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September Blu-ray Capsule Reviews
by Tony Dayoub
My apologies for leaving this website barren for the past two weeks. After the heightened activity of the Blogathon — and before it picks up again here next week with my reviews of entries from this year's New York Film Festival — I frankly needed a break. I've still been receiving plenty of Blu-rays to review, though. Here are some capsule reviews of my favorite ones released this past month.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL POST WITH COMMENTS
Labels: 3 Women, Blu-ray Review, Brian De Palma, Dressed to Kill, Kurt Sutter, Robert Altman, Sam Peckinpah, Sons of Anarchy, Straw Dogs, The Phantom Carriage, Victor Sjöström
Scenes from the Class Struggle in New Providence
The economics of Win Win, the wry recession-era comedy now out on Blu-ray and DVD
Win Win stars Paul Giamatti as Mike Flaherty, an attorney whose private practice focuses on care for the elderly. In the afternoons, Mike co-coaches New Providence High School's wrestling team with his office mate Vig (Jeffrey Tambor). Stretched thin financially, Mike has started having panic attacks on his doctor-prescribed jogs with best friend Terry (Bobby Cannavale). Mike's money troubles inform his questionable move to take on the guardianship for his dementia-stricken client, Leo (Burt Young)...
CONTINUE READING AT NOMAD EDITIONS: WIDE SCREEN
Labels: Alex Shaffer, Amy Ryan, Blu-ray Review, Bobby Cannavale, Burt Young, comedy, Jeffrey Tambor, Melanie Lynskey, Paul Giamatti, sports, Thomas McCarthy, Win Win, wrestling
How X-Men: First Class Made Michael Fassbender a Star
Just out on Blu-ray and DVD, X-Men: First Class is Matthew Vaughn's clever 1960s-era spinoff from Fox's popular mutant superhero franchise. Based on the Marvel comics created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, X-Men posits a world where the infinite variety of super-powered homo superiors, the next step in human evolution, are being persecuted by the increasingly suspicious homo sapiens — us. Though the initial two films helmed by Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects) tied the mutants' quest for acceptance to the same battle being fought by today's LGBT community, X-Men: First Class backtracks to its most primal disagreement, the one between its two lead characters. Appropriately enough, the movie this time finds its thematic touchstone in the civil rights struggle: telepath Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), like Martin Luther King Jr., believes humanity will only accept mutants through peaceful coexistence, at least as peaceful as it can be when fighting dastardly super-villains like Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon); Xavier's friendly rival and master of magnetism, Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender), is closer in spirit to the more militant Malcolm X, who believed coexistence must be fought for "by any means necessary." Lehnsherr, the man who would be Magneto, is automatically then a far juicier role, and for Fassbender, a star-making turn.
Labels: Blu-ray Review, James McAvoy, January Jones, Jason Flemyng, Jennifer Lawrence, Kevin Bacon, Marvel Comics, Matthew Vaughn, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, science fiction, X-Men: First Class
Movie Review: Drive (2011)
Awright, what movie did everyone else see? Because the overhyped Drive is a shallow film as hollow as its cardboard characters. Yes, I said "characters," with an "s." Not simply content to make his nameless lead character — the Driver (Ryan Gosling), we'll call him (as the press materials do) — a cipher, director Nicolas Winding Refn (Bronson) populates his film with empty, soulless vessels doubling for actual people. There's the nice-girl-who-got-involved-with-the-wrong-guy, the older-version-of-our-lead-who-sports-a-symbolically-loaded-disability, the down-on-his-luck-ex-con-who-wants-to-get-out-after-one-last-job, etc. (If I'm not careful, this whole review may degenerate into a series of etceteras.) In this world, style overrides substance, surface trumps depth, and personalities are so thin that the existence of the story's players seems to cease whenever they disappear offscreen.
Labels: action, Albert Brooks, Bryan Cranston, Carey Mulligan, Christina Hendricks, crime, Drive, Film Review, Nicolas Winding Refn, Oscar Isaac, Ron Perlman, Ryan Gosling
RIP Cliff Robertson
"The year you win an Oscar is the fastest year in a Hollywood actor's life. Twelve months later they ask, 'Who won the Oscar last year?'"
-The often overlooked, but never forgotten, Cliff Robertson, Oscar
winner for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Charly (1968)
Recommended Films - Picnic, Gidget, Underworld U.S.A., PT 109, Sunday in New York, Charly, J.W. Coop, The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, Three Days of the Condor, Obsession, Star 80, Brainstorm, Spider-Man
Recommended TV - The Twilight Zone: "A Hundred Yards over the Rim" and "The Dummy," Batman: "Come Back, Shame" and "It's How You Play the Game,"
Labels: Brainstorm (1983), Charly, Cliff Robertson, obituary, Obsession, PT 109, Spider-Man, Sunday in New York, The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, The Twilight Zone, Underworld U.S.A.
Nicholas Ray Blogathon Postscript
Happy Friday. You'll notice I put up a poll on the sidebar, in which I ask readers to pick no more than 3 of their favorite Nicholas Ray movies. Unscientific, I know, but it's just for fun. I was so busy during the actual past 4 days, the poll idea didn't occur to me. So I'll leave this up for a week and see what develops. Feel free to discuss in this post's comment thread.
Someone suggested it would be great if they were all in one post, so after the jump, I have gathered all the links submitted to me during the blogathon, plus a few I found on my own. Enjoy!
Labels: Nicholas Ray, Nicholas Ray Blogathon
Born to Be Bad (1950)
by Farran Smith Nehme (aka The Self-Styled Siren)
The Siren has been wondering what it would have been like to kiss Nicholas Ray in 1950.
From this you should not deduce that the Siren has a crush on the man. She likes her sex symbols on the louche side, but not quite that louche. Still, as she watched Robert Ryan lay one on Joan Fontaine for the sixth or seventh time in Born to Be Bad, the Siren found the thought crowding out all attempts at more formal analysis. Back goes Fontaine's head, way back, so far back Ryan could undoubtedly have told us whether she still had her wisdom teeth. Up go Fontaine's arms as Ryan embraces some part of her that the camera is tactfully cutting off. Down comes Ryan's mouth on hers, until you can see that he doesn't part his hair. Just before the Siren started in on her Ray-kissing reverie, she was reminded of the morning that she was watching a backyard bird-feeder and saw a hawk close its talons on a chickadee, then fly off to have its own breakfast elsewhere...
CONTINUE READING AT SELF-STYLED SIREN
Labels: Born to Be Bad (1950), Joan Fontaine, Joan Leslie, Mel Ferrer, Nicholas Ray, Nicholas Ray Blogathon, Robert Ryan, Zachary Scott
Nicholas Ray Blogathon: Considering Ray Elsewhere in the Blogosphere - Day 4
Wow, I couldn't have timed it better if I tried. On this final day I received a bunch of first-time contributions from some of my favorite bloggers. These are the bloggers that I read and learn a lot from. So I highly recommend perusing through all of today's submissions.
Labels: Bigger Than Life, King of Kings, Lightning Over Water, Nicholas Ray, Nicholas Ray Blogathon, On Dangerous Ground, Party Girl, Rebel Without a Cause, The True Story of Jesse James, They Live by Night
In Re: Nicholas Ray
by Richard Brody
The first thing to say about the legacy of Nicholas Ray—the subject of an article by Patricia Cohen in today's Times—is that, even in the absence on home video of some of his crucial movies, including "Johnny Guitar" and "The Lusty Men," those that are around, such as "Bigger Than Life," "In a Lonely Place," "Bitter Victory," "They Live by Night," "Rebel Without a Cause," and "Party Girl," should suffice to assure that the legacy is recognized as one of the key artistic achievements in the history of cinema. The performances alone—James Dean's in "Rebel," Humphrey Bogart's in "In a Lonely Place," and, above all, Sterling Hayden's turn in "Johnny Guitar" (perhaps the single coolest performance in all Hollywood history, the closest thing in movies to what Miles Davis was doing in jazz at exactly that moment) prove Ray to have been a director of a uniquely vulnerable and sensitive artistic temperament...
CONTINUE READING AT THE NEW YORKER'S BLOG, THE FRONT ROW
Richard T. Jameson on Bigger Than Life
This entry is a bit unusual. Richard T. Jameson is a personal hero of mine. He was editor of what, in my opinion, is still the best run of Film Comment (1990-2000). He now writes for outlets like MSN Movies, Parallax View, and the Queen Anne and Magnolia News, which hosts his online movie magaine, Straight Shooting. We correspond occasionally, and he submitted a write-up on Bigger Than Life which I can't post any part of here because it was done as work-for-hire. But I can link to it, and it is worth a read.
READ AT AMAZON.COM
Labels: addiction, Barbara Rush, Bigger Than Life, family, Film Review, James Mason, melodrama, Nicholas Ray, Nicholas Ray Blogathon, Walter Matthau
Nicholas Ray Blogathon: Bigger Than Life (1956) and Its Influence on Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)
In his films, Nicholas Ray often contemplates the psychodynamic turbulence hidden behind facades of normalcy. Bigger Than Life, with its focus on the degradation of patriarch Ed Avery (James Mason) speaks to the repression which plagues the seemingly typical fifties nuclear family. In this way the movie looks forward to those of another director, David Lynch. Though Lynch has explored similar themes throughout his work, most notably in Blue Velvet (1986), it is in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me where Bigger Than Life's influence is most strongly felt.
Labels: Barbara Rush, Bigger Than Life, David Lynch, drama, Film Review, James Mason, melodrama, Nicholas Ray, Nicholas Ray Blogathon, Ray Wise, Sheryl Lee, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, Walter Matthau
Welcome to Day 3 of the Nicholas Ray Blogathon. We wrap up tomorrow, so today will be the last day I'll be accepting submissions (unless we've pre-arranged something). So keep them coming, and let all your friends know about the wonderful posts going up here from all corners of the web.
Here's what I've got today:
Labels: Bigger Than Life, Nicholas Ray, Nicholas Ray Blogathon
Nicholas Ray Blogathon: Hot Blood (1956)
Those who've wished Nicholas Ray would turn his eye for color towards that most saturated of genres, the musical, can see the result in Hot Blood. And it's... not that great. Coming off the success of Rebel Without a Cause doubtless allowed the often embattled director to pursue his creative whims unopposed. And in this case, he turned to a project on the Romani—more popularly referred to by the derogatory term of Gypsies—long enough in development that the majority of the research was done by Ray's first wife, Jean Evans, whom he had divorced in 1940. Hot Blood began life as the sort of ethnography that one might be able to place next to other works of his like 1952's The Lusty Men (about rodeo riders) or 1961's The Savage Innocents (the Inuits). Except that Ray's affinity for folk music and his burgeoning foray into color cinematography likely got in the way and muddled this romance up. "Good" and "bad" are relative, though. For Jane Russell, this was probably a "good" picture. For Cornel Wilde, this was probably a not-so-"good" movie. And for Ray, with plenty of flawed features to be found in his filmography, this was still most definitely a "bad" one. And to think, it's sandwiched right between two of his best motion pictures, Rebel and Bigger Than Life. Still, its influence can obviously be found in at least two ethnic musicals, West Side Story (1961) and Fiddler on the Roof (1971). I'd even argue that its presence is felt in a scene from the James Bond series, the lurid gypsy catfight setpiece in From Russia With Love (1963) (featuring a young Martine Beswick).
Since I've said about all I have to say on Hot Blood, let's look at its pretty screen captures, after the jump...
Labels: Cornel Wilde, dance, Film Review, Hot Blood, Jane Russell, Luther Adler, musical, Nicholas Ray, Nicholas Ray Blogathon
Interview with Author Patrick McGilligan
by John Greco
An excerpt:
...In 1951, Ray was divorcing Gloria Grahame, his second wife. His career seemed to be spiraling downward, becoming a Mr. Fix-It for Howard Hughes, working on films like "Jet Pilot," "Macao," "His Kind of Woman" and "The Racket." The one personal film that did come out of this period was "The Lusty Men," a work thematically right for Ray, with Robert Mitchum as an itinerant sensitive loser who comes to learn, you can't go home again.
AT THE END OF HIS RKO CONTRACT RAY WAS ABLE TO TURN "THE LUSTY MEN" INTO ANOTHER PERSONAL STATEMENT. HE CONNECTED WITH THE MATERIAL IN A WAY THAT WASN'T TRUE OF "BORN TO BE BAD," "A WOMAN'S SECRET" OR "FLYING LEATHERNECKS." HE BENEFITED FROM THE INPUT OF PRODUCER JERRY WALD, WHO HAD CREATED THE IDEA FOR THE FILM. EVEN THOUGH RAY AND WALD HAD AN UNEASY RELATIONSHIP, RAY HAD MORE CREATIVE LEEWAY THAN USUAL. THE DIRECTOR ALSO ESTABLISHED A SPECIAL CLOSENESS WITH ROBERT MITCHUM. RAY NEEDED TO BOND WITH HIS USUALLY MALE STARS, AND WHENEVER HE HAD WHAT I CALL IN THE BOOK A 'TWO-MAN CLUB' (RAY AND BOGART, OR MITCHUM, OR JAMES DEAN, OR JAMES MASON TO AN EXTENT) THE FILM WAS ELEVATED.
There was plenty of innovative use of the camera by Ray in this film. You write about how he strapped a 16mm camera on to a bronco rider giving us a view of what it's like to ride a wild horse. There are plenty of other instances of his unique use of the camera which I find to be one of his most poetic.
THE FILM HAD A POETIC CAMERAMAN, REMEMBER, IN LEE GARMES, AND RAY WAS ALWAYS SHREWD ABOUT PICKING HIS CAMERAMEN. RAY WAS FEARLESS IN TERMS OF HIS VISUAL DESIGN AND BORED BY THE STANDARD ESTABLISHING SHOT, TWO-SHOT, CLOSE-UP KIND OF COVERAGE. THERE ARE MANY EXAMPLES – THE HELICOPTER SHOTS AT THE BEGINNING OF "THEY LIVE BY NIGHT," THE CAMERA STRAPPED ON BRONCS IN "THE LUSTY MEN," THE TILTED SHOTS AND EXTREME ANGLES OF "REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE." WHEN RAY IDENTIFIED WITH THE MATERIAL, HIS VISION WAS PARTICULARLY INTENSE AND YOU SEE THIS IN CODED COLOR SCHEMES AS WELL AS UNUSUAL CAMERAWORK...
CONTINUE READING AT TWENTY FOUR FRAMES
Nicholas Ray Blogathon: Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Rebel Without a Cause is one film of which so much has been written I hardly have anything new to contribute. Whether it's the legendary tales that have sprung up around the cult of its star, James Dean, the mysterious curse (proposed by some) which took its three leads' lives prematurely or the film's embrace of the explosive Method style of acting you can find a multitude of essays which pick the film apart from any number of perspectives. Continuing my look at the Nicholas Ray's work, I'd like to look at the director's collaborative relationship with Dean.
Labels: classic, Dennis Hopper, drama, Film Review, James Dean, melodrama, Natalie Wood, Nicholas Ray, Nicholas Ray Blogathon, Rebel Without a Cause, Sal Mineo, teen
