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deepphat Monday, September 24, 2018 No Comments
"This page doesn't work on my computer". Quite often this is type of email I get from users trying to view a newly published page on our website. But of course, what I need to understand is the operating system and browser. Otherwise, how can I effectively diagnose the issue? And of course, then there's the added complications of the user's own browser settings. It's like trying to diagnose a patient without them in front of you.
There are loads of tools out there to assist with this and one which I've found particularly useful as a Chrome user is the 'Browserling' plugin. This is particularly useful when testing website compatibility with the dreaded Microsoft Edge! In fact, we're currently approaching a situation where there are likely to be less browser choices than ever given Microsoft's announcement that Edge is to soon be discontinued.
After 3 years Edge was doomed to failure. Despite being championed by a company who still have the desktop market share it's used by only about 2% of the internet community. This is chiefly down to it not adequately replacing Internet Explorer. I've never liked IE myself - it's caused me more problems than solutions but it's impossible to deny that for many people the 'Blue E' IS the Internet. It's the icon you click to go online but Microsoft themselves never gave any guidance about how to transition.
Then for users who are more aware of what a web browser is there was no sales pitch on why it might be better than Firefox or Chrome. If your current browser works for your needs why would you bother going to the effort of switching? Some people may not even know that Edge was even a thing! And finally, and as referenced above, for us web professionals it was just another mouth to feed - another browser in which your website rendered differently and demanded fixing...
With mobile devices now being the main way that people consume the internet, a browser that only worked on desktop could never compete with the mighty Google Chrome. By default if you purchase an Android phone or a Chromebook you've already made your browser choice. Google own the world's most important web services (whereas Microsoft own none). Search, Home, Maps, YouTube are all so good they ensure you use their interfaces in as many ways as possible. I'm writing this on my trusty Chromebook now. They push you towards their products at every opportunity meaning Edge was always doomed to failure.
So what does this leave us with? As well as Internet Explorer and Chrome there are a few other significant players such as Safari or Opera. But my old favourite was trusty Firefox. I always saw this as the most robust and reliable and it had the best logo and developer tools (like Firebug).
As I learnt more about them as a company I wanted to support them even more. They are a truly independent browser with superior, human values compared to the rest. But things are not looking good for them either largely because of similar reasons to the above. For example, as anyone reading this ever used Firefox on a mobile device? I haven't except to emulate it for browser testing. Mobile usage is essential for any browser to properly survive.
Even it's market share on desktop is now dropping off. Ever since I bought a Chromebook there's no longer a reason for me to use it. The amount of plugins in Chrome now dwarf those of Firefox. With our new website Firefox was at the bottom of the pile when we undertook our internal browser testing. This would never have happened 5 years ago, it would have been too risky, but now no-one cares.
If Firefox goes the same way as Edge it will be a real shame. They're trying to go down fighting (by making many technical improvements and championing privacy) but ultimately what people care about most is convenience. So, if your device comes with a decent browser pre-installed why would you go searching for another one.
So despite this grim outlook it does mean potentially an easier workflow of testing for people who build for the web. The web has always evolved so there's no reason why any of these browsers may not resurface at some point. It's tough at the top. I'd love to see my old friend Netscape Navigator from the late 1990's return rejuvenated to take Chrome's crown!
As part of our commitment to our ongoing 'Shaping Your World' campaign we have instigated the 1% pledge. What this means is than 1% of our workforce of 20,000 colleagues are committed to visiting one school each a year. We have provided the resources for this such as videos, presentations, promo goods and careers guides. We're proud to have smashed our target too with over 360 colleagues going into schools to educate them about the built environment.
As one of the main driving forces behind the whole campaign there was no way I was going to escape unscathed for long! So a few weeks ago we visited Ernulf Academy in St. Neots to talk to Year 8 students. Having worked in a school for 5 years I knew what to expect as we approached the school gates. This was organised by the Skills Service as part of their 'Meet the Professionals' school outreach.
The basic format was that we would answer questions from small groups of 5 students for 3 hours! I really enjoyed finding out about their career aspirations and was surprised how mature some of them were (only one wanted to be a YouTuber!) One question was 'would you rather be poor and doing a job you love or rich and doing a job you hate?' - food for thought! My personal highlight was the boy who wanted to be just like his Dad and be a handyman - a very heartwarming and sincere answer.
Some of the questions that were fired at us really got me thinking. Especially the one about advice I wish I'd had at school before embarking on a career. Here were some of my answers:
Try lots of different things
When you first start out in a career it's your chance to try lots of different career paths. You are all potentially going to be working for the majority of your life (I am old and still have potentially 25 years of work left) so make sure you've chosen the right path. As your career progresses it will get increasingly harder to switch jobs as you become reliant on a certain salary to pay the mortgage and feed the kids!
Say yes to anything
Look how enthusiastic I look!
The first thing I look for when interviewing people is enthusiasm. This is because it's impossible to teach someone how to care about what they do. If you're willing to learn at every opportunity this will really pay off in later life. I found that by being happy to undertake lots of seemingly 'menial' jobs it gave me a great grounding to be seen as a really useful asset to the team. As you progress at work you don't have the luxury of learning for yourself basic digital marketing techniques so pick these up as early as you can.
Pay attention in maths lessons
I hated maths at school. In fact I retook my GCSE after only getting a 'D' first time round as I thought it might hamper me in later life. All the pain was worth it when I got a 'B' and vowed never to try any complex calculations again! But working in digital marketing has taught me that no matter how hard you try you always end up using a calculator!
Whether it be working out the percentage difference in bounce rate or budget management on a complex website redevelopment all roads lead back to it. Even in my home life it's essential to ensure bills get paid and mortgage payments met!
It's important that you present your own brand to show you're passionate about what you do and that you can increase your company's visibility. I'm doing it right now by writing this blog! I also enjoy the opportunity to get out and network or speak at industry events. If you're not keeping up to date with the latest innovations you'll soon find you're not adding value to the business where you need to.
I really enjoyed going back out and engaging with schools. It made me look at my own career in a new light. I'm thankful that so far I've been able to enjoy what I do - even if my career path wasn't quite as well planned out as perhaps I portrayed it!


