with painful ophthalmoplegia, radiological features atypical of pituitary adenomas and constitutional symptoms to enable early diagnosis and prompt initiation of definitive therapy.
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Ski Racing J4 Style
Junior racers pass test of speed, fun at DMR
By Dale Strode Herald Sports Writer
Friday, Jan. 30, 2009 1:24 AM
Matthew Calarco of the Loveland Race Club drops into a tuck as he starts the Jesse Scott Memorial
Super-G on the Upper Hades run at Purgatory on Sunday. Calarco finished 10th.
JACK PINCUS/Herald
he miniature ski racer stood nervously at the starting gate, poised to launch.
Falling snow and a pesky cloud reduced visibility at the top of the Upper Hades race course.
"Racer ready," barked the starter. "Five, four, three, two, one ..."
The skier pushed out of the start house, dropping into a tuck at the first gate.
She carved around the red gate, around the next blue gate.
When she headed across a breakover to the next gate, she whipped past a group of attentive coaches and parents standing at the top of the headwall.
"Was she ... singing?" a coach asked.
"Yes, she was ... singing," answered a parent.
"What ... was she singing?" the coach asked.
"Dunno. Couldn't tell," the parent answered.
They both laughed.
Junior ski racing, J4 style, took center stage at Purgatory last weekend. The young ski racers, ages 11-12, gathered for the annual Jesse Scott Memorial Super-G races staged under the auspices of the USSA (United States Ski and Snowboard Association).
Eighty girls and boys from Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona donned their speed suits to represent their respective ski clubs from Vail, Crested Butte, Loveland, Taos, Telluride, Sunlight, Powderhorn, Purgatory, Red River, Flagstaff ... and points beyond.
The junior USSA competitors ran two super-G races on Saturday and one more on Sunday.
Mandatory training runs on Friday preceded the official races.
"We had a good weekend of racing," said Leah LeSage, the head coach and director of the Purgatory Alpine Ski Team.
"The home-course advantage is important in this race. Ever since we started this race (Jesse Scott Memorial Super-G), a Purgatory racer has won on this course," she said, referencing the unique rolling, terraced terrain of the Upper Hades run used for the J4 super-G's since 1996.
"The terrain is very different from what we see everywhere else," LeSage after the busy weekend of racing.
"We train on this hill all the time. So, we tend to do very, very well in this race," LeSage said, quick to add that the J4 skiers form one of the most interesting age groups in ski racing.
First, she said, they vary significantly in body size and type.
"You have a very, very wide range of body sizes and development at 11 and 12," LeSage said.
"You can have racers 165 pounds, 5-10 ... or they can be 4 feet tall and 60 pounds," the veteran ski racing coach said.
Secondly, she said, the J4 group is just discovering the need for speed in ski racing - especially in speed events like super-G and downhill.
"They ... are at an age where they want to start to go fast," LeSage said. "For some, this is their first or second year of ski racing. For others, they have been racing in gates for four or five years."
Plus, she said the matter-of-factly honest 11- and 12-year-olds still have a firm grip on fun.
Yes, they sing, sometimes.
And they yell, on course.
"And at this age, they don't have any other excuses. It's not ... the skis or the snow or the ... (flat) light. Somebody just went faster than they did ... and then they go out and ski again," said LeSage, who reveals her passion for the sport as she talks about the races and the young skiers.
Like Liam Wiess and Lauren Milliet of the Purgatory team.
On Saturday, Milliett won the afternoon super-G girls race after finishing a close second in the morning race.
Leah Newton of Vail was second to the Purgatory racer, while Jiliana Jennerjahn of Taos was third.
Grace McSwain of the Sunlight Ski Team from Glenwood Springs won the morning race in 44.46 seconds. Milliet was right behind in 44.91.
Racers from Ski Club Vail swept the next three positions in the morning race.
Katarina Seibert of the Purgatory team finished 13th. Teammate Megan Pope was 19th.
In the afternoon super-G, Seibert finished 16th. Pope was 24th.
Wiess set the fastest pace for the local skiers in the boys J4 races on Saturday.
He rocketed to 1-2 finishes.
The Purgatory racer won the morning super-G, blistering the course in 41.96 seconds.
Anthony Wada of Loveland was second (42.54).
Wiess, in his second year with the Purgatory team and a former racer at Alyeska, Alaska, was second in the afternoon. Wada won in 42:00. Wiess was next in 42:29.
Purgatory's Jesse Rubenstein raced to a fourth-place finish in the afternoon. He was ninth in the morning super-G.
On Sunday, Quin Davis of Vail vaulted to the top spot. He won in 46.04 in much different snow conditions than Saturday. Davis had finished third and fourth on Saturday.
Vail teammate Clayton Kirwood was second, and Wada was third on Sunday.
Purgatory's Wiess was fourth. Rubenstein finished 23rd on the Sunday course that featured more turns.
For the record, the certified super-G course had 23 gates, 17 turns over a length of 817 meters.
Also Sunday, Vail's Newton won the girls race with teammates Katie Talbot and Sasha Horn finishing second and third, respectively.
Seibert was 19th for the Purgatory team.
LeSage, who directs the Purgatory program and its 40-plus junior skiers, said the team is fortunate to have a second round of races at home this year.
In addition to the J4 races last weekend, she said the club and the Purgatory race crew will host more USSA events Feb. 28-March 1, a giant slalom and a slalom.
All youth age classes will participate, she said.
"And we've got such a great race crew," LeSage said. She added that the race officials and the crew at Purgatory combine for terrific races at home.
"Ron Conaty, the chief of race, and Dale Womack, chief of course ... they are awesome, and they did such a good job for the kids," LeSage said.
"The entire (Purgatory) race crew is outstanding," she said.
The annual Jesse Scott Memorial Super-G events are named for former Purgatory racer Jesse Scott, who was killed in an auto accident.
He raced with the Purgatory ski team for 11 years.
The Scott families and the Anderson family sponsor a family barbecue for the skiers and their coaches and families during the weekend of racing. Gazpacho's restaurant and Coca-Cola Bottling of Durango assisted with sponsorship for the family barbecue.
dstrode@durangoherald.com
"You can have racers 165 pounds, 5-10
or they can be 4 feet tall and 60 pounds."
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Worldwide DNS Infrastructure Upgrades Continue: Australia, Hong Kong, Dallas
DNS Traffic Management // Dec 6, 2011 // Tom Daly
Back in January, Dyn’s Operations Team was given a monumental task: perform a series of infrastructure upgrades to Dyn’s global anycast DNS network without causing any downtime or degradation of service for our customers. This meant upgrades to each of our 17 anycast data centers – new routers, switches, servers and supporting gear.
I’ve already blogged about our significant upgrades to our US infrastructure, so now it’s time to talk about our efforts overseas.
G’day, Mate!
In our Sydney data center, we’ve added new routing and switching equipment, including additional DNS nodes to handle queries originating from Australia. We added IPv4 and IPv6 transit from our global carrier Tata Communications, who augmented our existing NTT Communications bandwidth. Fully outfitted with dual-stack IPv4 and IPv6 routing, Sydney is the last of our mini-POPs to get upgraded to full-scale service.
Yee Haw, Cowboy!
Maybe I lied a little bit as this post won’t only be about international sites, because we installed and turned up a brand new data center in Dallas, Texas, to replace our former site in the region. Hosted at the Telx facility, this new site enjoys bandwidth from our global partners NTT and Tata and provides the region with increased DNS resolution capacity.
Ni hao! Hallo! Guten Tag!
In our Hong Kong data center, we performed a complete site tear down, upgrade, and turn up, deploying new routers, switches and DNS servers throughout the site. We did the same work in Amsterdam and Frankfurt, all in a 48 hour window! This work significantly increases our capacity in the Asia Pacific and European regions.
As always, these sites are enjoying dual-stack IPv4 and IPv6 routing, just like our other Dyn anycast nodes.
Later this week, we’ll be performing routing maintenance on our ns2.pXX.dynect.net anycast announcement, moving away from the current bandwidth provider supporting that anycast prefix to a new IPv4/IPv6 transit arrangement through Cogent Communications. Quickly following up to that work, we’ll be adding IPv4/IPv6 transit from Level(3) Communications to ns2.pXX.dynect.net as well.
By making this change, we’ll be adding a significant amount of horsepower to our ns2.pXX.dynect.net nodes, enhancing uptime, availability and reducing worldwide DNS latency.
What else, you ask? We have a final set of planned upgrades to be completed in Tokyo, Japan and Singapore. These upgrades will also significantly upgrade our connectivity and capacity in the Asia Pacific region and will help to decrease latency, but more on that in a future post. As always, you can track our progress of installations and upgrades by following along on our status site.
Whois: Tom Daly
Tom Daly is a co-founder of Dyn, a pioneer in managed DNS and a leader in cloud-based infrastructure that connects users with digital content and experiences across a global internet.
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FIRST AMERICAN FINANCIAL INVESTIGATION INITIATED by Former Louisiana Attorney General: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC Investigates the Officers and Directors of First American Financial Corporation - FAF
Business Wire June 1, 2019
NEW ORLEANS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., Esq., a partner at the law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC (“KSF”), announces that KSF has commenced an investigation into First American Financial Corporation (FAF).
On May 24, 2019, KrebsOnSecurity reported the discovery of a massive data leak involving the Company that may have allowed unauthorized access to more than 885 million records related to mortgage deals going back to 2003 including “bank account numbers and statements, mortgage and tax records, Social Security numbers, wire transaction receipts, and drivers license images.” The Company later confirmed its knowledge of a “design defect in one of its production applications that made possible unauthorized access to customer data.”
KSF’s investigation is focusing on whether First American’s officers and/or directors breached their fiduciary duties to First American’s shareholders or otherwise violated state or federal laws.
If you have information that would assist KSF in its investigation, or have been a long-term holder of First American shares and would like to discuss your legal rights, you may, without obligation or cost to you, call toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or email KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-faf/ to learn more.
About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC
KSF, whose partners include the Former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana.
To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.
The Shocking Lack of Lawyers in Rural America
Trump says looking closely at Amazon's bid on $10 billion Pentagon contract
South Florida company granted patent for child-resistant cannabis packaging
Encore Boston Harbor casino 'in compliance,' preliminary investigation finds
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Jacobs Engineering (JEC) Buys KeyW, Fortifies ATN Business
Zacks June 13, 2019
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. JEC has completed the acquisition of KEYW Holding Corp., thereby emerging as a leader in high-value Government Services. This transaction, which is valued at $815 million, resulted in KeyW becoming a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of Jacobs.
Why KeyW Buyout is Important for Jacobs?
KeyW is an intelligence, cyber, mission and IT analytics company operating in intelligence and national security spaces. This KeyW acquisition is in line with Jacobs' Aerospace, Technology and Nuclear (“ATN”) transformational strategy of delivering innovative and unique mission-oriented solutions for key technical and high consequence government priorities.
The deal has expanded Jacobs’ presence in advanced engineering and technology solutions in key growth areas of intelligence, cyber, and counterterrorism. The integration diversifies Jacobs' end-to-end solutions for clients through KeyW's Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (“ISR”), differentiated cyber technology, along with mission-critical IT and analytics capabilities.
The addition further boosted Jacobs' portfolio by adding intellectual property-driven technology with unique proprietary C5ISR solutions.
Jacobs’ Inorganic Drive Bodes Well
Jacobs is reinforcing business on the back of meaningful business acquisitions. The company’s acquisition of CH2M HILL Companies Ltd. (CH2M) in December 2017 strengthened the global water business. The CH2M buyout fortified businesses across the industrial sector. Jacobs achieved a run rate of more than 90% of expected CH2M synergies in the fiscal second quarter and remains optimistic to achieve $175 million synergies as it exits fiscal 2019.
The stock has outperformed its industry year to date. The company’s shares have gained 33.1% compared with 18.4% growth of its industry in the said period. The price performance is backed by an impressive earnings surprise history. The company surpassed earnings estimates in seven of the trailing eight quarters.
In a nutshell, strong backlog ($20.7 billion as of Mar 29, 2019), the KeyW acquisition, transformed portfolio, as well as increased focus on infrastructure, aerospace, cybersecurity and technical building projects bode well for Jacobs’ growth and profitability.
Zacks Rank & Key Picks
Jacobs currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Some better-ranked stocks in the Zacks Construction sector include AECOM ACM, Quanta Services, Inc. PWR and Altair Engineering Inc. ALTR. While Altair Engineering currently sports a Zacks Rank #1, the other two stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
AECOM has a solid earnings surprise history, having surpassed the consensus mark in all the trailing four quarters, with the average being 6.2%.
Quanta Services and Altair Engineering’s earnings for the current year are expected to increase 29.5% and 53.7%, respectively.
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Trump vs. Obama on jobs
Shaq has a problem with $2 billion-plus in NBA free agency deals
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The day when fathers become fathers again and are no longer coaches
MLB columnist
Yahoo Sports June 16, 2019
There is perhaps a better time in fatherhood than putting a baseball in their little hand. Better even than writing their name into a lineup, than sending their churning legs and jangling arms around third base, than throwing batting practice underhanded, then overhanded, then with all the pace an old shoulder can summon.
There is perhaps better than even the sunniest early days of fatherhood, when they were drunk on pancake syrup and trying to remember to keep their back elbow up and stride short just like they were told and their appetite for the high ones low, like they were told in the car ride over.
There isn’t much better than the look on their sleepy face when it all worked that day, when that stiff new glove was loyal and that stringy arm true and that top-heavy bat got around just in time, when the infield dirt behind their ears can be left until tomorrow. Or much better than the crummy days, when none of it worked, because that’s how it goes sometimes, and it was fun anyway.
But, there could be better.
That’s when their hand is strong and confident, when they swing the bat rather than it swinging them, when they’re learning the game somewhere else, and it’s growing on them, and they’re growing on it. When all those conversations over pizza are getting harder to see in that swing and it’s for the best. When they have become a ballplayer.
When they become gifted in the eyes of others too, when it’s the arm or the legs or the bat or the little something special and not just the dad goggles anymore, that is the day. The day when it is better. And the day to go back to being a full-time engineer. Or cop. Or salesman. Or realtor.
“I think,” David Freese’s father, Guy, told him on that day, “it’s time to be your dad and not your coach.”
The day to go back to being less of a swing instructor, less of a pitching guru, and instead be the man in the bleachers whose orders that day are to remember what the game should be. What it started out being. How it assisted in the lessons of humility and accountability and showing up. How we love it. That’s a damned fine day, when they go off to do it — or not — on their own, to check in every once in a while with news on the details, to say thanks every once in a while for getting it all started. Like on Father’s Day.
So, the day comes to say goodbye on a college campus or an airport curb, to hold them close outside a locker room door, to remind them that mom and dad are near no matter where they are, to take a step back and know that back elbow may droop a little and that’s now theirs to fix or not.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, the son of a Little League coach, the father of a young ballplayer, stands between those two generations. (Getty Images)
Greg Schwarber is in Los Angeles this weekend, from Ohio. He’s watching baseball near downtown, playing some golf near the coast, visiting his boy, the ballplayer. He was Kyle’s coach once and for a long time. There does come a day when the mechanics are too complex, the strategies too fluid, the information proprietary. That’s still his boy down there.
“He tells me to be aggressive,” Kyle said with a grin. “Obviously, still, have fun. And, ‘Be you.’ That’s his thing. ‘Be you.’”
The rest?
“My dad always has good points in what he’s trying to get across,” Kyle said. “Sometimes you gotta be able to listen and try to pick apart what he’s trying to get across. They’re good reminders. They put me back in the batting cages with him or on the old football field, when he’s throwing me pitches and I’m hitting ‘em off his knee cap.
“There’s times I have to laugh and tell him, ‘Dad, I know you really want me to succeed. But I don’t think anybody wants me to succeed more than myself.’”
Caleb Ferguson, Dodgers reliever, thought it’d been two or three years back, when he was pitching in Class A, when he told his dad, Pat, “I really don’t want to talk pitching.” So, his dad calls, or his mom calls, and they talk about what he’s doing that day.
“Which,” Ferguson said, smiling, “is the same thing every day.”
And David Freese hits off a tee about every day, because his father believed in hitting off the tee, and tries to hit to right-center field every night, because his father believed in that too. And they haven’t talked about those sorts of things in years.
And Max Muncy gets the same advice from his father, Lee, about every day, and that is, “Have fun,” which is precisely what he wants to hear.
“Nobody knows me better than he does,” said Max and, “and it’ll always be that way.”
And Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, the son of a Little League coach, the father of a young ballplayer, stands between those two generations, sorting it out himself. Waymon Roberts died two years ago. Cole, Dave’s son, is an infielder headed to Loyola Marymount. So, when Cole has heard enough about the game and Dave can’t find the words, what comes to the father is an evening with his own father, one of those good days, one of those days when the last thing Dave needed was another coach.
“I think,” Dave said, “he was understanding he couldn’t teach me anymore. But I do recall a moment my junior year, which was my big draft year, where I had a series against Arizona at home at Jackie Robinson Stadium. I didn’t play well. I just hit a wall and I was really emotional and down. My dad took me for a drive, literally right after the game. And it was interesting in that he was there more as a dad than as a coach. He was just there to pick me up. Mentally. Emotionally. That’s something I will always remember.”
Cole Roberts, the son of manager Dave Roberts, is headed to play baseball at Loyola Marymount in the fall. (Getty Images)
There is a day better than the one in which a father offers an opportunity. Extends a hand. Takes an interest. Asks to walk part of that journey too. Maybe there’s a baseball in that hand. Maybe not. But that better day is out there because of it.
That is the day they take it. And then makes it their own.
“All of a sudden,” Freese said, “it’s time to be you.”
More from Yahoo Sports:
O.J. Simpson is on Twitter: ‘Got a little getting even to do’
Durant talked to Thompson about ‘unfinished business’
USWNT staying off social media amid celebrations controversy
Haynes sources: Butler intends to decline option with Sixers
Young Phillies' fans share heartwarming moment while chasing foul ball
Dodgers throw 2-hitter, beat Phillies after long rain delay
MLB notebook: Angels' Ramirez suspended for plunking Marisnick
CG: LAD@PHI - 7/17/19
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Twist Bioscience Launches Mouse Exome to Power Genetic Research
Business Wire June 17, 2019
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Twist Bioscience Corporation (TWST), a company enabling customers to succeed through its offering of high-quality synthetic DNA using its silicon platform, today announced the launch of the Twist Mouse Core Exome Panel, the most comprehensive, up-to-date tool for interrogation of the mouse exome, further enabling genetic research of this important model organism.
“We are pleased to launch our first next-generation sequencing (NGS) product for the research market, which can be used for very specific preclinical research for cancer and other genetic diseases,” said Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience. “We offer a variety of specific and custom target enrichment panels for NGS which we can update, iterate and customize quickly due to our proprietary silicon-based DNA synthesis platform. The Twist Mouse Core Exome Panel is our first non-human exome and allows us to reach not only core labs but also independent researchers and scientists.”
The mouse is an extremely important model system for studying genetic variation, tumor mutations, and phenotypic outcomes as well as the therapeutic effect of pharmaceutical agents. Twist’s mouse panel includes the most comprehensive, up-to-date content available. As genetic variant databases are continuously updated, the Twist Mouse Exome panel is thoughtfully designed and built from the most current databases. When combined with Twist's expanding portfolio of library preparation and enrichment reagents, the complete toolset allows researchers to achieve industry-leading coverage across target regions while optimizing sequencing cost and sample throughput.
For more information about the Twist Mouse Core Exome Panel, please visit our website.
About Twist Bioscience Corporation
Twist Bioscience is a leading and rapidly growing synthetic biology company that has developed a disruptive DNA synthesis platform to industrialize the engineering of biology. The core of the platform is a proprietary technology that pioneers a new method of manufacturing synthetic DNA by “writing” DNA on a silicon chip. Twist is leveraging its unique technology to manufacture a broad range of synthetic DNA-based products, including synthetic genes, tools for next-generation sequencing (NGS) preparation, and antibody libraries for drug discovery and development. Twist is also pursuing longer-term opportunities in digital data storage in DNA and biologics drug discovery. Twist makes products for use across many industries including healthcare, industrial chemicals, agriculture and academic research.
Follow us on Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube
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LOUIS VUITTON NEW WAVE BAGS FOR SPRING
The Louis Vuitton New Wave Collection of leather goods has been refreshed for Spring with new styles such as the camera bag and bumbag.
First introduced last year, the Louis Vuitton New Wave Collection of quilted leather goods has quickly become a must-have for trendsetters who embrace the bags' instantly recognisable allure. Combining heritage details with a fashion-forward edge, the collection makes for a bold and colourful fashion statement through distinctive wave-shaped quilting that was inspired by a forgotten pattern in the Maison's archives. This spring, the line introduces two fun new styles: the bumbag and the camera bag, offering hands-free practicality without skimping on style.
Explore the New Wave Collection
Leather goods New Wave
LAUREN SANTO DOMINGO AND HER CAPUCINES
A day in the life of the Louis Vuitton Capucines bag with Lauren Santo Domingo, the famed fashion entrepreneur.
From morning to night, Louis Vuitton's Capucines serves as a perfect companion to modern sophisticates. Continually reimagined in various materials, colours and designs, the New Classic handbag can bring both timeless elegance and a fashion-forward edge to any outfit and any occasion. Lauren Santo Domingo, prominent fashion entrepreneur and tastemaker, showcases a selection of the latest Capucines models in this peek into her daily life in New York City, from commuting in style to heading on a night out.
See the Capucines Collection
Capucines New Classics Day in the Life
In the wake of the Notre-Dame de Paris fire, the Arnault Family and LVMH Group pledge 200 million euros towards the reconstruction of the extraordinary cathedral.
Louis Vuitton is proud to be a part of the LVMH Group, which, along with the Arnault Family, is committed to assist with the reconstruction of this extraordinary cathedral, symbol of France, its heritage and its unity. Together they will donate 200 million euros to the fund dedicated to the reconstruction of this architectural work.
In the meantime, the LVMH Group offers its teams – including creative, architectural and financial specialists - to help the State and relevant authorities with the long work of reconstruction and fundraising.
LVMH Arnault Family
TAMBOUR ICONS IN MONOGRAM AND DAMIER
Louis Vuitton unveils new models of the Maison's original timepiece: the timeless Tambour watch.
Back in 2001, Louis Vuitton made its watchmaking debut with the Tambour, an unprecedented timepiece that integrates all of the Maison's values into its design - from the Louis Vuitton letters engraved on its case to the yellow second hand, inspired by the waxed thread used in the Maison's classic bags. Beyond multiple references, the Tambour model has come to symbolise Louis Vuitton's core identity; it represents a signature that combines a timeless look with renewed technical performance.
Today, this iconic model has been revisited in a collection of four new timepieces: the Tambour Monogram, available in three sizes, and the Tambour Damier Graphite. These models build on the historic case with new dials that faithfully reproduce the Monogram and Damier Graphite canvasses, thanks to the skilled craftsmanship of the dial experts at La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton in Geneva. Driven by a quartz movement, the new Tambours are fitted with interchangeable straps, featuring Louis Vuitton’s innovative patented system that allows wearers to easily swap out the straps to suit the occasion and invent their own style.
Discover Tambour Icons
Tambour Timepieces Monogram Damier
LOUIS VUITTON LAUNCHES E-COMMERCE WEBSITE FOR SWEDEN
Louis Vuitton is pleased to announce the launch of its e-commerce website in Sweden.
When visiting www.LouisVuitton.com, clients across Sweden will be able to experience the world of Louis Vuitton and shop for products from the privacy of their homes. The E-commerce website will allow clients to search, discover, enquire about and purchase Louis Vuitton ready-to-wear for men and women, leather goods, small leather goods, shoes, accessories, luggage. Different services of personalisation will be available online such as: Make it Yours, Hot Stamping and My LV World Tour, Mon Monogram or Mon Damier Graphite.
E-commerce Louis Vuitton Sweden
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Africa • Asia • Chinese History • Comportamento • Editor's Blog • Europe • HK People • News • Uncategorized • World
What it takes to be a real man and standby his woman?
What makes a real man? Somebody who will stand by his woman when things get really tough, right? I sure hope so!
As I look around, I see many males; however, with this generation, I see too few ‘real’ men.
What I noticed were these winning-over-pampered little boys too close to their mamas’ aprons strings, but not standing up for when it counts in defense of their women.
I’ve been close to half-a-century on this earth. What worries me sometimes is the behavior of men. I mean, I don’t pretend to be a Saint. God only knows, as a young man, I was all too often a philandering bastard.
But once my wife came into my life, it seemed like all that changed. You know, the switch, everything suddenly connected and my life turned around! I became different and somehow grew-up to become a better version of myself years later.
Take the story of Francesca (a pseudonym), a family friend of many years. She married, had her baby. Then, after her second year into the marriage–things began to fall apart. Her husband left her for another woman.
You all might say, Daniel, we have heard this story before. And yes, 70% of men are unfaithful around the world.
However, here comes the first kicker. Francesca was pregnant with the second baby and had to be hospitalized due to complications. In those two-weeks, she was hospitalized, her soon to be ex-hubby didn’t even bother to show-up!
Way to go there, pal! Sorry, the latter just reaps with sarcasm.
You see, he did leave her with a little ‘package’ before the relationship ended.
I’m not saying people don’t break-up and divorce. It happens, what should not happen is what he did, not taking full responsibility either for his first and now, the second child she has inside!
The second shocker came when she called her husband and told him to basically “Man up!”
Well, she definitely got a mouthful from her interfering mother-in-law, arguing that she had been a bad wife!
Wow, incredible, Francesca’s husband was unfaithful to her. He abandons the first baby, the second inside her and now ‘mommy dearest’ is arguing with the poor woman about being a bad wife!
What kind of woman allows this to happen to another woman? Her son is unfaithful. She still defends and take sides for her ‘little Emperor’; while Francesca is left suffering the consequences. Takes a lot a gumption from a mother-in-law to not see the clarity of day.
This could have been a teaching moment between mother and son. I’m not saying, she stops loving her son. But to defend ‘Mister Idiot’ against her own granddaughter, unborn baby and daughter-in-law takes a lot of nerve! She doesn’t have to take sides, but not add ‘fuel to the fire’ by supporting her son’s indiscretion!
This says a lot about how women/parents are raising their boys.
Because where I come from, a man takes responsibility for his own actions and when he doesn’t–he’s just a mere boy!
I asked several females, “What makes a real man?”
Some answered, “Being good/nice to his girlfriend or wife.”
The best answer I received from a female colleague was, “Taking responsibility as a son, husband or father!”
With these passionate answers, I just had to say, “Perfect, just perfect!”
Psychologist needed in China
What’s a real man?
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Cashino gets a Fresh Dose of 14 New Games!
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Corporate Stress Relief TIP #37 and My Tip #13--The TPS Report and Melting Pennies
Today's Best o' The Web Business Tip Number 37, comes from Dave Churbuck's blog :
http://www.churbuck.com/wordpress/?p=887
"If you find yourself nodding off in a post-lunch meeting about the “Corporate TPS Process Framework” and don’t want to get bagged when your tonsils and adenoids make a wet “snark” sound when you pop awake then …
Say something. Anything. Interrupt the presenter and say something intelligently inane such as, “Have you considered a continual process improvement framework for this model?”
Then shut up. You won’t be sleepy anymore. People will think you are a master of concentration. I learned this trick at McKinsey."
Way to go Dave! Game, Set and Match.
I use to sit through as many as eight pitches a day for Demo slots. By 2 p.m, i was seriously in need of a stimulant. To let off steam, I would take pennies and two nickles from my desk drawer, go down stairs with my butane torch lighter, and set the pennies on top of the two nickles (spread about 1/2 inches apart) and melt the penny. Afterwards, I'd take the cooling copper alloy slag and throw them in a big-ass brandy snifter. One penny equaled one company thet didn't make the cut for Demo.
By the end of January, the brandy snifter was pretty heavy.
When I got out of the hospital, following my stroke on deadline at Demo in Phoenix, I went to the office. Among the items missing from my office was the brandy snifter . hey, melting pennies helped to relieve some --but not all-- of the stress.
I just wish there had been a Fireworks outlet closer to my office than Pahrump, Nevada.
I haven't melted a penny in years, but I have blown up a lot of gopher dens, Here on my little mountaintop in rural southern California. Jim Forbes on 11/30/2006, a coupla days away from being one year older.
November 30, 2006 in Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Google Docs Rocks--And I Eat Some Crow
Every now and again I've been known to eat a moderate portion of crow. And what better time to serve this up than right now, in the days following Thanksgiving. You see, several months ago, I took a contrarian position on Google's Writely word processor.
Man was i ever wrong, and did Writely ever pull my ass out of the fire two weeks ago when I left home with a new notebook and my old copy of Office 2000. I was northbound to a local college where I was set to deliver a lecture to a group of students studying Web-based businesses. When I got to the college, I pulled my new ThinkPad X60 tablet out of my back pack, mated it to its docking station and put my copy of Office in the CD. Voila, my copy of Office had a huge scratch in it so there I was without the word processor I needed to write about two pages of text. I had sent my PowerPoint deck for the lectures ahead of me two days beforehand. And, the PowerPoint deck was set up to run from another ThinkPad in the lecture hall.
Just when I thought I'd have to saddle up and mosey over to the student bookstore and pony up a hundred bucks or so for a new copy of the Student version of Office, I remembered I had access to the web-based Google word processor, which was called "Writely" before the technology was purchased by Google.
So sitting at a wooden picnic bench located outside the lecture hall, i booted up my new tablet notebook, took off my ever so cool polarized fishing sunglasses ($9.95 at WalMart), adjusted the screen on the ThinkPad X60 tablet and logged on to my "Google Docs and Spreadsheets" page and launched the word processor from the "Docs Home" page. Guess what, I haven't been back to Microsoft Word since then.
I love what Google has done with Writely. It's fast, powerful and one of the most important advances I've seen in word processing in years.
Some background here.. Writely is the latest application from a programmer that delivered one of the most powerful word processors ever imagined for the Macintosh. That offering was Called FullWrite Professional and the buzz around it was so intense that people were willing to pay its publisher --Ann Arbor Software-- for the privilege of gaining access to usable beta code. And in the end, sadly FullWrite was sold to a second software publisher went fins up. I loved FullWrite and used it for a year in the heady days of Macintosh mania, almost 20 years ago. In my mind it shared a neck-and -neck lead for "Best product" with another word processor called WriteNow (from T/Maker Software). My problem with FullWrite was that my typing could get several characters ahead of the cursor. i didn't have that problem with WriteNow,which like XyWrite for Dos based systems, was one of the fastest word processors I've ever used.
Back to Google Docs (aka Writely). I love it.
It has a full library of styles that are easily integrated into a single document, an implementation of versioning and tracking revisions that fosters collaboration and basic graphics tools that are extremely powerful yet simple to use. Moreover, I can save my Google Documents work in whatever format is required (which while not earthshaking is very important to me.)
My one major criticism with Writely has to do with it spell checker. I believe it could be a lot more intelligent, correcting as i write and it doesn't appear to have a veery deep database.
But hey, this is beta code and overall this is a good aplication that promises to get better and I can recommend it as it stands now.
For a guy who has lived and died with Microsoft Word for the last 20 years,Google Docs and Spreadsheets is about as exciting as walking over to the local park on the road to Escondido and discovering that the outstanding garage band you've been listening to in the evening wind was actually Eric Clapton jamming with someone you previously had thought of as only "an eccentric old English guitar player that lived on the other side of your mountain." Yeah, Writely is that good.
Initially I've been unfairly dismissive of web-based applications like the Writely word processor. But now that I'm down with the technology and near ubiquitous wireless broadband connectivity-- courtesy of the Verizon EvDo network-- I'm singing the praises of web based applications and Google Docs and Spreadsheets is at the top of my list of apps that can score huge wins against Microsoft. Given the choice of reading a book as I fly the grey hound of the skies from Point A to Point B. or trying to focus on writing something in my cramped airliner seat, I'll choose to read, and besides, it's hard to get affordable connectivity at 35,000 feet. And come to think about it, i probably spend too much time on my computer anyway.
I once scoffed at the idea of Google fostering and releasing a world class mainstream productivity application.
So, can I have some more cranberry sauce for my tasty slice of crow? Jim Forbes, wirelessly banging away on Google Writely, a very cool and powerful web-based application on 11/27/2006 from my small mountaintop in rural San Diego County.
November 27, 2006 in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Rods Readied, Reels Filled and Hooks Sharpened--Fishing Just for the Halibut
Although the weather here along the San Diego coast is chilly, my desire to catch a few more fish before this year’s license expires in about 35 days is just as strong as it was in April, when I swapped out most of the boat’s freshwater fishing gear for sturdier rods, reels and stronger fishing line in the hopes of catching halibut, ling cod and early run tuna that cruise the outer kelp beds off the San Diego shore.
For now I’ve put the boat away, added fuel stabilizer to its gas tanks and painted my trailer and kept up on all the little tasks that are needed to keep from switching to channel 16 on my handheld VHF marine radio and calling Vessel Assist for a tow back to my trailer.
But while I’m not out on the water, I know there are still fish up and down the coast, from Imperial Beach to my south to pristine Crystal Cove up in Orange County. And I’m confident that somewhere out there is a 16-20 pound halibut waiting to strip line from my reel, bow my rod and generally suck two or three anchovies from one of my wire leader rigs, sent flying 100 yards into the surf on a sandy bottom of a California beach.
I live for halibut fishing. I think it has something to do with the Viking genes that gave me fair skin, red hair and an impish sense of humor.
Right now, I have no plans to launch my boat and fish for halibut off shore. Instead, I’ve got my 12 foot durf rod broken down and stowed in my SUV, two sand spikes tucked next to my tackle box and a package of frozen cured anchovies out in the freezer. And tucked above the visor in my massive manly SUV is my fishing license.
Somewhere on the Pacific coast the halibut are calling and I intend to check my usual halibut hotspots this week, come hell, high water, or fast moving glaciers coming down from Los Angeles.
I think my first drop will be up at Crystal Cove in Orange County in the slack water after a morning high tide. Crsytal Cove is a magic spot for me. I’ve pulled numerous halibut from the north sandy side of this new state park and tickled a ling cod or two from the rocks on its south shore.
The Cove is a beach of pleasant memories for me. It was a big part of my youth where I would take a book, a sandwich, and a cold drink and read by the edge of the sea. Later, I leanred about a style of fishing called “poke poling” that is extremely productive for yanking ling cods, perch and the infrequent eel that hide in cold saltwater rock pools between tides. Poke Poling keeps you humble and ever watchful of advancing tides. Get stuck out on the rocks and it’s a long cold painful swim back to the beach (something I discovered in the 1980’s while poke pole fishing along the rocky San Mateo coast.
If I strike out at Crystal Cove, I’ll just drive down to Pendleton and try my luck at the confluence of San Clemente Creek and the Pacific Ocean near the Basilone Road off ramp.
Or, I can always throw some frozen anchovies beyond the surf line at Red Beach, also part of the Camp Pendleton Reservation.
Who knows, maybe I’ll get a two-fish limit or maybe I’ll get skunked. I don’t care. It’s all part of my plan to spend more hours outside, see more wild life, and watch life slowly move past some colorless 15-pound test monofilament line. Retirement, it’s what you make of it, without worrying about what time, day or season it is.—Jim Forbes 11/26/2006
November 26, 2006 in My Life | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
When Patience Wears Thin--To Hell With Mowing
Some of the after effects of my stroke are still quite maddening, and apparently today is the day when my patience gets tested. Hey look, I deliberately try to remain as calm as a hibernating bear, but some times it’s just not possible.
What really set me off today was a shredded drive belt for the mower deck of my itty bitty tractor, “Bambi Deere.” I’ve gone through two belts, replaced the spindles on both blades and am shredding drive belts in mere minutes. It’s annoying and quite discouraging for a guy who at one time was mechanically adept and tenacious enough to rebuild a 1600cc Volkswagen engine on he side of I-5 near the Merced off ramp on two occasions.
If there are life lessons I took away from this knuckle scraping experiences on I-5 on a cold weekend nights it’s this: always carry a working flashlight and spare batteries, read the book, and take your time. Oh and carry a basic tool set with you.
But a stroke wiped out the two things every shade tree mechanic needs: the ability to figure out spatial relationships and patience.
So I spent three hours on Sunday laying on my driveway beside my beloved tractor twisting this way and that to read the manual and try to figure out how to thread a drive pulley across five pulleys, one set of immovable “grieves” and then how to make sure the whole assembly worked correctly.
I started out making some very bad choices. First, I assumed that because my tractor is a Deere, the various nuts and bolts would be SAE standard. I finally realized that my logic was flawed when I rounded a bolt using a 3/8-inch socket. Of course, the nuts and bolts are metric. “That’s right, “I thought to myself Deere bought YanMar (a Japanese utility tractor maker) several years ago.
So back into the garage I go, cursing, fish out a 10-millimeter socket and go to work removing a pulley guard. Of course at about that time my cheap-ass ratchet wrench took a dump so I flung it towards the trashcan with a satisfying grunt and about two choice words made popular at times by actor Samuel L. Jackson. Back to the garage I go to get my beloved Craftsman ratchet. In less than 10 minutes I had the pulley exposed and was ready to begin threading the pulley.
Of course by now may hands are seven kinds of greasy, the sun is headed towards Hawaii and I’m getting suspicious that glaciers are headed towards San Diego at freeway legal speeds of 65 mph.
I look at the manual, realize that I’ve threaded the drive belt zackly as it says it should be and think I’m ready to mow. Fortunately for me, Bambi is equipped with lights that I’ve upgraded with quartz halogen bulbs, just for those nights when I want to mow in zero visibility fog.
My butt plops down into the seat, Bambi fires right up and I slam the shift selector into reverse and get pointed down the hill. Moving forward steadfastly and with noble purpose, I throw the Power Take Off unit into gear and the blades begin spinning somewhat quietly. I make it down the hill; turn to come back up and I smell rubber burning. “Oh shit, the belt is going to go AGAIN!. And of course it does before I have time to save it by disengaging the PTO. Back to Bambi’s parking place it goes, and I climb back underneath with a new belt, making sure it says it for use with my tractor model.
Damn, I should have played the lottery. It’s the right belt and I check the old one against the new belt. Guess, what, the new belt is just a smidge longer than the old belt.
But I’m nothing if not persistent so on it goes and off I go back down my little hill, high powered lights blazing my path in the rapidly darkening evening.
I actually manage to complete two lanes before the second belt shreds and I give into my frustration and kick the mower deck.
“Damn Quad City green bitch.!”
I’m so annoyed that if Caterpillar made a lawn tractor with a 42-or 44-inch deck, I’d be at the dealership when they opened Monday morning. I know I can trust Big Yellow Iron. The trust is in my genes. My dad was a Caterpillar blade guy and he knew his iron.
The score for this weekend is one broken Mantis tiller and one hosed John Deere lawn tractor. Given my record right now, I’m reluctant to get on my Kawasaki ATV and take the trash down to the street. I really don’t want to blow up my quad but if weren’t for bad luck this weekend, I’d have no luck at all.
Well, this post is to try and break open my writer’s block. So that’s it from my little mountaintop here in rural San Diego County on 11/26/2006. Oh and I’m thinking of my favorite red headed partner in fun and crime—Gayle Susan Forbes -- who would have been 52 today.
Lenovo's X60 tablet Sets New High Usability and Features Standards
How do you make a near perfect product better?
Look no further than Lenovo's brand new ThinkPad X60 tablet, which I've been using at a local university for the last five days.
I've reviewed a lot of notebooks in my career, including the abysmal first crop of tablet and so-called slate computers that appeared beginning about 16 years ago. The first crop of machines like those made by Slate Computing and Momenta damn near turned me completely against the concept of tablet and pen computing.
So after swearing off pen-computing for nearly two decades i found myself a born-again believer singing fervent hallelujahs in a front pew after using a Lenovo Thinkpad X41 tablet. And, although the X41 had a slow hard disk, it had a great WiFi transceiver that let me wander an unusually long distance from my wireless router's antennas before my signal would fade. And, it's screen was crisp enough to use in dimly lit college lecture halls. And, despite my clumsiness the X41 was rugged enough to use constantly, without worrying about running the battery completely down. And so Ive come to believe that its light weight, great battery life, sharp display and rugged construction put the X41 at the top of my list of "best tablet computers."
Well, it's a now a few days before Thanksgiving and my X41 has been replaced with a new "best tablet computer" and again Lenovo is the vendor. The machine is the X60 tablet and it reflects the heritage of the ThinkPad X60 compact. Like the X60, the tablet version of this computer has the best connectivity options I've ever seen or experienced on any notebook. In addition to an outstanding WiFi MiMo chipset that's capable of pushing bits faster than most wireless networks operate, and which provides for more reliability and greater range. it also has an integrated EvDo wireless broadband option that works with Verizon's cellular network.
As importantly, Verizon has a sign up policy that lets you try their EvDo network free of charge for three days. My advice is simple: Sell your recalcitrant children for medical research if you need to, but find the money to become an EvDo subscriber. you won't be sorry. Ever!
But connectivity is just one of the things that make the X60 tablet stand out from an ever enlarging field of convertible computers that support pen-input. The feature that really floats my boat however is this notebook's ability to change its 12.1-inchscreen display from portrait to landscape modes on the fly without having to go through the control panel's display tabs. And it lets you step through display positions 90 degrees at a time. Oh, I forgot to mention that the X60 tablet automatically changes from one display mode to another, without user intervention. how cool is that?
I find this invaluable in lectures or classes when I look at material created using presentation graphic packages like PowerPoint or some spreadsheets. Frankly, this feature lets me focus on the clasroom material, not the computer's controls, An important concept for any computer that's to be used by instructors or students. The screen on this tablet is bright and has the ability to be used comfortably outside, which I'm doing right now on a lawn outside the business School of the college where I occassionally lecture. This is a great improvement over Lenovo's X41 tablet and the screen and it's easily reached controls are also things I love about this notebook.
I also really like the stylus that's included with the ThinkPad X60 tablet. It has the right shape and feel for me and there's been no complaints from the very few students or instructors i've let use this machine. I also really like the electronic eraser feature of this stylus-- such a natural idea, I'm surprised it hasn't appeared before. but if you're inclined to take a walk on the wild side, you can use your finger to write with, a frightening thought for me, given the lack of fine coordination in my left hand.
Separtely, Lenovo has moved to a new disk drive with the X60 tablet. This convertible tablet is available with either 100 GB, 2.5-inch 7200 rpm SATA hard disk or a 120GB 5400 rpm SATA hard disk drives. The new drives address one of the most persistent complaints of the older X41 tablet, slow boot ups. Huzzah!It's hard not to wite glowingly about thye keyboards used on ThinkPad portables. hands down, they are the best i've ever used. And, i love the track point cursor controller and three-paddle switches on this and other ThinkPads. I arrive on campus most days with my X60 tablet fully charged. When I throw it in my backpacK at the end of the day--after about five to six hours of use-- I still have between 15 and 20 perecent showing on my battery's power display. percent of my battery charge remaining. I think Lenovo may have the best "hibernate" mode of all the notebooks i've ever tested. I close this machine up, wander off for coffee, come back to th electure hall, open the machine up and pick up right where i left off.If there's one characteristic i believe is essential in a tablet PC used for academic or other rough duty applications, it's durability. the X60 has a shock mounted hard rdisk drive and incorporates ThinkPad's invaluable Active Protection technology.
This tablet's long battery life means that most of its users will not have to tote a power supply around in their knapsacks. I have yet to exhaust the batteries and I really appreciate the X60's light weight; 6.1-pounds without a charger.Well, i have more to say about the Lenovo X60 Thinkpad tablet, but that will have to wait until after i pick up the holiday bird from the farm store across the road from the campus.But the short version is this : Once again, ThinkPad is setting s very high new bar in tablet computing. I'll be sad when this unit goes back to Lenovo, but who knows, maybe there will be another new machine that exceeds the high standards set by Lenovo with the X60 tablet.--Jim Forbes from somewhere in Pomona, CA, wirelessly via a four-bar EvDo connection on a ThinkPad X60 convertible tablet pc.
November 21, 2006 in Pen-based Computing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
When the Internet Brings Closure--Helping a Family To Understand What Happened
Had an odd experience today that left me a little shaken. A very good friend of mine had a half-brother who was a marine KIA in Viet Nam. My friend asked me to find out what I could about the circumstances surrounding his death and I thought “It’s the least I can do.” So I posted an inquiry on his unit’s web site about two months ago and got an email from a retired marine master sergeant who had been with my friend’s brother when he was killed in November of 1967.
After I got the email from the retired marine I did an Internet search to see if I could come up with a phone number. It worked and within 10 minutes I was talking to a guy who had been with my friend’s brother during the engagement south of Con Thien when he was killed.
I tried to find out as much as I could about the engagement and the circumstances of the young corporal’s death. It’s hard for me to turn off the reporter and slow down. By slowing down I was able to piece together the engagement and what happened to the young marine, a member of the heavy weapons section of Golf Company, 2nd Battalion Ninth Marines.
What I found out was typical of what I remember it’s like to be engaged in a fire fight. The young man, armed with a 3.5-inch rocket launcher had been on patrol north of a village near Con Thien called The Market Place. A North Vietnamese unit equipped with a machine gun ambushed the patrol. The NVA unit had also deployed snipers. The USMC patrol took cover in a bomb crater in a defoliated and plowed area called “The Trace.”
Seeing an opportunity to engage the NA machine gun position, Cpl Dale Pehrson loaded his rocket launcher and stood up to take a shot. As he stood up he was shot and instantly killed by a NVA sniper. Based on what his friend told me about the incident, the young corporal did not suffer. Moreover, his friend stayed with him throughout the evening and carried him to the casualty collection point.
The point I wanted to make to this young marine’s family was that their kinsman didn’t suffer and he wasn’t alone she he died. Moreover, his friends stayed with him and carried him the last cold mile. His family and some of the marines he served with have not forgotten Corporal Dale Pehrson, Who is buried in Redding California. The marine who went the extra mile for his friend Dale is named Pete Balcunas. Pete retired as a marine master sergeant long after the battle at the Market Place but never forgot his fellow corporal and friend, Dale Pehrson.
Pete, on behalf of Dale’s sisters and other family members, thanks for staying with and caring for Dale.
Oh, the power of the Internet and Global conversations, providing closure to families who lost a loved one on the other side of the word almost 45 years ago. Semper Fi—Jim Forbes on 11/19/2006.
Corporal Dale Pehrson USMCR, KIA 11/1967 in a firefight at a site called "the Market Place", south of Con Thien, Viet Nam ( photo courtesy of Liz Whitaker)
November 19, 2006 in My Life, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
A RedHead's Guide to the Near Galaxy
For Kane W, a Young Redhead
I grew up one of two redheads in a family that laughed in the face of recessive genes. And so it came to pass that when I learned one of my favorite redheaded coworkers had given birth to a boy, my first question of mutual friend who had seen the issue was: “Is he a redhead?”
You see, I have a lot of experience with people who have red hair. I had it, my sister had it, my maternal grandfather had it, and my dad had it. This condition makes it hard for me to blend in among humans with more subdued hair color.
When, in the fullness of time, the former co-worker sent me pictures of her baby I happened to be in Azusa when I opened the email. Hovering nearby was Ma Forbes, so I said, “Hey Ma, check out this baby, it has the right hair coloring.”
Ma Forbes looked at the screen, noted the hair color of the infant and his wonderful pink cheeks, and said, “Now, that’s a perfect baby.”
Amen, my young melanin-challenged caucasodian brother. And so, Young Master Kane, because nothing ever goes away on the Internet, this post is for you. Think of it as a Redhead’s Guide to the Near Galaxy.
1. It’s hard for redheads to hide in a crowd, so wear your carrot tresses proudly -- and learn to forgive. Redheads are often falsely accused of fomenting trouble. Your accusers are not only jealous, they’re short sighted and merely picking on you because of your visibility.
2. Some members of Mother Nature’s flock also don’t get redheads. Mocking birds and blue jays, for example. More than once I, and other redheads I know, have been the subject of swooping attacks by these two species. Humming birds, however, are on the other side of this coin.. The redder your hair, the more likely it is you’re going to become very familiar with the occassional buzz-by of a curious humming bird. To them you’re a oddly tall pink-skinned walking flower. If you want to, later in life you can return the favor by loading your humming bird feeder with a brightred but very watered down alcoholic beverage that you dump after one or two humming birds get wasted.
3. Redheads often flock. Find and befriend a fellow redhead – you’ll never be sorry because through some genetic magic, many redheads look alike, so it’s easy to shift blame on another non-allied redhead.
When falsely accused of some nefarious deed by people with less flamboyant hair, learn to crowd next to the redhead that most closely resembles you.
4. Be not haughty at such times. Looking down at the ground and moving slightly from side to side most often will hide your guilty grin. Try hard not to laugh at such times. Rejoice in your youthful redheaded mischievousness. Remember Payback can be painful.
5. As you grow older make sure you always have some form of high-octane sunblock with you at all times. I recommend starting with SPF 45, applied every 20 minutes. Zinc Oxide is your friend. Better to have a white nose and white greased lips than wretched blisters on your lips and skin cancer on your proboscis. As you get older, it’s easier to explain to blondes that because you’re a redhead your lips are blistered from the sun, than risk being accused of having an infectious virus.
6. As a young adult, if you end up in Southern California, do not go to some godforsaken beach on the east coast of Baja and fall asleep after drinking way too many $.50 shots of bad mescal. The sun at the water’s edge is not your friend, and you could end up drizzled liberally in vinegar and lemon juice (an emergency astringent you need to know about), shivering in ice on your way up to an emergency room in National City, CA, for treatment of very bad sunburn.
(A case in point: after delivering my favorite redheaded co-conspirator to an ER room after a bad Mexican sunburn experience, a doctor asked what was wrong with my voice. He looked down my throat, glanced into my dilated pupils, and said “you idiot! You went to sleep with your mouth open.” Such things happen to redheads.)
. Traveling to the Western European seaboard may instill a geneticaaly induced feeling of “I’ve come home.” This is particularly true in Ireland, northern Scotland, Norway and Normandy in France. Don’t be fooled: your very visible genetic marker is a giveaway that somewhere in your parents’ past there’s one or more relatives with names like Swen, Inga, Thor or Freya.
If it weren’t for the Vikings, the only things the Irish would be known for would be frank political discussions in bars that serve Guinness ale, boiled dinners, police vehicles designed to transport rowdy hooligans called “paddy wagons”, and iterant monks that re-established Catholicism after the Dark Ages.
7. Also, when traveling among European redheads don’t be surprised by the sudden urge to try drinking Meade or Guinness ale, or eating a bite of lutefisk and a slice of goat or reindeer cheese. Give in to it; it’s in your genes.
There are some things to watch out for. High on the list are redheaded young women with 8. pale skin and green eyes. No matter how strong the attraction, don’t give in.
9. Finally, nothing can beat the sheer joy of unleashing your inner redhead. Life really is a delicate karmic balance so have fun and remember:
“Redheads rule, no on else gets the joke.”—Jim Forbes, 11/18/2006 frowning at some reddish gray hair on my scalp.
Gateway's Rugged CX 200 Convertible-- A Surprising Find
Since rejoining the Church of the convertible notebook I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what goes into a great pen-based computer. It’s not really a very difficult question to answer.
First, my approach to testing pen-based convertible computers has been to find one application that stresses a notebook to the max and then see how it works. The application I think best tests a convertible notebook is academic computing; the kind where the portable goes in and out of a knapsack several times a day, gets put into suspend mode and is brought back to life after a long cup of coffee in a student union later in the day. Or where you have to rely on it to run on its battery pack for back to back lecture classes in a dim hall while you pass class materials over a wireless network or trade IM’s with a friend or student 10 rows away you in a 100 person class.
Gateway’s CX 200 was one of the convertible tablet PCs I wanted to test. And I’ve been using one quite successfully for the last six weeks. What I’ve discovered is that the CX200 has very good battery life- I never once had to hook up its charger in a six-hour school day, a big screen that makes it easy to focus on the material at hand in a dim lecture hall and it’s been designed for rugged use.
It’s almost impossible not to notice how rugged the CX200 is. The hinge on its 14.1-inch screen is reinforced and is noticeably arger than similar mechanical parts used in other convertible pen-based systems. The hinge isn’t the only reinforced part on the Gateway CX200. it’s system case has also been reinforced. So, all this reinforcement and its extra long life battery put the CX200 on the tubby side of the convertible note book lineup.
I consider this a small price to pay for machine that can go all day on its batteries and is tough enough to stand up to the rigors of college computing.
Mechanically, the CX200 is a safe choice if durability is a primary concern. The cost of this system is another plua. Configured with 2GB of system memory, the unit Gateway supplied me costs just under $1,300.
Another plus is the CX200’s a bright screen and it’s sharp display. It’s at home in the classroom, a college cafeteria, coffee shop or out on the grass of the Quad where it’s audio system does justice to Grateful Dead concert recordings and the infrequent Susan Tedeschi MP3.
I also like the performance of the CX200. The 80GB hard disk has the throughput that makes short shrift of loading pen-based computing operating system extensions. And there are no problems with this unit’s DVD read/write disk, which seems to be more reliable than the built-in player on the TV at my home back in Escondido.
I plan on taking the CX200 to my family’s Thanksgiving bird fest to show it and Lenovo’s new ThinkPad X61 in a side-by-side comparison to my big brother, Saint Chuck TheWise, who teaches surveying to about 130 apprentices here in Southern California. As someone who spent 30 years in field engineering, recording information seven or nine paces to the right of a decimal point, I think he’ll grok pen-based computing’s potential. But what I think he may find most interesting is the concept of and growing number of interactive teaching tools for convertible computers.
Gateway’s CX200 isn’t a light weight convertible, and its size forced me to get a larger back pack, which is a good thing considering how tattered the old one had become. The CX 200 doesn’t supplant Lenovo’s convertible pen-based offerings at the top of my “best of” list, but it’s a good choice for anyone on a tight budget that needs a rugged convertible with great battery options and a surprisingly crisp display. It’s only real downside may be it’s 6.9-pound weight, but I think its features outweigh this one drawback—Jim Forbes 11/16/2006, wirelessly from a student center at a college where students “learn by doing.”
Combat Blogs-ya Gotta Read 'em
Thanks to the unparalleled combination of social networking sites, notebook computing and reliable Internet communications average citizens are being given an unprecedented look at the souls, unfiltered emotions, experiences and lives of our troops as they deploy to and serve in Iraq and Afghanistan or any other country where US interests are served by the military.
And so, I've become a fan of combat blogs. Time was there were only a few writers who focused on then lives and feelings of our deployed service people. Combat journalists Ernie Pyle made their mark with such stories in World War II before Pyle was killed in the battle for Okinawa. Bernard Fall--who wrote "Hell in a Small Place," and "Street Without Joy," died in Viet Nam nearly a generation later.
In the 21st century were seeing thousands of young servicemen and women use social networking to talk about the experiences they and their close friends have gone through. And a lot of their writing is as compelling as anything Pyle or Fall ever penned. And unlike past chroniclers, today's Homers get their thoughts down on their screens in near real time, while the emotions, scratches are still raw and while the smell of dusty patrols, frigid hours on night time guard duty and even the oddly sweet odor of gun powder are still fresh in the writers's minds.
I've been reading combat blogs for the last year and have quickly become a fan of Slate.com's "The Sandbox" site and the blogs that servicemen and women deployed in Afghanistan post there. if you want a sample follow the link below.
http://gocomics.typepad.com/the_sandbox/2006/
MySpace, and BLogSpot also have have their share of combat blogs so do a search and read a few. You won't regret it and it helps remind you that service to the Constitution is noble; and it often leads to critical thinking. Judging from the comments posted to many of the combat blogs I read, I see that todays servicemen and women are thoughtful, caring and aware of their heavy responsibilities. Combat blogs are also great examples of emerging Global Neighborhoods ( a topic that fellow blogger Shel Israel hopes to turn into his second book in the near future.
Who would have thought? a notebook computer and regimental or battalion WiFi would supplant my generation's totems; a ship-it-home stereo, carry-it-with you-at-all-times single lens reflex camera loaded with 36 exposure Kodacolor and Seiko watch buckled to our arm?
This is the generation that went to war with a notebook computer, started blog on a social networking site and posted their experiences for anyone to see. I've never seen a better use of technology or a finer class of citizen soldier-- Jim Forbes 10/16/2006
(Note From Jim:One year ago, i gave my Toshiba Satellite and my Compaq Presario 2000 to young servicemen deploying to the Mid East or Central Asia. I was curious if either machine could withstand a combat deployment. Both did, for a while: the Satellite lasted eight months but fell victim to a power surge, the Compaq Presario 2000 went seven months before its motherboard bit the dust. the keyboards on both machines were effected by the sand present in enlisted and warrant officer hooches and required frequent cleaning. the fine sand ever present in those parts of the world made short work of keyboard lettering.Overall, I was very pleased with the records of both notebooks i sent with young kids on their oversea deployments. I never expected either machine would return to the states. I'm very happy to report the servicemen using the machines faired much better than the notebooks. Oh,I'm replacing the Presario with a Lenovo 3000 and I'll probably buy a new Toshiba Satellite with Intel Duo Core sometime after tax time. More on that later.
Cell Phone Banking-- One Step Closer
http://news.com.com/Cingular+to+dabble+in+mobile+banking/2100-1039_3-6135743.html?tag=nefd.top
The wireless venture of AT&T and BellSouth said Wednesday that a wireless banking application it is testing would let customers of participating banks view account balances, transfer funds and pay bills on their cell phones.
Spokesman Mark Siegel said Cingular hoped to launch the application commercially in early 2007. Cingular was talking to a lot of banks, but he did not name any potential partners or disclose whether the company had any firm commitments.
"We hope a lot of banks participate," he said. "The early signs are very encouraging."
Siegel said Cingular does not plan to charge a separate fee for the feature, which it hopes will encourage customers to sign up for data service subscriptions and potentially help Cingular win new subscribers and hold onto existing ones.
OK! at least one of the national carriers is taking a big first swing here.Now let's see Verizon, Sprint and TMobile move up in the lineup. The mere presence of mobile phone-based banking apps doesn't create a lot of momentum. But the addition of another big hitter in the lineup could budge this application past its moment of inertia. Big consumer banks--Citibank, Wells Fargo and bank of America-- need to get behind this as quickly as possible.
I also believe that Intuit could be a force in the adoption of this technology as well. Cellphone-based electronic banking is one of the hot topics that float my boat. Although I'm retired, one of the well worn titles I still have as the father of a daughter still in college is "President, First National bank of Dad." In this role, I often make late-in-the day transfers from my account to my daughter's account and having access to cell phone based banking is a nice feature.
How nice? Well, my LG cell phone is prety ragged and my Verizon contract is nearly "end of plan," so I'm shopping and cell-based banking as well as EvDo are high on my list of the new features that could motivate me to sign up again with Verizon or move to another carrier. I just wished that EvDo would come down a little in price or that Verizon would find a way to reward my loyalty as one of its long-standing customers. but at least i can dream.--Jim Forbes on 15/11/2006
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Tag: Home Schooling
Educational Freedom Fighter
Evangelos helping FreeToBeP learn how to ride a bike
Educational Freedom Fighter: An Interview with Evangelos Vlachakis, Plitra, Greece, April 2016
Home education is illegal in Greece, yet my family and I have just attended the Worldschoolers Spring Edventure in a small Peloponnese town, hosted by cinematographer Evangelos Vlachakis along with his family and friends at the Porto Grana Hub in Laconia – a place for home educating and worldschooling families to meet, learn, share and discover life together.
I interviewed Evangelos to find out more about his vision for educational freedom in a country in which such freedoms are restricted.
How did the Porto Grana hub come about?
There was an old restaurant available, so we had the idea to use it as a recreational space for kids. Since there was a very limted budget, we tried to renovate it on our own. We tried to combine it with my idea to bring homeschooling families into contact with my family, as I was very concerned about my daughter’s schooling and I felt that having some inside information from families who already homeschool would be beneficial to us. So, it really came about through the combination of having the empty space to use and wanting to research homeschooling.
Is there a strong community of families in Greece who would like to home educate and does anyone practice it despite it being illegal?
I’ve been involved in [researching home education] over the last 3 years and I’ve come into contact with many Greek families that are already willing to homeschool, and also with families that already do it or have done it. Some of the families are doing it underground and only two that I know of have been prosecuted for it.
Some families decide to move abroad in order to pursue a home educating lifestyle when it isn’t legal in their home country – is that something that you ever considered doing or was it always much more important to you to try to develop something in Greece?
I’d like to stay where we live as I think it’s the ideal place for kids and for families – we have the sunshine about 90% of the year and the countryside here is so virgin and unspoilt that it’s an ideal place to grow up. We don’t want to leave this place – on the contrary, I would like to invite families that would like to live in this kind of place to join us here! Foreign families who visit can legally homeschool in Greece – my thought is that on some level we can form a network of foreign and Greek families around Porto Grana and collectively try to lobby the government for a change in law.
So in what way do you hope this more ‘global’ network will help with the lobbying and in the format of home education you present to the Greek government?
I’m trying to gather information about how it’s done because, whilst many people here want to home school, we don’t know how it works in practice, and that’s why we like to come into contact with home educating families so that we have more insight into how you home school the children. This would be beneficial in our attempts to lobby the government in terms of forming a proposal.
Is it in any way difficult looking in on families from elsewhere who have freedoms that you don’t have or does the closer contact with home educating families give you greater optimism that it is possible?
Yes, first of all, I can see that it is possible. I believe what would help is to build a community first, because it helps the families that feel isolated and who need the company of others to support them. I think that building a community will be an ideal base for pursuing home schooling in Greece, and a community also serves the children to more easily interact with one another and develop community projects.
Is it something you’re optimistic could potentially happen soon (as your daughter is already 10 years old and compulsory education in Greece is just until age 15) or are you looking ahead at future generations?
Yes, I’m looking at future generations, it’s not only about my daughter – I would love to home school, but the community-based home schooling I envisage might take some time to happen; we are just at the beginning but I think we have a lot of potential to make it a reality.
It takes some people a lot to take action just for their own children in terms of trying to change a law, maybe putting up with something even if it directly affects them as “that’s the way it is”, so the fact that you’re invested in this is admirable – I think you’ve probably picked up on the fact that for most home educating families it’s a huge lifestyle choice and the freedom to home educate is interlinked with so many other freedoms and our autonomy in the world. Have you got a written plan yet?
Not as yet. My main concern is with forming a community, starting with having families stay with us for a little while. The reason I organise the worldschoolers’ events is for families to come together and be able to live in the countryside and experience how it is to live here – in the future I would like to form an eco-community of worldschooling families who will be the network of people who show the government how community-based home schooling might look.
So the events you’ve set up so far are an experiment to see who’s out there with a view to a future eco-community here?
Yes. We’ve already planned the summer event for June 23rd-30th [2016],and also plan to have autumn and winter events in September [2016] and January [2017].
Evangelos with home educated children in the Porto Grana garden, preparing for mealtime at the Worldschoolers Spring Edventure
To find out more about the Porto Grana Hub and its events, please visit the website at http://www.portograna.wix.com/worldschoolers-hub and/or join the Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/portogranahub/
By Free To Bein Community, Home Education, Travel April 26, 2016 September 22, 2016 1,064 Words2 Comments
10 Websites for Teaching Global Citizenship
In the age of globalisation, citizenship has become a hot topic for educators – from national citizenship lessons specific to a child’s country through to the more inclusive realm of global citizenship.
In a country such as the UK, there are many things people take for granted that those in other countries cannot (from material goods to human rights) and it is important to equip the next generation with the critical thinking skills to see the bigger picture beyond our own culture and borders.
The following 10 websites for teaching global citizenship are full of activities and resources about world culture and important global issues:
Kid World Citizen
I find the KWC site fun, friendly and comprehensive. There is a vast array of hands-on activities in order to learn about different cultures from the comfort of your own home, as well as family travel advice for seeking first-hand experiences in other countries.
Whether there’s a particular country or specific celebration you hope to explore or you wish to browse a general subject such as language or geography, you can find something on here which helps bring cultural studies to life.
Oxfam have a wealth of resources relating to many of the big issues facing the world community.
The Resources page allows you to search by age, topic, curriculum subject, country or activity type.
With topics ranging from climate change to conflict, development to diversity, and refugees to rights, there’s a huge variety of issues to recognise and explore.
This is aimed at teachers yet has a huge array of resources and links – their list of topics is inspirational in itself! Many of these resources are free and cover up to date events, such as the 2014 attacks on Gaza.
Children can learn about global issues through browsing their favourite curriculum subjects or by choosing a specific issue facing the world community.
Education Scotland
Based in Scotland yet truly global, this has a wealth of ideas, information and resources for approaching global citizenship and international education. Its blog and calendar are up to date, making it a great site for informing yourself about current affairs.
This site is a bit on the ‘dry’ side for looking at with younger children, but there are plenty of conversation starters – even just thinking about their definitions of terms could provide enough material for a learning session:
Education for citizenship encourages taking thoughtful and responsible action, locally and globally. – Education Scotland / Foghlam Alba
International education helps to prepare young people for life and active participation in a global multicultural society. – Education Scotland / Foghlam Alba
Oh, and giant panda lovers click here.
My Learning: Citizenship
The Citizenship page of this site features plenty of resources for researching both local and global concerns, particularly for primary school aged children.
When looking at human rights, slavery and discrimination you might want to explore the Global Citizens – Make An Impact! resources. For learning about women’s rights, the From Suffering to Suffrage page may prove useful.
Global Footprints
Yet again aimed at schools, the Global Footprints website by the HEC Global Learning Centre nonetheless looks to be a handy resource for exploring global community, whether in a classroom or at home.
Their classroom page includes a number of activities for getting to grips with global issues via literacy and numeracy lessons, with many key topics being explored alongside the 3Rs.
The Traidcraft website provides a number of activities for looking at the issue of fair trade with children and young people. From group assemblies to competitions, there are a variety of ways to get kids engaged with the topic of fair trade.
Including many seasonal activities, the most relevant as I post this is their Easter page, featuring an Easter egg hunt with a difference!
Picture My World
This site is the face of CAFOD for children (CAFOD being the Catholic Agency For Overseas Development); whilst I automatically link such organisations to missionaries and conversion efforts, I believe this can be a talking point in itself, leading onto topics such as secular society, and the links between religion, race and culture.
On this site, children are invited to learn about life in other areas of the world through looking at photo diaries of other children. It also draws attention to issues such as world hunger and the need for clean water.
Global Kids Connect
A US site aimed at school classes, this site nonetheless has useful information about what it means to be a global citizen, with ideas on how to encourage cultural exchange and philanthropy.
With an emphasis on the lives and culture of children in other parts of the world, this gets kids thinking about what it means to be a child in a different country – or even someone in your own community with a different background.
The Red Cross provides a broad range of issues to explore which can be browsed by topic or school subject. Featuring current news headlines such as ebola and migration, it also looks at citizenship issues closer to home – from day-to-day kindness through to emergency situations.
Browsing the activities on this site, the practical and emotional concerns of people during crises are clearly evident – the shared experiences of all humanity brought to the fore.
I hope this list gets you off to a flying start with your family discussions about the human family!
Do let me know what you think of the sites listed and whether you successfully make use of any of the resources they lead you to.
Book lovers – if your children’s appetite for global citizenship education has been whetted, the following titles may be of interest (FYI, these are Amazon affiliate links):
By Free To Bein Citizenship, Home Education March 23, 2015 March 23, 2015 957 Words1 Comment
Project Planning & The Organic Organisation of Home Education
The theme music plays, evoking memories of time spent in childhood reveries about mystery, exploration and other worlds. The Mysterious Cities of Gold, an adventure revolving around an orphaned boy and the search for Inca gold, was a favourite TV series of mine as a child, and famous cultures of old that built magnificent temples and tombs always held a fascination for me; a fascination which remains to this day.
And now it seems that, through his mutual love of a TV programme, FreeToBeP is becoming as captivated as I was about the journey to ancient civilisations in search of secret places and secret knowledge.
As a home educator who takes a semi-structured yet child-led approach to our family learning, I’ve jumped on this as an opportunity to begin our first proper ‘project’ as an HE family: The Incas.
We’re currently forming a plan of what we can do, things that will satisfy FreeToBeP’s visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learning style. Even just doing preliminary online research for possible activities, we’re both taking in new concepts and learning new facts – we test the sound of new words on our tongues as we learn what quipus are and what chicha is; FreeToBeP giggles nervously as he ponders the fate that would befall our friends’ pet guinea pigs in Peru (guinea pigs being ‘cuy’, a favourite meat dish of the Inca empire); and I grin in anticipation of knowing I will soon be purchasing some purple flour.
The ruined Inca city Machu Picchu (Creative Commons image. Copyright: Peter van der Sluijs)
The further we tread on our path of home education, the more I realise how compartmentalised conventional schooling is. Once upon a time I viewed my Year 5 project on the ancient Egyptians as ‘just’ history. In forming a plan for our own ‘history’ project, it quickly becomes apparent how holistic such projects actually are.
During our first day of brainstorming activities and points for discussion, our list of project components covers history, geography, cultural studies, geology, religion, cuisine, politics, archaeology, art, engineering, human biology, mythology, mathematics and literacy.
In successive posts I hope to share some of our activities with you, which will hopefully culminate not only in a child (and mother!) who can wax lyrical about the Inca empire but also in a whole project plan for others who wish to pursue the same subject.
FreeToBeP has already started constructing his Minecraft Inca city, complete with booby-trapped temple. For me, some background reading: free books available on Kindle – History of the Incas and (a novel) The Treasure of the Incas.
How do you plan any family projects? Do you ditch a ‘plan’ and just let it flow? Any other fans of The Mysterious Cities of Gold out there? Let me know below 🙂
By Free To Bein Home Education January 28, 2015 February 18, 2015 477 WordsLeave a comment
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Three Seconds
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Many of the details – including the title are still shrouded in mystery for the collaboration between Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis, but we are at least starting to see casting for the movie. Blade Runner 2049’s Ana de Armas is the latest to sign on. She joins the likes of Lily James, Himesh Patel and a more nebulous Kate McKinnon and Ed Sheeran in the film, which Curtis wrote and Boyle will direct this year.
Much has been said and speculated about the plot of this one, though nothing official has been confirmed. We’ve heard it’ll feature something to do with the Beatles, and a musician in the 1960s/1970s, but beyond that all involved are keeping quiet so far. You’d almost think that MI6 was making this film. As for de Armas, she’s worked on crime drama Three Seconds and in a short film by John Hillcoat about to have its word premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Actors: Ana de Armas, Clive Owen, Common, Edwin De La Renta, Joel Kinnaman, Rosamund Pike, Sam Spruell
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Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes Forums › Feedback Home › General
I don't get the whole p2w situation...
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Waqui
PeterBahama wrote: »
Jedi_of_Oz wrote: »
Players had ample opportunity to at least unlock ****. There was plenty of hinting for some time of the OT **** event and the ships which would be required if you heeded the information provided on the forums, reddit, youtube blogs and offline chats.
And yes, it was very achievable without pouring a cent into it.
Actually unless you refresh the nodes and spend an additional 320 energy daily on those two ships then you couldn't have gotten them 5 stars since they became farmable.
Cents != crystals. Everybody earns crystals in-game. Some spent them to farm XB and IG-2000 - others didn't.
Jedi_of_Oz is correct.
APX_919 wrote: »
Hhm so everyone should be active in Reddit, forum and YouTube in order to keep up with the game? What if they are not aware? Does that automatically disqualifies them from wanting to stay competitive without spending hundreds of dollars each time the devs decide to "hint"something in the forums?
That depends on how you want to play the game. If you are casual then by no means should you have to follow reddit, YouTube and their ilk as your playstyle need not be influenced by others. If you are a collector and choose not to be competitive, following hints will at least allow for an unlock thus fulfilling that collectible item. If you are competitive then following hints on all sites gives you the best chance of anticipating meta shifts and unlocking meta toons or ships at their maximum potential.
Well sure but you can't say that it's fair to all players they should pick on on obscure hits from forums in order to have a shot at competing with others.
Since each and every player had the same opportunity to do so, by definition it was fair to all players. Hints and information was publicly available to everyone on these official forums.
DarjeloSalas
I didn't refresh IG2000 node and got the ship to 5* a couple of days before the event started.
Didn't track drop rate - must have been on the favourable side.
Suprème_Lèader_Tsao wrote: »
I don’t know. A ship as iconic as the Falcon deserves its time in the meta. And the developers have the right to make a little cash on it. They’ve got bills and expectations from their higher-ups.
Paying for high-end content before everyone else is the current state of mobile gaming (and everything, arguably). It’s a game but also a business. To deny it is either is to deny reality.
You summed everything wrong with video games today. A couple key points here.
1. I thought the falcon was totally f2p friendly, how is it that you are bringing the "they got bills to pay" argument if the falcon isn't designed to be p2p and f2p friendly.
Unlocking it at 5* WAS completely f2p friendly. Every player and their grandmothers could have done so. Taking it to 7* like Jedi_of_Oz did, would require high discipline and resource management. Those without the same discipline and free daily crystal income could have spent some cash instead.
2. Did anyone question that an iconic ship like the falcon did not deserve to be meta?
I question your false statements that it was a cash grab even to unlock the ship, and that you didn't have the opportunity to farm the new BH ships in time for unlocking the new Falcon.
Member5973
Waqui wrote: »
All players have a choice - you included. Your achievement are a result of your choices. Plenty of free to play players unlocked the new Falcon, because they chose to keep themselves informed and farmed the required ship. You chose not to (according to your statements). Stop blaming it on anything else than your own choices.
That´s ridiculous. Choice depends on information. You missed the point completely. The statement you quoted was about how CG do expect people to look for information from sources they might not even know about. You think Reddit is an international thing? It´s not (60% user from the US, the rest is small groups scattered over the planet).
Instead of complaining about a pay wall, you could be either theory crafting how to beat it yourself or look for knowledge that already exists. There are videos already out on how to beat the ogmf without the ogmf.
Heck, i won my first battle against a rebel fleet with ogmf in tw using the exact team required to unlock it. Not bad for 'useless' ships.
PeterBahama
CosmicJ wrote: »
"Do x" instead of "y". Well I can do both, obviously I am working on how to beat it, I've tried over a dozen different combinations and I've failed each time. I am also complaining about this because I don't want this to become a habit. Forcing us into a new grind before we have time to finish the previous ones. If this keeps going on at the current rate we're in trouble. So obviously I'm doing both.
Member5973 wrote: »
Very well said, nobody should have to depend on outside sources in order to not fall into a disadvantage. You're right Reddit is in fact mostly popular in the US and not so much around the rest of the world and this game is clearly everywhere around the world. We don't even have a proper in game notification system to keep us updated about what's going on and clearly this is deliberate since the devs rely on people's ignorance to keep their farms somewhat uninformed
Legend91
Can we just ignore any future PeterBahama threads/posts? It's pointless.
Legend#6873 | YouTube | swgoh.gg
You are the only one to mention CG's expectations. Noone did in the quoted comments. You're wrong.
The point is - still - that everybody had the opportunity to keep themselves informed and farm BH ships in time for the event. Blaming anybody else than yourself for missing that opportunity (like the OP does) is quite frankly a bit silly.
Legend91 wrote: »
It's ok that you don't want to hear it, I'm sure you would if you didn't get the falcon.
The point is - still - that everybody had the opportunity to keep themselves informed and farm BH ships in time for the event. If you want to dispute that, you some sensible arguments.
1. Go to his profile, there's a small symbol of a human top half with an upside down Triangle.
2. Click the triangle and choose Ignore from the drop down menu.
UdalCuain
That's on the full site though. Not sure if it can be done on the mobile site.
Just to highlight, it will not save you from his other possible clone accounts like @PeteBajama
You'd have to ignore each and every single profile one by one.
Jedi_of_Oz
No, but if you're looking at obtaining information to make the most effective and efficient use of your account, then it helps to stay informed using any media that is freely open to you. Knowledge is power.
From my experience, I was able to farm the shards required to get all BH ships and consequently the Falcon to 7*. I started farming missions exclusively with a sensible number of daily refreshes from the moment these ships became farmable using crystals obtained solely from squad and fleet arena payouts. I was also able to increase my crystal stores by nearly 20k a month while doing so, without a penny spent.
My example, while it seems impossible to you, is entirely possible with discipline, focus, and without relying on a credit card.
At this point I would say you acted af you had absolute certainty that falcon was coming and as if you knew what the requirements would be. What would you have done/said/thought big they had either not brought the falcon for a few more months or if they had required other ships like empire?
Also notice how your example uses FO ships to make the BH choice too obvious but you didn't use Empire which is actually even more relevant and obvious than BH ships. So could argue that empire ships should have been used and that BH have nothing to do with the falcon. The falcon never fought these ships but constantly fought imperial tie fighters and Vader's tie advance
The Road Ahead post from September 2018 clearly hinted that OT Trilogy ships and characters would be released in the near future.
There were also several well-circulated leaks in other media that turned out largely to be accurate - minus the GG rework and release of Malevolence - which I still hope do come.
Empire ships, you say? I had those things maxed ages ago and so did most serious players. Do you honestly think CG would release an iconic ship like the Falcon and allow it to be obtainable using assets they already had maxed? There was no other viable option but to make Falcon obtainable by difficult to obtain ships. The only option was BH as they had relevance to the OT Falcon. Sith ships - while equally difficult to source - had no relevance to the OT Falcon.
Well then if that's the case the devs are playing a dangerous game. Hinting what's to come only to those smart enough to figure it out. Kind of elitist if you ask me, would be a heck of a lot more fair to simply say it.
Also forcing a connection between factions doesn't mean anything. You also had ewoks potentially maxed for ages, that didn't stop them from being used for 3po did it? All they had to do was up the difficulty. Plus whose fault is it that we got 2 falcons prior to this one and we didn't get the OG one sooner?
Also I have a challenge for you, if you're so good at predicting stuff or claim that you did after the fact, why don't you tell us what to expect during the next couple months in regards to content and legendary events and things you're certain that we should go as far as refreshing nodes to make sure we have them maxed out asap.
There'll always be smoke and mirrors when it comes to what the Devs say and do - the uncertainty helps induce irrational behaviour and panic spending if you're not prepared. Nothing new there.The leak had nothing to do with the Devs. In fact they suspended the Game Changer program as a result.
Not sure of your comments regarding Ewoks or the order of release of the types of Falcons and what relevance it has.
You want a prediction? If you haven't already completed them and/or already obtained Revan, put significant focus into completing the farming of the 5 Old Republic toons released in H2 of 2018. Secondly, place immediate attention to farming the latest 4 Old Republic toons as they will most likely be needed for a Legendary/Heroic Event in February 2019.
Because f2p can do 10-12 nodes at the same time right?
Mate, you’re beyond help.
Good luck with your projects.
Zippy_3000 wrote: »
leef wrote: »
No, i'm only saying you're wrong. Your reasoning is just wrong. If you think it's OP that's fine by me, but if you think you deserve top10 without actually being able to get top10 during a meta shift you're just wrong. Why on earth would it be unfair if you can't reach top10 anymore? but but but others spend money and now have a better team than me... boohoo
I also love your sarcastic "You're right, it's not OP ... etc". It hasn't even crossed you're mind that maybe you're the one who's wrong right? haha.
in case you were wondering, not only do i not care about fleet and have the falcon unlocked, im also completely f2p. I don't really care if you're frustrated, ea/cg might though. potential costumer.. uuuh i mean they'll start catering to f2p folk more with their releases.
Guess what dummy? I think YOU’RE wrong. Did you ever consider that? I think adding an OP element that breaks the game (whether it’s pay to win or not) is a really bad idea. It’s also an obvious cash grab, which is another reason why it’s so frustrating. The gameplay used to be balanced, now it’s broken. But nobody should complain right? Let’s just be happy that it’s broken now.
If you don’t care, then why are you here spewing your messy opinion all over the place? Like trolling people? How sad. Have a nice life kiddo.
anyone who doesn't agree with you must be a dummy/trol/kiddo right? haha
I'm sorry that you can't seem to understand the point i'm making because you're too caught up in your emotions. The ships you used to get top10 weren't balanced at all, that's the reason you were using them and the reason you were able to get top10. Im sure you felt some type of way about reaching top10 due to the choices you made farming those particular ships and gearing the pilots, a accomplishment/reward of sorts for your hard work/efforts. Your choices, your rewards. How is that different with the falcon? You could have gotten it just like the other players on your leaderboard could have farmed the same ships you did which lead to you getting top10. You just didn't, just like those others didn't.
You're just salty because you didn't get the falcon, not because the gameplay is broken now all of a sudden.
For all those saying the OT Falcon is no big deal:
My galactic power is 2.5 million, and 1.25 million of it is ships. I started this game about 2 years ago, and I’ve worked super hard to level all my ships and pilots to get a shot at finishing in top 10.. and up until the OT Falcon was released, I had accomplished that. (My best finish is 4th) and now suddenly, because tons of players now have a 7 star HT and a 7 star OT Falcon, I essentially have ZERO CHANCE at even cracking the top 10. This to me, seems really unfair. At the time of this posting, OT Falcon is in the front lineup for 3 out of the 5 top spots in ship arena, and is likely hidden in reinforcements for some of the others.
So, as many of you sit smugly berating OP for his post, I suspect that you either:
A) own the OT Falcon, so you’re fine with it being OP.
don’t really care about ship combat
The fact is: for SOME people, the OT Falcon breaks the balance in the game. Not everyone has been playing since launch, or has the resources (time/money/etc) to be able to farm everything the game throws at you. The reason we love this game, is the how fun it is based on the sophistication of balance. Dumping the OT Falcon in there really caters only to pay to winners, and long term players. The middle group that struggles to get there is cut out of the winners circle now until they introduce a proper counter- whether it’s bringing in another ship, or nerfing the Falcon.
That’s just the way it is. So, try not to be so smug, and if you don’t care about ship combat, then don’t make irritating comments. OP is voicing a fair and accurate point of view for many of us.
If you can't beat it, you don't deserve #1.
unfair if you can't crack top10, lol. What about those other 10k players on your leaderboard? Should they be able to beat your team aswell even if they don't have the ships necessary to do so?
fwiw, i'm both A and B. Don't give a fudge about fleet, but i do have the falcon unlocked.
So you will blame people for not being able to beat a ship that dispels AND calls assists on basic, with a rebel tag which synergizes with a capital ship that gives exorbitant amount of protection to ships who attack off assists. A buff that makes it untargetable even if all other of it's allies are under stealth. Which makes it a "ghost" ship essentially that you're always forced to kill last. On top of that, it's got one of the highest health pools which makes it impossible to take out before it gains the buff that forces you to ignore it while it's out there.
This ships is designed to be unbeatable except from a player who has the same ship in their line up. Anyone who fails to see it is simply unreasonable and a liar. But honestly if you find a way to reliably beat it without using it then feel free to share it with us, I'd be ecstatic to find out how. If you can't prove it can be done perhaps you need to lay off the assertions
assertions? lol.
