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Tag: doctor who
doctor who, Worldcon
I'm in issue 62 of Journey Planet ("Crafting during COVID") talking at length about creating art for Glasgow in 2024 during lockdown, with pics. I cover Shipbuilding Over the Clyde, Glasgow Green Lady and Sailing Over Glasgow in a bit more detail than my recent Hugo 2021 eligibility blog post, including some work-in-progress and preparatory pictures. If you're interested in that kind of thing! There's even a bit of my fan art.
(Don't worry, there are many more interesting contributors too!)
It's a free pdf download! Gift horse. Mouth.
http://journeyplanet.weebly.com/journey-planet—2021-hugo-nominee/issue-62-craft-during-covid
February 17, 2022 February 17, 2022 iainjclarkArtwork, doctor who, wip, WorldCon and Hugo AwardLeave a comment
Hugo 2021 eligibility
I've never done this as a blog post before, but as I've been nominated a couple of times and have been specifically asked what artwork is eligible for this year's Fan Art Hugo award, I'm feeling brave. So, should you be one of those fabulous people who inexplicably cares, my works that first appeared in 2021 and are definitely eligible (because they were published or exhibited somewhere other than my Twitter feed and this website!) include:
Glasgow Green Woman
Glasgow Green Woman (2021)
Acrylics on stretched 220gsm paper
Aka 'Glasgow Green Lady', this one is a sequel of sorts to the Green Woman piece I did for Dublin 2019. It's my attempt to create a nature spirit, surrounded by plants native to Scotland including, of course, the Thistle.
This was used on postcards to promote the Glasgow bid in April 2021. I'm delighted to say it's been longlisted for the BSFA 2021 Best Artwork award.
The framing and layout is a development of the classic railway poster idea that I used on Shipbuilding Over the Clyde, but allowing the artwork to expand to the full frame beneath the text. I didn't design the logo; that was the tirelessly creative, Hugo Award-winning Sara Felix.
You can find a video of me talking about the Glasgow Green Woman and the Spring into Summer campaign painting on the Glasgow 2024 YouTube channel.
You can support the bid here: https://glasgow2024.org/
Sailing Over Glasgow (2021)
I had an almost fairy tale image in my mind of a sailing ship suspended in the air. I combined that with a view of the Tollbooth Steeple in Glasgow, the sunset lending both a vivid sky and a crepuscular shadow to the buildings.
This was used on postcards to promote the Glasgow bid in December 2021. As with the Glasgow Green Lady the layout is a development of the classic railway poster idea.
You can find a video of me talking about the Sailing Over Glasgow painting on the Glasgow 2024 YouTube channel.
Blake's 7: Stardrive (2021)
This painting appeared in the Blake's 7 Annual 1982 from Cult Edge published in 2021. It's a fan-created hardcover book to fill the gap left by there being no actual Blake's 7 annual celebrating the final series of the show in 1982. It's chock-full of astounding stories, articles and illustrations of which mine is but one minor part! It's also in aid of charity, with money going to Save The Children UK and Axminster and Lyme Cancer Support. The book has been longlisted for the BSFA 2021 Best Non-Fiction award., making it the second project I'm involved with that's on the BSFA longlist (although I don't pretend this one is because of me!)
I chose the episode Stardrive not because it's a particular favourite of mine (although it has an iconic ending) but because the characters were so much fun to paint and the chase scene with the Scorpio, three Federation Pursuit Ships and an asteroid seemed like an opportunity for an interesting composition. The actors are Hammer icon Barbara Shelley as Dr Plaxton and Damien Thomas as Atlan.
The piece is fully painted except for the green HUD behind the Scorpio spaceship which was, as they say, added in post-production.
Tim Barlow as Tyssan from Destiny of the Daleks (2021)
Acyrlics on stretched 220 gms paper
I was approached to provide a painting for a charity anthology called Tales of Time:Tales of Time: Stories From the Cast of Doctor Who: that appeared in November 2021 in aid of cancer research. The brief was to paint one of the contributors and I chose Tim Barlow, who played Tyssan in Destiny of the Daleks. He has a very distinctive look, and of course who can resist painting a Dalek… (Believe it or not I'd never painted one before.) This kind of thing is a great opportunity to do something in a good cause while indulging my love of fan art.
William Hartnell and Jodie Whittaker from Doctor Who
Calligraphy marker on 250gsm paper
I had a lockdown flurry of fan art in 2021. Many of the pieces were full paintings or very detailed ink drawings, but I also did a strand of sketches done with Calligraphy marker pen straight onto paper with no planning or under-drawing. They don't always work, but I've been quite pleased with the results and they're great practice at focusing on what really matters in a likeness.
These two appeared on Doctor Who: The Community Show in August 2021 which was extremely flattering and also makes them eligible for the Hugo category!
Other art from 2021
These aren't my only work from 2021 — not by a long margin! — but they are the ones that are definitely eligible. I produced many more paintings for Glasgow in 2024 than the ones above during 2021, many of which have started to appear as postcards. I also produced a huge amount of fan art in 2021, much of which is on my website — mostly Doctor Who related plus a bit of Cadfael and Sherlock Holmes.
January 24, 2022 February 1, 2022 iainjclarkArtwork, doctor who, painting, WorldCon and Hugo Award3 Comments
Is darker better?
According to the Daily Mirror a Doctor Who "source" has used words like "darker" and "scarier" to describe the next series (Series 12). But are those things good for Doctor Who?
Disclaimer: I'm going to say some things in this blog that sound prescriptive about what Doctor Who "should" be. They're just my opinions.
So, in my opinion the series thrives best when it's accessible to all audiences, let's say from age 6 up. There's a huge difference between being scary in an unreal, fantasy-adventure way ('Dalek', 'Blink') and scary in a jarring adult way. Doctor Who doesn't always get that tone right, but it does it best when it knows what it is and where to draw the line. The handling of cremation in 'Dark Water'/'Death in Heaven' was for me too real; unnerving in the wrong way. The same goes for aspects of 'World Enough and Time' ("pain pain pain"). It's the difference between a 12 and a PG rating in the UK. Your mileage may vary, but for me Doctor Who should aim for PG. It should feel like safe, family-friendly horror.
I think we've moved past the days of 'The New Adventures', when Doctor Who tried to "grow up" by becoming grim and seedy (okay I haven't read most of them, don't @ me). The series since 2005 definitely skews a bit older in some aspects than the classic show; towards character, romance and complexity. But that's okay. Kids can handle those things just fine. What it doesn't do on the whole is try to be 'gritty' or 'dark' in that way that you think represents maturity when you're 15, when you think the 1960s Batman TV show is embarrassing and Zach Snyder is the epitome of being grown up.
If anything the modern series has properly grown up. Grown up enough to not care about being "mature". It's embraced its own silliness: the colour, the space fantasy, and the bonkers bits. It's embraced positivity and hope and done so in an unselfconscious way that isn't kitsch, or doesn't care if it is.
A big part of how much kids can take in a show like this is how safe they feel, and a big part of that is about how welcoming the characters are, and how safe THEY feel. It's okay to put the characters in dire peril, it's rarely okay to actually kill them. Brilliant though 'World Enough and Time' and 'The Doctor Falls' are, the horror they put Bill through is right on the edge of being wrong for the show. (If she hadn't survived I would condemn it outright, but her deus ex machina rescue–though a little bit artless–is beautiful and saves it for me.) It's one reason why I think that consciously setting out to make the Twelfth Doctor off-putting in his early episodes went slightly too far. You never want the audience questioning, as Clara does in 'Deep Breath', whether the Doctor will come back and save them. He or she can be alien, can have different attitudes towards other aliens, can be angry at humanity, but above all else they have to be someone who cares when you're in danger and who will always save you. Do that, and the rest is all grace notes. Don't get me wrong I adore Peter Capaldi, I adore the Twelfth Doctor and I largely don't feel that he was un-Doctorish. But there were moments early on, they were deliberate, and they didn't quite work. You can see that they knew it, because the writing and the performance took a rapid step back from them, and what we ended up with from that slight misstep is a lovely character arc for the Twelfth Doctor throughout his run, culminating in "Just be kind". And that's what the show is about, what it should always be about. It's what Jodie Whittaker's Doctor is emphatically about: your best friend from outer space.
So when I hear that the show will be darker my response is to hope that darker means central characters who are heroic and likeable, who may face horror and personal struggles, who may stumble, but who always emerge triumphant and always keep me safe; "darker" that isn't cruel or cowardly but is exciting and scary and fun. Let's wait and see, because I suspect that's exactly what we're going to get.
November 2, 2019 November 2, 2019 iainjclarkdoctor whoLeave a comment
Green Eggs and 5M
I would not, could not, on TV
They did not finish it, Sam, you see
I did not see it with linking narration
I did not read the novelisation
I did not listen to Paul McGann
(It's not the original, Sam I am.)
Not on a video! Not on TV!
Not on Big Finish! Not DVD!
(Maybe that bit in The Five Doctors
But only Tom Baker punting in Oxford)
I have not seen it here or there
I have not seen it anywhere!
But I do own the Blu Ray.
Text ripped off from Dr Seuss by Iain Clark
Artwork by Lee Binding.
September 14, 2019 November 2, 2019 iainjclarkdoctor who, poetry, shada1 Comment
The Thirteenth Doctor
So, just for the record, I'm really very chuffed about that Doctor Who casting.
I have the same buzz I did when they cast Capaldi, but for different reasons. It's not the same-old-same-old safe choice. I really thought they might cast a Tennant clone because of the perceived commercial success that would bring. But we've done that already. It's there on DVD. We haven't done this. And who's to say that the boring choice wouldn't have bored viewers? Maybe moving in new directions is what's in the show's longer-term interests.
Interesting that new showrunner Chris Chibnall pushed for a female Doctor, and he's got one of his leads from Broadchurch! That's how to put your stamp on a show. I don't think Jodie Whittaker's character in Broadchurch was especially 'Doctorish', but you know these auditions are a tough process and they've had he same Casting Director since Christopher Eccleston was chosen. She only got this part if she aced it.
July 17, 2017 November 2, 2019 iainjclarkdoctor who, jodie whittaker1 Comment
Nostalgia and Newspapers, Part 2
More from my short-lived spell of keeping newspaper clippings back in the 1980s, something I've never done before or since. Teenagers, eh?
These are all Doctor Who-related, spanning from the announcement of Colin Baker as the Doctor through to the announcement of Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor. They mainly concern the 18 month hiatus taken by the show, about which I was understandably obsessed.
1984 (Hull Daily Mail)
28th Jan 1985 (Hull Daily Mail)
First up, the announcement of Baker the Second taking the role, and our local paper's very ringing endorsement of him after the "wet" Peter Davison. Harsh. The Hull Daily Mail was something of a staunch Who supporter , but they were perhaps an outlier in their complete adoration of Colin Baker. Commendably, they remained staunch supporters of his through thick and thin, as we'll see.
The national press were clearly not so enamoured. Here's a lovely (i.e. typical) bit from the Daily Express combining moral outrage about violence with mild salaciousness all in one story. The word "nubile" really doesn't see the light of day much these days. Does include the quite amazing quote "I trust Dr Who rapidly makes it clear that people eating is wrong." (Pedantically I do feel that sentence needs a hyphen, otherwise they're taking a controversial stance against restaurants.)
I can only apologise for the poor preservation of this clipping. My Time-Space Visualiser is in need of tuning.
28th Feb 1985 (Daily Express)
On or around the same date (my filing not being what it should be) the Daily Express also announced, perhaps slightly prematurely, that the show had been axed. Naturally they saw this in terms of the licence fee. I do think they deserve some kudos for a) bothering to interview fans and b) listing the Doctors in the right order and spelling all their names correctly.
Feb 1985 (Daily Express)
At least there was some consolation! (Did they actually air these repeats, I can't remember?)
Feb 1985 (Hull Daily Mail)
The Hull Daily Mail also went with the Licence Fee theory (with the factually questionable observation that "Even The Master wouldn't stoop so low just to make a point") and joined the Express letching at Peri being "scantily-clad", while continuing to big up Colin Baker as "the best yet".
2nd March 1985 (Hull Daily Mail)
All together now, "Doctor in Distress!" I remember finding this single painfully embarrassing even at the time.
The Daily Telegraph weighed in, comparing the BBC to an unscrupulous drugs pusher. Sorry, "pusher". Hard to tell if they're outraged at the hiatus or just happy to have an excuse to cheerfully bash the BBC, but despite casting Doctor Who fans as junkies it's quite supportive overall.
3rd March 1985 (Daily Telegraph)
(It was during the hiatus that I went to the Leisure Hive 2 convention if you want to see my scans of the brochure…).
Moving on 18 months, and the Hull Daily Mail manages to announce the show's return with the most negative slant possible ("doomed"!), and features some lovely disingenous quotes from Michael Grade where he makes out that it was all just about the violence. I think he reads the Daily Express. Congratulations however to this article for mentioning Peri without using the words "nubile" or "scantily".
1st Sept 1986 (Hull Daiy Mail)
Okay, wait, they've sacked Colin Baker! Maybe it's doomed after all… I remember hugely enjoying 'Trial of a Timelord' when it aired. That opening shot of the space station clearly went straight to my teenage fanboy head, just as it was supposed to, but even beyond that it felt very much like an old-fashioned season to me. The Vervoids story in particular hit me with nostalgia for the Tom Baker era quite strongly. I was outraged when I learned that Colin Baker was leaving without so much as a proper regeneration.
6th Jan 1987 (Hull Daily Mail)
And so in comes Sylvester McCoy. Mercifully no-one feels inclined to letch over Bonnie Langford, who only merits the adjective "squeaky". Michael Grade is quoted again on violence but also wants to see if "the stories are better". Now he's just being unreasonable.
Besides, with a "snow dragon" and a "berserk bunch of robotic charladies", this will clearly be the best season yet.
I'll confess to being quite underwhelmed by McCoy at the time. I didn't "get" the rather 'Indie' take on the show that 'Paradise Towers' represented, I hated the new theme and opening credits, I felt the storytelling was amateurish, I was embarassed by the Kandyman, and I was baffled by the comedy of 'Delta and the Bannermen'. I still don't entirely disown those opinions, but I did warm to the remainder of McCoy's run and there are some genuine classics among the last couple of years. I can even summon up some nostalgia for the credits sequence. Some.
