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Opinion: What the great oil bust of 2014 means for 2015
The precipitous decline in oil prices during the past six months creates the sort of economic upheaval that's likely to alter the course of companies and countries. Brent crude has been steadily falling since mid-June, and now sells for almost half the $115 a barrel it did then. Even if oil prices rebound in a few months – which isn't likely – the Bust of 2014, as it will become known, is going to leave a lasting mark. We're already beginning to see reactions in the energy industry. Earlier this month, ConocoPhillips, the biggest U.S. independent producer, said it would slash its 2015 capital budget by 20 percent. A few weeks earlier, Halliburton announced plans to buy oilfield service rival Baker Hughes for $35 billion, which was quickly followed by plans to shed 1,000 jobs in the Eastern Hemisphere. In mid-December, chief executive David Lesar said more cuts could follow next year as the market for drilling services weakens. BP CEO Bob Dudley emphasized recently that his company's costs are too high to compete in an environment of lower crude prices. The company plans to cut jobs and may also close or sell some sites or plants, Dudley said. BP, of course, has long been rumored as a takeover target, with Shell mentioned as the most likely suitor. BP's shares have trailed its peers since the Deepwater Horizon disaster in April 2010, and greater clarity on the extent of liabilities from that case, combined with lower oil prices, could make it more vulnerable to a buyout. The industry hasn't seen a mega-merger like that since the bust of the late 1990s.
By Loren Steffy
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The precipitous decline in oil prices during the past six months creates the sort of economic upheaval that's likely to alter the course of companies and countries. Brent crude has been steadily falling since mid-June, and now sells for almost half the $115 a barrel it did then.
Even if oil prices rebound in a few months – which isn't likely – the Bust of 2014, as it will become known, is going to leave a lasting mark.
We're already beginning to see reactions in the energy industry. Earlier this month, ConocoPhillips, the biggest U.S. independent producer, said it would slash its 2015 capital budget by 20 percent. A few weeks earlier, Halliburton announced plans to buy oilfield service rival Baker Hughes for $35 billion, which was quickly followed by plans to shed 1,000 jobs in the Eastern Hemisphere. In mid-December, chief executive David Lesar said more cuts could follow next year as the market for drilling services weakens.
BP CEO Bob Dudley emphasized recently that his company's costs are too high to compete in an environment of lower crude prices. The company plans to cut jobs and may also close or sell some sites or plants, Dudley said. BP, of course, has long been rumored as a takeover target, with Shell mentioned as the most likely suitor. BP's shares have trailed its peers since the Deepwater Horizon disaster in April 2010, and greater clarity on the extent of liabilities from that case, combined with lower oil prices, could make it more vulnerable to a buyout. The industry hasn't seen a mega-merger like that since the bust of the late 1990s.
Regardless of BP's fate, though, expect a lot more job cuts, slashed drilling budgets and mergers in 2015 as oil prices remain well below their mid-2014 level.
The bust also doesn't bode well for oil-dependent economies such as Russia, Venezuela, Iran and Nigeria. In recent years, the first three in particular have increased government spending on social programs to cover up latent economic decay. The oil price decline is likely to mean significant economic pain, the sort that can lead to political upheaval and leadership changes.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, which also has an oil-dependent economy, is game to ride out the bust. The kingdom's decision in November to maintain production shows a lesson learned from the 1980s, when it cut output to shore up prices, only to be undercut by other OPEC members.
Now, the Saudis have decided to use their status as the world's low-cost producer to gain market share at the expense of everyone else. That poses a particular threat to U.S. shale producers, some of whom gamely claim they can keep producing even at $40 a barrel. Harold Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources, the biggest producer in North Dakota's Bakken Shale, last month eliminated his company's oil hedges, essentially betting its future on Hamm's bet that oil won't sink much farther than it already has.
Don't expect many other wildcatters to follow Hamm's lead. The U.S. Oil Patch isn't the freewheeling place it was in the 1980s, when the TV show "Dallas" defined it for the world. Producers these days are more cautious, and companies are already beginning to emulate ConocoPhillips, pulling back on drilling plans, rather than forging ahead.
Despite that caution, U.S. production will continue to rise in 2015. Weaker prices may cause a pullback in marginal production, but existing commitments are likely to mean output will rise to 9.3 million barrels a day from 8.6 million in 2014, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That will be added to a growing supply on world markets that could include increased output from Iraq as well. The growing abundance will affect several key issues in the Western Hemisphere.
First, it basically ensures that the issue of U.S. oil exports, which Hamm and some other producers have championed, is a non-starter. Political opposition to lifting America's 40-year-old ban remains strong, and it's unlikely that even with a Republican majority in Congress that lawmakers will vote to lift the ban. Allowing exports would probably cause oil prices in the U.S. to rise, which elected officials don't want to see heading into a presidential election year in 2016.
Second, Mexico's energy reforms could stall – again. The country approved a constitutional amendment opening its vast oil fields to foreign investment in December 2013, and it issued rules clarifying the bidding process for foreign companies, but many uncertainties remain. With weaker demand for new sources of crude, companies may be less eager to set up shop in Mexico. At the very least, it becomes a longer-term play than it already was.
Finally, don't be surprised to see the Keystone XL Pipeline finally scrapped. The project to bring oil sands productions from western Canada to the U.S. has long been a rallying point for environmental groups, who have blocked its approval for the past six years. Republicans have vowed to use their majority in Congress to push through but it may bee too late. U.S. refiners don't need the oil as badly, and even if the project finally wins political approval, it may no longer make economic sense. The decline in crude prices threatens the economic viability of Canadian oil sands, and companies have found alternatives – such as shipping oil by rail – that may make the pipeline obsolete.
All in all, 2015 is shaping up to look disturbingly like 1986 for the oil business. Prices are going to come back only when global demand – primarily from Asia – picks up again. Some optimists believe that could happen by the end of next year, but even if economic activity accelerates, it will take a while to work through the excess supplies that will have amassed by then. The Bust of 2014, in other words, could persist well into 2016.
Loren Steffy is a managing director with the communications firm 30 Point Strategies. He is a writer at large for Texas Monthly, a contributor to Forbes and the author of Drowning in Oil: BP and the Reckless Pursuit of Profit and The Man Who Thought Like a Ship. Follow him on Twitter: @lsteffy; on Facebook or at lorensteffy.com.
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How Tony Soprano Paved the Way for Donald Trump
TV's difficult men didn't invent Trump; but he is what they were warning us about.
By Brett Martin
Left, from HBO/Photofest; Right, by Patrick Semansky/A.P. Images.
David Chase used to fret about the fans of The Sopranos. Many, he knew, understood the series he'd created as he'd intended them to: as a dark, comic, critical portrait of turn-of-the-century America gone off the rails—over-medicated, under-secure, with violence, greed, and anxiety at its heart. Others, he feared, tuned in for everything that surrounded that story: the tits, the ass, the cursing, and, above all, the bloodshed. If those things formed the Trojan horse in whose belly Chase had smuggled his art onto television, he knew that many viewers were content to pet the pretty horsey while paying no mind to what might lie inside. As he put it in one of our interviews for my book *Difficult Men: Behind the Scenes of a Creative Revolution, from The Sopranos and The Wire to Mad Men and *Breaking Bad, still angry about a columnist who had complained about "nothing happening" in a season premiere: "What are you watching for? Just to see big Tony Soprano take a guy's head and slam it against the wall like a cantaloupe?" He shook his own head, as though he'd failed.
My response at the time, at least privately, was something along the lines of, "Gee, Mr. Chase, so sorry that you've stumbled on the Holy Grail of popular entertainment, a creation that's both critically acclaimed and embraced by the masses. How tragic that, like poets and artists since the dawn of time, you can't control the precise manner in which your audience consumes your art. I do hope the millions of dollars this unfortunate circumstance allows you to spend on producing it (not to mention that you've taken home) goes part of the way toward easing the pain." Or as Livia Soprano herself might have put it, more succinctly: "Poor you."
But that was before Trump.
Ever since the rise of The Donald, a surprising number of people have asked me whether—in addition to more obvious primordial ponds of pop culture: reality television, pro wrestling, 24-hour news—part of his oozing path was cleared by the antiheroes that have dominated prestige television since The Sopranos. Did these shows blur the lines between humanization and celebration? Had our capacity for outrage been dulled? Did they give us a taste for monsters?
My answer is this: TV's difficult men didn't invent Donald Trump. But he is what they were warning us about.
After all, the emotional journey of these shows was primal attraction, followed by conscious repulsion. We thrilled to Walter White's or Tony Soprano's or Al Swearengen's transgressions, and then recoiled, both from the men and from our own unseemly excitement. It was a whiplashing slide down the super-ego-ego-id ladder and back up again, a ride at its best moments so rapid that the various states were close to queasily simultaneous.
Trump is what happens when you take only the first half of that journey—when you descend and never come back up. He's the thrill without the recoil. The act without the critique. The body ungoverned by brain. Pure impulse and thus pure, dumb, terrifying entertainment. Chase was right to fear and loathe those who might seduced by that equation.
Tony, on the other hand, would probably approve—and not just because he and Trump shared similar taste in interior design. I have no doubt that the character we met bemoaning having come in "at the end," when "the best is over," would have been the perfect host for the Make America Great Again spore. "Unsettled white man raging against the erosion of his power" is more or less the casting breakdown for both Trump Voter and Soprano, Tony.
And yet Tony was also Trump himself—a permission-granter. Tony not only absolved his admirers' worst impulses, he celebrated them: say whatever you want, fuck whomever you want, kill whomever you want. (Come to think of it, "revoked his press credentials" would make a nice euphemism for a mob hit.) This is what made one such a fascinating literary character, and the other such a sinister real person. And in a world in which the public's ability to discern fictional spectacle from sober reality seems increasingly tenuous (see Brexit), it's what makes Trump so frightening.
For what it's worth, the current show most explicitly concerned with issues of power and governance, Game of Thrones, has developed a far more conventional view of heroes and villains as it heads towards its denouement. (Ramsay Bolton was not a Difficult Man; he was simply a dick.) And what happy message does it have to pass on? That the good rarely prevail. That nuance is weak while brute force triumphs. That the worst happens regularly and that history curves towards chaos and darkness.
Oh, and that the only hope lies with putting a woman in charge.
An American Family
GANG'S ALL HERE
From left: Michael Imperioli (Christopher Moltisanti), Edie Falco (Carmela Soprano), James Gandolfini (Tony Soprano), Lorraine Bracco (Dr. Jennifer Melfi), Robert Iler (Anthony "A.J." Soprano), Jamie-Lynn Sigler (Meadow Soprano), Ilene Landress (executive producer), Steven Schirripa (Bobby "Bacala" Baccalieri), Dominic Chianese (Corrado "Uncle Junior" Soprano), Aida Turturro (Janice Soprano), Steven Van Zandt (Silvio Dante), Tony Sirico (Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri), and David Chase (creator) in 2007.
David Chase Eulogizes James Gandolfini: "You Were a Good Boy"
By Julie Miller
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By Annie Leibovitz and Sam Kashner
Stop Believin'
David Chase: Tony Soprano Didn't Die in the End
Exclusive: Is Donald Trump's Endgame the Launch of Trump News?
By Sarah Ellison

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Enjoy a bike ride on the scenic Root River State Trail from Lanesboro to Preston and back (20 miles) or as far as you want to go.
Non-bikers enjoy sitting on the Krom cabin deck next to the falls. We will have lunch at the cabin after the bike ride.