Nicholas Ray Blogathon: Knock on Any Door (1949) and Run for Cover (1955)
Two of the harder to find films to watch in Nicholas Ray's oeuvre both star future svengali to statuesque blonde starlets, John Derek (The Ten Commandments): the social conscience/proto-youth film Knock on Any Door, and the Western Run for Cover (now easy to view on Netflix streaming, albeit in the wrong aspect ratio). Knock on Any Door is both a precursor to Rebel Without a Cause and its opposite number. Its misguided juveniles are from the bad part of town and far enough down the road of delinquency as to be considered hopeless. Run for Cover is the last of Ray's Western trilogy which began with The Lusty Men (1952). (Ray's The True Story of Jesse James would come later and is quite different from his previous oaters). But as different as each sounds from the other, the fact that the two are tied together by Derek's casting is just one indication of how close Knock on Any Door and Run for Cover are thematically.
Labels: courtroom thriller, Ernest Borgnine, Film Review, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Jean Hersholt, John Derek, Nicholas Ray, Nicholas Ray Blogathon, social conscience, Viveca Lindfors, western
Nicholas Ray and the Nifty Fifties
I was talking yesterday about the glories that emerged, almost daily, from Hollywood in the nineteen-fifties (which made that decade, for that matter, a richer source of cinematic treasure than the vaunted post-"Bonnie and Clyde" "New Hollywood" of the late sixties and seventies). Well, let's not bury the lede: tonight, our friends at AltScreen remind us, at 7 and 9:30, Clearview Chelsea will show one of that era's masterworks, Nicholas Ray's "Johnny Guitar," from 1954—a Western that's pulled to the breaking point on vectors of love, sex, power, and violence, and is one of the most grievous of DVD absences...
Nicholas Ray Blogathon: Johnny Guitar (1954)
To say that Johnny Guitar is simply a Western is to ignore its quite substantial and not overly implicit meaning. Indeed much of what is going on in Nicholas Ray's film is happening underneath its shallow—and by this, I don't mean banal—surface. But to read Bosley Crowther's New York Times review of May 28, 1954, one would expect this film to be just another horse opera, and a rather weak one at that.
...Joan Crawford plays essentially the role that Van Heflin played in Shane...The only big difference in the character, as plainly rewritten for her, is that now it falls in love with the ex-gunfighter, whom Sterling Hayden here plays.
But this condescension to Miss Crawford and her technically recognized sex does nothing more for the picture than give it some academic aspects of romance. No more femininity comes from her than from the rugged Mr. Heflin in Shane. For the lady, as usual, is as sexless as the lions on the public library steps and as sharp and romantically forbidding as a package of unwrapped razor blades.
Ouch, I think I cut myself with one of Crowther's metaphorical shavers.
Labels: Ernest Borgnine, Film Review, Joan Crawford, John Carradine, Johnny Guitar, Mercedes McCambridge, Nicholas Ray, Nicholas Ray Blogathon, Sterling Hayden, Ward Bond, western
Well, so far the Nicholas Ray Blogathon is quite a success. Lots of readers are stopping by and clicking on the links to read each submission. Many writers I admire are contributing. And I'm reading plenty of interesting work from new writers I hadn't been familiar with (though I'm already behind so please bear with me).
Those looking to contribute, feel free to keep sending links to your work in. No surprise here, I've got a lot of gaps for some of Ray's later work, post-Bigger Than Life.
I know I promised some additional links that had not been personally submitted to me, but this is more exhausting than it looks. Look for those in a later post near the end of the Blogathon.
Labels: Flying Leathernecks, Johnny Guitar, Nicholas Ray, Nicholas Ray Blogathon, On Dangerous Ground, Run for Cover, The Lusty Men
Woman Error
by David Cairns
...I leapt at the chance to view and write about the only Ray film I'd never watched at all, the reputedly minor opus known as A WOMAN'S SECRET.
I went in expecting little — programmers like KNOCK ON ANY DOOR, RUN FOR COVER and BORN TO BE BAD are perfectly enjoyable, but don't let Ray flex his cinematic muscles much — as with the very different Von Sternberg, for whom Ray subbed on MACAO, he didn't seem to commit fully to films that didn't excite him. But I enjoyed this one: the titular SECRET is ambiguous, the tone uncertain, the structure wobbly, but all that adds a kind of intrigue and unpredictability to a first viewing. I'd never call this a major film, but it's pleasingly flaky, and it doesn't give up its mysteries...
CONTINUE READING AT SHADOWPLAY
Labels: A Woman's Secret, Film Review, Gloria Grahame, Jay C. Flippen, Maureen O'Hara, Melvyn Douglas, Nicholas Ray, Nicholas Ray Blogathon
Nicholas Ray Blogathon: Flying Leathernecks (1951)
Another aviation-centered picture from billionaire Howard Hughes, Flying Leathernecks is also an uncharacteristic feature from director Nicholas Ray. Set during World War II's Battle of Guadalcanal, it essentially boils down to a two-hander pitting the stalwart John Wayne (Sands of Iwo Jima ) against the pugnacious Robert Ryan (On Dangerous Ground ). Given its use of an incredible amount of actual war footage, I'm assuming the story was built around the footage used (especially with such unique images as a pilot bailing out of a downed aircraft). So it's funny to think of a left-leaning maverick like Ray having to conform to all of these elements—a notoriously demanding eccentric as his studio chief, an equally iconic star who no doubt had demands of his own (both right-wingers) and the limitations demanded by such specific footage—in order to complete the war movie.
Labels: Don Taylor, Film Review, Flying Leathernecks, Howard Hughes, Jay C. Flippen, John Wayne, Nicholas Ray, Nicholas Ray Blogathon, Robert Ryan, war, World War II
Nicholas Ray Blogathon: On Dangerous Ground (1952)
Of all of Nicholas Ray's films, On Dangerous Ground may be the most difficult one for me to objectively get a handle on. It's my favorite of his films because of the duality of Robert Ryan's performance as Jim Wilson, a cop at wit's end with regard to the infectious nature of the corruption and violence he faces on the streets every day. On one hand, a virtuous true believer in the law, and on the other, an enforcer so efficient he will flout the rules to get his man, the short-tempered Wilson can be seen as a natural extension of Bogart's Dix Steele at the end of Ray's last film, In a Lonely Place (though released afterwards, Ground was filmed before Flying Leathernecks). In Ground, Wilson begins at the point where we left Steele in the previous film: an outsider aware of his capacity for violence, unable or unwilling to control his behavior, and resigned to the fact that he should stay away from the rest of polite society. However, reminders like an errant comment from a flirtatious counter-girl at the drugstore, scoffing at the idea of going out with a cop, still sting Wilson.
Labels: crime, Ed Begley, film noir, Film Review, Ida Lupino, Nicholas Ray, Nicholas Ray Blogathon, On Dangerous Ground, Robert Ryan, romance, Ward Bond
Nicholas Ray: Rebel at any cost
by Carrie Rickey
This week marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Raymond Nicholas Kienzle, whose nom de camera was Nicholas Ray. While Rebel Without a Cause (1955) is his most famous title, his filmography is crowded with rebels, beginning with Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell as the young outlaws in They Live By Night (1948) to John Derek's juvenile delinquent in Knock on Any Door (whose ambition is to "Live fast, die young, and leave a beautiful corpse" to Jeffrey Hunter's Jesus in King of Kings (1961)...
CONTINUE READING AT THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER'S BLOG, FLICKgrrl
Nicholas Ray Blogathon: In a Lonely Place (1950)
In a Lonely Place is a coincident film within the careers of Humphrey Bogart (Casablanca), Gloria Grahame (The Bad and the Beautiful), and director Nicholas Ray; despite being an adaptation of a novel by Dorothy B. Hughes, it is the most personal film for each of the three. For Bogart, the character of alcoholic screenwriter Dixon Steele revealed the real-life vulnerability and mercurial temper that afflicted the actor. In Graham's case, the film highlighted some of her insecurities vis-a-vis her marriage to Ray. And in regards to Ray, its story of a romance gone off the rails paralleled the slow disintegration of his relationship with Grahame while giving us a glimpse into Hollywood's early days.
Labels: classic, film noir, Film Review, Frank Lovejoy, Gloria Grahame, Hollywood, Humphrey Bogart, In a Lonely Place, Jeff Donnell, Nicholas Ray, Nicholas Ray Blogathon, romance
UPDATED 9/7 - Nicholas Ray Blogathon: Considering Ray Elsewhere in the Blogosphere - Day 1
So we'll see how submissions go today, but my plan (which will stay fluid) is this: Each day, I'll post links to pieces submitted by other writers on some of the films I plan on covering that day. Occasionally I'll highlight a submission by a notable film writer with its own post. Lastly, at the end of each day, I'll to try to post links to other pieces that have cropped up recently around the net in honor of Nicholas Ray's Centennial.
Labels: A Woman's Secret, Born to Be Bad (1950), In a Lonely Place, Knock on Any Door, Nicholas Ray, Nicholas Ray Blogathon, They Live by Night
Nicholas Ray Blogathon: Born to Be Bad (1950)
A lot of the fun found in Born to Be Bad, a minor film by Nicholas Ray to be sure, is in watching Joan Fontaine subvert her sweet screen persona to play the manipulative Christabel Caine. From the moment she bursts into the life of her publisher uncle's employee, Donna (Joan Leslie)—the jaded city girl Christabel is staying with until she gets her footing in San Francisco—small-town Christabel's default mode of advancing in society is a sort of clumsy, saccharine method of laying love-traps around vain, rich men whose latent attraction to her blinds them to her motives. What else can explain how Donna's fiance, Curtis (Zachary Scott), is the only one to fall for the excessively honeydrippy Christabel?
Labels: Born to Be Bad (1950), film noir, Film Review, Howard Hughes, Joan Fontaine, Joan Leslie, Mel Ferrer, melodrama, Nicholas Ray, Nicholas Ray Blogathon, Robert Ryan, woman's picture, Zachary Scott
Opening Shots: They Live By Night
by Jim Emerson
Nicholas Ray's directorial debut, "They Live By Night" (1949), begins like a trailer and then slams us right into the opening titles of the feature. An attractive young couple (Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell) are nestling in close-up by the flickering light of a fireplace. They smile, they kiss, and then something off-screen (and unheard on the soundtrack, though signaled by an jarring shift in the musical score) causes them to react with fear and alarm...
CONTINUE READING AT THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES'S BLOG, SCANNERS
Nicholas Ray Blogathon: They Live By Night (1949)
I'm still amazed that They Live by Night is Nicholas Ray's directorial debut. It is an innovative and accomplished piece of work from a man whose previous film experience mainly consisted of assisting Elia Kazan on A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Of course, Ray had spent some time acting in the Group Theatre, roamed much of the U.S. while documenting folk music for the Library of Congress, worked in radio, and even directed a Broadway musical. So at 36, what he most contributed to They Live by Night was life experience. Perhaps this is why one feels that the movie's young couple on the run is doomed to failure: because Ray takes an almost nostalgic perspective in the way he approaches the story, as if recalling better times. Harsh at some points, yet gauzily expressionistic in others, They Live by Night is a romantic fever dream which, as the cliche goes, burns twice as bright if only half as long.
Labels: Cathy O'Donnell, crime, drama, Farley Granger, film noir, Film Review, Helen Craig, Howard Da Silva, Jay C. Flippen, Nicholas Ray, Nicholas Ray Blogathon, They Live by Night
You Can't Handle the Truth
Historical extras on its Blu-ray edition fail to make the case for The Conspirator
Just out on Blu-ray and DVD, Robert Redford's The Conspirator, about the plot surrounding Abraham Lincoln's assassination, is the American Film Company's debut feature. Throughout much of the new disc's extras, the company touts itself as a production house interested in shepherding stories mined from the annals of American history in the most accurate way possible. And while watching the bounty of special features included in the Deluxe Edition Blu-ray disc, an American history nut like me would find ample evidence that Redford's 2010 film had been vetted by numerous historians. Included are 10 featurettes that dig into specific aspects of the movie, like the production design, costuming, or its main characters. The hour-long documentary, "The Plot to Kill Lincoln," provides the historical background behind The Conspirator's inciting incident in exhaustive detail. A viewing of the disc's main feature, however, proves that if the facts contradict the story the filmmakers want to tell, truth will still lose out to fiction...
Labels: Blu-ray Review, Civil War, courtroom thriller, Danny Huston, Evan Rachel Wood, James McAvoy, Kevin Kline, period drama, Robert Redford, Robin Wright, The Conspirator (2011), Tom Wilkinson
Last 10 Films I Watched
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018), Joel and Ethan Coen
BlacKkKlansman (2018), Spike Lee
Annihilation (2018), Alex Garland
An American in Paris (1951), Vincente Minnelli
Logan's Run (1976), Michael Anderson
Casino Royale (2006), Martin Campbell
You Were Never Really Here (2018), Lynne Ramsay
Seeing Allred (2018), Roberta Grossman, Sophie Sartain
Enter the Dragon (1973), Robert Clouse
Blue Velvet (1986), David Lynch
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A Boise man is in jail after police said they found a concealed handgun and drugs in his vehicle.
Around 2:45 a.m. Monday, Boise Police officers witnessed a driver who they said committed multiple driving infractions, including not having a front license plate.
Officers performed a traffic stop on State Street and noticed the driver, later identified as Duncan Owen, 21, of Boise, "showed multiple signs of being intoxicated including having slurred speech, blood shot and glassy eyes, and a strong odor of alcohol," according to a Boise Police Department news release.
"Duncan failed three field sobriety tests and provided one valid breath sample of .14. Inside Duncan's car was a loaded handgun that was concealed from view. A records check showed Duncan did not have a concealed weapons permit and had a prior DUI conviction," the release stated.
Officers say they also found a glass narcotics smoking device that tested presumptive positive for amphetamine.
Duncan was taken to the Ada County Jail and booked on possession of a controlled substance, a felony. He also faces a number of misdemeanors, including driving under the influence (second offense), carrying a concealed weapon without a license, carrying a concealed weapon while under the influence, and possession of drug paraphernalia.