And there my clippings go quiet, probably because I was suddenly far more interested in the arrival of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Teenagers, eh?
January 15, 2017 November 2, 2019 iainjclarkdoctor who, nostalgiaLeave a comment
Artist with a portrait
Thanks to Justine for snapping this pic of me trying to sneak the painting onto the office scanner.
November 30, 2016 November 2, 2019 iainjclarkArtwork, doctor who, fan art, paintingLeave a comment
Painting Patrick
The thing about Doctor Who art is that there's a hell of a lot of it. Traditional, digital, photoshop. Every DVD. Every book. The comics get about three covers each on a monthly basis. And that's even leaving out the vast body of fan art, the dark matter that holds the internet together. And of course it's all (mostly) amazing. This makes it bloody hard to come up with an idea for an image that doesn't feel like it's been done to death.
I knew I wanted to do another bit of Doctor Who fan art, and I chose Troughton because the 50th anniversary of his first appearance gave me the perfect excuse. I've always loved his 'Harpo Marx' air of shambolic eccentricity. (And the hat. That ridiculous hat.) The strange thing is that despite being a lifelong Doctor Who fan I mainly know the black and white stories through the Target novelisations and old issues of Doctor Who Monthly. It's only more recently I've started to properly catch up with Hartnell and Troughton on DVD, and of the two it's Troughton whose performance truly transcends the character on the printed page. Mercurial, always adding some little bit of 'business' to his scenes, but clever and sombre when he needs to be.
The problem was what do do with him. For the Peter Capaldi one I'd at least had the fresh angle of juxtaposing him with the earliest Cybermen. The idea of Mondas being Earth's upside-down mirror lent itself to the angular yin-yang design of the image, which felt a little bit out of the ordinary. It crystallised in my head. I knew it could work. Now every other idea I could think of was either standard portraiture (like my preparatory pencil sketch) or a floating-head movie poster.
My eventual inspiration was the recorder. Lack of on-screen appearances notwithstanding, it's attained an iconic association with the Second Doctor, and I suddenly hit upon the idea of making that the 'hook', with the tune emerging from it… and the tune containing images… and the images being a rough sort of record of his journeys. It's pretty eccentric (in keeping with the character) and had the virtue of being something I hadn't seen before, which always makes me much happier.
I'd originally envisaged more of a twinkly!Troughton, but it turns out that playing the recorder and smiling at the same time is quite tricky, so we ended up with frowny!Troughton instead. (More attack eyebrows). He has a really distinctive face which you'd think would be a doddle to draw. I even sketched him first, and it went fine. But I had huge trouble with the likeness for the painting. I mean, epic trouble. I'd show you, but I didn't take any photos at that stage to spare me THE SHAME. It was only with quite a bit of over-painting that I found something I was happy with, and… the process went really smoothly after that. (Turns out it was just the usual "I can't draw, I'm useless" stage I often go through).
I picked a blue colour for the 'tune', which does make it look a little bit like he's blowing water out of his recorder (Daughter: "Daddy, I told you you should have used purple!"), but I think it complements the earth-tones of the face, and picks up on his blue eyes. I deliberately used a looser style for these phantom images as it's not something I'd tried before and it suits the more ethereal quality of the visions. I kept fiddling with the pencils to find more dramatic angles, less standard reference photos, that better suited the flow. I decided not to distract from the main image with companions or human foes (and let's be honest avoid any more likenesses), so stuck to the more alien foes. Those are the ones that appeal to the 12 year old boy in me anyway.
I'm quite happy with it overall. In hindsight and with a bit more confidence I'd have used an even lighter touch and left even more white space in the 'tune', maybe tailed it off a bit earlier at the top. Because of the looser style in that section my very light pencils still show slightly a bit in places, so that's something to avoid. Live and learn.
The final image is here.
November 29, 2016 November 2, 2019 iainjclarkArtwork, doctor who, paintingLeave a comment
doctor who, Uncategorized
One little addendum to my Twelfth Planet piece: here's an animated gif of the painting in progress. (I hadn't planned this in advance so despite much geometry correction it's slightly wonky.)
October 22, 2016 November 2, 2019 iainjclarkArtwork, doctor who, paintingLeave a comment
The Twelfth Planet
far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be Chris Achilleos. Or maybe Andrew Skilleter. I was hazy on the details. But one thing I did know was that instead of growing up and doing a boring job I could maybe, just possibly, grow up and draw Doctor Who for the rest of my life.
Somehow that didn't happen, but it's hard to deny that I've never felt more like a proper artist than when doing my own little bit of Doctor Who illustration. I even left some room at the top for a logo.
This piece was inspired partly by the 50th anniversary of the Cybermen, and partly by an answer Peter Capaldi has given when asked what classic monster he'd like to face in his tenure as the Twelfth Doctor: the origin of the Mondasian Cybermen first seen in William Hartnell's regeneration story. I like the juxtaposition of the latest incarnation of the Doctor and the earliest years of the show, and of Capaldi's craggy, characterful face with the bland mask of the Cyberman.
Conscious that I'm approximately the millionth person to paint this particular image of a Cyberman (The Tenth Planet being quite short on good quality close-up telesnaps) I've tried to incorporate them into an unusual design that picks up on imagery from the Tenth Planet: the upside-down mirror Earth that is (nonsensically) Mondas, and a version of the computer lettering that opened each episode.
Doctor Who – Listen
I wasn't meaning to write reviews of Doctor Who this year, but bits of these spiky, slightly experimental episodes keep sticking in my head. After the romp to end all romps that was 'Robot of Sherwood' (huge fun but yes, please could that end all romps now?) 'Listen' is a very different affair, and it's got me pondering again. On Capaldi's Doctor. On whether Clara is well-written. And on whether Steven Moffat can write.
You know, stuff.
Spoilers for Doctor Who – 'Listen'
September 16, 2014 November 2, 2019 iainjclarkdoctor who, reviews, televisionLeave a comment
My LonCon, Part Deux
Uncategorized, Worldcon
I shared my immediate emotional reaction to LonCon3 a few weeks ago. I think the moment has now passed for blogs about LonCon, but since I seem to shed neurons like other people shed skin cells, if I don't write down some specifics I know it'll get lost forever. For my own reference, then, if no-one else's, here's My LonCon, Part Deux.
We couldn't get a cheap hotel near the venue so stayed in Travelodge London Bank in the middle of London. We originally wanted to stay in a Japanese Coffin Hotel but fancied a smaller room. BOOM. It was bijou, is all I'm saying. Also about as hot as midday on Mercury.
LonCon was about 20 minutes on the Docklands Light Railway, with a change of trains halfway, so that was fine. When we got there the registration queue of which we had heard Terrible Things had vanished. That's the nice thing about arriving after lunch. Pausing only for vital business like chatting to Alison, Nic, Abigail and Emma and standing in front of a Tardis, we jumped straight into our first panel.
Over the next three days we didn't get into everything we wanted, but we did pretty well, and a good half of the panels I saw were very stimulating. The other half ranged from pleasant-but-unsurprising to frustratingly stalled discussions. Fortunately the panel I participated in was one of the enjoyable ones. (At least from our perspective. Who knows what the audience made of it.)
Friday 15th August
September 6, 2014 April 18, 2020 iainjclarkbest wife ever, doctor who, hugos, loncon, photographs, WorldCon and Hugo Award1 Comment
Into the Doctor?
More dissection of the new Doctor.
Spoilers for Doctor Who – 'Into the Dalek'
August 31, 2014 November 2, 2019 iainjclarkdoctor who, reviews, televisionLeave a comment
Dateline: 1985. "Leisure Hive Two" – Doctor Who Convention
So my LonCon3 write up reminded me of a dim memory that I attended a Doctor Who convention in 1984. Turns out it was 1985, not 1984. Phew! I'm not old after all1.
I was inspired to dig out the old convention guide, since I figured it might be of interest to about seven people on the internet. You can find some images of it below.
Now it has to be said that my memory of 1985 is somewhat hazy and my main recollection of this convention is falling asleep during a 37-part2 black and white story in the all night video room instead of going back to the B&B. You have to remember that this was before I'd have seen much if any Who on videotape so I was probably only familiar with the ones I'd seen on air in the Seventies and Eighties (my earliest Who memory is Planet of the Spiders) plus whatever paltry repeats the BBC had deigned to show. I knew the show's past mainly from the Target novelisations, which I devoured from an early age and which I credit for getting me into SF. Actually watching honest to goodness old episodes was a proper novelty back then.
Here's me (on the left of the picture) and my best friend Paul outside the Wiltshire hotel at the tender age of 16. One of my first trips away from home without my parents, possibly the very first. Looking pretty sharp, I think you'll agree.
Below are some scans of the Convention guide. Click for larger versions.
First up, here's the cover sporting Kaled Man of the Year and all round good egg Davros. Also the welcome page:
Next, the list of celebrity guests and the two day programme which ran from 24th to 25th August 1985, after Colin Baker's first full season and during the long hiatus before 'The Trial of a Time Lord' aired a full year later.
We were treated to Colin Baker, David 'Cyberleader' Banks, Nicholas 'Brigadier' Courtney, Matt 'Special effects' Irvine, Sarah 'Production Team' Lee, John 'K-9' Leeson, John 'Benton' Levene, Ian 'Harry' Marter, Peter 'Nyder' Miles, and David 'Son of' Troughton.
I do remember seeing Matt Irvine, who is one of the few people I can readily identify in the panel photo below from his many appearances on Swap Shop and his amazingly '80s fashion sense. (Again, click for a larger version). Is that John Levene leaning in on far left? Presumably that's Peter Miles (Nyder) third from left. Ian Marter far right, maybe. Nick Courtney third from right? I also do remember seeing K-9, who I'm almost certain is the one in the middle of the second photo below. (Amazingly high quality pictures I think you'll agree.) Strangely I have no recollection whatsoever of that Colin Baker bloke, who you'd imagine I'd have been at least slightly excited to see. I also took no other pictures of any interest whatsoever. What was I thinking? These days I'd have taken several hundred.
There was also an auction of memorabilia. Lots of premium items like tatty paperback books and annuals. On the second page you can see that I've written in biro what some of the sales went for. You'll note that I was particularly impressed by £20 for a scarf donated by Liz Sladen. To be fair this was probably more money than I'd ever seen up to that point. It doesn't say if it was screen-used, or just one she had in the back of a drawer.
So there you have it. The least timely con report in Doctor Who history.
EDITED TO ADD: Although the specfics of the con have largely left me (sadly for you the reader) what sticks with me is the huge sense of anticipation I felt. That feeling of connecting with the show. I'd been reading Doctor Who Monthly since issue 1, I owned The Making of Doctor Who, the Monster Book and all the other stuff I could lay my hands on, but being in the presence of people who actually made the show felt surreal. I've no idea how many attendees there were but it was a tiny and domestic affair compared to modern conventions. That hardly mattered to a 16 year old Doctor Who fan. My fandoms have considerably broadened since then, but the Doctor Who one has never left me.
1 I'm only fooling myself.
2 Approximately.
August 24, 2014 April 18, 2020 iainjclarkdoctor who, loncon, nostalgia, WorldCon and Hugo Award3 Comments
A Good Man?
Quick first impressions of Capaldi and ponderings on the 'darker' Doctor.
Spoilers for Doctor Who – 'Deep Breath'
Hugo Best Dramatic Presentation: Short Form nominees
July 13, 2014 November 2, 2019 iainjclarkdoctor who, hugos, loncon, reviews, televisionLeave a comment
Doctor Who: The Enemy of the World
A while ago we watched the recently rediscovered Second Doctor tale 'The Enemy of the World' on DVD (a present from my wonderful wife). Since my Hartnell and Troughton knowledge is shamefully poor compared to my knowledge of later Who, I had no knowledge of the story except for the 'high concept' premise: world dictator Salamander is a dead ringer for the Doctor. I don't even remember reading the novelisation. I suppose I was expecting some kind of Man in the Iron Mask storyline in which The Doctor must impersonate the dictator, but – although much of the story is driven by this concept – it seldom actually happens. What we get instead is a very enjoyable spy thriller, quite tightly edited and pacey in contrast to much 1960s Doctor Who (we get next to no recaps at the start of most episodes).
Episode one is particularly action-packed, with a helicopter and hovercraft providing probably the greatest concentration of real hardware in one episode until Pertwee's swan song 'Planet of the Spiders'. Subsequent episodes are more studio-bound (with some of the most painfully cramped 'outdoor' scenes ever committed to videotape.) But despite that the story fair barrels along without the usual quagmire of capture-escape-recapture that plagues six-parters – partly because of the slightly bizarre left turn it takes around episode 4. (The worst I can say about the pacing is that the Doctor spends too much time sitting on his hands, but given that Troughton is pulling double duties that's understandable). It's a highly melodramatic story, and the late plot twist involving Salamander's buried secret stretches credibility almost to breaking point, but David Whitaker's deft script never loses control of its pulpy twists and turns. Unlike some Who from the era, this holds your attention right to the end.
Troughton's performance as would-be dictator Salamander is broad, particularly the 'interesting' choice of a thick Mexican accent, but he's utterly unlike the Doctor and really shows his versatility. (It's notable having seen Orphan Black that the two Troughton characters don't share the screen until the finale, presumably a by-product of production constraints). In fact Whitaker crafts several strong characters who transcend their various 'types' – notably including an extremely capable female character in Astrid, and a rounded black female character in Fariah – with the help of a mostly excellent main cast.
It all wraps up a tad swiftly and conveniently, hinging on one too many character reversals and convenient coincidences, but not enough to mar a thoroughly enjoyable serial.
July 3, 2014 November 2, 2019 iainjclarkdoctor who, nostalgia, reviews, television1 Comment
I don't know if I'm elated or gassy, but it's somewhere in that zone
