, but not quite - - but that ' s the only nit i can pick with these, although it is rather equivalent to a nails - on - chalkboard sensation for me compared with, say, a brush. hm, i suppose you could say that they run a little dry, but i would find later that that ' s necessary for doing non - damaging work on paper. the tip of the larger m size is different - - much bigger, and softer - - and i found it much less pleasant to work with than the two smaller sizes ; it ' s just an awkward balance between hard and soft, big and small - - if i were gonna use these i ' d use the two smaller sizes, and probably a copic multiliner m brush instead of the kuretake one. platinum carbon desk pen this is a pretty neat pen. it ' s actually a fountain pen! rated ef ( extra - fine ), but apparently japanese fountain pens are pretty much a size smaller than their western equivalents, so it ' s more like a " super - fine " nib ; normally, i hear, a nib this fine would feel pretty scratchy, but this pen is actually pretty smooth, and quite pleasant to write with. if i wanted to feel fancy while writing something, i would use this. even so it isn ' t very expensive at all ; in fact, the reason i got it was really just to try platinum ' s " carbon " ink that it comes with in a couple disposable refill cartridges, because this pen was cheaper than a small bottle of the ink alone. and it does lay down a very fine, smooth line, but i couldn ' t use it for a * because, like dip pen nibs, it tends to chew up the surface of the paper, especially if you ' re going over ink wash or something. the " carbon " ink, which is apparently a super - fine india ink ( even so, this pen supposedly needs its special wide feed to avoid being clogged by it ), is quite waterproof, but not really very black. being a " desk " pen, it ' s meant to sit holstered in a swivel cap attached to a fancy base sitting on your fancy desk, so it has a long, tapered body ( with a hole at the end, it should be mentioned, so it can ' t be converted to an " eyedropper " pen by filling the body with ink ) that doesn ' t allow " posting " of


a long, tapered body ( with a hole at the end, it should be mentioned, so it can ' t be converted to an " eyedropper " pen by filling the body with ink ) that doesn ' t allow " posting " of the cap. it ' s pretty light and comfortable to hold, though. j. herbin glass pen - large i didn ' t even know these existed until i saw and heard ( they make this great glass fluting sound as their tip moves across paper ) them in this video ; glass pens like this, apparently, are used for testing inks, since you get a good view of the ink as it sits and flows in the twisting channels on the large glass tip - - so it works like a dip pen, ie you dip the tip into your jar of ink ( i was using yasutomo waterproof black sumi ), and then write with it until all the ink has been sucked off the fluted tip and onto the paper. pretty neat! this french glass pen didn ' t seem to hold as much ink in its flutes as a standard dip pen nib does in its reservoir, and like a dip pen nib it did tend to scratch up the paper ' s surface. i tried rounding the tip - - which came with a definite point - - using some fine sandpaper, as suggested on the box, but didn ' t really manage to tone down the paper damage much. unlike a dip pen, the glass tip isn ' t flexible at all, so you get no line width variation whatsoever ; this does make them handy if what you really want is an even line, though. and they just look ( and sound ) darn cool. copic multiliner 0. 1 multiliners come in a variety of somewhat odd, small sizes ( like 0. 03, 0. 05, 0. 1, 0. 3, 0. 5, 0. 8, 1. 0 mm ), but of the various types of similar technical or whatever you call ' em markers that i tried ( the others were sakura pigma microns, staedtler whatevers, and faber - castells pitts ), the multiliners had the finest size ( the others were 0. 05 mm at the smallest ), and possibly fractionally the darkest ink and most even lines. i used multiliners on a good number of the pages earlier in this chapter. you don ' t really get width variation out of their hard conical tips, but they ' re actually pretty


and possibly fractionally the darkest ink and most even lines. i used multiliners on a good number of the pages earlier in this chapter. you don ' t really get width variation out of their hard conical tips, but they ' re actually pretty good at feathering, if you flick them just right. they may feel a little dry if you ' re used to regular markers, but - - as i found with wetter technical markers ( see the tikky graphic, below ) - - they ' re pretty much as wet as you can get without risking real damage to the paper surface due to saturation weakening the fibers of the paper, which would then yield too easily to the hard marker tip. i like the narrow, round bodies of these markers, and their dark gray, silvery sparkled surface, but it ' s a light plastic that feels a bit cheap, particularly with the cap, which just sort of snugs on and off rather than clicking, and which posts very fudgily on the end ; i had a few dry out on me between uses, and i think that might have been because the cap wasn ' t really on as tightly as it needed to be. i also had a few just die on me rather quickly ; these have no cartridge or visible reservoir, so you don ' t have any warning as to when one might expire. i also killed a bunch of them by getting the tips clogged with white ink, it must be said - - even though no white ink might be visible on the tip, the marker would just never regain its full ink flow. a few of the mystery dead ones did manage to revive, however, after i left them standing upside - down for a day or two. when they work, they work well, but they aren ' t the most reliable pens around, and you can ' t do * really * fast lines with them without skipping, due to the carefully measured ink flow. copic multiliner sp 0. 7 these are the refillable, metal - bodied versions of the multiliner, and are in theory the more economical ( and ecological? ) option in the long run since you can replace the tips and ink cartridges. i don ' t really like the metallic chill you feel when first picking one up that you haven ' t handled in a while, but they warm to the touch pretty quickly, and unlike the disposables, their small caps click into place with satisfying security - - although they don ' t post as securely as one might like.


you haven ' t handled in a while, but they warm to the touch pretty quickly, and unlike the disposables, their small caps click into place with satisfying security - - although they don ' t post as securely as one might like. rather confusingly, the sizes they come in are slightly different than the disposables, in some cases. faber - castell pitt calligraphy pen for a while i thought this was the pen i was going to use - - you can get a lot of line variation by using different edges or corners of the 2 mm, fairly hard sloped chisel tip, and it puts out a satisfying amount of ink - - or more than the multiliners, anyway. very fun to play with a fresh one of these. but! i found that the tips are rather unreliable, and can lose their ink flow without warning ; the one in the photo actually has a bit of masking tape around the far side, just below the tip, to remind me that that corner is pretty dead. frustrating! they also sometimes shed a fiber or two - - you have to go and pluck it off with tweezers or something - - at the beginning. these may be even less reliable than the disposable multiliners. also, even the caps can be a bit flakey ; the button at the end is a separate piece, for some reason, and it sometimes gets a bit loose, which somehow makes it so that the cap, which usually clicks firmly into place, doesn ' t click closed anymore unless you press the end of the cap down as you slide the cap into place ; very surprising given how solid the rest of the body feels. faber - castell pitt small brush has a harder tip than japanese " brush " markers, but it ' s so narrow that it tends to feel a bit woggley, whatever that means. just didn ' t like the feel or the sort of intermediate size. has the same flukey button cap as the pitt calligraphy pens. rotring tikky graphic 0. 1 another line of technical markers like the multiliners, etc. i like that these come in regular, tenth - of - a - mm sizes, though. though disposable, they feel extremely solid, and the large caps even have metal clips. they also have an ink reservoir view window so you can tell when you ' re running low ; rotring ' s marketing claims that the reservoir and feed design ensures they use every last drop of their pretty


, and the large caps even have metal clips. they also have an ink reservoir view window so you can tell when you ' re running low ; rotring ' s marketing claims that the reservoir and feed design ensures they use every last drop of their pretty generous ink supply, but i haven ' t used enough to verify that. they also give out by far the most ink of any of the technical marker lines i tried ; this is great if you ' re just doodlin ', as you get nice even, wet lines even when moving quickly, but if you ' re really trying to go into some detail, or if you ' re going over paper that ' s been wet previously by a wash or something, the paper surface will tend to get oversaturated and then get chewed up by the marker ' s hard conical tip pretty easily. also, they cannot do feathering at all ; as soon as you touch the tip to paper to any degree, you get the full ink flow. rotring rapidograph 0. 25 i included this since i had it laying around, although i knew from when i covered it previously that its hard metal tube tip can ' t draw lines very quickly without skipping, and chews up the paper like nobody ' s business. it can ' t really be beat for fine, even lines, though. i don ' t think i ' ll ever get used to the screw - off cap on this thing - - i keep trying to yank it off. : p alvin penstix no. 3013 - eef 0. 3mm saw this in a local art store ; it is shockingly awful. the ink is brown! i had to double - check that the pen body said " black " ; it does ( although i notice now that the " india ink quality " after that is in quotes ; p ), but man that ain ' t no black. the small cap with sharp fluting doesn ' t snap into place, and the narrow body with fixed plastic clip at the end and 90 - degree edges toward the tip doesn ' t feel engineered for any kind of pleasant user experience. the tip is of the small, hard, conical ( and spongey ) variety. do not get this unless you really need a brown, uncomfortable small marker. so of those i felt the kuretake ef and f, pitt calligraphy pen, multiliners, and j. herbin glass pen were the best with an eye toward a * work, so i did another, slightly larger set of sketches


of those i felt the kuretake ef and f, pitt calligraphy pen, multiliners, and j. herbin glass pen were the best with an eye toward a * work, so i did another, slightly larger set of sketches with those finalists : the pitt calligraphy pen was by far the most fun to use, and you can see there that i was getting the most solid lines out of it. here ' s another crop of pens i have laying around from my pen - speriments : copic multiliner brush m i felt this was worth mentioning on its own, because the large, somewhat soft " brush " ( it isn ' t really like a brush at all, mind you ) felt or whatever tip has a kind of pleasing squishiness and wetness to it. i don ' t really like it for doing big line work, because it doesn ' t feel firm enough to me for a really reliable line, but it ' s very good at filling in large areas. these only come in the disposables - - the metal " sp " line just has the small brush, which isn ' t nearly as satisfying. the soft tip * does * tend to fluff out and lose its shape fairly quickly - - well before it ran out of ink, for me - - which is a shame, but i haven ' t found a soft marker tip that has found a way to avoid that problem. staedtler calligraphy duo 3002 there aren ' t really many waterproof black pigment ink chisel tip markers out there, so when i saw this i figured it was worth a shot even though dual - tip pens drive me buggy for some reason. the clear plastic caps can post to each other, so * that * isn ' t a problem, at least. the 3. 5 mm and 2. 0 mm chisel tips are harder than the tip of the pitt calligraphy pen ; i ' m not sure if that means that they ' re more reliable, but they * are * more prone to chewing up the surface of the paper. other than that it seems like a very solid pen. uni - ball signo broad white i was turned onto this white gel pen - - which i thought might be useful for touch - ups - - by a couple white pen reviews i found after i got the sunburst ( see below ) and wanted to see how it stacked up. the signo seems to be the most highly recommended white gel option, and it is indeed much more