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BOOZY BOTOX BASH
Model warns of rise in 'booze and Botox' parties after she was left with painful swollen lips in botched op
Thomas Burrows
Updated: 5 Jan 2020, 7:35
A MODEL has warned of the dangers of "booze and Botox" parties after she was left with painful lumps in her lips following a botched procedure.
Grace Teal, 31, from Scunthorpe, told how she and three pals glugged Prosecco before paying a cut-price rate of £80 each for lip fillers at a boozy Botox bash.
Model Grace Teal was left with lumps in her lips after a botched procedure at a 'booze and Botox' party
Grace has warned others about the parties after her lips swelled up
Model Grace told how it's 'so important not risk your own health'
Almost immediately after the op, Grace said she felt her lips were bruised and swollen.
When the swelling finally went down, Grace was left with painful lumps in her lips.
Grace, a mum-of-one, has now warned others about the risks of "booze and Botox" parties.
She told the Sun Online: "The lumps were quite visible, so whenever I smiled you could see the lumpiness in the lips.
"These lumps were really hard. My lips were so swollen and it was so painful. I tried to chase the person [who did it] back down but they appear to have disappeared off the face of the earth. I didn't know them personally.
"I had the lip fillers done in January but in April a specialist had to stick a pin into the lumps and squeeze them out. It was so sore.
"He removed about six lumps in total - what they squeezed out was the hard product, so it was a filler that had solidified and gone hard."
Grace's warning comes as two in three women admit to having or considering beauty treatment.
The rise is being fuelled by cheaper procedures, celeb endorsements and social media pushing quick fixes.
Many providers entice women with knock-off prices.
Grace said: "I'm a model and you feel so much pressure on yourself to look good all the time but you've got to remember it's so important not to risk your own health and to use properly trained aesthetic practitioners and people with experience.
"It's important to do your background checks. At the end of the day, they're messing around with your face, that's your canvas, that's who you are.
"There are so many people that are trained just doing lip fillers, advertising across the internet and social media. You see it all the time. There's been a significant rise in people that are trained and qualified to do it."
Mum-of-one Grace had to get a specialist to stick a pin into the lumps in her lips and squeeze them out
Grace has warned others about the risks of 'booze and Botox' parties
Grace told how she and three friends drank Prosecco before paying £80 each for lip fillers
In a separate incident, beautician Rachael Knappier had fillers done at a friend's house during a boozy "Botox party" - and nearly lost her top lip after the botched procedure.
The beautician had injected the £220 filler into an artery, which caused her lips to swell to four times their normal size.
The 29-year-old, from Leicestershire, had to be rushed to hospital and after 72 hours, the filler dissolved and thankfully they went back down to their usual size.
Meanwhile another 29-year-old woman, Christina Burton, was left with horrific "sausage lips" after suffering a nasty reaction to a £75 at-home procedure.
The full-time mum, from Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester, had to call an ambulance and needed adrenaline, oxygen and steroids to combat the painful reaction.
Rachael Knappier released shocking images of what she looked like after having fillersCredit: Rachael Knappier
Rachael, pictured before she had lip fillers at a partyCredit: Rachael Knappier
Rachael had to go to accident and emergency after having lip fillersCredit: Rachael Knappier
Antonia Mariconda, founder of the National Safety in Beauty Campaign, told the Sun Online: "Alcohol and Botox are two words that should never be in the same sentence."
She added: "I have seen disastrous consequences due to the increase the last 3 years of boozy Botox parties.
"A free glass of Prosecco should never be the incentive to have cheap fillers or toxin injections in somebody's kitchen, the implications are just disastrous, these are serious invasive injections that can result in many kind of allergic reactions.
"In addition to that, the ability to make clear informed uninfluenced decision while consuming alcohol is hardly a sensible step.
"Practitioners or really cosmetic cowboys and girls as they should be aptly named, who lure clients in to have injections via a free glass of booze and some nibbles are just plainly unscrupulous, cheap and money grabbing unethical individuals.
"No self-respecting medical professional would stoop so low to take people's money without any regards for safety, well-being and hygiene.
"It's tacky, cheap, desperate and seriously wrong".
Professor Ash Mosahebi, a plastic surgeon, told the Sun Online that "booze and Botox" parties are "just bad on so many levels".
He said: "First of all if patients have alcohol they're not in the right frame of mind to decide what they want to have done.
"If you're a bit tipsy, you're not going to fully understand what you're going to have done. It's dangerous.
"Secondly, if you're with a group of friends and they're saying 'go for it' and those sorts of things, then you encourage peer pressure to do something.
"The worst side of it, though, is to have something done in a non-clinical environment by a not particularly qualified practitioner.
HEIR HE IS
SIKH SLAUGHTER
Three builders stabbed to death 'had rowed with boss over unpaid work'
VERMINATORS
Shocking pics show pack of Terrier dogs clearing 'infested' farm of 730 rats
Britain to be colder than Iceland as temperatures plunge to bone-chilling -6C
BREXIT BRAWL
Moment Stop Brexit Man is attacked by yobs who stamp on his 'megaphone'
"You certainly wouldn't get any British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons members doing it, or any bona fide dermatologist. It's likely to be someone who's done a weekend course type of thing and sadly there are still no regulations on that.
"The number of complications from fillers is increasing, we are seeing more and more issues with that. We've had patients with severe sepsis to the extent they almost died to the lower level of disfiguration that can't be corrected because they've had some permanent fillers in them.
"To have parties to encourage this even further is quite unscrupulous."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I was released in 2010 after playing 5 years of professional baseball in Japan as an overhand pitcher. I still wanted to play, and decided to make a move to start fresh in the US. I struggled with shoulder pain from the season before, and my velocity had dropped to the point where I knew I had to do something to be able to play at a professional level. I was advised from my ex-teammate to try throwing from a side arm angle. I still remember the first time I played catch; I knew it was the right choice. I had much better location and was very consistent with my release point of each throw.
I think one of the biggest advantages of being a side arm pitcher is that it instantly gives you deception. It also gives you an angle against hitters on the same side (right-handed pitcher vs. right-handed hitters) that over-handed pitchers don't have. This may be a personal opinion, but I felt that I got a lot more movement and it was easier to get a late horizontal break on my fastball.
I definitely would not have been able to play for so long (8 years) at a professional level if I kept throwing over-hand. After I moved to the US to play, I knew that my body frame and velocity would not get me far, and I think it gave me an advantage being side arm. It's really hard to say if it would have been better for me to make the transition early on, but most of what I know about pitching mechanics is from my over-hand days.
I think the most important thing is if it feels natural to you or not. Like anything, there should be more advantages then disadvantages if you are considering the change.
It's a matter of body angle more then arm angle when it comes to mechanics. There are some exceptions, but most of the basics of the throwing process should be the same, from over-hand thrower to submariner.
I threw a slider, sinker and occasional split. I sat between 86-88 and topped out at 91.
It was easier for me to throw against righties, since I stepped across my body and had an angle. I would throw a four-seam, sinker and slider to the outside, and sinker to the inside for righties. For lefties, it was hard for me to throw a slider to the inside and I learned that it was much more effective to throw a split between the middle to outside corner of the plate as an out pitch.
My favorite part of throwing side arm was that I got to experience throwing in tense situations as a right-handed specialist. I was always a starter or long reliever and converting side arm gave me a chance to throw in many more games through out the season.


