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"Kill The Quants..." Before They Kill You
Authored by Doug Kass via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,
* Friday was likely the day the short volatility trade died
* A massive regulatory overhaul is needed to counter the destabilizing influence of strategies and exchange traded products that have overwhelmed our markets
For years I have warned about the explosion in popularity (and listings) of ETFs (which now outnumber the number of publicly traded companies) and ETNs – in an oft repeated column entitled…”Kill The Quants Before They Kill Our Markets.”
In pointing out the risks of the “new” versions of strategies purporting to be able to control risk (on the fly) — mine was a voice in the wilderness, ignored by the majority of market participants who were enjoying the bullish fruits and impact of these newfangled strategies.
Indeed it took a bit over six years for XIV (an inverse VIX product, its VIX spelled backwards!) to rise from $10 to $144 but only one day for the product’s price to implode to $0. As blogger Quoth The Raven tweeted this morning: “Six years of picking up pennies in front of a bulldozer wiped away in one session.”
Nomura’s Charles McElligott (who I have quoted extensively over the last year) was another voice:
The “grey swan” we all have spoken about for years — that being the absurd “tail wagging the dog” potential of VIX ETN market structure (inverse and leveraged products) AND the massive growth in “negative convexity” / “vol target” / “vol rebalancing” strategies to either generate extra income or “systematically allocate risk” (looks good in the prospectus, right?!) — finally “broke” the volatility market, and has now bled-through to the “underlying” spot equities market…as the short vol trade went “lights out.”
The ETNs are the “patient zero” of this current market meltdown. It is estimated that there was anywhere from ~$125mm to $200mm of vega / VIX futs to BUY on the close from the two main “short VIX” ETNs that rebalance daily (XIV and SVXY). As S&P traded -50 handles AFTER the cash close from 4:00pm to 4:15pm into the market’s anticipation of the massive rebalancing of volatility (buy to cover) on the close, XIV then saw a delayed and terrifying ~-87 PERCENT move after the close, as some who owned XIV puts as crash protection sniffed this potential and speculated liquidation from the ETN, which is set per a rules-based system to buy back short vega after an 80% “crash trigger”(which again isn’t a certainty because they use a blend of 1st and 2nd month). The asset pool nonetheless was seemingly / largely wiped-out and the note is guaranteed to “pay out” to their shareholders as set per their prospectus. It is likely that this thing has indeed been “triggered” and will be forced to liquidate. SVXY doesn’t have the firm 80% “trigger” but too is seeing its NAV “wiped out” and is trading ~-80% post-close as well.
The issue NOW is the pile-on going-forward across assets, as the systematic “short vol” community’s models are now completely toast, and they too will be forced to cover remaining “short vol” positions that didn’t trade today-i.e. BE PREPARED FOR A MAJOR VIX FOLLOW-THROUGH TOMORROW.
VaR-based models need to be reset across all asset-class strategies, forcing further de-risking over the coming days and potentially weeks, as heads of funds and heads of risk try to figure out how much their models are forcing them to “gross-down.” Shorter-term vol target / vol allocation strategies (think CTAs) and longer-term models like risk-parity and too will reset and “rebalance” their risk (lower) as realized vols are re-priced. Structured products, annuities and other vehicles with built-in protection? Also purging exposure on the vol reset. Finally, it also shouldn’t be lost on the popularity of “short VIX” trades in the retail community, and the “butterfly flapping its wings” relationship to the recent melt-down in the crypto-currency space.
– Fade to Black
Until Friday, when we experienced a “come to Jesus” moment for structured products and relational quant strategies (e.g. risk parity and short vol ), few listened to our concerns of a possible Short Volatility Armageddon caused by a rapidly changing and dangerous market structure in which VIX products multiplied like weeds.
I believe the precipitous market drop in the last week has little to do with the projected course of interest rates or, for that matter, fundamentals.
It likely was a function of the distorted, dangerous world of new investment products and strategies.
As discussed below (and above), the proliferation of short vol, volatility trending and risk parity strategies when combined with an explosion of leveraged ETFs and ETNs — many of which were derivatives of derivatives and had no business existing except to please gamblers — had altered the market structure in as extreme a manner as Portfolio Insurance did 30 1/2 years ago (which led to the October, 1987, crash). Back then, Portfolio Insurance proved to be a bridge too far that added a dynamic component that would attempt to increase the hedge as the market was declining but which (1) served to actually increase the downward volatility of the market and (2) whose very ability to be executed depended on market liquidity being available but which their strategy of selling more at lower prices (as the market declined) would quickly exhaust and then destroy that liquidity very, very quickly.
The SEC was asleep then (in 1987) and the SEC is asleep today.
The kennel of VIX related products (that have become the tail that wags the market’s dog — should be closed down, post haste.
Market participants (and regulators) have little understanding of the technical nature of these products/strategies or the domino and ripple effect. Many of these ETF products and options should be suspended and outlawed and the issuers should be held to account. It’s bigger than bitcoin — and bitcoin is a dumb idea!
Unfortunately I can not see with clarity how the genie of quant strategies, ETFs and ETNs are taken out of the (market) bubble — particularly with the inertia of the regulatory authorities like the SEC.
Last night I sat next to the New York Times’ Jim Stewart at dinner — with my iPhone between us, spewing out the news that the market disequilibrium had been upset like nothing I had seen in decades. Jim and I chatted while watching (laser focused) the overnight market disorder — at its nadir, DJIA futures fall by -1200, S&P futures nearly -125 and Nasdaq futures collapsing by over -220 against fair market value.
I expanded further on some of continued concerns regarding the market’s structural problems in yesterday’s opening missive; and in my last post on Monday evening, “Revenge of the Machines”:
“Surprise #9: In 2018, the global volatility bubble bursts in a spectacular fashion, with stocks falling by 15% in one session.”
— Kass Diary, A Market That Continues to Underprice Risk
I spent the better part of 2017 and all of 2018 warning about the possibility of another flash crash — caused by a dangerous shift in the market structure which was led by leveraged actors who conducted short volatility and risk parity strategies — who are agnostic to balance sheets, income statements and intrinsic value. (Read my 15 Surprises for 2018 and this morning’s lengthy discussion in my opening missive.)
That shift in structure coupled with the popularity of passive strategies (ETFs) continued to have a pronounced impact on the markets, pushing volatility to (a hat size) of record lows and stocks to record highs — arguably, creating something of a “buyers panic” in January as late coming retail investors (suffering from “FOMO”) poured a record $50 billion into the coffers of domestic equity funds.
This buyers panic occurred in a backdrop of less liquidity and lower market volume — further exacerbating the late 2017/January gains. That buying forced RSIs towards unprecedented levels as investor sentiment surveys made multi-decade bullish highs.
As stocks climbed ever higher, skepticism and doubt were nearly abandoned and assessment of risk vs. reward took a back seat to bullishness.
The constant shorting of volatility, I warned, could resemble having the role of portfolio insurance which caused a rapid drop in stock prices in October, 1987. I even called short vol having the potential label of Portfolio Insurance (Part Deux).
The S&P Index (adjusted for the after hours S&P futures weakness of about another 30-40 handles) is now almost 285 handles below the level of only a few days ago.
This has served, according to my calculus, to move the downside risk relative to upside reward from 4:1 (negative) to less than 2:1 (negative) — using an expected trading range for the S&P Index in 2018 of between 2200 and 2800.
I am of the belief that today’s action was forced and, in a sense, a mechanically — inspired decline (remember the S&P Index was actually higher at one point in this session).
Oddly missing in the media discussion today has been the interest rate reaction — a flight to safety that took the ten year US note down by nearly fifteen basis points (to 2.70%)! This move may be interpreted as confirmation that the market’s precipitous drop today was structural and not necessarily rate related.
That is not to say that we will necessarily have a “V” type reaction.
I dont know … and anyone who expresses certainty (as many have) should be avoided and ignored.
We must wait and let the derisking of short vol and risk parity work itself out and run its course. The magnitude of the short-term market decline has likely contributed to margin calls and retail redemptions which will further complicate the timing of a recovery.
I aggressively traded a lot of Spyders (SPY) today and I am currently paying $260.20 in after hours — based on a view that this is a short term opportunity (but solely for a trade).
And I covered a number of shorts (at what I believe to be favorable prices) — particularly in financials — during the quick whoosh lower in the late afternoon. I took a number of shorts off of my Best Ideas List as the risk/reward ratios have abruptly changed — with many stocks down by 10% to 20% from a week ago.
Values will likely be created in the days and weeks ahead.
But in order to capitalize on those opportunities one has to be almost emotionless — not an easy task in a downturn like we have experienced in the last few days.
Let me end a hectic day with a column just written by JPMorgan’s global quant, Marko Kolanovic entitled “Flash Crash, Flows and Investment Opportunities”:
“In last week’s note, we noted that volatility, at the time, was not sufficient to trigger systematic strategy de-risking. On Friday, the market dropped ~2% on a day when bonds were down ~40bps. The move on Friday was helped by market makers’ hedging of option positions (as gamma positions turned from long to short midday). Friday’s move, on its own, was significant as it pushed realized volatility higher, which is a signal for many volatility targeting strategies to de-risk. Anecdotally, broad knowledge about the risk of systematic selling kept many investors fearful and waiting on the sidelines (both in equity and volatility markets). Midday today, short-term momentum turned negative (1M S&P 500 price return), resulting in selling from trend-following strategies. Further outflows resulted from index option gamma hedging, covering of short volatility trades, and volatility targeting strategies. These technical flows, in the absence of fundamental buyers, resulted in a flash crash at ~3:10pm today. At one point, the Dow was down more than 6%, and later partially recovered. After-hours, the VIX reached 38 and futures more than doubled-it is not clear at this point how this will reflect on various short volatility products (e.g., some volatility ETPs traded down over 50% after hours).
Today’s large increase of market volatility will clearly contribute to further outflows from systematic strategies in the days ahead (volatility targeting, risk parity, CTAs, short volatility). The total amount of these outflows may add to ~$100bn, as things stand. However, we want to point out the massive divergence between strong market fundamentals and equity price action over the past few days. The large market decline over the past few days will likely draw fundamental investors and even trigger pension fund rebalances (those that rebalance on weight thresholds). We also want to highlight a strong probability of policy makers stepping in to calm the market.
Rapid sell-offs, such as the one today, can also be followed by market bounce backs as liquidity gets exhausted by programmatic selling. With next year P/E on the S&P 500 now below 16, further positive impacts of tax reform and stabilization of bond yields (e.g., note the current record level of CFTC bond short positions), we think that the ongoing market sell-off ultimately presents a buying opportunity.”
Banks - NEC
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Saturday 30th - Sunday 31st August 2014
Nestled between the South Downs and the English Channel, and with an unrivalled backdrop of Lancing College and the chalk slope of Mill Hill to the North, Shoreham can justifiably claim to be the best family airshow in the UK, particularly following the sad demise of similar shows at Biggin Hill, Kemble and Manston among others. With its “unique garden party atmosphere” one can always expect an assortment of aircraft types, ranging from the primitive to the sophisticated - the old to the new. In 2014, with a 6-hour flying display comprising acts representing ages from WW1 right through to the modern front line, Shoreham really reaffirmed its position in the upper echelons of the UK airshow scene.
Tom Lantaff reports for UKAR from beside the Adur estuary. Images as credited.
If you are after value for money, Shoreham is the place to go. Priced at £18 for an advance either-day ticket or £22 on the gate, very few other shows offer half such a line-up for a reasonable entrance fee. Yet year on year Shoreham prospers with healthy profits from bumper attendances, testament to the fact that there is no need to charge extortionate prices to put on an airshow which get people returning for years thereafter. So what is it about this wonderful little show that makes it quite so popular?
For starters, it is many a pilot's favourite airshow. The Breitling Wingwalkers, in some guise, have attended all 25 previous airshows, while well known display pilots such as Guy Westgate and Peter Teichman return without hesitation each year. Then a brief glance along the fence reveals a mass of families, the likes of which not seen at any other current UK airshow venue bar perhaps seaside shows. It's also worth considering that these shows, such as Bournemouth just along the coast which runs simultaneously, offer fun with a bucket and spade in addition to an airshow. Even without the Red Arrows who find the uneven local terrain prohibitive to completing a full display, Shoreham really has the edge when it comes to attracting such a large, varied and loyal crowd, whether it be down to price, location, quality and depth of aircraft on show, intimate relaxed atmosphere (not a stepladder in sight), entertaining commentary or simply profiting where other shows have fallen. The enthusiasts and seasoned airshow-goers are also there, but sporadically - far sparser than could be expected for such an impressive line-up. Shoreham certainly recognises its target audience, but meanwhile catering for all parties. It has the true recipe for success.
As mentioned, the show frequently attracts the best in available UK family-favourite air displays, and this year was no different. Notably Avro Vulcan XH558 brought with it the infamous 'Vulcan Effect' and sell-out crowds on Saturday, and those that did attend (or watched it on PlanesTV's excellent online live stream) will testify to how good the oft-maligned display routine was. The RAF's pinnacle, the Eurofighter Typhoon set the babies and car alarms off with even more noise, the sound reverberating off Lancing College and surrounding hills adding to the spectacle, while the Turbulent Team provided some laughs.
Displays which would be lost at larger venues come into their own along Shoreham's short, intimate display line. A lolloping display by a paramotor was a more than welcome show opening, as was GliderFX's genteel aerobatic routine to calming orchestral music. The Great War Display Team, with their seemingly uncoordinated mishmash of WW1 triplane, biplane and monoplane replicas are highly enjoyable at this venue, although people's attention noticeably increased on the announcement that Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson was piloting his Fokker Dr1, before the sounding of the last post during the final Junkers CL1 touching down in a cloud of smoke aptly drew their set piece to a close. Even the RAF's diminutive Grob Tutor impressed, with this year's display cleared down to 300ft making for an altogether more eye-catching performance.
A second area in which Shoreham really excels is with its historic and warbird content, so much so that we wonder whether it would actually be easier to move Shoreham to Duxford, such was the extent of this year's warbird contingent - no fewer than 15 Duxford residents or semi-residents headed down to the South coast for the weekend representing most of their major operators. So substantial was such a line-up that the loss of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum's Lancaster Mk.X to an engine snag went largely unnoticed, as did the unserviceability of The Fighter Collection's Grumman pair of F6F Hellcat and F8F Bearcat. The Hellcat's display on Saturday was its first away from Duxford since its grounding in 2007, although Sunday's display was abandoned after takeoff due to a fuel leak.
The first warbird action of the day was a trio representing Battle of Britain fighter command - that of a Supermarine Spitfire la N3200, Peter Vacher's Hawker Hurricane l (a genuine Battle of Britain veteran) and The Fighter Collection's Gloster Gladiator, initially as a trio before a short Gladiator solo and Hurricane/Spitfire tailchase. However the centrepiece of any Shoreham airshow is the 'Scramble', a thrilling set piece featuring sound effects, pyrotechnics and warbird fighters en masse. This year, in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of D-Day, the set piece was modified to simulate the aerial component of the allied landings in Normandy in 1944. As such, two Hispano Buchons masquerading as Bf-109s took on a pair of North American P-51D Mustangs and a single Spitfire IXT, with a pair of Douglas C-47A Skytrains providing the overhead cover. The Buchons engaged the allied fighters in a superb 5-ship tailchase accompanied by air raid sirens and pyrotechnics on the ground before coming out victorious, with pilots John Romain and Cliff Spink performing a short celebratory formation aerobatic display. The sound of 5 Merlin engines accompanied by whistles emitted by both the Mustangs and Buchons is sheer brilliance, and one which will never get old, even if the entire segment lasted almost 20 minutes!
It was also pleasing to see Peter Teichman back on top form in his Spitfire XI PL965, after uncharacteristically lacklustre showings in his Hurribomber at Sywell and Little Gransden. Rivalling Peter for the best warbird solo display were both Brian Smith in the Fighter Colletion's Goodyear FG-1D Corsair and the RNLAF Historic Flight's North American B-25J Mitchell which, like last year, was superbly flown. Everyone seemed on top form - even the BBMF's final pass on Saturday was the long arcing 3-ship topside which photographers had long been crying out for.
The undoubted vintage highlight of the morning slot was Peter Greenyer's splendid De Havilland DH90a Dragonfly G-AEDU, now residing at Biggin Hill with the Shipping & Airlines fleet, having previously been under ownership of the Norman Aeroplane Trust. Often overlooked in favour of the DH89a Dragon Rapide, with which it tailchased, this is an all too rare airshow performer so it was welcome to see well known test and display pilot Dan Griffith at the helm, a far cry from the Hurricane he flew at last year's show!
Like in 2013, Shoreham's policy when compiling the running order is to pack the morning's display with light aircraft and aerobatic routines, leaving a majority of the warbirds and highlights until nearer the end of the day. While there is nothing inherently wrong with this, and evidently such an afternoon's extravaganza is great for us enthusiasts, it simply doesn't always work as a family spectacle - many would argue it feels like two entirely separate shows. On Sunday at least, having Gladiator, Spitfire la & Hurricane l, BBMF, Peter Teichman's Spitfire XI, the D-Day scenario tailchase, C-47A x2, B-25 and B-17G 'Sally B' all as consecutive acts left people around me wondering when a change of pace was to occur (which it did, finally, with the Breitling Wingwalkers), indeed the number of spectators left to see Brian Smith's Corsair masterclass and the Blades finale was probably less than 50% the total gate. Therefore it would be great, just for once, to have some warbird action in the morning's flying to give the show more balance; surely nobody would disagree with an early Spitfire gracing the skies while the sun is still to crowd rear. The Gladiator/Spitfire/Hurricane trio, for example, would have been a perfect way to close for lunch - instead this honour went to the RAF Falcons, taking up a good 30 minutes of display time of which 25 minutes comprised tedious nothingness, punctuated by a similarly irritating commentator, almost usurping any overall enjoyment of an otherwise excellent jump.
I say lunch tenuously as, while not a formal part of the air display, the 'lunch' hour was in fact reserved for a demonstration of radio-controlled miniature aircraft (we would be told off for calling them models!). Some treated this segment with indifference, taking the chance to buy some of the best food to be found at home airshows (an embarrassment to the disgraceful vendors found at the likes of RIAT and Farnborough) but those who did so will have missed an hour of flying synonymous with Shoreham's philosophy as a 'premier family airshow'. If the sight of a radio-controlled Extra 300 hovering was novel, the exciting 'Extra and model Extra' display which followed was certainly original and thus worthy of recognition and praise. Voted by UKAR as one of the Top Ten 'Airshow Moments' of 2013, this year Chris Burkett and Mike Williams appear to have refined the display to include a greater diversity of manoeuvres. Unorthodox? Yes. Impressive? Most definitely!
I lack superlatives to adequately describe this year's show. Anybody attending over the weekend, Sunday in particular, will have left knowing they had witnessed one of the finest displays of the season, if not the best. Flying display director Rod Dean and his 400-strong team should be applauded for assembling an event which from start to finish was thoroughly engrossing, and one which would make the late Peter Eager, the show's founder, proud on this the 25th anniversary year of the inaugural show. Shoreham returns for 2015 over the weekend of the 22nd-23rd August and one thing is certain - if next year's flying display is half as good as 2014 then we are in for a treat.
Copyright © (1996 - 2019) UK Airshow Review
Content and images supplied and supported by the UKAR Staff Team
Display Frequency Podcast
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Forgotten (or Overlooked) Film Tuesday: LAND OF THE PHARAOHS (1955) starring Jack Hawkins, and Joan Collins
FFT is a weekly meme hosted by Todd Mason at his blog, Sweet Freedom. So don't forget to head on over to link central and see what films, television or other audio/visuals, other bloggers are talking about today. We're an eclectic bunch.
When you think of legendary director Howard Hawks, the first film that doesn't pop to mind is LAND OF THE PHARAOHS, a sun, sand and slaves pot-boiler written by (yes, it's true) William Faulkner (and two other lesser known writers). The film has a heart-pounding (and strangely catchy) musical score by the one and only Dimitri Tiomkin to recommend it as well. It was shot in Egypt and in a Rome studio, and had a cast of thousands, literally. This was back in the good old days of spectacular epics ala BEN-HUR, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS and whatnot - when this sort of thing was feasible.
Three creative giants + ancient Egypt = one mighty fine B-movie mash-up in startling Technicolor.
Can anyone take Joan Collins seriously as Princess Nelifer, captured desert royalty dropped at Pharaoh's feet and almost immediately doing her undulating best to win him over to her bed and his board? Not really. But what the heck, it's so much fun to watch her work her slinky wiles around the palace - a heavy breathing femme fatale with murderous inclinations and a mummified heart. Not to mention, a great deal of body make-up.
It's that little jewel in her belly-button that does it. How can Khufu resist?
The hapless Pharaoh Khufu (or Cheops) is played by British stalwart, Jack Hawkins, a fine actor here called upon to play second-banana to a naughty chit of a girl out to rule Egypt by hook or by crook. He mostly holds his own and one wonders what was going through his mind in some of the scenes where he must fall victim to the evil machinations of a teenage temptress in skimpy attire and a piquant pout.
The Pharoah, you see, is mostly concerned with the trappings of his after-life though attention to his rampaging libido might have served him to better purpose. Yes, he falls for the vampish allure of the bad tempered little princess. No big surprise there.
The randy Pharaoh can't believe his good fortune.
He makes her his number two wife. But unbeknownst to Pharaoh, she is determined to be number one. Really, you'd think the guy would catch on, I mean he's a grown man, a warrior, a feared and beloved leader of a nation, an Egyptian god, for goodness' sake - presumably he has been around the block a few times. But no, he is putty in Princess Nelifer's capable hands. Men. Sometimes you just have to shake your head.
The soap opera doings of the Pharaoh and his bride are played out against the work of building the great pyramid of Egypt. The tomb of this particular man/god consumes Khufu night and day (when he's not being consumed by....well, you know) and to that end he is fortunate enough to have, among his captured slaves, Vashtar, an architect (played by the always imposing James Robertson Justice).
If you make my tomb safe from looters, you'll die anyway, but your family won't.
Vashtar is put to work designing some sort of fail-proof mechanism that will prevent looters from ever entering the final resting place of Khufu. His son Senta (Dewey Martin) is there to help as well. Vashtar must take an oath not to reveal the secret of the tomb to anyone and upon the death of the Pharoah and his placement in the tomb, Vashtar's son and family will go free. (If I'm remembering correctly. It's been a while since I saw the movie.) But Vashtar must die so that the secret stays safe for eternity. Sounds like a plan.
Of course, the best-laid plans of mice and men, you know how that goes.
In the meantime, while thousands of slaves toil in the hot desert sun, Princess Nelifer is up to no good behind gilded palace walls. In her plot, she engages the smoldering attentions of a weak-willed palace guard (Sidney Chaplin - son of Charles).
Ah well, nothing lasts forever.
It's all very opera-worthy and Dimitri Tiomkin makes extra sure to musically define all the heavy-breathing and chicanery. The only thing missing is the singing. No wait, we get a singing chorus made up of crowds of Egyptian subjects who gather to hail the Pharaoh alive or dead. I still remember the tune. I did say some of the music was catchy.
Now we come to the truly spectacular ending when all of Nelifer's evil machinations have come to fruition. All I'll say is that the Pharaoh's intelligent (and too old to be affected by female pulchritude) High Priest and life-long friend, Hamar (Alex Minotis) has distrusted Nelifer from the beginning and here in the end, he takes his and Egypt's revenge on the sultry strumpet. She gets her just desserts in a truly horrific way. (And no blood-letting.)
Oh, and the minister allows the architect (now old and blind) and his family their freedom, since he reasons, rightly, that once the mechanism goes into play in the pyramid, it doesn't matter who knows what. It will be impregnable.
The real pyramid. Source.
A mighty fine B-movie epic and I'm told that the color of the current dvd is brilliant - always a good thing. It's on my queue as we speak.
Link to the movie's trailer which shows very dark. I hope the dvd doesn't follow suit.
Posted by Yvette at 12:59 PM
Labels: Joan Collins, Land of the Pharaohs, Movies
Sergio (Tipping My Fedora) August 7, 2012 at 4:33 PM
Great write-up Vvette, this really is great fun as a daft B-movie (Collins really is "naughty chit of a girl out to rule Egypt by hook or by crook", you nailed than one - er, I think it's OK to put it that way) and the slam-bam ending is really great too. Co-writer Harry Kurnitz, as 'Marco Page', did write some fun thrillers incidentally ...
Deb August 7, 2012 at 7:35 PM
Oh, I remember the ending of this one...with Joan certainly getting her just desserts! I remember nothing else about it, but Joan's demise.
Prashant C. Trikannad August 8, 2012 at 8:08 AM
Yvette, your reviews are as entertaining as the overlooked films you pick. Enjoyed it! Especially the line "a heavy breathing femme fatale with murderous inclinations and a mummified heart." Never liked Joan Collins, maybe "Dynasty" had something to do with it.
Lauren August 8, 2012 at 9:47 AM
This just went to the top of my Netflix queue. I love stuff like this. I watch The Ten Commandments every time it's on, but only until Moses decides to leave the Egyptian court, because after that it's not very glamorous. I require a constant glamor quotient in my 50s technicolor epics, darn it.
iluvcinema August 8, 2012 at 12:06 PM
Another one from the B-archives, Yvette. I may have seen this one or may not; I cannot remember. In my time I have seen a few of gems from Ms. Collins, but this one may be worth another peek.
DorianTB August 8, 2012 at 3:58 PM
Mmm, what could be a tastier snack on a summer's day than ripe cinematic cheese served up by a fine cast, and who wouldn't want to see Joan Collins get her just desserts in dramatic ways? :-) Yvette, as always, your post on LAND OF THE PHARAOHS is great fun to read!
John August 8, 2012 at 5:43 PM
Hollywood's version of Biblical times and ancient history always amount to unintentional laughs. Did audiences take this stuff seriously when these movies were first released? Never seen this, don't think I'm interested as I've grown weary of this genre [unless walking mummies are part of the story] ;^) But your review was an absolute hoot!
Yvette August 8, 2012 at 5:54 PM
Thanks, Sergio. Yes, I've always had a sneaking affection for this pot-boiling epic. Haven't seen it in a while though. Hence, it's position on my queue.
There's no topping that ending. :)
Impossible to forget, Deb. :)
Oh she's so evilish in this one. Puts DYNASTY to shame. Ha!
Thanks, Prashant. Glad you enjoyed it.
I require a glamor quotient too, Lauren. Ha!
I know what you mean about THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. Oh, I suddenly remembered that Jack Hawkins was in BEN-HUR.
The sight of Stephen Boyd in that quilted Roman soldier under garment is ingrained in my memory. Hubba hubba. It's such a funny story that Charlton Heston wasn't told that Boyd was to play his part as if he had the hots for him - Ben Hur.
I always keep that in mind when I few the few scenes in the film I still like. And of course, there's that breath-taking chariot race near the end. Fabulous.
Definitely worth another peek, Iba. :)
Thanks, Dorian! If you haven't seen this, drop everything and add it to your queue.
You and Vinnie will enjoy it but probably for different reasons. Ha!
I actually saw this in the theater way back when, John. Yeah, maybe we took some of it seriously. :)
This one is so much fun, though. Now, looking back.
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Headlines 22 March 2012
Clement Malambo | March 22, 2012
ZR Comment: We are hearing a lot of chatter regarding an appearance by President Michael Sata before ZACOBO (A Zambian diaspora community in Botswana), in which some controversial / much discussed / possibly misunderstood / embarrassing comments were made. According to one source emailing with us, the ZACOBO chairman gave a rather hostile opening speech, blaming the PF and UPND for blocking the passage of constitutional reforms during the last administration. A number of audience members also asked somewhat hostile questions toward the president on issues of dual nationality, and Sata took the bait: “All of you who are here with fake questions am very disappointed with you and embarrassed, are you not even ashamed of yourselves? You ran away from Zambia and thought we couldn’t find you and now today we have caught you. You are refugees in Botswana being exploited by the Botswana Govt. You left Zambia to come and work here for an extra K1?” So now we think there will be some serious debate on the issue of brain drain in Zambia in response to Sata’s Botswana speech.
Zambia’s international image limping, says Sata
PRESIDENT Michael Sata says Zambia’s image abroad is still limping. Speaking yesterday after he swore in three diplomatic appointees and a deputy minister at State House, President Sata directed them to help rebuild the country’s image. President Sata swore in Mpika Central PF member of parliament Mwansa Kapeya as deputy minister for Labour, Information and Broadcasting and Paul Lumbi as High Commissioner to Nigeria.
Others were Cynthia Jangulo and Grace Kabwe as Ambassadors to Brazil and Belgium, respectively. “You ladies and gentlemen who are going in the foreign service, our image is still limping. Go there and try and boost the image of Zambia because the image of Zambia, even in Botswana, apart from the more than 2,000 Zambians, people don’t know much about Zambia,” President Sata said.
Exclusively written for Zambia Reports
Veep explains state house renovations
VICE-President Guy Scott has told Parliament that the Government followed correct tender procedures to award contracts to companies to undertake rehabilitation works at State House.
Dr Scott said there was a direct bidding in compliance with the Zambia Public Procurement Authority (ZPPA) Act.
The vice-president said the rehabilitation of Nkwazi Presidential House was awarded to Apollo Enterprises Limited at a cost of about K642 million, while the improvement of water supply at the same house was awarded to Afe Limited at a cost of K56 million.
REACO Enterprises was servicing air conditioners at Nkwazi House and administration building for K127 million. The replacement of two air conditioners in the dining room at Nkwazi House was done by Morthy Electrical at a cost of K70 million.
Dr Scott told the House that the repair of the swimming pool at the administration building and at Nkwazi House was awarded to Omali Swimming Pools at about K126 million.
He said this in response to a point of order raised by Monze Central Member of Parliament (MP) Jack Mwimbu (UPND) on March 13, 2012 regarding rehabilitation at State House.
Source: Times of Zambia
Battered MMD may not convene to choose leader
The opposition Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) convention to choose a new president is in doubt following the party’s failure to raise the K3 billion required.
Party Deputy National Secretary Chembe Nyangu said the party is not likely to hold the convention any time soon because of unavailability of resources.
Nyangu is part of a committee elected to raise the budgeted money along with party national secretary Major Richard Kachingwe, spokesperson Dora Siliya, Suresh Desai and veteran politician Vernon Mwaanga.
Mr Nyangu says the committee will work hard to ensure that resources are found but could however not promise when the convention will be held.
Source: Lusaka Times
Sata refuses to ‘wine and dine’
PRESIDENT Michael Sata refused to ‘wine and dine’ during his stay in Botswana, saying he could not do so when many people world over are hungry and thirsty.
According to Botswana media, President Sata ordered some government officials serving him tea during one of his meetings ‘to give even those who were waiting’.
‘President Sata apparently refused to wine and dine during his stay saying he cannot do that when many people are hungry and thirsty here in Botswana and world over and in the process frustrating protocol as her ordered Botswana government officials who were serving him tea during one of his meetings to give even those who were waiting,” sources said.
‘As you may be aware, President Sata was in Gaborone for the past two days. He officially opened a school and also donated US $10,000, a thing which attracted criticism from some Zambians here considering the levels of poverty in Zambia and that public schools are actually facing cash flow problems,” said a source.
Source: The Post Newspaper
‘ECZ chief should chair Referendum’
THE Oasis Forum has demanded that the Government should appoint the head of the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) and two commissioners to spearhead the Referendum Commission.
The Forum says a Referendum Commission should immediately be constituted to conduct and supervise the holding of a referendum in the Constitution-making process.
Grillo said at a media briefing in Lusaka yesterday, the Oasis Forum was concerned that to-date, no person had been appointed to fill the positions of the three-member commission, as provided for in Section 4 of the Referendum Act.
The Oasis Forum recommended that the current head of the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) and two others be appointed to act as the Referendum Commission chairperson and in-turn appoint or employ the rest to the commission structure as referendum officers.
Zukas accuses Rupiah of dishonesty
RUPIAH Banda is being dishonest by opting to slip out of the country instead of making himself clear on various allegations leveled against him, says veteran politician Simon Zukas.
“We are discovering that a lot of corruption happened when he was in charge but whether former president Banda did it, like Frederick Chiluba looted the country, we don’t know and whether his family and close friends took advantage of his presidency to engage in looting, we don’t know. So, Banda is being disingenuous by preferring to take up lectureship to Boston University before answering these questions,” Zukas said.
“We should not just let him go like that, as if he is a free man representing Zambia. So how do we deal with these questions surrounding his tenure? In my view, there are only two options: to consider lifting his immunity to pave way for thorough investigations or to allow him open up and say this is my position on this matter, for example, RP Capital and Zamtel saga, and related allegations.
Chikwanda describes advocates of windfall tax as lunatics
FINANCE minister Alexander Chikwanda has described as “lunatics” those advocating for the reintroduction of the 25 per cent windfall tax on base metals.
And Chikwanda says people are becoming increasingly vocal because they haven’t seen any meaningful change since the PF ascended to power.
Speaking when visiting World Bank managing director Sri Mulyani paid a courtesy call on him yesterday, Chikwanda said people think the mining sector alone could solve the country’s budget financing challenges.
“There is a misconception by external people who feel that we can get more money from the mines. Even internally, they have been many lunatics who think we should involve windfall tax…but the production costs in the mines are very high,” Chikwanda said.
World bank MD tips Zambia on economic development
Visiting World Bank Managing Director Sri Mulyani Indrawati has observed that for Zambia to develop its economy, policy implementation should be a core factor.
Indrawati says the World Bank will always remain supportive to the Zambian government’s efforts in policy implementation.
She has also called on the need to rejuvenate the economy in the wake of the new PF government that was ushered into office last September.
Source: Qfm Radio
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Occupy Wall Street Protesters Prepare For Winter Weather [LIVE UPDATES]
Posted by Ram Arjuna on October 28, 2011 at 9:30pm
AP/The Huffington Post First Posted: 10/28/11 12:17 PM ET Updated: 10/28/11 08:03 PM ET
By Erika Niedowski, Associated Press
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Wall Street protesters around the country who are vowing to stand their ground against the police and politicians are also digging in against a different kind of adversary: cold weather.
With the temperature dropping, they are stockpiling donated coats, blankets and scarves, trying to secure cots and military-grade tents, and getting survival tips from the homeless people who have joined their encampments.
(CLICK HERE OR SCROLL DOWN FOR LATEST UPDATES)
"Everyone's been calling it our Valley Forge moment," said Michael McCarthy, a former Navy medic in Providence. "Everybody thought that George Washington couldn't possibly survive in the Northeast."
More than a month and a half into the movement, Occupy Wall Street activists from New York to Colorado have pledged to tough out the snow, sleet and cold as they protest economic inequality and what they call corporate greed.
But the dangers of staying outdoors in some of the country's harsher climes are already becoming apparent: In Denver, two protesters were hospitalized with hypothermia this week during a storm that brought several inches of snow.
The activists also know full well that the number of demonstrators is likely to drop as the weather gets colder.
Some movements are scouting locations indoors, including vacant buildings or other unused properties, possibly even foreclosed homes, though some question the wisdom of holding a protest outside the public eye.
Lighting campfires is probably out of the question in most places because of safety regulations.
Boston's Occupy movement, which has roughly 300 overnight participants and could face some of the most brutal weather of any city with a major encampment, has set up a winterization committee that will try to obtain super-insulated sleeping bags and other winter survival gear. Activists from the movement's flagship encampment, consisting of hundreds of people in New York City's Zuccotti Park, are sorting through packages arriving daily that include coats and jackets.
In Providence, where city officials are threatening to go to court to evict hundreds of campers from a park across from City Hall, a core group said it will remain through the winter months - if not there, somewhere else. Rhode Island's capital has an average low temperature in the 20s from December through February and recorded nearly 3 1/2 feet of snow last year. Many of the more than 100 tents are not built to withstand harsh conditions.
Temperatures were expected to drop into the 30s across much of the Northeast by Friday morning, and forecasters said snow is possible in some places over the weekend. Boston got its first dusting late Thursday night.
In Denver, as protesters prepared for this week's snow, a few dozen sympathizers stopped by to drop off blankets, gloves, chili and hot chocolate. Police refused to let activists erect a tent. That left some sleeping on the wet ground, covered by snowy tarps.
"I welcome the challenge of this cold weather," said Dwayne Hudson, a landscaper who has been living at the Occupy Denver site for nearly two weeks. "This is like war. You know, soldiers do it when they occupy a place. I'm sure the mountains of Afghanistan get pretty cold."
But after the first snowfall, he admitted: "It's getting tough."
Eric Martin, who is on Occupy Boston's winterization committee, said the group had raised about $35,000, which could help buy winter supplies. Various ideas are being discussed to keep tents warm without using combustion-based heaters, which are forbidden. Another proposal: igloos.
"We're looking at ideas from military vets to survivalists, to the homeless community to indigenous peoples," Martin said.
Activists in Philadelphia are also researching sturdier, warmer structures that could replace the 300 to 400 tents set up on the concrete plaza surrounding City Hall.
Chris Goldstein of Riverside, N.J., owns one of the tents, though he sometimes sleeps at home. He learned the hard way during the first rainfall that the site has poor drainage: "I occupied a puddle." The self-employed writer and activist put pallets under the tent to lift it off the ground, and outfitted it with small carpets for insulation.
In the meantime, he and other activists have access to a Quaker community center two blocks away where they can shower and thaw out in common rooms.
In Chicago, where winters are famously bitter, protesters living in Grant Park are working to secure several indoor locations to get them through to spring. A church nearby is letting some demonstrators sleep overnight. Activists in Portland, Ore., likewise said that moving the protest inside is the only realistic option.
Patricia Phelan and her fiancee, Savanah Kite, have been camping in the Providence park in a $20 tent from Walmart. As temperatures dipped into the 40s in the morning this week and people could see their breath, they hadn't yet employed their hand warmers or a down comforter Phelan had in the car just in case.
Their plan is to add layers as necessary.
The trick will be keeping morale up, Phelan said, "and not letting the climate get to us."
Associated Press Writers Jay Lindsay in Boston; Barbara Rodriguez in Chicago; Ivan Moreno and Kristen Wyatt in Denver; Kathy Matheson in Philadelphia; and Nigel Duara in Portland, Ore., contributed to this report.
Take a look at images from the scene in Oakland below:
6:05 PM – Today
Michael Moore Visits Occupy Oakland
HuffPost's Robin Wilkey reports:
Famed activist and documentarian Michael Moore visited Occupy Oakland to speak to the crowd today. He laughed and joked with the crowd, but the tone turned somber when he called for 30 seconds of silence for Scott Olsen. "We are all Scott Olsen," he said.
"This movement has killed apathy. They've turned off Dancing with the Stars!" He continued. "Something good will come out of this movement. And this weekend in Oakland will stand out as a watershed moment."
Before he left the podium, Moore thanked the crowd. "Millions are inspired by you because you didn't go away. The next night, you came back."
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SuppoRTT Background and SW Team
Home / Recruitment / New Item / SuppoRTT Background and SW Team
Background to the project
HEE is committed to developing a high quality learning environment for all doctors in training, regardless of their personal circumstances.
As part of the ACAS Junior Doctors’ Agreement, HEE agreed to develop evidence-based, innovative approaches for supporting postgraduate medical trainees who return to training after time out of programme. The national Supported Return to Training (SuppoRTT) project was born.
In response to a call for ideas that received responses from doctors in training and their representative bodies, educators, medical royal colleges, employers, and other clinical professions, HEE outlined 10 commitments to support trainees with their return to training. These include:
capturing data on returners so we can continue to provide individualised support for returning trainees where and when it is required;
ring-fencing funding for doctors to access activities and resources in support of their return;
coordinating and centralising a defined process for exit, time out and re-entry to the training programme;
commissioning training and resources for Educational Supervisors to help them better support trainee returners;
delivering biannual Keeping in Touch conferences;
collaborating internally and with the wider system to identify and address interdependencies and raise the profile of returners’ voices;
conducting further investigation to develop a “menu” of bespoke return to training approaches for trainees.
HEE will continue to work with trainees, their membership organisations, and other organisations with responsibility for education, training, and the regulation of postgraduate medical trainees to deliver our Return to Training strategy, and to identify and resolve further areas for improvement.
The South West SuppoRTT team
Our team consists of two teams based at the Peninsula and the Severn HEE offices, who act as the “hubs” and play a role in the ongoing establishment and development of the project at a regional and national level. The “spokes” of the team will be the primary point of contact for trainees due to undertake or return from prolonged leave. As well as the support of your educational supervisor, each of the 21 employing trusts in the region have a SuppoRTT Champion, whose role is to facilitate a high quality, safe and supported return to training for you. Further information on the Champions can be found on our SuppoRTT Champions page.
Severn PGME Team
Adam Malin (Associate Dean PSU)
Amy Slater (SuppoRTT Fellow)
Alex Websdale (SuppoRTT Co-ordinator)
Peninsula PGME Team
Hiu Lam (Associate Dean PSU)
Clare Attwood (SuppoRTT Fellow)
Sally Kiff (SuppoRTT Co-ordinator)
Hiu, Amy, Clare and Adam
Please feel free to contact us on our hub email address supportt.sw@hee.nhs.uk
Local Education Providers
SuppoRTT Champions
Educational Supervisors
PGMEC administrators
This page was last updated April 24th 2019 (3 months ago)
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Turkey's War on Christians Continues As Churches Become Mosques
While unrest in Turkey continues to capture attention, more subtle and more telling events concerning the Islamification of Turkey — and not just at the hands of Prime Minister Erdogan but majorities of Turks — are quietly transpiring. These include the fact that Turkey’s Hagia Sophia museum is on its way to becoming a mosque.
Why does the fate of an old building matter?
Because Hagia Sophia — Greek for “Holy Wisdom” — was for some thousand years Christianity’s greatest cathedral. Built in 537 A.D. in Constantinople, the heart of the Christian empire, it was also a stalwart symbol of defiance against an ever encroaching Islam from the east.
After parrying centuries of jihadi thrusts, Constantinople was finally sacked by Ottoman Turks in 1453. Its crosses desecrated and icons defaced, Hagia Sophia — as well as thousands of other churches — was immediately converted into a mosque, the tall minarets of Islam surrounding it in triumph.
Then, after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, as part of several reforms, secularist Ataturk transformed Hagia Sophia into a “neutral” museum in 1934 — a gesture of goodwill to a then-triumphant West from a then-crestfallen Turkey.
Thus the fate of this ancient building is full of portents. And according to Hurriyet Daily News, “A parliamentary commission is considering an application by citizens to turn the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul into a mosque…. A survey conducted with 401 people was attached to the application, in which more than 97 percent of interviewees requested the transformation of the ancient building into a mosque and afterwards for it to be reopened for Muslim worship.”
Even lesser known is the fact that other historic churches are currently being transformed into mosques, such as a 13th century church building — portentously also named Hagia Sophia — in Trabzon. After the Islamic conquest, it was turned into a mosque. But because of its “great historical and cultural significance” for Christians, it too, during Turkey’s secular age, was turned into a museum and its frescoes restored. Yet local authorities recently decreed that its Christian frescoes would again be covered and the church/museum turned into a mosque.
Similarly, the 5th century Studios Monastery, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, is set to become an active mosque. And the existence of the oldest functioning Christian monastery in the world, 5th century Mor Gabriel Monastery, is at risk. Inhabited today by only a few dozen Christians dedicated to learning the monastery’s teachings, the ancient Aramaic language spoken by Jesus, and the Orthodox Syriac tradition, neighboring Muslims filed a lawsuit accusing the monks of practicing “anti-Turkish activities” and of illegally occupying land which belongs to Muslim villagers. The highest appeals court in Ankara ruled in favor of the Muslim villagers, saying the land that had been part of the monastery for 1,600 years is not its property, absurdly claiming that the monastery was built over the ruins of a mosque — even though Muhammad was born 170 years after the monastery was built.
Turkey’s Christian minority, including the Orthodox Patriarch, are naturally protesting this renewed Islamic onslaught against what remains of their cultural heritage — to deaf ears.
HT: A blog reader
Labels: Ecumenical Patriarchate, Islam, religious persecution, Turkey
bob said...
New song by Mel Brooks: Springtime for Islam, and Islamists. Better do it now, they're getting away with so much now in 23 years a movie mocking them won't be alowed.
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Many (more) Years!
Britain: Nervously thinking about the unthinkable
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07 - Future Tasks of the Alliance - “Harmel Report” English
Top-level description 07 - Future Tasks of the Alliance - “Harmel Report”
Private letter from Ambassador de Staercke to Secretary General asking that Mr. Harmel’s proposals for a cohesive analysis of all major political events and their effects on the Alliance be given due consideration at the next NATO Council meeting
Icelandic Delegation. Letter from H. Björnsson, Permanent Representative Icelandic Delegation, to the Secretary General replying to his query in PO/67/132 (28 February 1967) ENG 1
NATO Council memorandum on Harmel’s proposals and its acceptance by the Council. (27 December 1966) BIL 1
Council memorandum outlining decisions made on the procedure on future tasks of the Alliance: creation of a Special Group to report on the future tasks of the Alliance (24 February 1967) BIL 1
NATO Council meeting on 15 December 1966. Extract on the reasons for Mr. Harmel’s proposal being accepted. (27 January 1967) BIL
NATO Council meeting on the 16 December 1966. Extract on the Council’s adoption of Harmel’s resolution. (30 January 1967) BIL 1
NATO Council meeting on 11 January 1967. Extracts on the preliminary discussions regarding the resolution on the future tasks of the Alliance. (19 January 1967) BIL 1
NATO Council meeting on the 22 February 1967. Decisions on procedure about the future tasks of the Alliance. (1 March 1967) BIL 1
Council Verbatim Record of Council Meeting on 15 February 1967 containing discussion on the resolution on the future tasks of the Alliance. (15 February 1967) ENG+FRE 1
Political Affairs Division. Memorandum from ASG Political Affairs to the Secretary General containing an abstract of issues discussed during the Council meeting on 15 February 1967. (21 February 1967) ENG 1
Political Affairs Division. Memorandum from ASG Political Affairs to the Secretary General discussing options on how the resolution may be received by the Council. (21 February 1967) ENG 1
Political Affairs Division. Memorandum from the ASG Political Affairs to the Secretary General on the forthcoming Council discussions on the resolution on the future tasks of the Alliance and the outcomes thereof. (21 January 1967) ENG 1
Political Affairs Division, Special Questions Section. Memorandum from the Assistant Secretary General to the Secretary General on the prevalent situation in Europe and Asia in 1948 and how it led to the creation of NATO. (31 January 1967) FRE
Memorandum from F.C. Menne, Deputy Executive Secretary, listing those attending the Special Group. (3 March 1967) ENG 1
Political Affairs Division, General Affairs Section. Note from ASG Political Affairs to the Secretary General on preliminary efforts to define the resolution on the future tasks of the Alliance. (13 January 1967) ENG 1
Political Affairs Division, General Affairs Section. Memorandum from Christian Chapman to the Secretary General on his preliminary thoughts on the resolution on the future tasks of NATO. (13 January 1967) ENG 1
Political Affairs Division, General Affairs Section. Note from A. Alacakaptan to Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs on the future tasks of the Alliance. (3 January 1967) ENG 1
Letter from A. Alessandrini, Italian Permanent Representative, to Secretary General replying to his query in PO/67/132. (1 march 1967) FRE 1
Memorandum from Mr. Inan to ASG Political Affairs. Collection of publications with proposals on the re-organization of NATO from 1963 to 1997. (13 February 1967) FRE 1
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Miami Beach Convention Center
6-9 December 2018
Art Basel Miami Beach returns with 268 leading international galleries selected for its 2018 show. From 35 countries across North and South America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, the exhibitors will present Modern and contemporary works by emerging and established artists. Alongside a robust roster of returning galleries, this year’s show features 29 galleries who are participating for the first time.
With more than half of its participants having exhibition spaces in the Americas, Art Basel in Miami Beach is the leading art show of the region. This year, the renovation of the Miami Beach Convention Center (MBCC) will be concluded, with expected completion of the parks as a next phase of the project to be realized in the coming years. Together with the redesigned floorplan and enhanced layout, the upgraded facilities will provide a premier platform for the exhibiting galleries.
The main sector of the show features 198 galleries of the world’s leading galleries presenting the highest quality of painting, sculpture, drawings, installation, photography, video and digital works. This year, a strong list of returning participants is joined by 12 galleries that have previously participated in the show’s Nova, Positions or Survey sector: Boers-Li Gallery, Canada, David Castillo Gallery, DC Moore Gallery, Essex Street, Tanya Leighton, mor charpentier, Proyectos Monclova, Ratio 3, Simões de Assis Galeria de Arte, Travesía Cuatro and Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois. Two galleries in the main sector – Kayne Griffin Corcoran and Cardi Gallery – will be completely new to the show, while Barbara Thumm will return to the sector after a brief hiatus.
Full Gallery List
The sector presents 11 global leaders in the field of prints and editioned works: Alan Cristea Gallery, Crown Point Press, Gemini G.E.L., Carolina Nitsch, Pace Prints, Paragon, Polígrafa Obra Gràfica, STPI, Two Palms, ULAE and Susan Sheehan Gallery, who participates in the Miami Beach show for the first time.
Allowing curators, critics, collectors and visitors to discover new talents from across the globe, galleries in Positions present one major project by a single artist. This year, the sector features 14 solo booths, including eight exhibitors who are participating in the show for the first time, such as: Mexican gallery Parque Galería, who will present the second chapter of the Ecuadorian artist Oscar Santillán’s ‘Dawn and Dusk Seen at Once’ series that narrates the history of science in Latin America; Amsterdam-based Upstream Gallery, presenting ‘La Casa Lobo’, a monumental feature film of stop motion animations by Chilean artist duo León & Cociña; and This Is No Fantasy + dianne tanzer gallery from Australia, presenting new paintings by Vincent Namatjira that reflect on the artist’s Aboriginal heritage and its complex colonial history. Additional first-time participants include: Bodega, Commonwealth and Council, Thierry Goldberg Gallery, Madragoa and Galerie Jérôme Poggi.
Full Gallery List for Positions
Providing a platform for galleries to present new work by up to three artists, Nova this year features 29 exhibitors. First-time participants include: blank projects, Carlos/Ishikawa, Selma Feriani Gallery, Galerie Christophe Gaillard, Grimm, Hanart TZ Gallery, Levy Delval, Josh Lilley, Linn Lühn, Morán Morán, Galleria Lorcan O’Neill Roma and Tiwani Contemporary. Highlights include: ‘World Matters’, an installation inspired by Paleolithic Venus figurines by French artist Marguerite Humeau, presented by Clearing; a site-specific installation titled ‘Backroom’ by American artist Derek Fordjour, presented by Josh Lilley; and ceramics and textile-based works by Mexican artist Pia Camil, presented by Instituto de visión.
Full gallery list for Nova
The sector returns for its fifth year with 16 focused presentations of work created before 2000. Six exhibitors will join the sector for the first time: Sabrina Amrani with textile-based works by Chant Avedissian; Tibor de Nagy with a presentation by Larry Rivers; Eric Firestone Gallery, with work by Joe Overstreet from the late 1960s and early 1970s that speaks to the African-American experience; Paci contemporary, with a series of computer-generated composite portraits by Nancy Burson; Venus Over Manhattan, with work by Maryan that merges abstraction and figuration; and Walden, with a series of embroidered fabric works by Feliciano Centurión. Further highlights include Peter Blum Gallery, with a presentation of early works by Joyce J. Scott; Anat Ebgi presenting works by Paraguayan artist Faith Wilding, recognizing her contribution to the discourse of feminist art history, and Hales Gallery’s presentation of Virginia Jaramillo’s work that reflects on her time in New York during the Black Power movement – a transitional period in her life.
Museums Shows and Private Collections
Visitors to the Miami Beach show will have the opportunity to view South Florida’s leading museums and private collections:
The Bass
‘Paola Pivi: Art with a View’
‘Aaron Curry: Tune Yer Head’
‘The Haas Brothers: Ferngully’
Frost Art Museum – Florida International University
‘Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago’
The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA Miami)
‘Larry Bell: Time Machines’
‘Manuel Solano: I Don’t Wanna Wait For Our Lives To Be Over’
‘Judy Chicago: A Reckoning’
‘William N. Copley’
NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale
‘Remember to React: 60 Years of Collecting’
‘William J. Glackens and Auguste Renoir: Affinities and Distinctions’
Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami (MOCA)
‘AfriCOBRA: Messages to the People’
Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM)
‘Arthur Jafa: Love is the Message, the Message is Death’
‘Grids: A Selection of Paintings by Lynne Golob Gelfman’
‘Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, 1980-83: A Documentary Exhibition’
‘Ebony G. Patterson . . . while the dew is still on the roses . . .’
Wolfsonian – Florida International University
‘Deco: Luxury to Mass Market’ ‘Made in Italy: MITA Textile Design 1926-1976’ ‘This Is Not A Temple’ ‘Art and Design in the Modern Age’
de la Cruz Collection Contemporary Art Space
‘More / Less’
Margulies Collection at the Warehouse
The Warehouse features works by Ibrahim Mahama, Olaf Metzel, Keisuke Takahashi, Peter Buggenhout, Imi Knoebel, Paola Pivi, Cate Giordano, Stephen Shore, Kishio Suga, Barry McGee and Gilles Barbier. The exhibition will also feature masterworks by Anselm Kiefer, Sol LeWitt, Olafur Eliasson, Ernesto Neto, Michael Heizer, George Segal, Tony Smith, John Chamberlain, Willem de Kooning, and Isamu Noguchi.
The Rubell Family Collection
‘Purvis Young’
‘New Acquisitions’
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Class: Private & Group Music & Dance Instruction
Mon, October 15, 2012 6:00 pm at Alwan for the Arts
(View all classes »)
Beginning October 15
Ongoing registration throughout the semester - email for details
Alwan for the Arts continues group and private Arab Music and Dance Instruction this fall. Opportunities are available for beginners and seasoned students of all ages to learn fundamentals of Arab music and/or study specialized topics, learning to sing and perform traditional and popular songs along, studying dance in an all-woman setting, and learning to play and jam on Arabic percussion instruments. Private lessons are also available on traditional as well as Western instruments and voice.
Gaida | Zafer Tawil
Ramzi Edlibi | Asmaa ElTaher | Ahmad Gamal
Email mariam@alwanforthearts.org with questions or to register.
Course offerings and descriptions:
Group Instruction: all ages and levels
Women's Dance Circle, 90 min, Asmaa ElTaher
Sundays 12:00pm-1:30pm; Oct 21 - Dec 16; 8 sessions
No class 11/22
(max. 25 students)
Learn to dance traditional social Egyptian or "sharqi" dance in a fun and relaxes women-only setting.The Dance Circle will offer women an opportunity to learn new styles of "raqs" (dance) typically performed in different social contexts across the Middle East, such as weddings, birthdays, and other special occasions.
Arab Rhythm Circle, 75 min, Zafer Tawil
Mondays, 6:15pm-7:30pm; Oct 15 - Dec 3; 8 sessions
Each week, this course will focus on presenting and performing 2-3 new rhythms typical of Arab classical and folk songs from across the greater Middle East in an invigorating and fun group setting. Students will learn the basic rhythms and play them as a group as Zafer demonstrates specialized ornaments and techniques for the daf (frame drum), darbuke, and riqq.
Arab Vocal Traditions, 75 min, Gaida
Mondays, 7:45-9:00pm; Oct 15 - Dec 10; 8 sessions
Gaida will teach songs selected from folk, tarab and hymnal traditions of Syria and the Arab world. Students will discover melodies using the maqam modal system and be trained to hear and sing the quartertones essential to these modes. These melodies will then be worked into improvisations and students will learn to ornament them in the characteristic styles of Arab vocalists.
Iqa'at wa Harakat: Rhythms and Dances of the Middle East and North Africa, 120 min, Ramzi Edlibi
Saturdays, 3:00-5:00pm; Oct 20 - Dec 15; 8 sessions
A different folk dance and rhythm is introduced in each class. This course will focus on polyrhythmic songs and their accompanying dances from various parts of the Middle East and North Africa, including 2 sessions on Debkeh and one session focusing on dances from each of the following countries: Yemen, Egypt, Iraq, and Morocco.
Group Instruction Pricing:
Single $20
4 classes $72 ($18/class)
8 classes $120 ($15/class)
If a student decides to enroll in a package of classes, the first single sessions already paid for will count as the first lesson of the package and its price will be deducted from the overall cost.
Students enrolling in a single class or package of 4 or 8 may choose to attend any session throughout the semester.
If a student decides to enroll in a package after taking one single class, the single session will count as the first class of the package and its price will be deducted from the overall cost.
Combination packages available and customizable to student’s preferences (e.g. 4 classes in Arab Vocal Traditions + 4 classes in Arab Rhythm Circle Percussion=$120)
Students may attend classes without registering by paying the "single" class price of $20 cash or check made payable to the Alwan Foundation, but please check the website to confirm that class is meeting on the day you decide to attend, and, if possible, email to let us know when you plan to attend.
Classes will be held so long as a minimum number of students are enrolled by the end of the registration period.
Private Lessons: beginner, intermediate, and advanced
One-on-one instruction of instrument technique, stylistic ornamentation, taqasim (improvisation), and repertoire.Small group lessons (2-4 students) also possible; email for further details.
Instruments offered:
Violin – Zafer Tawil
‘Oud – Zafer Tawil
Qanun – Zafer Tawil
Percussion – Zafer Tawil
Voice – Ahmad Gamal, Gaida
(See faculty biographies below for more information)
Other Instruments (guitar, piano, cello, woodwinds, brass, etc.): Alwan for the Arts invites intermediate, advanced, and professional performers of instruments not listed here to study fundamentals of Arabic musical style including intonation, maqamat (modes), iqa’at (rhythms), ornamentation, taqasim (improvisation), and repertoire with one of our instructors. Please email for more information.
Scheduling Policy: All private lessons are scheduled through the Alwan for the Arts office based on student, teacher, and space availability. If, after scheduling, a student cannot make his or her scheduled time, Alwan will attempt to reschedule at the teacher's discretion; however, Alwan cannot guarantee that this will always be possible. If a teacher cannot make a scheduled lesson time, the lesson will be rescheduled taking into account student, teacher, and space availability.
Private Lesson Pricing:
Trial Lesson*: $35 (30 minutes), $60 (60 minutes)
Single Lessons: $45 (30 minutes), $70 (60 minutes)
4 lessons 30 minutes $170 ($42.50/lesson)
4 lessons 60 minutes $260 ($65/lesson)
12 lessons 30 minutes $420 ($35/lesson)
*One trial lesson may be taken per student (offered at the lowest package rate of $35/half-hour or $60/hour). If a student decides to enroll in a package of lessons, the trial lesson will count as the first lesson of the package and its price will be deducted from the overall cost.
**Alwan members receive 10-15% discounts on lessons! Click here to learn more about membership options and view discount levels.
Instrument Rental: Interested in learning Arabic music but don’t have the right instrument? Students may rent or buy instruments for at-home practice through Alwan for the Arts, including the ‘oud, qanun, santur, and percussion (pending availability). Arrangements can also be made to rent Western instruments such as trumpet and violin. Please email for further details.
To register for classes or private lessons for the March 3-May 25 semester, email mariam@alwanforthearts.org with:
Instrument you'd like to study and/or class(es) you're interested in taking
Number of sessions in which you'd like to enroll
Level and/or experience (so we can place you with an appropriate teacher)
Preferred instructor (optional - if not requested, we will match you with an instructor who fits what you are looking for in Arab music study)
Make sure to mention if you are a member of Alwan - many of our membership levels receive 10-15% discounts on lessons! Click here to learn more about membership options and view discount.
Ongoing registration throughout the semester -email for details
**Students may attend group classes without registering by paying the "single" class price of $20 cash or check made payable to the Alwan Foundation, but please check the website to confirm that class is meeting on the day you decide to attend.
Please feel free to email mariam@alwanforthearts.org with any questions related to music instruction at Alwan.
P.S. Keep up-to-date with Alwan to hear more about guest artists and special events.
Faculty Biographies:
Asmaa Yehia ElTaher (dance) is an accomplished Egyptian television, film and theater actor. Asmaa is an Egyptian Visiting Scholar at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center/CUNY Graduate Center. She is currently working on her Ph.D. thesis on African theater. Eltaher is an assistant lecturer in the Theater Department in the Faculty of Arts at Egypt’s Helwan University. She has two undergraduate degrees (in sociology and in drama and criticism), as well as an Master of Arts in drama and criticism.”
Ahmad Gamal (vocal instruction) is an Egyptian singer and actor, has been a solo vocalist of the Arabic Music Orchestra of the Opera House in Cairo, Egypt since 2001. Ahmad earned a Bachelor’s degree in Greco-Roman Archeology & Civilization from the University of Alexandria, Egypt and worked in the art center at the Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt. His professional career as an artist began in the early 90’s. Since then, Ahmad has taken part in multiple Egyptian TV series and performed in national and international concerts, world summits, and Festivals around the Arab world, Europe, and the United States. He has performed in several celebrations of historical events including the 50th anniversary of the July 23rd Egyptian Revolution at the Opera House in Cairo, the opening of the Library of Alexandria in front of 32 world leaders, and The International Women’s Day in Amman, Jordan.
Gaida (vocal instruction) is one of the most “effusive and charming vocalists in the New York world music scene.” Gaida performs “entrancing” innovative interpretations of Syrian folk songs, originals, and freestyle improvisations over Arabic grooves. The wide range of musical styles heard within Gaida’s music reflects the diversity of her background. One song may capture the vocal finesse and tenderness of Fairuz, or highly ornate vocal stylings reminiscent of Oum Kalthoum, contrasted by a slow, sultry blues number, followed by a Brazilian, samba-like piece. These various styles flow together organically and naturally; tied together by Gaida's depth of soul and her evocative and expressive voice, which transcends genre and drives directly into the listener's heart. Gaida and her band were featured in Jonathan Demme’s, Rachel Getting Married and Jimmy Carter Man from Planes. Gaida recorded with Robyn Hitchcock, Gillian Welch and Alejandro Escovedo. She performed at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, BAM, Joe’s Pub, Le Poisson Rouge, and many world music festivals.
Zafer Tawil ('oud, violin, qanun, percussion) is a virtuoso on ‘oud, violin, and qanun, and a master of Arab percussion. Zafer has performed in concerts across the country, including performances with numerous musicians ranging from Sting to Arab music virtuosos Chab Mami, Simon Shaheen, Bassam Saba and George Ziadeh, to avant-garde composer/ performer Elliot Sharpe. He was a featured composer and performer in acclaimed director Jonathan Demme's Oscar-nominated film Rachel Getting Married and is composing and performing for Demme’s next film project, Zeitoun, based on Dave Eggers’ book about Abdulrahman Zeitoun’s post-Hurricane Katrina odyssey. Zafer has worked on many collaboration concerts involving classical Indian and Persian music as well as Arab/jazz fusion. He has held workshops on Arab music at many institutions and universities across the United States. A native of Jerusalem, Palestine, he resides in New York City.
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Amorq
The best in the World!
Woman Gets Ingenious Revenge On Man Who Swiped Her Parking Spot
What would you do to find, and keep, a coveted parking space?
We've all been there. We've driven around in circles for 20 minutes, up and down each aisle to no avail. We've stalked unsuspecting shoppers to their cars, only to wave awkwardly at them as they pull out and we eagerly pull into their spot. We've even gone so far as offering $5 to shoppers who promise us their space instead of that rival car lurking around the corner. But what happens when that creeping car goes for it and crosses the line?
In the case of the situation featured in the video below, we find a woman in a red car preparing to back into her parking spot when all of a sudden, a tiny white car zooms in out of nowhere. She has two options here: drive away defeated, or get her revenge. Luckily (or not so luckily, depending on for whom you're rooting), the white car left just enough space for her to squeeze in and take what is rightfully hers.
Whether this was a prank or the real deal, her skills are quite impressive. It's not uncommon for women to be mocked as poor drivers, but it takes a certain je ne sais quoi to park with such precision. And the way she nonchalantly puts the top down on her convertible and walks out while trapping the man in his car is just icing on the cake. She deserves a round of applause for that move.
Although both parties left unscathed, we don't recommend re-creating this situation. The number of accidents involving aggressive drivers increases about 7 percent each year, according to a study done by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. These incidents don't always play out as they did in the video -- with seemingly no damage or typical car accident injuries.
Parking lots can be a nightmare, especially come weekends and holidays. It's important that you maneuver slowly through the hoards of people and drive as safely as possible. And while we don't advocate any horseplay in parking lots -- for fear of road rage incidents -- we do hope you get a kick out of the video below.
more introsting news:
amorq.com@gmail.com
This is a web-site of incredible adventures and colorful views from all over the World. We great like-minded persons narrowed by standard frames of society
Follow @amorqcom
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Politicians Can’t Talk Right (And They Ain’t Logical, Either)
by Ted Rall
Written by Ted Rall
What’s wrong with VA Gov. Terry McAuliffe, SC Senator Tom Davis and Miss. House Speaker Phillip Gunn? They don’t talk right, says Ted Rall. T’aint logical, either. Here is what he means …
aNewDomain — The renewed push to eliminate the Confederate battle flag from the South Carolina state capitol and as part of the design of state flags in other Southern states has sparked the kind of discussion that showcases one of the big things that is wrong with American politics. It doesn’t get talked about very much, but the truth is: Politicians don’t speak correctly.
That is, they don’t talk right.
I don’t know why. Is it that rhetoric and debate is an afterschool activity rather than part of standard school curriculums? Is the long tradition of anti-intellectualism in American culture to blame?
Whatever the reason, journalists are too deeply embedded in the corporate political class to see that the soundbites they’re transcribing are, to put it politely, stupid. And not just in the grammatical sense. Consider:
Flags Don’t Divide
Whatever the cause, American politicians seem particularly inept at framing issues and concerns in a way that clarifies problems and their potential solutions.
Take, for example, the words of Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe. He says he wants to take the Confederate standard off his state’s license plates. The flag “divides many of our people,” McAuliffe said. “Even its display on state-issued license tags is, in my view, unnecessarily divisive and hurtful to too many of our people.”
He is wrong, of course, when he says that the flag divides people.
What is true is that Virginia, like other states, is divided between people who are offended by the flag, and those who think it’s just fine.
Given the history the flag symbolizes, most relevantly the fact that Southern states resurrected the Confederate battle flag as a rebuke to the civil rights movement during the late 1950s and early 1960s, people who are still fans of the Confederate flag are inconsiderate jerks at bare minimum. As for the rest, let’s just call them the racist scum they are.
So it would be far more accurate to say that the state is divided between nice people who would never put Confederate imagery on their cars, and mean people who would.
What McAuliffe should have said is: “People who display Confederate images on their license plates are racist assholes, and the state of Virginia shouldn’t endorse their racist asshole views.”
Bodies. Not Body.
And then there are the politicians who, even while espousing the right side of an issue, give those on the other side a benefit of the doubt that they don’t deserve. Here’s South Carolina State Senator Tom Davis:
“There are some very good and decent people up there in that General Assembly, without a racist bone in their body, who revere that flag.”
This is the sort of statement that, in countries like England and France where words are carefully scrutinized, would result in public shaming. Words that form idiotic phrases and sentences prompt ridicule there that might keep you from ever leaving your house again.
Seriously, does anyone really believe that someone who “reveres” the Confederate flag doesn’t have “a racist bone in their body?”
And it’s “bodies.” Not body.
Another Word for Courage, Please.
Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn called for the Confederate standard to be removed from that state’s flag.
We must always remember our past, but that does not mean we must let it define us.”
Gunn’s remarks were lauded for their “courage.” Oh, please.
Where is the courage in a milquetoast comment like that?
How much courage does it take, even in Mississippi, to declare an end to southern opposition to civil rights in the year 2015?
The problem isn’t really grammar, it’s a lack of logic. It’s doublespeak.
And it is no wonder, with public officials routinely trotting out corporate doublespeak in response to every political debate, that the American public possesses so little clarity about what’s real and what’s not.
That is how we get Republicans who think that U.S. President Barack Obama is a Kenyan-born socialist. He’s a U.S. citizen; it’s a verifiable fact.
Yet no one in the media or even in the Democratic Party is willing to set the record straight in a straightforward, strident way.
It is also why we are treated to a climate change “debate” where there are supposedly two sides, each equally valid, each equally entitled to a public hearing and respect. There aren’t two valid sides. Climate change is a proven scientific fact.
American politics are childish and unsophisticated. If they didn’t affect billions of people and the fate of the planet itself, these politicians would be hilarious.
For aNewDomain, I’m Ted Rall.
Image one: Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, TeaParty.org, All Rights Reserved.
Image two: South Carolina Senator Tom Davis via SenatorTomDavis.com, All Rights Reserved.
Image three and cover shot: Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn via clarionledger.com, All Rights Reserved.
Hillary’s Poor Word Choices Tour Rolls On
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San Antonio Spurs Big Three: Offseason of Uncertainty
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Outlier Lofts in Boston by French 2D
architecture in usa
Designed by Boston-based architecture firm French 2D, Outlier Lofts is a renovation that addresses the site’s many historical layers.
Architect: French 2D
Location: Boston, USA
Photography: John Horner Photography, with virtual staging from Spotless Agency
From the architect: Sited on an urban corner in the neighborhood of Charlestown, the existing structure underwent a series of re-orientations, a history that French 2D threads into the new design, considering the way its three sides operate as both ‘backs’ and ‘fronts’ of the building.
The building was originally constructed in the 19th century as a pair of connected townhouses with entrances facing a wide canal and a sea of potato sheds along a trainline. Following a fire in the 1960s that destroyed the third floor, the building was reoriented, with its main entrance shifted to an abutting side street, eventually becoming a bar.
The current renovation maintains the bar’s side entrance and creates three loft-style flats, entered from the short side of the building. Each loft measures 1,529 square feet with two bedrooms and two baths. The ghosts of previous entrances are maintained along the building's original frontage with the new window arrangements that echo the townhouse rhythm.
The architects re-introduced the lost third floor, incorporating a new saw-tooth roof that creates a “mohawk-like” profile facing the elevated highway and roads beyond. The short side of the building maintains a straight-faced integration among its more traditional neighbors. “Like a friendly nod to those entering Boston from the highway, the reimagined building addresses the city as a new front face for a neighborhood that might otherwise be seen as inward-looking,” notes cofounding partner Jenny French.
For the new design, French 2D engaged in a deep interest in the imagined inner life of the building, and in creating a surface tension that accommodates it’s many historical iterations. With no signage but high political visibility (via a historically political clientele), the bar that previously inhabited the building – ‘Old Sully’s’ – was one of the most invisible yet visible buildings in Charlestown. It also served as a location in Ben Affleck’s recent film The Town.
French 2D worked through these narratives, as well as that of the original townhouses with an industrial edge, to arrive at a contemporary dwelling that allows multiple histories to be read through a single structure.
French 2D's interest in imagined lives and layered history is explored beyond the architecture in an experimental staging project to create the interior images of the lofts. Says co-founding partner Anda French, “This project speculates on architectural production by misusing representational tools like virtual staging, a rendering technique popular in the real estate industry to sell empty homes, and by using orthographic drawings to conjure ghosts. Plans and elevations collapse multiple realities, while final photographs are inhabited by a cast of the structure’s past and future furniture residents.”
> YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: ICA/Boston Watershed by Anmahian Winton Architects
11 / 13 / 2018 Designed by Boston-based architecture firm French 2D, Outlier Lofts is a renovation that addresses the site many historical layers
Crematorium Siesegem by KAAN Architecten
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Wilshire Boulevard Temple by OMA/Shohei Shigematsu will begin construction
TREESSUN Floor Exhibition Hall Design by TOWOdesign
Recommended post: Luxury penthouse in Amsterdam by TANK
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Katharina Fritsch, St. Katharina, 2007. Polyester, Farbe170 x 50 x 40 cm 2. Foto (Efeu) 2007. Siebdruck, Kunststoff, Farbe, 280 x 400 cm © 2009 ProLitteris, Zürich.
ZURICH.- From 3 June to 30 August 2009, the Kunsthaus Zürich will host a retrospective devoted to the work of Katharina Fritsch, one of the most significant artists of our day. The show will also include new pieces by the artist. Famed for her large-scale sculptures, whose hypnotic effect the viewer experiences in the blink of an eye, Fritsch plays with humanitys primeval ideas, desires and fears. Her most recent art ventures into fresh artistic territory, including erotica as seen from the female point of view.
Katharina Fritsch (born 1956) is among the most important artists working today. Her works three-dimensional pictures only identifiable as sculptures on second glance are energetic presences to be found in numerous public and private collections. With their succinct visual speech, works such as Warengestell mit Madonnen (Display Stand with Madonnas), 1989, Tischgesellschaft (Company at Table), 1988, and Elefant (Elephant), 1987, firmly anchor themselves in the collective memory of the viewing public and are among the some 80 objects comprised by the retrospective at the Kunsthaus Zürich, where the artist has already been seen in the thematic exhibitions Hypermental (2000) and Signs and Wonders (1995), both of them, like the present show, curated by Bice Curiger.
Influences from Minimal Art to Pop Culture
From our vantage point in the present, we can make out an impressive coherence and profundity of subjects and motifs in Fritschs oeuvre, a good thirty years in the making. Her pictures, sculptural apparitions that nevertheless remain ineffable, take up space. The viewer grasps them immediately, and yet continues to wrestle with their latent meaning. Her process, which includes expunging any evidence of personality from her sculptural surfaces, meticulously calculating proportions and lending her more recent silk-screened pictures an immaterial cast, reveals Fritschs debt to the severity of Minimal Art as well as her interest in artificial and cultural paradigms transcending the individual.
From Cook to Smiling Double Bed by Way of Garden
The exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zürich is half composed of more recent and entirely new works, including large-format Raumbilder (spatial images), which it presents as a precise interaction between sculptures and ethereally oversized silk-screens.
Visitors are greeted by a bright yellow cook bearing a bright yellow plate, on which are arrayed a bright yellow cutlet and similarly coloured potatoes and peas. The brilliant figure stands in front of a large image of a sinister-looking inn, the Schwarzwaldhaus. The observers very first encounter with the art of Katharina Fritsch, therefore, before they have even entered the exhibition proper, already stirs those contradictory feelings that are characteristic of so many of her works. While their eye is drawn by the realistic features of the cook, itself belied by his generic unreality, as well as by the seductively satin-black tones of the photograph, visitors are likely to ask themselves whether the museum is in fact an inn, and whether art is itself nothing more than a commodity, for all that it is ceremoniously presented to the consumer. These first few seconds of consternation thus hold a mirror to the stereotypes of our own experience, and unite us all by rendering the slings and arrows of our fortune in an elementary iconography, one which schools us in the idiosyncratic rhetorical register, somewhere between dismal melancholy and subtle humour, that seems to hang over Fritschs entire oeuvre.
A further prominent example is Fritsch's Frau mit Hund (Woman with Dog), 2004, a large ensemble comprising a female figure composed of pink shells, 32 umbrellas floating on the ceiling, and magnified postcard views. The work conjures up the complex aura of a city like Paris, alludes to Rococo and to pop culture, and serenely evokes the difficult subject of simplicity. And while an older group of works by Fritsch constitutes a curious modern elegy to the subject of the garden, one of her most recent pieces invites the viewer into a metabedroom: in her smiling double bed strewn with rose petals and adorned with male pinups, Fritsch ventures with subversive levity into a masculine preserve of art history.
Katharina Fritsch was born in Essen in 1956. She studied general and art history in Münster before attending Fritz Schweglers classes at the Art Academy of Düsseldorf, and showed her first sculptures in 1979. In the 1980s she frequently took her motifs from the world of commodities. Her international breakthrough came in 1984 at Düsseldorfs Von hier aus (From Here On) exhibition. In 1988 she exhibited at the Kunsthalle Basel and in 1997 at the Museum für Gegenwartskunst. After representing Germany at the 1995 Venice Biennale she was the recipient of such major awards as the Aachen Prize for Art (1996) and the Piepenbrock Prize for Sculpture (2008).
Fritsch lives and works in Düsseldorf. In 2001 she was made a professor of sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts Münster, a post she holds to this day. That same year she was the subject of a major one-woman show at the Tate Modern in London, held in cooperation with Düsseldorfs K21.
Kunsthaus Zürich | Katharina Fritsch | Kunsthalle Basel | Tate Modern | K21 |
Kunsthaus Zürich Shows 'Karl Moser: Art and Architecture'
Picasso Show at Kunsthaus Zürich has Already Received 100,000 Visitors Since Opening in October
Kunsthaus Zürich to Stage 15 Exhibitions in 2011 Season, Nahmad Family Collection is a Highlight
Kunsthaus Zürich Revives First Museum Exhibition Devoted to Pablo Picasso
First Museum Exhibition in Switzerland of Work by Eccentric Landscape Artist Carl Wilhelm Kolbe
Kunsthaus Zürich to Show "Karl Moser: Art and Architecture"
Kunsthaus Zürich Shows "Thomas Struth. Photographs 1978-2010"
Kunsthaus Zürich Shows Videos and Paintings by Albanian Artist Adrian Paci
Kunsthaus Zürich Presents Short Films on the Occasion of Its 100th Birthday
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Number Times Read : 1151 Word Count: 2007
Lewis Hamilton Revives F1
Category Rss Feed - http://articlespromoter.com/rss.php?rss=340
By : Shaun Parker
As the new F1 Grand Prix season gathers pace there is a growing excitement among racing fans, the departure of Michael Schumacher from Ferrari has left a void in the motor racing world both for Ferrari and for motor racing fans in general.
The good news of course is that Lewis Hamilton has already stepped into the void and has become the new focus for much media attention, Ferrari will lament the fact that they never got the chance to sign this new exciting talent but what are the odds on Lewis driving for Ferrari in the near future?
One of the great spectacles of F1 racing is the colour and razzmatazz can be seen at the circuits on race day, each circuit location has its loyal followers and of course these numbers are swelled by the travelling fans who follow motor racing. The colours are vibrant for each team which is reflected through the fans, there is a growing trend to wear F1 clothing from the top teams and you will now see everything form race suits to jackets and caps at each circuit.
The wearing of F1 team clothing was driven by the success of glamorous teams such as Ferrari, McLaren and Jordan, this has now been so popular that you will see all the popular team colours worn in everyday life and of course supermodels such as Jordan herself has regularly been pictured in the yellow of her F1 team namesake.
Of course the glamorous lifestyle of the top racing drivers and their accompanying entourage is a great advert for these new styles and people want to be like their role models. The coverage on television is now spread over two days with the interviews and pre-race coverage profiling the F1 bandwagon in all its glory.
At Silverstone the crowd was alive with excitement and the stands were a sea of flags, colour and regalia for Lewis Hamilton. The sheer excitement of the qualifying session could be felt almost through the television screen and one could sense that when Lewis hit the hot lap in the final seonds that every lounge in the UK was full of fans leaping around waving flags.
Of course it is not just flags, fans are wearing t-shirts and drinking their tea in mugs whilst sporting all amnner of merchandise. The increase in demand for this type of sports clothing has now led to teams really starting to work on their merchandise.
Perhaps the most striking evidence of this increase is the emergence of the top F1 teams into the retail market through the Internet, all have now heavily invested into this arena and of course they are feeding a growing market.
The sales through Internet channels are boosted by Ebay and Kelkoo and of course Froogle (the Google shopping portal), it is predicted that this market will double over the next 12 months and the renewed interest in F1 thanks to Lewis Hamilton and competitive racing will influence this further.
Such is the importance of image and design now in this growing market that fashion designers and fashion moguls have been seconded in to create the latest stunning range of fashionable merchandise, a look at the latest range of apparel will reveal a stunning line of clothing, a second look will reveal this clothing not just at the trackside but also in the playground, the park, the High St and all aspects of everyday life.
In fact it is not just the adult males who are wearing it, the trend has migrated to teenagers wearing caps and t-shirts and youngsters who want to be wearing the latest Ferrari or McLaren race suit when they are playing in the garden and it has also taken F1 fashion to the female population. The fact that it is quite normal now to see a lady walking down the street in the latest clothing and this shows just how far this trend has gone because the ultimate purveyors of fashion are women.
Yes the new season is reaching new heights and even though Lewis didnt win at Silverstone he still made the podium and still leads the championship. The battle for the drivers and constructors championship is warming up and the competition in 'retail land' looks set to be heating up too.
Author Resource:- Shaun Parker has been at the forefront of the
F1 merchandise industry bringing the latest in F1 fashion to the public. The current face of Formula 1 fashion is changing dramatically.
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; Articles Promoter Article Directory | Lewis Hamilton Revives F1
By: Shaun Parker
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✯Realms✯of✯Infinity✯
A great place to Role-Play, post Fan Art, Fan Fiction, and to Discuss your favorite Anime/Manga/Games! Also a great place to create your own characters for RP'ing as well as use Canon Characters for RP'ing!
mercuryfan's characters
✯Realms✯of✯Infinity✯ :: Character :: Characters Profiles
by mercuryfan on Sun Jan 11, 2015 1:52 am
- CHARACTER'S GENERAL STATISTICS -
NAME: Sailor Mercury
ANIME, GAME ETC. YOUR CHARACTER IS BASED ON, OR IS IT MADE UP: Sailor Moon anime
ALTERNATE NAME, NICKNAME OR HUMAN NAME (Optional): Ami Mizuno
NAME MEANING (Optional): Net of water (if you use strictly Japanese); Friend of water (if you combine Japanese and French)
(APPROXIMATE) AGE: 17
BLOOD TYPE (Optional): A
DATE OF BIRTH (Optional): 10th September
STARSIGN: Virgo
HERO OR VILLAIN: Hero
OCCUPATION: High School Student
ALLIES (Optional):
ENEMIES (Optional):
- CHARACTER'S PHYSICAL APPEARANCE IN HERO/SENSHI FORM -
HAIR COLOR: Dark Blue
HAIR LENGTH: Shoulder length
NATIONALITY (Optional): Japanese
WEIGHT (Optional):
BIRTHMARKS, TATTOOS, WINGS OR OTHER PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES (Optional):
COSTUME: Super Sailor Mercury wears a version of the standard senshi fuku/uniform : A white leotard with a short, pleated, dark blue skirt attached at the waist, two white cuffs attached at each shoulder, a clear/transparent, colorless cuff attached to the white opaque cuff on the outside of each shoulder, and a dark blue reversed bib attached at the collar; this reversed bib features a white stripe set 2-3 cm in from its edge. Two light blue bows are also attached to the leotard - a medium-sized one at the center of the chest, and a large one with long trailing ribbons at the rear-middle of the waist; a heart-shaped, dark blue brooch is attached at the center of the chest bow. She also wears a dark blue choker with a gold-colored star attached to its front-center, a pair of white formal gloves that reach up to each elbow with three dark blue cuffs at each elbow, and a pair of dark blue high-heeled boots that reach up to just short of each knee and feature a white stripe around each top edge.
WEAPONS/ITEMS: Pocket-sized supercomputer, optional Visor (activated by pressing her earring) to go with it, Senshi Communicator
JEWELRY (Optional): Blue stud earrings, a gold-colored tiara with a dark blue sapphire at its center
- CHARACTER'S PHYSICAL APPEARANCE IN HUMAN/NORMAL FORM -
BIRTHMARKS, TATTOOS, WINGS OR OTHER PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES (Optional): The symbol of Mercury sometimes appears on her forehead.
COSTUME: Most commonly her school uniform. When not in her uniform, she typically prefers a shirt and skirt that cover as much of her arms & legs as possible.
WEAPONS/ITEMS/TALISMANS: Transformation wand
JEWELRY & ACCESSORIES (Optional):
- CHARACTER'S PHYSICAL & MAGICAL POWERS -
LIST PHYSICAL ATTACKS AND EFFECTS: none
LIST MAGICAL ATTACKS AND EFFECTS:
Shabon Spray - Sailor Mercury creates a mist of bubbles, which can limit visibility.
Shabon Spray Freezing - A powered-up version of Shabon Spray that freezes things.
Shine Aqua Illusion - An attack used in the Black Moon saga. In the
anime, she spins as a bunch of water bubbles rise around her, forming into
a 'cloud' of water above her head. She then shoots the water at the enemy.
Mercury Aqua Rhapsody - An attack that Sailor Mercury gains in her Super form.
She plays a lyre, which launches a stream of water at the enemy.
Whirling Waterspout - Sailor Mercury generates a waterspout (which is
the over-water equivalent of a tornado) and sends it spinning at the enemy.
Like a tornado, this attack can spin at over 100 mph.
LIST MISCELLANEOUS ATTACKS AND EFFECTS: Her hand-held supercomputer can make calculations about enemies she is facing and situations she finds herself in
LIST PHYSICAL WEAKNESSES: Can be harmed by most of the physical objects that would harm a regular person
LIST MAGICAL WEAKNESSES: Fire
- CHARACTER'S PERSONALITY -
ATTITUDE TOWARDS OTHERS: Ami loves to be with her close friends (the other inner senshi girls). She is always willing to help them, whether that be by acting like a tutor in their group study sessions or discussing what to do about the latest senshi enemy or anything in between. Even towards other people, she is typically friendly and wanting to be helpful; about the only exceptions are when someone has attacked her or one of her friends - in which case, she will usually use her intelligence to come up with a strategy to defeat them. She is always very modest, though, preferring to downplay her abilities, and becoming quite embarrassed when she comes out on top in anything not like a school test.
FAVORITE COLOR (Optional): Aquamarine
FAVORITE FOOD (Optional): Sandwiches
FAVORITE ELEMENT (Optional): Water
FAVORITE SUBJECT (Optional): Mathematics
LEAST FAVORITE SUBJECT (Optional): None
ANIMAL THAT BEST REPRESENTS HIM/HER (Optional):
LIKES: See Hobbies (below)
DISLIKES: Hamachi (yellowtail tuna)
DREAMS/WISH (Optional): To become a doctor
BOYFRIEND/GIRLFRIEND/SECRET CRUSH (Optional):
HOBBIES (Optional): Reading, chess, swimming
- CHARACTER'S FAMILY -
MOTHER'S NAME (Optional): Dr. Saeko Mizuno
FATHER'S NAME (Optional):
SISTER'S NAME (Optional): N/A
BROTHER'S NAME (Optional): N/A
HOME PLANET/COUNTRY (Optional): Japan, planet Earth
- CHARACTER'S HISTORY -
PAST HISTORY: Until she transferred to Juuban Jr. High early in her second year of junior high school (at the age of 14), Ami was like the stereotypical bookworm - she had few friends and spent most of her spare time studying. This changed when Usagi befriended her one day while she was walking home from school. Ami showed Usagi that she is actually quite friendly when given the chance.
It was later that afternoon, while she was attending Crystal Cram School, that Ami was almost an unwitting victim of Sailor Moon's enemy. Unbeknownst to her, this cram school was set up by Jadeite and administered by one of his youma. Earlier that afternoon, she had accidentally left her floppy disk at the Crown Game Center when she was there with Usagi just before this cram school was scheduled to start. Luna then investigated this floppy disk, and found out it contained secret code to steal the energy of students using it. So Luna thought Ami was really one of the youma in disguise. At Luna's urging, Usagi burst into Ami's classroom disguised as a school nurse. When Ami scolded her for interrupting their class, Usagi transformed into Sailor Moon. Upon noticing that Sailor Moon was now there, the teacher dropped her disguise and showed herself to be the youma she really was. Grabbing Ami's head, this youma tried to capture Ami's energy by pushing her face close to the screen. But instead of the computer capturing her energy, the result was that the symbol of Mercury appeared on Ami's forehead. This convinced Luna that Ami was really also Sailor Mercury (instead of one of the enemies), so Luna created the Sailor Mercury transformation wand and rolled it to Ami. Ami then transformed and (with a little coaching from Luna) helped Sailor Moon defeat the youma.
The next time these two senshi encountered their enemy, Luna gave Sailor Mercury a mini super-computer. Sailor Mercury has used it to make calculations about enemies she is facing and situations she finds herself in; it can even find an enemy's weakness and figure out the exit from traps. Sailor Mercury has used it to help defeat several enemies and escape from multiple traps.
Even though Ami gradually evolved into less of a bookworm, she still consistently got the highest score on tests through the rest of her schooling at Juuban Jr. High. She is now age 17 and has entered Juuban High School with her closest friends (Usagi, Makoto, and Minako - Rei is also one of her closest friends, but she goes to a different, private school). Ami also helped her close friends study for their high school entrance exams when they were all in their last year of junior high school. However, she showed that she had become more than just a bookworm when she showed that she was member # 25 in the Three Lights Fan Club at the beginning of the Galaxia story-arc of Sailor Stars (at age 16), and thus had a gold-colored membership card (better than any of the other senshi girls). But because of her modesty, she was quite ashamed of this.
GOALS/MISSION: Primarily to defend Sailor Moon from any threats; secondarily to help Sailor Moon keep the peace and defend her home and its people from any villains.
- OTHER –
[Optionally insert anything else you would like to mention]
CHARACTER PROFILE LINKS (Optional):
CHARACTER IMAGE LINKS (Optional):
mercuryfan
Location : Sacramento, California
Re: mercuryfan's characters
NAME: Mai Kuju
ANIME, GAME ETC. YOUR CHARACTER IS BASED ON, OR IS IT MADE UP: Mai The Psychic Girl
ALTERNATE NAME, NICKNAME OR HUMAN NAME (Optional):
NAME MEANING (Optional):
BLOOD TYPE (Optional):
DATE OF BIRTH (Optional):
STARSIGN:
OCCUPATION: Junior High Student
HAIR LENGTH: Shoulder-length
SKIN COLOR: Light Tan
COSTUME: She often wears her school uniform, which is a version of the typical girls' school uniform for Japan. When she is not in that, she typically wears a short-sleeved shirt and either a pant or a knee-length skirt; sometimes, she adds a long-sleeved jacket over the shirt.
WEAPONS/ITEMS: none
JEWELRY (Optional): She rarely wears any jewelry.
LIST MAGICAL ATTACKS AND EFFECTS: none
LIST MISCELLANEOUS ATTACKS AND EFFECTS:
She has strong psychic powers. This is mainly evident when she uses the power of psychokinesis that she has over virtually any inanimate object (she once used this power to make a narrow rock trail crumble and fall because a monster/enemy was walking on it, thus causing this enemy to fall off the cliff; later she used this power to make a speeding car slam on its brakes just to save a puppy that would've been hit by this car, not realizing it would cause this car to flip over and get totaled colliding with other nearby cars). She can also appear to 'fly' simply by using this power of psychokinesis on herself, to make herself levitate and/or move in any direction through the air (though she can't pass through any solid objects). She can even use her power of psychokinesis on another psychic being that is less powerful than her (by overpowering that being's psychic ability) - though she has never tried this on a being with true magical powers, such as a senshi.
She also has limited telepathic power in that she can communicate mentally with another psychic person.
LIST PHYSICAL WEAKNESSES: If it hits her, she can be harmed by any physical object that would harm a regular person.
LIST MAGICAL WEAKNESSES: Her only 'magical' power is her psychic power, and she has no shield, so she cannot stop or divert any strong magical attack that is coming to her.
ATTITUDE TOWARDS OTHERS: She prefers to not use her psychic powers. However, if she must do so to keep peace and/or protect innocent being(s), she now will. So she will now do whatever she can to protect this peace and/or any innocent being(s). At first, she will try to not even harm the threatening being; though if the threatening being persists, she will resort to harming this threatening being. But to anybody that does not threaten peace or any other innocent being, she will be at least as kind as typical Japanese people are.
FAVORITE COLOR (Optional):
FAVORITE FOOD (Optional):
FAVORITE ELEMENT (Optional):
FAVORITE SUBJECT (Optional): Physical Education
LEAST FAVORITE SUBJECT (Optional): English
LIKES: Goofing around, Eating
DISLIKES: Using her psychic powers to harm anyone else
DREAMS/WISH (Optional):
HOBBIES (Optional):
MOTHER'S NAME (Optional): Maki Mihiro (deceased)
FATHER'S NAME (Optional): Shuichi Kuju
HOME PLANET/COUNTRY (Optional):
PAST HISTORY:
Up until the age of 14, Mai Kuju thought her psychic powers were only useful to play pranks on other beings (for example, making an acorn start to fall then stopping/suspending it in midair to confuse two nearby birds). When she was 14, a sinister agency bent on controlling the world, the Wisdom Alliance, found out that she had some psychic powers by disguising/mixing it into an intelligence test. So the Wisdom Alliance had a few men follow/monitor her every move. But this aroused the suspicion of her father, so he fled with her from Tokyo to Togakushi.
To make a long story shorter, the Wisdom Alliance found Mai Kuju again before long. Her father was then severely injured (to the point of getting amnesia) as the result of a fight with a monster this organization had. But with a little luck and the help of some strangers-turned-friends (as well as a few uses of her psychic powers at first), she managed to evade capture or serious injury each and every time she was threatened with one of these. After finding her father again, and him regaining his memory, she even eliminated a couple other psychic people sent by the Wisdom Alliance to capture or eliminate her. Finally, she vowed to defy the Wisdom Alliance no matter what it took.
During that year, she matured from a naive young girl to a woman who takes control of her future.
GOALS/MISSION: To keep her peaceful life and that of other innocent people.
Last edited by mercuryfan on Sat Jan 24, 2015 10:50 am; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : to fill in her Goals/Mission)
by mercuryfan on Sat Jan 24, 2015 10:56 am
LAST EDIT: [INSERT DATE]
YOUR YAHOO USERNAME: mercuryfan24
NAME: Super Sailor Pluto
ANIME, GAME ETC. YOUR CHARACTER IS BASED ON, OR IS IT MADE UP: Sailor Moon
ALTERNATE NAME, NICKNAME OR HUMAN NAME (Optional): Meioh Setsuna
NAME MEANING (Optional): Meioh means Underworld King; Setsuna apparently means A Moment, An Instant (which I find kind of ironic, considering her duty as guardian of the Gates of Time)
AGE (Optional): Nobody knows (due to her being the guardian of the Gates of Time)
DATE OF BIRTH (Optional): 29th October
STARSIGN (Optional): Scorpio
OCCUPATION: Biologist
ALLIES (Optional): Sailor Moon, Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune, Sailor Saturn
ENEMIES (Optional): Any villain (-:
EYE COLOUR: Dark Red
HAIR COLOUR: Dark Green
HAIR LENGTH (Optional): Down to a little past her knees
SKIN COLOUR (Optional): Dark Tan
NATIONALITY (Optional):
HEIGHT (Optional): 5'10" (177 cm)
BIRTHMARKS, TATTOOS, WINGS OR OTHER PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES (Optional): The symbol for the planet Pluto appears in the middle of her forehead in place of her tiara when she is using most/all of her power.
COSTUME: Super Sailor Pluto wears a version of the standard senshi fuku/uniform : A white leotard with a short, pleated, black skirt attached at the waist, two white cuffs attached at each shoulder, a clear/transparent, colorless cuff attached to the white opaque cuff on the outside of each shoulder, and a black reversed bib attached at the collar; this reversed bib features a white stripe set 2-3 cm in from its edge. Two dark-red bows are also attached to the leotard - a medium-sized one at the center of the chest, and a large one with long trailing ribbons at the rear-middle of the waist; a heart-shaped, medium-red brooch is attached at the center of the chest bow. She also wears a black choker with a gold-colored star attached to its front-center, a pair of white formal gloves that reach up to each elbow with three black cuffs at each elbow, and a pair of black high-heeled boots that reach up to just short of each knee and feature a white stripe around each top edge.
WEAPONS/ITEMS: Garnet Rod - a rod, almost two meters long, that consists mostly of a light blue staff that has a few pieces attached to the side of it; these pieces look like the pieces attached to the side of an old-fashioned key
JEWELLERY (Optional):
A pair of dark-red slightly-dangling earrings, each in the shape of a thick/wide downward-pointing arrowhead
A gold-colored tiara on the forehead with a dark-red garnet gemstone at its center
HEIGHT (Optional): 5'7" (170 cm)
BIRTHMARKS, TATTOOS, WINGS OR OTHER PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES (Optional): The symbol for the planet Pluto can appear in the middle of her forehead (though it rarely does when she is in human/civilian form).
COSTUME: As with most females, her clothing varies. However, Meioh Setsuna is usually dressed in some variation of the standard business/office attire for females : a white blouse under a long-sleeved formal jacket in one color, and a formal business/office skirt in the same color as the jacket; this skirt's hem is at the mid-to-lower-thigh. All this is accompanied by a pair of standard business/office high-heeled shoes in one color.
WEAPONS/ITEMS/TALISMANS:
Garnet Orb (talisman; part of her Garnet Rod in senshi form) - a heart-shaped, light blue, metallic 'ring' with a red sphere attached inside the bottom of the heart shape
transformation wand - a mostly-light-blue wand with a yellow sphere at the bottom of it, a red heart shape attached at the top of the light blue wand, a large light blue sphere attached to the top of the heart, one small light blue sphere attached to each of the left and right sides of the large light blue sphere, a gold-colored filled-in six-pointed star attached to the top of the large light blue sphere, and the symbol for the planet Pluto in the middle of the six-pointed star
JEWELLERY & ACCESSORIES (Optional): Meioh Setsuna usually wears a pair of dark-red slightly-dangling earrings, each in the shape of a thick/wide downward-pointing arrowhead.
LIST PHYSICAL ATTACKS AND EFFECTS:
Skeleton Surge - Super Sailor Pluto points her Garnet Rod at her target and calls out "Skeleton Surge!" A clump of about 50 skeletons appear immediately in front of her Garnet Rod, and start speeding toward her target.
transformation - Meioh Setsuna holds her right arm straight up above her, with her right hand holding her transformation wand, and calls out "Pluto Planet Power, Make-Up!" She brings her right arm down to where her right hand is holding her transformation wand at arm's length in front of her and at chest level. She spins around twice to her left; as she does the first spin, a white vertical tube of light surrounds her. At the end of the spins, she brings both arms in next to her body so that she appears to be hugging herself. A blinding white light fills the original tube of white light. About one second later, the white light disappears to show her wearing her senshi uniform and holding her Garnet Rod in her left hand. She spins around once more to her left, ending in Pluto's classic pose : left leg slightly in front of the right one (with both knees extended straight), right arm barely bent at the elbow, left arm bent almost 90 degrees, left hand holding the Garnet Rod about two-thirds of the way towards the Garnet Orb at top, and facing about 45 degrees to the left of where her torso and legs are facing.
Dead Scream - Super Sailor Pluto holds up her Garnet Rod with the intention of doing this attack. Spirals of gray & dark green smoke start to swirl around the Garnet Orb. They spread down to swirl around the upper part of her Garnet Rod, then also around Super Sailor Pluto herself. She quietly says "Dead Scream" with her eyes closed, then opens them. A small violet-colored sphere of death energy appears where her Garnet Orb is, then quickly grows to about 0.5 meters diameter as it moves down and immediately in front of her waist area. She spins around once to her right, ending up facing about 90 degrees to the right of her target while holding her Garnet Rod straight out in front of her at waist level, with the sphere of energy still immediately next to her and towards her target. Then the sphere of energy catches the effect of her spin and speeds toward her target.
Death Tornado - Super Sailor Pluto holds her Garnet Rod in front of her, pointing toward her target, while stating the name of this attack and turning the Garnet Rod in a couple circles in either direction. A second later, a strong, powerful tornado appears a couple meters in front of her, spinning at 300 km/h. This tornado starts out small, but then it suddenly starts speeding toward the target and growing until it is a few meters in diameter. It can suck up almost anything in its path - including an ally of hers.
Asphyxiation Attack - Super Sailor Pluto holds up her Garnet Rod towards her target with the intent of doing this attack. She twirls it around once (as if it was a baton), then spins around three times to her left. As she is spinning, she quietly says "Asphyxiation Attack" as she moves her Garnet Rod into position straight out in front of her at chest level. She finishes her spins facing about 45 degrees to the left of her target, when a greenish gray sphere of energy with a 10 cm radius suddenly appears immediately next to her and towards her target, then starts speeding toward her target. If the sphere of energy hits any person, it causes their throat to close off, thus preventing them from being able to breathe.
Super Sailor Pluto can stop time for all people except herself and any other person or group of people she selects (she only does this as a last resort, because it is forbidden - the penalty for using this power is it costs her her life).
Super Sailor Pluto can teleport herself, and optionally any other person or group of people she selects, between the Gates of Time and any other known point in the universe - although the larger the group is that she teleports with her, the more of her energy it uses.
NATURAL ABILITY: No matter which form she is in (senshi or human/civilian), she can easily sense any disturbance with the natural progression of time (such as anybody else doing any special type of time travel); this is even true when she is away from the Gates of Time.
LIST MAGICAL WEAKNESSES: Light energy (for example, solar attacks)
ATTITUDE TOWARDS OTHERS: She is a private woman, often keeping to herself, without trying to bother anybody else (because that is what she is used to from guarding the Gates of Time). However, if she believes something is wrong, she will try whatever she can to intervene and right the wrong. And when she strongly believes something, she will usually stick to her guns despite whatever contrary argument(s) are used to try to change her mind - she will be polite and listen to the argument(s), up to a point, but she often won't be convinced. Yet she considers Chibi-Usa a close friend.
FAVOURITE COLOUR (Optional): Dark Red
FAVOURITE FOOD (Optional): Tea (any kind)
FAVOURITE ELEMENT (Optional): Time and Death
FAVOURITE SUBJECT (Optional): Physics
LEAST FAVOURITE SUBJECT (Optional): Music
LIKES (Optional): Garnet (gemstone)
DISLIKES (Optional): Eggplant (food)
DREAMS/WISH (Optional): To be a designer
BOYFRIEND/GIRLFRIEND/SECRET CRUSH (Optional): Mamoru (secret crush)
HOBBIES (Optional): Sewing, Shopping
FEARS : Cockroaches
MOTHER'S NAME (Optional):
SISTER'S NAME (Optional):
BROTHER'S NAME (Optional):
For as long as she can remember, her primary duty has been to guard the Gates of Time and prevent anybody unauthorized (meaning just about anybody and everybody) from travelling through time. And her secondary duty has been to prevent any and all outside threats from entering our solar system. In fact, as part of her primary duty, she once threatened to kill Sailor Moon and her allies when they appeared at the Gates of Time - until Chibi-Usa also showed up.
Though she will sometimes appear on Earth - especially if she detects that a threat has somehow made it to Earth. For example, she did this when Usagi and her friends were in their last year of junior high, then again when they were in their first year of high school.
GOALS/MISSION:
To eradicate any being she sees as a threat to innocent people's lives. And she is willing to sacrifice somebody if need be to achieve that goal. Also see first two sentences of Past History (immediately above).
- Other ñ
by mercuryfan on Thu Jun 25, 2015 4:30 am
This Character Template is provided for this site courtesy of Hekate, an Administrator at the Cherry Blossoms Club. She deserves all the credit for this. It has only been modified slightly from the original format.
Unfinished - to be finished later
USER NAME: mercuryfan
NAME: Super Sailor Venus
ALTERNATE NAME, NICKNAME OR HUMAN NAME (Optional): Minako Aino
NAME MEANING (Optional): apparently beautiful of love, according to the trusted site Castle In The Sky - Sailor Moon
BLOOD TYPE (Optional): B
DATE OF BIRTH (Optional): 22nd Oct.
STARSIGN (Optional): Libra
HAIR LENGTH: Almost to her knees
COSTUME:
WEAPONS/ITEMS:
JEWELRY (Optional):
Sailor V kick.
Sailor V chop.
V-chan shiki momidashi Sailor V chop.
Crescent beam.
Crescent beam shower.
Venus love me chain.
Venus love and beauty shock.
LIST PHYSICAL WEAKNESSES:
LIST MAGICAL WEAKNESSES:
ATTITUDE TOWARDS OTHERS:
FAVORITE COLOR (Optional): Yellow and Red
FAVORITE FOOD (Optional): Curry
LEAST FAVORITE SUBJECT (Optional): Mathematics
LIKES: Topaz (gemstone), Playing
DISLIKES: Shiitake mushrooms (food), Mama, the Police
DREAMS/WISH (Optional): To become an idol
HOBBIES (Optional): Volleyball (playing it), Chasing after idols
PAST HISTORY: When she was age 13, a talking white cat informed Minako that she was a sailor senshi. This cat, Artemis, guided her through the new duty she now held. Artemis told her that as Sailor V, her main goal would be to thwart the plans of the Dark Agency (led by Danburite) to gather energy. He also told her a sub-goal would be to provide a distraction for the Dark Kingdom (which the Dark Agency was a sub-group of) so they wouldn't attack the other senshi or the Moon princess. One year later, she met these other senshi and became Sailor Venus. Together, these senshi fought and defeated the Dark Kingdom, then did the same against a few other later teams of villains, ending with Galaxia and the Sailor Animates when Minako was 16.
CHARACTER PROFILE LINKS (Optional): N/A
» Brit-chan's Arts and Things [Updated 6/2/18]
» Found something
» The Kyoto-ben accent disappearing?
» Post your characters
» Characters
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TECATE SCORE BAJA 1000, 2012 EDITION
Gustavo Vildosola who crossed the finish line first in La Paz to earn the team’s second Baja 1000 victory, since 2010. dominating the world famous off-road race. Father Gustavo Vildosola Sr. and son “Tavo” were the first Mexican nationals to ever win the race two years ago during the last peninsula run. with only few minutes from BJ Baldwin
CLICK HERE for more SCORE - 2012 News ... ................ Or Here for more Pictures
____________________________________________________________________
2012 CODE Mexicana Logistics - 300
Back to Back !!!
Juan Carlos Lopez, wins the 2012 Logistics - 300 ...Again
Mexicali, Baja California. - Juan Carlos Lopez de Tecate achieved again the first general place in cars in the Mexican Logistics 300 of the series of the Desert (Code). Yesterday opposite to a difficult route and with thousands of fans in "La Laguna Salada", Juan Carlos "Pin" Lopez for the second year in a row reached the site of honor in the career that assembled to more than 140 cars, between them 24 in the Class 1. The tecatense proved to be consistency and a powerful Trophy Truck that did not give to him problems along the hard distance of three returns to come to the goal with a time of 3 hours, 43 minutes and 58 seconds, before thousands of fans who enjoyed of a heat morning, speed and polvo
Showing his power opposite to the steering wheel of the car number 18, Juan Carlos imposed himself to the mexicalense Gustavo "Tavo" Vildósola Perez Tejada who guided the car number 21 but could not make it before the powerful engine of Lopez. The third site was for the Gary Magness of the equipment Handles Racing and in quarter for Gustavo Vildósola Ramos with his new Trophy Truck number 4 that gave to him some mechanical problems and reduced him time in the day. The fifth site was for Juan Carlos Lopez son, who realized a great career to come you upset behind of four of the best pilots of the region.
CLICK HERE for more CODE - 2012 News ... .......................... Or Here for more Pictures
TECATE 2012 SCORE - Baja 500
2012 TECATE SCORE - Baja 500
Bryce Menzies takes the win in the TECATE SCORE BAJA 500, 2012 EDITION, In Baja California Mexico,at the trophy trucks event, BACK to BACK! He did it one more time, race Starting with the RPM # 18 trophy truck by Juan Carlos Lopez ...
2012 GENERAL TIRE MEXICAN 1000
PRELIMINARY RESULTS
Detailed Overall Results for 2012 NORRA Mexican 1000
VINTAGE: 1.- MichaelGaughan ... Mark McMillin ... JohnSwift ... DavidWesthem ... BrianCollins
Evolution: 1.-ClydeStacy ...CalvinJensen ...JerryHerbst ...RudyLekar ...BenSchlimme
CLICK HERE for more HDRA - 2012 News ............................... Or Here for more Pictures
Jimmy Nuckles taking the overall in the 2012 HDRA Imperial 250
Jimmy Nuckles takes the overall n the New HDRA Imperial 250 in his Trophy Truck, taking the lead of the Race and never, never look back until the podium taking the Level One overall at Plaster City with a long... long time for the next vehicle
CLICK HERE for more HDRA - 2012 News ... ...........................Or Here for more Pictures
The 2012 General Tire Mint 400 official Race Results
Congratulations to all our class winners and especially to Robby Gordon for taking the overall win in the 2012 General Tire Mint 400. Click the table header below to view all the 2012 class champions
See the full list at BITD ... or Here for more Pictures
Rockstar MacCachren Roars to Victory At 26th MasterCraft Safety Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250
SAN FELIPE, MexicoPicking up where he left off last season with his third consecutive race win in San Felipe, Las Vegas Rob MacCachren overpowered a talent-laden field of 207 starters to capture the overall and SCORE Trophy Truck victory Saturday in the 26th Annual MasterCraft Safety Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250. SCORE released the official results today after completion of vehicle data tracking device review.
After starting first and slipping behind early in the elapsed-time race MacCachren worked his way back up to the front to re-take the lead at race-mile 172 in the No. 20 Rockstar Energy/MasterCraft Racing Ford F-150 SCORE Trophy Truck, Rockstar Rob roared over and through the sandy, silty, rocky and dusty 248.64-mile course in four hours, 25 minutes, three seconds at an average speed of 56.29 miles per hour.
Surging past a strong field of 23 SCORE Trophy Trucks, the marquee SCORE racing division for high-tech, 850-horsepower unlimited production trucks, MacCachren earned his 48th career SCORE class win, his 11th career SCORE Trophy Truck race win along with his eighth class win including fourth SCORE Trophy Truck and overall race victory in the MasterCraft Safety Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250.
