question stringlengths 14 1.69M | answer stringlengths 1 40.5k | meat_tokens int64 1 8.18k |
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below, is that some process can start at one point in space and then progressively spread, doing the same thing at every point it reaches.
Another mechanism is that every part of a system can<|fim_middle|> and a cellular automaton.
Uniformity in space can be achieved almost trivially if each element in a system independently evolves to the same state.
Class 1 cellular automata that exhibit evolution to a uniform state, as discussed in Chapter 6.
Averaging out small-scale randomness yields apparent uniformity, as shown here for a rule 30 pattern. | evolve completely independently to the same state, as in the second set of pictures below.
A slightly less straightforward mechanism is illustrated in the third set of pictures below. Here different elements in the system do interact, but the result is still that all of them evolve to the same state.
So far all the mechanisms for uniformity I have mentioned involve behavior that is in a sense simple at every level. But in nature uniformity often seems to be associated with quite complex microscopic behavior. Most often what happens is that on a small scale a system exhibits randomness, but on a larger scale this randomness averages out to leave apparent uniformity, as in the fourth set of pictures below.
Homogenous growth from a single point is one straightforward way that uniformity in space can be produced, here illustrated in a mobile automaton | 161 |
CNS Awards Richard G. Ellenbogen, MD, with 2017 Distinguished Service Award
Boston, Mass. October 18, 2017 – The Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) is proud to announce Dr. Richard G. Ellenbogen of the University of Washington as the recipient of the 2017 CNS Distinguished Service Award. This award was presented during the 64th Annual Meeting of the CNS held at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.
The Distinguished Service Award is the most prestigious award that the Congress of Neurological Surgeons can bestow on an individual. Dr. Ellenbogen was specifically selected because of his critical and fundamental contributions to the specialty of neurological surgery and the broader medical community.
"The award recognizes that his work has indelibly shaped the field through the improved care of patients, the enriched training of neurosurgeons, outstanding leadership and scientific advancement," said Russell Lonser, MD, CNS past president, and a member of the award's selection committee. "In short, Dr. Ellenbogen represents the best of neurosurgery both in his contributions, as well as character."
Dr. Ellenbogen's selection was the unanimous decision of the award selection committee and underscores the profound impact that he has had on neurosurgery and the<|fim_middle|> (2006). He is also a recipient of the Bronze Star for his service during Operation Desert Storm/Desert Shield serving as Commander of the 252nd Medical (Neurosurgical)/XVIII Airborne Corp. Prior to his arrival at the University of Washington in 1997, Dr. Ellenbogen was selected as the first chairman of the combined Neurosurgical Residency Programs of Bethesda Naval Hospital and Walter Reed Army Medical Center. | respect that he commands across our field. Dr. Ellenbogen is the co-chairmen of the National Football League's (NFL) Head, Neck and Spine Committee, where he advises the League on best practices and research trends. His efforts in this area, including work on the NFL's $100 million investment in concussion/chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) research, has earned him special recognition from across the neurosurgical and athletic fields.
Outside of his work with the University of Washington and the NFL, Dr. Ellenbogen conducts significant research work with the National Institutes of Health (NIH). His NIH research projects have covered two disparate topics. He has been funded to study the CSF physiology, MRI anatomy and clinical presentation of patients with Chiari malformations, and is on an NIH contract to study the application of nanotechnology to targeted molecular therapies and molecular imaging of pediatric brain tumors.
Dr. Ellenbogen is a past president of the CNS | 200 |
We employ, for<|fim_middle|> Cmcm space group, with the ordered nitrogen ions stabilizing the orthorhombic analogue of the monoclinic anosovite structure, β-Ti3O5. The lattice parameters are sensitive to composition, but were determined to be a = 3.8040(1) �, b = 9.6486(6) �, and c = 9.8688(5) � for Ti2.85(2)O4N. Powder samples were prepared through delamination of the thin films for synchrotron X-ray diffraction and magnetic measurements. It is the first example of a new phase to be synthesized using such a combinatorial CVD approach and clearly demonstrates how such techniques can provide access to new materials. This metastable phase with unusual nitrogen geometry has proved to be elusive to conventional solid-state chemistry techniques and highlights the value of the surface growth mechanism present in CVD. Furthermore, the ease and speed of the synthesis technique, combined with rapid routes to characterization, allow for large areas of phase space to be probed effectively. These results may have major implications in the search for new complex mixed-anion phases in the future. © 2007 American Chemical Society. | the first time, a unique combinatorial chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique to isolate a previously unreported transition-metal mixed-anion phase. The new oxynitride phase, Ti3-δO 4N (where 0.06 < δ < 0.25), is the first example of a complex titanium oxynitride and was synthesized within composition graduated films formed from atmospheric pressure CVD of TiCl4, NH3, and ethyl acetate. Characterization was performed by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV-visible spectra, and SQUID magnetometry. The material crystallizes in the | 135 |
Overall good walk this morning, the air was little more humid<|fim_middle|>18. | .
Saw the "man in the moon" (side view) this morning. I'm sure I've seen it before, but it was especially clear this morning, kind of a 1/3 moon and a side view of a sharp nose, a somewhat menacing grin and a sharp chin.
Perhaps I assumed the "menacing" part of the grin, but it was definitely there.
I started to stop and take a picture, but didn't think it would come out that good plus it costs me time on my walk! I'll check around and see if I can find some pictures of it in the "pose"!
Otherwise walk seemed to be comfortable although my pace was 30 seconds slower than my goal. For some reason I thought i was going faster than that, but I guess that is why I document it!
I got an answer on my "when to use too, or to". Aliene advised me that I use "too" when I could also use "also", which makes sense! I especially like simple rules that are easy to remember!
Speaking of "remembering", I just realized yesterday that I was off a year on when I was in Denver fro my second Summer in Denver. Last year was actually the anniversary year. Doesn't matter, memories are still the same!
This weekend we had our semi-annual "birthday party" for family members (for the first six months). We originally did it quarterly when we lived in Tennessee as a way of keeping up with everyone and continued it on a semi-annual basis.
I recently learned about the sudden death of (Tennessee House) Representative Ron Lollar.
Representative Lollar was my Representative in Tennessee and he was the classic Politician whose performance and ethics made one proud to be a Politician. His total goal was representing and helping his constituents as well as he could and he did well.
When I went to Nashville (the State Capital) on city business, he literally took me under his wing and showed me the grand tour. He was one of those people who "never met a stranger" and, if you were, you weren't a stranger long!
I don't think he ever wanted anything from the job other than the opportunity to sever the people he represented and he did it well.
I won't go into his successes except to say he achieved things that no one thought he had a chance of achieving except him.
He followed his passion and I admired him for his tireless passion in working towards improving his District and the State of Tennessee.
I had the rare opportunity to work with a class act, Representative Ron Lollar, and I know the people of Tennessee will miss him and long honor him for his achievements for his district and the State of Tennessee.
That's it for now, Monday, July 9, 20 | 569 |
Dolný les is a national nature reserve in the Slovak municipality of Vysoká pri Morave in the Malacky District. The nature reserve covers an area of 186.26 ha of the Borská lowland area. It has a protection level of 4 under the slovak nature protection system. The nature reserve is part of the Záhorie Protected Landscape Area.
Description
The Dolný les nature reserve was declared in 1981 by the ministry of<|fim_middle|>on.
References
Geography of Bratislava Region
Protected areas of Slovakia | culture of the Slovak Socialist Republic. It consists of 3 parts with the largest part in the north and 2 smaller parts around 300m more to the south, separated from each other and the main part by meadows. The protected area was declared for the protection of regularly inundated soft-wood floodplain forest with willows, poplars, sporadic plants and typical animal species.
Fauna
Birds living in the nature reserve include the black-headed gull, the great reed warbler and the grey her | 109 |
Families can<|fim_middle|> additions to your family. | grow in many ways. New babies can be added to families by birth, adoption or marriage. Whatever the circumstances, a new addition is often an adjustment for children who are already in the family. Older siblings, regardless of their age, sometimes worry about the new baby taking their place and struggle as mom and dad have to divide their time and attention to meet everyone's needs.
For parents, the arrival of a new baby means the family grows and all members are loved and cherished. Parents often hope their children will see things the way they do, but kids many view the world through a lens colored with their own worries or ideas. Some children may even have fantasies that the new family member is somehow better or more important, especially because he or she takes more of their parents' time and attention.
The best way to prevent, or at least dispel, fantasies and worries about your family's changing dynamics is to keep discussions open and on the table, making yourself available to listen to whatever topics or feelings — positive or negative — your child wants to share with you. It's easy to assume that children who aren't bringing things up don't have any worries, but it is often quite the contrary — children think about much more than they talk about.
Children are more likely to approach their parents with their worries if they feel their parents can listen in an open and nonjudgmental way. It is equally important not to push these conversations. Let your child know you are available and he or she will come to you when the time feels right.
While the general guidance we have given holds true for blended families as well, there are additional factors to consider when helping young children in blended families prepare for the arrival of a new baby.
Most children in blended families, with help and support from both sets of parents, are able to comfortably spread their time between two homes. Still, for many children, there remains a sense of missing out when they spend time away from one home, and changes in the home that occur in their absence can be stark reminders to them that life goes on whether they are there or not. This is an important consideration when helping children in blended families adjust to the addition of a new baby.
Every family is unique. Young children define family by what they know and feel in their own families, so whether yours consists of two parents and children, or also includes stepchildren, adopted children, grandchildren or any other variation, make time to talk to your child(ren) about what makes your growing family special.
Strong families talk and support each other through challenging times. The addition of a new baby can provide wonderful opportunities to teach your children valuable lessons, as well as reassure them that the important things will stay the same despite changes and | 549 |
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By Debayan Sen
Expanded Club World Cup could replace Confederations Cup - Infantino
Real Madrid lifted the Club World Cup last year.
KOLKATA, India -- An expanded Club World Cup could replace the Confederations Cup as part of a revised calendar that FIFA will examine, president Gianni Infantino says.
Infantino told reporters after a FIFA council meeting on Friday that both club and international competitions will be reviewed as part of a revised calendar that FIFA will consider at their next council meeting in March.
The Club World Cup, played annually in December, features the winners of the six continental confederations' cup winners, along with one team from the host country. The European and South American clubs enter the competition in the semifinals.
"We have the Club World Cup coming up in UAE. We have to look at the future of this competition," Infantino said. "[We must remember the] world being not just Europe and South America, but the whole world.
"Different ideas and models -- how many teams<|fim_middle|> year before the World Cup in the host nation, will be taken into consideration to see if there is a better alternative.
"It's in the calendar, as part of the overall analysis of the competition -- one option would be to, instead of Confederations Cup, to play a club competition, so there's no additional dates and burdens and we do something different to develop club football.
"That's an idea. We will discuss it and we will decide in March next year."
FIFA will examine combining the Under-17 and Under-20 World Cups into one competition.
India, who have been commended by FIFA for the successful organisation of the U-17 World Cup ahead of the England-Spain final on Saturday, have bid for the right to host the 2019 U-20 World Cup, and Infantino said this competition two years later could be the last of its kind.
"We have started consultations on other strategic competitions, including youth competitions for after 2020," Infantino said. "We will discuss increasing the number of teams to 48 in men's and 24 for women's World Cups. Maybe have just one U-19 or U-18 for men's rather than U-20 and U-17.
"We are also looking at co-hosting, so that smaller associations are able to host part of the events."
When asked if India could hope to win the rights to host the U-20 World Cup in two years' time, Infantino said the decision would be taken early next year.
"This year, there have been two World Cups in Asia -- South Korea [U-20] and India [U-17]. We have received several requests from countries around the world for 2019. This will be analysed by the FIFA administration and presented to the council.
"After 2019, we might change the format of all the competitions and there can be many opportunities for many countries -- big countries and smaller ones to organise the World Cup."
Infantino also said that Olympic team rosters could be larger at the 2020 Tokyo Games, as he believes a squad of 18 players was too small for several games in a tournament running less than three weeks.
Blog - FIFA | and how to fit it into the international match calendar? We have to tackle the challenges and see what is the best approach. Maybe abolish some competitions to add another one."
Infantino said the future of the Confederations Cup, played quadrennially the | 51 |
On<|fim_middle|> it turns out we are directly descended from Anne Boleyns aunt Margaret Boleyn and the Sackville family! There you go, officially descended from royalty......!!
Performers Alliance at the Houses of Parliament.
Soundcheque featured artist of the week! | Saturday I had the pleasure of performing a special show for one of my most staunch supporters, the Radford family. Mark and his family kindly donated towards my Kickstarter campaign for the new EP, and part of their pledge included a live show just for them. I have to say it was really lovely meeting them, and also exploring our family connections as Mark discovered me through the genealogy website 'Ansestry' (it turns out we're fourth cousins!). Not only did they enjoy the music (thankfully! Always nerve racking when planning to fans who know all your songs, and lyrics!) but we also had a chance to talk about our family connection with none other than the Boleyn family!! Yes, | 143 |
I think that<|fim_middle|> to hear you had such a wonderful experience, can't wait to hear your feedback on different flavors and combinations.
I just had my first smoothie from there the other day, and it was delicious, refreshing in the 100 degree heat, and only 3 bucks! | I may have found my summertime obsession. Berry Freeze (located in the Coolidge Corner section of Brookline) could be categorized as just another place serving the oh so popular tart frozen yogurt. There does seem to be a rash of them popping up all over the city. However, this isn't just another place at all. This place is awesome.
The first thing that makes this place awesome- it's self serve-completely self serve. You choose your cup size, choose your flavor, and help your self to as much or as little as you want. THEN-the best part in my opinion, you help yourself to toppings-and they have QUITE the selection. As many different varieties as you want, in the varying quantities you prefer-all your own decision.
The second thing that makes this thing awesome- its all priced on weight- $.35 per ounce. Not a bad deal for you to help your self and compliment your flavor selection with the toppings you prefer.
Finally, the third awesome thing- the yogurt is only 100 calories for 3.5 ounces. Those are some numbers I can deal with.
My first experience at Berry Freeze, I helped myself to a small cup, selected coconut as my flavor choice and added a small twirl of yogurt to my cup. Then I helped myself to sliced kiwi fruit, bananas, strawberries, walnuts, and for a little decadence- a sprinkle of a few chocolate chips. The yogurt was extremely cold (great for those extremely hot summer days you know are on their way), and had great coconut flavor without seeming over done. The toppings were fresh and delicious-they even managed to keep the banana from turning brown! All in all this was a very tasty treat on one of the first summer like days of the spring. I can't wait to return and try new flavor combinations!
Oooh, LOVE a DIY froyo place. I'm a huge toppings person. I'm going to have to try it out soon . . . thanks for the heads up!
Such a timely post! I haven't been to Berry Freeze yet, but I am on the prowl for some good, local ice cream and frozen yogurt spots - thanks for the heads up!
Absolutely ladies!! It's a great spot and self serve was an awesome feature!!
i've been meaning to check this place out. it's in my neighborhood. now i have even more incentive. thanks for your post.
Thanks! Great | 497 |
Good morning! This week's 52 Christmas Card Thorwdown is a color challenge. I have the color chart posted below for you. I decided to go with pink, brown, and white, what a fun color challenge!
I made brown and pink mittens, stamping them using chocolate chip and pretty in pink ink and then punched them out using the mitten punch and I glued the pink parts of the mittens on top of my punched out chocolate chip mittens. I have the mittens placed on my card using dimensionals. I did add a tiny dot or two of glue on the twine that I have placed between the mittens. I did that to hold the twine in place and you only need one or two drops.
I used the window die to cut out the mitten background shape and I also did some faux stitching along the edge of the chocolate chip layer. I used the adorning accents edgelits for my scallop layer towards the bottom of my card. I also added a row of paper piercing at the bottom of my card. My white background layers are dry embossed using the perfect polka dot embossing folder.
I wanted to quickly give you a tip on how I made my sentiment layer. I first cut out a 3/4" strip of card stock and then I stamped my sentiment. To make the notched (banner) side of my sentiment panel I used a 1" square punch and I notched out the end. It's so easy to make banner panels this way and I never have to worry about getting the points even. If you have a larger banner simply use a large square punch, if you have a smaller, more narrow banner then use a smaller square punch.
Have a great weekend everyone! I'm on my way to help my son's Boy Scout toop make their hoagies that they sold for their fund raiser. Thanks for stopping by!
This is such a lovely color combination! The twine for your mittens is such a fab detail, and the stitching looks great! Great clean layout!
So your tip is going to save me a ton of time. I always cut the notch by hand....so silly! Your card is beautiful and I am loving that mitten set! Gorgeous!!!
Wow, this is a gorgeous card. Adorable those little mittens<|fim_middle|>'ve thought to use pink & brown for Christmas?!!! Excellent layout & texture too....TFS!!! | !
Thank you so very much for the lovely comment on my card.
What a sweet card! Those are some of my favorite colors together.
Now this is my kind of card! I LOVE the colors used here...who would | 45 |
Stanek on F3 title showdown: 'I want to look back and know I did the maximum to win'
ROMAN STANEK
Roman Stanek has made the most of Trident's form in the second half of the 2022 Formula 3 season to supplant himself into the title fight after an 'up and down' campaign as the Czech driver describes it himself.
A<|fim_middle|> understanding his weaknesses and addressing them constructively along with collaborating with the team where possible has unlocked another level for him.
"I feel that if I am weak in something, it's not that I'm saying I cannot do it, I'm trying to find the solution for every weakness I have. For example, if my neck is weak, I don't say 'oh, my neck is weak', I start to train it and work on it. That's how it is.
"Working hard is the key because really the guys are working hard, and we are working hard also as drivers together with them. So that's one of the biggest points. Never underestimate the preparation for the race, never underestimate any preparation."
Outscored at Zandvoort by the two drivers ahead of him in the Championship standings, Stanek says that it hasn't affected his outlook on the finale or his game plan heading into the final races.
READ MORE: Bearman on F3 title showdown: 'Keep a cool head and no silly risks'
For the Trident man, he knows the car he has underneath him is good enough for victory so it will be about delivering under pressure, but most importantly, racing as well as he knows he can. One more special weekend for Stanek and he may well surprise once again come the Feature Race chequered flag.
"My expectations for Monza haven't changed with the title on the line. It's always to make the best possible race and to extract the best out of me and out of the car. I don't focus on the points, don't focus on position either. I'll just try to be as close to the perfect last lap as possible. So, we'll push and enjoy the last weekend. I want to be able to say that I did my best when I look back after the race weekend. I'm really looking forward to Monza, it's one of my favourite tracks, so let's go!" | stuttering start in Sakhir was fully addressed the following round at Imola, winning the Feature Race to jump right back into title contention. Since then, his season has simmered but never really reignited to that same level. And yet, Stanek's solid drives and consistent points-scoring results mean that with one round to go, he is leading the Trident charge in the Drivers' Championship.
"I want to say a big thanks to Trident for working hard every single day for us, they are doing an amazing job. We knew we had the pace already from the beginning, it's been a season with ups and downs but I'm enjoying it and we are going to do the last race as a title contender.
READ MORE: Bruno Michel's Debrief: It will be an edge-of-your-seat finale at Monza
"Let's do the maximum we can do out from it, and we see where we are from there, but I'm pretty sure if we can continue the momentum we've have had the whole season, it will be good."
Just three non-scores since Round 1 in Bahrain leaves Stanek on 109 points, chasing down Victor Martins' 126 total. His results are tied as the second-best run of form heading into Monza, with only Isack Hadjar threading together a more consistent points-scoring run.
While other drivers have enjoyed more regular appearances on the rostrum, a double podium at Spa-Francorchamps came at the perfect moment for Stanek. As rivals faltered on Friday during Qualifying, the Trident driver capitalised to maximise the damage. His back-to-back second places in the Sprint and Feature Races put him right into the mix.
Those results were built from his one-lap work, something that the Trident driver says has been a critical and successful element for him and his teammates all season long. The team's focus on one-lap speed has been a huge factor in the results says Stanek.
"One of our strong points is Qualifying. I know sometimes I was not there on top, but this was just because of luck. For example, at Zandvoort, I had the Red Flag while I was on a very good lap. Same at the Red Bull Ring, I was on a very good lap and then a Red Flag came out.
"Qualifying is strong. We're really prepared on that one lap because Qualifying is 50% of the weekend. It's where you start for Sunday, which is very important. So yeah, that's been very good. Our preparation for the races has also been very good and very strong."
If there is one area that Stanek believes he has maximised in 2022 when compared to his previous years in racing, it is the pre-race preparation he does.
A renewed focus on extracting every element of performance he can ahead of a race weekend is something he tributes to his strong position and results this year.
With one final weekend to prepare for, Stanek says that | 617 |
Krause Manufacturing is the industry leading<|fim_middle|> systems that perform at optimum capacity and reliability.
Contact us today to discuss your C&D recycling needs! | manufacturer of heavy-duty automated C&D sorting systems, with a reputation built on top quality heavy-duty construction, unrivaled durability and superior customer service.
Our construction waste systems are built to process and efficiently separate wood, metals, cardboard, plastics, concrete, brick, carpet, aggregate, mixed rock and more. With Krause Manufacturing, you can be sure that you are getting the best C&D recycling system for your money—one that will provide the highest value and the highest return on investment over the lifetime of your equipment, which is a very, very long time.
Krause is constantly leading, raising not only the technology bar in the industry—but most importantly—separation efficiency for our clients. Our engineering expertise delivers automated C&D | 147 |
FSU women put away Wake
Written by Bob Ferrante in Women's sports
Morgan Jones scored 14 points in FSU's 7was 8-67 win on Thursday. (photo by Mike Olivella)
Florida State shook off a sluggish start to pull away with a resounding win.
Nicki Ekhomu scored 23 points – on 10 of 14 shooting – while Kiah Gillespie had 15 points and five rebounds as the Seminoles defeated Wake Forest 78-67 on Thursday night. Ekhomu scored 18 second-half points.
Morgan Jones scored 12 of her 14 points in the second half, finishing 7 of 11 shooting for the Seminoles (21-5, 10-5 ACC). It is the sixth straight year that FSU has double-digit ACC wins.
FSU coach Sue Semrau and the staff coached barefoot to bring awareness and raise money for Samaritan's Feet, a charity that helps provide shoes to those in need locally and internationally.
Thursday's attendance was 2,771, and Semrau will<|fim_middle|> what he means to me, and just watching his organization and understanding his story," said Semrau. "There is nothing greater than to be able to take your eyes off basketball and put them on something that is so critical to people's well-being. I will add the band in there, and I told them three grand was coming his way."
FSU was an efficient 33 of 58 (56.9 percent) from the floor.
The Seminoles trailed 30-29 at the half but held Wake to just 10 of 29 (34.5 percent) in the third and fourth period combined.
The Seminoles next play at Georgia Tech on Sunday at 4 p.m. (ACC Network). FSU finishes the regular season with home games against Clemson on Feb. 27 and Notre Dame on March 4.
FSU trying out options at 1B, 3B
Men's golf to host six top-50 teams in Seminole Intercollegiate | round up to donate $3,000 towards Samaritan's Feet.
"It really means a lot. This is the tenth year in a row that I have been able to bring awareness to an amazing cause. Manny (Ohonme) is here today with his son, and just | 58 |
Learn how to harness the power of your KitchenAid® Stand<|fim_middle|> in seasonal and sustainable cooking. She has written several cookbooks, including Kitchen Garden Cookbook and Salad for Dinner. Bon Appétit has published more than 1,000 of her recipes and hundreds more have appeared in Cooking Light and Fine Cooking magazines. | Mixer for better, easier meals, from dinner to dessert.
Get the most from your stand mixer with expert guidance from cookbook author Jeanne Kelley. First, discover that quick treats don't have to be store-bought, as Jeanne shows you how to create a simple tart crust and lightning-fast sugar cookies. Then, whip up fluffy Italian meringue and decadent buttercream frosting and make delightfully addictive cheese puffs for a savory snack. Moving on, let your mixer do the dirty work as you learn to make dough for a rustic three-cheese pizza and a honey whole-wheat, cinnamon pull-apart loaf! Next, discover how easy it is to make homemade pappardelle and fettuccine pastas, and follow them with homemade meatballs and flavorful sausages —-- all made fresh in your mixer. Finally, put your mixer's freezer bowl to use for refreshing orange blossom sorbet or salted caramel ice cream that are as easy to make as they are delicious.
Meet cookbook author Jeanne Kelley and get started mixing, mashing, blending and creaming with your mixer's paddle attachment. Make a speedy carrot-yam mash, throw together a quick tart crust or make lightning-fast sugar cookies. Last-minute treats don't have to be store-bought!
Jeanne Kelley is an edible garden expert and food writer who specializes | 273 |
Q: How to give my C# app administrative rights? manifest file I'm having some trouble with my C# app that uses win32_networkingadapterconfig. The problem is that I can't use the altering functions in win32_networkingadapterconfig when I use the app on a user that dont have admin rights. I have tried to "run as administrator", but no luck. And I have tried to make a manifestfile with this content in the trustInfo part:
<security>
<applicationRequestMinimum>
<PermissionSet class="System.Security.PermissionSet" version="1" Unrestricted="true" ID="Custom" SameSite="site" />
<defaultAssemblyRequest permissionSetReference="Custom" />
</applicationRequestMinimum>
<requestedPrivileges xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
<requestedExecutionLevel level="requireAdministrator" uiAccess="false" />
</requestedPrivileges>
</security>
Enable clickone security settings are set to full trust. What am I doing wrong ?
A: There's a "trustinfo" dangling in your snippet. Make it look like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<asmv1:assembly manifestVersion="1.0" xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" xmlns:asmv1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" xmlns:asmv2="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v2" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<assemblyIdentity version="1.0.0.0" name="MyApplication.app"/>
<trustInfo xmlns="<|fim_middle|>.
Possible Problem 1
What are your UAC settings? As detailed in Create and Embed an Application Manifest (UAC)
if you have UAC disabled and you request administrator permissions the
Application might launch but will fail later
Possible Problem 2
There could be something wrong else where in the manifest as the assembly information is required. Posting your whole manifest would help.
Possible Problem 3
You have added the applicationRequestMinimum node which is not required for UAC escalation. It may be worth dropping that and trying again.
| urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v2">
<security>
<requestedPrivileges xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
<requestedExecutionLevel level="requireAdministrator" uiAccess="false" />
</requestedPrivileges>
</security>
</trustInfo>
</asmv1:assembly>
A: There are a number of possible issues which I have listed in the order I suspect is most likely to less likely | 96 |
Avid Life Media, a global leader<|fim_middle|>) of 472%. | in the online dating niche, expressed a desire to increase site memberships while not dramatically increasing their advertising budget. The overall aim - to increase their current customer base.
A dynamically innovative digital media suite that allows users to be retargeted based on the ad they saw last and spent the most time viewing. This was done by introducing a contextual campaign to increase reach by showing prospective audiences the current, and most popular ad. In addition to that, we applied daily and lifetime frequency caps specific to each user in order to prevent overexposure.
Click Through Rate (CTR) of 2.95% achieved, which generated a number of new sales. In the campaign's inaugural month of activity the Cost Per Action (CPA) was reduced by 35%, surpassing the client's target. February 2013 saw post-click revenue – (generated by both dynamic retargeting and the RTB prospecting campaign) – produce a Return on Investment (ROI | 195 |
In his book Qigong Fever: Body, Science, and Utopia in China author David A. Palmer states that Chinese Qigong "Master Yan Xin went to the U.S. White House eight times to give energy treatments to President Bush, Sr., which gives some explanation to Bush's paratroop jump in his 80s!"
When I first read this I thought "<|fim_middle|> quickest ways to guarantee oneself a lifetime of security and comfort in China today is to demonstrate a gift for fa-chi, 'emitting chi', for such practitioners are in great demand among the wealthy and powerful elite in China."
So, my best guess based upon the evidence available is that US leaders heard about the efficacy of Chinese energy healing treatments and enlisted one of the top Chinese energy healing practitioners to treat President Bush Sr.
And from the Congressional Record snippet above and the photo of President Clinton above, it's my guess that Dr. Yan Xin treated President Clinton and President George W. Bush also.
Could Dr. Yan Xin or one of his students be treating President Obama as well? | Can this be true?" Then I wondered if there was any other evidence that might support this claim.
Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the contributions and achievements of Professor Yan Xin on the twelfth anniversary of the professor's introduction of the ''Yan Xin Life Science Technology'' to the American public. Working as a physician, a professor and a scientist, Professor Yan Xin has had an integral role in major breakthroughs in experimental research, which have led to new methods of preventing disease and promoting the health of humankind.
Professor Yan Xin has long been recognized as a leader in the fight against cancer, AIDS, and diseases associated with the aging process. He has been certified as a chief physician by the Ministry of Health in China and has conducted collaborative research with several world-renowned research institutes and universities. Professor Yan Xin has been a blessing to both his colleagues and those who have benefited from his healing, so much so that Presidents George H.W. Bush, William J. Clinton and George W. Bush have all met with him personally and praised his work.
The key to Professor Yan Xin's success is his ability to combine modern scientific procedures with traditional healing and fitness methods. Yan Xin Life Science Technology utilizes elements of traditional Chinese culture such as acupuncture and medicines derived from natural products, then incorporates Western health treatments and the research of Professor Yan Xin and his peers in the modern scientific community. This blend of intuitive and empirical thinking serves as an example for all of those who are working [to] improve the lives of others.
Mr. Speaker, I commend Professor Yan Xin both personally and on behalf of all those whose lives have been improved as a result of his work. Professor Yan Xin's career is far from over, and we can all look forward to continuing successes in his many areas of expertise."
Dr. Yan Xin with President Bill Clinton in 2000.
Dr. Yan Xin with President George Bush in 1990.
And here's a quote on Dr. Yan Xins' website that says "President George Bush praised him [Yan Xin] as 'a sage of our times.'"
In his book A Complete Guide to Chi-Gung author Daniel Reid states that "In China, emitted chi [energy from an energy healing practitioner's hands] has been used for several decades now to treat people with degenerative conditions of the brain, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Several of modern China's top leaders, including Deng Xiao-ping, were treated in this manner with great success."
Furthermore Reid mentions that "Western observers often comment on the remarkable longevity of Chinese leaders, particularly the late Deng Xiao-ping, who despite a lifelong habit of chain-smoking cigarettes, lax attention to diet, and many past hardships in life, managed to live to the age of 92. Others have survived even longer. The reason for their longevity is well known in China: each leader is treated daily with emitted chi by master chi-gung therapists during their entire tenure of power, and this therapy continues throughout their retirement."
Reid continues, "the central factor in their amazing vitality and tenacious longevity is daily infusions of healing chi from recognized masters of this method. Indeed, one of the | 651 |
Health care workers in Liberia prepare to treat Ebola patients.
Five Things to Know for Your New Day – Tuesday, October 21, 2014
The CDC issues new guidelines for treating Ebola. Oscar Pistorius is sentenced to five years in prison in the shooting death of his girlfriend. And<|fim_middle|> decision was up to the judge's discretion.
3. INDIANA SLAYINGS
Suspect may be a serial killer: The investigation of a man suspected in the deaths of at least seven women in northwest Indiana could expand to other states and stretch back decades, authorities say. Up to this point, Darren Deon Vann has been charged only in the death of 19-year-old Afrikka Hardy, whose body was found in a Motel 6 in Hammond over the weekend, Hammond Police Chief John Doughty said. But officials in neighboring city of Gary say there's much more to this case. The bodies of six other women have been found there. Several police agencies are now working the case, which could grow larger and expand to at least one other state, they say.
4. OSCAR DE LA RENTA
World of fashion mourns: Legendary fashion designer Oscar de la Renta, who spent half a century putting high society in haute couture, has died. He was 82. The man - often described as the "sultan of suave" - not only dressed every first lady since Jacqueline Kennedy, but designed the wedding dresses for many of their children as well, including Jenna Bush and Chelsea Clinton. The cause of his death was not immediately clear, but he was diagnosed with cancer in 2006.
5. MONICA LEWINSKY
Stepping out socially: Monica Lewinsky has a new mission in life: to end cyberbullying. The former White House intern, who had an affair with President Bill Clinton in 1995, said she was "patient zero" in online harassment and wants to help others with her survivor's tale. "There was no Facebook, Twitter or Instagram back then. But there were gossip, news and entertainment websites replete with comment sections and emails which could be forwarded," she said yesterday at the Forbes' 30 Under 30 summit. "A viral phenomenon that, you could argue, was the first moment of truly 'social media.' " Lewinsky's speech came on the same day that she joined Twitter. A little hair of the dog, it would seem.
#HereWeGo
— Monica Lewinsky (@MonicaLewinsky) October 20, 2014
- Racing drones: These quadcopters flying through the woods look like something out of "Star Wars." Isn't technology a wonderful thing?
- This takes some guts: A Washington state citizen pulls over a cop and gives him a warning for operating an unmarked vehicle. Our video vigilante says it's against the law. The officer takes it in stride.
- No fear: This little guy throws himself into the ball pit with plenty of gusto.
- Fancy feline: Is it just us, or is it creepy for a cat to be walking upright?
- Marcel the Shell: If you're not familiar with Marcel, he's a children's book character. We think it's kind of cute, if you don't watch it too long.
WOW!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!!! LOL!!!!!!!! REALLY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Marcel the Shell. What is the attention span of the child?
M.Monahan
I liked the new lady on this morning she did an excellent job. | the fashion world mourns a legend.
It's Tuesday, and here are the "5 things to know for your New Day."
1. EBOLA
Staying safe: Newly released Ebola guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention focus on better protecting health care workers. More training and supervision are key elements, as is the requirement that no skin be exposed when workers are wearing personal protective equipment. Health care workers will also be drilled on how to put on and take off the gear. The CDC has been under fire since two Dallas nurses contracted the virus and dozens of other health care workers were put under a 21-day monitoring period for possible exposure to Ebola.
Prison term: From a globally lauded athlete to convicted killer, Oscar Pistorius' fall from grace culminated today with a five-year sentence in the shooting death of his girlfriend. The sentence was imposed for the charge of culpable homicide, which in South Africa means a person was killed unintentionally, but unlawfully. He was also given a three-year sentence on a firearms charge, but it was suspended. State Prosecutor Gerrie Nel had asked for a minimum prison sentence of 10 years for Pistorius. There is no legal minimum sentence for culpable homicide in South African law, so the | 257 |
Jesus is the embodiment of the many forms of leadership Covington Latin School strives to instill within our student body. At Latin School, we define leadership as one who<|fim_middle|> theology courses in which they study the Church and how we come to encounter Him in the Sacraments. Students also invest time in building a relationship with Him in our weekly School Masses as well as in retreats offered at various times. They also learn to embrace His way of being a leader; that is by being a servant when they are encouraged to be of service to one another and to the wider community.
Yes, Jesus is a great leader and our ultimate inspiration at Covington Latin School. May He continue to inspire our students as they, too, work to become the leaders of our local and global community. | can inspire others, live faith, embrace challenges, express passion, achieve success, value tradition and change the world. Vast study and innumerable texts have been devoted to the ways that Jesus exemplified these various leadership attributes in His earthly endeavors and the manner in which His living presence continues to do so.
Latin School students come to know Jesus and the many facets of His leadership through their | 78 |
Fusaichi Pegasus was a striking colt that was bred and foaled in Kentucky by Arthur Hancock and Bob and Janice McNair's Stonerside Ltd. The bay foal was regally bred, by the great Mr. Prospector, out of the Danzig mare, Angel Fever, who was a full sister to Preakness winner, Pine Bluff. The partnership entered their colt into the Keeneland Yearling Sale where he was purchased for $4 million by Fusao Sekiguchi. Sekiguchi named the colt by combining part of his name with the Japanese word "ichi", meaning one, along with<|fim_middle|> after colt was purchased by Coolmore for $60 to $70 million and retired to Ashford Stud, where he has produced 70 black-type winners and 7 Grade I winners. Among his stakes winners are Roman Ruler, Haradason, and Blue Grass Stakes victor Bandini.
(Photo courtesy of KDM archives) | the winged horse made famous as part of Greek mythology.
Sent to trainer Neil Howard for his conditioning, he made only one start as a 2YO, finishing second in a maiden race at Hollywood Park. At 3, the bay started his undertaking with a win in his first start, a maiden, prior to winning the San Felipe and the Wood Memorial. Sent to Churchill Downs to take on the Derby, the colt who made headlines for his antics, behaved as a gentleman during the race. In front of 153,204, the second largest crowd at the time, Fusaichi Pegasus, with jockey Kent Desormeaux aboard, became the first favorite since Spectacular Bid in 1979 to win the coveted Run for the Roses. Breaking towards the inside, "Fu Peg" and Desormeaux saved ground by riding the rail in 15th throughout the backstretch. As they rounded the final turn, the duo swung off of the rail and burst forth to glide to victory by 1 ½ lengths over Aptitude in 2:01.12. The triumph made Fusaichi Pegasus the only son of Mr. Prospector to win the Kentucky Derby, along with giving Desormeaux his second victory after piloting Real Quiet in 1998.
After a second place finish to Red Bullet in the Preakness, his connections decided to skip the Belmont. Fusaichi Pegasus went on to win the Jerome Handicap before his final race, the Breeders' Cup Classic. Finishing off the board in 6th for the only time in his career, the highly sought | 341 |
'The Walking Dead: Michonne' Behind The Scenes Trailer
By The Movie God | @ | March 2nd, 2016 at 10:00 am
Another new trailer has been released for Telltale Games' spinoff miniseries for their take on The Walking Dead, titled The Walking Dead: Michonne.
The game follows the popular comic and TV series character and will span three new episodes, based on one of the comic's storylines in which Michonne departs from the group for a time. The new trailer is a behind the scenes trailer, offering insight from those who worked on the game.
Continue below to watch it.
Tags: Michonne, Telltale, Telltale Games, The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: Michonne, The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series
Launch Trailer For 'The Walking Dead: Michonne' Episode 1 "In Too Deep"
By The Movie God | @ | February 23rd, 2016 at 11:15 am
Telltale Games has released the launch trailer for their Walking Dead spinoff miniseries, The Walking Dead: Michonne.
The launch trailer is for the first episode of the miniseries, which is titled "In Too Deep." The miniseries will run for three episodes total, and it follows one of the comic book storylines in which Michonne separates from her group.
You can read much more on the game and check out the launch trailer below.
Watch 6 Minutes Of 'The Walking Dead: Michonne' Gameplay
By The Movie God | @ | February 16th, 2016 at 4:00 pm
Telltale Games has, as promised, released a preview for the upcoming spinoff miniseries to their hit point-and-click take on The Walking Dead, which will follow the character Michonne and consist of three episodes.
The preview shares six minutes of gameplay action, and you can read much more about the game and watch the preview below.
Tags: Michonne, Telltale Games, The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: Michonne, The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series
Telltale's 'The Walking Dead: Michonne' Preview Coming
By toast4321 | @ | February 14th, 2016 at 10:00 am
After over a year since the last episode of Season 2 of The Walking Dead interactive drama series, Telltale is at it again with The Walking Dead: Michonne. The developer will be releasing the first part of the game later this month, but first a 5-minute preview will launch tonight.
Starring award-winning actress Samira Wiley (know for her role as Poussey Washington in Orange is the New Black), the miniseries delves into the Robert Kirkman's blade-wielding character's haunted past, and explores Michonne's absence between issues #126 and #139 of the comic book.
Topics: Comics, Games, News, Video Games
Tags: Robert Kirkman, Samira Wiley, Telltale Games, The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: Michonne, The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series
The Game Awards 2015:<|fim_middle|>ale Games' 'The Walking Dead' Season 2; Clementine Confirmed As Playable Character
Ever since season one of Telltale Games' point-and-click take on The Walking Dead took the gaming world by storm last year—quickly rising to become a favorite pick for game of the year—fans have been itching for more.
Now, despite their just releasing the first episode of season one of another comic book adaptation, a point-and-click take on Bill Willingham's Fables titled The Wolf Among Us, Telltale has revealed that season two of The Walking Dead is not far behind. In fact, the first episode will arrive later this very year, estimated for sometime in November.
In addition to this, a new reveal trailer has been released, which you can find with more information below.
« Previous Articles Next Articles » | Reveal Trailer For Telltale's 'The Walking Dead: Michonne'
By The Movie God | @ | December 4th, 2015 at 10:00 am
Back at E3 2015, Telltale Games announced a miniseries in their The Walking Dead series to hold fans over until season three eventually arrives. Unlike the previous releases in their episodic title, which focuses mostly on characters and stories not seen in the hit AMC TV series based on Robert Kirkman's comic, this miniseries will center around the popular character Michonne.
During The Game Awards 2015, the first trailer for The Walking Dead: Michonne was revealed for all to see. You can read more about the game and check out the trailer below.
Tags: Telltale, Telltale Games, The Game Awards, The Game Awards 2015, The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: Michonne, The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series
E3 2015: Telltale Announces 'The Walking Dead: Michonne' Miniseries
By The Movie God | @ | June 16th, 2015 at 9:00 am
Creator Robert Kirkman's comic book The Walking Dead has been turned into one of the most popular TV series of all time, as well as one of the most popular video games of recent years. Point-and-click masters Telltale Games have created a pair of incredibly dramatic seasons of five episodes each, and a third season of the game is still on the way.
But before they get to that, they're taking a little detour. At E3 2015 it was announced that Telltale will be releasing a special three-part miniseries titled The Walking Dead: Michonne coming this fall. And as you might have guessed, you get to play as the katana-wielding zombie killer herself.
You can see a video of the announcement below.
Tags: E3, E3 2015, Robert Kirkman, Telltale Games, The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: Michonne, The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series
Game Review: The Walking Dead: Season 2, Episode 1 – "All That Remains"
By Wagnerski | December 18th, 2013 at 7:00 pm
Season 2, Episode 1 – "All That Remains"
Online Game Code
DEVELOPER: Telltale Games
PUBLISHER: Telltale Games
RELEASE DATE: December 17, 2013 (Steam, PS3) l December 18 (Xbox 360, iOS)
Telltale's The Walking Dead is finally back and I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen to Clementine after the first season's tragic ending. And now in season 2 you get to play as Clementine and the story really tests her innocence and what she is willing to do to survive. But will the first episode of season 2 live up to it's incredibly high expectations? Or has it finally gotten old and we have just seen it all before?
The bulk of this story takes place 16 months after the final events of season 1. Clementine ends up with a survivor from season 1 but then gets separated. After that she has to fend for herself until she comes across a new group. The majority of the first episode is her interaction with this untrusting group. A few people in the group accept Clementine and want her to join. While others in the group want to turn her away. There is an interesting group dynamic here this season, but most of it is not revealed in episode 1. You get just enough to know a little about several characters, but not enough to know what has happened to all of them or to know what their goals or intentions are.
Tags: Telltale Games, The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series
Telltale's 'The Walking Dead' Season 2 Begins Today
By The Movie God | @ | December 17th, 2013 at 6:00 pm
The highly anticipated second season of Telltale Games' point-and-click video game adaptation of The Walking Dead finally arrives today.
The first episode of season two, titled "All That Remains," is available right now on Steam and PlayStation 3, will be available starting tomorrow for those of you playing on Xbox 360, and later this week for iOS players.
If you've not yet seen the trailer for season two, you can check it out below.
Telltale's 'The Walking Dead' Season 2 Trailer Catches Up With Clementine
Not too long ago we saw the first teaser trailer for season two of The Walking Dead, the Telltale Games adaptation of Robert Kirkman's hit comic book series. Season one of the game was voted by many as the 2012 video game of the year, so as you might imagine, fans are wildly excited for the new set of episodes.
Now comes a second trailer for the second season, which shows much more of the new content. For those who don't know, the little girl, Clementine, who won your heart as you tried to protect her from the neverending dangers of the zombie apocalypse—both undead and very much alive—in season one, is now the character you will play as in season two. All of the choices that you made in the first season and the DLC, 400 Days, will also affect how this new story will go.
Continue below now to read a description of the game and to check out the new trailer. But be warned, the trailer begins with a recap of season one, so if you have not played that yet (what are you waiting for?!), do not watch this.
Tags: Robert Kirkman, Telltale Games, The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series
Reveal Trailer For Tellt | 1,260 |
I<|fim_middle|> much data, you can look at the different parts of the genome, in particular the protein coding genes and all of the other regions outside of the protein coding genes and you can recognize which sections of the genome have been under the influence of natural selection, in particular the dominant signal that you see in natural selection is lack of change because random mutations would be deleterious to the function and hence the fitness of the organism. So, method - region of the genome that don't change much between human and the mouse are the ones that are going to be functionally important and most people expected those to be essentially the protein coding regions but we found that there were three times as many regions outside of the protein coding regions that were strongly selected and hence functional. So, as much of the genome that's functional because it's code, codes for protein, there's three times as much out there that's functional and not coding for proteins.
And that was exciting! I think this was something that was…was – it opened up a new field in which you could think about studying these elements, which weren't genes but were clearly important to the organism and we, we strongly believe that they regulate the genes, but they are harder to study than the protein coding regions so we don't know as much about how they work. There -they seem to be packed with transcription factor binding sites, places where proteins interact with the DNA in order to regulate the activities that go on in the cell; the gene regulation. And now it's become a major area to understand how those regions work, what, how these little snippets of DNA regulating the genes – where do they come from, how do they evolve. One of the other surprises we heard about this – earlier on – I shouldn't recognize that because it's going to be out of context. But, one of the other surprises we found later on is that some of these regions come from transposes so transposable elements and elements that jump around the genome, actually carry regulatory elements with them, so that was another area of surprise. | think one of the big surprises, actually didn't come about until we had also read the mouse genome. Now finally we had two different mammals that we could compare, separated by about seventy-five million years of evolution, back to the common ancestor and during that time we can actually look at the action of evolution on DNA. The study of evolution from a molecular point of view has been a decades old field, but never had the data we suddenly had – whole genome data to look at, systematically look at the difference in the bases. And it turns out that when you have that | 115 |
When you're solving an equation with an = sign, you don't ever have to worry about the sign changing. But things are a little different if you're solving an inequality with <, >, <, or >, To solve the equation x - 2 = 5, you just add 2 to both sides. What happens if you change it to an inequality x - 2 < 5? Are the steps still the same?
Let's see by starting with an inequality that we know is true. We know that 4 is smaller than 6. We could write this as the inequality below.
What happens if we add the same number to both sides of the equation? Will it still be a true inequality?
If you add the same number to both sides of a true inequality, the new inequality will also be true. It basically just shifts everything over on the number line. If one side of the inequality was smaller than the other, it will still be smaller if you add the same number to both sides.
In other words, you can add the same number to both sides of an inequality and the sign will stay the same. To solve the equation x - 2 = 6, you just add 2 to both sides.
To solve the inequality x - 2 < 6, you follow the same exact steps and keep the sign the same.
What happens if you subtract the same number from both sides of an inequality? Let's see by starting with an inequality that we know is true: 4 < 6. What happens if we subtract 3 from both sides this time?
If you subtract the same number to both sides of a true inequality, the new inequality will also be true. It just shifts everything over the other direction on the number line. If one side of the inequality was smaller than the other, it will still be smaller if you subtract the<|fim_middle|> if you're adding or subtracting. Don't be tempted to see a negative sign in the problem and assume you need to switch the sign. You only switch the sign if you have multiplied or divided both sides of the inequality by a negative number.
Ready to try solving some inequalities on your own? Click the START button below to try a practice quiz!
Want to learn how to graph an inequality? | same number from both sides.
In other words, you can subtract the same number from both sides of an inequality and the sign will stay the same. To solve the equation x + 2 = 7, you just subtract 2 from both sides. If we change it to the inequality x + 2 > 7, you follow the same exact steps and keep the sign the same.
Do the same rules apply when you're multiplying or dividing to solve an inequality? Let's start by looking at what happens if you multiply or divide an inequality by a positive number.
If you multiply or divide a true inequality by a positive number, the new inequality will also be true. You do not need to change the sign if you multiply or divide both sides by a positive number.
So far, we've been able to solve inequalities in the exact same way we solve an equation and just leave the inequality the same. The tricky part comes when you multiply or divide both sides of an inequality by a negative number.
Let's start with the inequality that we know is true: 4 < 6. We know 4 is less than 6. Here's what this looks like on a number line.
What happens if we multiply both sides of the inequality by a negative number?
If you multiply or divide both sides of an inequality by a negative number, the new inequality is no longer true! It basically flips things over on the number line, so the inequality from the original problem no longer applies to the new statement. How do we fix this problem? We flip the inequality sign. If we just reverse the inequality above from < to >, the statement becomes true.
Remember, you do not need to flip the sign | 344 |
JtoJ Middlesbrough
We took part of our exhibition to Teesside University's International Women's Day in March 2016 where Carrie Supple, JtoJ's director was a keynote speaker. There was plenty of interest in our work from local social justice organisations. Margaret Younger, Equality and Diversity Adviser at Teesside University was so affected by the stories we tell in our work, that she booked the whole exhibition for Black History Month. It was in Brittan Hall, making it easy for public viewing, with a private view on October 6th where Curtis Fleming footballer and anti-racist campaigner spoke. Volunteers from the University and local community welcomed visitors and were on hand to answer any questions at the exhibition and we had positive visits from Middlesbrough FE College, Drama students and newly arrived child refugees. Students will identify films to screen at the exhibition from local archives which illustrate Teesside's mighty history.