My wife and I have seized the opportunity to attend WorldCon while it's in London this August. It took some determined childcare planning (and our daughters have been duly bribed/compensated with a family holiday) but it's happening!
Not only that, but I'm delighted to say I've been invited onto a panel at LonCon:
2014 Hugo Awards: Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
Saturday 11:00 – 12:00
The actual nominees under discussion are here.
Having never done this before, at this stage I'm feeling slightly under-qualified, but since a few people may be wandering over to this fairly moribund blog, here's a quick roundup of my published reviews.
X-Men: The Last Stand
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Season One)
Torchwood (Season One)
Babylon 5: The Lost Tales
Primeval (Season One)
Doctor Who: School Reunion
Smaller contributions
SF Signal – Mind Meld: Battlestar Galactica Series Finale (waaay down at the bottom)
Strange Horizons: 2007 in Review
Strange Horizons : 2006 in Review
Yes, my eldest daughter is currently obsessed by Frozen, why do you ask?
June 18, 2014 April 18, 2020 iainjclarkdoctor who, hugos, loncon, pimpage, reviews, television, WorldCon and Hugo AwardLeave a comment
Doctor Who – The Name of the Doctor
As usual, hastily-written thoughts straight after viewing the episode for the first time…
Spoilers for Doctor Who – The Name of the Doctor Read more…
May 19, 2013 November 2, 2019 iainjclarkdoctor who, reviews, televisionLeave a comment
Doctor Who – Asylum of the Daleks
Hastily-written thoughts straight after my first viewing…
Spoilers for Doctor Who – Asylum of the Daleks.
September 3, 2012 November 2, 2019 iainjclarkdoctor who, reviews, televisionLeave a comment
Doctor Who – The Wedding of River Song
Spoilers for Doctor Who – The Wedding of River Song
October 1, 2011 November 2, 2019 iainjclarkdoctor who, reviews, televisionLeave a comment
Doctor Who – The Girl Who Waited
Spoilers for Doctor Who – The Girl Who Waited
Doctor Who – A Good Man Goes to War
Spoilers for Doctor Who – A Good Man Goes to War
June 5, 2011 November 2, 2019 iainjclarkdoctor who, reviews, televisionLeave a comment
Doctor Who – The Doctor's Wife
Spoilers for Doctor Who – The Doctor's Wife
Doctor Who – The Curse of the Black Spot
Spoilers for Doctor Who – The Curse of the Black Spot
May 8, 2011 November 2, 2019 iainjclarkdoctor who, reviews, televisionLeave a comment
Doctor Who – Day of the Moon
Spoilers for Doctor Who – Day of the Moon
April 30, 2011 November 2, 2019 iainjclarkdoctor who, reviews, televisionLeave a comment
Doctor Who – The Impossible Astronaut
Belatedly…
Spoilers for Doctor Who – The Impossible Astronaut
Doctor Who – The Big Bang
Frankly if there weren't a few plot holes in THAT there's no justice in the world.
Spoilers for Doctor Who – The Big Bang
June 26, 2010 November 2, 2019 iainjclarkdoctor who, reviewsLeave a comment
Doctor Who – The Pandorica Opens
Spoilers for Doctor Who – The Pandorica Opens
Doctor Who – The Lodger
Spoilers for Doctor Who – The Lodger
Doctor Who – Vincent and the Doctor
Spoilers for Doctor Who – Vincent and the Doctor
June 6, 2010 November 2, 2019 iainjclarkdoctor who, reviewsLeave a comment
Doctor Who – The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood
Very belated on these but I'm too much of a completist to leave them.
Spoilers for Doctor Who – The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood
Doctor Who – Amy's Choice
Spoilers for Doctor Who – Amy's Choice
May 15, 2010 November 2, 2019 iainjclarkdoctor who, reviewsLeave a comment
Doctor Who – The Vampires of Venice
Spoilers for Doctor Who – The Vampires of Venice
Doctor Who – Flesh and Stone
Spoilers for Doctor Who – Flesh and Stone
May 2, 2010 November 2, 2019 iainjclarkdoctor who, reviewsLeave a comment
Doctor Who – The Time of Angels
Spoilers for Doctor Who – The Time of Angels
April 24, 2010 November 2, 2019 iainjclarkdoctor who, reviewsLeave a comment
Doctor Who – Victory of the Daleks
Spoilers for Doctor Who – Victory of the Daleks
Doctor Who – The Beast Below
Spoilers for Doctor Who – The Beast Below
Doctor Who: The Eleventh Hour
Spoilers for Doctor Who: The Eleventh Hour
April 3, 2010 November 2, 2019 iainjclarkdoctor who, reviewsLeave a comment
Eleven and Four
A new teaser image from the upcoming Doctor Who season, featuring the Doctor and Amy in silly poses, some returning and new monsters, and a swirly blue time vortex that looks like the Tom Baker credits reimagined in computer graphics. Wonder if the background is part of the new credits sequence…
We also caught up on some ye olde Doctor Who recently. City of Death is a serial I have very vivid memories of watching as a child in the 1970s: Scaroth revealing his one-eyed face, his spaceship exploding, the trip to renaissance Italy, the multiple Mona Lisas, the time bubble that accelerates egg into Chicken, and vice-versa. It's all there in my mind's eye. Fortunately this one holds up surprisingly well, even going back to it after all this time. Although we're moving into his later, less uniformly successful, years in the role Tom Baker is a joy. The location filming in Paris is effective (even if it gratuitously packs in every Paris cliche going, and seems to feature endless shots of the Doctor and Romana aimlessly wandering), and the pacing is snappy, particularly for vintage Who. Douglas Adams' (pseudonymous) witty script doesn't hurt, either. It's not an absolute classic, and in common with a lot of old Who there's a certain sense of gabbled exposition and rushed anticlimax, but it's very solid.
Next up was Masque of Mandragora, an earlier Tom Baker story featuring Sarah Jane Smith as the companion. In contrast to 'City of Death' I seem to have no memory whatsoever of watching this when I was younger. All my vague recollections come from the target novelisation. That makes watching it slightly surreal since I broadly remember key elements from the book, but imagined them completely differently. Viewed with modern eyes this one has a script, acting and production values that feel significantly above the baseline standard for 70s Doctor Who. There's a vigour to the characterisation that reminded me of a Robert Holmes script, and the renaissance setting really works; the Doctor fits in seamlessly into an era poised between superstition and scientific discovery. Seeing actors like Tom Piggott-Smith in essentially Shakespearean garb helps my suspension of disbelief immensely, and the setting is aided by unusually convincing location filming in Portmerion (looking not too much like The Prisoner). The set-up also feels unusual, with the Doctor being essentially responsible for the threat. There are a few wobbly sets and creaky special effects, and like 'City of Death' the denouement is rushed, but there's a lot to enjoy. Plus there's a blatant sequel hook at the end. Come on Mr Moffatt, you know you want to…
February 17, 2010 November 2, 2019 iainjclarkdoctor who, nostalgia, reviewsLeave a comment
Spoilers for Doctor Who – The End of Time
Belatedly..
The End of Time, Part 1
January 2, 2010 November 2, 2019 iainjclarkdoctor who, reviewsLeave a comment
Doctor Who – The Waters of Mars
That was awesome.
Quick thoughts on Doctor Who – The Waters of Mars
November 15, 2009 iainjclarkdoctor who, reviewsLeave a comment
Logo-polis
The new Steven Moffat era version of the Doctor Who logo has arrived. They announced it this morning. Yes, they announced a logo. Yesterday they announced the announcement. Sadly the ridiculous over-hype worked on me, and I turned up at 8 am to see it.
I'd put it behind a cut but it'll be all over the internet within… well it's probably already there.
My response? Hmmm. It's… a Doctor Who logo. The actual logo is nicely retro only with a new font, harking back to the first two logos the series ever had (I'm sensing a retro theme from Moffat, what with the Doctor's costume and the rejuvenated look of the Tardis plus St. John's sticker.) The Tardis version of the logo is gimmicky tosh. Let's hope we don't see a lot of that one.
ETA: It's interesting to me that Moffat is changing quite so many aspects of the show to launch his new era. Doctor, companion, Tardis (the interior is rumoured to be having a few changes), logo, plus presumably credits and maybe a remix of the theme? Usually regenerations cause so much nervousness that they like to contrive as much continuity as possible to reassure the viewer. This approach is certainly confident. But, particularly coming off such a popular and iconic Doctor as Tennant, will it alienate people or shed a chunk of viewers who feel that 'their' Doctor Who has finished?
October 6, 2009 iainjclarkdoctor who, postersLeave a comment
The new Who
They've done what I would have done and dressed him older to contrast with Matt Smith's relative youth. Sort of like Indiana Jones in his day job, actually, but with modern footwear
Not blown away by it, and less impressed than I was with Tennant's first costume reveal, but it works. This is an official BBC release, but now we just need some proper promo pics.
EDIT: More pics here.
July 20, 2009 iainjclarkdoctor who, televisionLeave a comment
Doctor Who – old, new, and tangential
Yay, bank holiday!
Apropos of nothing in particular, I indulged in a bit more nostalgic Doctor Who watching recently.
'Battlefield' starring Sylvester McCoy was the extended DVD version. While it's one of the Seventh Doctor's better outings (i.e. it's not utterly unwatchable), it's very stilted. In general it feels like it was shot on a shoestring budget in approximately two days with no time to rehearse. (Which knowing Who is probably exactly how it was shot.) McCoy does his best to appear, by turns, mysterious, impish and brooding, but I remain utterly unconvinced that he's any of those things. Worse, I can't help feeling that the Doctor is written significantly better than he's played, which is never a good feeling to have about the lead character. Likewise Sophie Aldred as Ace gets a lot of gushing teenage behaviour for which the actress seems too old. There are a few decent scenes and likeable supporting characters, and a welcome return for Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier. Oh and a cool blue demon. But overall: meh. Sorry, Tim!
'Image of the Fendahl' starring Tom Baker is better. Okay, it feels like it was shot on a shoestring budget in approximately two days with no time to rehearse, but at least Tom Baker is convincing. The story is an odd pastiche of 'Quatermass and the Pit', involving ancient aliens from Time Lord mythology who have somehow influenced human evolution. The plot is woefully illogical and under-explained, to the point where it feels like key scenes must be missing. On the plus side it has Chris Boucher's usual crackling dialogue and pin-sharp characterisation, and a very decent supporting cast. I have no recollection of watching it my youth so I can't lean on nostalgia with this one, but I do remember the novelisation which probably helps.
On a related-ish note, here are a couple of BBC News videos:
An interview with Russell T Davies about completing filming on his (and David Tennant's) era on Doctor Who. (It includes the trailer for 'The Waters of Mars' special that aired after the Easter special.)
A five minute interview with Richard Dawkins that barrels through all the questions you'd expect, against a ticking clock, and gets Dawkins's usual precise answers.1
1 Dawkins is of course best known for his cameo in last season's Doctor Who finale (not to mention being married to Romana mk II), but has probably done a few non Who-related things in his life.
May 21, 2009 iainjclarkdoctor who, nostalgia, science, videoLeave a comment
Had a great Easter weekend involving no (count it) no work, and lots of relaxing. We had friends over for most of the weekend which was fun.
We did a pseudo-BBQ on Saturday (cooked indoors, eaten outdoors to ensure that Janet didn't get any undercooked meat) which was lovely. We did some potato and tomato 'curry' as a side dish which in no sense is a curry involving only some chopped potatoes, tomatoes and onions fried with mustard seeds, turmeric and coriander. Very nice, very mild.
Then on Sunday the sky was blue and the sun was hot so we pottered around the garden fixing and weeding things while Janet's brother carved a new paddle for his canoe. The cats helped, of course. Here's Charcoal helping:
More helping here. Pixie helped too, but in a more sedentary way.
On Saturday night we watched Doctor Who (what I thought), which included a nice shout out to Tom Baker's first story 'Robot', but was otherwise slightly dull.
On Sunday we also watched Skellig on Sky, in which John Simm continued to be as great as he is in everything not called Doctor Who. I was expecting something slightly twee and cosy, which it was in places, but mostly it was surprisingly honest, real and edgy for a kids drama. A bit low key and moody, but otherwise quite interesting. It's possible that the moral is to talk to scabby-looking strangers, but I'll let that pass…
It's a good job we had the nice weekend because the weather has been relentlessly foggy ever since. Yesterday with sea fret (but we had a nice pub lunch anyway). Today with full-on fog and low cloud extending well inland. Chilly, dank, and gloomy. But at least we had a lovely Easter.
April 14, 2009 iainjclarkcats, doctor who, garden, holiday, photographs, televisionLeave a comment
Doctor Who – Planet of the Dead
"I'm the Doctor. Happy Easter!"
Spoilers for Doctor Who – Planet of the Dead
April 12, 2009 iainjclarkdoctor who, reviews, televisionLeave a comment
Protected: More Tat
February 8, 2009 iainjclarkdoctor who, nostalgia, television
Shiny, stompy
Janet is now the proud owner of a black 16GB iPod nano 4G. It's shiny. It's curvy. It's tiny. It even has a motion sensor so you can play little marble-rolling games — for some reason. Considering that this is an upgrade from an old mp3 player that only had space for three albums, she's very pleased.
We saw the Watchmen trailer at the cinema for the first time today, and it looks great. I also [via percyprune] really like this viral marketing for Watchmen in the form of a faux-historical news article on Dr Manhattan. Really nicely done.
And finally for snowking on the occasion of Hoggmas, hot on the heels of the Steampunk Cyberman comes a competition to design a Steampunk Cylon. STOMPY.
January 26, 2009 iainjclarkbattlestar galactica, best wife ever, doctor who, film, technologyLeave a comment
Barack Obama will meet Spider-man in an issue of the regular comic. Spidey will apparently save Obama's inauguration from a supervillain. Apparently Obama admitted to having been a Spidey fan as a kid, Marvel got wind of this, and one thing lead to another, yadda yadda yadda. Look, I'm not making this up, okay? Although looking at some of the panels they're previewing, I kind of wish I were. Edit: also their Obama likeness is *terrible*.
These caricatured Doctor Who figures are *so* cute. Many more here. Not that I understand the point of collectibles. I still get occasional catalogues through the door from Forbidden Planet, and the entire catalogue from start to finish is pretty much composed of TV and movie characters done as figures, figurines, busts, miniatures, plates, T-shirts, scarves… Does anyone actually need 17 different figurines of Buffy in every outfit she ever wore? Or a tastefully sculpted tableau reproducing a scene from Ghostbusters? I mean, where do you put this stuff?
Meanwhile Outpost Gallifrey reports on the quite excessive lengths the BBC went to in order to prevent word of the new Doctor Who leaking out ahead of their announcement. (Can't seem to link to the article directly, but it's dated Jan 6th on that page).
And finally, it looks like Watchmen will get released as planned, probably after Warner Bros agrees to pay Fox huge sums of money. I would normally have no strong feelings about which company profits from a given franchise, but it's hard to read this open letter from the Watchmen Producers without concluding that Fox are a creatively bankrupt bunch of money-grubbers.
January 10, 2009 iainjclarkalan moore, comics, current affairs, doctor whoLeave a comment