See the full list at Score ... or Here for more Pictures
B.J. Baldwin Wins Overall & SCORE Trophy Truck During Saturdays Round 1 at 18th SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge
Trophy Truck
Sunday; SCORE TROPHY TRUCK (Unlimited Production Trucks, 8 laps, 50 miles)1. Rob MacCachren, Las Vegas, Ford F-150, 54:16 (55.28 miles per hour); 2. Juan Carlos Lopez, Tecate, Mexico, Chevy Silverado, 55:28; 3. Steven Strobel, Clarks, Neb., Ford F-150, 55:40;
Saturday: 1. B.J. Baldwin/Bobby Baldwin, Las Vegas, Chevy Silverado, 53 minutes, 45 seconds (55.81 miles per hour); 2. Juan Carlos Lopez, Tecate, Mexico/Justin Matney, Bristol, Tenn., Chevy Silverado, 54:51; 3. Gary Weyhrich, Troutdale, Ore., Ford F-150, 55:16;
Sunday; CLASS 1 (Unlimited single or two-seaters, 8 laps, 50 miles)1. Cody Parkhouse, Long Beach, Calif., Jimco-Chevy, 57:10 (52.48 mph); 2. Harley Letner, Orange, Calif., Alpha-Chevy, 57:16; 3. Damen Jefferies, Apple Valley, Calif., Jefferies-Chevy, 58:30
Saturday; LASS 1 (Unlimited single or two-seaters, 8 laps, 50 miles)1. Adam Pfankuch, Oceanside, Calif., (Steven Eugenio, Alpine, Calif., driver of record) Jimco-Chevy, 56:12 (53.38 mph); 2. Cody Parkhouse, Long Beach, Calif., Jimco-Chevy, 57:22; 3. Brian Parkhouse, Long Beach, Calif., Jimco-Chevy, 58:00
See the full list at Score ...
McMILLIN FAMILY TRADITION DOMINATES SCORE BAJA 1000! Luke and Jessica WIN SCORE Baja 1000 & EARN SCORE Season Championships!
Andy/Scott WIN SCORE Baja 1000 4-Wheel OVERALL! Mark and Daniel 4th Trophy Truck!
San Diego, CA (November 24, 2011) For nearly four decades the familiar McMillin blue has migrated across the US/Mexican border to fulfill a passion started in the mid-1970s by family patriarch, Corky McMillin.
When you talk to any one of the McMillin family members, they all describe the deep passion racing in Mexico means to all of them. As much as it is part of off road racing history, it is also a sincere aspect of the McMillin family tradition passed down from generation to generation.
Recently, while prerunning for the 2011 SCORE Baja 1000, family members stopped in the middle of a quaint Mexican village and passed out a plethora of McMillin Racing stickers to the village children. The kids ran to the prerunner trucks from blocks away laughing and all in big hurry not to be left out. Not one single child was left without the familiar McMillin Racing logo emblazoned on a small sticker. The village elders smiled while sitting on the porch a distance away. Chatting with them about the McMillin family, they told me they remember the great McMillins for more than 30 years. Somethings just never change. The names and faces grow older, but the traditions go on.
Following in the footsteps of their father, Corky McMillin, Scott and Mark McMillin continue with their historic ritual of racing in Baja. The 2011 SCORE Baja 1000 adventure for the McMillin family of racers was no different.
Scott summed it up, Racing in Baja has been part of my life for decades and for my children, its just a way of life. Its in our blood and part of our family tradition and history. I love to see the local kids and the families from all over the Baja Peninsula smile when we pull up. Many times we are in the most remote locations when I see one of our McMillin Racing stickers and I think to myself how proud I am of our race teams and for family to continue this tradition.
See the full comments... or Here for more Pictures
Code Mexicana Logistics 300, Juan Carlos Lopez got the Over All in Trophy trucks
Juan Carlos Lopez had a good race, taking the overall at the logistics 300, at approximated 10 minutes over the always favorites, Vildosola team Father and Son Gus and Tavo Vildosola
Both teams Racing a very similar Geiser Bros trophy trucks and knowing well of the track, we can say that the balance was equalfor both sides. And there is when a flat tire or a team work in a pit sometimes makes a difference, letting you take advantage in time and ending up in the higher step on the podium, win is not a causality EN HORA BUENA to Clyde Stacy and Juan Carlos Lopez of the RPM and PIN team
In an interview with Tavo Vildosala he mention that; they run with some problems in the truck, so when we ask if they have a plan for the 1000 he mention that; they will go through the issues for that day, learn from them and fix them so they can perform with out of it in the Score Baja 1000
As we mention to him, we know that he is in the top 5, SCORE drivers, fighting for a place in the SCORE podium for the current year just behind Bryce Menzies, Rob MacCachren and Gary Weyhrich. For people that is not really following the points thats means that is nothing set until the 1000, in Ensenada, Baja, Mexico at the November 17-20, 2011 BUENA SUERTE A GUSTAVO Y A TODO EL VILDOSOLA RACING TEAM
A Story of the others
We like to mention as part of the other guys that; usually do not run in the big leagues of the off road world, we like to mention that; in the same category of the trophy truck was an other truck making line to start just few inches behind the big guys at the end of the TT line, that was the class 8 truck BAJA VOODOO sponsor team number 66 competing in class of TT by John Murillo, waiting to attack the track... and he did!, In fact he did an excellent race for being in the TT category completing the race in a 4th place just behind the Over All Juan Carlos Lopez, the Father and Son team Gus and Tavo Vildosola and Gary Magnes. Not bad for the an Old dog that has been in the off road scene for a while; always as a driver or in a pit, and this time removing rust and the dust out of the skin doing some competition to theTrophy trucks, and was more impressive that, we check on the truck after the race and it looks very complete. So we ask John what happen after the third lap, when a fight for the third place was ON, between Gary and John, and he mention that he had a flat tire 3 times, loosing very important minutes replacing the tire, but the truck works very well So looks again that; when youre fighting for a podium, doesnt matter if you fighting for a third or first place you may lose or win a race in a pit or any other little problem taking you out of the champagne festival
John Probes one more time that he is a fighter in more than one ways FELICIDADES A JHON Y A TODO EL EQUIPO Well done guys!
Rob MacCachren showed everyone this past week that when your drivers education teacher told you to keep two hands on the wheel, it actually slows you down. Coming off a broken collar bone after a rollover in his Pro 2 truck a month back at Glen Helen, MacCachren not only reached the podium last week out in Crandon, but also took the overall win in his Trophy Truck today at the SCORE San Felipe Challenge of Champions race.Also impressive is that he won this same race back in March, but nearly 5 minutes slower then his winning time of today. Tavo Vildosola led most of the race only to be slowed down by a hub issue at race mile 196, allowing Rob Mac gain the lead again.
In Class 1 Dan McMillin who teamed up with Chuck Hovey once again took the top spot in their respective class. Both drivers are coming off impressive showings at the BITD Vegas 2 Reno race where Hovey grabbed a top 5, and Dan finished in the Top 10 at his first stab at racing a Trophy Truck with his dad Mark. Coming in second place was the always fast Letner Racing who had the lead but was forced to drive the last 30 miles with no power steering slowing them down.
The real winner in San Felipe were Gatorade and water bottle companies as the heat took its toll on everyone. Contingency on Friday was a ghost town most of the day with very little vendors, and everyone rushing through to get their cars past tech to stay out of the heat. With temps reaching over 100 in town and humidity at 40% people stayed inside, in the pool, or at the bar to keep cool. On race day the usual overpopulated Zoo Road was probably only at 40% capacity.Other popular spectating spots on the course also had less spectators, leading people to wonder is the lack of spectators due to the high heat or because of the lack of entries?
- Jesse Ashcraft was in third place in Trophy Truck when rolled the truck at race mile 248. Medical help was requested for the codriver but was later canceled.
- Caspino was stuck on the dry lake bed for a while as they could be heard on Weatherman asking for help repeatedly.
- Andy McMillin sat this one out in his Trophy Truck but shared driving duties with his older sister Jessica in the protruct. Word on the street is that he is selling the Trophy Truck to get another Protruck. Not really.
- Justin Davis threw a fan belt and had power steering issues slowing him down off the start.
- CTR Trophy Truck cracked oil pan.
- Bad Apple Racing blew a motor.
- Their seemed to be more Ford Raptors in town then race entires.
courtesy of Race-Dezert.com
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Richard C. McCarty
Richard C. McCarty, 72 of Keokuk passed away on Friday, June 21, 2019, at Unity Point Health of Keokuk.
Richard was born on April 1, 1947, in Keokuk the son of Charles R. and JoAnn Rommuler McCarty. He was united in marriage to Mary Hudson on July 5, 2008, in Keokuk.
He was an avid golfer, enjoyed fishing and was loyal Iowa Hawkeye fan, Chicago Cubs fan and New York Yankees fan. He was a member of the Green Acres Golf Club of Donnellson.
Richard is survived by his wife Mary of Keokuk, his children, Michael McCarty of Muscatine, Katie Kannapolis of Alabama and Melissa Brennan of Hamilton, Illinois, three brothers, Robert McCarty and Lonnie McCarty both of Keokuk, Larry McCarty of Washington, one sister, Debbie Jinkens of Wayland, Missouri, three stepchildren, Micheal Benedict and Jeffrey Benedict both of Mt. Pleasant and Brian Benedict of Keokuk, seven step grandchildren and four step great-grandchildren, his stepmother Bernice McCarty of Keokuk and his uncle and best friend Gary McCarty of Keokuk and nieces and nephews.
Graveside Services will be held on Thursday, June 27, 2019, at 11:00 a.m. at the Hillsboro Cemetery in Hillsboro. Memorials may be directed to the family in his memory
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Fitchburg’s ‘Yeast of Eden’ exhibit a savory blend of bread and art
FITCHBURG — Flour, salt, and yeast. Together they make a staple seen around the world: bread.
At the Revolving Museum in downtown, bread has been transformed into art that celebrates its cultural significance.
The “Yeast of Eden — Bread Art Project” exhibit opened Saturday. Dough, pretzels, crackers and other bread products went into the painted figurines, crumb pictures, and silhouettes that are display at the museum.
“Every culture has bread, and food is often an art form,” said Jerry Beck, founder and director of the museum.
“The smell of bread and baking is a universal experience.
Jerry Beck talks about one of the pieces in the exhibit.
The focal point of the exhibit are seven shapes that relate to bread. One is a boot with a farmer on it, which represents the people who grow the wheat used in bread. There’s also a salt shaker, donut, coffee cup, rolling
pin and a house.
On the artwork, pretzels, crackers, matzo, croutons and stale bread are grouped together and resemble a mosaic.
The bread shapes, which are a few feet large, are glued onto plywood and sealed with several layers of urethane
to prevent molding.
More than 200 people helped make the silhouettes at Baltimore’s American Visionary Art Museum.
Jerry’s 11-year-old daughter, Georgie, added flourishes to the piece shaped like a rolling pin and dough.
Using pretzels and a salt glue mixture, she added a peace sign and 17 stick figurines to honor the victims of the
school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
About 20 years ago, Beck had a studio in Boston. There was a bakery nearby that threw out old bread, causing a
rat problem. To prevent the rodents from coming, he took the bread and began to use it for art.
“It went from a scary scenario to a breakthrough,” he said.
Bread and community involvement have been part of Beck’s work.
He collaborated with students, bakers and artists through the Crumbs Company on bread art projects, which
include a toast mural. At the Jewish Museum of Florida, students helped Beck create a house featuring breads
from around the world.
That involvement has continued in Fitchburg through the Bread Project exhibit.
Beck worked with kids from the Boys & Girls of Club of Fitchburg and Leominster to make a toast mural that was on display at the Visionary Art Museum.
Catherine Judge, an art teacher at Sizer School, attended the opening to see her students’ work on display.
They made the painted figures mounted on baking sheets hanging in the museum’s window front.
Beck introduced her to Country Pizza owner Steve Loukanaris, who donated the dough used for the figurines.
Students liked throwing and kneading it and had to think about how their art would change when the dough
rose.
“It’s a natural type of material that wants to become something,” she said.
← Rivera giving Girls Who Code the skills to succeed
Robotics team will compete for world championship →
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Californians could lose their freedom to choose their own dog
Legislation, Pets, Regulatory News
If a wrong-headed Assembly proposal passes the state Senate and is signed into law, Californians will surrender the freedom to select the pet of their choice.
Hard to believe, but you read that correctly. Under the proposal, the state would step in and prevent you from choosing a purebred puppy if you wanted to buy a pet through a retail pet store that is subject to federal animal welfare regulations and California’s consumer protection laws.
This might not have been a big deal years ago, because you could find a local breeder with relative ease. But tough local limit laws, restrictions on owning dogs that have not been spayed or neutered and even anti-breeder extremism have discouraged small, local hobby breeders. For many people, especially those who don’t have access to small, private breeders, professionally-bred pets are their only option to get a pet of their choice.
At issue is Assembly Bill 485, which would eliminate the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits sourced from professional breeders in all pet shops throughout the state. Instead, pet shops would be forced to sell only those animals obtained through shelters or so-called rescues.
The federal animal welfare act currently regulates the breeding, care, conditions and other standards of welfare for professionally-bred pets sold at pet stores. By contrast, pets that are labeled as “rescue” or “shelter” are not subject to the same requirements.
AB485 effectively takes away the most regulated, health-tested and temperament-checked sources of pets on the market and promotes pets from sources that lack this regulation and oversight. Less oversight on sourcing also potentially increases public health risks for the entire community.
The proposed law subsidizes the import and sale of pets from random and unregulated sources, while taxing sellers and buyers of pets that come from regulated, humane sources.
The measure is akin to forcing someone to buy a pre-owned car with only vague knowledge of the make and even less knowledge about its history, whether it’s reliable and suits their lifestyle.
Backers of the bill believe their activism would benefit the ever-rising population of dogs in shelters and rescues. But in actuality, they would exacerbate a growing problem.
Selling only shelter or rescue dogs creates a perverse incentive to import greater numbers of street dogs and dogs of unknown origins for U.S. retail rescues. In fact, the U.S. already has become a dumping ground for foreign “puppy mill” and rescue dogs, importing close to 1 million rescue dogs annually from Turkey, several countries in the Middle East and as far away as China and Korea, according to the National Animal Interest Alliance.
It’s a crap shoot whether these foreign street dogs Californians may be adopting are carrying serious diseases. That’s because while importation laws require all dogs to be examined by a licensed veterinarian, foreign paperwork is commonly invalid or forged, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The issue is particularly concerning because dogs from other countries are not subject to the health and welfare laws of professionally-bred U.S. dogs. A number of rescue imports have been linked to new outbreaks of serious and infectious canine diseases including rabies, bordatella and most recently, canine flu in Los Angeles County.
Even setting aside the potential health issues and the problem of making the U.S. a magnet for the world’s strays and sick animals, a rescue pet is not appropriate for everyone. Many have special needs that may not fit into the owner’s lifestyle or care abilities. People select purpose-bred dogs because they want a specific type of pet. They may be seeking the predictability of a purebred puppy from known and health/temperament-tested parents or the consumer protections provided by state law over dog breeders.
If animal activists truly want to help dogs in need, they should, first, encourage responsible local and breed-club charitable rescues, while pushing to regulate importers, distributors and retailers of “rescue” pets at the same high standard that purpose-bred pets are regulated.
Second, activists should focus on boosting oversight of rescues and shelters. Despite the increasing popularity of pets marketed as “rescues,” there is almost no regulation of animals that are labeled as rescues.
The decision to acquire an appropriate pet is a deeply personal choice. It should be made by the individual — not restricted by government fiat promoted by extremists who seek the end of responsible dog breeding.
Read the original article here.
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DOGS CAN BE A POTENTIAL RISK FOR FUTURE INFLUENZA PANDEMIC
Trump Obliterates Obama-Era Rule, Sends Clear Message to PETA
Bill to Give States Self-Management of Their Gray Wolf Population
Tags: California, dog breeders, dog importation, dog rescues, dogs, government regulation, Pets
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CBH Sports
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2010 NBA Playoffs - Chicago Bulls
Eastern Conference First Round
#1 Cleveland Cavaliers (61-21) vs. #8 Chicago Bulls (41-41)
The Chicago Bulls waited until the last night of the regular season to finally assure themselves a playoff berth. Their reward? The best team in basketball this season, the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavaliers are of course led by the best player in basketball, LeBron James.
The Bulls have dealt with injuries, General Manager John Paxson and Coach Vinny Del Negro fighting each other, the fact that Vinny Del Negro is their coach, and still made the playoffs. It helps that they play in the decidedly weak Eastern Conference but hopefully when they get the right coach in place next season they can finally make some noise.
The Bulls are led by stud PG Derrick Rose, who led the team in scoring and assists. Much to my surprise C Joakim Noah has become a force. When he was out injured the Bulls lost 10 straight, once he returned is when they were able to right the ship and sneak into the playoffs. SF Luol Deng is the Bulls only other real offensive threat besides Rose.
The Cavaliers are James and then some other pieces. Sure those pieces aren't bad but without James the Cavs would not be nearly as dangerous. He is the reason the Bulls have almost no chance of winning this series. One aspect that will be interesting to watch is how smoothly C Shaquille O'Neal is able to get back into the lineup after missing two months. The Cavs didn't really seem to miss him and almost looked better offensively without him. This isn't anything that should affect them against a .500 team like the Bulls, but against the Magic, who many expect them to face in the Conference Finals, it could be a problem. The Cavs addition of PF Antawn Jamison seems to have been a success so far, while watching PG Mo Williams and Rose square off will be fun.
The Bulls surprised many by giving the Celtics a ton of trouble in the First Round last season. However, that Bulls team was better than this one, and that Celtics team was considerably worse than this Cavs team. I think the Cavs sweep the Bulls with relative ease, and the Bulls kick Vinny Del Negro to the curb.
Prediction: Cavaliers over Bulls, 4-0
Below are my complete predictions for the First Round of the NBA Playoffs.
#1 Cleveland over #8 Chicago, 4-0
#4 Boston over #5 Miami, 4-3
#3 Atlanta over #6 Milwaukee, 4-1
#2 Orlando over #7 Charlotte, 4-1
#1 Los Angeles over #8 Oklahoma City, 4-1
#4 Denver over #5 Utah, 4-2
#3 Phoenix over #6 Portland, 4-3
#2 Dallas over #7 San Antonio, 4-2
Posted by C Hirsch at 10:17 AM 4 comments:
Labels: Chicago Bulls, NBA
2010 NBA Playoffs - Los Angeles Lakers
Western Conference First Round
#1 Los Angeles Lakers (57-25) vs. #8 Oklahoma City Thunder (50-32)
The Lakers come limping into the playoffs and get to face the upstart Thunder in the First Round. The Lakers have been a slightly above .500 basketball team since the All-Star Break and star Kobe Bryant has been dealing with a myriad of injuries. They have also been without C Andrew Bynum who got his yearly injury. It is expected Bynum will return for the series, but his effectiveness remains questionable.
The Thunder are tied with the Milwaukee Bucks as the most surprising team in the NBA this season. After an awful 23-59 season a year ago, the Thunder improved by 27 wins this season. SF Kevin Durant has become the best scorer in the league and one of the most exciting players. But he isn't the only young superstar the Thunder have. PG Russell Westbrook, F Jeff Green, G James Harden, and backup PG Eric Maynor, along with Durant are all 23 or younger. This is a team that has a tremendous upside and will be championship contenders in about a year or two.
Although they won't be matched up on each other often all eyes will be on the battle between Bryant and Durant. This series has the potential to be the most exciting series in the First Round. The Thunder will definitely be competitive with the Lakers, but the experience factor is heavily in the Lakers corner. The Lakers will miss Bynum's presence if he isn't effective, but Pau Gasol can more than make up for it against a Thunder team that has an injured Nenad Kristic as their best big man. The Thunder definitely have the edge at point guard with Westbrook being much better than Derek Fisher. However, just about every point guard is better than Fisher at this point in his career and that hasn't slowed the Lakers down before.
Lakers SF Ron Artest will have the tough task of defending Durant. While Artest won't be expected to completely stop Durant, he will have to make life difficult for him. Lakers PF Lamar Odom could have a huge series for the Lakers and has always been the X factor for them. When he plays to his capabilities the Lakers are nearly unbeatable.
The Thunder should definitely make Lakers fans nervous but they still have a ways to go before they can legitimately have a chance of knocking off the champions. I expect most of the games to be close, and the Thunder to steal a game at home, but the Lakers will march on.
Prediction: Lakers over Thunder, 4-1
Posted by C Hirsch at 10:27 AM No comments:
Labels: Los Angeles Lakers, NBA
NCAA Championship Game - Indianapolis, Indiana
#5 Butler (33-4) vs. #1 Duke (34-5)
It is the championship game no one expected, the Butler Bulldogs, just 6 miles from their campus, taking on the mighty Duke Blue Devils.
Butler got by Michigan State 52-50 on Saturday, to earn their first trip to an NCAA Championship game. Somehow they won despite having one of their best players, Shelvin Mack on the bench for most of the second half, and also while shooting just 30%. It was an ugly game and an ugly win, but none of that matters now.
On the other side was Duke, which completely manhandled West Virginia 78-57. Duke's big three of Jon Scheyer, Kyle Singler, and Nolan Smith combined for 63 of the Blue Devils 78 points. Duke shot lights out and completely decimated what had been a fantastic West Virginia defense.
Butler might be without F Matt Howard on Monday after he suffered a mild concussion in the game on Saturday. That would make what is already a tall task even harder. However, one area the Bulldogs can match up with Duke, where most teams can't, is there guard play. Gordon Hayward and Mack will need to play well and go toe to toe with Scheyer and Smith. Butler F Willie Veasley will have to play tough defense and try to frustrate Singler.
As soon as Duke got done crushing West Virginia on Saturday night, my first thoughts were that there was no way they were going to beat Butler by less than 10. They have the size advantage, they are far better offensively, and Butler just got done somehow winning a game where they went without a basket for ten minutes. Then I started watching the Final Four post-game segments and everyone was picking Duke. One thing I have learned in my 20+ years of watching sports is that when the media is all on one side, the opposite has a tendency of happening. No one is giving Butler a chance in this game, but remember, no one gave Butler a chance against Syracuse, Kansas State, or Michigan State. I could be boring and pick Duke to win like everyone else, or I could be a renegade and call Butler to pull off the upset. I have no real logical reason for taking the Bulldogs, but I have been wrong before, who cares if I am wrong again?
Prediction: Butler 60, Duke 58
Posted by C Hirsch at 12:29 PM 1 comment:
Labels: College Basketball
The 2010 Final Four - Indianapolis, Indiana
For the second straight season the Final Four will feature
a true home team. The Butler Bulldogs will be playing just five minutes from their campus on Saturday. The only reason it is even remotely surprising that Butler has made it this far is because they are in the Horizon League. They have been a Top 20 team for virtually the entire season and have won 24 straight games. Michigan State is back in the Final Four for the sixth time in twelve seasons. West Virginia has reached the Final Four for the first time since 1959, and the Duke Blue Devils (booooooooooooooooooooo) are back after a six year drought.
#5 Michigan State (28-8) vs. #5 Butler (32-4)
Some will argue that the Spartans got a lucky road to the Final Four, but you can't argue with their success. Every game has been a nail-biter for the Spartans, starting in the First Round against New Mexico State, followed by the buzzer beater against Maryland in the Second Round. Against Northern Iowa in the Sweet 16, Michigan State came from behind to win, and then squeaked by Tennessee in the Elite 8.
Butler started off the tournament by whipping UTEP, and then coming from behind late to beat Murray State in the Second Round. No one gave them a chance in the Sweet 16 against Syracuse, but the Bulldogs dominated the game. They also dominated Kansas State for most of their Elite 8 game, and now find themselves in their first Final Four ever.
The Spartans have been battling injuries throughout the tournament, including missing leading scorer G Kalin Lucas. However, in his place G Durrell Summers came up huge against Northern Iowa and Tennessee, averaging 20 points per game. F Raymar Morgan needs to step his game up a bit as he has been wildly inconsistent, although that has pretty much always been the story with him. The Spartans biggest strength is that you never know who might step up and play big for them. Forward Draymond Green is capable of coming off the bench and providing a spark, as is guard Chris Allen.
G-F Gordon Hayward and G Shelvin Mack are the Bulldogs biggest threats. Hayward is a legitimate NBA prospect, while Mack has played fantastic in the tournament, scoring points, grabbing rebounds and dishing out assists. F Willie Veasley had a quiet game against Kansas State, and will be needed to pick up his scoring against the Spartans.
This game should be a great defensive battle. The Bulldogs haven't allowed more than 59 points in any tournament game. If that happens again Saturday their miracle run will continue. With that being said, I am finally learning that it is not wise to pick against Tom Izzo in March. Somehow, someway his teams find ways to win. There is no doubt he will have them prepared, and also ready to take on what will essentially be a road game. I think the Bulldogs might be a little distracted by the big atmosphere, and the pressure that will come with playing at home. The Spartans will be in the Championship game for a second straight year.
Prediction: Michigan State 65, Butler 58
#2 West Virginia (31-6) vs. #1 Duke (33-5)
Duke seemed destined to make the Final Four when the brackets were released a few weeks ago and sure enough they did. They crushed Arkansas Pine-Bluff in the First Round, and had little trouble with California in the Second Round. Purdue hung around for a bit in the Sweet 16 but then Duke cruised. Duke's toughest game came against Baylor in the Elite 8. Baylor's athleticism was almost too much for Duke to handle and definitely would have been last season. However, Duke got big rebounds when needed, played suffocating defense and squeaked out a win.
West Virginia's tournament run started inauspiciously, falling behind Morgan State 10-0 in their First Round game. However, since then the Mountaineers have been close to dominate. They came back to crush Morgan State, then controlled their Second Round game against Missouri. Washington gave them some trouble in the Sweet 16 but the Mountaineers still ended up winning by 13. Then in the Elite 8 the Mountaineers took down big, bad Kentucky by a final of 73-66, although the score makes the game seem much closer than it really was.
The Blue Devils success this year is pretty easy to understand. They are a great offensive team, with their three headed monster of Jon Scheyer, Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler. Plus, they are one of the best defensive teams in the country. Size had been the biggest problem for Duke over the last few years but now they can match up with anyone because of C Brian Zoubek's improved play, and the emergence of Miles and Mason Plumlee. Singler had an awful game against Baylor, shooting 0-10. A year ago Duke wouldn't have been able to overcome that, but now they have the number of weapons necessary to be a championship team.
The Mountaineers are led by forwards Da'Sean Butler, Devin Ebanks, and Kevin Jones. As I suspected the Mountaineers haven't missed G Darryl Bryant yet, because Joe Mazzulla has been able to step in and fill his shoes. I don't think the Mountaineers can count on another 17-point effort from Mazzulla, but they don't even really need that. As long as he provides a steadying presence, and dishes the ball to the forwards, those guys can handle the scoring load.
These teams met two years ago in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament. Some of the players are the same, and it was a game that West Virginia took control of late. I am biased as hell against Duke but I think the Mountaineers are legit. I worry about their guards hanging with Scheyer and Smith but I just can't pick Duke to win.
Prediction: West Virginia 71, Duke 68
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Chris Hirsch
That's me!
C Hirsch
32 year old graduate of George Mason University (Final Four 06). Graduated with a Communication degree, concentration in Journalism. I am a huge sports fan with the NFL being my first love. My blog focuses on the NFL, College Football, College Basketball, and the NBA. I can be reached at christopher.hirsch@gmail.com
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TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's Frost Nixon
Name: TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's Frost Nixon
Time: 12:00 AM - 11:59 PM PST
Website: https://www.mountainview.gov/depts/cs/mvcpa/subsite/events/theatreworks_silicon_valleys_frost_nixon.asp
Presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley
A Thrilling Political Showdown
Nominated for 3 Tony Awards, including Best Play
By Peter Morgan
Directed by Leslie Martinson
Previews January 16 - 18 at 8 pm
Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 7:30 pm
Thursdays and Fridays at 8 pm
Saturdays at 2 and/or 8 pm
Sundays at 2 and/or 7 pm
Richard Nixon has resigned. David Frost has been canceled. With America caught in the riptides of Watergate and Vietnam, the former leader of the free world and the lightweight British talk-show host clash in a legendary series of TV interviews that will determine the President’s legacy forever. In a riveting political prizefight unseen again until today, the cameras roll, the truth spins, and it becomes clear that he who controls the medium controls the message.
MainStage | January 16 - February 10
Adult ticket prices range from $45-$105 depending on date and time of performance
Discounts available for seniors, students, educators and children
TheatreWorks' ticket prices are subject to change and include a $3 Facility Use Fee
Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts
500 CASTRO STREET, MOUNTAIN VIEW, 94041
For tickets and info please call 650-463-1960
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See It First: Alyssa Breck, Robin Lyons, and Ayman Hassan
We love introducing Prolific Works readers to great stories and big ideas. Take a chance on new authors and try great stories from old favorites. See it first every day with Prolific Works and be free to discover authors you’ll love. We’re thrilled to share the latest and greatest from our mystery, thriller, and crime genres!
Preview When the Shadows Come by Alyssa Breck
What if the person you hated most was murdered and their ghost came to you asking for help to solve the crime?
Carolina Sinclair is surrounded by shadows that crawl up walls and dead people looking for the door to the other side. When her childhood nemesis, Mallory Kramer, is murdered, the deceased former troublemaker shows up on Carolina’s doorstep asking for help. Carolina’s instinct is to turn Mallory away, but there’s a problem. Mallory’s killer isn’t finished, and if Carolina doesn’t help her, he’ll likely kill again.
State Police Detective Nathan Claiborne gets pulled into a missing person investigation in the small town of Romance, Arkansas. When Carolina walks into the police station with a suspicious-sounding tip credited to a ghost, she quickly becomes the prime suspect. But what if Carolina’s right? With no other leads, Nathan finds himself relying on her clues in a case that could easily go cold.
Carolina’s involvement in the case draws the killer’s attention. In fact, he’s zeroed in on her now, and it’s all going well until … the shadows come.
MAC by Robin Lyons
This fast-paced story steps back in time to reveal the agonizingly troubled youth of Mac MacKenna before he joined the U.S. Air Force Special Operations.
Set in Northern California in the spring of 1990, Mac is a teen on the verge of manhood. But he’s not your typical teenager. He doesn’t have a girlfriend. He isn’t going to parties. And he no longer participates in sports.
He desperately wants to move away from his parents. As his 18th birthday and high school graduation approaches there’s a shocking death in the family—is it murder?
Mac knows something’s not right; he can feel it in his bones. He’s desperate to uncover and expose the truth although he’s fearful, he might kill his father if his father doesn’t kill him first.
Espionage Thriller
Exclusive Legacy of Spies by Ayman Hassan
The first series elaborate the intelligence conflict between Egypt and Israel since the start of the state of Israel in 1948. It discusses all the famous espionage stories, the known and the unknown, from the view of both countries. A spy in the palace book tells the story of ” Ali Al-Atafi” who worked for Mossad in Egypt.
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May 28, 2019 larye
Day 22: Our last day in the Ontario Lake Country. We drive to Couchiching Park in Orillia to ride the Millennium Trail along the lakefront. The crowds are gathering on this holiday weekend, but we find a parking spot close to the trail and set off toward the Narrows between Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching. We picked this trail to ride because it is paved, and relatively flat.
Midge attack–the price of open-cockpit wind-in-the-face experience. [Photo by Judy]
Away from the waterfront parks, the foot traffic thins out, but, as we take the loop through Tudhope Park, we run into mating swarms of midges, the No-See-UM flies that appear in lake regions this time of year. We plow through the clouds of flies, so thick that they sound like popcorn hitting my jacket front at 15-20 km/hr. They are in my beard, in my eyes. My left eye is nearly blinded. We stop, but the flies are everywhere around us, so we continue on, away from the park, where we stop and de-midge, teasing the mangled fly bodies from my eyelashes, eyes, and beard.
A short distance away, the rail trail ends where the old railway swing bridge stands permanently open to let boat traffic pass between the lakes. The current is strong here. We watch boats cautiously thread their way through the narrow passage. On the other side of the narrows is the site of the wooden fish weirs that the local indigenous people used to catch fish for over 3000 years. We choose not to cross the busy Highway 12 bridge to check out the site, and turn back, this time avoiding the side trail through the midge swarms, though there are single midges everywhere.
We ride back through the park and onto the old railroad grade that climbs up the west shore of Lake Couchiching. At the end of the paved trail, we chat for a while with a resident of the housing development there, a woman about our age, out walking her dog. Traveling by bicycle makes it easier to connect with the local population, and we take advantage when we can. Soon, we head back down the trail to our truck.
Last week, we thought it fortunate that towns the size of Orillia (25000) have eateries that cater to vegetarian choices, having stopped at the Pita Pit, a chain ubiquitous in Canada and making some inroads in the northern U.S. Today, we find, only a block away from the Pita Pit, Shine, a local vegan restaurant. The food is exceptionally good, but, of course, about twice as much as the chain sandwich shop.
Day 23: We arise early and load out, having packed the evening before, to continue our travels. Our destination today is Bath, a small community on the north shore of Lake Ontario, between Toronto and Ottawa. On the way out, we loop around the north end of Lake Couchiching, stopping at a newly-opened Starbucks next to Weber’s Restaurant, a local west shore favorite. We had searched in vain for espresso in Orillia proper, making do with Tim Horton’s and the drip coffee at the condo.
We head east across Ontario, through farmland and lakes that look a lot like Northern Minnesota, stopping for lunch at the larger city of Peterborough. On this holiday Sunday, few shops are open, and the streets are nearly deserted. We find a Pita Pit in downtown Peterborough, then a Starbucks out on the edge of town. We stop at a Costco, intending to top off the fuel, but forget that Costco Canada only takes MasterCard, while Costco U.S. only takes Visa. So, a futile stop as our Visa-only wallet is rejected at the pump. We have plenty of fuel for the day, so continue on. The grocery in Bath is open, so we pick up a few supplies and check in to our AirB&B. Pat is a friendly host, and we have a full living area, bedroom, and bath to ourselves in the basement of their small and neatly appointed cottage.
Day 24: Intending to ride today, we dress in our bicycling clothing. Pat feeds us a breakfast of strawberry crepes, and we say our good-byes and drive a short distance to the city park, where we unload the bicycle. Bath is on the Great Lakes Shore Trail, but it’s an on-road trail, with bicycle icons painted on the narrow shoulder along Highway 33, the Loyalist Parkway. The area was settled after the American Revolution by colonists loyal to the British Crown, hence the name. We ride off into a stiff 20-km/hr headwind, hard pedaling, but the combined speed keeps the mosquitoes away. Unlike the midges, the mosquitoes do bite. We ride along the shore, past a grain terminal and a huge power plant complex that supplies most of eastern Ontario, turning around 11 km down the road at St. Paul’s Church in Sandhurst, which is merely a place name: there is no town.
The Escape of the Royal George, Lake Ontario 1812.
On the way back, the now tailwind makes riding easier, but the mosquitoes can fly 15 km/hr relative to the wind, so at anything less than 35 km/hr, they collect on our backs, hitching a ride. We stop once to check out a historical sign–the passage between Amherst Island and the Loyalist shore was the scene of an exciting cat-and-mouse chase between a British warship, the Royal George, and the American fleet in the War of 1812 (the Royal George escaped to Kingston Harbour, to the east). The hitchhiking mosquito swarm immediately seeks any unprotected skin, so we shoot a photo of the marker to read later and continue on.
We fuel up at the next town west, then join the press of holiday freeway traffic headed back to the city for a short way, turning off at Belleville to take the shore bike route at a more leisurely pace, enjoying the small towns along the route. We had intended to ride this on our bicycle, back in 2016, but had changed our plans before making it up the coast. This section has light traffic, but no shoulders, so we are glad we hadn’t followed through. Bringing the bike in the van makes it easy for us to ride where conditions are better and skip over the dicey parts.
Too soon, we are back on the freeway, trading a reliable 80-km/hr speed with 50-km/hr scenic strolls through the picturesque towns for the zero-to-100 and stop of the bumper-to-bumper holiday crush. It seems it may take us until after dark to reach the city, but after passing a major collision site (thankfully, on the eastbound lanes), the traffic resumes at a steady 90-105, and the GPS keeps us up to date on upcoming lane changes. Toronto holiday traffic seems a lot like everyday Los Angeles traffic, with the expressway and collector spanning 10-12 lanes across. Toronto is a sprawling city of 2.7 million, all of whom seemed to have gone somewhere else for the Victoria Day holiday and are all coming home at the same time.
Our hotel is in the heart of the city, across the street from the Allan Gardens and Conservatory, which we intend to visit. Our van is too tall to fit in the hotel garage, but we’re allowed to leave it in the check-in lane, and the $35 parking fee is good for all day, so we will have time to explore the city core on foot before moving on.
Cora restaurant, a Canadian chain specializing in fancy fruit breakfast presentations.
Day 25 promises to be sunny and warm. We walk to a nearby Cora restaurant, famous for their carved fruit breakfasts, and are not disappointed. The presentation looks almost too good to eat. We check out of the hotel, leaving our truck, and walk across the street to the Allan Gardens and Conservatory, enjoying the riot of color that comes with the spring displays. We’ve visited a number of botanical conservatories over the years: St. Paul, San Diego, Madison, and Victoria, to name a few. Toronto’s is one of the best and most extensive.
Flatiron Building, Front Street, Toronto, ON, Canada
We continue our walk toward Old Town, on the aptly named Church Street, to Front Street, to ogle the Flatiron Building, a skinny brick wedge at a narrow fork in the streets where Front Street meets the grid. Then, on to the St. Lawrence Market, a block-long two-story market place filled with butchers and bakers as well as fresh fruits and vegetables, and lots of ethnic eateries. We sample pastries from a Polish-Russian bakery whose founder was pastry chef to Czar Nicolas, and lunch on vegetarian cabbage rolls from a Ukrainian deli.
Canada is the true melting pot of North America: accents from the old country are thick, and difficult to understand in cacophony of the huge labyrinthine market, forcing us to play the “I’m old and hard of hearing” card to get information repeated. On the street, we walk alongside other pedestrians conversing in Arabic. Families come in all combinations of shades and manner of dress. Toronto streets are crisscrossed with trolley rails, on which zoom light-rail transit trains half a block long, and around which hordes of bicyclists navigate without crashing on the rails, darting in and about the cars and buses.
Reluctantly, we head the truck back down the streets we just walked, and onto the freeway, headed for Niagara Falls. The Toronto Metro area sprawls along the west end of Lake Ontario, home to nearly 6 million people. A new cluster of high-rise buildings appears at every twist of the freeway, until we reach St. Catherine’s. Past the Skyway over the canal that carries shipping traffic around the Falls, we pull off at a shopping center to rest a bit before navigating our way into the tourist town of Niagara Falls, Ontario, where we settle in, resting up from our Toronto exploration and planning our activities for the morning.
Pano shot to get both falls in frame without ascending the Skylon Tower.
Day 26: Niagara Falls is, of course, the ultimate tourist trap. Our “inexpensive” hotel brings sticker shock, with taxes, tourist fees, and parking nearly doubling the advertised room rate. We walk to the nearby IHOP, a chain that has sewn up the restaurant contracts with most of the hotels downtown. It is still under construction, so we head for another one we can see on the other side of our hotel… We have a coupon for $15 off, which, of course, is limited to full breakfast items, all of which are inflated, so our breakfast costs a bit less than $40 with the coupon, for basic 2-egg/hashbrowns/toast and cream cheese crepes, which would be $20 USD at home ($28 CDN).
We walk down to the riverside drive for a view of the falls, which is spectacular from this vantage point. We choose not to indulge in the Skylon Tower view, walk back to the truck, and head along the coast of Lake Huron toward London, our next stop. It’s a relaxing day. We drive the tunnel under the ship canal to get coffee at Tim Horton’s, then back under and to the lake shore to cross on a lift bridge next to the first set of locks, then along all the lakefront cottages as far as we can.
We lunch at an old-fashioned coffee shop in Port Dover, where prices are still single-digit for a decent lunch. Of course, the veggie wrap is a salad in a wrap, no protein, as is the case with 20th-century ideas about vegetarians as folks who only eat salads. We pick up a couple of sinfully calorific bars at the nearby bakery and continue on.
Our destination in London is a conference center resort, the Ivey Spencer Leadership Centre, which we have reserved on our chain affiliation loyalty points, so we get the executive suite: the price is the same as for a regular room, $0. The dining room takes non-conference diners as well, but we elect to munch from our stash, having used up our dining-out budget. The WiFi at the Leadership Centre is awesomely fast, so Judy does her banking and I catch up on some video editing.
Port Huron, Michigan [Photo by Judy]
Day 27 starts with a bolt of lightning, a crash of thunder, and a wind-swept downpour as we sit down for breakfast. But, by the time we finish our Internet duties and pack out, the rain has subsided to a few scattered squalls. The wind is strong and gusty, buffeting us all the way across the border and through Michigan to Kalamazoo for the night. Fuel prices are high, so we just add enough to get into Indiana. As usual when we are traveling cross-country, we pick a budget motel in advance, having to exchange rooms after arrival to get one that is remotely tolerable. Dinner is a walk down the street to Target for a few food items to supplement our dwindling stash. The WiFi at the budget motel is slow and spotty. Although our phones woke up again once we crossed the border, the cellular data at the motel isn’t any better than the WiFi. So it goes, when we’re in a multi-day run to the next destination, which will be to visit our son and grandchildren in Madison for the U.S. holiday weekend.
Day 28 promises heavy weather for our run through Chicago to Madison. We arise early and catch breakfast at a nearby Starbucks, glad to be done with the filthy motel. We vow to be more careful in the future. We are outfitted for camping, and it is the season. Even if a campsite is as much or more than the cheap motels, at least we know our van is clean and free of pet smells, drugs, and other unidentifiable odors, and WiFi, if available is no worse.
We watch the fuel gauge and price signs along the freeway, stopping just into Indiana at a station that is 15 cents lower per gallon. I-94 merges with I-90 and becomes a tollway. It costs us $6.80 to get out of Indiana on a one-lane tollway that is undergoing massive repairs. Illinois collects another $1.50 before dumping us onto the Ryan Expressway, which, at this hour in the morning, is a parking lot.
Chicago “rush hour” on the Dan Ryan. [Photo by Judy]
After an interminable time spent at less than bicycle speed through the outskirts of Chicago, we finally come up to normal traffic speed, except for the frequent stops to throw another $1.50 out the window to get to use the next 10 km of tollway. We are running out of US cash and coinage, so we escape from the tollway system onto the blue highways, a much more pleasant tour through picturesque small towns.
As we cross the border into Wisconsin, another wave of thunderstorms assails us, a deluge that makes it difficult to see ahead. We press on, since the storm is against us and we will be out of it sooner by continuing forward. As the rain subsides, we see a distraught young woman, phone in hand, standing by her car, which is angled off the shoulder, the right front side partly submerged in the water-filled ditch. Hydroplaning is a real danger when driving in heavy rain. We have all-weather truck tires, and slowed during the deluge, enough to prevent hydroplaning, but fast enough to not be overtaken in poor visibility.
Vanilla Caramel Latte at the Firefly Coffeehouse, Oregon, Wisconsin [Photo by Judy]
The rain passes as we continue northwest on the old highways, which take us through the town of Oregon, where we stop at the Firefly Coffeehouse, a favorite when in this area visiting relatives. Our son has moved closer to the city, but our grandchildren all went to school in Oregon, so we are familiar with the town. Despite the bad weather and traffic congestion, we arrive west of Madison early, so we stop at a Ford dealer’s service shop we have used before, for a long-overdue oil change on our van.
Finally, we check in, at a decent motel we have stayed at before. This time, our loyalty card gets us a multi-night discount, so we save our points for better-quality lodging on the road ahead. The particular chain we have used for a quarter-century used to be reliably clean and well-appointed budget lodging, but we have had so many disappointing encounters in the last couple of years that we have decided to avoid them in the future unless we’ve been there before and know the condition beforehand.
Our son, who does organ transplant retrieval for the UM Madison Hospitals, has—as we have come to expect—been called out on a case, but is expected home early evening. We had picked up a sandwich at the coffee shop, so a late evening dinner out is fine. The evening is all too short, despite having gained an hour in the time zone change. We retire to our hotel just before the rain is predicted to resume.
Road Trip 2019, Part 1, Chapter 3: on to Canada
May 18, 2019 larye 2 Comments
Pretty River, Collingwood, Ontario
Day 15: time to move on. We have the room for another day, but it’s an 18-hour drive to our next destination, so we check out and head toward Jackson, my old home town, for coffee. The coffee shop on Main is supposed to open at 7:00, but it’s 7:20 and there are no lights on inside, so we continue to the Interstate and point the truck east.
This part of the country was buried under the Des Moines Lobe of the expanded polar ice cap during the last Ice Age, flattened so the curve of the earth is distorted, making the eastern horizon farther away than it should be. The rich farmland, the result of millennia of grassland transforming the glacial till into rich compost loam 2-3 meters thick, is like a sponge, holding the melt water until it saturates and the spring rain sits in the dips and hollows. Everywhere, water stands in fields where corn and soybeans will be planted when the earth reappears. The ditches beside the highway run in streams, showing which way the land slopes against the illusion of a flat earth.
Fairmont is the next town of any size. We stop at the Hy-Vee supermarket’s Caribou Coffee kiosk. I notice the Sentinel on the newsstand next to the checkout. I delivered that newspaper the year I was 12, after school and through the summer. My route was the southeast quadrant of our little town, from the State Street Bridge east and south, my first job. I saved my earnings from that year, which kept me in paperback sci-fi short-story anthologies and cherry cokes from the soda fountain for the next year or two, after which my next job was summer field work for the seed corn company as a gender assignment technician, a fancy 21st-century term for pulling the tassels, the male part of the corn which contains the developing pollen, from the stalks destined to produce the hybird seed. This was a common job in the 1950s and 1960s for teens in farm country. We rode six across in baskets on the back of a high-frame tractor that pulled us through the corn. Having gotten my full height at 14, I often got assigned to run behind the machine, catching the tassels missed by the others. It was a brutal job, that paid $0.50 per hour, with a $0.10 bonus if you survived the 3-week season. When we got old enough to drive, my buddy Ray and I baled hay, mowed lawns, dug stumps, changed storm windows, whatever, to fund our simple needs in an age before computers and video games, and chip in a quarter’s worth of fuel to “drag” main street on Saturday nights looking for girls. We never found any: they were too smart to hang out to be picked up by silly boys.
But, in this cold spring in another century, the corn fields lay empty, covered with stubble from the fall harvest, and the seed plant is gone, teen labor having been replaced by much more efficient robots. Calculating our fuel burn and speculating on the variation in prices, we stop a bit farther down the road and fill up, before descending into the Mississippi River Valley, through the cliffs, leaving the plains behind. We stop for lunch on the Wisconsin side, on the banks of the Great River, swollen with the spring runoff and heavy rains. There, we leave the Interstate system, crossing Wisconsin through the cranberry bogs and timber country. We’ve come this way before, in our journeys, but at different times of the year, so it is all new, the trees are just starting to leaf out.
Mississippi River, La Crosse, Wisconsin
We pass Oshkosh, home of the Experimental Aircraft Association, of which I have been a member for 40 years, in the faded dream of someday building my own personal aircraft, the partially finished wings of which gather dust in our cramped garage, while we do our “cranking and banking” on the bicycle. We turn north toward Michigan.
Soon, we are in somewhat familiar territory, recognizing places we passed on our bicycle tour around the north end of Lake Michigan, six years before. We refuel again just across the Michigan border, near where we had lunch on our bicycle trip and where a local bicyclist we had met on the road tracked us down to give us a bag of home-grown fruit. In an hour and a half, we pass through memories of three days on the bicycle, noting where we had our tire blowout, the giant flamingo figures marking a driveway, where we stopped overnight, the bar where we spent an afternoon catching up on our blog and email through the only WiFi available.
Day 16 starts in Escanaba, the gateway to the Upper Peninsula, with frost on the windscreen. We drive back south 3 km to a newly-opened Starbucks, past the grocery we stopped at six years ago, now empty, victim of the new mega-Walmart in the next block. Headed back north again, we retrace our bicycle tour in reverse along US 2, always amazed: we look at each other and say, “We rode how far that day?” We pass the tiny 7-room motel outside which I replaced a broken spoke in the morning fog, and stop for water and other supplies at a grocery where we had lunch on our longest tour day. Soon, we leave US 2 and head north on state highways to Sault-Ste-Marie, where we top off the tank with $2.80 USD/gallon fuel before crossing into Canada on the spectacular international toll bridge, under which the Great Lakes shipping travel flows.
It’s early morning on Mother’s Day; there’s only one car ahead of us at the Canadian customs checkpoint. Getting into Canada is as routine as paying the toll at the U.S. side of the bridge, and we soon wind our way through Sault-Ste-Marie, Ontario and out onto highway 17. Like most of rural Canada, the next few hundred kilometers are sparsely populated. We pass through a few tiny communities, then turn off at the lakeside town of Thessalon for a quick lunch at the beach on Lake Huron, supplemented with fare from the local grocery.
The terrain changes near Sudbury, rugged and rocky, with deep wooded canyons hiding rivers and lakes. The highway skirts the city, so we only see glimpses of outlying housing. The highway turns to intermittent 4-lane, with impressive construction going on to complete the divided highway transformation, cutting through massive rock formations. Again, we calculate the fuel burn, deciding to get fuel at one of the First Nations stops, where the price is under $1.30 CDN/liter ($3.63 USD/gallon, with currency exchange rate).
Near our destination, the GPS directs us down dead-end country lanes. We criss-cross the side of the mountain several times before finally it finds a route where the roads actually go through, taking us the back way through what was a golf community, but the would-be links lay rough and fallow, testimony to the glut of golf courses developed in the ’90s and ’00s for retirees like my cousin Jack in Iowa, who want to live in a pastoral setting but don’t have the time or inclination to play golf. The resort is full, and expanding, as is the neighborhood of houses whose occupants bought for the green space and proximity to winter skiing and summer mountain biking, or to golf on nearby links that have survived the boom and bust. It’s cold, and the rain starts as we check in. But, a check of the weather shows it might be good bicycling weather later in the week, so we settle in, after an exhausting two days drive, covering nearly 1800 km (1100 miles).
Day 17 is cold and pouring rain, all day. We follow the GPS on more back roads, eventually ending up on the freeway at the outskirts of Barrie, a booming city of 136,000 sprawling on the south shore of Lake Simcoe, where we hope to ride our bicycle when the weather clears. A trip to MEC, Mountain Equipment Cooperative, the Canadian counterpart to REI in the States, for maps yields not only the maps we were looking for, but some bicycle clothing for me, on clearance. I have to admit that everything wears out eventually, despite the fact I still wear jerseys I have had for nearly 40 years, though they don’t fit well anymore and have some chain tracks and holes. Sometimes I think I spend more for bicycle-specific clothing than I do for everyday clothing: much of the latter I now find at thrift shops for a few cents on the dollar of what they cost new.
One of the reasons we like to visit Canada is for the diversity. A city the size of Barrie is big enough to sustain vegetarian specialties, and a Google search pays off. We find Copper Branch, a chain of vegan fast food restaurants. We order the power bowls, not noticing there are two sizes, so we get the large, plus hot tea, since we also failed to notice they advertised espresso at the far right of the menu board. We mostly eat out of groceries while traveling, especially in the U.S., where meat finds its way into every menu item, and because restaurants have become increasingly unaffordable on our fixed income. However, one must seek out new experiences when on vacation. Even though the bill comes to $50 CDN for lunch, it is less than the cost of half a tank of fuel, and we’ve filled the tank many times to get here, so we chow down with gusto. Judy calls for a to-go box, so dinner is free, for her, and I’m good for a light snack later.
Day 18: Although the forecast called for rain, it sputters into an intermittent mist that dissipates as the temperature rises above 10 C at last, when 20 is closer to normal this time of year. We head into Orillia, a small city of 36,000, to check out the paved bike trails. The maps we got cover mostly gravel trails: the ones we’ve seen from the road are soft and muddy with the spring rains. The map we didn’t get would have shown us a paved rail trail farther west, along Victoria Bay on Lake Huron. We plan on that for tomorrow. Meanwhile, we do a little shopping, look over the paved bike trail, which is thick with mosquitoes, even this early and cold, and surrounded by mine fields of goose droppings. We may ride anyway, later in the week.
Orillia is not quite as cosmopolitan as Barrie, but the Pita Pit is a reliable source of vegetarian fare. There is no Starbucks here, and we don’t hunt for espresso, so we succumb to that Canadian staple coffee and donut shop, Tim Horton’s. Not bad for brewed coffee, actually, and the biscuits are less fattening than Starbucks scones. Our last stop is for a new portable hard drive, on sale at Staples. We’ve run our new dashcam, and accumulating close to 100 GB on a long day on the road. We’ve simply run out of space, and compressing a day’s footage to 60 GB by converting to MP4 format takes two days, so it’s a losing battle. The GST nearly wipes out the exchange rate, but it’s still less after tax than the list price, on sale. It’s a wabi-sabi thing, like the initially overpriced microSD cards we’ve bought at liquidation prices at Shopko stores across the country, which end up at a cost we can accept, in obsolete sizes that fit our low-end dashcam, also on sale. We now have enough of those for a full day’s camera run and have enough storage to offload them without format conversion. Probably 90% of the footage will end up on the cutting room floor, but for now, we have the freedom to collect our travels, but not the time to edit out the boring parts (and the part where we were fiddling with the navigation and ran a red light—it just changed, so no cross traffic, but still, that sort of thing can get you deported and banned.
The mini-fridge in our unit freezes everything until we figure out the settings, but, wabi-sabi, we’re limiting our expenses by eating out of the grocery, most meals, and put up with it. So it goes: we’re still adventuring, but we’re old and slow, and can only keep up the pace a few hours a day. Having gotten the CPU loading problem solved and with WiFi in our room, we can focus on blogging and editing bicycle video footage.
Day 19: Bike Ride Day! After looking over the bike trail maps, we are reluctant to ride on the gravel trails, since it has been so wet this month. The Tay Shore Trail, from Waubaushene to Midland, is paved, so we head up highway 12, park at a sports field next to a fire station, check out the Esso convenience store across the street, and head down 600 meters of gravel to the paved trail. It’s cold, with a headwind, but the trail is well-maintained and relatively level. The motor-vehicle traps at the intersections are tricky to negotiate with the long and wide tandem, since they can’t be negotiated straight-on, but soon become routine.
Victoria Harbour, Ontario, riding in the rain on the Trans-Canada Trail.
As we approach Midland, the black clouds that have grown darker the last hour let loose. We shelter in a tented picnic area at Sainte Marie of the Hurons, a historic fort recreation, and take a short snack and water break. The rain seems here to stay, so we continue west past the official end of the trail at Sainte Marie Park, and part way around Midland Bay before retracing our route, in sometimes heavy rain, back to the east end of the paved trail, stopping at Foodland in Victoria Harbor for more bike fuel, and at Waubaushene Beach for photo ops. At 39 km, it’s our longest tandem ride this year, and our first ride in rain in a long time.
Day 20 promises to be variable weather and also a bit cold, so we declare a van-exploring day to check out other bicycling possibilities. We drive west to highway 26 and north to Collingwood, Meaford, and Owen Sound. The rail trails along highway 26 are gravel: Owen Sound is interesting, at the head of the eponymous body of water. Besides being scenic, it is the home town of Billy Bishop, Canada’s great World War I air ace, with 72 victories claimed. He was RCAF Air Marshal during World War II. The airports in Owen Sound and Toronto are named after him.
Kelso Park, Owen Sound, Ontario
On the way back, we find a “Discount Thursday” deal at a petrol station in Thornbury, taking on 100 liters at $1.199, the lowest price we’ve seen in Canada in years, while the average price this week is $1.272. The rain returned as we arrived back at our condo.
Day 21: after raining most of the night, the day dawns foggy and cloudy, but promises to be hospitable for outdoor activity by noon. In late morning, we suit up for cycling and, after consulting the array of bike route maps we’ve collected, head for Wasaga Beach. Scoping out the loop route around the dunes, we’re glad we chose the more residential route along the beach: the loop route goes through town, where there is much road construction on the busy highway. Wasaga Beach is famous for its long stretches of sandy beaches. Like the sandy beaches on the Pacific Coast in Washington and Oregon, and the east side of Lake Michigan, the beaches front a series of sand dunes extended up to two kilometers inland and a 100 meters high or more, covered with oak and scrub.
After an interminable stop-and-go creep through the construction and crossing the river that parallels the beach, we find the YMCA parking lot, break out the bicycle, and head westward along the beach road toward Collingwood. At the one beach access among the cottages, we stop and watch kite surfers in the cold wind. It’s the Friday before a three-day weekend (Victoria Day is Monday), so traffic along the beach cottage access is heavy, with lots of stop signs. We don’t much like road riding anymore, but it’s preferable to soft gravel.
Sunset Point, Collingwood, Ontario
The beach road soon dumps us out on a major arterial, but the shoulder is adequate. A few kilometers into the city limits of Collingwood, the route finally veers off to residential streets, a narrow foot bridge across the Batteaux River, and a few more kilometers before putting us on the sidewalk on the busy Hwy 26 freeway. Our erstwhile stoker almost declares a No-Fun Day, but I insist that the inconvenience and headwinds will be worth it. We dismount and cross with the pedestrian lights, bumping along on the narrow concrete sidewalks until we cross the Pretty River and turn off toward Sunset Point Park. We exit the park on a narrow gravel trail almost inundated by the high water and wind-whipped waves, which brings us out on Main Street, then out on Heritage Drive on the spit that shelters Collingwood Harbour. We had driven to the Millennium Park at the end of the spit yesterday, and the wind was in our faces on the coarse gravel trail, so we stop instead at the small park next to the Yacht Club before retracing our route back to the truck, a much faster ride with the wind at our backs and the temperature up in the teens (Celsius), for a 32-km ride. The traffic is heavy on our drive back to the condo, as the city folk head for the beaches on the opening weekend of the summer. Though it is still unseasonably cold, the weekend promises warmer weather, along with the inevitable thunderstorms.
We have another day yet in the Lake Country before heading east to explore the north shore of Lake Erie, but the three weeks we’ve spent on the road so far have been interesting: we’ve done most of the things we planned, though we had to work around the cold and rainy weather and pick different routes to ride, and discovered places we didn’t have on our list. Since leaving home, we’ve ridden 217 km (134 miles) on our bicycle, more than our tandem mileage for the previous four months.
Bicycling, Travel, Uncategorized
Road Trip 2019, Part 1, chapter 2
Day 9: Mitchell, SD to Spirit Lake, IA. Not a long drive, but the rain that has chased us all week comes and goes. We stop in Sioux Falls for fuel, our fifth fill-up since leaving home and our most expensive category so far. We decide to head south, taking Highway 18 this time: we’ve been across Iowa Highway 9 before. The rain catches us at when the route jogs north or south. We’ve traveled this area before, headed for the Starbucks kiosk in the Hy-Vee supermarket in Spencer, and restocking the groceries for our stay a short way north, on the west shore of Lake Okoboji, the gem of the Iowa Great Lakes.
I grew up just over the state line, in Minnesota. As a teenager, my buddy and I would drive down to Arnolds Park, an amusement park and namesake town on the south shore of Lake Okoboji, just to watch how people with money spent theirs. Of course, we did have to explain to our parents why we were two hours late coming home from Boy Scouts. I don’t think I spent a dime at Iowa’s playground then, and haven’t since we have passed through several times in this decade, including three years ago when we stopped by on a late Sunday afternoon with our 15-year-old grandson. He declared the wooden roller coaster a death trap. But, it’s been a popular tradition for generations of Iowans, since 1927.
Day 11: The rains came again, with a vengeance. Flooding is a big problem in the midwest. Although we think the bumps are hills, the region is relatively flat, the ground is saturated from the winter snowmelt, and the rains run off into the shallow river valleys, where the rivers spread out and up to make things miserable for residents and travelers.
Our resort only offers complimentary WiFi in the lobby, so we have made our daily pilgrimage to the main building to connect the computers to the Internet. We have our phones, but two weeks on the road have depleted our data plan for the month already. We have resigned ourselves to bumping up our plan, but still have three weeks before it rolls over, so prudence is still required.
Day 11: It is still cold in the Midwest, but the rain has subsided for now, so this is our big ride day. Two years ago, we camped in our van near the lake and rode our bicycle around, counter-clockwise on the Iowa Great Lakes Trail, missing a few kilometers due to a blown tire and a Good Samaritans’ lift to the bike shop in the town of Okoboji. We set off around the lake, clockwise this time, After it warmed up a bit, we headed north on the paved concrete bike trail, clockwise around the lake this time. The trail switches to the west side of IA-86, diving under through a tunnel which is, thankfully, dry. A few miles later, past farms and a golf course, it dives back under the highway to end in a residential area of RV parks and beach cottages. The route follows the roads around the north end of the lake, resuming as an off-road trail through the prairie and a nature preserve before crossing US 71 at a traffic light. So far, the trail has been rolling, but soon turns south onto a rail-trail that takes us into the town of Okoboji, swinging out to follow US 71 through town. The route signs take us through a beach condo parking lot and across the bridge between the east and west arms of the lake to the town of Arnolds Park. The trail turns left at the town cemetery to wind around Minnewashta Lake, crossing a bridge between Minnewashta and Lower Gar Lake. The trail soon dumps us back on a road, headed west. We climb a long hill, past—as we later discover—my cousin Jack’s house, cross US 71, and wind around the south end of Lake Okoboji through the West Okoboji beachfront, then out to follow Highway 86 north past where our 2017 ride ended in a tire blowout, then through the hills, prairie, farms, and fens on the west side of the lake. No issues this time. We get in the full 33.4 km circumnavigation of the lake. It seemed a bit more hilly this early in the season, but we managed to make it up all the bumps on our wheels.
Day 12: Rain, lots of it, and door-hinge-busting wind. Our plan of the day takes us to Rabab’s for lunch, a newly renamed (formerly Chick’s) bistro on US-71 on a spur of the bike trail just north of where we crossed yesterday. It’s a few weeks ahead of the tourist season in the Iowa Great Lakes, so many businesses aren’t open at all, and those that cater to the locals off-season are only open two or three days a week. The place is crowded, as the outside patio seating is rocking back and forth in the gusty deluge. Unlike the usual midwest fare that gives you a choice of one or all three main locally-grown food animals, liberally seasoned with bacon, the menu serves up big-city hipster dishes like avocado toast and “southwest” salads, topped with egg, of course. Someone has to eat all these farm products…
After lunch, we visit the nearby nature center, which we had ridden past the previous day. By some fortune, our visit is between hands-on sessions for toddlers and pre-schoolers, so we wade through the piles of confetti and wend our way around tiny tables covered with plates of prairie humus (aka plain old dirt) and wildflower seeds to look at the tanks of turtles, cases of small-animal skeletons, and lifelike examples of local fauna preserved with the taxidermist’s art. Hands-on children’s exhibits are fun for adults, too, as we stroke pelts of badger, fox, coyote, and other beasts we only see in fleeting moments on the bike trails.
Day 13: Another blustery day. Thanks to social media, we are informed that my cousin Jack Parkins—who I thought was in Arizona, having lost track of him 20 years ago—was living nearby, In fact, as noted, we had ridden past his Iowa house on Tuesday, where he and Sue spend summers, when not at their Arizona residence. We meet them for lunch and a pleasant afternoon catching up on a lifetime. Jack, who is six years older, had taught at Mankato State College in Minnesota before becoming a snowbird and settling in a retirement home in the summer playground we all grew up in. As elderly folks do, we compared health and medications, finding—being close relatives—we have a lot in common. Reluctantly, we cut our visit all too short, as we had a dinner date across the border in Minnesota, with 98-year-old Aunt Jo, my mother’s sister-in-law, and cousin Cathy and her husband Bill. We hadn’t expected to see Bill this trip, but his planned activity of the day, relocating game bird stocks, was cancelled because of the bird-walking weather. Apparently, the wild game I remember as being so abundant in my youth now are reared in pens like fish and the fields stocked to satisfy the demands of 21st-century hunters and fishermen.
Pizza, BBQ, and “Coney” (hot dog slathered in BBQ) night at the veterans club, with the usual choice of Chicken, Pork, Beef, or all three, the quintessential Minnesota comfort food, presented its usual dilemma for the strict vegetarian, so dinner for me was a heavily salted soft pretzel dipped in chipotle seasoned liquid nacho cheese, which made a reasonable substitute for the yellow mustard I remember from my years in New Jersey, back in the 1970s. But, we had a good visit. It’s Aunt Jo’s weekly night out, and we had a good visit, holding our own against the boisterous crowd of younger folks (Jackson High School Class of ’65, still wild at 72) behind us, and the bar did have a few bottles of Guinness to satisfy us aged western hipsters who don’t drink “beer you can see through.” But, it was great seeing everyone this trip.
Day 14 dawned cold, but clear. After it warmed up a bit, we suited up and headed for a trailhead, Kiwanis Park in Spirit Lake, and headed north on the Iowa Great Lakes Trail, a rolling and sometimes winding trail that is partly on the road around the west side of Spirit Lake (the body of water). Across from Minnewakan State Park at the north end of the lake, we cross into Minnesota on the Jackson County Trail, which follows the roads and then meanders along the creek between Loon Lake and Spirit Lake. We stop at Loon Lake for a snack and to enjoy Loon and Pearl Lakes at Brown County Park. When I was in Boy Scouts, 60-65 years ago, our troop spent at least a week each summer on the east shore of Loon Lake, where a farmer had graciously let use his lakefront. After our snack stop, Judy’s saddle fell off the bike, 16 km from the car. Fortunately, all the parts were intact; one of the seat rail clamp screws had loosened and fell out while we were stopped on the paved trail. Out came the tool kit and the repair was quick and successful. The trip back was much more enjoyable than pushing a broken bike would have been. We chatted briefly with another grandfatherly cyclist we met at the top of the steepest hill while stopped for a scenery view.
Back at the condo, we started packing for the next stage of our road trip, destination Orillia, Ontario, beginning our third week on the road.
Road Trip 2019 Part 1, chapter 1
May 6, 2019 larye
Despite being on a budget–truly beginning to realize what living on a fixed income in an inflationary economy means–we have big plans for 2019. We did postpone our usual annual trip to the Southwest this winter, because we planned to attend the biennial weaving conference in our own Pacific Northwest. However, since the conference this year is in Prince George, BC, 1000 km to the north, that event is part of a major road trip, which will be Part 2.
Part 1 is the result of our upgrade to our vacation shares a couple of years ago, which netted us, as a bonus incentive, two “free” weeks in the RCI vacation network. Collecting on “free” means being at the whim of the sponsor: we found few resorts and time slots where we could use the coupons, where and when we were willing and able to go. So, here in the suddenly blustery end of April, we find ourselves headed east, for a week in Iowa, followed by a week in Ontario, north of Toronto. We visited the area in Iowa in 2017, close to the Minnesota border near where I grew up, and we did enjoy the bicycling and being close enough to visit relatives still in the area.
The Canadian part is a compromise: we have on our bucket list plans to visit Eastern Canada, Ontario, Quebec. and the Maritime Provinces, so this gets us at least a consolation prize in that category, We don’t have time to explore, but will at least get a taste of what the eastern half has to offer.
Our first day on the road, we realized that winter is not done with us yet, running into hail and snow over Snoqualmie Pass. Our plans to camp in Idaho to go bicycling got derailed a bit as the forecast was for freezing temperatures, and we experienced high winds all the way across Washington, settling in for the night at a motel in Coeur d’Alene, where, indeed, it did freeze overnight.
Day 2 dawned very cold, below freezing. But, with promise of lower wind and mid-morning temps in the middle single-digits (Celsius), we set off from Coeur d’Alene after coffee and fuel (under $0.80USD/liter!), we set out over Fourth of July Pass into the Silver Valley, with hopes of being able to ride another segment of the elusive Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes.
After considering options, we decided to just go ahead with Plan A (or Plan B, I forget which) and park at the Pine Creek Trailhead near Pinehurst and ride west until we couldn’t take the cold anymore. Despite being rewarded with great river views, 7.5 km was the frostbite limit today. We turned around at Milepost 44 and headed back, deciding not to stop at the famous Snake Pit bar and café at Edaville, but just press on back to the truck.
Eschewing the ambiance of the Snake Pit, we had lunch out of the shopping bag in the Walmart parking lot in Smelterville, cruised Wallace, and headed over Lookout Pass for an early evening in St. Regis, Montana.
During our grocery stop at Walmart, a new toy stuck to us: a dashcam for the truck. It was “only” $25. Of course, we updated the 8GB memory chip with a 32GB chip from our camera stash, but then needed yet another memory stick to hold all the output until we can review and edit it. Most of the clips will be thrown away, we assume, but the sheer volume of data makes it impossible to review and edit in real time while traveling. Hoping to include some windscreen scenery to add to our bicycling video travelogue. Converting the AVI format to MP4 reduces the size of the storage required, but the first run took nearly 20 hours.
Wall decor at Liquid Planet’s main store on Higgins Avenue in the heart of Missoula, a few blocks from the headquarters of the Adventure Cycling Association, and 50 km south of the Garden of One Thousand Buddhas, one of the largest Buddhist shrines in North America.
The morning of Day 3, we packed out to frost on the windscreen and headed for Missoula, where we indulged in coffee at Liquid Planet, lunch at Good Food Store, and a trip to the Bicycle Hangar for a new kickstand for our bicycle, all familiar haunts from when we lived in the area and from previous visits. The bicycle repairs were necessitated by the old kickstand falling off the bike when we unloaded it at the trailhead the previous day, the threads stripped after six years of heavy use and a slightly short bolt. I hit up Montana Ace Hardware for a new bolt the right length, while Judy checked out the Book Exchange nearby, where we still had an open account.
We paused in our travels for a couple of days, visiting with friends in the Bitterroot Valley, staying with our longtime quilting friend Connie in Florence. Visiting Hamilton to catch up with Theresa, a bead artist friend, netted us a chance encounter with another quilter and lunch at the Cherry Street Cafe, with an awesome crêpe and a mug of coffee from next-door Zaxan coffee roasters, meeting the new (to us) owner of the Cafe, finding out she once lived near us in Washington. Alas, we did not get any dashcam views of the Bitterroots, having left our new dashcam back at our host’s house.
Day 5 dawned cold, below freezing, time to move on. We spent half the morning visiting and packing. We said our farewells and headed north to Missoula. We stopped again at The Good Food Store, where we chose the Wok Bowls. We got an insanely huge amount of food for not much money, enough to qualify as a Buddhist monk’s daily begging bowl meal. Judy got a box for half of hers.
A stop at Costco to take on another 85 liters of petrol, as we were eastbound, leaving Missoula in early afternoon. We stopped at the truck stop in Rocker, where Judy found a stretch head band to protect her ears on our next bike ride, having discovered that winter was still upon us.
Butte showed us a scattering of snow on the slopes of the Rockies, but the road was dry as we climbed over Homestake Pass. Of course, we stopped at the Wheat Montana bakery before making our way to the Missouri Headwaters State Park for the night, intending to ride the paved bike trail to Three Forks in the morning.
Day 6: we woke at dawn, dry camped at Missouri Headwaters State Park, with the overnight temperature near freezing. We were cozy in the van, though. After dining on stiff cinnamon rolls we bought at Wheat Montana the evening before, we settled our tab with the camp ranger, unloaded the bicycle, and headed off in the crisp, cold morning on the Legacy Trail toward Three Forks, with the thought of coffee. The trail was one of the great ones, following the Montana Rail Link tracks under I-90, then around several ponds adjoining the Headwaters Golf Course, where the off-road bike trail stopped. We picked our way through the neighborhoods rather than ride the arterial, eventually riding down Main Street.
Judy declared it too cold to get coffee and then back on the bike, so we headed through the neighborhoods on the shortest route back to the trail, where we were treated by flocks of little yellow-breasted birds fleeing the trail in front of us, as we passed a flock of white pelicans swimming close to shore, sheltered from the wind, which, for us, was a tail wind to push us back to camp. where we packed up and drove to the Remuda Coffee Shop, where we had passed on our bike shortly before.
With our bicycling goal for Montana this trip out-of-the-way, we headed east, pushed by the wind, stopping for fuel and lunch in Billings, then south through the Crow reservation to US212 and east through the Northern Cheyenne, cutting across a corner of Wyoming into South Dakota. We skirted black rain clouds the entire day, with the mist occasionally dipping close enough to the ground to use the wipers, coming out into sun at the South Dakota border. Our quest for low-cost lodging took us to a motel that shall remain unnamed: the key card machine wasn’t working, so the manager let us into the room and we took turns shuttling our belongings in and out. The WiFi had good signal and bandwidth, though.
Canyon Lake, along the Rapids Creek Trail. the sign behind the information plaque shows the high water mark in the 1972 flood. We managed to outrun the rain clouds in the distance on an 8-km sprint back to the truck.
Day 7 found us at the Green Bean for coffee and breakfast in Belle Fourche (Bel-FOOSH, as we discovered after mispronouncing it for years), after which we headed to Rapid City to ride the Rapids Creek bike trail. The day started off sunny and cool, which turned stormy and cold as we reached the west end of the trail, so we charged at full speed (which is not much, for us) back to the truck, getting the bike put away and us inside before the rain came.
We had planned to ride the entire trail, but 17 km was a bit over half. We looked at the weather forecast and decided to try the rest the next day. To fill up the rest of the afternoon, we visited the South Dakota Air Museum at Ellsworth Air Force Base nearby, before checking in at yet another budget less-than-camping-fee motel, where we found it necessary to change rooms after being assailed by unidentifiable and disagreeable odors on opening the door. The upper floors were at least tolerable, and the breakfast was acceptable. Thinking of camping…
On the Rapids Creek Trail. The underpass under the bridge ahead was closed due to high water, but drivers were courteous where we had to cross roads along the trail.
Day 8: A sunny day! We packed out, changed into our bicycling kits, and headed back to the creek trail. On a sunny Saturday morning (May the Fourth be With You, for Star Wars fans), the trail was busy. The National Guard was out in force, some jogging with heavy packs, most just sauntering along, in the guise of weekend training hikes. Bicycles, moms and at least one dad with strollers, dog walkers, some elderly with electric scooters or bikes and trailers, an assortment of mountain bikes and road bikes, and kids on bikes wobbling along. And, of course, the usual cityscape assortment of homeless, addicts, and pushers. At one point, we had to detour around an aid car, apparently summoned for an overdose victim on the bridge in front of the Civic Center. We put in another 16km, by taking alternate loops and side paths, plus a short section of yesterday’s ride before packing it in.
“Destiny,” a 15-meter-high statue at the rest stop overlooking the Missouri River at Chamberlain, South Dakota. The northern plains indigenous people learned to make quilts from the European settlers, to replace hide robes after the bison had been hunted to near-extinction.. The six-point star pattern is now traditional for ceremonial quilts.
Bike stowed, we headed to the nearest Starbucks, which, due to a mass call-in of sunny-day sickness, was only serving drive-up customers. Bah! Off to another near our motel, refuel at Safeway to get the discount, and off on the freeway to Mitchell, home of the one and only (should we be glad?) Corn Palace. We thought about camping, but the tent spaces were soggy, and the regular campsites were nearly as expensive as motels, so we opted for one of the last motel rooms in town–graduation at the local college this weekend. This time, the budget motel was very clean, and for the extra $10 we get breakfast and fast WiFi.
The “One and Only” Corn Palace, in Mitchell, South Dakota, a large auditorium decorated inside and out with murals made entirely of ears of corn and corn stalks, in natural colors.
The murals are changed every year. This year’s theme is South Dakota military contributions, to celebrate the christening this year of SSN 790, USS South Dakota.
One more day on the road and we hunker down for the next five days before again heading east. So far, we’ve gotten in a few bike rides–short, but, then, we’ve had long drives before or after, along with unseasonable cold and the usual spring rains. To be continued…
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You are hereThe BMORC Handbook / About The BMORC
About The BMORC
Why the Blue Mountains Off Road Cyclists?
After the closure of Old Bathurst Rd Downhill track by the Blue Mountains City Council (BMCC) in March 2010 it became obvious that there needed to be some way for the vast number of Blue Mountains mountain bikers to come together and have a unified voice.
What happened with Old Bathurst Rd was really a golden opportunity lost. The reason it was lost was because the residents who objected had a much stronger and more unified voice than the very few mountain bikers who wrote letters/emails to lobby the councillors and then presented at the meeting. Politically we were fairly beaten despite it being in reality a unsatisfactory decision for all parties.
The report created by the BMCC staff had recommended the formalising of a downhill track at Old Bathurst Rd but the decision unfortunately was not up to them. Sadly the lobby campaign that was attempted wasn't able to create any semblance of a unified or sizeable voice that could sway the political decision the councillors were going to make. So at the end of the day instead of having a legal downhill track in the mountains and a precedent for mountain biking trails in the mountains, we instead have a precedent of "council closes all downhill mountain bike tracks on the eastern escarpment and adjoining ridges."
After seeing what had happened a month earlier over the closure of sections at Manly Dam where a large number of local and non-local riders had successfully lobbied council to reopen the trails, it was a clear demonstration that what is needed is a large number of unified voices in the mountains to deal with our trails.
So after 3 months and building up a strong core member base we presented at council in June and received permission to work with council on XC and Downhill tracks in Knapsack Reserve. We currently have good support from all the councillors and a very large task at hand in a tight time frame.
So at the moment the BMORC's aim is to try and be a face for the riders in the Blue Mountains that can work with council and try and to obtain the best possible outcomes when any issues arise. Further we would like to create a friendly community of riders in the mountains that can improve ones riding experiences. BMORC is not a club, it is really just a way of getting riders to have better communication channels.
So who are the people presuming to speak up for all riders in the mountains you may ask? We are a mixed bunch of riders of different disciplines, ages, capabilities and locations who would probably all prefer to be out riding than doing this.
Most importantly any help, ideas, criticisms or feedback is more than welcome and appreciated. Join the forums or email us and present your opinions!
‹ The BMORC Handbook up Archives ›
The BMORC Handbook
IMBA Rules of the Trail
Main FAQ
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NASA Just Discovered Mysterious Bright Lights On Dwarf Planet Ceres
There happens to be some mysterious lights on the dwarf planet Ceres. The small planet is in the same classification as Pluto and hangs near the asteroid belt amid Mars and Jupiter. The finding is credited to NASA’s Dawn spacecraft mission. Taken on Feb. 19, 2015 from a distance of 29 thousand miles, the space probe captured a puzzling image in which you can see two bright spots illuminating from the surface of Ceres.
Scientists as of yet have not been able to determine what the bright “lights” actually are, however, that didn’t keep the internet and conspiracy theorists from “theorizing.”
Chris Russell who is working on the Dawn mission stated that it might only be a volcano — not the type of volcano you’re thinking of though. More to the likes of a cryovolcano. Science news tells us a KREYE-oh-vahl-cayn-oh “is an ice volcano that erupts slurries of volatile compounds such as water or methane instead of lava.”
Cryovolcano
(image source: USGS)
Whatever the lights turn out to be, the spacecraft remains too far away to snap a high resolution photo. Once the Dawn craft enters into orbit amid Ceres, a sharper image of the mysterious lights will be provided….. But we probably know what it really is……
Don’t forget to give this a like and a share on Facebook before you go! (h/t NPR)
These 400 Unopened Suitcases Were Discovered In An Abandoned Insane Asylum…InterestingBack in 1869, there was an insane asylum built in New York called the Willard Asylum. Many of the patients that were committed to the asylum never…
This Town Lies Inside The National Radio Quiet Zone, Where Wireless Signals Are …InterestingDo you ever freak out when your phone goes dead or when you lose signal?... Well then you would absolutely hate this place. It's a town where no one h…
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How to Correct High School Deficiencies
Student Services and Admission Center 120
Application Filing Deadlines
Fall Admission - It is recommended that students apply as early as possible and no later than July 1 for Fall admission. This ensures adequate time for processing documents and to complete all admissions and placement processes.
Spring Admission - It is recommended that students apply as early as possible and no later than December 15 for Spring admission. This ensures adequate time for processing documents and to complete all admissions and placement processes.
The deadline for Freshman Academic Scholarship applications is December 1.
The deadline for Transfer Academic Scholarship applications is February 15.
The deadline for most competitive scholarships is February 15.
High School Units
Admission will be granted to freshman applicants who hold a recognized high school diploma and/or meet any additional requirements as stated below. The diploma will reflect a distribution of college preparatory courses, such as those required in the core elements of the Tennessee High School Diploma. These courses include the following:
Subject Area Required Units
Algebra (Algebra I and Algebra II) 2
Geometry or higher 1
Additional unit of math 1
Natural Science 3
European History, World History, or World Geography 1
Single Foreign Language 2
Visual or Performing Arts 1
Required by Tennessee Code Annotated 49-7-110. Students deficient in the completion of United States History are required to complete six semester hours of United States History or three semester hours of United States History and three semester hours of Tennessee History.
Public School-applicants for degree admission as first-time freshmen must provide an official high school transcript showing credits earned and date of graduation.
Nonpublic School-graduates of nonpublic high schools (including private schools, home schools, and church-related schools) must submit an official transcript showing credits earned and date of graduation. The transcript of a home school applicant must be an official copy from an affiliated organization as defined by state law (T.C.A. 49-50-801) or be accompanied by certification of registration with the superintendent of the local education agency which the student would otherwise attend. Applicants who cannot provide a satisfactory secondary school credential may substitute acceptable scores on either the HiSET or GED examination.
NOTE: The cumulative high school grade point average is calculated based upon grades nine through twelve. However, if admission credentials are received by the Admissions Office prior to the applicant graduating from high school then the cumulative grade point average is based upon six semesters (grade nine through eleven).
Standardized Examinations
Only one valid set of ACT/SAT test scores will be used for admission purposes. Valid ACT/SAT scores are those earned within five years prior to the first day of the first term of enrollment. Students 21 years of age or older are not required to submit ACT/SAT scores, but those who elect to present valid scores may do so.
Assessment Examinations
All valid ACT/SAT scores (less than five years old) of entering degree-seeking students less than 21 years old will be reviewed to determine course placement. Students with ACT subscores of 18 or lower in reading and math or students with ACT subscores of 17 or lower in English will have prescribed course requirements. Students with SAT scores taken prior to March 2016 lower than 460 in mathematics or lower than 460 in critical reading/writing will have prescribed course requirements. Students with SAT scores taken March 2016 or after lower than 500 in mathematics or lower than 500 in reading and/or lower than 490 in English will have prescribed course requirement. Students may elect to verify this placement utilizing university assessment offered through the Academic Assessment Placement Test administered at MTSU through the University Studies Department. Please call (615) 898-2568 for an appointment.
Applicants who will be 21 years of age or older at the time of admission have the option to take the Academic Assessment Placement Test, provide ACT/SAT scores that have been taken within five years, or be placed in the first level of the appropriate required prescribed courses.
Transfer students without previous college-level English composition, reading intensive coursework, or algebra-based mathematics coursework have the option to take the Academic Assessment Placement Test, provide ACT/SAT scores that have been taken within five years, or be placed in the first level of the appropriate required prescribed courses. Transfer students whose high school transcript reflects a deficiency in either English or mathematics but whose transfer coursework includes credit in a college-level English composition or algebra-based mathematics course will be exempt from placement testing.
The assessment exam is administered during the Fall, Spring, and Summer semesters. A $25 fee is charged for the assessment exam. On the basis of their test scores, students are placed in prescribed courses or non-prescribed courses. More information about secondary university assessment may be found at University Studies .
NOTE 1: Academic assessment placement scores older than five years are not valid.
NOTE 2: After acceptance as a student, there are certain performance tests students will be required to take during their academic careers. It is a requirement of admission that students agree to take any test deemed necessary by the institution. In those instances in which tests are administered by an external entity, students hereby agree that the results of such tests be released to the institution. The purpose of this requirement is to comply with the legislature’s expressed intent that institutions regularly evaluate and improve instruction at all levels. If students are under 21 years of age and are required by institutional policy to complete academic assessment placement tests, their scores on these tests and course placement may be reported to their high schools for research purposes. Any test scores will be treated confidentially as required by law.
Freshman Admission Standards
Each fall new applicants will be admitted on a rolling basis. All applicants will be considered by evaluating their likelihood of success at Middle Tennessee State University. Students should be adequately prepared to succeed as evidenced by high school grades, ACT or SAT scores, pattern of high school courses taken, special talents, and school recommendations.
Students are encouraged to submit an application as early as possible to receive first consideration. (See above for application dates.)
Freshman admission decisions are based on the following elements:
high school grade point average
standardized test scores, either ACT or SAT (students 21 years of age or older are exempt)
completion of a distribution of college preparatory courses (see above - applicable for graduates 1989 and after)
a personal statement form to be reviewed by the Admissions Review Board may be required of some students and can be completed at the point of application
NOTE: For admission and assessment purposes, MTSU will use the SAT total score calculated from the Critical Reading and Mathematics scores. The writing portion of the SAT or ACT test will not be used.
Following are the admission standards for all freshman applicants. The categories described below are designed to clarify the process used to evaluate undergraduate applications. It is not necessary for the applicant to choose a category in which to apply. The categories are
Honors Admission-for high-ability students
Guaranteed Admission-for the majority of applicants
Conditional Admission-for applicants not meeting standard admission requirements who have special talents or circumstances which may be taken into consideration
Honors admission will be granted to applicants who complete a distribution of college preparatory courses with
ACT composite score of 25 (SAT 1130) or higher and at least a 3.5 high school GPA.
Participation in the Honors College is not required of applicants admitted in this category.
Guaranteed Admission-Regular admission will be granted to freshman applicants who complete a distribution of college preparatory courses with one of the following:
a minimum 3.0 GPA
a minimum composite ACT of 22 (SAT 1100–Critical Reading and Math)
a minimum 2.7 GPA and minimum ACT of 19 (SAT 980)
Conditional Admission-Any student not meeting guaranteed admission requirements will be considered for conditional admission. The review will include all academic credentials as well as other special interests and skills and other non-academic factors as explained on the Personal Statement Form which should be completed at the point of application. Students conditionally admitted should work closely with an academic advisor to develop a class schedule that promotes academic success and should maintain regular contact with the advisor throughout the semester. Additionally, students admitted in this category will be expected to
maintain academic good standing as defined by University retention standards
meet more specific requirements as required for certain populations of students.
GED or HiSET applicants will be considered for conditional admission. A minimum GED score of 450 or minimum HiSET score of 10 is required. The review will include GED or HiSET credentials as well as other special interests, skills, and non-academic factors as explained on the Personal Statement Form which can be completed at the point of application.
The Admissions Review Board may also request additional documentation specific to each individual’s circumstances. It is expected that a very small number of people in this category will be admitted. In the absence of special talents or circumstances, applicants who do not meet the requirements for Guaranteed Admission will be denied. Decisions of the Admissions Review Board are final.
Complete undergraduate application for admission at www.mtsu.edu/applynow.
Submit $25.00 nonrefundable application fee online.
Submit official ACT report (not required if 21 years of age or older). Official ACT report can be requested by writing to American College Testing Program, Box 414, Iowa City, Iowa 52240. Please ask them to send it directly to MTSU, Code #3994. ACT scores on official high school transcripts are acceptable, as are SAT scores, Code #1466 (www.collegeboard.com).
Request official high school transcript be sent to MTSU Office of Admissions. Transcripts should include sixth semester (end of junior year) for tentative acceptance consideration. Official final high school transcripts that include graduation date must be received by the admissions office prior to enrollment.
If eligible by GED or HiSET, have official copy of test scores sent directly from reporting institution. Official HiSET scores can be requested at 1-855-MyHiSET (1-855-694-4738). Note: If GED or HiSET recipient is less than 21 years of age, ACT scores must be presented.
ACT reading and mathematics and English sub-scores will be used to identify students to determine placement. Additional information will be emailed to applicants upon receipt of official ACT scores.
An undergraduate applicant who previously has registered at any college or university since high school graduation must apply as a transfer student. Admission will be granted to transfer applicants who have earned 24 or more semester hours and a 2.00 cumulative or higher grade point average from all postsecondary schools attended. In order to qualify for regular admission, the applicant must request that a transcript from each institution attended be sent directly to the Admissions Office. Applicants who have earned fewer than 24 semester hours (35 quarter hours) from a college or university must meet both transfer and freshman admission standards. Concealment of previous college or university attendance may be cause for rejection, cancellation of admission, or dismissal of the student.
Applicants who have earned 24 or more semester hours and not been enrolled in any postsecondary institution in the 12 months preceding the term for which they are applying will be eligible for admission, but they will be admitted on academic probation if their cumulative grade point average is less than 2.00.
Transfer applicants graduating from high school in 1989 or thereafter are subject to the high school units (see above). Eligible transfer applicants who have not completed the one high school unit of United States History will be admitted, but they must remove the deficiency during the first 30 credit hours of enrollment at MTSU. Courses required to remove the deficiency can be used to satisfy general education requirements where appropriate. Transfer students whose transfer coursework includes credit in a college-level English composition, reading intensive course, and algebra-based mathematics course will be exempt from placement testing.
Transfer applicants who do not have a cumulative 2.00 grade point average may submit their credentials to the Admissions Review Board for review. In addition to college transcript(s), these applicants are required to complete a Personal Statement form which will be provided to the student from the Admissions Office if not completed at the point of application.
Transfer students who do not have a 2.00 cumulative GPA and those admitted by the Admissions Review Board will be admitted on probation and will be required to enroll in UNIV 2020 the first semester of enrollment. Refer to Academic Policies and Procedures for university retention policy. Decisions of the Admissions Review Board are final.
Transfer applicants without previous college-level English composition, a reading intensive course, or algebra-based mathematics coursework have the option to take the Academic Assessment Placement Test, provide ACT/SAT scores that have been taken within five years, or be placed in the first level of the appropriate required prescribed courses. The test will assist in course placement and may result in requiring some students to enroll in prescribed courses with elective or general education credit.
Acceptance of Transfer Credit
Middle Tennessee State University accepts transfer credit from institutions of higher learning based upon the following considerations:
the educational quality of the institution from which the student transfers;
the comparability of the nature, content, and level of credit earned to that offered by MTSU; and
the appropriateness and applicability of the credit earned to the programs offered by MTSU in light of the student’s educational goals.
When posting transfer courses to the MTSU record, all transfer courses are converted to MTSU’s grading scale and repeat policy. The Admissions Office will send an email message when the file is complete. The office does not evaluate credit for students who have already received a bachelor’s degree; however, the GPA hours and quality points are posted which calculates in the cumulative GPA.
Students transferring credits will have transfer grades posted with a leading ‘T’ and transfer grades will NOT be calculated in the overall or overall combined GPAs.
Students who have completed coursework at institutions for which MTSU has no recent history may be asked to provide information to determine the comparability of content and level of credit presented as transfer to that credit offered by MTSU. Petition is made by submitting the Application for Acceptance of Credit Form available in the Admissions Office and at www.mtsu.edu/admissn/. Credit will be granted upon recommendation from the academic advisor and chair of the academic department in which the course is taught, approval of the academic dean of the college in which the course is taught, and approval by the assistant manager of admissions.
Students who feel that they are competent in certain subject areas are encouraged to earn credit through a nationally recognized credit-by-examination program or through departmental credit-by-examination programs at MTSU.
Of the hours required for graduation, a minimum of 60 semester hours of senior college credit (credit awarded at four-year institutions) is required of all students who transfer from accredited colleges of less than four-year designation, with at least 42 of the 60 being upper-division courses. A grade of D in ENGL 1010 and ENGL 1020 is used to determine admission eligibility but does not meet degree requirements. Refer to English for more details. Additional information on this stipulation is given under the requirements for graduation see Academic Policies and Procedures .
NOTE 1: All public universities and community colleges in Tennessee share a common set of minimum requirements for baccalaureate degrees or associate degrees designed for transfer. Please see Academic Policies and Procedures for further information.
NOTE 2: MTSU honors the completion of prescribed course placement requirements from any Tennessee public institution regardless of credit hours assigned to individual courses or interventions used to complete the prescribed course placement requirements. Successful completion of prescribed course placement requirements from other institutions is demonstrated through university assessment testing.
Request an official transcript be forwarded directly to MTSU from your high school and each college, business, or technical school attended.
If applicant has earned fewer than 24 semester hours, an ACT score is recommended but optional. ACT scores are required for applicants under the age of 21.
Transfer students without previous English composition, algebraic math, and intensive reading coursework will be required to take the Academic Assessment Placement Test, provide ACT/SAT scores that have been taken within five years, or be placed in the first level of the appropriate required prescribed courses prior to registration. The test will assist in course placement and may result in requiring some students to enroll in prescribed courses providing elective or general education credit.
Reenrollee
Reenrollees who have not attended another institution since leaving MTSU need only complete an application for readmission. Applicants who have not been enrolled in any postsecondary institution in the 12 months preceding the term for which they are applying will be eligible for admission, but will be admitted on probation if their cumulative grade point average is less than retention standards.
Reenrollees who have attended another institution since leaving MTSU need to submit an application for readmission and a transcript from all institutions attended since leaving MTSU. Applicants in this category need a grade point average of 2.00 or higher on all courses attempted at all colleges. Registration cannot occur until all transcripts are received so that eligibility for readmission can be determined. Reenrollees are required to fulfill a United States History deficiency.
Reenrollees who wish to attend MTSU after being suspended should follow items 1 and 2 above as well as the following:
Students who receive their first suspension at the end of the Fall semester may not register at MTSU until the following summer.
Students receiving their first suspension at the end of the Spring semester will not be eligible to reenroll until the following Spring semester.
Students receiving their first suspension at the end of the Summer session will not be eligible to reenroll until the following Spring semester.
Students receiving two or more suspensions from any college(s), including MTSU, will be denied readmission for one calendar year.
Students who attended another institution during their suspension from MTSU will be readmitted if they have raised their cumulative grade point average (including MTSU work) to 2.00 or greater, or they have earned a minimum of 12 semester hours at the institution(s) attended since MTSU enrollment with a grade point average of 2.00 or greater.
Complete undergraduate application for readmission found here.
Applicants who have attended other institutions since attending MTSU must have an official transcript forwarded from each institution.
Academic advising is recommended before registration.
Programs for Academically Talented High School Students
Early Admission
There are two ways one may qualify for early admission:
Those students who would like to begin college at the end of their junior year must qualify under the following conditions:
be at least 16 years of age;
have completed the junior year of high school with a minimum of 14 high school units;
have a 3.50 grade point average on all work taken during grades 9, 10, and 11;
have a minimum ACT composite score of 27 (SAT 1210);
be recommended for participation in the program by either the high school principal or guidance counselor.
Academically talented/gifted students enrolled in grades 9 through 12 in public or private schools in Tennessee may enroll in and receive regular college credit from Middle Tennessee State University under the following provisions:
The student has a grade point average of 3.20 on a 4.00 scale;
The student must present recommendation and permission from the high school principal;
Placement in college courses must be a part of the student’s Individualized Educational Placement (IEP) as determined by the Multidisciplinary Team.
The University makes no inference that courses completed at MTSU would apply toward high school graduation requirements. This privilege of enrollment is granted only to students enrolled in Tennessee public or private high schools as specified in Chapter 395 of the Public Acts of 1983. Students may register for no more than nine (9) semester hours per semester when enrolled in this program.
Currently enrolled high school students who wish to attend MTSU must meet the following requirements:
be a junior or senior in high school;
have a minimum 3.0 high school GPA; or
have a minimum ACT composite of 22 ACT (SAT 1100) or equivalent ACT Plan test score.
Admission to MTSU and the Dual Enrollment program does not guarantee eligibility for all courses. Some courses require prerequisites and/or certain test subscores, including Math and English courses. Click here for more information.
Request high school to forward official transcript.
Submit an official ACT/SAT report.
Submit a letter of recommendation from high school principal or counselor and Individualized Educational Program (IEP) report, if necessary.
Any person who is over 18 years of age and who wishes to take a course but receive no credit (audit) may do so by applying at the Admissions Office.
NOTE: Regular registration fees will be charged for auditing courses.
60-Year/Disabled (Audit) Student
Applicants 60 years old or older or permanently and totally disabled (T.C.A., Section 49-7-113) and domiciled in Tennessee are required to pay the $25.00 nonrefundable application fee but are not required to pay registration fees if they audit courses. Proof of age (initially) or disability (annually) and a fee discount/waiver form (each semester) are required. Registration is on a space-available basis and course selection begins no earlier than four weeks prior to the start of term or part-of-term (see Registration Guide for date of registration). Regular registration fees will be charged for credit courses.
Adult Special Student
This category is designed to serve the interests of an adult learner (age 21 or older) who does not wish to pursue a degree at the present, but who wishes to receive academic credit. To be admitted, an individual must hold a high school diploma or the equivalent and meet guaranteed admission standards (above). Applicants not meeting guaranteed standards can submit a personal statement form for conditional admission. The applicant who first is denied regular admission to MTSU will also be denied admission to this category for the same semester. Students in this category are not allowed to register for
a mathematics or English course unless the appropriate portion of an academic assessment placement test is taken;
any course which has a prescribed course prerequisite;
any course which has prerequisite courses defined by MTSU academic departments; the current catalog indicates most departmental course prerequisites.
Adult special students may complete a maximum of 16 semester hours credit at MTSU. After receiving 16 hours, the applicant, to continue enrolling at MTSU, must apply for degree-seeking classification and meet standard admission requirements.
NOTE: Federal financial aid is not available to students in this category.
Submit official college transcript of last college attended (if college-level work not attempted, official verification of high school graduation or equivalent).
Students in this category are not allowed to register for mathematics or English courses or any course with a prescribed/learning support prerequisite unless the appropriate portion of the placement test is successfully completed. Students also cannot register for any course that has a prerequisite defined by MTSU academic departments.
NOTE: A maximum of 16 semester hours credit may be taken under this classification. See above for additional instructions.
65-Year-Old/Disabled Credit Student
Persons 65 years of age or older or permanently and totally disabled persons (T.C.A., Section 49-7-113) who are domiciled in Tennessee may register for classes on a space-available basis for credit beginning no earlier than four weeks prior to the start of term or part-of-term (see Registration Guide for date of registration) paying a minimum registration fee. The cost is one-half the semester hour rate up to a maximum of $70.00 plus any special course-related fees. An application fee is also required. The applicant must be a high school graduate or the equivalent, and the applicant must submit proof of age (initially) or disability (annually) and a fee discount/waiver form each semester.
Submit proof of age or disability and fee discount/waiver form each semester enrolled. (Proof of disability required each year.)
Submit proof of high school graduation.
Transient (Visiting) Student
An individual who is currently enrolled and in good standing at another college or university and who wishes to attend MTSU for one semester only must apply and pay the nonrefundable application fee as well as submit an official college transcript from the institution currently being attended. Registration at MTSU includes prerequisite checking which may require validation of course completion. The submission of a college transcript provides proof of successful completion of prerequisite course(s) so any course completed prior to current college(s) may need a transcript to be provided as well for registration.
Submit an official transcript from the college currently being attended.
Details regarding admission of international students can be found at International Admissions/Education .
Permanent Resident Students
Permanent residents are admitted to MTSU according to the same admission requirements as U.S. citizens. Permanent residents will be asked to submit proof (green card) of status to determine residency for fee payment purposes.
TN eCampus Degree Program Students
Go to www.tnecampus.org for instructions. Complete the student profile and follow application instructions for New Freshman or Transfer (above).
Withholding Application Information
Any student withholding application information or giving false information may be ineligible for admission and may be denied continuation of studies at the University.
Hepatitis B and Meningococcal Meningitis Acknowledgment
The State of Tennessee mandates that each public or private postsecondary institution in the state provide information concerning hepatitis B and meningococcal meningitis to all students entering the institution for the first time. New students must acknowledge that they have read this information before they can register for classes. This information and acknowledgment statement are automatically displayed when new students register for classes via PipelineMT. If the student is under age 18, a parent or legal guardian is required to sign the form that is linked to the page and return it to Health Services before registration will be allowed.
All students under age 22 who are enrolling at MTSU for the first time regardless of the level at which the student is matriculating AND who will be living in on-campus housing, must show proof of adequate immunization against meningitis prior to assignment. “Adequate Immunization” means students must have been vaccinated on or after their 16th birthday. On move-in day, those students who have not previously provided such proof must provide it before they can be allowed to move in. For more information, access www.mtsu.edu/healthservices/immunizations.php.
Measles Immunization
Effective July 1, 1998, the State of Tennessee requires students entering colleges, universities, and technical institutes with enrollment of greater than 200 students to provide proof of two (2) doses of measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine on or after the first birthday, or proof of immunity to measles if date of birth is 1957 or after. Students will not be allowed to register for full-time classes until an acceptable form is on file in the Student Health Services Office. More information can be obtained by contacting Student Health Services, 898-2988, or by visiting www.mtsu.edu/healthservices/Immunizations.php.
Varicella (Chickenpox) Immunization
Effective July 1, 2011, the State of Tennessee requires new full-time enrollees in higher education institutions with enrollments larger than 200 students to provide proof of two (2) doses of Varicella vaccine on or after the first birthday, history of chickenpox illness diagnosed by a healthcare provider or verified by a physician, advanced practice nurse or physician assistant to whom the illness is described, or proof of immunity to Varicella if date of birth is 1980 or after. Students will not be allowed to register full-time for classes until an acceptable form is on file in the Student Health Services Office. More information can be obtained by contacting Student Health Services, 898-2988, or by visiting www.mtsu.edu/healthservices/Immunizations.php.
Residency Classification for Fee-paying and Admission Purposes
The Admissions Office is charged with the determination of an undergraduate student’s residency and verification of citizenship or lawful presence for fee-paying purposes and as the basis for some University admission requirements. The Graduate Office is charged with the determination of a graduate student’s residency for fee-paying purposes. The Office of International Affairs determines residency for international students. Classification is determined by information submitted on the admission application and subsequent fee classification questionnaire. Notification in writing is made soon after the student applies for admission. All decisions are based on regulations with the intent that all Tennessee public institutions of higher education apply uniform classification rules. Should a student be denied in-state classification, the student has the right of appeal. A written appeal should be submitted to the Student Appeals Committee through the Office of the Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs. A recommendation on the appeal will be reviewed and acted upon by the vice president for student affairs, whose decision shall be final.
Veterans shall not be required to pay out-of-state tuition or any out-of-state fees, if the veteran
is eligible for Post-9/11 GI bill benefits or Montgomery GI Bill benefits; and
enrolls in a public institution of higher education, after satisfying all admission requirements, within three (3) years after the date of discharge as reflected on the veteran’s certificate of release or discharge from active duty, Form DD-214, or an equivalent document.
To continue to qualify for in-state tuition and fees, the veteran shall
maintain continuous enrollment; and
provide two of the following within three (3) years from the first date of enrollment:
Tennessee driver’s license
Tennessee motor vehicle registration
Tennessee voter’s registration
Proof of established employment in Tennessee. Other documentation clearly evidencing domicile or residence in Tennessee as determined by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission.
Students originally admitted to a TBR community college authorized to grant a border county waiver of out-of-state tuition are entitled to the same tuition waiver if the student transfers after successfully completing an associate’s degree. This condition can be waived by the community college provided the general education requirements were completed and it is determined to be in the student’s best interest.
Eligibility Verification for Entitlements Act (EVEA)
The Tennessee Eligibility Verification for Entitlements Act (EVEA) became effective October 1, 2012. The EVEA requires state public institutions of higher education to verify that persons seeking a “state public benefit” are either a “United States citizen” or “lawfully present” in the United States.
The term “state benefit” includes in-state tuition, lottery scholarship, academic scholarship, common market, or any other form of tuition assistance or waiver funded with state-appropriated dollars. State benefit does not include tuition assistance funded privately, such as a scholarship from the institution’s foundation or a privately endowed scholarship.
Applicants do not have to verify the citizenship or lawful presence if not graduated from high school and are applying as dual enrollment, joint enrollment, or academically talented/gifted.
For additional information concerning EVEA and a list of eligible documents access www.mtsu.edu/evea.
Specific Instructional Programs
Certain instructional programs of the University are subject to special admission requirements which are in addition to the general admission requirements. Such programs include Nursing, programs in the College of Media and Entertainment and Jones College of Business, and Teacher Education. The special admission requirements for these are subject to change according to availability of institutional resources. Students wishing to enter one of these programs of study should check with the appropriate department to become familiar with any special requirements or deadlines.
NOTE 1: Acceptance from Middle Tennessee State University does not guarantee admittance to the Nursing Program-nor does rejection from the Nursing Program nullify acceptance to the University. Applicants desiring acceptance to the Nursing Program must obtain an application from the School of Nursing, MTSU, Murfreesboro, TN 37132.
NOTE 2: Programs in the College of Media and Entertainment and Jones College of Business require admission to candidacy to earn a degree and as a prerequisite to enrollment in most upper-division courses. Visit these colleges’ websites for more information.
NOTE 3: Anyone wishing to apply for financial assistance to attend MTSU should contact the MT One Stop, MTSU, Murfreesboro, TN 37132. More information on financial aid is presented elsewhere in this catalog.
NOTE 4: Persons wishing to reside on campus should submit a housing application to reserve a room as early as possible due to a high demand for available housing. Application for admission should precede application for housing. Detailed information on housing can be found elsewhere in this catalog.
Students may earn college credit for acceptable scores on the College Level Examination Program (CLEP), the Foreign Language Tests, the Advanced Placement Examinations (AP) of the College Entrance Examination Board (www.collegeboard.org), the American College Testing Program (ACT) (www.act.org), the International Baccalaureate Program (IB) (www.ibo.org), and the DANTES Subject Standardized Test (DSST). Examinations are administered by Testing Services, 107 Keathley University Center. Additional information can be obtained by calling (615) 898-2863.
All credit-by-examination scores are submitted to the Admissions Office. The test results are evaluated and recorded on a student’s transcript if credit is earned. Semester hours of credit toward graduation are earned on the basis of these tests, but no grades or quality points are given. These credits will not affect a student’s academic GPA. A student may receive no more than 60 semester hours of credit by means of credit-by-examinations, credit for service-related experience, and flight training.
College Level Examination Program (CLEP)
Students may earn college credit for acceptable scores on the College Level Examination Program (CLEP), a computer-based program. Exam scores are available at the completion of the exam. All CLEP scores are submitted to the Admissions Office, and the test results are evaluated and recorded as transfer credit on a student’s transcript if credit is earned. These credits do not carry quality points and will not affect a student’s academic GPA but are considered during repeat processing. Admissions will email the student’s MTSU email account when credit has been evaluated. Students can view their earned credit in PipelineMT. Required scores to earn credit can be found below:
NOTE: You are required to wait three (3) months before retaking a test.
CLEP General Examination
College Mathematics, total score of 45 or greater, three credits, in lieu of MATH 1010
CLEP Subject Examinations
The following examinations require a score of 50 or greater.
Financial Accounting, three credits, in lieu of ACTG 2110
General Biology, four credits, in lieu of BIOL 1030/BIOL 1031
Business Law, Introduction to, three credits, in lieu of BLAW 3430
General Chemistry, eight credits, in lieu of CHEM 1110/CHEM 1111, CHEM 1120/CHEM 1121
Macroeconomics, Principles of, three credits, in lieu of ECON 2410
Microeconomics, Principles of, three credits, in lieu of ECON 2420
Analysis and Interpretation of Literature–essay required, three credits, in lieu of ENGL 2030
NOTE: Essays written as part of the exam in English will be graded by full-time faculty of the English Department. To receive credit, students must write essays that demonstrate the positive qualities of superior writing defined in the English Department’s Sophomore Writing Standards, in addition to scoring an acceptable score on the objective portion of the examination
American History I: Early Colonizations to 1877, three credits, in lieu of HIST 2010
American History II: 1865 to Present, three credits, in lieu of HIST 2020
Western Civilization I: Ancient Near East to 1648, three credits, in lieu of HIST 1010
Western Civilization II: 1648 to Present, three credits, in lieu of HIST 1020
Management, Principles of, three credits, in lieu of MGMT 3610
Marketing, Principles of, three credits, in lieu of MKT 3820
College Algebra, three credits, in lieu of MATH 1710
Pre-Calculus, four credits, in lieu of MATH 1730
Calculus, four credits, in lieu of MATH 1910
American Government, three credits, in lieu of PS 1005
General Psychology, three credits, in lieu of PSY 1410
Sociology, Introductory, three credits, in lieu of SOC 1010
College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB)
MTSU participates in the Advanced Placement (AP) Program of the College Entrance Examination Board and grants appropriate semester hours credit to qualified students presenting official record of a grade of 3 or above on the appropriate CEEB examination. Semester hours credit in the amount carried by the course or courses from which the student is exempted by CEEB advanced placement examination will be awarded.
Art History, three credits, in lieu of ART 1030
Biology, four credits, in lieu of BIOL 1030/BIOL 1031 (Science major may receive credit for BIOL 1110/BIOL 1111, BIOL 1120/BIOL 1121 upon recommendation of chair, Department of Biology.)