text:
Watch SZA's 'In Bloom' Performance Livestream
Video via SZA
SZA will perform again in a virtual capacity, this time in partnership with Grey Goose, as promotion for the brand's new line of low-calorie vodkas called Essences.
The "In Bloom" virtual performance will see the "Good Days" singer performing new music from her forthcoming album for the first time, according to Billboard. She's set to perform her viral song "Shirt," which her fans have been obsessing over since she shared a TikTok video of her dancing to the unreleased song.
SZA took on the role of creative consultant for her virtual experience, telling the outlet, that it's been a "great experience." She continued, "The opportunity felt like a perfect match to me. I love incorporating elements of nature into my performances and the fruits botanicals and herbs in Essences provide a great template for that. I feel like 'In Bloom' really captures where I'm at right now, especially after a year and a half of lockdown, which is also why it feels like the best place to debut some of my new material. I'm so excited for my fans to see this performance."
Her "In Bloom" show follows her American Express UNSTAGED show from June, where she commemorated the four-year anniversary of her highly-acclaimed debut album CTRL. That performance was her first full set in two years and featured a guest appearance from Isaiah Rashad and Travis Scott.
You can watch "In Bloom" now over on Grey Goose's website and up top via SZA's YouTube channel.
SZA Is Manifesting Everything—Including Performances and a Tyler, the Creator Collab
Travis Scott Responds to SZA Requesting They Perform Together Again (UPDATE)
NewsVideosAlcoholSZALivestreamconcert

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
package com.google.caliper.worker;

import static com.google.common.base.Preconditions.checkState;

import com.google.monitoring.runtime.instrumentation.Sampler;
import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicInteger;
import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicLong;
import javax.inject.Inject;

/** An {@link AllocationRecorder} that records the number and cumulative size of allocation. */
final class AggregateAllocationsRecorder extends AllocationRecorder {
  private final AtomicInteger allocationCount = new AtomicInteger();
  private final AtomicLong allocationSize = new AtomicLong();
  private volatile boolean recording = false;

  private final Sampler sampler =
      new Sampler() {
        @Override
        public void sampleAllocation(int arrayCount, String desc, Object newObj, long size) {
          if (recording) {
            allocationCount.getAndIncrement();
            allocationSize.getAndAdd(size);
          }
        }
      };

  @Inject
  AggregateAllocationsRecorder() {
    com.google.monitoring.runtime.instrumentation.AllocationRecorder.addSampler(sampler);
  }

  @Override
  protected void doStartRecording() {
    checkState(!recording, "startRecording called, but we were already recording.");
    allocationCount.set(0);
    allocationSize.set(0);
    recording = true;
  }

  @Override
  public AllocationStats stopRecording(int reps) {
    checkState(recording, "stopRecording called, but we were not recording.");
    recording = false;
    return new AllocationStats(allocationCount.get(), allocationSize.get(), reps);
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
los angeles airport photography (1)
photonetics (1)
black, j. d. (john david), 1893-1960; (1)
herald express (1)
howland and chadwick (1)
1 photograph: black and white (8)
1 cellulose negative 1 black-and-white photograph (5)
1 cellulose negative (3)
1 postcard : b&w ; 9 x 14 cm (2)
1 black-and-white photograph 11.5 x 7.5 (1)
1 black-and-white photograph 5 x 7 in (1)
1 photograph : b&w ; 12 x 17 cm (1)
1910-1920? (1)
shanghai, china chinese theater 1949 (5)
westchester (los angeles, calif.) (4)
loyola university of los angeles (3)
opera singers actors -- china operas & operettas -- china -- shanghai concerts -- china -- shanghai costumes -- chinese drums (musical instruments) -- china theatrical productions entertainment (3)
bishop (calif.); (2)
opera singers actors -- china operas & operettas -- china -- shanghai concerts -- china -- shanghai costumes -- chinese theatrical productions entertainment (2)
parks -- california -- los angeles fountains -- california -- los angeles public art -- california -- los angeles (2)
bands (music); performances (1)
bank club (reno, nev.); (1)
bars (drinking establishments) -- california -- bishop saloons -- california -- bishop drinking customs -- california -- bishop manners and customs -- california -- bishop -- 19th cen (1)
All fields: (seated)
Old St. Vincent's College reunion at Los Angeles Breakfast Club, 1953
Universities and colleges--Alumni and alumnae; Reunions--St. Vincent's College
Sitting (left to right): Norman Chandler, Bishop Charles Quinn, Cecil B. de Mille, Thomas P. White, Bill Henry, Earl Holland. Standing (left to right): Ed Schallert, Warden Wollard, George T. Davis.
Associated Students of Loyola University officers
Student organizations; Student unions; College students; Student government; Student activities
ASLU officers Marty Harrington, L. Chenoweth, and Louis Smaldino standing around and studying a notebook held up by Anthony Coelho, seated at a table.
First Annual Catalogue of Los Angeles College, 1911-1912
Los Angeles College (Los Angeles, Calif.); St. Vincent College (Los Angeles, Calif.)--History; Loyola Marymount University--History; Jesuits--California--Los Angeles;
A 63-page published booklet commemorating the first year of Los Angeles College. The catalog is divided into several chapters that cover the history of the school's founding, the development of the school curriculum, the rules and regulations for...
Isidore B. Dockweiler in front of his home at 223 West 23rd Street, Los Angeles, circa 1892-1894
Dockweiler, Isidore B. (Isidore Bernard), 1867-1947; Dockweiler, Gertrude Reeve, 1871-1937; Portraits; Houses--California--Los Angeles
Isidore B. Dockweiler (1867-1947) was a prominent lawyer, establishing his law practice in 1889. The powerful Dockweiler firm would eventually include three of his sons - Thomas, Henry, and Frederick - and among its many clients numbered Hollywood...
Isidore B. Dockweiler and men possibly at Newman Club, circa 1900
Group portraits; Dockweiler, Isidore B. (Isidore Bernard), 1867-1947
John Black Family
Black, John; Black, Rose; Black, J. D. (John David), 1893-1960; Black, Rosalind; Black Family;
The family of John Black (seated); wife Rose seated; children Rosalind and J. D. behind their parents. Inscription on top of photograph: "The Black Family." Names of persons in photograph inscribed on bottom of photograph by J. D. Black: "Father...
Loyola University Swing Quartet
Bands (Music); Performances
Left to right: Frank LeFevre, Joe Parker, Jerry Redmond, and John Mahoney. Seated at left behind the band is Joe Torner, original Quartet member.
Marymount College Student Council
Student activities; Student organizations; College students
Marymount College Student Body Officers on the terrace of Palos Verdes campus. Standing (left to right): Connie Mulville, cultural chairman; Maryalice Dugan, publicity chairman; Lee Smiley, secretary; Terry Eberley, treasurer. Seated (left to...
Harold Ryan with Loyola College track team, circa 1925
College sports--California--Los Angeles
Harold Ryan is seated in the front row, fourth from left.
Harold Ryan, S.J., and students of Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro
Universities and colleges--Faculty; Jesuits; College students
Del Rey Players: Everyman, 1965
College theater; Directors; Chapels; College campuses--California--Los Angeles; Jesuits
Note on image verso: "Chapel play - Preparing script and music for Loyola University of Los Angeles chapel production of morality play of 'Everyman' scheduled for Palm Sunday evening are (left to right) Ted McNamara (seated) Rev. Clinton Albertson,...
St. Vincent's College Football Team
College students; College football players
Black-and-white photograph of the St. Vincent's College football team. Features three rows of seated and standing students; most wearing black turtleneck sweaters with the St. Vincent's crest on the front. Two students are wearing suits.
President Aloysius J Meyer, C.M.
College presidents--California--Los Angeles; Universities and colleges--Faculty--19th century
Father Aloysius J. Meyer seated in a chair, with a biretta on his lap. A handwritten annotation along top of picture reads "'The Pres' Fr. Meyer." The photograph is mounted on paper with a scrollwork design embossed on the lower half.
Hugh Duce, S.J., and Louis Rudolph, S.J., at football game
College presidents--California--Los Angeles; Loyola University of Los Angeles--Football; Football fans--California--Los Angeles; Jesuits
Father Hugh Duce, S.J., Father Louis Rudolph, S.J., and two women, all wearing hats, seated in a box seat at a football game. Other football fans are in the stands behind them.
Block "L" society members in front of Xavier Hall
College football players--California--Los Angeles; College athletes--California--Los Angeles; Jesuits; College campuses--California--Los Angeles
Caption on image: "Standing: T. Donovan, Pontrelli, Booth, Meaglia, Lane, Kardashian, Sullivan, Pedrotti, R. McCarthy, Hanna, Vogelaar, Rossett, Miksis, Hayes, Hrabetin, W. McCarthy, O'Reilly, Flaherty, M. Donovan, Gallatin, Sweeters, Shenk,...
Homecoming queen candidates, 1967
College students; Student activities; Statues; Homecomings--California--Los Angeles
1967 Loyola University Homecoming Queen candidates in front of the Lion statue. Left to right standing: Carolyn Matson, Kathy Aller, Mary Nocerine, Brett Brittingham, Carla Mabey, Bunny Smith. Left to right seated: Erin Duffy, Michele Maddox, Pat...
Jesuit faculty at Loyola College and High School
Universities and colleges--Faculty; Jesuits--California--Los Angeles
Front row (left to right): Father Felix Rossetti, Father Thomas J. Flaherty, Father Alphonse Quevedo, Father Harry Walsh, Father Henry Welch (Rector), Father Nicholas P. Bell, Father Robert V. Burns, Father Joseph Morton, and Father James Taylor....
Palisades Park, Santa Monica, California
Parks--California--Santa Monica; Piers--California--Santa Monica;
Two people are seated in the grass behind a bench in Palisades Park with large palm trees overhead. The view looks southwest towards the Santa Monica pier and out onto the Pacific Ocean.
Windward Avenue, Venice, California
Streets--California--Los Angeles; Central business districts--California--Los Angeles; Parking facilities--California--Los Angeles; Traffic congestion--California--Los Angeles;
A view of Windward Avenue looking East towards the Lagoon. Parked automobiles line the street, some of them double parked. In the foreground, a crowd of people fill the street, some of them seated, looking towards the West (towards the ocean and...
Ostrich pulling a cart at the Los Angeles Ostrich Farm
Ostrich farms--California--Los Angeles; Ostrich farming--California--Los Angeles
A man is seated in a four-wheeled cart harnessed to an ostrich; the man holds the reins in his left hand. The side of the cart reads: "Los Angeles Ostrich Farm, opposite East Lake Park." Trees and corrals are in the background.


