text:
Notting Hill almost how I remember it…and some odd music videos (with apologies to Mumford & Sons)
Hello Good People who still read this blog…(amazingly)
I haven't written here for so long, was very put off by the lack of privacy online and prosecutions after the London riots and then so many things happened in my daily life. Last night I stayed up late and watched old music videos with my son and it made me remember how much I enjoyed writing my blog here and ranting, and planting the odd youtube video in between my ranting as backing music.
I just like to rant to people I know these days and life has been so weird since the recession. I think being a hippie is becoming cool again, or far less frowned upon by youth in 2015,than when I first started this blog.Even becoming a Labour supporter is becoming cool again after years of three main parties advocating capitalism. But as I said the other day, we're all fed up with relentless caterpillars ( my tired play on words). The money never trickles down from the rich to the poor, instead the rich get more maids, probably with a string of "domestic service" qualifications.The superich can pick and choose among the desperate. But even the rich are more insecure since this global economic downturn, with the rise of apocalyptic religious fanaticism, the spread of 24 news channels to scare us all, refugees and the poor arriving in the countries of the wealthy – giving rise to more servants! and more xenophobia(see Footnote 1) to scare suburban-minded voters whose herd instinct is too strong to use their brains independently of the right-wing media.
We all share this planet, and for a long time the rich countries, and exploited countries were kept far away from one another, but eventually as travel gets easier, it seems not implausible for every country to end up with the same wealth and resources, that means us westerners will become a lot poorer! But then that's equality. Countries and borders are drawn in sand, we are just animals roving a small planet most trying to find a way to survive while others try to conquer. ( not conker, to fight all our territorial battles with conkers on bits of string in the autumn ("Fall" for Americans) would be far more fun).
An old friend from a psychedelic band sent me a link to this wonderful piece of Hippie history, Notting Hill as it used to be. A short film entitled "Getting it Straight in Notting Hill Gate",(1969-"Blissful Company" album) the title of a song by local band Quintessence who jam at the end of the film. Notice how little traffic there is and how many people are black, yes Notting Hill was known as a "West Indian" (Afro-Caribbean) area. Now most residents are white and superrich but also many like me don't have much but have been living here for a very long time.
This is a link to the short film which was put up online by the lovely people at the British Film Institute:
http://player.bfi.org.uk/film/watch-getting-it-straight-in-notting-hill-gate-1970/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20150812-player-new-britain-on-film&utm_content=20150812-player-new-britain-on-film+CID_36555ab4aae7529e39e04b8809b2ea5e&utm_source=cm&utm_term=WATCH+FOR+FREE
I still live there but feel totally alienated from all the posh residents, I blend in but I remember when Notting Hill was a dangerous and exciting place. I remember each time I walked down certain roads at night on my own, particularly down "All Saints Road", anyone who spotted me assumed that I was a prostitute or in search of a drug deal. In fact I was more interested in just exploring different ways of being. I've never enjoyed danger, but boredom is like death, so sometimes one has to make a compromise and take risks for the sake of avoiding a depressing existence.
Who can afford to live in Notting Hill now? Who can afford to live in London? The prices of houses has got so crazy now that it can't go on forever, the prices have to stabilise in the next couple of years. There simply aren't enough millionaires to buy all the houses in London, or rent them. They say that Russian Oligarchs are to blame, but I think they are making them into (rich) scapegoats, after all it is a UK decision not to cap the prices of houses and to keep the "fair rents" at the same level as the going local market cost for rents. Rampant Caterpillars!
I have to put some other music videos up here. They are not hippie videos but are just weird and entertaining. This is the Eurythmics. Here someone is either making fun of the ridiculously extravagant British pop videos of the eighties or this is a genuinely silly pop video.
Great song though! and interesting video, note the cows (why?), the forerunner to the personal computer ( we only had word processors at that time) and obligatory period costume ( see also Boy George Karma Chameleon video and others)
The Eurhythmics – Sweet Dreams 1983 ( I hope this link works!)
Then here's a great live/not live performance of Radar Love by Golden Earring. Have you ever seen a more bored audience? Note the blonde girl teenagers forced to sit on the stage, frankly I don't think any of these people like rock music and I think they were all told they would be tortured if they did not sit quietly until the end of the song ( I'd be the same if I had to sit through an Ed Sheeran gig).There's a very angry looking woman with big glasses in the background, that would be me at a Mumford & Sons gig.Meanwhile the band do a great "stonking" semi-live performance. It looks live they are performing live over a recording, it doesn't matter, the song is great. I never used to think so but I am old and any music of the 1970s is better than the bland brain death that is Mumford and Sons ( I can get away with saying this because you haven't heard my own songs).
Golden Earring -Radar Love (1973)(Yey turn it up and dance round the room and ROCK!!!)( Mumford and Sons are so square!)
Now staying on the topic of rock..until last night I never knew who was responsible behind that wonderful song "Black Betty" which used to be played at my school disco right after "Black Knight" (Deep Purple), " Play that Funky Music" (Wild Cherry), " You ain't seen nothing yet" (Bachman Turner Overdrive), and "Jive Talking" (The Bee Gees). But it would seem that all of the dudes performing the aforementioned songs were white and "Ram Jam" who played "Black Betty" looked like this, but hey, as long as you have a Gibson guitar with gold fittings who cares about image?
( I hope this like works!) Black Betty -Ram Jam (1977) Great Glasses!
Today's "square" and dreary songwriters who find Johnny Cash wildly exciting, and who perceive the music of Mumford and Sons as orgasmic as a Carlos Santana solo, as he melds into one with his instrument, surrendering to a climax of sustained peals of electric sensual screaming guitar ecstasy, will no doubt get very excited by my next music video. ( I can be a dreary songwriter too, and I must get back to my corny song rehearsal later- actually I think perhaps Mumford & Sons have got a bit less dreary recently, but still not as great as my next video).
If you are too young to remember the 1970s then you won't fully understand the context of the wonderful comedy of "Father Ted". However this following video will assist you in understanding "the lovely girls competition" and this lovely girl would have won. Dana singing "All Kinds of Everything". The lyrics start off like Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" but without any of the philosophy. I love the lyrics, totally absurd in places!
"Seagulls and aeroplanes
things of the sky
winds that go howlin',
Carlos Santana's orgasmic guitar solos,
breezes that sigh
grey skies or blue
all kinds of everything remind me of you"
( I hope Dana doesn't read this, I'm sure she's still a lovely lady)
Dana- All Kinds of Everything (1970)
1. Originally I wrote "Zenophobia" instead of "Xenophobia" . I don't think the word "Zenophobia" exists, so I have decided that it means the fear someone experiences when realising they are thinking, behaving or dressing like a hippie, or otherwise enjoying hippie music (i.e. most 60s and early 70s guitar based music).Zenophobia afflicts a broad-spectrum of society regardless of religion, economic class, racial background or education. This blog is one of the projects that tries to help people with "Zenophobia" and to re-assure them that it is OK to be a hippie and that once people start to think with their minds, they will realise that rampant caterpillars and Osiris have brainwashed them away from a sensible, peaceful and creatively free way of living on this planet.
Categories: counterculture, Dana, Hippie, just ranting really, London, psychedelic, screaming guitar ecstasy, society . Tags: 1973, 60s, 70s, 80s, alternative lifestyles, Alternative London, anti-consumerism, Anti-Materialism, Black Betty, blatant caterpillarism, Bullshit Excuses, caterpillarism, Classic lyrics, counterculture, Creative Lunatics, Dana, dreary songwriters, Eurovision, gentrification of London, Getting it straight in Notting Hill Gate, Golden Earring, House prices in London, Lovely Girls Competition, Millionaires in London, Mumford & Sons, Notting Hill, people pretending to be a cross between Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan, people pretending to be Joni Mitchell, Pop videos, Portobello road, Quintessence, Ram Jam, rampant caterpillarism, Rents in London, ridiculously extravagant British pop videos of the eighties, Russians rushing to buy London, screaming guitar ecstasy, Seagulls and aeroplanes things of the sky, Sitars, songwriting, terrible audiences, The Eurythmics, the superich, White dudes singing like black dudes, zenophbia (fear of becoming a hippie) . Author: born2rant . Comments: Leave a comment
Yey! The Students Are Revolting Again.
Hello Good people who might come across this blog or have read it in the past…
( this post is still being edited!)
Back in the seventies a common "joke" usually made by tittering Times readers was " the students are revolting" as a comment on both their frequent protests and the state of their physical hygiene.
In 2010 I would say that the personal hygiene of young students is excessively fussy and over-sanitised compared to that of their lecturers who were revolting students back in the seventies. But nevermind the hygiene, the important thing is that the students are moving, speaking, having protests. At last we have the beginnings of a new counterculture that is not based simply on wearing certain clothes. Finally we have a young generation that is ready to go out and say what they believe , even when they know they could in theory be beaten up, locked up or even killed by random batoning policemen.
I won't venture to say that this will last forever.
Two weeks ago when a group of "students" ( some were definitely not students but belonging to revolutionary political groups) decided to take a detour to Millbank Tower , my initial reaction was two-fold. Firstly total joy to see some true student rebellion after all these years. Secondly thinking of the people working in the building, many of whom were unconnected to the Conservative party, and how it must have stopped being fun for them as soon as the students started to set fire to things and throwing things off the roof.
However I admit, rightly or wrongly, my main emotion towards the initial student protest was total euphoria. As I am typing this I am amused as on the BBC News channel, they are telling the general public, assumed to be stupid without their godlike guidance, how they can protect themselves against snow by wearing bright jackets and being very careful. We've had decades of being told by the media how everything is so dangerous and how we have to be so very very very afraid of illnesses and bombs and a bit of snow. However, regardless of growing up in this state of perpetual paranoia, and in spite of seeing how protesters can be treated, these brave young people came out and protested mostly peacefully. Even those who ended up rioting at Millbank Tower,while knowing they were constantly on camera, made no attempt to mask their faces, which was either an act of fearlessness or stupidity.
I wanted to put some music here and the obvious choice was Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A Changing", but this song was more interesting, it's a Syd Barrett song protesting against protest songs , and more particularly Dylan protest songs.
Syd Barrett- Bob Dylan Blues (slight apology to Dylan fans)
The very limited police reaction to the first student protest was obviously a political decision. They could have used riot police, cs gas, water cannons, tanks, it's central London for God's sake. The place is crawling with armed police officers, S.A.S. and the Royal Cavalry.
If politicians/police chiefs had wanted to do so, they could have flattened every student there within half an hour. They decided to let them carry on and have their day, probably because David Cameron was in China and wanted to demonstrate that the British way was not to run over students with tanks as in Tiananmen Square 1989. Here is a video focussing not on the massacre but on the brave tank man, who has disappeared ever since.
