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January 24, 2008 — Dark Star Today, Dell makes (once again) its Linux users happy, by releasing another laptop with Ubuntu 7.10 on it: the beautiful, superb, astonishing, sleek, sexy XPS M1330 laptop. Customers from Spain, Germany, France and United Kingdom can purchase this superb laptop with pre-installed Ubuntu Linux 7.10 (with built-in DVD playback) today! Ubuntu 7.10 runs great on the XPS M1330. It has more power, more style. Thank you to the Linux community for the support. Your purchases and your commitment is the driving force behind this expansion, and is the key to more in the future,” said Dell Linux Team in the release announcement. XPS M1330 features: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5250 (1.50GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 667MHz FSB) / T7500 (2.20GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB) Up to 4GB shared Dual Channel 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM Intel Graphic Media Accelerator 3100 or an optional 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS video card 13.3″ UltraSharp CCFL WXGA display (1280×800, 220 nits) with TrueLife and 2.0MP webcam Up to 200GB configured with 7200 RPM SATA hard drive Integrated Slot-Load DVD+/-RW Drive Weight: Starting at 1.79 kg What should you expect from Dell computers with Ubuntu? The default software from the Ubuntu media will be installed on the system, including kernel and applications. The peripheral options offered with Ubuntu will be a subset of what is offered withother operating systems. Dell will offer the hardware options on each system and they have the most mature and stable Linux driver support. These hardware options have been thoroughly tested by the Dell Linux team. Dell promises to configure/install open source drivers for hardware, when possible. Dell promises to use partial open-source or closed source (“restricted” in Ubuntu terms) drivers where there is no equivalent open-source driver. This includes Intel wireless cards and Conexant modems. A wiki page of their Linux official website will give technical details of the supported systems, information on the device drivers used for system peripherals, details of Dell’s Ubuntu factory-installation, and information on the problems that will be found during the testings, with their fixes and workarounds. Dell recommends Linux users to buy Dell printers that have PostScript engines in them. The previous hyperlink lists those printers. You can also check in the Tech Specs tab for each printer on Dell.com show if it has PostScript or not. Source : Release Announcement | Shop Online Home Page : Dell – Dell Linux – Community Web Advertisements |
On 'Sesame Street,' The Sweet Sounds Of Another Thoroughfare Enlarge this image toggle caption Howard Sherman for NPR Howard Sherman for NPR You know how to get to Carnegie Hall: practice, practice, practice. But do you know how to get, how to get to Sesame Street? Turns out there's a shortcut from New York's theater district — and it's landed a number of Broadway's top songwriting talents on the venerable children's program. The man to see is Bill Sherman, a 2008 Tony Award winner for his work on orchestrations for In the Heights. Sherman is in his fifth season as music director for Sesame Street. Back when he started the job, Broadway's songwriters were an obvious go-to. "I knew them," he shrugs. "It was easy access. I was trusting songwriters I knew and loved." He's since discovered that no matter whom he calls, Sesame Street meets with universal enthusiasm. "Everybody will stop some really important thing they should be doing and really focus on this." From A College Buddy To Strangers In The Biz Sherman's first call, five seasons back, was to Lin-Manuel Miranda, composer and lyricist of In the Heights. "Lin has been my best friend for 10 years," Sherman says. "We went to college together, so asking him to write a song was very easy." Miranda was followed by other Heights alumni, Alex Lacamoire and Chris Jackson, and by composers Jason Robert Brown (Parade, The Last Five Years), Justin Paul (A Christmas Story) and Tom Kitt (Next To Normal). And while some of these artists typically write both music and lyrics, Sesame Street primarily taps into their composing skills. "So much of what we do is curriculum-based that it has to go through many levels of approval," Sherman explains. "So most of the lyrics come from the [Sesame Street] scriptwriters." Miranda, an adept lyricist, says being forced to focus solely on the music was "enormous fun." "What Rhymes with Mando?" was composed by Tony-winner Lin-Manuel Miranda for the show's 44th season. YouTube "It's easier than usual, since lyrics take longer," he says — though he's quick to note that he confers with the show's wordsmiths. "The writer will say, 'It's very Harry Belafonte; it's Ravel's Bolero; it will build and build.' You get a sense of what they were thinking, of the rhythm that's in their heads." With "Elmo the Musical," More Shots At The Spotlight Sesame Street's musical universe expanded further when the show introduced its "Elmo the Musical" segments — stand-alone bits, eight to 10 minutes long, that take place entirely in the imagination of the childlike red fuzzball. The Elmo the Musical segments are through-composed — musicalized from start to finish — "so each composer had their chance to really sink their teeth into the music," Sherman says. "It became their episode, their thing. We tried to figure out a way to use the composers' strengths for whatever particular episode it was." An installment called "Detective," for instance, "asked for this complex, jazzy [sound], and Jason Robert Brown is known for that." Like all the composers, Brown — who's never met Sherman — jumped at the opportunity. "I had a 2-year-old who stared at Elmo all day long," Brown says. "So there was nothing better than that." Then came the kicker: That episode's script was to be written by John Weidman, a Sesame Street veteran and co-creator, with Stephen Sondheim, of iconic musicals like Assassins and Pacific Overtures. Enlarge this image toggle caption Howard Sherman For NPR / Howard Sherman For NPR / "I called him and said, 'So we're finally writing a show together, only it's for a furry red puppet,' " Brown says. "When I got the recording of Elmo, I could not have been more excited if it had been Frank Sinatra, if it had been Joni Mitchell." This fall, as puppeteer David Rudman laid down Cookie Monster's vocal track on Tom Kitt's "If Me Had a Magic Wand," Kitt described the song using an old-school musical-theater term. It's "a soaring, emotional 'I want' moment," he said, a readily identifiable, recognizably Broadway kind of sound. But as Sherman is quick to point out, the "Broadway sound" is very much in flux. "I've been part of musical-theater situations that pushed boundaries, that brought new sounds to Broadway. Taking this job, like [working on] In the Heights, was an opportunity to put new sounds in kids' ears. People assume musical theater is vaudevillian, epic ballads and tap-dance numbers. So to turn that on its head and bring in audiences that don't go to Broadway shows is important to me." Is it a challenge for these sophisticated writers to gear their work for toddlers? "Sometimes," says Sherman, "composers think that because it's Sesame Street, they have to dumb it down. ... [But] these days children have unbelievably sophisticated ears. I think dumbing it down is disrespectful to kids." "That's Not What Cookie Monster Sounds Like" When composers have kids of their own, they've got an in-house test panel. Brown did demos, complete with character voices, for his daughter. "Her response was, 'That's not what Cookie Monster sounds like,' " he reports. Sherman has met with greater success at home. "If my 3-year-old hears something, and 15 to 20 minutes later she's still singing it, then I know I did the right thing," he says. "If the 1-year-old dances to it, then I know that it sounds right." There might well be more musical theater in Sesame Street's future; Sherman admits he'd like to work with Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Pippin) and Marc Shaiman (Hairspray). And there's one more big fish he'd like to land — the whale of the business, really. "We toyed a bit with going after Sondheim," he said. "We haven't gone that route yet, but to call up Stephen and see if he was down [for it], that'd be funny. Why not?" |
With so many budget tablets in the works, it would seem only fitting that Google would introduce the second generation Nexus 7 on a mid-summer release. Mainly in order to compete with all the other big names out there who are also slated for summer tablet releases. We’ve been toying with the concept of whether or not Google would ever actually bring it out in the first place, so to hear that they are, definitely has our interest piqued. We weren’t expecting this price, but we can’t say we’re surprised; the Google Nexus 7 Second Gen will reportedly start $229 USD for the 16GB version, and then go up from there, according to reports. We were expecting a bit less, but then again, technology doesn’t tend to get cheaper as time goes on. Not to mention this is 16GB, not 8 like the original. There’s a good chance it’ll run Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, run on a Snapdragon 600 quad-core CPU or an S4 Pro. As for the visual goodies, you can expect a similar case design, but the screen will be even better than it was before (and it wasn’t bad to begin with) with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 pixels. Resounding color quality matched with Jelly Bean? You have us officially sold. When it does come next month, it’ll be raised in price solely to distinguish it from lower Android tablet offerings, and to help it compete strongly with the iPad Mini second-gen, which is expected very soon. Given enough time, and a strong enough reception, we have no doubt that it’ll trounce the expensive iPad in every way. We’ve seen countless rumors stating a July release, but this seems to confirm it while also giving us a price to expect too. SOURCE: VRZone |
Objectors to new bike routes in London and elsewhere often cite the needs of people with disabilities. They’ve missed the point Whenever bike infrastructure is debated, it’s never very long before someone objects by saying: “But what happens to people with disabilities if you build cycle lanes?” They have forgotten one very important thing: a lot of disabled people cycle, and benefit even more than most from quick, safe cycle routes. Such arguments are seen around the country, but are particularly prominent right now in London, with a new mayor being elected next week, and where objectors to proposed cycle superhighways say these will harm disabled people, “who are reliant on their cars”. They, and others, simply assume disabled people cannot and do not cycle, meaning cyclists and disabled people have opposing needs and agendas. But the premise is wrong. By Transport for London’s own reckoning, around 15% of disabled people in London actively cycled for transport in 2014, compared to 18% of non-disabled people. By this measure, you could be forgiven for thinking that disabled cyclists must be well represented in London’s cycling policy. But here you would also be wrong. If Boris Johnson’s 2013 Vision for Cycling is anything to go by, it is clear that much more needs to be done to improve the visibility of London’s disabled cycling community. Visual images representing cyclists often depict competition and sport rather than mobility, utility and transport, and fail to include the variety of trikes, handbikes, tandems and tag-alongs which can make cycling a possibility whatever your impairment. The mayor’s follow-up document last month, Human Streets, showed little change on this. We had a little jig in the Wheels for Wellbeing office, however, when we read in the recently published Department for Transport’s draft cycling and walking investment strategy. “We will also work to increase awareness of the use of cycles as a mobility aid,” it said. Things might at last be starting to get through, and high time too. We were thrilled because a change in attitudes is crucial at this point, when increasing numbers are using the supposed views of all disabled people to object to cycle infrastructure, like the planned new cycle superhighways in London. We have seen this recently in letters to London newspapers about the new bike routes, and comment pieces by the likes of Janet Street-Porter. In fact, many find cycling easier and safer than walking. Disabled and elderly people have the most to gain from cycling becoming a safer active transport option, as they exercise the least and are most at risk of additional health complications. Cycling provides door to door transport. It can be done solo or in tandem and if cycles are recognised as mobility aids, just like mobility scooters or wheelchairs, we can mix and match cycling with getting on the tube and other modes of transport. Perfect! I myself discovered cycling in my mid-30s and have never looked back. More than this, anything which brings a reduction in the numbers of cars will improve the walking, driving and breathing experiences of disabled and older people, as it will all for pedestrians, cyclists and people living along the proposed routes. The majority of Londoners are currently excluded from cycling in London, not because they are physically unable to ride a bike or trike, but because the road conditions favour the fit and the brave. Creating wide cycle tracks, and removing the need to cycle alongside buses and lorries will give new opportunities for active travel for us all. I was able to experience the comfort of some of the new cycle superhighways. What a contrast to the general stress of fighting drivers for a bit of space! In the run up to the London election on 5 May, Wheels for Wellbeing is campaigning to raise the voice of disabled cyclists in London: we want cycles to be recognised as mobility aids; cycling infrastructure to be fully inclusive; and for disabled Londoners to have access to local inclusive cycling hubs where they can find information, outdoor sessions and specialised cycles. We will also be working with other disability groups to make sure the needs of disabled pedestrians and cyclists are not pitched against each other. Instead we will aim to find shared solutions which can be used by planners and policy makers. We believe London can become the most inclusive and accessible city in the world, where disabled people can choose from a range of integrated transport options. We know that more disabled Londoners can and do want to cycle; given the right opportunities, resources and support and a willing mayor in 2016, they will. |
Oakland Raiders receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey has been taken to the hospital with a neck injury after a helmet-to-helmet hit from Steelers safety Ryan Mundy that was not penalized. Heyward-Bey was running across the end zone early in the fourth quarter Sunday to catch a pass from Carson Palmer when Mundy launched his body and lowered his helmet into Heyward-Bey's facemask. Heyward-Bey's neck jerked violently and his head also crashed into the ground. The pass was incomplete. The Oakland Coliseum crowd fell silent. Mundy and players from both sides kneeled in prayer. The home fans also started a derogatory chant at the replacement officials. Heyward-Bey's eyes were shut for the 10 minutes trainers attended to him as he lay motionless. He was strapped to a table and placed on a cart. As the cart started to leave the field, he raised his right hand to roaring cheers. |
It was a night of glitz and glamour in Houston Texas, USA as Nollywood celebrities including Uche Jombo, Moses Efret, Bode Ojo, Alex Mouth, Charles Billion, Tila Ben, Bless Brown Vera, Christabel Momodu, President of Nollywood in Houston, Papa Gee graced the premiere of the Bini Epic movie, Esohe. The movie drew a large capacity of viewers and was screened twice to accommodate the mammoth ‘crowd’ who came out to have a feel of the African culture. Some of the cast were dressed in Bini regalia for the meet-and-greet session, arousing nostalgia among the audience of African descent. Set in ancient Benin Kingdom, the movie stars Jimmy Jean Louis, Misty Lockheart, Desmond Elliot, Chris Attoh, Bimbo Manuel, Ufuoma McDermott, Toyin Aimakhuo, Jemaima Osunde and Monica Omorodion Swaida. The movie also featured fast-rising Nollywood actors such as Eunice Omorogie, Omoye Uzamere, Oghenekaro Itene and Osagie Elegbe. According to the brains behind the new flicks, which is expected to continue its tour in Dallas June 3 , Austin June 16 and 18, while a release party will hold on June 17 in Boston. “Esohe,” details the reincarnation and reunion of Ifagbai, the son of Eghosa, the Oba’s warrior, his long-lost lover, Esohe, presents a puzzle to Gary Barbar (Jimmy Jean Louis). He suffers repeated nightmare and sees apparitions of events he knows nothing about. The story by Charles Uwagbai and Efetobore Ayeteni, was written by Bimbo Manuel, while it was produced by Charles Uwagbai, Monica Omorodion Swaida and Robert Peters. |
Miguel When you would like your office to have a rich successful look, the first thing you will do is get new office furniture. Oak office furniture most likely the most prestigious looking woods you may use for office baby furniture. Different types of oak furniture you could buy are oak desk, oak computer chair or oak TV stands, if appropriate. Many offices today have a tv in their reception desk for customers and clients while they're waiting. Oak TV stands give off an impression of richness. One of the most basic things to remember with oak furnishing is that it should be maintained. Have a cloth napkins, use paper napkins only reserved for extra messy meals - or by no means. Cloth napkins have the dual purpose of constructing each meal feel more special while being kinder to Mama Earth. If you're willing devote a little money conserve lots ... |
Too Many Cooks was a one-off short, but it perfectly embodied the voice and point of view that the network Adult Swim has carefully cultivated over the last 13 plus years. Adult Swim always gets pegged as stoner humor, which might be true, but also does a great disservice to the network. Since launching in 2001 it has doggedly broadcast some of the most surreal programs in TV history into almost every home with a cable box. It used to be hard to find this kind of humor on TV, but Adult Swim’s made it easy for viewers for over a decade now. There’s an art to this type of comedy and Adult Swim has consistently been able to find creators who excel at it, as these ten shows prove. Comedy’s subjective, of course, and obviously this list is simply the opinion of one guy who happens to edit the comedy section of a particular website and whose name is me. Hi. If you disagree, as I’m sure you will, feel free to leave a comment or turn to Twitter and Facebook to shout your disapproval. Note that this list only considers original Adult Swim programming that ran for more than a single episode. Keep that in mind before asking why Too Many Cooks isn’t on the list. And another quick note before you start: you won’t find Space Ghost Coast to Coast on here because it predated the official start of Adult Swim by several years. You also won’t find The Venture Brothers, because I’ve never really watched it. I know it’s a beloved show with a vehement cult, and some day I hope to start it from the beginning. Perhaps it’d make the list if I had watched it. Maybe I’ll update this once I do. The world is full of possibilities. 10. Frisky Dingo Frisky Dingo was the second Adult Swim project from the creators of Sealab 2021, and in its DNA you can see a bit of their next show, FX’s Archer. Instead of self-important spies Frisky Dingo sends up superhero comics, focusing on the troubled family life of the super villain Killface and his arch-rival Awesome X. Although it could be as absurd as most Adult Swim cartoons, Frisky Dingo was a bit more serialized in its storytelling, with plot points carrying over episodes, as you’d find in a superhero comic. Awesome X’s alter ego, Xander Crews, is almost like a dry run for Archer, and the cultured, intelligent Killface is a great comic creation. 9. Squidbillies This might be the most implausible show to ever exist on a national network. Networks make money by selling ads that run during shows that people actually want to watch. Who would want to watch an intentionally ugly show full of jokes that you won’t fully get if you don’t live in Georgia? If you are from Georgia, like me, Squidbillies can be the most hilarious show you’ve ever seen. Although generally broad enough to appeal to anybody who enjoys Adult Swim’s brand of absurdity, what makes Squidbillies special is its deep ties to the state in which it’s made. It’s crazy that a show so full of regional in-jokes about Georgia has been blasted across the nation’s TVs for over a decade now. The other Turner networks gradually had all their Southernness whittled away after the mergers with Time Warner and AOL (RIP WCW and Braves baseball on the Superstation) but somehow in the 21st century there’s a show on Adult Swim that had the legendary Georgia Bulldogs play-by-play man Larry Munson as the voice of God. 8. Eagleheart Somewhere on the internet somebody is still grumbling about Adult Swim’s tilt towards live action. That’s why you should stay off the internet. Eagleheart is all live action and as absurd as any of the network’s cartoons, living up to the spirit of star Chris Elliott’s early appearances on Letterman and his classic anti-sitcom Get a Life. It worked best as a twelve-minute short during its first two seasons, but the half-hour final season earns points for its sheer ambition. Not every idea or joke landed but the scope and daring of Eagleheart was impressive. It regularly ripped apart the cartoonish masculinity pushed forward by action procedurals and beer commercials, but at heart this was simply an extremely silly show that just happened to be gruesomely violent. 7. Aqua Teen Hunger Force The network’s flagship show would’ve ranked higher in earlier years, and it’s impossible to understate its importance in establishing the Adult Swim brand. Like The Simpsons its reputation has perhaps taken a dent due to its longevity and to the simple fact that almost no show could keep up the high quality of the earliest seasons. Aqua Teen was almost unthinkable in 2001—many TV shows before it embraced absurdity or postmodernism, but they still did so within the recognizable framework of a TV show. Aqua Teen and the other Adult Swim launch shows were so short and so unrelentingly weird that they felt like nothing that had ever aired on TV before. It didn’t just stand out because of its weirdness, though—the writing and vocal performances were equally hilarious, and its main characters were all fully formed, instantly familiar yet unique. Hopefully at some point in the 21st century Boston will dig up a time capsule with an Ignignokt LED sign in it. 6. Sealab 2021 Along with Aqua Teen, Sealab 2021 defined the Adult Swim voice when it launched in 2001. It built on the ironic appropriation of old art that started with Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, but instead of twisting it into a different style of show it structured itself as a continuation of the original Saturday morning cartoon from 1972, but with every character now thoroughly insane. It fell off in quality after two tremendous seasons, limping to a close in 2005. Those first two years are some of the funniest episodes of any show Adult Swim has ever run. 5. Rick and Morty This might seem high for a show that’s only ran for one season so far, but few shows arrive as confident and fully realized as Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon’s sci-fi cartoon. Its first season hilariously skewered some of the most familiar cliches in science fiction while still finding time to develop each character beyond a sitcom stock type. If it ended after those first eleven episodes it’d already be an all-time classic. Hopefully the second season, which starts later this year, keeps up or even improves on that high standard. 4. Childrens Hospital Here’s another live action show where the twelve-minute runtime is crucial to its success. Its joke-a-second pace would be hard to keep up over a half-hour. Not every episode is a keeper, but at its best few shows can match Childrens Hospital for laughs. This incredibly silly parody of soap operas and medical dramas has gradually expanded its point of view to pillory the entire entertainment industry, satirizing various genres of TV shows and constructing an elaborate, decades-long backstory about the show within the show and the actors that play its characters. Its greatest asset is that cast, which features pros like Lake Bell, Erinn Hayes, Ken Marino, Rob Huebel, Henry Winkler and more, along with regular cameos. 3. Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job wasn’t always funny. It could be challenging in a way that often felt smug to those who didn’t appreciate its dark and surreal tone. It’s probably the show on this list that I’m least interested in rewatching. It also could be a hilarious, brilliant and frightening destruction of television. Tim and Eric’s creative vision overlaps almost perfectly with Adult Swim’s, and together they have done as much to introduce America to alternative comedy as almost anybody else. They’ve made a handful of shows for the network, but Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job remains their most defining work. Unless you count… 2. Check It Out! With Dr. Steve Brule Steve Brule is the greatest comedy creation of the 21st century. John C. Reilly is a serious actor with Oscar and Tony nominations but his finest role is as an incomprehensibly stunted idiot who hosts nonsense health segments for a pubic access station. Check It Out can get as dark as Tim and Eric’s other work, but it rarely feels as mean, despite Brule being one of the most pathetic characters to ever pop up on TV. Even at Brule’s lowest points, when the show is at its bleakest and most shocking, Reilly remains such a warm and likable presence that you can’t help but feel sympathetic for Brule. That warmth provides a firmer ground for Tim and Eric’s standard stylistic tricks and comedic concepts, making it feel less distant and analytic than Awesome Show, Great Job, but without sacrificing any of the humor. 1. Delocated Delocated was a brilliant show that never fully got its due. Early this decade the best comedies on TV were also some of the harshest dramas, and the often brutal Delocated could be as powerful as Party Down or Eastbound & Down. It could switch from inspired silliness to extreme tension in a single scene, as Jon Glaser’s beef with the Russian mob regularly erupted into graphic violence. Delocated mocked reality TV and everyday people’s desire to be famous, but what made it great is that, like Eastbound and Eagleheart, it was an insightful attack on the absurdities of masculinity. Jon wore a mask to hide out from the mob, but making him faceless only reinforced how he stands in for all men who love classic rock, bar food and trash culture. Also it’s one of the few Adult Swim shows that benefitted from a longer runtime, as it got better as it expanded to a half-hour. Garrett Martin edits Paste’s comedy and games sections. He regrets not taking that internship at the Cartoon Network in 1995. |