I could have said you don't deserve #1 if you don't have the falcon, but i'm sure there are some nifty players out there who can do it without the falcon. If you weren't able to get the falcon and youre not able to beat it, why on earth would it be unfair for you to not be able to reach top ranks? By that logic arena is unfair by default.
The ships I've been using have all but the HT been available to everyone for a very long time and incredibly easy to farm by all standards. Your comparison is utterly ridiculous and out of sync with reality.
Alright, this has gone on long enough and we need to put this horse to rest. He has been beat enough.
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Home Forums > Software Topics > Windows Operating Systems >
[WIN10] Gone back to WIN 7
Discussion in 'Windows Operating Systems' started by Mathuisella, Apr 26, 2018.
All driver/game/compatability issues aside, which do you perfer 7 or 10
127 vote(s)
NSanity Member
flu!d said: ↑
Considering volume licensing or a subscription model, Windows 10 is not worth the hassle or the ongoing costs. So, once again, Windows 10 EE is unobtanium for the average consumer, which is Microsoft's intention.
You can buy it. Once. Forever. I literally posted a picture of Pro for Workstations.
My year of the Linux desktop was roughly six years ago and I have no doubt that ~75% of PC users could dump Windows in a heartbeat. Feature parity across platforms including Linux is no where near as bad as your assuming, very few people absolutely need MS Office, the worlds least compatible office suite, or Adobe products, which are vastly over rated.
Uh huh. Yep. and somehow that unnecessary, super expensive and awful software continues to destroy a completely free option that is 100% equivalent in every single aspect. Yep. This is precisely how the market works.
NSanity, Apr 30, 2018
flu!d Ubuntu Mate 16.04 LTS
NSanity said: ↑
I did buy it, I bought Windows 10 Pro and used to be able to do quite a bit of what is now exclusively available under Windows 10 Pro for Workstations. Microsoft watered down my legitimately purchased product that I paid over $215.00 for and I am not prepared to go out and purchase an upgrade to what I already had. So, once again, Windows 10 is not worth the outlay when I can get everything I want, and so can many others, for free.
Windows popularity is 100% the fact that it's literally force installed on every brand name and OEM device sold, that's got nothing to do with the fact that it's in any way a great OS - On the contrary, as another on these forums so accurately put it, that makes Windows the McDonalds of operating systems.
The concept of a market is the very issue here. I've come to the realization that I'm more than a tax paying cash cow of a consumer.
flu!d, Apr 30, 2018
Mathuisella Member
in your gearbox...grindin
Before you keep sprouting bullshit,
Sorry, but i will just not believe that the cia/fbi/dod and all those people and more who have offices in the pentagon openly give out what computer operating specifications they use. Likely they're saying what ' sort' or something along the same lines that's half way believable to throw people off as to what they're really using.
Mathuisella, Apr 30, 2018
Mathuisella said: ↑
Please provide evidence to support your position.
I've deployed SOE's for Organisations that have strict ASD requirements.
For the record - Win 10/Server 2016 when hardened correctly is pretty damned hard to beat security wise.
Turbine likes this.
Turbine Member
I don't need such products, I voted with my wallet.
I'm more than a tax paying cash cow of a consumer.
I hope you donate to open source projects at least.
Turbine, Apr 30, 2018
1. I can order Dell with Ubuntu.
2. Somehow Free still can't beat paid.
Jeez i wonder if there is maybe something else... Can't put my finger on it... Could it be that FOSS isn't 100% equivalent to paid software in every aspect?
No, its the market that is corrupt and wrong.
metamorphosis likes this.
Matthew kane Member
I'm still on Win7 for my home pc, only because I've been using the same install since 2013 and am very familiar with it, no incentive for me to upgrade/migrate anytime soon. The free upgrade migration to Win10 2.5 years ago left some of my test systems a mess with driver compatibility issues and such, I think it is still premature in terms of device/driver/compatibility wise, but otherwise where something is fully supported it boots faster and is more responsive compared to Win7 on the same system with an SSD. The security level is also a notch better compared to Win7.
Matthew kane, Apr 30, 2018
Last I checked, only if you have a reseller account with Dell and only if you buy a top of the line Precision laptop. You cannot buy the XPS Developer Editions in AU. In order to get a reseller account with Dell they will want to know what you had for breakfast and then some, it's not something the average consumer is going to do.
And besides, one laptop with Ubuntu as an option to the OS force installed by default, are you serious?
Depends on whether you class an office suite that can't conform to the open ISO standards of docx and xlsx as better. Because every other office suite can conform to such standards designed to allow for 100% compatibility across platforms just fine with the exception of Microsoft Office - The worlds least compatible office suite marketed to the foolish as the worlds most compatible office suite.
Kafoopsy Member
PersianImmortal said: ↑
I've sidetracked this thread a fair bit, so I'll have one last (looong!) say here and then I'll leave it to you guys
That was an awesome post and sums up exactly my thoughts about Windows. I use Windows 7 on my home PC and I will hold out against changing (I refuse to use the word 'upgrade') to Windows 10 as long as I can get away with it (I used Windows 98 till late 2009). My other pc has Windows 8 and I spent hours configuring it to make it look and act like Windows XP.
The main problems I have is much the same as everyone else has - it is getting harder and harder to make it do what I want it to do. I shouldn't have to google how to change settings in Windows 10 - like I did to change the two finger scroll direction. The network connection settings are hopeless. Too many different control dialogs. All network settings should be in just one window. And when a wireless connection fails, it just says 'Can't connect to this network' That is a pointless message - why can't you connect to the network? What went wrong? How do I diagnose a problem if you won't tell me what went wrong?
Another big problem I have is that Windows 8 and Windows 10 are so two dimensional. Gone are the nice 3D windows and buttons - everything is all on one plane - like Windows 2.0! And also gone are the classic mode and pretty much all the interface settings. You choose a background picture and a theme colour and that is it!
Kafoopsy, Apr 30, 2018
millsy_c Member
Damnit I didn't want to post here.
https://www.asd.gov.au/infosec/epl/index.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaluation_Assurance_Level
https://www.commoncriteriaportal.org/products/
Believe what you want, it does not make it true. They don't release their hardening guidelines for the lols, and they don't spend a fortune on testing stuff for a laugh. Contrary to what would seem to be popular belief, closed off standards and security through obscurity are not an improvement. Not to say that many eyes make it better, but if the manner in which you configure your environment will screw you if leaked, you probably haven't got a good standard configuration. Nobody says even they are following everything they prescribe, they definitely don't state their compliance to it, but they're not gonna release deliberately insecure standards for review, there's too many people to call them out on it.
Matthew kane said: ↑
Surely you jest, saying the security level is a notch better than Windows 7 is absolute crap, see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/wi.../overview-of-threat-mitigations-in-windows-10 for a high level overview. If nothing else Device Guard + better security models make the OS way more secure, even to the extent of mitigating the risk of known weaknesses in code. If you're dealing with compatibility issues going 7>10 you're dealing with some very poor software. The last major kernel change that broke a *lot* of stuff was XP > Vista, anything after that is just sloppy code. Maybe you need said sloppy code, if so so be it, but that's not win10 specific.
I mean the counter argument is the FOSS alternatives aren't fully compatible with the worlds most commonly used office suite format
Suggest all the people freaking over telemetry read this:
https://www.usenix.org/system/files/1401_08-12_mickens.pdf
You're freaking out over the mossad, when the real life threat to your privacy and collection of personal data are frequently used with the implicit acceptance your personal data is for sale to the right bidder (social media, google et all). If you're that concerned, you have better, more practical battles to fight IMO.
millsy_c, May 1, 2018
millsy_c said: ↑
The fact that you can transfer docx and xlsx files between WPS Office and Libre Office just fine but everything turns to shit the second Microsoft Office is included suggests that it's Microsoft Office that's at fault. You also have the well known fact that when the ISO standards for docx and xlsx were implemented, MS used their corporate muscle to split the standard into two parts, solely for the benefit of Microsoft.
I'm sorry, you're being duped.
Spying at OS level with no realistic way to opt out is unacceptable, it's that simple. No OS should spy on it's users - None.
flu!d, May 1, 2018
Which always comes back to the point as to what PII is being sent with the telemetry. My grievance with it was that whilst currently innocuous, the wording I didn't feel was specific enough to exclude very personal stuff being sent.
You may have missed the heavy sarcasm in my point about it
flu!d likes this.
Fair enough, my bad.
Sounds like a hard life.
The only time I've ever come across an open source word processor was being forced to submit assignments in OpenOffice format by one lecturer at Uni.
...you can beat the drum on standards all day but the herd have spoken.
Turbine, May 1, 2018
Turbine said: ↑
I believe if the heard had a say Microsoft's deliberate sabotaging of open ISO standards wouldn't be an issue.
let me introduce you to a feature;
This has existed (in some shape or form) since like... 2010 SP1?
NSanity, May 2, 2018
History lesson:
http://techrights.org/2014/08/02/ooxml-strict-and-transitional/
To quote the article:
Helas, if you open a purely OOXML-Strict compliant file with Microsoft Office 2013, the file will be declared corrupt. If you open the same one with LibreOffice 4.3, the file will open and you will be able to edit its contents just like with any other format supported by LibreOffice. In other words, LibreOffice can claim to have a better support of OOXML than Microsoft Office, despite years of unfulfilled promises, pledges, and never met expectations by Redmond. I guess that, just like the old saying goes, promises only commit the ones who actually believe them.
In short, from the onset Microsoft have worked to sabotage OOXML for the benefit of Microsoft - As always. The worlds least compatible office suite marketed as the worlds most compatible office suite.
broccoli Member
It's likely you will have to go to Windows10 at some point...
Why? If newer hardware 'requires' it, you can just stick with older hardware until it dies.
broccoli, May 2, 2018
broccoli said: ↑
I heard that some people are writing on old 486's and do just fine
https://mashable.com/2014/02/15/modern-writers-technology/#NkUkQn65juq9
Mathuisella, May 2, 2018
https://pureinfotech.com/windows-10-redstone-4-version-1803-new-features/
I noticed you can review the telemetry sent now.
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HomeBest Jewish Delis In The U.S. Participate In NY Deli Month
Best Jewish Delis In The U.S. Participate In NY Deli Month
by Michael Kaminer
‘Deli Man’ Ziggy Gruber of Houston’s Kenny & Ziggy’s.
Everything’s bigger in classic Jewish delis. So when Houston deli maven Ziggy Gruber conceived a version of Restaurant Week, he made it last a whole month.
Now, New York Deli Month is back for its second year, and Gruber — owner of Houston’s Kenny & Ziggy’s, and star of the documentary “Deli Man” — is kvelling.
A celebration of “The Best Jewish Food Across the Country,” New York Deli Month 2017, which highlights true New York-style delicatessen fare, includes 19 iconic delis across the country — 10 more than last year. They span the land, from Hymie’s Deli in Merion Station, Pennsylvania, to Canter’s in Los Angeles, from Ben’s Best in Rego Park, Queens to Chompie’s in Scottsdale, Arizona, from Manny’s in Chicago to Corky and Lenny’s in Cleveland.
Along with a specially priced prix-fixe Deli Month menu, each restaurant commits part of its profits to a local charity; the delis gain national promotion and beefed-up social-media presence.
On the slick Deli Month web site, a quote from David Sax’s 2008 “Save the Deli” warns of “endangered” Jewish eateries. Is that still the case, we asked Gruber?
“I think so,” he says. “New delis are not always making it — they’re opening and closing. The old-timers, too — look at the Stage and the Carnegie in New York. Some of the newer delis have morphed into something different, a new generation. I love Will Horowitz’s place (Manhattan nouveau deli Ducks Eatery). But I wouldn’t consider it a traditional Jewish deli. Great sandwiches, but where’s the flanken? So yes, I do think delis are in danger.”
Deli Month, he says, was established “to showcase how good Jewish cuisine is. If you’re young, and you haven’t eaten goulash, or tried a Roumanian steak, here’s your chance.”
Deli owners agree. “It’s a fantastic idea,” says Jay Parker, owner of Ben’s Best, the Queens kosher deli where 2016’s Robert DeNiro melodrama The Comedian was set. “There are fewer of us, you know. We have to stay in the public eye if we plan to move into the future.”
Canter’s, the legendary Los Angeles noshery, got on board “because we believe it is important that the remaining delis band together and promote deli culture,” says Alex Canter, a co-owner. “Even though we are well-established, it is important to increase awareness of deli food and continue to introduce new people to it.”
Courtesy of Factor's Deli...
Not Just NYC: Factor’s Famous Deli in Los Angeles is one of the restaurants participating in NY Delicatessen Week.
For Debbie Ullman, an owner of Factor’s Famous Deli in Los Angeles, Deli Month means sharing “an awareness of this special breed of restaurants. Yes, some of the old generation that used to flock to delis is gone. But delis are here to stay. You just need to adapt.” Factors will donate its Deli Month proceeds to L.A.’s Museum of Tolerance — a salute to Ullman’s mother, the 91-year-old Holocaust survivor who co-founded Factor’s with her husband.
New York Deli Month continues through August. “Deli Month is bringing more people into the stores, definitely,” says Gruber, who opened a second Kenny and Ziggy’s in 2015. “And it’s not just Jewish people. It’s a lot of newcomers who’ve never tasted the stuff, and they love it.”
Even better, Gruber says, Deli Month brings deli proprietors together. “Years ago, with delis on every corner, they saw each other as competitors,” Gruber says. “Today, we don’t. Everybody’s working together. And for me, who thought he knew everyone in the business, I got to meet people I’ve never talked to before. It’s been wonderful.”
August Is New York Deli Month
NY Deli Month Rolls Out With Prix-Fixe Menus
Michael KaminerAug 10, 2016
Michael Kaminer is a contributing editor at the Forward.
This story "It’s New York Deli Month" was written by Michael Kaminer.
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Guardian’s n0tice puts a new twist on hyperlocal
Bobbie Johnson Oct 28, 2011 - 3:00 AM CDT
The Guardian, one of the world’s most forward-thinking newspapers, has been conducting some interesting online experiments recently, including a cool little tweetbot that answers your questions by finding stories in the news, and its attempt to open up news production.
But one of the most interesting trials could be a new hyperlocal service called n0tice that the company is putting through its paces.
The site, which is currently running in invite-only beta, is an attempt to create a publishing platform based on location — and it uses the metaphor of a community noticeboard to get there. People can sign up to create their own board, customize it, leave messages, place small ads, anything they like. In a way it harks back to the days of BBS, but with all the bells and whistles you might expect from a website in 2011.
Testers, mainly in the U.K. where most of the focus is, are starting to use it for a range of different things: whether it’s existing local bloggers giving it a trial run, people selling items, listing events in their community, reporting road closures, and so on.
And there’s a business model too: while small ads are free to run, companies that want to target users pick a location and pay depending on how far they want their message to spread.
It’s certainly a departure for The Guardian, which has largely focused on content over platforms — and the end result is a hybrid with some serious potential. It’s part blogging platform, part Craigslist, part communal Twitter stream, part forum, part event listing. Work clearly needs to be done on some areas, and the emphasis is likely to shift over time, as more and more users come in and shape it — but the real question is whether it becomes more than the sum of its parts, or less.
Hyperlocal has long been something media companies have talked about as a way to save themselves, yet in reality it has struggled to really make its mark. On a micro scale, a number of local media properties have done this very well over the years — sites like McKinney, Texas’s Townsquarebuzz or Howard Owens’s The Batavian, say — but in order to be sustainable for a large media organization, hyperlocal needs to scale. That’s part of what convinced MSNBC to buy and relaunch EveryBlock, a data aggregation service that promised to make important local news available to you.
But where EveryBlock was all about data, n0tice is about people.
“I love Everyblock, it’s a real inspiration, actually,” explains Matt McAlister, who is running n0tice from his lofty perch as director of digital strategy for The Guardian‘s parent company, Guardian Media Group. “But I wanted to go as far in the opposite direction as I could in terms of aggregation, at least at the start. We may be wrong about that choice, but I’d like to think that people will be interested in participating on n0tice in part because it’s their space to make.”
He adds that it’s also different from other services that it shares similarities to, such as AOL’s often-derided Patch.
“It’s different from Patch in lots of ways, but one significant difference is that anyone can own a noticeboard, kind of like WordPress. It’s totally open that way. It’s different Craigslist in that it feels like a more holistic view of what’s happening the local area, not just things that people are trading.”
Still, with The Guardian behind it, a lot of people are going to be watching n0tice to see what happens. There are a few things that are worth thinking about that should be taken into account, though.
First, the UK classifieds market is far more disjointed than, say, America. Craigslist — so often invoked as the scourge of the U.S. news industry — is not just weak, it’s more or less non-existent. Sites such as the eBay-owned Gumtree are more powerful but not entirely embedded.
Second, the idea that newspapers have failed to compete with Craigslist — as posited in this piece at the Nieman Journalism Lab — also carries less weight in the U.K. Britain’s Daily Mail, for example, has been active in the small ads online for years with the likes of loot.com and has a growing property website empire.
Third, the real competition for a service like n0tice may ultimately be from social networks like Facebook or Twitter, where communities of interest already coalesce. McAlister’s argument here is that n0tice doesn’t have to beat social networks, it just has to be open enough.
“We haven’t really viewed what we’re doing in a competitive landscape, but rather approaching a common real world problem that doesn’t seem to have been solved yet. Given the open nature of the platform we’re building, I imagine we’ll be able to do a lot with WordPress and Twitter and Foursquare and any other open platform.”
Some seeds of where this thinking might go can be traced through his own work. Before being catapulted to run group-wide digital strategy, McAlister helped architect the Guardian Open Platform system — which attempts to turn the news into an API. Prior to that he was director of the Yahoo Developer Network and at the intersection of publishing and the web with The Industry Standard and Infoworld.
He confirms that combining with other services will be important as n0tice grows. A read API is about to be launched and they’re working on a write API too. Meanwhile, it will be important to connect to existing social networks and sources of activity. “We have done some lightweight hooks so far, but clearly there will be some fun things we can do with Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook et cetera,” he says.
Staying power needed
Still, even if n0tice gains traction, the longer term issue may be whether it has support. After all, The Guardian‘s approach to the local market and small ads has lurched one way and then another over the last few years — it sold off its regional news operation for £44m, sold half of its sizeable classifieds business Trader Media, and launched and then closed a series of local blogs.
It’s not the only one: large news organizations including the New York Times and Washington Post have launched attempts at hyperlocal platforms or services, only to shut them down soon afterwards. Even with support from the top, does the company really have the willpower to get stuck into hyperlocal and stay there?
“My hope is that the advertising model we’re working on will support the investment people make in n0tice,” says McAlister. “If that’s the case then it will at least be sustainable, if not actually a generative platform — something that gets stronger the more people use it.”
DMGT
everyblock
Matt McAlister
2 Responses to “Guardian’s n0tice puts a new twist on hyperlocal”
ScooponMerchant November 22, 2011
UK Guardian’s is testing new platform ‘n0tice’ which puts a new twist on hyperlocal http://t.co/7ObLwnur
PBS MediaShift November 16, 2011
“Where EveryBlock was all about data, n0tice is about people” -@bobbiejohnson http://t.co/G2i3VSye (GigaOM)
Simon Grice October 31, 2011
BeLocal (http://belocal.com/) is providing a similar service – it’s not in Alpha yet but getting traction in the areas the pre-Alpha is available
Adrian Holovaty October 28, 2011
It’s inaccurate and misleading to call EveryBlock a “data aggregation service,” as this article did. Back in March we did a relaunch that changed the site to focus on community participation. Read http://blog.everyblock.com/2011/mar/21/redesign/ and your very own coverage at http://gigaom.com/2011/03/23/everyblock-learns-secret-to-local-news-people/ for more.
To get a sense of what people talk about on EveryBlock, visit http://chicago.everyblock.com/top/ (our “Top news” page in Chicago, our strongest market). People have used our site to get a lot of good done in the real world, like apprehending criminals and bringing farmers markets and businesses to their neighborhoods.
I wish Matt and the folks at n0tice well. It’ll be interesting to see how they solve the chicken-and-egg problem of getting people to contribute. With us, we had a built-in audience of people following all of the data we had aggregated in the previous version of our site — so it was just a matter of giving those people tools to talk to each other. Starting from scratch is hard! :-)
Adrian @ EveryBlock
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Tag Archives: Newport Mansions
Accessible Travel, Attractions, Cruising, Historic Places, Museums and Exhibits, Places of History, See America, US Destinations
Endlessly Fascinating, Newport RI, Playground for the Rich, Makes its Attractions Accessible
August 12, 2018 krubin723 3 Comments
The Gold Room at Alva Vanderbilt’s Marble House in Newport, Rhode Island, epitomizes the Gilded Age © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
by Karen Rubin & Martin D. Rubin
Each time I visit Newport, Rhode Island, the guided tours of these Gilded Age mansions get better and better, more immersive into the lives upstairs and downstairs, more intriguing, and the relevance to society today more apparent. The gap between rich and poor hasn’t been this great since Cornelius Vanderbilt II built his palatial summer “cottage,” The Breakers.
Newport is still a playground for the rich – it is the reason it is the home to the International Tennis Hall of Fame and considered the sailing capital of the country, why it is so associated with classic cars – but the interesting thing is you don’t have to be rich to play, too.
This most recent visit to Newport comes as a port of call on the second day of Blount Small Ship Adventures’ week-long voyage to New England islands. We have a full day to explore, and sailing in gives a very different perspective.
We also are able to experience Newport from the perspective of how well the destination accommodates visitors with mobility issues.
Our ship, Grand Caribe, docks at Fort Adams State Park, “America’s largest coastal fortification,” a short stroll to a launch or a water taxi to the “downtown”.
Many of our fellow passengers are taking the island tour that the ship offers, which will include a stop at The Breakers, and the cruiseline had also arranged a 2-hour sail aboard an America’s Cup classic yacht (which had to be canceled because of weather). But I have some particular goals for our day in Newport.
We are met by Andrea McHugh from Discover Newport who has organized an itinerary to maximize our time gives us our own island tour (as well as the gossip of which tech billionaire has just bought which house, and how Jay Leno, who visited and attended events at the new Audrain Automobile Museum (which we will visit), passed an oceanfront mansion he liked and bought it on the spot, and now is seen regularly tooling around).
The gorgeous coastal views along Newport’s 10-mile Ocean Drive © Karen Rubin/ goingplacesfarandnear.com
We drive along the magnificent 10-mile long Ocean Drive with its scenic views and rocky shore, and pass the driveway into Hammersmith Farm, the Auchincloss estate where Jackie married John Kennedy. It used to be open to the public with a fantastic exhibit of the Kennedys but was acquired by Peter Kiernan (notable for the Robin Hood Foundation, funded by John Jr.), and is no longer open.
We pass Beechwood, a mansion once owned by the Astors and for many years, where actors played their parts in period dress. It is now owned by Larry Elllison (Oracle), who, we are told, is planning to open part of the mansion as an art museum.
We pass Belcourt, once owned by Oliver H. P. Belmont (who became the second husband of Alva Vanderbilt), which was purchased in 2012, by Carolyn Rafaelian, who has spent a considerable sum on a multi-year restoration and has reopened it for public tours.
The Breakers, the 70-room summer “cottage” built by Cornelius Vanderbilt II in 1895 © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
We arrive at The Breakers, probably the most famous (and emblematic) of the Newport Gilded Age mansions that line Bellevue Avenue. It has a new visitor center which is really well done – barely visible from the street, it blends in wonderfully architecturally while affording a very comfortable (air conditioned) place to pick up tickets (take advantage of the multi-ticket options offered by The Preservation Society, which operates 10 of these glittering Newport Mansions, each with special exhibitions and presentations (see NewportMansions.org), refresh at a delightful café (sandwiches, $9.95), and utilize accessible restrooms (before, it was difficult for people with mobility issues to access a bathroom on property).
The new visitors center at The Breakers has a lovely café and sitting areas and is particularly helpful for visitors with mobility issues © Karen Rubin/ goingplacesfarandnear.com
Each time I visit, I find new things to appreciate and understand– audio-guides, for example, which replace the scheduled docent-led tours so let you tour at your own pace, are endlessly fascinating with opportunities to click on specialized topics. (A free app, Newport Mansions, let you download the commentary on a smart phone even when you aren’t touring the property.)
(The audio-guide lets you know that people who can’t climb the stairs can ask a docent to escort them upstairs in an elevator.)
Built by Cornelius Vanderbilt II (the grandson of “The Commodore,” the founder of the fortune, who turned a ferry boat into a shipping empire into a railroad empire), this breathtakingly grand, eye-popping, 70-room Italian Renaissance “cottage,” designed by Richard Morris Hunt, replaced a wooden structure that burned down. This was 1895, and the United States was jockeying for a position as an industrial power on the global stage. Hunt, the commentary relates, had a vision for an architecture expressing an American Renaissance, one that was classic, grand in scale, but that which reflected the hope and optimism of America.
Eye-popping grandeur at The Breakers, Newport © Karen Rubin/ goingplacesfarandnear.com
It is mind-boggling to recall when you see the gilding, the carefully carved wood, the marble, the artwork, that this palace (they called it a “cottage”) was only used about eight weeks of the year, during “the season.” The Breakers would have had 40 staff in summer (Newport had 2,000 servants, mostly immigrants).
The Breakers is as much an architectural and artistic treasure as a touchstone to social, cultural and political currents of the Gilded Age.
We learn about the family and the social structure of Newport: Mrs. Alice Claypoole Gwynne Vanderbilt’s bedroom, for example, also functioned as an office from which she ran the home.
Newport was actually run by women, we learn. These grand homes were designed to present their wealthy daughters (heiresses) to be snapped up for a favorable marriage.
Dressing was important. Women would have to change something like seven times a day (a riding habit, tea gown, bathing outfit, tennis, golf, sailing). Newport was the first place women played outdoor sports; whole new fashions were created.
The Breakers had 15 bedrooms and 20 bathrooms (we see one bathtub, carved from a single block of marble that was so cold, it had to be fully filled and drained several times before it would be warm enough to bathe in.)
We see the servants corridors, hidden closets and back stairs. “Female servants were invisible.”
When we arrive in daughter Gertrude Vanderbilt’s bedroom, we learn that she was upset to learn she was an heiress. She preferred to be an artist, and became a sculptor, an art collector and patron and, in 1931, founded the Whitney Museum. (Here, I click the audio guide for more detail on specific things: Gertrude was on the forefront of the New Woman, an educated girl. The idea to become an artist came to her in a dream.)
We come to the mezzanine overlooking the grand staircase. (People who cannot climb stairs can ask to be escorted to an elevator.) “Gilded Age Newport was built, managed, and maintained by women. It was the backdrop for the presentation of women” at a time when a woman’s fortune depended upon making a favorable marriage.
The Breakers’ Grand Staircase – the steps were made two inches shorter so the debutantes would not trip on their gowns © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
We learn that the grand staircase stairs were built (and even rebuilt) to be two inches shorter, so the young debutantes could be presented in their gowns without fear of tripping.
At this portion of the tour, you can click on the audio guide to hear more detail about how the Vanderbilt’s attained such wealth and privilege (but it is really, really hard to keep the players straight without a scorecard – so many have the same name like British royalty).
The Commodore left the vast majority of his enormous fortune to his eldest son, William Henry Vanderbilt (“Any fool can make a fortune; it takes a man of brains to hold onto it,” Cornelius Vanderbilt said.) Though he outlived his father by just eight years, in that time William doubled the Vanderbilt wealth from $100 million to $200 million.
In the oddest quote on the audio-guide, William Henry Vanderbilt explains why he sold controlling stock of the Vanderbilt empire to a syndicate headed by JP Morgan: “The care of $200 million is too great a load for any brain or back to bear. It is enough to kill a man. I have no son whom I am willing to afflict with the terrible burden.” The commentary adds, “Without a single visionary leader like the Commodore, there was no one to invest in the next new technology. Automobiles and airplanes replaced the railroads, the once vast fortune was split and shared among generations of descendants.”
When we visit the kitchen, we get to appreciate some of the modern innovations of the house. The first Breakers burned down so when Cornelius II rebuilt it, he had the kitchen separated from house and no burners. Zinc, the stainless steel of its day, covered the worktable. There was a separate, smaller room which could be kept cool, for preparing pastry.
The Music Room at The Breakers, Newport © Karen Rubin/ goingplacesfarandnear.com
It is worthwhile to appreciate that as we see the trappings of obscene wealth, privilege and power, we also get to appreciate that the servants – who were mainly immigrants – saw their position in these mansions as improvements, and many were able to embrace the American Dream and move up in station and class. The Breakers’ chef, we learn, started as a kitchen boy and became known as the Omelette King.
The Butler’s pantry, a two-story affair, had a safe for the butler to lock the silver away. The butler, we are told, was like the captain of ship.
Leaving The Breakers, we walk down to the Cliff Walk, the most visited attraction in Rhode Island, and for good reason. This is a delightful walkway along the cliffs (mostly paved and accessible for someone who uses a cane or, as I urge instead, hiking sticks), behind the grand mansions such as The Breakers, and free to enjoy. It extends 3.5 miles all the way to Doris Duke’s Rough Point (where the walkway becomes more scrappy). Today, we only get a taste of it, in order to conserve time and energy.
The 3.5 mile Cliff Walk goes behind many of the magnificent Newport mansions and provides stunning views of the ocean © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
Marble House
If The Breakers is about patriarchal wealth, power and privilege, Marble House, built before The Breakers by Cornelius II’s sister-in-law, Alva Erskine Smith Vanderbilt, tells the story of burgeoning feminism and what happens when a smart, ambitious woman has few outlets for her vast talents beyond making an advantageous marriage.
Of the $11 million spent to build Marble House was built for Alva Vanderbilt, $7 million was spent on 500,000 cubic feet of marble © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
Marble House (which we reach by hopping Newport’s delightful trolley-style bus) was designed by the architect Richard Morris Hunt (who also designed The Breakers). Inspired by the Petit Trianon at Versailles, Marble House was built between 1888-1892 at a cost of $11 million of which $7 million was spent on 500,000 cubic feet of marble. When it was finished, William Kissam Vanderbilt, the Commodore’s grandson, gave the house to his wife as a 39th birthday present.
Alva built Marble House to be “a cottage like nothing Newport had ever seen.” As it turns out, Alva Vanderbilt was also like nothing Newport had never seen.
At a time before there were public museums, The Gothic Room at Marble House, which Alva Vanderbilt purchased “en bloc” in Europe, became a private museum © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
The Gothic Room featured an important Gothic collection from Europe, which Alva purchased “en bloc” – the whole caboodle. “She considered herself equal to European collectors but didn’t want to collect over generations.” The room was designed and executed in Paris – then reassembled here piece by piece.
At a time before there were public museums, this room became a private museum.
The most revealing room into Alva’s soul is the library (the “morning room”), where you see photos of Alva’s children and a portrait of Harold, born when her oldest, Consuelo was 7, who came back one day to find she had a baby brother and was told “God had sent him to us.”
The room is Alva’s feminist declaration, decorated with images of goddesses representing beauty, wealth and power. She wove into the frame and the fabric of the room images of women’s accomplishment – women holding a quill pen, Cleo, the Greek muse of history, female images of learning and the arts – the four corners showing (mythical) women in chemistry, botany, astronomy.
Part of the ceiling decoration in the Marble House Morning Room, depicting women in intellectual roles, part of Alva Vanderbilt’s declaration of women’s rights. She later was a leader and benefactor of the Women’s Suffrage movement, holding rallies at Marble House © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
“In education, women have made tremendous strides,” she said. “It is not so long since women freed themselves from their man-made belief that it was unwomanly for a woman to have an idea of her own.”
She also said, “A man’s brain is not half a brain and we are the other half. Blending of the two will make a better whole.”
Her bedroom also was a display of the power she coveted – a bed on a throne-like platform, and images of Athena – goddess of wisdom and war.In this period, though, she saw social standing – that is, marriage to wealth – as a woman’s only means to power and independence. She applied this to her daughter, Consuelo, and raised the child to marry royalty.
Alva Vanderbilt’s throne-like bedroom in Marble House © Karen Rubin/ goingplacesfarandnear.com
Consuelo seems to have been Alva’s obsessive focus. You hear how she was groomed to be married off to European royalty – from childhood forced to wear a steel rod from her neck to waist with a strap around her shoulders, to force her to sit up straight.
From her quotes, Consuelo seems to be fully aware of how she was being dominated by her mother, yet was a dutiful daughter, very close to her mother and understanding. We visit her austere room decorated by her mother which, she says, “reflected in my mother’s love of me.”
Consuelo Vanderbilt’s bedroom at Marble House © Karen Rubin/ goingplacesfarandnear.com
We see the guest room – the only one in this fabulous mansion – decorated in rose silk, with an 18th century bed. The most famous guest was, of course, the 9th Duke of Marlborough, Consuelo’s intended. We learn there is only one guest room in the house because people who would visit the house either had their own “cottage,” rented for the season or stayed in a hotel. “Marble House is built for the family.”
Consuelo “reluctantly accepted a proposal from the Duke of Marlborough.” She was one of the “Dollar Princesses,” American heiresses who married foreign royalty.”Consuelo Vanderbilt not the first or the last, but she was the best known.”
These marriages, “were a melding of the old world and the new world. They enabled royalty to maintain property and palaces for another generation.”
Indeed, the Gilded Salon – literally painted in 22 carat gold, the very epitome of Gilded Age – had a featured role in Duke’s marriage proposal.
But after Consuelo was married off to British royalty, Alva acted for herself, divorcing William K in 1895.
My favorite quote from the audio guide, “I was the first of my set to marry a Vanderbilt and the first to get divorced – but not the last.” Alva Erskine Smith of Alabama felt herself a pioneer for her class, a female knight reassuring others. “Mine was the first, but the first of many.”
She ditched William K. Vanderbilt to marry her husband’s best friend, Oliver H.P. Belmont, moving down the street to Belcourt.
After her second husband’s death, Alva Vanderbilt Belmont reopened Marble House and had a Chinese Tea House built on the seaside cliffs, and held Women’s Suffrage rallies © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
After Belmont’s death, Alva reopened Marble House and had a Chinese Tea House built on the seaside cliffs. She became active and a major donor to the Women’s Suffrage Movement, holding rallies in 1909 at Marble House.
She raised money for the cause by opening Marble House to the public: “Shop girls could mingle with socialites” for the price of a $5 ticket (which would have been equivalent to $500 in today’s money).
Alva insisted, “Women shouldn’t marry until we get vote,” a pronouncement considered hypocritical for a twice-married woman.
Following her mother’s example, after 26 years as Duchess of Marlborough living in Blenheim Palace, Consuelo ended her loveless marriage in 1921, giving him $2.5 million a year, and married “for love” a French aviator, Jacques Balsan. (More about these personal relationships in a fantastic photo gallery in the basement.)
In stark contrast to the grand (albeit austere) bedroom that Consuelo occupied, her brothers’ rooms were tiny and spartan; Willy K Jr.’s room was occupied by Marble House superintendent, William Gilmour, who joined the household when he was 16 to be Willy K’s companion.
We visit a trophy room (that had been converted from two dressing rooms that were between Alva’s bedroom and Consuelo’s), that recognizes sons William K., Jr.’s role in pioneering the sport of auto racing in America (he created the Vanderbilt Cup auto races and built the Vanderbilt Parkway which starts across from where he had a home in Lake Success); and Harold Stirling, one of the finest yachtsmen of his era who successfully defended the America’s Cup three times and invented the game of contract bridge. Notably, as chairman of the board of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Harold supported integration.”He wanted to be associated with positive, progressive thinking.”
In the basement kitchen (capable of feeding 100), we see yet another side of Alva in a quoted segment complaining “how the rich are exploited. When a shopkeeper learned my address, he said he made mistake of the price and added 50%.” This at a time when she paid a French chef (after all, you had to have a French chef), the massive sum of $10,000 (equivalent to $250,000 today).
We see in the cupboard silver trays etched with the children’s names and china made with “Vote for Women.”
In Marble House, too, people who have difficulty climbing stairs can ask to use an elevator, and the docents will find a place to sit and rest, as necessary.
In summer, the Preservation Society has 10 properties open, all with distinctive presentations and exhibits.
Rosecliff, the 1902 “fantasy in terra-cotta”, is presenting “Bohemian Beauty” celebrating the ideals of the Aesthetic Movement, personified by Oscar Wilde who visited Newport twice, with furniture, ceramics, wallpaper, glass, silver, paintings and clothing (thru Nov 4).
(Plan your visit in advance at The Preservation Society of Newport County, 424 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, RI 02840, 401-847-1000, info@newportmansions.org, www.newportmansions.org.)
In addition, there are the homes and heritage sites operated by Newport Restoration Foundation including Rough Point and Whitehorne Museum (51 Touro St., Newport, RI 02840, 401–849–7300, newportrestoration.org).
Tennis, Classic Cars
Between The Breakers and Marble House, we take in some of Newport’s other distinctive attractions:
The grass tennis court at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, where the first US Open tournaments were played. The hall of fame honors tennis champions © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
The International Tennis Hall of Fame, which features the original grass court where American tennis began. The museum features 2,000 artifacts spanning hundreds of years of tennis history (such as the patent for the game of tennis signed by Queen Victoria in 1874), displayed in redesigned galleries with some interactive exhibits. One of the newest, most novel exhibits features a hologram of tennis legend Roger Federer who offers the top 10 reason why he loves tennis. The Hall of Fame honors hundreds of the most accomplished champions, inducted since 1954. After touring the museum, you can explore the seven-acre historic grounds of what the Vanderbilts’ would have known as the Newport Casino (the Tiffany clocktower and Shingle style building was originally developed by architects McKim, Mead & White in 1880), grass courts of the Bill Talbert Stadium and newly built indoor courts (you can even rent time to play on its grass courts). Here, too, we are able to request the use of an elevator to get up to the exhibits on the second floor. (194 Bellevue Avenue, www.tennisfame.com).
Audrain Automobile Museum offers regularly changing exhibits based on its private collection of 250 cars (every one in working condition), from 1899 to modern day, as well as special events. Ever changing exhibits display 15 to 20 cars at a time around a theme. We had just missed the “Muscle Car Madness” exhibit featuring cars of the 1950s and 1970s, accompanied with surf boards and original art.) On view now are some intriguing cars I had never seen before: Messerschmidt, which after World War II when Germans were no longer allowed to build airplanes, used airplane parts to create a micro-car that basically looks like a cockpit with wheels. A French version is also on view. “They aren’t great to drive,” says the young docent who drove it and says all the cars on display have to be in working condition. (Audrain Automobile Museum, 222 Bellevue Avenue, 401-856-4420, audrainautomuseum.org)
Audrain Automobile Museum offers regularly changing exhibits based on its private collection of 250 cars; here some of the micro cars produced after World War II that are more like an airplane cockpit (and made from airplane parts) © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
We enjoy a marvelous lunch at Annie’s bistro café (176 Bellevue Ave., anniesnewport.com) – elegant dining in a casual atmosphere and the best New England clam chowder anywhere –before hopping a trolley-style bus for a short ride to Marble House (you can see the schedule on googlemaps.com on your smartphone).
Andrea returns us to the Grande Caribe, where it is too late to explore inside the fort, but I walk along the Bay Walk (a 2.5 mile loop with gorgeous views of Narrangansett Bay and Newport Harbor) before returning to the ship for the cocktail hour and dinner. (Blount Small Ship Adventures, 800-556-7450, www.blountsmallshipadventures.com).
This was what you could do with one full day in Newport. There is so much more to do, and so deserving of a return multi-day visit. Top on my list: Doris Duke’s Rough Point (newportrestoration.org); Touro Synagogue and Loeb Visitors Center (tourosynagogue.org), Redwood Library and Athenaeum (opened in 1750 and has a collection of more than 200,000 titles, www.redwoodlibrary.org), and The National Museum of American Illustration (americanillustration.org), to list but a few.
See more and plan your visit: Discover Newport, 23 America’s Cup Avenue, Newport, RI 02840, 800-326-6030, 401-849-8048, www.discovernewport.org.
Blount’s Small Ship Adventures’ Grande Caribe © Karen Rubin/ goingplacesfarandnear.com
The Grande Caribe will next sail to New Bedford (see A Spectacle in Motion: Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ‘Round the World is Once-in-a-Lifetime Must-See at New Bedford Whaling Museum) and on to Martha’s Vineyard.
Blount Small Ship Adventures, 461 Water Street, Warren, Rhode Island 02885, 800-556-7450 or 401-247-0955, info@blountsmallshipadventures.com, www.blountsmallshipadventures.com).
Blount Small Ship Adventures’ Grande Caribe Voyage to New England Islands Proves Ideal for Babyboomers Who Still Crave Thrill of Travel, Albeit at Slower Pace
#cruisingaccessible travelAudrain Automobile MuseumBlount Small Ship AdventuresInternational Tennis Hall of FameMarble HouseNewportNewport MansionsNewport Rhode IslandNewport RIsmall ship cruisingThe Breakers
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See What I Have Done
Schmidt, Sarah
"See What I Have Done, Sarah Schmidt's "eerie and compelling" (Paula Hawkins) debut novel, is a wholly unique reimagining of the infamous true story of Lizzie Borden, who gained celebrity status after being tried and acquitted for the murders of her father and stepmother. On the morning of August 4, 1892, Lizzie Borden calls out to the maid: Someone's killed father. The brutal axe-murder of Andrew and Abby Borden in their house in Fall River, Massachusetts ignites a series of domestic nightmares. From the outside, no one can understand why anyone would want to murder the respected Bordens. From the inside, sisters Lizzie and Emma have a different tale to tell. Both unmarried and intimately bound together in a stifling environment, they each struggle against their oppressive home-life while longing for independence. As the police fail to find clues, Lizzie tries to make sense of the moments leading up to the discovery of the bodies. But there are other witnesses to the crime. Through the overlapping perspectives of Emma, the housemaid Bridget, the enigmatic stranger Benjamin, and the fascinating Lizzie herself, the ghosts of their pasts resurface and return to that fateful day. Shocking and riveting, Schmidt's nuanced, high-wire narration recasts a sensational true story into a sensitive and human portrayal of a volatile, tortured family, and what it means to be free and truly loved"-- Provided by publisher.
"Lizzie Borden took an axe And gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, She gave her father forty-one. Or did she? In this riveting debut novel, See What I Have Done, Sarah Schmidt recasts one of the most spellbinding murder cases of all time into a sensitive and humane portrait of two sisters caught inside a volatile household -- and what it means to be free and truly loved. On the morning of August 4, 1892, Lizzie Borden calls out to her maid Bridget: Someone's killed father. The discovery of the brutal axe-murders of Andrew and Abby Borden under their own roof in Fall River, Massachusetts paralyzes the small community. No one can understand why anyone would want to harm the respected Bordens. But secret witnesses to the crime have a different tale to tell -- of a father with an explosive temper; a spiteful step-mother; and two spinster sisters, with a bond even stronger than blood, desperate for their independence. As the police search for clues, Emma comforts an increasingly distraught Lizzie whose memories flash in scattered fragments. Had she been in the barn or the pear arbor to escape the stifling heat of the house? Before or after she last spoke to her stepmother? Were they really gone and would everything be better now? Through the overlapping perspectives of the unreliable Lizzie, her older sister Emma, the housemaid Bridget, and the enigmatic stranger Benjamin, we return to what happened on that fateful day"-- Provided by publisher.
Publisher: New York : Atlantic Monthly Press, 2017
Edition: First American hardcover edition
Branch Call Number: OverDrive eBooks
Read more reviews of See What I Have Done at iDreamBooks.com
IndyPL_ChristineB Feb 28, 2019
A fictional account of events surrounding Lizzie Borden and the gruesome axe murders of her father and stepmother in the family home circa 1892 Massachusetts. Chapters are expressed through the first person perspectives of Lizzie, her sister, the maid and a mysterious stranger. Though Lizzie was always suspected, there was a lot of speculation, simmering tensions and dysfunctional family dynamics going on behind the scenes.
uncommonreader Nov 13, 2018
This novel is a reimagining of the Lizzie Borden story. It contains a few clunkers - did people really say "lighten up" a century ago? - and the character of Benjamin was added to merely increase the number of suspects. The story sticks close to the facts of the case, but what was the point of this novel?
The_Zookeeper Nov 10, 2018
Creepy? Check. Compelling? Check. This book really gave a different spin on the Borden murders and it was fun to go for the ride.
WoodneathBrad Jun 27, 2018
I found this version of the Borden murders to be quite compelling, and particularly appreciated the multiple perspectives, which gave one a sense of how each person was experiencing the events in the narrative. The story was gripping from the start and Benjamin’s character added a suspenseful element. I gave the book three stars because I felt some of the descriptions were a bit overwrought, such as in describing the stairs as “yelling” or a crowd of people depicted as “skin.” There were aspects of the murder that were not really developed as well, such as the tension related to finances that existed within the family.
rthomson1954 May 16, 2018
Lizzie Borden took an axe,And gave her mother forty whacks; When she saw what she had done,She gave her father forty-one.
I jumped rope to that when I was a young girl, never giving much thought to who Lizzie was and why she would want to brutally axe her mum and dad. The answer, apparently, is because her family, and she, were wildly dysfunctional. This story raises lots of questions for the reader to ponder even after finishing the book...
abcDena Feb 21, 2018
It took me two days to rip through this delicious, creepy little feast. Highly recommended if you are into historical fiction, true crime cases, or love unreliable characters (like I do). The many, many narrative perspectives in See What I Have Done can be somewhat off-putting, but I still powered through the perspectives I didn't enjoy as much as Lizzie's, her sister Emma's and their housemaid's, Bridget. If you like neat endings wrapped in a bow, this book might not be for you. It raises many more questions about Lizzie and the Borden family than it answers, but the ride to Destination Confusion is an enjoyable one. First? Great writing. If you are a fan of Atwood at all, Sarah Schmidt's off-kilter voices will delight you. She has put one of the oddest voices I've ever read into the character of Lizzie Borden. I very much look forward to Sarah's 2nd effort.
LPL_KimberlyL Jan 24, 2018
An eerie (and even more twisted) take on the infamous Lizzie Borden case. This one will give you the chills, even though it's set during the hottest days of summer.
samdog123 Jan 15, 2018
First time author, Sarah Schmidt, has taken the Lizzie Borden story and given us a narrative told through the actual people involved. It's a tightly wound story and the author uses the atmosphere of the house itself to add to the events.. You actually feel like you're right there while you're reading the book. This is a dysfunctional family and the events leading up to the horrific murders are interwoven adding to the build up of what actually happened. It was a fabulous read and I'm looking forward to more from this author.
ehbooklover Nov 28, 2017
An atmospheric, creepy, and disturbing read about Lizzie Borden. The ultra-descriptive writing style is so effective that it made me feel uncomfortable at times
Cynthia_N Oct 30, 2017
I was disappointed in this novel. It was quick moving and pulled me in but it didn't satisfy. This is a story about Lizzie Borden. I wanted blood and guts and sadly there was very little.
Infolass May 01, 2017
Infolass thinks this title is suitable for 16 years and over
"I was thinking of the winter, wondering when Mrs Borden would come home from visiting her relative, wondering how soon I could leave the house, go back to my family, go back to best feelings, when I heard a chock, chock sound come from the bottom of the house. I thought of Mr Borden and the pigeons. Chock. There was no bird sound. Chock. My heart got to beating fast and I gripped onto my bed, turned to look at my family. Chock, chock. A sound of grunting, like an animal eating. Chock.
Where was that coming from? Chock, chock.
A horse cart rolled down the street. Chock, the air was still, chock, the city bells struck, and was much too loud. I gripped onto my bed, couldn't move, couldn't breath, couldn't think. My bladder felt like bursting. The house went quiet. For a moment I wondered if I was in a dream. I didn't want to open my door, didn't want to go downstairs, didn't want to know what was down there.
Then I heard Lizzie call out, 'Bridget!' "
Borden, Lizzie, 1860-1927 — Fiction
Borden, Abby Durfee Gray, 1828-1892 — Fiction
Borden, Andrew Jackson, 1822-1892 — Fiction
Borden, Abby Durfee Gray, 1828-1892
Borden, Andrew Jackson, 1822-1892
Borden, Lizzie, 1860-1927
Serial Murders — Massachusetts — Fall River — Fiction
Dysfunctional Families — Fiction
Serial Murders
Massachusetts — Fall River
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Weird & Wacky World of Comics: Dead Pooh (2012)
August 20, 2015 Adam Parker-Edmondston Leave a comment
Dead Pooh as you would imagine, is a hybrid of the Winnie the Pooh stories and the Deadpool comic. It is a weird combination to say the least, but that is what we are given. The plot revolves around our hero Sandy (AKA Dead Pooh). After the tragic framing and jailing of his innocent parents, he is left in the care of his Uncle Moo. Here he is trained in the arts of the ninja and becomes the scourge of the criminal underworld. His arch nemesis is The Candy King, a human being trapped in a world full of human animals. Underground he runs his criminal empire, while also creating strange Gummi Bear warriors who obey his every command. It is up to Dead Pooh to weed out these trouble causers and give them what for.
Dead Pooh as a comic is, well slightly stupid. But that is to be expected; after all it is a parody book. But it never settles on what it actually wants to parody. The plot incorporates so many other pop culture pieces that some get lost in the shuffle, and the combination of all of them never quite seems as much fun as it should be. For example we have Dead Pooh shouting out witty banter like Spiderman or Deadpool, while fighting characters that look like Tigger and Eeyore. But the banter does not flow quite as smoothly as you would hope, some of it comes off very clichéd and tiresome. It sounds odd, but it doesn’t seem like Dead Pooh actually enjoys saying these lines, or even fighting crime to be honest. I don’t really get behind him as a character.
There are other elements that are mixed into the plot which make it quite interesting though. Dead Pooh’s origin is very much like a mix between the Batman comic series and The Karate Kid movie, but he acts a lot like The Punisher, scoping out certain crooks before kicking their butts to the curb. It is fun to see, but it leaves you wanting to know more.
The faults may be due to Al Sharpe and Sean Davis writing, which some times comes off as a little bit too much like Poo than Pool for my tastes. This is not a slander on their work, which does make the story flow, and it never feels slow or sluggish to read. It is just I thought with the people who are been parodied here, this story may have had a bit more meat on its bones. If they had focused a bit more on Deadpool it may have been a more interesting read for me personally.
What frustrates me about this book is there are great scenes which could have been expanded to make a more rounded comic book. Dead Pooh himself comes off as a little bit flat, again because of little characterization, so it is a shame I don’t feel as interested in him as I do The Candy King. Here we have a human, the only human who is in a world full of animals.
He lives in an underground lab and is obviously a person of some power, because he controls the whole compound and the crime in the city. He mentions been stuck down there, but that’s it. This could have been expanded on so much more, its comic book gold man! How did he get there? Why is he creating these Gummi Bear rip offs? How is he doing it, where is the technology coming from? Is it set in the future? Is it all an experiment in breeding weird human animal hybrids and is he in charge of the proceedings? Has he become power mad and taken over? Maybe if another issue came out all this would be explained, but if this is only a one shot, that is so cruel. I would love to know more, but nothing else is given.
The artwork by Marat Mychaels (Deadpool Corps) is very streamlined and quite basic. It looks completely different from his normal style of art, which has a more rugged edge to it. I am guessing this is to make it feel more like the Deadpool comics (his art on Deadpool Corps was great), which is all smooth, comical feeling artwork. At first this annoyed me because the cover shows a very Rob Liefeld influenced piece of art and this is what I was expecting from the book. After reading for a bit though, the style does compliment the script, and makes Dead Pooh a more comical figure. There is a certain amount of joy at seeing Dead Pooh melt Gummi Bear creatures with his water gun and then sticking people together with honey bombs. When it happens it’s great, it just doesn’t happen quite enough.
There may be some harsh criticism here but it is only because I actually enjoyed reading the book, and want to read more. It’s not as funny as I was hoping for, and lacks exposition, but I love the idea and I think it would be really funny to see DeadPool villains turn up as animal characters. There are loads that could be done with this and, I would love to see more.
Images: Antarctic Press
Al SharpeAntarctic PressdeadpoolMarat MychaelsSean DavisWinnie the Pooh
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Nvidia ,Rtx2080ti,2080,(2070 review is now live!) information thread. Reviews and prices
BFG10K
Another reviewer, same Space Invaders artifacts, non-reference 2070: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewiFtgfK0KY
There's something wrong with Turing, folks.
ZGR
edit: wrong thread
n0x1ous
maddogmcgee said:
Long time member of the forums here. I have stalked them way before I started participating.
I have actively avoided buying 4K TV's for my house and instead have 1080P ones. They require less hardware to stream, use less bandwidth and look indistinguishable from my viewing distance.
I have (had) an overclocked 2k display that I bought from Korea because it was an awesome deal for the price and I didn't want to spend huge amounts on a top end/barely 4k capable video card every year.
Unless I can double my income to at least 200k or more a year I fail to see how spending more than this is worth it. I would rather turn down the resolution and put an extra 5k a year into investments, go for a holiday etc.
Maybe you earn 250k plus a year and the price difference is not a big deal. Maybe you don't like holidays or have kids. Maybe you earn minimum wage and live with your parents so you can spend money on PC parts. I don't really care what category you fit in, but please don't tell me I should get out of this forum just because I refuse to spend silly money on a hobby.
Wasn’t directed at you. You can make value choices and still be interested in the tech. You aren’t telling everyone who does value the top end stuff that their an idiot and just duped by marketing like the person I was responding to.
TestKing123
BFG10K said:
[H]'s replacement 2080TI (Samsung RAM) failed. That's two out of three cards: https://www.hardocp.com/article/2018/11/21/rtx_2080_ti_fe_escapes_testing_by_dying_after_8_hours/
Ray tracing is fake as well. It's an approximation of light projected onto a device with discrete pixels. Real life doesn't work on pixels. What's your point exactly?
My point is that you don't have a clue what you're talking about. You're using an example for a projection method used for mirror effects 20 years ago as if it's comparable to real time ray tracing. The fact that you don't know the difference (or why it's no longer used since games began using real time dynamic lighting) is just as laughable.
And where'd the bridge go with RTX "Ultra"? https://youtu.be/jaUP4LucmZM?t=929
What does this have to do with you not understanding the difference between that Unreal 1 screenshot and real time ray tracing?
Unreal 1 isn't open source. Oldunreal has exclusive rights to work on unofficial patches but they're not allowed to distribute the code.
You know you can download any version of Unreal engine to work with right? Including from back from Unreal/Unreal Tournament 1? If you did, you'd understand exactly why that comparison you did and the remark you made was pure ignorance.
Better yet, why don't we see fully mirrored projections ON ANY UNREAL ENGINE GAME, like that in Unreal 1, since.... Unreal 1? You think it MIGHT have something to do with not being able to actually reproject dynamic lighting in real time? Which was MY point all along, it's easy to reproject a camera onto a surface like a wall, floor or ceiling since that's all it is, a projection with ZERO calculation for real time lighting, because it didn't exist at the time. Which is why you never see true "mirrors" in games since realtime dynamic lighting and shadows became common, and any "mirror" you see is some clever variation of a projection or portal placement.
None of the projection methods used can be used for say, reflections of dynamic surfaces, curved surfaces, etc.. in such the same way ray tracing allows.
No, I'm saying RTX is the most garbage implementation of ray tracing possible, and looks worse than approximated reflections done 20 years ago on a $99 Voodoo3. A noisy ugly slideshow running on a $1200 graphics card.
Your ignorance is glaring, see my previous comment.
Tell you what, why don't you download Unreal Engine 4 and give us a demo using that 20 year old projection technology on one of the built in demo levels. The code base for that reprojection is still there if you want to use it. I'd sure like to see you do it yourself on any of the demo levels with real time dynamic lighting. Something that big companies, even Epic themselves, couldn't do.
TestKing123 said:
My point is that you don't have a clue what you're talking about. You're using an example for a projection method used for mirror effects 20 years ago as if it's comparable to real time ray tracing.
It's comparable because it too reflects pixels. Reflection is nothing more than a copy of certain pixels rendered in the right place.
The fact that you don't know the difference (or why it's no longer used since games began using real time dynamic lighting) is just as laughable.
You mean like Doom 3?
Doom 3 had a real-time unified lighting and shadowing system. Are you claiming otherwise?
Better yet, why don't we see fully mirrored projections ON ANY UNREAL ENGINE GAME, like that in Unreal 1, since.... Unreal 1? You think it MIGHT have something to do with not being able to actually reproject dynamic lighting in real time? Which was MY point all along, it's easy to reproject a camera onto a surface like a wall, floor or ceiling since that's all it is, a projection with ZERO calculation for real time lighting, because it didn't exist at the time.
Duke Nukem Forever (2011): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5O0BnVzmEc
Life is Strange (2015) https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/life-is-strange/trophy/104088-Pinholed.html
Both are newer Unreal engine games. Are you claiming they have no dynamic lighting?
Which is why you never see true "mirrors" in games since realtime dynamic lighting and shadows became common, and any "mirror" you see is some clever variation of a projection or portal placement.
I never said it was "true mirrors", I said it was a really good approximation that runs fast and looks good.
You're the one who repeatedly claimed games with dynamic lights don't have reflections like Unreal 1. The three examples above proved you wrong.
Much better than the ugly noisy mud puddles that $1200 Turding - Space Invaders Edition(tm) produces @ 75% performance loss.
And the unplayable DX12 stuttering which has never been resolved in numerous titles, and never will be. A fact repeatedly ignored by people who pimp RTX.
Cut the personal insults or you'll be reported for trolling.
Sorry, but you have to be completely daft to think the mirror tricks employed in those game screenshots are comparable to any form of real time ray tracing. The fact that you keep stating "it too reflects pixels" when NO REFLECTION CALCULATION is going on reinforces this baffling ignorance makes me wonder if you're the one actually trolling here.
The DNF screenshot reinforces exactly what I said before. That is not a real time reflection, it's a projection. In fact there is not even any dynamic lighting in that scenario, everything is baked, which makes reprojection for mirrors all the more easier. Let me give you a quick lesson on mirrors and Unreal Engine, taken from the documentation itself.
"First you need to make your material, which should look like this:
Now if you try and put this material on an object and toss it in your world, it won't do reflections properly. This is because in video games it would be very costly to try and do reflections by ray-tracing. So instead we use what are called "Reflection Capture" elements. A "Reflection Capture" element is something that captures an image of the screen so that you can use it in your reflections, and allows the game to run much smoother while still using reflections in real time. Unreal Engine 4 has a very simple Reflection Capture system."
Do you understand that? Let me repeat....Do you understand that? You need to take a static image of the surrounding to use as a basis for the reflection element since the engine can't actually do it in real time (ray tracing).
Better yet, I'm done doing your research. You cite me one reference where actual reflections are calculated in real time on any iteration of Unreal Engine.
Also, I like your Doom 3 reference. Why? Because that cinematic jump scare scene required a complex hidden room build to do all the effects required for that scene. That's why that is the only section in Doom 3 that has mirrors. In fact, this is a common tactic used in various other games to mimick a "reflection" in recent games. Here's an explanation:
"Game developers have used all kinds of wild tricks over the years to simulate stuff like this. In games with mirrors, developers have created entire rooms behind the mirrors, in which a double is rendered and moves with the same inputs that our character does, just flipped, so that it looks like a reflection, but really it’s a mindless double, like some horrifying Twilight Zone horror movie nightmare.
With ray tracing, a lot of this goes away. You tell that table in the room how much light to absorb and reflect. You make the glass a reflective surface. When you move up to the window, you might be able to see your character if there’s enough backlighting."
https://www.technobuffalo.com/2018/09/06/why-ray-tracing-in-games-is-huge/
Listen, it's one thing to try and dismiss RTX, but using these examples are not the way to do it because they're fake effects and very limited in thier application. None of these projection methods can reflect light off a vase for example. So yeah, trying to bring up "20 year old tech" that "can do it" when it clearly can't I'm gonna call you out on it.
In fact, go ahead and make a thread on Unreal Engine, Unity, or any other engine forum and state how these mirror effects are just as good as real time ray tracing and that old pentium hardware has been doing them for 20 years. Let's see the responses you get.
Pandamonia
Ray tracing: the technology nobody asked for. For the price nobody wants to pay.
Pandamonia said:
I think most graphics people have been wanting real time ray tracing for ever. You might have not asked for it directly but I bet you've wanted hollywood animated movie visuals in your game - which requires ray tracing.
Try not to get your hate of Nvidia's latest cards mixed up with what is the next big step forward for real time graphics.
And yet again you're clearly intentionally refusing to understand his point, which is that, with tricks, developers have been able to offer a good enough approximation for a lot of effects, that don't kill performance or require specialized hardware to offer.
He never said any of those things, and he already explicitly told you exactly that so your whole diatribe was pointless. He said the tricks they used were a good enough approximation, and that they've been able to do it for years already, and it didn't kill performance. So far, ray tracing hasn't offered basically any of the magical graphics effects people keep promising it can, in games, and on top of that, just to enable this half-baked version, it requires exceptionally expensive video cards, and even then, the performance is atrocious (so if you want to actually play the games you're going to be disabling this feature, doubly so since every review of it has said that unless you basically stop to smell the roses you'll rarely if ever even notice the ray-tracing stuff).
I'm going to make a prediction: ray tracing in contemporary games on consumer hardware is going to be a flop. There won't be enough real support for it, and the cost of the hardware to do it well will be high enough for not enough benefit, that gamers will shun it. By the time the support and hardware is there (I give it a decade), I think game streaming will have become the de facto gaming setup. And I think that is where Nvidia should have been pushing this anyway. Push it on the developer side, and try to sell their Tesla rendering boxes to AAA developers/publishers as a way to entice gamers to game streaming services. The big publishers have the money for the hardware, and the developers would be able to do engines specifically for that (so build it from the ground up for ray-tracing support). I actually think that would be better for all involved. Considering Nvidia is already wanting them to do "Deep Learning" inferencing that way, they should have just pushed the ray-tracing rendering there as well.
I mean, if I were Nvidia, I'd be going to Blizzard and going "Hey you know those pre-rendered cutscenes for WoW? How about WoW 2 look like those, plus since you're already so focused on server side control, its a natural fit, and this way the monthly subscription pays for the hardware too so you can sell it to gamers as free major hardware upgrades without them having to spend any more than the normal subscription."
I find it odd how some people are really trying to claim that ray-tracing will actually speed up development, and even make games less buggy. The lighting stuff is typically not a major area of bugs in games (that anyone I know really complains about unless its completely screwed up, like happened in parts of I think that Alien Colonial Marines game), and if anything, this supposed hyper-realism will actually shine a spotlight on the glaring deficiencies in other aspects of the games. And since the framerates will be low, you'll basically be forced to stop and smell the roses, further highlighting the visual issues.
Personally, I think art direction is the single biggest factor in visuals in games, and that's not only not going to change due to ray-tracing, its actually going to become a bigger issue as its going to highlight the art assets even more. And from what I've gathered, that's actually already the biggest issue with game development time is that it takes a long time to create all the assets. That was an area that Nintendo singled out was a major issue for them, is that because of the assets needed for FullHD and higher, that it increased game development times. That's why they started lagging behind in hardware specs as they knew they couldn't compete at that pace. It also was basically why the Wii U failed, because the game development was being elongated they weren't able to time releases, leading to long periods of no big name titles.
Making ray-tracing quality assets is going to take even longer. And its going to be made worse because the games aren't made with ray-tracing in mind, so we're gonna end up with a hodge podge of some really high quality assets and then some glaringly poor ones (an example are the Gran Turismo games, where the first PS3 one had like 100 cars that were made to proper PS3 asset level, but most of the cars in the game weren't - I think they used a bunch almost straight from GT4 - so you'd end up with glaring inconsistency in the quality). Which that's already an issue some, but I think ray-tracing is going to make the difference even more disparate, and also highlight it even more. I remember Turn 10 (the Forza developer) talking about how long it takes them to make 1080p assets (which was why the first Forza on Xbox One had so few cars and tracks). 4K is another step, and then ray-tracing is yet another.
Dribble said:
You're right in that a lot of people have been wishing for it.
We'll see, I think a lot of the ray-tracing quality gets lost in those movies because of the art direction (I'd even say for some of them, the attempt for the realistic ray-traced stuff actually hurts the art direction), so personally I don't think we really need ray-tracing as art direction matters most of all. I also don't think we're at a place where it actually is feasible, its just that Nvidia saw an opportunity to try and spin a pro-feature to gamers as a reason to buy their large expensive GPUs.
Even in most of the "best case scenario" images that people tout ray-tracing for, I just don't get it. And in my experience its still a very "ooh shiny!" bling visual thing which doesn't do much for me as it makes things look abnormally shiny, so its kinda like the weird plastic shiny skin that we saw in the mid-2000s (and also Nintendo has adopted this weird overly shiny appearance to the Mario games that I find off-putting).
I do find it funny how we went through like a really drab washed out "gritty realism" look, to now its like they're trying to do the total opposite and blind us with reflection and highlights (HDR).
I'm sure ray-tracing will bring real improvement, but its gonna take a decade before it really becomes useful, and who knows how long before they stop just trying to shove in as much shiny reflective lighting as possible. Its like they want games to have Star Wars prequel moment, where its all about flash over substance.
darkswordsman17 said:
And you are intentionally refusing to understand my point, those "tricks" like the mirror projection from Unreal 1 aren't used anymore because they don't work as well as they do back when things were simpler. Thus the rendering technology needs to evolve, otherwise you should be perfectly happy with 1998 graphics while the rest of the world moves on.
Straight mirror projections aren't impressive anymore. What is impressive is accurate real time reflections off of curved surfaces, partial transparency and translucency through a window pane as you would see in real life, light bouncing off multiple surfaces scattering and interacting with each other. NOTHING in those screenshots are remotely this complex or capable with the simple 20 year old technologies involved. THAT is my point.
Don't like it? Turn it off. The 2080ti is a powerful enough graphics card that's 35 -40% faster than a 1080Ti at 4k. The technology starts somewhere and like it or not, that's where gaming graphics are heading and no amount of 'approximation" is just "good enough" unless you enjoy stagnant 20 year old simple mirror projections that have no place in games today.
Space Invaders in real-time: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/339878940?t=06h41m55s
It's not the next big thing in graphics and it will never become possible with current transistor based silicone processors.
Currently it cuts frames by 66% and doesn't even look that good.
Moores law has basically stopped die shrinking and now we are at the point of 5 year cycles on a real node shrink. Gpus are becoming massive and the cost to match.
So if a £1500 gpu produces 33% of the required performance at current node and the next node gives 25% more performance at the same power. That is £4500 at current frames which is £3375 on 7nm. So in 5 years time with the same improvement you can expect £2571 for a further 25% improvement in RT. So in 2 new nodes you are getting 56% more frames in ray tracing than the current 33% of current frame rate. Which means that you are getting 51% of current normal fps in 2 node shrinks.
The beauty of gpu silicone is that it scales very well and performance is pretty linear so unless a miracle new arch comes out explain to me how this is going anywhere no technogoly has ever been maintain in the pc space by the elite hardware also if it is not mainstream it dies
alcoholbob
The longer a node lasts, the cheaper the transistor cost should get as research costs get amortized. I suspect eventually GPUs will have stacked dies and go the same way as HBM, so you can start having die sizes > 1000 mm2 once a node gets mature enough, then you can make bigger and bigger chips. TSMC was working on stacked wafers a while ago.
alcoholbob said:
Maybe but look at the heat problem and power use.
This isn't memory we are talking about here.
I suspect eventually GPUs will have stacked dies and go the same way as HBM, so you can start having die sizes > 1000 mm2 once a node gets mature enough, then you can make bigger and bigger chips. TSMC was working on stacked wafers a while ago.
That's a long way off and GPUs and memory are fundamentally different products. The heat from a stacked GPU would be a nightmare to dissipate. Also games typically get better results from fewer SPs running at higher clock rates, there's not a lot of added benefit for the gaming market over making a simpler design and increasing the clock speeds.
Where is this reasoning coming from?
AFAIK, for a given power budget, the highest performance comes from a lower clocked wider GPU than a higher clocked narrow one. The obvious limitation is that the designs must be within the same design family. Comparing across designs for narrow vs wide is futile, as too many other variables exist.
maddie said:
In a general sense, it's just Amdahl's law.
You could see this in real life with AMD cards when they started getting huge shader counts around the time of Fury. Quite often, games couldn't utilize all of them at once, which meant that the performance of the card couldn't be fully utilized.
If you could trade % clock increase for % shader count increase, you'd almost always take the higher clocks. The only time you might not would be if you're running at higher resolutions.
I would disagree.
Amdahl's law dasically shows the influence of serial code percentage as a limit to performance improvement by parallel computation. A mere 1920x1080 screen has 2,073,600 pixels that has to be processed. All of this can be done in parallel. We are not even close to this.
The use of AMD GPUs as an example is not useful as there are many other factors affecting throughput. Memory performance, vectorization, ROPs, etc, to draw any useful information. Shader efficiency does drop, but why is the question, and I believe that the use of Amdahl's Law in this situation to explain it, is flawed.
ozzy702
Lower clocks mitigate a lot of the heat and power use. Stacked 7nm could easily be 3x the 2080ti with similar heat and power use with the right technology and design. Yes, absolutely expensive and we're probably 3 years off from seeing it, but it's very possible, and it would be sufficient to push realtime ray tracing appropriately since at that point more of the die could be devoted to RT cores.
Shader efficiency does drop, but why is the question, and I believe that the use of Amdahl's Law in this situation to explain it, is flawed.
Amdahl's law isn't the exact explanation, but it does touch on the issue. GPUs work because a lot of the work they need to do is embarrassingly parallel, but not everything is that way in games.
Even if it is theoretically possible to implement massively parallelism, there's no indication that it will be easy. History has shown that game developers aren't particularly good at utilizing vastly more resources. The problem is unlikely to get solved if the baseline is fewer resources at higher clock-speeds which is what developers will target.
ozzy702 said:
3 years is way too optimistic. It's so optimistic that I'd even give you favorable odds on a wager because it has so little chance of occurring. You'd not just need to implement the designs and technology necessary to support a triple-layer GPU, but you'd need a vastly different cooling system to extract heat.
Headfoot
IMO Amdahl's law is not properly applied here. Amdahl's law would apply to the entire app - input, physics, game logic, networking, rendering, etc. That's where you find the serial pieces which would "weigh down the average" so to speak of parallel vs serial tasks. Rendering is the big task that is largely parallelizable (so-called Embarrassingly Parallel) which brings that average back up. It doesn't make sense to apply Amdahl's law to just a piece of a larger program when the whole theory is that the pieces increasingly weigh down the whole. TLDR: point Amdahl's at the rendering is the wrong scope. Besides, it's just a general principle, there is a world of depth lying beneath that abstraction.
More specific to the topic at hand, I wonder how latency sensitive the BVH fixed function hardware is... is SLI or multi-die fabric a possibility for future cards? Could nVidia or AMD do something like Rome's IO Die and tie together a "co-processor" style BVH die? That would allow them to uncouple the development and take a step back from the colossal 750mm2 die
It wouldn't need to be triple layer. Dual layer, large 7nm GPU would be 3x the 2080TI. They'd probably need to go really wide bus on the fastest GDDR6 available by then, but it could be done.
NVIDIA and AMD both know that die shrinks are essentially a thing of the past. Both companies are looking for ways to throw more transistors into "one" GPU, even if that means multiple GPUs operating as one or stacked GPUs, etc.
I'd honestly be surprised if we don't see some kind of implementation within the next 3 years, even if that only takes place on $3000+ Quadro cards.
Headfoot said:
IMO Amdahl's law is not properly applied here. . .
Again, it's not an exact, perfect explanation, but the idea behind it fits and it seems to track reality as observed. Developers face constraints that make it harder for them to utilize four times as many shaders at half speed, as opposed to doubling the speed of what currently exists. Look at how SLI/Crossfire support has dropped off over the years and tell me that there are no hurdles beyond simply being able to produce this much wider chip.
There was a lot of speculation that Navi was supposed to use the same type of design that we're seeing with Rome, and they were asked about that. I recall one answer where a developer indicated that although the approach worked fine for compute, it didn't work out as well with gaming. There wasn't much technical explanation of why that was the case, but I would imagine that the problems were similar to why SLI/Crossfire scaling is often a lot less than perfect (even accounting for some penalties), or flat out broken in some cases.
It really comes down to what is economically feasible. Even a colossal die works financially if you can sell them at a high enough price. I suspect that a colossal die comes out a lot less expensive than a stacked die. Maybe AMD eventually solves the problem and we do see a lot of MCM-style GPUs in the future, but the industry will transition to that before doing 3D designs for a GPU. Memory can get away with it since it doesn't put off nearly as much heat, but imagine stacking 4 layers of a GPU, which is basically taking a GPU and trying to dissipate the same amount of heat with one quarter of the surface area. The MCM approach actually works in the other direction since you can spread things out more.
psolord
What kind of power is needed, in order for DXR to render something like this in real time?
Question Is Triple monitor gaming worth it? Graphics Cards 18 Jul 11, 2019
H Info Nvidia Q1 Earnings, retracts full year guidance Graphics Cards 2 May 19, 2019
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NVIDIA Gains Control of 81% Discrete GPU Market Share; AMD down to 18% Graphics Cards 1 Apr 10, 2019
Nvidia ,Rtx2080ti,2080,2070, information thread. Reviews and prices September 14. Graphics Cards 2008 Aug 18, 2018
Question Is Triple monitor gaming worth it?
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Info Nvidia Q1 Earnings, retracts full year guidance
Info [Anand et al.] NVIDIA Releases DirectX Raytracing Driver for GTX Cards
NVIDIA Gains Control of 81% Discrete GPU Market Share; AMD down to 18%
Nvidia ,Rtx2080ti,2080,2070, information thread. Reviews and prices September 14.
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The black population is in decline: 3 out of every 4 abortions in America are black babies — more than double that of whites
11/30/2017 / By Tracey Watson
There is a silent holocaust taking place in America today. Quietly, and without any sort of fanfare from the mainstream media, an entire segment of our population is being exterminated. While the rest of the media maintains a deafening silence, Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, has risked his life and put his professional reputation on the line to expose the facts in a damning expose entitled, The Science Agenda to Exterminate Blacks.
Adams’ stunning new documentary provides evidence that there is a “concerted, organized long-standing effort to eliminate African Americans from the human gene pool.” And, Adams claims that this effort is not just being aimed at African Americans, but at all Africans. Period.
Adams believes that the government has implemented a three-pronged approach to accomplishing this extermination: Science, medicine and food.
Let’s take a look at just one small element of the scientific prong: Abortion.
“In many black communities, for every child actually born, three others are aborted – more than double the rate among whites,” said Charlene Aaron of CBN News. “Some say abortion is the number one killer in the black community.” [Emphasis added]
“African Americans in this country are the only ethnic group in any place on the globe that’s not replacing themselves,” Clenard H. Childress, founder of BlackGenocide.org, explained. “This is genocide.”
Most of us are aware that Hillary Clinton was presented with Planned Parenthood’s Margaret Sanger award in 2009. At the time, Clinton gushed, “I admire Margaret Sanger enormously, her courage, her tenacity, her vision. … I am really in awe of her.” So, what was the wonderful vision Clinton was referring to? Who was Margaret Sanger, really?
The answer may shock you.
The woman who started Planned Parenthood, and who is often lauded for her leadership, excellence and contribution to reproductive health, referred to black people as “human weeds [that] need to be exterminated.” A firm believer in eugenics, Sanger’s stated goal – and by extension, the goal of Planned Parenthood – was to rid the country of black people, whom she viewed as “feeble-minded” and “defectives.”
Margaret Sanger believed that it is better to kill black babies in the womb so that they would not have the opportunity to become adults. She saw abortion as a key vector in exterminating the black population from our world. She was so effective in her twisted logic that the Nazis borrowed her narrative and applied it to the Jews. That’s right, Hitler’s holocaust was modeled on Margaret Sanger’s eugenics genocide model. (Related: Stay updated with the latest developments at Abortions.news.)
It is incredibly telling that in a world where politicians are obsessed with not putting a foot wrong and always saying what they know the public wants to hear, that Clinton would feel comfortable singing the praises of Margaret Sanger.
Irrespective of your political views, it cannot be denied that abortion ends a potential life. And the following are indisputable facts:
1. Most abortion centers are deliberately set up in predominantly black communities.
2. Abortion messaging and marketing is far more aggressively aimed at black communities than it is toward white or non-black communities.
3. The astronomical number of black abortions feeds two industry needs: a) It fulfills the mandate of its founder, Margaret Sanger, by massively reducing the black population; and b) It provides a steady supply of babies from whom they can harvest tissue and organs through partial birth abortions (where a baby is partially born and then murdered by the abortionist). Abortionists then sell the baby’s brain stem, lungs, kidneys and heart. These are mostly sold to vaccine manufacturers who use such tissue to grow biomass for vaccines. This is not fake news; this is a fact openly acknowledged by the medical community and the CDC. That tissue is then injected into other babies via vaccines – a process Adams calls “racial medical cannibalism.” (Related: Planned Parenthood brags about defeating law banning webcam abortions.)
The facts are there for all to see. There has been a silent holocaust in America for decades. Thank goodness for people like Mike Adams who are unafraid to speak out to protect those who cannot speak for themselves. View his telling video below.
ACLJ.org
Tagged Under: abortion, African-Americans, blacks, depopulation, Hillary Clinton, Holocaust, insanity, Margaret Sanger, outrage, Planned Parenthood
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Doctors Without Borders charged with human trafficking, carried out under the guise of “humanitarian” work
07/05/2018 / By JD Heyes
Shocking lack of GIRLS among immigrant refugees reveals horrifying truth: They’re raped, murdered, kidnapped and trafficked BEFORE they reach our border
06/21/2018 / By Lance D Johnson
Oath Keepers calling for volunteers to perform “search and rescue” at suspected child sex trafficking sites in Arizona
INVESTIGATION: Planned Parenthood has been covering up child sex abuse for decades
Mekong River delta in Southeast Asia is facing major environmental upheaval by multiple proposed dams that will disrupt life for humans and animals
DENIED: Supreme Court strikes blow to infant death industry by refusing to strike down Arkansas ban on “medication abortion”
The Fukushima legacy: More than just cancer, diabetes diagnoses have increased six-fold
05/07/2018 / By Vicki Batts
Illegal aliens continue to commit child rape in the U.S. because the DC Swamp won’t give Trump the wall
The true investigation of how the U.S. military recruited Japanese germ warfare scientists and Nazi space weapons developers
Japan to legalize “organ transplant farms” of animals to be raised and slaughtered for human transplant organs
Cruel and unusual? Oklahoma officials want to use nitrogen gas for executions
Babies feel pain at 21 weeks: Doctors say that open fetal surgery should include anesthesia for the fetus
No joke: Veterinarians recently gave a lion a CAT scan
04/08/2018 / By Edsel Cook
New, little-seen report warns the nation’s power infrastructure is increasingly vulnerable to physical attacks
Lion EATS poacher
CLAIM: Human-chimpanzee hybrid “humanzee” born in Florida, killed in panic by doctors
Review of nuclear damage from Hiroshima, Fukushima focuses on dangers of nuclear radiation and the need to ban such weapons
02/12/2018 / By David Williams
An actor with a soul: Kevin Sorbo says “Abortion is the definition of EVIL”
01/29/2018 / By Jayson Veley
Totalitarian California government ARRESTS citizens for feeding the homeless… only the state is allowed to do that
Intolerant liberals OUTRAGED that head of animal rescue organization is also a Trump supporter
COPYRIGHT © 2017 HUMANITARIAN NEWS
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Long-term financial solution remains elusive
West Avenue Cemetery
It’s shaping up as a hand-to-mouth existence for St. Thomas Cemetery Company.
City council Monday voted to extend the cemetery board of directors a financial life line of sorts by way of a $20,000 operating grant. Combined with the first instalment in April of $30,000, it leaves them $9,000 short of the amount requested during this year’s budget deliberations.
St. Thomas Cemetery Company operates historic West Ave. cemetery and South Park Cemetery south of the city in Central Elgin. It had served notice it would seek to abandon the two burying grounds effective April 30 of this year if the long-standing city grant wasn’t reinstated.
By a 7-1 vote, with Coun. Mark Tinlin in opposition, council agreed to support the cemetery board through reduced levels of funding over time. Council could also consider advancing funds for minor capital replacements and expansion in services if other financial resources are not available at the time.
Over the last decade, the cemetery company has annually received anywhere from $59,000 to $65,000 in operating grants.
The funding report to council from city manager Wendell Graves did not indicate how a yearly amount would be determined in future grant discussions.
The grant supports the non-profit organization’s close to $200,000 budget. The municipality began funding the company in the mid-1980s to avoid a takeover.
St. Thomas Cemetery Company manager Lesley Buchanan at West Ave. Cemetery.
Graves advised, “It is apparent that the status quo would not be sustainable even at a funding level of $50,000 from the city.”
One option discussed by council is to seek bids on contracting out maintenance of West Ave. cemetery that dates back to 1850.
An agitated Mayor Heather Jackson said warnings it would cost the city more if it took over operating the sprawling cemetery were nothing short of fear-mongering.
“It hasn’t been proven it would cost more for the city to operate,” she charged.
Coun. Steve Wookey felt all cost-cutting measures haven’t been dealt with yet and he was certain another $30,000 could be trimmed from the operating budget.
Coun. Joan Rymal said the city should focus its attention on West Ave. cemetery only and make it more of a park area.
To which Coun. Jeff Kohler reminded council it is South Park cemetery that has been subsidizing West. Ave cemetery for years.
“It is West Ave. that is burning through the money right now,” advised Kohler.
Speaking to the Times-Journal on Tuesday, cemetery manager Lesley Buchanan said “I’m looking at it totally different than they (council) are. Maybe it’s because I’m involved.
“I hope that going forward it won’t be the battering of heads, it will be working together to try and find a common solution. Because ultimately, it’s the taxpayers of the City of St. Thomas who are going to suffer. If we can’t all work together, that’s what’s going to happen.”
St. Thomas Cemetery Company: Who needs to reach out to who?
Cemetery stalemate continues
Is there a will for ‘amicable’ solution to cemetery crisis?
Follow @ianscityscope
This entry was posted in St. Thomas Cemetery and tagged Coun. Joan Rymal, Jeff Kohler, Lesley Buchanan, Mayor Heather Jackson, St. Thomas Cemetery Company, Steve Wookey. Bookmark the permalink.
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Category: Nutrition
Enteral vs Parenteral Feeding on ICU
January 31, 2016 February 5, 2016 ICM Case Summaries1 Comment
A 70-year-old man had been an inpatient on the intensive care unit for nearly 40 days after a complicated recovery following mitral valve replacement. He was being gradually weaned from the ventilator via tracheostomy but required no other invasive organ support. His intensive care unit stay had been complicated by recurrent respiratory sepsis treated with antibiotics and aggressive physiotherapy. Up until this point he had been fed by a nasogastric tube but began to exhibit signs suggestive of impaired absorption including large nasogastric aspirates and a requirement for higher levels of parenteral electrolyte administration.