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Welcome to the ProgBlog
What began as a chance encounter with Melting Clock's bassist Alessandro Bosca in 2017 has turned into a good friendship with the whole band.
Their debut album Destinazioni was released at the end of October and it has the potential to stamp their mark firmly on the prog map.
ProgBlog traces their journey...
100 not out
By ProgBlog, Jul 13 2019 03:41PM
Prog 100
2019 marks 10 years of Prog magazine and as I write this, the 100th edition has been landing on the doormats of subscribers. A cricketing analogy seems appropriate for progressive rock while we're waiting for the final of the Cricket World Cup, the long-form strategy of 5-day Test matches coming closest of any sport to embody the ethos of prog; the innings looked to be over as Team Rock, publishers of Prog, Metal Hammer and Classic Rock were plunged into administration in December 2016 only to be declared not out, saved by original owners Future Publishing in early January 2017 who bought the titles for a reputed £800,000 (having sold them for £10.2m to Team Rock in 2013.) The most heart-warming part of this story was that British metal band Orange Goblin raised over £70,000 through a Just Giving page for staff who were made redundant, put out of work without any severance pay just before Christmas; an illustration of the importance of the magazines to the musicians and the fans.
BBC Four - Prog Rock Britannia: An Observation in Three Movements
Though it had never left my radar, prog as a genre resurfaced in the mainstream media in January 2009 with the BBC Four series Prog Rock Britannia: An Observation in Three Movements following a series of false starts, one of which was the Virgin/EMI 3CD 'The Best Prog Album in the World... Ever', somewhat cynically released in time for Fathers' Day in 2003. Not too long after the initial airing of that BBC Four series the first edition of Classic Rock Presents Prog hit the newsstands, intended at the planning stage as a quarterly publication but quickly becoming bimonthly due to its instant success. I can't remember from which newsagent I bought my copy of that first issue but I assumed it was a one-off until I came across issue 2 (June 2009) Prog's Avant Garde Old and New in Real Groovy records in Christchurch, NZ while on holiday in August 2009; my collection is devoid of the third and fourth editions, and also number 16, the issue published immediately before I set up a subscription.
In what could be seen as confirmation that prog was once more acceptable to discuss outside of dungeons or shady pub back-rooms, Alexis Petridis penned an article for The Guardian newspaper in July 2010, the week before the re-formed ELP headlined the High Voltage festival in London's Victoria Park that reported on, with some surprise, the resurgence of prog https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jul/22/prog-rock-genesis-rush-mostly-autumn
Petridis interviewed Prog magazine editor Jerry Ewing and revealed a healthy circulation of 22,000 copies per issue which at the time was half the circulation for the long-established NME.
Go back to go forward - Alexis Petridis in The Guardian
Serendipitously, Ewing had chosen exactly the right time to launch the magazine; the third wave of prog that began in the mid 90s, itself a testament to the quality of the music, was going from strength to strength and exerting ever greater influence, and a vinyl revival had begun a couple of years before. Progressive rock may not have been truly fashionable but was nevertheless massively successful in the 70s, shipping millions of vinyl albums, where part of the pleasure of the prog experience was absorbing the images, lyrics and technical information on the gatefold sleeve. I believe that more than any other the genre, the vinyl LP is associated with progressive rock. A measure of this success is that some bands were effectively exiled from the UK by the government's tax regime; when Labour took power in 1974 the top rate of income tax was increased from 75% to 83% and the surcharge on investment tax took the top rate on investment income up to 98%, rates that applied to 750,000 people with incomes over £20,000 per year, including the best-selling prog bands like Yes, ELP and Jethro Tull.
Prog 01
It was obvious that there was no way that a periodical dedicated to progressive rock could last long by only reporting on the music produced between 1969 and 1978, or even by appending on the era of neo-prog. I don't read every article and I'm sometimes disappointed that what I consider an important event isn't picked up by the editorial team, prompting me to fire off a disgruntled letter (or two.) I'm still of the opinion that there's insufficient coverage of classic rock progressivo Italiano, although new material from PFM in 2017 and Banco del Mutuo Soccorso this year addresses this to some extent, but I was sure that 2013's Le Porte del Domani by La Maschera di Cera, a conceptual follow-up to the acknowledged classic of Progressivo Italiano, Felona e Sorona by Le Orme surely deserved a mention, especially as La Maschera di Cera, like Le Orme before them, issued an English-language version of the album. However, the magazine manages to meet the requirements of unreconstructed 70s prog-philes whilst still managing to preserve a place in the competitive periodicals market by representing a spectrum that takes in progressive-minded metal, electronica, folk, jazz and ambient and though stable mate Classic Rock magazine might contain some content overlap of less-niche prog-associated acts like Pink Floyd, there are so many bands that they miss entirely, because they are neither the next big thing nor filling stadia. I've recently witnessed a tendency for general music journalism to reference progressive traits, in Muse for example, as handy epithets to confer a description that a group doesn't simply follow the ordinary; this creates a space apart from conventional publications for a magazine devoted to prog.
Letter to Prog, May 2013
With 100 editions in ten years, the frequency of Prog nicely balances new and freshly reappraised copy, with novel material provided by a cohort of younger musicians who can reflect on the music played by their parents and fusing this with other music that has been around for less time. This brings a new perspective to the genre, one of the reasons, I believe, that prog rock found a new respectability in the 90s and the secret of the third wave's longevity. I've previously griped about prog metal but it is unlikely that there would have been a third wave if there had been no assimilation of a progressive ethos into metal. Catalysed by a shared heritage that cherished technical ability, prog metal began to arise in different parts of the world, most notably Scandinavia and the USA. This renewed interest in (or alternatively, a reduction in hostility towards) prog allowed the resurrection of King Crimson, who still felt the need to test the water by releasing the VROOOM EP in 1994. The double trio incarnation of Crimson revisited some of the ideas abruptly curtailed in 1974, complex and heavy, aligning themselves with prevailing trends and even touring with Tool in 2001.
There will always be debates about what constitutes prog rock, which nicely plays into the success of Prog magazine, tapping into any genre that cross-pollinates with prog. The Bloody Well Write letters page may contain missives from unreconstructed 70's progressive rock fans declaring they will no longer subscribe to the publication but there are far more letters pointing out what a good job the Prog team are doing. That the magazine is now 10 years and 100 editions old is testament to their efforts. I'm happy to subscribe to Prog; Without it I'd have been too reluctant to give Anglo-Finnish Wigwam a chance and I'd never have discovered the excellent Zappa-like Supersister (from the Netherlands) or the amazing Yak who have no guitarist but sound like Steve Hackett.
I'm looking forward to the next 100 editions in the next 10 years.
Though electronic media has played a part in the demise of the printed word, the best strategy seems to be balancing both forms of medium. I read Armando Gallo's early Genesis biography I Know What I Like on a Samsung tablet and found it deeply unsatisfying but I am aware that one of the secrets to commercial success is to mix formats. So hats off to Prog magazine getting the balance right and keeping going, seemingly from strength to strength in a fiercely competitive environment.
I was both amused and surprised to see free copies of the NME available outside Whitechapel station when I started to work in the East End in 2015. Sporting an image of Taylor Swift, with a prominent yellow bubble appearing like a peeling sticker announcing MUSIC FILM STYLE, I realised that like other freebies handed out at transport hubs the print edition of the NME had become nothing more than a listings magazine, finally succumbing to what I always thought was their unspoken ethos that style was more important than the music. The print edition of the NME closed down in 2018.
Paul Stump's words could not have been wiser: the music's all that matters
Credit: Jordan Hughes/NME
Post-postscript
For my part, I have learned to accept prog metal as a valid and valued sub-genre
Prog metal - Prog 12 December 2010
Filed under: king crimson, progressive rock, Wigwam, Steve Hackett, NME, Jethro Tull, I Know What I Like, Frank Zappa, The Guardian, Genesis, prog rock, progressivo Italiano, Team Rock, Metal Hammer, Cricket World Cup, Orange Goblin, 100 not out, Jerry Ewing, Tool, Music Film Style, Prog Rock Britannia, An Observation in Three Movements, Prog100, Le Orme, Yak, neo-prog, Yes, Prog magazine, ambient music, ELP, Classic Rock magazine, Armando Gallo, Taylor Swift, prog folk, vinyl revival, La Maschera di Cera, Pink Floyd, Alexis Petridis, Supersister, Real Groovy New Zealand, Vrooom, Paul Stump, The Music's All That Matters, High Voltage Festival, jazz, prog metal, Felona e Sorona, Le Porte del Domani, prog, Electronica
Nick Mason and early Floyd
By ProgBlog, May 13 2019 10:31PM
I have a soft spot for the Barrett-era Floyd, where the psychedelic whimsy found on The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is tinged with a darker edge, and for those of us who weren't able to see this version of the band play live, there are recorded hints of Pink Floyd as sonic pioneers in Astronomy Domine and Interstellar Overdrive – the vanguard of space rock. Having bought Relics around the same time as acquiring Dark Side of the Moon, my next Floyd purchase, within a week of its release, was A Nice Pair. I may have heard bootlegs of Atom Heart, Meddle and Dark Side but at that time I was more familiar with their earlier oeuvre and as much entranced by the gatefold sleeve of A Nice Pair and Nick Mason's architectural sketch for the cover of Relics as I was of Dark Side's prisms.
A Nice Pair
By the time I first got to see the Floyd play live they'd dropped almost all intimation of their progressive rock sound even though the scope and realisation of The Wall shows was totally incredible. The 1988 Momentary Lapse of Reason show I saw at Wembley Stadium concentrated on Dark Side, Wish You Were Here, The Wall and their current release and while 1994's Division Bell tour included dates where they played One of These Days or Astronomy Domine, it was only the former that featured on the leg of the tour when I got to see them on October 14th, the earliest piece of music that I'd seen them play.
I went to see early-Floyd tribute act Ummagummaa who played at Croydon's Ashcroft Theatre in May 2004 because, being a proponent of music in local venues, I thought it would have been churlish to miss it. Ultimately, I came away disappointed and vowed never to watch a tribute band ever again. This was a bit unfair on the group, who weren't bad musicians and rather than play the material note-perfect, which is possibly what I was expecting having never attended a gig like that before, they improvised around the song themes which was entirely in keeping with live early Pink Floyd; I wasn't too sure about the vocals which didn't sound like any of the original members but it may have been the inclusion of songs like If and San Tropez in the set that most concerned me, straying from my personal viewpoint as to what conformed to 'early' Floyd, despite playing undisputed classics like Astronomy Domine, Careful with that Axe Eugene, A Saucerful of Secrets, Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, One of These Days, Echoes and finishing with Arnold Layne and See Emily Play. They even had an appropriate 'liquid light show' to provide an accurate reminder of the period.
(Early) Pink Floyd tribute act Ummagummaa, Croydon May 2004
I stupidly turned down the opportunity to see Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets on their opening tour, unwilling to join the on-line ticket queue and pay what I thought was rather a lot of money to stand and watch a band that included an ex-member of Spandau Ballet. I reconsidered for the current leg of the tour, reasoning that £50 for a seat at the Roundhouse wasn't too bad and the chance to see one original band member performing this material was actually too good to miss. I must have become aware of the Chalk Farm Roundhouse from browsing music weeklies in the mid 70s but it's unlikely I made the connection to the Pink Floyd story until sometime later, including its significance to the beginnings of UK counterculture; the first cultural use of the Roundhouse was as the venue for the launch party of the International Times (IT) in October 1966, a multi-media all-night rave and happening billed as a 'pop-op-costume-masque-drag ball', featuring performances from Pink Floyd and Soft Machine plus screenings of films and poetry readings; the Roundhouse and early Floyd are intrinsically connected.
poster for International Times launch party
Built between 1846-7 for the London and North Western Railway by Branson & Gwyther as a building for turning round railway engines, the Roundhouse has been recognised as a notable example of mid-19th century railway architecture and was listed in 1954, amended to Grade II* in January 1999, then declared a National Heritage Site in 2010. 24 cast-iron Doric columns arranged around the original locomotive spaces support a conical slate roof and the columns are braced with a framework of curved ribs, imbuing the internal space with a distinctive industrial Victoriana. The recent refurbishment respects the structure while making it fit for purpose as an events venue – it was my 'venue of the year' in the 2018 Prog magazine readers' poll.
The Roundhouse, May 2019
I have mixed feelings about the gig. On the one hand I was pleased to be there to see Nick Mason's ensemble in that particular setting because of its historical rock and sociological relevance; on the other I was seated in a better position than for the Portico Quartet performance last year but I thought the sound was not nearly as good, and it didn't appear to have been too good on the main floor either, demonstrated by loud crowd murmurings when Mason was making an inaudible announcement between songs; at times it was difficult to hear Dom Beken's keyboards, an essential part of the early Floyd sound. I also thought they weren't very tight as a unit even though Mason's drumming sounded as good as I'd ever heard it. I was possibly expecting a tone of naivety in the vocals, but neither guitarist Gary Kemp or Lee Harris, nor bassist Guy Pratt did wonderment and this detracted from the earliest songs. That's not to say I disapproved of the treatment of See Emily Play or Lucifer Sam and I fully appreciated their version of Vegetable Man, written by Barrett in 1967 and originally scheduled as a B side to putative single Scream Thy Last Scream which was never released; it was finally officially put out on The Early Years (1965-1972) in 2016. It may actually have been the brevity of the majority of pieces they played that I found too strange to handle, along with the interpretation of 'early' Pink Floyd. My favourites from the evening tended to be longer material; opener Interstellar Overdrive, Astronomy Domine, One of These Days, Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, A Saucerful of Secrets, the excerpt from Atom Heart Mother; what I wasn't too keen on, and I have to stress this is personal opinion, was the inclusion of If from Atom Heart Mother which bookended the title track, Fearless from Meddle and the Obscured by Clouds songs, all of which are low down in my listening priority and, as the writing partnership between Gilmour and Wright evolved and Waters was developing a distinct style, don't conform to what I would describe as early-sounding.
Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets, Roundhouse 3/5/19
Ticket for Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets, Roundhouse 3/5/19
Apart from providing Floyd enthusiasts with material that's unlikely to be played by any current or former member of Pink Floyd ever again, Mason is currently presenting a nine-part series for BBC radio: A History of Music and Technology, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w27vq4h7 Produced in association with the Open University, it's something on which his role in Pink Floyd has bestowed the appropriate qualifications. He also has an excellent voice for radio and the programme, which charts a history of the innovations which have shaped popular music, should be compulsory listening for anyone into prog. Episode 1: The Story of Sound Recording related the attempts to capture sound, from an oral tradition to Edison's phonograph and it's replacement by the gramophone, from vinyl to magnetic tape and eventually the CD, driven by cost and convenience rather than the quality of the technology. Episode 2: Electronic Music Pioneers may have covered some of the material from Robert Berry's The Music of the Future (Repeater Books, 2016), a quest to find today's musical futurists, but I found it totally fascinating; Thaddeus Cahill's Telharmonium from 1896 which is not only believed to be the first electromechanical musical instrument but it could also be considered to be the precursor of streaming, sending a signal through wires which were translated into music through large paper cones acting as a form of primitive loudspeaker. There was some good coverage of the Theremin, an instrument that may have defined science fiction soundtracks but still features in the current prog scene. The ondes Martenot (1928) came about when Maurice Martenot exploited the overlap in tones generated by military oscillators, producing a cello-like sound. The instrument he devised was touted around European conservatoires and features in over 100 classical music compositions; George Jenny's ondioline was a cheaper version of the ondes Martenot which began production in Paris around 1940 and became destined for a more commercial market thanks to the talents of former medical student Jean Jacques Perrey who released the seminal Prelude au Sommeil in 1958, allegedly as a form of sonic tranquilizer for patients in mental hospitals; the hymnal music incorporated minimalist motifs that were later developed by Philip Glass and Terry Riley and could be considered the first ambient music.
Touching on musique concrète and tape manipulation, on Raymond Scott's automatic music machines which played sequences of differently arranged patterns, the programme reminded us that though we might think electronic music is relatively recent, it's now well over 100 years since the first electronic instruments appeared. The next episodes cover the electric guitar and the Hammond organ. Well worth a listen.
Filed under: progressive rock, BBC Radio, David Gilmour, Spandau Ballet, Saucerful of Secrets, Roundhouse, Ummagummaa, A history of music and technology, The story of sound recording, Electronic Music pioneers, Robert Berry, Thaddeus Cahill, Telharmonium, Theremin, ondes Martenot, George Jenny, Ondioline, Jean Jacques Perrey, Prelude au Sommeil, Terry Riley, musique concrete, Raymond Scott, tape manipulation, Stockhausen, Prog magazne, streaming, Wish You Were Here, The Wall, prog rock, Philip Glass, Nick Mason, Ummagumma, Roger Waters, Rick Wright, A Momentary Lapse of Reason, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, The Dark Side of the Moon, ambient music, Atom Heart Mother, Meddle, A Nice Pair, Relics, Obscured by Clouds, Psychedelia, Pink Floyd, The Music of the Future, psyche, Space Rock, Syd Barrett, The Division Bell, prog
Flexitarian
By ProgBlog, Feb 4 2019 10:27PM
Whether by conscious choice or directed drift, the latter part of 2018 saw me adopt what the media are calling 'flexitarianism'. My son had started out on this road towards the end of last year but quickly shifted to a full vegan diet and when he's invited to dinner, I prepare vegan food for the whole family.
Not yet prepared to give up meat entirely, this casual vegetarianism is an attempt to reduce my carbon footprint by taking a more environmentally sustainable approach to what I eat by consuming less meat. For someone who shuns almost all fast food (I eat supermarket pizza, occasionally go to pizza restaurants, I might have takeaway fish and chips once every couple of months or buy-in an Indian takeaway perhaps twice a year) and is entirely happy in the kitchen, it's not as onerous as many might imagine. If statistics are to be believed, 26% of Millennials are either vegan or vegetarian and supermarkets, eager to maintain market share, have been quick to produce suitable ranges of ready-to-cook vegan dishes; the fad has also been matched by the availability of varied recipes. I mostly cook from scratch which means it's fortunate that the Co-op, our nearest supermarket, is one of the better outlets for identifying vegan produce but it's equally handy that Coughlans, our local bakery chain, has an extensive range of vegan cakes. My first visit to Coughlans with the specific aim of buying an appropriate treat for my son involved an almost conspiratorial approach from another customer, a young woman who asked me if I was vegan like her and her young son; I fear she was a little disappointed with my truthful response that I hadn't increased the number of vegans in Addiscombe. Rather than go the full extreme, I attempt to eat a balanced diet and if my comparative zoology lectures taught me anything when I was a student, we have the ideal dentition for an omnivorous diet, although I admire anyone who chooses to go vegan for ethical reasons. The recent family skiing holiday to Bardonecchia showed how well veganism has spread; I needn't have feared that we weren't going to find suitable foodstuffs to cook on the two hotplates and small oven that served as our apartment kitchenette – Carrefour (which has a supermarket near-monopoly in the resort) carried a wide range of alternatives, including one awarded a 'product of the year', for our vegan skier.