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Our Review: Scroll Down
F1 2017 Review (PS4)
Version Reviewed: PS4 Pro / European
Pedal to the Vettel
review by Sammy Barker Fri, 25 Aug 2017 18:15:00 +0100
It's the metagame that makes Formula One such a compelling motorsport: the tactical tension of fuel management, the timing of that pivotal pit-stop, and the never-ending research and development going on behind-the-scenes. F1 2017 offers a taste of these additional activities, and it all helps to raise the stakes when you're behind the wheel.
Building upon last year's edition, the Career mode sees you partaking in practice session minigames in order to collect Research Points, which can be used to contribute to the construction of your ride. The game has a skill tree that would make even a 90s role-playing title blush, and while you can ask for recommendations from your wax-faced engineer, merely browsing your options gives the impression that you're part of a high-tech operation.
Even more realistically is that sometimes things will go wrong: it's crazy to think that you may invest hard-earned in-game currency into a project that will ultimately fail, but thems the (broken) brakes. Of course, all of your extra-curricular activities are in service of the race, and the game's no slouch there either.
As always with Codemasters' F1 titles, you can truncate each race if you see fit, but the title really shines when you've got to drive long enough to pay attention to the wear of your tyres or the remaining fuel in your tank. There's a lot to think about, but deeper communication options with your team provide plenty of feedback – and help add needed authenticity to the race day experience. You're going to need those weather reports, because a sudden change can alter your entire strategy.
While this is a simulation, there are enough options to open up the experience to almost everyone. The title's more than playable with a DualShock 4 – even with all assists off, it's manageable on the pad – but obviously hardcore players will want to opt for a wheel. Whichever peripheral you play with, a hearty selection of support toggles allow you to tailor the experience to taste.
Another nice touch is the addition of an artificial intelligence slider, which replaces the pre-set difficulties of old. This means that you can tweak and tune until the level of competition feels just right, although an oversight that we noticed prevents you from changing the difficulty mid-Career, which can potentially lead to lost progression if you feel you need to re-balance things during your campaign.
It's a shame because the Career is really good this year, aided by the variety augmented by Invitational events. These are Codemasters' way of integrating the various classic cars that it's added from yesteryear, and the short sprint or time-based activities peppered throughout drawn-out race weekends help imbue some needed variety and breathing room.
And if you still want to break that cycle of practice, qualify, compete, then the Championships running parallel to the campaign keep things moving at a brisker pace. Adopting different rules and themes – such as weather or track type – these have you competing in mini-contests for racing superiority. Sometimes these mix up sprints with longer races – or even reverse the grids. There's an interesting array of challenges that eke even more mileage out of the game that's been made.
The only real downside is that the presentation falls short. The game runs at an eye-melting 60 frames-per-second, and effortlessly captures the sport's wild sense of speed – but screen tearing is a constant problem (even on the more powerful PS4 Pro) and it's extremely off-putting. Moreover, while each track from the real-world Formula One season has been meticulously rendered here, the visuals do look a bit flat.
The same can't be said of the engine sounds, which are thunderous – particularly in some of those aforementioned classic cars. But the wooden pre-race commentary from the likes of Anthony Davidson fails to capture the broadcast-like presentation that the developer's shooting for – and the cut-scenes in the Career mode fare worse. It's not what you come to a game like this for, of course, but a bit more polish in these areas would have gone a long way.
Still, you're going to spend most of your time on the track, and that's what counts. Time Trials are a staple for the genre, but here the online ghosts are well integrated, serving up a rotating roster of lap times for you to target across both wet and dry surfaces. Meanwhile, the online grid once again allows for 20 participants, with the addition of two spectator spots which the developer probably hopes will help cultivate an e-sports scene.
F1 2017 flies across the finishing line in great form. Codemasters' latest has captured the off-track trappings of the world's most popular motorsport with a hearty R&D component that forms the backbone of its campaign. But behind the wheel the title fares just as well, with the Career mode implementing Invitational events to break up the routine – many of which are designed around a robust selection of historical rides. Factor in the rule altering Championships and a handling model that's able to accommodate a wide range of skillsets, and you have a racer deserving of its podium place.
Great 8/10
Review copy provided by Codemasters
About Sammy Barker
A true PlayStation veteran, Sammy's covered the world of PS gaming for years, with an enormous Trophy count to prove it. He also likes tennis games way more than you.
SoulChimera
Tue 22nd Aug 2017
VR mode please Codemasters!!!!
seanobi
Yeah, if it had VR I'd buy it today but it doesn't so i won't.
andreoni79
Alonso sad face sums up his last seasons... Smile, it's a game!
BrainsBush
Also a nice review. High scores for F1 2017
Agree with the others: (PS)VR support please!!
OneManDroid
...quick question - is the resolution on PS4Pro higher than 1080p? or is it 1080/60FPS?
(again this could be one reason why XB1X might start to fare better on cross-platform games - they've announced this to be 4K on their system...I do fear PS4 could get left behind...)
get2sammyb
@1ManAndHisDroid It's 4K on PS4 Pro.
@get2sammyb thanks for the info - would be good to have that kind of info in the review! (especially as you mentioned screen tearing, etc.)
Kyroki
As big as an F1 fan I am - and to prove it I'll upload some snaps to my Twitter as I'll be at the Belgian GP - this title hasn't excited me as much. Classic cars were done a few years ago, although not to this extent, and even then there were two classic circuits in Jerez and Brands Hatch. It's good to have to if you're into the older machines, but I'll only really be playing this for the career mode, and even then they try to add in all this 'time attack' and 'hot lap' nonsense. And I don't know why Monaco at night has so much hype because Project CARS did it first. I'm probably sounding like a moron here but I'll probably still get it.
Also, in terms of PSVR, I don't think it'll happen. At least not right away. But it does have triple-screen support on PC.
Tackleberry_dk
Wed 23rd Aug 2017
From the Review "although an oversight that we noticed prevents you from changing the difficulty mid-Career,"
I am sorry but this is simply not true. You CAN change difficulty before each race in the career. You push Options during loading of the next race. It the game get loaded you cannot change until the next race.
@1ManAndHisDroid The game is 4k on Ps4 pro.
BAMozzy
Its 4k Checkerboard on PS4 Pro. Not that I have an issue with using Checkerboard rendering technique as I think its incredible. CB offers devs/gamers to hit much higher resolutions, boost visual settings etc with very little impact to PQ. 1800p CB (for example) actually renders fewer pixels per frame than 1440p but looks sharper, more detailed etc - especially at normal viewing distances. 4k CB is a little higher pixel render count per frame but its 'almost' as good as native 4k - not bad considering its only rendering 50% of the image per frame.
The reason it works so well is that its pulling 50% of the image from the previous frame to make up a 'full' image instead of redrawing over the previous image. In some ways, its a bit like 'cartoons' where a static background is not redrawn for every frame but reused with only the 'animation' changes being drawn.
Maybe people don't understand how GPU's work. They draw every frame - even if you stand still with 'nothing' moving in the scene, the GPU draws that every single frame. It doesn't keep the same image on screen until you move but draws the same image every single time. What CB does, is draw 50% of the image and keeps the other 50% of the image instead of drawing the 'same' pixel over the previous. In moving images, the PS4 Pro has a built in object tracker to try and ensure the right pixels are pulled forward.
Whilst Checkerboard rendering may sound like some 'upscaling' technique, its not. Its more of a 'workload saving' technique. Its reducing the number of pixels the GPU has to render each frame BUT its still keeping the same Pixel density/picture size etc because the other 50% is kept from the previous frame. Both native and checkerboard 4k are at 3840x2160 in size. There are minor errors in using a CB technique but its still producing a full sized image - therefore no upscaling - of course 1800p CB is then upscaled to fit the 2160p screen size.
Upscaling though is stretching a smaller image up to fit the screen size. It usually does this by spacing all the pixels out evenly over the whole screen and then interpolating to fill in those gaps. The problem with this though is that the 'accuracy' is lost and leads to a 'soft' looking image. The reason it looks soft is because of the interpolation. Where a black pixel (say a outline) meets a white pixel, when stretched out, the 'gaps' are not filled with 'black' or white but 'grey' which softens the image. On a 4k screen, a 1080p image will have 75% interpolated pixels. Each 1080p pixel is equivalent to 4 at 4k. What it doesn't do is make all 4 4k pixels behave like 1 1080p pixel - ie all 4 have the same colour value. The interpolation is what makes upscaled images look blurry because the 'contrast' between each pixel is reduced. Instead of having that sharp black edge against a white background (for example) there is now a 'grey' pixel.
A good example for PS4 Pro owners, is Uncharted vs Horizon:ZD. Uncharted opt to go native at 1440p (the equivalent of 720p to 1080p) and Horizon:ZD is 2160p CB. Horizon is significantly sharper where as Uncharted as a softer edge to it. However if you only have a 1080p TV, both games will look equally as sharp as both are running at native 1080p - a 1:1 pixel map to the screens resolution.
Anyway that's the 'educational lesson' over. What is most interesting to me is that the Pro version of this game is utilising fp16 instructions (in other words - half instructions) to improve the performance. If games could run entirely using fp16 (instead of fp32 or 'full' instructions), this would give the Pro a theoretical 8.4tflops performance.
The Switch is able to use fp16 too but curiously, MS opted not to add that support to the 'X'. For Switch, it could give their 'docked' GPU almost 0.8tflops - a tenth of what the 'theoretical' maximum of the Pro.
It remains to be seen how frequently Devs opt (or can use) fp16 - especially with multi-platform releases. When its just the 'Pro' (the base PS4, all the Xbox consoles and the majority of PC GPU's can't use half instructions), its difficult to imagine that many devs will use it and at most anyway - even with 1st party devs, they will need to ensure that the game works entirely with 'full' instructions as these games have to run on fp32 only devices.
Lovespuds
I always feel like the F1 games on PS1 were the peak of virtual F1, if it doesnt gave Murray Walker commentary it just doesnt feel the same 😂
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This is a detached guest quarters for Elkridge Lodge, which can be rented with larger home or separate.
It's a loft apartment with a queen bed in loft area and a queen sofa sleeper living and kitchen area. Two car garage is for main house use but storage for trash for both units. This apartment is 15 miles south of Wolf Creek ski area and 5 miles north of Pagosa Springs. It has a full kitchen, full bath, walk-in closet, and dvd player.
Homes do not have air conditioning or fire pits unless it specified in the description.


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Zbigniew Kuźmiński (4 November 1921 – 12 March 2005) was a Polish film director and screenwriter. He was nominated for Polish Golden Lions and has received Gdynia Film Festival's Golden Talar Award in 1987, as well as many other accolades.

Kuźmiński began his career as an assistant director of the renowned Polish film directors, Jan Rybkowski and Aleksander Ford. Kuźmiński worked on Border Street (1948) with the director Aleksander Ford, picture which later won the Grand Prix at the 9th Venice Film Festival. He directed more than 25 feature films between 1950 and 1989.

Selected filmography
 Border Street (1948) – assistant director
 Milczące ślady (1961)
 Drugi brzeg (1962)
 Desperacja (1988)
 Republika nadziei (1988)

References

External links

1921 births
2005 deaths
Polish film directors
Film people from Bydgoszcz
20th-century Polish screenwriters
Male screenwriters
20th-century Polish male writers