Prokinetic treatment with metoclopramide 10mg TDS for 24 hours failed to improve the high aspirate levels which remained in excess of 300ml every four hours. Erythromycin 250mg BD was added with little improvement. Following discussion with gastroenterology colleagues an agreement to place a post-pyloric nasojejunal feeding tube was made; unfortunately this procedure was delayed by a further 48 hours as no endoscopist was free to attend. Parenteral feeding was initiated at this point in order to maintain calorific intake.
Compare enteral and parental nutrition.Read More »
Glutamine in Critical Illness
October 2, 2015 October 12, 2015 ICM Case SummariesLeave a comment
A forty-year-old motorcyclist was admitted to the ITU following a road traffic accident involving a stationary vehicle. She sustained a fractured right distal radius and multiple left sided rib fractures, involving ribs 2 to 9, with a free floating flail segment. She developed respiratory distress due to underlying lung contusions and a haemopneumothorax and was treated with two left sided intercostal drains, endotracheal intubation and invasive ventilation. She developed ARDS with bilateral infiltrates and PF ratio of <200mmHg, with normal cardiac function on transthoracic echocardiography. She was tracheostomised on day 12, and had a protracted ventilatory wean further complicated by a ventilator associated pneumonia. She was enterally fed during this period but began to develop an ileus and gut dysmotility, resistant to prokinetic treatment, leading to large volume gastric aspirates. She became visibly malnourished and was commenced temporarily on parenteral nutrition and IV glutamine. The ileus resolved over the following week and weaning recommenced, having ceased due to diaphragmatic splinting. She eventually weaned from the ventilator and was discharged from the ITU on day 40. She was profoundly weak due to a critical illness acquired weakness.
What is the role of glutamine supplementation in critical illness?Read More »
When to Initiate Parenteral Nutrition
September 23, 2015 November 16, 2015 Steve Mathieu2 Comments
A 19 year old man presented to the surgical team complaining of abdominal pain. He underwent a laparoscopic appendicectomy and a perforated appendix was removed. He returned to the surgical ward and three days later was ready for discharge. Unfortunately he then developed worsening abdominal pain, fevers and breathlessness. He underwent a CT scan and this demonstrated multiple collections of infected matter within his abdomen in addition to bi-basal atelectasis. He was admitted to the intensive care unit for haemodynamic monitoring, oxygen therapy and broad spectrum antibiotics. He underwent three intra-abdominal washouts of infected material over an eight day admission. During this time he had attempted enteral feeding via a nasogastric tube but had very high gastric aspirates, with no absorption, as a result of a prolonged ileus. He was started on parenteral nutrition on day eight of his ICU admission.
When should parenteral nutrition be initiated in those that are failing to meet caloric targets with enteral feeding alone?
Nutrition in Acute Pancreatitis
September 8, 2015 September 30, 2015 ICM Case SummariesLeave a comment
A 55-year-old previously healthy lady was admitted with pancreatitis secondary to gallstones. Her admission modified Glasgow Score was 4, and CT scan showed approximately 70% necrosis of the pancreas encompassing the neck, body and tail with sparing of the head. She rapidly developed ARDS, AKI and vasoplegia, and subsequently developed abdominal compartment syndrome requiring decompressive laparotomy. Her later complications included intraabdominal collections requiring percutaneous drainage, upper GI bleeding, and staged closure of her laparostomy. She was initially commenced on enteral NG feeding but developed high NG aspirates despite pro-kinetics. Parenteral nutrition (PN) was commenced in combination with a ‘trophic’ enteral feed. Four weeks into her admission her triglyceride level was found to be elevated, necessitating lipid free PN and cessation of propofol. This led to a drop in her triglyceride level.
How should we manage the provision of nutrition in acute pancreatitis?
Nutrition in the Intensive Care Unit
September 1, 2015 September 5, 2015 Steve Mathieu1 Comment
A middle aged man is admitted with abdominal pain and vomiting. He has a history of alcohol excess. A CT scan shows evidence of pancreatic necrosis. Supportive care is initiated and an NGT placed for supplementary enteral nutrition. After 3 days, he is referred to ICU as his oxygen requirements have increased and he is requiring non-invasive ventilation. It is noted that he has had very large gastric aspirates. Parenteral nutrition is commenced at this point.
What is the evidence for enteral versus parenteral feed as a source of nutrition in critically ill patients?Read More »
Hypertriglyceridaemia Induced Acute Pancreatitis
September 1, 2015 September 5, 2015 Steve MathieuLeave a comment
A young man is admitted to the surgical unit with several months of worsening abdominal pain. It has become much more severe over the last 24 hours. A CT scan shows evidence of acute pancreatitis with no gallstones or biliary duct dilatation.. He is normally well with no history of alcohol excess. His triglyceride level is elevated at 83.7mmol/L and a diagnosis of hypertriglyceridaemia induced acute pancreatitis is made.
What is hypertriglyceridaemia induced acute pancreatitis and how is it treated?
August 26, 2015 September 3, 2015 ICM Case SummariesLeave a comment
A middle aged woman presented with an acute abdomen. At laparotomy she was found to have generalised peritonitis secondary to small bowel perforation due to adhesional obstruction. She remained ventilated and on noradrenaline support for several days post-op. Trophic enteral feeds were introduced at 24hrs post-op, but NG aspirates remained high for a further 48 hours despite prokinetics. The decision was made to institute parenteral nutrition if no improvement at day 5 post-op, but was never commenced as NG aspirates improved and enteral nutrition was gradually increased.
What is the evidence for enteral versus parenteral feed as a source of nutrition in critical ill patients?Read More »
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iGear Reveals New Defence Specialist Figure
Third Party Company iGear have just unveiled a new reworking of the PP-05 Specialist mold. This new figure, known as The Defence Specialist, is an official version of the G1 Protectobot First Aid.
The figure features a new First Aid inspired deco and a new head modeled after the Protectobot. The images that were released earlier today show the figure with three additional heads, all of which are based off the Autobot medic Ratchet. One head is based off the cartoon, one is based off the comics and the third sports a beard, giving the popular Autobot a rather distinguished, aged look.
Expect familiar iGear paint work, sculpting detail and articulation.
The figure is currently listed as Available Now, so iGear have obviously released this new figure already. This new Defense Specialist is sure to be a welcome addition to any Transformers collection, allowing another, albeit, unofficial, Protectobot a place in our collections!
As soon as we have more details on where to score one, we'll post pre-order links here!
Empire Online Reveals Transformers Age of Extinction Details
Empire Online has posted a new article revealing character names and plot details for Michael Bay's upcoming fourth Transformers film, Age of Extinction. Some hi-res images were also included.
The article contains the following plot summary -
As we have known, this movie is a new storyline with new characters following on Earth scarred by the events of the previous films. The disappearance of all giant robots, humans on Earth still worry their cars and other objects may come back as robots. Mark Wahlberg's character, as an inventor, Cade Yeager, discovers a buried Transformer we can guess is a Dinobot or the sword weapon, the giant robots remerge and the battle begins again. Cade is now caught up in protecting his daughter Tessa with secret racing driver boyfriend Shane. Joshua and his geologist assistant Darcy are brought in to decipher the ancient beasts that appear to be fostered by the CEO of the Chinese Transformers and Harold Attinger, who are the film's non-robot bad guys.
It also contains the names of several characters that will be appearing in the film, including...
. Nicola Peltz - Tessa
Cade's daughter who has secret boy friend Shane.
. Jack Raynor - Shane Dyson
Racing driver boy friend of Tessa.
. Stanley Tucci - Joshua
. Sophia Myles - Darcy
A geologist assistant to Joshua.
. Li Bingbing - Name Unknown
CEO of the Chinese Transformers
. Kelsey Grammer's - Harold Attinger
Non-robot big bad guy.
And, of course, some pictures were also included, with a few we've already showcased:
Sounds like another great flick! Fans of the Transformers franchise will have something pretty awesome to look forward to when Age of Extinction hits theatres this coming summer!
A Look Back: Club Infinite Earths: Part 11 - John Constantine
Moving right along at our look back at Mattel's 2012 Club Infinite Earths subscription figures, we now stop at John Constantine. He was shipped alongside Uncle Sam to sub holders in November and, like Uncle Sam, he really was a surprise.
A detective known more for his presence in Vertigo Comics, Constantine has since returned to the mainstream DC Universe, appearing in titles like Justice League: Dark and Swamp Thing. This 6" figure is made up of a few reused parts, including the legs from DCUC Question and Sandman, and the trench coat from the Batman Legacy Golden Age Joker figure. The torso, however, is brand new featuring a wrinkled shirt, crushed collar and disheveled tie.
The head sculpt, again, is brand new. It features a stern, grizzled look and includes sculpted stubble and a scar over his left eye. These slight details really add some depth and character to the figure, which is always a nice touch, if you ask this DCUC fan!
Paint-wise, Constantine features no real issues worth mentioning. His shirt features some very nice airbrushing, which adds some nice shading in and around the wrinkles of his shirt. The pants are done in a nice shade of dry-brushed blue and his shoes are made to look scuffed and worn thanks to the flat black dry brushing Mattel used when painting this character. Again, this further adds to his disheveled look and adds some nice detail to the figure as a whole. There are no issues with smears, blotches, smudges or droopy eyes. All in all, the paint work is top notch here, with Mattel even going so far as to paint the scar a different color, thus allowing it to really stand out from the rest of the figure's facial features.
Constantine features the standard DCUC articulation fans and collectors of this line have come to expect. Each joint has a nice range of motion and there are no issues with loose to sticky joints whatsoever. Everything works as it should and fans should have no issues with posing possibilities.
While this may be a strong figure appearance-wise, John Constantine suffers from something a lot of Mattel's DC's figures have in the past - a total lack of accessories. Sure, he's just a normal guy in a trench coat, but he just needs something to be packaged alongside him - a lighter, a bottle of booze, something. Yet, in all honesty, these pack-ins may not have been considered appropriate by Mattel, so I can kind of understand why he doesn't come with anything. Still, would've been nice.
Overall, Constantine was another nice, and surprising, addition to the Club Infinite Earths line. This piece will no doubt appeal more to collectors then children. After all, when you get right down to it, this is just a guy in a trench coat, no cape, no mask, no batarangs, constructs or gas guns - just a normal guy in a plain trench coat. Still, he is a must for those fans attempting to flush out the Justice League: Dark roster.
Again, Mattel proved with the release of this figure how deep they were willing to dig in order to bring fans the in-demand characters that wouldn't necessarily have worked at retail. Kudos to Mattel for another solid piece!
We'll be taking a slight break from reviewing the 2012 Club Infinite Earths pieces, as we start to prepare our Top Toys of 2013 list AND get ready to start looking at Mattel's 2013 Club Infinite Earths line up. But, we'll be back soon to take a look at the final 3 members of the Metal Men - Platinum, Tin and Lead!
Transformers Cloud Optimus Prime and Megatron - Official Images & Info
Earlier this month, E-Hobby announced a new collaboration with Takara-Tomy Mall. Known as Transformers Cloud: Guardians of Time, the new collaborative effort will see a pair of exclusive Transformers figures released - one a repainted Classics Optimus Prime, the other, a repainted Generations GDO Megatron.
New images of both figures were recently released, giving us a closer look at this pair of soon-to-be-released exclusive Transformers. As can be seen from the images posted below, Prime now has a black windvane and features a very traditional red and blue deco. His vehicle mode also features a silver Autobot logo. Megatron, on the other hand, features a very reworked look from the original GDO version of this figure. In homage to his G1 counterpart, the leader of the Decepticons features a more classic red, silver and black deco.
Available for pre-order until January 6th, 2014, Optimus is exclusive to Takara-Tomy Mall, while Megatron is an E-Hobby exclusive. Each figure will set you back about $59 USD.
Until then, please enjoy the images mirrored below...
Generations Mini-Con Assault Team Name Revealed
Well, let us rephrase that - the name of the Generations Mini-Con Assault Team has been revealed - at least for the Asian market. The latest issue of the Dengeki Hobby magazine has been released in Japan, and among the news contained within are the names of the Generations Mini-Con Assault Team.
Known simply as the "Mini-Con Assault Team" in North America, each character within the 3-pack has been given an individual name, as has the team's final combined form. The combined form is known as Centuritron, with the helicopter being named Windsheer, the jet Runway and the tank Heavy Tread.
Now, again, these are the names the characters have been given in Asia, when the set is finally released here in North America, the robots within may get totally different names altogether.
More information as we get it!
Copycat KO MP-10 Optimus Prime Coming
A company by the name of Collection Kingdom is, as the above title states, making a copycat KO MP-10 Optimus Prime figure. It is slated for release in late December and will sport classic G1 colors, though the company says other colors are possible down the road.
The figure will include his trademark axe, gun, and Matrix, but no packaging or trailer. Collection Kingdom has also released a list of improvements they claim their KO Optimus Prime figure will include to fix original mold issues. These include:
1. eye opacity
2. chest screws scraping
3. loose fuel tank
4. index finger falling off
5. uneven chest
6. black lid for matix difficult to open
7. legs closing together
8. wipers scraping
9. stress marks on legs
10. black hole behind transparent yellow on the crotch
11. sprue marks
This is all the information we have on this product at this time, but as more details are released, we'll be sure to share it all with our fans! Stay tuned! Until then, enjoy the images of the KO Optimus Prime posted below!
A Look Back: Club Infinite Earths: Part 10 - Uncle Sam
Let me be perfectly blunt - It's about time we got a DCUC Freedom Fighter! I felt that way when this next figure was shown off to DCIE subscribers in an e-mail, I felt that way when the figure arrived, along with John Constantine, in November 2012, and I still feel that way now!
Mattel made the right move giving fans Uncle Sam, the leader of the Freedom Fighters, allowing us to kick-off building this important DC Universe team with a red, white and blue bang! Originally a Quality Comics character in the 1940's, Sam entered the DC Universe when Quality Comics was absorbed by DC Comics in the 1950's. He's played important roles in numerous events throughout the pre-New 52, but will most likely be remembered by fans for the role he, and the rest of the Freedom Fighter's played in such titles as Crisis on Infinite Earths and 52.
Uncle Sam is made up of used parts from past DCUC figures including the suited body that has been seen on numerous DCUC offerings including Wave 8's Gentlemen Ghost, Wave 10's Joker, Wave 11's Question and Wave 19's Sandman. The top hat was also sourced, and repainted in appropriate colors, from the DCUC Wave 8 Gentlemen Ghost figure.
While the red and blue paints used on this figure are nice and vibrant, the whites are another story altogether. While they should also be clean and bright, the white stripes on Uncle Sam's pants and top hat are more a gray color then white. This does hurt the character somewhat as these colors are rather integral to the overall look of the character. It's also a shame considering how strong a sculpt this figure is. Further proof of this can be seen in Uncle Sam's head sculpt! He sports his longer haired and bearded visage and features some nice detail that make the figure look all the more ready to lead the Freedom Fighter's into battle against any and all who oppose freedom!
Oddly enough, although Sam's hands are sculpted slightly open, he comes with no real accessories to hold. While I am Canadian, I do agree with several fans who feel this piece needed a 1:12 scale American flag to hold - this is Uncle Sam, after all. It even would've made more sense to sculpt both the figure's hands in closed fists, due to the fact that Sam is rather physical leader and never afraid to take on any who threaten the world with nothing more then his fists. Yet, Mattel went with the opened hands and gave Sam nothing to hold on to, a shame really. Now, this doesn't mean Uncle Sam is without a pack-in of some kind. Like Elasti-Girl, Sam includes a miniature figure, more specifically, a miniature figure of Freedom Fighter member Doll Man.
Doll Man is somewhat larger then the shrunken down Elasti-Girl, and includes some very nice sculpting and paint. He features no articulation.
Yes, this figure has some flaws, but it is, without a doubt, one of my personal favorites throughout the history of Mattel's DC Comics offerings! An amazing representation of a classic character, Sam was to be the beginning of a new, and important team in the DC Universe. Yet, just as quickly as it began, the Freedom Fighters were finished. After Uncle Sam and Doll Man, no other members of the squad would be released. And, as we've said before, with DC Universe Classics pretty much over, our 6" Freedom Fighter team stands at two lone members.
Regardless, this is an amazing figure and I can't help but love it to bits regardless of its few flaws. Again, thanks to Mattel for giving us such a great character through the 2012 sub service. It's just a shame that Phantom Lady, Human Bomb and the rest of the Freedom Fighters won't be joining the fight!
Next time, we'll take a look at the second November 2012 figure, the Justice League Dark member - John Constantine (And, no Keanu Reeves will not be joining us).
Transformers Armada The Complete Series Coming From Shout!
Shout! Factory has issued a press release regarding the release of Transformers Armada The Complete Series, an 8-disc set coming March 11th, 2014! Read on for Shout! Factory's full press release...
TRANSFORMERS ARMADA: THE COMPLETE SERIES
Relive the Adventures of This Classic Animated TV Series in One Complete Set Featuring All 52 Action-Packed Episodes
BRING HOME THIS COLLECTIBLE 8-DVD SET ON MARCH 11, 2014 FROM SHOUT! FACTORY
Brace yourself to relive some of the most astonishing TRANSFORMERS battles between the AUTOBOTS and the DECEPTICONS through the complete series release of TRANSFORMERS ARMADA. In 2002, TRANSFORMERS fans and kids were introduced to the animated television series TRANSFORMERS ARMADA. This is the unforgettable chapter of TRANSFORMERS lore and the first part of the rare UNICRON Trilogy – consisting of ARMADA, ENERGON and CYBERTRON. OPTIMUS PRIME, his team of AUTOBOTS and their human friends stepped up the fight against MEGATRON and his DECEPTICONS for control of the universe and the power-enhancing MINI-CONS, a lost race of TRANSFORMERS. Valor, deception and unexpected twists unfolded in these captivating adventures, leading to an unlikely alliance between natural enemies in the face of a genuine evil known as UNICRON.
On March 11, 2014, Shout! Factory, in collaboration with Hasbro Studios, will unleash TRANSFORMERS ARMADA: THE COMPLETE SERIES on home entertainment shelves everywhere. For the first time ever, the entire series is collected in one deluxe 8-DVD set, featuring all 52 memorable episodes. Whether reliving the childhood memory or discovering this series for the first time, this is an essential home collection for every fan, collectors and entire family to complete their TRANSFORMERS home entertainment library. This complete series 8-DVD set is priced to own at $44.99 SRP.
Our heroes, the AUTOBOTS and their nemesis, the DECEPTICONS are at it again in this complete series of the TRANSFORMERS ARMADA. This series open to a war between the two factions of TRANSFORMERS on their home planet of Cybertron over MINI-CONS, a race of smaller, power-enhancing TRANSFORMERS. This struggle will bring AUTOBOTS, DECEPTICONS and MINI-CONS to earth, where they continue to battle, even after two humans get involved. Through the course of this series, the TRANSFORMERS face mysterious mercenaries, mighty MINI-CON weapons and even time travel as they fight for control or freedom.
About Hasbro Studios
Hasbro Studios is the Los Angeles-based entertainment division of Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS). The studio is responsible for entertainment brand-driven storytelling for the company across television, film, commercial productions and short-form. It develops, produces and distributes TV shows based on Hasbro's world class brands, including TRANSFORMERS, MY LITTLE PONY, LITTLEST PET SHOP and FAMILY GAME NIGHT. Many of these shows air on the Hub Network, a U.S. television network for kids and their families, that is a joint venture between Hasbro and Discovery Communications (NASDAQ: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK). Hasbro Studios shows can also be seen on networks in more than 180 territories globally. Since its formation in 2009, the studio has received seven Daytime Emmy wins and 16 nominations. On the film side, the studio is developing and producing a number of features based on Hasbro's brands, including TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION (Paramount), G.I. JOE 3 (Paramount) and CANDY LAND (Sony). The studio team also oversees the production of commercials that feature Hasbro's brands as well production of short-form content that can be seen on all of the major digital and social media platforms globally.
About Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory, LLC is a diversified multi-platform entertainment company devoted to producing, uncovering, preserving and revitalizing the very best of pop culture. Founders Richard Foos, Bob Emmer and Garson Foos have spent their entire careers sharing their music, television and film favorites with discerning consumers the world over. Shout! Factory’s DVD and Blu-Ray™ offerings serve up feature films, classic and contemporary TV series, animation, live music and comedy specials in lavish packages crammed with extras. Shout’s audio division boasts GRAMMY®-nominated box sets, new releases from storied artists, lovingly assembled album reissues and indispensable “best of” compilations. In addition, Shout! Factory maintains a vast digital distribution network which delivers video and audio content to all the leading digital service providers in North America. Shout! Factory also owns and operates Timeless Media Group, Biograph Records, Majordomo Records, HighTone Records and Video Time Machine. These riches are the result of a creative acquisition mandate that has established the company as a hotbed of cultural preservation and commercial reinvention. Shout! Factory is based in Santa Monica, California. For more on Shout! Factory, visit shoutfactory.com
Very exciting and very cool! Be sure to mark March 11th on your calendars! Transformers Armada is not to be missed!
Or follow us on Twitter @InfinteEarths...
Top 10 NYCC Reveals - 2013
Yes, we know this one is a little late, but things have been pretty busy around here at Infinite Earths lately. Sorry for the delay everyone, but like they always say - Better Late then Never.
So, New York Comic Con was held from Thursday, October 10th - Sunday, October 13th, 2013 and, once again, the toy companies really brought their A-Game! And so, if you haven't guessed already, what follows is a look at Infinite Earths' Top 10 Toy Reveals for NYCC!
You guys have waited long enough for this list, so let's get to it then, shall we?
#10 - DC Multiverse Christopher Reeves Superman - The days of the 6" Mattel DC Universe figure will be behind us in a few short months, but that doesn't mean the company is throwing their DC license away. Replacing the much loved 6" DCUC figures are a new line of 4" DC Multiverse figures, one of which will be a 4" figure based off Christopher Reeves Superman from the classic 1978 film! The likeness to Mr. Reeves is pretty spot on and the colors chosen seems clean and accurate to the film. However, articulation will be limited and it won't be in scale with your other Mattel DC figures. If this piece had been in scale with, say, the Movie Masters line, it would've been further up the list. This is not to say it looks to be a bad figure, it's just somewhat different then what fans were wanting when it came to such an iconic representation of the Man of Steel. Still, it looks great and is sure to make fans happy, thus it takes the #10 spot on our list...
#9 - Captain America Marvel Legends Hydra Agent - The second 6" Hydra soldier figure released by Hasbro since 2007, this piece looks to be a vast improvement over the first one. Set for release in Spring 2014, right around the time The Winter Soldier will hit theatres, this figure will come equipped with character specific weaponry and a piece to build the larger Mandroid figure. Not only that, but this would be a great army builder for any Marvel fan! Expect regular Marvel Legends articulation and top notch paint work and attention to detail!
#8 - Captain America Marvel Legends Mandroid - One look at this Build-A-Figure for the upcoming Captain America Marvel Legends line and you'll understand why it made the list! He's big, he's bad and, like the Hydra Agent listed above, who wouldn't want to build an army of these things for their Marvel display? Of course, in order to do so, you'd have to buy several duplicate figures from this line when it hits in the Spring of 2014, but honestly, look again at this behemoth and tell us that it wouldn't be worth it!
#7 - DC Collectibles Designer Series Riddler - Teased during the DC Collectibles panel at NYCC, the figure was revealed the following Monday on the DCC Facebook page! Based on the art of Greg Capullo, this New 52 version of one of the most popular Batman Rogues throughout history will feature his trademark cane and some gorgeous paint work. The Designer Series will be a nice substitute for the lack of DC Universe Classics and is sure to fill the void left by the soon-to-be-defunct Mattel brand! Look for Riddler to be available in May!
#6 - DC Multiverse Michael Keaton Batman - Another much loved incarnation of the Dark Knight, this DC Multiverse version from Mattel will stand 4" tall and be based off the character's appearance in Tim Burton's 1989 summer blockbuster! Character specific accessories are said to be included, as is a really nice looking cloth cape! Again, it is just such a shame these DC Universe movie figures coming out aren't in scale with the Movie Masters line, otherwise both the Keaton Batman and Reeves Superman would've been much higher on the list - but I digress. Look for this figure to be available this April...
#5 - Spider-Man Marvel Legends Carnage - Hasbro really brought out some big guns for their Marvel lines! Next year, fans will be treated, not only to a new Marvel Legends line focusing on Captain America, but also everyone's favorite wall-crawler - Spider-Man! Coming in this newly themed wave, also slated for a Spring 2014 release, is a new 6" Carnage figure! This has got to be one of the nicest plastic renditions of the popular Spider-Man villain we have ever seen! The sculpt is superb, the paint vibrant and accurate to his comic counterpart and that head sculpt is just down right awesome! Seriously, we think this piece speaks for itself!
#4 - DC Collectibles Earth 2 Green Lantern - DC Collectibles revealed an entire line of Earth 2 heroes at their NYCC panel this year, one of which was the New 52 Earth 2 Alan Scott Green Lantern! Standing 6" tall (in scale with DC Universe Classics), this figure is based off his look in the current Earth 2 title being published by DC Comics! While some articulation appears to be lacking, GL features a very nicely done sculpt and some seriously beautiful looking paint work! Chances are no accessories will be included other then a display stand, but with both his hands being sculpted into fists, we suppose it really doesn't matter. A very nice looking piece, coming in Spring 2014, Earth 2 Green Lantern is sure to look great in any DC Comics figure display!
#3 - Spider-Man Marvel Legends Black Cat - Based off her look in the current Spider-Man titles being published by Marvel, Black Cat will be coming to fans this Spring as a part of the highly anticipated Spider-Man Marvel Legends line! Standing 6" tall, this is one seriously eye-catching figure that is a must-own for Spider-Man fans and collectors! Expect top notch paint, sculpting and articulation and try not to think about how odd it is that a leather clad female figure sporting heels comes with a whip as her sole accessory!
#2 - Spider-Man Marvel Legends Beetle - Okay, okay, we know this version of Beetle is based off the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series. We know that most fans would prefer a proper, classic comic based Beetle figure. But still, he looks pretty awesome regardless - kind of like something straight out of Kamen Rider! This piece takes the #2 spot on our list for being such a unique choice on the part of Hasbro. Hopefully, however, a proper comic based Beetle Marvel Legends figure won't be all that far behind...
#1 - DC Collectibles Earth 2 Batman - Ever since the Batman Earth 2 teaser was released by DC Comics back in March of this year, I have been hoping and praying that a New 52 Earth 2 Batman figure wouldn't be too far behind. And it isn't! Coming in Spring 2014, this Batman figure is based off his look in the new Earth 2 title being published by DC Comics! Part of the newly revealed Earth 2 line of figures, Bats will stand 6" tall, in scale with your Mattel DC Universe figures, feature a newly styled cape and classic DC Collectibles articulation. He'll even include a red Earth 2 batarang! Yes, it's another Batman figure, but it is something different that keeps our love for the Dark Knight growing! Thus, DC Collectibles' Earth 2 Batman takes the #1 spot on the list this year!
There you have it, once again, Infinite Earths fans! Again, we apologize for the delay in getting this list up, but like I said, we've been pretty busy here of late. Hopefully things will slow down with the cooler weather.
But, as can be seen, we have some really neat figures to look forward to come 2014! Whether you're a DC Comics or Marvel fan (yes, we realize every entry on the list is comic based), there will be lots of great additions to your collection over the course of the next 365 days! Just looking at this list makes me realize some shelf space is going to have to be made!
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80s Sitcom Reunion on GAY FOR PLAY Sneak-Preview
Posted on April 25 2016 by Editor
The final round of “Gay For Play” is much like “Deal or No Deal”. This is the only round where the male dancers get to…MORE
The Logo channel introduced a new and fun way of word game guessing called “Gay For Play” hosted by RuPaul (Drag Race) which premiered on April 11th.
The show has a panel of star guests who help the contestants guess the correct answers who may not actually know the answers. Once the contestant picks the celeb, they can go with their answer or choose a different one from the multiple choice board.
One question that is not multiple choice is the video questions. This is a question asked by a celebrity via a pre-recorded video It’s introduced with “Oh girl!” audio.
Regular star players on the panel include Carson Kressley, Michelle Visage, Todrick Hall (from YouTube fame), Ross Matthews, Heather McDonald, and Raja (from RuPaul’s Drag Race). The panel is separated into “Tops” (they sit at the top level) and “Bottoms” (they sit on the bottom level). “Gay For Play” also mesmerizes audiences as well as all within 20 feet of them with flashy sexy male dancers who carry the show in and out of commercial breaks.
The final round of “Gay For Play” is much like “Deal or No Deal”. This is the only round where the male dancers get to participate in the game. They stand next to glittery boxes which hold different amounts of money as well as a type of “Zonk” (Let’s Make a Deal) where a box could hold a rubber chicken. The contestant playing wouldn’t want to get this – “don’t choke the chicken” is what it’s called.
The contestant who won round three plays this round and the goal is to hopefully win $5,000. If it’s celebrity contestant, they play or someone at home. We watched a couple of the tapings, and can’t say if someone won the $5,000. Viewers will have to keep watching.
One show featured a “227” reunion with Marla Gibbs and Jackee. Ironically, Star Kym Whitley (“Young and Hungry”) was included in the panel on this particular show who is a ringer for Jackee. In the third round, contestants pick one star each from the panel to answer as many trivia correctly as possible. Marla’s trivia was “The Jefferson’s”. Jackie’s trivia was “227”. Surprisingly, she has forgotten a bit of those memories from the show.
It's a 227 reunion w/ @JackeeHarry & #MarlaGibbs! Catch an all-new #GayForPlay Game Show, Monday at 10:30/9:30c.https://t.co/mWTMPWJDFC
— Logo (@LogoTV) April 22, 2016
The “227” reunion episode airs Monday, April 25th on Logo network.
Also appearing this season of “Gay For Play” will be celebrity Housewives Gretchen Rossi (“Housewives of Orange County”) and Taylor Armstrong (“Housewives of Beverly Hills”).
Edits Not Seen on CELEBRITY FAMILY FEUD Season 4 Sneak-Peek!
New Game, Same Fun on LOVE CONNECTION Season 2 Sneak-Peek!
THE JOKER’S WILD Just Got More Fun Courtesy of Snoop Dogg
Be a Contestant on Snoop Dogg’s THE JOKER’S WILD Game Show
HOUSEWIVES’ Ramona Singer’s Dates on LOVE CONNECTION Sneak-Peek
Controlled Chaos on THE GONG SHOW Sneak-Peek Review
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Kylie Challenging Selena & Sofia As Bathing Suit Queen In Cutout Suit
Francesca Hayward: 5 Things To Know About The Hollywood Newcomer Starring In ‘Cats’
Check Out These Beautifully Dressed Baby Bumps From Past Golden Globe Awards!
January 17, 2011 8:45AM EDT
Jerry O’Connell’s Twins Have Their Own Personalities — ‘We Have A Good One And A Bad One.’ Can You Relate?
The terrible twos have hit Jerry O’Connell and Rebecca Romijn’s house! Their twin daughters are double trouble.
Oh no, HollyMoms, sounds like Jerry O’Connell and Rebecca Romijn‘s twin daughters have hit the dreaded baby stage — the terrible twos! Dolly and Charlie have started to reek havoc all over Hollywood. “We have a good one and a bad one,” Jerry, 36, tells Us Weekly of his darling daughters with Rebecca, 38. “I don’t want to say which one, but the bad one will act up in public places, like the supermarket. She lies down on the ground. It’s like a hippie protest — like a sit-in!”
Two girls are twice the fun!
And the protest doesn’t stop at the grocery store, it continues at home in the kitchen! Adorable blond Dolly, who we have a feeling might be the wild one, decided to pack her own lunchbox –with beer cans!
The twins have turned Jerry off to having more kids!
“They have lunch boxes now because they go to school,” Jerry told Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday (Jan. 11) during a visit to his late night show. Jimmy then shared a photo of little Dolly with a lunchbox loaded with beer! “Before you call child services, I did not do that,” Jerry explains. “I have a strict policy about my children not allowed in the kitchen…but they go crazy and they want to get in. It’s like an exclusive club where the doorman’s like ‘You can’t come in,” and they’re like ‘I’m on the list, I swear I’m on the list!’ And I let them in and that’s what happened.”
Of course, Jerry explains himself. “I did not let her go to school like that. I would be in jail right now. Could you imagine if they were having a kegger at my daughters’ nursery school?” HollyMoms, what’s the funniest foods your tots have tried to take for lunch?
Check out Hollywood’s cutest celeb twins!
We’re still laughing about this incident. It sounds like Dolly and Charlie really keep Jerry and Rebecca on their toes. It’s hard enough having one 2-year-old, to take care of! We should just nickname them “Angel” and “Devil” O’Connell!
–Leigh Blickley
Get more HollyBaby news and gossip! Friend
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Charlie O'Connell Dolly O'Connell Jerry O'Connell Jimmy Fallon Rebecca Romijn
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← Interview with the Adventurous D.J. Niko, Journalist and Author of The Riddle of Solomon
Brian Moreland Discusses How His Female Lead Character Overcomes Her Fears in The Witching House →
Interview with Historical Author Stephanie Thornton on Women in History, Writing, and Thoughts on Ancient Desserts!
Today I have an amazing interview with debut author Stephanie Thornton, who penned one of my favorite current books, The Secret History: A Novel of Empress Theodora! If you have a love of women in history who have overcome great odds and helped change history, this book is for YOU! You can read my review from June HERE!
Now, Stephanie talks about inspiration for her novel, what other intelligent women she’s writing about, and why she’s telling aspiring writers to never give up! PLUS there is a GIVEAWAY and you’ll see that information right under the interview. Enjoy!
Hi Stephanie, welcome to Oh, for the Hook of a Book! I am so happy to feature you back on the site in celebration of your debut novel release, The Secret History: a Novel of Empress Theodora. How have you been taking it all in?
Stephanie: Thanks so much for having me, Erin. The last week has been a whirlwind of awesomeness, and I’m thrilled to be here!
Erin: I can only imagine your excitement! And well-deserved!! Let’s grab some coffee and start talking about everything under the sun, or at least as much as we can get to!
Q: The Secret History is your first published novel, correct? Where did you find the inspiration to write it?
A: This is indeed my first published novel. I’m a high school history teacher and was inspired to do some more research after reading a line in a textbook about an actress-turned-empress who saved her husband’s throne during riot by giving a rousing speech. That was Theodora’s famous speech during the Nika rebellion, but I soon found out there was so much more to her story!
Q: Given the amount of research, how did you undertake that task? How long did it take you?
A: The research never ends! (I actually found a new portrait of Theodora this week, hidden in a Roman church, and wish I could go back and write a scene about it for the novel!) I start my research by reading the available primary texts from the era, then move on to biographies of my main characters. Once I have the story, then I move on to the setting details that really make the era come to life. Those pieces tend to fall into place during my final edit, so I’m truly researching the whole way through.
Erin comments: You are very good at setting the scene with amazing details. I can picture all you write as if I am truly there.
Q: What was the most interesting tidbit about Theodora, or the people surrounding her, that you came across in your research?
A: I absolutely love that Theodora was the daughter of a bear trainer. I’m distantly related to the Bailey side of Barnum & Bailey’s Circus, so I like that we have a shared circus background!
Erin comments: That’s so cool!
Q: The cover art for your book is beautiful. Did you find much art, creative writings, tapestries, or the like from this time period in Constantinople? I know you described some beautiful architecture and art in your book. What other cultures influenced that empire creatively during the sixth century?
A: The Byzantine Empire was heavily influenced by the Italian Roman Empire, but was starting to diverge from the classic forms of architecture, as can be seen by the domes of the Hagia Sophia on the novel’s cover. (Which I love, by the way. I almost swooned when I first saw it.) It’s also interesting to note that Byzantine architecture spread out of Constantinople after Theodora’s time—St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice is considered Byzantine in structure. I’m not aware of many creative writings or tapestries from the time period, but fortunately for us, many of the stunning Byzantine mosaics survive to this day—one of the lasting impacts of Byzantine art as they truly excelled at mosaic-making. In fact, if you Google “Mosaics,” the first image you’ll see is one of Christ from the Hagia Sophia and another top hit is a portion of the mosaics from San Vitale in Ravenna, the site of Theodora’s famous mosaic.
Q: Women from these ancient cultures seemed to have great strength of mind and soul. Many times they seemed to be even revered by their male peers or significant others intellectually, politically, and romantically. How do you think this happened, even as sometimes women still struggle today with this issue?
A: I think it took a strong man to recognize these amazing women, as that was typically not the norm. Most ancient cultures viewed women as second-class citizens, so for a man like Justinian to realize Theodora’s strengths, and even fight to be allowed to marry her, speaks volumes as to the strength of his own character. Justinian battled laws forbidding his marrying a common actress, and also feuded with his aunt, who wanted him to marry a respectable girl (despite the fact that his aunt had also once been a prostitute). I think it was difficult for men to realize that they didn’t have to give up their power to allow women to also have their say, something that still impacts women today.
Erin comments: You’d think after thousands of years, that would be a simple fix (a man feeling weak when a woman is strong) but alas….it’s still a tad bit of a struggle in the modern world as well. Also, women like Justinian’s aunt who could take their success and use it to teach or help others, but instead of point fingers at someone else just because the finger was pointed at them, aren’t helpful either. Lessons for today many times are still spoken through history.
Mosaic of Empress Theodora
Q: Keeping in line with that, given the major lines drawn among social classes, the poverty in the city streets, and the actresses who were paid for their bodies, how did some of these women rise to the powerful legacies they become? It couldn’t have been easy.
A: It definitely wasn’t easy, and as it always does, luck played a huge part in Theodora’s uncommon ascent from the gutters to the throne. The Byzantine Empire allowed for some upward mobility, but only for a select few people. Life in the ancient world was brutal for the vast majority of the population, and there were often few choices for women. The fact is that Theodora’s determination, perseverance, and wit would have amounted to little had she not been able to attract a wealthy patron, something she would have been well aware of. Lucky for her, she managed to catch the eye of the future emperor, and was then able to use her talents to their full advantage!
Q: I know you also like a favorite quote of mine: “Well-behaved women rarely make history!” Can you expound on that notion and besides the fact that drama always is memorable, what else makes this true? Do you feel it is still true today?
A: That’s one of my favorite quotes—I have it on my webpage and also in my classroom! I think that in order for women in the ancient world to stand out and be remembered, they really did have to break the rules. If they didn’t, they were relegated to the background. Women like Theodora and her friend Antonina refused to let men call all the shots—even the men they loved—and weren’t afraid to voice their own opinions (or perform salacious and daring acts on stage). For Theodora, at least at Nika, that also meant that she was able to turn the tide of history. As for whether this is still true today, I think it’s a little easier for women to get noticed, but it’s still women who break the norms—Hillary Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, Sandra Day O’Connor—who will likely end up remembered by the history books.
Erin comments: I agree. And though it’s sad that women standing up for beliefs, causes, or for their voice to be heard is considered risky, I applaud women who strive daily without fear and continue to work hard to change society
Q: What other women in history are you writing about? Can you talk a little about your next several books and the desire you have to bring to print “your forgotten women in history?”
A: My next novel, DAUGHTER OF THE GODS, is about Hatshepsut, Egypt’s first successful female pharaoh, and my personal idol since I was in the 7th grade. Hatshepsut financed major trade explorations, fought against foreign uprisings, and fell in love with a commoner, all while guiding Egypt into its Golden Age. My third book, THE TIGER QUEENS, will feature Genghis Khan’s first wife and several of his daughters. All of these women were integral to history, but sadly, have been largely forgotten. It seemed wrong that we all remember Cleopatra (who lost Egypt to the Roman Empire—I’ll forever hold that against her) and Anne Boleyn (who did give birth to Elizabeth I, but is mostly famous for getting her head chopped off), yet we don’t know about these other inspiring women who left such a legacy to history.
Erin comments: I agree! Hatshepsut has always been a favorite of mine and would love to see more books showing her in a positive light! Honestly, I have never even hear of Khan’s wife or family, so that will be really interesting!
Q: Besides the women you are currently writing on, what other women have you thought about featuring in a novel? Why?
A: I’m turning my eyes toward ancient Rome for my fourth novel, although I have yet to decide exactly who my new heroine will be. There are a couple of options, but I’m not allowed to start researching those women until I finish revising my third book!
Q: What words of advice do you have for aspiring female writers? How would you motivate them to pursue their writing dreams?
A: Never give up! It’s cliché, but also so true. This business will wring the blood and tears right out of you, but if you’re passionate about what you’re writing, you have to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I believed so much in the first book I wrote that I went back and rewrote it from the ground up after finishing THE SECRET HISTORY. That book will release next year as DAUGHTER OF THE GODS, despite all the people who told me it was impossible to get a book on ancient Egypt published these days. You can achieve whatever you want to, but not if you stop writing!
Erin comments: Ancient Egypt is my favorite historical subject to read and there are so many stories of magic and wonder to be told.
Q: What has been your biggest challenge on your writing journey? Alternatively, what has been your biggest personal success?
A: I almost threw in the towel on the whole writing business in the midst of querying DAUGHTER OF THE GODS, (and having all those naysayers tell me ancient Egypt wasn’t “in”). But I love the women I write about, (I would go totally fan girl on them if I ever invented a time machine), and I knew I had to keep going. My biggest personal success was finding an agent, and then an editor, who believed that the world would want to know about these women.
Erin comments: It seems like such a no-brainer to me! It’s so sad to hear you had so much difficulty. As a reader, writer, and history buff myself, I have been on the look-out for books such as what you are writing! At least you are making this reader happy, but I bet you will many others too. Glad you kept going!
Author Stephanie Thornton
Q: With a family and a career as a teacher, how do you find the time to write? Do you “schedule” writing time on your calendar or just fit it in as possible? How do you gain support from your family for your writing time?
A: My only real writing time comes at night after my daughter is in bed. I have a wonderfully supportive husband who knows that for one golden hour, I have to hide away in my writing room and get the words into my laptop. I’ve gotten into the habit of writing everything by hand first and then typing it into my laptop, so with that system, I carry notebooks with me just about everywhere to take advantage of other random writing opportunities.
Q: How do you find your character’s voice when writing? What are some character developing tips?
A: Each character is different, which is fun, but often challenging at the same time. Theodora is pretty snarky, and it was often easy to hear her sarcastic comments in my head as I was writing. I often have mottos for my characters to help determine both their voices and their actions. Theodora’s motto was easy: SURVIVE.
Q: What other books and authors do you enjoy personally and why?
A: I will read just about anything, but I love historical fiction. (Of course!) My all-time favorite novel is MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA by Arthur Golden and I’ve loved all of Kate Quinn’s novels since MISTRESS OF ROME came out. I love books with a killer plot, characters I love and want to throttle at the same time, and lush, exotic settings.
Q: The major question I really want to know is if you found any ancient secret baking recipes during your work? What might Theodora’s favorite dessert have been and what is your favorite?
A: Best question ever! First of all, I think it’s a tragedy that Theodora lived in a time without chocolate or ice cream. I’m not sure I would have survived. That said, I did come across a reference to a Byzantine dessert made of cream and sprinkled with orchid pollen. I’m not sure if it would have been any good (certainly not as good as ice cream), but I managed to include a reference to it in one of Theodora’s banquet scenes with Emperor Justin.
Erin comments: Oh, I am always about the food. And your food descriptions in your book were AMAZING!! I think I might even have to try that flower pollen…
Q: Where can readers and writers connect with you?
A: You can pretty much find me everywhere these days! I’m online at www.stephanie-thornton.com, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AuthorStephanieThornton, and I tweet as @STephMThornton.
Erin: Thank you so much, Stephanie, for joining me today on the site. I absolutely adored your book and writing style and I can’t wait for your next upcoming novels! I wish you the best of luck with your writing and hope to have you back again soon!
Stephanie: Thank you so much for having me, and for asking such fantastic questions! I hope we can meet up again when DAUGHTER OF THE GODS releases next year. (That is, if you like hippo attacks, musty tombs, and Egypt’s greatest pharaoh of course!)
Erin: I am absolutely already super excited for Daughter of the Gods!! I want to be first on the reading list!!
The giveaway is for one paperback copy of The Secret History and open internationally! To enter, please leave a comment under this post, or at the link on the Facebook page when it appears at www.facebook.com/HookofaBook. You can also email me at hookofabook(at)hotmail(dot)com. Whichever you choose, please be sure to leave your own email so I can contact you.
Extra entries: +1 for following my blog and +3 for “liking” the Facebook page mentioned above which is a hub for reviews, interviews, and book news.
THE SECRET HISTORY, Synopsis~
Paperback; 448p
Where Theodora went, trouble followed…
In sixth century Constantinople, one woman, Theodora, defied every convention and all the odds, and rose from being a common theater tart to become empress of a great kingdom, the most powerful woman the Roman Empire would ever know. But the woman whose image was later immortalized in glittering mosaic was, in fact, a scrappy, clever, conniving, flesh-and-blood woman full of sensuality and spirit whose real story is as surprising as any ever told…
When her father dies suddenly, Theodora and her sisters face starvation on the streets. Determined to survive, Theodora makes a living any way she can—first on her back with every man who will have her, then on the stage of the city’s infamous amphitheater in a scandalous dramatization of her own invention. When her daring performance grants her a back-door entry into the halls of power, she seizes the chance to win a wealthy protector—only to face heartbreak and betrayal.
Ever resilient, Theodora rises above such trials and by a twist of fate, meets her most passionate admirer yet: the Emperor’s nephew. She will thrive as his confidant and courtesan, but many challenges lie ahead. For one day, this man will hand her a crown. And all the empire will wonder—is she bold enough, shrewd enough, and strong enough to keep it?
Praise for The Secret History
“Stephanie Thornton’s Theodora is tough and intelligent, spitting defiance against the cruel world of the Byzantine Empire. Her rise from street urchin to emperor’s consort made me want to stand up and cheer. Her later years as empress are great fun to read, but it was her early struggle as actress and courtesan that really had me roaring: either with rage at the misfortunes heaped on this poor girl, or with delight as she once more picked herself up with a steely glint in her eye and kept on going.”—Kate Quinn, author of Empress of the Seven Hills
“Loss, ambition and lust keep this rich story moving at top speed. Stephanie Thornton writes a remarkable first novel that brings a little known woman to full, vibrant life…A sprawling and irresistible story.”—Jeane Westin, author of The Spymaster’s Daughter
“A fascinating and vivid account; in The Secret History, the life of Empress Theodora leaps from the page, as colorful and complex as the woman herself.”—Michelle Diener, author of The Emperor’s Conspiracy
Author Stephanie Thornton, Biography~
Stephanie Thornton is a writer and history teacher who has been obsessed with infamous women from ancient history since she was twelve. She lives with her husband and daughter in Alaska, where she is at work on her next novel.
For more information, please visit Stephanie Thornton’s website. You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter.
Link to Tour Schedule: http://hfvirtualbooktours.com/thesecrethistoryvirtualtour/
Twitter Hashtag: #SecretHistoryTour
Filed under Q and A with Authors
Tagged as books of Empress Theodora, Byzantine Empire books, first female pharoah, Ghengis Khan wife, Hatshepsut novels, historical fiction with strong women, historical fiction with theodora, life of Theodora, must read historical fiction, NAL books 2013, stephanie thornton author, The Secret History reviews, women authors, women in ancient history, women in history
12 responses to “Interview with Historical Author Stephanie Thornton on Women in History, Writing, and Thoughts on Ancient Desserts!”
amyc
This book sounds really good and I am looking forward to reading it. Great interview!
campbellamyd at gmail dot com
Pingback: Interview with Historical Author Stephanie Thornton on Women in History, Writing, and Ancient Desserts! - First Edition Books
carlrscott
I am familiar with Theodora from a few other sources but this new treatment sounds like a good addition to them. Thanks for having this giveaway, I’d love to win a copy of this book.
carlscott(at)prodigy(dot)net(dot)mx
She really did a great historical of her, I think. Thanks for coming by Carl and signing-up!
I also follow your blog by email: carlscott(at)prodigy(dot)net(dot)mx
and I liked the Facebook page: Carl Scott
Kathleen Bianchi (@joekathbia)
I was unaware that Theodora was the most powerful women the Roman Empire had ever known. I had heard of her but that was it. I love reading historical novels to bring history to life and to learn about different time periods.
I follow by email
kathleen.bianchi@ymail.com
I think she certainly was one of them, if not the most powerful. So glad these women are being brought to us with novels such as Stephanie’s The Secret History.
Kim Cree
This book sounds soo good, I can’t wait to read it!
I follow your blog and facebook page.
kim_cree@yahoo.com
griperang
Thank you for the chance to win this book, I am a fan of historical fiction and this looks like a good book to me. I am a follower of your blog as well as facebook.
griperang at embarqmail dot com
wow, I would have never thought about a novel about Genghis Khan’s wife & daughters! What a fabulous idea! Thank you for the chance to win The Secret History!
I became a follower via Networked Blogs & have liked your the facebook page!
mamabunny13
Theodora sounds fascinating, I can’t wait to read more about her!
Leave a Reply to carlrscott Cancel reply
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hello@hospitalamritdhara.com
Product's Price
Sucess Stories
Job Requirments
Test tube babies are a wonderful Miracle
Every step is carefully and affectionately supervised
Babies complete a family
We ensure that your dream comes true
Bringing new angels in this world
Providing best possible assistance in your journey to Motherhood
Some moments are the most special in life
Our efforts are always directed to make them comfortable and painless
Holding your hands throughout Pregnancy
We are with you at every step guiding you and supporting you
Motherhood is the Greatest but the Hardest thing
We ensure your delivery to be smooth as possible
Bringing Joy To Expecting Mothers
With Their First Cry
HOD Message
Infertility is growing at a fast pace in our society, not only in urban areas but also in the suburbs and rural areas. The main causes being changing lifestyle, increased use of pesticides and hormones in food products leading to hormonal changes in both males and females. We at AMRITDHARA, my Hospital, realised it 20 years back and our Amrit IVF Centre is dedicated to treatment of infertile couples providing complete treatment including ARTs (IUI, IVF, ICSI) and laparoscopic surgery is under one roof by a team of specialists with a vast experience of more than 10 years
Being the pioneers of Infertility treatment in North India, we started the services in 1995. We first started with IUI and later moved on to IVF in 2010. Since then, we have handled over 10,000 cases of infertility and successfully helped deliver over 1000 babies at our premises. Our success rate in IVF is 40%, which is at par with the worldwide industry standards.
About Amrit IVF
Amrit fertility Clinic has been dedicated to the treatment of infertile couples for the last 20 years now and so far we have “produced” about 2000 babies as a result of various treatments that we offer. Our first IUI baby was born more than 20 years back. We have improved since then, added more facilities, kept abreast with newer technologies, and our ART results today are as good as any of the best centres in India.
Amrit IVF Centre, to provide the facility of IVF and other advanced ARTs was started in Jan 2010. Though a very new centre, it has given excellent results, an unbelievable 100% pregnancy in its very first batch. This goes to show the excellent quality of our Lab & equipment (from Trivector India, the leaders in IVF technology) and also the complete dedication & commitment of our team to give best possible results in our patients of Infertility. Soon after, the facility of ICSI was added on in order to meet the need of many patients for this service. A state of art micromanipulator from Nikon was installed in July 2010. very soon after that, we realized the need of cryopreservation, and the facilities of vitrification also.
What is Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART)
Any medical technique that attempts to obtain a pregnancy by means other than by intercourse is defined as Assisted Reproductive Technology. The various methods are:
Intra Uterine Insemination (IUI):
IUI or AIH (Artificial Insemination Husband) is the first line of treatment in Infertility and can be used to treat both male and female factor infertility. In this method, the processed semen is placed directly in the uterus, thereby increasing the chances of pregnancy. IUI can be done in a natural cycle, however to get better results, it is usually preceded by ovulation induction/Ovarian stimulation using appropriate fertility enhancing drugs. Its main indications are poor sperm count in males, anatomical defects in females and unexplained infertility. This procedure is useful only when one of the fallopian tubes is patent and the woman has a minimal ovarian reserve.
This process is also used for using donor sperms, when its called AID (Artificial Insemination Donor), when the male partener has total azoospermia or severe Oligozzospermia, which is not treatable and ICSI is not possible/affordable.
In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and Embryo Transfer (ET):
Commonly know n as ‘Test Tube Baby’ IVF involves fertilization of an ovum outside the body and consequently transfer of the fertilized ovum (embryo) into the uterus of the woman. IVF is probably the most widely practiced assisted conception procedure in the world. It is totally an OPD procedure and does not need admission at any step. Its main indications are:
Poor Sperm Count (Oligo or Asthenozoospermia <5million/ml)
Genetic disease in the couple’s family
Steps involved in IVF Procedure:
FIRST VISIT- Counselling of the couple regarding the procedure,the best treament suitable for them, the protocols and their chances of success.
PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATIONS- Blood tests, X-ray, ECG, Hormone tests, Ultrasound, Hysteroscopy and Semen tests.
Final PROCESS OF IVF:
Ovarian stimulation by hormonal injections to produce multiple eggs
Monitoring of the response by ultrasound scans and blood tests
Egg retrieval with the help of a needle under local/general anesthesia
Fertilization of the eggs in laboratory
Transfer of the resulting embryo(s) into the uterus of the woman
Blood test performed 15 days after embryo transfer, to assess the establishment of pregnancy. If the treatment procedure is successful, one or more of the embryos will implant in the uterus and pregnancy will result, just as it happens in the natural process of conception.
Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI):
ICSI is the technological breakthrough in the field of IVF, which is used to overcome the inability of sperm to fertilize an egg. Its main indications include male factors like severe oligozoospermia, so but can also used in repeated IVF Failure. In this technique a sperm is directly injected into the cytoplasm of an egg in order to achieve fertilization. The steps involved in ICSI procedure are exactly the same as for IVF, except that fertilization is achieved with the help of a micromanipulator. In some cases where there is a complete absence of sperm in the ejaculate, sperm can be retrieved from the testis / epididymis and used for ICSI. The testicular/epididymal sperm retrieval techniques are: PESA (Percutaneous Epididymal Sperm Aspiration), MESA (Microsurgical Epididymal Sperm Aspiration), TESA (Testicular Sperm Aspiration), TESE ((Testicular Sperm Extraction)
IVF using Donor Oocyte (Eggs):
Women who are unable to produce their own eggs or whose eggs fail to fertilize during an IVF cycle due to poor Oocyte quality, can be helped by using other women’s eggs (Donor Oocyte). The resulting embryo is then transferred to mother’s womb. This allows the woman to bear her husband’s child and also experience the joys of motherhood. The eggs may be obtained either from a professional donor (from ART banks) or by using the egg sharing program.
EMBRYO DONATION; It is the replacement of donor embryos in the uterus of the wife of desirous couple, when both of them are suffering from poor eggs and sperm count.
SURROGACY: When the uterus of the woman is unable to carry the pregnancy till term because of reasons like infections, malformations, multiple myomas or absence or surgical removal of the uterus, we can offfer the option of Surrogacy to such couples. The surrogates are provided by the ART Banks which also deal with the legal aspect of surrogacy.
Assisted Hatching:
This procedure is based on the fact that an alternation in the zona pellucida (outer covering of the egg) either by drilling a hole through it or by thinning it, will promote hatching or implantation of embryos that are otherwise unable to escape intact from the zona pellucida.
Cryo Preservation of Embryos (Vitrification):
Excess (Surplus) Embryos can be cryo-preserved at ultra low temperatures for many years. These frozen embryos can be used subsequently without the need for ovarian stimulation and egg retrieval. As of today, the pregnancy rate after transfer of frozen embryos is as good as with fresh embryos. In fact, it’s better in certain circumstances like OHSS when the hormonal profile becomes disturbed due to formation of a large number of eggs. Also when the uterine lining is not very favourable, or if the embryos cannot be transferred because of any reason, they can be vitrified and stored for a later use.
Semen / Sperm Freezing:
Semen/ Sperm or testicular biopsies can be stored frozen at ultra low temperatures for a long duration for future use or analysis. Semen Bank: Amrit IVF Centre has facility for storage of semen samples, for its own patients for future use. We also keep frozen sperm samples obtained from certified sperm banks in New Delhi, with various backgrounds and physical characteristics to match individual needs. Donors are screened thoroughly to rule out any transmission of infectious or genetic diseases.
Risks Involved in ARTs
Multiple pregnancy
Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS)
Failure at different steps of IVF Treatment
The incidence of congenital malformation in IVF babies is no more than in the general population.
Success Rate: Apart from the expertise of the individual fertility clinic there are other factors, which affect the ART outcome, such as patient’s age and the variety of abnormalities, causing infertility. Some of these abnormalities respond well to IVF while others do not. This means that some patient will have a good chance of pregnancy while others will have a poor chance. A good Lab normally has a 30 – 40 % pregnancy rate per attempt.
Our USP is the low cost at which we provide this treatment, probably lower than anywhere else in India.
Other Treatment Options Available
Laparoscopy & Hysteroscopy: There are various conditions which require surgical treatments eg Congenital defects in the uterus or cervix, myomas, Polyps, Tubal Blockage, Hydrosalpinx, Ovarian drilling for Polycystic ovaries, ashermann’s syndrome etc. Both Diagnostic and Therapeutic laparoscopy and hysteroscopy are hysteroscopic surgeries are done by fully experienecd team of laparoscopic surgeons.
You are welcome to visit our centre at any time convenient to you..
Why Should You Choose The Hospital Amritdhara IVF Center?
Experienced specialists performing IVF for the last 10 years
Use of Advanced "Closed Working Chamber Technology" for superior IVF treatment.
Success rate of over 60% in IVF procedure.
State of Art Infrastructure and advanced IVF Lab setup.
Highly Experienced Fertility Physicians & skilled embryologists.
Continuous guidance from a supportive team of counsellors 365 days a year.
Amritdhara IVF fertility experts have experience of doing over 13500 IVF cycles per year.
Transparent and Ethical treatment.
Patient friendly treatment & step by step counselling.
Our team of experienced and dedicated professional is at par with the team at any other established IVF centre with a comparable or probably higher success rate.
Dr Jyoti Gupta (MBBS, DGO) Infertility Specialist
Dr. Stuti Modi (MBBS, DNB) Infertility specialist
Dr Nidhi Sadana (MBBS, MD)
Dr Deepu Verma (Full time Embryologist)
Dr Khem Karan Gautam (Visiting Embryologist),
Dr Neetu Bhatia (Counsellor)
Dr Neeraj Bansal
Ms Neelam (Nurse)
Ms Ritu (Nurse)
360˚ View
» Doctor, we are married for 4 years and are childless. We want IVF treatment.
If you are married for 3 years and have not visited any infertility clinic so far, you first need to do that and undergo some basic tests to find out the cause of your infertility. It is quite likely that you will be able to conceive with some simple treatment offered to you, provided you have a good ovarian reserve. IVF will be the last step when other treatments fail.
» Who are the candidates for IVF or other ARTs?
IVF was originally meant for the patients with blocked fallopian tubes. Now the use of this technology is extended for patients with reduced sperm count (male factor), endometriosis, unexplained infertility. Patients with ovarian failure can make use of this by getting eggs donated. ICSI is useful in patients with severe oligospermia, immunological factors and in cases of IVF failures.
» How will I know that I will benefit from IVF?
Thorough evaluation of both partners will help us decide that. That includes tests for ability to form good quality eggs (hormonal evaluation), tests to check the receptivity of uterus for the embryo (Color Ultrasound & Hysteroscopy) and tests of sperm functions.
» My husband’s sperm count is nil and we want IVF using donor sperm.
If you want to use donor sperms, there is no need for IVF, as a comparatively very small technology called IUI would help you conceive, if your own tests are normal. IVF will be indicated only if your fallopian tubes are blocked.
» If husband’s sperm parameters are very poor, is it possible for him to father a child?
Yes, by an advanced technology called ICSI (Intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection), if the sperms are mature and healthy, they can be retrieved by natural or artificial means and can be injected into the oocyte in order to fertilize them. In such cases it is advisable that husband undergoes certain tests (Karyotyping and microdeletion test) beforehand to find out that he is not carrying a genetic defect which could be passed on to his son.
» Can we bring our own sperm donor?
No, only the sperms obtained from an authorized sperm bank can be used. These samples are screened for sexually transmitted diseases, HIV, hepatitis B & C. A detailed history of donors is taken to rule out any disease in family which can be inherited. Donors are also matched as far as possible for physical characters to the male partner. Moreover, donor anonymity has to be maintained as per the ICMR guidelines.
» What are the options if I’m not forming eggs?
You will need to undergo egg donation program in order to conceive. A donors eggs will be fertilized with your husband’s sperms and the embryo formed will be transferred to your uterus after 2-3days. Both yours and the donors cycles will have to be perfectly matched beforehand so that both of you are in the similar phase of the menstrual cycle at the time of embryo transfer.
» Do you provide the egg donors? Can we select them of our choice?
Donors are provided by the ART banks, their secrecy is maintained, as per ICMR regulations. The donors are selected by the ART banks as per the guidelines i.e., less than 30years of age, have their own children and do not have history of any disorders which can be inherited. They are also screened for STDs and Hepatitis B & C.
» What will my IVF cycle look like?
Depending upon the protocol decided for you, first you will be given certain injections to make a large number of eggs in your ovaries, during which you’ll have to come for ultrasound and blood hormone tests for 3-4times. When ready, you will be given an injection for their final maturation. Eggs will be picked up after 34-35hours, under anaesthesia or sedation, after which you can go home. You’ll be called once again after 48-72 hours to transfer the embryos in your uterus.
» How many times I’ll have to visit the clinic during one IVF cycle?
It’ll take about 4-6 visits, depending upon the protocol. If you’re coming from outstation, you could reduce the no of visits by doing the ultrasound and blood tests there and discussing the next dose of injections telephonically.
» How many cycles can I try?
It is advisable to try for 3 cycles before one can say that this method is not working for you. However, there are other options available today, which may further increase the chances of the success of your cycle if IVF alone has failed. These options are: ICSI, assisted hatching, egg/sperm donation, surrogacy etc., which could be considered according to the individual case.
IUI helps a lady become a Mother!
The IVF Story
Rashmi Got Her IVF Treatment
5 Patients Treated
Due to IVF, Rakhi’s dream completed
AMRITDHARA, my Hospital
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IT MENU
Improving Treatment of Life-Threatening Bleeding
U.S. researchers have successfully field tested a system that analysed patient vital signs during emergency transport, finding that it could detect those with life-threatening bleeding before they arrive at the hospital, potentially saving lives. The study, published in the journal Shock, was conducted by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the U.S. Army, air ambulance service Boston MedFlight, and two other Boston trauma centres.
Often teams transporting patients either by air or ground ambulance notify receiving hospitals of potentially deadly injuries, but the information transmitted may be too general to identify those at risk of life-threatening bleeding. As such, even when a patient is clearly at risk of serious blood loss, decisions about the need for surgical repair and blood transfusions may not be made until assessment is completed at the trauma centre.
"Our study demonstrated that automated analysis of patients' vital signs during prehospital transport was significantly better at discriminating between patients who did and did not have life-threatening haemorrhage," says senior author Andrew Reisner, MD, MGH Department of Emergency Medicine. "Receiving more reliable information before the patient arrives can help hospitals be ready for immediate surgery and replenishment of lost blood without wasting time and resources on false alarms."
Dr. Reisner and his team sought to investigate whether computerised analysis of data being collected by vital signs monitors during transport could identify patients with dangerous bleeding. For this study, they developed software based on statistical techniques currently used in stock market trading to determine whether particular data points represent real problems and not random fluctuations.
The system called APPRAISE (Automated Processing of the Physiological Registry for Assessment of Injury Severity) consists of an ultracompact personal computer linked to a standard patient monitor. It is able to simultaneously combine measures of blood pressure with those of heart rate, breathing and the amount of blood pumped with each heartbeat. APPRAISE was installed in two MedFlight helicopters and gathered data on more than 200 trauma patients transported to participating Boston hospitals from February 2010 to December 2012.
In order that patient care not be affected by a still-unproven system, the APPRAISE system's data analysis was not provided to MedFlight crews. In addition, the researchers analysed data from a 2005 study of vital sign data gathered manually by a Houston-based air ambulance system. Outcomes information for both patient groups was gathered by chart review. Results showed that:
In both groups, the APPRAISE system successfully identified 75 to 80 percent of patients with life-threatening bleeding, compared with 50 percent who were identified by standard clinical practice.
Notifications provided by the system would have been available within 10 minutes of initial monitoring and as much as 20 to 40 minutes before patients' arrival at the trauma centres.
"The fact that decisions to proceed with surgery or to replenish lost blood often occur only after patients' arrival means there are delays — sometimes brief but sometimes prolonged — in initiating such life-saving interventions," explains Dr. Reisner, an assistant professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
His team is working on a follow-up study to use the system in actual trauma care and determine whether it leads to faster treatment of life-threatening bleeding and better patient outcomes. "This approach could also be helpful for patients transported by ground ambulance and for hospitalised patients at risk of unexpected haemorrhage, such as during recovery from major surgery," the doctor adds.
Source: Massachusetts General Hospital
Image credit: US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command
Reisner AT, Reifman J et al. (2015) Automated Analysis of Vital Signs to Identify Patients With Substantial Bleeding Before Hospital Arrival. Shock, 2015; 43 (5): 429 DOI: 10.1097/SHK.0000000000000328
Published on : Sun, 17 May 2015
trauma, air ambulance, bleeding, vital signs, APPRAISE system, emergency transport
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healthmanagement, trauma, bleeding, APPRAISE system, vital signs, emergency transport, air ambulance Researchers have successfully tested a system that analysed patient vital signs during emergency transport, finding that it could detect those with life-threatening bleeding before they arrive at the hospital.
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The Benefits of Friendship
By Robert Von Nordheim
In GET HAPPY
Back in grade school, making new friends seemed so easy. All you needed was a few shared hobbies and values, and maybe a couple laughs on the playground, and an unbreakable bond would be forged.
Friendship is no less important later in life; all manner of difficult experiences and awkward changes are easier to bear with a good friend. In fact, a nationwide study revealed that 94% of adolescents see their friends almost every day, while 91% of adults over 65 do the same.
But aside from the obvious, let’s take a look at the physical and emotional benefits of friendship.
Benefits of Friendship
Spending time with friends is deeply gratifying for most people, and it carries some surprising side effects: not only does it improve your mood and self-esteem, it also reduces stress and lowers your risk for terminal illness!
Maintaining friendships can be hard during those middle years, when work and family often take higher priority – but for a longer, happier, more fulfilling life, it’s certainly worth the effort.
Friendship is an excellent prescription for all kinds of physical and emotional pain. The Mayo Clinic reports that friendship can “increase your sense of belonging and purpose, boost your happiness, reduce stress, improve your self-worth, [and] help you cope with traumas, such as divorce, serious illness, job loss or the death of a loved one.1”
It’s no surprise, then, that most people greatly value their friends, and often turn to them first in times of crisis, even before spouses or relatives.
Related Article: Health Benefits of Yoga
The emotional health perks we receive from our friends can also impact our physical health. According to Harvard Health Publications, “social connections help relieve harmful levels of stress, which can harm the heart’s arteries, gut function, insulin regulation, and the immune system”; friends can also strengthen our immune systems and motivate us to recover from a debilitating injury.
Simply put, “good friends are good for your health.”
What Makes a “Friend”?
What do most people look for in a friend? Typically, the answer is “themselves.”
Our closest friends tend to have many interests and experiences in common with us. Additionally, most people choose friends of the same age, sex, and marital status. North Carolina State University explains that “some people maintain friendships with the opposite sex, but differing interests and overtones of sexuality make this sort of friendship complicated… [meanwhile], a married couple is probably going to have other ‘couple friends’ rather than separate or single friends.”
These preferences demonstrate the unique relationship that we have with our friends. Friends, along with our romantic partners, are among the few significant others that we choose ourselves. The bonds we share are “voluntary, enjoyable to both, and each person is free to make the relationship more or less intense.”
As a result, friendships are generally less complicated and difficult to maintain than other relationships, though they can be just as rewarding.
Related Article: 7 Ways to Have Lasting Relationships
While the benefits of friendships come naturally, friendship usually does not. It can be difficult to find people with similar interests and values; this is especially true during adulthood, when responsibilities like career, education, and family care severely limit your social life.
Moving to a new city can also make finding friends difficult, and many people have trouble relating to old friends due to changes in their interests or lifestyle. But today, friends have a number of ways to meet and keep in touch; websites and applications like Facebook and Skype all allow friends to communicate easily even if they’re miles apart.
How to Build New Friendships
So how can you build new friendships?
The Mayo Clinic suggests starting conversations with someone from your workplace, school, church, gym, or volunteer project; if you frequent many of the same places, it’s likely that you have quite a lot in common.
Inviting an acquaintance to lunch or even just an afternoon coffee is a good way to learn more about them without making things uncomfortable (after all, everyone’s got to eat, right?) Likewise, chat rooms and social networking sites help many adults to make friends without the occasional awkwardness of face-to-face conversation; this should not, however, be used as a long term solution, as “[the] use of social networking sites doesn’t necessarily translate to a larger offline network or closer offline relationships with network members.”
Related Article: 5 Steps to Make Your Relationships Great
Friendship is one of the most highly valued and rewarding parts of life. Close friends improve our outlook on life and our general well-being, making any unpleasant experience much easier to bear. The connections we form with our friends are also quite strong, offering reliable support that nothing else quite matches.
Though friendship is important throughout our entire lives, adults often have difficulty making time to socialize and share their interests. Fortunately, people can meet new friends in unexpected places, and long-lasting bonds can form from seemingly simple activities. Even without the surprising health perks of friendship, a life without close companions would only be half-lived.
“Friendships: Enrich Your Life and Improve Your Health.” Mayo Clinic. 16 April 2011. www.mayoclinic.com.
“The Health Benefits of Strong Friendship.” Harvard Health Publications. December 2010. www.health.harvard.edu.
Matthews, D. Wayne. “The Magic of Friendship.” North Carolina State University. August 1995. www.ces.ncsu.edu.
Photo by Juliana Coutinho
Originally published 9/12/12 and updated 5/15/14
featured, happiness, health, hot, life advice, live better, relationships, self improvement
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(02) 9212 1982| Contact Us
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Super downsizer scheme essentials
Under the superannuation downsizer scheme, people aged 65 and older can make a non-concessional (post- tax) contribution of up to $300,000 from the proceeds of selling what was once their family home. Downsizing enables more effective use of housing stock, and existing contribution caps and restrictions will not apply to the downsizer contribution. The scheme applies from 1 July 2018.
By enabling older Australians to make additional contributions to superannuation, the scheme also assists these individuals to better provide for their retirement, and also take advantage of the concessional taxation environment afforded to superannuation funds (including 15% tax on earnings, or tax-free when an account is in pension mode).
The key features of the downsizer scheme are as follows:
The individual making the contribution must be aged 65 or over at the time they make a downsizer contribution (there is no maximum age limit)
The contribution must be from the proceeds of the sale of an eligible Australian dwelling sold on or after 1 July 2018
The dwelling must have been owned for at least 10 years
The dwelling in whole or in part must have qualified for the main residence CGT exemption
The contribution (or contributions) must be made within 90 days of the disposal of the dwelling
The contribution must be no more than the lesser of $300,000 or the proceeds from the sale
The individual must notify their superannuation fund in the approved form at the time the contribution is made that they wish to treat the contribution as a downsizer contribution
The individual must not have previously made a downsizer contribution in respect of a different dwelling (but can make multiple contributions in respect of the same dwelling, provided that the 90-day time limit is met for each contribution).
Along with freeing up housing stock, the other benefit of the scheme is that it provides older Australians with greater capacity to contribute to superannuation.
The reason why taxpayers must be over the age of 65 to contribute is that the scheme is designed as an exception to the existing contribution rules that restricted this cohort from making significant super contributions in the following respects:
Work test – This test requires that taxpayers aged 65-74 who wish to make voluntary contributions to superannuation must be in gainful employment for
at least 40 hours within a 30-day period during the year in which they make a contribution. By removing this requirement for downsizer contributions, older Australians who no longer work significant hours can now inject sizeable sums into superannuation when they sell the family home.
Age restriction – Taxpayers over the age of
75 generally cannot make voluntary personal contributions to superannuation (unless made within 28 days of turning 75). There is no maximum age cap on making a downsizer contribution.
Non-concessional, bring forward cap – Individuals aged 65 or over cannot use this cap, which allows younger taxpayers to bring forward up to three years’ worth of non-concessional, after-tax, contributions (otherwise limited to $100,000 per year) by contributing up to $300,000 over a three- year period depending on their total super balance on 30 June at the previous financial year. For example, if you were under age 65 on 1 July 2018, had not triggered the bring forward cap in any of the previous two financial years and had a total super balance of less than $1.4 million at 30 June 2018, you are permitted to make a $300,000 contribution in 2018-19 but no more contributions for the following two financial years until 2021-22 without exceeding your bring forward cap.
Additionally, downsizer contributions are not subject to the $1.6 million total superannuation balance restriction. Since 1 July 2017, individuals cannot make non-concessional (after-tax) contributions to a superannuation account if they have a total superannuation balance of $1.6 million or more.
While the above contribution restrictions have been lifted in respect of downsizer contributions, the retirement phase transfer balance cap remains in place. That is, the $1.6 million limit on the amount of superannuation savings that an individual can have in tax-exempt income streams still applies. Therefore, if an individual has reached their $1.6 million transfer balance cap, while they can still make a downsizer contribution, that contribution must be allocated to an accumulation account (whereby earnings are taxed at 15%, rather than tax-exempt).
Posted in Superannuation
← ATO’s “living expenses” tool to help tackle the cash economy
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Penalty interest can be deductible, under specific conditions
Carrying forward concessional super contributions
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Event-based reporting mistakes lead to more SMSF audits
Businesses get increased access to losses
Records for claiming work-related expenses
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617.373.4357 [xHELP] help@northeastern.edu
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DSC – Digital Scholarship Commons, located on the second floor of Snell Library near ATS and the CATLTR, is a creative environment where faculty can come and learn at their own pace, drop by to discuss an issue with staff or colleagues, meet casually with other faculty, or schedule some time to work on a project with the staff.
E-Portfolio – An interactive, web-based package used to showcase the work and ideas of faculty, staff, and students.
FACT – The Faculty Advisor Communication Tool to track communication and facilitate identifying and assisting students experiencing difficulties.
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HuskyCable HDplus – A suite of two services that make up Northeastern University’s cable television service, supported by Comcast. HuskyCable HD and IPTV are available in all university-owned residence halls.
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MGHPCC – High-end research computing resources available to all users at Northeastern University, including faculty, students, staff, researchers, visiting scholars and partners. These resources include centralized high performance computing (HPC) clusters and storage, visualization, software, high-level technical and scientific user support, and education and training.
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SharePoint – A web-based collaborative workspace tool that allows faculty and staff to manage the business processes in a secure environment.
Skype for Business – Faculty and staff can use Microsoft Lync or Skype for Business on and off campus for a range of collaboration activities, including instant messaging, presence information, AV/Web conferencing, whiteboarding, screen sharing, application sharing and file transfers.
Solstice – A tool to enable multiple users to connect simultaneously to a shared display using a range of devices over a WiFi or Ethernet network.
SSB – Self-Service Banner, which allows you to manage your own information in the core university systems. Course registration by students is done through SSB, for example.
Tegrity Lecture Capture – A tool to capture, store, index and view audio and video materials in Blackboard for use anytime and anywhere.
VPN – A Virtual Private Network provides end-to-end secure remote access between a computer in a remote location and on-campus resources.
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Let's hear it for the boys! Matthew McConaughey, Channing Tatum (Step Up) and Alex Pettyfer (I Am Number Four) star in this revealing drama set in the world of exotic male dancing. Tatum plays Magic Mike, a womanizing hustler with an entrepreneurial spirit who makes his living on the stage. When he takes on a protégé (Pettyfer) to instruct him in the fine art of hustling onstage and off, he finds himself falling for the newcomer's sister (Cody Horn) -- and questioning his life choices. Oscar® winner Steven Soderbergh (Sex, Lies & Videotape, Ocean's Eleven films) directs an all-star cast that also includes White Collar's Matt Bomer, True Blood's Joe Manganiello, Olivia Munn and Matthew McConaughey as a former dancer and now owner of the club.
Critics Consensus: Magic Mike's sensitive direction, smart screenplay, and strong performances allow audiences to have their beefcake and eat it too.
Cheerful stripper comedy is too sexy, mature for kids.
Nick Wechsler
Gregory Jacobs
Reid Carolin
Magic Mike XXL
What to Expect When You're Expecting
The Lucky One
Movies in Comedy
Nobody's Fool
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Kevin Smith Survives 'Massive' Heart Attack
Kevin Smith / Feb. 26, 2018
Smith: "For now, I'm still above ground!"
By Brian Barnett
Kevin Smith has survived a "massive" heart attack.
Smith revealed on Twitter that after his first standup performance last night, Smith had "a massive heart attack," after which he cancelled the night's second show to go to the hospital. He tweeted a picture from his visit at the hospital, saying the doctor there "saved his life."
After the first show this evening, I had a massive heart attack. The Doctor who saved my life told me I had 100% blockage of my LAD artery (aka “the Widow-Maker”). If I hadn’t canceled show 2 to go to the hospital, I would’ve died tonight. But for now, I’m still above ground! pic.twitter.com/M5gSnW9E5h
— KevinSmith (@ThatKevinSmith) February 26, 2018
The doctor told Smith he had 100% blockage in his left anterior descending (LAD) artery. Heart attacks involving LAD blockage are nicknamed "widow makers" for their high likelihood of resulting in sudden death.
Smith says if he hadn't cancelled the second show to seek treatment, he "would've died." Smith ends by saying "for now, I'm still above ground!"
Smith recently announced a new Jay and Silent Bob film, and last year he joined the cast of Call of Duty's new co-op Zombie mode. In addition to his film work, Smith has directed multiple episodes of The CW superhero shows including The Flash and Supergirl.
Brian Barnett is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow and chat with him (he's super friendly) on Twitter at @Ribnax.
Kevin Smith Shares Emotional Response to Captain Marvel's Mallrats Reference
Kevin Smith Begins Pre-Production on Jay and Silent Bob Reboot
Kevin Smith Gives Update on Current Health Following Heart Attack
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Home News Letters to the Editor Letters to the Editor
A beef with flea market coverage
Try this hypothetical. Let's say the Independent has been at odds with someone for decades. Caught by the Indy in a repeat violation of rules, the person retaliates by accusing the paper in print of being motivated by institutional ethnic prejudice.
Surely the Independent would desire an opportunity to respond. Comment from a reporter would hardly suffice, given that, if taken seriously, the allegation calls into question the integrity of the Independent's entire operation. You would expect, perhaps demand, an opportunity for a policymaker such as the publisher or editor to directly address the charge.
This brings us to your June 27 story, "Buckhorn flea market fights closure," in which Orange County government was subject to a baseless slur regarding its relations with the Hispanic community.
Orange County, among the most inclusive governments in this or any other state, deserved an opportunity for a policymaker, an elected official or the county manager to respond to the canard you blithely repeated. No such opportunity was afforded. You did quote a county employee in the article, but only on the latest round of rules violations.
Nor was Orange County's integrity your only victim. When another spurious accusation was tossed at a business proximate to the flea market, there was no sign in the story that the owner was afforded the simply courtesy of a chance to reply.
Rudimentary journalism requires better balance than this. Certainly one expects more from the Independent.
Barry Jacobs
The writer is an Orange County Commissioner.
Pasteurization key to healthy milk
As a veterinarian regularly involved in caring for dairy cattle, I enjoyed your recent article "Drink it raw" (cover story, by Suzanne Nelson, June 20)though a deeper understanding of the history of veterinary public health might make your notion of a controlling dairy cartel seem far-fetched.
Nelson's article serves as a sort of backhanded testimonial for the efforts of generations of diligent veterinary public health workers. Why are hunchbacks so frequently encountered in fairy tales and fiction but never seen in our world? Because we pasteurize our milk. Childhood tuberculosis, contracted by drinking milk from an infected cow, localizes in the growing bones, causing extreme scoliosis. Such affected children were once seen everywhere, and most large farm families might have at least one hunchback child.
Pasteurization has historically targeted two organisms that may infect and sicken people drinking seemingly normal milk from cows that look healthy. One disease, brucellosis, has been called undulant fever. The other is bovine tuberculosis, which is similar but not identical to human TB. Either disease can be chronic and debilitating.
Thanks to years of work by dairy farmers and veterinarians, we have virtually eliminated both of these diseases in the United States. These accomplishments rank among the major successes of veterinary public health in the 20th century. Brucellosis hasn't appeared in North Carolina since the 1950s; TB has only flared up in three isolated instances since I began practice here in 1984. Thus, the risks associated with drinking raw milk, while low, are well-documented, while the benefits are largely unproven, albeit enthusiastically promoted. Nelson offers anecdotes, personal testimonials and 75-year-old published works. This seems pretty sketchy data to abandon a policy that has accomplished so much.
Clearly we need new and meaningful research. Such research would get a fair hearing among veterinarians, scientists and nutritionists ... and if convinced, they could lead the way toward regulatory reform.
T.S. Redding III, D.V.M.
Issue: 2007-07-11 Columns Letters to the Editor
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IBM SmartCloud Offers Productivity Tools, Social
by Nick Kolakowski December 6, 2012 2 min read
cloudGoogleGoogle DocsIBMOffice 365productivitysocial
IBM SmartCloud Docs’ document-editing tool.
Not to be outdone in the cloud-storage space by Google and its ilk, IBM is releasing its own cloud-based office productivity suite.
The platform, titled IBM SmartCloud Docs, is part of the IBM SmartCloud initiative, which the company is also updating with a variety of new social features. IBM SmartCloud Docs includes the ability to edit spreadsheets, word-processing documents, and slideshows. Users can save their work to IBM’s SmartCloud and collaborate in real-time with any online coworkers.
IBM SmartCloud’s layer of social features includes file-sharing, instant messaging, the ability to set up communities for collaboration, in-office social profiles, and a custom survey- and form-creator.
Given its position as a major provider of business software, IBM had little choice but to jump into the cloud-productivity and social-business segments. Microsoft’s Office 365 and Google Docs already compete for organizations that want productivity software delivered via the public cloud, and enterprise-software companies such as SAP and Oracle have layered their own offerings with more and more social features over the past several quarters.
Earlier this year, for example, SAP introduced an enterprise-centric social platform named Jam, which gives organizations the ability to set up a Facebook-like social network for employees. That followed in the steps of Salesforce, which placed social features at the forefront of its business-software development. Even Oracle has gotten into the game to a certain degree, incorporating a variety of social analytics into its cloud products.
“Today’s organizations are looking to collaborate in real time and in context, inside and outside the firewall, to include employees, customers, partners and suppliers,” Vanessa Thompson, a research manager at IDC, wrote at the time of SAP Jam’s announcement. Whether or not that interest in networking is driven by employees’ use of Facebook, any IT vendor that doesn’t consider integrating social features into its products risks being left behind.
IBM evidently wasn’t willing to be left behind.