For the Mar. 8. edition of Central Texas Living Ann Harder spoke with Will Bowers, operations manager at Waco Jet Center.
">For the Mar. 8. edition of Central Texas Living Ann Harder spoke with Will Bowers, operations manager at Waco Jet Center.
During the interview, they talked about the upcoming 2018 Wings of Freedom Tour in Waco.
For more information about the event and how to get tickets, click here .


text:
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meets with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the town of Al-Ula on Sunday. | AFP-JIJI
National / Politics
Saudi crown prince 'fully supports' Japan MSDF mission in Middle East
JIJI, Kyodo, Staff Report
AL-ULA, SAUDI ARABIA – Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has expressed full support for Japan's dispatch of a Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer and patrol aircraft to the Middle East, during a meeting with visiting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday.
At the talks, held in Al-Ula in Saudi Arabia's northwest, Abe sought Riyadh's understanding and cooperation for the MSDF mission in the sea off Yemen and Oman, which Tokyo says is aimed at gathering information to ensure the safe navigation of ships in the region, including those owned or operated by Japan.
In response, the crown prince, who has taken charge of domestic politics for aging King Salman, said that his country fully supports Japan's efforts. Abe and the crown prince confirmed that Japan and Saudi Arabia will work together for stability in the Middle East and safe navigation in the region.
Japan is sending SDF personnel and assets to enhance its own intelligence-gathering capabilities in areas that include the Gulf of Oman and part of the Arabian Sea.
But the Strait of Hormuz near Iran, a key shipping lane, is out of scope for the mission, as Japan wants to draw a clear distinction between its own deployment and a U.S.-led maritime security initiative that Tokyo has not joined.
Japan opposition chief seeks debate on planned SDF deployment to Middle East
Two SDF planes embark on pioneer intelligence-gathering mission in Middle East
New questions emerge after Iran belatedly admits to downing Ukraine airliner
Trump warns Iran not to kill protesters, says door is still open to talks
Iran agrees de-escalation is 'only solution' to solve crisis with U.S.
Defying police, Iranians protest over plane shoot-down
Abe and Abu Dhabi crown prince agree to secure a stable oil supply
Two MSDF P-3C patrol planes that have been engaged in anti-piracy patrol missions off Somalia are set to begin their Middle East mission later this month, while a Takanami destroyer operated by the force is slated to leave for the region on Feb. 2.
On growing U.S.-Iran tensions that have led to an exchange of military strikes, Abe said an armed conflict in the Middle East, including Iran, would greatly affect peace and stability not only within the region but also elsewhere in the world.
Noting that any further escalation in the situation must absolutely be avoided, Abe emphasized that Japan would patiently continue making maximum diplomatic efforts to help ease the tensions and stabilize the regional situation.
The Saudi crown prince said that he completely agreed with Abe's views, adding that dialogue between the countries concerned is crucial and that Riyadh will further enhance its own efforts.
They affirmed that relevant countries should join forces to stabilize the Middle East situation and de-escalate the tensions.
Earlier this month, a U.S. airstrike killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' elite Quds Force, prompting Tehran to retaliate by firing dozens of ballistic missiles on two Iraqi bases being used by U.S. forces.
Stability in the Middle East is critical for Japan, which depends on the region for more than 80 percent of its crude oil imports. The crown prince vowed to continue paying utmost attention to the stability of crude oil supplies from Saudi Arabia to Japan.
Photos tweeted by Abe's official Twitter account Sunday local time showed both Abe and the crown prince grinning as they met.
It was not clear if Abe had broached the issue of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi during the meeting with the crown prince, though he did not do so during their meeting last June.
The crown prince has been dogged by questions about Khashoggi's death at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.
A U.N. report has called the killing a "premeditated extrajudicial execution" and said there is "credible evidence" suggesting the crown prince's involvement.
The Japanese government has called the killing "extremely regrettable." Abe is trying to mediate between Washington and Tehran using Japan's close alliance with the United States and its long-standing friendship with Iran.
The prime minister was visiting Saudi Arabia on the first leg of a five-day Middle East tour that started Saturday. After Saudi Arabia, he is scheduled to visit the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
Saudi Arabia, a Sunni power and major rival of Shiite Iran, apparently hopes to prevent the regional tensions from boiling over. It is a member of the U.S.-led coalition for ensuring maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz.
Abe and the crown prince also affirmed close cooperation between their countries for the success of a series of Group of 20 gatherings, including a summit meeting, set to be hosted by Saudi Arabia this year. Japan hosted last year's meetings of the world's top 20 advanced and emerging economies.
Earlier on Sunday, Abe held a meeting with King Salman.
They exchanged views on the Middle East situation, aiming to defuse tensions between the United States and Iran.
Shinzo Abe, U.S., Iran, Self Defense Forces, shipping, Saudi Arabia-Japan relations, Mohammed bin Salman