- - by a couple white pen reviews i found after i got the sunburst ( see below ) and wanted to see how it stacked up. the signo seems to be the most highly recommended white gel option, and it is indeed much more generous and opaque than the sunburst. it is not ( and doesn ' t claim to be ) waterproof at all and, being a ball point, runs into the problem where the generous line of somewhat thick ink is divided by the metal tip laying it down, so you get a kind of two - line effect, which probably isn ' t desired in most cases. pentel sunburst med picked this up on a whim at a supply store ; does offer some non - waterproof white gel ink coverage, but the ink isn ' t quite as thick or as opaque as could be ; also seems to dry up slightly more easily than the signo, and shares the two - line problem with the ball point tip. faber - castell pitt big brush of all the pens here, this is the sole one that i ' m really still using, if just for sketching ( i did do a page or two of this episode with it almost exclusively, though ). the large brush tip is quite firm, which doesn ' t seem nice at first if you ' re used to softer japanese large " brush " pens, but it holds up very well with use, taking much longer to lose its shape. faber - castell claims these carry something like four times the ink of their regular - sized pitt markers ; i ' m not sure about that, but i can say i haven ' t " hit bottom " on one yet - - they seem to run into a diminished ink flow some time before that, at which point i don ' t like them anymore and have to go get a new one. until that point, though, they put out a very nice, even wet line. the ink is not of course quite as dark as brush inks, but if you layer it up - - which is easy to do thanks to the large tip and generous ink flow - - it can achieve this kind of nifty, velvety black gloss, which is nice to look at even if it doesn ' t scan well due to being somewhat reflective. i was a bit wary at first of the large, firm tip, fearing it would be clumsy, but while it can ' t make a * very * thin line, you can get a reasonable amount of width variation by holding it at different angles


. i was a bit wary at first of the large, firm tip, fearing it would be clumsy, but while it can ' t make a * very * thin line, you can get a reasonable amount of width variation by holding it at different angles, and it is by far the best of any of the markers i tried at laying down big, fast, long, solid lines, and it is of course great at filling in large areas - - this is really the only marker i ' ve found that can keep up with my frenetic, heavy sketching. the hard plastic body feels very solid, the thick cap clicks into place definitively, and i haven ' t had one have the loose - button - cap problem the smaller pitts sometimes have. very reliable and quite affordable for how much pen you get. pentel pocket brush this brush pen actually has individual brush hairs at its tip like a real brush, although they ' re nylon or something, and actually cut and angled inward to form a sharply tapered point ; this seems to mean they always keep a very sharp tip, but at the cost of overall brush strength : there ' s no real snap or flex here - - they ' re either dragging a loose line, or squooshing into the paper. they ' re very popular for their portability, though - - no having to carry ink and rinse jars around with you - - and some webcomics get good results with them. their ink is waterproof and surprisingly dark - - i wish pentel sold the stuff in bottles! alas, it only comes in small disposable cartridge refills. the pen body, though plastic, feels very solid indeed, but with a graceful, rounded, stylish exterior - - top marks there. in theory these could be converted into eyedropper pens, i think, and i * have * read of some people using platinum carbon ink with them, although in theory that risks clogging issues. the small, black selenis sketch above the other pen test sketches earlier in this post was done with this pen ; as you can see, it is pretty handy at big black fill, and feathering, but i at least am pretty much unable to get hard, even lines out of the weak tip. ( the big face next to that sketch was done with pitt big brush and calligraphy pens ; it was an early attempt at i think page 26. ) update 5 / 29 : since i ' ve mostly moved away from regular pens now,


tip. ( the big face next to that sketch was done with pitt big brush and calligraphy pens ; it was an early attempt at i think page 26. ) update 5 / 29 : since i ' ve mostly moved away from regular pens now, i ' ve found myself going to the pocket brush lately when i want to do a quick sketch, or even just for when i need something brushy and fast, like for signing paintings. it is quite a handy thing! i should note that although the ink is darker than most of the marker - type pens, it isn ' t nearly as dark as a good stand - alone ink such as you would use with a regular brush. pentel color brush - black larger, uglier cousin of the pocket brush. the color brushes are not waterproof, but come in a variety of colors, and i guess they ' re meant to be used as portable watercolors, sort of. should be able to hold much more ink, too, because the large, squeezable body is a single large refill cartridge. you ' re suppose to squeeze it to get ink to flow - - unlike the pocket brush, which just flows at a set rate automatically - - and in theory this offers much more control and variety, as you could use it for dry brush, spatter, and so forth ; when i tried it, though, instead of saturating the tapered nylon bristles all the way to their tips, the ink just gushed out the sides and dripped in a big slash right onto the page below. : o and again, the weak tip isn ' t my thing, but some people get pretty darn fine black and white sketches out of them. yasutomo yc permawriter ii fs - 0. 05 saw this at some local store and figured it was with a shot since i was using yasutomo ' s sumi ink anyway. the design of the pen body is uncomfortably severe, and the line its fine conical tip puts out is a bit squishy, and not up to par with other technical marker lines in that respect. it was, however, the most waterproof of any of the pens i tried - - supposedly they ' re even permanent on cds and so forth. that ends the supermassive black pen round - up! i will probably not bother you with pen talk for a while as i ' m back pretty happily with the brush these days, but i suppose you never know what the future holds! the egg


that ends the supermassive black pen round - up! i will probably not bother you with pen talk for a while as i ' m back pretty happily with the brush these days, but i suppose you never know what the future holds! the egg is a star in the " preplanetary or protoplanetary nebula stage, " and that is actually an awful name for it because it makes it sound like a young star with a protoplanetary disc, whereas it is actually an old, dying star, perhaps once around the size of the sun, which exhausted most of its hydrogen fuel, shrunk to a small, hot, helium - burning core that blew the outer hydrogen layers far out to form a huge red giant, possibly with a radius as large as the distance from the sun to earth, used up its helium, resumed burning of the remaining parts of the large hydrogen outer shell, and now, having lost maybe 50 - 70 % of its mass, has a very disrupted outer shell which alternates with the inner helium shell in burning, every 10, 000 to 100, 000 years - - this is called " helium shell flash " or " thermal pulse. " as part of all these goings on in the dying star, jets and material are being ejected pretty frequently, forming this agitated nebula around the star. in the case of the egg, the cloud of ejected material around it is so thick we can ' t see the star itself, but we can see " searchlight " beams from it, perhaps shining through holes in the clouds poked by jets from flashes or pulses. the name " preplanetary / protoplanetary " comes from this being the precursor to the " planetary nebula " stage, where a very extended, ring - like cloud has been pushed far out and heated to a glow by the very hot exposed core of the star that remains. what with the dying and the cloud of material around them, preplanetary nebulae are quite dim ; unlike the later planetary nebula stage, the cooler clouds around the star in the preplanetary stage do not glow on their own, but only reflect light coming out from the central star ; the egg may be within 3, 000 light years of earth - - although its exact size and distance is by no means certain, maybe at least partly because so little is known of this phase of stellar life that there isn ' t much in the way of a " standard candle " with which to compare its luminosity and size, from which you could estimate distance - - but it wasn '


partly because so little is known of this phase of stellar life that there isn ' t much in the way of a " standard candle " with which to compare its luminosity and size, from which you could estimate distance - - but it wasn ' t discovered until 1996 ( although the nasa post says " was first spotted less than 40 years ago, " so i ' m not sure if that means it was spotted in old photos but not identified, or if their number is just a typo ) because it ' s so hard to see. more preplanetary nebula photos, swiped from wikipedia : a hubble photo of the egg from 2002, with color filters tinting light vibrating at different angles ; the caption notes the material from which it is reflecting is mostly carbon : image by nasa and the hubble heritage team ( stsci / aura ) ( source ) orange and infrared false color hubble photo of preplanetary nebula iras 13208 - 6020, released in 2011 : this space. com article describes an interesting observational experiment that will be run with hubble next month, when venus will pass between earth and the sun : sunlight coming to us through the clouds around the rim of venus will carry spectral data revealing elements of the venusian atmosphere ; hubble is far too light - sensitive to survive being aimed directly at the sun, though, so instead it will be aimed at a fixed point on the moon for the full seven hours of venus ' solar transit, and will be trying to pick out the tiny, tiny venusian light components among the regular sunlight reflecting off the bright lunar surface : "... they ' re looking for extremely faint spectral signatures. only 0. 001 percent of the sun ' s light will filter through venus ' s thick atmosphere and be reflected off the moon... " pretty wild. and this isn ' t even being done really to learn about venus ' atmosphere, which is already pretty well known - - the us and especially the soviets have landed unmanned spacecraft on the planet, after all ( interesting note : 1982 ' s soviet " venera 14 " venus lander missed its chance at a soil sample because its probe, striking for the soil, was blocked by its own ejected camera lens cap, which happened to lay exactly where the probe tried to strike ). so this elaborate lunar mirror experiment is being done as a test of the quality of data gathered from sunlight filtered through planetary atmospheres - - they ' ll compare the results with what ' s already known about venus ' atmosphere to see if


