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You are here: Home / Film + TV / The Walking Dead: Days Gone Bye – Dork Review
The Walking Dead: Days Gone Bye – Dork Review
November 6, 2010 By Nick Bryan
Possibly the most eagerly awaited TV series debut of the year, certainly in dork circles, it's The Walking Dead. Based on the popular Image Comics series by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard, it's a classic zombie apocalypse chronicle.
And with showrunning by Frank Darabont (him of The Shawshank Redemption), the TV series itself has a decent pedigree as well. So the ingredients are certainly there, as well as the crushing weight of anticipation. And now that we've seen the first episode, how was it?
A Horrific Direction
What I didn't quite expect from this series was how outright creepy it was. The quiet bits were the worst part, the sheer anticipation; much classier than constant explosions of gore. Oh, and Lennie James is fabulous in his supporting role as Morgan. I loved his scenes.
The story is eloquently laid out, a lot of beautifully framed shots. With a renowned director like Darabont at the helm, you might expect it, but some of them really are lovely. And it takes a lot for me to notice this stuff; as my other reviews suggest, I'm more of a writing/acting-focused critic.
But it is also properly horrible at times. Trailing intestines all over the shop. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Egg Versus Zombies
Leading the cast, and carrying the bulk of this episode, is British actor Andrew Lincoln. Known mostly for playing matey, relatable characters, he's a stoic Southern police officer here, complete with American accent. He's actually very good, and has the potential to be our biggest export since Hugh Laurie. The pacing is slow, reminding me of such dramas as Mad Men, but considering that's a massive smash hit, this might be survivable.
The first episode treads a similar storyline to early issues of the comic, but does so with such atmosphere that I found myself jumping at the scary bits even when I knew roughly what was coming. It helps that although the broad outline is the same, details have changed. I didn't appreciate it when the cat crept up on me and meowed when Rick was exploring the hospital.
What's nice is that it feels like a thorough re-purposing of the story for television. I was immersed in it again, rather than watching some rushed adaptation. Rob Hinchcliffe wrote an excellent post on why you should read the Walking Dead comics first, and I'm not indifferent to that view, but based on this pilot, the TV show might be an excellent experience on its own.
Obviously, there is a whole series to come, and Darabont isn't writing/directing them all, but there's huge potential in this incarnation of The Walking Dead. Highly recommended so far, in my opinion.
Do let us know if it lived up to your expectations.
Nick Bryan
Nick learned to read and write at an early age. This has developed into an unhealthy need to either write stories or consume them for later dissection. He reviews film and TV on Dork Adore and The Digital Fix, lives in London and enjoys a nice white beer.
Red Dwarf X: Trojan – Dork Review
The Walking Dead Magazine – Dork Review
Merlin: Aithusa – Dork Review
Evil Flowers – Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D – S1E5 – Dork Review
Filed Under: Film + TV Tagged With: Andrew Lincoln, Comics, Frank Darabont, FX, The Walking Dead, TV, TV Reviews
What I really liked was the sound. Every noise was perfectly designed to make me cack myself. V. Good.
(Btw, Lennie James is in Cold Feet for those of you were wondering — I know I was).
Erik says
in this episode, after Rick met Duane and Morgan, he didnt even asked what this virus is or where did it come from. If someone wakes up from a come and see dead people walking around, the first question you think is "how does this happened? where did this virus come from?".
The absence of this questions from Rick, left that part of the series with a big question mark.
The Walking Dead: Guts - Dork Adore Review | Dork Adore says:
[…] sounds like a good idea to me. The direction isn't quite as luscious this time, but as I said in last week's "Days Gone Bye" review, Darabont can't direct them […]


Angela Walmsley is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Concordia University Wisconsin.
Her previous positions included Associate Dean of Northeastern University's Seattle campus and the Senior Academic Advisor for Northeastern's Global Network.
Prior to joining Northeastern, Walmsley served as the Associate Dean for Graduate Education and Research in the College of Education and Public Service at Saint Louis University. She was a professor for 12 years before that and began her career as a middle school and high school math teacher. She has worked in the education sector for approximately 20 years.
Walmsley earned her BS in mathematics from the University of Illinois, her MEd and DipStat from Trinity College Dublin and her PhD in Education from Saint Louis University. She was named an Emerging Leader by Phi Delta Kappa; and received a Rotarian Ambassadorial Scholarship during her graduate work. During her tenure in higher education, she has published 5 books and approximately twenty-five articles.
Walmsley enjoys traveling, snow skiing and water skiing, and jogging.
Walmsley is the editor for the Statistics Teacher Network.


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package com.thinkaurelius.titan.graphdb.configuration;

import com.google.common.base.Preconditions;
import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList;
import com.thinkaurelius.titan.core.TitanFactory;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Properties;

/**
 * Collection of constants used throughput the Titan codebase.
 *
 * @author Matthias Broecheler (me@matthiasb.com)
 */
public class TitanConstants {

    public static final String TITAN_PROPERTIES_FILE = "titan.internal.properties";

    /**
     * Runtime version of Titan, as read from a properties file inside the core jar
     */
    public static final String VERSION;

    /**
     * Past versions of Titan with which the runtime version shares a compatible storage format
     */
    public static final List<String> COMPATIBLE_VERSIONS;

    static {

        /*
         * Preempt some potential NPEs with Preconditions bearing messages. They
         * are unlikely to fail outside of some crazy test environment. Still,
         * if something goes horribly wrong, even a cryptic error message is
         * better than a message-less NPE.
         */
        Package p = TitanConstants.class.getPackage();
        Preconditions.checkNotNull(p, "Unable to load package containing class " + TitanConstants.class);
        String packageName = p.getName();
        Preconditions.checkNotNull(packageName, "Unable to get name of package containing " + TitanConstants.class);
        String resourceName = packageName.replace('.', '/') + "/" + TITAN_PROPERTIES_FILE;
        InputStream is = TitanFactory.class.getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream(resourceName);
        Preconditions.checkNotNull(is, "Unable to locate classpath resource " + resourceName + " containing Titan version");

        Properties props = new Properties();

        try {
            props.load(is);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            throw new RuntimeException("Failed to load properties from " + resourceName, e);
        }

        VERSION = props.getProperty("titan.version");
        ImmutableList.Builder<String> b = ImmutableList.builder();
        for (String v : props.getProperty("titan.compatible-versions", "").split(",")) {
            v = v.trim();
            if (!v.isEmpty()) b.add(v);
        }
        COMPATIBLE_VERSIONS = b.build();
    }

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
WWE 205 Live Review - January 31, 2017
Tony Nese def. Lince Dorado
Nese needs a consistent string of victories in order for me to take him seriously, but even then, it will be difficult for me to invest in his character considering he comes off as being so bland. This was a fine enough match, but Dorado is essentially the jobber to the stars on 205 Live, so the ending outcome here was never in doubt. On the bright side, Nese has seemingly finally found direction in this feud with TJ Perkins.
Akira Tozawa def. Aaron Solow
It was about damn time Tozawa debuted, and it looks like he's replacing Tajiri in his program with The Brian Kendrick. Does that mean Tajiri will be out for an extended period of time? At any rate, this was a fun little match and Tozawa is definitely different from everyone else in the division in terms of what he's capable of and the aura about him. Austin Aries is hilarious, but I hope they don't condition fans from the start to buy into the tiresome Japanese stereotype WWE puts out where they can't speak any English. On a side note, here's a fun fact for you: Solow is actually engaged to Bayley. Trust me, I was the first one to weep when I heard the news a few months back.
Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt def. WWE Champion John Cena and Luke Harper
Cena's promo wasn't exactly what I was hoping from him coming off his historic WWE Championship victory at the Royal Rumble, but it wasn't terrible, either. It was just the "business as usual" approach from him, which was uninspiring. I know it more than likely isn't happening, but I don't even want to entertain the idea of Cena and Orton facing off for the WWE title at WrestleMania. This was a solid tag team match, and Orton pinning Cena surprised me, though Harper's involvement was what mainly held my interest. I was half-expecting Harper to turn on Cena, so thankfully that didn't happen.
Carmella def. Delilah Dawson
It's encouraging Carmella continues to receive television time despite not being a part of a program at the moment, but her pairing with James Ellsworth does absolutely nothing for me. I think we all knew from the get-go that Ellsworth wouldn't last long as a scrappy underdog, but there is only so much they can do with him in this role, too. On the bright side, JBL screaming that Ellsworth should have been with "the blue thing" instead was hilarious.
Sin Cara def. Bo Dallas
It looks like Dallas is back to being a heel after teasing a face turn while teaming with Darren Young a few weeks ago, which I guess makes sense after Young went down with an injury last month. Cara vs. Dallas has been done to death in the past, so needless to say, I couldn't have cared less about this match and the live crowd seemingly felt the same way based off how they barely reacted to anything they did. By the way, what ever happened to Sin Cara being part of the Cruiserweight division?
The New Day def. Titus O'Neil and The Shining Stars
It's been a while since New Day last appeared on Main Event, so this was a pleasant surprise. I probably should have expected this to happen sooner or later considering they haven't been doing much of note since losing the Raw Tag Team Championship. However, I liked the storyline continuity here as they have been feuding with O'Neil in recent weeks. The match was actually better than I thought it would be, and I credit almost all of that to New Day and their sheer entertainment factor and ability to make anything enjoyable.
Braun Strowman Interrupted WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens and United States Champion Chris Jericho
Owens and Jericho were entertaining as always and this was a solid follow-up to the events that occurred at the Royal Rumble. Are we sure that footage of Strowman, Owens and Jericho backstage on Raw from last month wasn't indeed edited? I do not remember that happening whatsoever, but if that was real footage, I applaude them for the rare storyline consistency. They set up the night's main event nicely as well as the subsequent mach between Jericho and Zayn.
Sami Zayn def. United states Champion Chris Jericho (Non-title)
I was surprised they cut this feud short late last year following their entertaining encounter at Clash of Champions, but it makes even more sense that they're revisiting it now that Jericho is the United States champion. They have terrific chemistry together and this was another real fun match from them. It's encouraging that Zayn appears to have direction coming off his recent program with Strowman, but will they hold off on the rematch until Roadblock in early March?
RJ's Two Cents - Analyzing the 2017 WWE Royal Rumble Match
By RJ Marceau
The Royal Rumble match wasn't the best I have ever seen but I think the show as a whole was really good. Charlotte retaining in a good match, The Club won the WWE Raw Tag Team Championships and AJ Styles and John Cena had a match of the year quality match.
When it comes to the Rumble some of the eliminations were head scratching. I would say some of the early entrants were a waste but the whole point of them being in the match was for Braun Strowman to toss them. I will start with Braun Strowman. Braun was in the match for 13 mins and 11 secs with 7 eliminations which isn't bad. My issue is how he was built coming into the match and where he was eliminated. Braun was a favorite going into the match and had interfered in the WWE Universal Title Match earlier in the night. Strowman easily should be one of the last five people left and being eliminated by Corbin rather than Reigns was stupid. It served no purpose and did nothing for a future feud. His early exit from the match reminded me of Daniel Bryan's elimination in 2015 of how once he was out it sucked the wind out of the crowd because he was a favorite that was eliminated randomly.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Eukiefferiella brehmi är en tvåvingeart som beskrevs av Gouin 1943. Eukiefferiella brehmi ingår i släktet Eukiefferiella och familjen fjädermyggor. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Fjädermyggor
brehmi