Image: IBM
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4 Reasons Kids Want iHolidays
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Volume 137, November 2006
https://doi.org/10.1051/jp4:2006137064
35th Winter School on Wave and Quantum Acoustics
J. Bodzenta, M. Dzida and T. Pustelny
J. Phys. IV France 137 (2006) 331-340
DOI: 10.1051/jp4:2006137064
Intramolecular interactions in porphyrin - labelled polymers studied by spectroscopic, photothermal and photoelectric examinations
A. Siejak1, D. Wróbel1 and Yu.S. Avlasevich2, 3
1 Institute of Physics, Poznan University of Technology, Nieszawska 13A, 60965 Poznan, Poland
2 Institute of Molecular and Atomic Physics, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, 70 F. Skaryna Ave., 220072 Minsk, Belarus
3 Present address: Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, 55128 Mainz, Germany
(Published online 23 December 2006)
The aim of this study is characterization of photophysical properties of newly synthesized porphyrin-labelled polymers in aqueous solution, methanol and dioxane. The copper, zinc and free base tetraphenylporphyrins (CuTPP, ZnTPP and H2TPP) covalently linked to polyethylene glycol (PEG) or poly(N)isopropylacrylamide (PNIPAM) were investigated. Absorption, fluorescence and photothermal properties were determined in order to follow deactivation pathways of radiative and non-radiative processes of the excited states of the porphyrin molecules in the polymeric systems and some intramolecular interactions. The spectroscopic experiments were supported by the photoelectric studies of the investigated systems in a photoelectrochemical cell. It was shown that the polymers cause the changes in electronic distribution in porphyrin covalently linked to the polymeric chain and can lead to enhancement of the photoactivity of the porphyrin species in light energy to electric energy conversion. The absorption, fluorescence and photothermal experiments showed the existence of the aggregated porphyrins, charge transfer in the dye-polymer systems.
Molecular mixtures based on porphyrins and phthalocyanines for application in photovoltaics
J. Phys. IV France 117, 101-113 (2004)
The importance of non-radiative processes in porphyrins and phthalocyanines for photocurrent generation study
Applications of photothermic methods in photodynamic therapy investigations
J. Phys. IV France 109, 33-41 (2003)
Selection of photosensitisers for photodynamic therapy of cancer using time-resolved photothermal spectroscopy
Photovoltaic performance of P3HT-porphyrin functionalized 1D CdS nanostructured organic inorganic bulk heterojunction hybrid solar cells
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Judith Bunting announces Lib Dem plans for funding boost to give children in West Berkshire a brighter future
Posted on 20th May 2017 22nd May 2017 By Lindsey Middlemiss Newbury Doula
Judith reading to preschool children
This week, at Park House School, Newbury, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate Judith Bunting launched the Liberal Democrat’s manifesto policies for young people and children.
Under the plans, 3-4 year-olds in Newbury and West Berkshire would benefit from Liberal Democrat plans to triple funding for the early years pupil premium, which gives extra cash to nurseries, pre-schools and school receptions when they take on children from disadvantaged backgrounds. The cash would triple the funding to £1,000 per pupil per year – up from £302 in 2015-16. This will increase the allocation for West Berkshire Council from around £75,000 (£74,591) to £223,773, and will pay for every disadvantaged child who benefits to receive 570 hours of state-funded early education. This forms part of a series of policies the Liberal Democrats are announcing with a focus on giving children and young people a brighter future.
Judith Bunting said: “I was delighted to be able to tell the 6th formers today about key Liberal Democrat policies that will significantly improve the lives of young people.”
Helping people buy their first home for the same cost as renting, with a new model of ‘Rent to Own’ homes
Restoring housing benefit for young people
Creating a discounted bus pass for 16-21 year olds, giving a 66% discount
Introducing votes at 16 for elections and referendums across the UK
As well as:
Investing almost £7bn in our schools and colleges
Doubling the number of businesses that take apprenticeships
Tripling the early years pupil premium
Extending free school meals to all primary school students
Judith Bunting added: “We will give children in Newbury and West Berkshire a brighter future, by investing in those from more deprived backgrounds to give them the best possible chance in life.
“This forms part of a package to build a fairer Britain and ensure no child or young person is left behind. Education is at the heart of everything I stand for, as a Liberal Democrat.
“I want the opportunity to help the Liberal Democrats provide a strong opposition to this Conservative government and to give the people of Newbury and West Berkshire a voice in standing up against the cuts to our local schools, hospitals and regional funding.
“A vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote for a brighter future for people across Newbury and the surrounding area.”
“Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour has let us all down by voting with Theresa May and UKIP on Brexit. “The Liberal Democrats will stand up to Theresa May and give the people the final say on Brexit, with the choice to remain in Europe if they don’t like the deal on offer.”
Judith Bunting with Sixth Form students at Park House
ImagePosted in EducationTagged #stopschoolcuts, apprenticeships, Brexit, bus pass, childcare, children, colleges, cuts, Education, free school meals, funding, GE2017, House buying, housing benefit, Judith Bunting, Lib Dems, Liberal Democrats, manifesto, Newbury, Park House, Pupil Premium, Rent to Own, Schools, voting age, West Berkshire, young peopleLeave a comment
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Home Finance How a Japanese Billionaire Took Over the Top Spot on Twitter
How a Japanese Billionaire Took Over the Top Spot on Twitter
What Makes Twitter users more excited than a year’s supply of Wendy’s chicken nuggets?
The most retweeted tweet of all time now belongs to Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese billionaire supporting the e-commerce company Zozotown. His message into the Twitterverse promised 100 winners an opportunity to win a piece of JPY 100 million, roughly $920,800, if they retweeted him.
Maezawa stated his advertising on Twitter was a show of gratitude after Zozotown marketed JPY 10 billion worth of product through its New Year’s sale. His message has been retweeted more than 5.5 million occasions. He explained he would get in touch with the winners via message.
Twitter verified that Maezawa’s post is currently the very retweeted message about the platform and the tweet is considered a”contest/sweepstakes” advertisement and is allowed on Twitter.
Maezawa isn’t merely a high-profile entrepreneur: He is also slated to be SpaceX’s first tourist to pay for a trip round the moon. Last year, in an unveiling at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, Maezawa declared he had bought every seat on SpaceX’s inaugural flight to Earth’s satellite, scheduled to embark in 2023 and take approximately a week. Maezawa stated he’d invite up to eight artists to join him on his journey to the moon, leading to the creation of artworks”to inspire the dreamer in all of us.”
The new champion of retweets ousted the former record holder, Carter Wilkerson. In 2017, the then-16-year-old kicked off a viral effort to get Wendy’s to provide him free chicken nuggets for a year. Wilkerson’s tweet gained more than 3.5 million retweets. Wendy’s gave $100,000 to the Dave Thomas Foundation as a part of his effort, and Wilkerson said he raised $5,000 for a local cancer-related business off the nuggets campaign.
“I do not really take too much offence which I lost the album because just getting my chicken nuggets and getting the cash for charity was important to me than breaking the document,” he said in an interview Monday. Now 18 and also a full-time college student, Wilkerson said he expected to be beaten eventually but was amazed by how fast Maezawa gathered retweets. It required Wilkerson about a month after his first tweet to beat the previous record holder, Ellen DeGeneres, who published a celebrity-packed selfie shot by Bradley Cooper in the 2014 Oscars. “It is super surprising that I’m not there anymore,” he said.
Yusaku Maezawa
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I am 29 years married man who tries to enjoy own life.I love to take seriously health and relationship.I also love to write a blog for my readers to give them my idea. Another part of my life is technology which is very important in my life and enjoy the technical world.
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John Cena Talks About His Role in Bumblebee, and Fandom
Zed B. W.·
InterviewsMovies
John Cena plays Agent Burns of Sector 7 in the latest movie in the Transformers franchise – Bumblebee.
On the run in the year 1987, Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small Californian beach town. Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld), on the cusp of turning 18 and trying to find her place in the world, discovers Bumblebee, battle-scarred and broken.
When Charlie revives him, she quickly learns this is no ordinary, yellow VW bug.
Bumblebee is the sixth installment of the live-action Transformers film series and a prequel to 2007’s Transformers.
The film is directed by Travis Knight and written by Christina Hodson, and stars Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Jason Drucker, Kenneth Choi, Gracie Dzienny, Rachel Crow, and Pamela Adlon.
In this interview, Cena talks about his role and his love of fandom.
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Banksy’s Barely Believable Batteries
Jenny List
Nearly a decade ago my friend [Dru] gave me an unforgettable tour late at night of Stokes Croft, the inner suburb of Bristol known at the time for its counterculture and artistic scene. It’s a place dominated by building-sized graffiti and murals, and it has a particular association with the Bristolian street artist [Banksy]. If you’ve not seen a Banksy in the wild, the place to do it is by Bristol Saturday night street lighting to the sound of passing revelers and traffic on the A38.
[Banksy] is famous aside from his anonymity, for his pranks upon the art world. The (real) elephant in the room or the Dismalland theme park are his stock in trade, and you may have seen another prank of his in the news in the last day. One of his paintings, the 2006 Girl With A Balloon sold at auction for over a million quid, and as the gavel fell a hidden shredder in the picture frame sprang into life and partially shredded the canvas. The report suggests that a number of [Banksy]’s associates were present at the event, and that one of them was detained with a device that might have been a remote control trigger for the shredder. The quote from Sotheby’s Europe head of Contemporary Art, [Alex Branczik] says it all: “We got Banksy’d”.
The interior of the Banksy shredder frame, taken from a frame of the video.
[Banksy]’s cool and all that, but where’s the hack? The artist briefly put up a video with a few details, but aside from showing us a row of craft knife blades and a tantalizing but fleeting glimpse of a few equipment enclosures, it’s short on technical details. We can see what appears to be at least one motor, and those white boxes may be batteries, but that’s it.
This hasn’t stopped some fevered speculation as to how the feat was achieved. A home-made shredder would require a significant amount of readily available power, and since this one has seemingly lain undetected within the frame since 2006, that power source needs to have possessed both exceptional energy density and retention. We can’t imagine many consumer grade batteries in 2018 being able to retain a charge for twelve years, so how on earth did he do it? Our best guess is that a primary battery was involved, as anyone who has found a neglected Duracell in a box of electronics from their youth will tell you it’s not unknown for decent quality alkaline cells to live well beyond their shelf lives, and other chemistries are specifically designed with that property in mind. Even so, for the cells to power a receiver circuit in standby for so long would certainly tax their capabilities, so it has also been suggested that a concealed switch could have been flipped by a [Banksy] accomplice during the viewing phase to activate the system. There are still so many unanswered questions that it’s certainly piqued our technical curiosity. Sadly we don’t know [Banksy] to ask him how he did it, but we welcome speculation both informed and otherwise in the comments.
Our own [Joe Kim]’s tribute to the work in question.
Meanwhile the piece itself lies half shredded and protruding from the base of the frame. On the face of it that’s ruined the painting as an artwork, but of course this is a Banksy. Normal rules seem not to apply, so the notoriety it has received will no doubt mean that its shredded remains are an artwork in themselves, and possibly even one worth more.
Banksy owners worldwide are no doubt now paying a huge amount more attention to the artist’s frames than previously, but Hackaday readers need not worry. Our London Unconference logo and stickers featured a [Joe Kim] homage to the Banksy in question, which we can guarantee does not incorporate an artist’s shredder.
Posted in News, SliderTagged art, Banksy, battery, battery technology, shredder
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140 thoughts on “Banksy’s Barely Believable Batteries”
I’m pretty sure that as the shredder started it went up in value – especially with all the press attention it’s received.
Piecutter says:
Artist has shill set winning bid, no matter the price. No worries of litigious reaction. “Anonymous” buyer then has buyers remorse, and re-auctions the piece for an order of magnitude profit and additional attention.
Christian Black says:
That would be it. The man’s a famous hoaxer, so I say hoax. And a big payday.
Ken D-H says:
As an art restorer and conservator who has worked for both Sotherby and Christies on very many contemporary art objects over a number of years, I know that this work would have been fully inspected, had photographs taken and condition reports made by the auction house experts prior to the sale. For this to work as seen, the frame would have had to have a slot in the bottom frame section for the work to eject from, and this slot, however fine, would be fully apparent to any conservator, catalog photographer or department expert. I also question the use of scaple blades set up as they apparently were, to be an efficient and reliable cutting medium. The mechanism would have had to use at least one roller, an electric motor ( but possibly spring driven clockwork) and a remote control of some kind to trigger the device. My opinion, based on what I have seen on the various media, is that this was a very simple “Trick” device of the kind used by stage magicians and special effect departments.
Whoever did this was a great exponent of the shock tactic however, so I applaud him or her who worked this one out, – and quite probably with the full knowledge of the saleroom, – as a wonderful exponent of conceptual art.
I think that on seeing the video of this, I could probably replicate the effect fairly easily using a simple device and a little lateral thinking.
I would love to inspect this work myself, and expect that all will be revealed soon.
This is exactly what I was thinking when this first popped up a couple days ago. Looking at the pics it the battery packs look just like some D-Cell lithium primary packs I have, 4-5 cells in series gives 12-15v. They easily have a 10-20 year shelf life. That leaves the second question, how to keep the receiver from draining the batteries after all those years. Heck, that may be why it only partially shedded the picture.
Delgir says:
Make the wireless receiver with two modes. A slow scan that fires up every few minutes to preserve battery life until a wake up signal is sent and a fast scan every few seconds for the final event. For the shredder power source a spring with mechanical governor for excellent shelf life and reliability.
bufferscotch says:
Or failing that an on/off button…
That would require getting physical access to it which would probably be not allowed.
Except by the owner or failing that Christie’s well-paid staff, cleaning crews, transporters, fruitbats, oragutans, breakfast cereals etc.
It was never really shredded anyway. It was just a set of rollers that sent the painting around into the frame. The shreds are pre-done and were spit out the bottom. Way less mA required. It will sell twice. The prestige.
With an “expected autonomy time” of years to decades, I’d put the whole thing in “deep sleep” and only wakeup every hour or so to scan for “wakeup” signals. Once you get the wakeup, you go into “standby” mode, scanning much more often. Still it’d be a challenge to get things to still work after 12 years.
Even if the batteries still work, if I was Banksky, I’d still be searching for the remote I built 12 years ago….
Could just be an all-passive tuner that wakes up the receiver when a long enough signal is seen. Sleep indefinitely
RB says:
Exactly! My first thought when reading the article was ‘The Thing’.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)
The simplest explaination is often the best: there’s an accomplice who turned the device on before the auction.
All you need is a piece of string pulling a piece of paper off between spring contacts.
or just a magnetic switch, all the accomplish has to do is point at the picture from close-by or hold a hand next to the frame…
DCBANKS says:
A possible theory
1. When watching the video you see that the auctioneer appears to press a button directly after the gavel coming down. This would mean Christie’s was possibly in on it, and it was the auctioneer who actually activated it.
2. A reason for Christie’s to be in on it may be that the artwork, the frame, and the shredder are all part of the piece of art. This would explain why the bottom of the shredded area is curled as it was pre-fed into the shredder, and if inspected by Christie’s would not be a concern, and why it stopped halfway not shredding the entire painting as the point was to keep part of it intact. This would also explain why Christie’s would not be concerned with the shredder exit slot.
3. If there actually was a previous owner, they too would have known that this was all part of purchasing the piece and they would have been told not to change the frame because the bottom of the painting was pre-fed into a shredder and that batteries would need to be inspected prior to an auction.
4. Banksy said he secretly built the frame to shred the painting if it ever went up for sale, he never said the secret would be kept from everyone.
5. So if true, it would essentially be an evolving piece of art, not destroying one.
6. It is also possible that instead of a shredder, there may have been a pre-shredded separate painting that exits at the bottom, still leaving Christie’s to activate and the previous owner to be in the know to allow for inspecting batteries prior to auction.
UPDATE POINT 1
The auctioneer presses a button to end the internet auction at the same time as the gavel hitting the table. Only the auctioneer can close an active auction, and therefore has to end the online auction at the same time.
Johnny Woo says:
Y’all are overthinking it. This is a PR stunt. Clearly, Sotheby’s was involved, and made sure the frame was properly charged.
Augustine says:
Yes, it is all a made up stunt… I believe so …they are all involved.
Preshredded picture inside. Roll up the one on view. Much less power required. Also knives are pointing the wrong way.
Fabien (@DesChips) says:
Yep, I would say the same. I think the original piece is in perfect condition.
Jon H says:
” Also knives are pointing the wrong way.”
Not sure about that. It would depend on the paper path. And also the state of completion of the frame seen in the video. Perhaps additional paper guides or pressure plates were installed off-camera.
Correction: having viewed the video again, I see that the blades are pointed to the side relative to the painting. I don’t think there’s any paper path that would obtain the clean straight cuts seen in the video.
I conclude that it’s a pre-shredded copy, unless the behind the scenes video is a fake.
On the other hand, it seems like it would be difficult to keep the strips so straight during transport and hanging and while passing through a roller.
Hm. It’s a very fine kerf on those cuts. You can hardly tell it’s been cut into strips. Perhaps the painting was always half shredded, but held together in such a way that the slits weren’t visible until the shredded portion exited the frame.
I’d also note that the paper in the frame looks like it’s in front of the plane of the paper emerging from the bottom of the frame. That could be because of the paper path on the way to and through the shredder. Or perhaps rollers drew the painting into a middle chamber of the frame, while a half-shredded dummy painting was rolled out from a rear chamber.
Tore Lund says:
One thing that puzzles me is how the top part of the painting seems to far down in respect to the part sticking out of the frame? Might just be the rollers used that makes the paper appear shorter, but I also thought about the real intact painting being hidden inside? Banksy is libel for this, so it might just be a fake stunt to prove a point, and not a set-up to put a warrant on his head.
Lungfish says:
> it would be difficult to keep the strips so straight during transport and hanging and while passing through a roller.
Hmm, not really – it could’ve been lightly sandwiched between two sheets of card or plastic to hold it in shape, and just pulled out from that.
I dont think that is the final assembly. I think he was just laying out where the knives would go.
daid303 says:
I was thinking this for the knifes as well. But if you would zig-zag the picture around the knifes, it might work. As this is a one time thing, and not a normal shredder, more preparation could have been done.
Agreed. Much less effort, and a guaranteed perfect-looking shred. The original is reported to be canvas, so it would be very tough to cut nicely with a shredder.
TheRegnirps. says:
+1 Same thought. More of a magician’s illusion and easier than the shredder.
tgt says:
He’s an artist, not an engineer. It’s not about what is easiest or maximally effective, it’s about making a statement–which would be empty if the original painting was still intact. That’s the actual painting being shredded. You can see there’s a few inches of extra canvas at the bottom that is deformed by being pre-fed into the roller. I’m betting the bottom was installed already fed into the mechanism, the cut started perhaps manually to ensure that all the knives are getting a good bite. And light canvas isn’t stiff and inflexible like paper, it would happily curl around the sideways blades as they cut.
As an artist, that’s very unlikely. It would destroy the meaning of the shredding, which is essentially performance artwork.
Unless Banky’s playing a double trick, and once it’s resold for a higher value, it’s revealed that the painting is in fact intact, with the hope that this destroys the “cool” factor of the shredded artwork story.
But I think it’s more likely that this is a single trick.
Jbb says:
OK, so I can see 3 fairly reasonable measures to have a go at this:
1) Use lithium thionyl chloride batteries. They easily hold charge for over 10 years and can supply quite high currents when required. Those white blobs might be batteries.
2) An RF receiver would chew up the batteries if it were left on. So I would have it sleep lots and only wake occasionally (once every few hours?).
3) For maximum drama, you need instant action on the shredder. So I would add an ‘on your marks’ command to the unit that would be sent before the auction. This would put the device into hot standby for instant shredding. (And also draw some current to eat away the passivation layer in preparation for shredding current.)
Of course, I would have made the shred run to completion, because it’s a shredder, dang it. And maybe make the shredding disappear into the frame. But I am not an artist, and that wouldn’t leave a great artwork afterwards. I think it’s no accident that the shredder only went half way.
Jenny List says:
LiSOCl2 batteries have the capacity, but explode if you try to draw too much current from them. Thus things like OFO hire bikes that use them have a big supercapacitor to dump the power. I’m not sure 2006s supercaps were cheap, small, or particularly good.
Sure, but that’s why you spec the battery based on current (and end up with excess capacity) rather than speccing it for capacity (and too little current).
LiSOCL2 D-cells with spiral construction are available with rated continuous current of ~2A, at which point the voltage sags to ~3.2V for ~6.4W — stack as many as needed to deliver the required power. Sure, they’ll have tons of “wasted” capacity (they’d last 2h at that rate), but that just means more years of standby for your radio receiver.
Why use RF if you can use IR? Would be quite easy to conceal, and much less of a power drain I think.
I can never get enough Banksy stuff. Watching people go nuts over a one-tone spray painted stencil is hilarious…
I can get SEEN or KASE2 or Odeith to do something on canvas and sign it for pennies on the dollar..
It’s not about difficulty or complexity.
Mikel007 says:
The news report I read said that it was powered by mains.
Video shows them taking it down right after it happened and there is no connection. Plus, who would plug in a painting?
… Hey. He isn’t wearing gloves in that video. So I wonder seems kind of risky if fingerprints could lead to legal action.
Legal action? For making the piece even more valuable?
If it was just a hoax, and they were careful, then no one would have a claim to have been harmed by this, but If it was as it appears, an operative with a remote partially destroying the painting _after_ it was sold without the auction house’s or bidders’ consent, then the legal issues could be many.
It probably doesn’t matter, whether the act enriched the owner. Especially since some of that harm would hinge on whether the bidders paid to be there. They usually do, and whether Sotherby’s was in on the stunt, and is still owed for the auction itself.
Bidders’ pay a lot to get into auctions. Varies a bit, but it’s probably at least several hundred per bidder. (EG a classic car auction. Had nothing near 1 million $s, but it was $250 just to get in the door & get a catalogue!)
Sotherby’s charges 20% on that winning bid. So if they weren’t in on the game, they’d want their $280,000, not including extra fees. That would be a very expensive prank, and they or their insurance would probably seek restitution. Just that alone makes me think it must have been a hoax.
Artenz says:
The artwork wasn’t destroyed. The shredder system was part of the art. And while the artwork is in custody of the auction house, they are the ones responsible, so they can forget claiming the 20% fee.
Douggie says:
Because this is art, and because the shredding bit was fully intended by the artist, I actually think you would be hard pressed to actually argue a case in favor of paying out to the auction house/bidder, regardless of whether or not the whole thing was set up. You would have to prove that the painting itself was a separate “art” from what Banksy intended (an art piece that involved the painting being shredded after the winning bid) and/or that the auction house made it explicitly clear that they were selling the painting itself, not the rest of the piece.
This would be difficult to do without setting an alarming precedent about art and its ownership as a piece of IP. Even if you could argue the latter, that may well not be enough to get a favorable ruling.
elmesito says:
I don’t see how legal action would even work.The shredder was inside that frame since 2006. The only ones that can be sued are the auction house that didn’t inspect the item, or forgot to mention that there it an opening on the bottom of the frame, that looks like the backside of a a shredder.
In any case the new owner has not lost anything, if not else, the piece of art has already doubled in value, because even the frame now is part of the piece of art.
Not sure of British law, but in Canada, the artist retains copyright and control of a work after the sale. The “owner” only retains the work and the right to retain it, but not make changes.
If it’s the same in Britain, then the artist can still make changes to the work without fear of litigation.
Fingerprints generally are a very short term form of evidence. The old break down quickly unless the print is in something like ink or paint.
I must admit that I laughed with satisfaction when I saw the news of this; just the thought of this millionaire seen his money quite literally being shredded, brought a nice warm feeling inside me. This feeling quite quickly vanished when I realised that with that surprise half shredding action, that piece of art has probably doubled its value.
It’s funny how we resent people who have £1m to spend on a piece of art, and that we feast on their misfortunes when things go wrong for them. I often have the feeling that these pieces of art, are bought not so much for their artistic value, but simply because they are a unique item, that nobody else can buy, and that can be shown off to fellow millionaires, just to boost their ego.
It’s an amusing artistic statement about the arbitrary and capricious nature of the art market and the prices it places on things.
People fit that description with their uniqueness and just need to be shown now and then. People as art.
I bought the painting!
I sent Banksy his shredded cheque this afternoon.
phuzz says:
Plus, Banksy started off as a street artist. The picture that was sold was just a reintroduction of something he painted on a wall years ago, and he’s mentioned before about how it’s annoyed him when other people have profited off his work.
The Banksy in Stokes Croft doesn’t belong to anyone, but everyone can view it (here, it’s looking a bit worse for wear these days). imo that’s how it should be.
hmm… interesting.
I do have a suggestion how you could make a receiver that listens continuously but has low power.
First you want a receiver that uses no power at all, so you switch it of, completely, and make it only wake up once a day (or week) to listen for a certain signal, that signal would be the arming signal. When the arming signal is received, the receiver goes into a more active state where it listens continuously for the trigger signal to start the shredding.
There is plenty of time for the arming signal to be send as the auction will be notified weeks in advance of the auction. So with some careful preparation the arming signal is send during the moments where the artwork is displayed (viewing days before the actual auction). Now with the circuit armed it will respond to the trigger signal at any desired moment in time with only a negligible delay.
Well that’s only when RF is used, there could also be a setup where the artwork is completely off and a hidden switch of some kind is flipped by somebody with access to the artwork. The switch can be hidden and be activated with magnets or perhaps a switch is connected to the “hook” or “wire” that is used to hang the picture on the wall.
If the picture is hung (and the switch is activated) the receiver would listen for a few days and after that it switches of the receiver. However this requires the artwork to be hung on the wall during the action (if it was placed on a stand it would be a problem (unless there is also a switch).
But I’m sure there are many other ways to achieve this. If this was in a hollywood movie they would most certainly have used a wrapped antenna in the frame and a microwave transmitter on the other side of the room, beaming the energy to the painting. And I’m also very sure that the security noticed this and stopped them “just in time” and therefore the picture “was only” shredded for a small portion.
However, the way the knifes are mounted, I doubt if the picture was really shredded.
But it doesn’t matter how he/she/they did it, it is a great joke and statement.
Considering that no one spotted the great big opening at the bottom of the frame where the shredded paper comes out , I would not be surprised that there is also a big switch that powers up the radio receiver.
If we go back to the 2006 technology, achieving low power was not an easy task back then, additionally, I don’t believe that as an artist Banksy doesn’t have that level of expertise to do that, but I may be wrong.
I strongly believe that he just used one of those cheap garage door remotes, and an external switch to power the lot up. Cheap, easy, and most importantly, reliable.
“achieving low power in 2006 not an easy task” huh?!??! (perhaps you are confused with 1906)
Since the 80’s we’ve all played with very low power circuits, like clocks running of potatoes and nails. But the real thing about low power and advanced functionality/communications is nothing more then being able to switch of the most consuming part of your circuit and enabling it only when you need it (the RF circuitry).
I cannot judge about the abilities of the artist and if therefore a garage door opener was the only way that he/she/they could make it work. Cheap easy and mostly reliable, well… why cheap, why easy, those are merely assumptions. Banksy may have or may have not the expertise to pull this off, I’m pretty sure that he’d be able to find people who do have the expertise… why not?
John Dingley says:
With regard to Banksy being able to find people who have the expertise to pull this off: Bristol is a University town. The town and wider area also has a very high concentration of engineers, including aerospace engineers. Major employers include BAE Systems which is one of the world’s leading global defence, security and aerospace companies. Therefore I would suggest that Banksy lives in an ideal place to obtain some high grade electronics expertise.
With regard to the knife blades: The blades to me look like hospital scalpel blades, which as many have said, are oddly mounted sideways, which does not really make sense if you were as a hobbyist/hacker setting out to build your own painting-shredder with a roller that pulled the painting past the blades. They would at least be sharp though. There are a number of big hospitals in Bristol although you can easily buy these blades for model making knives. I am also thinking here of the Leonardo Da Vinci “tank” drawing with gears that clearly would have made the wheels turn in opposite directions. Were they both having a little joke only engineering types would spot? In the video the shredded painting does appear to emerge from a place well behind the location of the original supporting the suggestion that while the original was being partly rolled up, the shredded version was simultaneously being rolled out.
I hope some hobbyists set out to build their own versions so we can all see what mechanisms work best. School science fair project perhaps?
I was thinking those blades look just like hobby X-Acto blades, common in the US.
As far as anyone can tell, Banksy doesn’t live in Bristol any more. Maybe London, maybe the US.
“Considering that no one spotted the great big opening at the bottom of the frame”
To be fair the frame appears to be designed somewhat to camouflage the slot. I wouldn’t be surprised if nobody noticed it, because during transportation and hanging they’d probably be most focused on not damaging the painting itself. The bottom of the frame, and particularly the bit behind a protruberant ridge, might not get much attention.
Gerrit says:
Low power was not easy back then? Huh? I own a clock with a DCF77-receiver which I bought in 2002. It still runs on the same single AA non-alkaline (and non-lithium!) battery I bought it with and faithfully shows the time on the LCD. It switches on the receiver to listen for the DCF-77 signal at least twice a day and cost me less than $10.
So, no, low power wasn’t a problem in 2006 and lithium batteries (the primary kind) hold their charge a long time.
“or perhaps a switch is connected to the “hook” or “wire” that is used to hang the picture on the wall.”
That’d be an easy way. After the frame is hung, it could listen for further instructions for, say, a week. That could be set off by some mechanism attached to the hook or cord on the frame. Or they could use a tilt switch arranged to trigger when the frame is moved away from vertical (ie, tilted when moved).
tilt switch, good thought!
That’s a really good idea about having the picture hanger function as a switch. In the photo when they take it off the wall you can see they hung it using a French cleat, which would conceal a switch far more easily than a bracket or wire that most of us hang picture frames with. You could even make the back panel slide and spring-load it so that the slit the shredded canvas emerges from only opens when you put weight on the cleat, so nobody notices it with a casual glance at the back.
It probably has been on display a small fraction of the time it has been sitting in storage. Pretty clever idea, I wonder if that’s how it was done?
take a look at the deformation of the shedded part: as if it has sat round a roller for a while. Why not have one long bit of paper with 2 copies of the picture, the bottom one pre-shredded. Then you use the roller to push/pull the shredded bit out of the bottom while the top image gets drawn around another couple of rollers, guiding it out of sight.
“take a look at the deformation of the shedded part: as if it has sat round a roller for a while”
If you look at the picture pre-shredding, you’ll see that the deformed portion wasn’t visible within the frame. The girl’s feet in the painting were quite close to the bottom edge of the paper. The bottom part of the paper could have been fed into a roller mechanism during framing, in order to ensure a good feed into the shredder.
Why not? Because that would ruin the whole purpose of the piece if the new owner could just get the painting out and stick it in a different frame. Sure, it would be much simpler, but we’re thinking about it like engineers–clinically, as a mere problem to be solved instead of the statement it makes.
Michaël says:
the shredder could also use a spring mechanism, that is just released by electronics
dingodreams says:
Just what I was thinking, inside the bottom drag roller is a loooong coil spring with a governor and a latch. Now the latch could be operated via a very small dc motor on a worm drive so it has tremendous mechanical advantage and thus even a very weak battery will be enough to undo the latch releasing the spring which then pulled the art paper through a comb of exacto knives. The spring could store the wound up energy for a loooong time and a tilt switch activates the receiver for a hour once in a blue moon like this auction. So all that is required is batteries with a very very very low self discharge.
d-piddy says:
its a shame they didn’t get a video of it. surely the auction house was in on it? I’m no artist, but I think the amount of shredding is just about right, value will definitely go up.
aha, thanks.
???? ???? ???? ???? ???? (@kioan) says:
A coiled torsion spring like those found inside old mechanical clocks could be the main power source for running the painting through the shredder. The batteries could be used just for the standby receiver and triggering a mechanism that unlocks the spring.
The question that remains is whether it is possible for Sotheby’s to have the painting for all those years and never ask themselves why it is in a so heavy and thick frame. Nobody had access to an x-ray examination machine?
I heard it got certified by Pest Control, Banksys “agency”. Maybe they put in a new battery then. It’s all very suspicious though, it really looks like a publicity stunt.
I mean one could make the argument that art is by nature a publicity stunt. If you wanted to make a commentary on the fine art industry, this is a fine way to do it. Look at all the discussion it has caused.
To cut the print with knives, you’d have to pull it through. But the stunt makes it look like it was pushed through. That would simply have jammed. I agree with the theory that there was a pre-shredded copy of the print rolled inside which simply unspooled. Possibly driven by a spring or weight instead of a motor; so the batteries needed only enough power to release a locking bolt. Banksy’s video of building the frame and the exacto knives spaced apart was just showing the device it was pre-shredded with.
I don’t buy it. Look at the length of white space at the bottom of the shredded canvas versus the length of what’s displayed in the frame, plus how it’s crumpled back and forth like it has been in a roller for a while. There was a few centimeters of extra length at the bottom pre-fed through the knives and roller, which activated and pulled the rest of the canvas through. And if the painting was still intact and retrievable it would totally defeat the purpose of the statement. I don’t think Banksy would be satisfied with that.
A few thoughts…
1. Just because Banksy /says/ he prepared it a few years ago doesn’t mean that he /did/.
2. The image was first created in 2006 – not this specific image up for sale.
3. There’s no backstory about how the image came up for auction apart from the artsy.net article saying “acquired directly from the artist” in the artist’s frame – so it could have easily been prepared just before delivery to the auction house which would have likely meant a few weeks sitting around at worst.
4. Those craft knife blades can’t have produced the neat vertical strips – they’re simply mounted on a block of wood and their orientation is completely wrong given the paper’s exit path, therefore the “shredded” image was pre-installed in the condition it came out in. The roller-kink at the bottom appears to confirm this: the /leading edge/ of the shredded part is also deformed.
5. The sound of a shredder doesn’t mean that there /was/ a shredder.
6. There’s no way it would have been put up for auction without at least some cursory examination of the condition and I find it very hard to accept that the “shredder” exit slot wasn’t noticed, which makes me suspect the auction house was in on the whole performance.
7. Given the likelihood of it being prepared immediately before being sent for auction, the sleeping paper delivery mechanism is easily triggered by any number of easily available methods: a cheap RF doorbell probably being the easiest to obtain and adapt, and triggered by someone in the audience – or member of the auction house staff.
8. I don’t believe it was triggered at /precisely/ the most effective point of the auction by either timer or sound detection: there are far too many variables to worry about.
So yeah; pre-arranged performance art from a noted prankster.
Ted Hayes says:
> 6. There’s no way it would have been put up for auction without at least some cursory examination of the condition and I find it very hard to accept that the “shredder” exit slot wasn’t noticed, which makes me suspect the auction house was in on the whole performance.
BINGO. Silly that none of the stories I’ve read so far have talked about this. It’s a world-famous auction house that deals in ludicrously famous and expensive art. They don’t just take it as-is and then sell it.
FURTHERMORE, for items this expensive, the qualified potential bidders themselves get to inspect the item they intend to bid on!
The whole thing is silly once you consider these basic art-world facts.
> It’s a world-famous auction house that deals in ludicrously famous and expensive art. They don’t just take it as-is and then sell it.
> FURTHERMORE, for items this expensive, the qualified potential bidders themselves get to inspect the item they intend to bid on!
> The whole thing is silly once you consider these basic art-world facts.
I entirely agree. Trying to frame (ha-ha) this as an unpredicted “whoops, we were Banksy’d – what jolly japes” event is just silly.
Also I’ve never seen any auction house handle an item up for sale without gloves – until now, and this is especially odd for something which would be expected to sell for a fortune.
Nah, the auction house was in on the event from the start.
Tim Murphy says:
Lungfish is right on the money. This is an ancient magic trick where a blank piece of paper is passed between rollers and emerges as a bank note. Of course the bank note is already in the “machine” which is actually a piece of material rolled in opposite directions on the rollers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc8siEPd9GA. Banksy would insist the art was really shredded to make a statement? Think about this: Banksy pulled a prank within a prank fooling the “man” not once, but twice. Yes, Sotheby’s was in on it…
Or perhaps instead of Sotheby’s needing to know much, Banksy was the winning bidder.
> This is an ancient magic trick where a blank piece of paper is passed between rollers and emerges as a bank note. Of course the bank note is already in the “machine” which is actually a piece of material rolled in opposite directions on the rollers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc8siEPd9GA
Exactly. That YouTube video demonstrates how easily it can be done, with a trivial amount of power involved – and here’s another which pulls the trick apart (skip to 1:15 for the reveal): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvh8RzU4EgM
This would also answer any questions about how the shredded image kept its shape, stashed inside the frame.
2. A reason for Christie’s to be in on it may be that the artwork, the frame and the shredder are all part of the piece of art. This would explain why the bottom of the shredded area is curled as it was pre-fed into the shredder, and if inspected by Christie’s would not be a concern, and why it stopped halfway not shredding the entire painting as the point was to keep part of it intact. This would also explain why Christie’s would not be concerned with the shredder exit slots.
5. So if true, it would essentially be an evolving piece of art, not destroying it.
Nathaniel Poate says:
Thanks for letting me know! So Christie’s would be in on it with someone else starting the shredder remotely.
After that I more curious how the security at Sotheby’s is working… a painting with concealed -no body detected them- batteries could be something worst.
Gérard says:
I was thinking exactly the same. This mean that a bomb can be introduced
Ha, do you want the entire world to become a line at the TSA? It’s possible to hide “something worse” in almost anything and have it go undetected in most of the places we spend our lives. We aren’t safe because of security, we’re safe because the overwhelming majority of people aren’t saboteurs and mad bombers.
We’re too busy making ends meet, to have time being the bad person.
jansprojekte says:
“We aren’t safe because of security, we’re safe because the overwhelming majority of people aren’t saboteurs and mad bombers.”
Sotheby’s can’t exactly remain in business tearing apart unique items and rare antiquities looking for concealed explosives and whatnot. And there wouldn’t be much point in taking on the expense of putting everything through an MRI scanner just in case some Egyptian sarcophagus or Hollywood prop might have a bomb hidden inside by… someone.
mikeselectricstuff says:
Power management would be simple – firstly a motion sensor to shut everything down if it’s not moved for a while, and a receiver with a long (tens of seconds) sleep cycle, activated by a long transmission burst to “arm” it, ready for the actual trigger. Perhaps also throw in a light sensor.
Relative to the battery size needed to get the peak power for the motor, receiver drain would be negligible.
But my guess is that it hadn’t been in there for anywhere near 12 years.
Robert Mateja says:
Successful performance by B & S.
Job well done, everyone heard of it. Marketing on Apple master level.
Night says:
I have Casio calculator made around 1994, and battery was never changed, still works. It’s lithium primary battery in shape of AA. It seems such batteries can be over 20 years old and still work. Not sure how is the situation with CR2 primary lithium cells, but they could be usable for such purpose.
However in this case, if Banksy had associates at event it’s possible he also had associates in auction house and batteres were changed not so long ago.
Molten salt battery anyone? :P
You can (theoretically…) buy army surplus ones for MANPADS and portable ATGM systems…
PointyOintment says:
You can also make your own: http://orbides.org/page.php?id=1005
Saabman says:
No one noticed the frame weighed a tonne reeks of a publicity stunt – was the picture really worth that much to start with….
Well people bid on it, so yes. That’s how art works.
ThisGuy says:
Some types of wood are quite dense. A solid wood frame of that size is quite hefty on its own. I doubt the whole shredding mechanism would add enough mass to make it too heavy to be just the frame being thick and heavy
It’s “art”, so i won’t even try to understand. The person spending 1M for this horrible painting must have more money than brains.
What’s really horrible is what this stencil cleverly work points to…..
Trickle down economics. Artist takes those millions and spends on supplies and labor. And so forth, and so on. If one had more brains than money then a lot less money would exit into the economic system.
Except trickle down economics have never actually set in, let alone proven to work.
It has been the “Hush, you’ll get it eventually” for decades now.
Just seeing people defend it is quite sad.
Anyway, OT:
Does the frame have a backlight?
What is they were just smart people engineers:
1. Make frame with back lighting and shredder inside.
2. Make battery compartment for backlight.
3. Let unsuspecting Sotheby’s personnel insert new batteries once in a while.
It doesn’t appear to. After the poster slides down it just looks like brown fiberboard or something like that in back.
It does look kind of backlit, but I think that just might be the external lighting. The shredded part that emerges looks darker but I think that’s just because the spotlights aren’t pointed down there.
this is a scam, where auction house, banksy, and the customer are all in.
i am sure the item is worth much more now. the frame was also probably just fitted few days prior to auction.
The radio side of this is easily doable even with 2006 components (CC1100 for example). A 5 second wake interval would allow for an average receiver current of well under 100 microamps with an acceptably short response time. Alkaline D cells have a typical capacity in excess of 15 Ah. This alone allows for a standby time of getting on for 20 years. Alkaline cells also have the shelf life required, and a peak current capability enough to drive a motor.
I’m not convinced it wasn’t a hoax, but it was certainly technically possible.
Occamman says:
I suspect this was do-able with 2006 technology. A good-sized Li-Mn primary cell, shelf life 10-20 years, should be able to drive Bluetooth 12+ years with thoughtful power management, and have enough power capacity to drive a motor for a few moments.
DainBramage says:
Definitely a publicity stunt, and definitely a mighty good one!
On the technical side, the blades certainly do appear to be mounted the wrong way to cut a sheet of material, no matter how you feed it through. Some here have mentioned a pre-shredded copy of the painting within the frame, and this seems quite likely to me. It would be a good way to create the publicity stunt without actually damaging the original and incurring legal/civil charges for damaging what has now become someone else’s insanely expensive artwork.
I hope that there is a follow up to this showing how it was done.
A more careful look using my admittedly inexpert eyes leads me to believe that the painting may have been pre-cut instead.
HarveyH54 says:
Most artist don’t work in just one medium, some use their creativity in other fields as well. The auction house had to be in on it, maybe even the buyer as well, since the publicity stunt would have raised the price on all the artist’s works. I’ve handled a few paintings, you kind of learn the weight and balance. The added components would have made the piece awkward to handle, obviously something hidden inside. A suspicious work from a known prankster, in an auction house, full of billions of dollars worth of irreplaceable items, not to mention the security of the rich folks that throw their money away. That painting would have been closely inspected, and not kept there, if not considered harmless. With all the senseless violence and destruction going on around the world, just doesn’t seem likely, that nobody there knew about this.
People are crazy about spending money, guess it’s how some prove they are better than others. Most century old paintings from the masters, are expensive to maintain, best left to a museum. Copies can be had from many art schools, pretty cheap, and hard to tell the difference, unless you are up real close, touching it. Professional athletes are paid millions, where thousands, who are just as skill, don’t make a team. Always wondered where all those millions come from, to pay the star players, and still stay highly profitable, even for a loser team. Could be from ticket sales, or over priced beer. Think the real game, is mostly off the field, the players are so much better at the sport, just better at playing the game that pays the bills. There are a lot of talented and creative artist, most never get any public notoriety, even after death. The popular and pricey artists need to work to get the attention, work to get a name people associate with their art. It’s not always about what’s on the canvas, and unfortunately, what’s on the canvas, isn’t much these days…
Why would Sotheby’s risk their reputation as a safe and reliable auction house by willingly and knowingly taking part in a prank like this? They’ll never be able to auction anything to do with Banksy ever again. I simply don’t believe they’d do that. They long term “brand image” damage to Sotheby’s is just not outweighed by the shortterm publicity gains.
@JohnS_AZ John Schuch says:
So in 12 years no one ever said ‘Why the f… is this thing so heavy?”
I vote hoax.
What makes you think it was heavy? Big timber frame with a section hollowed out and a few light components put in may actually have felt lighter albeit not by much.
BillSF9c says:
Ignoraous here. If he does building sized stuff, how would someone get and BOTHER to authenticate a mere framed pic. ~”Well, I got tired of big stuff, like klystrons, so I thought, why nor a lil arduino uni-bomber stuff, only, harmless, aside from the million dollar hoax aspect. Balloons go POP, I thought, so… double entendré, here we come.”
Gurningtree says:
Banksy doesn’t do building sized stuff. That giant art referenced in the writeup wasn’t presented as his, merely as a description of the vicinity of much of his work.
Notoriety is Banksy’s stock in trade. A couple of years ago his identity appeared to have leaked. A member of Massive Attack seemed to inadvertently let slip that Banksy was the nom de spraycan of a bandmate. Whether it was true or a contrived stunt it made big news without even having to shake a rattly bottle. This could be a genuine shred or a hoax, either would fit Banksy’s oeuvre just as well.
Depends what you mean by ‘building sized’, but the Banksy in Stokes Croft is about the size of an advertising billboard (see here). It’s not the biggest bit of art round there today (is you look left form that viewpoint you’ll see a larger one), but ten-fifteen years ago it was one of the largest single pieces in the area.
Back when it was originally painted most graffiti would be removed pretty quickly, but as this was on a private building it stayed. (Someone did spray paint all over it, but locals cleaned it off). Once Banksy started to get well known, the council realised that it was a tourist attraction, so now they (and property owners) are a lot more forgiving of graffiti (in some places).
Certified Banksy Engineer says:
Suprised no one else has mentionned this, but watch the video closely. The image is offset considerably to the right after it emerges from the “shredder”. The painting above is not the piece that emerges from the slot below. Also, the bottom edge is clearly defomed from having been placed around a roller (probably since it was assembled many years ago).
Add to this the shredder “blades” are in the wrong position and wouldn’t shred anything, and it’s quite clear this is a preassembled mechanism with 2 images: one shredded, one not. I’m 99% sure this is a reversable assembly, and could be returned to the original condition with a bit of work. As such, NOTHING in this art was actually altered as part of this stunt. A fine piece of performance art, included as a component of Girl with Balloon. All this will be revealed in due time, just wait.
sexton16 says:
rbarris says:
You could have a simple mechanical motion sensor as a first stage – any time the painting is moved, then start up the radio once a minute or so, for a day, then go back to deep sleep. No need to poll periodically for the months where it’s not moving.
Someone suggested “mains powered”. That would require a believable excuse like TL lighting behind the picture inside the frame….
Neat hack. Great marketing AND scathing social commentary at the same time!
I can just picture the various people in the Art Investement Community (let’s face it, they’re probably not actually art-lovers): “Do you think it’s worth more like it is, with the half-shredded document hanging out? Or should we open up the frame and see if the original is just rolled up inside?”
Battery-wise, doesn’t seem like a big problem. I suppose an interesting question is whether it was supposed to stop halfway like it did, or shred completely?
Yup and battery may have just run out ie on it’s last legs.
Bianco says:
The frame in the video either isn’t it it’s final form or the components that make the canvas appear shredded when exiting the frame are not actually visible in the video.
The Xacto-knife style blades look like they’re actually perpendicular to the cutting direction and there’s nothing guiding the canvas through the blades, so if the frame in the video is the same frame as the one that was auctioned, the blades were probably added to make the inside of the frame look hazardous because no one would get an idea of what the components in the frame are intended to do without directing the audience’s attention to the blades.
I think the most likely scenario is that the canvas was pre-cut and peeled off of a back layer holding the image together before rollers separate the layers before exiting the frame.
About the batteries, Banksy, or whoever submitted the piece, could have gone to Sotheby’s a day, or even a month, before the auction and said they would like to take a last picture of their work for personal use before it would be auctioned. I don’t think anyone would suspect anything and fresh batteries could have been installed while no one was observing them.
Like others have mentioned, the piece is probably worth more now that the framed and half-shredded version of the 2006 “Girl With a Balloon” is infamous. I expect this added performance art aspect of this piece to not only significantly add to the value of the current piece, I think future bidders will speculate and expect similar stunts that will make the pieces known throughout the world when bidding on Banksy’s work in the future, and this will increase the final hammer price.
All the blades have to do is push hard against the roller which has the edge of the canvas already attached so once the spring is released (inside the roller) it pulls the canvas through and the bladed cut as best as they can. Surgically sharp …. they would easily cut through.
“Surgically sharp …. they would easily cut through”
But not if the *flat* of the blade was applied to the paper/canvas. At best it’d be a very rough cut.
Sim says:
I have D-cells that Live With Me for 15+ years and still provide Protection. I wouldn’t shed a Teardrop for the Inertia Creeps that bought this once Angel now, Dissolved Girl. I agree that the Flat of the Blade should have kept the image Safe From Harm but have Unfinished Sympathy For the ‘victim’ of this Massive Attack.
Nice. :)
Tetrac says:
Oh Sim.
All this speculation about batteries is way off the mark.
The frame had lights built in so was required to be plugged into power for display. That then kept backup batteries charged.
It would have been more funny had he used something like a clock mechanism (spring loaded) so once bought it is triggered but then the spring via massive gearing down just slloooowwwwlllyyy drags the canvas over the blades. Perhaps on the new owners wall
Perhaps next time a frame packed full of thermite for extra visual effect!
You have to wonder why nobody noticed this “canvas” weighed 5 KG at any point in the last 12 years. In an unusually capacious and unbalanced frame.
Obvious setup, some gallery person or Sothebys or whatever were in on it. Banksy bought the painting himself, giving Sotheby’s a fee for their part in the whole nonsense. He gets more attention, and the rest of his “art” increases in value. The bloke’s a wanker, as is everyone else in modern art. Nothing’s been said since Duchamp and even that was a stupid waste of time.
It’s a mix of making culture even more degraded than it already was, and a “bigger fool” investment scam, and has been for decades. It makes culture seem like something for posh wankers to waste time and make money on, giving that bit more license to the theory that everything is worthless cynical shit.
I have infinitely more respect for someone who paints some flowers that makes someone feel happy by looking at it. I have infinitely more respect for Veronika Moser, because she isn’t so much a prostitute and isn’t as full of shit.
bm says:
I think Hackaday should sponsor another contest! Let’s see what all these “armchair artists” come up with to engineer the most believable painting shredder.
Stefan Onken says:
the batterie is on the right, with the red lid and JMT on it. it’s our brand, so we supplied the battery. We are a German based company, but with branches in several European countries including UK
As I am on ofcthe directors of the parent company and also owning a Lambretta scooter with that very image on the side panel, I feel quite proud that one of our products took part in it.
Zanthra says:
How long ago did your company start making and selling those batteries?
I see above that the battery is identified. I wonder what the other parts are, like what’s attached to the battery.
And what is that white thing next to the battery? It seems wrapped in white tape. (I am viewing the still on the high quality video on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiO_1XRnMt4)
(The marking on the cardboard says “MOTOR RECIEVER” [sic] but am not sure that makes any sense, it is rather large for a receiver?)
The thing in the corner there, where the white wires run to, could that be a motor controller board?
Very likely that we are not seeing the completed product though, as there is currently no route for the paper to go to the knives and exit the frame as “clean” as it did. It seems unlikely that what we see getting build is capable of doing what happened.
dreamssz says:
A new “Director’s cut” video was published – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxkwRNIZgdY .
It sheds some light on the actual shredding mechanism, but the X-Acto knife blades are still there for seemingly no purpose…
And I’m puzzled by the part where he holds the soldering iron… : https://youtu.be/vxkwRNIZgdY?t=16 :-)
tanchbattery1982 says:
Y’all are overthinking it. Any one who seek the JI04XL battery for Elite x2 1012 G2 is available now https://www.battery-store.eu/laptopcomputer/1004990.htm
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Behind The Scenes: Manchester Music Scene
Savannah 20. Juli 2017 English 🇬🇧InterviewsSchon vorbei
Manchester is a special place full of passionate, diverse, open and independent artists and musicians that thrive in their lovely community. It is a city where any type of person can find a welcoming place for their interests and music taste. It is a place where different aspects of Northern England seep into bands’ sounds, yet create something new and authentic out of it. It is a place where the current social climate infuses songs with power, passion and rage. Manchester is unlike many cities in the world with a unique music hub that continues to grow by the minute.
Drenched in sweat from head to toe, I was front and center for Gardenback as my friends and I sweatily squeezed together. Jimmy’s was an intimate venue- so intimate that the condensation was dropping from the ceiling and the band’s spit would hit you when they screamed into their microphones. That Saturday night felt like a proper Manchester DIY gig— one I read about in free music magazines handed out around the city, or one I dream about being a part of someday.
Photo: Savannah Eisert
I’ve written a special treat for you HEY readers. I am very intrigued and inspired by the Manchester music scene historically and currently, so I’ve written up a review of three underrated bands that I got the pleasure of seeing live and talking to last week at Jimmy’s in the Northern Quarter (my fave place), Manchester. So if you have never been to Manchester for the music, I highly suggest it- it is my favorite place in the world.
For a lot of the upcoming Manchester bands, it’s hard to make a statement because of the famous and everlasting history of all the great bands from the city. A lot of the new bands get classified into these genres and are being told they sound like certain bands that have already come and gone. But I think Manchester is in a special new era of it’s music scene where bands and artists are creating something different— and after seeing the three bands at Jimmy’s, it is safe to say these passionate bands are really bringing something new to the table.
„This one is about the mother fuckers who print papers.“
-Lloyd Kelly introducing the song ‚Rumourmonger‘
Little Illusion Machine were first to hit the stage. I gave their EP, M.O.T.H.- Melancholia On The Horizon, a listen before heading to the show and thought they sounded a lot like early day Arctic Monkeys (their band name is actually the name of an Arctic Monkeys B-side song that includes Miles Kane & The Death Ramps) – so I was looking forward to seeing how they would sound live. The three guys, Lloyd Kelly, Ben Cullen and Joe James, are a Northern Manchester indie rock band, but when they took the stage, they experimented with many different sounds that created more of a psychedelic vibe throughout the set. My friend turned to me at one point and said he could even hear some flamenco/Latino influences tied within their sound. What impressed me most is within their use of conventional chord patterns was a more complex sound which had me hooked from the beginning.
Photo: Tara Lou
Sav: Is there a certain aspect about the city that inspires you the most? Or is it more of a general feeling you get from the current situations happening in the UK?
Little Illusion Machine: I’d probably say it’s more the history of the City that inspires us, but of course the other situations happening in the UK will inspire and have an affect on us and the music we write.
Sav: Are you happy to be growing here as a band? Why?
Little Illusion Machine: Yeah we couldn’t imagine a better city to be growing as a band! There’s so much music opportunities it’s great for any band trying to get the experience of gigging and building a fan base.
Sav: What are some current Manchester bands that people should listen to right now?
Little Illusion Machine: Sly Antics, Lucy & The Streetlight Pirates, and Sioux- three top Manchester bands. Also, Ladies Darts Night and Gardenback who we played with. There’s a lot of great bands spawning in and around Manchester at the moment. It’s a great time to be involved in the Manchester music scene. There’s something for everyone’s taste.
Hold on tight, because what I witnessed next was a gripping performance by Ladies‘ Darts Night. As I researched the guys a bit, I listened to their recently dropped EP, Tragedies, Comedies & Histories, and hadn’t heard anything like them in a while. I could hear the Northern Manchester influence- pulling that groovy, fuzzy guitar from The Stone Roses, powerful lyrics with a poetic rhythm like John Cooper Clarke or Morrissey, and pounding drums paired perfectly with a mysterious bass like Joy Division. If you’re into a loud, mesmerizing sound backed with politically infused lyrics, then this 5 piece band are who you need to be listening to. Seeing Ladies‘ Darts Night live was the icing on the cake to complete the full package of being an all around interesting band. They had a tight set full of infectious energy, great visuals (an example being Theresa May photoshopped into an evil looking creature) and a proper punk vibe that came naturally to all 5 members.
Ladies‘ Darts Night: I suppose there’s stuff about the city that can’t help but bleed through into our songs, some of the imagery we portray is definitely very Mancunian and obviously the language and intonation of Tom’s vocals are. We’re influenced by a lot of things though, obviously the state of society in the UK (and the world for that matter) plays a massive part. I think it’s hard not to be stirred or influenced by what’s happening around you at the time.
Ladies‘ Darts Night: Manchester and the Northwest of England has a massive musical history, which can be a gift and a curse. There’s the danger of being thought of as ‚just another Manchester band‘, but on the flipside because of it’s legacy there’s always been a great scene for live music here – so it is one of the best places to be for music in the UK. I think everyone knows deep down Manchester is Britain’s true second city. Sorry Birmingham.
Ladies‘ Darts Night: People should check out Little Illusion Machine, Gardenback, Shaking Chains, Ambiere. If they’re after something a bit more out, then they should get onto Slow Canyons as well.
And for the grand finale, my good friends of Gardenback took the stage for a killer performance. The trio hopped on stage, instantly put the crowd in the palm of their hands by opening with a new track called Motorways, and took their listeners on a ride they wouldn’t forget. Gardenback’s set never let you sit still, no matter how much you wanted to because of the sweat box venue we were in. From their new mesmerizing songs to their killer covers („Psycho Killer“ by Talking Heads and „Temptation“ by New Order for their encore), it is easy to say they stole the show with their passionate playing, constant energy and an overall tight set. They even played their two singles, Call It A Phase and Sleepless, that nearly brought down the roof (click here for a previous blog post about Gardenback to find out more about them). One of my favorite things about Gardenback is how much they improve each time I come back to the City- Ellis’s, (bassist and lead singer) vocals has become more clear and sharp, guitarist Neil continues to become more creative with his unconventional techniques that shine in all of the new songs, and drummer Jacob consistently stuns me with his powerful drumbeats.
Photos: Richard Eskins
Gardenback: I think the most inspirational thing about the city is that its got a really good heritage of embracing the left field, and I think it is hard to come from the city without acknowledging that. I think the people in the city are very open to ideas, and very open to seeing and hearing new things which makes it a very welcoming environment for us.
Gardenback: I’m very happy to be growing here as a band- partly because it’s somewhere as a city and a place I’ve been to so much when I was younger. And like I said before, I’ve seen so much of what people before me have achieved and that’s really inspirational because there’s so many things that have happened in the city. It feels like anyone can stand up and create something out of a part of that story. It’s nice to have that to aspire to.
Gardenback: We just played with Ladies’ Darts Night and Little Illusion Machine who are both fucking great. We also have played with a band called Twisted Dolls who are a great blues, two-piece. There’s just a lot happening in the city, you have to just check them out— like SAUCE.
This show was very special for many reason. First off, these three bands all represent different aspects of Northern England that are new and upcoming that more of the world should discover. It was also special because all three bands, Elephant Management, the photographers and venue really worked as a team to create a fantastic night full of great music. You really felt like you were in a proper community that put so much effort and passion into making these bands shine. Manchester is a place where everyone is here to support each other. It’s a place where the people you are surrounded by make you feel welcome. It’s a place where passion, creativity and fabulous music thrives.
Photo: Richard Eskins
I hope this blog post shed some light on a little part of the world that is currently bursting with unique talent and creativity that everyone should start researching and checking out.
Gardenback / Facebook / Soundcloud / Instagram / Twitter
Ladies‘ Darts Night / Facebook / Soundcloud / Instagram / Twitter
Little Illusion Machine / Facebook / Soundcloud / Instagram / Twitter
Gardenback – Sleepless
HEY Recommends: The Big Moon | New Album & Tour
INTERVIEW #25: Gurr
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Tag: Topology
Topology And 3D Pipeline
March 13, 2018 March 20, 2018 by kcimgdtonymulligan, posted in 3D Animation, U52 Animation
A topology is the study of geometrical properties and spatial relations unaffected by the continuous change of shape or size of figures.
Polygonal: Digital 3D Shapes made up of Faces, created using vertices
NURBS: Non-Uniform Rational Bee Splines
Vertex: Corners of a 3D Shape
Extrusion: Extending a shape to get a new shape
Sub-Division: Dividing a shape to gain more information about a shape
Valence: Number of edges on a shape
N-Gon: A shape with 5 points or more, making the shape uneven and hard to work with.
Cartesian: Maya’s Grid System.
One of the places you can use 3D modelling is in the entertainment field. There’s not a big film that comes out of Hollywood without extensive use of 3D modelling. It’s clearly useful in special effects, not only creating environments that never existed before and supernatural occurrences that unfold quite naturally, but it’s not uncommon to have shots, where things are added that you might not even realize, are artificial. 3D graphic artists using Computer Graphic Imaging (generally referred to as “CGI”) can remove things from scenes, too, like taking out palm trees from a scene that’s supposed to be happening in middle America.
Geology and Science
Geologists and scientists use 3D modelling to create models that simulate earthquakes and landforms, such as ocean trenches, that let them see the effects of stresses. Additionally, they can simulate motion, like flight patterns, including various factors that affect them.
3D Production Pipelines
In 3D production a film goes through 4 stages of development which involves creating the storyline, pre-production which involves addressing challenges they may face, then production of the film then the last stage post-production which involves polishing the end product and taking out any final falls in the movie.
The storyline is created then they discuss with the Pixar team their ideas for the movie. The real challenge behind this stage is to get the audience involved and make them see the potential that their movie idea has.
Text Treatment Stage
Then the next stage the text treatment stage is written which is a short document which summarizes the main idea of the story. Then many ideas which are the same will be developed in order this way they can find the ideas to be solid or just ideas with open possibilities.
Storyboards and drawing
The storyboards for the movie are then made storyboards are like the blueprint for the movie which shows the dialogue and action which will be in the movie. Each storyboard artist at Pixar receives script pages or a beat outline of the story, basically a map of the characters and their emotional changes that need to be seen through actions. Using these guidelines the artists assign the sequences to draw them out and then pitch their work to the director.
Voice Talent begins recording
The first stage of the voice recording, the artists choose to do the various voices in the film are recorded and then are eventually are put into the animation, they will record the same script several times over and the best take which suits the character will be used in the animation.
Edit toil begins making reels
A reel is a videotape which allows the cleaned up storyboard sequence to stand alone, alone without a pitch person to tell the story. A pitch can be successful because of the storyteller in strong. So reels are an essential stage because they show the understanding of the timing in the sequence. The editorial then uses the information to fix the length and other elements of each shot in a sequence.
The Art Department creates the look and feel
Storyboards and their own creative brainstorming and development work, the art department creates inspirational art illustrating the world and the characters it also designs sets, props, visual looks for surfaces and colours and “ colour scripts” for lighting, which are impressionistic Patel illustrations that emphasize the light in scenes.
Models are sculpted and articulated
Using the art department’s model packet a set of informational drawings- the characters sets and props are either sculpted by hand and then scanned in three-dimensionally or modelled in 3D directly in the computer. They are then given a skeleton which the animator will use to make the object or character move. Woody has 100 points in his face alone.
Tagged TopologyLeave a comment
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Home / NINJA-K #1 CVR B TROYA
NINJA-K #1 CVR B TROYA
Vendor VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT
Product Code SEP172020
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UB Official
Presetya
Browse Author Index
Template (doc)
Download Fulltext
JITODE Vol. 1 No. 1 2013.pdf
Abadi, Abdul Latief, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Achmadi, Mochamad, Sekolah Tinggi Pariwisata Trisakti (Indonesia)
Adrian, I Gusti Agung Wahyu, Sekolah Tinggi Pariwisata Bandung (Indonesia)
Adriansyah, Edwin, Sekolah Tinggi Pariwisata Bandung (Indonesia)
Adyatma, Sidharta
Afandhi, Aminuddin, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Affandi, Aminudin, Postgraduate School, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Akram, Andi Muhammad, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Alelang, Isak Feridikson, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Alfaruqi, Nuri Thobibatus Shofia, State Islamic University Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang (Indonesia)
Alfian, Alfian, Graduate Program, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Alfian, Alfian (Indonesia)
Alifianto, Faldy
Alifianto, Faldy, Brawijaya University (Indonesia)
Ananda, Alif Aulia, Meru Betiri National Park, indonesia (Indonesia)
Anggarwanto, Wahyu, Biology Department, Brawijaya University (Indonesia)
Angraini, Erni, Universitas Muhammadiyah Palembang (Indonesia)
Anis, Moh Zaenal Arifin
Anis, Moh. Zaenal Arifin, Universitas Lambung Mangkurat (Indonesia)
Ansiska, Paisal, Graduate Program, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Antariksa, Antariksa, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Engineering, University of Brawijaya, Malang, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Ardiantoro, Ari, Biology Departement, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Brawijaya University (Indonesia)
Ariana, I Nyoman Jamin, Tourism Faculty, Udayana University (Indonesia)
Ariana, Nyoman, Udayana University Denpasar Bali (Indonesia)
Arifin, Yulian Firmana, University of Lambung Mangkurat (Indonesia)
Arifky, Muhammad Yogi, Brawijaya University
Arisanty, Deasy, Universitas Lambung Mangkurat (Indonesia)
Arisoesilaningsih, Endang, Dept. Biology, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Arisoesilaningsih, Endang, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Brawijaya University (Indonesia)
Arisoesilaningsih, Endang, Universitas Brawijaya
Arisoesilaningsih, Endang
Arisoesilaningsih, Endang, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Arisoesilaningsih, Endang, Department of Biology, University of Brawijaya, Malang, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Arjana, I Wayan Basi, Politeknik Negeri Bali, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Asbullah, Alvan Sidiq, Department of Management, Faculty of Economy, State University of Jember, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Atsmara, Akiko Nada, Burapha Business School, Faculty of Management and Tourism, Burapha University (Thailand)
Attar, Muhammad
Auliandari, Lia, Universitas Muhammadiyah Palembang (Indonesia)
Ayu Prasetyowati, Ardhila, Environmental Resource Management Graduate Program, University of Brawijaya, Malang, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Azalia, Dinda, Master Program of Biology, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Azizah, Anisah, Universitas Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Bagaskara, Satria Wira, Biology Departement, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Brawijaya University (Indonesia)
Bahri, Syamsul, Department of Industrial Engineering, Universitas Hasanuddin (Indonesia)
Baiquni, Muhammad, Center for Tourism Studies, University of Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Basith, Abdul, Magister Program in Biology, Faculty of Mathematic and Natural Sciences, University of Brawijaya, Malang, East Java, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Basyaruddin, M., University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Batoro, Jati, Brawijaya University (Indonesia)
Batoro, Jati, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Batoro, Jati, 1.Program pascasarjana, Brawijaya University 2.Biology departement, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Brawijaya University (Indonesia)
Boka, Ronald Yusak, Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Industry Tecnology, Minaesa Institute of Technology (Indonesia)
Butarbutar, Regina
Butarbutar, Regina Rosita (Indonesia)
Cahyanti, Mega Mirasaputri, Master Program of Management, Faculty of Economy and Business, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Chairiyah, Nurul, State Senior High School 10 (Indonesia)
Chairiyah, Nurul, Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Cholis, Azzah Fauziyah, Dept. of Biology, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Danarto, Setyawan Agung, Purwodadi Botanic Garden Indonesian Institute of Sciences (Indonesia)
Darmawan, Armin, Department of Industrial Engineering, Universitas Hasanuddin (Indonesia)
Din, Kadir H., School of Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management, College of Law, Government and International Study, Universiti Utara Malaysia (Malaysia)
Djati, M. Sasmito, Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Djati, Moch. Sasmito, Brawijaya University (Indonesia)
Djokosetiyanto, Daniel, Bogor Agricultural University, Bogor, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Dwi Ari, Ismu Rini, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Engineering, University of Brawijaya, Malang, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Ernawati, Ni Made, Politeknik Negeri Bali (Indonesia)
Faizal, Muhammad Izzuddin, Graduate Program, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Faizal, Muhammad Izzuddin, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Fauziah, Hanin Niswatul, State Islamic College of Ponorogo (Indonesia)
Fauziah, Hanin Niswatul
Fauziyah, Nurizza, Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Februyani, Nawafila (Indonesia)
Fefta Wijaya, Andy, The Head of Master Degree Double Program in Public Administration Department, Faculty of Administrative Science, University of Brawijaya, Indonesia. (Indonesia)
Furuya, Katsunori, Chiba University (Japan)
Guntur, Guntur, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Guntur, Guntur, Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Science, Brawijaya University, Malang 65145 East Java, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Hadi, Akhmad Arifin, Bogor Agricultural University (Indonesia)
Hakim, Abdul, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Hakim, Abdul, Postgraduate, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Hakim, Luchman (Indonesia)
Hakim, Luchman, Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Hakim, Luchman, Biology Department, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Brawijaya University, Malang, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Hakim, Luchman, Department of Biology, FMIPA, Brawijaya University Jl. Veteran, 65145, Malang, East Java, INDONESIA (Indonesia)
Hakim, Luchman, Dept. of Biology, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Hakim, Luchman
Hakim, Luchman, Biology Departmen, Mathematic and Natural Science Faculty, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Hakim, Luchman, Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Brawijaya University, Malang 65145 East Java, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Hakim, Luchman, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Hakim, Luchman, university of brawijaya (Indonesia)
Hanafie, Rita, Widyagama University, Malang (Indonesia)
Hanum, Latifah, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Hapsari, Lia, Magister Program in Biology, Faculty of Mathematic and Natural Sciences, University of Brawijaya, Malang, East Java, Indonesia Purwodadi Botanic Garden – Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Pasuruan, East Java, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Hapsari, Lia, Purwodadi Botanic Garden – Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Pasuruan, East Java, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Harahab, Nuddin, Department of Fisheries Socio-Economics, Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Harahab, Nuddin, Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences, University of Brawijaya, Malang, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Harahap, Nuddin
Harahap, Nuddin, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Harris, Ali, Mataram ’45 University (Indonesia)
Haryati, Jehan Ramdani, Graduate School of Environmental Science, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Hassan, Suzan Bakri, Department of Tourism Studies, Faculty of tourism and Hotels, Fayoum University, Egypt (Egypt)
Henri, Henri, University of Brawijaya University of Bangka Belitung (Indonesia)
Herawati, Linda, Graduate Program, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Herawati, Linda, Graduate Program in Environmental Science, Brawijaya University, Malang 65145 East Java, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Hermawan, Hermawan, Graduate Program, Faculty of Administratives Sciences, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Hernanda, Dedy Wahyu
Hidayat, Kliwon, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Hilman, Yusuf Adam, Muhammadiyah University of Ponorogo (Indonesia)
Hoetoro, Arif, Universitas Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Honjo, Tsuyoshi, Chiba University (Japan)
Imaniyah, Rif’atul, Master Program of Environmental and Development Study, Postgraduate, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Imron, M. Ali, Gadjah Mada University (Indonesia)
Indrianto, Agoes Tinus Lis, Universitas Ciputra Surabaya (Indonesia)
Indriyani, Serafinah, Biology Department, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Brawijaya University, Malang, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Indriyani, Serafinah
Indriyani, Serafinah, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Ingkadijaya, Rahmat, Sekolah Tinggi Pariwisata Trisakti (Indonesia)
Irawanto, Dodi, Faculty of Economy and Business, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Irhamsyah, Muhammad Syuhada, Department of Management, Faculty of Economy, State University of Jember, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Junianingsih, Ika, Master Program of Environmental Resources Management, Graduate Program, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Jupir, Maksimilianus M.
Kaewmanee, Pongsathon, Master student under MoU project between Burapha University, Thailand and Brawijaya University, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Kalele, Selvie R., State Polytechnic of Manado (Indonesia)
Kambey, Henny Johanna, Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Office of North Sulawesi (Indonesia)
Kambey, Henny Johanna, Agricultural and Aninal Husbandry Office of North Sulawesi, Manado (Indonesia)
Kamila, Fatiha, Biology Departement, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Brawijaya University
Kapa, Maximilian M. J., Dept. of Agribusiness, Faculty of Agriculture, Nusa Cendana University (Indonesia)
Kepel, Charles, Sam Ratulangi University (Indonesia)
Khairun Nisa’, Ayu Raisa, Master Program of Biology, University of Brawijaya, Malang, Indonesia
Kholil, Kholil, Sahid Jakarta University, Jakarta, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Khusnah, Asmaul, Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Klau, Nopriyan Petrus, Master Program of Environmental Sciences, Postgraduate School, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Koderi, Koderi, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Kurnianto, Agung Sih, Brawijaya University (Indonesia)
Kurnianto, Agung Sih, Public Health Faculty, University of Bakti Indonesia (Indonesia)
Kurnianto, Agung Sih, program pascasarjana, brawijaya university (Indonesia)
Kurnianto, Agung Sih, Postgraduate, Brawijaya University
Kurnianto, Agung Sih, Postgraduate, Brawijaya University (Indonesia)
Kurnianto, Agung Sih, Public Health Faculty, Bakti Indonesia University (Indonesia)
Kurnianto, Agung S.
Kurniawan, Andik, Konservasi Alam Indonesia Lestari (KAIL), Jember, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Kurniawan, Nia, Brawijaya University (Indonesia)
Kurniawan, Nia, Biology departement, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Brawijaya University (Indonesia)
Kurniawati, Rina, STP Sahid Jakarta
Kusuma, Bayu Mitra Adhyatma, Department of Public Administration, Faculty of Administrative Science, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Lagarense, Bet El Silisna, Manado State Polytechnic (Indonesia)
Leksono, Amin Setyo, Postgraduate, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Leksono, Amin Setyo, Dept. of Biology, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Leksono, Amin Setyo, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Leksono, Amin Setyo, Postgraduate, Brawijaya University (Indonesia)
Leksono, Amin Setyo, Brawijaya University (Indonesia)
Lensari, Delfy, Universitas Muhammadiyah Palembang (Indonesia)
Lestari, Alfi Muflikhah, Universitas Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Lestyaningrum, Rona Aji, Graduate Program, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Liliani, Rosa, Master Program of Biology, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Manan, Abdul, Konservasi Alam Indonesia Lestari (KAIL), Jember, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Mardiany, Mardiany, Brawijaya University (Indonesia)
Mardiono, Mardiono, Faculty of Administrative Science, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Marsoedi, Marsoedi, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Meidiana, Christia, Faculty of Engineering, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Mengko, Seska Meily Hermin, Politeknik Negeri Manado (Indonesia)
Mindarti, Lely Indah
Mizuuchi, Yusuke, The University of Tokyo (Japan)
Muhaimin, Abdul Wahib, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Mukhzayadah, Mukhzayadah (Indonesia)
Muljaningsih, Sri, Brawijaya University (Indonesia)
Multifiah, Multifiah, Universitas Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Mulyani, Laily Fitriani, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Munandar, Aris, Bogor Agricultural University, Bogor, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Muttaqien, Hafid Zain, Master Program of Biology, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Naim, Abu, Master Program of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Brawijaya, Malang, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Naitio, Emanuel, Graduate Program, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Normelani, Ellyn (Indonesia)
Normelani, Ellyn, Lambung Mangkurat University (Indonesia)
Normelani, Ellyn
Normelani, Ellyn, Universitas Lambung Mangkurat (Indonesia)
Normelani, Ellyn, Faculty of Teaching and Education Science, Lambung Mangkurat University, South Kalimantan (Indonesia)
Novitasiah, Hari Rusdwi, Magister Program in Biology, Faculty of Mathematic and Natural Sciences, University of Brawijaya, Malang, East Java, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Nuansa, Chanira, Magister Program of Communication Science, Faculty of Social and Political Science, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Nugraha, Muhammad, Department of Management, Faculty of Economy, State University of Jember, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Nugroho, Iwan, Widyagama University of Malang (Iraq)
Nugroho, Iwan, Widyagama University, Malang (Indonesia)
Nugroho, Iwan, Widyagama Malang University (Indonesia)
Nugroho, Iwan, Faculty of Agriculture, Widyagama University of Malang (Indonesia)
Nurdiansyah, Rizky, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Nurfadilah, Siti, Purwodadi Botanic Garden Indonesian Institute of Sciences (Indonesia)
Nurpratiwi, Ratih
Oktavianti, Eka, Biology Departmen, Mathematic and Natural Science Faculty, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Pamungkas, Imam, Master Program of Public Administration, Faculty of Administrative Science, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Pamungkas, Ratih Nila, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Pandu Dwinugraha, Akbar, Master Program of Public Administration, Faculty of Administrative Science, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Pangestuti, Edriana, Program of Women Studies, Postgraduate, Brawijaya University (Indonesia)
Pangestuti, Edriana, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Parmawati, Rita, Postgraduate, University of Brawijaya, Malang, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Parmawati, Rita, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Parmawati, Rita, Postgraduate, Brawijaya University (Indonesia)
Permana, Dimas Ero, Department of Tourism, State Polytechnic of Manado (Indonesia)
Pioh, Diane Deibij (Indonesia)
Polii, Bernadain Dainty, State Polytechnic of Manado (Indonesia)
Polii, Bobby (Indonesia)
Pramana, Ida Idewa Agung Willy, Brawijaya University (Indonesia)
Pramanik, Purwanti Dyah, Sekolah Tinggi Pariwisata Trisakti (Indonesia)
Pramita, Nindya Helvy
Prasetyo, Hamdani Dwi, Brawijaya University
Prasetyo, Hamdani D.
Prastyo, Dikau Tondo, Brawijaya University
Purnomo, Purnomo, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Putra, Fajar Kusnadi Kusumah, Sekolah Tinggi Pariwisata Bandung (Indonesia)
Putra, Heru Wiwoho Supadi, Doctoral Program of Postgraduate, Brawijaya University, Malang, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Putra, Sony Manggala
Putri, Helen Aulia, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Putri, Jayarani Fatimah, University of Tsukuba (Japan)
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Putro, Herry Porda Nugroho, Universitas Lambung Mangkurat (Indonesia)
Putro, Herry Porda Nugroho
Qur’ania, Anita, Graduate School of Environmental Sciences, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
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Rachmansyah, Arief, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Rahardi, Brian
Raharjo, Aji Dharma, Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Rahman, Irfan, Department of Industrial Engineering, Universitas Hasanuddin (Indonesia)
Rajaguni, Muhammad Iqbal, Master Program of Environmental and Development Study, Postgraduate, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Rashid, Basri, School of Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management, College of Law, Government and International Study, Universiti Utara Malaysia (Malaysia)
Ratnaningtyas, Yohana Ari, Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta (Indonesia)
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Retnaningdyah, Catur, Biologi Department, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Brawijaya University, Malang, East Java, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Retnaningdyah, Catur, Dept. Biology, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Retnaningdyah, Catur (Indonesia)
Retnaningdyah, Catur, Department of Biology, FMIPA, Brawijaya University Jl. Veteran, 65145, Malang, East Java, INDONESIA (Indonesia)
Retnaningdyah, Catur, Universitas Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Retnaningdyah, Catur, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Retnaningdyah, Catur, Brawijaya University (Indonesia)
Retnaningdyah, Catur, Dept. of Biology, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Riarmanto, Arief Kurnia, Graduate School of Environmental Sciences, University of Brawijaya, (Indonesia)
Rijanta, R, Faculty of Geography, University of Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta (Indonesia)
Riniwati, Harsuko, Postgraduate, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Riniwati, Harsuko, Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
Rinuastuti, Baiq Handayani, Faculty of Economic and Business, University of Mataram, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Risanto, Yusuf, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Risman, Risman, Indonesia Muslim University, Makassar (Indonesia)
Riung, Christien Yacobina, Dept. of Biology, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Riyadi, Arief, Postgraduate, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
Riyanto, Riyanto
Riyanto, Slamet, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
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Rohie, Ade Meylisa Crystel, Biologi Department, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Brawijaya University, Malang, East Java, Indonesia
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Rohman, Fatchur, Faculty of Economy and Business, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
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Said, Abdullah, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
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Samuel, Pratama Diffi, Graduate Program, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
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Saputra, Akhmad Andi, Master Program of Civil Engineering, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
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Soelistyono, Roedy, Faculty of Agriculture, Brawijaya University (Indonesia)
Soemarno, Soemarno
Soemarno, Soemarno, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Brawijaya, Malang, Indonesia (Indonesia)
Soemarno, Soemarno (Indonesia)
Soemarno, Soemarno, university of brawijaya (Indonesia)
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Sumartono, Sumartono, Graduate Program, Faculty of Administratives Sciences, University of Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia)
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Susilo, Susilo, Brawijaya University (Indonesia)
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Tambas, Jane Sulinda, University of Brawijaya (Indonesia)
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Journal of Indonesian Tourism and Development Studies | e-ISSN: 2338-1647 | ISSN: 2355-3979
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Research | Open | Published: 11 April 2017
Toxicity of nano- and ionic silver to embryonic stem cells: a comparative toxicogenomic study
Xiugong Gao1,
Vanessa D. Topping1,
Zachary Keltner1,
Robert L. Sprando1 &
Jeffrey J. Yourick1
Journal of Nanobiotechnologyvolume 15, Article number: 31 (2017) | Download Citation
The widespread application of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and silver-containing products has raised public safety concerns about their adverse effects on human health and the environment. To date, in vitro toxic effects of AgNPs and ionic silver (Ag+) on many somatic cell types are well established. However, no studies have been conducted hitherto to evaluate their effect on cellular transcriptome in embryonic stem cells (ESCs).
The present study characterized transcriptomic changes induced by 5.0 µg/ml AgNPs during spontaneous differentiation of mouse ESCs, and compared them to those induced by Ag+ under identical conditions. After 24 h exposure, 101 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in AgNP-treated cells, whereas 400 genes responded to Ag+. Despite the large differences in the numbers of DEGs, functional annotation and pathway analysis of the regulated genes revealed overall similarities between AgNPs and Ag+. In both cases, most of the functions and pathways impacted fell into two major categories, embryonic development and metabolism. Nevertheless, a number of canonical pathways related to cancer were found for Ag+ but not for AgNPs. Conversely, it was noted that several members of the heat shock protein and the metallothionein families were upregulated by AgNPs but not Ag+, suggesting specific oxidative stress effect of AgNPs in ESCs. The effects of AgNPs on oxidative stress and downstream apoptosis were subsequently confirmed by flow cytometry analysis.
Taken together, the results presented in the current study demonstrate that both AgNPs and Ag+ caused transcriptomic changes that could potentially exert an adverse effect on development. Although transcriptomic responses to AgNPs and Ag+ were substantially similar, AgNPs exerted specific effects on ESCs due to their nanosized particulate form.
The use of engineered nanoscale materials in consumer products has increased dramatically over the past decade. Only 54 consumer products claimed to contain nanomaterials in 2005, but the number has surged to more than 1600 today [1]. It has been estimated that of all the nanomaterials manufactured, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have the highest degree of commercialization [2], owing largely to their broad spectrum of antimicrobial activities against bacteria, fungi, and viruses, including HIV and SARS [3, 4]. Currently, a large variety of consumer products contain AgNPs, including food packaging materials, dietary supplements, cosmetics, textiles, electronics, household appliances, medical devices, water disinfectants, and room sprays [5].
The widespread application of AgNPs has raised public safety concerns about their adverse effects on human health and the environment. Data from in vitro studies demonstrated that AgNPs induce cytotoxicity and genotoxicity through the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), DNA damage, cell cycle arrest, ultimately leading to inflammation, apoptosis, and cell death [6, 7]. In addition, in vivo studies [8,9,10] demonstrated that AgNPs enter the blood circulation and accumulate in organs including the brain, kidneys, lungs, spleen, testes and primarily the liver. The ability of AgNPs to enter the blood stream [10] and cross through the blood–brain barrier [11] points toward the potential of these nanoparticles to migrate into the uterus, placenta and embryo thus causing developmental toxicity [12].
Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) have been shown to faithfully recapitulate stages of early embryo development and are increasingly used as an in vitro model for developmental toxicity testing [13]. An in vitro test has been developed over two decades ago to evaluate embryotoxicity of chemical compounds using mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) [14]. The so-called embryonic stem cell test (EST) was latterly validated by the European Committee for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) [15] and is currently used in the pharmaceutical industry [16]. In addition, implementing toxicogenomics into the EST improves its application domain and predictability [17], and has been shown as a promising alternative method for developmental toxicity testing [18]. Despite these progresses, only a few studies reported the toxicity of AgNPs in ESCs [19,20,21]. Moreover, little is known about the mechanisms of AgNP toxicity in ESCs at the molecular level.
At present, there is no consensus on the mechanisms of action for AgNP cytotoxicity and research findings are equivocal. For example, Bouwmeester et al. [22] found in an in vitro intestinal epithelium coculture model that treatment with AgNPs induced regulation of the same set of genes as with silver nitrate (AgNO3), and 6–17% of the silver content in the AgNPs suspensions was found in the ionic form (Ag+). The authors therefore speculated that the observed gene regulation was exerted by Ag+ released from the AgNPs. On the other hand, other studies suggest that AgNP toxicity is related to Ag+ and to the nanosize as well [23, 24]. Thus, AgNP cytotoxicity is a complex phenomenon and more research is needed to distinguish cellular effects triggered by the nanosized particle from those by Ag+ released from the nanoparticles.
The present work aimed at unraveling the molecular mechanisms of AgNP toxicity in ESCs. Using microarrays, we characterized transcriptomic changes induced by citrate-coated 20 nm AgNPs during spontaneous differentiation of a C57BL/6-derived mESC cell line. This cell line has been demonstrated to detect global gene expression changes induced by a variety of developmental toxicants [18]. To our knowledge, no toxicogenomic study on AgNPs has been reported hitherto in ESCs. We also compared the gene expression changes to those induced by Ag+ (silver acetate). We evaluated the potential toxicity of AgNPs with emphasis on oxidative stress and apoptosis by correlating cellular responses to gene expression patterns, which provides a mechanistic understanding of the toxicity of AgNPs in ESCs.
BioPure 20 nm AgNP citrate solutions, at AgNP concentration of 1.0 mg/ml, were purchased from nanoComposix (San Diego, CA). The AgNPs were extensively washed with the suspending solvent to remove residual reactants from the manufacturing process, and were sterile filtered and tested for endotoxin contamination before delivery. The stock solution as obtained from the manufacturer was stored at 4 °C in the dark throughout the study, and was diluted to the designated concentrations using medium or water and vortexed briefly (2500 rpm, 5 s.) before the characterization or the exposure experiments. ReagentPlus grade silver acetate was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO), and solutions of 1.00 mg/ml silver ion (Ag+) equivalent to 1.53 mg/ml silver acetate were prepared fresh before exposure. All other chemicals used in this study were of molecular biology grade and were obtained from Sigma-Aldrich unless otherwise stated.
AgNP characterization
The AgNPs were characterized using dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to confirm the nanoparticle size distribution reported by the manufacturer. To measure the hydrodynamic diameters, samples of AgNPs were suspended at 50 µg/ml in deionized (DI) water or in culture medium, immediately placed in a disposable cuvette, and analyzed at 25 °C for 2 min per run on a Brookhaven 90Plus/BI-MAS Particle Size Analyzer (Holtsville, NY). Each sample was run in triplicate, with the polydispersity index (PDI) results presented as an average of the three measurements.
To characterize AgNP structure, shape and size uniformity, TEM was performed at an accelerating voltage of 80 kV on a JEOL JEM-1011 transmission electron microscope (Peabody, MA) equipped with a bottom-mounted Gatan Orius SC1000A camera and a Gatan Microscopy Suite software platform (Pleasanton, CA). Grids were prepared by placing a 10 μl drop of AgNP sample solution (50 µg/ml) onto a formvar/carbon-coated copper 100 mesh grid.
The stability of the AgNP suspension was monitored at several time points during a 24 h incubation period by dilution in culture media to 5.0 μg/ml followed by Ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) spectroscopy using a SpectraMax i3 spectrometer from Molecular Devices (Sunnyvale, CA).
Silver concentration assessment using ICP-MS
Mass concentration of silver was determined with inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) on a 7700 series ICP-MS from Agilent Technologies (Santa Clara, CA) equipped with on-line internal standard delivery. Total silver was analyzed using m/z 107 and Y and In as internal standards. Calibration standards were prepared by dilution from a 1000 ppm silver standard from Inorganic Ventures (Christiansburg, VA). A calibration curve was verified for each analysis using dilutions from a 1 ppm silver standard from SPEX CertiPrep (Metuchen, NJ). To assess silver concentration in the nanoparticle suspensions, tubes were sonicated while an aliquot for dilution was taken out and acidified with 800 µl of concentrated nitric acid. The samples were then diluted to 10 ml with a 4% HNO3 0.5% HCl solution. For analysis of the supernatants, AgNP suspensions were subjected to centrifugation at 25,000×g for 90 min, using a WX Ultra Series centrifuge with a F50L-24 × 1.5 rotor (Thermo Scientific). Supernatants were carefully separated from pellets and silver concentration assessed.
Pluripotent mouse embryonic stem cell culture
Pluripotent ESGRO complete adapted C57BL/6 mESCs, which have been pre-adapted to serum-free and feeder-free culture condition, were obtained from EMD Millipore (Billerica, MA) at passage 12 (with 80% normal male mouse karyotype). The cells were seeded in cell culture flasks (Nunc, Roskilde, Denmark) coated with 0.1% gelatin solution (EMD Millipore), and maintained at 37 °C in a 5% CO2 humidified incubator at standard densities (i.e., between 5 × 104/cm2 and 5 × 105/cm2) in ESGRO Complete Plus Clonal Grade Medium (EMD Millipore). The medium contains leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), bone morphogenic protein 4 (BMP-4), and a glycogen synthase kinase-3b inhibitor (GSK3b-I) to help maintain pluripotency and self-renewal of the ESCs. Cells were passaged every 2–3 days (when reaching 60% confluence) with ESGRO Complete Accutase (EMD Millipore) at about 1:6 ratio. C57BL/6 mESCs maintain a stable karyotype under the above passaging condition. The cells used in the current study were at passage 18.
Cell differentiation through embryoid body formation
Induction of differentiation was achieved through embryoid body (EB) formation in hanging drop culture following a procedure adapted from De Smedt et al. [25]. In brief, stem cell suspensions were prepared on ice at a concentration of 3.75 × 104 cells/ml in ESGRO Complete Basal Medium (EMD Millipore), which does not contain LIP, BMP-4, or GSK3b-I. About 50 drops (each of 20 µl) of the cell suspension were placed onto the inner side of the lid of a 10-cm Petri dish filled with 5 ml phosphate buffered saline (PBS) (EMD Millipore) and incubated at 37 °C and 5% CO2 in a humidified atmosphere. After 3 days, EBs formed in the hanging drops were subsequently transferred into 6-cm bacteriological Petri dishes (Becton–Dickinson Labware, Franklin Lakes, NJ) and were exposed to AgNPs or Ag+. The EBs had an average diameter of 330–350 μm.
Cytotoxicity assay
Cytotoxicity was measured both in adherent (monolayer) culture and in EB culture by MTS assay using the CellTiter 96 AQueous One Solution Cell Proliferation Assay kit from Promega (Madison, WI), following instructions from the manufacturer. For adherent culture, pluripotent C57BL/6 mESC colonies cultured in ESGRO Complete Plus Clonal Grade Medium were dissociated with ESGRO Complete Accutase and a single-cell suspension at 1.0 × 105 cells/ml was prepared in ESGRO Complete Basal Medium. The cells were seeded in 96-well cell culture grade flat bottom plates (Nunc) coated with 0.1% gelatin (EMD Millipore) at 100 µl/well (1.0 × 104 cells/well) and allowed to adhere overnight at 37 °C with 5% CO2. After 24 h, 100 µl medium containing 2× final concentrations of AgNPs or Ag+ (0.1–50 µg/ml) was added to the test wells. In control wells, the same volume of medium was added as a vehicle control. The treatment was maintained for 24 h. At the end of the exposure, 20 μl of CellTiter 96 AQueous One Solution Cell Proliferation Assay reagent was added to each well that contained 100 μl medium. After 3 h incubation at 37 °C, the resultant absorbance was recorded at 490 nm using a SpectraMax i3 plate reader (Molecular Devices). Each concentration was tested in sextuplicate and repeated six times. To correct for interference of AgNPs or Ag+ on MTS assay, a parallel control plate was set up with identical concentrations of AgNPs or Ag+ but without seeded cells. The control plate was treated otherwise the same way as the test plate. The readings of the control plate were then subtracted from the corresponding wells of the test plate, and the resultant values were used in the dose–response plot.
For cytotoxicity assay in EB state, hanging drops were set up as described above. After 3 days, EBs were subsequently transferred into 6-cm bacteriological Petri dishes (Becton–Dickinson Labware) and treated with designated concentrations of AgNPs or Ag+ for 24 h. Afterwards, 50 EBs were harvested per compound concentration. The EBs were allowed to precipitate and supernatant was removed, and were subsequently dissociated using ESGRO Complete Accutase (EMD Millipore). Cells were then resuspended in 700 μl ESGRO Complete Basal Medium (EMD Millipore), and 100 μl of the single cell suspension was pipetted into each well (in sextuplicate) of 96-well cell culture grade flat bottom plates (Nunc). Subsequent MTS assay was the same as for the adherent culture described above. The experiment was repeated independently three times.
AgNP/Ag+ exposure and RNA isolation
EB differentiation cultures at day 3 were exposed to the desired concentrations of AgNPs or Ag+ for 24 h. EBs were collected after exposure. Three biological replicates were used for each condition. Treatment with AgNPs or Ag+ at the concentrations used did not affect EB sizes (data not shown). EBs were lysed in RLT buffer (Qiagen; Valencia, CA) supplemented with β-mercaptoethanol, homogenized by QIAshredder (Qiagen), and kept in a −80 °C freezer until further processing. Total RNA was isolated on the EZ1 Advanced XL (Qiagen) automated RNA purification instrument using the EZ1 RNA Cell Mini Kit (Qiagen) following the manufacturer’s protocol, including an on-column DNase digestion. RNA concentration and purity (260/280 ratio) were measured with a NanoDrop 2000 UV–Vis spectrophotometer (NanoDrop Products, Wilmington, DE). Integrity of RNA samples was assessed by an Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer (Santa Clara, CA) with the RNA 6000 Nano Reagent Kit from the same manufacturer.
RNA processing and microarray experiment
The total RNA samples were preprocessed for hybridization to Mouse Gene 2.0 ST Array (Affymetrix, Santa Clara, CA) using the GeneChip WT PLUS Reagent Kit (Affymetrix) following the manufacturer’s protocol. For each sample, 100 ng of total RNA was used. Subsequent hybridization, wash, and staining were carried out using the Affymetrix GeneChip Hybridization, Wash, and Stain Kit and the manufacturer’s protocols were followed. The chips were then scanned on Affymetrix GeneChip Scanner 3000 7G and the image (DAT) files were preprocessed using the Affymetrix GeneChip Command Console (AGCC) software v.4.0 to generate cell intensity (CEL) files. Prior to data analysis, all arrays referred to in this study were assessed for data quality using the Affymetrix Expression Console software v.1.3 and all quality assessment metrics (including spike-in controls during target preparation and hybridization) were found within boundaries. The data set has been deposited in Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/) of the National Center for Biotechnology Information with accession number GSE79766.
Microarray data processing and analysis
The values of individual probes belonging to one probe set in CEL files were summarized using the robust multi-array average (RMA) algorithm [26] embedded in the Expression Console software v.1.3 (Affymetrix), which comprises of convolution background correction, quantile normalization, and median polish summarization. Normalized data for all samples were then analyzed by unsupervised principal component analysis (PCA) [27] and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) [28], using the U.S. FDA’s ArrayTrack software system [29, 30], to identify patterns in the dataset and highlight similarities and differences among the samples. Subsequently, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were selected using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) using the Affymetrix Transcriptome Analysis Console (TAC) software v.2.0. Prior to making comparisons, a gene filtering procedure was applied to exclude probesets that appeared to be unexpressed in all sample groups. For each comparison between two experimental groups, the fold change (FC) of every annotated gene, together with their corresponding p value, was used for selection of DEGs with cutoff values indicated in the text.
Gene ontology and pathway analysis
The DEGs were subjected to gene ontology (GO) analysis using the Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) [31, 32] to find overrepresentations of GO terms in the biological process (BP) category (GOTERM_BP_FAT). As background, the Mus musculus (mouse) whole genome was used. Statistical enrichment was determined using default settings in DAVID. The statistically enriched GO terms were classified using the web tool CateGOrizer [33] based on GO Slim. Pathway analysis was conducted with the Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) software using default settings to identify canonical pathways and pathway interaction networks associated with the DEGs.
Measurement of oxidative stress and apoptosis by flow cytometric analysis
EBs were exposed to 5.0 µg/ml of AgNPs or Ag+ the same way as in the gene expression study described above. As a positive control for both oxidative stress and apoptosis, EBs were also treated with 1 µM staurosporine. After treatment, EBs were collected and dissociated into single cells using the Embryoid Body Dissociation Kit from Miltenyi Biotec (San Diego, CA) following instruction from the manufacturer. Subsequent flow cytometry measurements of oxidative stress and apoptosis were conducted on a Guava easyCyte 8HT Flow Cytometer from EMD Millipore with a kit from the same manufacturer. The MitoStress Kit allows for the simultaneous measurement of mitochondrial superoxide generation, detected by membrane permeant dye MitoSox Red, and phosphatidyl serine expression on the cell surface of apoptotic cells as assessed by Annexin V binding. Data collection was performed using the InCyte and the CellCycle programs, both included in the guavaSoft software suite (ver. 3.1.1), and instructions from the manufacturer were followed.
Statistical analysis for data other than the microarray data was performed in KaleidaGraph v.4.03 of Synergy Software (Reading, PA) using one way ANOVA followed by Tukey HSD post hoc test.
Silver nanoparticle characterization
The physicochemical properties of the 20 nm AgNPs are summarized in Table 1. The values in water agree well with those provided by the manufacturer. TEM analysis indicated that the AgNPs were spherical in shape and uniform in size with an average diameter of 20.4 ± 3.2 nm in water (Fig. 1a) and of 20.2 ± 4.1 nm in medium (Fig. 1b). The particle size distribution was narrow, with few particles >30 or <10 nm present. As is typical for nanomaterials, the hydrodynamic diameter of the AgNPs in water measured by DLS was found to be slightly larger (29.3 nm) than the physical diameter measured by TEM (20.4 nm). The hydrodynamic diameter increased substantially in the medium (78.6 nm) (Fig. 1c), probably due to slight agglomeration. Two small peaks appeared in the low diameter range on the DLS plot, probably resulted from protein species found in the media. The AgNPs had a low PDI (0.048) in water but much higher (0.349) in medium, indicating good stability in water but not in the culture medium. UV–Vis analysis in media (Fig. 1d) revealed colloidal homogeneity at the beginning (0 h) as reflected in the surface plasmon resonance with a characteristic peak ~400 nm. However, the peak intensity decreased rapidly within the first 2 h and then slowly between 2 and 8 h, with the peak broadened and shifted towards higher wavelengths, suggesting agglomeration of the particles in the medium. After 8 h, no further decrease in peak intensity was observed, although the peak position further shifted from 408 nm (8 h) to 424 nm (24 h).
Table 1 Physicochemical properties of silver nanoparticles
Characterization of AgNPs. a Typical TEM images of AgNPs in water. b Typical TEM images of AgNPs in cell culture medium. The size bar at the bottom left corner of the images represents 20 nm. c Comparison of hydrodynamic size distribution of AgNPs in water and in cell culture medium. d Monitoring of AgNP stability by UV–vis spectra over 24 h incubation in cell culture medium
To determine the amount of Ag+ released from AgNPs, AgNPs were soaked in the medium at various concentrations (1.0, 2.0, 5.0 and 10.0 µg/ml) at 37 °C. After 24 h, AgNPs were removed from the medium by ultracentrifugation, and Ag+ in the supernatant was measured by ICP-MS (Additional file 1: Figure S1). At 5.0 µg/ml, the initial silver ion (Ag+) fraction of the AgNP solution was 1.82% (0.091 µg/ml) but increased to 21.46% (1.073 µg/ml) after 24 h incubation at 37 °C.
Cytotoxicity of silver nanoparticles and silver ion on mouse embryonic stem cells
Differentiating mESCs, either in adherent culture or in EB culture, were exposed to varying concentrations of AgNPs or Ag+ for 24 h, and cell viability was measured by MTS assay (Fig. 2). In adherent culture, both Ag+ and AgNPs exhibited a significant concentration-dependent cytotoxicity at concentrations >1.0 μg/ml (Fig. 2a). However, Ag+ appeared much more potent than AgNPs, causing nearly complete cell death at as low as 5.0 μg/ml. In comparison, >40% cells survived after exposing to 50 μg/ml of AgNPs. Interestingly, low concentrations of Ag+ (up to 0.5 μg/ml) increased cell viability almost 20% relative to the unexposed control, suggesting accelerated mESC proliferation and/or differentiation. Similar stimulating effects were also observed for AgNPs, albeit the effects were not statistically significant.
Dose response of AgNP and Ag+ exposure. Differentiating mESCs in adherent culture (a) or in EB state (b) were exposed to different concentrations of AgNPs and Ag+ for 24 h, and cell viability was measured by MTS assay. The data were normalized to the control (100%) and expressed as mean ± SD. *p < 0.05
In EB state, differentiating mESCs appeared more resistant to AgNP and Ag+ cytotoxicity. Ag+ did not cause significant cytotoxicity at concentrations <2.0 μg/ml, nor did AgNPs at concentrations <5.0 μg/ml. Concentration-dependent decrease of cell viability at higher concentrations was also less severe than in adherent culture for both AgNPs and Ag+. At 50 µg/ml, >70% cells remained alive after exposure to AgNPs, and ~35% cells survived Ag+ exposure.
The morphological changes of the differentiating EBs (Additional file 2: Figure S2) corroborated the dose–response data shown above. After the 3 day EB formation period and prior to exposure, the mESCs formed compact three-dimensional aggregates in spheroid shape, with a diameter of about 330–350 µm. During the following 24 h exposure period, the cells on the surface outgrew and formed a loose outer shell of 2–3 cells thick around the compact “core”. In control samples and those of lower concentration exposure, the outer shell was intact with a smooth contour. However, when AgNPs exceeded 5.0 µg/ml, cells on the outer shell started to fall off. At 10 µg/ml and above, almost all cells on the outer shell fell off, whereas the core of the EBs was largely intact. In the case of Ag+ exposure, cells stared to fall off the shell at 2.0 µg/ml. At 10 µg/ml and above, not only the outer shell completely disappeared, but the size of the core also decreased significantly.
The use of 5.0 μg/ml as the exposure concentration for AgNPs in the following microarray experiments was based on the cytotoxicity data described above. At this concentration, ~10% cell death (EC10) was observed for AgNPs in the EBs, as measured by MTS assay (Fig. 2b). Two concentrations of Ag+ were used for comparison: 1.0 and 5.0 μg/ml. The lower concentration (1.0 μg/ml) corresponds to the concentration of Ag+ released from 5.0 μg/ml AgNPs into medium after 24 h incubation. The higher concentration (5.0 μg/ml) matches the total silver mass. Cell death in EBs after 24 h incubation at these concentrations of Ag+ was 4 and 20%, respectively (Fig. 2b).
Global gene expression profiling
Cells in differentiating EBs were exposed for 24 h to 5.0 µg/ml of AgNPs, or to 1.0 or 5.0 µg/ml Ag+ ions (Fig. 3a), and global gene expression changes were profiled using Affymetrix Mouse Gene 2.0 ST Array. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the microarray data showed that the biological triplicates of each treatment group (control, AgNP, and Ag+) clustered roughly together and separated from one another except for the replicates of 1.0 µg/ml Ag+ (Fig. 3b). Two of the replicates fell in the same area with the controls, but the remaining one fell close to the 5.0 µg/ml Ag+ samples, far away from the other two. Due to the divergence between the replicates of the 1.0 µg/ml Ag+ treatment group, they were excluded from further analysis. For the remainder of this report, treatment with 5.0 µg/ml Ag+ will be simply referred to as treatment with Ag+. Hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) clustered the rest of the triplicates into respective treatment groups (Fig. 3c). In addition, the HCA indicated that the gene expression pattern of the samples treated with AgNPs was more related to that of the controls than to that of the Ag+-treated samples.
Global gene expression responses of AgNPs and Ag+ in differentiating mESCs. a Schematic representation of the experimental procedure. The slate blue arrow covers the embryoid body (EB) formation stage. Hanging drops were set up on day 0 and EBs formed on day 3. ESC differentiation started from day 3 onwards. AgNP or Ag+ exposure is shown by the maroon arrow, which lasted for 24 h (from day 3 to day 4). b Principal component analysis (PCA) using 16,510 filtered genes to cluster samples based on their similarities or dissimilarities. The three axes represent the first three principal components identified by the analysis. c Hierarchical cluster analysis using 459 unique DEGs to cluster samples based on their similarities or dissimilarities. The clustering was performed through Ward’s minimum variance linkage on normalized expression data which are in log2 scale and color coded as shown in the scheme at the top right corner. The tree on the right of the image shows clusters of genes (names not shown), while the tree on the top of the image shows clusters of samples. Samples labeled as Ag+ were treated with 5.0 µg/ml of Ag+. Those treated with 1.0 µg/ml Ag+ were omitted from the analysis
The number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) was considerably lower in cells exposed to AgNPs than in cells exposed to Ag+ (Table 2). Using a fold change (FC) cutoff value of |FC| ≥ 1.5 and p < 0.05, 101 DEGs were identified in AgNP-treated cells (Additional file 3: Table S1), and 400 DEGs in Ag+-treated cells (Additional file 4: Table S2). Among these genes, only 17 and 133 had |FC| ≥ 2.0 for AgNP- and Ag+-treated cells respectively, indicating that in both cases the majority of the DEGs had a |FC| between 1.5 and 2.0. For both AgNP- and Ag+-treated cells, the number of upregulated genes was smaller than that of downregulated genes. However, when directly comparing AgNP-treated cells to Ag+-treated cells, the number of upregulated genes was higher than that of downregulated genes. There were 173 DEGs identified between AgNP-treated and Ag+-treated cells (Additional file 5: Table S3).
Table 2 Number of differentially expressed genes (|FC| ≥ 1.5, p < 0.05)
The overlapping of DEGs between different treatment groups is plotted in the Venn diagrams shown in Fig. 4. Between the 43 genes upregulated by AgNP treatment and the 137 genes upregulated by Ag+ treatment, only 18 genes (17 plus 1) were shared by both groups. Likewise, for the downregulated genes, 58 for AgNP-treated group and 263 for Ag+-treated group, only 48 genes were common to both groups. These results suggest that there were substantial differences in the responses of cells to AgNPs and to Ag+ albeit some similarities exit.
Venn Diagrams of upregulated, downregulated or all DEGS after exposure to AgNPs or Ag+ in comparison to the control, or compared with each other
Functional annotation of differentially expressed genes
To unravel the cellular functions affected by exposure to AgNPs and to Ag+, the DEGs were subjected to functional annotation using DAVID to find overrepresentations of gene ontology (GO) terms in the biological process (BP) category. The 101 genes regulated by AgNPs resulted in 120 GO terms (Additional file 6: Table S4). Using the CateGOrizer tool, these GO terms were grouped into 17 classes within the pre-defined set of parent/ancestor GO terms (Fig. 5). The 400 genes regulated by Ag+ led to 322 GO terms (Additional file 7: Table S5), which were further grouped into 22 GO classes (Fig. 5). Despite the large differences in the numbers of DEGs between AgNPs and Ag+, the functional classes enriched in these DEGs were strikingly similar between the two treatments. Fourteen classes were shared by AgNPs and Ag+; on top of the list were development, morphogenesis, metabolism, embryonic development, and cell differentiation. Some other classes were only regulated by Ag+ by not AgNPs, and vice versa. It is worthy to note that the class response to stress was enriched by AgNP treatment but not by Ag+.
Distribution of enriched GO terms in various functional classes for the DEGs regulated by AgNPs or Ag+. The vertical axis lists all the classes generated by GO slim. The horizontal axis indicates the number of GO terms in each class as a percentage of the total number of unique GO terms enriched by the DEGs
Pathways impacted by AgNPs and by Ag+ were analyzed using IPA. Totally, 17 canonical pathways were affected by AgNPs and 27 by Ag+ (Table 3). These pathways were broadly classified into four major categories. In both cases, the majority of the pathways identified fell into two categories, embryonic development and metabolism. Nevertheless, three canonical pathways related to cancer were found for Ag+ but not for AgNPs. On the other hand, one pathway, unfolded protein response, was identified for AgNPs only.
Table 3 List of pathways impacted by AgNPs or Ag+ and DEGs involved in the pathways
It was noted that for the common pathways shared by AgNPs and Ag+, there were always more genes involved in a particular pathway for Ag+ than for AgNPs, hence lower p values for the Ag+ pathways than their AgNP counterparts; and in almost all cases, the genes identified in AgNPs could be found in Ag+, suggesting more potent effect of Ag+ than AgNPs albeit of the same nature. This was also reflected by the pathway interaction networks shown in Fig. 6, where interactions among pathways impacted by Ag+ were much more intense that those by AgNPs.
Pathway interaction networks for DEGs affected by a AgNPs and b Ag+. Each rectangular box represents a pathway affected by the DEGs with the name indicated. The darkness of the red color of each box represents the p value for enrichment of each pathway—the darker the color, the lower the p value. A line linking two boxes represents an interaction between two pathways. The length of the line is arbitrary
Oxidative stress and apoptosis regulated by AgNPs
The unfolded protein response pathway identified for AgNPs (Table 3) prompted us to examine the expression of genes involved in oxidative stress, and several members of the heat shock protein and the metallothionein families were found significantly upregulated by AgNPs (Fig. 7). The increases in the expression of these genes in Ag+-exposed cells were minimal and not significant except for Hspa1a, of which the expression in Ag+-exposed cells was significantly (with p = 0.001086) higher than the control, but with |FC| marginally exceeded 1.5. These results suggest specific oxidative stress effect of AgNPs in ESCs.
Upregulation of several members of the heat shock protein and the metallothionein families by AgNPs, but not Ag+. a Heat map showing the normalized expression intensity in the different treatment groups, which are in log2 scale and color coded as shown in the scheme at the top right corner. b Bar graph showing fold change (FC) of each member of the heat shock protein and the metallothionein families after exposure to AgNPs or to Ag+. The FC values are relative to the controls (of which the mean value was set to 1)
To confirm these results, the effect of AgNPs on oxidative stress and downstream apoptosis were examined on the cellular level using flow cytometry (Fig. 8). Oxidative stress was assessed by mitochondrial superoxide generation which was detected by membrane permeant dye MitoSox Red. As shown in Fig. 8c, the percentage of cells positive for MitoSox Red staining (gated cells) increased significantly in AgNP treated cells (18.5%) as compared with control cells (1.4%). The mean intensity of yellow fluorescence (from MitoSox staining) of the entire cell population increased to 2.08-fold in cells treated with AgNPs in comparison with the control. As a comparison, treatment with 1 µM staurosporine, which has been reported to increases ROS production [34], resulted in 39.8% positive cells for MitoSox Red staining and 2.91-fold increase in mean fluorescence intensity compared with the control.
Flow cytometry results showing the effect of AgNPs and Ag+ on oxidative stress and apoptosis in mESCs. a Representative dot plots showing intensities of yellow fluorescence from MitoSox Red staining (oxidative stress) vs. red2 fluorescence from Annexin V binding (apoptosis) in control cells (Ctrl), and cells treated with Ag+ or AgNPs. b Representative histogram graphs showing fluorescence intensity distribution of yellow fluorescence from MitoSox Red staining (oxidative stress, left) and red2 fluorescence from Annexin V binding (apoptosis, right) in control cells (Ctrl), and cells treated with Ag+ or AgNPs. c Bar graphs showing the percentage of cells positive for MitoSox Red staining and Annexin V binding (gated cells in R3 and R4 of B, respectively; left), and mean relative fluorescence intensity (RFI; right) in total cell population of control cells (Ctrl), and cells treated with Ag+, AgNPs, or 1 µM staurosporine (STS). Values are expressed as percentage of the control and are mean ± SD of three independent experiments. *p < 0.05
One of the hallmarks of apoptosis is the translocation of the membrane phospholipid phosphatidylserine to the external environment of the cells. Phosphatidylserine expression on the cell surface of apoptotic cells was assessed by binding of fluorescently labeled Annexin V in the current study. Similar to the results on oxidative stress as shown above, the percentage of cells positive for Annexin V binding (gated cells) increased significantly in AgNP treated cells (16.8%) as compared with control cells (1.9%), and the mean intensity of red2 fluorescence (from Annexin V binding) in cells treated with AgNPs was 2.04-fold as high as in control cells. For comparison, treatment with 1 µM staurosporine, a known apoptosis inducer [34], resulted in 38.9% positive cells for Annexin V binding and 2.91-fold increase in mean fluorescence intensity compared with the control.
Interestingly, cells treated with Ag+ did not show significant changes in either the percentage of gated cells or the mean fluorescence intensity, for both MitoSox Red staining and Annexin V binding, in comparison with the control cells (Fig. 8c).
The three-dimensional (3D) assembly of stem cells in the form of EB spheroids facilitates cellular interactions that promote morphogenesis, analogous to the multicellular, heterotypic tissue organization that accompanies embryogenesis [35]. The complex interactions between heterologous cell types result in the induction of differentiation of stem cells to derivatives of all three embryonic germ layers [36]. Therefore, ESC differentiation in EBs has been considered to faithfully recapitulate stages of early embryo development and is increasingly used as an in vitro model for developmental toxicity testing [13]. In addition, implementing toxicogenomics in ESC differentiation has been shown as a sensitive method for the detection of a variety of developmental toxicants [18]. In the present study, we characterized transcriptomic changes induced by citrate-coated 20 nm AgNPs during spontaneous differentiation of mESCs, and compared to those induced by Ag+ (silver acetate) under otherwise identical conditions. Despite the large differences in the numbers of DEGs, functional annotation and pathway analysis of the regulated genes revealed overall similarities between AgNPs and Ag+. Functions and pathways related to embryonic development and metabolism appeared on top of the lists for both treatments. Functional changes related to metabolism are thought to be necessary for cells to cope with the toxic insult of AgNPs and Ag+ [37]. Those related to embryonic development suggest that both AgNPs and Ag+ have the potential to cause developmental toxicities when in contact with the differentiating embryo. It has been reported that AgNPs induce distinct developmental defects in zebrafish embryos [38]. In a recent in vivo study, it was found that silver acetate exposure caused adverse effects on reproduction and postnatal development in rats [39].
Human exposure to nanoparticles may occur via inhalation, ingestion, dermal absorption or, in some cases, artificially induced via inoculation. Once systemically available, these nanoparticles appear capable of spreading to most organ systems and may even cross biological barriers. Several studies demonstrated that certain nanoparticles can penetrate the placenta barrier, reach the fetus, and evoke embryotoxic effects [40]. Since the application of AgNPs is expected to further increase in the future, long term exposure and potential accumulation of AgNPs in the human body may result. The results presented here point to the potential of AgNPs to cause developmental toxicity once these particles migrate into the uterus, cross the placenta and reach the embryo.
Proper physicochemical characterization of nanoparticles should be performed in the relevant dispersion medium prior to conducting toxicity studies [41, 42]. This is because complex interactions exists between a particle and its surrounding microenvironment, including attractive or repulsive forces between particles, and between particles and biological substances in the dispersion medium such as salts (ions) and proteins. These factors affect both the hydrodynamic size and the surface charge of the nanoparticles, and can impact on their agglomeration status, which may in turn affect the extent of toxicity. It has been considered that larger agglomerates of nanoparticles are less toxic than monodispersed particles or smaller aggregates [41]. The DLS and UV–Vis data suggest there was a dynamic interplay between the AgNPs and the culture medium, starting immediately upon contact and lasting throughout the duration of the exposure, leading to increased agglomeration of the AgNPs. Aggregation of nanoparticles in cell culture media has been reported previously by others [19, 37, 40]. However, it has to be noted that there are significant limitations to the techniques used for the characterization, which complicates the interpretation of the data. For both DLS and UV–Vis, characteristic peaks for AgNPs overlaps with those of the medium. Moreover, it is well known that DLS is a weight-averaged measurement biased towards larger particle sizes and especially towards agglomerates or aggregates. Thus, although the observed DLS curve showed an average hydrodynamic size of ~78 nm, the system may actually contain a very high number of smaller particles that are bioavailable and can interact with the ESCs. From another point of view, it should be pointed out that the agglomeration of AgNPs found here does not diminish, but rather adds to, the significance of the current study. Since the culture medium for ESCs used here was similar to body fluid in composition, it is likely that AgNPs entering the human body would agglomerate to some extent. In this sense, the results found in the current study are meaningful for real life situations. Since unagglomerated (monodispersed) form of nanoparticles would be more toxic than their agglomerated form, the results reported here signify the importance of nanoparticle regulation in consumer products.
It was interesting to note that in the EB state ESCs were in general more resistant to AgNP and Ag+ cytotoxicity than in adherent culture (Fig. 2). At 5.0 μg/ml, Ag+ caused nearly complete cell death (97%) in adherent culture, while >80% cells survived in EBs. For AgNPs, cell viability at 5.0 μg/ml was 68% in adherent culture and 87% in EB state. At 50 µg/ml, 73 and 34% cells remained alive after exposure to AgNPs and Ag+ respectively in EB culture. In comparison, in adherent culture only 43% cells survived AgNP exposure, and <2% cells survived after exposing to Ag+. These results could be explained by the fact that in adherent culture, cells formed a monolayer whereby AgNPs or Ag+ diffused freely throughout the medium, and thereby reached equilibrium where all cells were equally exposed to the same concentrations of AgNPs or Ag+. In contrast, in 3D aggregates of EBs, a concentration gradient of exogenous or endogenous factors is established between the surrounding culture environment and the interior of the spheroids [35]. Therefore, concentration of Ag+ in the interior of the EBs would be lower than that of exterior environment. The concentration is inversely related to EB size, with decreasing concentration from the surface toward the center of aggregates [35]. Due to the high cell packing density (Additional file 2: Figure S2), cells in the center of the EBs may be completely shielded and not exposed to Ag+ at all. For AgNPs, the concentration in the interior of the EBs would be ever lower than Ag+ due to more severe steric hindrance imposed on the AgNPs as a result of their larger sizes, especially if agglomeration occurred.
It was also intriguing to note that in adherent cultures, low concentrations of Ag+ (up to 0.5 μg/ml) increased cell viability almost 20% relative to the unexposed control, suggesting accelerated mESC proliferation and/or differentiation (Fig. 2a). Similar stimulating effects were also observed for AgNPs, albeit not statistically significant (Fig. 2a). Such an hormesis effect was also reported previously for AgNPs in HepG2 cells [24], and for silica nanoparticles in D3 mESCs [40], and could be explained as an adaptive response of cells to low levels of potentially toxic agents [40].
The toxicity of AgNPs has been demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo [43]. However, whether the observed toxicity is due to Ag+ released from the AgNPs or related to the special properties of nanosized particles is not entirely clear, and is often a topic of rigorous debate. This is partly due to the fact that the release of Ag+ from AgNPs is a dynamic process and is affected by many factors such as temperature, surface chemistry, and stabilizing agent [44]. In order to unravel the mechanism of toxicity, the effect of AgNPs on the gene expression in ESCs was studied here at a relatively low toxicity concentration (~EC10) to avoid cellular processes in necrotic or apoptotic cells overwhelming and leading to misinterpretation of the data. As comparison, two concentrations of Ag+ were used, one approximates the maximum Ag+ released from 5.0 μg/ml AgNPs after 24 h incubation in the medium (1.0 μg/ml; Additional file 1: Figure S1), the other was the equivalent mass concentration of silver in 5.0 μg/ml AgNPs (i.e., 5.0 μg/ml). At 1.0 μg/ml, Ag+ only induced 47 DEGs (data not shown), compared to 101 DEGs regulated by 5.0 μg/ml AgNPs. This suggests that AgNP toxicity was not entirely due to Ag+ released from the AgNPs. In the present study, we only measured Ag+ release from AgNPs in the medium (without cells). AgNPs may also release Ag+ inside the cell via a “Trojan-horse” mechanism, where the particles enter cells and are then ionized within the cell [45]. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effect of AgNPs and Ag+ on the cellular transcriptome of ESCs, and therefore more systematic studies are needed in order to completely disentangle the effects of AgNPs from those of released Ag+. In addition, a cellular uptake study of the AgNPs may help to confirm that the transcriptomic changes seen here were indeed caused by ingested AgNPs.
More importantly, microarray data analysis showed that several stress response proteins, including members of the heat shock proteins (HSPs) and the metallothionein (MT) families, were upregulated by AgNPs but not Ag+. As the name suggests, HSPs are a group of proteins induced by heat shock, or hyperthermia. Their expression has also been found to increase when cells are exposed to an array of other stresses, including heavy metals and oxygen radicals [46], where they play a role in maintaining the correct folding of proteins by preventing protein aggregation or facilitating selective degradation of misfolded or denatured proteins [47]. MTs are a family of cysteine-rich proteins with several isoforms [48]. MTs have the capacity to bind heavy metals, both physiological and xenobiotic, through the thiol group of their cysteine residues [49]. It has been suggested that MTs not only are involved in the regulation of physiological metals and protect cells from metal toxicity, but also provide protection against oxidative stress [50]. The cysteines of MTs have been shown to bind oxidant radicals like superoxide and hydroxyl radicals [51], and MT expression has been implicated as a transient response to many forms of stress or injury [50]. Several previous studies [23, 24, 37, 52, 53] reported upregulation of HSPs and MTs in somatic cells following exposure to AgNPs. The upregulation of these proteins found in the current study suggests that AgNP exposure also induced cellular stresses and elicited cellular protective responses in ESCs. It was intriguing to note that the same concentration of Ag+ did not induce such stress responses in the ESCs. The reason for this is not well understood but could be partly explained by the so-called Trojan horse theory. The plasma membrane functions to some degree as a natural barrier for metal ions, thereby protecting the cells from damage. However, nanoparticles circumvent this barrier when they are taken up by the cells via endocytic pathways, leading to the release of metal ions within the cells as a result of lysosome rupture, and subsequently generate free radicals within the cells [23]. Similar findings were reported previously [23, 24].
It has been reported that in several somatic cell types, augmented oxidative stress induced by AgNPs, through the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), may further lead to DNA damage and chromosomal aberrations [19, 53, 54]. Cells with damaged DNA will accumulate in the G2/M phase allowing the cells extra time to repair of damaged DNA, causing arrest in cell cycle progression [23, 54]. Cells with massive or irreversible DNA damage will not be able to repair the DNA effectively and undergo apoptosis at a later stage [19, 53, 54]. The results presented here indicate that this scenario may also hold true for ESCs. Flow cytometry results (Fig. 8) indicated that both oxidative stress and apoptosis increased significantly after treatment with AgNPs. Based on these results, the molecular mechanisms of ESC cellular responses against AgNPs are therefore speculated as following (Fig. 9): AgNPs enter the cell via endocytosis, release Ag+ within the cell after lysosome rupture, and subsequently generate ROS. The increased oxidative stress further leads to DNA damage, causing cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase in order to repair the damaged DNA. Cells unable to repair the DNA damages will eventually undergo apoptosis.
Schematic representation of molecular mechanisms of AgNP toxicity in ESCs, which are similar to those previously reported for somatic cells. AgNPs enter ESCs via endocytosis, release Ag+ within the cell after lysosome rupture, and subsequently generate ROS. The elevated ROS may lead to DNA damage and cause the cell into cycle arrest in order to repair damaged DNA. Cells failed to do so will eventually undergo apoptosis
Kawata et al. [24] found a number of checkpoint related genes (BIRC5, BUB1B, CCNA2, CDC25B, CDC20, and CKS2) increased expression in HepG2 cells after exposure to AgNPs. However, despite the effect of AgNPs on oxidative stress and apoptosis revealed at the protein level by flow cytometry, significant induction of genes associated with the cellular processes downstream of oxidative stress (DNA damage, cell cycle arrest, and apoptosis) was not observed at the mRNA level by the microarray study. This is probably because of the ephemeral nature of many gene expression changes. The correlation between mRNA and protein abundances in the cell has been reported to be notoriously poor [55]. One of the reasons for the poor correlation is that there is a temporal difference in cells responding to environment perturbations at the mRNA level and at the protein level [56]. There may have been detectable gene expression changes at the mRNA level; however, by the time when these changes are translated into the protein level, the altered mRNA expression of these genes may have already recovered to their normal level.
DNA damage by ROS production induced by AgNPs may further activate the p53 pathway [19], which plays important roles in carcinogenesis and tumor progressing. Therefore, AgNPs have the potential to cause carcinogenicity [24]. However, pathways related to cancer were not identified in cells exposed to AgNPs. On the contrary, three pathways were found in cells exposed to Ag+. The reason for this is not clear. However, it cannot be excluded that AgNPs would affect cancer pathways at higher concentrations than that used in the current study (5.0 µg/ml).
In this study, we characterized transcriptomic changes induced by AgNPs during spontaneous differentiation of mouse ESCs, and compared to those induced by Ag+. Overall, cellular responses to AgNPs and Ag+ in ESCs were substantially similar. In both cases, most of the functions and pathways impacted are related to embryonic development and metabolism, suggesting that both AgNPs and Ag+ have the potential to alter, reversibly or irreversibly, developmental pathways. However, specific effects on oxidative stress and apoptosis were observed for AgNPs. Taken together, our results indicate that the widespread application of AgNPs and silver-containing products may be a health concern. Long term exposure of humans to these products could potentially result in accumulation in the body and subsequently induce acute or chronic toxicity. Once systemically available, AgNPs has the potential to reach the embryo thus causing developmental toxicity. However, since information on whether these particles are able to transfer from the mother to the fetus across the placenta is currently lacking, the results of the current study have to be interpreted with caution until in vivo data becomes available.
AGCC:
Affymetrix GeneChip Command Console
Ag+ :
silver ion
AgNO3 :
AgNP:
silver nanoparticle
ANOVA:
BMP-4:
bone morphogenic protein 4
BP:
DAVID:
Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery
differentially expressed gene
deionized
DLS:
EB:
embryoid body
ECVAM:
European Committee for the Validation of Alternative Methods
ESC:
embryonic stem cell
EST:
embryonic stem cell test
GEO:
GO:
GSK3b-I:
glycogen synthase kinase-3b inhibitor
hierarchical cluster analysis
HSP:
heat shock protein
ICP-MS:
inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy
IPA:
Ingenuity Pathway Analysis
LIF:
leukemia inhibitory factor
mESC:
mouse embryonic stem cell
MT:
metallothionein
PCA:
PDI:
polydispersity index
RMA:
robust multi-array average
ROS:
STS:
TAC:
Transcriptome Analysis Console
UV-vis:
ultraviolet-visible
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XG conceived and designed the study, carried the experimental work, analyzed the data, and wrote the manuscript. VDT performed AgNP characterization using DLS and TEM. ZK did the ICP-MS analysis for silver concentration assessment. RLS and JJY contributed to the conception and design of the study, intellectually accompanied the experimental work, critically reviewed the manuscript, and gave approval of the final version to be published. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
We thank Dr. Marianna D. Solomotis for critically reading the manuscript. The findings and conclusions presented in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent views, opinions, or policies of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article and its additional information files.
This work was supported by internal funds of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Division of Applied Regulatory Toxicology, Office of Applied Research and Safety Assessment, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 8301 Muirkirk Road, Laurel, MD, 20708, USA
Xiugong Gao
, Vanessa D. Topping
, Zachary Keltner
, Robert L. Sprando
& Jeffrey J. Yourick
Search for Xiugong Gao in:
Search for Vanessa D. Topping in:
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Correspondence to Xiugong Gao.
Additional file 1: Figure S1. Release of Ag+ from AgNPs into culture medium after 24 h incubation at 37 °C. (A) Ag+ released into the supernatant of the medium before (0 h) and after (24 h) incubation. (B) Total Ag+ in the AgNP suspension before (0 h) and after (24 h) incubation.
Additional file 2: Figure S2. Morphological changes of the differentiating EBs after exposure for 24 h to varying concentrations of AgNPs (A) or Ag+ (B). The concentrations of AgNPs or Ag+ used for the exposure (in µg/ml) are indicated by the numbers at the top left corner of each image.
Additional file 3: Table S1. List of 101 DEGs regulated by AgNPs. Gene expression profiles of AgNP-exposed samples were compared with the controls using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) based on the Welch t-test, and DEGs were selected by |FC| ≥ 1.5 and p ≤ 0.05.
Additional file 4: Table S2. List of 400 DEGs regulated by Ag+. Gene expression profiles of Ag+-exposed samples were compared with the controls using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) based on the Welch t test, and DEGs were selected by |FC| ≥ 1.5 and p ≤ 0.05.
Additional file 5: Table S3. List of 173 DEGs between AgNP- and Ag+- treated cells. Gene expression profiles of AgNP-exposed samples were compared with Ag+-exposed samples using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) based on the Welch t test, and DEGs were selected by |FC| ≥ 1.5 and p ≤ 0.05.
Additional file 6: Table S4. Lists of 120 GO terms in the biological process (BP) category enriched from the 101 genes regulated by AgNPs. DAVID was used for the analysis. The Mus musculus (mouse) whole genome was used as background. Statistical enrichment was determined through a modified Fisher’s exact test (p < 0.1) and count threshold >2 (default settings in DAVID).
Additional file 7: Table S5. Lists of 322 GO terms in the biological process (BP) category enriched from the 400 genes regulated by Ag+. DAVID was used for the analysis. The Mus musculus (mouse) whole genome was used as background. Statistical enrichment was determined through a modified Fisher’s exact test (p < 0.1) and count threshold >2 (default settings in DAVID).
Silver nanoparticles
Developmental toxicity
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Joanie Schirm July 8, 2019 Respond
Oswald “Valdik” Holzer arrives in Shanghai, China, July 5, 1939
RARE EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT IN OLD LETTER DETAILS
MY FATHER’S ARRIVAL IN SHANGHAI, CHINA 80 YEARS AGO – JULY 5, 1939
After escaping Hitler’s growing threat in his occupied Czech homeland, and traveling nearly 10,000 nautical miles from Marseille, France, Oswald “Valdik” Holzer, on July 5, 1939, reached Shanghai. My father was a 28-year-old physician in a very foreign land.
(Watch award-winning MY DEAR BOY book trailer here.)
During 1937-1941, some twenty thousand desperate European Jewish refugees arrived in Shanghai. While traveling the globe as an author for research and speaking engagements, I’ve learned this illustrious Shanghai history is well known among Holocaust scholars but little known to others.
Echoing the immigration turmoil of today’s world, during the late 1920s and 1930s, in the shadow of a global economic depression and the threat of war, many countries, including the United States of America, refused to increase their visa quota numbers. According to the Simon Wiesenthal Center on Holocaust Studies, Shanghai took in more Jewish refugees than Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, and South Africa combined. This little known truth makes “Shanghai” synonymous with “haven” and “rescue” in the narrative of the Holocaust era.
On this 80th anniversary of my father’s arrival in Shanghai as a Czech Jewish refugee, I share my dad’s eyewitness account via a letter he wrote (preserved with a carbon copy), to a close friend, Frantisek Schoenbaum, trapped with his wife Andula and young son Honza (John), in Prague under Nazi-control. The letter from the Holzer Collection was translated in 2008.
Shanghai, 7-20-1939
Franta, don’t be angry with me that I am bothering you, I have had no news from home for a month already. Please call my family and tell them to write to me airmail at Hong Kong POB 370 c/o Leo Lilling as that is my address. If something would happen, God forbid, with the family, write it to me, please, so that I can possibly help them somehow if it would be possible.
I am also including a letter for {Pavel} Koerper. He wants to come here, so I must work him up a little so that he would not be surprised. If some of you are in a lousy way perhaps, come here, it is better here, despite all that misery, than in Prague or in Europe in general. Notably, one can work here, and I will be already sitting {meaning probably in a place with medical practice} by that time so I could help you. Eventually, one would not stay here forever, and a man can get to some other place somewhat easier from here.
Thank you for your lovely letter. In the meantime, you received undoubtedly my chattering from the ship. We must stay in writing contact all the time. You have no idea how happy you made me with that letter of yours. You know, when a man does not hear that dialect of ours anymore, at least one can have something for enjoyable reading again. To tell you the truth: that distance is not so big, and it does not seem so huge, but I am damnably homesick for all and for everything, mainly when a man is almost entirely without news and when he does not know when, and if at all, he will return. Such thoughts would develop in your head only after some time. Do not be angry that I am responding to your cheerful letter with such sentimental jabbering, but it is called here “S’ai depression,” and supposedly everybody is going through that during their first time. After all, you know that is not my nature.
I hope that in your literary ass {meaning: forgotten area, away from the center of action}, you will also mention the good physician Osvald who left his mother country to treat poor little Chinese. In order for you to elaborate on this topic better, I am sending you the following contribution:
So already for three days, I have been partially pummeled with malaria. I caught it someplace in Saigon, such an idiotic French Indochina, but it is better than tuberculosis. Hey, one must always be content. I am curing it by myself, chiefly with whiskey, which is dreadfully cheap here (1 liter 7.-Kc [crowns]). Otherwise, it is possible to catch in this beautiful but strange country everything from measles to leprosy. Hey, so that I won’t forget, if you happen by any chance to talk with my family, do not tell them anything about these lovely things, they would be unnecessarily afraid. It is not so bad.
As you had read “Chuan in China,” approximately 20% of it describes things well; otherwise, everything is yet crazier by far. In a week here, you set aside all European social prejudices, you let yourself ride in a rickshaw, you are cursing Chinese, in Czech of course, you start to booze. In short, you become a white shadow; it is somehow a matter-of-course situation.
Franta, there are 20,000 emigrants here, 98 % of them without money, so the society gave them housing in a quarter almost entirely destroyed by Japanese shooting, from where the Chinese fled. And those Jews, Israelis, etc., built from those ruins their houses, opened businesses, coffee houses, even Jewish prostitutes are there. But of course, who will guarantee them that the bombing of the area would not start tomorrow again? Those who do not believe in that place and have a little money, live in the French Concession, it is first of all safe. Like in a circus created for adventurers, you can make so much money here in a day that you don’t need to do anything else in life ever, and in an hour, you can have all of that go into a toilet. The dollar dropped yesterday, and today by 30 %, that has been talked about here for a week already, so some people became wealthy, and others lost their shirts in the process. Even the weather is so crazy: I get out nicely in the morning in a white suit, with a towel around my neck as is a fashion here to have something for wiping when one is sweating like a pig, I sat on a bus and started moving.
However, a typhoon came in the meantime, and I had to get off the bus only with extreme difficulty, then I was running down the street until I exquisitely fell. For a while, I was rolling in mud, and when I looked around then, I found out that numerous gentlemen are lying there in the same manner and that they have a good time looking at the mess. So I had a good time, too. Once in a while, some gentleman crawled over me with the necessary…” sorry.” Oh, but all of a sudden, there was a loud sound beside me, a roof fell there. I don’t know where because surrounding houses had none already anyway. Under the roof, there were lying some rickshaws and an overturned car. Therefore, I told myself again: safety first, and I slithered with the crowd into a nearest passage-way, where I waited for six hours till it was over. One cannot distinguish now what was destroyed by Japanese and what by the typhoon.
For me, as a physician, there are some possibilities here. I have some acquaintances here, and I feel that I would not get lost here. However, I would not like to stay here as I lack some such feeling of home. When I make some money here, I will rush farther inland immediately. Otherwise, one can manage to live beautifully here, for 77 pounds a week, you are a big gentleman. You can furnish a luxurious apartment for 5 pounds, and for 1 shai. Dollar, you can have a beautiful Miss for a week with everything. And yet, I envy you those strolls along the river Luznice when there is a sweet fragrance of hay near us…
P.S. Write on airmail paper, you naive man, who are you paying the postage?
Valdik {Oswald “Valdik” Holzer}
©2008 From the collection of Joanie Holzer Schirm. Reproduction only with permission from Joanie Schirm: joanie@joanieschirm.com
www.joanieschirm.com
Dad’s story in MY DEAR BOY came to life via revelations from a treasure trove of four hundred letters he preserved after the war. Seventy-eight friends and relatives, along with Dad’s own seventy carbon-copied letters and journals written during his 19 months in China, detail the emotions, circumstances, and revelations encountered by displaced persons along with those trapped behind under Nazi-occupation. Former USHMM archives director, Henry Mayer, called the Holzer Collection “one of the most complete personal collections of WWII correspondence seen in years.”
The timeless letters remind what it’s like to be forced penniless from home, losing native land, family, friends, possessions, livelihood, and identity. I exist because my father made it to China. My paternal grandparents, Arnost and Olga, and forty-two other relatives were not so fortunate. All hope-filled futures were lost as they perished in the Holocaust. Dad’s only tangible connection to his lost world were these old letters. He hid them away in old Chinese boxes, moved to America and served as a family physician in Melbourne, Florida. The letters were discovered after his death and in 2008. Upon translation, they revealed a universal, timeless story relevant to today’s world.
MY DEAR BOY: A World War Story of Escape, Exile, and Revelation by Joanie Holzer Schirm
Available anywhere books are sold. In all formats: Hardcover, eBook, Audiobook
Through my publisher, Potomac Books, use a discount code 6AS19 https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/potomac-books/9781640120723/
MY DEAR BOY: Lesson Plans soon available at www.joanieschirm.com/teachers
Photos from the Holzer Collection. (Photo reproduction restricted without permission from author Joanie Holzer Schirm joanies@joanieschirm.com )
Now showing at the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida:
DISPLACED PERSON: Oswald Valdik Holzer’s story with audio, featuring WWII letters, documents, photographs, vintage film, and clothing currently on exhibit. Upon the 2023 opening of Orlando’s new museum —Holocaust Museum for Hope & Humanity—the DISPLACED PERSON exhibit will become a permanent reminder of the ongoing struggles of displaced humanity throughout our world and what together we can do to diminish this plight.
Joanie Holzer Schirm joanie@joanieschirm.com
www.joanieschirm.com For speaking engagements: joanie@joanieschirm.com
Published by Joanie Schirm
Joanie Schirm won the 2013 Global Ebook Award for Best Biography for her book: Adventurers Against Their Will. Potomac Books will publish the second book, her father’s epic WWII tale, My Dear Boy: A World War II Story of Escape, Exile, and Revelation on March 1, 2019. Joanie is an award-winning writer, photographer, community activist, and retired Orlando, Florida businesswoman. The daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Oswald Holzer, she grew up on a sandy barrier island on the Space Coast of Florida, a place where extraordinary memories are made and pelicans soar. A sought after public speaker, she is internationally known for her highly successful leadership role in Orlando’s hosting of FIFA’s 1994 World Cup USA 1994. She is the proud parent of two adult children, Kelly and Derick, and lives in Orlando with her husband, Roger Neiswender. Her books can be purchased here.
Filed under: China, Czech/Prague, Displaced Person, Education, Freedom, Genealogy, Holocaust, Human Rights, Immigration, Joanie Schirm, Publishing World Maze, Refugee, Stories from the Writing Journey, WWII History; Refugees; Immigrants and Tagged: Book Clubs, Czech translation, Czechoslovakia, Family History, Geneaology, Holocaust, Human Rights, Jewish History, Nonfiction, Publishing, Shanghai, Teachers, WWII
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Support the running of the festival
Learn from hands-on experience at an international performing arts festival
Open Entry Performance
Partner events from the bustling Kyoto arts scene
Corporate and individual sponsorship
chelfitsch
Ground and Floor
A chelfitsch musical theater !? An ambitious work aiming to update the validity of the device we call “theater”.
chelfitsch quickly became a leading figure in Japanese contemporary theater with its extremely colloquial language and peculiarly noisy choreography derived from everyday gestures. Their appearance in Kyoto Experiment 2010 was very well received by the Kyoto audience. However, their most recent work Ground and Floor aims to change our perspective on chelfitsch. This original work marks their first step into the “musical theater”. Collaborating with fellow band “Sangatsu”, the actors and the band play live sessions together to compose the music. The physicality of actors and the music are given equal significance on the stage. It could be said that this is chelfitsch’s take on Noh Theater. Ground and Floor is set in Japan in the near future Japan where nobody really understands Japanese anymore. Living in a society that is losing its language and homeland, the interest of the “living”, who waver between memory and oblivion, and the “dead” who are concerned about them, conflict. The large earthquake that shook Japan in 2011 and its aftermath clearly echo throughout the work. It had its international premiere in Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels) in this May. After touring Europe, the three performances in Kyoto will mark the Japan premiere. From exploring a new style of theater to updating the validity of the device called “theater”, chelfitsch evolves to the next dimension.
9.28(Sat)-9.29(Sun)
Kyoto Prefectural Citizen’s Hall ALTI
Japanese with English and Chinese surtitles
Japan Premiere
Kex Co-production
Founded in 1997 by Toshiki Okada, who writes and directs all of the company’s productions. The name “chelfitsch” comes from a baby’s mispronunciation of the English word “selfish.” After Five Days in March, which won the 49th Kunio Kishida Award for Best Script, chelfitsch began to refine its aesthetics by juxtaposing words with a peculiarly noisy choreography derived from everyday gestures. It has been exploring a way to grasp the relationship between body and language. The company’s international debut was in 2007, when Five Days in March was performed at Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels. chelfitsch’s works have been presented to great acclaim at leading international theatre festivals and venues throughout Europe, North America and Asia. In 2011, Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner and the Farewell Speech won the critics’ award from L’Association québécoise des critiques de théâtre for the 2010-2011 season.
Playwriting & direction
Toshiki Okada
Taichi Yamagata, Makoto Yazawa, Yukiko Sasaki, Mari Ando, Izumi Aoyagi
Sangatsu
Shusaku Futamura
Sebastian Breu
Yuko Ikeda (Luna Luz)
Anatomy lecture
Nao Kusumi
Koro Suzuki
Tomomi Ohira
Norimasa Ushikawa
Shimpei Yamada
Executive production
Associated production
precog
Kyoto Experiment, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Les Spectacles vivants – Centre Pompidou (Paris), HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin), La Bâtie – Festival de Genève, KAAT (Kanagawa Arts Theater), De Internationale Keuze van de Rotterdamse Schouwburg, Dublin Theatre Festival, Théâtre Garonne (Toulouse), Onassis Cultural Center (Athens)
Residency support
Kyoto Experiment, KAAT (Kanagawa Arts Theater)
Steep Slope Studio
Co-presented by
Kyoto Perfectural Citizen’s Hall ALTI
Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and the Farewell Speech
Time’s Journey Through a Room
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Visitors to Kow Plains
On the 9th April 2018 “The Rolls-Royce Owners Club of Australia” visited Kow Plains for lunch. This club has an annual rally some where in Australia . The 2018 gathering was to be held at Clare, South Australia. On the 8th April members from Queensland, Sydney and Melbourne met at Balranald then drove to Kow Plains.
Plaque unveiling
On the 2nd August 2015 the Kow Plains Homestead Committee organized the unveiling of Plaques opposite old Cowangie Post Office to commemorate the WW1 Avenues of Honour planted at Boinka, Tutye, Cowangie and Danyo August 1918.
This was followed by the unveiling of an
interpretative sign at the Homestead which tells of the history of the quary that operated there from 1962 to 1985.
The book“Flora and Fauna of the Victorian
and South Australian Mallee”
was launched during afternoon tea in the stable
Baker’s Oven
The Pinnaroo Bakery baked
Pastries for lunch which were served at the Oven
Scones were baked for afternoon tea and pizza’s to take home.
Dog leg fence
In 2016 a short distance of dog leg fencing was constructed from the stable towards the mill. A dog leg fence was around the perimeter of the property.
Reconstruction of the Stable
A grant was received from Regional Development Victoria and with further funding from the Mildura Rural City Council the reconstruction of the Stable was able to commence in May 2011.
A permit from heritage Victoria was received to reconstruct the stable, which was first constructed in the 1860’s, A scope of work was prepared by Heritage Architect Pip Giovanelli, who visited on the 20th & 21st of April and marked out the site. Logs for the stable were harvested by Grant Saw Mills Narrandera .
The completion of the reconstructed stable and the reinstating of the ceilings in the Homestead was celebrated on the 31st October. The bakers oven in Cowangie was fired up and the Pinnaroo Baker baked pies, pasties ,scone, bread & pizza’s. Susan Nichols acting mayor of the Mildura Rural city Council unveiled the plague. Present on the day were architect Pip Giovanelli and the Great Grandson of William McDonald lease holder of Kow Plains in 1879 and descendants of the Kelly family who owned the property in the 1920’s.
An old wagon has been positioned in the stable and an amount of horses harness, photos of the reconstruction and of the time when the Kelly family were there are on display. More memorabilia will be displayed as it comes to hand. It is planned to put some early farm machinery outside the stable. View opening photos >
Opening of the Stable
Restoration work ceilings wallpaper
December 2010 to June 2011
A State Government grant was received to reinstate hessian & wall paper ceilings in the bedroom and entrance of the Homestead. The wallpaper was reproduced and has been installed.
Old Hymn Book returns to Kow Plains
In March 2007 Andy Cheel from Stanbury SA visited the Kow Plains Homestead and placed on the organ there the Hymn Book his mother Mrs Mead used when she played the organ for Church Services at the Homestead in 1911-12. The book was in a very fragile state so was kept wrapped up; a photo of Andy Cheel placing the hymn book on the organ was added to the memorabilia on the wall.
Poor condition of hymn book before restoration
In December 2007 Shane Strudwick from Discover Murray River called at the homestead and after seeing the photo he requested to see the book and offered to have it restored.
At the triennial meeting of the Homestead held on March 13, 2008, Shane Strudwick placed the beautifully restored hymn book on the organ. The President Jocelyn Lindner on behalf of the Kow Plains Committee of Management thanked Shane and Discover Murray River Tourism for their generous act of restoring the Hymn Book.
The website www.MurrayRiver.com.au which initially showed tourist routes along the full length of the Murray has now been expanded to promote our Mallee Region, a page with many excellent photographs of Kow Plains has been included. Shane intends to add more pages promoting the Mallee to the website.
Shane Strudwick and Jocelyn Lindner with the restored Kow Plains Hymn Book
Murrayville Interpretive Signage
An Interpretative sign has been placed at No 7 Bore where Murrayville was proclaimed a town on the 12th October 1910, This sign was funded from the sale of the Murrayville books.
The book “Murrayville 1910 to 2007” and the Supplement to it, published by the Murrayville Liaison Committee are available for $40 plus postage. Contact us for copies or visit our Books for Sale page.
Interpretative Signs
A Woolworth’s Community Recovery Grant was received from CWA Victoria, to replace the 3 interpretative signs along the drive way and to add a new one. These signs and an additional one were in place by the 26th July 2009.
Kow Plains and Cowangie
In July 1859 James (Piccaninny) Smith of Yanac signed the first lease of the Kow Plains Run. This event was celebrated on the 26th July 2009, with an open day. New interpretative signs were in place and smoke was coming from the Homestead & Cookhouse chimneys as visitors arrived.
Official proceedings took place when the crowd made their way to the original stable site, and looked to the west to see three horsemen arriving. The horse riders represented James ‘Piccaninny’ Smith & his brother-in-laws William & David Little who in 1853 brought cattle from Yanac to Kow Plains & wintered cattle there for the next 5 years. Ray Wandel representing Piccaninny dismounted and presented two letters to Jocelyn Lindner, President of Kow Plains who handed them to Ian Castles, great-great-grandson of Piccaninny & Richard Castle great-great-great-grandson of Piccaninny Smith. The letters were from David Johnson on behalf of Piccaninny Smith’s hundreds of descendants in New Zealand where he & some of his eleven children settled after leaving Kow Plains and John Jennings great-great grandson of William Little. The letters praised the strength of character & spirit of adventure of these three young men.
A plaque was unveiled by Richard Castles to mark the site of the original stable. A plaque was also erected to mark the site of the original hut.
The lease of Kow Plains was taken up by Dugald Macpherson in 1867 and a number of his descendants were present on the day. Bruce Macpherson great great nephew of Dugald planted a Murray Pine near the stable site, symbolic of those that had grown there.
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INSANITY ALERT stream entire new album ‘666-pack’ via Invisible Oranges
by NorthWar 01/24/2019 16:52 01/24/2019 16:52 0106
Thrash metal outfit INSANITY ALERT are premiering their entire new album ‘666-pack’ via Invisible Oranges. The Austrian band will release their third full length tomorrow, Friday, January 25 via Season of Mist.
Listen to the full album here: http://www.invisibleoranges.com/insanity-alert-666-pack-premiere/
INSANITY ALERT comment: “We are extremely proud to unleash our 3rd full-length record upon the masses of crazy thrashers. It’s an ugly, brutal crossover partymachine, but it’s our beer-guzzlin’, weedsmokin brainchild that deserves all the love in the world”.
The cover artwork and the tracklisting of ‘666-pack’ can be found below. The cover has been created by Mark Riddick.
1. Thirstkiller (01:13)
2. The Body Of The Christ Is The Parasite (01:44)
3. All Mosh / No Brain (01:33)
4. Cobra Commander (02:39)
5. Saturday Grind Fever (01:01)
6. Echoes Of Death (02:04)
7. Windmilli Vanilli (01:00)
8. Stop….Slammertime! (00:08)
9. Why So Beerious? (01:49)
10. Mosh Mosh Mosh (00:47)
11. One-Eye Is King (In The Land Of The Blind) (02:37)
12. Welcome To Hell (01:47)
13. Two Joints (01:14)
14. Chronic State Of Hate (02:13)
15. I Come / I Fuck Shit Up / I Leave (01:26)
16. A Skullcrushin’ Good Time (02:17)
17. The Ballad Of Slayer (00:06)
18. Demons Get Out! (02:18)
19. 8 Bit Brutality (00:07)
20. Death By Wrecking Ball (01:11)
21. Dark Energon (03:10)
INSANITY ALERT confirmed live shows 2019
31 Jan 19 Stuttgart (DE) Juha West
02 Feb 19 Innsbruck (AT) Treibhaus
22 Feb 19 Nürnberg (DE) Kunstverein
23 Feb 19 Lindau (DE) Club Vaudeville
14 Mar 19 Rennes (FR) Mondo Bizarro
15 Mar 19 Liévin (FR) Liévin Metal Fest
16 Mar 19 Dommarien (FR) La Niche
12 Apr 19 Oberursel (DE) Taunus Metal Fest
02 May 19 Lyon (FR) Rock ‘n Eat
03 May 19 Montaigu (FR) Les Rhinos Féroces Festival
04 May 19 Toulouse (FR) Usine à Musique
05 May 19 Montpellier (FR) Secret Place
11 May 19 Vienna (AT) Vienna Metal Meeting
20 Jun 19 Uttenhofen (DE) Aargh Festival (Exact date tba)
21 Jun 19 Clisson (FR) Hellfest (Exact date TBA)
03 Jul 19 Trutnov (CZ) Obscene Extreme (Exact date tba)
19 Jul 19 Ahlimbsmühle (DE) Headache Inside Festival (Exact date tba)
Thrash outfit INSANITY ALERT are the kind of people who know what to bring to a party: a big dose of humour with a dash of darkness, party tunes, and a six pack. It’s these ingredients that make up the basis of the band’s third full length record, ‘666-pack’.
The world of INSANITY ALERT is a dark yet happy place. Fast, aggressive music, crazy lyrics about alcohol, rage, weed, ignorance and hate, all drenched in an 80’s hot sauce but played with a 2019 attitude. The band emerged from the Austrian city of Innsbruck in 2011, with only one intent: deliver crushing, crossover party thrash.
A tongue-in-cheek concept backed up by strong musical prowess worked out extremely well as ‘First Diagnosis’ proved in 2012. This demo was welcomed with open arms and the first impression of the public quickly confirmed by ‘Second Opinion’, which came out the year after. In 2014, debut album, ‘Insanity Alert’ delighted critics and fans alike and was reissued four years later by Season of Mist. The wild Tyrolians, always eager to please, next served a juicy ‘Moshburger’ (2016).
With ‘666-pack’ the band proves once more to be an unstoppable force. Whether it is dropping a to-the-point, crossover track such as “The Body Of The Christ is The Parasite” or INSANITY ALERT-esque interpretations of classics like “Saturday Grind Fever”, the groove will have you headbanging in no time with a smirk on your face. Having confirmed their first festivals for 2019 and riding the wave of the thrash metal revival, INSANITY ALERT can’t wait to return to the stage and share (a) 666-pack with you!
Style: Crossover Party Thrash
www.facebook.com/insanityalert
INSANITY ALERTShare0
INSANITY ALERT – release lyric video for “The Body of The Christ is the Parasite”
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Science Cafe: Microplastics: from sink to source
do 13 december 2018 - 19:45
More and more microplastics are ending up in nature. It is estimated that 51 trillion microplastic particles - 500 times more than stars in our galaxy - litter the seas. But are these dangerous? What effect do they have on marine flora and fauna, and on human health? And is there a solution to this?
These questions (and more) will be addressed in this Science cafe. Our two speakers, Prof. Bart Koelemans and Dr. Stefan Kools, will discuss where microplastics come from, how we measure their impact and the risks they pose.
-Prof. Bart Koelmans is Professor Water and Sediment Quality at Wageningen University and Research. He is specialized in Microplastics in the marine and freshwater environment and will talk about the sources and impacts of microplastics.
-Dr. Stefan Kools is a manager and scientific researcher at KWR Watercycle Research Institute. He works on general water quality issues and more specifically on microplastic measurement techniques and toxicity assays.
DATE: Thursday 13 December, 2018
TIJME: 19:45 Music by Sun Inside
20:15 Science Café
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"Loading..."
San Francisco downtown bw
jonathan nguyen
View of the San Francisco downtown from Pier 14, California, United States, at sunrise.
Image size: 5589 x 3702, 9.56Mb | Camera details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II | Date uploaded: 07/02/2019
- Select an option - Canvas 10 x 10 - £77.25 10 x 20 - £96.93 10 x 30 - £107.46 10 x 8 - £70.71 12 x 12 - £87.75 12 x 16 - £96.93 12 x 24 - £107.46 12 x 36 - £119.25 12 x 8 - £72.00 16 x 16 - £104.82 16 x 20 - £108.75 16 x 24 - £127.14 20 x 20 - £128.46 20 x 30 - £135.00 20 x 40 - £153.39 24 x 24 - £135.00 24 x 36 - £161.25 26 x 20 - £132.39 26 x 26 - £146.82 30 x 30 - £166.50 30 x 40 - £182.25 36 x 36 - £189.75 8 x 8 - £69.39
Prints from: (Satin photo paper is standard) 10 x 10 - £47.55 10 x 20 - £60.75 10 x 30 - £67.65 10 x 8 - £43.20 12 x 12 - £54.60 12 x 16 - £60.75 12 x 24 - £67.65 12 x 36 - £81.75 12 x 8 - £44.10 16 x 16 - £66.00 16 X 20 - £68.55 16 x 24 - £79.05 20 x 20 - £81.75 20 x 30 - £86.10 20 x 40 - £98.25 24 x 24 - £86.10 24 x 36 - £103.50 26 x 20 - £84.30 26 x 26 - £93.90 30 x 30 - £107.10 30 x 40 - £117.60 36 x 36 - £124.50 8 x 8 - £42.30
Coaster - Round - £6.45
Coaster - Square - £6.45
Mouse mat - £7.43
Mug - Ceramic - £10.43
Mug - Mighty - £10.95
Mug - Porcelain - £12.30
Mug (ceramic) and matching round coaster - £15.08
Mug (ceramic) and matching square coaster - £15.08
Mug (mighty) and matching round coaster - £15.68
Mug (mighty) and matching square coaster - £15.68
Mug (porcelain) and matching round coaster - £16.88
Mug (porcelain) and matching square coaster - £16.88
Designed to cover a large amount of wall space, canvas prints are ideal for big rooms. We only use 100% cotton canvas with a thickness of 340GSM. We do not use cheap synthetic fiber alternatives.
Prints from: (Satin photo paper is standard)
We print with a 12 colour process, this means we can print a much larger colour range than most printing companies that normally use a 4 or 8 colour process.
Coaster - Round
High quality, cork backed, gloss finish on the front - appx 9.5cm diameter.
Coaster - Square
Square (with rounded edges) High quality, cork backed, gloss finish on the front. Size - appx 9.5cm.
Mouse mat
6mm foam backed - printable are appx 24cm X 19cm. We need appx 3mm bleed for these.
Mug - Ceramic
A white, 10oz ceramic mug with a maximum printable area of 9cm high by 18cm wide
Mug - Mighty
A 'proper mug' - 15 oz of pure indulgence, maximum print area 9cm high by 18cm wide.
Mug - Porcelain
A white 8 oz mug, altogether more 'dainty', maximum print area of 9cm high by 17cm wide
Mug (ceramic) and matching round coaster
A combination of a ceramic mug and matching round coaster
Mug (ceramic) and matching square coaster
A combination of a ceramic mug and matching square coaster
Mug (mighty) and matching round coaster
A combination of a mighty mug and matching round coaster
Mug (mighty) and matching square coaster
A combination of a mighty mug and matching square coaster
Mug (porcelain) and matching round coaster
A combination of a porcelain mug and matching round coaster
Mug (porcelain) and matching square coaster
A combination of a porcelain mug and matching square coaster
Recent Works by jonathan nguyen
Wooden doors with Virginia creeper plant (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) cover the exterior wall, Inglenook winery, Yountville, California, USA
Sea Palms
Sea palms (P. palmaeformis) grow among the California mussels (M. californianus), with crashing waves in background, Santa Cruz, California, USA
sparrow-split tones
White-crowned sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys, Point Reyes National Seashore, California, United States.
under pergola colors
Pergola cover with grapevines at Inglenook Winery, Yountville, California, United States.
under pergola bw
sunlight reflect on water ripples.
Blooming oxeye daisies at Point Reyes National Seashore, California, United States, in mid spring.
baby swan
Close up at a baby mute swan, cygnet.
golden gate evening
Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California, United States, at sunset.
Walking Gull
Young western gull (Larus occidentalis), San Francisco, California, Unites States.
dogwoods bw 2
Blooming Pacific dogwoods against the water current from Merced River in background, Yosemite National Park, California, United States.
dogwoods
Blooming Pacific dogwoods, Yosemite National Park, California, United States.
dogwoods bw
Blooming Pacific dogwoods, presenting in black and white, Yosemite National Park, California, United States.
dogwoods by river
point reyes beach
Chilean Sea Fig (Carpobrotus chilensis) along the coastal at Point Reyes National Seashore, California, United States, on a spring evening.
point reyes beach - vertical
poppies field
Field of blooming California poppies at Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, California, United States, in a windy spring morning.
Scattered Daisies
Close up at scattering California goldfield wildflower among the grass under light breeze, Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, CA, USA
wildflowers field
Scattering California goldfield wildflower among the grass under light breeze, Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, California, USA
dogwood blossoms
falls and fog bw
The iconic Bridal Veil Falls at Tunnel View of the Yosemite Valley with at early dawn in late fall, Yosemite National Park, California, United States.
falls and fog dawn
falls and fog - vertical
oak trees with snow bw
California black oak trees (Quercus kelloggii) cover with snow after a winter storm, Yosemite National Park, California, United States.
falls reflection
Reflections of the Bridal Veil Falls on the Merced River water surface in lake autumn, Yosemite National Park, California, USA.
Tahoe Blue
Silhouette of the Jeffrey pine trees against the colorful sunrise at Lake Tahoe in early winter, Lake Tahoe, California, USA
tahoe dawn
winterscene bw
The landscape at Yosemite Valley cover with snow after a winter storm, Yosemite National Park, California, United States.
bird of paradise 2
Close up at a bird of paradise flower
bird of paradise-vertical
garrapata coast II
Evening at California coast at Garrapata State Park in early spring, United States.
trees with snow
Pine trees cover with snow after a winter storm, Yosemite National Park, California, United States.
aspen leaves selective 2
Selective color process of mountain aspen leaf in its fall foliage, Inyo National Forest, California,United States
aspen leaves selective
golden gate dawn
View of the Golden Gate Bridge from Marshall Beach at early dawn at king tide, San Francisco, California, USA
winterscene
Trees cover with snow after a winter storm in Yosemite National Park, California, United States.
bridal veil falls reflections
Bridal Veil Falls and its reflections on the Merced River water surface, Yosemite National Park, California, United States.
fall abstract
Camera panning at the California black oak trees with evening sunlight in Yosemite National Park, California, USA, in early fall.
winter abstract
Camera panning at the California black oak trees in winter, Yosemite National Park, California, United States.
fog over pierce ranch monochrome
View of the historic Pierce Point Ranch covers in fog at sunrise in Point Reyes National Seashore, California, United States.
dogwood fall
Pacific dogwoods in their fall foliage amid the Jeffery pine trees in Yosemite National Park, California, United States.
View of Lake Tahoe's Emerald Bay in evening, California, United States, at early winter.
fog over pierce point ranch
lee vining creek falls
Fall foliage vegetation in Inyo National Forest with the Lee Vining Creek waterfalls in background, Lee Vining, California, United States.
dawn at bryce
Bryce Canyon at early dawn during winter season, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, United States.
A small cascade at the Tamarack Creek in autumn in Yosemite National Park, California.
el capitan view
View of the El Capitan Peak through a pine tree in winter, Yosemite National Park, California, United States
frozen pond
A frozen pond in mid winter during a drought season in 2013 in Yosemite National Park, California, United States.
pines with dogwood
el capitan sepia
El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, California, United States, in sepia.
cypress tree
Cypress tree at Crissy Field Beach, San Francisco, California, United States.
merced river with el capitan
Merced River, with El Capitan mountain peak in background, California, United States, in sepia.
Merced River in Yosemite National Park in autumn, California, United States.
Field of almond trees bloom at early spring in Manteca, California, United States.
Selective colors processed images of fallen aspen leaves in autumnal colors, Inyo National Forest, California, United States.
garapatta coast
Morning over Northern California coastal at Garrapata State Park, United States.
The Natural Sculpture
The reflection of sunlight and the 'flowing' shape rock in Antelope Canyon, Arizona created a multi layers of colors, which are presented abstractly in this image
The Natural Sculpture II
The Natural Sculpture III
Grand Canyon Evening
Light reflected on the canyon as the sun was setting over the Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
a close up image of the rocky landscape with the reflection of the sunlight along the California coastal at Redwood National Park.
The Golden Gate Bridge and the approaching fog on a summer evening, San Francisco, California
Sunset over the California coast at Garapatta State Park, Carmel, United States.
pt lobos
Rock formations along the California coastal at Point Lobos State Natural Reserved, Carmel, United States.
Pt. Lobos II
a cypress tree with the red moss, and the landscape at Point Lobos State Reserved at sunset, Carmel, California
Rugged Coast
Waves crashed into the rugged sea rocks along the California coastline at Big Sur on an early spring evening.
city awake
San Francisco Financial District and the early morning traffic.
A fallen dead pine tree trunk by the Merced River, with El Capitan peak in background, Yosemite National Park, California, United States.
Merced River, with El Capitan Peak, in late autumn, Yosemite National Park, California, United States
grapes bw
cluster of ripe grapes ready to be picked in Napa Valley, California.
the infamous Face Rock at Bandon Beach, Oregon, set against the setting sunlight in a late summer evening.
The coastal landscape along the Garapatta State Park, California, on a windy evening.
rocky world
face rock
Close up at the infamous Face Rock at Bandon Beach, Oregon, set against the setting sunlight in a late summer evening.
Jeffrey pines (Pinus jeffreyi), with bridge over the Merced River and the snow covered landscape at Yosemite National Park in winter, California, USA
chapel bw
Architectural structure of the Chapel of St. Vincent De Paul, San Francisco, California, United States, in black and white.
plum blossoms bw
Close up at the flowers of the Italian plum tree (Prunus domestica) in black and white.
golden gate marshall beach
pier 14 sepia
Beautiful wall sconces at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco,California, United States.
Remnants of The Fall
remaining fall color maple leaves in mid winter season in Seattle, Washington, United States, with the city high rises in background.
tunnel view with fog
The iconic tunnel view of the Yosemite Valley with Bridal Veil Falls at early dawn in late fall, Yosemite National Park, California, United States.
ground squirrel on rock sepia
Full body portrait of a California ground squirrel (Otospermophilus beecheyi)
mother and young
An adult California ground squirrel (Otospermophilus beecheyi) and its young at their burrow, Monterey Peninsula, California, USA
snow egret portrait
Portrait of a snowy egret (Egretta thula) perch on the rock at early morning at Santa Cruz coast, California, United States.
tunnel view with fog - sepia
The iconic tunnel view of the Yosemite Valley with Bridal Veil Falls in late fall, Yosemite National Park, California, United States, presenting in sepia.
Bird view of the Seattle downtown during a winter rainstorm evening, Washington, United States.
tahoe winter
Lake Tahoe shoreline after a winter snow storm at sunset, Lake Tahoe State Park, Nevada, United States.
tahoe winter 2
Lake Tahoe after a winter snow storm at sunset, Lake Tahoe State Park, Nevada, United States.
zion park
Hiking trail bridge cross the Virgin River at Zion National Park, in black and white,Utah, United States.
mcway falls bw
Black and white image of McWay Falls at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, Big Sur, California, USA
California coast at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park on an early spring morning, Big Sur, United States.
mcway falls
McWay Falls at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, Big Sur, California, USA
Tufa columns, seen through other tufa columns, at Mono Lake, California, United States.
tufas
The Fallens sepia
Fallen dead trees at Zion Canyon in winter, Zion National Park, Utah, United States.
Moon set at king tide as sunrise over Marshall Beach in San Francisco, California, United States.
The Fallens
zion valley sunrise
View of Zion Canyon, with Virgin River, during winter season at sunrise, Zion National Park, Utah, United States.
big sur shore
big sur cliff
Monterey cypress along the California coast at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park on an early spring morning, Big Sur, United States.
Portrait of a juvenile western gull (Larus occidentalis) preening its feathers, Pier 39, San Francisco, California, United States.
point lobos sunset
California coast at Point Lobos State Natural Reserve on a winter evening, Carmel, United States.
Russian Hill at pier 39
View of the San Francisco City at Russian Hill from Pier 39,California, United States, at sunrise.
Green Trolley Car bw
Camera panning of an electric moving trolley car at Market Street in San Francisco, United States, with black and white background.
rush creek fall
Mountain aspens in their peak fall foliage, with Rush Creek in foreground, June Lake Loop, Ca, USA
golden gate in fog bw
The iconic Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, United States, on a foggy morning.
california coast bw
California coastal landscape at Garrapata State Park, as the fog clearing up at sunrise, United States. in black and white.
bryce and dead tree
Dead Pinyon pine (Pinus edulis) and the Bryce Canyon in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, United States.