The protesters were perhaps more confident on Wednesday, thinking that since they had been treated with kid gloves two weeks ago, that they could go out and protest peacefully, or some riot, without being batoned to death again yesterday. However, the Tiananmen Square massacre occurred after a month of protests in China in various locations, where the police and army had been restrained. I firmly believe that the government is allowing students to " let off steam" and that if the protests grow and are prolonged, that the army and riot police will soon make examples of a few rioters by severe injury, maybe a death, and severe prison sentences. However anyone actually setting fire to buildings etc…is kind of asking to be arrested at the very least. I am a peaceful anarchist, there are many ways of redistributing power.
A musical interlude in my ranting:
When I first started this blog there was far less footage available for me to post. Luckily this is up here now. My old friends Treatment ,who changed the course of my life,playing two contrasting songs in 1983 at The Greyhound in London. Like many similar bands their rehearsal time was sometimes live on stage playing to an audience, which allowed for some improvisation, part of the "Treatment sound" was due to the live psychedelic mixing.
Treatment- Stamp Out Mutants/Love is Getting Nowhere ( live 1983)
I do hope that our new coalition government continues to be restrained, but once they think they might lose control of their power and position altogether, we may see a totally different side to the police and armed forces.
Things have changed so quickly, even a year or two ago, I never thought we would ever see students protesting and showing their anger against authority ever again. Let me re-state that I am a pacifist and that I believe that violence leads to more violence, just as war leads to more wars.
Along with this new phase of student politicisation ( is that a real expression or one I just made up from too much studying?), I have sensed in the past year, that there are less jokes about "hippies" who express themselves freely, who challenge some of the more detrimental decisions made by those in power, or who complain about the inequalities in society or the treatment of our animals and environment.
In the past two years, young people have witnessed politicians using tax-payer's money for duck houses and moats, they have seen how bankers have payed themselves billions and continue to do so,while a whole generation is told that they will have to pay for the gluttony of city finance-dealers, not just now but for a decade or more to come, young people have seen the dreams of their future careers and studies evaporate and it has left them empty hearted with nothing to lose through public protest.
But most of all I think that the news media, showing the protests in Greece, France, and other parts of Europe, have influenced the students and the public in the UK to think, "well if the French are protesting so much about the pension age going up to 62, why aren't we protesting a lot more for all the damage and pressure we are under?".
Ten years ago , you couldn't force or bribe your average student to go and protest at the introduction of ever rising University fees. In 2000 most students were young Business Studies orientated hopefuls. They were born under the astrological constellation of Thatcher and brainwashed by social reinforcement from all directions , derived from American business ethics, they believed that anyone who wanted to , could start their own business, or go to University, dress nicely, work hard and earn enough money to buy their designer clothes/cars/music/hair à la "Hollyoaks" or other soap opera full of glamourous-looking young people. As long as they could get well pissed at the weekends and have a snort of coke when work needed to be done, there was no need to debase themselves by getting involved in shabby student politics.
Anyway I think I have ranted enough for now. I am glad to see protesting students, although hypocritically I have not been on the protests myself due to other reasons. But I'll be on the next one, shying away from violence, but still protesting enough to walk down the middle of London streets. There has not been a majority of politically-motivated students for decades and I feel they need to be aware that the authorities may decide to crush them at any point.However the media-wise Prime Minister , and bumbling Boris, are well aware that whoever looks like the "good-guy"on TV holds the real power, and therefore some protesting may be allowed for some time!
Hawkwind- You Shouldn't Do That (Brock/Turner 1971)sorry I think I've put this up before, it's just a bit more direct than a Dylan protest song.
In the meantime, let's see a bit of people power. In a democracy, politicians are meant to be our servants. Instead it seems, the people are the servants to a few well-connected, obscenely rich and over-priviledged business people and aristocrats who have temporarily lost control of the economy and who have been exposed for the liars and greedy people that they are. It's not a good time for a Royal Wedding, I suggest they have it down the register office with a few sandwiches and dips in the living room afterwards.
Sometimes angry but still wishing you all:Love and Peace
Categories: 2010, anti-consumerism, Anti-Materialism, BBC News, Dave Brock, David deCameron, democracy, Education, experimental music, free speech, Freedom, Freedom to protest, gatherings, Greed, Hawkwind, Hippie-phobics, hope, Inequalities, just ranting really, London, London Student Protests November 2010, media hypochondria, Millbank Tower, Money, music, Musical parody, Nik Turner, Our Love Is Getting Nowhere, Political Intelligence, politics, Poverty, Protest, psychedelic, Stamp Out Mutants, Students, Treatment, Uncategorized, University, Youth . Tags: 2010, alternative society, bankers, BBC News, counterculture, Dave Brock, David deCameron, democracy, Education, free speech, Freedom to protest, gatherings, Greed, Hawkwind, Hippie-phobics, hippies, hope, Inequalities, just ranting really, London, London Student Protests November 2010, Millbank Tower, Money, Our Love Is Getting Nowhere, police, Political Intelligence, politics, Poverty, Protest, protest songs against protest songs, psychedelic, Stamp Out Mutants, Students, Syd Barrett, Tiananmen Square, Treatment, University, You Shouldn't Do That, Youth . Author: born2rant . Comments: 1 Comment
Steve Hillage and Gong at The Forum (27th November 2009)-A Review
I am recovering from my evening out at the Forum last night in Kentish Town ( in London for anyone who might be reading this in Estonia) to see Steve Hillage and Gong.
Our little troupe of Hillage/Gong fans started our journey to the gig after lots of cups of tea and a supper of winter foods including of course our green vegetables. We trailed up the road happily like well-fed hobbits, ready to face the bright lights and commuters, but had to make a detour after a rather alarming encounter with Orcs dressed in blue accompanied by their hounds of hell.
By the time we got to The Forum , The Steve Hillage Band was already on stage, playing "Love Guitar" ,one of my favourite soppy songs. The audience didn't seem quite warmed up at that point and so we reckon we must have arrived pretty much close to the start of the proceedings.
(double-click on the photos to see them in full-screen)
Steve Hillage Band-The Forum-27/11/2009
Miquette Giraudy Keyboards-Synth-Backing -Vocals-Air Guitar and fun
Steve Hillage –Genius Electric Guitarist, Vocals.
Chris Taylor (I think! at least it's him on the 2032 new album by Gong) – Drums with a zillion tempo changes
Mike Howlett-Bass-player extra-ordinaire
I know that Steve Hillage and Gong have played The Forum before in 2008, and that they have toured quite a bit in the past 18 months or so,but this is the first time I have seen the "Steve Hillage Band". The last time I saw Steve Hillage playing live in a "rock" band,must have been around 1979 or 1980 at The Hammersmith Odeon. Also to my embarrassment, I had never seen Gong live until last night. Although I know their early albums and the fantastic Japanese import "Gong Live etc." (Virgin,1977 ) back to front. If you do not have this double album, try to get one.I got mine on vinyl as a Japanese import around twenty-nine years ago now, but still love it.
Steve Hillage and Gong fans are very difficult to get rid of, as we could tell from the average age of the audience, although there was a minority of teenagers looking blissful while cuddling with their significant others.
We didn't go there to take photos or film, but we took a few pictures and short clips,like the two above . We went to have a good time in the audience, not to film, and we did have a great time, my sore feet, sore neck and sore throat (from singing and dancing along) are testimony to this, so I'll stop writing now and put up some photos and clips enshrined in a couple of comments.
After the first couple of songs, the audience were warmed up and the crowd had swelled, in fact the place was packed out. They had made an early start and this had obviously caught some by surprise. Steve Hillage and his band were on form. Occasionally Hillage seemed to lose confidence with his vocals, as many singers do as they get older, especially if they have not been singing for a decade or two. If you listen to Joni Mitchell in the sixties and now in her sixties, her voice is totally different but it's good, she has had to change her singing range and vocal style to keep it up.
In terms of guitar playing and performing, Steve Hillage is still at the top of his league. As the evening wore on, he just got better and better ( and better) playing complicated solos, with key changes, tempo changes, etc..
Here is a short clip Intro to Hurdy-Gurdy Man
He played some fast and furious guitar too and the band were great, but we were too busy dancing to film it! No doubt more footage will appear on youtube. Also Mike Howlett's excellent bass playing was mixed in a way that was not beefy enough , we wanted to hear it louder,and yet it obliterated a bit of the rest of the band's sound, not sure how! I guess that's what live music is about, it depends where you stand (and the taste and/or ability of the engineer).
The set was amazing and the crowd were ecstatic, a great lightshow too with inventive animations adding to the whole performance.
My only complaint about The Steve Hillage Band was that their set was so short. I would have been happy to see them play their first five albums from start to end and would have not got bored for a second or judged them if they had missed a few bits and improvised instead.
Personally I would have been happier to see the evening split equally between Gong and Steve Hillage.
An Interval of Rainbow Dome Musick , while we got our "healing" beer would have been ideal! ( I am joking…kind of)
However,when we saw the long set that Gong played with the same instrumentalists , we realised perhaps why Steve Hillage's set was short but quality rather than quantity. When we arrived at 7.45 pm, The Steve Hillage Band was already playing and by the time Gong had left the stage it was past 11 pm.
Miquette and Steve ( Forum 27/11/2009)
There was a long break for drinks, just as well as it seemed impossible to get served ( hence the request for Rainbow Dome Musick at this point to keep us all calm). Only two bars on the ground floor, for thousands of people, the bar we queued up at only had one person serving, although after half an hour or so ,he was joined by two others.
The mood was jolly, lots of blokes, average age 50, many still with long hair or bald.But there were also a few women of all ages and also there were young, some very young ,teenage boys occasionally with young,very young,girlfriends in tow.
There is always a new crop of hippies germinating from any background. They emerge at around the age of 13 and by 16 they are either in a band or leading some form of alternative lifestyle with individual image to boot.These budding hippies who appear from nowhere decade after decade, will always gravitate towards the music of Gong and Steve Hillage.
Gong appeared on stage at around 9.15pm. They consisted of the members of The Steve Hillage Band , plus Daevid Allen ( vocals and guitar, and much leaping around), Gilli Smyth ( Vocals, "Space Whispers", Goddess/Witch) and Theo Travis ( playing some rather excellent flute and sax).
Gong at The Forum 27/11/2009 ( minus Miquette)
We couldn't help but notice that Gilli seemed older than the kind of woman you'd expect onstage with a rock band.We have been conditioned to expect only young people onstage doing weird rock music, especially when it comes to women in a non-acoustic band.We are super-conditioned that only certain types of sexualised young women or alternatively young teenage rebel girls who shave their heads or dye it some extreme colour, will be there. But I believe in breaking boundaries, most of the best classic bands are older, too old to rock and roll and too young to die? No! Get on stage, I say!
According to Wikipedia, Gilli Smyth, is 76 years old and used to be in academia, lecturing at the Sorbonne before deciding to do something all the more intellectual by forming Gong with her partner Daevid Allen.
Here is Gilli being a Witch on stage along to a free-form jazz jam from other members of Gong.
The Witch's Song Performed at The Forum 27/11/2009 originally released 1973 on "Radio Gnome Invisible.Part One"
Daevid Allen is 71. But he bounces around the stage like a kangaroo on acid (and speed). Daevid has such a stage presence that I can't help but wonder what on earth he would do if he didn't go on stage and dispel that energy. He is a jester with apparently boundless tigger-like energy. He definitely needs a stage to bounce on!
Gong- You Can't Kill Me
Unfortunately the camera ran out of memory before being able to film Daevid in his special silver-white silk catsuit, embellished by CDs, or his "No one Knows I'm a Lesbian" T-Shirt, or when he chased Miquette around the stage, or was she chasing him, either way his energy was impressive.
Daevid Allen at The Forum 27/11/2009
Miquette having fun playing air guitar along to Steve (27/11/09-Forum)
There were times when Gong shouted and repeated the same line over like a cross between a sergeant major barking orders and the rat-rat-rat of a self-loading machine gun, which reminded me of war , riots and abrupt change. At other times, Gong intoned half-sung and half-spoken poems with themes of the collective unconscious and mythical archetypes in a free-from jazz jam, then planting a strong melodic chorus , wherever and whenever it seemed the least expected. There were times when the music became ultra-psychedelic, the same repeated riff and beat, getting faster and louder with glissando guitars and excessive strobes, it went on in a cyclic fashion until it induced the brain into resistance or acceptance. I could not help but close my eyes to take it in. I felt like I was at some spiritual ceremony and that certain harmonious energies were being purposefully raised. I was pelted with rays of white light and the sound of repeated musical mantras ,until I felt transported from the middle of winter, to a bright dance tent at some summer festival. People didn't dance as much as they would in a dance tent though, but then we are older and we were tired by the end of the evening.
However there seemed to be some incredibly strong positive force present within the music. ..and I couldn't help but notice that at the end of the evening, after a long encore and a very long gig, Daevid Allen seemed to do a little ceremony to seal off each one of his chakra points, starting at his head and working his way down before leaving the stage.
Aha! I thought to myself , that's where Daevid gets his energy from: rituals and chakras!
I am somewhat cynical about anything too religious, but they must be getting their energy from somewhere!
Love and Peace ( off to do yoga,meditation and find my chakras now!)
p.s. for more of a spiritual explanation click on Pete's comment on the upper part of the left hand column of this blog or follow this link to hear Daevid Allen's spiritual vision for Gong( thanks again Pete).
new readers to this blog might be interested in this entry as well…
Steve Hillage always looking to the future: Part one from Hyde Park to Solfest
Categories: 2009 year of spiritual psychedelia revival, Air Guitar, alternative lifestyles, Alternative London, ambient, Camembert Electrique, Chill-Out, Chris Taylor, counterculture, Creative Lunatics, Daevid Allen, experimental music, free form jazz, gatherings, Gig, Gilli Smyth, Gong, green, Hippie, hope, jazz, L, live performance, London, Love and peace, Mike Howlett, miquette giraudy, music, performance poetry, Photographs, psychedelic, Radio Gnome, Review, ROCK, spiritual music, steve hillage, Steve Hillage Band, strobes, System 7, Theo Travis, timewarp, Trance, You Can't Kill Me . Tags: 2009 year of spiritual psychedelia revival, Chris Taylor, counterculture, Creative Lunatics, Daevid Allen, experimental music, gatherings, Gig, Gilli Smyth, Gong, Hippie, jazz, London, Mike Howlett, miquette giraudy, psychedelic, Review, rock guitar riffs, spiritual music, steve hillage, The Forum, Theo Travis, Your essential entertainment & lifestyle guide . Author: born2rant . Comments: 3 Comments
The Big Green Dispersion and Solfest 2009
Hello Good People who read this blog ,
(to anyone who read my Guilfest post, I have just added a video clip of Alice Armstrong at the end of it)
Just a note to say that I just got an email from my son telling me that "The Big Green Gathering", probably the official festival most like the older style alternative free festivals of the eighties , has been cancelled.
The Big Green Gathering really does represent alternative hippie counterculture in all its creative and political forms, so it's very sad.
Some footage of the Big Green Gathering one of many clips to be found on youtube but this one is particularly well put together.
Here is the notice from the BGG website:
The world's premier and award winning Green Festival
Attitude Is Everything – Bronze Level Award
July 29th – 2nd August 2009
urgent message
following threatened injunction proceedings in High Court by Mendip District Council supported by Somerset & Avon Police and having taken extensive advice from a prominent QC and other eminent lawyers, the directors of the Big Green Gathering have been left with no other option than to voluntarily surrender the license for the Big Green Gathering 2009. The event will now not take place and the directors' advice and request is that no one intending to attend the event should attempt to do so, as the site is now closed and they are likely to be turned away by Somerset Police. It is our intention to avoid any form of confrontation or public disorder in regard to this and it is our earnest hope that all those involved will follow this advice. It is with great sadness that we have been forced into this position and we express our profound apologies to all those concerned. The Directors of The Big Green Gathering
This is a very last minute decision. I don't fully understand why the festival has been banned by the local council and police.
According to the BBC , the festival is cancelled for safety reasons as well as crime. Is this the whole reason? Or is it to stop political subversives from meeting in large quantities?
see BBC website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/8169477.stm
is it really that dangerous that it must be closed down?
It looks like a great way to socialise kids and help them to build for the future when the world will change through our abuse of it.
Here are some more highly dangerous and criminal activities at the BGG.Young people making their own films of the festival. These are fantastic.
Meanwhile I should be going to Solfest in Cumbria at the end of August( 28th -30th) ,after going to Hawkwind's 40th Anniversary gig at Porchester Halls in London the night before.
It's a long way from London but still my favourite festival, the atmosphere is much friendlier than festivals in the south and people go there not to see any particular band but for the festival experience.Everyone is co-operative and creates a good atmosphere, Saturday is "Fancy Dress" day,which is always spectacular and inventive.
I recommend it for any hippies out there who can no longer go to The Big Green Gathering, but get your tickets early.
It only costs £85 for the weekend including camping and car with very limited tickets. You can get there easily from Carlisle by train and minibus.
from the Solfest website:
"Tickets for Solfest 2009 will be available from the following outlets:
The Carnegie Theatre, Workington, 01900 602122 (telephone and counter sales, cash and cards accepted)
The Cumberland Building Society, Aspatria (over the counter cash sales only)
The Cumberland Building Society, Wigton (over the counter cash sales only)
The Cumberland Building Society, Silloth (over the counter cash sales only)
For Solfest 2009 there will be a total of 6500 adult tickets available. There will also be a total of 750 children's tickets and 750 Young people's tickets. When they are gone, they are gone!"
Although I said that it isn't the bands that matter, the line-up includes The Charlatans who I saw do a great live gig at Guilfest. Other acts include The Orb, Kula Shaker, Adrian Edmonson and the Bad Shepherds, The Beat ( who I was told did a great set at Guilfest too), The Buzzcocks, the Blockheads, Nerina Pallot, and many more.
Solfest has all the things lacking at Guilfest in terms of quality of festival-going experience.
A sample from last year's Solfest , as part of the goings-on in the all night Dogs in Space chill out tent featuring a bit of Tetchi who are billed to play again there this year (this film makes the tent look a lot darker than in real life, it was actually fairly bright in there).
Any comments on why you think The Big Gathering was cancelled?
p.s. thanks to the UK Hippie Forum, I have found this update about what to do if you have a ticket.Is there a UK Beatnik Forum? and a UK Crusty Forum? and if not why not?
Next time a radio show I made about the songwriting communities of Open Mic clubs in London.
From BGG website ( note that Gong are playing the Big Chill keep referring to the BGG website for news, the Big Chill is a good place if you want a holiday but it's nothing like the BGG experience in terms of green anarchy, still I think it's good that they've done this, better that than leave people totally stranded)
Several other festivals have already approached us, offering to accept BIg Green Gathering tickets for their events. Some have placed no limit on the number of our ticket holders they will accept. Others have offered us a quota… and have told us that they will announce, on their websites, how many they can accomodate and how many places for BGG ticket holders they still have left. So far, if you have paid for a ticket (whether full price or concession) you will find it is definitely good for full admission to SUNRISE 2010 (late May 2010, Somerset) See website for details of how their BGG swap quota is standing and we are hoping, soon, to announce similar swap options for several festivals. Watch this space please.
If you are willing to pay an extra £20, you can swap your Big Green Gathering ticket for a ticket to the BIG CHILL. All you have to do is turn up at the gate of the Big Chill with your BGG ticket and your extra £20. We'll have a stall there, and some of the same speakers who were on our bill (including Jonathan Cainer) will be in their Words In Motion tent. Also on the Big Chill bill are Max Romeo, Gong, Pharoah Sanders and Music from the Penguin Cafe, plus comedy from Noel Fielding, Tim Minchin, John Hegley, Josie Long and Rob Deering.
Click here for the link. Please note; the Big Chill is not yet a Green event but they do have a long history of supporting honourable causes including Amnesty International… and they are now starting to use more solar and wind power. Solar Aid have a presence there this year.
If you really want to make a gesture of faith and support… you can hold on to your ticket and we will honour it at the next Big Green Gathering, wherever and whenever it will be.
If we can avoid having to give too many straight refunds, it will help us survive. And if you are feeling extra-ordinarily generous, you can simply write to us telling us that you are 'donating' your ticket towards our survival fund.
Categories: alternative lifestyles, anti-consumerism, Anti-Materialism, art, cabaret, Chill-Out, counterculture, Creative Lunatics, Environment, experimental film, festivals, free festivals, gatherings, green politics, Hawkwind, Hippie, law, live performance, Michael Dog, music, Peace, police, psychedelic, Solfest 2009, The Big Green Gathering, The Charlatans, the environment, The Orb, You Can't Kill The Spirit, Your essential entertainment & lifestyle guide . Tags: alternative lifestyles, anti-consumerism, Anti-Materialism, art, cabaret, Chill-Out, counterculture, Creative Lunatics, Environment, experimental music, festivals, film, free festivals, Freedom, gatherings, green politics, Hawkwind, Hippie, jazz, law, live performance, Megadog, Michael Dog, music, Peace, police, psychedelic, Solfest 2009, The Big Green Gathering, The Charlatans, the environment, The Orb, You Can't Kill The Spirit, Your essential entertainment & lifestyle guide . Author: born2rant . Comments: 5 Comments
Guilfest 2009 delayed review of a mishmash festival
I've been away some more and then was ill and then was in hospital with pipes up my nose and much more horrible places, but I am making it all sound far more dramatic and less conventional than it is…
However it provides a bloody good excuse for not having promptly written a review of Guilfest 2009 .
Why write a review of Guilfest anyway? After all it's not a hippie festival! I hear you cry ( in my imagination that imagines that someone out there in cyberspace apart from MI5 and MI6 reads this).
Well two reasons:
1. I was there ( see previous entry for reason I was there)
2. I talked to Alice Armstrong ( see end of this entry for some footage in "The Laundry"..not a club but really in laundry) to ask her for her name for a review. Both her and her guitarist were very enthusiastic and wanted the address of my blog , so now for them,because I like to keep to my word, rather than to gratify Lemmy or anyone else, I will write a review of my impressions of the festival and intersperse it with some of the music.
On the first evening, I missed Eat Static as I couldn't find the dance tent hidden away in a corner of the festival, but I heard The Stranglers from my tent. I was resting preparing myself for Motorhead .I had a headache followed by a cough. There was a bloke at the gate,selling T-shirts saying " I've got swine flu" with a big pink pig on it. I thought of buying one but didn't.
By then I had realised that the festival was basically a gig in a field complete with modern Britain's fascist rules and regulations . To go into the main site, you had to endure young people randomly grabbing and tugging at your wristband without warning , followed by the "customs" inspection, having everything in your bag, opened, sniffed, even tasted. I'm surprised they stopped short of a cavity search.But the British public, like apathetic sheep, just seemed to succumb to this kind of treatment without fuss. I don't think ID cards will be hard to bring in, that's nothing!
The reason for this behaviour was to stop people bringing in alcohol, drugs, and re-selling tickets and wristbands. However within sight and earshot of this procedure about ten ticket touts were relentlessly buying and selling tickets and wristbands. In the camping field several hundred under 16s and their "flu friends" were drinking hundreds of cans of beer , bottles of spirits and taking nitrous oxide, in full view of the same stewards so anxious to check everything in your bag. What a farce!
Entering into the main festival site was always a bit like going into a strange concentration camp with no human rights or freedoms but with lots of good music and where you could still smoke at a live gig.
Friday night :Motorhead as viewed from the position of adoring fans "Ace of Spades" Guilfest 2009
some Motorhead choreography
Motorhead did a blinding gig, sometimes their energy waned for a minute or two but then they were back on form. Lemmy threatened to stop at one point because so many things ( mainly frisbees) were being thrown on stage . There was even a spectacular stage invasion. There was some excellent lead guitar playing, though I can never hear Lemmy's lyrics and I got bored during the drum solo ( time to get a beer). Lemmy's son, Paul ,came and played guitar on some songs with Lemmy on harmonica ,they did some acoustic blues. All in all a great gig with lots of energy and variety.
Motorhead with Fire-eaters on stage Guilfest
After Motorhead my second favourite gig came as a surprise to me . It was these guys , The Charlatans, far more psychedelic than I expected, also very dynamic and energetic.I liked all of their songs and they were "in the zone" performance-wise.
Saturday night:The Charlatans at Guilfest
The Only One I know
The Charlatans again (includes vibrant keyboard part):
They were followed by Brian Wilson who I missed due to monsoon type rain, poor guy playing sunny music in the dark with everyone running for cover. Good Vibrations ( note pools of water on the front of the stage)
Another one of my gripes about this festival was that there was nowhere you could sit indoors and have a cup of coffee, the cafes were grim and not run by hippies . Since it rained a lot, sitting indoors was important, a lot of people brought their own chairs and giant umbrellas, gazebos etc… but being ecologically minded ( and without enough dosh to run a car) I bring the bare minimum to festivals. At other festivals I go to there are hippie run cafes under big tarpaulins where there are old sofas, carpets, or at least bales of hay to sit on while you drink and eat out of the rain.
Also the programmes which cost £5 , a lot of money when you have none, was the only way of finding out who was on stage when.
At the information point when I asked who was on stage, they deliberately hid the programme from me as they gave out information, like I was some kind of free-loading thief, explaining to me that I had to buy a programme if I wanted to know anything more. I paid £120 including postage for a bloody ticket, I don't want to have to be robbed of another fiver to know who is performing. Pah! I say in disgust!
Plus the real ale I bought there was the worst pint I have ever drunk in my life and their measures of vodka seemed to be very mean. There were no showers on site, these were some distance off the site at a swimming pool. No one I talked to could be bothered to walk there.
Anyway at least there was some good music.
During the daytime around the festival I spotted Fezheads in a tent not just dancing but playing some excellent surf music with their band. Highly entertaining although a couple of young blokes pulled up behind me and watched them saying that they were crap as they were making mistakes with their dance steps. I think they missed the point.
Surrey University was one of the sponsors. The head of Popular Music there used to be my lecturer years ago and created some very interesting courses , he didn't mind my writing essays on the Ozric Tentacles and Stonehenge. (I have a sneaky feeling that the Prof. in question could be the person with long red hair lurking at the back of the stage on the Motorhead and Charlatan clips but I may be totally mistaken).
However the Uni produced a brochure with some truly horrific pictures of Jimmy Page and George Martin.I had to throw the brochure away as I was so freaked out by a photo of Jimmy Page grinning with extra-whitened teeth,wearing full graduate garb including silly hat ,looking like King Henry the VIII's skinny cousin.
Whatever happened to your tight satin snake trousers Jimmy???
I saw quite a bit of music on Sunday, having sussed out my camping situation and accepting that there would be no sleep till Notting Hill ( i. e. in my own bed) due to the loud tent/bar next to me running all Saturday night, Sunday morning and well into the afternoon when they left . This large tent run by some of the younger attendees, was stacked with big amps, lights, and a big bar. At four a.m. I heard about a hundred people sing "woo-hoo" along to Blur , and shortly afterwards they all shouted repeatedly " Naked Bar!" and could hear them stripping .Their music was often louder than the main stage, most people moved their tents away after the first night but I have ear-plugs and have camped next to 24 dance music stages.
On Sunday morning I got up and saw The Rock Choir, the less I say about them the better.There were so many of them, that they were performing on both main stages simultaneously, another strange decision made probably by either by a crazy fan or a committee. Committees should NEVER run a festival ( I speak from experience) leave it to a couple of driven individuals who know what they are doing.( arrogant opinionated ranting from me but that's what I'm here for! )
Motorhead and Will Young headlining at the same festival?????What were they thinking? ( Ker-ching ££££££ let's maximise our audience possibly).
I watched the Rock Choir, on both stages but had to leave urgently, as two terribly nice young white boys backed by about two hundred white suburban housewives sang a rap song to Jesus in a very earnest fashion. ( just as well Lemmy wasn't around).
Later, fortunately I caught The Hamsters, who initially seemed a bit jaded, but warmed up nicely and soon attracted a large crowd when playing Hendrix and AC/DC covers and their usual antics of swapping instruments went down well.
The Hamsters are one of my favourite live bands, who I go to see once or twice a year.So even though I can't find Guilfest footage of them I have to put up a clip of them anyway.The Hamsters play Purple Haze ( but not at Guilfest!) Rock Against Ageism!
Later that evening,The Happy Mondays were pretty boring after a couple of songs although they had a fab female vocalist with twenty times the singing ability of Shaun Ryder ( bet there are some interesting ego clashes backstage!).
Bez ,clearly no longer on the wagon, addressed the audience like some demented mute traffic cop. He threw a maraca to a member of the audience close to me and then gesticulated madly that the wrong person had caught it, then indicated he wanted it back, then once it was thrown back to him on stage, he delivered it to the person who was meant to receive it ( or at least this is what I understood at the time but who knows what motivates him?)
Here he is when he still had both maracas.( but possibly not all of his marbles).
Earlier in the day I'd seen "Goldie Looking Chain" and realised that I was going to see two ex-Big Brother contestants in one day ( Bez and Maggot, whatever happened to "street cred"?).
"Goldie Looking Chain" are a great bawdy leaping hip-hop act, very entertaining but so inapropriate to bill them on a Sunday afternoon full of families with young children, many of them waiting to see Will Young in the evening.
There were lots of little girls looking quite puzzled and disturbed when GLC explained in great detail the basis for their song " Can I F*** your sister?", thereby making some lads laugh but traumatising parents and daughters alike.
Apart from Motorhead, the band I saw most beloved by the crowds, including families and people of all ages and backgrounds, were "The Wailers". The dancing audience knew all the words and the vibe was fantastic.
Amazingly I can't find any Guilfest footage of The Wailers even though they were hugely popular, so here's a clip of them in Saint-Petersburg earlier in the year, imagine the same scenario but in blazing sunshine with a couple of thousand people dancing and singing along .
But the reason why I wrote this entry was after talking to one young woman from Guilford and her guitarist friend in the acoustic lounge. She has a stunning big powerful blues/soul voice. Her name is Alice Armstrong and she was accompanied by American guitarist Jack Kristiansen. They did a couple of interesting jointly-written songs including "Roll-Up" ( i.e. "Skin-Up") on Sunday. Her stage presence and that big and mature-sounding voice of hers is begging for a big band behind her. I asked for her name, and the name of their act which is simply "Alice Armstrong" . They were definitely the best act on compared to the other stages at that point. I was dismayed to find no trace of her music on the net.
In the late sixties or early seventies, Alice's voice would have been ideal for a loud raunchy rock or blues band but musical fashions change, she has a great voice and I hope she finds her niche.
It's a big shame that I cannot find her singing online but here are some pictures of her from her myspace profile and hopefully, she may be persuaded to record herself or film herself ,so it can go online. But Alice, my advice is to develop your own style, don't copy anyone else, trust your instincts!
I will email her to check she doesn't mind me using these photos . ( note the troll behind the window)
Alice Armstrong from Guildford
Anyway got to go now…my next project awaits my attention…
UPDATE! 27/07/09 Alice has uploaded a couple of home vids on youtube, however I'm not sure they do her or her voice justice, she still could do with a band and an attentive audience, however you can hear the essence of her voice on the youtube clips at the following address:http://www.youtube.com/alicearmstrong
( I quite like the one in the laundry with beer) …so I'll put it up here.
Alice Armstrong with Jack Kristiansen "Roll-up"
Will do another unusual blog entry soon.
p.s. 19/7/09 A lot of Will Young fans are coming to read this review. Sorry there is no Will Young here, you need to write your own review and ranting from a Will Young fan point of view!
Categories: Alice Armstrong, Blur, Brian Wilson, Bullshit Excuses, festivals, Fezheads, Goldie Looking Chain, Guilfest, Happy Mondays, Jimmy Page, just ranting really, Lemmy, live performance, Motorhead, music, police state, Political Apathy, psychedelic, Rizzla Teeth, ROCK, rock guitar riffs, swine flu, The Charlatans, The Wailers, University, Your essential entertainment & lifestyle guide, Youth . Tags: Alice Armstrong, Blur, Bullshit Excuses, festivals, Fezheads, Goldie Looking Chain, Guilfest, Happy Mondays, Jimmy Page, just ranting really, Lemmy, live performance, Motorhead, music, police state, Political Apathy, psychedelic, Rizzla Teeth, ROCK, rock guitar riffs, swine flu, The Charlatans, The Wailers, University, Your essential entertainment & lifestyle guide, Youth . Author: born2rant . Comments: 10 Comments


text:
Ask Pacific Standard: Food Insecurity
Lands of Metamorphosis
Taking Freedom
Tomando La Libertad
Unseen America
Doulas Do It Better
Providing doulas to low-income mothers-to-be could save Medicaid millions.
Kevin Charles Fleming
(PHOTO: MICHAELJUNG/SHUTTERSTOCK)
Here's a quick medical quiz: What's the most common reason for hospitalization in the United States? Take a stab. Respiratory distress? Cardiac arrest?
Try childbirth. As researchers at the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health observe, more than four million babies are born in American hospitals every year, and from maternal checkups to newborn care, moms-to-be rack up more charges than any other patients. In 2009, those costs totaled nearly $30 billion.
Maternal health care is a big burden on Medicaid, which pays the expenses of low-income patients and annually foots the bill for 45 percent of all births. What's more, low-income moms have disproportionately high rates of complication and Caesarean section. According to the Minnesota researchers, Medicaid mothers are more likely to give birth prematurely, or to low-weight babies, than more affluent women.
Writingthis month in the American Journal of Public Health, Katy Backes Kozhimannil and her colleagues propose a novel way to reduce birth complications and bring down maternal Medicaid costs at the same time: use doulas.
Unlike an obstetrician or delivery nurse, a doula—from the Ancient Greek term for "female servant"—possesses no formal medical training (which also differentiates her from a midwife). Instead, she's on hand during labor to provide counsel and emotional support to mothers and their partners, not unlike a coach on the sidelines of a tennis match, or a guide leading a first-time climber up a mountain. In addition to serving as a mother's advocate in the delivery room, doulas also provide pre- and post-partum advice on homebirth, nursing, and infant wellbeing. In an age of high-tech medicine and mommy blogs, a doula fills a rather more traditional cultural role: she's a confidant, a mentor, a hand to hold in the worst of labor pains.
A 2011 Cochrane Review looked at 21 studies involving 15,000 pregnancies and found that women who were provided a doula's "continuous support" during childbirth experienced shorter labors, fewer Caesarians, and were less likely to require the use of instruments—forceps, vacuums—or epidural drugs. "Continuous support during labour has clinically meaningful benefits for women and infants and no known harm," the review concluded. "All women should have support throughout labour and birth."
Unfortunately, all women don't. "The women who stand to benefit the most from doula care have the least access to it—both financially and culturally," Kozhimannil notes. "Most doulas are white middle-class women serving white middle-class women." And because few private insurers cover a doula's services, any woman who wants one in the delivery room is forced to pay for the care—often $400 to $800—out-of-pocket.
Kozhimannil wondered if state Medicaid programs might actually reap long-term cost savings by providing their poor patients with doulas, thus avoiding the astronomical hospital bills associated with premature labor, Caesarean section, and neonatal intensive care. (At the moment, just five states allow public funds to pay for labor coaches, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.) If doulas really did decrease the risk of complicated pregnancies, it would make sense to invest in their services up front, in the same way that it's cheaper for an insurer to pay for a customer's gym membership now than to treat her diabetes later.
Everyday Miraclesis a Minneapolis non-profit that provides Spanish- and Somali-speaking doulas to mothers on Medicaid—precisely the kind of women that Kozhimannil argues most need their support. The organization's 22 doulas assisted more than 1,000 births between 2010 and 2012, so Kozhimannil compared their outcomes with 280,000 Medicaid-funded births, presumably few of which were doula-assisted. She found that, as was predicted, Everyday Miracle mothers had 30 percent fewer Caesarean sections than regular Medicaid mothers.
Kozhimannil then projected how much states might save were doulas able to lower C-section rate among all low-income moms as much as they had among Everyday Miracle moms. (According to the University of Minnesota, the average Medicaid payment is about $9,000 for a vaginal birth, but significantly higher—$13,600—for a Caesarean delivery.) Assuming Medicaid could negotiate a standard $200 fee for doula birth services, most states would save at least $2 million a year, and the average would cut costs by $7 million. Populous states stand to see an even bigger windfall: with fewer surgical births, California alone might recoup some $200 million in obstetrics costs.
In the end, of course, it's about more than money. For low-income expectant mothers and their infants, the stakes are so much higher. But if economic logic is what's required to compel state governments to act, well, that's good medicine of a different sort.
DoulasPregnancyNeonatal Care
Our C-Section Rate Won't Budge—Is It Because We Don't Trust Women's Hormones?
An unprecedented new report looking at the biochemical mechanisms linked to birth and breastfeeding suggests that over-treatment in the delivery room is having lasting, harmful effects on both mothers and children.
You're Pregnant. What Do You Know About the Meds?
Testing prescription drugs on pregnant women is controversial. It's also utterly necessary if we care about the health of both mother and child.
Building a Better Smartphone Keyboard
Can KALQ succeed where QWERTY fails?
Men: Want More Sex? Don't Do the Laundry!
Sociologists refute the idea that husbands who help out around the house are repaid with sex.
A Safe Haven for Whom?
Advocates argue that safe haven laws prevent mothers from abandoning their newborns, but the policy abandons mothers upon dropoff.
How Dangerous Is Too Dangerous When It Comes to At-Home Birth?
Planning to have your birth at home doubles the risk of some serious complications. Does that mean no one should do it?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
The Tapung Old Fort or Mount Lidong Fort () is a former fort in Jianshi Township, Hsinchu County, Taiwan.

History
After the end of First Sino-Japanese War and the signing of Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, the Japanese soldiers quickly spread across Taiwan. Revolts happened in remote mountain areas with the local people. Sakuma Samata was named the Governor-General of Taiwan on 11 April 1906. He immediately tried to teach the aborigine Atayal people to follow the government. He began a five-year campaign during which he attacked the aborigines. In 1911, the Japanese army took over Mount Lidong after a heavy war which resulted huge casualties from both sides. The fort was then built in 1912 to protect themselves from the aborigines. Later in that year, two Atayal tribes united to fight the Japanese attacked the fort during a typhoon. The fort was defeated and a year later the Japanese counter-attacked the tribes. The Japanese then later rebuilt and reinforced the fort.

Architecture
The fort was built on top of Mount Lidong in a quadrangle shape with 8 meters in length and 6 meters in width. It has bastions on the eastern and western sides of the fort as defense measure. The four walls surrounding the fort has 31 loopholes. The walls were made from armored-concrete and clay and the interior side has buttress pillar to further reinforce the structure.

See also
 List of tourist attractions in Taiwan

References

1912 establishments in Taiwan
Buildings and structures in Hsinchu County
Forts in Taiwan
Military installations established in 1912
Tourist attractions in Hsinchu County

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: Get request method in Silex middleware Is it possible to get the request method (GET, POST, PUT, ...) in a middleware function ?
$myMiddleware = function (Request $request) {
    // This is what I want to achieve
    switch ($request->request->get('method') {
        case 'GET':
            // ...
        break;
    }
}

$app = new Application();
$app->before($myMiddleware);

A: Thanks to putvande.
As simple as:
$request->getMethod();

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Also published in New approaches to monetary economics : proceedings of the Second International Symposium in Economic Theory and Econometrics / William A. Barnett, Kenneth J. Singleton.
Technology adoption and growth \ Stephen L. Parente, Edward C. Prescott.
Parente, Stephen L. and Prescott, Edward C.
Technology change is modeled as the result of decisions of individuals and groups of individuals to adopt more advanced technologies. The structure is calibrated to the U.S. and postwar Japan growth experiences. Using this calibrated structure we explore how large the disparity in the effective tax rates on the returns to adopting technologies must be to account for the huge observed disparity in per capita income across countries. We find that this disparity is not implausibly large.


text:
Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/16627.html
Green Clubs
Klaas van 't Veld
Matthew J. Kotchen
Matthew Jason Kotchen
This paper treats programs in which firms voluntarily agree to meet environmental standards as "green clubs": clubs, because they provide non-rival but excludable reputation benefits to participating firms; green, because they also generate environmental public goods. The model illuminates a central tension between the congestion externality familiar from conventional club theory and the free-riding externality familiar from the theory on private provision of public goods. We compare three common program sponsors--governments, industry, and environmental groups. We find that if monitoring of the club standard is perfect, a government constrained from regulating club size may prefer to leave sponsorship to industry if public-good benefits are sufficiently low, or to environmentalists if public-good benefits are sufficiently high. If monitoring is imperfect, an important question is whether consumers can infer that a club is too large for its standard to be credible. If they can, then the government may deliberately choose an imperfect monitoring mechanism as a way of regulating club size indirectly. If they cannot, then this reinforces the government's preference for delegating sponsorship.
Klaas van 't Veld & Matthew J. Kotchen, 2010. "Green Clubs," NBER Working Papers 16627, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16627
Note: EEE PE
File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w16627.pdf
van't Veld, Klaas & Kotchen, Matthew J., 2011. "Green clubs," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 309-322.
Magali Delmas & Arturo Keller, 2005. "Free riding in voluntary environmental programs: The case of the U.S. EPA WasteWise program," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 38(2), pages 91-106, September.
Klaus Conrad, 2005. "Price Competition and Product Differentiation When Consumers Care for the Environment," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 31(1), pages 1-19, May.
Besley, Timothy & Ghatak, Maitreesh, 2007. "Retailing public goods: The economics of corporate social responsibility," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(9), pages 1645-1663, September.
Kotchen, Matthew J., 2005. "Impure public goods and the comparative statics of environmentally friendly consumption," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 281-300, March.
Matthew J. Kotchen, 2003. "Impure Public Goods and the Comparative Statics of Environmentally Friendly Consumption," Department of Economics Working Papers 2003-06, Department of Economics, Williams College.
Charles Mason, 2011. "Eco-Labeling and Market Equilibria with Noisy Certification Tests," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 48(4), pages 537-560, April.
Graff Zivin Joshua & Small Arthur, 2005. "A Modigliani-Miller Theory of Altruistic Corporate Social Responsibility," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 5(1), pages 1-21, May.
Amacher, Gregory S. & Koskela, Erkki & Ollikainen, Markku, 2004. "Environmental quality competition and eco-labeling," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 284-306, March.
David P. Baron, 2007. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Entrepreneurship," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(3), pages 683-717, September.
Aurora García-Gallego & Nikolaos Georgantzís, 2009. "Market Effects of Changes in Consumers' Social Responsibility," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 235-262, March.
Andreoni, James, 2007. "Giving gifts to groups: How altruism depends on the number of recipients," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(9), pages 1731-1749, September.
Khanna, Madhu, 2001. " Non-mandatory Approaches to Environmental Protection," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(3), pages 291-324, July.
Sandler, Todd & Tschirhart, John T, 1980. "The Economic Theory of Clubs: An Evaluative Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 18(4), pages 1481-1521, December.
Segerson, Kathleen & Miceli, Thomas J., 1998. "Voluntary Environmental Agreements: Good or Bad News for Environmental Protection?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 109-130, September.
Matthew J. Kotchen, 2006. "Green Markets and Private Provision of Public Goods," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 114(4), pages 816-845, August.
Matthew J. Kotchen, 2003. "Green Markets and Private Provision of Public Goods," Department of Economics Working Papers 2003-05, Department of Economics, Williams College.
Aaditya Mattoo & Harsha V. Singh, 1994. "Eco‐Labelling: Policy Considerations," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 53-65, February.
Todd Sandler & John Tschirhart, 1997. "Club theory: Thirty years later," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 93(3), pages 335-355, December.
Sandler, Todd & Tschirhart, John, 1997. "Club Theory: Thirty Years Later," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 93(3-4), pages 335-355, December.
Sandler, Todd & Tschirhart, John, 1997. "Club Theory: Thirty Years Later," Staff General Research Papers Archive 1226, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
Brekke, Kjell Arne & Nyborg, Karine, 2008. "Attracting responsible employees: Green production as labor market screening," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 509-526, December.
Gilles Grolleau & Lisette Ibanez & Naoufel Mzoughi, 2007. "Industrialists hand in hand with environmentalists: how eco-labeling schemes can help firms to raise rivals' costs," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 215-236, December.
Gilles Grolleau & Lisette Ibanez & Naoufel Mzoughi, 2007. "Industrialists hand in hand with environmentalists: how eco-labeling schemes can help firms to raise rivals' costs," Post-Print hal-01072408, HAL.
Klaus CONRAD, 2005. "Price Competition and Product Differentiation when Goods have Network Effects," Industrial Organization 0502002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
Drew Fudenberg & Jean Tirole, 1991. "Game Theory," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262061414.
Arora, Seema & Gangopadhyay, Shubhashis, 1995. "Toward a theoretical model of voluntary overcompliance," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 289-309, December.
Nahum D. Melumad & Dilip Mookherjee, 1989. "Delegation as Commitment: The Case of Income Tax Audits," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 20(2), pages 139-163, Summer.
Roberto Rodríguez-Ibeas, 2007. "Environmental Product Differentiation and Environmental Awareness," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 36(2), pages 237-254, February.
Lyon, Thomas P. & Maxwell, John W., 2003. "Self-regulation, taxation and public voluntary environmental agreements," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(7-8), pages 1453-1486, August.
Heyes, Anthony G. & Maxwell, John W., 2004. "Private vs. public regulation: political economy of the international environment," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 978-996, September.
Anthony Heyes and John Maxwell, 2003. "Private vs. Public Regulation: Political Economy of the International Environment," Royal Holloway, University of London: Discussion Papers in Economics 03/5, Department of Economics, Royal Holloway University of London, revised Dec 2003.
Duncan, Brian, 2004. "A theory of impact philanthropy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(9-10), pages 2159-2180, August.
Mark Bagnoli & Susan G. Watts, 2003. "Selling to Socially Responsible Consumers: Competition and The Private Provision of Public Goods," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(3), pages 419-445, September.
Thomas P. Lyon & John W. Maxwell, 2008. "Corporate Social Responsibility and the Environment: A Theoretical Perspective," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 2(2), pages 240-260, Summer.
Thomas P. Lyon & John W. Maxwell, 2007. "Corporate Social Responsibility and the Environment: A Theoretical Perspective," Working Papers 2007-16, Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, Department of Business Economics and Public Policy.
Hamilton, Stephen F. & Zilberman, David, 2006. "Green markets, eco-certification, and equilibrium fraud," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 627-644, November.
Corradini, Massimiliano & Costantini, Valeria & Mancinelli, Susanna & Mazzanti, Massimiliano, 2014. "Unveiling the dynamic relation between R&D and emission abatement," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 48-59.
Cecere, Grazia & Mancinelli, Susanna & Mazzanti, Massimiliano, 2014. "Waste prevention and social preferences: the role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 163-176.
Grazia Cecere & Susanna Mancinelli & Massimiliano Mazzanti, 2013. "Waste Prevention and Social Preferences: The Role of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations," Working Papers 2013.44, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
Grazia Cecere & Susanna Mancinelli & Massimiliano Mazzanti, 2013. "Waste prevention and social preferences : the role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations," Post-Print hal-01274243, HAL.
Cecere, Grazia & Mancinelli, Susanna & Mazzanti, Massimiliano, 2013. "Waste Prevention and Social Preferences: The Role of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations," Climate Change and Sustainable Development 151371, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
Grazia Cecere & Susanna Mancinelli & Massimiliano Mazzanti, 2014. "Waste Prevention and Social Preferences: The Role of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations," SEEDS Working Papers 2014, SEEDS, Sustainability Environmental Economics and Dynamics Studies, revised Aug 2014.
Heindl, Peter & Kanschik, Philipp, 2016. "Ecological sufficiency, individual liberties, and distributive justice: Implications for policy making," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 42-50.
Heindl, Peter & Kanschik, Philipp, 2016. "Ecological sufficiency, individual liberties, and distributive justice: Implications for policy making," ZEW Discussion Papers 16-023, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
repec:spr:climat:v:144:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s10584-015-1517-9 is not listed on IDEAS
Anthony Heyes & Sandeep Kapur & Peter W. Kennedy & Steve Martin & John W. Maxwell, 2018. "But What Does it Mean? Competition between Products Carrying Alternative Green Labels when Consumers are Active Acquirers of Information," Birkbeck Working Papers in Economics and Finance 1812, Birkbeck, Department of Economics, Mathematics & Statistics.
Li, Yuanhao & van 't Veld, Klaas, 2015. "Green, greener, greenest: Eco-label gradation and competition," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 164-176.
Massimiliano Corradini & Valeria Costantini & Massimiliano Mazzanti & Susanna Mancinelli, 2014. "Linking innovation investment and environmental performance: an impure dynamic public good model," SEEDS Working Papers 0814, SEEDS, Sustainability Environmental Economics and Dynamics Studies, revised Apr 2014.
Todd Sandler, 2013. "Buchanan clubs," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 265-284, December.
Massimiliano Mazzanti & Valeria Costantini & Susanna Mancinelli & Massimilano Corradini, 2011. "Environmental and Innovation Performance in a Dynamic Impure Public Good Framework," Working Papers 201117, University of Ferrara, Department of Economics.
Massimiliano Corradini & Valeria Costantini & Susanna Mancinelli & Massimiliano Mazzanti, 2011. "Environmental and innovation performance in a dynamic impure public good framework," Departmental Working Papers of Economics - University 'Roma Tre' 0141, Department of Economics - University Roma Tre.
repec:kap:regeco:v:52:y:2017:i:3:d:10.1007_s11149-017-9339-5 is not listed on IDEAS
Michael Finus & Dirk Rübbelke, 2013. "Public Good Provision and Ancillary Benefits: The Case of Climate Agreements," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 56(2), pages 211-226, October.
Sexton, Steven E. & Sexton, Alison L., 2014. "Conspicuous conservation: The Prius halo and willingness to pay for environmental bona fides," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 303-317.
repec:eee:touman:v:37:y:2013:i:c:p:203-209 is not listed on IDEAS
Massimiliano Corradini & Valeria Costantini & Susanna Mancinelli & Massimiliano Mazzanti, 2015. "Interacting innovation investments and environmental performances: a dynamic impure public good model," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 17(1), pages 109-129, January.
D71 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Social Choice; Clubs; Committees; Associations
Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy
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text:
import * as assert from 'assert';
import Enumerable from './Enumerable';

describe('elementAtOrDefault()', () => {
    it('should returns the element at a specified index in a sequence', () => {
        const xs = [1, 2, 3, 4];

        assert.strictEqual(new Enumerable(xs).elementAtOrDefault(0), 1);
        assert.strictEqual(new Enumerable(xs).elementAtOrDefault(1), 2);
        assert.strictEqual(new Enumerable(xs).elementAtOrDefault(2), 3);
        assert.strictEqual(new Enumerable(xs).elementAtOrDefault(3), 4);
        assert.strictEqual(new Enumerable(xs[Symbol.iterator]()).elementAtOrDefault(0), 1);
        assert.strictEqual(new Enumerable(xs[Symbol.iterator]()).elementAtOrDefault(1), 2);
        assert.strictEqual(new Enumerable(xs[Symbol.iterator]()).elementAtOrDefault(2), 3);
        assert.strictEqual(new Enumerable(xs[Symbol.iterator]()).elementAtOrDefault(3), 4);
    });

    it('should returns a default value if the index is out of range', () => {
        const xs = [1, 2, 3, 4];

        assert.strictEqual(new Enumerable(xs).elementAtOrDefault(4, 123), 123);
        assert.strictEqual(new Enumerable(xs).elementAtOrDefault(4), null);
    });
});

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Report on FMCG products include cosmetics like market size for hair care products, skin and eye care products, toiletries and flavours & fragrances. Also baby care products are analysed in this section and insights are drawn from interviews conducted with industry experts and also primary research.
Global Induction Cooktop Market: 2018 World Market Review and Forecast to 2023 - Analysis By Type (Built-In, Freestanding), By Sales Channel (Retail Outlets, Online), By Region, By Country (2013-2023) Executive Summary A comprehensive research re Read More..
Global Health Beverage Market - Analysis By Type of Beverage (Bottled Water, Juices, Probiotics, Energy Drinks, Ready to Drink Tea and Coffee, Others), By Sub-Types, By Sales Channel (Online, Offline), By Region, By Country (2018 Edition): Forecast to 2022 Executive Summary A comprehensive research re Read More..
India Natural & Organic Personal and Beauty Care Products Market - Sizing and Growth, By Value, By Type, By Application, By End User: Opportunities and Forecast (2017-2022) Executive Summary A comprehensive research re Read More..
Global Mosquito Repellent Market By Type (Coils, Liquid Vaporizers, Sprays, Mats, Cream & Oil), Sales Channel, Market Share (2017 Edition): Forecast to 2022 Executive Summary According to the 2017 Editi Read More..
Global Air Quality Monitoring and Water Quality Sensors Market (By Product Type, By Application, By Region, By Country): Opportunities and Forecasts (2016-2021) Executive Summary A comprehensive research report created through extensive primary r Read More..
Global Flavours and Fragrances Ingredients Market (By Segment, By Region, By Country): Trends, Opportunities and Forecasts (2016-2021) Executive Summary A comprehensive research report created Read More..


Majestic Panoramic Mountain Views. Nicely appointed unit at Wheeler Peak Condominiums!! This Turn-Key completely furnished unit offers an open floorplan tile, granite counters, stainless steel appliances, large dining area, plenty of natural light , gas FP, and a large balcony to enjoy the views that include Wheeler Peak, Kachina Peak, Lake Fork Peak & much more. World Class location in Kachina Village only a short 5 minute walk to Ski Lift #4.


text:
include_recipe 'homebrew'

node['homebrew']['taps'].each do |tap|
  homebrew_tap tap
end


A complete skin care product line for the face and body, solely based on olive oil and other natural herbs found in Crete.
The secret of success for SEPHORA stores, rendering them so much unique worldwide, is best summarized in 5 simple words: Experience, Freedom, Information, Choice and Service.
A great souvenir to remember the place you have visited, easy to take home a real part of Greece and your experiences!
We did our desire for creativity to actuality! Tsikoudia, Raki, Rakomelo, ouzo, liqueurs, etc.


text:
Android News / Android Phones / Samsung Confirms Q4 Profit Drop, But Still Manages Record 2018 Overall
Samsung Confirms Q4 Profit Drop, But Still Manages Record 2018 Overall
By John Anon
Following a wave of fourth quarter earning reports released today, Samsung has now confirmed how it did during the last quarter of 2018, as well as the year as a whole. While the results are not great, they are also not bad nor surprising.
Samsung has now officially confirmed revenue for Q4, 2018 was in the region of 59.27 trillion won ($53.3 billion), explaining this represents a 10-percent decline compared to the same quarter a year before.
Likewise, the quarterly profit came in at 10.8 trillion won ($9.7 billion) representing an even grander 29-percent drop compared to the same quarter in 2017.
Samsung attributed these drops to a slowdown in the smartphone market, as well as a decline in memory chip demand. While the former is not a new thing the latter is normally sufficiently high to offset against any smartphone declines. That would seem to be one of the major differences between this quarter and the previous ones.
Taking into account the previous 2018 quarters, Samsung has now confirmed 2018 overall was the "second straight year of setting record financial results" after announcing 243.77 trillion won ($219 billion) in revenue and 58.89 trillion won ($53 billion) in profit. With the company pointing out this is even more of an impressive feat when taking the current market climate and conditions into consideration.
Following on from these results, the company confirmed that it expects 2019 to also see its own decline and again largely due to memory chip and smartphone demand. More specifically, lack thereof.
Samsung's mobile results are factored into the wider "IT & Mobile Communications Division" (IM) which Samsung states racked up 23.32 trillion won ($21 billion) in revenue and 1.51 trillion won ($1.36 billion) in profit during the quarter. In terms of the revenue this compared to 24.91 trillion won ($22.38 billion) in the quarter before and 25.47 trillion won ($22.89 billion) in Q4, of 2017. Further highlighting the quarter-over quarter and year-over-year declines for its IM division.
Again, Samsung was quick to point to market conditions as a force beyond its control.
Though, Samsung did point to what it refers to as a "lineup reorganization" designed to "respond to rapid changing market trends" as a contributing factor.
Again, Samsung expects its (and the market's) 2019 to play out along the same lines as 2018 although it is expecting an uptick in sales in the coming months once it unveils the highly-anticipated Galaxy S10 in February.
The declines posted today will not come as too much of a surprise to the market as although it is always trouble to see Samsung encountering drops in revenue and profit, the company did warn of this weeks ago.
In addition, other analysts and reports have relayed the same message. For example, the IDC recently released their 2018 finding which indicated Samsung saw a significant drop in smartphone shipments in the fourth quarter of 2018 and in 2018 in general.
Although, gain this tallied with the overall market and not necessarily an issue that's specific to Samsung. With the same IDC report explaining that overall the smartphone market shipped 375.4 million units in total in Q4 and 1.4 billion units annually. Figures that are down 4.9-percent and 4.1-percent, respectively, when compared to the year before.
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John Anon
Freelance Contributor
John has been writing about and reviewing tech products since 2014 after making the transition from writing about and reviewing airlines. With a background in Psychology, John has a particular interest in the science and future of the industry. John also covers much of the news surrounding audio and visual tech, including cord-cutting, the state of Pay-TV, and Android TV. Contact him at [email protected]


text:
NHS staff take part in Covid-19 sniffer dog trial
Trials are ongoing to discover whether dog can smell Covid-19. Picture: PA Images
By Ewan Quayle
@EQjourno
NHS staff are participating in a trial which aims to see whether dogs can smell Covid-19.
Scientists are seeking "odour samples" to see whether dogs can accurately pick up the scent of Covid-19, even in people who are asymptomatic.
There could be huge implications if the dogs can successfully smell out Covid-19, not just in medical settings but in other sectors of society too, with researchers estimating the animals could potentially screen up to 250 people an hour.
The NHS volunteers are being asked to provide samples of breath and body odour by wearing a mask for three hours, socks and a T-shirt for 12 hours.
Kettering General Hospital has seen 92 staff sign up to the trial and staff who are due to be tested as part of routine testing in the hospital are also giving their odour samples to researchers.
The hospital's lead nurse for research, Joanne Walsh, said: "Our contribution involves recruiting staff volunteers from colleagues who are about to have a Covid-19 swab test.
"After having their swab test we ask them to wear special nylon socks for 12 hours and a mask for three hours and then to bag these up and return them to us.
"We then send the samples, along with whether the person has tested positive or negative for Covid-19, to the team who are doing the research with the dogs in Milton Keynes."
NHS staff are taking part in the Covid-19 sniffer dog trial. Picture: PA Images
Ten other hospitals are also taking part in the study.
It is hoped that across the country at least 3,500 staff will provide samples.
It comes after a drive encouraging people in England to also participate.
It is hoped that if the trial is successful the dogs can be used at UK airports to screen people arriving from abroad.
The trial is being led by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in collaboration with the charity Medical Detection Dogs and Durham University.
LSHTM researchers will analyse the samples to identify compounds in odour that signify when someone is infected with Covid-19.
The samples will then be sent to the Medical Detection Dogs' training centre in Milton Keynes where the animals will undergo training to identify the virus samples.
Patients who have mild Covid-19 symptoms and are due to have a swab test, or have had a swab test conducted in the previous 24 hours, are being recruited by researchers.
It is hoped that if the trial is successful the dogs can be used at UK airports to screen people arriving from abroad. Picture: PA Images
Professor Steve Lindsay, from the Department of Biosciences at Durham University, said: "If we can show that our trained dogs can identify people carrying the virus, but who are not sick, it will be a game changer.
"We will then be able to scale-up the use of dogs at ports of entry to identify travellers entering the country with the virus.
"This could be very important to help prevent a second wave of the epidemic."
Project lead professor James Logan, head of the department of disease control at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: "If successful, this trial could revolutionise how we diagnose the virus, leading to the rapid screening of high numbers of people, even if asymptomatic, helping return our lives back to some sort of normality."
Claire Guest, head of Medical Detection Dogs, said: "Our dogs have already successfully detected different types of cancer, Parkinson's and malaria among other diseases which affect millions of people around the world.
"We are very proud that a dog's nose could be part of a solution to find a fast, non-invasive way of diagnosing Covid-19 and make a tangible difference to any future pandemics."


Deciding where to place your subject within the frame is a great place to start, but there are several techniques that will help your photograph invoke the reaction that you want your viewers to experience. Is your image a dynamic one, or is it more serene and peaceful? What emotion do you want the people to feel when they view your image? Below are a few suggestions that may help your image tell the story you want it to tell.
One of the first things to consider when composing a photograph is whether to compose it vertically or horizontally. Don't just automatically shoot everything horizontal - consider your subject and the mood you want to convey. Many times the subject will dictate which would be a better composition (Da Vinci's Last Supper probably wouldn't work very well as a vertical composition), but the orientation of the composition can also convey a mood - for example, horizontal compositions tend to create a mood of wide-open, expansive - whereas a vertical composition can convey a feeling of height or depth.
...but a horizontal composition captures the mood I wanted to create more effectively.
Sometimes you may now want your subject to simply "pop out" at the viewer. Instead, you may want the viewer to "travel" through your image to get the full story - especially with scenics or landscapes. Use elements of your composition to "lead the eye" into or around the photograph. For example, you may have a scene of an old barn that you really would like to shoot. You could just take a shot of the barn - and it may even be a good photograph - but consider using the old fence in the foreground that leads to the barn. The eye will naturally follow the line of the fence until it comes to the barn - giving the viewer a nice "trip" through the photograph.
This skeleton of a pier caught my eye - with the wisps of clouds emanating above it looking like spirits. I waited until there was a wave and composed the image so that the foam of the wave created a line that drew the viewers eye to the pier.
A beautiful snowy morning - the fence pulls the viewer into the scene, asking the viewer to walk along side of it into the woods.
Including some element in the foreground, especially with scenics or landscapes, can anchor the viewer and give a sense of depth.
This is a pretty scene - but it looks a bit flat - needs some more interest.
By shifting slightly, I've incorporated a tree in the foreground that gives some depth to the scene, adding more interest.
Backing up a bit and including some of the observation platform in the foreground creates an image that makes the viewer feel as if they were there, standing on the deck.
Many images can be made more interesting by "framing" them within the scene. "Framing" refers to the use of foreground elements as "windows" into your scene. Think of it as a foreground element that wraps your subject.
This shot of Pilot Mountain, NC needed a bit more interest, so I ducked behind some rocks and branches to create a "frame" around the pinnacle.
On the return trip form Virginia City to Carson on the Virginia & Truckee Railroad, the cars are reversed down the hill, with the engine facing backwards. I framed this image with the door of the car, giving the illusion that the locomotive was going to crash through at any moment.
When photographing something as photographed as Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, the challenge becomes getting an image that is somewhat unique. Most images I've seen of Half Dome convey a feeling of wide-open expanse with massive rock formations, etc. I wanted to try to create a more intimate image by framing it with evergreen trees and boughs, giving it a "softer" feel.
One way to categorize compositions is by dividing them into two types - closed compositions and open compositions. A closed composition is one in that the subject is neatly enclosed within the frame. For the viewer, the subject matter is clear and there is no doubt as to what the message of the image is - the subject is "closed" within the frame. An open composition, on the other hand, is one in which subject elements are extending beyond the edge of the frame. This type of composition can often create a more dramatic and interactive image, leaving to the viewer's mind as to what is occurring just outside of the frame.
This image of Jack-O'-Lantern mushrooms is an example of a closed composition. The mushrooms are entirely within the frame.
Here is an example of an open composition of some Jack-O'-Lantern Mushrooms. This gives the viewer no idea how far this cluster of mushrooms extends, leaving it to their imagination. Note that, even though this is an open composition, there is still a focal point in the form of the large cap towards the top of the composition.
There are, at times, subjects that may compel you to break all the of composition "rules" we've discussed so far. Symmetrical elements often benefit from symmetrical compositions, which divide the image into 2 or more identical but mirrored sections.
Facing a Peacock head-on, the left and the right are pretty much mirror images of each other. Composing the image with the bird's body right in the center emphasizes this.
Same as the Peacock at left, this Eastern Box Turtle presents another symmetrical image. So much for the "rule of thirds"
Reflections present great opportunities for symmetrical compositions.