LAist gets a lot of event announcements, and we comb through them all to bring you a curated list of what’s happening in LA this weekend—from two shows by Lord Huron to The Lampshades' lounge show on Saturday, PLUS these 21 other events. Now, no more excuses...forget the rain...get out there and play. Read on for all the details. FRIDAY, FEB. 28 MUSIC: Josh Epstein and Daniel Zott—better known as Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. play the El Rey on Friday. The Detroit-based duo are on a headlining North American tour to promote their sophomore album, The Speed of Things. Chad Valley opens. Doors at 8 pm. Tickets: $20. TALK: On Friday at 7:30 pm, the Library Foundation of Los Angeles presents the program Lost & Found at the Movies: Love is a Many Splendored Thing. The event is an exploration of love at the movies, with a discussion of romance and filmography by John Nein, senior programmer at Sundance, and Stacie Passion, the filmmaker behind the feature Concussion. Admission is free and space is limited. SCOTCH + ART: There’s a private Scotch tasting followed by a conversation with German artist Manfred Muller at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery in Barnsdall Park. The Scotch tasting is curated by Silverlake Wine and begins at 5:30 pm. The artist talk immediately follows at 7 pm. General admission for the tasting: $40, but free to Barnsdall Art Park Foundation Members. The artist talk with Muller is free. PARTY Gimme Gimme Records in Highland Park is throwing itself a little first year anniversary party on Friday night from 5-10 pm, with the help of the Sunset Beer Co. DJs will be spinning the tunes, and there’s giveaways and pizza, too. : Gallery1988 (East) opens the show I'm Not Hungry, featuring the work of Cuddly Rigor Mortis. The gallery is holding an opening reception from 7-10 pm with the artist in attendance. The show runs through March 22. MUSIC: The Haden Triplets—(Tanya, Rachel & Petra, daughters of jazz great Charlie Haden)—hold their self-titled record release show at the Bootleg Theater. You know the vocal harmonies have to be killer on this album. They promise special guests, too. Maybe their brother Josh Haden or Tanya’s hubby Jack Black? You’ll just have to go to find out. The show is 21+. General admission tickets: $15. ART FUNDRAISER: On Friday at Night Gallery, there’s a benefit auction and party for X-TRA and Project X, which have provided platforms for art dialogue in Los Angeles. The festivities begin at 6:30 pm with an Early Bird Preview with Herradura tasting. General admission begins at 7:30 pm with the silent auction beginning at 8:45 pm. DJ sets by Dave Muller and Jan Tumlir and the evening culminates with 10:15 pm live performance by John Doe of X. Tickets for the early preview are $100 each / $150 for pair (includes Herradura tasting and subscription to X-TRA). General admission: $50. VARIETY: Elixir - The Show is a free variety show that debuts at its new location, The Federal Bar in North Hollywood at 8:15 pm. The show includes live music by the funk band Funky Munky. The show also features burlesque, cabaret, vocalists, comedy and audience participation games with prizes. Comedy tonight by Lady Scoutington (Upright Citizens Brigade). Dress to impress. Doors at 7:30 pm. Free. 21+. MUSIC: Morgan Page takes over Avalon on Friday and Saturday, spinning his style of progressive house music. Tickets: $50 (but are getting scarce). MUSIC: Singer-songwriter Emily Kinney is probably more recognizable in her role as Beth Greene on AMC’s The Walking Dead. On Friday for an early show at 7:15 pm at The Mint, Kinney sings her indie folk tunes from her EP, Expired Love. Doors at 6 pm. Tickets: $15. VIP tickets: $40 (includes an artist meet-and-greet). SATURDAY, MARCH 1 ART: William Turner Gallery opens two art shows on Saturday: abstract works by Curtis Ripley: Here and Now and Michel Tabori: In Search of Lost Time. The artists reception will be held from 6:30-8:30 pm. ART: New exhibitions open at TAG Gallery in Bergamot Station, Santa Monica featuring the work of artists Don Adler, Brigitte Schobert and Betty Sheinbaum. The shows runs through March 22. The artists’ reception is on March 1 from 5-8 pm. FILM: Cinefamily screens the silent film Three Women, a “saucy melodrama” by famed director Ernst Lubitsch. The film stars May McAvoy (The Jazz Singer, Ben-Hur) as an 18-year-old in a “dizzying, whirlwind triangle between her estranged socialite mother and her weasel-like suitor who, after getting a whiff of May's trust fund, stays true to his cad nature by wooing the young dame.” In the film Lubitsch relied more on facial expressions and acting rathan than the usual use of intertitles. Tickets: $12/free for members. Screening at 4:45 pm. ART+MUSIC: Funk You Very Much—a mini-festival featuring underground music, art and installations—happens Saturday night at the Bootleg. Playing live are Supreme Cuts, Navid Izadi, Falcons, Evan Mellows, Dead Times and others. The event is 21+. Tickets: $15. Doors at 8:30 pm. ART : Known Gallery on Fairfax opens two shows with a reception on Saturday night from 8-11 pm. This Too Shall Pass features the work of Richard J. Oliver and Slaying Giants features the works of Drew Merritt. Both shows will remain on view through March 15. DERBY: Los Angeles Derby Dolls has a bout on Saturday starting at 6:30 pm at the Doll House Factory in DTLA that pitts the LA Riettes vs. the Pennsylvania All Stars.( Afterward, stop by the Short Stop in Echo Park for the after party and a chance to meet some of your fav skaters, too.) Advanced tickets: $20-$40 (VIP). Prices higher at the door. DRIVE-IN: Electric Dusk Drive-In near DTLA’s Fashion District screens Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972) with Marlon Brando and Al Pacino leading the cast. There’s also BBQ, popcorn, candy and beverages available for sale 90 minutes before showtime. Plus, there’s trivia and prizes before the screening, too. Gates at 5:30 pm, screening at 7 pm. Only single tickets left: $9. DOCS SCREENING: On Saturday and Sunday, The Paley Center in Beverly Hills offers free screenings of the Academy Award-nominated documentary features. On March 1 at 3 pm, the Paley Center screens 20 Feet from Stardom. On Sunday, March 2, The Act of Killing screens at 12:10 pm, followed by The Square at 3 pm. Free. SUNDAY, MARCH 2 MILLION DOLLAR SCREENING: The Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation, in association with Grand Central Market, presents Hollywood’s Biggest Night at the Million Dollar Theatre. It’s a special telecast of the “Most Famous Awards Ceremony” that happens at 5 pm on Sunday (wonder what that is?) along with games and no-host cocktails. Attendees are encouraged to dress formally or in vintage attire, circa 1918, which is when the theater was built. Grab a bite at the Grand Central Market next door beforehand for a real DTLA experience. Tickets: $20. VEGAN CHILI COOK-OFF: Five teams compete on Sunday at noon in the annual Vegan Chili Cook-Off at Tony’s Darts Away. The chef lineup this year includes Randy Clemens author of the Sriracha Cookbook series; Erick Simmons of Mohawk Bend; Greg Daniels of Haven Collective; Chili John’s and Zel and Ruben Allen of Vegetarians in Paradise. Judges include Tal Ronnen of Crossroads Kitchen; Caroline Pardilla of CarolineonCrack.com and Cathy Chaplin of GastronomyBlog.com. Admission: $10 and includes five 3oz tastes of chili plus a ballot to a vote for the People’s Choice winner. FOOD+MUSIC : BEATS+EATS: Beats Bistro is a new series at The Troubadour that pairs LA chefs and LA bands, with each show exploring a different theme. The continues on Sunday with a little Rock&Roll, featuring music by The Moth & The Flame, Rachel Goodrich & the GRRRLS, Breach the Summit, and a post-headliner party set by Black Crystal Wolf Kids. Meanwhile Tickets are $20 and include a complimentary small bite prepared by Starry Kitchen. If you want more bites plus a pre-show reception to watch the Oscars, go VIP with $50 tickets. Music begins at 8:30 pm. Related: Your Ultimate Guide To February: 20 Cool Events Happening In Los Angeles Want the 411 on additional events and happenings in LA? Follow @LAist or me (@christineziemba) on Twitter. |
As a case in point, consider this boy vs. man fable spun by the New York Times' Charles Blow: Unnerved by an unspoken mix of political bias and racial queasiness, the major media have chosen to know as little about Trayvon Martin as they know about Barack Obama. A boy's blood had been spilled on a rain-soaked patch of grass behind a row of mustard-colored condominiums by a man who had pursued him against the advice of 911 dispatchers. That man carried a 9-millimeter handgun. The boy carried a bag of candy. Blow was writing seven weeks after Trayvon's death. He had no excuse for missing the actual story. Worse, since he is a writer for the Times, his reporting has helped set the media tone worldwide The media's willful ignorance was on display again this past week. In reporting this news of George Zimmerman's return to jail, more than a few media outlets showed the dangerously deceptive image of Trayvon as 11-year-old cherub. They did so in the assumption that the narrative was still theirs to control. It is not. The blogs, which have been doing the real detective work on this case, have long since taken control away from them. The sites I have found most useful are the Daily Caller and theconservativetreehouse.com. What follows is largely culled from those sites and their independent contributors. By probing Trayon's background and parsing his social media chatter, they have put together a picture of a disturbed young man that begins to makes sense of the events that unfolded on that fateful rainy night of February 26. 6:21 Trayvon Martin is seen on the security video through the 7-11 window approaching the store from the direction of the Retreat at Twin Lakes. He had been staying there at the townhouse of his father's girlfriend, Brandy Green. In major media accounts, the helpful Trayvon ventured out in the rain in a mile-plus round trip to buy Brandy's 14-year-old son, Chad, some Skittles and Arizona Iced Tea. Not likely. 6:22 Trayvon, with his hoodie up, grabs two items from the shelves of 7-11. One is the Skittles. The other is Arizona Watermelon Fruit Juice Cocktail. The media avoid the name of the real drink -- possibly because of the racial implications of the word "watermelon," but possibly to avoid probing the real reason for Trayon's trip. Trayvon, in fact, had become a devotee of the druggy concoction known as "Lean," also known in southern hip-hop culture as "Sizzurp" and "Purple Drank." Lean consists of three basic ingredients -- codeine, a soft drink, and candy. If his Facebook postings are to be believed, Trayvon had been using Lean since at least June 2011. On June 27, 2011, Trayvon asks a friend online, "unow a connect for codien?" He tells the friend that "robitussin nd soda" could make "some fire ass lean." He says, "I had it before" and that he wants "to make some more." On the night of February 26, if Brandy had some Robitussin at home, Trayvon had just bought the mixings for one "fire ass lean" cocktail. 6:23 Trayvon pays for his purchases. He then appears to point to an item behind the counter, but the clerk seems to reject that option. Trayvon turns from the counter with a couple of dollar bills still in his hand. 6:24 Trayvon leaves the 7-11, but we do not see him walk in front of the store window back towards Brandy's home. 6:25 Three squirrely young men enter the 7-11, all of them with their faces concealed in part or in full. The clerk had to have been nervous. One of the three (Curly) takes off his hat and shakes out his long, curly dark hair. He is likely either white or Hispanic, or, like Zimmerman, a "white Hispanic." 6:27 Curly appears to be holding the two bills Trayvon walked out with. He approaches the clerk and buys two cheap cigars from behind the counter and then a third one as an afterthought. 6:28 Curly is the first of three to exit. The others will follow in a minute. 6:29 Trayvon, turning as he walks, can be seen through the window heading back towards the Retreat at Twin Lakes and Brandy's house. 7:09 Zimmerman calls police while watching Trayvon near the gated community's clubhouse, less than a half-mile from the 7-11. According to "Dee-Dee," the girl Trayvon was periodically talking to on his cell phone, he was ducking in out of the rain. She also said he put his hoodie up for the same reason. In fact, though, Trayvon had his hoodie up inside the 7-11, and he was walking in the rain when Zimmerman spotted him. The walk to this point should have taken 10 minutes. It took 40 minutes. Some background may help explain why. Earlier that same month, Trayvon had been caught at school holding a bag with marijuana residue and a marijuana pipe. He was suspended for the third time that school year, this time for ten days. Trayvon may have been dealing as well. As one online friend had communicated earlier, "Damn were u at a nigger need a plant." Trayvon was partial to "blunts," street slang for cannabis rolled with the tobacco-leaf wrapper from an inexpensive cigar called a "blunt." As a tribute after his death, one friend posted online a photo of a homemade badge honoring Trayvon positioned next to a blunt. It seems altogether possible that Curly bought at least one of those cigars for the under-aged Trayvon and took those visible dollar bills as payment. Trayvon waited five minutes outside the 7-11 and did not leave until after Curly came out. In the 40 minutes before Zimmerman spotted him, Trayvon could have scraped the tobacco out of the cigar, replaced it with marijuana, and smoked his blunt. "This guy looks like he's up to no good," Zimmerman tells the police. "Or he's on drugs or something. It's raining and he's just walking around, looking about." Trayvon was on drugs or had been recently. His autopsy showed the presence of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, in both his blood and his urine. It is possible too that Trayvon was up to no good. "He's just staring, looking at all the houses," says Zimmerman. Trayvon had a history. On October 21, 2011, he received his second suspension that school year. A security guard at his school saw Trayvon writing "WTF" on a hallway locker. In looking through his bag for the marker, the guard found 12 pieces of jewelry, a watch, and a "burglary tool." Zimmerman did the prudent thing by reporting Trayvon to the police. Ever since the Florida real estate bust, the Retreat at Twin Lakes had been troubled by vacancies, foreclosures, and renters of dubious repute. The community had suffered numerous break-ins and home invasions, the perpetrators of which were all young men, most of them black. "We report all suspicious persons & activities to the Sanford Police Department," reads the standard neighborhood watch sign at the community's gated entrance. If Trayvon did not fit the bill, no one did. 7:10 "He's coming towards me," Zimmerman tells the police about Trayvon, who is now walking towards his truck. He makes his first firm identification of Trayvon as "a black male." Adds Zimmerman, "He's coming to check me out. He's got something in his hands." Zimmerman sounds a little anxious: "Please, get an officer over here." 7:11 After Trayvon passes his truck, Zimmerman says, "Shit, he's running." He is heading towards "the back entrance," says Zimmerman. That entrance is in the same general direction as Brandy's townhouse. A question that goes unasked is why Trayvon was running. 7:12 When asked by the dispatcher, Zimmerman agrees not to follow Trayvon, and his heavy breathing ends. "He ran," says Zimmerman. Even if running slowly, Trayvon could have made it to Brandy's house in a half a minute. It was only 100 yards from the truck. 7:13 Zimmerman is hesitant to give out his address. "I don't know where this kid is." He looks around to see where Trayvon has gone, fails to spot him, terminates his call, and heads back to the truck. 7:14 - 7:16 These are the missing two minutes. After receiving a call from Dee-Dee, Trayvon has come back to confront Zimmerman. Their final confrontation takes place 70 yards from Brandy's townhouse and only 30 yards from Zimmerman's truck. No one hunted Trayvon down. Although he has kept the drink and candy on his person, Trayvon does not have a blunt with him. According to the autopsy report, Trayvon was 5'11" tall and weighed 158 pounds, the "ideal healthy weight" at that height being 160 pounds. He was not the skinny little boy with the Skittles that half of America still believes him to be. He was at least three inches taller than Zimmerman and only about 20 pounds lighter. His home life a wreck, his school life in disarray, Trayvon had fallen victim to urban America's lost boy culture. This culture, which the media also choose not to see, has been shockingly destructive. Citing Bureau of Justice statistics, black economist Walter Williams in a recent column notes that "between 1976 and 2011, there were 279,384 black murder victims." Of these, Williams estimates that roughly "262,621 were murdered by other blacks." Trayvon had "statistic" written all over him. In the past year or so, his social media sites showed a growing interest in drugs, in mixed martial arts-style street fighting, in a profoundly vulgar exploitation of "bitches." Trayvon posed for one photo with raised middle fingers, another with wads of cash held in an out-stretched arm. One YouTube video shows him refereeing a fight club-style street fight. A cousin had recently tweeted him, "Yu ain't tell me yu swung on a bus driver," meaning, if true, that Trayvon had punched out a bus driver. Zimmerman never saw the cute little boy that the TV audience did. He saw a full-grown man, a druggy, a wannabe street fighter, the tattooed, gold-grilled, self-dubbed "No_Limit_Nigga." Media obfuscation may still work in the court of public opinion -- it got Obama elected in 2008 -- but it will not work in a court of law. The truth will out. When it does, the major media will lose a good chunk of whatever credibility they have left, and our nation may lose a good chunk of its urban real estate. |
At least 60,000 people pack Hersheypark and Hersheypark Stadium on summer nights when both venues are full. On those occasions, this small plot of Derry Twp. is turned into the biggest city in Pennsylvania between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Protecting those masses from an approaching storm is the task of people who work around the clock in a bunkerlike room in Hersheypark Arena about the size of a one-car garage. "It’s the kind of thing you’d expect to see in Three Mile Island," Hersheypark spokeswoman Kathleen Burrows said. Known as the storm center, one side of the room is lined with TV monitors that stream live views of activity at key locations in the park. Across the room, a bank of computer monitors track real-time weather conditions provided by the National Weather Service and continously displayed through a 360-degree arc extending hours from Hershey in all directions. "When we see storm cells over the Pittsburgh and Johnstown areas, that’s when we start tracking things," said Jason White, who provided security services to companies throughout Pennsylvania until 2005, when he became director of security for Hersheypark Entertainment Complex. Lightning and wind are his biggest day-to-day worries. When lightning activity is detected 20 miles away, the park initiates a six-phased plan that if fully carried out, depending on the storm’s track, gets all park visitors evacuated from all rides. Water attractions are evacuated first. By the time a storm is 10 miles out, park staff are getting people off roller coasters. White said they also start clearing rides such as the Ferris wheel, which takes longer to evacuate because it is done one car at a time. The center has staff members trained as storm spotters to identify specific cloud formations and what they mean. The spotters can help determine storm severity to augment information updates coming into the center from the National Weather Service. The process is timed, so by when a storm is directly overhead, all park visitors should be moved into safe areas such as pavilions and indoor locations, including the arena itself, if necessary. People also can go to their vehicles and return to the park when the storm has passed. LEADING THE STATE Since 2008, Hersheypark has been the only amusement park in Pennsylvania to be certified StormReady by the National Weather Service. Among requirements to be certified are having a 24-hour warning point and emergency operations center, holding exercises so employees know what to do in case of severe weather and having alternative ways to receive severe weather information and alert the public in case electricity and the Internet are knocked out. The Hersheypark Entertainment Complex, which also includes Hersheypark Stadium, is one of six commercial and industrial sites in Pennsylvania and 29 nationally that have the StormReady certification, according to the National Weather Service. The others include Disneyland in California and Disney World in Florida, and Six Flags theme parks in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Texas. |
Quite a culture clash, witnessing a band whose members you once saw walking the streets of New York City’s Lower East Side now magnified larger than 1,000 lives on a music festival Jumbotron. Yet there they were: Interpol, still suited and booted, the best late-Seventies, English-post-punk band millennial NYC produced. Iconic bassist Carlos Dengler no longer hogs the audience’s gaze, but the band’s remaining core trio inhabits the limelight like they they were born to it. Frontman Paul Banks looked more mature, filled-out, and slicked-back. Daniel Kessler still pulls catchy, heavily-delayed two-note hooks from a pair of semi-hollow body guitars. Pulling up the rear, Sam Fogarino pounds out hard-bitten disco rhythms as if the only two drummers who mattered were Chic’s Tony Thompson and the Clash’s Topper Headon. Scheduling pasty-skinned musicians who favor a black wardrobe at 4pm on a sunny Saturday afternoon in a big public park isn’t advisable usually, but the visual dissonance arrived effectively counterbalanced with the band’s almost Gothic indie rock. And Interpol, driven by steady, middling tempos, extensive use of aural space, and subtle keyboard washes, suits a big outdoor event better than most bands. Such music begs for natural echo, and this crowd ate it up. Judging by the rapturous reaction literally every tune received on its first notes, from vintage songs like “Evil” to new cuts like “All the Rage Back Home” from the band’s fifth LP El Pintor, everything Interpol’s released has been a huge hit. Read interview with drummer Sam Fogarino. |
Electronic artist Moby’s new animated music video sends a clear message about his feelings on capitalism, greed, and President Donald Trump — and the latter’s supporters aren’t having it. Once Trump supporters caught wind of Moby & The Void Pacific Choir’s “In This Cold Place” video, they began drawing their own conclusion about the artist’s activist message. “Moby cartoon video corrupting children into hatred and accepting violence against President Trump” reads the headline of a post at the American Thinker blog decrying the “Trump derangement syndrome” apparent in the satirical cartoon. “The artistic quality and budget of this video overshadow anything Hamas could produce. But as I see it, Moby and Cutts are breeding fanatics, just as the Palestinians do,” American Thinker’s Thomas Lifson wrote. Breitbart focused on the dollar-turned-swastika symbolism in the video, as did the conservative Washington Times, who noted that Trump “transforms into a robotic, missile-firing swastika” during the three-minute animated video. On Twitter, things heated up even more as users like Infowars editor Paul Joseph Watson calls it “laugh out loud funny” and claims the video is “like virtue signaling and hysteria had a baby.” Linking to the Breitbart article, one Trump-supporting user claimed they are “STILL waiting for a democrat to explain exactly HOW ‘Trump is a fascist Nazi.'” Read some of the best Trump supporter reactions to Moby’s satirical video below, as well as the video via Moby on Youtube. But the douchebag Moby was fine with antiAmerican Obama and corrupt lying Hillary? Fu**ing loser. https://t.co/S7DJAITuYT — Pat C in Central FL (@BeachCity55) June 20, 2017 Moby is a cuck and your T levels will drop exponentially with your exposure to it. pic.twitter.com/kyayxAcRmv — Frame Game Radio 🐸 (@FrameGames) June 20, 2017 In shock news – achingly-trendy virtue-signalling Moby produces tiresome crap in an attempt to be ‘edgy’. https://t.co/ytSuTdafco — Kris Masterson (@MastersonKris) June 20, 2017 #liberals will pretend to like #Moby music because it is irrational hatred toward #Trump which is their default emotional state. — Are You Liberal? (@AreYouLiberal) June 20, 2017 Another “celebrity” with a political agenda… what’s the matter Moby… no one buying your music anymore? https://t.co/YBQt6iNTWm — Deplorable Veteran (@Redgtosamurai) June 20, 2017 |
Grouping the terms “Mariah Carey” and “Glitter” together typically results in conversations and recollections of “flop”, “disaster”, and “train wreck”. Today, that ends and we demand #JusticeForGlitter. While the film still stands on shaky ground, it has evolved to develop something of a cult following. We’re not here to talk about the film. We’re here to focus on the one thing Mariah has been consistent with: the music. Due to the reception of the film, and the comparatively mild success of the album (it didn’t yield a Hot 100 number 1 nor did it reach number 1 itself, and went platinum, which was considered low sales compared to Mariah’s at-the-time recent releases), it was heralded as both a critical and commercial flop. However, looking back at this body of work and the reputation it received, it’s perplexing. What the Glitter album really is, is a misunderstood, brave attempt at bridging gaps and merging genres as only Mariah can do. Scanning through the critical reception of Glitter in 2001 finds a variety of opinions. Some critics were optimistic while others were down right negative. Comments range from “a big step forward” and “quite good” to “a minor misstep in a stellar career” all the way to “a mess” and “the pop equivalent of Chernobyl”. Billboard got closest to describing the album, when they analyzed the album’s styles as follows: First, there’s the ’80s-hued material reflective of her imminent film debut (after which the set is titled). Then, there are the ballads that are an essential element of her every album. Finally, she indulges in her fascination with hip-hop culture – a move that should continue to confound fans who pledged allegiance to the diva during her early pure-pop phase. They almost hit the nail on the head except for the final classification of the hip hop songs on the album. If anything, this piece of Glitter is the most important. It showcases Mariah’s continued status as a musically visionary who can both identify and create trends based on the direction popular music is moving. These songs are not merely hip hop tracks erratically juxtaposed with ballads and ‘80s-hued material: They are, by enlarge, updates and interpretations built on 80’s songs and would-be hip hop breaks. 80’s Meets Hip Hop Take “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life” for example. The song (original and Mariah version) relies on a loop that would have, and could have served as a killer hip hop break in the 80’s. It fits perfectly amongst the early 2000’s musical landscape with updated instrumentation (including Randy Jackson on the bass) and more hip hop-based, hard-hitting drums. It’s both an extension and an update: with furthering contemporary hip hop elements, such as the verse from a young Fabolous and adlibs from producer DJ Clue. Busta Rhymes serves as the song’s hype man, another example of paying homage to the structure of 80’s hip hop groups. In retrospect, the song foreshadows the 80s throwbacks that would become musically ubiquitous in the years to come. There are similar comparisons to be made with the “Loverboy” remix (which was also included on the Glitter album), along with “Don’t Stop (Funkin 4 Jamaica).” Both of these songs find themselves to the left and rely heavier on contemporary hip hop to incarnate them. Both versions of “Loverboy” rely on an updated loop of Cameo’s “Candy” to drive their instrumentation. While the remix is slightly reconfigured to include two rap verses (one where Ludacris and Shawnna trade bars and the other where Da Brat and Twenty II do the same), the original is mapped out like a standard pop song. All sampling drama aside, Mariah went as far as to invite Cameo into the studio to re-sing parts of “Candy” which serve as a bridge on the original version of the song. “Don’t Stop,” on the other hand, is built with many of the same elements as the original “Funkin For Jamaica,” but instead tweaks minor pieces to form an update. Furthermore, the included elements are reconfigured to structure a typical 2000s rap song with full-fledged verses from Mystikal and Mariah playing hook girl (along with a vocal bridge that is an album highlight). Mariah and Mystikal create a brilliant marriage between an 80s funk jam and 2000s rap. Only “If We” featuring Ja Rule and Nate Dogg refuses classification in the aforementioned trio of categories. It sits perfectly as a time capsule and blueprint of early 2000s hip hop/pop collaborations that broadened Ja Rule’s mainstream appeal (most notably being the blueprint for the Jennifer Lopez/Ja Rule “I’m Real” Remix). The song has a west coast rap influence and is driven by a toy piano, lush strings, and particular guitar licks that recall early 90s Dr. Dre productions. While it doesn’t fit perfectly, as a single it would have been a great hood ornament to help tie everything together for the 2001 audience and display the progression of music that adorns the album. True 80’s Homage The trio of ‘80s-inspired material is a prime showcase of Mariah’s continued musical versatility. She has never been shy about her admiration for the era, and over these upbeat tracks, she doesn’t hold back. Samples and interpolations aside, “Didn’t Mean To Turn You On” is the sole straight up cover on the album. Produced by Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis (who also wrote the song), Mariah actually sings over a shortened version of the original instrumental that Cherelle used in 1985 (with some additional drum programming). “All My Life” is a stellar period piece. Mariah wanted authenticity with this project. She reached out to the legendary Rick James, who was more than up to the task of contributing to the project. Strings and funky synths adorn the Mary Jane Girls-esque instrumental as Mariah coos and fills the breaks with airy conversation between Mariah and Rick. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis were determined to achieve an authentic sound while working on this album. They were so determined that they went as far as to dust off their old synthesizers from the 80s. This is most apparent on “Want You,” a duet with Eric Benet. The synths are a time machine, as are the keyboards, guitar and the programmed drum loop. Ballads As far as the ballads go, Mariah always excels when she releases some emotion and throws in a few melismatic runs. On Glitter, she steps a bit out of her typical writing process and writes from the perspective of another person. Yet she still excels at showing off her songwriting prowess, especially when it comes to her diverse adjective use. Though most of the Glitter soundtrack leans heavily on the 80s, these ballads have a distinct Mariah sound of the time. Mariah started writing music for Glitter years before it came to fruition: So many, that Walter Afanasieff (whom Carey stopped working with after Butterfly in 1997) gets not only a writing credit but also a credit as an instrumentalist on “Lead The Way,” a momentous Mariah love song. It details her character’s unforeseen romance with the film’s love interest, Dice. The song also contains the longest note Mariah has ever held, clocking in at 21 seconds (though some argue that she actually goes over 30 seconds without a breath). “Lead The Way” stands as one of Mariah’s most beautiful and poignant love songs to date. The two ballads that are performed in the film both focus on heartbreak and loss, as opposed to love. “Reflections (Care Enough)” is a gut-wrenching ode to Billie’s mother, who abandons Billie at the beginning of the film. Mariah digs deep as a songwriter and laments Billie’s emptiness without her mother in her life. She questions whether the mother ever cared and even goes as far as to suggest that she “could have had the decency to give (her) up, before (she) gave (her) life.” “Never Too Far” is the driving ballad of the film. Placed as the final musical performance of the film, Mariah’s character Billie reflects on love torn away too soon. She declares that she “won’t let time erase, one bit of yesterday” and that “nobody can take your place.” “Twister” has heartbreaking significance to Mariah. All of the other ballads are written from the perspective of her character Billie, but “Twister” is a tribute to Mariah’s stylist Tonjua Twist. Twist worked with Mariah for years, most notably being responsible for the cut-waistband look in the “Heartbreaker” video. She tragically took her own life in the spring of 2000. It’s the shortest song on the set, clocking in under 2:30. What it lacks in length it more than makes up for in honestly and vulnerability. The song remains one of the few that Mariah has revealed the meaning of. Eerily the song took on a perceived autobiographical meaning from the outside looking in when weighing all of the tabloid drama surrounding Mariah leading up to the project’s release. Through and through Glitter may not have accomplished what it was supposed to, but the impact it made is undeniable. It remains as a stellar body of work amongst Mariah’s catalog. Glitter continues to highlight her singular forward-thinking creativity and ability to both see and influence trends. Glitter is unavailable to stream, but it is available for purchase on iTunes and Amazon. PS: Mariah, if you’re reading this, it’s been years. PLEASE let us hear the original “Loverboy.” We know it slays. We know it sits over “Firecracker” perfectly (we have proof of it from Brat’s verse in the remix). It’s time. Share this: Tweet Like this: Like Loading... |
After that Matt Lauer debacle Wednesday night, it’s time to stop grading Donald Trump on a curve, don’t you think? He’s not blunt. He’s not refreshing. He’s not a straight talker. Trump is two things. First, he’s a liar. Not an occasional liar or accidental liar, but a liar as a matter of course, a liar as strategy, a liar as a means to crush his opponents. This is hard for most people to wrap their heads around because most people aren’t like this and indeed have never even met anyone like this. It’s so shockingly amoral that most people can’t believe that someone would actually be like this. But he is. Second, he’s something we don’t even have an English word for. “Ignorant” is a start, but ignorant misses the key element, which is his I-don’t-give-a-crap pride in his own ignorance. He doesn’t know anything about anything having to do with governing the country. How large a brigade is; how Medicare is financed; what an average family of four pays in health care premiums a year; what the median household income in this country is, within (I’d bet) $10,000; the number of cabinet departments in the executive branch, within three; that military courts already exist, as we learned in Wednesday night’s fiasco; and, well, nearly everything else. Think about that. We have a lot of words in this language of ours, and we don’t even have a word for what he is. I wish I knew more German; surely buried somewhere in Nietzsche or Heidegger is some perfect seven-syllable word for the type. I see from the Googles that the respective German words for ignorant, proud, and brain are unwissend, stolz, and Gehirn. So that’s what he is. Unwissendstolzgehirn. It’s only six syllables, but it’ll do, and all the better of course that it’s German. Memorize it and pass it around. I shouldn’t joke. This is serious. What do we do about a man who lies literally most of the time he’s talking, and the rest of the time parades his ignorance of settled facts? Actually I’m not being quite fair. Sometimes, very occasionally, he tells the truth as he sees it. And those turn out to be the most appalling moments of all. Like Trump’s defense of Vladimir Putin Wednesday night, citing the Russian strongman’s “82 percent approval rating” and saying: “The man has very strong control over a country. It’s a very different system and I don’t happen to like the system, but certainly in that system, he’s been a leader. Far more than our president has been a leader.” God help us. Putin’s at 82 percent because the other 18 percent are in jail or dead. But more than that, Russia is an adversary. Imagine Nixon having said in 1968 that Brezhnev was a much stronger leader than LBJ. It would have been thought of as verging on if not crossing over into outright treason. Lauer deserves to be remembered for this. It belongs in the first paragraph of his Times obit when the day comes. He should apologize to America for a performance that was indefensible by any known journalistic standard. But more importantly, his performance should be a wake-up call. With the debates coming, the networks have to think long and hard about how they’re going to handle them. Here’s one starter idea, which I batted around on Twitter Thursday morning with Glenn Thrush of Politico: real-time on-screen fact-checking chyrons. This would require the debate-hosting network to have a little battalion of staffers at computer terminals assigned to do instant web searches and determine whether what the candidate said had any connection to reality. So it would cost money. But more than that, it would require rendering judgments in defense of the objective truth. This is something the media are terrified of doing. The urge in objective journalism not to want to be seen as taking sides is understandable. But with Trump we’ve been hauled into a parallel universe, and the old rules are dead. This real-time fact-checking must apply to both candidates, obviously, and when Hillary Clinton says something that isn’t true, they should say so. But what the networks should not do is any of this craven pussyfooting around in the interest of balance; Oh gee, we’ve given Trump six falses in a row, our switchboard is gonna explode, we’d better give Hillary one just to seem fair. Bollocks to that. That is precisely what isn’t fair. It isn’t fair to the electorate or the truth or democracy. There have to be other remedies. Maybe newspapers could start appending fact-checks to the bottom of news articles: The facts stated by Mr. Trump in the fourth paragraph of this news story are false. The actual facts, according to [authoritative source] are… And so on. Or just start a feature called Fact-checking Everything the Candidates Said Yesterday. If Trump’s list is 17 items long and Clinton’s is three, print the white space and have the stones to stand up to critics and say no, this isn’t liberal bias, it’s reality bias, deal with it. Drastic measures? Trump has forced them upon us. All politicians lie sometimes, and it is highly unfortunate that Clinton wasn’t always truthful about some of her personal affairs, like the email server business. But generally speaking she doesn’t lie about the world. Despite all the nonsense and millions wasted on serial investigations, no one has proven she ever said a false word about Benghazi. Trump lies about the world constantly—as well as, by the way, lying about his personal affairs far more egregiously than she. Fact-checking can take any number of forms here. But the main hurdle is psychic. The big corporate media have to decide that they want to be in the truth business instead of the ratings business or the entertainment business or the false-equivalence-so-conservatives-don’t-get-mad-at-us business. That’s the question. Sixty days and counting. |
Image copyright Scottish Salmon Company Image caption In 2014, Scottish salmon beat confectionery to become the UK's most valuable food export Past midnight on Monday in Mallaig: a boat docks with a cargo of live salmon. They've been shipped from one of dozens of fish farms in the sea lochs of Scotland's north-west coast, where they swam earlier on Sunday in a large cage, machine fed for up to three years, growing as big as 8kg. Mallaig is on a picturesque promontory looking over the sea to Skye. Its harbour used to heave with herring boats: its bracing fresh air mingled with the potent tang of smoking kippers. The wild catch at Mallaig quayside is now langoustine, scallops and lobster. Many of the shellfish are bound for markets in Spain and France, trucked live and swiftly for premium prices. The bigger fish business in the west Highlands is the farming of Atlantic salmon. From the fishing boat they are vacuumed through a pipe into the ice house, slaughtered, packed and driven along the winding road through the Lochaber region to a processing plant at Fort William. They are gutted and despatched to markets around the world. By Thursday, some of the bigger fish are being served in China's best restaurants. Beijing first allowed imports of Scottish salmon in 2011. Last year, more than 11,000 tonnes were exported to the Far East, with a value of £73m ($94m). It is 25 years since Scottish salmon became the first non-French food to win the Label Rouge designation. Based on taste and appearance, that has been a valuable asset in France, the biggest European market for salmon, and an important calling card in other countries. Image copyright SSPO Image caption Firm, less fatty salmon is particularly popular for sushi and sashimi Salmon is now by far the biggest food export from Scotland. In 2014, it beat confectionery to become the UK's biggest food export. Demand is led by the EU, which imported 35,000 tonnes of Scottish salmon last year, and the US, which imported nearly 26,000 tonnes. While the UK has less than a tenth of global production, Scotland offers a premium product, at about 10% above the world price. Scottish salmon is typically fed better quality feed, and farming can be less intensive - fewer fish in a cage mean they swim further, and develop more muscle. Loch Duart set out in 1999 to carve a niche within that Scottish niche. Farming in the sea lochs of Sutherland and the Outer Hebrides, it charges a premium of 20-25% over other salmon producers, selling to wholesalers whose high-end client chefs require that extra assurance of quality and reliability. "We've got to have an authentic message, a clear set of farming principles that the customer can buy into, that can be verified. We were the first to have RSPCA welfare standards," says sales director Andy Bing. Scott Landsburgh, chief executive of industry body the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation (SSPO), points out that fresh fish is hard to differentiate, except on its look. "The good quality flesh of the fish [is] particularly firm and less fatty. And that works in the sushi and sashimi market in particular," he says. Image copyright PA Image caption Unilever began Scottish salmon farming in 1965 and produced its first fish from Lochailort in 1971 The journey for Scottish salmon began nearly 50 years ago. Unilever was the pioneer, spotting the potential for farmed salmon, which at that time was only caught wild and eaten as an expensive luxury. The food conglomerate's Marine Harvest division first produced farmed salmon in 1971 at Lochailort - the shoreline between Mallaig and Fort William - and is today the world's largest salmon farmer. Now an independent firm, Marine Harvest is based in Bergen, Norway, the country that dominates the industry. (Norwegian annual production has topped 1.1m tonnes, while the UK produces less than 160,000 tonnes.) Scotland's most valuable export - Scotch whisky - has helped to fuel the popularity of the country's salmon, by projecting a reputation for quality and provenance. "The inroads the whisky industry made have helped with Scotland the Brand, but salmon doesn't sell itself," observes Steve Bracken, spokesman for Marine Harvest and an industry veteran. He points out that producers have worked hard alongside the SSPO and the Scottish Food and Drink trade body to promote the fish. The public sector's contribution has been significant too, through Scottish Development International, the government agency that promotes exports. Image copyright University of St Andrews Image caption Sea lice can weaken the health of salmon and their growth However, recently Scottish salmon's growth has been scaled back with production hit by sea lice. When the parasites take hold of a farm, fish are harvested before their health deteriorates. That helps explain why total world tonnage was down by 7% last year - by 5% in Scotland and Norway, and 16% in Chile. The South American country is the second biggest producer of Atlantic salmon, but has been blighted by the rapid spread of fish disease. The industry has yet to get on top of sea lice. Feeder fish can be used as a predator for the parasites, but they haven't solved the problem yet. Another answer could be cages strong enough to be anchored far out at sea and in deeper water. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption There are about 250 salmon farming sites off the coast of Scotland and its islands Scottish salmon also faces an ongoing battle with environmental campaigners who fear that intensive farming in lochs and fjords is damaging to wild stocks and ecosystems. Nonetheless, demand remains healthy. Salmon is marketed as a healthy eating option. Consumer tastes have been shifting to it as an affordable source of protein. Since 2013, salmon and trout have been the biggest category of traded fish worldwide. While Scotland's export tonnage fell 10% last year, its value rose by 17%. Demand for Scottish salmon is expected to remain strong despite uncertain supply and continued tough competition. In the short term, the SSPO's Mr Landsburgh says recent surveys suggest the tide has turned on lice. "And there's no shortage of demand," he points out. |
The Lithuanian word for city (miestas) is masculine but Vilnius is quintessentially feminine. It is restrained in its ornamentation and subtle in the signals it gives off; it pedantically keeps up appearances but is also keen to keep abreast of the latest trends. The city’s Old Town is tantalisingly curvaceous, its narrow streets bending and wending their way to the next meeting, the next diversion, the next hope. The city’s layout unravels rather than conveys; it allows for thoughtful motion rather than channelling you around in a sluice of commotion. The Old Town – the myth-shrouded core of the city’s identity – is a labyrinth of self-denial (amorous disappointments, the lonely rite-of-passage of staggering home) and self-affirmation (friendly waiters in attractive surroundings making you feel special, magical summer evenings where everything is abuzz with receptivity). Because the Old Town is so small, circular and compact, your experiences will forever resonate there. The past will always trail you as you keep bumping into distant memories, some lovely, some painful. Vilnius is ambitious. She sports an expensive glass-n-steel skyline (a sleek size 8). Although her coffers are not deep, she lines many public places with flowers (expensive contracts, those). Vilnius likes to look her best at all times. But there is a problem. She is stuck, reluctantly and resentfully, with a wardrobe full of horribly drab outfits from the Soviet era. Like a musty old fur coat she can’t afford to replace just yet, she has to keep wearing her Soviet heritage. Although most vilniečiai live in Soviet-built housing, the tourist literature never refers to it except in passing. I lived for three years in a Soviet-era neighbourhood widely regarded as dangerous. People would react with a polite ooh when I told them I lived there. But for the most part it was a pleasant experience: old ladies walking their miniature dogs, teenagers playing basketball, harmless drunks in the local supermarket milking their coin to the limit. I met many good people during my time there. But for the upwardly mobile it is a mark of failure to live in a Soviet suburb. For the many who live there, however, it is home; a cosy feeling of down-to-earth gratitude for basic comforts and a little insurance² against disgustingly inflated rents and property prices. Vilnius has deep social divisions but they are virtually invisible. They are invisible because there are no outward markers to delineate them: the poor dress well, bite their tongue, ride the trolleybus in stoic silence. Low wages, as in America, take on a self-perpetuating logic. Poverty is a personal problem rather than a social issue (except for many older people who get all rheumy-eyed as they remember the security of life under the Soviet system; they momentarily forget the interminable queues and the fact they were ardent supporters of Independence). Warning: nostalgia can be a slippery path to self-contradiction. Language is the one conspicuous sign of social division. But Russian and Polish mingles freely with Lithuanian at market. This multilingual babble is not dangerously divisive as in Latvia or Estonia. Some Russian-speakers, feeling alienated and unappreciated, might misguidedly welcome a Russian invasion. Many would not. But these tired old ethnic divisions point to a history – histories, really – that forms the astonishing reality behind Vilnius’s calm, sturdy and quietly confident façade. Between the wars Vilnius was predominantly Polish and Jewish. Lithuanians were a notable minority in their future capital (Kaunas was the country’s capital during the interwar period, long a stronghold of Lithuanianness). Some 90 percent of the city’s thriving Jewish population were exterminated. The Poles either fled from the incoming Soviets or were forcibly relocated. By the end of the war, Vilnius was a ghost town (as well as a city of ghosts). A new, exclusively Lithuanian population was drafted in from all around the country (along with a sizable influx of Russian-speakers from abroad). The intellectuals, politicians, lawyers, artists, surgeons and other high-fliers of today are all a mere two generations away from the fields. That is simply extraordinary for a European capital. Having been decimated by the Nazis and the Soviets, Vilnius underwent a compressed re-evolution. Perhaps that is why I often get the sneaking suspicion that people are playing a role: they act the part of the legal expert, the knowledgeable professor, the seasoned journalist. Lithuanian men are fiercely proud and will never admit to being wrong or not knowing what they are really talking about. But I often suspect they lack the critical thinking and self-awareness needed to objectively evaluate their professional worth. Just look at all the translation bureaus out there: they are overflowing with substandard translators driving down prices and churning out heartbreakingly poor-quality work. The tourist literature will tell you that Vilnius is: baroque, Gothic, Neoclassical, renaissance, wooden. Let’s leave such language for the tourists. Despite its self-confident appearance, there is an undercurrent of profound sadness and confusion running through the city. You can sense it during the rush hour in the searching glances of the immaculately dressed people walking home, in the wheel-gripping tension of those stuck in traffic. You rarely see outbursts of emotion on the street: couples arguing, people storming off, a stranger sobbing on a bench. It is a city where everyone plays their (ostensibly upwardly mobile) part with unnerving self-possession. This is facilitated by the fact that the stage was cleared by mass emigration (around a third of the population). If these emigrants were to return en masse it would be catastrophic for the indebted social security system and finely balanced job market. Even the most hard done-by vilniečiai bite their lips and get on with it (the city even has a famous homeless man who tramps up and down Gedimino Avenue all day long like it’s his calling). Older people (the divorced, the unhappily married, the emotionally exhausted) can be visibly miserable but they will not freely admit to it. They fixedly gaze (with glazed eyes) into space on public transport. They reluctantly say and do all the right things (at work, on Name Days, etc.). But, like an old pipe, they leak sighs all day long; that is what gives them away. The young are generically young: they look and behave much like any other young people in a European capital: glib, restless, spasmodically swipey. Many are liquid-smart but lack notional depth to their thinking. I once complained to a friend of mine about the lack of passion (political, social, environmental, romantic) among young people. She laughed and said it was true, ironically, for many well-heeled, outwardly cool and successful young people. But, she said, it is a different story when it comes to older people in the Lithuanian countryside. They are most definitely not lacking in passion. My experience bears her claim out. One of the finest men I’ve ever met lived alone in the deep Lithuanian countryside. Blemba, I loved that man. B has been to Vilnius several times (she once stayed for three months). She loves the city for its relaxed pace of life, its lack of ostentation, its subtle ambiance (she lives in Rome – when J and I complained to her about the nightmare of driving in the Vilnius rush hour, she became almost hysterical with laughter). Like me, B loves Vilnius. But I wanted to know what exactly it is about the city that seduces her. Her answer was satisfyingly unbullshitty and gratifyingly discreet. “For me Vilnius is epitomized by the sight of an old person sitting on a bench in a park or square. They just sit there patiently looking around them. They don’t look especially sad or happy. They aren’t killing time. They aren’t forcing the situation. They just seem genuinely content to be sitting there and enjoying their surroundings.” For me, Vilnius is low-lying clouds in summer, and a flocculent grey sky in winter. It is four distinct seasons (for now at least). It is an irritating rush hour that is laughable in comparison with Rome. It is dog-owners bending down to pick up their dogs’ steaming turds. It is lush leafage and intoxicating lilac. It is people minding their business. It is the heartbreaking beauty of a stranger on the street. It is the superhumanly stoical acceptance of things beyond our control. It is the impressive ability to project blame onto external agents (full moons, the cold weather, the hot weather, the mild weather, politicians, the Soviet Union, supernatural entities that steal your socks, etc.). And yes, as I go for my daily 8-km constitutional around Vingis Park, it is the heart-warming sight of a robust old soul sitting peacefully on a park bench. Advertisements |
Huston has been referred to as "a titan", "a rebel", and a "renaissance man" in the Hollywood film industry. Author Ian Freer describes him as "cinema's Ernest Hemingway "—a filmmaker who was "never afraid to tackle tough issues head on." [3] Some of Huston's films were adaptations of important novels, often depicting an "heroic quest," as in Moby Dick , or The Red Badge of Courage . In many films, different groups of people, while struggling toward a common goal, would become doomed, forming "destructive alliances," giving the films a dramatic and visual tension. Many of his films involved themes such as religion, meaning, truth, freedom, psychology, colonialism and war. Huston was known to direct with the vision of an artist, having studied and worked as a fine art painter in Paris in his early years. He continued to explore the visual aspects of his films throughout his career, sketching each scene on paper beforehand, then carefully framing his characters during the shooting. While most directors rely on post-production editing to shape their final work, Huston instead created his films while they were being shot, making them both more economical and cerebral, with little editing needed. After a short period acting on stage, and having undergone surgery, he traveled on his own to Mexico. During his two years there, among his other adventures, he got a position riding as an honorary member of the Mexican cavalry. He returned to Los Angeles and married a girlfriend from high school, Dorothy Harvey. Their marriage lasted seven years, (1926–1933). What I learned there, during those weeks of rehearsal, would serve me for the rest of my life. [5] He moved back to New York to live with his father, who was then acting in off-Broadway productions, and John had a few small roles. [6] He remembers, while watching his father rehearse, being fascinated with the mechanics of acting: He also "plunged" himself into a multitude of interests, including abstract painting, ballet, English and French literature, opera, and horseback riding. Living in Los Angeles he became "infatuated" with the new film industry and motion pictures, but as a spectator only. To Huston, " Charlie Chaplin was a god." [5] As a child he was often ill and was treated for an enlarged heart and kidney ailments. He recovered after an extended bedridden stay in Arizona , and moved with his mother to Los Angeles, where he attended Abraham Lincoln High School . He dropped out after two years to become a professional boxer, and by age 15 was a top-ranking amateur lightweight boxer in California. He ended his brief boxing career after suffering a broken nose. [1] Huston's parents divorced in 1913, when he was six, and as a result much of his childhood was spent living in boarding schools. During summer vacations, he traveled with each of his parents separately — with his father on vaudeville tours, and with his mother to horse races and other sports events. Young Huston benefited greatly from seeing his father act on stage, as he was later drawn to acting. [1] Some critics, such as Lawrence Grobel, surmise that his relationship with his mother may have caused his five marriages, and why few of his relationships lasted. Grobel wrote, "When I interviewed some of the women who had loved him, they inevitably referred to his mother as the key to unlocking Huston's psyche." [4] According to actress Olivia de Havilland , "she [his mother] was the central character. I always felt that John was ridden by witches. He seemed pursued by something destructive. If it wasn't his mother, it was his idea of his mother." [4] John Huston was born on August 5, 1906, in Nevada, Missouri . He was the only child of Rhea (née Gore) and Canadian-born Walter Huston . His father was an actor, initially in vaudeville, and later in films. His mother initially worked as a sports editor for various publications, but gave it up after John was born. Similarly, his father gave up his stage acting career for steady employment as a civil engineer, although he returned to stage acting within a few years. He later became highly successful on both Broadway and then in motion pictures. He had Scottish, Scots-Irish, English and Welsh ancestry. His next script was High Sierra (1941), to be directed by Raoul Walsh . The film became the hit Huston wanted. It also made Humphrey Bogart a star with his first major role, as a gunman on the run. Warners kept their end of the bargain, and gave Huston his choice of subject. [5] They indulged me rather. They liked my work as a writer and they wanted to keep me on. If I wanted to direct, why, they'd give me a shot at it, and if it didn't come off all that well, they wouldn't be too disappointed as it was to be a very small picture. [5] Huston was recognized and respected as a screenwriter. He persuaded Warners to give him a chance to direct, under the condition that his next script also became a hit. Huston wrote: Huston gained a reputation as a "lusty, hard-drinking libertine" during his first years as a writer in Hollywood. [1] Huston described those years as a "series of misadventures and disappointments". His brief career as a Hollywood writer ended suddenly after a car he was driving struck and killed actress Tosca Roulien, wife of actor Raul Roulien . There is a rumor that it was actually Clark Gable that was to blame for the hit and run, but MGM General Manager Eddie Mannix paid Huston to take the blame. [7] A coroner's jury absolved Huston of blame, but the incident left him "traumatized". He moved to London and Paris, living as a "drifter." [1] He received a script editing contract with Samuel Goldwyn Productions , but after six months of receiving no assignments, quit to work for Universal Studios , where his father was a star. At Universal, he got a job in the script department, and began by writing dialogue for a number of films in 1932, including Murders in the Rue Morgue , A House Divided , and Law and Order . The last two also starred his father, Walter Huston . In addition, House Divided was directed by William Wyler , who gave Huston his first real "inside view" of the filmmaking process during all stages of production. Wyler and Huston became close friends and collaborators on a number of leading films. [6] During his stay in Mexico, he wrote a play called "Frankie and Johnny", based on the ballad of the same title. After selling it easily, he decided that writing would be a viable career, and he focused on it. His self-esteem was enhanced when H. L. Mencken , editor of the popular magazine American Mercury , bought two of his stories, "Fool" and "Figures of Fighting Men." During subsequent years his stories and feature articles were published in Esquire , Theatre Arts , and The New York Times . He also worked for a period on the New York Graphic. In 1931, when he was 25, he moved back to Los Angeles with his hopes aimed at writing for the blossoming film industry, where the silent film industry had given way to "talkies", and writers were in demand. [6] In addition, his father had earlier moved there where he was already successful in a number of films. The Maltese Falcon (1941) Edit For his first directing assignment, Huston chose Dashiell Hammett's detective thriller, The Maltese Falcon, a film which failed at the box office in two earlier versions by Warners. However, studio head Jack L. Warner approved of Huston's treatment of Hammett's 1930 novel, as he stood by his word to let Huston choose his first subject.[5] Huston kept the screenplay close to the novel, keeping much of Hammett's dialogue, and directing it in an uncluttered style, much like the book's narrative. He did unusual preparation for his first directing job by sketching out each shot beforehand, including camera positions, lighting, and compositional scale, for such things as closeups.[6] He especially benefited by selecting a superior cast, giving Humphrey Bogart the lead role. Bogart was happy to take the role, as he liked working with Huston. In addition, the supporting cast included other noted actors: Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet (his first film role), and his own father, Walter Huston. The film, however, was given only a small B-movie budget, and received minimal publicity by Warners, as they had low expectations.[5] The entire film was made in eight weeks for only $300,000.[1] Warners was surprised by immediate enthusiastic response by the public and critics, who hailed the film as a "classic" and claimed by many to be the "best detective melodrama ever made."[5] Herald Tribune critic Howard Barnes called it a "triumph."[5] Huston received an Academy Award nomination for the screenplay. After this film, Huston would direct all of his screenplays, except for one, Three Strangers (1946).[6] In 1942, he directed two more hits, In This Our Life (1942), starring Bette Davis, and Across the Pacific, another thriller starring Humphrey Bogart. Army years during World War II Edit The Battle of San Pietro (1945) (1945) In 1942 he served in the United States Army during World War II to make films for the Army Signal Corps. While in uniform with the rank of captain, he directed and produced three films that some critics rank as "among the finest made about World War II: Report from the Aleutians (1943), about soldiers preparing for combat; The Battle of San Pietro (1945), the story (censored by the Army) of a failure by America's intelligence agencies which resulted in many deaths, and Let There Be Light (1946), about psychologically damaged veterans, also censored for 35 years, until 1981.[1] He rose to the rank of major and received the Legion of Merit award for "courageous work under battle conditions."[1] Nonetheless, all of his films made for the Army were "controversial", and either not released, censored, or banned outright, as they were considered "demoralizing" to soldiers and the public.[6] Years later, after moving to Ireland, his daughter, actress Anjelica Huston, recalled that the "main movies we watched were the war documentaries."[9]:10 Huston did an uncredited rewrite of Anthony Veiller's screenplay for The Stranger (1946), a film he was to have directed. When Huston became unavailable Orson Welles was offered the opportunity to direct. He had been cast in the role of a high-ranking Nazi fugitive who manages to settle in New England under an assumed name.[10] The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) Edit His next picture, which he wrote, directed, and briefly appeared in as an American, asked to "help out a fellow American, down on his luck", was The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). It would become one of the films which established his reputation as a leading filmmaker. The film, also starring Humphrey Bogart, was the story of three drifters who band together to prospect for gold. Huston also gave a supporting role to his father, Walter Huston. Warners studio was initially uncertain what to make of the film. They had allowed Huston to film on location in Mexico, which was a "radical move" for a studio at the time. They also knew that Huston was gaining a reputation as "one of the wild men of Hollywood." In any case, studio boss Jack L. Warner initially "detested it." But whatever doubts Warners had were soon removed, as the film achieved widespread public and critical acclaim. Hollywood writer James Agee called it "one of the most beautiful and visually alive movies I have ever seen."[5] Time magazine described it as "one of the best things Hollywood has done since it learned to talk."[5] Huston won Oscars for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay; his father won for Best Supporting Actor. It also won other awards in the U.S. and overseas. Film Comment magazine devoted four pages to the film in its May–June 1980 edition, with author Richard T. Jameson offering his impressions: This film has impressed itself on the heart and mind and soul of anyone who has seen it, to the extent that filmmakers of great originality and distinctiveness like Robert Altman and Sam Peckinpah can be said to have remade it again and again ... without compromising its uniqueness.[5] Key Largo (1948) Edit Also in 1948 he directed his next film, Key Largo, again with Humphrey Bogart starring. It was the story about a disillusioned returning veteran clashing with gangsters on a remote Florida key. It co-starred Lauren Bacall, Claire Trevor, Edward G. Robinson, and Lionel Barrymore. The film was an adaptation of the stage play by Maxwell Anderson, and the film itself seemed overly stage-bound for many viewers. However, the "outstanding performances" by all the actors saved the film, and Claire Trevor won an Oscar for best supporting actress.[5] Huston was annoyed that the studio cut several scenes from the final release without his agreement. That, along with some earlier disputes, angered Huston enough that he left the studio when his contract expired.[5] The Asphalt Jungle (1950) Edit In 1950 he wrote and directed The Asphalt Jungle, a film which broke new ground by depicting criminals as somewhat sympathetic characters, simply doing their professional work, "an occupation like any other",[6] or what Huston calls "a left-handed form of human endeavor."[8]:177 Huston achieved that effect by giving "deep attention" to the plot, involving a large jewelry theft, by examining the minute, step by step details and difficulties each of the characters had of carrying it out. In doing so, some critics felt that Huston had achieved an almost "documentary" style.[6] His assistant director Albert Band explains further: I'll never forget it. We got on that set and he composed a shot in which ten elements were working all at the same time. Took half a day to do it, but it was fantastic. He knew exactly how to shoot a picture. His shots were all painted on the spot ... He had a great eye and he never lost his sense of composition.[11]:335 Film critic Andrew Sarris considered it to be "Huston's best film", and the film that made Marilyn Monroe a recognized actress. Sarris also notes the similar themes in many of Huston's films, as exemplified by this one: "His protagonists almost invariably fail at what they set out to do."[12] This theme was also similar to the story in Treasure of the Sierra Madre, where greed became the cause of the group's undoing. It starred Sterling Hayden and Huston's personal friend, Sam Jaffe. It also became the first serious role for Marilyn Monroe, according to Huston: "it was, of course, where Marilyn Monroe got her start."[8]:177 Monroe said Huston was the first genius she had ever met; and he made her feel that she finally had a chance of becoming a professional actress:[11]:336 Even though my part was a minor one, I felt as if I were the most important performer in the picture—when I was before the camera. This was because everything I did was important to the director.[11]:336 The film succeeded at the box office and Huston was again nominated for an Oscar for best screenplay and best director, along with winning the Screen Directors Guild Award.[5] It would subsequently become a model for many similar movies by other filmmakers. The Red Badge of Courage (1951) Edit After completing The Asphalt Jungle, Huston's next film, The Red Badge of Courage (1951), was of a completely different subject: war and its effect on soldiers. While in the army during World War II, he became interested in Stephen Crane's classic American Civil War novel of the same title. For the starring role, Huston chose World War II hero Audie Murphy to play the young Union soldier who deserts his company out of fear, but later returns to fight alongside them. MGM, however, saw the message of the movie as too antiwar. Without Huston's input, they cut down the running time of the film from eighty-eight minutes to sixty-nine, added narration, and deleted what Huston felt was a crucial scene.[6] The movie did poorly at the box office. Huston suggests that it was possibly because it "brought war very close to home."[13] Huston recalls that at the preview showing, before the film was halfway through, "damn near a third of the audience got up and walked out of the theater."[13] Despite the "butchering" and weak public response, film historian Michael Barson describes the movie as "a minor masterpiece."[14] The African Queen (1951) Edit The African Queen (1951) Humphrey Bogart in(1951) Before the Asphalt Jungle opened in theaters, Huston was already in Africa shooting The African Queen (1951), a story based on C. S. Forester's popular novel. It starred Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn in a combination of romance, comedy and adventure. Barson calls it "one of the most popular Hollywood movies of all time."[14] The film's producer, Sam Spiegel, urged Huston to change the ending to allow the protagonists to survive, instead of dying. Huston agreed, and the ending was rewritten. It became Huston's most successful film financially, and "it remains one of his finest works."[6] Huston was nominated for two Academy Awards—Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. Bogart, meanwhile, won his only Oscar for Best Actor for his role as Charlie Allnut. Hepburn wrote about her experiences shooting the film in her memoir, The Making of the African Queen: Or How I went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall, and Huston and almost lost my mind.[15] Clint Eastwood directed and starred in the film White Hunter, Black Heart, based on Peter Viertel's novel of the same name, which tells a fictional version of the making of the film.[16] House Committee on Un-American Activities period Edit In 1952 Huston moved to Ireland as a result of his "disgust" at the "witch-hunt" and the "moral rot" he felt was created by House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), which had affected many of his friends in the movie industry. Huston had, with friends including director William Wyler and screenwriter Philip Dunne, established the "Committee for the First Amendment", as a response to the ongoing government investigations into communists within the film industry. The HUAC was calling numerous filmmakers, screenwriters, and actors to testify about any past affiliations.[14] He tries to describe in general the types of people who were alleged communists: The people who did get caught up in it were, for the most part, well-intentioned boobs from a poor background. A number of them had come from the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and out in Hollywood, they sort of felt guilty for living the good life. Their social conscience was more acute than the next fellow's.[17] Moby Dick (1956) Edit Huston took producing, writing, and directing credits for his next two films: Moulin Rouge (1952); and Beat the Devil (1953). Moby Dick (1956), however, was written by Ray Bradbury, although Huston had his name added to the screenplay credit after the completion of the project. Although Huston had personally hired Bradbury to adapt Herman Melville's novel into a screenplay, Bradbury and Huston did not get along during pre-production, and Bradbury later dramatized their relationship in the short story "Banshee"; Peter O'Toole would later play the role based on John Huston when "Banshee" was adapted into an episode of The Ray Bradbury Theater.[18] Bradbury wrote more poems, essays, and stories on his time in Ireland, but was reluctant to write a book because he did not want to gossip about Huston. It was not until after he read Katharine Hepburn's memoir The Making of the African Queen: Or How I went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall, and Huston and almost lost my mind that he decided that he could write "a book which is fair, which presents the Huston that I loved along with the one that I began to fear on occasion." He published Green Shadows, White Whale, a novelization of his time in Ireland with Huston, almost 40 years after he wrote the screenplay for Moby Dick.[19] Huston had been planning to film Herman Melville's Moby-Dick for the previous ten years, and originally saw it as an excellent part for his father, Walter Huston. However, his father died in 1950, and he chose Gregory Peck to play the starring role of Captain Ahab. The movie was filmed over a three-year period on location in Ireland, where Huston was then living. The fishing village of New Bedford, Massachusetts was recreated along the waterfront; the sailing ship in the film was fully constructed to be seaworthy; and three 100-foot whales were built out of steel, wood, and plastic. However, the film failed at the box office, with some critics, like David Robinson, suggesting that the movie lacked the "mysticism of the book" and thereby "loses its significance."[5] The Misfits (1961) Edit Of his next five films, only The Misfits (1961), found critical approval.[3] However, critics have noted the "retrospective atmosphere of doom" which now hangs over the film. Clark Gable, the star, died of a heart attack a few days after the filming was completed; Marilyn Monroe never finished another film and died a year later during the filming of Something's Gotta Give; and costars Montgomery Clift and Thelma Ritter also died over the next few years. During the filming itself, Monroe was often on drugs of various kinds, which led to her arriving late on the set and often forgetting her lines. Monroe's problems also led to the breakup of her marriage to the film's scriptwriter, Arthur Miller, "virtually on set."[5] Miller dramatized the making of The Misfits in his final play, Finishing the Picture, where Huston is represented as the director.[20] Huston later commented about this period in her career: "Marilyn was on her way out. Not only of the picture, but of life."[13] Freud: the Secret Passion (1962) Edit He followed The Misfits with Freud: The Secret Passion, a film quite different from most of his others. Besides directing, he also narrates portions of the story. Film historian Stuart M. Kaminsky notes that Huston presents Sigmund Freud, played by Montgomery Clift, "as a kind of savior and messiah", with an "almost Biblical detachment." As the film begins, Huston describes Freud as a "kind of hero or God on a quest for mankind":[21] This is the story of Freud's descent into a region as black as hell, man's unconscious, and how he let in the light. Huston explains how he became interested in psychotherapy, the subject of the film: I first got into that through an experience in a hospital during the war, where I made a documentary about patients suffering from battle neuroses. I was in the army and made the picture "Let There Be Light". That experience started my interest in psychotherapy, and to this day Freud looms as the single huge figure in that field.[13] John Huston's Night of the Iguana set on Mismaloya Beach, in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico The Night of the Iguana (1964) Edit For his next film, Huston once again traveled down to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, after meeting an architect, Guillermo Wulff, who owned property and businesses in the town. The filming would take place in a beach cove called Mismaloya, about thirty minutes south of town. Huston adapted the stage play by Tennessee Williams. The film stars Richard Burton and Ava Gardner, and was nominated for several Academy Awards. Production attracted intense worldwide media attention, due to Burton bringing his celebrity mistress Elizabeth Taylor (who was still married to singer Eddie Fisher at the time) to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Huston liked the town where filming took place so much that he bought a house near there, as did Burton and Taylor. Guillermo Wulff and Huston became friends and always spent time together while Huston was in town, more frequently at Wulff's El Dorado Restaurant on Los Muertos Beach. The Bible: In the Beginning (1966) Edit Producer Dino De Laurentis traveled to Ireland to ask Huston to direct The Bible: In the Beginning. Although De Laurentis had ambitions for a broader story, he realized that the subject could not be adequately covered and limited the story to the first half of the Book of Genesis. Huston enjoyed directing the film, as it gave him a chance to indulge his love of animals. Besides directing he also played the role of Noah and the voice of God. The film did poorly at the box office, however, and at a cost of 18 million dollars, it was the most expensive movie in his career.[5] Huston likes describing details about the filming: Every morning before beginning work, I visited the animals. One of the elephants, Candy, loved to be scratched on the belly behind her foreleg. I'd scratch her and she would lean farther and farther toward me until there was some danger of her toppling over on me. One time I started to walk away from her, and she reached out and took my wrist with her trunk and pulled me back to her side. It was a command: "Don't stop!" I used it in the picture. Noah scratches the elephant's belly and walks away, and the elephant pulls him back to her time after time.[8]:317 Involvement with the Irish Film Industry Edit I think the politicians who supported building the studio can take consolation in the fact that it's brought a lot of money to Ireland. We're spending more than a million dollars in Ireland and we wouldn't be here if it weren't for Ardmore. John Huston, in an interview on RTE[22] While working on Casino Royale (1967), Huston took interest in the Irish film industry, which had historically struggled to attain domestic or international success. There were rumors that he would buy Ireland's premiere film location, Ardmore Studios in Bray, County Wicklow. In 1967, Huston gave Taoiseach Jack Lynch a tour of Ardmore and asked to form a committee to help foster a productive Irish film industry. Huston served on the resulting committee with Irish filmmakers and journalists.[22] Lynch also ultimately agreed to offer tax breaks to foreign production companies if they shot in location in Ireland through the Film Act of 1970.[23] Huston was interviewed in Irish journalist Peter Lennon's Rocky Road to Dublin (1967), where he argued that it was more important for Irish filmmakers to make films in Ireland than for foreign production companies to make international films.[24] Fat City (1972) Edit After several films that were not well received, Huston returned to critical acclaim with Fat City. Based on Leonard Gardner's 1969 novel of the same name, it was about an aging, washed-up alcoholic boxer in Stockton, California trying to get his name back on the map, while having a new relationship with a world weary alcoholic, and an amateur boxer trying to find success in boxing. The film was nominated for several awards upon its release. It starred Stacy Keach, a young Jeff Bridges, and Susan Tyrrell, in which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Roger Ebert stated Fat City as one of Huston's best films, giving it four out of four stars.[25] The Man Who Would Be King (1975) Edit Perhaps Huston's most highly regarded film of the 1970s, The Man Who Would Be King was both a critical and commercial success. Huston had been planning to make this film since the '50s, originally with his friends Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable. Eventually the lead roles went to Sean Connery and Michael Caine. The movie was filmed on location in North Africa. The film was praised for its use of old fashioned escapism and entertainment. Steven Spielberg has cited the film as one of his inspirations for his film Raiders of the Lost Ark. Wise Blood (1979) Edit After filming The Man Who Would Be King, Huston took his longest break between directing films. He returned with an offbeat and somewhat controversial film based on the novel Wise Blood. Here, Huston showed his skills as a storyteller, and boldness when it came to difficult subjects such as religion. Under the Volcano (1984) Edit Huston's last film set in Mexico stars Albert Finney as an alcoholic ambassador during the beginnings of World War II. The film gained a strong critical reception, most notably for Finney's portrayal of a desperate and depressed alcoholic. The film was also a success on the independent circuit. The Dead (1987) Edit John Huston's final film is an adaptation of the classic short story by James Joyce. This may have been one of Huston's most personal films, due to his citizenship in Ireland and his passion for classic literature. Huston directed most of the film from a wheelchair, as he needed an oxygen tank to breathe during the last few months of his life. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, and was praised by critics. Roger Ebert eventually placed it in his Great Movies list; a section of movies he claimed to be some of the best ever made. Huston died nearly four months before the film's release date. In the 1996 RTE documentary John Huston: An t-Éireannach, Anjelica said that "it was very important for my father to make that film." She contends that Huston did not think that it was going to be his last film, but that it was his love letter to Ireland and the Irish.[22] |
The human immune system is very complex. A large number of different cells with various functions ensure that invading microorganisms such as viruses or bacteria can quickly be rendered innocuous and the entire organism stays healthy. The immune system also includes natural killer cells (NK cells), which recognise and eliminate tumour or virus-infected cells. NK cells therefore combat the body’s own stressed cells to prevent them from becoming a potential hazard. However, this bears its risks. Other immune cells, the specific killer cells, which are also known as CD8+ T cells and multiply prodigiously and mature in response to an infection, can also exhibit stress symptoms and thereby potentially end up on the NK cells’ hit list. Interferon acting as a camouflaging hood Researchers from immune biology professor Annette Oxenius’s group have now discovered what keeps NK cells from killing off their “colleagues from the other department” of the immune system: healthy CD8+ cells are able to detect the immune messenger substance type 1 interferon, which binds to specific receptors on the surface of these immune cells and thereby conceals their stress. In other words, it acts as a camouflage cloak that renders them invisible to the NK cells. If the T cells lack the docking site for type 1 interferon, however, they are hunted down by the NK cells and exterminated. The researchers discovered this using mice which they infected with two model viruses. If the animals’ CD8+ T cells lacked these interferon receptors, not only did the NK cells eliminate the virus-infected cells, but also the immune cells that were supposed take action, thereby weakening the antiviral immune response. Cell-death signal trained The researchers studied exactly how the mechanism works using mice whose CD8+ T cells did not have any type 1 interferon receptors and in whom they also depleted the NK cells. If no natural killers were present, the T cells multiplied, matured and developed despite the lack of interferon detection. Moreover, the ETH-Zurich immune biologists discovered that these sensorless T cells increasingly formed an “identification tag” on their surfaces, which triggered the lethal effect of the NK cells as soon as they came into contact with them. Thus, the expression of this "stress tag" is suppressed by interferon binding to and signalling via the interferon receptors on T cells. If this signalling is prevented because the receptor is lacking, the cell expresses large amounts of these stress molecules. Mechanism for autoimmune diseases? So far, it is unclear whether the same mechanism also exists in humans. However, the basic processes that the human immune system uses to protect its T cells against an attack from natural killer cells might well be comparable. On the one hand, the researchers now understand which mechanisms the stressed T cells need to protect themselves against NK cells. On the other hand, this insight enables new hypotheses to be formulated. For instance, it is conceivable that T cells activated in the absence of type 1 interferon reveal themselves as being “stressed” and are thus killed off. Such situations could arise during the activation of autoimmune reactive T cells, for instance, which normally occurs in absence of high concentrations of type 1 interferon. Oxenius and her team will test these exciting hypotheses with great interest over the next few years. |
Like some cube enthusiasts, I like to keep up with the latest expansions and products of Magic: the Gathering and skim through various reviews, made by a broad range of individuals, and base my decision off their opinions of which cards are worth running. Often times I’m happy to agree with them. However, at random times, I find myself flipping through my cube and thinking to myself, “Why do I run this card?”. What is cooler than a spirit dragon? Dragons have been all-time fan favorites since the beginning of MTG. At the time Eternal Dragon was printed, a white dragon was unheard of. Even when I first started playing Magic, I was amazed by this card due to its flavor alone (Flavor is a weakness of mine). Eternal Dragon, like its name suggests, has been “eternally” included in some cube lists for ages now and I have to ask why. I’m not going to lie to any of you, when I started to build my first cube I was very happy to windmill slam him into my list because, outside of an EDH or two, I never had the chance to play him. Sadly though, when I stated to cube, Eternal had suffered the fate of being outclassed by newer cards. Before you jump me or tell me I am wrong, please hear me out. Eternal Dragon, in my eyes, is a slow engine to search your deck for “plains” cards. When I witnessed him in play, he generally was cycled once then forgotten about. On occasion he would be reanimated as a last resort for a body with evasion. I’m not saying those are bad plays because reanimater does like creatures that yard themselves and what deck doesn’t like to be searched or thinned for card advantage and better draws. It has been some time since Eternal has been in my cube since my cube is just 200 cards. Even at a larger cube, I don’t really see myself including this fella into the mix. A card I would compare him to would be Genesis which was another one of my favorites when I first began to cube. Sadly, as some of you may know, I have been on the fence with Genesis as well. So what do they have in common? Eternal and Genesis both have graveyard interactions which, in my opinion, are too slow for the average powered cube today; at their casting cost, their bodies aren’t worth the investment unless you have excessive mana to waste, which isn’t common; and their upkeep costs are a bit high for a powered cube. I could see both Eternal and Genesis being bombs in a slower speed and much larger cube environment (like a 720 cube) to this day but sadly, they wouldn’t make in into 450 list in my world. I know that there are several of groups that love Eternal Dragon and Genesis, and I mean no harm on what I have said. They are still some of my favorites even though they aren’t in my cube but enough about me and my views. What are your opinions on Eternal Dragon? Disclaimer: The purpose of this blog is create individual thoughts and opinions of why you, fellow cubers, run the cards you run and to ask yourself why you run them. PLEASE keep an open mind to every opinion that is shared in this blog and PLEASE be kind to each other. Thanks for your time! –Hanzelgravey P.S. Shoot me a message If you have a recommendation on a cube card you would like me to analyze in a future post. Advertisements |
When John Dodson sees Demetrious Johnson sitting at No. 3 among the best pound-for-pound fighters in the UFC, he gets a little upset. It gets worse when his eyes travel just a little further down the list. T.J. Dillashaw is now ranked at No. 5. Back in 2011, Dodson defeated Dillashaw via first-round knockout. He also has given Johnson his toughest test in a flyweight title defense, in 2013. Yet Dodson's name is nowhere to be found on that pound-for-pound ranking. "I've already destroyed [Dillashaw] and he's talking about how he should be up on the pound-for-pound list," Dodson said at a recent UFC 191 media lunch in Los Angeles. "These guys are all just frustrating me and just bothering me, because I am better than both of them." Dodson (17-6) has just one loss in the UFC, to Johnson, but perhaps does not get the respect he has rightfully earned. "The Magician" is arguably the best finisher in the flyweight division. He'll get a chance to make the biggest mark possible in a rematch with Johnson in the main event of UFC 191 on Sept. 5 in Las Vegas. After that, the Albuquerque, N.M., native plans on going back up to bantamweight in the near future and challenging its champion, Dillashaw. Dodson, 30, was not all too impressed with Dillashaw's win over Renan Barao at UFC on FOX 16. "I thought it was very boring," Dodson said. "It wasn't because T.J. didn't go out there and put on a spectacular show. I knew T.J. Dillashaw was capable of doing that. Renan Barao, on the other hand, I knew wasn't going to be there for that fight. "It took you this long to finish [Barao]? It took you four rounds to go ahead and finish this guy. ... I would have finished Renan Barao in the first round." Dodson thinks Barao's game has deteriorated due to his hard weight cuts and the erosion of his confidence. Dillashaw beat Barao the first time, taking his bantamweight belt at UFC 173 in May 2014, with a fifth-round TKO. "He's not gonna be the same fighter as he once was, because he's not that man anymore," Dodson said of Barao. "He's not that killer that came out destroying people, dancing, willing to stand and bang and do all the crazy stuff that he once did." Dodson acknowledges that Dillashaw has improved since the two fought three years, but doesn't think those improvements would change the result. Dodson is still targeting becoming the UFC's first three-division champion -- titles at flyweight, bantamweight and featherweight. "I already beat him," Dodson said. "I beat him at his specialty, that he can move around and hit you. T.J. Dillashaw is only good when he can hit you against the cage and that's the only time he'll ever dominate a real fighter." According to Dodson, there is evidence there with Dillashaw's performance against late fill-in Joe Soto at UFC 177. Soto hung around until the fifth round with Dillashaw and didn't do too badly. In his next fight, Soto was knocked out in under two minutes by Anthony Birchak in June. "I don't know why they didn't give the title shot to [Birchak], because that would have been a better fight," Dodson said with a laugh. The Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA product feels like he didn't get to show everyone his potential in a unanimous decision win over Zach Makovsky at UFC 187 in May. It was Dodson's first fight back from ACL surgery and, to make things worse, Makovsky is a good friend and former training partner. Dodson warns that next time he faces a friend in the Octagon, things will go very differently. He won't make the same mistake of being timid again. "You are going to be obliterated, and I'm going to splatter your blood across the canvas," Dodson said. "And I'm going to show everybody why I'm awesome." |
Suzhou Expats Class of 2014 had their first ever group photos in Central Park yesterday (June 24, 2014). About 65 people of 19 nationalities joined the photograph. (Scroll down to know how to get the photos) Peter Wynd, one of the organizers, said he and his friends were inspired by graduation photos and Leonardo DiCaprio’s movie “Beach.” The movie ends with Leonardo stopping by an internet cafe to check his e-mail, and receives a message entitled “beach life” which contains a photograph of the beach community. People in the movie took this photo knowing that they would not be doing this again, said Peter. “Expatriates in Suzhou come and go, and we want some sort of permanent record.” Those who could not make it supported by spreading the news on their WeChat moments. Some people came to the photographing 15 minutes earlier, and some came during or even after it. Central Park was near the subway station where there was a busy passenger flow. The organizers waved to every expat who passed the venue, trying to enlist more people. But three passersby said they were just tourists, and a cool-looking gentleman said he was heading home. Oops! But they still had quite a group of people for the photos. A photo journalist from Suzhou Daily Newspaper took the photos. People who came to the photos wrote down their names, country names, and e-mail addresses, but someone wrote: “Country: Earth; Company: Journey.” Hopefully this person has internet access and will not need the internet cafe to receive e-mails. The expats posed in front of the camera sitting, jumping, forming a heart with their hands, holding their children upside down... Maybe they can add a bit of square dance next time (!??). ↑↑↑Two of the organizers: Peter (L) and Sharrif (R). How to get the photos The group photos have been uploaded online. One of the places you can see them is NihaoSuzhou’s online photo album: (WeChat does not allow links from other websites, so please type in the address as indicated in the picture above, or you can click on the four Chinese characters 阅读原文 at the bottom to reach the album.) There are 180 photos in the album. Enjoy! But not everyone can access the photo album. You need to enter the place where we took the photos (“Central Park”) and the identifying code as indicated. ↑You will see this album after you open the webpage. You click on it. ↑Then you enter the place name and the identifying code (the code changes, just follow the code in the picture on the right; if you can't see the code clearly, click on 换一个 to change). One of the photos is published in Suzhou Daily Newspaper today (June 25), and a different one will be published in Suzhou Daily’s English version on Monday. Anyone who needs a hard copy, or the e-paper, or high-resolution photos, please send your request to szreview@126.com and those who need photos please specify which ones you need (there’s a code to each photo in the album). |
New Delhi: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has supported the demand of Muslim women against the arbitrary practice of triple talaq, but alleged that the ruling dispensation at the Centre was not interested in securing women's equality but in targeting the minority communities. "In this context the claims being made by government spokespersons that personal laws for Hindu women have already been reformed shows that their interest is not in securing women's equality but in targeting the minority communities, particularly the Muslim minority. Even now laws concerning, adoption, property rights and even the right to choose your own partner discriminate against Hindu women," the CPI (M) said in a statement. "With the offensive of the communal forces on the very identity of minority communities, any move to push the agenda of Uniform Civil Code as is being done by the Government directly and through its institutions is being counterproductive for the rights of women. Uniformity is not the guarantee for equality," the statement added. The Supreme Court will express its views on the Constitutional legitimacy of triple talaq and polygamy in the Muslim community, as the hearing on the matter involving women petitioners, religious organizations and the Centre is set to be heard today. Several Muslim women have approached the judiciary and the apex court is presently hearing three petitions against triple talaq. The Muslims organizations, however, perceive this development as an attempt to meddle with their religious practices and are boycotting the process. Earlier, the Centre had filed an affidavit in the apex court saying that triple talaq is not an essential religious practice in Islam. "Gender equality and dignity of women are non-negotiable, overarching constitutional values and can brook no compromise," the government said in an affidavit filed in the top court. The Muslim law board has claimed that triple talaq is a 'personal law', and hence, cannot be modified by the Centre. In August, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), in its reply to the petitions, had defended the validity of triple talaq, saying that if the practice is discontinued, a man could murder or burn his wife alive to get rid of her. "If there develops serious discord between the couple, and the husband does not at all want to live with her, the legal compulsions of time-consuming separation proceedings and expenses may deter him from taking the legal course. In such instances, he may resort to illegal, criminal ways of murdering or burning her alive," the AIMPLB's affidavit had stated. |
Romelu Lukaku says he is focused on improving every year and tells critics to judge him when he’s the finished article Romelu Lukaku says he is focused on improving every year and tells critics to judge him when he’s the finished article Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku has hit back at his critics, telling them to judge him when he is the finished article. Lukaku cost the club £75m in the summer from Everton and started his United career by scoring 11 goals in his first 11 games. However, since scoring against Crystal Palace, Lukaku hasn't found the net in six matches across all competitions. Lukaku's goal drought has seen him become a target for criticism from some fans at Old Trafford, which has led his manager Jose Mourinho to enter a war of words with the home support. Ahead of United's clash with Lukaku's former club Chelsea on Super Sunday, live on Sky Sports Premier League, the striker responded to his critics in an exclusive interview with Thierry Henry. 2:59 Man Utd 1-0 Tottenham Man Utd 1-0 Tottenham "I think a lot of people are judging me as the finished article," Lukaku said. "I'm 24 - you can't judge me as the finished article. I'd rather have a year where I improve, improve, improve rather than going straight to the top and then declining. "I know I have a lot of talent. I can do a lot of stuff, score goals with my left, right and head. But I want to be a creator - I want to have more assists. I want to make sure when my team is having difficulties they can count on me. "I'm on the perfect stage and the perfect age. I want to be a winner and take my career to the next level." |
In the wake of its “graph search” announcement, Facebook removed the ability for users to opt out of appearing in search results on the site, as noted by Quartz. Because graph search relies on the content of profiles to fuel its results, the move will allow more comprehensive returns on searches but may violate the privacy of users who previously relied on that feature. Before Facebook’s changes to its privacy policy and the implementation of graph search, users were able to keep their profiles—even their most basic information—out of the searches of non-friends. This setting made it impossible for non-friends to locate a Facebook profile unless the hidden person reached out first. Such profiles would hinder the progress of graph search, which relies on profile content to cull information (for instance, “women who like the TV show Homeland” or “Thai restaurants my friends have been to.”) Facebook asserts that a “single-digit percentage” of profiles had previously opted out of being searchable. As Quartz points out, even one percent is now 10 million people, so the change does affect a large swath of users. Now, Facebook has pushed everyone into the limelight. We’ve noted that a couple of profiles, formerly non-searchable, now appear in search results. Presumably, once graph search is turned on for their friends, the information in their formerly hidden profiles will be tallied along with the rest. Update: A representative for Facebook points out that Facebook retired the ability to hide profiles from search results in December 2012, and that a profile hidden from search results did not prevent others from navigating to it by other means (e.g., through a mutual friend's friend listings). |
Mitt Romney is said to be seriously weighing a possible job offer to become Donald Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE's secretary of State, CNN reported. ADVERTISEMENT The 2012 GOP nominee is talking about the possibility with his family members, the network reported, according to a source familiar with transition discussions. But a decision will likely not be made until after the Thanksgiving holiday. The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday reported the president-elect is leaning toward nominating Romney to serve as secretary of State, with Rudy Giuliani another top contender. Trump considers Romney to be the prototypical choice for the job, according to the report. Trump and Romney met over the weekend at Trump's golf course in New Jersey to talk about foreign policy. Vice President-elect Mike Pence Michael (Mike) Richard PencePence meeting with Senate GOP ahead of vote to block emergency declaration 'And the award for best political commentary by an Oscar nominee goes to...' UN nuclear watchdog: Iran maintains compliance with 2015 pact MORE described the meeting as "warm" and "substantive." Still, during Trump's presidential campaign, Romney often attacked the president-elect and was a face of the Never Trump movement. He called the president-elect a "con man," a "phony" and a "fraud." And Trump also criticized Romney for "choking" in his loss to President Obama. |
The Chicago Trump protests got the liberal media’s attention for the violence the liberal demonstrators caused and the cancellation of Trump’s speech for fear of more violence, and of course the liberal press blamed Trump and Republicans for the violence. And when the protesters promised more violence against Trump in the future, the liberal press placed the future blame on Trump’s head, again. Liberal Democrat violence is always the fault of Republicans and conservatives. Then just last week we saw leftists launch anti-Trump riots in California where peaceful meetings planned by Republicans were violently disrupted by the forces of liberal intolerance with a promise of more violence and personal injury to come, and still MS-NBC and CNN insist upon blaming the Trump campaign for the troubles. One can recall the Democrat convention in 1968 which changed the Democrat Party forever as the leftists took control of it via violent protests and rioting. And remember the Occupy violence and criminal behavior just a few years ago where Obama’s pals tried to force a “fundamental transformation of America” on the nation? And remember the violence in Ferguson, Baltimore, Chicago and New York City, all of which were liberal Democrats committing violent acts? When you consider that the latest Democrat actions were meant to prevent Conservative Republicans from exercising their constitutional rights to free speech and assembly, which Democrats exercise all the time without any restrictions, you begin to see that Obama’s plans for a transformation of America to a banana republic are moving smoothly in his direction. (Article Continues Below Advertisement) Is it any surprise that Democrats commit violent acts given their criminal pack of liberal leaders? Obama breaks laws daily and offends the Constitution every time he performs an official act. Bill Clinton is a convicted criminal for lying to a judge, under oath, about sexually mistreating a young woman under his employ. Don’t forget the Reverend Wright and his pulpit of hate toward America, and Hillary and her law-breaking while Secretary of State, and then Bill Ayers and his bombing killings. All good Democrats continuing the Democrat policy of gaining power and deciding policy thru the use of violence, whatever the cost to innocent Americans. And most recently the Democrat governor of Virginia, and a close pal of the Clinton crime family, decided to allow 250,000 convicted criminals to be allowed to vote in the general election in November. Guess who these convicts will vote for: Democrats! Convicts and Democrats attract each other and run in packs. |
Sydney property market slowing, economist says, as auction rates hit lowest level in three years Posted Economists say there are clear signs the "super energy" of the Sydney housing market has passed. Figures from the Domain Group show auction clearance rates are the lowest in three years. Last Saturday's auction clearance rate plunged to 72.4 per cent, from nearly 90 per cent in May. Domain senior economist Dr Andrew Wilson said it was a clear sign the city's property market is slowing. "I guess the super energy of the Sydney market has now passed. The price growth that was recorded this year and over the last two years was unsustainable given particularly that interest rates have been flat for the last four months," he said. Dr Wilson said the fall in clearance rates had been the most severe in the outer suburbs. "A closer look at the figures does reveal that its outer suburban lower priced properties where clearance rates have fallen the most. Inner-city properties are still quite reasonable for a spring market," he said. "There really isn't that driver any more to keep pushing up prices with falling interest rates, so a much more moderate outcome now for the Sydney market in prospect." He said reduced activity by investors was also driving the change. "We're also seeing higher interest rates for investors with that action by [the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority]," he said. "The latest data shows investor lending activity down sharply in all states over July and in New South Wales it was down nearly 10 per cent, so reduced activity from investors particularly in those outer suburban areas in Sydney... that's part of the equation. "We release our house price data report in just under a month. Forward tracking shows that that extraordinary level of growth which was over 8 per cent for the June quarter will certainly be a lot less over the September quarter." The median price for a home in Sydney is now about $1 million, making the city among the most expensive in the world in which to buy. Topics: housing-industry, industry, business-economics-and-finance, housing, sydney-2000, nsw, australia |
Updated below with the date of the Department of Homeland Security documents and a response from Customs and Border Protection. It may come as little surprise that every time you cross the border, cameras capture your license plate number to record your car's location. More disturbing, perhaps, is the fact that the government seems to share that automobile surveillance data with an unexpected third party: insurance companies. Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request and released Tuesday by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) catalogue just how pervasive automatic license plate readers have become at the Mexican and Canadian borders, with cameras placed in dozens of U.S. cities each capturing images of millions or tens of millions of plates a year. But the FOIA'd records (PDF here) also include memos outlining the sharing of that license plate data between the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and most significantly, the National Insurance Crime Bureau, an Illinois non-profit composed of hundreds of insurance firms including branches of Allstate, GEICO, Liberty, Nationwide, Progressive, and State Farm. "This is warrantless collection of very private data, location data about where you’ve been and when," says Ginger McCall, an attorney with EPIC. "It’s being shared with unknown organizations, not just in the government where there may be Privacy Act protections, but outside the government with third parties, possibly in contravention of the Privacy Act." According to a an undated 2005 "memorandum of understanding" included in EPIC's document release, license-plate reader "information on vehicles departing from and arriving into the United States will be provided to the [National Insurance Crime Bureau or] NICB for the purpose of deterring the export of stolen vehicles, identifying vehicle theft patterns and trends...and returning vehicles to the rightful parties of interest." The data can also be used, according to the document, to identify so-called "owner-give-up" insurance fraud, in which a vehicle's owner fakes its theft by giving it to a friend and claiming it as stolen. Preventing theft and fraud may seem like legitimate uses of that license plate data. But EPIC's McCall warns that once the data has found its way into the hands of a third party without public scrutiny, it may be far tougher to control how it's used. "Who can these third parties share their data with? What other ways might it be shared?" she asks. "You have to think about the ways this data slowly spreads out to third parties, and who then has access to it. It shouldn’t be shared, and if it is, there should be more transparency about the details of who’s doing the sharing, how it's used and how long the data is retained." EPIC's documents, the first substantive response they've received to FOIA requests filed to a number of government agencies about the license plate readers starting more than a year ago, note that the license plate data is stored for two years, "unless the data is moved to and maintained in a system that is governed by an alterate destruction schedule." I've put in a call to Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) public affairs office, but haven't yet received a response from the agency. I'll update this post when I do. Update: A CBP official has responded with a statement that the agency does share information with the NICB "in a law enforcement capacity involving investigations of active cases of vehicle fraud and theft. CBP does not maintain a database of vehicle locations. Data from license plate readers is considered law enforcement sensitive and can only be shared with law enforcement personnel and special investigative units of the NICB on an official need-to-know basis." I've included the CBP's full statement at the bottom of this post. Automatic license plate reading cameras, mounted on utility poles, bridges and police patrol cars, have been coming under fire as they've been rolled out across the country. Last month the American Civil Liberties Union warned that the technology is quickly becoming "a warrantless tracking tool, enabling retroactive surveillance of millions of people," and announced it's sending requests for information to 38 police departments as well as the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Transportation inquiring about the use of the technology. Earlier this year, the New York Police Department was found to be using the license plate readers as part of an effort to surveil Muslim communities in Newark, New Jersey, without evidence that the targets had engaged in any prior criminal activity. EPIC's McCall points out that the use of the cameras may conflict with the Supreme Court's January ruling in the U.S. v. Jones case, which stated that police can't place GPS-enabled trackers on a car without a warrant. "The idea of that verdict was that the government shouldn't be able to collect information wholesale about people's location and movements," says McCall. "There are very troubling privacy implications when information is collected and shared with third parties for purposes the public doesn’t know." See EPIC's full release of documents below. Here's the CBP's full response statement. U.S. Customs and Border Protection uses license plate readers as part of CBP's land border enforcement strategy, which integrates information gathered at inbound, outbound and checkpoint border locations in order to provide our officers and agents with advanced information about a vehicle including potential dangerous situations as a vehicle approaches. This strategy also allows CBP to share data with other federal, state, local and international investigating agencies. Since 2005, this data sharing has included the National Insurance Crime Bureau. Under a memorandum of understanding, CBP provides information with NICB in a law enforcement capacity involving investigations of active cases of vehicle fraud and theft. CBP does not maintain a database of vehicle locations. Data from license plate readers is considered law enforcement sensitive and can only be shared with law enforcement personnel and special investigative units of the NICB on an official need-to-know basis. |
Dallas Mavericks forward Nerlens Noel (3) grabs a rebound in front of Oklahoma City Thunder forward Domantas Sabonis (3) during the first half of play at American Airlines Center in Dallas on Sunday, March 5, 2017. (Vernon Bryant/The Dallas Morning News) So it's no surprise that Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is happy to see Noel spending time around the team this offseason. Cuban talked about Noel hanging around the Mavericks facility this week on 105.3 The Fan's Ben & Skin Show. The Mavericks acquired the 23-year-old power forward from Philadelphia on Feb. 23 and are eager to re-sign him for 2017-18. Nerlens Noel found himself in a funny place as the only player on Dallas' season-ending roster who is neither under contract next season, nor entering a contract option year that the Mavericks control. "I'm not allowed to talk about [negotiations] but all I can tell you is he's one of a bunch of guys who came in, they all got together and said 'Let's go down to the practice facility and start working out together,'" Cuban said. "So they're down there now and so that's exciting to see, and he's part of that group." Noel hasn't play for the Mavericks long but he became a solid contributor in his 22 games with Dallas, averaging 8.5 points and 6.8 rebounds a game, starting 12. The front office wants him back, coach Rick Carlisle noting in April that Noel is "a guy that we've got to get signed." Noel said at the time that it's "probably the biggest offseason of my career." He also expressed an affinity for the team and city. "I love Dallas," Noel said April 13. "In my short time here, I've really enjoyed it. With the pieces that we have, and the opportunities we'll be seeing in the near future, I think there's a lot to be excited for." Cuban seems to think so too, viewing the informal workouts at the Mavericks facility this week a step in the right direction. |
The Smith Brothers General Store in Clinton, Iowa. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) CLINTON, Iowa — Tom Godat, a union electrician who has always voted for Democrats, cast his ballot for Donald Trump last year as “the lesser of two evils” compared to Hillary Clinton. He’s already a little embarrassed about it. There’s a lot that Godat likes about President Trump, especially his pledge to make the country great again by ignoring lobbyists, challenging both political parties and increasing the number of good-paying jobs. But Godat was surprised by the utter chaos that came with the president’s first month. He said it often felt like Trump and his staff were impulsively firing off executive orders instead of really thinking things through. “I didn’t think he would come in blazing like he has,” said Godat, 39, who has three kids and works at the same aluminum rolling plant where his father worked. “It seems almost like a dictatorship at times. He’s got a lot of controversial stuff going on and rather than thinking it through, I’m afraid that he’s jumping into the frying pan with both feet.” Of the six swing states that were key to Trump’s unexpected win in November, his margin of victory was the highest in Iowa, where he beat Clinton by 9 percentage points. Yet at the dawn of his presidency, only 42 percent of Iowans approve of the job that he’s doing and 49 percent disapprove, according to a Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll this month. That support varies across the state: Here in eastern Iowa, it’s in the low 40s. It’s highest in northwest Iowa, where 55 percent of Iowans approve of the president’s performance thus far, and it’s lowest in the southeast corner of the state and the Des Moines area, where only 31 percent of Iowans approve, according to the poll. Tom Godat has voted for Democrats in the past but now wants to give Trump a chance. He was enjoying breakfast with his 3-year-old son Talon at the Old Town restaurant in Clinton. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) A meandering 370-mile drive across the state last week — starting at the Mississippi River in the east on Wednesday and ending at the Missouri River in the west on Saturday — took a Washington Post reporter and photographer through a range of communities that mirror many parts of America. Along the way, more than 100 Iowans explained why so many of them are already disappointed in the new president. While Iowa is still home to many strong supporters who say it’s too early to judge him, there are others who say they voted for Trump simply because he wasn’t Clinton. Many Iowans worry Trump might cut support for wind-energy and ethanol programs; that his trade policies could hurt farms that export their crops; that mass deportations would empty the state’s factories and meat-packing plants; and that a repeal of the Affordable Care Act would yank health insurance away from thousands. While the hyper-simplicity of Trump’s campaign promises helped him win over voters, they are no match for the hyper-complexity of Iowa’s economy and values. As the temperature hit 73 degrees last Wednesday afternoon, Godat took his two sons — ages 3 and 15 — to a playground near the Mississippi. He has lived for most of his life in Clinton, a town of nearly 27,000 that is home to a major corn-processing plant and other manufacturers. Hillary Clinton won the city by more than 2,000 votes — but Trump won Clinton County, which was one of more than 25 counties in eastern Iowa that flipped from voting for Barack Obama in 2012 to Trump in 2016. That shift here and in other Midwestern states was largely driven by white working-class voters like Godat. (Victoria Walker/The Washington Posto) Godat commutes more than 30 miles south to Bettendorf, where he gets paid a base wage of $34 per hour to help prepare aluminum used for airplanes and cars. There’s a shortage of trained electricians, and last year Godat said he worked 600 overtime hours, bringing his total pay to about $110,000. His wife provides in-home care for the elderly. Godat hopes his son will get an apprenticeship at the plant after high school. He is confident that his employer won’t lay off workers or shut down the plant because it has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Iowa and does specialized work that would be difficult to move. He hopes Trump can create more jobs like his across the country. And that’s why he wishes he could tell the president: “Focus on us, on our country, on our issues here.” Just then a train rolled by the playground, carrying coal, scrap metal and corn. Godat turned to his son and told him: “That’s the sound of progress.” Lost Nation On the other end of Clinton County is the tiny town of Lost Nation, where the president received 66 percent of the vote. On Wednesday night, a couple dozen local farmers and union guys gathered to play pool at the Pub Club, situated amid downtown storefronts that once contained a funeral home. (Beer is chilled where bodies were once stored.) Near the front window, three friends in their early 20s sipped beer. They all voted for Trump because he’s an outsider who speaks his mind — and they like what he’s doing so far. “He’s doing what he said he was going to do, that’s the biggest thing,” said Tyler Schurbon, 23, who describes himself as a “progressive Republican” who falls asleep watching Fox News each night. “A lot of people get into the presidency, and they just completely forget what they talked about.” Schurbon trims trees for power companies, a full-time union job that pays $60,000 per year and full benefits. He drives a nice pickup truck and bought a two-story farmhouse for $50,000 last year. “That’s pretty good living for not having a college degree,” Schurbon said. The Pub Club in Lost Nation, Iowa. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) While he doesn’t like how politicized unions have become, he’s grateful for the wages they negotiated over the years. The Republican-run Iowa Legislature, empowered by Trump’s win, voted this month to dramatically scale back the collective bargaining rights of the state’s public workers — worrying members of private unions like Schurbon. While others in the bar insist that Trump supports unions, Schurbon doesn’t think so: “Nope, he’s completely against them.” Schurbon and his dad farm about 500 acres of soybeans and corn, so he’s also worried about the president’s promise to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, which could hurt farmers that export their crops to Canada and Mexico. “He’s really hurting us, even though everybody around here is conservative,” Schurbon said, thumping his bottle of Budweiser on the table to emphasize some of his points. “When you cut off trade, that cuts off everything. Where do our crops go? They don’t stay here.” Tom McCutcheon, a Trump supporter, in Lost Nation, Iowa. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) But still, Schurbon likes much of what Trump is doing — and he wishes protesters would give him a break. The day before, hundreds descended on an event hosted by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) just up the road in Maquoketa. “Everybody might at least try. At least a little bit. Just try and help,” he said. “You don’t have to agree with him, but you don’t have to just completely block him, everything he’s doing.” Newton About 140 miles southwest of Lost Nation is the much larger town of Newton, which for generations was home to a Maytag factory that once employed one in four residents. The factory closed in 2007, laying off more than 3,000 workers. In 2010, “60 Minutes” profiled the struggling town — catching the attention of Trump, who reached out to some of the residents who were profiled. Newton has somewhat recovered, although most locals commute out of town for work. Two companies that manufacture wind turbine parts have taken over part of the Maytag factory, creating hundreds of jobs, although they pay less than Maytag did. While Trump claimed on the campaign trail to support wind energy, he has also fought wind projects near his properties, and Iowans worry he could cut subsidies that are vital to the industry. Nearly a dozen local retirees gathered at a barbershop downtown on Thursday morning, chatting about the cold reception Republican senators were getting at town halls as they ate chili out of plastic foam bowls at 10 a.m. Nearly all of them voted for Clinton, although Trump won the surrounding county of Jasper. The shuttered headquarters for the Maytag company that had a long and successful run of more than 100 years in Newton, Iowa. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) “I hate to say it, but I voted for Hillary,” said Dave Drew, 71, a longtime Democrat who retired from Maytag in the early 1990s after working there for 27 years. “I voted against Trump. We didn’t have a choice. I mean, I don’t think she was the greatest choice. I don’t think he was, either. Joe Biden would have been my choice.” Although this was a room full of Democrats and left-leaning independents, the conversation was far from politically correct. There were jokes about Clinton’s health, and a racial slur was used to describe Middle Easterners. The group mostly agreed that mass deportations of undocumented immigrants would tank the state’s economy, although they wondered why immigrants don’t learn English before coming to the United States. Jerry Wylie, 73, praised Latinos for having a strong work ethic and taking low-paying factory and meat-packing plant jobs that most Iowans don’t want to work — especially, he said, black Iowans whom he accused of being lazy. As Wylie told two stereotype-filled stories to back up his claim, another retiree in the barbershop argued that most longtime welfare recipients in the state are rural whites. At one point, a Trump-supporting 30-year-old truck driver who stopped in for a haircut looked at Wylie and said: “What’s your problem?” The truck driver, who lives in the next town and didn’t want to give his name, said he mowed “Trump” into his yard last summer. While the older guys in the barbershop worked during the golden age of manufacturing and retired comfortably with pensions, the truck driver says his annual pay has decreased by $5,000 in the seven years he has worked for a dairy company in Marshalltown. Something has to change, and that’s why he supports Trump. “He went against the grain — took it up as a hobby and asked the questions no one wanted to ask,” he said. “I have never heard of a president getting scolded or put down for upholding his promises.” Urbandale Another 40 miles west of Newton is the Des Moines suburb of Urbandale, a maze of cul-de-sacs and big-box stores. Clinton narrowly won this city of nearly 42,000. As a light rain fell Thursday afternoon, the corridors of Merle Hay Mall filled with retirees speed-walking and moms pushing strollers — including Steventjie Hasna and her 1-year-old daughter. Hasna, 24, is a conservative Christian who is deeply opposed to abortion and usually backs Republicans. This election, she decided not to vote. “The balance between Hillary or Trump — they’re both horrible, in my opinion — but Trump outweighed it just because of his racist stance on everything,” Hasna said. Hasna was stunned when Trump won, and her young family has deeply felt the ramifications of the president’s first month in office. Her husband, Hosen Hasna, is from Syria and came to the Midwest for college. He later took a job in the small Iowa town where Steventjie Hasna — her first name is Dutch and she took her husband’s Arabic last name — grew up. He works as an electrical engineer at a tire factory, while she stays home with their daughter, Nehad. Steventjie Hasna with her daughter, Nehad, in Urbandale, Iowa. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) She continues to practice her Christian faith, while he attends Friday prayers at a local mosque when he can. His parents, who live in Damascus, often visit Iowa for five months at a time — visits that may no longer happen if the president institutes another travel ban, which Hasna said does little to protect the country. “I don’t care what he says, you’re attacking Muslims here,” she said. “And that’s not American at all. We’re American. We stand for American values and that’s the exact opposite of what he stands for.” Hasna is terrified that her husband’s mosque will be attacked or that he will be targeted. “You don’t know what some crazy guy might get in his head,” she said. “People are going to do what they are going to do. I’m not going to say that it’s Trump’s fault. . . . But with him having the hateful stance that he had and then being voted as president, it made people feel like: ‘Hey, maybe my racist stance on things isn’t wrong.’ ” Her husband is in the process of becoming a citizen, and they have discussed what they might do if they need to flee the country. If her husband could vote, he likely would have voted for Clinton. Hasna’s mom and sister skipped voting — but her father cast a ballot for Trump. “Yeah,” Hasna said, drawing out the word and then taking a deep breath, still clearly upset about it. “He didn’t want to vote for Hillary, so he voted for Trump. I told him: ‘You know, you shouldn’t have voted, Dad, if you don’t like either one of them.’ ” Perry About 30 miles northwest of Urbandale is Perry, which has been revitalized with the help of thousands of Latinos and other immigrants who moved to the area to work at a meat-packing plant. The town of about 8,000 has long struggled with racial tensions. A month before Trump launched his presidential campaign, a bilingual kindergarten concert was interrupted by a man shouting: “USA! English only. USA! English only.” The president’s threat to quickly deport millions of undocumented immigrants has scared many law-abiding residents of Perry, said Oscar Ramirez, 41, a legal resident who owns the Oasis grocery store downtown and has hired a lawyer to help him become a citizen. Oscar Ramirez at work in his Oasis grocery store in Perry, Iowa. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) Ramirez moved from rural El Salvador to New York in 1990 when he was 15. After eight years there, he moved to Perry to work at the meat-packing plant because he heard that the Midwest was a crime-free place to raise children. Four years ago, he and his wife opened their store. Lately, Ramirez said people have come to him with their fears of Trump. “A lot of people are scared,” Ramirez said, as he hauled trays of pastries into the shop on Thursday afternoon. “They come to me, and they talk to me, and I say, ‘Hey, calm down. Nothing is going to happen, everything is going to be okay. You have to have hope that everything will be okay.’ ” Belinda Ramirez, 4, plays on her laptop inside her father’s grocery store. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) Jim George, 68, a retired county engineer who has lived in Perry for 20 years, said he voted for Trump but that his view of immigrants is different. “These are good folks,” George said. “This place would not be functioning without the folks that have come in here.” “I voted for the Supreme Court. I didn’t want to vote for Trump,” said George, who is opposed to abortion. “With Trump, you just hold your nose.” Missouri Valley Continuing west takes you through the deeply conservative Fourth Congressional District represented by Rep. Steve King (R), who fought for some of Trump’s immigration proposals back when they were fringe ideas. Trump won the district by 27 points, while his approval rating in the latest Iowa Poll was 55 percent. The small town of Missouri Valley sits nestled between the river of the same name and the railroad tracks. Trump received nearly 60 percent of the votes here. On Saturday morning — the day after a sudden snowstorm closed schools — women ranging in ages and political beliefs ventured to Abundant Moon Yoga. Owner Rachelle Pfouts, 40, is careful to keep politics out of her studio — although she says compassion is a key tenet of yoga that seems to be lacking in Washington right now. Rachelle Pfouts teaches yoga classes at her studio in downtown Missouri Valley, Iowa. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) Pfouts’s 8:30 a.m. class included a 48-year-old special education teacher, a 39-year-old mother of three and a 42-year-old administrative assistant who doesn’t have children — all of whom voted for Clinton and are gravely worried about the future of public education in their state and across the country. A 10 a.m. class attracted two retirees from Woodbine who usually vote for Republicans, although they consider themselves independents. Lois Surber, a 67-year-old retired city clerk, said she didn’t like either candidate for president but voted for Trump. Libby Ring, a 70-year-old retired nursing assistant, said she didn’t vote — and she doesn’t approve of Trump’s first month. Neither woman could name a thing the president has done that they liked, but they both said that protests and negative commentary are not helping. Outside a movie theater in Missouri Valley, Iowa. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) “I’m going to support what he does just because I think that we need to,” Surber said. Ring agreed: “We have to be adults and whoever is elected, we’re going to have to follow them.” Ring paused and then added: “But he’s very hard to follow.” Scott Clement in Washington contributed to this report. |
The World Health Organization (WHO) has reversed its decision to appoint Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador, following widespread criticism. In a statement on Sunday, Tedros Adhanom, WHO director, said: "Over the last few days, I have reflected on my appointment ... As a result I have decided to rescind the appointment. "I have listened carefully to all who have expressed their concerns, and heard the different issues that they have raised." Mugabe, who is 93 years old, had been asked to serve in the role to help tackle non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart attacks, strokes and asthma across Africa. The decision led to confusion and anger among key WHO member states and opposition figures in Zimbabwe, who noted that the country's healthcare system has suffered from challenges under Mugabe's decades-long leadership. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was among those who had criticised the appointment, saying it was "absolutely unacceptable and inconceivable". Social media users celebrated the WHO's decision on Sunday. "Good news: Sanity restored," tweeted Andrew Stroehlein of Human Rights Watch. "I'm relieved," said columnist Nicholas Kristof, writing on Twitter. "Mugabe's appointment as a goodwill ambassador of WHO has been rescinded. Twitter again doing the Lord's work," said Twitter user J Papiki. |
Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam an exhibition at the British Museum, London, January 26–April 15, 2012 Catalog of the exhibition edited by Venetia Porter Harvard University Press, 288 pp., $39.95 The pilgrimage to Mecca, the Hajj, is the supreme expression of global Islam. This year more than 2.5 million Muslims will undertake the journey from towns and villages around the world; during their absence, they will be in the thoughts and prayers of a much larger circle of family and friends. Setting out in their own national dress, speaking different languages, and espousing widely varying versions of Islam, by the time they arrive at Mecca these Indonesians, Afghans, and Nigerians will, in important ways, have become one. While in the sanctified area of Mecca and its neighborhood, wearing identical garb (the men at any rate, in lengths of seamless white fabric), they will speak the same Arabic prayers, perform the same rituals, and abstain from the same chores and pleasures. For many, including large numbers of women, these five days of spiritual and social togetherness will be the most important time of their lives. Pilgrimage is not, of course, unique to Islam. Other faiths have found a place for it—as a means of connecting with some historical or mythical event, or of symbolically “ascending” (by climbing a ziggurat, for example) toward God. What sets Islam apart from other religious traditions, including Judaism and Christianity, is that its founder elevated a pilgrimage into a binding obligation for all able-bodied believers who can afford it. As a test of religious mettle, the Hajj is clearly more arduous than the other obligations laid down by the Prophet Muhammad—the declaration of faith, the ritual prayer, alms-giving, and the Ramadan fast. The Hajj is composed not of one ritual but several, some of which predate the holy word that is believed to have been revealed to Muhammad and that we know as the Koran. By incorporating these earlier rituals, and “purifying” them of any pagan accretions, Muhammad demonstrated Islam’s authority over all religious experience that preceded it. The Hajj is typically conducted at a high spiritual pitch, with pilgrims describing a transcendent calm while performing rites alongside countless thousands of others. Many concentrate on the Ka’aba, the black-draped cube, made of stone, at the center of the Meccan sanctuary, which is believed to have been built by the Prophet Abraham, and which is the symbolic and physical focus of Islam. In the words of Ali Shariati, a prominent Iranian preacher of the 1970s, to circumambulate the Ka’aba is to “forget yourself…you have been transformed into a particle that is gradually melting and disappearing. This is absolute love at its peak.” But the Hajj does much more than answer a need for spiritual obliteration. It has a declamatory function, and that is to… |
Synthetic, or "designer" drugs, are created by manipulating the chemical structures of other psychoactive drugs so that the resulting product is structurally similar but not identical to illegal psychoactive drugs. Originally developed in the 1960s as a way to evade existing drug laws, the use of designer drugs has increased dramatically over the past few years. These drugs are deceptively packaged as "research chemicals," "incense," "bath salts," or "plant food," among other names, with labels that may contain warnings such as "not for human consumption" or "not for sale to minors." The clinical effects of most new designer drugs can be described as either hallucinogenic, stimulant, or opioid-like. They may also have a combination of these effects due to designer side-chain substitutions. The easy accessibility and rapid emergence of new designer drugs have created challenges for health care providers when treating patients presenting with acute toxicity from these substances, many of which can produce significant and/or life-threatening adverse effects. Moreover, the health care provider has no way to verify the contents and/or potency of the agent ingested because it can vary between packages and distributors. Therefore, a thorough knowledge of the available designer drugs, common signs and symptoms of toxicity associated with these agents, and potential effective treatment modalities are essential to appropriately manage these patients. © 2014 Pharmacotherapy Publications, Inc. |
Two Ugandan students and police have been arrested after two painted pigs were smuggled past tight parliament security in a protest against political corruption and youth unemployment. The pigs, painted yellow - the colour of the ruling National Resistance Movement - were smuggled by two university students for their protest in Kampala on Tuesday. The pigs also had slogans pinned to their ears condemning corruption. It was unfair to arrest the youths ... they have committed no crime. Bernard Atiku, shadow youth minister After their arrest, the youths said they were protesting against the a lack of jobs for young people and the extravagance of politicians. A number of police guarding the buildings were also arrested for failing to spot the animals. The government has been previously criticised by the opposition for corruption. In 2012, Western donors suspended aid to Uganda following reports of embezzlement in the Prime Minister's office. Opposition politicians have defended the youths. Benard Atiku, the shadow minister for youth, said: "It was unfair to arrest the youths because they were expressing displeasure with the level of unemployment and poverty in the country. "We demand that they are released because they have committed no crime." But MPs from the ruling NRM expressed concern over what they said was lax security at the gates to parliament. "How can youths walk with the pigs into parliament yet we have over 100 policemen guarding the place," said Mariam Nalubega. Authorities have arrested a number of police and are questioning them on how the pigs found their way into parliament. Fred Enanga, of the Uganda police, said: "We are investigating a gross breach of security at parliament that could result in disciplinary proceedings against policemen who neglected their duty." However, parliament's deputy speaker, Jacob Oulanyah, assured MPs, staff and the general public that their security was guaranteed and there would be no repeat. Last year, anti-corruption activists in neighbouring Kenya drove a truck full of pigs caked in blood to the country's parliament protesting against a sharp increase in the pay for MPs. |
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Sign up for Take Action Now and we’ll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue Travel With The Nation Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine? Update, August 15, 2012: Judge Robert Simpson has refused to grant an injunction to halt implementation of Pennsylvania’s voter ID law. Opponents will appeal the decision. We’ll have more on the ruling soon, but in the mean time, here are Ari Berman’s takeaways from the trial. Ad Policy The two-week trial challenging the constitutionality of Pennsylvania’s voter ID law ended today. Here’s what we learned from the proceedings. Suffice to say, Pennsylvania Republicans didn’t come out looking very good. 1. A lot of voters don’t have valid voter ID. University of Washington political scientist Matt Barreto, a witness for the plaintiffs (the suit was brought by the ACLU, the Advancement Project and other voting rights groups), found more than 1 million registered voters in Pennsylvania—12.8 percent of the electorate—don’t have sufficient voter ID. Moreover,379,000 registered voters don’t have the underlying documents, such as a birth certificate, needed to obtain the right ID; 174,000 of them voted in 2008. 2. The state doesn’t know its own law very well. During the debate over the law in the state legislature, Secretary of the Commonwealth Carole Aichele repeatedly stated that 99 percent of Pennsylvania voters had the right ID. A subsequent study by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation found that 758,000 registered voters, 9.2 percent of the electorate, lacked a state-issued PennDot ID. During the trial, Pennsylvania State Department official Rebecca Oyler testified that she calculated the “99 percent have ID” figure in less than twenty-four hours while lacking sufficient data from the department of transportation. When pressed on the specifics of the law and the number of people who lack voter ID, Aichele responded: “I don’t know what the law says.” Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett was similarly clueless when asked what forms of ID besides state-issued ID are valid for voting purposes. “The other forms of ID can be student ID.” Corbett said. “We’ve been working with the nursing homes to get people new ID. It can be military ID. There’s two or three other forms—right now, off the top of my head, I don’t have it here in front of me.” 3. The state is unprepared to implement the law. Pennsylvania has allocated funds for only 75,000 “free” voter ID cards, even though the department of transportation found that ten times as many voters may lack valid ID. Nor is the state equipped to handle all of the people who will need to get ID. “There were 71 PennDot offices, but 13 of them were only open one day a week,” Slate’s Dave Weigel noted. “Nine Pennsylvania counties have no PennDot office at all.” Added the Philadelphia Inquirer: “In recent visits to the Department of Transportation’s offices, the witnesses said, they found long lines, short hours, and misinformed clerks, which made obtaining voter identification cumbersome, and in some cases impossible, for those who don’t have supporting documentation.” 4. There is no voter fraud in Pennsylvania or nationally. At the beginning of the trial, the state offered this remarkable admission in a court filing: “There have been no investigations or prosecutions of in-person voter fraud in Pennsylvania; and the parties do not have direct personal knowledge of any such investigations or prosecutions in other states.” Essentially, the state conceded that its central rationale for the voter ID law—stopping “voter fraud”—turned out to be moot. 5. The law will help Republicans. GOP House Leader Mike Turzai was on to something when he said that voter law ID law “is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania.” Barreto testified that if the voter ID law had been on the books in 2008, Obama would’ve lost Pennsylvania by 200,000 votes, rather than winning by 621,000 votes. 6. The law is discriminatory. According to the department of transportation, 9.2 percent of registered voters in Pennsylvania lack state-issued voter ID, but the number is 18 percent in Philadelphia, which is 44 percent African-American. A new study based on the state’s data finds that voters in predominately black precincts in Philadelphia are 85 percent more likely than voters in predominately white precincts to lack state-issued ID. Voters in Hispanics and Asians neighborhoods are also twice as likely to lack IDs relative to white voters. 7. Voters don’t know about the law. According to Barreto, 86 percent of eligible voters in Pennsylvania posses a valid voter ID but 99 percent of registered voters believe they have the right ID. Only a third of registered voters are aware of the law (though maybe that’s changed as a result of the trial).“When will those people learn that their ID is not valid?” writes the Pennsylvania ACLU. “Most likely, when they show up to vote.” 8. Pennsylvania believes voting is a privilege, not a right. Said Pennsylvania Deputy Attorney General Patrick Cawley: “To be sure, voters do share some responsibility to obtain an ID and to get themselves to the polls. The law does not require the commonwealth to eliminate all inconveniences.” In other words, if the state law disenfranchises voters, it’s the voters’ fault. 9. The legal battle isn’t over. Judge Robert Simpson has promised a ruling the week of August 13, but also said, “Take heart, I’m not the last level in this matter.” His decision is expected to be appealed to the state supreme court, which is currently split 3-3 between Democratic and Republican judges. If they deadlock, Simpson has the final word (unless the case goes to the Supreme Court). 10. After observing the trial, many legal observers believe Simpson will issue an injunction against the voter ID law, as occurred with Wisconsin’s voter ID law. “The more I hear about the trial, the more convinced I am that a fair-minded judge (which this trial judge certainly appears to be) would be likely to issue a preliminary injunction barring the use of the i.d. requirement in the November election,” wrote UC-Irvine law professor Rick Hasen. Added Penda Hair of the Advancement Project: “We think this should be a slam dunk victory for plaintiffs which should result in a preliminary injunction.” For more on voting rights and the 2012 election, check out our blog, Voting Rights Watch 2012. |
© Associated Press Clinton calls Trump 'sexual assaulter' Hillary Clinton moved to take the heat off Harvey Weinstein Friday by outright calling President Trump a “sexual assaulter” – while roundly dismissing past allegations of sexual impropriety against her husband as old news. Clinton made the comments during an interview with BBC's Andrew Marr, who asked about the allegations of sexual assault made against Democratic mega-donor and Hollywood producer Weinstein. “This kind of behavior cannot be tolerated anywhere, whether it's in entertainment, politics,” Clinton said. “After all, we have someone admitting to being a sexual assaulter in the Oval Office.” Marr responded by pointing out Clinton has dismissed allegations made by women against her husband, former President Bill Clinton, that Trump highlighted during the hard-fought presidential campaign. “That has all been litigated,” Clinton replied. “That was subject of a huge investigation in the late '90s and there were conclusions drawn. That was clearly in the past.” Clinton, in her accusation against Trump, was referring to the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape of Trump in 2005 in which he said he can “do anything” to women as a star, including grabbing “them by the p----.” Trump later apologized for his comments and called it “locker room talk” but has never admitted to sexual assault. After the video surfaced in October 2016, Trump held a press conference with Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey and Juanita Broaddrick, who had all accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct in the past. In the latest interview, Clinton expressed disappointment the "Access Hollywood" tape didn’t sink Trump in the campaign. “The really sad part of the campaign was how this horrific tape, what he said about women in the past, what he said about women during the campaign, was discounted by a lot of voters,” she said. Clinton, who is on a tour promoting her memoir about the campaign, also said she was “really shocked and appalled” at the recent revelations about Weinstein. “He's been a supporter -- he's been a funder for all of us, for Obama, for me, for people who have run for office in the United States,” she said. “So it was just disgusting and the stories that have come out are heartbreaking. And I really commend the women who have been willing to step forward now and tell their stories.” A White House spokesman did not return a request for comment. But earlier this week, White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway called Clinton a "hypocrite" on women's issues. “She needs to not be a hypocrite about women’s empowerment and what it means to be pro-woman,” Conway told Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.” “She is on a book tour talking about herself and a campaign she lost—not talking about women’s empowerment, she’s not trying to help victims of sexual assault.” Conway also blasted Clinton for taking five days to release a statement condemning Weinstein: "I felt like a woman who ran to be commander-in-chief and president of the United States, who talks about women’s empowerment, took an awfully long time to give support to these women." |
Will Quigg, KKK Grand Dragon in California, Switches Support From Trump to Hillary Clinton A prominent white supremacist who was supporting Donald Trump has switched his support to Hillary Clinton, he said on Monday. Will Quigg, a grand dragon with the Ku Klux Klan’s California branch, said he supports Clinton because she has a “hidden agenda.” We want Hillary Clinton to win. She is telling everybody one thing, but she has a hidden agenda. — Will Quigg , Ku Klux Klan “We want Hillary Clinton to win. She is telling everybody one thing, but she has a hidden agenda,” Quigg, a grand dragon of the KKK’s California chapter who is responsible for recruitment across the Western United States, told the Telegraph. BTW the kkk grand dragon in Anaheim gave a tv interview, the name he gave is Will Quigg https://t.co/bLN4qni9iB pic.twitter.com/wpJywzAWyV — Guerrilla Prophet (@jaykelly26) February 28, 2016 He did not elaborate on Clinton’s “hidden agenda,” saying: “I cannot reveal my sources.” “It’s my opinion—if you know what I mean, wink, wink. I don’t want her to come back and say I’m slandering her,” he said. Related Coverage Mayor De Blasio Calls Trump a Racist He added: “She’s telling everybody what they want to hear so she can get elected, because she’s Bill Clinton’s wife, she’s close to the Bushes. [But] once she’s in the presidency, she’s going to come out and her true colors are going to show.” CA Grand Dragon KKK leader who says he backs Hillary Clinton | via @Telegraph https://t.co/nozKSxoaNa — Ulysses (@Just_a_Texan) March 14, 2016 Quigg said that some of the policies that Clinton has said she’s against, she actually supports. “Border policies are going to be put in place. Our second amendment rights [favoring gun ownership] that she’s saying she’s against now, she’s not against. She’s just our choice for the presidency,” he claimed. When asked why he said on Twitter last September that he was supporting Trump, Quigg said that “was before we found out about what Hillary Clinton’s main agenda was.” But last year, he tweeted to Trump: “@realDonaldTrump. You Sir are the only hope we have of getting WHITE AMERICA BACK! We all will be voting for you!” Quigg made headlines late last month after he was injured in a brawl with counter-protesters in Anaheim, California. He gave an interview after the fracas, saying that he asked police for security before their demonstration but was denied. |
Few men are memorialized in such a contradictory manner as Konrad von Hochstaden. Surely a man who laid the cornerstone of one of Europe’s greatest churches—The Cologne Cathedral—should be remembered fondly. And he is…sometimes. (See the mosaic below.) But Hochstaden gave the people of Cologne and the Holy Roman Emperor of the time several reasons to hate him. Perhaps that’s why a vulgar statue of Hochstaden sits on the side of Cologne’s City Hall. (Scroll to the bottom to see it. Warning: it’s rather vulgar.) The Complexity of Rule in Thirteenth-Century Europe To better understand Konrad von Hochstaden’s power and influence, a very brief examination of Medieval Europe’s political structure is in order. At the time, Europe was a hodgepodge of kingdoms, principalities, duchies (areas ruled by dukes), counties (areas ruled by counts), ecclesiastical sees (areas owned by the church), and free imperial cities. Trying to decipher the boundaries between these areas when looking at the map below is a tad tricky. Beginning in the tenth century, the king of the Holy Roman Empire was called King of the Romans and, later, King of the Germans. These were the titles used during Hochstaden’s lifetime. In a nutshell, prince electorates selected a nobleman to fill the position of king. Typically when a Holy Roman Emperor died, the pope promoted the King of Romans to take the emperor’s place, which essentially made the newly crowned Holy Roman Emperor the official ruler of Central Europe. Although, the amount of power each emperor actually wielded varied throughout medieval history and depended on several factors. While inheritance often played a role in electing the King of the Romans and the Holy Roman Emperor, these were not strictly inherited positions. As I mentioned above, by the thirteenth century seven prince electorates—made up of four secular nobles and three church officials—ultimately decided who took the title of King of the Romans. The archbishop of Cologne was one of these prince electorates. One might argue that these kingmakers were even more powerful than the king himself. We certainly see this when examining the life of Konrad von Hochstaden, who was archbishop of Cologne from 1238 to 1261. Konrad Von Hochstaden’s Rise to Prince Konrad von Hochstaden came from noble blood, his father being Count Lothar of Hochstadt. We know little of his childhood, but by 1216 he was the beneficiary of the parish of Wevelinghoven, and in 1226, he was promoted to canon. He eventually ended up in Cologne as the provost of the cathedral. When Archbishop Henry of Molenark died in March of 1238, the chapter named Konrad as his replacement, an appointment that Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II approved in August.Surprisingly, Hochstaden wasn’t even a priest at the time. That was a title he’d earned the following year. Konrad von Hochstaden Turns Against Frederick II For the first year of his term as archbishop, Konrad supported the emperor in his disagreements with the pope, but when Pope Gregory IX issued Emperor Frederick’s (second) excommunication after he invaded a papal fief, Konrad’s loyalties shifted and he sided against the emperor with the pope and Archbishop of Mainz. It was a decision Hochstaden must have regretted in 1242 when he was badly wounded in battle against the emperor and captured by the Count of Julich, though he was eventually freed. By 1245, Konrad’s star was on the rise again. Trouble in Cologne By supporting the pope, Konrad von Hochstaden’s power grew. He now had two duchies and the ecclesiastical see of Cologne, making him the most powerful man in Northwest Germany. Not everyone was pleased with Konrad’s quick rise, and this resulted in struggles for power with his noble neighbors (Remeber the Count of Julich?) and the people of Cologne, who often refused to accept his authority. His ruthless methods in dealing with the people of Cologne left him with a malicious reputation. Hostilities grew, so a theologian and scholar by the name of Albertus Magnus was brought in to help bring the people of Cologne and the archbishop to peace. This event is referred to as the Great Arbitration. Konrad lost some power in the bargain. After which, he tried unsuccessfully to pit the craftsman against the patricians in order to gain favor. He died two years later, and when his successor, Engelbert II, tried to fortify one of the city’s towers, he was arrested and imprisoned by the Count of Julich for little over a year for violating the terms of the Great Arbitration. Meanwhile, Cologne gave way to violent battles between the wealthy families of Cologne. Unfortunately for Engelbert, he supported the losing side, and rather than continue his fight for Cologne, he abandoned it for his palaces in Bruhl and Bonn. A league of German nobles defeated Engelbert’s successor, Siegfried of Westerburg, at the Battle of Worringen in 1288. After this, the archbishops of Cologne would no longer reside within the city walls. But Cologne would not officially have its freedom from the Church until 1475 when it was declared a Free Imperial City. Battles for the Crown Let’s go back to the battles between the Church and the emperor. In 1242, Frederick II selected Henry Raspe, Landgrave of Thuringia, and King Wencelaus of Bohemia as protectors of Germany until his young son Conrad was ready for the task. A papal ban against Emperor Frederick was issued three years later. Raspe betrayed the emperor, siding with the pope, and was elected king in opposition to the boy he had earlier sworn to protect, Conrad. Henry experienced success on the battlefield, beating Conrad in the Battle of Nidda. Unfortunately for Henry, his reign was short. He died of illness only seventeen months after being named king. Supposedly many noblemen were considered to fill Raspe’s shoes, but the anti-king crown fell to the young Count William of Holland. In April of 1248, Holland sieged Aachen, the place where German kings were traditionally crowned. It took six months for Aachen to fall, but when it did, it was the Archbishop of Cologne, not the Pope, who placed the crown on William’s head. Konrad von Hochstaden’s faithful service to Pope Innocent was reward with the position of Apostolic legate in Germany, but Hochstaden reached higher. He secretly encouraged the people of Mainz to ask the pope to make him their new archbishop. This would make Konrad a double-prince elector since the Archbishop of Mainz also gets to vote on who becomes king. The pope gently denied Konrad the position, which caused Konrad to turn against the pope. The apostolic legation was taken from Konrad. Konrad turned from King William of Holland, as well and used every means necessary to dethrone him. He probably would have succeeded if William hadn’t died first. After the death of King William, it was time for Konrad to find another king. His vote fell to Richard of Cornwall, brother to King Henry III of England. In trade for his support, Konrad was gifted full imperial authority over his principalities and the right to name bishops in Richard’s stead. Konrad von Hochstaden died four years later. Ironically, his remains lie in the Cathedral of the city where he was most hated: Cologne. I hope you enjoyed this article on Konrad von Hochstaden. Hochstaden plays a key role in my medieval fiction series, The Fairytale Keeper. This article is a part of a series on real historical figures from the time period who appear in The Fairytale Keeper series. As promised, here is that vile statue of Konrad von Hochstaden. Andrea Cefalo is a Medieval fiction author and history blogger. Her debut novel The Fairytale Keeper, was a quarter-finalist in Amazon’s 2013 Breakthrough Novel Contest. The sequel–The Countess’s Captive—was published earlier this year. She is currently working on the third book in her series. Did you enjoy this article? Well, there’s more where that came from! Check out the archives or peruse the sidebar for a list of trending posts. To make sure you don’t miss out on my latest articles, follow this blog or sign up for the newsletter. And if you happen to be a historical fiction reader who loves a strong female voice and gritty Medieval settings, check out The Fairytale Keeper series. (When a storyteller’s daughter attempts to avenge her mother, she gets caught in the cross-hairs of a power struggle between kings and kingmakers. The conflict gives rise to some of the greatest stories ever told: Grimm’s Fairy Tales.) Publisher’s Weekly calls The Fairytale Keeper a “resonant tale set late in the 13th century…with unexpected plot twists. An engaging story of revenge.” Further Reading and Sources: 34.717944 -82.324265 |
A 58-year-old woman shot her boyfriend Sunday afternoon, not long after she asked him to leave her home, authorities said today. Jefferson County sheriff's deputies were called to a home in the 1700 block of Fifth Place N.W. about 5 p.m. Sunday on a report of a disturbance, said Chief Deputy Randy Christian. The 58-year-old female homeowner told deputies she had been dating a 46-year-old man but said they had argued and she asked him to leave. He went outside, but continued to argue and asked to be let back in. She told him no, and closed the door, Christian said. A short time later, the woman heard the front door being forced open, armed herself and found the man standing inside her home armed with a box cutter. When he moved toward her, she said, she fired one shot and he fled. The man went to his sister's home in the 1700 block of Winewood Road and told her he had been shot. Paramedics treated him on the scene and then took him to UAB Hospital. Christian said the man was shot in the hip, and is expected to survive. The shooting remains under investigation. |
Christ Jesus bestowed upon the Apostle Simon Peter a particular ministry, that he and all those who would succeed him as the Vicar of Christ on Earth would carry out. Since Peter was the first given this ministry by Christ, we have always called it the ‘Petrine Ministry’, and the three duties of the Petrine Ministry are found in the two confessions that Simon Peter made about himself and one that Jesus made about him, and there are responsibilities attached to each of these confessions. The Gospel Readings that we will hear at the Sacrifice of the Mass today from Matthew 16:13-20 concerns the First Confession of Saint Peter. Attached to that confession is the duty for Simon Peter and his successors in the Petrine Ministry to be guided by the truth of God the Father, to obey the commands of God the Son, and to listen for and to act upon the promptings of the Holy Spirit. See Also: On the Second Confession of Saint Peter Chapter Six (the Fourth Didactic Mystery) of my book Cooperating with God: Life with the Cross is probably my favorite chapter in that entire book. In it I reflect upon Simon Peter’s two confession that he made about Christ Jesus and the two confessions that Jesus made about him, and how the marriage between those four confession lay the foundation and the boundaries of what Catholics call the Petrine Ministry. In that chapter I also reflect upon ‘Discerning the Cost and Value of Confession’, ‘The Chief Value of Confession’, and ‘Making a Good Confession’. Being that the Readings at Today’s Mass (Isaiah 22:19-23, Romans 11:33-36, Matthew 16:13-20) all draw from Scriptures that I use to form my case for the Petrine Ministry; indeed, that the Catholic Church uses to point us to the Petrine Ministry, I decided to use an excerpt below from Chapter Six of Cooperating with God: Life with the Cross for today’s reflection. The First Confession “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Kephas said in reply, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed you are, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Kephas, and upon this kephas I will build my Church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven; and whatever you lose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven. Then He strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that He is the messiah. ( Matthew 16:13-20) John “We have disobeyed the law of love. Joyfully we have hated one another; joyfully we have killed one another. And now, at last, we have brought this great evil war to an end. But in order to restore peace to the world it was not sufficient to repent. We had to obtain God’s pardon through the offering of great sacrifice. . . . Let us give thanks that Nagasaki was chosen for sacrifice. . . . May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.” The reason why the people (non-disciples) could only discern Jesus as being like one of the old human prophets is because they did not know Him and had not taken the time to get to know Him. For them, a general distant knowledge of Jesus was enough. Any more than that would have utterly shattered their system of belief (their worldview), because they knew exactly what the long-awaited Messiah was supposed to be like, and it was nothing like this peace and forgiveness teaching rabbi. After the Lord had been resurrected, even His closest disciples still had not conformed their worldview to what the Christ was actually offering to humanity.(Acts 1:6) In the Lord’s response to them, we see that it is the Spirit of Truth who helps conform our worldview to that of the Holy Trinity. Christ Jesus told them, “(Acts 1:7-8).Sometimes we get so consumed with focusing in on the results of our confessions, rather than on the processes, which actually brings them (our confessions) to life. We are very willing to worry about our death and judgment and other things that we cannot control, rather than to focus on living a holy life just one second at a time. We get more concerned about getting into Heaven than we do about focusing in on the processes of building a loving relationship with the King and Queen of Heaven. The results will always take care of themselves if we just joyfully work on the processes that grace permits us to engage in. ‘The Bridegroom’s Prayer’ in the seventeenth chapter ofis full of processes that God has given us, in his abundant grace, to fulfill. The task of focusing in on the processes, rather than on the results is the message that Jesus was trying to convey to His disciples when they were still worrying about the restoration of Israel.When we spend time building relationship with others, we learn who we are through them (knowledge of self); that is, through the process of relation, we learn who we are in relation to them and who they are in relation to us. When we fail to know and love one another, as we ought, it always leads to the objectification of each other.The reason why those young Americans, flying over Japan during World War II, were able to annihilate the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by dropping atomic bombs on them, is because they had not taken the time to get to know the children, women, and men below. Those human beings were just objects to them. Yet, the truth of the matter is that they were not just objects. They were real living and breathing people who had lives and who God loved and desired not to perish before they were able to know Him. And in the case of Nagasaki, the landmark that the bomber had fixed his target on was a Catholic Cathedral in the district of Urakami, which happened to be the home to a great number of Catholics.Japan got to know themselves very well in the light of America’s face of revenge, hatred, wrath, and pride. Having suffered greatly, the people of Japan came to discern and value peace. As Dr. Takasha Nagai most eloquently stated at an open-air Requiem Mass, just days after having discovering the charred remains of his wife in the ruins of their home and still tightly holding onto her Rosary beads: Even when I was not In Christ, I was still able to see my ugliness in relation to my wife’s beauty and vice-a-versa, though very imperfectly. I was able to see the United States of America more clearly after I looked at her from abroad. I valued my relationship with my daughters and mother much more intensely after I had been locked away from them in prison. In the same way, we can only confess that Jesus is our Lord and God after we have come into the knowledge of ourselves in light of Him; that is, after we have realized that we are neither God nor our own master. Job actually did not know that he thought himself to be his own god and master until God probed him with several transformative questions. “Gird up your lions now like a man; I will question you, and you will tell me the answer!” (Job 36:3) It actually turned out to be the case that Job was without a single answer to any of God’s questions, but rather confessed openly what he had just realized to be true in his heart – that his human littleness is nothing in the light of who and what God is. Job confessed, “Behold, I am of little account; what can I answer you? I put my hand over my mouth. Though I have spoken once, I will not do so again; though twice, I will do so no more” (Job 40-4-5). Who we believe that we are always shapes our worldview and vice-a-versa, and our worldview shapes our confession. Our worldview is our filter for information and our guide to how we move and function within society. Satan desires for our worldview to be like his – that we hate those whom we ought to love or think less of others based upon their skin color, gender, education, or any other number of temporal status symbols. Indeed, this shallow and superficial worldview is the very same one that billions of people use to negotiate their Spiritual Boat through life, in distrust and fear. I believe that every man, woman, and child deserves to have their own unique worldview that serves as the source of their answers, contentment, passion, joy, and peace in life. I also believe that every worldview, in which Christ Jesus is not an active, interested, and merciful King, deserves to be shattered, and the only way for our worldview to be shattered is by discovering that all of our old answers no longer work; that what we thought was real – is not, and what we thought was not real – actually is. Simon Peter discovered that Jesus was not Elijah or Jeremiah or John the Waymaker, but that He is actually the Messiah. Job and his four friends not only discovered that all of their standard answers about suffering no longer worked, but that, in relation to God, none of them had any good answers. As willing as we are to confess to God what we know to be true, He is just as willing to confess to our soul what He knows to be true. As Scripture says, “For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Heavenly Father.” Therefore, we ought to confess as often as we pray, and pray as often as we confess. This is why Our Lady Mary constantly reminds us to pray, read the Bible, and receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Inasmuch as the Bible is a great start to knowing ourselves in relation to God, as I stated in Dead on Arrival: the Seven Fatal Errors of Sola Scriptura and Cooperating with God – The Bridegroom’s Prayer, it is not the ‘end-all’ to knowing God. On the contrary, it is the Spirit of God who searches the deeper things of God, (Cf. 1 Cor. 2:10) and it is the Spirit of God who guides all of us to truth. (Cf. Jn. 16:13) This is why Jesus pointed not to the Bible, but to the Church (the Temple of the Holy Spirit) as our definitive source of Truth on earth. “You are Kephas [[Rock]], and upon this kephas [[rock]] I will build my Church.” As we discussed in the opening of this Chapter, the Jews understood God Himself to be Kephas (Rock), but here Jesus deigns to give His human disciple that very same name. The Jews also knew God to be their Shepherd, but, in the Johannine Confession, Jesus moves to make Kephas our Shepherd. (Cf. Ps. 23; Exo. 34) To clarify, Jesus was not calling Simon God in either case, but He was saying that the Church, of which Jesus is the head, (Cf. Eph. 1:22) would be established through Simon, and that Church would be our source of life (i.e., truth, freedom, Salvation, God). From this point, and until all is completed, Simon would no longer belong to himself. Through this decree of God, Kephas and his ministry would be fully configured into the mystical Body of Christ; that is, Kephas is only Kephas through the Kephas; Shepherd through the Shepherd; Priest through the High-Priest. All that Kephas is and all that he is called to do flows out of the Body of Christ (the Church in the Circle of Grace). This too is why sacred Scripture flows from out of the Church, and why that same Church, from out of which Scripture flows, has always held the authentic (true) interpretation of it, because it is the house of Kephas the Shepherd. This is in contrast with the false interpretations of men, as Jesus demonstrated in His question, “Who do people say that I am?” They replied, “Some say. . . .,” instead of ‘The Church teaches’. I once heard a wise priest confess that, “Truth is not a thing, but rather is an actual person – Jesus Christ.” If you want to find the authentic and consistent truth, then find the pillar of truth who is the Church. (Cf. 1 Tim 3:15) ~~~~~~ END EXCERPT . A CONFESSIONAL PRAYER Jesus I confess that when I lean on my own understanding, I always fail into sin. Jesus I confess that when I do not acknowledge you as my King and source of all that is good in my life, I always fail into sin Therefore Lord, give me to trust you with all my heart so that my path will always be straight. Amen. |
A mayor has been charged with murder after taking away the only oxygen cylinder from his town's health service so he could pump BEER at a private party, it was reported today. Photos posted online of Brazilian Jose Claudio Pol's New Year's Eve party show him and his family using the compressed oxygen cylinder in order to dispense beer from a keg. But on the same night a patient who needed oxygen was found to have died because the cylinder had gone missing. Incriminating pictures from Jose Cludio Pol's party show the cylinder being used as a beer keg Pol, 58, who was mayor of Luiziana, southern Brazil, was suspended from his post after the photos emerged, but will now face trial after a technical report showed that his actions caused the death of the patient. According to prosecutors, Pol ordered a council worker to remove the portable oxygen cylinder from the town's health centre and bring it to his home, where family members had gathered to welcome in the New Year with a barrel of beer. Several hours later, while the oxygen cylinder was being used to pump beer, a woman was brought into the health centre with a suspected heart attack. Pol, 58, who was mayor of Luiziana, southern Brazil, has been charged with murder after the patient's death She was put on piped oxygen, but when her health deteriorated medics decided to transfer her to hospital in a neighbouring town 20 miles away, according to the report. With no portable oxygen cylinder, the woman was transported without oxygen but had another heart attack before arriving in the hospital and died the next day on January 3, 2013. Prosecutors yesterday charged Pol with manslaughter and misappropriation of public assets for personal use. Another two people who helped the mayor remove the equipment from the health centre and transport it to the mayor's home were also charged with the same crimes. Prosecutor Andre del Grossi Assumpcao explained: 'As a result of the removal of emergency equipment for simple recreational use by the accused, they weakened public emergency services and deprived this patient of oxygen, which has been proved to have caused detriment to her health and later her death.' |
About You'll need an HTML5 capable browser to see this content. Play Replay with sound Play with sound 00:00 00:00 Chromecast For Audio We’re changing the experience of Chromecast, by enabling you to cast music to speakers in any room of the house, outside, or even by the poolside. With a wifi connection, you can take Chromecast with you and play music through any speaker or headset with a Joy Drone adapter. Designed For Chromecast You'll need an HTML5 capable browser to see this content. Play Replay with sound Play with sound 00:00 00:00 We’ve created an adapter that is designed to connect to your Chromecast. Without having to use your television, HDMI data is converted then played through a 3.5mm audio jack. Casting music wirelessly has never been more convenient. Get the party started at any place, any time. Turn Your Speaker For Audio Cast Here are some examples of connecting Speaker or Amplifier with JoyDrone and Chromecast Enable Audio cast with your amplifier Enable Audio cast with your Micro Component System The simplest way to cast your music to the speaker Cast your favorite music with app visit g.co/cast/audioapps Put Your Music in the Mix Everyone at the party can be a DJ. You’ll no longer have to rely on one person’s music to keep the party going. With a Joy Drone adapter, anyone can add their favorites and walk away without leaving their cell phone or tablet behind. Once connected to Chromecast, all of your guests will be able to browse the playlist on Youtube or cast radio stations like Pandora. Choose music you want to hear, when you want to hear it. Free The Phone Bluetooth, only works within a limited range and needs a constant connection to your phone. Using Chromecast with a Joy Drone allows you the freedom to unplug your phone, accept calls and play games without interrupting the music. Just cast your selection and play it on any speaker with a Joy Drone adapter all day long. Why JoyDrone We have tested lots of HDMI to VGA dongle in the market ,but not every dongle works perfectly with Chromecast . We see these problem and our team decided to work on this to fix issues for compatibility and system reliability . We have JoyDrone tested with Chromecast for several months that make sure every potential issue has been fixed during the testing . How it Looks This is an early sample of a Joy Drone. Products shipped to you in July and August will not have the Drz logo on the casing. Our simple design connects seamlessly to Chromecast. A closer look Follow us on Twitter and Facebook |
Nearly six lakh cases are pending for a decade or more in various high courts and the Bombay High Court leads the tally with over one lakh litigations, according to latest figures collected by a monitoring system which seeks to identify and reduce pendency. A total of 40.15 lakh cases were pending in the 24 high courts of the country at the end of 2016 and the cases which are 10 years old or more constitute 19.45 per cent of the total pendency. Advertising According to data available on the national judicial data grid, as on December 7, as many as 5,97,650 cases were pending disposal in 20 high courts for a decade or more. Though there are 24 high courts, data of some of the courts, including the Allahabad High Court, was not available. The Bombay High Court leads the list with 1,29,063 pending cases. These include 96,596 civil, 12846 criminal cases and 19,621 writs. A writ petition is a court petition for extraordinary review, asking a court to intervene in a lower court’s decision. The Punjab and Haryana High Court is second in the list of pending cases which are over 10 years old. A total of 99,625 cases, including 64,967 civil, 13,324 criminal and 21,334 writs are awaiting disposal there. The Calcutta High Court faces a pendency of 74,315 cases awaiting disposal for the past years or more. According to the data, these include 40,529 civil, 14,898 criminal cases and 1,888 writs. Pending cases in the high courts were pegged at 41.52 lakh at the end of 2014. In December, 2015, the pendency went down to 38.70 lakh. But at the end of 2016, the cases went up to 40.15 lakh, but were less than the pendency in 2014. |
Image copyright Brady Haran When the Bank of England issued the new plastic fiver last year, it promised it would be "much more durable". Immediately everyone, including the BBC, took to ripping, washing and ironing them to prove the Bank wrong. Now chemistry professor Martyn Poliakoff has shown it can be done, with the appliance of science. All it takes is a flask of liquid nitrogen, a lump hammer and a little expertise, to make yourself instantly £5 poorer. "There have been all sorts of advertisements that you cannot break them," the Nottingham University academic said. "I felt immediately challenged." Image copyright Brady Haran On his Periodic Video series on Youtube, he and assistant Neil Barnes set about demonstrating two methods to get the better of the tough new polymer notes. First, he pours a flask of liquid nitrogen over the £5 note. Mr Barnes then repeatedly applies the full weight of a blunt-headed hammer to the newly brittle note. Image copyright Brady Haran Image caption Going at the new fiver hammer and tongs Prof Poliakoff said: "It took several attempts. You had to get the orientation just right and hit it just in the right way, and then it broke into two or three pieces." The academic may now be £5 worse off - but that is a small price to pay for adding to the sum of scientific knowledge. And as Prof Poliakoff points out, the note came out of his own pocket as "you can't spend university money on things like this". Unfortunately, he couldn't glue the note back together afterwards, as one of the pieces had gone astray. Not content with that, Prof Poliakoff and Mr Barnes then placed a second new fiver in a beaker and filled it with "fuming nitric acid" - a "witches' brew" of nitric acid plus dinitrogen tetroxide. Image copyright Brady Haran Image caption Fuming nitric acid - powerful stuff Image copyright Brady Haran Image caption Don't store your cash near your dinitrogen tetroxide Image copyright Brady Haran Image caption By the end, it all became clear This had an even more marked impact. After a few minutes, the image of her Majesty and other details faded and dissolved, ultimately sliding off altogether to leave a completely transparent plastic polypropylene rectangle. Interestingly, an old £5 note, submitted to the same test as a control study, emerged from the nitric acid also faded, but still vaguely recognisable as a fiver. Prof Poliakoff then illustrated he can literally burn his way through cash, by igniting the now more combustible nitrated note. "It went with a real whoosh," he says. "And what was particularly interesting, it burned without any ash at all ... so we have a really nice farewell to the old paper bank note. It just disappears into thin air." Image copyright Brady Haran Image caption Added nitrate - when you want your money to go up in smoke. Prof Poliakoff has gained cult status over the years, presenting his popular chemistry Youtube channel Periodic Videos covering. He received a knighthood in 2015, in part for his public outreach work. But with the Bank of England preparing to introduce yet more polymer versions of our banknotes - the £10 note is due out this September, the £20 by 2020 - Prof Poliakoff may find inflation begins to push up his lab costs. Still, as he is keen to point out: while it is illegal to deface the bank note, you aren't breaking any laws by destroying it. You might prefer though, after 5 May when the old £5 note ceases to be legal tender, to swap any you have left at the Bank of England for the hardy, new, nearly indestructible version. |
The much maligned Joey Dorsey: Why he’s not as bad as you think Joey Dorsey has never really been appreciated as a member of the Houston Rockets this season. From the beginning of the year there were doubts that he could be a useful NBA player – he just about fought off Jeff Adrien to scrape the last roster spot behind Tarik Black. At various points it has seemed as though the only think keeping him on the team is his guaranteed salary. But he has played through all that and as the season has gone on has been put into a critical role for the Rockets team. With the injury to Dwight he has been thrust into the starting Centre spot as the only player on the team with the height and weight to match up with some of the league’s biggest and is counted on for 12-15 minutes per night of solid defence. So like him or loathe him, you’re stuck with him in the rotation for the foreseeable future. In this post I’ll take a look at some of the things he does well and why despite his deficiencies there are reasons to like having him on the court. Fast Hands This is possibly Dorsey’s number one asset. He is very quick with his hands and can use it to surprise opponents who don’t expect such speed. He uses this to great effect to get deflections and bother players who try to face him up. Doing a little Basketball Reference study reveals that he is #3 in the league in Steals per 100 possessions amongst players who are 6′ 8″ or higher. (Incidentally, the two players above him: Trevor Ariza and Corey Brewer. This is a category where the Rockets are very well represented!). You could go as far as to say that forcing steals is his elite skill in the NBA. Here are a couple of examples Dorsey getting good deflections by getting his hands in the passing lanes: You can see he’s got the basketball instincts to know where the ball is going. This is particularly noticeable in the first clip where he backs off from Cousins to cover the inevitable attempt to take advantage of Harden’s man on the back cut. That lead to one of the more memorable highlights of the season with D-Mo passing the ball behind his back to Harden on the break. Here are several examples of Dorsey surprising players with his quickness: Whether it’s point guards or big men, Dorsey is very quick to go after an opponent who is careless with the ball. He has the element of surprise on his side, and when he sees an opponent has picked up his dribble he knows it’s his chance to be super-aggressive. It often leads to good results and is a very good fit with the Rockets’ defensive scheme. Defensively the Rockets have been trapping on side pick-and-rolls a lot, usually when Motiejunas is the big man. Dorsey isn’t quite as laterally mobile as D-Mo, but he’s faster than a lot of people give him credit for and is still capable in that role. Watch him bother Nowitzki into a very difficult shot here: Dorsey is keenly aware of the lack of time remaining on the shot clock, so when Dirk catches the ball he knows that he can be more aggressive than usual as he doesn’t have to worry about getting driven past. He gets close to Nowitzki and makes it difficult for him to get the space he needs for a good shot. You rarely see Nowitzki as bothered by opposing defenders as much as this. In this example, Dorsey knows that with the shot clock running low he can leave his man to pursue Lowry. His bull rush forces Lowry back uncomfortably and the hounding defensive pressure forces him to throw up an airball. The running theme in all of these clips is Joey’s opportunistic streak on defence. He seems to have a really good grasp on when the man in front of him is in a disadvantageous position. Maybe it’s that they’ve picked up their dribble, or that they’re in a spot on the court where they aren’t as comfortable with the ball. Maybe it’s that the shot clock is draining them of their options. But whatever it is, he’s able to hone in on that disadvantage and blow it up, causing turnovers and poor shots, and unlike a lot of players it very rarely feels like he’s breaking from solid defensive positioning to do it. Offensive Rebounding: Dorsey may not have a particularly polished offensive game (that’s putting it generously), but one area where he helps out offensively is his tenacity on the boards. With his wide body he’s able to carve out good space under the basket and makes like difficult for opposing big men. The team grabs 30.5% of all available offensive boards when he’s on the floor – this is the highest percentage for anyone on the Rockets and is 15th in the NBA amongst players who’ve seen at least 100 minutes this season, according to Basketball Reference. Watch him steal a rebound despite having three Dallas players around him here: Dunks When Dorsey is on the court, the Rockets don’t ask him to do too much on offence. One of the things he has got pretty good at though is hanging around in the slot on the weakside baseline. When the defenders rotate to contain penetration, he is left alone and often get opportunities for dunks and putbacks. At the beginning of the year he was often hesitant and would not go up strong, but as he has recovered from the injury that slowed him down during training camp his tentativeness has melted away. Now he jams it. Hard. Hopefully this article will help you think of Joey in a more positive light. Yes he can’t always be counted on to make a layup, but he makes up for it in other ways and in certain facets of the game is actually one of the best at what he does. He’s no Dwight Howard, but he’s what the Rockets have got right now and we should learn to appreciate him. |
JACKSONVILLE, FL - OCTOBER 07: Alshon Jeffery #17 of the Chicago Bears is congratulated by Brandon Marshall #15 after scoring a touchdown during a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars at EverBank Field on October 7, 2012 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) Bears receivers Brandon Marhsall, left, and Alshon Jeffery. (Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) By Dan Durkin- Editor’s note: This is the sixth part in a series that takes an all-encompassing look at the state of the Bears’ roster. Click here to read breakdowns of the other positions. (CBS) The Bears trio of Alshon Jeffery, Brandon Marshall and Martellus Bennett put up prolific numbers during the 2013 season. Their combined 3,475 yards and 24 touchdowns ranked second in the league, trailing only the Broncos’ troika of Demaryius Thomas, Eric Decker and Julius Thomas, who gained 3,506 yards and broke the goal line 37 times. Thus, heading into the 2014 season, the Bears were rightly optimistic about the potential potency of this group, and offseason moves were minimal at both positions. Wide receivers Domenik Hixon, Josh Morgan and Micheal Spurlock were signed as veteran depth with special teams in mind. Tight end Matthew Mulligan was brought in to compete as a “Y” or in-line blocking tight end. None of these moves were intended to disrupt the balance the team had achieved within its receiving corps. However, injuries can disrupt the balance of any position group, and the Bears’ receiving corps was hit hard in 2014. Hixon tore his ACL during an offseason organized team activity, but the bigger blow came when 2013 seventh-round draft pick Marquess Wilson suffered a broken clavicle in training camp. From a developmental standpoint, Wilson was looked upon to step forward and secure the third receiver position in the Bears’ preferred “11” personnel grouping. His injury exposed the lack of depth at the position, and street free agent and former Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes was signed three weeks before the start of the regular season to fill the third receiver and punt returner roles. Holmes never got in sync with the offense. Frankly, coach Marc Trestman said the team wasn’t designing plays for the third receiver position, despite the fact that the spot consistently saw single coverage as opposing secondaries dedicated extra attention to Marshall and Jeffery. Unfortunately for the Bears, the injuries weren’t limited to the offseason program, as both Marshall (ankle) and Jeffery (hamstring) were hurt in the season opener against the Bills. The Bears’ receiving group made its name winning matchups with leverage and length, not with speed. The entire group was of a similar athletic profile, a virtual basketball team in cleats. So the leg injuries further slowed down a group that already lacked suddenness and a speed element. Without a deep threat, foes routinely kept a top on the defense with two-deep shells in Cover-2 and Cover-4 looks, squeezing down on passing lanes and effectively erasing the vertical passing game. The Bears were rendered to a short-to-intermediate passing attack in which receivers were rarely hit in stride with their shoulders pointed toward the goal line. Opposing defenses suffocated the pass, which was a major issue for the Bears, who threw the ball on 65 percent of their offensive snaps, the second-highest total in the league. One of the biggest decisions looming for new general manager Ryan Pace, coach John Fox and offensive coordinator Adam Gase is what to do with Marshall, who will be 31 in March. Marshall has been a durable, productive player throughout his career who dictates coverage. However, he’s accumulating lower-body injuries — hip and ankle — and there’s no indicator light on players that lets decision-makers know when there’s not much left in the tank. Furthermore, Marshall’s contract is structured such that $7.5 million of his base salary is fully guaranteed, provided he’s on the roster as of March 12. The Bears could potentially save $3.95 million in cap space and $7.7 million in cash if he’s let go prior to that date. Pace, Fox and Gase came from franchises in which size receivers were complemented with speed receivers. The 2015 free agent wide receiver class is loaded with talent, and the draft presents several intriguing options in the first three rounds that could provide speed. Jeffery is entering a contract year, so he’s incentivized to perform. On a team with limited homegrown talent, Jeffery is a potential cornerstone, but he shouldn’t be paid as an elite receiver. He’s a weapon in the red zone adept at winning and high-pointing 50/50 balls, but his ceiling appears to be that of a No. 2 receiver, which shouldn’t be viewed as a negative. Pay attention to the contracts doled out to the second-tier free agents in the upcoming class as a starting point for Jeffery’s potential negotiations. Bennett turned in a Pro Bowl season, leading all tight ends with 90 receptions, which was also a single-season Bears franchise record. Bennett is another red zone threat and a mismatch against safeties and linebackers. However, the Bears need to find a true second tight end who can function as both an in-line blocker and also serve as a receiving threat. Reserve Dante Rosario was thrust into a different role due to the injury to Tony Fiammetta, functioning as both a lead back and a move tight end. However, he didn’t distinguish himself in either role and is set to become a free agent. The Bears’ receiving core certainly has talent, but they need to consider a different mix of skills to diversify the attack moving forward. Dan Durkin covers the Bears for CBSChicago.com and is a frequent contributor to 670 The Score. Follow him on Twitter at @djdurkin. |
Editor: Jane Wang Chen Yufei, an 18-year-old American Chinese woman [chinaqw.com] Whilst countless Chinese students are heading to study in the United States, one of the exceptions is an 18-year-old American-Chinese woman who has made great efforts to gain admission to Tsinghua University (THU), one of China's top universities. "I am longing to study in China and experience Chinese culture one day," read a sentence of Chen Yufei's short composition, which she wrote around four years ago. Beyond her expectations, her dream came true. In July this year, she will begin her campus life at THU, majoring in computing. "When I was a young child, my father often talked about THU. My grandmother and granduncle were all alumni of THU," Chen said. "Hence, my impression of this university is just like that of Harvard University; a place that not every student can study." Speaking of the application process, Chen said it did not go well although she reached the various standards required by THU. During that time, she did many things at the last minute. Specifically, she uploaded her recommendation letter only a short time before the closing date and got her visa within four days. Chen stated she could not only make friends with top students from different places across the country at THU but also learn from them. "Communicating with those who have a passion for studying can help me understand many things that I can not grasp in America." In addition, art societies and clubs at THU are very professional and plentiful, which deeply attracts her. Developing an interest in delivering art performances from a young age, Chen was influenced by her mother Tan Ying who has directed multiple large-scale singing and dancing events. Moreover, Chen and her mother received first prize for their short sketch Elderly Mother Visits Relatives for the North America Competition Area of the State broadcaster CCTV's (China Central Television) program I Want to Attend the Spring Festival Gala. When asked about the "secret of parenting", Tan said she and her husband attached much importance to Chinese traditional education in their daughter's growth. They asked her to speak Chinese, eat Chinese food and appreciate Chinese novels when she was young, Tan maintained. Now her daughter knows her roots are in China and they are both proud of this when someone asks them where they come from, the mother said. Those who were born in America should know their roots and identify themselves as Chinese because they will not get lost, feel ashamed or reject their motherland's culture in the crisis of identity of American society, Tan concluded. (Source: chinaqw.com/Translated and edited by Women of China) |
Recapping interesting and significant news in the recent weeks… In the past few weeks, we have encountered a new pope, a currency downfall in Cyprus, filibusters, and many other curious news bits. Here are some that you might have missed. Art Lindsey discusses how renewing our character and work will help renew our culture. This is definitely a must read of the week! Doug Stuart recently alerted me to a few interesting articles to share. First, theologian N.T. Wright presents a new reading of the book of Romans. Next, just in time for Easter, we find that Jesus was guilty! To find out of what, follow the link. :) The White House is now admitting that Obamacare is going to make insurance more expensive – not less! Surprise! Thanks, Capitalism Institute, for pushing this story. Did you know the government enjoys dealing in malware? Yes, Virginia, they do, and it will make the internet more dangerous for everyone. At the Independent Institute, Mary Theroux criticizes the Oscars. Stephan Kinsella recently published a perspective on precisely who is a libertarian. It is important to be accepting of people who want to become part of the movement, but we need to know the fundamentals as well. Very soon, LCC will be set up to receive tips in bitcoins from interested donors. If you’ve never heard of bitcoins before, check out Bitcoin.org and WeUseCoins.com to learn about this up-and-coming crypto-currency. Or, watch this neat little video: Have you missed out on the latest at LCC recently? Here are the most recent articles this week: Share your thoughts and news in the comments below. I read every single one and respond to most! |
This is GOTV weekend for the state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin, and there are a number of developments in this race that can be credibly seen as a test of the level of opposition to Scott Walker’s extreme agenda. First of all, Sarah Palin has decided to cash in with an endorsement of David Prosser, the Republican incumbent Supreme Court justice who is flailing in the latter stages of what should have been a pro forma victory. She’s not appearing in Wisconsin or moving Prosser to her email list, just tweeting about it, however. So there’s less there than meets the eye. But the more consequential news is that Prosser is losing what’s left of his cross-partisan support. A former honorary co-chair of Prosser’s campaign has resigned and thrown his support to JoAnn Kloppenburg. Former Democratic Gov. Patrick Lucey is withdrawing his support for incumbent Justice David Prosser for Wisconsin Supreme Court and is throwing it to Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg. Lucey released a statement to the media Thursday evening saying the campaign has revealed what he called “a disturbing distemper and lack of civility” in Prosser, though he did not cite specifics. “I have followed with increasing dismay and now alarm the campaign of Justice David Prosser, whom I endorsed at the outset of his campaign and in whose campaign I serve as the honorary co-chairman,” Lucey said in the statement. “I can no longer in good conscience lend my name and support to Justice Prosser’s candidacy. Too much has come to light that Justice Prosser has lost that most crucial of characteristics for a Supreme Court Justice — as for any judge — even-handed impartiality. Along with that failing has come a disturbing distemper and lack of civility that does not bode well for the High Court in the face of demands that are sure to be placed on it in these times of great political and legal volatility.” Honorary co-chairs don’t usually up and resign campaigns and endorse the opponent with a week to go. Lucey was Governor in the 1970s, so he doesn’t have a giant base of support, but this can’t be helpful to Prosser. David Nir details that lack of judicial temperament out of Prosser: • He bellowed that a fellow justice was a “bitch” and vowed to “destroy her” – then blamed her for his outburst • He claimed that the same justice and another female colleague “ganged up” on him in an attempt to make him look bad • He confided to Republicans and right-wing allies that they could be sure how he’d rule on topics like redistricting and abortion rights – all but prejudging cases in advance The election is Tuesday, April 5. |
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