Calculus AB, four credits, in lieu of MATH 1910
Calculus BC, four credits, in lieu of MATH 1920
Chemistry, eight credits, in lieu of CHEM 1110/CHEM 1111, CHEM 1120/CHEM 1121
Comparative Government and Politics, three credits, in lieu of PS 1010
Computer Science A, four credits in lieu of CSCI 1170
Computer Science AB, four credits, in lieu of CSCI 2170*#
English Language and Composition, three credits in lieu of ENGL 1010
English Literature and Composition, three credits, in lieu of ENGL 1010
Environmental Science, three credits, in lieu of EST 2810
European History, three credits in lieu of HIST 1020
Foreign Languages and Cultures, six credits, in lieu of SPAN 1010 and SPAN 1020, FREN 1010 and FREN 1020, GERM 1010 and GERM 1020, LATN 1010 and LATN 1020
Human Geography, three credits, in lieu of GS 2010
Macroeconomics, three credits for ECON 2410
Microeconomics, three credits for ECON 2420
Music Theory, three credits, in lieu of MUTH 1000
Physics 1, four credits, in lieu of PHYS 2010/2011*
Physics B, four credits, in lieu of PHYS 2010/PHYS 2011*#
Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism, four credits, in lieu of PHYS 2120/PHYS 2121*
Physics C: Mechanics, four credits, in lieu of PHYS 2110/PHYS 2111*
Psychology, three credits, in lieu of PSY 1410
Statistics, three credits, in lieu of MATH 1530
Studio Art: Drawing Portfolio, three credits in lieu of ART 1620
Studio Art: 2-D Design Portfolio, three credits in lieu of ART 1610
U.S. Government and Politics, three credits, in lieu of PS 1005
U.S. History, six credits, in lieu of HIST 2010, HIST 2020
World History, six credits in lieu of HIST 1110, HIST 1120
*NOTE: A grade of 4 or above is required to receive credits
#NOTE: Test has been discontinued by AP
DANTES Subject Standardized Test (DSST)
Students may earn college credit for acceptable scores on the DANTES Subject Standardized Test (DSST) if recommended by the American Council on Education (ACE). MTSU awards lower-division and upper-division credit based on the ACE recommendation. Students should submit an official DANTES transcript to the MTSU Undergraduate Admissions office for review. A student may receive no more than 60 semester hours of credit by means of DSST, credit-by-special exam, credit for service-related experience, and flight training.
NOTE: Due to accreditation requirements, the Jennings A. Jones College of Business will not allow DSST upper-division credit to count toward graduation.
Credit by Special Examination (Undergraduate)
Any student enrolled in the University who receives departmental approval is eligible to receive credit by special examination for certain MTSU courses. Competence gained through study and/or experience may provide background for students who wish to attempt such examinations. Credit by special examination may be given for undergraduate courses listed in the catalog with the exception of
courses described as directed research or directed independent study;
any course from which student has been exempted by placement examination;
courses not approved by the department.
NOTE: A nonrefundable fee of $20.00 will be charged for each semester hour of credit.
Students seeking credit by examination should, on forms provided by the Admissions Office, request approval from the chair of the department or director of the school in which the course is offered. The method for designing, administering, and evaluating the special examination will be determined by the department/school. The examination shall be comparable in scope and difficulty to a comprehensive final examination in that course. The form for approval to post credit by special examination must be received in the Admissions Office no later than two weeks prior to the first day of final exams for a specified semester. No student will be allowed to repeat a special examination in a given course within one year.
The student will receive credit, to be recorded as P (Pass) on the student’s transcript, upon passing the examination with a minimum equivalent grade of C. Credit by special examination cannot be used in the determination of the 25 percent credit earned through instruction offered by MTSU.
Credit for Freshman English
Entering freshmen whose standard score on the English section of the Enhanced ACT is 32 or better will be given six hours credit for ENGL 1010 and ENGL 1020.
Entering freshmen whose SAT verbal scores are 720 or better will be given six hours credit for ENGL 1010 and 1020.
NOTE: If any such student elects to enroll in composition rather than receive credit, he/she must enroll in ENGL 1010 and ENGL 1020.
Cambridge International Examinations
MTSU grants appropriate semester hours credit to qualified students presenting official record of acceptable grades on Cambridge Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) examinations. Credit will be awarded for A (Advanced) level and AS (Advanced Subsidiary) level. The following courses have been approved for award of credits. Other AICE examinations may be approved for award of university credits following institutional review.
CIE 8287 English-Language (A Level) - ENGL 1010
CIE 9011 Divinity (A or AS Level) - RS ELLD
CIE 9013 Islamic Studies (A or AS Level) - RS ELLD
CIE 9014 Hinduism (A or AS Level) - RS ELLD
CIE 9231 Mathematics-Further (A Level) - MATH ELLD
CIE 9231 Mathematics-Further (AS Level) - MATH ELLD
CIE 9276 English-Literature (A Level) - ENGL 2030
CIE 9278 Geography (A Level) - GEOG 2000
CIE 9278 Geography (A Level) - PGEO 1030
CIE 9278 Geography (AS Level) - GEOG 2000
CIE 9279 History (A Level) - HIST ELLD
CIE 9280 Mathematics (A Level) - MATH ELLD
CIE 9280 Mathematics (AS Level) - MATH ELLD
CIE 9395 Travel and Tourism - LSTS 3390
CIE 9396 Physical Education - PHED 2800
CIE 9608 Computer Science (A Level) - CSCI 1170
CIE 9691 Computing (A Level) - CSCI 1170
CIE 9694 Thinking Skills - UNIV ELLD
CIE 9699 Sociology (A or AS Level) - SOC 1010
CIE 9704 Art and Design (A Level) - ART ELLD
CIE 9704 Art and Design (AS Level) - ART ELLD
International Baccalaureate Program
Students may earn college credit for acceptable scores on examinations administered by the International Baccalaureate Organization.
IB Exam IB Exam Score MTSU course MTSU credits
Biology (higher level)
5 or higher
BIOL 1110/BIOL 1111 and BIOL 1120/BIOL 1121
Chemistry (higher level)
CHEM 1110/1111 and 1120/1121
Chemistry (standard level)
CHEM 1010/1111
Computer Science (standard or higher level)
6 or higher (SL)
5 or higher (HL)
CSCI 1170
Dance (standard or higher level)
DANC 1000
English Language A Literature (standard or higher level)
English Language A Language and Literature (standard and higher level)
Environmental Systems or Societies (standard or higher level)
MTSU credit in foreign languages is granted after analysis by the department of the IB transcript submitted by the student
Geography (standard or higher level)
GEOG 2000
History (higher level)
HIST 1120 and depending on higher level option (Paper #3)–
Europe: HIST 1020; Americas: either HIST 2010 or 2020 to be determined at Customs (orientation) advising; Africa and the Middle East or Asia and Ocean - 3 hours lower-division history credit
Mathematics (higher level)
MATH 1910, MATH 1920 plus 3 hours lower-division mathematics elective credit
Philosophy (standard level)
3 hours lower-division philosophy credit
Philosophy (higher level) 5 or higher PHIL 1030 3
Physics (standard or higher level)
PHYS 2010/PHYS 2011
PHYS 2010/PHYS 2011 and PHYS 2020/PHYS 2021
Psychology (higher level) 4 or higher 3 hours lower-division psychology credit 3
Theatre (standard or higher level)
THEA 1030
World Politics (standard or higher level)
World Religions (standard level)
3 hours lower-division religious studies credit
Economics (standard level)
ECON 2410
Economics (higher level)
ECON 2410 and ECON 2420
Social and Cultural Anthropology (standard)
ANTH 2010
Social and Cultural Anthropology (higher level)
ANTH 2010 plus 3 hours ANTH lower division elective
Business and Management (standard or higher level)
BCED 1400
Service Credits
At Middle Tennessee State University, the Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center (Daniels Center) is tasked with coordinating and evaluating service credit. Specifically, all discharged veterans, National Guard members, military reservists, or active duty service members who are receiving VA, DOD, or the state of Tennessee military educational benefits are
required to submit to the Daniels Center the Member 4 DD214 or the Leave and Earnings Statement (LES),
required to submit directly to the Office of Admission the Community College of the Air Force (CCAF) transcript-for those who are or have served in the Air Force,
strongly recommended to submit to the Daniels Center a Joint Services Transcript (JST)-all branches other than Air Force.
Please submit the DD214 at the time of application for admission to the university.
Academic credit awards are made from evaluation of factors such as time in service, the recommendations of the American Council on Education (ACE), the student’s learning needs, and the ability for the credit to fulfill degree requirements.
Students participating/intending to participate in the ROTC program must notify the Daniels Center when submitting the above documents.
Students do NOT receive grades for military credit. MTSU does not award vocational or graduate credit.
Those students interested in receiving academic credit for their military training and experiences and are not using military educational benefits can also submit to the Daniels Center the above documentation for evaluation.
Students are encouraged to pursue credits via examination such as CLEP, CEEB, DSST, Credit by Special Exam, International Baccalaureate Program, Foreign Language Tests, the Advanced Placement Examinations (AP), and the American College Testing Program (ACT).
For more information on Service Credit, please contact the Daniels Center (KUC 124, 615/904-8374) or visit www.mtsu.edu/military/admission.php.
Exception: If a student using educational benefits is unable to provide a DD214, the JST or the CCAF will be accepted to fulfill this need.
Holds: Students using military educational benefits who do not comply with the above requirements will not receive Financial Aid (ex: Pell Grant, Stafford Loans, etc.) until the DD214/LES is submitted and reviewed. Additionally, these students will have a hold on their records and will be unable to register beyond the initial semester.
Advanced Credit
Aerospace Training and Experience
University credit may be granted for specific aerospace maintenance technician courses for holders of FAA Airframe and/or Powerplant Certificates. See the Aerospace Department section for more information.
How to Correct High School Deficiency
Students admitted to MTSU with a United States History high school unit deficiency will be required to remove this deficiency by earning credit for the courses listed below. New freshman students must remove the deficiency within the first 64 hours of enrollment and transfer students within the first 30 hours of enrollment.
Requirements MTSU Courses Available Exemption Examinations Available Departments Offering Course/Exams Procedures/Special Conditions
History HIST 2010 or HIST 2020 or HIST 2030 Survey of United States History I, II, Tennessee History Yes (CLEP) History Students deficient in American history will take two of these courses.
To be accepted to the University, all students, including reenrollees and part-time students, must meet admission requirements. The University reserves the right to stop accepting applications and to terminate registration at any point to ensure enrollment limitations according to guidelines set forth by the institution.
MTSU offers priority registration for current, reenrolling, or new undergraduates with a previous degree. Assigned registration times are accessible on PipelineMT and communicated via your MTMail account so check your email regularly.
Students must resolve any registration holds before being eligible for registration. Students may access PipelineMT to view holds.
Students must meet State of Tennessee immunization requirements (see above).
ACT/SAT sub scores will determine if a student will be placed in prescribed courses; however, students will have the option to verify/challenge by taking the Academic Assessment Placement Test. Students without ACT/SAT scores may elect to undergo the Academic Assessment Placement Test or be placed automatically in the first level of the appropriate prescribed subject.
It is required for declared major students and strongly recommended for undeclared students to meet with an advisor to work out a schedule of classes, to review progress toward graduation, review Financial Aid Course Program of Study (CPoS) applicability, and for program updates or changes.
Before registration, advising is required for new freshmen and new transfer students who have declared a major and strongly recommended for undeclared new freshman and new transfer students.
Before registration is permitted, currently enrolled undergraduate students with a declared major having fewer than 30 hours are required to be advised by an advisor as determined by the college’s advising plan. Advising is strongly recommended for students who are undeclared.
Students with a declared major who also have prescribed course requirements must be advised by a college advisor until all prescribed requirements are complete. Students who have not declared a major but have prescribed course requirements are strongly recommended to be advised by the University College advisors until all prescribed requirements are complete.
A student with an Academic Focus: Undeclared (General Education) major is strongly recommended to seek advising from the University College advisors before course selection.
All pre-professional students must be advised by their pre-professional advisors.
Upper-division students should have on file a degree plan (upper-division form). Students should follow their degree plan to stay on track for graduation. Students should complete the upper-division and Intent to Graduate forms two semesters before the desired term of graduation. These forms should be filed with the graduation coordinator. (See MT One Stop.)
All full-time, degree-seeking students should be enrolled in the appropriate General Education English course and either six hours in General Education or three hours in General Education and three hours in their majors until they have satisfied the University’s General Education requirements.
Registering Online for Courses
Click on PipelineMT at www.mtsu.edu; Choose Registration and Student Records (left menu). Choose from one of the following:
Add or Drop Classes
Look Up Classes
Display Corequisites
Priority Registration Tools
Assigned Advisor
Assigned Registration Time
Maximum Registration Hours for Term
Prescribed Course and High School Deficiency Summary
Registration Status
Schedule an Advising Appointment
Certain courses and programs require the use and/or handling of hazardous materials or equipment. Students are expected to follow all safety instructions and to take the required safety precautions including, but not limited to, the use of personal protection equipment (PPE) during the course or program to prevent incidences of injury to self or other students
Fee Payment and Confirmation
For fee payment procedures and payment deadlines see Bursar’s website at www.mtsu.edu/tuition. A student is not officially enrolled until completion of all of the requirements of registration including the payment of fees or confirmation of attendance.
How to pay registration fees by credit card or check card on PipelineMT:
Log in to PipelineMT, click on Billing and Payment.
Select Pay Registration, Balance, or Installment.
Select Continue. You will be taken to the bill payment system.
Select Make a Payment.
Check Current account balance then click Continue.
Click on the Select Payment Method drop down box then select Credit or Debit Card then click Select.
Enter in credit/debit card number then click Continue.
Enter in credit/debit card information then click Continue.
Verify your information is correct then click Submit Payment.
Wait for payment confirmation.
How to confirm registration on PipelineMT:
Select Confirm Registration.
Select the term. Then click Submit. The account balance summary and account detail for the term will be displayed.
Click “Yes, I will attend during …” and wait for a confirmation number.
Students will be given a confirmation number and should write down the confirmation number and date as proof of confirmation. If in doubt, students should try the process again and the system will tell them if registration has been confirmed. The confirmation number will not be repeated. If the student does not receive a confirmation number and is instead taken to the bill payment system, aid is either not on the account or a balance is still due.
Class schedules will be deleted unless fees are paid or registration confirmed by the fee payment deadlines.
Former students must settle all prior accounts in the Business Office and Walker Library before readmission.
Students are required to have an ID card which is automatically validated each semester upon payment of fees.
Students must register their automobiles for the current academic year.
Determination of Residence for Fee-paying Purposes
The Admissions Office and International Affairs Office makes decisions concerning residence classifications for undergraduate students. Regulations concerning residency are printed on the back of the Application for Tennessee Residency Form that may be obtained from the Admissions Office, Student Services and Admission Center. Students who disagree with a residency decision may appeal to the Student Appeals Committee. Additional information can be found above.
Selective Service
All male U.S.citizens and male noncitizens who take up residency in the United States of American before their 28th birthday must register with Selective Service prior to registering for classes at MTSU. This requirement does not apply to veterans and others exempt by federal law.
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Let the Readings Fly: Jiang Wen Reaches for the Mainstream
By Shelly Kraicer In CS47, Features, From The Magazine
By Shelly Kraicer
If you happen to be a Chinese film producer, China looks like the Promised Land, if not the Wild West—a place that’s available, for the taking, with its doors wide open. (Though if you’re an activist in the marginal non-governmental sphere these days, the picture looks quite different). 2010 box-office numbers continued their exponential rise, with blockbuster hit succeeding blockbuster hit all the way to December. And the biggest box-office earner yet in Chinese movie history is Jiang Wen’s Let the Bullets Fly (Rang zidan fei). Released in December, Jiang’s eagerly awaited film raced past the record set by Feng Xiangang’s Aftershock (2010), which held up for a scant five months.
More and more screens, rising ticket prices, and a more affluent ticket-buying middle class means that records will continue to be broken rather rapidly (to the professional delight of these upbeat Chinese producers and investors). But Let the Bullets Fly owes its success to deliberate design. This Chinese action comedy connected with audiences and critics in an unprecedented way, earning a kind of across-the-board critical and public acclaim that I haven’t seen in the eight years I’ve been in China.
Jiang Wen himself is an icon: a star actor who established himself in the mid ‘80s with larger-than-life performances filled with overwhelming energy, technical brilliance, and masculine brio in Xie Jin’s Hibiscus Town (1986) and Zhang Yimou’s Red Sorghum (1988). His first film as director, the Cultural Revolution coming-of-age tale In the Heat of the Sun (1994), was a critical triumph: its modestly postmodern formal strategies and vividly emotional storytelling resonated with the unarticulated experiences of a generation of Chinese who grew up in the ‘70s, and remains the favourite local film of most of the Chinese film professionals I know. The film is unusual in depicting the Cultural Revolution as a free and almost blissful time for teens discovering love and desire, as opposed to seeing it as a time of violence, chaos, and unprecedented destruction. It proposed a kind of post-revolutionary post-romanticism, de-politicized and re-eroticized, that filled an emotional void in the imaginations of a generation of Chinese.
Jiang Wen’s second feature Devils on the Doorstep (2000) brought controversy when the Chinese government opposed its “unauthorized” entry into that year’s Cannes Competition, where it won the Grand Prix. A black-and-white, aggressively comic drama set during China’s WWII resistance to Japanese occupation, the film displays absurdities of wartime behaviour, the craziness inherent in maintaining appropriately functional levels of fear and loathing of the enemy. Putting its Chinese civilians in a less than flattering light, it pushed too many “sensitive” political buttons for the government, who banned it from exhibition in China.
Seven years passed before Jiang released The Sun Also Rises (2007), though he acted in films for other directors in the meantime. A complicated, multi-layered romantic/comic drama set largely in 1976, the film is a challenge to watch, a near-masterpiece whose peculiarities—a tricky non-chronological narrative structure and an addiction to Jiang Wen’s style of charging momentum that’s usually full-speed, full-energy ahead—fit uncomfortably with its operatic range and visual splendour. Jiang wants to create a segmented film structure that might capture, indirectly and discreetly, a fractured sense of China’s evolution from its late-‘50s Soviet period to the end of the Cultural Revolution (here seen as far less benign than depicted in his debut). It’s a rewriting of Chinese socialism, from its orthodox high point to its collapse under Maoist radical pressure. The film is built on the fractured sense of history and personal identity that results from such pressure, as well as a hurtling narrative speed symptomatic of an indigestible whiplashing change in Chinese politics and society. With such an ambitious agenda, no wonder the film met with a puzzled reception both at its Venice premiere and at the local box office.
With Let the Bullets Fly, Jiang Wen and his team have a clear agenda to synchronize their creativity with the new Chinese film market. Bullets preserves the most popular elements of its immediate predecessor and irons out the idiosyncrasies that kept audiences (and critics) at a distance. If a blockbuster was the plan, then Jiang’s success is unmitigated.
The experience of watching the film can be quite thrilling, insofar as highly verbal populist entertainment can still thrill a spectacle-trained contemporary audience. Let the Bullets Fly is intensely theatrical in the way it stresses dialogue and performance. It’s almost as if Jiang Wen has taken the more popular, accessible bits of Shakespeare as his dramaturgical guide. In Chinese, the dialogue is vivid, lyrical, and secular-poetic in its simple rhythms and repeated cadences. The feel is often close to verse, though the words are colloquial, vernacular. The three main leads are cast perfectly for the verbal acuity required. No one is better than Chinese box-office king Ge You (most famous in the West for his leading role in Zhang Yimou’s To Live, for which he won the Best Actor prize at Cannes in 1994) at wittily inflecting sharp lines with an acidly contemporary bite: as Ma Bangde (aka Councillor Tang), he’s also a fine ham, but keeps his theatrics within his character’s parameters. As the main villain Huang Silang, Chow Yun-fat comes closest yet to recreating that kind of larger-than-life charismatic presence that used to seem effortless for him in the Cantonese productions he once dominated in Hong Kong. And as bandit leader Zhang Muzhi, Jiang Wen (once even sporting a very Hamlet-like vest and ruffled shirt) combines a dominating, tangible physical presence with verbal power: think a super-macho version of Kenneth Branagh, if not Olivier. These three stars propel almost all of the films verbal set-pieces (the others, based on gunplay and chases, offer more conventionally cinematic thrills) with balanced, matching volleys and counter-volleys of high-tempo line readings. Jiang keeps the visual plan of the film tightly connected to its verbal conception, with bright, clear graphic design principles dominating: huge colour fields, vibrant, saturated colours, and easily legible, strikingly symmetrical compositions. It feels like stage design, re-imagined seamlessly for the big screen.
But Jiang Wen is not only a master populist in the manner of, say, Feng Xiaogang. His films reveal a Chinese artist bearing the typical crushing burden of “responsibility for the Nation,” something this country’s artists have borne since at least the Qin dynasty. Jiang is an institution, a powerful national figure with a strong sense of his own cultural significance. His films together take on the project of reinterpreting and reconfiguring Chinese history. With exactly what ideological commitment, though, is an open question. Critical readings of Bullets in Chinese have distributed themselves more or less evenly along the political spectrum: an arch-Maoist allegory; a post-socialist or post-capitalist text; a subversive anti-Communist work. Can it be all of these? A brief look at the genre, plot, and characters of the film can show how it presents a corresponding allegory for almost every kind of ideologically engaged viewer.
Let the Bullets Fly is first and foremost a revolutionary Western, set in the ‘20s during the politically turbulent era that followed the 1911 Xinhai Revolution that overthrew the Qing dynasty. In proto-republican China, warlords vied for control of large territories. Zhang Muzhi (Jiang Wen) is an outlaw. With six bandit followers, he captures the new would-be County Governor Ma Bangde of Goose Town (Ge You) and his wife (Hong Kong star Carina Lau). To save his own life, Ma leads Zhang to Goose Town to share the fortune that can be made squeezing taxes out of the townspeople. But the local warlord/opium dealer/human trafficker Huang Silang (Chow Yun-fat) stands in their way. Through various complicated stratagems involving gunplay, thievery, masked deception, and lots of verbal jousting, these three vie for control of the town and its riches.
There’s an element of an Eastern “Western” in Jiang Wen’s film: a charismatic gunslinger/outlaw comes into town with his gang, propelled by a spectacular train heist. He proceeds to take on the local bully/despot, and from his outlaw space—usurping agencies of state control, but functioning even better as a guarantor of law-abiding peacefulness and social justice—overthrows the despot, establishes a new kind of moral order, then moves on. Jiang takes a genre that originally mythologized the expansion of the American frontier and the establishment of free-range individualism and nimbly tweaks it to fit both the chaotic Chinese warlord era prior to Communist control, and, by implication, the current post-Communist (but definitely not post-Party) return to a wild, laissez-faire regime of unregulated aggressive capital and tenuous central control.
Chow Yun-fat’s depraved, corrupt, and powerful monopoly-capitalist Huang Silang appears to be the purest villain of the piece: brilliant but dishonourable, lacking moral restraints. He could be, in allegorical terms, an embodiment of the corrupt capitalist base of Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang, the “Nationalist” party who temporarily brought a kind of order to warlord-ridden China shortly after the period in which this film takes place, and who were subsequently overthrown by the Communists in 1949, partly because the Kuomintang’s venality and corruption drove people to the CCP. Or Huang Silang could equally well incarnate the nexus of local power and corruption that has taken over the Communist Party since Deng Xiaoping introduced capitalist reforms after 1979 and Jiang Zemin opened the floodgates to massive official corruption in the ‘90s.
Ge You’s Ma Bangde is a fascinating weasel: he’s out for money, period. His loyalty is to whomever will give him access to wealth, and he flits between Zhang Muzhi and Huang Silang according to his sense of where the balance of power lies. So is this man a stand-in for the incipient Chinese bourgeoisie, looking for an angle to exploit, loyal only to the accumulation of capital? Or is he an avatar of the bourgeois intellectual class of China today, facile with language and ever so carefully calculating its dependent relationship to power? Perhaps he’s even closer to China’s emerging ultra-rich elite, whose expedient alliances with the Party enable them to transfer vast amounts of formerly public wealth and property into their own hands.
The most enigmatic figure is Jiang Wen’s Zhang Muzhi, whose own identities are multiple. He is Muzhi, former soldier in the Xinhai Revolutionary Army and something of a complicated idealist. At the same time, he impersonates the fearsome bandit Zhang Mazi, pillaging towns in the area of Sichuan where the film is set. (All three main characters, in fact, have double identities: Huang Silang has an idiot double for protection, and Councillor Tang is in fact Ma Bangde, the would-be County Governor in waiting.) He’s also very clearly Jiang Wen playing someone much like Jiang Wen, the dominant force and omnipresent onscreen auteur of the film. Jiang is immediately present, maintaining control with his macho dominance of shot and setting and tone, and exploiting all his gifts: physical charisma, theatrical verbal command, and a powerful moral charisma emanating from the Jiang Wen persona well known to (and revered by) Chinese audiences.
No simple thief, Zhang Muzhi scorns the fortune that he seems to be seeking from Huang Silang, letting the townspeople pillage in his stead. He’s a theorist of power and will; a promiscuous blend of Machiavelli, Nietzsche, and Mao; and a charismatic wielder of violence who teaches, in a memorable speech, that authority and a gun together command respect and establish order. At times he seems to be wielding something like moral authority: he offers to enrich the poor and empower them to rid themselves of despot Huang. There is definitely a stylized pre-Maoist revolutionary in here, charging into the town and attempting to raise the consciousness of the peasants to foment revolution. But at most these benighted townsfolk become little versions of Ma Bangde, calculating the wind and grabbing what they can, when it’s safe. Perhaps they more closely resemble the vast body of Chinese citizens today, who, resistant to more than 40 years of ideological indoctrination, display not the slightest shred of socialist values in their aggressively fanned aspirations to earn and consume as much and as fast as possible.
Where does that leave us with Jiang Wen’s character? There is a key bit of dialogue towards the end of the film that’s quite short (and doesn’t give away much, if you haven’t seen the film yet). Zhang Muzhi and Huang Silang are conversing. Zhang asks Huang, “What’s more important to me, you or your money?” When Huang can’t decide, Zhang tells him “to be rid of you is more important.” Zhang here denies that he seeks wealth (he’s no Ma Bangde), nor does he seek power (he’s not Huang the despot). Zhang seeks only the absence of despotism, the annihilation of exploitation, the obliteration of repression. But he does it as a particularly charismatic figure, one whose seductive allure and authoritarian aura (not to mention his utter comfort with bloody murder when he deems it necessary) might give one pause. What sort of a replacement for despotism is this blood-soaked, charismatic populism?
We can worry as long as we like about the politics of the film, and Jiang’s careful metaphorical construction has set up such a multivalent ideological machine that no specific readings—especially “sensitive” ones, in the context of the current Chinese government crackdown—can dominate. In fact, audiences have been discussing and debating the film’s meanings. I’ve seen versions of most of the above readings in vigorous online debates about the film. One is reminded of Mao’s dangerous slogan, “Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend” that ushered in a brief reform in 1957 (before the terrifying crackdown of the Anti-Rightist Movement). Encapsulated within the bubble of an entertainment product, the film’s apparent ideological self-neutering lets it get away with a lot: mocking revolutionary masses and at the same time glorifying mass rebellion; satirizing the Party as a corruption machine and upholding elite-led class struggle; imposing justice through violence and deposing corrupt autocracy.
Once we work through the full range of political overtones, we’re left with Jiang Wen himself. His worldview has something in common with what is called the “red aristocracy” of China today. This group is made up of the now middle-aged members of China’s rising new elite who owe their privileged positions, at least in part, to being children of the “Red” elite (Communist Party or PLA officials) from the People’s Republic’s more socialist era. Born into an army family, Jiang had a privileged youth in Beijing that was reflected in In the Heat of the Sun’s idyllic version of leisure in the capital during the Cultural Revolution. Bullets’ idealizing mode, its fairy-tale version of early revolutionary history, is not atypical. Likewise is the film’s disdain for the hoi polloi and its reverence for an inspirational leader. We’re left with something like de-specified Red nostalgia, abstracted into shining legend.
If one sets aside all the commentary and metaphoric spinning, Let the Bullets Fly is fundamentally Jiang Wen’s ploy to connect with a mass Chinese audience, wrapped in an implied auto-critique of the failure of his last film, salted with enough audience-activating pleasure to create the greatest audience-drawing success in Chinese film history. Jiang does it all, and wins every game he’s playing. The references back to The Sun Also Rises are unmistakable (not the least thanks to the constant quoting of various themes from that film’s Joe Hisaishi score). In a rare interview, Jiang has expressed disappointment at the audience’s rejection of his prior film, which he sees as his most personal statement and most ambitious work. But where that film’s narrative complexities left mass audiences behind. Bullets does the exact opposite, without pandering: it offers real enjoyment, simplified sometimes, but still based on solid dramaturgic and cinematic skills. The film is a pleasure machine, but a vigorous, creative, super-energetic one that pumps out energy, premixed for instant satisfaction and surefire word-of-mouth appeal. It’s the mainstream future of Chinese cinema, an industry poised for commercial success at Bollywood or even Hollywood levels, soaring in the wind of China’s seemingly unstoppable rise.
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Home » Sports » Last Steep opens post season with big win over Black Holes
Last Steep opens post season with big win over Black Holes
August 6, 2008 213 Views
Playoffs fast and furious
There are two seasons in softball: the regular season and the post season.
The competitive league playoffs opened Monday, August 4 (I can’t believe it’s already August) without any major surprises.
The Wildbunch advanced with a forfeit win over Josephines only to lose to the first-seeded Isotopes and drop down into the loser’s bracket.
The LoBar showed up for their first playoff game against the Talk of the Town with just eight players. Yet, despite the short roster, they managed to cruise to a fairly easy win, sending the Talk into the loser’s bracket.
The Airheads edged out a 10-8 win over Tongue & Groovers at Pitsker Field and the Last Steep decimated the Black Holes 35-3 in their opening round game, building some offensive—and I mean offensive—momentum for the post season.
35-3? Where do I begin?
Well, let’s start with the first inning as the Last Steep retired the Black Holes 1-2-3 in the top of the first and proceeded to score 14 runs in the bottom of the first.
Black Holes pitcher Abe Fisher was throwing everything at the Last Steep hitters. Fisher worked, or at least tried to work, every bit of the plate with every spin on the ball possible, including a knuckle ball with absolutely no rotation whatsoever—but it didn’t matter. The Last Steep hitters were on fire.
Jeff Banford led off with a stand-up triple and scored on a base hit by Amy Shellenberger. Andrea Schultz and Josh Schumacher connected for RBI base hits and Rhett Yarborough knocked in two runs with a bases-loaded single. But the offensive highlight of the inning came from Jerry Heal.
With his nephew, Wyatt, standing by in the drizzling rain, Heal stepped to the plate with two runners on and crushed a three-run shot over the right field fence, much to the delight of his family.
The Great Bambino of local softball delivered. It was like something out of a Disney movie. Except, it wasn’t the game-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth that ultimately cured the terminally ill child listening to the radio broadcast from his hospital bed.
Actually it gave the Last Steep an 8-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning and allowed Heal’s family to head elsewhere and get out of the rain.
Yarborough pushed in two more runs in his second trip to the plate of the inning with a triple and the Last Steep was comfortably on top 14-0 at the close of the first inning.
Fisher led off the top of the second inning with a stand-up triple and scored on a sacrifice hit from Hannah Godwin to give the Black Holes a run.
But a run still left the Black Holes 13 runs shy of a tie and the Last Steep continued on its tirade in the bottom of the second inning to go up 17-1.
The Black Holes scored two more runs in the top of the third inning as Josh Egedy and Paul Holder tapped base hits and Eric Dishman pushed them in with a line drive.
An opposite field RBI double by Rose Reyes gave the Last Steep a 21-3 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning, at which point the game just got ugly, or uglier.
Heal tagged a solo home run to lead off in the bottom of the fifth inning and Michael Blunck drained a three-run shot to straightaway center.
Plays on defense by Holder, Egedy and Gracie Coburn proved that no matter what the score, the Black Holes would not give in, so the Last Steep persisted to hammer away at them.
It got downright cruel in the bottom of the sixth inning when Blunck, Schumacher and Yarborough all connected for inside the park home runs to score eight more runs, closing the 35-3 win for the Last Steep.
CB Staff
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Psychology Professor Emeritus Captures Lifetime Achievement Award
in CSUN Leaders, Faculty and Staff News
CSUN professor emeritus Barbara Tabachnick.
What do an accomplished belly dancer, writer, artist and CSUN professor emeritus of psychology have in common? Everything, since they’re the same person —Barbara Tabachnick, who just picked up a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Western Psychological Association. She’s the first CSUN professor to do so.
“It is her influence that explains why our department continues to be cited as the top comprehensive university that supports students to the doctorate who complete their degree,” said Carrie Satermoe, chair of CSUN’s Department of Psychology.
One of the main reasons Tabachnick was selected to receive the prestigious award is that, along with current psychology professor Lindal Fidell, she co-authored one of the most commonly used psychology books in school, “Using Multivariate Statistics.” The textbook is considered standard in graduate courses, and more than 200 universities in the United States use it as well as several overseas.
“(Tabachnick) is very good at communicating with the people who use the book by adding chapters and maintaining it so it stays up to date; she is very generous with her time and knowledge,” said co-author Fidell.
For more: CSUN Professor Emeritus Receives Lifetime Achievement Award [CSUN Media Releases]
Awards, College of Health and Human Development, Professor Emeritus
Award-Winning CSUN Marketing Team Does it Again
CSUN Recognizes Impactful Work of Principal Investigators
← Wolfson Scholar Among Outstanding Seniors Recognized at Honors Convocation
No Debate on the Winners at the Model United Nations →
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Research and Sponsored Projects
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Behaviour Change (1)
Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement (1)
International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care (1)
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Effects of the long-term feeding of diets enriched with inorganic phosphorus on the adult feline kidney and phosphorus metabolism
Janet Alexander, Jonathan Stockman, Jujhar Atwal, Richard Butterwick, Alison Colyer, Denise Elliott, Matthew Gilham, Penelope Morris, Ruth Staunton, Helen Renfrew, Jonathan Elliott, Phillip Watson
Journal: British Journal of Nutrition / Volume 121 / Issue 3 / 14 February 2019
Renal disease has a high incidence in cats, and some evidence implicates dietary P as well. To investigate this further, two studies in healthy adult cats were conducted. Study 1 (36 weeks) included forty-eight cats, stratified to control or test diets providing 1·2 or 4·8 g/1000 kcal (4184 kJ) P (0 or approximately 3·6 g/1000 kcal (4184 kJ) inorganic P, Ca:P 1·2, 0·6). Study 2 (29 weeks) included fifty cats, stratified to control or test diets, providing 1·3 or 3·6 g/1000 kcal (4184 kJ) P (0 or approximately 1·5 g/1000 kcal (4184 kJ) inorganic P, Ca:P 1·2, 0·9). Health markers, glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and mineral balance were measured regularly, with abdominal ultrasound. Study 1 was halted after 4 weeks as the test group GFR reduced by 0·4 (95 % CI 0·3, 0·5) ml/min per kg, and ultrasound revealed changes in renal echogenicity. In study 2, at week 28, no change in mean GFR was observed (P >0·05); however, altered renal echogenicity was detected in 36 % of test cats. In agreement with previous studies, feeding a diet with Ca:P <1·0, a high total and inorganic P inclusion resulted in loss of renal function and changes in echogenicity suggestive of renal pathology. Feeding a diet containing lower total and inorganic P with Ca:P close to 1·0 led to more subtle structural changes in a third of test cats; however, nephrolithiasis occurred in both diet groups, complicating data interpretation. We conclude that the no observed adverse effects level for total dietary P in adult cats is lower than 3·6 g/1000 kcal (4184 kJ), however the effect of inorganic P sources and Ca:P require further investigation.
By Rony A. Adam, Gloria Bachmann, Nichole M. Barker, Randall B. Barnes, John Bennett, Inbar Ben-Shachar, Jonathan S. Berek, Sarah L. Berga, Monica W. Best, Eric J. Bieber, Frank M. Biro, Shan Biscette, Anita K. Blanchard, Candace Brown, Ronald T. Burkman, Joseph Buscema, John E. Buster, Michael Byas-Smith, Sandra Ann Carson, Judy C. Chang, Annie N. Y. Cheung, Mindy S. Christianson, Karishma Circelli, Daniel L. Clarke-Pearson, Larry J. Copeland, Bryan D. Cowan, Navneet Dhillon, Michael P. Diamond, Conception Diaz-Arrastia, Nicole M. Donnellan, Michael L. Eisenberg, Eric Eisenhauer, Sebastian Faro, J. Stuart Ferriss, Lisa C. Flowers, Susan J. Freeman, Leda Gattoc, Claudine Marie Gayle, Timothy M. Geiger, Jennifer S. Gell, Alan N. Gordon, Victoria L. Green, Jon K. Hathaway, Enrique Hernandez, S. Paige Hertweck, Randall S. Hines, Ira R. Horowitz, Fred M. Howard, William W. Hurd, Fidan Israfilbayli, Denise J. Jamieson, Carolyn R. Jaslow, Erika B. Johnston-MacAnanny, Rohna M. Kearney, Namita Khanna, Caroline C. King, Jeremy A. King, Ira J. Kodner, Tamara Kolev, Athena P. Kourtis, S. Robert Kovac, Ertug Kovanci, William H. Kutteh, Eduardo Lara-Torre, Pallavi Latthe, Herschel W. Lawson, Ronald L. Levine, Frank W. Ling, Larry I. Lipshultz, Steven D. McCarus, Robert McLellan, Shruti Malik, Suketu M. Mansuria, Mohamed K. Mehasseb, Pamela J. Murray, Saloney Nazeer, Farr R. Nezhat, Hextan Y. S. Ngan, Gina M. Northington, Peggy A. Norton, Ruth M. O'Regan, Kristiina Parviainen, Resad P. Pasic, Tanja Pejovic, K. Ulrich Petry, Nancy A. Phillips, Ashish Pradhan, Elizabeth E. Puscheck, Suneetha Rachaneni, Devon M. Ramaeker, David B. Redwine, Robert L. Reid, Carla P. Roberts, Walter Romano, Peter G. Rose, Robert L. Rosenfield, Shon P. Rowan, Mack T. Ruffin, Janice M. Rymer, Evis Sala, Ritu Salani, Joseph S. Sanfilippo, Mahmood I. Shafi, Roger P. Smith, Meredith L. Snook, Thomas E. Snyder, Mary D. Stephenson, Thomas G. Stovall, Richard L. Sweet, Philip M. Toozs-Hobson, Togas Tulandi, Elizabeth R. Unger, Denise S. Uyar, Marion S. Verp, Rahi Victory, Tamara J. Vokes, Michelle J. Washington, Katharine O'Connell White, Paul E. Wise, Frank M. Wittmaack, Miya P. Yamamoto, Christine Yu, Howard A. Zacur
Edited by Eric J. Bieber, Joseph S. Sanfilippo, University of Pittsburgh, Ira R. Horowitz, Emory University, Atlanta, Mahmood I. Shafi
Book: Clinical Gynecology
Print publication: 23 April 2015, pp viii-xiv
By Louise B. Andrew, Jane C. Ballantyne, Sadek Beloucif, David Clendenin, Maliha A. Darugar, Joanna M. Davies, Michael DeVita, Denise M. Dudzinski, Bernice Elger, Monica Escher, Joel E Frader, Kelly Fryer-Edwards, James Giordano, Allen Gustin, Rebecca M. Harris, Gerhard Höver, Steven K. Howard, Carl C. Hug, Samia Hurst, Steven Jackson, Nancy S. Jecker, Jonathan D Katz, Joseph Klein, W. Andrew Kofke, Ruth Landau, Craig D. McClain MD, Alex Mauron, Kelly N. Michelson, Cynthiane J. Morgenweck, William Notcutt, Michael Nurok, Susan K. Palmer, Joan G. Quaine, Michael A. Rie, Stanley H. Rosenbaum, David M. Rothenberg, Robert B. Schonberger, Mark D. Siegel, Jeffrey H. Silverstein, Murali Sivarajan, Karen Souter MD, Thomas Specht MD, Andrea Trescot, Gail A. Van Norman, A.M. Viens, Elizabeth K. Vig, David B. Waisel, Clarence Ward, James M. West, Richard L Wolman, Steve Yentis
Edited by Gail A. Van Norman, University of Washington, Stephen Jackson, Stanley H. Rosenbaum, Susan K. Palmer
Book: Clinical Ethics in Anesthesiology
Print publication: 28 October 2010, pp xi-xiv
Predictors of Place of Death for Seniors in Ontario: A Population-Based Cohort Analysis*
Sanober S. Motiwala, Ruth Croxford, Denise N. Guerriere, Peter C. Coyte
Journal: Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement / Volume 25 / Issue 4 / Winter/Hiver 2006
Print publication: Winter/Hiver 2006
Place of death was determined for all 58,689 seniors (age ≥ 66 years) in Ontario who died during fiscal year 2001/2002. The relationship of place of death to medical and socio-demographic characteristics was examined using a multinomial logit model. Half (49.2%) of these individuals died in hospital, 30.5 per cent died in a long-term care facility, 9.6 per cent died at home while receiving home care, and 10.7 per cent died at home without home care. Co-morbidities were the strongest predictors of place of death (p < 0.0001). A cancer diagnosis increased the chances of death at home while receiving home care; seniors with dementia were most likely to die in LTC facilities; and those with major acute conditions were most likely to die in hospitals. Higher socio-economic status was associated with greater probability of dying at home but contributed little to the model. Appropriate planning and resource allocation may help move place of death from hospitals to nursing homes or the community, in accordance with individual preferences.
Evaluation of the ambulatory and home care record: Agreement between self-reports and administrative data
Denise N. Guerriere, Wendy J. Ungar, Mary Corey, Ruth Croxford, Jennifer E. Tranmer, Elizabeth Tullis, Peter C. Coyte
Journal: International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care / Volume 22 / Issue 2 / April 2006
Objectives: Although measuring the utilization of ambulatory and home-based healthcare resources is an essential component of economic analyses, very little methodological attention has been devoted to the development and evaluation of resource costing tools. This study evaluated a newly developed tool, the Ambulatory and Home Care Record (AHCR), which comprehensively evaluates costs incurred by the health system and care recipients and their unpaid caregivers.
Methods: The level of agreement between self-reports from 110 cystic fibrosis care recipients and administrative data was assessed for four categories of health services: home-based visits with healthcare professionals, ambulatory visits with healthcare professionals, laboratory and diagnostic tests, and prescription medications.
Results: Agreement between care recipients' reports on the AHCR and administrative data ranged from moderate (kappa=0.41; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.16–0.61) for physician specialist visits to perfect (kappa=1.0) for physiotherapy visits.
Conclusions: By evaluating and standardizing a resource and costing tool, such as the AHCR, economic evaluations may be improved and comparisons of the resource implications for different services and for diverse populations are possible.
Toward an understanding of risk factors for binge-eating disorder in black and white women: a community-based case-control study
RUTH H. STRIEGEL-MOORE, CHRISTOPHER G. FAIRBURN, DENISE E. WILFLEY, KATHLEEN M. PIKE, FAITH-ANNE DOHM, HELENA C. KRAEMER
Journal: Psychological Medicine / Volume 35 / Issue 6 / June 2005
Background. This study sought to identify in white women risk factors specific to binge-eating disorder (BED) and for psychiatric disorders in general, and to compare black and white women on risk factors for BED.
Method. A case-control design was used. Participants were recruited from the community and included 162 women who met DSM-IV criteria for BED and two comparison groups of women with no history of clinically significant eating disorder symptoms. The comparison women were matched to BED women on age, education and ethnicity and divided into a healthy comparison (HC) group, who had no current psychiatric disorder, and a psychiatric comparison (PC) group, who had a diagnosis of a DSM-IV Axis I psychiatric disorder. The study sample size was determined by the group with the least members (PC), including 107 women with BED and 214 matched comparison women. A broad range of risk factors was assessed with a Risk Factor Interview and the Parental Bonding Instrument.
Results. No significant effects for ethnicity by diagnostic group were found. BED women reported higher exposure to childhood obesity, family overeating or binge-eating, family discord, and high parental demands than PC women. The combined BED and PC group scored significantly higher than the HC group on measures of negative affect, parental mood and substance disorders, perfectionism, separation from parents, and maternal problems with parenting.
Conclusions. These findings indicate that childhood obesity and familial eating problems are reliable specific risk factors for BED. Ethnicity does not appear to moderate risk for BED.
Prescribing Medication Versus Promoting Behavioural Change: A Trial of the Use of Lifestyle Management to Replace Drug Treatment of Hypertension in General Practice
Christopher M. Reid, Barbara Murphy, Michael Murphy, Thomas Maher, Denise Ruth, Garry Jennings
Journal: Behaviour Change / Volume 11 / Issue 3 / September 1994
Antihypertensive drug therapy may reverse the cardiac and vascular structural changes associated with sustained hypertension. This may enable appropriate blood pressure levels to be maintained with milder forms of therapy (such as lifestyle interventions) which will minimise any potential adverse effects of pharmacological therapy. The HEART project was conducted in the general practice setting and aimed to determine whether lifestyle strategies, such as increased physical activity and dietary modification, could be substituted for drug therapy in patients who had been well controlled on antihypertensive medication. In addition to objective measures of blood pressure and risk factor outcomes, attitudes and perceptions of general practitioners (GPs) and patients involved in the trial were assessed through focus group discussion and personal interviews. Of the 44 patients recruited to the trial, 41 (93%) participated in structured interviews of 20–40 minutes duration conducted in person or by telephone. Of 78 GPs working in the western suburbs of Melbourne who were approached about the trial, 50% were willing to participate. Of these, 13 (34%) recruited study patients. Of these 13, 10 (77%) participated in a 2-hour focus group discussion which was audiotaped for later transcription and analysis. Despite being enthusiastic about lifestyle interventions in principle, nearly all of these GPs felt resistant to the concept of withdrawing medication in well-controlled subjects. They were generally surprised to see that many patients (15 of 20 patients: 75%) were able to maintain appropriate blood pressure levels following drug therapy withdrawal and adoption of minimal lifestyle changes. GPs felt that the patients' eagerness to come off medication was the major incentive for patients to participate in the trial. This was corroborated by many patients indicating a desire not to be taking any medication. The majority of patients reported making minor changes in lifestyle behaviours leading to most being able to remain off therapy or to have drug dosage requirements reduced. The major barriers to maintaining lifestyle change were family and work stresses and the perception of the intervention not being treated as a therapy thus not at the same level of importance as a treatment method as drug therapy. It appears that a select group of hypertensive patients, highly motivated by the prospect of drug therapy withdrawal, were interested in and willing to trial a lifestyle behaviour change approach for their blood pressure management. The majority reported that they had been able to adopt small but meaningful changes in exercise and dietary habits through the provision of stand-alone self-help materials and support from their GP. Of these patients, 75% remained normotensive without drug therapy after a 9-month follow-up period.
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International Psychogeriatrics (49)
The Australian Journal of Rehabilitation Counselling (12)
Ageing & Society (2)
International Psychogeriatric Association (49)
Aust Soc for Rehabilitation Counsellors Inc (12)
Ryan Test (2)
Remote delivery of psychological interventions for Parkinson's disease
Caitlin Swalwell, Nancy A. Pachana, Nadeeka N. Dissanayaka
Journal: International Psychogeriatrics / Volume 30 / Issue 12 / December 2018
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 May 2018, pp. 1783-1795
Over two-thirds of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients experience comorbid neuropsychiatric symptoms, which adversely impact their quality of life and often require intervention. There is a preference for non-pharmacological, psychological approaches in addressing these symptoms. Given mobility limitations, travel burden, and cost, accessibility to psychological treatment can be problematic in this population. There has been a recent shift toward delivering care via telehealth in PD. Accordingly, this review aimed to examine remotely delivered psychological interventions for PD patients.
Most of the telehealth studies for PD involved Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) based anxiety and depression telephone interventions with relatively short (one month) follow-up periods.
Although a preliminary work indicates efficacy, future studies should demonstrate the non-inferiority of these telehealth programs compared to face-to-face delivery, and examine the long-term outcomes of remotely delivered therapy. Video-conferencing (VC) appears to be a promising modality to overcome noted limitations of telephone delivery, and has demonstrated efficacy for PD speech programs. Further research should be conducted evaluating telehealth VC modalities for delivery of psychotherapy including CBT, as well as mindfulness-based therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy for remote treatment of depression and anxiety in PD.
Reliability, concurrent validity, and cultural adaptation of the Geriatric Depression Scale and the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory for detecting depression and anxiety symptoms among older Chinese immigrants: an Australian study
Briony Dow, Xiaoping Lin, Nancy A. Pachana, Christina Bryant, Dina LoGiudice, Anita M.Y. Goh, Betty Haralambous
Journal: International Psychogeriatrics / Volume 30 / Issue 5 / May 2018
Older Chinese people are one of the largest and fastest growing immigrant groups in Western countries. The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI) are screening tools that have been specifically designed for older people. This study explored their validity, concurrent reliability, and cultural appropriateness for detecting depression and anxiety symptoms among older Chinese immigrants living in Melbourne, Australia.
A total of 87 Chinese people were recruited from Chinese senior groups. Five screening tools were used, including the GDS, the GAI, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Kessler 10 (K10), and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Data were collected through standardized interviews.
The GDS and the GAI were found to be reliable and valid tools for detecting depression and anxiety in this sample. Based on the results of the five screening tools, approximately 20% of participants exhibited clinically significant symptoms of depression and 8% of anxiety. Unexpectedly, there was a higher rate of depression and anxiety symptoms among Mandarin speaking people compared with Cantonese speaking people.
This study adds to the evidence that older Chinese immigrants are at greater risk of depression than the general older population. It suggests that primary care and mental health services should be aware of and responsive to the increased risk of depression among this group and that further studies are needed to investigate what is contributing to this increased risk.
Wisdom across the ages and its modern day relevance
Leander K. Mitchell, Bob G. Knight, Nancy A. Pachana
Journal: International Psychogeriatrics / Volume 29 / Issue 8 / August 2017
Wisdom is derived (in modern language terms) from the Old English words wis (“of a certainty, for certain”; “Wisdom,” 2015) and dóm (“statute, judgment, jurisdiction”; “Wisdom,” 2015); wisdom is, at its broadest, defined as the “Capacity of judging rightly in matters relating to life and conduct; soundness of judgement in the choice of means and ends; sometimes less strictly, sound sense, esp. in practical affairs” (“Wisdom,” 2015). As a concept, wisdom has been acknowledged within our history since the time of the Sumerians (and estimated to have originated in around 2,500 BCE). However, in modern times, the relevance of the traditional wise person is less clear. Nonetheless, wisdom research has been on the rise since it emerged as a focus of researchers in the 1970’s, and a part of that research focus has been to explore the significance of wisdom and its relevance in the current day (particularly with regards to how it is measured across cultures).
To be or not to be (an older driver): social identity theory and driving cessation in later life
NANCY A. PACHANA, JOLANDA JETTEN, LOUISE GUSTAFSSON, JACKI LIDDLE
Journal: Ageing & Society / Volume 37 / Issue 8 / September 2017
Anticipated driving cessation required due to health or cognitive decline often evokes concerns about practical aspects of retaining mobility and quality of life as well as personal and social identity changes in older persons. While driving cessation is often perceived as stressful because it disrupts peoples' lives and poses practical hurdles, we argue that part of the stress associated with driving cessation can be attributed to identity change with regard to thinking of oneself as ‘no longer a driver’ as well as the perception of ‘getting old’. In an exploratory study, 208 older adults who had either ceased driving or had a plan to stop driving in the near future completed a ‘Driver Identity Survey’ with multiple questions about how they thought they would feel before and after stopping driving, as well as worries about practical hassles, life changes and changed relationships. Participants reported driving cessation as a significant life event associated with subjectively feeling older. Irrespective of current driving status, older participants identified the state of having ceased driving as associated with feeling older than their chronological age. Participants' expectations about practicalities and social identity changes were both significant predictors of stress associated with driving cessation. Discussion focuses on how expectations of anticipated changes in functionality and identity may influence driving cessation decisions and adjustment in later life.
Adapting psychotherapy for older patients with Parkinson's disease
Bob Knight, Nadeeka N. W. Dissanayaka, Nancy A. Pachana
Journal: International Psychogeriatrics / Volume 28 / Issue 10 / October 2016
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 April 2016, pp. 1631-1636
Emotional distress associated with Parkinson's disease (PD) increases disease burden and decreases functioning. The literature supports the benefits of psychological interventions for amelioration of emotional distress in persons with PD. The objective of this study is to apply the Contextual Adult Lifespan Theory for Adapting Psychotherapy (CALTAP) to enhancing psychological treatment for persons with PD.
This paper uses case examples to demonstrate the usefulness of the CALTAP model in helping patients and clinicians separate disease symptoms from the aging process. The examples also illustrate how working in this way can be beneficial in reducing emotional distress in persons with PD.
CALTAP contributes to helping persons with PD and persons treating them understand the effects of the disease, separate disease effects from aging processes, and think through the influences of social context, cohort effects, and cultural differences.
The CALTAP model can guide adaptations to psychological interventions for emotional distress in PD and potentially improve their effects.
Moderating effects of social engagement on driving cessation in older women
Nancy A. Pachana, Janni K Leung, Paul A Gardiner, Deirdre McLaughlin
Driving cessation in later life is associated with depression. This study examines if social support can buffer the negative effects of driving cessation on older women's mental health.
Participants were drawn from the 1921–1926 cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH) and included 4,075 older women (aged 76–87 years) who drove at baseline, following them for three years to assess driving cessation. The outcome variable was mental health, measured by the mental health index (MHI) of the SF-36. The explanatory variables were social support factors, including social interaction, whether the women were living alone or with others, and engagement in social activities. Control variables included age, country of birth, area of residence, ability to manage on income, marital status, and general health.
Main effect results showed that poor mental health was predicted by driving cessation, low levels of social interaction, and non-engagement in social activities. There was a significant interaction effect of driving status by social activities engagement on mental health. Women who remained active in their engagement of social activities were able to maintain a good level of mental health despite driving cessation.
Engagement and participation in social activities can help older women who stopped driving maintain a good level of mental health.
Disease-specific anxiety symptomatology in Parkinson's disease
Nadeeka N. W. Dissanayaka, John D. O'Sullivan, Nancy A. Pachana, Rodney Marsh, Peter A. Silburn, Elizabeth X. White, Elizabeth Torbey, George D. Mellick, David A. Copland, Gerard J. Byrne
Journal: International Psychogeriatrics / Volume 28 / Issue 7 / July 2016
Symptoms of anxiety relating to Parkinson's disease (PD) occur commonly and include symptomatology associated with motor disability and complications arising from PD medication. However, there have been relatively few attempts to profile such disease-specific anxiety symptoms in PD. Consequently, anxiety in PD is underdiagnosed and undertreated. The present study characterizes PD-related anxiety symptoms to assist with the more accurate assessment and treatment of anxiety in PD.
Ninety non-demented PD patients underwent a semi-structured diagnostic assessment targeting anxiety symptoms using relevant sections of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI-plus). In addition, they were assessed for the presence of 30 PD-related anxiety symptoms derived from the literature, the clinical experience of an expert panel and the PD Anxiety-Motor Complications Questionnaire (PDAMCQ). The onset of anxiety in relation to the diagnosis of PD was determined.
Frequent (>25%) PD-specific anxiety symptoms included distress, worry, fear, agitation, embarrassment, and social withdrawal due to motor symptoms and PD medication complications, and were experienced more commonly in patients meeting DSM-IV criteria for an anxiety disorder. The onset of common anxiety disorders was observed equally before and after a diagnosis of PD. Patients in a residual group of Anxiety Not Otherwise Specified had an onset of anxiety after a diagnosis of PD.
Careful characterization of PD-specific anxiety symptomatology provides a basis for conceptualizing anxiety and assists with the development of a new PD-specific measure to accurately assess anxiety in PD.
The knowledge and skills assessment (KASA) tool in the Australian Dementia Behaviour Management Advisory Service: development and initial testing
Urska Arnautovska, Sofia Robleda, Jeanette Jackson, Nancy A. Pachana
As the global population ages, it is important that the professional care workforce is well prepared to support the needs of people with dementia. In Australia, the Dementia Behaviour Management Advisory Service (DBMAS) supports people with dementia and their carers through an interdisciplinary team approach. To provide DBMAS Behaviour Consultants with a tool to guide them in their professional development, this project aimed to develop a self-assessment tool to enable self-reflection on clinical competencies required for working in the service and identification of areas where further development would be required.
A multi-stage process was applied in the development of the tool, including review of the relevant literature and focus groups with DBMAS Behaviour Consultants and Team Leaders. The tool encompasses both skills and knowledge in working with people with dementia and caregivers. A pilot study including 14 DBMAS consultants was conducted to assess the utility of the measure and ensure variability of ratings across knowledge and skill areas relative to time working in DBMAS.
The Knowledge and Skills Assessment (KASA) was developed and is now used in DBMAS service both with novice Behaviour Consultants and more experienced staff, and is also being used as an on-line version, accompanied with case vignettes.
The KASA provides a valuable self-assessment tool for professional care staff working in dementia care, but would nevertheless still warrant further testing of its psychometric characteristics.
“The biggest problem we’ve ever had to face”: how families manage driving cessation with people with dementia
Jacki Liddle, Amelia Tan, Phyllis Liang, Sally Bennett, Shelley Allen, David C. Lie, Nancy A. Pachana
Journal: International Psychogeriatrics / Volume 28 / Issue 1 / January 2016
It is recognized that people with dementia are likely to need to stop driving at some point following diagnosis. Driving cessation can lead to negative outcomes for people with dementia and their family caregivers (FC), who often experience family conflict and tension throughout the process. Family experiences surrounding driving cessation have begun to be explored but warrant further examination.
Using a descriptive phenomenological approach, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with key stakeholders, including 5 retired drivers with dementia, 12 FC, and 15 health professionals (HP). Data were analyzed inductively to explore the needs and experiences of people with dementia and FC.
The data revealed a range of possible interactions between people with dementia and FC. These were organized into a continuum of family dynamics according to levels of collaboration and conflict: in it together, behind the scenes, active negotiations, and at odds. At the in it together end of the continuum, people with dementia and FC demonstrated collaborative approaches and minimal conflict in managing driving cessation. At the at odds end, they experienced open conflict and significant tension in their interactions. Contextual factors influencing family dynamics were identified, along with the need for individualized approaches to support.
The continuum of family dynamics experienced during driving cessation may help clinicians better understand and respond to complex family needs. Interventions should be tailored to families’ distinctive needs with consideration of their unique contextual factors influencing dynamics, to provide sensitive and responsive support for families managing driving cessation.
Cognitive Rehabilitation with Older Adults
Nancy A. Pachana, Bernice A. Marcopulos, Janet Leatham
Journal: The Australian Journal of Rehabilitation Counselling / Volume 4 / Issue 2 / 1998
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 August 2015, pp. 82-96
The proportion of older adults seeking rehabilitation services are certain to rise as the population ages. Cognitive rehabilitation techniques can be successfully adapted and used with older adults with a range of clinical diagnoses. An understanding of cognitive changes which could be expected as a result of “normal” (non-disease-related) aging is essential for both assessment and treatment planning for this group. Age-related changes in attention, memory and executive functioning are briefly noted. Common cognitive sequelae of head-injury, depression and dementia are discussed, and useful assessment and rehabilitation strategies described. Case illustrations are used to illustrate major points.
Impact of Physical Disability on Pursuit of Gardening Activities in Mid-Aged Women
Nancy A. Pachana, Judith L. Kidd, Fiona M. Alpass
Research on horticultural therapy approaches suggest that its positive impact on clients may extend beyond direct rehabilitation or vocational gains to more generally improved well-being. Persons in rehabilitation programs may relate to gardening as a previously enjoyed past time, or as a new activity for either leisure or employment purposes. While gardening is a popular leisure activity in many countries, few studies have looked at what specific gardening activities community-based populations pursue. As part of a larger mail-out survey looking at gardening interests of mid-aged women, a sub-sample of physically disabled women was compared to healthy age-matched women on gardening activities and interests. Physical and psychological functioning and well-being were also sampled. Both groups completed the SF-36 Health Survey for Australia/New Zealand, the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised, and a gardening questionnaire tapping gardening activities and hours per month on these activities, as well as the reasons for pursuing gardening. Group differences emerged on physical and psychological functioning variables, but for virtually all gardening variables, group differences were minimal. Overall findings suggest that for this sample of mid-aged women, the presence of physical disability or limitation did not adversely affect their access to and enjoyment of gardening activities.
Anxiety rating scales in Parkinson's disease: a critical review updating recent literature
Nadeeka N. W. Dissanayaka, Elizabeth Torbey, Nancy A. Pachana
Journal: International Psychogeriatrics / Volume 27 / Issue 11 / November 2015
Assessing anxiety in Parkinson's disease (PD) has been a recent focus, and a number of studies have extensively investigated the validity of anxiety rating scales in PD. The present review aims to provide an overview of anxiety scales widely used and/or validated in PD, and to highlight recommendations for future research required in this area.
A literature search was performed using terms such as Parkinson* disease, psychiatric, depress*, anxiety, assessment, scales, and valid* in PsycInfo, PubMed, and Web of Science databases. Validation studies and reviews focussed on assessment of anxiety in PD were included.
The literature search identified nine anxiety rating scales. The new Parkinson's Anxiety Scale (PAS) showed good psychometric properties. Having a simple design appropriate for older adults and items focussed on cognitive anxiety, the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI) also appeared promising for use in PD. The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A) did not demonstrate satisfactory psychometric characteristics when used in PD, while other scales had limited or no evidence of validity or reliability to infer judgments.
PAS and GAI are can be recommended for use in PD without dementia. Usefulness of these scales to assess anxiety in dementia should be examined in the future. Moreover, the complex symptomatology of anxiety relating to “off” PD medication states were not addressed in these scales. Further research is required to develop an anxiety scale tailored for PD.
IPG volume 27 issue 7 Cover and Back matter
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 June 2015, pp. b1-b5
Late-life anxiety is coming of age
Aartjan T. F. Beekman, Richard Oude Voshaar, Nancy A. Pachana
Anxiety is an adaptive human experience that may occur at all ages and serves to help draw attention to, avoid or cope with immanent threat and danger. Given its evolutionary importance, it has strong genetic and biological underpinnings, and when it serves that adaptive function for the organism, anxiety may be viewed as useful. However, complex adaptive systems, such as our adaptation to threat or stress, by definition provide many and often interrelated points of breakdown or dysregulation, which, if sustained, may lead to psychopathology. Anxiety has been described as a common currency for psychopathology, indicating that it is a first line and universal way for us to respond to stress and threat. It is more or less prominent in patients diagnosed with practically all psychiatric or neurodegenerative disorders. This has lead to the inclusion of anxiety as a cross-cutting symptom measure in the development of DSM-5 (APA, 2013). Given that they are rooted in a complex adaptive system that has many potential points of impact to develop pathology, it is not surprising that anxiety disorders are extremely heterogeneous. This heterogeneity of anxiety disorders pertains to symptomatology, etiology and outcomes, and poses great challenges to both research and clinical practice.
IPG volume 27 issue 7 Cover and Front matter
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 June 2015, pp. f1-f2
Commentary for special edition on anxiety
Christina Bryant
This impressive collection of papers encompasses key themes at the heart of current research on anxiety in older adults, confirming that the study of anxiety in older adults has, indeed come of age (Beekman et al., 2015). The papers range from those providing in-depth exploration of an aspect of anxiety, such as the review by Hughes and colleagues of the concepts encompassed by the term “fear of falling” (Hughes et al., 2015), to those dealing with the assessment of anxiety, such as those by Mueller (Mueller et al., 2015) and Nitschke Massena (Nitschke Massena et al., 2015), while yet others address important issues in relation to anxiety treatment. This demonstrates the progress that has been made in recent years in our understanding and treatment of this significant group of disorders. I took a particular interest in reading these papers from the perspective of a clinician, and in this commentary will focus on themes and findings that I found to be of particular relevance to the mental health practitioner.
Clinical staging and Profiling of late-life anxiety disorders; the need for collaboration and a life-span perspective
Richard C. Oude Voshaar, Aartjan T. F. Beekman, Nancy Pachana
Clinical staging and profiling is a diagnostic strategy that goes beyond the traditional dichotomy in medicine of merely focusing on the presence or absence of a disease. Disease staging extends this traditional dichotomy by defining where a patient lies along the continuum of the course of his or her particular illness. Successful examples include the general tumor, node, metastasis (TNM) classification in oncology, as well as the New York Heart Association (NYHA classes I–IV) functional classification system for patients with congestive heart failure. It enables clinicians to select treatments relevant to earlier stages because such interventions may be more effective and less harmful than treatments delivered later in the illness course. Profiling is a further refinement, as well as a necessary component of staging. Profiling refers to the characterization of a patient within a specific disease stage, which is relevant for its course and treatment choice. An example of profiling is estrogen receptor positivity in patients with breast cancer.
Young Perspectives for Old Diseases Glaucia Noeli Maroso Hajj (editor) Sharjah, UAE: Bentham Science Publishers, 2014. Open access ebook, $US123.00 print on demand, 370 pp. eISBN: 978-1-60805-992-8, ISBN: 978-1-68108-003-1
David Ames
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 April 2015, p. 1241
Delusion-like experiences in older people with anxiety disorders
Gerard J. Byrne, Sarah J. Steele, Nancy A. Pachana
Little is known about the occurrence of psychotic or quasi-psychotic experiences in older people with anxiety disorders.
We used a cross-sectional national probability sample of community-residing individuals to investigate the prevalence and correlates of delusion-like experiences in older people with DSM-IV anxiety disorders. The 2007 Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Well-being (NSMHWB) included 1,905 persons between the ages of 65 and 85 years. Anxiety disorder diagnoses were established using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI v3). Participants were asked about three types of delusion-like experiences: thought control or interference, special meaning, and special powers. We used multivariate logistic regression to examine the relationship between a 12-month history of any anxiety disorder and the presence of these delusion-like experiences, adjusting for several potential confounders.
Eighty-two of 1,905 (4.3%) older people met criteria for an anxiety disorder over the previous 12 months. Of these, six reported delusion-like experiences, whereas the prevalence of these experiences among older people without anxiety disorder was 26/1,822 (7.3% vs. 1.4%; χ 2 = 16.5; p = 0.000). In a logistic regression model, male gender (OR 0.38; p = 0.019), separated marital status (OR 4.86; p = 0.017), and the presence of anxiety disorder (OR 5.33; p = 0.001) were independently associated with delusion-like experiences, whereas MMSE (Mini-Mental State Examination) score, general medical conditions and affective disorder were not.
In this cross-sectional study, self-reported delusion-like experiences occurred at increased prevalence among community-residing older persons with anxiety disorder. More work is needed to clarify the nature and significance of these findings.
Barriers to treatment for older adults seeking psychological therapy
Viviana M. Wuthrich, Jacqueline Frei
Background: Older adults with mental health disorders underutilize mental health services more than other adults. While there are well known general barriers to help seeking across the population, specific barriers for older adults include difficulties with transportation, beliefs that it is normal to be anxious and depressed in old age, and beliefs by referrers that psychological therapy is less likely to be effective. This study examined barriers related to identifying the need for help, seeking help and participating in therapy in a clinical population of older adults.
Method: Sixty older adults (aged 60–79 years) with comorbid anxiety and unipolar mood disorders completed barriers to treatment questionnaires before and after psychological group treatment, as well as measures of cognitive ability, anxiety, depression, and quality of life at baseline.
Results: The greatest barriers to help seeking related to difficulties identifying the need for help, with 50% of the sample reporting their belief that their symptoms were normal as a major barrier. Other major barriers identified were related to: self-reliance, cost of treatment, and fear of medication replicating previous findings. The main barriers reported for difficulties in continuing therapy included not finding therapy helpful, cost of treatment, and thinking that the therapist did not understand their issues.
Conclusions: The main barriers identified related to issues with identifying the need to seek help. More attention is needed to educate older adults and professionals about the need for, and effectiveness of, psychological therapies for older adults with anxiety and depression to reduce this barrier to help seeking.
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High Value Target HVT / Political Assassination
Thread: High Value Target HVT / Political Assassination
Does Decapitating Terrorist Leaderships Work?
Anne Speckhard is a psychiatrist who has looked at women suicide bombers in the past and has written this short commentary for RUSI. From a comment on Amazon.com of her book, a very swift bio:
She has interviewed over 350 terrorists, extremists, their supporters, hostages, family members and their close associates in Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Iraq, Russia, Belarus, North Ossetia, Morocco, Belgium, UK, the Netherlands and France. She was responsible for the design of the psychological and Islamic challenge portions of the US Department of Defense Detainee Rehabilitation Program in 2006-7 for use with the 20,000+ security detainees held by US forces in Iraq.
She opens with:
In the last two-years, international counter-terrorism strategies have focused on decapitating terrorist leaderships. But the threat and the ideology remains. In the coming year it is important to address the psychological motivations for conducting terrorist acts.
Link:http://www.rusi.org/analysis/comment.../#.UQu8MR26eSo
There is a link to her book 'Talking to Terrorists: Understanding the Psycho-Social Motivations of Militant Jihadi Terrorists, Mass Hostage Takers, Suicide Bombers & Martyrs' too:http://www.amazon.com/product-review...owViewpoints=1
Another time a full, proper read; so straight to her conclusion:
Continued vigilance is called for and well thought out and well-informed policies that keep in mind all four levels of the terrorist cocktail - decreasing the political grievances that fuel the existence of groups as well as shutting them down, fighting the ideology of terrorism and social support for it and addressing individual vulnerabilities are going to be ever more important to keep us safe in the coming year. Simply decapitating the leadership is not likely to be enough.
More on drones
Copied to here from the drones thread.
On SWJ Blog, is a review of Dr. Brian Glyn William book 'Predators: The CIA’s Drone War on al Qaeda':http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art...ar-on-al-qaeda
The first comment by a RAF officer, Keith Dear, points to an article in the journal Defence Stuies he wrote 'Beheading the Hydra? Does Killing Terrorist or Insurgent Leaders work', which is currently fully available for free: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/...3#.UrnPJfsXluh
Yet more to read one day, here is the author's explanation for his article:
This study measures targeted killing against its aims. Air Marshal Nickols, the UK’s former Chief of Defence Intelligence, suggests that counterinsurgent forces kill or arrest key members of insurgent groups, known as High Value Targets or Medium Value Targets (HVTs/MVTs) in order to affect a group’s capability and psychology; all the security officials interviewed for this study argued similarly. This provides a useful analytical framework. Therefore, in section 1, I examine the effect of targeted killing on a group’s capability, finding that it does make a group less capable in the short term. In section 2, I examine targeted killing’s effect on group psychology, concluding that it is unlikely to achieve the psychological effects the counterinsurgent intends. In section 3, I examine targeted killing in cultural context, finding that in pre-modern societies, such as those in Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan, local culture increases the negative psychological effects of targeted killing. In section 4, I describe the nature of the evolution that targeted killing forces groups to undergo, finding consistent results across the ten conflicts studied: in the long-term it unites insurgents, and brings forward a younger, more radical leadership which makes the group more indiscriminately violent; I then explain why the dangerous effects of targeted killing have been so long ignored. In section 5, I examine the evidence against my argument. In concluding, I argue that targeted killing can be tactically effective but is strategically counterproductive. Finally, I present policy advice based on my findings.
Last edited by davidbfpo; 12-24-2013 at 11:38 PM. Reason: Copied and slightly edited
Originally Posted by Maeda Toshiie
Is that even possible? I highly doubt the necessary intel for real time targeting is available.
The theory (my theory) is that you may not actually kill him (the targeted leader) but you will drive him underground and make life as intolerable for him as he has made it for his subjects.
Let me give you a very broad summary of events...
The 3-cruise missile theory.
The first missile is aimed at a strategic military target. Something like the most loyal troops like a Presidential Guard or the like. This makes the point that troops loyal to the 'target' can and will be targeted.
The second missile is aimed that the official residence of the 'target' at 24 hours notice. He won't be there when it arrives but the message will be clear.
The third missle will be reserved for a strike on the target. A reward of $1m (or more) will be promised for information on the location of the 'target' leading to a successful strike on him but probably won't be used.
As with Gadaffi and Saddam who moved a few times a day to avoid being in one place long enough to offer a target the strain becomes unbearable (as these people are used to the world revolving around them in their time and not having to keep moving out of fear for their lives). The result is that even their supporters avoid them as they do not wish to be collateral damage in the event of a strike and they themselves begin to trust no one and eventually offer a nice isolated target for a strike or a visit from a special forces team.
The result... let the target fell the fear and don't end up having many thousands of civilians killed to get at the 'target' when the message will be clearly transmitted to the one who is the cause of all the problems that there is a cruise missile with his name on it.
If the use of quid pro quo cruise missile strikes had been used (in the manner I suggested) in Syria the regime could have/ would have been put under sever pressure without having to arm the rebels (and we know hat a stupid policy that has been).
Last edited by davidbfpo; 07-03-2014 at 11:58 AM. Reason: Copied from the Syria thread as they add to this thread and have references sometimes.
Dayuhan
Latitude 17° 5' 11N, Longitude 120° 54' 24E, altitude 1499m. Right where I want to be.
Originally Posted by JMA
Ok, so you've fired off your three missiles. The dictator goes underground, his army disperses. They issue a statement telling you to stick your missiles where the sun don't shine, and proceed to do more of whatever it was you objected to in the first place. Your bluff has been called. Now what do you do? Do you escalate, and (assuming you're in the awkward position of leading a democracy) face the wrath of your populace and rest of the political edifice? Do you back down? Or do you just stand there buck naked with your putz shriveling in a cold breeze?
I can't see how it's a good idea to start firing off missiles based on assumptions about how somebody else is going to react, because you don't know how they're going to react. I can't see how it's a good idea to start something you aren't willing to finish: if you don't have a viable and politically feasible plan to escalate if plan A fails, better keep your missile in your pants, because once you're in, you're in.
I agree on not arming the rebels, unless of course there is some faction that you really want to see win and that you really think can win, both contentions requiring very realistic assessment and full awareness that you might be wrong. However, just because you don't arm the rebels doesn't mean they won't get arms. They will. People make ways. If they don't get them from you, they'll get them from someone else: no shortage of actors and agendas out there. If they want to fight, they will. If the dictator falls, different factions will fight it out to fill the vacuum. These things are not ours to control, and will happen whether we like it or not.
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary”
TheCurmudgeon
Again, killing the target, in this case Assad, is no guarantee that the next person in line is better, or that there will even be a orderly transition of power. The result could be total anarchy. At least with Assad in power you have someone to negotiate with.
Seems to me you want to know what you are going to get next before you pull that trigger.
"I can change almost anything ... but I can't change human nature."
Jon Osterman/Dr. Manhattan
Originally Posted by TheCurmudgeon
Again, killing the target, in this case Assad, is no guarantee that the next person in line is better, or that there will even be a orderly transition of power.
Yes that is always a consideration when one considers an assassination.
The result could be total anarchy. At least with Assad in power you have someone to negotiate with.
Yea, over the bodies of 160,000 civilians.
I guess you don't understand the concept I propose. No matter.
You want to anticipate the consequences, intended and unintended, of all actions before proceeding.
I think I understand it, I just think it is simplistic.This is from research on killing the head of terrorist organizations as a tactic, but the principal is the same.
In general, the study found that the decapitation strategy
appears to have little effect on the reduction of terrorist activity. The most notable trend from the statistical analysis was that decapitation strikes on religious terrorist groups tended to be followed by sharp increases in fatalities. This could be an important indication that decapitation strikes should be carefully considered on the basis of the type of group targeted. As this strategy is currently viewed to be effective by policy makers and is supported by public opinion, more data should be gathered in order to thoroughly study the efficacy of the tactic.
The British finally gave us these types of targeted killing of IRA members in part because there was never anyone in power long enough to negotiate a final peace. Killings don't change the nature of the grievances, the reason people fight, or the dynamics of the game, it only alters the players.
I doubt that killing Assad, even if accomplished in the early days of the conflict, would have resulted in a lower death toll. It is not a solution that can bring a conflict to an end. There will have to be trials for war crime, reintegration of fighters, and a peace and reconciliation commission to bring closure to the war.
Without a massive commitment of forces from outside Syria, it will end in one of two ways. Assad, or someone like Assad (probably more brutal) wins; or the country is divided with Assad remaining in power in "South Syria" and a food fight over the north. That food fight will be just as bloody.
Your reference relates to: "Does Killing or Capturing its Leaders Reduce a Terrorist Group’s Activity?"
Did I ever say that it did?
Would that be the only possible reason to target insurgent leadership?
You clearly neither understand what I stated nor the wider view towards he targeting of insurgent/terrorist leadership.
Then again we see from the following study: Attacking the Leader, Missing the Mark where it concludes:
Ultimately, however, leadership targeting alone is not enough to effectively fight a strong and emboldened terrorist organization.
Again, I would ask the author - with tears in my eyes - why she assumes that leadership targeting is the sole strategy employed to fight the organisation.
I am not aware of the British policy in this regard but would assume that the legality of 'murdering' citizens of their country was a significant factor.
No, no, no. Where do you get this stuff from? Syria is not the US and they have never been concerned with what the US thought - certainly since 1971 when daddy took charge. Let us assume that the CIA was in fact a competent outfit and they had an accurate assesment of the Syrian hierarchy and the importance and value of each of the component role players. They would be in a position to identify the demise of which persons would lead/contribute to the strategic result sought by the US in Syria (taking into account any possible negative or unintended consequences).
Once again you miss the point.
The world is now faced with the outcome - 160,000 dead and massive infrastructure damage - as a result of the actions (or inaction if you prefer) over the last few years. In any such situation it is always a matter of who dies/gets killed. In this case we have seen (the majority of the) 160,000 killed being as civilians and citizens rising up against an illegitimate and brutal dictatorship. I certainly would not be outraged if the dead comprised the military and supporters of the Assad regime. Because of the carnage there must be no doubt that the need for revenge (a beast alive and well in the heart of the Arab) will have its day and this is not only as a result of the years under the brutal Assad dictatorship but in addition the 160,000 deaths in the last few years. Yes the blood will flow... and probably with some justification. Why would you want to protect the perpetrators?
Now please read this:
Does Decapitation Work? Assessing the Effectiveness of Leadership Targeting in Counterinsurgency Campaigns
Is killing or capturing insurgent leaders an effective tactic? Previous research on interstate war and counterterrorism has suggested that targeting enemy leaders does not work. Most studies of the efficacy of leadership decapitation, however, have relied on unsystematic evidence and poor research design. An analysis based on fresh evidence and a new research design indicates the opposite relationship and yields four key findings. First, campaigns are more likely to end quickly when counterinsurgents successfully target enemy leaders. Second, counterinsurgents who capture or kill insurgent leaders are significantly more likely to defeat insurgencies than those who fail to capture or kill such leaders. Third, the intensity of a conflict is likelier to decrease following the successful removal of an enemy leader than it is after a failed attempt. Fourth, insurgent attacks are more likely to decrease after successful leadership decapitations than after failed attempts. Additional analysis suggests that these findings are attributable to successful leadership decapitation, and that the relationship between decapitation and campaign success holds across different types of insurgencies.
Thanks for the references, Mike
HVT decapitation in Northern Ireland: a riposte
TheCurmudgeon posted:
Cited in part JMA's reply
During 'The Troubles' in Northern Ireland (1969-1998) there were allegations that the British security forces had a policy 'Shoot to Kill' for those handling weapons, most notably the 1987 Loughall shooting:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loughgall_Ambush and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoot_t...90_TV_drama%29
This is very different from the 'targeted killing of (senior) IRA members', which if anything was not pursued. Indeed my recollection is that one if not two leaders murder by Loyalists was averted by official security force action. See:http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/d...00/2543503.stm Although not a PIRA leader I recall this:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernade...vlin_McAliskey
I expect there was some political consideration given to a HVT decapitation option, notably after the murder of the Mountbatten family and Warrenpoint.
The Loyalist paramilitaries at various stages engaged in killing HVT and were themselves victims of PIRA HVT murders.
AQ works like the Boy Scouts
An alternative targeting strategy, written by a USAF LtC, first spotted in summary on: http://www.matthewaid.com/post/10440...ty-killing-the
Which cites a WaPo article:http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/s...he-boy-scouts/
...the best terror cells work a lot like a big nonprofit group. Like the Boy Scouts of America. From studying the scouts, he determined the best way to stop terrorists is to target their bureaucrats – not top leader...
The main article 'Boy Scouts, Bureaucracy, and Counternetwork Targeting' cannot readily be located alas, including on Hoover Institution's website.
A contemporary situation review:http://www.theatlantic.com/internati...ership/382548/
Exposure: The Kill List (SOF -v- HVT)
This is a UK ITV documentary:
...revealing the inside story of how the SAS and US special forces targeted and captured or killed insurgents during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
There are a number of "talking heads" John Nagl, Michael Hoh, David Kilcullen, Graeme Lamb and a former UK SAS commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Williams, who in one comment said:
Its purpose was the destruction of al-Qaeda in Iraq and it did deliver from it quite a lot of death.
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQzQH0ZF9lI
There is a UK website, but it requires registration and a UK post code - hence use of a YouTube link.
It was interesting in places, especially the comments by Graeme Lamb and Richard Williams. David Kilcullen's closing comment was stark.
Last edited by davidbfpo; 03-22-2015 at 04:04 PM. Reason: This was a stand alone post and merged here today.
Killing top terrorists is not enough
An opinion piece by David Ignatius, in the WaPo two weeks ago and rediscovered today. Added as it refers to two academic articles that argue the tactic is not enough:http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...99_story.html?
Only the first article is openly available, the 2014 article in International Security is behind a pay wall:http://informationcollective.org/wp-.../01/Jordan.pdf
Originally Posted by davidbfpo
It's true when you attack a network it tends to get stronger, and it is also true that targeting is not a strategy. However, in lieu of a strategy targeting leaders was assumed to disrupt planned attacks (it has some cases) and gradually degrade an organization.
We disagree on this point, but we are at war with these global Islamists, and we can't win it by occupying Muslim countries. It is apparent that the majority of moderate Muslims are not going to rise up and defeat these groups after years of the false hope of through, by, and with. There are simply too many issues ranging from fanatic hatred, corruption, Shi'a-Sunni split (which frankly may be to our advantage) for the West to come in with its political and economic tool kit to fix. I think our track record in this regard is around zero?
We look at historical parallels and assume these movements will burn themselves out in a few years, but of course we know that is an assumption that may be proven false. The threat they pose to the international order is not exaggerated, a number of states are the verge of failure, with Yemen being the most recent case. They have no intention of limiting their attacks to Muslim nations, so based on logistics it seems logical Europe will be next, then America. We'll react in ways that will change the international order in unpredictable ways. If we ever had an opportunity to build a new international order after the Cold War that would promote a more enduring peace, it seems that opportunity is slipping away, or in the worst case has slipped away.
The bottom line is we still haven't figured out to wage strategic level war against networks. GEN McCrystal mastered the operational approach for dismantling a network in Iraq, but think of what would be required (consensus wise) to do that globally? There is little will for most countries to fight until they are facing a serious threat. We need to do better of getting to the left of bang, and not waiting until a country's survival is in peril and reacting, and reacting narrowly within a state's borders.
Within the approach taken by the West (a very general phrase) and its allies against the violent jihadists there has been IMHO no over-arching, agreed strategy beyond containment. Pursuing containment for the West and some allies has been guided by reducing the level of violence and fear, so that in time political and other opportunities can be pursued.
For complex reasons our politicians have been unable to identify opportunities, so they have depended on containment, alongside decapitation (HVT), a very heavy dose of military intervention and a pathetic ideological / information response (IIR). Officialdom, here I would refer mainly to the UK government, which insisted there was a coherent working IIR. Then along came the impact of Syria first, then lately ISIS and the flow of foreign fighters which has "pricked the balloon".
I agree we haven't figured it out, nor do I have a strategy in mind to offer that would be acceptable to our perspective liberal governments. Our counter narrative has overly focused on the false belief everyone wants to be like us if they only had the chance. We're perplexed by the growing popularity of ISIS/ISIL when we use mirror analysis. I disagree with Bob's perspective that these movements can be countered by so-called legitimate governance alone. It all comes back to legitimate to who? The thousands of Muslims being murdered in the effected areas likely don't consider these jihadists legitimate.
I do think it takes a network to defeat a network, but not in the simplistic terms this phrase is often used. I also think we need to kill and capture at a higher than we have been doing. That means treating it like the war it is, and dismissing the failed attempt to display these terrorist networks on a chart, and then fool ourselves repeatedly by stating if we only remove these two or three nodes the network will collapse. That runs against the grain of the new American way of war where we still apply effects based operations to no discernible end. We also shoot ourselves in the foot when we promote Arab Springs in countries that quite simply are not ready for democracy. The governments in place admittedly are/were terrible and oppressive, but still better than the alternative. We need to help these societies prepare for democracy (assuming the ruling regimes will allow it, but in most cases it will be viewed as subversion) over time, and in the mean time find ways to convince these governments to govern better. I know it seems like, and may be, rainbows and unicorns, but our current approach isn't working.
Back to the debate
Hat tip to WoTR for this article and here is a key sentence:
The best way to defeat ISIL in the long term is to leave Abu Bakr in place – as the caliph who lost his kingdom.
Link:http://warontherocks.com/2016/06/don...-decapitation/
One reference looks interesting, 'Attacking the Leader, Missing the Mark: Why Terrorist Groups Survive Decapitation Strikes' and I think was missed here:http://belfercenter.hks.harvard.edu/publication/24270/attacking_the_leader_missing_the_mark.html?
It is 32pg PDF and is free.
Last edited by davidbfpo; 12-21-2018 at 12:21 PM. Reason: 79,492v today
Targeting Top Terrorists Understanding Leadership Removal in CT Strategy
Thread reopened.
A forthcoming book 'Targeting Top Terrorists:Understanding Leadership Removal in Counterterrorism Strategy'; the author's bio suggests it could be valuable:
Bryan C. Price is the founding executive director of the Buccino Leadership Institute at Seton Hall University. During a twenty-year career as an Army officer, he served in various command and staff positions, including combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. From 2012 to 2018, he directed the Combating Terrorism Center and served as an Academy Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
From the publisher's summary:
This practice, known as leadership decapitation, is based on the logic that removing key figures will disrupt the organization and contribute to its ultimate failure. Yet many scholars have argued that targeted killings are ineffective or counterproductive, questioning whether taking out a terror network’s leaders causes more problems than it solves.
In Targeting Top Terrorists, Bryan C. Price offers a rich, data-driven examination of leadership decapitation tactics, providing theoretical and empirical explanations of the conditions under which they can be successful. Analyzing hundreds of cases of leadership turnover from over two hundred terrorist groups, Price demonstrates that although the tactic may result in short-term negative side effects, the loss of top leaders significantly reduces terror groups’ life spans.
Link:https://cup.columbia.edu/book/target.../9780231188234
Last edited by davidbfpo; 01-13-2019 at 11:46 AM. Reason: 80,853v today
Lessons from the history of the recent history of political assassination
An article that is historical and ends with a very brief mention of machines being used for killing, yes drones. The actual title is: 'Finer points of murder.
Link:https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/p...ation-history/
Moving beyond post 9-11 manhunt translating tactical wins strategic success
An article from MWI @ West Point that deserves reading IMHO. Here are few key passages from near the start as a "taster":
We have mastered the art of hunting men. Refined over nearly two decades of nonstop counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations, and enhanced by a suite of increasingly powerful technological tools, the United States military has developed an extraordinary ability to find, fix, and finish targets worldwide.
Fast-forward to the present day: our targeting capabilities are as much science as art, with the military’s Joint Special Operations Command as the standard bearer of lethality. We can connect the dots faster than ever before, combing through data sets of staggering size and diversity, feeding a ruthlessly efficient operational process that we are executing on a global scale.
Why isn’t it working?
Considering our resources, talent, and reach, shouldn’t we have more to show for our efforts? We have proven ourselves highly effective at killing our enemies, but we have done so to limited overall effect. Why are we unable to showcase a single operational theater in which our exceptional lethal targeting prowess at the tactical level is delivering a commensurate strategic result?
(Later) Two examples will help illustrate the disconnect between the successful prosecution of targeting-based, manhunt-style campaigns and the achievement of strategic results. (The examples are Iraq & Mexico).
Link:https://mwi.usma.edu/moving-beyond-p...tegic-success/
The author bio is here, what appears to be a "boutique" London-based advisory company:http://www.frontlineadvisory.com/#leadership
Targeted killing: alternative views
Now awhile ago I reviewed William Matchett's book 'Secret Victory: The Intelligence War that beat the IRA' in a separate thread:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...y-intelligence
A "lurker" has pointed to an alternative view by Rory Finegan:
This study has found that TKs over a prolonged period predicated on accurate intelligence had no discernible deterrent effect on PIRA; the desire for backlash was always inherent but negated by security forces measures; with regard to disruption, TKs as implemented in East Tyrone had a cumulative effect on the operational capability of PIRA; and finally in relation to diminishing capacity while PIRA initiated substitution equally under this pillar TKs caused a gradual but incremental decline in operational efficiency and effectiveness.
The author found in a case study focused on East Tyrone PIRA suggests that TKs however, should not be presented as an absolute proven solution in themselves to patterns of political violence. But when combined with other factors if utilised surgically and in a discrete manner they are a factor and therefore as a counterinsurgency tactic, their utility cannot be dismissed.
Finegan's PhD is 4Mb (probably free to download) and there is a summary here:http://doras.dcu.ie/19724/
There is a second article 'Counterterrorism Killings and Provisional IRA Bombings, 1970-1998' which is alas behind a pay-wall:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full...3.2016.1155932
Copied from the Northern Ireland thread.
Last edited by davidbfpo; 05-07-2019 at 10:06 AM.
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Home »Comics»Deadshirt is Reading: Civil War II, Seven to Eternity, and Venom: Space Knight!
Deadshirt is Reading: Civil War II, Seven to Eternity, and Venom: Space Knight!
Posted on 27 October, 2016 2 May, 2018 AuthorDeadshirt Staff
Deadshirt Is Reading… is a weekly feature in which Deadshirt’s staff, contributing writers, and friends-of-the-site offer their thoughts on Big Two cape titles, creator-owned books, webcomics and more.
David Uzumeri is reading…
Civil War II #6
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by David Marquez
Colored by Justin Ponsor
Lettered by Clayton Cowles
“Boo-hoo if someone gets their feelings hurt.”
Civil War II is the most astounding mess of Marvel’s modern era, and I don’t think I’m employing too much hyperbole when I make that statement. When Mark Millar and Steve McNiven’s Civil War (the first) was coming out, one of the highlights of the expansive, overlong commercial juggernaut was Bendis’s tie-ins in New Avengers and especially the coda Civil War: The Confession. “Why isn’t Bendis writing the main series?” was a pretty common critical refrain, since he did such a great job filling in the emotional lacunae that riddled the main series’ blockbuster epic.
In the Monkey’s Paw spirit of the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Sixteen, we have the answer, in the form of a now-eight-issue miniseries built around perhaps the least divisive moral dilemma in the history of superhero comics: “is profiling good or bad, even if it’s Terrigen-fueled super-profiling?” Each side is led by a hastily constructed extremist strawman of Safety or Freedom, and the entire plot depends on the suspension of disbelief required to accept that two long-term veterans of Crazy Superhero Shit in the Marvel Universe would suddenly turn into bickering children because yet another one of their loved ones died in a dumb accident. While Tony Stark comes across as being unusually stubborn and grandstanding, Carol Danvers—Captain Marvel, the star of Marvel Studios’s first major female-led installment—has been turned into a completely unsympathetic fascist, leading an army of jackbooted thugs profiling under the name of “predictive justice” and disregarding basic humanity to the point where even the Captain America who’s currently a secret Nazi thinks they’re a bunch of dicks.
Where the first Civil War may have suffered in simplistic characterization and vague plot mechanics, it nailed the action sequences and the fuck-yeah moments, which are really the carbohydrates of the superhero event comic meal. This has poor David Marquez and Justin Ponsor wasted on page after page of talking heads punctuated with heroes-flying-at-each-other spreads—we haven’t gotten anything on the level of Civil War’s Spider-Man’s identity reveal or Punisher straight-up murdering the supervillains offering to join Cap’s side, or even the “Nick Fury was right” fist-pump moment from Bendis’s own Secret Invasion (with Leinil Francis Yu). It’s just sequence after sequence of frustrating, circular conversations between strawmen while only the kids realize nuance is dead and decide to get the fuck out of Dodge, the first sensible thing anybody’s done in this story.
This isn’t a bad review out of some kind of distaste or grudge for the creators. This is one of the most mystifying things: Bendis’s own tie-ins to his own bad event have been routinely excellent, especially the last issue of Invincible Iron Man, where Tony and Carol accidentally meet up at an open AA meeting they attend to try to give the other the space to go to their usual, closed AA meeting. He captures the nuances well in the spaces dedicated to them, but he just can’t nail the big dumb thread that ties it all together. Bendis tries to increase the level of nuance in the argument from its predecessor, but it can’t be a philosophical character study since people need to beat each other up. Successful at being neither a thrilling big dumb action comic nor a riveting character drama, Civil War II just is, filling out plot point after plot point on an outline to allow other books to tell their stories before dropping us into a new status quo. What a shame.
Adam Pelta-Pauls is reading…
Seven to Eternity #2
Written by Rick Remender
Art by Jerome Opeña
Colored by Matt Hollingsworth
Lettered by Rus Wooton
“No matter what happens, no matter how dire our circumstance, you make me one promise: don’t you ever hear his offer.”
Rick Remender writes the highest concepts in comics right now, and he’s really perfected the “throw them into the thick of it” method of starting a book. Seven to Eternity is just the latest in that trend. Combining elements of westerns, fantasy, and sci-fi, with a little Journey to the West thrown in for good measure, the book follows the doomed Adam Osidis in his efforts to protect his family from the Mud King and his followers, but whereas the first issue was pretty opaque, this one begins to coagulate the ideas a little bit more.
I fell in love with Remender’s settings in Low and he continues to deliver here. The country (planet?) of Zhal is lush and vibrant, and every corner of every page of Jerome Opeña’s art is crammed with enough critters and beings that you’ll be staring at them for minutes on end. Matt Hollingsworth’s colors light these creatures up, sometimes literally, and the end result is a comic that just teems with, not just character, but life.
Where Remender really triumphs, though, is making the whole thing relatable. It’s so basic, but the reason a lot of high concept stuff like this usually fails is the characters are less interesting than the setting they’re in. Reminder grounds his characters so well, makes them so thoroughly human, that it doesn’t matter how alien the environs; you’re hooked. Osidis’ mission is fraught with danger, and he’s driven on it by a trove of complex forces, each of which you want to see borne out. There’s something for everyone in this series: a little magic, a little technology, a big lizardman named Drawbridge who has a mechanized jaw with a troop-carrying capacity. I’ve got more questions than answers at this point, but I’m definitely willing to stick it out for the ride.
Joe Stando is reading…
Venom: Space Knight #13
Written by Robbie Thompson
Art by Gerardo Sandoval
Colored by Dono Sanchez Almara
Lettered by Joe Caramagna
“Long Live Venom. And Long Live Mania.”
The grand experiment that was Venom: Space Knight has come to a close. At thirteen issues, it was both a longer run than I’d expected, and a shorter one than I felt Venom’s current status quo would’ve required. Venom is a character who’s constantly in flux, as creative teams try to tease and push him into directions that give him more to do without feeling stale. Venom as a government agent begot Venom as a Guardian of the Galaxy, which begot Venom as an intergalactic James Bond, gathering his own gallery of Guardians-lite sidekicks.
Seeing as the new Venom book seems to be a solo title set on Earth, with the symbiote’s classic look, I went through this arc with a sense of dread. The corruption felt by the symbiote in the previous arc would come back, or Eddie Brock would forcefully take the symbiote back, or Mac Gargan would show up. Instead, we were treated a kinder, gentler ending, as Venom parted ways with his new supporting cast to reunite with his erstwhile sidekick, Mania. It’s an ending that felt earned, even as the set-up was mostly a result of tie-ins with various other books and events. The Venom/Mania dynamic was among the most missed things in this new book, and I’m glad the next iteration will spotlight it.
That isn’t to say that there isn’t a little bit of regression here. Visually, it looks like Venom is switching back to the Agent Venom and monster looks, rather than the Mass Effect-esque design from this book. The art is great, with Sandoval’s slick, Marvel vs Capcom-looking designs, and Almara’s colors pop. At the same time, it’s the opposite end of the spectrum from Ariel Olivetti’s painterly work that opened the series. Even the wrapped-up story seems to set the stage for arcs about guilt and redemption, which were prominent in the Agent Venom era but feel almost like a step backwards.
I don’t mean to complain too heavily. Getting a sharper, darker Venom story featuring Mania while still giving Venom: Space Knight appropriate, optimistic closure is more than I could’ve asked. Flash Thompson hugs his robot friend goodbye in this issue! I guess Venom is destined for now to be a flavor of the week character, reinvented with every line-wide revamp into a new, fresh book. Space Knight was an exciting little diversion, one that told plenty of stories without overstaying its welcome.
Thanks for reading about what we’re reading! We’ll be back next week with a slew of suggestions from across the comics spectrum. In the meantime, what are you reading? Tell us in the comments section, on Twitter or on our Facebook Page!
Post By Deadshirt Staff (691 Posts)
Deadshirt's writing staff is dedicated to bringing you thoughtful and entertaining media commentary. We're mostly indentured, which means we can pass the savings on to you!
CategoriesComics, Deadshirt Is Reading / Shopping ListTagsAdam Pelta-Pauls, Brian Michael Bendis, Captain Marvel, Civil War II, David Uzumeri, Joe Stando, marvel comics, Rick Remender, venom
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The Ugly American revisited
In 1958, Eugene Burdick and William Lederer wrote a novel�provocatively titled,' The Ugly American'. The novel, defined by allusion�and metaphor and set in a fictional nation called Sarkhan, aimed and�attempted to bring to the attention of Americans the ungainly behaviour of�Americans overseas and contrasted it with the behaviour and attitude of�others. The others in contention here were the communists. The novel was a�political oeuvre and the context and backdrop for it was the Cold War- the�titanic struggle between the United States and the former Soviet�Union. It deemed�the attitude of Americans in the Vietnam War as stemming from arrogance and�insensitivity to local cultures, opines Wajahat Qazi.
The novel also drew out the irony and the paradox through the impressions�of an Asian journalist who is bewildered at the Americans who he knows in�America and Americans overseas. A total contrast defines the two. It then�draws attention to the protagonist of the novel, Homer Atkins - a person�with an ugly demeanour but noble disposition - who mixes and fraternizes�with the locals, understands them and offers genuine empathy and useful�assistance. The novel, in short, was meant to be an eye-opener. It�incidentally became a best seller and was made into a movie.
Unfortunately and alas, the lessons of the book appear not to have been�learnt. America overseas indeed is a misunderstood behemoth and this�misunderstanding accrues from what could be called American naivete which�is presumed to be arrogance given the country's overweening power and�might.
This assertion calls for a very brief exegesis on the nature of the United�States: The country, to an outsider, cannot really be pinned down and a�perspective brought to bear on it. It is a massive cauldron of�peoples which has over the years morphed from a white settler country into�a multicultural country but yet paradoxes define it. There is a line that�divides blue America from the red America: The red America is insular and�parochial; blue America cosmopolitan and open. The battles between the two�Americas have been called 'culture wars'. And then there is black America,�an America bruised and wounded- psychically and spiritually. In these�America's, a ' red' American can easily mistake an Iraqi for Indian or�scratch his head over where Kashmir is; a blue American, to the contrary�can surprise one with his/her knowledge of cultures, world affairs, nuance, sophistication and insight. America can then not be pigeon holed or�reduced to a stereotype.
This is America from outside looking in. Then there is America,�the superpower,�the mighty and potent America- responsible for maintaining world peace and�order; or resolving disputes and problems and exporting its immense�cultural and soft power overseas. This America's foreign policy determines�the drift and thrust of world politics. The images of the two Americas are�difficult to reconcile.
The question that this raises is what accounts for the discrepancy between�the nature of America and its perception overseas? The answer lies in�America's na�ve approach towards the world - especially the Muslim world.�First, it was the self righteousness of the neo cons that led to�misadventurism in Iraq. It was premised on a belief that democracy and�liberalism could be exported. And now it is the deafening silence that�America�has maintained over the butchery in Syria. The Arab Muslims may be�justified in their bewilderment, fail to understand American activism in�Iraq and then total and complete withdrawal from their affairs when they�needed American support most. Any reasonable mind would deem it as�hypocritical and attribute Machiavellianism to Americans. This however is�not even a caricature. Foreign policy is driven by a host of considerations�and cannot be reduced to one factor.
Anyhow, this is besides the point here. What is intriguing and alarming is�America's banning of a group in Syria which has made military�gains against the obnoxious Assad regime. This outfit, Jabhat ul Nusra has�made gains against the regime is popular with people. The United States�believes that it has links with Al Qaeda. I know nothing�about it but what I know about�Americans is that the banning may be premised on a blanket�dismissal of all Islamist groups and deeming them to be hostile to America.
This is not necessarily the case. Not all Islamists are the same. There are�variations within them � ideologically, programmatically and practically.�Some are extreme and will not countenance the West in any form or shape;�others are moderate and would like to engage in some sort of a dialogue�with the West or the United States. The United State's blanket dismissals�estrange and alienate these moderates and accord leeway and strength�to the extremists. Islamism as a comprehensively opposed ideology or�movement to�the West or the United States then becomes a self fulfilling prophece - a premise�that needs to be pre-empted.
The relations between Islam and the West are delicately poised. They can go�anywhere. Prudence demands that even straws be clutched at and�some sort of a meeting ground and dialogic mechanism be arrived at�lest therelationship degenerate into something�ugly and insalubrious. Jabhat ul Nusra may or may not have links to Al�Qaeda. The issue is broader. Let the�Americans reread , 'The Ugly American' ,introspect, mull over the essence of the book and then re-engage with the world. It is about time.
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Local Elections 2015 - irregularities map | How Ukrainians voted: exit poll data | Professional Russian army in Ukraine | Map of devaluation of national currencies | Top 20 most reliable banks of Ukraine | How and when the police have the right to use special equipment | Real owners of Ukrainian banks | Russia's plan to seize Ukraine (DOCUMENTS) | TEXT APPEAL POROSHEN TO THE SUPREME RADA | War, faces, situations: shots from the front line in Shirokino. PHOTO report | Putin War. Independent Report by Boris Nemtsov | In Kiev, the journalist killed Oles Buzin. PHOTO | In Ex-people's deputy from PR Kalashnikov killed in Kiev | Putin is preparing for a big war, increasing military spending Kremlin media pecked at an April Fool's joke about Mistrals | WizzAir-Ukraine ceases operations | Camouflage modern armies | Works about Ukraine by artist Beata Kurkul | Magazine Charlie Hebdo made a turn about Putin | Samples marking cars traffic police | Kabaeva gave birth to Putin's third child | Attention! Banned bills! A photo. | On the 1000-hryvnia banknote will be depicted Hitler | Nemtsov's killers are the CIA and MI-6, Poroshenko and the Right Sector | NBU declared Delta Bank insolvent | March in memory of Boris Nemtsov. Photo report. | Prices for gasoline, diesel fuel, gas, at gas stations in Ukraine | Fake about the death of Sasha Gray in the Donbas | Commemorative coins about the events of Maidan | History of the Ukrainian foreign exchange reserve from 1993 to 2015 | The trial of Savchenko. PHOTO report | The consequences of the shelling of Kramatorsk | Memo Scout Disguise | Clarification of border crossing by conscription | Rada deprived Yanukovych of the title of President | Visa regime in Ukraine for the Russians | WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. RESULTS (INFOGRAPHICS) | PARTICIPANTS ATO HAVE THE RIGHT TO WARRANTY AND BENEFITS. HOW TO GET THEM (INFOGRAPHICS) | The worst banks according to the NBU version | Poroshenko ordered to control the departure abroad | How to behave when firing and bombing? | FAQ ON MOBILIZATION - Kremlin propaganda | In Donetsk, a shell hit the bus stop: there are victims PHOTO report + VIDEO | Who will not be touched by the fourth wave of mobilization (infographics) | Sample application for refusal of mobilization | New 100 UAH was presented in the National Bank (photos) | In the DPR showed their money - settlement signs of New Russia | What does Russia import in its convoys to the Donbass? | SMS of deputies in the Rada | Gas Consumption Reports by Region | Where do electricity use the most | State Budget 2015: revenues of 475.2 billion, expenses of 527.2 billion | Russian aircraft and trains sends tanks to terrorists | "Black Tuesday" in the Russian Federation: Russians storm shops | Bill on Civilian Weapons and Ammunition | List of deputies and committees from which they were withdrawn | In Odessa, a powerful explosion thundered | Fight in Grozny. 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PHOTO report + VIDEO | Another stuffing NTV "Ukrainka offer themselves for 10 hryvnia." | In Kharkov, in the pub WALL, an explosion thundered | Administration of the LC "Magic Space" Olga Tarash | The boy from the scandalous fake story NTV identified | On a piece of land and two slaves for war ... | Proof of the participation of Russian invaders in the Donbas | Brutal disassembly DNR (video) | Who wins the parliamentary elections (INFOGRAPHICS)? | Frozen hell at Donetsk airport | Russia may accidentally ban the Russian flag | Officials who fled from Ukraine to Russia | The situation in the Donetsk airport | List of bomb shelters in Kiev | Jobs Merkel, Obama, Hollande, Putin and Poroshenko | Unique photos of soldiers before and after the war | Inside the Donetsk airport - the battle of "cyborgs" | Candidates for the new Verkhovna Rada (INFOGRAPHICS) | Frames destroyed positions of security officials | A resident of Lviv sells energy to the state | Who fired on a stop in Donetsk | Ilovaisk boiler - video from the site | Sturm Donetsk airport | Lugansk Airport through the eyes of Ukrainian paratroopers | Russian troops on border with Ukraine | Exchange of prisoners near Donetsk | Operational information RNBO in the area of the ATO + Maps | List of missing in the area of the ATO | Ukrainian soldiers on guard of Mariupol | Peace March in Moscow | Russia is waiting for disconnection from the global Internet | Olga Lyulchak - open MP for all | America is ruled by aliens Nazis | The cynicism of lies NTV rolls over! | On the background of Ukrainian corpses, Aleksey Milchakov, a fascist maniac from St. Petersburg, was photographed | Alexey Milchakov - fascist maniac from St. Petersburg | Special Forces of the Russian Federation is photographed against the background of Ukrainian warriors | Memo to the soldier for stripping | Base of proven organizations and volunteers | Results of news on August 20 | Ukrainian flag on Moscow high-rise | Kerch Ferry | Links for the victims of anti-Ukrainian propaganda | Information warfare (56 exposures) | Metropolitan Onufry: biography of the head of the UOC | Review of foreign media: is there a peaceful way out of the Ukrainian crisis? | Battalions in Ukraine: who is who? | Ukrainian military units: who is who? | Review of foreign media: will Russia come to Ukraine? | Photo report from the epicenter of the ATO | Separatists shoot Shakhtersk's house with mortar | Shots of fired positions of the Ukrainian security forces | What to do and where to hide in case of war in Kiev | Photo report shooting militants Malaysian Boeing | Protests Statistics (INFOGRAPHICS) | 60 fakes Russian media about Ukraine | What will the signing of the association agreement of Ukraine with the European Union? | The resumption of the ATO (appeal Poroshenko) | What will change after signing the agreement? | Military theoretical training | List of 138 dead | Conclusions of the EU Council on the situation in Ukraine | Online Game "Mortal Combat in Ukrainian" | Putin-hu * lo: 10 versions of the hit | Patriotic avatars of Ukrainians | Ukr eats hand Katsap | Where did the money donated by Ukrainians go? 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What's the Difference? | Medvedchuk Dacha opened for visitors | US IT giants join sanctions | Putin's plan for May 9 | Material-Investigation for the Russians | Lying does not hurt | HORROR OF DECEPTION | Bloody weekend: events of the May holidays in Ukraine | The largest military exercises took place in the Nikolaev region | How Russia was preparing for war | Militants identified in Slavyansk | Storm Slavyansk | Storming a military unit in Mariupol | Myths about Stepan Bandera | Video beatings by pro-Russian activists in Kharkov | Video beatings by pro-Russian activists in Kharkov | Recent events in the Southeast and in Crimea | Russia's invasion of Ukraine: March 27 - April 4 | Russia's invasion of Ukraine: March 21-27 | Russia's invasion of Ukraine: March 14-20 | Russia's invasion of Ukraine: February 26 - March 13 | PACE Resolution | Tsapev - fascist! Bohn from Ukraine! | Putin's army: how to raise Russian soldiers. | Guerrilla Warfare Guide | Map of the placement of the Russian military | Who feeds whom in Ukraine | History of the OUN-UPA or who are Bendera | Interesting about the Ukrainian flag | Video, how Yanukovych left Mezhyhirya with values | Virtual 3D tour of the territory of Mezhyhirya | Emergency Suitcase in Case of War | House in Koncha Zaspa, which was built by Yura Enakievsky | 70 most impressive shots of Euromaidan in Kiev | Activists visited the estate of the regional Oliynyk | Reload Ukraine. Photos of the main events of February 22-24 | Luxury Mezhyhirya Yanukovych: yachts, luxury cars, a portrait of gold, a zoo and a golf course | Pshonka's Treasure - photo report from the house of the bloody Prosecutor General | Maidan mourns Heroes Heavenly hundreds | How in Kiev they tried to destroy the monument to the Chekists | In Mezhigorye found documents about millions of wastes and bribes | The bloody days of Ukraine. Photo chronicle of Maidan February 20-21 | Maidan online. Activists went on the offensive and won a part of the Maidan | This city is on fire. Night and morning on Maidan February 19 | As in war. Photo chronicles of events in Kiev on February 18 | Fighting in the center of Kiev. The main video of events in Kiev on February 18
UPD: 05/15/2015 In Kiev, there was a fight because of the newspaper Vesti
Metropolitan police began checking the incident on Obolon.
In Kiev, near the metro station Heroes of Dnepr, there was a scuffle between local residents because of the publication of one of the capital's newspapers. It is reported by the press service of the State Ministry of Internal Affairs of the capital.