text:
LTC Lakin update
The safeguardourconstitution.com website has posted the charge sheet for LTC Lakin.
WND reports that:
The filing of charges may, however, be part of the still-unrevealed strategy Lakin and his legal counselors are pursuing.
Not sure what "strategy" there is in making sure your client announces he will commit an offense, commits an offense and announces it in writing, video, and radio, and forces or encourages the Army to prefer charges. IMHO I always thought a defense strategy was different.
Graphic from www.safeguardourconstitution.com
In order to prove LTC Lakin guily of the charged offenses the government must prove, beyond reasonable doubt the following:
Article 87, UCMJ: (Any person subject to this chapter who through neglect or design misses the movement of a ship, aircraft, or unit with which he is required in the course of duty to move shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.)
c. ELEMENTS:
(1) That the accused was required in the course of duty to move with (state the ship, aircraft, or unit alleged);
( 2 ) That the accused knew of the prospective movement of the (aircraft) (unit) (ship);
(3) That (state the time and place alleged ), the accused missed the movement of the (aircraft) (unit) (ship); and
(4) That the accused missed the movement through (design) (neglect).
Article 92, UCMJ: (Any person subject to this chapter who– (1) violates or fails to obey any lawful general order or regulation; (2) having knowledge of any other lawful order issued by any member of the armed forces, which it is his duty to obey, fails to obey the order[.])
ELEMENTS:
(1) That there was in existence a certain lawful (order) (regulation) in the following terms: (state the date and specific source of the alleged order or regulation and quote the order or regulation or the specific portion thereof);
(2) That the accused had knowledge of the (order) (regulation);
(3) That the accused had a duty to obey such (order) (regulation); and
(4) That (state the time and place alleged ), the accused failed to obey this lawful (order) (regulation) by (state the manner alleged ).
NOTE 2: Order or regulation determined to be lawful . When it is clear as a matter of law that the order or regulation was lawful, the military judge should resolve this as an interlocutory question and the members should be advised as follows:
As a matter of law, the (order) (regulation) in this case, as described in the specification, if in fact there was such (an order) (a regulation), was a lawful (order) (regulation).
The lawfulness of an order:
lawfulness of an order is not a discrete element under Article 92, the MJ decides lawfulness as an interlocutory question.
United States v. New, 55 M.J. 95 (C.A.A.F. 2001).
This case involves some of the most difficult choices that may confront our Government and our men and women in uniform. Faced with increasing instability in the Balkans, the United States had to decide whether to deploy U.S. troops in support of the peacekeeping effort in the former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia, how to structure command and control relationships with other national and international forces in the area, what types of orders were needed to implement those relationships, and how to dispose of alleged violations of such orders. Appellant had to decide whether he should voice his opposition to those decisions, how to do so, and whether to obey orders that he viewed as unlawful.
Appellant chose to manifest his opposition through disobedience of an order from his commander, and he challenged the legality of that order at his court-martial. He now asks
this Court to create an exception to the requirement that the military judge decides questions of law where, as in this case, appellant claims the question of law is an element of the alleged offense.
This Court reviews the question of whether the military judge correctly determined that the issue was a question of law on a de novo standard of review. For the reasons set forth below, we hold that lawfulness of an order, although an important issue, is not a discrete element of an offense under Article 92. We further hold that, in this case, the military judge properly decided the issue of lawfulness as a question of law. See Art. 51(b), UCMJ, 10 USC § 851(b).
Orders are clothed with an inference of lawfulness. See Hughey, 46 MJ at 154; United States v. Nieves, 44 MJ 96, 98 (1996). "An order requiring the performance of a military
duty or act may be inferred to be lawful and it is disobeyed at the peril of the subordinate. This inference does not apply to a patently illegal order, such as one that directs the commission of a crime." Para. 14c(2)(a)(i), Part IV, Manual, supra (1995 ed.). Appellant has the burden to establish that the order is not lawful. Hughey, 46 MJ at 154; United States v. Smith, 21 USCMA 231, 234, 45 CMR 5, 8 (1972).
This Court has held that an Air Force Captain disobeyed a lawful order when he refused to fly as a training instructor on a fighter plane that was used in Vietnam. United States v. Noyd, 18 USCMA 483, 485-86, 40 CMR 195, 197-98 (1969). The Noyd court noted that "[m]ilitary service is . . . a matter of status," like becoming a parent, rather than just a contractual relationship and that status establishes special duties between the soldier and the Government. 18 USCMA at 490, 40 CMR at 202. It further noted that "the fact that a person in a military status determines that he has undergone a change of conscience
does not, at that instant and from that time on, endow him with the right to decide what orders are compatible with his conscience." 18 USCMA at 491, 49 CMR at 203.
And, is the issue raised by LTC Lakin actually a political question that the military courts must decline to rule on. Further reading of New may be appropriate.
The website posits that:
A vigorous defense of this case presents the ONLY present hope that Americans will finally learn whether their president lawfully holds office.
In facing court-martial, LTC Lakin is just the latest victim of the determined effort of the President not to provide simple proof of his eligibility under the constitution to hold office.
The website also posits that:
The first is "Missing Movement" a serious crime in the nature of a felony for failing to deploy to Afghanistan.
I disagree that conviction on any of these offenses is actually a felony conviction. Yes, it would be a federal conviction. These are purely military offenses as charged. Based on my experience and research over the years they would not qualify as a felony in any state.
The second is disobeying a direct order, and there are four specifications (separate instances) of this charge. Any soldier convicted on all charges and specifications would expect to be sentenced to years at "hard labor" in the penitentiary.
And of all things CDR Walter Fitzpatrick III (Lt. Commander USN (Ret.) has resurfaced. You may find him at JAGHunter.
Here is an item at wizbang.
There is nothing inherently illegal about the orders issued to Dr. Lakin. They were not issued directly by President Obama, but by Dr. Lakin's chain of command. Further, as far as the military is concerned, the issue of Obama's eligibility is a closed matter. Quite frankly, it's not up to the president to prove to the military that he is qualified to be their Commander In Chief. We have civilian control of the military, and that means that the civilian governing structures decide who controls the military — not the military itself. And Obama was certified as the president by Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Electoral College when they confirmed him in office.
On a separate but related point, here is a piece from MCB Camp Pendleton:
The Marine Corps' motto is Semper Fidelis (Always Faithful), and Marines understand that unwavering loyalty, up and down the chain of command, is crucial for keeping good order and discipline.
That loyalty is sometimes tested by individual Marines when decisions made by political leaders conflicts with their personal political preferences.
Department of Defense Directive 1344.10, a punitive general order, exclusively conveys guidelines for participation in political activities.
Tagged: court-martial, lakin, missing movement, orders violation and UCMJ


text:
Will Robert Buckley Become Known as the Paul Newman of Hallmark?
Steve Gidlow
Behind the Scenes in Hollywood
Hallmark Media InSites
We often like to compare the talented actors of Hallmark Channel to those of the Hollywood system of yore, where the leads were commonly re-teamed from project to project. So, with the addition this weekend of actor Robert Buckley, the network may have just added its own Paul Newman to its ever-growing roster of leading men. Buckley stars in Love in Store opposite Alexandra Breckenridge and the always stellar Jackée Harry, and after spending the better part of the last four years battling zombies (not to mention becoming one) as Major Lilywhite on The CW's iZombie, the less frantic pace was refreshing. "I loved that change," Buckley said during an exclusive interview with MediaVillage. "I had such a great time doing iZombie, but with Major's storyline the stakes were incredibly high all of the time. To come in and be able to do a film where I was a guy simply responsible for his feelings, and not worrying about a race war or WW3 and every scene was all 'My gosh, everything's on the brink,' was wonderful. This time it was, 'Let's go ride a tandem bike!' I welcomed that change so much, along with a healthy dose of bronzer instead of eight hours of zombie makeup."
Steve Gidlow, a long-time columnist for MediaVillage ("Behind the Scenes in Hollywood"), has written about television and pop culture since 1994, beginning in Australia. Since moving to Hollywood in 1997, Steve has focused on celebrity interv… read more


text:
Q: How come my ElasticSearch ingest pipelines with multiple grok patterns are all failing? I'm working on getting the Tomcat logs of some applications correctly processed in ElasticSearch, but unfortunately my ingest pipelines with multiple grok processors aren't working and they all end up in the failed-index.
catalina.out
13-Feb-2018 16:04:48.446 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log Command line argument: -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=200

catalina.log
13-Feb-2018 16:00:35.385 SEVERE [monkey.co.uk-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployWAR Error deploying web application archive [/opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.16/webapps/email.war]
 java.lang.IllegalStateException: ContainerBase.addChild: start: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[monkey.co.uk].StandardContext[/email]]
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:756)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:728)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:734)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployWAR(HostConfig.java:988)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig$DeployWar.run(HostConfig.java:1860)
        at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:511)
        at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1149)
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:624)
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748)

This is my ingest pipeline:
PUT _ingest/pipeline/tomcat_all

{
   "description":"Pipeline tomcat_all",
   "on_failure":[
      {
         "set":{
            "field":"_index",
            "value":"failed-{{ _index }}"
         }
      }
   ],
   "processors":[
      {
         "grok":{
            "field":"message",
            "patterns":[
               "%{MONTH}%{SPACE}%{MONTHDAY},%{SPACE}%{YEAR}%{SPACE}%{HOUR}:?%{MINUTE}(?::?%{SECOND})%{SPACE}(?:AM|PM)%{SPACE}%{NOTSPACE:class}%{SPACE}%{NOTSPACE:type_log}%{SPACE}%{WORD:loglevel}:%{SPACE}%{GREEDYDATA:log_text}"
            ]
         }
      },
      {
         "grok":{
            "field":"message",
            "patterns":[
               "%{TIME:timestamp}%{SPACE}\\|-%{WORD:loglevel}%{SPACE}in%{SPACE}%{NOTSPACE:class}%{SPACE}%{GREEDYDATA:log_text}"
            ]
         }
      },
      {
         "grok":{
            "field":"message",
            "patterns":[
               "%{TIMESTAMP_ISO8601:timestamp}%{SPACE}%{WORD:loglevel}%{SPACE}%{GREEDYDATA:log_text}"
            ]
         }
      },
      {
         "grok":{
            "field":"message",
            "patterns":[
               "%{MONTHDAY}[/-]%{MONTH}[/-]%{YEAR} %{TIME}%{SPACE}%{WORD:loglevel}%{SPACE}%{GREEDYDATA:log_text}"
            ]
         }
      },
      {
         "grok":{
            "field":"message",
            "patterns":[
               "%{MONTH}%{SPACE}%{MONTHDAY},%{SPACE}%{YEAR}%{SPACE}%{HOUR}:?%{MINUTE}(?::?%{SECOND})%{SPACE}(?:AM|PM)%{SPACE}%{GREEDYDATA:log_text}"
            ]
         }
      },
      {
         "grok":{
            "field":"message",
            "patterns":[
               "%{TIMESTAMP_ISO8601:timestamp}%{SPACE}%{WORD:loglevel}%{SPACE}%{GREEDYDATA:log_text}"
            ]
         }
      },
      {
         "grok":{
            "field":"message",
            "patterns":[
               "%{YEAR}-%{MONTHNUM}-%{MONTHDAY}%{SPACE}%{HOUR}:?%{MINUTE}(?::?%{SECOND})%{SPACE}%{ISO8601_TIMEZONE}%{SPACE}%{WORD:loglevel}%{SPACE}%{GREEDYDATA:log_text}"
            ]
         }
      },
      {
         "grok":{
            "field":"message",
            "patterns":[
               "%{MONTHDAY}.%{MONTHNUM}.%{YEAR}%{SPACE}%{HOUR}:?%{MINUTE}(?::?%{SECOND})%{SPACE}%{WORD:loglevel}%{SPACE}%{GREEDYDATA:log_text}"
            ]
         }
      }
   ]
}

Grok patterns:
%{MONTH}%{SPACE}%{MONTHDAY},%{SPACE}%{YEAR}%{SPACE}%{HOUR}:?%{MINUTE}(?::?%{SECOND})%{SPACE}(?:AM|PM)%{SPACE}%{NOTSPACE:class}%{SPACE}%{NOTSPACE:type_log}%{SPACE}%{WORD:loglevel}:%{SPACE}%{GREEDYDATA:log_text}
%{TIME:timestamp}%{SPACE}\\|-%{WORD:loglevel}%{SPACE}in%{SPACE}%{NOTSPACE:class}%{SPACE}%{GREEDYDATA:log_text}
"%{TIMESTAMP_ISO8601:timestamp}%{SPACE}%{WORD:loglevel}%{SPACE}%{GREEDYDATA:log_text}
%{MONTHDAY}[/-]%{MONTH}[/-]%{YEAR} %{TIME}%{SPACE}%{WORD:loglevel}%{SPACE}%{GREEDYDATA:log_text}
%{MONTH}%{SPACE}%{MONTHDAY},%{SPACE}%{YEAR}%{SPACE}%{HOUR}:?%{MINUTE}(?::?%{SECOND})%{SPACE}(?:AM|PM)%{SPACE}%{GREEDYDATA:log_text}
%{TIMESTAMP_ISO8601:timestamp}%{SPACE}%{WORD:loglevel}%{SPACE}%{GREEDYDATA:log_text}
%{YEAR}-%{MONTHNUM}-%{MONTHDAY}%{SPACE}%{HOUR}:?%{MINUTE}(?::?%{SECOND})%{SPACE}%{ISO8601_TIMEZONE}%{SPACE}%{WORD:loglevel}%{SPACE}%{GREEDYDATA:log_text}
%{MONTHDAY}.%{MONTHNUM}.%{YEAR}%{SPACE}%{HOUR}:?%{MINUTE}(?::?%{SECOND})%{SPACE}%{WORD:loglevel}%{SPACE}%{GREEDYDATA:log_text}

I have tried the grok patterns manually at http://grokdebug.herokuapp.com and that worked fine.

A: Try to list all patterns inside patterns [] separated with commas instead of having multiple groks.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Website designers who design websites for businesses. Which website designers understand website design and optimisation? Advice on selecting the right website designers for your business.
Choosing a good website designer to design a business website from the tens of thousands of designers advertising on the Internet is a daunting task.
If you are in business, ideally you want a website that looks better than your competitors', functions better and most importantly, you want a website that out performs your competitors in the search engines.
The perfect scenario is to employ a design team that is going to knock your competition out of the ring. That's why a company like Divadani Design, a team of website designers that work with Europe's leading search engine optimisers are the best people to handle your internet project.
There are plenty of website designers who are capable of building attractive websites, but their eyes will glaze over if you tell them that you want your website to appear in the top ten of Google for searches related to your business. Very few design teams have the skills to do this because good web design and optimisation tend to conflict with each other. There are however solutions and attractive, high performing websites are possible if the website designers know what they are doing.
The first thing to do, is to undertake some research by doing a number of searches, related to your business on Google and the other major search engines. Depending on how many million pages the search engines have indexed, will determine how good a design and optimisation team you need. You certainly don't want any website designers who are punching above their weight, no matter how good a fight they can talk.
When the search engines are returning tens or hundreds of millions of web pages for searches related to your business, you need some world beaters, not your secretary's brother or a friend you met a cocktail party.
Most website designers will argue that not every company can be in the top ten of the search engines, which is only partially true. Every website can be top for something, the important thing is being top for popular searches. These are generally the most competitive searches and where the money is being made.
Could you own a website capable of being one of the Internet's high fliers? Most certainly if you talk to the people who are used to working in this competitive arena. Owning or investing in a website that does not perform well in the search engines is a relatively pointless exercise unless you are prepared to invest in other forms of marketing and advertising to promote it and drive traffic to your site.


Headaches are one of the most common complaints. Headaches can be due to a minor reasons like influenza, or they can due to other medical conditions which may have very serious implications. Therefore the main approach should be to regard the headache primarily as a symptom and investigate if it is the by-product of another illness.
On the other hand, many types of headaches do not originate from an infection or some other condition inside the head, but are of repetitive nature and continue over months and years. In such cases the headache should be regarded as an illness in itself and treatment should be sought. Migraine and tension headaches are such headaches.
Tension headaches are the most common of type of headache. Daily problems and Life stressors generally play an important role. In most cases the correct approach is to regard such headaches as a reflection of the underlying psychiatric condition and as a symptom.
In tension headache which is a type of headache with specific charasteristics and a specific progression, treatment involves psychiatric techniques. Treatment with various psychiatric drugs and specific kinds of therapy is largely successful.


text:
<!DOCTYPE web-app PUBLIC
 "-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Web Application 2.3//EN"
 "http://java.sun.com/dtd/web-app_2_3.dtd" >

<web-app>
	<display-name>Archetype Created Web Application</display-name>

	<!-- 指定spring配置文件 -->
	<context-param>
		<param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
		<param-value>
			classpath:applicationContext.xml
			classpath:applicationContext-*.xml
		</param-value>
	</context-param>

	<!-- Spring监听器 -->
	<listener>
		<listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
	</listener>

	<!-- 防止Spring内存溢出监听器 -->
	<listener>
		<listener-class>org.springframework.web.util.IntrospectorCleanupListener</listener-class>
	</listener>

	<!-- servlet -->
	<servlet>
		<servlet-name>CodeCoderAPI</servlet-name>
		<servlet-class>com.codeCoder.api.CodeCoderAPI</servlet-class>
	</servlet>
	<servlet-mapping>
		<servlet-name>CodeCoderAPI</servlet-name>
		<url-pattern>/codeCoderAPI</url-pattern>
	</servlet-mapping>
	<!-- //servlet -->

</web-app>


text:
Sour-puss: The Opera
The Unfettered Bound by Gluttony
A Prolonged Scream
I have a terrible cold
Unconscious Commands
The Loon
DSM 296.30 unspecified
Black Dogs
Yakamoto
PHOTOBARD®
Exquisite corpse is a game created during the Surrealist movement whereby a piece of paper is folded several times and each player takes one side of the folded sheet and draws on it. Once the player is finished, they pass it on to the other player as it's their turn to draw. In essence, each player draws 'in the dark' from what the other has previously drawn. The result is a co-produced Surrealist Frankenstein's monster, of sorts.
Diogo and Jessica took inspiration from this game and since the Covid-19 lockdown they have been co-creating exquisite corpses of each other's life 'villains', 'heroes', 'lovers' and 'fools'. Using only materials found within their homes, they've been posting drawings back and forth to each other. The only information each has is what character is being drawn. Exquisite corpses allow the artists to continue to explore their collaboration during this period of separation and also to explore their personal assumptions around what art is 'supposed' to look like. The process allows Diogo and Jessica to continue to be privy to each other's private worlds in a way that feels meaningful and also playful. The choice of characters springs from each artist's love of heroic and mythological stories, filled with great 'villains', 'lovers', 'heroes' and 'fools'. Each will be drawn in turn and will find their place in the artists' co-produced mix media cosmology.
'The Unfettered Bound by Gluttony' is part of a wider collaborative mixed media body of work entitled 'Origin' between Diogo Duarte and Jessica Mitchell, where both artists jointly create a cosmos of their own individual and intertwined lives. The duo has been co-creating work since 2016. Both artists are deeply interested in the process of collaborative art-making, the intentional and haphazardous intersection of their own life stories and how this offers challenges to preconceptions around authorship of artwork.
**In May 2020, Diogo and Jessica opened up the exquisite corpse game to ten fellow friends and invited them to draw their own life 'villains', 'heroes', 'lovers' and 'fools' in collaboration with each other in an attempt to continue to build bonds in a time of separation. The only information shared between artists is a two sentence descriptor of the person being drawn. Each exquisite corpse was created by up to five artists.
© 2021 Diogo Duarte | Privacy Policy


text:
Q: Is there an automatic way to justify a text vertically? It is easy to justify horizontally a text in Latex. Is there a way to justify vertically a text?
For the time being I am using the command \begin{spacing}--\end{spacing} for predefined paragraphs, but it is laborious, and there is certainly a more clever way to do it.
Edit: Following Sveinung's comment, I precise that I am considering a multi-page text.

A: NB! If you have footnotes, see last paragraph.
First of all, to ensure that all pages in a document to the maximum extent is fill with textlines, is the absolute final step in production of a document, except for ensuring that you have loaded microtype and babel, which should do as standard (even if you write US English). The next you should ensure, is that you are using a modern, scalable font, not the standard bitmapped.
Write you text to the finished stage, proofread it as many times as necessary. Only when your work as author is finished, you should start your work as typographer. Do not waste your time trying to make a perfect document before you have finished editing the text.
Load the package widows-and-orphans. It will help you by setting sensible penalty values to avoid some typographical errors.
Take a printout of the document. It is much easier to see errors and decide actions when you have a printout. Look for bad page breaks. Is it many, or few?
Work backward from the bad page break and look for bad hyphenation. Help babel with some \- soft hyphens.
Still not good? Look for heading spanning two or more lines. Decide if you may rewrite to shorter, one line heading. Look at the title, too. Look for paragraphs, which have very short or long last line. Is it possible to rewrite one or two sentences to occupy one line more or less?
Still empty lines at the bottom of more than one page? If possible for you (no external restriction), see what you can achieve by decreasing or increasing the top- or bottom margin with one baselineskip.
If you still have an offending page, decide if you can accept a page with one line more or less than other pages. You can then use the command \enlargethispage[<value>]. You give a negative value to decrease the page size. If you shall print the paper on both side of paper, ensure that both pages in a spread has the same number of lines.
If you have lot of tables, pictures etc., you you have to identify if some of them gives you trouble. Check if all is set as floats, because none-floating objects is often a problem with respect to page breaks.
Even LaTeX needs lot of manual work to create a near perfect document, but significant less than a well known word processors (which nevertheless creates bad typography). And remember: This is the final touch up. You should not focus on page breaks before you have finalised you creative writing, that will kill you creativity.
Footnotes: If you have footnote in your document, \raggedbottom unfortunately typeset the footnotes in relative to the text. If you have footnotes on a page where only half the page with text, the footnotes are printed high up on the page. \flushbottom remedies this problem, but has, as you have observed, some other side. If you use KOMA-script or the package footmisc with the option [bottom] the footnote will be typeset at bottom of the page (where they belong),even with \raggedbottom.


text:
Dragon Quest II: Akuryou no Kamigami
(aka Dragon Warrior II)
Famicom / MSX (1987, Japan / 1990, North America)
Dragon Warrior II (the Japanese subtitle translates to Pantheon of Evil Gods) takes place 100 years after the original, although the general plot is pretty much the same -- an evil warlock by the name Hargon is wreaking havoc on the land, and has destroyed the neighboring Castle of Moonbrooke. As the Prince of Midenhall, it's up to you to gather a group of warriors and exterminate this evil from the land.
In Japan, Dragon Warrior II released nearly a year after the the first game, and improves practically every aspect. For starters, there are now three playable characters: The Prince of Midenhall (Lorasia in the original Japanese and later English versions), The Prince of Cannock (Samaltria), and the Princess of Moonbrooke. The Prince of Midenhall is a descendant of the great Erdrick. He's a physical fighter, without any magical abilities at all. The Prince of Cannock is also off adventuring, and you need to catch up with him. He's weak but is the first character you get that can use magic. The Princess of Moonbrooke has been cursed to take on the form of a dog, but when you cure her, she joins the party.
The battle system has been expanded so you now fight multiple enemies at once. To accommodate all of the monster graphics on the screen at the same time, the battle background are now completely black, as opposed to the landscapes of the original game. However, there are some strange quirks to this system -- you can only target monsters by group, as opposed to targeting them individually. So if you're facing three slimes and choose to attack them, your character will randomly pick one to attack. If the enemy survives and you attack again, you may end up fighting a different slime, making it impossible to focus all of your strikes on a single foe.
And like the original Final Fantasy games, the game doesn't autoselect a new target once a foe is killed, so it's very possible to waste turns if you don't spread out your attacks. The balance feels off too -- when you run across a new party member, they'll start on Level 1, leaving them easy prey in many battles. Even after you level them up, the Prince of Cannock and Princess of Moonbrooke have extremely weak defenses compared to the hero. Due to the expanded roster, item management is even more of a hassle. Each character can only hold eight items, including equipment and plot items. By the end of the game, you have precious little inventory space for herbs and other things.
The world map is significantly larger than Alefgard, with many more towns, castles and dungeons. In fact, the entire kingdom of Alefgard appears in Dragon Warrior II as an island. Although it's significantly smaller than the original game, the basic layout is the same, and you get to revisit a few old locations. This includes Dragonlord's castle, where you can find the descendent of the evil lord, who actually helps you out this time around. The first Dragon Warrior only had a single key -- this time, there are three different keys to find, and even more treasure troves to unlock.
Thankfully, there's now more than one location to save your game -- there are now several castles, each one with a king that can record your progress. Although you still need to do a lot of walking to get to places, there's now an item that quickly warps you back to your last save spot. At one point, you even get a ship to sail around the seas. Unlike Final Fantasy, where you could only dock your ship in certain ports, you can land anywhere with your ship in Dragon Quest II, allowing to you practically explore the entire game world. If a party member is killed in combat, they need to be taken to a church (or "House of Healing" in the NES version) to be resurrected. These places can also cure poison or curse status ailments, which are also new to Dragon Quest II.
The dungeons are now quite a bit more advanced and actually look distinct, compared to the bland red brick dungeons of its predecessor. The torches have been ditched, and you can now see your immediate surroundings when exploring caves. This was kept for all subsequent Dragon Quest games on the NES. There are several towers where you can fall down pits or jump off the edge, tossing you down to lower floors.. You can also find lottery tickets which will let you play games of chance in certain towns, and is the first of many implementations of gambling found in the Dragon Quest series.
The graphics are roughly on the level as the English version of Dragon Warrior -- that is to say, better than the Japanese DQ, but still pretty primitive. The music quality has improved a tiny bit, even if some of the compositions (especially the battle theme) are a bit strange. So even though Dragon Quest II adds a lot to the original, and even fixes a few of the more annoying issues, it has its own issues that will undoubtedly prove frustrating.
Like the first game, the Japanese version of Dragon Quest utilized passwords, which grew to obnoxiously long lengths due to the game's complexity. Thankfully, this was replaced with a battery save for the English version. Since the Japanese version already had the improved graphics and control that had been implemented in the English Dragon Warrior, not much of the actual game was altered, with the exception of the usual name changes. However, the English version does have a completely new title screen featuring the three warriors marching towards the screen, in addition to expanded prologue that shows the destruction of the Castle of Moonbrooke. The Japanese version simply begins with the Moonbrooke guard stumbling onto the throne room and begging the King of Midenhall for help. There's also a bit of censorship in the American versions -- in addition to altering the religious symbols in the church, the defeated party members follow you around as ghosts. In the Japanese version, they were represented by coffins with crosses on them.
Dragon Quest II was also ported to the MSX. The scrolling is choppy and all of the characters titles are surrounded by black. In general, the graphics are inferior to the Famicom version, and the menus and combat are sluggish. Despite these issues, it's also a bit of a collector's item.
Dragon Quest II was bundled with the original and remade for both the Super Famicom and Game Boy Color. Again, on SFC it's utilizing the Dragon Quest V engine and includes the same enhancements done to the first game, with better graphics, controls, and music. Additionally, your party members will automatically attack a different monster if their previous target was killed, so they don't waste a turn. It was later released on the Game Boy Color, which was released in English, and like its predecessor, features a retranslation that stays more faithful to the original names. There's also a new subquest where the Prince of Cannock will get sick and leave your party. You can choose to look for medicine for him, or just leave him be and venture on without him. There's also a brand new intro cinema.


text:
AsiaJan 20th 2001 edition
America and North Korea
Hard going
ONE of the disappointments of his final months as America's president, Bill Clinton has said, was the failure to clinch a deal with North Korea to end the production and export of its medium- and longer-range missiles. George Bush has suggested he may go on exploring such a deal, provided it can be verified (Mr Clinton's sticking-point too). Yet if America's continuing agreements with North Korea are anything to go by, even hard-fought ones can come unstuck. Far from being a model to work from, the 1994 "framework" agreement which traded two western-designed, less proliferation-prone nuclear reactors for the freezing and eventual dismantling of North Korea's plutonium production is a study in frustration all round. And it is running into new obstacles.
The optimistic target for completion of the first of the two reactors was 2003. In fact, work to level the hills in the way at the Kumho site is not yet finished, and the first concrete is unlikely to be poured before the end of next year. Typically, such reactors can take seven years to build. Meanwhile KEDO, the American-led consortium supposed to master-mind the project, and which also includes South Korea, Japan and the European Union, has to beg and scrape each year to find the cash for the 500,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil promised to North Korea to tide it over until electricity from the two new reactors comes on stream.
The delays are not KEDO's fault. North Korea's own provocative past behaviour has repeatedly delayed the project, sometimes for months on end. Recently, the regime has been trying to squeeze more hard currency out of KEDO than the agreements stipulate by withdrawing some of its workers from the site. But a lot of the delay is just caused by the difficulty of negotiating complex protocols with a suspicious regime completely unused to normal international practices. Kim Jong Il's secretive visit to Shanghai this week, the North Korean leader's second factory-tour to China in eight months, suggests he is starting to understand how much North Korea has to learn.
But the project has recently hit some big technical snags too. Although the reactors follow a South Korean standard model, they incorporate American design and technology. General Electric, for example, has been asked to supply turbo-generators, but is chary of doing so without better liability cover than North Korea seems ready or able to provide. If KEDO is forced to turn to other suppliers, possibly Japanese ones, parts of the reactor design will have to be adapted, causing further delays. Meanwhile, the cost to North Korea of upgrading its shambolic electricity grid so that it can handle safely the large amounts of power to be generated by the new reactors is being variously estimated at anything between $300m and over $3 billion. And North Korea has still to satisfy international inspectors about its past plutonium production at its original reactor site at Yongbyon. No nuclear parts can be sent from America or anywhere else till it does.
In other words, more delays seem inevitable. This has led some to propose changing the 1994 agreement, either to supply only one nuclear reactor, with help for the upgrading of the power grid, or else to substitute conventionally-powered plants, using coal or oil. That way, North Korea would more quickly get the electricity its economy badly needs. But there are big drawbacks. One is that South Korea was looking to the North Korean reactor project to promote sales of its reactors elsewhere. The other is that the 1994 agreement was signed by America chiefly to halt, and eventually dismantle, North Korea's rogue nuclear industry. The high-prestige, better designed nuclear reactors were what clinched the deal. Without them, North Korea may go back to building its own.
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline "Hard going"
Djebacle
Australia ties itself in knots over No-vax Djokovic
China does not have it all its way in the South China Sea
Out?
Australia cancels Novak Djokovic's visa—again
India's government is ignoring, and sometimes even encouraging, hatred of minorities
Some like it otter
Demand for pet otters is driving a harmful trade
The tennis star won in court but may yet be unable to play on court
South-East Asian countries are increasingly wary of their giant neighbour
A court ruled he could stay. The government says he should pack his bags
Narendra Modi's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party is determined to preserve its power
The creatures are cute but make lousy pets