to strike ). so this elaborate lunar mirror experiment is being done as a test of the quality of data gathered from sunlight filtered through planetary atmospheres - - they ' ll compare the results with what ' s already known about venus ' atmosphere to see if the readings are good - - in the hopes that it can later be applied to detect the atmospheric content of planets around other stars : one main method of detecting planets around other stars is to spot a regular periodic dimming of the star ' s light caused - - in theory - - by one of its planets moving between it and us, so i guess the idea is that maybe we could also get useful spectral data about the atmosphere of the planet from that dimmed light. i came across another comic with interesting art! this one is ( warning : mature language and themes ) the ballad of frank sartre, and the best description i can come up with is that it ' s kind of like an ultra - noir " who framed roger rabbit " with intensely brushy black and white artwork. the group art show i ' m in opens tomorrow - - er, tonight... friday may 11th from 6 - 9 pm, at any rate! i will be milling around trying to look like i know what i ' m talking about with the other artists, probably, so i will be ripe for the plucking if you want to stop by and bend my ear for a while. : ) there will be lots of artists and art to see in this " portrait " - themed group show ( my dad has a couple photos there! ), so it should be a lot of fun! this is all at the chocolat vitale fancy chocolate drink shop in seattle ' s phinney neighborhood : my contribution is a signed and framed print from my digital a * days, as well as one from " the princess and the giant. " so probably nothing you haven ' t seen before, but there will be lots to see from other artists, and probably loads to talk about. probably also free tasty snacks of some sort, if you get there before the starving artists snarfle them all! : d also keep in mind i ' m going to be having a solo show at this same location a month from now - - yep, i ' ll have the place all to myself then! that ' s when i ' ll have a bunch of stuff on show, particularly original a * ink wash paintings, yay. = ) there is a little more info about these shows here. private company spacex


the place all to myself then! that ' s when i ' ll have a bunch of stuff on show, particularly original a * ink wash paintings, yay. = ) there is a little more info about these shows here. private company spacex just showed off their " dragon " space capsule at the " first annual spacecraft technology expo " ( hm convenient! : d ) at the la convention center. there ' s a photo in that linked article, but eh it just kinda looks like a rounded - off and smoothed - out apollo capsule, really. but the interesting parts start soon : on may 19th, one is flying up to the international space station on a spacex falcon 9 rocket. this trial flight will just be carrying cargo to the station, but it will ( if successful ) mark the first time a commercial spacecraft has docked with the iss. and of course the dragon ( man it would be way cooler if they painted it with scales or something : | ) is really intended for manned spaceflight, so the idea is for it to go on to bigger and bolder things, providing it passes little tests like this one. a workshop apparently used by ancient mayan astronomers has just been found among " a large complex of mayan ruins in the rain forest at xultun in northeastern guatemala. " the walls of the 6 - foot square room are covered with 1, 200 - year - old astronomical tables and figures in the mayans ' complicated calendar and numbering system, and include calculations of dates spanning about 6000 years ; these newly discovered astronomical tables are by far the oldest found so far - - 600 years older than the previously oldest known ones. the article has some photos! a * forum poster andtobeloved just pointed out a surprisingly a * - esque comic series that ran from 1984 to 1986 in the british " 2000 ad " comic magazine : writer alan moore and artist ian gibson ' s the ballad of halo jones. looks pretty neat! it ' s new to me but the resemblance probably isn ' t all that coincidental, as glimpses i ' ve been getting over the past couple years of other, older british adventure serials - - jeff hawke, primarily, and also tiny bits of things like dan dare and garth - - have increasingly been inspiring my work on a *. those old strips really had something special about them - - zest, spirit, and wonder combined with absolutely superb and even daring artwork - - and they certainly seemed to have inspired a good deal of this latter - day " halo jones " as well. (


old strips really had something special about them - - zest, spirit, and wonder combined with absolutely superb and even daring artwork - - and they certainly seemed to have inspired a good deal of this latter - day " halo jones " as well. ( let me not forget to mention that andtobeloved happens to be the writer of a couple fine webcomics : the eponymous young adult tale ( some mature language ) and to be loved, and the classic newspaper strip format humor comic, my girlfriend ' s dog. ) i do think we should always be a little skeptical when men undertake to write women. since i would be the last person to claim any particular insight into this endeavor, i just have to settle for trying to make my female characters interesting people ( shock! ). there is one way in which i try to leverage my ignorance when it comes to writing selenis, however, and that is to rely on the smoke and mirrors of mystery and distance - - which is where a good deal of the whole femme fatale archetype has come from in our cultural output, i would guess. so we don ' t tend to hear her thoughts directly, unlike vero ' s case with his frequent self - narration. this often forces long periods of silence on the comic, which worried me at first but which i have actually grown to enjoy, as it gives lots of opportunities to play at guessing what she ' s thinking. we have learned at least one thing about her, though : she is fiercely independent and determined to be second to nobody - - not even the grim reaper! the group art show opening tonight was a whole lot of fun! and one of my two pieces even got bought on the spot - - okay so it was a very generous friend of my mother, but hey. : d also they had some really nice refreshments and they gave me a free cup of their delicious hot chocolate. and there was hob - nobbing and art materials talking ( one guy used to run an art supply store! ) with the other artists, not to mention getting to hang out with the shop owners and their visitors. oh and they had a constant custom soundtrack spinning from a multitude of old vinyl albums, like oh say, this one from this. ha! we are talking some good times! i also scored some stuff i can actually share with you! the theme of the group show was " portraits, " and among the exhibits were piles and piles of old film studio publicity shots - - mostly from the early ' 50 '


some good times! i also scored some stuff i can actually share with you! the theme of the group show was " portraits, " and among the exhibits were piles and piles of old film studio publicity shots - - mostly from the early ' 50 ' s, but some going back into the ' 30 ' s ( and a few from the ' 70s but the less said about those the better ; p ). after i ' d almost poured through all of them, one of the owners mentioned they were for sale ( and placed the price tag among them : p - - $ 5 a piece or i think it was $ 20 for six ), so of course i had to root back through them to dig out my favorites to claim as my own - - and now i ' m scanning them and showing them to you! the first one that really struck me was this one, because it was one of the few in which i actually recognized the person : yes it ' s nova pilbeam! i ' ve seen her an early alfred hitchcock movie - - back when he was still in england, you know : the 1937 film young and innocent. she did a bang - up job in a starring role in that, and although i ' m pretty terrible with names i think i remembered hers because it ' s so unusual. heck it ' s almost super - sci - fi at that : just change it to oh nova drillbeam for instance and away you go. what i found especially amusing was what someone - - at some time - - had written on the back : well * i * think it ' s a super name, and she ' s a good actress. she was just 17 at the time young and innocent was made, and i realize now i ' d seen her - - but hadn ' t known anything about her, or realized it was her later - - a bit earlier, as she has a smaller role in hitchcock ' s 1934 film the man who knew too much. mrs. pilbeam, who is still with us at the sterling age of 92, left acting in 1949, before she ' d even reached 30, so her body of work is pretty brief! and the only clue as to what year this photo might have been taken was that it was from " gb pictures, " which a little searching turned up must have been the british studio gainsborough pictures ( closed in 1951 ).... okay so the other clue was the actual " nov 29 1936 " stamped on the back, but i ' d forgotten about that


" which a little searching turned up must have been the british studio gainsborough pictures ( closed in 1951 ).... okay so the other clue was the actual " nov 29 1936 " stamped on the back, but i ' d forgotten about that. > _ > so i compared the list of mrs. pilbeam ' s movies with the movies produced by gainsborough, and the only overlap was the 1936 film tudor rose ( called nine days a queen when it came to the states, since obviously we can ' t be expected to know what a " tudor " is : p ), in which she played lady jane grey. that publicity shot isn ' t exactly period clothing, so i guess it was just a general shot around that time for their " junior star " lineup or something. as a bit of a personal aside, gainsborough was widely known in england - - apparently - - for their " series of morally ambivalent costume melodramas " that ran from 1942 to ' 46 ( including 1945 ' s flamboyantly ambivalent the wicked lady, which queen mary surprised everyone in thoroughly enjoying despite the scandalously low necklines of its period dresses, which were hugely censored in the us release and i guess maybe that still accounts for it being pretty impossible to find in a modern region 1 release ; _ ; ) largely sharing a concentrated cast of stars, one of whom was the marvelously wicked lady margaret lockwood who, as it happens, beat out nova pilbeam for the leading role in hitchcock ' s ( and gainsborough ' s ) 1938 the lady vanishes, which very well could be my favorite movie of all time. would it have been as good or even gooder if mrs. pilbeam had been the star? it ' s hard to imagine but i ' ll try! ~ ~ edit 2 : the lady vanishes is claimed by archive. org to be in the public domain, and you can watch it there. i wonder if this means the other gainsborough pictures films are public domain as well... tudor rose / nine days a queen and the wicked lady have been released on vhs, and region 2 dvd in the latter ' s case, but all by different companies - - so maybe they * are *! but they aren ' t on archive. org at any rate, alas. ~ ~ ~ ~ edit 3 : ah, although a federal register notice of 1997 ordered us copyrights restored on the lady vanishes and tudor rose based on an overseas copyright