The Eaton Power Steering pumps AMC used from at least mid 60s thru '71 in V-8 applications are very prone to leak badly. All of them by now will be leaking after 30 plus years. The complete seal kit is available from many parts stores. I know Parts America chains (Kragen, Advance, and others) and Oreilly carry it. It only costs about 10 dollars. It includes all the o-rings, the grommet for top, the lid seal, shaft seal and the dreaded reservoir bowl seals (the prime leaker usually); everything you need.
You want Powercraft brand kit #7168 (says either Stant or Edelman; Dixon, IL on back of box). Ford/Mercury also used the Eaton pump in some applications. This is a very easy pump to take apart and put back together. It's explained in the AMC TSMs (which I always recommend someone buy...it will be the best money they ever spend on their car), but is very staight forward for someone with basic mechanic skills to replace all the seals in an Eaton roller vane P/S pump used by AMC 1971 and older.
My AMX had a problem with leaking resevoir O ring and after replacing it twice in 1 year I fabricated one from a piece of hose that was thicker than the factory O ring and didn't have anymore problems from it.
A couple of things here and I am probably the only person to not have the problem of leaky pumps.
My 71 Javelin has the Eaton pump on it and except for the low pressure hose has never leaked. I guess I should be knocking on wood on this one which I already done. We also have a 70 AMX with the same pump on it and when we bought the car, the top of the seals where it connects to the reservior was badly bented up. The reservior itself was fine, just the pump itself was bad on the top portion. Beats the **** out of me on how that happened, just anyones guess I suppose. So what we did was that the Eaton Pump itself was still being re-manufactured and I purchased one thru Checker Auto Parts for about $30.00 or so. Hooked it up to the reservior which has to be done since the pump only comes by itself without the reservior. The pump did come with replacement seals which seem a little thicker than the ones that were on the old pump. After about 4 years, it too is working just fine without any leaks.
The other thing that I have seen is the using of the newer style GM pump on the older AMCs. People have figured out a way of using the GM pump on the old pulley setups of the older engines (pre 72) without changing all of the pulleys. One of these days, I will get photographs of it and try and post it on this website.
Geez.My bad Napa has the Power steering pump rebuild kit #7-153 comes with it all.
Comes with all but the rubber I needed.Didn't come with the rubber that goes on the threaded bolt inside the cap that the washer and wing nut screws on too.Tried doubling up with another rubber gasket. See what happens.
yeah,you dont want power steering fluid getting on that cross ram intake!!!!
Sorry to resurrect an almost decade-old thread (I did search!), but I was rebuilding my '69 Eaton pump last week with the EDELMANN 7168 kit (Rockauto, $8.05!) and there seem to be too many pieces left over, which is concerning and frustrating. I don't even know where half of them could go, while one or two of the "Extras" seem to be duplicates of something that there only appears to be space for one of.
Between this, the fact that the pulley is slightly wobbly out of true, and that this is my first real rebuild attempt, I'm thinking I should maybe just buy a new/rebuilt one off the shelf and not risk blowing up my car because I did something stupid like leaving out 2/3 of the repair kit...but your advice and guidance would be greatly appreciated.


