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Category: Horror Mystery and Lore
Local lore and legends explored
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California's Haunted Lighthouses
Featured Haunted Places Horror Mystery and Lore NA
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Lighthouses are a common fixture in the world of horror, and there are many reasons why. Perhaps it's the eerie crashing of the waves, or dim light that may or may not bring lost ships to safety. But there's one aspect that definitely plays a part in the horror of lighthouses – the real-world fear of loneliness. Lighthouse keepers often choose to live in solitude, spending their days alone as they save ships from danger and witness horrific shipwrecks. It's very common for lighthouse keepers to die alone in their chamber of solitude, and continuously haunt the area for years to come. This is the case with some of the most haunted lighthouses in California, which combine the common fears of the sea, lost spirits, and abandonment for a true horror story. Here are the top haunted lighthouses in California that you need to know….
Point Sur Haunted Lighthouse
Nestled on the rocky coastline between Carmel and Big Sur, this lighthouse isn't just one of the most haunted in California, but the entire country. That being said, you'd never know just by looking at it. It's perched on a volcanic rock with a gorgeous view of the Pacific Ocean, on a beach that's more serene than spooky. It's when you get close enough that you realize it's haunted by the souls of all those who perished in shipwrecks near the shore. And even the families who lived here in harmony, and simply wish to return as spirits and enjoy the breathtaking ocean views. Many ghosts have been sighted throughout the years, but one of the most famous is a tall man in dark blue, 19th century attire – and you're guaranteed to hear about him when you take a guided tour of Point Sur State Historic Park.
Battery Point Haunted Lighthouse
Location: Crescent City
Believe it or not, you can actually apply to work as a keeper at Battery Point Lighthouse. You'll work on a one-month rotation, help upkeep the museum, and keep the ghosts at bay! Okay, maybe not. But there has been some extreme paranormal activity inside this red-bricked building. People have heard footsteps on the tower stairs during storms, slippers have moved in the middle of the night with no explanation, and strange smells of cigars are a common occurrence at the Battery Point Lighthouse, even more than 100 years after it was built. Visit the museum and learn more about the haunted history of this lighthouse!
Point Piños Haunted Lighthouse
Location: Pacific Grove, CA
If you didn't know any better, you'd think that the Point Piños Lighthouse was just a cute little house… not a haunted institution. Can't it be both? It's still in use today as a way to warn ships of upcoming rocks and dangers, and also has museums and exhibits on the grounds. Many apparitions have been seen throughout the years, but one of the most popular spirits is that of Emily Fish, the "socialite lighthouse keeper." She served as a keeper from 1893 to 1914, and it was quite rare at the time for women to hold such a position. She did a great job upkeeping the grounds and keeping the lighthouse in top shape, and as it turns out… she does the same thing in death. Fish is frequently seen hanging out around the lighthouse and keeping things running!
Alcatraz Island Haunted Lighthouse
There's a very good chance that you've heard of Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay, and the prison that once housed some of the worst criminals in America. It's hard not to be consumed by evil when you're surrounded by murderers and thieves – many of whom were killed by other inmates or while trying to escape "The Rock." Many of these bad vibes can also be felt in the lighthouse, which has been out of service for decades. Take a cruise to Alcatraz and discover why the island, and its lighthouse, are considered to be some of the most haunted places in California.
Tags california, ghosts, haunted, haunted lighthouse, lighthouse
Catman – An Urban Legend
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You may have heard about Catwoman, the iconic superhero known for her ultra-tight leather suits and wall-climbing abilities that look even better on the big screen. But there's also another fictional feline that you should know about…a Delaware urban legend that's far less sexy and far more scary. Like many other ghosts who haunt hallowed grounds, the Catman is said to hang around the Long Cemetery in Frankford, Delaware. But this graveyard is more than just a favorite spot; he has a special attachment to the property that is said to go back decades.
The Long Cemetery
Located at the end of an old dirt road near Selbyville in Sussex County, Delaware, Long Cemetery dates back to the 1800's. Joe Long Cemetery, its full name, is also known as Colonel Armwell Long Cemetery. Long served in the War of 1812 and died in 1834 at the age of 80. He was the commandant of Sussex County, Delaware Militia and Waples Company during the War of 1812. He was executor of David Long's will, and probably donated the land for the Col. Armwell Long Cemetery where it was turned into a public graveyard.
The Legend of Catman
Before he was one of the most famous ghostly figures and urban legends in Delaware, Catman was a caretaker on the cemetery grounds who took his job very seriously. He didn't just look after graves and keep the place looking hauntingly beautiful – he also scared away teenagers who were causing trouble among the headstones. Any time a young adult would pull out the ouija board or try to get frisky among the dead, Catman was there to banish them…and it wasn't exactly difficult to do with a face like his. While he wasn't literally a human-cat hybrid like his name suggests, he had feline-like features that were very intimidating. His stare was as intense as any favorite feline, and people would generally run the other way at the sight of Catman.
When Catman died, it's said that he was rewarded for his lifelong dedication to Long Cemetery with an above-ground tomb. This was sadly torn down in 1994 due to threats of vandalism, but those who saw the landmark prior to its destruction noted a few strange markings on the tomb. Like a set of cat scratches, perhaps? While his body may not be physically at the cemetery anymore, Catman still makes his presence very known throughout the grounds.
Not only have there been supposed sightings of his ghost throughout the years, mostly from teenagers and young adults, but there's also a neat party trick for those who are brave enough. All you need to do is head over to the remains of the brick wall that sit at the back of the property, and knock three times. It's said that doing this will cause the former caretaker to come mess with your car. Your vehicle will stall or fail to start, leaving you behind at the cemetery that Catman cherished so greatly. If this seems like a fairly harmless prank, that's because it is…especially compared to other urban legends that involve bloody hatchets, cheating scandals, and escaped mental patients with a hook for a hand. But Catman's goal is not to kill or hurt, only to scare away the mischief from Long Cemetery.
Tags catman, delaware, ghost, ghost stories, long cemetery, urban legend
Char Man Urban Legend
Post author By Joe Clements
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Camp Comfort County Park can be found along the scenic Creek Road in Ventura County, California, not far south of Ojai. The park has been a resting spot for weary travelers for centuries, with its picturesque, oak-sheltered location and abundance of clear running water. It was commonly referred to by travelers as a "comfort spot", which was where it got its name. Of course, even the greatest of comfort can never ensure true safety, just as the most peaceful of locations can house the darkest of secrets. The darkest perhaps being the legend of Char Man.
Ojai has a plethora of grim and unsettling urban legends under its belt, including the Ojai vampire which was said to have travelled there from either Italy or Spain in 1890. Another more common, and far more grisly, tale is that of the infamous Char Man. One particular bridge in Camp Comfort has been dubbed "Char Man Bridge", legends telling that any motorist who dares get out and shout for the hideously burned spirit shall meet an agonizing death at his disfigured hand.
Char Man Legends
This particular legend is subject to far more speculation than most. Seemingly everyone has a different version of how the Char Man came to be. A few of these stories begin in a huge fire in 1948. Some surmise that a firefighter was tragically caught in that particular blaze, burning alive in his suit. Others say that a father and son were badly burned in the fire, the father being killed in the blaze while his son went mad from the pain and torment, peeling his fathers burned skin and hanging the corpse in a tree before retreating into the woods.
A third tale revolving around the same 1948 inferno was that a woman was trapped indoors while her husband, badly burned but still breathing, listened to her cries from outside as the fire slowly consumed her. Dark tales from the people of Ojai, to say the least.
That particular fire was reported to have no casualties, so unfortunately these theories into the dreaded Char Man's origins don't hold much weight.
One common story told by locals is of a brutal automobile fire near Char Man Bridge, wherein a motorist escaped his car and fled into the woods, still enwreathed in flames. The unknown driver was said to survive the severe burns he endured and still stalks the roadside to this day.
Wherever the Char Man came from, his appearance is unmistakable: covered in horrific burns from head to toe, his skin blackened and peeling, clad only in a few charred bandages. Before unwary motorists see the spirit they shall smell his ghastly aroma of burned flesh, if they're lucky. If not, the Char Man may just have another skin to replace his own.
Though for some, luck has nothing to do with it. Many locals have taken to the adrenalin-sport of stopping their cars on the bridge, getting out and calling "Help me!" to coax the flaming horror from the treeline. One thing is for sure, if an orange glow appears anywhere in the woodland by Creek Road, it would be best to keep right on driving.
Char Man | Creepy Urban Legends (quotev.com)
Creepy urban legends from around the USA (thevintagenews.com)
Joe Clements
Joe first knew he wanted to write in year six after plaguing his teacher's dreams with a harrowing story of World War prisoners and an insidious 'book of the dead'. Clearly infatuated with horror, and wearing his influences on his sleeve, he dabbled in some smaller pieces before starting work on his condensed sci-fi epic, System Reset in 2013.Once this was published he began work on many smaller horror stories and poems in bid to harness and connect with his own fears and passions and build on his craft.
Joe is obsessed with atmosphere and aesthetic, big concepts and even bigger senses of scale, feeding on cosmic horror of the deep sea and vastness of space and the emotions these can invoke. His main fixes within the dark arts include horror films, extreme metal music and the bleakest of poetry and science fiction literature.
He holds a deep respect for plot, creative flow and the context of art, and hopes to forge deeper connections between them around filmmakers dabbling in the dark and macabre.
linktr.ee/Joeclements
Tags california, char man, lore, Ojai, urban legend
Cosmic Horror Movies that Perfectly Capture Existential Dread
Featured Horror Mystery and Lore Reviews Scary Movies and Series
Post author By Macabre Mary
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Clinical and consulting psychotherapist, Dr. Paul Hokemeyer tells us that, "existential dread is the terror we experience in our awareness that we are transient beings acting out life on a precarious stage. It's a phenomenon that's universal among humans, but that varies in its intensity." Essentially, existential dread is the result of hyperawareness of our own minuscule nature within our universe. Cosmic horror movies capitalize on this hard-to-navigate realm of insecurity and inner turmoil. When we look too closely or are too aware of something we don't understand it can cause a break in reality and ultimately thwart our attempts to handle our own mental health. This leads us to a better understanding of why cosmic horror is such a tricky thing to tackle within the horror film industry and why it is inevitably an unqualified success or a laughable failure.
How to Translate Cosmic Horror to the Big Screen
One of the main reasons why cosmic horror writers such as Lovecraft can never hope to be fully realized on the big screen is the intangibility of existential dread. You can't put a form to it, it is simultaneously within and without our own understanding and it's something that Lovecraft himself aptly described within the philosophy of his own body of work.
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.
Since the cosmic horror subgenre doesn't rely solely on jump scares, it's difficult to really sink your teeth into what is truly so frightening about these kinds of stories. Few movies have been fortunate enough to capture the existential dread that we get from the literary cosmic horror; these precious few examples leave us wanting more. What we end up finding when we delve deeper into trying to understand such an intangible fear, is that the fear arises from within ourselves, our paranoia, insecurities, and the emotions that these things stir up that we are nowhere near prepared to deal with.
The realization of cosmic horror is that there are these unknown, inhuman, races of beings that have inexplicably existed since times before life on Earth could boast multicellular organisms. These beings, creatures, or ancient powers don't care about us or our existence–we are insignificant and immaterial to the grand scheme of things. This insignificance fuels our fears and results with the ultimate imperceptible terror, the unknown. Fear of the unknown has many succumb to insanity and that's exactly what happens with the best Lovecraftian literature.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
We have Stanley Kubrick to thank for making the first movie to successfully capture the vision of cosmic horror. His vision met the Lovecraftian horror requirements pretty spectacularly; while critics either hailed this movie as a boring spectacle of lights or a visionary way to explain the cosmos, one thing is for certain–Kubrick gave us a possible view into the future that we could have never before have even tried to explain. This piece is a solid example of cosmic horror that meets both our aspirations of where we could possibly go as the human race and the place we also inch towards with trepidation. Lovecraft's writing suggested that in his world that extraterrestrials were actually his inspiration for the ancient gods or beings that societies long since passed had worshipped.
Clarke's writing supported Lovecraft's creative expression of the ancient ones–an idea further supported by the sequel to 2001: A Space Oddysey which was titled 3001: The Final Odyssey. The only major difference between the attitudes of Clarke and Lovecraft lies within the approach of the aliens towards humanity. Where Lovecraft features an indifferent perspective–as if humans were aphids to their godly prowess, Clarke suggests a far more amicable relationship. What really matters in this narrative though is that Lovecraftian horror elicits an existential dread which is made clearly possible in Clarke's literary works and Kubricks eventual screen adaptation.
John Carpenter is considered a master of horror and that's a fair assessment, in his long career of horror creation he has been the main name attached to some of the most famous and most underrated movies the horror genre can boast about. His first big studio movie came to us in 1982 via The Thing and it's also a perfect example of cosmic a cosmic horror movie. Almost forty years after its creation and it's still a classic within this subgenre. Despite initially coming across as a monster movie, when it's analyzed with a heavier lens, it's clear that it perfectly fits the bill of something that's deeper, darker, and far more intangible than just an evil monster. While The Thing (1982) does deliver the monster, it's the actual form of this invading force that is ultimately well beyond our ability to comprehend.
We never see the monster in its true form, because it's always shown either in the guise of one of the crew members or in its transformation to its new disguise. The monster effects were considered state-of-the-art in 1982, it may seem like they would be outdated by now, but don't be fooled, Rob Bottin continues to enthrall us with his ability to both elicit a sense of wonder and revulsion; they also keep us in the dark just like Lovecraft himself thrived on being non-descriptive, choosing to encourage readers to envision their own, "indescribable horror."