but they aren ' t on archive. org at any rate, alas. ~ ~ ~ ~ edit 3 : ah, although a federal register notice of 1997 ordered us copyrights restored on the lady vanishes and tudor rose based on an overseas copyright claim by carlton film distributors, ltd ( producers of the wicked lady region 2 dvd ). so technically it probably shouldn ' t still be on archive. org. = p and i wonder if this means carlton also has the rights to gainsborough production photos from the time? well if you are from carlton lemme see the paperwork and i can take the photos down. : d ~ ~ the other photo that really struck me was much more mysterious because i had no idea who it was, but it sure was a nice photo : well i guess i might be in trouble with loew ' s incorporated since i ' m not quite a newspaper or magazine - - except that loew ' s incorporated hasn ' t existed since i think 1959, when the 1948 supreme court ruling in the film - studio - system - busting united states v. paramount pictures, inc. case finally resulted in splitting it from its film production arm, metro - goldwyn - mayer ( " mgm " ), which marcus loew had formed in 1924 by merging metro pictures, goldwyn pictures and louis b. mayer productions with his line of theaters, loew ' s theatres incorporated. the remaining loew ' s corporation was otherwise just a holding corporation for various non - film business activities when tri - star pictures ( jointly coca - cola, cbs, and time ) " acquired " their theater chain in 1985. in ' 88, tri - star ( now just coca - cola ) merged with columbia pictures ( which coca - cola had let go the previous year ) to form columbia pictures entertainment. sony bought columbia from coca - cola in ' 89 and merged it with cineplex odeon corporation in 1998, resulting in loews cineplex entertainment... which declared bankruptcy in 2001 due to cineplex ' s inherited financial problems. it was bought by several corporations in 2002, who then sold it to " investors " in 2004... who succeeded in merging it into amc theatres in 2005. so amc theatres, if you need me to take this image down, let me know. ~ ~ edit : oh wait! i was probably looking at the wrong side of that - - maybe it would be the mgm side that has the rights. their lineage up ' til now is * slightly * less convoluted - -


know. ~ ~ edit : oh wait! i was probably looking at the wrong side of that - - maybe it would be the mgm side that has the rights. their lineage up ' til now is * slightly * less convoluted - - in the hands of various moguls in the late ' 60 ' s, acquired united artists in 1981, owned by ted turner for 74 days in 1986 ( he had financial troubles : p ) - - oh! except he held onto their film and television library. okay, so ted turner, let me know if you need me to take the photo down. : ) ~ ~ one other interesting thing about these old publicity photos was that " exploitation " seemed to have a different meaning back then ; some of them had labels with wording along the lines of " for exploitation only. " oh yeah, and they would also touch up the photos with white or black ink to make highlights, shadows, or profiles pop a little more, or to adjust the cropping, for when the photo would be reproduced in shrunk - down form in newspaper articles - - the actual original ink touch - ups were on a few of them! it seems like at least partially a marvel comics - produced effort as it focuses on jack kirby ' s time at marvel, and isn ' t reluctant to pile both him and marvel to the ceiling with praise, but there are still some interesting things to be found in there. i hadn ' t known kirby worked in animation and strips early on, for instance, and you get to hear about how he worked, what his peers thought of him, and so forth, oh and they have some interesting insights from other marvel artists, including some whose work i like a lot - - people like walt simonson and neal adams. although his " blocky " style certainly looked as though it followed the geometric construction techniques described in stan lee and john buscema ' s well - known 1978 guide, how to draw comics the marvel way, to hear the eyewitnesses in this video tell it, kirby, legendary for churning out five or whatever full comic pages in a single day when necessary, appears to have drawn with little or no preliminary layout phase - - just going straight from blank page to final pencils, and not necessarily doing those in any sort of structured order, but maybe putting in a hand here, a head here, and so on until they all connected. that explains why his proportions were sometimes a bit loosey - goosey, and eh well it sounds kind of like


in any sort of structured order, but maybe putting in a hand here, a head here, and so on until they all connected. that explains why his proportions were sometimes a bit loosey - goosey, and eh well it sounds kind of like how i ' m drawing a * now, frighteningly enough. come to think of it in fact, on today ' s page i drew the shoulders, then the hands, then the arms in between them - - all directly in ink with no preliminary sketching, of course. > _ > i can ' t say i recommend drawing this way ( and i ' m unbelievably worse / slower at it than kirby, certainly! )... but it is kind of fun. ; ) kirby, mind you, mostly worked in pencil, leaving the inking part to be completed by others as he churned away on more and more pages - - which, from the looks of the many penciled pages they show in this video, is in some ways a real shame, because his pencil work has a really gorgeous, subtle range of tone in it that was entirely lost in the flat and minimalistic inking that was usually laid over it ; just look at his pencil renderings of the thing ( the orange rocky guy in the fantastic four ) in there, for instance : almost every little flat facet of his body is carefully shaded in a slightly different tone of gray, yielding a really great volumetric effect - - pretty much reduced to black and white by whoever would come along and ink it, no doubt. jeepers. oh, and all those times in the video that people say kirby invented that " kirby krackle " bubbly energy effect - - well, he very well could have come up with it on his own, but similar patterns had been used by others to illustrate space energy in comics well before kirby popularized it in the states. i have some other artists i ' ve been wanting to talk about for a while so i may as well do it now! i ' ve mentioned travis charest ' s " spacegirl " before - - a single wide black and white panel science fiction comic : o - - and some time after that i found his blog, which is conveniently called travis charest ' s spacegirl. there you ' ll find links to semi - recent continuations he ' s made in his spacegirl story, new stuff about what he ' s working on these days, and links to other slideshows of his work, including a fascinating compilation


. there you ' ll find links to semi - recent continuations he ' s made in his spacegirl story, new stuff about what he ' s working on these days, and links to other slideshows of his work, including a fascinating compilation of his art from the weapons of the metabaron graphic novel, as well as some of his older work on jim lee ' s wildstorm comics series, wildc. a. t. s. but not... a whole lot else. see, charest ' s career took an unusual twist when, in 2000, just as his hyper - detailed, bold pencil and ink work had been getting him noticed in american comics, charest... moved to france. from what little i know of european comics, they emphasize a rather more fantastic artistry than one finds in the typical american superhero comic style, and i suspect that ' s what attracted charest, whose style was starting to go beyond the norm over here. so he went to france, started work on the latest graphic novel in this " metabarons " series... and seven years or so later, he had about thirty pages done. that ' s about a page every three months - - not exactly a kirby - esque page rate. : p if you look at the metabaron art in his slideshow, you ' ll see that it is incredibly detailed, but still, that isn ' t going to keep a publisher satisfied at the rate of one of those pages every ninety days. so the second half of the book was finished by someone else ( the difference in art was explained away - - apparently somewhat awkwardly - - as a flashback sequence or something ), and charest came back to the states, where he ' s finally started working on a few comic pieces here and there. charest ' s weapon of choice is the rapidograph technical pen, and finding that out was what got me interested in the things, as i thought gee it would be super if i could get so detailed and cross - hatchy like he does. and his ink wash, like he did with metabaron, is done with " rapidograph " ink, which i * think * is probably ultradraw like i tested recently. even so, the slow, patient movements the rapidograph requires are not for me, as i discovered, so i have to admire what he can do with it all the more. hopefully he ' ll keep spacegirl going too! in my ink device investigations i had someone


would you find information about drongos and todies? the 520 - page book, " birds of the world " ( 2006, johns hopkins university press ) by les beletsky, is a well - structured, thorough coverage of every group of birds on the planet. each chapter has superb illustrations of selected species and focuses on a basic overview of a major group, such as " hummingbirds " or " pigeons and doves. " for example, the hummingbird chapter explains that the more than 300 nectar - eating species are found only in the new world, from elevations of 13, 000 feet to sea level. the largest are eight inches long ; the smallest weighs " no more than a large paper clip. " included among the 22 illustrations in the chapter are bizarre yet exquisite members of the hummingbird family such as the long - tailed sylph, crimson topaz, and red - billed streamertail. as for motmots, i can now state categorically that eight of the 10 species of these absolutely gorgeous long - tailed birds occur in central america. one illustration shows a 15 - inch - long turquoise - browed motmot with red, green, and blue coloring and a blue and black tuft at the end of its tail. i agree with the author ' s assessment that the motmot is " saddled with a ridiculous name. " todies consist of a family of five look - alike species of the west indies, including cuba, jamaica, and puerto rico. these short, fat little birds are described as " emerald green above, with ruby red throats, and whitish underparts tinged with yellow or pink. " clearly a tody would be a great bird to add to your life list. and finally, kites versus falcons? my short answer was correct, though far from complete. both are indeed raptors, predatory birds of prey, but technically they belong in separate families. kites are classified with the more than 200 species of hawks and eagles in a family group known as the accipiters. i like the author ' s description of accipiters : " fierce - looking birds with hooked, pointed bills, and powerful feet with hooked, sharp claws ( talons ). " falcons are a smaller group of 61 species that have the same arsenal but generally have more pointed wings, a sleeker appearance, and greater speed. a source of confusion about the two families is that the graceful mississippi kite of the southeast is often described as " falcon - shaped, " whereas the american ke


tenderness, a lot of patience, plenty of time, and an open mind and willingness to listen to anything - - these things are the best that we can offer our children to help them sustain themselves in a moment of anxiety or stress. but that ' s not quite enough : the most difficult part, perhaps, is learning to stay quiet, to choose with our words with precision and economy, to wait for every new phrase in welcoming silence, and to lock away our own emotions. above all, the most essential part is being capable of seeing our children how they are, not how we wish they were. as difficult as it is, to truly listen to them, we have to separate ourselves from our desires, aspirations or wishes that we have placed on them. in all empathetic communication the majority of specialists usually identify four stages. however, every encounter between parent and child is unique and we have to learn to navigate them from the point of our experiences. observation : all the experts agree that empathy requires being capable of realizing the state of being of a person without saying a word. prioritize the emotional state of your child, looking out for such things as an unusual greeting when she gets home from shool or an abnormal expression on her face. in this instant, and in the most natural way possible, we should say the most open phrase possible. say something that doesn ’ t confuse them, but rather that gets right to the point : “ was it a really intense soccer practice? ” “ does the new teacher give a lot of homework? ” forget the customary question, “ how was your day at school? ” while avoiding its accompanying sighs and groans. it doesn ’ t open any doors to conversation. be natural and spontaneous above all else. interest : take note of whether you ' re child seems interested to want to talk. “ would you like to talk? here i am. ” immediately afterword, in front of your child, turn of your cell phone, the television, or the computer. close the book. let your pen drop to the table. your child will notice these real gestures and will realize that she ' s being listened to, that her emotions are important to you. holding back : as we listen to our child ' s story, we have to maintain our silence ; we have to be almost invisible, only very occasionally affirming the things that we ' re hearing by saying things like, “ the story doesn ' t sound so good, ” or “ i see you ' re pretty angry or sad or remorseful


we have to be almost invisible, only very occasionally affirming the things that we ' re hearing by saying things like, “ the story doesn ' t sound so good, ” or “ i see you ' re pretty angry or sad or remorseful, ” or “ you look upset. ” your child doesn ’ t need to hear more than that, but she should understand that you understand how she feels and that intense emotions don ’ t scare you or upset you too much. remain silent, seated, without moving a lot, accompanying them until their emotion has taken its course. don ’ t change the subject. don ’ t say you love her or that you ' re proud of her, because that isn ' t and never was in doubt. don ’ t say that the issue or story is not a big deal, because for your child it is a big deal. don ’ t say that everything will be ok, because that is for calming empathizing. what your child wants to feel is that you ' re capable of seeing her be upset for a moment without taking ownership of her story. the truth is, it isn ’ t easy to be calm or quiet because we feel assaulted by our own emotions : “ if i see that child that did this to you, i ’ ll show him / her who i am. " saying something to this effect isn ' t empathetic. closing : when we have listened to everything that our child has to say, then there ' s not much else to do besides tenderly determining whether there ' s anything more they want to say or tell you. keep in mind that there is still space for them to share, that this is their space. if a solution didn ’ t appear spontaneously, we can extend a hand by offering up what we ' d probably do if we were in their shoes. or, even better, we can dig around in our memory and pull out a similar episode from our own lives which we can share. translated from spanish by marisol slater.


| c - b3 cortosis battle droid | c - b3 cortosis battle droid high - intensity double laser cannons ( 2 ) | chronological and political information | their outer shell was made out of cortosis, a substance that could block lightsaber attacks. the black outer shell was clamped to the droids ' frame in formfitting plates. the droids also had the same intelligence matrix as the similar b2 battle droid, however, they lacked the gripping hands of the b2 battle droid, since their arms ended in double high - intensity laser cannons. the ball joint of the wrist allowed the cannons to swivel in almost any direction. the droids could also use their arms to block lightsaber blades. there was one weakness to lightsabers in the droids ' armor, discovered by anakin skywalker. a very precise overhead slash with a lightsaber targeting the small gap between the two breastplates would slice a cortosis droid ' s torso in half. production began when wat tambor put two internal teams against each other for the upcoming separatist b3 unit. although the avatar - 7 was eventually chosen, the cortosis battle droid was manufactured as the c - b3. c - b3 droids were first deployed in limited numbers on tatooine, but were used more extensively in the attack on coruscant and the defense of the techno union foundries on metalorn. their deployment showed that they were extremely effective — too effective in the eyes of darth sidious. believing that they could tip the balance of the war, supreme chancellor palpatine allowed information about the droids ' location on metalorn to reach the jedi. - star wars : the new droid army ( first appearance ) - star wars : agent of the empire 1 : iron eclipse, part 1 - the new essential guide to droids - the new essential chronology - the clone wars campaign guide - the complete star wars encyclopedia - the essential guide to warfare


| usage and history | survival capsules were emergency escape devices for ships that either were not equipped with standard escape pods or for last second ejection from a ship. survival capsules were large enough to encompass a single occupant and the chair the capsule was attached to. they were made of a tough, yet flexible, material that allowed them to fall from great heights and come to a bouncing landing all while maintaining their structural integrity and protecting the occupant. they were yellow in color with " caution - explosive extrusion " written in red on the sides. once the capsules safely came to rest on a solid surface, the sides of the capsule would burst open to allow the passenger to exit the pod. during the clone wars, anakin skywalker, obi - wan kenobi and ahsoka tano to the felucia system to investigate the lack of communication from the republic medical center stationed there. when they arrived at felucia, they were attacked by vulture droids who succeeded in damaging the jedi ' s unarmed t - 6 shuttle, forcing it to crash on the planet ' s surface. just before the shuttle slammed into a rocky outcropping, they ejected, deploying their survival capsules and bouncing down the huge foliage that covered the surface of the planet. all three jedi ' s capsules came to rest relatively close to each other and the three safely exited the pods. - ( first identified as survival capsule )


kentucky is home to 242, 400 horses and the total value of the state ’ s equine and equine - related assets is estimated at $ 23. 4 billion, according to the 2012 kentucky equine survey. the comprehensive statewide survey of all breeds of horses, ponies, donkeys and mules was the first such study since 1977. conducted between june and october 2012 by the kentucky field office of the national agricultural statistics service, with support and assistance by the university of kentucky college of agriculture and the kentucky horse council, the survey ’ s results identified 35, 000 equine operations and 1. 1 million acres devoted to equine use. the results are a snapshot of the 2011 calendar year. “ the value of kentucky ’ s equine and equine - related assets, such as land and buildings, is significantly larger than other states for which we have data, and it serves to underscore that kentucky is the horse capital of the world, ” said jill stowe, uk associate professor in agricultural economics and project lead. “ upcoming economic impact analysis results will provide even more details regarding the importance of the industry to the state ’ s economy. ” phase 1 of the study was a statewide survey of equine operations that included an inventory of all breeds of equine, including horses, ponies, donkeys and mules. it included a look at sales, income, expenses and assets of those operations. county - level results from phase 1 are expected soon. phase 2 of the project will entail an economic impact analysis of kentucky ’ s equine industry. phase 2 information will be available mid - 2013. with regard to the inventory of kentucky ’ s equine operations, the study determined that 56 percent are farms or ranches and 30 percent are for personal use, while 3 percent are boarding, training or riding facilities. breeding operations accounted for 2 percent. the vast majority of horses inventoried were light horses ( 216, 300 ), followed by donkeys and mules ( 14, 000 ), ponies ( 7, 000 ) and draft horses ( 5, 100 ). thoroughbreds are the most prevalent breed in the state ( 54, 000 ), followed by quarter horses ( 42, 000 ), tennessee walking horses ( 36, 000 ), saddlebreds ( 14, 000 ), donkeys, mules and burros, mountain horse breeds ( 12, 500 ) and standardbreds ( 9, 500 ). “ the university of kentucky study objectively and


36, 000 ), saddlebreds ( 14, 000 ), donkeys, mules and burros, mountain horse breeds ( 12, 500 ) and standardbreds ( 9, 500 ). “ the university of kentucky study objectively and scientifically validates the importance of the horse industry to our state. this may well be the most significant body of work ever undertaken to estimate the economic significance of horses to kentucky, ” said norman k. luba, executive director of the north american equine ranching information council. “ as horse industry enthusiasts, we are indebted to the university of kentucky, the kentucky agricultural development fund and the kentucky horse council. ” the primary use of the majority of kentucky ’ s equines is trail riding / pleasure ( 79, 500 ), followed by broodmares ( 38, 000 ), horses currently idle / not working ( 33, 000 ), competition / show ( 24, 500 ), horses currently growing, including yearlings, weanlings and foals ( 23, 000 ), racing ( 15, 000 ), work / transportation ( 12, 500 ), breeding stallions ( 3, 900 ) and other activities ( 13, 000 ). “ kentucky ' s horse industry is important to a diverse set of people across the commonwealth, from the 9 - year - old 4 - h member with her pony to the retired school teacher who just took up trail riding, ” said anna zinkhon, kentucky horse council board president. “ it is the kentucky horse council ' s goal to keep this industry alive and growing. the kentucky equine survey provides us with the numbers, so we ’ ll know how to develop programs to emphasize strengths as well as work on improving areas of need. it is an important window into the future. ” according to the study, the estimated value of the 242, 400 equines in kentucky is about $ 6. 3 billion. in addition, the estimated value of equine - related assets, including land and buildings, vehicles and equipment, feed and supplies and tack and equestrian clothing, is $ 17. 1 billion, bringing the total value of kentucky ’ s equine and equine - related assets to $ 23. 4 billion. the total of all equine - related sales and income for equine operations in 2011 was about $ 1. 1 billion. that total came from sales of all equines, estimated to be $ 521. 1 million, and $ 491 million in income from services


for 192 palm species, madagascar is the only place on earth - and most probably in the universe - where you can see them growing in the wild. if we don ' t get our act together, the remote possibility of parallel evolution occurring on another planet may be your only option. dr jane smart, global director of the international union for conservation of nature biodiversity conservation group says " the figures on madagascar ' s palms are truly terrifying, especially as the loss of palms impacts the unique biodiversity of the island and its people. this situation cannot be ignored. " dr smart is referring to the latest assessment of rare and threatened species in the world, the red list, which concludes that 83 % of madagascar ' s palms are likely to become extinct if we do nothing about it. all 192 species of palm in madagascar grow there and nowhere else. the vast majority of them, it seems, will be soon be found nowhere ( on earth ). all up, around the world, 65, 518 rare species are included in this latest version of the red list, with 20, 219 of them threatened with extinction. steve bachman from royal botanic gardens, kew has estimated that of the 1325 new plants added, 90 % were provided by kew scientists. these new additions from kew include palms from madagascar and elsewhere, 951 legumes, 14 species from the falklands and others from east africa to peru! the palms in madagascar produced the biggest headline, and with good reason. not only are the statistics shocking in there own right but palms are used to build houses and as food by some of the poorest communities in madagascar. bill baker, our palm expert at kew and leader of the group that reviewed the palm data for this new red list, said that most of madagascar ' s palms grow in rapidly shrinking rain forests on the east of the island. the rainforests are shrinking because they are being cleared for agriculture and logging. back in early 2011 i posted a story on the newly discovered suicide palm. that species is now included in the list for the first time. kew ' s millennium seed bank has already collected and germinated seedlings for reintroduction and to create an ex situ conservation collection. another species, dypsis brittiana, is known from a single location but thought to be relatively well protected in the makira national park. however a survey in 2007 found no remaining plants. it gets classified as critically endangered. a close relative, dypsis tokoravina, is being targeted by seed collectors who


i love this stuff, and while a little weak in evidence, it ’ s a fascinating new look into historical events that many may not have been aware of. and in this case, highlights the influence of two women ( with cleo being very, very, bad ) in major political and military events. a viennese archaeologist lecturing in north carolina this week claims to have identified the bones of cleopatra ’ s murdered sister or half - sister. but not everyone is convinced. that ’ s because the evidence linking the bones, discovered in an ancient greek city, to cleopatra ’ s sibling arsinoe iv is largely circumstantial. a dna test was attempted, said hilke thur, an archaeologist at the austrian academy of sciences and a former director of excavations at the site where the bones were found. however, the 2, 000 - year - old bones had been moved and handled too many times to get uncontaminated results. “ it didn ’ t bring the results we hoped to find, ” thur told the charlotte news - observer. arsinoe iv was cleopatra ’ s younger half - sister or sister, both of them fathered by ptolemy xii auletes, though whether they shared a mother is not clear. ptolemic family politics were tough : when ptolemy xii died, he made cleopatra and her brother ptolemy xiii joint rulers, but ptolemy soon ousted cleopatra. julius caesar took cleopatra ’ s side in the family fight for power, while arsinoe joined the egyptian army resisting caesar and the roman forces. rome won out, however, and arsinoe was taken captive. she was allowed to live in exile in ephesus, an ancient greek city in what is now turkey. however, cleopatra saw her half - sister as a threat and had her murdered in 41 b. c. fast forward to 1904. that year, archaeologists began excavating a ruined structure in ephesus known as the octagon for its shape. in 1926, they revealed a burial chamber in the octagon, holding the bones of a young woman. thur argues that the date of the tomb ( sometime in the second half of the first century b. c. ) and the illustrious within - city location of the grave, points to the occupant being arsinoe iv herself. thur also believes the octagonal shape may echo that of the great lighthouse of alexandria, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. that would make the tomb an homage to arsinoe ’ s hometown, egypt


native americans and the environment this site, created by cultural anthropologist alx v. dark, offers more than 2, 500 links to documents, lesson plans, and websites relating to native american land rights and environmentalism. the site ' s goals are to educate the public on environmental problems in native american communities, to explore values and historical experiences that native americans bring to environmental issues, and to promote conservation measures that respect native american land and resource rights. the site is divided into five sections. the " introduction to the issues " consists of a 2, 500 - word essay by anthropologist david r. lewis on north american indians and the environment in the 20th century. the " bibliography and search " offers a keyword - searchable database of more than 2, 200 print and online sources covering topics like environmental justice, conservation, traditional environmental knowledge, traditional foods, natural resource utilization, land and treaty rights. " internet resources " includes educational resources and an annotated directory of more than 100 sites arranged by north american region and by subject, such as agriculture, horticulture, ranching, cultural and historical issues, fishing, sacred lands and graves, and water rights and dams. the " case studies " section includes only one study, that of the makah whaling conflict in washington state, in which the makah tribe is fighting to return to whale hunting. nine other case studies may be added in the future. though most of this site is geared toward very recent history and contemporary american indian and environmental issues, the " cultural and historical issues " section has links to other sites dealing with american indian history, transcripts of famous speeches from 19th - and 20th - century indian chiefs and prominent american indians, and oral histories from 20th - century american indian environmental activists. this site is a good resource for researching recent american indian history and environmental issues.


preview : the storm that swept mexico examines the mexican revolution on sunday, may 15, 2011, at 10 : 00 p. m. ( check local listings ), pbs presents the storm that swept mexico, a two - part special shown in one evening. made by producer / director raymond telles and producer / archivist kenn rabin, it is an in - depth look at the mexican revolution and its repercussions. it was the first major political and social revolution of the twentieth century, and two major figures emerged from the revolution : zapata ( emiliano zapata ) and pancho villa ( francisco “ pancho ” villa ). an elitist government was one of the many causes of the revolution. what did the revolutionaries want? simple things, like the establishment of long - term democracy, mexico ’ s right to its own natural resources, and a redefinition of mexico itself. since this was the first revolution to be filmed, the storm that swept mexico features archival motion pictures and photographs, as it offers insight into the events that led to the revolution and the influences upon it, such as united states and european foreign policy. the first part of the storm that swept mexico, the tiger is unleashed, documents the fight by francisco i. madero and his followers to end porfirio diaz ’ s dictatorship, and the rise of zapata and villa. the second part, the legacy looks at world influences on the revolution and the positive changes ( art, culture ) that resulted from it. at the time of filming the storm that swept mexico, several veterans were interviewed ; each over 100 years old. also contributing are historians, economists, politicians, journalists, and scholars in the fields of literature, political science, women ’ s studies, and art history, as well as zapata ’ s grandson, emiliano zapata.


professional development resources 2 jan 2013 cover image © 2012 istockphoto. com / contentworks. all rights reserved. used under license. the common core state standards ( ccss ) are changing curriculum planning and classroom instruction in many ways. one significant change involves the difficulty levels of text. in the past, standards documents have referred to proficiency with grade - level texts. however, grade level was not defined. the ccss represents a departure from this practice. standard 10 of the ccss specifically calls for increasing levels of text complexity across the grades to ensure students ’ proficiency with the texts of college and career. this standard affects all students, but it represents a special challenge to english learners. many educators ask what increases in text complexity mean for english learners, many of whom struggle with their current texts. what, then, is text complexity, and how can english learners achieve success with this standard? first, an understanding of what makes texts complex is in order. archaic language, lengthy sentences, new topics, unusual writing styles, unique text structures — these features and many others affect the complexity, and hence the comprehensibility, of text. however, the foremost challenge for english learners is a text ’ s vocabulary ( pasquarella, gottardo, & grant, 2012 ). the syntax of a new language does present obstacles to comprehension ; however, vocabulary is the most significant hurdle when learning a second language. two issues of text matters are devoted to the topic of complex text and english learners. this first issue describes support for english learners in developing strategies and knowledge about the vocabulary of complex texts. the second issue of text matters presents guidelines for selecting appropriate texts that move english learners up the staircase of text complexity. both topics depend on teachers ’ understanding of how english words work. a small group of words — 4, 000 simple word families ( e. g., help, helps, helping, helped, helper ) — accounts for about 90 % of the words in most texts. this vocabulary forms the core of any text, even complex ones. in the exemplars of complex texts listed in appendix b of the ccss, the core vocabulary accounts for 93 % of the grades 2 – 3 exemplars, 92 % of those in grades 4 – 5, 90 % of those in grades 6 – 8 and in grades 9 – 10, and 88 % of those in grade 11 – college and career ready. this text matters focuses on the extended vocabulary — the 300, 000 or more words that account for approximately 10 % of the words


grades 6 – 8 and in grades 9 – 10, and 88 % of those in grade 11 – college and career ready. this text matters focuses on the extended vocabulary — the 300, 000 or more words that account for approximately 10 % of the words in texts. [ readers who are interested in learning more about the core vocabulary can read hiebert ( 2012, 2013 ). ] unlike the words in the core vocabulary, many words in the extended vocabulary appear less than once per every million words of text. consequently, they are often described as rare. when rare words do appear in text, they often are essential to the content and quality of texts. in narrative texts, words in the extended vocabulary often describe the traits of characters and the nuances of plots. in informational texts, they convey specialized terms in chemistry, entomology, and many other topics. the percentage of rare words in a text can vary considerably, even among complex texts ( see table 1 ). an increase of only one or two percent in rare vocabulary can make texts considerably more complex. when viewed from the vantage point of a thousand - word text, a rate of 8 % means the text has about 80 rare words, while a rate of 10 % means that a text has about 100 rare words. an additional two rare words in every 100 words can increase the challenge of a text. the next text matters gives guidelines on appropriate rates of rare words for english learners at different developmental levels. in this issue, the focus is on the extended vocabulary and ways teachers can support english learners in understanding this vocabulary. to help english learners build strong vocabularies, teachers need to focus on general principles and strategies of word learning. they also need to conduct short lessons and discussions about the vocabularies of specific texts. this text matters focuses on the rare vocabulary of literary texts, not that of content - area texts. content - area standards are explicit about the topics and the concepts underlying those topics ( marzano, 2004 ). in that concepts are represented by vocabulary, the critical words in a physics unit are clear within standards and curricula ( e. g., magnetic attraction, repel, polarity ). this vocabulary becomes part and parcel of activities and discussion. words such as magnetic attraction, for example, are used repeatedly as students engage in inquiry with magnets. such clarity is not evident in english / language arts standards where literary texts are the focus ( marzano, 2004 ). literary texts often present rare words that are unique to a particular story. each