JtoJ Middlesbrough: Opening event at Teesside University
← Older photos
We took part of our exhibition to Teesside University's International Women's Day in March 2016 where Carrie Supple, JtoJ's director was a keynote speaker. There was plenty of interest in our work from local social justice organisations. Margaret Younger, Equality and Diversity Adviser at Teesside University was so affected by the stories we tell in our work, that she booked the whole exhibition.
It was installed in Brittan Hall at the University as part of their Black History Month 2016. Students and staff volunteered to welcome visitors and it was promoted across campus and to local schools and community organisations. Middlesbrough has long been a dispersal centre for asylum seekers and refugees which has resulted in both tension and generosity.
On October 6th the University hosted a private view and opening of the exhibition. Guests included local social justice organisations and youth groups. Dr. David Bell Pro Vice-Chancellor, International welcomed everyone, saying, 'This exhibition reinforces the crucial role of culture and we are proud as a University to be working together with our partners towards greater social justice and equality in society.'
Chandra Vemury, Senior Lecturer in Structural Engineering at Teesside and a member of the Journey to Justice management committee spoke on behalf of JtoJ saying,
'This exhibition is a celebration of the courage, pride and dignity of countless individuals from the past who have suffered injustice. …You will be touched by 6yr old girl called Ruby Bridges who did not let riots and violence hinder her desire for education. Her story is one of many told in this exhibition'
Finally Curtis Fleming, former Middlesbrough and Ireland defender and founder member of Show Racism the Red Card spoke about growing up in Belfast and his response to racism. He asked whether we thought children are still treated like Ruby Bridges and lamented the fact that many are. Curtis called for support of education projects like JtoJ which challenge prejudice and unite people. He and his wife Lucie Fleming, who also addressed guests, are patrons of Justice First – a Teesside organisation which supports asylum seekers in the region and believes in human rights for everyone.
Visitors to our exhibition at Teesside University included a group of newly arrived refugee children and History and Drama students from the University. On Friday 14th October 2016, we had a group of AS level Health and Social Care students from Middlesbrough College visit the Journey to Justice Exhibition in Teesside University. As part of their course, the 16 students had to learn about equality and diversity. They were presented with some excellent examples, ranging from the story of Ruby Bridges to the infamous cafeteria sit-ins. It was great to see the<|fim_middle|> discover this fact. The students left with the knowledge to imagine a world where civil rights weren't as prominent as they are in the 21st century. Furthermore, the evaluation forms came back with an astoundingly positive response, with most visitors saying they gained knowledge by coming to the exhibition.
(Michele Harding, Teesside University History student and JtoJ volunteer)
With many thanks to everyone at Teesside University and their partners for hosting JtoJ. We look forward to working with you as the exhibition's legacy continues in mighty Middlesbrough.
Read a write-up about our launch in the Northern Echo
For more information contact Margaret Younger 01642 738459 | students interacting with all of the features of the exhibition, most notably Martin Luther King's honorary degree acceptance speech. Many people do not know King came to the UK so the students were amazed to | 38 |
The role of The Joint Commission is to strengthen community confidence in the quality of health care and services (The Joint Commission, 2013). This provides a competitive edge in the health care marketplace. In addition, JCAHO's role is to reduce risks, provide education, and improve business. Through measuring performance, The Joint Commission provides credibility for a health care organization. Moreover, JCAHO<|fim_middle|>70). | provides a specific basis for monitoring performance. This monitoring will guide and stimulate improvement within the evaluated organization.
The Joint Commission seems to have a more positive effect on health care services. Suggestions of beneficial effects include the increased staff motivation, the streamline of management functions, improved communications, and improved quality systems (Hassan, 2006). These improvements create a higher quality health care organization. For example, The Joint Commission conducts a survey on a local hospital. In the survey, JCAHO discovers that patient records are not kept to national standards. Upon this discovery, the hospital works to improve the filing and storage system. According to a study in Hussan's thesis (2006), auditors conducted an analysis on the patients' medical records. The analysis showed poor performance in the initial study. However, the study demonstrated a significant improvement by 135% only 15 months after the implementation of the JCAHO standards survey. Therefore, because The Joint Commission conducted this survey, the local hospital discovered areas for improvement. These improvements lead to a reduced risk for malpractice, an improved quality of patient care, and a more efficient way to run a business. "With the worldwide increase in interest to implement quality improvement initiatives and quality standards, it becomes increasingly important to develop measures of the actual effectiveness of these initiatives" (Hussan, 2006, p. 1 | 285 |
When Jolyon asked me to contribute to a discussion in tax and self-employment I reflected on two things. The first is my own experience as a self-employed person, which given my own temperament was probably the only real option ever available to me. The second was the advice I have given to many hundreds (if not more) clients over many years on these two related issues. The result was that I realised, first, that the decision to be self employed has, in many cases, no relationship to tax at all. And, second, that because of the real number of variables involved in the tax decision making process when it comes to self-employment questions anyone who suggests that rational, tax based, decisions are taken is, at best deluding themselves either before the event (if they're a professional adviser with a more expensive product to sell) or after the event if, by chance, savings worked out as hoped.
What the aim of this blog is, then, is to show just how many variables there really are in this decision process and to show how irrational it is to focus upon any of them for the vast majority of people (98% +) who earn less than £100,000 or so of taxable income each year (i.e. those for whom a focus on increasing net income might be of significantly greater use). In the process I also show that almost no Laffer effect could be reliably predicted for those with the option of self employment earning below £150,000 whilst those earning above that sum in reality face a choice of varying flat rates of tax, making Laffer implications impossible to measure independently of any choice on rate substitution, which is likely to have much bigger impact.
If it gets a bit technical on the way I don't apologise. What I do instead suggest is that it really is time that we had professional advisers in this country who helped businesses make more and create more wealth instead of concentrating on a spurious goal of tax minimisation (which is, as I show, itself meaningless because what it means varies at different income levels, some of which will only be known well after the time when decisions need to be made). In other words, a debate about self employment and tax makes sense, but only in the context of considering all the variables that might be relevant in the equation that relates the issues. And by equation, I mean equation.
There are, of course, issues relating to the tax differentials between the two bases for taxing the income of people in the UK that might have impact on an individual's tax decision making and on national tax yield but this is not, I suggest, a binary choice of either / or employed versus self employed status.
Firstly because this is not the only choice available: there is also the option of incorporating as an alternative mechanism for running a business which in turn gives rise to at least three alternative tax rates, being those on corporate retained income, corporate distributed income via dividends and corporate distributed income via salary, and these three options are all stated before the potential to divert income to others (not considered further here, but a very real factor in much tax planning at the point where it very definitely interfaces with tax avoidance) comes into play.
Secondly, tax payments and so yields are not just impacted by tax rates. The interaction between income and state social security payments, both taxed and untaxed, also has an impact on effective tax rates, whilst the capacity of the taxpayer to save in tax enhanced ways (ISAs, pensions, VCTs, etc) has to be taken into account, as too does the capacity of the chosen mechanism for declaring income to facilitate tax evasion, the offset of expenses incurred in relation to work related activity and even the opportunity for recategorising income as gains need to be taken into account.
The question that then needs to be asked is what a person's objectives might be in the above equations, and whether or not that objective remains consistent at all points in the income cycle or for all people at any point in that cycle.
It is also important to note that given the extensive range of variables and rates noted (even assuming national insurance and income tax rates are merged) and that the tax rate R is in in many (but not all) cases not an independent variable in this equation as it varies with the outcome of the expression (B-A-V-X-G), then the variables prioritised for ex ante decision making will almost certainly represent estimated data at the time a decision is taken since in practice in a real world situation the value of many (but not all) variables will only be known after decisions on tax status (even assuming that is unchallenged) have been made. It has to be stressed therefore that real world optimisation of any chosen outcome in this equation is nigh on impossible. Wise people should, and would, recognise this fact.
Despite this a rational economist (a term not necessarily synonymous with a wise person) would say that the decision a person should make is to maximise N, which is net income. But economists do not understand human beings, and many real people will for wholly rational reasons not do this, because they have other intellectual and emotional objectives (see The Courageous State) or simply do not prioritise income as the most important thing in life, and so income maximisation is not just a constrained opportunity for some (which it can be for others), it can also not be a choice in the sense that a person simply satisfices in this area.
In that case can it be assumed that another objective (either tax minimisation, or tax rate minimisation or marginal tax rate minimisation, and all could be set as goals) make sense? Maybe, but probably only if you are an accountant, lawyer or large corporation so remote from normal human objectives and conflicting interests that such a proxy for rational behaviour is even considered a priority. That said, precisely because so few accountants and lawyers do have much idea how to maximise income, even if that was a client's actual objective (and I never in my practising career heard a client say it was) I am quite sure those professional people do adopt one of these tax related proxies for rationality instead, in the process hoping to hide their inability to offer business advice or even listen to their client's stated preferences.
However, this may be quite irrational behaviour on these professional people's part. The evidence for the importance of any of these tax related goals is limited. Well over 80% of all people working in the UK choose to be employed even though this is likely to increase their tax rates (R1 is greater than R2 which is greater than R4, for example, almost invariably and across most income ranges) and reduce opportunities for evasion, expense deduction and conversion of income into lower taxed gains. Either all of these people are economically crazy or there is something else at play here.
Even when self-employment is chosen as an option the likelihood that a person will risk tax minimisation (legally or illegally) is low. HMRC think that more than 40% of all self employed people under declare income on their tax returns. I believe, in addition, that the number making returns compared to those who should do so is significantly understated. But there still remain a substantial number who, nonetheless, do declare their income reasonably accurately whilst every year financial advisers suggest billions in available tax reliefs are not used by those who had opportunity to claim them. So even though tax advisers may think tax minimisation is a priority the reality is that the evidence does not support that fact.
This is not to say that tax does not impact on behaviour; it very clearly does. But, first of all, this evidence suggests that it may have relatively little impact on the decision to be self employed or not. In addition, the impact it may have might vary considerably depending on the values and priorities given to different variables in the equations noted at varying points in the income profile. So, for example, at some points the impact of the marginal tax rate (I could start expressing these variables mathematically but will resist the temptation to do so for risk of alienating most readers) will be very high. This might be especially true when there is a significant withdrawal of social security benefits (W). At other points this may arise because of the withdrawal of non-discretionary allowances (P). At other points the impact of rate substitution (R4 for R2, for example) might justify a reduction in net allowances (actually, in this case an increase in real costs with advisers, who do, I suggest, motivate much of this decision for that reason, by the way). And so on.
But with all these options, is the tax profession really able to advise rationally without either broadening its skill base or the adoption of bogus proxies for rationality (already noted). That is the first question?
The second question is whether we are in fact asking the right questions of tax design and our reaction to it when faced with all these options. That would have to be the subject of another blog. I suspect the answer is that at present we are simply failing to understand the real reasons for tax design when thinking on this issue. We are being blinkered in our focus on tax paid to the social dimensions of tax design.
And third, let me raise the question Jolyon Maugham has asked me to consider when writing this blog, which is where is Laffer in all this and, indeed, the issue of progressive taxation in all this? The only sensible answer I can give is, that to a very large degree, neither is anywhere to be seen at all. Firstly that is because much of the decision making that impacts the decisions noted has to be taken before facts, including income, are known. Therefore the impact of rates is assumed, and not known. Second it is because some residual factors, e.g. use of tax deductions for pensions can be used ex post to vary outcomes, and third, and most important, tax is just not that important to the vast majority of people, self employed or otherwise to go through all the necessary decision making processes (which might explain the appeal of evasion to some).
But perhaps, fourthly, and most importantly, over the income ranges where tax rates on earned income, however derived or recorded, vary significantly (i.e. at levels broadly speaking below £100,000 and definitely below £150,000) tax is not by a long way the most important factor in determining choice on employment versus self employment and so net income outcome. Work availability, career choice, social priorities, personal risk preference and a host of other factors will impact the decision much more significantly over this income range, not least because many within the income bracket of £150,000 or less will think they need most of their income to live on or to compulsorily save for a pension. Serious tax planning only happens at higher income brackets where more significant discretionary funds are available and in that case Laffer plays no effective part at all in the UK as rates are then flat, if albeit, substitutable (which is where planning comes into play, with most impact being the fact that R1 > R2 > R3, and this creates a regressive tax regime for many).
So what conclusion do I reach? There are several.
The first is that tax professionals over-emphasis the importance of tax to others.
The second is that tax optimisation, taking into consideration the variables I note (and there may well be others, but they only complicate matters further) requires, firstly, perfect knowledge of the future that none of us possess and secondly analytic ability to consider a a range of variables so complex most would not try to resolve the issue in any rational way.
Thirdly, in the face of these first two factors tax professionals try to sell pre-packaged solutions (e.g. incorporation as a route to national insurance minimisation) without ever being fully aware of its potential implications for the client whose interests they may not have properly noted. The chance that this is because such pre-packaged solutions enhance adviser income cannot be overlooked.
Fourth, if there is one variable designed, above all others to impact in N (net income) in the equations noted above it is Y (gross, pre taxed income) and it is time that the accountancy profession, in particular, reframed its thinking about how to help clients maximise this rather than minimise tax.
Fifth, if Laffer effects are so unlikely to be measurable in any scenario likely to be considered, why do we worry about them?
Sixth, given the substitutability of tax rates right across the income spectrum considered here (effectively from almost zero to infinity, if you wish) the chance that the Laffer effect will ever have impact at the rates available (bar short term shifting as seen with the 50p tax rate) is very low indeed, and to extrapolate from short term income shifting to long term behavioural impacts of tax is a step that no one should take.
Seventh, the impact of the integration of tax rates with tax spending (i.e. how rates are impacted by benefits and allowances and reliefs as well as indirect tax benefits of government spending) is always understated in a discussion of the sort I have attempted here. In reality tax and spend are part of an integrated whole process and not to be seen in isolation of each other.
Last, given all those factors, shouldn't we realise that tax is not designed solely for revenue raising purposes but for any other social and economic reasons as well and that all we are looking at is the reaction to those various deliberate and often intended consequences of that design process with too limited a lens when we consider tax rates in isolation? Many people, from my experience, choose not to do so, thinking that tax is, as I said at the outset, of overstated importance in their decision making processes and that they really would prefer that their advisers take more nuanced approaches.
No, I'm afraid not. An economist would argue that the individual will aim to maximise utility.
Meaning exactly that. Utility being that blend of self-worth, leisure, income and everything else that best suits the desires of that individual.
Seriously Richard, if you want to have a pop at economists it really would be worth understanding what economists say before having that pop.
All sorts of things contribute to utility. And the essential point is that utility functions are personal. So it's whether it makes sense to the individual making the decision or not.
No, they have different utility functions.
Again, different people have different utility functions.
Laffer effects come from the interaction of the income and substitution effects. They do not depend upon whether marginal tax rates are rising, falling or flat. They depend upon the interaction of those two effects. Whether or not I work that 59 th hour in a week still depends upon what my marginal tax rate is, whether that is higher, the same, or lower, that the tax rate I faced on my 58 th hour of work (or even on the 60th).
You may live in a world where you are familiar with your utility but let's get real here and note that this is not the case beyond your very little bubble.
Even economists do not believe what you're saying. If they did none would talk about profit maximisation, but as a matter of fact they do. And the question I was looking at related to business where this is always the deemed objective for behaviour by that profession.
So, candidly, your argument does not stack and simply amounts to an ad hominem straw man attack.
I was reviewing current debate using its current terms of reference and the success criteria it uses and in that context what I am saying is wholly appropriate unless, of course, you can find that piece of company law that requires a company to maximise its utility and those directors who say they do that for their wider stakeholder group without being accused of failure of fiduciary duty and those advisers who advertise that they are utility maximisers. I wish more existed, and I am arguing they should, but that does not undermine my case, it reinforces it, and makes a mockery of your criticism.
I thought the absence of employers' NI was a factor in the decision to go self-employed but since tax rates are the same for the employed and self employed I don't see how tax rates can be much of a factor.
The absence of employers' NI for members of LLPs (a fact which surely Richard is aware of as he is himself a member of an LLP) has led to many hybrid LLP/corporate structures in which senior management within a group of companies cease employment and become instead members of an LLP. The savings can be significant and the planning is being done largely because of these savings. Provided the members really do have say in the running of the LLP and their LLP share of profits is proportional it can hardly be called an abuse of the system. Many of these individuals are earning salaries well below the £150k (the level at which Richard thinks serious tax planning starts) and an immediate example that tax rates (for employers' NI is a tax in all but name) can affect behaviour.
Obviously these decisions were taking in the real world without the advantage of algebra.
Hi Andrew, The impact of employers' NI on the employed and self-employed has been examined here Separately, although I have no difficulty with attacks on Richard's arguments, can I ask that you confine the attacks to that. I will invite readers to recraft future posts – including from him – that seem to me (in my editorial discretion – such sublime power!) to cross that line. Thanks.
Richard, the difficulty with many of your writings is a lack of clear citations to others' work, particularly the work you are seeking to rebut.
without any indication of which economists make such a claim. I am not sure there are any.
A full analysis of the tax treatment of employed vs self-employed is indeed complex and fact-dependent. However the employer NIC position is very straightforward indeed. I frequently see it driving decision making – with high paid employees in some sectors demanding to be treated as self employed, and low paid employees in other sectors being required to be treated as self-employed.
There is nothing really that anyone can add to Tim Worstall's comments on Utility or the interaction of the Income and Substitution Effects or indeed Richard's [edited] re-imagining of them. Instead I can question the world Richard presents to us.
Why has Richard chosen to frame his piece around a mostly false "choice" of employment or self-employment?
"Well over 80% of all people working in the UK choose to be employed" he says. No they don't! An employee provides service to an employer who chooses to employ him or not; there is no "choice" involved for the large majority of people, save perhaps the employer! By contrast there is a very real choice between self-employment and incorporation for those whose position and trading/professional relationship with whoever is engaging them provides<|fim_middle|> is giving up certain entitlements to benefits. So why would they do this, if not for the tax benefits?
Then there are umbrella companies, which are marketed as providing a tax benefit for the employee who wants to become a contractor.
For Richard's analysis to stand up, it at least needs to recognise that, for all his theorising, the real world does contain many examples of people who appear to have considered tax as part of their decision to structure as self-employed rather than employed. So his inputs are wrong and/or his argument is wrong and/or his conclusion is wrong. We know, just because we looked at the world around us.
Some of this debate reminds me of Dr Johnson's riposte to Bishop Berkeley and the theory of immaterialism, thus no material objects. Johnson kicked a rock and cried out, "Thus I refute Berkeley".
Some commentators have kicked the metaphorical rock by appeals to looking at the world around us. Yet surely it is quite possible to look and still not disagree with the view that the issue of employment status is a matter of relative indifference to the vast majority of the working population.
If that is so, then we can turn to that rock and examine how robust it is and will it stand up to kicking. I think it undeniable that the amount of tax paid (or is it "suffered"?) matters to many people. But so do other things, like flexibility, ease of hiring/firing, security of contract, inheritance, employment rights (eg paid holidays, sick pay, etc), and more.
I am always a little wary of formulas that try to explain human motivations. Perhaps this is a case where any shortcomings in the formula actually generate that helpful discussion on the nature of the rock, its size, and all those messy aspects of the real world that can derail any theory.
What is bizarre here is that a bunch of tax professionals have said that the world is the way they think it is and that tax matters because they tell people it does.
In other words, a logical analysis shows that the tax advice most accountants give cannot be justified on the evidence that they have available but they give it anyway and because they almost all do think the outcome justifies their action in the first place.
Why not address the question using facts [edited] as I sought to do?
It's not "only sustainable on the basis of knowledge no one has". It doesn't need precise knowledge.
If one can say that if business profits are say £200k then structure A will result in higher net income than structure B will, and that under structure A the client will keep more of every additional pound, then one can safely say that structure A will be better from a tax perspective – even if one can't exactly quantify the amount of benefit because one can't exactly predict the business profits.
One can then point out the sensitive areas – that this would not be the case if the top rate of tax goes up to X%, or if secondary NI goes up to Y%, or if the CT rate changes to Z%, or the IHT NRB changes, or whatever.
That then allows the client to assess the risks and make an informed choice based on tax implications.
All you have done is assert that complete and perfect information is required before any decision can be made, which is clearly not the case.
Richard, I cannot see any facts in your blog. You have argued almost exclusively on the basis of your own assumptions.
Where you do stray close to a fact, you are wrong. 80% of people do not 'choose' to be employed as that is not a choice readily available, as anyone involved in employment status enquiries would know. The withdrawal of personal allowances above £100k makes the suggestion that it is only "broadly" below £100k that tax rates vary significantly a nonsense.
But I'm open to argument. Why not list the top 5 facts from your blog that you believe most strongly support your argument?
Why argue with something I did not say when you should argue with what I did say?
Richard Murphy: I assume that the tax system will be broadly similar next year to how it was this year, with the main changes being to rates and allowances. I assume that the business will make profits in line with forecasts. I assume the client will still be alive next month. I assume no asteroids will have collided with the Earth in the next year or two and destroyed all sentient life.
You are right, I cannot *know* all these to be true. But my clients can take the uncertainty into account in making their decisions.
You have simply reasserted that complete and perfect knowledge is required for decision-making, and that to advise without perfect knowledge is inappropriate.
Well, to be frank I do not *know* whether my house has burnt down since I left it this morning – it is perfectly possible that it is ablaze as I write. Given this lack of solid information, it occurs to me that I might be better off sleeping in the office. Would anyone advising me to go home instead be giving me inappropriate advice, given that cannot *know* I have one to go to?
Y most certainly can be known. In consultancy situations or any situation where those that control the income are deciding how it is distributed. Indeed Y is often a precise figure actually suggested by an accountant. N can then be calculated. It's part of the advisory process and I have advised many many clients what their N is going to be. I would expect any accountant to be able to work out N having suggested Y!
Many on here have tried to argue with what you did say, most more elegantly than I. You have so far failed to respond to those arguments.
Everyday thousands of accountants are advising on business structures which include the tax/NI outcomes of different structures. Did you even look at the GT flyer? I doubt there's a top 50 firm in the country that isn't doing similar work.
Quite frankly the only way your argument works is that people in the real world are making decisions which they think they are making using tax as a factor but in fact they don't really know why they have made their decision. You really would need to be clairvoyant to know that.
Richard Murphy again, following up your reply to Andrew Carter: A few years ago, I was offered a new job. When deciding whether or not to take it, I weighed up the impact of the change of salary (Y in your formula) plus the change in commuting costs (not in your formula) to determine what the effect would be on my net income (N in your formula).
Of course the commuting costs were just an estimate: petrol prices and consumption vary a lot, and the other car costs are even harder to estimate. Also, although I knew the salary on offer in year 1 I had no assurance of what it would be in later years. So I could be confident about none of the variables in your formula.
I consulted my wife to get her opinion about whether I should take the job. What I didn't realize was that she should never have expressed one! She didn't know exactly what the change in our disposable income would be, so how could she possibly have given me any useful guidance?
I shall be having words with her tonight. Possibly by phone, from my car – I don't know whether my house exists, so I'm not sure whether I should be going back there; and as no-one else does I'm not taking any advice on the matter.
In fact, as a brief addendum, if you look at the GT brochure you'll see the precise amount of Y doesn't matter. Under the LLP structure, N is going to be higher and that's why clients sign up to it. They are offered two spots on the Laffer curve and make their choice accordingly. How much clearer could it possibly be?
Jolyon – I suppose as host you have to stay neutral during this exchange of witty banter? It must be frustrating. I suggest you 'nod' as you type your reply to this post if you agree with Richard and shake your head if you disagree. No one will ever know.
I dunno. There will be occasions when I feel like I have a dog in the fight. Just not sure that I do in this one. In all honesty, I don't have clear sight of why it matters whether Richard is right or wrong.
I have this feeling we are entering into Berkeley v Johnson, Round 2. And we seem to be having a rather testy series of exchanges. I think it was RH Tawney who once once said erring colleagues were not Adullamites to be smote hip and thigh. It has never struck me as an approach likely to change minds.
To me it seems as if Richard falls more into the Berkeley school, by arguing from first principles, whereas other commentators are in the pragmatic school of Dr Johnson, dragging in that rock based on their experiences with real clients. If we accept the validity of the axioms, and I fail to see how we can not agree on things such as the rate of tax (even if some might change with no warning, eg retrospective legislation), then I think we, logically, ought to accept the validity of real life experiences. In essence, they are just different kinds of facts.
This is particularly the case when we all accept that (some but how many?) people are clearly motivated by a desire to reduce/avoid/evade taxes, and the rate of tax on their remuneration/profits/gains is clearly one component in how their decisions on reduce/avoid/evade. How many people/businesses, whether there is a 'tipping point' in terms of gross pre-tax/NIC income, does NIC matter, and so on, form the elements under debate here.
In this connection the link below shows that an official body believes, for example, NIC is a factor in choices between employment and self-employment. http://www.taxjournal.com/tj/articles/nic-regime-encourages-false-self-employment-01102014.
Where's the gold star button on this WordPress thingy?
There have been a number of such attitude studies – (google "survey on attitudes and behaviour towards tax and compliance" for an example). From rule of thumb memory i think somewhere it says 20% of people think it's OK to use tax planning to take advantage of loopholes. I'm always weary of 'attitude' surveys as we all know the right thing to say if asked but do we do it in practice?
Not sure about employed/self-employed studies – what makes a person a successful entrepreneur isn't quite the same as why do some people be self-employed and others not – some don't have a choice in view of their chosen job, some simply don't have a choice. Still I'm sure there are some who 'just love being their own boss' (or whatever) although note you can be your own boss as employed director of your own company.
First – Tax professionals over-emphasise tax – No we don't, I am constantly using the 'don't let the tax tail wag the dog' line. What we do is present the most tax efficient way of a client achieveing their aims.
Second – Tax optimisation requires perfect knowledge – no it doesn't. Almost universally dividends are more tax efficient than a bonus. I'm sure you could come up with a contrived scenario where they aren't but the world in general simply doesn't require perfect knowledge to work.
Third – Tax professionals sell pre-packaged ideas without looking at all the consequences – Good ones don't. They'd go out of business if they did. Some builders do crappy jobs, doesn't mean all builders are crap.
Fourth – Accountants don't look to maximise income for clients – There is a whole industry of business advice within the accountancy profession ("FD in a box" schemes are all the rage at present)- Richard's view is 20 years out of date.
Fifth – Laffer doesn't matter. Then why are hybrid LLP schemes so popular when the main variable is tax?
Sixth – laffer (again) only affects highest earners shifting income – again plain wrong – I recently advised on a mangement LLP strcuture where most were on around £70k. Besides, a £20k a year subbie prefers to be self-employed.
Seventh – tax and spending should be considered together. If you like Richard. That's your opinion, you're entitled to it.
Seriously, I'm not wishing to cause any offence here. I really did try to phrase it in the right spirit. I re-wrote bits of it a number of time. Any bits in particular?
Thanks Andrew. I'm grateful to you – and everyone else – for making an effort. I do want to avoid weaknesses that bedevil discussions on other blogs. Re-reading, perhaps you're further from the line than I'd indicated.
A real pleasure to read. Not my place to, but Jolyon could propose a vote of thanks to all for expressing entirely contradictory positions in such a cordial manner. Enjoyable. Perhaps tax is an issue when calculating the benefit of work, rather than the choice of the means used, but I agree with Richard, I also never really got any thing out of employment except perhaps some training which I otherwise would have had to find and develop myself. There is a degree of self reliance in self-employment which concentrates the mind and therefore the results, before tax, of course! | for them not be classed as employed.
For these people – and not just their tax advisors – tax considerations most definitely DO play a considerable part in their plans, as they should. Richard is well aware of this and has himself written articles in national newspapers explaining the benefits of incorporting your domestic staff.
I am frankly astounding by the claim that maximising income (or should we say minimising tax?) is not a major objective of his clients: "and I never in my practising career heard a client say it was".
– the 40% of returns that are to a greater or lesser degree understated.
So, does tax really influence the decision to be self-employed or not? In as much as an individual truly has a choice, clearly it does, consciously and usually expressly. Richard's career is testament to this truth. As to how it influences it, well we're back to the Income and Substitution effects and the Laffer curve for that.
As your article on employers NI makes clear, the overall burden on the employed is higher and as I see every day, this impacts on behaviour. Be it dividends instead of salary or (more specific to the argumen here) a decision to set up as a member of an LLP rather then set up a company and pay full salary.
The problem with Richard's article is it is full of assumptions that he makes that back up his arguments but has no external references to back up his assumptions.
I know, for a fact, that tax rates (if one includes NI as tax) have influenced the actions of many of my clients and other individuals I see in business every day. I don't work for Grant Thornton but here's an example for anyone who doubts what I am saying – it took me a couple of minutes on Google to track down. If Richard's argument excludes NI it's not based in the real world and if it includes NI it's just plain wrong.
In particular, under s.172, a director must "act in the way he considers, in good faith, would be most likely to promote the success of the company for the benefit of its members as a whole", and have regard to a number of factors, including interests of employees, relationships with suppliers and customers, and impact on the community and the environment.
I suppose an economist might label the framework that that a director uses to reconcile those different factors and make a decision as a "utility function".
To go back a step, what do we mean "choose" self-employment? Have 80% of people really made an active decision in favour of employment and against being self-employed? Certainly tax will be a factor when for example someone is setting up a new business. Avoiding employer NICs might be a factor (R2 rather than R1), but then so might the ability to retain profits in a company without paying 45% income tax and 2% NICs, and/or to take dividends (R4 rather that R2).
I think you're focusing on the wrong question. You've looked at an individual who is deciding whether to be employed or self-employed; but in my experience that is not a question that can be decided by the person who'll be impacted by the answer. It is therefore not a question that comes up in practice at all often.
I have occasionally come across a self-employed person who has been offered an employment in a different role and wants to know what will happen if they accept (and quit their existing business), but that is relatively rare.
1) Should I carry on as self-employed, or incorporate my business?
2) Should I engage this worker as an employee, or as a subcontractor; if the latter, directly or through a PSC?
The former normally comes down to running some business models to see whether the cost of running a company would outweigh the tax savings that might result. As you note, the tax savings will vary depending on the level of anticipated income, but it is trivial to run these scenarios – it is not nearly as complex as you make out, as most of the things you show as variables are in fact constants at any given time. Yes, they may change over time; but a little bit of sensitivity analysis deals with that: it's basic spreadsheet modelling. The only area that I find people get badly caught out by changing rates is company cars, where the ratcheting of the rates makes huge differences over the normal term of a lease.
But people do in fact ask the question and pay attention to the answer. After all it normally comes down to two scenarios, and although the exact result of each depends on the values of the inputs in most cases a clear trend is established. When deciding between routes A and B you don't need to know exactly how much tax you would save going down each, if it is clear that A is always going to save you more.
The second question primarily comes down to secondary NI, when you look at the cash tax position; but these days the climate has changed so far in the direction of presumption of employment by HMRC that in fact one ends up talking more about PAYE exposures and penalties than just the tax position. The commercial requirements dictate the answer that you will end up with, and most of the discussion is spent convincing the client that they don't have as much freedom of choice as they think they do.
1) If you are looking at whether to be employed or self-employed in a particular role, the answer is yes – but this question only comes up rarely, and normally has to be determined in conjunction with the other party's wishes (see (3) below).
4) If you are looking at whether to incorporate your sole trade (whether or not you've actually started it) then the answer is a definite yes.
– "tax professionals try to sell pre-packaged solutions (e.g. incorporation as a route to national insurance minimisation) without ever being fully aware of its potential implications for the client whose interests they may not have properly noted".
Do you have any evidence that these are representative of the profession as a whole? I do none of them: my firm is all about doing exactly what you propose, which is helping people get what they want out of life, based on a rounded understanding of their situation and goals. That could be higher net income, it could be more time at home and less in the office, it could be knowing that their children will inherit the company… a whole range of things.
If anything, the perception that decisions should be driven by tax comes from the clients ("Which company car should I buy?"), and I spend a lot of time disabusing them of that notion ("The one you want to drive").
Yes, there are some areas where tax is an influence (buy now before AIA drops, be careful about selling the company for loan notes if you want to get Entrepreneur's Relief, are you sure you want to give the family home away to your kids now?) but this is more commonly a case of avoiding pitfalls in the manner of doing things than it is one of deciding what to do in the first place.
Overall, I think you're right to highlight that the question of tax impact on commercial decisions is a complex one. However, I think you're wrong in your understanding of how that complexity affects the decision-making process itself, and of the role advisors play.
I've not said that I know what my utility function is. Nor have I said that each and every individual does nor even that any do. All that I have said is that economists say that what people attempt to maximise is their utility. Not, as you state, their income.
Whether or not people know and calculate it is irrelevant to that point. To offer an analogy. I'm not sure I know where my gallbladder is nor what it does. A doctor, such as your wife, would. But that does not change the fact that I have a gallbladder, it has a location and it does something. So it is with an economist and utility.
And to offer an explanation of maximising utility. You have often said that you prefer not to write on the weekends. There are better things to be doing with your sons, for example, that sit at a desk typing. That is you maximising, or at least satisfacting, your utility. Whether you call it that, whether you consciously calculate it, does not change that fact that an economist calls this you maximising your utility. This is what they mean by that phrase.
Profit maximisation and utility maximisation are not the same thing. One refers to human beings, who have multiple desires. The other refers to an inanimate form of organisation where there are no desires at all: only a function.
Umm, no, you were looking at choices made by human beings. Those complicated beings with a number of desires.
There is no ad hominem there. I do not insult you nor do I insult your argument. I point to several places where the arguments being put forward are in error. That simply isn't ad hominem. Nor is it a straw man either.
You were, above, examining the decision to be self-employed or not. That is about the motivations of an individual. Thus utility is in play. Insisting that I must now point to mentions of utility in company law really is a straw man.
I wish I had the time and patience to debate some of the points here, but since Andrew has so eloquently made a lot of the points I would make, it maximises my personal utility to endorse his comments.
I would only underline Andrew's point that RM's characterisation of client/professional interactions is often the polar opposite of his (and my) experience. Very often clients come to us with the sole stated aim of reducing tax, and it is we who raise the other (non-tax) issues which should be factored in to their decision-making. While I don't dispute that the tax professional caricature RM paints so vividly has some basis in reality, it is not (from my experience) a fair portrayal of the profession as a whole.
In reading this piece, I'm reminded of two things. Firstly Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds, which observed that "the chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one… but still they come". And secondly, the humble bumble bee, which so the urban legend goes, is unable according to the laws of science to fly, but still does.
Richard spends a very long time proving to us that nobody considers tax in deciding whether to be employed or self-employed. But he's missed the most obvious point of all – and which other commentators here have pointed out – which is that people clearly do consider tax. Some explanation for Richard of why his theorising isn't borne out in the real world is needed. Sadly it's not provided. For an article which spends so much of its time criticising the work of economists for not being based in the real world, it's a pity that it concludes something which is itself readily falsified by real world observation.
Take IR35 [edited] it exists only because HMRC found that people were claiming to be self-employed when the facts showed that their business relationship more closely resembled employment. What could possibly lead them to pretend to be self-employed if not tax?
Then there is the recent campaigning by HMRC on false self-employment in the construction sector. In seeking to move from employment to self-employment, the former employee | 2,332 |
Your guides will greet you at the airport in Bastia, then transfer you to our hotel in the small town of Saint-Florent on the Cap Corse. Discover the island's northern peninsula as we ride out along the coastal road, surrounded by<|fim_middle|> enjoy the long descent with Ajaccio Bay in our sights for the entire ride home. This evening, indulge in a beautiful meal paired with a glass of Sciacarello wine at our hotel.
Wake to the sounds of the waves and take your time enjoying an excellent breakfast at the hotel—you've earned it. Reflect on the amazing rides you just accomplished or keep your legs limber with a short spin in the area before your guides see you off at Ajaccio airport. | the Mediterranean on all sides. The road rises and falls along the shoulder of seaside mountains, passes through villages, and follows rocky beaches on the Cap's coast. Spinning back to the outskirts of Saint-Florent, we can stop for an optional wine tasting in one of the area's top wineries. Toast our ride with a glass of local Patrimonio wine and enjoy a delicious welcome dinner tonight.
Today we head inland and ride into the heart of Corsica. Our first rolling section takes us through the rocky Désert des Agriates, followed by a descent to the coast near L'Île-Rousse. Start climbing again to the town of Belgodère and keep riding along a ridge for a good 25 kilometers, enjoying the impressive views in every direction. Around lunchtime, small villages abound with fresh produce or we can grab some sandwiches to stay energized for the final clicks. From the hill town of Lumio, descend back toward the water and arrive with a sprint finish at our next luxurious hotel, La Signoria, just outside of Calvi (and conveniently adjacent to an excellent local winery). Tonight, your guides can recommend a restaurant for dinner on your own in the center of Calvi or right on the beach.
Another rewarding day of riding lies ahead! We'll begin atop the Col de Marsolino and descend into the beach town of Galéria. From here, climb up to a ridge high above the sea for an unforgettable view of Corsica's northwest coast, then ride 40 awesome kilometers directly above the water as it recedes far below us—few rides are as visually stunning as this one. We'll climb the mountains above the Mediterranean through the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Gulf of Porto and the Calanques de Piana. Capping off the epic day is an 11-kilometer climb up to the hotel Capo Rosso with its outrageous view overlooking the wind- and sea-sculpted Calanques. Enjoy dinner at Capo Rosso tonight in an idyllic setting, overlooking the granite coast as the sun casts its last shadows on the red rock.
Start the day with a descent through the Calanques and down to Porto. Then, we begin a steady 34-kilometer climb into scrub-oak forests and chestnut groves which give way to gigantic Corsican pines. Pedal through scattered hill towns where you can hear the ancient language of Corsican spoken in town squares. Finally, we descend again and end our epic ride in the seaside town of Sagone. Enjoy a fantastic lunch adjacent to the sea before a boat ride brings us to the Sofitel Thalassa in Porticcio, just outside of Ajaccio. Tonight's dinner will take place at a nearby restaurant along the seashore, where we'll watch as the sun sets behind the mountains ringing the bay of Ajaccio.
Leaving our hotel, we head south along a winding coastal road and tackle one last climb inland to reach some of the best cycling views of the week. Follow forested roads into small hamlets perched above the sea before we summit Col de Gradello, earning some unforgettable views and a classic Corsican lunch. After lunch, | 656 |
UTSC startup turns food waste into bio 3D printer filament
Researchers 3D print hollow microneedles for controlled transdermal drug delivery
Hayley Everett January 20th 2021 - 6:49pm
Swamini Khanvilkar September 26th 2018 - 1:12pm 0 0
Genecis, a startup company founded by students and recent graduates of the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC), is using current advancements in biotechnology, machine learning and microbial engineering to convert food waste into PHAs. A fully biodegradable form of plastic, PHAs can be used to make more sustainable toys, medical devices and 3D printer filament.
Luna Yu, Founder and CEO of Genecis, states:
"More than $1 trillion worth of food is wasted globally<|fim_middle|>3D printer
Farsoon customer AHTi develops TA32 titanium powder for metal 3D printing
Hayley Everett December 11th 2020 - 7:30am | every year. What we're able to do is take this waste and turn it into something of higher value."
Food-based plastic
Following the collaboration with a fellow environmental science student at The Hub, UTSC's entrepreneurial incubator, Genecis' founders began to explore other possible products which could be made from food waste.
Yu comments, "We looked at different types of bio-rubbers and bio-chemicals before landing on PHAs. We felt it had the biggest market potential."
PHAs (aka polyhydroxyalkanoates) are polymers produced by bacteria which have various benefits over other forms of bio-plastics. They can be developed into a thermoplastic, which can easily be turned into different products. Also, unlike many other forms of bio-plastics, the PHA won't spoil the recycling process.
"Many people throw bio-plastics into the recycling bin rather than the compost, but if it's not a thermoplastic it can't be remoulded and this disrupts the physical properties of new recycled products. They will end up falling apart," Yu said. But in case of PHAs, they won't cause this problem even if they accidentally end up in recycling bins.
PHAs fully degrade in the environment within one year, and under 10 years in water. Whereas synthetic plastics can take more than a hundred years to degrade in similar environments.
Food-based PHA. Photo by Don Campbell.
Genecis explore 3D printing applications
Genecis uses a three-step process to develop its their PHAs. Initially, the food waste is broken down into volatile fatty acids by a bacteria culture. The fatty acids are further added to another bacteria culture specifically selected to produce PHAs in their cells. At last, an extraction process cracks open the cells, then compiles and purifies the plastic. This entire process takes place over a course of seven days, a much speedier alternative to produce like biogas which can take up to 21 days.
Genecis are exploring PHAs application potential through multi-use products like toys, 3D printer filament, flexible packaging and medical staples, stents and sutures.
At present, Genecis' main lab in University of Toronto Banting and Best Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship contains high-scale bioreactors that allows completing the three-step process. Another location in Environmental Science and Chemistry Building at UTSC is responsible for research and development in searching ways to advance their production process. Later in 2019, Genecis will commence its demonstration plant with an industry partner, and it will be able to transform three tonnes of organic waste into PHAs weekly.
Within the journey of two years, Genecis has won prize money of more than $330,000 from startup competitions. Yu gives the credit of this rapid growth to the Creative Destruction Lab, The Hub, and the Hatchery, which is a startup accelerator at the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.
Luna Yu holding PHA produced by Genecis. Photo by Don Campbell.
Genecis has cultured and isolated hundreds of species of bacteria which presently don't exist in databases. Yu said, "Our goal is to create the highest value from organic waste."
"Soon we will be able to synthesize speciality chemicals and other materials from organic waste, all at a lower cost than traditional production methods using synthetic biology."
Those distinctive chemicals can be used in cosmetics and in the health and wellbeing industry.
Determined to enhance the green potential of 3D printing, there are many projects looking to create materials that easy to recycle and safer for the planet. In 2017, the European Union launched a €2.7 million project to create greener 3D printing materials for the automotive industry. Other efforts, including recycled space waste, coffee powder and orange peel are also in progress for the development of 3D printer materials.
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Featured image shows the food-based PHA. Photo by Don Campbell.
Tags Creative Destruction Lab Genecis Luna Yu PHA polyhydroxyalkanoates the Hatchery The Hub University of Toronto university of Toronto Scarborough UTSC
Swamini Khanvilkar
Swamini Khanvilkar is a Tech Journalist at 3D Printing Industry. With a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering and a Masters in Creative Writing & Publishing, Swamini has a keen interest in the latest technology. Her other interests lie in digital marketing, social volunteering and Industry 4.0.
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Today's Special Mention goes to Dr Malcah Effron for bringing Written?Kitten! to my attention this morning. For every 100 words you write (you can vary the amount of words) you get a new picture of a kitten being cute. I've been trying with mixed success to keep up my daily 750 words, so I haven't won any badges yet for that, but with the cheating power of cut-&-paste I managed to view several very cute kittens. The idea of automatic reward for writing short amounts seems to be a really powerful factor in online-writing tools, from the ranking element of the LuLu title scorer to the kitten in the latest find. Perhaps the important thing is to keep something both fun and meaningful; the concept of 'play' has been described to me in the past as meaningful activity without goals.
Having started to come up with some theories around the importance of enjoying writing and being playful with it, by looking into the background of Written?Kitten! I come across an app called Write Or Die. It describes itself as 'a new kind of writing productivity application that forces you to write by providing consequences for distraction and procrastination'. The theory has therefore been reworked to consequences- positive or negative. We need to feel that our actions are meaningful, which we can measure by using them to get a reaction. Writing being a stereotypically solitary task (just you and the little person in your head), these kind of systems can give a sense of external validation to our levels of productivity, even if they are machine generated rather than the attention of an individual.
It was always obvious that I was the favourite. The way they looked at me, eyes wide in delight<|fim_middle|> feet weren't cold until I noticed that.
It was always obvious that I was not the favourite. The way they looked at me, eyes wide in disgust. The way they murmured under their breath.
One day in early winter, the trees were still strung with dead leaves that rasped across the back of my coat like dry tongues when they pushed me against them.
There was nobody in the playground when I got to school so I stood by the concrete pillar by the gates and I shut my eyes and counted to fifty. When I opened them there was still nobody there and I thought there might be a chance that the day was cancelled, perhaps because of all the snow at the weekend.
A car went past, then stopped a bit further up the road. The back lights lit up red and it began to reverse, slowly. I let go of the pillar and went through the gates and up to the closed green door. I tried to turn the round brass handle but my mittens just slid off. No traction; we learnt all about gripping and pivots and cantilevers last term. On my bare skin, the worn patches felt rough and almost warm, like scratched leather. The still shining tip of the handle was cold though, as if it hadn't ever been touched for a hundred years.
The hallway was dark, but not empty. I could feel them there, breathing just beyond the edge of sound. I pulled the door to as quietly as possible and stood still, digging my thumbnails into the sides of my palms and waiting for my eyes to catch-up.
Bending down was awkward in my duffle-coat, so I rested back against the doorframe while I undid my laces. Across the dark wooden floorboards, the light moved in time with my feet, my white ankle socks whispering like small flashes that kept catching the corner of my eye and making me stumble as I ran. | . The way they murmured under their breath, too shy to talk to me directly.
It was not my fault. I didn't ask for it. Any of it.
One day in early winter, the ground was slick with new ice and I dug my thumbnail into the side of my palm in my pocket to distract me from the pain in my ears. The red half-moons were still there when I put my hands under the hot water tap at school, flaring and fading as the heat began to soak back into my marrow.
In the classroom, in the waiting space before the teacher arrives, they came and stood round me and asked me to shut my eyes and count to fifty.
I asked them why and they said that I knew why.
I hadn't got much further than thirty — doing it properly, with a slow mississippi , making sure I didn't lisp over the 'threes' — when they broke my attention by clattering away. I stopped counting, but I didn't open my eyes until I heard the door slam.
I spent a little time checking behind the desks and the chairs and testing the door to the stationary cupboard, but I already knew I was the only person breathing in the room; the game had started.
The third time I circuited round, I found the first thing that was missing, then a second. I wasn't entirely sure if they counted as the same thing or not. The wooden pegs by the door were empty. The wire shoe racks were empty. Even the two spare pairs on white-soled plimsolls that the teacher kept hanging by their laces in case of emergencies were gone; my | 335 |
That's it! Today is the day! 30 Days of Thanks. We made it. I feel like today I should somehow reflect on all the days previous and choose something to be thankful for that perfectly encapsulates EVerything that makes my life grand. But in all honesty I can't get one thing out of my mind.
I said yes to the dress today.
I didn't think it would happen.<|fim_middle|> I have found peace of mind, I've found a renewed and more vibrant love of acting, and most importantly I've found goodness in my heart. I've let go of the jealousy, the anger, the bitterness, the worry, the judgement. I've discovered what it means to truly follow your bliss.
Routine. If all I do is routine, a serious case of the blues won't be far behind. If everyday I wake up, drink coffee, go to work, drive home, eat dinner, watch TV, go to bed, sleep, wake up, repeat…. you get the picture; I would be a dead shark. And yet creature comforts must not be discounted completely for they are just that, comforts. In times of my life that I've suffered from terrible anxiety (usually related to fear of change) it is turning to certain routines that has given me the strength to let change occur. Bubble baths. My favorite foods. Mac & Cheese! A date with Brad. Walking along the beach. Snuggling with my cats. Talking to my Mom. Painting. Writing. Watching my favorite movie. This time of year is such a perfect example of the comfort and strength of routine. You know what makes it palatable to face a new 365 days of unknowns every year? Christmas carols. Eggnog lattes. Holiday cards. Mistletoe. Cinnamon. Apple cider. Baking. Snowmen. Snuggling by a fire. I love Christmas because it's the epitome of comforting. And it rolls around like clockwork. Like a routine or something.
All of these things are not wildly outside of my comfort zone. They give me peace. They are the layer of security I need in order to walk boldly into the unknown.
So for today, a double-bill of thanks is appropriate for their respective topics. For Day 12 and Day 13: I'm thankful for the yesterday that brought me to today.
Today was rather uneventful. We woke. We ate. We ran. We ate again.
But then we went over to a friend's house to watch the first two episodes of Season 4 of The Walking Dead. An awesome way to end a Sunday.
Today I am thankful for The Walking Dead. No spoilers! Only on S4: ep. 2 people!
Thank goodness for good TV. That is all. | I didn't really buy into that whole Say Yes to the Dress myth even though I watch that show like a junkie. I figured that although it's entertaining, it's not really me. I'll just find a gown online, or at a little vintage thrift store, or at Ross. Whatever. I figured that would suffice. And it almost did. And it probably would have been fine. But I still wanted the experience. The bridal gown miles of chiffon champagne mother-daughter dress shopping experience. I figured I only get to have the experience once in my life and I want to know what it feels like to wear a designer gown. So I made an appointment at Miosa Couture in Sacramento this afternoon and went in with my mom and my Maid of Honor with zero expectations. I just wanted to have fun. The experience.
Then my mom started crying, and Dana started crying, and I felt like a bride. And I realized I didn't want a dress from Ross. I'm much too much of a romantic for that. I want to feel like the most "Rebecca" version of Rebecca on my wedding day, and I realized today that the dress will help that happen. This dress.
The moment I put her on I knew. It is the most perfect dress I could imagine. I want to wear it for the rest of my days. It is everything I want in a dress and everything I could dream of. And while it is more than I planned on paying for a wedding gown, it is not going to break the bank, and I love it. I love it so much.