The landscape at Fairyland Canyon in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, United States, in morning
bryce sunrise
Bryce Amphitheater view from Bryce Point at sunrise, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, United States.
golden hoodoos
Close up at the hoodoos glowing up by morning sunlight at Fairyland Canyon in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, United States.
Landscape and rock formations in the Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada, United States, at sunset.
yosemite autumn scene
Merced River and the fall vegetation around the river bank, Yosemite National Park, California.
San Francisco Pier
Lamp post and the benches at Pier 7 at sunrise, with the Bay Bridge in the background, San Francisco, California.
bryce canyon with moon
Crested moon rise over the Bryce Canyon on an early winter evening, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, United States.
ground squirrel
Young California ground squirrel (Otospermophilus beecheyi), Monterey Peninsula, California, United States.
hoodoos
Close up at the hoodoos amphitheater at Bryce Point in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, United States
Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) and the landscape in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Nevada, United States.
valley of fire 2
Unique landscape at the Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada, United States.
bryce canyon and pine
Pinyon pine (Pinus edulis) and the Bryce Canyon in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, United States.
bryce at dawn
Bryce Canyon at Bryce Point at early dawn, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, United States.
dunes at twilight
Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes with the Cottonwood Mountains at twilight, Death Valley National Park, California, United States.
death valley sand dunes
Morning sunlight reflected on the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in Death Valley National Park, California, United States.
Spring Snow at Lake Tahoe
Fresh new snow blanketed the landscape at Lake Tahoe, Nevada, United States, after an overnight storm in early spring.
rock pattern I
Close up at the rock formation patterns and color in Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, California, United States.
rock pattern II
sailboat and fog
Lone sailboat was sailing amid the low fog in San Francisco Bay on an early spring morning, California, United States.
Colony of Starburst anemone (Anthopleura sola) at tide pool in Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, California, United States.
gate and fog
Thick low fog formed under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, United States, on an early spring morning.
Gate and Fog bw
plum flowers
Flowers of the Italian plum tree (Prunus domestica) bloom in early spring in San Jose, California.
Reflections of the nearby landscape with evening sunlight on the wet rocks at Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, Carmel, California, United States.
The sliding rock at Racetrack Playa in Death Valley National Park, California, United States.
tule elk cows
Three tule elk cows (Cervus canadensis nannodes) were feeding along the shore in Point Reyes National Seashore, California, United States.
A black-crowned night heron perched on a tree branch ready to strike for its next meal.
death valley rocks
close up at the unique colorful rock formations in Death Valley National Park at Zabriskie Point, California, United States.
California quail (Callipepla californica), Point Reyes National Seashore, California, United States.
tule elk herd
A herd of tule elk cows in Point Reyes National Seashore, California, United States.
Unique landscape and rock formation in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada, United States.
Catch Ya
A great blue heron was catching its lunch, Point Reyes National Seashore, California, United States.
bryce and tree
Bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) and the Bryce Canyon on a winter evening, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, United States.
Head shot portrait of a great blue heron (Ardea herodias), Point Reyes National Seashore, California, United States.
Four western sandpipers were feeding along the shoreline in Point Reyes National Seashore, California, United States.
spotted cucumber beetle
Spotted cucumber beetle (Diabrotica undecimpunctata)
Zabriskie First Light
Death Valley landscape at Zabriskie Point at sunrise, Death Valley National Park, California, United States.
dandelion abstract
Close up at the common dandelion fruits (Taraxacum officinale), Yosemite National Park, California, United States.
Zabriskie Point Morning
Death Valley Sunrise
Death Valley at Zabriskie Point
Morning at the Zabriskie Point in Death Valley National Park, California, United States.
camel coast
California coast at Garrapata State Park at sunset, Highway 1, Carmel-by-the-sea, United States.
camel coast II
tule elks cow
Female tule elk (Cervus canadensis nannodes), Point Reyes National Seashore, California, United States.
Let Stay Together
herd of female tule elks (Cervus canadensis nannodes), Point Reyes National Seashore, California, United States.
Golden Gate By Marshall Beach
Marshall Beach, with the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California, United States, in sepia.
bared tree bw
Bared tree and the architectural high rises in downtown Seattle, Washington, United States, in winter.
bared tree bw 2
water absract
Close up at the flowing water at the Virgin River in Zion National Park, Utah, United States.
arch sunrise
Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, Utah, United States, at sunrise.
dunes morning
Morning at the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in Death Valley National Park, California, United States.
Oregon coast sunrise
Sunrise over Gold Beach, Oregon, United States.
California coastal at Big Sur on an early spring evening.
big sur vertical
zabriskie bw
Sunrise at the Zabriskie Point in Death Valley National Park, California, United States.
bryce landscape
Landscape at Farview Point in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, United States, at twilight.
bryce at sunrise
View of the Bryce Canyon at Bryce Point at early sunrise, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, United States.
bryce landscape 2
Unique landscape at Bryce Canyon in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, United States.
bryce landscape vertical
sand dunes twilight
space needle sepia
Seattle's icon, the Space Needle in Washington, United States.
Black oak trees (Quercus kelloggii) in their fall foliage & the reflections on the Merced River, Yosemite National Park, California, United States.
rose close up
Close up of a pink rose
San Francisco High Rise BW
Presented in black and white, the San Francisco high rises at Financial District in morning, California, United States.
San Francisco High Rises bw 2
seattle port sepia
Port of Seattle and waterfront structures during winter rainstorm, Washington, United States.
Hidden-vertical
Close up at a dwarf southern magnolia flower (Magnolia grandiflora 'Little Gem'), San Francisco, California, United States.
Crashing Waves
Rocky shoreline along the Monterey Peninsula, California, United States, at sunrise.
San Francisco City Hall
San Francisco City Hall at nighttime, California, United States, presenting in black and white.
death valley at first light
The landscape and colors in Death Valley National Park, California, United States, at early morning.
glowing hoodoos
Close up at the hoodoos glowing up by the morning sunlight, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, United States.
Hoodoos Amphitheater
Sunrise over the Bryce Canyon, at Bryce Point, in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, United States.
bryce canyon at sunset point 2
The landscape of Bryce Canyon, at the Sunset Point, in the winter evening, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, United States.
Sunrise over the unique rock formations near the Zabriskie Point in Death Valley National Park, California, United States.
Creosote bushes (Larrea tridentata) and the landscape at Red Rock Canyon, Nevada, United States.
tree skeletons
Dead trees along the rim of Bryce Canyon in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, United States.
bryce canyon at sunset 3
On Edge
The root of a dead tree at the edge of the canyon cliff, with the Bryce Canyon in the background, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, United States.
light post
Lamp post at Pier 7 at sunrise, with the Bay Bridge in the background, San Francisco, California.
bonsai in monochrome
Pinyon pine tree grown between the hoodoos sandstone in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, United States.
Saucer magnolia flowers (Magnolia × soulangeana) bloom in early spring.
A dead tree trunk strands on the shore of Silver Lake, with the fall foliage in the backdrop, June Lake Loop, June Lake, California.
The reflections of the aspen trees in their fall foliage on the water surface to create an abstract pattern, Silver Lake, June Lake Loop, California.
dogwood fruit
Close up of a branch of a Pacific dogwood tree (Cornus nuttallii) and its fruit in the fall, Yosemite National Park, California.
aspen trees in autumn
Aspen trees (Populus tremuloides) at their peak fall foliage colors, June Lake Loop, June Lake, California.
Lake Tenaya Blue
Lake Tenaya in Yosemite National Park, California, USA, on an early autumn morning
San Francisco City Hall bw 2
lake Tenaya Sepia
june lake valley
Aspen trees in early fall foliage, with the Carson Peak in background, June Lake Loop, June Lake, California, United States.
rabbitbrush bloom
A single rubber rabbitbrush bush (Ericameria nauseosa) bloom in early fall along the Grant Lake shore at June Lake, California, United States
Lake Tenaya Sunrise 2
Lake Tenaya Sunrise
Stanford Campus Autumn Rain
Stanford University during a late autumn rainstorm, Palo Alto, California, United States.
japanese maple leaves
Fallen Japanese maple leaves against the red concrete floor. during a late autumn rainstorm.
San Francisco Downtown
street of portland
A street in downtown of Portland, Oregon, on a raining morning during winter season.
Close up of the quaking aspen trees, with the fall foliage in the background, June Lake Loop, June Lake, California.
fairyland canyon
The landscape of American Southwest at Fairyland Canyon in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, United States.
fairyland canyon dawn
Sunrise over the Fairyland Canyon in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, United States.
Quaking Aspens
Quaking aspens (Populus tremuloides) in fall foliage, June Lake Loop, June Lake, California.
autumn scene
the landscape and vegetation at Silver Lake on an autumn morning, June Lake Loop, June Lake, California.
Autumnal Vines
Grapevines display their red color leaves in autumn, Yountville, Napa Valley, California, United States.
Wintertime
The iconic elm tree at Cook's Meadow in Yosemite National Park, California, USA, covered with snow after an overnight winter storm.
The iconic landmarks, the Half Dome Peak and the elm tree in Cook Meadow, Yosemite National Park, California, USA, in wintertime.
tahoe bonsai rock
The Bonsai Rock at Lake Tahoe, Nevada, United States, on an autumn evening.
city hall holiday light evening
San Francisco City Hall light up to celebrate Christmas and the Holidays Season, California, United States.
city hall holiday light night
Japanese maple tree in fall foliage.
Thor Hammer Bryce Canyon
Thor Hammer Hoodoo and the landscape at Bryce Canyon in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, United States.
santa cruz coast bw
Unique rock formations along the California coast at Santa Cruz, United States.
santa cruz coast
Unique rock formations along the California coast at Santa Cruz, United States, on a late overcast summer morning.
golgen gate bridge tower
Low camera angle shot at the tower structure of the Golden Gate Bridge in the fog, San Francisco, California, USA
golgen gate sepia
Unique rock formations along the California Coast at Santa Cruz, United States, and the approaching fog off shore.
Seastacks
Rocks formation along the coastal at Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, California, United States.
Frozen Lake
A frozen lake in early winter, Yosemite National Park, California, United States.
San Francisco downtown high rises at sunrise, California, United States
sliding rock - vertical
boardwalk lake mono
Boardwalk path to Mono Lake, with green rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus) in early fall, California, United States, at dawn.
Mesquite Sand Dunes at Death Valley National Park, California, USA, at sunset
el capitan with fog
The iconic El Capitan Peak, with lower fog, at sunrise over the Yosemite Valley, California, United States
ground squirrel in Black and White
A black and white image of a ground squirrel, California coast, United States.
merced river
Merced River, with reflections of the El Capitan and clouds, in Yosemite National Park, California, USA, in autumn.
San Francisco Downtown at Dawn
Waterfront park at Embarcadero, with the San Francisco downtown and Ferry Building in background, at early dawn, California, United States.
light through
Evening light shine through a small opening of an arch rock at Pfeiffer Beach, Big Sur, California, USA.
light through 2
San Francisco Suburb 2
View of the San Francisco City from Pacific Height District, California, United States.
San Francisco Suburb
stanford fall
The architectural structure at Stanford University, and a Japanese maple in autumn, Palo Alto, California, United States.
A Rainy Day at Stanford
Stanford University campus, Palo Alto, California, United States, on a rainy autumn day.
The Bay Bridge
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge at early dawn, San Francisco, California, United States.
Stanford in Autumn
stanford in autumn 2
Snowy Elm
Elm tree cover with snow after the winter storm at Cook Meadow, Yosemite National Park, California, United States.
abandon house
An abandon house among the sagebrush plants, with morning sunlight reflect on the Sierra Mountains in background, Lee Vining, California, United States.
little abandon house
an abandon house among the sagebrush plants in Lee Vining, Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, United States.
bryce canyon at bryce point
Hoodoos amphitheater at Bryce Canyon at evening.
Snowy Canyon
Winter at Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA
Death Valley creosote bush
A creosote bush, with the Death Valley in background, Death Valley National Park, California, USA
The infamous rock formations hoodoo called Thor Hammer at Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, USA
tule elk on grassland
A tule elk bull in Point Reyes National Seashore, California, USA
Morning Sun Light
California coastal at Santa Cruz on a summer morning, USA
Grand Canyon blue
Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA, in a winter evening
Grand Canyon in sepia
Rugged Shore
Unique rock formations along the California coast at Santa Cruz at sunrise.
yosemite valley fall
California black oaks in fall foliage at Cook Meadow in Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, California, USA
Through the Branches
California black oaks with fall foliage at Cook Meadow in Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, California, USA
tunnel view bw
the infamous tunnel view of the Yosemite Valley with fog, Yosemite National Park, California, USA
grand canyon sepia 2
Fog is clearing up after a morning snow storm in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA
Black and white presentation of the unique rock formation along the California coast at Santa Cruz, USA
Juvenile Western Gull
A juvenile western gull in between plumage
Santa Cruz Morning Fog
Thick fog covers over the Santa Cruz coast on a summer morning, California, USA
Red Land
Close up at the unique color rock formations at Bryce Canyon, Utah, USA
buttercups
Close up at the flowers of the Bermuda buttercup plant (Oxalis pes-caprae)
Sun light are breaking through the thick fog at Tahoe National Forest on a winter morning.
zion road
The main road through Zion Valley at Zion National Park, Utah, USA
Colorful chairs on display at Salesforce rooftop park in San Francisco, California, United States
golden gate fog
Low camera angle shot at the tower structure of the Golden Gate Bridge in the fog, San Francisco,California,USA
golden gate fog 2
green rabbitbrush
Green rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus vicidiflorus) at Mono Lake, California, USA, in autumn.
mono lake tufas
Mono Lake tufa, Lee Vining, California, United States, at sunrise
water fall abstract
close up at the water surface with reflections from blue sky and nearby fall foliage.
Sunrise over Bryce Canyon at Sunset Point, Utah, USA
California black oak (Quercus kelloggii) at Cook Meadow Yosemite National Park, USA, in early fall.
vanishing ellery 2
Evening sunlight reflect on the Sierra Mountains Peaks, and the vanishing Lake Ellery after a dry summer, Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains, California.
yosemite winter 1
California black oak trees and the surrounding landscape after a winter snow storm, Yosemite National Park, California, USA
Eye of a Gull
A head portrait of a Western gull (Larus occidentalis)
Sunset over the Grand Canyon in winter, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA
Hoodoos-Bryce Canyon
Close up at the hoodoos at Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, USA, at sunrise
Yosemite In Winter
Yosemite Valley landscape after a winter snow storm, Yosemite National Park, California, USA
Bryce Canyon Overlook 2
Bryce Canyon overlook at Ponderosa Point in evening, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, USA
Bryce Canyon Overlook
San Francisco City
View of San Francisco City in evening, with the Golden Gate Bridge in foreground, USA
California black oak trees cover with snow after a winter storm, Yosemite National Park, CA,USA
Yosemite in Winter 2
Cook Meadow, Yosemite National Park, California, after a winter snow storm, with the Half Dome Peak in background.
Golden Gate at Dusk
Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, USA, at dusk.
close up at a pink waterlily
Half Dome at Cook Meadow
View of Half Dome Peak at Cook Meadow in winter, Yosemite National Park, California, USA
Evening along the California Coastal at Monterey Peninsula, USA
monterey coast 2
California Coastal at Monterey Peninsula at sunset, USA
Monterey Peninsula shoreline at sunset, California, USA
Yosemite wintertime
Yosemite landscape at Cook Meadow after a winter storm, California, USA
Grand Canyon in winter, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA
Snow Storm At Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon under an early morning snow storm, Arizona, USA
Golden Gate at Dawn
The iconic Golden Gate Bridge at early dawn, San Francisco, CA, USA
Sunrise at Golden Gate
The iconic Golden Gate Bridge at sunrise, San Francisco, California, USA
Half Dome Peak
The iconic Half Dome Peak in Yosemite National Park, California, USA, in winter.
Half Dome Reflection
The reflection of the Half Dome Peak on a small water pond form from melting snow in Yosemite National Park, California, USA.
dogwood fruit 2
Pacific dogwood and fruit in autumn, Yosemite National Park, CA, USA
aspen forest and deer
Aspen trees in autumnal foliage, with a family of mule deer in foreground, Inyo National Forest, California, USA
The fruit of the Pacific dogwood tree (Cornus nuttallii) in late autumn, Yosemite National Park, California, USA
mist over merced river
Low mist on the water surface at Merced River, and the autumnal foliage along the riverbank, Yosemite National Park, California, USA
SF golden gate
The iconic Golden Gate Bridge, with the San Francisco City in background, California, United States
SF golden gate at nighttime
The iconic Golden Gate Bridge, with the San Francisco City in background, California, United States, at nighttime
Rays of sunlight over the light-fog covered Cook Meadow in Yosemite National Park,California, USA, in early fall.
Light fog at Cook Meadow in early fall, Yosemite National Park, California, USA
After the Snow Storm
Trees cover with snow after a winter storm in Yosemite National Park, California, USA
yosemite in autumn
Merced River and the vegetation along the riverbank in their fall foliage, Yosemite National Park, California, USA
Cling On
columns with grapevines, Napa Valley, California, USA
White Winter
Snow covered the main road to Yosemite Valley, and surrounding trees after the late winter storm, Yosemite National Park, California, USA
vines in autumn
Grapevines in late autumn, Napa Valley, California, USA
rabbitbrush mono
Close up at the flowing water from a small creek in Inyo National Forest, California, USA, with the reflections of the nearby fall foliage.
Coastal at Dawn
early dawn along the California Coast at Big Sur, USA
Flow of the Season
Mountain aspens in their peak fall foliage, with Rush Creek in foreground, June Lake Loop, Ca, US
arch rock
Monterey Peninsula coast at early dawn, California, USA
inyo forest fall
Aspen trees in fall foliage, Inyo National Forest, California, United States.
king creek fall
Mid autumn scenery at King Creek in Inyo National Forest, California, USA
grand canyon in evening
Beautiful Grand Canyon landscape at late winter evening, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA
Grapes leaves on vines in late autumn
tule elk 2
A male tule elk at Point Reyes National Seashore, California, USA
California ground squirrel (Otospermophilus beecheyi) was sunbathing on the rock in Monterey, California, United States.
autumm landscape
Morning sunlight shine on the vegetation and the landscape, and their reflections on the water surface at Silver Lake, June Lake Loop, June Lake, California.
frozen leaves
Carson Peak and the frozen aspen leaves along the Silver Lake in June Lake Loop, June Lake, California, United States.
late fall
Close up the aspen trees, along the bank of Silver Lake, with their remained autumn leaves, June Lake Loop, June Lake, California.
Abandon railroad along the California coast at Santa Cruz on a foggy morning
wintertime 2
Snow covered California black oak trees after the winter storm in Yosemite National Park, California, United States
Yosemite landscape and the fall foliage vegetation along the Merced River on a foggy early dawn, Yosemite National Park, California.
yosemite in autumn 2
Close up of an herbaceous shrub in its fall foliage and the reflection on the Merced River, Yosemite National Park, California.
fall abstract 3
Reflections of the aspen trees ((Populus tremuloides) in their fall foliage on the water surface at Silver Lake in June Lake Loop, June Lake, California
fall water abstract
golden stream
Close up of the rocks and flowing water from the Merced River, with the reflection of the nearby vegetation in their fall color, Yosemite National Park, California.
hikers at zabriskie point
Hilltop trail with hikers at Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park, California, United States.
Close up at the California black oak tree branches covered with snow after the winter storm.
yountville in autumn
Chinese pistache trees in their fall foliage on the street pavement in Yountville, Napa Valley, California
yountville in autumn 2
A bench at a small city park, with the Chinese pistache tree in its fall foliage, Yountville, California, United States.
Drying Lake Alery
Morning sunlight reflected on the peak of the El Capitan on an early autumn day in Yosemite National Park, California, USA
Mountain Aspens Autumn 2
Mountain aspen trees on mountain slope in their fall foliage, Inyo National Forest, California, United States.
Ferns in fall foliage, Yosemite National Park, California, USA
Morning sunlight reflect on the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and their reflections on the water surface of Silver Lake in June Lake Loop, June Lake, CA.
California black oak trees cover with snow after the winter storm in Yosemite National Park, California, USA
A tule elk bull in Point Reyes National Seashore, California, United States
fog over silver lake
Low fog form on the water surface at early morning on an autumn day at Silver Lake, June Lake Loop, June Lake, California.
California coast at Garapatta State Park on an early autumn morning
aspens and redwood
Mountain aspens and redwood tree in autumn, June Lake, California, United States
cook meadow in the fall
Black oak trees in their fall foliage at Cook Meadow, Yosemite National Park, California, United States.
san francisco at sunrise
View of San Francisco downtown at early dawn, California, United States.
Mono Lake tufas in morning
Morning sunlight reflect on the tufas at the Mono Lake shoreline, Lee Vining, California, United States.
A black-crowned night heron perched on a tree branch at a small pond in San Francisco, California.
Young black-crowned night heron
A juvenile black-crown night heron perch on tree branch
California coast in monochrome 2
California coastal at Garapatta State Park on an overcast autumn morning, United States
A Seastack in bw
Seastack rock at Santa Cruz coastline, California, United States
Golden Gate Bridge in Monochrome
The iconic Golden Gate Bridge on a foggy morning, California, United States.
golden gate bw 3
Golden Gate Bridge, with the view of San Francisco city in background, presents in black and white, California, United States
Western Gull
A portrait of a Western gull (Larus occidentalis)
morning in the bay
Sunrise over San Francisco Bay, California, United States.
Black Oaks in autumn
California black oak trees (Quercus kelloggii) in their fall foliage.
About Lens2print
Quality art, Great value, Ethically done.
8 Chapel Hill
Ponsanooth
TR3 7ET
info@lens2print.co.uk
© 2019 Lens2print | Development by Saturn Innovation
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PCOM Library / Library News / Acland’s Video Atlas of Human Anatomy
Acland’s Video Atlas of Human Anatomy
Skye Bickett June 21, 2015 Library News, New Resources
Access to the new Acland’s Video Atlas of Human Anatomy platform is now available!
Acland’s contains over 300 narrated videos of real cadaver specimens and includes the following volumes:
Vol 1: The Upper Extremity – 60 videos on the Shoulder, Hand and Arm
Vol 2: The Lower Extremity – nearly 60 videos on the Hip, Knee, Leg, Ankle and Foot
Vol 3: The Trunk – nearly 60 videos on the Spine, Thorax, Abdomen and Pelvis
Vol 4: The Head and Neck – over 120 videos covering the Eye, Skull, Brain and related areas
Vol 5: The Internal Organs and Reproductive Health – over 60 videos on the thoracic and abdominal organs, and reproductive health
New features include section exams, a glossary, and an A-Z index.
Board Vitals
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Decoding Neanderthals
Over 60,000 years ago, the first modern humans--people physically identical to us today--left their African homeland and entered Europe, then a bleak and inhospitable continent in the grip of the Ice Age. But when they arrived, they were not alone: the stocky, powerfully built Neanderthals had already been living there for hundred of thousands of years. So what happened when the first modern humans encountered the Neanderthals? Did we make love or war? That question has tantalized generations of scholars and seized the popular imagination.
Then, in 2010, a team led by geneticist Svante Paabo announced stunning news. Not only had they reconstructed much of the Neanderthal genome--an extraordinary technical feat that would have seemed impossible only a decade ago--but their analysis showed that "we" modern humans had interbred with Neanderthals, leaving a small but consistent signature of Neanderthal genes behind in everyone outside Africa today. In Decoding Neanderthals, NOVA explores the implications of this exciting discovery. In the traditional view, Neanderthals differed from "us" in behavior and capabilities as well as anatomy. But were they really mentally inferior, as inexpressive and clumsy as the cartoon caveman they inspired? NOVA explores a range of intriguing new evidence for Neanderthal self-expression and language, all pointing to the fact that we may have seriously underestimated our mysterious, long-vanished human cousins.
Nick Clarke Powell
Social Sciences > Anthropology
Sciences > Applied Science
Movies > TV Series
First Steps 53 mins Where did we come from? What makes us human? An explosion of recent discoveries sheds light on these questions, and NOVA's comprehensive, three-part special, "Becoming…
Your Inner Reptile 55 mins Have you ever wondered why the human body looks the way it does? Why we walk on two legs instead of four? Why we can…
Your Inner Reptile
Last Extinction - Megabeasts' Sudden Death 54 mins What killed the mammoths? Near the end of the last ice age 13,000 years ago, these mighty beasts disappeared from North America together with some…
Last Extinction - Megabeasts' Sudden Death
Europe 55 mins When Homo sapiens turned up in prehistoric Europe, they ran into the Neanderthals. The two types of human were similar enough to interbreed -- and…
Africa 55 mins Around 200,000 years ago, a new species, Homo sapiens, appeared on the African landscape. While scientists have imagined eastern Africa as a real-life Garden of…
Dawn of Humanity 114 mins NOVA and National Geographic present exclusive access to a unique discovery of ancient remains. Located in an almost inaccessible chamber deep in a South African…
Dawn of Humanity
Last Human Standing 53 mins In "Last Human Standing," the final program of the three-part series "Becoming Human," NOVA examines the fate of the Neanderthals, our European cousins who died…
Last Human Standing
University of Oklahoma Libraries•3 years ago
It is creepy and amazing. OMG Neanderthals. It made learning fun.
NOVA: Becoming Human - Unearthing Our Earliest Ancestors
Episode 1 of NOVA: Becoming Human
Birth of Humanity
Secrets of the Dead - Caveman Cold Case
When Neandertal Met HomoSapiens
Upside Television
Episode 5 of First Peoples
Archaeology - The Series that Rewrites History
New Dominion Pictures
The Triunfante - The Discovery and Restoration of an 18th Century Warship
Ancient Inventions, Sex and Love
Part of the Series: The Ancient World according to Terry Jones
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Tracking Edith
A Renowned Photographer and Secret Soviet Agent
When she wasn't working as a Soviet agent, Edith Tudor-Hart was taking photos of workers and street children in Vienna and London, documenting poverty and social deprivation. But she also found time to recruit Kim Philby and act as one of the architects of the 'Cambridge Five,' the Soviet Union's most successful spy ring.
Edith was director Peter Stephan Jungk's great aunt; in TRACKING EDITH he unravels the truth about her life.
Official Selection at the New York Jewish Film Festival and at the San Diego Jewish Film Festival.
Peter Stephan Jungk
Barry McLoughlin, Duncan Forbes, Irina Sherbakova, Nigel West, Wolf Suschitzky
Documentaries > Women & Society
Social Sciences > History - Modern
Documentaries > Art & Artists
The Arts > Photography
Every Face Has a Name - World War II Survivors Tell Their Stories 75 mins In this documentary, survivors from World War II tell their stories as they view themselves on an archive reel shot on April 28, 1945, the…
Every Face Has a Name - World War II Survivors Tell Their Stories
306 Hollywood - What Life Remains in the Objects we Leave Behind 94 mins When siblings Elan and Jonathan Bogarin undertake an archaeological excavation of their late grandmother's house, they embark on a magical-realist journey in search of what…
306 Hollywood - What Life Remains in the Objects we Leave Behind
The Liberators - An Art Detective Tracks Down Missing Treasure 70 mins Medieval art treasures seized by the Nazis go missing at the end of World War II. Were they destroyed in the chaos of the final…
The Liberators - An Art Detective Tracks Down Missing Treasure
First Lady of the Revolution - A Southern Belle's Journey through Love, Exile and Revolution in Costa Rica 71 mins This is the remarkable story of Henrietta Boggs, who fell in love with a foreign land and the man destined to transform its identity. Her…
First Lady of the Revolution - A Southern Belle's Journey through Love, Exile and Revolution in Costa Rica
The Waldheim Waltz - Investigating Former UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim 94 mins A film about truth, lies and how a dishonest man can rise to power. Ruth Beckermann documents the process of uncovering former UN Secretary General…
The Waldheim Waltz - Investigating Former UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim
Moynihan - The Life and Political Career of a U.S. Senator 106 mins Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1927-2003) did not just live in the twentieth century, he strode across it: a colossus of ideas and a man of deeds.…
Moynihan - The Life and Political Career of a U.S. Senator
Robert Scheer: Above the Fold - A Profile of a Legendary Journalist 98 mins This is a profile of the legendary activist and journalist Robert Scheer, who reminds us that journalism, at its best, is about pursuing the truth…
Robert Scheer: Above the Fold - A Profile of a Legendary Journalist
Queens Public Library•3 months ago
She never had a clue what the implications of her actions were, which is to say she was a pure ideologue. And it makes no difference whether they are right or left. Stalin is what has given socialism (including Sweden) a perverse meaning these days to otherwise reasonable Americans. Edith ...Read more
She never had a clue what the implications of her actions were, which is to say she was a pure ideologue. And it makes no difference whether they are right or left. Stalin is what has given socialism (including Sweden) a perverse meaning these days to otherwise reasonable Americans. Edith certainly didn't help those of us who are Social Democrats on that score. After the Cambridge Five, I can't imagine that American intelligence would ever consider the MI5 trustworthy again.
So now we need to rise up from the ashes. Preferably without the Stalin/Castro/Mao nonsense. (A hint: ideologues -- across the spectrum -- are idiots).
Toronto Public Library•3 months ago
Socialism has always resulted in mass graves, in the death of millions, and in abject misery. Must be one of the longest running series of coincidences in history.
Cold War Secrets - The Female Soviet Spy Who Stole American Atomic Bomb Secrets
Rebel - Loreta Velazquez - Secret Soldier of the American Civil War
Garbo the Spy
Tierney Gearson: The Mother Project - A Controversial Photographer and Her Relationship with Art and Family
Jeff Wall: Retrospective - The Work of an Acclaimed Photographer
Michael Blackwood Productions
Twin Lenses - Fashion Photographer Sisters
Daedalus Productions
Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer - The Life and Work of the Photographer and Cinema Pioneer
Cinema Guild
Ralph Gibson: Photographer/Book Artist
Checkerboard Film Foundation
The Woodmans
Paris Was A Woman - A History of Female Artists in Paris
Secrets & Mysteries Of Christopher Columbus
MVD Entertainment Group
Duane Michals: The Man Who Invented Himself
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Markets WRAP: The rand closed at R14.03/$
Fin24 team 09:50 12/07/2019
The rand closed at R14.03 to the greenback on Friday afternoon.
The day's range was between R13.89 and R14.04.
Grand Parade Investments announced on Friday that it had appointed Keshan Pillay as an independent non-executive director of the Company with effect from 11 July 2019.
"Mr Pillay is a senior investment professional with a wealth of experience in the investing, financing and structuring of corporate transactions. He is the CEO of Makalani Management Company for the past 11 years, previously an executive director at the Mineworkers Investment Company and has also held a number of non-executive directorships of various listed and unlisted companies during his career," the group said in an update to shareholders.
Steinhoff posts R8.9bn loss in half-year earnings report
Steinhoff has posted a loss of €571m (R8.9bn at current exchange rates) for the half-year ended March 31.
The Stellenbosch-headquartered conglomerate on Friday published its unaudited half-year earnings report on Friday.
US equity futures climbed alongside stocks in Europe as investors clung to their cautious optimism on prospects for easier monetary policy. Euro-zone bonds fell. Contracts on all three of the main US stock gauges rose after the S&P 500 Index closed Thursday at a record high.
Gains in auto and chemical shares on the Stoxx Europe 600 pushed the benchmark toward its first increase this week. Shares dipped in Australia and Japan and posted modest gains in Hong Kong, China and South Korea.Government bonds extended their decline in Europe, heading for their worst week since at least October, after industrial output data for the euro region beat expectations. The single currency was steady. Treasury 10-year yields held near a one-month high. The rally in risk assets is continuing to benefit from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s dovish comments this week, even after strong US inflation data on Thursday offered a potential complication to policy makers when they set rates at the end of the month.
Meanwhile, weak data from both Singapore and China sent another warning shot to the world economy on the impact of trade tensions. The reports came after President Donald Trump complained that China hasn’t increased its purchases of American farm products, a promise he said he had secured at his G-20 meeting with the country’s president Xi Jinping last month.
Elsewhere, WTI oil headed for its sixth advance in seven sessions as operators in the Gulf of Mexico braced for Tropical Storm Barry.
Here are the main moves in markets:
Futures on the S&P 500 Index advanced 0.2% as of 11:15 London time to the highest on record. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 0.2%, the first increase in more than a week. The UK’s FTSE 100 Index climbed 0.3%, the first rise in more than a week. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dipped 0.2%. The MSCI Emerging Market Index sank 0.3%.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index dipped less than 0.05% to the lowest in more than a week.The British pound climbed 0.1% to $1.2535, the strongest in more than a week.The Japanese yen advanced 0.1% to 108.41 per dollar, the strongest in more than a week. The euro gained less than 0.05% to $1.1259, the strongest in more than a week.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries dipped less than one basis point to 2.14%. Germany’s 10-year yield advanced three basis points to -0.20%, the highest in six weeks. Britain’s 10-year yield gained one basis point to 0.843%, the highest in three weeks.
Gold increased 0.2% to $1,406.92 an ounce. West Texas Intermediate crude gained 0.5% to $60.48 a barrel, the highest in more than seven weeks. - Bloomberg
Oil set for best week in three on Iran tension and storm threat
Tsuyoshi Inajima, Bloomberg
Oil headed for its biggest weekly gain in three weeks as simmering Middle East tensions, shrinking US crude inventories and a storm in the Gulf of Mexico all conspired to threaten the supply outlook.
Futures rose 0.7% in New York Friday and are up more than 5% for the week. Tropical Storm Barry, which could hit the Louisiana coast on Saturday, has already curbed about half of the energy output in the Gulf.
Iran’s attempt to block the passage of a British tanker in the Persian Gulf ratcheted up tension in the oil-rich region, while American crude stockpiles have fallen to the lowest level in almost three months.
Global stocks mixed to end busy week
Adam Haigh and Laura Curtis, Bloomberg
Stocks in Europe and Asia struggled for traction on Friday and US equity futures edged higher as investors stumbled to the end of a hectic week. The dollar weakened for a third day.
The Stoxx Europe 600 fluctuated as declines in healthcare shares offset gains in banks. U.S. equities futures nudged up after the S&P 500 index closed Thursday at a record high. Shares dipped in Australia and Japan and posted modest gains in Hong Kong, China and South Korea.
A tweet from President Donald Trump, complaining about China trade policy sent equities into a fleeting swoon and showed how sensitive markets remains to trade-related developments. Yields on 10-year Treasuries slipped from a one-month high.
While the rally in risk assets got a fresh boost from Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s dovish comments, the strong CPI data Thursday in the U.S. offers a potential complication to policymakers in Washington prior to their decision at month’s end. Traders pulled back bets on a half-point cut in July after the inflation data.
Special appropriation to help Eskom coming within two weeks - Mboweni
Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni told Parliament on Thursday evening that he planned to introduce a special appropriation bill in Parliament on July 23 after consulting with Parliament to make funding available to Eskom for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 financial years. Mboweni was tabling his budget vote in Parliament.
His budget vote outlined a total allocation of R30.8bn for National Treasury in the 2019-20 financial year. He said this would be used to conduct research on the economy and foster growth-friendly policy.
Read more on: rand markets live sa economy currencies
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Follow The Money To See How Apple’s Many Competitors Really Stack Up
Tuesday, April 8, 2014 by Wil Gomez in News and Opinion
Remember way back in the day when Apple’s main competitors were small in number? A few PC makers and Microsoft’s Windows was about it.
Here we are barely into the 21st century and Apple seems to have more competitors than ever; some well armed with cash and willing to spend it, either strategically or desperately (or, both at the same time). How does Apple fare amidst all that competition?
Follow The Money Trail
Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC, which has a number of highly touted, well reviewed smartphones on the market, in the latest quarter, just lost more money than expected. Again.
To find out how Apple’s competitors stack up against our favorite Cupertino juggernaut, lets’ follow the money trail.
HTC makes some of the best smartphone hardware on planet earth, and by many accounts, better hardware than Apple’s iPhone 5s.
Yet HTC lost money again last quarter. Again. Why? Marketshare has dropped from about 10-percent just a few years ago to barely 2-percent today.
HTC is but one of many smartphone competitors, but it’s Korean conglomerate Samsung which makes all the money that Apple doesn’t make from the smartphone and tablet industry.
That’s right. It’s a two-horse race for profit share, and even though Samsung sells twice as many smartphones and tablets as Apple, it’s Apple which records the majority of the industry’s profits.
The Race For Third Place
What about that long list of also rans? BlackBerry was once the darling of the enterprise, but is gasping for breath, losing money even more quickly this year than last.
Motorola, bought by Google to shore up a patent defense, was sold for near scrap to Lenovo in China. Nokia, once the largest handset and smartphone maker in the world, was sold for scrap to Microsoft.
What of Microsoft? The PC software giant makes money hand over fist with Windows and Office on traditional PCs, but as that segment of the tech industry is under siege from mobile device sales growth, Microsoft is forced to write off lackluster hardware sales and push Office onto the iPad platform.
That leaves a money trail spread between two disparate entities. Google, and a plethora of smartphone and tablet knock off makers from China. By some estimates, Google has devoted over $15-billion to the Android and smartphone effort and has little profits to show for it, and certainly no return on the investment.
Breakeven is about the best Google, Amazon, and other makers can hope for. How so? Apple’s Mac line owns about 50-percent of the traditional PCs profits, and while PCs with Windows or Chrome dominate in sales, profits are nearly non-existent. As to the smartphone and tablet segments, recent estimates put Apple’s share of the money trail at over 80-percent, with the rest going to Samsung.
Marketshare does not seem to translate directly into profits. When there is not much money left on the money trail it makes a technology pundit wonder how much longer Apple’s also-ran competitors can stay in business.
About Wil Gomez
I live in Brooklyn, New York and work in Manhattan; a Mac owner for almost 25 years, and an IT specialist on mixed platforms-- Mac, Windows, and Linux. Read more of my articles here. My fiancée is semi-famous Kate MacKenzie. Follow her on PixoBebo.
Office For iPad: Is It Really That Bad? Or, Is It Surprisingly Good?
How To See What’s Really Going On Deep Inside Your Mac
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Greetings! Oh, Hello‘s John Mulaney & Nick Kroll Meet the Press
September 8th, 2016 | By Lindsey Sullivan
Just weeks before taking the Broadway stage, George St. Geegland and Gil Faizon took the podium. Comedians John Mulaney and Nick Kroll played the crotchety characters at a mock press conference on September 8. Following Oh, Hello's wildly popular off-Broadway run last fall, the duo will make their debuts on the Great White Way beginning on September 23. Alex Timbers, who was recently announced to be at the helm of Moulin Rouge!'s in-the-works stage adaptation, directs Mulaney and Kroll's two-man comedy, which features them as their outrageously opinionated, 70-something characters carrying out both scripted and improvised hilarity. Opening night is set for October 10 at the Lyceum Theatre, so be sure to check out the pics and prepare for a laugh attack!
Tags: Hot Shot
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Desi Oakley, Bryan Fenkart & More Will Star in the Waitress Tour
August 9th, 2017 | By Ryan Gilbert
She'll be pouring you a cup and saying, "Hello, how ya been?" Desi Oakley (Les Misérables, Evita) will star as Jenna in the national tour of Waitress. The touring production of the hit Broadway musical will launch at the Connor Palace—Playhouse Square in Cleveland on October 17, before making stops—and serving up pies—in cities all across the country.
In addition to Oakley, the cast of the Waitress tour will feature Bryan Fenkart as Dr. Pomatter, Lenne Klingaman as Dawn, Nick Bailey as Earl and Ryan G. Dunkin as Cal. They'll be joined by current Broadway cast members Charity Angél Dawson as Becky, Larry Marshall as Old Joe and Jeremy Morse as Ogie.
The ensemble includes Skyler Adams, Law Terrell Dunford, Patrick Dunn, Jim Hogan, David Hughey, Arica Jackson, Kyra Kennedy, Emily Koch, Maiesha McQueen, Gerianne Perez and Grace Stockdale.
Directed by Tony winner Diane Paulus and featuring a score by six-time Grammy nominee Sara Bareilles, the musical is based on the 2007 film by the late Adrienne Shelly, and follows Jenna, a waitress and expert pie maker, who dreams of a way out of her small town and loveless marriage. A baking contest in a nearby county and the town's new doctor may offer her a chance at a fresh start, while her fellow waitresses offer their own recipes for happiness. But Jenna must summon the strength and courage to rebuild her own life. The musical's score includes such popular songs as "Opening Up," "What Baking Can Do," "You Matter to Me" and "She Used to Be Mine."
Waitress made history as the first Broadway musical to feature an all-female creative team; in addition to Bareilles and Paulus, on board are book writer Jessie Nelson and choreographer Lorin Latarro. The Broadway production was nominated for four 2016 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Original Score.
To find out when Waitress is headed to your city, click here.
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Tag Archives: matrilineal
Why and when did matrilineal descent become the norm within Judaism?
In this Mother’s Day episode of the Madlik Podcast we explore the emergence and stature of matrilineal descent within Judaism, an otherwise male dominated and patrilineal religion and legal society.
Recorded live at TCS, The Conservative Synagogue of Westport Connecticut we come to the surprising conclusion that the introduction of matrilineal descent might have more to do with removing any stigma attached to a captured and redeemed single-mother and less to do with the status of the child.
Listen to the madlik podcast:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/madlik/Matrilineal_Descent.mp3
Yael Deckelbaum / Prayer of the Mothers – Official video https://youtu.be/YyFM-pWdqrY
Three Part Series by Rabbi Ethan Tucker of Hadar Institute on
MATRILINEALITY AND PATRILINEALITY IN JEWISH LAW AND COMMUNITY, PARTS 1-3
https://www.hadar.org/torah-resource/matrilineality-and-patrilineality-jewish-law-and-community-part-1
Podcast Notes:
As part of the historic handover of Japan’s imperial throne on Wednesday, the incoming emperor, Naruhito, will receive a sword, a jewel and official seals in a sacred ceremony that dates back thousands of years.
But the new empress, Masako, Naruhito’s wife of 26 years, will not be allowed to attend — another illustration of the diminished status of women in the imperial family, and of the challenges women face more broadly in Japanese society.
Under the Imperial Household Law, which governs the line of succession as well as most matters of protocol related to Japan’s monarchy, women in the royal family are not permitted to be in the room when the new emperor receives the sacred regalia signifying his rightful succession to the world’s oldest monarchy.
But the prohibitions go much further. Women are not allowed to reign. In fact, women born into the royal family must officially leave it once they marry, and none of their children can be in line to the throne. NY Times April 29, 2019
In the Torah
You shall not intermarry with them: do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn your children away from Me to worship other gods, and the LORD’s anger will blaze forth against you and He will promptly wipe you out.
Deuteronomy 7: 3- 4
וְלֹ֥א תִתְחַתֵּ֖ן בָּ֑ם בִּתְּךָ֙ לֹא־תִתֵּ֣ן לִבְנ֔וֹ וּבִתּ֖וֹ לֹא־תִקַּ֥ח לִבְנֶֽךָ
כִּֽי־יָסִ֤יר אֶת־בִּנְךָ֙ מֵֽאַחֲרַ֔י וְעָבְד֖וּ אֱלֹהִ֣ים אֲחֵרִ֑ים וְחָרָ֤ה אַף־יְהוָה֙ בָּכֶ֔ם וְהִשְׁמִידְךָ֖ מַהֵֽר
In Tanach
Now then, let us make a covenant with our God to expel all these women and those who have been born to them, in accordance with the bidding of the Lord and of all who are concerned over the commandment of our God, and let the Teaching be obeyed.
Ezra 10: 3
וְעַתָּ֣ה נִֽכְרָת־בְּרִ֣ית לֵ֠א-לֹהֵינוּ לְהוֹצִ֨יא כָל־נָשִׁ֜ים וְהַנּוֹלָ֤ד מֵהֶם֙ בַּעֲצַ֣ת אֲדֹנָ֔י וְהַחֲרֵדִ֖ים בְּמִצְוַ֣ת אֱ-לֹהֵ֑ינוּ וְכַתּוֹרָ֖ה יֵעָשֶֽׂה
In Rabbinic Judaism
Wherever there is [a valid] betrothal and no sin, the child follows the male [with regard to familial status].
Which is this? This is a Kohenet, a Levite woman, or an Israelite woman who married a Kohen, a Levite or an Israelite.
Wherever there is [a valid] betrothal and there is a sin, the child follows the defective one.
Which is this? This is a widow married to the Kohen Gadol [High Priest], a divorcee or a chalutzah [the widow of a childless man released from the obligation of levirate marriage by a ceremony performed by her brother-in-law] [married] to an ordinary Kohen, a mamzeret [the female offspring of certain prohibited relationships who may not marry into the general Jewish population] or a Netina [female Gibeonite] to an Israelite, a female Israelite to a mamzer or Netina.
[With] any [woman] for whom there is no betrothal to him, but there is betrothal to others, the child is a mamzer.
Which is this? This is one who has sexual intercourse with any one of the forbidden sexual relations [mentioned] in the Torah.
Any [woman] for whom there is no betrothal either to him or to others, the child is like her.
Which is this? This is the child of a [non-Jewish] maidservant or a non-Jewish woman.
Mishna Kiddushin 3: 12
כָּל מָקוֹם שֶׁיֵּשׁ קִדּוּשִׁין וְאֵין עֲבֵרָה, הַוָּלָד הוֹלֵךְ אַחַר הַזָּכָר
וְאֵיזֶה, זוֹ כֹהֶנֶת, לְוִיָּה וְיִשְׂרְאֵלִית שֶׁנִּשְּׂאוּ לְכֹהֵן וּלְלֵוִי וּלְיִשְׂרָאֵל.
וְכָל מָקוֹם שֶׁיֵּשׁ קִדּוּשִׁין וְיֵשׁ עֲבֵרָה, הַוָּלָד הוֹלֵךְ אַחַר הַפָּגוּם.
וְאֵיזוֹ, זוֹ אַלְמָנָה לְכֹהֵן גָּדוֹל, גְּרוּשָׁה וַחֲלוּצָה לְכֹהֵן הֶדְיוֹט, מַמְזֶרֶת וּנְתִינָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, בַּת יִשְׂרָאֵל לְמַמְזֵר וּלְנָתִין.
וְכָל מִי שֶׁאֵין לָהּ עָלָיו קִדּוּשִׁין אֲבָל יֶשׁ לָהּ עַל אֲחֵרִים קִדּוּשִׁין, הַוָּלָד מַמְזֵר.
וְאֵיזֶה, זֶה הַבָּא עַל אַחַת מִכָּל הָעֲרָיוֹת שֶׁבַּתּוֹרָה.
וְכָל מִי שֶׁאֵין לָהּ לֹא עָלָיו וְלֹא עַל אֲחֵרִים קִדּוּשִׁין, הַוָּלָד כְּמוֹתָהּ.
וְאֵיזֶה, זֶה וְלַד שִׁפְחָה וְנָכְרִית
Rabbinic Judaism (more)
Aha Sar HaBirah and R. Tanhum bdR Hiyya from K’far Akko redeemed captive women… one of whom had been impregnated by a Gentile. They came to R. Ami, who said to them: R. Yohanan, R. Elazar, R. Hanina all say: When a Gentile or a slave has intercourse with a Jewish woman, the child is a mamzer. Said R. Yosef: Is it a great trick to mention many names? Rav and Shmuel in Bavel, and R. Yehoshua b. Levi and Bar Kappara in Eretz Yisrael… all say that when a Gentile or a slave has intercourse with a Jewish woman, the child is kasher! … When a Gentile or a slave has intercourse with a Jewish woman, the child is a mamzer. R. Yehoshua b. Levi says the child is mekulkal. Abaye said to him: Why do you rely on R. Dimi [to establish that Rabbi [Yehudah HaNasi]’s position was that the child is a mamzer], rely on Rabin! For when Rabin came, he said: R. Natan and R. Yehudah HaNasi rule permissively… Babylonian Talmud Yevamot 44b-45b[i]
רבי אחא שר הבירה ור’ תנחום בריה דרבי חייא איש כפר עכו פרוק הנהו שבוייתא דאתו מארמון לטבריא הוה חדא דאעברא מעובד כוכבים ואתו לקמיה דר’ אמי אמר להו ר’ יוחנן ור’ אלעזר ור’ חנינא דאמרי עובד כוכבים ועבד הבא על בת ישראל הולד ממזר
אמר רב יוסף רבותא למחשב גברי הא רב ושמואל בבבל ורבי יהושע בן לוי ובר קפרא בארץ ישראל ואמרי לה חלופי בר קפרא ועיילי זקני דרום דאמרי עובד כוכבים ועבד הבא על בת ישראל הולד כשר
אלא אמר רב יוסף רבי היא דכי אתא רב דימי אמר רבי יצחק בר אבודימי משום רבינו אמרו עובד כוכבים ועבד הבא על בת ישראל הולד ממזר
רבי יהושע בן לוי אומר הולד מקולקל למאן אילימא לקהל הא אמר רבי יהושע הולד כשר אלא לכהונה דכולהו אמוראי דמכשרי מודו שהולד פגום לכהונה
מק”ו מאלמנה מה אלמנה לכהן גדול שאין איסורה שוה בכל בנה פגום זו שאיסורה שוה בכל אינו דין שבנה פגום
מה לאלמנה לכהן גדול שכן היא עצמה מתחללת הכא נמי כיון שנבעלה פסלה
דאמר רבי יוחנן משום רבי שמעון מנין לעובד כוכבים ועבד הבא על הכהנת ועל הלויה ועל הישראלית שפסלוה שנאמר (ויקרא כב, יג) ובת כהן כי תהיה אלמנה וגרושה מי שיש לו אלמנות וגירושין בה יצאו עובד כוכבים ועבד שאין להם אלמנות וגירושין בה
אמר ליה אביי מאי חזית דסמכת אדרב דימי סמוך אדרבין דכי אתא רבין אמר רבי נתן ורבי יהודה הנשיא מורים בה להיתירא ומאן רבי יהודה הנשיא רבי
6. Reform Responsa
The concept of paternity as the determining factor in progeny being considered as having Jewish descent is a constant in the Hebrew Bible, as the authors of the Report elaborated: “both the Biblical and the Rabbinical traditions take for granted that ordinarily the paternal line is decisive in the tracing of descent within the Jewish people.” Numerous examples in the Hebrew Bible determine a child’s status by the father’s tribe. The Report further asserts, “in the Rabbinic tradition, this tradition remains in force,” citing as prooftexts examples of Priestly status–“the child of an Israelite who marries a Kohenet is an Israelite” and the Talmudic precept, “the most important parental responsibility to teach Torah rested with the father (Kiddushin 29a; df. Shulchan Aruch, Yoredeah 245.1).” Only in the case where “the marriage was considered not to be licit, the child of that marriage followed the status of the mother (Mishna Kiddushin 3.12, havalad kemotah).” The Report offers a sociological interpretation of the reason for matrilineal descent in illicit unions: “the woman with her child had no recourse but to return to her own people.[ii]
In Contemporary Israel – The Problem
Lev Paschov, an Israeli soldier who immigrated to Israel under the Law of Return from the Former Soviet Union, was killed while on active duty in Southern Lebanon in 1993, and buried twice. He was first interred in a regular Israeli military cemetery, but after it was discovered that his mother was not Jewish, his body was exhumed, and Paschov was buried a second time, in a cemetery for non-Jews.
For many Israelis, the macabre end of Paschov’s brief life journey was deeply disturbing. How was it possible that someone could be welcomed to Israel under the Law of Return, serve the Jewish state’s army, and die defending his adopted homeland, and still not be considered Jewish enough to be buried alongside his comrades?[iii]
Return to Patrilineal descent in Israel
Responsa of Rabbi BenZion Meir Hai Uziel, the chief rabbi of Israel in the 1940s and 1950
…From here we learn,that a patrilineal Jew brought by his father for a conversion should be accepted by the beit din. Even though this child is called the child of the Gentile woman, he is still considered zera yisrael (of Jewish stock)… everyone agrees that children of a Jewish man born to a Gentile woman are called zera yisrael, therefore, when the father brings him to convert, the child reverts to his original lineage. Responsa Piskei Uzziel BeShe’eilot Hazeman #64[iv]
…מכאן אנו לומדים במכל שכן כשגוי זה הוא בן ישראל מנכרית ואביו מביאו להתגייר שבי”ד נזקקים לגרותו משום דאע”ג שהוא נקרא בנה של הנכרית אינו יוצא מכלל זרע ישראל… הלכך כשאביו הביאו להתגייר חוזר הילד לעיקר זרעו, … הא למדת דבן הבא מן הנכרית נקרא זרעו של ישראל ועובר עליו משום ומזרעך לא תתן להעביר למולך, הלכך אם בא לגיירו מצוה עלינו להזדקק לגרותו כדי לכפר עון האב מאחרי הגרות ולבל ידח ממנו נדח. ואין לחוש שמא יגרר אחרי אמו דאדרבא אם דוחים אותו ועוקרים אותו ממקור חייו וזרעו שהוא אביו ודאי שיטמע בין הגויים ויכפור באלהי ישראל, וישנא תכלית שנאה את היהדות ותורתה…
Feminist Response – Irony
I hope it is not impertinent, for someone writing thousands of miles distant from the great country in which the women’s liberation movement has made such rapid strides, to express astonishment that the clamor to change an ancient law which makes Jewish status depend on the mother should have originated in that very country.
There is no problem of Descent, Lous Jacobs[v]
10. Feminist Response – The Jewish Community’s “Need” to Punish Men Who Intermarry
Judith Hauptmann, a Talmud scholar widely known for her work in advancing feminist scholarship of Judaism. … proceeds to argue that the modern Jewish community should not rescind matrilineal descent because doing so would have the effect of removing a punishment against Jewish men who intermarry.[vi]
Matrilineal descent Redux
Hence a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, so that they become one flesh Genesis 2: 24
עַל־כֵּן֙ יַֽעֲזָב־אִ֔ישׁ אֶת־אָבִ֖יו וְאֶת־אִמּ֑וֹ וְדָבַ֣ק בְּאִשְׁתּ֔וֹ וְהָי֖וּ לְבָשָׂ֥ר אֶחָֽד׃
Rashi ONE FLESH — Both parents are united in the child.
לבשר אחד. הַוָּלָד נוֹצָר עַל יְדֵי שְׁנֵיהֶם וְשָׁם נַעֲשֶׁה בְשָׂרָם אֶחָד
Genesis 17: 21
וְאֶת־בְּרִיתִ֖י אָקִ֣ים אֶת־יִצְחָ֑ק אֲשֶׁר֩ תֵּלֵ֨ד לְךָ֤ שָׂרָה֙ לַמּוֹעֵ֣ד הַזֶּ֔ה בַּשָּׁנָ֖ה הָאַחֶֽרֶת׃
But My covenant I will maintain with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year.”
A certain man of the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman[vii]. Exodus 2: 1
וַיֵּ֥לֶךְ אִ֖ישׁ מִבֵּ֣ית לֵוִ֑י וַיִּקַּ֖ח אֶת־בַּת־לֵוִֽי
[i] MATRILINEALITY AND PATRILINEALITY IN JEWISH LAW AND COMMUNITY, PART 1 Rabbi Ethan Tucker
[ii] 1 “Reform Movement’s Resolution on Patrilineal Descent,” Report of the Committee on Patrilineal Descent, adopted on March 15, 1983. Can be accessed at http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/source/Judaism/patrilineal1.html
[iii] WHAT, NOT WHO, IS A JEW? Daniel Gordis March 1, 2011
[iv] MATRILINEALITY AND PATRILINEALITY IN JEWISH LAW AND COMMUNITY, PART 2, Rabbi Ethan Tucker
See also: https://books.google.com/books?id=MlImAQAAIAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=Irregular+marriages
[v] Originally published in Judaism 34.1 (Winter 1985), 55-59.
[vi] Patrilineal Descent–an Examination of Non-Lineal Descent.” Judaism, Winter 1985, pp. 46-50.
[vii] Laws regarding a Bat Levi as relates to the redemption of the first born son: If the father is a kohen or a levi, or if the mother is the daughter of a cohen or a levi, there is no mitzvah of pidyon haben (Shulchan Aruch 305:18).
If a boy is born from a non-Jewish father and a bas levi, there is also no mitzvah of pidyon haben since his mother is the daughter of a levi. However, if a boy is born from a non-Jewish father and a bas kohen, a pidyon haben is performed. Since the daughter of the kohen has violated her kedusha by having relations with a gentile, she loses her hallachic status as a bas kohen (Shulchan Aruch 305:18). Similarly, if a bas yisroel has a child with a non-Jew, a pidyon haben is performed. The Aruch Hashulchan comments that in this scenario it is difficult to ascertain who is obligated to perform the pidyon haben. The father, who is not Jewish, is obviously not obligated to perform this or any mitzvah. The mother is exempt as well, as this mitzvah is never the obligation of the mother (as we shall explain). Rather, in this case the child should perform his own pidyon when he reached the age of thirteen. Other poskim disagree and feel that the beis din should perform the pidyon right away- see Igros Moshe Y.D. 195 and Sheilas Yeshurun page 140.
The mishna taught that Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said: There were no days as happy for the Jewish people as the fifteenth of Av and as Yom Kippur.
However, what is the special joy of the fifteenth of Av? Rav Yehuda said that Shmuel said: This was the day on which the members of different tribes were permitted to enter one another’s tribe, by intermarriage. It was initially prohibited to intermarry between tribes, so as to keep each plot of land within the portion of the tribe that originally inherited it. This halakha was instituted by the Torah in the wake of a complaint by the relatives of the daughters of Zelophehad, who were worried that if these women married men from other tribes, the inheritance of Zelophehad would be lost from his tribe (see Numbers 36:1–12).
What did they expound, in support of their conclusion that this halakha was no longer in effect? The verse states: “This is the matter that the Lord has commanded concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying: Let them marry whom they think best; only into the family of the tribe of their father shall they marry” (Numbers 36:5). They derived from the verse that this matter shall be practiced only in this generation, when Eretz Yisrael was divided among the tribes, but afterward members of different tribes were permitted to marry. On the day this barrier separating the tribes was removed, the Sages established a permanent day of rejoicing.
א”ר שמעון ב”ג לא היו ימים טובים לישראל כחמשה עשר באב וכיוה”כ: בשלמא יום הכפורים משום דאית ביה סליחה ומחילה יום שניתנו בו לוחות האחרונות
אלא ט”ו באב מאי היא אמר רב יהודה אמר שמואל יום שהותרו שבטים לבוא זה בזה
מאי דרוש (במדבר לו, ו) זה הדבר אשר צוה ה’ לבנות צלפחד וגו’ דבר זה לא יהא נוהג אלא בדור זה
Filed under Bible, feminism, Judaism, Religion, social commentary, Torah, women's rights
Tagged as feminism, gender equality, Judaism, marriage, matrilineal, Torah, women's rights
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Woman Shot And Killed In East Hollywood, Gunman At LargePolice were searching for a gunman Thursday evening after a woman was shot and killed in East Hollywood.
Biden Serves Up Soul Food In Crenshaw District, Attends FundraisersJoe Biden returned to the Southland Thursday to meet residents and religious leaders and raise money for his Democratic presidential bid.
Simi Valley Man Sues Congressman For Alleged Assault Involving Porn Shoot
Filed Under:Porn Film
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA/AP) — A Simi Valley man who claims he was producing a porn film starring a New Hampshire lawmaker has filed a lawsuit accusing the politician of assault.
Jonathan Carter sued Friday seeking unspecified damages following a June incident he claims involved state Rep. Frank Sapareto.
The Republican legislator from Derry, New Hampshire, denied the allegations or knowing Carter.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he told the Associated Press in a phone interview.
“Wow, that’s a great story,” Sapareto said, laughing. “I haven’t heard that one. I thought we were all done going after men.”
The suit says Carter and Sapareto formed a partnership to make adult movies and Sapareto would star in the first film. It says Sapareto filmed scenes for the movie in California but became upset with how they went and the next day assaulted Carter at his home.
New Hampshire Rep. Frank Sapareto (Photo via Twitter)
Carter’s attorney says police issued Sapareto a misdemeanor battery citation and no criminal charges have been filed.
Sapareto was convicted of simple assault in 2013 stemming from a 2012 incident in which he pushed his girlfriend’s daughter, according to court filings. He did not serve jail time.
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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The Wife in the City
Stories of a born-and-bred city girl.
Our Battle with Cancer
Quickie Boosters
The Saint of Miracles
After my father passed away, I had been going through a lot of other things that left me feeling down and out for quite some time. Dad’s passing didn’t help much, but for a couple of weeks, I did find myself teetering on the edge of sanity, wondering if anything in my life would ever settle down and give me some peace of mind.
In the brink of desperation, a thought occurred to me. Maybe I should pray.
As a young girl, well into my teens and early adulthood, I used to pray a lot. But life got in the way… my doubts about my faith and my Religion made me start losing faith in prayer.
I suppose it’s true what they say that there comes a point in time when you feel you have no alternatives or options left — so you just inevitably turn to God.
And that, I did.
And then some.
I’ve heard that there are particular Saints for particular petitions you ask for.
One particular Saint resonated with me, not just because my husband’s named after him as well… but because he was known as the Saint of the Impossible. The Saint of Miracles.
St. Jude Th addeus. One of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ… and not to be mistaken for Judas Escariot. The Saint turned to for impossible causes.
I prayed a novena to him 3 straight times — which means 9 days x 3. 27 days of prayer while going about my normal everyday business in a desperate cry for peace of mind.
Part of this novena is a promise I made to spread the word about prayer to him, prayer to God, and prayer in general.
Whatever the outcome of this 27-day devotion, I have yet to see. Answers to prayers don’t come in the blink of an eye. But I do know that as the days go by, the act of praying has brought some measure of peace in my heart that somewhere in this World, there’s someone and something looking after me.
Below is the prayer I recited 9 times a day for 9 days, in 3 rounds. You don’t need to do 3 rounds. Just do as many as you see fit until your soul is ready to let go and trust God.
Start with: 3 Our Fathers, 3 Hail Marys, 3 Glory Bes
O Holy St. Jude, Apostle and Martyr; great in virtue and rich in miracles; faithful kinsman of Jesus Christ; faithful intercessor of all who invoke your special patronage in time of need — to you I have recourse from the depth of my heart to humbly beg to whom God has given such great power to come to my assistance.
Help me in present and urgent petition. In return, I promise to make your name known and cause you to be invoked. St. Jude, pray for us and all who invoke your aid.
May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be adored and loved in all tabernacles of the world until the end of time, Amen. May the most Sacred Heart of Jesus be praised and glorified now and forever. Amen. St. Jude, pray for me and hear our prayers.
Blessed be the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Blessed be the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Blessed be St. Jude Thaddeus in all the World, and for all eternity.
St. Jude, glorious apostle, faithful servant and friend of Jesus; the name of the traitor has caused you to be forgotten by many. But as the true Church invokes you universally as the patron of things despaired of; pray for me who am so miserable. Pray for me that I may finally receive the consolation and succor of heaven in all my necessities, sufferings and tribulations, particularly that of (state intention) and that I may Bless God with the Elect through eternity.
I promise you, O Blessed Jude, to be ever mindful of this great favor; to always honor you as my special and powerful patron; and to do all in my power to gratefully encourage devotion to you. Amen.
Filed under Quickie Boosters, Real Life Stories Tagged with Novena for a Miracle, Novena for desperate causes, Novena to St. Jude, Saint of the Impossible, St. Jude, St. Jude Thaddeus
One-Year Old
While thinki ng of something new to post today, I just realized….
Loves Stories just turned one!
I know this blog doesn’t really bring in hundreds and thousands of readers every day… unlike the bigger, more popular bloggers out there.
But I do know there are a handful of those who do find some value in reading the words spilling out of my mind. So to you, my dear readers, thank you for taking the time to digest my thoughts, ride out the year with me and give me the reassurance that in this huge world, strangers do connect with each other.
In honor of my Top Five, I’m also listing down what I think would be the Top Five Loves Stories-stories.
I didn’t choose this following any particular criteria — perhaps except on the basis of those which meant more to me than the rest.
If you’re a first-time visitor to my blog, go ahead and take a peek!
1. Christmas in the Philippines 2009
2009 was a year that devastated the Philippines in many ways.
From successive super storms that victimized thousands; to a senseless massacre that put the country in the list of the most dangerous countries for journalists to go to — this post is an introspective look at what Christmas meant to those who could only stand by and watch in utmost horror as everything unfolded as they did.
2. Lessons from the Anti-Heroes
When I wrote this post, I had just gone through a traumatic episode. Looking back now, it wasn’t really that big a deal, but it felt like such a big deal at the time.
In a nutshell, it was an ex-colleague who rudely, crassly insulted and almost physically assaulted me and called me names at work.
It wasn’t much, but this incident nonetheless triggered in me, a prolonged feeling of frustration and anger at how so many people in the world get away with injustice.
Laws and Religion’s Commandments aside, there’s nothing in life that protects people from unjust and uncalled-for pain and agony. Good people will just take the injustice, defend themselves and try to just move on… even if their characters have just been unjustly assassinated… their hearts, minds and sometimes bodies bruised, battered and torn. There’s nothing they can do to seek the justice and closure they wish they had.
Thank God for fictional characters who can do what we can only dream about doing.
3. Day 46
Since my father passed away, I’ve been writing about the stages of recovery from grief from a parent’s death.
On Day 46, my post was called “Watching my father die, Religion and Pop Culture”. In this post, I had written thoughts about life and death, mortality and religion. At some point in time, the inevitable question pops up: what happens when we die.
I have no answers, and this post has no answers. But it does write that the gift of faith in a larger Being gets us through doubts about our purpose here on Earth.
4. The Lessons we can Learn from Glee!
I wrote this post as an indirect homage to friendship, and to the people who’ve always stood by my side (metaphorically and literally) through the years. Singable songs and watchable dance choreographies aside, this is the one of the truest lessons I’ll ever learn from Glee!
I’ve always thought that friends are who take us back to our true selves and remind us of who we really are beneath the masks we put on for the outside world. Life is tough, but it certainly makes the ride a little bit less lonely to have friends in the same ride as you do.
5. The Aquino Legacy
The day this was written was a month before the National Elections. At the time, it seemed Noynoy Aquino would win the Elections. Well, as it stands today, the golden boy of Philippine Media and the new President of the Philippines is undergoing even worse scrutiny than he did when campaign period was on.
It’s too early to tell what kind of legacy he will leave behind. Time has gone by, and his first 100 days are over… still, much remains to be done. I pray for him that he will leave a legacy as powerful as his parents’ legacy.
Filed under Top Five Tagged with Top Five
Moving On (11)
Our Battle with Cancer (9)
Quickie Boosters (5)
Real Life Stories (28)
In Memoriam: The Heroes of 9/11
Remembering One Year Ago
Another (Lost) Battle with Cancer (and more thoughts about Chemotherapy)
The Color of Mourning
Generations: The Games Children Play
On Injustice and the Dark Knight
Prophecies of Doom
Back Stories
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Mariette Hartley
Winston Rekert
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Drama > Psychological Drama
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Daddy's Gone A-Hunting (1969)
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Becoming Redwood (2012)
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Miracle on I-880 (1992)
directed by Robert Iscove
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Ordeal in the Arctic (1993)
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Culture » Picks
Picks 3/1-3/9
The top things to do for March 2 - March 9.
Your guide to do things this week in Central Oregon.
From the Muse Women's Conference to star gazing and so much music... we have the top ten things to do this week.
¡Chiringa!
LATIN DANCE — A sure fire dance party of a time. This local band is ready to fire you up with its funk-rock, Latin-inspired grooves with Puerto Rican, Iranian lead singer Shireen Amini. Outfitted with congas, timbales, trumpets, bass and percussion, this will be an upbeat and lively show... and it's all ages! // 7pm. McMenamins Old St. Francis School, 700 NW Bond St, Bend. Free.
Muse Women's Conference
Thursday 2 - Sunday 5
CONNECT — Spanning the globe, this women's social movement turned conference features social activists, entrepreneurs, athletes, actors, educators and intellectuals. Not just for women, either; men are invited as allies. An atypical conference, it features interactive workshops, talks, film showings, community yoga and an art show. Be a visionary and change maker, find your muse. // Various times, Thurs-Sun. Tower Theatre, 835 Wall St, Bend. $10-375.
Friday 3 – Sunday 12
THEATRE — Several critics and other people who professionally know things consider this 1993 play to be one of the best and most important of its era. It's certainly timeless, focused on an unraveling mystery spanning centuries and encompassing the nature of time itself. Director Ben Larson tackles this time-bending thinker with gusto. // 3/3-3/5 @ 7:30pm. 3/5 @ 2pm. 3/9-3/12 @ 7:30pm. 3/12 @ 2 pm. Cascade Theatrical Company, 148 NW Greenwood Ave, Bend. $13-20.
Beatlab Radio presents Dr. Jeep
DANCE — Dr. Jeep got his start blending his own eclectic brand of techno and house in the clubs of Boston and New York. A wide range of global and underground sounds from this up-and-coming young DJ blends funk, dancehall, garage rock and other contrasting styles, keeping toes tapping. // 10pm. The Capitol, 190 NW Oregon Ave, Bend. $5.
Grin and Bear It 5k and 10k Run/Walk
Saturday 4
RUN — Support Healthy Beginnings kids' clinics in Central Oregon and get your workout in with this community fitness event. With 5k and 10k options, a paved 1-mile option for families starting at 11 am and an awards ceremony for everyone at the end, this uplifting event promises to make healthy kids the real winners. // 10am. Les Schwab Amphitheater, 344 SW Shevlin Hixon Dr., Bend. $15-$35.
Mardi Gras Masquerade
PARTY — Beads, beads, beads! No this isn't your Daytona beach spring break, this is Mardi Gras. Dive into the boisterous carnival mood with the Mardi Gras to end all Mardi Gras... unless you're from New Orleans. Featuring DJs, casinos, a king and queen contest and a dedicated area just to throw beads into, this party may just get out of control. Did we mention the beads? 10,000 of 'em. // 8pm. Midtown Ballroom, 51 NW Greenwood Ave, Bend. $9 adv.
Pimps of Joytime
FUNKY — Been a while since you got your dance on? Waiting for a jolly good time that lets you shake your groove thang? Look no further, Benditos. The Pimps of Joytime earn every word of their band name, with Nawlins funk, '90s club and house, '60s salsa and hip-hop grooves. Yes, we really did just mash all those genres together in one sentence. See you there. // 9pm. Volcanic Theatre Pub, 70 SW Century Dr., Bend. $15 adv.
The Inner Solar System
STARS — It's been a long time coming (and we've been waiting patiently!), but the "Hopservatory" at Worthy Brewing on Bend's east side is finally ready for stargazing. During this event, you'll get the chance to explore the diversity of the solar system with folks from the Sunriver Observatory while checking out Worthy's new space. // 6pm. Worthy Brewing, 495 NE Bellevue Dr., Bend. 13 and under must have an adult. Free.
MUJERES MUSICALES — Multi-cultural and eclectic in style, the Mariachi Divas are here to show you that this brand of music doesn't have to fit into the same ol' box time after time. Go to the show and be prepared to see how music can have no boundaries... and can be led completely by ladies, too. // 7:30pm. Tower Theatre, 835 NW Wall St., Bend. $28-48.
REGGAE — Chill out and groove on with the positive vibes of the Common Kings. Born in the South Pacific and raised in Orange County, these guys understand how to have fun and squash negativity. With an impressive list of classic feel-good rockers as major influences, the Common Kings blend reggae, rock and pop into one rocking good time. 7pm. 51 NW Greenwood Ave, Bend. $15.
Latest in Picks
Picks: Jan 18-24
Picks of the Week: Jan 11-17
Picks of the Week: Jan 3-10
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MAGNUM: THOSE OTHERS WHO LIVE IN OUR TIME, 1991
Magnum PDF 1991
MAGNUM: THOSE OTHERS WHO LIVE IN OUR TIME
Photofile 34, December 1991
FITTING THE LEGEND
The legend of the Magnum photo agency revolves around two heroic figures: Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Capa was an itinerant who invented for himself both a new name and a charismatic persona. He’s the one who is said to have said: “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” Capa “hated war buy he had to be there; his photographs were protests, those of a passionate pacifist.”1
I was therefore surprised to read that during 1954, just before he stepped on that fatal landmine in Indochina, Capa predicted that photojournalism was finished and the future for photographers like him lay in TV.2 Since
then, of course, photojournalism, as embodied in Capa, has become redolent with goodness and ‘truth’, whereas TV news has become associated with the trivial and prurient. The Jekyll to Hyde vision of Robert Capa transmogrifying into Derryn Hinch therefore seems slightly scandalous.
Cartier-Bresson and Capa complemented each other. They were “structure and movement, culture and nature, water and fire”.5 Cartier-Bresson was an aesthete with a surrealist heritage: “he was detached, he recorded serenity and peace, and he was the first to see the romantic mystery of everyday things.”4 He carefully enunciated an artistic philosophy of’the decisive moment’:
To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression.5
In the USA this fed into the formalist aesthetics of 1960s and ’70s museum art photography. The scandal of Capa’s interest in TV, and the art-historical periodisation of Cartier-Bresson’s ‘decisive moment’, prompts the question of why didn’t photojournalism just go away like Capa predicted? Why isn’t In our Time: The World as Seen by Magnum Photographers a historical show like the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ other blockbuster, Masterpieces from the Guggenheim? Why is Magnum presented as a potent lineage, still producing “some of the world’s most celebrated photographers”?6
CRITICISING THE LEGEND
It’s not as if the Magnum tradition hasn’t been the object of criticism for many years. From the 1950s onwards, the problematic semiotics of ‘truth’ in photojournalism became a favourite object of critique for cultural theorists like Roland Barthes.7 Meanwhile, historians of art photography had extended the ‘tradition’ of photographic formalism back, far beyond Cartier-Bresson himself, into the nineteenth century and towards the very ‘core’ of photography as an art category. In 1966 the Director of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art wrote: “It should be possible to consider the history of the medium in terms of photographers’ progressive awareness of characteristics and problems that have seemed inherent to the medium.”8 Lately, this institutionalised valorisa-
\tion of a picture’s formal architecture and choreography has also been severely criticised for its reductivism.9
Rather than reiterate these perpetual but seemingly ineffective critiques, I want to answer the question ‘why doesn’t Magnum just go away?’ by placing it within the context of our contemporary visual environment. In particular I want to discuss war photography. It is perhaps too easy to conflate the Magnum tradition with ‘war photography’ in general, but a glance at the exhibition confirms that battles of various sorts, be they the psychological battles of the lunatic, or the gun battles of an army, are the paradigmatic Magnum subject. After all, battles provide the stock-in-trade of the visual media: visceral immediacy, visual movement, and a ready-made narrative trajectory inevitably leading to either resolution or yet more conflict.
THE THREE AGES OF PHOTOJOURNALISM
As the layout of the show makes clear, the first period of photojournalism – before Capa’s crucifixion – was its golden age. The baddies were bad, the goodies were good, and photographs of war had a kind of virginal freshness about them: “Robert Capa’s camera captures a Spanish soldier the instant he is dropped by a bullet through the head in the Front of Cordoba”, read the 1937 LIFE caption to the single nascent image of the Magnum tradition. In 1938, Picture Post upped the ante with a screaming headline “This is War!” for the same series of pictures. Another caption claimed: “You can almost smell the powder in this picture.” These tropes of immediate experience quite deliberately prompted the reader to compare the picture magazine favourably to the rival new technology of live radio broadcast. But Picture Post was also careful to place its readers in an experientially frightening, but ideologically safe, position. It claimed that these “finest pictures of front-line action ever taken…are not presented as propaganda for, or against, either side. They are simply a record of modern war from the inside.” Being down on the ground gave you front-line thrills along with a safe position beyond mere ‘polities’.
By the 1950s, this relationship between the viewer and the viewed had become corporatised. For magazines like LIFE, the “life” referred to in its title was, more often than not, their lives which were lived elsewhere for us to visit. In Henry Luce’s words,
To see life; to see the world; to eyewitness great events; to watch the faces of the poor and the gestures of the proud; to see strange things – machines, armies, multitudes, shadows in the jungle and on the moon … to see and to take pleasure in seeing; to see and to be amazed; to see and to be instructed.10
This kind of journalism used the language of spectacle: it spoke of ‘theatres of war’, ‘picture stories’ and events on ‘the world stage’. The one stable spot in this life was the Western living room from which our gaze was projected on successive trouble spots flaring up randomly around the world – as though we were somehow off its surface. The ‘world’ revealed to us may have been as far away as China, or as close as Harlem, but it never intruded on our own domestic sphere – the middle class living room where LIFE magazine was first stacked on the coffee table and then underneath the TV set.
The actors on this stage were diverse: they were the poor or the rich, the young or the old, the insane or the powerful, and the quaint or the radical. Their differentiation not only followed the marketing logic of’something new every week’, but the inchoate diversity of those who lived elsewhere also marked their Otherness from us. In their unstable difference they helped define our singular identity.
The Australian version of the exhibition is divided into decades, and each decade is introduced with a wall panel that parallels advances in Kodak technology (a sponsor) with events on the world stage and then with local events – Phar Lap winning the Melbourne Cup, the opening of the Sydney Opera House, etc. This is peculiar since, as far as In Our Time is concerned, Australia does not exist. But then, as far as In Our Time is concerned, the Western middle class hardly exists either: it is the ground zero from which the world is seen.
In a geo-political sense this is also a form of neocolonialism. Many of the conflicts of world politics are the result of European imperialism. The concerned writers and photographers of the 20th Century have only followed in the footsteps of the Sahibs and Bwanas of the 19th Century. The spectacle of Third World struggle is stripped from the the strugglers within exactly the same power structure as their raw materials were stripped before (and are still stripped). Such global politics have also imploded into the nation state, providing the spectacles of slums or political protest.
Of course, towards the end of this second period of photojournalism the TV camera and satellite dish became much more important than the Leica and the scribbled caption, just as Capa had predicted. Ironically, this allowed photojournalism to clamber up onto some higher moral ground and claim the museum wall and glossy book – rather than the throw-away magazine – as the proper space for its display. As the introductory wall panel for In Our Time states,
In the past couple of decades the photography field has become increasingly complex. The commercial interests of many magazines have tended more than ever to obscure visual information, and in covering news events, photographers have had to contend with manipulated photo opportunities imposed by governments and public relations officials. The generation of photographers who entered Magnum during the seventies and eighties has had to respond to such challenges. A surge in the publication of illustrated books has presented outlets that have been expanded on by photographers who have revealed their major coverages in the form of personal diaries, testaments or extended studies.
Hence we get the third period: the so called New Photojournalism of the 1980s where Magnum photographers like Susan Meiselas or Gilles Peress combined a formal adroitness, only possible after a thorough training in modern art photography, with the conceptual motivation of’concern’ unchanged since Capa. Thus, there is no question of whether In Our Time ‘belongs’ in an art museum. Of course it does. The progenitors of Magnum have been tightly stitched into the history of art photography, and their inheritors fit the bill for a postmodern museum artist: they self-consciously combine ‘quotes’ from both historicised passions and historicised styles. Much of their imagery returns to the surrealist alienation that always lay just behind the origins of photojournalism. Their captions have become cryptic and many of their photographs, for example those taken by Gilles Peress in Iran, are indistinguishable from the sophisticated urban ennui of a Garry Winnogrand.
TWO TV WARS
Magnum may have been able to evade the bad smell of heartless exploitation which has popularly hung around television reporting, in fact it has probably only retained its halo by defining itself in opposition to television, but has it been able to evade the implications of the latest phase in the global trade in images of conflict?
Ken Jarecke was just one of the 750 journalists accredited to the Pentagon during the Gulf War. Though not a member of Magnum, he was under contract to Time. Only twenty-eight years old, his big break had come with a stakeout of Oliver North’s home during the Iran Contra hearings. Journalists
covering the Gulf War were strictly controlled by the Military. They were ‘pooled’ with other journalists and escorted by press officers from either the U.S. Military, the Saudis, or the Washington public relations firm retained by the Kuwaitis. While returning to Saudi Arabia from Kuwait, Jarecke took the picture “Iraqi soldier, killed in a truck on Highway 8 near Nasiriya, Iraq”. In the photographer’s own words:
We stopped at about 9.30 in the morning and photographed some U.S. medics tending wounded Iraqis, although we weren’t supposed to photograph causalities. Then I noticed something: a body lying on the road … Now I thought what I was seeing was compelling. While still in our vehicle surveying the scene one of our Press Affairs Officers told me that making pictures of dead guys didn’t excite him. I told him that it didn’t get me off either… But I told him that if I didn’t make these pictures it would be a distortion of reality … He knew that I was going to make the picture but he had to put his two cents in. Down the road just a little further there was a truck that had been bombed while trying to escape from Kuwait into Iraq. I made a shot of the truck from where I wras standing using a Canon EOS-1 with a 35mm lens … it was a while before I noticed the burned guy in the truck… I changed lens and shot some black and white and colour and got back into our vehicle and we left. I wasn’t thinking at all about what was there; if I had thought about how horrific the guy looked I wouldn’t have been able to make the picture. I just concentrated on the technical problems … I didn’t start thinking of the picture as symbolic, though, until later when I was talking to Jim Helling, the CBS cameraman in my pool … He said he wanted a print of the soldier in the truck. At first I didn’t understand why. When I asked him he said something that really hit me: ‘because that’s the face of war.’ He had realized how powerful the scene was immediately … as a photographer I began to get ticked off about the picture of the burned Iraqi before I even got home. I figured it would never get published in this country. In fact when Associated Press in Dhahran transmitted the picture, some editor in New York took it off the wire. It wasn’t even distributed in the US until my agency got it. But I think people should see this. This is what our smart bombs did. If we’re big enough to fight a war we should be big enough to look at it.”
In its laconic off-handedness, this is a very familiar account of “How I Made That Great Picture”.12 But in another sense this is also a very unusual photographer’s description, because any sense of the ‘fierce independence’, so celebrated within the Magnum tradition, is almost totally absent. Although he expresses a commitment to undistortedness, Jarecke is resigned to the fact that his images are thoroughly militarised. There is none of the ‘no taking sides’ philosophy of 1937 Picture Post; each of his shots is completely articulated within, and by, Desert Storm. Although his colleague at CBS may have seen the image as a direct equivalent to Capa’s ‘Loyalist Soldier, Spain’, he too realised that it was not destined to shock the world. So he asked for his own print.
The journalistic pool system was the Pentagon’s response to the freedom of movement journalists had enjoyed during the Vietnam War. Although the same freedom existed in previous wars, the popularisation of television was seen to have fuelled the anti-war movement. In the Gulf War the very real likelihood of a growing domestic peace movement was immediately factored into the military strategy. Images were stockpiled and deployed like any other ordnance. Who can forget Stormin’ Norman’s press briefings where the latest Slam Cam footage of a successful Smart Bomb surgical strike was shown on a TV monitor sitting on a plinth like a piece of video art? The Iraqis even attempted to use images ballistically, sending video images of downed airmen, via CNN, to the allies. When photographs of the bruised pilots were solidified out of the flow of the video signal and printed in all their pathetic glory in newspapers throughout the western world, the tactic backfired on Hussein and domestic support for the War effort strengthened.