We already passed this place not only 60 times but more than that..Today was the first time we went inside Pielenhofen Church..Me and my hubby were amazed by the beauty and splendor of the decorations and painting inside it..This is a baroque designed Church which was built in the year 1237 by Pope Gregory XVI.. really an amazing work of art!! One of the things I love in Germany.
One of the Altars which is built in Marble stones ...very amazing beauty of architecture!!
the Merciful face of Jesus Christ, where people kneel and pray!!
a piece of decorations and fresco by K. Stauder on the ceiling of Pielenhofen Church..


Silver Plate Christopher Dresser Design Teapot of Art Deco Style (United Kingdom, 21st century). 23.00cm high 8.00cm wide (9.06 inches high 3.15 inches wide). Very Good , the wood handle is not flush on the corner. Silver Plate Christopher Dresser Style Teapot of geometric Art Deco form. The item "Silver Plate Christopher Dresser Design Teapot of Art Deco Style" is in sale since Friday, June 22, 2018.
This item is in the category "Antiques\Silver\Silver Plate\Teapots & Sets". The seller is "antique-silver" and is located in MIDDLESEX. This item can be shipped worldwide.


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text:
ÚRSULA STARKE
(TRANS. BY JONATHAN SIMKINS)
ÚRSULA STARKE (Chile, 1983) is a writer with an educational background in the history of art, the promotion of reading, and cultural management. She is the author of four books of poetry: Obertura (Maipo Ediciones, 2000), Ático (Editorial Cuarto Propio, 2007), Artificio (Ediciones Colectivas Periféricas, 2013), and a volume spanning work from 2007 to 2015, Prótesis (Bokeh, 2016). The recipient of multiple awards and prizes, she has taught creative writing workshops for over a decade and has also participated in multidisciplinary works incorporating music, photography, and performance.
JONATHAN SIMKINS lives in Denver, Colorado. He is the author of two chapbooks of poetry and the translator of Creationism (The Lune, forthcoming 2018) by Vicente Huidobro, and The Treasure of the Llanganates (PUMAEDITORES, forthcoming 2017), a play by Paúl Puma. His translations of Ernesto Noboa y Caamaño have appeared in all the sins, Hinchas de Poesía, Peacock Journal, The Ofi Press, and Visitant, and his translations of Úrsula Starke have appeared or are forthcoming in Coucou Home, Deluge, Guernica, and Menacing Hedge.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
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Burning Rubber Radio
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Pike Post: The 2014 V8 Supercars Championship Golden Kangaroo Awards
James Pike January 15, 2015 Featured, International, James Pike Blog, Staff Columns, Supercars Leave a Comment
MELBOURNE, Victoria, Australia — Blog by Race Chaser Online V8 Supercars Correspondent James Pike — Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images AsiaPac photo — Before heading full-swing into coverage of the 2015 V8 Supercars Championship, Race Chaser Online is taking one last look back at the 2014 season to honor the top performers and moments from last year's thrilling journey. Here are our …
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About Race Chaser Media
© Race Chaser Online. All Rights Reserved.
The genesis of Race Chaser Online actually took place in 2001 when Senior Editor Tom Baker formed a partnership with a news group in Central New York State to put together a motorsports news site called Inside Groove, aligning it with Baker's motorsports talk show based in the Syracuse area.
Though it was only online for two seasons, Inside Groove quickly became a focal point for race coverage across the Empire State. The same passion, drive and determination to provide interesting, energetic and unique content that went into that site was recalled when creating Race Chaser Online.
Throughout the past 28 years, Baker has successfully served the motorsports community in several capacities, including track promoter, writer, broadcaster, marketing and public relations specialist, driver coach and spotter, and returned to his journalistic roots in May of 2013 (he started writing for his local paper in 1988) as the CEO and Senior Editor for Race Chaser Online.
"I am blessed to be able to have a second chance at a motorsports news site," Baker said. "I love giving people a chance to share their stories and recognizing them for their hard work and achievements. We were quite successful with Inside Groove back several years ago, but I didn't really understand where the Internet was going as a news source so I didn't stay with it. With my experience over the years and the encouragement of a number of highly regarded people in our sport, I believe we are creating something that every race fan will enjoy."
"Our goal is always to gather together all the latest technologies so we can bring our audience a high-octane multimedia buffet and provide unique coverage of drivers, teams, tracks and series you will not find elsewhere."
"We can also provide those same teams, tracks and series with all the marketing and promotional materials and consultation they need to be successful, and we customize each program to the needs of the client. We can do everything from graphic design to marketing presentations, websites, videos, copy writing, press releases and even live radio broadcasts for races, tracks or series that want to elevate their online presence to a more exciting form of coverage. We can also set up a support program to work with them on refining their marketing efforts and increase their chances at success in that area."
"I enjoy helping others to develop better strategies and approaches to their marketing in the sport," Baker continued. "You cannot shortcut the process. It takes a lot of time to cultivate and maintain sponsors and you have to invest in the right materials and spend the time it takes to help them reach your audience. For those willing to make the investment of time and money to get it right, the investment is much more likely to pay off than for those who just think it's about putting a decal on the car and having a Facebook page. As soon as you introduce sponsors into your race team, it's not a hobby anymore. It's a business. We can work with you to polish and promote your racing business."
As a way of "giving back" and also of focusing on the future of motorsports, Race Chaser Online and its wireless mobile radio station — the Performance Motorsports Network — specialize in telling the stories of those who are climbing the racing ladder and highlight both the national levels of NASCAR and IndyCar as well as the niche divisions of the sport, including Australia's Supercars Championship, the mighty supermodifieds, Legends cars, go-karts and even online sim-racing, including iRacing's NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze Series!
Making this story even more unique, Baker has assembled — for the second time in his media career — a staff of inexperienced but surprisingly knowledgeable young racing journalists with a desire to learn the business and work in the sport, and he is providing the coaching and mentoring to help them take advantage of the opportunity to display their talents and skills to a worldwide audience.