So today, on this last day of November and the 30th Day of Thanks, I'm thankful for rites of passage. For little rituals we've created to take us from girls to women, to bond with our mothers, to celebrate our sisterhood. It's just a dress, but it represents so much more.
Probably won't see ya tomorrow. Probably gonna take the day off. Probably see ya the day after.
A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called "leaves") imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time ― proof that humans can work magic.
Yep. Carl's got it. The book you read is the only version of that book that will ever exist. Unlike a film; everyone sees the same version of the story, but when you read The Great Gatsby, that is your version, and only yours. That's really an amazing thing to think about, and why the book is always better. No one's green light across the bay will look exactly like mine, because no one will ever get inside my head. How intimate. What a magic gift. The greatest of human inventions.
You know you cried hard today. Such good tears. We love you Batkid! Thank you for keeping Gotham safe. And by safe I mean thank you for reminding us that there is goodness in the world.
To me, the goodness of today was a call to action. Let's all go out and be the hero that the world needs!
I may have missed yesterday's post (bad blogger!) but that doesn't mean I missed the chance to contemplate on what has made me grateful. So today is a two-fer. I'm grateful for two things, seemingly anachronistic, but actually vital to each other's worth.
You know what they say about sharks that don't swim forward. Well, humans too in my opinion. Our "swimming" may look different, but if we don't change and move forward we'll die. Either emotionally, psychologically, or literally. Truly literally, not Chris Traeger literally. Many of the cells in our body are constantly regenerating and changing. And while that whole "our body is completely regenerated every 7 years" factoid is partially a myth (which I was disappointed to discover as it would have been a great zing to illustrate my point), it is true that millions of our body's cells regenerate every day, and all but the cells of the cerebral cortex, the inner lens of the eye, and the muscles of the heart will completely regenerate several times in our lifetime. (Glad the point still pretty much works). To sum up, change is a necessary part of life.
I've been thinking back to last year and how much has changed just in the act of getting engaged. I've gone from someone's girlfriend to someone's fiance. Next year I will become someone's wife. Not just someone's. Brad Light's. My sweet wonderful Brad. I've been thinking back to some of the trepidation I had at first of going through this transformation. So many unknowns. Such big steps. I think now about how happy I am. What a wonderful place I'm in; a place of excitement, eagerness, and honor that I will partake in such a sacred rite. So grateful that I didn't allow fear to stunt this metamorphosis.
A year ago I still wanted to be a professional actor; well, to be more specific (and more honest) a movie stahh! There was a bitterness and toxicity attached to it that I just kept repressing and repressing. Finally in accepting my heart's truth that I may be changing into something else, | 1,158 |
Following an active bowling season that started in December, the most promising bowls players have been identified and named in the national team that will<|fim_middle|> has selected two junior players that will travel to Australia to participate at the World Junior Championships which is scheduled to go down from 10th to 16th November. The youngsters are: Waylon Wentzel and Mandie Steenkamp. The pair will compete in the singles events in the male and female categories respectively. | represent Namibia during the northern hemisphere summer games. At the end of this month, the new round of games in the national league will prepare the team for participation at the Commonwealth Games.
The Namibian Bowling Association (NBA) has officially announced the team members that will represent Namibian at the Commonwealth Games in the Scottish capital Glasgow from 23 July to 3 August. The women's team was selected during the NBA's test-match series in November last year, while the men's team had to undergo a rigorous training camp in February.
Sandy Joubert will act as coach and team manager. He will be assisted by Avril Kotze and Jean Joubert.
Both Namibian teams will participate in all four Bowling events in Scotland: Singles, Doubles, Triples and Fours.
The national teams have already started preparing for the Games, as their members were part of an extended training squad that was in action over the last few months already. Under the guidance of Sandy Joubert, the team will further increase their training with specialized skill training, fitness and conditioning and mental preparation.
The ongoing National League and the upcoming week-long National Championships at the end of May provide an excellent platform for the national players to get critical match practice.
Meanwhile the NBA | 258 |
Rightsizing a School District
A dramatic self-examination led the Kansas City, Mo., public schools to close schools and cut $68 million from its annual budget.
By Mary Esselman, Rebecca Lee-Gwin, and Michael Rounds, Phi Delta Kappan
The transformation of the Kansas City, Mo., School District (KCMSD) has been long overdue. Multiple superintendents and administrations, using billions of dollars of desegregation funds, tried to transform the district by creating magnet schools, themed schools, and career-focused high school initiatives. Missing from these initiatives, but included in the current restructuring, was a laser-like focus on teaching and learning.
By the 2009-2010 school year, the district faced a myriad of problems: More than 70% of its schools posted student proficiency levels below 25% on the state assessment, and fewer than one-third of elementary students were reading at grade level. Student enrollment had dropped from 30,000 in 2000 to just over 17,000 in 2010, creating a building use rate of 48% in the district's 63 open schools. (Fifty percent of all open seats were in secondary schools.) State revenues had sharply declined in the face of the worst recession since the 1930s. The result was a projected budget deficit of $8.5 million in FY2011 and a two-year revenue decline of over $100 million with little likelihood of a significant upturn projected for FY2012. Finally, the district had been cited by the state as having no viable and guaranteed curriculum, with local schools having scant capacity for ensuring that students would be college, career, or workforce ready when they graduated from high school (Esselman & Reynolds, 2010).
These statistics strongly suggested that, at the current rate of progress, the district would achieve only minimal success. (See Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4.) Making incremental changes each year would have tempered the affect on the community, but there was little political will to make any changes because the school district was a major employer in Kansas City. To create a sense of urgency throughout the community regarding the plight of public education for Kansas City students, newly appointed Supt. John Covington called for a radical transformation and rightsizing of the district.
The Plan Takes Shape
In October 2009, a community task force appointed by Covington kicked off the rightsizing process by having two sets of forums. The first forum confirmed the priorities in deciding on school closures, and a second set in spring 2010 obtained feedback on the final recommendations. To avoid relying on a single factor to determine which schools would close, district officials created a matrix of 52 indicators across four categories—academic performance, building conditions and infrastructure, enrollment and demand for schools and programs, and other special program considerations—and created scorecards for each district school.
Upon review of the district's recommendations for school closures, the second set of community forums unearthed disagreements over grade-level organizations and gang issues. The administration initially recommended reorganizing schools into grade-level groupings of K-2, 3-6, and 7-12. Numerous parents opposed this and cited personal hardships in getting children to as many as three schools each day as a significant problem. Combining middle school students with high school students also provoked strong sentiments. Parents did not want their 13- and 14-year-old daughters mingling with 17- and 18-year-old boys.
Parents, community activists, and students raised concerns that changing school attendance boundaries would send children across gang turf lines, placing them in jeopardy. Also, there was a strong sense that comingling gang-connected students would bring trouble. They worried that adding 7th and 8th graders in the mix would provide bigger pools for gang recruiting. City Council members joined the fray, focusing on the number of schools being closed in each subdistrict. They wanted the pain of school closings to be shared equally among attendence districts.
Ultimately, data from the scorecards, along with input from the task force, community forums, and economic indicators provided by city planners were used to identify 30 schools for closure. While grade configurations in the elementary schools did not change, secondary schools were reconstituted to 7-12 grade-level organizations, with many of the secondary magnet programs collapsed into one building from two.
The district made reducing vendor contracts an important objective. For years, the district had supplied contracts to a number of individuals in the city whose lifestyles required this flow of money to continue. These individuals pressured board members and the superintendent—to no avail.
In March 2010, the board approved closing all 30 targeted schools on a 5-to-4 vote. Kansas City reduced its budget by $68 million for FY2011, cut vendor contracts from 6,000 to fewer than 1,000, and improved its focus on optimizing resources to support teaching and learning. Rightsizing continued in FY12 with an additional reduction of $37 million across both operations and instruction.
Included in the cuts were 1,247 full-time equivalent positions over a two-year span. The district spent $8 million to provide a "retirement or buyout incentive" for eligible employees, both certified and classified. The plan was designed to recoup the cost of incentives within three years through lower salary expenditures and reduced legal fees. The union requested—but the administration did not support—a 4% raise for teachers and support staff. The district took the stance that including a raise in the proposed collective bargaining agreement would have returned the district to its prior state of financial instability. The district intends to restructure the salary schedule to reward performance rather than longevity.
A New Pedagogy
In transforming teaching and learning after the cuts, district leaders wanted to create a system in which students assume ownership for their learning under the guidance of teachers working as facilitators (Prensky, 2009). Through a culture of continuous improvement, the district plans to eliminate pathways based soley on age and time.
The new instructional model embraces a "learner-centered paradigm of education" in which pedagogy, assessments, and support systems are changed (Reigeluth et al., 2008). Students work individually, in pairs, and small groups facilitated by teachers, peers, technology, and/or tutors. Students are organized by instructional level rather than grade level and progress via mastery rather than time.
KCMSD is using technology more widely as a result of the rightsizing. The district's distance learning platforms support individualized learning plans for all students. Low-enrollment classes will be offered through distance learning labs in each high school during the 2012-13 school year. Virtual courses are planned to support students with diverse interests, a desire to accelerate, or a need for remediation. In addition, parents, teachers, and students will have ready access to both aggregated and disaggregated student progress reports aligned with local, state, national and international standards. The increased use of technology provides cost savings by eliminating outside vendors and is therefore financially sustainable.
In light of shrinking dollars, professional development funds have shifted to support in-house curriculum writing and other leadership activities. The district's new teaching and learning center hosts resource rooms for each content area and teacherled workshops. The district uses technology to support collaboration among teachers through professional learning communities, data teams, discussion threads, and transmedia platforms. Teachers continue to have access to individual professional development through commercial and district-generated video links.
Principals and other administrators are able to evaluate teachers with observation tools that allow them to use iPads to electronically document teachers' instructional practices. Information from walk-throughs is downloaded in real-time to a data warehouse that immediately generates a report for viewing by teachers and administrators. Teachers who need additional assistance receive video links aligned to the area of need. The district bought small, portable cameras to provide panoramic filming; the footage will be used for coaching, evaluating, and demonstrating achieved competencies for new and struggling teachers.
The broad restructuring resulted in balanced budgets for FY2011 and FY2012, demonstrating the district's ability to respond effectively to changing student needs; even with fewer dollars, KCMSD can no longer depend on its once "privileged" funding status. Rightsizing forced the district to truly assess revenues and reduce expenditures accordingly. The district had to rethink staffing, class sizes, and technology to replace some teachers (Hess & Osberg, 2010).
Leadership adopted the mantra of "nothing changes if nothing changes." The operational side of the district took the approach that efficiency would ultimately strengthen the instructional side. The budget, buildings, and staffing, if controlled effectively, would offer financial stability, environmentally sound buildings, and the opportunity to have effective teachers.
Operational Changes
A school can be considered operationally effective if teachers and school administrators can focus on learning and not on the surrounding environment. In each of the 33 open KCMSD buildings, some level of infrastructure dysfunction routinely disrupts teaching and learning. In many cases, it's difficult to guarantee on a day-to-day that the physical environment in district schools will be adequate to support all school activities. Twice during spring 2011, for example, elementary school students had to be sent home early because of plumbing failures. Acute maintenance issues exist because the district largely ignored routine and preventive maintenance for three decades. A 2007 study by ACI/Frangkiser Hutchens outlined over $150 million of deferred maintenance that needed to be addressed in order for district school buildings to remain viable in both the near and long term.
To reestablish the functionality of all schools and address a good portion of their deferred maintenance, KCMSD has embarked on an aggressive program to refurbish its buildings. Putting the buildings into acceptable shape will require an $85-million investment. Equally important to the rapid execution of the building refurbishment process is a commitment to keep the project funding neutral for district stakeholders. About $40 million will be provided up-front as available capital funds from the district. The remaining $45 million, secured through leased-purchase bonds, will be paid back over 15 years from the maintenance and utility savings achieved from upgrading the schools. Similar projects have realized more than 20% savings on both maintenance and energy costs. The proposed KCMSD refurbishment project will be funding neutral by achieving maintenance and utility savings of only 10% even though savings are expected to be well over the normal 20%. The district has demanded that the selected construction partner guarantee the performance of the refurbished energy management systems for the full 15 years of the contract, ensuring at least one generation of building functionality.
At the same time the district is refurbishing all existing schools, KCMSD is making a concerted effort to change the maintenance culture of the workforce. A key element is a new data-driven maintenance management system that provides real-time visibility for each work order from the time it's initiated until the work is completed. Tracking maintenance performance indicators will be a key factor in ensuring that maintenance backlogs are eliminated for good.
The cost of securing and maintaining the large inventory of closed buildings is considerable. The district is working with the community to repurpose the buildings to meet local needs. This can be difficult because neighborhoods surrounding the buildings have been declining for years. KCMSD will keep seven of the buildings to provide for hoped-for expansion as the district once again becomes the education option of choice for students and parents in the district. These seven schools already have been staged and mothballed. The district will continue to bear the expense of maintaining the closed buildings until they're either sold or leased, a process projected to take at least five years.
The true operational transformation of the KCMSD will require a sustained effort by all district stakeholders. A key element of the transformation is creating a "living" Facilities Master Plan. District stakeholders are collaborating on a 20-year model that ensures the district has the right capacity to meet an ever-evolving student population. The right capacity includes sustaining the right inventory of buildings in the right locations and in the right condition. The facilities plan will also provide a benchmark cost to refurbish existing buildings and replace several. The cost is expected to be between $200 million and $300 million. To meet these needs, the district will ultimately need to gain voter support for the first school bond in Kansas City since 1969.
By erasing inefficient practices in the instructional, financial, and operational arenas, Kansas City has freed resources that can be redirected to teaching and learning. The district must now turn its full attention to meeting the challenge of regaining its accreditation. For the past decade, the district has not met the state's proficiency requirements. In September 2011, the Missouri State Board of Education gave the district an unaccredited status. The constant cloud of financial stress does have a direct relationship to performance. With operational stability, the district now has the financial wherewithal to move forward to address student performance.
Rightsizing is not an isolated event. Rather, it's an iterative process that requires continued self-examination as the student population evolves. A lean organization sends a signal that efficacy is valued. In coming years, KCMSD must be agile enough to make adjustments based on population shifts, student performance, and shrinking dollars. The district must make decisions according to a zero sum mandate. The district wants new programs to be funding neutral while also ensuring that new schools, such as the proposed advanced career and technical education center, are sustainable and have the resources they need to achieve. Staying the course will continue to be challenging for KCMSD as it seeks to regain its accreditation, but it's essential if the district is to remain independent and able to determine its own future.
Esselman, M. & Reynolds, M. (2010). Rightsizing the Kansas City, Missouri, School District: Teaching and learning for a new millennium. Kansas City, MO: Kansas City School District.
Hess, F. & Osberg, E. (2010). Stretching the school dollar: How schools and districts can save money while serving students best. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
Prensky, M. (2008, November-December). The<|fim_middle|>-mail [email protected]. | role of technology in teaching and in the classroom. Educational Technology, 48 (6), 64.
Reigeluth, C., Watson, W., Watson, S., Dutta, P., Chen, C., & Powell, N. (2008, November-December). Roles for technology in the information-age paradigm of education: Learning management systems. Educational Technology, 48 (6), 32-39.
MARY ESSELMAN ([email protected]) is chief officer, accountability, equity and innovation for Michigan's Educational Achievement Authority. She is a former assistant superintendent for professional development, assessment and accountability in Missouri. REBECCA LEE-GWIN is deputy chancellor business and fiscal affairs and operations for the Educational Achievement Authority, an agency tasked with handling Michigan's lowest-performing schools. She is a former chief financial officer in Missouri. MICHAEL ROUNDS is chief operating officer for the Kansas City Public Schools, Kansas City, Mo.
All articles published in Phi Delta Kappan are protected by copyright. For permission to use or reproduce Kappan articles, please e | 225 |
Anthony Manzella III reaches success in his business Zella Technologies: Comprehensive IT, VoIP and Cyber Security
Anthony Manzella III, a serial entrepreneur, has had much success of his business Zella Technologies which is a comprehensive managed IT, VoIP, and Cloud services provider that delivers an impressive mix of services essential to modern businesses, including cyber-security.
"I have had a thing for computers for as long as I can remember. I have home videos of me at the age of 7 taking apart my first computer. As the years went on, I started to learn more about networking, software, and security. At the age<|fim_middle|> solution," Manzella III said.
Zella Technologies also offers training to employees and users on how to identify and prevent threats in their network. "Every week we send out micro training emails about a new threat and how to identify it," Manzella III added. The company can also take measures to look into whether a user's email or password has been leaked on the dark web.
Zella Technologies is committed to ensuring cybersecurity and comprehensive IT especially in this unprecedented time with the COVID-19 pandemic. Anthony Manzella III and Zella Technologies are committed to ensuring that wherever you are, you will have the IT support, phones, and Cyber Security you need to stay safe and conduct safe business.
To connect with Anthony Manzella III follow him on Instagram @anthony_manzella and Twitter @amanzella3. To find out more, visit the Zella Technologies at www.zellatech.com.
Company Name: Zella Technologies
Website: www.zellatech.com | of 14, I built my first server…" Manzella III said when asked about his background.
Zella Technologies was founded in 2010, with the plan to offer Managed IT Services, Cloud Services, Cyber Security, VoIP Phone Services, and Nationwide On-Site/Break-Fix Services to customers. The company offers services to any industry.
"When I was 18, I started working for a local company where I was the Lead Network Engineer. After working for others for 2 years I decided I wanted to open my own company," Manzella III added.
Manzella III also personally offers a Chief Information Officer or CIO services to a max of 5 companies. This service offers strategic coaching and innovative tools to guarantee a thriving business. He uses the method called 'The AM3 Process' to maximize business growth. The service brings cutting-edge technology and business together.
"More and more businesses are starting to realize cybercrime does not care if you are a one-man operation or a Fortune 500 company… Nowadays, anyone can purchase malicious attacks like ransomware as a service and just start sending out emails until someone falls for it. It's important for companies to have a full cybersecurity | 249 |
What will we get when our school subscribes to the Empiribox System?
You get a highly experienced<|fim_middle|> Curriculum?
It completely covers the New National Curriculum. In fact, it meets and exceeds the national curriculum and extends and enriches it greatly.
What is the minimum term of the service contract?
The subscription is an annual one. If your school has issues around affordability or cash flow, please speak to us and we will explore with you how we can help you finance your subscription. | 'science teacher trainer', three fantastic suites of equipment per year (one for each term), that allow your pupils in years 1,2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 to work in pairs in KS2 and small groups in KS1 during the lessons, and all the learning resources you will need to enable your teachers to deliver fantastic science lessons every week of the year.
When can my school start?
Your school can start at any time in the year. The system is delivered in a modular way, so it is completely flexible, so it can fit into your school's planning and timetable requirements very easily.
How should we budget for a subscription?
The subscription rate depends upon the size of your school and is based on the number of KS2 classes you have in your school, working on 30 pupils per class.
Our subscribers usually allocate elements of several different budgets to cover the subscription fee, which usually might include CPD/training budgets; learning resources (including science, literacy and maths, because the system has substantial cross-curricular impact) and pupil premium funding (as Empiribox helps schools achieve PP objectives and results). Many subscribers also apply PTA funding and local company sponsorship/support towards the cost of the resources.
Please contact us to find out more about how Empiribox might enhance your science provision and to discuss a tailored quote for your school.
Does it meet the new National | 284 |
If you are looking for a riveting, un-put-downable read to curl up with on a Siberian January night – look no further than Michael Smith's marvellous book – The Debs of Bletchley Park. This book reveals the glam, highly intelligent debutante-codebreakers in all their lipstick, seamed stockings and stiff upper lip magnificence….
The women who helped to win the Second World War with their code breaking prowess, chutzpah and extraordinary sense of duty before love and personal happiness. They are the real life versions of Keira Knightley's character Joan Clark in the Imitation Game, opposite Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing.
One of them, Lady Marion Body worked alongside the Duchess of Cambridge's grandmother and great aunt, and recently spent some time with the Duchess, explaining what her fearless female relatives got up to to help the war effort!
From the former ballerina who helped to break the Enigma Code – to the deb working for the Admiralty, with a hotline to Churchill – to the German literature student whose code breaking skills saved many lives on D-Day – the story of their experiences, kept secret for decades is now revealed for the first time.
At the peak of Bletchley's success, a total of twelve thousand people worked there of whom more than eight thousand were women. All these women were essential cogs in a very large machine, yet their stories have been kept secret. The Debs of Bletchley Park and Other Stories tells their stories: how they came to be there, the lives they gave up to do 'their bit' for the war effort, and the part they played in the vital work of 'Station X'. They are an incredible set of women, and<|fim_middle|> of the Trust is to preserve and develop Bletchley Park as a world-class museum, heritage site and education centre in order to enhance the understanding of the critical contribution of codebreaking and intelligence in World War II, the birth of computing and electronic security, and how these unique achievements remain relevant today.
Bletchley Park is open daily except Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day. Details of the exhibitions, operating hours and events at Bletchley Park are available at www.bletchleypark.org.uk , together with details of admissions charges.
Bletchley Park Trust has initiated a major project to preserve the historic buildings on the site, to develop a world-class museum on codebreaking and the development of computers. Further investment is needed to bring these plans to fruition. | this is their inspiring story.
Bletchley Park is the Home of the Codebreakers – where during World War Two top secret codebreaking work was carried out on behalf of the Allies. It is said that the work carried out at Bletchley Park helped shorten the war by as much as two years.
The Bletchley Park Trust was formed in 1992 to save the historic site from being lost to development. Bletchley Park has since opened to the public as a heritage site and museum. The present mission | 111 |
W Minneapolis – The Foshay serves as<|fim_middle|> the best wireless experience. Through the visuals and interviews captured, we were able to showcase ADRF's expertise in modernizing the wireless coverage and capacity throughout the venue without compromising the look and feel of Foshay's rich architectural heritage.
Technology is key with W Hotel as being on the forefront. It's just so important for our customers to be connected all the time…with not just one device but multiple devices. | a world-class hotel and an iconic landmark for the city of Minneapolis. The tower was originally built in 1929 and was converted into a W Hotel property nearly a decade ago. Located in downtown Minneapolis, the 32-story tower is the perfect luxury hotel for any guest in the city to stay with over 200+ rooms.Both guests and employees of W Minneapolis expect excellent wireless coverage at a moment's notice.
We worked with W Minneapolis and ADRF to help tell the story of success in delivering | 106 |
A Wise Guy: Elliott Gould's Hard-Boiled Reading of Raymond Chandler
By Dan Duray • 12/19/13 1:00pm
Elliott Gould in The Long Goodbye.
Much has been written about how audio books require the right reader. Just a few weeks ago, A.O. Scott praised a new recording Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, read by Bryan Cranston, arguing that "Cranston may be the most charismatic embodiment of moral ambiguity we currently possess." Shortly before he died, Christopher Hitchens praised Martin Jarvis's deftness with P.G. Wodehouse in Vanity Fair, and wrote that the reader makes one "almost overhear the classic" Right Ho, Jeeves. I have also heard that Will Patton does impressive work with Denis Johnson.
For me, though, no one will ever top Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe. At the end of the 1990s, Mr. Gould recorded The Big Sleep, The Long Goodbye, Playback, Farewell My Lovely, and a few other works by Raymond Chandler. For my money, there's never been a better audio paring of author and narrator.
Marlowe is defined by his honor and his world-weariness, both of these coupled with a gruffness you can almost forget, until it becomes necessary for him not to let you forget about it any longer. Humphrey Bogart sold the part with his sleepy eyes and sardonic manner, his inquiries more amused than prodding, it seemed, and then, suddenly, he'd cracked the mystery of Carmen Sternwood all the same.
Mr. Gould manages to accomplish this with just his voice. "He sounded like a man who had slept well and didn't owe too much money," he reads evenly, letting the wit sneak up on you, the way the text does.The evenness also conveys that honor, that incorruptibility and unstoppable element of Marlowe. Mr. Gould possess one of the deepest voices out there, yet he doesn't do that silly trick of going high for the female characters. He more whispers the lines, to let Marlowe's follow-up<|fim_middle|> voice is less gravelly than it is Sisyphean; each paragraph feels like boulders being moved around.
When I first found these audio books I was working freelance, my main income a night shift doing stuff so soft-boiled I couldn't possibly reveal what it was here, but on the off chance that I've accidentally established some kind of tough guy credibility in this blurblette about reading goofy books, I'll say it involved T.V. blogging. Anyway, I hadn't yet discovered Robert Altman's amazing adaptation of The Long Goodbye, in which Mr. Gould plays a hipster version of Marlowe in the 1970s, which made these private eye diversions seem that much more private. All the same, I recommend you try them sometime if you're ever walking home from a job at 4 a.m.
Filed Under: Entertainment, audiobooks, listening
SEE ALSO: This is The Facebook Effect | flirtations stick with you the way they stick with the femme fatales on the receiving end ("Tall, aren't you?" "I didn't mean to be.") And you want world-weariness? Mr. Gould's | 47 |
Brightoffice expands into<|fim_middle|>1 was developed to a high standard, within a professional environment with West Lancashire Investment Centre providing a business hub on site with café facilities.
"The transaction highlights an improving office sector, with longstanding enquiries now finding suitable accommodation and agreeing terms. Following a slow start to the year, and despite evidence of a recovery in confidence, overall take-up levels are still lower than previous years. The number of transactions remains steady, however, lettings below 2,500 sq ft continue to dominate the market." Phase 2 is now being marketed by Nolan Redshaw on behalf of Metier Property Holdings, where there is planning consent for up to 30,000 sq ft of office accommodation.
Bespoke builds partner portal for property auctioneer
Bespoke has built a specialist online platform to bring together partners of property auctioneer Pugh.
Blackpool Food Bank delivers relief with Mercedes-Benz Vito
By Impact Communications - Jan 11 2021
Hard-pressed charity workers have drafted in a Mercedes-Benz van to help them meet the soaring demand from s...
YourZooki plans international expansion following successful 2020
YourZooki is to add to its product range and expand its presence in the USA after trebling revenues through...
Together Housing acquires 30 affordable homes
Together Housing has acquired 30 affordable family homes at Coupe Green in Preston | White Moss Business Park
By Nolan Redshaw
Following the recent letting of 1B Maple Court, the first phase of White Moss Business Park, Skelmersdale, is now fully occupied.
Brightoffice Ltd based in Skelmersdale, has expanded into 2,049 sq. ft of space at 1B Maple Court, on a new six-year lease.
Neil Higson at Nolan Redshaw commented: "This was a good conclusion to a number of successful transactions on the business park, which results in Phase 1 being fully occupied. Occupiers such as NFU Mutual and Federal Management Limited, benefit from the excellent communications immediately available via J4 of the M58 motorway. Phase | 147 |
I opted to combine training weeks 9 and 10, because they weren't anything too spectacular. I had good intentions in the beginning of both weeks, but for one reason or another, workouts were the last thing I had time for.
I lacked on workouts in week 9, but the ones I did were hard on effort. I had one of my best 800 repeat workouts of the cycle on Tuesday which was definitely uplifting. I had meant to run on Wednesday or Thursday, but things just kept coming up to prevent me from getting out there. Poor scheduling on my part.
Saturday I ran a 5k, recap to come this week, which was again, a solid effort and a hard workout. I'm not sure what happened Sunday,<|fim_middle|> myself from previous spring cycles, I know I'm putting in more work, even though I may have moments of struggle.
I'm looking forward to starting a new week and finishing up these last four weeks where I know I should be. And hopefully, warmer weather will follow! | but motivation was no where to be found. I kept putting off my long run until it was too late. I found comfort in the idea that maybe I needed a weekend off of long runs, and to start fresh the following week.
And then week 10 happened. Our poor cat Pudge decided to eat 6 inches of an earbud cord, which lead to surgery, constant watching, and a very stressful and tiring week. The poor thing had to be kept in a separate room and needed almost constant attention.
Luckily Darren could work from home, and my mom could stop over when neither of us could take off work. Unfortunately, the little guy was having some separation anxiety and would take off his cone while we weren't home, which means he could pick at his stitches. Cue additional stress.
Needless to say, we're in the home stretch, and he should be allowed out by Saturday. But with all of going on, my runs were scattered, rushed, and not what I wanted.
Tuesday I did a quick progression mile. I wish I had time for more, but didn't, so I tried to make it count. Wednesday I snuck down to the treadmill and hammered out a speed workout. Not as long as I wanted, but it was better than nothing.
Thankfully Sunday I was able to get out and do a long run with Mallory. We ran 7.25 miles together and I finished up the rest on my own. It was exactly the run I needed. I felt a little out of shape at times, but it was the perfect way to step away from the past two weeks and remind myself that I'll have bad days or weeks.
This training cycle has been a weird one. I've had my ups and downs, and of course the weather hasn't helped over the past few months. But comparing | 375 |
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Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages Acquires Local Bottling Operations in Tri State Metropolitan Area
By CoffeeBUZZ
Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages, LLC announced today that it has closed its deal to acquire territory from The Coca-Cola Company across the New YorkTri-State Metro area. The definitive agreement, signed October 28, 2017, comes approximately five months after The Coca-Cola Company announced a letter of intent with the bottling partner as part of a broader plan to refranchise its operations in North America.
Liberty Coca-Cola officially opened its doors today, and welcomes more than 4,600 associates to its family. The new bottler's areas of service includes the cities of Philadelphia and New York, part of Delaware, the state of New Jersey, Long Island, parts of Hudson Valley, NY, and Fairfield County, CT. Liberty Coca-Cola will operate four production facilities and ten distribution centers throughout the region.
Coca-Cola Refreshments executives Paul Mulligan and Fran McGorry are at the helm of the new venture, and bring a combined 55-years of experience from the Coca-Cola system. Over the past 20 years, Paul has led the charge overseas from Europe to Japan to Latin America and most recently with Coca-Cola Refreshments in the U.S.; transitioning bottlers across North America to become part of the Company's 21st Century Beverage Partnership Model.
Fran McGorry has been President of the Tri-State Metro Operating Unit of Coca-Cola Refreshments for the last two years. Prior to his current role, McGorry's career included serving as President of the Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Company . He is a native of Philadelphia and has strong, local connections throughout the region.
"This is a team that truly believes in the power of our brands and world-class portfolio execution," said J. Alexander "Sandy" Douglas Jr., President, Coca-Cola North America. "Winning in one of the nation's biggest and most complex markets is mission critical, and Paul Mulligan, Fran McGorry and their tri-state team are the perfect people to make it happen for this newly established bottling partner."
"Becoming a Coca-Cola franchise owner is an honor and a privilege, with a responsibility and challenge we respect," said Paul Mulligan, Co-Owner Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages LLC . "We are passionate about the opportunity to refresh such a diverse marketplace with the world's most iconic beverages, and look forward to growing and innovating with our customers and consumers in each one."
"I have been part of the Coca-Cola family for 30 years, and achieving this dream of localizing the business not only for a brand I love, but in a market that I have grown up in, makes it all the more special," said Fran McGorry, Co-Owner Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages LLC. "We are excited to return to our local roots and be part of the fabric of the communities that we serve."
Liberty Coca-Cola is committed to driving growth in the marketplace by investing in its No. 1 asset – people. Resources are in place to develop a culture of ownership, safety and fun; where associates are empowered to make decisions that will impact the future growth of the business.
The closing of Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages is among the final transactions to complete the Coca-Cola Company's process of refranchising all of its U.S. bottling territories. The bottling system in North America now will be comprised of economically aligned partners that are able to serve major customers while maintaining strong, local ties throughout diverse communities across the country.
Financial terms of the Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages, LLC agreement are not being disclosed.
About Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages LLC
Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages, LLC is a privately-owned bottler that operates four production facilities in Philadelphia, Moorestown, N.J., Maspeth, N.Y., and Elmsford, N.Y. and sales and distribution centers in Marmora, South Brunswick and Carlstadt, NJ; the Bronx, Maspeth, Elmsford, New Windsor, and Smithtown, NY. For more information, visit us at www.LibertyCoke.com, and follow us on Twitter @libertycocacola, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.
About The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) is the world's largest total beverage company, offering over 500 brands to people in more than 200 countries. Of our 21 billion-dollar brands, 19 are available in lower- and no-sugar options to help people everywhere more easily control added sugar.
In addition to our namesake Coca-Cola drinks, some of our household names around the world include: AdeS soy-based beverages, Ayataka green tea, Dasani waters, Del Valle juices and nectars, Fanta, Georgia coffee, Gold Peak teas and coffees, Honest Tea, Minute Maid juices, Powerade sports drinks, Simply juices, smartwater, Sprite, vitaminwater, and Zico coconut water. At Coca-Cola, we're serious about making positive contributions to our world. That starts with reducing sugar in our drinks and bringing new and different drinks to people everywhere. It also means continuously working to reduce our environmental impact, creating rewarding careers for our associates, and bringing economic opportunity wherever we operate. In fact, together with our bottling partners, we employ more than 700,000 people around the world. For more information, visit our digital magazine Coca-Cola Journey at www.coca-colacompany.comand follow The Coca-Cola Company on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages, LLC
Copyright Business Wire 2017
Source: Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages, LLC
Related Items:New Windsor, Featured News, Paul Mulligan, Copyright Business Wire, Del Valle, 2017, Gold Peak, Minute Maid, Fairfield County, Hudson Valley, Georgia, impact, NJ, NY, North America, LLC, Honest Tea, local, people, drinks, customers
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What is it about Ron Paul that so many people find intellectually appealing? Perhaps<|fim_middle|> Ronald Bailey, eloquently stated, "Both embody the freedom to explore and experiment, enabling people to more systematically seek truths about the physical and social worlds." | it is his frankness and candor, a rare trait in politicians. But I think it goes far beyond that. Paul — and libertarian philosophy in general — tackles government policy the same way a researcher tackles an experiment... the seductive allure of libertarianism relies on its simple assumptions: People should be as free as possible. Our laws should reflect reality. Government policies should be analyzed using logic, not ideology. There are no grand appeals to shaping the world in America's image, no quixotic promotion of economic equality and no obsession over the moral character of the nation. In a nutshell, scientists and libertarians deal with the world the way it is, rather than the way they want it to be. Or, as Reason's science writer, | 150 |
UK pledges further US$44 million to scale up COVID-19 fight
Source: UK pledges further US$44 million to scale up COVID-19 fight | Newsday (News) The UK government through the Department for International Development (DFID) is working to rapidly reorganise and scale-up aid programmes on the COVID19 response in Zimbabwe by supporting partners with £35.4 million (US$43.6 million). By Phyllis Mbanje The funds will go towards […]
The post UK pledges further US$44 million to scale up COVID-19 fight appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.
Source: UK pledges further US$44 million to scale up COVID-19 fight | Newsday (News)
The UK government through the Department for International Development (DFID) is working to rapidly reorganise and scale-up aid programmes on the COVID19 response in Zimbabwe by supporting partners with £35.4 million (US$43.6 million).
By Phyllis Mbanje
The funds will go towards provision of medical supplies, infection prevention and<|fim_middle|> emergency humanitarian aid and cash transfers to the poorest and most vulnerable communities in the country.
They will also ensure the safety of their beneficiaries by increasing distribution points in order to minimise large gatherings and adhering to good hygiene practices and social distancing rules.
All UK Aid money in Zimbabwe is channelled through trusted partners like UNICEF, WHO, UNDP and WFP.
TheUK government continues to monitor the situation closely and urgently looking at what further support to provide through its partners on the ground.
The UK is committed to fighting COVID-19 not only at home in the UK but across the world.
So far the UK has pledged £544 million to support vaccine and treatments research, protecting fragile economies and helping organisations like the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF to slow the spread of the disease.
The post UK pledges further US$44 million to scale up COVID-19 fight appeared first on NewsDay Zimbabwe.
Author adminPosted on April 9, 2020 Categories zimbabwe
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Next Next post: Global shares track Wall Street gains, shrug off jobs fears | control, broadcast messaging, child support, psycho-social support for front-line workers, WASH facilities and humanitarian aid to help mitigate the crisis on the poorest and most vulnerable across the country.
Head of DFID Zimbabwe, Cate Turton said, "We are working with our partners to rapidly reorganise and scale-up our UK Aid programmes to support the COVID-19 response in Zimbabwe and urge others to as well.
"Our priority is to reach the most vulnerable communities and those most in need and to also reduce the risk and impact of COVID19. I'd like to say a huge thanks to our partners and especially front-line humanitarian workers who continue to deliver despite facing many challenges. We urge all actors to abide by the humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence,"said Turton.
Through its humanitarian programme the UK is currently supporting 570,000 beneficiaries throughout Zimbabwe and has vowed to continue to provide | 189 |
THE UK JUST FELL INTO DEFLATION
REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov
Consumer prices fell 0.1% in the year to April, with the UK officially and unexpectedly entering deflation.
Most people in the UK are a lot more used to inflation — when prices rise. Tuesday's figures mean that on average, prices are falling in the UK for the first time in at least 55 years.
Analysts were expecting prices to stay flat year-on<|fim_middle|>' Samuel Tombs had this to say in a note:
Looking ahead, though, the UK's deflation is likely to last for one month only. CPI inflation should return to positive territory in May, as the effect of the shifting timing of Easter ceases to depress it and as the negative contribution from energy and food prices starts to fade.
Meanwhile, there are still few signs that very low inflation is having malign economic effects - consumers are undertaking, not delaying, purchases and wage growth is picking up. Nonetheless, the pound's recent appreciation and the scope for productivity to recover suggests that it could still be another couple of years before CPI inflation returns to the 2% target. Accordingly, consumers can continue to look forward to healthy increases in their spending power for some time to come.
Deflation is most worrying if it starts translating into wages and reinforcing itself. For example, imagine a shop's prices are falling, and it starts to pay its staff less since there's not as much money coming in. On an economy-wide level, that sort of thing can have a knock-on effect (with prices in shops falling further with wages). Japan got locked in that sort of cycle, but most British economists agree that's not what we're seeing here.
Most of the drop in average prices is caused by the plunge in the cost of oil since the end of last year — which slashed the cost of petrol. Because that keeps more money in peoples' pockets, even the governor of the Bank of England described it as an " unambiguous net positive" for the UK.
NOW WATCH: Forget the Apple Watch — here's the new watch everyone on Wall Street wants
More: UK Economic Data UK Economy Deflation Inflation | -year, with 0% inflation.
Core prices, which strip out the effects of volatile items like food and energy, were expected to rise by 1%.
But in fact, core prices rose by just 0.8%, the lowest figure since 2001.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates that the UK had some brief periods of deflation in the late 1950s and 1960. The last time the UK had a prolonged period of deflation was way back in the 1930s, in the aftermath of the Great Depression.
Here's how that looks:
ONS, Business Insider
Economists are often worried about a period of prolonged deflation — which can become debilitating and self-reinforcing. When prices are falling perpetually, it makes debts harder to pay off, since the past value of the debt is constantly rising.
That's a problem when deflation sets in for longer periods of time — as it did in Japan for much of the last quarter of a century, and in most advanced economies in the 1930s.
But there's not so much concern about what's happening in the UK right now. Capital Economics | 248 |
President Biden Lands in New Orleans as Part of Push for Big Infrastructure Plan
Associated Press Published: May 6, 2021
Contributing Authors: Brandon Comeaux
Facebook via KATC
UPDATE: NEW ORLEANS, La. - President Joe Biden has now landed in New Orleans to tour the city's water and sewer system. He is scheduled to meet with New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell, U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, and newly-elected U.S. Congressman Troy Carter who succeeded Biden team member Cedric Richmond.
UPDATE: LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) — With a badly aging bridge as his backdrop, President Joe Biden stood in reliably Republican Louisiana on Thursday to pressure GOP lawmakers to support his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan. But he also expressed a willingness to compromise on the tax hikes on corporations he's recommending to pay the cost.
Biden says this legislation would result in tax hikes for the wealthiest Americans to pay for new roads and bridges, like the Calcasieu River Bridge.
"One with six lanes, new interchanges, that's safer, reduces congestion, it shouldn't be this hard or take this long to fix a bridge that is this important," said Biden.
Biden says over 80,000 vehicles a day use the I-10 bridge in Lake Charles and it's one of 45,000 bridges in the US that are structurally deficient.
Republicans do not support Biden's plan. House Republican Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana says the President is promoting a budget-busting tax hike that will force middle-class jobs overseas. But Biden says his plan would result in over 16,000,000 American jobs and is willing to meet with GOP legislators to find common ground.
"I'm willing to hear ideas from both sides, I'm meeting with my Republican friends up in Congress to see number one how much they are willing to go for and their priorities and I'm ready to compromise," said Biden.
The other issue surrounding Mr. Biden's trip to Lake Charles is hurricane recovery. Local officials say Hurricane Laura devasted the region and Congress has yet to approve a disaster relief package. The President says he believes residents in southwest Louisiana need the help and he'll make sure they get it.
"People of Louisiana have always picked themselves up, just like America always picks itself up, there's no quit in America and there's not quit in Louisiana in what I've observed," said Biden.
President Joe Biden is pushing the case for his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan in the reliably Republican state of Louisiana as part of his American Jobs Plan.
The president has landed in Lake<|fim_middle|> growth. A White House official says during Biden's visits to Louisiana he'll pose a basic question to voters about whether tax cuts for big companies and CEOs will make the country stronger than programs to bolster the middle class.
Republican Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana calls Biden's plan a "budget-busting tax hike." The Democratic president will speak in the city of Lake Charles in front of the Calcasieu River Bridge, a bridge built in 1952 that's 20 years past its designed lifespan.
Later in the day, Biden will head to New Orleans to tour the city's water and sewer system.
(Story written by JOSH BOAK and JONATHAN LEMIRE/AP)
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Source: President Biden Lands in New Orleans as Part of Push for Big Infrastructure Plan
Filed Under: President Biden
Categories: State News | Charles.
Biden is challenging GOP lawmakers who say low taxes for corporations and the wealthy will fuel economic | 20 |
Tag: Theatre Works
Festivals, Theatre January 23, 2020
Review: This Bitter Earth
A triumph display of different voices singing the same tune.
By Sebastian Purcell
This Bitter Earth looks to provide an inside running track on the lives of six 20 somethings through powerful stories and interactions. This Bitter Earth is thoughtful; touching on themes of loneliness, lust, love, unrequited love, complicated relationships and friendship, exploring what it means to be gay in this modern world.
Writer Chris Edwards presents a smart, dark, sexy, sometimes rambling and neurotic show, yet it's importantly grounded in heart-felt, self-discovery moments. There is a litany of pop references from Meryl Streep's performance in The Deer Hunter to the iconic soundtrack of Titanic, My Heart Will Go On, allowing multiple generations to relate.
A simplistic, yet elegant lighting design by Phoebe Pilcher comes alive in the club and hostel scenes and works wonderfully with Grace Deacon's sparse set design allowing the direction of Riley Spardaro to shine. Spardaro's and Deacon's staging and blocking combination creates an intimacy which allows the cast to deliver fresh, razor sharp and authentic performances.
Michael Cameron, Elle Mickel, Matthew Predny, Ariadne Scouros, Sasha Simon and Alexander Stylianou deliver engaging and believable performances and project clearly without amplification to a packed house. The dramatic to vulgar, to savage to poignant, are interjected sparingly with deadpan humour delivering the core message – that we are the sum of all our parts and not just our sexuality.
Most impressive is the final scene, a repeat from the opening monologue, but delivered collectively by the entire cast. This gives the effect of the many voices being internalised and at the same time that there will always be someone else who has had a similar experience to share.
This is a terrific opening act for Theatre Works in its 40th year. A must see for any LGBTIQ + or ally.
Appropriate for mature audiences, alcohol, sex, and drug references.
This Bitter Earth, part of Melbourne's Midsumma Festival. January 19 to February 02 at the Theatre Works, St Kilda. Tickets available theatreworks.org.au
Photography by Matthew Predny
Filed under: Alexander Stylianou, Ariadne Scouros, Chris Edwards, Elle Mickel, Grace Deacon, Matthew Predny, Michael Cameron, Midsumma Festival, Phoebe Pilcher, Riley Spardaro, Sasha Simon, Theatre Works
Events, Fringe, Theatre September 22, 2019 September 22, 2019
Review: Batmania
Sold out for a reason
One world, two shows. The Very Good Looking Initiative have created the dark, satirical world of Batmania, and given audiences two immersive experiences to choose from to discover this whacky, inane place. Expo '19 takes place in one static place at Theatre Works in St Kilda, and the Bus Tour departs from around the corner and brings you back to Theatre Works 90 minutes later, just in time for the final goodbye at Expo '19. Both versions of Batmania have now completely sold out.
I went along on the Bus Tour, which was undoubtedly one of the most unique theatrical experiences I've had in a while, but especially at this year's Fringe (so far). As the bus visits different places in St Kilda (sorry, "Batmania"), our overly cordial, happy-go-lucky, devil-may-care tour guides (Guide Raymond and Guide Vidya) are cheery almost to the point of painful – until events take a turn for the worst. This ingenious shift in tone comes as a surprise, creating a highly engaging, alluring atmosphere. It's a delightfully enjoyable ride, and presents many moments of black comedy at its finest. But be warned: audience members not prepared for high levels of interaction will find this the stuff of nightmares.
Both Raymond Martini and Vidya Rajan deliver delightfully energetic, hilarious, and sometimes terrifying performances. Their descent from unpredictable ecstatic mania to rabid, cacophonic-but-catatonic beasts is carried out extremely well, and secured a vast range of responses from assorted passengers (sometimes just as fun to observe as the guides). Thankfully, despite the pandemonium and public territory, we always feel safe in the hands of these skilled performers.
Our blokey, arrogant bus driver (Elliott Gee) plays an important part in the madness too, always happy to perturb and provoke Raymond and Vidya as recent arrivals to his lifetime hometown Batmania. His quirky quips and rough demeanour provide many of the biggest laughs on the bus.
As we first boarded the bus, clearly no-one was quite sure what to expect. And as we alighted at the end of the trip, the feeling hadn't really shifted. Though Batmania's premise has a lot of promise, the experience overall seems not fully realised or cohesive. A lot of tension is built – very successfully, which then dissipates and has no real conclusion or payoff. While this may be intended to mirror contemporary Australia, as a theatrical experience, it is underwhelming. There is a lot of fun to be had on the journey though, and I would love to see the concept executed in a future iteration on a grand scale – it could run for a very long time.
I applaud The Very Good Looking Initiative for launching such a high-concept, out-of-the-box, very special production. Batmania embraces the awkward and rejects expectation, poking fun at Australiana and our culture with a very large stick, and dashes of parodic political humour. If a return season is mounted, grab your ticket fast.
Tickets (there are none): https://melbournefringe.com.au/event/batmania-the-bus-tour/
Filed under: Batmania, Elliot Gee, Raymond Martini, The Very Good Looking Initiative, Theatre Works, Vidya Rajan
Opportunities, Review, Whats On October 7, 2017
Melbourne Festival 2017: ALL MY FRIENDS WERE THERE
Fun, whimsical, evocative, and full of birthday surprises
By Myron My
Many of us would agree that spending your birthday with a room full of strangers would generally not be the most ideal way to celebrate the occasion – however, with The Guerrilla Museum's new interactive and immersive live artwork All Of My Friends Were There, that's exactly what we get to do. The show is a lucky-dip of adventure, where you are allocated to a group and led through a number of rooms with<|fim_middle|> this tenuous connection, the key issues rage on. A young man, both sexually and politically impotent – afraid and trying to find meaning at a time when 'democracy' feels more like forcing kool-aid down your throat.
Wilson is wildly funny and painfully irritating as Hamlet. Wilson is accompanied by some theatre-heavyweights in Marco Chiappi's Claudius, Natasha Herbert's Gertrude, and Brian Lipson's marvellous contribution as Sigmund Freud. These actors brilliantly dive into Wilson's writing and bring to life the characters in an exciting and relevant way. Herbert's Gertrude is an indulgent, lazy queen whose concern is with turning her gaze towards her possessions rather than noticing that her power is waning. Chiappi's Claudius is the fabulous politician in the blue tie (a wink to our political leaders), desperate to become President of Australia's new Republic. A new addition is the role of Freud, and it's so apt that Freud should show up as the family psychiatrist to stir Hamlet et al. Freud, like Hamlet in this production, is a self-aware character that almost recognises that he is party to a play and merely a plot device. It works very well, and adds yet another intricate layer to this complex work.
Anti-Hamlet unpacks two issues astonishingly well. Firstly, there's the spin-doctoring behind politics, which takes on a seductive and serpentine fervour in Charles Purcell's energetic American marketer, Edward Bernays. Secondly, there is the idealism of those politically-minded young Australians who succumb to the political machine in a feeble attempt to create change in the world. Ophelia (Natascha Flowers) is the modern woman; she's no limp-limbed belle of Shakespeare's imaginings. A Rhodes Scholar and Oxford graduate, Ophelia comes brimming with ambition for a better nation, but is the futile pawn to a more experienced and cynical power under Claudius and his newly-minted henchman, Bernays. Wilson's Hamlet serves as the alternative to Ophelia – a politically awakened youth with nothing but privilege and a blossoming conscience who thinks taking back 'blackface' to undermine racism is an acceptable and intelligent statement. Hamlet is politically impotent, and this funnels through into his sexuality, which he attempts to mask. This is a striking point of discussion for this production, because it single-handedly takes on issues that are utterly relevant in Australian politics today, but does so in a manner that humours and pinches those politically aware within its audience.
Anti-Hamlet is self-indulgent and utterly self-aware. If you're a Shakespeare puritan, perhaps step away. However, if you're interested in a play that engages with the politics of today in an original way, you may be convinced to come down to Theatre Works and indulge yourself… and Wilson.
Anti-Hamlet continues to run Thursday-Saturday 8pm, and Sunday 5pm until November 13 at Theatre Works in St Kilda. Afternoon session at 2pm Saturday. Book your tickets here: http://www.theatreworks.org.au/whatson/buyeventtickets/?id=278
Image by Sarah Walker
Filed under: Brian Lipson, Marco Chiappi, Mark Wilson, Natascha Flowers, Natasha Herbert, Sarah Walker, Theatre Works
Musical Theatre, Review, Whats On June 19, 2016 June 19, 2016
2016 Graduating Music Theatre Company of Federation University Australia Presents THE ADDAMS FAMILY
Inventive and energetic production of quirky gothic musical
By Amy Planner
That kooky family that we all know and love has been reborn in musical form in this production of The Addams Family, with book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, and music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa. Presented by this year's music theatre Arts Academy graduates from Federation University Australia in Ballarat, and based on the original cartoon characters by Charles Addams, this amusingly spooky tale is witty, unique, mysterious, spooky and altogether ooky.
This gloriously gloomy tale follows the Addams clan as they find themselves in unfamiliar territory. Wednesday decides she wants to marry the very normal, very cheery, yellow wearing boy, Lucas Beineke. When their families meet for the first time, when basic black meets bright and shiny, something is bound to go wrong.
This off-beat musical was decisively dependent on their creative team, whose unique vision of this crazy family and willingness to step outside the box certainly paid off. Director and choreographer David Wynen and musical director Rainer Pollard proved satisfyingly that what you think you know should never be what you expect when it comes to musical theatre.
The cast were diverse, multi-talented and even controversial at times. As is often the case in large-scale productions, some performers were stronger than others and deserve special mention such as Andrew Thomas as the seductively romantic Gomez Addams, Liam Dodds as the hilariously kooky Uncle Fester, Georgia Moore as the solemn but somehow hopelessly in love Wednesday Addams, and of course Paige Easter as the slightly off-centre and forever rhyming Alice Beineke.
The ensemble is also highly engaging: long moments pass where your eyes are glued to the ghostly figures in the background and yet you are still more than thoroughly entertained. These Addams ancestors, decked out in clothing from various eras, dance and sing their way through the entire show, including most notably the Roman Luke Wilson and Equestrian Rider and show dance captain Eliza Grundy.
These sleek era-styled costumes of the ensemble were the work of costume & set designer Adrienne Chisholm, whose work was artistically distinctive in the face of the extremely iconic image that is the Addams Family.
There were a number of technical difficulties throughout the performance I attended, with a few mic fades, some lighting trouble, a couple of projection issues and a 47-minute technical-related intermission. But despite all this, the performers remained calm and in character and should be commended for their professionalism.
If musical theatre and a little nostalgia are what you're after, this production will delight and stimulate. You really should go and see 'em, they really are a screa-um – check out The Addams Family. *Click *Click.
Venue: Theatre Works, 14 Acland Street, St. Kilda
Season: June 18th-25th 2016 – Wed to Sat 7.30pm, Sun 19th 3pm, Sat 25th 1pm.
Tickets: $50 Full, $40 group 10+, $35 Conc, $10 Fed Uni Students (plus $2.50 booking fee)
Bookings: theatreworks.org.au
Image by Jodie Hutchinson
Filed under: Adrienne Chisholm, Andrew Lippa, Andrew Thomas, Charles Addams, David Wynen, Eliza Grundy, Federation University Australia, Georgia Moore, Jodie Hutchinson, Lian Dodds, Luke Wilson, Marshall Brickman, Paige Easter, Rainer Pollard, Rick Elice, Theatre Works
Events, Festivals, Review, Theatre, Whats On October 12, 2013 October 12, 2013
REVIEW: Daniel Schlusser Ensemble in M+M
Daring to unravel a Russian classic
By Christine Moffat
M + M is the theatrical reworking of Bulgakov's classic Russian novel The Master and Margarita by exploratory masters the Daniel Schlusser Ensemble for this year's Melbourne Festival. Approaching such a novel with reverence, and producing a slavish retelling is not in this Ensemble's vocabulary. Instead, this innovative group always attempt to crack the code underpinning the work of art, and present its inner workings to the audience. Unfortunately, in this production they have taken a risk that has not entirely paid off.
Some elements of this show are truly superb. The set design by Anna Cordingley and Romaine Harper is outstanding, and used extensively and with great effect by director Daniel Schulusser. Every performer (Johnny Carr, Josh Price, Nikki Shiels, Karen Sibbing, Emily Tomlins, Mark Winter & Edwina Wren) bravely attacks the show with energy, commitment and obvious talent.
Deconstructing such rich source material is ambitious for when it comes to reconstructing, how do you decide which elements must be reinstated? The attempt to connect the novel to Pussy Riot and modern Russian social oppression is disjointed. Instead of combining these themes, the performance gives the sense of empty, barren space between them. The program invites the audience to view the piece as "…theatrical architecture…", but the parts are too loosely connected to achieve this. It could be better compared to blueprints and a collection of building materials.
It is not a narrative that this production lacks, but rather any emotional resonance. The vignettes performed on stage are diaspora; closer to resembling performance art than theatre, but not managing the shock or provocation common to that art form either. Whether this production succeeds in affecting others in its audience emotionally, or merely works visually, the Daniel Schlusser Ensemble have achieved an outcome that can inform and feed their future works.
Sometimes parts do not create a cohesive and greater whole. In approaching a seemingly impossible novel, this Ensemble should impress us in the attempt, and in the many successful moments it produces. Sadly, this reconstruction still feels as if it has major elements of the original source missing. It is like a beautiful watch that has been rebuilt without hands – each component is lovingly crafted, but it has no way of performing as intended and so we have no way of receiving its ultimate message.
Oct 12 – 16 (no show Oct 15)
Theatre Works, 14 Acland Street St Kilda
Tickets: $65 / $50 / Under 30s $35, Student $25
Bookings: theatreworks.org.au, 03 9534 3388, or Ticketmaster 136 100
Filed under: Anna Cordingley, Bulgakov, Edwina Wren, Emily Tomlins, Johnny Carr, Josh Price, Karen Sibbing, Mark Winter, Melbourne Festival, Nikki Shiels, Pussy Riot, Romaine Harper, The Master and Margarita, Theatre Works
Events, Performances, Review, Theatre, Whats On June 23, 2012 June 23, 2012
Review: HIMMELWEG – Way to Heaven
A complex and difficult play adroitly staged
By Adam Tonking
We are so far removed from the world of Nazi Germany in World War II that the true stories of the atrocities that took place are often near impossible to believe.
Himmelweg is one of the lesser known and more bizarre of these horror stories, and it is a rich source of material for a play, presenting several tricky moral dilemmas for the characters and the audience to navigate. It is also an important and fascinating exploration of this deeply disturbing period in our history.
Redroom Theatre and director Alister Smith present an excellent production; the lighting and set design, as well as the sound, are spare and elegant and used effectively to evoke the era, and also to separate the play into its abstract first half and more naturalistic second half.
I think the material could have benefited from an older cast, simply because the emotional complexity may have been beyond such a young group of actors. However, they still acquit themselves capably, in particular the actors portraying the Commandant and Gottfried. These characters have to carry the entire second half in what is more or less the Commandant talking at Gottfried, and the actors performed admirably.
At a running time of two hours, there should have been plenty of material to sustain the action, however the second half becomes very repetitive with very little new information introduced.
The cast, under the superb direction of Smith, work valiantly to keep the story moving and inject as much interest as possible, but can't quite keep the material from slowing the pace.
I think the cast and the production team deserve commendation for staging what is a difficult and challenging piece, yet a terribly important story from a time that should not be forgotten, and I encourage everyone to see it.
Himmelweg is on at Theatre Works 14 Acland Street, St Kilda from June 21 to July 1.
Book at www.theatreworks.org.au or by calling 9534 3388.
Filed under: Alister Smith, Claudia Tory, John Shearman, Lily Constantine, Luke Jacka, Nicolas Colla, Redroom Theatre, Theatre Works, Tim Paige, Veronica Thomas | performances and experiences revolving around birthdays.
We are split into our groups before we even enter the venue and my plus-one is not to be seen again until the end, so it's time to make new friends and party like it's all our birthdays. It's difficult to review this type of show when you only get to participate in about one quarter of it, but the conversations post-show made it clear that there was a lot more happening than that which a single person is able to experience.
One of the first rooms my group is taken into, for example, involves a pair of highly entertaining hosts supervising us through some traditional childhood games such as musical chairs and pass the parcel, allowing a fun, free-spirited atmosphere to take over the room. While each room visited had amusing and cheery performances, there were some where I was left wondering how the birthday theme linked in. At one point, we are left in an authentically decorated 90s-style bedroom – which could easily have been mine back in my teen years – but with no context about this room, we spent our time looking at the posters on the walls and the video works playing on the television. However, as each evening has an entirely new story based on the questionnaire completed by an attendee prior to the show, each performance is tailored to reflect that person's real-life birthday experiences.
The entire design of All Of My Friends Were There is exceptional and what the team at The Guerrilla Museum have been able to set up inside Theatre Works is highly impressive and transforms the venue into a labyrinth of surprise and fun. While acknowledging that this was a preview performance, there were times of substantial waiting between rooms, which began to draw me out of the experience, but hopefully as the season develops these timing kinks will be ironed out. The show culminates with everyone coming together to celebrate the surprise 'birthday' of one of our own with champagne, fairy bread and dancing.
My plus-one's experience was vastly different to mine in terms of what they participated in and how it made them feel, and perhaps this is the point of All Of My Friends Were There. Taking something as personal as a birthday is always going to mean different things to different people – some people love them and some people don't – but where this show succeeds is in highlighting the importance of surrounding ourselves with people who care for us and love us, and in never underestimating the role that we play in each other's lives. Knowing that is worth more than all the lolly bags in the world.
Venue: Theatre Works, 14 Acland St, St Kilda
Season: Until 11 October | Mon – Sat 7:30pm, Sat 2pm, Sun 5pm
Bookings: Melbourne Festival
Filed under: Melbourne Festival 2017, The Guerrilla Museum, Theatre Works
Cabaret February 21, 2017
Theatre Works Presents LIFETIME GUARANTEE
Talented hard-working cast enliven new Australian play
Written by Ross Mueller, Lifetime Guarantee is a story shared by five characters whose lives intertwine as they seek love and connection in the modern world. Julian Dibley-Hall and Charles Purcell play Charles and Daniel, a couple living together who don't seem to actually want to be with each other despite their protestations. Charlie's new assistant Jodie has some interesting sexual predilections and Daniel's ex-wife Chloe is trying to move on with her life. And then there's Francis, whose interactions with each character seems to lead to situations in which they'd rather not be.
Unfortunately Mueller's script feels under-developed, with some questionable character motivations throughout. The cast themselves do well with their characters' limited development, and with direction that seems surprisingly over-the-top, awkward and unnatural. Candace Miles manages to breathe some life into the aggrieved Chloe, bringing pleasing nuance to her portrayal. Izabella Yena as Jodie is initially full of spark and creates interest in her character, but once the assistant's "secret" is revealed, Jodie immediately becomes one-note and repetitive where even Yena's energy and effort is unable to make her relevant again.
Jodie's revelation, while intended to create shock and intrigue, is just ridiculous, and there seems to be no purpose in having this transpire except to make some sex-related puns. Similarly, the scene involving Francis visiting Daniel to fix his broken washing machine is preposterous, and becomes merely a plot function to drive the story go down the path Mueller wants.
For me, John Sheedy's direction is often jarring and prevents any emotional connection being established, with even intimate moments feeling cold and artificial. Simple actions like entering and exiting from the same side of the stage break the realism and if the production goes to all the trouble of having a working shower on stage, why did they decide to have an actor pretend to spit out coffee from an empty cup?
What is interesting about Lifetime Guarantee is the level of importance that 'models' of things have: Charlie and his model house signify the life he idealises, Jodie and her model cars are symbolic of the kind of love she desires, and there's Jodie's friend who has been offered a job to create a model of the Great Wall of China. The idea that everyone is trying to build these perfect lives for themselves with intricate and minute care, but end up ignoring the significance of the things happening around them is fascinating, but sadly never fleshed out.
Lifetime Guarantee attempts to examine modern life and the ways people experience loneliness and struggle to connect with others. Unfortunately the writing and direction here cannot inspire any deeper thought beyond the surface of themes that have been staged many times before.
Venue: Theatreworks, 14 Acland St, St Kilda
Season: Until 26 February | Tues – Sat 7:30pm, Sat 2pm, Sun 5pm
Tickets: $38 Full | $30 Conc
Bookings: Theatreworks
Photo by Pier Carthew
Filed under: Candace Miles, Izabella Yena, John Sheedy, Julian Dibley-Hall, Ross Mueller, Theatre Works
Review, Theatre, Whats On November 21, 2016 November 21, 2016
Theatre Works Presents ANIMAL
Core-shaking theatre
Watching Animal is a rare theatrical experience. It has such a visceral effect on you that you are left shaken and feeling extremely vulnerable and angry as you walk out. Created by Susie Dee, Kate Sherman and Nicci Wilks, it is an exploration of domestic violence and how women are meant to react in a world where violence against women and male brutishness are celebrated – and it is as gritty as physical theatre can be.
The stage design by Marg Horwell feels like a large shipping container; dark, cold and empty except for a number of small square cages. The two sisters climb and crawl over them, the whole time emoting that they are also caged, desperately looking for a way out. The tattered netting that covers the roof can be seen as protection from the outside, but with the many holes in it, it is only a matter of time before it is destroyed.
Composer Kelly Ryall builds a suffocating and unsympathetic environment from the opening moments of the show, and is relentless in drawing you into the sisters' world. There are moments in Animal where you feel like you need to look away as the horror unfolds, but even if you do (which you shouldn't), the sounds are so vivid that they create the visuals for you regardless. There is one moment particular, where along with Andy Turner's lighting design, the shadows that form along the walls and menacingly envelops the two sisters involves some nail-biting tension and panic.
All these elements work meticulously together to support the two performers on stage. Sherman and Wilks show strong commitment, strength and stamina in their challenging roles. The duality (and also the blending) of playful sisters who depend on and support each other to hyper-aggressive fighters has a complexity that the two are able to authentically create on stage. The need to swap between these "characters" in seconds is not only a physical demand on their bodies but also an emotional and psychological one.
As with SHIT and The Long Pigs, Dee's direction allows for moments that make us laugh, surprise us, and haunt us. With a show like Animal, pacing is extremely important and Dee ensures that there are adequate breaks between the truly dark moments of the show, so that by the time we reach the powerful conclusion we are completely engaged with the piece.
While there is no dialogue in Animal, it speaks volumes regarding the immense impact domestic violence and violence against women has on women: the violence that they experience and also the violence that it breeds. Compelling, gruelling and masterful work by Influx Theatre, Animal is raw theatre at its finest.
Season: Until 27 November | Wed – Sat 8pm, Sun 5pm
Tickets: $35 Full | $26 Conc, Under 30, Groups 8+
Bookings: Theatre Works
Image by Pier Carthew
Filed under: Andy Turner, Influx Theatre, Kate Sherman, Kelly Ryall, Marg Horwell, Nicci Wilks, Pier Carthew, Susie Dee, Theatre Works
Cabaret, Review, Theatre, Whats On November 8, 2016 November 8, 2016
Theatre Works Presents ANTI-HAMLET
Fierce, funny and fraught
By Leeor Adar
Satirising the current state of Australian politics with the heady and destructive tendencies of the Prince of Denmark lends for a wild, funny, and at times utterly confusing production. Just as I've grasped one metaphor and issue, Mark Wilson's Anti-Hamlet shifts us onto the next, expecting its audience to intelligently manoeuvre themselves through the multi-layered political arc Wilson has created.
This is the third of Wilson's Shakespearean adaptations after Unsex Me and Richard II. Wilson comments that these productions "inherit from Shakespeare", and fill the gaps. On this occasion, Wilson engages with the Australian inability to confront its history. History is the underlying theme of Anti-Hamlet, but I am deeply sceptical as to how tenuously Hamlet itself connects to a country's collective blindness. I will say in Wilson's defence, his ability to bring Shakespeare's Hamlet into contemporary 'realness' and embellish its themes with references to the Australian political climate is impressive. That is no easy feat. Despite | 2,183 |
Hollywood hunk Bradley Cooper used to be jealous of 'Titanic' star Leonardo DiCaprio. The 37-year-old 'Silver Linings Playbook' actor had a memorable encounter with the Hollywood A-lister when he worked as a hotel doorman and felt worlds apart from the star, who is now a close showbiz friend, reported Showbizspy.
"I worked as a doorman all through grad school. I remember taking Leonardo DiCaprio up to his room, and I was in the elevator with him and, like, seven of his friends. It was around the time of 'Titanic'," Cooper said.
"And I remember this guy who looked like a kid, even though we were about the same age, he looked like a little boy. I remember thinking how I was three feet away from this guy, and we were worlds apart," he added. Despite achieving worldwide<|fim_middle|> like. When you're with him, you find yourself just starting to adopt some of those mannerisms through osmosis. I draw the line at going to get a Mohawk, though," Cooper said. | success thanks to "The Hangover", the actor cannot believe he has so many famous faces on speed dial and is still in awe of his co-star Robert De Niro.
"To this day, I can't believe I'm friends with him. He's infectious. You know when you're with some of your friends and you just start to act like them? That's what he's | 77 |
BTS Names Next Goals After Entering Billboard's Hot 100
by J. K
After achieving their dream of charting on Billboard's Hot 100, BTS talked about their reactions to the results and also their new goals!
On September 29, KBS sat down with BTS backstage after their rehearsals for "Music Bank." During the interview, Jimin said that the achievements made by their their new mini album "Love Yourself: Her" on Billboard were things they could never have predicted.
"When we saw the charts, we were all so shocked," he said. "It was something we'd only ever dreamed of before, ever since our debut, so we were so happy." Jimin added, "I really want to thank the fans who love us."
Rap Monster commented that they didn't achieve the results on Billboard's Hot 100 or the United Kingdom's Official Charts on their own. "It was possible because of the hard work of our fans all over the world," he<|fim_middle|> top 50 on Billboard. We also want to expand our concert tour all over the world."
He added, "In addition to good chart results, we're still young so we have a lot to say. Please look forward to how we express what youth have to say through our music."
BTS made it into Billboard's Hot 100 chart (which ranks the most popular songs in the United States each week) for the first time when their new song "DNA" came in at No. 85. Their mini album "Love Yourself: Her" also came in at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 chart (which ranks the most popular albums), the highest yet for a K-pop artist. In addition, they had great success on European charts with their new release and broke sales records in Korea. | said.
The interviewer also talked with BTS about how they stay active on Twitter even when they're not promoting. When asked who enjoys using social media the most, J-Hope picked Jimin. Jimin said, "It's not just me, the other members enjoy using social media too." He added, "Social media is the easiest and fastest way for us to communicate with our fans."
Suga explained, "We use a single account together as a group, and I think our current results have come about because we've continually interacted with our fans through social media."
See also: BTS Shares Their Thoughts On Recent Billboard Success + Thanks ARMY
When asked what the guys' next goal is after entering the Hot 100 chart, Rap Monster replied, "We'd like to get to No. 1 on Billboard's album chart, and have a song get into the | 179 |
Most of the top cleaning companies strive hard to abide with the core values and mission cultures they have been formulated with. To accomplish this they take on expert cleaners within their team who are not merely great at their job but fantastically devoted to their profession as well. Their consistent endeavors to set the highest possible standards at one's home along with honesty and integrity is what a top home cleaning company is formulated by at its grass-root levels. It is of absolute importance that those desiring to take such a company's<|fim_middle|> as sweeping, moping, garbage disposal, dusting and polishing. Additional services also include stairs and corridor cleaning, disinfection and replenishment of basic toiletries and utilities. For those that require a more personal touch, they can opt for a scheduled maid to take care of daily cleaning activities as well. | assistance into service verify the legitimacy and genuineness of the company. This is a decisive factor as a home owner should look for a reputed home cleaning company to take care of their residences.
As a part of a cleaning company's service perspective, there are numerous benefits that are accompanied when their services are outsourced. Either on a daily basis or weekly basis, however the home owner may decide, their complete range of engagements range from kitchen cleaning to toilet cleaning, vacuuming and so on. Most companies also offer add-on services such | 106 |
Three of the UAE's biggest stars are set to perform during the opening ceremony of the AFC Asian Cup.
Emirati singers Hussain Al Jassmi and Eida Al Menhali, along with Yemeni-Emirati singer Balqees Fathi, will take the stage at Zayed Sports City Stadium on January 5 at 7.30pm ahead of the opening match between the host UAE and Bahrain.
The event will feature a series of live musical performances aiming to give tribute to Asian football following with the theme of "Bringing Asia Together". The opening ceremony show will also tell the tale of Mansour (one of the tournament's mascots), an Emirati boy inspired by the beauty of the flight of falcons. Inspired by their gracious movements, he extends an Emirati welcome to Asia and the rest of the world.
The Local Organising Committee has also revealed that as many as 600 expert performers from the UAE and around the world will participate in the live extravaganza including drummers, Ayalla dancers and origami falcons.
The trio bring star power to the event. Al Jassmi is one of the Middle East's top-selling artists and he made history back in December when he became the first Arab artist to perform at the Vatican's annual Christmas concert. Balqees made her music debut in 2013 and her album Zay Ma Ana was the most downloaded album on iTunes in the Middle East in 2015. Al Menhali is most known for his hit single Motasoa and he last performed at the Sheikh Zayed Heritage Festival for New Year's Eve.
Fans who plan on attending are asked to be in their seats by 7.30pm to enjoy the full spectacle of the ceremony before the 8<|fim_middle|> last time they did so was in 1996. | pm match start. This is just the second time the UAE has hosted the tournament – the | 18 |
Portal:Writing
Get Portal:Writing essential facts below. View Videos or join the Portal:Writing discussion. Add Portal:Writing to your<|fim_middle|> reliant on portable and easily reproducible forms of inscribed language.
Individual, as opposed to collective, motivations for writing include improvised additional capacity for the limitations of human memory (e.g., to-do lists, recipes, reminders, logbooks, maps, the proper sequence for a complicated task or important ritual), dissemination of ideas (as in an essay, monograph, broadside, petition, or manifesto), imaginative narratives and other forms of storytelling, personal or business correspondence, and lifewriting (e.g., a diary or journal). (Full article...)
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Pictured left: Blisssymbols stating "I want to go to the cinema"
Blissymbolics or Blissymbols were conceived of as an ideographic writing system consisting of several hundred basic symbols, each representing a concept, which can be composed together to generate new symbols that represent new concepts. Blissymbols differ from all the world's major writing systems in that the characters do not correspond at all to the sounds of any spoken language.
They were invented by Charles K. Bliss (1897-1985) after the Second World War. Bliss wanted to create an easy-to-learn international auxiliary language to allow communication between people who do not speak the same language. He was inspired by Chinese ideograms, with which Bliss became familiar while in Shanghai as a refugee from Nazi anti-semitic persecution. His system World Writing was explained in his work Semantography (1949). This work laid out the language structure and vocabulary for his utopian vision of easy communication, but it failed to gain popularity. However, since the 1960s, Blissymbols have become popular as a method of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) for non-speaking people with cerebral palsy or other disorders, for whom it can be impossible to otherwise communicate with spoken language. (Full article...)
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An Ottoman Empire era ijazah written in Arabic certifying competence in calligraphy, 1206 AH / 1791 AD
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Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American writer, politician and political economist, who was the most influential proponent of the land value tax, also known as the "single tax" on land. He inspired the economic philosophy known as Georgism, whose main tenet is that people should own what they create, but that everything found in nature, most importantly land, belongs equally to all humanity. His most famous work, Progress and Poverty (1879), is a treatise on inequality, the cyclic nature of industrial economies, and the use of the land value tax as a possible remedy.
Henry George is best known for his argument that the economic rent of land should be shared by society rather than being owned privately. The clearest statement of this view is found in Progress and Poverty: "We must make land common property." By taxing land values, society could recapture the value of its common inheritance, and eliminate the need for taxes on productive activity. (Full article...)
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... that the Korean alphabet Hangul was promulgated by the Korean king Sejong the Great after being developed under his guidance by a team of researchers? It is the rare example of a writing system that is thoroughly planned after scientific points of view.
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Writing is a medium of human communication that involves the representation of a language with symbols. Writing systems are not themselves human languages (with the debatable exception of computer languages); they are means of rendering a language into a form that can be reconstructed by other humans separated by time and/or space. While not all languages utilize a writing system, those with systems of inscriptions can complement and extend capacities of spoken language by enabling the creation of durable forms of speech that can be transmitted across space (e.g., correspondence) and stored over time (e.g., libraries or other public records). It has also been observed that the activity of writing itself can have knowledge-transforming effects, since it allows humans to externalize their thinking in forms that are easier to reflect on and potentially rework. Writing relies on many of the same semantic structures as the speech it represents, such as lexicon and syntax, with the added dependency of a system of symbols to represent that language's phonology and morphology. The result of the activity of writing is called a text, and the interpreter or activator of this text is called a reader.
As human societies emerged, collective motivations for the development of writing were driven by pragmatic exigencies like keeping history, maintaining culture, codifying knowledge through curricula and lists of texts deemed to contain foundational knowledge (e.g., The Canon of Medicine) or to be artistically exceptional (e.g., a literary canon), organizing and governing societies through the formation of legal systems, census records, contracts, deeds of ownership, taxation, trade agreements, treaties, and so on. Amateur historians, including H.G. Wells, had speculated since the early 20th century on the likely correspondence between the emergence of systems of writing and the development of city-states into empires. As Charles Bazerman explains, the "marking of signs on stones, clay, paper, and now digital memories--each more portable and rapidly travelling than the previous--provided means for increasingly coordinated and extended action as well as memory across larger groups of people over time and space." For example, around the 4th millennium BC, the complexity of trade and administration in Mesopotamia outgrew human memory, and writing became a more dependable method of recording and presenting transactions in a permanent form. In both ancient Egypt and Mesoamerica, on the other hand, writing may have evolved through calendric and political necessities for recording historical and environmental events. Further innovations included more uniform, predictable, and widely dispersed legal systems, distribution and discussion of accessible versions of sacred texts, and the origins of modern practices of scientific inquiry and knowledge-consolidation, all largely | 611 |
$500 Sachtler Ace Matte Box vs. $20 Neewer Matte Box. Yes, It Makes Sense to Compare Them.
If you use your hybrid video/stills camera to make movies, at some point you will likely find the limitations of your still photography lens hoods. You may get as far as dedicated video cameras and geared cine lenses, in which case you most likely won't even have a lens hood. This is when matte boxes matter, and you can start cheap: $20 will get you one made by Neewer. But at some point, you may want more. The Sachtler Ace Matte Box is a good place to start.
The $80 I spent on a 15mm rod kit and a matte box a couple of years ago was money well spent: the flare that had killed the contrast of a shot just a couple of days earlier was gone, and that project ended up a finalist in a commercial project for a national retail chain.
So why would anyone ever want to spend more?
I asked myself that question as I opened the package containing Sachtler's Ace Matte box, a $477 device that in theory did the same thing as my $20 matte box.
On the left: Sachtler Ace Matte Box with Sachtler Ace Baseplate. On the right: Neewer Matte Box with Neewer DP500 15mm rod kit.
The first and most important thing a matte box does is block extraneous light, and the Neewer combo did it for me when I used it.
The spaces between the actual box and flags were so large that I had to McGyver it for one shot by folding and shaping a black plastic garbage bag around it to prevent light from reflecting back into the camera from the rear window of the truck through which I was shooting.
The Sachtler is much better, but in that scenario I probably would have had to do the same thing.
On the other hand, the Sachtler is deeper and taller, and likely would have been that much better at preventing light coming in at an angle from the front for other shots: even with the Neewer, I didn't get the best contrast out of the lenses I used.
The Sachtler also comes with a pair of rubber donuts to block the light leakage between the lens and the lens opening, along with a clamping mechanism to keep them in place. Nice. The Neewer had no such accoutrement, but a $0.50 head bandy thingy called a scrunchie did the trick in a pinch. Would I recommend a scrunchie as part of your usual kit? No.
Sachtler Ace Matte Box comes with two different rubber donuts for different diameter lenses -- very nice -- but they may not fit your particular glass.
This is apparently called a "scrunchie," perfect as a very makeshift matte box donut. Sometimes. An 8-pack is about $5 on Amazon. Good thing I have daughters.
When you move to a higher spec matte box, the next most important thing is going to be the ability to use a single set of filters without having to worry about step-up or step-down rings, or even multiple sizes for a given type of filter.
The Neewer doesn't have this, so when I needed neutral density filters I had to screw them into the front of each lens and then unscrew them and move them to the next lens I needed. This is cumbersome, time-consuming, and more likely to result in either smudging them or dropping them.
The Sachtler, on the other hand, has a pair of filter slots (one of which rotates though not fully) and comes with four filter trays: two 4x4s and two 4x5.65s. Once you switch to this way of doing things you're unlikely to want to go back.
The Sachtler has two filter slots, one of which rotates. It also has threaded mounting holes and buttons which lock the filter holders in place.
It comes with four filter holders, two of each size.
You get what you pay for here: the flags on the Neewer are a friction fit with no adjustment, and they loosen over time. The Sachtler is also friction fit, but it has adjustable, spring-loaded clamps to ensure they remain in place.
Of course, it's not just that Sachtler has these things -- it's that they're well thought-out and the entire kit is more more robust. I have to add, however, that the filter holders were a very tight fit, and I suspect that even with high quality plastics, there is a set of scenarios where an all metal matte box would be preferable.
I'm not likely to encounter such scenarios any time soon.
The Sachtler flags and matte box itself are made of high quality plastics.
Like its companion base plate, the Sachtler only needs one support rod clamp to attach the matte box via the rod bridge. The Neewer uses two.
The clamping levers which attach the Neewer matte box to the rails -- unlike the rod system itself -- are made out of plastic, and there are two of 'em. Then again, the Neewer matte box weighs all of 210g, vs. the Sachtler's 954g, and that third lever in the center gives the Neewer one huge functional advantage over the Sachtler: it's height adjustable.
It would have been nice if it had been designed to swing out of the way so that lens changes were easy.
The Sachtler Ace Matte Box, Follow Focus and Base plate accessory kit ($1,350 at B&H and Amazon) is perfect in almost every way with a camera like the Sony FS5.
It's marred only by the fact that the matte box itself is not height-adjustable, and the base plate -- which is height-adjustable -- doesn't allow the rods to sit quite low enough to make up for the lens mount to camera base height.
It's easy enough to use a cloth donut or even do a little McGyvering by performing some surgery on one and then gluing on a second Sachtler rubber donut ($22.50 at B&H) or perhaps choosing from a whole set of Redrock Micro donuts to do<|fim_middle|> Sony a6300 [B&H|Amazon].
Again, I think height adjustability is critical. I wish both filter holders rotated a full 360° -- at least a full 90° -- and moved a little more easily. It would be nice if the matte box could pivot away from the lens making it easier to change. All metal might be nice. Interior flocking might be nice.
But I'm not complaining, and if you want to spend more money for even greater robustness and flexibililty you certainly can, all the way up to something like a high-end Chrosziel for over $5,000.
On the other hand, if you can't afford it, $20 for the matte box, $60 for the rods, regular old screw-in filters, and some McGyvering can get you footage -- all else being equal -- pretty close to indistinguishable from far more expensive solutions (as long as your lenses will fit - you'll need to check).
It ain't gonna be pretty and it ain't gonna be fun, but sometimes that's the price (inconvenience) we happily pay.
In the end, they can all do the trick.
Sachtler Ace Matte Box with Ace Baseplate in the back, Neewer Matte Box with DP500 rod system in front.
CORRECTION 2: you can indeed rotate the filter holders 90° as long as you move rods flush with the rod bridge. See below. | the same thing ($19.95 at B&H). There's not much leeway with the Rokinon 85mm f/1.4 cine lens (75mm diameter), though it didn't get in the way of the image. But there are even larger diameter lenses you may want to use, and this may become problematic. Everything about the Sachtler screams "perfection," so this is a touch disappointing.
As i wrote in my previous post about the rod systems being used here, this is why it makes sense to keep an eye on camera and lens costs: you're going to need more money for other things, especially when filmmaking.
At $20, the Neewer Matte Box is priced at about 5% of the Canon Rebel SL1 body with which I used it. At $477, the Sachtler Matte Box [B&H|Amazon] is a bit less than 10% of the price of the Sony FS5 with which I think it is all but ideally paired. Is that one statistic the only metric by which you should judge value?
No - value is a function of price and performance. At least in the case of these two matte boxes, you do get what you pay for.
If you invest in something like an FS5 or FS7 (or a Canon C300 Mk II, Sony a7s II, Canon 5D Mk III [B&H|Amazon], Panny GH4 [B&H|Amazon] or Fuji XT-2 [B&H|Amazon] ), you want to get the best out of them that you can. The Sachtler is a really nice complement to gear at this level -- if it fits your particular gear combination.
Heck, I'd use it with my | 371 |
It's an interesting question – if you're right about a significant increase in extreme weather if a strong El Nino unfolds – how much damage to infrastructure and agriculture we should expect as a result? I've operated on the assumption that the loss of the Arctic ice will be the key driver of increasingly extreme weather and not perhaps considered other drivers adequately. It's been so long since we had a real El Nino and the baseline experience of the weather has (already) changed so much in even that last decade alone that I'm not sure we really know what to expect, or how bad it might be (or not)?
El Nino has always generated extreme weather for certain regions. In any case, sea ice loss is certainly a primary driver as well. The issue is that you hit a heat exchange extreme during El Nino. Add that on top of global warming and you have a strong driver for extreme weather.
It's not a question of either sea ice loss or El Nino. It's both, with human warming as the man behind the curtain.
Has always produced extreme weather – sure – but I'm arguing our definition of what really counts as extreme is going to need to change, as what we used to call extreme is going to be called "normal", and then "mild".
The processes that amplify extreme weather due to human-caused warming are overlying an extreme weather generating event — El Nino. So the amping up of the hydrological cycle and sea ice related Jet Stream changes are likely to generally increase the tendency for extreme weather during El Nino.
The US West Coast receives severe storms during winter El Ninos. I'd expect that pattern to be amplified. For the US East Coast, we tend to get very strong Nor'Easters and coastal lows. We might well expect to see some serious bombs coming our way this winter due to the El Nino enhanced convergence of two storm tracks along a deep diving Jet Stream sped up in the zone south of Hudson Bay and Greenland.
Is there any ultimate impact on arctic ice melt from dumping all that extra heat back to the atmosphere? Does it imply slightly stronger atmospheric and oceanic circulation driving heat northwards again for instance? Or anything more direct and immediate?
Otherwise, this is a great question.
My opinion is that the El Nino pattern will unfold in a similar fashion to past events but with alterations based on how the system has been distorted by human warming. I'd expect precipitation and drought extremes to increase, storms to be generally more intense due to heat transfer, and for zones to shift northward and southward depending on hemisphere.
Dear Robert, is this correct?
"Perhaps more disturbing is the fact that the zone of extreme 6+ C temperatures has both widened and extended, covering about 50 degrees of longitude and swelling to a width of about 30-40 meters." 30-40 meters width is next to nothing, or are you referring to depth?
The dimensions are in X, Y and Z. A fun one to visualize!
Robert, great update. That wave looks ominous – though it may be as comfortable as a hot tub.
1. How long does it take for such a Kelvin wave to discharge its excess heat to the atmosphere? Months? A year?
2. How soon after the above does it take for the extra heat to be felt in terms of heat waves or higher than ave. temperatures regionally and/or globally?
3. How likely is it that El Nino conditions continue into subsequent years? Is that typical or atypical? Thanks.
I wonder if this will make the end of the PDO negative phase the same way the 98 marked the end of the positive phase. It appears a pattern is forming in which PDO+ leads to consistent increases in global temperature while PDO- leads to pauses and the transitions dump out a huge amount of energy at once. It seems unfathomable but I would not be surprised by a 0.15 step now and then an (average) 0.05 /year over the next 15 years, leading us to more than double our warming.
Unless a surfer dude named Kevin is riding the Kelvin wave all the way to South America 🙂 I had to inject some humor to offset my anger at the frickin' Supreme Court!
"The situation is tense in Russia this year. Because of low precipitation, the season has begun almost 1.5 months ahead of the norm," the minister said. Seventeen fires have already been registered across a territory of 2,000 hectares, the minister said.
Great follow-up post Robert. This has implications for weather everywhere which, added to the melting Arctic ice causing a meandering jet stream, could be catastrophic in some areas.
I saw this morning an article showing how the survivors of Typhoon Haiyan are having problems relocating because of government policy (and the fact that there isn't anywhere near enough land to relocate the tens of thousands of families that want to leave the coast). This type of problem will be repeated over the coming years in many lands.
Still missing the January-February-March number… I guess it should go towards zero again with the El Nino developing.
Any other good source for following ENSO data?
The TAO network was a good source, however due to lack of funding it is gradually collapsing (my post about 4 posts up has a link on this issue). The data is still good, however the gaps in it mean we do not see the full scope & scale.
Come learn about food, agriculture and farming, and how they affect our carbon footprint. In this presentation, Sonia DeMarta will review the various issues related to agriculture that contribute to global warming, and how we can reduce our reliance on carbon. Food waste, organic farming, agrochemicals, and food miles, will all be covered in her lively presentation. We will also discuss current and ongoing local food-related initiatives.
Sonia DeMarta has a master's degree in Environmental Management from Boston University, with a focus on food production. She is passionate about food, farming, agriculture, nutrition and their relationship to global climate change. Sonia founded the Lexington Farmers' Market in 2005 and has been educating adults, children and teens about food and cooking ever since.
Sunday morning forums at First Parish in Concord are all free and open to the community.
Robert, I have a double question; and if it pleases you, I'd like your response to it. Is it true that there was a short spike in temps at the beginning of the Holocene at 7F (3 to 4C) hotter than today, and if so, why did it not run away into a hothouse back then? You see, John Michael Greer, whose blog The Archdruid Report I also follow, cited this a couple of weeks ago as backup to his assertion that we definitely won't experience out of control global overheating and possible human extinction this time around.
Obviously, there was a time when an Archdruid was the goto guy for questions concerning climate change. Apparently, Greer maintains tradition by answering a question with a question. It is the good fortune of present day druids and wannabe druids that they can now seek answers at the temple of the Holy Search Engine.
If you were to type, oh let us say, the word "holocene" into one of these wonders of the modern age. You might eventually find this link in the results.
The warming we are seeing is a mater of speed , as much as temperature.
Nothing in the record has gone and dug-up all that carbon , over hundreds of millions of years , from all over the Earth, and placed back into the system like we are doing.
A good indicator to why it couldn't run away was that CO2 concentrations were lower than 300 ppm at the beginning of the Holocene. That's not enough for natural variations to throw earth off balance as its well within the normal carbon cycle. So short term natural variations (no doubt caused by the Milankovich cycle optimal position for maximum heat from the sun) would not last longer than the gradual cooling one would expect from the earths position again moving towards less incoming energy from the sun.
A big difference between anything happened in the past 600.000 years (and very likely earlier) is that CO2 levels today are now 40% higher than it maximum has been. We are nowhere equilibrium with regards to this so continued warming will commence as long as the CO2 levels stay this elevated.
Weir Bohnd, Colorado Bob, John Christian Lo?????, thanks for the info. 🙂 I suspected something fishy when Mr. Greer cast forth those assertions.
In any case, Arctic research refutes the notion that any time during the Holocene was hotter than the present (recent papers show the Arctic is now hotter than at anytime in the last 40,000 years and likely the last 200,000 years). What is more disturbing is the fact that this research takes into account 20th Century averages. If we were to look at the current Arctic at +3 C hotter than 1880s values, we are probably looking at an Arctic hotter than at any time in the last 400 K years.
Dr Daniel Schrag has a good lecture from a geologists viewpoint. In this he mentions the best evidence that the current warming is exceptional is one presented by Lonnie Thompson who studied Glaciers near Equator/The Tropics and does ice core drilling. They can see the top of the glaciers are melting so fast that the banding in the ice is being destroyed from the top – and this has never happened before in this interglacial.
And these days they can find moss that haven't seen light of day since the last interglacial.
In Norway there is a new kind of archaeology happening, they find several thousand year old things deposited by ice melting away. Things that the people thousands of years back lost on top of the ice. Some of it is excellently preserved too.
Cyclone Ita that caused the Solomon Island's flooding now approaching far north Queensland as a Category 5 storm. If the 'coast hugger' GFS and JTWC forecast tracks were to emerge, northern cities like Cairns, Townsville and Bowen are in big trouble. Expected land impact late tomorrow afternoon/early evening.
Looks like it will hit a bit north of Cairns and then slide down the coast but with much less windspeeds.
I'm on this now… Looking rather nasty.
Interesting. I don't recall ever seeing a suggestion, now apparently in doubt, that El Nino could become permanent in a hot world. So I guess the El Nino – La Nina (PDO) cycle operates even when the pacific ocean is much warmer.
• Equatorial sea surface temperatures (SST) were above-average near the International Date Line and near-average in the east-central Pacific.
Are they just being cautious or conservative in their forecasting? It appears from my reading that this Kelvin wave isn't that alarming to NOAA.
In a one-hour documentary on Sunday, Ann Curry will be reporting on an angle of climate change that is scarcely found on TV news: that "there is virtually no debate among climate scientists"–climate change is real and "largely caused by human activity." Curry will travel to areas high and low in the world, from the Arctic to the Florida seas, and speak to eyewitnesses of the devastating consequences of climate change, NBC News announced Thursday.
I'll try to remember to tune in! I'm glad it's not up against "Cosmos" at 9:00 pm. If it were, I'd still watch Ann Curry instead, given the rarity of specials on this most important topic.
Unfortunately, when I clicked on the link, it said the content is not available to those outside of Australia. I guess I'll have to get down there to watch it. Unfortunately, that would burn a lot of carbon!
Mark, Sorry about that – I was not aware of that restriction. Pitty, it was a very good program. In it they tended to emphasise land based permafrost and also methane emissions from lakes. They did not mention methane emissions from arctic seabeds however.
Pretty good program for the mainstream media. They featured Dr. Jennifer Francis quite prominently. The only improvement I would suggest is that a graphic showing the loss of arctic summer sea ice from 1980 to the present would have brought that point home more forcefully. It would also have been educational to mention just how much warmer its projected to get by century's end. There were very few numbers discussed, which is perhaps that the producers intended for a general audience.
I agree Mark – it was an important "start" to getting the message out to the mainstream. It lacked a bunch<|fim_middle|> (and methane measurments) also with meaurements in the arctic.
This tells it all. From the Siberian times. "In October last year, Norwegian and Russian scientists said that surface water in the Barents Sea was 5 degrees Celsius warmer than normal. They linked the peak-temperatures with the unusually warm summer in the northernmost parts of mainland Norway and on Russia's northern Kola Peninsula.
I've only been visiting this site for a few months and wonder if its typical for Robert to be away this long. Does anyone know if he's OK or away?
Thanks Colorado Bob for your reply about Robert and also for that article link. How dry can Australia get? And the article makes it clear that agriculture around the globe will likely take a big hit. Interesting times ahead.
Years of Living Dangerously Premiere Full Episode.
BEIRUT — Syria is heading for a record low harvest this year, the United Nations warned Monday, putting the food supply for millions of civilians at risk as drought adds to the misery of the country's war-weary population.
The organization's food agency estimates that Syrian wheat production will plummet to a record low after limited rainfall over the winter. Wheat production is expected to reach a maximum of 2 million tons this year, less than half its annual need of 5.1 million tons, it said.
The "Heartland Institute" is back at it just releasing a report that rising CO2 is beneficial for earth. Copied from the notorious Daily Mail in the UK. "'The ongoing rise in the air's CO2 content is causing a great greening of the Earth,' says the report, called Climate Change Reconsidered II: Biological Impacts.
I guess Senator Sessions probably forgot about that oil platform that Katrina stuffed under a bridge in Mobile. Could it be that all the previous times that happened the press just didn't think it was important enough to report? The question that pops into my head is why would a person devoted to reality want to work in a government dominated by the likes of Obama, Kerry, Holder, Nuland, Rice, Powers and the Five Horsemen of the Supreme Apocalypse.
The Heartless Ones probably meant to report that all that CO2 is greening the owners of the earth who are making fortunes from the production of all that CO2. But, that's unfair. I think it's quite possible that the earth will indeed green up again, after it has been desertified for awhile. For a glimpse of what it might be like, go to youtube or netflix and search for titanoboa. You'll get to see renderings of the giant snake Guy McPherson likes to mention, and other creatures you wouldn't want to meet down at the swamp. Just to close the circle, the fossils were found in a coal pit.
It's not just your imagination: weather-related power outages are happening a lot more often than they used to. It's yet another effect of the increasingly crazy weather we're seeing — weather that, with climate change, is only expected to get crazier. In other words, as a new report from Climate Central emphasizes, climate change is a nightmare for our electrical system.
Between the mid-1980s and 2012, the report found, the number of major power outages ("major", in this case, meaning they affected more than 50,000 homes or businesses) increased tenfold. Some of that may be due to inconsistent reporting, but since 2003, when that reporting improved, it found that weather-related blackouts have doubled. About 147 million customers lost power for at least an hour between 2003 and 2012. And major outages, according to recent estimates, cost Americans between $20 and $55 billion every year.
About 4 billion a year just for blackouts… I know our area has been hit rather hard in recent years. The local utility keeps talking about putting the lines underground due to storm outages.
We'll run over these numbers like a cross town bus. Because the natural systems that buffer our rampage, are falling down.
Nature is on her knees.
I think nature is just starting to get peeved.
The concentration of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that drives climate change, hit 402 parts per million this week — the highest level recorded in at least 800,000 years.
The recordings came from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association's Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, which marked another ominous milestone last May when the 400 ppm threshold was crossed for the first time in recorded history.
We're pushing into 4 million year range. If we hit 410, we're probably at 10 million.
Just got back from the Vikings, And those fools working in Greenland. ,they are digging up rubies. Greenland doesn't stand a chance.
Done and done. Haven't seen this week's Vikings yet. Love that show. Lagertha is probably a close second to the Priest as my favs. Although Ragnar and Rollo are just fantastic.
Over the past few days we hit 402.2 ppm CO2. Still have some weeks before peak.
Why is the annual peak in CO2 readings in mid-late Spring? Does it coincide with the period just before peak deciduous 'leaf out' in the northern hemisphere, which is around mid-May?
You got it. Seasonal cycles drive natural carbon uptake. Large northern hemisphere land mass means more trees dropping leaves in fall initiates decay and dumps carbon into the system. As the trees aren't up-taking carbon through winter and as decay over-rides, you end up with rising CO2 levels. As spring takes hold, the cycle starts to reverse, with most land masses engaged in the leaf out you've mentioned by mid May. So you have a cycling fall in CO2 levels from that point until autumn returns.
And we are now starting to get flack from the climate change denial website WUWT. Good. I'd rather those fossil fuel industry shills attack me than the scientists.
I've only glanced at the articles. Bill Tilsdale yesterday and today Anthony Watts.
It's all written to support a kind of El Nino denial. They seem to be undermining current global forecasts pointing toward what increasingly looks like a very strong El Nino.
Greenland doesn't stand a chance.
Australia's BOM has it at 70% now? CPC has yet to update its March findings.
Most recent Kelvin Wave analysis from NOAA still shows strong progression. Will have to wait to see if the trades continue to fade and reverse. We've had a number of reversal episodes recently coincident with low pressure development along the equator.
Perhaps because I'm a lucky American and not some poor Asian, I've been cheering this potential El Nino on in the hope that it acts as a tipping point in goading humanity to act with the degree of seriousness needed to avert the worst case scenarios.
Next winter when we get 36 inches of snow in a nor'easter and a week without power I'll pay some of my karmic dues for hoping for a strong El Nino.
Low pressure development along the equator, like Tropical Cyclone Ita? When should the trade winds take on a more definite El Nino character if that is indeed in the cards?
Yes. The lows tend to form along the tropical Pacifc equatorial zone. Exactly like Ita.
Trade wind reversals are happening now. That's an El Nino characteristic. | of salient points, not least of which was loss of habitat that supports not only humans but all the other species with which we share the planet, but at least the word got out that there's trouble ahead.
Siberia is called "The Green Sea" in Russia. I have seen it from the Urals stretching off into the horizon. The fire potential is so vast if dry hot weather continues, this could be another feedback monster that rears it's head before anyone even notices it. Amazon drought and a Siberian fire storm. How much can the atmosphere take? Amazon fires are by no means tamed either. They are such a problem that nothing seems able to stem the tide of fire down there. Lower humidity overall has caused fires to keep expanding where once they went out on their own. And Australia! Remember the fires of the past 8 years or so! Epic!
Water rationing in Ensanada Baja Mex already. Aquifers running dry.
402.00 ppm carbon dioxide, a new daily record (?). Yeah! … not.
Yes, will be interesting to see how high the figure gets this year. Seems well on the way to a value above 403. It would be interesting to contrast this | 253 |
Buffalo Time Council (or BTC) is a organization of local science fiction fans that specializes in British media SF — Doctor Who, Red Dwarf, Blake's 7, The Prisoner, Hitchhikers Guide, and others. But we also deal in Star Trek, Babylon 5, and others. Founded in 1984, we are the oldest British media SF club in Western New York, and one of the oldest clubs dealing with Doctor Who in the United States.
Remember the days of camera-copy videos and rumors of a new 'Doctor'? Now we have Blu-rays and rumors of the new 'Doctor' — Peter Capaldi!
Membership dues are reasonable, $10 to join, and $8 / year to renew, thereafter. For this amount, members are sent our bi-monthly newsletter, COUNCIL TIMES. It contains news, book reviews, announcements and reviews of conventions, and maybe the occasional movie or<|fim_middle|> are interested in laid-back fandom, drop in to one of our meetings and check us out!
Copyright © 2019 Buffalo Time Council. Powered by WordPress and Stargazer. | video review.
We have also picked up a well deserved nickname: The Sports Bar of Fandom. Can we help it if we are also Bills and Sabres fans?
If you | 36 |
June 9, 2016 June 9, 2016 brickwallblitz Uncategorized
The Best Deep Ball Quarterback of 2015 (Part 2/3)
Click here to go back to Part 1.
Click here for part 2
Eli Manning (New York Giants)
The 2nd part of the 2015 Deep Ball Project starts with a great and somewhat underrated quarterback in Eli Manning.
We know Eli is not the most consistent or accurate passer, but his A-game is as good as anyone who's played the game. He's able to make excellent decisions, make his players better, and always give them chances to catch the ball.
In 2015 this was especially true. Many of his hits were fantastically thrown and it resulted in 11 TD passes to 3 interceptions. Not bad for someone considered a turnover machine by many.
Eli is a far better QB than people are willing to give him credit for, and he had a great year throwing deep in 2015, despite limited weapons<|fim_middle|>ity of his makes just wipes it all out. The ball placement was unreal in 2015, and it seemed like Carson rarely missed a beat.
There really wasn't a time where Palmer was struggling to throw downfield. Even at his lowest in 2015 he was still throwing deep with relative ease. This even edges out Aaron Rodgers' fantastic 2014 deep ball season, but just barely.
Either way, Carson Palmer's 2015 season is as good as it gets. This is the new standard for deep passing heading into the 2016 season and beyond.
FINAL GRADE: A+
Philip Rivers (San Diego Chargers)
Coming off a 4-12 season, Philip Rivers has the terrible fate of being a great QB on an awful team going nowhere.
While it's been suggesting his downfield accuracy may be on the decline, I actually thought it was a bit better than 2014's results (B+). Rivers' receivers made too many mistakes at the catch point, despite brilliant passing, resulting in his 37.9 completion percentage.
At his best, Rivers has made some fantastic throws from the pocket, and this was apparent in the first half of the 2014 season. Despite a terrible cast, Rivers had another terrific downfield year. Here's to a successful 2016.
Aaron Rodgers (Green Bay Packers)
If you've listened to the Bayless/Cowherd types, you've heard nothing but Aaron Rodgers slander as of recent.
And none of it makes any sense.
With a god awful receiving cast, Rodgers' stats may have declined, but he was still able to put up a fantastic deep year. Like Rivers, his receivers provided so many missed opportunities (Adams being the biggest offender), gaining zero separation and dropping seemingly every pass thrown at them.
The fact that Rodgers was still able to make jaw dropping plays in spite of this is remarkable. When his receivers weren't dropping passes, he was busy throwing with amazing consistency. Rodgers is still the best QB in the league in my opinion, and his 2015 deep ball is another hidden gem.
Ben Roethlisberger (Pittsburgh Steelers)
Coming off perhaps the best season of his career, Ben Roethlisberger only played 12 games, but he made those count with spectacular deep passing displays.
Ben finished with the most picks of any QB in 2015 (11), but he also had a high accuracy percentage of 60.2%, as well as the most deep yards per game (134.0). Like Palmer, Ben's best throws were many, and easily offset the bad throws he made (most of his poor throws came when he wasn't close to being healthy).
The receiving cast is great, but Ben's ability to have his weapons rely on him is the real story. When healthy, the offense was purely dominant, and the accuracy, as stated before, was amazing.
I consider Ben the 2nd best QB heading into the 2016 (behind Rodgers), and it would be great to see what a completely healthy Ben can do with his current receiving cast.
Matt Ryan (Atlanta Falcons)
Here's another QB that's getting ripped to shreds seemingly everywhere, but despite a few ill-timed turnovers, Ryan is far from Atlanta's problem.
Though not spectacular (I'm a broken record at this point), Ryan was consistently accurate, and only witnessed a few plays where he had to rely on his receivers to make plays. Most of the time his "mistakes" came from poor route running. Even Julio Jones witnessed inconsistency at the catch point despite a monster statistical season.
So don't believe what you've heard. Matt Ryan doesn't have the strongest arm, but he's a quality deep passer nonetheless.
Continue here for Part 3
Tagged 2015 Deep Ball Project, Arm Strength, Best Deep Ball Quarterback of 2015, Brick Wall Blitz, Can't Think of more categories, Categories, Deep Ball Project, Grades, Jonathan Kinsley, NFL, Other Categories, Part 2, Things | outside of that one guy…
Peyton Manning (Denver Broncos, now retired)
Peyton Manning may have sucked in 2015 all around, but it was actually a perfect ending to the career of quite possibly the greatest quarterback to play the game. Once being asked to carry everyone around him, Manning found himself carried by an elite defense into the Super Bowl, where he took home with him a 2nd trophy.
Needless to say, it was a rock bottom collapse from the A-grade Manning received on the deep ball in 2014. The decision making struggled, and the accuracy was no longer there because the arm strength was long gone. Home against the Chiefs, he was at his worse.
It's a bittersweet ending, and while it was horrible, we can at least thank Peyton Manning for his wonderful career. That doesn't mean I couldn't have fun roasting him.
Marcus Mariota (Tennessee Titans)
One of the more anticipated young quarterbacks in recent memory, Mariota hasn't gained a reputation for being a solid deep QB just yet, but there's plenty of promise.
Despite unimpressive stats, Mariota actually ended up getting the short end of the stick on several occasions, whether it be drops, miscommunications, or failures at the catch. At the end of the day, Mariota's decision making was excellent downfield, but it's the accuracy that needs to be worked on.
All things considered, Mariota has given the Titans plenty of hope to work with.
FINAL GRADE: C
Josh McCown (Cleveland Browns)
How Josh McCown continues to get starting jobs in the NFL is a treasure in of itself.
Football Outsiders' Cian Fahey once wrote that Josh McCown would lose you games without elevating any of your teammates. After watching his deep film, I can validate this statement. Granted, it's a little better than his 2014 season, but it's a slight difference in terms of accuracy and consistency.
Cam Newton (Carolina Panthers)
2015's MVP, Cam Newton didn't have the greatest deep ball season of 2015, but it's still one that's high in quality.
If you follow me on Twitter (@BrickWallBlitz, of course), I consider Cam Newton a mobile Eli Manning; not the most accurate or consistent, but deadly at his best. Newton had plenty of misses and overthrows in 2015, and a few boneheaded passes in the 2nd half of the season, but his best throws easily justify his grade.
Newton is able to fit the ball into tight windows despite limited pass protection, as his pocket movement has substantially improved. It was fun to watch him sling the ball downfield, as with favorable outcomes he was able to put up big time stats.
A fine downfield year.
FINAL GRADE: B
Carson Palmer (Arizona Cardinals)
This is it. This, to me, is the gold standard for deep quarterbacks.
No one really expected Carson Palmer to have the MVP-caliber season he did last year, but he did, and his downfield passing was a huge part of it. Palmer finished with the most completed passes (81) and the highest accuracy percentage (63.8%) in 2015.
Stats aside, Palmer was a consistent monster throughout in downfield passing. None of the misses are really worth mentioning, because the spectacular | 704 |
Wetlands in the Stour Valley
Open water and reeds at Stodmarsh
The Stour Valley contains a variety of wetlands of value to birds, aquatic mammals, amphibians, insects and plants.
They vary in size from the smallest village pond to large reedbeds and marshes. The most valuable wetlands are often those where a number of related habitats exist together, as at Stodmarsh National Nature Reserve, where the reedbeds, grazing marshes, wet woodlands, lakes and ponds together constitute a site of international importance for wildlife.
A number of factors determine the character and value of a wetland. The quality of the water is important – whether it is nutrient rich or poor, whether it is alkaline or acid. Acid waters feed bogs, while fens depend on alkaline water. The amount of water, depth and seasonal variations also play a big role: ponds and lakes tend to hold a depth of water all year round (although some ponds dry out in summer); reedbeds grow in ground that is waterlogged for most of the year, while marshlands tend to be wet only in autumn and winter; many grazing marshes have been drained with networks of ditches and will only flood in wet winters, but the ditches are valuable habitat. Management is the other big factor that shapes wetlands and is usually required to maintain important habitats. For example, an unmanaged reedbed will eventually turn to wet woodland. Not only is human management important for wetlands but many of them were created by human activity – for example the many lakes found close to the Great Stour are flooded gravel workings.
Unlike woodlands and grasslands, wetlands<|fim_middle|> amphibians and aquatic plants. However, as agriculture has changed in recent years, many have been filled in or neglected.
There are ponds throughout the Stour Valley (although few in the Kent Downs). Visit Buxford Meadow, Ashford Warren or Chilston Pines and Ponds to see some particularly good ones.
Hastingleigh pond
Kingsnorth ponds and scrapes
Bogs and fens
Bogs and fens are both types of mire – a mire being an area of permanently wet peat caused by a water table very near the surface or (more usually in the north and west of Britain) by high rainfall. Where the water supply to the mire is acidic, bog vegetation will result. Where the water is alkaline, fen vegetation, which can include very diverse plant communities, arises. Both are extremely rare habitats in Kent but are present in the Stour Valley.
Kent's last remaining valley bogs can be seen at Hothfield Heathlands and the county's last old fen is at Ham Fen (access by arrangement only).
Round-leaved sundew – a rare bog plant at Hothfield Heathlands (Photo: Gabrielle Lindemann)
Willow carr – wet woodland
Wet woodland
Wet woodland is another scarce habitat that has disappeared from many areas. It is home to several notable insects, particularly those that require dead wood in water to breed. Mosses, liverworts and fungi also thrive in these conditions. Wet woodland tends to consist of very few tree species – usually just alder, willow and birch, and in the Stour Valley 'alderbeds' of just alder are quite characteristic.
Stodmarsh National Nature Reserve contains large areas of wet woodland.
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Please take a few minutes to take our survey. | don't have to be old to be of value. New wetlands can become excellent habitat for all kinds of species after just a few years.
Floodplain wetlands
Riverside habitats are a particularly important feature of the Stour Valley. Grazed riverside pastures are a characteristic sight. Flood meadows, old pollarded willows and bankside vegetation all offer habitats for a range of species, and benefit the wildlife of the river itself. However, on many parts of the Stour, trees have been grubbed out, meadows drained, and arable crops planted right to the edge of the water, primarily to increase agricultural production. The river itself has also been altered – straightened and made less natural. More positive is the creation of several lakes in the valley. These flooded industrial gravel workings are now habitats for birds and a range of other wildlife.
Related KSCP projects:
Great Stour Meadow
Hambrook Marshes (Photo: Will Hirstle)
Worth Marshes near Sandwich (Photo: Will Hirstle)
Grazing Marsh
Grazing marshes are low lying wet pastures. They often flood in winter, attracting migratory birds, and their network of drainage ditches provides habitats for aquatic plants and insects. In recent years, many grazing marshes have been drained much more effectively by modern pumping systems, which makes the land suitable for arable crops (more profitable than grazing), but destroys much of the wildlife interest. Having said that, the ditches may remain valuable habitats.
Reedbeds
Reedbeds occur on land which is flooded for most of the year, often at the edges of lakes or in shallow lagoons. Dominated by a single species of reed – usually common reed – they are habitats for specialised wildlife, including some very rare birds. They have been lost with the widespread drainage of land for agriculture.
The Stour Valley contains some of south-east England's largest reedbeds, at Stodmarsh National Nature Reserve.
Reedbed at Stodmarsh
Pond at Hambrook Marshes
Ponds were once a common site on farmland, supplying water for livestock and providing habitats for | 448 |
StreetChildren: SILENT but SUFFERING
Queen Mary Campaign
1pm @ Library Square, Queen Mary University
There are over 333,290 street children in Dhaka, Bangladesh
Everyday these children are subjected<|fim_middle|> a community where their rights and even their existence are neglected. | to:
QUEEN MARY RESTLESS BEINGS AIM on the 1st of April is to raise funds to help maintain a rehabilitation centre for street children in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Every penny will go towards the RestlessBeings Rehabilitation Centre & Home where these children can feel safe and have food, education and medical care.
PLEASE DONATE WHATEVER YOU CAN AND MAKE THIS CHANGE WITH US
Sustain Hope & Change
Warwick Campaign
The Restless Beings StreetChildren: Silent but Suffering campaign made its mark in Warwick University on Tuesday, 15th March 2011. The campaign was predominantly aimed at raising funds for the rehabilitation centre for the street children in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The rehabilitation centre is one of Restless Beings' key projects; it is a refuge for homeless children in Dhaka - a place where these children, who are subjected to mental, physical and sexual abuse every day, can feel safe and have food, education and medical care.
In order to raise money for the project, the Warwick RB team put on a silent demonstration in which they recreated the scenes on the streets of Bangladesh. Members of the team, as well as their friends who supported the campaign, sat silently on the floor of the University campus with placards round their necks and on nearby trees with through-provoking messages and hard-hitting facts on them. The placards would read anything from "We need homes" to "There are over 333,290 street children in Dhaka, Bangladesh". The message was clear –there are children who are being tortured, prostituted and malnourished and they need our support - and the response from the students at the University of Warwick was phenomenal. As a result of the generous donations from the students, the Warwick RB team raised £117.34 for the rehabilitation centre, and all this in just two hours!
Since Restless Beings is still relatively new to Warwick, the Warwick RB team thought it was important to continue to raise awareness of the charity as well as fundraising. As a result the green and yellow Restless Beings hand was plastered all over Library Square as well as a message taped to the floor which read "RESTLESS". To explain the silent demonstration, the Warwick RB team handed out campaign specific leaflets informing the potential 'change makers' of the dire living conditions of the Bangladeshi street children, this was then followed by a statement concerning what their donations will be used for.
The campaign was a huge success and touched the hearts of many passers-by who donated generously as a result. With every campaign they do the Warwick RB team are reaching out to more and more people and telling the story of those who live in | 559 |
Galini Taverna in Saint Stephanos, on the North East of Corfu, has been operating since 1972. It is the first taverna that opened in Saint Stephanos village. Since then, this famous taverna, has welcomed many international visitors that have enjoyed its specialities and local fish dishes.
The romantic scenery of Saint Stephanos bay, the warm and friendly service of the Galini Taverna staff, the good food and pricing make dinner an unforgettable experience.
Galini Taverna is ideally located in the centre of the village of Saint Stephanos,<|fim_middle|> and ice cream.
Early 1964 Nikos Sarakinos took over Galini Taverna and quickly turn into a busy place, attracting the first tourists of the area. | on the northeast coast of the island. Saint Stephanos is 42 km far from Corfu Town and 6 km away from Kassiopi, Corfu.
It is open every day serving breakfast, lunch, dinner and drinks from early in the morning, until late in the evening.
Wedding and engagement receptions, birthday parties and anniversaries can also be arranged.
The taverna dishes are prepared to suit all preferences. You can choose from our extensive menu of meat, fish or vegetarian dishes.
You can begin your meal with hot or cold starters like tzatziki, baked feta cheese, mussels saganaki, mussels marinated, prawns, hummus. Do not forget to taste the famous 'figs with prossuto'.
Accompany your main course with fresh and tasteful salads.
For those that are meat lovers they can enjoy dishes prepared with fresh local meat or have one of the famous Galini fillet stakes with a wide range of sauces.
A great selection of Greek wines, red, wine or rose, Beers, wines, spirits, cocktails, juices and soft drinks, can accompany your meal.
After your meal, relax and enjoy the tranquility of Saint Stephanos bay with nice dessert like pastry, crepes | 255 |
The Au Co launched in Apr 2012 - The biggest cruise on the bay is a remarkable 55.29m in length and 10.43m in width. Each of our 32 spacious cabins has its own private balcony or terrace – allowing unparalleled private views of the surrounding seascape.
On the upper decks, our elegant restaurant and open<|fim_middle|> The Au Co's open-air Jacuzzi. Feel any aches and pains drift away as you sip a cocktail while taking in the fantastic views of the seascape as you voyage at sunset. | -air bars are designed along principles of "Feng Shui" to heighten our passengers' sense of connection with the wonderful environment of the surrounding Gulf of Tonkin, as well as giving them a taste of the Orient and Vietnamese culture. Through our innovative use of space, design features, and luxurious attention to detail, we aim to give our passengers a truly unique cruise experience.
Each of the cabins and suites is tastefully appointed with timber floors, handcrafted wooden mosaic furniture and elegant interiors. Each cabin features individual climate-control thermostats, telephone, in-cabin refrigerator, coffee/tea maker, safe box, and hair dryer. Meanwhile the luxurious bathrooms are extremely well appointed with deluxe bathroom amenities.
There are 14 Deluxe Cabin located on the main deck of The Au Co. 12 Deluxe Cabins at 20 square metres and 02 Deluxe Cabins at 25 square metres each are furnished in a minimal style with a choice of double or twin beds, and two lounge chairs with a coffee table. The bathroom, furnished in wooden, features a separate glass-enclosed shower stall.
Located on the upper deck, our two Grand Deluxe Cabins offer passengers stunning views of Halong Bay through their panoramic windows. Each cabin is 20 square metres, including an en-suite bathroom and handcrafted furniture. As with all our cabins and suites, the sense of space and luxury is enhanced by the elegant décor and minimal style.
Dining aboard The Au Co is an experience not to be missed. You will dine while passing poetic landscapes and enjoying fabulous dishes prepared by our professional team of chefs. They have designed a menu which is both healthy and delicious using local ingredients, including locally caught seafood and vegetables grown in Viet Hai village on Cat Ba Island (you will have a chance to visit The Au Co Green Farm on the second day of your cruise) and also designed to awaken all five senses. The Au Co menu is rich and diverse, from a lunch buffet featuring fresh seafood, through a full range of aperitifs, cocktails, drinks, and snacks to a luxury dinner set menu with specialities from all three regions of Vietnam, as well as international dishes.
Cruising aboard The Au Co you are likely to experience a sense of calm and well-being. But to make sure we have also added spa and jacuzzi facilities, for those simply seeking relaxation, or those wishing to unwind after a day packed with adventurous activities.
For complete stress relief, why not pamper yourself with a therapeutic massage either in the tranquility of the Spa room or in the open-air Spa area – drifting off into bliss as the cruise drifts along.
After an exciting day of adventurous activities and cultural excursions what better way to relax and unwind than in | 556 |
Our<|fim_middle|> we can support their financing needs. We will work with you to fulfill your objectives, while still meeting your specific and ongoing financing challenges head on.
Learn about our Resort Finance services. | solutions let you grow your business with confidence—wherever you operate.
The Lender Finance group is a leading provider of revolving and term note credit facilities to consumer and commercial finance companies. These facilities range from $5 million to $100 million, or higher through syndication. We also purchase performing commercial loan portfolios of any size.
Our comprehensive financing will allow you to leverage your loan portfolio for working capital or portfolio growth. We understand the complexities of the industries we serve well. We also realize the economic forces that drive these businesses, which allows us to make rapid and appropriate assessments of value giving our borrowers a quick decision as to whether or not | 130 |
As you probably know already, the first LEGO Minecraft set was a fan-submitted idea on LEGO CUUSOO, which, after reaching 10,000 votes, became an official LEGO product – very popular with both LEGO and Minecraft fans. So much so, in fact, that it has sold out several times, and is still hard to find anywhere besides the Online LEGO Shop.
The two new LEGO Minecraft sets are the same size, and built in the same modular fashion, as the original one. The idea with all of the LEGO Minecraft sets is to build your own world in the same way as you would do in the game. The three sets can be mixed and matched as you wish, creating and expanding your Minecraft world. Whether LEGO will continue adding new sets to the series is unknown at this point, but even with these three sets (especially if you can get multiple copies<|fim_middle|>, but I've never been interested. the sets are cool though.
Go to a fabric or craft store. Get stick-on Velcro dots and apply them to the flaps on the box top parts. You will be able to open and then close the boxes securely.
Hello everyone! I am back from the dead!
WOW IN CANADA THESE SETS ARE SO MACH MONEY!!!
Horrible, these things are 30-40$ and smaller than a coffee cup even if you WERE to manage to get them put together with tweezers. NO child could actually play with these things as the majority of the pieces are no larger than a new born baby's fingernail. I was shocked when it came in the mail and lego should be ashamed of even making these things as "playsets".
Invaluable advice – Just what we need to know. Thank-you!
Previous post: LEGO Ninjago 2014 sets – first images! | ) you can build some serious Minecraft landscape.
The colors in the LEGO Minecraft Village are fantastic! Even if you are not a Minecraft fan, it is worth getting this set just for the unique small pieces. For example, there are 67 dark-green 1×1 tiles and 25 dark-tan 1×1 tiles that are only available in this set! And the other 1×1 tiles and small pieces are also pretty rare and hard to find.
There are also some things that I believe could be improved on. Most of these are minor issues that can be fixed easily, but still I wanted to point them out, so you know what to expect. As I have mentioned, the top sections of each module can be removed and re-arranged. The tops are held on only by two studs, and because of this, they can fall off easily. I believe there should be four exposed studs per module, so that the tops can stay on more securely, while still remaining removable. I have tested this out myself and it works much better.
The modules are held together by Technic pins. Three of the modules come with pin-holes on three sides, but one of them only on two sides. The result of this is that if you connect the four modules in the set, they are only held together by three pins, making the whole assembly wobbly. It would have been much better if all four modules come with pin-holes on three sides, allowing the use of four pins per set. I have tried this out and it works much better, and the modules can still be easily disconnected. I'm not sure why LEGO designers went with using only three pins (although a fourth one is included in the set).
As far as the #21106 LEGO Minecraft Micro World The Nether set, it also comes with a wonderful range of colors. The 1×1 bright-light-orange tiles are unique to this set, and 25 of them are included! And I have to say that the dark-red in this set is absolutely gorgeous! Dark-red is a LEGO color that comes with its own problems; mainly too many variations, even within one set – some are darker, some are lighter, and some are even slightly translucent… but not in this set! Here you get a great variety of dark-red elements in a deeply rich and totally consistent color. If you like dark-red, you will love this set!
There are some things here as well that could be improved on. The LEGO Minecraft Nether has the same problem as The Village as far as only 3 pins connecting the modules, leaving the full assembly somewhat wobbly. However, again, an extra pin is included, so with some modification you could convert the modules to connect with four pins.
Thanks for this review! I could not choose which sets was better but your opinion in this review helps.
Having played a fair bit amount of Minecraft myself, I appreciate the inclusion of the TNT block and exploding wall. I'd also like to clarify about the Nether.
It can be likened to a hell of sorts, but not to the sense that everything you've vanquished will end up there and will be out to get you! It's more landscape-wise. The portal is the only way to reach the Nether. It can be created out of Obsidian, a rather tricky rock to get since it's pretty hard to mine, but to activate it you need to torch it. Seriously, torch it. Digging downwards in Minecraft will only land you in an inescapable void of doom, not the Nether. Inversely, digging UPWARDS in the Nether would land you in the same, aforementioned void. The cool thing about the Nether is that 1 step you take there equals to about 6 steps in the normal landscape, so what some people do is they build a series of Nether portals to allow them to traverse great distances quickly, effectively creating a "subway" of sorts.
I've never played it. it looks interesting and I've watched someone play it | 832 |
Aliens have destroyed your planet, setting you and the humans aboard the galactic cruiser ARKANOID adrift and searching for a new home. You are the only hope. Climbing into you vaus, you realise you must act quickly. You have some weapons, but against the certain danger that lurks ahead, sheer nerve is your greatest strength. Hurtling through icy space, who can help but wonder, "What's out there???'"
MULTIPLE LEVELS of mesmerising brick formations, testing your reflexes and ability to make split-second decisions.
SPECIAL CAPSULES that can aid you in your quest. When fought, one capsule will make your vaus expand. Another will equip you with a laser, enabling you to smash through alien obstacles. More capsules exist, but you must choose carefully...the decision, and fate of the crew, are in YOUR hands!
The game opens with a monologue stating the following: "THE TIME AND ERA OF THIS STORY IS UNKNOWN. AFTER THE MOTHERSHIP "ARKANOID" WAS DESTROYED, A SPACECRAFT "VAUS" SCRAMBLED AWAY FROM IT. BUT ONLY TO BE TRAPPED IN SPACE WARPED BY SOMEONE........"
The player controls the "Vaus", a space vessel that acts as the game's "paddle" which prevents a ball from falling from the playing field, attempting to bounce it against a number of bricks. The ball striking a brick<|fim_middle|>OTHERSHIP "ARKANOID" WAS DESTROYED, A SPACECRAFT "VAUS" SCRAMBLED AWAY FROM IT. BUT ONLY TO BE TRAPPED IN SPACE WARPED BY SOMEONE........" | causes the brick to disappear. When all the bricks are gone, the player goes to the next level, where another pattern of bricks appears. There are a number of variations (bricks that have to be hit multiple times, flying enemy ships, etc.) and power-up capsules to enhance the Vaus (expand the Vaus, multiply the number of balls, equip a laser cannon, break directly to the next level, etc.), but the gameplay remains the same. At round 33, the final stage, the player will take on the game's boss, "DOH", a head resembling moai. Once a player reaches round 33, he must defeat DOH with his remaining extra lives because there are no continues on the final round<p> The game opens with a monologue stating the following: "THE TIME AND ERA OF THIS STORY IS UNKNOWN. AFTER THE M | 178 |
Q: Opengles shaders interpolation issue I see problems related to accuracy of interpolation by shaders. I get a distorted blue line as shown below due to accuracy of interpolation of varying variable (height in this case) by shaders. How do I fix it?
Here is how I feed the data to shaders:
uint8_t * oglData = CVPixelBufferGetBaseAddress(_pixelBuffer);
for (NSInteger i = 0; i < 256; i++) {
/* Only first two columns blue in BGRA 256x1 buffer */
if (i < 2) {
oglData[4 * i] = 255;
oglData[4 * i + 1] = 0;
oglData[4 * i +2] = 0;
oglData[4 * i +3] = 1;
} else {
oglData[4 * i] = 0;
oglData[4 * i + 1] = 0;
oglData[4 * i +2] = 0;
oglData[4 * i +3] = 1;
}
}
}
And here are shaders:
Vertex shader:
attribute vec4 position;
attribute vec4 inputTextureCoordinate;
varying vec2 textureCoordinate;
varying float height;
void main()
{
gl_Position = position;
textureCoordinate = vec2(inputTextureCoordinate.x, 0.0);
height = inputTextureCoordinate.y;
}
Fragment Shader:
varying highp vec2 textureCoordinate;
varying highp float height;
uniform sampler2D inputImageTexture;
uniform lowp vec4 backgroundColor;
<|fim_middle|>Texture, 0 );
// Set texture parameters
glTexParameteri( GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER, GL_LINEAR );
glTexParameteri( GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER, GL_LINEAR );
glTexParameteri( GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_S, GL_CLAMP_TO_EDGE );
glTexParameteri( GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_T, GL_CLAMP_TO_EDGE );
glVertexAttribPointer( ATTRIB_VERTEX, 2, GL_FLOAT, 0, 0, squareVertices );
glEnableVertexAttribArray( ATTRIB_VERTEX );
glVertexAttribPointer( ATTRIB_TEXTURECOORDINATE, 2, GL_FLOAT, 0, 0, textureCoordinates );
glEnableVertexAttribArray( ATTRIB_TEXTURECOORDINATE );
glDrawArrays( GL_TRIANGLE_STRIP, 0, 4 );
glBindRenderbuffer( GL_RENDERBUFFER, _colorBufferHandle );
[_oglContext presentRenderbuffer:GL_RENDERBUFFER];
EDIT: Changing GL_LINEAR to GL_NEAREST fixes the issue, which means varying vars are interpolated based on the type of min & mag filters in texture parameters? But using GL_Nearest creates non-smooth curves.
A:
How do I fix it?
You can't (at least not directly) - this is fixed function hardware inside the GPU, so you'll just have to live with it.
Changing GL_LINEAR to GL_NEAREST fixes the issue, which means varying vars are interpolated based on the type of min & mag filters in texture parameters?
No - varying interpolation has nothing to do with the texture min/mag filters.
Your issue is that the inaccuracy in the varying interpolation is causing the sample point input into your texture() function call to drift away from the texel center, so the GL_LINEAR texture filtering starts to have an effect.
By using GL_NEAREST you effectively quantize the sampling points, so as long as the error is less than half a texel wide you snap back to the texel you want.
| void main() {
lowp vec3 colorChannels = texture2D(inputImageTexture, textureCoordinate).rgb;
//
if (colorChannels.b >= height) {
gl_FragColor = vec4(0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 1.0);
} else {
gl_FragColor = vec4(0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0);
}
}
Here is the drawing code:
glActiveTexture( GL_TEXTURE0 );
glTexImage2D(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL_RGBA, 256, 1, 0, GL_RGBA, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, oglData);
glUniform1i( _inputImage | 166 |
In the northern end of the Devetashko plateau, three kilometres above the Krushuna Wsaterfalls, one of the most interesting villages in<|fim_middle|> hollows, blind, semi-blind and dry valley, canyon (gorge), chasms, cave galleries and halls.
Thank you for keeping the environment clean for future generations! | the region is cuddled. With fewer than a hundred Bulgarians, the village of Karpachevo is named after Hristo Karpachev, the poet who wrote the popular song "Rustle thickets and ranges" (Шумете дебри и балкани).
The unique architecture of the old houses with even stone masonry attracts connoisseurs of architecture.
To the north, one can relish the breathtaking view over the Danubian plain, while the fresh air and healthy climate are a prerequisite for the existence of more than 300 herbs and game diversity. The plateau is little known but is rich in natural phenomena. Besides the Krushuna Waterfalls and the Osam River canyon, five of Bulgaria's longest caves are located there: Devetashka, Bonin, Vodopada, Urushkata, Gornik.
One can see all Karst shapes: carrie, dens, | 195 |
Maybe the reason you dislike cleaning so much is because by the time you finally get around to it, there's so much to do. Here, nine tricks to keeping your home tidy in between big cleaning sessions.
If anything smells funky or is clearly past its prime, chuck it now while you have the trash bag in hand. Once this becomes a part of your garbage routine, you'll be surprised by how much cleaner (and less moldy) you'll be able to keep<|fim_middle|> for picking up dust and hair. Plus, the coating on the sheets helps to repel dust and give your space a refreshing scent.
We know you're eager to dig into the spaghetti marinara you just made. But trust: That stubborn tomato sauce will come off so much easier after it's had some time to soften.
It's the single most important thing you can do to minimize the amount of dirt that gets tracked through the house. Less dirt means less mopping means more happiness.
Everyone knows about the chair. You know, the one that starts with an innocent blouse and grows into a mountain of everything you've ever owned. Reclaim your seat by taking a few extra seconds to toss dirty clothes straight into your hamper or hang the (relatively) clean ones back in your closet.
If you think about how much real estate your bed takes up, it makes sense that an unmade bed is such an eyesore. Keep the decorative pillows and throws to a minimum and you'll be more inclined to actually make it every morning. | your fridge.
And voilà! New trash bag already in place!
The easiest way to keep these hot spots free of scum? Keep a container of wipes nearby and give the grungiest spots—like the sink and countertops—a quick pass every night. Steady maintenance helps keep mildew (and toothpaste-caked hair bunnies) at bay.
Runny cheesy doesn't look so good when it's crusted all over the bottom of your oven. Catch any potential spills with a handy piece of foil and toss when it gets gross.
The fuzzy texture is great | 117 |
/Guide to Forming an LLC in West Virginia
Guide to Forming an LLC in West Virginia
Pros and Cons of Forming an LLC in West VirginiaPhase One: Starting Your West Virginia LLCPhase Two: Maintaining Your West Virginia LLCAdditional West Virginia Resources
Follow our free guide to form an LLC in West Virginia
Pros and Cons of Forming an LLC in West Virginia
Starting Your West Virginia LLC
Maintaining Your West Virginia LLC
Additional West Virginia Resources
The West Virginia LLC formation process includes several steps that can seem complicated; however, our comprehensive guide will walk you through all parts of starting your own LLC in West Virginia.
No Filing Fee for Veterans & Young Entrepreneurs West Virginia offers a filing fee waiver for some businesses owners — veterans and young entrepreneurs (ages 18 - 29) may qualify to be exempt from paying the $100 filing fee.
No Corporate/Franchise Taxes West Virginia does not impose any corporate or franchise tax on LLCs. The only taxes owed on the LLC's revenue is the personal income tax paid by the members.
Equality Opportunities West Virginia tops the list for states with the lowest employment and salary gap for minorities and women. According to a recent report, the state leads the rest of the nation with the lowest income gap between genders and education gap between races.
Lagging Economy According, to US News, West Virginia is one of the lowest-ranked states in the nation (#47). One of the main reasons is the state's sluggish economy, including a negative job growth rate (-0.3% vs 1.6%) and high unemployment (5.3% vs .0%).
High Poverty Rate West Virginia's poverty rate is a shocking 5% higher than the national average (19.1% vs 14%); almost 350,000 residents earn below the national poverty level of $12,000. The poverty rate has climbed almost 3% since 2017.
Less Privacy for Owners West Virginia law requires the LLC members/manager to be listed in the Articles of Organization.
$100 filing fee
$25 annual report
No corporate/franchise tax
Phase One: Starting Your West Virginia LLC
The first phase of setting up your LLC in West Virginia involves laying the groundwork for your new business. Begin the process with the following steps:
Step 1: Name your LLC
Step 2: Establish Ownership of your LLC
Step 3: Decide on a Registered Agent
Step 4: File the Articles of Organization
Step 5: Create your Operating Agreement
Step 6: Register for an EIN
Step 1: Name Your West Virginia LLC
Forming your West Virginia LLC begins with selecting a business name. Keep in mind that both state and federal governments have guidelines concerning which words can/cannot be used in business names.
Tip: Use a free business name search tool to ensure your company's desired name is available.
Business Name Guidelines
The official name of your business must end with: Limited Liability Company, Limited Company, LLC, or L.L.C.
Your business name cannot be intentionally misleading to consumers
The name of your new LLC must not be similar to another organization's name/trademark
"Lottery" and "Bank" are ineligible for use (any state)
Terms that represent educational or Veterans' organizations are restricted
Terms related to the Armed Forces or civil servants (police, EMT, fire)
LLC business names associated with government and/or financial entities are not always restricted - it depends on the state. Additional paperwork may be required.
URL Availability After choosing a name for your LLC, you should also create an online presence for your new business. Check out domain name availability at a number of online web services sites.
Step 2: Establish Ownership
The owners of an LLC are referred to as members and managers. All LLCs will have members, but not every LLC will have managers — the difference depends on the management structure of the business.
LLC Management Structures:
Member-managed: All members participate in operating and making decisions for the LLC
Manager-managed: An appointed manager oversees the daily operations of the LLC while the members are less involved.
West Virginia LLC Member Guidelines
Required Number of Members There must be at least one member or manager to form an LLC in West Virginia.
Member Disclosure Requirements All managers/members of the LLC must be included in the Articles of Organization.
Age Restrictions LLC members in West Virginia may be of any age.
Residence Restrictions There are no residency restrictions imposed on LLC members in West Virginia.
Step 3: Find a Registered Agent in West Virginia
The registered agent is necessary for all LLCs formed in West Virginia. In fact, your business cannot be official without the registered agent.
What is a registered agent? A registered agent is a person or business who is authorized to accept official government mail and service of process notices on behalf of the LLC.
Why do you need a registered agent? State law mandates that you appoint a registered agent so that your LLC has a consistent contact person.
What are the main requirements for a registered agent?
The registered agent must have a physical address — not a P.O. Box
The registered agent must be available during business hours
Who can be a registered agent in West Virginia?
A WV resident with a physical address
An LLC or corporation that is licensed to do business in West Virginia
Is the registered agent's contact information publicly accessible? The name and contact information of the LLC's registered agent<|fim_middle|> LLC in West Virginia is filing the Articles of Organization with the Secretary of State.
What is the Articles of Organization? The Articles of Organization is a legally binding document that officially and legally forms your LLC through the Secretary of State.
Why do I need the Articles of Organization? Your LLC business in West Virginia will not be legally recognized by the Secretary of State without filing this document. Consider the Articles of Organization as part of your LLC's foundation.
What is the cost of filing the Articles of Organization? The filing fee for West Virginia is $100.
Please Note: West Virginia may grant a filing fee waiver for any new business formed by a veteran(s) or young entrepreneur(s) between 18 — 29 years.
What information is included in the Articles of Organization?
The name and address of the LLC
The name and location of the registered agent
The names of all members/managers
The name of the organizer — if applicable
The chosen LLC management structure
The duration of the LLC
Additional West Virginia Filing Information — Professional LLCs
Certain professional service businesses in West Virginia may form a specific type of LLC known as a Professional Limited Liability Company (PLLC).
The following professions may form PLLCs:
Physicians and Veterinarians
Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons
Podiatrists, Optometrists, Dentists
Chiropractors and Acupuncturists
Architects, Engineers, and Land Surveyors
Psychologists and Social Workers
A few points to consider:
All members of the PLLC must be licensed in the profession of the business.
The PLLC is only allowed to provide services for which the business was formed.
The members are still subject to whichever licensing boards govern the PLLC's profession.
Step 5: Create an LLC Operating Agreement
The continued success of your West Virginia LLC depends on whether your new business has an LLC Operating Agreement. Though not required by law, this document is still essential in the formation process of your LLC.
What is an LLC Operating Agreement? The LLC Operating Agreement is a legal document that defines the roles and rights of the LLC members/managers and clearly identifies the operating guidelines for the business.
Why do I need an LLC Operating Agreement? The LLC Operating Agreement is essential to your business because it provides structure, protects assets from creditors, and reduces disputes and lawsuits among members.
Do I need to file the LLC Operating Agreement? There is no need to file the Operating Agreement anywhere; it is for the benefit of your LLC and remains in-house.
What goes into an LLC Operating Agreement? Every LLC Operating Agreement is unique to the business; however, most documents include the following information:
List of the members/managers and their roles
Designation of authority in the LLC
Initial capital contributions of the members
Voting designations and percentages of the members
Member transfer/addition rules and restrictions
Distribution of profits
Tip: Get a customized LLC Operating Agreement for your small business with Swyft Filings. Add structure to your LLC now.
Most businesses formed in West Virginia must register for an EIN. Your LLC will not be able to conduct business without the EIN.
What is an EIN? The EIN is a nine-digit number that identifies your business with the federal government and is assigned by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
What does EIN stand for? EIN is an acronym for Employer Identification Number. It is also known as a Federal Tax ID.
Are all businesses required to have an EIN? Federal law dictates that certain types of business entities register for an EIN:
Any business with employees (even if owned by one person)
Any business with more than one member
A partnership (LLC or C-corp)
Please Note: A sole proprietorship is not required to have an EIN, but it is still recommended.
Why does my LLC business need an EIN? The more common reasons you would need an EIN are:
To hire employees
To open a bank account in the U.S.
To file your company's taxes
To pay independent contractors
In short, if you make money through your business and it has employees, you must have an EIN.
Is the EIN publicly listed? The EIN for your LLC will be part of public record.
Can I use my Social Security Number as the EIN? You can use your social security number as your business's EIN; however, keep in mind that your EIN is public information.
Swyft Filings offers EIN services for small businesses in West Virginia. Find more information here.
Phase Two: Maintaining Your West Virginia LLC
The next phase of starting your LLC in West Virginia centers on getting your business ready to operate and meeting additional compliance requirements. The next steps are below:
Step 1: Register for Taxes in West Virginia
Step 2: Apply for Permits and Licenses
Step 3: File the Annual Report
Step 4: Request a Certificate of Good Standing
Step 1: Register for West Virginia State Taxes
West Virginia does not charge LLCs with a corporate or franchise tax. LLC members are still required to pay state and federal income taxes on their earnings.
State Income Taxes West Virginia's state income tax rates are listed in the table below:
Corporate Tax Information You can also choose to have your LLC taxed as a corporation; if so, you will be responsible for paying the 6.5% corporate income tax rate on your business's net income.
Additional Tax Information Other taxes your LLC may need to pay:
Sales and Use Tax at 6%
Employee Withholding Tax
Unemployment Tax
Step 2: Obtain Business Licenses and Permits
All businesses operating in West Virginia must register for a Business Registration Certificate and pay the $30 registration fee. Some exemptions to fee may include:
An agriculture/farming business
Any US tax-exempt business
Additional licenses and permits required for an LLC in West Virginia can vary, depending on a number of variables:
Location (city and county)
Tip: If you would like to see more in-depth information on licenses and permits, please feel free to visit the content in our learning library that covers business licenses and permits.
Step 3: File an Annual Report
All businesses formed in West Virginia are required to file an annual report with the Secretary of State.
What is an annual report? An annual report is a legal form that is filed with the Secretary of State to update/verify your business's information.
What kind of information is in the annual report? The information requested in the annual report is similar to what is in the Articles of Organization:
The name and address of the business
The name and address of the registered agent
The number of employees
The business's EIN
The LLC's domain name
Is the annual report part of public record? The annual report filed on behalf of your LLC is a matter of public record.
Fees and Due Date
Fee: $25 Due Date: July 1st Frequency: Every year Implications of Late Filings: $50 late fee
Swyft Filings helps you stay compliant by providing stress-free solutions. File your annual report with us today.
After your West Virginia LLC is set up and ready to go, the last step is to obtain a Certificate of Good Standing.
What is a Certificate of Good Standing? The Certificate of Good Standing is an official notification that affirms your business is properly formed with the state government.
Who issues the Certificate of Good Standing? The Certificate of Good Standing is generally issued by the Secretary of State.
When can I request a Certificate of Good Standing for my business? Your LLC can obtain a Certificate of Good Standing after your business is officially formed.
Why do I need a Certificate of Good Standing? Having a Certificate of Good Standing gives credibility to your new LLC for banks, financial institutions, and other businesses.
Does the Certificate of Good Standing have an expiration date? The Certificate of Good Standing does not expire/does not need to be renewed.
Swyft Filings can create a Certificate of Good Standing for your West Virginia LLC. Click here for more information.
West Virginia Corporation Guide
State of Swyft Industry Report | is a matter of public record.
Can I be my own registered agent for my business? You are legally allowed to be your own registered agent as long as you have a physical address in West Virginia.
Is being my own registered agent discouraged? LLC business owners risk compromising their personal information if they choose to be their own registered agent.
Tip: Avoid the hassles and choose Swyft Filings to fill the registered agent needs for small businesses in West Virginia. Find more information here.
The most important step in creating an | 104 |
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Ledelle Moe
Back to Artists +
Most recently I have been exploring notions of monumentality and the human form through a series of sculpted figures. Created with a process that begins with the digging and gathering of soil from various locales and progresses in the studio through such actions as welding, casting, modeling, and carving, I create these figures in order to open up narratives that speak through both image and materiality.
At the core of these works are reflections on place. Over the past year, I had been traveling to various countries including Dhrangadhra in India, Gaborone in Botswana, and Durban, Cape Town, and the Karoo, in South Africa. In each location, I gathered sand and dirt and embedded this sampling of earth into cement carvings of small birds and figures. Experiencing the particular terrain of each site and creating work on that site was a way for me to engage intimately and physically with the very stuff of a place. In digging into the soil and quite literally using it as raw material in making my cement forms I was able to reflect on landscape as ground and to literally draw from it. Perhaps this was rooted in some longing to better understand how political and personal histories are inherent in the ever-present awareness of place. Or how ground, land, soil, and earth reference a sense of belonging. Perhaps the very act of taking dirt and including it in these works was a momentary act of appropriation of the land and soil, for by including it in the work I take it, I replace it. This small gesture for me, spoke to a larger issue of land as identity. I was also conscious that in journeying to locales both familiar and unfamiliar the works that I created were a very direct response to my tactile experiences of that site. For each work, I used the local aggregate from that place in an attempt to 'mark' or reflect on that place and its history.
My most recent work-Traces and Transition/Displacements and Land/Displacements- are large weighty recumbent forms that for me reference both massive funerary statue and a memorial. This work belongs to no specific place but is one that can be moved from site to site, displaced. The sculptures have weight and allude to solidity and structure, yet are inherently modular and transient. In some of the work, carvings of birds swarm over, blanket, flow, or swirl and partially obscure the body. During the process of creating each carving, I reflected upon the movement of those creatures as driven by some unseen collective intelligence. Yet the repetitive act of carving each sculpture in various locations gave voice to the act of being in a<|fim_middle|>contact@artyard.org
Copyright © 2023 ArtYard | place while considering the collective migratory patterns of creatures- of flocks, swarms, and pods. Also in play are what have been recurring themes in my work. These are issues of permanence and impermanence, location and dislocation, and place and displacement.
www.ledellemoe.com
Aug 1, 2021—Aug 1, 2022
Outdoor Installation
Sep 18, 2021 @ 4pm
Artist Talk and Tour with Ledelle Moe
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED Artist Talk and Tour with Ledelle Moe
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| 162 |
Once again, JSP have come up with another highly important collection of American Old-Time recordings and now, thanks to Chris King's transfers, this music made in Richmond, Indiana and New York for the Gennett Record Company, sounds better than it ever did on previous very hard to find issues.
The set opens with John D Foster's swinging guitar booming out loud and clear on old time ballads, upbeat blues and fiddle breakdowns ably<|fim_middle|> from John Hammond. Modern country grew out of these kinds of back-porch performances, and what they lack in polish and sleekness they more than make up for with pure heart and soul. | assisted by his various outfits which included mandolin players Jesse James and TS Young and the legendary fiddler Leonard Rutherford. The tracks with Rutherford are particularly good - especially the stop-time gospel number These Bones Gonna Rise Again and the jaunty instrumental Taylor's Quickstep.
The Red Fox Chasers set includes wild instrumentals like Turkey In The Straw and Did You Ever See The Devil, pathos filled ballads such as Wreck On The Mountain Road and Naomi Wise then the tough, rural harmonies of Something Wrong With My Gal and May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister? The full Gennett sessions may be available elsewhere but these 22 tracks present a fine selection of their very best songs. I knew nothing of vocalist and banjo player Oscar L Coffey but his solo performances of the ultra rare Six Feet Of Earth and Dear Old Mountain Home come from the deepest of the darkest mountain hollers. He made a bunch of stuff for Gennett but only three were ever released.
Previous issues of Fiddlin' Doc Roberts have been marred by bad sound quality so his 14 tracks here have benefitted hugely from the Chris King treatment. Doc's songs are marvellous virtuoso pieces and, accompanied by his trusty sidekick Asa Martin on note-perfect guitar, the adventurous and inventive fiddle playing is a joy to hear. His interpretations of tunes like Old Buzzard, The Devil In Georgia, Arkansas Traveller and the square dance Martha Campbell have, in my opinion, never been bettered.
If like me, you're fan of high kicking fiddle instrumentals, Tommy Whitmer's tremendous swinging version of Fire On The Mountain is another worth special mention but is really just one more great performance on a set of CDs that is crammed with great fiddlin' by some of the best. I also have to mention Da Costa Wotlz's Southern Broadcasters who had a gem of a fiddler in Ben Jarrell who fairly set the furniture alight in most of their 12 tracks here. He never lets up on dance tunes like John Brown's Dream and goes hell for leather on the minstrelsy version of Yellow Rose Of Texas. How he found the energy to sing as well as play at this speed is one of life's mysteries!
This really is a treasure trove for old-timey fans. Just the kind of set you can dive in anywhere and find real diamonds amongst the gold.
Although best known for its jazz releases, Fred Gennett's self-named Gennett Records label also did extensive recording in the rural folk genre, tracking various singers and string bands from the South in the 1920s and 1930s. This expansive four-disc set compiled by Chris King collects nearly 100 of these rare sides issued between 1927 and 1934, including early recordings by Ernest Stoneman, the Red Fox Chasers, Fiddlin' Doc Roberts, and a trio of lovely clawhammer banjo pieces | 622 |
the Deadlands like they do.
under a car if it was snowing or raining.
I wanted to you let know that you (readers, writers, artists, creative thinkers, bloggers, supporters) are part of the reason I've kept at it. Making art is not very glamorous. It is dirty and painful and tedious and frustrating and scary and draining<|fim_middle|> dance.
May your weekend be lovely and stormless. As always, thank you for reading this week.
or golf ball or marble.
of the piano like a locket.
I knew I was right! One part of us doubts. | . But, as we also know, it is also transcendent, generous, compassionate, healing.
To my fellow makers of art (in any medium or genre): thank you for the beauty that you put into this world. Keep doing it.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend. Thank you for reading this week!
The floor provides helpful suggestions sometimes. From one room into another!
A happy weekend to you, and thank you for looking here.
and then what it is like.
here, you can be your intentions.
the mall, and the supermarket.
the brink of mold or dessication.
There is still a way to save this.
make it a bouncy castle.
to, but you do have to | 142 |
Senna movie now available on Blu-ray
Roger Hart
Ayrton Senna's career is chronicled in a movie.
Asif Kapadia knew he had a hit on his hands when his documentary film Senna debuted at the Sundance Film Festival to a sold-out audience. In fact, all of the screenings at Sundance sold out in a "big hurry," Kapadia said, "and I knew it was going to be a hit."
The film won the Best Documentary award at Sundance and has gone on to rave reviews around the world, telling the story of Brazilian Formula One star Ayrton Senna, whose life was tragically cut short at age 34 when he was killed in a crash during the San Marino Grand Prix in 1994. The film is now available on Blu-ray<|fim_middle|> But many people in the United States didn't know how the film ended. A lot of people didn't know the ending," Kapadia said.
"Making this film has been an amazing journey." | Disc.
"Making this film has been an amazing journey," Kapadia said. As director, he spent nearly six years working on the film, gathering film clips and gaining permission to use clips from Senna family members, friends and the all-powerful F1 impresario, Bernie Ecclestone.
"Initially, we had approval from Bernie to use 40 minutes of F1 footage," Kapadia said. "But we knew right away that to make the film we wanted to make, we needed more-like double that. So we met with Bernie and told him the scope of the film, and he said, 'Whatever you need.' Bernie was very good to us."
The initial cut of the film was seven hours, and then five hours, and then just less than three hours. Eventually, the film was cut to 106 minutes for theatrical release. In the Blu-ray version sold in the United Kingdom, one of the bonus features is the next-to-last cut of the film, at just less than three hours.
"All the Blu-ray versions are different for different markets around the world," Kapadia said. The U.S. version extras include Senna family home videos, interviews with people featured in the film and a commentary from Kapadia, writer Manish Pandey and producer James Gay-Rees.
"When the film was released in theaters in the U.S., we had people driving more than 1,000 miles just to see it," Kapadia said. "And we know the film has been a real tool to show people what this passion for Ayrton Senna is all about.
"What has been interesting is that everywhere outside of the United States, everyone knows what happened to Senna, being killed in the crash at Imola in 1994. | 362 |
This is beautiful Robert! The light and all the details are amazing.
I think<|fim_middle|> very good capured!
A great and beautiful country your country! | it is a good idea to upload via Dreamstime. Think of it - if you got two jobs, when would you have time to photograph??
Maybe I`ll do it myself one day, but I don`t think I`m good enough.
Amazing building . Beautiful structure and a great photograph as always Robert.
Absolutely gorgeous, Robert! I love the detail and the light and shadows! Fantastic capture! Hope you have a great week!
Look so big! Very impressive building and the light is great.
¡Impresionante! Gracias por dejarme descubrir de tu mano-cámara, tantos lugares bellos. Un fuerte abrazo querido amigo!!
wow, this was really beautiful, Robert! Beautiful church, must be an experience to go there. Have some church image on the other my blog if you want to see. They're from my hometown of Larvik, have not completed all yet, but this is a part of them.
Have a great week Robert and thanks for your visits and nice comments, really appreciate you!
Really really beautiful! What an amazing church! And a | 225 |
Soon after the Stock Market opened today, it seemed as if the stocks will Rally once again for the second day in a row, and be in the green zone for the third day in a row. But over the past hour and a half, the Dow Jones have been steadily decreasing. Currently the Dow has dropped more than 38 points points after being up more than a 100 points just earlier. It almost reached 11,300 and for a moment, we expected it to surpass and keep going.
The NASDAQ Composite on the other hand, have lost more than 21 points already. The S&P 500 has dropped a little under 5 points. And the New York Stock Exchange has dropped more than 48 points.
Of course, the stock market is a dynamic place. It will go up and down all day long. We can only hope that some of the momentum from yesterday carries over into later today and the stock market sees significant increases. It's still early and anything can happen. People are still hopeful of the announcement Bernanke will be making on Friday. His announcement could very big way, whether it's for better or for worse.
Earlier today, Moody's Investors Service also downgraded the credit rating of Japan from Aa2 to Aa3. Standard & Poor's and Fitch also downgraded Japan's credit rating earlier to AA-. The rating downgrade doesn't seem to have a huge effect on the US Markets, positive or negative.
What seems to be affecting the stock market even more, and may be keeping the stock market from rallying for the second day in a row, is the report about the decline in Home Prices in the country once again. Bloomberg reported that prices on US Homes fell 5.9% in the second quarter this year compared to the same quarter of 2010. Foreclosure rates are still high and people are still losing their homes. This is and always will negatively affect the stocks. If the next quarter report comes in that prices on US Homes have risen, the stock market will rise with it.
Even though the stock market isn't rallying like it did yesterday, the Price of Gold has still dropped. So far today, it has seen a big tumble of 74 points or 4%. It's currently at $1,784 points and the gap between the current price and the previously expected $2,000 per ounce is even bigger. Just yesterday, gold set another record or more than $1,900 an ounce.
There is still almost 4 hours left until the markets close today. I think we will see more fluctuations in the market. We can only hope that the Dow Jones bounces back up and goes to the green. Gold may keep going down as investors may feel that the gold bubble is finally bursting and use the opportunity to<|fim_middle|> but if the stocks keep decreasing at the rate they have been today, all of that could be undone very quickly.
I'll keep an eye on the stock market throughout the day in hopes that it comes back from the red and into the green. I also speculate that the price of gold will increase a bit as the day progresses because I believe investors will most definitely use this opportunity to buy Gold a a discounted price. | cash out while the gold price is still high. The opposite can also happen. Since gold dropped almost a 150 points this week alone, investors may use the opportunity to purchase more gold in hopes that the price of Gold keeps going up. If the announcement on Friday doesn't go very well, gold prices just as well may go up and keep going up. A good outlook on the announcement has provided a temporary relief over the past few days | 90 |
Minutes of the Subud PNW Conference Call Board Meeting September 13, 2017.
Members Present: Aaron Mann, Chairman PNW, Sherwin O'Bar, Treasurer, Lydia Tedrow, Recording Secretary, Oswald Norton, Elizabeth Flanders, Regional Helper Liaison, Camille Hofvendahl, Chairperson Subud Portland, Honora Hildreth, Subud Seattle, Michael DuBois, Skagit Valley.
Reading of minutes of last meeting: The minutes of the last meeting were approved.
Treasurer's Report: Sherwin gave a brief report. The money that came in for the Great Create came to $5,400, roughly, and Pilgrim Firs was paid $4,200 – in round numbers. We are positive by about $1,200 now. There was a discussion that people incurred expenses for supplies that they may need to be reimbursed for but Aaron said people paid him directly for supplies and he had no need to be reimbursed. Michael said, regarding marbling, people also paid him so money found its way back into our coffers and he didn't need reimbursement. All were pleased that $1,200 was realized.
Center Reports: Seattle Honora reported that a volunteer celebration is coming up on October 15th. Lorraine, Hadiyah and Debbie are doing most of the work to organize the event and getting it rolling. She explained that the celebration would be a potluck to celebrate all of the people who have put time and energy into Subud Greater Seattle – people who served on the Committee, people who work, people who show up all the time. This will take place on October 15th. Seattle will be having its General Meeting on Friday, September 20th, at the Eastside latihan hall, right after the regular latihan at 8:00 p.m. She reported there recently was an update – December 9th might work for everybody for the Regional Helper meeting but that has yet to be confirmed.
Portland Camille reported Portland was having a fund raiser on Saturday that Marius Harold is putting together – music and a meal. He and his daughter, Hermina, will be playing and singing, as well as Emile and Brina. Iliana will be reading poetry and she thought Mo would be playing. This will be a dessert event to raise money for Cuban youth, in Cuba, to travel to the Youth Gathering in December. So, hopefully, it will raise a lot of<|fim_middle|> Schutz on occasion but he travels quite a bit during the summer. About the only people coming to latihan nowadays are Michael, Serena, the Woodcocks, Rosalyn, Roosmiwati and their outgoing chair. People have been talking of going to Canada for the weekend as the international helpers will be there. Meanwhile, there are three solid bids on repairing the windows on the south side of the house; there is some rot creeping in the frames and they want to do that while the weather is good. They also have three solid bids for their gutters which will solve the water problem on the back porch and protect the house. He reported the gutters can be repaired for around $700 and the wall repair will be anywhere between $3,200 and $3,400, depending on what the contractors find when they take out the old windows and find out what's going on underneath there. He wants to address that now. They can pay back any loans they get on a monthly basis with their monthly stipend. They are asking the Region for $700 now for the gutter work and he will come back and ask for the $3,500 or whatever it will cost to fix the window frames. There is no outstanding loan at this time although the Region bought their mortgage a while ago and they have been paying it back into their housing fund.This sounded reasonable and a motion was made to approve the $700 for new gutters for the Subud house. It was seconded. All were in favor and the motion to lend Bellingham/Skagit Valley $700 was carried. Michael asked that the loan for the window repair also be approved; he thought it might be closer to $4,000. It was moved to approve a loan of $4,000 for window repair to the Bellingham/Skagit Valley Subud house; the motion was seconded. All were in favor and the motion was carried. Michael mentioned his group really wants to have a weekend with the international helpers and he is not sure which weekend they will be coming up. The helpers will report. Michael also wanted to know about sending money to Cuba for Cuban youth to go to a gathering and stated that their Treasurer, Rosalyn, wanted to know how to transfer that money. He will ask Rosalyn to research that.
Helpers Report: Elizabeth Flanders reported that she and Oswald went to the Great Create at Pilgrims Firs and the latihans were really strong. A lot of wonderful Art was created – every kind of Art you can think of – and, as usual, the women spent all day Saturday with personal testing. They did lots of walking and boating. Some people swam. She stated she would need gas money to Oswald's and back as he drove from his place. The Regional helpers met at Oswald's and were able to plan for Menucha, go to latihan at Eastside Seattle on Friday and Seattle on Sunday. It was a good weekend. Margarite and Beata will be helping at Menucha but they need another woman helper so she asked that the word be passed. They will visit Seattle in early December. Elizabeth was told the international helpers had talked with Skagit Valley and Portland and they wanted visits in early 2018. She thinks they want to go to Skagit, Seattle and Portland. There were five women and one man for the latter Regional latihan but she is not sure about the numbers for the earlier one. She mentioned to Lydia she had emailed her the report for the Regional latihan and might be adding the numbers for the other one later if the helpers respond.
Other Business: Aaron asked if there were any more comments about the Great Create. He wanted to say that it turned out really well and he was very pleased how everything went and about all the work that Oswald did – his help and his leadership was greatly appreciated. For Aaron, his part of it, the glass fusing went really well. A lot of people were interested and he was busy doing that pretty much the whole time until 7 or 8 o'clock at night. His only concern was about the location. He thought it was beautiful with the lake and all of that but it seemed kind of spread out and they ended up having to do a lot of walking back and forth from the lodge to the cafeteria where they were doing latihan. That is something they might want to talk about if they decide to go back there next year. Camille stated if they were to do that again, she would like it to be more family friendly, cost-wise. Michael stated if that could be addressed, it would be a good idea. Meanwhile, he said he had a really good turnout for both days for marbling. People had fun. There are a lot of people walking around with marbled shirts now. It worked out really well. If a way could be figured out for a family of four to come, it would be nice. He said: "Let's face it. A thousand dollars is pretty much what we're looking at for a family to come to this kind of thing and that's kind of "spendy" these days. Maybe that can be addressed for the next one. As for the spread out thing, there are ways. You can drive – he did that for Serena and it worked out pretty well. Maybe somebody with a golf cart could put a trailer behind and have little trips from the cabins to where the main lodge is. Just a thought. Aaron stated that his plan at Menucha is to have a discussion group for the Great Create so issues like cost, families and things like that can be discussed at that time.
Menucha: Aaron wanted to talk about Menucha. He stated that registration is out there now. Apparently, the fire got really close to Menucha and there were worries about that. It seemed to be in the line of fire. Registration is out. All the deposits have been paid. We're ready to go. He asked for comments. Camille said Maria wrote a really good letter about trying to get the snack bar back and it was well received but another person gets to weigh in on that decision and Maria and Leanna will go up a couple of weeks before the gathering, talk to them and try to get our snack bar back because we make a lot of money there for SD for our matching fund. Also, they will be having a silent auction. They will not be doing Juliette's Balcony again because it's a huge amount of work and the clothes don't see that well. They are encouraging people to bring really nice items for the silent auction. An email will be going out about that. Aaron had a comment about the Gift Shop. He has been managing the Gift Shop for four years and he thinks it is time for somebody else to do it so he won't do it this year. If anybody knows anybody who is interested and willing to manage the Gift Shop at Menucha this year, please let us know. He will put out an announcement about that. He would like to be able to participate at Menucha more than he has been able to in the past. Camille said we don't have to have a Gift Shop. However, Aaron stated it has been well received over the years so he thinks we should have one. Halima Taylor did really well last year and was happy about the money so he wishes somebody will do it this year.
New Business: There was no new business. A motion was made to adjourn the meeting, it was seconded a couple of time, all were in favor, the motion was carried and the meeting was adjourned.
Signed by the Recording Secretary, Lydia Tedrow. | money and be a fun event as well. Camille also reported that services for Stephanie Schurik would be held on Saturday, September 14th. Portland's core members feel that the center needs new chairs to be more attractive to renters. The new chairs will cost $5000. They also need a new roof and, the area above the women's latihan hall needs to be rebuilt so they think that will cost at least $26,000 to $30,000. She looked into an MSW grant and that's not going to happen until next June and she thinks the goal for the re-roofing has been set for next summer. Also, because they have already had an MSW grant, they are not sure they can get any money from MSW. It may well depend on how much money they have. They also have a promise of a loan for $20,000 from the region that they plan to use. She wanted to know if it would be fairly easy to get more than $20,000 if it was needed. After some conversation, Sherwin reported that right now the building fund has about $75,000 in it and so, if a decision is made to go above $20,000, then, yes, there is capacity for that. The loan apparently was committed four years ago – that money is still in the housing fund as nothing has, as yet, been forwarded. The money was made available but was not collected. At that time, it was promised for a handicap ramp and Portland painted the house and performed some foundation work but that was all done without the loan. Right now, Camille reported there is about $15,000 in the housing fund but they need about 100 chairs. Camille reported they were having a problem with the bank. They need signatures so that Maria Baker can retire as treasurer. She is trying to arrange for everyone concerned to go to the Credit Union together when they are at Menucha to sign the necessary papers. Oswald wanted to ask a question, just as a member of the region. He wanted to ask "how can we not provide for this roof"? He asked for a motion to move this forward. A motion was made to approve any additional funding for Subud Portland's roof project over and above the $20,000 loan that is already committed to them. Isadora seconded the motion. However, Sherwin stated he would like to amend the motion as he felt it was too open-ended. There was no limit and he felt it needed a limit. Camille stated she needed to get an estimate on the rebuilding part of the roof (above the women's latihan hall) and bids are needed from roofers. Sherwin stated that policy required three bids to support the loan. The motion was changed to "moved that we approve funding up to $30,000 for repairs to the Portland Subud house roof". The motion was seconded. There was a discussion and it was decided that they were approving $30,000 in total.A conversation ensued about the amount of money in the housing fund and Sherwin reported that, when he took over as treasurer, the housing fund was a little bit less than $50,000. Now it is up to $75,000. Apparently, 10% of the contribution from the Centers go to this fund and, also, the loan repayments from Seattle and Skagit Valley also go into the housing fund. Camille reported that Portland donates 10% of its donations to their housing fund so their housing fund is building up as well.Finally, all were in favor of the motion to fund Subud Portland up to $30,000 for the repair of the roof and the motion was carried.
Skagit Valley Michael DuBois reported that Marius Hibbard, and Julia and John Hurd, will be out of the country for three more months. The group sees Luther | 837 |
When I have people over for dinner I find I often spend so long on the main events that nibbles fall by the wayside. All I end up having time for is chopping up a few veggies to serve as crudités with a bowl of hummus, with some crisps on the side for good measure.
And every time this happens I wish I'd found something a little more interesting to start the meal off with. After all, so much effort goes into the main event, it seems a shame to start off with something less than spectacular.
Sadly though there's not always time to whip up some stunning canapé before everyone arrives. So often they need to be made immediately prior to serving and, let's face it, what with children's bedtimes, cooking the meal itself, tidying the house and making yourself look half presentable (!), there just isn't time to create a stunning selection of mini beef Yorkshire puddings, smoked salmon tarts and mini spring rolls!
But this is where the wonderful Mary Berry comes to the rescue once again. Her fabulous recipe for cheese soufflé bites can be made in advance, made relatively quickly, and then popped into the over just as people start to arrive. Minimal fuss and maximum deliciousness.
Sadly these do fall down slightly on the looks front. So if you're going for pure elegance these many not be the answer! A friend once thought I was serving her roast potatoes as a nibble!!
But what they lack in the looks department they more than make up for in taste. I guarantee there won't be a single one left by the time everyone is called to the table!
Line 2 or 3 baking trays with non stick baking paper or grease lightly.
Melt the cream cheese, butter and cheddar in a pan over a low heat until completely melted (don't worry, the mixture looks very curdled at this stage).
Whisk the egg whites until stiff, and carefully fold into the cheese mixture. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
Cut each slice of bread into 4 down, 5 across to give 20 x 2.5cm cubes for each slice. Dip each cube into the soufflé mixture until completely covered, shaking off any excess, and transfer to the prepared baking sheets.
Transfer to a freezer for an hour or so to freeze through.
Pre-<|fim_middle|> oven to 220°c/200°c fan/430°f/gas mark 7.
Bake for 10 minutes in total, turning once after 6 minutes. Serve immediately.
* If you can't find a tin loaf, just use a white loaf, crusts removed and cut into 100 2.5cm squares or as close as you can get to squares – anything bite-sized is perfect.
You can freeze the bites for up to a month in a sealed freezer bag. They are best cooked from frozen so don't defrost prior to baking. | heat the | 2 |
Here We Go Magic return with sorrowful new song "D" — listen
Brooklyn indie rockers contribute sorrowful song to Our First 100 Days compilation
by Eddie Fu
We're not even two months into the new presidential administration and already immigration and LGBTQ rights have come under serious fire. Thankfully, musicians — who've also been feeling Trump's heat — are fighting the the good<|fim_middle|> as well as Temple's sorrowful vocals, making it a fitting song for East Coasters hunkering down for the blizzard. Tune in down below.
Our First 100 Days by Here We Go Magic
To find out more about Our First 100 Days and the causes it supports, head over to its website. And you can listen to past installments of the series .
Luke Temple
Our First 100 Days
SXSW Film Review: Mr. Roosevelt
Eddie Vedder, Fiona Apple, TV on the Radio to play Ohana Music Festival 2017 | fight by participating in anti-Trump campaigns like Our First 100 Days. The ongoing music series benefits groups that work to support issues like reproductive rights, community building, and climate change.
Today's installment, titled simply "D", comes from Brooklyn indie rockers Here We Go Magic. A much welcomed listen, it marks the band's first piece of new material in some time as frontman Luke Temple has focused on his solo career. "D" features a guitar lick that grabs your ear and never lets go, | 104 |
Perfume Review – Maison Francis Kurkdjian Lumière Noire Pour Femme
Posted on May 3, 2013 by Kafkaesque
"Inner Motions, Untitled" #6 by Azadeh Ghotbi. Used with permission from the artist. Acrylic on canvas. Price available on request. Azadehgallery.com (Link embedded within.)
Lumiere and Noire (Light and Black), an attraction and repulsion.
A black hole lit with the image of a mysterious perfume that attracts until it provokes self-abandon. It is the idea of two opposing powers that unite to create a whole that relates, at its turn, a new story. The mention of this duality is imposed as an obvious fact, like the emblematic blend of Rose and Patchouli.
That is the press description of Lumiere Noire Pour Femme, a chypre eau de parfum from Maison Francis Kurkdjian which was released in 2009 and which attempts to cast a new light on the rose-patchouli duet. Reading the description brought to mind the paintings of the artist, Azadeh Ghotbi, who often plays with textured reflections and with the duality of light and darkness.
Yet, Mr. Kurkdjian's Lumiere Noire seems to be an attempt to go beyond his prior exploration of the rose-patchouli pairing in his creations for Guerlain (Rose Barbare) and for Juliette Has a Gun (Lady Vengeance). This time, it seems he sought to create something that was darker and much more of a "full-on" rose. To quote Denyse Beaulieu at Grain de Musc, Lumiere Noire Pour Femme is:
a full-on bodice-ripper of a rose, Baudelairian in its celebration of majestic female flesh –a courtes<|fim_middle|> (exceptions vintage Emeraude and Shalimar Light, which have no teeth to them, they're all double-D-cup plushy). I don't even hate fruity florals. In that world, Lumiere Noire is, yes, sexy.
In that world, YSL Opium is eeeeeeeevil. If you get what I mean: not just dark and mysterious, but musty, unclean, nauseating, downright unpleasant. (To this day I can't bear the stuff. Cannot. bear. it. I hate Youth Dew just as much, for what that's worth.) We all have our likes, our loves, our dislikes and our OMG GEDDITOFFMEs…
Kafkaesque on February 15, 2014 at 8:56 pm said:
Hi Mals, welcome to the blog. Thank you for stopping by and for taking the time to share your thoughts. I definitely agree with you that our perceptions depend on personal, subjective yardsticks that will widely vary from person to person. Everything has to be put into that context of definitional standards, since reviewing is so obviously subjective. We smell through our mind, through the filters of our individual pasts, memories, experiences and baselines. 🙂 As a result, I don't think there is ever a "right" or "wrong" in any of this, let alone one set answer. It's all dependent on two things: subjective, individual tastes; and skin chemistry.
Since I wrote this review, I've come across your comments on Fragrantica and elsewhere that show just how much we diverge in our personal tastes. There are a few exceptions, but I think it's safe to say that we're at polar opposite ends of the spectrum. But that's great, imo. You're extremely knowledgeable in your field, I hope I'm a little bit knowledgeable in mine.
I see that I neglected to mention what a thoughtful review this is – and indeed how thorough all of your reviews are! I had a little skim-through last night and it was page after page of beautifully-written, detailed reviews of… (this is embarrassing)… things that I probably would only put on my skin if I were being paid to do so.
So far, nobody's offered to pay me to wear perfume, more's the pity.
But THIS MADE ME LAUGH. I mean, really, how wonderful and freaky and fabulous is it that we're both deeply into this whole fragrance thing and we like such widely divergent stuff?
Kafkaesque on February 16, 2014 at 10:28 pm said:
And your comment made ME laugh! 🙂 😀 It's true, we're at such extremes for the most part. (More on that in a bit.) The thing is, my barometer and personal yardstick was set at the age of 7 with Opium, then, to a lesser extent, Fracas, Habit Rouge, Bel Ami, Joy, Femme, and others. When Opium is your baseline from childhood, it impacts things. I've also lived in the Middle East and have traveled quite a bit to places like India, China, etc., so my personal definition of what constitutes a true, proper Oriental is vastly different than most Westerners. What, say, a British person may interpret as an opulent Oriental scent from, say, Penhaligon's, is not likely to be my interpretation of it. I always make a point of clarifying where I come from in reviewing things like that, though my regular readers know by now that my tastes are on the very…. er…. bold, intense….. 😉 side.
Nonetheless, be that as it may, I do think you and I have one tiny area of overlap. The white florals. I may like mine a little more on the Wagnerian Valkyrie style than you, but that's merely a question of body or potency. And I have agreed with you in the past in some matters. For example, I quoted you in my review of Téo Cabanel's Méloé: https://akafkaesquelife.wordpress.com/2014/01/29/teo-cabanel-meloe-summer-citruses-freshness/ It may surprise you that I do like softer, more ethereal florals on occasion, like Serge Lutens' De Profundis, or something like the recent, gorgeous white flower scent, Moon Bloom from Hiram Green. (Have you tried it? If not, you really should!)
I also try to cover a range of scents, though I do tend to focus on the orientals and masculines. While reading your initial comment, I thought of how much you'd probably love Venezia Giardini Segreti (Venice's Secret Gardens) from La Via del Profumo, an all-natural gardenia scent with roses, green notes, herbs and some honeyed creamy myrrh. https://akafkaesquelife.wordpress.com/2014/02/11/la-via-del-profumo-venezia-giardini-segreti/ I don't know if the powerhouse jasmine, Tawaf, from the same brand would be your cup of tea, but if you truly love white florals, that is another definitely worth looking up.
Most of all though, I think you may be wholly enamourmed with the classique feel of the feminine florals from Oriza L. Legrand, an ancient house going back to the time of Louis XV whose old 1900s-era scents have been brought back to life with slight modifications for the modern era. From the green floral with galbanum called Déja Le Printemps that is the favorite of Catherine Deneuve, to its super powdery, girly, soapy floral called Jardins d'Armide, or the cool lily, pollen, honey and Catholic monastery notes of Relique d'Amour, there may be a few there that would really surprise you. So, if you're at all interested, even if it's just in finding out about a super cool, ancient house, you can start here perhaps: https://akafkaesquelife.wordpress.com/2013/11/03/oriza-l-legrand-the-history-the-store-the-perfumes/ and https://akafkaesquelife.wordpress.com/2013/11/05/oriza-l-legrand-relique-damour-oeillet-louis-xv-jardins-darmide-deja-le-printemps/
Please know that I don't actually EXPECT you to read any of those! But, if curiosity ever got the better of you, you wouldn't have to do a search. I've simply enjoyed getting to know you better, and I hope that perhaps I may have the chance to do so further in the future. To me, it doesn't matter if someone has polar opposite tastes, so long as they never attack me for mine, or say that I'm "wrong" for my views. This whole thing is far too individual or subjective for something like that. For me, the best part of blogging is meeting people like you to talk about perfumery as though we were at a cocktail party, passing around scents along with the tidbits, and having a fun discussion. Perfume should be like one big party — the rest is just a question of preferring red or white, beer or Scotch, cookies or icecream. 🙂 | an trussed in velvet the colour of drying blood trimmed with jet beads, hair tumbling down her back as she downs a flute of champagne. Her shawl carries the smell of the patchouli leaves it was packed with to repel the moths on its way from India. A bunch of jasmine exhales its dying breath between her breasts. A sweaty tendril of cumin rises from her corset…
What a stunning visual! That description — in conjunction with the very cool, gothic vibe behind the name "Black Light" — made me fully expect a lascivious, debauched, sexualized rose fragrance. Yet, I found the perfume to be very far from sexual, dark, and twisty. Instead, on me, it was a beautiful evocation of Spring — a rich take on a field of fragrant, yellow daffodils intertwined with a fresh, mossy green, along with sweetly dark earth, dry woody notes, and a spiced rose.
Source: freehdwalls.net
The notes for Lumiere Noire on the Maison Francis Kurkdjian website are simply listed as: "Spiced Rose (cumin, hot pepper) Patchouli – Narcissus." However, I have seen a significantly more detailed set of notes from Muse in Wooden Shoes who cites a very different list from the company:
Notes, according to the MFK site: rose, narcissus [or daffodil], pepper, lily of the valley, patchouli, balsam, orris, cumin.
I think that seems far more accurate, judging by what I smelled on my skin, so we'll go with that version.
Lumiere Noire opens with a haunting note of daffodil-rose. It's a dry rose with sweet hay, a rose turned on its head with a slight bitterness that is, indeed, a little dark. Yet, at the same time, it's sweet and bright — a very successful interplay of the themes of light and dark. The daffodils add a mesmerizing touch that is very different and which I adore, though I confess to having a huge weakness for the flower in general.
Lurking underneath is a fresh, springy, brightly green patchouli, accompanied by light touches of dusty, dry spice. Though the hay note is the most prominent, the spice and chili pepper swirl imperceptibly in the background, working their magic on the rose to transform it into something much more fiery and much less sweet. At the same time, there is almost a citrus-like nuance, along with an earthy iris note from the orris.
Source: nature.desktopnexus.com.
I can't get enough of the daffodils and how brilliantly Lumiere Noire seems to replicate the whole flower. The scent feels just like a daffodil pushing its way up through the dark, loamy, rich earth (orris), and the fresh, sweet, green grass (the mossy patchouli), until its woody, brown stalk (the hay) rises up to meet the sun and the bud unfurls its golden heart to release its sweet floral scent (daffodil and spicy rose). It is a very Spring interpretation of light and dark, if you will.
The perfume is beautifully modulated, reflecting different facets at different times. Though the rose is always subsumed within the daffodils, sometimes it's much more noticeable in the early hours; at other times, the daffodil glows even more brightly. Around the thirty minute mark, it's the earthy, woody element which seems to rise to the surface, joining in the lead with the daffodils. After one hour, the rose returns undulating in greenish waves with the patchouli and narcissus, sharing the stage with the two in equal measure. Something about that patchouli note isn't always pleasant; it can be a little sharp, very synthetic at times, and almost verging on the point of burning. Thankfully, it soon recedes, softening and blending in much better with the other notes.
Five hours in, Lumiere Noire is a narcissus-patchouli fragrance with soft hints of hay, rose, and earthy orris. There is a musky feel to the patchouli, along with some balsamic amber undertones, but they are not strong. For some inexplicable reason, the perfume feels a little like the middle stage of Tom Ford's Arabian Wood — a dry, mossy, green, patchouli with rose chypre that is neither Arabian nor primarily woody. The difference, though, is that Arabian Wood has a strong sandalwood foundation, along with honey, and more varied floral notes. Lumiere Noire's daffodil note imparts a similar sort of dry woodsy character to the rose-patchouli duet, but it is a much stronger, dryer perfume as a whole. In both, however, the patchouli takes a turn into something much darker from its initial start. It's not dirty, black patchouli by any means, and always feels mossy but, visually, it's no longer so grassy. In Lumiere Noire, in particular, the patchouli turns from bright green and fresh into something much more potently dark and dry.
In its final hours, Lumiere Noire becomes dusty patchouli with narcissus, musk and the merest hint of rose. A few people on Fragrantica have said that the musky note in the drydown is like that of Narcisco Rodriguez' For Her — a perfume also created by Francis Kurkdjian. I don't really agree. Yes, Lumiere Noire has a subtle tinge of soapiness in the musk drydown that may evoke fabric softener, but it is just to a small degree on my skin. On a scale of 1 to 100, "For Her" would rate in the high 90s, while Lumiere Noire would be around a 10. To me, it does not smell clean, soapy, and white in the way that "For Her" does. The patchouli in Lumiere Noire is too green, mossy and dark for that, and it winds its way through every part of the fragrance. Nor is the musky element in Lumiere Noire so white and synthetic. I am not a fan of "For Her," so trust me when I say that I don't think the two perfumes share any great similarities.
Lumiere Noire lasted approximately 11 hours on my perfume-consuming skin which is quite impressive. The sillage was initially quite strong before it dropped, remaining at a moderate level until the sixth hour when Lumiere Noire became a skin scent. As a whole, Lumiere Noire is quite an airy perfume, almost transparently light in feel, but it is also extremely potent at the same time. I chalk it up to the powerful patchouli with its synthetic undertones. Whatever the exact reason, Lumiere Noire is not a fragrance that I would spray with reckless abandon; people may have to come near you to smell it, but once they do, it is quite pronounced.
All in all, I enjoyed Lumiere Noire and, at times, found myself sniffing my arm again and again with appreciation. I chalk it up to my love of daffodils and how, on my skin, the note either completely dominated the rose or lived side-by-side. In fact, I would say that the perfume had narcissus and patchouli in equal measure, followed only then by the rose. Either way, Lumiere Noire was a far cry from the bodice-ripper, sexualized rose fragrance that Grain de Musc recounted. No, my experience was much closer to that of the many commentators on Fragrantica who repeatedly mention the narcissus notes, the greenness, the grassy patchouli, and feel of Spring. Like me, very few of them experienced any cumin or chili pepper as an individually distinct, noticeable and isolated phenomenon. I ascribe that to the fact that Lumiere Noire is beautifully blended, but the absence of those notes in an individual manner may explain why so few of us shared Denyse Beaulieu's hyper-sexualized interpretation of the fragrance.
As a side note, there are a few fragrances to which Lumiere Noire has sometimes been compared. On Fragrantica, a number of people found it similar to Vengeance Extreme by Juliet Has a Gun, while others mention Perles de Lalique, La Perla or Eau du Soir. I'm not familiar with any of those fragrances, so I can't comment. You may be interested, however, in an analysis from Muse in the Wooden Shoes who compared Lumiere Noire with Frederic Malle's Portrait of a Lady, "one on each wrist":
Before that, I would have described Lumiere Noire to be a Dark Rose, a dark gothic rose with kohl-lidded eyes. But next to each other, Lumiere Noire glowed like a candle, while all light disappeared into the far, far darker Portrait of a Lady, proving PoaL to be the true Darkest Rose I've come across. Eventually, I grew tired of the heavy balsam in the drydown of PoaL and sent my decant off to a good home with a friend. Although I think PoaL is a truly wonderful fragrance, I just couldn't manage to wear it myself.
She far preferred Lumiere Noire, calling it "very sexy" and evocative of a boudoir.
I find the contrast between the two bloggers' perception of Lumiere Noire and those of regular users to be fascinating. The bloggers write about the "celebration of majestic female flesh," courtesans, boudoirs, and the spicy cumin evoking a trail of ravished, heated skin. The commentators on Fragrantica and Basenotes talk about Spring, wafting honeysuckles, aromatic gardens and green grass, the dominance of the narcissus over the rose, and even occasionally use that dreaded word: "clean." It's almost as if the sharply divergent impressions mirror that duality of light and darkness mentioned in the press release.
Source: Art.com
Well, I'm on the side of those at Fragrantica, because I thought Lumiere Noire had nothing to do with the boudoir. It is an elegant, sophisticated chypre that evokes Spring, sunshine, yellowness, and green. It's very unisex, in my opinion, regardless of the "Pour Femme" designation and it's also very wearable as a day-to-day matter. Lumiere Noire may not make a huge statement, but then I don't think it's trying to. It is meant to be an elegant, refined chypre, and it succeeded in that goal. For me, personally, it's not full bottle worthy, but I think many men and women would appreciate its complexities.
As a side note, the "Pour Homme" version is similar, but has slightly different elements. It has cinnamon instead of cumin, and artemisia (or mugwort) in lieu of narcissus. You can read a brief comparison between the two at Grain de Musc, though the essence is yet another sexualized impression: "the mugwort keeps the rose tightly under wraps – as though the marquise de San-Réal had bandaged her breasts to slip into her half-brother's slim black frock coat."
If you enjoy chypres and are looking for a Spring scent that isn't a typical, light, clean, fresh floral, but, rather, something with depth, body, green darkness and allure, you should give Lumiere Noire Pour Femme a sniff.
Cost & Availability: Lumière Noire Pour Femme/Pour Elle is an Eau de Parfum and comes in a 2.4 oz/70 ml bottle that costs $175, €115 or £115. You can find it on the Maison Francis Kurkdjian website which also sells samples of the perfume, along with incense paper and a candle version of Lumiere Noire. In the US, you can purchase Lumiere Noire from Luckyscent, Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, BeautyBar, or Bigelow Chemists. I don't see any MFK fragrances listed on the Saks Fifth Avenue website. In the UK, you can find Lumiere Noire at Selfridges, Liberty, and Les Senteurs priced at £115. Les Senteurs also sells a sample of the fragrance. For the rest of Europe, you can buy it from First in Fragrance for €125 (which is €10 more than on the MFK website), along with the full line with the candle or incense papers. Other European vendors are Essenza Nobile and Premiere Avenue. Elsewhere, you can turn to MFK's Points of Sale for a retailer near you, whether you are in Asia, Australia, or the Middle East. In terms of samples, I bought mine from Surrender to Chance which sells Lumiere Noire starting at $2.99 for a 1/2 ml vial or $5.98 for 1 ml.
This entry was posted in Chypres, Fragrances, Maison Francis Kurkdjian, Perfume Review and tagged Lumiere Noire Femme, Lumiere Noire Perfume Review, Maison Francis Kurkdjian, Maison Francis Kurkdjian Lumiere Noire, perfume review by Kafkaesque. Bookmark the permalink.
26 thoughts on "Perfume Review – Maison Francis Kurkdjian Lumière Noire Pour Femme"
nancyknowsbest on May 3, 2013 at 8:46 am said:
It's always so curious when the reactions are so bipolar, but I guess that's waht makes this hobby interesting. I loved the artwork you began the piece with; going to check out the artist's gallery right now.
Kafkaesque on May 3, 2013 at 10:19 pm said:
Her work is stunning, isn't it? The tiny thumbnails on the site don't do them justice and they should all really be seen close-up. As for Lumiere Noire, "bipolar" seems to be a perfect way to sum up the reactions.
brie on May 3, 2013 at 11:19 am said:
Please throw me into that daffodil field!
Elisa Gabbert (@egabbert) on May 3, 2013 at 12:56 pm said:
I tried this in a shop in Aspen and fell in love, it reminds me of L'Arte di Gucci. But I've been neglecting my sample. Need to dig it out and wear it!
Given the wide split in people's impressions on this one, how did Lumiere Noire smell on you, Elisa? Was it lasciviously carnal, or the embodiment of Spring with daffodils? 🙂
lucasai on May 3, 2013 at 1:15 pm said:
I haven't tried this one but Lumiere Noire Pour Homme was not my kind of thing. The rose was fine but it had too much patchouli and cumin/caraway for me.
I don't think there is cumin or caraway in the men's version, is there? Regardless, given your feelings about patchouli and the strength of this one (not to mention its synthetic undertones), I'm not surprised you didn't enjoy the fragrance. 🙂
lucasai on May 4, 2013 at 2:59 am said:
Yes it is. Caraway is listed, along with patchouli and cinnamon for MFK Lumiere Noire pour Homme.
Kafkaesque on May 4, 2013 at 3:20 pm said:
Ah, okay. It's been a while since I looked at the notes for the men's version. If I remember correctly, Caraway is one of the notes that you don't like very much, so I can see how that — in conjunction with the patchouli that you rarely like — turned the experience into a negative one for you. 🙂
Undina on May 3, 2013 at 2:15 pm said:
It was funny how my thoughts were changing as I was progressing through your review :): "I don't like MFK so I'll pass… – though the name is interesting, maybe I should… – but cumin is almost never good on me, I shouldn't… – Arabian Wood, you said? I have to try it! – Narcisco Rodriguez' For Her… nah… – I love PoaL!!!" – you've got the idea, right?
brie on May 3, 2013 at 5:01 pm said:
Same here Undina…as much as I love to eat Indian food cumin on my skin is a big no-no…just doesn't agree with my chemistry. Even a small amount is evident on me.
Gretchen on May 3, 2013 at 6:31 pm said:
Oh, I agree on cumin…love to eat it, loathe the scent in perfumes! I find the bipolar nature of this fragrance to be a bit of a challenge. The days I want it to be bright, it turns dark, and vice versa. Too schizophrenic for me, but it is a fun fragrance to try.
Gretchen, in what way does it turn dark on you? Given the split in opinions on this one, I'm curious now about how it played out on your skin. Was it cumin-y at all? Carnal and evoking heated, warm flesh in a boudoir? Or just dark as in a dark green patchouli? 🙂
Heh, I love that I took you on a rollercoaster. I actually do think this is one for you to try. I smelled no cumin beyond a split second in the very opening, and then it was just a lightly spiced rose. As for Narcisco Rodriguez' For Her…. blech indeed. Don't worry, its soapy, musky horrors are not replicated here. That one really ranks about a 99 on the scale, while this may clock in at a 10. At best. But I think you'd enjoy Lumiere Noire, even if only for a sniff. 🙂
Cacomixtle on May 3, 2013 at 8:19 pm said:
I rather like cumin in perfumes if it's blended well with other spices… and I so wanted this one to be a dark and beautiful bodice ripper. ~sob~ I guess I'll just have to go comfort myself with some Absolue pour le Soir….
I don't see this one as being your cup of tea, my dear. LOL!
Vicki on May 4, 2013 at 8:07 am said:
Curious. I like daffodils and am always looking for spring florals that aren't too twee.
baconbiscuit212 on May 6, 2013 at 6:43 pm said:
Memo to self to revisit the whole MFK line. I keep bypassing it for something shinier. I swear that I must be like some kind of perfumista Mynah bird!
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Clare on September 2, 2013 at 6:50 pm said:
Another spot-on review that reflects my own experience with this fragrance.! I've been testing this over the last month, searching for a dark, bodice-ripping rose chypre, and I am now firmly in the camp that perceives this as bright, sunny and spring-like. It smells eerily familiar but I can't identify exactly which other fragrance it evokes, so perhaps it is the overall feel, rather than the notes, that are triggering olfactory memories. To my nose, it is not very similar to Lady Vengeance – LV has a lot more lavender and rose up top and an overall darker patchouli/rose feel. Perhaps the connection is being made because FK is the perfumer that links the two? I get excellent longevity from LN, twelve hours later I'm still smelling a lovely chypre drydown. As a clear, non-fruity, non-soapy and non-too-sweet floral chypre, I would definitely get plenty of wear from from this over the warmer months but a couple of things are holding me back from full bottle status. One is the price and the other is a slightly synthetic quality, almost ozonic in its freshness, that I get in the early stages (admittedly, I did apply rather lavishly on my last wearing). Maybe a decant is in order…
Kafkaesque on September 3, 2013 at 1:11 am said:
Hi Clare, so nice to see you again. I'm glad I'm not alone in seeing Lumiere Noire as bright yellow, and in not finding any bodice-ripper aspects. As for the smell which is so eerily familiar to you, do you think it is the daffodils? Such a common, sunny floral smell, especially in Spring. (I wish perfumers would use the word "daffodil" instead of narcissus as I think it would set off more light-bulb moments for people in terms of identifying what they're smelling.)
With regard to the two issues you mention, I understand them both, and I do think that there is a hint of something synthetic lurking in the basis. Still, it's a lovely scent as a whole, especially given the things you noted: it's not soapy, not fruity, and not too sweet. I think a perfume split with a friend or a decant is absolutely the way to go if the price is making you pause! 🙂
Clare on September 3, 2013 at 6:05 am said:
Well, that's an interesting idea about the daffodil association. It's spring in my part of the world (Sydney, Australia) but daffodils are not much a part of the landscape here. They don;t do so well in our climate although you see them in florist shops and the occasional garden where they are lovingly tended by elderly folk who have the patience to lift and replant them every year. They never seem to have a fragrance though .Fields of daffodils? Never! The fragrant little jonquils (the "other" Narcissus) are a bit more common and I have a vase full (florist bought) at the moment. So maybe you're right. I'm a vase of jonquils!
malsnano86 on February 15, 2014 at 7:28 pm said:
Was just thinking about this fragrance (have been wearing L'Arte di Gucci for the past two days and wondering what I will do when my bottle is gone) and ran across your review.
It is quite interesting that you pick up on the narcissus so strongly – it's a favorite note of mine as well – and the cumin didn't show up for you. It certainly did for me (whoa. sex). But rereading over this review and some others, it occurs to me that the overall feeling of a fragrance and how we perceive it often can depend on *what else* we are accustomed to wearing. If, like me, you are regularly wearing florals, particularly the lighter ones rather than heavily indolic BWFs or deep saturated ones, a fragrance which bridges "light" and "dark" aspects might seem far darker to you, and its deeper elements more prominent in relation to your usual florals. You seem to favor, from the fragrances you're choosing to review and the ones you claim as best-beloveds, much darker and woodier scents than I typically wear, and it may be that in relation to those, LNpf seemed light and springy.
I've noticed, at least with regard to myself, that my "default setting," my typical preferences, tend to influence my opinion of just about anything new that I'm trying, and I can't imagine that I'm wildly unusual in that respect. I've never made a secret of my love for the girly-wirly stuff. I like soliflores and BWFs, I absolutely adore green florals. I like mixed bouquets and florientals and chypres, but the chypres have to have lots of flowers in them. Orientals are really, really tough for me | 5,220 |
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Parks<|fim_middle|> an introductory presentation or a full-fledged planning and development effort, LIAA's noted Trail Town experts can help your community develop its own Trail Town strategy. | , recreation amenities and trails continue to be some of the most popular and sought-out amenities for local communities. Not only do they provide social, environmental and physical benefits to the community, they have also been proven to create and leverage new opportunities for economic growth.
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Kennedy Library Forums
50th Anniversary of the Missile Gap Controversy
TOM PUTNAM: Good evening. I'm Tom Putnam, Director of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, and on behalf of Tom McNaught, Executive Director of the Kennedy Library Foundation, and all of my Library and Foundation colleagues, I want to welcome everyone and acknowledge the generous underwriters of the Kennedy Library Forums: lead sponsor Bank of America, Boston Capital, the Lowell Institute, Raytheon, the Boston Foundation, and our media partners, The Boston Globe and WBUR.
As you may know, this evening's panel is the capstone to a wonderful conference we hosted here today in partnership with the CIA and its Information Management Services and Historical Collections divisions. We want to thank the scholars and panelists who have traveled far to be with us and all of you for joining us this evening.
While this panel will include two speakers we've heard from earlier, we hope this session, while possibly reviewing some points that were made earlier, will offer a fresh perspective. For those of you who are here this afternoon, I hope you won't mind if I recycle a few portions of my earlier remarks.
For many, JFK is seen as the father of the missile gap, for he seized on that narrative, both in his 1958 Senate reelection campaign and in his quest for the Presidency. The notion that the US was falling behind the Soviet Union in terms of military might dovetailed with his campaign claims that the US had grown stagnant during the 1950s, and that it was time to get the country moving again.
"We are losing the satellite missile race with the Soviet Union," he noted, "because of complacent miscalculations, penny-pinching budget cutbacks, incredibly confused mismanagement and wasteful rivalries and jealousies." Once in office, when it was revealed that there was no gap and that, if anything, the US was ahead, he and his military advisors still had to deal with this issue.
I thought it might be interesting and fun at the outset to hear directly from President Kennedy as he discusses the missile gap with Secretary McNamara and others in a secretly recorded taped conversation in the Oval Office. The first voice you'll hear is Robert McNamara, followed by the President. We'll put a transcript on the screen to help you follow along.
McNamara: There was created a myth in the country that did great harm to the nation. It was created by, I would say, emotionally guided but nonetheless patriotic individuals in the Pentagon. There are still people of that kind in the Pentagon. I wouldn't give them any foundation for creating another myth.
JFK: [inaudible] that missile gap, as ones of those who put that myth around, a patriotic and misguided man [laughter]
As the conversation continues, President Kennedy suggests that it wasn't just generals at the Pentagon and the Democratic opposition who put forth the notion of the missile gap, but the Eisenhower Administration itself. And he concludes on the tape, "I wonder if we could get someone over there to analyze this story of the missile gap, because it's bound to be of historic interest." As I quipped earlier, I hope this is not a measure of federal efficiency, but here we are, 50 years later, following the President's orders.
While JFK was often known for his self-deprecating wit, we know that during these years the threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union was no laughing matter. To discuss the missile gap and the historical questions it poses about military intelligence, American politics, and its effect on our foreign policy and US-Soviet relations during this critical period in world history, we have a wonderful panel of experts with us this evening.
Fred Kaplan is a journalist, an author of three books, The Wizards of Armageddon: An Inside History of Nuclear Strategy; Daydream Believers, about American foreign policy in the early 21st century; and 1959: The Year Everything Changed. He also wrote for 20 years for our neighbor, The Boston Globe, first in Washington and then in Moscow, and currently writes for Slate.
Tim Naftali is Director of the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library, receiving national accolades for the unveiling of a new exhibit there on Watergate and in the process has brought great honor to the Presidential Library system writ large. Tim is the author of a number of books, including One Hell of a Gamble: Khrushchev, Castro and Kennedy, 1958-1964. He continues to be a frequent visitor to our research room as an independent scholar and an expert on this period in history and this President.
Next – I'm going to skip our moderator, I'll end with her – is Gene Poteat, President of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers. And actually, there are a number of members of that Association here, and I wonder if you might stand so we can recognize the former intelligence officers here among us. [applause]
Gene is a retired CIA scientific intelligence officer. Throughout his career, he served abroad in London, Scandinavia and the Middle East. An electrical engineer and physicist by training, his CIA assignments included the Directorate of Science and Technology, where he worked on the U-2 spy plane and Corona satellite programs.
The last panelist on the end is John Prados, a senior research fellow at the National Security Archives at George Washington University. He's the author of 17 books, many of which have been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, including Unwinnable War; Keepers of the Keys on the National Security Council; and Vietnam: The History of an Unwinnable War, which also won the John Adams Prize.
And our moderator is Mary Sarotte, a professor of international relations at the University of South California and the author of 1989: The Struggle to Create a Post-Cold War Europe. She's a former White House fellow and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
So allow me to end with just two quotes from JFK, the first, a direct comment on the missile gap. He once stated, "To the extent possible, I want to avoid the conflicting claims and confusions over dates and numbers. These largely involve difference of degree. I say only that the evidence is strong enough to indicate that we cannot be certain of our security in the future any more than we can be certain of disaster. If we were to err in an age of uncertainty, I want us to err on the side of security."
And if, as JFK and Robert McNamara suggested, the missile gap was in part a myth, like most myths, it did not die easily. "The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest," JFK once reminded us, "but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."
We're so pleased to have all of you here with us this evening to take a hard look at the history of the missile gap, its genesis, implications and unraveling, and to tell the full story, uncomfortable truths and all.