used repeatedly as students engage in inquiry with magnets. such clarity is not evident in english / language arts standards where literary texts are the focus ( marzano, 2004 ). literary texts often present rare words that are unique to a particular story. each text has its own rare words. thus, students cannot become proficient in the meaning of these words through repetition. these rare words, however, represent specific elements of stories. an author of a literary text chooses a word intentionally from the extended vocabulary to communicate an action, a social relationship, the feature of a place or event, and the feelings and attitudes of characters. in geeks, for example, katz ( 2000 ) could have used numerous words to describe the condition of the furniture within the apartment of his protagonists. however, by describing the beanbag chair as moldering, readers get a clear idea of the condition of the apartment. just as in mathematics where lessons build understanding for future problem solving, considerable time needs to be spent in developing the linguistic foundation of english vocabulary for the future reading of complex literary texts. this pattern of single - appearing, rare vocabulary does not only appear in narratives, though. it also appears in magazine articles on topics of science, history, and civics to describe traits, features, interactions, and contexts. this style also extends to full - length texts with a literary stance about technology and science ( e. g., geeks ) and history and political science ( e. g., a night to remember ). english learners need to become adept with such vocabulary for a variety of reasons, including the heavy presence of literary texts on assessments. analyses of two grade 6 – 8 texts from the ccss ’ s appendix b exemplar list — geeks and a night to remember ( ntr ) — demonstrate the two types of vocabulary instruction needed for proficient reading of literary texts : ( a ) general principles / strategies and ( b ) lessons with specific texts. both texts typify the literary texts offered as ccss exemplars. both have higher levels of extended vocabulary than other grade 6 – 8 exemplars ( see table 1 ), which is why these texts were selected for illustration in this text matters. analyses of these two texts show that, even in these vocabulary - dense texts, most words fall into particular groups — groups that share underlying features. | content area | | text | | core vocabulary ( % ) | | extended vocabulary ( % ) | | social studies | | a night to remember | | 92. 5 | | 7


words fall into particular groups — groups that share underlying features. | content area | | text | | core vocabulary ( % ) | | extended vocabulary ( % ) | | social studies | | a night to remember | | 92. 5 | | 7. 5 | | narrative of the life of frederick douglass | | 93 | | 7 | | literature | | adventures of tom sawyer | | 90 | | 10 | | dark is rising | | 95 | | 5 | table 2 shows the types of words in these two texts. although there are numerous monosyllabic words, students typically recognize these less - complex words more readily than they do multisyllabic words. without instruction on multisyllabic words, however, students can develop dysfunctional word - recognition strategies. this is why, beginning in the late primary grades, multisyllabic words should receive the lion ’ s share of vocabulary instruction. | a night to remember | | geeks | | total rare words | | 180 ( 11 words per 100 ) | | 157 ( 17 words per 100 ) | | multisyllabic words : proper names | | 23 % | | 8 % | | multisyllabic : compound words | | 16 % | | 16 % | | multisyllabic : remaining | | 8 % of rare words ( 1 word per 100 of entire text ) | | 12 % of rare words ( 2 words per 100 of entire text ) | the multisyllabic words in texts such as geeks or ntr are grist for lessons on four types of words in literary texts. these types of vocabulary contribute to the meaning of the text, but they are not necessarily complex in content. students who are not prepared to deal with this vocabulary will find literary texts difficult. following are the four types of words in literary texts and strategies for helping students understand them. proper names. stories and magazine articles are typically replete with proper names, many of which are difficult to pronounce ( e. g., boise in geeks ). students need to learn that capitalized words within sentences often are proper names and that accurate pronunciation of these words is not a priority. picturable words. research has shown that concrete words that can be represented in pictures are learned more easily than abstract words ( strain, patterson, & seidenberg, 2002 ). using pictures to create a context for a new concrete word ( e. g., smelting ) or to support english learners in relating a known concept with the english label ( e.


strain, patterson, & seidenberg, 2002 ). using pictures to create a context for a new concrete word ( e. g., smelting ) or to support english learners in relating a known concept with the english label ( e. g., necklace ) are especially effective ways to support the vocabulary development of english learners. pictures that illustrate these words will support students ’ recognition much more effectively than extended discussions. sources for images ( with certain copyright restrictions but free and downloadable ) include flickr and wikimedia commons. compound words. compounding of two root words is a primary way in which many new words are added to english. some compound words in geeks illustrate how new words are generated, especially with inventions in fields such as digital technology : software, motherboard, network, upgrade, and playlist. compound words typically have a connection to the root words within them, but they often have idiomatic meanings. as a consequence, compound words with the same headword ( e. g., up in upgrade, uproar, uptown, uptight, upkeep ) cannot be taught in the same way as words from the same morphological family ( e. g., suspicion, suspiciously, unsuspicious ). the upside of compound words is that most headwords ( and often the second word as well ) belong to the core vocabulary. once students learn to use the headword to predict meanings of compound words, their word - recognition vocabularies expand considerably. morphological families. becoming facile with inflected endings and affixes is also a critical part of preparing students for reading complex text. among the 300, 000 words of the extended vocabulary, most belong to morphological word families with an average of approximately four members. lessons on the relationships among members of a morphological family are essential to developing the expectation that words are connected to one another structurally ( e. g., formality, formal, formalize, informal, informally ). such lessons provide students with opportunities to use words in meaningful ways, not simply to memorize the meanings of suffixes and prefixes. even when students have been taught strategies to recognize a high percentage of the words in complex texts, a group of words remains to be learned ( see table 2 ). these words need individual study. lessons on the vocabulary of specific texts have two dimensions : ( a ) an overview of the task and ( b ) instruction on specific words. an overview of the task. the ccss refers to the scaffolding of complex


words need individual study. lessons on the vocabulary of specific texts have two dimensions : ( a ) an overview of the task and ( b ) instruction on specific words. an overview of the task. the ccss refers to the scaffolding of complex texts for challenged readers, but the forms of this scaffolding are not described. frequently, scaffolding has been interpreted as reading a text for students or leading students through a guided reading of the text. however, students need to take responsibility for reading, including initial reads of texts, if they are to improve their comprehension. but teachers also need to give students a realistic view of the challenges of texts by identifying core ( in black ) and extended ( in gray ) vocabulary in samples of text, such as the following : he wasn ’ t just a kid at a computer, but something more, something new, an impresario and an information age ceo, transfixed and concentrated, almost part of the machinery, conducting the digital ensemble that controlled his life. ( katz, 2000, p. 19 ) four days before, she had playfully teased him for putting a life belt in her stateroom, if the ship was meant to be so unsinkable. at the time he had laughed and assured her it was a formality … she would never have to wear it. ( lord, 1955, p. 22 ) one of several text analysis schemes can be used to distinguish between core and extended vocabulary ( e. g., laurence anthony ’ s antwordprofiler software ). next, teachers should address the words for which previously taught strategies should be applicable : proper names, picturable words, compound words, and morphological families. teachers can ’ t review all of the words in these categories, but they can give students examples of words of different types within the text. instruction of specific words in extended clusters. the remaining words become the grist for instruction. in ntr, these remaining words account for approximately one rare multisyllabic word per 100 words of text, including words such as adamant, formality, solicitous, and suspiciously. in geeks, the number of rare multisyllabic words per 100 is two, including words such as alumnus, ensemble, impresario, transfixed, and contemplated. a handful of the most critical words — those that are fundamental to the meaning of the text — can be introduced before students read the text. for example, the unsinkable reputation of the titanic led to particular stances on the part of


. a handful of the most critical words — those that are fundamental to the meaning of the text — can be introduced before students read the text. for example, the unsinkable reputation of the titanic led to particular stances on the part of passengers ( e. g., bewildered, protested, suspicious ) as well as on the part of the crew ( e. g., solicitous, reassuring, adamant ). short lessons on critical vocabulary should also follow the initial reading of a text. in addition, discussions of critical vocabulary are an essential part of the close reading of text. for example, in the segment from geeks above, the author ’ s use of the phrase “ conducting the digital ensemble ” merits discussion, as do words such as dispensable. would the use of disposable, superfluous, unnecessary, or useless have served the same function as dispensable? a final post - reading vocabulary activity asks students to record critical words and their semantic connections ( e. g., the above - mentioned synonyms of dispensable ) and morphological derivatives. for english learners, such records are important as references for writing and as records of what they have learned. a rich vocabulary and strategies that permit students to read texts with new words are essential to comprehending complex text. for english learners, a rich vocabulary and strong strategies result from intentional instruction on the part of their teachers. this intentional instruction is not a one - shot occurrence but rather a sustained effort that focuses on categories of words ( e. g., compound words, picturable words ) and also on words within specific texts, especially words which are part of extended networks of words. common core state standards initiative ( 2010 ). common core state standards for english language arts & literacy in history / social studies, science, and technical subjects. washington, dc : ccsso & national governors association. hiebert, e. h. ( 2013 ). core vocabulary and the challenge of complex text. in s. neuman & l. gambrell ( eds. ), reading research in the age of the common core state standards. newark, de : ira. [ pre - publication version of the chapter is available at http : / / textproject. org / library / articles / core - vocabulary - and - the - challenge - of - complex - text / ] hiebert, e. h. ( 2012 ). core vocabulary : the foundation for successful reading of complex text, text matters 1. 2


exploring creation with astronomy, the first book in apologia ' s young explorers series, is a complete, easy - to - use science course developed for elementary students between the ages of six and twelve. this full - color, hardback volume contains 14 lessons that can be divided into two - week segments, some taking just a little longer to finish. lessons will need to be read to very young children, but fourth graders and above should be able to read them on their own. if you ' re like me, you might find yourself reading right along with them anyway! each child will need his own notebook ( such as a 3 - ring binder ), blank paper, lined paper, and colored pencils to complete each lesson. additional supplies may need to be purchased for the projects and experiments, but most of the supplies are common household items. a complete list of the supplies needed for each lesson can be found at the beginning of the book, which is very helpful for planning ahead. a separate supply kit designed to go with this course can be purchased through a company called " creation sensation, " but it is not necessary. author jeannie k. fulbright writes directly to the students, making the material very appealing to young children. she also uses the immersion approach, which means your children will be spending an entire year on astronomy, giving them in - depth exposure to just one subject. instead of workbooks and tests, exploring creation with astronomy focuses on narratives, notebook work, at least one activity, a fun project, and / or a simple experiment at the end of each lesson. even though it can be tempting to skip time - consuming projects and experiments, they are important for a child ' s understanding of the subject. fortunately, jeannie k. fulbright makes them very parent - friendly by providing clear instructions astronomy comes to life as ms. fulbright sheds light on the many different aspects of god ' s amazing creation. in just one year, you and your children will thoroughly explore the sun, moon, each planet, space rocks, stars and galaxies, and space travel. an informative course website is also provided for further study ; it gives specific links that tell you how to find things in the night sky in your area. science quickly became the family ' s favorite subject, and we all loved trying to find certain constellations and even planets in the sky! i highly recommend exploring creation with astronomy, as it fostered not only the desire in my children to learn about and love science but also the desire in me as well! we liked it


trying to find certain constellations and even planets in the sky! i highly recommend exploring creation with astronomy, as it fostered not only the desire in my children to learn about and love science but also the desire in me as well! we liked it so much that we have continued with the other books in apologia ' s young explorers series. i have searched high and low for a science curriculum that fit our family. we didn ' t want just any old science curriculum ; we wanted a " creation " curriculum! after all, what is science? it is the study of the masterful works of our creator, of course! jeannie fulbright along with apologia has answered prayer with the young explorer series. the volume entitled exploring creation with astronomy dives deep into astronomy. it is a full - color, hardback book that has over 175 pages and includes photos, graphics, an index, and even answers in the back to the posed narrative questions in each lesson. exploring creation with astronomy starts off with an introduction that explains the book, what it ' s about, and the author ' s goals in writing the book. jeannie has a very down - to - earth, simple approach to teaching, making it fun for the whole family. i love the easy - to - read style of her writing. i also so appreciated her explanation of how each chapter is laid out, the purpose of the notebook, explanations of the use of latin words in creation, etc. - - the complete overview was a huge help to me. there is even a website that gives additional helps and tons of extras related to the book! there are 14 lessons in this book. to complete them you will need a notebook, blank paper, lined paper, and some colored pencils. each lesson is broken down into smaller sections, assignments, and " hands on " projects. the projects are really neat, and they actually use things normal folks have in their home on a regular basis. imagine that! i ' ve seen many a science curriculum that assumes you have all kinds of oddball things on hand. it is such a bummer when you get all geared up to do a project with the children and then you realize you don ' t have what it takes to actually complete it! you won ' t find that here. jeannie even includes a supplies list that is broken down by lesson. i love that! the lessons cover such things as the planets, the moon, stars and galaxies, and space travel. each lesson dives deep - - no scratching the surface


. jeannie even includes a supplies list that is broken down by lesson. i love that! the lessons cover such things as the planets, the moon, stars and galaxies, and space travel. each lesson dives deep - - no scratching the surface here! for example, here are just a few of the sections included in lesson 2 : " the star of stars, " " don ' t stare! " " revolve and rotate, " " god ' s love shines brighter, " and " solar eclipse. " the children enjoyed the assignment of writing a speech on why you should not look directly at the sun. i enjoyed the sit - down " read and discuss " aspect. there was an activity involving the use of a magnifying glass and chocolate ( you know they loved that! ). " making a solar eclipse " and " making a pinhole viewing box " were big hits as well. this is just one of the lessons in the book, and i merely described a portion of it. we have really enjoyed using exploring creation with astronomy. as is usually the case with home educating, we ' ve all learned a lot. if you are looking for a rigid textbook approach, this will not be for you. exploring creation with astronomy is well - rounded and fun, and it involves the whole family. we love it! i absolutely recommend the young explorers series from jeannie fulbright and apologia. look for more upcoming reviews on this series!


powered by wind turbines, solar panels, and a biodiesel generator, the ny sunworks science barge ( now in yonkers, new york ) is a model for energy - efficient, sustainable urban farming. using a hydroponic system that requires no dirt, the floating greenhouse uses less water and space than traditional farming in fields. and their state - of - the - art computer technology creates an optimized environment for nourishing tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, basil, lettuce and more, “ with zero net carbon emissions, zero chemical pesticides, and zero runoff. ” it ’ s not only a great educational field trip for school kids from all over the region, but continues to be an example of how growing local food in cities can be fresh, healthy, and sustainable, all while cutting down on transportation costs and fuel needs. from nytimes. com : “ it ’ s a living science lab that on its first level is a demonstration of how we can grow food with fewer resources and that we can produce what we need without damaging the world around us. ” if you want to make your own hydroponic plant - growing experiments, there are kits for kids here and here. or instructables has written out steps for making your own hydroponic system using stuff around the house. if you ’ re in the new york area, visit the science barge!


the bbc was present at the convention doing some great work with archives. george wright, head of prototyping, bbc research and development and his team are working with sixty years worth of world service archives, that ’ s around 500 terrabytes of audio. the aim of the work is to help users find what they need more easily. the historical importance of the collection is considerable and it will become far more useful once it has been properly tagged with data that is searchable. the archives have almost no metadata, so the team has created a speech recognition system which goes through the archive and adds tags so that users can navigate. along with the machine recognition, listeners are volunteering to correct and add tags to ensure that it is all correct. the r & d team at the bbc built its speech recognition system on top of existing open source software. the audio from bbc world service has its own idiosyncracies that make speech recognition a tricky prospect for accuracy. if you have heard past broadcasts from the global radio network, you ’ ll spot that people spoke english in a quite different way in the 50s in comparison with the language used today. add this to the difficulties in recognising proper nouns and foreign words and you can see what the software is up against. once the material is tagged properly, it can be used in a number of ways for re - broadcasting, primary source research and to add value to future broadcasts. the archive material is mostly programming and features rather than news reports, but the standard of interviews and the historical value of the archive is unquestionable. check out the video where wright describes the process of tagging audio and how the bbc ’ s history and future has a strong tradition of collaboration and engineering. you can find more of our video coverage and catch up with the future of broadcasting from ibc here.


| born | | 1 / 8 / 1821 in edgefield district, south carolina | | died | | 1 / 2 / 1904 in gainesville, georgia | james longstreet ( january 8, 1821 – january 2, 1904 ) was one of the foremost confederate generals of the american civil war and the principal subordinate to general robert e. lee, who called him his " old war horse. " he served under lee as a corps commander for many of the famous battles fought by the army of northern virginia in the eastern theater, but also with gen. braxton bragg in the army of tennessee in the western theater. biographer and historian jeffry d. wert wrote that " longstreet... was the finest corps commander in the army of northern virginia ; in fact, he was arguably the best corps commander in the conflict on either side. " longstreet ' s talents as a general made significant contributions to the confederate victories at second bull run, fredericksburg, and chickamauga, in both offensive and defensive roles. he also performed strongly during the seven days battles, the battle of antietam, and until he was seriously wounded, at the battle of the wilderness. his performance in semiautonomous command at knoxville, tennessee, resulted in a confederate defeat. his most controversial service was at the battle of gettysburg, where he disagreed with general lee on the tactics to be employed and reluctantly supervised the disastrous infantry assault known as pickett ' s charge. he enjoyed a successful post - war career working for the u. s. government as a diplomat, civil servant, and administrator. however, his conversion to the republican party and his cooperation with his old friend, president ulysses s. grant, as well as critical comments he wrote in his memoirs about general lee ' s wartime performance, made him anathema to many of his former confederate colleagues. authors of the lost cause movement focused on longstreet ' s actions at gettysburg as a primary reason for the confederacy ' s loss of the war. his reputation in the south was damaged for over a century and has only recently begun a slow reassessment. born on january 8, 1821, in the edgefield district of south carolina, not far from augusta, longstreet always considered himself a georgian. his parents, mary anna dent and james l. longstreet, owned a cotton plantation in northeast georgia, where as a boy he thrived in the rough frontierlike conditions. at the age of nine, longstreet moved


georgian. his parents, mary anna dent and james l. longstreet, owned a cotton plantation in northeast georgia, where as a boy he thrived in the rough frontierlike conditions. at the age of nine, longstreet moved to richmond county to live with his uncle augustus baldwin longstreet and to attend the prestigious richmond county academy. the death of longstreet ' s father in 1833 and his mother ' s subsequent move to north alabama intensified augustus longstreet ' s influence over the young man. when the time came to choose a career, longstreet gained an appointment to the u. s. military academy in west point, new york, with the help of his uncle and other influential politicians, including john c. calhoun. strong, independent, and gruff in speech and manners, longstreet dreamed of a soldier ' s life. after graduation from the academy in 1842, he served in the mexican war and on the frontier. but secession and the confederacy ultimately defined longstreet ' s military career, as he rose to the rank of general and second - in - command of robert e. lee ' s army of northern virginia. he later became the scapegoat for that army ' s most costly defeat. confederate " war horse " the civil war defined longstreet ' s life. although he played but a minor role in the first battle of manassas, fought in virginia in july 1861, he won the admiration of his superiors. under joseph e. johnston, longstreet turned in one of his worst performances at the battle of seven pines in virginia on may 31, 1862. johnston ' s wounding during that battle required longstreet to prove himself anew to johnston ' s successor, robert e. lee. his solid performance during the seven days battles on virginia ' s peninsula earned him lee ' s trust, as evidenced by his appointment as lee ' s senior lieutenant in command of the army of northern virginia ' s i corps. a few months after assuming army command, lee referred to his senior subordinate as his " old war - horse. " longstreet performed admirably in his new role. his i corps delivered a crushing flank attack at second manassas ; fought desperately along the bloody lane in antietam, maryland ; and bloodily repulsed the union assaults against the heights of fredericksburg, virginia, in 1862. it was his actions at the battle of gettysburg, fought in pennsylvania in july 1863, that haunted longst