This image feedback between the two sides goes beyond good old fashioned propaganda because both sides are happy to share the same media conduit. CNN was invited to stay in Baghdad. And the restriction on journalistic activity goes beyond mere censorship. Rather it is a bureaucratised management of images. Plenty of close-up action shots were published, but they were taken during training, not battle. The direct militarisation of the media’s hyperspace extends the development of technological vectors of vision contiguous to technological vectors of destruction, as outlined by Paul Virilio.13 It constitutes an expansion of ‘the theatre of war’ into domestic space and a direct and tactical enlistment of public opinion. It declares a state of emergency in the domain of images and suspends the sanctity of journalistic truth.
As was frequently noted around our dinner tables at the time, for us at home the Gulf War was not a visceral war. It was an abstracted war. The flat plains of the desert became continuous with the green screen of the computer. But another war was shown on our screens about eight months after the Gulf War, and in that war photography’s power to tell the truth and not take sides was triumphant. We saw the suffering of war etched on innocent faces, we saw the horror of war in the form of bloated bodies about to burst their uniforms, we saw the futility of war in the strangely silent aftermath of battles, and we saw the resilient heroicism of war in the details of
camp life camaraderie. As TV critic after TV critic wrote: we not only saw, we felt. In the tradition of Magnum that war was photography’s finest hour. But that war was the American Civil War, fought in the 1860s and telecast by SBS-TV. The TV critics yearned for the pure motives of the freelance photographer trailing after the marching armies in his caravan, they celebrated the ennobling effects of the wet plate’s extended exposures, and they responded to the surreal melancholy of the tableau. They wanted, and they got, a real war. A war totally unlike the Gulf War.
NOSTALGIA FOR OUR TIME
In Our Time was launched on its world tour way back in 1989 when the Gulf War was just a gleam in Saddam’s eye. We can’t expect it to engage with this new politics of the image. But the unprecedented popularity of the show in Australia has to be accounted for in the wake of the War. It seems to have touched off a nostalgia for political spectacle on the world stage. Perhaps this nostalgia is an attempt to restabilise the centre of the world – our own living rooms. We have now become as spectral as those others who once lived in our time. And Magnum is still complicit.
Gael Elton Mayo, “The Magnum photographic group”, Apollo, September, 1989.
Fred Ritchin, “What is Magnum?”, In Our Time: The World as Seen by Magnum Photographers^ Andre Deutsch, 1989.
Jean Lacouture “The Founders”, Ibid.
Mayo, Op Cit.
Henri Cartier-Bresson, The Decisive Moment^ Simon & Schuster, N.Y., 1952.
In Our Time, brochure.
Roland Barthes, Mythologies^ Hill and Wang, N.Y., 1972.
John Szarkowski, The Photographer’s Eyex Museum of Modern Art, N.Y., 1966
Rosalind Krauss, “Photography’s Discursive Spaces”, The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Mythsx MIT Press, 1985.
Fred Ritchin, “What is Magnum?”, Op. Cit.
“The Image of War”, American Photo, August 1991.
Dorothea Lange, “The Assignment I’ll Never Forget”, Popular Photography, February 1960; Robert Capa, Slightly OutofFocuSiN.Y. 1947.
Paul Virilio, War and Cinema:The Logistics of Perception^ Verso, London, 1989.
Posted on November 17, 2013 by martynjolly. This entry was posted in Writing and tagged 1991, Documentary, International exhibitions. Bookmark the permalink.
← From the Empire’s End, 1993
The Lives of Max Dupain, 1986 →
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'Murphy Brown' returns to save us from the fake news of the Trump era
Candice Bergen is the Wonder Woman of TV
Image: cbs
By Jess Joho 2018-01-24 23:48:23 UTC
From the depths of our fake news Trump dystopia rises an old and welcome hero: Murphy Brown.
CBS announced the return its groundbreaking '80s sitcom and, unlike the other countless nostalgic reboots and revivals (Will and Grace, American Idol, Charmed, Heathers, Roseanne), this one couldn't be more relevant in 2018.
SEE ALSO: Debra Messing calls out E!'s hypocrisy over gender equality straight to E!'s face
Known for its biting satire and social commentary, Murphy Brown pioneered through its portrayal of a single mom who was also a successful news anchor. The announcement even says that Murphy will return "to a world of cable news, social media, fake news and a very different political and cultural climate."
Oh god — someone please protect her Twitter account from getting doxxed by MAGA trolls.
Bringing back much of the original talent, Candice Bergen will revive her award-winning titular role, and series creator Diane English returns as writer and executive producer. CBS signed on for an initial 13-episode run of the multicamera show, airing in 2018-2019. It will be produced by Warner Bros.
While ahead of its time, Murphy Brown still achieved widespread popularity and accrued an astounding number of prestigious awards (18 Emmys, three Golden Globes, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Directors Guild Awards, and two Writers Guild Awards) in its 10-year run.
You know what's sad? This is pretty much exactly what news rooms look like today
Trumpism isn't the only modern subject the show will be poised to address. The issues of gender parity, equal pay, and sexual harassment in news rooms continue to dominate the cultural conversation. The revival has a unique opportunity to push the boundaries it tackled decades ago.
As a celebration of the show's 30th anniversary, you'd think we'd be further along in solving the systemic issues it originally brought to light. But as it turns out, we need Murphy Brown now more than ever.
Will Murphy be wearing her Time's Up pin? One can only hope and pray.
WATCH: The inspiring reason your favorite stars wore black on the red carpet
Topics: CBS, Entertainment, fake news, murphy-brown, Politics, times-up, trump
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WhatsApp cofounder leaves following Cambridge Analytica scandal
Cofounder and CEO of WhatsApp Jan Koum is leaving his Facebook-owned company.
Image: Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images for Discovery
The man who Mark Zuckerberg says taught him about the power of encryption is leaving the Facebook family.
The departure of WhatsApp CEO and cofunder Jan Koum comes after Facebook's biggest privacy scandal to date. And six months after WhatsApp cofounder Brian Acton left the company and joined the #DeleteFacebook movement. Facebook bought the chat app, which highlights and promotes encryption and user privacy, in 2014 for more than $19 billion.
In a Monday Facebook post, Koum wrote it was time for him to "move on." He plans to spend time "collecting rare air-cooled Porsches, working on my cars and playing ultimate frisbee."
The Washington Post said Koum will also leave the Facebook board of directors. Koum had issues with Facebook's approach to privacy, user data, and encryption, unnamed sources "familiar with internal discussions" told the Post. Facebook's poor privacy protections were exposed last month during the fallout of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which centered on a quiz app that sucked up user data, and their friends' data.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg responded to Koum's departure post thanking him "for everything you've taught me, including about encryption and its ability to take power from centralized systems and put it back in people's hands."
Despite the apparent hard feelings reported by the Post, Koum wrote, "I'll still be cheering WhatsApp on — just from the outside."
WATCH: Mark Zuckerberg's Congressional hearing was all of us trying to explain technology to our grandparents
Topics: apps-and-software, big-tech-companies, cambridge-analytica, Facebook, Tech, WhatsApp?
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You are here: Home / News / Politics / The Battle for Wailuku: In debating the Wailuku Civic Complex, stakeholders grapple over “revitalization”
The Battle for Wailuku: In debating the Wailuku Civic Complex, stakeholders grapple over “revitalization”
April 3, 2019 by Axel Beers 1 Comment
A recent rendering of the Wailuku Civic Complex
“Wailuku is dead.” That could have been the rallying call of those testifying in support of the Wailuku Civic Complex at the March 29 meeting of Maui County Council’s Economic Development and Budget Committee. The lead suspect in the death of this historic town? Well, that remains a mystery with multiple suspects. But proponents of the complex made it clear that the $84.2-million project represented the best chance for Wailuku’s resuscitation.
As supporters of the costliest item in the county’s FY2019 budget took turns justifying its price tag by calling Wailuku “dying,” “in decay,” “broken,” and “not functional,” detractors voiced discontentment with the project’s cost, perceived lack of community input, and potential impact.
The testimony during the day-long committee meeting circled around a single agenda item: a move by EDB Committee Chair Councilmember Keani Rawlins-Fernandez (Moloka‘i) to defund the Wailuku Civic Complex. With the $40-million-plus first phase of the project authorized for bonds and scheduled to break ground this summer, Rawlins-Fernandez proposed stripping the project’s funds to about $13 million, just enough for the already-contracted offsite infrastructure improvements, which include upgraded water and sewer lines, storm drains, underground utilities, and road surfacing in the surrounding area. Under this proposal, construction of Wailuku Civic Complex Phase 1B, the parking structure, would be halted and hacked from the previous budget.
At the end of the day, the proposal failed by a vote of 3-5, with only freshman Councilmembers Rawlins-Fernandez, Tamara Paltin, and Shane Sinenci supporting defunding the complex. Councilmember Tasha Kama (Kahului) was not present.
Despite the roundabout arrival at the status quo, the meeting illuminated community sentiment regarding the contentious multi-million-dollar project, and stimulated discussion around “revitalization,” a buzzword that remains loosely defined.
For commercial landowners, it meant transforming Wailuku into a destination.
With the full buildout of the civic complex, the town could be a “place where people on Maui gather and we go for dinner, we go for arts, and also retail,” said Jonathan Starr, a long-time supporter of the project and landowner of multiple commercial parcels in Wailuku Town.
“Wailuku needs a reason for people to come and a reason for people to stay,” echoed Kristen Holmes, who owns commercial property and a business at the corner of Vineyard and Church Streets. “I personally feel that creating an arts and culture district would create a base for the after-5[pm] crowd.”
That rhetoric made some Wailuku residents bristle.
“One of the things that I’ve read a lot on Rewailuku.org is that they want to attract tourists; they want the area to be like Kihei, Lahaina, and Pa‘ia, and – to be honest – that’s just appalling,” said one Wailuku resident. “This is a place where local citizens go. We don’t want, necessarily, an influx of tourists in this area.”
For others, “revitalization” is less about realizing some grand visitor-oriented vision and more about addressing Wailuku’s more immediate problems, like parking and retail vacancies.
“You go out there and look at these business that are boarded up and closed up – Wailuku Town is dying,” said Lawrence Kauha‘aha‘a, who runs the Wailuku Clean and Safe Program which maintains the Market Street area. “To me, it’s just as simple as creating more parking.”
Saedene Ota, co-owner of the now-closed Market Street business Maui Thing, rattled off a list of small businesses and restaurants in Wailuku that have moved or closed in the last 10 years. “Small businesses need the support of not only ample parking but also an anchor hub like the civic center,” she added.
Likewise, Richard Dan, a business owner on Market Street, stated that the lack of parking has led to Wailuku’s decay. “The garage will save this town, will save this community. It will do nothing but help us,” he concluded.
But others questioned whether parking was really the culprit behind the retail vacancies, and whether development is really the adrenaline shot the town needs.
“[Vacancies are] kind of a problem in Maui in general,” said a Wailuku resident. “Everywhere is struggling. Everywhere has vacancies.”
“Something else is killing retail, something else is killing businesses,” agreed Sean Housman, who pastors Calvary Chapel in Wailuku. “I know that Maui Mall, you can go down there: Whole Foods is doing well, but you go around the corner, it’s full of empty stores, and there’s plenty of parking. You go down Dairy Road: There’s full-on malls, full of parking, empty stores. You go down to Queen Ka‘ahumanu Center: plenty of parking, empty stores.”
To these members of the community, revitalization efforts would be better focused on the basic functions of the county.
“NPR says State of Hawai‘i comes in with a D-plus for infrastructure which doesn’t surprise me,” said Wailuku resident and longtime business owner Colleen Rohozinski, who described a homeless encampment in the area and a time she personally had to direct traffic after a water main break.
“I’m more concerned about the needs of our community,” said testifier Nalani Kaninau. “I think that we’ve had development galore and I don’t know who this economic development benefits. Our village is leaving in droves because they can’t afford to live here.”
However, as County Managing Director Sandy Baz stated after the committee entered deliberation, such issues can’t be solved by a simple redirection of the funds that have been authorized for the Wailuku Civic Complex.
“Each authorization to issue bonds for a project are individual authorizations,” he said. “So if this project, the bond authorization was not available, then we just couldn’t borrow the money. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the money is available for something else; you would have to appropriate new money for those purposes.”
Besides, the administration argued, the $80-million-plus loan is an investment in economic development that will pay for itself and more.
“My strategy in supporting the Wailuku Civic Complex is to generate revenue through economic development; and there are few possibilities with a better return on investment than downtown revitalization,” Mayor Michael Victorino stated in written testimony supporting the funding for the project.
He based this on projections that the complex will fund its maintenance and raise revenue through a combination of paid parking, paid vendor space, and – mostly – tax revenue from increased property values in the surrounding area.
Councilmember Rawlins-Fernandez noted that Victorino’s stance could put the county in the position of needing to support further area development in order to recover the investment. She asked Erin Wade, the lead planner of the civic complex, if the community was aware that last April’s “Analysis of Fiscal and Economic Impacts” of the Wailuku Civic Complex included building hotels as part of its economic projections.
Wade couldn’t answer the question, but responded, “I know that it has been, from the beginning, part of the analysis and it is really the whole point of downtown economic revitalization: to encourage and create value for properties that are significantly distressed and undervalued, which is the situation today.”
Increasing property values is “revitalization” that Councilmember Riki Hokama can get behind. The veteran councilmember harkened back to the ‘60s and ‘70s, when real property tax revenue from Wailuku and Kahului funded development in South and West Maui. Today, “West Maui is the number one district; South Maui is the number two district – the only two districts that have positive cash flow under real property taxation,” he said.
“I’m grateful that my district brings in a lot of revenue to the county,” Councilmember Tamara Paltin of West Maui responded, but then ticked off the problems that have arisen in her district as a result of growth, including traffic problems, injection wells, lack of affordable housing, and longtime residents “pushed out by commercial vending.”
“It’s kind of not all it’s cracked up to be, being the revenue generator for the county,” she said. “Sometimes it feels like you get pimped out, so to speak.”
The comment touched on the implicit questions of the day: What does “revitalization” really mean? Who does it benefit? And is it true revitalization if some benefit while others lose?
Until these questions are explicitly addressed, expect the battle to wage on.
What would the revitalization of Wailuku and Maui look like to you? On Thursday, April 4, the County of Maui will hold a public question and answer session on the Wailuku Civic Complex in Council Chambers in the Kalana O Maui (County) Building at 5pm.
[This story is part of MauiTime’s Changing Maui: Wailuku Civic Complex series. The series examines the Wailuku Civic Complex project and the changes it will bring to Wailuku Town.]
Image courtesy County of Maui
Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: buzzword, changing maui, economic development and budget committee, keani rawlins-fernandez, Market Street, Maui County Council, Michael Victorino, revitalization, ReWAILUKU, Riki Hokama, Sandy Baz, Tamara Paltin, Wailuku, wailuku civic complex, Wailuku Town
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The New York Times Art Leaders Network Conference Recap
Publicized, as “A Summit for Innovators and Experts” The New York Times Art Leaders Network Conference held in Berlin, Germany, April 25th and 26th was a spectacularly successful event with speakers and attendees from 40 different countries.
Art historian Karolina Stefanski and artist Ai Weiwei.
The purpose of the invitation-only event was to bring together prominent museum curators and directors, gallery owners, artists, collectors, auction house executives and experts to examine and discuss the art world. This was the event’s first year, and The Times assembled an impressive list of speakers. To name only a few were artists Ai Weiwei, Jordan Wolfson, and Alicja Kwade; museum directors Glenn Lowry (The Museum of Modern Art, New York), Tristram Hunt (Victoria and Albert Museum, London), Markus Hilgert (Museum of the Ancient Near East, Berlin), Gary Tinterow (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston), Daniel Weiss (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), and Michael Govan (Los Angeles County Museum of Art). Among the many other speakers who hosted and participated in discussions were curators Ann Temkin (Museum of Modern Art), and Navina Haidar (The Metropolitan Museum of Art); and auction house chairmen, Marc Porter (Christie’s), Edward Dolman (Phillips), and Amy Cappellazzo (Sotheby’s); and a number of gallery owners and directors, collectors, art dealers, and New York Times journalists.
Read more as it appears on:
https://www.incollect.com/articles/the-new-york-times-art-leaders-network-conference-recap
Florida Weekly, “Cuba 101: Local ‘Caribbean-ophile’ dishes on U.S.’s southern neighbor”
Excerpt: Cuba, a land of swaying palm trees and rum so dark you couldn’t see them through your glass, captures the imaginations of Americans as a forbidden tropical Eden waiting to be rediscovered. For those who want a taste of what lies behind the now-penetrable curtain that hangs between our countries, design expert and Caribbean-ophile Michael Connors presents his books, “Havana Modern” and “Cuba 101: Beautiful & Nostalgic Places to Visit,” at 4 p.m. Monday, April 30, at Jett Thompson HOME, presented by Stay in May.
To read more, visit: Florida Weekly
[Photo credit: Florida Weekly]
Architectural Wonders: The Splendor of Cuba featured in The Avis
Unwind Magazine – Paradise Found
The Magazine Antiques: Saint Croix, Virgin Islands
Antiques & Fine Art Magazine: Caribbean Houses
A Breeze Blows Through the Drawing Room
by David Colman,
New York Author Seeks Bermuda Homes And Antiques for New Book
by Jessie Moniz
The Royal Gazette
Havana Modern – 10 Beautiful Books on Cuba Happening Now
St. Croix Avis
The World of Interiors, Book Round-Up
Iconic Cuba – NBC News
L’Officiel Paris – Havana Modern Feature
Opus Habana
Havana Modern – Antiques & Fine Art
‘Havana Modern’ Explores Mid-Century Cuba’s Architecture & Interiors – ArtFix Daily
Click here for PDF
Stuck in Time – Miami Herald
Maine Home + Design – November 2014
Havana Modern – Live Stream (Books & Books)
Available Here: http://www.booksandbooks.com/book/9780847843466
A revealing collection of astonishingly fresh and undiscovered midcentury architecture and interiors in Havana. Caribbean design expert and historian Michael Connors leads the reader on an unprecedented tour in Havana of the stunning and architecturally important private homes and buildings that have been meticulously preserved, previously unphotographed, and mostly inaccessible to visitors.
Architects + Artisans – Havana Modern: 20th Century Styles
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Wechua Nation
The Wechua Nation
Motto: Huñusqa Nasyunkuna (United Always)
Map versions Update 16.1.2 & after.
Capital Parap
Largest city Auquimarca, Rimarima.
Official language(s) Wechu (90%)
the Common Tongue (75%)
Alexandrian Fransch (15%).
Numbers do not round due to
large numbers of Wechua bilingual
speakers (Wechu & the Common Tongue).
Official religion(s)
Faith of Inti (75%)
Melusinian Faith (15%)
the Church of Alexandria (5%)
Other (5%).
Demonym Wechua
- Adjective Wechua
Government Divine, Absolute Monarchy
- Sapa Wechua Manco Cápac
- Inkap Rantin Vicaquirao Alvarez
- Legislature Council of the Realm
Establishment 7 January 2018
- Ranked NA
- Ranked
- Active 1 active citizen
Currency Sol
Abbreviation WEC
Time zone(s)
National website The Wechua Nation
National forum The Wechua Nation
National animal Llama
National food Native Potato
National drink Chicha
National tree Breadfruit Tree
The Wechua Nation (Wechu: Tawantinsuyu, lit. "The Four Regions"), is a landlocked nation in central Keltia composed of the Keltian native Wechua people. Its administrative and political center is located in the city of Parap. The Wechua Nation arose from the highlands of Central Keltia, namely the Mount Lacara area. The largest city and principal industrial center is Rimarima, located in a mostly flat region in the south of the country. The city of
The Wechua Nation is a constitutionally unitary state, divided into four regions. Its geography varies from the mountainous center (characterized by Mount Lacara), to the Southern Lowlands. It is bordered completely by the Keltian Green after its largest neighbor, Caputia, collapsed to the dreaded White Plague. The White Plague also struck the Wechua Nation, leading to a period of mass socioeconomic and political upheaval called the Wechua Sorrow, which saw the nation descend into state failure.
The country's population, estimated at 8,273,911 in 1673 AN, is multiethnic, including the native and predominant Wechua, Caputians, Alexandrians, and other small native Keltian population groups. The racial and social segregation that arose from the institutionalization of Wechua supremacy over the last 200 years of Wechua history has continued to the modern era, fostering social unrest and conflict within the country.
The Wechua Nation is a member of the Raspur Pact and it is considered a developing country. In 1673, the government-in-exile led by Sapa Wechua Manco Capac based out of Nivardom, Constancia re-established the Wechua Nation, imposed order and governance on the country once again. Called by the Wechua clergy and historians as "the Restoration", the return of Manco Cápac was a welcome moment of national resurgence and resiliency.
The Wechua Nation has a poverty level of 48.6%. Years of civil war, famine, and disease destroyed parts of the basic infrastructure and the roads that previous Wechua Kings had built and maintained. Its main economic activities include agriculture, forestry, mining, and manufacturing goods such as textiles and clothing. The Wechua Nation is rich in natural gas and marble.
2.1 The War of Four Sapas
2.2 The Wechu Border Wars
2.3 The Hammish Civil War
2.4 The Reign of Manco Cápac
2.5 Wechua Spring
2.6 Counterrevolution and White Plague
2.7 Wechua Exodus
2.8 Restoration
3.1 Geology
3.3 The Green
4 Government and Politics
4.1 Political Parties
4.2 Political Clubs and Pressure Groups
4.3 Foreign relations
4.4 Military and law enforcement
6 Infrastructure
6.1 Air Transport
6.2 Railways
6.4 Water supply and sanitation
7.3 Ethnic Groups
The Wechua name for the country is Tawantinsuyu, which means “the four suyu”. In Wechua, tawa is four and -ntin is a suffix that names a group, so that tawantin is a quartet, a group of four things taken together, in this case representing the four main regions of the country.
The four suyu are:
Chinchaysuyu (the north, based in the holy city of Taulliraju),
Antisuyu (east, based in Aquimarca),
Qullasuyu (south, based in the city of Rimarima),
and Kuntisuyu (west, based in Parap).
The term Wechua means “People of the Llamas” in the Wechu language. Originally, the term referred to the ruling class of the country, but as time passed, it became a way to refer to the people of the Tawantinsuyu as a whole.
Main article: History of the Wechua Nation
The Wechua nation is one of the oldest nations in the continent of Keltia. It has lived around Mount Lacara for centuries, creating their civilization in its altitudes. It is deemed by most Keltian history scholars to be among the most indigenous people of the continent.
The current Wechua nation was preceded by centuries of domination under several powers and then a period of state failure in the Keltian Green. The first inception of the Wechua nation was quickly engulfed by the more advanced Atteran Empire. The Atteran Empire quickly seized control of vast swathes of central Keltia.
To submit the Wechua to their control, the Atteran Empire engaged in a mass shipment of Wechua people to western Keltia. This created what is known in Wechua culture as the "Western Keltian Graft", a largely nomadic society that moved often around the Green in western Keltia before they were integrated in the Vanderveer Reich. These Wechuans held on to basic tenets of the original Wechua culture but largely have developed their own version of the language, called Coastal Wechu.
The Wechua nation has survived harsh conditions and circumstances aided by the conditions that allowed the creation of various foods, mainly the staple food called chuño. The llama became the prevailing pack animal for the Wechua people and can be found in their largest numbers around Mount Lacara. Agricultural innovations in a difficult environment and the level of organization and management by its early governments ensured the continued development and growth of the Wechua people for centuries.
The Wechua are unique in that their ancient ancestors lacked many features associated with many of the civilizations of Micras. Ancient Wechua lacked the use of wheeled vehicles, animals that could pull wagons and plows, lacked knowledge of iron and steel and most remarkably, a system of writing. Despite these perceived handicaps, the Wechua built a society and a culture that led to the creation of the current sovereign and independent Wechua state around Mount Lacara for the first time in the history of the Wechua people.
The Wechua people are noted for their monumental architecture, especially the construction of an extensive Wechua road network reaching western Keltia that is also in use in Caputia, as its key artery, the Via Wechua, crosses through most of that nation, reaching Zalae via the Old Zalae Bridge and continuing into Western Keltia through the Lewis Bridge into Hamland. They are also known for their ancient aqueduct projects in San Luis that still supply water to southern regions of the country. They are also known for their finely-woven textiles and the traditional use of knotted strings called quipu for record keeping and communication.
Later civilizations that came to dominate the Wechua, according to MCS map archives, are many, among them were the Federal Free Republic, Aerlig and later the Grand Commonwealth, and the ancient Madlandians who eventually migrated to Cibola and founded Alexandria.
The operational aspect of the early Wechua nation rested upon the tools of assimilation of nobility and the perpetuation of parochial differences. The formal education in Parap of the children of noble families from recently acquired territories disseminated fluency in Wechua, national law, and bureaucratic practices. Families which previously held political position were integrated into the Wechua bureaucracy, and traditional tribal areas of settlement integrated as provinces, their pre-conquest boundaries typically intact. The continuation of provincial dress was encouraged, serving the function of a social marker. Forcibly resettled populations were likewise not encouraged to assimilate into neighboring, indigenous populations.
The War of Four Sapas
Main article: The War of the Four Sapas
The War of the Four Sapas was a civil war in the Wechua nation that lasted for 11 years. The war was waged between the four sons of the late Wechuan ruler Sapa Wechua Inca Roca for the Wechuan throne. The war devastated the country and reached a bloody stalemate in its fifth year, where the evenly matched strengths of four brothers saw each one of them installed in the throne as Sapa, only for another to rise and overthrow the other in a year or two.
To end the war, the last two surviving brothers surrendered their claims to the Wechuan throne and submitted it for the election of the Wechuan people. This was the beginning of an organic concept among the Wechua Nation of democracy.
The Wechu Border Wars
Main article: Wechu Border Wars
The Wechu Border Wars were a series of military operations conducted by the military of the Wechua Nation to secure its borders on the onslaught of nomadic tribes of the central Keltian Green. This included campaign against the Commonwealth of Hamland for the security of its western borders, and a campaign to defend the east from waves of Qeyteraran mercenaries.
The Hammish Civil War
Main article: Hammish Civil War
The Wechua nation, under the leadership of one of its most beloved leaders, Sapa Wechua Atahualpa, sought to provide support to the nascent government of Interim Prime Minister Donat Ravaillac. After the assassination of Donat Ravaillac and the flight of Regina Ravaillac to Monovia, the policy was changed to provide support to the Ravaillac Loyalists and the National Salvation Front.
As Pallisican support of the National Salvation Front grew and many of Caputia's labor unions began to rally support around the National Salvation Front, the Wechua government's support switched to favoring groups like the Ravaillac Loyalists, the Israat Loyalists, and the United Monovia Congress.
The Reign of Manco Cápac
After the death of the beloved Atahualpa, a council of nobles and community leaders met in Huichajanca and elected his 25 year old grandson, Manco Cápac as the new Sapa Wechua.
Before the succession of Manco Cápac, next to the Sapa Wechua was the High Priest of the Sun, who more or less due to his oversight and control over the large religious land patrimony in the country was the second in command. Manco Cápac immediately moved to reform the organization of the government and named an Inkap Rantin, or a Chief Minister, to help lead the Wechua government. A Cabinet divided among several Ministries was created and Ministers were appointed to serve the Sapa Wechua, with the Inkap Ratin leading the Cabinet.
It was under the direction of Inkap Ratin Kayara Mayhuasca Soncco that the Wechua Nation officially set its claims and earned international recognition. As Caputia retreated from some of its territory, the Wechua Nation expanded into the Franja Transversal del Oeste to ensure security and order in the Green between Caputia and the Wechua nation. It is currently governed directly by the Wechuan military on behalf of the Sapa Wechua.
While maintaining the divine right claim of the Sapa Wechua to the Throne of the Sun and the Capac family status as a "holy and royal family, descendants of Inti", constitutional reforms were enacted that created a legislature called the Council of the Realm composed of nobles and commoners: a noble and a commoner from the city of Rimarima; a noble and a commoner from the city of Parap; two nobles and two commoners from each of the four regions.
Wechua Spring
Main article: Wechua Spring
The Wechua Spring began in 1661 as a wave of both violent and non-violent demonstrations, protests, and riots in the cities of Apurimaq and Rimarima. These protests had as their root causes high unemployment, high food and fuel prices, and growing dissatisfaction with the Government of Inkap Ratin Kayara Mayhuasca Soncco. Violent clashes between protesters and government forces in Apurimaq and Rimarima triggered larger demonstrations in other cities like Parap, Auquimarca, and Huichajanca.
With overwhelming support from the Raspur Pact, government forces were eventually triumphant over guerilla forces and radicalized protesters. The Wechua Peace Accords set a national standard for national reconciliation, and led to a new Constitution that enacted several institutional reforms that liberalized the government as part of a comprehensive peace and political settlement in 1666.
Counterrevolution and White Plague
Main article: Wechua Sorrow
Main article: White Plague
Wechua Exodus
Main article: Wechu Exodus
Following the onset of the White Plague and the collapse of the Wechua nation, the surviving members of the Tawantinsuyu placed themselves at the disposal of the Sacrifices of Butauros, the anti-Bassarid resistance network maintained by the Raspur Pact from bases in Normark. The first task of the new alliance was to lead to the coast those Wechua who wished to escape the persistent pressure of Bassaridic expansionism and emigrate to Natopian Tapfer or Constancian Eura.
Results and aftermath of the Wechua Spring
The Counterrevolution, rival claimant, claim that Capac has lost "divine favor"
Collapse of Caputia, White Plague marches through the country
Capac is ousted by the Counterrevolution, government-in-exile formed in Nivardom, Constancia
Counterrevolution causes protracted lack of a permanent central authority as factions within it begin to fight each other, Wechua begins to be characterized as a "failed state", warlordism
Renewed support from the Raspur Pact for the Government-in-exile leads to the re-formation/re-group of the Wechu armed forces, full assault against the Counterrevolution begins, encouraged by uprisings in the old Wechu cities, rise of the popular pro-Capac Mama Llaqta (Mother Nation) movement, siege of Parap.
Restoration and re-establishment of the Wechua Nation, Parap falls to government forces, the Transitional National Government is formed by Manco Cápac.
Reconsecration of Manco Cápac, establishment of the new Wechua Nation, declare the "Rebirth Era".
Main article: Government of the Wechua Nation
See also: Wechua Constitution of 1663
The Royal Standard of the Sapa Wechua.
The Wechua Nation is a unitary state, with a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy. The King of the Wechua Nation, also known as the Sapa Wechua, is the monarch and the head of state. The Sapa Wechua is considered by Wechua tradition to be the designated of the Sun God Inti to rule the Wechua Nation. The throne is confined upon the heirs, successors, and designates of the current Sapa Wechua Manco Cápac.
It is administratively subdivided into four Suyu, or Regions, that are established in the Constitution. These are:
Rimarima;
Parap;
Taulliraju;
Kuntisuyu.
The Regions (Suyu) of the Wechua Nation
Name of Region (Suyu) Map Capital Governor Seal Population
Chinchaysuyu Taulliraju Jose "Pancho" Villaverde
Antisuyu Aquimarca Amaru Quelka Allccarima
Qullasuyu Rimarima Yuraq Cahua
Kuntisuyu Parap Nina Caipa Pinchi
Formerly Occupied Territories
Franja Transversal del Oeste
The Sapa Wechua appoints a Prime Minister, also known as the Inkap Ratin, to serve as the head of government. The Sapa Wechua also appoints Ministers of Government to advise him in all affairs of State and serve with the Inkap Ratin. These appointments are made in consultation and advice of the Inkap Ratin.
The legislature of the Wechua Nation is the Council of the Wechua Nation. Members of the Council of the Wechua Nation are called Royal Councillors and are popularly elected. They are also allowed to serve consecutive terms. There are 301 Royal Councillors.
The judiciary is nominally independent, though political intervention into judicial matters has been common throughout Wechua history and arguably continues in the modern day. The highest judicial organ of the Wechua Nation is the High Court of Justice of the Wechua Nation.
Voting is compulsory for all citizens aged 17 to 70. Political parties were forbidden until the Restoration. The previously established political clubs and pressure groups were courted to join the efforts of nascent democratic parties as the nation became more politically organized after the return of Manco Cápac.
Political Clubs and Pressure Groups
Main article: Political Clubs and Pressure Groups of the Wechua Nation
Liberal Club
Inti's Union of Faithful
Social Democratic Club
National & Humanist Club
National Teacher's Union
Conservative Club
National Business Chamber
Mining Union
Guild of Building Trades
Main article: Foreign Relations of the Wechua Nation.
Prior to the fall of Caputia, Wechua foreign relations were dominated by the important relationship with neighboring Caputia.
After losing access to the coast with the fall of Caputia, the Wechua Nation has extended, as a state policy, a claim to parts of former Caputia and the Green that would provide the Wechua Nation with reliable access to the sea.
Main article: Military of the Wechua Nation.
The Wechuan Armed Forces are the military services of the Wechua Nation, comprising independent Army, Navy and Air Force components. Their primary mission is to safeguard the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country. As a secondary mission they participate in economic and social development as well as in civil defense tasks. The armed forces are subordinate to the Ministry of Defense and to the Sapa Wechua as Commander-in-Chief.
Despite being landlocked, the Wechua Nation has aspirations towards establishing a permanent naval presence. To this end it has an agreement with Caputia for naval access at the port of San Francisco. They had a small naval base east of the city that housed eight patrol vessels and three submarines, until these were seized by the government of Royston Merrick during the Wechua Spring. The Wechua have since received custodianship of an ancient Shirerithian diesel submarine as a piece of military aid from the Imperial Republic given under the auspices of the Raspur Pact. A technical mission has been sent to the MoMA Station Sabatini, as of 1666, to take possession of the vessel.
The National Police of Wechua is often classified as a part of the armed forces. Although in fact it has a different organization and a wholly civil mission, its training and activities as an anti-terrorist force have produced markedly military characteristics, giving it the appearance of a virtual fourth military service with significant land, sea and air capabilities. The National Police reports through the Ministry of Interior.
The Department of State Security serves as the Wechua secret police. Its stated purpose is to guarantee the safety of the Wechua Nation against both internal and external enemies. It maintains a vast network of citizens turned informants, and fights opposition by overt and covert measures, including hidden psychological destruction of dissidents. Its Directorate for Reconnaissance is responsible for both espionage and for conducting covert operations in the Keltian Green, and possibly in foreign nations. Its Main Department for Communications Security and Personnel Protection provides personal security for the Sapa Wechua, the Inkap Ratin and members of the Council of the Realm, and maintains and operates an internal secure communications system for the Wechuan Government.
Main article: Economy of the Wechua Nation
The Wechua Nation employs central planning, although it still has a substantial internal market economy. Its main trade partners are Caputia, Shireroth, Natopia, the Kingdom of Coria, Senya and Xang Muang. Its currency is called the Sol ($).
While there is a substantial trading and merchant class, most households outside of the large cities live in a traditional economy. Households are required to pay taxes, which can be paid with currency (usually in Sols or Laurels), or in the form of the mit'a (mandatory public service in the society of the Wechua Nation) corvée labor, military obligations, or though barter.
In return, the state provides security, food in times of hardship through the supply of emergency resources, large civil work projects and agricultural projects (e.g. aqueducts and terraces) to increase productivity,and occasional feasts. The economy rested on the material foundations of the vertical archipelago, a system of ecological complementarity in accessing resources and the cultural foundation of ayni, the native agricultural economic model of accessing and distributing resources.
The government administers a large network of qullqas, Wechua for storehouses, a large network of storage buildings found along roads and near the cities and political centers. It is policy of the Wechua Nation to store food and other commodities which could be distributed to their armies, officials, conscripted laborers, and, in times of need, to the populace. The uncertainty of agriculture at the high altitudes which comprises most of the country was among the factors which probably stimulated the construction of large numbers of qullqas.
National economic policy has varied widely over the past decades. At the beginning of the reign of Sapa Wechua Ayhuasca, a series of radical reforms were introduced, which included agrarian reforms, the expropriation of some foreign companies, and a large expansion of the already large state-owned sector. Some of these reforms were not changed until the first days of Inkap Ratin Kayara Mayhuasca Soncco's liberalizing Government. He moved to end price controls, protectionism, and most restrictions on foreign direct investment. Other economic reforms like low corporate taxes and a slightly more relaxed regulatory structure have permitted sustained economic growth in the country.
Services account for 53% of the Wechuan gross domestic product, followed by manufacturing (22.3%), extractive industries (15%), and taxes (9.7%). Recent economic growth has been fueled by macroeconomic stability, improved terms of trade, and rising investment and consumption. Trade is expected to increase further after the implementation of several trade agreements with Caputia, Shireroth, and Natopia.
The Wechua Nation's main exports are marble, foodstuffs, natural gas, and textiles.
The Qhapaq Ñan were the Royal Roads built by previous Sapa Wechuas. Its principal uses were for nobility to spread information and expand the Realm, but was also for soldiers, for transportation of goods, and for private usage. Not only are the Wechuan roads expansive, but are also well planned and maintained, helpd to a common national standard design for the roads throughout the country.
Lodges for travelers have risen all along the road system. Rest stops called tambos were built close to roads with water supplies so that travelers and messengers could have a place to rest and clean water to drink. Military store houses were also built near the roads and kept food for when troops were traveling. Bridges were built across rivers, with markers all over the road system to distinguish different sections of the roads.
The General Directorate of Civil Aeronautics administers a civil aeronautics school called the National Institute of Civil Aeronautics, and two commercial air transport services call Wechua Air and WechuTrans.
WechuTrans (the Wechuan Military Airline) is an airline based in Parap, Wechua. It is the civilian wing of the Wechua Air Force, operating passenger services to remote towns and communities in Wechua.
Wechua Air is the civilian flag carrier of the country and flies to Xang Khong (Xang Muang), Elijah's Rest (Natopia), Nijima (Hoenn), Nivardom (Constancia), and Mercury (Mercury). It is also a a civil transport airline, originally created as a subsidiary company of WechuTrans. Its inventory includes a fleet of Hercules C130 aircraft.
In 1673, Wechua Air announced the construction of a regional hub in Nivardom, Constancia. From there, the airline will be able to establish flights to Alduria and Natopia.
The two largest international airports in the Wechua Nation are Parap International Airport and Rimarima International Airport. Rimarima is the largest airport out of the two.
The Wechua Nation possesses an extensive but aged rail system, all in 1,435 mm gauge (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in), consisting of two interconnected national networks.
The Wechua Nation owns a communications satellite which was offshored/outsourced and launched by the Commonwealth of Hamland (now Caputia) named WechuSat 1. Electrical power advancements include a planned $300 million nuclear reactor developed by the state-owned Electricity of Wechua.
The water and sanitation sector in the Wechua Nation has made important advances in the last two decades, including the increase of water coverage from 30% to 80%. Sanitation coverage has also increased from 9% to 50% in rural areas. Advances have also been achieved concerning the disinfection of drinking water and in sewage treatment. Nevertheless, many challenges remain, such as:
Insufficient service coverage;
Poor service quality which puts the population’s health at risk;
Deficient sustainability of built systems;
Tariffs that do not cover the investment and operational costs, as well as the maintenance of services.
The City of Parap, Wechua.
The Wechua nation has a population of 8,273,911 inhabitants. Its demographic growth rate declined precipitously from 3.6% in 1664 to 1.2% in 1673. During that time, the nation was struck by the White Plague and a series of civil wars stemming from the end of the Wechua Spring and the ensuing political settlement.
The stress of the vicious civil war further allowed the White Plague to advance and claim the lives of millions of Wechuan citizens.
As of 1657, 65% lived in urban areas and 35% in rural areas. Major cities include the Parap Metropolitan Area (home to 1 million people), Auquimarca and Rimarima; both which reported more than 250,000 inhabitants in the last census (1657).
The Wechua Nation's official languages are Wechu and the Common Tongue, with other languages in areas where they predominate. Wechu is spoken by 90% of the population and the Common Tongue by 75% of the country. Other languages like Alexandrian Fransch, Alexandrian Martino, and Coastal Wechu (Aymara) are spoken by smaller groups.
Main article: Faith of Inti.
A visual representation of The God Inti.
75% of the population over 12 years old described themselves as Intians (followers of the Faith of Inti), 15% as Melusinian, 5% as members of the Church of Alexandria, and 5.8% to others or non-religious. The majority of towns, cities and villages have their own official patron deity.
Rimarima has the Melusinian Cathedral of Rimarima and the Church of Our Lady of the Mountains for the Church of Alexandria. Caputian and Alexandrian religious traditions also play a major role in the beliefs of many Wechuas. Some religious festivities and celebrations like Corpus Christi, holy week, the Birth of Melusine, and Christmas sometimes blend with native traditions.
Inti Raymi, which is an ancient festival honoring the God Inti, is still celebrated throughout the country and is considered the national festival. Great dances and processions are organized in every town and city of the Realm and they start a pilgrimage to the Holy City of Huichajanca for the yearly national Inti Raymi.
While the official religion of the Wechua State is the Faith of Inti, there is freedom of religion guaranteed by the Wechua Constitution of 1663. The Wechua Nation, however, requires that all religions must register with the state to obtain a license of practice. Once a license of practice is obtained from the state, the church organization becomes tax exempt, except for a single 4% tax on all church income to help fund national welfare programs and unemployment aid to Wechua citizens.
Ethnic groups in the Wechua Nation (1657 AN)
Population Size
Wechua 4,173,288 80.10%
Caputian (inc.
Haifan.) 875,321 16.80%
Alexandrian 119,822 2.30%
Natopian 28,421 0.55%
Other 13,348 0.26%
Total 5,210,200 100%
Wechuan culture is primarily rooted in Wechua and Caputian traditions, though it has also been influenced by other ethnic groups. Its artistic traditions date back to the elaborate pottery, textiles, jewelry, and sculpture of pre-Wechua cultures. The people of the Wechua Nation have maintained these crafts and made great architectural achievements.
Wechuan literature is rooted in the oral traditions of pre-Wechua civilizations. Many of the myths and beliefs of the Faith of Inti started through the oral traditions of these pre-Wechua cultures that lives around Mount Lacara. In pre-Wechuan times, musical expressions varied widely in each region, and they have greatly influenced modern Wechuan music.
Wechuan cuisine blends the native Wechua traditions with Caputian food. It also contains influences from Alexandrian cooking. The varied climate allows the growth of diverse plants and animals good for cooking:
Wechua culture places great emphasis on community and mutual help (ayni). The social system is based on reciprocity: you help your neighbors, they do something for you in return. Some Wechua communities were well enough organized that the guerrillas during the Wechua Spring could make little headway among them. This is part of the political culture of the Realm.
Literacy was estimated at 92.9%; this rate is lower in rural areas (80.3%) than in urban areas (96.3%).
Primary and secondary education are compulsory and free in state-run public schools. Teachers are organized in a single National Teacher's Union (NTU), which is one of the most powerful political pressure groups in the country.
There are two higher-education institutions: the state-run National University at Parap, and the privately-owned University of Rimarima. The National University maintains campuses in Zalae and Aquimarca.
The Faith of Inti maintains a large and prestigious religious college in the holy city of Huichajanca. The largest vocational school in the country is government-owned, called the National Trades College.
National University (Parap, Aquimarca, Zalae);
University of Rimarima (Rimarima);
National Trades College (Parap, Aquimarca, Rimarima);
Most Holy College of Inti (Huichajanca).
The Wechua Nation grants students that have been citizens of the country for at least 16 years a National Student Grant that tends to cover most of the expenses of a four year college education at a nationally-owned University. The standard grant covers tuition, room and board and a limited amount of basic student expenses such as supplies and money for public transportation.
The Wechua Nation forums
MCS: Wechua Nation Claim
Retrieved from "https://micras.org/wiki/index.php?title=Wechua_Nation&oldid=113160"
Wechua
Raspur Pact
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National Tour of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton Will Begin in Spring 2017
January 26th, 2016 | By Ryan Gilbert
West Coast, are you "Satisfied?!" Lin-Manuel Miranda's gargantuan Broadway hit Hamilton is heading out on the road to you first! A national tour of the tuner will begin performances in March 2017 at the SHN Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco, before playing its premiere Los Angeles engagement at the Hollywood Pantages August 11, 2017 through December 30. Casting will be announced later. Directed by Thomas Kail and featuring a book, music and lyrics by Miranda, the show is currently playing at the Main Stem's Richard Rodgers Theatre; an open-ended Chicago incarnation will begin its run this fall.
Hamilton is inspired by the book Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. The new musical follows the scrappy young immigrant who forever changed America, from bastard orphan to Washington's right hand man, rebel to war hero, loving husband caught in the country's first sex scandal to Treasury head who made an untrusting world believe in the American economy. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Eliza Hamilton and lifelong Hamilton friend and foe, Aaron Burr, all make appearances in the tuner about America’s fiery past.
Starring Miranda in the title role, the Broadway cast currently includes Jonathan Groff as King George III, Christopher Jackson as George Washington, Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr, Phillipa Soo as Eliza Hamilton, Anthony Ramos as John Laurens/Phillip Hamilton, Daveed Diggs as Marquis De Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson, Renée Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler and Javier Muñoz as Hamilton alternate.
Hamilton features choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler, musical direction and orchestrations by Alex Lacamoire, scenic design by David Korins, costume design by Paul Tazewell, lighting design by Howell Binkley, sound design by Nevin Steinberg and hair and wig design by Charles G. LaPointe.
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Area Planning Committee (Central)
Wednesday, 23rd May, 2018 7.15 pm
Agenda frontsheet PDF 115 KB
Agenda reports pack
Update Sheet PDF 43 KB
Venue: Council Chamber, Council Offices, The Burys, Godalming
Contact: Amy McNulty Democratic Services Officer
Appointment of Chairman
To confirm that Cllr David Else be appointed as the Chairman of the Central Area Planning Committee for the Council year 2018/19.
It was confirmed that Councillor David Else be appointed as Chairman of the Committee for the Council Year 2018-19.
Appointment of Vice Chairman
To confirm that Cllr Maurice Byham be appointed as the Vice Chairman of the Central Area Planning Committee for the Council year 2018/19.
It was confirmed that Councillor Maurice Byham be appointed as the Vice-Chairman of the Committee for the Council year 2018-19.
To confirm the Minutes of the Meeting held on 11 April 2018 (to be laid on the table half an hour before the meeting).
The Minutes of the Meeting held on 11 April 2018 were confirmed and signed.
Apologies for Absence
To receive any apologies for absence.
Apologies for absence were received from Councillors, Bob Upton, Maurice Byham, Anna James, Denis Leigh, Peter Martin and Stefan Reynolds.
Declarations of Interests
To receive from Members declarations of interests in relation to any items included on the Agenda for this meeting in accordance with the Waverley Code of Local Government Conduct.
Cllr David Else declared a declared a pecuniary/ interest in agenda item B2 - Step
Cottage, 26 Shadyhanger, Godalming GU7 2HR, as he was the architect for the application. He left the room for consideration of this item.
As the Vice Chairman was not present at the meeting, Cllr Andrew Bolton took the Chair for the consideration of this item.
Any Relevant Updates to Government Guidance or Legislation Since the Last Meeting
Officers to update the Committee on any changes to the planning environment of which they should be aware when making decisions.
Steve Weaver, the Development Control Manager, updated Members on the new system of applying for planning permission which came into effect at the start of that month. It applied to development where the “main purpose” was housing but some non-residential development may also be proposed as part of a housing-led mix. This application procedure was restricted to minor development comprising a maximum of up to nine dwellings, floorspace of under 1,000 sq. m or a site area of less than one hectare.
The application process was essentially a two stage one:
• Permission in Principle (PiP) stage – where the LPA settled the question of whether the site was suitable for development in principle and how much development the site was suitable for. An application for PiP must express the proposed development as a range and only need be accompanied by a form and a location plan.
• Technical details consent (TDC) stage – where the LPA assessed the detailed scheme.
In some respects the process was not dissimilar to the current process of an Outline Planning Application with all matters reserved, followed by a Reserved Matters application for details relating to appearance, means of access, landscaping, layout and scale which would continue to exist. However, the LPA had a much shorter time period to determine PiP and TDC applications, just five weeks for each, and the scope of the consideration of the initial PiP application was limited to matters of location, land use and amount of development only – all other matters being considered at the TDC stage.
In terms of public engagement, LPAs were required to advertise PiP applications only by displaying a site notice on or near the site and advising that representations must be made within a period of not later than 14 days. Whilst there was no statutory requirement to write to adjoining residents, it had been agreed with the Portfolio Holder that they would do so – but again they could only give a 14 day response period.
Given the challenging timescales in play, as well as adding applications to the weekly Planning lists in the normal way, officers would be notifying ward councillors and Town/Parish Councils directly on receipt of any PiP application in order that they could quickly appraise themselves of the case and any queries they might have.
As mentioned above, the time period for a decision on a PiP was five weeks from the date of receipt. If the applicant was willing, it was possible to agree an extension of time to the determination period. (NB The current period for the determination of planning applications of this nature is eight weeks). PiP applications could be refused and, if this was the case, this refusal could be appealed. If a decision was not made within the prescribed five weeks period there was no automatic permission although the applicant could appeal on the basis of a non-determination.
In terms of referrals to Committee, whilst it wouls be possible for a ... view the full minutes text for item 6.
Performance Against Government Targets PDF 49 KB
Planning Performance and the Government target on quality on planning decision making will now be a standard item on the Area Planning Committee agenda. This was an agreed recommendation at Executive on 28 November 2017 and is part of the Development Management Service Improvement Plan.
The latest available statistics are attached.
The Committee noted the latest performance statistics noted in the report.
Applications for Planning Permission PDF 39 KB
Background papers (as defined by Section 100D(5) of the Local Government Act 1972) relating to reports are listed under the “Representations” heading for each planning application presented, or may be individually identified under a heading “Background Papers”.
The implications for crime, disorder and community safety have been appraised in the following applications but it is not considered that any consideration of that type arises unless it is specifically referred to in a particular report.
RESOLVED that the applications for planning permission be determined as set out below.
Item B1, WA/2017/1750 - Wyatts Almshouses, Wyatts Close, Godalming PDF 2 MB
Erection of 6 dwellings and alterations to existing almshouses.
That, subject to conditions, permission be GRANTED.
Erection of 6 dwellings and alterations to existing almshouses
RESOLVED that permission be GRANTED subject to conditions 1-9 and informatives 1-5.
Item B2, WA/2018/0396 - Step Cottage, 26 Shadyhanger, Godalming PDF 2 MB
View the declarations of interest for item 10.
Erection of extensions and car port.
That, subject to conditions and consideration of the views of the Council’s Tree and Landscape Officer, permission be GRANTED.
Erection of extensions and car port
RESOLVED that subject to conditions 1-2, an extra condition in relation to glazed glass noted below and informative 1 permission be GRANTED
3. The high level window in the south western flank elevation of the extension hereby permitted shall be glazed with purpose made obscure glasing to the extent that intervisibility was excluded and shall be retained.
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Posted on November 11, 2009 December 13, 2009 by Sean
The Weekly Anime Roundup: Nyan Koi Ep. 6 and More
In addition to Nyan Koi!, we’ll also take a look at a show I haven’t seen before in Thriller Restaurant, revisit 11Eyes, see if the plot in The Sacred Blacksmith finally goes anywhere and finally, if we have time, maybe even peek at Kampfer again.
Nyan Koi! 06
Ye who read are still among the living; but I who write shall have long since gone my way into the region of shadows.
…the shadow was vague, and formless, and indefinite, and was the shadow neither of man nor of God… And the shadow rested upon the brazen doorway, and under the arch of the entablature of the door, and moved not, nor spoke any word, but there became stationary and remained.
…having seen the shadow as it came out from among the draperies, dared not steadily behold it, but cast down our eyes, and gazed continually into the depths of the mirror of ebony.
And at length I… speaking some low words, demanded of the shadow its dwelling and its appellation.
And the shadow answered, “I am SHADOW, and my dwelling is near to the Catacombs of Ptolemais, and hard by those dim plains of Helusion which border upon the foul Charonian canal.”
And then did we, the seven, start from our seats in horror, and stand trembling, and shuddering, and aghast, for the tones in the voice of the shadow were not the tones of any one being, but of a multitude of beings, and, varying in their cadences from syllable to syllable fell duskly upon our ears in the well-remembered and familiar accents of many thousand departed lolis.
-THE END-
Thriller Restaurant 01 & 02
Do you guys remember watching Are You Afraid of the Dark? on Nickelodeon on Saturday nights? Man, I used to think those stories would be super creepy and I’d always hype it up to my cousins all the time. “Trust me guys, it’s actually gonna be scary this week.” Sadly, we got some lame stories every Saturday night. That’s how Thriller Restaurant feels. If I was eight again, I’d go through the same thing with Thriller Restaurant.
Thriller Restaurant’s palette is all out of whack. Does it have to be so bright? Ghost Hunt got the colors right, but then again, with Rie Kugimiya’s shrill voice, could anyone really be scared?
The stories in Thriller Restaurant aren’t egregiously bad and neither are the characters, but that doesn’t mean anything’s good either. Actually, it’s all quite bland. Since this is obviously a kid’s show, let’s bring something else up. I personally doubt horror would ever really translate effectively to anime.
How can you ever be in the mood to be scared when you have honking anime eyes staring at you? In all seriousness, however, horror to me is about the suspension of belief. It’s hard enough to do that with a live action movie like Ringu, but then you’ve got valiant attempts in Paranormal Activity to seem as real as possible and they still don’t do anything for me. How can anime, therefore, stand a chance? Has there ever been anime that was scary? I haven’t seen one.
On a tangent, could you imagine how fast food corn would go down in America?
11Eyes 05 & 06
If you wanted to see panties, it just seems easier to watch Sora no Otoshimono’s ED over and over. Otherwise, I really don’t see anything of value in this show.
The protagonist is in the obligatory training stage. He’s like super amateurish but also full of boundless potential or something. Yeah, great stuff. Too bad he just fights like a giant fairy.
He gets super injured and the only prescription apparently is to get nekkid. Didn’t you have to have sex in Fate/Stay Night? Only in eroge. Since this show’s so useless, let’s at least turn this into something educational.
I always wondered why members of Japanese biker gangs (bosozoku) wore those bandages around their torsos. I initially thoughts girls might do it to tape down their chests for practicality, but then guys do the same thing. Plus, there’s no way in hell the school nurse can manage to tape anything down. It’s Google time and I found two sources. First, Wiki has to say:
They will also often wrap a tasuki, which is a sash tied in X around the torso, a look inspired by Japanese World War II fighter pilots.
More interesting, however:
In Japan there’s a traditional road race — a 2-day 134-mile 10-person relay called the Hakone Ekiden — that Ken Belson of the New York Times (4 Jan 2004) describes as “… something akin to the Boston Marathon, the Final Four and the Super Bowl rolled into one. More than a run for the tape, the race encapsulates the perseverance, pathos and unswerving loyalty the Japanese value so highly.”
The most mundane objects can, over time, acquire huge symbolic meaning and importance. Instead of batons, teammates in the Hakone Ekiden hand off strips of fabric. As Belsen writes:
These cloth sashes, called tasuki, are ordinarily used to tie back long kimono sleeves. But on race day, they are endowed with the power of each college’s legacy and are even blessed by teams at shrines. In effect, they embody the spirit of the race the Japanese find so appealing.
“The weight of the tasuki is heavy,” said Atsushi Miyashita, a 30-year-old businessman, who has gone to Hakone to watch the race every year since he was a boy. “It connects the runners with all those who ran before. This race is not about any one person.”
Like another relay: life…
Well, isn’t that more interesting than 11Eyes?
The Sacred Blacksmith 06
Oh boy, it’s DBZ with swords. Instead of impossibly buff guys grunting and ripping clothes off of each other, it’s a bunch of impossibly thin girls grunting and waving really big swords. Like really big.
I said to Nyoron here, “Use me!” C’mon, it was a joke; she’s not really gonna say-
Hey, what do you know?
This show is unintentionally hilarious. Okay, okay, I’ll be serious. This is very serious. Katanas are serious juju, man, don’t fuck with them. There’s some Cecily rant later in the episode about how Aria is totally not an object blah blah blah, which is kinda funny I guess ’cause the show parades her around in nothing but skimpy clothes and she literally turns into a tool for violence but HEY SHE IS NOT AN OBJECT OKAY?! But nevermind that–that’s boring stuff and we don’t care about that. We care about katanas and how fucking cool they are.
Wasn’t that fucking cool?
Awesome. I couldn’t do that with some shitty sword. I would need a… katana.
This fine gentleman also has a video about surviving the zombie apocalypse. Should you find yourself in New Orleans with naught but a trusty katana and your laptop, be sure to watch that fine video! So far there’s only a part one, but I’m sure part two will be out in just a year’s time for practically the same price and content!
And no, The Sacred Blacksmith’s plot still sucks.
Kampfer 06
Nothing could be more fitting for this anime. As for the rest of the show–oh shit, Top Chef is on now and I’m missing it. I guess we’ll have to end here. What a pity.
Categories11eyes, Anime, Kampfer, Nyan Koi!, Series, The Sacred Blacksmith Tags11eyes, Kampfer, Nyan Koi!, The Sacred Blacksmith, thriller restaurant
11 Replies to “The Weekly Anime Roundup: Nyan Koi Ep. 6 and More”
thsj says:
Hilarious post.
And yes, those wikipedia articles are more interesting than 11 eyes could ever even hope to be.
KizukuKanshi says:
I did like the Blacksmith episode this time, because I’m an extreme fan of swordsmanship, though not to the point where I get angry when people look like they’re bad at it….I appreciate that they actually did do something, though it seemed like it was unrelated to the plot….I also thought to myself that this show REALLY does not have a plot at all. I mean yeah, the description just said “these are her adventures” or whatever, but I’m really not seeing how this is going to end. I mean unless they put off killing that “black-hooded man” until last episode, or maybe someone will decide to revive an ancient evil for no apparent reason (only to be one-shotted by a GOD KILLING katana.)
Oh and I love the shadows. XD
I understand the appeal of swordplay. I remember thinking Jin and Kariya’s duel at the end of Samurai Champloo was cool as hell. The problem with The Sacred Blacksmith’s sword fights is that they’re just a bunch of people slinging magical beams from their swords. There’s no artistry whatsoever. I was gonna make some kind of Zelda joke with regards to all the beam attacks, but it must have slipped my mind during the write up.
I’ve got no problem with fantasy swordplay either, though. In fact I love it, though compared to most of the fantasy swordplay I like, the stuff in here was nothing. I’m not sure if you’ve played Tales of Vesperia, but this, to me, is the pinnacle of fantasy swordplay in a game.
Oh I’ve got the game on the 360, but I was too busy playing Lost Odyssey. Just when I was about to put in Vesperia, Namco announces that the game would be coming to the PS3 with a ton of extra stuff. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with fantasy swordplay if it’s done well. I’m just not impressed with Blacksmith’s one note version.
Well as that kid said in the first video. “Whoooooooaaaa! Oh my gosh that’s shiny!” XD
I just finished 11eyes and all I have to say is that Yuka is pitiful and useless and it’s a wonder that mister generic emo-eyepatch-“boo-hoo-I-had-a-bad-childhood” wants to go to such lengths to protect such a pathetic sight. “Waaah! You were naked with someone else! Waaah! You’re making an actual friend and being concerned for someone else instead of me! Waaah! You won’t kiss me because you actually want there to be some meaning behind it! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Oops, I died…”
(Hopefully she did, anyway.)
Shads says:
-“How did you parry that attack with a mere sword?”
-“This is a mere katana!”
…I’m laughing and crying at the same time.
And the “Shadows” were absolutely hilarious. I almost feel like watching that show now “just because” now. =P
…wait, how did I end up here? Well, that’s one of the things to love about the internet. You google something, you find something completely unreleated that’s actually more interesting than what you originally searched for… and then you get totally side-tracked. =D
I like your feedback on these shows, however i disagree on The Scared Blacksmith. Yes, Aria does cause destruction. And well, yeah she does wear skimpy clothes. But in any anime you will find a fair amount of well, lets just say ‘Trampy’ clothing throughout the series.’ However, i think the storyline is great and i admire how women like Cecily, Aria and the other guards were fighting rather than some ridiculous, predictable men.
And well, yeah she does wear skimpy clothes. But in any anime you will find a fair amount of well, lets just say ‘Trampy’ clothing throughout the series.’
I don’t think “other anime are just as bad” is a very good excuse.
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Posted on May 30, 2016 May 30, 2016 by Sean
Monday Blues: Spring ’16, Week 9
But I’m not actually blue this week. After all, who can be sad after a nice, relaxing three-day weekend? Even though I have work tomorrow, it’s a shortened week, too. It’s the little things in life. And it looks like July 4th will be another three-day weekend. Hopefully, we’ll have some interesting summer shows to watch by then. But if not, that’s fine too. I’ll just work on my other project…
Big Order Ep. 7
Uh, so who is actually responsible for the Great Destruction? We were initially led to believe that Eiji was responsible, but now everyone’s saying his father is the true culprit. Or rather, his father created the system, i.e. Daisy, that allowed Eiji to cause the Great Destruction, because… because what? Why would you want to destroy the world? What’s the point? I’m asking because apparently Eiji’s father wants to create a second one. A better one. One that will finish the job. As a result, he kidnaps Sena, his own stepdaughter, to lure Eiji out. According to Hiiragi, the only reason they want to dominate the world is to prevent this from happening again. Hoo boy.
This week, we learn a thing or two about Hiiragi, but it’s nothing special. He and Eiji’s father used to work at a lab where they tried to turn people’s thoughts into energy. As you can probably tell, this technology is the precursor to Daisy. Oh yeah, Daisy is actually an acronym… if you cared. Anyway, it turns out Eiji’s memories have been tampered with, so he doesn’t even remember anything about his old man. It wouldn’t even surprise me if his memories of causing the Great Destruction are false as well. Hell, wouldn’t it be hilarious if she’s the one who fucked everything up instead? Actually, no, that would just be stupid.
Endride Ep. 9
A problem with these two-cour series is that we often have to find ways in order to kill time. Few shows are actually capable of drafting 24 to 26 episodes without resorting to pointless side stories and/or filler episodes. For a forgettable anime like Endride, this means flashbacks, flashbacks, and more flashbacks. Who are we learning about this week! Oh, it’s Alicia. She seems nice enough and everything, but at the same time, isn’t the girl rather superfluous? Why is she even traveling with these guys? She doesn’t seem like a revolutionary, nor does she approve of Emilio’s quest for revenge. It just seems like Alicia’s sticking around because we need to fill some sort of female quotient. I mean, she’s not even a love interest. We all know Shun and Emilio are gonna bang, so… yeah.
Anyway, boo hoo, she has no family. Super sad. During a trek through some snowy mountains, Eljuia falls into a crevice and into some icy cavern. When the rest of the group tries to rescue him. they run into a bunch of scary ice dragons! Oh no, what do we do! All of a sudden, Falarion, Alicia’s cute mini-dragon pet, turns into a fire dragon and protects Alicia. Wait, it gets better! It turns around and starts talking to its owner. Falarion is actually a living Warp Drive! Wait, no, Falarion is actually… DING DING DING, her long lost father! One day, her mother was killed by bandits, so her father ditched her to go on his own sad, pathetic revenge quest. After killing said bandits, he got sucked into his own Warp Drive, which is now some cute dragon thingie. Yeah.
So this entire time, whenever Alicia was petting or playing with Falarion, she was really playing with her dad. But it’s okay! His consciousness only emerges when she’s in actual danger! Totally not awkward at all. And how did he even find his way back to the girl? Maybe this was shown in a previous episode, and I just wasn’t paying attention. Ah well. And I’m amazed how the girl feels no anger or resentment whatsoever. She was left to fend for herself, but it’s cool. All’s well that ends well.
Gakusen Toshi Asterisk Ep. 9
Y’know, I don’t… I don’t even know what to talk about when it comes to this anime anymore. Julis helps Ayato evolve his Ser-veresta, and with it, he defeats the big, giant robot. The end. Wait, no, we still have half an episode left to go. Wait, half? Yep, the second half of this week’s episode is just one boring denouement where nothing really happens. The characters just go around patting cute girls on the head. Shit, I’ve been on this planet for quite some time now, and I’ve never patted a girl on a head. Just my cat’s head. Am I missing out? Is this some sort of transcendent experience? Anyway, the hero’s dumb sister is naked and imprisoned in some creepy dude’s basement… or not a basement. I don’t care. This is the worst show of the bunch. The true nadir of the season (only because I’m not watching the rest of the rejects).
Hundred Ep. 9
First, we battle the Hunters, but it’s okay. These bad guys aren’t really all that bad. After all, they have a tragic past, so we can go easy on them. Something about being child slaves… y’know, adult slaves are far more productive. Just a tip. Anyway, Hayato goes on a rant about how he wants to create a world where people can smile. Brave. Truly courageous. I’ve never heard an anime hero utter such an audacious wish before.
Out of nowhere, a new type of Savage shows up, and it threatens to kill everyone with its super powerful laser. Man, it’s a good thing anime lasers always take a long time to power up! Otherwise, we’d really be screwed! Unfortunately for our heroes, there’s a convenient barrier protecting the Savage from their attacks. If only there was a way for someone — someone like Claire — power up as well… oh that’s right, you just have to infect people with a virus that is transmitted through bodily fluids! Wait a minute…
So Hayato and Claire make out much to Emilia’s chagrin, and this somehow allows the rest of the group to overcome the Savage’s barrier. I guess you really only need Claire to be powerful. The rest of them can go fuck themselves. With the barrier down, the harem lead then flies in for the finishing blow, but the resulting explosion sends him into the briny deep. Emilia dives in immediately to rescue her boy toy, and hey, fair’s fair. She, too, gets to kiss the bastard if Claire is allowed to. Personally, I’m not one for sloppy seconds, but haremettes kinda have to get used to this sort of thing. And with that, the episode is over. These shows are so exciting, aren’t they? Yep, that’s it. That’s why I’m left speechless after every episode. Still, Hayato gets more action in a single episode than Ayato ever would in two whole seasons. Maybe that’s why he gets an extra letter to his name.
Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta. Ep. 8
So Nishimura gets his account phished at the worst possible time, and as result, his online waifu ends up having cybersex with some random dude. Nah, the anime would never go there. Instead, the bad guy is too dumb to even fake it. He just outright asks the girl for nudes, so she realizes right away that she isn’t talking to Rusian. Actually, the whole set-up makes no sense. It’s 2016. Why are you guys still typing shit to each other through the in-game chat? What happened to VOIP? Even better, our dorky hero apparently has no other way to message the girl. He has to quickly run to her room, pound on her door, and literally tell her in person that the online Rusian is an imposter. Right.
Anyway, the bad guy deletes all of Nishimura’s characters, and sells his items for good measure. The rest of the episode involves our group of MMO friends working day and night to help the guy get his stuff back. Eventually, the game’s admins will restore Rusian, but apparently, they can’t do the same for his items? Whatever. Nishimura and friends also hatch this incredibly convoluted plan to entrap the bad guy. This involves, again, working day and night in order to create a blog with three years worth of fake posts in order to trick the perpetrator. All just for some shitty online items.
Yeah, yeah, I get it. You have to grind for stuff in an MMO, so you develop a personal attachment. Hey, I’ve been a hardcore MMO gamer before. I can’t say, however, that I would’ve gone this far just to get some digital items back. After all, MMOs come and go. A family heirloom that’s been passed down through multiple generations is one thing. A digital item in a game that might not even be around in a year or two is not worth fighting for. But hey, that’s just me. For Nishimura and his girls, maybe they’ll never stop playing Legendary Age.
In the end, since he lost the ring, Nishimura’s in-game marriage to Ako was also annulled. But that’s okay, because they can just remarry. Woo.
Sakamoto desu ga. Ep. 7
I’ve got nothing to say. I just wanted to post some silly screenshots. Despite its repetitiveness, I sorta enjoy this comedy. I just think it’s incredibly dumb that a bunch of teenagers would rely on renting porn in order to see some naked ladies. Then better yet, they return the DVDs without even watching them. C’mon Sakamoto, don’t pretend your kids are innocent, virginal angels.
Seisen Cerberus Ep. 9
Unfortunately, Giruu isn’t dead. He just needs some really rare and expensive herb in order to heal in his injuries, so it’s time for another generic RPG-ish quest. Hiiro and Soraato go off on their own to fetch this plant. They end up in some strange area where everything, from the grass to the animals, are 100 times bigger than them. In the end, our hero manages to summon his inner Super Mario Bros. 2 and pull the lodged plant out of some giant tortoise’s back. This makes Soraato laugh, which is apparently as equally rare as the plant they’re after. Meanwhile, Erin, Palpa and Tomitte discuss the the looming threat of a continent-wide war thanks to Nambuuko’s arms-dealing shenanigans. In the end, Giruu is all healed up, and the group pay Master Theo a visit. This weird-looking old man not only knows Soraato, but he will supposedly teach Hiiro to be useful. But considering his weak pull-out game, I’m not expecting the kid to learn much.
All in all, it’s an unremarkable episode. I’m starting to wonder how this is all going to wrap itself up. It’s already the ninth episode, and we don’t seem to be anywhere near the finish line. At the same time, however, I don’t recall hearing that this show would carry over to the fall. I mean, who on earth would be dumb enough to greenlight that? It’s a miracle Seisen Cerberus got adapted in the first place.
By the way, Boku no Hero Academia won last week’s poll, so that’s the show I’m gonna cover. You’ll notice, however, its conspicuous absence from this week’s Monday Blues. That’s because I have nine episodes to watch, and I haven’t finished them yet. But don’t worry, I’ll be caught up by next week’s post. Anyway, the summer season is coming up. What are you guys looking forward to? Personally, I haven’t seen anything that I absolutely want to write about.
CategoriesAnime, Big Order, Endride, Gakusen Toshi Asterisk, Hundred, Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta., Seisen Cerberus, Series TagsAnime, Big Order, Endride, Gakusen Toshi Asterisk, Hundred, Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta., Sakamoto desu ga., Seisen Cerberus
22 Replies to “Monday Blues: Spring ’16, Week 9”
ioncarryon says:
Netoge no Yome wa
I had a feeling this anime would become like this. The pilot episode really had me genuinely laughing and I enjoyed it a lot, so I never went back to look at it again, not much. I saw a few bits here and there which were funny but I had a feeling the joke would get ruined fast or get old, and it seems like it.
For what it’s worth, it’s actually the show I enjoy most out of this entire list. Well, Sakamoto doesn’t count, but in any case, Netoge has the best character interactions out of all these shows. The bar’s not set particularly high though.
Hahaha True enough, mate.
sonicsenryaku says:
I dont know what your feelings are about the berserk series but a new series is releasing this summer so that may be a worthwhile show to blog about. Summer is looking sparse in terms of quality so you’re gonna have to dig deep. Mob psycho 100 looks interesting tho, from a visual stnadpoint
I’m hesitant to cover it, because it’s a continuation. I haven’t seen the original series in a long time, and I have no desire to rewatch it. Nevertheless, there’s a lot about the story and the characters that I no longer remember anymore.
ah ok; well there’s always the 3 movies that retold the whole golden age arc albeit in a more compressed fashion,but it gets down all the major points of the story and characters that you would need in order to feel caught up. If you are ever interested, that would be the fastest and most efficient way to catch up if you just dont have the urge to rewatch the original series
I might get dragged into watching it anyway since my friends typically prefer watching shows like Berserk.
Alyson Hart says:
I’m really looking forward to Orange. I haven’t read the manga, but the story looks pretty interesting to me. Also Berserk is getting a remake/continuation?? I wonder what that’s all about.
it’s a continuation of the tv show/.movies; Until now, berserk had never adapted past the golden age arc so finally we are getting a continuation in anime form
Orange sounds like it’s potentially angsty. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Just depends on how the story handles it, but I dunno… can’t say I have much faith in TMS Entertainment.
zztop says:
Netoge’s character designs are by hentai mangaka Hisasi – if you’re interested I could drop you a link to some of his works.
Netoge pretty much shows he’s terrible at drawing breasts, so pass.
Karandi says:
This week has been pretty forgettable by any standards. THe shows that were decent are still just kind of decent, and the others have just continued to shovel more of the same. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on these.
And Ayato really does need to actually get a girl – he’s got more than enough following him around at this point. The whole big brother act is getting a little old (considering he’s actually the younger brother).
Draggle on Twitter swears that Ayato and Julis are already dating. Doesn’t look like it to me.
Doesn’t look like it to me either. They certainly have a lot of trust in each other but it hasn’t really progressed at all beyond there because everything has been focussed on the fights.
royalxchild says:
I watched Bubuki Buranki, and it’s not a mind blowing show, but I had fun. 12 episodes where a bit clumsy in narrative but I liked it anyway, and I usually don’t care for action shows. I hope the execution improves when the supposed second season airs.
Razacla says:
A lot of anime’s contrived situations (like with the lack of VoIP and the endless having-to-hide-physical-porn plots) can actually be attributed to a *decline* in computer literacy among youth in Japan rather than an increase. Building computers and using the Internet and all that is regarded as a niche thing if this article is correct: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/answerman/2016-05-23/.102406
Not that I’m defending these shows, but it would make more sense culturally to watchers if they knew this.
It’s one thing for the population in general to be computer illiterate. It’s another thing for savvy computer users and hardcore MMO gamers to not use VOIP in this day and age, Japan or otherwise. And there seems to be a decent number of people who use Skype for voice chats: http://whatjapanthinks.com/2010/08/22/skype-most-popular-chat-service-in-japan/ But even if they didn’t use Skype in this show, there’s no reason he couldn’t have easily messaged her on his phone unless for some dumb reason they still haven’t exchanged that information.
There’s technically nothing wrong with flashbacks. If you’re invested in the character you can flash back the whole time like in Memento.
1. I didn’t say there was anything inherently wrong with flashbacks. It is simply an observation that Endride relies on it heavily.
2. It’s a bit disingenuous to use Memento as a counterexample, because it uses flashbacks to toy with audience perceptions versus Endride’s very standard, very dry usage.
Fair enough. Anyhow this summer I hope you cover “Rewrite,” which is based on a moege from Key, since this blog is titled moesucks and all. I remember a lot of hype built for that game, and then…die hard key fans translated it, finally played it, called it mediocre, and quickly repressed the memory of ever having believed in Key. Of course I’m curious too, since it’s the only Key franchise I didn’t try due to some disappointed reviews, and the premise and the ending are supposed to be very cool. I like to think that a lot of the fanbase grew up and stopped proselytizing Key’s games like the bible, but I think only a minority of heretics moved on.
We’ll see how the schedule works itself out. I want to stick to what I’m doing now, i.e. one post per weekday, and as much as I can stand on the weekends. If Rewrite is both interesting and convenient to watch, then odds are good I’ll cover it.
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Registration of Trailers
First Registration of a New/Imported Trailer
Renewing a Trailer Licence
Trailers are registered with Motor Tax Offices and not with the Revenue Commissioners. Monaghan registered Trailers begin with the letters DG.
The Trailer/Semi-Trailer will be registered by Monaghan Motor Tax Office and a Trailer/Semi-Trailer Licence (Trailer Card) will be issued.
Requirements for First Licensing / Registration of Heavy Goods Trailers
HGV operators should be aware that from 29th October 2012 onwards certain categories of Heavy Goods Trailers (i.e. Trailers with a Gross Design Weight (DGVW) in excess of 3500kg) must be accompanied by a Type Approval Certificate in order to be licensed for the first time in Ireland. A Type Approval Certificate confirms that a trailer meets prescribed safety and environmental standards. The categories affected are as follows:-
Trailers manufactured on or after 29th October 2012 in one single stage by a single manufacturer.
Trailers manufactured on or after 29th October 2013 in more that one stage i.e. by more than one manufacturer. (Completed trailers)
Special Purpose Trailers manufactured on or after 29th October 2014.
A type approval certificate will be supplied by the distributor / manufacturer when you purchase your Trailer and either EC or Irish Approval Certificates are acceptable.
In order to license any of the trailers in the above categories the trailer owner must present the following documentation to tho Motor Tax Office, along with €60.00 registration fee:
1. Form TF100, which contains the details of the trailer owner and certain characteristics of the trailer (e.g. chassis number) and
2. Form TF300A (previously form TF300) which is a Weight Identification Certificate. This certificate should be completed and stamped by the manufacturer / assembler or his authorised agent. A copy of the Type Approval Certificate must be attached to this form.
Heavy Goods Trailers which are designed to be towed exclusively by agricultural tractors and trailers which are designed and constructed exclusively for use by the Defence Forces, Civil Defence, Garda Siochana or Fire Services are exempt from the requirement to have a Type Approval Certificate, regardless of their date of manufacture.
Imported Trailers
In order to license a trailer which was previously registered in another EU Member State, the same process as above applies. However, you will be required to supply evidence of previous registration or licensing in another Member State on your TF300A Form. Either a Registration Certificate from the relevant member State or a letter from the National Trailer Registration/Licensing Authority is acceptable.
For trailers that do not fall into the categories mentioned above, i.e. the following categories:
Trailers manufactured prior to 29th October 2012
Trailers completed in more than one stage prior to 29th October 2013
Special purpose trailers manufactured prior to 29th October 2014
Trailers which are designed to be towed exclusively by agricultural tractors and trailers which are designed and constructed exclusively for use by the Defence Forces, civil defence, Garda Siochana or fire services
A Type Approval Certificate is not required. However, it remains the legal responsibility of all vehicle owners to ensure that any vehicle used in a public place complies with the relevant Road Traffic legislation.
In order to register / license a trailer in these categories the trailer owner must present the following documentation to the Motor Tax Office, along with the €60.00 registration fee:
1. Form TF100 which contains the details of the trailer owner and certain characteristics of the trailer (e.g. chassis number) and
2. Form TF300B (previously TF300). This form must be completed by the manufacturer or where the manufacturer cannot be contacted the form must be completed by an Approved Test Centre (ATC) of the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI). The details to be verified include the date of manufacture and the particular axle weights for the trailer. A full list of the ATCs is available on the NSAI website – www.nsai.ie
All Trailers that have been registered for one year or more must hold a current Commercial Vehicle Roadworthiness Test (CVRT).
Motor Tax Menu
Motor Tax Office
Motor Tax Rates
Vehicle Categories
Declaration Of Non-Use (SORD)
Refunds of Motor Tax
Motor Tax Exemptions
Vehicle Conversions
Taxing Online
Motor Tax Office,
Monaghan, Co. Monaghan.
H18 D721
Telephone: 047-81175
Email: motortax@monaghancoco.ie
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20 Words We Owe to Shakespeare
BY Roma Panganiban
Getty Images/Edward Gooch
No high school English curriculum is complete without a mandatory dose of William Shakespeare, and no American teenager makes it to graduation without whining about how boring it is to learn about iambic pentameter. As contemporary speakers of the English language, however, they might be interested to learn how much the Bard of Avon had in common with the generations that popularized the acronyms LOL and OMG and reinvented the 1940s slang term “hipster.” Endlessly imaginative and not overly concerned with grammatical convention, Shakespeare’s scripts contain over 2200 never-before-seen words—a diverse collection of loan-words from foreign languages, compound words from existing English terms, nouns turned into verbs, and creatively applied prefixes—many of which have entered into everyday language. Here are 20 examples of words we can thank Shakespeare for.
1. Addiction: Othello, Act II, Scene II
“It is Othello's pleasure, our noble and valiant general, that, upon certain tidings now arrived, importing the mere perdition of the Turkish fleet, every man put himself into triumph; some to dance, some to make bonfires, each man to what sport and revels his addiction leads him.” – Herald
If not for that noble and valiant general and his playwright, our celebrity news coverage might be sorely lacking.
2. Arch-villain: Timon of Athens, Act V, Scene I
“You that way and you this, but two in company; each man apart, all single and alone, yet an arch-villain keeps him company.” – Timon
With the added prefix of arch-, meaning more extreme than others of the same type, Shakespeare was able to distinguish the baddest of the bad.
3. Assassination: Macbeth, Act I, Scene VII
“If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly: if the assassination could trammel up the consequence, and catch with his surcease success.” – Macbeth
Though the term “assassin” had been observed in use prior to the Scottish play, it seems apt that the work introduced yet another term for murder most foul.
4. Bedazzled: The Taming of the Shrew, Act IV, Scene V
“Pardon, old father, my mistaking eyes, that have been so bedazzled with the sun that everything I look on seemeth green.” – Katherina
A word first used to describe the particular gleam of sunlight is now used to sell rhinestone-embellished jeans. Maybe poetry really is dead.
5. Belongings: Measure for Measure, Act I, Scene I
“Thyself and thy belongings are not thine own so proper as to waste thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee.” – Duke Vincentio
People prior to Shakespeare’s time did own things; they just referred to them by different words.
6. Cold-blooded: King John, Act III, Scene I
“Thou cold-blooded slave, hast thou not spoke like thunder on my side, been sworn my soldier, bidding me depend upon thy stars, thy fortune and thy strength, and dost thou now fall over to my fores?” – Constance
Beyond its literal meaning, the 17th-century play initiated a metaphorical use for the term that is now most often used to describe serial killers and vampires—two categories which, of course, need not be mutually exclusive.
7. Dishearten: Henry V, Act IV, Scene I
“Therefore when he sees reason of fears, as we do, his fears, out of doubt, be of the same relish as ours are: yet, in reason, no man should possess him with any appearance of fear, lest he, by showing it, should dishearten his army.” – King Henry V
The opposite of “hearten,” a word already extant at the time of Shakespeare’s writing, “dishearten” was most appropriately first utilized in print by King Henry V, who didn’t let insurmountable odds at the Battle of Agincourt get him down.
8. Eventful: As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII
“Last scene of all, that ends this strange eventful history, is second childishness and mere oblivion, sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.” - Jaques
If all the world’s a stage, it’s safe to assume that an event or two is taking place.
9. Eyeball: The Tempest, Act I, Scene II
“Go make thyself like a nymph o' the sea: be subject to no sight but thine and mine, invisible to every eyeball else.” – Prospero
Shakespeare’s protagonist Prospero, though no medical doctor, can claim to be the first fictional character to name those round objects with which we see.
10. Fashionable: Troilus and Cressida, Act III, Scene III
“For time is like a fashionable host that slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand, and with his arms outstretch'd, as he would fly, grasps in the comer: welcome ever smiles, and farewell goes out sighing.” – Ulysses
And with just 11 letters, centuries of debate over what’s hot or not began.
11. Half-blooded/hot-blooded: King Lear, Act V, Scene III/ Act III, Scene III
“Half-blooded fellow, yes.” – Albany
“Why, the hot-blooded France, that dowerless took our youngest born, I could as well be brought to knee his throne, and, squire-like; pension beg to keep base life afoot.” – Lear
As is the tradition in Shakespearean tragedy, nearly everyone in King Lear dies, so the linguistic fascination here with blood is unsurprising, to say the least.