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Sarah E. Collier, Julie Jepsen Thomas; Range of Motion at the Wrist: A Comparison Study of Four Wrist Extension Orthoses and the Free Hand. Am J Occup Ther 2002;56(2):180-184. doi: 10.5014/ajot.56.2.180.
OBJECTIVE. This study compared the total wrist range of motion permitted by four different styles of wrist extension orthoses and the free hand.
METHOD. Using a repeated-measures, counterbalanced design, 40 healthy female volunteers 20 to 39 years of age shot a basketball while free handed and while wearing each of four wrist extension orthoses: AlignRite; Rolyan D-Ring Long; Rolyan D-Ring Short; and a custom-made, thumb hole design orthosis. The motion at the wrist was measured by an electrogoniometer.
RESULTS. No significant differences were found in total wrist motion permitted among the four orthotic conditions. Analyses revealed that the custom-made orthosis allowed significantly less palmar flexion and significantly more dorsiflexion than the three commercially available orthoses. All orthoses significantly restricted wrist movement compared with the free hand.
CONCLUSION. The commercially available wrist extension orthoses offered little difference in the amount of restriction they provided. The custom orthosis restricted movement to a different portion of the available range than did the commercial orthoses. Future research should examine how different strapping techniques on custom-made orthoses affect total range of motion permitted at the wrist. Knowledge of patterns of restriction among various styles of orthoses will help therapists to select the most appropriate orthosis for a client's individual needs.


text:
The 2017 Action Hero Power Rankings
Photo Edit by Travis Wilker
This was a really great year for action – I mean, we had John Wick: Chapter 2 and Atomic Blonde in the same year! – and so I am happy to bring back one of my favorite columns to write at the end of each year: The Action Hero Power Rankings. Action heroes are like Highlanders, there can only be one to claim the top spot. I didn't do them last year because honestly the pool for it just wasn't deep, it just wouldn't have been fun to do that year. But if you're interested, Tom Cruise would have taken the title for Jack Reacher: Never Go Back just out of default because like who else was there last year? Anyways, this was an especially tough roster to rank because the top two had almost equal claim to the throne. But alas, there can only be one.
Some rules, most of which we'll break.
Rule #1: All candidates must be lead performers.
Rule #2: There is no limit to the number of candidates, but in the spirit of competition we'll keep it tight.
Rule #3: There isn't an exact science to quantifying ass-kicking, but I did take into account box office numbers and the overall amount of ass-kicking on display.
Rule #4: I have to have seen the film, so unfortunately Jackie Chan will not be drop kicking into the rankings because I didn't see The Foreigner because I apparently also really hate myself. But to be fair, Jackie does not need the power rankings to know where he stands.
Alright, let's get to ass whooping!
5. The Rock – The Fate of the Furious
This breaks the first rule, but just like Furious 7, The Rock is making the rankings because he had the most action hero moments in the least amount of time which is an incredible feat to pull off. His AAHM(Average Action Hero Moments) per screen time statistic is probably off the charts, so much so I don't even know where to begin to calculate it. Those are some real steroid stats he's putting up. There are so many insane, iconic moments The Rock has in Fate of the Furious, let's review them. There's a part where he busts out of his handcuffs through pure muscle and picks up a guy and holds his body up against a wall sideways like the dude is as light as a sandwich. There's a part where The Rock is outside a car holding onto the door at high speeds and with his other arm he reaches over to a missile that's sliding on the ice and with pure strength REDIRECTS A MISSILE WITH ONE HAND to go hit the enemy vehicles. But alas, like there can only be one action hero to win the year, there can only be one true iconic moment.
Iconic Moment: There's a part where Vin Diesel tosses a bunch of grenades into a room where the team is, and instead of ducking or something, The Rock grabs one in mid air that comes flying at him. Before tossing it away like a normal person or something, he instead gives the grenade a death stare for like 5 seconds. His look is telling the grenade "go ahead bitch, I dare you to blow up. Yeah, that's what I thought." After having sonned the grenade, he tosses it aside where it finally has the courage to blow up. The Rock is so powerful of an action hero he made a grenade afraid. That's just incredible.
4. Gal Gadot – Wonder Woman
I rewatched this film over Thanksgiving break, and it really holds up! What stood out to me the most is just how much stuntwork and fight choreography Gal Gadot is doing herself. It shouldn't be a surprise, she was after all a huge part of the Fast & the Furious franchise and their shift to action extravaganzas. She carries that over to the superhero film, a type of film that usually does all the action via CGI and green screen, but because of Gadot the action sequences are rooted in a physicality that wouldn't be there without her.
Iconic Moment: The No Man's Land sequence, it's a great superhero moment where she truly becomes Wonder Woman and inspires those around her by mowing through a battlefield nobody can survive. A week ago one of my roommates cleaned our oven and we compared that brave act to the No Man's Land scene. Me and my other roommate were just watching her clean exactly like how Steve Trevor and his boys watch Wonder Woman go through No Man's Land.
3. Frank Grillo – Wheelman
I'm really glad we finally got an action film like Wheelman that Frank Grillo can front, it's a minimalist action film that Grillo can carry via both action chops and acting chops. I once wrote a column about how he was our most undervalued action hero, and he's making good on my investments here. It's his most "action hero" role to date, and he's fantastic to watch fully enveloped in that element. Plus the tagline for the film – "Drive Fast. Think Faster." – is just such an incredible tagline, just behind the tagline for Faster – "Slow Justice is No Justice."
Iconic Moment: The whole film. That's kind of a copout answer, but like 95% of the film takes place in the car with the cameras either in or attached to the car. So really, the whole film is his iconic moment. He's saying "I can carry an action film without even leaving this car." which is really impressive.
2. Charlize Theron – Atomic Blonde
Theron actually took the power rankings title back in 2015 for Mad Max: Fury Road, so it's great to have her back in the rankings again. Had this been pretty much any other year where the top spot taker didn't have their film, she definitely would have taken it a 2nd time for her portrayal of MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton. Charlize took it up another level from Furiosa and performed stuntwork and fight choreography at the same level of all-timers. One of the markers of a great action hero is how much of the stuntwork and fight choreography they can do themselves, and Theron is doing it all. Director David Leitch doesn't have to hide anything in quick cuts or inserts, because Theron is giving 110% in each take.
Iconic Moment: There's a one-take sequence where she fights her way up and back down a building through a bunch of bad guys, you'll need a cigarette after watching it. The level of physicality she's going through in these fights in this sequence is just excruciating. Halfway through, she can barely stand up and finish the fight, and you don't feel like Theron is overselling her exhaustion because you've just watched her perform all these insane stunts and fight choreography, you know she's exhausted. You're exhausted just watching her. Theron's claimed her spot as one of the all time great action heroes with this film.
1. Keanu Reeves – John Wick: Chapter 2
Could it have been anybody else? He came in 2nd in the 2014 rankings for John Wick just short of Iko Uwais in The Raid 2, and he's returned with a vengeance and claimed the top spot. Chapter 2 isn't just a great John Wick sequel or a great action sequel, it's one of the greatest sequels ever made, right up there with The Godfather: Part II. It's one of the only action films to attain the status of action opera, everything about it is just on another level, with Reeves on an unparalleled status of action filmmaking. Keanu Reeves is 53 years old and is out here doing fight choreography and stunts with the dexterity and athleticism that somebody half his age couldn't do in peak condition. Meanwhile, I am 25 years old and my knees hurt. I've just never seen an action character come along like John Wick and just dominate the entire action genre like Reeves has. There are so many iconic moments in this film, it's like a highlight reel, you can argue each action scene is the best one. For example, you have the opening car scene, the fight between Reeves and Common, and the mirror fight sequence. But I think we all know what the true iconic moment is…
Iconic Moment: When John Wick kills some dudes with a fucking pencil. In both films, we hear a character mythologize Wick by recounting how they saw him kill three men in a bar "with a fucking pencil" and in this film he actually does that in a glorious moment for fans. Finally, we get the pleasure of seeing John Wick kill three men with a fucking pencil.
Posted in ColumnsTagged 2017 Action Hero Power Rankings, Atomic Blonde, Charlize Theron, Dwayne Johnson, Frank Grillo, Gal Gadot, John Wick, John Wick Chapter 2, Keanu Reeves, The Fate of the Furious, The Rock, Wheelman, Wonder WomanBy Dylan Moses Griffin1 Comment
One thought on "The 2017 Action Hero Power Rankings"
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The Mola de Fornells - also known as Talaia de Fornells - is one of the eight proteced areas Menorca has to offer.
Almost the entire peninsula and the beaches in this area are unspoilt terrain.
The mola is a 123-metre high hill.
Below the cliffs there is the dripstone cave Cueva de Na Pulida with its stalagmites and stalagtites, a favourite destination for divers. There are 300 metres of labyriths in this cave.
In theory, the cave is open to everyone but you need to have the proper equipment and know the place really well!
In the 16th century a defence tower was errected as protection against pirates.
In 1898, during the Spanish-American War , some artillery installations were added near the tower.
This was a restricted area until 2002, aereal photographs were prohibited!
There is also an abandonded finca. This place belonged to a Menorcan earl who deceased in 1995. Having no children, a new company, the Fasfor S.A., was established to manage the property.
There is a solitary hiking trail from Son Parc to the Mola.
You may encounter some wild goats, but must be lucky to see human soul.
For guided hiking tours, please see our discount offers.


text:
Озан () — місто () в США, в окрузі Гемпстед штату Арканзас. Населення — 85 осіб (2010).

Географія
Озан розташований за координатами  (33.846611, -93.720824).  За даними Бюро перепису населення США в 2010 році місто мало площу 0,82 км², з яких 0,82 км² — суходіл та 0,00 км² — водойми.

Демографія

Згідно з переписом 2010 року, у місті мешкало 85 осіб у 40 домогосподарствах у складі 26 родин. Густота населення становила 104 особи/км².  Було 54 помешкання (66/км²).

Расовий склад населення:

До двох чи більше рас належало 0,0 %. Іспаномовні складали 5,9 % від усіх жителів.

За віковим діапазоном населення розподілялося таким чином: 17,6 % — особи молодші 18 років, 54,2 % — особи у віці 18—64 років, 28,2 % — особи у віці 65 років та старші. Медіана віку мешканця становила 50,5 року. На 100 осіб жіночої статі у місті припадало 88,9 чоловіків;  на 100 жінок у віці від 18 років та старших — 94,4 чоловіків також старших 18 років.

Середній дохід на одне домашнє господарство  становив  доларів США (медіана — ), а середній дохід на одну сім'ю —  доларів (медіана — ). За межею бідності перебувало 15,5 % осіб, у тому числі 0,0 % дітей у віці до 18 років та 0,0 % осіб у віці 65 років та старших.

Цивільне працевлаштоване населення становило 21 осіб. Основні галузі зайнятості: виробництво — 33,3 %, будівництво — 23,8 %.

Джерела

Містечка Арканзасу
Населені пункти округу Гемпстед (Арканзас)


I have the almost the same stroller with the bassinet but after several moves I cant find the seat portion. Did you make a pattern? And would you be willing to sell the pattern?
Hi! I did make a pattern for the Viking seat. You have still have the frame but are missing the fabric portion of the seat? I can certainly copy the pattern for you.


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Comment: I would like to get an estimate for a project. I need to repair my roof that is over a patio that is leaking. My home is a 2 story, but this is on the 1st floor.
Comment: "L" shaped residence, approximately 1500 sq. ft. with some construction to deflect water away from chimney and severe leak problem; wind mitigation required.
Comment: Remove and replace 2 areas @ 160sf each. Very shallow pitch, almost flat.
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Comment: I would like to get an estimate for replacing the roof on my mother in law house.
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Freshman U.S. Rep. David J. Trone (D) made his first official appearance in Annapolis Monday since entering Congress earlier this year. He spoke briefly to both the House and the Senate in their evening sessions.
Trone preached the need for cooperation between federal, state and local governments. He also outlined his three top priorities — fighting the opioid crisis, criminal justice reform and more funding for medical research.
But politicians being politicians, there was some interest in knowing how Trone felt about a proposal to drastically change the boundaries of his congressional district, which would make it far more favorable to Republicans – and threaten Trone's political future if it's ever enacted.
Miller was referring to a proposal floated by a commission that Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) appointed after a federal court found the 6th congressional district lines to be unconstitutional. Hogan's commission released the proposed map with changes to the 6th and the 8th districts last week. Hogan could introduce the commission's final product as legislation late in this year's General Assembly session, but it's unlikely the legislature will act on it.
Trone did not talk about the redistricting proposal as he greeted House and Senate members Monday night – but he did agree to do so in a brief interview with Maryland Matters.
"I think the proposal right now is not germane to where the issue's really at," he said.
Like many Democrats in Maryland, Trone said he is waiting to see if the Supreme Court rules on redistricting, and hopes the justices set a standard for what constitutes excessive partisan gerrymandering.
"I'm hoping for a national solution," he said.
Trone said he plans to attend the Supreme Court hearing on Maryland's boundaries on March 26, but he also said that changing the way congressional and legislative districts are drawn is a national imperative.
"Without a doubt it's the most problematic issue in the country, that's causing polarization on the left and the right," he said.


Littlethorpe products can be factory fitted with solar power or 230 Volt (mains) bus shelter lighting, engineered to light up during the hours of darkness, or alternatively, only when someone enters the bus shelter.
The solar power system is an industry standard, it comprises of solar panels which charge batteries housed in the roof cavity.
It also has a method of switching the light on and off, this is normally a PIR (passive infra-red) switch, it detects body heat and switches the light on, then off again with a five to ten minute delay when the shelter is vacated.
The system needs to know if it is daylight or darkness and so has a control box with logic circuits, this also regulates the flow of power to and from the batteries. The whole system is connected together with a wiring harness. The light itself has 48 LED diodes to emit light through a diffuser, the light is set to be very dim (after dark and up to midnight) and comes up to full strength when someone enters the shelter. The same happens in the two hours before sunrise in the winter.
Alternatively a mains light with a vandal resistant bulkhead fitting can be pre-wired into the shelters. An armoured cable goes from the light fitting across the underside of the roof and reaches ground level inside the structure of the rear wall. The end of the armoured cable can either be fitted to a junction box under the seat or a 3M long "tail" left to connect to a nearby fused mains supply, usually a "Haldo Pillar".
The light either has a photo cell switch if the light is required to be on during darkness or a PIR switch like the solar system if Bus Shelter Lighting is only required when the shelter is occupied during darkness. A certificate of electrical safety for the mains light is supplied by Littlethorpe prior to the shelter being delivered; this enables your local electrician to wire up the light to the mains supply whist conforming to current electrical regulations.
All of our bus shelters can be customised to suit your personal preference.
The hardwood we use is naturally durable and does not need decorating to preserve it, each shelter simply looks better when sprayed with three coats of decorative wood stain. The attractive stain prevents graffiti from being absorbed into the grain making cleaning easier. The overall finish looks very much like oak.
The end grain of components are spayed before assembly to seal the end grain from moisture absorption. After assembly the whole shelter is sprayed three times using only water based stains going through a pumped air system. Water based stains are selected because of their very low level of emission of chemicals into the atmosphere during the drying process. A pumped air system is used because it is a high quality system that gives exceptional results.
Re-staining of shelters can be carried out after installation with water based brush applied stain; see the Maintenance page.
The shelters can also be pre-wired to receive electronic information panels or have time table cases factory fitted.
The electronic information panels are pre-wired in the same way as the mains light with an armoured cable concealed inside the rear wall and a "tail" left at both ends; the information panel manufacturers normally prefer to do the final wiring of their own product.
Hardwood brackets designed to take "Bus Stop" plates can be factory fitted to the roof line of the shelters. Time table cases or even parish notice boards can also be fixed to the solid rear wall of the shelters in our factory. Most local authorities prefer to put bus time table cases onto poles out side the shelters, the reason for this is two fold; for better visibility in poor light and to allow direct access to it with out leaning over other waiting bus passengers.
If there is a pole for a time table case at a bus stop it is sensible to fix the "Bus Stop" plate to the pole rather than to the roof line of the shelter.


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How can you unclog your bathtub?
7 plumbing issues and how to avoid them
HTML 5 and SEO
Are you paying a lot in water bills?
Dow drops 300 points despite blowout earnings from Big Tech
Confirmed coronavirus cases in the US pass 500,000: JHU
By: Wanda J. Thompson
In: HEALTH CARE
The coronavirus has now infected over 500,000 people in the U.S. on Friday night, constituting almost one-third of all cases across the globe, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
As of 9:25 p.m. Eastern Time, the U.S. has recorded 500,399 cases of the coronavirus disease, or Covid-19, of which 174,481 were in New York, the data showed.
The virus, which emerged in Wuhan, China, in December, has since spread to more than 1.5 million people in almost every country around the world. On Friday, the number of deaths caused by the coronavirus worldwide surged past the 100,000 mark, doubling in nearly a week.
New York state is the epicenter of the outbreak in the country and has reported more cases than Italy, Spain, France and Germany. However, the state has shown some signs of improvement after reporting its first negative net change in intensive care admissions on Thursday for the first time since the coronavirus crisis began.
President Donald Trump has also said the number of projected deaths is now "substantially under" what health officials initially predicted.
"We'll see what it ends up being, but it looks like we're headed to a number substantially below the 100,000 that would be the low mark, and I hope that bears out," Trump said.
Here's a snapshot of the numbers of cases around the world.
Global cases: At least 1,696,139
Global deaths: At least 102,669
Most cases reported: United States (500,399), Spain (158,273), Italy (147,577), Germany (122,171), France (125,931)
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I was searching for a Property and found this listing (MLS® #14010755). Please send me more information regarding 5086 Matilda Street 216, Dallas, TX, 75206-4271. Thank you!
I'd like to request a showing of 5086 Matilda Street 216, Dallas, TX, 75206-4271 (MLS® #14010755). Thank you!


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This is when Chelmsford's Bond Street Christmas ice rink opens and how to book tickets
You can go for a festive skate
Clare Youell
Bond Street bought an outdoor ice rink to Chelmsford last year
Chelmsford is getting another festive activity this year with the return of the Bond Street ice rink.
The owners of the shopping centre introduced the outdoor rink for the first time last year and it's back again this year by popular demand.
You pay one fee for skate hire and for a skating session, and it is open to all ages.
This year the ice rink will be 50 per cent bigger than it was last year and it will once again be in the bowl area, opposite John Lewis.
A dinosaur-themed Christmas wonderland has opened near Essex
Children have fun on the Bond Street Christmas ice rink last year
The Bond Street ice rink opens for business on Friday, December 7 and will go on until its last day on Wednesday, January 2.
Each session costs £7 for adults, £5 for juniors (age 5 - 16), £3 for children under 5 and £20 for family ticket.
There are penguin aids to help young children on the ice, which are free of charge.
The sessions are half an hour long, and you can book slots every 30 minutes.
Winter Wonderland has opened in London, here's the dates, tickets prices and attractions
The Bond Street ice rink will be back this Christmas
It's recommended that you book in advance but you may be able to turn up and skate if there is availability on the day.
The ice rink is made from synthetic ice which is easier to maintain regardless of the temperature. It will be surrounded a selection of festive food and drink stalls too, again, there will be more than last year.
There has not been an outdoor ice rink in Chelmsford for years so it's a welcome addition to the city.
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The ice rink opens on December 7 (Image: Bond Street)
"We are delighted to be bringing the ice rink back to Bond Street this year," a Bond Street spokesperson told Essex Live.
"It's a lovely festive activity for families and shoppers to enjoy in the build-up to Christmas."
You can pre-book ice rink tickets on the Bond Street Chelmsford site.
The best-ever Christmas in Chelmsford
Fancy Christmas market coming to Stock
Chelmsford's German Christmas market
Amazon in Essex is hiring for Christmas
Happy skating.
ChelmsfordChelmsford CTZN nightclub has closed to customersA sign has appeared in the window of the club
What's OnA brand new Energie Fitness gym will soon be opening in BraintreeIt will be opening in a few months
ChelmsfordA brand new state-of-the-art gym has opened in the former SWEAT! building in ChelmsfordThe new gym opened this week
ITVLove Island's Ollie Williams walks out of Love Island after just three daysThe reports have been confirmed by the show
EntertainmentThe Martin and Su listeners 'switching off over music style' on new Radio Essex breakfast showOne said the music appears to be from a "15-year-old girl's playlist"


Grandstream just announced their latest IP phone: Grandstream GXP2135.
You won't find a better combination of open design and high-end features at a reasonable price than the GXP2135.
The first thing to notice about the GXP2135 is its elegance. Grandstream used to be known as a bit of a "functional but not beautiful" brand. That's not at all the case now.
Part of that change is the sleek, modern design. The lines are clean. The buttons are well-spaced. Nothing looks forced into any position.
Part of that change is the bright, all-glass display: a 2.8" TFT color LCD. These things make a difference. Your features look nice on this display. You'll want to use the phone, to play around with it.
Part of that change is the contrast between gloss and matte that distinguishes the context shifting display section and the dedicated function button section.
The dedicated buttons for using a headset, initiating a local conference, dialing a phone number—those are all set in logical order on a black matte background that lets you intuitively understand where the function you want to use is.
The context-sensitive keys—four soft keys and eight line keys—are set in a shining black expansion of the display. The buttons themselves are matte, giving a bit of pop while still making it simple to tell which function they control.
The whole package is one of Grandstream's best designs to date.
Of course, all the style in the world means nothing if you don't have the substance to back it up. And Grandstream GXP2135 has plenty of substance.
Take those context-sensitive keys. They not only allow you to control calls, but they also let you customize the GXP2135 to improve your workflow.
This is a phone that works with you, not against you.
The phone comes with extensive call control. You get four SIP accounts or line registrations. You can monitor up to eight calls at once using the two-colored line keys. You can toggle between pages and select context-sensitive functions using the soft keys.
Grandstream provides you with options for actually using the phone as a, you know, phone. The GXP2135 includes four options for how to use the phone. The first is the ergonomic handset that provides wideband HD audio. The full-duplex speakerphone also provides wideband audio, and lets you talk while your hands are free without having the quality of the audio deteriorate.
There are also two ways to connect a cordless headset. You can use the RJ9 headset jack to connect a Plantronics headset with full electronic hook switch (EHS) functionality. Alternatively, you can connect a headset using Bluetooth.
So you get excellent audio the way you want.
Future-proofing is a growing concern for companies. Because technology changes so rapidly, companies want to invest in products where it's obvious that the manufacturer has thought about where technology is going.
That's Grandstream Networks for you.
Bandwidth. You know you need it—and you know that you will need a lot. The GXP2135 has two ports with Gigabit Ethernet enabled. Gigabit Ethernet is actually more bandwidth than you need for telephony, but as Grandstream rolls out new features, you know that the GXP2135 will continue to have the speed you want. It's future-proofing.
The dual ports are also important for reducing your infrastructure costs. Directly cabling your essential hardware is very important, because it's much more reliable and provides better bandwidth than almost every wireless network can provide. One port of Grandstream's IP phone leads to your network switch and the other leads to a PC. One Ethernet cable connects to the phone, another leads from the phone to the PC. Phone and PC get their Internet connection just like that.
The switch port is Power over Ethernet (PoE) compliant. PoE is a networking standard that allows for a low amount of electricity to be passed through the network cable. This electrical current does not impact that quality of the data connection at all. You need to have an injector—whether it's a separate unit or a PoE-enabled switch—that injects power into the cable for the system to work. However, once you've set up PoE, you have much more flexibility about where you can place your phone. You never need to worry about a power socket again. PoE is another form of future-proofing.
Grandstream has designed the GXP2135 to be energy efficient: that's why such an advanced endpoint can be powered through PoE. At most, it's going to be drawing 6.5 watts of energy. It's not a drain on your energy budget. As more and more companies are becoming energy conscious, having an energy-smart phone that still gives you all the features you need is a must.
Because it's a SIP phone, meaning it runs the open Session Initiation Protocol for controlling calls, you'll be able to integrate GXP2135 into a wide range of IP phone systems. It used to be that companies would try to push their own proprietary protocols on you, but increasingly VoIP manufacturers are using open standards. SIP is the most popular by quite a ways. Reliable and packed with functionality, SIP is the future of VoIP.
GXP2135 supports SIP. You know that this protocol will be the primary communication standard for years to come.
There's much more to be said about the Grandstream GXP2135, but we'll leave it at that for now!
One thing we haven't mentioned is that it's very affordable, as well. You get all the advanced features and elegant design that we talked about, and it costs just $80 at IP Phone Warehouse. Partners can get it for even less.
Give us a call at (888) 201-9056 to learn about the GXP2135 and how you can become a partner at IP Phone Warehouse.


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Supplement 29 May 1997
The Yeast Genome Directory
This directory was made possible by a unique international collaboration between the 633 scientists whose names appear below. It represents both the first published description of the complete sequence of most chromsomes from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and the first published overview of the entire sequence. As such, the authors would like future papers referring to the entire sequence and/or its contents to cite this directory; future papers referring to the sequence of individual chromosomes should refer to the papers listed at the head of page 9. The authors' affiliations appear in the papers describing the individual chromosomes.
A. Goffeau
R. Aert
E. Zumstein
Introduction 29 May 1997 Nature
Overview of the yeast genome
The collaboration of more than 600 scientists from over 100 laboratories to sequence the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome was the largest decentralised experiment in modern molecular biology and resulted in a unique data resource representing the first complete set of genes from a eukaryotic organism. 12 million bases were sequenced in a truly international effort involving European, US, Canadian and Japanese laboratories. While the yeast genome represents only a small fraction of the information in today's public sequence databases, the complete, ordered and non-redundant sequence provides an invaluable resource for the detailed analysis of cellular gene function and genome architecture. In terms of throughput, completeness and information content, yeast has always been the lead eukaryotic organism in genomics; it is still the largest genome to be completely sequenced.
H. W. Mewes
K. Albermann
A. Zollner
Chromosome maps
Article 29 May 1997 Nature
Chart of duplications
Genetic and physical maps of Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Genetic and physical maps for the 16 chromosomes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae are presented. The genetic map is the result of 40 years of genetic analysis. The physical map was produced from the results of an international systematic sequencing effort. The data for the maps are accessible electronically from the Saccharomyces Genome Database (SGD: http://genome-www.stanford.edu/Saccharomyces/).
J. Michael Cherry
Catherine Ball
David Botstein
The nucleotide sequence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome IV
The complete DNA sequence of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome IV has been determined. Apart from chromosome XII, which contains the 1–2 Mb rDNA cluster, chromosome IV is the longest S. cerevisiae chromosome. It was split into three parts, which were sequenced by a consortium from the European Community, the Sanger Centre, and groups from St Louis and Stanford in the United States. The sequence of 1,531,974 base pairs contains 796 predicted or known genes, 318 (39.9%) of which have been previously identified. Of the 478 new genes, 225 (28.3%) are homologous to previously identified genes and 253 (32%) have unknown functions or correspond to spurious open reading frames (ORFs). On average there is one gene approximately every two kilobases. Superimposed on alternating regional variations in G+C composition, there is a large central domain with a lower G+C content that contains all the yeast transposon (Ty) elements and most of the tRNA genes. Chromosome IV shares with chromosomes II, V, XII, XIII and XV some long clustered duplications which partly explain its origin.
C. Jacq
J. Alt-Mörbe
P. Zaccaria
Letter 29 May 1997 Nature
The nucleotide sequence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome V
Here we report the sequence of 569,202 base pairs of Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome V. Analysis of the sequence revealed a centromere, two telomeres and 271 open reading frames (ORFs) plus 13 tRNAs and four small nuclear RNAs. There are two Ty1 transposable elements, each of which contains an ORF (included in the count of 271). Of the ORFs, 78 (29%) are new, 81 (30%) have potential homologues in the public databases, and 112 (41%) are previously characterized yeast genes.
F. S. Dietrich
J. Mulligan
R. W. Davis
The nucleotide sequence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome VII
The complete nucleotide sequence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome VII has 572 predicted open reading frames (ORFs), of which 341 are new. No correlation was found between G+C content and gene density along the chromosome, and their variations are random. Of the ORFs, 17% show high similarity to human proteins. Almost half of the ORFs could be classified in functional categories, and there is a slight increase in the number of transcription (7.0 %) and translation (5.2 %) factors when compared with the complete S. cerevisiae genome. Accurate verification procedures demonstrate that there are less than two errors per 10,000 base pairs in the published sequence.
H. Tettelin
M. L. Agostoni Carbone
K. Kleine
The nucleotide sequence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome IX
Large-scale systematic sequencing has generally depended on the availability of an ordered library of large-insert bacterial or viral genomic clones for the organism under study. The generation of these large insert libraries, and the location of each clone on a genome map, is a laborious and time-consuming process. In an effort to overcome these problems, several groups have successfully demonstrated the viability of the whole-genome random 'shotgun' method in large-scale sequencing of both viruses and prokaryotes1–5. Here we report the sequence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome IX, determined in part by a whole-chromosome 'shotgun', and describe the particular difficulties encountered in the random 'shotgun' sequencing of an entire eukaryotic chromosome. Analysis of this sequence shows that chromosome IX contains 221 open reading frames (ORFs), of which approximately 30% have been sequenced previously. This chromosome shows features typical of a small Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome.
C. Churcher
S. Bowman
B. Barrell
The nucleotide sequence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome XII
The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the pre-eminent organism for the study of basic functions of eukaryotic cells1. All of the genes of this simple eukaryotic cell have recently been revealed by an international collaborative effort to determine the complete DNA sequence of its nuclear genome. Here we describe some of the features of chromosome XII.
M. Johnston
L. Hillier
J. D. Hoheisel
The nucleotide sequence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome XIII
Systematic sequencing of the genome of Saccharomyces cerevisiae has revealed thousands of new predicted genes and allowed analysis of long-range features of chromosomal organization. Generally, genes and predicted genes seem to be distributed evenly throughout the genome, having no overall preference for DNA strand. Apart from the smaller chromosomes, which can have substantially lower gene density in their telomeric regions1–3, there is a consistent average of one open reading frame (ORF) approximately every two kilobases. However, one of the most surprising findings for a eukaryote with approximately 6,000 genes was the amount of apparent redundancy in its genome. This redundancy occurs both between individual ORFs and over more extensive chromosome regions, which have been duplicated preserving gene order and orientation4–6. Here we report the entire nucleotide sequence of chromosome XIII, the sixth-largest S. cerevisiae chromosome, and demonstrate that its features and organization are consistent with those observed for other S. cerevisiae chromosomes. Analysis revealed 459 ORFs, 284 have not been identified previously. Both intra- and interchromosomal duplications of regions of this chromosome have occurred.
The nucleotide sequence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome XIV and its evolutionary implications
P. Philippsen
J. Hani
The nucleotide sequence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome XV
B. Dujon
The nucleotide sequence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome XVI
H. Bussey
R. K. Storms


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Fact vs fiction: 5 Movies and shows that missed the mark in depicting animals
By Marissa Chin
Oscar nominations 2023: The full list of nominees
It goes without saying that with almost every Hollywood movie that we watch, we have to suspend our beliefs to some extent. Similarly to how a character could never actually scale a skyscraper without any proper climbing equipment (we're looking at you, Dwayne Johnson) or come out of a horrible car wreck without so much as a scratch on their face a la Vin Diesel in Fast & Furious, we should remember that movies about revengeful sharks and prehistoric animals are not actually real representations of their species.
It's easy to fall into the trap of believing it is since Hollywood loves playing off our already existing fears of the unknown lurking in deep oceans and the Amazonian rainforests. Unfortunately, these movies have a lasting effect not only in making us fear these majestic creatures but also in negatively impacting conservation efforts.
Here, we set the record straight in how these animals actually behave:
It's safe to say that Jaws created an unprecedented shift in how people during that time, and even to this day, think about sharks. Before the international blockbuster classic hit theatres in 1975, sharks swam freely in the oceans, undisturbed and unbothered. It wasn't until Steven Spielberg's summer film that sharks, particularly the Great White, were cemented as the relentless man-eating predator that has an insatiable thirst for human blood.
Beaches reached an all-time low in attendance during the mid-1970s with thousands afraid to even dip their toes in the warm waters. It even spawned many shark hunts and competitions to which many had no remorse killing as they thought they were hunting man-eating predators.
As it turns out, shark attacks are extremely rare, with fatal ones being even lower. According to the International Shark Attack Files, the world's only scientific data log of all shark attacks, shark attacks have been decreasing every year. In 2019, there were 64 unprovoked attacks (no previous provocation or interaction between human and shark) that saw a decrease in the average of 84 attacks per year. There were also only five fatal attacks during the whole year—three of which were considered provoked attacks by humans initiating interaction with the shark. This is nothing compared to the number of shark killings by humans that is an estimated 100 million to 263 million sharks per year.
In fact, Jaws was so wrong about shark behavior that Peter Benchley, who wrote the original novel, regretfully expressed in an interview in 2006, "knowing what I know now…I could never write that book today". Benchley devoted the rest of his life to undoing the effects of Jaws in an almost ironic Frankenstein-monster dynamic.
When sharks do attack humans, it is often not due to any sinister intentions or revenge like what's seen on screen. Many researchers state that sharks, curious by nature, bite to see if you're worth eating—and most of the time, humans are not so they're spit back out. They much prefer seals, fish and other sharks (yes, they prefer cannibalism over our human flesh). Some experts go as far as to say that attacks happen when humans ignore the shark's warning signs as they are often territorial and mistake humans as competition for their prey.
Just remember, you have a higher chance getting struck by lightning or being crushed by a vending machine than getting munched on by Bruce from Finding Nemo.
Here's a video of one of the most famous and largest Great White Shark believed to be recorded (20 feet and growing!) named Deep Blue, affectionately dubbed the "gentlest grandma great white":
Courtesy of Discovery Channel
This is not a blockbuster Hollywood movie but it definitely has the action and suspense of one. Shark Week has become a cultural phenomenon since it's debut in 1988, with many around the world treating it as a national holiday.
But how did a one-week series dedicated to celebrating and dispelling myths about the powerful creature slowly turn into a program that inadvertently fed into those very same misconceptions? Original programs on Shark Week focused heavily on conservation and appealing to viewers' empathy with titles such as Sharks on the Brink of Extinction and The Man Who Loves Sharks. However, over the years, titles like Great White Shark Serial Killer Lives and Devil Sharks began emerging.
It was like someone up in the boardroom said "More blood, more gore! Give the viewers what they want!" The show narrowed its focus on shark killings with re-enactments and slow-mo footages of great white sharks leaping out of the waters with their prey. As they continued to feed the audience's morbid fascination and trembling awe at these sharks, one could only speculate how effective the show is at actually forwarding conservation efforts or instilling more fear into the public. We have a feeling they're creating more of these reactions:
This prehistoric fish has been getting a pretty bad reputation as of late with the popularisation of the 2010 film, Piranha 3D based on the original 1978 Piranha (just three years after the release of Jaws—can you tell Hollywood really ran with the ravenous fish-monster trope?)
While it's clear Piranha 3D certainly doesn't take itself seriously as a comedy horror in the B-movie industry, it has still generated a lot of fear about the species since piranhas do eat meat unlike other fishes. Would they really start munching down uncontrollably on the first patch of skin they see if you ever encountered them?
The answer is yes and no. Yes because piranhas will eat meat if they see it floating around but no because they only almost always eat meat of a creature that has already passed and often decomposed. In the cases that they do attack live animals, they are usually the size of a chicken and not a full grown human. Rather than the active predators portrayed in movies, piranhas are actually scavengers that pick off whatever has unfortunately ended up in the waters.
Here's a fun video of Teller jumping into a container of piranhas (willingly) and oh-so-ferocious piranhas skittishly swimming away:
The most common piranhas used in film are red belly piranhas but there are actually more than 30 species that are mostly vegetarian! Yes, even the 'carnivorous' ones like the red belly piranhas are at best omnivorous because they prefer small fish, algae and even seeds.
With the Anaconda franchise confirmed for a reboot with a "Meg-style" anaconda (oh boy), here are some facts you can go into the theatres with for a peace of mind.
Unlike how they are portrayed in film, anacondas are not stealth hunters that slither speedily across land on the hunt for food—they're actually rather slow out of waters due to their weight. With their eyes and nasal openings located on the top of their head, they prefer ambushing their prey while remaining completely submerged sometimes for hours on end.
Another common misconception perpetuated in movies is that anacondas asphyxiate and crush the bones of their prey while coiling around them—this is not the case. Research has shown that anacondas actually use the strength of their constriction to restrict blood flow. Due to the pressure, the heart is unable to pump blood to the rest of the organs in the prey and they subsequently die from ischemia or drowning as this normally occurs in waters.
As for them being known as a giant mythical creature that swallows humans whole, well, there isn't actually enough evidence to support this other than badly made Hollywood movies. There have been very few attacks between anaconda and human recorded—and even the reported attacks have shaky details and cannot be substantiated. There is also no known record of an anaconda eating a human. A full-grown anaconda could also go six months to a year without eating after a big meal so movies where anacondas pick off humans one after another would make no sense, especially since they prefer to conserve their energy as cold-blooded reptiles.
Who else talked lovingly to their plants and apologised profusely to them for not watering them enough after this movie to get on their good side?
Then again, the idea of plants releasing harmful neurotoxins as a result of increased pollution was not completely unreasonable. After all, it's been documented that marine life can cause red tides as a result of external environmental conditions. If exposed in large quantities to humans, it could lead to throat and nose irritations. So why not plants?
Luckily, if you're a plant lover (hoarder), we have good news for you. Don't worry, your plants are not secretly communicating amongst themselves to stage a rebellion so you can breathe a sigh of relief. While biologists concur that plants do communicate, it's not in the same way humans conversate. Rather, they do so chemically and often release chemicals as a response to herbivores chewing on them so other plants may sense it and produce protective chemicals. They also cannot hear us due to their lack of complex brains and cognitive abilities—so if you were worried your plant was angry at you for begrudgingly calling it high-maintenance, you're good.
We're afraid the only real horrors in this disaster movie are its half-cooked execution and Mark Wahlberg's questionable acting.
marine life conservation
Revisiting famous rabbits in pop culture this Year of the Rabbit
10 Chinese New Year specials the whole family can watch together
80th Golden Globe Awards: Highlights and complete winners list


When it was placed in special measures following a CQC inspection, East Kent Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust embarked on an improvement plan to address concerns about organisational culture reported by its workforce of more than 7,000 staff.
Issues included a communication disconnect between leadership and staff and a high level of bullying and harassment.
Verve worked with the HR leaders over a six-month period to help develop and implement a culture change programme to reposition the Trust as an employer.
Immediate steps included relaunching and strengthening the main staff publication, Our Improvement Journey, and creating comment cards to allow staff to offer their own suggestions about how to make the Trust 'a great place to work'.
deep analysis of staff survey results to uncover particular 'hotspots' for inappropriate behaviour.
We wrote and produced a video, with hard-hitting messages that made leadership commitment clear and let staff know where they could seek support. The film opens with real comments drawn from the staff survey, bringing to life the distress such behavior causes.
The Respecting Each Other campaign was also used to develop a new approach to team briefing, with an emphasis on face-to-face discussions and two-way dialogue to address complex issues and improve the cascade of information.
Our work helped frame a difficult issue positively and focus on conducting internal communications in an open and forward-thinking way during a crucial time.
The NHS Staff Friends and Family Test (results from June 2015) showed that 92% of EKHUFT were aware of the Respecting Each Other campaign.
It also indicated an 8% increase in the year's survey results in staff recommending the Trust as a place to work.
Respecting Each Other won the national CIPR #insidestory award for best change or transformation communication campaign.


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DoktorAndy.com
Vintage Sci-Fi Trifecta: Damon Knight
Largely lost to modern science fiction fans, Damon Knight was influential in sci-fi from the 1950s-1970s, not so much as a writer but as one of the early critics advocating that science fiction be taken as a literary art form and held to the same standards as "straight" literature. The introduction to The Best of Damon Knight claims that Knight first became known in science fiction circles after "a classic demolition in a fan magazine (despite the fact that the magazine had a circulation of no more than two hundred, the review had significant consequences upon two careers)". I have no idea who he reviewed in that take-down, but I would sure love to read it!
We'll get to some more autobiographical details through the lens of our three stories. First up could be none other than –
To Serve Man
Originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction, November 1950 (click to read the issue on the Internet Archive)
Read in The Best of Damon Knight
If Damon Knight is known by name to any science fiction fans of my generation it would undoubtedly be for his short story To Serve Man which was the basis for the classic Twilight Zone episode of the same name. This is such a classic episode that even those that haven't seen it will know the ending ("It's a cookbook!"), perhaps from the excellent Simpsons parody. As such, I have no reservations about spoiling the story's twist ending. Knight's story starts quite brilliantly, with the Kanamit portrayed visually differently than in the Twilight Zone episode. I absolutely love the opening paragraph.
The Kanamit were not very pretty, it's true. They looked something like pigs and something like people, and that is not an attractive combination. Seeing them for the first time shocked you; that was their handicap. When a thing with the countenance of a fiend comes from the stars and offers a gift, you are disinclined to accept.
As opening paragraphs go this is basically perfect. In four sentences we know that the story is about an alien race called the Kanamit, that they are vaguely humanoid and repulsive in appearance, and that they want to give humanity some form of gift. Not to mention the brilliance of making the alien race that wants to eat people look like pigs. Outstanding!
Unfortunately, the story declines in quality after that. Everything holds together well enough, but the story is written as a very short stream of consciousness, with the entire thing racing by at breakneck pace. As a result, the ending falls pretty flat because of its abrupt reveal and muted emotions. I'm sorry to say that I think the plot was better executed in the Twilight Zone. Perhaps we should forgive Knight, because The Best of Damon Knight comes with brief story introductions by the author, and this one reads, in its entirety,
'To Serve Man' was written in 1950, when I was living in Greenwich Village and my unhappy first marriage was breaking up. I wrote it in one afternoon, while my wife was out with another man.
An Eye for a What?
Originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction, March 1957 (click to read the issue on the Internet Archive)
Read in The World That Couldn't Be (a collection of novellas that first appeared in Galaxy)
One of Knight's contributions to literary criticism was to popularize the excellent term "idiot plot," defined as a plot which only functions because everybody in the story is an idiot. A prominent example of this is Back to the Future II, in which Doc recklessly uses self-evidently dangerous time travel to help his friend stop his unborn child from making a bad decision. (Could Doc not just have told Marty to do a better job raising his kid?) Mentioning the idiot plot is appropriate here because this story has a one hundred percent idiot plot.
The novella revolves around a vaguely defined group of humans aboard a space station orbiting an alien world which they hope to rape for all its natural resources. Native to this world is a species of intelligent gelatinous balls, one of which lives on the space station as a sort of exchange, the goal of which is to get the gelatinous elders to agree to massive strip-mining or their planet. While at a state dinner, the normally polite resident ball attacks the commander's wife, who, being a woman, is in hysterics for the rest of the story. The alien society says that the humans must punish their resident alien for his transgression, and if the humans don't do it, then the alien society will attack all of the humans presently on the planet. So the humans must punish the alien, not knowing why he did what he did or even what a suitable punishment is.
This is where the idiot plot comes in, since brief and unbelievable excuses are made as to why they can't just ask what the hell is going on. Instead, the story degenerates into a quest to torture this alien, not knowing what methods will even work. Oh, but the first idea they have amounts to water boarding! The story gets increasingly dumb from there, and not in a fun way. In the end, the entire thing basically amounts to a fat joke directed at the commander's wife, which along with "automatic whistles" at a few passing women on page one, really sets a tone for this story that can fuck right off.
Overall this one is disjointed, confusing, objectionable, and just plain bad.
Originally published in Playboy, July 1968
In the introduction to this story in The Best of Damon Knight, the author mentions that he discovered that there were many new areas of science that were not being written about in science fiction, one of them being the (then new) field of prosthesis development. Masks was Knight's attempt to write a story on the subject, one which he notes in the introduction feels "jagged and lumpy" to him, which is interesting because I find it to be the best written of the three. (An Eye for a What? in particular suffers from some abrupt and confusing scene changes.) This story has what I can now assume to be Knight's characteristic minimal world building and setup, but the basic idea is an inspection of a ridiculously expensive government program to outfit a single wounded soldier with multiple prosthesis. (Think Johnny Got His Gun level of bodily injury.) In the end, the story takes the stance that someone with a prosthesis is automatically less than a man, which is undoubtedly offensive to anyone with a prosthesis. I will defend Knight a bit here in that he was holding up the lens of science fiction to this new technology of mechanical replacements for human limbs and organs in order to challenge the obvious belief that repairing a damaged body is always good. The story does raise a valid question about how much medical treatment a wounded soldier deserves, and at some point are you doing more harm than good? The story doesn't really deliver on all its promise, but I do hand it to Knight for trying to poke a new branch of science and engineering with the sci-fi stick.
In the end it's not hard to see why Knight has fallen to the wayside. Some of science fiction's pioneers are forgotten for no good reason (my best example being Clifford Simak), but others didn't so much disappear as they were surpassed by better writers that followed. For what it's worth, it seems that Knight's written criticisms had a strong positive impact on science fiction as a legitimate literary enterprise, and for that we can only thank him. I have to say that I found the mechanics of his writing to be inferior to almost everything published these days in Analog, Asimov's, or Fantasy and Science Fiction, so the genre has clearly come a long way.
Adrienne LaFrance has a new article on The Atlantic today arguing that Facebook is a doomsday machine. Like, a Doctor Strangelove style doomsday machine. I admit that the metaphor is a bit over the top, but if 2016 did anything to me – and you can be certain that it did a lot to me – it was to make me question the value of social media as a whole. My day-to-day feelings toward social media are as favorable as you might expect from an aspiring writer with a blog. I definitely feel a love for social media since I've made so many great friends through it, and some of those friendships have outlasted my more "traditional" friendships by a decade or more. So to say that my relationship status with social media is complicated is a bit of an understatement.
As a result of my musings on science fiction I've recently developed a profound hope that the age of social media will be short lived. I dream that one day we'll talk of social media in the "when I was your age" style of reminiscing reserved for holiday gatherings when it's just too rude to completely ignore grandpa as he rambles on in his favorite recliner. You may think that social media is too big, too ingrained in our culture to disappear, but I submit that when a substantial segment of active users are questioning its value then the ground is readying for a shift. Former executives of both Google and Facebook have expressed regret over their role in social media corporations. They have said that social media serves as "amplifiers for idiots and crazy people" and are places where "no civil discourse, no cooperation" exist. They are clear to point out that this is "not an American problem — this is not about Russians ads. This is a global problem." These are the same people that built these tech juggernauts pointing at their product and advising people not to use it. That's more than a bit unusual, and as a result I think we should seriously listen to them.
As an avid reader of science fiction I've noticed that a surprisingly small amount of stories involve social media. Most often the evolution of smart phone technology is used for texting or encrypted communications, which is undoubtedly a direction that we're heading. Very few of the stories I've read in the last few years have had anything like Facebook or Twitter, and when they do they are a primary focus of the story in order to comment (unfavorably) on the concept of social media; thus is the nature of science fiction at its best.
This general lack of social media in contemporary science fiction stories leads me back to The Nerdwriter's excellent video on smart phones in blockbuster movies. Obviously, the presence of smart phones and social media are tightly coupled, but in his video (which I highly recommend) he argues that smart phones don't show up in films whose primary goal is wide spread entertainment appeal because we resent these devices and what they've done to us. Similarly, I'd like to believe that speculative fiction authors leave out social media because they aren't happy with what it has done to us.
Whether or not I'm correct that social media is just a wild phase of the adolescent internet, the article by LaFrance is thought provoking and has a lot of good linked articles for a deeper dive. After reading that maybe give that Nerdwriter video a watch and think for yourself about why smart phones often do nothing but serve as flip phones in blockbuster movies. As for me… I need to put links to this blog post on all my social media.
Vintage Sci-Fi Trifecta: James Tiptree, Jr.
In my ever growing collection of vintage science fiction books I hold a high regard for anthologies. Ever since I was a kid, short stories have been my preferred sci-fi format. Anthologies are a great way to read a wide selection of authors and find favorites you never knew about. As such, my library boasts a respectable (and ever growing) collection of anthologies from the 1950s to today. Many of them are filled with repeat authors that I've never read before.
So it occurred to me, why not pick one of these authors and – almost at random – pick a trifecta of stories from different anthologies to get a pseudo-random sampling of the author's work? Then I thought, why not blog all of these trifectas? Then I thought, what life choices have brought me to such a weird decision? Then I got to reading.
First up on the list of authors-I've-never-read-before: James Tiptree, Jr.
Our first story comes from Harlan Ellison's venerable original sci-fi anthology, Again, Dangerous Visions volume 2. Tiptree ends the anthology, which means that this story was the last published in this iconic anthology series (though there are claims that the final volume is on the way). Ellison felt that the last story in an anthology had to be the best, and positively glows when writing about the story he nabbed from Tiptree.
I had been reading Tiptree for some time. He's a fairly recent addition to the corps of sf writers, and he hadn't had all that much published – not even a novel as of this writing – but what I'd seen had impressed me considerably, and so I wrote asking for a submission.
I simply could not believe I had been given the chance to buy a story that stunning. That kind of thing always winds up in some other guy's hands, and he becomes known as the editor who published such-and-such by so-and-so. But here it was, and it was mine, all mine…
Tiptree is the man to beat this year [1972].
[Kate] Wilhelm is the woman to beat, but Tiptree is the man.
Ellison's fantastic chauvinism is rendered even more ridiculous because James Tiptree, Jr. was a woman. Of course, it wasn't known at the time, and wouldn't be known until 1977, which really makes me wonder what Ellison thought when he found out. Alice Bradley Sheldon published under the name, and male moniker, of James Tiptree, Jr. from 1967 until her death in 1987. From 1974 to 1977 she also published under the name Raccoona Sheldon, but even in anthologies today she is still listed at "James Tiptree, Jr.", there's just too much history I guess.
I'm not going to explain probable reasons why she wrote science fiction under the moniker of a man, or passed herself off as a man in all contracts and correspondence. I think there's enough explanation in Ellison's introduction that I've quoted above. Though how Ellison continues can only be considered comical today.
All of this ferocity of flack is offered not merely because I am so high on his story, but… because, ironically, James Tiptree refuses to provide any personal data on himself.
His reasons for remaining private seem to me deeply and sincerely motivated, so I won't defy them.
Now, on to the stories.
The Milk of Paradise
Originally published in Again, Dangerous Visions volume 2
Read in same
It's easy to tell why Harlan Ellison liked this story so much. Having received a solicitation to write a story for Ellison, Tiptree wrote what I can only describe as a knockoff Ellison story. The story follows a human spaceship-hand that was apparently raised by an unknown race of incredibly beautiful aliens that make humans look like C.H.U.D.s. He is confident that these aliens all died out from some pathogen that was inadvertently brought to their world by his human rescuers, but is tricked by a trader into going back to the world of Paradise, where the aliens lived. The story starts with the protagonist having sex with a random human woman and vomiting because he finds her human body so hideous, and that was my introduction to Tiptree. This is a weird one, and I think Ellison fans will like it. I have to take Ellison in small doses, and I like my science fiction prose a bit less enigmatic, so this one was not for me.
The Man Who Walked Home
Originally published in Amazing Science Fiction, May 1972
Read in The 1973 Annual World's Best SF
I picked this one because after reading the title I had to know what it was about. This tale was super clever, and has to be one of the best and most original time travel stories ever told. Written in the omniscient, with a hint of A Canticle for Leibowitz , it begins with an apocalypse at a particle accelerator and follows the slow rebuilding of society at the devastated site. On the same day every year a man appears for a split second accompanied by a thunderclap, and local superstitions, myths, cults, and scientific curiosity surround his appearance. I don't want to give too much away as its a fun trip, but this was a much more straight story than my first introduction, and turned me on to Tiptree's creativity.
Houston, Houston, Do You Read?
Originally published in Aurora: Beyond Equality (a feminist anthology published in 1976)
This one was proceeded in Annual World's Best SF with a disclaimer that it wasn't for prudes, and it definitely has a lot of eyebrow raising bits. This novella length story starts on a spaceship with our narrator, a "beta" male astronaut often felt emasculated by his two alpha male colleagues, on a spaceship full of female astronauts. You are given the impression that the men are surprised to find themselves on a ship of women, and as the story develops our narrator is convinced that he's been drugged. Tiptree uses a clever device here where the drug induces a near stream-of-consciousness which allows the story to be told in shifting time frame. The narrative is linear, sprinkled with moments of clarity that brings the narrator to the "present." It's remarkably well executed and the transitions are not jarring or confusing in any way, giving us a really nice mystery to unravel. I really enjoyed this one, and it has a great punch for a climax. This one will stay with me a long time, and I highly recommend it for a commentary on gender equality that is as relevant now as it was in 1977 – maybe more so.
All in all, Tiptree came across in these three stories as one hell of a writer with an amazing creative mind. Her ability to write an Ellison story to sell to Ellison is impressive in its own right, but the fact that it landed so perfectly with him just adds to the comedy of the effort. I'll definitely seek out more of her stories.
As a parting note, depending on which version you believe, Tiptree either murdered her husband then killed herself, or she and her husband had a suicide pact that she enacted. She openly struggled with suicidal thoughts for years, and it is evident that she finally lost the battle.
The Three-Body Problem is now a Republican Talking Point
The Chinese government's treatment of Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang region is one of the greatest ongoing atrocities in the world. Over one million ethnic Uyghurs have been imprisoned, relocated, and sent to forced labor camps where they make, among other things, Covid-19 masks. The treatment of Uyghurs is an unironic talking point for many Republican senators under the "China Bad" banner. So desperate are they to point at the liberal entertainment industry (under the unending "Liberals Bad" banner), that now Chinese science fiction author Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem is a Republican talking point.
The conflict centers around comments Liu made in an expansive and outstanding New Yorker interview from 2019 authored by Jiayang Fan. Normally careful to avoid politics, a few beers (mixed with Southern Comfort) were enough to get him to comment when asked about China's treatment of the Uyghurs. Fan reports that
he trotted out the familiar arguments of government-controlled media: "Would you rather that they be hacking away at bodies at train stations and schools in terrorist attacks? If anything, the government is helping their economy and trying to lift them out of poverty." The answer duplicated government propaganda so exactly that I couldn't help asking Liu if he ever thought he might have been brainwashed. "I know what you are thinking," he told me with weary clarity. "What about individual liberty and freedom of governance?" He sighed, as if exhausted by a debate going on in his head. "But that's not what Chinese people care about. For ordinary folks, it's the cost of health care, real-estate prices, their children's education. Not democracy."
This quote was enough to make some Republican senators – specifically Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee), Rick Scott (Florida), Kevin Cramer (North Dakota), Thom Tillis (North Carolina), and Martha McSally (Arizona) – foam at the mouth. Hence an angry letter to Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos was written to demand that the CCO explain how Netflix could possibly produce a series adaptation of the international Hugo award winning bestseller. "Does Netflix agree that the Chinese Communist Party's interment of 1.8 to 3 million Uyghurs in internment or labor camps based on their ethnicity is unacceptable?" the letter asks. I don't know. Why don't you ask Netflix if they think the thousands of children held at the US-Mexico border under appalling conditions by the US Republican Party is unacceptable?
Fortunately, I'm not the CCO of Netflix, who responded by saying "We do not agree with his comments, which are entirely unrelated to his book or this Netflix show."
The thing is, Liu's comments aren't entirely unrelated to his book. It's hard to understate Liu's notoriety in China. The New Yorker interview was conducted while Liu was in Washington D.C. to receive the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation's Award for Imagination in Service to Society, which could not have been more fitting as Liu is very much China's Arthur C. Clarke. Liu has received countless honors both in China and abroad, and his international reputation is a source of pride for the Chinese government. He is credited with bringing science fiction into the mainstream in China, with his novella The Wondering Earth adapted into China's first science fiction blockbuster, becoming the third highest grossing Chinese film in history. In the western world, Clarke was one of the writers that brought science fiction into the mainstream. He was a scientist, inventor, and television host. His most well known books include 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Rendezvous with Rama. The latter contains this gem:
Some women, Commander Norton had decided long ago, should not be allowed aboard ship; weightlessness did things to their breasts that were too damn distracting. It was bad enough when they were motionless; but when they started to move, and sympathetic vibrations set in, it was more than any warm-blooded male should be asked to take. He was quite sure that at least one serious space accident had been caused by acute crew distraction, after the transit of a well-upholstered lady officer through the control cabin.
Now you might dismiss that by saying that it was written in the 1950s. Except it wasn't written in the 1950s, it was written in 1973 in the middle of Second-wave Feminism, two years after Helen Reddy released "I Am Woman." I can not, and will not, defend the above quote, but that does not say anything about the quality of the Stanley Kubrick adaptation of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which is a phenomenally trippy ride. Despite what Star Trek fans will tell you, science fiction is not the best source of material to build a moral belief system. Science fiction authors hold a funhouse mirror to their society and show us glory or absurdity. Having a black woman on the bridge of the starship Enterprise was a strong vision of equality in 1966, but it is equally interesting to me that the vision the studio was comfortable with was one where that bridge officer's sole job was to answer the telephone. Notably, the original Star Trek pilot had a white woman (Gene Roddenberry's future wife) as first officer, but the studio nixed that idea in part because test audiences found her to be "too bossy."
If you only accept art from people you agree with morally then you will rapidly find yourself robbed of some great art. Lovecraft was a racist. Asimov was a sexual predator. J.K. Rowling is a transphobe. These facts stand next to their literary careers, but don't – and shouldn't – overshadow them. Nor should their accomplishments hide these deplorable opinions. Art that you love was created by imperfect human beings. Since nobody is perfect that should not come as a shock to anyone. Art speaks to us each on an individual level, which the authors have little control over. The magic of fiction is that authors place something before us, but what we take away can be much greater than the material given. Words on a page can turn into self realizations of life changing magnitude. The simple existence of a black lady on a spaceship three hundred years in the future became a sign of hope to African American children living through segregation, inspiring them to pursue careers in science. As a young girl, Whoopi Goldberg famously ran to her mother after seeing an episode of Star Trek and exclaimed "Momma! There's a black lady on television and she ain't no maid!" Whoopi has since been a lifelong fan of all things Trek, which led her to request – and receive – a role on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Liu's stories are fascinating, and he is undeniably a great writer. I've read The Three-Body Problem and one of his short stories titled Taking Care of God. In the latter, white bearded aliens come to Earth, having created all life as a means to establish an old-folks home for themselves. We are told that this is the normal course of societal evolution, and the "God" civilization is in its twilight. I interpreted the story as a metaphor for the difficulty and sacrifice in having to care for elderly family members, something that is a major aspect of Chinese culture. This cultural need is a great financial burden, as discussed in the story, but it also offers a great opportunity for knowledge and growth – if it is not squandered. Like all great science fiction, Liu's work is full of cultural metaphor and reflection, but any reflection must come through the eyes of the author. Just as we see Clarke's opinion of women in the above passage, we see Liu's interpretation of his own society throughout his works. Fan describes a scene from Liu's writing which is often marked by unconscionable moral choices.
An episode in the trilogy depicts Earth on the verge of destruction. A scientist named Cheng Xin encounters a gaggle of schoolchildren as she and an assistant prepare to flee the planet. The spaceship can accommodate the weight of only three of the children, and Cheng, who is the trilogy's closest embodiment of Western liberal values, is paralyzed by the choice before her. Her assistant leaps into action, however, and poses three math problems. The three children who are quickest to answer correctly are ushered on board. Cheng stares at her assistant in horror, but the young woman says, "Don't look at me like that. I gave them a chance. Competition is necessary for survival."
Is this a criticism or an endorsement of the cold logic of survival? It's unclear, but it doesn't have to be clearly one way or another. Put another way, do you read it as a criticism? Maybe you read it as a reflection of the idea that in the face of complete destruction our compassion will evaporate, leaving only cold logic. Liu's original intention is irrelevant outside of an academic discussion.
Liu has stated that his work is not political. "The whole point is to escape the real world!" he says. Many authors have used that refrain when they face criticism or censorship for their work. I can't blame Liu for echoing that claim. Maybe he doesn't think his work is political, but that doesn't mean that it isn't. His writing has elevated him through a system where elevation is fraught with challenges of being born in the right place and to the right people (not unlike the USA). He is living a good life – a dream life – and he wants to keep it that way. Maybe he believes what he said and maybe he doesn't, but we don't have to live in the system he lives in.
In a way, maybe he's right. Like I mentioned, we have camps in the USA that house people our society identifies as Others. Maybe "ordinary folks" don't really care about that type of thing. Maybe, in the end, neither do Republican senators.
This is the future we were warned about
As I write this the power is out. I'm more prepared for this situation than most. I use a UPS backup battery to supply power to my modem and router, so I can have internet if my power goes out for up to about an hour. The UPS died about three hours ago. A cold front is moving down from Canada, and Denver, Colorado – about six hours drive north of us – experienced 100 degree temperatures just two days ago but is under a winter weather advisory for the rest of the week. This same cold front has brought sixty mile per hour winds to my city, resulting in local power outages caused by isolated line falls, meaning there isn't just one problem to fix. Of course, any repair has to happen thirty feet up in these winds, so I'm not hopeful it will actually be back on by nightfall, as presently estimated.
Normally, we'd go out to eat somewhere that still has power. Of course it would have to be takeout because of the global pandemic. We're going to stay in though, because apart from driving in these high winds it's been kind of hard to breathe outside what with the thousands of wildfires burning from here to California. I've found myself wishing that my cloth Covid mask would also filter out the smoke. I guess what I really need is an N95 mask, but those are in short supply and I haven't seen any around.
I think that covers pestilence, ecological devastation, climate upset, collapse of modern infrastructure, and scarcity of resources. I guess I should be really angry, but I can't muster it. We're basically living in a classic science fiction dystopia, and I don't mean that in the "I like science fiction so this is neat!" sort of way, but in the "This is horrible, but we knew it was coming" way.
Mostly, I'm just tired. For decades now scientists have been saying that this kind of shit would start happening. More frequent wildfires, global pandemics (most recently this comically timed report from September 2019), climate upset, and a level of human suffering that we've not seen in modern times. Of course, we didn't do anything about it. I guess we brought reusable bags to the grocery store. Maybe that helped?
Don't get me wrong, my present off-the-grid state is not worthy of a claim of "human suffering." My power will come back on, probably by dawn. The wildfires will burn themselves out or be put out (so far that second one has not been very successful). One day this pandemic disease will be contained (but I'm not optimistic about how soon that will be). The problem is that although these present difficulties will pass, there is no honest expectation that the overall trend will get any better. The present state of our planet is already worse than the "worst case" climate models, and many climate scientists are saying that we've crossed the point of stopping some level of substantial climate shift. It wasn't a question of not listening. I think we listened, we just decided that we didn't really care.
As I think about what the future will look like, I find myself picturing a trip to the grocery store while wearing a respirator to keep out the pollutants and viruses. I walk past white supremacists screaming that everything would be fine if we just didn't let women be in charge of anything. It's a future that I'm familiar with given a lifetime of reading science fiction. Lots of people misunderstand what speculative science fiction is about. People fixate on how science fiction never predicted the rise of computers, or the power of feminism. Science fiction isn't about predicting the future, it's about holding a fun house mirror to the society of today in order to call attention to some aspect of ourselves. Science fiction futures are about an extrapolation of today to the world of tomorrow. In that respect, decades ago when science fiction writers looked at pollution and uncontrolled population growth they knew what was up (see Make Room! Make Room! and Caves of Steel). They tried to warn us, and we definitely listened since those books have sold millions of copies, but we took the wrong message from the writing. Too many people took the entertainment and not the warning. Too many people read those books and thought "Wow, what a wacky future!" and not "Oh damn, that's the path we're on."
The wind outside is blowing large detritus around. My son just said he's scared. His mom told him that "You don't have to be scared, you just have to be alert to what might happen." She's a smart lady, my wife. At this point I guess all we can do is be alert.
Dr. Andrew Porwitzky is a scientist and freelance writer living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is the author of numerous works of fiction, scientific articles, and essays.
Vintage Sci Fi Trifecta


If you are about to move to Germany or are relocating within the country, you are in need of a roof over your head. Especially if your German is not that good (yet), this could prove difficult. Most people use online platforms for their house hunting, so you should focus on a real estate service like SoWohnt that is fully available in English to make things easier.
As if finding housing in Germany wasn't already difficult enough in itself, you will stumble upon some strange-looking words that sound like something encrypted. Welcome to German real estate listings! You will find loads of abbreviations as Germans are using them frequently, no matter the context.
But don't worry, we are here to help you out with this. Here comes a list with the 40 most used abbreviations in property listings.
Is there something missing in the table? Try to look it up in a comprehensive online dictionary such as Langenscheidt. Now that you know what all those small words in the listings mean, your next step is to reach out to the landlords. Here are some quick tips about it. Get a German-speaking friend to help you out with writing an application text without any grammatical or spelling errors. But be aware that you should always adapt it to the specific flat you are applying for, otherwise you get lost in the shuffle between all the other applicants. Try to make it a bit more personal and tell the landlord about yourself. If you need help with the letter in German you can get the help of a professional tutor. Now you can lean back and wait for their answers!