Please join me now in welcoming Fred Kaplan, Tim Naftali, John Prados, Gene Poteat and Mary Sarotte to the Kennedy Library. [applause]
MARY SAROTTE: Well, welcome. As someone trained in history, it's wonderful to see such a good crowd turning out in the evening for a historical discussion. It gives me hope. I hope we will live up to your expectations.
The format this evening is going to be somewhat informal. It's going to be more of a conversation than set presentations. So what I'll do is I have a series of questions about the missile gap, topics that are of interest to me and of our panelists. And I'll ask the questions, I'll indicate to one or another of the panelists, but if the other ones feel like jumping in, please feel free to do so. Then after we have a little bit of a discussion up here, we will go to you, the audience, for questions as well. And hopefully we will learn a lot and also enjoy the evening.
So some of us have been here during the day for the full conference, but others have just joined us. For those that have just joined us, to sort of have an introduction to this topic, I thought it might be useful, Fred, if you just talk a little bit about what the missile gap is. What is its significance? Why does it merit all of us being here this evening?
FRED KAPLAN: Well, the missile gap was born in 1957 when there was a CIA national intelligence estimate, as well as several quasi-government reports suggesting that the Soviet Union was way ahead of the United States in missilery and long-range missiles. And in part, it was this psychological thing that you were mentioning, that we were just falling behind generally, that we were stagnant. But there was also a serious strategic point, that what they were estimating was that by 1961 the Soviet Union would have several hundred long-range missiles, while we would have maybe a few dozen and mainly relying on bomber bases. And the danger was, as the Gaither Commission – which was a government-appointed commission – put it, there was this year of maximum danger, which I believe was identified as 1961, where the Soviet Union could actually launch a surprise attack with their missiles and basically disarm us, basically prevent us or reduce our forces to so little that we would not be able to retaliate in strength. That was the danger, that we would essentially fall prey to either a Soviet attack or the blackmail that they could impose upon us by having the ability to disarm us.
Now, it's interesting that – and I'll just make this very quick – this didn't come out of nowhere. In 1956, it was thought that there would be a bomber gap, that the Soviet Union would have many more bombers than we would. They would have 500 by 1961, and we would only have 100 or so. That grew out of an intelligence analysis of looking at how many bombers the Soviets put up in the air at a 1955 aviation show, of looking at the square footage of their bomber factories and having very conservative estimates of how much production they could do.
The interesting thing about the CIA's involvement in this is that they discredited both of them. First, there was a national intelligence estimate that there would be 500 bombers, but over the next few years– and over the next year, the CIA economic branch came up with an analysis -- and I can go into detail on this if anybody wanted me to -- but basically they proved that they could not possibly be producing this many bombers. Nowhere near.
This befuddled a lot of analysts, because everybody thought that the Soviets did want to attack us at some point, or have the ability to attack us. It was rescued in 1957 when they started producing ICBMs, and the bomber gap then became the missile gap. It was like, "Oh, okay, you're right, CIA, they're not producing this many bombers. That's because they've decided to produce this many missiles." And the numbers, 500, stayed exactly the same.
So that was the genesis of it. And the significance, again, wasn't so much just that they're out doing this, it was that they could completely upset the strategic balance of power.
MARY SAROTTE: Since we have someone here with actual experience, I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about how it looked from your point of view, what problems there were in intelligence collection about what was going on.
GENE POTEAT: It was nothing but problems, as a matter of fact. Since there was a so-called missile gap, it came about simply because we didn't have enough intelligence to help the analysts come up with any conclusions. In other words, we also had an intelligence collection gap at the same time. Would you believe it? The CIA had not a single spy case officer in the Soviet Union in those days. It was long after Gary Powers was shot down before they got the first one in the Soviet Union.
However, President Eisenhower, with the advice of the leading scientists in the United States, came to the conclusion that we had to do certain things. And he called a meeting, and he had the CIA present, chief of staff of the Air Force, and other officials like that, and he gave orders to the
CIA to do three things. He said first, "You got to get spies in the Soviet Union, that's your job." Number two, "We're going to have aerial reconnaissance of the Soviet Union to see what they've got." And number three, "That plane is going to be vulnerable so you'd better start building imaging satellites to replace the airplane."
And Allen Dulles, the director of the CIA, said to the President– no, Eisenhower said, "And I want the CIA to do it. I want you to take the lead and develop these systems." And the Director of CIA said, "That's not our business. We're not in that business. We don't know anything about airplanes or aeronautics or spy satellites, or anything like that. We're not in that business." The President looked at Allen Dulles and said, "You're in that business now. [laughter] And you've got to do it in total secrecy."
That's how it started. As a matter of fact, within a matter of about nine months or less, they had the infamous U-2 flying. They learned fast. They started the satellite Corona at the same time, again, to fill the collection gap. And they did start working on getting spies in the Soviet Union. But I was very lucky at the time. I had a small role in all of these high tech projects. It was a wonderful time to be there, I assure you.
MARY SAROTTE: Well, we've heard from you about some of the problems in intelligence collection. John, perhaps you could tell us a little bit, from your expertise, about the problems in intelligence analysis.
JOHN PRADOS: Yes, absolutely. This information that was coming in from the new technical means was only the beginning. It was at that point that someone had to figure out what it all meant. The problem of the missile gap and the thing that made it so critical for the United States was really the difference between what is knowable and what is not knowable. And in the world of intelligence, the distinctions between knowable and unknowables are crucial. A knowable: you can go out to the T and you can count the number of cars that operate on the T every day.
The unknowable is to say today what is going to be the decision of the T officials on replacing their fleet of cars ten years from now.
The problem with the missile gap was that our intelligence analysts, on the basis of this partial information that the collectors were bringing in, were supposed to be predicting and reporting what was the actual strength of Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile forces and what was going to be their strength in out years – next year, two years from now, five years from now. And, in consequence of that, what would be their capacity to attack the United States. These were, at that time, crucial problems.
MARY SAROTTE: Well, of course, when we talk about the missile gap, we have to remember that there were two sides to the story, and so far we've talked a lot about the United States, but fortunately we have Tim with us, who's very much an expert on the Soviet side. So I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about these topics from the Soviet side.
TIM NAFTALI: Imagine if you have all these sets of collection and analytical challenges and you're dealing with a country that doesn't want you to know what they're doing. In fact, not only do they not want you to know what they're doing, they are actively trying to trick you into believing that things are different than they actually are.
Fred mentioned the story of the bomber gap. One of the ways that the Soviets misled US intelligence about how many bombers they had was at the air show in 1955. What they did was they knew all these military attaches from the NATO countries were sitting there looking up, taking notes, and they just took the same bombers and flew them over and over and over again. "Oh, that's 14, 25." It was the same bombers, but they just had a very long loop, and they couldn't see as they left the horizon. They came back and they kept counting them.
So you have a society that is actively doing this. Now, why are they doing this? One of the analytical challenges, of course, includes thinking like the other side. What if you have another side that has decided that, because they're weak, they need to bluff you? And what if you have another side that actually doesn't have the resources that you think they have? And so, they have to make choices.
One of the problems, one of the reasons why American analysts were having these debates was that there were people making the following argument: They hate us. They will work 24 hours a day to build as many missiles as they can. And you can't prove that they can't. Well, in the last ten years, some Russian materials have been opened, and we can see the Politburo discussions of that era. We can see them talking about whether to build a fifth or a sixth floor on the apartment buildings. And the issue is they were having problems because their balconies were collapsing. When Yuri Gagarin, an example of how the Soviets were so far ahead of us in space, when he came back, there was some concern that under the weight of people watching him from their balconies as he went along the boulevards, that balconies would collapse.
So the Russians were making decisions about how to spend their money. And Khrushchev made a decision in late 1959, after visiting the United States, that they were spending too much money on the military and they should spend more on their consumer economy. So he decides to take a risk. He decides to put all their investment into these strategic missiles, which were going to take a number of years to develop, and to start cutting their conventional forces.
At the same time that we're really afraid that we're behind, they're making a decision to be behind. But they had to cover it up. So while we're having this debate in the United States in 1960, and it's an election year, so you can imagine, in election years – this is neither a Republican nor a Democratic comment – we're not always at our best in our national security discussions. At a time when we're in an election year, the Soviets are doing their utmost -- particularly their leader, Nikita Khrushchev -- to mislead us because they are behind. They know they're behind, and they're afraid we'll take advantage of their weakness and do something provocative in the international system.
JOHN PRADOS: Let me just jump in there and add that the Russians had the key advantage of, in fact, a spy. They had recruited an Army colonel who worked for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a fellow by the name of William Whalen, who had access to the national intelligence estimates that Fred mentioned. So in plotting his strategy to mislead the United States, Nikita Khrushchev had the advantage of knowing what American intelligence was saying inside its hallowed chambers.
FRED KAPLAN: Maybe we should give away the punchline, too, in a way. In 1957, it was estimated – I might be getting these numbers slightly off; there's a chart in the book that you might pick up. It was estimated that the Soviet Union would have around 200 ICBMs by 1961. In fact, come 1961, they had four, four ICBMs.
TIM NAFTALI: But here's the problem. You're President of the United States. Your intelligence community, until they developed satellites, cannot give you a hard number. Your adversary is provoking you over Berlin, which is Hitler's capital captured by the four armies, divided up by the four victorious Allies armies, still run as four occupied zones.
The Soviets are acting as if they're ahead in the game. They're provoking us over Berlin. They're occasionally provoking us in Southeast Asia. They have a very provocative relationship with Cuba. They're not acting like they're behind, and you're President of the United States and you basically have to say they're bluffing. How can a President, without really good intelligence, safely say and politically survive, that a foreign adversary is bluffing. That was the challenge that Eisenhower and Kennedy faced.
MARY SAROTTE: I'm wondering what happened to the spy.
JOHN PRADOS: The spy was eventually caught in the United States in the middle 1960s and sent to prison and spent 20 years in Leavenworth.
MARY SAROTTE: Interesting. Well, this actually segues nicely to what I wanted to talk about next, which is, could you perhaps, Fred, talk about – or anyone else who wants to jump in – how the paradigm and the perception gradually shifts, the realization that it's probably not hundreds, it's probably tens, or even just four missiles we're talking about here. And how hard was it in the minds of policymakers who had so much invested in the older view, how hard was it to change their minds? Did they do that willingly or slowly or reluctantly? How did that happen?
FRED KAPLAN: Well, the technology is what was discussed earlier, that first the U-2 spy plane, but that didn't cover every place. And then satellite, photographic satellites, and analysts who knew how to read the imagery, and it became pretty clear that there just wasn't anything there. It became pretty clear by around the spring of 1961, a few months after President Kennedy who had campaigned, like every other Democrat– this was the Democrats trying to beat up the Republicans for seeming weak and sluggish. Dwight Eisenhower was, at the time, the oldest President who had ever served in the White House. He had a heart attack and a stroke; he wasn't in good shape. 1958, there was a recession. Just everything was going to hell. The Russians are launching rockets into space, and ours are blowing up on the launch pad. Now, it turns out that really wasn't the complete story.
In terms of how it convinced people, the CIA analysts who discovered that there was first no bomber gap and then no missile gap, they had no vested interest to do this. In fact, quite the contrary. It is absolutely true that the Air Force had a vested interest in saying that there were as many missiles and bombers on the Soviet side that they could come up with, because that meant that you needed more American bombers and American missiles. They made those, that was their budget. You needed more so that you could have more when they would attack, and you needed more to attack their stuff, too.
But in the CIA, it was also the case that … Look, everybody thought at the time, everybody in the intelligence community, that the Soviet Union had the objective of threatening our forces, that they were building up a capability not merely for deterrence, but to pose a first strike threat against the United States. Everybody thought this. There was no -- or at least not much -- dispute on this.
As the CIA became more and more aware through their analysis that the Soviet Union really had damn little, first in bombers and then in missiles, there was at first cognitive dissonance, because they were too afraid to say they might only have a dozen. They were saying, okay, 40, 50. If they only had that many missiles, they couldn't possibly pose a first strike threat against us. So they were initially very reluctant even to come to this conclusion.
It was not just, "Oh, they're not ahead of us." It was, "Well, wait, if they're not ahead of us, then what does that say about what the Soviets' objectives and aims really are?" With the bomber gap, they could get out of it. They could say, "Oh, well, they're building missiles, not bombers." But if they were not even building missiles, what does that say to what their objectives were? It was a hard thing to come to.
MARY SAROTTE: You're nodding heavily. Did you want to jump in?
TIM NAFTALI: Well, I just wanted to say the Soviet material makes it clear, the Russian material, that they were not seeking a first strike capability. They were afraid we were going to attack them.
Now, I'm not saying they weren't ideological. In fact, one of the things about Khrushchev is that he was very ideological. And we can talk about that in a moment. What Khrushchev didn't understand was that by bluffing, he was actually encouraging us to make the strategic balance worse for him. But he, I think, believed he had no alternative because of his sense of the weakness of the Soviet Union.
From our perspective, this kind of behavior was not what we expected from a tyrant. And I think it has a lot to do with how people analyzed Hitler. It was only years later that historians realized that Hitler's generals didn't even want him to do what he did and that if we had actually just sneezed, they might not have moved into some of the countries. In that period, there was this sort of sense of the tyrant, of the more powerful the tyrant feels he is, the more likely he is to challenge you. It's only later we began to realize that actually a lot of tyrants are puffer fish.
They're so afraid, they puff themselves up and make themselves seem a little bit scarier than they actually are.
JOHN PRADOS: Now, I want to dispute, or maybe just put a little nuance on what Fred said there for a moment. And a lot of our common wisdom about the missile gap, this whole idea that it's about programmatic concerns on the American side, the only interests are those of the military services who wanted to generate forces. So you have the Air Force constantly predicting the maximalist Soviet threat, and you have the CIA being more somewhere in the middle, and you have the Army and the Navy at the bottom predicting the least Soviet threat.
I actually discussed these points with Howard Stoertz, who was one of the CIA officers that was responsible for writing many of these missile gap estimates. And he gave me a very interesting perspective, which I thought I would share, and that is this: He attributed the Army and the Navy positions to the fact that those American armed services dated to the foundation of the republic. Somehow they were more mature and they had a deeper vision of where America wanted to go. And, he also pointed out by the way, that the CIA itself did have an interest in what the estimates were – in fact it was mentioned earlier today – because it was making a claim, it was laying a stake to establish its expertise in military analysis, which was not an area– or had been an area actually that was considered a preserve of the military services. So the CIA had a certain interest, even if not a programmatic one.
MARY SAROTTE: Did you want to say something, Fred?
FRED KAPLAN: The thing about the Army and the Navy is kind of nonsense, I think. But no, I wouldn't disagree at all with the other part. I think that's absolutely true. He's right, the CIA in
the mid-'50s had no charter to get into military analysis. That's why the Air Force, which had an interest in the results, was the one doing the analysis of missiles. They got into it because they had a branch that did analysis of economic production in the Soviet Union. They looked at the production rates of bombers, and that's when they – again, I think you're right – completely, as unexpectedly as anybody else, came to the conclusion that they weren't building as many bombers.
CIA also had a scientific and technology branch, and they got into the technical characteristics of the missiles, which is how they came to the conclusion, and again completely unexpectedly, that they weren't building as many missiles as everybody thought.
As far the Army and the Navy, look, the Army wasn't in the long range nuclear game. And they weren't going to get any extra money out of talking about building more missiles. The Navy was about to get into it with the Polaris missile, but at the time a lot of people in the Navy were still, dating back to the early '50s when there was a battle, will our main nuclear force be the B-36 bomber of the Air Force or the supercarrier of the Navy? And the B-36 won. At which point, the Navy became so averse to nuclear weapons that there's some famous testimony in the early '50s where an admiral tried to make the case that nuclear weapons weren't even very effective, that if you stood on one end of the runway at National Airport and blew up an atomic bomb on the other end, you wouldn't be hurt at all. [laughter]
So I think the Army and the Navy had rather ulterior motives. And the fact that they did have ulterior motives, the fact that the Army and the Navy were saying, "Oh, we think the Soviet Union is only going to have a couple dozen nukes by 1961," it wasn't even taken that seriously, because they were thought to have vested interest. It was only when the CIA came into it and presented, especially with the satellites, pretty irrefutable data that everybody started coming around.
MARY SAROTTE: Did you want to say a few final words?
JOHN PRADOS: No, let's move on. [laughter]
MARY SAROTTE: I just wanted to ask our professional here if you had anything you wanted to share on this discussion of how it became apparent that there wasn't a missile gap.
GENE POTEAT: You bet, I've been waiting on that opportunity. [laughter]
MARY SAROTTE: Well, here it is.
GENE POTEAT: First of all, those of us closing the intelligence collection gap referred to all this analysis as analysis paralysis. And you notice that after the collection really got in gear, the analysis began to improve. It began to change, because of the high tech collection and getting spies in the Soviet Union.
FRED KAPLAN: You had something to analyze.
GENE POTEAT: But it was interesting in that the technical collection that the CIA, Johnny- come-lately, got into the business and went on to become probably the leading science and technology, R&D defense establishment in the world, because they created these U-2s beyond belief. They created the A-12 Oxcart, the predecessor to the SR-71, all for collection. It turned out they built these incredible satellites after the Corona. We had real-time, incredibly high resolution KH-11 satellites that could take an ultrahigh resolution picture over the Middle East, or over Russia, and have it in Washington in a few seconds. This was an incredible change, and it changed the way that intelligence analysis was done. It changed the way collection was done. So it's been an incredible change in everything. The equation's more balanced now, for a change. But it was pretty rough going during the period you were talking about.
JOHN PRADOS: Gene is quite right about that, but the problem with the missile gap was what was happening in Russia. If the Russians aren't building missiles, no matter how good the U-2, no matter how good the Corona, it wasn't photographing anything.
So the national estimates had to be crafted by analysts who needed to explain what was going on in the absence of data. And here is the key to the whole problem: In the world of no-observables, the unknowable is king.
TIM NAFTALI: It's difficult to prove the negative.
GENE POTEAT: But it turns out that all of this exotic collection had its special problems, because the Soviets always knew that this collection was under way, and they did everything they could to deceive this collection. So the job was far more difficult than you realized. They did everything they could to keep those satellites from getting good intelligence, and they were fairly effective. So it created a new type of analyst. How do you really, in spite of the deception against you, how do you get the real answer? So it's an amazing, highly difficult problem.
MARY SAROTTE: Do you remember that as real intelligence started coming in, the feeling of realizing, wow, they have much less than we thought? Do you remember those days or weeks or months?
GENE POTEAT: Oh, very. [laughter] Yes. It turns out we were sort of suspicious all along that it wasn't what we were hearing. I think what we felt was that the numbers were so diverse, they were extreme in such a degree. The trick was how do you do that. That was a political problem. Even in light of the collection that got hard answers about numbers and factors and everything, you still could not, in some cases, convince the military services. In spite of that, they would ignore you.
FRED KAPLAN: What you were saying about deception, that they took advantage of this, I mean, there were Air Force generals in Air Force intelligence not just in the early '60s, but through the '70s, who were – this was said in one of the earlier panels – they would have these enormous slideshows with photos. There would be a photo of a medieval tower out in the middle of Siberia. They would say, "See? There could be an ICBM in that tower." Or a picture of an enormous building, out in the middle of nowhere. What is this purpose of this building? There could very well be an ICBM inside that building.
And as John said -- or one of you said -- how do you prove, or how do you disprove a negative. You can't prove that there's not a missile. Now, what you would have to do is say, "Okay, let's say there is a missile. Where's the command control? Where's the supply? There's nothing around it." So even if you're right, you can't do anything with this ICBM.
But I mean it took years and years of this kind of debate. But in the mainstream -- which is to say the Secretary of Defense, the Director of the CIA, the people in power -- by about March of 1961, it was pretty well understood that there was no missile gap, except maybe the other way around. To the extent there was a missile gap, we were way ahead of them.
Then the question becomes, so why did we start building 1,000 ICBMs? And that gets into rather political things, which may have spurred the Soviet Union to match us in kind. Although others would say they would have done the same in any event.
MARY SAROTTE: Actually, that's something I wanted to pick up on, because you both just mentioned the effects of politics on the understanding and uses of intelligence. I don't know, John, if you want to comment on that?
JOHN PRADOS: Sure. The way that this entire intelligence debate evolved is centrally political. Actually, when the CIA projected a Soviet ICBM in early 1957, they predicted that the Russians might have one or a few missiles able to be fired in 1961. In 1961, someone's already mentioned the number four; the Russians actually had four missiles. That number four never appeared in an American national intelligence estimate, either by the CIA or by any of the armed services.
The collection of data -- the more we collected -- was not necessarily reflected in the intelligence estimates either. The intelligence estimates got more and more sophisticated. In fact, it was mentioned earlier today that certain economic projections and certain sophisticated analytical techniques applied to the national intelligence estimates greatly enhanced their sophistication.
The most sophisticated of those intelligence estimates, the one that appeared in early 1960, was actually the one that triggered the most political controversy. All kinds of figures on both sides of the debate about whether the Russians are coming lined up to take a bead on the intelligence estimates.
Allen Dulles, the head of the CIA at that time, was pulled in to Congress to give testimony before a committee that was chaired by Lyndon Johnson and was examining air and space US missile programs and, of course, found that Russian missile developments were central to their interests. Dulles refused to testify to the Senators about the contents of the national intelligence estimate that they had just completed days before this event occurred.
That estimate happened to predict that the Russians had 35 ICBM missiles. And at the time, the United States had 12 Atlas A missiles. After Dulles refused to testify, the Senator, in this case Stuart Symington, asked him to divide the number 36 by 12. And when Dulles responded, the next day's New York Times reported that the chief of the CIA conceded that the Russians had a three-to-one advantage in ICBM missiles. [laughter] The process -- well, I shouldn't say the process. I should say the conclusions of these estimates were inherently political because of the sensitivity of the question of defense in the United States.
FRED KAPLAN: One thing should be noted.
GENE POTEAT: Can I make a comment?
FRED KAPLAN: Can I just say one thing first? There was no Congressional oversight back then. Congress knew nothing about the U-2. Nobody in Congress, not the chairman of the Armed Services Committee knew anything about any of this. So when you look back in history at … Now, there's the Freedom of Information Act, there's a story from a leak in the New York Times. Nobody knew about any of this stuff. Even Eisenhower was getting pummeled for, "How come you won't face up to the fact that there's a missile gap? You're lying to us. Either that or you're either a knave or a fool." He didn't tell anybody that the U-2 existed, much less that the Corona existed.
The tapes that are in this Kennedy Library -- now, Kennedy never had the slightest notion that these would ever be made public -- things like that were the ownership of the President; he was going to use them to write his memoirs or something. The idea that any of this would have come out in public in 1961 to '63, it wouldn't have occurred to him for a second. So when we're talking about what Congress was doing, what Presidential candidates were doing, they didn't know anything. And in a certain way, they didn't want to know anything.
TIM NAFTALI: Well, don't forget that there was intentional leaking. And the Air Force was leaking …
FRED KAPLAN: Yes, that's true.
TIM NAFTALI: … their estimates, and there was a debate in the press. Joe Alsop and others were leading this debate, and they were leading it on the basis of leaked estimates. And they were the estimates that took the wildest assumptions about Soviet ICBMs.
FRED KAPLAN: Right. Which is why Symington and these guys couldn't understand why Eisenhower was denying this, "How can you deny this?
TIM NAFTALI: That's right. And the problem, as you mentioned, for Eisenhower was how do you deny this without revealing your most secret collection capability.
MARY SAROTTE: Gene? [laughter]
GENE POTEAT: Let me take you outside of this intelligence world for a moment. Before that, I worked for Bell Telephone Laboratories and I was involved in developing American missile guidance systems. And we had our own impressions and thoughts. We were in a deadly race at the time against the Soviet Union, because we thought -- the private industry that I was in thought -- that we were outgunned by the Soviets, and we were working hard to get our missiles up and running and accurate, and so on.
I was at Cape Canaveral working at the time, testing our ICBMs that we had under way. This was in the 1950s. But the industry really believed that we were outgunning, we were catching up for a while. But we were under the influence of the Air Force at the time, because we were working on their contracts to build our ICBMs. So private industry had a completely different view; we had no knowledge.
FRED KAPLAN: You only realized that today? [laughter]
TIM NAFTALI: Eisenhower was so frustrated by this. What is his last famous statement to the country? It's about the military industrial complex. If you want to understand, he knew this. He understood this problem. He knew it very well, and so did Kennedy. After the missile gap was resolved and it was clear that we were way ahead, Kennedy was making the argument to Robert McNamara, his Secretary of Defense, and he said, "Why do we have to buy so many missiles?" And the answer was that it was political. It was, "You don't want to take the risk that tomorrow the Soviets start a major development program, which four years from now results in us being behind." And Kennedy put this question to McNamara about cutting the number, because, he
said, "They don't have as many as we thought." So there were, even when you know the facts, structures in place that pushed our government to build more than it needed.
JOHN PRADOS: Let me just follow up on Gene's comment for a moment here. Those kinds of technical issues converted into political pressure on intelligence. In 1959, for example, CIA perceived Eisenhower's science advisors as some of their enemies in this whole question of interpreting the Russians. A CIA/scientific advisory group under a fellow named Pat Hyland did an investigation of Russian technical capabilities in the missile arena. This was, mind you, at a time when the Soviet Union failed sequentially in three straight lunar shots before they were able to land Lunik on the moon. So it wasn't just American rockets that were blowing up all the time. And the Russian ICBM program was dead for over six months. Yet, there was no downgrading of the size of the Soviet threat predicted in the national estimate crafted before this Russian hiatus and the national estimate that was written afterwards.
MARY SAROTTE: Interesting. I was going to ask you, you started to address the topic a bit, but since we've been talking about the effects of politics on intelligence, I wanted to ask you about the flip side, the effects of intelligence on politics, and particularly on the policy of the Kennedy presidency.
TIM NAFTALI: Well, it's really usually very difficult to know when intelligence matters, but this is not one of those cases. You can see the effect of the revision of assessment. By the way, we've been talking as if all of you know what these are. These national intelligence estimates, they are a consensus – and it's a rough consensus – of the chiefs of all the intelligence services. It was chaired by the CIA, but it still was the community's view. In those days, the head of the CIA was also the director of Central Intelligence. He oversaw the community. So this is the community's view, and they disagreed. When they disagreed, they would put footnotes, or they would have these estimates of, between five and 500. That was a way they could get over it.
So when this suddenly is revised downward, the US government begins to reassess its assessment of the Soviet threat and begins to see the Soviet threat as more subversion than military aggression. So in early 1962, you begin to see the formation of something, a Special Group (counterinsurgency). The US government begins to think more about counterinsurgency. The US government is building more conventional forces in order to have capabilities to participate in developments in the Third World. That's a follow-on to the assumption that, hey, the Soviets are not building a first strike capability. They're going to try to undermine us through their relationships in the Third World. So there's a real effect on our threat perception.
There's also a question of what to do with Khrushchev, and it's one of the imponderables. I don't have the answer. I don't know if anybody can. But the problem was how do you tell Khrushchev that we can call his bluff? You're playing poker, and you know that they're bluffing. How do you tell him in the way that is the most effective in the international system?
If you look at the Kennedy Administration's discussions with itself, nobody came up with the idea of going privately to Khrushchev, which is odd because the Kennedy brothers -- the President and the Attorney General -- had a back channel relationship with Khrushchev and could have sent a message to him without challenging him publicly. But the choice that was made was to make a public speech by the Deputy Secretary of Defense that made clear to the American people and the world that we knew that not only we weren't behind, that we were ahead.
That decision pushed Khrushchev in a way that turned out to be dramatic in 1962. To make a long story short, we know from materials released only eight years ago that Khrushchev went in front of the Presidium – that's the Politburo – and said, "We now know war is possible. They're going to play the game that we've been playing," what he called the position of strength game. What it was was to take military weapons and make use of their political utility, to scare people into making concessions.
The Soviets, even though they didn't plan to launch a nuclear first strike on us, were still aggressive. But what they wanted to do was to get what they wanted short of war. Push us around the world, aid their allies, change the nature of the international system, but without going to war. They now realized that we knew how powerful we were and how weak they were.
Khrushchev, rather than doing what most of us would assume, which was to back off a little bit and to let their strategic programs develop, decided to make 1962 the most dangerous year in the Cold War by putting pressure on us all around the world, because he saw us as an existential threat, that we needed to be, we needed to be deterred. And the only way to deter us was to scare us, and if he couldn't scare us through the myth of the missile gap, he'd scare us by just being active all over the world. And of course, our reaction was to respond. And their reaction was to respond. And the outcome, I believe, was the Cuban Missile Crisis.
JOHN PRADOS: I've often wondered about that end of the Missile Gap Speech, whether it was sort of like answering the Russians in kind for Khrushchev's "We're making missiles like sausages" speech, which he sprang on the United States back in the heart of this missile gap period.
But just to bring the question back to John F. Kennedy, here's what I wonder about him and maybe you have a good thought on this. Kennedy, in his political campaign for the Presidency in 1960, supported a different defense policy than Eisenhower. He was going to go more for conventional weaponry. He was going to deemphasize the nuclear.
Now, that seems contradictory, to me, from Kennedy's simultaneous emphasis on the fact of the existence of a missile gap and how this was such a threat. On the one hand, he's pushing for something that's got to result in more nuclear weapons. On the other hand, he's saying, "What we need is conventional force."
TIM NAFTALI: I was just going to say that I think that Senator Kennedy's, his arguments in the national security field in the campaign are slightly confused. Last year it was the anniversary, and I watched the debates. He's talking about Quemoy and Matsu as a way of saying that the Eisenhower Administration is too provocative. On the one hand, he's arguing that the Eisenhower Administration is not doing what it needs to do to defend the country. On the other hand, it's too provocative. I think that his effort was to say that we can do better on national security. I don't see consistency there.
FRED KAPLAN: Also, Henry Kissinger wrote a book at the time called The Necessity for Choice, which was very influential, and it was part of a whole group of Democratic hawks -- that they now would be called -- calling for … Well, let me back up a minute.
Eisenhower had at least a stated policy called massive retaliation. The idea was if the Soviets, for example, invade Western Europe, or do anything to threaten vital interests in the Western world, we would retaliate with nuclear weapons. And there was a stream of thought among many Democrats at the time, "No, that's really dangerous, especially if they're building their own nuclear weapons. If we retaliate with nuclear, they'll retaliate with nuclear. So we're committing suicide by doing that. We need to build up conventional forces so that we can have a conventional response to a conventional threat."
At the same time, though, I think Kennedy thought that we were behind in missiles, too. I think as a matter of policy he's saying, "Let's build up a conventional force." But as a matter of programs, I think he thought, as a Presidential candidate, that we would need to really zoom up our missile program as well. I don't think it was a contradiction; it was addressing two different things.
MARY SAROTTE: So just to give the audience a head's up, I have one more question I wanted to ask the panel, but then we're going to go to you for questions. We'll ask you to please come and speak at the microphones. If you already know that you'd like to ask a question, feel free to come and line up. Please keep them brief so we can get as many questions in as possible. So start thinking about your questions.
Another question I have, and this one is really directed to everyone, is we're talking obviously about a historical case study here, but what can we learn from it today for US policy in the last decade, or even right now? Are there parallels? Are there useful lessons that we can take from this for intelligence collection and policymaking now?
FRED KAPLAN: Well, I think the Iraq weapons of mass destruction case is a very close parallel. You had some intelligence that Iraq was developing certain things, or at least that they were interested in developing certain things. You had interested parties. The entire first and second echelon of the Bush Administration had signed a letter to Clinton in 1998 calling for the military ouster of Saddam Hussein as a great danger. So that's parallel to sort of the Air Force view of, say, the Soviet missile program. And you had some information that could be cobbled together from intelligence information to get there. At the same time, you also had Saddam Hussein bluffing that in fact he was developing weapons of mass destruction. He thought that would deter the United States from invading. He thought it might also deter Iran from reinvading, and that it would bolster his standing among his own people and his own government. There were plenty of people in the Iraqi government, we learned after the fact, who, when the United States said Saddam Hussein is developing weapons of mass destruction, believed that. Because otherwise, why would we be saying that? So the lessons of both is that you should be a lot more careful in your intelligence analysis and maybe not take for granted what leaders are saying about their own capabilities.
TIM NAFTALI: There are Saddam tapes. The Pentagon has translated and transcribed them. I understand we'll see more of them next year. My understanding is that they show this. He was as concerned. After all, think about it. Tyrants are in a very cruel world. We think that elections are cruel; it's even worse if you're a tyrant. [laughter] And so, there are no incentives to appearing weak.
Now, I remind you, I don't speak for the US government, but there are, of course, current parallels. When we assess Iran and when we assess North Korea, we have to ask ourselves the same question: Does North Korea have an interest in making us exaggerate their power? Do they have an interest in deceiving us about their weakness? Does Iran have an interest in exaggerating its ability to acquire weapons? And then I have a question for all of you, which is, what would you want our President to know to be able to argue to the US military, or to Congress in executive session, "I think they're bluffing?" Because, remember, if you're wrong, the downside risk is enormous.
The beauty of Corona is that it allowed Kennedy …
MARY SAROTTE: You might want to explain what Corona is.
TIM NAFTALI: Sorry, the satellite program that ended the missile gap. The beauty of Corona was that it actually allowed President Kennedy to say, "They're bluffing." The United States had a very good agent in the Soviet Union, Oleg Penkovsky, who in fact had reported – Colonel Penkovsky – that Khrushchev was bluffing. But that was one agent. Human intelligence, however good, it can be dismissed: he's lying, he's a mole, he's a double agent, what have you. But you had these pictures.
What kind of intelligence does the President need to be able to say North Korea's bluffing, Iran is bluffing. That's why this missile gap story is so important for policymakers today. Because it forces you to really scrub your assumptions hard and ask yourself, "Am I asking the right questions? Am I getting the right information? And how much certainty does a policymaker have to have to conclude that the adversary is bluffing?"
GENE POTEAT: A couple of points about bluffing. It turns out that the thing that frightened the Russians, if I can go a little bit beyond the missile and bomber gap. When President Kennedy made his famous speech and said, "We're going to put an American on the moon and bring him back safely in this decade," panic was taking place in the Soviet Union. And what was their response? They created a competition. They were going to go to the moon also. And we had, what, nearly a decade of race to the moon. Guess what? The Soviets had no chance of ever pulling it off. They had been bluffing. Their program could never have gotten to the moon. It was technically impossible. And yet, they continued. And we thought we were in a neck-to-neck race to the moon, and we were not; they had no hope.
As a matter of fact, the Soviets didn't have the technical capability to do it in the first place. What they had, they had stolen every single secret the West had, bar none. But they never learned that you can't live by theft alone. [laughter] You've got to know how to do it yourself. They never learned that lesson.
TIM NAFTALI: Just a quick point on this. When we say bluffing, we also mean prestige. Countries also have self-respect. When Gagarin, the very first astronaut in space, a cosmonaut, a Russian, when Gagarin goes into space, the Soviets were really proud. And just after that, John F. Kennedy, in a back channel message to the Soviets offers a joint space program. Did you know that?
GENE POTEAT: Oh, yes.
TIM NAFTALI: And Khrushchev turned him down. He turned him down because the Russians at that point thought maybe they could compete with us in space. And why lose an area that had such transcendent international prestige value? So bluffing also is not simply these tyrants puffing out their chest and wanting to feel virile and powerful. It's also a matter of national prestige, standing up to the big, strong United States.
FRED KAPLAN: Can I throw in one?
MARY SAROTTE: Actually, John, you have something.
JOHN PRADOS: One of the major lessons of the missile gap as a security problem is a certain paradox. Force without intention is futile, but intention without force is nothing. As an analytical structure, the problem we face today, right now, in identifying what is going on with our adversaries in this kind of war on terror thing bears every kind of resemblance to the issues that these intelligence analysts were wrestling with in the missile gap. There's the same lack of observables. There's the same set of declaratory statements by adversary leaders. There's the same invisibility of the foe. I think we can learn from the missile gap, even today.
MARY SAROTTE: Fred?
FRED KAPLAN: It was a digression.
MARY SAROTTE: Historic moment! Yield to the floor! [laughter] So I actually wanted to add when you were defining Corona and so forth, the sound system, I keep hearing U-2 as YouTube. [laughter] The first time I heard that I thought, wow, this CIA had YouTube in 1959! [laughter]
TIM NAFTALI: 1960.
MARY SAROTTE: 1960.
TIM NAFTALI: They had Flickr, too.
MARY SAROTTE: Flickr.
TIM NAFTALI: But we didn't share that.
MARY SAROTTE: Wow, that's advanced! All right, so this is the audience participation section part of the evening, so I would like to encourage you to come up and ask questions, perhaps tell us very briefly who are you, and ask a question.
QUESTION: Hi, my name is Daniel Scinto. I'm from Orange County, California. Now, in 1960/63, early '60s, as you pointed out, we didn't really know what they had. We had some ideas, but we also know that Stalin lied to Hitler; he had many more tanks than what he did. He underreported a number of things to Hitler. We don't know why he did that. Perhaps he was afraid Hitler was going to ask him to do more than he wanted to do.
So you had all that uncertainty. Wasn't it rather a high risk strategy to take, as opposed to calling him up on his back line and divulge what the situation was, what we had, and to resolve this conflict without going public with it, as opposed to taking the risk of rubbing your adversary in the nose and embarrassing him in front of the world and taking the risk that, well, maybe they had more missiles or more power than what he had. Do you think it was rather a reckless approach? I'd like to get all of your opinions about that. Thank you.
MARY SAROTTE: Thank you.
TIM NAFTALI: I guess I don't think it was reckless on the part of the United States government. It was the product of a decision-making process, and they thought about it. I'm suggesting that one of the imponderables is would Khrushchev have acted differently?
The problem for the United States was that Khrushchev's entire national security strategy in 1961 was based on the assumption that we wouldn't really figure out how little they had. And once we'd blown that apart, he had no national security strategy. So he was going to be scrambling.
Given that he did not want to launch a first strike against us – that's quite clear from the evidence that's available now and it's good evidence – was there a way of building on the fact that though he disliked us and he wanted communism to reach all corners of the world, he actually preferred success through political means. He wanted a period of peace, even though there would be tension. Was<|fim_middle|> the U-2 equipment, the signals intelligence. So we were shoveling it to them in large volumes, and they became dependent on us. However, eventually it changed. The British, while they were good at the HUMINT business, we caught up and in many ways surpassed them, or at least equaled them.
So it turned out to be a better relationship later on when we became masters of the HUMINT, as well as the British. But we were always the masters of the high technology, and we shoveled it all to them. It's been a good arrangement so far.
MARY SAROTTE: You might want to define HUMINT for the public.
GENE POTEAT: Oh, I'm sorry. Human intelligence, spying, stealing the other guys' secrets. [laughter] Sorry about that.
MARY SAROTTE: Well, I got to pick the questions for most of the night, which was great fun, and the audience got to pick the questions for part of the night. And so, now in the final sort of seconds, I thought I would generously ask the panelists if there was any topic they wanted to raise in closing, anything important they think that we haven't addressed.
FRED KAPLAN: I can say one thing. Addressing that conversation between Kennedy and McNamara that we heard at the beginning, when Kennedy said, "Someday somebody should look into this and see what happened with the missile gap." It actually happened. There is a memorandum that's in the Kennedy Library, in the national security files, called, "But Where Did the Missile Gap Go?" It was written in May of 1963, by someone I've otherwise never heard of named Lawrence McQuade.
JOHN PRADOS: McQuade, he was one of the Rand guys.
FRED KAPLAN: Okay, well, for Paul Nitze, who was Assistant Secretary of Defense. And it went to the National Security Council, because it's in their files. And it's something like a 24- page memo that really traces the line about all the different NIEs, the numbers that changed, why they changed. It's a very historical document.
JOHN PRADOS: It's in the book.
FRED KAPLAN: No, it isn't. The whole document?
JOHN PRADOS: Yes, it's in the DVD.
FRED KAPLAN: Oh, it's in the DVD? Oh, great, I didn't get to that. Okay, it's in there. [laughter] Wait, here's my question. And maybe somebody in the audience can whisper the answer in my ear afterwards. Have we done anything like that since? Did the Bush Administration order a study: What the hell happened to the WMD? Why did we think there were WMDs? Did anybody ask– did the Carter Administration ask, Why did we think the Shah of Iran was going to last? Has anybody done this since?
MARY SAROTTE: Tim, closing thoughts?
TIM NAFTALI: The really interesting question is that governments don't usually have time to do history. And I think the reason Kennedy – and Kennedy asked for the study more than once. He was actually quite impatient, because he asked for it in February '63, and it is in the booklet.
My feeling is that this happened at the same time as the discussion over the fiscal year '64 military budget. I think he was looking for ammunition to argue for a smaller number of Minutemen. Because he didn't ask for it once -- again, in the booklet you'll see -- he asked for it a number of times. He was actually quite impatient. And as I said, generally speaking, Presidents don't have time for history.
MARY SAROTTE: Gene, final thoughts?
GENE POTEAT: Let me bring you up to date and say that all this discussion about analysis paralysis, high tech collection, I think it's in better shape now than it ever has been. If you want an example, look at the raid that brought Osama bin Laden his comeuppance. You had all aspects of intelligence well integrated and running like a well-oiled machine. You had the analysts who spent a year sizing up this place. You had the high tech collection. You had the CIA's predator drones involved. You had paramilitary operations. I think we've come a long way, and many of the problems you've heard here hopefully are being handled better than they were in the past.
MARY SAROTTE: And John, over to you.
JOHN PRADOS: Let me leave you with this: Security dilemmas are perpetual. We had this missile gap. We discovered that it wasn't there. That led us to cut back the Minuteman and to reorganize our military planning on the basis of what McNamara called assured destruction. That, in turn, led to a strategic balance that was identified as mutual assured destruction that many Americans a decade, or a decade-and-a-half, after these events of the missile gap condemned as a sheerly insane approach to defense policy. So in one sense, the decisions made as a result of the missile gap led us right back into a different kind of security dilemma.
MARY SAROTTE: Please join me in thanking our presenters this evening. [applause] | there a way to build on that to take advantage of the fact that our economy was always going to be better than his economy? I don't know. But I will say that the product of basically putting his nose in it was that he, and he was a very impetuous man, reacted dramatically. And 1962 is the result. There are all kinds of reasons why he did what he did in '62, but the most powerful was that he felt deeply insecure as a result of the fact that we felt less insecure.
JOHN PRADOS: [simultaneous conversation] close to Khrushchev might very well have had potential. The United States and the Soviet Union had previously discussed nuclear test bans, and an underground test ban had actually gained a certain amount of traction in the late 1950s. And there were conversations going on in Geneva about general and complete disarmament. I think though that the key problem on the American side at that point was that John F. Kennedy wasn't willing to go that way. And it wasn't until after Cuba that he was ready to explore what became the Partial Test Ban Treaty. If the Americans had been on board with an arms control initiative in 1961/62, they might have achieved power.
TIM NAFTALI: No, I disagree. Kennedy was on board. He was on board in 1961 for reasons that didn't succeed, but he actually offered the Soviets, through the back channel, a better deal than he was publicly talking to Congress about.
JOHN PRADOS: Right, but your problem is that unless you'd gone to Khrushchev privately, you're not going in that direction. If you're rubbing his nose in …
TIM NAFTALI: Well, no, that's what I'm saying. The decision in '61 … [Simultaneous conversation]
FRED KAPLAN: People in general, and maybe doubly or triply so the United States and the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, the first thing that they think about in doing something is not, "Gee, I wonder how the other guy is going to take this. I wonder if I'm going to be intruding on his sensibilities." In fact, it's curious, on the tapes of the Cuban Missile Crisis very early on at one point Kennedy's saying, "Well, you know" – talking about putting missiles in Cuba – he says, "Well, for example, this would be us putting missiles in Turkey. I think this would be a damn dangerous thing." Somebody says, "Well, we do have missiles in Turkey." [laughter] "Yeah, well, but that's different." Which it wasn't. But then what happened, what turned the missile crisis around about day four or so, Kennedy starts musing that maybe he should be looking for giving Khrushchev a way out of this. Why did he do this? Maybe he feels trapped.
Then Kennedy, on day three or four of the crisis, says, "Maybe we should offer him a trade for the missiles in Turkey." Nobody says a word about this. Then later, Khrushchev is offered this deal and he takes it right away, and everybody else around the table is saying, "No, no, no! This will wreck NATO."
Now, there's an interesting question, and I'm wondering if any historian up here or down there knows this. Walter Lippmann wrote a column suggesting maybe a way out of this is to give the missiles, do a missile trade. We do know that Khrushchev read that column, read a translation of that column. The question, which I don't think anybody has answered yet, is did Kennedy leak the idea to Lippmann so that he would write a column, so that it would be read? Was there kind of a complicated game going on here? And I don't think that's been addressed. This is for a panel next year. [laughter]
MARY SAROTTE: People have been waiting patiently.
FRED KAPLAN: Sorry.
MARY SAROTTE: Ma'am, please.
QUESTION: Hi, I'm Barbara Perry, and I'm a senior fellow at the University of Virginia's Miller Center and its oral history program for presidents. My question is about the face-to-face meeting between President Kennedy and Chairman Khrushchev in Vienna in 1961. Could the panel comment about the impact of that meeting on this high stakes poker game?
TIM NAFTALI: That meeting has been misunderstood for a long time. The argument was that Kennedy did badly by engaging in a discussion about dialectics with Khrushchev. Dialectics, Marxist-Leninism. What turned out to be the case is that Khrushchev actually came to Vienna wanting a fight. In fact, there was a discussion before he left Moscow over what gifts to give Jacqueline Kennedy and the President. As you know, when foreign leaders meet the President of the United States there's gift-giving. This Library has, as does the Nixon Library, a lot of very wonderful head of state gifts.
So they gave him a list of the gifts and he approved them. And he said, "Well, you can give gifts even before a war." Because he had already decided to go and harangue Kennedy and pose an ultimatum on Berlin. He'd already decided that. He was angry. He was going to put Kennedy's feet to the fire.
So the fact of the matter is what Vienna did was it shook Kennedy, because he had assumed that he could work through a back channel with Khrushchev. He had tried to set up a series of achievements that could be announced in Vienna, one of which was the test ban. He had sent a secret negotiating … He'd actually offered the Soviets something through Bobby Kennedy to achieve a test ban. The hang-up was the number of on-site inspections in the United States. And he'd offered something to Khrushchev, which was half the public position of the Kennedy Administration. Khrushchev wouldn't bite because he wanted a Berlin settlement, which is something that Kennedy could not give him.
So what happens is it's a rude awakening for Kennedy. The fact of the matter is he did feel badly, and he did say the things that he said to Macmillan and to James Reston, and others. He really did feel beaten up, but there was nothing he could have done. Then in the summer, he bests Khrushchev because he decides not to change the American position on Berlin, substantially. He opts for actually increasing the number of divisions there and that was a way of sending the message to Khrushchev, "I'm just like Eisenhower. I'm not going to bend under your ultimatum."
Now, it is possible that the changes in the estimates that were happening that summer -- because we have an estimate from September, which is the big one, but there's a change in June, that that comes at a really opportune time for the President because he really knows that the United States is ahead. He can actually respond to Khrushchev's ultimatum with firm talk. So I think Vienna mattered psychologically to President Kennedy, but it didn't matter to Khrushchev. What really mattered was Kennedy standing up to him that summer over Berlin.
JOHN PRADOS: The problem with the June estimate is that it's not really that much of a change. In fact, the analysts in drafting that estimate said that, "You know, well, what we're presenting here represents the difference between what we ought to know and what we know we don't know." Basically, language to that effect. And the numbers that they cut down …
TIM NAFTALI: Didn't they cut from 200 to 100? I mean, it was way off, because they only had four.
JOHN PRADOS: No. No. And this is a general question, but this is a distraction, actually. But as a general point, there's a magic number issue connected with all of these intelligence reports. Fred mentioned the number 500. Well, the number 35 is another magic number. Even in the September estimate that takes back the missile gap altogether, the figure for Soviet strategic force that's cited is 10 to 35 missiles. And 35 missiles was what was projected in the middle of 1961. And 35 missiles was what was projected in the middle of 1960. And 35 missiles was what was projected at the beginning of 1960. Magic number syndrome.
MARY SAROTTE: We are getting down to the final ten minutes, and I also want to be sure to give the panelists a chance to have last words of their own choosing, since I've been asking the questions. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to ask all three to ask your questions, and then we will address them. Then we'll have some final words, and call a close to the evening. So if you could start, sir, and then the gentleman in the hat, and then you, sir.
QUESTION: My question would be the politics of World War II with Churchill's Iron Curtain.
MARY SAROTTE: The politics of World War II?
QUESTION: The influence of the World War II era. All of these people -- Khrushchev, Kennedy -- they lived through it: the policy of appeasement against Hitler, the Soviets suffering terribly when the Germans invaded, and then the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. How much of the World War II mentality played into the role of the outcome of the missile gap and the Cuban Missile Crisis? I really think it plays an integral part.
FRED KAPLAN: Not so much the outcome, I would say …
MARY SAROTTE: Hold on, hold on.
FRED KAPLAN: Okay, sorry. Go ahead.
QUESTION: Thank you. It seems to me that it may be a useful heuristic analogy to this discussion for today, which would be about global warming. The notion is that if we develop enough evidence that's going to lead to – and it's important, obviously, to get the best evidence and science we possibly can have -- but then that's not necessarily going to lead to the kinds of policies that would be the best policies. Mr. Naftali said, "Yes, they got better information, but there were these structural barriers, similar to today."