The best known examples of prog vegetarians are Yes. It's well documented that in the early 70s all the members of the band bar Rick Wakeman, along with many of their road crew, stopped eating meat, initially influenced by producer Eddie Offord who was already into health foods. This chimes with the cosmic image of Jon Anderson, the man primarily responsible for the band's mystically-themed lyrics and concepts which include recurring motifs of environmentalism, pacifism and pantheism. Anderson let his vegetarianism slip, though in a 2006 interview with Howard Stern he spoke of maintaining a healthy diet. In fact it was Steve Howe who was the first of the band to stop eating meat and continues to maintain this stance; In the January 1992 edition of Vegetarian Times he related that the group was in New York during the 1972 Fragile tour when he ordered his last chicken dinner but was unable to eat it.
I'm not sure what the musical equivalent of flexitarianism is, but over the last couple of weeks I've allowed myself to be exposed to genres other than symphonic prog and progressivo Italiano, from a Philip Glass CD received as a Christmas present to the protest folk-psyche of Twilight Fields who invited me to listen to their forthcoming release Songs from the Age of Ruin which featured in a recent ProgBlog DISCovery post (their track Prologue: The Ruined City is included on the covermount CD of Prog 95). The lesson is clear, although it's unlikely to have any environmental impact: it's good to listen to a wide spectrum of musical genres.
Compared to last year, live prog has not yet featured heavily in my schedule for 2019 but the two events I have attended were not run-of-the-mill gigs. A last-minute decision to see London-based electronica musician Amané Suganami (who performs under the stage name Amane) at Camden Assembly for an event tagged as 'the spirit of Brian Eno' was my first ever prog date and the first time I'd gone to a gig with my wife since Chris Rea at Wembley Arena in December 1988! Strictly sticking to Eno's ambient music with interpretations of Ambient 1: Music for Airports, Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror (with Harold Budd); Ambient 3: Day of Radiance (Laraaji, produced by Eno) and Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks, of which I only recognised An Ending (Ascent) from the latter, this was an enjoyable, well-attended event with a distinctly un-prog demographic, spoiled only by the suggested start time of 7pm – doors were at 7.30 and the performance began at 8pm.
The second event wasn't really a gig and it wasn't strictly live; it was Steve Hackett's At the Edge of Light album preview held at the Everyman cinema in Crystal Palace, a run-through of the record in 5.1 surround sound four days before the official release, organised by Prog Magazine and Inside Out records. I 'won' tickets by sending Prog a selfie, holding a copy of Prog 94 with Steve Hackett on the cover, taken in my dining room (photos of the magazine taken in newsagents were disallowed!) I'd been to two King Crimson playbacks in the mid-late 90s for the releases of the Epitaph box set and The Night Watch CDs, both unmissable because they were relatively small gatherings of like-minded fans and featured the assembly of the musicians responsible for the performances but which also included fascinating side events: the offering of home-made cakes (I baked a date and walnut loaf); a Mellotron display; and John Wetton performing a solo acoustic version of Book of Saturday. An even more exclusive gathering, the At the Edge of Light playback was a chance to hear the latest Steve Hackett release before the general public and had the distinct advantage of being held on my doorstep, a short 410 bus journey from home.
When I lived in Crystal Palace/Upper Norwood the former Rialto Cinema, opened in 1928, was being used as a bingo hall. The cinema had shown its last film in 1968 and Gala Bingo, in a restructuring exercise following diminishing profits and questionable financial viability partly blamed on the 2007 ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces, closed the premises sometime around 2009. It was bought by Kingsway International Christian Centre but they failed to gain planning permission for change of use to an evangelical church partly because the development would result in the loss of an important leisure venue, deemed to be "harmful to the social, cultural and economic characteristics of the area." Repurposing as a church also incurred opposition from an active local group, founded in 2010, who campaigned to return the prominent Art Deco building to its original function and so, with the building listed as an asset of social value (ASV) ensuring KICC had no prospect of planning approval, they decided to sell up in 2017.
The building has been lovingly restored and given a new lease of life by Everyman, with the original main auditorium divided up to form four screens. Screen 4, the venue for the playback, seats 75 on plush two-seater sofas and provided a warm, intimate setting for the event. I had wondered why Hackett and the record label had chosen Everyman Crystal Palace but Steve Hackett's live film Wuthering Nights: Live in Birmingham was given a screening at Everyman King's Cross on 15th Jan 2018, prior to its official release eleven days later; Marillion's 2017 Royal Albert Hall concert film was screened at Everyman cinemas around the country in March 2018 prior to the release of the DVD/Blu-ray for home consumption; and Steven Wilson held a pre-release screening of Home Invasion at Everyman King's Cross last October. There's a rumour that someone high up in the Everyman organisation is partial to prog...
It's unclear how many ordinary punters were present, not industry insiders from Inside Out music or Prog magazine or members of the Hackett family (Steve's wife, Jo; brother and collaborator John; their mother; aunt Betty) but regardless of status we were all treated to a signed card from Steve and some Green & Black's chocolate. Prog magazine editor Jerry Ewing commenced proceedings with a short introduction, declaring At the Edge of Light the best offering from Hackett for 20 years; he handed over the mic to Hackett who thanked quite a few people present and said a little bit about the music and the guest musicians, and then we settled down to listen.
Having already watched three available YouTube videos and being fully aware of Hackett's diverse styles through building up a comprehensive library of his recorded output, I wasn't surprised by any of the material. It's a natural successor to Night Siren though with a more cohesive sound despite the eclectic mix and, as Ewing suggested, probably his best album for many years. The fact that it's not all-out prog is one of the album's strengths, the eclecticism providing an almost commercial level of accessibility but without being 'commercial'. My least favourite track was Underground Railroad although I do love the story of the inspiration behind the song. It was written following a visit to Wilmington, Delaware, where he found out about the network that helped slaves escape in pre-Civil War America, spearheaded by people like Harriet Tubman; it's just that I'm not a great fan of the Blues or, however well it's played, harmonica.
I thought that there were a number of highlights; from the brief opening tune Fallen Walls and Pedestals with its archetypal guitar sound to the prog mini-epic Those Golden Wings to the three numbers forming a kind of suite closing the album, Descent which channels Holst or King Crimson, Conflict, and Peace but the overall quality of song writing on the album is really high, including the infectious prog-pop of The Hungry Years! At times I was reminded of Cured-era Hackett which I think has a distinct overall sound. On completion of the album presentation he remained in the auditorium and chatted to the attendees, graciously posing for selfies with fans.
More than just the music, I admire Hackett's viewpoint, expressed in both Prog 94 and in his explanation for the album's title. He described the thread linking the songs as different interpretations of the contrast between light and dark, expressed at its most basic on Beasts in Our Time as good versus evil, but also the more mystical interplay of dark and light magically combining in cultures such as that which provides the heartbeat of India (Shadow and Flame). In summary, Hackett takes a hopeful stance: "In these dangerous times, deep shadows feel even sharper than usual and we find ourselves standing at the edge of light. Ultimately, this album embraces the need for all musical forms and cultures to connect and celebrate the wonder of unity in this divided world."
I think it's time for us all to go culturally flexitarian.
Filed under: king crimson, Addiscombe, progressive rock, Home Invasion, Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Steve Hackett, Cured, Marillion, Crystal Palace, Playback, Epitaph, The Night Siren, prog rock, Steven Wilson, skiing, flexitarian, vegan, vegetarian, Coughlans bakery Croydon, Eddie Offord, pacifism, pantheism, Philip Glass, Twilight Fields, Songs from the Age of Ruin, Camden Assembly, Amane, Amané Suganami, Ambient 1: Music for Airports, Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror, Harold Budd, Ambient 3: Day of Radiance, Laraaji, Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks, An Ending (Ascent), At the Edge of Light, Everyman cinema, Rialto cinema, Gala Bingo, Kingsway International Christian Centre, Wuthering Nights: Live in Birmingham, Inside Out records, progressivo Italiano, Yes, Prog magazine, Brian Eno, ambient music, Gustav Holst, Bardonecchia, The Night Watch, environmentalism, Rick Wakeman, prog, art deco, Electronica, Chris Rea, Fragile
By ProgBlog, Jan 29 2017 08:18PM
One of my Christmas presents was Yes is the Answer and other Prog Rock Tales edited by Marc Weingarten and Tyson Cornell. I'd added it to my wish list within the previous month, seduced by the very fitting looking cover (a watercolour illustration by Nathan Popp in the style of Roger Dean's crash-landed and colonised mountains from Yessongs) together with some four and five star reviews on Amazon.com, there being no reviews, at that time, posted on the UK site. Though there wasn't a great deal to be gleaned from the reviewer comments, the publicity quotation sounded promising: Progressive rock is maligned and misunderstood. Critics hate it. Hipsters scoff at it. Yes is the Answer is a pointed rebuke to the prog-haters, the first literary collection devoted to the sub-genre. Featuring acclaimed novelists Rick Moody, Wesley Stace, Seth Greenland, Charles Bock, and Joe Meno, as well as musicians Nathan Larson, and Peter Case, Yes is the Answer is a book that dares to reclaim prog-rock as a subject worthy of serious consideration.
Yes is the Answer
The book is a collection of short essays by respected journalists, writers and musicians, each relating a personal progressive rock story in an almost ProgBlog-like manner, only I'm rather ignorant of US writers. It's a slim volume which fits the hand nicely and the quality of the paper used for the dust jacket is very pleasing. However, the standard of writing plummets immediately after a rather brilliant opening disclaimer: Some of the essays in this book are prolix and self-indulgent. These are essays about Prog Rock. This is as it should be.
It's not that I think it has limited literary merit; I instantly disagreed with the opinion of Weingarten in his introduction that the progressive rock fan fraternity frowned upon the exponents of jazz fusion because of their propensity for 'noodling' and that fusion adherents were sad for their obsessive appreciation of the instruments used to make the music. On the contrary, Brand X were a successful jazz fusion act who were fully appreciated by the prog rock crowd and, speaking as someone who came into progressive rock fairly early on, long before peak-prog or the rise of punk, part of the attraction for me was the ability to obsess over the instrumentation, because without the technological advancements the music would never have been created. I'm responsible for reproducing the console of a mini-Moog on my desk at school when I was 13 and later, when I first started work after university, spent a lunchtime in a local music shop playing a Mellotron 400D. I'm sure many would agree with me that the best album sleeves are those which list the make and model of all the equipment used to make the record.
I know that there have been factual inaccuracies in my blogs pointed out by readers, but my pieces are mostly opinions, streams of consciousness posted without any proof-reading. When I come across an unchecked fact in a publication (Jerry Lucky repeatedly calling David Gilmour 'David Gilmore' in his 20th Century Rock and Roll - Progressive Rock, new copies of which are selling for £68 on Amazon in the UK, or Dave Ling writing in Prog magazine that the opening chords of Watcher of the Skies were played on organ, for example) it offends my sensibility.
20th Century Rock and Roll - Progressive Rock by Jerry Lucky
Imagine my indignation when the first article, Here Comes the Knife by Seth Greenland states that Rondo (by The Nice) is on Ars Longa Vita Brevis. No, it's on the first Nice album The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack. Why hasn't anyone picked this up before it went to the printers? This lack of attention to detail is un-prog but it soon becomes clear that many of the contributors discovered this music at the tail-end of the golden period or later, that the majority of them have not remained fully committed to the genre and that their views have more often than not been forged under the influence of mostly soft but occasionally hard drugs. There's no doubt that marijuana was the recreational substance of choice for some of the artists but many eschewed drugs either through ascetic lifestyle choice or because of the technical difficulties of playing a piece made ingestion unwise. The book highlights the American experience which is very different from the UK where progressive rock developed; traditionally, rock 'n' roll has been romanticised in a very Hollywood way as a rite of passage, a time of teenage rebellion. Progressive rock didn't really fit into this scheme, because the exponents were attempting to legitimise their form of rock music, with Keith Emerson building bridges between the worlds of classical and rock and all of them were looking at other idioms to expand their musical vocabulary. This is what they exported and a small number of them did well in the US, the music and underlying philosophy chiming with a nascent ecological movement and a general feeling of hope. There were only a few proper progressive rock acts from North America during the golden era (Happy the Man and Fireballet spring to mind, those being bands with albums in my collection, but I think what I've heard of Starcastle who received air play on Alan Freeman's radio show in the UK might also include them in that small club) and it wasn't until the resurgence of prog in the mid-90s that there was any significant American input. Even then, this latest phase had its roots in metal and was sort of retro-fitted to the original. The short biography after each essay reveals a dearth of specialist music magazine contributors; if you like short, personal stories about coming-of-age presented in a sex and drugs and rock and roll context, you may like this book and the high-scoring reviews from Amazon US make perfect sense. However, there's nothing analytical or even enlightening about progressive rock within the pages; it's not actually about the music but about the individual contributors who at some stage in their emotional development have come across prog.
One of the articles is by British author Nick Coleman who was an NME journalist and has written a well regarded autobiography The Train in the Night: A Story of Music and Loss after suffering sudden neurosensory hearing loss – totally devastating when your livelihood revolves around music. Though progressive rock evidently played a major part in his youth, his essay Hung Up on these Silver Strings (a line from the song Axe Victim) concerns Be Bop Deluxe. Be Bop Deluxe isn't prog but fit in to the closely-associated Art-rock sub-genre. A vehicle for the talents of Bill Nelson, the band was favoured by prog fans and dutifully, though I don't own any of their studio releases, I bought a copy of Live! In the Air Age in lieu of a 'best of' album.
Live! In the Air Age by Be Bop Deluxe
Part of the attraction for me was that Nelson was a northerner, forgiven for being from the wrong side of the Pennines, from Wakefield. The follow-up band Red Noise created an interest within my circle, possibly because they played Leeds University where my brother Tony and another of my associates were studying medicine but I wasn't too impressed by Furniture Music, not really liking the shorter songs or the electronics. However, I did go to see Bill Nelson performing The Invisibility Exhibition at the Dominion Theatre in March 1973, an enjoyable gig where Nelson played guitar, synthesizer and percussion to backing video from 1950s art films. Shortly after that I purchased a copy of his solo album Quit Dreaming and get on the Beam, written as a second Red Noise album but held back by EMI because they didn't like it. This is an album of clever electro pop but I had been under the impression that it came with a free LP called Sounding the Ritual Echo (Atmospheres for Dreaming), a basic, home recording straying into ambient electronic territory, and that's what I was really interested in.
Bill Nelson's Invisibility Exhibition
Nelson may have been the recipient of Prog magazine's Visionary award in 2015 but I still regard him as an exponent of Art-rock. Another Art-rocker, who has had a much heavier involvement with prog, is Brian Eno; these are the only two representatives of this form in my collection. From his Roxy Music beginnings, Eno branched out into progressive pop territory and collaborated with a wide range of prog luminaries on his accessible solo albums. This directly led to involvement with Genesis on The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and he also assisted on the Mainstream album Quiet Sun with former band-mate Phil Manzanera. His experimentation with tape loops and twin Revox tape recorders in collaboration with Robert Fripp for the ground-breaking (No Pussyfooting) began before the release of Here Come the Warm Jets and though dismissed at the time, it is now rightly regarded as a seminal piece of music. What makes Eno stand out is his way of thinking; from the bed-stricken origins of Discreet Music to the entire ambient genre where his modus operandi, subscribing to systems that once set into motion require little or no further input from Eno himself and divulged in the sleeve notes of Discreet Music, still hold true to his output today, neatly exemplified by his Bloom iPhone app. Musical collaborations and pathfinding aside, Eno was appointed the youth affairs adviser for the Liberal Democrats in 2007, at the age of 59. He's also interviewed Yanis Varoufakis for The Guardian and caused something of a stir last week when a Guardian interview with him ran under the headline "We've been in decline for 40 years – Trump is a chance to rethink"; he was obliged to clarify that he thinks Donald Trump is a complete disaster.
Prog and Art-rock obviously have a degree of crossover but the latter has always been more respected by mainstream media. Part of this is inherent re-invention along the lines of fashion, whereas prog is deemed to have ossified, like a lumbering dinosaur without an original thought in its head, being wiped out by the brash, brightly burning punks. Prog resurfaced and, since the mid 1990s has been going pretty strong. That books like Yes is the Answer are being published is testament to its longevity.
Filed under: Yanis Varoufakis, progressive rock, Jerry Lucky, Alan Freeman, Happy the Man, Fireballet, The Guardian, Genesis, Yessongs, prog rock, Prog magazine, Roger Dean, Watcher of the Skies, Brian Eno, Art-rock, Yes is the Answer and other Prog Rock Tales, Marc Weingarten, Tyson Cornell, Nathan Popp, jazz fusion, 20th Century Rock and Roll - Progressive Rock, Seth Greenland, Starcastle, Nick Coleman, The Train in the Night: A Story of Music and Loss, sudden neurosensory hearing loss, Be Bop Deluxe, Bill Nelson, Live! In the Air Age, Red Noise, Hung Up on these Silver Strings, Furniture Music, The Invisibility Exhibition, Quit Dreaming and get on the Beam, Sounding the Ritual Echo (Atmospheres for Dreaming), ambient music, Discreet Music, Bloom, iPhone, Mainstream, The Nice, The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack, Robert Fripp, Brand X, Donald Trump, Amazon, Ars Longa Vita Brevis, prog, Keith Emerson, Quiet Sun, Rondo
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It's the New Taurus MT-5!
There will be a more in depth post to come, but for now, welcome to the fleet, Mr. 2016 Ford Focus SE. Yes, I am a sucker for a deep red clearcoat Ford. Yes, I still love my '88 Festiva and ;06 Mustang. Yes, I also support orphan cars – this 1.0L EcoBoost Focus (2016 only). See: Fiat 500L. See also: 1971 VW 411, 1973 Plymouth Fury, 1973 Honda CB350 – Four, 1979 Futura, 1990 Suzuki Swift (remember those?!), 1993 Geo. 2008 Scion.
I get it from my dad. He always wanted a 1980s Maxima wagon with a stick. And a Taurus MT-5. No one remembers MT was a nod to Motor Trend for being named car of the year. POS orphan car with a big 4 and a stick, so of course.
Likewise this car – no one makes performance mods for this specific model: a classy car with a Geo Metro motor on speed. No worries. I am content (for now) with it not sticking out.