12. Inaudible: All’s Well That Ends Well, Act V, Scene III
“Let's take the instant by the forward top; for we are old, and on our quick'st decrees the inaudible and noiseless foot of Time steals ere we can effect them.” – King of France
One of a number of words (invulnerable, indistinguishable, inauspicious, among others) which Shakespeare invented only in the sense of adding a negative in- prefix where it had never been before.
13. Ladybird: Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene III
“What, lamb! What, ladybird! God forbid! Where's this girl? What, Juliet!” – Nurse
Although the Oxford English Dictionary notes that this particular term of endearment has fallen into disuse, maybe it’s about time for its comeback. Valentine’s Day is coming up, after all.
14. Manager: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act V, Scene I
“Where is our usual manager of mirth? What revels are in hand? Is there no play to ease the anguish of a torturing hour?” – King Theseus
If not for Shakespeare, workday complaining in the office break room just wouldn’t be the same.
15. Multitudinous: Macbeth, Act II, Scene II
“No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas in incarnadine, making the green one red.” – Macbeth
“Multitudinous” may not be the most appropriate synonym when the phrase “a lot” starts to crop up too often in your writing, but it’s certainly the one with the most letters.
16. New-fangled: Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act I, Scene I
“At Christmas I no more desire a rose than wish a snow in May's new-fangled mirth.” – Biron
Ironically, this word sounds old-fashioned if used today.
17. Pageantry: Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act V, Scene II
“This, my last boon, give me, for such kindness must relieve me, that you aptly will suppose what pageantry, what feats, what shows, what minstrelsy, and pretty din, the regent made in Mytilene to greet the king.” – Gower
Although modern scholars generally agree that Shakespeare only appears to have written the second half of the play, this newly invented term for an extravagant ceremonial display appears in the section definitively authored by the Bard.
18. Scuffle: Antony and Cleopatra, Act I, Scene I
“His captain's heart, which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst the buckles on his breast, reneges all temper, and is become the bellows and the fan to cool a gipsy's lust.” – Philo
Another example of an existing verb that Shakespeare decided could stand up just as well as a noun.
19. Swagger: Henry V, Act II, Scene IV/A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene I
“An't please your majesty, a rascal that swaggered with me last night.” – Williams
“What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here, so near the cradle of the fairy queen?” – Puck
By transitive property, Shakespeare is responsible for Justin Bieber’s “swag.”
20. Uncomfortable: Romeo and Juliet, Act IV, Scene V
“Despised, distressed, hated, martyr'd, kill'd! Uncomfortable time, why camest thou now to murder, murder our solemnity?” - Capulet
Un- was another prefix Shakespeare appended to adjectives with a liberal hand. In the case of Romeo and Juliet, a tragedy in which a father mourns his daughter’s suicide, “uncomfortable” seems to have originated with a slightly more drastic sense than how we use it now.
Of course, just because the first written instances of these terms appeared in Shakespeare’s scripts doesn’t preclude the possibility that they existed in the oral tradition prior to his recording them, but as Shakespeare might have said, it was high time (The Comedy of Errors) for such household words (Henry V).
language Lists literature Words writing
When Are the Dog Days of Summer?
BY Kara Kovalchik
Dorottya_Mathe/iStock via Getty Images
The official “dog days” of summer begin on July 3 and end on August 11. So how did this time frame earn its canine nickname? It turns out the phrase has nothing to do with the poor pooches who are forever seeking shade in the July heat, and everything to do with the nighttime sky.
Sirius, the Dog Star, is the brightest star in the sky. The ancient Greeks noticed that in the summer months, Sirius rose and set with the Sun, and they theorized that it was the bright, glowing Dog Star that was adding extra heat to the Earth in July and August.
Roberto Mura, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons
Have you got a Big Question you'd like us to answer? If so, let us know by emailing us at bigquestions@mentalfloss.com.
Big Questions dogs News weather Words
15 Pairs of Words That Surprisingly Come From the Same Source
BY Arika Okrent
Both flour and flower come from the same root word
Lena_Zajchikova/iStock via Getty Images
We take for granted that many English words have counterparts that sound related, but aren’t. Even though know and no sound the same, their meanings are so different we assume they have different etymological sources (which the spelling differences also suggest). However, sometimes words we might not expect to have anything in common historically do in fact go back to the same source. They’re called etymological doublets; here are 15 of them.
1. Flour/Flower
Flour, just like flower, came from French fleur. It was named that way because the part of the plant used to make it was considered the “flower of the grain,” the best part of it, taking away all the chaff and other impurities.
2. Lobster/Locust
Both go back to Latin locusta, for locust, which also turned into the French langouste and Old English lopustre. The lobster is the locust of the sea.
3. Inch/Ounce
Though one measures length and the other weight, they both go back to Latin uncia, meaning a twelfth part. The original ounce was 1/12th of a pound.
4. Of/Off
Of and off were once the exact same word but in a stressed vs. unstressed pronunciation. It wasn’t until the 17th century that they developed different uses to the point where they were considered different words.
5. Etiquette/Ticket
Etiquette was a French word for a note attached to something that listed its contents. It was borrowed into English as ticket and into Spanish as etiqueta, where it came to be associated with the listed rules of protocol for the Spanish royal court. It then came back into French and English with the social protocol meaning.
6. Costume/Custom
Both come from Latin consuetudinem, meaning "accustomed to," or "habituated." Both referred to the general habits of a group, including how they dress, among other things. Costume wasn’t explicitly connected to just the dress sense until the 1800s.
7. Species/Spices
Both come from Latin specie, for "appearance" or "form." Spice came into English first, from Old French espice. Species was later borrowed directly from Latin.
8. Reward/Regard
In Anglo-Norman, reward and regard were alternate pronunciations of the same thing. While the g version took on the senses of "to look at," "give attention to," and also "to merit, esteem, or respect," the w version settled into the current sense of giving something on merit.
9. Dainty/Dignity
The Latin word dignus meant "worthy." While dignity refers to a sense of "worthy" that includes serious notions of honor, respect, and rank, in dainty, dignus lives on in the sense of being worthy for being delightful, precious, and pleasing.
10. Naïve/Native
Both come from Latin nativus, meaning innate, natural. Naïve is "natural" in the sense of being unspoiled and native is an innate belonging to an origin.
11. Shirt/Skirt
The ancestor of the Old English scyrte developed into a word for the upper part of an undergarment in many Germanic languages, but it’s not entirely clear how it also developed into the skirt word for a lower garment in English.
12. Tradition/Treason
Tradition is from the Latin tradere, for the act of handing over or handing down. Treason also comes from tradere, with the sense of handing over or delivering. The tray in betray also goes back to this sense of tradere.
13. Tulip/Turban
Both are approximations of the Persian word for turban, dulband, which a tulip was said to resemble.
14. Maneuver/Manure
Maneuver comes from the Latin manu + operari, to work by hand. But so does manure, which was originally a verb meaning to "till the land."
15. Grammar/Glamour
Grammar goes all the way back to Latin and Greek, where it referred to all aspects of the study of literature. In the Middle Ages, it came to be associated with just the linguistic parts, and particularly with the study of Latin. The fancy, educated class studied Latin, and also things like magic and astrology, so the word grammar sometimes referred to that aspect too. A mispronounced version, glamour, went on to stand for the magical, enchanting quality we use it for today.
This list was first published in 2015 and republished in 2019.
language Lists News
America's 50 Best Workplaces, According to Employees
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‘Being light skinned helped Beyonce achieve all she has today’ – Matthew Knowles
Mathew Knowles, the father of multi-award winning singer Beyonce in a new interview has revealed how the singer’s complexion helped her gain success in her career.
In an interview with Clay Cane on SiriusXM Urban View, Matthew talked about the impact colourism has on the music industry.
Cane during their discussion stated that research done by a Texas Southern University student revealed that the top 40 female singers to include Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Nicki Minaj, Beyonce etc are the ones getting massive airplay.
In response, Matthew said;
“In the music industry, there’s still segregation, as you know. There used to be the black division, race records, and programmers, especially at pop radio, has this image of what beauty looks like. They wanted that imagery to be the same that’s singing those records. If you look back, even like Whitney Houston, if you look at those photos, how they lighten her to make her look lighter complexion because there’s a perception in colourism…the lighter you are, the smarter, the more economically… all around the world about colour, even with black folks, there’s a perception.”
Cane went on to ask;
“How different do you think Beyoncé’s career would have been if she were a darker skinned woman?”
Matthew responded:
“I think it would have affected her success. I use Kelly Rowland [as] a great example. The great thing is Kelly did exceptional outside of America, especially in Australia. Kelly sold over 4 million records.”
The post ‘Being light skinned helped Beyonce achieve all she has today’ – Matthew Knowles appeared first on Information Nigeria.
What Fani Kayode And Shehu Sanni Have To Say After Buhari Appointed Another ”Kyari” As NNPC GMD
Check Out Davido’s Response To The Wish Of A Woman Battling Cancer
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Administrative Review To Begin At Toronto District School Board
Archived News Release
McGuinty Government Appoints Dave Cooke to Examine Process
The accommodation review process at the Toronto District School Board for Timothy Eaton Business and Technical Institute will be examined.
Dave Cooke, a former Ontario Education Minister, has been appointed as independent facilitator to lead this administrative review to determine if the board followed its locally developed accommodation review process for Timothy Eaton Business and Technical Institute. He will consult with the local accommodation review committee, the school board and people who participated in the process.
The Ministry of Education approved this request for an administrative review of the board's accommodation review process. Cooke will begin work in early August and upon completion of his review, will provide Education Minister Kathleen Wynne with a final report. Wynne will release the report's findings to the school board and the public.
Decisions about student accommodations -- including school closures -- are the responsibility of locally elected school boards. Boards were required to develop accommodation review processes that comply with the government's Pupil Accommodation Review Guideline which emphasizes consultation, transparency and local accountability. Administrative reviews help communities and boards fulfill those core principles.
The ministry's Pupil Accommodation Review Guideline mandates minimum timelines for consultation and an evaluation process based on the value of a school to its students and the community.
The guideline helps direct boards during pupil accommodation reviews, which are required in most circumstances when a school closure is considered.
The ministry has no authority to over-turn school closure decisions or delay their implementation.
Dave Cooke has performed other independent reviews of school closure processes, providing valuable feedback to school boards, communities and the ministry.
Learn more about the Pupil Accommodation Review Guideline and the review process
Education and Training Home and Community Children and Youth Women
This document was published on July 17, 2009 and is provided for archival and research purposes.
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10 MLB Teams That Improved Their Bullpen At The Trade Deadline
Posted on August 1, 2017, by Bryan Zarpentine
Image via nydailynews.com
The MLB trade deadline has come and gone, and the theme of the day was pitching, especially relief pitching. Aside from the headliners in Sonny Gray and Yu Darvish, most of the trades made in the 48 hours leading up to Monday’s deadline revolved around relief pitchers. Even without marquee relievers like Brad Hand and Zack Britton being traded, plenty of teams added relief help. Here are 10 teams that were able to upgrade their bullpen at the trade deadline.
The Astros had their sites set on an impact reliever like Hand or Britton, but in the end, they settled for Francisco Liriano. While Liriano has primarily been a starter during his career, Houston will use him out of the bullpen. Liriano has had a rough year, but he’s faired well against lefties and does have playoff experience.
The Brewers made an interesting deal Monday, adding Jeremy Jeffress, who they traded away at the deadline last season. Jeffress was Milwaukee’s closer the first half of 2016, and was nearly perfect in save situations. If he can replicate what he did during his last stint in Milwaukee, the Brewers will add a serious piece to their bullpen. The recent acquisition of Anthony Swarzak should also help a rather mediocre bullpen.
At the deadline, the Cubs managed to add Justin Wilson, perhaps the most impactful reliever to be moved. Wilson has 13 saves for the Tigers this year, but in Chicago, he’ll be a setup man for Wade Davis, giving the Cubs a pair of shutdown relievers at the back of their bullpen.
Arizona made a move to bring back David Hernandez, who was quietly having a strong season with the Angels. Fernando Rodney has been up and down as Arizona’s closer this year, but the trio of Hernandez, Andrew Chafin, and Archie Bradley does give the Diamondbacks a strong contingent of setup men.
Along with trading for Darvish on Monday, the Dodgers also added lefties Tony Watson and Tony Cingrani. Los Angeles already had the best bullpen in the National League, and now the Dodgers are even deeper in the bullpen than before.
The Indians didn’t necessarily need bullpen help, but they’ll be glad to welcome back Joe Smith, who had several good years in Cleveland. Smith was having a solid year in Toronto, and now he gives an already powerful Indians bullpen even more depth.
The Nationals needed a bonafide closer, and they got one by trading for Minnesota’s Brandon Kintzier. Washington added Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson earlier this month to improve a troubled bullpen, but with Kintzier, they finally have a closer. He’s not the most established closer in baseball, but he should be a big help for the Nationals.
The Rays did a lot of work on their bullpen in the days leading up to the deadline. Adding Sergio Romo may or may not work out, but the additions of Steve Cishek and Dan Jennings should both help a modest bullpen that’s trying to support an excellent starting rotation.
Boston quietly made a big move by acquiring Addison Reed, who has been serving as closer for the Mets for most of the season. Reed won’t unseat Craig Kimbrel as Boston’s closer, but he’ll give the Red Sox a formidable 1-2 punch at the end of the bullpen, which should be helpful during a tight race at the top of the AL East.
Colorado worked hard on its bullpen over the winter, and at the deadline, the Rockies added Pat Neshek to that unit. Neshek has been outstanding this season and should become the primary setup man for closer Greg Holland. On paper, it was a relatively minor move, but one the Rockies hope can help secure a playoff spot.
Addison Reed, Brandon Kintzier, Craig Kimbrel, Dan Jennings, David Hernandez, Francisco Liriano, Greg Holland, Jeremy Jeffress, Joe Smith, Justin Wilson, MLB Trade Deadline, Pat Neshek, Sonny Gray, Steve Ceshek, Yu Darvish
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Strategy Analytics: Majority of US Homes Will Have Smart Speaker Next Year
There will be more US homes with smart speakers than without by the end of next year, according to the latest projections from Strategy Analytics. The report predicts that the 50% threshold will be reached in late 2020
BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--There will be more US homes with smart speakers than without by the end of next year, according to the latest projections from Strategy Analytics. The report predicts that the 50% threshold will be reached in late 2020, and the US will be the first country in the world to reach this level of smart speaker ownership. The report predicts that by the end of 2023 eight countries will have a majority of smart-speaker owning households. The research also predicts global sales of more than 134 million smart speakers and screens in 2019, rising to 280 million by 2024.
The full report from Strategy Analytics’ Smart Speakers and Screens (SSS) service, Global Smart Speaker and Screens Shipment and Installed Base Forecast for 88 Countries can be found here: https://www.strategyanalytics.com/access-services/devices/connected-home/smart-speakers-and-screens/market-data/report-detail/global-smart-speaker-and-screens-shipment-and-installed-base-forecast-for-88-countries-2014-to-2024-q1-'19-update
The other countries reaching the 50% threshold in the next four years will be the UK, Ireland, Canada, South Korea, Australia, Germany and France. Widespread availability of apps and services in major languages is a key factor behind the success of smart speakers in these countries. Other markets, where less familiar languages are used, will tend to track behind the leading nations in smart speaker adoption.
David Watkins, Director at Strategy Analytics, commented: “As we approach the point where smart speakers become commonplace, marketers no longer have any choice but to incorporate this technology into their communications strategies. Voice interaction will become way of life for the majority of the population in many major countries, and this represents new opportunities for brands and businesses to create improved customer relationships.”
A complimentary report highlighting the key findings of Strategy Analytics’ recent consumer survey of early smart speaker adopters is available here: https://www.strategyanalytics.com/access-services/devices/connected-home/smart-speakers-and-screens/reports/report-detail/understanding-early-smart-speaker-adopters
About Strategy Analytics
Strategy Analytics, Inc. provides the competitive edge with advisory services, consulting and actionable market intelligence for emerging technology, mobile and wireless, digital consumer and automotive electronics companies. With offices in North America, Europe and Asia, Strategy Analytics delivers insights for enterprise success. www.StrategyAnalytics.com
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European Contacts:
David Watkins, +33 153 409 952, dwatkins@strategyanalytics.com
David Mercer, +44 1908 423 610, dmercer@strategyanalytics.com
US Contacts:
Bill Ablondi, +1 617 614 0744, wablondi@strategyanalytics.com
Jack Narcotta, +1 617 614 0798, jnarcotta@strategyanalytics.com
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Roxanne Taylor
Accenture Reports Second-Quarter Fiscal 2006 Financial Results
EPS of $0.11 Includes $450 Million Pre-Tax Provision Related to Company’s National Health Service Contracts
Net Revenues Up 13%, with Record Consulting Revenue Growth, in Local Currency
Company to Host Conference Call Today at 5:30 p.m. EST
NEW YORK; March 28, 2006 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN) today reported net revenues for the second quarter, ended Feb. 28, 2006, of $4.10 billion, a 13 percent increase in local currency. GAAP diluted earnings per share were $0.11, including a pre-tax provision for future losses of $450 million related to the company’s future deployment of systems for the National Health Service (NHS) in England. Absent the impact of the NHS provision, EPS were $0.38, above the company’s previously stated expectations.
The company said that it is on pace to hit its full-year bookings target, it posted a record increase in consulting net revenue growth in local currency, operations continue to generate strong cash flow, and it maintained its sound balance sheet.
William D. Green, Accenture’s CEO, said, “We are very disappointed that recent developments prevented us from meeting expectations this quarter. During the quarter, several issues increased the risks and uncertainties associated with the NHS contracts and affected our estimates of the expected contract revenues and costs. Under GAAP, we were required to record this provision to reflect these new circumstances.
“We are exceptionally proud of what we have delivered to date. We fully subscribe to the NHS vision of an integrated patient care record. The NHS vision is an important and compelling proposition for citizens of England and for the NHS.
“We have established guiding principles for success for our ongoing work with the NHS and have devoted additional management resources at the highest level to resolve the NHS matter as quickly as possible.
“The rest of our business remains very strong. We continue to see solid performance in our operating groups and geographic regions, with strong revenue growth and consulting bookings, and our balance sheet and cash flows remain exceptionally strong. We are very pleased with our overall progress as we continue to focus on operational excellence and profitability.”
For the second quarter of fiscal 2006, revenues before reimbursements (“net revenues”) were $4.10 billion, compared with $3.81 billion for the second quarter of fiscal 2005, an increase of 13 percent in local currency and 8 percent in U.S. dollars.
Consulting net revenues were $2.47 billion, or 60 percent of net revenues, a record local-currency increase of 13 percent and an increase of 7 percent in U.S. dollars.
Outsourcing net revenues were $1.64 billion, or 40 percent of net revenues, an increase of 13 percent in local currency and 8 percent in U.S. dollars.
New bookings were $4.33 billion. Consulting represented $2.54 billion, or 59 percent of new bookings, and outsourcing represented $1.79 billion, or 41 percent of new bookings. Year-to-date new bookings totaled $9.87 billion, an increase of 13 percent in local currency.
NHS Contracts
Accenture’s contracts with the NHS consist of two major components: design, build and deploy (deployment), which is accounted for using the percentage-of-completion method of accounting, and services, for which revenues and costs are recognized monthly on an “as earned” basis.
To put the NHS contracts in perspective, this fiscal year the NHS contracts represent roughly 1 percent of Accenture’s annual net revenues. The $450 million NHS provision has no impact on current-period cash flow. The NHS provision provides for the expected deployment losses over the remaining life of the contracts.
Based on new developments in the second quarter, Accenture now believes that the future costs of deploying systems will exceed future deployment revenues under the current contract terms. As required under GAAP percentage-of-completion rules, Accenture has recorded a $450 million provision for future losses on deployment. The provision is reflected in cost of services for the second quarter of fiscal 2006. The provision, net of lower bonus compensation, resulted in a $342 million pre-tax reduction in operating income and a $0.27 after-tax reduction in EPS in the second quarter.
The major new developments in the second quarter were:
Accenture’s assessment that there would be significant delays by one of Accenture’s major subcontractors in delivering software that is critical to the systems’ deployment, creating additional cost implications, including more interim solutions;
Accenture’s assessment that it would incur somewhat higher development costs and increased integration costs, due to the company’s recent experiences and to revised program release schedules; and
Accenture’s assessment that there would now be slower and lower future demand for the new systems from local healthcare providers primarily due to software delays and the announced government initiative to allow local healthcare providers to choose alternate systems.
Excluding the NHS provision, Accenture expects losses on the NHS contracts in fiscal 2006 that are comparable to its losses on the contracts in fiscal 2005 and expects losses in fiscal 2007 that are moderately higher. The company expects to drive annual losses down significantly thereafter.
However, Accenture is actively exploring all options with respect to the contracts and expects to work with the NHS to accommodate, in the contracts, the changed circumstances. Accenture has a strong commitment to deliver value to the NHS and the citizens of England. Resolving this situation to meet the interests of all parties in a timely fashion is a top priority.
GAAP diluted EPS for the second quarter of fiscal 2006 were $0.11, reflecting the impact of the provision related to the NHS contracts. Absent the impact of the NHS provision, EPS were $0.38, compared with GAAP diluted EPS for the second quarter of fiscal 2005 of $0.35.
GAAP operating income was $137 million, or 3.3 percent of net revenues. Absent a $14 million reorganization benefit, operating income was $124 million, or 3 percent of net revenues. Excluding the impact of the NHS provision and reorganization benefit, operating income was $466 million, or 11.4 percent of net revenues, compared with $379 million, or 9.9 percent of net revenues, on a reorganization- and options-adjusted basis consistent with SFAS 123R for the second quarter of 2005.
Gross margin (gross profit as a percentage of net revenues) for the second quarter of 2006 was 21.2 percent on a GAAP basis, compared with 30.8 percent in the second quarter of 2005. This decrease was due to the impact of the NHS provision and higher share-based compensation expense as a result of the adoption of SFAS 123R.
Selling, general and administrative expenses in the second quarter of 2006 were $739 million, or 18.0 percent of net revenues, on a GAAP basis, compared with $738 million, or 19.4 percent of net revenues, in the second quarter of 2005.
The company’s effective tax rate for the second quarter of 2006 was 35.7 percent.
GAAP income before minority interest was $104 million in the second quarter of 2006, compared with $341 million in the same period of 2005.
For the three and six months ended Feb. 28, 2006, operating cash flow was $678 million and $1.05 billion, respectively, and property and equipment additions were $72 million and $150 million, respectively. Free cash flow, defined as operating cash flow net of property and equipment additions, for the second quarter and first half of 2006 was $606 million and $902 million, respectively.
Accenture’s total cash balance at Feb. 28, 2006 was $2.03 billion, compared with $2.48 billion at Aug. 31, 2005. Cash combined with $491 million of fixed-income securities classified as investments on the company’s balance sheet was $2.52 billion at Feb. 28, 2006, compared with $3.18 billion at Aug. 31, 2005. Total debt at Feb. 28, 2006 was $52 million.
Net Revenues by Operating Group
Net revenues for Accenture’s five operating groups were as follows:
Communications & High Tech: $1.03 billion, compared with $982 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2005, an increase of 9 percent in local currency and 4 percent in U.S. dollars.
Financial Services: $833 million, compared with $859 million for the same period last year, an increase of 3 percent in local currency and a decrease of 3 percent in U.S. dollars.
Government: $598 million, compared with $521 million for the year-ago period, an increase of 19 percent in local currency and 15 percent in U.S. dollars.
Products: $1.00 billion, compared with $851 million for the year-ago period, an increase of 24 percent in local currency and 18 percent in U.S. dollars.
Resources: $639 million, compared with $596 million for the same period last year, an increase of 11 percent in local currency and 7 percent in U.S. dollars.
Net Revenues by Geographic Region
Net revenues by geographic region were as follows:
Americas: $1.90 billion, compared with $1.57 billion for the second quarter of fiscal 2005, an increase of 19 percent in local currency and 21 percent in U.S. dollars and the third consecutive quarter of double-digit year-over-year growth.
Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA): $1.91 billion, compared with $1.97 billion for the second quarter of fiscal 2005, an increase of 7 percent in local currency and a decrease of 3 percent in U.S. dollars.
Asia Pacific: $291 million, compared with $271 million for the year-ago period, an increase of 15 percent in local currency and 7 percent in U.S. dollars.
Share Repurchase Activity; Board Authorizes Additional Authority
During the second quarter of fiscal 2006, Accenture repurchased or redeemed a total of 12.5 million shares for a total of $383.6 million. The company’s board recently approved $1.5 billion in additional share repurchase authority, bringing Accenture’s total outstanding authority to $2.5 billion.
Third Quarter Fiscal 2006
For the third quarter of fiscal 2006, ending May 31, Accenture expects net revenues to be in the range of $4.3 billion to $4.5 billion and GAAP diluted earnings per share to be in the range of $0.45 to $0.47.
Full Fiscal Year 2006
For the full fiscal year 2006, Accenture continues to expect net revenue growth of 9 percent to 12 percent in local currency. The company now expects GAAP diluted EPS to be in the range of $1.25 to $1.30, which includes the $0.27 impact of the NHS provision in the second quarter.
Accenture continues to expect operating cash flow for the full fiscal year to be in the range of $2.00 billion to $2.20 billion. For the full fiscal year the company now expects property and equipment additions to be $400 million, which is a $50 million reduction from its previous estimate, and free cash flow to be in the upper end of its previously announced range of $1.55 billion to $1.75 billion.
The company continues to expect the annual effective tax rate to be in the range of 35 percent to 38 percent. Accenture continues to target new bookings in the range of $19 billion to $21 billion for the full fiscal year.
Conference Call and Webcast Details
Accenture will host a conference call at 5:30 p.m. EST today to discuss its second-quarter 2006 financial results. To participate, please dial +1 (888) 276-9998 [+1 (612) 234-9960 outside the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada] approximately 15 minutes before the scheduled start of the call. The conference call will also be accessible live on the Investor Relations section of the Accenture Web site at www.accenture.com.
A replay of the conference call will be available online at www.accenture.com and via telephone by dialing +1 (800) 475-6701 [+1 (320) 365-3844 outside the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada] and entering access code 823722 from 10:45 p.m. EST Tuesday, March 28 through 11:59 p.m. EDT Tuesday, April 11.
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Committed to delivering innovation, Accenture collaborates with its clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With deep industry and business process expertise, broad global resources and a proven track record, Accenture can mobilize the right people, skills and technologies to help clients improve their performance. With more than 129,000 people in 48 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$15.55 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2005. Its home page is www.accenture.com.
This news release contains forward-looking statements relating to our operations and results of operations, the accuracy of which is necessarily subject to risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied include general economic conditions and the factors discussed under the "Risk Factors" heading in the Business section of our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and other documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Accenture undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements made in this news release or to conform such statements to actual results or changes in Accenture’s expectations.
Non-GAAP Financial Information
This press release includes certain non-GAAP financial information as defined by Securities and Exchange Commission Regulation G. Pursuant to the requirements of this regulation, reconciliations of this non-GAAP financial information to Accenture’s financial statements as prepared under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) are included in this press release. Accenture’s management believes providing investors with this information gives additional insights into Accenture’s results of operations. While Accenture’s management believes that these non-GAAP financial measures are useful in evaluating Accenture’s operations, this information should be considered as supplemental in nature and not as a substitute for the related financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP.
ACCENTURE LTD
CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENTS
For the Three and Six Months Ended February 28, 2006 and 2005
(In thousands of U.S. dollars, except share and per share data)
Three Months Ended February 28, Six Months Ended February 28,
2006 % of Net Revenues 2005 % of Net Revenues 2006 % of Net Revenues 2005 % of Net Revenues
Revenues before reimbursements (Net revenues) $ 4,102,795 100% $ 3,813,522 100% $ 8,272,270 100% $ 7,543,877 100%
Reimbursements 388,317
Revenues 4,491,112
Cost of services:
Cost of services before reimbursable expenses 3,234,139 78.8% 2,638,950 69.2% 6,083,306 73.5% 5,154,389 68.3%
Reimbursable expenses 388,317
Cost of services 3,622,456
Sales and marketing 393,412 9.6% 376,919 9.9% 802,014 9.7% 735,862 9.8%
General and administrative costs 345,347 8.4% 361,478 9.5% 739,113 8.9% 752,293 10.0%
Reorganization benefits, net (7,415)
Total operating expenses 4,353,800
OPERATING INCOME 137,312 3.3% 471,952 12.4% 649,868 7.9% 930,102 12.3%
Gain on investments, net 1,792
Interest income 24,581
Interest expense (4,558)
Other income (expense) 2,805
INCOME BEFORE INCOME TAXES 161,932 3.9% 490,962 12.9% 685,647 8.3% 975,130 12.9%
Provision for income taxes 57,820
INCOME BEFORE MINORITY INTEREST 104,112 2.5% 340,612 8.9% 431,958 5.2% 660,163 8.8%
Minority interest in Accenture SCA and Accenture Canada Holdings Inc (32,654)
Minority interest – other (1) (1,778)
NET INCOME $ 69,680 1.7% $ 209,786 5.5% $ 284,620 3.4% $ 406,059 5.4%
CALCULATION OF EARNINGS PER SHARE:
Net income $ 69,680
Minority interest in Accenture SCA and Accenture Canada Holdings Inc. (2) 32,654
Net income for diluted earnings per share calculation $ 102,334
EARNINGS PER SHARE:
Basic $ 0.12
Diluted $ 0.11
WEIGHTED AVERAGE SHARES:
Basic 585,674,656
Diluted 892,439,424
Cash Dividends Per Share $ —
[1] Minority interest – other is comprised primarily of minority interest attributable to the minority shareholders of Avanade, Inc.
[2] Diluted earnings per share assumes the redemption and exchange of all Accenture SCA Class I common shares and Accenture Canada Holdings Inc. exchangeable shares, respectively, for Accenture Ltd Class A common shares, on a one-for-one basis.
For the Three and Six Months Ended February 28, 2006
(In thousands of U.S. dollars, except per share data)
RECONCILIATION OF OPERATING INCOME,
AS REPORTED (GAAP) TO ADJUSTED (NON-GAAP)
February 28 Six Months Ended
Dollar Amount % of Net Revenues Dollar Amount % of Net Revenues
OPERATING INCOME—as Reported $ 137,312 3.3% $ 649,868 7.9%
NHS provision for future loss 450,000
Lower bonus compensation expense (108,000)
Subtotal net impact of NHS provision for future loss 342,000
Reorganization benefits (13,540)
OPERATING INCOME—as Adjusted $ 465,772 11.4% $ 977,230 11.8%
RECONCILIATION OF DILUTED EARNINGS PER SHARE,
Dollar Amount Per Share Amount(1) Dollar Amount Per Share Amount (1)(3)
NET INCOME—as Reported $ 69,680
Net income for diluted earnings per share calculation, as Reported 102,334 $ 0.11 427,410 $ 0.47
Net impact of NHS provision:
NHS provision for future loss (pre-tax) 450,000
Lower bonus compensation expense (pre-tax) (108,000)
Lower income taxes (105,000)
Sub-total net impact of NHS provision 237,000 0.27 237,000 0.26
Net income for diluted earnings per share calculation,
adjusted for impact of NHS provision 339,334 0.38 664,410 0.74
Reduction in reorganization liabilities (13,540) (0.01) (14,638) (0.02)
Net income for diluted earnings per share calculation, adjusted for impact of NHS provision and reduction in reorganization liabilities $ 325,794 $ 0.37 $ 649,772 $ 0.72
WEIGHTED AVERAGE SHARES—Diluted
[1] The per share amount is calculated as the dollar amount divided by the number of weighted average diluted shares.
[3] May not total due to rounding.
RECONCILIATION OF CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENT, AS REPORTED (GAAP),
TO CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENT ON AN OPTIONS-ADJUSTED BASIS
For the Three Months Ended February 28, 2005
(GAAP) Adjustments(3) Options-Adjusted % of Net Revenues
Revenues before reimbursements (Net revenues) $ 3,813,522 $ — $ 3,813,522 100%
Reimbursements 402,862 — 402,862
Revenues 4,216,384 — 4,216,384
Cost of services before reimbursable expenses 2,638,950 47,492 2,686,442 70.4%
Reimbursable expenses 402,862 — 402,862
Cost of services 3,041,812 47,492 3,089,304
Sales and marketing 376,919 1,270 378,189 9.9%
General and administrative costs 361,478 2,032 363,510 9.5%
Reorganization benefits, net (35,777) — (35,777)
Total operating expenses 3,744,432 50,794 3,795,226
OPERATING INCOME 471,952 (50,794) 421,158 11.0%
Gain on investments, net 93 — 93
Interest income 28,063 — 28,063
Interest expense (6,300) — (6,300)
Other expense (2,846) — (2,846)
INCOME BEFORE INCOME TAXES 490,962 (50,794) 440,168 11.5%
Provision for income taxes 150,350 (15,238) 135,112
INCOME BEFORE MINORITY INTEREST 340,612 (35,556) 305,056 8.0%
Minority interest in Accenture SCA and Accenture Canada Holdings Inc (128,688) 13,519 (115,169)
Minority interest – other (1) (2,138) — (2,138)
NET INCOME $ 209,786 $ (22,037) $ 187,749 4.9%
Net income $ 209,786
Minority interest in Accenture SCA and Accenture Canada Holdings Inc. (2) 128,688
[3] Adjustments represent the estimated amounts that Accenture would have incurred if it had expensed employee stock options and employee share purchase plans for the three months ended February 28, 2005.
For the Six Months Ended February 28, 2005
General and administrative costs 752,293 3,293 755,586 10.0%
Gain on investments, net 14,633 — 14,633
Interest expense (12,616) — (12,616)
[3] Adjustments represent the estimated amounts that Accenture would have incurred if it had expensed employee stock options and employee share purchase plans for the six months ended February 28, 2005.
SUMMARY OF REVENUES
(In thousands of U.S. dollars)
February 28,
2005 Percent
(Decrease)
US $ Percent
Local Currency Percent of
Net Revenues
OPERATING GROUPS
Communication & High Tech 1,026,092 $ 982,088 4% 9% 25%
Financial Services 833,362 859,336 (3)% 3% 20%
Government 597,687 521,111 15% 19% 15%
Products 1,004,205 851,394 18% 24% 24%
Resources 639,066 596,493 7% 11% 16%
Other 2,383 3,100 n/m n/m —
TOTAL Net Revenues 4,102,795 3,813,522 8% 13% 100%
Reimbursements 388,317 402,862 (4)%
TOTAL REVENUES 4,491,112 $ 4,216,384 7%
Americas $ 1,897,766 $ 1,571,857 21% 19% 46%
EMEA 1,914,458 1,970,414 (3)% 7% 47%
Asia Pacific 290,571 271,251 7% 15% 7%
TOTAL Net Revenues $ 4,102,795 $ 3,813,522 8% 13% 100%
Consulting $ 2,465,376 $ 2,301,273 7% 13% 60%
Outsourcing 1,637,419 1,512,249 8% 13% 40%
Communication & High Tech $ 2,073,633 $ 1,955,019 6% 8% 25%
Financial Services 1,688,234 1,666,029 1% 5% 20%
Government 1,195,806 1,044,914 14% 17% 15%
Products 2,021,240 1,713,592 18% 21% 24%
Resources 1,289,352 1,160,885 11% 13% 16%
TOTAL Net Revenues 8,272,270 7,543,877 10% 12% 100%
Reimbursements 761,858 743,879 2%
TOTAL REVENUES $ 9,034,128 $ 8,287,756 9%
EMEA 3,925,127 3,879,527 1% 7% 48%
Asia Pacific 593,887 538,159 10% 14% 7%
TOTAL Net Revenues $ 8,272,270 $ 7,543,877 10% 12% 100%
Outsourcing 3,230,255 2,857,672 13% 15% 39%
n/m = not meaningful
OPERATING INCOME (LOSS) BY OPERATING GROUP (OG)
For the Three Months Ended February 28, 2006 and 2005
Operating Income (Loss) as Reported
Operating Groups Operating Income (Loss) Percent of OG
Net Revenues Operating Income Percent of OG Net Revenues Percent Increase (Decrease)
Communications & High Tech $ 177,488 17% $ 138,496 14% 28%
Financial Services 102,332 12 127,053 15 (19)
Government (3) (136,584) (23) 13,343 3 n/m
Products (3) (82,678) (8) 97,991 12 n/m
Resources 76,754 12 95,069 16 (19)
Total $ 137,312 3.3% $ 471,952 12.4% (71)%
Operating Income (Loss) on an Options-Adjusted Basis and Excluding Reorganization Benefits
Operating Groups Reorg. Benefits(1) Adjusted Operating Income (Loss) Percent of OG Net Revenues Options Adjs. (2) Reorg. Benefits(1) Adjusted Operating Income Percent of OG Net Revenues Percent Increase (Decrease)
Communications & High Tech $ 3,243 $ 174,245 17% $ 11,712 $ 10,505 $ 116,279 12% 50%
Financial Services 2,810 99,522 12 11,903 9,542 105,608 12 (6)
Government (3) 2,008 (138,592) (23) 6,610 6,683 50 — n/m
Products (3) 3,306 (85,984) (9) 12,612 9,528 75,851 9 n/m
Resources 2,173 74,581 12 7,957 5,981 81,131 14 (8)
Total $ 13,540 $ 123,772 3.0% $ 50,794 $ 42,239 $ 378,919 9.9% (67)%
[1] Represents reorganization benefits related to certain reorganization liabilities established in connection with Accenture’s transition to a corporate structure in 2001, which are included in Reorganization benefits, net on the income statement.
[3] Includes the impact of the NHS provision.
For the Six Months Ended February 28, 2006 and 2005
Government (3) (74,962) (6) 59,610 6 n/m
Products (3) 35,055 2 183,859 11 n/m
Resources 156,046 12 176,329 15 (12)
Financial Services 3,054 180,881 11 19,244 9,542 193,693 12 (7)
Government (3) 2,187 (77,149) (6) 11,045 6,683 41,882 4 n/m
Products (3) 3,601 31,454 2 19,992 9,528 154,339 9 n/m
Resources 2,323 153,723 12 12,872 5,981 157,476 14 (2)
Total $ 14,638 $ 635,230 7.7% $ 82,326 $ 42,239 $ 805,537 10.7% (21)%
RECONCILIATION OF DILUTED EARNINGS PER SHARE, AS REPORTED (GAAP) TO
DILUTED EARNINGS PER SHARE, AS ADJUSTED (NON-GAAP)
For the Three Months Ended February 28, 2006 For the Six Months Ended February 28, 2006
Net income for diluted earnings per share calculation 102,334 $ 0.11 427,410 $ 0.47
Less reorganization benefits (13,540) (0.01) (14,638) (0.02)
Net income for diluted earnings per share calculation, adjusted $ 88,794 $ 0.10 $ 412,772 $ 0.46
Weighted average diluted shares
Dollar Amount Per Share Amount(1) Dollar Amount Per Share Amount (1)
Pro forma stock option and employee share purchase plan compensation expense, net of tax (3) (35,556) (0.04) (57,628) (0.06)
Net income for diluted earnings per share calculation, adjusted $ 260,679 $ 0.27 $ 556,561 $ 0.57
[3] Calculated as pre-tax stock option and employee share purchase plan compensation expense of $50,794 and $82,326 for the three and six months ended February 28, 2006, respectively, applying an average effective tax rate of 30%.
February 28, 2006 and August 31, 2005
February 28, 2006 August 31, 2005
Cash and cash equivalents $ 2,034,034 $ 2,483,990
Short-term investments 312,760 463,460
Receivables from clients, net 1,957,297 1,752,937
Unbilled services 1,240,684 1,353,676
Other current assets 603,221 631,204
Total current assets 6,147,996 6,685,267
NON-CURRENT ASSETS:
Unbilled services 144,086 472,430
Investments 193,037 262,873
Property and equipment, net 723,409 693,710
Other non-current assets 916,124 843,072
Total non-current assets 1,976,656 2,272,085
TOTAL ASSETS $ 8,124,652 $ 8,957,352
Short-term debt $ 24,450 $ 31,072
Accounts payable 757,937 807,317
Deferred revenues 1,535,290 1,284,303
Accrued payroll and related benefits 1,343,653 1,430,998
Other accrued liabilities 1,578,046 1,377,443
Total current liabilities 5,239,376 4,931,133
NON-CURRENT LIABILITIES:
Long-term debt 28,038 44,116
Other non-current liabilities
Total non-current liabilities 1,136,799 1,348,346
MINORITY INTEREST 587,372 980,959
Total Shareholders' equity 1,161,105 1,696,914
TOTAL LIABILITIES AND EQUITY $ 8,124,652 $ 8,957,352
To view the the full release, including financial tables, download the PDF.To view the the full release, including financial tables, download the PDF.
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Cornish Scones Recipe: How to Make the Perfect Cornish Clotted Cream Tea
Lilinha 14 December, 2013 Food & Drink
I really like scones, but somehow have never made it before from scratch. I was sent a lovely selection of Rodda’s products, including Cornish Clotted Cream, Farmhouse Butter, Shortbread and Fudge, so I thought it was a perfect opportunity to try and make scones using the butter and clotted cream.
Cornish Scones for a Perfect Cream Tea
There is a great recipe video on Rodda’s website, which I used to make the Cornish scones. It is simple and easy, and the scones are so delicious!
Cornish Scones Recipe
These homemade scones are simplicity itself. Top with your favourite quality jam and Rodda’s Cornish clotted cream for the perfect cream tea
time: preparation, 15 minutes | cooking, 15 minutes
makes: 12
15g baking powder
100g Rodda’s Farmouse Butter, diced
1 medium free-range egg, lightly beaten
227g pot of Rodda’s Cornish clotted cream
200g good-quality strawberry jam (preferably homemade)
Sift the flour, baking powder and sugar into a bowl. Using just your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until it is no longer visible. Add the milk and mix well. Once it starts to come together, turn out on to a lightly floured surface and knead gently until it forms a smooth, soft dough.
Preheat the oven to 200C/fan180C/gas 6. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to 2.5 cm thick and cut into rounds with a 5cm cutter. Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Brush the tops of the scones twice with the beaten egg.
Bake in the oven for approximately 15 minutes. Do not over-bake them or they will be dry. Serve warm with the Rodda’s Cornish clotted cream and strawberry jam.
Rodda’s Cornish Clotted Cream Scones
The scones were very easy to make and so tasty. They were a success with the whole family, I was hoping to freeze some, but they were gone in a few minutes. They were enjoyed with Rodda’s Cornish clotted cream and strawberry jam – yum!
We were also sent Rodda’s Classic Cornish Clotted Cream Shortbread, they are wonderfully crumbly, melt in the mouth smooth and deliciously buttery. We also tried Rodda’s Classic Cornish Clotted Cream Fudge which is gloriously rich and a little bit crumbly. The shortbread and fudge come in a beautiful tin, making it a lovely and delicious present.
Rodda’s Classic Cornish Clotted Cream Shortbread and Fudge
Thank you Rodda’s for sending the lovely products for us to try, I will be making more scones again soon as they were so tasty!
For more information, please check http://www.roddas.co.uk/
The products were provided free of charge for review purposes. However the opinions expressed in this review are honest and my own.
Cornish Scones for a Perfect Cream Tea Cornish Scones Recipe Cream Tea Recipe Rodda's Cornish Clotted Cream Scones Recipe
5 Responses to "Cornish Scones Recipe: How to Make the Perfect Cornish Clotted Cream Tea"
Jessica Saunders says:
27 May, 2014 at 1:54 pm
I love Rodda’s clotted cream
Lilinha Espindula says:
Isn’t it so tasty?! 🙂 x
glenn hutton says:
These look amazing, well done!
Andrea Fletcher says:
Love scones, these look really nice.
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Good Guys Don’t Always Win
Posted by Literary Titan
Ken Cressman Author Interview
Sins of the Father is a non stop adventure novel following two detectives as they hunt down a dangerous drug kingpin who seeks revenge. What was the inspiration to the setup to this exciting novel?
This is actually the third installment in the Larkin and Colt series. As I was preparing to write the first book I established, just for myself, extensive backstories for the main characters, including their years as undercover ‘contractors’ for the government. Among the stories I created was the takedown of a notorious and supposedly untouchable drug kingpin. After I finished my second book, I found myself wondering what the possible long-term repercussions might be of some of Larkin and Colt’s past actions. The opening scene of a gang of assassins breaking into Larkin’s house popped into my head almost fully formed. From there, it was pretty much off to the races.
My favorite character was DEA Agent Scott Bowman, whose dry humor kept me smiling throughout. What themes did you want to capture while developing your characters?
I wanted to create a character who was dedicated to his job and trying to do the right thing, but who had been doing it for so long that he knows that achieving any kind of long-term solution is pretty much impossible. He’s a realist, and he knows that he’s pretty much rolling a rock up a hill, but he still refuses to give up hope. When he’s approached by Larkin, he sees a chance to maybe do a little bit of good, despite his knowledge that the good guys don’t always win, and the bad guys are incredibly hard to stop.
Sins of the Father is a genre-crossing novel with elements of a adventure, thriller, and action as well. Did you start writing with this in mind, or did this happen organically as you were writing?
I try to write the story I’d want to read. I don’t outline, but I pretty much have the whole plot worked out in my mind before I start. I have the major story points, but not necessarily all the fine details. I sort of let the characters tell me what happens next and where they want to go, as long as we’re always moving toward the outcome I have in mind. I try to let the story and the characters’ actions flow naturally, at the same time hoping to surprise the reader.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I’m currently working on a sequel to my science fiction adventure Pegasus, which is not a Larkin and Colt book. It’s entitled Intrepid, and where Pegasus was about a trip to the moon and back, this time they’re going to Mars. When they arrive, things go horribly wrong, and the crew has to figure out how to get their crippled ship back home before their air and food run out. It’s sort of Apollo 13 meets The Martian. It should be out sometime in the fall.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Amazon
“I was in my kitchen making breakfast when the three men broke in and tried to kill me…”
So begins the latest exciting episode in the adventures of David Larkin and his partner Samantha Colt.
Eight years ago, Larkin and Colt were part of a team that terminated notorious drug kingpin Francisco Salazar. Now Salazar’s son Ramon has grown up, taken over the family business and sworn his revenge upon them. Their only option is to follow the trail of drugs and bodies backwards, from Virginia to Miami to South America, to stop young Ramon before they become his latest victims.
Sins of the Father is loaded with the exciting action, wry humor and memorable characters that fans of Larkin and Colt have come to expect.
Tags: action, action book, action novel, adventure, adventure novel, agent, amazon, amazon books, amazon ebook, apollo 13, author, author interview, book, book review, books, dea, drug, ebook, ebooks, fantasy, fantasy book review, fiction, fighting, goodreads, hardcore book, interview, kindle, kindle book, kingpin, literature, mystery, novel, reading, realist, review, reviews, sins of the father, stories, suspense, the martian, thriller, twitter, undercover, urban fantasy, war, writing
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Pro-life stance leads Birk to skip White House visit
By Terry McCormick
The 2012 Baltimore Ravens, who wound up winning Super Bowl XLVII, certainly had some strong personalities and convictions when it came to things other than football.
Namely politics and religion.
Ray Lewis' sermons were well documented. And there were the opposing stances on gay marriage from Bernard Pollard and Brendan Ayanbadejo that fueled several media stories and talk.
Now, comes a report from a Minnesota radio station, KFAN, and picked up by the Baltimore Sun, that retired Ravens center Matt Birk skipped out on his invitation to the White House with the champs on Wednesday due to his pro-life stance on abortion and comments made by President Obama championing Planned Parenthood.
“I wasn't there,” Birk said. “I would say that I have great respect for the office of the Presidency, but about five or six weeks ago, our President made a comment in a speech and he said, 'God bless Planned Parenthood.'
“Planned Parenthood performs about 330,000 abortions a year. I am Catholic, I am active in the Pro-Life movement and I just felt like I couldn't deal with that. I couldn't endorse that in any way. I'm very confused by [Obama's] statement. For God to bless a place where they're ending 330,000 lives a year? I just chose not to attend.”
In that regard, Birk deserves credit for sticking to his principles, whether or not you agree with his stance on the topic.
With Birk and all the others mentioned above gone from the Ravens, 2013 figures to be downright boring in the Baltimore locker room when the topic shifts away from football.
Follow me on Twitter @TerryMc13
Terry McCormick covers the Titans for TitanInsider.com
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Resume Reading — Ants Swarm Like Brains Think
Biology Neuroscience
Ants Swarm Like Brains Think
A neuroscientist studies ant colonies to understand feedback in the brain.
Carrie Arnold By Carrie Arnold Illustration by Jonathon Rosen April 24, 2014
Deborah Gordon spent the morning of August 27 watching a group of harvester ants foraging for seeds outside the dusty town of Rodeo,…By Carrie Arnold
Deborah Gordon spent the morning of August 27 watching a group of harvester ants foraging for seeds outside the dusty town of Rodeo, N.M. Long before the first rays of sun hit the desert floor, a group of patroller ants was already on the move. Their task was to find out whether the area near the nest was free from flash floods, high winds, and predators. If they didn’t return to the nest, departing foragers would know it wasn’t safe to go search for food.
When the patrollers returned and the first foragers did leave, they scattered in all directions, hunting for the fat-laden, energy-rich seeds on which the colony depends. Other foragers waited in the entrance of the nest for the first wave to return. If lots of food were nearby, foragers would return and depart quickly, creating a massive chain reaction. If food was scarce, however, the second group of foragers might not leave the nest at all.
“It’s a brilliant system. The ants can take advantage of sudden windfalls of food but they don’t waste energy and resources if there’s nothing there,” said Gordon, who is an ecologist at Stanford University.
The behavior of each individual in the group is set by the rate at which it meets other ants and a set of basic rules. Its behavior alters that of its neighbors, which in turn affects the original ant, in a classic example of feedback. The result is astonishing, complex behavior. “Individually, an ant is dumb,” Gordon says. She gazes off into the distance and inhales sharply. “But the colony? That’s where the intelligence is.”
About 110 miles from Gordon’s offices in Palo Alto, Calif., Mark Goldman studies a different kind of complex, emergent behavior. Goldman is a neuroscientist at the University of California, Davis. For most of his life, he was never particularly interested in ants. But when he traveled to Stanford in 2012 to plan some experiments with a colleague who had recently attended one of Gordon’s talks, something clicked.
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“As I watched films of these ant colonies, it looked like what was happening at the synapse of neurons. Both of these systems accumulate evidence about their inputs—returning ants or incoming voltage pulses—to make their decisions about whether to generate an output—an outgoing forager or a packet of neurotransmitter,” Goldman said. On his next trip to Stanford, he extended his stay. An unusual research collaboration had begun to coalesce: Ants would be used to study the brain, and the brain, to study ants.
Ant land: Deborah Gordon has been returning to this New Mexico landscape for years to study its ants.Carrie Arnold
Each of the brain’s 86 billion neurons can be connected to many thousands of others. When a neuron fires, it sends a signal to nearby neurons that changes the probability that they will also fire. Some neurons are excitatory, and increase the chances that other neurons will fire. Others are inhibitory, and reduce this chance. A combination of inputs from a given neuron’s neighbors will determine if it fires. If two neurons make each other fire often, the synapse between them (a small gap across which chemical or electrical signals are passed) will strengthen, so that they can more readily provide feedback to each other.
“This is where you get the saying that ‘Neurons that fire together, wire together,’ ” says Dmitri Chklovskii, a neuroscientist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. But what is often not appreciated about this adage is that wiring also requires the second neuron to send a message to the first that it, too, has fired.
“The only way the upstream neuron knows that the second neuron fired is that it produces a feedback spike. This helps the synapse make the decision to get stronger,” Chklovskii says. Feedback is where the similarity with ants begins. “Feedback loops are everywhere on every level. They allow the system to realize that what it used to be doing isn’t working any more, and to try something new.”
Both ants and brains actually rely on two types of feedback, held in a delicate balance: negative (or inhibitory) feedback, and positive (or excitatory) feedback. “Negative feedback tends to cause stability. Positive feedback tends to cause runaway behavior,” said Tomer Czaczkes, an ant biologist at the University of Regensburg in Germany. “These two simple rules make something very powerful.”
The foraging response to food is an example of a positive feedback loop, and familiar to anyone who has had a picnic ruined by a line of ants marching in single file toward their meal. But knowing when not to leave the nest and risk predation and dehydration may be just as important as knowing when to take advantage of a windfall of seeds. At low levels of an input (a small amount of food, for example) positive feedback dominates. At high levels of input, negative feedback dominates, helping to prevent runaway processes.
Such runaway processes can represent a significant danger to the colony. Czaczkes mentions a tale involving the South American army ant, which unlike the harvester ant, relies on pheromones for navigation. In 1936, ant biologist T.C. Schneirla watched a group of army ants fall into an “ant death spiral” as they created a pheromone trail completely around a large tree. The lead ants, Schneirla noted in a 1944 paper, discovered and followed their own pheromone trail. More and more ants joined in, following an endless positive feedback loop around the same tree, continuing for days through pouring rain until the ants began to die from exhaustion.
“Relying only on positive feedback can get you stuck like this,” said Czaczkes. He would later show that positive feedback was balanced by negative feedback in the black garden ant, and that negative feedback allowed for rapid adaptation to the environment.
“Individually, an ant is dumb. But the colony? That’s where the intelligence is.”
Similar feedback networks are found in the brain, both at the level of individual neurons and of the whole brain. Just as the discovery of a cache of seeds by one or two harvester ants can trigger a massive exodus from the nest, the entry of a few sodium ions into a neuron can trigger a massive influx. This positive feedback raises the voltage of the neuron past a certain threshold, causing it to fire and temporarily stop the influx of sodium ions, while simultaneously letting potassium ions flood out.
The activity of individual neurons induces electromagnetic fields around the brain that can be recorded with electroencephalograms (EEGs). The EEG signal, too, is a form a positive feedback. Scientists at Yale University applied a weak electric field to a piece of ferret brain that was producing slow but regular brain waves, similar to what happens during deep sleep. This field, they found, could strengthen the existing surges of neural activity in the brain tissue, causing ripples to become tsunamis. When the scientists applied the opposite electric field to brain tissue that was experiencing regular waves of neural activity, they were able to disrupt this feedback loop.1
While these feedback processes in the brain are known to exist, they are hard to observe—much harder than analogous feedback processes in ant colonies. So Gordon and Goldman forged an ant-brain alliance. To get it started, they focused on one particular aspect of ant behavior: the number of interactions it would require for an ant to leave the nest and start foraging.
In August 2013, Gordon returned to the same desert scrubland straddling the border of Arizona and New Mexico that she has visited each summer for 30 years. Armed with a map and a clipboard, she strode over the packed dirt and patches of thick grass to begin her experiments. As she walked past harvester ant colonies, she greeted them like old friends. “Happy birthday, Colony 330. You made it another year,” she said as she scribbled a note on a piece of paper, never breaking stride.
Flanked by a group of undergrads and Ph.D. students, Gordon arrived at a nest she had marked 889 with a piece of rusty wire and a stamped metal tag. Everyone set down their equipment, which included everything from large plastic buckets to umbrellas to peanut butter. Gordon removed a roll of blue duct tape decorated with pictures of SpongeBob SquarePants. The students immediately began tucking shirts into pants and jean legs into socks. Then, they carefully wrapped SpongeBob tape around ankles, wrists, and waist—anywhere the ants might be able to deliver a nasty bite. Neuroscience research had never looked quite like this before.
After taping their clothes, the students set up two video cameras. One was aimed at the opening of the nest, a hole in the ground that looks like it could have been drilled by a pencil. Another was aimed at a square about three feet from the nest entrance, measuring about one foot on each side, and with rocks at the corners. Armed with a plastic spoon filched from the cafeteria of the Southwestern Research Center that morning, Gordon began to enlarge the tiny nest entrance. Then cameras started rolling.
For 20 minutes, the group recorded the harvester ants going about life as usual, leaving the nest in search of food and bringing seeds back home. Then, Gordon focused her attention on the square. Like a Cordon Bleu chef pinching a bit of salt, Gordon expertly grabbed the ants in the square between thumb and forefinger, dropping them into a plastic bucket. The cameras kept rolling as the normally bustling ant entrance went eerily still.
“The ants aren’t getting feedback from their nestmates,” she explained. “No one is coming in, so the ants inside aren’t getting the signal to leave.”
Gordon and her team found that it took just three seconds for harvester ants to start leaving the nest faster, after their nestmates began returning in droves with food.2 The opposite reaction was much slower: If foragers didn’t return for four to five minutes, ants near the entrance fled deeper underground. The team also measured how long it took the colony to return to normal after being disrupted.
Numbers like these are precious information for Goldman. Like ants, neurons also have first and second responders. When a neuron fires, it releases neurotransmitters that are housed in containers called vesicles. One pool of vesicles, called the “readily releasable pool,” lives right at the cell membrane and is the first to be released. The vesicles in this pool, however, are few in number and can quickly be depleted. If firing rates continue at a moderate level, a second pool of vesicles called the “recycling pool” is brought into action, and very intense rates will summon a third pool called the “reserve pool.”
A returning forager is like an incoming action potential; a potential forager in the ant colony is like a synaptic vesicle. These potential foragers also appear to be arranged according to their proximity to the tunnel entrance. Those further back are similar to the recycling and reserve pools. Just as a potential forager has to decide whether to leave the nest in search of food, the synapse has to decide whether to release a vesicle.
Goldman believes he can use ant data to understand the foraging behavior of the desert ants and the ways in which it is similar to or different from vesicle recycling. To understand ant foraging behavior, he is using a mathematical construct called a stochastic accumulator. This model sums the inputs that the ants receive inside a certain time window, in a way that takes into account the inherent randomness of the environment. In synapses, the chemical signals that trigger ant foraging behavior are replaced by electrical signals that trigger the release of neurotransmitter, and the leave/stay decision of the ant is replaced by the release/don’t release decision of the synapse.
For her part, Gordon is hoping for more precise mathematical models of ant behavior. She hopes it will help her understand how differing responses to interactions at the level of individual ants may lead to differences among colonies. For example, colonies that forage less when conditions are dry are more likely to produce daughter colonies. This adaptation may result from ants requiring more interactions with their nestmates before leaving the nest to forage. “Gathering food can be really risky,” Gordon said. “It actually benefits the colony to show restraint, because they’re not wasting resources.”
In the months since her return from New Mexico, Gordon has spent many of her days watching her newly collected videos. Together with her team of postdocs, graduate students and undergrads, she counts the ants as they swarm around the colony entrance. Each ant arrival receives a sharp click on the stopwatch-like counter the students use, so that the analysis sounds like a machine gun battle in the corner of her Stanford laboratory. With each click, one species moves closer to understanding another—and itself.
Carrie Arnold is a freelance science writer living in Virginia. She has covered many aspects of the living world for Scientific American, Discover, New Scientist, NOVA, and other publications.
1. Fröhilch, F. & McCormick, D.A. Endogenous electric fields may guide neocortical network activity. Neuron 67 (1), 129-143 (2010).
2. Pinter-Wollman, N., et al. Harvester ants use interactions to regulate forager activation and availability. Animal Behaviour (2013). Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.05.012.
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By Justin Nobel
Safecracking the Brain
By Virginia Hughes
“Pop, Pop, Pop.” She Heard Her Brain in Action
By Richard Martin
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The Don Nelson Firing Manifesto
By Matt MooreMar 14, 2010, 11:11 PM EDT
Tim Kawakami has laid out the entire thing. Ten reasons one by one, to ditch the Don.
It is a hit job glazed in dynamite. This isn’t a criticism, Nelson’s been calling for it. The reasons are detailed but succinct. But if you want the biggest reason Nelson needs to go, it’s outlined in #2. Alienation.
As has been his track record, Nelson’s cantankerous nature has
alienated Monta Ellis, Anthony Randolph, Andris Biedrins and others.
Good young Warriors players want to get away from the Warriors and
Nelson; good young non-Warriors players want to stay away.
That’s how you stay bad. That’s not how you rebuild.
The Warriors’ misuse of young talent has been borderline tragic. Brandan Wright, Anthony Randolph, even Anthony Morrow.
What’s worse is that after Chris Mullin was tossed from the good ship Warriors, Nelson became the primary acting entity.So the only oversight for him is… well, himself. The result is a management structure that only digs itself further and further into a pit of vacant defense.
The Warriors are unlikely to find a way out of their long, illustrious reign of failure until the ten reasons Kawakami outlines for why Nelson should be fired become the reasons he was fired.
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Mopus Kit with The Source [SOCR4]
22 Feb 2018 | 0 | 0 | 0
Stimhack Online Cache Refresh 4 (SOCR 4) #8 of 39 presheaf
Creation and Control
Earth's Scion
Free Mars
Revised Core Set
Sovereign Sight
Bluebird Noob Kit Cache Refresh 0 0 0
presheaf 482
This is my Runner deck for SOCR4. Unlike my Corp deck, it went virtually unchanged throughout the tournament. Also unlike my Corp deck, I didn't really win a single game with this before the last round of Swiss. Oh well.
The core plan of this deck is not very exciting - get Magnum Opus online ASAP and make money. Somewhat naively I figured this would be a pretty good plan in Cache Refresh, which I thought would be a significantly slower format than Standard. I think the plan isn't quite as bad as my record with it is, though.
In this deck, I got to play a couple of cards I normally don't, of which I was happy with something like one out of three. First off, I put The Source in because Clot isn't in the format, and using Magnum Opus to remote lock can lose both to FA and to Corps using NA baits to tax you out until they know they can score safely, as your economy is very predictable. It took me a couple of games to get the hang of using it effectively - I think in my first four rounds I put it down essentially at random, and ended up hurting myself more than anyone else with it - but I eventually figured out that by saving it until the Corp reaches 5 points, it gets pretty potent.
I can't really recommend it based on its performance, but it's definitely not the worst card in the deck. With NGO being printed, I'm less happy about it because IA isn't quite as obvious a signal that there's an agenda anymore, but it was fun while it lasted.
Secondly, I play Corp Defector. There's no good excuse here except that I have a soft spot for it, but it makes a little bit of sense here. It is intended as a way to know when HQ is a good place to run, as you can force agendas to build up by maintaining a credible remote threat, but can't really afford to keep breaking the remote while checking HQ as well. It creates some fun situations like when the Corp click 1 draws a 5/3 and needs to do something weird with it to keep it safe which I enjoyed, but it didn't perform that well.
Thirdly, I play Careful Planning. I don't think I got to play it once the entire tournament, but it was very close to being useful twice, so I'm chalking that one up as a success. In principle, it's a flexible Inside Job which can also mess with upgrades. In practice, I could rarely afford to pay the play cost in games I hadn't already won.
So in retrospect, my lessons drawn here would be less tricks, more money. I think cutting Careful Planning, Tinkering, Corp Defector, 1x SoT, Inti, Dedicated Processor for 3x Dirty Laundry, 3x Daily Casts would skyrocket this deck to at least playable.
This is my Runner deck for SOCR4. Unlike my Corp deck, it went virtually unchanged throughout the tournament. Also unlike my Corp deck, I didn't really win a single game with this before the last round of Swiss. Oh well. The core plan of this deck is not very exciting - get Magnum Opus online ASAP and make money. Somewhat naively I figured this would be a pretty good plan in Cache Refresh, which I thought would be a significantly slower format than Standard. I think the plan isn't quite as bad as my record with it is, though. In this deck, I got to play a couple of cards I normally don't, of which I was happy with something like one out of three. First off, I put The Source in because Clot isn't in the format, and using Magnum Opus to remote lock can lose both to FA and to Corps using NA baits to tax you out until they know they can score safely, as your economy is very predictable. It took me a couple of games to get the hang of using it effectively - I think in my first four rounds I put it down essentially at random, and ended up hurting myself more than anyone else with it - but I eventually figured out that by saving it until the Corp reaches 5 points, it gets pretty potent. I can't really recommend it based on its performance, but it's definitely not the worst card in the deck. With NGO being printed, I'm less happy about it because IA isn't quite as obvious a signal that there's an agenda anymore, but it was fun while it lasted. Secondly, I play Corp Defector. There's no good excuse here except that I have a soft spot for it, but it makes a little bit of sense here. It is intended as a way to know when HQ is a good place to run, as you can force agendas to build up by maintaining a credible remote threat, but can't really afford to keep breaking the remote while checking HQ as well. It creates some fun situations like when the Corp click 1 draws a 5/3 and needs to do something weird with it to keep it safe which I enjoyed, but it didn't perform that well. Thirdly, I play Careful Planning. I don't think I got to play it once the entire tournament, but it was very close to being useful twice, so I'm chalking that one up as a success. In principle, it's a flexible Inside Job which can also mess with upgrades. In practice, I could rarely afford to pay the play cost in games I hadn't already won. So in retrospect, my lessons drawn here would be less tricks, more money. I think cutting Careful Planning, Tinkering, Corp Defector, 1x SoT, Inti, Dedicated Processor for 3x Dirty Laundry, 3x Daily Casts would skyrocket this deck to at least playable.
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Necessary Style
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Every fan’s cheat sheet to ONE: A New Era
Photograph courtesy of One Championship
Drive Sports and Fitness
World title bouts, debuting stars from the UFC, kickboxing and Muay Thai matchups, 19 countries in attendance—there is a lot on the line in Sunday’s mega mixed martial arts event, held at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo. Before you tune in or attend, here are some important things to keep in mind.
Nissi Icasiano | Mar 28 2019
ONE Championship’s inaugural event in Japan will see the organization land in Tokyo’s iconic Ryogoku Kokugikan this Sunday, March 31.
ONE: A New Era features the most stacked lineup of matchups in the mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion’s nearly eight-year existence. With an unprecedented four world title contests, this is an event that you shouldn’t miss. With only a few days to go before fans around the globe witness the action-packed live affair, ANCX shares some facts that you need to know before fight night.
Long road to the Land of the Rising Sun
It’s been a long time coming for ONE to set foot on Japanese soil. Three years ago, there have been talks of holding an event called “The Land Of The Rising Sun,” but it didn’t develop further. Japan was listed as one of the organization’s target markets for an overseas show on numerous occasions and has seen visits by several of the sport’s top stars.
Japanese fighters already form an integral part of ONE’s roster, with exciting combatants such as Koji Ando, Kotetsu Boku, current strawweight titleholder Yosuke Saruta, and the legendary Shinya Aoki. Also part of the company’s locker room are Yoshitaka Naito, Mei Yamaguchi, Hayato Suzuki, Riku Shibuya, Tetsuya Yamada, Yuki Kondo, Kazunori Yokota, Ken Hasegawa, and Masakazu Imanari.
Koji Ando VS Rasul Yakhyaev
In line with ONE’s strategy of developing promising prospects in the sport, the promotion has entered an exclusive partnership with Japan’s well-regarded leagues. The likes of Pancrase and Shooto will provide homegrown Japanese athletes a global platform to showcase their talents and develop their skills.
On Sunday, the Singaporean company will finally arrive in one of the traditional powerhouse nations of the sport. This, its 90th live event, will contain a total of 15 fights.
Fitting battleground
The 11,000-seater Ryogoku Kokugikan will be the venue for this maiden foray into Japan. The indoor stadium is not new in showcasing combat sports spectacles as it has been mainly used for sumo wrestling tournaments.
Ryogoku Kokugikan is likewise closely associated with professional wrestling as it hosted the finals of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s annual G1 Climax tournament. This is apart from hosting G1’s “Invasion Attack” and “King of Pro-Wrestling” events, as well as World Wrestling Entertainment’s “The Beast in the East” show in 2015. A New Era marks the first time that a major international MMA organization will stage a talent-filled card at the venue.
More on ONE: A New Era:
VIDEO: Team Lakay’s Belingon on facing Bibiano Fernandes for the 3rd time to decide who the best bantamweight is
Team Lakay looks back on the long, hard road to becoming one of MMA’s best
Video: Team Lakay's Folayang on his ONE Championship title defense against Aoki
ONE Championship attempts a Japanese MMA rebirth with A New Era
Folayang versus Aoki II
Perhaps the most heated rivalry in ONE’s lightweight history, Eduard Folayang goes up against his arch nemesis Shinya Aoki in a highly-anticipated rematch. When both men met in November 2016, the Filipino came in as the underdog. But he shocked the world by authoring a third-round technical knockout to end the Japanese legend’s long tenure at the top. On March 31, the roles will be reversed, with Folayang trying to hold on to lightweight gold.
Ever since succumbing to a second-round knockout loss to featherweight kingpin Martin Nguyen in November 2017, Folayang rebounded in style with three wins in a row last year. This includes a dominant performance versus Singapore’s Amir Khan to recapture the ONE lightweight championship.
Although roles are reversed, a tough test still awaits Eduard Folayang in the rematch against Shinya Aoki.
Like Folayang, Aoki is also riding high on a three-fight winning streak, finishing his opponents in the first round by either knockout or submission. Aoki’s 57-second submission victory over former world title contender Ev Ting last October gave him a shot against Folayang in the New Era main event.
Three more world titles at stake
Apart from Folayang versus Aoki, there will be a trio of other world title fights on Sunday.
Atomweight queen Angela Lee of Singapore looks to make history as ONE’s first female two-division world champion. She challenges Chinese hard-hitter Xiong Jing Nan for the women’s strawweight title.
Angela Lee aims to make history as ONE Championship's first female two-division world champion.
Kevin Belingon tries to prove that his win last November against Bibiano Fernades was no fluke.
In addition, Myanmar’s Aung La N Sang defends his middleweight strap against Japan’s Ken Hasegawa Fight Of The Year-candidate tussle in June 2018. Lastly, Filipino spitfire Kevin Belingon locks horns with Brazilian rival Bibiano Fernandes for the third time to determine once and for all who the best bantamweight in ONE really is.
Explosive debuts
A New Era will likewise witness the much-awaited debuts of MMA megastars Eddie Alvarez and Demetrious Johnson, who are competing in the Lightweight and Flyweight World Grand Prix tournaments respectively.
Alvarez, a former UFC and Bellator lightweight titleholder, made headlines when he inked a multi-bout contract with ONE late last year. Hailed as the best pound-for-pound mixed martial artist in the world today, Johnson followed suit a few weeks later as part of a historic trade with the UFC. The deal sent former ONE welterweight champion Ben Askren to the Las Vegas-based MMA promotion.
Alvarez is penciled to duke it out with Russian knockout artist Timofey Nastyukhin in the final ONE Lightweight World Grand Prix quarter-final bout. Johnson, on the other hand, battles Japanese Yuya Wakamatsu in one of the three Flyweight World Grand Prix quarter-final matches at A New Era.
Danny Kingad expects that he will have to dig deep in his bout against Senzo Ikeda to advance to the semi-final round of the ONE Flyweight World Grand Prix.
While Johnson is set to play a starring role on the main card of A New Era, his bout is not the only Flyweight World Grand Prix matchup on deck. In another tournament clash on the event’s preliminary portion, Team Lakay’s Danny Kingad faces reigning Pancrase flyweight titlist Senzo Ikeda for a spot in the semi-final round.
Another contest in the eight-man single elimination tourney will see familiar faces go to war as ex- flyweight titleholder Kairat Akhmetov takes on Filipino-Australian dynamo Reece McLaren.
Kickass lineup
ONE Super Series’ Muay Thai and kickboxing bouts have brought an added dimension to the organization’s live events since April 2018. A New Era will highlight a strong lineup of these bouts.
Andy Souwer of the Netherlands is slated to slug it out with Thai Yodsanklai IWE Fairtex. This encounter pits one of the world’s greatest kickboxers against one of the planet’s best Muay Thai exponents.
Andy Souwer’s all-action style is something to look forward to his return at ONE: A NEW ERA.
Meanwhile, Japan’s own Hiroki Akimoto aims to get his second-straight win by squaring off with Joseph Lasiri in a three-round kickboxing clash. Thailand’s crowd-pleasing striker Rodtang Jitmuangnon returns to action in an effort to put on another showstopper against Hakim Hamech of France in a Muay Thai match. The Super Series lineup completes with bantamweight Muay Thai bout between Cypriot standout Panicos Yusuf and Malaysia’s Mohammed “Jordan Boy” Bin Mahmoud.
The roster for ONE: A New Era will brandish 30 athletes from 19 different countries, including the United States, Brazil, China, Singapore, and the Philippines.
The event also gives its host country the opportunity for its athletes to compete in the ONE cage for the first time. This includes former world title contender Mei Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi is fired up to put on a signature performance in front of her compatriots against the likes of Kseniya Lachkova. The Russian hunts for another shot at Angela Lee’s atomweight title.
Global broadcast
A New Era has received a tremendous amount of media attention since its announcement. As the event’s hype and anticipation continue to build up, ONE has made an effort to accommodate its fans worldwide.
The card will be aired internationally through the promotion’s ONE Super App, which is available for download on both Android and iOS platforms for free.
The schedule for One: A New Era this sunday.
In North America, the event will be widely available for viewers to watch through Turner Broadcasting System’s streaming service Bleacher Report Live. Some of the matches will be aired later on its flagship channel TNT.
In the Philippines, ONE: A New Era will have a live broadcast on ABS-CBN S+A channel 23 and ABS-CBN S+A HD channel 166. It will likewise be streamed on ABS-CBN Sports’ Facebook page and official website. The event will also have a simulcast on the digital platform iWant.
Click on the arrows for slideshow
Xiao Jing Nan faces off with Angela Lee for the ONE Strawweight World Title.
Brazil's Bruno Pucci
Two-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu No-Gi World Champion Bruco Pucci faced Japanese knockout artist Kotetsu Boku in the ONE Championship cage last January in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Japanese lightweight Koji Ando prevailed over Russia's Rasul Yakhyaev at ONE: Eternal Glory last January.
Mei Yamaguchi squares off with Xiao Jing Nan.
Rasul Yakhyaev launched a straight right hand at Koji "The Commander" Ando.
Yosuke Saruta
Yosuke Saruta vs Joshua Pacio.
Yosuke Saruta prevailed over Joshua Pacio and claimed the ONE Strawweight World Title last January.
Photographs courtesy of One Championship
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Dry-run for presidency? Duterte daughter revels in Philippine midterms spotlight
Home > Spotlight
Martin Petty, Reuters
Posted at May 10 2019 05:31 PM | Updated as of May 10 2019 06:17 PM
* Differences to father could boost appeal
* Campaign role seen as move to gauge public opinion
* Sara Duterte says too soon to talk about presidency
* Daughter could protect father's legacy, ensure no legal action
* Duterte allies expected to dominate election
MANILA - During Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's first two years in office, his daughter Sara had barely any interest in politics.
One year on, she is front and center in a midterm election that she isn't even running in, playing kingmaker for candidates allied with her father in what's being widely seen as a not-so-subtle trial balloon for her own presidential run in 2022.
Monday's elections are to a great extent a referendum on the Duterte administration, testing his popularity and giving him a chance to tighten his grip on power by retaining his Congressional majority, and keeping the opposition on the fringes of the all-important Senate for the remainder of his term.
Sara Duterte opted out of running for the Senate, choosing instead to manage the campaign of some of her father's loyalists, which experts say will boost her political capital and build alliances that could come in handy ahead of the next presidential election.
"She's projecting herself as a national personality. What's happening today is her testing the water," said Ramon Casiple, who heads the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform.
"Her image is being looked into, how people accept her. She has her own personality. She's not being looked at as a carbon copy of her father."
Sara Duterte reluctantly took over from her father as mayor of Davao City and has become hugely popular there. She is also no stranger to presidential events and overseas trips, serving as first lady because of her father's annulled marriage.
The 40-year old has spent the past three months on a campaign that has included touring on a 900 cc motorcycle and leading big rallies with billboards and banners carrying an image of herself twice the size of those of the candidates she is promoting.
In the May polls, everyone wants to be by the Dutertes’ side
Sara Duterte says 'no obligation' to explain wealth
Talk of succeeding President Duterte in 2022 has dampened concern among his critics that he might try to cling to power by changing the constitution to remove the single-term limit for presidents.
Casiple said Sara Duterte as president could protect her father's legacy and insulate him from political vendettas and what he has described as a "pattern of imprisonment" of former Philippine presidents.
Some critics even suggest a family succession would protect Duterte, 74, from a possible International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment for crimes against humanity. The ICC last year launched a preliminary examination into Duterte's war on drugs, in which police have killed thousands of people.
NO-NONSENSE, LESS DIVISIVE
For her part, Sara has urged her supporters to stop referring to her as the next president, insisting it would put her at the top of a "hate list" of people eyeing the job. Her intention, she said, was to help her father deliver on his agenda, and talk of succession was pointless until 2021.
She did not respond to questions sent by Reuters to her representatives.
Her appeal is that she has the same tough, no-nonsense approach that makes her father a hit among millions, but she is by no means his lackey.
She has been seen in public sharing lunch with opposition leader Leni Robredo, whose party the president despises.
She has openly disagreed with her father and some of his policies - though voiced support for his war on drugs - and has publicly insulted some of his inner circle.
Sara Duterte says federalism could worsen areas with political dynasties
She has also demonstrated that she's not to be crossed.
She once punched a court sheriff in the face, and her disdain for former house speaker Pantaleon Alvarez saw her bring key power-brokers together to oust him, on the same day of his annual state of the nation address to Congress.
Inday Sara: Duterte daughter shuns First Lady role
Alvarez wants to win back his seat on Monday and declined to comment on Sara Duterte's political influence, or her backing of his rivals.
"I respect her politics," he said, when asked about her presidential potential.
According to some analysts, Sara's differences to her father could broaden her appeal among voters should she decide to run, allowing her to tap into groups alienated by his administration's perceived adversarial approach to civil society, the media and the intelligentsia.
"I like the way she's balancing out things when she openly contradicts blatantly ridiculous stuff that comes out of the administration," said Alan German, a political campaign strategist at Agents International in Manila.
"She's playing both side of the field. On the one hand she's got the Duterte supporters, obviously because of her last name and who she is, and on the other hand, she's trying to woo these sway guys who think 'it won't be so bad if it's Sara'," he said.
"She gives you just enough to think, OK she's not a lapdog."
rodrigo duterte,sara duterte,halalan top, halalan 2019, elections, eleksyon, philippine elections
Read More: rodrigo duterte sara duterte halalan top halalan 2019 elections eleksyon philippine elections
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Posts Tagged ‘iMac Pro’
How To Make An iMac Pro
June 3, 2017 Chris McIntyre Leave a comment
WWDC is nearly upon us once again. Usually this marks the software focused portion of Apple’s year. New OS’s will soon be previewed, with new APIs to play with and new features to fuss over. This year, however, there are strong rumors of new hardware. Siri-in-a-can, new Mac laptops, and iPad Pros. To be frank, there aren’t many Apple products for sale right now that aren’t due for some attention.
Apple’s recent willingness to let old hardware linger notwithstanding, it’s past time for new iPad Pros. With signs pointing to an upcoming refresh, or even re-design, there’s been a lot of speculation about what Apple could add to these new devices. One possibility the hosts of ATP were discussing was the ability to pair your iPad with your Mac and use it as a second screen. As John says, there are apps that will let you do this today, but ideally Apple could add tighter integration and make for a better experience. Imagine being able to use your Apple Pencil to draw in real desktop Photoshop. What design professional wouldn’t want that?
This got me thinking about the iMac Pro that Apple execs hinted at during the recent Mac Pro roundtable. We know that new versions of the iMac are due this year, including, in Phil Schiller’s words, “configurations of iMac specifically with the pro customer in mind”. The unanswered question is, what would distinguish a pro iMac? I’ve seen suggestions that this could mean Xeon processors squeezed into an iMac casing, or ECC ram. But those answers seemed too boring for modern Apple. What if the answer is something a little crazier.
My Crazy Prediction
There’s been a lot of discussion this year about who Apple considers a professional. For iOS, the answer is clear. The iPad Pro—the only explicitly branded “Pro” iOS hardware to date—is aimed squarely at visual artists. The Pro iPad is built around its screen and it’s support for the Apple Pencil. Apple is saying that Multi-Touch is good for casual interactions with your iOS device, but pros need more precise input. The Apple Pencil is, in Apple’s words, “the ideal tool for artists of every kind”.
Defining a pro Mac user has been more difficult. Marco Arment has discussed this at length on ATP this year, and I won’t rehash his arguments here. Instead, I just want to look at how Apple themselves presents their Pro hardware in use. On the MacBook Pro landing page, most product photographs show the laptops open and running either 2D image-editing software such as Photoshop or video-editing software such as Final Cut. (The Mac Pro page, which has not been updated significantly since 2013, does not show or discuss any software).
Apple seems to believe the following:
Visual-design and video professionals are important markets for them.
The Mac is an important product for these customers.
The Apple Pencil is the best input device for visual design and video professionals
It’s possible that Apple thinks the best way to serve the customers is to turn the iPad Pro into a glorified Cintiq. But what if they’re thinking… different?
iMac With Apple Pencil Support
I’m going to start with a disclaimer. I’m not a visual artist. I don’t so much as doodle in my notebooks. So to me this is purely a thought experiment. But the more I weigh the pros and cons, the more this seems like a no-brainer.
Apple has been clear that they see no room for Multi-Touch on the Mac. Their two main arguments against this seem to be:
macOS is designed for the precise input of a mouse and pointer, not big kludgy fingers
The ergonomics would be terrible.
Lets take these in turn. First, I am not suggesting that Apple bring Multi-Touch to the Mac. It’s possible to implement Apple Pencil support without full touch support. No need to worry about trying to poke at macOS’s small touch targets. In my scenario, if you were to stab at your iMac Pro screen with your finger, nothing would happen. The Pencil, though, wouldn’t have to be an all-purpose input device. Maybe at first there’s limited support for it in AppKit, where it could scroll an NSScrollView and click an NSButton for free. If, as rumors suggest, Apple has come up with a drag-and-drop paradigm for iOS, maybe they could port that to the Mac for use with the Apple Pencil. From there, developers could decide for themselves how to best support the pencil in their apps.
Now for the second objection. Yes, drawing on an iMac, as we know it today, would be no fun. But there are other ways to design a big screen on a hinge. I believe Apple’s designers could find a to make an all-in-one PC that allowed you to draw without gorilla-arm. They’ve already shown themselves to be flexible regarding ergonomics. Using an iPad with a smart keyboard are exactly as uncomfortable as using a MacBook with Multi-Touch, and yet that is a product you could buy today.
The success of iOS proved that removing abstraction can drastically improve user experience. Creative professionals have shown that they want to be able to interact directly with the UI, but many have also shown a preference for Macs, whether it’s because of advanced file system access and scriptability, large screens, or just because that’s what their IT departments expect them to use. They square this circle by using Wacom tablets, but that’s just another layer of abstraction waiting to be removed.
I’m not suggesting that Apple will simply copy the Surface Studio. For one thing, the lack of full Multi-Touch support would make this a completely different beast. I also think there’s a lot that their hardware designers could bring to the table. But the more I think about it, the more obvious it seems. The next step forward for the Mac is the Pencil.
Categories: Computer Blue Tags: Apple, Apple Pencil, iMac, iMac Pro
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