The bread-and-butter of the cosmic horror genre is typically that which cannot be seen, right? Well, John Carpenter gave us all a middle finger when he essentially slapped us in the face with a monster that we can not only see but one that we still can't give a proper description of. This monster doesn't behave in a manner that would suggest it's a creature that belongs to our world, which leads us to believe it's an alien. Not to spoil anything but it is the main reason that we suggest watching this movie before the prequel, of the same name, that was released in 2011. The monster (alien?) is just the tip of the cosmic horror iceberg; what the creature ultimately represents is the debilitating nature of what it means to have your entire worldview changed forever.
In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
Another John Carpenter movie, albeit quite a bit more underappreciated, In the Mouth of Madness (1994) definitely did its job of inviting existential dread upon audiences. Curiously enough, while the audience experiences this indeterminable terror, so does our protagonist; we watch as his reality unfolds around him and he is exposed to the ultimate mindfuck at the end of it all. What is real? What can truly be expected in life when we don't even know how to cope with the existence of the unknown?
Event Horizon (1997)
This classic sci-fi movie takes cosmic horror to a more literal level, by being set in the actual cosmos. This movie is amazing because it functions on so many levels, as a mystery, science fiction, horror, and action movie. The characters on board are sent to discover what happened to the crew of a ship that had been sent to discover parts of the universe and had otherwise been missing in action for nearly a decade. After it suddenly reappears, the question on everyone's mind is–where was the Event Horizon the entire time?
Pulse (2006)
This movie is where Wes Craven finally took a crack at cosmic horror and even if he didn't do it intentionally, he still technically did it. While this movie was basically a remake of the Japanese film Kairo (2001), it begs the question of what would happen when technology crossed paths with the other side. While the move came across as simply another American remake of a successful Japanese film, it does still make it to the cosmic horror party.
The Mist (2007)
This movie brings us a psychologically traumatizing kind of fear–the kind that makes you lose faith in humanity and its ability to maintain some semblance of civility and order throughout chaos. What is really terrifying about this movie isn't the otherworldly monsters which we get decent exposure to, it's the characters and their inability to withstand the stress of their situation. We see the characters go through an extreme transformation in their two days of being held captive by the mist; at first cooler heads prevail, but constant fear-mongering by the town's bible-thumping mentally disturbed resident leads a majority of them to demand blood sacrifice to appease the monsters that they believe God has sent to punish them. Classically terrifying cosmic horror that has aged well over the past decade.
This is probably the movie that least represents cosmic horror within the context of this list–since this movie deals with forces that originate on Earth, particularly Mother Nature herself, instead of an ancient being that has come to take over and extinguish our existence with little to no premeditated vision of extermination. It still fits the subgenre though, because of the inability to truly comprehend the forces at work and the feelings that we see the characters experience throughout the movie. Even though we're left with an explanation of what our protagonists have encountered, we're also left with this unrelenting feeling that we don't actually possess as much control over our existence as we initially believed.
The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
Perhaps its the stereotypical creepy gas station attendant, or the lack of accumulated dust on the relics in the cellar of the cabin, or perhaps it's the pain-worshipping redneck zombies that dig their way out of the ground–this movie doesn't walk or quack like a cosmic horror duck, at least not at first. If we discount the major hints that are dropped throughout this movie, the entire movie may end up shocking you once it reaches its finality. It stands to reason though, that if you pay attention throughout the movie you'll be on edge and most notably creeped out by the subtle external influences at work in this complex, comical, and downright terrifying film. In the end, the character's realization of what is really going on is what sells this movie as a true gem in the realm of cosmic horror. Not only do they go through all of the stages of grief in a twenty-minute span, but they also cross over into the realm of acceptance within the insanity that they find themselves facing.
Even though The Thing (2011) came out almost thirty years after the original 1982 version, it actually serves as a prequel to John Carpenter's first masterwork. More is revealed to us about this universe throughout the movie, but it's almost like this prequel was meant to be watched after we're already exposed to the monster and already know the havoc it can wreak within a small, claustrophobic, and insanely isolated region. In our opinion, watching this one as if it were a sequel really helps to keep the original mysterious and terrifying. So if you're planning on watching these two movies back to back, watch this one last.
This movie was birthed from a movie franchise with an already extensive history, stemming from the Alien franchise that began its epic journey in 1979. The cosmic horror focus made this move unlike any of its predecessors, which all made their home in the action, science fiction, monster/alien horror, and thriller genres. We get to see the missing piece of this familiar Alien puzzle, but the Engineers weren't exactly what was expected out of the story. It makes sense that fans of a violent and terrifying franchise wouldn't be able to relate as well to a story that hinged on a narrative where human beings were simply a test species genetically engineered by an ancient race of beings. As a result and none-too-surprisingly, it didn't do too well with the main following of the original franchise. So even though Prometheus (2012) was a highly anticipated movie, the fans of the original franchise weren't too thrilled with this new cosmic horror focus of the overall story.
The Void (2016)
As creepy as it is confusing, this movie is a great example of cosmic horror. The creatures smack of Lovecraft's strange influence, where there is no real ability to describe what they are. This all takes place in a pretty deserted hospital, which is creepy enough if you've ever seen a movie with the stereotypical abandoned and haunted medical center. All we really know when we watch this movie is that it attempts to convey the existence of evil things we can't hope to know or understand and if that's not cosmic horror, then we're not sure what is.
The Endless (2017)
If you're the type that is intrigued by the psychology of cults and their idea of ascension within the context of mass suicide, then this movie is definitely for you. Outwardly it just seems like some kooky people who are looking for a form of validation through their belief system, but then we realize there are indescribable things at work behind the scenes. When we join two of the cult survivors who go back to find out what's really going on we see that nothing is what it seems and that the mystery is hidden beneath the surface. The dread that we face from this movie is spurred by our need to know what is going on, so we sit on the edge of our seats waiting to see what our two protagonists came to find out.
Life (2017)
It's difficult to know whether or not a movie like this exists within the realm of cosmic horror–or if it's just another alien movie. Here's the thing though, even though we see the alien, monster, lifeform (or whatever you want to call it) throughout the entire movie, there is no viable way to know whether this is another evil alien, or just an uncaring being that has a predisposition to survive no matter what the cost is to another form of life. A huge part of cosmic horror is that the menacing force within the story doesn't need to be evil–it just needs to be overwhelming and intangible, or unidentifable. Their trail of destruction needs to make you feel small, insignificant, and easily discarded.
Annihilation (2018)
If you didn't quite understand Annihilation (2018) then you're not the only one, but that was sort of the entire point of the movie. Even though Natalie Portman dominated this movie in her typical fashion, the movie didn't get a lot of credit for how intensely original it was; perhaps it was because there was no determinable wrap up to the story, but no good cosmic horror story does. While the jump scares and monsters should have lent to it being an instant horror classic, the terrifying nature of what was going on inside of "the shimmer," and the inability for people to completely understand the grand theme of utter helplessness in the face of something so large and indefinable led to a lot of people saying it was a bad movie.
In the defense of Annihilation (2018), it's not that it was a bad movie, there are just not a lot of people who understand or appreciate the classic Lovecraftian influences that make this movie such a success. There's nothing better than a movie that leaves us questioning everything we know about our own existence, that is the very core of cosmic horror. We see the invading force of the movie literally taking everything it encounters in its path and changing it from something we know and can easily recognize to something entirely new and foreign. Neither we as the viewers nor the characters themselves can fathom the existence of something that can literally rewrite how we define reality on our Earth. If you're planning on reading the book that the movie was based on, don't worry about whether or not you read it first–the movie and book hold little in common other than the name.
The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.
Bird Box (2018)
A movie that was simultaneously successful and a joke in the increasingly nihilistic attitude of today's world; it earned its status as the most successful original Netflix film in the history of the platform, but it also caused the less intelligent people of society to take the Bird Box Challenge in an effort to take advantage of their fifteen minutes of fame. This challenge like its predecessor, the Tide Pod Challenge ended up getting people hurt and challenged a lot more people to denounce Darwinism in the face of such blatant disregard of responsible action. The social media frenzy that surrounded this movie may have been what everyone was really talking about, but it didn't detract from the overall cosmic message of the movie.
Like any true Lovecraftian horror story, we see from the very beginning that the horror element of this entire story is the indescribable, madness-inducing truth of the evil they are facing. The perfection of cosmic horror is that the source of fear doesn't have to be seen by the audience in order to really bring the point home. In fact, the less we see of the source the scarier it becomes, that which cannot be defined or that which cannot hope to be known speaks to our fear of the unknown. Fear of the unknown is one of the oldest fears to plague humanity, it harkens back to the days where our fight or flight response to dangerous situations was what kept us alive. This indescribable creature that terrorizes the survivors of the Bird Box universe is exactly what Lovecraft's cosmic horror is truly all about–we see that just the sight of these creatures creates such a huge wave of existential dread in a person that they literally respond by committing suicide. Those who are already suffering from mental illness just see the truth of what they already know and seek to show their truth to others.
Color Out of Space (2019)
This take on Lovecraft's Color Out of Space (2019) marks the first truly successful adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's writing to the screen. The original short story of the same title was noted to be Lovecraft's favorite amongst his own short stories and can be listened to on YouTube.
Considering the failure of many of Lovecraft's previous works being translated to the screen, this movie was both highly anticipated and doubted. Horror lovers eagerly awaited to see if it would be a true flop as all of the attempts that had come before it, or if it would actually capture Lovecraft's vision. This undertaking, Nicolas Cage notwithstanding, was an incredibly solid effort to capture that lovely, wonderful, existential dread that Lovecraft made so popular. The jump scares in this movie are nearly non-existent, instead, we got the frightening tale that we were hoping for in true Lovecraft form.
Macabre Mary
North Carolina-based author and artist, Mary has been a horror aficionado since the mid-2000s. Originally a hobby artist and writer, she found her niche in the horror industry in late 2019 and hasn't looked back since. Mary's evolution into a horror expert allowed her to express herself truly for the first time in her life. Now, she prides herself on indulging in the stuff of nightmares.
Mary also moonlights as a content creator across multiple social media platforms—breaking down horror tropes on YouTube, as well as playing horror games and broadcasting live digital art sessions on Twitch.
www.macabremary.com
Tags aliens, ancient world, cosmic horror, existential dread, gods, h.p. lovecraft, horror, lovecraft, lovecraftian
Curse of The River Serpent – Urban Legend
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Technically speaking, we as a species have explored more of the cosmos than of the extensive oceans that make up the majority of our planet. Earth's history is riddled with sightings and encounters of subaqueous creatures both large and small, beautiful and dangerous, and real and imaginary. Whole skeletons have been discovered to prove the existence of immense antediluvian monsters the globe over. While these creatures are in fact proven to have roamed the earth's waters at some prehistoric juncture, many more fantastical types have managed to bleed over into a myriad of weird and wonderful superstitions. The Curse of The River serpent is no exception.
Urban legends are positively rampant in the United States, largely in sparse areas of vast deserts, rivers, and woodland where superstition is given true space to run wild. One long-persevering tale, originating from the rivers of Tennessee and Alabama, sounds more like something from HP Lovecraft's most aqueous nightmare than a backwater fantasy. This is the curse of the river serpent.
The Coosa River
By Original: Pfly, using a base map template made with US Federal public domain GIS data;Version 3: John Lambert – This is a modification of File:MobileAlabamaCoosa2.png, which is in Wikimedia under GFDL license., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2065758
The Coosa River, once claimed by the French and considered the "key to the country", is one of the main areas this particular thalassic oddity has been sighted. A 280 mile tributary of the Alabama River, Coosa River has been a place of rich history since long before the first Europeans visited it in 1540. Coosa Basin contains 147 fish species, oddities such as the painted rocksnail, and plenty of alligator sightings, but it was around 1822 when a great snakelike creature with large fins was first spotted slithering near the banks at Ball Play Creek.
The Curse of The River Serpent Legend
Columnist E. Randall Floyd described several incidents in a 1993 article in the Spartanburg Herald-Journal. According to the article, Buck Sutton was fishing in Van's Hole when he saw the creature writhing in the swampy shallows. He described the horrible sighting to his friends, only to turn up mysteriously dead a few days later. Since this mysterious occurrence other victims have fallen prey to the serpent's curse, such as Billy Burns dying in 1827 and Jim Windom in 1829. No records exist as to the actual cause of these perplexing departures, though the stories are evidence enough for many to avoid the basin at all costs.
So is it just backwoods imagination gone wild, or is there something to be said for the curse of the Alabama river serpent? While most tales of sea creatures have been dismissed as sightings of extremely large river fish, fossils discovered in 1834 show a prehistoric whale once swam in waters that existed long ago where Alabama is now. According to the Alabama Department of Archives and History, the creature was later found by scientists to be Basilosaurus cetoides, or zeuglodon, a prehistoric meat-eating whale found once in the Eocene epoch that grew as long as 70 feet (the head itself able to grow as long as five feet).
Humans are not meant to be underwater, and it is this fact that drives our inescapable thalassic fears. Films like Underwater (2020) and Leviathan (1989) exploit this to great effect, and the possible existence of seventy-foot sea serpents doesn't help matters much. From the early to mid-1800s, sea serpent sightings occurred with the regularity of UFO sightings today, according to the Geological Survey of Alabama, and it is within the public's fascination with the uninhabitable that the truth will grow ever closer.
Underwater (2020) – IMDb
Leviathan (1989) – IMDb
Car-sized catfish? Supernatural serpents? 'Monster Fish' host Zeb Hogan discusses Alabama's legendary river creatures (Odd Travels w/video, photos) – al.com
Herald-Journal – Google News Archive Search
Tags alabama, coosa river, lore, urban legend, urban legends