So my question is, please, would any of you address a little bit more carefully what you think those structural barriers were to getting it right before, during and after. Was there a military industrial complex, as Eisenhower mentioned in his final speech? Was it more the military or was it the private business? Or was it both pointing at each other? Was anybody sort of responsible for driving this in terms of their interests in this game?
MARY SAROTTE: And, sir?
QUESTION: First of all, I want to acknowledge the moderator on the panel for one of the best flow of discussions I've ever seen here. When Khrushchev took his shoe off and pounded it on the desk at the UN, I guess it was -- and I can't remember what the reason was -- but did the CIA know he was bluffing at that time? He intimidated the populace quite a bit. Did he intimidate the Administration and the CIA also?
JOHN PRADOS: That was fall, '61, General Assembly, wasn't it?
MARY SAROTTE: I thought we had one more question sneaking in there? No one else?
JOHN PRADOS: There was an attempt to sneak in over here.
MARY SAROTTE: You can sneak one in.
QUESTION: Mel Conti. Gene, I have a question. If you could give us some insight, we did have a good ally during this missile crisis -- British intelligence. What were they doing?
MARY SAROTTE: So the last four questions, then, thank you very much for that. Just to repeat, the influence of the Second World War era and the memories of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, and so forth, what role did that play in this era; that was number one. Number two, specifically with regard to the topic of global warming, what structural barriers are there to getting it right? What can we learn from this case? Number three, when Khrushchev did his famous shoe-pounding performance, from the highly intelligent man who complimented the moderator [laughter], what did the CIA know? And then specifically for Gene, what was British intelligence doing?
So who would like to take the World War II question? Fred, you had started answering that.
FRED KAPLAN: Well, I think not so much the settlement of the crises, but the perception of the crises as they were emerging, I mean, all the way to Vietnam and beyond, I think the analogies, the tendency to analogize from recent history -- saying Khrushchev equals Hitler, Ho Chi Minh equals Hitler, not doing anything about this equals appeasement -- you're right, it was what these people grew up with. It was the formative experience of looking at international politics broadly and generally.
TIM NAFTALI: Also, President Kennedy and a number of his senior advisors were arguing for a surgical strike -- however hard that is to imagine -- a surgical strike on the Soviet missiles in Cuba. And one of the most powerful arguments against it was made by Robert Kennedy when he said, "We don't want to be responsible for launching a Pearl Harbor attack." Because it would have been a surprise attack and so, in that sense, the analogy had a restraining effect on American decision making.
JOHN PRADOS: I think we can quickly handle the Khrushchev question. If memory serves me right, the shoe-pounding incident took place in the 1961 General Assembly session.
FRED KAPLAN: '60.
JOHN PRADOS: '60?
FRED KAPLAN: Yeah.
JOHN PRADOS: Okay, in that case, we were still deluded at that time. [laughter]
TIM NAFTALI: What we learned for the first time was whether or not he had a hole in his sock. [laughter]
JOHN PRADOS: But now, the key question is what are the issues and obstacles that stand in the way of understanding
MARY SAROTTE: Structural barriers.
JOHN PRADOS: Structural barriers.
MARY SAROTTE: And your answer is?
JOHN PRADOS: Um, well, a lot. [laughter] Let's start with political constraints. It's clear in the missile gap events that the winds of politics -- both in Moscow and in Washington -- chilled both sides in their selections of actions. Beyond that, there's the data problem. Gene's technical means helped to solve the data problem, but observables -- or the lack of them -- constrains the data problem.
Then there's the analytical problem. You've got these analysts who are facing either a surfeit of data, because we've got tons of U-2 and satellite photography, or a lack of data. And those people are simultaneously buffeted by the pressures within their bureaucracies, the pressures among different government groups, the limitations of their analytical techniques, and their personal ambitions.
FRED KAPLAN: Well, I would add something else. The first budget that McNamara was preparing for the Defense Department, the Joint Chiefs were pushing for building 2,000
Minutemen ICBMs. The White House wanted 600. SAC wanted 10,000. McNamara went with 1,000. Kennedy asked him why and he said, "That's all I can get the Chiefs down to."
One thing to recognize about McNamara, he was gutting the Pentagon. He was imposing systems analysis for the first time against a bunch of generals who had before gotten away with doing whatever they wanted just by saying, "There's a military requirement for this." He was eliminating over a dozen redundant systems. He was getting rid of bombers entirely. He was getting rid of an ABM program completely. He thought for the building not to explode, he thought this is as much as I can get them down.
Now, in the next few years, they got 2,000 anyway because they made 550 Minutemen-IIIs, each of which had three warheads that could hit separate targets. So you do the math, 550 times three, plus 450 plus 50, it's a little more than 2,000. So they ended up getting what they wanted.
TIM NAFTALI: One quick story. After the Cuban Missile Crisis, John F. Kennedy asked the intelligence community, "Is it possible to sneak weapons of mass destruction into the United States?" And they actually used the term WMD. It's a phenomenal national intelligence, a special national intelligence estimate. The President asked for it.
And the intelligence community actually reported some very troubling things. One, in 1963, you could make a nuclear weapon that fit into a suitcase. And indeed, in 1963, they did not have … If you're watching the show Pan Am – I'm not advertising; I did watch the show the other night – you will notice that you could get on to the plane at the last minute without going through any metal detectors; they didn't come in until the 1970s. Anyway, so you could carry a nuclear weapon in a suitcase to the United States, one.
Two, you could create chemical weapons in your apartment in New York City if you wanted to. And three, biological weapons were easy to carry, and there was really no way of determining if somebody had them.
Well, Kennedy's reaction was not to put this entire country on full alert. Why? Because the effect of the whole resolution of the missile gap gave him a certain confidence about what a real WMD threat was. The response was, "Who could do this?" The only country in the world that was capable of producing a very small nuclear device, or of engaging in that biological warfare, or the really important chemical warfare was the Soviet Union. And we knew we'd deterred them, because we were more powerful. So Kennedy got the answer he wanted and realized that as President of the United States, this was an acceptable risk to take.
FRED KAPLAN: And of course, the joke about the suitcase bomb was that the Russians could build a bomb, but not the suitcase. [laughter]
MARY SAROTTE: So, Gene, we have the British intelligence question for you.
GENE POTEAT: All right. Well, it turns out that in the beginning of the CIA, in 1947, it turns out that in the early days, the CIA was manned by former OSS people. The British actually claim, and with some credibility, that they taught the CIA the spying business. However, in the early days after that, it turns out the CIA was more of an analysis organization than they were into the HUMINT, or spying business. And we tended to depend on the British to do the HUMINT spying. They're the ones that set up the operation that brought out Oleg Penkovsky.
And of course, we participated in the debriefings and so on, but it was the British.
However, after Eisenhower made his decision and told the CIA to get into the high tech collection business, things began to change. The British began to depend on the Americans' high technology. They would send this giant airplane to Washington every week, a VC-10 model, to collect all the technology that the US had collected, all the satellite photography, | 4,127 |
Rita<|fim_middle|> Spring 2019! Find her music in all digital stores or by clicking below. | West grew up in a family of eleven children in New Orleans, Louisiana, where most of her childhood memories were centered around music. Whether it was singing and dancing around the kitchen while doing dishes, attending the choral concerts or opera recitals of her siblings, or laughing as her father sang the wrong lyrics to a song on the radio, music was always present. However, it wasn't until after high school, when she served as a missionary with NET Ministries, INC, that she learned how to play guitar and realized that God had given her a gift that she couldn't keep to herself. As her love for leading worship grew, the Lord instilled a desire in her to speak and give witness to the deep, personal love that God the Father has for each human person. Since 2010, she's led worship and spoken around the country for retreats, summer camps, nights of worship, and mission trips for people of all ages.
The prayer of her ministry is that, by sharing the truth and power of God's love through music and witness, others would be brought into a relationship with the Father, where freedom and healing await.
Rita has released numerous projects, including her debut record Chosen and collaborations with artists such as Novum Collective and John Finch. Her newest project is Invitation, an record of 5 new original songs, coming | 275 |
Dave Mitchell & Associates Ltd. was established in 20<|fim_middle|> and provincial governments.
DMA works with the project sponsors to ensure that the planning and advice provided align with actual needs while being mindful of available resources, financial constraints and political realities. We strive to ensure that there is widespread support within the departments involved and the relevant governmental structure (including staff and elected officials) for both the process and results of the planning sessions and resulting advice. Without that buy-in, too often the best advice can simply fail to be implemented.
Our Associates have extensive experience in fire and emergency services, as well as in corporate planning, governance and organizational issues, law and communications. When assembling a project team we aim to address the particular needs and requirements of each project to ensure that all necessary skill sets are available. Team composition is always carefully tailored to meet the needs identified by the project sponsors. | 00 and is a privately held British Columbia company that offers independent consulting on a wide range of issues related to public safety operations. We have extensive experience in advising fire and emergency services of all levels and types and in working with municipal, regional | 48 |
Soil survey, soil mapping, is the process of classifying soil types and other soil properties in a given area and geo-encoding such information. It applies the principles of soil science, and draws heavily from geomorphology, theories of soil formation, physical geography, and analysis of vegetation and land use patterns. Primary data for the soil survey are acquired by field sampling<|fim_middle|> flow of the latest soil information to the user. In the past it could take years to publish a paper soil survey. Today it takes only moments for changes to go live to the public. Also, the most current soil survey data is made available on the Download Soils Data tab at NRCS Web Soil Survey for high end GIS users such as professional consulting companies and universities.
The information in a soil survey can be used by farmers and ranchers to help determine whether a particular soil type is suited for crops or livestock and what type of soil management might be required. An architect or engineer might use the engineering properties of a soil to determine whether it is suitable for a certain type of construction. A homeowner may even use the information for maintaining or constructing their garden, yard, or home.
Soil survey information can be used to predict or estimate the potentials and limitations of soils for many specific uses. A soil survey includes an important part of the information that is used to make workable plans for land management. The information must be interpreted to be usable by professional planners and others. Predictions based on soil surveys serve as a basis for judgment about land use and management for areas ranging from small tracts to regions of several million acres. These predictions, however, must be evaluated along with economic, social, and environmental considerations before they can be used to make valid recommendations for land use and management.
Soil survey components
Typical information in a published county soil survey includes the following:
a brief overview on how to use the survey
a general soil map for comparing the sustainability of large sections of the county
a detailed map with specific soil series outlined and indexed
a section on the use and management of soils
tables describing the physical features and environment of the county
tables containing land use suitability based on standards set by the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
See also
FAO soil classification
USDA soil taxonomy
Pedometrics
Earth sciences survey
References
External links
A Compendium of On-Line Soil Survey Information
NRCS Web Soil Survey Inventory of the soil resource across the U.S.
NRCS Helping People Understand Soils
California Online Soil Survey
Soil Data Access
Texas Soil Surveys, hosted by the Portal to Texas History
Soil Maps of the world European Digital Archive on the Soil Maps of the world
Historical Soil Surveys of South Carolina at the University of South Carolina Library's Digital Collections Page
Land management
Measurement
Pedology
Field surveys | and by remote sensing. Remote sensing principally uses aerial photography, but LiDAR and other digital techniques are steadily gaining in popularity. In the past, a soil scientist would take hard-copies of aerial photography, topo-sheets, and mapping keys into the field with them. Today, a growing number of soil scientists bring a ruggedized tablet computer and GPS into the field with them. The tablet may be loaded with digital aerial photos, LiDAR, topography, soil geodatabases, mapping keys, and more.
The term soil survey may also be used as a noun to describe the published results. In the United States, these surveys were once published in book form for individual counties by the National Cooperative Soil Survey. Today, soil surveys are no longer published in book form; they are published to the web and accessed on NRCS Web Soil Survey where a person can create a custom soil survey. This allows for rapid | 186 |
〒251-0047 1-16-20 Tsujido, Grand Espoir Shonan Tsujido B, Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture
Business hours: Monday to Friday 10 a.m to 6 p.m, Sunday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m
Regular holiday: Saturday
The heart of the roasting shop, February 2020
<|fim_middle|> to the people who have accomplished all of this. The roaster has reached its new destination undamaged as you can see in the photo. | Written By Guenter Mallin
At the end of February the wait was over. The heart of the roasting shop was set up at its destination. Produced in Germany and flown in directly from there, the roaster reached the parking lot near our roast shop in the early morning. Many thanks to Nagai san and Hizume san for organising the man power. There were still a few hurdles to overcome from this parking lot to the final place in the roasting shop. The machine has a weight of 350kg, which you cannot see at first glance. As in many cases, the width of the front door was not the problem for us. On the way to the shop there were several heels with a height of 20 to 30 cm over which the roaster had to be lifted up or down. Many thanks | 171 |
Written by Father Don Farnan June 4, 2<|fim_middle|> is probably the right place for me to be now. As I approach my thirty-second anniversary, I am blessed. I want to spend the years ahead helping people to know Christ better and better know the merciful and loving church He entrusted to us. It has been lost to so many people whom I encounter. I want to help it to be found again in their lives.
Previous Post One In Ten Confessions
Next Post Are You Still Catholic? | 019 July 17, 2019
I was ordained to the priesthood in June, thirty-two years ago, on the Feast of Saint Anthony, patron of what is lost. During this time, the church has changed; I have changed; the ways people view Catholic priesthood have changed. Some of the changes are cataclysmic. Much has been lost. Yet Saint Anthony reminds me that, in Christ, what is lost can be found.
Though the Second Vatican Council promoted the priesthood of all the baptized, the church mirrors a military model that aligns the commander-in-chief and astral generals to lower ranking enlisted personnel and civilians. Our ecclesial hierarchy from the pope and cardinals to parish priests, deacons, religious sisters, and laity reflects a similar structure. With corporate guidelines and bureaucratic regulations, we celebrate our unity in Christ and desire for victory over sin and death while also being mired in institutional quicksand and formidable battles.
But the church is far more than an institution. It is a universal way of living in imitation of Jesus and being missioners of His love. It is an inheritance of salvation history with Jewish ancestry and first century followers of our Lord. It is a lineage of martyrs' blood and sacrifices of holy women and men who inspire us; some are recognized saints whose courageous stories motivate us while others are lesser-known souls who are personal beacons of hope. Though the church has one foundation, it has been built up in many ways by many people over many centuries in many places.
In my first years as a priest, as an associate pastor at Visitation Parish, I absorbed aspects of the relational nature of priesthood. I think it complimented the academic and introspective aspects that I focused upon during my prior seminary formation. As l observed parish life and experienced my role as sacramental minister, I often thought about the words of my mentor, Monsignor Arthur Tighe, who told me, "Just love the people, Don. If you do, the rest of priesthood will fall into its proper place." I am still guided by his words.
I was sent to the inner city for the next decade: to Saint Therese Little Flower and Saint Louis Parishes. During a half-dozen of those years, that overlapped Vis and the urban core, I also served as vocation director for our diocese. Little Flower was viewed by many, in those days, as the most vibrant Catholic parish in Kansas City and beyond. It was unorthodox, like Jesus; and like Jesus, it was life-giving. It attracted people from every direction. Saint Louis Parish struggled but we were able to give it an identity with the establishment of a youth and family literacy center called The Upper Room, utilizing space above the church building. The Upper Room spread to many sites and remains a powerful education advocate in Kansas City's urban core.
Next I was in suburbia for five years and then to the southern tip of Kansas City for ten. During much of that time, I also served as diocesan director of priest personnel. Saint John Lalande in Blue Springs was enlivening because of the great energy existing in young life, family ventures, suburban growth, and the excitement of feeling youthful, though I was, by then, middle-aged. Saint Thomas More was probably where I felt most well-matched and most at-home but also where I was when the church seemed to unravel. It happened as priest sex scandals hit our diocese in earth-shattering ways, when people lost faith in ecclesial structures and left the church in droves, and parish leaders clashed with diocesan leaders. Though my first two decades of priesthood seemed smooth in retrospect, I experience much push-back in the most recent one. I guess the turning point was when it became clear to me that the parishioners of STM who asked for open, honest, and loving dialogue about crisis-level topics were met with self-protectionist responses from higher ranking personnel that were not open, or honest, or anywhere close to loving. It cut deep.
I realized, then, to distinguish the church I love from the corporate, bureaucratic, self-referential, self-protective institute. The church I love is none of those things but one that identifies, first and foremost, with the life of Christ and promotes His message and mission. I wish the two aligned more closely. But too often they don't. I firmly believe that Pope Francis is very aware of the discrepancy. Like his namesake, he is dedicated to reforming and rebuilding the church. Inspired by his renewal, I came to Saint Charles Parish in Kansas City's Northland, a community that understands well the need to rebuild and revitalize—its school, its worship, its buildings, and its community spirit. It | 974 |
Once again I find myself in awe of the relationships one can find in the HAM Community. I made<|fim_middle|> a tarnished crown. | a true friend, from online QRZ purchase, when I became a HAM Nov 2010. Ralph Collins, K4FJM, sold me my first HF Rig at that time. This business transaction has grown into a friendship that will no doubt last a lifetime. It just amazes me the kind of people you will meet as an Amateur Radio Operator. Some seriously good solid people are out there, waiting to be met. This is a benefit that one never can be informed about until they become a HAM and experience the camaraderie that is offered. People will often ask, "What is the point in this Radio thing? You can just pick up a phone and call anyone , anywhere for pennies a minute nowadays?" Maybe true, but I cant just pickup the phone and start calling people and make friends like Ralph. If I could, I would never have the phone away from my head!!! Amateur Radio, truly one of the greatest hobbies out there folks!! Embrace it, it is a sparkling jewel in what some consider | 211 |
Get fit at Hills Road Sport & Tennis Centre in Cambridge.
The gym in CB2 has something for everyone.
Starting with the fully equipped fitness suite with a range of equipment, including our cardiovascular and resistance machines,<|fim_middle|> array of hand weights.
There is also tennis, cricket, badminton and squash facilities. Please enquire within the centre for more information on how to book these.
The club is based just a short walk from Cambridge train station next to Hills Road Sixth Form College.
Turn off the M11 at junction 11, head towards Trumpington/Cambridge. After about 2 miles, turn right at a set of traffic lights into Long Road. At the bottom of Long Road turn left at the cross-roads into Hills Road. About one mile along Hills Road turn left into Purbeck Road, which is situated just before Hills Road Sixth Form College. The Sports Centre is on the left hand side at the bottom of Purbeck Road. | and our impressive | 3 |
Restoring the People of God at St. John the Divine, Maple Ridge
The Rev. Laurel Dahill
Over the past few weeks, parishioners at historic St. John the Divine have been in a slow, intentional, process of returning to in-person worship. Taking cues from the business world, advice from mental health experts, and guidance from our own rich theology, Reverend Laurel Dahill designed a 3-part process of transitioning the parish back to in-person worship services on Sundays.
First, an Open House, September 11, gave the parishioners an opportunity to spend time in the building and reacquaint themselves with the interior at their own pace. Participants could distance as much as they felt necessary and stay as long as each felt comfortable. Signage throughout the buildings gave guests clarity on what to expect on Sunday mornings. "I want everyone to feel confident with our safety measures," Rev. Dahill said. This event also permitted parish leaders to fine tune their planning. We were joined by a special guest, Bishop John, who came to visit and offer his best wishes for a successful return to in-person gatherings.
The first Sunday together in the chapel on September 12, was a service of remembrance, where we recognized and grieved all that has been lost over the last 19 months. Most mental health experts see the grieving of losses as an essential<|fim_middle|>, we decorated our masks for the occasion. Parishioners, guests and visitors found very creative ways of taking the mandatory mask directive and making it a joyful expression.
The parish community of St. John the Divine in Maple Ridge is excited to continue its journey forward as a community of faith that supports and encourages God's people. These recent events helped remind our community of the importance of our shared commitment to one another and to our role in sharing the Good News of God.
Bishop John enjoying SJD's Open House on September 11
The fanciest virus protection ever
"This is my happy face"
Decorated masks for all ages
John atSJDOpenHouse.jpg
Golden Ears
St. John the Divine | part of healing and moving on, both for individuals and communities. The liturgy was subdued and austere, leaving space to honour our sadness and grief.
The next Sunday, September 19 was a liturgy of celebration, where we acknowledged with gratitude all the many ways God cares for us. A Renewal of Baptism Vows reminded us of our identity as God's children. At this service parishioners were welcomed back to continue in the fellowship of the apostles, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers.
In the spirit of the Good News and the joy of our loving God | 123 |
Wilkes Corporate Team Advise on Sale of SICFL
Posted on November 28, 2016 at 10:30 am.
Kate Hackett of the Wilkes Corporate Team has successfully completed the sale of one of the UK's largest independent concrete flooring specialists which has been bought out by a local businessman.
Stanford Industrial Concrete Flooring Ltd (SICFL), which is based in West Bromwich, has been sold for an undisclosed amount by the company's founders, Cliff and Barbara Stanford, to Kevin Louch, who joined the firm in 1998 and has been managing director for nine years.
The company recorded turnover in excess of £30 million in the last financial year, and provides high tolerance concrete flooring to big brands in the UK and overseas such as Amazon, M&S and BMW.
Cliff Stanford said: "Kevin has been with us for nearly twenty years and has done a fantastic job in the day-to-day running of the business.
"Now that we have decided to retire, we feel we are leaving the company in a safe pair of hands with solid foundations in place for it to grow even further in the coming years."
Kate Hackett, Corporate Partner at The Wilkes Partnership added: "This is exactly the sort of deal that Wilkes relish being involved with. Managing this deal was a pleasure, all parties involved acted with outstanding professionalism throughout. Myself and the team wish Mr Louch and the Stanfords all the best for their futures.
Walsall-based Baldwins Accountants advised both parties on the deal, with The Wilkes Partnership Solicitors acting for Kevin Louch.
Mark Selby, Corporate Finance director at Baldwins added: "We have been providing accountancy advice to the Stanford family as their company has grown, so we're incredibly proud to see it going from strength-to-strength.
"It's quite rare that we are able to advise both parties on a business buy out, but their longstanding relationship and shared business values means we were able to do so, which also b<|fim_middle|> deal represents a really exciting opportunity to continue to grow the business in what is a highly competitive logistics and warehouse environment.
"Client demands are ever changing, so our focus is to stay on top of the latest technologies and training methods to ensure we remain the UK's leading concrete flooring specialist."
If you would like more information about how Wilkes can help your business, please contact a member of the Corporate team on 0121 233 4333 or khackett@wilkes.co.uk | odes well for the future of the business."
Kevin, who is also joint-chairman and director of construction organisation Build UK, added: "This | 29 |
When he couldn't get the cash register open, police say a robber grabbed some chicken from the counter at a New Orleans East Popeyes and fled.
NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – When he couldn't get the cash register open, police say a robber grabbed some chicken from the counter at a New Orleans East Popeyes and fled.
Twenty-seven-year-old Phillip Lee was arrested shortly after he fled the Popeyes location in the 8700 block of Chef Menteur Highway on February<|fim_middle|> just before noon and initially went straight for the cash register.
When he couldn't get it to open, Lee decided to grab the chicken and run, according to the NOPD.
It remains unclear how much chicken Lee got away with or if he selected spicy or mild.
Lee was arrested and charged with one count of simple robbery, two counts of simple battery, and one count of possession with the intent to distribute marijuana.
He is being held at the Orleans Justice Center on a $14,100 bond. | 4, according to initial reports by the NOPD.
Lee entered the Popeyes through a side door | 21 |
← Fight Night gets the vote out, in a fun and disconcerting way
Type A fabulous: Baroness Bianka's Bloodsongs at Northern Light. A review. →
A rare backstage pass: E Day takes you behind the scenes of an election. A review of Jason Chinn's new political comedy
Posted on October 20, 2019 by Liz Nicholls
Candace Berlinguette in E Day. Photo by Dave DeGagné
"Welcome! Thanks for volunteering your time," says a bright young woman with a smile and a clipboard as you enter<|fim_middle|> pressure and will probably need therapy after the election. It makes you wonder about her restaurant.
The arrival of the first outsider, an election day organizer who arrives from Vancouver by bicycle with talk of chakras and a list of food allergies (Linda Grass), is funny. The arrival of the second, an arrogant Toronto campaign manager (Ian Leung) with a past and an agenda, is more threatening, a bona fide crisis.
Berlinguette, an actor of huge emotional openness, turns in a revelatory performance as the candidate, in a luminous state beyond fatigue. Candace seems to have washed up on an unfamiliar shore, struck by a sense of the unreality of a roomful of people working their butts off on her behalf, clinging to familiar bits and pieces (her mom's vintage crockpot for one). She watches herself teeter precariously between panic and despair.
As the practised hand at motivating campaign volunteers, Elter is droll and affecting as Sheldon. He sees his organizational task as part logistical (the reshuffling of never-quite-enough volunteers), part encouragement, part turning setback and incipient chaos into a workable challenge. Ah, except when it comes to his stalled relationship with April (April Banigan), the director of the leader's tour and his life partner.
The ensemble is strong, convincingly natural in its dynamic and rhythms. May I single out Shehab as Amena, a Canadian of recent vintage and the only character who shows up for work in high heels? Shehab, who breaks into Arabic from time to time — you're convinced you're learning the Arabic for "you have got to be friggin' kidding me" — is propelled around the office on a jet stream of exasperation.
It's a fascinating group portrait, painted at a startling moment in the history of a province (in)famous for its resistance to political change. On the eve of a federal election of shameful vulgarity, consider this. In a country where topical political theatre has been in short supply, a playwright known for his specialty in absurdist black comedy has put his heart on his sleeve, with this ode to the little guy, citizens who work their butts off in unseen stop-gap offices to get democracy up on its feet and moving.
To the theatre (and the polling booths), my friends.
E Day
Theatre Network Performance Series
Theatre: Serial Collective
Written by: Jason Chinn
Directed by: Dave Horak
Starring: April Banigan Candace Berlinguette, Lora Brovold, Asia Bowman, Sheldon Elter, Sue Goberdhan, Beth Graham, Linda Grass, Ian Leung, Shingai David Madawo, Amena Shehab, Kiana Woo.
Where: Theatre Network at the Roxy, 8529 Gateway Blvd.
Running: through Oct. 27
This entry was posted in Reviews and tagged 12thnight, 2015 Alberta election, Edmonton theatre, NDP victory, Rachel Notley, Roxy on Gateway, Serial Collective, Theatre Network Performance Series. Bookmark the permalink. | the theatre.
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You've wandered into a cluttered makeshift office (designer: Beyala Hackborn, lighting by Scott Peters), the kind of temporary operation thats rent space in anonymous strip malls: cheap-o coffee maker and supplies (with sign that says MAKE SURE COFFEE POT IS TURNED OFF AT THE END OF THE DAY), jars of pencils, laptops, water dispenser, fold-up tables, a notice board with clippings, maps, calendars with tear-off pages: "E minus 24." You feel you might have to answer one of the phones; they're within reach and everyone else is busy.
Suddenly, you've arrived in 2015 — at a political pop-up. And you have a backstage pass to grassroots democracy at work.
Despite the fluorescent tube lighting (the unforgivingly prosaic kind that makes everyone look just a bit pale green), there's an eerie, almost mythic, glow coming off E Day, an absorbing new political comedy by Jason Chinn premiering in Theatre Network's Performance Series.
Chinn's play goes behind the scenes at an event of historical reverb in the history of Alberta: the election that, against all odds (and media prophecies), swept the NDP into office in a landslide. As the brisk office manager Amena (the amusing Amena Shehab) puts it, in a rare moment of wistfulness , "just once I would like to feel what it's like to win."
And what is behind the scenes in politics, anyhow? Dave Horak's captivating Serial Collective production — with its configuration in the round and its unusually ample acting ensemble of 12 — immerses you, in detail, in a perpetual motion machine. Welcome to an NDP constituency office in north Edmonton, on the countdown to the big day.
"Immerse" is the right word, both for the play and the production. We surround the action, up close. And, like the new volunteers we are, we meet many people we don't know, all at once. The characters, whose names are the actor's names, are in the middle of something and they never stop moving — busy on the office phone, ending cellphone calls from the private lives they've put on hold, writing things down on little bits of paper they give to someone else to write on bigger bits of paper, re-organizing assignments on the fly, making coffee, drinking coffee, picking up snacks, arguing about snacks, bickering about the staff hierarchy and division of work, leaving to canvass, arriving from canvassing….
They seem to be short of time, and they certainly don't stop to explain who exactly they are. They have a script for this play within a play. "I'm so glad we can count on your support. Can we drop off a sign for your lawn?"
Gradually, a full-bodied human comedy emerges in E Day, peopled by individuals who, like "voter contact organizer" Sheldon (Sheldon Elter), the harried guy in charge and the candidate's best friend, have life partners they never see. Or union jobs at Safeway, like volunteers Lora (Lora Brovold) and Sue (Sue Goberdhan). Or jobs they used to have, like the candidate herself, Candace (Candace Berlinguette), a kindergarten teacher who saw kids in need of "just a little bit of help to get that leg up," as she says when she has a moment later to remember her original motivation for unleashing chaos into multiple lives (including her own) by running for office.
Rachel Notley is, needless to say, a big player in this world of non-stop movement. She makes a brief appearance as a character (Beth Graham in a blond wig). And at Friday's performance the former Premier was there in person in the audience, roaring with the laughter of recognition or grimacing sympathetically. Actually, it seemed to be a little bit of both simultaneously as the show opens in an argument ignited about a Tupperware of spaghetti missing from the group fridge. You're close enough to hear Sheldon grinding his molars, or was that my imagination?
It's a community of veterans ("this ain't our first rodeo") and newcomers thrown together by a common goal, an extended family of sorts that actually includes a mother and daughter, as it turns out.
In a world where the big things, like NDP victories, seem unlikely, aggravations get momentous. When the improbable starts to get less and less unlikely, suspense builds. And with suspense, tension, as Horak's production chronicles in a sneaky, sweaty, incremental way. You may know (or think you know) the outcome of it all, but you find you care about the characters, like the novice phone canvassers David (Singai David Madawo) and his prickly table-mate Asia (Asia Bowman). Or Sheldon's ever-smiling assistant Kiana (Kiana Woo).
In the texture of workplace relationships created so compelling in the production, there are setbacks. And they add up to a plot. NDP lawn signs keep mysteriously getting knocked down. The candidate's restaurateur spouse Beth (Beth Graham) is volatile, a loose cannon who panics under | 1,091 |
Minneapolis Police are asking the public to watch for possible signs of terrorism when the city hosts Major League Baseball's All Star Game later this month.
There will be several days of events leading up to the July 15 game.
The police department will release a video Monday designed to teach citizens how to recognize behaviors that could signal a terrorist threat. The production will be posted online.
Minneapolis<|fim_middle|> Learning Lab, he said.
The nonprofit, nonpartisan group helps educate the public in spotting criminal acts and perhaps recognizing indicators that could lead to crimes of terrororism.
A video the group produced for use in Colorado offers tips on how to recognize eight signs of terrorism, from the surveillance of a possible target to the stockpiling of weapons. | police spokesman Scott Seroka said the video expounds on the message of see something, say something.
"Things that you may notice that seem a little bit out of the ordinary. And the video takes you through some of those indicators," said Seroka.
The police department worked on the production of the video with the CELL project --the Counterterrorism Education | 70 |
The Wing Walker by Bernard J Fleury tells The Life and Times Of Irene Maude O'Connor Carlberg. Irene was one of the great feminists, a woman who really pushed the boundaries of what women could do. Nothing could tame her adventurous spirit, such as motorcycle riding as a teenager, driving all over the place and even driving a stock car. Irene was the woman on the biplane wings when it flew. She was the woman who took off down the Connecticut River while it was frozen, with just a sheet for a sail. Costume designer extraordinaire, getting her motorcycle license in her 60's, riding in hot air balloons in her 90s; join Irene as she takes us through her entire life in one joyful, exhilarating story.
The Wing Walker: The Life and Times of Irene Maude O'Connor Carlberg by Bernard J Fleury is an amazing story, albeit a short one. She really was a wonderful, spirited woman and Bernard tells her story so well. She had a life of adventure, living it for herself and living for each day. Nothing stood in her way of doing what she wanted, rather than what was expected of her and Bernard writes her story in a real way; no fluff, just straightforward words, her words.<|fim_middle|>, and it is interesting to notice the historical details in the narrative. The biography allows readers a wonderful understanding of American culture in the twentieth century and demonstrates the evolution through the twenty-first century. Readers encounter the empowering figure of a woman who fought for equality, an inspiring story reflecting the ideals of the feminist movements that have shaped history. The Wing Walker is told in a light and engaging tone and is filled with humor. It is, indeed, a refreshing read. | The addition of the photographs was a nice touch, bringing the story even more to life and allowing us a real glimpse into her life, not just through words. This isn't a chronological book; it weaves back and forth through her life, highlighting everything this wonderful woman achieved. It's a real eyeopener; if you enjoy true stories then you will love The Wing Walker.
The Wing Walker: The Life and Times of Irene Maude O'Connor Carlberg is a nonfiction biography written by Bernard J. Fleury, Ed.D. Irene was born in 1909 to Rose and Patrick O'Connor. Patrick wasn't her mom's first husband; she had been married before that to an older, well-to-do, handicapped man at her parents' urging. Rose was young, wild and impulsive, however, and her adventure climbing up Mt. Monadnock in the company of two male hikers caused her first husband to divorce her. Irene took after her mom in her enthusiasm for excitement and adventure, and her dad fully supported her and her siblings. In her teens, Irene discovered motorcycles and airplanes and surprised her male friends by her willingness to be a daredevil, including her stunt of walking out on a wing of her friend's plane. While her first marriage, when she was still a teen, was not a success, her second one to Sailor Carlberg was a match made for life. Irene was an accomplished seamstress and artist, specializing in oil painting, and had a number of showings of her artwork. When she was in her 90's, she asked her friend, who was the Deacon at the Catholic Church she attended, if he would agree to her adopting him. She had always wanted a son, and the author, who was 67 years old at the time, was thrilled and proud to agree.
The Wing Walker is one of those biographies that you really don't want to miss out on. Fleury is a naturally gifted storyteller, and his affection for, and admiration of, his second mother shines out on every page of this remarkable work. Reading about Irene and her mother's exploits at times in the past when women's roles were strictly circumscribed is refreshing and inspirational. I was especially interested in those parts of the biography that detailed Irene's experiences caring for the disabled at the State Hospital and the descriptions of her artwork and creative process. Fleury also includes his autobiography in this work, and it ties in so well with his second mother's life story. I loved studying the photographs he included and found the time spent engrossed in his stories to be well-spent and utterly enjoyable. The Wing Walker is most highly recommended.
The Wing Walker: The Life and Times of Irene Maude O'Connor Carlberg by Bernard J Fleury is the fascinating biography of a woman who made a difference in a male-dominated world, born at a time when the headlines were filled with stories of adventure and strong beginnings — William Howard Taft in the first year of his presidency, the NAACP getting organized in New York and headed by W.E.B. DuBois, the planting of the United States flag at the North Pole by Robert E. Peary, and a lot more. It is against the backdrop of a surprising evolving history that Carlberg's personality emerges. Born in 1909, she lived up to ninety-nine years, a costume maker and a nationally recognized folk artist. Exceptional and bold in character, she set out to make a difference in a male-dominated culture. It was this boldness of hers that moved her to stand on the wings of a biplane in flight, sail down the frozen Connecticut River holding a sheet, ride in the basket of a hot air balloon at 98, and do a lot of other fascinating things.
The Wing Walker is told in the voice of Irene Maude O'Connor Carlberg, clear and compelling | 792 |
Home | Multiple Categories | Krslovic Carries Montana to 10th Consecutive Win
Krslovic Carries Montana to 10th Con<|fim_middle|> posted on Friday, February 2nd, 2018 at 10:45 am
Category Archive: All Featured, Things To Do, UM Athletics, University of Montana
Tags: Grizzly Athletics, Montana Basketball, Things to Do, Things to Do with Kids in Missoula, Travis DeCuire, University of Montana
« Halfway Through Big Sky Play, Montana is Taking 'One-Game-At-a-Time' Approach
Griz Legend Brent Pease Returns to UM Coaching Staff » | secutive Win
By NIC HALLISEY
Montana stretched its win streak to double digits on Thursday, knocking off Northern Colorado, 88-79.
The 10-game win streak marks the 10th time in school history that Montana has won 10 or more games in a row, including the eighth time against all Division-I opponents. Montana has won six in a row on the road, tied for the seventh-longest active streak
"It was an emotional win where guys were fighting," head coach Travis DeCuire said. "You've got to fight and you've got to battle, and we did that."
Senior Fabijan Krslovic scored a season-high 21 points, leading all Grizzlies. Fifteen of his 21 points came in the second half, including a stretch early in the period in which he scored six in a row and 12 of Montana's first 21 second-half points.
DeCuire knew that UNC wouldn't leave Montana's guards, which would leave Krslovic one on one.
Fabijan Krslovic. Photo courtesy of GrizzlyAthletics.
"We gave him a heads up before the game we were going to go to him tonight, so be ready to perform," DeCuire said. "I thought he was ready to go, and that jump hook was looking sweet tonight."
It marked the first time this season that a player other than Ahmaad Rorie, Michael Oguine or Jamar Akoh has led the Griz in scoring.
The Grizzlies led by as many as 15 points in the first half, but after beginning the game 3-for-14 shooting, Northern Colorado made 10 of its final 12 shots to enter the break tied at 37-37. The Grizzlies, though, would begin the second half on a 17-4 run to once again take control.
"One-on-one play got them back in the game," DeCuire said of UNC's first-half run. "We were giving up layups around the rim. It was time for us to tighten up and play by our rules. Once we did that, we got stops and we got rebounds."
In addition to Krslovic's 21 points and eight rebounds, junior Bobby Moorehead also had a season high with 17 points on four three-pointers, in addition to a team-most nine boards.
"Fab and Bob were bigtime for us," DeCuiresaid.
Five Grizzlies scored at least nine points, including Rorie (18), Akoh (13) and Sayeed Pridgett (nine). Oguine was held to five points and missed the final 16 minutes after injuring his leg. DeCuire said he could have re-entered the game, but was held out to rest him for Saturday.
Montana never trailed in the contest, and while the Grizzlies led by double digits for the majority of the second half, Northern Colorado never fully went away, getting within six points with under 2 minutes to play. Every time UNC would chip away, Montana would fire back.
The Grizzlies shot 55.2 percent on the night, including 69.2 percent during the second half – 4-of-5 from beyond the arc in the second period. UNC, which made 14 three-pointers last month in Missoula, was held to 8-of-26 shooting from long range.
"I thought we did an incredible job defending," DeCuire said. "It's about as good as you're going to do against them, especially since two of those were step-back threes."
The Grizzlies out-rebounded the Bears, 42-32. A total of 50 fouls were called in the game, resulting in 60 free throw attempts.
Montana will now travel to North Dakota, looking to keep the momentum of a 10-0 start to conference play going. The Fighting Hawks held off Montana State, 75-74, earlier on Thursday evening. Tipoff on Saturday is slated for 3 p.m. MT and can be watched on Eleven Sports, in addition to streamed on Pluto TV and WatchBigSky.com.
This entry was | 886 |
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PHOTORAMA 2023 - FEATURING ROMAN KURYWCZAK
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The New Jersey Federation of Camera Clubs (NJFCC) is an association of local camera clubs embracing a membership of more than eight hundred amateur photographers in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. The NJFCC is dedicated to making photography more interesting and rewarding to the individual, through service to his/her club and by pooling the resources of individual clubs for the benefit of all.
In 1951 a small group of representative photographers conceived the idea of an association of camera clubs to broaden and consolidate the high artistic and technical standards that have been the hallmark of amateur clubs, and to extend the opportunity beyond the confines of the individual club<|fim_middle|> surrounding areas. Its purpose is to bring together individuals and clubs who share a common interest in photography, to establish a learning environment and spread the knowledge, skills and the joy of photography. Affiliated club members may enter inter-club digital and print competitions scheduled throughout the year.
Website Developer: Jack Moskowitz | . Fifteen clubs became charter members in the first year, and since that time membership has grown.
The NJFCC is comprised of member clubs in New Jersey and | 33 |
Fair food has always been a somewhat edgy type of cuisine featuring out-of-the box creations that were sure to clog your arteries.
I will never forget one of my first fair foods that I discovered at the CNE in Toronto, ON, Canada.
A perfect cube of salted butter, frozen, battered, fried and served with a caramel drizzle.
This succulent treat offered an amazing explosion of salty goodness enveloped in that sweet caramel sauce. To die for.
So when the opportunity presented itself for me to attend one of the greatest fairs in the World and the city of Syracuse, NY, there was no doubt I was in!
Having never driven down I-81, this road trip was bound to be a good time.
With a couple friends in tow, off we went from Ottawa to Syracuse in only a few hours.
Syracuse, New York has a population of just over 143,000 and is known in food for their Salt Potatoes.
Salt<|fim_middle|> legal identification.
Besides the Fair we had the pleasure of visiting many different restaurants and activities in Syracuse.
Al's Wine & Whiskey Lounge has an extraordinary amount of spirits and wines to please any palate. If you want to try something new the bartenders are always willing to create something spectacular!
The Cheesecake Factory was a must having heard about it from almost everyone I know. The menu is so large one could wonder how the kitchen could put out that many items! I had a burger that was delicious.
My highlight by far was Texas de Brazil. This Brazilian Steakhouse has been on my radar since its inception. Large skewers of meat brought table side and carved to your liking. What more could one ask for. The meats varied from Lamb to Beef and all were cooked to perfection and seasoned precisely. If you haven't been – go – go now!
Glazed & Confused offered some creative donut flavours and were surely a hit.
Funk 'n Waffles is by far one of the most renowned restaurants in the area. Having appeared on Diners, Drive-ins & Dives breakfast here was a must. Mashed potatoes, turkey, stuffing, gravy & cranberry sauce atop a waffle – yum!
A visit to Beak & Skiff Apple Orchards, just a short drive from downtown in Lafayette, was beautiful and the samplings of their 1911 ciders, wines, gin and vodka were on point!
Another short drive is to the city of Skaneateles where I had what I would consider one of the best Fish & Chips ever! Although I ordered the fish sandwich at Doug's Fish Fry, there was so much fish I ate some on the side. This is definitely on my list next time I visit.
To finish off the food trip we went to none other than Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. This is the original location and the BBQ was outstanding! I couldn't decide what to try so I got a bit of everything! Just wow!
Syracuse was a beautiful city, the downtown core has so much history and a mix of old and new buildings. I truly loved exploring this beautiful city!
As for the Fair it's definitely worth the short drive from Ottawa or Toronto. So next year I invite you to Find Your Great! | Potatoes are fresh young potatoes boiled in a salty brine, smashed and drizzled with melted butter – simple yet delicious!
The Great New York State Fair started in 1841 and travelled around New York state until 1889 when it called Syracuse it's official home.
The 375-acre Fairgrounds complex operates year-round, and annually hosts approximately 300 non-fair events.
Enough history – let's talk food & drink!
What better way to start your day at The Fair than with a classic drink – a wine slushie!
One would be remiss to not line-up for the $1 baked potato or sweet potato! Add some toppings for 25 cents and enjoy a great baked potato for great price. Don't let the line stop you – it moves quickly.
Off we went to the Villa Pizze Fritte stand – somewhat similar to a Canadian Beaver Tail but using pizza dough instead. It's basically a 2-foot long pizza crust covered in sugar and cinnamon.
Wash that down with the 25-cent cup of white or chocolate milk that has not gone up in price since its inclusion at The Fair.
But the show-stopper and well, heart-stopper, and the winner of the best new creation was "The Heart Attack".
Two Hoffman hot dogs stuffed with chili and cheese, wrapped in bacon, and deep fried. Topped with cheddar cheese, chocolate sauce, jalapenos and finished with a Hershey bar.
The fair was tasty and I loved it – not to mention that it was Canadian Friendship Day and entry is free with valid | 328 |
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Welcome to round 51 in the label showdown series between Metronomicon Audio and Jester Records! Since we've more or less totally missed out on reviewing the output of these two great labels, we are going through their entire catalogues, matching the releases from each label consecutively against each other. Humorously counting goals and giving out yellow and red cards, soccer style - but first of all reviewing the music. For more introductory information on this label match, see round 1.
Kodachromerockopera is is presented as a CD, or better, on red vinyl.
The Ulver comes in various formats, from exquisite deluxe vinyl packages to simpler CD packages.
Perhaps Interior Heart Politeness was a little disappointment, not because it was bad, but because he seemed to be repeating a (admittadly well-working) formula. Just like last time, Marius Ergo is helping out on a row of instruments, percussion and backing vocals. "Citadel Etc." is lifted by some dirty saxophone tones by Dag Stiberg, and Sissyfus joins in on flute on one occation, otherwise the two multi-intrumentalists together cover just about everything you'll ever think of dragging into a studio. Moriarty™ violin is a trademark feature, adding a folk fealing to several songs, and the organ also has a fairly prominent place in a few songs. "She Lingers In The Grandest Of Fields" has a nice Arabic twist to it, but "I've Been Purcelled!" is even better, going for an English medieval feel . The synth-driven "KnightsCryRocketTears" is fun , and "With Regards To Her Royal Lateness" is probably a stunt, but still a welcome calm and somewhat sad piano/organ instrumental. Some of the up-tempo songs feel kind of saturated as arrangements go , but "less-is-more" is hardly Moriarty™'s subscribed studio-philosophy, even if the album ends nicely with the rather nakedly arranged and somewhat atypical "Forever In Circles" .
To sum it up: Moriarty™'s songwriting is still largely based on the same chord progressions and melodies we're heard in other incarnations before, but it has sharpened a bit, and shows great variety within this album. The arrangements are also varied and add to the feeling that this is an<|fim_middle|> previous albums.
Ulver is certainly not among the most predictable bands, you never know what to expect from a new release. From their post-metal days they have drifted from experimental electronica, dark soundscapes to slick progressive poprock and even made a recent detour to 60's psychedelia. For their new release Messe I.X-VI.X they have teamed up with Tromsø Chamber Orchestra, which along with the title (messe meaning "mass") suggests a revisit of the more "serious" and somber output of their past. Shadows of the Sun would be an obvious reference, but I find Messe I.X-VI.X to have more facets, the mix of electronics and acoustics creating images that are not only just spiraling down into darkness. Perhaps some of this is due to the new album's mostly instrumental nature, as the Shadows of the Sun lyrics' were very dark. The two tracks that have lyrics here takes the form of prayers, Christian in parts, but cryptic and dark enough to not totally offend their fans of black metal origins. "Noche Oscura Del Alma" has the same kind of unsettling atmosphere that you'll find on some of Scott Walker's later releases, elsewhere Ulver's ambient and glitchy electronica melds well with the natural sounds from the chamber orchestra, only occasionally adding rhythms and chords to make "songs".
To sum it up: Certainly an album that needs time to sink in , but still a good place to start if you want to familiarize with the mellower and experimental electronica side of Ulver. For their progrock, metal or psychedelia incarnations, look elsewhere.
That's it! History's longest (and probably only) label match-up has come to an end. For now. There might be another clash when Jester is out with their next release. | album of diversity not matched by any of Moriarty™ | 11 |
The League honors Duain Wolfe for his 25 years of excellence
Published July 26, 2019 Authored by Marcia Lewis, Margo Sorgman
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra performance of Verdi's Aida with full orchestra, chorus and eight soloists was a spectacular experience for an enthusiastic audience. All elements were woven together to present a dramatic story set in ancient Egypt to the most glorious music in the symphonic repertoire. Devoid of spectacular staging, the listener was able to appreciate fully the beautifully conducted opera.
To celebrate the Chicago Symphony Chorus, the League's annual Endowed Concert Reception followed the Aida performance June 23 in Grainger Ballroom, through the generous support of its members and other CSOA family. Jeff Alexander, president of the CSOA, honored<|fim_middle|> felt in every note. | Chorus Director Duain Wolfe for 25 years of stellar leadership of the Chicago Symphony Chorus.
Alexander commended Wolfe for his more than 150 programs at both Orchestra Hall and at the Ravinia Festival. Wolfe, who established his reputation in Colorado before his Chicago appointment in 1994, has won two Grammy Awards (Best Choral Performance and Best Classical Album) for the CSO's recording of Verdi's Requiem with Riccardo Muti on the CSO Resound label. In recognition of his contribution to the professional choral arts, Wolfe received the Michael Korn Founders Award in 2012 from Chorus America.
In his remarks, Wolfe made an apt connection to Caliban's words from Shakespeare's The Tempest:
The Isle is full of noises
Sounds and sweet airs
that give delight and hurt not.
Wolfe went on to say his artistic dreams have been shaped by song through "sweet airs that hum." Always gracious, he applauded the excellence of the chorus for its dedication and ability to range from pianissimo to fortissimo in just a few measures.
Certainly that was achieved in the harmonious hymn introducing Act 3 where first the men and then the women conjured up a magical starlit night at the Temple of Isis. The introduction of Act 2 featured the dramatic sounds of the famous people's chorus, "Gloria all'Egitto."
Kudos to all the outstanding performers who contributed their talents to make this performance of Aida so thrilling; as Amneris, mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili was particularly haunting. All of that magic was sustained by Maestro Riccardo Muti, whose love of Verdi was | 355 |
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