text:
This is the First Purported Footage of PlayStation 4's Project Beast
Steel yourself.
By Colin Moriarty
Posted: 30 May 2014 3:39 am
Earlier this month, an interesting rumor emerged. Screenshots from something called Project Beast leaked on the Internet. The screens showed a shotgun-wielding man roaming around various environments -- like a temple and a cemetery -- and the game looked distinctly like a From Software experience, the developer behind PlayStation 3's Demon's Souls and both Dark Souls games for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.
Today, fuel has officially been added to the fire, as a video posted on NeoGAF -- seen below -- purportedly shows this rumored game in action. Take a look (via this YouTube link):
The footage, which comes in at only 19 seconds long, shows a man who appears to be the same shotgun-toting character seen in the screenshots that leaked earlier this month, as well as a small variety of scenes showing off some environments, enemies, and combat situations. It sure looks like a From Software game in the same vein as Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Dark Souls 2.
The "Souls" franchise began in early 2009, when From Software released Demon's Souls in Japan, exclusively on PlayStation 3. Demon's Souls was funded by Sony -- and the IP is owned by Sony -- but the company declined to publish it in the west. Niche Japanese developer and publisher Atlus brought it to North America later in 2009, while Namco Bandai (now Bandai Namco) brought it to Europe and other western territories in 2010. We absolutely loved it.
Have you played Bloodborne?
Namco Bandai continued its relationship with From Software following Demon's Souls' surprise success, funding and publishing Demon's Souls' unofficial sequel -- Dark Souls -- which came to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2011 (and to PC in 2012). We loved that game, too. And finally, just a couple of months ago, Dark Souls 2 came to those same three platforms by way of the same developer/publisher combination, and -- you guessed it -- we loved that one as well.
It was clear that Sony didn't anticipate Demon's Souls' success, especially in the west, allowing Namco Bandai to seize control of the series under a different name. Still, with the Demon's Souls name owned by Sony -- and with Sony's long-running relationship with From Software intact (the company has been making PlayStation games since PSone launched in Japan in 1994) -- it was long assumed that Sony would try to get From Software to make another PlayStation-exclusive Souls game. This might just be it.
Now, it's important to note that this footage is unsubstantiated. This footage, as well as the screenshots that leaked earlier, could be real, but we just don't know for sure. So file this as a compelling rumor for the time being. We reached out to Sony for official confirmation. However, the company declined to comment.
Colin Moriarty is IGN's Senior Editor. You can follow him on Twitter.
Face your fears	as you search for answers	in the ancient city of Yharnam in Bloodborne, an action RPG from Hidetaka Miyazaki and FromSoftware.
Blood and Gore, Violence, Includes online features that may expose players to unrated user-generated content
Dwayne Johnson Declines Vin Diesel's Request to Rejoin Fast & Furious 10
God of War PC Vs PS5 Performance Review
3d ago - Kratos conquers a new platform.
Michael Thompson