Discussion in 'Gaming Reviews' started by MilkyMalky, Nov 15, 2011.
How long should you play a game before you can write a fair review on it? 5 hours? 10? Play it enough to see the majority of the game? Or maybe there's some amongst you who feel you should play a game in its entirety before you can do it justice and fairly critique it?
Now I appreciate that's a lot of questions for the start of the review, but with good reason. I've been umming and aahing over this review for a little while. You see I fall into the latter camps that you should have seen the majority of the game in order to fully review it – just in case. It means people are more likely to trust what you say and also gives you all the information you need to form a fair opinion.
However for Xenoblade Chronicles, and for me personally, that just isn't possible. To say this game is huge is an understatement. I'm over 30 hours in to the game and a brief look at a gamefaqs walkthrough I would say I'm about halfway through. And thats with me not doing all the side material available here. So I apologise from the start. I haven't seen the final boss (if there is one) I probably haven't met some of the more important characters, I've probably not seen the big twist, and I still can't tell you where the story is going to end up. But with 30 hours+ under my belt I think I can have a fair stab at this review to give you an idea of the game and if it is for you.
If you've made it this far into the review you're probably thinking "Bloody hell Milky, you can talk for England without saying anything – get on with it!!". So, for those people I shall summarise my thoughts on this game early on. It's the best RPG game I have played since the SNES (FYI Secret of Mana), the visuals of the game are better than Super Mario Galaxy (1&2), the soundtrack is better than Twilight Princess, the character development and story are on a par with Tales of Symphonia (the original), so much so that this is the only game I have ever played where my girlfriend actively encourages me to play so she can see where the story is going.
To be blunt if you own a Wii still and you like RPGs even remotely, this game needs to be in your collection, and if you still don't believe me. I will quantify it with the following statement. For my money this is the best game on Wii. Now for those who don't know me, I'm a die-hard Nintendo fan, I love their creativity and franchises. I live for the next Zelda, Mario or Metroid. My favourite Wii game up until now was Super Mario Galaxy 2, Metroid Prime for GC and Ocarina of Time for N64 – Nintendo franchises all the way. It takes a lot to shift these behemoths and I don't do it lightly. So hopefully that puts some perspective into that previous statement. The game is that good. Get it now.
Hopefully the above will have satisified the "short review" crowd, if you're sticking with me, you probably want to know my reasons for such an outrageous statement above. So, a bit of background to the game itself. The game world is such that the world is in fact two giant beings known as the Mechonis and the Bionis. These great deities battled long ago, and then after the long fight were both defeated. These deities then provide the landscape on which all life lives. The main protagonist is a guy named Shulk who is a member of the Homs (human) race who live in a colony on Bionis. All seems hunky dory until the Mechon (a robot race) from the Mechonis attack the colony. Shulk then seeks revenge on the Mechon who attacked the people of his colony and along with companions and the mysterious sword – the Monado – he sets off on his adventures.
So nowt groundbreaking with the start of the story, its fairly standard JRPG fare of "idyllic life disrupted by enemy". One of the things that sets this game apart though is the main power of Shulk's Monado sword, in that it has the power to see into future in the form of visions. These have two functions in the game. The first and obvious one is that it gives us glimpses into the future of the story before they happen – raising the intrigue and leaving the player guessing as to how these things transpire. They are always done to give enough away to make you think but never enough for you to know what is going to happen in the story next. The second is that visions appear during gameplay combat. The combat in the game works that you approach enemies wandering around the game map and you can choose to fight them or not. If you initiate a battle or an enemy wants to fight you, the combat phase starts. If you do nothing and your character is close enough, they will auto-attack the enemy, but each character also has special attacks or Arts that they can use, which each have a wide variety of effects and uses from healing to attacks that deal more damage from behind or at the side of an enemy, although each Art has a certain cooldown time before they can be used again. During combat, the power of the Monado will warn you of particularly dangerous attacks that will happen 8-12 seconds in the future, giving you a fixed amount of time to take action. If you do enough to put off the enemy before the attack you could change the future and prevent the enemy from carrying out the attack. It is a particularly useful tool, and adds an additional skill element to the combat on offer.
In addition to the combat, there is a lot of depth to this game. As with most JRPGs, we have the standard levelling up, stats levels of various characteristics (Defence, Strength etc), and equipment to buy and find along the way to help with these stats. But that just scratches the surface. This game introduces an additional core element to the game called Affinity. This is essentially how well the characters in the game get on with each other. Whilst whether or not characters like each other doesn't affect the actual story as such (like say in Tales of Symphonia) it is a key ingredient that affects so much else. It affects (amongst other things) how well characters fight together, your ability to create valuable items together, the viewing of additional cutscenes between characters, even sharings skills and abilities between characters. Affinity between the party and NPC characters even affects your ability to trade items for rare items. And Affinity itself can be affected by fighting together, exchanging gifts, viewing special cutscenes and a whole host of other interactions.
Couple this with a game that has 480 sidequests, a lengthy story, a collectibles challenge, more items than you can shake a Monado at, and you start to see why this review has taken so long to complete. Phew!
But what makes this game really refreshing is that at no point in throughout playing this game, have I ever felt that my time is being wasted. A lot of the quests are optional – if you're a story-only type of gamer for example you'll be fine, but it certainly caters for the completionist in us as well if you feel the need to try and do everything (just book at a month from work).
From a sound perspective, the music in this game is also of a high standard. The wide variety of music for the various different areas you will traverse (and different tunes for daytime or nighttime) is all very well finished and fits the area well. The character voicing is (for once) not a cringeworthy line up of Amercian actors, but some decent voice acting with a good variety of sound bytes during combat etc. However with the sheer amount of fighting to be done, you'll be hearing the same things alot – but to be honest this is the same with any RPG, FIFA or equivalent game whether similar things happen over and over.
So overall, for me this title hit me a little by surprise. A genuine gem of a game from Monolith Soft. A must for any RPG fans, and really a must for anyone with a remote interest in them, because this game is well worth its price, for the time you'll invest in it alone. But where it really rewards you is with its engrossing story, great visuals, addictive gameplay and plethora of additional extras and depth far beyond most in the genre. So to reiterate for me, this is the best game on Wii currently.
It's nice to know there are still a few decent Wii games about and that publishers are giving up just yet. Even though I still own a Wii, I doubt I'll be getting it, mainly because I've just got Skyrim to please my RPG needs, but if it wasn't for that I may of considered it.
On it like cheese on pizza!
Great review Milky. I've been very very tempted by this but I know I won;t put it down 'til I finish it !
I'm very excited at the prospect of owning Xenoblade chronicles X for the Wii U and even more so at the news of a 3DS version. Made me do quite a bit of research on the original Wii game and I came to the conclusion that I missed what would have been a perfect game for me. Why did I never see this game in my collection? Maybe I was having too many kids at the time. I've looked at getting it 2nd hand and it still fetches £35?!?!? Sign of a good game.
I remember Josh paying near that a while back and I looked at the game, it does look very good.
I did try & get the Argos controller + game bundle a while back which appeared on HUKD, unfortunately as is typical with people on HUKD, the stock was quickly grabbed for ebay.
Well the New 3DS version is going to be a port of the Wii game. That extra processing power (now quad core as opposed to dual core) makes the 3DS a handheld Wii. Could open up quite a few very decent games. Sunshine Mario anyone?
I'll be getting the Xenoblade Wii U version, need something that gives me a way back into the RPGBEEGIES format or what ever its called .
I fail to understand why they didn't press more copies of Xenoblade on the Wii, it makes you smile when publishers say "oh we didn't sell enough copies of X" and customers saying "why can't I find a copy of Y (at a reasonable price)".


Right outside the city of Salzburg our Gasthaus zu Schloss Hellbrunn is not only a popular destination among visitors from all over the world, but also a place to escape everyday life for a little while. The epic ambience around the pleasure palace allows us to enjoy the little things in life. Therefore, a voucher for our restaurant in Salzburg does not only give moments of pleasure, but also recreation.
Our special recommendation: Gift someone special with royal moments and a voucher for our popular Royal Breakfast (Fürstenfrühstück).
Use the form on this page and order your present voucher for our restaurant in Salzburg online. Just submit your data and within four workdays after payment receipt, the voucher will be sent to your home address. Please consider that we charge € 7.00 for carriage on delivery.
Of course you can also pick up your voucher in our Gasthaus zu Schloss Hellbrunn anytime.


Mitchell57301If you are consider homeschooling in Mitchell 57301 getting the right homeschool curriculum or program is essential. Many home schools in South Dakota advertise in the classifieds ads section of local papers in Mitchell offering online or virtual homeschooling groups or forums.
Many of these will publish a free version of their curriculum and also tell you how to home-school in Kinderhook.
There are some companies that offer complete programs for homeschooling one such company is known as K12 or K-12 home schooling Kinderhook.
ABeka also offer good accredited home-schooling resources plans and again are applicable to Mitchell SD.
There are many benefits of homeschooling in Mitchell, the main one is that your child will get a much higher level of personal attention than they would even at a private school. You are much more in control of what they learn, what pace they learn at and what kind of maths, and science curriculum they will follow. The correct kind of program and transcript can lead to a great home schooling diploma.
Homeschooling in Mitchell 57301 is a real alternative to the more conventional schooling options.
If you choose to home school or homelearning in Kinderhook your kids you do not have to do it all yourself there are many great resource out there to help with things like curriculums and many groups and forums as well as other online resources to aid you.


How Do You Improve The Rank Of Affiliate Blogs That Are Stuck At The Bottom Of Page One?
In episode 159 of Semantic Mastery's weekly Hump Day Hangouts, one participant asked how one can improve the rank of affiliate blogs that are stuck at the bottom of page one.
3) What do you do when you have blogs at the bottom of page 1, and want them higher? I have a blog for an affiliate site that's ranking 7-8 for a big keyword. Is there anything I can do besides waiting?


Any time picking out a idea to become placed internal renovating undertaking, the following Solar Lights For Garden Shed image stock may well be a attention. Apart from having a attractive style and design, Solar Lights For Garden Shed snapshot stock moreover displays a family house using a calming environment to help you get pleasure from your personal Monday night in your house handily. Your choices of fantastic designs can be bought in the following Solar Lights For Garden Shed photograph collection, and opt for the process that you just adore freely. Consistently give consideration to look preference just before picking out a look from this particular Solar Lights For Garden Shed snapshot gallery, you must choose the right topic. You will find the best property style and design through Solar Lights For Garden Shed graphic gallery as the shots usually are stored through the most effective property designers. You can find your home along with the great and dramatic glimpse, this amazing Solar Lights For Garden Shed snapshot collection will help you generate this. Using many available choices, it indicates you have got more choices to make a family house which you want.
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Time for a blog post with something happy!
That happy thing is the marriage of the beautiful Beth and handsome Adam! They got hitched at the gorgeous River Farm in Alexandria, Va. and I had the talented Kaitlin Newman join me as my assistant/second photographer, make sure to check out her website too!
I hope y'all enjoy the photos as much as I did taking them!


In Part I of this feature, we discussed our hunt for parts to build a high-performance Micro-ATX (mATX) system. Now that we have parts in hand, let's walk through the process of assembly. We'll focus on the Athlon XP in the next few pages, but we'll also touch on the differences in assembly of the Athlon XP, Pentium 4, and Athlon 64 versions. Most of these issues revolve around socket insertion and heat sink attachment. Note also that the video card we use in the assembly photos isn't the final one.
Set up everything in a brightly lit environment, with appropriate anti-static measures. Even if the environment is well-lit, you may need to have a flashlight or headlamp handy for working inside low-contrast PC innards.
Install the CPU, memory and heat sink onto the motherboard. The inside of a mATX case is highly restrictive. Sometimes it's impossible to actually install a heat sink or memory after the motherboard is in. Don't forget to attach the HSF power wire. If you realize after the system is assembled that the heat sink power connector isn't connected, you may have to completely disassemble your PC to connect it.
You'll likely save some heartburn by attaching the storage cables (hard drive, optical drive, and floppy) before installing the motherboard.
Install the motherboard into the chassis. This will often require substantial patience, careful alignment, and a bit of body English.
Connect power, reset, and other internal cables (USB, etc.). You'll probably want a flashlight or headlamp handy, as well as the documentation for the connector pinouts.
Install the storage devices into appropriate bays. If the bays are the removable variety, attach the drive and power cables to the storage devices before installing the bays.
Check to see if it all powers up properly before buttoning up the case. You may even want to install the OS with the case open.
After it's all running properly, close up the case and run some benchmarks or other burn-in tests while monitoring system temperature.
Note: The pictures we took don't always reflect the order of events, above. Most of that was for the purpose of taking pictures, but some of the above was the result of hard lessons learned. So this is a case where "do as I say, not as I do" really applies!


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AMICUS CLINIC
Swellings and moles
Leukoderma (Melanocyte transfer)
Facial rejuvenation procedures
Eyelid Correction ( Blepharoplasty)
Nose job (Rhinoplasty)
Cleft lip nose correction
Ear (Otoplasty)
Axillary breasts
Brachioplasty (Arm contouring)
Female genital rejuvenation
Burn contracture release
Congenital torticollis
Hand tumors
Ingrowing toenail
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Syndactyly
List (Blog posts)
What is non-surgical rhinoplasty?
There is an increasing demand for cosmetic procedures with minimal downtime. The advantages are shorter recovery and the ability to return to normal life. One such procedure is non-surgical rhinoplasty.
What is a non-surgical rhinoplasty?
It involves the injection of fillers into the nose to bring about a difference in appearance. It has more in common with a filler injection into the face than with a routine rhinoplasty. The 'rhinoplasty' in non-surgical rhinoplasty comes because the filler is being injected into the nose to alter its appearance. Non-surgical rhinoplasty is also referred to as liquid rhinoplasty. Why 'liquid'? Because the filler that is injected is a liquid.
What are the advantages of doing a non-surgical rhinoplasty?
The main advantage of such a procedure would be the minimal downtime. Since fillers are injected the time taken to complete the procedure would be very short and would not need any hospital admission.
What can be achieved with non-surgical rhinoplasty?
Compared to a surgical procedure, the benefits of a non-surgical procedure are limited. The benefits of a non-surgical rhinoplasty include,
Volume enhancement. The root of the nose (radix) and the dorsum can be enhanced with filler injection.
Improve a drooping tip
Improve minor asymmetry and camouflage small defects
What are the changes that can't be achieved with rhinoplasty?
It is not possible to make a large nose smaller using injection non-surgical techniques. It is also not useful for the management of a bulbous tip. It is not possible to improve septal deviations with non-surgical rhinoplasty. Surgical rhinoplasty is the gold standard for the management of the deformities of the nose.
How long does the effect of non-surgical rhinoplasty last?
When compared to a surgical procedure, the effects of non-surgical rhinoplasty are temporary. In most cases, hyaluronic acid fillers are injected during this procedure. Hyaluronic acid breakdown with time. The effects may last approximately one to two years. In certain individuals, the effects tend to last for a shorter period. In case of an unfavourable result, it can be removed with the help of a hyaluronidase injection.
What are the risks associated with non-surgical rhinoplasty?
The risks associated with a non-surgical rhinoplasty are similar to those seen with filler injections into the face. These can include tissue death and involvement of the vessels of the eyes and brain. Skin necrosis results due to impaired blood supply of the skin. Embolization of the filler into the vessels of the eyes can lead to blindness. These adverse events have been reported with filler injections, they are uncommon.
Who is a good candidate for non-surgical rhinoplasty?
It would include patients who want a change in the appearance of the nose without any downtime or need for aftercare associated with a conventional rhinoplasty. Patients should have realistic expectations and understand that not all deformities can be improved with a non-surgical rhinoplasty. The effects are temporary and need repeat injections for maintenance of the results.
For more information about rhinoplasty please visit: www.amicusclinic.in/rhinoplasty
In case of any doubts, we would be glad to hear from you.
I like to keep it simple.
Call us at (+91) 8606029728. You can leave us a comment using the contact form below.
We shall get back to you at the earliest.
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Sensory Lab is not so much a cafe as a coffee experience. The brainchild of the folks behind St Ali, the Lab offers nine coffees (four blends and five single origins) and four brewing methods (including siphon, pour over and cold drip), encouraging customers to broaden their palates as well as their minds.
Sensing this is not the time to stick with my customary latte, I abandon myself to a lab-coated barista, who prepares a siphoned Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. The result is a delicate, tea-like brew with a floral aroma and jasmine flavour. Light in acidity, there is virtually no mouthfeel and the finish is short and sweet. By contrast, My S3 blend espresso has a deeply complex flavour, underpinned by touches of honey and cocoa. Thick on the tongue, with a medium acidity, it delivers an intensely sweet finish.
While Sensory Lab is not a place to linger – both seating and food options are limited – caffeinistas will appreciate the wow factor, not to mention the gorgeous Slayer machine. Time to experiment.
This entry was posted in testcat and tagged 4.5 bean, Melbourne, Sensory Lab, St Ali. Bookmark the permalink.
Service was prompt at the register. Coffee took 10 mins to arrive to a uncleared table outside. They need more table staff. The water glasses promised when they cleared the table never arrived. $8.10 for a double rist latte and soy latte. Expensive? Coffee was great. Rich berry palate, dry, nut sweetness.