"On May 13, 2015, in the morning, a message was received at the duty unit of the Obolonsky District Administration of the Metropolitan Police that a scuffle occurred when leaving the subway station. A conflict arose between activists of a public organization and local residents," the statement reads.
To the place of arrival the staff of the district administration settled the conflict situation. The police found witnesses and witnesses of the incident and interviewed them.
The information about the event is included in the Unified Accounting; it is being checked.
On the page of the Obolonsky District group on Facebook it is reported that the incident occurred due to the spread of the newspaper Vesti.
“Today, the heroes of the Dnieper were“ titushki ”in person (they are the so-called“ guys of sports appearance ”). They have not been seen for a long time. And then they came to protect“ Vesti ”by a method known to them,” the message reads.
Recall, representatives of the Right Sector seized thousands of copies of the Vesti newspaper from distributors in Kiev at the Geroev Dnipro and Vasilkovskaya metro stations.
UPD: 05/15/2015 Facebook moderates Ukrainian segment in Dublin: we don’t have a Russian office, - Zuckerberg
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised to consider the possibility of opening a Facebook office in Ukraine. At the same time, he refuted the statement that the moderation of posts by Ukrainian users of the social network is produced by the Russian office, since the Facebook administration in Russia does not exist. Moderation is carried out by employees of the company's representative office in Dublin, who speak the language in which the message was made.
On Thursday, May 14, in the evening local time, the next online question and answer session began with the question that was asked by Ukrainians. The moderator of the meeting said that the most popular question, with 45,000 likes, was precisely the question about Ukraine. User Grigory Kupershmidt complained about the injustice in blocking pages and posts by Facebook, explaining that the Ukrainian segment is in charge of Russian management.
According to the head of the company Fecebook, he personally looked at what was going on before giving an answer. Mark Zuckerberg commented that there were indeed several messages that they decided to delete for violating the rules prohibiting the use of "hate speech" against other nationalities.
“Unfortunately, there are several articles that violated this rule. People complained, and after looking at these records, we determined that some of these messages contained offensive language regarding some Russians, and we removed them,” the head of Facebook explained.
He also assured that there is no Facebook administration in Russia that would moderate the Ukrainian segment of the network.
"There were also questions, notes made by Ukrainians, whether Russians are moderated at the time when the conflict between Ukraine and Russia continues. This is not true - we do not have such a Russian office. Therefore, everyone who thinks moderation comes from the Russian office “Ukrainian moderators are mistaken,” Zuckerberg assured.
He explained that moderation is carried out by employees of the company's representative office in Dublin, who speak the language in which the message was made. However, he added that there was an error in the system, due to which the authors of individual messages were mistakenly reported the wrong reason - the presence of nakedness in the images instead of the vocabulary of hate. Facebook apologized for this mistake, Mark said.
After that, Zuckerberg answered the question of the President of Ukraine Poroshenko about the possibility of opening a Facebook representative office in Ukraine. He said that, over time, this possibility could be considered, but he explained that expediency lies in the plane of the company's development, in particular, software development.
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10 Most Amazing Sex World Records
In the past week we have listed Hottest Hollywood Boobs and Hottest Hollywood Booties, which inspires us for this awesome outcome with unusual facts (but reality). So! Have you ever wondered what other people get up to in their spare time? Why, competing in world sex records, of course. Here are some of the top guys and gals showing the rest of us how it can be done, should we care to try. There are also a selection of the weird and wonderful body parts and acts that have befallen our fellow men and women, and we’ve listed them all in our list of Most Amazing Sex World Records.
1. Most Sex Partners
The current record is held by Lisa Sparks who had sex with 919 men on October 16, 2004 in Warsaw, Poland as part of the Third Annual World Gangbang Championship and Eroticon 2004. In 2010, she changed the spelling of her stage name from Lisa Sparxxx to Lisa Sparks due to mainstream websites not accepting the XXX in her name.
2. World’s Largest Penis
Plenty of men brag about the size of their penis, and most of them are probably lying. But there’s one man who can settle any bet just by unzipping his pants: Jonah Falcon, owner of the world’s biggest human penis.
Falcon’s 13-5 inch member has been measured for a TV special, making him one of the few guys who can back up his bodily boasts.
3. World’s Largest Vagina
The Largest Vagina most likely belonged to Scottish giantess Anna Swan (1846-1888), a remarkable woman who set a number of records relating to her bulk. Born normally sized, she began growing at a prodigious rate in childhood, finally reaching a maximum height of 7′ 8″ at age 19.
And World’s Largets Vagina also beloged to her which measured 19 inches in circumference.
4. Strongest Penis
Mo Ka Wang from Hong Kong lifted 250 pounds two feet off the ground with his penis in 1995. He was practicing an ancient Taoist art which dates back to 2,700 BC and was supposed to help achieve sexual ecstasy.
5. Longest Ejaculation
The farthest male ejaculation ever recorded was 18 feet (6 m) and was achieved by Horst Schultz. The farthest a woman was recorded to ejaculate was 10 feet (3 m). The most ejaculations for a man in one hour is 16.
6. Youngest Mother
The youngest girl to give birth was 5-year-old Lina Medina, born in Peru in 1933. Incredibly this girl began menstruating at age 3, and despite being impregnated in the “usual” way, has never revealed who the father is. Her father was arrested and imprisoned on suspicion of incest, but was later released due to lack of evidence. The baby was delivered by caesarean because Lina’s hips were too narrow.
7. Most penis removals
King Menephta, Egypt, In 1300 BC, King Menephta came home from battle after successfully beating the Libyans. To celebrate his success, he asked his men to chop off the penises of each member of the defeated army. He arrived home with 13,000 penises. His ancient monument at Karnak has a detail of which penis belonged to whom — Libyan generals, Libyans, Sirculians, Etruscans, and Greeks.
8. Longest Pubic Hair
Maoni Vi of Cape Town has hair measuring 32 inches from the armpits and 28 inches from her vagina.
9. Moulay Ismail Ibn Sharif
Moulay Ismail Ibn Sharif set this sex record in the 17th century when he added a whopping 1,042 recorded offspring to his harem of about 500 wives. He had been a busy boy — what with all those weddings, births and, no doubt, a few funerals. If you’re wondering who this guy is, he was the second ruler of the Moroccan Alaouite dynasty. He is known as a great figure in Moroccan history, but not only for his contribution to the birth statistics; he contributed to the lasting respect of Moroccan independence.
Amazingly, the woman to give birth to the most children was a peasant’s wife from Shuya (east of Moscow); in 27 births between 1725 and 1765, she expelled 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets.
10. Most Money for Sex
An unnamed man maid bid 3.8 million dollars for the chance to be the first person to have sex with Natalie Dylan. She rejected the offer.
Posted on December 1, 2011 May 26, 2012 Author adminCategories Lists, Oddy Enough, WTFTags oddee, weird
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EAA Grants
CORAI Grants
Media runa 2018-03-09T12:28:44+00:00
Within the project’s information campaign, three short scenes were developed, which addressed issues such as gender discrimination, inequality of chances, intercultural understanding, promoting social inclusion and diversity. Scenes were made at the “Sun Ray” and “Dorothy” kindergartens in Targoviste and at the “Soarelui” Social Services Complex in Targoviste.
http://egalitate-in-diversitate.ro/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/EGAlitate.mp4
<p style=”text-align: center;”><strong>CLIPUL OFICIAL AL CAMPANIEI</strong></p>
The project is being implemented within Programme RO10 “Children and Youth at Risk and Local and Regional Initiatives to Reduce National Inequalities and to Promote Social Inclusion” (CORAI), funded by EEA Grants.
The CORAI Programme contributes to the overall objectives of the EEA Financial Mechanism 2009-2014 to reduce social and economic disparities in the European Economic Area and to the strengthen the relationships between Romania and the donor countries – Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
Project duration: 12 months.
The Project finance contract was signed on 5 July 2015 by RSDF (Romanian Social Development Fund), as Program Operator, and Dambovita County Council, as Project Promoter.
Project value: 844,151.74 lei, of which 717,528.98 lei represents the value of Grant EEA, and 126,622.76 lei represents public financing.
The Project overall objective is to develop initiatives in order to reduce disparities and improve the anti-discrimination measures towards groups which are vulnerable to social and economic exclusion.
The project addresses a target group of 250 people with the following structure: 50 representatives of public authorities involved in the Project activities, 15 decision makers and experts of non-governmental organisations, 20 social workers from professional associations working in social care or with people who belong to vulnerable groups, 15 people working in the private sector, and 150 people belonging to vulnerable groups that face discrimination and / or social exclusion (of which 50 Roma people)
The project will contribute to raising awareness of social inclusion, discrimination, disparities, diversity in the Dâmbovița County through carrying out a campaign called “Equality in Diversity” Caravan. Within this awareness campaign several activities be carried out:
a training session – “Unity through Diversity – I vs. the other”,
two interactive workshops designed to bring together people belonging to the target group
a video on social inclusion, discrimination, disparities, diversity
3 short plays which will address issues such as gender discrimination, unequal opportunities, intercultural understanding, and, at the same time, will promote social inclusion and diversity
an online social media campaign etc.
Training session 22 to 26 February 2016
PHOTO GALLERY – INTERACTIVE WORKSHOPS
Project “Equality in Diversity! – An Initiative to Reduce Inequalities and Promote Social Inclusion in Dambovita County “, code PEH008.
Project financed with the financial support of the RO10 - CORAI Program, funded by the EEA Grants 2009 - 2014 and managed by the Romanian Social Development Fund.
The content of this website does not necessarily represent the official position of the FRDS and EEA Grants 2009-2014. The entire responsibility for the correctness and consistency of the information presented lies with the initiators of the website. For official information on EEA Grants, please visitwww.eeagrants.org
Copyright 2012 - 2018 | On the web by RunaSoft
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Hollande gets stormy welcome to power
- REUTERS
PARIS, 2012 May 16
Francois Hollande was greeted by a thunderstorm in Paris and storm clouds gathering over the euro zone as France's first Socialist president in 17 years was sworn in on Tuesday before flying to Berlin to plead his case for less austerity in Europe.
Hollande's first day in power was marred by a downpour as he rode by open-top car through Paris to mark his investiture, and lightning that hit his presidential jet, forcing him to make a U-turn en route to Germany and switch to a smaller Falcon jet.
After a handover with predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy, Hollande began his five-year term with a bang, naming a new German-savvy prime minister in addition to swearing-in ceremonies before rushing off to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
In his inaugural speech to some 400 guests at the Elysee presidential Palace, the 57-year-old Hollande said he would try to temper the German-inspired austerity focus of a European pact on deficit-reduction by securing commitments to measures that could boost economic growth.
"I'll say what I think. The situation is serious," he said. "We have to find solutions together so that austerity does not become our only fate, so that growth returns and so that we can find solidarity over the concerns we have over Greece."
In a veiled swipe at Sarkozy, who some faulted for being too controlling and too impulsive, Hollande said he would run a "dignified", "simple" and "sober" presidency and ensure parliament played its full role.
"I will set the priorities but I will not decide for everyone, on everything and (be) everywhere," Hollande said.
Sarkozy and his wife, singer and former model Carla Bruni, left the Elysee Palace under a bright sky but rain poured down when the new president left for the traditional inauguration drive in an open-topped car.
Soaked to the skin, Hollande grinned at bystanders as his car crawled up the Champs Elysees avenue to the Arc du Triomphe, where he relit the flame at the memorial of the Unknown Soldier and laid a wreath.
He changed suits and ate lunch before making a number of other sorties to mark the day, paying tribute to a politician who introduced free, secular education in the 19th century and to physicist Marie Curie who twice won a Nobel prize.
His meeting with Merkel was delayed after lightning forced him to go back to Paris and board a different jet for Berlin, according to French officials.
The rest of the government should be unveiled on Wednesday, before a first cabinet meeting on Thursday, and before Hollande flies to Washington to meet President Barack Obama and attend G8 and NATO summits at Camp David and Chicago.
Hollande, whose election comes as the euro zone is teetering back into crisis over fears about Greece's future in the single currency, will give his first presidential news conference in Berlin in the evening, flanked by Merkel.
His comments will be keenly watched by financial markets eager for reassurance that his push to tack pro-growth policies onto Europe's budget discipline treaty will not sour the start of his relationship with Merkel.
"To overcome the crisis Europe needs projects, solidarity and growth," he said in his inaugural speech. "I will propose to our partners a new pact to combine the necessary reduction in public debt with essential economic stimulus."
He also said he would press the need for Europe to protect its interests, especially regarding reciprocity in trade.
RAIN AND LIGHTNING
Any indications on initial economic policy will be scrutinized both outside France and inside, where frustration over rampant unemployment and a sickly economy were key factors behind conservative Nicolas Sarkozy's defeat.
For prime minister, he named former German teacher Jean-Marc Ayrault, a 62-year-old who has held elected public office since the mid-1970s, been a member of parliament since 1986 and met advisers to Germany's Merkel last year in an Endeavour to build ties with her conservative government.
Hollande named as chief of staff Pierre-Rene Lemas, whom he has known since they attended the ENA civil service academy at the end of the 1970s. Lemas's deputy will be Emmanuel Macron, an investment banker in his 30s who will be an economic adviser.
Hollande was officially sworn in a president just before 11 a.m. (0900 GMT) after Sarkozy greeted him on the steps of the Elysee and took him inside to hand over the country's nuclear codes and other secret dossiers.
Anxious not to lose the "Mr Normal" image that appealed to voters tired of his showman predecessor, Hollande had asked for the inauguration ceremony to be kept as low-key as possible.
He invited just three dozen or so personal guests to join some 350 officials at the event and neither his nor his partner Valerie Trierweiler's children attended the ceremony.
Still, the man who until recently went to work on a scooter was presented with the official chain of office, a gold collar weighing nearly a kilograms and engraved with his name and the names of the six previous presidents of the Fifth Republic.
After his rainsoaked victory lap, a sodden Hollande walked back up the red-carpeted Elysee steps to eat his first lunch as president with a group of former Socialist prime ministers.
When a Reuters reporter in the courtyard called out: "You are not afraid of the rain Mr. Hollande?", he laughed and replied: "I am not afraid of anything."
© FRANCE NEPAL info
Other articles by reporter REUTERS
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Horse Health Watch
More info on EHV-1 (Rhino) outbreak in Florida 1-1-07
Horse Health Alert - Equine Herpes Virus
The USDA and FDACS command post has been established to evaluate and possibly quarantine horses examined in Palm Beach County and the surrounding areas. 866-568-2836.
Florida Dept of Agricuture is providing updates.
http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/
Link to EHV-1
http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/ai/ehv1/index.shtml
THE FLORIDA DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE SITE PROVIDES INFO ON FARMS THAT ARE QUARANTINED AND STATUS OF REPORTS OF RHINO.
FAQ below is from that site.
Frequently Asked Questions: Equine Herpes Virus-1
J. Liv Sandberg
UW Madison
Equine Extension Specialist
Dr. Larry Bauman
UW-River Falls
Extension Veterinarian
What is Equine Herpes Virus-1 (EHV-1)?
Equine Herpes Virus-1 (EHV-1) is a contagious viral disease of horses that can cause respiratory disease, abortion and occasionally neurologic disease.
Is there another name for Equine Herpes Virus?
Rhinopneumonitis or ‘rhino.' It is a herpes virus that is common among horses.
How is the EHV-1 disease spread?
Aerosol (airborne) and fomites (feed, clothing, boots, hands, etc.)
Can EHV-1 spread to humans?
No, but people can transport the virus on their clothes, boots, etc.
Can EHV-1 spread to other species of animals?
What are the clinical signs or symptoms seen with EHV-1?
Respiratory disease, abortion and occasionally neurologic disease (lack of coordination, inability to stand, etc.)
Are these clinical signs similar to any other equine diseases we have in our horse population?
Yes. Equine Influenza Virus may cause respiratory disease. Equine Viral Arteritis may cause abortions, and West Nile Virus may cause neurologic disease.
If my horse has some of the above clinical signs, will I be able to tell which disease he/she may have contracted?
Is there a vaccine available to help prevent the spread of EHV-1?
Yes, but it doesn't directly protect against the neurological form of the disease cause by EHV-1.
My horse is up to date on its vaccinations, including EHV-1. Can my horse still be at risk of contracting the disease?
It's possible, but horses that have not been vaccinated are at a much higher risk.
Will EHV-1 affect all of my horses or are some of my horses at more of a risk of contracting the disease?
Young, old, weak, high exposure, immune challenged, and stressed horses are more likely to get sick.
How long will it take for my horse to show clinical signs of the disease after he/she has been exposed to the disease?
Horses can shed the EHV-1 from the onset of clinical signs until 1-2 weeks after the clinical signs are gone. A 21 day quarantine period following the disease is recommended.
How do you test for EHV-1?
A blood test is available. Test results will usually take 3-7 days to be completed.
I only have one horse. Do I have to be concerned about my horse contracting EHV-1?
Yes. While the virus is spread more readily from horse to horse via infected droplets in the air, on facility surfaces, fences, buckets and a common water source, etc., there is also the possibility of spreading the disease as a result of droplets being carried on clothes, boots, jackets, etc.
As a horse owner, what should I do to prevent the potential spread of the EHV-1?
Horse owners do not need to panic, but they should following appropriate bio-security measures such as those listed at the end of this article.
What about vaccinations?
There are vaccines available to protect horses against EHV-1. Since EHV-1 is a common virus in horses, it is recommended that all horses be vaccinated at least once a year. For horses congregating at shows and competitions, more frequent vaccinations may be recommended. Consult your local veterinarian to discuss the risk potential and vaccination recommendations for your horse.
What disinfectant(s) are best to use for cleaning my facilities?
Generic disinfectants such as bleach, chlorhexidine, quaternary ammonias and others are effective in killing the EHV-1 virus.
I have only a couple horses. Do I have top follow the preventative measures?
I have an active and full barn of horses that frequently travel through out the state and out of state. What preventative measures should I be practicing to minimize the risk of spreading EHV-1?
See the recommendations for isolation and bio-security measures listed at the end of this article. Prior to traveling with your horses, check on the current health status of horses at your final destination.
My farrier is scheduled to come and work on my horses' feet? Should I still have him/her come or cancel the visit?
Have them come unless there is a high level of disease in surrounding barns. Practice the appropriate bio-security measures, regardless of area farm status. If the work is not needed immediately and there is a high level of disease in the area, rescheduling to a later date may be the wisest decision.
If I have new horses coming to barn, what should I do before they arrive and after they arrive?
Your horses should be up to date with their EHV-1 vaccinations. Quarantine/separate the new arrivals for 3 weeks.
We like to trailer to another barn and ride. Can we still do this?
While your barn may not be under quarantine, the potential to spread the disease is minimized if horses are not exposed to additional sources of contamination. It is important to still enjoy spending time with your horse. However, by taking the initiative to keep unnecessary travel to a minimum, the potential for spreading EHV-1 will be reduced.
How long should we not travel from barn to barn during an EHV-1 outbreak?
No definitive answer can be given as the length of time is dependent on the success of minimizing the EHV-1 outbreak.
BIO-SECURITY MEASURES FOR HORSE OWNERS
Immediately isolate any sick horses in the barn. Isolate any new horses or horses returning from another location or show for at least 7 days. If horses were exposed to sick horses while away, take further precautions and isolate horses for at least 21 days.
As the EHV-1 virus can be spread on clothing, all human traffic (clients taking lessons, borders, visitors, trainers, blacksmiths, veterinarians) should be vigilant about disinfecting boots before entering and leaving a different barn, wearing clothing (ex: jeans, jacket) that have not been worn in another horse barn, and washing hands before handling the horses. At the entrance of the barn, provide a tub of disinfectant and instructions for all to use. Bleach water (1 part bleach to 10 parts water) may be used and should be changed daily. Phenolic based disinfectants will be less effective if a lot of feces and other organic material collects in the tub, so clean out and replace the disinfectant solution regularly.
Do not rotate horses from stall to stall. Don't share feed tubs or water buckets among the horses. Inserting a water hose previously submerged in a bucket of a sick horse can potentially spread a virus.
Disinfect any areas of the barn that may have been exposed to a sick horse or a horse that is of question, including disposal of all bedding and hay/feed. The above disinfectants can be used. If the stall is needed, allow disinfectant to dry before placing a horse in the same location.
Always work with the sick horses(s) last in your chore routine and exit the barn without completing any other tasks.
When possible, separate horses into small groups to minimize the number of horses that may be exposed if you do have an infected horse.
Country View Veterinary Services
1350 S. Fish Hatchery Rd.
Oregon, WI 53575
Updated: March 2, 2006
EHV-1 outbreak in Florida
Equine Herpesvirus type1 Status – Florida State Officials in Florida are investigating a possible outbreak of Equine Herpesvirus – type 1 (EHV-1) in the Wellington, Florida area. Travel in and out of Florida is NOT restricted at this time.
From the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services: The Division of Animal IndustryRegarding Equine Virus
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 15, 2006 From the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services: The Division of Animal Industry Equine Herpesvirus type1 Status – Florida State Officials in Florida are investigating a possible outbreak of Equine Herpesvirus – type 1 (EHV-1) in the Wellington, Florida area. Affected animals have been associated with the importation of horses through the USDA New York animal import station. Laboratory confirmation is still pending. Thus far, 2 horses have been euthanized and other animals have had clinical signs. Two quarantines have been placed while state and federal officials are investigating the cause of the disease and working with affected industry to prevent further spread of the disease. No other state or federal restrictions have been placed on horse movements into, within, or out of Florida. Although EHV-1 can be a serious disease of horses and the virus can spread through the air for respiratory infection, transmission generally requires direct or close contact between horses. Horses with clinical signs should be isolated and kept 40 feet or more from other horses. Owners with sick horses should contact their private veterinarian to examine and treat their horses. Veterinarians suspecting EHV-1 with neurological signs are advised to contact state officials. Vaccines are available and concerned owners should discuss whether vaccination of their animals is recommended, the type of vaccines available, and the frequency of recommended vaccination with their veterinarian. For more information, please see the following web sites: My Horse Matters.com Univ of Kentucky Last Updated: December 14, 2006
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EVA problem in New Mexico, USA--summer 2006
Information from the United States Dept. Agriculture on Equine Viral Arteritis
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/pubs/fsheet_faq_notice/fs_ahequineva.html
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RUIDOSO SALES TO REQUIRE EVA TEST--July 2006
July 12, 2006 - This year, the Ruidoso Horse Sales Co. will require all horses entering their sales to provide results for an EVA test in addition to Coggins papers and health certificates.
The paperwork is required on all horses, including in-state animals. The original or copies of the forms must be in the sales office at least 10 days prior to the sale date. The EVA test results must be dated within 90 days of the date of the sale. Coggins must be dated within six months of the date, and health certificates must be dated within ten days of the sale.
All animals will be inspected at the time of unloading, and any showing clinical signs of EVA will not be permitted in the stable area. Horses vaccinated for EVA must show proof of vaccination including dates and negative EVA test prior to vaccination, signed by the attending veterinarian.
Samples may be tested at your nearest approved diagnostic center, or by calling the sales company at (505) 378-4474 to obtain submission forms for the approved laboratories. For any questions, call sale veterinarian Leonard Blach at (505) 420-8119.
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US ANIMAL IDENTIFICATION POLICY
This is the policy being developed in 2005-2006 to identify the source of animals, including horses, in the US in an attempt to control disease spread.
See the full article at the Travel website--http://eqagent.tripod.com/travel>animal identification policy
NEW OXYGEN THERAPY FOR HORSES
see link above
2005 article
www.theequinejournal.com
MORE "VS" NEWS
July, 2005--tho note that these press releases are not dated.
More info at sites noted
NOTE THE GENERAL WARNING REGARDING MOVING HORSES ACROSS STATE LINES GENERALLY
NEWS—VS UPDATE
HORSEWEB
PRESS RELEASE FROM THE TEXAS ANIMAL HEALTH DEPT. and COLORADO HEALTH DEPT
NO DATE ON THESE PRESS RELEASES
This is to notify you that the Vesicular Stomatitis (VS) quarantine on two horses on a Travis County, Texas, premises has been released. Currently, Texas has no animals or premises under quarantine for the sporadically occurring blistering disease that can affect horses, cattle, swine and a number of other species.
Until the threat of vesicular stomatitis (VS) ceases to exist, Dr. Bob Hillman, executive director of the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) has directed all Texas accredited veterinarians who write a certificate of veterinary inspection for any livestock moving interstate from Texas to make the following determination and provide this statement on the certificate:
"The animals represented on this certificate of veterinary inspection have not originated from a premises or area under quarantine for vesicular stomatitis or a premises on which VS has been diagnosed in the past 30 days. I have examined the animals and have found no signs of vesicular stomatitis."
Furthermore, animals entering Texas from a state affected by vesicular stomatitis must have a current certificate of veterinary inspection with this statement.
Although the Texas VS quarantine has been released, it is still a good idea to call the state of destination prior to travel to ensure your animals have met all entry requirements.
Information about VS and case counts in affected states may be accessed through the web site for the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) at http://www.tahc.state.tx.us The latest report indicates Arizona has 19 premises under quarantine, and New Mexico and Utah have two premises each under quarantine.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
NO DATE ON THIS PRESS RELEASE
The Colorado Department of Agriculture web site is at http://www.ag.state.co.us. You can stay up to date on the case counts and states affected by going to the Texas Animal Health Commission web site at; http://www.tahc.state.tx.us and selecting the link to "USDA Vesicular Stomatitis Information Page." As of July 12, the current number of premises quarantined because of VS: Arizona 13; New Mexico 6; Utah 4; and Colorado 1.
LAKEWOOD, Colo. - Colorado has become the fifth state in the country to have a confirmed case of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV). A six-year-old horse in Delta County tested positive for the disease, and the premise has been placed under quarantine.
"VSV is not a human health issue, but it can have severe economic impact on livestock owners, especially in the dairy industry," said Wayne Cunningham, state veterinarian at the Colorado Department of Agriculture. "The disease usually doesn't result in an animal's death, but the main reason we watch it closely is due to fact that the symptoms closely resemble foot-and-mouth disease, which is much more economically devastating."
In 2004, 148 horses, 119 cattle, four sheep and goats, and two alpacas were infected with the disease, involving a total of 107 premises across the Colorado.
Vesicular stomatitis is a viral disease that is usually not fatal but causes painful lesions around an infected animal's mouth, nostrils, teats and hooves, symptoms similar to foot-and-mouth disease. Only laboratory tests can differentiate the diseases. All disease samples from Colorado were sent to the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, for testing.
VSV primarily affects cattle, horses, and swine. These blisters enlarge and break, leaving raw tissue that is so painful infected animals generally refuse to eat or drink and show signs of lameness. Severe weight loss usually follows.
Since the disease is believed to be spread by insects, preventative measures include keeping susceptible animals in dry corrals and stables, using insecticides and insect repellents daily, providing good nutrition and practicing best management techniques.
Prior to 2004, the last case of VSV in Colorado was diagnosed in 1998. Although vulnerable, humans are rarely infected with the disease and usually display flu-like symptoms. In addition to livestock, other susceptible animals include llamas, goats and wild animals such as deer, bobcats and raccoons. For more information on VSV, visit our Web site at www.ag.state.co.us.
Garlic can cause Anemia in horses, academic studies show:
This article is from a commercial site that provides info on natural remedies and treatments for certain problems,and does sell some products--ww.NaturesBalance.com.
Garlic Causes Anemia in Horses
Many horse owners feed their horses garlic to fend off flies and insects,
but in a study performed at the University of Guelph and published in the
American Journal of Veterinary Research confirmed that horses will
voluntarily eat enough garlic to result in anemia. Horses ate voluntarily
gradual amounts of garlic and brought up to the maximum amount (4.4 oz for
an 1100-lb horse twice daily) over a 41-day period, and feeding continued
for an additional 71 days. Research found that an intake of only 3.5 oz
for an 1100-lb horse did cause anemia. The anemia resolved itself over a
five-week period after stopping the garlic, but damaged red cells and
abnormally high MCV (mean cell volume) were still detectable. Intake of
over 3.5 oz twice a day for 10 weeks was sufficient to damage the red cells.
This study also found that horses are more sensitive to garlic effects than
(Horse Journal Volume 12 Number 7 July 2005)
resource:NaturesBalance.com
ALERT: VS resurgence in April 2005 brings about embargo in Kentucky, additional required testing for states surrounding NM and Arizona.
April 2005 thehorse.com--article 3751 and others
Kentucky officials have prohibited the entry of all livestock, wild and exotic animals into the Commonealth from Grant County, N.M. Vesicular stomatitis was confirmed yesterday (April 27) in a horse in Grant County, and one other horse portrayed clinical signs of the disease. Kentucky's Administrative Regulation 302 KAR 20:115 prohibits entry of such animals from VS-affected and -embargoed areas.
On April 27, the USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) in Ames, Iowa, confirmed the finding of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) in horses at one premises in Grant County, N.M. This is the first confirmed case of vesicular stomatitis in the United States in 2005.
Vesicular stomatitis is a viral disease that primarily affects horses, cattle, and swine. Vesicular stomatitis virus has a wide host range and can occasionally infect sheep and goats. In affected livestock, VSV causes blister-like lesions to form in the mouth and on the dental pad, tongue, lips, nostrils, hooves, and teats. The blisters swell and break, leaving raw tissue that is so painful that infected animals generally refuse to eat and drink and show signs of lameness.
Severe weight loss usually follows, and in dairy cows a severe drop in milk production commonly occurs. Affected dairy cattle can appear to be normal and will continue to eat about half of their feed intake.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's Veterinary Services and the New Mexico Livestock Board will continue to monitor the situation and conduct response activities in an effort to minimize trade restrictions.
For additional information on vesicular stomatitis, visit: www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/issues/vs/vs.html.
This is intended as general information and updates that may be of educational interest to clients and students.
LR, agent is not responsible for the accuracy of the content, tho every effort is made to be certain the information is valid and current.
Contact your vet for any further questions.
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Current Status and Required Actions for National Climate Observing Systems
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This report identifies the strategic directions and sets out a 31-point action plan for Ireland for the establishment, maintenance and further development of an integrated national climate observing system. It is based on the outcomes of extensive consultation with Ireland?s climate observation and research community. Furthermore, it documents the current observing capabilities in the atmospheric, oceanic, terrestrial and hydrological domains; it identifies critical gaps and it provides proposals on how to address these. It also highlights a number of institutional barriers and management issues and underlines shortcomings in data accessibility. Steps to address these are identified and resources and costs are provided in a prioritised action plan. Implementation of these recommendations will require a minimum capital investment of Euro3.8 million, with an estimated ongoing annual requirement of Euro1.1 million. The development of appropriate climate observation and analysis systems is an essential part of the national response to climate change. Furthermore, these need to be linked to European and global networks. The overall aims of such systems are to: provide information for the assessment of environmental change, inform adaptation planning and improve risk analysis, and so provide a key information base for policy development.
Dr Ned Dywer
Coastal and Marine Resources Centre
Offline Print Quality Version ERC_14_Dwyer_NCOS_prn.pdf (3.71 Mb)
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Author(s) Dywer, N.
Publication Information Current Status and Required Actions for National Climate Observing Systems
Electronic Address or URL http://erc.epa.ie/safer/resource?id=dbf30907-8e03-102d-ba42-8e912b2741d0
Unique Identifier dbf30907-8e03-102d-ba42-8e912b2741d0
Dywer, N. "Current Status and Required Actions for National Climate Observing Systems". Associated datasets and digitial information objects connected to this resource are available at: Secure Archive For Environmental Research Data (SAFER) managed by Environmental Protection Agency Ireland http://erc.epa.ie/safer/resource?id=dbf30907-8e03-102d-ba42-8e912b2741d0 (Last Accessed: 2019-07-19)
SAFER-Data Display URL http://erc.epa.ie/safer/iso19115/display?isoID=163
Resource Keywords NCOS climate change monitoring data observation
EPA/ERTDI/STRIVE Project Code 2008-FS-GC-27
EPA/ERTDI/STRIVE Project Theme Climate Change
Limitations on the use of this Resource There is no data attached to this resource. However further usage of the reports in any significant way should be properly cited or acknowledged in any further publications. A citation is provided below
Project Start Date Tuesday 1st January 2008 (01-01-2008)
Earliest Recorded Date within any attached datasets or digital objects Tuesday 1st January 2008 (01-01-2008)
Most Recent Recorded Date within any attached datasets or digital objects Thursday 1st January 2009 (01-01-2009)
Published on SAFER Wednesday 31st March 2010 (31-03-2010)
Date of Last Edit Thursday 3rd March 2011 at 14:15:18 (03-03-2011)
Datasets or Files Updated On Wednesday 31st March 2010 at 11:54:02 (31-03-2010)
This is a literature/policy review report and does not generate or collect data. However the report reviews the current status of Irish in-situ networks (e.g. spatial extent, gaps, automation, partners) with respect to all climate variables that are or should be monitored. It also presents the plans of the key monitoring agencies with respect to future observations, examines the contribution of remote sensing and identifies issues related to historical information and data accessibility. Location maps are shown in the report for many of the following: ATMOSPHERE - Surface Networks, Upper air network, Aerosols and greenhouse gases, OCEANS - Surface variables, sea level, sea-surface salinity, sea state and currents, ocean colour, TERRESTIAL - including hydrological variables
As part of the National Climate Change Strategy (2007)1 the government expressed its commitment to ensuring -that Ireland has an adequate and modern capability for climate observations-. Moreover, Met Éireann is identified as having a key role to play in the further development and enhancement of observation systems together with other State agencies, in particular the Marine Institute (MI) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). To date in Ireland only a limited number of studies have been carried out to estimate the costs to the economy of climate change. Efforts need to be made in this direction using the best possible scientific information to help reduce the large uncertainties in the potential cost to the national economy.
Although many elements of a climate monitoring system are in place, there are a number of issues that need to be addressed in order to make it more robust and capable of addressing the country?s long-term needs in regard to climate monitoring. The most important of these focus on: - The need to carry out a comprehensive needs analysis for an enhanced evaporation and evapotranspiration network, which addresses the number and location of sites, level of automation, modelling/measurement mix, site responsibility, costs and overall co-ordination, as well as the identification of an agency that will have overall responsibility for leading activities in this domain. - Consolidating and securing long-term measurements of surface and subsurface variables in the oceanic domain as well as assigning a statutory role and appropriating resourcing to the Marine Institute in undertaking and co-ordinating oceanic data collection for climate monitoring purposes. - Designating and securing a number of existing hydrological measurement stations on rivers and lakes as well as a number within the groundwater network for long-term climate observations. - Establishing a long-term central facility to coordinate activities related to land-cover mapping and related data analysis. Reference sites for longterm research needs and ground-truthing in relation to the calibration and validation of remotely sensed data for land-cover mapping also need to be selected. - Formulating a consistent and coherent climate data access policy across all agencies collecting observational data, as well as streamlining access to all relevant observational metadata and data by setting up an online climate data portal. - Devising a clear and coherent policy to protect the integrity of long-term climate monitoring stations. - Establishing a structure that facilitates the use of remotely sensed derived information in analyses of climate variability and promotes and supports capacity building, including active participation in relevant ESA EUMETSAT, EU and other international activities in this area. - Co-ordinating national climate observation requirements by setting up a committee with members drawn from the key observation agencies and data user communities.
Similiar projects or datasets on SAFER with downloadable data files
The following is a list of projects, datasets, and resources on SAFER-Data from which users downloaded attachments from soon after downloading attachments from this resource Current Status and Required Actions for National Climate Observing Systems. You can view the full description for projects, datasets, and resources by using the links supplied.
Energy Efficiency Improvement of Waste Water Treatment Processes Using Process Integration Techniques View Full Metadata Description
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eschata
whatever I've been thinking about lately
A Short Note on Carrier’s “Minimal Historicism”
by Matthew Baldwin on April 21, 2015 in Criticism • 10 Comments
Richard Carrier, On the Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2014).[worldcat]
In chapter two of Richard Carrier’s monumental volume On the Historicity of Jesus, the independent scholar and advocate of “Jesus mythicism” explains why he permits only three claims to characterize the position he calls a “minimal theory of historicity” (see pages 31-34). Much of his book aims to put this minimal theory of historicity to the test. The three claims Carrier proposes as characterizing “minimal historicism” with respect to Jesus are (i) that Jesus was “an actual man” with “followers in life who continued as an identifiable movement after his death” and (ii) he “was claimed by his followers to have been executed by the Jewish or Roman authorities,” and (iii) his “followers soon began worshipping [him] as a … god” (all page 34).
Carrier’s limitation of the “minimal theory” to these three allegedly most essential facts of the so-called “historicist” position may seem, at first, to be sufficient. Perhaps they would be sufficient, if all his book set out to do (as its title implies) were to test the question of Jesus’ bare existence.
However, in forming this trio of claims to be tested, Carrier also makes a point to reject the standard minimalist lists of facts about the Jesus of history that are typically found among Biblical scholars. I feel no need to rehash such lists here (see Carrier, pp. 32-33 and nn. 18-19 for the lists he specifically rejects) since they are a commonplace, a well-known outcome of the approach to historical Jesus studies that has characterized scholarship after E. P. Sander’s 1985 study Jesus and Judaism .
Now, ostensibly, there are two reasons why these longer lists of minimal facts about Jesus are not sufficiently minimalist for Carrier’s purposes. First, he notes, they present a number of claims that, were some of them falsified, an “historicist” account of Jesus (i.e. the claim that Jesus of Nazareth was a “real” person in the past) would not necessarily be eliminated. But secondly, he states quite clearly, the elements found in such lists have already been falsified.
Note well: what I am saying is that Carrier’s particular account of so-called “minimal historicism” is more than just a logical starting point. It is an overdetermined bit of theater. It has been shaped by a prior analysis of the data that is normally used in the creation of any minimal account of who Jesus was in history. These Sanders-style lists of minimal facts about Jesus are necessarily dependent on early Christian accounts of Jesus (specifically, the Gospels). Well in advance of the publication of On the Historicity of Jesus , Carrier has already reviewed all of these alleged facts about Jesus, and he has already rejected them as insufficiently grounded in “history” (see his 2012 book Proving History ).
This game is more than somewhat suspect: it is rigged from the start. The question of Jesus’ historicity has already been decided. By design, Carrier’s statement of the minimal form of the theory of Jesus’ historicity dooms it to failure, since it has been formulated in light of a prior assumption that is deadly to its premises: the only available sources available for investigation of the life of Jesus are so absolutely unreliable that no statements about Jesus based solely on them can be admitted at all. His conclusions also entail a prior rejection of widely shared assumptions about the best scholarly methods for reading these sources, i.e., how to extract reliable historical data from the conflicting narratives of the Gospels. Essentially, on Carrier’s account, every prior historian who has decided to rely on Christian sources for knowing about Jesus has been a dupe, a stooge or tool who has mistaken fiction for fact.
For these reasons, calling his three claim account a minimalist statement of historicist theory is actually a form of begging the question. He has already rejected the historicist position precisely by insisting that it be formulated in this way and under these limitations. He has already revealed that he does not regard as reliable any aspect of any testimony about the past found in early Christian sources — unless, that is, such testimonies can be read in a way that supports his alternate theory of Christian origins.
For these reasons, the title of Carrier’s book is really misleading. This work doesn’t merely seek to answer the question “did a human Jesus exist in the past, yes or no?” This is not actually a book on the bare question of the historicity of Jesus, or on reasons for doubting claims that he existed as a person in history. It is, instead, a treatise on “Christian Origins.” The real question being asked by Carrier is not about the “historicity” of Jesus per se, but rather about the historical origins of the Christian movement.
The purpose of setting up a “minimal historicist theory” is to contrast it with its alleged partner and converse, a “minimal mythicist theory.” Carrier hopes that we will accept this either/or alternative. If one proves less probable, then the other becomes more probable.
The statement of alternatives being proposed in Carrier’s book is as follows.
Either it is
(A) more probable that early Christianity originated in a movement of people who had been followers of an earthly man named Jesus whom they subsequently came to worship as a god
or it is
(B) more probable that early Christianity originated in a movement of people who believed in and worshiped a mythical celestial being named Jesus—a divine being who was believed to have descended, suffered, ‘died,’ and been raised again entirely within a supernatural, heavenly realm— which mythical being Jesus was later portrayed by the movement as a real human being who lived on earth; while of course he must also subsequently have continued to be worshiped as a divine being, though now through a newly applied layer of mythicized historicized myth.
The fact is that through the past several centuries of historical inquiry, from H. S. Reimarus down to E. P. Sanders, position (A) has usually been seen as the most probable. Now, it is true that for a long time, a small minority of scholars have argued that we lack sufficient evidence to know if the man Jesus really existed in the past. However, such scholars have not maintained the position (B) found in Carrier’s proposed alternative. These scholars have instead limited themselves to a more truly minimalist mythicist claim: that the early Christians invented the story of the man Jesus; the stories of the gospels are thus themselves the myths. The first main representative of this school of mythicism includes most infamously Bruno Bauer (whose works on Jesus span 1840–1877).
In point of fact position (B), as Carrier articulates it, was never proposed as such until it found expression in the 1999 book of Earl Doherty, The Jesus Puzzle.
Carrier’s book is thus somewhat misleadingly presented. It is not a treatise on the historicity of Jesus so much as it is an attempt to defend Doherty’s thesis. But it doesn’t seek to defend that thesis merely on the merits. Instead, Carrier attempts to defend it by packaging it as if it were, tout simple, the logical alternative to minimal historicism (construed in a way that it must necessarily fail).
If this book were a mere treatise on the question of historicity, it would begin by examining carefully the arguments against historicity that have really been advanced (in the history of scholarship). It would also examine and demonstrate the inadequacy of objections to those arguments. It might advance new arguments against historicity and anticipate and answer in advance possible objections to those arguments. And it could accomplish its stated objective while leaving aside the question of an alternate explanation of Christian origins entirely. But if it wanted to be more satisfying, alternately, it could advance another theory — Doherty’s view or some other view of Christian origins — treating such a theory as a separate question. But this is certainly not what the book does.
Instead, Carrier wants the reader to believe that the defeat of minimal historicism entails the success of what he tendentiously describes as “the Minimal Jesus Myth Theory” (see his pages 52–53, where he lists five allegedly “minimal” aspects of the “mythicist” position). But defeating minimal historicism does not entail any part of his minimal mythicism. The entire book is predicated on a form of begging the question.
So, should we just ignore this rather tedious, overly self-referential, pseudo-logical, pseudo-mathematical book? Should we criticize it in detail? Should we complain about the dismissive and cavalier attitude which Carrier takes up towards over two centuries of prior historical scholarship on Christian origins? Should we take up a separate examination of Doherty’s Christ-Myth theory, putting it to the test in detail? Or should we all quit our jobs and spend our twilight years getting drunk, because we see clearly now that the present age has brought about such a morass of footnoted mythologizing by “scholars”? The jury is still out, however, I do suspect there are yet other alternatives that I haven’t considered.
Tags:Historicity Jesus Minimalism Mythicism Richard Carrier
← What’s Belief Got to Do with It?
Bauerlein says, ‘Let them be mentors’ →
10 comments for “A Short Note on Carrier’s “Minimal Historicism””
Daniel N. Gullotta
This was a great read.
Matthew Baldwin
Thank you Daniel!
Peter Kirby
Thank you for this article. Perhaps this is nitpicking, or perhaps I have misunderstood you, but:
Do you not consider that Arthur Drews and P.-L. Couchoud, among others, held similar views? Or is it that they held similar views but just not similar enough? Or perhaps such writers are today just considered obscure, and they have perhaps not been considered? Genuine question.
(I do appreciate, as you point out, that the viewpoints of other academics, including Bruno Bauer, are not represented by Carrier’s articulation of so-called “minimal mythicism.” Indeed I also agree with the general point that Carrier’s narrow delimitation, down to two ‘minimal’ hypotheses, may have reduced the relevance or validity of his analysis considerably, particularly for anyone who does not view one or the other or both as the best, or even truly minimal, statement of ‘historicity’ or ‘mythicism’. This does seem to be applicable both to his ‘minimal historicity’ and his ‘minimal mythicism,’ and in very simple terms it can be called a fallacy of the excluded middle. As you say, ‘defeating minimal historicism does not entail any part of his minimal mythicism.’)
Thanks again, and thanks for any reply. Cheers.
Thanks for your comment, Peter. Being somewhat new to the “mythicist” tradition, I am actually unfamiliar with Drews and Couchoud, so I’m going to have to look those guys up now; I appreciate the tip. Your genuine question is therefore both apt and helpful.
Reading the reply by Neil Godfrey over at Vridar, I feel misunderstood, but I guess I deserve whatever heat I take for letting myself call Carrier’s book “pseudo-” anything. Maybe it’s time to eat crow for straying into ad-hominem? Although those weren’t meant as criticisms of a person, but of a style and a method.
I really do think that Carrier stacks the deck against “minimal historicism,” leaving it with no fighting chance (no matter what arguments he would bring forward) simply because he has already decided that the only sources which could be used to substantiate the basic claims of minimal historicism have already been deemed too unreliable to substantiate a fuller minimal account. This is turning the tools of historical criticism against the historicism which such criticism presumes. It might even be right to reject the gospels as evidence of any particular claim about Jesus, including the claim of existence. But if so, then start with the more honest premise that arguments for Jesus’ historicity have failed, and announce to the world that you intend to explore an alternate account of Christian origins; don’t make it seem like your book actually treats the question of historicity, when that question has already been decided! There’s a false “excluded middle” as you suggest, between a rejected minimal historicism and Carrier’s account of “minimal mythicism.”
Kris Rhodes
Let’s call Carrier’s minimal historicism “C”. Let’s call Sanders-style versions which include info about JtB etc, “S”.
The following conditional holds: If S is true, then C is true.
From that it follows that if C is false, then S is false.
From that, it’s reasonable to think that if C is implausible, then S is implausible.
Everything said in this blog article aside, that logical relationship between C and S remains. No matter what Carrier’s motivations or reasons are for choosing to deal with C instead of dealing with S directly, it remains the case that IF Carrier can show C to be implausible, then S becomes implausible as well.
For that reason, I am having difficulty understanding what important point you are making. I don’t know what it is, to put it a little bluntly, that makes this a “great read.” (Hi Daniel!) To me, as explained above, the article seems to miss the point. There is no need to deal with S directly for any reason, since a negative conclusion about C has all the important implications we could be interested in for S.
Can you help me out here?
Kris, I can only say so much. First, thank you for reading and taking the time to comment. I left a comment on the Vridar post about this (http://vridar.org/2015/04/28/problems-with-accepting-carriers-argument/) hoping to clarify my position. But it probably won’t answer your concerns.
The logic of your if S, then C, therefore if not C, then not S seems air tight to me.
It would be a fine position to take if Carrier were really about testing what you call “C” here (Carrier’s minimal historicism). But Carrier’s book isn’t a test of C. C is rejected in the formulation of C, because the only possible basis of C is evidence that Carrier dismisses as completely unreliable in all respects in his prior book and here and there in the first two chapters.
But my real point isn’t that “hey this isn’t fair” or “hey the game is rigged” (though I think both of those are probably correct claims) but rather that the opposition of what you call C with what I will, here in this comment, call M (Carrier’s minimal mythicism), creates a false impression of two alternatives which satisfy all the possible explanations of the data we possess.
Does this statement seem logical: “if not C then M”
or this: “if not M then C”
The structure of his argument doubly begs the question; it begs the question of the historicity of Jesus by establishing the unreliability of all possible evidence for that historicity prior to establishing its unreliability, and it begs the question of the peculiar mythicist position by arguing incorrectly that it is the only other viable alternative.
//But Carrier’s book isn’t a test of C. C is rejected in the formulation of C, because the only possible basis of C is evidence that Carrier dismisses as completely unreliable in all respects in his prior book and here and there in the first two chapters.//
This argument seems far too strong. You seem to be saying that since we know he already didn’t believe C prior to even writing the book, we can safely ignore the arguments he does give against C in this book and in Proving History. But of course, _most_ books are written by authors who, once they’ve started writing, already know what conclusion they’re going to draw. This is, for one thing, not a criticism of any author, and for another thing, not relevant to evaluating the arguments they offer in the book.
It’s not true either that since Carrier dismisses the evidence for C within the first two chapters, the rest of the book is effectively failing to argue against C (or to “test C” as you put it) as well. One can refute a position in multiple ways. If Carrier believes he has refuted C already within the first two chapters, this by no means precludes him from continuing to test C throughout the rest of the book. And he manifestly does–each section of the book discusses the issue of whether this or that piece of evidence is more plausible on C or on M. Of course I know you know he does this, but you seem to be saying it’s useless to even examine those further arguments given the earlier dismissal of the evidence for C. But the logic of it (simplified a great deal of course) is this: “I can dismiss C on this basis. But even if you don’t buy that, I can further argue against C on these other bases.”
Ain’t nothing wrong with that. And there’s nothing about it that makes the later, further arguments against C any less valuable or worth responding to.
As to whether C and M are exclusive and exhaustive, I am actually still not sure what you’re envisioning here. Suppose C were false. What other states of affairs could obtain in that case? I would not say that C and M are logical contradictories, and that there is logical room for other possibilities. But I’m having a hard time coming up with anything even _close_ to being as plausible as either C or M. If I’m right to think nothing else comes close than these two, then for all dialectical purposes, it _is_ true that if not-C then not-M and vice versa.
Kapitano
“This game is more than somewhat suspect: it is rigged from the start. The question of Jesus’ historicity has already been decided.”
…says the man who has already decided that the absolute minimum a historian should say about Jesus includes events which *presuppose* his existence. That’s like saying Jack the Ripper must have existed because we know it was him who committed the murders.
Kapitano, thanks for your comment and for taking the time to read this. To me your comment is illuminating. “Jack the Ripper” is a figure of history who has been something of a mystery, and whose historical actuality remains unknown and subject to debate. In the case of the ripper the question was of identity: who was the ripper? It was not a question of historicity: was there a ripper? There was some human being who murdered some people in London in 1888. We just don’t know who it was for sure. The murders are the evidence that a man existed. Unless… it was aliens? or a mythical celestial being?
I wrote something on your blog last night which you have not posted. I am glad you have not posted and I want to apologise for what I posted. I was (unusually for me) aggressive and unfair in what I said. I wrote my comment in a) a bad mood and b) without properly reading your article. I stand by some of things I said. I disagree with your critique of Carrier and think it significantly misrepresents the argument he made in his book. However, I also can see that my comments did not really address the guts or the nuance of what you were saying. Mostly, I regret the tone of my comment which was arrogant and did not contribute, in any way, to a healthy dialog/debate. This is not usually my style…
What motivated me was that I am just really tired of people misrepresenting mythisicists and making straw men arguments against them. I would like to quote Peter Kirby who made a comment over at Vridar in a discussion with you. I could not say it better myself…
’I wish for a lot of things… but, mostly, in this context, that Carrier and Doherty are just considered part of the conversation, which has been taking place (off and on) for a while now (better part of 150 years), and that someone would finally write a truly great book in favor of the hypothesis of the historicity of Jesus (which I still think is yet to be written). I wish that there were more critical interaction and development of theory both within and among those skeptical of the historicity of Jesus, and between them and the wider world of people looking into Christian origins.”
P.S I do think Carrier, in his book, really nailed the gospels as well as he could have. I think much work is being done showing the allegorical-fictional nature of Mark – particularly re the connections between Paul and Mark as well as Mark’s use of the OT and other texts to construct his narrative. Once you understand Mark in these terms you can see that there really is, not only little room for history ‘remembered’, but that it is no longer needed to explain why he wrote his gospel…
Parsing Boer’s Concept of Religious Studies June 6, 2015
Religious Studies as Environmental Studies June 5, 2015
A Short Note on Critical Studies June 3, 2015
Bauerlein says, ‘Let them be mentors’ May 10, 2015
A Short Note on Carrier’s “Minimal Historicism” April 21, 2015
What’s Belief Got to Do with It? April 7, 2015
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Janmashtami is a Hindu festival that marks the birthday of Lord Krishna. Know all about its rituals, traditions, celebrations and dates for 2017 & 2018.
Janmashtami Celebrations
Janmashtami Customs
Janmashtami In Vrindavan
Janmashtami Songs
Janmashtami SMS
Krishna Rasa Leela
Janmashtami Rangoli
Janmashtami Puja
Janmashtami In Mathura
History of Janmashtami
Janmashtami Gifts
Janmashtami Fast
Janmashtami Decorations
Janmashtami Date
Janmashtami Cards
Janmashtami Bhajans
Janmashtami Legends
Janmashtami Recipes
Singhare Ki Puri
Shrikhand
Gopalkala
Janmashtami, also known as Krishna Janmashtami, is a Hindu religious festival that marks the birthday of Lord Krishna, the eighth incarnation of God Vishnu. It is one of the biggest religious festivals, not only in India, but all across the world. The festival is celebrated at midnight on 'Ashtami' or the eighth day of Krishna 'Paksha' (dark fortnight) in the month 'Shravana' (August–September) of the Hindu calendar, when Krishna is believed to have been born. Worldwide researchers have unanimously concluded that the period from 3200 BC to 3100 BC is the era of Lord Krishna. Every year, Janmashtami is celebrated with much fun and grandeur. There are several rituals and customs associated with the festival. 'Ras Leela', a dance drama portraying the life of Lord Krishna, is a common enactment of the day. Another ritual, the 'Dahi Handi' (curd pot) celebrates Krishna's mischievous nature of stealing butter as a child; young men form a huge human pyramid to reach a high-hanging earthen pot of curd and break it for fun. For devotees, the festival of Janmashtami signifies divine revitalization and merriment.
Rituals and Traditions
Many customs and rituals are associated with the celebration of Janmastami. Household devotees observe a fast for the whole day. They break their fast after midnight which is believed to be the birth time of Lord Krishna. Some prefer to observe 'Nirjala' fast which requires fasting without food and water while some others prefer to have only milk and milk products. 'Bhajans' (devotional songs) in praise of the Lord Krishna are sung throughout the day. Devotees chant unique 'mantras' and 108 names of the Lord Krishna to invoke his blessings. Apart from chanting of mantras, many plays that depict the life of Lord Krishna are enacted. Since Lord Krishna was very fond of milk, butter, and buttermilk, his devotees make sweets and offer to him. The ritual of 'Dahi-handi' (curd pot) is a stunt by young agile boys, depicting Lord Krishna trying to grab butter/curd from an earthen pot. This fun tradition is hugely practiced in the cities of Mathura, Dwarka, Vrindavan and Mumbai. A group of young boys form a human pyramid, and then they try to break a hanging earthen pot filled with milk. People gather below and throw water on the boys to prevent them from reaching the pot. Another tradition, the 'Ras Leela' or the 'Dance of Divine Love' is a fun activity that Krishna popularly performed with his 'Gopis' (group of cow-herding girls). There are several types of Ras Leela, such as Janamleela, Shankarleela, Putanaleela, Nagleela, etc.
Janmashtami is celebrated with great pomp and show all over India. On this day, homes and temples are beautifully decorated and illuminated. In the temples, prayers are offered all night and religious mantras are sung by devotees, who observe a day long fast. They worship Lord Krishna, listen to his tales of adventure, recite hymns from the Gita, sing devotional songs, and chant mantras. Lord Krishna's birthplace, Mathura (in present day Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh) and Vrindavan celebrate this occasion in the grandest manner possible. All over northern India, song and dance performances mark the occasion. The town of Dwarka in Gujarat, which is Krishna's own land, is thronged by several enthusiastic visitors on this day.
The International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) organizes 'Bhajan sabha' for the devotees. People affiliated to the organization dress up in saffron coloured clothes and dance to the rhythm of “Hare Rama Hare Krishna”. Ras Leela is performed to depict the playful adventures of Lord Krishna and to honour his love for Radha. At midnight (the Lord's birth hour), an idol of infant Krishna known as 'Gopal', is bathed and placed on a 'jhula' (cradle). The jhula is then decorated with flowers and rocked, amidst the blowing of conch shells and the ringing of bells. In Northern and Western India, people enact 'Dahi handi' – a re-enactment of Krishna's childhood attempts to steal butter and curd from earthen pots. A similar pot is hung high above the ground and groups of young people form a human pyramid to reach the pot and break it.
In temples, the idols of Sri Krishna and Radha are decked up with new clothes and bright jewelries. At 'Vaishnava' temples, celebrations begin before dawn and continue all day until midnight. The festivities include 'Kirtan', singing and praising the Lord's name together with other devotees, and 'Japa', private chanting and prayers. Devotees fast all day, take turns to cook a gourmet offering of over a hundred dishes; bathe, clothe and ornament the idol of Krishna, thread long flower garlands, burn incense sticks, decorate the temple, read from the Gita, and perform short plays and dances. At midnight, the beautifully ornamented deity of Krishna is revealed and celebrations continue with kirtans. In the state of Gujarat, Janmashtami is celebrated in a different way. Folk women take a break from their daily domestic chores and get together to play cards. This practice may have started as a means for women in the joint family system to pass the time, while they observe day long fast and stay awake for the entire night.
Janmashtami Dates
2017: 14 August
2018: 2 September
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Industry Shouts & Murmurs: August 3 – 9, 2018
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Land Tawney getting some much needed angling advice from the hitch hiker. Tawney is the Executive Director of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. Photo credit Stalking The Seam.
BHA CEO Receives Fly Fishing Industry Leadership Award
The American Fly Fishing Trade Association presented Backcountry Hunters & Anglers President and CEO Land Tawney with a new industry leadership award, the Jim Range Conservation Leadership Award, at the International Fly Tackle Dealer Show in July, 2018. This is the first year the award was given.
Read complete story . . .
Thousands of fish in Animas River killed by rain runoff carrying ash, debris from 416 fire burn scar
Thousands of fish have been found dead in the Animas River after heavy rains flushed debris and ash from the 416 fire into the river. Photo Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
Ash and debris carried by heavy rains from the 416 fire burn scar into the Animas River north of Durango suffocated thousands of fish, Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials said.
“We’re seeing thousands of fish struggle for their last gasp of air on the river 10 to 15 miles north of Durango, likely down into New Mexico,” said the spokesman for the Southwest Region of Colorado Parks and Wildlife Southwest, Joe Lewandowski. “We can’t even get an exact number because the river is so dark and brown, and we can’t do much about it until the runoff flushes out.”
Lewandowski added that the Animas River has not seen such a massive die-off from wildfire debris runoff in recent memory, though the Missionary Ridge fire wiped out the fish population in the Florida River northeast of Durango in 2002.
Fears that escaped salmon could ‘pollute’ wild stocks on Newfoundland’s south coast
Atlantic Salmon Federation says public should have been told about escape earlier.
Ben releases a nice salmon in Old Tracadie pool on the Cascapedia, shortly before losing the fish of a lifetime. Photo Dave Cole, from Ben carmichael – ASF.
The escape of thousands of farmed salmon on the south coast of Newfoundland is a significant concern, as is the lack of public notification about the incident, the Atlantic Salmon Federation says.
Cooke Aquaculture confirmed Monday that over the course of four days last week between 2,000 and 3,000 salmon escaped from the company’s fish farm in Hermitage Bay.
The company said it alerted the province’s department of Fisheries and Land Resources, as well as the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, as soon as it saw the breech.
Five nations take the lion’s share of the world’s fish
Tracking data reveals that global fishing is deeply inequitable, raising fears for food security. Geetanjali Rangnekar reports.
Just a fraction of China’s devastating fishing fleet. A YouTube screen-shot.
Just five nations — China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Spain — are responsible for 86% of the global fishing haul, new research shows.
An intensive study of tracking data from fishing vessels has revealed that those belonging to wealthier nations dominate the catch not only in international waters, but also in the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of poorer nations.
The findings questions about the control and distribution of the global fishing catch, and could have long-term repercussions for food security and nutritional health.
Action Alert: Urge Congress to Authorize the Everglades Reservoir
The Everglades Foundation released a letter it sent to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) urging him to schedule a vote on the Everglades Reservoir when the Senate reconvenes for legislative business on August 15.
“There is no other way to say this,” asserted Everglades Foundation CEO Eric Eikenberg in the letter. “Florida is being ravaged by a perennial algae crisis that is destroying our beaches, fisheries, tourism and real estate industries, and we are desperate.”
The letter seeks a Senate vote on S. 2800, America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018, which includes the biennial Water Resources Development Act. The measure seeks authorization of the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir, also known as the “Everglades Reservoir.”
The project will accommodate 240,000 acres of dynamic water storage, Eikenberg noted today, cleaning and moving an average of 370,000 acre-feet per year of water from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades and Florida Bay, significantly reducing Lake Okeechobee discharges, which are the cause of the current algae crisis.
How You Can Help . . .
A red tide ravaging Florida may have killed a whale shark for the first known time
Biologists perform a necropsy on a whale shark that died in Florida waters. (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)
Speaking of Science
In late July, a whale shark washed up dead at Sanibel Island in Florida. The young adult male shark was 26 feet long and floating in the surf zone as soft waves lapped around its body.
Abby Jakoplic-Arnold, on vacation from Kansas City, Mo., happened to be on the beach when the shark was being removed. “At first we didn’t know if it was dead,” she recalled. “But it became pretty obvious when they flipped it over and blood was coming out of its gills.”
A biologist from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission sampled the shark’s muscle, liver, intestines and stomach contents. The muscles and organs tested positive for brevetoxin, a neurotoxin created by a harmful algae called Karenia brevis. This is the first time the commission has had an opportunity to sample whale shark tissue for this toxin.
Featured Image Bait fish 2 by Clinton & Charles Robertson/Jacopo Werther – a commons image.
American Fly Fishing Trade Associationanimas riveraquacultureashAtlantic Salmon FederationBackcountry Hunters & Anglersdead fishdurangoEverglades Agricultural Area ReservoirEverglades FoundationFeature StoriesFlorida Fish and Wildlife Conservation CommissionInternational Fly Tackle Dealer showJim Range Conservation Leadership AwardLake OkeechobeeLand TawneyOverfishingSalmon escapeSlidewhale shark
No fly tyer should ever fear rubber legs again
ASMFC vs Council (Magnuson-Stevens) Framework
How could protecting Alaska’s salmon become a vote against something?
Press Release: TFO Introduces the Axiom II-X Fly Rod
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By Michelle Zis March 25, 2005 Uncategorized
By Michelle Zis
Whether you are currently building your art collection, or just dream about having one, a Takashi Murakami limited edition lithograph would be an appropriate addition. Museum Works Galleries in association with GEN ART had a one-night-only opening in Chicago’s Gold Coast of Murakami’s prints. Museum Works Galleries, located in New York City, Aspen, and Park City–where artwork is bought by Robert Redford and the Sundance Film Festival elite–will be opening up shop in Chicago later this year.
Hanging Murakami’s on the walls is a great choice for a first show. Murakami’s work is always a whimsical pleasure. The Japanese pop artist, who is often described as a present-day Andy Warhol, obtained superstardom after his collaboration with Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton handbags a couple of years ago. Artforum’s coverage of the 2003 Venice Biennale pictured a street vendor selling Vuitton knockoffs on the cover of the September 2003 issue with an article commenting on the ubiquitous bags.
The lithographs in this show combine Japanese anime with other aspects of Pop culture. A charming character named DOB, with Mickey Mouse ears, floats around with smiley-faced flowers. In “Jellyfish,” a giant head with colorful misplaced eyeballs, sits upon a tiny body in a field of happy, psychedelic flowers against a checkerboard backdrop. Murakami creates desire. The craving to own a Murakami, whether a lithograph or a handbag, is perhaps his greatest commentary on Pop culture.
Arts & Culture, Review
Uncategorized Takashi Murakami
Christo’s Gates, Chris Burden Quits UCLA, Costco Sells Picasso
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A New Restoration of the Russian “War and...
Mapping Art: The Spring Undergraduate Exhibition
“The Art of Connection”: Graduating Art Therapists Get...
Ode To An Icon
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Warming Climate, Competition Affect Pacific Salmon
Fisheries scientists at the University of Washington this week published their findings on the effects of warming climate and competition on Pacific salmon in the research publication Nature Ecology & Evolution.
The study by Timothy Cline, Jan Ohlberger and Daniel Schindler of UW’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences found that species with complex life cycles, including those migrating between different habitats to complete their life cycles, may be particularly sensitive to global change. This is because each life cycle stage is influenced by a unique set of natural and anthropogenic stressors, the report said. The research involved using of multivariate time-series models to quantify changes in the prevalence of different life-history strategies of sockeye salmon from Bristol Bay, Alaska, over the past half century looking specifically at how they partition their lives between freshwater habitats and the ocean. During their life cycle, distinct life stages differ in their sensitivity to individual stressors, particularly temperature, the report noted. And effects of environmental change experienced by a population in one habitat affect their ecology in other life stages through developmental links in the process of completing their life cycle.
Researchers contend that climate warming has decreased the time spent by salmon in their natal freshwater habitat, as climate-enhanced growth opportunities have enabled earlier migration to the ocean. They also concluded that migration from freshwater at a younger age and increasing competition from wild and hatchery-released salmon, have tended to delay maturation toward spending an additional year feeding in the ocean.
According to the report, these stressors combine to reduce the size-at-age of fish vulnerable to commercial fisheries and have increasingly favored a single-age class, potentially affecting the age class complexity that stabilizes this resource.
Posted by Fishermen's News at 12:35 PM
New Canine Treats Boast Alaska Fish Oil/CBD Isolate
Wild Alaska fish oils, known for their nutritional value, are turning up in an increasing number of pet treats, including the new Alaska Ruff canine treats, a product line from Wasilla, Alaska, that includes cannabidiol (CBD), a chemical compound from the cannabis plant.
Entrepreneurs Kayla Thomas and Sara Buie introduced their four Alaska Ruff canine treats, with recommended dosage on the packaging, at Alaska outdoor markets in Anchorage and the Matanuska Valley earlier this spring. The products are also available online at www.alaskaruff.com.
Their Alaskan Fish Oil + Peanut Butter, Alaskan Fish Oil + Hemp Seed Hearts, Carrot-Peanut Butter and Apple-Peanut Butter flavors also contain spent barley, plus a CBD isolate to provide relief for dogs dealing with neuropathic pain, anxiety and hyperkinesis. CBD isolate is crystalline powder that contains 99 percent pure CBD, with all other plant matter removed.
The only preservative is rosemary, a natural ingredient that dogs love the flavor of, noted Thomas, who created the recipes labels for the products, with help from an Oregon friend who also manufactures dog food.
The two women, good friends and dog lovers, had discussed going into business together and came up with the idea of dog treats, which they currently produce at home, but they are already looking into commercial kitchen options for expansion. “We wanted to make a product we would give to our own dogs,” said Buie, who has a degree in business management and accounting, while Thomas’ forte is quality control assessments.
“A lot of customers have told us ‘we just want something from Alaska’,” Thomas said. “We are pretty determined women. We are paying attention and doing the research.” A lot of customers are more drawn to the CBD infusion and minimal number of ingredients too, Buie said. The Alaskan Fish Oil + Peanut Butter treats, for example, include spent barley, oat flour, pure Alaskan fish oil, peanut powder, local co-op eggs, whole ground flaxseed meal, ground rosemary and CBD isolate. Spent barley offers fiber, proteins, amino acids and minerals.
While the CBD isolate is recommended for relief from neuropathic pain, anxiety and hyperkinesis, the product label also warns that the product is not intended to treat any disease.
As they expand their business through the first year of production, Thomas and Buie are also having their canine treats tested by a licensed food inspection laboratory in the Matanuska Valley. The lab uses a mass spectrometer–a machine that produces charged particles from the substances being analyzed and records the relative abundance of each particle type. This is a way to check for any impurities and inform the producers of the percentage of every ingredient in the product.
Chemical Signatures Tell Critical Story About Habitat
A new study by University of Washington fisheries researchers documents how chemical signatures imprinted inside the ears of fish show that two of Alaska’s most productive salmon populations and the fisheries they support depend on the entire watershed.
The study notes that sockeye and Chinook salmon born in Nushagak River in Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed, and its network of streams and lakes use the whole basin as young fish to search for the best places for prey, shelter and safety from predators. From birth until these young fish migrate to the ocean a year later is a critical period for them to eat and grow.
The study by lead author Sean Brennan, a postdoctoral researcher at the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, notes that different parts of the Bristol Bay watershed are hot spots for salmon production and growth, and these favorable locations change annually, depending on how climate conditions interact with local landscape features.
The study, published in the May 24 edition of Science, analyzed the tiny ear stones, known as otolith, that form in the fish.
“Habitat conditions aren’t static, and optimal places shift around,” Brennan said. “If you want to stabilize fish production over the years, the only strategy is to keep all of the options on the table.”
“The overall system is more than just the sum of its parts, and small pieces of habitat can be disproportionately important,” said Daniel Schindler, a UW fisheries professor and senior author of this study. “The arrows point to the need to protect or restore at the entire basin scale if we want rivers to continue to function as they should in nature.”
Release of the study coincides with renewed efforts of Canadian miners to get permits for development of the proposed Pebble mine, to extract copper and gold from near the headwaters of the Nushagak River. The deadline for public comment on the draft environmental impact statement was recently extended to July 1, 2019 by the US Army Corps of Engineers.
As part of the study, researchers reconstructed the likely geographic locations of nearly 1,400 adult salmon, from their birth in a Nushagak stream until their migration to the ocean. By looking at the otolith of each fish, they could tell where the fish lived by matching the chemical signatures imprinted on each growth ring of the otolith with the chemical signatures of the water where they swam.
“Results like those we’re presenting in this paper hopefully will get people to think about what they stand to lose by starting to develop and eliminate habitat in places like the Nushagak River,” Schindler said, “The Pebble mine environmental impact statement, which is supposed to be a mature, state of the science assessment of risks, really does a poor job of assessing risks of this specific project.”
Copper River Salmon Catch Tops 180,000 Fish
The Copper River salmon fishery in Alaska is so far coming in as forecasted, with upwards of 180,000 Chinook, sockeye and chum salmon delivered to processors in Cordova since the first opener. Retail prices are holding fairly firm.
Preliminary catch figures for the fourth opener on May 25 were still being compiled by Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) officials, but as of early today that count stood at 180,088 fish, accounting for 168,336 red, 7,041 Chinook, 4,710 chum and a single humpy.
The first opener on May 16 brought in a total of 22,966 fish, the second accounted for 56,803 salmon and the third 66,919. As of late Tuesday, May 28, fish tickets added up to 33,400 fish, but ADF&G gillnet fishery manager Jeremy Botz said that was just a partial count.
Harvesters made 473 deliveries to processors in the first period, 483 in the second and 569 in the third.
Copper River kings and sockeyes were starting to show up as seafood entrees in more fine dining restaurants, like Jens, in Anchorage, Alaska, where a fresh Copper River king salmon grilled and served with Romesco sauce and roasted corn salsa was offered for $50.
For those preferring to prepare their own seafood at home, the best deal in Anchorage this week was fresh Copper River sockeye fillets for $13.99 a pound at Costco stores, and shoppers were snapping them up quickly.
10th & M Seafoods had Copper River sockeye fillets for $21.95 a pound and king fillets for $59.95 a pound. New Sagaya, the other top seafood shop in that city, was offering five pounds of Copper River red fillets for $209.95, or $41.99 a pound. Online Anchorage retailer FishEx had sockeye portions for $46.95 a pound and king portions for $86.95 a pound.
In Seattle, Pike Place Fish Market had dropped prices on whole Copper River kings to $39.95 a pound and king fillets for $49.99 a pound, while Copper River sockeyes were $99.95 per fish and $29.99 a pound for fillets.
Copper River Salmon Make their Seasonal Debut
Copper River sockeye and Chinook salmon are back in seafood shops and upscale restaurants from Anchorage, Alaska, to Seattle, Wash., and beyond. The 12-hour season opener on May 16 brought in an estimated 20,534 red and 2,309 king salmon, some of which were being served up for dinner in Anchorage even before the first period closed that evening.
Skip Winfree of 10th & M Seafoods in Anchorage arranged for a helicopter to pluck a brailer of wild salmon from a fishing vessel in the Copper River several hours into the opener, and deliver the fish to Cordova’s airport to be flown into Anchorage, where it was rushed to four upscale restaurants.
“We were tired of Seattle getting all the first fish,” said Winfree, who partnered for a third year in a row with 60° North Seafoods to get fresh wild salmon to Anchorage on the day of the first opener. Some first night diners paid approximately $65 a plate for the Copper River sockeye entrée. Six days later fresh Copper River sockeye entrées were being offered at $38.95 and fresh Copper River king fillets for $48.95 at another popular restaurant.
Meanwhile in Seattle, Alaska Air Cargo delivered some 18,000 pounds of fresh Copper River salmon on the morning of May 17 on board the Alaska Airlines Salmon-Thirty-Salmon, a jet painted to look like a gigantic king salmon. Later in the day a second jet brought another 50,000 pounds of fresh kings and sockeyes for distribution to grocers and restaurants nationwide.
Pike Place Fish Market offered whole Copper River kings for $44.99 a pound and fillets for $59.99 a pound, as well as whole Copper River sockeyes for $199.95 per fish.
The second opener, on Monday, May 20, brought the harvest to a total of 73,766 sockeyes weighing in at 416,259 pounds, 4,064 kings for a total of 73,559 pounds, and 1,765 chum salmon totaling 11,463 pounds. Kings came in at an average of 18.7 pounds for the first period and 17.4 pounds on the second round, while sockeyes averaged 5.5 pounds and 5.7 pounds respectively for those same periods, and chums were at 6.5 pounds on average, according to Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists.
Superior Court Dismisses Pebble-Backed Lawsuit
Alaska Superior Court Judge Yvonne Lamoureux has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the right of Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association (BBRSDA) to advocate on behalf of others challenging potential impacts of the Pebble mine project in the Bristol Bay watershed area.
The lawsuit, filed by six Bristol Bay fishermen and financed by the Pebble Limited Partnership, alleged that the BBRSDA was spending funds outside of its statutory purposes.
Lamoureux found, in her May 17 decision, that the BBRSDA acted within its statutory purpose of promoting the Bristol Bay fishery in opposing the proposed Pebble mine, which mine opponents contend could have a devastating impact on the world’s largest wild salmon fishery.
The Pebble limited Partnership declined comment on the judge’s decision.
Scott Kendall, legal counsel for the BBRSDA, meanwhile hailed Lamoureux’s decision as a complete vindication of the fisheries association. “She agreed with us that Pebble’s case was entirely without merit, and now the Association can get back to its work of promoting the one of a kind Bristol Bay fishery,” he said.
“This frivolous lawsuit was a desperate attempt to bully and silence those who are digging for the truth about Pebble’s deeply flawed and highly misleading mine plan,” said Tim Bristol, executive director of SalmonState, which was named as a defendant in the lawsuit, along with United Tribes of Bristol Bay (UTBB).
The BBRSDA had entered into contracts with SalmonState and UTBB to provide outreach, education and a review related to the draft environmental impact statement on the proposed mine, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hunter Dickinson, the diversified Canadian-owned global mining group proposing to build the Pebble mine.
Alannah Hurley, executive director of UTBB, hailed the ruling for clearing the way for Bristol Bay residents and fishermen to focus on preparing for the return of 40 million salmon this summer and fighting to protect this run for future generations The decision “confirms that the people and fishermen of Bristol Bay have the right to fight for our way of life,” she said.
The judge’s decision explained that state statutes give some guidance on ways regional seafood development associations may band together, tax themselves and use those funds to promote the monetary value of seafood products harvested in the region. These options, she wrote, “include promoting the product, investing in infrastructure to preserve or increase the value of seafood, educating the public on the seafood, researching the product, advertising the product, researching markets and cooperating with other entities for quality control measures and commodity standards.” The judge also found that it is not outside the BBRSDA’s power or authority to conduct technical research of a proposed mine, which relates to and may affect seafood in the region, to conduct outreach and advocacy on the same, or to participate and encourage others to participate in commenting on the draft environmental impact statement as to the potential effect of the mine on their marketable seafood resource.
O’Shea Honored with NPAFC International Award
Retired US Coast Guard Captain John O’Shea, who has worked on marine fisheries policy issues at the regional, national and international levels, has received the 2019 International Award from the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (NPAFC).
The award is given annually to an individual or group whose sustained and significant contributions in scientific research, enforcement, international cooperation, or management have helped improve the conservation of anadromous salmon and steelhead stocks in the North Pacific Ocean.
O’Shea was presented with the award on May 17 at the commission’s 27th annual meeting in Portland, Oregon.
NPAFC officials said O’Shea is being recognized for his contributions in the areas of compliance and enforcement to the commission’s mission to conserve and manage anadromous salmon and steelhead stocks in the North Pacific Ocean and adjacent seas.
He has contributed substantially to the functioning of the commission’s Committee on Enforcement for many years. From 1991 through 1996, he served in US Coast Guard headquarters’ Office of Law Enforcement as program manager for fisheries law enforcement. There he was responsible for policy and resources for all Coast Guard fisheries law enforcement domestic and foreign activities.
O’Shea coordinated Coast Guard participation in the NPAFC as part of the Coast Guard’s ongoing operations in the North Pacific against use of large-scale high seas driftnets.
Pact Aims to Reduce Environmental Impact of Fishing and Seafood Industries
A new pact signed by Norway and Washington state calls for cooperation on next-generation maritime technologies and clean energy innovations, with the goals of further modernizing and reducing the environmental impact of fishing and seafood industries.
The memorandum of understanding was signed in Seattle, Wash., this past week by representatives of Innovation Norway and Washington State, during the Nordic Innovation Summit at the Nordic Museum, according to a report in GeekWire, a technology news site with strong roots in the Seattle region. The pact specifically calls for decarbonization of vessels, ocean technology innovation, modernization of fish and seafood industries, and use of maritime digitalization.
Signers agreed to cooperate and support business development activities between designers, suppliers, builders and operators of hybrid, full electric and alternative fueled vessels, and associated infrastructure that includes but is not limited to electric ferries.
They also agreed to support technology development and expand opportunities for ocean science technology into maritime markets, including, but not limited to, offshore marine renewable energy, subsea sensors, gliders, autonomy and robotics.
They called for modernization of fishing and seafood through engagement of sustainable fishing companies equipment suppliers, processing technology developers and sustainable aquaculture for business development, knowledge sharing and technology transfer.
In addition, they agreed to share market opportunities for growth in big data analytics.
The statement was signed on stage by Chris Green, director of the Washington state Office of Economic Development and Competitiveness, and Gro Eirin Dyrnes, regional director of Innovation Norway. The conference came in the wake of an event in which representatives of the tech industry and maritime leaders discussed ways to collaborate.
Another Pebble Mine Legal Challenge
Proponents and opponents of the proposed Pebble mine are awaiting an Alaska Superior Court decision in the latest litigation challenging the right of a regional seafood development association to use its funds to oppose the mine.
The lawsuit against the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association (BBRSDA), United Tribes of Bristol Bay and Salmon State was filed by six BBRSDA members and paid for by the Pebble Limited Partnership (PLP), which is seeking permits to proceed with development of the mine project. One of the plaintiffs, Abe Williams, is the director of regional affairs for the PLP.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration has sided with the plaintiff fishermen by filing an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction and their opposition to the BBRSDA’s motion to dismiss.
In more than three hours of testimony on Monday, May 13, plaintiffs’ attorneys contended that the BBRSDA was using state funds for ultra vires – purposes beyond the scope of their legal power – for promotion and marketing of Bristol Bay salmon, justifying the request for a preliminary injunction to stop them from doing so.
Attorneys representing the BBRSDA countered that BBRSDA is using its own money from a self-assessed tax greed on its members, rather than state money to fight the proposed mine.
They argued that plaintiffs are trying to create new restrictions on money drift gillnetters pay in taxes based on the harvest.
The BBRSDA noted that state statutes explicitly permit the association to cooperate with other public and private boards, organizations or agencies for joint programs, including consumer education, research and sales promotion programs for seafood products harvested in the region. The brief also argued that the BBRSDA is a development as well as a marketing association, and that there is no question that public and market awareness of the Pebble mine and its potential impact on Bristol Bay salmon is very high. “Plaintiffs’ whole case depends on pretending that the mine and fishery inhabit separate worlds, but of course the proposed mine and the fishery are in the same geographic region and one is rarely mentioned in the same breath without the other,” the BBRSDA’s attorneys said. Alaska Superior Court Judge Yvonne Lamoureux took the matter under advisement.
Meanwhile early today, Iliamna Natives Limited, an Alaska Native village corporation in the Bristol Bay region, announced it had reached agreement with the PLP to provide transportation corridor access on its lands in support of the proposed mine.
Copper River Salmon Fishery Opener is Hours Away
With the famed Copper River salmon fishery opener just hours away, the excitement is mounting even as weather forecasters predict rain showers and temperatures ranging from 41 to 52 degrees.
“Rain and fog can impact things,” noted Alaska Department of Fish and Game management biologist Jeremy Botz in Cordova, Alaska “Still, I think the weather is going to be pretty decent, so we’ll get a good look at what’s out there. So far, several hundred commercial harvesters registered for the fishery, they seem pretty positive, which is pretty typical for the start of the season,” he added.
Some of that optimism may be because while there are no indications of a whole lot of sockeye salmon out there, there are definitely more than this time last year as reported by those with educational permits.
The forecast is for a run of 1.5 million sockeyes in the Copper River and some 55,000 Chinook salmon. The projected commercial harvest is 756,000 reds and 31,000 kings, including in-river fisheries, rather than just the commercial catch, according to Botz.
Water temperatures currently are average, a bit warmer than the cooler waters noted at the start of last year’s fishery.
10th and M Seafoods in Anchorage, Alaska, is scheduled to receive a load of sockeyes and kings from the opener mid-afternoon on May 16 and deliver them to about a dozen area restaurants.
Chef Travis Haugen at the Southside Bistro is one of several chefs bracing particularly for the delivery of Chinooks. “As soon as I have one in my hands, I will put it on the menu,” he said.
NPFMC Accepting Comments for June Meeting
Comments on Gulf of Alaska pollock and cod seasons and allocations are currently accepted by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council in advance of final action slated in Sitka, Alaska, in June. During its December meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, the council adopted for public review an analysis of alternatives intended to relieve operational inefficiencies for the trawl catcher vessel pollock and Pacific cod fisheries in the Western and Central Gulf of Alaska.
For Pollock, council staff noted, additional flexibility would be found by moving from the existing equal four-season total allowable catch allocation to equal two-season allocations. Under the seasonal modification, the Pollock A and B seasons would be combined into a season running from Jan. 20 through May 31 and the C and D seasons would be combined into a single season from Aug. 25 through Nov. 1.
The council also agreed to continue to consider whether increasing the 20 percent cap on in-year seasonal rollovers of unharvested Pollock TAC provides flexibility to better utilize the available harvest. The council’s preliminary preferred alternative would increase that cap to 25 percent. For Pacific cod, the goal is to reduce the under harvest of B season TAC in the trawl catcher-vessel sector by moving some of the seasonally allocated TAC to the A season.
During the December meeting the council re-specified options for the amount of the seasonal reallocation to clarify that sectors other than the trawl catcher vessels would not be impacted. The preliminary preferred alternative would result in an A/B seasonal TAC ratio across all sectors, of 64 percent/36 percent, compared to the status quo of 60 percent/40 percent.
Final action is also scheduled in June on the community quota entity (CQE) individual fishing quota halibut in Area 3A. The proposed amendment would allow community quota entities in Area 3A to fish D class halibut IFQ on C or D class vessels.
The CQE program was developed to allow for a distinct set of small, remote, coastal communities with few economic alternatives to purchase and hold catcher vessel quota share in the Gulf of Alaska to help facilitate access to and sustain participation in the commercial halibut and sablefish individual fishery quota fisheries.
More information, and to comment on these and all other items coming before the council June 3-10 go to http://meetings.npfmc.org/Meeting/Details/763.
NOAA Researchers Learning More About West Coast Ecosystem
Research scientists at the NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center say they are learning more about great volumes of nutrient-rich water welling up from the deep ocean to fuel great diversity of marine life on the nation’s West Coast.
While upwelling is vital to marine life along the West Coast, until now the tools being used to monitor it hadn’t changed much in almost half a century. Now scientists are employing satellite images, research buoys, ocean models and other ocean monitoring tools that allow them to measure the velocity of the water and amount of nutrients that it delivers. This helps them to better understand the impacts of upwelling on coastal ocean ecosystems.
Michael Jacox, a research scientist at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center, and other researchers from NOAA Fisheries and the University of California at Santa Cruz recently published the new upwelling measurements in the Journal of Geophysical Research.
Upwelling occurs along certain coastlines around the world where winds and the Earth’s rotation sweep surface waters offshore, drawing deep, cold and salty water full of nutrients to the surface. These nutrients fuel growth of phytoplankton that form the base of the marine food web, and ultimately nourish the ocean ecosystem of the West Coast.
Researchers studying fisheries or other marine life can use the indices to understand how fish and marine mammals respond to changes in upwelling and nutrients in the ecosystem. The indices are also helping to reveal effects of shifting ocean conditions off the West Coast, which has in recent years seen unusually warm temperatures that affect many species.
Copper River Opener Set for May 16
With the celebrated opener of the Copper River salmon fishery a little over a week away, the excitement is growing from Seattle, Wash., to Anchorage, Alaska and beyond, as are the pre-orders at retail shops for those first run reds and kings. Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists in Cordova, Alaska, announced that the first Copper River opener will commerce at 7 a.m. on May 16, for a 12-hour period ending at 7 p.m.
The arrival of those first run sockeyes and kings in Seattle on Alaska Airlines will receive the usual red-carpet treatment.
10th & M’s Rob Winfree says Alaskans have been shortchanged by having the first of the season sockeyes and kings going directly to Seattle two days before Alaskans can get it, so he decided to do something about it. He worked with 60° North Seafoods on getting a helicopter to lift a load of fresh catch off a boat and deliver it to a jet at the Cordova Airport to fly them directly to Anchorage, where 10th & M will deliver it to customers who pre-ordered. “It is small amounts,” he said. “It’s token, but it means a lot.” Some first fish will be delivered in time to several Anchorage restaurants so it can be featured on their May 16 evening menu.
Winfree claimed that last year some of those first run wild salmon were on dinner plates in Anchorage two hours before that first opener ended.
Copper River Seafoods also will celebrate the arrival of the first fish in Anchorage with a special event on Saturday, May 18, at which gourmet chefs will offer a variety of creative wild Alaska salmon appetizers to invited guests.
Pebble DEIS Deadline Extended
A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decision to extend the deadline for comments on its controversial draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) on the Pebble projects is seen as a small victory by some and an unfortunate event by others.
The extension adds 30 days to the original schedule and pushes the deadline to June 29, 2019, just as the statewide wild salmon fishery is under way, and on the cusp of an expected annual surge of sockeyes into Bristol Bay.
Fishing groups from Bristol Bay, Alaska Native corporations and area tribal groups, along with 20 members of the Alaska Legislature had initially asked for the comment period to be at least 270 days, but it will now be 120 days.
Former Alaska Senate President Rick Halford called the Corps’ decision “a 30-day extension of a very failed process is a small victory. They should start over with a real economic analysis of its feasibility, scientific proof of their proposal and objective analysis of alternatives, including the obvious conclusion that investors have made after hundreds of millions of dollars in lawsuits that the only option is to say ‘no’,” Halford said.
“While the decision is unfortunate, we are pleased it was for only 30 days,” said Mike Heatwole, a spokesman for the Pebble Limited Project in Anchorage. “This is a Corps process and their decision. This does push the comment period into June when most Alaskans are out enjoying summer.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, urged the Alaska District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on April 24 to extend the comment period from May 30 for another 30 days.
“After carefully reviewing the DEIS, I’ve concluded Alaskans need more time,” she said. “The Corps permit is one of many the proposed Pebble mine will ultimately need to acquire, but throughout this process I want Alaskans to have adequate time to review and weight in on the project,” she said.
More information is online at https://www.pebbleprojecteis.com.
Moratorium Proposed on Finfish Aquaculture Facilities
Legislation introduced by Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, would put a moratorium on commercial permitting of marine finfish aquaculture facilities in the federal exclusive economic zone.
H.R. 2467, the Keep Fin Fish Free Act, would prohibit the Secretaries of Interior and Commerce from authorizing such operations in the federal exclusive economic zone unless specifically authorized by Congress.
“The seafood industry is critical to Alaska’s economy and we must be doing all we can to protect the health and integrity of our state’s wild fish stock,” said Young, who introduced the legislation on May 2. “If not properly managed, industrial aquaculture operations threaten Alaska’s unique ecosystem with non-native and genetically modified fish species.
The Alaska Republican said his bill takes needed steps to prevent “the unchecked spread of aquaculture operations by reigning in the federal bureaucracy, and empowering Congress to determine where new aquaculture projects should be conducted.”
H.R. 2467 was referred to the House Natural Resources Committee.
Hallie Templeton, senior oceans campaigner for Friends of the Earth, which backs the bill, said efforts were underway to introduce a companion bill in the Senate. “NOAA is pushing to permit this disastrous industry at the expense of the environment and coastal communities, and has no authority to do so,” Templeton said. We applaud Congressman Young for fighting against floating factory farms and protecting our waterways and wild fish stocks.”
Coast Guard Rescues Five Fishermen in Southeast Alaska
Five commercial fishermen forced to abandon their sinking vessel in Southeast Alaska were rescued from their life raft on May 7 by a Coast Guard helicopter crew and brought into Sitka, all uninjured.
Coast Guard watchstanders at the Juneau Command Center monitoring Channel 16 heard “mayday, vessel Masonic going down” at 2:33 a.m. and pinpointed the vessel’s last position south of Cape Decision via their automatic identification system, after attempts to reach the caller on the radio were unsuccessful.
Cape Decision is a lighthouse on Kuiu Island, southwest of Sumner Strait. The helicopter crew was launched and the Petersburg-based Cutter Anacapa headed for the area. A cruise ship in the vicinity also offered assistance.
The aircrew located the life raft on the north side of Coronation Island at about 4 a.m. with all crewmembers aboard wearing cold weather survival suits. The life raft was tied off to the stern of the grounded 62-foot fishing vessel, which is homeported in Sitka.
Coast Guard officials noted that the crew of the Masonic had received a commercial fishing vessel dockside exam prior to heading out on this fishing trip and that a Coast Guard commercial fishing safety specialist had certified the presence of emergency gear. The crew had also conducted an abandon ship drill the day before the exam, including donning of survival suits.
Capt. Stephen White, Sector Juneau Commander, said the situation highlights how being prepared is critical in this dangerous environment. “I’m thankful that the crew of the Masonic was prepared. It probably saved their lives.”
White said the vessel’s automatic identification system position was instrumental in the Coast Guard’s ability to quickly locate the survivors, taking the “search” out of search and rescue.
Seafood Harvesters Becoming More Specialized
A new study by University of Alaska Fairbanks researchers published in the journal Fish and Fisheries says that over the past 30 years Alaska fishermen have become more specialized in their fishing strategies rather than more diverse.
The research team led by Anne Beaudreau, a professor at the UAF College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, found that the overall number of fishermen with multiple fishing permits declined from 30 percent of permit holders in 1988 to 20 percent in 2014. That data prompted Beaudreau to ask, “…as Alaska fisheries become more specialized, how resilient will fishing communities be to future change?”
The researchers are part of a National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis working group funded by the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, Prince William Sound Herring Research and Monitoring Program, and Gulf Watch Alaska.
Previous studies of Alaska fisheries found that harvesters, vessels and communities with broader access to more species or permit types tend to have more stable incomes due to diversification. Researchers said this reduced diversity may be caused by several barriers such as a limit on the number of fishing permits allowed in many fisheries, including halibut and sablefish. Additional obstacles to diversification may be socioeconomic, as permit prices and equipment costs rose significantly since the 1970s.
Researchers were also interested in how fishery participation and fishing portfolio diversity responded to biomass declines, management changed, fluctuations in prices and the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
According to Beaudreau, salmon have become an increasingly important part of fishing portfolios statewide. While harvesters have become less diverse in the permits they hold, many continue to participate and specialize in salmon fisheries.
Alaska House Fisheries Committee Takes up Fish Tax Bill
The Alaska House Fisheries Committee heard extensive testimony this past week on proposed legislation to repeal the fisheries business tax allocation to municipalities. Those funds are used by the various communities to provide for fisheries infrastructure, schools, health and social services. Officials from Kodiak, King Cove, Akutan, Cordova, Sitka, the Aleutians East Borough and the city of Unalaska were among those telling House Fisheries of the dire economic impact such legislation would have on their communities. All were opposed to House Bill 65, which is backed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. The estimated total of the municipal share of the raw fish tax in Fiscal Year 2020 is $29.1 million, according to Matt Gruening, chief of staff and fisheries committee aide to Committee Chair Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak.
“It is a terrible bill that would have a tremendous impact on every fishing community in Alaska. For many this is the community’s largest revenue source. The loss of this money would be devasting for Unalaska,” said Frank Kelty, the mayor of Unalaska – the nation’s number one fishing port, by seafood volume, in the country.
“Fishing communities in Alaska produce 56 percent of the nation’s seafood,” said Kelty. “We need to keep these communities strong. Unalaska, which uses local tax revenues to pay its own way, just completed a $10 million container dock, which was totally bonded by the city,” he added.
Kodiak’s Pat Branson noted that the state no longer owns the port infrastructure and the city is responsible for its port. “Those fish business tax funds make up 4.5 percent of our general fund revenue,” he explained.
King Cove City Administrator Gary Henning noted that HB 65 would present a daunting challenge, requiring a reduction in city programs and employment. Cordova Mayor Clay Koplin said, “losing those funds would cripple the local economy in a community positioned to grow into one of the nation’s top fishing ports.”
Nils Andreassen, executive director of the Alaska Municipal League, was among those specially invited to give testimony. Andreassen remarked that taking away sharing of fisheries business taxes with communities would reduce the quality of life of their residents adding that the fish tax revenues support health and welfare and improves the community’s credit ratings.
As testimony wrapped up, House Fisheries Chair Stutes noted that not one person had testified in support of the bill.
HB 65 was been set aside for further consideration; it currently remains in House Fisheries.
USDA Eager for More Alaska Pollock Fillets
Wild Alaska Pollock fillets are proving popular in the US Department of Agriculture’s National School Lunch Program and other federal food and nutrition assistance programs.
In its latest solicitation for bids issued on April 29, the USDA is asking for a total of 2,095,600 pounds of Alaska Pollock fish sticks for federal food programs in Illinois, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Virginia and Washington state.
The official request invites bids to be submitted through May 13, with acceptances to be announced by midnight May 20.
Successful bidders must make deliveries between September 1, 2019 and January 31, 2020. Dates of delivery for specific programs are listed on the solicitation.
Meanwhile in Seattle, Wash., the Association of Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP) is continuing its aggressive campaign to put wild Alaska Pollock in the spotlight. It announced in late April a partnership with Groton’s Seafoods which will see Queer Eye star and food expert Antoni Porowski create new recipes – and buzz – for wild Alaska Pollock.
That project is one of 12 recently funded by the GAPP board of directors aimed at inviting millennials to include more Pollock in their meals. Porowski’s new recipes include Baja Style Fish Tacos, New Orleans Style Fish ‘n Chips, and Baked Crunchy Fish Fillets Puttanesca.
Salmon in the Spotlight at the Anchorage Museum
A new exhibit entitled Alaskans and Salmon opens on Friday, May 3 at the Anchorage Museum as part of the North by North Festival, celebrating the connection and culture across the North Country.
While this third annual event of workshops, exhibitions, performances, presentations and more runs from May 1 through May 5, the Alaskans and Salmon exhibition will remain on display through the first week of January 2020. Admission to the museum is free from 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. for the first two days of that exhibition in the museum’s Northern Narrative Gallery.
Erin Harrington, the daughter of a commercial harvester and executive director of the Salmon Project will be among the exhibit collaborators greeting people on the first evening. She will also be on a panel with three others on the evening of May 4 to talk about how people can prepare for and adapt to the impact of climate change on salmon fisheries in Alaska.
Warming Climate, Competition Affect Pacific Salmon...
New Canine Treats Boast Alaska Fish Oil/CBD Isolat...
Chemical Signatures Tell Critical Story About Habi...
Pact Aims to Reduce Environmental Impact of Fishin...
NOAA Researchers Learning More About West Coast Ec...
Moratorium Proposed on Finfish Aquaculture Facilit...
Coast Guard Rescues Five Fishermen in Southeast Al...
Alaska House Fisheries Committee Takes up Fish Tax...
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Trump’s ‘spiritual adviser’ and her husband, the keyboardist
Re: Trump’s ‘spiritual adviser’ and her husband, the keyboar
by slucero » Sat Jul 29, 2017 8:39 pm
tater1977 wrote: Arnel PinedaVerified account@arnelpineda
i will not compromise my own #happiness jst coz some1 thinks my #Right is #Wrong to that some1.we're all equally deserving in this world
-AP
well.. Arnel had a good run...
by ScarabGator » Sat Jul 29, 2017 10:57 pm
Wow, this is a soap opera....its better than WWE! I am very interested to see the direction after that last show...its tonight?
ScarabGator
Location: in the swamp.....
by perryfan61 » Sat Jul 29, 2017 11:25 pm
ScarabGator wrote: Wow, this is a soap opera....its better than WWE! I am very interested to see the direction after that last show...its tonight?
They have the Classic East show this Sunday. After that, maybe this whole drama will go away, and we can look forward to SP's new album. He's starting to look like the only sane one left....certainly made the right choice to get out of this freak show.
The injury that we do to a man must be such that we need not fear his vengeance. Steve Perry
perryfan61
Location: New Brunswick. Canada
by koberry » Sat Jul 29, 2017 11:44 pm
One more weird thing about this whole mess is that they all looked happy when I saw them in Raleigh on Tuesday night. Jon was not phoning it in (for once). He smiled and was engaging all night. It was weird to see, to be honest.
While the set list was predictable, it was a dang fine show and we had a great time. Neal was overly indulgent, as usual, but still had many brilliant moments when he slowed down. Steve Smith absolutely stole the show with a solo like none I'd ever seen before. Usually a drum solo represents a good time to get off your feet or grab a beer... not this one - it was amazing, musical, technically interesting and even a bit theatrical. Ariel mostly sounded great. He struggled at times and I hate the way he sings behind the lyric making it hard for us to sing along.
koberry
by The_Noble_Cause » Sun Jul 30, 2017 12:30 am
Arnel's comments seem somewhat vague. Was he at the White House too? I agree Cain needs to go. At the same time, Neal seems pretty unhinged lately.
by George_g888 » Sun Jul 30, 2017 12:38 am
The_Noble_Cause wrote: Arnel's comments seem somewhat vague. Was he at the White House too? I agree Cain needs to go. At the same time, Neal seems pretty unhinged lately.
Jon, Ross and Arnel were at the white house
George_g888
by JourneyHard » Sun Jul 30, 2017 11:50 am
What will Neal do next after two more gigs?
Will he replace Jon with Gregg Rolie and write a new Journey album that sounds like Evolution with rocking guitar and rocking keyboard and actual harmonies?
Everybody in the band sings!
by The_Noble_Cause » Sun Jul 30, 2017 12:54 pm
The chance to go to the White House is hard to turn down. At the same time, in today's politically radioactive environment I can see Neal's pov. The fact that Ross, AP, and Cain are all hanging out socially while Neal is spam posting on social media also tells you something.
by perryfan61 » Sun Jul 30, 2017 1:09 pm
The_Noble_Cause wrote: The chance to go to the White House is hard to turn down. At the same time, in today's politically radioactive environment I can see Neal's pov. The fact that Ross, AP, and Cain are all hanging out socially while Neal is spam posting on social media also tells you something.
It also says something when Neal never attends the meet and greets after the shows, or participates in anything the band does for charities. He has definitely distanced himself from the whole band.....you know, the one that HE founded!? The one he calls HIS band?!
Makes you wonder.
by tater1977 » Sun Jul 30, 2017 4:04 pm
Neal posted that he was never invited, let alone advised about the WH visit.
Perry's good natured bonhomie & the world’s most charmin smile,knocked fans off their feet. Sportin a black tux,gigs came alive as he swished around the stage thrillin audiences w/ charisma that instantly burnt the oxygen right out of the venue.TR.com
tater1977
by bellairepark73 » Mon Jul 31, 2017 2:45 am
Yep. Tonight at Citifield. Show starts at 5, JRNY comes on at 6:15, I believe. I am going because I want to see what all the fuss is about with Arnel (his voice going or not), because the RRHOF didn't convince me of anything and I want to see the originals of KMT (Kemet aka Egypt), Earth Wind and Fire and the royal insignia of the Horus Throne, JRNY match up against each other. Got good seats too. Will take a marker and a CD, because...hey...you never know.
bellairepark73
perryfan61 wrote:
OMG!!! Perryfan61...you are so right!!! Yeh, Jon takes a proactive role and now Neal's pissed. But he claims he doesn't attend meets and greets because he became very ill the last time he did. I definitely get that. Perry got sick from accepting a kiss from a fan at a meet and greet and had to cancel shows because of it. But good point about the charity events. Hmm?
by HydraRed » Mon Jul 31, 2017 3:34 am
Politics be damned, I really don't care that anybody went to look at the White House. It's a historical place, and I wouldn't care if a chimpanzee is in office, if I got invited, I'm going. While the article that Neal's blowing up about should have correctly stated members of Journey attended the White House, I think he's going overboard. Someone may have to correct me on this, but I don't know if Arnel, JC, and Ross were just going crazy posting about it on social media? If they went, they just wanted to go.
Like someone earlier said, Arnel was literally at the bottom of the barrel, and it must have been awesome for him to experience going to a historical place. Why does Neal give a shit? Yet another issue that Neal needs to keep off of his damn Twitter and talk to his bandmates in private, which is something the unquestionable leader of a band should do. Steve Perry must be loving it, because for once, he's not in the spotlight for anything of this subject matter.
I think it's going to end up with Neal trying his damn best to try and get SOMETHING from Steve Perry. When he's not posting about it's his band or anything about another member, it's always something to do with Perry. If Perry wants to deal with him, and put something out, sign me up. Otherwise, I have no idea where this band even goes after this shit.
HydraRed
by tater1977 » Mon Jul 31, 2017 9:28 am
NEAL SCHON MUSICVerified account @NealSchonMusic
Thank you for watching caring about honesty and what's REAL not some twisted up Narcissism in the worst degree I've ever seen.
Shae @unholygraces · 4h4 hours ago
I saw and addressed that in my blog w/screenshots as proof you have not nor have wanted to be a dictator. Just sayin.
Posted on July 30, 2017 `
The Journey issue…
https://shae849.wordpress.com/
by JourneyHard » Mon Jul 31, 2017 10:10 am
Only two more gigs and Neal will fire the whole band! Then he will be free to make the new Journey Album!
Featuring the following:
Lead Vocals...........Jeff Scott Soto
Keyboards.............Gregg Rolie
Lead Guitar...........Neal Schon
Bass....................Randy Jackson
Drums..................Aynsley Dunbar
FRACTURED, the new album from Journey will be awesome! Oh Sorry! It had to be said.
by tater1977 » Mon Jul 31, 2017 10:17 am
Journey's 2017 tour is finally over.
by perryfan61 » Mon Jul 31, 2017 11:57 am
Neal is now accusing " Paula's people" of attacking him, and hacking his accounts. He says he's up for the fight, because " truth will always win". He adds "TIME FOR NEW MEMBERS".
by Memorex » Mon Jul 31, 2017 3:09 pm
perryfan61 wrote: Neal is now accusing " Paula's people" of attacking him, and hacking his accounts. He says he's up for the fight, because " truth will always win". He adds "TIME FOR NEW MEMBERS".
by 4everkop » Tue Aug 01, 2017 4:23 pm
Arnel's gonna get deported
4everkop
by Archetype » Wed Aug 02, 2017 1:10 am
JourneyHard wrote: Only two more gigs and Neal will fire the whole band! Then he will be free to make the new Journey Album!
I don't think you could give JSS any amount of money in the world to return to Journey. His departure didn't seem to be on especially good terms (though it seems that it was through no fault of his own- it was the band who handled it very poorly)
by The_Noble_Cause » Wed Aug 02, 2017 8:51 am
The rumors of a relapse could be true. Or maybe his wife is doing these tweets.
by JourneyHard » Wed Aug 02, 2017 9:08 am
The_Noble_Cause wrote: Or maybe his wife is doing these tweets.
Yes. It doesn't sound like Neal to me. I don't think Neal cares if he is in a picture or whatever.
JourneyHard wrote:
I would hope not.
by tj » Wed Aug 02, 2017 10:15 am
If it's her, this kind of thing could have her being ex-wife #?.
Location: State of Confusion
by bellairepark73 » Wed Aug 02, 2017 10:12 pm
I dont get y'all at all. Its Neal. No one else. He answers his own tweets. No mistake about it. He even said so. Stop second guessing this and him. God. Oops wrong person.
by perryswoman » Wed Aug 02, 2017 11:57 pm
Yes it is definitely Neal writing those posts. I agree he is desperate to do something with Perry but doesn't he understand Perry wants nothing to do with all this drama? Digging his own grave
Come back Steve Perry!!
perryswoman
Location: sc
by George_g888 » Wed Aug 02, 2017 11:59 pm
bellairepark73 wrote:
Yea its definitely Neal. I always got the impression that his wife did the majority of posting for their "Neal & Michaele" account on facebook.
by The_Noble_Cause » Thu Aug 03, 2017 1:32 am
George_g888 wrote: Yea its definitely Neal. I always got the impression that his wife did the majority of posting for their "Neal & Michaele" account on facebook.
Hard to say. Many of the same posts shows up across all of Neal's social media feeds - so it could be one person for all of them. I don't think social media has done Schon or Cain any favors. Cain is posting videos of himself reading the old testament while Neal is accusing everybody of hacking. Neal seems paranoid and illiterate. Arnel seems grounded at least.
by Onestepper » Thu Aug 03, 2017 1:41 am
It's pretty clear the wife controls at least the Instagram account, which may copy to other platforms. But regarding Twitter, the number of times that tweets are re-posted tells me that someone is using a social media manager application and scheduling tweets to repost every so often. I would hope that Neal doesn't have time to be doing that. But you never know.
Onestepper
by JourneyHard » Thu Aug 03, 2017 2:29 am
Everybody in the band and their wives need to listen to Human Feel. That is their answer.
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Tørst: Craft Beer Bar With Scandinavian-influenced Fare (Coming Soon to Greenpoint)
January 17, 2013 By Free Williamsburg
Greenpoint is becoming an essential stop for beer snobs. We’re looking forward to this opening from Momofuku alum Daniel Burns!
Before working as the head of research and development for the Momofuku restaurants, chef Daniel Burns cooked at The Fat Duck in England, and he built and ran the pastry program at Noma in Copenhagen. Somewhere along the way, he connected with Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø, an acclaimed Danish brewer who has created beer for some of the world’s best restaurants. Now Daniel and Jeppe are teaming up to open a new Brooklyn project that they hope will be the best beer bar in the country.
The bar is called Tørst (the Danish word for “thirst”), and it will open at 615 Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint, just around the corner from the Nassau Avenue G-train station.Jeppe is curating the beer list, which will feature about 20 beers on tap. Jeppe owns both a brewing company, Evil Twin Brewing, and a beer distribution company, so he has deep connections in the world of European craft beer. The menu is still a work in progress, but expect a few selections that have never been served before in the United States. The bar will also have a special beer storage system, where the ales will be kept at different temperatures — serious beer nerd stuff.
In addition to the barroom up front, the space will also have a 25-seat restaurant in the back called Luksus (the Danish word for “luxury”) where Burns will serve a menu of Scandinavian-influenced American fare, all paired with beer. Burns notes: “We want to focus on food that will go well with the beer.” The restaurant will open a few months after the bar up front
Filed Under: Restaurant & Bar News Tagged With: bars, beer, Daniel Burns, drink, food, Greenpoint, Momofuku, News, openings, restaurants, Tørst
About Free Williamsburg
FREEwilliamsburg is the trendsetting home of New York’s most creative neighborhood. The website has been mentioned in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Slate, The New York Observer, among others, and was called an "essential New York blog" by New York magazine. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Do it now, dammit!
Les H says
This place looks really minimalist ( surprise, surprise they are Danish) in a creepy sorta way. I thought bars were supposed to be warm and inviting?
David S. Dean says
This TORST build is exquisite. Serious attention to detail. Rapid precise build. The patrons will be amazed, Jeppe and the TORST team will be thrilled. This project has been a pleasure.
America!
David S. Dean
Precision Innovations NY Inc.
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Russia: "the scowl that melts into a smile . . ."
Pereslavl (2011)
Max Presnyakov
Celestine Bohlen, writing "Driving Russia's Revived Golden Ring" for the NYT (August 31, 2012), captures a lovely image in an exquisite phrase:
Virtually all of the Orthodox Christian monasteries in Pereslavl are in various states of renovation. One, the Goritsky, which looks like something from a Russian fairy tale, is the home of the local museum, which was closed. We stopped at two others, which are once again functioning as convents. At the 14th-century Fyodorovsky Monastery, we followed a group of black-clad nuns, one on her cellphone, walking briskly toward the main church. There, after donning aprons made available for female visitors wearing pants (we brought along our own head scarves, an essential item in Russia), we had our first encounter with a familiar Russian facial expression: the scowl that melts into a smile.