Professor Takayuki Ono of Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, passed away on 21 December 2013. He was 63 years old. He was the Principal Investigator of the Geospace Exploration Mission: Exploration in energization and Radiation in Geospace (ERG) and played the leader of the ERG project. It is very unfortunate that he did not live long enough to witness the launch of the ERG (Arase) satellite on 20 December 2016 to which he had dedicated to so much of his life. His warm character appeared to everyone, and he had always encouraged young colleagues to realize the project.
Professor Ono was born on 5 August 1950. He graduated and received a Ph.D. from Tohoku University. He moved to National Institute of Polar Research in 1980. He came back to Tohoku University to take up the position of an associate professor and was promoted to a full professor in 2000. He is survived by his wife Naomi, four children, and five grandchildren.


text:
Man questioned after paying for pizza with counterfeit bill
The Grand Island Independent
A man has been referred for charges of first-degree forgery after allegedly using a counterfeit bill to pay for a pizza delivered to his house.
According to the Grand Island Police Department's media sheet, Dominos Pizza delivered a pizza to a residence in north Grand Island early Saturday
Man questioned after paying for pizza with counterfeit bill in Grand Island
GRAND ISLAND — A man has been referred for charges of first-degree forgery after allegedly using a counterfeit bill to pay for a pizza delivered to his house. According to...
Kearney Hub 2020-01-14
Grand Island man arrested after alleged forgery involving Ohio school district
A Grand Island man was arrested Thursday after allegedly attempting to cash a counterfeit check from a school district four states away. Abdihakim Farah was arrested at...
The Grand Island Independent 2020-01-24
Daily record for Tuesday, Jan. 14
Police/Sheriff Anyone with information about any crime in the state may call the Grand Island-Hall County Crime Stoppers, 381-8822. Crime Stoppers guarantees that callers...
Local man in jail following string of alleged counterfeit bills, forged checks
ST. GEORGE — A local man was arrested Friday as police continued to piece together multiple crimes allegedly committed within a one-week period in January. Chad Dale...
St George News 2020-01-21
The daily record for Tuesday, Jan. 14
Birth announcements VAUGHT — To Brittany Vaught of Grand Island, a son born Dec. 23, 2019, at Mary Lanning Healthcare in Hastings. USREY — To Jake and Natasha (Statler) Usrey of Grand island, a son born Jan. 1, 2020, at Mary Lanning Healthcare in Hastings. OELTJEN — To Dustin and Jamie (Campbell) Oeltjen of Elba, a son born Jan. 3, 2020, at Mary Lanning Healthcare in Hastings....
Shelton man arrested following incident in driveway Saturday
A Shelton man was arrested following an incident Saturday morning in the driveway of a home in south Grand Island. Grand Island Police responded to a noise complaint at 2409 W. Charles St. shortly after 10:30 a.m. Saturday. Capt. Jim Duering said the residents of the house said they did not recognize the vehicle, nor did they know why it was parked in their driveway. Upon...
Daily record for Sunday, Jan. 26
Police/Sheriff Anyone with information about any crime in the state may call the Grand Island-Hall County Crime Stoppers, (308) 381-8822. Callers will remain anonymous. A reward of up to $1,000 will be paid after law enforcement agencies have determined the seriousness of the crime and the usefulness of the information. Inmate custody status can be obtained by calling the VINE...
Rimersburg Man Accused of Passing Counterfeit $20 Bill at McDonald's Waives Hearing
CLARION CO., Pa. (EYT) – A Rimersburg man accused of passing a fake $20 bill at McDonald's in Clarion recently waived his hearing in court. According to court documents, the following charges against 25-year-old Isaac Lucas Conner were waived for court on Tuesday, January 7: – Forgery – Unauthorized Act In Writing, Misdemeanor 1 – Possession Instrument Of Crime W/Intent,...
Explore Clarion
Northwest student, teacher make first court appearances
The Northwest High School student and teacher who were arrested Tuesday made their initial court appearances Wednesday in front of Hall County Court Judge Alfred Corey. Max H. Rookstool, the 17-year-old student accused of engaging in human trafficking and child pornography, appeared in court by video from Hall County Jail. Rookstool is accused of 17 offenses, 16 of which are...
Daily record for Friday, Jan. 17


The level crossing at Evans Road, Lyndhurst is being removed with a road bridge design.
Evans Road has been closed at the level crossing since 2005 for community safety. A road over rail design will provide significant benefits to the community, including restoring local connections and access to important services, such as shops and schools.
Reopening Evans Road will mean that locals will save about 12 minutes for a round trip between Thompsons Road and South Gippsland Highway.
Attention Lyndhurst locals – we want to chat.
We're getting on with the job of removing the level crossing at Evans Road, one of the last remaining level crossings along the Cranbourne line, with a road bridge design announced.


Popularity - 774 views, 0.9 views per day, 905 days on eBay. Super high amount of views. 4 sold, 10 available.
774 views, 0.9 views per day, 905 days on eBay. Super high amount of views. 4 sold, 10 available.
Seller - 495+ items sold. 0% negative feedback. Top-Rated Plus! Top-Rated Seller, 30-day return policy, ships in 1 business day with tracking.
495+ items sold. 0% negative feedback. Top-Rated Plus! Top-Rated Seller, 30-day return policy, ships in 1 business day with tracking.


text:
<iati-activities><iati-activity>
    <test number="5.5"/>
    <test number="3.5"/>
</iati-activity></iati-activities>


text:
Q: What is the recommended method of installing an arbitrary version of a package using apt? The Problem:
I need a way to install specific, pinned versions of some packages on my Debian system. snapshot.debian.org appears to offer a means to do this, however even after adding a snapshot to my apt-sources I am unable to apt-get install some specific versions of the packages within that snapshot archive.
The Question:
What is the official or "correct" way of installing a specific package version from a Debian snapshot archive?
Background & What I've Tried:
Let's use Debian8 Jessie and the 3.16.x kernel binary one minor version behind the current one as our examples. As of this writing, Jessie's released kernel is 3.16.43-2+deb8u5. Say I want to install 3.16.43-2+deb8u4.
I begin by searching the debian snapshot archives for the version I want (http://snapshot.debian.org/binary/linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd64/) and click on the exact version of the kernel that I'm looking for, which gets me to http://snapshot.debian.org/package/linux/3.16.43-2%2Bdeb8u4/#linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd64_3.16.43-2:2b:deb8u4
From there, I can see that the package was "Seen in debian-security on 2017-09-20 22:12:21" and "Seen in debian on 2017-10-08 16:31:52". I decide to use the former and settle on debian-security snapshot 20170920T221221Z.
Following the instructions on the front page of snapshot.debian.org, I add the following to my /etc/apt/sources.list:
deb http://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian-security/20170920T221221Z/ jessie/updates main
deb src http://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian-security/20170920T221221Z/ jessie/updates main

I then run apt-get -o Acquire::Check-Valid-Until=false update and see that the update (appears to) successfully complete.
I'd think this would allow me to now install the desired version of the kernel but apt only knows about two installation candidates, 3.16.43-2+deb8u2 and 3.16.43-2+deb8u5. No sign of +deb8u4:
# apt-cache madison linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd64
linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd64 | 3.16.43-2+deb8u5 | http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates/main amd64 Packages
linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd64 | 3.16.43-2+deb8u5 | http://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian-security/20170920T221221Z/ jessie/updates/main amd64 Packages
linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd64 | 3.16.43-2+deb8u2 | http://cloudfront.debian.net/debian/ jessie/main amd64 Packages
linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd64 | 3.16.7-ckt25-2 | http://cloudfront.debian.net/debian/ jessie-updates/main amd64 Packages
     linux |  3.16.39-1 | http://cloudfront.debian.net/debian/ jessie-backports/main Sources

# apt-cache policy linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd64
linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd64:
  Installed: 3.16.43-2+deb8u5
  Candidate: 3.16.43-2+deb8u5
  Version table:
     3.16.43-2+deb8u5 0
        500 http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian-security/20170920T221221Z/ jessie/updates/main amd64 Packages
 *** 3.16.43-2+deb8u2 0
        500 http://cloudfront.debian.net/debian/ jessie/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     3.16.7-ckt25-2 0
        500 http://cloudfront.debian.net/debian/ jessie-updates/main amd64 Packages

Additionally, if I attempt to specify and install the version I want, it returns "Not Found":
# apt-get install linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd64=3.16.43-2+deb8u4
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Version '3.16.43-2+deb8u4' for 'linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd64' was not found

I've managed to work around this by downloading the .deb binary and dpkg -i installing it but I'd prefer to use apt instead of curl'ing .debs down and installing them. Can anyone explain either what I need to do to be able to apt-get install a specific package or at least explain why this doesn't work the way that I expect it to?

A: This is not exact science, but here's a probable explanation of why it didn't work for this specific case (it usually works, when you're not following a target changing too fast).
A given repository usually references only one version of a package in the Packages file, for your example, this one. That's not a technical obligation, for example deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian/ jessie main includes multiple versions of the same package in its Packages file, all retrievable by apt-get, using = like you did, but Debian (TM) doesn't keep references to multiple versions in the same Packages file.
If you look at the actual directory where the package you're looking for exists, you can see that there are both versions available:
linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd64_3.16.43-2+deb8u4_amd64.deb
linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd64_3.16.43-2+deb8u5_amd64.deb
When deb8u5 appeared, the previous reference to deb8u4 disappeared. The deb8u4 .deb might still have be referenced by an other repository or simply not have undergone some "garbage collection". Clicking on "prev change" in the snapshot navigation leads only to deb8u3 without deb8u4 nor deb8u5. That means the change between deb8u4 and deb8u5 happened too fast for the deb8u4's Packages file to be available for download or for snapshot.debian.org to save this intermediate Packages file before the deb8u5's replaced it. This reference (and the corresponding checksums, and the signed Release file) in debian-security is lost.
Just trying again with debian (instead of debian-security):
linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd64_3.16.43-2+deb8u4_amd64.deb
with a corresponding Packages.xz file. This one has the entry for deb8u2 only... and will keep only this one. The newer versions are supposed to come from debian-security until 8.10 is released, so even if they appear in the pool, that's just because snapshot.debian.org makes all appear at the same place.
Well sorry, for this specific package version, I don't see a way to download the deb8u4. Even if it can be downloaded from the links and dpkg -i can install it, that's not possible to validate what was downloaded, so it should be avoided.
NOTE: your method is correct. You can usually complete it by pinning your specific snapshot for some specific packages, allowing apt-get to choose them automatically (without the need of = ) and avoiding them to be upgraded later. That's explained there:  https://wiki.debian.org/AptPreferences . Holding them works too (dpkg --set-selections or apt-mark hold) to avoid upgrade.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


UPDATE: 12/11/2014 Senator Nelsons' office in DC. They do expect Tax Extenders bill to be voted on this week. No exact date and time set yet. Defense bill took priority today.
Tax Extenders which includes Section 179 and allows for equipment/property to depreciated in 2014, is expected to be voted on at any time. Seems there is far more important items on the agenda than a bill that could help the 75% of small businesses that help employee 75% of the people in this country. Sales are slow while buyers and sellers wait to see if this will be voted on to increase Section 179 to it's limit of $500,000, for the much needed tax breaks for everyone from farmers to IT companies. AG Web news which is following this daily for farmers, dairy and other food processors is lobbying the Senators hard to pass the bill. All expectations is it will pass and the President will vote yes.
HR 5771, the bill to extend retroactively through the end of this month the 55 or so tax breaks that expired at the end of 2013, has been "placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar." That means it appears to be proceeding to a vote, though I find nothing on when that will happen. Tax Analysts reports that outgoing Senate Majority Leader Reid says he will take up the extender bill " after finishing work on a defense authorization bill and a government funding measure." Meanwhile, the President has threatened to veto a separate attempt to permanently extend three charitable breaks in the extender bill, including the break for IRA contributions. While that's bad for those breaks, it implies that the White House will not oppose HR 5771's one-year extension. Because it looks as though the "extender" bill will clear the Senate, taxpayers looking to add fixed assets have extra incentive to get it done this year. The bill extends through 2014 — and only through 2014 — the $500,000 limit on Section 179 deductions and 50% bonus depreciation. These breaks allow taxpayers to deduct over half (bonus depreciation) or all (Section 179) of the cost of fixed assets that are otherwise capitalized, with their deductions spread over 3 to 20 years. Taxpayers should remember that it's not enough to order or pay for a new asset by the end of 2014 to qualify for these breaks. The asset has to be "placed in service" by year end. A new asset doesn't actually have to be used during the year to be "placed in service," but it has to be ready to go. A new machine should be on the floor and hooked up, not just in a crate on the dock, or in a trailer on the way in, if you want to depreciate it. If the new asset is a vehicle, you need to take delivery to get the deduction. If the asset is a farm building, it needs to be assembled and in place, not in boxes on the ground.


text:
Мірошников Григорій Акиндинович (відомий також як юродивий Гриць Золотюсенький, Гриць Золотий та Григорій Седневський; 30 вересня 1821, Кучинівка Городнянського повіту Чернігівської губернії — 22 лютого 1855, Седнів Городнянського повіту Чернігівської губернії) — юродивий православної церкви. Активно шанується православною громадою Седнева та околиць як неканонізований святий. Визнається Чернігівською єпархією УПЦ як блаженний.

Біографія

Народився у багатодітній родині в селі Кучинівка Городнянського повіту 1821 року. У віці шести років втратив батька. у десять — матір. З 1834 року перебрався до Седнева, де й провів решту свого життя. Першу зиму провів у дзвіниці Покровського храму, зігріваючись в люті морози завдяки собакам, яких підгодовував. Згодом оселився на горищі старої овдовілої козачки Анастасії Шудрихи.

Відзначався поведінкою юродивого одразу після оселення в Седневі. Його мова була загадковою, іноді зовсім незв'язною, але усі зверталися до нього. Ніякої освіти не мав, але з часом у нього з'явився хист до малювання, він знав цифри і навіть навчився писати. Нерідко у листах та малюнках, що надсилав знайомим людям, Гриць пророкував їхню долю. Бажаючи усім добра, юродивий іноді вказував на їх гріхи заради виправлення.

Добре знаний за життя не тільки у Седневі, але й у Чернігові, Києві та Москві. Близько приятелював з седнівським поміщиком Іллею Лизогубом та графом Григорієм Милорадовичем. Листувався з митрополитом Київським Філаретом, ігуменіями Домницького та Кам'янського монастирів.

Своє прізвисько «Золотюсенький» Григорій Акиндинович Мірошников отримав через те, що відвідуючи Києво-Печерську лавру сідав перед одним з входів, прохаючи у вірян милостиню «на золото». На отримані кошти він купував багато свічок, яких і вважав «золотом».

Помер Гриць Золотюсенький у Седневі 22 лютого 1855 року.

З червня 1893 року за розпорядженням чернігівського єпископа Сергія щосуботи та щонеділі після обіднього богослужіння, на могилі Гриця проводилася панахида, на яку збиралась велика кількість парафіян.

Джерела

 Гейда О. Християнський подвиг Гриця Юродивого / О. Гейда // Містечко над Сновом: Збірник статей і матеріалів. — Ніжин: Аспект-Поліграф, 2007. — С. 187—192.
 Юродивий Григорій Седневський на сайті «Цікаві місця України»

Блаженні

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Enjoy premium downtime with TLC's 6-Series Roku Smart TV. A massive 55" screen with 4K UHD and Dolby Vison HDR support combine to deliver breathtaking picture quality. With Roku's OS and its simplified user interface, as well as a remote control, you can easily find and stream your favourite movies, TV shows, and sports right from your TV.
Amazing picture quality for a TV in this price range and the Roku setup was a breeze. Highly recommended.
I was looking forward to this TV after reading all of the positive reviews online from critics and users alike. Unfortunately the first thing I noticed when playing a game, was the dirty screen effect. Panning the camera in the sky, you can see the DSE immediately right in the middle of the screen. Even my gf noticed right away. I'll exchange this one in the hopes that I get a panel with no DSE. Hell, even if I get a tv with the issue, as long as it's not smack dab in the middle of the screen where it's most noticeable then I'll be fine with it. I also have the 4 series and that model is great. No DSE or vertical banding whatsoever. Only gripe with that tv is it doesn't get very bright and the colors are rather bland.
TCL is not a well known company in Canada but they are huge in other parts of the world. Their 6 series have Dolby Vision which a set-up from the basic HDR of most TVs. The quality is amazing. I've never used the built-in speakers so I can't say anything about that.
It's not often I take time to write a review for a product, but after having tried both Vizio and LG over the last few months and not being overly impressed, I had to take a moment to rate this tv. I tried a Vizio with Dolby Vision and local dimming and it wasn't impressive at all, so I wasn't holding out much hope in trying the TCL for the same price. I was pleasantly surprised. The picture quality is great, the wide colour gamut really shows, and the Dolby Vision and local dimming work much better than the Vizio. My only gripe would be the lack of Bluetooth. If it had that, I would give it a 5 out of 5. For the price, you cannot go wrong with this tv.
Vivid display! Certainly a LOT of wow factor. Over the air TV upgraded to 4k looks crisp and clear. Lower quality sources (non-4k Netflix for example) can vary from okay to excellent. Fast action scenes from streaming content can sometimes cause artifacts on the screen. Requires some tuning to minimize this, hence the 1 star reduction. Great value overall, especially when it's on sale.


Halo 10955 - In addition to sleeping safer, it helps babies sleep better, too. Replaces loose blankets for safe sleep. Recognized as "hip Healthy" by the International Hip Dysplasia Institute. Inverted zipper for easy diaper changes. Machine wash with like colours. The halo sleep sack wearable blanket replaces loose blankets in the crib that can cover your baby's face and interfere with breathing.
HALO 3544 - Use over regular sleepwear to take the place of loose blankets. Size small fits 10-18 lbs; size medium fits 16-24 lbs; size large fits 22-28 lbs; size extra large fits 26-36 lbs. Used by hospitals nationwide for safe sleep education. Halo also proudly supports safe sleep education; a portion of your purchase is used in partnership with non-profits and hospitals dedicated to educating families on safe sleep practices.
Tog: 05. Used in hospitals nationwide, the halo sleepSack wearable blanket is the #1 choice of hospitals and is recognized as "Hip Healthy" by the International Hip Dysplasia Institute. Made with two layers of lightweight and ultra-soft 100% cotton muslin, it is exceptionally breathable for optimal airflow, reducing your baby's risk of overheating and ensuring comfortable sleep.
Halo SleepSack 100% Cotton Wearable Blanket, Grey Teddy, Medium - Our premium double-layered muslin is ultra-soft and features a durable weave; it gets softer and maintains its original shape with each wash and wear. The halo sleepsack wearable blanket replaces loose blankets in the crib that can cover your baby's face and interfere with breathing. Plus, it is ultra-soft and features a durable weave that gets softer and maintains its original shape with each wash and wear.
Made with two layers of lightweight 100% cotton muslin, it is exceptionally breathable for optimal airflow, reducing your baby's risk of overheating and ensuring comfortable sleep. Sleeveless design reduces the risk of overheating. A portion of your purchase of each HALO SleepSack is used in partnership with non-profits and hospitals dedicated to educating families on safe sleep practices.
Halo 38 - Size preemie fits birth-5 lbs; size small fits 10-18 lbs; size medium fits 16-24 lbs; size large fits 22-28 lbs; size extra large fits 26-36 lbs. Unzips from the bottom for easy diaper changes. Use over regular sleepwear to take the place of loose blankets. Generous sack design allows room for kicking, but cannot be kicked off so baby stays warm all night.
It is a warm cuddly blanket they cannot kick off; ensuring baby sleeps soundly throughout the night. Recognized as "hip Healthy" by the International Hip Dysplasia Institute. Back is best" embroidery reminds caregivers to place baby on his or her back. Halo also proudly supports non-profit organizations like First Candle/SIDS Alliance.
Halo SleepSack 100% Cotton Wearable Blanket, Grey Teddy, Medium - Size preemie fits birth-5 lbs; size small fits 10-18 lbs; size medium fits 16-24 lbs; size large fits 22-28 lbs; size extra large fits 26-36 lbs. Sleeveless design reduces the risk of overheating. Used by more than 1, 250 hospital nurseries nationwide as their product of choice for teaching parents safe sleep practices.
HALO 1304 - Halo supports non-profit organizations like First Candle/SIDS Alliance. Used in hospital nurseries nationwide, the Halo SleepSack wearable blanket is the #1 choice of hospital nurseries and is recognized as "Hip Healthy" by the International Hip Dysplasia Institute. Size small fits 10-18 lbs; size medium fits 16-24 lbs; size large fits 22-28 lbs.
Unzips from the bottom for easy diaper changes. Use over regular sleepwear to take the place of loose blankets. Use over regular sleepwear to take the place of loose blankets. 100% polyester plush dot velboa. It is a warm cuddly blanket they cannot kick off; ensuring baby sleeps soundly throughout the night. Sleeveless design reduces the risk of overheating.
Halo SleepSack 100% Cotton Wearable Blanket, Grey Teddy, Medium - Used by more than 1, 250 hospital nurseries nationwide as their product of choice for teaching parents safe sleep practices. Halo sleepsack wearable blanket: the safer way to Sleep The HALO SleepSack wearable blanket replaces loose blankets in the crib that can cover your baby's face and interfere with breathing.
Tog: 1. 5. Halo also proudly supports non-profit organizations like First Candle/SIDS Alliance.
Disney Baby 4407281 - 100% polyester exclusive of decoration. For use over regular sleepware. Small fits babies 0-6 months old, 7-14 pounds. The disney wearable blanket is designed to replace loose blankets during sleeptime, and is worn over regular sleepware. Features an inverted full-length zipper for easy on/off and diaper changes.
A wearable blanket the replaces loose blankets during sleeptime, the Disney Dumbo Wearable blanket comes in two sizes Small and Medium. Made from soft printed microfleece fabric, with a Dumbo embroidery detail. Comes in two sizes -- small and medium. Medium fits babies 6-12 months old, 14-22 pounds.
Hudson Baby 50666_PinkDamask_12-18 - Breathable Fabric. Sleeping sack is long sleeved to keep baby warm and zips up for easy on and off dressing. Machine Washable. Zipper makes Dressing a Breeze. Hudson baby's soft muslin sleeping sack is perfect for your little infant while sleeping. Keeps baby Warm During Cool Nights. This is the perfect solution to keep baby warm during the cooler nights, but still allows baby's skin to breathe.
Available in sizes up to 24 Months Super soft Muslin Cotton.
HALP9 2863 - Strong, adjustable fasteners ensure a perfect fit and resist breakouts for more secure swaddling. Back is best" embroidery reminds caregivers to place baby on his or her back. Unzips from the bottom allowing baby to stay swaddled for easy diaper changes. Tog: 1. 5 size newborn fits 6-12 lbs, size small fits 13-18 lbs.
And, it is the only 3-way adjustable swaddle that adjusts to your baby's sleep style. The halo sleepsack swaddle replaces loose blankets in the crib that can cover your baby's face and interfere with breathing. Swaddle arms in, hands-to-face, one or both arms out to ensure baby's best sleep and an easy and gentle transition to the SleepSack wearable blanket when it is time to stop swaddling.
Halo SleepSack 100% Cotton Wearable Blanket, Grey Teddy, Medium - 100% cotton interlock. Generous sack design allows room for kicking, but cannot be kicked off so baby stays warm all night. Swaddle arms in, hands-to-face, one or both arms out to ensure baby's best sleep and an easy and gentle transition to the SleepSack wearable blanket when it is time to stop swaddling.
1 choice of hospitals. The only 3-way adjustable swaddle that adjusts to your baby's sleep style. Halo also proudly supports non-profit organizations like First Candle/SIDS Alliance. Used by hospitals nationwide as their swaddle of choice for safe sleep education.
aden + anais S251 - Designed to be worn over pajamas, our breathable 100% cotton muslin wearable blanket does away with loose blankets in the crib, creating a peaceful night's sleep for baby and you. It offers just the right amount of comfort for warmer seasons and climates and can be layered with warmer sleepwear for cooler temperatures.
Breathable fabric helps reduce the rick of overheating. Replaces loose blankets for safer sleep. 1 pre-washed 100% cotton muslin wearable blanket. Zipper opens from bottom for easy nighttime changes. Stays soft wash after wash.
Miracle Blanket - The miracle sleeper details include: shortened zipper with top snap zips easier and avoids pinching baby's chin; bottom-up zipper provides easier/safer start for restless squirming babies; sleeveless to allow freedom of movement for self-soothing and prevents overheating; scoop neck keeps blanket from baby's chin to avoid triggering the rooting response; padded underarms absorb perspiration and eliminates chafing or heat rashes; tapered design retains warmth and provides room for development of hips and knees; zippered bottom allows for easy diaper changes.
And now the makers of miracle blanket have done it again! we took a good idea and made it truly great! The Miracle Sleeper is not only the best wearable blanket on the market; it is specifically designed to be the best method to transition from any type of swaddle. Absorbent under-arms to avoid heat rash.
Halo SleepSack 100% Cotton Wearable Blanket, Grey Teddy, Medium - Safe and comfortable enough to use all night long and for naps. No velcro to scratch and wake baby or to damage other clothes in the laundry. Small 4-9 months, 21-25 lbs, 32-35", 36"+, 28-33", 14-21 lbs, 24-29", 25-29 lbs, large 18-24 months, medium 9-18 months, x-large 24 months +, 29 lbs+. They are recommended by The Academy of Pediatrics and leading SIDS organizations.
For decades wearable blankets have been a leading choice among parents and pediatricians. Since 2002, miracle Industries, LLC.


The Forth Rail Bridge, Edinburgh Castle and the Scott Monument have been voted three of Scotland's greatest man-made wonders in new research by VisitScotland and as part of the Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design 2016.
The 126 year old bridge and UNESCO World Heritage Site took the top spot, with 30% of the votes in the survey. Edinburgh Castle was named the second greatest 'wonder' of Scotland with the Scott Monument in eighth place. The other 'wonders' on the Top 10 list include Stirling Castle, the Falkirk Wheel, Caledonian Canal, Bell Rock Lighthouse and Melrose Abbey.
Edinburgh's Culture Convener, Councillor Richard Lewis, said: "The Capital boasts an incredible mix of architecture and built heritage and it no surprise that three of the nation's favourite man-made wonders have been built on Edinburgh soil.
Earlier this month, a competition was launched by the City of Edinburgh Council to challenge residents to climb the Nelson and Scott Monuments. Those who enter the Monumental Challenge before 8 December have the chance to win exclusive Edinburgh experiences including the chance to see the city's Hogmanay fireworks from the unique vantage point of the Scott Monument.
The competition follows new lighting being launched at the structure on the anniversary of Sir Walter Scott's death. The City of Edinburgh Council project has brought the Scott Monument out of the shadows and into the Capital's night skyline with bespoke lighting which allows the Gothic qualities of the landmark to sparkle. See it switched on every night.
This entry was posted by Media Team on 14/10/2016.


Sooner or later, small businesses encounter many of the same challenges big businesses face -- and it's happening now, big time, with rampant data growth. You'd think the burden of the data explosion would fall primarily on storage infrastructure. In fact, for many small businesses, WAN bandwidth is proving to be the biggest bottleneck.
Storage vendors seem to be doing a great job staying on top of the demand for ever larger data densities and software to allow you to make more efficient use of it (think dedupe and intelligent thin provisioning). But for the most part, you can't say the same about the telcos and ISPs providing the wide area networks we're using to acquire and share that data. This is particularly a problem in rural areas, where many small high-tech companies have decided to locate themselves for cost and lifestyle reasons.
Recently, I started a long-term technology planning discussion with a client that's dealing with this very challenge. It's a small, growing engineering firm that boils down raw geophysical data into structured data that can be consumed by customers. This data is huge -- a single job often involves more than a terabyte of raw data and a comparable amount of intermediate work product. Business is good: What used to be an operation of a few engineers in one location is poised to grow into a number of satellite locations with increasing reliance on partners and remote contractors.


text:
Justia Dockets & Filings Eleventh Circuit Florida Southern District Lascelles George Mclean et al. v. GMAC Mortgage Corporation Filing 176
Lascelles George Mclean et al. v. GMAC Mortgage Corporation
ORDER denying 173 Motion for Permission to File Electronically. Signed by Magistrate Judge John J. O'Sullivan on 10/30/2008. (lc3)
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT S O U T H E R N DISTRICT OF FLORIDA C A S E NO: 06-22795-CIV-O'SULLIVAN [C O N S E N T ] L A S C E L L E S GEORGE MCCLEAN and VIRGINIA MCLEAN, P la in t if f s , v. G M A C MORTGAGE CORPORATION, INC., D e f e n d a n t. ______________________________/ ORDER T H IS MATTER is before the Court on Plaintiff Virginia McLean's Motion for Permission to File Electronically (DE# 173, 10/29/08). Having reviewed the applicable filings and the law, it is O R D E R E D AND ADJUDGED that Plaintiff Virginia McLean's Motion for Permission to F ile Electronically (DE# 173, 10/29/08) is DENIED. Access to the filing component of CM/ECF is a v a ila b le to authorized attorneys admitted to the Southern District of Florida bar. Section 2C of th e CM/ECF Administrative Procedures states that: P r o se litigants will not be permitted to register as Users at this time. Pro se litig a n ts must file their documents in the conventional manner. Pro se litigants m a y access the electronic record public counter in the Clerk's Office in all d iv is io n s or through PACER. Pro se litigants served and noticed by U.S. mail or in person (or, if agreed, by facsimile or e-mail). (e m p h a s is in original). As such, the instant motion is denied. Although the Court is sympathetic to Ms. McLean's position,1 the rules do not presently allow pro se parties to file motions using th e Court's electronic filing system. DONE AND ORDERED at Miami, Florida this 30th day of October, 2008. ______________________________ J O H N J. O'SULLIVAN U N IT E D STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 1 The Court encourages Ms. McLean to mail future filings to the Clerk's Office, have her husband deliver the documents or use a commercial messenger service. C o p ie s to: A ll Counsel of Record C o p ie s mailed by Chambers to: Lascelles McLean, pro se Virginia McLean, pro se 2 1 6 Shadow W a y M ia m i Springs, Florida 33166 2