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On June 14, 1985 Arab Hizbullah terrorists hijacked TWA flight 847 from Athens to Rome. They rounded up passengers with Jewish sounding names. 23 year old Navy diver Robert Stethem was taken off the plane, beaten and tortured and then shot. Mohammad Ali Hamadi one of the terrorists responsible has been released by Germany and returned back to Hizbullah in Lebanon despite American requests to extradite him.
Had this been a unique case it might be possible to overlook it but that is far from the case. Instead Germany has proven to be a haven for terrorists.
In 1972 the Olympic games were held in Munich when Arafat's terrorists attacked taking Israeli Olympic atheletes hostage. German authorities attempted several failed rescues with unqualified police officers who did not even open fire. While the hostages tried to chew through their ropes, the terrorists murdered them before being killed themselves. The Olympic committee did not halt the games and refused Israel's request for a permanent memorial as this might "alienate other members of the Olympic community."
Germany returned the bodies of the terrorists to Libya where they were buried with full military honors. That same year Germany freed the three surviving terrorists in an exchange after another airplane hijacking. Arafat who saw the terrorists off telling them, "Allah Protect You," and Mahmoud Abbas who financed the attack would become leaders of the Palestinian authority, internationally praised and acclaimed as men of peace.
On September 11th, 2001 Muslim terrorists hijacked four US airliners matching the record of Arafat's PLO terrorists who had innovated airplane hijacking in modern terrorism. The attackers including the mastermind Mohammed Atta were part of what was known as the Hamburg cell in Germany which planned and ultimately executed the murders of thousands of Americans. Working out of Mosques and Islamic bookstores little was hidden from German authorities who showed no concern with videotapes, books and sermons calling for a Jihad against America.
Among those later arrested in Germany was Mounir Motassadeq who was tried and convicted as an accessory to the attacks of September 11th but his conviction was overturned on appeal and he was finally only charged and convicted with being a member of a terrorist organization and given a sentence of only 7 years. If he is not freed before then, based on Germany's track record he will be released to an arab or muslim country from which he cannot be extradited.
Abdelghani Mzoudi, an associate of Mohammed Atta and a member of the Hamburg cell was also arrested in Germany and tried and acquited by a German court. Mamoun Darkazanli, who was a top associate of Osama Bin Laden and Al Queda financier. He had power of attorney over an Al Queda bank account in 1998 and was not arrested by German authorities. He has appeared on US most wanted lists and was an associate of three of the 9/11 hijackers and was questioned by German police in 2001 and released. After the Madrid bombings, Spain requested his extradition and a German court denied it and he continues as a free man in Germany today.
There is an obvious reason why Germany remains a favored base of operations for terrorists in Europe and why unlike England, France, America, Holland and Spain; Germany has remained unmarked by Islamic terrorism. Germany has supplied a safe harbor and a base of operations for terrorists while refusing to cooperate and outright obstructing international anti-terrorist efforts. While France is better known for opposition to the War in Iraq, the French have made arrests and fought terrorism domestically. Germany has given terrorists a free ride in the most explicit ways.
Post 9/11 Germany has become a fount of 9/11 conspiracy theories and historical revisionism aimed at claiming that the attacks were the work of the United States government thus doing for September 11th what they had earlier done for the Holocaust. While incitement to terrorism and racism is supposedly illegal, the Frankfurt book fair featured an outpouring of Anti-Semitic and Anti-American literature.
The question is not whether Germany has ties to Islamic terrorism, the question is how deep do they go. German inteligence had a major hand in the destruction of Yugoslavia by backing first Croatian militants and then the foreign Jihadists who came to fight alongside the KLA, including Iranians and Al Queda. The two greatest terorist attacks of the last 50 years, Munich and 9/11, were planned by groups operating on German soil whose perpetrators were released.
There is a clear and unambigious pattern of terrorists operating out of Germany and when Arab or Muslim terrorists are arrested by Germany, extradition is refused and sooner or later the terrorists end up being freed. Mohammad Ali Hamadi has now been freed and is back with his terrorist comrades in Lebanon. Mounir Motassadeq, the only man convicted of the 9/11 attacks will be free as well in several short years.
Is this incompetence by German law enforcement which is among the best in the world? Is it contempt for America and sympthy for terrorists? Or is it something more?
Germanys plans since WW2 are no secret.
They openly have declared that they have plans for the world and for the middle east and in their foreign policy paper they have declared they wish NATO nukes at their disposal for "Berlins" aims.
If this doenst scare people.. I pity the world.
ruth2 21/12/05
I've always believed that these Islamic murderers are the new Nazis. They have the same agena, which is terrifying.
Regarding the slaughter of the Israeli competitors, the Olympic committee is spineless, utterly lacking in integrity, human decency, and compassion.
A memorial is totally appropriate to honor the slain Israeli olympians.


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text:
8. Gilles De Rais
The man to take our first position is Gilles De Rais. It is really shocking as this man was a military before turning himself to one of the fierce serial killers. He was born in 1404; he raped, killed and tortured hundreds of people. He mutilated and even ejaculated on the dying bodies. This man was really brutal and his actions are still unmatched up to date.
10 Things That Can Give You Instant Goosebumps
How to Scare Someone with 10 Amazing Scare Tactics
10 Most Bizarre Misconceptions About Satan
ByEddy February 23, 2016 February 24, 2016
3. Not Incharge of Hell While Christians believe that nobody is yet in hell since the day of judgement has not yet come, it may be almost correct to say that he lives amongst us. According to the Book of Revelation 2:12, the ancient 'Turkish City of Pergamum" has been mentioned as the 'The Seat of…
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Bizarre | Facts | Misc
10 Amazing and Shocking Types of Twins
8. Fascinating Conjoined Twins These are twins which are identical but do not separate from each other because the ovum fails to completely separate from each other. This scenario results into partially joined babies even after birth. The above shocking picture is from India. In most cases, this scenario happens with females and they get joined…
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8 Rarest Birthmarks You Have Ever Seen 2022
You must have heard different myths about birthmarks, check these rarest birthmarks you have ever seen and share your thoughts. Generally, Birthmarks are colored marks on the newborn babies. Most of these show up immediately the kid is born, but some of them will show up after some days after the baby has been born….
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Random | Strange
Top 10 Renowned Celebrities in Jail
8. Maurice Clarett While studying at OSU, Maurice Clarett publicly criticized the university, coaches and its administrators for some perceived offences against him. He is also remembered for being involved in an academic scandal in which is reported to have received special treatment from a professor. He was included in the 2006 NFL team but…
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3. The Story of Phil Collins Yes you read it right! Even celebrities do believe in reincarnation. According to Phil, he believes he is the reincarnation of a Mexican. Phil met a psychic in Texas on a trip some few years ago who managed to talk him into believing that he was the reincarnation of…
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Amazing | Featured | Weird
Ever wondered what's creeping around in the Deepest Parts of the Gulf of Mexico
ByEddy May 3, 2018 May 3, 2018
If you have any interest in the marine life and the species that are living thousands of feet down in water, you must know that the answers are going to be bigshocking for you to watch. For the love of marine life and exploration regarding the different types surviving deep in the Gulf of Mexico…
Read More Ever wondered what's creeping around in the Deepest Parts of the Gulf of MexicoContinue


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The Academic Senate has elected a candidate for the new Rector. Associate Professor Petr Kopecký from the Faculty of Arts was elected in the first round of the two-round election. The elected candidate should take office after his appointment by the President from March 1, 2023.
Aréna OU, In English
The Academic Senate of the University of Ostrava elected a candidate for the new Rector. The senators chose from four candidates. Already in the first round of the two-round election, they elected an Americanist, Associate Professor Petr Kopecký from the Faculty of Arts. Kopecký received 23 votes, which is more than the required supermajority of 38 possible votes. The elected candidate should take office after his appointment by the President from March 1, 2023.
The 38-member Academic Senate, composed of students and academics, met at the University of Ostrava to select a new Rector by a secret ballot. The current Rector, Professor Jan Lata, could not run again after two four-year terms.
Four candidates, all from the University of Ostrava, applied for the post of Rector:
Professor Roman Hájek, Medical Doctor and the current Vice-Rector for Strategy and Development
Associate Professor Jan Hradecký, Geographer and the current Dean of the Faculty of Science
Associate Professor Petr Kopecký, Americanist and the current Vice-Chairperson of the UO Board of Internal Evaluation
Professor Aleš Zářický, Historian and the current Vice-Rector for Study and Lifelong Learning
The elected candidate for Rector of the University of Ostrava, Petr Kopecký, said after the election that the university is not facing an easy period and thinks that the Rector's priority in the current situation is to negotiate an increase in funding for higher education institutions in cooperation with other universities.
"We are at a time where it is going to be difficult to keep people in the university because the scissors between salaries in regional schools and university are opening up. This is a subject I will have to address intensively because without good people we cannot run the university well. This is an important topic for me," says Petr Kopecký.
All the candidates presented their visions at a university-wide assembly of the academic community. "I offered a vision to the Academic Senate that is consistent with what I have been doing for the last 25 years in the volunteer and nonprofit community, in municipal politics and, in recent years, at the university-wide level. We are at a time where it is going to be difficult to keep people in the university because the scissors between salaries in regional schools and university are opening up. This is a subject I will have to address intensively because without good people we cannot run the university well. This is an important topic for me," says Petr Kopecký.
"The future will be extremely difficult not only for Associate Professor Kopecký, but also for the entire university. The economic crisis will hit universities and inflation will hit employees. Rising prices in the construction industry will also be a major complication. We are planning two major projects at the University of Ostrava and we would also like to renovate the halls of residence and buildings of the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Science. The situation will not be easy, however, I keep my fingers crossed for Associate Professor Kopecký, I believe that he and his colleagues will cope with this and that the University will survive the difficult year that awaits us and that it will continue to strive to create an international and scientific university that will play an important role not only in the Czech environment, but also in Europe and in the world," outlines the outgoing Rector of the University of Ostrava Jan Lata.
"I am very pleased that the University was able to generate four very high quality candidates for the position of Rector. It shows that the university is healthy and the environment inside is as it should be on university ground. The competition of all four candidates and the election itself was very dignified and I thank everyone for that. The fact that Associate Professor Kopecký is clearly a good choice for the university is evidenced by the fact that he was elected in the first round, so he certainly has the confidence of the academic community. I am glad that he has such a strong mandate and I believe that he will be successful," says Jan Lata about the election.
The protocol on the election process will be sent to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports which will then forward it to the Office of the President of the Czech Republic. The appointment of Associate Professor Petr Kopecký to the post of Rector by the President of the Czech Republic can be expected in January. The mandate of the current Rector expires on February 28, 2023.
Results of the election:
Professor Roman Hájek: 4 votes
Associate Professor Jan Hradecký: 7 votes
Associate Professor Petr Kopecký: 23 votes
Professor Aleš Zářický: 4 votes
FOTOGALERIE: Mládí ladí Janáčka
Intepretace dějin se časem proměňuje, shodli se odborníci. Pusťte si záznam FactumOU
Richard Kuczinský
Student | Pozvánky
Deskovky pravidelně na Ostravské. Přidejte se do klubu Kostka
Michaela Davidová


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BriefsBusinessManagement
Cash would spur British workers back to office from remote work: survey
By Remote Report Staff July 30, 2021
While only 17 percent of U.K. workers want to return to the office full time, a chunk of cash would help motivate them to come back, according to research by Swiss workplace-analytics firm Locatee.
Forty-three percent of employees polled by the firm said a cash incentive would spur them to return to the office, with the ideal amount being 4,000 pounds ($5,525), on average, in the U.K. In London, the amount employees wanted rose to 5,100 pounds ($6,950).
In addition, the study found that 42 percent of U.K. office workers would consider changing jobs if they were not offered remote work post-pandemic. Twenty-four percent of respondents had been asked by their employers to return to the office full time.
"Businesses run the risk of losing talent if they don't offer some flexibility," Thomas Kessler, CEO and founder of Locatee, told Insurance Journal.
pay incentive


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Laelaps
Repost: The Hyena Who Saw the Canyon
ByRiley Black
• 15 min read
[Author's Note: I don't think that I have ever traveled so much in my entire life. For the past few months I have been chasing down dinosaurs – and the paleontologists who study them – across the American west, from Ekalaka, Montana to Ghost Ranch, New Mexico. All of it is for my next book, A Date With a Dinosaur, and my journey continues this week. I'm hitting a few stops in California to check out museums, wonder at old bones, and talk shop with dinosaur experts, but while driving across the sea of sagebrush known as Nevada the other day I was reminded of other, more recent creatures who inhabited North America. In particular, I wondered what the west might be like if hyenas still inhabited the arid expanses of the western states, so, while I'm running around like a non-avian dinosaur with my head cut off, here's a post from last March about North America's long-lost hyena.]
"Has the Earth's sixth mass extinction already arrived?" This question – the title of a review published in last week's Nature – immediately sparked a flurry of news reports about an impending ecological catastrophe on a scale not seen in 65 million years. We are not witnessing a die-off as severe as any of the "Big Five" prehistoric cataclysms just yet, but the continued, gradual loss of threatened species is bringing us ever closer to the tipping point. We can either take action and stave off this large-scale disaster, or simply wait for it to happen.
Of course, extinction is the inevitable fate of every species. Species do not only disappear during worldwide disasters. Extinction greatly outpaces the origin of new species on a global scale during rare crises, but the character of life on earth is constantly shifting as some lineages dwindle as others speciate and continue to change.
You do not need to look very far back into the fossil record to appreciate the ongoing ebb and flow of life. When I traveled through Utah and Wyoming for the first time in the summer of 2009, I saw the iconic elk, pronghorn, bison, and bears that symbolize the American wilderness. But these animals are only the inheritors of a landscape that has been inhabited by a changing cast of megamammals for millions of years. The great mammoths, ground sloths, deep-snouted bears, and sabercats of Pleistocene North America represent a lost world that disappeared only yesterday in geological terms, but they, too, were preceded by what we might perceive as strange assemblages of creatures, including North America's only hyena.
In 1901, workmen at the Val Verde Copper Mines in Anita, Arizona were prospecting around an ancient limestone fissure when they discovered a cache of ancient mammal bones. The fragments were badly broken, but the bone material itself was well-preserved, and a number of specimens were soon collected by B.C. Bicknell. The site also piqued the interest of globe-trotting fossil hunter Barnum Brown, who collected a few additional specimens in 1904. Pieces of prehistoric horses and camels were found among those of pronghorn, squirrels, groundhogs, and pocket gophers, as well as what appeared to be jaw fragments from a large cat.
It would take a decade and a half for the Anita bones to be fully described. Brown had intended to do it himself – he even sent for the specimens Bicknell had collected – but he never got around to it. Eventually the bones were given to what is now the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, where Oliver Perry Hay finally reported on them in 1921.
Most of the initial identifications Brown had made in his notes turned out to be correct. The mammals appeared to represent a time in the not-too-distant past when forms still living in North America today mixed with lineages that have since been extirpated. What stood out were two parts of "cat" jaw that didn't correspond to any known feline. With the exception of a tiny part of a molar, the crowns of the teeth were entirely gone, but together the two pieces comprised most of the mandible of a carnivorous mammal. Though this was not much to work with, Hay was able to determine that the jaw had belonged to a hyena – a type of carnivore never before found in North America – and he named it Chasmaporthetes ossifragus."The name of this [genus] makes allusion to the Grand Canyon," Hay wrote, "whose beginning this animal may have witnessed."
A restoration of Chasmaporthetes by Henry Galiano. From Berta, 1981.
Yet Chasmaporthetes was not unique to North America. The species Hay described – C. ossifragus – turned up in deposits between 3 and 1.5 million years old at other sites in Mexico, the American southwest, and Florida, but other species of the same genus were also discovered in Europe, Africa and Asia. Rather than being entirely unique to North America, Chasmaporthetes had initially evolved elsewhere and eventually spread over the Bering Land Bridge into North America. It was a long-lived variety of hyena that was just part of a radiation of now-extinct forms.
Although Africa's spotted hyena is the most iconic member of the group, there are three other species of living hyena: the striped hyena, the brown hyena, and the aardwolf. They are all that's left of a once-more widespread and diverse lineage that traces back about 20 million years to small, civet-like forms such as Plioviverrops. Now, based upon appearances alone, it might seem reasonable to lump all four modern hyenas into a single evolutionary subgroup tied together by common ancestry, but this wouldn't be right. The aardwolf, a strange and small hyena that primarily eats termites, is actually a relatively distant cousin of other modern hyenas and represents what some of the early members of the group may have been like. Likewise, the extinct giant Pachycrocuta was a closer relative of the spotted hyena than the striped and brown hyenas, and there was an entire array of extinct forms with no living representatives. Chasmaporthetes was among these now-extinct hyena lineages, and it was significantly different from the hyenas we know today.
Chasmaporthetes has often been called the "hunting hyena." By itself, this isn't a very helpful moniker. Despite their reputation as scavengers, for example, spotted hyenas actually obtain much of their meat through hunting, with carrion making up as little as five percent of their diet in some populations. Even so, the nickname is meant to highlight the long-legged and relatively graceful build of Chasmaporthetes. This was a hyena well-adapted to running and chasing down prey.
The left upper jaw (maxilla) of a Chasmaporthetes found in Florida (facing left). The preserved teeth, from the left, are the third incisor, canine, and premolars 2-4. (The second incisor and first premolar were missing.) From Berta, 1981.
For decades, most of what was hypothesized about the North American hyena was based on Chasmaporthetes specimens found elsewhere. Jaw fragments and teeth were all that had been recovered in the southwest and Mexico. This changed in 1981, when Annalisa Berta described parts of the skull and limbs of the hyena found in Florida. No single skeleton was found, but by looking at the accumulated pieces Berta determined that the Florida hyenas had strongly-muscled, flexible upper arms and long, slightly curved tibiae which indicated that the hyenas had very powerful hindlimbs. The fact that premolars of Chasmaporthetes resembled the meat-slicing teeth of the spotted hyena rather than the crushers of the brown and striped hyenas was taken as an indication that it was more of a predator than a scavenger, and a fleet-footed one at that.
Though the North American Chasmaporthetes specimens were differentiated from other species by their relatively robust limbs, deep lower jaws, and slightly curved tooth rows, their general anatomy was consistent with finds in the Old World. These hyenas were hunters that ran down their prey. This might have put them in competition with speedy cats that evolved about 1.8 million years ago – namely North America's false cheetah Miracinonyx – but some researchers stressed caution in drawing conclusions about diet on the basis on anatomy alone. In a 1994 paper about Chasmaporthetes and Hyaenictis, paleontologists Lars Werdelin, Alan Turner, and Nikos Solounias wrote:
It should be noted, however, that our suggestion of adaptations towards a cursorial and active hunting mode of life for Chasmaporthetes does not mean that it did not scavenge, nor that it was necessarily in competition with extremely cursorial hunters such as Acinonyx [true cheetahs] and Miracinonyx. However, relative to other hyaenas[,] it has clearly evolved in that direction.
An illustration of the skull of Chasmaporthetes lunensis from Spain and a full restoration of the hyena's dog-like head. Art by Mauricio Antón and modified by Antón et al., 2007.
Although many researchers stressed that the cheek teeth of the several Chasmaporthetes species were better suited to shearing than crushing, this did not mean that the hyenas were incapable of cracking bone. After all, modern spotted hyenas are formidable hunters as well as accomplished bone-crackers, and a complete skull of the European species C. lunensis found in Spain exhibited patterns of tooth wear consistent with breaking open bones. Much like the modern spotted hyena, Chasmaporthetes was a hunter that could make full use of a carcass, as well as scavenge when the opportunity presented itself.
But paleontologists have been able to do more than propose hypotheses on the gross anatomy of the Chasmaporthetes bones alone. The rediscovery of the skull from Spain – which had been found in the 1970's and studied by Dolores Soria for her doctoral thesis before fading from view until 2007 – finally provided scientists with an opportunity to see what kind of stresses and strains the hyena's skull was capable of withstanding. Paleontologists have carried out these tests for a variety of bone-crunching mammals over the years, and so there was already plenty to compare the C. lunensis skull with.
Zhijie Tseng, Mauricio Antón, and Manuel Salesa published the results of their study in Paleobiology earlier this year. Like many other bone-cracking carnivorans, the skull of Chasmaporthetes exhibited a mosaic of features that gave it a powerful bite – a short snout, massive premolars, a large sagittal crest on the top of the skull for muscle attachment, deep lower jaws, and teeth modified at the microscopic level to resist fracturing. These traits are present to relatively lesser or greater degrees among carnivorous mammals adapted to crack bones, but the scientists hypothesized that the skull of Chasmaporthetes would have had suffered greater stress while breaking through bone than the skull of a modern spotted hyena.
The scientists turned out to be wrong. Based upon the computerized models created for the study, Tseng and colleagues concluded that the skull of "Chasmaporthetes was just as adapted for handling stress incurred during bone-cracking behavior as the modern Crocuta [spotted hyena]." Yet this does not necessarily mean that the extinct hyena hunted and fed in the exact same way that spotted hyenas do. Chasmaporthetes still had comparatively slender teeth better suited to cutting through fresh than breaking through bone, and so the authors of the paper suggest that the stress-absorbing features of the skull might be adaptations to withstanding forces generated by struggling prey. The way the hyenas caught prey has to be taken into account, and future studies that model stresses created by prey may help scientists identify skull characteristics related to hunting rather than fracturing bone. Chasmaporthetes certainly could have been a competent bone-cracker, but whether the anatomy of its skull can be attributed to this kind of behavior is another question.
Unfortunately, no one has yet found a complete skull from an American hyena. Perhaps some lucky paleontologist will, but, for now, the skull from Spain provides the best available information about the possible feeding habits of these "hunting hyenas." I can only imagine a pack of Chasmaporthetes chasing down a prehistoric pronghorn through the grasslands – a scene that still echoes in Africa, but occurred during a distant part of North America's prehistory.
Top Image: A spotted hyena carries the defleshed leg of a wildebeest. Image from Flickr user kibuyu.
M. Antón, A. Turner, M. J. Salesa, J. Morales (2006). A complete skull of Chasmaporthetes lunensis (Carnivora, Hyaenidae) from the Spanish Pliocene site of La Puebla de Valverde (Teruel) Estudios Geológicos, 62 (1), 375-388
Barnosky, A., Matzke, N., Tomiya, S., Wogan, G., Swartz, B., Quental, T., Marshall, C., McGuire, J., Lindsey, E., Maguire, K., Mersey, B., & Ferrer, E. (2011). Has the Earth's sixth mass extinction already arrived? Nature, 471 (7336), 51-57 DOI: 10.1038/nature09678
Berta, A. (1981). The Plio-Pleistocene hyaena Chasmaporthetes ossifragus from Florida Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 1 (3), 341-356 DOI: 10.1080/02724634.1981.10011905
Cooper, S., Holekamp, K., & Smale, L. (1999). A seasonal feast: long-term analysis of feeding behaviour in the spotted hyaena (Crocuta crocuta) African Journal of Ecology, 37 (2), 149-160 DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2028.1999.00161.x
Ferretti, M. (2007). Evolution of bone-cracking adaptations in hyaenids (Mammalia, Carnivora) Swiss Journal of Geosciences, 100 (1), 41-52 DOI: 10.1007/s00015-007-1212-6
Hay, O.P. 1921. "Descriptions of species of Pleistocene vertebrata, types or specimens of most of which are preserved in the United States National Museum." Proceedings of the National Museum. 59 (2391): 599-642
Kurten, B., & Werdelin, L. (1988). A review of the genus Chasmaporthetes Hay, 1921 (Carnivora, Hyaenidae) Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 8 (1), 46-66 DOI: 10.1080/02724634.1988.10011683
Tseng, Z., Antón, M., & Salesa, M. (2011). The evolution of the bone-cracking model in carnivorans: cranial functional morphology of the Plio-Pleistocene cursorial hyaenid Chasmaporthetes lunensis (Mammalia: Carnivora) Paleobiology, 37 (1), 140-156 DOI: 10.1666/09045.1
TURNER, A., ANTON, M., & WERDELIN, L. (2008). Taxonomy and evolutionary patterns in the fossil Hyaenidae of Europe Geobios, 41 (5), 677-687 DOI: 10.1016/j.geobios.2008.01.001
WERDELIN, L., TURNER, A., & SOLOUNIAS, N. (1994). Studies of fossil hyaenids: the genera Hyaenictis Gaudry and Chasmaporthetes Hay, with a reconsideration of the Hyaenidae of Langebaanweg, South Africa Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 111 (3), 197-217 DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.1994.tb01483.x
Vikings in North America? Here's what we really know