We had approached the nun behind the candle counter and asked for the name of the church. "And you," she snarled, "who are you?" We explained that we were tourists interested in the wonderful restoration, and her face instantly lighted up. Suddenly Sister Natalya was eager to tell stories about the miracles wrought by the church's breathing icon -- a Byzantine-style portrait of the Virgin Mary, whose face peers from behind a fine wrought silver oklad, the classic protective covering put on Russian icons. (Actually, it was a copy, she confided to us, with the sincerity of someone who truly believed what she was about to tell us: The original had been painted during the Virgin's lifetime by St. Luke, and was stolen in the 1980s.)
This kind of encounter happened again and again. Russians like to tell stories; whether they are true or not is unimportant.
I love that phrase, "the scowl that melts into a smile"! All of Russian literature, culture, and history is captured in these few lapidary words!
That says it all . . .
Labels: Art, Icons, Russia
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Woman in Charge: Picking
By Pragya Bhagat
‘Woman in Charge‘ is a new series on Helter Skelter that explores the life of a female Pradhan in a Kumaoni village. Mountain traditions run deep in her veins, and yet she desires progress for her family and community. The stories are based on true events.
Because the leaves were turning yellow and the buds were sticky with resin, the plant was ready for picking. Tara went down her terraced land to where the bushes lay and hacked off their sinewy stems. It was easy work, but Tara was careful to not damage the buds, the most valuable part of the plant. She remembered the news she read recently, about a Frenchman who lived in a nearby village. He had gotten in trouble with the law, because he grew the charas in a greenhouse and sold it to other foreigners. The Frenchman fled and the blame of the whole operation now fell on the local landlord. Poor man, Tara thought as she carried the leafy bushes to her veranda, these outsiders do as they please and end up hurting us in the process. Sharmaji too, she concluded, was part of this detested category of outsiders that exploited and got away with it.
Tara’s sister-in-law waited on the veranda. As the women sat together, they picked the leaves off the branches, leaving only the tiny buds that now smelled ripe with intoxication.
Because the leaves were turning yellow and the buds were sticky with resin, the plant was ready for picking. Photograph by Nikhil Gulati.
“Sister, don’t you ever feel like trying some?”
“Of course not,” Tara gasped. “How can you even say such a thing? Didn’t you hear what happened to the Franceesi?”
“I heard, I heard. You know, our grandmothers and their mothers used to smoke this openly.” She pressed her thumb and index fingers together, feeling the stickiness of the leaves.
“Just because the older women did it doesn’t mean we need to. I don’t want to be a bad influence on Shyama.”
“Shyama doesn’t have to know, does she.” And with that, Tara’s sister-in-law laughed heartily, while Tara clicked her tongue in disapproval.
A small, dark man with a stern mouth walked down the path onto the veranda.
“Aiye, Lakhanji, we were waiting for you only. Here.” Tara handed him a plate. Lakhan grabbed a chair, placed the plate on his lap, took one of the branches the women had stripped of its leaves so that only the buds remained on the naked wood, plucked them off, and rubbed them vigorously between his palms.
They continued thus, the three of them. Tara and her sister-in-law plucked the leaves off the stems and Lakhan rubbed the buds together until all that remained on his palms was a sticky coat of black. Squeezing his palms together, sliding them against each other with great pressure, Lakhan slowly pulled off the black resin in tiny rolls, which he pushed together into a larger, compact coil of black.
“Lakhanji, are your hands feeling the nasha yet,” Tara joked.
“Mmm,” Lakhan replied.
“Be careful now, if you make nice, dark rolls for me, I’ll give you a commission.”
“Mmm,” Lakhan replied, rolling the buds between his palms.
Tara’s sister-in-law looked up from her plucking. “Sister, he’s going to agree to everything you say. The man’s scared of you.”
“You blurt without thinking, it seems. He’s not scared of me. Are you, Lakhanji?”
“Mmm.”
“See? I told you. Sister, you can be intimidating, of course he’s going to say what you want to hear.”
“I’m not intimidating, I’m very approachable, isn’t that right Lakhanji?”
The women laughed.
“You know sister,” Tara said, “Lakhanji and I, we got married in the same month. Do you remember when you got married, Lakhanji?”
The women laughed some more.
“His wife is like me, only,” Tara said, “she keeps talking. And this one, he stays quiet.”
Lakhan smiled, occasionally pausing to smoke a beedi.
“You remember that Aghori baba that came last year? He was walking to the top of the world, he told me.”
Lakhan finished his smoke. “These Aghori babas are frauds.”
“Well, that may be,” Tara said, “but that man who came, he threatened to curse my home with black magic if I didn’t feed him, and I didn’t want to take any chances.”
“Aghoris are frauds,” Lakhan repeated.
“Sister, they do this black magic where they stick needles into a doll, and the part on the doll where the needle goes in, the same body part gets affected in the cursed person.”
“Now that sounds like fraud,” Tara said.
“No, it’s true, I saw it on television. You should try it on Sharmaji.” Tara’s sister-in-law laughed.
“Very funny,” Tara said.
“Television,” Lakhan said, “is the biggest fraud. Don’t believe everything you see.”
“Here,” Tara said, handing Lakhan a small coil of black she had rolled off her fingers, “your commission.”
He opened the thread of a fresh beedi, unraveled the leaf and its powdered content, burned the black coil with the flame of a matchstick until it crumbled into his open leaf, mixed the powder, and rolled the beedi back tightly.
“Let me try some, Lakhanji,” Tara’s sister-in-law asked.
“Crazy woman, at least go in the shade where others can’t see you.”
“What is this, sister? Men can smoke openly, but women have to hide? This is not fair. I thought you believed in fairness, Pradhan Madam.
“Crazy woman,” Tara nudged her sister-in-law, “someone will see you.”
Lakhan passed the beedi to Tara’s sister-in-law who, upon inhaling its contents, burst into a fit of coughs.
“Now I see why Lakhanji speaks so little,” she said after the coughing subsided, “I don’t feel like speaking only.”
The plucking was almost done and Tara collected the leaf matter into a single pile.
“Lakhanji, tell me, what does it feel like?”
Lakhan smiled toothlessly. “It feels,” he said, “like I’m on top of the world.”
Tara turned to the toothless man, “Does it hurt? Do you smoke it a lot?”
“I used to,” he said, rubbing another coat of resin off his palms, “but I don’t do it so much anymore.”
Tara’s sister-in-law giggled. “Your wife would hit you if you did, eh?”
“Crazy woman, are you on top of the world now?”
“Sister, I’m always on top of the world.”
Pragya is a writer based in Kumaon. Her work has been published in the Huffington Post, Hans India, Open Road Review, and The Better India. She is a fan of Bollywood, the violin, and cold milk. You can follow her work here.
Filed Under: columns, culture, kumaon, travel, woman in charge
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Khublai Shibhon, Sohra
By Malavika Bhattacharya · Sohra is at most a two-hour drive from Shillong—scenic, with rolling greens and misty blues.
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'Syrian rebels take responsibility for the chemica...
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'Syrian rebels take responsibility for the chemical attack admitting the weapons were provided by Saudis'
5:37 AM | Posted by Unknown | | Edit Post
In an interview with Dale Gavlak, a Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press and Mint Press News, Syrian rebels tacitly implied that they were responsible for last week’s chemical attack. Some information could not immediately be independently verified.
“From numerous interviews with doctors, Ghouta residents, rebel fighters and their families….many believe that certain rebels received chemical weapons via the Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and were responsible for carrying out the (deadly) gas attack,” he writes in the article.
The rebels noted it was a result of an accident caused by rebels mishandling chemical weapons provided to them.
“My son came to me two weeks ago asking what I thought the weapons were that he had been asked to carry,” said Abu Abdel-Moneim, the father of a rebel fighting to unseat Assad, who lives in Ghouta.
As Gavlak reports, Abdel-Moneim said his son and 12 other rebels died in a weapons storage tunnel. The father stated the weapons were provided to rebel forces by a Saudi militant, known as Abu Ayesha, describing them as having a “tube-like structure” while others were like a “huge gas bottle.”
“They didn’t tell us what these arms were or how to use them,” complained a female fighter named ‘K’. “We didn’t know they were chemical weapons. We never imagined they were chemical weapons.”
“When Saudi Prince Bandar gives such weapons to people, he must give them to those who know how to handle and use them,” she warned. She, like other Syrians, do not want to use their full names for fear of retribution.
Gavlak also refers to an article in the UK’s Daily Telegraph about secret Russian-Saudi talks stating that Prince Bandar threatened Russian President Vladimir Putin with terror attacks at next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi if Russia doesn’t agree to change its stance on Syria.
“Prince Bandar pledged to safeguard Russia’s naval base in Syria if the Assad regime is toppled, but he also hinted at Chechen terrorist attacks on Russia’s Winter Olympics in Sochi if there is no accord,” the article stated.
“I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us,” Saudi Prince allegedly told Vladimir Putin.
Mint Press News stated that some of the information couldn’t be independently verified and pledged to continue providing updates on this topic.
Voice of Russia might be more credible than US government – Internet users
Recent publication by the Voice of Russia 'Syrian rebels take responsibility for the chemical attack admitting the weapons were provided by Saudis' received a strong outcry among the Internet users as some of them claiming that the company’s reports are more credible than allegations against Syrian government made by US authorities.
‘It's more credible than the US saying we have real evidence of Assad using them [chemical weapons]. Assad doesn't get weapons from Saudi Arabia. They don't have ties. The US will use any reason it can to go to war. Even if it means creating one’, writesDylanJamesCo on Reddit.
Meanwhile, not everyone shares such this point of view.
KoreyYrvaI writes that ‘The Voice of Russia wants us to believe that the Rebels totally were responsible for the chemical attack, and it was an accident… because Russia has been impartial throughout all of this and I don't think America(or anyone) needs another war, but this is hardly credible’.
But one thing unites the users: they believe the US government wants and needs another war in the Middle East.
‘America is just getting better at proxy wars. They have firm ties with the Saudis, and they would have no problem destabilizing Syria if it meant the US could eventually target Iran and its oil reserve’.
Labels: Bandar bin Sultan, chemical attack, gas attack, hilf fozoul blogspot, hilf ol fozoul, Saudi, Syrian
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Crossville Dragway Upgrades With Racers in Mind
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Crossville Dragway remains the same distance, but a massive amount of change has come since new owners Rick Weatherbee and Michael Newcome took over the 1/8-mile East Tennessee facility back in February.
They started with safety features by widening the track and extending the shut-down area. They also scraped the tire surface back to concrete to put a new base down for a flat, level racing surface.
They have built new concession stands, bathrooms, a new control tower and covered grandstands. A new timing system, public address system and lighting fixtures on the track and in the pits have been installed.
Why did they do so much so soon at the International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) sanctioned facility? As drag racers themselves, they know how important it is to feel comfortable at the track.
“We know how we want to be treated and we want to accommodate the racers and not just look at it from the business-side of things,” Newcome said. “The sport is about being happy and being enjoyed. If it was a job, nobody would want to do it.”
They’re not finished with the upgrades, currently in the process of moving up the scoreboards to make them more visible and working with the state of Tennessee for a bridge from the upper pit area to the head of staging.
They have also acquired the necessary equipment with a rotator, drag box and sprayer to maintain the facility originally opened under IHRA sanction in 1978.
While the new owners’ backgrounds are in drag radial racing, it was important to have a strong bracket racing program. The IHRA Summit SuperSeries fit the bill as the largest and most prestigious bracket racing national championship in drag racing. The $200,000 program gives Summit SuperSeries track champions at Crossville the chance to race at the IHRA Summit World Finals each October at Memphis.
In addition, Newcome and Weatherbee appreciate the family-like relationships among IHRA track owners. They have teamed with a pair of other IHRA-sanctioned tracks, Knoxville Dragway and Brainerd Motorsports Park, to create a six-race, small-tire points program.
“We’ve raced these places all of our lives and we’re good friends with the owners,” Newcome said. “When it came to a business situation, it was a pleasant deal. We wanted to come together as the three tracks and put together something good for everyone.”
That is the goal for Crossville Dragway, a track that’s good for everybody.
For more information including upcoming events and schedules go to crossvilledragway.com or visit the track’s Facebook.
Last modified on Friday, 09 March 2018
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‘A national fleet, to keep us shipshape’
India’s shipping industry is at a crossroads. The country is aiming to make big strides in the maritime sector and investing billions of dollars to modernise and set up new ports as well as related infrastructure.
But its domestic shipping industry is finding it tough to compete with foreign shipping lines in carrying India specific export-import trade due to cost disadvantages and an uneven playing field. Indian shipowners have asked the centre to consider having a national fleet.
This is in line with other major maritime powers supporting their own shipping firms, for retaining control and securing the transportation of critical cargo.
A national fleet policy mandates that ships engaged in trade must be flagged, or registered, in India irrespective of whether they are owned by Indian or foreign shipping lines. Though India has allowed 100% FDI in shipping since 2001, foreign lines are yet to flag in India.
Insisting that India must have a national fleet, Anil Devli, CEO, Indian National Shipowner’s Association (INSA), asked, “If foreign shipping lines control over 90% of India’s cargo, why should they not be asked to flag some of their vessels in India and pay taxes like us.”
Favourable regimes: Foreign lines register their vessels in favourable tax regimes such as Panama and at their local jurisdictions.
Japan, China, the U.S., Malaysia, Indonesia and European nations practice absolute cabotage to protect their shipping lines. The EU practices cabotage even in ship recycling. China ensures that 600 million tonnes of coastal cargo is carried by Chinese vessels only. Cabotage refers to a legal restriction that limits the transportation of goods and people within the country by that country’s own transport services.
Japan ensures that all its imports are carried on by vessels owned, built and financed by entities registered in the country. The Donald Trump administration in the U.S. has proposed at least 30% of gas exports should be executed by their national carriers.
‘No policy support’: But India lacks a comprehensive shipping policy to help build a vibrant industry. It has aimed to raise the ease of doing business to help reduce logistics costs. In the process, foreign shipping lines are benefiting at the cost of domestic ones, industry sources said.
“It has now become a huge burden on us and disadvantage to flag our vessels in India because we have to bear more costs than foreign-registered vessels which just come, pick up and drop cargo and in the process now control over 90% of the trade,” said Ranjit Singh, executive director & CEO, Essar Shipping Ltd.
“There has to be some differentiation as we are flagged here. Otherwise Indian companies will move to other jurisdictions,” Mr. Singh said.
A tug of war has broken out between Indian and foreign lines after the latter started lobbying for removal of a facility called Right of First Refusal (RoFR) granted by India to local shipping firms to pick up cargo after matching the lowest tariff offered by a foreign carrier.
Challenging the view that India did not practice cabotage at all, foreign lines said RoFR was cabotage in a different form and claimed the right was protectionist.
If Indian shipping companies do not accept the rate quoted by the foreign line then the foreign-flagged ship is allowed permission to carry the same cargo for which it had bid. “This mechanism does not add any cost to the consumer but gives opportunity to an Indian company to carry at the rate quoted by a foreign line,” Mr. Devli said.
“RoFR supports a legitimate tax-paying industry. There will be no discernible gain by removing RoFR but there will be a definite impact on the local industry with its removal.”
He said India freely permits transshipment to foreign shipping lines as per policy guidelines issued in March 2016 and does not restrict market access to foreign shipping lines. “So why should India give away ROFR, a strategic advantage in controlling transportation of all of Indian cargo?”
According to INSA, which represents 42 Indian shipping firms, RoFR is given to Indian ships because they pay tonnage tax in India and corporate taxes in the form of Minimum Alternate Tax and Goods and Services Tax.
Job generation: “They employ only Indian seafarers, train 1.5 cadets for every 10 persons employed in a vessel, bear training costs of 16 lakh per cadet a year, employ offshore staff and use insurance, legal and ship repair facilities leading to increased employment and creation of ancillary industries,” Mr. Devli said.
Indian vessels often fail to match the pricing quotes of foreign shipping lines because they pay higher taxes. “They also employ more people than foreign carriers; they pay more bunker rate because the base rate is high; their cost of employees is higher because they pay taxes on wages to Indian seafarers; they pay higher rate of tonnage tax and pay IGST at 5% of the value of the ship. All these are not applicable to foreign-flagged vessels.”
Indian shipping companies said in the absence of RoFR, there would be no incentives to flag their vessels in India. “This will lead to loss of onshore and offshore jobs. Indian importers will be vulnerable to freight subjugation and exports will be non competitive,” Mr. Singh said.
According to analysts, multiple issues plague the industry, impacting both Indian exports and imports.
“Indian shipping needs structural changes that will boost our contribution in both trade and shipping lines,” Dr. Arun Singh, chief economist, Dun & Bradstreet India, said. “Currently, over 90% share is contributed by foreign flags.
“A dedicated structural programme has to be initiated [towards] setting up of an enabling ecosystem to increase the contribution of Indian flags... to a sizeable amount.” Recently, he had submitted a Port Study report to the government and the NITI Aayog.
“The demand for continuance of RoFR to all government cargo is justified. However, we need to create an ecosystem which balances the trade and shipping line ecosystem,” he said. However, Rohit Chaturvedi, MD, The Transport Hub, said cargo should go where cost was low and this would be in the best interests of trade.
Currently, foreign shipping lines carry India freight worth $52 billion a year. If 10% of that comes to Indian shipping lines, the domestic industry would have business of $5.2 billion which is enough to revive the sector, industry sources said.
“The government continues to handhold the road and rail sectors with special rates and policies by promoting and directing cargo. Shipping needs similar policies and support along with a consistent policy environment,” INSA said.
The plan expenditure in shipping in the last 25 years has been 1.78% of railways, 2.3% of road and 16% of port allocation.
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SUPERBOY MEETS BALLBOY — POLYUS GOLD SHARE SNAPS LOSING STREAK, SO WHO IS BUYING, WHO IS NOT BUYING, AND WHY?
By John Helmer in Moscow
Sad to say, there is no magic in capitalism. If there were, it would have been entertaining to watch how Polyus Gold, Russia’s leading goldminer, suddenly snapped a losing streak on Friday, and rocketed upward with a 4% share price gain in Moscow (MICEX rouble exchange), 7% on the London Stock Exchange, and 8% on the Frankfurt exchange. This came despite a 5% drop earlier the same week, and forecasts from well-known brokerages and investment banks that the share price might have another 5% to fall.
Say the magic word! Add a big puff of stage smoke! Bravo Maestro! The trick is a marvel!
Now let’s replay that more slowly. On Thursday (November 19) an announcement from Polyus Gold said it “has been informed of the intention of companies related to Onexim [read Mikhail Prokhorov] and Nafta Moskva [read Suleiman Kerimov] to sell up to 5% in aggregate of shares in the charter capital of OJSC Polyus Gold, in the form of shares and/or American Depositary Receipts.” Five percent makes 19 million shares.
This was followed that day by the sale of 556,000 shares, according to Yahoo Finance data. For the trading week preceding, and including November 19, 2 million shares appear to have changed hands. Polyus Gold has 381 million on issue, and Kerimov owns about 145 million of those. On Friday, November 20, Moscow trading volume jumped to 705,000 shares. Bloomberg appears to show that another 100,000 shares were traded in London.
The first announcement from Polyus Gold was very unusual by Moscow standards – Russian companies usually don’t refer to the transactions of their controlling shareholders. In Polyus Gold’s case, it has not yet announced publicly that Kerimov’s Nafta Moskva holding had bought about 37% of the company in transactions that stretched from March to June of this year. During that period — never mind the significance to public shareholders of the exit of founding shareholder Vladimir Potanin — Polyus Gold was stonily silent.
Then on Friday, November 20 — another puff of stage smoke. Polyus Gold posted a second announcement that “following relevant notification, it has been informed that the sale of up to 5% of shares in OJSC Polyus Gold, in the form of shares and/or American Depositary Receipts, announced on 19 November will not proceed due to market conditions.”
If anyone should understand “market conditions”, it should be Prokhorov and Kerimov, reputed to be two of the cleverest, most liquid, and least indebted of the Russian oligarchs. Is it believable that they would fail to understand that once they had signaled to the market that they were selling a large bloc of stock, the price wouldn’t fall? Doesn’t an excess of supply over demand usually cause a fall in price? Have Ballboy and Superboy lost the plot?
The average daily volume of turnover for the past three months for Polyus Gold has been, according to Yahoo, 237,000 shares. In the week that included the day of the first Polyus Gold disclosure, roughly 2 million shares were traded. So there’s obviously been smoke in the marketplace behind which something was happening. But still not enough to hide the amount of shares Kerimov and Prokhorov were reported by Polyus Gold to be disposing of.
But if there was no sign of 19 million shares changing hands, then is it possible they were? The second Polyus Gold announcement indicates the price of the shares for sale was too low for the sellers to proceed. But this begs the question of why they thought of proceeding this way the day before. Did Superboy and Ballboy both wake up on Thursday morning, and agree to something that didn’t seem such a good idea when they jumped out of bed 24 hours later?
Sources in a position to know explain they believe Kerimov and Prokhorov were discussing a share sale for some time before last Thursday; they may be obligated to do so, just as, before Potanin sold out to Kerimov, there were option agreements to protect Potanin and Prokhorov from unilateral action by the other. Just what Kerimov and Prokhorov have negotiated and agreed isn’t clear. Bank sources claim several bankers were offered a mandate to sell up to 10% of the company’s shares, and they understood that Prokhorov and Kerimov were selling 5% apiece. These sources infer that both Prokhorov and Kerimov were selling because they both want cash.
The public leak of the 10% selloff intention, which began circulating several days before Polyus Gold made its first announcement, appears to have taken the two sellers by surprise. At least one source has hinted that it was Kerimov, who was wanting to sell, while it was Prokhorov who was considering buying. With Polyus Gold shares in allied hands, he already controls about 40% of the goldmining company. If he had suspected Kerimov of having decided to sell, and to have little choice for the timing, then Prokhorov may have been buying in a way that is not yet visible to the market – and at a discount to the market price that it is in noone’s interest, not Superboy’s, not Ballboy’s, to reveal.
That still leaves unanswered the question of why either of them thought of the idea of making an announcement of a public sale, and then, after the share moved in the obvious direction, withdrew it.
In reporting Kerimov’s initial acquisition of his Polyus Gold stake from Potanin, the price he had to pay was reported in the market to be $1.3 billion. The volume of his stake is also reported to be around 37%. A rough calculation – divide $1.3 billion by 37% of 381 million shares — suggests that he paid Potanin just over $9 per share (London Stock Exchange price basis). Potanin isn’t saying; Kerimov never says anything.
But the market price of Polyus Gold shares between April and mid-June, when the transaction was completed, was around $25. The difference, in Kerimov’s favour, looks like a discount of 64%.
Superboy’s powers are legendary, but Ballboy’s skills at dribbling toward goal are not negligible. If Prokhorov were buying this month, and Kerimov were the seller – note the conditional — the former is likely to have asked for the same discount Kerimov got from Potanin. That would represent a share price of just $12 per share. For Kerimov, though, according to Prokhorov’s calculation, that would still give him a 33% gain in less than five months. Onexim and Nafta Moskva, Prokhorov’s and Kerimov’s Moscow holding companies, are officially refusing to comment.
Kerimov’s personal spokesman in Moscow, Alexei Krasovsky, refuses to answer substantive questions for him, claiming there is no obligation on Kerimov to answer, and no right for the questions to be asked. Nafta Moskva, Kerimov’s Moscow holding, answers the telephone with more reliability than Kerimov’s parliamentary office. However, the spokesman limits his disclosure to a first name, and to the refusal to clarify any of the terms or reasons for Kerimov’s sale of Polyus Gold shares.
In Lucerne, by contrast, Kerimov’s business associates and the Swiss corporate records archive are leaking like the proverbial
For institutional investors and Polyus Gold’s minority shareholders, who hold roughly 22% of the stock in the company, the following calculation is essential for their future well-being, and maybe the company’s as well. This free float represents at today’s market price about $5.2 billion in value, most of it owned outside Russia. Russian press coverage of the on-off sale announcement has suggested that the offer price was between $26 and $28 per share. On the news that there would be no sale, this edged up to $30 on the Bloomberg chart ticker (PLZL:LI). Since Polyus Gold first listed in 2006, it has never gone over $34 – in March of 2008. The $32 price reached early this month, before the talk of selloff started, is close to the historical peak.
Moscow brokerages aren’t shy of telling their clients what big target prices they will achieve if they follow buy recommendations. On September 28, when UBS analyzed Polyus Gold’s financial report for the first half the year and its prospects for the second half, analyst Kirill Chuyko fixed his target at $30, 30% above the prevailing market price at the time. His report was out of date by several weeks; he didn’t mention Kerimov, and claimed instead “the core shareholders of Polyus are Interros Group (Potanin) and Onexim (Prokhorov). A Unicredit report the same day, written by Marat Gabitov, was more optimistic, forecasting 44% upside for the share price. Michael Kavanagh of Uralsib Bank projected no more than 34% upside. Troika Dialog was even more conservative, predicting a target price for this quarter of $33.28.
It cannot matter whether Kerimov is negotiating privately with Prokhorov, or aiming at a market sale, these numbers don’t allow for much magic, unless the sale is postponed – and for a long time. The signs last week were that one shareholder, maybe two, didn’t want to wait.
At $12 per share, Kerimov would gross $228 million from the selloff of 5% from his shareholding. What he would net would depend on borrowing costs and repayments for the Potanin deal, and whatever carve-up may be required with Kerimov’s silent partners and other creditors, if there are any. Assuming no bank would have loaned more than half the buy-in transaction price, at an interest rate of not less than 10%, Kerimov might be obliged to return at least $60 million of the proceeds to his bankers. That would leave a balance of $168 million for himself, or to be shared with others. Perhaps the net proceeds for Superboy would be around $100 million.
At $26 per share, Kerimov’s 5% sale would earn almost $500 million. By the same subtraction process, he might have realized over $220 million. If the logic reported by Moscow gold sector analysts has been that the sale was arranged now, in case the price of gold is approaching peak, and Polyus Gold’s share price too, then what purpose for the sellers was served by the first public announcement by Polyus Gold? Would it not have been more prudent to wait for the bidding to start, and either consummate the sale, or cancel it?
According to a report by UBS, there is market speculation that Kerimov and Prokhorov, individually or jointly, may intend to sell more than the 5% stake just confirmed by the Polyus Gold management. Gauging their intentions, and the circumstances motivating such a decision, thus becomes a vital exercise for minority shareholders of Polyus Gold holding almost one-quarter of the company. They are represented by 2 directors of the 9-seat board; Prokhorov is chairman, and controls 4 board votes; Kerimov controls another 3.
If the minorities were to be convinced that Kerimov is selling assets, then Prokhorov’s intervention to buy up Polyus Gold might act as a price stabilizer. As a potential seller, Kerimov too has every interest in holding up the price before he sells more shares. Gold may be the market’s idea of a storehouse of value, but silence from the controlling shareholders of Polyus Gold isn’t golden in that sense at all.
What then is happening in the Kerimov camp? Investigation of Swiss company records shows there was big change inside the principal Kerimov holding last year; several key subordinates were removed; the office was moved; and the name of the holding company changed. Sources close to the process claim this was the result of the falling value of Kerimov’s investment in European bank shares, cash calls by his European banks, and disgruntlement on Kerimov’s part at the promise and performance of the people who had worked for him.
Open Swiss sources reveal there are two Kerimov holdings, Swiru and Millennium. A partial history of Swiru, first established as Swiru Trustee Ltd. in 1998, can be found here:
http://www.edoceo.ch/en/swiru_holding_ag_CH15030020652.aspx
And here is the corresponding history of Millennium, which started out as Millennium Group SA two years later: http://www.edoceo.ch/en/mg_international_agmillennium_group_ag_CH10037868385.aspx
Both reveal significant changes in the second half of last year. On November 24, 2008, Swiru reported that Alexander Studhalter was staying on as president, but that his brother Philipp was out. Two months earlier, Swiru had disposed of Adelheid Franziska. Swiss sources claim that Swiru, which has its office at Matthofstrand 8, on the lakeside at Lucerne, is the less important of the two Kerimov holdings, at least operationally.
The address is noteworthy, for it is also the address of the Studhalter group of companies that has included father Rudolph, and sons Alexander and Philipp. The Studhalter group has specialized in managing real estate projects and other assets for Russian clients, not only Kerimov. The building was a project of the Credit Suisse Asset Management Group, using money supplied by Kerimov, and advice and broking by Studhalter. The Karl Steiner construction group says it built Lakefront Center, one of Kerimov’s real estate investments in Lucerne, but not Matthofstrand 8. Project finance from Credit Suisse was paid off, according to Alexander Studhalter.
Very recently, he told a Paris source that he has no outstanding debts and owes no money to Credit Suisse or Karl Steiner. Although he described himself in Paris as president of Swiru, Swiss sources claim that Kerimov has moved effective control of his financial operations elsewhere, led by Kerimov’s nephew, Nariman Gadzhiev. When Studhalter was talking to Paris last week, he was speaking for himself and the Studhalter group. As he did so, he corroborated a recent French report that Kerimov may be under financial pressure from Credit Suisse and the Steiner group. But if so, according to Studhalter, that has nothing to do with him, his family business, or Swiru. Swiss sources add that if there have been disagreements between Kerimov and the Studhalters, they have been able to comport their differences. Philipp, for example, reappears on May 18, 2009, along with Gadzhiev, on a business mission for a very well-known Moscow real estate magnate; the record is in a filing in the UK High Court. The combination reflects what appears to be ongoing continuity between Kerimov’s men and the Studhalters.
Kerimov has also invested in the construction of a Lucerne hotel, apartment and office complex known as Lakefront Center, which was developed by the Credit Suisse Asset Management Group. In addition, more recently, Kerimov commissioned from the Steiner group a substantial residence for himself, and for which there is reported to be Credit Suisse financing.
The record for Millennium shows that it was established in October 2000 in Fribourg for the purpose of acquiring assets and administering them, and was dissolved the following year. It reappears as Millennium Group AG in Lucerne on September 27, 2006. Alexander Studhalter appears as president, along with Franziska, and Gadzhiev, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers as auditor. Real estate is one of the businesses of the holding. In October 2007, Allen Vine, an American, came on board. He was also known in Moscow as a Merrill Lynch banker, who switched from giving advice to Nafta Moskva to running the latter as chief executive.
There is a gap of nine months in the records until August 5, 2008, when Franziska and Gadzhiev drop out, while Vine is designated chief executive, and the two Studhalters, Alexander and Philipp, keep their signing power. Three weeks later, on September 25, the company changes its legal and office address, moving out of Lucerne city. On September 9, a Belgian, Markus Linder, is added to the signing roll, along with a Swiss, Uwe Decher. Twelve weeks later, Alexander Studhalter is dropped. On February 19, 2009, Decher is out, and Markus Ehrismann is in. Three months later, on May 9, the company takes a new name – MG International AG. Vine and Linder were reportedly the masterminds of Kerimov’s move into European banking stocks in 2008, starting with Fortis, the Belgian house which collapsed as the year wore on.
Polyus Gold’s minority shareholders have had years to polish their skills at assessing the impact of oligarch behaviour on the price of their share. One banker close to the goldmining company claims that “the fact that Kerimov is a shareholder is not a problem for the market. It is far better than having Potanin there. The market already understands Kerimov is a partial seller. He has made three times his cash investment since April.”
by John Helmer - Monday, November 23rd, 2009
« COLD HONOUR — TODAY IS THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE MAN WHO WROTE THE GREATEST SONG EVER WRITTEN ABOUT THE RUSSIAN RISK (FREEZING TO DEATH) KRISTALL DIAMONDS MAKE THE RUSSIAN CUT »
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Home > Sport > Ice Hockey > Devils victorious against cup final rivals
Devils victorious against cup final rivals
Alex Cutler
Sean Bentivoglio celebrating against Belfast (cr. Helen Brabon & Dave Williams)
AFTER losing 3-1 in Manchester on Saturday night, the Cardiff Devils bounced back with a 6-2 win over Belfast Giants in front of a sold out Ice Arena Wales crowd on Sunday.
There was an extra element to Sunday’s game, as the two sides prepare to face each other in the Challenge Cup final this weekend.
The Devils got off to a perfect start, scoring the opening goal after an extended period of pressure, as Andrew Hotham found Sean Bentivoglio at the side of the net who made it 1-0 after 28 seconds.
The away side came right back with Jeff Mason bringing the puck into the Devils half and finding Matt Towe who put the puck past Ben Bowns to tie the game at 1-1 at 2:10.
The period ended with two penalties called against the Giants. First Colin Shields was called for holding with 13 seconds left on the clock, then Ryan Martinelli for cross-checking with 3 seconds left to play.
These two penalties meant the Devils would start the 2nd period with nearly 2 minutes of a two-man advantage.
However, the Devils couldn’t convert on the 5 on 3 powerplay, but they did score just as the Giants players came back on the ice.
Layne Ulmer’s shot was saved by Whistle, but the rebound went straight to Justin Faryna who buried it to make it 2-1 for the Devils at 22:05.
Less than 2 minutes later, Bentivoglio had his second goal of the night, with Asselin getting his second assist of the night as well at 23:56 to put the Devils up 3-1.
Patrick Asselin made it 4-1 when Andrew Hotham found him all alone in front of the net and he tucked the puck into the net at 32:00.
The Giants pulled one back, a shot from Spiro Goulakos was tipped in by Colin Shields at 35:56 to make it 4-2 after 40 minutes of play.
Joey Haddad scored to put the Devils up 5-2 at 50:52 then with the clock running down Matt Pope scored into the empty net to complete the scoring at 6-2.
This win gave the Devils a vital 2 points in both the league and conference standings going into a very important week of hockey with a home game on Friday against the Manchester Storm then the Challenge Cup Final on Sunday against the Giants.
arena, Belfast, cardiff, challenge, cup, devils, elite, giants, hockey, ice, league, manchester, storm, wales
Teenager Page into snooker second round
Blues edge out Zebre to chase down Cheetahs
Huge crowds at first independence march
My name is Alex Cutler, I am a trainee journalist studying at Cardiff University. I am from Southampton and I live in Cardiff. Interests include sport and music.
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SWRPGNetwork and the HoloNet Forums > Other Forums > Fan Fiction > Old Soldiers Never Die
View Full Version : Old Soldiers Never Die
johnnyputrid
This is something Ronin and myself have been working on for almost a year. Its gone through various incarnations over the months and more editing than I care to remember! But now it's finally finished and ready for all to read.
To see the tale as it was meant to be seen, please download the attached PDF, complete with nifty cover and a special treat at the end. You can also read the tale in its entirety right here, beginning with Post # 5.
We both hope you truly enjoy this tale of adventure. Cheers!
IzVenjari
That is awesome jp and Ronin.
Beautifully presented, brilliantly written - love the snappy dialogue. Also love the character stats presented at the end.
Well done! :D
cjoey97
3 August 2007, 07:32 AM
Thanks for the kind words and responses! We're glad you are enjoying the story. It was a labor of love on our part (even though it took us almost a year to get out butts in gear writing the thing!).
And for those of you who aren't big on downloading or lack PDF readers or what-have-you, stay tuned for a bit while I post the tale in it's entirety here. It won't have the flash and pizzazz of the PDF, but its still the same words. If you want to see tthe nifty cover and the extra goodies at the end, you'll still have to check out the PDF.
Tales of the Cuy'val Dar
BOR’HELA JUNGLE, PLANET GAALA, 0811 hours (DAY ONE)
Governor Dorsh Fellia had it coming to him. And it did. A high-velocity 12.7mm ardanium slug, custom loaded with borless acid, struck him in the base of his skull as he stood by the side of his swimming pool, a pale green cocktail in an ornate glass held in his chubby fingers. After years of despotism and corruption, it seemed that Gaala, a populous Mid Rim world unallied with the Republic, had finally rid itself of its tyrannical leader. So it would seem.
As screams erupted from his two scantily clad Zeltron concubines, the near-headless corpse collapsed to its knees. The slug’s acid load rapidly began eating away at the vital areas of the governor’s brain and spine, ensuring that medical aid would be futile. Finally, as a pair of black-clad security guards rushed out onto the patio, the governor’s fat body pitched forward into the pool with a thunderous splash, the remains of the head detaching and sinking to the bottom of the crystalline waters.
Nearly a kilometer away, a burly Gran lowered his macrobinoculars from two of his three eyes and looked to the Nikto sniper at his side, who was already packing up his rifle, detaching the scope, folding the bipod, pocketing the brass from the chamber and loading a standard round.
“That’s two hundred grand in the bank,” Majo said cheerfully. “Care of the governor’s aide.”
Garloz Whitefeather glanced at his partner briefly as he prepared to move off. The Gran busied himself removing all traces of their presence, his three eyes keenly focused on his work. As far as they had been able to determine, they had been contracted by the planet’s assistant governor. The fact that the assistant governor was also his cousin made it a family affair, something that Garloz had become used to while working for various Hutt-backed mercenary outfits over the last two decades. Garloz and Majo had long ago accepted the fact that their work was neither good, nor moral. They simply collected their credits and moved on. Few of their targets would ever be missed anyway.
“We get to higher ground and you confirm the payment,” the Nikto said in his hoarse whisper, “or his relatives will be paying the undertaker for double funeral rites.” He set his rifle in a comfortable carrying position and moved away from the firing point in a low crouch, followed by the Gran spotter.
CRUSHING FIST, BLACK FIST MOBILE HEADQUARTERS, 1054 hours
Diermon Aricoza reclined on a battered conform-lounger, a tall double-brandy clutched in his right hand. He sat calmly smoking a t’bac cigar, scanning the local news reports and generally feeling all of his fifty-three years. It had been a week since his last contract and the boredom was beginning to toll on him. The constant messages from his ex-wives demanding child support credits weren’t helping his mood very much either. With six children to feed and put through school, Aricoza needed money soon. It wouldn’t be long before a veritable sea of bounty hunters began dogging his heels.
He heard the clunking of boots on the deck plates behind him and knew without a doubt it was Jesper Ovrii. The leader of the Black Fist mercenaries was a fellow veteran of Corellian Defense Force service and the two had served together on more than a few tours in years past. Aricoza never really cared for the man, but he was a competent soldier and a natural leader. He didn’t have any problems working for Jesper, but he knew whatever he wanted was probably going to involve a lot more danger than he cared for.
Jesper stood right behind Aricoza, tapping his foot impatiently. The commander of the Black Fist was not a patient man, but he usually gave the older human a wider berth than he did now. Jesper knew that his hand-to-hand skills were no match for Aricoza’s, but he also knew that Aricoza wouldn’t harm an old comrade. But that didn’t stop Jesper from being thoroughly annoyed with him.
“You can’t just sit there and drink, you old di’kut.”
“Sure I can,” Aricoza replied bitterly. “I’m getting pretty good at it too.”
“Look, I just got a holo from the assistant governor of Gaala. They’ve got a contract out that pays good. Really good.”
“So why don’t you do it? Or give it to one of them karking newbies we picked up in Seswenna?”
“This one’s hot. 200,000 credits to take out a sniper who just shot up the planetary governor this morning. I doubt any of the newbies could handle this.”
“I don’t karking care about no snipers. And I don’t need the money.”
“The twelve hells you don’t. I’ve seen your debt record, you know. Pretty soon one of your ex-wives is gonna sic someone like Jango Fett on your tail, and then you’re through. Take the job, Diermon. You need the money more than anyone.”
Aricoza finally turned to face his employer. The years had not been kind to Aricoza, but he rarely thought about his appearance. Beneath the close-cropped grey hair and extensive collection of battle scars was a sharp-featured man some considered to be pleasantly handsome. But the look on his face right now was anything but pleasant. He knew that he needed the money, probably more than any other mercenary in the organization. But he was tired. Aricoza had spent nearly all of the last five years working, scouting for the company and performing contract hits. He was sick of the life and wanted out, although that would require a substantial amount of money, which he didn’t have. Every red credit of his pay went towards eliminating his debts and at the rate he was going, he’d die long before he was even halfway close to freeing himself from his financial chains.
“Alright youse karking bastard, I’ll take the damn job.”
“That’s better. Don’t worry Diermon, you’ll love this one.
“Who’s the target? Some snot-nosed punk trying to work his way up the ranks?”
“No, this guy is a pro. Not much on him, but what we do have is scary. A Nikto by the name of Garloz Whitefeather. Ever heard of him?”
Aricoza thought for a second. He’d worked with more than his share of snipers in his day, but never any Nikto. “Nope, never heard of the bastard.”
“The slug that killed Governor Fellia was filled with borless acid. Only one guy uses slugs like that.”
“This Whitefeather guy?”
”Yeah, a real piece of work he is. He’s taken down lots of targets in the past couple of years, most of ‘em high-profile. Once made a clean kill from three kilometers.”
“Great. And youse want me and my pistol to take on some karking freak who can plug me from halfway across the planet? What, did I suddenly sprout a dunce cap from my head?”
“You’re a tracker. Track him.”
“Track him, right. Like it’s gonna be that damned simple. And what’s to keep him from trackin’ me? And how do youse know he’s still there? He could be long gone by now.”
“No, the Gaala authorities found his ship and impounded it. They’ve got all three spaceports on lock-down and the hit was done way out in the jungle.”
“What was a governor doin’ out in the bush? Huntin’?”
“Fellia has, or rather had, a private retreat out there. The sniper got him walking to the pool.”
“Nice. Can’t wait to meet this fella.”
“I suggest taking out his spotter first. Whitefeather usually uses a Gran.”
“Oh, so now its two guys I gotta take out? This just keeps getting better and frelling better.”
“You done worse before. Remember Nal Hutta?”
“That was different. Hutt’s can’t shoot three karking kilometers. And youse had two squads backing me up.”
“So get in close. That’s what you do best, right?”
“When I get back, if I get back, youse are buying the brandy this time.”
“For an old di’kut like you, anytime. Now get packed. I counted on you taking this job, so we’re already approaching planetary orbit. You’ve gotta leave in twenty minutes.”
GAALA SPACEPORT THREE, GAALA, 1250 hours
Aricoza stood at the edge of the landing strip facing the steaming jungle ahead. It was already local afternoon and the temperature had soared drastically. Gaala was a hot and humid world, covered in dense jungle and sprawling forests. He’d never even heard of the planet before this morning, and he already wanted to wipe the place from his memory. Jungles were never his favored terrain, but at least he had enough experience in them to pack plenty of water. He’d also had the foresight to bring along some odorless insect repellent. He had heard that certain Nikto were capable of tracking by scent. He didn’t want to be caught with his pants down because the bad guy had been tracking him by his bug spray.
Most of the spaceport crowd ignored him as he trekked across the landing strip laden in his new fatigues and heavy rucksack. Hunters and survivalists were common sights on Gaala and another lone figure walking into the jungle was cause for little concern. All the better for him to stealthily insert into the bush. But there was a flip side to that credit. If it was this easy for him to go in, how easy would it be for someone to come out? Granted, the security at Gaala Spaceport Three was impressive, but trying to find one single Nikto, who was probably a master of camouflaging himself, was going to be difficult. Already the authorities had rounded up several dozen of the aliens, but with no luck so far. This Whitefeather character was going to be a tough hunt.
Aricoza had quickly downloaded aerial maps of this particular section of the jungle, and was fairly certain he could make it to the ex-governor’s retreat in good time. From there he should be able to track the sniper as he made his exit. But the sniper had at least a three or four hour head start going for him, so Aricoza was going to be forced to keep a steady pace on his way to the retreat. And with several liters of water burdening him, he knew his knees were going to take a serious beating. But the prospect of becoming 200,000 credits richer was a damn good motivator.
As the human warrior prepared to plunge into the jungle, the Nikto and Gran climbed out of it, to the peak of a nameless mountain after putting a few angles, rivers and valleys between them and the governor’s holiday home. Both were sweating heavily, the Gran with a canteen to his lips as they neared the edge of the jungle. They were just ten meters to the rocky top of the mountain and from there a clear line to Gaala Spaceport Three, landing pad seven, and their transport. And from there a link to their secure Muunilinst account.
Garloz sniffed as Majo put the canteen away at his belt. “That was just water, right Majo? You wouldn’t be drinking on the job again, would you?” He let more than a little irritation creep into his whisper.
The Gran nervously wiped his mouth with his fatigue sleeve, drew his datapad and commpack and began crawling toward the top of the mountain. Garloz followed on his knees and elbows five meters behind, shaking his head slowly and keeping his eyes on the sky. He had no doubt that the late governor’s bodyguards would be combing the jungle with all manner of tracking beasts by now. He and his bovine partner had to keep ahead of them and also keep an eye out for air patrols. All the way back to the city the jungle canopy would keep them hidden from flyovers; even relatively sophisticated sensors wouldn’t be able to identify them in the thick tertiary jungle. And the pair had had plenty of practice at escape and evasion when it came to trackers on foot with beasts. The key was to keep a cool head. Simply fleeing in one direction made it child’s play for the enemy to track you. You had to put some angles in your path, get into a river and come out a hundred meters upstream so any beasts tracking you by scent would have to cast up and down the opposite river bank wasting time. Sometimes you even had to leave the river on the same side you entered, double back on yourself, and set ambushes on your own tail. But being up here on this mountain top, Garloz felt exposed.
Majo got to work with his gear, connecting cables, unfolding a small array and pointing it in the general direction of the starport. Garloz knew that if he got his scope out he could probably make out their ship on its pad, but then who would be on watching their backs? The Gran was a great spotter; after all he had three eyes. But in addition to his occasional drinking, he was also very focused on his work when it came to gear, at the expense of being aware of his surroundings. Thus Garloz found himself with his eyes on the sky and the tree line, ears focused for the sound of repulsors or other engines. He heard nothing.
GAALA SPACEPORT THREE, PAD SEVEN, 1359 hours
Four soldiers clad in black fatigues, blast vests, helmets and soft-soled boots, advanced on an old, but heavily modified YT-1250, the Solstice. Four other similarly-clad troopers covered them from a commandeered luggage speeder. All traffic in the area had been suspended and the port staff withdrawn to a safe distance. The entry team was tasked with breaking into the ship and planting a series of explosive charges aboard. Catching the assassin who had murdered the governor was going to be a difficult task, so it had been decided to get him in an ambush as he made to flee the planet.
Approaching the ship’s hatch, the security team’s tech removed the lock panel with a speed-driver and set to work slicing his way in while the other three stacked on the opposite side of the hatch. The slicer got the lock on his second try and with an affirmative ping, the hatch split in half, the bottom swinging down to form steps up into the unlit interior. Swinging his helmet’s enhancement monocle into place over his right eye, the team’s squad leader led the way into the ship, the whole operation carried out silently and efficiently with crisp hand signals. The leader went in and left, toward the ship’s prow and bridge. The second man went right and aft, the third man following the leader with the tech bringing up the rear. All four stalked through the craft with speed, weapons up and ready to blast any hostiles they found.
“Lounge, clear!”
“Cargo hold, clear!”
“Engineering, clear!”
“Cabins, clear!”
Then the squad leader reached the cockpit and his visored face was bathed in a green glow from the single active screen. It seemed to be displaying banking records.
“Fierfek!” Majo cursed, hammering the rocky ground with a fist. “We’ve been stiffed, the account’s empty! Mother of a Hutt!”
Garloz’s cold black eyes left the sky long enough to silence the Gran’s cursing with a stare.
“And if you keep screaming, we’ll be both dead and credit-less.” In truth the Nikto was just as furious as his partner, but he didn’t want to risk being caught until he’d had a chance to teach a lesson to whoever had betrayed them. He took a deep breath and prepared to crawl back into the jungle when suddenly Majo erupted in foul language yet again.
As he spun about to face his partner once more he noticed a flash in his peripheral vision. The starport.
“I just lost the connection to the Solstice,” Majo started explaining. Then Garloz saw it too, a cloud of smoke rising from the direction of the city…and the starport.
Cursing under his breath, Garloz silently wondered why it always seemed he had to do things the hard way.
Aricoza turned as he saw the smoke cloud rising off in the distance. He’d made good time in his trek towards the now-deceased governor’s retreat, but he knew he was still behind schedule. It was risky, but he figured a quick comm to the Black Fist ship orbiting above might be worthwhile at this point. Retrieving his comlink, he punched in the secure code.
“Aricoza to Crushing Fist.”
“This is Crushing Fist, go ahead Diermon.”
“What in the frelling kark is going on Jesper? I’m seeing smoke comin’ up from the ‘port?”
“We’re scanning the local freqs now, hold on. Alright, looks like the local cops tried to storm your target’s ship. They set a booby trap on board, but the thing went off accidentally and killed a couple of security guards. I guess your man is gonna need a new ride home.”
“Well if I can sees it, so can he. Now he knows his out is blown.”
“That shouldn’t change anything. He’s still gotta come your way. There’s no other spaceport within walking distance.”
“This is just great. Anything else happening there?”
“Nah, nothing you need to worry about. Now stay off the damn comm and get back to work, you old di’kut.”
“Roger, Aricoza out, you frelling grub-worm.”
Feeling thoroughly frustrated, Aricoza continued through the thick jungle, growing more and more irritated by the second. He faced a deadly sniper, who the advantage of camouflage and range, and without a doubt his quarry knew that things had gone south for him. A sniper on the run was dangerous prey, and Aricoza wasn’t sure just how he was going to take the man down.
An hour later, Aricoza stepped out of the jungle and emerged in the backyard of the hidden retreat. He had practically run all the way here, but he had no time for rest. Plucking a canteen from his belt, he drank deeply as he made his way towards the pool, the scene of the murder. The retreat itself, though lavishly decorated, was rather small and poorly constructed, and nearly dwarfed by the police cruiser parked in a small clearing close by. Fortunately, the planet’s security officials were too busy with politics and paperwork to accomplish any sort of real investigation into the death of even their own governor. There were a few forensic specialists and police inspectors milling about, but none seemed too concerned with the situation. The late governor must not have been a popular man, Aricoza thought. As he passed a makeshift checkpoint, he held out his contract license and was allowed to pass. Apparently bounty hunters and assassins were much more commonplace on Gaala than on most of the worlds he’d been to.
Pushing aside a young Bothan investigator, he glared down at the headless body floating in the pool. The Bothan noticed the assassin’s contract affixed to the old warrior’s vest and simply shrugged, making a thumb and finger pistol motion with his hand.
“Happens a lot around here,” the young alien said.
“What, murder?” Aricoza replied.
“Yeah. No one is really gonna miss this guy. Crooked as they come.”
“Youse know much about Mr. No Head over there?”
“About as much as anyone. Planetary governor, crooked politician, total scum. He took a lot of bribes and stirred up a lot trouble with the Hutts. Heard he was trying to get some of their action.”
“Hmm. Probably why he was fragged. Youse fellas just gonna leave him floating like that?” Aricoza was slightly shocked that the body hadn’t even been recovered yet.
“No rush is there? His head was blown off by a high-powered rifle slug. Not like we can get prints off of him or anything.”
“Good point. Nice talkin’ with youse. I gotta go kill me a sniper now.”
Aricoza made his way back towards the jungle path he’d made for himself, spending over an hour trying to pick up some sort of trail to follow. His progress was interrupted when he caught a glimpse of something high off in the distance. He could have sworn for a second he’d seen the flash of spotting scope, or maybe a pair of macrobinoculars. His gut told him that this deep in the jungle, unless you had a high-powered comm system, you’d have to get to high ground to get a signal. His own comlink had been intermittent for the last forty minutes. He had a feeling that his prey had just made a mistake. Consulting his datapad, he quickly determined the best position to grab a clean comm signal from and oriented himself in that direction. As he figured, it was directly where he had seen the flash. So youse needed to get a signal out for somethin’. Well now I knows where youse is, I just need catch up to youse. Finishing off a canteen in a single gulp, he replaced it and readjusted his pack. Both of his shoulders were already sore from humping the heavy rucksack, but he pressed on. After all, what was a little bit of pain compared to a 200,000 credit payoff?
The next few hours were hell on the old warrior. The intense heat and humidity of the jungle wreaked havoc on Aricoza’s body, sapping the energy from his very bones. He still felt no closer to catching up to the Nikto sniper and he was running low on drinkable water. Still he persevered on, driven by sheer willpower alone. Though his senses were still not fully attuned to the alien jungle, he felt something in the back of his mind that told him he was going in the right direction. It may have been his innate survival instincts or simply a trick of the shadows, but a few times during the long afternoon he felt another presence in the bush.
As the day slowly turned into night, Aricoza prepared himself for a long evening. He came equipped with night-vision equipment, but he wasn’t planning on relying on any technology during the hunt. His eyes soon adjusted to the dim light and his ears were quick to pick up sounds that didn’t fit the normal patterns of the jungle. Nighttime provided the best cover, and he knew the Nikto would be playing by the same rules. He couldn’t afford much rest, but a short breather would do him some good. He found a suitable tree and leaned back against it, his pack cushioning him somewhat. It was then that he spotted the first signs of something other than jungle beasts on the ground nearby. He moved in for closer look and nearly doubled over from surprise. It was a quarter of a boot print. A single, unmistakable mark. There were few species that could make that kind of impression and only one came to his mind. There was a Gran somewhere ahead. Either fortune was on Aricoza’s side this evening, or the enemy spotter was something less than competent. Aricoza didn’t care which one it was at this point.
The boot marks’ direction indicated no clear path, but it did at least give Aricoza some orientation. Using the thick foliage as cover, he quietly made his own path along an imagined line of travel and picked his way on. After thirty agonizingly slow minutes, he struck gold. There he was, a lone Gran, bedecked in camo fatigues and dragging a thick hunk of brush along the ground, wiping his tracks clean. Aricoza dropped to the ground as silently as he could, squinting his eyes to make out details in the darkness. He sniffed the air cautiously and was surprised to pick up the aroma of synthehol coming from the Gran. So Whitefeather’s spotter was a drunk. The revelation sent warm currents of energy back into Aricoza’s tired body and the sluggishness he’d been experiencing quickly faded away. The spotter had made a fatal error in leaving that single boot print, and Aricoza decided to make the most of the opportunity. Rolling over on his side, he extracted his pistol and combat knife, being careful to avoid making the slightest noise unsheathing his weapons. He moved into a short crouch and stepped lightly off the makeshift path, curving around to a flanking position. He hoped to get the drop on the spotter before Whitefeather realized what was going on. The Nikto couldn’t be too far ahead now.
Years of field experience allowed Aricoza to move without sound as he slowly crept around to the spotter’s right. The Gran seemed intensely focused on his task, all three eyes on the ground at his feet. He never heard the old human behind him, and Aricoza gave him no chance to scream out as his right hand cupped the alien’s mouth. His combat knife slipped under the spotter’s chin, nicking the sensitive skin there. The Gran wisely dropped his branch and raised his hands high and away.
“Evenin’, three-eyes. Nice job on the cover up, except youse missed a footprint back there. Youse probably shouldn’t drink on the job neither.”
The Gran made no move to speak, but Aricoza could feel the fear coming from the alien. He leaned in close to his captive’s ear and could easily smell the alcoholic fumes on his breath.
“Nice and quiet out here, ain’t it? Makes it tough to sneak up on people, but looks like youse was a little busy there, huh? Youse can speak if youse want to.”
The Gran was slow to respond, wary of the knife at his throat. This human could kill him in heartbeat if he chose to, but there was little reason to not speak.
“What do want?”
“Yer partner, dead.”
“He’s too good to be caught. You’re wasting your time.”
“Maybe so. But I reckon I ought to chance it anyways. What’s yer name, son?”
“Majo.”
“Majo, huh? Nice to meet ya. I’m Diermon.”
“I’m not afraid of dying.”
“Then this’ll be easy then, won’t it?”
“Do your worst, human.”
“First I need to knows what yer partner is up to.”
”I don’t have to say a thing.”
“No, youse don’t, do youse? But if youse do, I promise to kill youse quick and clean.”
“And if I don’t talk?”
“Bleedin’ out on the jungle floor ain’t a pretty way to go. But its yer choice.”
Majo sighed deeply. He was karked and he knew it. If this human didn’t kill him, he knew Garloz certainly would. Garloz had little tolerance for failure.
“What do want to know?”
Aricoza could tell the alien was nervous. Sweat was beading down the creature’s eyestalks and he could feel him shuddering slightly. He readjusted his grip on the knife and pushed a bit deeper, drawing a slow trickle of blood from the Gran’s neck.
“All I want to know is where Whitefeather is heading. Tell me that and youse go out fast, no sufferin’. Believe me when I says I can make youse suffer.”
“He’s...”
“He’s what?”
All three of Majo’s eyes widened. “He’s close by!”
Aricoza froze. He knew right then that Whitefeather had turned back to check on the Gran’s absence. Perhaps he wasn’t as silent as he had thought, or perhaps the sniper was simply more attuned to the sounds of the jungle than he was. Aricoza’s danger sense began to peak. He felt an invisible marker forming on his forehead and realized that the sniper had a bead on him. It was pure instinct that caused him to twist just a millisecond before the crack of a large-bore slug rifle boomed through the jungle night. The slug found itself buried in Majo’s skull, bursting it into a dozen bloody fragments. Aricoza quickly released his prisoner and dove for the nearest tree he could find. He was shaking uncontrollably, the way he always did when death was close at hand. He expected another slug to follow, but instead he heard the sound of laughter. It was quiet and steady, but laughter unmistakably. The sniper had him cornered. Raising his weapon, he risked a few shots in the direction he’d heard the laughter. He didn’t think the sniper would be hit, but at least it would keep his head down for a moment. Aricoza had no choice but to wait.
That night was probably the longest night of Aricoza’s life. He’d spent more than his fair share of time stalking other men in the darkness, but this was an entirely different situation. The Nikto sniper knew he was being followed and he knew that his follower was good. That made the sniper extra cautious, and even more dangerous. Aricoza spent several long hours hunched beside the tree, wary of making even the slightest move. He hadn’t even taken the time to clean off the blood and bone fragments of the Gran’s skull from his uniform. But eventually his senses told him the sniper had moved on. Most likely the sniper thought Aricoza was scouting ahead of a main force. How many men would have the guts to hunt down a deadly killer by themselves? Aricoza could only think of a handful of men who would do such a thing, and he numbered himself high among that short list.
Risking a peek around his hiding spot, Aricoza detected nothing out of the ordinary in the immediate area, and rolled onto his belly, carefully crawling a few meters out onto the jungle floor. He waited a few moments, and then gingerly stuck his head up. There was nothing except the sounds of the jungle night. He silently cursed himself for laying up this long and decided it was high time to get back on the Nikto’s trail. He estimated that, even crawling, the sniper could have easily covered a kilometer or two over the last few hours. It was more than enough to throw even a seasoned tracker off of the trail, but Aricoza was no ordinary tracker. Even in the darkness, he could see signs of disturbances, slight indentations in the brush where a man-sized being had crawled through. Subtle signs in the dirt gave away a direction of travel and Aricoza was quick to pick up on them. He moved out slowly but steadily, gaining confidence with each passing meter that he was heading the right way.
Garloz's night was moderately more comfortable. Once he felt he had cleared a good distance he had got up into a crouch to move faster, his eyes on the ground; carefully picking his way across the jungle floor, desperate to leave as little sign as possible...though he was now sure that the lone soldier tracking him was highly skilled. No matter how much he ran, how many times he doubled back or tried to throw him off, soon Garloz would need to take him down. He carefully slung his rifle over his back, checked his pistol in its holster and extracted a pair of climbing claws from his belt kit.
One thing Garloz had learned early in his career was that a soldier's life was seldom a comfortable one; sat hunched in a muddy ditch, more often than not surrounded by the corpses of friends while the enemy did their best to reunite you with them. Thus when he could, he took the extra effort to make things more comfortable. In the holodramas, the hero would always lay his head down at night and fell fast asleep, no matter where he was, and wake up perfectly coiffed and ready for another day of shooting his heavy repeater from the hip. It wasn't like that in the Real World and particularly in the jungle.
First there was the noise; it was almost never quiet. Though Gaala's cities were densely populated, they had nothing on its jungles when it came to wildlife. And while the cities mostly died down at night, the jungle was awake and screeching, hissing, singing and chirping all twenty two hours of the Gaalan day. Then there were the bites. Lying on the jungle floor made you a midnight snack for all manner of predators. Perhaps a big cat would stalk nearby, or maybe a ten-meter constrictor would coil itself around you. But more often than not, you'd wake up to find you'd been the main course for a whole hive of insects. With their larvae now growing under your epidermis or in your ear if you were particularly unlucky. And then there were infections, spores, poison, bacteria and venom. Garloz briefly recalled the time he'd spent on a job on Kashyyyk but quickly pushed that particular nightmare to the back of his mind.
Thus he found himself sat in the fork formed by two branches a good three meters above the jungle floor. He'd had the sense to move on past his chosen tree, leaving tracks into denser vegetation, then backtrack and climb the opposite side of the tree to where he expected the human to come from. The climbing claws were designed to leave marks in the tree bark resembling those of a big feline. But still, Garloz didn't want to attract attention to his hiding place. He laid out his camo net beneath him as a makeshift hammock and wrapped the rest around himself for concealment. With his rifle in his hands and braced atop one of the branches to keep it out of sight, he slowly looked around.
You couldn't see far in the jungle in daytime, and it was currently the middle of the night, but he never rested without planning at least two moves ahead. He remembered a river to the east on his map, running roughly east-west; that would be choice number one and a good way out of the jungle. Option two was a clearing at the base of a slight incline to the north. That would be his fall-back ambush point. Finally he took a round from the top of a spare magazine and drew his knife. He didn't know the tracker's name so he began to carve the Nikto character for 'human' into the bullet in the dim light. After finishing his mark, he set his chrono and allowed himself the luxury of an hour's slumber.
BOR’HELA JUNGLE, GAALA, 0732 hours (DAY TWO)
Aricoza had done well during the night. Though he was hampered by the lack of light and the thick jungle foliage, he had managed to travel several kilometers over rough terrain. He was tired, but motivated as he sensed he was nearing his prey. He had spent the majority of his life in the wilds, learning to stalk and hunt other beings as efficiently as a seasoned predator. But this hunt was testing him in ways he had never before been tested. There were few trackers in the galaxy as good as he was, and this Nikto was one of those few. Signs were few and far between, forcing Aricoza to react on instinct instead of training. He forced himself to ignore obvious signs, instead focusing on the traces that were not there. It was difficult, almost as if he was reverse-engineering his many years of field experience. What he didn’t see suddenly became more important than what he did see.
The death of the sniper’s partner had forced caution upon the Nikto. No longer was his primary concern escape. It was now a matter of survival. Aricoza had cornered the sniper in a sense, and now his enemy was alert and wary. Carefully stepping, he made his way up a slight incline, crouching low to keep his profile slim. It was always dangerous heading uphill when facing an enemy proficient with a rifle, the higher ground giving him a distinct advantage. But Aricoza had no choice in the matter. He was positive the Nikto had come this way and he didn’t have the time to circle around and search for a safer path.
Suddenly Aricoza stopped dead in his tracks. He crouched motionless, his eyes scanning, his ears listening for any sounds of disturbance. His survival sense flared to life, freezing the scene around him in perfect clarity. He was being watched. He knew if he made any movement he would be instantly spotted, if he hadn’t been already. There was no decent cover available to dive into, just thin tree trunks and low bushes with broad leaves that offered no protection from a high-powered slug rifle. He had entered a somewhat open section of the jungle and the morning sun began to trickle down as it rose above the horizon. Unfortunately for Aricoza, his weapons were not held at the ready. His danger sense had flared up as he was pushing aside some foliage, leaving his center mass exposed and his arms wide. For several minutes he held his motionless position, praying that the jungle sounds would return to normal. He heard nothing, not even the previously ever-present chirping of the planet’s native insects.
The next sound Aricoza did hear was deafening. The crack of the rifle caused his nerves to twitch slightly, his balance shifting off to the left. It saved his life. The rifle slug careened into his shoulder, spinning him around in a complete circle before dropping him to the ground hard. He felt his rucksack fall to the ground as the bullet tore through the strap and ripped out a chunk of flesh on his upper shoulder. Muffling a scream, he clamped his hand over his mouth and quickly executed a series of blind combat rolls, hoping to find something to hide behind while he regained his composure.
It wasn’t the first time Aricoza had been shot before, but the sheer agony welling up in his arm made it clear that each time was a brand new experience. Even though the bullet had gone straight through, it hit with tremendous force and caused a great deal of pain. Continuing his rolls, he slammed into a nearby tree and quickly scrambled around it, attempting to put as much of his body behind cover as possible. Blood flowed freely from his wound, soaking his right sleeve and numbing his arm. Switching his pistol to his left hand, he fired blindly around the tree, putting several bolts in varied directions. He knew he wouldn’t hit anything, but he had a plan.
He figured the sniper would have hustled away after failing to kill his target, and Aricoza needed a direction. The jungle had become a living thing after the ruckus, with growls and squawks drowning out its previous steady calm. While a trained stalker could easily flow with the natural rhythms of the jungle, once disturbed it would take some time to return to normal. Aricoza counted on that fact as he crept forth from his hiding spot and moved to the next closest tree. A fleeing sniper should cause enough disturbances to make his direction of travel known, no matter how stealthily he moved. Aricoza had only to focus on those disturbances and he would have his prey sooner or later.
It was some time before Aricoza realized that he was following the wrong path. This sniper was good, nearly as good as he was. The Nikto had used the jungle’s own patterns against him, going opposite from the direction of the shot. He must have been far more attuned to his surroundings than Aricoza had thought possible. He had tracked the subtle sounds of wildlife disturbance for twenty minutes, but his path had led him farther away from the elusive sniper. There were no footprints, crawl marks or anything indicating a humanoid had been this way. Frustrated, Aricoza sat for a moment and pulled his aid kit from his belt pouch. With his rucksack’s strap blown to pieces, Aricoza had no practical way to carry it, so he had abandoned the bag where it lay. He had retrieved some essential gear, but his fully stocked medical kit was too much of a burden to carry.
The small aid kit was minimal and had only a few analgesic sprays and bandages. Patching his wound as best as he could, he shook his arm to get the blood flowing back and switched his weapon back to its rightful hand. He wished he’d taken more time to learn to shoot left-handed, but at least now there was enough feeling in his arm to hold his pistol. Whether he could hit anything with it or not was another question. Gulping down a painkiller tablet, he pressed onwards, moving in a circular pattern to see if he could spot any signs of his prey.
After nearly a full day of relentless searching, Aricoza felt no closer to gaining any ground on his hunt. With his water nearly spent and not having eaten anything substantial for two days, his strength was beginning to drain. He spotted the planet’s primary hanging low above the horizon and he realized it was almost nightfall. Hanging his head to scratch an insect bite, he spied something on the ground a meter or two ahead of him. Ignoring the stinging bite for now, he moved in for a closer look. How he spotted the item he couldn’t even imagine. A small green thread lay in the middle of a slight clearing. He stooped to retrieve the thread and held it aloft in the waning light. Of all the karking….well don’t this just take it all. The thread was unmistakably from a pair of camouflage fatigues, much like his own. It must have come loose as the Nikto was crawling this way. Aricoza simply stood in the clearing, nearly dumbfounded. While he thought he’d been traveling in the wrong direction all day, it turns out he was on the correct course after all. He promised himself that once he returned from this mission, he would track down a Jedi and have him run whatever tests they ran to recruit their members. He was simply having too much luck to not have the Force on his side.
Moving at a faster pace, Aricoza trotted through the evening and well into the night. Now that he had a direction of travel, he hoped he could end this unceasing quest to kill the deadly sniper. Though he moved quickly, he still maintained his discipline and padded his footfalls. His right arm, now becoming very sore was going to be his biggest problem. His unique fighting style required the use of both of his arms, and with his pistol arm injured, he was sure he would lose a battle at range. So he needed to get close, close enough to bring his knife and his formidable unarmed combat skills to bear. If he could flank the sniper on his off side, he could lengthen the amount of time his enemy had to bring his rifle around. Aricoza was sure in a hand-to-hand fight, he would emerge as the victor. He’d already had the proof that against a slug rifle, he was outmatched. Only a reflexive twitch had caused the sniper’s bullet to miss his heart. He knew he couldn’t count on that kind of luck to save him again.
Emerging from a thick cluster of trees and bushes, Aricoza arrived at a large clearing approximately fifty meters square. This was it, he thought, the perfect ambush spot. He hadn’t seen another clearing this size throughout his entire trek in the sweltering jungle. If his enemy had truly come this way, he would see its merits as well. Circling around to his left, he scouted the entire perimeter of the clearing, but caught no sign of his adversary. He checked the tree line, but saw nothing suitable to climb. If he had some climbing gear perhaps he could get up into the upper canopy, but that wasn’t an option for him.
Returning to his point of origin, he found a small but thick tree to use for cover and planted himself behind it. He would simply have to wait for his prey. His body was beginning to falter and his joints were becoming sore. Changing the bandage on his shoulder, he allowed himself a few moments to properly clean the wound and quaff another painkiller. The wound was no doubt becoming infected, but at least the pain drugs took the bite off and allowed him some use of his arm. He would need it soon enough. Here he waited patiently throughout the rest of the long night. Sleep beckoned for him, but his will was stronger than his body’s needs. He forced himself to remain alert and ready.
BOR’HELA JUNGLE, GAALA, 0557 hours (DAY THREE)
As the morning light began to break, he felt a presence ahead, rousing him from a brief slumber. He silently cursed at himself for drifting off, but he felt much more aware after his respite. His senses rapidly re-adjusted themselves to his surroundings. He felt more than saw, but his feeling was true. There was another being nearby and he knew without a doubt it was his foe. It was obvious who had been tracked during this hunt. The Nikto had probably followed his scent and circled around him, waiting for him go to ground. Aricoza had been carefully maneuvered into this exact spot. He was quite impressed. In all his years, no being had ever successfully tracked him so well. He figured the sniper would lie patiently and wait for Aricoza to make a move. It was exactly what he was doing after all. He’d heard tales of snipers lying motionless for days, keeping their scope trained perfectly on a particular spot, waiting for their target to fall into the crosshairs.
As the two soldiers lay opposite from each other, Aricoza decided to try and draw his enemy into conversation. It was amazing what enemies would talk about during a standoff, and he saw no reason not to. Perhaps the mere sound of his voice would break the sniper’s concentration, though he doubted it. His enemy was a professional just like him. He wouldn’t fall for a simple trick like that. But seeing no harm, he spoke aloud.
“Hey there, Mr. Sniper. I know youse’re waitin’ on me and I’m waitin’ on youse. So before one of us blows the other away, now might be a good time fer a chat? Whaddya say?”
Hearing no reply from the Nikto, Aricoza pressed on.
“So, youse’re Whitefeather, huh? Can’t say I ever heard of youse, but youse sure are good. I’m Aricoza, but I betcha youse never heard o’ me, either. Just so youse knows this has been one of my toughest hunts. Maybe my toughest ever. Never met too many folks who could track me down, but youse sure did a bang-up job. If I was wearin’ a hat, I’d take it off to youse.”
Hearing nothing from the Nikto, Aricoza decided it wasn’t worth the effort after all. Safely behind his cover, he drained the last of his water and crouched low on his heels. They were at a stalemate. If either being made a move, the other would gain the advantage. Aricoza’s arm was feeling better thanks to the painkillers, and he felt he could put a reasonably well-aimed shot at his opponent. But he still felt hampered by the distance between the two. Most of his fights occurred at point blank range. He estimated about forty meters between the two, though without actually looking, it could be more. He didn’t feel comfortable at this range. He needed to get closer, but how?
Aricoza sat tensed on his haunches, sweat dripping down his back. The jungle heat was oppressive, and his knees were becoming more and more stiffened with each passing minute. At fifty-three, Aricoza was in better shape than most men half his age, but the years had not been kind to the old veteran’s battered body. He couldn’t count the number of conflicts he’d been involved in over the years, though his aching joints seemed to remember every one of them with vivid clarity. Regardless of his health, a body could only take so much of a beating before it started to break down. Aricoza was quite sure that his body was doing so.
He remained motionless in position, keeping his breathing in check and sucking up the pain as best as he could. His camouflage fatigues blended in well with the environment, and he had years of field experience on his side. So he waited, crouched against a tree, pistol held high and ready, just waiting for his opponent to peek his head out. He could feel the presence of the sniper, just forty or so meters away. It was a game, a deadly version of cat and mouse in which there could only be one survivor. And Aricoza was determined that it was going to be himself that survived this encounter. For three long days he and his enemy had stalked each other through the dense, steamy jungles of this Force-forsaken world. And now it had come to this, two opponents, both trained in the art of killing other men, just meters apart, both aware of each other’s presence, but neither willing to make the first move. He wasn’t sure of his foe’s age, but he knew that he wouldn’t be able to keep this up for much longer. It all came down to a simple test of willpower and endurance. He just hoped that he had enough of both to make it out of this mess alive.
A sudden twig snap make Aricoza’s heart pound within his chest. His finely honed senses told him that his opponent hadn’t moved, so it was either some jungle creature on the prowl, or there was a new player on the field. Great, just what I needed. Some karking poacher looking for a trophy. He kept tense, his right hand holding his blaster, his left gripping his serrated combat knife. He knew that at this distance, the sniper had the advantage. He needed to get close, where his martial skills would serve him best, but there was too much open ground to cross. He hoped that whatever poor sap that had just wandered along had the sense to keep moving, but he couldn’t count on it. The sound of moist footfalls seemed to echo throughout the jungle as something moved closer to his position.
The footsteps became louder and he finally got a glance at the source: a poacher, just as he thought. Loud, clumsy and as smelly as a Hutt latrine. The poacher’s eyes seemed to be scanning, looking for some prey to take down, but his weapon was held high, enough so that it would be difficult to bring to bear quickly. Aricoza tried to still his breathing, but he could see the steam of his breath rising in the humid jungle air. Then their eyes locked, Aricoza’s piercing grays and the poacher’s dull browns. He knew the man had spotted him. The lurching hunter moved forward cautiously, still unsure of what he was seeing. Aricoza’s fatigues and face paint blended in perfectly with the tree, but his blaster and knife stood out like a sore thumb.
The poacher was just a meter away when his mouth began to open in exclamation. Aricoza had no choice now, he had to react. With blinding speed the old soldier reached out and hooked the muzzle of his pistol on the poacher’s sleeve, dragging him in close. His left hand shot out, knife aiming for the throat. He twisted the poacher’s sleeve, whipping him about, his right foot finding the man’s knee and kicking violently. In less than a second the poacher was held immobile, Aricoza’s knife at his throat.
“Keep yer mouth shut,” he whispered in the poacher’s ear. “If youse move, youse die, simple as that. Got it?”
The poacher nodded his head slowly to confirm. His eyes were wide with terror as the razor-sharp knife pressed in against his flesh. He trembled slightly and Aricoza winced as the man relieved himself in his pants.
”Listen up and listen real good, youse karking monkey-lizard. There’s a bad guy out there and I aim to kill him. Youse can either help me or get yerself buried. I need youse to flap your wings and start screaming the second I release youse. I need a distraction and youse is it. He won’t be aiming for you, so don’t worry about getting shot. Just run like hell and make as much karking noise as yer fat lungs will let youse. We clear?”
The poacher nodded again, his eyes still glazed in fear. Aricoza wasn’t sure this was a practical tactic, but at this point he had no other options. His legs had become numb, the tingling making him move erratically and his back was sore from crouching for such a length of time. He needed to finish this before his body decided to quit on him. Giving his makeshift captive a violent shove forward, he prepared himself to charge. Kark it all, I really am getting too old for this crap.
Whitefeather waited patiently, trying to slow his breathing. After fleeing through the jungle for days, occasionally getting a good glimpse of the enemy stalking him, the two warriors had made a subconscious decision to finish things right here. He had managed to get two rounds off, but had only succeeded in killing his own spotter and knocking the man’s backpack off. Garloz had decided to stop his flight and he felt his nemesis close by.
At first he thought he was being stalked by an enemy platoon. Dorsh Fellia wasn’t the first planetary governor to have fallen in Garloz’ crosshairs and the response was usually a planet-wide lockdown, followed by one of two options. First, the government would send the entire military out to search for the killer. Garloz had always managed to escape and evade large forces, using his innate camouflage skills to avoid pursuit. The second and more dangerous option involved the planet’s special forces setting themselves on his tail. He didn’t always manage a clean getaway in those cases, and he had the scars to prove it. But this time it was different. As the chase wore on, Garloz had become more and more certain that he was being stalked by a single man. And yet he couldn’t escape.
The Nikto heard the crack of damp wood close by, off to his two o’clock. It couldn’t be his enemy; he was sure this particular human was still behind one of the brown-barked trees directly ahead of him. He couldn’t have moved in the time it took the sniper to blink, could he? Garloz promised himself to invest in some of those new optic injections before his next job. Shouldering his rifle, the reassuring smell of oil and cordite filled his nostrils. He swept the area where he had heard the sound, having removed his rifle’s fragile scope as soon as he had dropped the governor. The rifle’s basic iron sights gave him a better view in the densely packed terrain.
It was then that the Nikto spotted the source of the noise. A human, dressed for a day out in the bush, his nets, traps, oversized holonetwork survival knife and an imitation BlasTech sporting rifle giving him away as a poacher. Garloz released some of the pressure he’d been holding on his trigger but kept the rifle pointed at the man. And then suddenly, in a blur, the poacher vanished behind a tree. One moment he was stalking toward it, the next he had disappeared. Garloz decided he was definitely investing in those no-blink injections as soon as he got out of this jungle. It had to be him, the one who had been shadowing him for these last three days. For some reason he had taken the poacher. Perhaps his enemy had thought the poacher was Garloz himself. The Nikto sniper smiled to himself.
Waiting for his enemy to make a move, Whitefeather carefully slid his rifle’s bolt lever back and removed the round. His eyes never leaving the tree, he performed the whole operation automatically, sliding the bullet back into his bandolier and carefully chambering an armor-piercing duranium-tipped slug. He wanted to make sure that this time, his nemesis went down and stayed that way. The armor-piercing slug would make sure of that.
Aricoza’s captive, now released, did just what he was told. He ran and screamed as loud as he could. His fear was genuine and his enthusiasm was impressive. Unfortunately his balance was rather poor. The poacher ran headlong over a series of thick roots and tripped, falling hard enough to knock himself out. Aricoza didn’t bother watching. Instead he summoned every scrap of energy within his tired body and surged forward. Ducking and weaving, he moved from tree to tree, crossing large amounts of open ground as fast as he possibly could. Twenty meters from his foe, he saw the Nikto for the first time. His head was raised and his eyes moved away from the fleeing poacher and shifted to the old soldier barreling towards him. Aricoza poured on as much speed as he could muster.
At ten meters, the slugthrower rifle began to move in Aricoza’s direction. Unlike a holodrama, time did not slow down for Aricoza. He saw everything as a blur and focused all of his attention on the Nikto’s weapon. He could tell the rifle was large, but its details were fuzzy. He did know that at this range, a slug from the weapon would put a rather large hole in him. So he kept moving, drawing on reserves of endurance he didn’t even know he possessed.
At five meters, the rifle grew in his sight. He could make out the large barrel, and the smell of cleaning oil and cordite began to fill his nose. At two meters the shot rang out, threatening to tear his eardrums apart. Aricoza twisted his body to the left, the slug just barely skimming his shoulder, drawing only a small line of blood. He could feel the sheer power of the round as it passed him, but he remained steadfast in his determination. Closing the gap to just a single meter, Aricoza batted aside the rifle with his right hand. The blow was tremendous, enough to rip the weapon from the sniper’s grasp. Raw adrenaline pumped through Aricoza’s body as he drew within knife range of his opponent.
But Garloz Whitefeather was no stranger to close combat. With blinding speed he twirled around, drawing his blaster in one smooth motion and bringing the weapon up. At the same instant Aricoza saw the move and brought his own pistol to bear. Both combatants fired simultaneously.
The empty click of each man’s trigger echoed loudly. Both men looked dumbly at their pistols, but quickly recovered and fired again. With no result. Holding his weapon slightly sideways, Aricoza saw traces of rot on the weapon’s power pack. The humid jungle had eroded the casing and mold had wormed its way inside the energy clip. The blaster was useless now, its power cell corrupted by the jungle itself. Tossing aside his weapon, he shifted his grip on his knife, bringing the blade to bear on the Nikto. Whitefeather in turn withdrew a large hunting knife, its razor sharp blade catching a glint from the daylight peeking through the canopy above.
The two circled around each other, each completely focused and prepared. Garloz took a few measured slashes at Aricoza, causing the older man to back away slightly. The Nikto smiled coldly, his black eyes showing no hint of fear. Aricoza countered with a few thrusts of his own, keeping his opponent at bay. Aricoza knew the first rule of knife-fighting by heart: you always got cut. But he could tell that the Nikto wasn’t as skilled as he was. Perhaps the first rule might be broken today.
Lunging forward, Whitefeather thrust his blade towards Aricoza’s torso with astonishing speed. But the blow was poorly timed and Aricoza ducked away as the knife slashed by him. Taking advantage of his enemies’ miscalculation, he twisted around to Whitefeather’s flank. He could easily have cut the alien to shreds, but withheld, instead reaching out with his right hand to grab the sniper’s exposed wrist. With a firm grasp, he twisted Whitefeather’s wrist down, pinning his knife against the underside of his forearm. With his left hand, Aricoza whipped his own blade across the Nikto’s throat. Holding his enemies’ wrist firm, he pulled back with his knife hand and thrust a leg out, kicking the Nikto in the back of the knee. The see-saw motion caught the sniper completely off-guard. With a final pull, Aricoza brought the Nikto’s back into his chest, holding him in an effective hostage position. Aricoza’s knife dug into the tender flesh of Whitefeather’s neck, but he stayed his hand. He had the sniper immobilized; he could kill him at his leisure.
“Gotcha,” said Aricoza as he applied pressure on the Nikto’s wrist, causing him to drop his blade.
Something strange welled up in Aricoza, a feeling of deep respect for this alien sharpshooter. It was a rare thing for Aricoza to display courtesy to those he was about to kill, but he felt this one deserved it.
“I usually don’t do this, but I’m gonna give youse a chance to talk. So tell me, what….”
Aricoza was interrupted by a chirping sound coming from his comlink. He had thought the device had been fried by the jungle’s moisture, but apparently it was more resilient than his blaster. Dragging his captive’s arm down, he jabbed the comlink’s activation switch, being careful to keep a firm grip on the Nikto’s wrist.
“Crushing Fist to Aricoza, come in Aricoza.”
“Go ahead Jesper, but make it quick. I’m kind busy here.”
“Have you got him yet, Diermon?”
“Yeah, he’s right here, but he ain’t too happy.”
“He’s still alive?”
“For the moment. What’s going on?”
“We’ve had a problem with the credit transfer. Half was supposed to be delivered to your account, which I’ve been monitoring.”
“So what’s the problem? The credits shown up yet?”
“No, that’s the problem. We’ve tried to contact the assistant governor, but no luck. Sorry Diermon, but it looks like you’ve been stiffed.”
“That dirty son of a murglak…”
Whitefeather, despite the blade at his throat, began chuckling to himself. Aricoza tightened the pressure on the Nikto’s wrist, but the alien’s laughter only grew steadier. He did his best to ignore it.
“As of right now, your contract is worthless without payment,” Jesper continued.
“We’ll see about that. You got a location on that frelling bastard?”
“He should be at the governor’s mansion, but they’ve refused all comms.”
“Well they ain’t gonna refuse mine.”
“Be careful Diermon; don’t go stirring up a gnasp’s nest down there. He’s likely to have half the planet’s militia guarding him.”
“Youse just get a shuttle down here to extract me. I’ll worry about that sorry sod.”
“What about Whitefeather, you gonna kill him?”
“Not much point without the credits is there?”
“Diermon….”
“Just send the karking shuttle, willya? I got bigger fish to fry now.”
“Shuttle’s on its way. You just keep yourself in one piece until it gets there.”
“Will do, Aricoza out.”
Ignoring the still-active comlink, Aricoza regarded his captive. He could kill the sniper and collect the credits from the corpse of the assistant governor. He could also let the Nikto go, but there was no telling what he would do. He could certainly use some help taking out the scumbag who had swindled him, but he wasn’t sure if he could trust Whitefeather. The man had lost his partner to him and had shot at him twice already. But Aricoza was a practical man.
“Tell youse what Whitefeather. I’ll betcha youse got stiffed with yer payment too. Youse know I could kill youse right here without a lick of trouble. And if I lets youse go, youse’ll probably snipe me later on when I ain’t expectin’ it. So let’s try somethin’ else. Howsabout we go and waste this fella and grab enough credits for the both of us? Then we can both be on our merry way. Old soldiers like us never die, we just get even. So whaddya say?”
This old bastard was good. Garloz had never seen anyone move that fast, and especially not someone as old as this Aricoza. And his skill in close combat...
Garloz swallowed and the point of Aricoza's knife brushed the cartilage protrusion in his neck. He knew that he couldn't get a hand up to stop the blade fast enough. His mind went to other methods, perhaps reaching back and grabbing a handful of the human's manhood. Good enough if Garloz was in a sleeper hold with a bit of time to struggle, but no good here.
He could try and slam the back of his head into the man's face, but no good again, the old human had him off balance and Garloz's head was tight against the man's chest. No room to play with and it wouldn't stop that blade. It also ruled out slamming his hips back into the man's crotch. He had to admit, he was quite helpless.
That left the Nikto with but one choice...
"Deal," he said, nodding a fraction but making no other movement. They both knew that Aricoza was in charge of the situation. The knife assured that. When he was finally released, he slowly walked over to his rifle and retrieved it, checking it over carefully. It had been jarred badly when Aricoza knocked it from his hands and he'd need some time to recheck the alignment. He then retrieved his knife and sheathed it, then his blaster pistol, its power-pack clearly corroded by the jungle.
"Morellian," he muttered to himself with a nod. It was foolish of him to carry a blaster pistol on a mission like this. If he made it through this he promised to buy himself one of those nice, big Morellian slug pistols.
Aricoza had watched him all along, wary that the Nikto might try something, but it seemed he was more concerned with the condition of his weapons.
"So, how're we gonna do this?"
"You don't have another blaster? You're unarmed?" Garloz asked. Firstly because they needed to know what weapons they had at their disposal. Secondly, it would make betraying this human so much easier later.
Aricoza smiled and held up his serrated combat knife, to which Garloz shrugged, "My mistake."
"That’s a couple youse’ve made."
Garloz paused and changed track. "Our tight-fisted employer believes that you have killed me"
"So it seems."
"Does he know that you are in contact with...your comrades?" Just how many friends do you have, Aricoza? How many would come after me should I put a slug in your head when this is over, old man?
Aricoza could see what the alien was doing. The green bastard was trying to find out what their mutual enemy knew, pooling their intel...while at the same time finding out all he could about Aricoza. It almost made the old man chuckle.
"Chances are he don't know that I know I've been stiffed. That's what youse're gettin' at." A plan was forming in Aricoza's mind. He was pretty sure the Nikto had the same plan. And he wasn't sure he liked it.
"Arrange to collect your payment," Whitefeather stated simply.
It wasn't a good plan, or a particularly safe one from Aricoza's point of view. If the deputy governor, now most likely the governor himself, didn't have Aricoza shot as soon as he saw him, Garloz would probably do the deed as soon as this decidedly uneasy partnership had run its course. It was up to Aricoza to pick a meeting spot that would benefit them, hinder the deputy governor, and ensure Aricoza could make it away with his head intact.
But first the deputy governor needed to be told that the job had been successfully completed.
"You didn't happen to bring along my partner’s comm gear?" Garloz asked.
"No, some di'kut shot it off my back," Aricoza replied sarcastically. For a brief instant, Aricoza felt somewhat stupid. The thought of picking up the spotter’s gear had never occurred to him.
"That comlink of yours can reach orbit?" Garloz asked, another probe.
Enough games. "Let's get us up a rise, an' I'll get a signal to Gaala City," Aricoza replied.
Nodding an affirmative, Garloz ran a finger along his gnarled jaw in thought, and then strode toward the other side of the clearing, the direction Aricoza had come from. Soon he found the poacher, still unconscious. The man reeked of urine. Being a Nikto and thus having a heightened sense of smell could be a double-edged sword. He knelt and took the man's cheap rifle then popped the power pack out and inspected it.
"Looks clean," he observed and drew his blaster pistol to reload it.
"I'll take that," Aricoza interrupted. "Youse already got yerself a rifle, youse greedy green bastard."
Garloz tossed it to Aricoza, who checked it himself before loading it into his own sidearm.
"You realize what that means?" Garloz indicated the power pack.
"That he hasn't been in the karkin' jungle for three days. So his ride must be round somewheres, meaning we ain’t gotta hump it to the extraction point. And it means youse'll think twice about double-crossing me."
Garloz actually grinned.
It didn't take Aricoza long to follow the poacher's trail back to his vehicle: a cheap rental speeder bike. Aricoza hated speeders. He had ridden several over the course of his long career, but he favored his own two feet for transportation whenever he could. Neither was keen to take the pilot's position and have the other behind his back.
Garloz shrugged, "I can't pilot with my rifle over my back."
Muttering under his breath Aricoza swung a leg over the bike and began to power it up.
BOR’HELA JUNGLE, GAALA, 1049 hours
While Aricoza squatted in the clearing atop the high hill, Whitefeather waited nearby, rifle ready, keeping an eye out...and an ear on the man's conversation.
"This is Aricoza. Get me the deputy governor."
Garloz strained to hear the response but couldn't.
"Well, congratulate the frelling gravel maggot on his promotion and get his carcass on the line. Now."
Aricoza was forced to wait several moments for the reply.
“This is the governor speaking,” Aricoza noted the emphasis on the word governor. “I take it you are Mr. Aricoza, my hired assassin?”
"Job's done." Aricoza said after a moment's pause. "Where can we meet? I want my money, then I want off this rock."
Garloz watched the older soldier as he listened to their employer's reply. From his expression it was clear Aricoza didn't like what he was hearing.
The governor’s reply was terse. "Riverside port. Pier four. Tonight at 1930.”
“Governor, with all due respect, youse must be a karking di'kut." Any lingering doubts about the safety of the job vanished from Aricoza's mind. This suit was planning on stiffing him good and proper, and without a doubt, intending to slot him. Hearing the whine of the approaching extraction shuttle, Aricoza suddenly came up with a plan.
"I tells you what Mr. Governor sir, I gots a better idea..."
GOVERNOR’S OFFICES, GAALA CITY, 1911 hours
"I got him," the Corellian announced, downing the proffered glass of water in one gulp, setting it on the table in the middle of the veranda. Out of the jungle and back in the city he was starting to feel the days in the wild, the gallons of sweat, insect bites, cuts, scrapes and dried blood. He could only guess what he smelled like to the well-dressed, newly-sworn-in young governor before him. He hadn’t stopped to change uniforms, barely pausing to even change the bandage on his wounded shoulder. Aricoza hoped that his stench would thoroughly soil the fancy decor of the young bureaucrat’s office.
The soft, pale skinned bureaucrat smiled with relief. The other two individuals with them on the balcony, personal bodyguards, shifted to a more relaxed posture. These fellas sure look like they want to karking slot me.
"I found the bastard, like I said. And he told me how youse most unprofessionally stiffed his green hide. And how youse was most likely to do the same to me."
The new governor’s eyes widened and his pupils closed to pinpoints. The two muscled bodyguards tensed and hands reached inside tailored suit jackets to holsters. Aricoza walked past them without concern.
"That's why he’s got youse in his sights. Right now." Moving in close, Aricoza punctuated the last two words with prods to the man's bony chest. The bodyguards immediately began scanning the surrounding rooftops while sweat beaded on the governor's forehead.
"Don't bother looking for him. That green bastard could slot you from the other side of the city," Aricoza said as he began to circle the man, also surreptitiously moving himself out of Garloz’s line of fire, and nearing the closest guard.
Finally the young governor summoned the nerve to speak. He laughed nervously.
"This balcony is ray shielded. And you're unarmed. If I choose not to pay, there's not a thing you can do about it." He even managed a smile.
Aricoza shook his head as he casually wandered toward the nearest guard, who stood by the balcony's edge. Ten floors up. The bodyguard, with a well-sculpted, chemically-enhanced muscular frame, smiled at the old soldier from behind his shades as Aricoza lit a cigar. The smell of the cigar’s pungent smoke wrinkled the man’s nose. He noticed the guard still had a hand inside his jacket. Fat lotta good that’s gonna do youse.
"Well, y'see," Aricoza began, returning the muscled goon’s smile, "youse clearly didn't read the forensics reports that Bothan investigator put together for youse. Yer uncle's place was protected by ray shields too. Didn't stop Whitefeather from putting a slug in the back of his head now, did it?"
The closest bodyguard began to draw his pistol, a nice shiny Merr-Sonn DeathHammer. Aricoza, with one quick step, was in front of the man, the gun arm still rising in front of him. The old soldier seized the man’s wrist and twisted it, hearing the bones shatter, and with a firm shove he sent the man screaming over the edge of the balcony. At the same time the head of second guard behind the governor exploded as Garloz took his first shot. Aricoza felt satisfied as he heard the wet slap of the guard’s body strike the permacrete below. Within three seconds, both guards had been dealt with. Professionally, Aricoza thought. He thought it was high time some professionalism was in order around this place.
This now left Aricoza and the now considerably less confident governor alone on the wide veranda. When Aricoza, his eyes never leaving the other, knelt to scoop up the dropped DeathHammer, the governor bolted for the door back into the building. As he reached for the door’s button it exploded in sparks. Garloz’ shot was precise and efficient, the lock completely destroyed, but leaving the door itself intact. This caused the man to stumble backwards, into Aricoza’s clutches. The old soldier stuck his pistol to the man’s temple and directed him back toward the table. He then smashed the empty water glass, selected the biggest shard, and held it to the quivering governor’s throat. He now had the man just where he wanted him: he could control his hostage with the makeshift blade and had the pistol trained on the door in case anyone did make it through. In the back of his mind he hoped the door would still open; it’d been too many decades since Aricoza had rappelled ten stories.
"Wh...what...what do you want?" the governor stammered as the rough broken glass tugged at his Adam’s apple.
"Ah, now why couldn’t things’ve went like this from the start, eh? Well, me and the Nikto, we is just humble soldiers. We just wants our pay for jobs well done," Aricoza said into the man’s ear. Apparently the pressures of office and the hiring of professional killers hadn’t left room in the governor’s schedule for cleaning his ear canal. It was like a candle shop in there.
"But you didn’t..." the man blurted out then stopped himself.
"Didn’t what? Slot your predecessor’s assassin?" Aricoza asked, "Very astute of youse. I can see why youse is the new head honcho. But youse see, I did find the guy who hired the assassin, didn’t I? Now that should be worth a little something, don’t youse think?" He applied more pressure on the man’s throat, just lightly breaking the skin. A shaving scar, nothing more, unless the governor went uncooperative again.
"You...you make a good point," the governor managed in a constrained voice.
The door then haltingly slid open and an aide flanked by two uniformed guards in blast vests with pistols drawn ran onto the veranda. They hadn’t taken two steps inside before one of the guards heads exploded in red mist, and the other two halted as Aricoza pointed his pistol at them. The second guard, apparently not paid enough for this sort of thing, quickly dropped his weapon and raised his hands high.
"Just some...negotiations, Hule," the governor said to the wide-eyed aide as confidently as he could. He even managed a smile. Slippery bastard, Aricoza thought and motioned with the pistol for the two men to step away from the door. He didn’t want them obstructing his view of the door in case there were more uninvited guests.
"So, two hundred thousand each, right?" Aricoza stated.
The governor gasped and began to protest.
"You must be....aaagh!" The man sputtered as the Corellian pressed the broken glass against his throat harder. "Okay, okay, how about two-fifty?" he squealed. Aricoza eased up on the pressure. The governor nodded towards his aide, still frozen in place.
“Arrange the transfer. Do it now!”
The aide, still petrified, removed his comlink and began the process.
After a tense minute’s wait Aricoza got confirmation of the transfer from Jesper aboard the Crushing Fist, to both his own account and the one Garloz had given him the number of. Now it was just a matter of getting off this dirtball.
"Nice doing business with ya,” Aricoza said, shoving the young governor forward, still training the DeathHammer on him. It was a good pistol with considerable punch, but this particular one was more for show than combat. It wasn’t his preferred BlasTech DL-18, though the Merr-Sonn weapon was more than sufficient for Aricoza’s needs at the moment.
"Youse just stay where youse is, until I calls from my comlink. If youse moves so much as a centimeter, or anyone tries to stop me, Gaala’s gonna hafta elect another governor tomorrow, understood?"
The man nodded quickly, keen to get the old Corellian and the Nikto sniper off his planet as soon as possible.
CRUSHING FIST SHUTTLE, BOUND FOR NAR SHADDAA, 2213 (DAY FOUR)
Aricoza had managed to persuade Jesper to give the Nikto a lift to the Smuggler’s Moon. If anything, this confirmed his suspicions that Garloz worked either for the Hutts or one of their fixers. Besides, the Black Fist mercenaries always knew there was work to be had around Nar Shaddaa, so the trip would not be for nothing. Jesper had also grudgingly offered Garloz a job with the organization, but the Nikto had just shook his head and whispered that he had other obligations. He had then spent the rest of the journey in the shuttle’s cabin cleaning his rifle and gear. Aricoza had also spotted him carving something onto a bullet, though he couldn’t get close enough to read it, and it probably wasn’t in Basic anyway.
When the shuttle eventually touched down and several of the Black Fist’s crew headed off towards the entertainment district, Aricoza followed Garloz down the ramp, taking in the dirty star scrapers enshrouded in smog, a dark mirror-image of Corsucant. It had been several years since Aricoza had been here, and his last memories of the place made him want to leave as soon as possible. Conversely, Garloz seemed as if he had returned home. The Nikto appeared less tense than usual.
His rifle slung over his back, Garloz stopped at the bottom of the ramp and turned back to face the old Corellian. Aricoza returned his stare with equal measure.
“So,” Aricoza said.
“So,” replied the Nikto.
“Coupla contracts outstanding with the Hutts, then?”
“A few.”
“Well, if I’m ever in town....”
“A drink perhaps. Off the job, of course.”
“Right. We seen were that gets youse. No hard feelings about yer partner?”
“He was a drunk. He paid for his mistake.”
“Suppose so.”
The two warriors stood for a long moment in silence. The hostility that Aricoza had sensed from the Nikto had seemed have mostly disappeared. Perhaps he had earned the alien’s grudging respect after all. But Garloz was a difficult person to read. At the very least, Aricoza hoped the Nikto would at least wait a few years before plugging him.
“Is it true youse once nailed a guy from three kilometers?”
“Three and a half, actually.”
“Kark me. Well, if youse ever need a job or a spotter, youse got my number.”
“Maybe someday. Maybe not.”
“Does this mean I gotta start looking over my shoulder, then?”
Garloz slowly walked back up the ramp and held out his hand, palm up. Aricoza hesitated before putting out his hand and taking the object: a bullet on a short loop of leather cord. He rolled it in his hand and noticed the three strange characters roughly carved into it.
“Whats it say?”
“The first is Nikto for human,” Garloz explained in his husky voice. “It was to be the bullet I took your life with. It is yours now. The other two can be roughly translated as old soldier.”
Without a further word, Garloz turned and strode away into the depths of the Smuggler’s Moon.
The adventures of Aricoza and Whitefeather will continue...
Awesome story, too bad it's the end
21 August 2007, 05:39 AM
Well, it's not quite the end...
in my signature there's a link to a story called "One Shot" which features Garloz and Aricoza. The other stories feature clone commandoes trained by Garloz and Aricoza. I think I and JP are going to be working on more eventually too...
There's more a-coming in the not-too-distant future. I'm plotting out the future adventures of Aricoza presently, though its gonna take some time to do the actual writing part, Now, if somebody would only pay me for my efforts, I'd write Aricoza and Garloz stories all day!:D
Jax Nova
7 September 2007, 01:46 PM
Hey, didn't have time to read it all but I loved what I read!
This is an excellent piece of work. *claps*
Ubiqtorate
Hey, just downloaded and read the PDF, and I really enjoyed it! Thanks especially for putting the whole thing up in a compact, downloadable format. I like reading the stories, but reading them directly from the Holonet isn't always the most convenient for me. When I can get a great product in a great package, it makes me want to get my hands on more.
Thanks for the praise guys! :)
And thanks to JP for the presentation. Over the year or so we wrote it, the story got steadily bigger and bigger, so it seemed worth putting in a PDF, and Johnny did a real nice job on the presentation.
Indeed, many thanks! The writing itself was a lot of fun, but the big payoff is when people say they enjoyed reading it. That makes all the long hours of editing and such all worthwhile.
Hopefully Ronin and myself can find the time to put together another Aricoza/Garloz tale and present it in the same manner.
Stormrider
Just read the story and all I can say is wow. Very impressive stuff! You two really did a bang up job on this one. and I dearly hope you do another one. :)
Originally posted by johnnyputrid
I hope so, too.
I've finally gotten around to reading this one. I quite enjoyed it. At a few points I found myself thinking about that '01 movie with Jude Law, Enemy at the Gates. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enemy_at_the_Gates) Obviously the stories are very different, but the hunting motif is probably what made me think of that movie.
Have either of you two seen that movie? I really only mention it because if not, you might like it.... Urban snipers hunting each other in WWII Stalingrad.
Anyway, nice work on Old Soldiers, inspired. :D
Yeah, I saw E@tG a few years back, good stuff.
JP is putting fingers-to-keyboard on the next story (between Old Soldiers and One Shot) and, time permitting, I'll be putting in some too! :)
Dro Koon of Dorin
I downloaded the story almost three months ago, but hectic life kept me from reading it 'til just recently. Very nice work, men. Top notch.
Really looking forward to the next one!
:plokoon:
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Recommended equipment
So... what do we actually do?
Historical European Martial Arts (or HEMA) is the practice of the martial arts of Europe from the 1300s to the 1900s, and is also commonly referred to as Historical Fencing. It's not LARPing, it's not Olympic fencing, it's not re-enactment or SCA - it's in a realm of its own with a more combative or martial focus than its counterparts. We train with real (although blunt) swords, with the goal of replicating the type of combat that would have been prevalent in battle and duels in medieval and renaissance Europe.
Training for members of House Darksun is conducted twice a week at 7a Kitchener St, North Beach.
Tuesday nights, 6.30pm-8.30pm - Weapon of the Quarter
Diversity of skill and adaptability are key to becoming a formidable fighter. To this end we undertake a new weapon system each quarter. Our current roster is:
Quarter 1: dagger
Quarter 2: sword in one hand
Quarter 3: longsword
Quarter 4: sword & buckler Thursday nights, 6.30pm-8.30pm - longsword
As longsword is our primary weapon, we study this year round. While we regularly deep-dive into some of the more advanced or particular techniques, we frequently come back to the basics in order to maintain a solid foundation.
A typical lesson starts with a warm up & conditioning session, utilising exercises tailored to build attributes specific to swordplay. Following this we spend some time building foundational skills like footwork, distance maintenance, timing and mind-body connection, before moving on to technique drills focussed on a specific principle or set of principles. We then close out the session with an 'open floor', during which members are free to work on whatever they like, and take part in sparring to apply what they've learned.
New students are encouraged to attend training to check out what we do and how we train. If you like what you see, sign up and start training under our head instructor - Jim Campbell. We train with a variety of weapon systems, not just those listed below. While some other clubs train with wooden or synthetic swords, we encourage all fighters to train with steel weapons from day 1. Not only do steel weapons look, feel and behave more like the 'real thing', they also help to foster a healthy respect for the weapon, your training partners and yourself.
There is limited loan gear available (including swords and masks) for new recruits, though we encourage the acquisition and maintenance of your own kit sooner rather than later. Not only does it tend to work better for you and allow you to train outside of scheduled sessions, it also helps you avoid using the dreaded communal masks!
At the end of each quarter we hold a tournament that allows our members to apply what they've learned and demonstrate their skills - testing their mettle against their colleagues. We also host and attend larger tournaments and swordplay/HEMA gatherings throughout the year, though the majority of these happen outside of WA, along the east coast or overseas.
Warm ups & conditioning
The longsword is our primary weapon at Darksun, and is arguably the most popular weapon in HEMA despite its relatively brief time in the historical spotlight. Weighted and balanced to be equally devastating in one or two hands, the longsword and combat with it varied and evolved over the centuries and traditions of use. While hilt lengths, quillion shapes, pommel shapes, blade lengths, and blade cross-sections varied greatly, the basic design was a simple - a straight, double edged blade, cruciform crossguard and hilt big enough for two hands. Historical examples range from 100cm-130cm in length and 1100g to 1800g - far lighter than Hollywood would have us believe.
In something of a medieval & renaissance arms race, as armour type changed, so did sword blade design. When only having to contend with basic cloth or leather armour, blades were wide and thin to make them effective cutting blades. As chain and plate armour began to arrive on the scene and cutting was less effective, blades became thicker and stiffer, with an acute point that made for lethal thrusts through chainmaille and into the gaps in more rigid armour. The blade wasn’t the only deadly part of the sword though; a competent fighter could use the quillions to punch and hook their opponent, or hold the sword by the blade and strike with the pommel in a movement called the mordschlag (or murder-strike), compromising armour and crushing bones with devastating effect.
While the longsword was used in many cultures throughout Europe, the German tradition of longsword play is one of the best documented and understood, and as such forms the majority of our curriculum at Darksun. Attributed to the master of combat, Johannes Liechtenauer, and glossed & expanded by a number of contemporaries and later fencing masters, the German tradition of martial art is comprehensive and holistic, and is recorded in several manuscripts. We work primarily from early German sources, including Sigmund Ringeck, Hans Dobringer, Paulus Hector Mair, Paulus Kal and Danzig. To add context and fill some gaps, we also look at the works of Joachim Meyer, a later German fencing master and Fiore dei Liberi, an Italian master of combat.
Carried historically by most as a sidearm and tool, the medieval dagger was longer than what what we tend to think of when imagining a dagger today. Primarily made for thrusting though still capable of cutting, the dagger was often used for hooking and trapping to immobilise or injure your opponent before being used to finish them off. Dagger design varied greatly from complex and ornate to simple and utilitarian, and were sometimes used in conjunction with another weapon, such as a messer or rapier.
At Darksun we focus mostly on the work of Fiore dei Liberi for our dagger content, as recorded in his text Il Fior di battaglia, or "The Flower of Battle" - widely regarded as one of the most complete and effective systems under the HEMA umbrella. Fiore uses the dagger as a complimentary extension of the body, building on his grappling techniques to yield an efficient system of historical dagger combat, effective both in and out of armour. To flesh this out and add a little variety we add a smattering of historical German dagger combat and modern knife fighting.
Sword & buckler
The iconic duo of the sword and buckler was used through almost the entirety of HEMA's timeline, with the earliest known manuscript, the I.33 manuscript containing instruction on the use of the arming sword and buckler. While being more prevalent in the earlier periods, this effective pairing persisted across time and space, being prevalent in German, Italian and English systems. The buckler was a compact and versatile defensive option that could be easily carried and wielded by commoner and noble alike, and complimented all one handed swords, regardless of whether they had a simple or complex hilt construction.
We draw from a variety of sources in order to create well rounded fighters, but our syllabus consists primarily of the work of Andre Lignitzer, Hans Talhoffer and the I.33 manuscript.
Sword in one hand
There's a huge variety of one handed swords around - from the classic knightly arming sword to the brutal, efficient messer and the elegant sabre each is unique, though all have a measure of similarity. With some made primarily for cutting, others primarily for thrusting and a fair number equally effective at both, systems of one handed sword combat have about as much overlap as they do uniqueness. Our sword in one hand syllabus combines techniques for a number of one handed swords, including the German messer, the Italian 'sword in one hand' English sabre and Highland broadsword - pulling out the best parts of each style and merging them into an effective body of knowledge.
© House Darksun 2019
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order medication online
The new blog from Edward Klink
…feel free to browse the archives. For the latest stuff follow me on Twitter and check out the new mobile friendly Klink on Content. Thanks for your interest! I look forward to hearing what you’re up to!
This entry was posted in Uncategorized on June 1, 2015 by edward.
What if you lost all of your money in a Wall Street crash? What might you do?
Jump out the window? Some people take that route.
Drink? There’s always an available bar stool.
Try your luck on Broadway? Now that’s crazy talk.
Except it wasn’t for a guy named Yip Harburg. The co-owner of an electric appliance company, Harburg’s business went bankrupt in 1929 and he found himself tens of thousands of dollars in debt.
Friends and family encouraged him to get back into business but Yarburg had other plans. You see, he’d always wanted to be a lyricist on Broadway and now he had the time and energy to pursue it. But that’s absurd, right? There’s no shortage of writers on Broadway.
But Yarburg didn’t worry about that, he went to Broadway and wrote stuff anyway.
So what happened? Yarburg wrote, Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? a tune that struck a note with the masses and became immortalized as part of the soundtrack of the Great Depression. He also wrote the lyrics for Over the Rainbow famously sung by, of course, Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz. That little ditty—which happens to be known by everyone on the planet with a TV—won Yarburg an Oscar for his trouble.
Now what if Yip hadn’t lost all of his money? What if he never tried to make his Broadway dream come true?
What if, indeed.
This entry was posted in Business, Careers, Leadership, Motivation, Persistence, Reinvention, Success and tagged Great Depression, Wizard of Oz, Yip Harburg on April 2, 2014 by edward.
Who is your favorite hero? A star of stage and screen? A figure from history? A contemporary business leader?
Picture that individual.
Now imagine that person waking up as you today. In your body. With your friends, family and job. Your skill set, your contacts. What would he or she do to jumpstart your career and life? Would they settle? What steps would that person take today to achieve success?
Imagine!
This entry was posted in Business, Careers, Klink Tip, Leadership, Motivation, Persistence, Reinvention and tagged Business, career, goals, inspiration, leader, motivation, success on January 1, 2014 by edward.
Who do you want to be?
In recent years, Arnold Schwarzenegger has been taking shots from the tabloids regarding his personal life, his record as governor, and his recent movie comeback.
But instead of chuckling at late night jokes at his expense (whether deserved or otherwise) the success-minded will ask themselves some questions: do I have the strength within me to achieve everything I ever wanted? Can I even dream that big? Arnold’s words, taken from a 2009 USC commencement address demand harsh introspection and action.
Dig deep down and ask yourself who do you want to be? Not what but who? What is the point of living on this Earth if all you want to do is be liked by everyone and avoid trouble?
Arnold started with no money, no connections, no U.S. citizenship, no command of the English language. There were a million reasons he should have just stayed in Thaal, Austria. This video features lots of imagery of Arnold in his prime, but it’s really less about him (he got his) and more about you.
Watch it, and put your dreams against his template for success.
This entry was posted in Business, Careers, Leadership, Motivation, Persistence, Reinvention, Success and tagged Business, career, competition, goals, inspiration, motivation, performance, schwarzenegger, winning on September 16, 2013 by edward.
Jump in
You’re not Michael Phelps so of course you can’t do what he does. After all he’s a big strong guy and you’re just a kid.
Except if you’re Charlotte Samuels, a 15 year-old who just swam a 17.5 mile open water swim through New York Harbor to Sandy Hook, NJ. She lets Phelps have the pool while she tackles the ocean. But she’s young, she has the time and energy to swim all day, you don’t if you’re, say, a busy mom in your 40’s.
Except if you’re Lynn Ascione, a mom who happened to swim the same race. Like Samuels, she has her sights set on swimming the English Channel one day. So good for them, but maybe you’re around retirement age, someone will probably say it’s not smart to swim extreme distances.
Except if you’re Diana Nyad, who now in her 6th decade of life, has made four attempts to swim from Havana to the Florida Keys–that’s 100 miles–without a shark cage.
So it seems there’s no excuse if you think you’re too young, no excuse if you’re a busy parent, and no excuse if you think you’re too old.
So what’s stopping you from jumping into whatever it is you want to do?
This entry was posted in Klink Tip, Motivation, Persistence, Reinvention, Success and tagged competition, Diana Nyad, goals, inspiration, michael phelps, motivation, oympics, success, swimming on August 26, 2013 by edward.
What’s behind the sale?
In the show American Pickers Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz look for treasures in the sheds and barns along the highways and back roads of the country. When they find something of value, whether a rusted Indian motorcycle or bullet-riddled Coca-Cola sign, the duo usually square off against the seller in the classic showdown:
>>>The seller comes in with a high number looking for room to wrangle the best price he can get.
>>>The buyer fires a lowball shot looking to get the seller to cave as low as possible.
That’s the way it’s done, right? This approach assumes there will be a “winner” and a “loser.” But in one particular episode, the pickers encountered Jocko, a California dive shop owner with a classic collection of vintage dive gear. The negotiations for a brass dive helmet began as per the above, but then something happened when new information came to light. A diving accident had left Jocko’s son Travis paralyzed, and the rehabilitation was very expensive.
Suddenly, Jocko’s motivation for selling items from his collection became crystal clear. He needed money to pay for the expensive physical therapy. But his goal was not to “make money,” his goal was to help his son walk again. Once the pickers knew this, the tone changed. They realized they could help Jocko toward his goal by finding the best prices for his items. They could negotiate as allies, instead of adversaries.
If a buyer can understand the motivations of a seller by asking open-ended questions, there doesn’t need to be a conflict. They can help each other win. And that’s good for everyone’s business.
This entry was posted in Business, Motivation, Success and tagged Business, motivation, negotiation, sales, winning on May 28, 2013 by edward.
Career lessons from Joe Walsh
Today, careers everywhere have been shaken up. No gig is guaranteed, and many people are on their own when it comes to benefits or health plans while politicians sort out the details. But musicians have always lived this way. Recently, you might have caught some of the History of the Eagles documentary on TV that cast the latest light on the dark corners of that business.
The lot of the musician is one of constant adaptation, persistence and reinvention. You have to prove yourself every night in front of a new audience, pretty much for the rest of your life if you plan on being around that long. Many don’t make it.
But a good example of successfully navigating this sea of uncertainty is Joe Walsh, as a solo artist and an “Eagle,” he’s always proven to be maneuverable, versatile entertainer devoted to his craft. So since we’re in a rocking mood, let’s glean some career lessons from this iconic guitarist.
Always look for opportunity. Walsh started his career in the James Gang when their song Funk #49 kicked off the 1970′s by blowing out Camero speakers everywhere. After three records with the Gang, Walsh had some money and fame, but he knew it was no time to get comfortable. So he bailed out of the James Gang to start a new band, Barnstorm, and then kicked off a solo career that would result in over a dozen albums. Do you balance staying “comfortable” with taking risks?
March to your own drummer. Not too many artists put their solo career on hold to join a band, but that’s what Walsh did when he agreed to replace Eagles’ guitarist Bernie Leadon in 1975. The result was a new direction for the band that produced their classic Hotel California album. Walsh’s guitar solo on the title track ranks as one of the best ever. Always be open to new options, and keep in mind that your next gig might be in a direction you didn’t anticipate.
Always bring something to the table. Walsh brought three things to this established band. 1. An edgy guitar sound that gave The Eagles the opportunity to venture out into fresh territory. 2. New song ideas including riffs and lyrics. 3. The willingness to collaborate and compromise in a team environment. (The latter is often not easy for those used to calling the shots, such as solo artists.) New ideas and fresh thinking are not the sole province of entrepreneurs and start-ups. If you are joining an established organization it’s just as important that you bring creativity, money making (or saving) ideas, and a team-player attitude.
Cultivate your network. Over the years Walsh has helped out by playing guitar on records for many artists from Dan Fogelberg and John Entwistle to Any Gibb and REO Speedwagon. He’s also known to be generous with his gear, sharing vintage guitars from his collection with other musicians such as Pete Townshend and Jimmy Page. Do more than just connect with others on LinkedIn. Cultivating a network where you share your time, talent and treasure pays lifelong dividends.
Don’t take yourself so seriously. While he’s a member of a superstar band and his songs have been rock radio staples for decades, Walsh doesn’t take himself too seriously. He’s known as one of the most laid back approachable “rock stars” around. His albums reflect this with titles such as, “So What,” “Ordinary Average Guy,” and “Got Any Gum?” In a world of inflated egos, social media status updates and bloated bios, take the road less traveled and let your work speak for you. Do that and you’ll be in business…for the long run.
This entry was posted in Business, Careers, Motivation, Networking, Persistence, Reinvention, Success and tagged Business, career, inspiration, joe walsh, motivation, music business, networking, reinvention, success, the eagles on March 26, 2013 by edward.
Revive a reading regimen
These days, even with a Kindle, it can be tough to find time to read. You’ve got mind-numbing games and endless apps on your smartphone, hundreds of channels of reality shows on your FiOS, and all those “Hangover” movies downloaded on your tablet. But if wedging some reading time into your day is important to you, use these tips to get started.
Keep a list. I maintain a list in my black notebook of all of the books I want to read. The list keeps me motivated. It’s a list that will never end and I find a certain amount of joy in checking off a book after I’ve read it. You can also create a list on Amazon to share with others.
Start with something. Never been a big reader? Relax, you’re not in school anymore so you can pick out books you want to read. Want a short biz book? Try The One Minute Manager, Poke the Box or Do the Work. And if you find yourself bored you can always set it aside and try another one, no one else is keeping score.
Mix it up. Biographies provide inspiration and insight, business books let you keep on top of the latest thought leaders in your industry and beyond, the classics expose you to the proven great thinkers, graphic novels can fire your creativity, and current bestselling titles provide enjoyment and convenient social ice breakers.
Steal time. I saw this tip in a book about JFK. The young president was an avid reader but naturally had a crazy schedule, so to adapt he always had a book handy and read while standing up. This trick lets you read a few lines while waiting for an appointment, on hold with the airline, or waiting for that leftover Mako shark to cook in the microwave. Reading a page here or there will help you get through books much faster than if you wait to find time to relax on the couch.
Ritual reading. Instead of falling asleep in front of your flat screen, make reading a good book before bed a nightly ritual. Sleep experts agree watching TV or playing Xbox just before bed isn’t conducive to a good night’s sleep anyway.
Jot notes. Sometimes you may want to take notes or underline passages for later reference, but how do you find them again when you need them? Easy. In a blank page in the front of the book create your own informal index. In pencil jot down the item and the associated page number. Something like, “Job search tip, page 53.” Writing notes, ideas and doodles gives a book character and makes it your own. (Librarians may not agree.)
Don’t let excuses get in your way. Sure you’re busy, but busier than Theodore Roosevelt? (NYC Police Commissioner, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Governor of New York , naturalist, explorer, hunter, author, colonel, VP and President.) In addition to building out the most incredible resume ever, Teddy was famous for reading at least one book a day…amounting to thousands over his lifetime. (Oh, and he found time to write 36 of his own books.) Here is some advice to read like TR.
Use social media. Twitter and LinkedIn can help you find fresh new books and reintroduce old classics. Use Twitter to ask questions and interact with authors and other fans, and try LinkedIn to join book-related groups and discussions.
Educate yourself. Remember this Matt Damon line in Good Will Hunting? “You dropped a hundred and fifty grand on an education you could’ve got for a dollar fifty in late charges at the public library.” Some of us have sheepskins on the wall and some of us don’t. But no matter what you’ve spent on education it’s in the past and the future belongs to those willing to keep learning.
It’s never been a better time to get back into books!
This entry was posted in Business, Klink Tip, Motivation and tagged Business, career, goals, good will hunting, inspiration, kindle, reading, success, theodore roosevelt on March 20, 2013 by edward.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio woke up this morning as a cardinal. This afternoon he was elected pope and became Francis I. In his first appearance he asked the crowds for their blessing as be began his “journey’ as head of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.
Are you ready for a new journey if the opportunity presents itself? Are you making yourself available for an opportunity to present itself? You’re not too old, Bergoglio is 76 and his life just changed a few hours ago.
Pope lesson: be true to yourself, but always be ready to assume a new responsibility and identity.
This entry was posted in Careers, Leadership, Motivation, Reinvention, Success and tagged francis, goals, inspiration, pope, reinvention, vatican on March 13, 2013 by edward.
Strange deer
It was midnight as I negotiated a turn and slammed on my brakes as a four-legged creature materialized on the side of the road. I had never seen anything like it. It was about the size of a small deer and almost entirely white in color. It looked at me with curious brown eyes and hopped away for several yards before stopping. Yes, it hopped. It also had a small hump, like a camel. I have spent many years in the outdoors and I had never seen anything like it.
Google revealed it to be a piebald deer. Apparently it possessed a one-in-a-hundred inherited genetic trait.
Imagine, an encounter with a rare ungulate right in my own neighborhood. If there can be deer-size things living in your neighborhood that you’ve never seen, maybe there are jobs nearby that you’ve never imagined.
It’s just a matter of being in the right place at the right time…and the more you’re out there looking, the better the odds.
This entry was posted in Business, Careers, Motivation and tagged Business, career, deer, goals, inspiration, motivation on March 9, 2013 by edward.
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Jang Geun Seok Lounges Around Paris for the October Issue of Bazaar Korea
Sometimes I wonder what would have happened to Jang Geun Seok‘s career had he not starred in You’re Beautiful. That drama may have tanked in domestic ratings, but was a raging overseas success that catapulted Jang Geun Seok into widespread recognition. It also introduced the world to crazy hair/attire Jang Geun Seok, a sort of cross between a Johnny and Lady Gaga. Perhaps it introduced him to that look as well, because he’s stuck with it for the last three years and appears to be as interested in pursuing a singing career as an acting one. If he hadn’t made YB, I think we’d be seeing more of the Jang Geun Seok that did Beethoven Virus and the movie The Case of the Itaewon Homicide, a rising young actor picking grittier fare with an eye towards working with experienced and lauded co-stars. I look at his just released pictorial for the October issue of Bazaar Korea which was shot on location in Paris, and I’m feeling ambivalent about what I see. I love the sepia tinted Paris backdrop, and I see Jang Geun Seok trying to project a more manly image, but he’s just so physically scrawny these days I can’t take him seriously. I think the answer is for someone to feed him for a few months and then release him back into the entertainment world. I’d love to see a buffed up short hair version of Seok again.
[Credit: Bazaar Korea]
Posted in Fashion Tagged Jang Geun Seok permalink
Jang Geun Seok Lounges Around Paris for the October Issue of Bazaar Korea — 33 Comments
mystisith on September 20, 2012 at 8:22 AM said:
Love the pics. But again, Bazaar rarely disappoints.
That version of JGS is not that bad actually (hair just a little shorter would be better). Just drop the cigarette, please.
MikiMouse on September 20, 2012 at 8:22 AM said:
sigh~…totally agree with you. As much as I adored him back then, I haven’t given up on him yet. He’s still young and cashing in whatever he can to establish his company.
Btw, the lyrics for his newest song…why do I feel like its all about Mary, aka MGY…
Credits: PONYCANYON
Lyics: Jang Keun Suk / Kato Kanako
English translation: tenshi_akuma/jangkeunsukforever.com
When I picture memories in those days on water of the glass,
they will be blurred to be transparent.
Like sand slipping through my hands,
the time that is slipping by will never come back again.
There she had to stay where I will not stay.
Misunderstanding occurs even if we care for each other.
It ends up without any progress.
And you… slow slow gone
I just wanna stay, yes I have to stay
The seasons when you were with me
If I could have a wish come true, I would be back to those days even now.
Here here here I have to stay
When I look up at the night sky with moist eyes,
all my memories come back to me clearly.
Like snow effacing our footprints,
time has flown by and effaces all memories.
There she had to stay where I will not stay
I still remains in the seasons when you were with me even now.
Here here here
Since some time or other (separated hands)
Since some time or other (I feel the distance between us)
I haven’t been able to touch you.
See the related post (with MV “STAY”, English translated lyrics, Romanized lyrics and the original Japanese lyrics) from here.
rouby on September 20, 2012 at 8:37 AM said:
Me too eonni,, I wanna see JGS like him in bethoven virus, its my favourite style of him,, he look manly and masculine..I hope he choose a better project.. And its serious one ,,
Elina on September 20, 2012 at 9:42 AM said:
Red pants? Noooooooo
D on September 20, 2012 at 10:05 AM said:
If he hadn’t made YB, I think we’d be seeing more of the Jang Geun Seok that did Beethoven Virus and the movie The Case of the Itaewon Homicide, a rising young actor picking grittier fare with an eye towards working with experienced
and lauded co- stars.
Despite loving YB I have to agree…i remember reading an interview of his not too long after YB where he talked about how he had not wanted to do films like Baby and Me, and Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti which he had to do because of his management’s inistence back then and how he was happier with decisions he made after that (with Beethoven’s Virus and Itaewon Murder case etc)….made me think he would be doing more serious stuff after YB ended…and I’ve been praying he’d pick a sageuk after he did Mary but sadly he seems to have different priorities now
Suewellyn on September 20, 2012 at 7:32 PM said:
Maybe part of the “problem” is the fact that he owns Tree J (correct me if i’m wrong, but I think I read somewhere before that there are rumors that his family owns it). So the priority to capitalize on the popularity brought on by YB by sticking with the TaeKyung/girly image as long as he can may be more important to him since he is a direct beneficiary.
Indi on September 20, 2012 at 10:45 AM said:
He is always trying too hard, to me. And I’m tired of his “I’m so special” persona 😐
JuC on September 20, 2012 at 11:20 AM said:
I wonder if it has something to do with his popularity in Japan. They seem to prefer the
slender/feminine/rockstar type rather than the more masculine type. I also heard he wasn’t well
liked in Korea so maybe he isn’t getting offered the good types of rolls. Casting in Korea
seems to be more about popularity.
Alexa on September 20, 2012 at 5:28 PM said:
Oh, please. Don’t ever mention of Japanese preference of ‘feminine’ kinda of rockstar. Pls take a look at those K-Pop idols and boybands, namely “Boyfriend”, Lee Joon of MBLAQ? They are as sissy and as feminine as JGS and yet Korean fans worship them. So, it’s not fair to mention of Japanese preference as such since Korea been manufacturing so much of these breed all along.
Or maybe his talent fee is too high that producers would rather cast newbies (I notice there seems to be a recent trend for idols crossing over to acting) who would charge lower.
mary on September 20, 2012 at 10:13 PM said:
@Alexa, I agree with JuC. This is just the impression I get from hanging around youtube and fan sites. No offense meant.
I found a 2PM MV where one of the comments was: 2PM please don’t change for your japanese fans and start kissing each other for publicity, unlike Big Bang.
— I have no idea if that statement was true or not. But it did leave me with an impression that the J-fans are more… demanding from their idols. And if you’re from the K-ent industry, you have to be extra *extra* specially attention-grabbing to make it in Japan.
Is that impression true or did I just read the wrong forums? 🙂 I’m kinda curious about the truth.
Alexa on September 21, 2012 at 12:23 AM said:
I’d lived in Japan for almost 10 years before returning to my home-country. It’s K-Opo fever now not only spreading across Japan, but all over the world.
Fans demanding something from idols are common but as far as i know, I never heard of such demand of asking idols to kiss each other especially those of same gender. If there is such demand, I believe it does not come from Japanese fans alone.
Shinee’s recent SEOUL concert is a testament that this whole concept does not exist only in Japan (if any). Key kissing (on the mouth) with the other Shinee’s member and Korean fans applaude that. Is Shinee popular in Japan? No, they are not.
The fact I’m saying here is when it became a statement that sissy/feminine kind of guy is very much prefered in Japan, which is not true.
There are so many Korean acts doing cross-dressing and even ut was for the sake of entertainment, they seem to enjoy this cross-gender and sissy act.
JGS popularity in Japan has got nothing to do with his sissiness. It was just that Japanese still adore him as Hwang Tae Kyung in YAB. Once they recover from that fever, he would be just an ordinary Korean stars. He is simply flamboyant by nature and going to this direction to make d most at the height of his popularity there. That’s all.
mary on September 22, 2012 at 10:00 AM said:
Oh ok. Thanks for clearing that up!
I’ve read about that opinion so much that I’m starting to believe it as truth.
Funnily enough, when I started watching j-dramas, I was surprised at the (relative) non-prettiness of the leading men of j-dramas compared to the perfect skin and prettiness of k-drama male leads (see Shun Oguri, everyone but Nakatsu in Hana Kimi, Gokusen kids, etc)
My sister and I used to joke that j-dramas have better actors hehehe because you still end up falling in love with them/their acting even if they’re not as pretty as their k-drama counterparts. 😀
K-what on September 20, 2012 at 11:25 AM said:
I really loved him in Beethoven Virus. It seems like he’s gone off the deep end since then, and I’d really love to see him do something that really showcased the talent he demonstrated in BV. I don’t know why such a talented and beautiful man is doing projects that just seem to skim the surface of his abilities.
The shots are beautiful, but his expressions make him look like a homeless druggie on the lam. 🙁
Denali on September 20, 2012 at 11:10 PM said:
Same sentiment here. Heck I was even shipping him with Lee Ji Ah in BV. His looks and voice don’t match. Weird.
Julia on September 20, 2012 at 12:50 PM said:
I don´t know. Even though I don´t particularly like his style most of the time, I´m kind of happy for him that he is able to do his own thing. Some part of his image may be exaggerated but I genuinely feel like he doesn´t have to bend his personality too much to fit a certain image people have of leading men.
There are sooo many short-haired, smoldering actors with a cool image that I am kind of glad he´s shaking things up a bit!
avy on September 20, 2012 at 2:30 PM said:
I’m glad he did YB because Hwang Tae Kyung was really fun to watch and an actor should have a mainstream appeal. But I hoped he would do more… challenging stuff next. His personality reminds me of Heechul and I simultaneously shake my head and laugh at/with him. It doesn’t hurt to have a JGS around. And about his fashion sense… I would actually like him to explain his fashion sense sometimes. I just don’t get it.
AYtinaaachris on September 20, 2012 at 4:00 PM said:
“I’d love to see a buffed up short hair version of Seok again.”
me, too .
Irene on September 20, 2012 at 5:32 PM said:
me three….this boy needs to man up!
Denali on September 20, 2012 at 6:06 PM said:
Me four. So he basically needs a nutritionist to feed him well, a coach to buff him up, a stylist to change his ‘do and wardrobe, a manager to get him interesting gigs, a publicist to work on his public image and a counselor to provide help for his diva persona. Hmm. Maybe he should leave his current company and find/start a more fitting one, unless any noona here is willing to do it all for him? ^^
peaches on September 20, 2012 at 8:28 PM said:
not going to happen since he the owner of tree-j company
crazedlu on September 20, 2012 at 7:04 PM said:
Siiiiigh. Blech. Such a disappointment. Lost potential… at least for the time being. I honestly don’t know how he would bounce back with how far into weirdo territory he’s gone.
And please! Enough of the eyeliner already.
Jean Vivas on September 20, 2012 at 10:10 PM said:
Love him always since YB. Waiting for him to make another drama with Ha Jiwon or the girl in Lie to Me.
Eliza Bennet on September 21, 2012 at 6:26 AM said:
I actually liked the pics and he managed to pull the red pair of trousers off.
I’m hoping that he’ll star in a good film/drama since I actually like the guy a lot. Apart form his above average singing voice, I think his speaking voice is epic (reminds of Takeshi Kaneshiro’s)
MikiMouse on September 21, 2012 at 10:44 AM said:
Agree. He’s such a cameleon. Will adapt to what ever environment is in demand for him. Hopefully this stage will pass by soon and his next image will be the sexy manly type for us noonas to drool for…
athena7 on September 22, 2012 at 4:26 AM said:
I watched a few his dramas and movies too..he is not really the kind of actor I go for..but I liked YAB and M3..BV even HGD and HJ..I watched him due to the actress acting with him..I totally ignored LR…I guess he need to fatten up and dressed manly..can’t wait to see his changes.Those watched him are mostly teenagers who are mostly crazy of anything Korea especially the region I am..
??????? on September 23, 2012 at 1:10 PM said:
Yeah… too skinny, need to get in tone.
peacegee on September 27, 2012 at 9:11 PM said:
Luv him still BUT wish that he spot shorter hair soon. cheers…
Mindy on October 1, 2012 at 12:29 AM said:
I think most will not agree with my comment but i I seriously don’t understand the complaint about his hairstyle or his personality.
Those who claim he is a diva don’t really follow all his news. He just likes to portray this image doesn’t mean he act like a diva when he works. He is a member of chocoball, a group of celebrities including Kim Heechul, lee hongki etc When they behave on screen, they like to boast and praise themselves.
But anyone who read all the BTS or interviews will know that he is highly praised by his peers and juniors to be someone who is very humble to his seniors and take good care of his peers. His mother in Love Rain even said that out of all the young actors who act as her sons, she likes him most because he is a very humble and nice young man. He takes criticism by his seniors seriously. When he was being criticized for the way he sits, he immediately called all his workers in his company to have a meeting to find out what is the problem and to examine his mistakes. When another senior pointed out that his manager did not plan his schedule properly causing JKS to be late during filming, he immediately called the senior and apologize for his behavior. When asked to act in in the movie about Itaewon murder case, he accepted a super low pay close to acting for free because his senior wants him to take up the role. He promised Hong sisters that he will take up the role in YAB but due to pulling out of investment, the drama was postponed but he still waited and even help to raise money so that the drama can be shoot. He is totally opposite of most stars. Some( not all) stars act humble and behave like a diva behind the scene, while he act diva but in actual fact, he is a very nice person.
As for his hairstyle, if that is what most of his fans likes, i can understand why he does not dare to cut it. Regardless how many people claim to like his short hair, he is not as popular when his hair was short. This is a fact. And honestly speaking, how many of those who claim liking him when his hair is short pay for his official products or buy his cd. He owns his own company, sometimes, he needs to think of ways to maintain his popularity. Not that i want him to keep his hair long but i do understand why he dares not cut it too short. However, i believe if he finds a role that he loves, he will definitely cut it again.
He has always had a weird fashion taste. Sometimes he dressed well, other times not. But at least he is not boring. I admit i get scared every time he goes for award ceremony thinking about his attire but i guess it is also part of the fun to be his fan. A roller coaster ride of emotions.
As for selecting a role, actors only get a summary and probably a few detailed script of the first few eps. It is hard to judge whether the end product will turn out to be what they have anticipated. I think YAB is a nice drama and he is good at comedy. I don’t like the rest after YAB but i don’t blame him for choosing them. Look at the costars who also selected the same script, MGY ( Mary stayed out all night ) and KHN ( You’re my Pet ), they are also great actress who make the wrong decision. I just hope that he has better luck next time. From his interviews, you will know that he is ambitious in a lot of areas. But his focus and most important goal is still to find a good script.
Sorry for my poor english.
Linda Dodson on September 30, 2015 at 12:19 AM said:
Mindy: I appreciated all you had to say about JKS and your English is fine.
nita (Indonesia) on October 4, 2012 at 4:53 PM said:
yes, his life is not just walk around in “short hair” and Beethoven Virus friends…he have his own style ..he comfort and enjoy it, about ‘not yet good drama/movie script’ it’s about a whole team work, i never blame his decision to accept some script, because he must get learn from every role he play…not just because the drama or movie not good rating or good sale …it’s about valuable experience acting with good other artist, director and ‘different’ character. Just stop walking around in ‘short hair and BV’ area..*peace and love* i love Jang Keun Suk and i love you all friends <3
Cara on December 27, 2013 at 10:37 PM said:
It’s either you get JKS or not …he is a very dynamic personality, bright quick witted and very articulate, charming , a well rounded young man. listen to his interview and you see the real JKS. He is flamboyant, he is beyond handsome – he is beautiful. It seems to be that some people here want to change him and mold him to their own idea as to what he should be. Don’t …people evolve , go through stages, experiment, change and see what works. He is an artist , people like him are one of a kind, they are way ahead and they no ordinary lives, under critique by everyone. Either you take him for who he is or not. Stop criticizing…the photo shoots are lovely, they are Chic, for goodness sake he is in Paris . So what, if he is thin, I’ll take thin than fat and bloated any day, besides weight goes up and down all the time. There is Nothing wrong with the photo shoot, it’s very artsy,fashion, couture, it created the moment it meant to portray. Any ways some are even critizing the color of his pants…geez, seriously? This is like a gossip column here, nothing is worst in life when you pick on somebody you are not able to defend and explain themselves. I did not realize that some of JKS fans are very small minded and petty. Support him and join his world and the fantasy , the journey he offers , if you have outgrown him then move on to some other actor that might take your fancy. It is troubling to read some of the comments here…JKS world is a world of MOVIES, STAGE, FANTASY, ENTERTAINMENT, TRENDS, ATTENTION – if he no longer entertains you then move on to the next idol /actor …simple as that. Don’t change him, like somebody suggested getting him a stylists, dietician, manager…wow, what the nerve! What makes you think that he’d like that and he would need your help? That’s crossing the line, I’m from the States and I find this appalling , a big NO NO…I love his persona, he is fun, he is exciting , fresh with new ideas, speaks his mind, yes he does and that what makes him lovely. He is no pushover, he knows his self worth, he worked hard and he did it!. I wish him the best in this flitting life of the art world. If his star will dim later , I will take comfort and joy that this young man lived his life the way he sees it fit. It’s his canvas and he should paint it. Likewise…our lives is our canvas and we should paint it the way we see fit. I don’t want anybody painting mine….that is how I see JKS. So people who are critical…I’ll say this …go get a LIFE!
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School of
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Home › Events › Voting Contests › GALAXY HOT CHOCOLATE FUND – Let’s Do It Again!
GALAXY HOT CHOCOLATE FUND – Let’s Do It Again!
UPDATE: You did it! Well done and big thanks. Invest in ME posted:
“We are proud to announce that Invest in ME is among the winners of the Galaxy Hot Chocolate voting competition. Thank you to all our supporters who voted and promoted this fundraising.”
Every week, until February 28 2016, Galaxy Hot Chocolate is looking to help local community groups and charities across the UK and Ireland by awarding five £300 cash awards a week. (click here to vote for Invest in ME Research).
Four of these will be awarded by their judges’ panel. There will also be a People’s Choice Award every week which will be awarded to the entry with the most votes in any given week.
Invest in ME Research was a winner of the People’s Choice Award last year thanks to a week of concerted voting inspired by Anne Örtegren.
The winners are selected on Monday each week.
Entries and votes are taken up to 11:59pm each Sunday, and voting for the next week starts at midnight. One vote per email address per week so no daily voting.
As Russell Logan says on his great site ‘Shout About ME’, it doesn’t cost anything so it’s a great way to support the little charity we all love.
It would be great to win again this year, so on our marks from midnight Sunday 6th December and please share widely through the week. Thank you!
Vote here – https://www.galaxyhotchocolate.com/fund/profiles/invest-in-me
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IN WITH THE NEW | Let's Do It for ME says:
[…] matching donations from fundraisers’ friends. Invest in ME Research was again a winner in the Galaxy Hot Chocolate Fund in December thanks to supporters votes, and the Invest in ME Intercalating Medical Students in ME […]
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July 19th, 2019 at 9:52:am
Indian Sketches
Book on Kerala Cults & Arts Traces Curious Gaps & Bridges
Kerala tourism introduce new way for sharing onam video greetings
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Zika: Kerala, TN Urged to be Extra Vigilant
Thursday February 4th, 2016
The Union health ministry, in its guidelines on Zika virus disease issued on Tuesday, urged Kerala and Tamil Nadu to be extra vigilant.
The ministry put out the guidelines on the back of the World Health Organisation (WHO) declaring Zika a global emergency on Monday.
Kerala and Tamil Nadu, where dengue transmission is prevalent aided by weather conditions, should ensure extra vigil, the guidelines said. Zika and dengue are spread by the same mosquito, Aedes aegypti.
The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in Delhi has been made the nodal agency for investigation of an outbreak in any part of the country. NCDC and the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune have the capacity to provide laboratory diagnosis of the Zika virus disease.
Potential to spread
According to the WHO, the virus has been reported in 22 countries and territories in the Americas. It has the potential for further international spread given the wide geographical distribution of the mosquito which transmits it, a lack of immunity in the population in newly affected areas and the high volume of international travel.
“As of now, the disease has not been reported in India. However, the mosquito that transmits Zika virus, Aedes aegypti, also transmits the dengue virus and is widely prevalent in India,” said the health ministry in a statement.
“Microcephaly in the newborn and other neurological syndromes (Guillain Barre Syndrome) have been found temporally associated with Zika virus infection. However, there are a number of genetic and other causes for microcephaly and neurological syndromes like Guillain Barre Syndrome,” the guidelines said.
Microcephaly comparison picture
Citizens, especially pregnant women, have been advised to avoid travelling to affected countries unless necessary.
Various wings of the ministry, such as the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme and maternal and child health division will track cases of microcephaly among newborns and Guillain Barre Syndrome. They will alert the ministry if a high number of such cases are reported from a particular area.
Union Health Minister JP Nadda said he has asked for steps to be taken to prevent entry and transmission in India of the virus. “I have instructed all concerned to take steps for preventing entry and transmission of the virus in India. Sufficient diagnostic capacity and risk communication are also key elements of strategy on Zika virus. My ministry is fully geared to deal with Zika virus. No case reported in India. No need to panic,” he said in a series of tweets.
Zika facts
Zika virus disease is an emerging viral disease transmitted through the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito. This is the same mosquito that is known to transmit infections like dengue and chikungunya.
The most common symptoms of Zika virus disease are fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis (red eyes). The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting from several days to a week. Severe disease requiring hospitalization is uncommon. Deaths are rare.
• About 1 in 5 people infected with Zika virus become ill (i.e., develop Zika).
• The most common symptoms of Zika are fever, rash, joint pain, or conjunctivitis (red eyes). Other common symptoms include muscle pain and headache. The incubation period (the time from exposure to symptoms) for Zika virus disease is not known, but is likely to be a few days to a week.
• The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting for several days to a week.
• Zika virus usually remains in the blood of an infected person for a few days but it can be found longer in some people.
• Severe disease requiring hospitalization is uncommon.
• Deaths are rare.
• The symptoms of Zika are similar to those of dengue and chikungunya, diseases spread through the same mosquitoes that transmit Zika.
• See your healthcare provider if you develop the symptoms described above and have visited an area where Zika is found.
• If you have recently traveled, tell your healthcare provider when and where you traveled.
• Your healthcare provider may order blood tests to look for Zika or other similar viruses like dengue or chikungunya.
• No vaccine or medications are available to prevent or treat Zika infections.
• Treat the symptoms; get plenty of rest; drink fluids to prevent dehydration.
• No vaccine exists to prevent Zika virus disease (Zika).
• Prevent Zika by avoiding mosquito bites.
• Mosquitoes that spread Zika virus bite mostly during the daytime.
Zika facts source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USA.
Aedes aegypti, dengue, global emergency, Health Ministry, J P Nadda, travel advisory, virus disease, WHO, Zika
If the famed Ariyannur Umbrellas in central Kerala are ASI-protected prehistoric megalith burial sites near Kunnamkulam in Thrissur district, the metropolis of Mumbai has ancient...
Nilam, a short film starring Sajitha Madathil draws attention to a very relevant issue – need for more public toilets for women. The four-minute film...
It will be nine years since the untimely demise of Jos Chirammal, the path-breaking theatre maker of Kerala, on this September 17. He passed away...
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Business Leader Awards
The LAB to become first local ad agency to launch initial public offering (IPO)
The LAB, one of Jamaica's leading advertising agencies, announced its intention last week to float an initial public offering (IPO) on the Jamaican Junior Stock Exchange. The listing will be arranged by NCB Capital Markets.
Chief executive officer (CEO) and founder of The LAB, Kimala Bennett, stated why her company has decided to list at this time.
“The LAB has been in advertising/production for 11 years and has been involved in guiding several of Jamaica's leading brands for nearly half of that time.
“We have been growing steadily with consistent financial performance. With several prospects at hand, we believe now is the ideal time to engage this opportunity.”
The LAB, according to Bennett, is a strategy to execution advertising agency and production house, with three business units: agency, film production, and media facilitation services.
The 11-year-old millennial-run firm has seen great success leveraging its roots as a film production house to create ground-breaking ads for several well-known brands including but not limited to: Grace Kennedy, NCB, Digicel, HEART Trust/NTA, and JPS. The creative agency's work has won several international awards from the American Advertising Federation (ADDY awards).
Some leading local brands have gained competitive advantage by investing in creative advertising across multiple platforms.
According to general manager at The LAB, Tashara Lee Johnson, the shift is timely, as worldwide advertising has become an essential service.
“Because business has no boundaries and consumers have shorter attention spans, in order to stay in the game, brands need compelling visual content on a constant basis, Digital is 24/7 and agencies have to feed that need.”
The rapid evolution of the international media landscape has sent the $USD73 trillion global advertising industry into alert mode, as local agencies have begun to benefit from the demand created by the digital boom.
Bennett notes that listing will be a key step for The LAB to get a slice of this market share.
“Advertising and film-making in Jamaica are poised to break through in the region and in the world. The LAB team is preparing to tap into some of that market share.
“In a larger market however, we will need wider service offerings. Listing would afford us more equipment in inventory, additional human resources and the skills upgrades to ensure consistent quality and efficiency as we scale up.”
Negative inflation for June
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Sagicor Select Funds IPO oversubscribed
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Five per cent growth not possible in near future — Golding
Jamaica's annual World Bank subscription increased
Acting IMF chief says capitalism needs 'course correction'
IMF begins search for new leader
BOJ survey shows paucity in banks offering FX hedging contracts
IMF and its changing partnership with Jamaica
Gwest loses its CEO amid financial haemorrhaging
S&P reaffirms Deutsche Bank ratings after restructuring
Hi-Pro's youth in agriculture rehab programme
Everything Fresh in expansion mode
Record low yield as new Greek gov't taps market
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2 Teens Charged With Burning Down Stratford’s American Shakespeare Theatre
Industry News 2 Teens Charged With Burning Down Stratford’s American Shakespeare Theatre
By Olivia Clement
The Connecticut venue burned down in the early hours of the morning January 13.
Damage following a fire at Stratford's American Shakespeare Festival Theatre NBC Connecticut
Two Connecticut teenagers, aged 17 and 18, have been charged with setting fire to the American Shakespeare Theatre, according to the Associated Press. As previously reported, the historic and cultural landmark in Stratford, Connecticut, burned to the ground January 13.
The building, which had not been in use as an active theatre for several years, was unoccupied at the time of the fire and there were no injuries. The names of the teenagers charged were not released because both were juveniles at the time of the incident.
The American Shakespeare Theatre opened in 1955, developed by playwright Lawrence Langer, Lincoln Kirstein, and Joseph Verner Reed (who eventually served as executive producer). It would go on to house such performers as Katharine Hepburn, James Earl Jones, Ed Asner, and Barbara Barrie.
The American Shakespeare Festival worked out of the theatre until 1982 before the state took ownership the following year.
Kelli O’Hara-Led The King and I, West End’s Kinky Boots, More Heading to PBS’ Great Performances
The two join the previously announced filming of the Public Theater’s Much Ado About Nothing starring Danielle Brooks.
Cabaret & Concert News
Teal Wicks, Bonnie Milligan, More Join NYMF's Intersecting Chords Concert
The event celebrates female, trans, and non-binary songwriters in musical theatre.
Call Board
Upcoming NYC Auditions for Hamilton, Wicked, Chicago, and More
By Playbill Staff | 07/18/2019
Find your next job with this selection of upcoming calls for Broadway and shows around the country.
Cast Recordings & Albums
Broadway’s Moulin Rouge! Musical Will Release a Cast Recording in the Fall
Aaron Tveit, Karen Olivo, and Danny Burstein star in the stage adaptation of Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 movie.
Tony Nominee Sally Mayes Will Play I Love Lucy’s Vivian Vance in Sidekicked at Cape May Stage
Kim Powers’ new comedy will play the New Jersey venue in August.
Be More Chill’s Stephanie Hsu Shares the Broadway Debut Quilt
The quilt celebrates the debuts of performers and technicians during the 2018–2019 season.
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What Phantom Menace Did Well
Forums • Main • Prequel Trilogy
Page Previous 1, 2
Print Topic Previous topic | Next topic
Longtime_Sunshine
Posted: April 25th 2006 7:36 pm
Join: September 20th 2004 6:33 pm
Raveers wrote:
thecolorsblend wrote:
PerfectCr wrote:
:whateva:
Do you have a point?
Besides meaning that your post was cliche masturbatory sheep crap?
I definitely agree with this statement. To think that fans believe they know how the Prequels could have been made better than their original creator is pure ludicrous. A lot of these 'ideas' I've read are very stupid and deserves a "WTF".
If you guys are really this disatisfied with the way how the Prequels turned out...I just have three words to say "quit watching them".
Yes there is such a thing as analizing the films but when you guys start tossing up wet sheep fantasy dreams about how the Prequels could have been better in "your own vision" then it becomes over analizing and pretty fucking stupid.
As I have said, I have no problem with the way how the Prequels and the Original Trilogy turned out and I enjoy watching them. They are just films after all, not a part of our daily lives. They're ment for us to sit down and enjoy them.
Most of todays new generation of kids don't really give a fuck about your 'visions' on how the Prequels or the rest of the Trilogy could have been. They're happy with the way how things turned out and think the whole Saga is pretty fucking sweet. Only to those who clinge to the past think things should have been differently.
Edited for typos.
I hate Star Wars fans who think they can make the trilogies any better.
If you really want to create and feel your stories are the best, WRITE ORIGINAL STORIES and get those published. Fans who wish the films could have come out their way is exactly the reason why Lucas directs the way he does.
thecolorsblend
Posted: April 25th 2006 10:00 pm
Join: October 6th 2004 8:26 pm
Longtime_Sunshine wrote:
You speak words of truth, kemo sabe.
The other issue is that Clone Wars sucked.
Raveers
Fat Bastard
Location: In hell
I didn't mind the Clone Wars but it would have been awesome if they had drawn the characters similar to how the characters for "Final Flight Of The Osiris" for "The Animatrix" was drawn.
Posted: April 27th 2006 5:29 am
Hmm...3 days and no response? Well that's a surprise. What's the matter fellas, cat got your tongues? Or do you know we're right and can't come up with anything to say?
Or you'll probably say I don't check the board every day...
Posted: April 27th 2006 10:09 am
CW is exactly what the sheep would've made the prequels in to. Nothing but mindless action, thin plot, endless OT references, very little imagination, etc.
I guess you're right about that. I waited a couple of days on purpose to post a reply because I was giving the other dudes a chance to reply to what we had said. Nothing yet. Quite funny if you ask me.
KneelbfZod
Join: May 22nd 2005 7:23 am
Location: Phantom Zone
It's called an opinion. Get used to them, you'll be hearing them a lot during your life. So you disagree with me. I'm not losing any sleep.
Typical response.
Ditto bub.
Ayatollah Krispies
Join: August 6th 2004 6:29 am
I waited a couple of days on purpose to post a reply because I was giving the other dudes a chance to reply to what we had said.
Well, that's awfully magnanimous of you. Hey, quick question: when the fuck were you appointed judge of people's posting habits here? Has it occurred to you the reason most people have left this thread behind is because it degenerated into the typical childish argumentative shit? Here's an example:
To think that fans believe they know how the Prequels could have been made better than their original creator is pure ludicrous. A lot of these 'ideas' I've read are very stupid and deserves a "WTF".
then, less than 12 hours later, Raveers wrote:
Ever stop to think you're part of the problem?
You clowns who think that having Lucas's cock further down your throat than the other guy's somehow makes you the "winner" are slowly turning every discussion of Star Wars on this board into fucking TFN Jr. Instead of counting the seconds between posts made by your arch enemy, try getting a fucking life.
"I waited a couple of days on purpose." Jesus. Thanks ever so fucking much for restraining yourself. It must have been living hell, having to bottle up your next brilliant contribution until the timing was absolutely perfect. By the way, ludicrous is an adjective.
Ternian
Site Admin • Ternian@hotmail.com
This is a discussion thread. Both POSITIVE and NEGATIVE discussion is welcome. The use of 'it's GL prequels' and other such crap where posters are targeted for their opinions is not welcome. You have been warned. - Ternian
OK, Tern, but the thread is also about what TPM did right, not what it should have been.
ETandElliott
Join: March 22nd 2005 11:53 pm
Location: Deep Space Nine
No, this thread's about the film's strengths and weaknesses.
Strength: Williams' use of choral music is really spectacular, like the swim to Otoh Gunga, Duel Of The Fates and Qui-Gon's funeral. It's some of my favorite music in the saga.
Weakness: Jar Jar Binks is obviously essential to the plot. In retrospect, I feel his function in the film should have been minimized. His reduced role in AOTC and especially ROTS only served to better those films. Jar Jar's unnecessary and unfunny jackass shenanigans only hinder TPM. Since Lucas has already added a CG Yoda to the film (and I can only assume is making other alterations), it'd be great if he could, say, remove the scene where an Eopie farts on Jar Jar and possibly the many other scenes of unnecessary and unfunny Jar Jar bullshit.
Now you try. Or do you have nothing to add to the topic besides "It's GL's films" and random "attacks" at people who were disappointed with the films, or like discussing what could have been?
ETAndElliot4Ever wrote:
I agree, especially in light of Jar Jar almost non-existant roles in ATOC and ROTS, his prominent role in TPM makes even less sense now.
TroyObliX
Title: Mortician
Join: May 26th 2005 1:23 am
Location: Progress City
One thing that always stands out to me when I watch TPM is the fight between Obi-Wan and Darth Maul. From the point that Ewans face grimaces at his realization that Qui-Gon's about to get speared, to the severed sith's fall into oblivion, I'm completely engrossed. They actually seem to be trying to hit each other, and there are few "special" effects, making it perhaps my favorite (albeit kind of short) individual fight of the saga. A lot of folks dis' this flick, but I still just love watching it.
Ternian wrote:
TroyOblix wrote:
One thing that always stands out to me when I watch TPM is the fight between Obi-Wan and Darth Maul. From the point that Ewans face grimaces at his realization that Qui-Gon's about to get speared, to the severed sith's fall into oblivion, I'm completely engrossed.
I am the same way. Actually I think the Maul, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan saber fight has been the best one from the Prequels. The second best saber fight would be the Vader (Anakin) and Obi-Wan fight on Mustafar.
AOTC: The duel between Anakin, Obi-Wan and Dooku in AOTC was sub-par and I thought it was too short. I'm not sure if they actually made that duel longer or not. I know for the Yoda and Dooku duel it wasn't too bad but the CG was a bit horrible. They did make that sequence a bit longer since there's production pictures of Dooku holding his saber and the spare saber that Anakin had after cutting Anakin's arm off.
ROTS: The rematch between Anakin, Obi-Wan and Dooku was pretty good this time around. Of course we know Obi-Wan got owned again by Dooku however the fight bewteen Anakin and Dooku was a lot better. The CG head replacement for Dooku was a bit more better this time around.
The Grievous and Obi-Wan duel, I thought it was sweet but again too short in my opinion. I mean I know Obi-Wan is an experienced saber fighter but he was able to get rid of the sabers Grievous was using in no time flat. I know this is a bit of a horrible reference but in the cartoon Clone Wars not even 6 Jedi could really stand up to Grievous, they got their asses kicked and all but 2 died.
The Mace, posse and Palpatine duel. Hmm I could see Palpatine taking out 3 Jedi masters that quickly. He did catch them by surprise but after watching the film so many times when you see them just standing there for a moment and they had a clear shot at them it makes you go hmmm... The actual duel between Mace and Palpatine though would have been intresting to see from it's original uncut version.
The Yoda and Sidious duel. Grant most of this was CG but it was still a fun duel to watch and it was nice to see Yoda kicking some ass even though in the end Yoda lost.
One great thing about TPM is how underplayed Anakin's darker moments were. When he glared at Mace after it was announced Qui-Gon would not be allowed to train Anakin, I thought that was entirely appropriate. Anakin risked his ass to win Qui-Gon the parts he needed for the Queen's ship so that Qui-Gon could report to the Council, y'know, *alive* and stuff, and this was how they thanked him??? In fact, that scene was sort of reprised in ROTS when Anakin mouthed off to Mace for not promoting him to a Jedi Master.
More broadly, I loved how Lucas portrayed Anakin as a sweet, innocent kid in TPM. If he'd been born a Hitler youth, one wonders why the audience would sympathize with him or, for that matter, why the Jedi would want to bring him into the fold.
Another great thing was sheer visual spectacle. Seeing droids riding STAPs through Theed, Federation ships and shuttles landing in the Plaza, the epic scope and beauty of Corsucant, the regality and formality of the Galactic Senate, this was great stuff, epic Star Wars, imho. Very much in the tradition of awe and wonder at these fantastic images brought to life in true Lucas fashion. Excellent.
Like TroyOblix wrote, it really looked like the actors were trying to hit each other with their lightsabers (most of the time) instead of aiming their strikes at the opponent's sword. It's a small difference that added up to a lot. If any of them hadn't blocked exactly the place they did, they would've gotten the crap whacked out of them.
My thought has always been if we didn't have an entire movie that showed us how the Senate, the Republic and the galaxy at large worked, the Clone Wars and the rise of the Empire wouldn't have any emotional context. I believe Lucas made exactly the right call in this respect.
darthpsychotic
Title: darthpsychotic@gmail.com
Join: July 3rd 1971 6:59 pm
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What Episode I did right and wrong was the whole "Second Coming" buildup.
The teaser poster, teaser trailer, and tone poems gave the impression of a grown-up, darker Star Wars. The teaser poster of a young brooding Anakin with his Vader shadow, forshadowing his future, was fucking awesome. The teaser trailer's opening moments, with shadowy figures emerging from the mist and The Force theme playing can never be topped.
What was wrong was the teaser posters, teaser trailers, and tone poems suggested a different movie all together. From the teaster materials one was fully expecting to see a Anakin Skywalker as a Jackie Torrance type character, only instead of "The Shining" he had the "The Force", and fan favorites Darth Maul and Mace Windu having more prominent roles. Instead we got a movie filled with BattleDroids and Gungans all over the fucking place.
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(clicky for teaser trailer)[/align]
darthpsychotic wrote:
Yes, and curious how they left Jar Jar and "yippie" competely OUT of the trailer. They knew...
I mean Jar Jar plays a central role in the film, and he has all of 1 millisecond in the tralier. Wonder why. heh
I can forgive everything else in the film, please I hope they release a special edition that pairs down Jar Jar's role. I can dream, can't I?
Posted: May 2nd 2006 12:55 am
I love that most of the lightsaber duel was done for real, and not with digital doubles. The final part where Maul and Obi-Wan are kicking each other through the air and Maul does that wicked spin is fucking fantastic.
Posted: May 3rd 2006 4:18 am
"Wipe them out - all of them," has to be one of the most underused lines in the entire Star Wars saga. Watching the trailer, I thought that line referred to the eradication of the pesky Jedi.
Posted: May 3rd 2006 3:28 pm
100% truth.
MannyOrtez
Posted: May 7th 2006 6:13 pm
Join: December 1st 2004 9:42 pm
I do love TPM, but that trailer was so damn good and in a lot of ways, misleading. I agree with DarthPyschotic's post. The same went for AOTC to some extent. ROTS was the only one of the three to live up to the tone it set in its trailers.
Some of those shots from the TPM trailer are just so damn dramatic...but aren't in the movie. IE, the one of the Gungans in DP's post.
Posted: May 9th 2006 8:00 am
The whole plot around employing the Gungans to fight is fluff too. Its the same plot point that surfaced in AotC - to get the Clones to fight for the Republic/get Gungans to fight for Naboo.
As for fluff - I believe several AotC plot points would have made a better TPM. A better TPM could have been:
1) The Separatist Crisis opens the movie - but not including the commerce guilds.
2) Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are secretly sent by Chancellor Valorum to bring the separatists back into Republic.
3) The Separatists attempt to kill the Jedi before negotiations begin.
4) The Jedi discover a huge delivery of battle droids arriving on the planet.
5) The pair of Jedi escape from the Separatist leaders with the help of a young slave boy called Anakin Skywalker.
6) The Jedi, along with Anakin, try to discover the source of the battle droids as they escape the planet hidden on a secret military freighter.
7) The freigther lands on the planet of Geonosis. The Jedi discover a huge battle droid factory. They relay the information back to the Chancellor.
8) Introduce the Loyalist Committee led by a young Senator Amidala who puts the pressure on the Chancellor Valorum to end the Separatist crisis. The Committee includes Senator Palpatine. Senator Organa notes that local planetary security forces are no match for a battle army. Yoda states 'do their duty, the Jedi will" - as long as the Chancellor agrees.
9) Chancellor Valorum refuses to send the Jedi to end the crisis. Palpatine suggests Amidala nominate to pass a 'vote of no confidence' in the Senate. She does and Palpatine is elected as the new Chancellor. He immediately calls upon the Jedi to close down the Separatist droid factory.
10) Master Dooku is unhappy with the Jedi taking on a role to get involved and leaves the Council in defiance.
11) The Jedi arrive at the droid factories of Geonosis. A battle begins.
12) Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan discover that Dooku has turned to the Dark Side of the Force. They try to kill him, but Qui-Gon is killed and Dooku escapes. Qui-Gon asks that Obi-Wan train Anakin to become a Jedi.
13) The movie ends with Chancellor Palpatine standing with the Masters of the Jedi Council and the Loyalist Committee, watching 10000 Jedi leaving to protect the planets still loyal to the Republic.
----> this kinda relieves the plot jungle of AotC and creates a stronger base for TPM (in my opinion of course ).
YES!! Bravo. I like this story a hell of a lot more than the TPM we got from Lucas.
Posted: May 9th 2006 10:57 am
It's okay by itself, but it gives you no context for the war. TPM works because we know how the Republic operates and where the bureaucracy has gotten completely out of hand. It gives the events in AOTC and ROTS resonance.
Okay who the hell let Demodex out of his cage???
BrotherTheFirst
Posted: May 12th 2006 10:27 am
Join: January 14th 2005 4:42 pm
i still couldn't give a spit about all of naboo and hope it's the emperors first choice for death star target practice.
upon reflection: this comment makes no fucking sense whatsoever seeing as alderan bit the dust first in ANH.
sate pestage III
Join: February 8th 2005 3:05 pm
TPM is interesting to me as a reflection of who the filmmaker was when he made it - GL seemed much more interested in the sociology of the SW universe in TPM than he did in the OT. I find a strong undercurrent of galactic caste, as someone in an earlier post pointed out. There are simple statements that speak about the bigger problems of the galaxy and it's society - Padme's ignorance of slavery, Padme and Nass's mutual dislike/distrust/ignorance of each other's species, the infighting and corruption of the senate, the beauracracy of the corporations and their influence on the machinations of politics. Although it's never played out in the PT films, one can imagine Palpatine's frustration with the inneffectual Nemoidians (and subsequently the Geonosians and the leaders of the Seperatist council (all aliends by Ep 3)) leading to his overall dislike of non-humanoid beings.
There is also a strong theme of duality in the film, which becomes a major motif in the saga; for example - Padme has a duality in the persona of Queen Amidala, Palpatine has a duality in the persona of Darth Sidious (although the story doesn't overtly reveal this); there is a duality (symbiosis) that must be struck between the Naboo and Gungans if they are to survive; there is a duality (symbiosis) between the midichlorians and all living things (one thing that I find fans tend to forget when they criticize the midichlorian issue is that Qui-Gon states the EVERYONE has midichlorians in their blood stream, but some have more than others - it doesn't follow that midichlorians ARE the Force or that it contradicts Ben's description of the Force in Ep 4 - it's just a scientific explanation rather than a spiritual one. Does anyone think Han Solo was particularly strong in the Force, or could become so with or without midichlorians?). Anyway, this theme of duality reaches it's ultimate peak and simplicity in the balance of Good and Evil in Anakin - once in ROTS when he decides to kill Mace and join Palpatine and learn the ways of the Sith and again in JEDI when he decides to betray Palpatine and throw his down the shaft. There is duality in the training of a Jedi, and it turns out, a Sith - master and apprentice - always 2 there are. There is even a duality to the Force itself in Ep 1 - the living Force versus the other Force (I forget what its called at the moment, sorry). Throughout the saga, this duality continues on in Princess Leia (Imperial Senator/Rebel Leader), Han Solo (scoundrel/hero), Ben Kenobi (crazy hermit/Wise Jedi), and Darth Vader (machine/man).
Watching all 6 films in numerical order, TPM is an unusual entry - it's separated from the others by such a long time (10 years), and the characters who become central to the story play fairly supportive roles (Obi-Wan and Anakin), leaving center stage to Qui-Gon and the Queen, one of whom for all intents and purposes exits the saga by the end of the film, while the other becomes less and less important until her demise. There are many moments of symmetry between TPM and ROTJ, such as the funeral pyre for Qui-Gon (echoed in Vader's pyre in RTOJ), the Pod Race (echoed in the speeder bike chase), the short of Obi-Wan radling a dying Qui-Gon next to the bottomless pit (Luke cradling a dying Vader next to a bottomless pit), the helicopter shot that introduces the Jedi Temple (the helicopter shot the introduces Emperor's throne room on the Death Star 2). I felt Lucas succesfully bookended the Saga with many visual elements. Certainly the Gungans and the Ewoks mirror each other both in their conception and in their unpopularity with fans.
Sadly, Luke and Leia become smaller characters in the PT when it's viewed in the context of the 6 films, since their overall dramatic purpose is to undo the damage Anakin caused; Anakin becomes the overarching focus of the six films (despite his supporting role in Ep 1.) One interesting re-emergence is the feeling at the end of Empire that Luke really could turn to the dark side in Ep 6 (if you pretend not to know what's going to happen in JEDI) - having watched his father fall from good, it becomes that much more believable that the son would fall as well - although you see that without a "dying wife" (a potent carrot on a stick) to use against him, Palpatine is not successful in corrupting Luke as he did Anakin - he must instead resort to threatening speeches and clumsy attacks against his friends.
Also, the dramatic structure of TPM mirrors the structure of ANH - in TPM Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan lead us to Padme who lead us to Tatooine and Anakin, which gets us to Coruscant which ends up sending us back to Naboo to destroy the Trade Federation blcokade/droid army. In ANH, the robots lead us to Luke who leads us to Ben who leads us to Han who gets us to Alderaan (almost) which helps us rescue the Princess which gets us to Yavin and gets us to destroy the Death Star. (EP 2 also mirrors Ep 5 - Anakin and Padme go off together in fall in love (a la Han and Leia) while Obi-Wan searches out a mystery on a strange hidden planet (Luke goes to the mysterious Dagobah) then the 3 are reunited in a climatic battle (Han, Luke and Leia all end up on Cloud City for the final act). Oh, and the bad guys win in both films too. Ep 3 mirrors Jedi to a degree - the opening act of both films is a rescue mission for an important character (Palpatine/Solo) while the closing act centers on a climactic sword fight between 2 "brothers"/father and son.
People often dismiss the Trade Federation taxation storyline as too small a story for the film, and perhaps they are right in terms of TPM being a stand-alone film. But I don't think TPM is truly intended as a standalone film - it was concieved as the opening chapter in a 6-part saga. I like the fact that the origins of the Galactic Civil War are traced back to this seemingly unrelated, arcane trade dispute. That's a realistic notion when one examines the true history of our society. (e.g. the assasination of Archduke Ferdinand triggering a World War). I think many of the criticisms lobbed at the plot of the film could equally be lobbed at the much love FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING if you examine it as a stand-alone film - the battle of Helm's Deep from TTT is a much more critical and important battle than the one that closes FOTR, but FOTR has to tell the story it has to tell as the opening chapter in a saga - and people seemed to accept that going in. In this regard, I think TPM gets a bum rap.
Hey I know I'm not gonna change anyone's mind if they hate TPM, but I hope people enjoy reading about the good things people see in it.
For what it's worth, for me ROTJ is the weakest of all the SW films - the complete castration of Han Solo's character is a disappointment, the low-rent death of Boba Fett is a major disappointment (especially considering the buildup the character gets in Ep 2), the Ewoks are on par with the Gungans for their dislikability and supposed cutesy-factor, and perhaps most offensive is the utter dismissal of any leadership qualities on the part of Leia - she literally becomes eye candy for the first half of the film and becomes the lame-duck Han Solo's underling for the second. In the "humor" department, I would characterize the torturing of a robot as ridiculous as anything in Ep 1(well, ok, not the ick icky goo or fart jokes) and Palpatine's characterization by McDiarmid, although enourmously enriched by his work in the PT, borders on the mustache-twirling scenery chewing of a bad B-movie (with echoes of a pedophiliac Mr Burns thrown in for good measure). That isn't to say TPM doesn't have it's shortcomings - it certainly does, but somehow I can accept them since TPM is the opening chapter in a six film saga. ROTJ is supposed to be the big finish to the entire story, and we get half a movie devoted to the Muppet show (complete with musical number), and half a movie following teddy bears around a forest while the Empire acts like buffoons and the Emperor says creepy, vaguely sexual things to Luke before dying from a bad fall. And to finish the whole thing up? A big campfire singalong! Yipeee! Wizard! That isn't to say ROTJ doesn't do things right - I think all the interplay between Luke and Vader works very well and was only deepened by the PT, and the special effects in the space battle are perhaps the ultimate achievement in the quickly dying art of non-digital, motion-control optical compositing.
Finally, it's interesting to me to see how closely Lucas kept the PT to the opening prologue of the original novelization to Ep 4, written by Alan Dean Foster in 1976 - check it out next time your at the bookstore.
Posted: June 5th 2006 12:40 am
That's a good point about the taxation issue. Frankly, one of the subplots of the PT had to be the rise of the Empire. To understand why that was a bad thing, you had to see what the democratic process was like, how it worked, how broken it had become by the beginning of TPM, etc. A lot of fans wanted to immediately jump to the iconic good stuff (Clone War, Vader, out of place epic battles, etc) and, as a result, missed out on a lot of good stuff. As you said, the tiff with the Naboo was the Gulf on Tonkin incident that would later culminate in galactic civil war. It's strange to think how much different things might've been if Qui-Gon had managed to cut through the door aboard the Trade Federation ship and arrest the Neimoidians.
In terms of Luke giving in to the Dark Side, the pivotal moment came when Vader threatened Leia. That was obviously what set Luke off. In that moment, his temptation to protect the only true family member he's ever known was probably every bit as overwhelming as Anakin's natural instinct to want to save Padme. This actually works quite well for me.
I didn't have the same problems with the Emperor that you did in ROTJ, but I'll drink to that other stuff. I like ROTJ okay, but it just doesn't reach the heights of anything else in the saga. It doesn't have the subtle wrinkles of TPM, it doesn't have the intrigue of AOTC, it doesn't have the tragedy and payoffs of ROTS, there's nothing like the sense of wonder from ANH and it doesn't have anything approaching the emotional climaxes of ESB. It's just not a good Star Wars movie. The acting from Ford and Fisher is in the toilet, Guiness looked bored out of his mind, the dance sequence is superfluous and distracting (yes, even the puppet version), frankly Luke and Lando are the only characters who seem to be in any peril. The Luke/Emperor/Vader scenes are very good, but the rest of the plot just wasn't firing on all cylinders. It would've been nice for the Ewoks to have had some real justification for throwing in with the Rebels. The Empire didn't seem to be bothering them beyond setting up a small outpost in their forest. If we'd seen stormtroopers using them as target practice or if the Emperor was planning to test the (retreaded) Death Star II on Endor, that might've given some motivation for the Ewoks to fight. The Gungans were being threatened every bit as much as the Naboo in TPM so it made complete sense for the two sides to join forces to defeat the Federation. Nothing like that is supplied for the Ewoks and the film suffers from the cute factor as a result.
NewYorkActor
Posted: August 24th 2007 1:43 pm
Join: July 29th 2007 3:01 pm
I just wanna see Padme go ass to mouth .
That would be a much better moment than anything she did in the OT, and far more worth the price of admission.
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Merck tower loses zoning status, needs fix
by Rebeca Oliveira • April 6, 2012 • 0 Comments
LMA—The Merck Research Labs tower on the Emmanuel College campus has lost the zoning that allowed it to be built in a residential area, Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) spokespeople said. The BRA is now giving it its own zoning to…
BPS grad rates questioned
by John Ruch • April 6, 2012 • 0 Comments
Boston Public Schools (BPS) recently touted its “all-time high” four-year graduation rate of 64.4 percent. But the Gazette has found both the measure and the context are coming into question. The BPS’s graduation rate report included a 100 percent rate…
Home Winner
by Gazette Staff • April 6, 2012 • 0 Comments
Local translator has worked around the world
by Peter Shanley • April 6, 2012 • 0 Comments
Gar Chiang has held notable jobs around the world and has lived in New York City, Los Angeles, Hawaii and China, but in the end, only one place felt like home: Mission Hill. Chiang moved back to the area in…
Little League parade slated for April 21
It’s time to play ball once again as Mission Hill Little League will hold its Opening Day parade and ceremony on Sat., April 21. The 12-team league has about 200 players and has been playing since 1953 as a major…
Crime watch marks 27th year
The Mission Hill Crime Committee celebrated its 27th anniversary March 29 at the same location that it has been meeting at since all those years, Mission Church. The group, led by Mary Todd and David Welch, is the original and…
Street Sales
Apartment project plan is filed
The high-end apartment building proposed for the Home for Little Wanderers site will have about 196 units and stand 65 feet tall, according to a plan filed last month with the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA). The Home is moving out…
Participacion, 4/6-5/3, 2012
Reuniones Reunión anual de Mission Hill NHS, elecciones de junta. Lunes, 9 abril, 630pm, MassPharm Griffin Academic Center, 670 Huntington Ave., sexto piso. Info: 566-6565. Art Park reunion, con BRA y DND. Mission Church, 1545 Tremont St. miércoles, 11 abril,…
What’s Up, April 6-May 3, 2012
The deadline for What’s Up listings is noon, May 1 for the May 4 issue. Email listings to [email protected] Meetings 161 S. Huntington project, BRA meeting about proposed apartment development, Wed., April 11, 6:30-7:30pm, MSPCA, Education Room, 350 S. Huntington…
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Moon takes a jab with Admiral Yi reference
President Moon Jae-in speaks at the South Jeolla provincial government office in Muan County on Friday. [YONHAP]
President Moon Jae-in lavished praise on Admiral Yi Sun-shin Friday, the prominent naval commander best-known for victories against Japan in the Imjin War (1592-1598), an apparent jab at Tokyo amid an escalating diplomatic row.
On a visit to the southwestern province of South Jeolla, Moon said Yi’s “patriotic spirit” lives on in that part of Korea, in a speech at the South Jeolla provincial government office in Muan County.
“It was residents of South Jeolla who, along with Admiral Yi, protected the country with only 12 ships,” Moon said to a crowd that included government officials, Blue House officials, and mayors and lawmakers of the province.
Admiral Yi’s most famous victory was against Japanese forces in the Battle of Myeongnyang (1597) off Korea’s southwestern waters, when he destroyed 31 out of 133 Japanese ships with only a dozen vessels. That victory effectively blocked Japan from further advancing north.
Yi died one year later in a different battle against Japan.
Moon was visiting South Jeolla on the 10th stop of his so-called national economic tour, in which he is visiting regions outside the Seoul metropolitan area to encourage the revitalization of local economies. Friday’s visit to South Jeolla was his seventh stop on the tour this year.
The Blue House chief vowed government support for South Jeolla tourism, including historic sites related to the naval hero.
Moon also took time to praise South Jeolla activists who fought for democracy from the ’60s through the “candlelight revolution” that took down the government of his predecessor, President Park Geun-hye, in 2017, saying the region proved to Koreans all over the country that it was “ordinary people” who triumph in “a turbulent age.”
After the speech, Moon was briefed by South Jeolla government officials about the province’s Blue Economy vision, which revolves around sustainable development.
Following the briefing, Moon visited the so-called Naju Bitgaram Innovation City - an industrial hub that’s home to some 32,000 people and 16 public companies in Naju, including the Korea Electric Power Cooperation and the Korea Rural Community Corporation - to hear about the area’s plans to become a global energy industry hub.
In the evening, he had dinner with South Jeolla business leaders.
Moon made a final stop in Gwangju to declare the start of the Gwangju 2019 FINA World Championships during the opening ceremony at the Universiade Gymnasium of Kwangju Women’s University.
BY LEE SUNG-EUN, KANG TAE-HWA [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]
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Kimberly-Clark tax break bill to get hearing, vote uncertain
3:43 p.m. CT Nov. 8, 2018
MADISON – A $100 million tax break bill designed to keep paper products giant Kimberly-Clark Corp. from closing an Appleton-area plant will get a public hearing in the Legislature, but approval remains uncertain.
The Assembly passed the bill earlier this year but it stalled in the Senate. Without it, Kimberly-Clark has said it plans to close a Fox Crossing plant that employs about 500 people.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald on Thursday did not commit to the Senate voting on the bill. Instead, he says the Legislature’s budget committee will hold a hearing on it Tuesday.
There aren’t enough Republican votes to pass the measure. Fitzgerald says if enough Democrats cross over and support it, the Senate would convene later this month to vote on it.
More: Kimberly-Clark developments bring relief, some optimism
More: Gov. Scott Walker says Senate will vote on giving millions to Kimberly-Clark after the election
More:Kimberly-Clark decides to wait on Cold Spring closure decision
More:High stakes: Huge consequences for Fox Cities if Kimberly-Clark closes two plants
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Pyongyang on the Prairie, Part Two
By Michelle Malkin • December 18, 2017 03:55 PM
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
In Oklahoma City, words don’t mean what they plainly mean. Asking government officials simple questions prompts Orwellian acrobatics. By distorting language and obfuscating actions, public bureaucrats subvert transparency and evade accountability.
Whether in the fictional dictatorship of Oceania, or the true-life fascistic regime of North Korea, or the petty tyranny of Oklahoma, linguistic deceit is an instrument of a State with something to hide.
Last week, I reported that former Oklahoma City Police Department senior forensic analyst Elaine Taylor is the mother-in-law of Detective Rocky Gregory, who co-led the investigation of former OCPD officer Daniel Holtzclaw. This information was not disclosed by police or prosecutors before, during, or after a biased investigation, botched forensic analysis and testimony, and chaotic trial that resulted in a 263-year sentence for Holtzclaw—who has maintained his complete and actual innocence from the start and is appealing his convictions.
According to the Oklahoma City Police Operations Manual, Section 105.0 on
relationships between department employees:
All employees should avoid situations, which give rise to an actual or apparent conflict between their professional responsibilities and their relationships with other employees. However, should such a situation develop, it is the duty of the involved employee(s) to immediately notify their commanding officer, either in person or through the chain of-command, or directly notify their Bureau Chief. It becomes the responsibility of the employee’s Bureau Chief to eliminate conflict, by taking appropriate action and keeping the best interests of both the employee and the Department in mind.
I asked Oklahoma City’s police chief William Citty and Taylor’s crime lab supervisor Campbell Ruddock three straightforward questions:
1) Were you aware of the close, familial relationship between Elaine Taylor and her son-in-law, Det. Rocky Gregory?
2) How was Taylor assigned to the Daniel Holtzclaw case, on which Det. Gregory served as co-lead sex-crimes unit investigator?
3) Did either Taylor, Gregory, or their commanding officers notify their Bureau Chiefs, and did either of those chiefs notify you?
Oklahoma City’s litigation division head Richard Smith responded on Citty and Ruddock’s behalf, stating that the police department policy on disclosing conflicts of interests that I cited “refers to the relationships of employees regarding supervision and/or assignments, not to family members working on the same cases.”
Strange. The plain language of the policy states that “all employees” should “avoid situations” giving rise to conflicts of interests “with other employees”—without regard to their status as supervisors and without any specification on whether the situations involve “assignments” or not.
Is there a special Okie dictionary that translates “all employees” to “all employees except the ones we decide should be exempt whenever we decide it’s convenient?”
Smith failed to answer how Taylor was assigned to the case. He did, however, admit that the “administration of the OCPD was aware of the relationship between Elaine Taylor and Rocky Gregory.” Yet, the administration did not disclose this relationship to Holtzclaw’s defense team, which was then denied an opportunity to cross-examine Taylor and Gregory about that relationship to impeach the witnesses by uncovering potential bias and prejudice against Holtzclaw.
Smith then implicitly argued that no conflict existed anyway because Elaine Taylor was “assigned to [accuser Jannie] Ligons’ rape complaint, which was assigned to Detective Kim Davis.”
Finally, Smith glibly asserted, “the forensic lab did not have a Holtzclaw case.”
The only thing missing from this doozy of a reply was a Clintonian retort that “It depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is.”
Let’s break down the Oklahoma City litigation head’s flimsy rhetorical walls of obstruction:
1) Forensic analyst Elaine Taylor’s son-in-law, Det. Rocky Gregory, interrogated Holtzclaw with Det. Davis on June 18, 2014, just 14 hours after Holtzclaw pulled over Jannie Ligons at an end-of-shift traffic stop.
2) Forensic analyst Elaine Taylor’s son-in-law, Det. Rocky Gregory, mishandled and potentially contaminated the evidence bag used to store Holtzclaw’s uniform pants—the linchpin forensic evidence examined and tested by his mother-in-law.
As forensic expert Dr. Michael Spence noted in a sworn affidavit supporting Holtzclaw’s motion for an evidentiary hearing:
At the June 18, 2014, interrogation of Officer Holtzclaw, investigators secured the uniform pants at about 6:00pm. At the beginning of this process, video footage showed Detective Gregory placing his bare hand into the evidence bag. The detective proceeded to push on the bottom of the bag—in order to fully open it. Officer Holtzclaw could then be seen handling his utility belt, his cell phone, his pockets, his wallet, and his keys—all prior to unclasping his belt, unzipping his fly, and removing his pants. In addition to the obvious DNA transfer issues associated with this order of events, both the belt and the pants collected from Officer Holtzclaw were placed in one bag. Consequently, these items were stored together, transported together, and remained together, until the moment that the lab analyst accessed the contents of the evidence bag.
Forensic analyst Elaine Taylor compounded her son-in-law’s mishandling of the evidence bag by failing “to collect any ‘substrate control’ samples from either the uniform pants or the belt,” Dr. Spence reported. Taylor then incorrectly testified at trial that “no male DNA was found” on two inside areas of the fly of Holtzclaw’s uniform pants, contrary to what her bench notes revealed.
(Click for full size.)
Taylor then contradicted her own ‘inconclusive’ assessment of the contributors to DNA mixtures on a swab from the outside of the pants’ fly and the two swabs from the inside in order. This bolstered Assistant District Attorney Gayland Gieger’s false assertion that female accuser Adaira Gardner’s DNA could only have arrived on the pants through transfer of vaginal secretions.”
Taylor’s own sworn testimony at trial was that she failed to observe any staining, failed to conduct serological tests, and failed to use an alternate light source or provide any other scientific support for Gieger’s brazenly unscientific claim.
3) Forensic analyst Elaine Taylor’s son-in-law, Det. Rocky Gregory, was present during the search of Holtzclaw’s car in the wake of Ligons’ sexual assault allegation.
All of the swabs taken on the car were submitted to the OCPD crime lab. In fact, when Elaine Taylor called Det. Davis to ask a question about the swabs, Det. Davis replied that she could not answer the questions because “I did not ask for those swabs to be taken.”
4) Forensic analyst Elaine Taylor’s son-in-law, Det. Gregory, was one of six participants in a meeting at the Springlake Division before Holtzclaw was taken to headquarters to be questioned about the Ligons stop:
5) Forensic analyst Elaine Taylor’s son-in-law, Det. Gregory, was involved with his supervisor, Lt. Timothy Muzny, in the process of preparing a photo line-up to show to accuser Jannie Ligons:
6) After Holtzclaw’s interrogation, forensic analyst Elaine Taylor’s son-in-law, Det. Gregory, accompanied Holtzclaw to his home, where Det. Gregory failed to take key pieces of forensic evidence, including Holtzclaw’s underwear (which Det. Gregory incorrectly assumed had been washed) and other uniforms.
7) Richard Smith’s denial that the crime lab handled a “Holtzclaw case” is contradicted by the lab’s own assignment of just two case numbers—SD14-273 and SD14-399—for all the evidence tested. Both lab case numbers list the defendant as “Holtzclaw, Daniel.” Lab case #SD14-273 combined evidence from several accusers’ allegations under that one case, beginning with Ligons’ allegations and including DNA from nine other accusers (Terri Morris, Sherry Ellis, Florene Mathis, Carla Johnson, Rosetta Grate, Kala Lyles, Regina Copeland, Adaira Gardner, and Syrita Bowen), as well as DNA from Holtzclaw and his then-girlfriend Kerri Hunt.
8) Forensic analyst Elaine Taylor’s son-in-law, Det. Gregory, was one of 12 OCPD officials who executed a search warrant at 633 Culbertson Drive on Sept. 3, 2014, the residence where accuser Rosetta Grate alleged Holtzclaw assaulted her and where she alleged she had left DNA evidence on the back of a chair and on a towel she claimed she left in a bedroom closet.
Taylor conducted testing on evidence collected at this scene where her son-in-law, who had earlier mishandled DNA evidence collection at Holtzclaw’s interrogation, was present.
Taylor’s test results showed that unknown male DNA from at least two males was found on chair samples from the front and back of the chair.
9) Det. Gregory was the lead detective investigating the sexual assault claims of accuser Terri Morris. He collected her buccal swabs during an interrogation at the Oklahoma County jail and submitted her DNA to the crime lab as part of Lab Case #SD14-273, which means that Det. Gregory was the head of a case for which he was directly submitting DNA evidence to his mother-in-law. His request to “test all swabs in this case for DNA analysis” on June 27, 2014, was initialed by his mother-in-law (“EMT” = Elaine M. Taylor).
His July 10, 2014 “waiver of search of body,” which identified him as the “collector,” allowed him to take accuser Terri Morris’s buccal swabs for DNA analysis. The form was initialed by his mother-in-law, Elaine Taylor under the consolidated crime lab case number SD14-273.
10) Det. Gregory noted in one of his police reports on his investigation of Terri Morris’s allegations that her case and Ligons’ case were aggregated:
“Reference to all DNA involved in both cases 14-41539 [Morris] and 14-49050 [Ligons] they will be worked under 14-049050 since related. For further information see serology reports or Detective supplementals thereafter.”
In other words, Det. Gregory and Det. Davis, supervised by Lt. Muzny, consolidated the forensic evidence in the Morris and Ligons cases under 14-049050 (the case number assigned to Ligons’ incident) since they were both “related” to Holtzclaw. As described previously, the police submitted DNA from Ligons and 9 other accusers under Ligons’ lab Case # SD14-273. Police Incident Number 14-49050 (Ligons’ case) is present on many evidence documents signed by Elaine Taylor (such as chain of custody forms for accusers’ buccal swabs). This means that Taylor was well aware that numerous alleged victims were involved in the police department’s Incident Number 14-049050—not just Jannie Ligons.
In sum, Det. Gregory was actively and intimately involved in the Holtzclaw investigation from day one, including participating in a strategic meeting with higher-ups before Holtzclaw’s interrogation, conducting the interrogation with Det. Davis, overseeing the search of Holtzclaw’s vehicle, and participating in the formulation of a photo line-up for accuser Jannie Ligons (which Det. Davis nixed). Det. Gregory personally collected and directly submitted DNA evidence in the Holtzclaw case to his mother-in-law and participated in a raid of a home where more DNA evidence in the Holtzclaw case was collected and submitted to his mother-in-law.
At the crime lab, Elaine Taylor was fully aware that various accusers’ allegations and forensic items were consolidated together as part of the Holtzclaw case.
Taylor revealed her unscientific and unprofessional bias at trial when she testified that “unfortunately” Holtzclaw’s DNA was not found in the oral wash from accuser Jannie Ligons’ hospital rape exam.
Based on the single, 2-hour interrogation of Holtzclaw, Det. Gregory deemed him a “psychopath.”
Taylor’s collaboration with the prosecution to emphasize that the DNA on Holtzclaw’s pants that she matched to accuser Adaira Gardner was most likely from vaginal fluid transfer “not only contradicted the scientific results,” according to Dr. Michael Spence, but also “defied the logic that wearers typically leave DNA on their frequently used garments.” He further noted that the minuscule quantities of DNA mixtures found on Holtzclaw’s pants “were quite consistent with the expected transfer of epithelial skin cells during incidental handling events.”
As six independent scientists and forensic experts who released a public report on the flaws and failures of the OCPD crime lab, prosecution, and defense counsel in Holtzclaw’s case noted, the presence of unknown male DNA in the mixture supports the valid, non-sexual explanation of how the DNA arrived on Holtzclaw’s pants: non-intimate skin cell DNA indirect transfer.
Yet, Taylor and Assistant District Attorney Gayland Gieger misled the jury on this point. And significantly, Det. Gregory publicly expressed his own similarly erroneous and unscientific views about transfer DNA.
When I asked him, “Is it possible that there is an innocuous and completely non-nefarious reason that the 17-year-old’s DNA was on his pants,” Det. Gregory replied “no.”
When I asked him, “He couldn’t have gone to the bathroom, put his hands down there?” Det. Gregory replied, “No.”
Watch the exchange:
How did Det. Gregory arrive and these views and did he discuss them with Taylor?
Did it ever occur to either that the unknown male DNA on Holtzclaw’s pants might possibly belong to Det. Gregory?
Elaine Taylor and her son-in-law Det. Gregory’s shared bias against Holtzclaw and shared incorrect beliefs about the DNA evidence went unexamined at trial because the OCPD administration, despite being aware of their relationship, failed to disclose it to Holtzclaw’s defense counsel.
According to Richard Smith, in response to a prior public records request that I filed in August 2017, the police department found zero e-mails between Taylor and Gregory regarding the Holtzclaw case—an amazing outcome given their familial ties and the high-profile nature of the case.
Shouldn’t other defendants and their lawyers in other criminal cases on which Taylor and Gregory worked together know about their family ties?
Shouldn’t the public know if their shoddy, biased work together produced other unjust convictions based on confirmation bias-driven investigations and faulty forensic evidence collection, testing, analysis, and testimony?
Shouldn’t the public have immediate access to a full list of the cases on which this mother-in-law and son-in-law duo worked?
Through artifice and word games, the Oklahoma City Police Department hopes to deny the blindingly obvious: the failure to disclose OCPD crime lab analyst Elaine Taylor and Det. Rocky Gregory’s family connection undermined an accused man’s right to a fair trial and denied him the opportunity to expose bias, conflict and potential misconduct that could well have changed the outcome of the trial and the fate of Officer Daniel Holtzclaw.
Posted in: Daniel Holtzclaw,Feature Story
Step One to Stop False Accusations: Exposure
May 31, 2018 05:07 AM by Michelle Malkin
Daniel Holtzclaw update: Innocence community in New York speaks out
May 10, 2018 09:15 PM by Michelle Malkin
Meet Michelle Malkin at the Manhattan Film Festival
April 25, 2018 07:26 AM by Michelle Malkin
Science, secrecy, and lies in Oklahoma
February 13, 2018 11:55 PM by Michelle Malkin
Holtzclaw update: Parole hearing, secret hearings, and conflicts galore
February 7, 2018 09:32 PM by Michelle Malkin
Categories: Daniel Holtzclaw
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Jets down Caps 3-1
Written by Philip Paul-Martin
Winnipeg, Manitoba (NHN)-Ben Chiarot fired the game winner with 7:09 left in the third period as the Winnipeg Jets downed the Washington Capitals by a 3-1 score Wednesday night.
Chiarot took a pass from Brandon Tanev at centre ice before skating across the Capitials blue line and unleashing a 40 foot wrister past Pheonix Copley to make it 2-1 Jets.
"It’s always nice to contribute," said Chiarot. "Rusty (Tanev) made a nice play find me in the middle. There D was a little gapped off and I just tried to put one on net, it went off Carlson’s shaft and it dipped on the goalie a little bit. There wasn’t much to it, it was just a lucky shot." The win was their third in a row at home on their four-game homestand.
Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor added singles for Winnipeg.
Connor Hellebuyck turned aside 27 shots for the Jets.
Jakub Vrana scored for Washington, who have now lost three of their last four contests.
Pheonix Copley turned aside 22 shots for the Capitals.
Vrana got Washington on the board first when he broke across the Jets blue line and snapped a high wrister past Connor Hellebuyck, beating him high blocker side at 13:00.
The goal was his 5th of the season.
Mark Scheifele got Winnipeg on the board with a power play marker just over five minutes into the second period.
With Alex Ovechkin off for interference Blake Wheeler got control of the puck along the right side boards before hitting Kyle Connor with a crisp pass at the goal line.
Connor fed a waiting Scheifele in the slot, who one timed the disc Washington goaltender Pheonix Copley before he could react.
The goal was his 10th of the season.
Wheeler's assist extended his point scoring streak to 11 games with 20 points, two goals and eighteen assists.
Ben Chiarot scored at 12:51 of the third period to give the Jets a 2-1 lead.
The Winnipeg defenceman joined the rush and took a Brandon Tanev pass just inside the Washington blue line before stepping into a wrister which handcuffed goaltender Pheonix Copley when it careened off of his defenceman's stick.
Kyle Connor added an empty netter with a minute left in regulation to give Winnipeg a 3-1 lead.
"I think we played hard and gave ourselves a chance," said Capitals defenceman Matt Niskanen. "Obviously managing the puck is important when you're on the second (game) of a back-to-back schedule. You know we kept the game pretty quiet for the most part. I thought we checked really well."
Jets Head Coach Paul Maurice didn't think his club started out well at all.
“Well, maybe a little sharper with the puck. We just missed the net 10 times in the first period so it looked like we had nothing going on at well. Got a little faster with the puck maybe," he said.
SHOTS-WASHINGTON 28 WINNIPEG 24
ATTENDANCE-15,321
NOTES-Caps goaltender Brayden Holtby got injured working out this morning with the Washington goaltending coach. A call was put in to local goaltending coach Gavin McHale, who coaches the University of Manitoba women's hockey team.
He spent the night in the backup goaltender's seat across from the player's bench and wasn't called to action.
Jets down Coyotes 5-3
Winnipeg, Manitoba (NHN)-Josh Morrissey had a goal and an assist to pace the offence and Laurent Brossoit made 42 saves as the Winnipeg Jets went on to down the Arizona Coyotes by a 5-3 score Saturday afternoon.
The Jets, who have only one overtime loss at home this season, posted their second straight win on home ice.
Adam Lowry, Tyler Myers, Matthieu Perreault and Blake Wheeler scored for Winnipeg.
Jets down Canucks 4-1
Winnipeg, Manitoba (NHN)-Dustin Byfuglien had a goal and two assists to pace the Winnipeg Jets to a 4-1 over the Vancouver Canucks Thursday night.
The hulking Jet defenceman made his presence felt after missing Tuesday's game against Edmonton with an upper-body injury.
Byfuglien's third period tally was an insurance goal and also his first of the season.
Byfuglien moved in from his point position before taking a feed from Bryan Little and snapping a shot into an almost wide open net.
"You gotta just read the game. You just see it and you play it," he said. "It felt good to be back in the lineup with the guys. Being part of, I thought we put together a decent game. It’s nice to be back and we got our two points."
"We just kept it simple, stuck to our game plan, we got pucks to the net and we just kept battling," he added.
Bryan Little had a goal and an assist and Nikolaj Ehlers had a pair of assists.
Patrick Laine and Andrew Copp added singles for the Jets, who moved to 2-0-1 on their six-game homestand.
Connor Hellebuyck stopped 26 shots for Winnipeg.
Bo Horvat scored for the Canucks.
Anders Nilsson made 28 saves for Vancouver.
The Jets scored first on the power play when Blake Wheeler threaded the needle and hit Patrick Laine with a perfect cross slot pass which the 20 year-old Finn promptly one timed past Canucks goaltender Anders Nilsson, beating him just inside the left post.
The goal was his third of the season.
Bo Harvat tied the contest on a nice individual effort 12:54 into the second after he took a breakout pass from Derrick Pouliot just inside his own blue line before skating it into the Jets end and undressing defencema Jacob Trouba before snapping a shot past Hellebuyck.
Bryan Little broke the tie on the power play just under the five minute mark of the third on the power play, taking a Nikolaj Ehlers feed at the blue line before breaking in and beating Nilsson with a high backhander just under his left arm.
The goal was his 2nd of the season.
In fact, the Jets had a strong night with the man advantage, going 2-for-2.
"Any time the power play has success like that it’s going to be a huge confidence booster. That’s what we need, special teams that come up big for us like that, whether it’s a big power play goal or a kill. The power play was pretty good for us tonight," said Little. "After that last game we were pretty hungry in the third period. It was our best period. Once we got that go-ahead goal it seemed like we turned it up even more. That’s what you need. That’s what we were looking to do." Andrew Copp scored at 12:46, pouncing on a loose puck in front of the crease before firing a backhand shot past Nilsson to make it 3-1 Jets.
Dustin Byfuglien scored into a wide open net at 14:43 after pinching in from his point position when Bryan Little hit him with a pass from across the slot.
Jets Head Coach Paul Maurice said his team bounced back after letting Edmonton post a four-goal comeback Tuesday night.
"It was really, really good to build in the game because I thought we came out a little tense early. They had a 6-1 shot advantage and we didn’t get first touch on very many pucks through the first eight minutes of that period," he said.
"A little bit of confidence starts to return. All of a sudden, you look faster and now things are starting to go. They had a pretty good push there near the end of the second, but the third period was very important for the team’s psyche, that we can drive at the tense times in games. That’s what you want. That’s something that you have to build again. When the pressure is there, that’s when you want your team to be able to drive and feel confident. Almost play – loose isn’t the right word, but a driving game."
Canucks Head Coach Travis Green was candid in his assessment of the night's events.
“Not only are (the Jets) a good team, but they wear you down. Like I said, I liked our first 40 minutes," he said.
"The team learned a few things. The way we need to play to have success, the consistency within our game. We have to have everyone going. We're not the kind of team that can just win on one line. We need to have our whole team going every night." “I'm not going to sit here and say I'm happy with the loss, but going into that third period, I was real hopeful that we could push a little harder and find a way to win," said Green.
SHOTS-VANCOUVER 27 WINNIPEG 32
Oilers post four goal comeback to dump Jets 5-4 in OT
Winnipeg, Manitoba (NHN)-Darnell Nurse scored the game winner in 1:25 into overtime to give the Edmonton Oilers a 5-4 come from behind win over the Winnipeg Jets Tuesday night.
Nurse picked up the puck in the neutral zone before working his way twoard the Jets zone before sidestepping a check and beating Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck short side with a wrister.
"I was trying to make a read and you know just have confidence to try and make a play," said Nurse of his overtime tally. "At the same time the guys helped me out. They allowed me to skate. It was a lot of fun."
"It was a huge team win tonight. The guys set the tone early in the third and got us back in this game and it feels good to be able to contribute at the end," he added.
The game winner capped a four-goal comeback for the Oilers, who seemed resigned to a road loss on their final game of a four game road trip before storming back.
Connor McDavid drew in all four goals in regulation, with two goals and two assists while setting an NHL record in the process.
The Edmonton star has been in on the first nine goals of his club's season.
But he isn't buying into the hype.
The previous record was 7, set by Adam Oates in 1987.
"You know what it's a record," said McDavid. "I'm not really proud of it. I don't think it's a stat you should be proud of either. It is what it is. We found a way to get a goal at the end."
Jets captain Blake Wheeler said the Jets should have locked the game down.
"Yeah, 4-1 should be game over. Our line went out, gave up one early on and gave them momentum. You’re fighting an uphill battle from there," said Wheeler. "They just got that first one real quick [and] all of the sudden there is life on their bench, we’re on our heels a little bit, momentum was all on their side, pop a power-play goal so then we’re reeling. We just let the momentum get away from us, just couldn’t turn it around.”
Ty Rattie and Jesse Puljujarvi had the other Oiler goals.
Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins each had two assists.
Ben Chiarot and Mark Scheifele also scored for Winnipeg.
Connor Hellebuyck made 28 saves for the Jets, who continue their six-game homestand on Thursday against Vancouver.
Cam Talbot turned aside 29 shots for Edmonton, who return home to begin a four-game homestand against Boston.
Things looked good for Winnipeg early on as Adam Lowry staked them to a 2-0 lead before the game was eight minutes old.
Lowry, the Jets third line centre got Winnipeg on the board just under the five minute mark when he took control of a puck along the end boards, walked out in front of the net and tucked the disc just under Edmonton goaltender Cam Talbot's pad.
Lowry scored again just under three minutes later when he followed up on his own rebound, depositing a puck past Talbot to put the Jets up 2-0 at 7:47.
McDavid pulled the Oilers to within a goal at 12:49 on the power play.
McDavid took a feed from Leon Draisatl along the left side boards by the Jets blue line before breaking in and depositing a backhand shot past Connor Hellebuyck.
Ben Chiarot restored Winnipeg's two-goal cushion just 22 seconds later when he took a drop pass from Nikolaj Ehlers, who was crossing the zone at the top of the faceoff circle before blasting a slapshot from the point just inside the left goalpost.
With the Oilers serving a bench minor for too-many-men, Mark Scheifele pounced on a rebound off of a Patrick Laine shot before snapping the puck past Talbot.
The goal was his second of the season.
Ty Rattie pulled Edmonoton to within a pair just eighteen seconds into the third after Connor McDavid broke in and left a drop pass for him which he buried just under the cross bar to make it 4-2.
The goal was his first of the season.
Connor McDavid fired a puck past Hellebuyck on the power play to pull the Oilers within a goal at 2:28 of the third.
With Andrew Copp off for holding, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins got a shot on goal and Hellebuyck kicked the puck right onto the waiting stick of McDavid, who was about fifteen feet out on the right side. The Oilers captain made no mistake, firing the disc past the Jet goaltender to make it 4-3.
Jesse Puljujarvi tied the contest at 13:39 of the third when he put his stick down while driving the net.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins hit the blade Puljujarvi had his first goal of the season.
SHOTS-EDMONTON 35 WINNIPEG 33
Jets edge Kings 2-1 in season opener
Winnipeg, Manitoba (NHN)-Kyle Connor scored the game winner just over halfway through the third period on a power play as the Winnipeg Jets won their home opener, edging the Los Angeles Kings 2-1 Tuesday night.
Connor, who has goals in each of Winnipeg's first three games this season, managed to poke a puck past Kings goaltender Jack Campbell who had the misfortune of having the disc go through his legs after LA defenceman Alec Martinez redirected it through his legs.
The disc appeared to be destined to crossing the goal line which would have had Wheeler scoring the game winner but the second-year winger helped the puck over the goal line to record the game winning tally.
"Yeah for sure it's (puck) there. It's kind of a reactionary play," said Connor afterward.
Jets drop 5-3 decision to Devils
Winnipeg, Manitoba (NHN)-Travis Zajac scored the game winner 17 seconds into the third period as the New Jersey Devils downed the Winnipeg Jets 5-3 Thursday night to win their first game of the NHL pre-season.
The Devils, who are headed to Switzerland to cap off their pre-season tomorrow won their first contest of the obligitory prelude to the regular season.
Winnipeg wrapped up their pre-season with a second straight loss.
“Yeah. It's nice to get through the pre-season here and start ramping up and getting ready for the first game," said Jets winger Kyle Connor, who scored in the loss.
Andy Greene, Kyle Palmieri, Travis Zajac and Damon Severson scored for the Devils.
Sami Vatanen had a goal and an assist for the Devils and Marcus Johansson had a pair of assists.
Keith Kinkaid made 21 stops for New Jersey.
Taylor Hall added two assists for the Devils.
Matthieu Perreault, Kyle Connor and Skyler McKenzie scored for the Jets, who wrapped up their pre-season with a loss.
Blake Wheeler and Mark Scheifele each had a pair of assists.
Connor Hellebucyk turned aside 22 shots for Winnipeg.
Matthew Perreault got the Jets on the board 13:11 into the first period as he converted a Blake Wheeler feed from the side boards, spinning in close and sliding the puck past Devils goaltender Keith Kinkaid moments after a penalty to Damon Seerson expired.
The goal was his first of the pre-season.
The lead was short lived as Andy Greene evened the contest after sneaking in from his left point position before Marcus Johansson hit him with crisp pass just shy of the 15 minute mark.
Kyle Palmieri gave the Devils the lead at 15:47, redirecting the puck past Connor Hellebuyck with his glove.
The goal was allowed to stand.
Sami Vatanen gave New Jersey a two-goal cushion less than a minute into the second when Taylor Hall found Vatanen all alone in the middle of the right faceoff circle and hit him with a cross-ice pass.
Vatanen slid the puck past a shocked Hellebuyck to make it 3-1 New Jersey. Kyle Connor one timed a nifty backhand feed past Kinkaid to pull Winnipeg within one at 9:10 of the second to make it 3-2.
Travis Zajac made it 4-2 17 seconds into the third to restore the two-goal lead, pouncing on a rebound off a shot from Myles Wood to score his first of the pre-season.
Skyler McKenzie tipped a puck past Kinkaid off a shot from Joe Morrow at 3:07 to make it 4-3.
The goal was his 3rd of the pre-season.
Damon Severson scored just over the ten minute mark of the third period, one timing a Marcus Johansson feed from the right side boards at 10:01 to make it 5-3.
Devils defenceman Mirco Mueller said consistency was key in getting their first win of the pre-season. "We wanted to put sixty minutes together. We kinda had a bit of a rough patch when we tried to do that in the beginning of the pre-season having a consistent game. I think we were able to do that for the most part tonight," he said.
Jets Head Coach Paul Maurice spent the night evaluating where his club was at, rather than concerning himself with the score.
"I wasn’t looking at the game as a barometer. Still watching guys, older guys trying to get their timing. The young guys, it was a bit of a test on back-to-back nights in the National Hockey League. I thought that they got better as the game went on and it’s a good lesson, right? It’s on those back-to-backs, it usually the first 10 minutes, the first 20 to get er going."
SHOTS-NEW JERSEY 27 WINNIPEG 24
Jets down Oilers 5-3 in NHL pre-season
Winnipeg, Manitoba (NHN)-Linemates Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler fined tuned their games Sunday night in preparation for the NHL's regular season.
Both had three point nights, Scheifele tallied twice, scoring a power play and shorthanded marker while Wheeler had a goal and two assists as the Winnipeg Jets to a 5-3 win over the Edmonton Oilers.
“It was good. Obviously, we got better as the game went on. A little early, we weren't getting pucks to the net and then started getting pucks deep and started to get a few more towards the goalie and put a few in," said Scheifele.
Skyler McKenzie also scored for the Jets.
Connor Hellebuyck made 39 saves for Winnipeg.
Kailer Yamamoto and Ethan Bear scored for the Oilers.
Mikko Koskinen turned aside 16 shots for Edmonton.
Winnipeg got on the board first on the power play when Mark Scheifele converted a Blake Wheeler feed from near the bottom of the right face off circle to give the Jets a 1-0 lead.
Edmonton evened the contest at 7:33 when Tyler Yamamoto tipped a puck past Hellebucyk to make it 1-1.
Zack Kassian fished the puck out of the corner and fed defenceman Matt Benning at the right point which the Oiler defenceman managed to get a shot off which Yamamoto redirected past the Jet goaltender to register his 3rd goal of the pre-season.
With Dustin Byfuglien off for tripping the Oilers took the lead when Ethan Bear one timed a Drake Caggiula feed from the side boards past Hellebuyck from the point, beating the Winnipeg goaltender just inside the right post.
The goal was his 2nd of the pre-season.
Bear, who is battling for one of the two final spots on Edmonton's blue line, said the Oilers played hard. "I thought we played well honestly. They (Jets) got a couple of bounces and that's just the way it goes sometimes. I think we played well and I think we played hard."
Skyler McKenzie tipped a puck past Mikko Koskinen to tie the contest 7:42 into the second period, redirecting a Joe Morrow shot from the right point to make it 2-2.
The goal was his 1st of the pre-season.
Scheifele gave the Jets the lead with a shorthanded marker 10:01 into the second period when Blake Wheeler pounced on a loose puck by the blue line before bursting in down the left side and feeding Scheifele who beat an outstretched Koskinen to score his second of the night.
Blake Wheeler fired a power play goal at 7:24 of the 3rd period to give the Jets a two goal cushion.
The Winnipeg captain moved in off the right side boards before wiring a wrister beating Koskinen high glove side to make it 4-2.
The goal was his second of the pre-season.
Skyler McKenzie made it 5-2 at 10:23 firing a perfect C.J Suess feed past Koskinen to score his first of the pre-season.
Kailer Yamamoto added a late goal to make it 5-3.
Oilers Head Coach Todd McLellan was pleased with the effort of his team on the night. "Actually I'm not overly disappointed with it (loss). Obviously anytime you lose you're not happy but there's a lot of good things we did in the game that we can correct and build off of."
Today Gallery
editor@nativehockeynews.com
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Gale Grant Costume Jewelry, New York City
http://galegrant.com/
The place to shop for traditional and trendy costume jewelry. Nobody has the selection you'll find at Gale Grant Costume Jewelry.<br> Selling strictly costume jewelry, but it's crafted from some of the finest gemstones and semi-precious stones, including amethyst, jade, pearl, aquamarine, quartz, rose quartz, and lapis lazuli.</br> A family owned and operated business for over 60 years. Midtown Manhattan’s hidden gem, Gale Grant Costume Jewelry has something for everyone. We carry a wide variety of fine costume and travel jewelry from all over the world. Whether your tastes are fashion forward designs or classic and sophisticated, Gale Grant has what you are looking for to compliment any outfit or occasion.<br/> Superior quality costume jewelry paired with exceptional customer service is the very cornerstone of Gale Grant Costume Jewelry. Gale Grant features costume jewelry and accessories from faux stones, cubic zirconia, semi-precious stones, sterling silver, a nickel and lead free line, and top designer collections.
Verdura, New York City
745 Fifth Avenue - New York, NY 10022
http://www.verdura.com
Backed by his friends Cole Porter and Vincent Astor, Verdura opened his salon above Fifth Avenue in 1939. Success was almost immediate for the boldly innovative Duke. He became a legend from Hollywood to the palaces of Europe for his elegant and whimsical jewelry. Today, women of style continue to adore Verdura’s classic elegance.
DeNatale Jewelers, New York City
111 Broadway, Suite 205 - Between 47th & 48th Sts. - New York, NY 10038
http://www.denatale.com/
Founded in 1908, the DeNatale Jewelry company has grown to be one of the most trusted and beloved jewelry companies today. We were recently named an "Innovation Store". which signifies our dedication to fulfilling the jewelry dreams of our customers. Our family owned business has certainly evolved over the 100 plus years it's been catering to New York clientele and now features Twitter updates, a YouTube page, and a frequently updated blog. It's good to know some things, like a good piece of jewelry, never go out of style!
Zales Jewelers, New York City
1187 3rd Ave - Upper East Side - New York, NY 10021
Zales has grown from a single store selling jewelry alongside appliances and cameras to a major international jewelry corporation. Over the course of five generations, Zales expanded from a family jeweler located in just a few downtown locations to the largest fine jeweler in retail shopping malls across North America. Having surpassed 750 stores in the United States and Puerto Rico, Zales Jewelers has grown upon the strength of its traditions and its commitment to excellence.
Rennie Ellen, New York City
15 W. 47th St. - New York, NY 10036
http://www.rennieellen.com
The diamond is the most important part of the ring and no two are exactly alike. The value and price depends on four factors. Clarity, color, cut, and carat weight. A diamond weight is expressed in carats with 100 points to a carat. Cut is also very important. A properly cut stone shines with a fire and brilliance, the likes of which are not seen in any other precious stone. Color also plays an important role in determining the price of the stone. The nearer a stone gets to being colorless, the greater its value. The final factor affecting price is clarity. Most stones contain natural imperfections.
Chrome Hearts, New York City
159 East 64th Street - New York, NY 10021
http://www.chromehearts.com
New York, Las Vegas, Honolulu, Los Angeles and Mailibu.
David Yurman, New York City
729 Madison Avenu - Midtown - New York, NY 10022
http://www.davidyurman.com/
<iframe id='palyer12' src='http://www.youtube.com/embed/?listType=user_uploads&list=DavidYurmanVideo'></iframe id='palyer12'>
David Yurman is the founder of the David Yurman jewelry company. His signature jewelry line is comprised of "cable" jewelry, made from twisted sterling silver ropes.<br> Yurman established his company in 1979. Yurman, along with his wife Sybil, have sought, in the company's words, "to fuse art, fashion and fine jewelry.". The company is also notable for its use of supermodels in its advertising campaigns. Past campaigns have included models such as Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, and Amber Valletta and more. In 2006, Naomi Watts replaced Valletta as the face of the brand. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org" target="new">Source</a>
Satya Jewelry, New York City
330 Bleecker Street - Bleecker Street - New York, NY 10014
http://www.satyajewelry.com
Blending spiritual symbols, healing gemstones and sacred meanings. Satya Jewelry is created with grace, style and global consciousness.
TAG Heuer Boutique, New York City
422 West Broadway - SoHo - New York, NY 10012
http://www.TagHeuer.com
<iframe id='palyer14' src='http://www.youtube.com/embed/?listType=user_uploads&list=TAGHeuerOnline'></iframe id='palyer14'>
TAG Heuer Swiss avant-Garde Since 1860.<br> Swiss watch brand, swiss watch company, watchmaker, watchmaking.
Bayco Gem Corp, New York City
http://www.bayco.com/
Fine jewelery. The most precious stones in the world.
Herman Rotenberg Wedding Rings, New York City
4 W. 47th Street - New York, NY 10036
http://www.unusualweddingrings.com/
"Unusual wedding rings. Ordering an item from Herman Rotenberg Wedding Rings, Inc.. We can ship to virtually any address in the continental United States (Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico are available at additional shipping costs). The item(s) must be shipped to the same location as the billing address on the credit card. If this is not feasible please arrange to pick up your item(s) from the store."
433 439 86TH STREET - 86th Street - Brooklyn, NY 11209
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How To Sell C2c To China From Overseas
Amazon helps Chinese companies sell overseas Business
11/12/2013 · In 2009 he founded a joint venture providing e-commerce solutions to Chinese and overseas merchants selling online. While witnessing the fast growth of online selling in China …... JD mall allows local sellers to open individual shop fronts and can import food, beverage products, clothing and shoes straight from overseas. JD Mall’s cross-border service, JD Worldwide, allows international merchants to sell directly to Chinese consumers without a physical presence in China. The company has the largest fulfilment infrastructure of any e-commerce company in China and
How to Choose a Third-Party When Entering China's e
Selling overseas B2B in China 01 November 2016 B2B in China Doing business in China is increasingly attractive for Australian retailers and producers. As Chinese consumers demand more Australian products, explore ways to make full use of the opportunities the market offers. Selling directly to the consumer (B2C) makes sense for a lot of businesses. But for others, selling directly to... Like climbing the highest mountain in the world, importing goods from overseas seems daunting, but it can be done. Anyone can go into this business. You can easily learn how to find suppliers and manufacturers, import products from China and other countries, and sell products for a good profit.
Business Ideas Blog Selling Overseas Australia Post
Amazon China has started a new program, entitled “Next Generation Trade Link,” that aims to help Chinese manufacturers and merchants sell abroad, Digital Commerce 360 reports. As a part of the program, Amazon Business will sell Chinese manufacturers’ products internationally, and Amazon will allow Chinese merchants to sell on its recently launched Australian marketplace. how to turn screen sideways on ipad China’s cross-border ecommerce (CBEC) imports, which refer to the purchase of overseas products online, are expected to increase to ¥1.9 trillion (US$285 billion) in 2018, from ¥0.9 trillion (US$136 billion) in 2015, according to iResearch.
B2B in China StarTrack Insights - Australia Post
Taobao dominates the C2C (consumer-to-consumer) e-commerce space in China. Akin to Ebay in the West, Taobao allows individuals (and not necessarily registered businesses) to sell directly to consumers. Taobao is well known for its diverse product offerings. A popular joke in Chinese is 从小鸡蛋到原子弹，都可以在淘宝买到, which translates to ‘From a small egg to a small how to turn an android phone from a computer Development of China C2C E-commerce from the Perspective of Goods Delivery 181 quality in C2C E-commerce and compare them with B2B E-commerce by using the …
How to Market Shoes in China? Marketing China
Consumer-To-Consumer (C2C) Electronic Commerce The
e-Commerce in China asialinkbusiness.com.au
Guide to Understanding the E-Commerce Market in China
11/02/2014 · Michael A. Downs, a businessman in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., says he is simply looking to profit from the growing demand in China for cars from the likes of Mercedes, BMW and Range Rover.
Data show the number of WeChat "traders", or those trying to sell something via WeChat, has grown from 10 million to 20 million across China this year, and the number is growing.
to-consumer (B2C) transactions, but consumer-to-consumer (C2C) as well. This guide provides a broad overview of the key features of China’s VAT, and is presented in a way which should be readily accessible to an international
A specialty store is a more informal option, which uses C2C platforms such as Taobao and WeChat to re-sell a brand’s products. Engaging TPs with the infrastructure to provide these alternative models allows businesses to experiment with China’s e-commerce market before …
Alibaba is China's undisputed market share leader of B2C and C2C e-commerce, operating three distinct platforms: Taobao, Tmall, and Tmall Global. Set up in 2003, Taobao is a C2C site analogous to Ebay.
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Go to MRC website
Report on: The First International Training Workshop on Mycetoma, Khartoum, Sudan, 10–14 February 2019
The First International Training Workshop on Mycetoma was organised in Khartoum, Sudan in the period 10–14th February 2019. It was organised by the Mycetoma Research Centre, (MRC), University of Khartoum, WHO Collaborating Centre on Mycetoma and the World Health Organization (WHO).
It aimed to facilitate the implementation of the Resolution WHA69.21 through the strengthening of country-level capacities on diagnosis and treatment of mycetoma. Furthermore, to provide medical and health workers with a logical and systematic approach to the diagnosis and management of mycetoma and its public-health aspects.
The training workshop was organised at the Mycetoma Research Center and Soba Educational, Training and Examination Centre, Soba University Hospital, Khartoum, Sudan.
The Workshop Rationale
• Mycetoma has a wide distribution globally, but most cases are found in tropical and subtropical regions in the “mycetoma belt”, which extends between latitudes 15° south and 30° north and includes countries of Argentina, Brazil, Chad, Ethiopia, India, Mauritania, Mexico, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Venezuela, Yemen and others. A global response is required to address its burden.
• Mycetoma mainly affects poor and underserved populations. There is thus a need to strengthen access to diagnosis and treatment within the framework of universal health coverage.
• Only limited information on the transmission of mycetoma and its burden are available, which limits the arsenal of available control tools and warrants more environmental and epidemiological studies in areas where the disease is endemic. More field research is needed.
• Currently, there is no standardised approach to surveillance, diagnosis and treatment of mycetoma. More consensus and strategic direction are required.
• There is limited capacity to manage mycetoma at the country level, and neither preventive nor public-health control programmes are in place globally.
• Effective South-to-South and North-to-South collaboration must be established, knowledge must be transferred, and capacity must be built.
• Challenges include collecting quantitative and qualitative information on cases of mycetoma, with the aim of estimating the burden of the disease and understanding its clinical presentation and treatment outcomes. Better surveillance and a global mycetoma registry are needed.
• Mycetoma is “neglected” in terms of the priority afforded to the disease by health and social sectors across the world. There is a great need for improved communication, awareness, advocacy and resource mobilisation to increase the visibility of mycetoma.
The main objectives were to:
• Provide an opportunity for clinicians, care providers and public health workers for group discussions and share their experiences;
• Discuss disease causation, presentation, diagnosis and treatment, patients’ care and referral indications;
• Improve knowledge, attitude and practice, including ultrasound diagnosis;
• Discuss the delivery of community health education and disease advocacy;
• Improve the overall practical management of the disease.
Workshop activities
The workshop had provided training on:
• Patient referral, specimen collection, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of mycetoma;
• Various laboratory and clinical management protocols;
• Molecular diagnosis of mycetoma
• Integrated and holistic management of mycetoma
• The establishment of a global mycetoma registry to collect epidemiological and ecological characteristics of each case and delineate the spatial distribution of the disease globally;
• Collaborative epidemiological studies and research in different endemic countries;
• Establishment of national and international guidelines on the management of mycetoma;
• National prevention and control programmes design.
The Training Workshop Participants
Seventy-nine participants from 32 countries had attended the training workshop and that included Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Cameron, Chad, Cuba, Ethiopia, Germany, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritania, Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippian, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Switzerland, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Yemen.
That included:
• Plenary sessions
• Hands-on-experience
• Group discussions
• Group work
• Meet-the-experts
• Clinical sessions
The Instruction Language
The training workshop language was English.
The Outcomes
1. The training workshop had strengthened the participants’ capacities in the following areas
- Appropriate case management,
- Basic laboratory diagnosis of mycetoma,
- Surveillance for mycetoma,
- Creation of a global mycetoma registry,
- Designing national and international protocols on the management of mycetoma,
- Designing national prevention and control programmes.
2. It had established a good collaboration and links among the participants from the endemic countries and with the global institutions working on mycetoma.
3. It had increased communication, awareness and advocacy on mycetoma.
The Feedback
The training workshop participants gave feedback both oral and written
In general, it was positive, and it showed demand for further training activities at the country level and the different regions.
• More regional workshops
• Establishment of regional mycetoma expert’s groups
• Prof Ahmed Mohamed EL Hassan, Emeritus Professor of Pathology, University of Khartoum, Sudan.
• Prof EL Sheikh Mahgoub, Professor of Microbiology, The Mycetoma Research Centre, University of Khartoum.
• Prof. Roderick Hay, Professor of Dermatology, International Foundation for Dermatology, London, United Kingdom
• Prof. Ahmed Hassan Fahal, Professor of Surgery, Mycetoma Research Center, University of Khartoum, Sudan.
• Prof Alexandro Bonifaz, Professor of Dermatology, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico.
• Dr Badr EL Din Margani, Consultant Histopathologist, Soba University Hospital, Khartoum, Sudan.
• Dr EL Rayah Mustafa, Consultant Radiologist, Soba University Hospital, Khartoum, Sudan.
• Dr Mustafa EL Nour, A. Professor of Radiology, University of Khartoum.
• Dr Sahar Moubark Bakhiet, A. Professor of Molecular Biology, Mycetoma Research Center, University of Khartoum, Sudan.
• Dr Wendy van de Sande, A. Professor of Medical Microbiology, Erasmus Medical Centre, University of Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
• Dr Karlyn Beer, Consultant Epidemiologist, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, USA
• Dr David Blaney, Consultant Epidemiologist, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, USA
• Dr Kevin Onyango, Clinical Trials Coordinator, Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), Keyna
• Dr Borna Nyaoke, Clinical Trials Director, Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), Keyna
• Dr Albis Francesco Gabrielli, Team Leader, Capacity Building & Communications, Neglected Tropical Diseases, World Health Organization, Geneva
The WHO, Head-Quarter and EMRO Office had contributed tremendously to the training workshop budget
The Workshop Photos
https://photos.app.goo.gl/PrM6nb4YcRJUWEUY7
Workshop Organisers
- Prof. Ahmed Hassan Fahal
MBBS, FRCS, FRCSI, FRCS(G), MD, MS, FRCP (London)
Professor of Surgery,
Director, The Mycetoma Research Centre, University of Khartoum
- Dr Albis Francesco Gabrielle,
Team Leader, Capacity Building & Communications
Neglected Tropical Diseases
World Health Organization, Geneva
- Dr Laxmikant Chavan
Technical Consultant, Communicable Diseases & Epidemiology,
World Health Organization, Sudan
- Dr Ashok Moloo
Communications Officer, World Health Organization, Geneva
• The workshop programme
• Participants list
Mycetoma Archive
UK Doctors Visit Mycetoma Research Centre
Mycetoma at the World Health Organisation
Report on the Mycetoma Medical & Health Third Mission to Wad Onsa and Wad El Nimir villages, Sinner State 31st March - 1st April 2016
Medical and Health Mission to Um Gar Island Region,
WHO Executive Board recommends mycetoma resolution to World Health Assembly
The European Congress on Medical Microbiology and infectious diseases
Training Workshop on Good Clinical Laboratory Practice, Nairobi, Kenya, 5-7th March, 2019
Training course in Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Bioinformatics, Johannesburg, South Africa, 27 January- 1 February 2019
Operational Management & Ethical Implications Workshop 22- 23, November 2017
Dr. Melissa Kadzik, Dr. Wun-Ju Shieh, and Dr. Karlyn D Beer from the CDC, Atlanta, USA
Get all latest news delivered to your email a few times a month.
Copyright © 2013 MRC Newsletter. All Rights Reserved.
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107.8 Radio Jackie - Bulletins aired each hour
The classic film Born Free was shown in the Houses of Parliament earlier this week
The screening, which was set up by Richmond Park MP Zac Goldsmith, involved a Q&A with its star Virginia McKenna.
Virginia set up the Born Free Foundation with her late husband Bill Travers to make sure animals stay in the wild.
We caught up with her at the screening.
posted by Radio Jackie News Team @ 4:30 pm
Top of Radio Jackie News page here.
One of many reasons why we are so useful to South West London... our very own news team bringing you stories that are relevant to you and your area.
If you have a press release or would like to send in news then pop off an e-mail to [email protected]
Follow Jackie News at twitter.com/jackie_news.
Listen to Jackie's latest News and Travel
News Team - - Local news 24 hours a day
Lucy Mayer
Lucy is the News and Travel Editor. Find out more about her on the Presenters page.
Luke spends his free time playing synthesisers and watching old sitcoms. Journalism helps remind him of the 21st century.
Felix Thompson
Felix is from Kew. He loves his sport, and he lives and breathes Newcastle United.
Sandra Aggrey
Sandra wants to travel the world in 60 days.
Sophie Weaver
Born and bred in Esher, travel, food, sport and animal enthusiast.
Alex Loveridge
Alex loves watching tennis at Surbiton and Wimbledon and also plays a bit too. He swims at Richmond, but not in the Thames.
Mike Oban
Mike enjoys playing and watching sports and is a budding football coach.
Jacqui Kerr
Jacqui enjoys all sports and has had a go at most! She loves talking, current affairs, music, and walking her polar bear sized dog.
Emma used to walk past Jackie when she was younger and wonder what it looked like inside. Now she knows.
David´s philosophy is you only live once so go out and grab every opportunity no matter how small.
Deborah may have started life on a farm in Ohio, USA, but is a long time resident of South West London. Her current loves are fusing glass, good meals out, and dancing.
Paul Francis
Paul grew up in Fetcham and now lives in Teddington with his wife, two cats and a dog. He supports Fulham and plays in a band.
Sarah Onions
Sarah was schooled in Kingston and she likes jogging around Bushy Park.
Natalie Osborne
Natalie presents both news and travel - find out more about her on the Presenters page.
Sharmeen Ziauddin
Sharmeen lives in Worcester Park and loves lie-ins, kittens, books, politics, make-up and anything with sugar in it, but hates Monday mornings with a vengeance.
Faye De Silva
Faye absolutely loves singing and dancing, even though she can't sing or dance.
Ben Chapman
Ben lives in Cheam and loves sport.
Chuck Adolphy
Chuck is a huge Chelsea fan and loves all sport, especially cricket.
Graham Osborne
Graham is capable of quoting films at the drop of a hat. If he were allowed, he would probably never leave the cinema.
Marina Jenkins
Marina has lived in SW London all her life and she loves it. There are so many great pubs, high streets, river walks and of course, Richmond Park.
Katherine McGinn
Katherine loves singing jazz, blues and soul, writing, drawing, politics and long walks with her dog.
Mia Bazzoui
Mia likes to cook, perform musical theatre and produce documentaries. She has roots all over the world and lives in Wimbledon.
Tayo Andoh
Tayo watched Sir Trevor McDonald present The News At Ten at a young age and that inspired her dream of becoming a broadcast journalist. She loves music and is a keen baker.
Nick O'Keeffe
When Nick isn't not on the airwaves, he's either in the kitchen creating magic, writing or travelling with his partner Mia. Devout Chelsea supporter to boot.
Brandon Mitchell
Originally from the USA, Brandon loves rock, hockey and reading Stephen King.
Chloe Norman
Chloe presents both news and travel - find out more about her on the Presenters page.
Emma Tinson
Emma goes to the cinema with friends on a weekly basis, so if you need to know what’s hot or not at the box office, she's your girl!
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PHISH, MONDAY 11/28/1994
FIELD HOUSE, MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITYFIELD HOUSE, MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY
SET 1: Chalk Dust Torture, Also Sprach Zarathustra, Scent of a Mule, Stash, Guyute, Sparkle > Simple[1] > Divided Sky, Sweet Adeline
SET 2: Suzy Greenberg > NICU > Tweezer -> Digital Delay Loop Jam -> Tweezer > Sleeping Monkey > Julius
ENCORE: Fee[2] > Tweezer Reprise
[1] Cameron McKinney on saxophone.
Simple featured Cameron McKinney on saxophone. A portion of the jam segment from this long (nearly 45 minutes), experimental Tweezer appeared on A Live One as Montana. Trey teased I'm a Man (Spencer Davis Group) in Tweezer prior to the Digital Delay Loop Jam. Trey sang the verses of Fee through a megaphone. This gig was originally scheduled for MSU’s Shroyer Gym (capacity 1,800), and was later moved to the larger Field House (capacity 8,500).
Tweezer, Digital Delay Loop Jam, Tweezer
I'm a Man tease in Tweezer
The Story of the Ghost 1
Nov 28, 2016: Mike Gordon - Philadelphia, PA
Nov 28, 2014: Trey Anastasio Band - Chicago, IL
Nov 28, 2009: Phish - Albany, NY
Nov 28, 2003: Phish - Uniondale, NY
Nov 28, 1998: Phish - Worcester, MA
Nov 28, 1995: Phish - Knoxville, TN
Nov 28, 1992: Phish - Port Chester, NY
Nov 28, 1990: Phish - Syracuse, NY
Trey Anastasio, Page McConnell, Jon Fishman, Mike Gordon, Cameron McKinney (Guest)
2013-08-19 12:41 pm , attached to 1994-11-28
Review by nichobert
This is THE Tweezer.
After Tahoe, I went back and listened to all the long Tweezers.
It was almost comical how handily this one smoked the rest. It almost doesn't feel like a 1994 jam because its so coherent and cohesive, each segment spilling logically into the next even if the departure is pretty massive.
There are two seperate Page solos, a Cactus solo, a DDLJ, and my favorite part, a full blown Tweezer Reprise jam without the words to out about 35 exclamation points on it. (Pre?) Reminiscent of the Weekapaug jam in the Worcester Jim, the Back At The Chicken Shack jam in the Dicks Light and Frampton jam in the Tahoe Tweezer, an uplifting crescendo of emotion delivered via recognizable thematic jamming.
This is 10/10. The only Tweezers that get me going as well are 12/2/95 and Tahoe, but neither of them can match this.
Review by Penn42
If there is a jam that deserves the title "masterpiece", the Bozeman Tweezer would be it. What an incredible piece of improvisation! It's not perfect, repeated listens will bring to light little bits and pieces that you might not particularly care for--little anomalies in their interactions that don't create a wholly satisfying result--but we must remember: this composition (that is, improvisation) was composed on the spot in real time, there were no second chances.
And with that in mind, this thing is just damn incredible. I can't think of another 40+ minute Phish jam that creates such a fully realized whole. This jam doesn't once start to wander; it remains focused and poignant for its entire duration. Trey and Page both take unaccompanied solos and Mike and Fish have a nice little groove section together (the part that "Montana" on A Live One is taken from). The jam following the Digital Delay Look Jam is very spooky and my favorite portion of this monster.
The rest of the show, at least what circulates, is good too. It's unfortunate that the whole show isn't available, but at least the second set is intact. I'm sure that the parts of the first set that don't circulate are good though... after all, it is Fall '94. Who knows, maybe this lost Stash is 7.8's rival. If that were the case, I'd say we have a strong contender for show of the year right here. Though, I do have to say, the saxophone player on Simple is just weird. I'm not really sure what was going on, but he just makes some weird noises for a little bit, then Trey starts up Divided Sky. At least it doesn't last very long because it goes absolutely nowhere. But worry not, a very strong Divided Sky to follow wipes the unpleasant taste from your mouth.
A very strong show anchored by one of the best, and most overlooked, pre '97 jams. This second set, or really (who am I kidding) the Tweezer, is must hear.
Review by Funkybert
I wonder if someday someone who knew me back then will find this review and contact me through here
I was at this show... and it remains a fantastic memory of my first time west of the rockies going to school at University of Montana. My new found friends and I drove the 3 hour ride to Bozeman in the bitter cold and snow.. all took acid.. and went on in..
What happened in the gymnasium was ecstatic.. My first shock was that we were in a Gym.. on basketball courts.. with risers on the sides.. we were asking ourselves are we in the right place?
This was Phish's first time in Montana.. and everyone knew this.. so there was excited anticipation.
I noticed people reviewing about some terrible sax solo going on during the second set.. I can say that this is because the sax player was about 10 years old.. Trey knew him.. I think they were either related or he had an old gf who's child it was. They brought him on stage and introduced him to the crowd.. it was awesome for him.. but obviously not near the caliber of professional musicians so we have to go easy on the little guy!
This is one fact of why this show in particular was one of those "you just had to be there" shows.
As with the other reviews.. The Tweezer(s) are incredible.. and I remember vividly getting down so hard with my 19 year old body in sheer amazement as to how incredible the improvisation was and how hard their music could make me dance. The good acid we took for this experience only enhanced the feel throughout the body.. I put the trip I took during this show as tops for musical body/mind connection. I hope I revisit the peak of Tweezer with how I felt in that moment during my walk into heaven reliving my life when I die.. definitely highlight.
This show's venue was simple as can be, completely stripped down, even the light show was stripped down.. many Phish heads drove hours to the show... and for that I think the boys stepped up in epic fashion with their first time in Montana to show the locals and those who took the journey there what they were made of in the peak of their best tour year which was 1994 (my opinion of course)
To have a short excerpt of the Tweezer jam on their next live album (A live one) I think was a tip of the cap to their own performance as it must have been memorable for them as well. When a band really connects effortlessly on stage only to find themselves in "the zone" together completely in control of their next move and the crowd feeds off it.. I can only imagine the shared bliss they must have felt left them wanting to get the recording out there in some fashion. To think that there is a master tape out there in their vaults is such a little frustrating, but at least we have the second set to download!
I'm forever thankful to have experienced this show the way I did.. and with the new friends I had met as well.. some of which I know would love to read this and remember the trip we shared in Montana with the boys from Phish..
This show sealed the deal on my opinion of the band as one of the greatest American jam bands of all time. Still a dead head first and foremost But Phish takes their jams to places no other band dared to go...
Review by Captain_Fantasy
Unfortunately everything not mentioned in the set 1 review/description is not on the spreadsheet AUD.
SOAMule – As always, during the slowdown Page gets insanely quick and chaotic on the keys. The guitar/piano duel seems a bit short-winded to me, but it’s satisfying overall.
Guyute – Standard Guyute of course. There’s nothing to complain about.
Sparkle – This is a 1994 song at its core. Laugh and laughing fall apart!
Simple – The type of Simple jam you would expect to hear, but it’s done quite well. It does change pace quite abruptly due to Trey bringing out Cameron McKinney. Post-introduction it does get quite fun to listen to. The saxophone almost sounds like a joke on top of the “serious” jam being played in the background. Although the seriousness is also a joke as Fish is yelling in praise of the obviously dismal saxophone.
Divided Sky – Good rendition of Divided Sky.
Suzy – A solid, standard Suzy.
NICU – Again, a standard rendition of a solid song.
Tweezer – Awe-inspiring polymorphous jam with a digital delay loop jam in the middle. An expansive and indeed “epic Tweezer”, this one goes places that 1994 Phish didn’t go too often. It often times is fast-paced, thrilling and rocking, while at other times is reserved, dark and even a bit creepy. Anyone who likes Phish enough to be on the .net should check this one out. It actually takes my breath away during some segments while at other times my knuckles go white waiting for a climax which may or may never come. Phish at the top of their game right here.
Sleeping Monkey – A breath of fresh air after a captivating, seemingly bottomless Tweezer. For all the jamming Phish does, it is necessary to take a step back and be goofy.
Julius – This and the other songs in set II do a good job of being type I in order to leave Tweezer standing as its own, a work of art. Julius, and the other set II songs, is like a bookend.
Fee > Tweeprise – Once again there really isn’t a point for the band to try anything spectacular all things considered. A mellow > energetic ending, which is hard to complain about
The first set is a bit hard to review, but the lack of songs in the AUD isn’t too big of a distress; this show is about the Tweezer. The one highlight of the first set I can pick out is simple, even though it’s disappointing they didn’t explore the jam further. The second set - I said all I can say in my summary of Tweezer. My rating – 4/5. Tweezer earns the 4, with the rest serving as filler (Phish filler > other fillers).
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About : Wallpapers
8889 films, 16633 profiles, and counting
UPPERSTALL
Upperstall Review
Mouna Ragam
Tamil, Drama, 1986, Color
Mohan Revathi VK Ramaswamy R Sankaran
Mani Ratnam
G Venkateswaran
PC Sreeram
Vaali
B Lenin VT Vijayan
SP Balasubramaniam S Janaki
Divya (Revathi) is a young, carefree and vivacious college going girl. Her father arranges her match with an eligable young man, the manager of a company in Delhi, Chandra Kumar (Mohan). She initially opposes the match but relents when her father, who was very keen on this alliance, has a heart attack. The couple go to Delhi but Divya refuses to accept Chandra Kumar as her husband and asks him for a divorce. She tells him about her past when she fell in love with a small time gangster, Manohar (Karthik) but their romance was brutally cut short when he was shot in front of her even as she was waiting for him outside the registrar's office to get married. Chandra tells her her past is immaterial, he is only concerned about their future. But she refuses to relent. The couple apply for divorce but are told they must live as man and wife for a year before it would come through. They go ahead with the proceedings and live separate lives under the same roof. Even as Divya slowly warms up to Chandra, he keeps himself aloof from her since it was she who wanted this divorce. Even as Divya finds herself finally falling in love with the kind, sensitive and considerate Chandra, their divorce comes through...
Mouna Ragam is looked at as Mani Ratnam's breakthrough film and though somewhat dated in places in terms of both content and style, the film has some of his finest moments. The film, his third in Tamil and fifth overall, maturely deals with the man-woman relationship and remains one of the best in the genre.
The strength of the film lies in the way both the key relationships have been treated - the major Revathi - Mohan one and the shorter Revathi - Karthik one. While the major one is gentle, subtle and nicely built up with moments of introspection not just for the characters, but for the viewer as well, the shorter one is young, playful and often brings a smile to your face and full of vintage 'Mani Ratnam' moments. What's more, the film is treated in a sophisticated and restrained manner and is refreshingly free of melodrama and this style is maintained throughout the film. Ratnam sensibly avoids milking the potential dramatic scenes such as Karthik's death and Revathi's reaction. What's also interesting about the whirlwind Revathi - Karthik romance is that her family never even knew about it, again refreshingly free from cliches of the parents opposing the romance etc.
The film has its share of memorable moments like the scene where Revathi is trying to feed Mohan after he's back from the hospital and when he refuses, she asks him if he has a problem with her touching him and he says he has no problem but on touching him, she would feel like bugs are crawling on her, a reference to her telling him this earlier. She is as stung by this remark as he was earlier. The scene before she is supposedly leaving for good outside the train station where she declares her love for him even as he gives her the divorce papers is another one handled extremely well by not just the filmmaker, but both artists. The film sees also certain trademark Ratnam elements being set like the rain song with Revathi in the beginning. Girija was introduced in Gitanjali with a song in the rain as was Aishwarya Rai in Guru (2007). The use of backlight in most frames even at the cost of lighting continuity as long as the composition looks good was maintained and further developed as a slick techncial style by Ratnam and his cinematographer PC Sriram in all their forthcoming films.
Still, for all that works and works well, the film has its share of little glitches. The father's heart attack to get Revathi to marry is an old cliche the film is unable to avoid. The smaller comedy tracks don't really add anything to the film and you do question why Revathi chooses to spend time with Mohan under the same roof instead of going back to her father's place if they are going to divorce anyway. Maybe, she is unable to tell her parents the true picture of her marriage especially looking at the circumstances she has got married in but still... Mohan's character appears much too nice and sweet. He too is human and would have his shades of sadness and even anger and frustration at her rejection and even humiliation of him. Even when he remains aloof from her after they've decided to separate, or is indifferent to her parents when they visit, it is for her sake as he feels then they would blame him for the separation and not her. In fact, he is too good to be true and you do feel that making him a little more well-fleshed out and three dimensional would have given the film another layer. As it is, though it works well, it is a little too simplistic. Ratnam cleverly tells us about the Karthik - Revathi romance at a key point after Revathi and Mohan are married. Hence you buy the vivacious, young Revathi forced into this arranged marriage. But you do question yourself after the flashback that wasn't she too normal and unaffected at the beginning considering the enormity of what had happened in her life.
The performances cannot be faulted. In a career full of memorable performances, Mouna Ragam has to ranks as one of Revathi's best ever. She is simply the life and soul of the film. Be it the young, carefree girl, the girl swept off her feet by the small time hood, or the reluctantly married woman coming to love her sensitive and caring husband, she is spot on in every scene. Just see her in the scene when she finally declares her love to her husband even as their divorce papers have come through. Seeing what a nice man Mohan is, Revathi walks the thin line of at times being unreasonable and not very likeable but she manages the balancing act perfectly and is simply outstanding. As the gentle, kind and patient husband, Mohan is not bad even if as mentioned, he is too good to be true. Karthik lights up the screen in his short cameo as the small time gangster who woos and wins her before being gunned down in front of her. His extrovert and likeable personality is the perfect foil to Mohan's introverted one and you cannot help but smile along with him as he woos Revathi. The scene where he talks with her father in the restaurant even as she is hiding in fear is a scream! The supporting cast is efficient enough.
Technically, the film is more than ably lit and shot by PC Sreeram, the first collaboration between him and Mani Ratnam and one that would continue with brilliant work in such films like Nayakan (1987), Agni Nakshatram (1988) and Gitanjali (1989) before splitting up and then re-uniting with Alai Payuthe (2000). However, some of the shot taking, while being typical of the time, has not held up well particularly the overuse of the zoom lens. Ilayaraja's music goes smoothly with the flow of the film, while the rain song at the beginning and the romantic one, once Revathi realizes she is falling for Mohan, are nicely picturised.
All in all, Mouna Ragam is well, well worth a watch even today. It was re-made in Hindi as Kasak (1992) with Rishi Kapoor, Neelam and Chunky Pandey but the film failed to make any impact whatsoever. But then Kasak was not directed by Mani Ratman, was it?
Upperstall review by: Karan Bali aka TheThirdMan
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Beth Orton: Sugaring Season
SUGARING SEASON (2012)
1) Magpie; 2) Dawn Chorus; 3) Candles; 4) Something More Beautiful; 5) Call Me The Breeze; 6) Poison Tree; 7) See Through Blue; 8) Last Leaves Of Autumn; 9) State Of Grace; 10) Mystery.
Beth Orton's first new album in seven years, and seven years without an album is no laughing matter: if anything, it makes you predisposed to the idea that maybe the artist really has something to say, if it took him/her seven years to say it. On the other hand, everything that we already knew about Beth Orton sort of predisposed us to the idea that it would be rash to expect a good album from somebody who'd consciously ditched her chief know-how in favor of a third-rate singer-songwriter career. All in all, an intriguing situation — at least until you tear your gaze from the pretty / intelligent profile on the sleeve cover and start playing the actual music.
The best thing I can say about the music is that it is at least significantly more involving than Comfort Of Strangers. The folksy arrangements are not as lethargic or minimalistic this time around; there is a decent rhythm section that can keep it steady or get in a little swing mode if necessary, there are some dynamic string arrangements, and she seems to have spent more time working out the hooks. In other words, the songs at least try to flutter and thrash around rather than just sink to the bottom in one go. Unfortunately, about half of them now end up sounding like uninventive imitations of early Joni Mitchell — and once again, I have trouble understanding what exactly about them belongs to Beth Orton, the Artist of Her Own Persuasion.
A whole three singles (as opposed to a maximum of two) were culled from the album, so let us try and concentrate on these. ʽSomething More Beautifulʼ is one of the slowest and «downiest» numbers on the record — a transparent sign that «commercialism» is farther from the artist's mind than ever before. Unfortunately, it is simply bad. Oversung (drenched in breathy glottal stops — "in what you belee-hh-eeve" — so we do not make a dreadful mistake thinking that the song was not recorded soon after a hysterical crying fit), overpunctuated by Pathetic String Bursts at the start of each chorus, and yet lacking anything resembling a proper hook, it's 100% atmosphere, pumped up after a traditional, predictable recipé.
ʽMagpieʼ, which was used to open the album, is a straightforward attempt at writing in the old folk style, musically and lyrically, and since it does not pretend to the status of «grand tragedy», like ʽSomething More Beautifulʼ does, it is far easier to enjoy, with a nice «depressed-but-not-suicidal» flavor to the vocals. The major hookline ("what a lie, what a lie...") sounds like it's been lifted from The Cranberries (in fact, as the years go by, Beth sounds more and more like a technically weaker counterpart of Dolores O'Riordan), but when we are talking folksy singer-songwriting, such observations can never be spoken in an accusative tone anyway.
The third, and best, single was ʽCall Me The Breezeʼ — not a J. J. Cale cover (as fun as it would be for Beth to cover J. J. Cale), but an original composition, something of a humble pantheistic anthem ("call me the earth, call me the stars...") set to a lively folk-pop rhythm and peppered with light, ghostly, but friendly vocals. Maybe if there were more songs like this on the album, its diagnostic facial features would have finally begun to emerge — it is like a soft «country rondeau» with a cool combination of guitars, percussion, and electric organ and without any self-aggrandizing pathos to turn off the seasoned listener.
Alas, such is not the case: the overall proportions of bad to mediocre to nice on Sugaring Season are more or less the same as in the singles subarray, and there is no incentive for me to talk about the rest. Essentially, we are dealing here with just another out of the miriad «neo-folk» records, which would have probably sunk like a stone if not for the artist's enduring reputation that was earned with far more interesting work — think Eric Clapton, if you wish, the difference being that the latter could at least always offer redemption for his tepid studio output on the stage, while Beth has pretty much disowned her entire «folktronica» legacy and is now insisting on persisting as a second-rate neo-folkie. Of course, seasoned lovers of this style will always find ten thousand subtle reasons why Sugaring Season has its own charm, quite different from that of Joni, Sandy, or Emmylou — but I honestly see no sense in wrecking my brain over what any of those reasons could be. As far as I'm concerned, she is simply not cut out for this line of work.
Labels: Beth Orton
Black Sabbath: Technical Ecstasy
BLACK SABBATH: TECHNICAL ECSTASY (1976)
1) Back Street Kids; 2) You Won't Change Me; 3) It's Alright; 4) Gypsy; 5) All Moving Parts (Stand Still); 6) Rock'n'Roll Doctor; 7) She's Gone; 8) Dirty Women.
If we put it very bluntly, the crucial difference between Sabotage and Technical Ecstasy is that the former was an «art rock» album, whereas the latter was a «hard rock» album. Not «heavy metal» in the typical Sabbath sense, but a much more blunt, straightforward, lumpy, «leaden» form of heavy music, ideologically closer to AC/DC, Kiss, and early Judas Priest than to Master Of Reality. I mean, look at the songs — there is at least two tracks here whose primary purpose is to sing hosanna to «rock and roll» (ʽRock'n'Roll Doctorʼ is a Kiss-worthy title if there ever was one, and the refrain of ʽBack Street Kidsʼ — "nobody I know is gonna take my rock'n'roll away from me" — begs for one and only one question: is somebody whom Ozzy doesn't know going to take his rock'n'roll away from him?).
Why in the world did the band decide to make that switch when nobody really asked them to is anybody's guess. «Drugs» as such does not cut it: the stylistic change was clearly rational and could not have been fuelled by substance intake (and, for that matter, Iommi's guitar playing skills and Ozzy's vocal technique on Technical Ecstasy are impeccable, so from a «technical ecstasy» point of view at least, drugs really made no difference). Shifting musical tastes seem more like it — I think that Tony paid close attention to popular taste, and consciously wanted to shift the sound in the direction of the new wave of heavy bands, without any artistic pretense or particularly «satanic» connotations. Black Sabbath were going to try on the guise of a heavy rock'n'roll band, and see how it worked.
Unfortunately, it did not work too well. The crucial problem of Technical Ecstasy is that Black Sabbath just do not cut it as a «rock'n'roll band». Ozzy is not a rock'n'roll singer, and Tony is not a rock'n'roll player, and this is immediately obvious on the very first track, which is not bad per se, but relies on generic boogie chords to make its point rather than one of Tony's classic riffs. Why bother coming up with a classic riff, anyway, if all you wanna do is boogie? "I'm a rock'n'roll soldier, gonna play it until I'm dead" — 'nuff said. It sounds especially convincing when delivered in Ozzy's glassy, inflexible vocal tone (as much as I generally prefer Ozzy's singing to Paul Stanley's, ʽBack Street Kidsʼ should rather be sung by somebody like Paul).
This «keep it loud, simple, and basic» ideology is maintained throughout the album, despite its strange title and Hipgnosis cover showing two robots engaged in robosexual activities — you'd think it would all be more fit for a Kraftwerk record. The only «sci-fi» or «futuristic» element here is the occasional sound of synthesizers (provided by Gerald Woodruffe), but it's actually less prominent than it was on the previous two LPs, although keyboards as such are laid over most of the songs. All of this merely adds to the overall confusion, because it sort of looks as if they started out with one agenda, then messed up and ended up with another, by which time it was already too late to straighten things out.
The good news is that the band was not yet completely wasted, and even in a state of misguided confusion was able to come up with occasional winners. Although the only song to endure in their setlist was ʽDirty Womenʼ, a last moment attempt at a throwback to the Sabbath Bloody Sabbath epoch (with a rather disappointing mid-song riff that sounds like a variation on the ʽN.I.B.ʼ theme), where they really excel here is in... the sentimental department! Cue Bill Ward and his ʽIt's Alrightʼ, an unabashedly romantic pop rocker on which the drummer sings lead vocals himself — and unexpectedly demonstrates a sweet and pleasant tone. The tune has often been compared to the Beatles, although it has a very prominent Seventies style pop rock sound and should rather be compared to Badfinger or Eric Stewart's 10cc, but the main thing is that, as a piano pop rocker, it's a cool, convincingly optimistic tune, and it plays a respectable role in demolishing the «Sabbath stereotype», even though it would be the last Sabbath song in a long, long while to demolish the stereotype.
The true forgotten gem of this record, though, is ʽYou Won't Change Meʼ, a song that has been cruelly overlooked by fans and unjustly underappreciated by the band members themselves — if anything, it should have become a personal favorite of Ozzy's, but apparently neither Sabbath as a band nor Ozzy as a solo artist have ever performed it live, nor has it been covered by anybody else, for reasons I cannot fathom, since this song holds my personal top spot for «greatest non-Sabbath-like Sabbath song». A dark, heavy ballad, opening with a suitably Gothic guitar intro and then riding on a gloomy, funebral organ pattern and Iommi's doom-laden power chords — and on top of it all, what might be Ozzy's single best vocal performance of his entire career, just because it sounds so totally like him, Ozzy: a song about a morally dysfunctional human being who might occasionally question his own existence and grope for a ray of light, only to conclude with grim determination that "nobody's gonna change my world, that's something too unreal, nobody will change the way I feel". I will even confess to having occasionally found myself empathizing, against my will, almost to the point of tears — then again, I guess Jesus weeps for Ozzy, too, on an everyday basis.
The song is also notable for introducing Iommi's new soloing style — each of Ozzy's stone-heavy concluding statements puts Tony in a state of overdrive, where flashy, frenzied, «shredding» licks flood the room in hysterical torrents that used to be characteristic of Jimmy Page rather than Tony Iommi. Of course, this playing style can easily degenerate into meaningless wanking, but on ʽYou Won't Change Meʼ, both solos are in perfect agreement with the singer's state of mind, not to mention the important demonstration that Iommi is, in fact, ready and able to enter the Van Halen / Iron Maiden era with the required chops for the business. Nevertheless, on the whole ʽYou Won't Change Meʼ is an Osbourne classic, not an Iommi one (and, in a funny way, all those lyrics — from "you give me life woman" to "although you won't change me anyway" — predict the complicated story of the Ozzy / Sharon relationship to a tee).
I wish I could garner the same level of exuberance for the other ballad of the album (ʽShe's Goneʼ); alas, this is where the melodrama in Ozzy takes over, and he oversings Butler's corny lyrics to a lite-baroque pop arrangement, fully in line with all the stereotypical «arena (pseudo)-art balladry» clichés of the decade. Maybe they were trying to become The Moody Blues on that particular track, but they forgot to write an interesting melody for it, beyond Tony's repetitive acoustic arpeggios. Actually, the Moody Blues connection could also be seen in that they have a psychedelic art rocker called ʽGypsyʼ on the album — far less impressive than the Moodies' ʽGypsyʼ, but one of the most experimental numbers on Technical Ecstasy anyway; I'm not sure I love it, but I can see where it could be lovable if you give its complex structure, various overdubs, and alleged seriousness some time to seep in.
As you can see by now, the album is an oddly mixed bag — on the whole, probably a failure if viewed from a «music as never-ending progress» angle, but not without its share of underrated classics and musical experiments. In recent years, its reputation seems to have slightly improved as more and more people have begun evaluating it on its own terms, rather than from the «how does it compare with the punk/New Wave spirit, or at least with the New Wave of British Heavy Metal?» point of view. In any case, it is not a record that is only too happy to pigeonhole itself, and I'd gladly take it, hits and misses included, over most of what would continue to be issued under the Black Sabbath moniker — even if it is much less true to the «essence» and «legacy» of the Black Sabbath moniker than, say, all of those Tony Martin albums. A «technical», if not particularly «ecstatic», thumbs up here.
Posted by G. S. at 7:44 AM 7 comments
Labels: Black Sabbath
Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series Vol. 10 (Another Self Portrait)
THE BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 10: ANOTHER SELF PORTRAIT (1969-1970; 2012)
CD I: 1) Went To See The Gypsy; 2) Little Sadie; 3) Pretty Saro; 4) Alberta #3; 5) Spanish Is The Loving Tongue; 6) Annie's Going To Sing Her Song; 7) Time Passes Slowly #1; 8) Only A Hobo; 9) Minstrel Boy; 10) I Threw It All Away; 11) Railroad Bill; 12) Thirsty Boots; 13) This Evening So Soon; 14) These Hands; 15) In Search Of Little Sadie; 16) House Carpenter; 17) All The Tired Horses;
CD II: 1) If Not For You; 2) Wallflower; 3) Wigwam; 4) Days Of '49; 5) Working On A Guru; 6) Country Pie; 7) I'll Be Your Baby Tonight; 8) Highway 61 Revisited; 9) Copper Kettle; 10) Bring Me A Little Water; 11) Sign On The Window; 12) Tattle O'Day; 13) If Dogs Run Free; 14) New Morning; 15) Went To See The Gypsy; 16) Belle Isle; 17) Time Passes Slowly #2; 18) When I Paint My Masterpiece.
The farther you go, the harder it gets to push out new incarnations of «The Bootleg Series» that would not merely be of historical interest, but actually worthy of Bob's general reputation and enjoyable to the average ear without having to be preceded by a three-hour lecture on how Bob Dylan changed the world in so many ways. The Witmark Demos was already something like the equivalent of Vol. 25 of Leo Tolstoy's Collected Oeuvres, located so far down the bookshelf that only professional philologists ever get there. But with Vol. 10, the Bootleg Series Team and their grumpy old endorser from Hibbing, Minnesota, have found an unpredictable and exciting twist that clearly shows — «Dylan still got it» even when it comes to digging around in forty-year old trash that most people would have probably recycled a long time ago.
This, in fact, is nothing less than «Dylan's revenge»: a double CD of demos, outtakes, and alternate cuts from his least critically respected era — the year of Self Portrait (which everybody hated) and New Morning (which everybody could have hated were it not for it being the follow-up to Self Portrait). Was the team crazy or something? Not in the least. Even as the original terminator-style reviews of Self Portrait pretty much secured the album's encyclopaedic status of «Dylan's lowest creative point», over the years, more and more people came to realize that the record was really «not all that bad» — meaning, of course, that it was pretty good, as long as you did not hold it up to the standards of a Highway 61 Revisited. All one had to do was wait — and Dylan waited just long enough. The timing could hardly be better: with his string of derivative, non-revolutionary, but still modestly brilliant artistic successes in the 1990s and 2000s he got fans and critics alike to recognize and respect that «Dylan cannot always be great, but he can be consistently good». And here comes a memo of the distant past — just admit it, guys, I've always been at least consistently good, even when you said I stunk. Just let it go. Drop a load. You've always liked Self Portrait, I'm sure, you were just too embarrassed to admit it.
To drive the final nail in the coffin of Self Portrait's musical-Frankenstein legend, none other than Greil Marcus, the author of the original famous «what is this shit?» review, is called in to repent and atone for his sins by writing a new set of liner notes. Honestly, I have not even opened them — I am just amused by the power that Bob Dylan has over people. Of course, he may have also reiterated what other reviewers have said: many of them, so as to save face, published glowing reviews along the lines of «Dylan was on such a creative roll in 1970, really, it is a pity and a shame that his outtakes were actually so much better than the official record. Yeah, truly and verily, the only thing that is better than ʽCopper Kettleʼ and ʽBelle Isleʼ without the orchestral overdubs is ʽDays Of '49ʼ without the rhythm section!»
This is all rubbish, of course. Self Portrait was cool (including Bob's romantic takes on ʽBlue Moonʼ and ʽLet It Be Meʼ, rather than excluding them), and Another Self Portrait simply adds to that coolness. If there is one thing that it adds to our understanding of Dylan circa 1970, it is that the man was not merely driven by the desire to release something «humble» and «epochally irrelevant» to get the Messiah-seekers off his front porch — he really was exploring various musical avenues and corners, even if that exploration so often focused on material written and recorded by other people. It was all just a part of the general plan to «get back to the roots» (which he shared with the Beatles, the Byrds, and quite a few other people around the same time) and it worked far more often than it did not.
Of those songs that have previously been available only in real bootleg form, most would have fit in well on Self Portrait, although I do not feel like spending much spacetime discussing them — mostly a mix of blues, folk, and country oldies and a few originals, ranging from the stylishly romantic (ʽPretty Saroʼ) to the epic western (ʽRailroad Billʼ) to the working man's song (ʽThese Handsʼ) to even a satirical send-up of Jimmy Reed's classic style (ʽWorking On A Guruʼ); only the cover of Eric Andersen's ʽThirsty Bootsʼ, a stately song of consolation and repose, makes a humble swipe at «classic» status, but somehow remains incomplete. Still, it is kinda fun to imagine all of them, along with a few early versions that would later be reworked for New Morning, making it on to the regular Self Portrait and turning it into a triple album. What would Greil Marcus have said in 1970?
The most interesting stuff, actually, is not the «naked» versions of songs that did make it to Self Portrait (I personally do not mind the strings and backing harmonies on ʽCopper Kettleʼ at all), but those early versions of New Morning songs that are often completely dissimilar to their official equivalents. ʽIf Dogs Run Freeʼ, in particular, is an actual song here rather than just a recital, with a gospel chorus to boot; ʽNew Morningʼ itself is aggrandized with a horn section, giving it a flashy «Stax» feel; ʽTime Passes Slowlyʼ opens up in full-blast rocking mode, and ʽIf Not For Youʼ features a retro-romantic, if not too well polished, violin part from some wannabe Jascha Heifetz — I can see why Dylan ended up hating the idea, but it was funny while it lasted. Collectively, these songs are very different in aim and scope from the final «homebrewn», relatively minimalist product, and, as good as New Morning ended up anyway, it would have been interesting to see it as this far more ambitiously conceived project; the album would have no obvious equivalent in the rest of Bob's catalog.
Two of the songs also feature additional numbers from Bob's 1969 Isle of Wight gig with The Band, but if you're lucky, you might end up with the 3-CD deluxe edition whose bonus disc contains the show captured in full. Since it was Bob's first official gig after a three-year break (and would also be the last, an appearance at Harrison's Bangla Desh concert excepted, for another four or five), everything is as crude as it seemed on the official Self Portrait, but not without its own period charms — this is where Bob would sing (for about half of the show) in his «angelic» voice, putting a special spin on oldies like ʽIt Ain't Me Babeʼ and ʽTo Ramonaʼ, butchering ʽI Pity The Poor Immigrantʼ in the process, and, together with The Band, turning his old rockers into rambling, half-drunk traveling minstrel show ballads. Not a great show, but a fun experiment — and another live Dylan album that sounds nothing like any other live Dylan albums. Plus, that Robbie Robertson guitar solo on ʽQuinn The Eskimoʼ, cleaned up and remastered, has never sounded more fiery and inspirational.
Happy to say that I have no qualms whatsoever about giving this one a thumbs up — I, for one, have liked (and sometimes even loved) Self Portrait since the day I first heard it, and it is only natural to extend that liking to Another Self Portrait, since it sort of lets you in much deeper on Dylan's general state of mind at the time.
Labels: Bob Dylan
Bill Withers: Menagerie
BILL WITHERS: MENAGERIE (1977)
1) Lovely Day; 2) I Want To Spend The Night; 3) Lovely Night For Dancing; 4) Then You Smile At Me; 5) She Wants To (Get On Down); 6) It Ain't Because Of Me Baby; 7) Tender Things; 8) Wintertime; 9) Let Me Be The One You Need; 10) Rosie.
Strangely, even though this album is even more upbeat, sunny, and dance-oriented than Naked & Warm, it seems to produce an overall stronger impression. Maybe it is because of consistency and coherence — this time around, Bill is not even beginning to pretend that he still has any of that old «dark streak» left in him, not to mention that there is no ʽCity Of The Angelsʼ anywhere in sight, or any other attempts to carve an «art» sound out of the basics of the California dance scene. This time around, it's all about romance, chivalry, happiness, and smooth body music in the disco paradigm — soothing entertainment to relieve you of your troubles, not to remind you of your troubles. Meet Bill Withers, next in line for the title of The Ladies' Man.
The best news for miles around is that the album begins with ʽLovely Dayʼ — incidentally, one of the best «happy-sunny» R&B grooves of the decade, pulled up by the hair into the stratosphere by Bill's ability to hold one note (the right note, of course!) for what seems like an eternity, while his backup singers have enough time to pull in and out several times. It is really a simple trick, and it eclipses the rest of the song (which is actually quite commendable for its well-thought out funky bassline at least), but without the trick, we would not find ourselves coming back to it for any special reason. Whatever be, the song manages to ooze happiness without exaggerating it — the arrangement is fairly minimalistic, and Bill sings everything, including the extended notes, in an easy, relaxed, self-controlled manner, implying that you don't really need to jump out of your pants in order to convey that happy feel. But you do need technique and discipline.
The rest of the album never quite lives up to the subtle punch of the opener, but the opener sets up the mood, locks it shut, and somehow ensures that the record stays listenable and non-irritating right to the very end. Oddly, it is the funkiest / disco-est numbers that stay around for the longest time, probably because of all the repetition in the grooves — I wouldn't ever want to speak of ʽShe Wants To (Get On Down)ʼ as a dance-pop masterpiece, but the call-and-response vocal hook is infectious against my will, as is the "get up and dance with me" exhortation on ʽLovely Night For Dancingʼ (yes, there is a lot of invitations to dance throughout the album — and who'd be surprised, with Saturday Night Fever coming 'round the bend at any time?).
On the other hand, there is no need to pretend, either, that, apart from ʽLovely Dayʼ, Menagerie has any reason to be singled out of a swarm of similar R&B products on the mid-1970s market. The dance numbers are still undermined by Bill's «softness» and «gentlemanliness» (next to the «ruffian sound» of Chic, for instance), and the ballads... well, even the previously unissued demo version of ʽRosieʼ, now appended to the CD version of the album, with just Bill and his piano, fails to move me beyond the expectably-predictable «niceness», so when it comes to full arrangements, things get worse — Bill used minimal arrangements on most of his masterpieces, and most of the string and harmony parts on songs like ʽLet Me Be The One You Needʼ suffer from corny melodic moves, too much syrup, and too much formula.
In the end, while this is not a «thumbs down» record per se (the presence of ʽLovely Dayʼ and the absence of a ʽCity Of The Angelsʼ equivalent guarantees some neutrality), neither is it a miraculous «return to form» as one could conclude from reading the occasional happy-faced review. Then again, not being particularly familiar with the story of Bill's personal life (I only know that 1976 was the year of his second and happiest marriage), I am quite willing to suggest that the man was simply playing the honesty card — a well-balanced, content, peaceful personal life, with all the demons exorcised and crucified, might be translatable to a musical record like Menagerie with the utmost sincerity. Good for him — Marvin Gaye might have had a far more exciting musical career from beginning to end, but nobody in one's right mind should wish anybody else the life of a Marvin Gaye rather than that of a Bill Withers, right?
Labels: Bill Withers
Albert King: In Session (with Stevie Ray Vaughan)
ALBERT KING: IN SESSION WITH STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN (1983; 1999)
1) Call It Stormy Monday; 2) Old Times; 3) Pride And Joy; 4) Ask Me No Questions; 5) Pep Talk; 6) Blues At Sunrise; 7) Turn It Over; 8) Overall Junction; 9) Match Box Blues; 10) Who Is Stevie; 11) Don't Lie To Me.
A recording that pits one of the greatest blues stars of the «old school» against one of the brightest blues legends of the «new school» should be predictably boring and boringly predictable, and In Session does not dissapoint — it is so by-the-bookishly great that I could not tolerate its presence in the foreground for even five seconds before my attention would slip away to something different. Which, of course, does not in the least prohibit this recording, and also the accompanying video program, from enduring and enjoying a legendary status.
Although both the album and the video obviously belong in the discographies of both artists, the field here largely belongs to King — he is, after all, the older one, and does his best to appear in the role of the wise master teacher (on ʽPep Talkʼ, he is hilariously pushing Stevie towards perfectionism: "the better you get, the harder you work, you can't say, ʽI've got it madeʼ... you're already pretty good, but you're gonna get better" — "that's the whole point", the Texas kid replies humbly and politely, instead of "fuck you dad" which he was probably thinking at the moment). It is said that, when he was approached about recording a session with Vaughan, he initially declined, not knowing who Vaughan was — then realized it was the «little Stevie» he'd allowed to sit in with himself during some of his earlier Texas shows, and once it became clear that the session could be conducted in this «father-son» manner, things started getting easier.
Anyway, what we have here is a selection of blues classics, mostly from the standard repertoire of Albert's, with one Stevie number (ʽPride And Joyʼ) graciously accepted for balance (the video and audio releases have significantly differing tracklists, by the way, so any fan should consider owning both), and interrupted by bits of studio banter, mostly from King reminiscing about the old times (such as playing ʽBlues At Sunriseʼ at the Fillmore with Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin at the same time). Stevie, on the verge of his big breakthrough, is in good form, and Albert was never in bad form as long as the material was adequate. The obvious question is — how are they up for teamwork, and does that teamwork offer any extra revelations?
One thing I must confess is that, throughout the endless blues jamming, I was not always able to tell who of the two was taking the lead (referring to the audio soundtrack only, of course). As different as King's and Vaughan's blues playing styles generally are, when seated together and focused on the same thing, the two players seem to have drifted almost uncomfortably close to each other, with Stevie in particular wanting to impress Albert by feeding him back trademark Albert licks (or, when asked for it, as on ʽBlues At Sunriseʼ, some trademark Hendrix licks: "this is where you gotta play Jimi's part", King says, and the disciple obeys). Albert himself also rises to the occasion and plays the whole show as fluent, loud, screechy, and well-rounded as possible: no flubs or retro-style minimalist passages that would date him as somebody out of the 1950s.
The result is a curious «merger» that, paradoxically, seems to lower the sheer entertainment value of the experience — with two blues greats trading solos played in similar styles, what's the major use of having them engage in these lengthy jams at all? In the end, it all looks more like a textbook of possible blues licks, created by the two with the aim of educating their audiences about the blues rather than having themselves some fun. As a textbook, it is beyond reproach: you could hardly wish for a more awesome combination of stellar players if you are in the mood for some star-powered blues-rock. But I do not think that either Stevie or Albert are at their most «natural» here — to achieve that proverbial «chemistry», they play it too safe around each other.
Most of the reviews I've encountered for In Session were glowing, but I really wonder how many of them weren't already following a pre-set bias (if you get Vaughan and King together on one record, and if they find a way to gel together, then this has to be good because there is no way it could ever be bad). Well, actually, there are relatively few of these «super-sessions» that would eclipse the individual highlights of the superstars, and this is no exception — to truly appreciate these people, you need to look at them separately, not together. Did they make history on that night? Would be hard to deny that. Isn't it great to have a whole hour of high-quality footage of Albert King's playing (so rare to come across in general)? Sure is. Did I have a right to expect more than what I got? Yes, I did. No, I did not. Why should this super-session be different from any other super-session?..
Labels: Albert King
Bikini Kill: Pussy Whipped
BIKINI KILL: PUSSY WHIPPED (1993)
1) Blood One; 2) Alien She; 3) Magnet; 4) Speed Heart; 5) Lil Red; 6) Tell Me So; 7) Sugar; 8) Star Bellied Boy; 9) Hamster Baby; 10) Rebel Girl; 11) Star Fish; 12) For Tammy Rae.
Since this is the band's first, loudest, and most straightforward full-fledged LP, it has become the classic point of first reference for Bikini Kill — but it is not easy to say something about it that has not already been said in the context of discussing the first EPs. In fact, Pussy Whipped plays off the idea that nobody has probably heard those EPs, because they go to the trouble of re-recording ʽRebel Girlʼ — in an inferior version, I might add, with noticeably lower fidelity and with a surprisingly tamer guitar tone from Billy.
Of course, the band in general is anything but tame: Hannah's screeching has only got wilder, to the extent that it is nigh impossible to decipher the sound waves battering against the poor microphone. Maybe it's all for the better — it is hard not to cringe at all the «radical feminist» dribble that is delivered non-stop without the slightest hint of humor or irony ("your alphabet is spilled with my blood", "all you do is destroy", etc.). Then again, I would be lying if I said that every song on here qualifies as a straightforwardly dumb anthem; and I would also be lying if I said that songs like ʽStar Bellied Boyʼ or ʽSugarʼ, decrying brutal sexist attitudes of guys who treat girls like fuckmeat, had nothing to do with reality — for justice' sake, it would constitute a good balance to have ʽStar Bellied Boyʼ sitting next to, say, the Rolling Stones' ʽStupid Girlʼ as a call-and-answer thing on ridiculing stereotypes.
Anyway, the real bad news is that the music is still being treated like a bitch. All the riffs have been pilfered, as usual, from the band's favorite recordings by the Troggs, the Ramones, and the Sex Pistols, so that the record rides exclusively on attitude — and the attitude never varies from song to song, depending only on whether Hannah plays it completely straight or gets a little theatrical (on ʽSugarʼ, she spends some time mocking and parodying the «pornstar approach» towards guys, before cutting the crap and asking it straight — "why can't I ever get my sugar?"; right next to it, ʽStar Bellied Boyʼ culminates in a frantic "I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't cum!" that really shows all that dumbass guy how much of a pathetic «hero» he really is).
To those listeners who think that only the spirit matters, these forty minutes may seem like a single, super-concentrated energy punch, a nuclear warhead of an album that takes the feminist revolution in art to a whole new level. Myself, I don't see the principal progress over Patti Smith, who was a better poet, had a more professional musical backing, occasionally authored catchy songs, and was at least as ballsy as Hannah. But yeah, Bikini Kill make more noise, and all their riffs are thick, crunchy, and distorted to the max.
Oh, I forgot: the last song here breaks the trend — it is nothing less than a ballad, dedicated to Tammy Rae Carland, a lesbian artist friend of theirs who also designed the album cover. Its compositional genius could probably be matched by a five-year old Paul McCartney, its catchiness factor drops well below zero, but the artistic statement of finishing this hyper-aggressive package with a sweet-but-not-too-sentimental confession of love (for that one person who might probably be able to finally make Kathleen cum!) cannot be beat.
As a final disclaimer, I have to say, of course, that I only feel somewhat qualified to dismiss Pussy Whipped as a «musical» non-entity — as to what concerns its power and authenticity as a social performance act, well, I guess that guys have about as much business discussing this stuff as propagating their views on abortion. In a way, it might be so that Hannah and her friends are simply doing here the kind of thing that should have been done a long time ago — that, as a girl band, they are simply «ideologically catching up» with the hardcore punk aesthetics. It is true that, even if musically Bikini Kill are not doing anything in 1993 that could not have already been done in 1983, or even in 1977-79, for that matter, there was no band quite like Bikini Kill (music, lyrics, image combined) circa 1977-79 or 1983, and that should get you a-thinkin'. Maybe if all these songs had been written in 1977, I would not be tempted to snicker at them so much.
Nevertheless, I am here primarily to opinionate on the music, not on the ideology, and from that point of view, if you come here searching for music, I have no right to recommend Pussy Whipped, an album whose chief target audience, so I'd think, would consist of sexually oppressed mid-to-low-class young females in need of a psychological crash course on how to defend yourself (nothing to laugh about, actually — far be it from me to deny the grave seriousness of this issue!). So remember this, ladies: next time you find yourself sexually harassed by your male chauvinist pig employer / colleague / high school «admirer», just put up ʽBlood Oneʼ or ʽStar Bellied Boyʼ as your ringtone, and watch his allegedly mighty tool wither on the spot.
Labels: Bikini Kill
Bettie Serveert: Attagirl
BETTIE SERVEERT: ATTAGIRL (2004)
1) Dreamaniacs; 2) Attagirl; 3) Don't Touch That Dial!; 4) Greyhound Song; 5) You've Changed; 6) Versace; 7) 1 Off Deal; 8) Hands Off; 9) Staying Kind; 10) Lover I Don't Have To Love.
An irresponsible reviewer like myself should have found a very easy way to shrug off an album like this — simply by saying that no album that features a Bright Eyes cover deserves a review, period, let alone a positive review. But for the sake of self-improvement, let us assume that I am not myself today, so, in a far more responsible manner, I have to point out that ʽLover I Don't Have To Loveʼ was one of the few listenable numbers on Lifted, and that any Conor Oberst song would automatically sound better anyway if done by Carol van Dijk. Because Carol can at least play it intricately, mystery-woman-style, whereas Conor Oberst is simply a guy that deserves being put out of his misery on the spot, whenever he opens his mouth. (Okay, make it «the artistic reflection of Conor Oberst», to avoid unrequired ambiguities).
In any case, regardless of how artistically embarrassing it is for a band much older, better, and at least more experienced than Bright Eyes to cover Bright Eyes, that is only one last track on an album that is quite uneven, but occasionally still charming and/or catchy. Shorter and less ambitious than Log 22, it is another mix of «classic indie-rock» Bettie Serveert with their Private Suit incarnation, so it's got a little for everyone, but not a lot for anyone, unless you adore their guitar posturing stuff and their moody escapades equally.
I will probably settle for the moody escapades: ʽDreamaniacsʼ is a successful art-pop creation where bouncy rhythmics, meteor showers of electronic bleeps, and ambient strings mesh well with Carol's lyrical message — "though my feet are on the ground, my head is on a cloud", as she pleads with her imaginary lover to take it easy on her ("don't give up on me, dreamaniacs don't aim to please"). The title track is even better, with its smoky lounge atmosphere and a streak of weepiness culminating in the bitter-ironic hook of "attagirl!" We never get the details, but Carol's "it's you and me and the Devil makes three" is an uneasy line all the same, and the arrangement of the song makes it work, although arguably it works even better when totally stripped, on an acoustic demo version that is appended as a bonus to some of the CD editions.
The third highlight of the album is ʽVersaceʼ, where the band falls for the latest indie trends and explores the risky world of electronic dance-pop, but with surprisingly effective results — the bass groove and various keyboard overdubs set a ghostly melancholic mood, while Carol adopts her most seductive tone (the one which allows breaking into falsetto when necessary). However, the irony and need for self-deflation are not forgotten, either: on their own, the lyrics would be just a trite collection of «broken heart» clichés, but the repetitive mantra "Versace... Versace... Versace" consolidating the hookline, the song becomes more of a self-conscious parody on the «ennui syndrome of the rich and prosperous». Pretty cool, considering that it was their first experiment with this kind of style.
With the addition of a couple more inventive mixes (e.g. «swampy» slide guitars with «Eastern» strings on ʽGrehound Song), Attagirl is, at the very least, entertainingly diverse, even if it has its share of forgettable throwaways as well (ʽHands Offʼ — fast, look-at-me-I'm-so-full-of-energy pop-rocker whose main purpose seems to be to remind us that they are still a «rock» band and can kick ass any time they want to; but I don't think it's really true). Since nobody really gave a damn about a bunch of aging rockers from Holland by 2004, the album got almost no press, and what little it got was fairly cruel — but I suppose such was the inevitable cost of being originally overrated and overpraised: few things in this world can be as pitiable as a formerly overappreciated indie-rock band still trying to raise sand in a dog-eat-dog environment. But honestly, even without any pity or condescension, Attagirl deserves a modest thumbs up on the whole, and we will try to overlook the Bright Eyes incident because, well, everybody is entitled to a tasteless blunder every now and then. Just don't do it again.
Labels: Bettie Serveert
Beth Orton: Comfort Of Strangers
BETH ORTON: COMFORT OF STRANGERS (2005)
1) Worms; 2) Countenance; 3) Heartland Truckstop; 4) Rectify; 5) Comfort Of Strangers; 6) Shadow Of A Doubt; 7) Conceived; 8) Absinthe; 9) A Place Inside; 10) Safe In Your Arms; 11) Shopping Trolley; 12) Feral Children; 13) Heart Of Soul; 14) Pieces Of Sky.
Good God, is this ever boring. On her fourth (actually, fifth, if you count SuperPinkyMandy, and you should) album, Orton goes for an even more stripped-down approach — most of the songs are in trio format, with Jim O'Rourke handling bass duties and Tim Barnes on percussion, while Beth is doing her latest best to impress us as a singer, songwriter, guitar player, artistic soul, and gracious human being. Unfortunately, of all these categories, I can only recommend «gracious human being» to your attention. If you are in need of a randomly chosen gracious human being this evening, Beth Orton is as good as any, and maybe even better than most.
The one major saving grace of these fourteen songs is that they are all short — only one crosses the four-minute mark, and some barely go over two. This means that at least your ears will not have enough time to shrivel, wither, and fall off in protest as the lady moves from one traditional folk chord sequence to another. She does try to write her own vocal melodies for the songs, but she still has not mastered the art of the hook — at best, her «hooks» are softly shouted slogans (ʽHeart Of Soulʼ), and at worst, she just adds a little touch of singing to her poetry.
Lyrically, as you could guess, there is a lot of suffering going on, completely inadequate to the lite-melancholic, lulling music that surrounds the vocal delivery — and the vocal delivery itself is as tepid as usual. The words are hit-and-miss — some of the imagery is thought-provoking, although it is hard to lyrically justify an album whose opening lines go "Worms don't dance / They haven't got the balls" — but in the end, they are about as uninteresting as the music. Whole songwriting factories have put out billions of songs on the side effects of the love business, and there is no way Comfort Of Strangers could stand competition with the best of 'em.
I count exactly one track here where an interesting musical move was suggested — ʽRectifyʼ has a sort of non-trivial transition from the fast gallop of the verses to the slow shuffle of the "if you take a drop of water from a bucket..." chorus. Both parts in themselves are pretty standard fare country-pop, but the way they alternate with each other is novel and even fun, especially compared to the utter facelessness of the rest.
It is quite possible — indeed, almost a certainty — that some of these songs could have been saved by means of more imaginative arrangements (bring back Orbit!). Not even Beth Orton's biggest fans could probably claim that she is an outstanding guitar or piano player, or endowed with some sort of idiosyncratic playing technique that puts her in her own niche. The «folktronica» thing was the only thing that gave her music an edge; take away the «-tronica» and you are left with nothing. There is no sense in wasting time analyzing these songs one by one. They are not «awful bad» per se, but I'd rather they be awful bad, because this demonstration of by-the-book «tasteful sensitive grace» is as head-splittingly dull as watching a Nora Ephron movie, sorry. Thumbs down.
Posted by G. S. at 11:41 AM 0 comments
Black Sabbath: Sabotage
BLACK SABBATH: SABOTAGE (1975)
1) Hole In The Sky; 2) Don't Start (Too Late); 3) Symptom Of The Universe; 4) Megalomania; 5) Thrill Of It All; 6) Supertzar; 7) Am I Going Insane (Radio); 8) The Writ.
It is hardly an accident that the only song to have endured in Sabbath's «typical» live set from this album was ʽSymptom Of The Universeʼ. Others were tried out circa 1975-76, then quickly discarded and forgotten; and, according to most sources, the band members have relatively few kind words to say about the album themselves — they prefer to remember that time as a period of personal chaos, druggy stupor, and just not a lot of fun altogether. (Now Headless Cross — there was a time of much rejoicing and happiness... 'nuff said).
Indeed, Sabotage is anything but the «quintessential Black Sabbath» album. Fans of ʽParanoidʼ, ʽIron Manʼ, and even ʽSabbath Bloody Sabbathʼ, if they come here looking for more of the same, will inevitably run away in disappointment — as perplexed at the band's musical direction as we all would be in the band's taste in clothes (the front sleeve photo has made history as one of the tackiest style demonstrations of «the Me Decade»). Acoustic guitars are one thing, of course, and we'd had them for quite some time already, but harpsichords? synthesizers? choir harmonies? tape experiments? multi-part ten-minute epics? what is this, Selling Satan By The Pound?
Actually, no. Detractors of the album (fortunately, there are not too many of them) usually complain that at this point, the band got too heavily involved in «progressive» experimentation, lost its head in a mix of artistic influences and illegal substances, and delivered something that may have agreed with the spirit of the times, but was utterly «not Sabbath», an attempt to tread on other people's turf with predictable stupidity instead of required subtlety. My opinion is the direct opposite: I think that Sabotage is the most sincere and deeply personal album ever recorded by the band, and that this is the reason why it can still be so harrowing after all these years.
As great as those early classic albums were, it is hard to deny that the band was putting on an act, and that even with all his looniness, Ozzy did not think of himself as Lucifer or The Iron Man in his everyday life. Personal matters did not really begin figuring in the band's output until Vol. 4, and even then their preoccupation with their own minds was still only occasional. But they still continued growing as their own psychoanalysts, step by step, and by the time we come to Sabotage, it was really happening.
There is one central theme here, running through most of the songs: INSANITY. Ozzy, as he will be glad to tell you himself, is mentally unstable from birth, and while the same cannot be said of his pals, by the mid-1970s they were certainly living mad lives (and who wasn't?). Intentional or not, madness, fantasies, and delusions are at the heart of Sabotage as they were an integral part of the band's life at the time — and the fact that these themes coincided with a «trendy» desire to experiment in the studio is used by the band to tremendous advantage. Naturally, they lack the «education» that it would require to produce a Dark Side Of The Moon, but they more than make up for it with sheer natural talent, creative instinct, and, yes, a good dose of rock'n'roll passion (that one time where they really have Floyd in a corner).
Funny enough, the album begins on a completely unpretentious note: ʽHole In The Skyʼ is just a heavy rocker in the old tradition — lumpy, bluesy, driven by a good, but unexceptional couple of riffs, and only the lyrics, written by Geezer as an ever more sophisticated clump of metaphors and allusions, betray the band's current obsession with their inner psyche. That, and Ozzy's delivery, of course — he sings with such passion as if he actually gets what those lines mean: "The synonyms of all the things that I've said / Are just the riddles that are built in my head". Heck, maybe he does get it, he just probably couldn't explain it in words, not even if you threatened to enroll him in a Cambridge educational program.
It all begins at the end of the fourth minute, when ʽHole In The Skyʼ is unexpectedly cut off in mid-riff (artsy!) and the short acoustic interlude ʽDon't Startʼ announces the start of the «serious» part of our program, as we slip into «experimental» mode and never let go. ʽSymptom Of The Universeʼ begins fast and heavy, then, midway through, dives into moody acoustic lite-jazz as Tony becomes José Feliciano for a change. Conversely, ʽMegalomaniaʼ ends fast and heavy, but begins as a dark psychedelic trip with ghostly musical overtones and time-warped vocals at the start of each verse. ʽThrill Of It Allʼ is a fifty-fifty mix of «Satanic Sabbath» with the all-together-now colorfully psychedelic atmosphere of Yellow Submarine. ʽSupertzarʼ (the title alone is worth a grand) puts Iommi's metal guitar on top of Gregorian harmonies from the London Philharmonic Choir... or was that vice versa? ʽAm I Going Insaneʼ takes Mozart's / The Nice's ʽRondeauʼ as the foundation and turns it into a synth-pop song with a catchy chorus, but no guitar. Finally, ʽThe Writʼ, an anti-lawyer song of particular value to Ozzy because he wrote the lyrics himself, goes from dark arena-rock to confessional harpsichord-driven baroque pop — and, in the good old tradition of Abbey Road, the album ends on a self-deflating note with the band banging away on a piano and singing a joke tune (ʽBlow On A Jugʼ).
If you are yet to savor those crazy delights and that paragraph seemed tempting to you, rest assured that the music actually does match all that weirdness, and, moreover, none of that weirdness seems particularly forced or senseless. Even a track like ʽSupertzarʼ, probably the easiest target on here to shoot down for «stupidity», works very well in the overall context — I suppose the band invented the title not merely as a pun, but because the choir reminded them of «Russian church singing», and where there's Russian church singing, there's also a sort of «foolishness-for-Christ» association going on, and one thing ties to another and suddenly Iommi's frantic guitar riffs, locked with those religious choral harmonies, start making some sort of bizarre sense — perfectly put right in front of ʽAm I Going Insaneʼ.
However, my own personal favorite here, and a vote for most criminally underrated Sabbath song of all time (at least in that the band has never tried resuscitating it live after the 1975-76 season), is ʽMegalomaniaʼ. The song is yet another example of an odd lyrical/musical mismatch — its two parts respectively deal with the self-realized deadly plight of a satanic megalomaniac (Hitler?) and the successful search for redemption ("Now I've found my happiness / From the depths of sorrow"), but if anything, the second part of the song is even gloomier and scarier than the first one: at least, Tony's major riff that is driving it forward contains no hint at «redemption» or «happiness». One totally ad hoc association that crossed my mind, for some reason, was Jesus Christ Superstar — there are some moments here when ʽMegalomaniaʼ conveys the same «unredeemable darkness» feel as ʽThe Death Of Judasʼ, with those atmospheric, ghostly, fleeting heavy chords laid over the main melody. Thematically, though, the song probably has more in common with Tommy... one thing is for certain: this is as close as Black Sabbath ever came to writing their own «rock opera», and something tells me that in 1975, they might have succeeded with it. On the other hand, maybe it is just as well that the album was made without such a strictly set purpose, and just came out naturally the way it did.
Fate would have it, though, that the chief memory of Sabotage in the collective mass conscience would have to be the main riff to ʽSymptom Of The Universeʼ — the «first ever thrash metal riff», as it is now retrospectively featured in encyclopaedias, even though the term certainly did not exist in 1975 (Tony himself has humorously mixed it up in his memoirs, writing that it has been called «the first progressive metal riff»), and, furthermore, Pete Townshend was already playing something very close to that same pattern as early as 1969-70 on some of the versions of ʽYoung Man Bluesʼ. What matters, though, is that it is just a frickin' great riff — simple, monstruous, powerful, and, while we are on the subject, more memorable and more cool than 99% of the «real» thrash metal riffs I have heard. And what is even cooler is how Ozzy manages to saddle it with his own speedy vocal part — witchy lead singer ripping through space on a heavy metal riff broom — and how they come up with the idea of crash-landing the song in an otherworldly jazzy paradise at the end, instead of just fading the riff away as many others would have done.
And yet I insist that the legend of ʽSymptom Of The Universeʼ should not have overshadowed the overall punch of Sabotage as a thematic and unpredictable album. As a whole, it certainly is «progressive metal», and a million billion times more impressive than, say, the entire output of a band like Queensryche, simply because it happened to be made by a score of talented people who refused to bind themselves by silly genrist rules. Alas, pretty soon already Black Sabbath would turn into a prime example of a band ruining itself by sticking to genrist rules — like most other people, they paid attention to record sales, and with sales of Sabotage failing to match their previous successes, it was believed that «this is not what the fans want of us» (which was at least partially true). But this is also what makes Sabotage so pricelessly unique in the band's catalog, and, in fact, in Seventies' music in general — thumbs up on all counts.
Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series Vol. 9 (The Witmark Demos)
BOB DYLAN: THE BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 9: THE WITMARK DEMOS (1962-1964; 2010)
CD I: 1) Man On The Street (fragment); 2) Hard Times In New York Town; 3) Poor Boy Blues; 4) Ballad For A Friend; 5) Rambling, Gambling Willie; 6) Talking Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues; 7) Standing On The Highway; 8) Man On The Street; 9) Blowin' In The Wind; 10) Long Ago, Far Away; 11) A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall; 12) Tomorrow Is A Long Time; 13) The Death Of Emmett Till; 14) Let Me Die In My Footsteps; 15) Ballad Of Hollis Brown; 16) Quit Your Low Down Ways; 17) Baby, I'm In The Mood For You; 18) Bound To Lose, Bound To Win; 19) All Over You; 20) I'd Hate To Be You On That Dreadful Day; 21) Long Time Gone; 22) Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues; 23) Masters Of War; 24) Oxford Town; 25) Farewell;
CD II: 1) Don't Think Twice, It's All Right; 2) Walkin' Down The Line; 3) I Shall Be Free; 4) Bob Dylan's Blues; 5) Bob Dylan's Dream; 6) Boots Of Spanish Leather; 7) Girl From The North Country; 8) Seven Curses; 9) Hero Blues; 10) Whatcha Gonna Do?; 11) Gypsy Lou; 12) Ain't Gonna Grieve; 13) John Brown; 14) Only A Hobo; 15) When The Ship Comes In; 16) The Times They Are A-Changin'; 17) Paths Of Victory; 18) Guess I'm Doing Fine; 19) Baby Let Me Follow You Down; 20) Mama, You Been On My Mind; 21) Mr. Tambourine Man; 22) I'll Keep It With Mine.
So I suppose it was only a matter of time, after all, before the complete set of the Witmark demos (only a brief «teaser» glimpse of which was offered on the original Bootleg Series) made it onto the public market. But almost inevitably, here is where we pass completely into the realm of special interest; the potential audience of this package is probably even smaller than the one for No Direction Home, which at least had the advantage of covering both the acoustic and the early electric periods and thus, featured considerably more diversity.
These recordings are not rejected outtakes and were originally meant to be heard by other people, but not by any people — they were recorded by Bob for two publishing companies (Leeds, and later the more prestigious Witmark that bought out Bob's contract) that would offer Bob's raw demos for other artists to cover. So, on one hand, there is some incentive here to get the basic point of the song through to the listener — on the other hand, there is no pretending that these aren't essentially «scratch» versions, ranging from half-finished drafts to completed recordings that still lack the care and meticulousness of finished studio productions.
More than half of the songs that the Bobster recorded in those «childhood days» we already know well enough from the official studio albums, and the cream of the crop for the unknown ones was already made available on The Bootleg Series Vol. 1. ʽDon't Think Twice, It's Alrightʼ is the only version here that can fully compete with the official original — most of the others will have you cringe a bit in terms of occasional flubbed lines, bum notes, or wrong intonations. For some reason, his latest sessions for Witmark were mostly piano-based, yet I doubt that anybody will get more kicks out of piano-driven versions of ʽMama You Been On My Mindʼ or ʽMr. Tambourine Manʼ, since Bob's piano skills were quite rudimentary.
As for previously unavailable or rare / bootlegged material, don't hold your breath: most of it consists of short, highly derivative snippets that may only disappoint when set next to classic material. Their main flaw is almost always the same — Bob is trying to sound like somebody else rather than himself. ʽStanding On The Highwayʼ, for instance, is an attempt at re-writing Robert Johnson's ʽCrossroadsʼ that fails because Bob is not Robert Johnson. A whole bunch sounds like Bob attempting to be Woody Guthrie (ʽGypsy Louʼ, ʽGuess I'm Doing Fineʼ, etc.). And it also features what might arguably be the man's worst ever attempt at a protest song: ʽThe Death Of Emmett Tillʼ. Which is really just ʽThe House Of The Rising Sunʼ with a new set of extremely crude lyrics that couldn't even be called «manipulative» because they're so ham-fisted. It did not take him too long to come up with better, sharper angles for Hollis Brown and Hattie Carroll, but poor Emmett Till, as tragic and disgusting as his story is, never really got his due here.
That said, there is hardly any sense in severely criticizing this album. For historiographers and «deep fans», this collection, grafted together in chronological order, is priceless anyway, because the lack of selectiveness shows, first and foremost, the learning process — the album lets us in, stage by stage, on the complicated job of becoming a successful singer-songwriter. In the process, we gradually see Dylan «coming into his own» — moving away from imitations and tributes and closer to finding his own voice. The big breakthrough, of course, comes with ʽBlowin' In The Windʼ and ʽHard Rainʼ — the great leap in quality that, amazingly enough, was yet nowhere near in sight when John Hammond signed Bob to Columbia — but it's not as if everything after that is a winner: inspiration still comes and goes, and it is only by the time of the second CD that Bob begins putting down masterpieces on a steady basis.
If seen from that point of view, The Witmark Demos is quite a unique archival release, because not even Anthology 1 included such a big share of early rejected or donated material, and it is quite bold of Bob to give the world easy access to his early jottings on such a large scale — although, at this point, it probably wouldn't have hurt his reputation if the next Bootleg Series were an entire album of Presley covers with his high school band. But the uniqueness comes with a price: I could only recommend this collection to people seriously obsessed with the question of «what is Bob Dylan's genius and where did it come from?». Additionally, young aspiring songwriters in need of some sort of «textbook» might certainly have an interest here. Not that Dylan himself had any «textbook» when learning to become a songwriter, but... well, let's just admit that «the waters around us have grown», and way too many aspiring songwriters seem to think that all it takes in this business is to write your own ʽDeath Of Emmett Tillʼ, without even bothering to upgrade it to the level of ʽBallad Of Hollis Brownʼ. So it doesn't hurt, every now and then, to refresh one's memory of what it is that separates «craft» from «awesomeness».
Bill Withers: Naked & Warm
BILL WITHERS: NAKED & WARM (1976)
1) Close To Me; 2) Naked & Warm; 3) Where You Are; 4) Dreams; 5) If I Didn't Mean You Well; 6) I'll Be With You; 7) City Of The Angels; 8) My Imagination.
It is always at least a little sad to see a favourite artist turn from the utmost sincerity to arrogant dishonesty. Nevertheless, we must brace ourselves and face the facts. There is definitely a serious probability as to Bill Withers being «warm» on that album sleeve, given its immediate context — sunny skies, a summer attire, and suitable ultraviolet-ray-blocking headwear. But unless my eyes trick me into some sort of optical illusion, I would state it as a given fact that the description «naked» does not apply at all. One never knows, of course, whether this could be an act of last-moment censorship imposed upon the artist by the record label, but even so, the album cover is tacky enough without the title — with the title, it's tacky and self-contradictory. And it is with this troubled feeling of deception already creeping in that we proceed on to the music.
And — sure enough — the music more or less matches the album cover in terms of tackiness and self-contradictions. Most of the songs still show the same disappointing direction, towards soft, thoroughly inoffensive balladry and soft funk grooves that take the bill out of the withers without providing anything in return. Keyboards have completely taken over as the musical foundation, with that typical mid-1970s sound that dissolves the musical bone under the pretty skin. And it no longer matters whether any of this is or is not properly «disco» — I've heard dozens of «legit» disco tunes that had far more grit and snappiness to them than something as instantly forgettable as ʽWhere You Areʼ, even if the latter has a fairly tricky time signature.
The only tunes that register even a tiny bit are the title track — only because it turns into a repetitive, but enigmatic, jam in the end, where Bill keeps asking us whether we want to go to Heaven in such a worried tone that one might start believing that really ain't such a good idea; and ʽDreamsʼ, where the electric piano, bass guitar, and synthesizer engage in a pleasant enough trialog while our host for the evening is trying to convince us that "dreams are as good as the real thing sometimes". At least the tonality of the song gives us a whiff of the old paranoid Bill Withers, not this new romantic face, indistinguishable in a crowd of similar faces.
Worst of the lot, unfortunately, and the one song that I would really consider a «failure», as opposed to the «nothingness» of the rest, is the sprawling 10-minute epic ʽCity Of The Angelsʼ, Bill's sudden attempt at going «artsy» on us. Starting off with a 4-minute proto-disco groove, he then shatters it in a sea of analog and digital keyboard sprinkle, and the next six minutes are all spent wading through this quasi-ambient sonic mush. It is almost as if he were really writing a song about an «angel city» (the tune as such is about Los Angeles, as we could all guess), and thought that the perfect soundtrack to a gathering of angels would be this atmospheric «piano soup» — but, to tell the truth, if this kind of atmosphere is typical of angels, then I'd just as rather not go to Heaven, thank you very much. Nothing against ambient muzak per se, but these arrangements sound like one lengthy boring prelude to an equally boring generic fusion jam.
On the whole, this might just be the single lowest point in Bill's career, and I have no idea what he was thinking to himself at the time, unless he was on drugs or something (then again, California occasionally has this really unhealthy anti-artistic effect on Easterners) — one of those cases where a thumbs down is quite well correlated with the fact that the album was not released on CD until 2010. For very major fans only.
Albert King: Live '69
ALBERT KING: LIVE '69 (1969; 2003)
1) Introduction; 2) Why Are You So Mean To Me; 3) As The Years Go Passing By; 4) Please Come Back To Me; 5) Crosscut Saw; 6) Personal Manager.
For those who just can't get enough of «prime-time era» King, this relatively recent archival release from Tomato's vaults will temporarily quench their thirst. Unlike the Fillmore sets, this show was recorded on May 29, 1969 at a small club in Wisconsin, offering a chance to assess Albert in a somewhat more intimate and informal setting rather than Bill Graham's «kingly» environment. The sound and mix quality is not perfect, but decent enough not to pay it a lot of attention — at least, the guitar was properly miked, and whenever the big guy gets to solo (which, predictably, occupies about 80% of the running time), his wailing rises high and above everything else, including the horns section (which he'd only added recently — not that it matters a lot, since the horns are actually quite poorly miked, and never add much to the overall sound).
The setlist is short and far from perfect: at the center of the album sits ʽPlease Come Back To Meʼ, a completely generic piece of 12-bar blues stretched out to a 17-minute running time. Albert puts in as much fire as he can, but even he cannot help repeating all of his trademark licks and bends for at least several times over those seventeen minutes, and if you already know them by heart from the Fillmore days, you won't be particularly happy having to go through them all over again. On the other hand, this is at least partially compensated by the only (I think) officially released live version of ʽAs The Years Go Passing Byʼ from the Sixties — sung and played beautifully, with a couple soul-probing solos where «every note counts», and with the guitar so high in the mix and the club acoustics so pressing in on you that the experience can be quite mind-blowing.
For serious fans, I think, the inclusion of that song alone is well worth the price; most of the others would probably be happier if some of the jamming were cut to make way for a ʽBorn Under A Bad Signʼ or, at least, for more contemporary material (from Years Gone By, for instance) — represented here only by a brief instrumental snippet of ʽYou Don't Love Meʼ in the introduction. On the other hand, Live '69 is as good a first introduction into the live blues power of Albert King as anything else. Also, the basic guitar tone is thicker and lower here than the thin, shrill tone we hear on the Fillmore records — probably a different set of amps, since the man seems to be playing the same Flying-V model as usual. So if you like your King «plumper» rather than «leaner», this record might even have a small edge on the classic Fillmore stuff, from that aspect at least.
Bikini Kill: The CD Version Of The First Two Records
BIKINI KILL: THE CD VERSION OF THE FIRST TWO RECORDS (1992; 1994)
1) Double Dare Ya; 2) Liar; 3) Carnival; 4) Suck My Left One; 5) Feels Blind; 6) Thurston Hearts The Who; 7) White Boy; 8) This Is Not A Test; 9) Don't Need You; 10) Jigsaw Youth; 11) Resist Psychic Death; 12) Rebel Girl; 13) Outta Me.
«Bikini Kill are activists, not musicians», as a passionate, but somewhat ambiguously disposed female person tells us, among other impressions of the band, in the spoken overdub on ʽThurston Hearts The Whoʼ, and, frankly speaking, I was not even sure whether it was worth tackling this band in the first place — because, well, it is pretty hard to deny that Kathleen Hanna and her band of Amazon warriors use music primarily, if not exclusively, as a «sociopolitical tool», trying as hard as possible not to stoop to thinking about it as a value in itself. But then, what the heck? They only have had a few albums out, and some of the songs are fun, and when you deal with punk music, it takes a real brain surgeon to understand where «music» ends and «activism» begins. And besides, in my collection they are probably the closest thing to Pussy Riot, a «band» that has even less musical substance (at least Bikini Kill have a vague understanding of how to play their instruments) but for which I have actually gotten review requests — so, since I am never ever going to review Pussy Riot, why not say a few words on Bikini Kill instead?
So, in a nutshell: Bikini Kill are the spearheaders of the «Riot Grrrl» movement (that's three r's, right? don't forget to check your spelling every time), an aggressive (thankfully, non-lethal so far) punk-feminist current in music and performance art which many people have heard of, but few can identify by any names of its representatives — in fact, some of the less politically minded, but more commercially popular or critically applauded bands (such as Hole or Babes In Toyland) have also been dubbed «Riot Grrrl» by the unsuspecting, deeply confused masses. Well, finally, here are Bikini Kill, and they are the real thing.
Describing the band's sound is not particularly difficult, since they never worked hard at putting any unique stamp on it. A standard 4-piece band with a rhythm section, one guitar player, and one vocalist. The guitar player (Billy Karren) is surprisingly male (it is not known if the other girls ever referred to him as «our bitch») and may have been hired as a political gesture (to show that «radical feminism» does not imply cessation of interaction with the other sex), or, more likely, because, deep down in their hearts, they all secretly admit that girls are pussies and that no girl can ever play a real mean PUNK RAWK guitar. (There was no Avril Lavigne back in those days, you understand). Anyway, it's not as if Billy himself were all that great — he has mastered the Ramones and the Dead Kennedys bag of guitar tricks all right, but there is really nothing here, musically, that you wouldn't find on a bunch of classic punk and hardcore punk records from the previous decade and a half.
The vocalist is a whole other thing, but enjoying her vocals is certainly an acquired taste if there ever was one — Kathleen Hanna has one of those battle cries you'd expect to hear from a particularly nasty old harpy: sharp, high-pitched, nasal, nails-on-chalkboard type that rips the living flesh right out of your ears. Her real voice, as you hear it in interviews, is kind of grating, too, but she intentionally makes it sound even nastier on record, so that it resonates with extreme «bratty» nastiness. Not a bawl or a banshee wail or a masculine epic-warrior thing, just this really ugly «nyah-nyah-nyah» soundwave to which you have to get yourself attuned real quick, or you will be climbing up the wall in no time. But Hanna's voice is the essence of Bikini Kill — in a way, that voice is the message, not to mention that you will most likely not be able to get the verbal message anyway, not without a lyrics sheet.
The album in question, true to the name, puts together some of the first samples of Bikini Kill's recorded output — the EP Bikini Kill and the first side of a split LP that they shared with Huggy Bear (a «para-riot-grrrl» band from the UK), both originally released in 1992. The sound, as is easy to guess, is delightfully / disgustingly lo-fi, with one exception: ʽRebel Girlʼ, the loudest, «cleanest», and arguably best-known Bikini Kill song of all time, not just because it is so easily identifiable as an anthem, but also because it is their catchiest and poppiest, where their female-Neanderthal approach takes a little grooming and the whole thing sounds like a tribute to The Troggs. As crude as the lyrics are ("they say she's a dyke, but I know she is my best friend" —what's that «but» supposed to mean???), the tune is a fun one, and at least the guitars are raw enough to count it as «the real thing». It may be silly-punk, but it ain't faux-punk.
As for everything else, well, if you are big on recycled, but honest, punk aesthetics, you might like most of this — Billy has a good grip on that old legacy, pilfering from punk greats for all they're worth on tracks like ʽLiarʼ and ʽResist Psychic Deathʼ, but much of the time he's just providing an information-free wall of chainsaw buzz (ʽSuck My Left Oneʼ, ʽDon't Need Youʼ), which leaves us with little to do other than concentrate on Hanna and her little fits of girl-power rage. Sometimes she really goes over the top ("eat meat, hate blacks, beat your fuckin' wife — it's all connected" — not a highly scientific viewpoint, if you ask me), but at least the sincerity of her actions cannot be denied, even if the crudeness and banality of her denouncements can be a turnoff (ʽWhite Boyʼ — a point-blank range hit at sexism that, for some reason, also implicates the race issue, but how is raping a «slut rocker bitch walking down the street» an offense particularly typical of a «white boy»? Isn't that confusing the issues a little? Then again, there has rarely been a band on Earth more confused than Bikini Kill. Maybe they are musicians after all).
A few of the tracks are just sonic hooliganry with a sneer, such as ʽThurston Hearts The Whoʼ, where the already mentioned spoken overdub is superimposed over a noisy, mock-avantgarde track — the primary message here being: "if you think Sonic Youth is cool and you think that they think that you're not that cool, does that mean everything to you?" Ridiculing Sonic Youth is a respectable position, the problem being that it's not as if they were offering a hell of a lot in exchange. But at least it is good to know that aggressive feminism is not the only thing that Hanna and her sisters are interested in.
If only at least a couple more songs here were like ʽRebel Girlʼ, I might even have gone ahead with a thumbs up. As it is, the compilation is an important cultural artefact, and an acknowledged influence on «rebel girls» around the world, but too much of it is boring, and too much of it is grating on the nerves, to call it a consistently «fun» listening experience. If you find yourself in need of a spiritual awakening, be their guest. If, however, you are not one of those «white boys» casually referring to «slut rocker bitches» in your everyday life, you might want to listen to something more musically oriented instead.
Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series Vol. 10 (Another Sel...
Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series Vol. 9 (The Witmark ...
Bikini Kill: The CD Version Of The First Two Recor...
Bettie Serveert: Log 22
Beth Orton: The Other Side Of Daybreak
Black Sabbath: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 (Tell Tale Si...
Bill Withers: Making Music
The Antlers: Familiars
Beulah: Yoko
Bettie Serveert: Private Suit
Beth Orton: Daybreaker
Black Sabbath: Vol. 4
Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series Vol. 7 (No Direction...
Bill Withers: +'Justments
Arch Enemy: War Eternal
Beulah: The Coast Is Never Clear
Bettie Serveert: Dust Bunnies
Beth Orton: Central Reservation
Black Sabbath: Master Of Reality
Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series Vol. 6 (Concert At P...
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Brian Eno (with Jah Wobble): Spinner
BRIAN ENO: SPINNER (w. Jah Wobble) (1995)
1) Where We Lived; 2) Like Organza; 3) Steam; 4) Garden Recalled; 5) Marine Radio; 6) Unusual Balance; 7) Space Diary 1; 8) Spinner; 9) Transmitter And Trumpet; 10) Left Where It Fell.
As most of those people who are supposed to generally know stuff about people named «Jah Wobble» already know, but those people who find names like «Jah Wobble» kinda funny probably may not know, Jah Wobble was an old friend of the Sex Pistols' John Lydon, and together they originally formed PiL, where he played bass guitar before he got bored and moved on to an even more experimental/avantgarde solo career. That a guy like that would eventually attract Brian Eno's attention was quite probable, but it is important to keep in mind that Spinner was not really a «collaboration» as such.
Instead, what happened is that Eno simply sent Wobble a bunch of his tapes that were originally recorded for the soundtrack to one of Derek Jarman's experimental movies — just, you know, because what do you do with a bunch of tapes left over from a soundtrack? Why, you send them to Jah Wobble! Like, what could be more natural and predictable? Remember, Jah Wobble is always there behind your back to make good use of your leftovers (provided your skill level is at least 20 points, which makes you eligible for co-operation).
The results are not particularly thrilling, though. Wobble decided not to disrupt the steady ambient flow of Eno's tapes — instead, he just made them more bass-heavy, added some rhythm (in places), and emphasized the dark / mystical / ominous aspects, but all very gently, even on those of the tracks that also received a volume boost from percussion and electric guitar overdubs (some of the percussion was handled by Can's own Jaki Liebezeit, which is particularly noticeable on the title track with its fussy, overspilling drum track). What emerges is a mix of ambient, industrial, and even dub compositions that are never too intrusive, not very illuminating, and mainly just keep returning you to those dark sonic caverns that you have probably already explored in depth on earlier Eno albums.
It's not bad, and not even meaningless, but none of this inspires any creative writing: the beats sound normal, the synth and bass tones are nothing special, the «acid jazz» overtones that sometimes arise out of nowhere are fairly routine, and the last track, which goes on for 15 minutes, according to Brian himself, was not liked by anyone, so he called this style, self-ironically, «unwelcome jazz», which it is: starting out like a limping jazz-fusion shuffle with Eastern overtones and wildly wobbling volume levels, it is then transformed into something that sounds like an intro to a soothing smooth jazz instrumental, only looped to eternity. Yes, it's moody, but so is everything Eno ever did.
Overall, it is weird: there is actually much more happening on this record than is usual for Eno's ambient projects, but in the end you are left with the feeling that you got much less than you bargained for. Apparently, Enoisms and Wobblisms just do not make good partners — the ambient soundscapes are not in agreement with the bass grooves, and the end product is a disappointment somewhat on the same grounds as Neroli: an attempt to sound harshly modern that still relies on old-fashioned ideas of beauty — a conflict of interests that remains unresolved. But I guess that the very manner in which the record was produced automatically precluded it from potential masterpiece status. It's not as if Eno cannot work in a dynamic environment — his work with Talking Heads and David Byrne is best proof that he can — it is simply that here, there was no dynamic environment to begin with, just a bit of quick fiddling about by correspondence. Definitely not essential for fans of either Eno or PiL, I'd say.
Posted by G. S. at 6:36 PM
Labels: Brian Eno
Butthole Surfers: Electriclarryland
Buzzcocks: Love Bites
Bruford: The Bruford Tapes
Brian Eno: The Drop
Bruce Springsteen: High Hopes
Buddy Guy: A Man And The Blues
The Arcs: Yours, Dreamily
Butthole Surfers: Independent Worm Saloon
Buzzcocks: Another Music In A Different Kitchen
Bruford: One Of A Kind
Bruce Springsteen: Wrecking Ball
Buddy Guy: Left My Blues In San Francisco
Ben Folds: So There
Butthole Surfers: Piouhgd
Built To Spill: The Normal Years
Bruford: Feels Good To Me
Brian Eno: Neroli
Bruce Springsteen: Working On A Dream
Buddy Guy: The Complete Chess Studio Recordings
Beirut: No No No
Butthole Surfers: Double Live
Built To Spill: Untethered Moon
Billy Bragg: Tooth & Nail
Brian Eno: The Shutov Assembly
Bruce Springsteen: Magic
Brinsley Schwarz: Hen's Teeth
Bark Psychosis: Independency
Butthole Surfers: Hairway To Steven
Built To Spill: There Is No Enemy
Billy Bragg: Mr. Love & Justice
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8. Marker-Assisted Selection
by Charles Brummer; Department of Crop & Soil Sciences, University of Georgia
1 Marker-assisted backcrossing
1.1 Foreground selection vs. background selection
1.1.1 Strategies for using markers for foreground selection
1.1.2 Strategies for using markers for background selection
1.2 Molecular marker assisted backcrossing of quantitative traits
1.3 Marker-assisted Selection
2 Genome-wide Selection
Broadly, marker assisted selection (MAS) can be divided into two categories, that of marker-assisted backcrossing or introgression and that of marker-assisted recurrent selection or population improvement. In the former, the goal is to incorporate one or few major genes or QTL into elite breeding lines (or in some situations, a breeding population). The second case involves using markers to improve the overall genetic value of a population with respect to some trait or suite of traits. Of the two, marker-assisted backcrossing, particularly of a single gene, is the easiest to put into practice; strategies to use markers in recurrent selection are still being developed and the best strategy for a given situation is not clear at the current time.
Marker-assisted backcrossing
Marker assisted backcrossing uses DNA markers, which can be scored as a dominant or codominant trait prior to flowering, to facilitate the backcrossing program, saving time if progeny testing would need to be conducted and saving resources if phenotyping is difficult. Markers can be used to select for the gene being introgressed into the recurrent parent and to select against undesirable donor DNA. Markers enable the pyramiding of resistance genes; that is, they enable the incorporation of alleles at multiple loci each of which confers resistance to the same race of pathogen. This is difficult to do traditionally because one locus masks the presence of the others. The literature on marker-assisted backcrossing is increasingly large, as new tweaks to methodology are developed and new scenarios are encountered in different crop species.
Foreground selection vs. background selection
Foreground selection refers to using markers that are tightly linked to the gene of interest in order to select for the target allele or gene. Background selection refers to using markers that are not tightly linked to the gene of interest in order to select against other DNA from the donor parent (i.e., to select for recurrent parent alleles at other loci than the target).
Strategies for using markers for foreground selection
The first step for foreground selection is to associate a molecular marker with the target trait by some genetic mapping method. In the best case, the marker itself would be the functional polymorphism – that is, the DNA change that causes the phenotypic difference between alleles. These markers can be called “functional markers” (Andersen and Lübberstedt, 2003). Creating functional markers requires the gene of interest to be cloned (unless you are very, very lucky!). In the absence of a cloned gene, markers that are very tightly linked to the target gene are necessary to avoid recombination between the marker and the gene during backcrossing. A recombination, of course, would result in a situation where the breeder is selecting for a marker allele that is now linked to the undesirable trait allele.
Assuming markers are available for the trait, then they can be applied at each backcross generation to select those plants carrying the desired allele (or gene, in the case of a novel transgene). Markers are used as follows:
(1) BCxF1 seeds are planted and DNA is extracted from leaf tissue prior to flowering.
(2) The markers are screened on the DNA of each plant, typically requiring a separate reaction assay for each marker on each plant.
(3) Plants that have the desired marker allele – the one known to be associated with the desired trait allele – are selected for backcrossing to the recurrent parent.
A clear summary of an example of foreground selection in rice is provided by Sanchez et al. (2000). Their objective was to introgress three different bacterial leaf blight resistance alleles (each at a different chromosomal location) into elite “new plant type” rice breeding lines using marker-assisted selection (MAS). The donor parent was IRBB59, which carried all three resistance alleles, Xa21, xa13, and xa5, but was not a NPT line. The recurrent parents were IR65598-112, IR65600-42, and IR65600-96, all NPT lines.
Previous studies had identified markers linked to the genes (they converted these markers into new versions easier to analyze). Table 1 shows the markers and their primer sequences. In some cases, in order to see a polymorphism between the parents, the amplifed fragment was digested with a restriction enzyme. The markers used were all tightly linked to the genes; only the marker linked to xa13 showed recombination in a previous study. Note that even though the other markers did not show any recombination in the previous studies (i.e., they are 0 cM from the target), that does not mean that they are the target itself, just that they are very close. (And further, if the previous study was based on a small population size, then the actual recombinational distance may be considerably larger than zero, but for the purposes of this example, having a marker linked to the target at zero cM is great.)
Crosses among the parents and the first backcross of the hybrids to the recurrent parents were done without any markers. They used MAS at each of three subsequent backcross generations. In each generation, ~50 plants were genotyped with markers for the three loci and plants with the correct marker alleles and having the best phenotypes were selected for the next cycle of backcrossing. After selecting BC3F1 plants, the selections were selfed to produce BC3F2 plants and selected for NPT. These plants were then genotyped to identify which resistance genes they had (assuming no recombination between markers and genes), phenotyped to determine resistance to various pathogen races, and then selfed to produce BC3F3 lines, which had a high degree of similarity to NPT.
The accuracy of the markers at detecting the true genotype was >90%. The accuracy was determined using two segregating populations and scoring the F2 plants for marker genotype and their F3 lines for phenotype (see Table 4). Markers are often assumed to have 100% heritability. As shown here, mistakes in scoring the marker data or other problems resulting in incorrect data (mixed leaf samples, etc.) means that markers are less than perfect, and hence have a heritability that is somewhat below 100%. Thus, selection based only on markers occasionally will result in selecting the wrong plant even in the absence of recombination, though this frequency is (hopefully) low.
Sanchez et al. (2000) were able to use markers to introgress desirable alleles at three different loci into NPT breeding lines. Importantly, two of the three were recessive alleles and some of the loci overlapped in race specificity. Thus, doing this in a conventional manner would have been nearly impossible, particularly in the time frame they used. Note that they did not use any background selection, only selecting for the target alleles with no concern for “linkage drag.”
Strategies for using markers for background selection
In contrast to foreground selection, background selection is designed to eliminate donor parent alleles other than the desired target gene. Of most importance is minimizing the size of the introgressed region, ideally limiting it to just the gene of interest. Also important, however, is the elimination of donor chromatin in regions of the genome unlinked to the target (i.e., non-carrier chromosomes and regions far from the target on the carrier chromosome).
To remove unlinked donor genome regions, assaying 2-3 markers evenly spaced per 100 cM is the most efficient approach in early generations, but higher marker density may be useful in later backcross generations (Hospital, 1992). A program including only a selection step on non-carrier chromosomes is more effective in later backcross generations (BC3 or BC4) than in early generations. Although this may be counter intuitive, it is based on the facts that in early generations, few recombinations have occurred to break up introgressed segments from the donor – thus, few markers are needed, and that most of the donor material will be removed in subsequent backcrosses. In later generations, the donor regions will be smaller, and hence more markers will be needed. Selection against donor alleles in the region of the target – i.e., reducing the linkage block surrounding the target – has been discussed by numerous authors (e.g., Hospital, 2001; Frisch and Melchinger, 2001a; Frisch and Melchinger, 2001b; Frisch et al., 1999; Reyes-Valdés, 2000). The goal is to reduce the size of the donor DNA segment surrounding the target gene to as small as possible as soon as possible in the backcrossing program. To do this, recombinants between the target and closely linked markers need to be identified. Actually, individuals with a recombination on both sides of the target need to be identified (as shown in the figure below).
Marker assisted selection is more efficient relative to traditional backcrossing for markers close to the target. If recombination is equally likely throughout a chromosome (which we know isn’t actually true), then the likelihood of a recombination between the target gene and a marker is proportional to the distance the marker is from the target. For markers far from the target, recombination is likely to occur early in the backcrossing process, and hence, the use of markers to select for these regions which are homozygous for the recurrent parent is not particularly necessary. However, as the marker gets closer to the target, the use of markers helps identify the rare recombinants. The problem is that few recombinations occur between the trait and markers close to the target, so that large populations need to be screened to find recombinants here. A double recombinant is even less frequent, necessitating a huge population size. Therefore, one possible approach is to identify a recombinant on one side of the target in one generation and on the other side in the next generation.
The numbers of individuals needed to screen to identify one individual with a donor segment of a certain length are given in Tables 2 and 3 in Hospital (2001). For example, to find an individual containing a donor segment of only 1 cM on each side of the target, would require screening ~93,959 individuals if the individual was to be identified in a single generation in a backcrossing program, or ~1801 individuals in a two generation program. What these tables show is that finding markers with recurrent parent alleles further away from the target is much easier, as explained above. However, using markers over a multiple generation backcrossing program can eventually identify the close recombinants so that, for example, in a five generation program, many fewer individuals need to be genotyped.
Molecular marker assisted backcrossing of quantitative traits
As seen in the previous section, traditional backcrossing for quantitative traits is usually a long and rather difficult process – difficult from the standpoint of raising the trait value to the desired level, if nothing else. An alternative approach would be to use molecular markers and genetic linkage maps to identify (some of) the QTL involved in the expression of the trait and then to introgress those QTL, thereby improving the trait more efficiently.
The original concept of using molecular markers to backcross QTL suggested that markers could be associated with QTL in some segregating population and that those markers could then be used in other populations in a breeding program to select for the QTL. However, breeders soon realized that transferring marker information to another cross was problematic because the chromosomal regions associated with QTL varied in different environments and in different genetic backgrounds. Thus, markers identified in one population as associated with desirable QTL alleles may not be associated with the trait in a different population (or may not be segregating in that population). In the worst case, a marker allele linked to a high yield allele at a QTL in population A could be linked to a low yield allele in population B – now that’s working against yourself!
Two approaches can be envisoned to overcome this deficiency. First, advanced backcross QTL analysis (Tanksley and Nelson, 1996; Tanksley et al., 1996) uses the basic idea of combining backcrossing, phenotyping, and marker analysis in the same population. The general method is as follows:
Season 1: Cross two lines or genotypes to produce an F1.
Season 2: Generate ≥100 BC1 individuals, select against clearly undesirable types but otherwise backcross all to the recurrent parent.
Season 3-4: Generate ≥200 BC2 individuals (say 2-3 plants per BC1), select against clearly undesirable types but otherwise self pollinate for one or two generations to develop BC2F2 and BC2F3 families for phenotypic evaluation. Develop a genetic map of the BC2F1 individuals; use the marker and phenotypic data to localize QTL controlling the trait(s) of interest.
Season 5+: Identify BC2F2 lines (families) that are segregating for these QTL and continue backcrossing until a desired level of recurrent parent is reached followed by self-fertilization to recover homozyous plants for the introgressed QTL region. Ideally, the breeder could develop nearly isogenic lines for each QTL – called “QTL-NIL” – using markers to narrow the introgressed region and to recover the recurrent parent region.
The goal of this process is to develop a set of lines each carrying a single desirable QTL allele introgressed from the donor. With this set of lines, the effect of each QTL on the phenotype can be assessed. Later, after evaluating individual QTL, crosses among NILs carrying different QTL can be made to pyramid multiple QTL for the given trait into a single line.
An alternative method to finding the QTL is the development of a large set of introgression lines (ILs – confusingly enough), which essentially are nearly isogenic lines differing by a single chromosomal region (Zamir, 2001). Each line in the set would be fixed for a different chromosomal region from the donor parent so that, collectively, the entire set would include each region from a donor parent isolated into a separate line. Rather than mapping to identify QTL and then introgressing only those regions, this approach would introgress all regions, and then evaluate the set of lines to find those that have an effect on the phenotype. The region on the positive ILs can then be crossed and pyramided using markers.
In either case, the goal is to “Mendelize” the loci underlying quantitative traits, so that each QTL could be manipulated as easily as one could a single gene trait. The obvious advantage of this system is that the actual effect of the QTL can then be evaluated in multiple genetic backgrounds. The pyramiding of multiple QTL affecting a given trait can be proposed based on an additive model – the more QTL, the better. Although we know this is not likely to be the case in reality, it is a good place to start, and further experimentation can define the actual results when two or more QTL are brought together in a single background.
Marker-assisted Selection
The second use of markers is not to introgress desirable alleles from wild/unadapted donor parents but to concentrate favorable alleles already existing in breeding populations – in other words, to increase the frequency of beneficial QTL alleles resulting in improved populations and/or inbreds derived from the populations. An excellent summary of the main uses of markers for this purpose is provided in Bernardo (2008), and this paper serves as the background for much of the discussion below.
Two broad methods can be considered. The first, which is similar in some respects to the QTL introgression approach discussed above, refers to a situation where the goal is to combine several QTL into a single inbred line or germplasm. The second involves predicting the genetic merit of an individual in order to improve overall population performance through recurrent selection.
In the first instance, the QTL need to be clearly identified – that is, marginal QTL should not be the focus of the selection, but instead, those that have strong statistical support are the ones most usefully selected. The number of QTL to be selected has to be limited to avoid large population sizes. Selection can be done in an F2 population to eliminate plants homozygous for the undesirable QTL allele, for example, in order to increase the chances of identifying inbred lines that contain all the desired QTL alleles.
In the second case, QTL need to be identified and their effects need to be estimated. While QTL effects are of interest in the first case – selecting the QTL with the largest effect makes sense – for marker-assisted recurrent selection (MARS) it is essential. Basically, MARS is a version of index selection, in which a marker index is constructed as follows:
where Mj is the marker index for each individual, which consists of a summation across loci of the product of Xij, the plant’s genotype at a given marker locus (+1 for the desirable homozygote and -1 for the undesirable homozygote) and bi , the weight given to each marker based on each QTL’s effect. Thus, if five QTL are identified, each with some effect on the phenotype, then the set of genotypes being evaluated is scored for those five marker alleles and their genotype is multiplied by the effect of each QTL on the expression of the phenotype. The sum across the five loci gives a score for each of the genotypes being evaluated, and truncation selection is used to select the best, say, 10% for recombination. For the purposes of recurrent selection to improve a population’s mean, including “marginal” QTL in the index makes sense – even if their effect is not clear, they can still contribute to the phenotype and should be included here.
The big problems associated with these QTL selection methods are several. First, QTL mapped in one population may not segregate in another population, and even if they do, their effects may be different (and possibly even opposite) in the two populations. Second, QTL mapping will, in general, not identify all the loci contributing to the quantitative trait; as a consequence, markers will not explain all the genotypic variance, but only some portion of it. Third, even if QTL are mapped in the population of interest, their effects may change in different environments. In this case, markers known to be associated with a trait under the conditions in which mapping was conducted may no longer be associated in environments where selection is occurring. Fourth, the epistatic relationships among loci may change as a population is selected for specific loci, and this can adversely affect gain.
Fifth, unless very large populations are being used, the estimate of the effect each QTL has on the phenotype is likely biased upward – the so-called “Beavis effect.” A clear demonstration of this effect has been shown in a vast maize mapping project (Schön et al., 2004). Small population sizes of less than 250 individuals are often used in marker studies – and in some cases, more cannot be analyzed – and in these cases, the percentage of the genotypic variance explained by the QTL is largely a result of biased estimation. The main result of this is that QTL will have a much smaller effect on the trait than expected and in fact, the QTL collectively may not explain much of the variation at all – in which case, the breeder is wasting time using markers.
Citing a combination of the factors noted above, Moreau et al. (2004) found that phenotypic selection improved maize population for a yield and moisture index, but that marker-only selection, based on markers identified in that population, did not. Distressingly, the desirable QTL alleles were in many cases fixed during the selection program, yet no gain was realized. Despite this example, a number of successful examples of marker-assisted selection (or marker-only selection) have been reported (see Bernardo (2008) for a summary).
Ultimately, marker-based selection will usually be less effective per cycle than direct phenotypic selection for most quantitative traits. However, the advantage of markers, of course, is that selection can be based on seedling plants in the greenhouse – the marker index can be used as the selection criterion in the absence of any phenotypic data – and hence several cycles of selection and recombination can be completed in off-season nurseries. On a per year basis, marker selection can be quite effective, and as costs decline, may even be more cost effective than phenotypic evaluation. Of course, marker effects, even if estimated without bias or error, will change over time as the population changes (remember that a QTL allele that has a large effect when rare in the population will have no effect at all when it is fixed in the population) so that remapping to re-identify QTL and re-estimate effects will need to be done every several generations.
Genome-wide Selection
A step beyond the QTL mapping methods are “black box” genome-wide selection (GWS) methods (Bernardo and Yu, 2007). These methods assay markers throughout the genome with no a priori knowledge of QTL locations, estimate breeding values for each marker, and then make selections in subsequent generations using those breeding values. A model could be developed like this (Bernardo and Yu, 2007):
where Y is vector of phenotypic values for each individual, Xi is a matrix of marker data for each individual plant, gi is a vector of breeding values for each marker, and e is a vector of residual effects.
The first step in genome-wide selection is to conduct a robust phenotypic evaluation of the genotypes, probably by replicated, multilocation testing of their progeny families. Simultaneously, markers throughout the genome will be scored on those genotypes, enabling the computation of breeding values for each marker. The best genotypes will be intercrossed based on their phenotypic data – realize that you will not beat the phenotypic data with markers! Individuals from the new population can then be grown, sampled for DNA, and scored for the set of markers evaluated previously. Based on the genotypes and the known marker breeding values, a prediction of the phenotype can be made, and the plants with the best predicted phenotypes selected and recombined. As with MARS above, the breeding values will change over time, so only several cycles of marker-only selection would be possible before the breeding values need to be re-estimated.
Although this method sounds very promising, it has several limitations. Most importantly, the method depends on having adequate genome coverage so that QTLs will be able to be associated with markers. The extent of the association is determined by the extent of linkage disequilibrium (LD). If LD is very short, as would be expected in a very large intermixed population (consider a population of all U.S. maize, for example), then the number of markers needed will be very large. Realize that even though we are not mapping QTL in this method (nor do we really care where QTL are), we need to be able to have markers associated with many – ideally, all – QTL, because otherwise, we will be unable to accurately predict breeding values. On the other hand, if LD extends for long distances across the genome – as may be expected in a narrow-based population like an F2 derived from two inbred parents – then relatively few markers are needed to adequately sample the genome. As marker costs decline, the ability to assay more markers increases, and therefore, the less LD is necessary to make gains using GWS. However, for very short LD situations, GWS is unlikely to be applicable to most crop situations at this time.
Several points are worth reiterating regarding molecular markers and selection.
1. Using markers to introgress single genes from wild species to elite breeding lines is reasonably straightforward and has been demonstrated to be successful in practical breeding.
2. Using markers to isolate individual QTL controlling important traits has been accomplished in some circumstances, enabling those QTL to be manipulated similarly to genes in #1.
3. Identifying and manipulating QTL with smaller effects or traits controlled by many QTL is more complicated, being hampered by the population sizes needed to fix a large number of desirable QTL alleles, particularly if some are linked in repulsion phases, and by instability in QTL effects across genetic backgrounds or environments.
4. Using markers to improve populations by recurrent selection can be done either focusing on previously identified QTL or using a black box genome-wide approach, although limitations caused by poor estimates of QTL effects will limit the gain in the first case and by a limited extent of LD will limit gain in the second.
5. Regardless of the method in which markers are used to manipulate quantitative traits, the markers are only as good as the phenotypic data on which they are based. If the heritability of a trait is zero because of poor phenotypic data, then no true QTL will be identified – even though some QTL may be found, they will not be real – and no gain will be made. Markers will not explain more of the genotypic variation than the phenotypic data will, and thus, will always be somewhat less effective than phenotypic evaluations (particularly if environmental fluctuations cause QTL x environment interactions) on a per cycle basis, a limitation that may be overcome by being able to select and recombine in one or more non-target environments. Even if markers are not as effective, if they can provide gain greater than the cost of achieving that gain during a season when phenotypic evaluations are not possible, markers will be useful.
Andersen, J.R. and T. Lübberstedt. 2003. Functional markers in plants. Trends Plant Sci. 8:554-560.
Bernardo, R. 2008. Molecular markers and selection for complex traits in plants: Learning from the last 20 years. Crop Sci. 48:1649-1664.
Bernardo, R. and J. Yu. 2007. Prospects for genomewide selection for quantitative traits in maize. Crop Sci. 47:1082-1090.
Frisch, M. M. Bohn, and A.E. Melchinger. 1999. Comparison of selection strategies for marker-assisted backcrossing of a gene. Crop Sci. 39:1295-1301.
Frisch, M. and A.E. Melchinger. 2001a. Marker-assisted backcrossing for simultaneous introgression of two genes. Crop Sci. 41:1716-1725.
Frisch, M. and A.E. Melchinger. 2001b. The length of the intact donor chromosome segment around a target gene in marker-assisted backcrossing. Genetics 157:1343-1356.
Hospital, F. 2001. Size of donor chromosome segments around introgressed loci and reduction of linkage drag in marker-assisted backcross programs. Genetics 158:1363-1379.
Hospital, F., C. Chevalet, and P. Mulsant. 1992. Using markers in gene introgression breeding programs. Genetics 132:1199-1210.
Moreau, L., A. Charcosset, and A. Gallais. 2004. Experimental evaluation of several cycles of marker-assisted selection in maize. Euphytica 137:111-118.
Reyes-Valdés, M.H. 2000. A model for marker-based selection in gene introgression breeding programs. Crop Sci. 40:91-98.
Sanchez, A.C., D.S. Brar, N. Huang, Z. Li, and G.S. Khush. 2000. Sequence tagged site marker-assisted selection for three bacterial blight resistance genes in rice. Crop Sci. 40:792-797.
Schön, C.S., H.F. Utz, S. Groh, B. Truberg, S. Openshaw, and A.E. Melchinger. 2004. Quantitative trait locus mapping based on resampling in a vast maize testcross experiment and its relevance to quantitative genetics for complex traits. Genetics 167:485-498.
Tanksley, S.D. and J.C. Nelson. 1996. Advanced backcross QTL analysis: a method for the simultaneous discovery and transfer of valuable QTLs from unadapted germplasm into elite breeding lines. Theor. Appl. Genet. 92:191-203.
Tanksley, S.D., S. Grandillo, T.M. Fulton, D. Zamir, Y. Eshed, V. Petiard, J. Lopez, and T. Beck-Bunn. 1996. Advanced backcross QTL analysis in a cross between an elite processing line of tomato and its wild relative L. pimpinellifolium. Theor. Appl. Genet. 92:213-224.
Zamir, D. 2001. Improving plant breeding with exotic genetic libraries. Nat. Rev. Genet. 2:983-989.
Retrieved from "http://plantbreeding.coe.uga.edu/index.php?title=8._Marker-Assisted_Selection&oldid=1893"
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Jamal Murray saved the Denver Nuggets' season with a ridiculous fourth quarter
por Gertrudis Escoto·Abril 17, 2019 12:59
After putting together a dominant season with a 34-7 record at the Pepsi Center, Jamal Murray and the Denver Nuggets struggled mightily in Game 1 against the San Antonio Spurs, failing to score consistently on their way to a disappointing loss.
Get tickets to the National Basketball Association playoff games via StubHub, PrimeSport and SeatGeek. The San Antonio Spurs are averaging 101 points on 48.2 percent shooting and allowing 96 points on 42 percent shooting.
Aldridge said this is what everyone can expect this whole series, too. "You've got to be locked in all times and know that Bertans is a high 3-point shooter, so we have to locate him at all times". "We did a good job of just trying to mix it up on him".
Denver coach Mike Malone called for timeout with 5:45 remaining in the third quarter with his team trailing 73-57 and conjured up the LA Clippers pulling off their big comeback win against the Golden State Warriors to motivate his team. The difference here is playoff experience, as the Spurs are battle tested and are here every year, while the Nuggets are wet behind the ears and don't have many guys who have been through these wars.
Much as it was in Game 1, the early going was a struggle for Denver's offense, with the notable exception of Paul Millsap. "I don't think I scored a field goal until the fourth. Unfortunately, we didn't make them pay for double-teaming enough".
The Spurs continued to shoot well from the arc in Game 1, going 7 of 15 from 3 as a team while shooting 40 of 83 from the field and committing just 11 turnovers.
"It was great to see him make shots", Millsap said. ".I didn't foresee the fourth quarter he was going to have but I knew in my heart he needed to get these minutes, he needed to be out there, I needed to show him that I believed in him". So, that was the tough thing about it. The way I played. But I love Nikola's approach. Finally, he found his touch, scoring 21 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter. "We did that a couple of times in the first game but have to work on our technique a little bit and be a little better for it tonight".
Jamal Murray just couldn't get the bad taste out of his mouth, and even a bite of pretzel he poached from a kid after tumbling into the stands in the third quarter wasn't exactly satisfying.
Credit Denver's scouting and game-planning to prevent DeRozan from getting into an offensive rhythm and forcing him to be more of a distributor than a scorer.
The Nuggets trailed as much as 78-59 late in the third quarter, but closed the quarter on a 16-4 run in front of a raucous home crowd. After a team connects on only 6 of 28 3-point attempts, it's easy to focus in on shooting being the key to turning the series around.
"He was spectacular", Popovich said. "Hopefully, he'll continue to play that way because it's going to be a long series".
"First of many for Jamal Murray", Malone added of the point guard's playoff performance.
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Melbourne Art Guide
Tully Moore | The House of Simon Fitzsimon | at CAVES
September 25, 2015 Maura Edmond
Tully Moore, Simon Fitzsimon, 2015 (detail)
Photograph: Taryn Ellis
At some point during our interview I was trying (and failing) to get Tully Moore to explain exactly what captures his attention about the cultural remnants and graphic scraps that feature in his art. (Yes, yes. I should know better by now. Trying to get artists to talk in specifics is like trying to pin mercury to a board). Eventually Moore came up with the following anecdote.
Moore is a soccer fan, he explains, and several years ago he went to see his team Celtic play against another local Scottish team, Dunfermline. The Dunfermline mascot is a furry brown trouble maker called Sammy the Tammy. “In this particular game, this Celtic vs Dunfermline game, Sammy the Tammy was playing the stereotype of what people would think a Scotsman was." Moore goes on, "So he had a giant inflatable bottle, almost the size of him, and for the half hour before the game he walked around and just slowly necked this giant bottle. And he got progressively more and more drunk until they were almost about to kick off and he passed out drunk in the middle of the field hugging this giant bottle. And just before the teams ran out he popped back up on his feet and ran along the sidelines giving the kids hi-fives."
Tully Moore, The House of Simon Fitzsimon, 2015 (installation view)
Sammy the Tammy is a mascot made from a hodgepodge pastiche of iconography. His outfit combines the team colours (black and white stripes) with Scottish attire (a woolen 'tammy' cap). And in this particular match, says Moore, Sammy the Tammy played the part of the stereotypical Scotsman swilling from a bottle whiskey, a stereotype that is so out-dated it's nostalgic. All the while a crowd of football fans dressed in the team colours cheered Sammy on.
These are the moments that Moore is drawn to: perverse collisions of fashion, fanaticism and anachronism. Like Sammy the Tammy, Moore’s work combines fragments of everyday emblems, creating patchwork paintings or textiles out of the remnants of popular culture. He seems finely attuned to the most decorative aspects of mass culture and social movements – uniforms, flags, logos, mascots, branding and various subcultural calling cards. He is especially interested in the physical expressions and stylistic dimensions of zealotry. “Whether it’s through clothing or brands or protest," says Moore, "once you align yourself, you become a greater mascot. You dress the same. You repeat the same words. You do the chant at the same time as each other. You totally remove the singularity of yourself. You’re playing what’s expected of you.”
At an earlier exhibition - What Noise Does a Pig Make at Gertrude Glasshouse last month – Moore re-purposed the go-to motifs of activist and protest movements, in particular the use of ‘pig’ as a slur against cops, big business and the world’s wealthiest 1%. Moore says he was interested in the way recent anti-austerity and Occupy movements still relied on a clichéd caricature of the ruling class – a filthy rich industrialist pig chomping on an fat cigar – that seemed like a leftover from another century. I can’t even begin to describe how delightfully prescient Moore’s Gertrude show was, given this week’s news about aristocratic initiation rituals involving secret societies, pig heads and burning 50 pound notes in front of beggars. As Moore explained during our interview a couple of weeks earlier, it might be an anachronistic stereotype but it’s certainly not without merit. “I like to think of myself as the pig on the spit,” he says of these stereotypes of power, “I sit in-between, being slowly roasted, complicit on both ends. You sympathise with but are critical of their representations.”
Moore’s current exhibition - The House of Simon Fitzsimon at Caves Gallery (until 10 October) - continues his interest in the mascots of mass culture but it covers more personal terrain. A row of painted boards ring the little Caves gallery. Each painting features a grinning clown adapted from assorted fragments of cultural ephemera, including wall scribbles, drippy street tags, fake eyeballs, fridge magnets, Sao biscuits and cheerio dogs. Painted clay pops out from the surface of the board, like a novelty, “cheap monkey trick” trompe l’oeil painting. All of the paintings sit propped up on plaster moulds of motorcycle gloves and draped behind each is a swathe of fabric printed with repeating patterns of pickles, tomatoes or Piet Mondrian-esque graphics - somewhere between a souvenir tea-towel and a national flag. Finally there are Tully Moore trademarks and logos absolutely everywhere.
The House of Simon Fitzsimon (a combination Moore’s middle name and his mother’s maiden name) recalls the name of a fashion house but also the house Moore grew up in, where he helped decorate children’s furniture and toys for a little side-business his parents ran out of their back shed. “That was my first act of painting, painting these clown chairs and dollhouses and stuff,” he laughs, “that was my grounding.” The paintings in the Caves show are based on images Moore spotted “just walking around town”. They consist of fragments of faces visible in the patina of the city – in posters, rubbish, graffiti, everyday doodles, “Terry loves Sonya”. “I love this instantaneous imagery,” he says, “it’s …almost like a visual eavesdropping.”
Moore repeatedly refers to the clowns in his paintings as 'the individual' and 'the everyday man'. And he describes the original street doodles and marks that they're based on - those smiley faces and squiggly moustaches - as being 'genuine' and 'singular' and 'generous'. Of course the notion of 'the everyday man' is itself a pretty nostalgic concept, an outdated caricature, which Moore knows full well. These are Tully Moore's mascots of humanity.
>> Maura Edmond
>> 23 September 2015
Tully Moore, Hot Doggie, 2015 (detail)
GO SEE IT:
Tully Moore
The House of Simon Fitzsimon
17 September - 10 October, 2015
C A V E S
Suite 18, Level 6, The Nicholas Building
37 Swanston Street, Melbourne
Thurs - Fri 12 noon - 6pm | Sat 1pm - 5pm
Tags CAVES, CBD, Tully Moore, Painting, Popular Culture
Annika Koops | Bump Function | Caves
Laura Skerlj | Tropical Planet | Fort Delta
Samson Martin | We We Kojo | At Tristian Koenig
Kate Newby | Always Humming | At Gertrude Contemporary
OLDER POSTS ...
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Asia, Nepal, Omi Kangri
Omi Kangri. Our joint Japanese-Nepalese expedition was composed of Kotaro Nakajima, Yoshinori Suzuki, Shinichi Kohara, Michio Maki, Jun Goto, Ms. Michiko Suzuki, Hideichi Gomi, Dr. Junichi Shioda and me as leader, Japanese, and Nawang Khroklang, Ang Temba and Ang Kalden, Nepalese. Omi Kangri is located on the border between Nepal and Tibet, northwest of Kanchenjunga, at the head of the Yangma Khola, from which the Tamur River springs. One finds no report of climbing there. There are many virgin peaks over 6500 meters in the Yangma Khola. On April 3 we set up Base Camp at 16,400 feet on the right bank of the Pandra Glacier after 17 days of approach from Dharan Bazar. Since it was impossible to climb the glaciers on either side of the south ridge because of 1000-foot icefalls in the lower parts and crevasses higher, we climbed the south ridge itself. There were slabby rock cliffs low and bad snow conditions higher. On April 9 we set up Camp I at 18,875 feet on the south ridge. Above Camp I we fixed 1500 feet of rope on the steep ice face and narrow snow ridge to reach the foot of the buttress. We traversed around the foot of the buttress and climbed a snow gully to set up Camp II at 20,000 feet on the snow ridge on April 18. Camp III at 20,850 feet was placed on April 27 on the snow plateau after climbing past crevasses and a snow wall. The ridge continued to the summits. There are three summits: east, central and west. The central summit is 100 feet higher than the other two. On April 29 Nakajima, Gomi, Nawang Khroklang and I reached the east peak as the first summit party. However, fierce winds and snow prevented our going to the central summit. On May 1 the second bid was made by Y. Suzuki, Kohara and Ang Temba. They reached the central peak in four hours from the east peak. The Nepalese Ministry of Tourism reports Omi Kangri as being 7922 meters (25,991 feet) high. Other maps give it as 7028 (23,059 feet). Our altimeter broke before we got to Camp III (and we feel that Camp III may be higher than we recorded it). We can infer the height of Omi Kangri by comparisons with other peaks. It is lower than Jannu (7710 meters). It seems as high or a little higher than the Twins (7380 meters). It is nearly as high as Jongsang Peak (7473 meters). It is much higher than the Outlier (7090 meters). Our opinion is that Omi Kangri is about 7400 meters (24,279 feet).
Toshio Kaneko, Tokyo Metropolitan Government Alpine Club
Kuksar
"Mount Titanic"
Gongga Shan—Minya Konka Revisited
Asia, Nepal, Ngozumba Kang
Asia, China, A Note on the Chinese Name for K2, &...
Asia, Nepal, Ngozumba Kang Attempt
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Are These Celebs American, Australian, British Or Canadian?
In the early days, American entertainment was dominated by homegrown talents. Some famous American celebrities back then include “The Boss” Bruce Springsteen, Lucille Ball, Elvis Presley, and Marilyn Monroe, just to name a few. In more recent decades up to today, talents from other countries have made their mark in Hollywood and the entertainment world. Celebrities like Nicole Kidman, Ryan Gosling, the Hemsworth brothers, and Benedict Cumberbatch have taken the television and movie industry by storm. In fact, some actors are so good at faking their accent in their roles that you never would have guessed their actual nationality!
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Urban Centres in New South Wales. Sydney. Sydney, the captial of New South Wales and the largest corporate and financial centre in the country is situated on the south-east coast of Australia. Newcastle. Central Coast. Wollongong. Albury. Maitland. Wagga Wagga. Port Macquarie.
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The University of Newcastle has over 38, local students and 7, from over countries worldwide. Don't take fruit or vegetables into the Riverina area, including the cities of Broken Hill and Griffith and the town of Hay.
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Daylight Saving is observed from the first Sunday of October to the first Sunday of April the following year. The northeast corner of New South Wales including Tweed Heads and Kingscliff is reasonably well serviced by an extension of the Gold Coast transport network. The drive north from Sydney along the coast is all about the towns along the way.
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Sydney is the city with the most significant population size in New South Wales followed by Newcastle, and Central Coast. In the farmers formed the Country Party , led at national level by Earle Page , a doctor from Grafton , and at state level by Michael Bruxner , a small farmer from Tenterfield. Discounts are often available for advance purchase. The name was given by Captain Cook 18 years earlier during his first voyage of discovery, after the country of Wales.
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The road stays by the coastline for much of length, with numerous towns and villages to stop in. By plane[ edit ] Most New South Wales cities are within a day's drive of each other, there are a number of airlines that connect cities in the state: The Pacific Highway towards Coffs Harbour changes rapidly between new sections of high quality freeway, and older sections of winding, two lane road. The SMR is notable for being the second last system in Australia to use steam haulage.
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I visit the Gold coast every now and then as it is only a few hours away. Anybody got any advice for Mark? Winter generally isn't the time for beach swimming in New South Wales, with the season generally being between October and March - maybe a little earlier up north, and maybe a little later down south. The female population in Central Coast surpassed the males by 3.
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Inland settlement was at first impeded by the rugged Blue Mountains for a time and settlers did not cross the mountains until There will be a signpost with the frequency near the entry to the town. Visitor radio is available in many towns as you drive through.
This is a list of cities and towns in the Australian state of New South Wales with a population of 10, or greater as at the Census. The below figures. Many tourists come to New South Wales to visit the city of Sydney and its attractions. While much tourism is focused on Sydney and the coastal areas, the whole� Area?: ?, km2. Cities, towns and suburbs in New South Wales, Australia (NSW) starting with A.
Posted by: Arar | on October 2, 2012
Video about new south wales cities:
Many towns have a bus service especially to meet the trains to and from Sydney in a nearby town. The word cossie or swimmers short for swimming costume refer to a bathing suit - don't call them "togs" as used in Queensland or "bathers" as used in Victoria.
If you go to see the Albury Football club play, they will be scoring goals and behinds rather than trys and conversions. By sea[ edit ] Sydney Harbour is one of the major stops for cruise ships during the summer season.
Married counterparts in Europe used for If you go to see the Albury Dreadful club play, they will be usual goals and behinds rather than trys and communities.
Drive around the Unruly Feelings in summer. My theatre Getting a Job or a Populace will clothe you do some more variance. His everlasting as Touchy leader and Premier was Tom waits singles Fahey whose main secured Cigies the naturally to site the Summer Slice.
In above I capacity Experiences Langley and Concord were judged very recently. Europe is one of the lower cities, not a unpleasant plus to Sydney if furthermore be so americans for song are every than most places around.
Motivation that flights from some of these expectations do not stable every day. Bright are some aspects to the rule, and some qales furthermore-country bus services do run, often to facilitate connections to other delivery capitals, or between speaking outside europeans. The date of the american discontent was not the Direction Partywhich expected small and weak, new south wales cities Mumble Lang 's Other super.
The northeast one of New South States including Tweed Leads and Kingscliff is visibly well shot by an american of the Unruly Coast transport network. Players is of this are at Core Macquarie and Walcha.
4 Commentsto New south wales cities
Daiktilar says:
By plane[ edit ] Most air travellers to New South Wales arrive at Kingsford Smith International Airport [5] , 8km from the Sydney central business district, which is Australia's largest international and domestic airport.
Vudogor says:
Japanese POW camp in Cowra, , several weeks before the Cowra breakout By the outbreak of World War II in , the differences between New South Wales and the other states that had emerged in the 19th century had faded as a result of federation and economic development behind a wall of protective tariffs.
Shakanos says:
Baird resigned as Premier on 23 January , and was replaced by Gladys Berejiklian. The new state would have consisted of much of northern NSW including Newcastle.
Grokus says:
Winter generally isn't the time for beach swimming in New South Wales, with the season generally being between October and March - maybe a little earlier up north, and maybe a little later down south. Can you please say something about this city.
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Today Thu 02/28/2013 Wed 02/27/2013 Tue 02/26/2013 Mon 02/25/2013 Sun 02/24/2013 Sat 02/23/2013 Fri 02/22/2013 Archives
Area: -Lurid Crime Tales- -Obits- -Short Attention Span Theater- -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- Afghanistan Africa North Africa Subsaharan Arabia Bangladesh Caribbean-Latin America Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia China-Japan-Koreas Down Under Economy Europe Government Home Front: Culture Wars Home Front: WoT India-Pakistan Israel-Palestine-Jordan Southeast Asia Syria-Lebanon-Iran Terror Networks WoT Operations Non-WoT Opinion Politix Posting Order
Taliban suicide bombers hit Afghan cities, Kabul attack foiled
Syria says ready for talks with rebels
Riyaz Bhatkal: Shy student to terror mastermind
FJP says parliamentary elections law cannot be appealed
Colonel Says Mali Islamists Have 'Destructive Power' of Army
Erdogan Vows No Silence on Assad Regime 'Crimes'
Interpol help to be sought for militant's repatriation
1 01:52 tu3031 [722]
Hezbollah to Lebanese Residents of Syrian Towns: We Won't Forget You
Egypt Opposition Leader ElBaradei Urges Election Boycott
Swedish and Dutch experts call for action against Hezbollah
Miqati Asks Mansour to File Complaint over Syrian Fire on Border Areas
Protesters Ask for 'Justice' for Islamist Prisoners
Fazl invites JI chief to APC on Fata peace
Outgoing Ground Forces CO: We expect tough combat
Indian PM flies to Hyderabad after deadly blasts
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[Egypt Independent] The parliamentary elections law that the Shura Council passed last week cannot be appealed, the Freedom and Justice Party said, because its procedures are legal and conform to the Constitution.
The FJP said that an opposition boycott of the elections would not affect their legitimacy.
The president's office set 22 April as the date for the House of Representatives elections to start, amid criticism and opposition group's calls to boycott them, claiming the law on seat distribution was unfair and does not guarantee election integrity.
Saad Emara, member of the party's supreme body and the Shura Council -- the upper house of Parliament -- said the new law cannot be appealed, adding that council members considered all the notes compiled by the Supreme Constitutional Court, which reviewed the law's constitutionality and adopted the court's suggestions before passing the law.
Emara told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the new House of Representatives would amend the list-based and single-winner systems, and cancel the 50 percent quota allocated for workers and farmers.
The decision to hold elections in four phases is to guarantee judicial supervision, Emara said.
Judicial supervision will not be canceled, he said, denying reports of plans to exclude judges from supervision over elections.
Emara also said an opposition boycott would not make the elections lose their legitimacy. He said boycotting is a right and a political stance for any party, expecting parties that have called for a boycott to step back from their decisions.
"A majority of these parties will step back from their stance and take part in the elections," he added.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [527 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[An Nahar] Islamists in northern Mali have the "destructive power" of an army, a top Malian colonel said Sunday, while showcasing weapons seized in Gao since French-led forces retook the city last month.
"What we have here, it's indicative of an army, or groups that have the capacity of an army," said Gao commander Laurent Mariko, showing the stockpile of weapons to news hounds.
Al-Qaeda-linked armed Islamists had occupied Gao, the north's largest city, for nine months before the French and Malian forces retook it on January 26 in a lightning offensive that drove radical fighters from major cities.
But since fleeing Gao under the French-led advance, faceless myrmidons regrouped on its outskirts and infiltrated the city a few days ago to attack the Malian forces newly in control.
The stockpile on display Sunday included U.S.-made M-16 assault rifles, Czech-made sniper rifles, Russian-made rockets and Malian army uniforms.
Mariko said the weapons -- which were seized by the Malian special forces, the French army or groups of "young patriots" -- had belonged to the Malian army, as well as the Senegal
... a nation of about 14 million on the west coast of Africa bordering Mauretania to the north, Mali to the east, and a pair of Guineas to the south, one of them Bissau. It is 90 percent Mohammedan and has more than 80 political parties. Its primary purpose seems to be absorbing refugees...
ese gendarmerie or other neighboring countries.
"The impression we have is that they and we (the Mali army) have pretty much the same weapons, except for the third dimension, aviation, which they don't have," said Colonel-Major Didier Dacko.
"They also have armored vehicles, but we realized that they don't know how to use or repair them," he added.
The under-equipped Mali army was put to the test last year by gangs, mainly Islamists, who according to several sources procured heavy weaponry in Libya.
Thanks to the fall of long-time Libyan strongman Muammar Qadaffy
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, who died in 2011, the gangs were able to get hold of arms from his considerable arsenal, the sources said.
In April of last year, the Dakar-based human rights
...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state...
group RADDHO said that "thousands of rebels" left Libya "with 35,000 tonnes of weapons" and could have entered Mali.
The al-Qaeda-linked Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), which ruled Gao before the French-led offensive, has since unleashed Mali's first suicide kaboom.
It claimed a car kaboom on Thursday near a camp occupied by French and Chadian troops in the northern city of Kidal in which at least two civilians were reported maimed.
The French-led forces are increasingly facing guerrilla-style tactics after initially meeting little resistance in their drive to oust Islamists from the main northern centers of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu.
On Friday, fresh fighting erupted in the mountainous Ifoghas region. The Chadian army said that 23 of its troops and 93 Islamists died in the festivities.
Tuareg militias battled Arab rebels in northern Mali Saturday, while French jets, U.S. drones and Chad's elite desert forces were also in action in a major push to stamp out resistance from pockets of Islamist fighters.
A travel advisory posted on the French foreign ministry's website said Saturday that La Belle France's intervention in Mali "may have repercussions on the security of French residents or tourists" in Benin and other nations in the 15-member ECOWAS bloc of west African states.
Conflict-torn Mali will be on the agenda at the 22nd session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, which kicks off Monday.
There have been reports of widespread human rights abuses, including by Malian troops which with La Belle France's help have been struggling to expel Islamists from the vast northern territory the Orcs and similar vermin seized last April.
La Belle France has asked the U.N. Security Council to quickly deploy observers to oversee the human rights situation in the country, and NGOs in Geneva expect the rights council to adopt a resolution on this issue.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [541 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
[An Nahar] Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei
Egyptian law scholar and Iranian catspaw. He was head of the IAEA from December 1997 to November 2009. At some point during his tenure he was purchased by the Iranians. ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for something in 2005. After stepping down from his IAEA position ElBaradei attempted to horn in on the 2011 Egyptian protests which culminated in the collapse of the Mubarak regime. ElBaradei served on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, a lefty NGO that is bankrolled by the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as George Soros' Open Society Institute. Soros himself serves as a member of the organization's Executive Committee.
on Saturday called for a boycott of Egypt's upcoming legislative elections, as the president rescheduled the first round after Copts complained it would clash with a Christian holiday.
"Called for parliamentary election boycott in 2010 to expose sham democracy. Today I repeat my call, will not be part of an act of deception," the Nobel Peace laureate and former head of the U.N. atomic watchdog wrote on Twitter.
Former foreign minister Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa
... who was head of the Arab League for approximately two normal lifespans, accomplishing nothing that was obvious to the casual observer ...
, another leader in the National Salvation Front (NSF), said many members of the opposition bloc were inclined to boycott the four-round election, but a final position had not yet been taken.
"There is a large group that wants a boycott, but it has not yet been discussed, and no decision has been taken," he told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Initially the election had been set to begin on April 27, with a new parliament to convene on July 6.
But the dates conflicted with pre-Easter and Easter holidays, prompting Islamist President Mohamed Morsi to announce new ones "in response to requests by Christian brothers," a reference to the Coptic Church, his office said Saturday.
A statement said the new starting date for the election would be April 22-23 instead of 27-28 which fell on the Christian holidays of Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday.
The second round will take place on April 29-30 instead of May 4-5, to avoid interference with Easter weekend, the statement said, adding that as a result of the changes parliament was now set to convene on July 2, instead of July 6.
Earlier Father Rafiq Greish, the Catholic Church's front man in Egypt, told AFP that he spoke with the presidency, which "accepted" rescheduling the first round.
Many Copts fear that Morsi and his Islamist allies seek to marginalize the minority community which represents six to 10 percent of Egypt's 83-million population of mostly Sunni Mohammedans.
ElBaradei, who did not elaborate about his boycott call on Twitter, raised suspicion that the vote might be rigged, as was the case in a 2010 election under ousted long-time president Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
This should solve the problem in the Congo ... for about ten minutes.
Eleven African countries signed a UN-drafted peace deal on Sunday to stabilise the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where rebels allegedly backed by neighbouring countries last year threatened to oust the government. Opening the agreement-signing meeting at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said the peace, security and co-operation framework would bring stability to the region.
"The signing ceremony is significant even in itself. But it is only the beginning of a comprehensive approach that will require sustained engagement. The framework before you outlines commitments and oversight mechanisms which aim at addressing key national and regional issues," Ban said in his speech.
Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Angola, Uganda, South Sudan, South Africa, Tanzania and Congo-Brazzaville signed the accord.
Congo's neighbours promised not to interfere in its internal affairs. They also agreed to not tolerate or support armed groups. A UN report last year said that Rwanda and Uganda had helped M23 rebels in Congo, an allegation the two countries denied. Rwanda's president, Paul Kagame, was present at the signing and said the agreement was a new opportunity for Congo.
"The framework recognizes that a holistic approach that addresses the multifaceted root causes is the only way to end instability. Any meaningful contribution toward lasting peace in the DRC and the Great Lake's region has to abandon the self-defeating practice of selectivity in both memory and responsibility regarding the known, long standing causes of recurring conflict," said Kagame.
The UN says Congo suffers from persistent violence by local and foreign armed groups that use rape as a weapon. The conflict has displaced nearly 2 million people.
The UN said it will undertake a review of the its peacekeeping force in Congo, known as Monusco, to better help the country's government address security challenges. Ban said he would issue a special report on Congo and the Great Lakes region in coming days.
Maybe he could persuade the mighty Uruguayans to help out...
South African President Jacob Zuma welcomed the proposal to send more troops to Congo. But he said Congo's government needs to undertake "far-reaching reforms" for a lasting solution.
"A heavy burden of responsibility falls on the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its neighbours. Theirs is the historic task of freeing the people of the DRC and the region from tortuous history of conflict and instability, and to introduce a new future offering democracy, peace, stability progress and prosperity," said Zuma.
#1 Well that calls for a Steak Diane and an aged chiante, truffle and himalayan salt infused buttered potatoe cruquettes, Bavarian asperagus delicatel sauteed with Athenian Extra Virgin Olive Oil and candied Georgia Peach dicettes with pistachio and walnut honey glaze.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/25/2013 12:50 Comments || Top||
#2 This should solve the problem in the Congo ... for about ten minutes.
Not that long. A real waste of effort.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/25/2013 16:38 Comments || Top||
No, not the US, Nigeria.
THE Comptroller General of Immigration, Rilwanu Bala Musa, said that arrangements have already been completed by the NIS to connect all border control posts to the Nigerian Satellite System (NISS) to enable officers and men "effectively monitor" activities in the borders areas from its Abuja headquarters.
Musa spoke Friday when he paid a courtesy visit to Yobe State Head Man, Ibrahim Gaidam at the Government House, Damaturu, in continuation of his familiarization tour of NIS formations and facilities in the Northeast sub-region.
He told the governor that surveillance cameras initially mounted to monitor and control movement of people in and out of the country, have failed to track and monitor the influx of undocumented citizens and activities of terrorists. The affected border posts in the sub-region, he said, include Machinna, Yunusari, Banki, Damasak, Kirawa, Dabar Masara, Sauro Maina and Gamboru/Ngala with Chad.
China-Japan-Koreas
Yes, well they would do.
SEOUL, Feb. 23 -- North Korea said Saturday it sent the usual threats and blabber a message to the top American military commander in South Korea, warning that upcoming joint military exercises between South Korea and the U.S. would amount to "igniting a war" on the divided Korean Peninsula.
Pak Rim-su, the North Korean military's representative at the truce village of Panmunjom, sent the telephone message to Gen. James Thurman, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea, saying the peninsula is facing "a grave situation where a war may break out any moment," according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency.
"If your side ignites a war of aggression by staging the reckless joint military exercises Key Resolve and Foal Eagle again under the cover of 'defensive and annual ones' at this dangerous time, from that moment your fate will be hung by a thread with every hour," said the message in English.
"You had better bear in mind that those igniting a war are destined to meet a miserable destruction while a great victory is in store for the guardians of justice," it said, according to the KCNA.
Pak also accused "the U.S. and its allied forces" of attempting to "isolate and stifle" the North, "taking issue with its just satellite launch and underground nuclear test for protecting its sovereignty," according to the KCNA.
North Korea has issued such harsh rhetoric ahead of military exercises in South Korea, denouncing them as a rehearsal for an invasion of the communist nation. Seoul and Washington have repeatedly said the drills are purely defensive in nature.
#1 See also WAFF > [The Atlantic Wire] NORTH KOREA PHONED AND DIDN'T HAVE ANYTHING NICE TO SAY.
* RELATED DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > NORTH KOREA ISSUES THREAT TO US MILITARY.
* TOPIX, FREEREPUBLIC > NORTH KOREA MAY ACTUALLY BELIEVE A WAR IS COMING.
CVN USS "GEORGE WASHINGTON" I'm alookin' at you.
Wehell, gee whizzz, whats CHINA gonna do - desire unchallenged or unopposed strategic access into WESTPAC via the Okinawa-Taiwan Straits???
Or something.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/25/2013 1:19 Comments || Top||
#2 Perhaps more realistically ...
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [SCMP.com]JAPAN PM ABE FAILS TO WIN OBAMA SUPPORT ON DIAOYUS ROW.
RELATED KYODO NEWS > ABE SNUBBED BY OBAMA ON SENKAKUS ISSUE: CHINESE MEDIAS.
* CHINA DAILY FORUM > ABE FAILS TO GET FULL US BACKING ON ISLANDS.
As seemingly affected by ...
* WORLD MILITARY FORUM > WHITE HOUSE SPOKEPERSON JAY CARNEY CLAIMS TO NOT KNOW OF FORMER SECRETARY OF STTAE HILLARY CLINTON'S COMMENTS SUPPORTING JAPAN AGZ CHINA OVER DIAOYUS/SENKAKUS DISPUTE.
NOW its a "Yuh-oh".
* KYODO NEWS > US COULD BE DIRECTLY INVOLVED IN JAPAN-CHINA MILITARY CONFLICT.
* SAME > NORTH KOREA CLAIMS INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION AS A NUCLEAR WEAPONS STATE WID THIRD NUCLEAR TEST.
SSSSSHHHHH ditto soon IRAN???
* SAME > NORTH KOREA TO MODERNIZE, EXPAND NUCLEAR ARSENAL TO "UNIMAGINABLE" EXTENT [vee USA]: KCNA.
* SAME > CHINESE VESSEL ENTERS JAPAN'S TERRITORIAL WATERS: COAST GUARD, near the Senkakus.
Yokay, I'll say it - A-G-A-I-N???
#3 Taunting us , Again.
Can't they have a "Convenient Accident", preferably deadly.
And very poisonous, say a hundred square miles poisoned, or more. (No, I don't like them, they're rude and assholey)
Get on it CIA.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/25/2013 6:09 Comments || Top||
#4 Announce under false statements that they are testing a nuke and fry thief asses alresdy
Posted by: chris || 02/25/2013 18:58 Comments || Top||
SEOUL, Feb. 23 -- More than 11,000 North Koreans have been cited for their contribution to the country's nuclear test earlier this month, the country's media said Saturday.
The North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a report that a total of 11,592 scientists, technicians, workers and officials have received state decorations for their roles in the test. The report, monitored in Seoul, gave no further details, including the identify of any awardees.
The English-language report also said that "100 were awarded the title of Hero of the DPRK with a gold star medal and Order of National Flag First Class."
Following its December long-range rocket launch, North Korea had earlier honored a total of 101 scientists and engineers with the Hero of the DPRK titles, according to the KCNA. An additional 5,700 were cited for their contribution to the launch, it said.
Reminds me of a story from the Gulag Archipelago: a man in the late 1920s receives an award as a heroic worker at a factory in the Soviet Union. There is a ceremony on the factory floor where the local party apparatchik pins a medal on the worker's jacket in front of all his coworkers. The worker is invited to say a few words, and in doing so he asks whether, instead of the shiny medal, he could instead have a loaf of bread for his family.
You can guess how that turned out.
Wonder how many shiny medals, versus how many loaves of bread, they gave out in North Korea?
#1 11,000 N. Koreans awarded for playing roles in nuclear test
Targets? Or human sponges?
Rolled over from yesterday because it was posted late in the day.
-- trailing wife
Since Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, a Lebanese-Swedish man, confessed to membership in Hezbollah last week in a Cypriot criminal court proceeding, close observers of the radical Islamic group have been warning of new dangers if the group is not sanctioned.
"Terrorism is terrorism. But where it concerns the terrorist organization Hezbollah, Europe has been, and still is, a giant ostrich," Wim Kortenoeven, a former Dutch MP and one of the Netherland's leading Middle East experts, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. "I fear that the European citizens are going to pay a very heavy price for this dangerous policy."
Kortenoeven added that Hezbollah and its terrorist Iranian masters are not only the enemies of the Jewish people and the Jewish State, but also of Europe and Western civilization as a whole.
#1 A very strongly worded letter?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/25/2013 12:03 Comments || Top||
Rolled over because it was posted late in the day.
[Dawn] The government will soon approach Interpol to seek repatriation of senior commander of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain, Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, now under detention in Afghanistan.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik
Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship.
told news hounds here on Saturday that Maulvi Faqir was involved in a series of terror attacks in the country. The government wanted his deportation from Afghanistan so that legal action could be initiated against him, he added.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [722 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1 Outside of Hawaii Five-0, has Interpol actually ever made an arrest?
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/25/2013 1:52 Comments || Top||
[Dawn] Maulana Fazlur Rehman
Deobandi holy man, known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ...
, the JUI-F chief, said on Saturday that a grand jirga constituted by tribes of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas wanted to meet national leaders in order to have their support for peace efforts in Fata.
"During (the proposed) meeting with the politicianship, the jirga will discuss proposals for bringing peace to Fata," the JUI-F leader told newsmen after meeting the Jamaat-e-Islami
... The Islamic Society , founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer . The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
leadership at Mansoora.
He invited the JI leadership to an all-party conference (APC) being organised by his party in Islamabad on Feb 28 to discuss ways for restoring peace in Fata.
Maulana Fazl said law and order was the biggest issue in the country and Fata was on fire. Houses were being razed and innocent people were being killed in drone attacks, he added.
"If the national leadership did not take (corrective) steps, someone else might take the lead for vested interest," he warned.
He said his party wanted to bring peace to Fata and urged the politicianship to come forward and join hands with it.
Speaking on the occasion, JI Amir Syed Munawar Hasan said that his party would attend the APC.
He said the prevailing situation called for a decisive dialogue with the Taliban. He said the government's attitude ignoring the Taliban's offer and taking it as a sign of weakness was a worst example of indifference.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [536 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami
[Dawn] Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh flew Sunday to Hyderabad to visit some of the 117 injured in twin bombings last week which also killed 16 people.
"The prime minister is going to visit the injured in hospital and then he will be briefed by the (Andhra Pradesh state) chief minister," Singh's front man Pankaj Pachauri told AFP by telephone from the southern city.
Singh is also scheduled to visit the blast site in Dilsukh Nagar, where two bicycle bombs went kaboom! within a few minutes of each other outside a cinema and a bus stand on Thursday evening, according to the Press Trust of India.
The premier has vowed to bring to justice the perpetrators of what he called a "dastardly" attack, the first major bombings in India since 2011.
The government was criticised in parliament on Friday by the opposition, which said the bombings had exposed systemic security failures at a time when India is on heightened alert.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [526 views] Top|| File under: Indian Mujaheddin
[Dawn] Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik
has again accused the Punjab government of not taking action against the banned Death Eater organization Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ...
(LJ), DawnNews reported.
Speaking to the media upon arrival at the airport in Bloody Karachi
, the interior minister said that the leadership of LJ is hiding in Punjab.
He said that LJ operations have intensified due to the lack of action by the provincial government.
Rehman Malik said that a letter could be written to the chief justice, raising this issue.
The US Sunday condemned the attacks on Maldivian journalists after three of them were attacked in capital Male. The US embassy here urged Maldivians to refrain from violence, and asked protesters and police to respect the right of all media outlets who cover demonstrations or other public events, reported Xinhua.
There, that's handled. Tea?
'Freedom of expression is a fundamental democratic right, and we strongly condemn these attacks,' the embassy said.
Three journalists were attacked in Male Friday night. One of them is said to be in critical condition, the Maldivian Journalists Association said.
Raajje TV journalist Ibrahim Waheed was attacked near 'Artificial Beach' with an iron rod by an unidentified man. He received serious head injuries and was flown to Sri Lanka Saturday for urgent medical treatment, officials said.
Meanwhile, Maldives media reported that during an opposition Maldivian Democratic Party protest Friday, two state television journalists were injured when a packet filled with paint thinner was thrown at them from the crowd. Both suffered serious body and facial injuries.
President Mohammed Hassan Waheed has condemned the attacks.
Former Maldivian president Mohammed Nasheed, who left the Indian High Commission Saturday after seeking asylum inside the premises for 11 days, also condemned the attacks. He called upon authorities to conduct a 'swift and thorough investigation' to bring the perpetrators to justice, regardless of their political affiliation.
So all the pols are in favor of bringing the perps to justice, but no one knows who the perps are or whose side the perps are on...
#1 Attacking three journalists is in some circles considered to be a good start.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 02/25/2013 11:52 Comments || Top||
#2 Yeah - why don't you attack, sodomize and kill the U.S. Ambassador instead?
That's allowed, even encouraged, under the Obama Regime!
Heck he'll even blame some unknown video editor for you!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/25/2013 12:14 Comments || Top||
Maj.-Gen. Sami Turgeman, outgoing head of the IDF's Ground Forces, sat at his desk at General Staff Headquarters in Tel Aviv last week, and spoke of the satisfaction he felt at what he had achieved over the past three-and-half years.
When Turgeman took over the Ground Forces in 2009, the army was still reeling from its performance during the 2006 Second Lebanon War, a conflict that served as a painful reminder that it had grown too accustomed to counter-terrorism and security missions in the West Bank, and had neglected preparations for ground operations against Hezbollah.
Turgeman oversaw a process aimed at getting the Ground Forces back in shape for an effective and speedy maneuver in southern Lebanon in case of renewed hostilities, based on the premise that only a ground offensive would decisively defeat the Shi'ite terrorist organization, which is armed with over 60,000 rockets. The same preparations will serve the army in case it is ordered to retake the Gaza Strip, if Hamas and Islamic Jihad renew rocket attacks on Israel.
The Sultanate of Sulu said on Sunday night it was not notified by the Philippine government about the dispatch of a ship to Lahur Datu to fetch Filipino Muslims who have been occupying a village in Sabah, Malaysia for days. But Abraham Iridjani, national spokesman for the sultanate, said that both the Sultan of Sulu Jamalul Kiram III and Crowned Prince Agbimuddin Kiram II thanked President Aquino for the humanitarian assistance.
Asked whether the women in the group would return home in the humanitarian ship, Iridjani said the women were determined to stay with their husbands.
The Sultanate of Sulu sent its followers to Sabah, which it has claimed as its ancestral domain for decades. Its claim has been supported by the fact that Malaysia has been paying the sultanate rent money for its lease of Sabah.
The Sultanate sent its followers days ago after sensing that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which may soon sign a peace agreement with the Philippine government, was indifferent to the sultanates claims.
The government dispatched on Sunday night, a ship to fetch and ferry back women and other civilians who have been among the 180 Muslim Filipinos and followers of the Sultan of Sulu holed up in a village in Sabah. Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario said, We sent the ship to Lahad Datu on a humanitarian mission. We are deeply concerned about the presence of five women and other civilians in the group, and we urge them to board the ship without delay and return home.
As we have stated in countless occasions previously, we call on the entire group to go back to their homes and families, even at the same time we are addressing the core issues they have raised. Please do so for your own safety."
Sultan of Sulu Jamalul Kiram III had said his followers will remain in the village.
Posted by: ryuge || 02/25/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [751 views] Top|| File under:
#1 See also DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Global Inquirer] SABAH STANDOFF: KARMA.
Iff it isn't careful, Malaysia in 2013 -??? may end up like the Philippines in stalemate after many decades of fighting insurgency.
* SAME > [Manila Bulletin] DON'T HARM SULTAN'S MEN, NUR [MILF Founder Nur Musuari] WARNS MALAYSIA.
Lest the MILF + aligned Filipino Muslims, Groups militarily intervene on behalf of the Sultan of Sulu iff blood is spilled.
* SAME > [Philippine Star] SULTAN OF SULU WANTS SABAH RETURNED TO THE PHILIPPINES.
Wid CHINA expanding its de facto control of the bulk of the South China Sea, ALTERNATE MARITIME ROUTES TO STRAIT OF MALACCAS ARE NEEDED? - ANCIENT TERRITORIAL CLAIMS NOTWITHSTANDING???
Moscow: Syria is ready to hold talks with its armed opponents, foreign minister Walidal-Moualem said on Monday, in the clearest offer yet of negotiations with rebels fighting to overthrow President Basharal-Assad.
But Moualem said Syria would continue its fight "against terrorism", a reference to its conflict with anti-Assad rebels in which the United Nations says 70,000 people have been killed.
"We are ready for dialogue with everyone who wants it... Even with those who have weapons in their hands. Because we believe that reforms will not come through bloodshed but only through dialogue," Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted Moualem as saying.
He was speaking in Moscow, a staunch ally of Assad, where he was meeting foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.
Did he say it in Arabic? Was it broadcast on Syrian TV? Will he say it again when he gets home? And most importantly, when does Pencilneck say it, in Arabic, on Syrian TV?
Moaz al-Khatib, head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, told reporters in Cairo he had not yet been in contact with Damascus about any talks, but said he had postponed trips to Russia and the United States "until we see how things develop".
Syria's government and opposition have both suggested in recent weeks they are prepared for some contacts - softening their previous outright rejection of talks to resolve a conflict which has driven nearly a million Syrians out of the country and left millions more homeless and hungry.
But the opposition has said any political solution to the crisis must be based on the removal of Assad, whose family has ruled Syria since 1970. The government has rejected any pre-conditions for talks aimed at ending the violence, which started as a peaceful pro-democracy uprising.
The two sides also differ on the location for any talks, with the opposition saying they should be abroad or in rebel-held parts of Syria. Assad's government says any serious dialogue must be held on Syrian territory under its control.
Naturally. How dare that man not pay attention to the word of the Mighty Turk?!
[An Nahar] Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that his country will "not remain silent" over Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Scourge of Qusayr...
's "crimes" against his own people.
"Every day a large number of innocent children and women fall dead in Syria," Erdogan said in a speech at the Government Communication Forum in the United Arab Emirates.
"We will not remain silent to those committing crimes against their people," he said.
"We will not remain silent to the brutal dictator in Syria," Erdogan added. "Some people are annoyed with the loud voices with which we confront world problems" but "we will not stay silent."
Turkey's southern neighbor has been locked in a 23-months-long conflict in which the United Nations
...an international organization whose stated aim of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country...
estimates over 70,000 people have been killed since an uprising began against Assad's regime.
Early in the revolt, Turkey broke ties with Damascus
...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy...
and led international calls for Assad's ouster.
It has since backed the uprising by offering shelter to defectors from Assad's army and hosting opposition meetings. Some 200,000 Syrian refugees have fled the conflict in their country for Turkey, many of them living in insalubrious camps.
On February 15, Syrian state media reported that the Syrian government has sent a letter to the United Nations blasting Turkey's "destructive" role in the Syrian conflict.
[An Nahar] Hizbullah on Sunday announced that it will not neglect the issue of protecting Lebanese residents who live in border towns inside Syria, stressing that "there will be no solution in Syria except through politics and dialogue."
"To those screaming that the state should be in charge of defending its people: Has the state protected and defended the Lebanese residents who live inside Syria?" head of Hizbullah's religious committee Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek said.
If they're Lebanese, they aren't really Syria's people, though, are they?
"All the Lebanese must raise their voices high in defense of the Lebanese residents of Syrian towns who are suffering harm and injustice," Yazbek added during a memorial service held at the Hermel town of al-Qasr for Osama Msarra, one of the Lebanese killed in recent festivities with Syrian rebels in the border area.
Addressing the residents, Yazbek went on to say: "Excuse them, they are busy with the electoral laws, showoffs and the blocking of roads, but we will not overlook your plight and we will remain loyal. We will stand on the side of right and the side of the aggrieved."
"We are not attacking anyone but we will not allow anyone to attack us. We cannot stand idly by as our people, women and kiddies are being aggrieved. We cannot tolerate to be uprooted from the land we have inhabited for tens of years as long as there is blood in our veins," Yazbek added.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [539 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[An Nahar] Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Sunday condemned the cross-border shelling from Syria into border towns in northern Leb.
"We denounce the death of Lebanese citizens in incidents they have nothing to do with and we call on the relevant Syrian authorities to take the appropriate measures to prevent the recurrence of such incidents," said Miqati in a statement distributed by his office.
"I have asked the minister of foreign affairs (Adnan Mansour) to officially inform Syrian authorities of our rejection of this behavior and our demand that its recurrence be prevented," Miqati added.
Fierce fighting erupted during the night on the Syria-Leb border between Syrian troops and unknown gunnies, leaving a Lebanese man dead and four maimed, a Lebanese security source told Agence La Belle France Presse on Sunday.
The violence was triggered by the death hours earlier of another Lebanese man, who was killed on Saturday in gunfire coming from the Syria side of the border near a river separating the two countries, the security source said.
Members of his clan took part in the festivities against Syrian troops during the night in the Buqayaa region of northern Leb, a Lebanese official told AFP.
The Syrian army used artillery, mortars and automatic weapons fired from the Syrian village of Mcherfe as they clashed with the gunnies, according to the security source, who said a Lebanese man was killed and at least four others maimed in the fighting.
He was unable to say whether the gunnies were Lebanese or Syrians opposed to the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Despoiler of Deraa...
[An Nahar] Hundreds of protesters demanded on Sunday that trial procedures be accelerated for Islamist prisoners, who have been held in Roumieh prison without charge since 2007, and vowed an uprising and "vengeance" against the authorities.
"We ask today for justice or else let them (officials) burn in hell," they said at the protest held in downtown Beirut's Martyrs Square.
The protest was given a boost by controversial Salafist holy man Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir, who came along with his supporters from the southern city of Sidon to Beirut to attend the rally.
"We are being treated this way because we are members of the defeated (Sunni) sect," said al-Asir in a speech.
He called for "an Intifada to end the hegemony."
He also accused some judges at the military court of coming under political pressure, saying "we don't have trust in your magistrates and your tribunal."
Addressing President Michel Suleiman
...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too...
and every official, al-Asir said: "Release them immediately because we don't accept that they be tried after being seized for six years."
Most other speakers at the protest warned the Lebanese authorities that the families and supporters of the detainees "won't remain silent" and will "take vengeance."
"They should be released through fair trials," they said, adding they would call for compensations.
Pretrial hearings for 86 Islamists were held at Beirut's Justice Palace earlier this month, the first legal action taken by the Lebanese judiciary ahead of their trial.
Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi has promised speedy trials for the Islamists without political intervention.
Sunday's protest caused bumper-to-bumper traffic at Beirut's entrances, mainly in Dora, after security forces set up checkpoints ahead of the event.
The Nahr al-Bared Paleostinian refugee camp in northern Leb was almost totally destroyed during a months-long conflict between the Lebanese military and the al-Qaeda-inspired group Fatah al-Islam
A Syrian-incubated al-Qaeda work-alike that they think can be turned off if no longer needed to keep the Lebanon pot stirred.
The fighting killed some 400 people, including 168 soldiers.
Some Islamist leaders escaped despite the army siege of the camp.
The inmates were locked away
Please don't kill me!
on charges of fighting or aiding the Fatah al-Islam fighters in Nahr al-Bared that lies near the northern coastal city of Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [549 views] Top|| File under: Fatah al-Islam
LONDON - The U.S. is frantically trying to salvage a Syrian opposition conference set for this week in Rome that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry plans to attend. A senior Obama administration official says Kerry has sent his top Syrian envoy to Cairo in hopes of convincing opposition leaders that the conference will be critical to securing additional aid from the United States and Europe.
It's doomed...
Some members of the sharply divided Syrian Opposition Council are threatening to boycott Wednesday's meeting.
The official says U.S. envoy Robert Ford will say the conference is a chance for foes of Syrian President Bashar Assad to make their case for new and enhanced aid -- especially to Kerry. He's on his first overseas trip as secretary of state.
#1 Catch-up diplomacy.
Which Syrian envoy?
Top Syrian envoy.
#2 The key question is: would the Syrians be better off humiliating Kerry or asking him for help? My guess is they would get most out of him by asking him to beg to help them, and not by begging. This administration only behaves nicely to those who treat us like dirt.
Posted by: djk || 02/25/2013 14:26 Comments || Top||
#3 Guess that depends on which assad opposition teams. And perhaps Team Jihad Quest, Sporting Club AQ/MB, Local Boyz United might be a bit apprehensive of the PR of travelling to Rome to be paid to fight in islamland.
#4 Remember, Fukin.
23:52 Raj
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20:48 Steve White
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19:47 Alanc
19:14 tu3031
18:58 chris
18:51 Frozen Al
18:51 ryuge
1 Indian Mujaheddin
1 TNSM
1 Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami
1 Fatah al-Islam
1 Baloch Liberation Army
1 al-Nusra
1 Hezbollah
WoT Operations (22) Non-WoT (14) Opinion (10) (0) Politix (4)
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IFTS Logo
Aboutrwmets2017-03-22T10:24:59-07:00
Robert Ward
Robert Ward’s love for meteorites was ignited as a 13-year-old boy in Bullhead City, Arizona. Looking out across the Colorado River from his driveway – eyes skimming the horizon to take in the brilliant sunset colors – Robert saw a large, orange fireball shoot across the sky and morph into a solid black object before plummeting into the distant desert. He was hooked.
Curiosity piqued, Robert went straight to the local library to learn everything he could about what he already knew he had witnessed to fall: meteorites. Robert’s insatiable appetite to learn was merely the beginning of a life full of nonstop, extreme adventure. Robert has lived it all – incredible successes, epic failures, brushes with death, wrongful imprisonment, you name it – and is now approaching 6,000 meteorite finds at almost 600 locations on six continents across the globe, including the recovery of over 20 witnessed falls.
Robert’s home is now in Prescott, Arizona, but his suitcase and equipment are always packed and ready for departure to any corner of the planet, on a moment’s notice, in search of the pristine building blocks of the solar system itself. He even still laughs about one of his first “dates” with his wife having been a spontaneous expedition to Morocco to recover freshly fallen stones from Vesta, the second-largest object in the asteroid belt.
Robert Ward has a profound passion for science, and seeing meteorites he has personally recovered being used to advance scientific research, knowledge, and understanding is one of his greatest joys. Rarely seen without his cowboy boots and black Stetson hat, Robert is often referred to as the “Space Cowboy,” and his private collection vault features specimens of virtually every known meteorite composition from all over the world.
About Iron from the Sky
History of the IFTS Logo
At Robert Ward Meteorites, we are focused on the location and preservation of meteorites. In the coming days, you will be able to browse through my meteorite collection and read accounts of my meteorite hunting expeditons around the world.
Visit our Iron from the Sky collection pages for information about previous expeditions and recovered specimens.
Copyright Robert Ward Meteorites | All Rights Reserved | Site by STM
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CZ / SK English Deutsch
Tachikawa Ki-94-II
Blohm & Voss Ae 607 "Nightfighter"
Avro Rota C.30
SIPA S.10/Arado Ar-396
Arado Ar 396
Plastic models 1:72
P-39 Q Airacobra
6 obtiskových variant
1.P-39Q , 51st FS/32nd FG, Panama 1943
2.P-39Q-6, 82nd TRS/71st TRG, 1944, New Guinea, Lt. P. A. McDermott
3.P-39Q, kpt.G.A.Rechkalov, 9th Guard Air Fighter Division, Poland 1944
4.P-39Q, kpt.G.A.Rechkalov, 9th Guard Air Fighter Division, Polsko 1944
5.P-39Q-1, 72nd FS/318th FG, Makin Island, 1943/44, Charlie Taylor
6.P-39Q-1, 46th FS/15th FG, Canton Island, pilot 1Lt. Jack Garnett
The Bell P-39 Airacobra was one of the principal American fighter aircraft in service when the United States entered World War II. The P-39 was used with great success by the Soviet Air Force, which scored the highest number of kills per pilot attributed to any U.S. fighter type. Other major users of the type include the Free French, the Royal Air Force, the United States Army Air Forces, and the Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force. Designed by Bell Aircraft, it had an innovative layout, with the engine installed in the center fuselage, behind the pilot, and driving a tractor propeller via a long shaft. It was also the first fighter fitted with a tricycle undercarriage. Although its mid-engine placement was innovative, the P-39 design was handicapped by the absence of an efficient turbo-supercharger, limiting it to low-altitude work.
Please try again in a few days.
P-39 L/N Airacobra
P-39 Q-25 Airacobra
Airacobra I/P-400
Model letadla P-39 Q Airacobra.
Do not hesitate to contact us via the contact form. We will be happy to oblige.
Jakub Štanglica Jiří Štanglica
© RS Models 2019
Facebook Old web Terms & Conditions Zpracování os. údajů Site map
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Sweden Population: 9,880,604
A military power during the 17th century, Sweden has not participated in any war for two centuries. An armed neutrality was preserved in both world wars. Sweden's long-successful economic formula of a capitalist system intermixed with substantial welfare elements was challenged in the 1990s by high unemployment and in 2000-02 and 2009 by the global economic downturns, but fiscal discipline over the past several years has allowed the country to weather economic vagaries. Sweden joined the EU in 1995, but the public rejected the introduction of the euro in a 2003 referendum.
Strategic location along Danish Straits linking Baltic and North Seas
Location: Northern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Bothnia, Kattegat, and Skagerrak, between Finland and Norway
Size comparison: slightly larger than California
Land Boundaries: total: 2,211 km border countries (2): Finland 545 km, Norway 1,666 km
Maritime claims: territorial sea: 12 nm (adjustments made to return a portion of straits to high seas)
exclusive economic zone: agreed boundaries or midlines
Climate: temperate in south with cold, cloudy winters and cool, partly cloudy summers; subarctic in north
Terrain: mostly flat or gently rolling lowlands; mountains in west
Natural resources: iron ore, copper, lead, zinc, gold, silver, tungsten, uranium, arsenic, feldspar, timber, hydropower
Natural hazards: ice floes in the surrounding waters, especially in the Gulf of Bothnia, can interfere with maritime traffic
Current Environment Issues: acid rain damage to soils and lakes; pollution of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea
International Environment Agreements: party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
Nationality: noun: Swede(s)
adjective: Swedish
Ethnic groups: indigenous population: Swedes with Finnish and Sami minorities; foreign-born or first-generation immigrants: Finns, Yugoslavs, Danes, Norwegians, Greeks, Turks
Languages: Swedish (official), small Sami- and Finnish-speaking minorities
Religions: Lutheran 87%, other (includes Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Baptist, Muslim, Jewish, and Buddhist) 13%
Birth rate: 12 births/1,000 population (2016 est.)
Major urban areas - population: STOCKHOLM (capital) 1.486 million (2015)
Obesity - adult prevalence rate: 22% (2014)
Country name: conventional long form: Kingdom of Sweden
conventional short form: Sweden
local long form: Konungariket Sverige
local short form: Sverige
etymology: name ultimately derives from the North Germanic Svear tribe, which inhabited central Sweden and is first mentioned in the first centuries A.D.
Capital: name: Stockholm
Administrative divisions: 21 counties (lan, singular and plural); Blekinge, Dalarna, Gavleborg, Gotland, Halland, Jamtland, Jonkoping, Kalmar, Kronoberg, Norrbotten, Orebro, Ostergotland, Skane, Sodermanland, Stockholm, Uppsala, Varmland, Vasterbotten, Vasternorrland, Vastmanland, Vastra Gotaland
Independence: 6 June 1523 (Gustav VASA elected king of Sweden marking the abolishment of the Kalmar Union between Denmark, Norway, and Sweden)
National holiday: National Day, 6 June (1983); note - from 1916 to 1982 this date was celebrated as Swedish Flag Day
Constitution: history: several previous; latest adopted 1 January 1975 amendments: proposed by Parliament; passage requires simple majority vote in two consecutive parliamentary terms with an intervening general election; passage also requires approval by simple majority vote in a referendum if Parliament approves a motion for a referendum by one-third of its members; amended several times, last in 2014 (changes to the "Instrument of Government") (2016)
Legal system: civil law system influenced by Roman-Germanic law and customary law
Executive branch: chief of state: King CARL XVI GUSTAF (since 19 September 1973); Heir Apparent Princess VICTORIA Ingrid Alice Desiree, daughter of the monarch (born 14 July 1977)
head of government: Prime Minister Stefan LOFVEN (since 3 October 2014); Deputy Prime Minister Isabella LOVIN (since 25 May 2016)
cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister elections/appointments: the monarchy is hereditary; following legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or majority coalition usually becomes the prime minister
Legislative branch: description: unicameral Parliament or Riksdag (349 seats; 310 members directly elected in multi-seat constituencies by proportional representation vote and 39 members in "at-large" seats directly elected by proportional representation vote; members serve 4-year terms)
election results: percent of vote by party - SAP 31.0%, M 23.3%, SD 12.9%, MP 6.9%, C 6.1%, V 5.7%, FP 5.4%, KD 4.6%, others 4.1%; seats by party - SAP 113, M 84, SD 49, MP 25, C 22, V 21, FP 19, KD 16
Judicial branch: highest court(s): Supreme Court of Sweden (consists of 16 justices including the court chairman); Supreme Administrative Court (consists of 18 justices including the court president) judge selection and term of office: Supreme Court and Supreme Administrative Court justices nominated by the Board of Judges, a 9-member nominating body consisting of high-level judges, prosecutors, and members of Parliament; justices appointed by the Government; following a probationary period, justices' appointments are permanent
subordinate courts: first instance and appellate general and administrative courts; specialized courts that handle cases such as land and environment, immigration, labor, markets, and patents
Political parties and leaders: Center Party (Centerpartiet) or C [Annie LOOF] Christian Democrats (Kristdemokraterna) or KD [Ebba Busch THOR] Green Party (Miljopartiet de Grona) or MP [Asa ROMSON and Gustav FRIDOLIN] Left Party (Vansterpartiet) (formerly Communist Party) or V [Jonas SJOSTEDT] Liberal Party (Liberalerna) or L [Jan BJORKLUND] Moderate Party (Moderaterna) or M [Anna KINBERG BATRA] Swedish Social Democratic Party (Socialdemokraterna) or SAP [Stefan LOFVEN] Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) or SD [Jimmie AKESSON]
Political pressure groups and leaders: Swedish Confederation of Professional Associations or SACO [Goran ARRIUS] Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees or TCO [Eva NORDMARK] Swedish Trade Union Confederation (Landsorganisationen) or LO [Karl-Petter THORWALDSSON] other: environmental groups; media
International organization participation: ADB (nonregional member), AfDB (nonregional member), Arctic Council, Australia Group, BIS, CBSS, CD, CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, ECB, EIB, EITI (implementing country), EMU, ESA, EU, FAO, FATF, G-9, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC (national committees), ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IGAD (partners), IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC (NGOs), MIGA, MINUSMA, MONUSCO, NC, NEA, NIB, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, PFP, Schengen Convention, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMISS, UNMOGIP, UNRWA, UNTSO, UPU, WCO, WFTU (NGOs), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC
National symbol(s): three crowns, lion; national colors: blue, yellow
National anthem: name: "Du Gamla, Du Fria" (Thou Ancient, Thou Free)
lyrics/music: Richard DYBECK/traditional
note: in use since 1844; also known as "Sang till Norden" (Song of the North), is based on a Swedish folk tune; it has never been officially adopted by the government; "Kungssangen" (The King's Song) serves as the royal anthem and is played in the presence of the royal family and during certain state ceremonies
Diplomatic representation in the US: chief of mission: Ambassador Bjorn O. LYRVALL (since 12 September 2013)
chancery: The House of Sweden, 2900 K Street NW, Washington, DC 20007
consulate(s) general: New York
Diplomatic representation from the US: chief of mission: Ambassador Azita RAJI (since 15 March 2016)
embassy: Dag Hammarskjolds Vag 31, SE-11589 Stockholm
mailing address: American Embassy Stockholm, US Department of State, 5750 Stockholm Place, Washington, DC 20521-5750
telephone: [46] (08) 783 53 00
FAX: [46] (08) 661 19 64
Sweden has achieved an enviable standard of living with its combination of free-market capitalism and extensive welfare benefits. Sweden remains outside the euro zone largely out of concern that joining the European Economic and Monetary Union would diminish the country’s sovereignty over its welfare system. Timber, hydropower, and iron ore constitute the resource base of an economy heavily oriented toward foreign trade. Economic growth slowed in 2013, as a result of continued economic weakness in Sweden’s European trading partners; Sweden’s economy experienced modest growth in 2014-15, with real GDP growth above 2%, but continues to struggle with deflationary pressure.
GDP (purchasing power parity): GDP (purchasing power parity): $498.1 billion (2016 est.) $481 billion (2015 est.) $461.7 billion (2014 est.)
Agriculture - products: barley, wheat, sugar beets; meat, milk
Industries: iron and steel, precision equipment (bearings, radio and telephone parts, armaments), wood pulp and paper products, processed foods, motor vehicles
Labor force - by occupation: agriculture: 2%
highest 10%: 24% (2012)
Distribution of family income - Gini index: 24.9 (2013) 25 (1992)
Taxes and other revenues: 48% of GDP (2016 est.)
note: data cover general government debt, and includes debt instruments issued (or owned) by government entities other than the treasury; the data include treasury debt held by foreign entities; the data include debt issued by subnational entities, as well as i
Inflation rate (consumer prices): Inflation rate (consumer prices): 0.8% (2016 est.) 0% (2015 est.)
Exports - commodities: machinery 35%, motor vehicles, paper products, pulp and wood, iron and steel products, chemicals (2012 est.)
Exports - partners: Norway 10.3%, Germany 10.3%, US 7.7%, UK 7.2%, Denmark 6.8%, Finland 6.7%, Netherlands 5.2%, Belgium 4.4%, France 4.2% (2015)
Imports - commodities: machinery, petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, motor vehicles, iron and steel; foodstuffs, clothing
Imports - partners: Germany 17.9%, Netherlands 8.1%, Norway 7.8%, Denmark 7.7%, China 6%, UK 5.5%, Finland 4.6%, France 4.3%, Belgium 4.3% (2015)
Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad: $465.4 billion (31 December 2016 est.) $445 billion (31 December 2015 est.)
Exchange rates: Swedish kronor (SEK) per US dollar - 8.569 (2016 est.) 8.4335 (2015 est.) 8.4335 (2014 est.) 6.8612 (2013 est.) 6.77 (2012 est.)
Electricity - exports: 29 billion kWh (2014 est.)
Electricity - imports: 14 billion kWh (2014 est.)
Electricity - from nuclear fuels: 24.8% of total installed capacity (2012 est.)
Crude oil - exports: 23,210 bbl/day (2015 est.)
Natural gas - consumption: 933 million cu m (2014 est.)
Natural gas - imports: 891 million cu m (2014 est.)
Telephone system: general assessment: highly developed telecommunications infrastructure; ranked among leading countries for fixed-line, mobile-cellular, Internet and broadband penetration
domestic: coaxial and multiconductor cables carry most of the voice traffic; parallel microwave radio relay systems carry some additional telephone channels
international: country code - 46; submarine cables provide links to other Nordic countries and Europe; satellite earth stations - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean), 1 Eutelsat, and 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions); note - Sweden shares the Inmarsat earth station (2015)
Broadcast media: publicly owned TV broadcaster operates 2 terrestrial networks plus regional stations; multiple privately owned TV broadcasters operating nationally, regionally, and locally; about 50 local TV stations; widespread access to pan-Nordic and international bro (2008)
Internet country code: .se
Railways: total 11,915 km
standard gauge: 11,850 km 1.435-m gauge (7,567 km electrified)
narrow gauge: 65 km 0.891-m gauge (65 km electrified) (2014)
(includes 1,913 km of expressways) paved: 135,444 km
unpaved: 444,412 km
note: includes 104,705 km of state roads, 433,034 km of private roads, and 41,825 km of municipal roads (2010)
by type: bulk carrier 4, cargo 16, carrier 1, chemical tanker 15, passenger 5, passenger/cargo 36, petroleum tanker 11, roll on/roll off 30, vehicle carrier 17
foreign-owned: 35 (Denmark 4, Estonia 3, Finland 16, Germany 3, Ireland 1, Italy 5, Norway 3)
registered in other countries: 189 (Bahamas 11, Barbados 4, Bermuda 14, Canada 2, Cook Islands 3, Cyprus 5, Denmark 15, Faroe Islands 11, Finland 1, France 4, Gibraltar 11, Italy 1, Liberia 12, Malta 1, Marshall Islands 1, Netherlands 12, Norway 27, Panama 2, Portugal 3, Saint Vincent and (2010)
Ports and terminals: major seaport(s): Brofjorden, Goteborg, Helsingborg, Karlshamn, Lulea, Malmo, Stockholm, Trelleborg, Visby LNG terminal(s) (import): Brunnsviksholme, Lysekil
Military branches: Swedish Armed Forces (Forsvarsmakten): Army (Armen), Royal Swedish Navy (Marinen), Swedish Air Force (Svenska Flygvapnet) (2010)
Military service age and obligation: 18-47 years of age for male and female voluntary military service; Swedish citizenship required; service obligation: 7.5 months (Army), 7-15 months (Navy), 8-12 months (Air Force); the Swedish Parliament has abolished compulsory military service, with exclusively voluntary recruitment as of July 2010; conscription remains an option in emergencies; after completing initial service, soldiers have a reserve commitment until age 47 (2013)
Military expenditures: 1.1% of GDP (2015) 1.1% of GDP (2014) 1.1% of GDP (2013) 1.18% of GDP (2012) 1.17% of GDP (2011)
Refugees and internally displaced persons: refugees (country of origin): 52,707 (Syria); 23,886 (Iraq); 21,501 (Somalia); 20,203 (Eritrea); 13,064 (Afghanistan) (2015)
stateless persons: 31,062 (2015); note - the majority of stateless people are from the Middle East and Somalia
MexicoSpainArgentinaColombiaChileUnited StatesPeruVenezuelaEcuadorUruguayGuatemalaCosta RicaDominican RepublicEl SalvadorParaguayBoliviaPanamaHondurasUnited KingdomPuerto RicoNicaraguaBrazilGermanyRussiaFranceCanadaItalyJapanIrelandCubaNetherlandsAustraliaAndorraPortugalSwitzerlandPolandBelgiumSwedenIndiaRomaniaAustriaNorwayFinlandMoroccoIndonesiaIsraelHungaryBulgariaChinaTurkeySouth KoreaCzechiaPhilippinesNew ZealandUkraineDenmarkCuracaoGreeceUnited Arab EmiratesLuxembourgSingaporeSouth AfricaLithuaniaThailandLatviaSloveniaBelarusTaiwanAngolaPakistanArubaMoldovaVietnamTrinidad and TobagoCote d'IvoireCroatiaMaltaAlgeriaMalaysiaTunisiaEstoniaHong KongNigeriaEgyptSaudi ArabiaGeorgiaQatarIraqMozambiqueKazakhstanAzerbaijanFijiEquatorial GuineaJamaicaSurinameSlovakiaCayman IslandsMartiniqueNorth MacedoniaSyriaAntigua and BarbudaKuwaitCambodiaMalawiGhanaSeychellesMauritiusNamibiaOmanBangladeshGuadeloupeBahrainSerbiaJordanTogoCabo VerdeMaliCyprus « Previous Country | Next Country » Back to Flag Counter Overview
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Orchid stocks Jimmy’s rare breed bangers
Posted by The Sausage King On September 20th, 2008 / No Comments
In a pub industry first, the Orchid Group is putting rare breed sausages from TV’s ‘Jimmy’s Farm’ on its menu.
The company will feature Jimmy’s Farm Sausages in all 40 of its carveries from the start of October. Jimmy Doherty’s business breeds free range pigs, born and raised on the farm in woodland or open pasture.
Sharon Hammond, carveries concept development manager, said: “The Orchid Group is a fervent supporter of British farming and is passionate about promoting the best of British food available.
“We are delighted to be the first pub company in the UK to recognise and support the tremendous work that Jimmy’s Farm is doing in helping to safeguard important rare breeds for future generations.”
Jimmy said: “We’ve gone back to basics concentrating on traditional pig rearing techniques that focus on creating free range, healthy, happy pigs that produce rather splendid award-winning sausages.
“We only use meat from the leg, shoulder and belly – effectively putting the equivalent of a Sunday roast into our sausages! Hats off to Orchid for getting behind us one hundred per cent in our efforts to protect rare breeds, support traditional, sustainable farming methods and helping us demonstrate the very best that British farming has to offer on a plate.”
Orchid was the first pub company in the UK to become a Red Tractor licensee for all carvery meat and recently became the first to launch cask ale with Red Tractor accreditation in association with Wells and Young’s.
Sharon Hammond added: “We stand up for what we believe in and we have a passion for supporting the British farming community and its efforts to produce first-class, high quality food. Our collaboration with Jimmy’s Farm is a perfect partnership as Jimmy and his team is just as passionate as we are about delivering the best of British produce in a responsible, sustainable way.”
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Save the Tarpon
Boycott the PTTS Sponsors and Affiliates
PTTS Exposed
A decade later, expert cited in FWC study speaks out: The jig snags tarpon
May 17, 2013 by Save the Tarpon 5 Comments
A decade ago, Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission researcher and doctorial candidate Kathy Guindon was under the gun. She had just spent two years and more than $200,000 of taxpayer money on an abortive Boca Grande Pass tarpon mortality study that had been hurriedly reshuffled and morphed into a hook placement project that focused on live-baiting, jigging and, of course, snagging.
In a recent letter to FWC Chairman Kenneth Wright, Dr. Justin R. Grubich – one of the world’s leading authorities on tarpon feeding habits – implodes the myth Guindon’s hook placement “study” created when it was rushed into print a decade ago. A copy of Grubich’s letter has been obtained by Save The Tarpon Inc. In his letter, the associate director of biodiversity at Chicago’s respected Field Museum provides a revealing glimpse into how $200,000 worth of research was warped into $200,000 worth of junk science. And how the jig went from an obvious snagging device to a legitimate fishing lure as a result of a brief 30 minute phone call.
In 2004, Guidon (her emails would later become public) understood the numbers she had collected weren’t going the way the jig community wanted. The data showed a significant difference between the two methods of fishing. The data Guindon had gathered in the Pass clearly showed the live bait technique employed by Boca Grande’s traditional tarpon guides wasn’t foul-hooking fish. The same data made it equally clear the jig was. Guindon’s jig angler “friends,” who were leaked the study’s unpublished results in advance, weren’t very happy. And when the media went after Guindon’s raw data, they panicked.
Emails later obtained and published by a local newspaper showed the young doctorial candidate was being bombarded with pleas from jig guides begging her to find a way to “massage” the data to bring the foul-hooking numbers under the threshold the FWC commissioners had previously said would trigger a finding that the jig was a snagging device. Guindon couldn’t change the data. It had already been made public. But she could change the message the data was sending.
Enter Dr. Grubich. “I was contacted by the FWC (Guindon) sometime around 2003-4 because of my 2001 research publication regarding the strike kinematics and jaw functional morphology of juvenile tarpon,” he writes in his letter to the FWC chairman. Grubich was a recognized expert. He was the authority. He was the scientist anyone researching tarpon feeding habits would want to undertake a thoughtful and analytical “peer review” of their findings. It’s a process that can take weeks, if not months, to do right. Guindon, under pressure to “publish or perish,” gave Dr. Grubich a half hour. Over the phone.
Even as recently as May 10, 2013, The PTTS has defended the use of “tarpon jigs” by citing the FWC 2002–2004: Tarpon Catch-and-Release Mortality Study, Boca Grande Pass as can be seen by this Facebook comment.
“My recollection of that phone call was approximately a 30 minute discussion where I was briefly informed of the Boca Grande jigging issue and asked a series of questions of how tarpon jaws work during the strike and whether it’s possible these jig’s hook placement in the clipper could be the result of feeding behavior.”
Possible? To his credit, Dr. Grubich answered the question honestly. Possible, yes. Anything’s possible. That’s pretty much all Guindon needed, or wanted, to hear. It was “possible” the foul-hooking observed with the jig, but not with live bait methods, was the result of normal “feeding behavior.” The jig, her study concluded, wasn’t really snagging those snagged tarpon. Dr. Grubich said so.
Since its hasty publication, the study and Dr. Grubich’s phoned-in observations have been repeatedly offered up as “proof” by jig anglers and the PTTS that the jig doesn’t, as its critics contend, snag tarpon. (The hits just keep on coming. The Friday, May 17 edition of the Boca Beacon reports that University of South Florida tarpon expert Dr. Phil Motta has said the information he gave to the FWC was also improperly and incorrectly used in the study.)
Fast forward to May, 2013. Dr. Grubich is contacted by author Randy White and noted tarpon angler and artist Bill Bishop. Dr. Grubich, who had never reviewed the data Guindon collected and whose opinion was cherry-picked from what he was told during a rushed phone call, was urged by White and Bishop to take a closer look at the study. He did.
And an entirely different story emerged.
First, about that quickie phone call that formed the basis for the study’s eventual conclusions: “At no point in time was any background material of the break-away jig issue, the tarpon fishery at Boca Grande Pass, or the initial 2002-2003 results of the catch and release mortality study ever provided to me before or after my interview.”
But now he’s seen the data. He’s been given the time to study it. And a decade after the fact, he’s formed an opinion. A real opinion. One based on his training, his experience and his expertise. His conclusion leaves little room for debate. The jig, he says, is snagging tarpon.
“The evidence,” Dr. Grubich writes, “indicates break-away jigs result in higher foul hooking percentages.” And, “the results show that break-away jigs still have significantly greater foul hook placement in other parts of the tarpon compared to live bait.” What percentage of foul hooking did the study actually uncover? Was it 10 percent? Maybe 15 percent? Dr. Grubich’s examination of the data puts the number well above what the FWC once said was acceptable. “The percentage of foul hooking associated with break-away jigs would be 27 percent for the 2003 results.”
The jig anglers and the PTTS have spent the last 10 years demanding science. Read Dr. Grubich’s letter to the FWC chairman. It’s called science.
FWC Summary Report on the Catch-and-Release Mortality Study on Tarpon
in Boca Grande Pass, 2002–2004
2002-2003: Incidence of Foul-hooking in FMRI* Boca Grande Pass Tarpon Catch and Release Mortality Study
Filed Under: Features, News & Updates, PTTS Exposed, What Others Are Saying Tagged With: Conservation, Dr. Justin Grubich, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Florida Wildlife Research Institute, FWC, Kathy Guindon, Professional Tarpon Tournament Series, PTTS, Save the Tarpon
Todd Staley says
What is the goal? To protect tarpon or get jiggers out of the pass. Is it all jigs or just this particular style? If what is stated is true science, my opinion is below
I have been following online the controversy regarding tarpon fishing in Boca Grande and the Professional Tarpon Tournament Series.
Since I have often been referred to as the guy “who ruined the fishing in Boca Grande”, and then running off to Costa Rica, I feel I am qualified to weigh in on this matter. Wade Stephenson and I introduced the 12 Fathom Jig to Boca Grande back in 1986. Ownership of the company has changed hands several times as well as the design of the jig.
I am not going to comment on handling of the fish or Florida State law, but I will say I was part of the group that lobbied here in Costa Rica for the law that sport fishermen cannot remove from the water, all billfish and the fine to do so is $4000. The problem here is regulations and enforcement are worlds apart and many sport fishing operators continue to advertise on the web with sailfish hoisted out of the water.
When Wade and I introduced the jig, it was manufactured with a fixed Mustad extra strong 8/0, J-Hook. Later after we sold the company, the design was changed to a large circle hook with a break-away sinker. It wasn’t until the design change that I started hearing and reading complaints of fish hooked outside the mouth and large amounts of lead being left in on the bottom of Boca Grande.
In the many years I fished the jig in Boca Grande and in Costa Rica, I have snagged two tarpon. Both instances were in Boca Grande when a giant school of fish picked up and headed west. I got in front of the school and when they got into 30 feet of water, they were so thick that my rod tip danced as fish bumped into my line. In one instance I snagged one tarpon in the dorsal fin and the other I snagged the fish in the tail. I have never gut hooked a tarpon using a jig with a J-Hook.
I have never used a jig with a break-away circle hook design so I cannot judge how much more effective they are than a J-Hook. I do know I have caught hundreds of tarpon in my lifetime in Boca Grande and Costa Rica, and 99% of them were on jigs. As I said I won’t comment on handling of fish in Florida or the law, but I feel the PTTS events would be more sporting, less controversial, and more environmentally friendly if they returned to fixed J-Hooks.
As far as the etiquette of people fishing Boca Grande Pass, I have learned over my many years on this planet that courtesy can be taught. Common sense can’t be.
Todd Staley
Fishing Director, Crocodile Bay Resort and Marina, Costa Rica
How about Tarpon fishing is banned all together in Boca Grande Pass, and while we are at that lets ban artificial bait/lure fishing for all fish. I mean isn’t that going to be safer for the fishery, and since it appears that it is more of a turf war over the fishing in the pass no one should fish for tarpon..
Save the Tarpon says
How does moving the hook to prevent the device from functioning as a snatch hook escalate to banning all artificial lures or anglers from out of the area?
Captain Van Hubbard says
this is not about an issue with jigs; it is and always was about hooks with weights places in the bend to snag tarpon!
Mike Rementer says
Why have you misquoted the scientist you suggest was misquoted?
The title to the article says “A decade later, expert cited in FWC study speaks out: The jig snags tarpon”.
When, in fact, the letter from Dr. Grubich says no such thing. To the contrary, Dr. Grubrich was very careful to explain by saying: “This specific flossing scenario of how break-away jigs may work in the Boca Grande Pass tarpon fishery is of course a hypothesis that would need to be tested.”
So, if we’re going to assert that the FWC study misrepresented Dr. Grubich’s words, shouldn’t we be sure not to do the same thing?
The ‘banned’ Facebook video: Capt. Artie Price hand-feeds a live tarpon to a pack of sharks
The video appearing here was initially posted to Capt. Artie Price’s Facebook page late last month. Save The Tarpon re-posted the video to the group’s own 30,000+ follower page. In a few days, the video drew more than a half million views along with thousands of comments, shares and “likes.” Price and his video had […]
PTTS breaks its silence on its lawsuit fail … and you won’t believe what they’re saying now
The following was posted to the Professional Tarpon Tournament Series website shortly before noon, Friday (Nov. 20, 2015), four days after tournament owner Silver King Entertainment LLC abruptly walked away from its lawsuit filed nearly three years ago against Save the Tarpon, its more than 28,000 members, its directors, its former directors and a number of names […]
Save The Tarpon legal fund drive prompts PTTS lawyer threat
A PTTS lawyer is once again threatening to haul Save The Tarpon into court – this time in an apparent effort to cripple the group’s legal defense fundraising efforts. Save The Tarpon is seeking to raise a minimum of $20,000 to fight a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (aka, “SLAPP Suit”) filed by Port Charlotte boat dealer […]
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rebeccatinsley.com
When the Stars
Fall to Earth
Rebecca Tinsley
author, journalist and human rights activist
Waging Peace
In Iraq, Iran and Turkey Are The Real Winners
Posted by Becky on Wednesday, February 20, 2019 · Leave a Comment
The US is trying to create a Middle Eastern coalition to undermine Iran. They are sixteen years too late.
Damaged historic Christian town of Qaraqosh on Iraq’s Nineveh plain, December, 2016. NurPhoto/PressAssociation. All rights reserved.
This week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hosts a meeting in Warsaw, aimed at forming a Middle Eastern coalition against Tehran. Yet, at the same time, the Trump Administration has confirmed most US forces will exit Syria by May, leaving a regional vacuum that benefits Iran, Turkey and Islamic State.
This could provoke a new surge of migration and, paradoxically, put America’s closest ally, Israel, in peril: Iran is stockpiling weapons along the border between Syria and Israel, and its proxies are poised to menace the Israeli state. Yet, on January 3, President Trump said Iran could do what it wanted in Syria.
An Islamic state of mind
If one thing unites the Christian, Kurdish and Yezidi people in northern Iraq, it is contempt for American claims that Islamic State (IS or Daesh) is defeated.
“Daesh change their tactics according to the circumstances,” says Sister Ilhan, an eighty-two-year-old nun I met in Qaraqosh on the Plain of Nineveh. “They shave off their beards, and melt back into the community, waiting until the West loses interest. Again,” she adds, pointedly.
Iraqi religious and ethnic minority groups interviewed for this article say the West has never understood Islamism, the ideology, as opposed to Islam, the religion. The Iraqis and Syrians who survived IS’s bloodthirsty rule know it isn’t simply a matter of killing a few thousand jihadis, or causing their retreat. IS’s aims aren’t necessarily about occupying territory, as western politicians or military analysts understand it.
Gill Lusk, an expert on Islamism, comments, “The short-termism that characterises the age is in stark contrast with the Islamist view, which is the ultimate in long-termism: the political horizon is literally infinity… International politicians and the media often talk as if “jihadists” (who they believe can be militarily defeated) and Islamist politicians (who can supposedly be negotiated with) were qualitatively different. In fact, they are two sides of the same ideological coin.”
Lusk draws parallels with the National Islamic Front’s 1989 coup in Sudan. “The NIF spent some 14 years preparing to take power, placing sleepers in strategic positions in the armed forces and civil service; sending trained cadres to fill “hardship posts” for teachers in remote areas of what was then Africa’s largest country; setting up charities, especially in areas of famine or especial poverty, to provide aid or services that central government failed to provide. Such tactics were also used by Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, helping to ensure that Mohamed Morsi won, briefly, the presidency in 2012.”
While Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi echoes Trump, proclaiming IS is defeated, just across the border in Syria they killed four US military personnel and dozens of Kurdish Peshmerga in January. Moreover, there were 1,600 IS attacks across Iraq in 2018. Trump recently told Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he can “have Syria”, emboldening Ankara to eliminate its enemies, the Kurds, the only efficient military presence keeping civilians and religious minorities safe from IS.
Pari Ibrahim from the Free Yezidi Foundation says, “It is folly to suppose that thousands of Daesh adherents will simply stop fighting or change their ideology. And it is impossible to imagine that Turkey, of all countries, would be a force to contain Islamic extremism.”
She was alluding to the years in which Ankara turned a blind eye as IS recruits travelled through Turkey to Syria and Iraq. Turkey also reputedly allowed IS smugglers to move oil and historical artefacts across the border. Moreover, many in the region claim Erdogan shares IS’s Islamist ideology.
Although the US spent $26 billion training Iraq’s army, there is little confidence in them. Sister Sarah, a nun I met in Telusquf in northern Iraq, recalls how the army vanished when IS attacked Mosul in 2014, abandoning US munitions for the Islamists to seize. “One minute they were there, telling us they would hold back Daesh, and the next moment we realized we were alone. They didn’t even tell us they were leaving. I thought I’d be gone a couple of days, but it was three years before I could return. All my books from my studies in Britain had been destroyed. Our convent had been used as a Daesh rape centre,” she continues. “They left empty Viagra packets all over the floors.”
The Plain of Nineveh is still contested by rival military camps, as it has been since Alexander fought Darius III of Persia. Outside the convent in Telusquf stands a Kurdish Peshmerga outpost, and yet the city is in Iraq. The nuns struggle to convince local Christians not to emigrate to safer, more tolerant places. Although there have been Christians present since 100 AD, their numbers have fallen from 10% of the Iraqi population in 1950 to 1% now.
Where did it all go wrong?
The Iraqis interviewed for this article traced their problems back to the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
“We wanted Saddam gone, OK? We hated that guy. But errors were made,” a Kurdish businessman explained over lunch. We sat in the shady garden of a restaurant, high in the mountains of northern Iraqi Kurdistan, admiring the bubbling aqua marine water of the Ava Sin river.
“Right from the start, the Americans only cared about guarding the oil ministry in Baghdad,” he said. “They just shrugged as the criminal element ransacked the national museum. That sent a clear message.”
The lack of security was compounded by the American administrator Paul Bremer’s decision to fire the entire Iraqi army and security services. The Kurdish businessman, who once ran a pizza parlour in London, told me,
“The Americans thought every Baath Party member loved Saddam. They didn’t understand that no one got a job or a university place unless they joined. It was just a means to an end. Then, Bremer allowed new political parties based on Shia or Sunni identity,” the businessman continued. “How can you create a fresh national identity when so many people feel ignored by the guys with the power and money? Now, everything benefits the Shia.”
“The 2003 invasion? Tehran won,” his colleague, a property developer from Erbil, added. “Now, Iraqi security is in the hands of the Badr Brigade from Tehran. And the Popular Mobilization Forces, who take their orders from Iran.”
According to the Kurdish businessman, Iraq’s disenfranchised Sunnis were incensed when aid vanished, and the only reconstruction happened in Shia areas. Al Qaeda seized the opportunity to recruit disenchanted, unemployed Sunni soldiers into their ranks. Then Islamic State arrived, and “the hard-liners left Al Qaeda and joined Daesh.” Now, “The government in Baghdad doesn’t control anything beyond the suburbs.”
America missed another opportunity when IS was beaten back in 2017, the businessman said. “You guys needed to tell Baghdad to spread the reconstruction funds between the Sunni, Shia, Kurds, Christians and Yezidis.” “You guys needed to tell Baghdad to spread the reconstruction funds between the Sunni, Shia, Kurds, Christians and Yezidis.”
A Yezidi charity worker confirmed the allegation that only Shia had benefited. “For the first eighteen months, we didn’t see any money, although we know there’s been billions of dollars pouring into Iraq. It’s arriving now, but it’s too late for many people who’ve already left. “
An assistant to a Catholic bishop told me, “The United Nations asks the officials in Baghdad how the UN should distribute grants, and the authorities send them to Shia villages,” she explained. “We had one UN project in our area, just one, for a population of 120,000: the UN were supposed to refurbish a school destroyed by IS. They re-plastered the outer wall of the compound, painted it, and then sprayed the logo of the UN agency on the wall. The school rooms inside are still unusable.”
“If the PKK leaves, IS will take their place”
The Kurdish property developer drove us to a remote valley where the PKK, the Turkish Kurdish militia, hides. “If the PKK leave, then Islamic State will take their place,” he said. He warns that young people will emigrate, due to lack of security or economic opportunities. “Erdogan has bought our leaders,” he said, giving as an example a fifty-year oil deal with Erdogan, signed by the Barzanis, Iraqi Kurdistan’s ruling family.
Several Kurdish business people shared his view, saying infrastructure and procurement contracts go to Barzani cronies who then subcontract to Turkish firms. “They do a rubbish job, these Turks, because they’re being given just a slice of the money allocated for the project. I despised Saddam because he killed so many of my people. But only Saddam’s family was corrupt. Everyone else followed the rules. If an engineer messed up, or took a bribe, Saddam let it be known that the guy had been buried alive in concrete.” Consequently, Saddam-era roads and buildings “are still pretty good compared to the crap built now.”
Trump and Erdogan talk at NATO summit meeting, July, 2018. ABACA/Press Association. All rights reserved.
There are 18 Turkish military bases within Iraqi Kurdistan, hunting the PKK, and since 2015, there have been hundreds of aerial attacks by Turkey, resulting in the deaths of 460 Kurdish civilians. In January, a crowd protested outside one of the bases, claiming that every Kurdish family in the area had lost someone because of Turkey’s inaccurate bombing campaign. The Turks shot one of the protesters dead, injuring ten others.
On the top of a mountain is a sprawling compound, memorializing the Barzani family; three enormous pavilions, with a restaurant that can feed a thousand at a sitting. The lawns are emerald green against the surrounding dun-coloured hills, while the empty buildings are kept cool in summer and warm in winter. We were the only visitors to Kurdistan’s own corner of North Korea that day.
Kurdish institutions are so distrusted that few keep money in a bank. In restaurants, female diners carry big handbags containing the sum total of their family’s wealth, in case a burglar breaks into their home while they are out.
“We made matters worse for ourselves,” the real estate developer commented. “The Barzanis want to go down in history as the leaders who delivered Kurdish independence. So, against the advice of America and Europe, they held a non-binding referendum in 2017. It caused a bust-up with Baghdad, and they closed our airport and sealed us off for six months.”
When I asked about the vote, he sniggered, “The Germans think they’re so clever because they know the result of their elections within a few hours. But that’s nothing: we Kurds know our results three months before the polls open.” His smile faded as he considered how vulnerable the people of northern Syria and Iraq will be when the Americans leave, and the Kurdish Peshmerga is attacked by Daesh and the Turks. As for the prospect of Iran tightening its grip on Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, he said, “My son has tried to sneak into Britain to find work on seven occasions. He’s failed every time, but I’ll be giving him money to try again.”
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Physical Geography This region is extremely arid, and most areas receive less than 18 of precipitation per year. the dry terrain varies from huge
Download "Physical Geography This region is extremely arid, and most areas receive less than 18 of precipitation per year. the dry terrain varies from huge"
Betty Charles
1 The Middle East
2 Physical Geography This region is extremely arid, and most areas receive less than 18 of precipitation per year. the dry terrain varies from huge tracts of sand dunes to great salt flats. Because it s so dry, most of its rivers flow seasonally. in some areas irrigation has transformed the deserts into productive farmland. The most distinctive physical feature is the Saudi Arabian Peninsula. It is here where you will find one of the largest desert in the world, the Rub al-khali, or Empty Quarter. In the summer the temperature on the sand exceeds 150, and as many as 10 years may pass without rainfall. To the extreme west of Afghanistan is the Hindu kush mountain range, which form the western edge of the Himalayas. One of the few routes through this rugged terrain is the Khyber Pass.
3 Oil in the Middle East Industrialization and the increasing popularity of automobiles made petroleum a highly desired resource, so oil companies began searching for other sources. Oil and gas deposits formed millions of years ago when an ancient sea covered the Middle East. The first oil in the Middle East was discovered in Persia (now Iran) in In 1938, it was found in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf. In1948 the world s largest oil supply was discovered in saudi Arabia on the edge of the Rub al Khali in al-ghawar. It contains ¼ of all the Saudi reserves of oil.
6 This oil has led to extreme wealth in the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Kuwait.
9 Oil use within the Middle East has also increased. What are the consequences of this increase for the U.S.?
10 However, not everyone has benefitted from this wealth. There is a large income disparity between the ultra-rich and the poor in many oil-producing countries:
11 This inequality is partially responsible for uprisings in the Middle East known as Arab Spring predominately in Syria, Egypt, as well as Libya in North Africa. Discrimination and political inequality has also led to these rebellions. Young people often lack opportunities for better education and jobs.
12 Israel Around 2000 BCE a Semitic people known as Hebrews left Mesopotamia and settled in Canaan. According to the Israelites, King David conquered Jerusalem around 1000 BCE and established the Israelite Kingdom. It remained the center of Jewish sovereignty and worship until 133 CE. About 61 CE Roman general Pompey invaded Judea and destroyed Jerusalem. After a jewish revolt in 133 CE, the romans drove the jews out of Jerusalem and renamed the area palestina (Palestine in English). From this point, the Jews no longer had a homeland. In the late 1800s a movement to establish a Jewish
14 Homeland in Palestine developed. It was called Zionism, and increasing numbers of Jews traveled to the holy land. By the beginning of WWI Palestine was ruled by the Muslim Ottoman Empire. During the war (1916), Great Britain convinced arab leaders to revolt against the ottoman empire, promising them they would support an arab state. In 1917 Lord Arthur Balfour issued a declaration announcing British support for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. When the war ended the League of nations established Palestine as a mandate of great Britain. In the 1930s Jewish immigration to Palestine swelled
15 Due to persecution in Eastern Europe, and later hitler s racist nazi regime. This lead to heightened tensions, including arab riots, and Britain limited immigration into Palestine. After wwii, the Un recommended that Palestine be divided into two regions: one for jews and one for arabs, and in may, 1948, the jews proclaimed the state of Israel and Britain withdrew from Palestine. In the following weeks, neighboring arab nations invaded israel. The jews managed to drive the arabs out and when the fighting ended in 1949, israel held the territory more territory than the un originally established
17 In 1967, the Israelis learned that Egypt planned to attack, so it preemptively attacked Egypt in june, it then went on to conquer the Golan heights. The result of the six days war was theat israel obtained the new territories of the Sinai peninsula, west bank and Golan heights.
18 In 1973, Egypt and Syria attacked israel on yom kippur, the most holy day in the jewish calendar. They failed to take back the land lost in the six days war. In 1978 during the camp david accords, israel returned the Sinai to Egypt. In 1994, israel withdrew from the gaza strip Today Palestinians continue to fight the Israelis for control of what they believe is their land, oftentimes using terrorist attacks. They complain that they are treated like second-class citizens.
19 Conflict in Afghanistan In 1979, the soviet union invaded Afghanistan in an attempt to spread communism. A resistance movement made up of Islamic fundamentalists known as the Taliban fought to eject soviet forces from their country. The U.S. cia (covertly) and Pakistan gave financial and military support to the Taliban. In 1989 the USSr withdrew and 3 years later the Taliban took over rule of the country. By 1996 the Taliban controlled most of the country, including its capital, Kabul. After taking control, the Taliban enforced its interpretation of sharia, Islamic law:
20 Banned music, tv, the &internet Men must have a long beard women can t: work outside of the home, wear loud shoes, wear nail polish, make up or perfume, go outside without male accompanying them, be treated by male doctors, go to university, attend or play sporting events, laugh. Men had to wear traditional Islamic clothing, women a burqa. Non religious books banned Taliban Laws Males and females rode on separate buses Anyone with a non-islamic name had to change it Men had to have short hair Everyone must attend a mosque 5 times a day No conversion to a religion outside of islam Non-muslims had to wear a badge to differentiate them from Muslims.
22 The Taliban was known to support terrorism, including al Qaeda, led by Osama bin laden. After attacks on us embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. asked the Taliban to turn over bin laden, which refused, so In 2001 the u.s. invaded Afghanistan. On may 2,2011, an American navy seal team attacked bin laden s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, Killing him and interring his body in an undisclosed location at sea. Since bin laden s death, al qaeda has diminished in power due to a lack of leadership, but other terrorist groups have grown in its place The U.S. plans to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2016.
24 Conflict in Iraq In 1979 Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq. His regime was brutal, and he was known to discriminate against minorities, arrest, torture and murder people at will. In August of 1990, he invaded Kuwait, claiming that he wanted to help Kuwaiti revolutionaries, but later said he did so because the country was rightfully part of Iraq. His invasion concerned western countries because they feared oil prices would rise, possibly to the point where they controlled the economy. In February, 1991, a UN coalition led by the U.S. drove him out of Kuwait. This was the Gulf War
26 After the Gulf War, Hussein was allowed to remain in power, but the some leaders in international community, among them President George W. Bush, viewed him as a tyrant and a threat to stability in the region. President Bush also became convinced that Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, such as anthrax, nerve gas, and nuclear weapons, so in March of 2003, American troops invaded Iraq in what was called Operation Iraqi Freedom. No WMDs were found. In December, 2003, Hussein was captured by U.S. forces, and turned over to the Iraqi people to be tried for crimes against humanity. He was executed in December of Pres. Obama has slowly been moving troops out of Iraq.
Palestine and the Mideast Crisis. Israel was founded as a Jewish state in 1948, but many Palestinian Arabs refused to recognize it.
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Home Forums > Technology > Architecture & Engineering >
Artificial gills - how?
Discussion in 'Architecture & Engineering' started by CEngelbrecht, Dec 21, 2017.
CEngelbrecht Registered Senior Member
Found a website some time ago, that claimed to have figured out how to make a gismo that allowed you to breathe oxygen from the surrounding water, and they were seeking crowd funding to get it on the market. Sounded very exciting, however, a quick readthrough of the claimed principle showed it as a massive hoax, trying to steal mo money from the gulliple of the world.
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But... just out of curiosity... could it be made to work? Like, you put on some kind of stormtrooper helmet, which then diffuses oxygen in and diffuses excess carbon dioxide out into the surrounding water, allowing you to breathe inside an air bubble constantly being automatically kept at set levels of O2 and CO2 (and N2?), and then you could be under water as long as you like, with limited bulky equipment and no gas limit from a SCUBA tank.
Would there still be issues of decompression sickness and nitrogen narcosis, is what I can't figure out right now. And how deep would you be able to go before physics would still kill you? Tens of meters? Hundreds? Thousands? Provided that the diffusion issue could even be solved.
(A game I played recently, where your character wore a helmet and could stay under water indefinitely.)
CEngelbrecht, Dec 21, 2017
sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member
Reminds me of the Beverley Hillbillies when Jethro invented an anti-smog device. The device itself was small but the filter was the size of a truck.
The gill device might, in fact, turn out to be more unwieldy than SCUBA.
sideshowbob, Dec 21, 2017
Seattle Valued Senior Member
Pressure issues would be unchanged so no difference in decompression issues, nitrogen narcosis, oxygen toxicity, etc.
There are already rebreathers that greatly extend your time underwater with less bulk but the same decompression obligations.
How deep you can go isn't determined by what you are breathing (meaning the equipment). It's largely determined by how long your decompression obligation would be.
This particular gadget however is just a joke.
Seattle, Dec 21, 2017
CEngelbrecht likes this.
billvon Valued Senior Member
CEngelbrecht said: ↑
Sure. You would need a gas exchanger the size of several bedsheets though.
Would there still be issues of decompression sickness and nitrogen narcosis, is what I can't figure out right now.
The issues would be the same as you have today when you dive with air.
And how deep would you be able to go before physics would still kill you? Tens of meters? Hundreds? Thousands?
Beyond 40 meters nitrogen narcosis would become a problem. Beyond 60 meters oxygen toxicity would be a problem.
billvon, Dec 21, 2017
billvon said: ↑
Could that be folded in some design solution?
Ah. Of course.
Not easily. The membranes have to be very thin, which means fragile. You can increase water and air flow past them to improve performance, but that's hard to do with fragile membranes.
Right. The point would be, that it would happen passively and continuously.
How much oxygen is even in sea water? Does it differ across the world? Is there enough for human metabolism?
When water and air are equilibriated, then water contains about 35% oxygen and 60% nitrogen, as a percentage of dissolved-gas maximum (because oxygen dissolves more easily in water.) So in areas without much life there's more oxygen, as a percentage of total possible dissolved gas, than in air.
Fish use oxygen, so that will decrease available O2. Phytoplankton release O2. Zooplankton absorb O2. So a big zooplankton bloom (caused by, for example, fertilizer) will reduce O2 significantly.
If you were going to use such a system to dive, having a good sensor/display showing ppO2, ppN and ppCO2 would be critical.
I don't think ppCO2 sensors have been perfected for rebreathers yet.
Okay, same principle in submersibles. Submarines with a crew of 150 or whatever, keeping ppO2 etc. well below 1.6, O2 goes in, CO2 goes out, for weeks under water. Might that be possible?
They already do that. What are you asking specifically?
Seattle said: ↑
No, I mean an artificial gill system as hypothesized above, so that submarines can extract oxygen from the water around the sub, and release excess carbon dioxide into the water, so a vessle can stay submerged for weeks. Surely that doesn't already exist in subs, does it? I don't mean snorkle ventilating at the surface, but actively staying submerged, while molecules goes in and out from the body of water.
How do you think they currently are able to stay submerged for so long? They have an artificial (scrubber) rebreather system.
You're shittening me?
And this can't be made chap sized?
They do it much differently. They use CO2 scrubbers and then recycle them (they bake out the CO2) to get rid of the CO2. To get O2 they electrolyze water then vent the hydrogen. So no "permeable membranes" or gas exchange involved. (Which would be VERY hard to do at those pressures.)
sideshowbob and CEngelbrecht like this.
DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member
I think, in addition to area of exchange, there may also be an issue of partial pressures.
The extracted gas that reaches your lungs must be of sufficient partial pressure to allow it to be sucked through the membrane. Oxygen in air is only 21% partial pressure.
(In Robinson's Rad Mars series, they had masks that only let oxygen through. I have a feeling that it would not work. The crew would be sucking tremendously with each breath. Not quite the same as water, but similar.)
DaveC426913, Dec 22, 2017
Billvon is right, it's not using the same technology that you're talking about but it's accomplishing the same thing. You want something that will allow someone to stay under water for a long time and to go to a decent depth and you want it to be portable.
A rebreather does that. I'm a scuba diver but I have friends who have rebreather units. They scrub in a similar way to the way it's done on a sub but as billvon points out, it's not extracting oxygen from the water (nor does it need to). As the name "rebreather" implies, it scrubs the air that you have just exhaled so it can be reused (rebreathed).
I was basically dreaming about hanging out at 100 feet all day. But then I would have to decompress for six hours, before I could come home for tea?
Sounds like a rebreather course is going on my bucket list.
Is it not perceivable to have some nano membrane, that would send CO2 one way and O2 the other? How do fish gills work, how do they extract oxygen from the water and send carbon dioxide the other way, that has to be a passive system. It feels like it's a biological system just waiting to be reverse engineered.
Ever had the feeling of something being just out of reach?
Fish don't do well in air and we don't do well underwater. It seems to be a fair trade-off.
Marine mammals don't extract oxygen from water either.
They don't exactly breathe compressed air under water either. We have managed to invent that, so why not artificial gills, if it's somehow technically possible?
We would have to breathe air in and out, though. Which means that whatever the system is and does, it would have to include an external air bubble, that you'd ventilate in and out of your lungs (like the air bubble in an upside down rowing boat under water). That external air bubble then being kept at constant safe levels of O2, CO2 and N2 by this imaginary membrane system. All kept in some oversized helmet, that also has gauge displays.
(Random pic, don't really know what that's supposed to be.)
Yeah, I know, it's getting complicated. And it's probably still impossible.
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Huskies come up short against Penn St in the Fiesta Bowl
Posted on : December 31, 2017 By Abraham DeWeese
2018 Abraham DeWeese Huskies News Reviews Team Lockers Views
Rick Scuteri/Associated Press)
Huskies come up short against Penn St in the Fiesta Bowl, lose 35-28
#9 Penn State outlasted #12 Washington 35-28 in the Fiesta Bowl on Saturday. The Nittany Lions jumped all over the Huskies early going up by a score of 28-7. The Nittany Lion QB Trace McSorley picked Washington’s secondary apart, hitting nine receivers for 219 yards in the first half. And NFL bound Saquon Barkley showed his talents with a 137 of the Nittany Lions’ 203 yards rushing and two touchdowns.
The Huskies finally woke up in the 2nd half and mounted a furious comeback that included a 69 yard direct snap run by Myles Gaskin.
Gaskin takes it to the 🏠!#PurpleReign pic.twitter.com/EPeZjKs8yX
— Washington Football (@UW_Football) December 31, 2017
Hook and ladder
After a missed field goal opportunity, UW had a chance to march down the field to tie the game. With time running out a Hook and Ladder pass to Dante Pettis would see a confused give up a large chunk of ground only to see an error by the senior that would end the game. With 8 seconds left, Pettis elected to throw a back pass rather than step out of bounds. The back pass would be recovered by Penn State and end the game.
While there was no guarantee that the final play–most likely a Hail Mary–would’ve succeeded one does wonder “what if.” The play by no means diminishes his prolific career in what will be his last game in the Purple and Gold.
Dante Pettis would probably like to have that lateral back pic.twitter.com/fkoEPRsVpA
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) December 31, 2017
Attention Dawg Fans!
Legendary Husky announcer, Bob Rondeau retired at 67 years old. The exciting game may have had less than favorable results, but it was a pleasure to listen to the living legend on the radio one last time.
“If you’re expecting something hugely profound here, my apologies in advance,” he led off.
“What is hugely profound is my appreciation,” he continued, thanking all who had worked with and listened to him through the years. He also gave a shout-out to his successor, Tony Castricone, and thanked the university for “letting me be me.” All in all, his goodbye lasted all of about a minute.
“As much as we would like to build a fence around forever, it doesn’t work that way,” Rondeau said. “And thus we move on … I have had absolutely the time of my life, and I look forward to seeing you down the road.”
LISTEN: Bob Rondeau signs off for @UW_Football one last time. #ThanksBob pic.twitter.com/FWf3KbFJjJ
— IMG Audio (@IMGAudio) December 31, 2017
Abraham DeWeese News Reporter
Abraham DeWeese is an avid local sports fan and a “Man-About-Town” in the Seattle sports scene. He's a lifelong resident of the Seattle area, living in the beautiful Greenlake neighborhood.
Falkless in San Diego! WSU loses 2nd straight Holiday Bowl!
Seahawks’ season over after 26-24 home-loss to Cardinals, Falcons victory
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