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Posts Tagged 'The Ex'
Anne-James Chaton & Andy Moor – Tout ce que je sais
Posted: 29 May 2018 in Albums
Tags: Album Review, Anne-James Chaton & Andy Moor, Experimental, Marquis de Sade, The Ex, Tout ce que je sais, Transgressive literature, Unsounds, William S. Burroughs
Unsounds – 60U – 1st June 2018
Tout ce que je sais is the second part of Chaton and Moor's 'Heretics' series, which, according to the blurb, sees the duo 'revive the most obscure, violent, erotic passions, summoning the great gures of their personal mythologies. In the company of Caravaggio, Marquis de Sade, William Burroughs and gures such as Jose Mujica, the duo immerses the listener in another world history peopled by radical thinkers'. 'Heretics' pays homage to those heroes who have used transgression and excess as a necessary means for creation. In this new album, recorded live at the Carreau du Temple in Paris on the occasion of Périphérie du 35e Marché de la Poésie (2017), Anne-James Chaton and Andy Moor deliver a radical work at the confines of literary and musical creation.' The first release came in a giant matchbox, complete with textured side and a huge matchstick. No, I haven't burned my copy. Yet.
The fact it is a live recording creates a certain degree of difficulty in terms of how to weigh its realisation. Granted, there's an immediacy to the stuttering, fractured ruptures of dissonance what scratch through at forty-five degree angles to the rhythms and overall shapes of the compositions. But to doesn't feel like a definitive document: something is missing.
'Casino rabelaisien' is a stark, minimalist grind, throbbing and churning away at a short, repetitious sonic loop of bass and extraneous discord reminiscent of Suicide and with cluttering, scratchy guitars that call to mind The Fall pre-1980. The murky sound accentuates the claustrophobic atmosphere, and Moor's monotone delivery. The words being spoken in French mean I'm excluded from their meaning and from their sense. Oftentimes, the language of sound is enough to transcend linguistic barriers. But with the musical aspect so minimal and the vocal aspect so much to the fore on this work, I fear that much of the significance – and quite simply much of the content – is lost. Burroughs et al – this is my field, so to speak. But I simply don't recognise it, let alone connect on a level where I can engage critically in terms of its conceptual content. Nothing about Tout ce que je sais conveys the brutal perversion of de Sade on a sonic level, for example, and there's nothing that brings the bewildering explosion of ideas or the narrative fragmentation of Burroughs' writing here.
'Conquins coquettes at cocus' jolts and jars, the crunching guitars choppy over a haltering, stuttering rhythm worthy of Shellac. It's sparse in instrumentation, but it's intense, and Moor's dry, almost inflection-free delivery provides a counterpoint and contrast.
There's something deep and haunting in the very notes of 'Clair Obscur', but the limited instrumentation means it feels somehow incomplete, unfinished. And then here's the applause and the shouting from the audience immediately after; while being there would have almost doubtless have been a quite remarkable experience, the material would equally doubtless benefit from a proper studio realisation in order to capture the nuance and the detail of the compositions and their arrangements.
'The Things That Belong to William' closes the set; a slowed-down, opium-slurred Burroughs drawl creaks through the jolting, jarring spasmic guitar chords. It's interesting and uncomfortable, but doesn't go any real distance to create the same kind of temporal dislocation of Naked Lunch or any of Burroughs' cut-up works. Is this a failing? Probably not in real terms. We land, then, at a place where we're faced with the disunion between expectation and actuality.
The Ex – 27 Passports
Posted: 7 April 2018 in Albums
Tags: 27 Passports, Album Review, angular, Avant-garde, Motorik, Noise Rock, Post-Punk, The Ex, The Fall
Ex Records – 23rd March 2018
'We always start from zero when we make a new album,' the band explain of their creative process. This could well be the essential factor in their enduring nature: in avoiding the trap of becoming predictable to either their audience or themselves, they've remained fresh and innovative, continually testing their creative limits. Almost forty years and twenty-odd albums since their formation as an anarcho-punk band, The Ex are noteworthy for their eternal evolution and their refusal to stands still or to retread old ground. Collaborations, side-projects, and shifting lineups have also proven integral to this ethos, and it's been almost eight years since their last album together as a quartet.
27 Passports sees them return once again reinvigorated, refreshed and ready to reinvent rock once more. And they do, in the way only a band with three guitars (but no bass – Moore's baritone guitar provides essential tonal range here) and infinite vision likely can.
As the title suggests, this is an album of movement. Or, moreover, perhaps an album that creates the illusion of movement. 27 Passports is accompanied by a 40-page booklet of photos shot by Andy Moor. They're odd, devoid of context or narrative meaning. Simultaneously eye-catching and mundane, they're snapshots of life, devoid of perspective or implication: a row of feet on a train; a rusting car; a swan with its head under water; a traffic jam. These images provide an appropriate visual accompaniment to the disjointed, semi-abstract and immensely oblique lyrics and the musical content.
The first track, the six-and-a-half-minute 'Soon All Cities' is driven by a loping rhythm and crashing cymbals and builds a hypnotic groove slashed through with angular guitars which clang and scrape and layer up with volume and distortion. More than the choppy guitar work that often strays into the atonal and discordant, as do the vocals, it's the percussion that really provides the focus of 27 Passports, pinning the loose and purposely obtuse guitar work in place and holding everything together.
If the claim that 'there are some remnants of their African adventures' (a reference to their collaborations with Getachew Mekuria) sits at odds with the spiky post-punk schematic, 'The Sitting Chins' subtly and strangely weaves 'world' music elements into the jolting barrage of chaos. If there was ever an antithesis of Paul Simon or Sting, this is it, and this fact alone makes 27 Passports an essential album.
For the most part, the compositions eschew linearity in favour of locking into a space and pushing away at a single motif for as long as seems reasonable, and sometimes beyond. This is very much a selling point. At to B is overrated: it's about the journey. And it's less about the distance than the motion itself. Take a walk: multiple laps of the block will not only achieve the same exercise effect as walking for miles toward a destination, but new details will reveal themselves with each circuit. No two circuits of the same short route will ever be the same. 27 Passports may be transcontinental in intent, but looking the wrong way down the binoculars is what it's really about.
Barrelling bass scours the lower sonic realms on the robotic, motorik, 'New Blank Document'; equal parts Gary Numan and early Swans, with heavy hints of The Fall's 'Spector vs Rector' in its messy fabric. Such discord scratches away at the psyche, drills into the cerebellum, and unsettles the equilibrium.
In contrast, 'Footfall' deploys the same methodology and the same instrumentation, but against the relentlessly thumping beat, there's a nagging aspect to the cyclical riff which has an intuitive emotional drag, a certain resonance. There's something special about a certain descending three-chord sequence… and of course, they almost bury it beneath layers of jagged trebly noise. And that only renders it all the more beautiful and captivating.
There are some wonky pop moments present, too, with the Pavementy 'The Heart Conductor' bouncing along nicely, with a catchy vocal melody riding on top of the off-kilter guitars that are reminiscent of early Fall. Of course, when it comes to The Ex, comparisons are vaguely pointless beyond providing guidance for the uninitiated: with such an expansive career, it's their work which has influenced many of the acts that stand as useful reference points. Of the surviving bands of the period – The Fall being no more and having arguably plateaued a good few years ago and Pere Ubu only offering occasional sparks – it seems like The Ex are the last ones standing who continue to really extend their reach and to challenge themselves and their listeners. 27 Passports is an absolute stormer, and an album which stands up against anything else going – period.


text:
February 25, 2020 February 25, 2020 peasantmovtph
[On the 34th anniversary of Edsa] Marcos, Duterte same fascist dictator, same anti-farmer policies – KMP
Farmers group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) joined thousands of freedom-loving citizens in today's commemoration of the 34th anniversary of the Edsa People Power uprising. KMP national chairperson Danilo Ramos says that "we take inspiration from the heroic struggle of the Filipino people that toppled a dictator 34 years ago. More than yearly ceremonial commemorations, we strive to continue Edsa's legacy of defense of democracy and struggle against fascist dictatorship and tyranny. Another Edsa uprising is possible in the future and it would be led by the Filipino masses who are fed up with Duterte's leadership and this rotten social system."
"Fascism and dictatorship are concrete realities in peasant communities which up to this day face actual military rule due to heightened militarization," Ramos explains. He declares that Executive Order 70 which created the NTF ELCAC (National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict), and Memorandum Order Number 32 which appointed additional battalions over Samar, Negros, and Bicol has created the conditions for an undeclared Martial Law nationwide. He points out that 244 farmers were already killed in relation to land dispute cases under the Duterte regime, making the Philippines the deadliest country in the world for land rights defenders. On the other hand, the death toll of the drug war has earlier reached 30,000. "The killings and attacks on the people's human rights has been identical if not worse with those committed during Marcos' Martial Law," the peasant leader comments.
"When not outrightly killed through bullets, farmers are killed slowly with hunger, indebtedness, and bankruptcy," Ramos adds. He cites in particular the Duterte administration's legacy legislation in agriculture, the Rice Liberalization Law which allowed the unlimited dumping of foreign surplus rice over the domestic market. "Duterte's destructive programs in agriculture also echo the Marcos dictatorship's wreckage of domestic seed culture with the so-called Green Revolution which facilitated the propagation and dominance of imported chemical-intensive seed varieties," Ramos says.
Ramos further comments that "Despite his anti-oligarch blabber, Duterte has also copied, if not transcended Marcos' cronyism." The profit of Duterte-allied politicians, most prominently the Villars, has multiplied since 2016. Duterte is also breeding his own cronies with the likes of Dennis Uy and Enrique Razon.
"Duterte's failures and outright attacks against farmers and the rest of the people has long been excessive. We demand his immediate removal from office as to put a stop to his anti-peasant policies and to make use of government resources for the genuine benefit of the people. We appeal to the rest of the Filipino people especially the youth to unite and stand with us farmers in ending another dark age for our nation. More and more people increasingly see through Duterte's fakery and lies; more and more are brought to action, out into the streets, and just like 34 years ago, more and more are wanting, preparing, and working for the toppling of yet another dictator." Ramos ends. #
Previous [Fight vs. rice liberalization a life and death matter] Farmers to govt: Reverse liberalization policy to prevent demise of local rice industry
Next Senate approval of amended HSA to complete weaponization of the law under Duterte


The process of kiosk prototyping can vary greatly depending on the material used. For instance, producing a kiosk out of wood is incredibly different than prototyping in metal. There are those who can literally design and engineer wooden structures in their head, then bring them to life just by visiting their local home improvement store and purchasing the right materials. This idea holds true for prototyping wooden kiosks — it just doesn't require much in terms of specialized equipment to build them. Metal kiosk prototyping, however, is generally more complex, as well as expensive. Many companies outsource to China and other countries overseas to benefit from reduced labor costs. Unfortunately, the savings gained by outsourcing in this manner doesn't necessarily add up in the end. The costs associated with having to constantly review a structure located thousands of miles away until it's correct end up being quite high in terms of both money and time. Travel and significant time zone differences alone can add weeks to a project, slowing the potential time to market. As an American metal kiosk manufacturer with locations in New Jersey, New Hampshire, Texas and Pennsylvania, we are able to create many efficiencies for our customers that result in costs that are very much in line with those quoted by overseas vendors. Operating multiple locations grants us the flexibility and savings enjoyed by national shops, while still allowing us to act "locally." In order words, we're often right around the corner from our customers, making prototype revisions quick and simple, which can speed up a project significantly, allowing our clients to get new products to market much more quickly than they might otherwise. At the same time, we able to offer our clients the opportunity to produce short runs of new products, instead of building a single prototype unit and subjecting it to multiple revisions before finally starting production. Our close proximity to our customers lets us quickly revise an entire run as needed and get the finished kiosks out the door, installed and generating revenue, all in about the same amount of time an overseas vendor may take to complete a single kiosk prototype. As expert metal kiosk designers and fabricators, RedyRef delivers superior end-to-end kiosk manufacturing services. Find out how we can help fulfill all of your company's digital kiosk needs by requesting a quote online, or by calling us at (800) 628-3603 today.


In the mix this week: the latest from Pitbull feat. Jennifer Lopez & Claudia Leitte, Rude, Katy Perry (left), One Republic and the current number one from Germany. Plus classics from Boz Scaggs, Bon Jovi, the Doobie Brothers, Murray Head and oldies from The Four Tops, The Rolling Stones, Elvis, The Fortunes - and much more!
This entry was posted on June 11, 2014 at 11:58 am and is filed under Recent Shows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.


Nigeria National League (NNL) club, Heartland of Owerri, have signed a partnership deal with Boluspor, the second-tier Turkish club confirmed on their official website on Friday.
Those present at the signing ceremony were President of Boluspor Necip Carikci, the club's Board of Directors and Heartland's President Goodfaith Chibuzor.
The terms of the agreement include: mutual transfer between both clubs, technical assistance and also partnership in all kinds of sports activities.
Heartland will play in the NNL this season, after they were relegated from the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) last season .
Their first fixture is this weekend away to Delta Force in Group B of the NNL.


text:
Q: ActionScript 3 Flash CS5 Website: How can I play a fade out animation before the page changes? I have created a flash website that navigates by labels on key frames.
How can I have my pages fade in and out when navigating?
This is not an animation question it's an actionscript 3 question.
the navigation code looks like this:
aboutbtn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, gotohome);

function gotohome(event:MouseEvent):void

{gotoAndStop("home");}

With entire pages on a single frame over 3 layers. I have 5 main pages and 2 sub-pages within these.
So how can I play a fade out animation before the page changes?
Help would be much appreciated!!
Thanks.

A: try:
import fl.transitions.Tween;
import fl.transitions.easing.*;
import fl.transitions.TweenEvent;

function gotohome(event:MouseEvent):void{
   var mytween:Tween = new Tween(stage, "alpha", Strong.easeOut, 1, 0, 1, true);
   mytween.addEventListener(TweenEvent.MOTION_FINISH, showHome);

}
function showHome(event:TweenEvent):void{
   new Tween(stage, "alpha", Strong.easeOut, 0, 1, 1, true);
   gotoAndStop("home");
}

A: Create a white background movieclip fade_Mc. Place it over the stage.
So, the code would look like this:
aboutbtn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, gotohome);

function gotohome(event:MouseEvent):void
{

gotoAndStop("home");
 fade_Mc.visible = true
addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, fadeOut)

}

function fadeOut(e:Event)
{

    fade_Mc.alpha -= 0.5 // change this value as per the speed of fade required

    if ( fade_Mc.alpha <=0 )
    {
     fade_Mc.visible = false
     fade_Mc.alpha = 1 ;
     removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, fadeOut)
     }

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Маріус Бунеску (; 14 травня 1881, Каракал — 31 березня 1971, Бухарест) — румунський художник-графік, діяч культури, засновник Національного музею мистецтв Румунії.

Життя і творчість

Бунеску починав як художник-самоучка. Вперше систематично став вивчати живопис в 1904-1906 в Констанці, під керівництвом Дімітріе Херлеску. Потім в 1906 продовжив навчання в Німеччині, в Мюнхенській Королівської академії мистецтв, в класі Германа Грьобера. В цей час в Мюнхенській академії навчалися багато згодом відомомих румунських майстрів — Ісер, Тоніца, Лучіан, Петрашку і інші. У цей період Бунеску знаходився під творчим впливом живопису імпресіоністів.

Після повернення на батьківщину в 1911 художник вперше виставив в Бухаресті свої роботи, в Офіційному салоні румунської столиці. У 1919 відбулася його перша персональна виставка в бухарестській бібліотеці «Мінерва». Згодом займався також адміністративною роботою, ставши директором музею Анастасіе Сіму. У 1937 під редакцією Бунеску виходить у світ каталог цього музейного зібрання.

Нагороди

У 1938 художник нагороджується Національною премією в галузі мистецтва першого ступеня. У 1940 він стає лауреатом премії «За заслуги в галузі культури» класу 1-а. У 1949 Бунеску виступає як один з головних організаторів і засновників Національного музею мистецтв Румунії в Бухаресті.

Похований в Бухаресті на цвинтарі Беллу.

Джерела

 Marius Bunescu. 1871—1971 — Expoziție omagială, Muzeul de Artă al Republicii Socialiste România, București, 1982
 BUNESCU, Marius, Însemnările unui pictor, București, 1965
 OPREA, Petre, Șefii mei pictorii Marius Bunescu și M. H. Maxy, Muzeul Național de Artă al României, 1995
 Marius Bunescu, «LEXICON critic și documentar Pictori, Sculptori și Desenatori din România Secolele XV—XX», autor Mircea Deac, Editura Medro, 2008
 Marius Bunescu, Dicționarul 300 de pictori români, Editura Noimediaprint, 2007
 Amelia Pavel, «Pictura românească interbelică», Editura Meridiane, București, 1996
 Marius Bunescu, Expozanți la saloanele oficiale de pictură, sculptură, grafică 1924—1944, autor Petre Oprea, București, 2004

Посилання

Померли в Бухаресті
Румунські художники
Поховані на цвинтарі Беллу
Люди на марках
Уродженці повіту Олт
Випускники Мюнхенської академії мистецтв


This is the second in a series of posts for new and potential bird watchers who are just getting introduced to the world of birds.
Now that you have some idea of why many people watch birds, it is time to understand what tools one can use to become a better birder. What precisely is 'better' is debatable, but includes identifying and documenting birds in the field, while also gaining an understanding of birds and their ecology.
The most important tools to observe birds are the simplest – your eyes, your ears and some of your time.
To be able to identify and understand birds, it is important to use both visual and aural cues. For example, some very similar looking birds may be best distinguished from each other by their calls or songs. Similarly, birds which have similar calls and songs may look nothing like each other!
Above: The Jungle Babbler (listen to sound) and the Yellow-billed Babbler (listen to sound) may look similar, but sound very different.
Above: They look very different but Ashy Drongos (listen to sound) and Golden-fronted Leafbirds (listen to sound) can sound just like each other.
When it comes to observing birds, although it is often best to deduce characteristics based on what is visible, a song/call may often give away more about a bird's behaviour than its posture or movements.
Observing the bird isn't merely about looking at or hearing a bird, but also using your senses to gain an understanding of its habits and habitat. Ask yourself questions about what you are seeing or hearing, and then try and answer them through your observations.
Some examples: Why is the bird behaving as it is? What is it feeding on? Why does it always prefer an open perch/or why does it forage only in the leafy canopy? Is it frequenting a particular spot very often – could it have a nest nearby or is it simply announcing its territory? Is the call indicative of stress – does the bird sense danger, is it a signal to ward off competitors or is it a song to announce itself to a potential mate? Is the bird usually solitary or in pairs or in groups?
Noting these differences will also help you appreciate the distinctiveness of each species/genus/families outside of just physical features and vocalizations.
Penguin on the right (mouth shut, but ears and eyes open): Great birder!
Most importantly though, any good birder must always be patient. One of the challenges of birding lies in not having control over your subject. All too often, the best observations are made by those who have the time and patience to allow the bird to move into a better position for viewing or give it a chance to become more comfortable in the presence of a human observer.
Binoculars are indispensable for a good birder.
One of the best ways to tell a birder/birdwatcher apart from the crowd is to look out for the binoculars hanging from his/her neck or shoulder. A birder without a pair of binoculars is akin to a bird without its feathers. Having binoculars not only helps in getting a closer look at the birds, but also helps one to understand and appreciate the subtleties of plumage, colour, movements, and more.
There's a wide range of binoculars available in India nowadays – in terms of quality and price. Before making a choice on what to buy, it is perhaps best to understand what specifications and factors to look for in your potential pair of binocs. You can learn more about what to look for in a pair of binoculars here and here.
A notepad/notebook and pen/pencil are two of the most useful things for a birder to carry in the field. One can use the notepad to write down the basic details of a birding session such as the time, weather, location, & habitat, and also to keep lists and maintain notes and field observations. Drawings and descriptions of what bird you saw (more in the next article about how to write descriptions) are often the most useful tools for identifying species later. Your notepad can also be used to write down other observations about the bird and its behaviour as well as its surroundings.
With the new eBird mobile app, smartphones have replaced notepads in many ways (especially in listing) but most good birders would still vouch for the good old pen and paper when it comes to making the best field notes!
A field guide is a book that acts as an illustrated guide to the birds of a particular region. It should ideally be lightweight, handy and easy to use and carry. While many birders may not actually carry a field guide in the field – often relying on field notes and using those against a field guide later, a good one is a must for any birder. There are a number of field guides currently available to choose from; depending on your needs and level of expertise, your choice of field guide may vary.
While the latest field guides (such as The Birds of the Indian Subcontinent and Birds of South Asia) are excellent and mostly up-to-date, they can also be fairly complex and are usually meant for those who have been birding for at least a short while. Some of the older field guides (such as A Field Guide to the Birds of India) remain useful and relevant as well.
However, for beginners, very few field guides are as interesting and fun to read as Martin Woodcock's 'Collin's Birds of India' and Salim Ali's 'The Book of Indian Birds'. If you are new to birding, then picking these guides is well worth it. They may not be up-to-date or list all species, but they remain amongst the best introductions to the world of Indian birds.
Binoculars, a notepad, a pencil and a field guide may be all that is needed to be a good birder but one can always take the next step and procure a spotting scope and/or a camera with a long zoom.
A spotting scope is essentially a small telescope with a large magnification that allows one to observe the details on birds far away. Your first view of even a common bird through a good scope will always provoke a "wow" reaction! Spotting scopes are usually a little heavy, need a tripod, and tend to have a steeper learning curve than binoculars, but can be very useful, especially in open habitats such as wetlands.
Today, there are a number of cameras (inexpensive and expensive) with a long zoom. These can be very useful in obtaining images and videos for documenting the birds you are seeing. Although photographs can compensate for lack of field notes, it's better to have a mix of both to get a complete picture and make sense of what you saw.
You may also use your cameras and mobile phones to record sounds – a habit that will definitely help in learning calls and songs better!
Is anything missed out on in this article? Do give your inputs in the comments section below.
From the ones mentioned above, the most popular field guide for use by birders who have been birding for a year or more is the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent ( http://www.amazon.in/Indian-Subcontinent-Richard-Grimmett-Inskipp/dp/019807722X ). It is relatively up-to-date and covers all species found in India.
How about MAGNUS OPUM BIRDS OF INDIA by Bikram Grewal?
I have not used it myself, but the reviews for the book have been pretty good. However, there are certain advantages to having an illustrated field guide as opposed to a pictorial field guide in terms of how well they depict certain species and their characteristics.
At the end of the day, I would suggest using whatever you feel most comfortable with. Do take your time and try out different field guides before zeroing in on one. Good luck!
I have been into birding for the last two years. Although I started with a interest in just photographing the birds. But slowly I am getting serious into birding rather than just photography. I have been looking for such article for last few days. I wanted to know more about how to write notes and counting methods to make birding in a useful manner. There are few of us who are into birding but mostly for photography. I want to change this into much fruitful activity than just getting frustrated when we can't get good shots. Please give me some suggestions in this regard.
Thanks for this, Sir. We hope to gradually build a set of articles/resources for both those who are starting out as complete beginners; as well as for others like you who have been birding already, but are interested in exploring the activity in more depth. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter (top right of this page) so that you'll be sure to get updates. Thank you again!
Thanks for the reply. I have subscribed the newsletter, hope to get enriched more with your future articles.


text:
Q: concatenate vectors of an cell array in matlab In matlab I have a 4x5 cell array where each cell consists of an 121x1 vector.
What is the easiest way to create an 3-dim 4x5x121 matrix avoiding a 2-fold loop.

A: One way (not necessarily the fastest)
%# convert all arrays in the cell array inCell to 1x1x121
permCell = cellfun(@(x)permute(x,[3,2,1]),inCell,'uniformOutput',false);

%# catenate
array = cell2mat(permCell);

A: Suppose
A = cellfun(@(~)rand(121,1), cell(4,5), 'uniformoutput', false)

then normally I would say
cat(3, A{:})

but that would give a 121-by-1-by-20 array. For your case, an extra step is needed:
A = cellfun(@(x)permute(x,3,2,1), A, 'uniformoutput', false)
A = reshape([A{:}], size(A,1), size(A,2), size(A{1},3))

or, alternatively,
A = cellfun(@(x)permute(x,3,2,1), A, 'uniformoutput', false)
A = cell2mat(A);

although
>> start = tic;
>> for ii = 1:1e3
>>     B1 = reshape([A{:}], size(A,1), size(A,2), size(A{1},3)); end
>> time1 = toc(start);
>>
>> start = tic;
>> for ii = 1:1e3
>>     B2 = cell2mat(A); end
>> time2 = toc(start);
>>
>> time2/time1
ans =
     4.964318459657702e+00

so the command cell2mat is almost 5 times slower than the reshape of the expansion. Use whichever seems best suited for your case.

A: The answers by Jonas and Rody are of course fine. A small performance refinement is to reshape your vectors in the cells rather than permute them:
permCell = cellfun(@(x)reshape(x,[1 1 numel(x)]), inCell, 'uni',false);
A = reshape([permCell{:}], [size(inCell) numel(inCell{1,1})]);

And by far the fastest, if you can relax the requirements about the output dimensions, is simply concatenating the cell vectors and reshaping
A = reshape([inCell{:}], [numel(inCell{1,1}) size(inCell)]);

which yields a [121 x 4 x 5] matrix.

A: How about this, avoiding cellfun:
 output=permute(cell2mat(permute(input,[3 1 2])),[2 3 1]);

Haven't compared speed to the other suggestions though.


text:
ESG & Responsible Investing
BlackRock to incorporate CTB into iShares ESG ETF range
BlackRock has announced that following MSCI's Semi-Annual Index Review, and effective from 1st December 2021, the iShares ESG Enhanced UCITS ETF range will receive upgrades to its benchmarks, the MSCI ESG Enhanced Focus Indices, to meet the EU's Climate Transition Benchmark (CTB) requirement as well as introduce more stringent exclusions, including conventional weapons.
BlackRock writes that the CTB is an internationally recognised benchmark introduced by the European Union in April 2020, following a consultation with market participants. The benchmark is aligned to a 1.5ºc warming trajectory and requires a 30 per cent carbon intensity reduction versus the parent index and a 7 per cent year-on-year decarbonisation of the benchmark itself. The carbon intensity requirements incorporate Scope 3 carbon emissions for the first time. The new business screens include conventional weapons and from the end of November 2022 the introduction of an environmental harm screen. There is also an upgrade of the current oil sands screen to an unconventional oil and gas screen.
As a result of these benchmark changes, all six funds within the range will have their SFDR classification changed to Article 9 on the 1st December 2021. In addition, the range will also comply with the requirements of a new industry standard by the BVI, the German Investment Funds Association, for ESG products available for distribution in Germany.
Manuela Sperandeo, BlackRock's EMEA Head of Sustainable Indexing says: "Investors can help support a successful response to climate change through their portfolio choices. These improvements to the iShares ESG Enhanced UCITS ETF range raise the standard for incorporating environmental characteristics into sustainable ETFs. For the first time, ESG and climate considerations, in line with EU regulation, are united into a range of ETFs offering a choice of exposures covering global equities.
"Our focus continues to be on aligning ESG ETFs with emerging standards in sustainable investing and offering clients more choice when seeking to implement their sustainability goals."
The iShares ESG Enhanced UCITS ETF range is priced at the same low TER as non-ESG products and the upgrades to the index methodology have been designed to maintain tracking error targets of 75bps versus the parent index for developed market exposures (and 100bps for emerging market exposures). These key features enable investors to convert from traditional to sustainable investments through building sustainable portfolios with core regional ETF building blocks at low cost without compromising performance or target tracking error budgets.
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Tag: St John's
Canada's Ocean Supercluster Announces Information Sessions and Names CFO
July 3, 2018 adminmaple
Canada's Ocean Supercluster is pleased to provide an update on upcoming opportunities for engagement across Atlantic Canada and our leadership team. The Ocean Supercluster is continuing to develop its operational framework. This work is expected to continue over the summer months and includes finalizing a funding agreement with government, formalizing partnerships with industry investors, and engaging stakeholders and innovators across the country. The top priorities for the leadership team remain: Incorporating the Ocean Supercluster as a federal non-profit organization Concluding a Contribution Agreement with the Government of Canada Finalizing an Ocean Supercluster Members…
July 2018Charlottetown, Halifax, Jeff White, Ocean Supercluster, Saint John, St John's
Kraken Awarded $400,000 Aquapix® Sonar Contract
February 2, 2018 adminmaple
Kraken Robotics Inc. has been awarded a repeat contract valued at over C$400,000 by a leading military customer for its AquaPix® Miniature Synthetic Aperture Sonar system. Due to the confidential nature of the application, the customer's name will not be disclosed. Delivery is expected in Q2, 2018. Karl Kenny, Kraken's President and CEO said, "We are very pleased with this repeat contract award. AquaPix® is an industry-leading sonar system providing military grade technology that enables superior 3D seabed imaging and faster data processing at a lower cost than competing sonars.…
February 2018Kraken, Sonar, St John's
ESPS Alborán Visit to St John's
September 28, 2017 adminmaple
[smartslider3 slider=8] Official Spanish Navy photos.
2017 SeptemberESPS Alborán, NAFO, St John's
Corporate Name Change to Kraken Robotics
Kraken Sonar Inc. is pleased to announce that it has changed its name from Kraken Sonar Inc. to Kraken Robotics Inc. and that effective Friday, September 22, 2017, it will begin trading under its new name. The Company's stock symbols will remain the same: TSX-V: PNG and OTCQB: KRKNF. The Company's Canadian operating subsidiary, Kraken Sonar Systems Inc. ("KSSI") has been renamed Kraken Robotics Systems Inc. ("KRSI"). While the public company name and Canadian operating subsidiary names will have changed, there has been no change to the Company's ownership or…
2017 SeptemberAUV, Kraken Robotics, Kraken Sonar, St John's


Technically, the somewhat archaic "Gentlewoman"; however "Lady" is the current term, as used by the British in the terms "Lords and Ladies" or "Ladies and Gentlemen" .
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The Carmelo Diamante Bar Bracelet features a simplistic yet stunning chain and opulent tassel pendants which looks gorgeous against the wrist and are brought together by sparkling jewels. This beautiful piece works well to transform any outfit.


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Q: jquery mobile - are data roles inherited on the same tags? Here is my problem: I have an <a> tag with data-role="button", now inside this a tag I would like to have another link, but the inside link should not be a button, it should be regular link. It seems like right now the inner <a> is inhering from the outer one and I got button inside a button. Is there any way to fix this? thanks!

A: Would a Split List View work?

*

*jquerymobile.com/demos/1.0/docs/lists/lists-split.html


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Home » Travel » Explore the bustling city of Madrid from the Hard Rock Hotel
Explore the bustling city of Madrid from the Hard Rock Hotel
IT was Ella Fitzgerald's rendition of Autumn In New York that kept spinning in my head as I toured the Spanish capital, Madrid.
Not so ridiculous though as I was strolling in an urban landscape filled with tall buildings, dense crowds and trees covered in brown leaves.
There were also restaurants galore, bustling designer stores and more bars than you can find anywhere outside Manhattan.
Madrid also boasts the original Central Park, El Retiro, a 350-acre green oasis where we enjoyed one of the most pleasant days of early November.
We bumped into numerous live bands as we explored attractions like the Glass Palace, which holds art exhibitions, Rosaleda rose garden and the Parterre Francés, which contains a Mexican conifer that is nearly 400 years old and is believed to be Madrid's oldest tree.
Then it was on to Central Pond, an artificial lake surrounded by colonnaded monuments owned by the Spanish monarchy until the late 19th century.
We paid eight euros, just shy of £7, to take a boat out and were pleased to find a jazz band playing beside the water as the sun shone brightly, even if the temperature was a bracing 12C.
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We were staying at Madrid's Hard Rock hotel. This new, Spanish offering is decorated with the memorabilia of Latin American artists such as Madrid-born singer-songwriter Antonio Vega.
We found it to be a great base to explore, with a rooftop bar where you can sip a cerveza while taking in the twinkling lights before heading down to Sessions restaurant on the ground floor. We ordered Asian-inspired tacos and generously portioned steaks and found the place was as popular with locals as with guests, always a good sign.
After dinner we head out to the nearby Literary Quarter — or Barrio de Las Letras — named after the great writers who walked its streets in the golden age of the 16th and 17th centuries.
There are quotes from writers carved into the cobbles of the Calle de las Huertas and while the area is buzzing day and night, it is after dark that locals come out to play in the many bars and clubs.
At Taberna de la Dolores we stopped for a drink at this traditional tavern, founded as a soup kitchen in 1908. The historic interior is cosy and we enjoyed glasses of Rioja for just £3, accompanied by tiny tapas dishes to line the stomach, from spicy patatas bravas to the Madrid speciality, fried squid.
On Sunday morning, the Hard Rock served up a sumptuous brunch including pastries, ham, various cheeses and eggs while a guitarist strummed gently in the background — the perfect tonic for my sore head.
A guided e-bike tour of the city was the ideal way to get rid of the last of that hangover. With the bike doing the hard work, our guide captivated us with tales of the city's history as we cycled the streets.
We ticked off historic gems from the portico-lined Plaza Mayor and baroque Royal Palace and learned what life was like in more recent times under the rule of dictator Franco.
We refueled with crispy churros dunked in steaming hot chocolate at the popular market, San Gines Mercado de San Miguel.
Ella may have sung the praises of New York but Madrid in the autumn is definitely something to sing about.
GO: MADRID
COVID: All UK travellers to Spain over the age of 12 must now be fully-vaccinated at least 14 days prior to arrival. Children under 12 are exempt if travelling with an adult. Current rules require pre-departure test before returning to the UK and a PCR test on or before day 2.
GETTING THERE: Ryanair has flights to Madrid from just £7.99 in January. Fly from Bristol, Stansted, Manchester and Birmingham. See ryanair.com/flights/gb/en/flights-to-madrid.
STAYING THERE: Rooms at Hard Rock Hotel Madrid start from 145 euros per night. Hardrockhotels.com/madrid.
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New ChangeLab Report: The Importance of Asian Americans?
We know two things for a fact: Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial group in the United States, and we overwhelmingly voted in support of Obama in 2012. But do either of these things signal progress for the racial justice movement?
The fact is that the racial justice movement needs a serious upgrade. Diversity and multiculturalism do not equal justice. How do we avoid mistaking growing numbers for real political vision? Our new report, The Importance of Asian Americans? It's Not What You Think, offers insight into the challenges we face today. It also explains why Asian Americans have a critical role to play, if we can get our house in order.
Soya Jung, author of the new report, identifies the crux of the challenge for Asian Americans in racial justice work: "The problem is not just in the exclusion of Asian Americans from racial justice spaces, but also in the self-distancing of Asian Americans from racial justice framing." Despite this, she contends that Asian Americans have important contributions to make in racial justice work: "The importance of being Asian American lies not in our ability to lift ourselves up above others, but in our potential to shine a bright light on the brutality of U.S. war and imperialism." She argues that the connection between race and American Empire that the Asian American movement saw so clearly in the 1960s is more entrenched today than ever before.
To find out more, download a copy of our new report today! And let us know what you think.
Copyright © 2019 ChangeLab and its authors.


And if that wasn't exciting enough, while gathering credentials, we ran into one of my top ten SXSW picks, Sir Sly, and George Takei (!).
Before the music really takes over, we took the opportunity to wander around the Trade Show, learning about a variety of products and services, collecting a week's worth of t-shirts, and trading business cards with interesting vendors. I'd say the most mind-blowing conversation was with The Postal Service booth where we shown the lately in print technology, ads that when viewed through a lens have digital "pop-up" components.
As far as music goes, the day presented itself with a few too many almost amazing moments. I was at the Spotify House when Jetta was on stage, but because of a set time change, I only got to hear (and not see) her. Later in the evening, I heard a couple songs from The Colourist while standing outside the venue, getting only a peak at their heads. We met a similar fate trying to catch some of comedian, Bill Cosby's set with Funny or Die. The best I did was see a bit of Phantogram at The Spotify House and Reggie Watts at Vice's The Mobile Movement party.
Perhaps the most satisfying part of the day was the free burger and fries sponsored by Late Night with Seth Meyers. That burger from ShackBurger was one of the most delicious things I have eaten in months. Definitely worth the lengthy wait in line.
I capped my evening with a quick stop at The British Embassy for the Belfast party where I danced off those burger calories with Unknown. I left when I saw the rain was picking up. I guess it was a relatively early night. Probably a good thing looking at my schedule for the week to come.
Posted in SXSW on March 10, 2014 by Kristen.


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An even greater problem for plasterboard is its tendency of developing hairline cracks (internally) while being flexed during on-site handling or during installation. Just a small hairline crack in a single sheet of plasterboard can spell the end of your fire rating. The natural flexing of sheets during a fire, ensures a hairline crack will continue to open up, spelling the end of your fire rating. By comparison, UltraMgO™ will not crack. No damage = no costly wastage and full fire integrity.
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Kendrick Lamar Gives a Shout Out to Devyn Sanford, The Emotional Fan
A viral video of a security guard getting emotional during the Kendrick Lamar Houston concert has busted social media.
"I love seeing tears in the house…," the rapper has reacted to the video.
He admits that he is not a big fan of social media which is the reason why he is responding to the clip days later
The Emotional Fan Is Identified
Identified as Devyn Sanford, the fan has confirmed that it was him on the clip. He says that the song means everything to him. The outpouring of love from other concertgoers melted his heart and he couldn't hold himself together.
Lamar Aims to Evoke Positive Emotions
Pusha T had recently declared Kendrick Lamar and himself as the best rappers and the exaltation is now confirmed.
When reacting to the viral clip, the rapper said that he intends to bring out positive emotions in people through his songs. The 'DAMN' track, "Love" during his recent Houston concert has truly won the accolades as there is no better endorsement than from a fan.
The Album Is Receiving Accolades
The Album that Kendrick Lamar was popularizing is the newly released Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers. He was popularizing the album at the Toyota Center in Houston TX alongside Baby Keem and Tanna Leone. The show is now the talk of the town and the highlight of this summer.
Snoop Dogg is one of the rappers who have praised the album. "F**king love it…, Well-thought-out," he replied when asked to share his thoughts while appearing on Logan Paul's Impaulsive podcast. The "From D 2 The LBC artist" also gave hip-hop fans a sneak preview of how Kendrick Lamar produces his songs.
"Kendrick is the sort of artist that is a part of the production…he's a part of the full process." Snoop Dogg said.
Devyn Sanford fan Kendrick Lamar
The 2022 Video Music Awards Nominations Are In
(GEMS RADIO)---The 2022 Video Music Awards nominations have been announced. This year Kendrick Lamar, Jack Harlow, and Lil Nas X lead the pack at seven nominations in. Fans can vote at vma.mtv.com. Doja Cat "Woman", Drake featuring Future and Young Thug "Way 2 Sexy", Ed Sheeran "Shivers", Harry Styles "As It Was", Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow "Industry Baby", Olivia Rodrigo "Brutal", and Taylor Swift "All Too Well" are […]


Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa takes aerial visit in Chennai.
Rescue workers transport evacuees in a rubber boat through flood waters following heavy rains in Chennai.
People wade through waterlogged road following heavy rains at Porur in Chennai.
People stand and seek help to rescue them from waterlogged road following heavy rains at Porur in Chennai.


Serendipity counts in music as in anything else. A year and a half ago I recommended two outstanding debut albums by artists with local connections. Soprano Danielle Talamantes, a Northern Virginia native with a burgeoning opera career, and pianist Einav Yarden, a protégé of the Peabody Institute's Leon Fleischer with an international concert career, had found seams in the recorded literature and made their mark with fascinating concepts and performances.
Last month they did it again, each releasing their sophomore albums within 11 days of each other – Einav with a doubling down on her talent for witticisms from the classical piano masters, and Danielle with a bold crossover move into the jazz arena. Earlier this year, one of the region's more established and popular classical music presences, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra oboist Katherine Needleman, also issued a new CD with a wealth of discovery for listeners. Taken together, these three favorite new recordings from artists with local connections represent a diverse bounty for 2016. Enjoy!
Put an evocative melody into an expressively played oboe line, and you're liable to hum it for the rest of the day or night. You also might be more willing to follow that distinctive sound into more challenging arenas of music.
That's what oboist Katherine Needleman achieves in Duos for Oboe and Piano with pianist Jennifer Lim. A gorgeous opening set of three Romances written in 1849 by Robert Schumann leads into three additional multi-movement works, all of them presenting distinct intellectual challenges for the listener. Different listeners will grab onto different selections here, but that figures for such a versatile musician as Katherine, who has a devoted following among regular concert-goers to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, where she has been principal oboe for more than a decade.
For me, Katherine's performance of the 1962 oboe sonata by French composer Francis Poulenc really hits home. An almost Sondheim-ish opening of the second movement, which sounds like an ironically rushing New York scene right out of the musical Company, continues off on a tangent of almost entirely dissonant high oboe notes. From there it's a ping-pong match between the oboe and piano before the original theme returns in a compact but very active movement.
Poulenc's first movement is an elegy in which Katherine plays almost jazzy intervals against a slowly pulsating piano line, using a beautiful tone development that lingers in the air before appearing to shed a tear at the end of certain notes. The third movement is a more explicit lament played against broader, more dramatic chords in the piano. This movement was the last thing Poulenc ever wrote, evaporating into silence at the end. Low and dark tones in the oboe halfway through the movement set up Katherine's ability to fade out longer, higher notes in that special way where sound and silence seem to bleed into one another.
The disk is also an introduction to the music of Pavel Haas, a Czech composer who was caught up in one of the most surreal episodes of the Holocaust. Like tens of thousands of other Czech Jews, Haas was rounded up and sent to a sort of Potemkin village of a concentration camp in the Czech village of Terezin, where the prisoners actually continued their regular occupations, such as composing and performing music, for a Nazi propaganda effort before being transported elsewhere for death. Haas himself was murdered at Auschwitz in 1944.
Haas' suite for oboe and piano was written in 1939 before these events, but it's contemporary with the Nazi conquests of Polish and Czech lands. That's not hard to hear in the force and anger of this music, but the suite is structured to leave off at the end with a touch of patriotism and hope in the Czech hymn to St. Wenceslas. There's a bit of an extra pungency and bite to Katherine's oboe lines that wander in, out and around a busy piano part. The disk also includes a very contemporary work – seven brief Microludes written in 2005 by American composer David Ludwig – for which listener reaction is bound to be very individual.
Special note has to be made of the dynamic range of Jennifer Lim's piano playing throughout this album. Ms. Lim's very quietest notes have a remarkable presence and touch in the special acoustic of the recording location – the Mendelssohn Hall at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany, home to one of the world's leading orchestras. It's quite an experience to listen to.
Nobody does "funny" on the piano like Einav Yarden. Okay, she gets a lot of help from Joseph Haydn, the classical master who was a mentor to Mozart and teacher of Beethoven. But like jokes in a written script, it's all in the delivery and timing.
Haydn's wit is best known from his later symphonies with nicknames like "The Bear," "The Hen," "The Clock," and "The Surprise." His lesser-known piano sonatas, especially from his middle period in the 1770s, are more of a revelation. That's what Einav brings here, with Six Piano Sonatas that are varied gems of inspiration and inventiveness. Her tools are hills and valleys of dynamics, extra little split-seconds of rests followed by cascading notes, and a robust bass line that matches left-hand articulation to the right-hand filigrees.
The first movement of the D major sonata (the numbering systems for Haydn's compositions are the funkiest in the business, so I'll stick with the keys instead) starts as a happy-go-lucky romp in a sunny key. Its second theme turns into a mock-serious minor theme in alternating hands, with both starting on the exact same piano key and then fanning out in opposite directions. The piece then moves into a quite substantial development section bordering on the virtuoso and dramatic, before handing off to the recapitulation where everything is joyfully reviewed back in solidly optimistic D major.
Listen to Einav's interpretation with the image of several balls bouncing down a hill or a decorative water fountain doing choreography, and the sense of playfulness and controlled acceleration will come to life beyond the abstraction of instrumental music. As a sneaky little trick, then call up a YouTube video of one of the 20th century's greatest pianists, Sviatoslav Richter, playing the same piece and tell me you are not comparatively bored to tears.
Not everything in Haydn's music is fun and games, nor would it be given his talent for originality across his enormous output of music. The most expansive movement on Einav's disk is the first movement of the A major sonata, which mixes Mozartean lyricism with manipulation and modulation of themes across a comparatively broad canvas. Einav (whose first name I've even heard concert promoters pronounce wrong – say the letter "A" and then "knob" with a "v" on the end instead and you got it) gives this first movement substantial space to unfold with a more moderate tempo.
The A major sonata continues with a minuet whose bounciness she almost exaggerates with ultra-staccato left-hand notes, and then rounds out with a headlong, 51-second presto that gives the impression of hurtling downhill its entire length. By raising the dynamics to very loud on the downslope, especially at the end, Einav makes it very akin to broad comedy.
But beyond the jokey material, classical connoisseurs will also appreciate the theme and variations that make up the last movement of the E major sonata – clearly an inspiration for Beethoven in his large output of piano variations, including within several of his sonatas – and several Baroque touches in Haydn's searching B minor sonata that closes out the disk.
Danielle Talamantes doesn't see why an opera singer shouldn't sing Duke Ellington, and I bet Duke Ellington wouldn't either. He considered himself simply an American composer who was secure enough to design his writing for the skills of his musicians, and who let many of his compositions acquire their now-iconic lyrics years after the music was set down.
For Danielle, who now sings lead soprano roles in several regional opera companies around the U.S. and supporting roles at the Metropolitan Opera, the achievement of placing her sophomore album on the MSR Jazz label is significant. For the listener, the new interpretive experience of hearing these "jazz standards" is distinctive, and not necessarily in the ways you might expect.
At the risk of stating a technicality of the physics of sound, Danielle's note placement is exemplary, and creates magnificent overtones in the acoustic of Vienna Presbyterian Church, where Heaven and Earth was recorded. Jazz singers are great at "blue notes" but may sing the main verses and melodies in a pedestrian, piano-imitative way. By contrast, Danielle's leading tones cozy right up to their target notes all across the spectrum, with just the right amount of time-spacing to grab your ears and not let go.
A chromatic opening to "Prelude to a Kiss," leading all the way to a high, beautifully meandering vocal ending with every note a new surprise, highlights this concept. Less than a minute and a half into the album, with "Come Sunday," Danielle situates the start of the last syllable of the phrase "God above" right above where it really belongs, drops down to sing the target note – and then changes her mind, returning to the higher pitch and lingering there for a delicious extra second before going back down to the right note. It's a shimmering effect.
In extensive liner notes, Danielle's commentator Scott Parrish is at pains for you to know where this classically trained soprano uses a restrained rather than full vibrato. But Danielle has many variations on this theme. In one approach she leaps to a high note and begins it with a bit of graininess, then pulls the note together into a straight tone and teases you before widening into her vibrato. Listen to her sing "In a Sentimental Mood" early in the CD and you'll recognize the effect several times later on.
But the CD is also a stage for originality in arrangement and collaborative piano work. Danielle's pianist, Henry Dehlinger, arranged half of the tracks on the CD, and his piano work is often delightfully cliché-free, with his "Sophisticated Lady" particularly notable. Danielle also called on other innovative new arrangers, and Caren Levine delivers big-time on "In My Solitude." If you want to hear a fusion of jazz with contemporary "serious music" modalities, listen to Mr. Dehlinger play Ms. Levine's twisting and climbing chords and snaking counter-lines while Danielle sings long, languid notes, and prepare to be mesmerized. Then enjoy Mr. Dehlinger's substantial piano cadenza before Danielle returns for a virtuoso vocal conclusion.
Danielle closes with three of Ellington's lesser-known religiously themed works from his 1968 Second Sacred Concert at New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine. With the civil rights-inflected positive spirituality of "Come Sunday" having opened Danielle's disk, these selections provide an apt finish to a truly innovative recording.
Running Times: Duos for Oboe and Piano, 64:53. Haydn: Six Piano Sonatas, 62:20. Heaven and Earth: A Duke Ellington Songbook, 50:47.
For more information on their upcoming live events, please see the websites for Katherine Needleman, Einav Yarden, and Danielle Talamantes.
Standout CDs of Three Rising Classical Artists: Einav Yarden, Yevgeny Kutik, and Danielle Talamantes by David Rohde.


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub