Many people have heard of the Dave Ramsey show. He often speaks of how "cash is king," debt it dumb, and how everyone should stay out of debt. Dave argues that while some people use the credit score for getting loans, getting jobs, and renting an apartment, there are ways to get around using a credit score.
While this argument is technically true, there are a few difficulties to this. First I want to start by saying that I deeply respect Dave Ramsey and the work he does. The vast majority of his advice I agree with, like getting out of consumer debt, investing for retirement, and budgeting carefully.
However, on this key point I disagree. While not having a credit score at all can certainly work for some people, like those who don't need many loans, and are willing to work around no credit score, there are times when having a credit score can save a lot of time, hassle and opportunities.
Take buying a home. If you don't have a credit score you have to either buy a home outright for cash, or you have to go get a loan by doing what's called manual underwriting. This is when the lender audits you through various lenses and metrics without necessarily looking at your credit score.
They might look at your job history, payment history for rent and other bills, your income, assets and possibly references to gain a picture of whether or not you can pay the mortgage every month. While this can certainly work, it is less streamlined, less predictable, and overall more hassle. That's fine if your willing to go through the process. But for those who would like a relatively predictable, hassle-free and repeatable loan process this might not be the best option.
Now let's say you want to forget about credit all together. This is definitely an option. However if you want to get another mortgage, or other debt soon after going through manual underwriting, you may wan to reconsider.
As soon as you get your new loan, it will usually be reported to the credit agencies. After a few months you will probably have a credit score, simply because you now have a loan. Even if you never add more debt to the picture, that mortgage will probably be active on your score for months or years after you get the mortgage.
How do Most People get Rich?
What if you had to choose one investment vehicle to get you to riches? What would it be? It's an intriguing question not only because so many people have done it so many different ways, but because the question deals more with the future than looking at the past.
The vast majority on the Forbes billionaires list have gotten there through owning all or part of their own business. The industries range from technology to finance to fashion and even real estate.
Most of the newer billionaires have done it through technology (like Mark Z., Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos). A good portion of the older billionaires have made it though finance. But even within sectors there is great variation as to how the billionaires made it. For example in the technology sector Jeff Bezos has done it through online retail while Zuckerberg has done it through social media.
Arguably it's very difficult to get into these large operations without significant capital. So for the average investor a good place to start is either smaller properties or partnerships. Either way you look at it, real estate as a whole has been a solid investment for both the well-off and the ultra-rich.
If you're looking to the fastest made billionaires technology businesses are your best bet. If you're looking for the most stable, predictable, simple and versatile investment, real estate is your best choice. Most of the other investment options including bitcoin, gold, bonds, futures, options and commodities have considerably less stellar track records. However the one similarity between the ultra rich is that they have done so with extreme focus and specialization – becoming experts in their field of influence.
As times change and new technology becomes more mainstream there becomes a great advantage to the person who is willing to pick one thing, just one thing, and focus entirely on it.
From Africa to the U.S.
I made my way back to the US juggling a lot of different thoughts and emotions. As carried myself onto the first plane in Ndola, Zambia I silently said goodbye to Zambia. I stepped on and realized the plane was tiny. Even as a short person the leg room for my bag and feet wasn't ideal. Eventually I managed to fit myself in.
The next stop was Ethiopia. I got off and waded through the crowds of people who spoke languages I'd probably never heard of. The next boarding was simple enough. This time the plane was ginormous.
After getting myself situated I tried to get some sleep. For some reason my carryon wouldn't fit above me so I had to fit it in somewhere else. On the flight I took out my phone (which of course was on airplane mode) and began writing notes. I went through all the things I wanted to accomplish in the next week.
My list of things was relatively simple yet most were things I had never done before. The first thing was get new tires and oil for my car. The second was go shopping for everything on my road trip. The third, and probably most important thing was paying taxes for the first time in my life.
I had a week before I wanted to leave for my trip, so there wasn't a lot of time to sit around. But none of the things on the list took massive amounts of time either, I just had to make sure I didn't procrastinate.
I sat down on a bench and felt a trickle running down from my nose. "Even better," I thought, "a bloody nose." I snatched out clean-x from my bag. As a kid I used to get bloody noses almost every day but as I got older I got less and less of them. As boarded started I sat there, waiting for the bloody nose to end. Finally it stopped, just in time for me to get in line for boarding.
Fourteen hours later I was in Chicago. Chicago! It felt so good to be in the United States. I went to the bookstore and bought $50 worth of investing books. Anyone who knows me knows my interest and knowledge on the topic of personal finance. I sat and read for half an hour. Before I knew it it was time for my flight home to Lansing, Michigan.
The flight home went quickly. I ate a tiny bag of pretzels given to me by the flight attendant. We landed and I slowly made my way off the plane with my fellow passengers. I descended the escalator in Lansing airport. As I lowered to the ground my grandma appeared waving and smiling.
We went home. Now that I was in the US I was beginning to anticipate my next adventure….
Christmas in Zambia was different. We opened presents under a fake tree. But it was homy. The Christmas lights reminded us all of the Christmases back home. We had candy, candy canes, Christmas movies and games. That was enough. Who needs snow when you have the most important people in your life around you?
It was a time where I truly relaxed. In some ways it was painful – making myself slow down. I read books, hung out with family, and got to know the landscape and people of Garneton Zambia.
After about a month we said goodbye to a missionary family who was living nearby. Probably the biggest thing that happened is that we moved. As soon as the family left we moved in and began getting ready for the start of the Zambian school year. My younger siblings were reluctant to be heading back to school but probably also curious about what it would be like.
As my 16 year old brother and 14 year old sister began getting ready for school I realized that by the time our family's 3 year commitment to stay in Africa was over, they'd both pretty much be done with high school!
I also started planning for a road trip. This trip was something I had been wanting to go on for about a year. Now it was finally about to happen. As soon as I returned to the US I would begin a two week journey across the southern states, touring cities and getting to know the layout of the country. I was ecstatic.
Over the next set of weeks from January 2018 to early march I didn't honestly do a lot. I helped out with tutoring high schoolers at the orphan school in Garneton once a week. That was pretty much it.
Then our good friends the Leonards came to visit. Of the four of them only the Husband and the son came (the Wife and daughter stayed at home). Mr. Leonard had always been an elder growing up. He watched over me as I grew up and helped give me Christian wisdom as I learned more about the world. He was also a good friend to my father and our whole family.
Mr. Leonard's son, Dean was my age — 18. Dean had always been a good friend to me and my younger brother. Each of us had slightly different interests but as kids we had all been into playing online and strategy games. Of course in Zambia we didn't really have the chance to play all together but it was fun talking about the games we had played as kids.
For a week Mr. Leonard was with us. Then he left, leaving his son Dean with my family for a few months. At this point I had a couple week before my time to come home. I began preparing for the trip home and planned what I wanted to accomplished as soon as I got home.
A couple weeks after that I left. The days leading up to the day, March 25th I began writing notes to my whole family. I took pieces of colorful paper and wrote a letter to each one. I made each note personal and remembered to include stories.
The day came. I woke up and went to the kitchen. It was a strange day. I realized that this was it. This was my last day in Zambia for a while. I finished packing the last things and we headed for the door, giving kisses and hugs. It was a sad time but we all knew that we'd keep in touch.
I snuck the pile of notes behind a bowl of fruit on the kitchen counter. As I got in the car with my parents I can remember my 6 year old brother, standing there on the African ground, looking up at the car. Why did I have to leave? There was so many options and adventures in the US waiting to happen yet there was so much here.
Part of me wanted to stay there and play a card game of monopoly deal with that little guy. I wanted to run around the house with toy swords, fighting like a "bad guy" and a "good guy" are supposed to in imaginary games.
At the airport I said goodbye to my Mom and 16 year old brother. I knew I'd see them when they returned to the US for a quick visit in May. But my Dad was the hardest person to say goodbye to. There was a possibility I wouldn't see him for many months or possibly years.
As I waved through to them for the last time inside the first checkpoint I realized I was alone. I finally was getting what I had thought I wanted all along: full-blown independence. How did it feel? For the moment it felt… lonely.


text:
Demolishing a Wall
Peter Hourigan
Interview with Kal Ng
Social Engagement: The 21st St Kilda Film Festival
Mapping Artists' Films: Exhibiting Cinema in Contemporary Art by Erika Balsom
Stalag 17 (Billy Wilder, 1953)
The Documentaries of Louis Malle (Criterion box set)
After six months in India you're not even quite sure that two plus two is four.
– Louis Malle (1)
In 1967, Louis Malle was established as a major international filmmaker, a decade after his first fiction film, Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Lift to the Scaffold) in 1957. His second film, Les Amants (The Lovers, 1958) had been a major critical success, as well as gaining a degree of notoriety with its story of a rich bored woman (Jeanne Moreau) who leaves her husband and small child, to drive off into the sunrise with a young archæologist she'd given a lift to when his 2CV broke down. It became known as a major film of the French New Wave, although Louis Malle felt apart from other young directors such as Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut who had been associated with Cahiers du Cinéma.
I never was part of the Cahiers du Cinéma group: they were all very close, they were friends, they'd worked together as critics, they'd helped each other to make their shorts, then their first features – there was a real tight connection between them. I was never part of this, but I knew them. What we had in common was we loved films, we took film-making very seriously. […] And it was strictly a director's movement, with a new sensibility. In a way, we were children of this new Kodak film, the Tri-X, because suddenly it was possible to shoot in the street, to shoot in real interiors, with very little light, which means a smaller crew, much smaller budgets, and it gave us the freedom to work infinitely closer to reality than the older generation. (2)
Zazie dans le Métro (Zazie, 1960) had been a complete change of pace. His attempts to find a cinematic equivalent to the free-wheeling prose of novelist Raymond Queneau were certainly not commercially successful.
Vie Privée (A Very Private Affair, 1961) was made on the rebound from the flop of Zazie. It was a project largely brought to Malle by a producer, Christine Gouze-Rénal, wanting a project for Brigitte Bardot, and for Malle it was a very unhappy experience. He turned from it to a much smaller, but very challenging work, Le Feu Follet (1963), a moody, intimate story about a young man committing suicide. He made this film for his own company, Nouvelles Éditions de Films, and it was "the first of my films that I was completely happy with" (3).
His next two films were by contrast much larger entertainments, co-productions between his company and United Artists. Viva Maria (1965) starred Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau as entertainers caught up in one of Mexico's revolutions. In Le Voleur (The Thief of Paris, 1967), Jean-Paul Belmondo was a gentleman-thief in fin-de-siècle Paris. Then, at the urgings of Alain Delon, he agreed to make an episode for the omnibus film, Histoires Extraordinaires (1967), based on stories by Edgar Allen Poe. The other episodes were made by Federico Fellini and Roger Vadim. Malle's experiences on this film (his episode was based on the story, "William Wilson") were very unhappy.
He has also indicated that he was going through a difficult period in his private life at this time. So, he was very happy to accept an invitation in the autumn of 1967 to present a series of French films in India, including his own Le Feu Follet:
I was supposed to stay two weeks but I ended up staying almost two months. I was so amazed by India – it was my first trip, but I had always been interested in Indian religions. I knew India would be a shock, but it was much more so than I expected. After those two months I realized that although India was impossible to understand for a foreigner – it was so opaque – yet I was so completely fascinated by it that I would have to come back. (4)
One of the people that Malle met was Satyajit Ray:
He took me to his studio in Calcutta and showed me several of his films that had not been released in France. I also met a number of westernized intellectuals and artists and, like a good Frenchman, I tried to understand Indian culture and Indian religions rationally. Of course, in a matter of days I realised how silly it was. Indians have such a completely different approach to everything – for instance, how they deal with death. The Indian way is the opposite of our Judaeo-Christian tradition. At this moment of crisis in my life, when I was trying to re-evaluate everything I had taken for granted so far, India was the perfect tabula rasa; it was just like starting from scratch. (5)
At first, Malle travelled around alone with only a 16mm camera. Then he returned with a small film crew of three. For the four months of shooting, Malle said he had not the faintest idea what he was going to do with the material. At first he had disagreements with his cameraman, Étienne Becker (son of director Jacques Becker). The professional cameraman was disconcerted with the way that the people they were filming were looking right at the camera. But Malle's attitude is an important formative influence on the subsequent finished film.
Why should I tell them not to look at us since we're intruders. First, I don't speak their language; just a few of them speak a little English. We're the intruders disturbing them. They don't know what we're doing, so it's perfectly normal that they look at us. To tell them not to look at us, it's the beginning of mise-en-scène. It's what I resent about so many documentaries where film-makers arrive from somewhere and start by telling the people, 'Pretend we're not here.' It is the basic lie of most documentaries, this naïve mise-en-scène, the beginning of the distortion of the truth. Very quickly I realized that these looks at the camera were both disturbing and true, and we should never pretend we weren't intruder. (6)
Subsequently, Malle organised his material into a documentary initially released in cinemas, Calcutta (1968-9), and a seven-part television series, L'Inde fantôme: Reflexions sur un voyage (Phantom India, 1969). The first episode of the series is sub-titled The Impossible Camera, and Malle as director and commentator specifically structures it to explore the role of the camera and the people using it when trying to understand a culture. As a foreigner, he is fascinated by – and films – vultures on a buffalo's corpse. The Indians ignore the sight – for them, it is just an ordinary everyday scene. On the first day of filming, he informs us, one woman fled from the camera. The camera was "stealing herself from her".
Malle arrived back in Paris with all his footage from India at the beginning of May 1968. This was the height of the political turmoil that rocked France that year, spreading from student demonstrations into strikes that paralysed much of France; it would lead to the cancellation of the Cannes Film Festival later that month. Although he had thought that he would only remain briefly in Paris, the political events (for over a month he couldn't even see his rushes because of strikes in the laboratories) and the editing kept him in Paris until practically the end of 1969. A generation later Malle would revisit this period in Milou en Mai (Milou in May, 1989).
Out of this material, he ultimately fashioned a fascinating and involving documentary series. A major strength is the rigorous way that Malle always attempts to look beneath the veneer of our Western pre-conceptions to see if there is another truth.
A good example was a religious ceremony in a little temple near a village and after the ceremony the faithful were giving money and food to the beggars. But when I talked to them afterwards I realized those beggars were not really beggars, they were Brahmins. They were members of the higher caste, the priest caste, and were, by Indian standards quite well off, but it was part of the ritual to give money and food to the Brahmins. We Westerners thought we were filming beggars and actually it was something else. It was typical of what always happened to us in India; we thought we were filming a reality and behind this reality there was another one. The truth was always more complicated and devious. So, I never pretended, 'This is eight hours of India, I am going to explain it to you.' – I did exactly the opposite. (7)
It is this approach that permeates Calcutta and the seven episodes of Phantom India – and very much justifies the sub-title, Reflections on a Journey. For example, the second episode (Things Seen in Madras) starts with a long, leisurely sequence following a juggernaut on a five-hour circuit. We are fascinated by the crowds of men exerting themselves to control and drag this massive religious float on its circuit in Madras. The Westerners' perspective is acknowledged – he was, he admits caught up in the excitement, shooting reel after reel. It seemed different to Paris! After this sequence, he moves on, seeing a play in Tamil that was attacking bureaucratic corruption, and a family planning stand at a Madras fair. Then from posters advertising some of the films produced by the 15 major film studios in Madras we finish with a look at a theosophical dance, and we are given a lot of time to observe the students learning the dances. The use of time to allow us to also observe at length is important.
But the end of this sequence expresses the unknowability of India for Westerners. We have seen young Indian students intently learning the ritual dances, absorbing and reflecting the intricate levels of significance and spirituality for them in the dances. Then we see two Westerners trying to learn the dances. They are competent – but there is an inherent emptiness in their steps. These are people probably disaffected by their own country, trying to become part of an exoticism that they will never be part of. They will never have the "true spirit" of India.
Phantom India and Calcutta are definitely the major works in a new DVD box set, The Documentaries of Louis Malle, released by Eclipse. On their own they would justify the existence of the set. However, there are other riches as well. They were not Malle's first excursion into documentary. In fact, he got his start in filmmaking when, still in his early twenties, he elbowed his way into being co-director with underwater explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau of a documentary film, Le Monde du Silence (The Silent World, 1956). In 1962, he visited Algeria several times at the height of the Algerian war with the intention of a return to documentary. However, he was unhappy with his material and the footage was never edited.
The same year, he filmed the Tour de France, following the marathon French cycle race with two other cameramen. The result, Vive le Tour (1962), is the oldest (and shortest) of Malle's documentaries to be included in the box set. An impressionistic view of the race, it is still highly enjoyable and has not dated. It could be a race from any year (although I am sure Tour de France enthusiasts would recognise which year's race it is.) Instead, we have a strong sense of the ongoing meaning of the race to France and the French. A brief focus on doping seems to anticipate the less innocent world that is the Tour today, while Georges Delerue's music score also seems to anticipate the score he would write for Malle several years later for Viva Maria.
When he returned to fiction film making after the Indian experience, Malle made two deeply personal films, Le Souffle au Cæur (Murmur of the Heart, 1971) and Lacombe, Lucien (1974) The documentary filmmaking had been very important to Malle personally. He also credits it with informing the way he subsequently approached aspects of his fiction filmmaking. He realised that often in shooting for the documentaries he allowed his instincts to take over, instead of trying to control every aspect of the frame, from the location of a piece of furniture to the way an actor made a gesture. But when filming in the villages this approach was not possible:
I think this experience of relying on my instincts was quite decisive in my work. When I went back to fiction, I've always been unconsciously and also very consciously, trying to reinvent those very privileged moments. I've always tried to rediscover the state of innocence that I found so extraordinary working in India. Of course, it doesn't always work that way, but since then I have made a number of films with children and adolescents, and have always tried to give them the freedom of expressing themselves, trying to let them loose, rather than trying to boss them around – seizing those moments when they were free, when they were themselves – for these privileged moments will always bring to the screen something completely different. I was able to accomplish that when I did documentaries in the following years. But even in my fiction work I think I've been enormously influenced by what I discovered in India. (8)
Lacombe, Lucien aroused some criticisms for its apparently sympathetic portrait of a naïve young man who collaborates with the Germans occupying France. One critic was Marcel Ophüls, director of a major documentary on the Occupation, Le Chagrin et la Pitié (The Sorrow and the Pity, 1969). Malle's response to Ophüls' criticism gives an insight into his approach to his documentary filmmaking as well:
Le Chagrin et la Pitié is a very ideological film. Ophuls wanted to make a point, which was new at the time, of examining what happened in a provincial town, Clermont-Ferrand. He really wanted to expose things that had been hidden. He was trying to prove something, and to expose French collaboration. He was very much into making a moral judgement. For me, the point was made. I wanted to go beyond that. Rather than passing judgement, I wanted to scrutinize a kind of behaviour that is very hard to understand and was certainly contemptible. After all, if people are shocked by ambiguity, they should not see my films. (9)
In the same year that he completed Lacombe, Lucien, Malle made two feature-length documentaries, both included in the Eclipse box set. Humain, Trop Humain (1974) is the only one of his documentaries that does not include Malle's presence on the soundtrack as commentator/philosopher. Filmed on the production line of the Citroën production line in Brittany and at the Paris Motor Show, it sets out, especially in its second half, to expose the dehumanising nature of the production line. The camerawork flows freely across a range of tasks, from the large jobs of fabricating the car's shell, to the small tasks of stitching car seats. The boring nature of much of the work comes across. Malle has said, "I wanted the spectator to come out of seeing this film exhausted, as if they had worked an eight-hour shift. […] I wanted to give a physical sense of the fatigue and boredom – the completely inhuman aspect of assembly-line work." (10)
But ultimately the film itself is boring. Although we see some workers setting out to take their breaks, or doing some tasks repetitively, there is very little sense of people in the finished film. The sequence at the Motor Show goes on too long, and there is none of the camera/subject interaction that marks Phantom India.
Place de la République (1974) is livelier. This is very simply an observation of people coming and going in and around the Place de la République in Paris, filmed over a period of ten days. Calmly, with no sense of exploitation, we meet a fascinating number of interesting people. There is the woman, bubbling and full of life, hustling because her husband of many years died three months ago. A retired, Jewish-Polish tailor spent the war in hiding. Another man had only six months of schooling because his school was requisitioned as a barracks for German soldiers.
Sometimes scenes are filmed with a concealed camera, but more frequently Malle openly acknowledges its presence, and his presence as well, as part of a subject/camera relationship. Although the cultural feel is miles away from India, there is the same sense of humanity. He concludes his film with a quote from Raymond Queneau (author of the book from which he adapted Zazie): "'Why', he said, "should one not tolerate this life, when so little suffices to deprive one of it.'"
Malle's filmography lists another documentary, Close Up (1976), a portrait of Dominique Sanda. Its status seems unclear. Some sources indicate that it was made as a private commission. Sadly, it is not part of this box set.
Malle had been a frequent visitor to the USA, where he was to make some of his best, and best-known, films, including Pretty Baby (1978), Atlantic City (1980) and My Dinner with André (1981). After completing Pretty Baby¸ he did some filming in a mid-West town, Glencoe in Minneapolis. Then he "parked' the footage for several years while he worked on other projects. When he returned to it in 1985, he had extra funding from PBS so he could revisit to the town, and see how it had changed. Acknowledging that many of his films have been set in the past, he has seen his documentaries as a way he could look at the present:
I could confront the present better with cinéma direct, in 16mm, in a documentary form. […] Cinéma vérité is not a term that I like to use: cinéma vérité is cinéma mensonge. Cinéma vérité has a moral implication: it's meant to define the truth, which is very pretentious and not necessarily true. I like cinéma direct because it's more a technique than anything else. What I call cinéma direct is a kind of documentary where you completely improvise, you work with a minimal crew, you don't try to organize reality, you just try to find where your interest or curiosity takes you, you try to film what you find interesting or surprising, and later try to make sense of it in the cutting room. It's a cinema of instinct, of improvisation, a cinema very much of the present. (11)
When he was filming in Glencoe for the film that would become God's Country (1986), Étienne Becker, his cameraman from the French documentaries, was not available, so Malle handled the camera himself:
Since all the crucial decisions in this kind of filming are made by the cameraman, I though it was maybe just as well. By taking the camera myself, I discovered it added a dimension to my work which made my relationship with the people I was dealing with more personal and intimate than just standing beside the camera or handling a second camera as I'd done before. (12)
Now, over twenty years later, God's Country comes across as an intimate time capsule of heartland America. By letting the material sit for five years, Malle was able to capture the way that social moods can change. In 1979, the mood in Glencoe, a very white, successful and probably self-satisfied community, was optimistic. By 1985, now under Reagan's Presidency, the mood had changed. But although it was largely Reagan's policies that were hurting them, they were still rusted on Republican voters. This is very much a portrait of conservatives. What a shame Malle is no longer around to go back and have a look at Glencoe twenty years on.
His other feature documentary was …And the Pursuit of Happiness (1987). Malle was commissioned to make a programme for television to mark the centenary of the Statue of Liberty. As a new arrival himself in the USA, he was interested in how newly arrived immigrants were thriving in their new home. He has assembled a rich array, a testimony to everything that migrants bring a country. In Nebraska, the only Vietnamese for miles around is the doctor. A top actor from Russia now gives acting lessons. And Arab Americans talk about the difficulty in being accepted. This is in 1986!
The immense variety of people interviews gives the film a strong personality of its own. In its quiet, undemonstrative way, it is a political statement on the richness of multi-culturalism. But Malle's own evaluation of his two American documentaries is also valid. "…And the Pursuit of Happiness is interesting and I like a lot of it, but I prefer God's Country because it is closer to what I really like, the sort of chance filming that I really enjoy and that has always worked well for me. " (13)
This documentary box set is from the Criterion stable, under their new Eclipse label. This new label is designed to package rarer or more esoteric material in a more compact version. Over six discs, it includes Phantom India (over two discs) and Calcutta. Vive le Tour, Humain, Trop Human and Place de la République are on a single disc. The two American documentaries are each on separate discs. Apart from liner notes, there are no extras. All transfers are good, or reflect the quality of the source material, which is generally credited as "Une restauration: archives françaises du film". Strangely, there are no end-credits on any episodes of Phantom India or Calcutta. In all cases, the film just stops, although there is no sense that any actual material is missing. However, who knows for sure without accessing probably complete copies.
Also, it is a pity that, in the case of Phantom India, Eclipse has sourced the French version. Although it is certainly the original version, the English version is regarded by Malle as the better version.
In making the English version I improved aspects of the film. We fine-tuned the editing. We had this contract with French television and were rushed by our deadline. The English version is a little better: the sound is better; my narration is better. I incorporated some changes as a result of the reactions I got when the films were shown on French TV. (14)
This box set is ultimately more than a footnote on an important filmmaking career, but a rich collection of insightful and fascinating documentaries, exciting films in their own right.
Click here to order The Documentaries of Louis Malle from
Philip French, Malle on Malle (London, Faber and Faber, 1993).
Ibid, pp. 31-2.
Ibid, p. 40.
Ibid, p. 68-9.
Ibid, pp. 103-4.
Ibid, p. 162.
Avant-Garde 2: Experimental Cinema 1928-1954 (Kino International)
Observation in Progress: The 11th Views from the Avant-Garde
Peter Hourigan has spent many years going to the movies, being involved with film society and film festival bodies, as well as teaching movies with secondary students. He also leads adult discussion groups with Centre for Adult Education (Melbourne).
Alice (Lusomundo)
Romulus, My Father (Madman Films)
Fincina Hopgood

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Ensinger ist eine ehemalige Traktormarke, die von 1948 bis 1954 Raupen und Schlepper in Michelstadt im Odenwald baute.

Geschichte
Der Ingenieur Friedrich (Fritz) Ensinger baute in Michelstadt, vis-a-vis dem Bahnhof, seine Schlepper und Raupen. Als einer von vielen neuen Schlepperproduzenten der Nachkriegszeit erreichte er eine Gesamtproduktion von etwa 350 Traktoren und 20 Raupenschleppern. Die Produktionshallen sind noch vorhanden und wurden später von anderen Firmen weiterbenutzt.

Gegründet wurde das Familienunternehmen im Jahr 1902 durch Christian Ensinger, der mit dem Vertrieb von Fahrrädern, Nähmaschinen und Motorrädern der Marke Dürkopp begann. Es folgten später auch Autos von Herstellern wie Opel, Brennabor, BMW und Mercedes.

Für die selbständige Traktorproduktion wurden die Motoren in unterschiedlichen Varianten von den Mannheimer Motorenwerken (MWM) bezogen und wiesen mit Leistungen von 15, 20, 25, 30 und 40 PS (AS15, AS20, AS25, AS40 und RS25 und RS40) alle seinerzeit üblichen Standardgrößen auf. Er war in den Jahren 1949 und 1950 auch auf der bekannten DLG-Ausstellung vertreten. Start war 1948 mit dem AS20. Der Traktor hatte bereits eine Riemenscheibe, eine Zapfwelle und auf Wunsch einen Mähbalken. Die Vorderachse konnte auch als Pendelachse bezogen werden. Nur kurze Zeit später folgte der kleinere AS15 mit Einzylinder-Diesel, mit dem sich ein größerer Absatz erhofft wurde. Der Leitsatz der Firma Ensinger lautete "Arbeitsmaschinen von hoher Leistung und ausgereifter Konstruktion".

Dennoch musste er bald die Konstruktionspläne des kleinen Schleppers an die Bischoff-Werke in Recklinghausen verkaufen, die das Fahrzeug als Biwe AS 15 mit bescheidenem Erfolg weiterbauten. Die knapp 100.000 Deutsche Mark wurden für Entwicklung und den Bau neuer Maschinen gebraucht.

Friedrich Ensinger baute nun neben dem AS25 einen AS28 und dann den noch leistungsstärkeren AS40, von denen wohl einige Exemplare bis in die Türkei geliefert wurden. Der 40-PS-Diesel überforderte aber das zu schwach ausgelegte Getriebe, so dass in der Türkei Zahnrad-Schäden durch einen Monteur zu beheben waren. Selbst nach Griechenland wurde exportiert, wo u. a. ein Ensinger Traktor im Museum von Gelibolu (Gallipoli) steht.

Ein weiterer Versuch war der 40 PS starke Raupenschlepper, den Ensinger 1949 auf der DLG-Ausstellung in Frankfurt präsentierte. Aber auch hier musste er nur ein Jahr später die Konstruktionsunterlagen an die Firma Bischoff verkaufen.

Traktortypen

Ende
Die Firma Ensinger begann bereits nach kaum zwei Jahren sich wieder aus dem Schlepperbau zurückzuziehen und verkaufte Konstruktionen und Fertigungseinrichtungen (Maschinenpark sowie Werkzeug) (der AS 15) für 97.120 DM an die Bischoff-Werke KG in Recklinghausen.

Diese, 1899 von Theodor Pfingstmann gegründet, und seit 1938 unter dem Namen Bischoff firmierend, war bislang vor allem mit Fördermitteln für den Bergbau im Geschäft. Wegen rückläufiger Umsätze versprach man sich vom Einstieg in den Schlepperbau eine bessere Auslastung der Fabrikanlagen.

Der bekannte Ensinger AS 15 wurde fortan unter dem Namen Biwe AS 15 vermarktet. Der wassergekühlte MWM-Einzylindermotor KDW-415-E durfte seine Bewährungsprobe in zahlreichen Schleppern dieser Leistungsklasse ablegen, während es sich beim Vierganggetriebe um eine Eigenkonstruktion unter Einbeziehung von Renk-Teilen handelte.

Im Jahr 1954 musste das Ensinger-Werk nach Konkurs geschlossen werden und Ensinger seine produktiven Pläne aufgeben. Er fand Beschäftigung bei den Rotenberger Metall-Werken Rudolf Stierlen KG, starb aber schon 1956 mit 51 Jahren.

Der Verein Odenwälder Oldtimerfreunde, besonders in Person von Heinrich Lauser, arbeitet die Geschichte um Firma und Familie aktiv auf und führt eine Liste über noch vorhandene Traktoren dieser Marke, die aktuell (Stand März 2017) über 20 Traktoren umfasst.

Im Michelstädter Stadtarchiv befindet sich eine eigene Archivsammlung zur Geschichte der Firma, die von der Familie Ensinger zur Verfügung gestellt wurde.

Literatur
 Klaus Herrmann: Traktoren in Deutschland: Firmen und Fabrikate von 1907 bis heute, Verlags-Union Agrar, Frankfurt am Main 2000, S. 104 f.
 Klaus Herrmann: Acker Giganten: Technik Geschichte und Geschichten, Georg Westermann Verlag, 1991, S. 130/190
 Udo Paulitz: Traktor-Klassiker: die schönsten historischen Schlepper in Deutschland, GeraMond Verlag, 2008, S. 83

Weblinks

 Das Ensinger Register auf der Webseite der Odenwälder Oldtimerfreunde e. V.

 Eine Ensinger A25 mit Dreschmaschine über Riementrieb auf dem Klassikertreffen in Bad König
 Foto eines noch nicht restaurierten aber fahrbereiten Ensinger Traktors
 Wikibook: Ensinger Traktoren

Einzelnachweise

Ehemaliger Traktorenhersteller
Ehemaliges Unternehmen (Odenwaldkreis)
Michelstadt
Produzierendes Unternehmen (Odenwaldkreis)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Send More Shrouds, The V1 Attack on the Guards' Chapel 1944
Grateful for the sub-title that makes clear this has nothing to do with shroud waving Comrade Corbyn cynically jumping on any passing bandwagon. At the point of the war where the Allies could scent victory over Germany, the V1 began arriving over London. This is a graphic account of the most deadly V1 attack of WWII. Aerial bombing is never a pretty sight, but the use of crude unmanned flying bombs removes all pretence of deliberately targeting military sites. – Highly Recommended.
http://reviews.firetrench.com
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http://bgn.firetrench.com
http://nthn.firetrench.com
Agincour 1415, Field of Blood
Amongst a handful of battles that mark the rise of England into Britain and on to found the British Empire, Agincour stands out was a battle where a tired ragged army, significantly smaller than the fresh French Army, turned and fought and won magnificently. – Highly Recommended.
From Warsaw to Rome, General Anders' Exiled Polish Army in the Second World War
The story of the Polish II Corps has never been adequately told before but the author has followed the story from the invasion of Poland by Russia and Germany, the imprisonment of Polish soldiers by the Soviets, the efforts by the Allies free them when the Soviets were invaded by Hitler, their service in Italy and the neglect of their interests at the end of the war. – Highly Recommended.
Tank Rider, Into the Reich With The Red Army
These are the memoirs of a Red Army officer describing his experiences in the 4th Tank Army from Kursk to the fall of Berlin. – This is an honest account of soldiers at war, a unique view of the Russian soldier in WWII – Highly Recommended.
With The Gurkhas in the Falklands, A War Journal
The author was a light infantry officer, seconded to the Gurkha Battalion a month before the Argentine bandits invaded the Falklands. – The Gurkas are one of the finest infantry units in the world and are a highly valued component of the British Army – Most Highly Recommended.
Operation Banner, The British Army in Northern Ireland, 1969-2007
This is perhaps the first comprehensive review of the military involvements in Northern Ireland by the British Army. – The author has set the historical scene and then provided a compelling account of the series of actions that were required under the overall operation in Ulster – Highly Recommended.
http://brn.firetrench.com
http://bsd.firetrench.com
Cold War 1945-1991, Lebanon, Levantine Calvary, 1958-1990
The wars of the 19th Century have spilled over into the 20th and 21st Centuries and this new series is proving an illuminating study of the Cold War. – The author has considerable experience of war in the Arab-Israeli conflicts, from several sides – Highly Recommended.
The Counter Insurgency Manual
The author, an expert in counter terrorism, has produced a very easy to follow guide to the subject with good supporting illustration. – Terrorism and associated criminal activity has dominated the period since the end of WWII and this manual-style review is very timely– Highly Recommended.
U-Boats Beyond Biscay, Donitz Looks To New Horizons
The author, a former merchant marine captain with forty years experience, has developed a second career as a successful naval historian. – The tonnage of U-Boat books must rival a months sinkings in WWII, but here is a book that provides fresh insight into one of the least reviewed aspects of the U-Boat war – Highly Recommended.
Images of War Special, The Panzer IV, Hitler's Rock
A valuable addition to a very popular series. – This reviewer wonders about the addition of 'special' to some books in the Images of War Series, because they are all special. However this book is well up to standard for the series – Highly Recommended.


Ri/Rabbeinu Yonah: The definition of a tree in hilchos brachos is that which regrows each year - definition (b). Thus, the term pri ha'etz is applicable to strawberries, despite there being no technical tree.
Geonim: A tree always demands definition (a) to apply the term pri ha'etz to it. However, regarding brachos, the mere botanical definiton as a tree does not suffice. To receive the special shevach of a tree it must also have the unique qualities of a tree relative to man - definition (b). Thus, even though strawberries do regrow each year, since there is no technical tree you cannot say borei pri ha'etz on them.
The machlokes rishonim revolves around whether the language employed in a bracha must make use of the universal definitions of terms (Geonim), or whether brachos have their own lexicon as is suitable for a language of praise (Ri/Rabbeinu Yonah).
In passing, this sugya referenced a philosophical issue. The gemara cited a 3-way machlokes as to the tree that Adam Ha'rishon ate from.
Rabbi Nechemia: a fig tree, for that which he stumbled upon was that which helped him afterwards (he covered himself with leaves of the fig tree).
Rabbi Yehuda: wheat, for the Torah calls it the "tree of knowledge..." and a child eats wheat before he even knows how to say "Daddy" and "Mommy".
This seems to be an interesting machlokes. We only have an idea for the position of Rabbi Nechemia, but we wanted to see if anyone else had any ideas for the various positions.
All agree that in actuality, this tree was an ordinary tree that existed in the world- there was nothing "magical" about it (as evidenced by the many interpretations as to which fruit it was).
What the gemara is addressing, then, is what was the idea associated with this tree that was so attractive to Adam and caused him to rebel?
(b) in terms of its identity relative to man, its agricultural definition.
Are these two separate ideas, or is "the identity relative to man" the "agricultural definition"
If no, rather they are two separate aspects to (b) then I understand what your saying...meaning the first shita held you only need the agricultural definition ie; regrowing every year, while the second shita held that you need both parts of (b) namely that it regrows every year and that it has a tree trunk which is a property of a tree relative to man.


text:
by Chinua Achebe
Part One, Chapter 1 Summary and Analysis
Chapter 2 Summary and Analysis
Chapter 10 Summary and Analysis
Part Two, Chapter 14 Summary and Analysis
Part Three, Chapter 20 Summary and Analysis
Okonkwo
Nwoye
Obierika
Key Ideas and Commentary
Style, Form, and Literary Elements
Historical and Social Context
Connections and Further Reading
Essential Quotes by Character: Okonkwo
Essential Quotes by Theme: Pride
Critical Context
Critical Overview
Essays and Criticism
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
Multiple-Choice Quizzes
Last Updated on April 23, 2020, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 589
This chapter dips into Okonkwo's past, opening with a scene where his father Unoka pays a visit to the priestess of the god Agbala. He asks the priestess why his crops always fail, despite all the offerings he gives to the gods, and she tells him that he hasn't angered the gods; he's just lazy. So Unoka goes home and continues to plow the same barren soil. Okonkwo, realizing the futility of relying on his father, turns to a great man of their village for yam seeds to start his own farm. He has already proven himself as a wrestler, but is still a young man who must build a life and fight against the assumption that he will be lazy like his father. The great man, Nwakibie, loans him a starter crop of 800 yam seeds. With the seeds, Okonkwo establishes his farm. His first year turns out to be the worst Umuofia has even seen. "Since I survived that year," he says, "I shall survive anything."
Download Things Fall Apart Study Guide
When Unoka warns Okonkwo that it's more difficult for a proud man like him to fail alone, he's foreshadowing Okonkwo's inevitable fall, which comes at the end of the novel.
Kola Nuts. Once again, kola nuts are symbols of respect and fellowship. For more information on this, see Chapter 1, Symbols: Kola Nuts.
Machete. The priestess of Agbala tells Unoka that he's known for "the weakness of his machete," which in this context refers to his manhood and his abilities as a farmer. The priestess is essentially calling Unoka's masculinity into question, telling him that he has brought his misfortune on himself.
Palm-wine. Palm-wine, like kola nut, is consumed in social situations as a sign of fellowship. The thick dregs of the palm-wine are particularly meaningful and are given to a man named Igwebo, who it's said has "a job in hand," because he has recently gotten married. It's curious that Okonkwo, who must begin the hard work necessary to start a farm, isn't offered these palm-wine dregs, though he has what is arguably the hardest job of them all.
Yams. In Igbo culture, yams are a symbol of one's wealth and prestige. Essentially, the more yams (and yam seeds) a man has, the richer and more powerful he is. Thanks to Unoka's laziness, Okonkwo is forced to borrow his first yam seeds, but because of his resilience and work ethic, he's quickly able to pay back this loan and built up his own fortune. This adds to Okonkwo's fame and further differentiates him from his father. For more information on this, see Chapter 1, Themes: Respect.
Nature. This theme runs throughout the novel, becoming linked with the themes of religion, evil, wealth, and respect. Okonkwo's ability to manipulate the soil and produce barns full of yams brings him great respect. At the same time, nature proves fickle, as do the earth goddesses whose whims can determine a farmer's fate. His struggle to make his new farm successful could be read as an early indication that the gods will be against Okonkwo in the future.
Pride. Unoka tells Okonkwo that a proud man can survive failure, warning him that it's "more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone." This is a comment on Okonkwo's arrogance, which has made him indifferent to the suffering of others, including his father. Okonkwo is so proud, in fact, that he appears to be living in his own world, requiring no help from others, and aspiring only to lord over them.
How do things fall apart in Things Fall Apart?
What is the conflict in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe?
Why did Chinua Achebe write Things Fall Apart?
In Things Fall Apart, what were the effects of colonialism on the region?
In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, what contributes to things falling apart in Umuofia?
Civil Peace
Anthills of the Savannah
Dead Men's Path
Marriage Is a Private Affair
Arrow of God
Vengeful Creditor
No Longer at Ease
Home and Exile
The Education of a British-Protected Child


For the first few weeks of the Fall semester selected Legal Theory Lexicon entries will be posted in the "Legal Theory Lexicon for 1Ls" series.
The hypothetical (or "hypo") is so familiar to anyone who has received a legal education in the United States that you might ask, "Can there possibly be anything of theoretical interest in the hypothetical?" And in the same vein, "We all know what hypos are." The purpose of this post is to reflect on the "hypothetical," with the special purpose of equipping law students with an interest in legal theory for the task of thinking rigorous and analytically about hypotheticals, what they are, what they can and can't accomplish, how to construct them, and how to maneuver around them.
Merriam-Webster defines hypothetical as "being or involving a hypothesis : CONJECTURAL," and hypothesis as "an assumption or concession made for the sake of argument" or "a tentative assumption made in order to draw out and test its logical or empirical consequences," from the Greek from hypotithenai, "to put under."
In American law schools, the pure hypothetical is a counterfactual variation on the fact pattern of an actual case. The hypothetical plays an important role in the Socratic style of law school teaching.
What if the agreement had been oral instead of in writing?
What if the contract price had been $300?
What if Alice had been a minor?
What if the contract had not specified a price?
What if Alice did the job, but the roof still leaked?
Why do law professors use hypotheticals?
As a tool for the explication of legal doctrine.
As a tool for exploring the consequences of legal rules.
Law students quickly become familiar with the first of the three kinds of hypotheticals. They read a case and learn a rule. The professor then poses hypothetical variations on the case to test the student's knowledge of the rule. Typically, the hypo is followed with a question like, "What result?" But legal education is also about the normative analysis of legal doctrine, and hypotheticals can also be used to explore our intuitions about the morality of the law. Such hypos are frequently end with, "What should the result be?" And the follow-up question, "That's the rule, but do you think that is the right result?" Finally, contemporary legal education incorporates a healthy dose of economic analysis. So, we can add information about prices to hypos and then ask what consequences a rule will produce if the various actors are "rational" in the economic sense.
"Beware the hypothetical, my son. The laws that catch, the facts that bite."
Hypos can be fun, but many law students don't have a good time, when they are led to contradict themselves by a series of hypos. Having learned not to contradict yourself, you may then find that by remaining consistent, you can be led, step by step, to an answer that is consistent but absurd. If you can adopt a Zen-like attitude to this process, there is nothing wrong with going along for the ride. Socratic dialog is not a game, and law professors actually need students to make certain common mistakes in order to get certain points across. However, there are a number of techniques that law students can learn to become more effective at the hypothetical game.
Lesson Number One: Fight the hypothetical, lose the war!
The first and most important lesson to learn about hypotheticals is that you can't get anywhere by fighting the set up. (I will modify this rule of thumb later on.) One of the first ways that law students begin to fight back against hypotheticals to resist the "hypothesis." One way to do this is to fight the facts. "That wouldn't happen." Or "In the real world, it would happen differently." Fighting the facts only delays the inevitable. At the worst, you simply get asked the same question again, "O.K., but for the sake of argument, assume these facts." At the best, you get another version of the same hypo that works around your factual objection." As a general rule, don't fight the facts.
Every law student learns to recognize the following pattern: the Professor starts with a fact pattern, where the conclusion is obvious. Then one fact is varied by degrees. There doesn't seem to be an logical stopping point, so if the student wants to be consistent, they are lead to an absurd conclusion. We have a contract between Alice and Ben. Is $100 valid consideration? $10? $1. 1 cent? A peppercorn? Half a peppercorn? 1/100th of a peppercorn? A speck of dust. The atoms that are expelled when Ben says, I agree? You are on a slippery slope, and you desperately want to get off! Usually, you will realize that you are on the slippery slope early on in the sequence of questions. Here are some ways to get off: (1) Say, "I see were are on a slippery slope here." Then just go along for the ride, and when you read the bottom, just say, "Well, I see we are at the bottom of the slippery slope now!" You are playing along with the game, but also showing that you are smart enough to see what is happening. Or (2) When you start to feel a twinge about the hypo, say, "My answer is still "Yes, but we are starting to enter the gray zone." (If you want to be fancy, say ". . . but we are starting to enter the penumbra of the rule." When you think that you've hit a truly hard case, say "Now, we are definitely in the gray zone. It's really a judgment call which could go either way." And then when you get to the bottom of the slippery slope, you can say, "Now, it's clear, the answer is no." This second strategy is simply the way to make the point that there are lot's of legal rules that require a "Yes" or "No" answer (they are bivalent), when the real world is a matter of degrees. Slippery slope hypos are simply the law professor's way of getting you to see this phenomenon.
This is a favorite law professor trick. You take a case where the rule is settled, and then come up with facts that have accidental features that make the application of the rule morally unattractive. "Starving babies" are a common device. But should Alice have to pay Ben damages if Alice has a "starving baby!" Of course not, you say to yourself, but in fact whether or not Alice's baby is hungry is probably irrelevant to the legal question whether Alice is liable to Ben for breach of contract. Again, there are several ways to play this. Here is the simplest: (1) Simply point out the divergence between your legal and moral intuitions. "Well, morally speaking, it seems repugnant to make Alice pay, but I don't see how her financial needs provide her with a legal defense." Here is another alternative: (2) Try to find the legal category that fits your moral intuition. In criminal law, the moral problem may provide the basis for a defense of "necessity." Obviously, these two strategies can be combined: "Well, morally speaking, it seems repugnant to make Alice pay, but I don't see how her financial needs provide her with a legal defense. Maybe, should could argue that there is a defense of "necessity" to actions for breach of contract."
Easy cases involve a straightforward application of a legal rule. Most hypos are easy cases. You may make a mistake and learn something about the rule, but there is nothing funny going on here. Easy cases are the bread and butter of legal education.
(1) Arguments of fit. You can argue for a rule or result on the grounds that it best fits the legal landscape. Arguments of fit are about consistency or coherence. Frequently, you make arguments of fit based on analogies between the rule in situation A (that is settled) and the rule that should obtain in situation B (where the law is unclear).
(2) Arguments of principle. You can argue for a rule or result on the ground that it is fair or that it respects the rights of the parties. It is fair that Y should recover damages, because Y has a moral right to the integrity of her body.
(3) Arguments of policy. You can argue for a rule or result on the ground that it will lead to good consequences. What consequences are good? Deep question! But most people will agree that (1) economic efficiency, (2) health, (3) savings lives, and (4) human happiness and the absence of human suffering, are all goods that should be promoted.
Hard cases are the meat and potatoes of law school.
Wild Cases involve fanciful fact patters or bizarre legal rules. Suppose that on Mars, the rule is that crime-of-passion murders aren't punished at all, because the chances of recidivism are so low. Suppose that everyone over the age of 34 is killed by a mysterious virus, can a 32 year serve as President, even though the Constitution sets a minimum age of 35. Wild cases are frequently constructed to serve as "intuition pumps." That is, the wild case is constructed so as to generate a particular reaction--an intuition about how the case should be treated. Always be careful about the intuitions generated by wild cases. On the one hand, the intuitions pumped by a wild case can be illuminating--they can help you to an insight that you would otherwise have difficulty grasping. On the other hand, intuition pumps can be misleading. The set up of the wild case may be cleverly (or accidentally) designed so that a legally or morally irrelevant feature of the case is doing the work--pumping the intuition. When you are questioned about a wild case, you should simply give your reaction--your gut instinct. But it is also fair to qualify your answer: "My answer is yes, but this case is so wild that I really don't feel very sure about my intuitions." Wild cases are the desert of law school.
There is a lot more to learn about hypotheticals (perhaps in a second installment in the Legal Theory Lexicon, but these four lessons should get you started.
James Robert Brown & Yiftach Fehige, Thought Experiments, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2014).
Daniel Dennett, Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting (MIT Press 1984).
Daniel Dennett, Intuition Pumps And Other Tools for Thinking > (W.W. Norton & Co. 2013).
James Robert Brown & Yiftach Fehige, Thought Experiments, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thought-experiment/ (2011).


A custom white crystal stone top makes a great statement on the end table and beautifully complements the interlocking ring pattern on the apron beneath. A bamboo motif in obsidian black with gold accents completes the piece.
Dimensions: 28W x 28D x 22½H in.


It's been quite the roller coaster ride, but the eight members of Austin's critically acclaimed soul collective Mingo Fishtrap have found their sweet spot. Now four albums deep, the eight-piece outfit has honed its sound, rubbed shoulders with musical idols, and delivered powerhouse live shows to crowds of thousands in the years since the band's inception in a tiny dorm room in Denton, Texas. "We've experienced a lot of milestones and challenges in our lives together," says founder Roger Blevins, Jr. "It's easy to reminisce, even about moments that have just happened, but you reach a place in your life where you finally feel comfortable that that's where you're supposed to be."
Audiences can always expect spontaneity and heart from a Mingo set, where the band intermingles fresh takes on songs from their extensive catalog with their twist on a few select soul standards. "When something feels a little a stale, we'll change up the arrangement to keep it feeling new," says Roger. "You don't want to change so much about a tune that it becomes completely unfamiliar, but folks who are a part of our musical world also expect some experimentation. We don't want a solid wall of sound; we want to create a whole night of music, with a natural ebb and flow."
Mingo Fishtrap are Roger Blevins, Jr. on lead vocals and guitar; Dane Farnsworth on vocals, organ, and keyboards; Chip Vayenas on vocals and drums; Mikel Urdy on percussion; Roger Blevins, Sr. on bass; Steve Butts on trumpet; Dan Bechdolt on tenor and alto saxophone; and Zol Waterhouse on trombone. "Folks that come from a big family can probably relate," says Roger of the experience writing, recording, and touring with such a big, diverse group. "There are lots of mouths to feed, but also so much talent and so many resources."


text:
Indonesia Launches "Heresy App" to Help Muslims Lodge Blasphemy Complaints December 8, 2018 David Gee
Indonesia Launches "Heresy App" to Help Muslims Lodge Blasphemy Complaints
By David Gee
In Indonesia, which has the world's largest population of Muslims and a history of discriminating against atheists, the government has a unique approach to blasphemy: a free "heresy app" to encourage reports.
It's not all that surprising that this would happen in Indonesia. As we reported earlier this year, some non-believers in the country have admitted to hiding their atheism out of fear of reprisal.
Perhaps that's why the government needed to take additional steps to locate those who commit the so-called crime of blasphemy.
Users of the app can report groups practicing unrecognised faiths or unorthodox interpretations of Indonesia's six officially recognised religions, including Islam, Hinduism, Christianity and Buddhism.
"Smart Pakem", which was launched Sunday and is available for free in the Google Play store, was created by the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office, which said it would help educate the public and modernise the current reporting process.
The app will also list religious edicts and blacklisted organisations and will allow users to file complaints instantaneously, instead going through the often cumbersome process of submitting a written accusation to a government office.
"The objective… is to provide easier access to information about the spread of beliefs in Indonesia, to educate the public and to prevent them from following doctrines from an individual or a group that are not in line with the regulations," Nirwan Nawawi, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office, told AFP in a statement.
This app is in some dangerous territory. Policing beliefs in general is bad, but allowing the public to bring instant complaints is even worse. Making it easier to file such complaints will lead to more frivolous complaints, possible false ones, and an inability for the accused to truly fight back. There is no reason this law needs to exist and definitely no reason to help expedite the already unfair process with an app.
The sad part is that those who will be hurt most by this app, and by Indonesia's continued enforcement of outdated heresy laws, are those who are already struggling to survive in a country that bans the practice of the faith they follow: religious minorities.
However, rights groups fear the application could be misused by increasingly powerful hardline Islamic groups and widen divisions in a country where harassment of religious and other minorities is not uncommon.
"This is going from bad to worse — another dangerous step to discriminate religious minorities in Indonesia," said Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono.
Bonar Tigor Naipospos, vice chairman of rights group Setara Institute, added: "This is dangerous because if mainstream society doesn't like (a group) they'll report them through the application — this will create problems."
Hundreds of thousands of people across the sprawling Southeast Asian archipelago who adhere to non-recognised animist and mystical faiths have long suffered discrimination and limited access to public services.
This is exactly why separation of Church and State is so important. If Indonesia were a truly secular country, practitioners of minority faiths — and atheists — wouldn't become subjects of what will inevitably turn into a faith-based witch hunt.
(Image via Shutterstock)
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"They absolutely do. Yours included."
(((J_Enigma32)))
Racist Women Kicked Off Plane After ..."
"Thanks for the laugh!!"
Brandon Myles
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Ever wonder how three energy and utility innovators are transforming their operations?
Energy and utility companies have turned to the next generation of decision management tools and open technologies to "turn on the lights" in their businesses – whether it's slashing time-to-market for new services, or reducing the carbon footprint.
Shell's ability to solve the most complex problems in their business is helping them build the process control platform of the future.
SolarCity is continually uncovering deeper insights into challenges such as battery charge/discharge optimization and excess energy deployment.
WindFarm Designs expects to reduce CO2 emissions by 20–50 million metric tons globally every year, while reducing time to develop layouts by 90% by completely automating manual processes.


Hi, I used to log on to this site all the time and there were many members discussing crochet issues. Has everyone all gone away? Is there another crochet group that everyone has gone to? Please let me know.
This has been a very quiet site ever since I came here 2-3 years ago, but it seems to me most people who posted here also mentioned being on Ravelry.
I've gone over to Ravelry mainly because it wasn't possible for a friend of mine to post here anymore and we wanted to stay in touch. But I still check in here quite often.


text:
FIRST DRIVE | We tell you what it's like to pilot the VW Golf 8
05 December 2019 - 07:57 By Michael Taylor
A crisper steering feel and terrific ride comfort make the latest Golf even better than before. Picture: SUPPLIED
Porto, Spain: The Volkswagen Golf Mark 8 has arrived, reasserting its place as the world's best hatchback and raising the bar in the class considerably.
The Golf Mark 7 (really, the facelifted Mk 7.5) was still almost certainly the best hatchback in the world, but it was hearing footsteps from the Mazda3 and Ford Focus.
The Golf was also under threat internally, with the similar-sized ID.3 electric car swallowing billions of euros in VW's investment, including taking the new Golf's traditional pride of place at the Frankfurt motor show.
But if VW walked a fine public line between perceived sustainability and the cars people actually buy, its engineering division didn't. It threw everything it could at the Golf Mk 8.
The interior, all touchscreen and sliders and digital surfaces, could easily have outrun the ability of older buyers to operate it, but it mostly hasn't. It could have looked tacky and flimsy, too, but it enhances the interior's quality, rather than detracting from it.
It's easy to use, far more intuitive than it might have been and brilliantly clear to see and understand. Within 10 minutes we'd found everything, at least once.
The engines are crisp and cleaner than ever, and they're about to get cleaner than that, even, with the pending arrival of both mild-hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions.
The whole car smacks of a unity and an integrity that is rare to find and harder to engineer, all rooted in a chassis that has taken an almost inconceivable leap forward.
Updates to the Modular Transverse Matrix (MQB) chassis have delivered crisper, more accurate, more nuanced steering and a more secure, confidence-inspiring front-end feel, along with a gentler, calmer ride.
Well, that was the case for the cars we tested, which were all fitted with the multilink independent rear suspension (the entry cars have a beam rear end and passive dampers to go with the MacPherson strut front end).
If anything stands out it's the competence and sheer breadth of ability of its chassis and the way it rides and handles.
The Golf keeps the usual stability and ride quality and "heavy" on-road feel, but now has a sharp turn-in, flatter body control and more enthusiastic effort from the rear on direction changes.
The biggest news, though, is at the front end. The optional adaptive dampers and direct steering (fitted to all the launch cars) give the Golf Mk 8 an agility lacking even in the Mk 7's GTi versions.
The direct steering pulls the lock-to-lock turns down from 2.75 to just 2.1, and in the corners it responds with tremendous enthusiasm to any suggestions from the steering.
A big part of this now is the adaptive damping. It has another trick up its sleeve, with its Individual setting allowing for even softer damping than the preprogrammed "Comfort" setting and its range slides all the way up to a harder dynamic setup than the preprogrammed "Dynamic" setting.
It's a mature piece of engineering. It's unfailingly accurate to the driver's inputs, and it can be placed wherever you want it to. Its body roll is beautifully controlled and it is entertaining to throw around.
It's assured on highway cruising, too, and proves very resistant to crosswinds and undulations and generally behaving like a much larger machine than it is, and its bump absorption has improved at all speeds.
Electrickery
It scores so much electrickery that it feels like a luxury car inside.
Its driver assistance systems are comprehensive, allowing it to use its combination of adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assistance and autonomous emergency braking to deliver "hands-free" driving at up to 210km/h.
A brilliant interior, a quiet cabin and luxury-car electronic driver assistance lead the way. Picture: SUPPLIED
It's also the first VW model with Car2X, the always-on technology that allows it to listen in (over WiFi) to fast-arriving emergency vehicles or even road infrastructure at construction sites or trouble zones, then it warns the driver.
There's a wildly styled front end (for a Golf), with the narrow LED headlights pumping out aggression and hints of athleticism in a nose that is much lower than before.
Its suite of driver assistance systems is comprehensive — right up there with the best from Audi or Benz — and astonishing for the price.
That interior, though. The instant you step inside, it's unmistakable that the game has changed at VW and, therefore, it will change for everybody else in the class, too.
That cockpit doesn't dominate like you'd think it should, even though the instrument cluster is digital and the infotainment screen is now on the same level. It's not quite an A-Class's screen, but it's not far behind it.
It's also obvious that the Golf is being aimed at a younger buyer than it ever has, because the 26cm instrument cluster screen can be switched between four views (BMW gives you just one …) via a button on the steering wheel.
It's easy to use. It's faster and simpler to find the driver-assistance systems than it was, to change the temperature or volume via the slider beneath the screen or to find any of the digital functions in the car.
There's also an advanced voice-control system for people who prefer not to be distracted by touchscreens while driving.
There's a full-time SIM cars in it, too, and it's always connected to the internet so it can stream traffic information in real time, as well as music.
Ambient lighting is fitted throughout the cabin and it switches colour with changes in driving modes.
It's not a lot bigger inside overall, even though rear-seat legroom was one of the Golf's shortcomings to some of its rivals.
It retains the old wheelbase, though it's 29mm longer overall than it was and 10mm wider, though just 4mm taller. Its luggage space is good, but not overwhelming, with 380l of capacity with the seats locked into place and 1,237l with them folded down.
We used two engines on the launch drive: the 110kW eTSI mild-hybrid version of the 1.5l petrol four-cylinder and the 110kW version of the 2.0l TDI, but that's not all that's coming.
There will be five hybrid models in all, including a pair of plug-in hybrids, each with more than 70km of pure electric range, and another three mild hybrids.
The world's benchmark hatchback seems set to continue its unstoppable march. Picture: SUPPLIED
First, the 110kW petrol motor, with 250Nm of torque, feels a lot stronger than it sounds.
It's a smooth, smooth motor, too, and mates with either a six-speed manual or seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.
It is strong down low, and reaches 100km/h in 8.5 seconds with either transmission and tops out at 224km/h.
The mild-hybrid system ensures that it doesn't need more torque than the engine delivers, because the integrated starter-generator gives it all the extra boost it needs at low revs.
There's just no need to smash the throttle all the time, because the boost from the 48V system helps even when you don't notice it.
The diesel doesn't score that technology but it's cleaner and stronger than it was, with 360Nm of torque. It's quieter and more flexible, too, reaching 100km/h in 8.8 seconds.
It is clear that the Golf Mk 8 is a huge step forward from the Mk 7, and probably more of a step forward in the handling and ride than it has any objective right to be.
The frightening part for everyone else is that just as they felt they were closing in, the Golf has eased away from them all over again.
The new eighth-generation Golf will go on sale in SA in late 2020.
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