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Q: Mysql InnoDB - Locking scenario I am a developer and have only fair knowledge about databases. I need to understand the transaction level locking mechanism in InnoDB.
I read that InnoDB uses row level locking? As far as I understand, it locks down a particular row within a transaction. What will happen to a select statement when a table update is going on ?
For Example, assume there is transaction and a select statement both triggered from two different processes and assume Transaction1 starts before the select statement is issued.
Transaction1 : Start
Update table_x set x = y where 1=1
Transaction1 : End

Select Query
Select x from table_x

What will happen to the select statement. Will it return values "during" Transaction1 takes place or "after" it completes? And if it can begin only after Transaction1 ends, where is Row level locking in this picture?
Am I making sense or my fundamental understanding itself is wrong? Please advise.

A: It depends on the Isolation level.
SERIALIZABLE
REPEATABLE READS
READ COMMITTED
READ UNCOMMITTED

Good explained on wikipedia
And the mySQL docu

A: The select will not wait for the transaction to complete, instead it will return the current value of the rows (aka, before the transaction started).
If you want the select to wait for the transaction to finish you can use "LOCK IN SHARE MODE":
Select x from table_x LOCK IN SHARE MODE;

This will cause the select to wait for any row(s) that are currently lock by a transaction holding an exclusive (update/delete) lock on them.

A read performed with LOCK IN SHARE MODE reads the latest available
  data and sets a shared mode lock on the rows read. A shared mode lock
  prevents others from updating or deleting the row read. Also, if the
  latest data belongs to a yet uncommitted transaction of another
  session, we wait until that transaction ends.

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/innodb-lock-modes.html

A: It does not depend only on the locking involved, but on the isolation level, which uses locking to provide the transaction isolation as defined by ACID standards. InnoDB uses not only locking, but also multiversioning of the rows to speed up transactions.
In serializable isolation level it would use read-lock with the update, so the select will have to wait for first transaction to be completed. On lower isolation levels however the lock will be write, and selects won't be blocked. In repeatable read and read committed it will scan the rollback log to get the previous value of the record, if it is updated, and in read uncommitted in will return the current value.
The difference between table-level locking and row-level locking is when you have 2 transactions that run update query. In table-level locking, the 2nd will have to wait the first one, as the whole table is locked. In row-level locking, only the rows that match the where clause* (as well as some gaps between them, but this is another topic) will be locked, which means that different transactions can update different parts of the table without need to wait for each other.
*assuming that there is index covering the where clause

A: SELECT started from outside of a transaction will see the table as it was before transaction started. It will see updated values only after transsaction is commited.

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As hybrids and EVs have started to enter every vehicle lineup, Honda's taken things to a new level with the all-new Honda Clarity hybrid plug-in model to rival some of the best already out there. And rival them it does.
The 2018 Honda Clarity's exterior design is decidedly un-hybrid and looks quite mundane compared to some EVs and hybrids currently on the road. Sporting Honda's front chrome wing across the front grille, and a modern and unique rear, the Clarity is aesthetically pleasing and eye-catching in all the right ways. Unlike the Honda Insight, the rear wheel covers (for increased aerodynamics and better fuel mileage) aren't as glaringly obvious or obnoxious (for lack of a better word) and the overall lines of the Clarity are much ore appealing.
Inside, the 2018 Honda Clarity features an 8" colour display with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as well as Bluetooth connectivity and standard WiFi tethering. You'll find seating for 5, as well as active noise control that ensures your Honda Clarity experience is both smooth and quiet.
Speaking of smooth, the 1.5L Atkinson cycle 4-cylinder engine found in the 2018 Honda Clarity produces a combined 212 horsepower (103 ponies from the gas engine alone, and 181 from the battery), and 232 lb-ft of electric motor torque, and 99 lb-ft from the gas side of things. Power is handled via an E-CVT transmission and there are three drive modes to choose from: Sport, Normal and Econ.
When fully charged, the 2018 Honda Clarity plug-in Hybrid has a class-leading all-electric range of 76km. And the combined gas and electric range on a full tank (for each) is approximately 547km. This little sedan has the goods to deliver emission-free road trips all summer long, with fewer stops at the pumps along the way, which means more time for exploration.
To find out more about the 2018 Honda Clarity and all it has to offer, head down to your local Portland Street Honda dealer to speak to one of our experts, and don't forget to book a test drive, too.


In what seems to be a trend as of late, Louisiana Attorney General, Buddy Caldwell, is again named in another legal proceeding. This time, Caldwell is being accused of using his office for political gain for a friend in a political campaign against Saint Bernard Parish President Earl Peralta.
Posted on April 18, 2015 by Christopher J. Gary and filed under Louisiana and tagged Louisiana Louisiana Politics Buddy Caldwell.


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We need visions of a better world after COVID: share yours
Why educators and students are partnering with openDemocracy to launch a competition for photos, videos and texts in response to the crisis.
Lia Bote Brad Blitz
Coronavirus Life Cycle, 2020
Artwork courtesy of David S. Goodsell and the RCSB PDB CC-BY 4.0
Three weeks before the UK began lockdown, The New York Times published an article by Harvard historian Hannah Marcus entitled 'What the Plague Can Teach Us About the Coronavirus'. The standfirst – "We need to be on guard against the xenophobia and persecution that arose during outbreaks of that dreaded disease" – struck a familiar chord for educators, and one much closer to home.
In the Middle Ages Jews were accused of poisoning wells and bringing the plague to Europe. Quarantine measures for immigrants were introduced in New York after epidemics in the late 19th century, and the term 'cordon sanitaire' originally expressed the geography of segregation, as much as it did disease control. In 2020, the target has been different.
Throughout January and February, we received reports from colleagues and peers about the harassment Chinese students were experiencing. This included jeers and insults as they went about their daily business. One UCL student from Singapore was beaten up on Oxford Street; his attackers accusing him personally of bringing coronavirus into the UK. Not surprisingly, when many received the call to return home, they fled. Thousands of students left London and on arrival in their home countries many were placed in quarantine, where they were deprived of mobile phones, access to the internet, and lost contact with their fellow students.
Of course, such abuse was not limited to London university students. All over the world Asians have endured it. Coronavirus or COVID-19 has also been labelled 'Wuhan flu', with the president of the US describing it as a "Chinese virus". Words are weapons: the Pew Research Center's latest survey of how people in the US envision a post-pandemic world order recorded that two-thirds of them now hold negative views about China.
In other parts of the world, different groups have been tarred with the accusation of spreading COVID-19. In India, it's the Muslims; in Pakistan, Ahmadis are at fault; and their neighbours charge Uzbeks with causing the pandemic. Further, many populist leaders have seized upon collective fear to introduce emergency measures which include suspending parliament, curtailing civil liberties, closing off borders and clamping down on the media. The suppression of democratic institutions does little to counter the negative stereotypes and new forms of xenophobia which Marcus warns against.
This presents students with an extraordinary learning opportunity
You could be forgiven for thinking that the weight of history might guide us and help to dispel these myths. Unfortunately, as seasoned humanitarian workers will tell you, institutional memory is short. We tend to be pushed from one crisis to another rather than reflecting on past experience with a view to learning. Of course, some do learn: South Korea invested heavily in its health system after SARS and has done remarkably well in curbing the rate of infection and death due to COVID-19. But it is a rare exception.
History is, however, only one lens through which to examine the current pandemic, and xenophobia, just one response to the crisis we are all living through. There are other sides to this story. We must remember the many ways in which ordinary people have reacted by offering hospitality and time, and by making personal gestures. No doubt the images of Italians singing on balconies and of the weekly applause in recognition of key workers will be recorded in historical accounts of this period. These performative acts, like the individual displays of talent from Patrick Stewart reading a sonnet a day or Yo-Yo Ma offering concerts for viewers on line, are expressly social and positive messages.
In the case of education, the effects of COVID-19 will come out over many years. As UCL professors Lyndsey Macmillan and Francis Green have shown, lockdown has set back opportunities for learning, and children from certain regions and backgrounds have been worst affected. Students entering and leaving higher education will now face additional challenges as they attempt to secure jobs in a shrinking market.
All this is happening as we continue to learn more about the differential effects of COVID-19, such as the disproportionate toll it has taken on black and minority ethnic groups living in the UK, and the multiple ways in which it may disable its victims. The support organisation COVID-19 Care Central has been working with students to contextualise the pandemic, recognising that this is not simply a healthcare emergency, but a crisis that has fostered new challenges and aggravated longstanding inequalities.
We want to hear what lessons students have drawn from this episode; how they draw connections between their own learning and the current crisis
As such, this presents students with an extraordinary learning opportunity: to acknowledge the flaws in our systems that the pandemic has highlighted, and to find a voice in ensuring that the world where they've grown up is not the same one where they'll grow old. As Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz commented, the crisis has not only exposed weaknesses in our public health systems but the fragility of the global economy as well. There will be immense challenges for further generations.
There are many creative ways for students to take on this problem. We all have knowledge to draw upon and a range of talents and modes of communication available, but we recognise that for some, learning to apply this knowledge is a difficult task. Some systems, like the International Baccalaureate programme, reward students who are able to apply and extend their learning. This skill, placing textbook knowledge in the larger context of our interconnected globe, is key to considering what we can learn from the coronavirus. After all, it is this global scale that presents both the biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity for us to build a better post-pandemic world. At the university level we often see this described as 'evidence of original thinking'. It is an ambition but also a most rewarding achievement. Who doesn't want to be original?
As educators and students, it is our responsibility to open doors to others in the hope that they will be able to make sense of their world around them too. That's why we are launching a competition aimed at students in a time of COVID, with our partners openDemocracy, Schoolzone and the UCL Student's Union. We want to hear what lessons students have drawn from this episode; how they draw connections between their own learning and the current crisis; and especially to see their vison for a better world post-COVID. Prizes include a personalised package of mentoring, books and the opportunity to have your work featured on openDemocracy's website.
This isn't 'Britain's Got Talent' and entrants do not need to sing from a balcony or recite Shakespeare. You just have to upload an image, video or short text to share your vision. The crisis is not just about how we manage public health systems, but also how we set our priorities, to inform how we want to live. That includes protecting against the spread of harmful infectious ideas and sharing messages of solidarity and creativity.
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Although there are a couple statues to Vladimir Ilych Lenin in out-of-the way places of Havana, a more popular statue is one to the late Beatle John Lennon. This statue is seated on a park bench in Vedado. Castro initially saw the Beatles as a symbol of bourgeois decadence, but he changed his tune when John began singing against the Vietnam War. John was subsequently acknowledged as a revolutionary. One of the men in the background keeps a pair of wire-rimmed glasses that he slips on the Beatle's nose when tourists approach.


text:
Q&A: What Michigan's move to shut down Enbridge Line 5 means
November 16, 2020 Bridge Michigan
By Bridge Michigan
By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan, through the Institute for Nonprofit News network
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan's NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Find all the work HERE.
The clock is ticking to shut down the Line 5 pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac, following Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's announcement Friday that she has given Enbridge 180 days to stop running petroleum products through the pipeline.
But much remains unclear after Enbridge vowed to fight Whitmer's decision, prompting what will likely be a protracted legal battle.
Here's what we know now:
Whitmer notified Enbridge on Friday that the state is revoking a 1953 easement that gives the company permission to operate Line 5 in the Straits, setting a May deadline for the company to permanently shut down the pipeline.
The announcement came following a long-awaited review of Enbridge's compliance with the easement.
In a notice sent to Enbridge, Whitmer and Department of Natural Resources Director Dan Eichinger essentially implied that the easement never should have been granted because allowing Enbridge to operate Line 5 in the Straits violates the public trust doctrine, a legal tenet that requires Michigan to hold navigable waterways and the lands beneath them in trust for public uses such as fishing, boating and recreation.
Whitmer, who campaigned on a promise to shut down Line 5, has long sided with pipeline opponents who worry that Line 5's position exposed at the bottom of the straits leaves it vulnerable to anchor strikes and other hazards that could cause a catastrophic oil spill.
Line 5 has endured multiple anchor strikes in recent years that have dented the pipeline and scraped its protective coating.
In Friday's revocation notice, the state concluded that the oil spill risk associated with continuing to operate the pipelines "cannot be reconciled with the public's right in the Great Lakes and the state's duty to protect them."
In addition to that underlying issue, Whitmer and Eichinger wrote that Enbridge has routinely violated the terms of its easement, which requires the company to use "due care" in operating its pipeline in the Straits.
Among the issues Whitmer and Eichinger flagged:
Enbridge has ignored pipeline support requirements "for virtually the entire time the Easement has been in place," allowing parts of the pipeline more than 75 feet in length to hang unsupported over the lakebed.
Enbridge also has failed to ensure the pipeline is properly coated, at times resulting in "bare metal" that was not immediately fixed.
Bends in the pipe raise concerns about its structural integrity.
The state alleges these violations are "persistent and incurable," and thus the only solution is to shut down the pipeline.
Will the order stick?
That's unclear. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has filed a lawsuit in Ingham County Circuit Court seeking an injunction to reinforce the state's order, and Enbridge has vowed to challenge the order.
Both Line 5 supporters and opponents agreed the revocation order is likely to become tied up in a lengthy legal battle.
Nessel is also pursuing a separate lawsuit aimed at revoking the easement. Ingham County Circuit Court Judge James Jamo, who is presiding over that case, has not indicated when he'll issue a ruling.
What are the implications for Michigan's energy needs?
Enbridge has warned that a Line 5 shutdown would threaten Michigan's energy security, particularly for Upper Peninsula residents who rely upon propane from Line 5 to heat their homes. The company has also said a Line 5 shutdown would increase fuel prices and harm Southeast Michigan and Ohio refineries that process oil from Line 5.
But during a brief shutdown in June, gas prices did not noticeably rise.
A report from Public Sector Consultants estimated that a shutdown of Line 5 would cause an annual shortfall of 230.1 million gallons of propane statewide, the equivalent to 46 percent of statewide supplies and 87.6 percent of supplies for the Upper Peninsula.
The report concluded that Michigan has other options to fulfill Upper Peninsula energy needs, but those options would come with modest cost increases. Alternative options include transporting propane by rail, increasing storage capacity in the U.P., and shifting to other energy sources, among other possibilities.
But it's unclear how long it would take to bring those solutions online, said Eric Pardini, the Public Sector Consultants director who led the report, nor whether such a shift would disrupt the propane industry elsewhere.
Spokespeople for Whitmer did not immediately respond to questions Friday afternoon about how the state plans to address the U.P.'s energy needs if Line 5 is shut down.
What are the implications for Michigan's economy?
It depends who you ask.
Line 5 opponents contend that keeping the pipeline operational poses the biggest economic risk by threatening jobs that rely upon the Great Lakes and imperiling a key drinking water source.
A 2016 study from University of Michigan scientists found that a spill in Line 5 could sully up to 152 miles of shoreline in lakes Michigan and Huron.
Enbridge, meanwhile, has warned that shutting down the pipeline will cost Michigan jobs on the pipeline, along with jobs connected to the region's oil industry.
In a statement Friday, Mike Johnston, Vice President of the Michigan Manufacturers Association, said the total job loss would amount to "thousands."
But Line 5 opponents argue more jobs would be created in the effort to decommission the pipeline and transport fuel by other means.
Does this also spell the end of the Line 5 tunnel?
Enbridge has vowed to forge ahead with plans for the tunnel. But some of the company's supporters and an energy analyst reached by Bridge Michigan argued Whitmer's action jeopardizes the tunnel plan.
Enbridge has said it plans to begin construction on the tunnel next year and start operating the pipeline inside the tunnel by 2024, but that timeline is increasingly unrealistic given that Enbridge is still awaiting multiple permits and facing legal challenges aimed at blocking the tunnel project.
That means Enbridge could be without a pipeline in the Straits for several years while it awaits the tunnel — a reality that Phil Flynn, senior energy analyst at The PRICE Futures Group in Chicago, said almost certainly affects the tunnel project's economic viability.
Enbridge is used to "waiting around" for legal challenges to reach their conclusion, Flynn said, but "at some point they may walk away and say enough is enough."
Labor unions and industry groups who support the tunnel have said it will bring thousands of jobs to Michigan. In a statement Friday, the Great Lakes Michigan Jobs Coalition, which includes many of those groups, urged state regulators to move swiftly to permit the tunnel project.
But tunnel opponents have vowed to fight every step of the way. Many have already intervened in an ongoing case before the Michigan Public Service Commission, which is tasked with deciding whether Enbridge can move Line 5 inside the tunnel, should it be built.
A court battle.
Nessel's lawsuit has been assigned to Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Clinton Canady. But as of Friday afternoon, Canady had not scheduled any proceedings related to the case.
Check out more news on Great Lakes Now:
Michigan governor seeks shutdown of Great Lakes oil pipeline
Judge: Michigan agency can evaluate Great Lakes tunnel plan
Ancient stone patterns in Straits of Mackinac add new wrinkle to Line 5 pipeline debate
After possible Ice Age discovery, group urges halt to Line 5 tunnel
Enbridge now inspects freighters to avoid another anchor strike on Line 5
Enbridge just wants a permit. Michigan critics want to bring down Line 5
Enbridge Line 5 relocation case must include review of a proposed tunnel
This article, first published in Bridge Michigan, is republished here through Great Lakes Now's membership in the Institute for Nonprofit News, a network of more than 200 nonprofit newsrooms across the U.S., working to strengthen the sources of trusted news for thousands of diverse communities.
Featured image: In this June 8, 2017, file photo, fresh nuts, bolts and fittings are ready to be added to the east leg of the pipeline near St. Ignace as Enbridge prepares to test the east and west sides of the Line 5 pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac in Mackinaw City, Mich. (Dale G Young/Detroit News via AP)
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text:
Q: Use custom data type to define new data type in haskell I was wondering if it is possible to do something like this in Haskell
data Word = Det String | Adj String | Noun String | Verb String | Adverb String
data NounPhrase = Noun | Det Noun

If I'm going about this wrong, what I am trying to say is - a "Word" is either a "Det", "Adj", "Noun", etc. and a "NounPhrase" is a "Noun" OR a "Det" followed by a "Noun".
When I try to do this I get the error: "Undefined type constructor "Noun""
How can I go about this so it performs as stated above.

A: When you define an algebraic data type
like

data MyType = Con1 String | Con2 Int

then Con1 and Con2 are data constructors which themselves are
functions Con1 :: String -> MyType and Con2 :: Int -> MyType.
Your example is having 2 problems:

*

*You're using the same data constructor for different types. Since data
constructors are functions that yield a value of a specific type, you can't use
the same data constructors (Det and Noun) for Word and for NounPhrase.
So you need to choose different names for the constructors of
NounPhrase.

*Det Noun does not make sense, since Noun is a data
constructor, whereas the argument of Det needs to be a type, e.g., String.

See Constructors in Haskell to help clear things up.

A: You are confusing types and value constructors.  When you say
data Word = Det String | Adj String | Noun String | Verb String | Adverb String

You define the type Word as being one of a number of forms, for example
Det String

says that Det is a constructor that takes a String and gives you back a value of type Word.  Same goes with Noun which is defined to be a constructor for Words and not a type.
There are various ways you might encode what you want in Haskell.  By far the simplest is to use
data Word = Det String | Adj String | Noun String | Verb String | Adverb String
data NounPhrase = JustNoun String | Compound String String

and this is the "learning Haskell" way of doing it.  It is "stringly typed", but is probably sufficient for your purposes.


text:
Social Work Thought Leaders: Debbie Stabenow
August 11, 2015 by Julie Goldberg
From their advocacy skills to their passion for justice, social workers make natural leaders. In this series, we profile social workers who are leading change on the national level as members of Congress. Meet the individuals who, with the social worker's firsthand understanding of public policy's impact on private lives, strive to support stronger families, schools, and communities.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, of Michigan, has a message for social workers: Your experience matters. Your skills are valued.
A former social worker, Stabenow says, "The ability to listen to other people, to understand, to find a way to create a win-win situation so we can solve problems is a hugely important set of skills."
Stabenow should know. Since 2000, she's been using those skills to solve some of the nation's toughest problems.
Here's her story.
From MSW Student to County Commissioner
Inspired by her mother's nursing career, Stabenow always envisioned a career helping others. But while pursuing her Master of Social Work at Michigan State in the 1970s, her social work dreams took a related, broader turn. She learned her county commissioners were closing the only local nursing home then accepting Medicaid. Incensed that her community's low-income seniors would be denied care, she ran for the Ingham County Board of Commissioners.
Stabenow won by a landslide, and the nursing home was saved. She was just 24 years old. After two years, Stabenow was elected chair of the board of the commissioners — becoming the youngest person and first woman to hold the position. Those "firsts" would not be Stabenow's last.
Breaking Barriers, Leading Change
As she'd later say to Michigan's social workers, "Part of what we do as social workers [is] not only caring about the individual but caring about when they are impacted by policies, the laws and the community around them."
Determined to change state policies that were negatively impacting children and families, Stabenow went on to serve 12 years in the Michigan House of Representatives (1979-1990) and four years in the State Senate (1991-1994).
While serving in the state legislature, she wrote some of the nation's first laws strengthening domestic violence policies and child car safety. She also became the first woman to give birth while serving in the legislature.
In 1996, she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She was re-elected in 1998. In 2000, she became the first woman elected to represent Michigan in the U.S. Senate.
A Champion of the Nation's Health
Since her election to the Senate in 2000, Stabenow has earned positions on several powerful committees including the committees on Budget; Energy and Natural Resources; and Finance. She's also the ranking member of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. But it's her work on health care reform and mental health parity that perhaps best reflects her social work skills and passion.
"What motivates me every day … is to remember that every day 14,000 people get up in the morning with insurance that go to bed at night without it … because they lost their job," Stabenow said in an interview with NPR. "Five thousand people every day lose their home because of a medical bankruptcy."
Determined to change those grim figures, Stabenow:
Authored the amendment that ensured maternity care was covered in the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Fought to lower the cost of prescription drugs, including writing legislation to allow "reimportation" of prescription drugs from Canada.
Wrote the Heart Disease Education, Research, Analysis, and Treatment (HEART) Act to improve women's representation in clinical health trials.
Co-sponsored the Excellence in Mental Health Act to fund pilot projects aimed at increasing access and improving the quality of care at community mental health centers.
Introduced the bipartisan Health Outcomes, Planning, and Education (HOPE) for Alzheimer's Act to provide patients with more information on the disease and treatment options.
Called for increased funding for the National Institutes of Health.
Of all these issues, Stabenow is especially passionate about mental health parity and research. Stabenow explains, "My father, when I was growing up, was bipolar and nobody knew it. He was in and out of the hospital. He didn't get any help for years and years." Thanks to health reform provisions she authored, insurance plans must now offer mental health services at the same level as other health care services.
As Stabenow recently told Michigan social workers, "I am very proud to have an MSW and I can assure you I use the skills I learned every single day." The nation is lucky she does.


Due to the dangerous weather and hazardous travel conditions, the FAA Public Workshop for the Draft Re-evaluation of the Interim Fly Quiet Runway Rotation Plan at O'Hare Airport scheduled tonight in Niles at White Eagle Banquets will conclude early at 5:00 p.m. The workshop began at 2:00 p.m. and was scheduled to continue until 8:00 p.m. We apologize for ending early, but the safety of residents is our top priority.
Area residents interested in learning more about the impacts of the Proposed Interim Fly Quiet in the Draft Re-Evaluation may still attend the workshops scheduled for tomorrow and Thursday in River Grove and Elmhurst respectively.


What are the factors that affect the particle size of the Raymond mill?
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Which type of mine is broken?
Where are the wearing parts of the sand making machine? How to maintain?