**All sold except crown design Rm 10 per ring, if you only want one specific design, please describe the design when pm me, thank you.
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Okay, well my name is Sarah Messina. I am 30 years old. I grew up in a small town in Southern New Jersey called Absecon. It is located 10 minutes outside of Atlantic City. I since have lived in Mays Landing and Hammonton, surrounding areas of my hometown. Two years ago I needed a change of scenery, so I packed whatever could fit in my car and drove down with my dog Stella to little island beach town called Ft. Myers Beach, FL. I plan on moving again one day soon to experience a new place to live. I currently am a freelance artist. I have spent the last two years experimenting with my personal work as well and opening my online shop. Prior to that I worked for almost 10 years as an in-house designer at Stockton University. Over the last decade I graduated from Stockton University, traveled to over 30 different places overseas and around the U.S.A., worked in a lovely little art gallery, volunteered with kids at an art museum and designed over 50 published books.
I have an amazing older brother, Jason Messina, who is also an artist, as well as a comedian, videographer, and writer, who lives in NYC. My mother is a beautiful, strong, passionate woman. She teaches at Stockton University and is the Assistant Dean in the School of Arts and Humanities. My father, who we called Poppy, was a serious man, with a lovely underlying tone for comedy and sarcasm. He passed in 2005 after a courageous two-year battle with brain cancer. I was only 19 years old.
You've made a career for yourself as an artist and a designer, was this always what you wanted to do when you were growing up?
From what I remember when I was a young child, I loved creating. It did not matter what it was, paint, something crafty, dancing, dress up—I got lost in it all. I never really said when I was little, "oh I want to be this or that"—I don't ever remember doing that or being asked about it. But I do know in 1998 when Stepmom came out I wanted to be Julia Roberts's character, a commercial photographer for a magazine in New York. From that time on I started collecting W Magazine, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, obscure zines and art magazines. They were my inspiration - the layouts, the colors, and the feel of them. I took modern dance and ballet classes all my life but when I got to high school I discovered writing and more focused art classes. I started to experiment with the ideas that floated around in my head. It was the true start of my love for visual arts.
Your art, at least the little that I've seen on your website and Instagram, is really female centered and very body positive. What inspires you?
Humans inspire me. They always have. The way we connect, the ways in which we are unique and come from different places in life, our distinct narratives. I have always wanted to know as much as I can about people. I have been fortunate throughout my life to be surround by people from varied cultural backgrounds. In addition, I feel that the human body and mind, of any gender identification, race or sexuality, are often judged negatively by society, and through art I intend to keep an honest conversation going about humans and their ability to be incredible in any way they want to be. I also think one's self can be an inspiration, and I have often drawn from personal experience when creating new work. I have struggled with my own demons, but giving life to those demons in a positive way helps me try to accept them and grow from them. By facing them through my art, I am able to give them light instead of darkness.
What is something you have learned from being an artist?
It is hard and freeing at the same time. I knew when I choose visual arts to study in college, it would be at times a challenging road. And I am reminded of that when I feel I am not creating to my potential, when my mental state is not at its best or when I apply for a job and do not get it. But, I honestly would never wish to change what I do; I just wish to improve upon it. I am constantly learning, constantly challenging myself and I am constantly discovering new parts of me I never knew existed. I feel like I am part of this brilliant community that helps the world see ideas in unique and special ways and that feeling is pretty awesome.
First and foremost, my sweet dachshund, Stella.
The motivation that I have something to accomplish and create. Not just for others, but also for myself. It means so much to me to express my thoughts and beliefs and have them connect with people. To bring my ideas to life through art and design. Whether it is a project for a client or a personal project for myself, one of the most rewarding feelings is being productive at connecting with people.
I know that it's said so much and it is so cliché, but don't be afraid to be yourself. Really don't be afraid of anything. I was diagnosed with a rare form of scleroderma, Morphea (skin disease) when I was in second grade. As I got older it progressed and I spent so much of my time and energy trying to hid it from everyone. When I was a senior in high school it went into remission, but I knew I would forever have this discolored marking on my leg. Slowly, as I got older, I learned to embrace this 'scar' on my body as just another battle I won, another story in my journey. I don't spend any energy hiding it anymore. I encourage young women to travel as much as you can, learn as much as you can, talk to people that look different from you. Learn their stories and invite them to be apart of your story. Read, explore, be honest and true to yourself.
My mom, Alanis Morissette, Frida Kahlo, Georgia O'Keeffe, Patti Smith, Maya Angelou, Gloria Steinem, Angela Davis and Audre Lorde.
I think hearing someone else's story is a true privilege. It's a privilege because it is their [story]. It's from their perspective and when they share it with you, it becomes a part of your perspective, your story. It opens our minds to think outside of ourselves, to see the world through another person's eyes. The more we hear people's stories, the more we all continue to connect with one another through each other's experiences, which ultimately and, hopefully, brings us closer together as humans.
One of the on-going projects I had, when I was at Stockton University, was designing and laying out memoirs for Holocaust Survivors and allies of WWII. I worked closely every day with my editor who brought the stories to life with words and me with creativity. I grew up learning about the Holocaust. My parents made it a point to educate us and I took many Holocaust and Genocide courses in college. So when I got older and started meeting survivors, knowing their stories more personally, designing their book covers, scanning and editing their photos and speaking with them at luncheons, it became a full circle moment. This is some of the most meaningful work of my career thus far.
Super hard to pick just one, as books are my dear friends, but two that come to mind are Just Kids, by Patti Smith - I never wanted it to end; and The Invention of Wings, by Sue Monk Kidd - I could not put it down.
Again super hard. Music was always playing in my house growing up and I have literally attended over 100 concerts and shows from the time I was 14 until now (I am 30 now). I also collect vinyl records as I feel there is nothing like the experience of taking a vinyl from its unique packaging, putting a record under the needle and letting it play. To put it simply, I love everything from James Taylor to Kendrick Lamar.
Have an open mind; Treat others the way you want to be treated; Be honest; You live, You learn; Keep going.
To see more of Sarah's art visit her on Instagram @bysarahmessina or check out her webpage sarahmessina.com.


>> implementation resources and implementation bugs happen.
>>> expense is, frankly, negligible.
>> simplest, clearest code possible . . .
testing and return to implementation interop.
to be made easier in future) and return to interop testing.
proposal should ideally be judged against such requirements.
> And I'm not convinced that the NUMS curve proposal can be implemented with decent performance in simple and clear JS.
> Sure; but why then not secp224r1/SHA-224 and secp256r1/SHA-256?
> *overestimate* the probability a cryptosystem might be broken?
> [w3c_curves]: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-webcrypto/2014Sep/0011.html "[W3C Web Crypto WG] CfC : Call for Consensus on the integration of new curves in Web Crypto API - vote before the 16th of sept"


text:
package jp.gr.java_conf.uzresk.aws.ope.instance.model;

import java.util.List;

import lombok.Data;

@Data
public class InstanceRequests {

	private List<InstanceRequest> instanceRequests;

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub