text:
Manor house and park complex, Witków
Manor house and park complex
The complex has a clear and lavish composition, and is located picturesquely within a natural basin.
The village was first mentioned in 1658. The history of the settlement may be older, as the mention from the 17th century could only be due to the change in the name of the village. The first known owner of Wódka was Krzysztof Bonin Sulicki, who possessed the estate, as well as the estate of Salino, as a pledge. It is probable that a manor house with a small grange already existed there. A deciduous forest grew on the slopes of the valley, and the present area of the park was a marshy meadow with some trees. In 1704, the estate was bought by Janusz Ernest Rexin, and then it was taken over by his son, Michał Ernest Rexin. In order to keep the estate as a whole, in 1756 he created majorat, that is an arrangement giving the right of succession to a single heir. The construction of the present manor house commenced in 1734. At that time, a courtyard intended for the eyes of guests (cour d'honneur) was developed, separated from the grange by a low wall. A line of limes along the driveway also comes from that period. The landscape garden was developed in the mid 19th century. At that time, the buildings of the utility part and the manor house were converted. The manor house was given a Classicist décor of the façade. A porch, a veranda, and a currently non-existent orangery were added. In the early 20th century (about 1910), a fire destroyed part of the manor house. The Rexin family owned the estate until 1911, when it was sold to Ms Krauze who was its owner until 1945. Presumably, she founded the reconstruction of the manor house after the fire, as well as the modernisation of the grange buildings. After the war, the property was nationalised. The name of the village was then changed to Witków. In 1950, a State Agricultural Farm (PGR), and in the 1970s, the Laboratory for Agricultural Production of the Agricultural Company of Agricultural Production "Technirol" were formed there. After liquidation of the latter, the complex was taken over by "Iglopol", and then by the Commune Office in Łęczyca. In the early 1990s, the manor house, together with the park, became private property.
The landscape park uses the natural landform features perfectly. It was developed in the 1st quarter of the 20th century in the area of former marshy meadows. First, a pond on the west side of the manor house was made. The composition used the oaks growing in the area. After 1829, August Krzysztof von Rexin imported exotic tulip trees and magnolias. At that time, the water system in the park was further developed: a complex of three ponds connected via a canal was created. After 1843, the development of the park continued. Exotic trees, e.g. Japan larches and western thujas, were planted in the park with beeches, oaks, and limes. In the 1920s, when the estate was taken over by the von Krause family, a spectacular driveway with a decorative lawn was developed in front of the manor house. After World War II, the park was falling into ruin. The water system, due to silting of drains, ceased to work and the area turned into marsh again.
The manor house complex in Witków (former Wódka) is situated parallel to the road leading from Mierzyno to Chrzanowo, in a natural basin. The manor house is comprised of the corps de logis and two corner extension wings (two outbuildings). It was erected on a horseshoe-like floor plan, with the arms of the shoe pointing in the direction of the grange. The single-storey body of the house is fragmented. The corps de logis is covered with a half-hip roof, while the outbuildings are covered with mansard roofs. In part of the body, on the axis of both longer façades, there is an attic room, slightly projecting ahead of the face of the building. Under the attic room, in the front façade, there is an entry porch, and from the side of the garden, there is a veranda. Both side-gabled façades have one axis each. The outbuildings were asymmetrically added to the manor house with their gable walls. Their arrangement in the form of arms creates a characteristic cour d'honneur. In the part of the main body, it is a two-bay building, with a hall on the axis, while the outbuildings have one bay each, and have secondary post-war partitions of the interior. The main body with a basement is made of brick and set on stone foundations. The walls of the ground floor are also made of brick, while the first storey is a half-timbered structure. The ceilings in the interior are wooden. The basement features a brick barrel vault. The flooring in the basement is made of brick, while the flooring in the residential parts of the ground floor are wooden. The floors in the rooms on the ground floor, in the hall, and on the first floor feature board cladding. The outbuildings are set on brick foundations. The external walls of the left wing are half-timbered with brick infills, and the external walls of the right wing are made of brick and plastered. The ceilings in the outbuildings are made of wood, floors have board cladding, while the flooring in corridors is made of brick. In the building that has not been used and has been dilapidating since the 1990s, a fireplace, an oven, as well as windows and doors from the 18th and 19th century were preserved.
The historical composition of the park is now blurred. It lacks also many of the exotic trees and bushes planted there in the 19th and 20th century. After the war, neglect and lack of nurturing led to the destruction of the water system. The pond in front of the manor house has survived; in the 1960s, it was converted into a fire pool. As a result of uncontrolled prolific growth of self-sown plant, the former communication layout has also become indistinct. The present owners have tidied up the area only in the part closest to the manor house.
The historical monument may be viewed from the outside.
compiled by Dorota Hryszkiewicz-Kahlau, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Gdańsk, 06-12-2014.
Type: manor house
Chronology: 1 poł. XVIII w.
Address: Witków
Location: Voivodeship pomorskie, district wejherowski, commune Łęczyce
Palace and park complex
Parish church of the Holy Trinity – church complex with cemetery wall
Manor and park complex with a farm
The Upland Gate
The city wall complex in Słupsk
House of the Society of Naturalists or Naturalists' House
Lighthouse, currently the Stefan Żeromski Lighthouse and the Lighthouse Museum
Parish Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Dominican church of St Nicholas


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Arboretum to reopen ahead of schedule after windstorm
December 23, 2011 | 11:54 am
The Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden, where Santa Ana winds wreaked havoc on the historic collection of plants several weeks ago, will reopen Monday, a week ahead of schedule.
The Arcadia botanic garden, one of the largest in the nation, was closed for clean-up and rehabilitation after the storm. It is home to more than 10,000 types of plants from around the world. The winds destroyed 235 trees and damaged hundreds more, said Richard Schulhof, chief executive officer of the arboretum.
Hundreds of workers, both county staff and volunteers, joined in the clean-up effort. The arboretum also set up a fund to help with replanting. Schulhof said well-wishers have donated more than $22,000 to the fund.
In some areas, they will replace the downed trees with the same species.
"In other areas we see an opening to create plantings that speak to the current very important focus on water conservation," including California natives and Mediterranean species, Schulhof said.
In some cases, staff has tried to salvage severely damaged trees because they are rare species, or have a special meaning to the garden, such as a 100-year-old Montezuma cypress.
The garden's many fans have been waiting eagerly for it to reopen.
Dianne Flood, 69, of Sierra Madre, has volunteered to lead educational tours for schoolchildren in the arboretum for the last 10 years. Flood said she loves taking children through the prehistoric forest and down to Baldwin Lake where they sometimes spot birds such as egrets, herons and cormorants.
Flood had been anxious to check on her favorite trees, such as a big eucalyptus in front of Queen Anne's Cottage. (It survived.)
"I was really upset, wondering about what it was like. It was frustrating not to be able to go and see," she said. She tried to satisfy her curiosity by looking at videos online and peeking through the fence. She finally got a chance to survey the damage when she went in with an Audubon bird-watching group last weekend.
"Some of my favorite trees were will standing, but others were in ruins," Flood said.
She said she plans to be waiting at the gate on Monday.
Balmy weather expected on Christmas Day
Death of 7-year-old boy who fell off Tahoe ski lift probed
Woman caught allegedly trying to smuggle shark fins into U.S.
-- Abby Sewell
Photo: Richard Schulhof, chief executive officer of Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden, stands on a toppled 140-year-old eucalyptus after the recent windstorm. Credit: Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Seems like everyone's on a team these days.
Team Alicia. Team Blake. Team Kelly. Team Adam.
There's even a Team Coco.
Not too long ago, every teenage girl in the known universe was either Team Edward and Team Jacob.
Which is why I love the way Jackson County Community Theatre is using this concept to promote their upcoming production of Wicked Is As Wicked Does. The cast has split off between #TeamWicked and #TeamRoyal and is asking people to post pics under their favorite team.
Great idea, guys! I hope you have a fantastic show.
Youth theatre is alive and well in Brownstown, Indiana. That's where my fairy tale parody Wicked Is As Wicked Does will be performed next month. And that's where a record number of kids are participating in a free summer theatre camp to prepare for the production, as reported in this local article.
The camp originally planned to cut off enrollment at 75 kids, but when they had almost 100 sign up, they decided to let them all in, which forced them to get creative. With so many experience levels among the campers, the leaders found themselves relying on the older kids to help bring the younger ones up to speed.
"They are so energetic and eager to learn," said camp leader Stacey Williams. "It's fun to watch them grow in confidence as the week goes along."
Thanks for all your hard work, Stacey (and the rest of the crew!). Sounds like the kids are having a fantastic time.
A big shout-out to Honey Creek Community School of Ann Arbor, MI. They just gave me my 1000th production with their performance of You're Driving Me Crazy!
And let me tell you, it took a loooong time to get here. I got my first two productions in 2006, when my wife and I ran a children's theatre company in Colorado Springs and I penned a couple of plays for our students.
It was a long dry spell after that until 2010, when I got my third production as a result of a national playwriting contest (I didn't win). Then things really started heating up in 2011, when Pioneer Drama Service published my first play with them, The _urloined Letter.
I'm now getting about 300 productions a year, so the next thousand shouldn't take nearly as long.
Labels: Pioneer Drama Service, The_urloined Letter, You're Driving Me Crazy!
They say you can't break into Hollywood with a cold query.
They say you can't break into Hollywood if you don't have connections.
They say you can't break into Hollywood if you're over fifty.
Well, they must be wrong, because I just did it.
Yesterday, I signed with Gravity Squared Entertainment, a management company based in Beverly Hills. They work in a variety of fields but their specialty is turning books into movies. As far as I know, they've never signed a playwright before, but they must have liked something about my plays because they're hoping to do the same with them.
Make no mistake. It's still a longshot getting a movie made. Only around 500 feature films are released in Hollywood each year, and although streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Video are fueling a rapid growth in that number, the fact remains that a lot more screenplays end up in the trashcan or "development hell" than on the big screen.
The play that got their attention was, you guessed it, The Enchanted Bookshop. My managers say it has a Night at the Museum or even a Shrek feel, and think it might get picked up by one of those two streaming services, since they're both ramping up their offering of children's films.
Surprisingly, they don't think the script needs much work. The main thing, they say, is that it needs to be bigger. They want to see a lot more book characters popping in and out of the story, so that's what I'll be working on over the next couple months.
But first I need to polish a different screenplay, an original script that tries to recapture the spirit of The Goonies.


FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.—Three broadly defined avenues of research tied to health, sustainability and data analysis have been announced by the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, in an effort to forge a standout identity and prioritize collaboration.
Described by UA as "signature research areas," they are Harnessing the Data Revolution; Enriching Human Health and Community Vibrancy; and Promoting a Resilient and Sustainable Future.
Together they will "highlight the role of research and discoveries at the U of A in a way that distinguishes us from other institutions at the national and international level," Jim Coleman, UA's provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, announced in late January.
The focus areas "will also facilitate the development of a critical mass of researchers in these areas to create synergies and build competitiveness for large, collaborative grants and contracts," Coleman said.
They encompass emerging disciplines where attracting faculty can be very competitive, such as data science. Researchers at UA in fields related to the announced areas said the effort could help with recruitment, as well as clarifying goals for current faculty.
"From my standpoint, I like how it's been written," Raj Rao, head of UA's biomedical engineering department, told the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette of the human health research signature area, adding, "We need to be addressing issues of human health that are relevant to the community and society."
Rao said he was not part of the 18-member committee that worked on identifying the signature areas. Chancellor Joe Steinmetz, in a statement, called the committee's work "an integral part" of strategic planning.
In November, UA announced a $23.7 million gift from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation supporting research, including $5 million for faculty hiring.
The UA's recent announcement stated that along with new hires, the campus will host interdisciplinary workshops and a "signature area" lecture series.
Susan Gauch, a UA professor in computer science and computer engineering, said she's worked to recruit faculty to the university, including data science researchers.
"One of the questions that they frequently ask is, 'What are the focus areas of the university?" Gauch said, adding that it will be "really good to say, 'This is one of the signature areas.'"
Recruiting data science faculty is "extremely competitive," Gauch said.
"You're not just competing with other universities. You're competing with industry," said Gauch, a core faculty member of UA's Institute for Advanced Data Analytics, an interdisciplinary effort created in 2016.
In September, the university invited three data science researchers to interview for a position, but the search remains in progress, said Camilla Shumaker, UA's director of science and research communications.
Other public universities have recently begun major data initiatives. The University of Virginia announced a $120 million gift from the Quantitative Foundation to establish a School of Data Science. The University of Texas at San Antonio also has announced plans for a School of Data Science with help from a $15 million gift announced in September.
In Arkansas, data analytics has been highlighted by Gov. Asa Hutchinson as an area of focus for the state, and included as part of the State Science & Technology Plan, said Mike Preston, executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. Preston served as co-chairman for a commission that studied data analytics as a way to help the economy.
UA, by including data in a signature research area, "is right in line with what we are hoping to accomplish in part by building the state's research capacity," Preston said in a statement. Hutchinson has talked about building public-private partnerships, and the recent UA announcement also referred to boosting such partnerships.
Marty Matlock, executive director of the UA Resiliency Center established in 2018, said the center's projects are interdisciplinary, including work with the UA Community Design Center on locally sourced food planning. The concept of resiliency comes from ecology, but can be applied to business, engineering or other areas, Matlock said.
The sustainability signature research area "reaffirms the university's longstanding commitment to these issues," Matlock said.
UA tops the state in total research expenditures with $157.8 million spent in the 12-month period that ended June 30, 2017, according to the most recent data published by the National Science Foundation. The total includes research activity tied to the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, a part of the University of Arkansas Agriculture Division.
Nationally, UA ranked 128th in research expenditures, up for the third consecutive year but lagging reported expenditures by some similar public universities such as the University of Kansas, Louisiana State University, the University of Missouri, Mississippi State University and the University of Tennessee, according to the data from the National Science Foundation.
An AP Member Exchange shared by the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.


text:
Le flumazénil est un composé polycyclique qui est antagoniste compétitif des récepteurs des benzodiazépines (les récepteurs GABAA). Il est utilisé comme antidote pour annuler les effets thérapeutiques (effet sédatif, anticonvulsivant, anxiolytique, hypnotique, myorelaxant et amnésiant) ou toxiques (surdosage) des benzodiazépines, ainsi que pour le diagnostic différentiel des comas toxiques. Il a été commercialisé pour la première fois par le laboratoire Hoffmann-La Roche, en 1987, sous le nom de marque Anexate.

Le flumazénil agit dans un délai moyen de 90 secondes. Sa demi-vie est inférieure à celle de toutes les benzodiazépines, y compris celle du midazolam (Dormicum) : afin d'éviter une rechute dans le coma après que son effet ait cessé, le flumazénil doit être administré soit en injections itératives, soit en perfusion continue.

Voir aussi

Articles connexes
 Antidote
 Benzodiazépine

Liens externes

Notes et références

Antidote
Imidazobenzodiazépine
Fluorobenzène
Epsilon-lactame
Ester carboxylique
Anxiogénique
Antagoniste du GABA
Convulsivant

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


See the mill and its millers in action. You will be guided through the entire building. There are also performances and meetings held inside.
Sat: 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Tours conducted by volunteers are free of charge, donations are appreciated.


text:
Monday 23 February '14 show notes
Feb. 24, 2015 6:25 pm
By SueN
Why do conservative hate American history?
Stephen Cohen, The Nation: Did Europe and the UK underestimate the Ukraine?
Dr. Michael Mann, The Hockey Stick and The Climate Wars...Dispatches From the Front Lines: What's really behind the polar vortex?
The Conservative Attempt to Re-Write Our Progressive History
Oklahoma isn't the only state where Republicans are waging war on high school history class.
Conservatives in a handful of other states, including Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and - no surprise here - Texas are now pushing bills that would ban the College Board's AP U.S. history curriculum.
The main issue that conservatives have with the current AP history curriculum is that it's "too liberal" and supposedly focuses too much on the "negative" parts of American history, whatever that means. So Conservatives want to replace it with a curriculum that focuses on topics conservatives like - topics like, you know, Reagan, Reagan, and, just for good measure, more Reagan.
In all seriousness, though, there's a really good reason that conservatives are freaking out about what kind of history curriculum is going to be taught in our classrooms. And that's the simple fact that the history of America is the history of the continuous progressive transformation of this country.
All the great accomplishments of American democracy, from the revolution itself to healthcare reform, have been progressive accomplishments and they've come about because progressives rallied for change and said "no" to the old order. It was progressives who in the 1760s and 1770s took the streets and then the battlefields of America to fight against British tyranny.
Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Malcolm X Remembered 50 Years Later (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)
Be sure to check out our new videos: CARBON, LAST HOURS & GREEN WORLD RISING - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio
Need to Know: Is Greece Embracing Radical Reform?
- Mark Weisbrot, Center for Economic Policy and Research (CEPR) / Just Foreign Policy
Screwed: O'Reilly's Combat Experience Lie Just Got Worse
- Jeremy Holden, Media Matters
Best of the Rest: The Fight Over Female Viagra
- Martha Kempner, RH Reality Check
Malcolm X Remembered 50 Years Later
- Herb Boyd, The Diary of Malcolm X: El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz 1964 / City College of New York
Everything You Know Is Wrong: Debunking the Latest Smear Campaign Against Marijuana
- Paul Armentano, National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) / Freedom Leaf, Inc. / Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?
Daily Take:The Conservative Attempt to Re-Write Our Progressive History
Monday's Daily Stack
Hour One: Why do conservative hate American history?
Article: "Rudy Giuliani's Response to Charges of Racism: Obama's Mother Was White" by Josh Feldman.
Law: "The National Labor Relations Act (The Wagner Act)", 1935.
Law: "Taft-Hartley Labor Act", 1947.
Article: "Republican Party Platform of 1956", August 20, 1956.
Case: "Dred Scott v. Sandford", 1857.
Case: "Plessy v. Ferguson", 1896 (separate but equal).
Case: "Brown v. Board Of Education", 1954 (Segregation in public schools) (overturned Plessy v. Ferguson).
Case: "Roe v. Wade", 1973.
Case: "Griswold v. Connecticut", 1965.
Quote: "There is now 1 same-sex married couple in Texas for every 6.4 million uninsured Texans. Guess which "problem" the GOP is trying to solve." - LOLGOP.
Article: "AT&T is putting a price on privacy. That is outrageous" by Sophia Cope and Jeremy Gillula.
Article: "You know what Republicans really, really hate?" by Scuba.
Article: "Can You Believe My Damned Union?" by Ken Spring.
Article: "Conservatives complain there were too many black people at the 'racist' Oscars" by Scott Kaufman.
Law: "Alien and Sedition Acts", 1798.
Book: The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot, Russell Kirk.
Video: Do the Rich Pay Their Fair Share? - UCLA Professor of Economics, Lee Ohanian.
Quote: "[A conservative is someone who] stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it." " by William F. Buckley Jr.
Article: "Dear Clarence Thomas: It Happened on July 4, 1776" by Thom Hartmann.
Letter: "The omission of a bill of rights" from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, December 20, 1787. "I will now add what I do not like..."
Book: "The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America--and What We Can Do to Stop It" by Thom Hartmann.
Quote: "The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant" -- Maximilien Robespierre".
Article: "Scott Walker Pushes ALEC 'Right to Work' Bill, Divide and Conquer Comes Full Circle" by Mary Bottari.
Article: "Union Leaders Vow to Fight Walker on Right to Work in Wisconsin" by John McCormick, Mark Niquette.
Hour Two: Did Europe and the UK underestimate the Ukraine?
- Stephen Cohen, The Nation
Book: Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives by Stephen Cohen.
Article: "Ukraine: UK and EU 'badly misread' Russia" by BBC.
Article: "Cuban missile crisis" by Wikipedia.
Article: "Bernie Sanders calls for two tuition-free years of public college" by Joseph Lawler.
Article: "The War Next Door: Can Merkel's Diplomacy Save Europe?" by Der Spiegel.
Article: "Pro-Russia rebels 'to withdraw weapons from Ukraine frontline'" by France 24.
Article: "Kiev says cannot withdraw heavy weapons as attacks persist" by Pavel Polityuk and Anton Zverev.
Article: "Ukrainian army refuses to start withdrawing heavy weapons" by DW.
Article: "US Congress passes Russia sanctions, arms for Ukraine" by AFP.
Article: "At Munich Conference, US Hawks Press for Military Escalation Towards Russia" by Sarah Lazare.
Talk Radio News Segment:
- Victoria Jones
Article: "DHS Funding Fight Enters Zero Hour" by Justin Duckham.
Article: "White House echoes Pentagon chief on transgender troops" by Tom Vanden Brook.
Article: "Security Tightened at Mall of America After Terrorist Video Threat" by Louise Radnofsky and Kathleen Madigan.
Article: "DOJ Asks Texas Judge To Halt Immigration Ruling" by Mary Jarvis.
Site: "Goats for the old Goat".
Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman.
Article: "TRNS News Notes- 2/23" by Victoria Jones.
Hour Three: What's really behind the polar vortex?
- Dr. Michael Mann, The Hockey Stick and The Climate Wars...Dispatches From the Front Lines
Article: "Is the melting Arctic causing frigid winters?" by Carolyn Gramling.
Tweet: "These northeastern winters are brutal. I'm moving to Alaska:" - Michael E. Mann.
Article: "Deeper Ties to Corporate Cash for Doubtful Climate Researcher" by Justin Gillis and John Schwartz.
Quote: "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub" by Grover Norquist.
Event: Minneapolis, February 27th, 2015 "AM950's 11th Annual Blue State Ball".
Book: "Screwed: The Undeclared War Against The Middle Class" by Thom Hartmann. Get "Screwed" by Thom Hartmann!
Video: Selma - John Legend ft. Common Music Video - "Glory" (2015) HD.
Quote: "WISCONSIN - When asked how history will judge him, Gov. Scott Walker said, "If I have my way, there will be no one to teach history." - Andy Borowitz".
Article: "Republican Candidates Descend on Iowa" by Andy Borowitz.
Quote: "He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past." George Orwell, 1984.
Book: "Nineteen Eighty-Four" by George Orwell.
Article: "Title IX" by Wikipedia.
Article: "Palin's Twist on Paul Revere" by FactCheck.org.
Law: "Clean Air Act", 1963.
Economic and Labor News
Article: "Banking Goes Postal" by David Moberg.
Article: "Georgia's New Plan To Make Voting Even Harder" by Alice Ollstein.
Article: "Eric Holder: Moratorium On Death Penalty 'Would Be Appropriate' Pending Supreme Court Decision" by Mollie Reilly.
Article: "Oklahoma Lawmakers Vote Overwhelmingly To Ban Advanced Placement U.S. History" by Judd Legum.
Article: "Sanders: 'We Need Revolution in Way Higher Education is Funded'" by Deirdre Fulton.
Tuesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET
I'll be talking with Chief Justice Roy Moore, Chief Justice-Supreme Court of Alabama.
And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...
The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"
And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...
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Thom's Poll
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Watch & Listen to Thom
Conversations w/Great Minds - Steve Fraser - The Second Gilded Age? Part 1
Rumble: The Real Terrorist Threat in America
Conversations w/Great Minds - Steve Fraser - The Myth of the Free Market - Part 2
Rumble: America Was Founded on Liberal Values
Or watch the Full "Big Picture" Show...
Full Show 2/20/2015: Conversations with Great Minds: Steve Fraser
In tonight's Conversations with Great Minds, Steve Fraser co-founder of the American Empire Project and author of The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power talks with Thom about the rise of American capitalism, attempts to save democracy, and today's era of delusional freedom and fear.
Veteran Union Organizer and author Stewart Acuff, American Encore Policy Director Patrick Hedger, and Jennifer Kerns of the Washington Times and The Blaze join Thom on set for the Big Picture Rumble. The Big Picture panel discusses the Department of Homeland Security's ring-wing warning, AP history on the chopping block, the union comeback, Bill O'Reilly's faux pas, and Mayor Giulian's Obama slam.
Thom Hartmann on Labor & Economic News - February 23, 2015
Caller: Thom, You're a Science Denier over 9/11...
Caller: America Doesn't Need Another Tax!
The More Corrupt a Nation, the More Profitable the Businesses
Caller: The Government is Modifying our Weather...
Caller: Can You Explain how the Fire Department is Socialist?
What About Rudy Giuliani's Values?
Bill O' Reilly has a Brian Williams Problem...
Caller: Dems Need to tell us What's in the TPP...
Global Warming: Welcome to our New Normal!
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Chapel Hill, NC – MSPWorld® (www.mspworldconference.com), now open for registration, is launching a revolutionary new conference experience designed for managed services and cloud executives. The leading, best-attended event focused on managed services and cloud computing. The theme of this year's conference is Take Your Practice to the Next Level and Beyond! MSPWorld Spring 2019 will focus on bringing together MSP peers from all over the globe to discuss specific and meaningful topics, including sales, marketing, KPIs, finance, operations, benchmarking and leadership.


text:
Q: Linq caculate time difference and choose closest one I have list of object like this one:
+-------------+------------+---------------------+
| ID          | Value      | Time                |
+-------------+------------+---------------------+
| 1           | 1          | 2019-03-07 20:05:35 |
| 2           | 2          | 2019-03-07 20:06:09 |
| 5           | 5          | 2019-03-07 20:11:27 |
| 7           | 1          | 2019-03-07 20:13:30 |
| 8           | 0          | 2019-03-07 20:13:41 |
| 7           | 1          | 2019-03-07 20:17:00 |
| 8           | 0          | 2019-03-07 20:22:20 |
| 7           | 1          | 2019-03-07 20:23:05 |
| 8           | 0          | 2019-03-07 20:27:35 |
| 7           | 1          | 2019-03-07 20:27:37 |
| 8           | 0          | 2019-03-07 20:28:01 |
| 7           | 1          | 2019-03-07 20:37:19 |
| 8           | 0          | 2019-03-07 20:37:27 |
| 7           | 1          | 2019-03-07 20:37:54 |
| 8           | 0          | 2019-03-07 20:40:11 |
| 7           | 1          | 2019-03-07 20:44:00 |
| 8           | 0          | 2019-03-07 20:45:00 |
| 7           | 1          | 2019-03-07 20:47:41 |
| 7           | 1          | 2019-03-07 20:48:43 |
| 7           | 1          | 2019-03-07 20:48:51 |
| 8           | 0          | 2019-03-07 20:51:11 |
| 8           | 0          | 2019-03-07 20:54:46 |
| 8           | 0          | 2019-03-07 20:55:36 |
+-------------+------------+---------------------+

How to select records 15 minutes apart but records that are more close to the next time?
The result should be something like this:
+-------------+------------+---------------------+
| ID          | Value      | Time                |
+-------------+------------+---------------------+
| 1           | 1          | 2019-03-07 20:05:35 |
| 8           | 0          | 2019-03-07 20:22:20 |
| 7           | 1          | 2019-03-07 20:37:19 |
| 8           | 0          | 2019-03-07 20:51:11 |
+-------------+------------+---------------------+

If the first time is 20:05:35 and next apart 15 min is 20:22:20. The closest time to that is 20:22:20 because difference between them is  00:02:14 and between 20:17:35 is difference 00:02:25. Is there any way to calculate difference and make decision which one is closer to choose?

A: Try following :
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;

namespace ConsoleApplication132
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            List<Dates> dates = Dates.GetDates();

            var results = dates.GroupBy(x => new DateTime(x.Time.Year, x.Time.Month, x.Time.Day, x.Time.Hour, 15 * (x.Time.Minute / 15), 0).AddMinutes(15))
                .Select(x => x.OrderBy(y => x.Key.Subtract(y.Time)).First())
                .ToList();
        }
    }
    public class Dates
    {
        public int ID { get;set;}
        public int Value { get;set;}
        public DateTime Time { get;set;}

        public static List<Dates> GetDates()
        {
            string input =
                "| 1           | 1          | 2019-03-07 20:05:35 |\n" +
                "| 2           | 2          | 2019-03-07 20:06:09 |\n" +
                "| 5           | 5          | 2019-03-07 20:11:27 |\n" +
                "| 7           | 1          | 2019-03-07 20:13:30 |\n" +
                "| 8           | 0          | 2019-03-07 20:13:41 |\n" +
                "| 7           | 1          | 2019-03-07 20:17:00 |\n" +
                "| 8           | 0          | 2019-03-07 20:22:20 |\n" +
                "| 7           | 1          | 2019-03-07 20:23:05 |\n" +
                "| 8           | 0          | 2019-03-07 20:27:35 |\n" +
                "| 7           | 1          | 2019-03-07 20:27:37 |\n" +
                "| 8           | 0          | 2019-03-07 20:28:01 |\n" +
                "| 7           | 1          | 2019-03-07 20:37:19 |\n" +
                "| 8           | 0          | 2019-03-07 20:37:27 |\n" +
                "| 7           | 1          | 2019-03-07 20:37:54 |\n" +
                "| 8           | 0          | 2019-03-07 20:40:11 |\n" +
                "| 7           | 1          | 2019-03-07 20:44:00 |\n" +
                "| 8           | 0          | 2019-03-07 20:45:00 |\n" +
                "| 7           | 1          | 2019-03-07 20:47:41 |\n" +
                "| 7           | 1          | 2019-03-07 20:48:43 |\n" +
                "| 7           | 1          | 2019-03-07 20:48:51 |\n" +
                "| 8           | 0          | 2019-03-07 20:51:11 |\n" +
                "| 8           | 0          | 2019-03-07 20:54:46 |\n" +
                "| 8           | 0          | 2019-03-07 20:55:36";
            List<Dates> dates = new List<Dates>();

            string line = "";
            StringReader reader = new StringReader(input);

            while ((line = reader.ReadLine()) != null)
            {
                string[] lineArray = line.Split(new char[] { '|' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);

                Dates newDate = new Dates()
                {
                    ID = int.Parse(lineArray[0]),
                    Value = int.Parse(lineArray[1]),
                    Time = DateTime.Parse(lineArray[2])
                };

                dates.Add(newDate);
            }
            return dates;
        }
    }

}

The code move the time exactly at the 15 minute interval to next interval.  The smallest resolution of time is 100ns (1 tick) so subtract 1 tick I believe is the correct solution
            var results = dates.GroupBy(x => new DateTime(x.Time.Year, x.Time.Month, x.Time.Day, x.Time.Hour, 15 * (x.Time.Minute / 15), 0).AddMinutes(15).AddTicks(-1))
                .Select(x => x.OrderBy(y => x.Key.Subtract(y.Time)).First())
                .ToList();

To group by 15 minutes from start time use this
            //tick is 100ns
            const long TICKS_PER_15_MINUTES = 15 * 60 * 10000000L; //minutes, seconds, ticks

            DateTime minTime = dates.OrderBy(x => x.Time).First().Time;

            List<Dates> results = dates.GroupBy(x => (TICKS_PER_15_MINUTES * ((x.Time.Ticks - minTime.Ticks) / TICKS_PER_15_MINUTES) + TICKS_PER_15_MINUTES - 1))
                .Select(x => x.OrderBy(y => x.Key - y.Time.Ticks).First())
                .ToList();

Finally if you want closest 15 minutes from  min time
            //tick is 100ns
            const long TICKS_PER_15_MINUTES = 15 * 60 * 10000000L; //minutes, seconds, ticks

            DateTime minTime = dates.OrderBy(x => x.Time).First().Time;

            List<Dates> results = dates.GroupBy(x => ((x.Time.Ticks - minTime.Ticks) % TICKS_PER_15_MINUTES) < (TICKS_PER_15_MINUTES / 2)
                ? TICKS_PER_15_MINUTES * ((x.Time.Ticks - minTime.Ticks) / TICKS_PER_15_MINUTES)
                : (TICKS_PER_15_MINUTES * ((x.Time.Ticks - minTime.Ticks) / TICKS_PER_15_MINUTES)) + TICKS_PER_15_MINUTES)
                .Select(x => x.OrderBy(y => Math.Abs( x.Key - y.Time.Ticks)).First())
                .ToList();

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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text:
\section{Outliers in Abundance Ratio Trends}

Extremely metal poor (EMP) stars were presumably among the first
stars formed in the Galaxy, and hence represent in effect
a local high-redshift population.   Such stars
provide important clues to the chemical
history of our Galaxy, the role and type of early SN, the
mode of star formation in the proto-Milky Way, and the formation
of the Galactic halo.  \cite{beers05} compiled the small sample of EMP
stars known as of 2005.
The goal of our 0Z Project is to increase this sample
substantially.

Our sample selection is based on mining the database of the Hamburg/ESO Survey
\citep{wis00} for candidate EMP stars with
[Fe/H] $< -3.0$~dex \citep{christlieb03}.
Our abundance determination procedures are described in
\cite{cohen04}.  The
determination of stellar parameters, measurement of equivalent widths, and detailed
abundance analyses were all carried out by J.~Cohen.

Our data in general follow the well established trends from numerous studies of Galactic
halo stars between abundance ratios [X/Fe] and overall
metallicity as measured by [Fe/H] \citep[see e.g.][]{cayrel_04,cohen04}.
The interesting question is whether in the low metallicity
regime studied here we can detect
 the effect of only a small number of  SN contributing to a star's chemical
inventory or inhomogeneous mixing within the ISM at these early stages of formation of the Galaxy.
Thus the size of the scatter around these trends and whether
there are major outliers is of great interest.

After all the abundance analyses were completed, we
looked for {\it{strong}} outliers, either
high or low, in
plots of [X/Fe] vs [Fe/H].  We checked these in detail.
The  Ca abundance turned out to be problematical
in those  very C-rich stars whose spectra were obtained
prior to HIRES detector upgrade in mid-2004  and thus
included only a limited wavelength range.  In
an effort to derive Ca abundances from these early HIRES spectra, we ended up using
lines which were crowded/blended, presumably by molecular
features. This was only realized
fairly recently when we obtained additional C-star HIRES spectra extending
out to 8000~\AA\ which covered key isolated
 Ca~I lines in the 6160~\AA\ region.  We found much lower Ca abundances from the additional
 Ca lines in these carbon stars.  Our
earlier claims in \cite{cohen06} of high Ca/Fe for some C-rich stars
are not correct.

These abundance analyses were carried out
over a period of a decade, and some updates were made in J.~Cohen's
master list of adopted $gf$ values during that period.  The
next step, completed in Dec 2011 after the conference,
was to homogenize the $gf$ values.

\section{Linear Fits to Abundance Ratios}

Fig. 1 shows [Ca/Fe] vs [Fe/H] for our sample.
Linear fits to the abundance ratios vs [Fe/H] where there is adequate data
for the species X were calculated, excluding
 C-rich stars and  a small number of  {\it{strong}} outliers.
An example of these fits is shown
for Ca in
Fig~2, where in the lower panel the included stars are shown together
with the fit (thick solid line) and the fit $\pm$0.15~dex (dashed lines).
Note that the fit for [Ca/Fe] vs [Fe/H] is constant, [Ca/Fe] = 0.26~dex.  In the
upper panel the histogram of deviations from the linear fit is shown.
Although a number of very deviant low outliers were excluded, an
assymetric distribution of $\delta$([Ca/Fe]) still remains, suggesting the presence
of a small tail of stars with low [Ca/Fe], though not so extreme
that the stars were rejected as strong outliers.  This is also apparent
in the lower panel, where there are four stars with [Ca/Fe] $< 0$;
these  values were not low enough for them to be rejected as strong outliers.
Current work focuses on determining whether the dispersion about these fits
is larger than the expected uncertainties.

There are six stars which are very deviant low outliers in [Ba/Fe].  One of these
has [Ba/H] below that of Draco~119, the star with the
lowest Ba abundance previously known \citep{draco119}.

\acknowledgements

We are very grateful
to the Palomar, Las Campanas, and Keck time allocation committees for
their long-term support of
this  effort.
J.~Cohen acknowledges partial support from NSF grants
AST--0507219 and AST--0908139. I.~Thompson acknowledges partial
support from NSF AST-0507325.
We are grateful to the many people
who have worked to make the Keck Telescopes and their instruments,
and the Magellan Telescopes and their instruments,
a reality and to operate and maintain these observatories.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


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text:
matthigh —
Matthew High
Help Save Radio Comix IndieGoGo Campaign
Help Save Radio Comix!
DEAR ANIME FANDOM, THIS IS WHY WE CANNOT HAVE NICE THINGS.
So I am checking out some of the latest anime shows that are popping up on Hulu. And the latest to be added to the list of tepid streaming offerings is the pedophilierrific Vividred Operation, where underage girls live in a near-future utopia where all of our energy needs have been solved by the miraculous Manifest Engine. And apparently girls are not allowed to wear pants.
Within the first thirty seconds of the first episode, in the very opening scene where the main character is peering off into the bright morning sunset, the camera angle pans down and our optical nerves are assaulted with this little gem:
....Aaaaaand from there, we are off to a veritable parade of shameless butt-shots with junior high girls galavanting around in the sheerest of skin-tight short-shorts, with one shot after another of shiny pre-teen butt crack and tightly outlined pubis mons.
About as shameless as you can get; there's no mistaking that this is an anime series aimed at all the slack-jawed anime fans out there who get their jimmies rustled by lingering shots of animated asses.
Oh, and there's something about some sort of robot or alien thing that is threatening mankind, a crazy grandfather inventor and the girls who are humanity's only hope. But really, it's all about the butt shots. Underage. Butt shots. Lots of them.
In a nutshell, this series appears, in plot and theme, to essentially be Strike Witches, Part Three. And some people wonder why anime fandom cannot be taken more seriously.
Somehow, methinks I won't be following this show very closely. I felt dirty and creepy after finishing the first episode. Instead, I'll be sticking to another recent Hulu addition, Michiko and Hatchin (from 2008), which is Worth the Watching.
My plan to try and restart some sort of anime reviews before the end of the year have been stymied by a frustrating pinched nerve -- it's amazing how something that goes wrong in the back of the shoulder can cause so much pain in the tips of my fingers. In particular, the radial nerve of the right arm/hand, which causes all sorts of deep-aching pains in the arm that vicodin cannot even touch, means I can only sleep a certain way, and more importantly means that it hurts to click a mouse and hurts to type a few sentences at a time. Hence I am avoiding computer usage (other than casual browsing). It's an order of magnitude better now than it was before, at least. Hooray for growing old.
In the mean time, for the past few months I've been flying through tons of anime on Netflix -- a few good shows, but most of it ranging between bad, really-really-bad and terribad. Decent stuff includes Canaan and Ghost Hound, okay stuff includes Gunslinger Girl, Blue Drop, Corpse Princess. The truly awful stuff includes Air Gear, Rosario and Vampire, Dragonaut, Vandread, Moeyo Ken. Frankly, I *want* to so some sort of reviews for the awful stuff, because I have more fun writing those types of reviews. Guess that makes me a sadist, wanting to rip something apart rather than heap praise. There's just so much awful stuff to choose from, too!
Also in the past month, Netflix slashed their anime offerings, more than half of their remaining (already shrinking) catalog was dropped mid-month. And there's been no moves to try and beef up their catalog. No matter. Plenty of other options with much larger catalogs via streaming on Roku, including the 900-pound anime gorillas of Hulu and Crunchyroll, as well as a rather impressive selection via free streaming through Amazon Prime, also Crackle and Funimation's own channel. It's amazing how the availability of anime has changed so much just in the past five years, much less ten or twenty years (could anyone from 1992 fathom what today's media landscape would have been like?).
The only thing I don't like is the notable lack of back-catalog stuff. Looking for all the recent releases? Sure, most of it is just a few clicks of the mouse away! But try and find some anime show from the eighties or nineties? Yeah...not so much. Torrenting is about the only way to go for most of that stuff. And being the old fart that I am, that's the stuff I'm more interested in. Oh well, can't win them all.
So, until I can type for any length of time without having to take breaks to ice down my arm, I'll remain quietly in the background, spooling up the next episode of Humanity Has Declined to watch or somesuch. Happy holidays!
(Yoinked from Reddit)
Quick Non-Specific Anime Update
Since I essentially ran full-force into the brick wall of blogging burnout a few months ago and put a screeching halt to my relentless (yet largely meaningless) anime reviews, I've still been watching various anime shows. But because I didn't want to interfere with my previously-planned schedule of reviews (which at that time I was still planning on continuing), I shifted my focus to other shows entirely.
For the past few months, I've gone back and I've been watching what is available on streaming services through Roku -- notably Netflix, but as the pickings start to get a little thin on Netflix I can easily shift over to Hulu, Crackle or Crunchyroll as well. Netflix's current offerings can basically be summarized as "Funimation's Dubbed Non-Current Greatest Hits". There's a couple hundred series available, but nothing subtitled, nothing newer than 2010, and also (much to my displeasure) basically nothing from before about 1998.
Now, given the choice, I'm much more likely to choose a subtitled version of a show over the dubbed version. Yet, I am most definitely *not* a "dub snob" who will turn up my nose at anything that is dubbed. Back in the eighties and nineties, the quality of the American voice acting was truly a terrible experience that made shows largely unwatchable (although occasionally HILARIOUS). But with experience the dubbing studios have definitely improved, and nowadays badly-dubbed shows are few and far between. Most are "acceptable", and in some cases quite decent.
And the one big advantage to watching a dubbed show over a subtitled one is that I can do what I am doing at this very moment: Sit in front of my computer typing away with some mediocre show on the television in the background. With a subtitled show, I must focus by undivided attention and eyes to screen -- with subtitled anime you can't do two things at once.
I kinda sorta want to get back to doing some sort of anime reviews, albeit at a much greatly reduced rate. The previous way I was doing them required many, many hours a week, going episode-by-episode with a shit-ton of screen grabs to boot. Instead, I'm thinking of completely changing things up, one or two paragraphs, a picture or two, more of a capsule review than multi-paragraph theses.
I've already watched a few dozen different series, usually moving along at one episode a week on each as I work through my Netflix queue. It really does run the gamut of good, bad and ugly shows. There's the good (like Canaan, Ghost Hound, Moribito, Birdy), the bad (like Air Gear, Slayers, Kaze no Stigma>, and the godawful bad (like Rosario and Vampire, Dragonaut, Shuffle, Moeyo Ken). There's the Better Than Expected (like Gunslinger Girl, Princess Tutu, Schools Rumble, Full Metal Panic Fumoffu), the Worse Than Expected (like Chobits, Fruits Basket, Blue Gender, Baccano), and the About As Expected (like Sacred Blacksmith, Full Metal Alchemist, Soul Eater, Trigun)...and of course the incomprehensibly unwatchable (like Tokyo Maijin, D.Gray-Man, and Tears to Tiara).
And I really should get back to finishing off what I started with all of those shows that I left hanging from 2011. There's around 20 shows I was in the middle of watching that I just stopped cold-turkey, like Nichijou, Mawaru Penguin-Drum, Ano Hana, Stein's Gate, Usagi Drop, Last Exile, Hanasaku Iroha, Mirai Nikki, Chihayafuru, and many more.
Not to mention that I have intentionally avoided watching anything from 2012 -- even though I've been told this year's shows include some of the best new stuff in a generation. Oh well, I guess that means I just have that much more to look forward to.
Anyway, sorry about the radio silence. I'll make no promises for the future, though, I've been terrible about keeping those promises before.
A few thoughts on Kevin Lillard and Mitch Beiro
My livejournal has been largely abandoned of late, but I thought I would share a few thoughts on some recent events related to fandom from years past, that have been the "talk of the town" on some other blogs in the past couple of weeks.
The first involves Kevin Lillard, whose name was synonymous with anime conventions for many years. His website "A Fan's View" was the unofficial visual "newspaper of record" for the rapidly growing anime fandom. While he did photograph all sorts of panels and events at conventions, his specialty was anime cosplay, shooting hundreds of photographs and putting the best ones up on his website. Hell, I even ended up appearing in some of the photos (the website is long-gone, however).
But recently, Kevin Lillard has fallen on some pretty hard times -- lost his job, lost his home, dead-broke, living out of his car, and there has been a call for donations to help him in his time of need.
There really isn't a whole lot I can add that hasn't been mentioned by others already...except when Dave Merrill added an interesting twist on the whole situation in a recent entry on his livejournal. (http://davemerrill.livejournal.com/767502.html). Dave bluntly calls out a certain type of fanboy (whether it be comics, anime or what-have-you) that puts their fan obsession before "real life" -- which is something that is fine when you're young and stupid, but not exactly a rut you want to be stuck in when you're middle-aged without a future or savings to show for your efforts.
Read it. It's short, and a little harsh...but spot-on. And also rings somewhat true for my life as well, although it wasn't so much that I was immersed in fandom as a fan, but rather as my method of employment for the first fifteen years of my adult life. And when I did finally leave Cold Cut when it went under in 2008, all I had to show for it was a bit load of debt, no job, no savings, and a room-full of comic books. At the age of 38.
Since that time I've obtained an honest-to-god real jorb; it doesn't pay much, but it's steady and reliable employment and I actually am fairly good at it even if it's unglamorous. I'm slowly building up a 401K, I'm in the middle of a payment plan to finally take care of my 5-figure debt. Over the past several months I've been selling off a large chunk of the remaining dregs of my comic book collection, so far to date shipping off somewhere between 15 and 20 long-boxes-worth of comics to Lone Star for a few thousand bucks (what's the point in keeping comics around if you haven't cracked them open to read in two decades anyway?). This, on top of the thousands of graphic novels I've sold on Amazon in years past, which is also on top of the tens of thousands of comics sold on ebay in years past. I still have years to go, but it's a start.
It's not like one day a few years ago I suddenly thought, "Oh shit, I've been wasting my life, just barely treading water, now I'm getting old and have nothing to show for it!" Nah, nothing so dramatic, but that's effectively the result -- perhaps an unconscious realization? Dave Merrill's THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU! cautionary warning might have been directed at me a few years ago. And I certainly know plenty of people it could apply to now, just as Dave knows several as well. Both of us have watched people we know in various fandom circles who are stuck in the same place in 2012 as they were in 2002...and as they were in 1992 for that matter. I hope his "don't let this happen to you" admonition is taken to heart by those who need it.
As for me, I'm still interested in anime, I'm still interested in comics and manga and whatnot. That's never going to change. I'm still watching gob-loads of anime shows, and picking up the occasional comic or two. Haven't been to a convention in a while, but I have no doubt I'll head off to one or three at some point (I kinda-sorta wanted to crash AWA because I've been on an "old school" kick as of late). But I have to keep it all in perspective, remember a hobby is just a hobby -- it is not my life.
Moving on to the next topic that has one small corner of the fandom a-twitter, there's the unseemly matter of Mitch Beiro. Earlier this month, he was arrested and charged with several counts of child porn. (No links, but if you're interested a quick search will bring up the details.) Frankly, no one saw it coming. Mitch was definitely NOT the sort of person that you would suspect, never gave off any clues or hints or "bad vibes". Anyone who has been immersed in various fandoms (whether it be sci-fi, comics, anime, or furry fandom) can probably very easily tick off half a dozen names of people who give off that "child porno" vibe; and Mitch was nowhere near that list.
Mitch was (er, is) a genuinely nice guy. I cannot say he was a friend, but throughout the nineties and aughts I probably met him on dozens of occasions, either on a friend-of-a-friend basis or professionally (I worked on plenty of comics in which he was published). By-and-large, I enjoyed his company. He was more of the "lovable loser" type of guy (and I say that affectionately rather than pejoratively), the type of person who never seemed to get a break in life, but also never seemed to make any sort of serious effort to break out of whatever hole he found himself in. In fact, he's exactly the sort of person the Dave Merrill cautionary warning above could be directed towards.
Mind you, at this point he's been arrested and the charges are 'alleged'. Lots of people are coming to his defense, some even trying to trump up wild conspiracy theories. But one news article says he admits he has a problem, which is pretty damning.
The problem of child porn has always been an unspoken and rarely acknowledged undercurrent in some of the darker circles of various fandoms. No surprises there, no doubt because sci-fi/fantasy fandom, comics fandom, anime fandom, what-have-you fandom has always been in some respects an "island of misfit toys" where those who do not fit in can gather and commiserate in their shunning from the larger society as a whole. The over-arching uber-fandom of sci-fi and all its subsets have always been more accepting of those who tip-toe around the fringe of polite society. I really doubt that's ever going to seriously change. Mitch's arrest changes nothing.
Except that I hardly saw it coming. NO ONE SAW IT COMING. Based on multiple interactions with him over the past twenty years, I would never have guessed of the mere possibility. And that is a little scary.
Who else out there is hiding some deep, dark, unfathomable secret? I would like to think that I could pick up on that sort of thing, but apparently I had no clue. Which can only make me wonder about other people I know or may have known in the past. Just sort of makes me a little bit less trusting of people in general. I'm already turning into a bitter old man, I hardly need this to make me that much more bitter. Bah.
Interregnum
Okay, so I lied.
Well, not really lied, but when I said over a month ago that I was going to keep chugging away at the various online anime reviews, I obviously did not follow through with my plan. Sorry 'bout that.
Instead, I've been slaving away at something entirely different: making some extra money. I've been sorting through and selling off anything of value in my many boxes of comic books I have sitting around. Throughout most of the past decade I had been selling tons of comic books on ebay as well as on Amazon. And by "tons" I mean tens of thousands of transactions; I have no idea of the total amount sold but it has to be in the hundred thousand dollar range since 2000.
But for the past year-plus, I've let all of that lie fallow as I've chugged away at my regular jorb. Mostly it was because the amount of money I could make selling comics and the time it took to sell those comics was less than the amount of money I could make by just doing a few hours of overtime at work.
Not only that, but the bottom fell out of the comics market on ebay some years ago, and lots of comics are selling today for a mere fraction of what they went for previously...if at all. Furthermore, I haven't bought anything new for years, haven't refreshed any stock, so over time the quality of the comics I have left has declined until there is little of value remaining. It was reaching a point where the money I was earning was barely covering the expenses, much less approaching anything close to minimum wage.
On top of that, one of the places I would sell comics (mycomicshop.com) had stopped buying comics altogether for a couple years as the economy bottomed out. They weren't buying anything, period, so all those boxes of comic books started collecting dust, filling up space in my home.
But last month, I went back and checked and LO AND BEHOLD, mycomicshop.com was buying again! I sorted through a couple of boxes, scrounged together a box of comics I could sell to them, and shipped it off. We're not talking huge amounts of money here, but $100-$150 for a short-box of comics for a few hours of work, so not bad.
That was over a month and twelve shipments ago. And I'm still at it.
I've dealt with mycomicshop.com at various times in the past, and they've always been honest with me. They have an online database you can search through, just stick the name of the comic in, and it lets you know whether they are buying it, and exactly how much they are paying by grade. Ranging from Golden Age to modern comics, just search, click, and ship. Of course they're buying on the cheap, so most of the comics they are buying at a fraction of wholesale, unless it has a collector's premium. Furthermore, about 80-90% of what I have they are not buying at all, so it's a matter of searching and sorting through lots of boxes to separate the wheat from the chaff.
There's a method to my madness. Over the years I've managed to whittle down my comics to about 44 long-boxes-worth comics, plus three full bookshelves of graphic novels (used to be much, much more). First I sort out all of the near-mint comics and then separate out those they are willing to buy above a certain dollar amount. Then I sort out all the very fine comics, lather rinse repeat with fine comics, then very good, then good comics. Plus their database is updated all the time, so I can come back the next day/week/month and some of the comics that they weren't buying before are now on the buy list.
For someone who has a ton of comics sitting around doing nothing, it's an easy way to make a couple thousand bucks, and I'll keep at it until there isn't anything left to sell, I guess. Looks like I could use it in the near future, with what I'm guessing could be a failing head gasket. Like I said, twelve boxes down (each 30-40 pounds), who knows how many more to go? Good times, good times.
ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ
External RSS feeds to Livejournal have been broken now for nearly a week.
Reading a whole bunch of sites via RSS feeds to Livejournal is one of the main reasons I come here anymore.
Livejournal has been aware of the problem for the past week. Still no fix in sight.
In the grand scheme of things, it's a very minor annoyance. But an annoyance nonetheless.
June 21st, 2012, 07:07 am
Anime Burnout!
For the handful of people that may have been following the various reviews that I have been doing, ya'll may have noticed that I have slowed down quite a bit over the past few months. For the casual follower of my reviews, ya'll might have also noticed that I've been plodding through shows that first aired several months (or even over a year) ago, and here it is the first day of Summer and I haven't even touched anything from 2012.
I think the problem can be diagnosed as a case of Anime Burnout. Or, more specifically, Anime Review Burnout, because I'm actually watching just as many of the cartoons as I always have, but it's a chore to get around to actually reviewing them.
The simple fact, which I have been obstinately avoiding, is that the amount of time I've been spent writing and ham-fistedly critiquing the shows far outweighs the amount of time it takes to actually watch said show. If it takes twenty minutes to watch an average episode of your average anime series, it should not take the better part of an hour (or longer) to whip up a full-fledged review complete with image scans and online blog reactions. I just sorta-kinda burned out on the whole process.
A little while back, I made the decision not to take on any new shows (as in the Winter 2012 Anime Season, much less the Spring 2012 Season or the now-upcoming Summer 2012 Season) until I take care of what I'm already working on. My plate is full, have to clear off room on my plate before I add anything new. This is why I haven't touched anything from the current year yet, even though I posted a "upcoming season preview" some months back.
So, here's the deal: I'm throwing any semblance of any sort of schedule out of the window. I've never really been concerned with being timely with reviews, and this just is a confirmation of that already-existing policy. I will continue to methodically work my way through reviewing shows from 2011 that I'm already in the middle of watching, episode-by-episode, until I'm done. Even if it takes until the end of the year. (At the moment, that's well over two dozen episodic shows from the Spring, Summer and Fall 2011 Anime Season)
I will completely finish off what I started, which means reviewing in full every single show (even if it's just the first episode) of every single series, movie, OVA, or special from 2010 and 2011. That's right -- there's still a tiny handful of shows (mostly odds-and-ends movies and specials) from 2010 that are on my place. The rate that I'm plodding away at right now (roughly an episode a day, or less) seems about the right workload for me, so it is going to take several months until I'm done.
When I am finally finished with that, in all likelihood around the end of this year, I'll do my comprehensive year-end review and rankings. THEN AND ONLY THEN will I finally take a look at stuff from this year. (I've heard there's some really good stuff, but I've intentionally avoided looking ahead or reading various people's reactions and reviews lest it taint my own views).
At that point, I'm planning on drastically changing how I do reviews. For example, for a series do a review of the first three episodes together as one review. Then those shows that get a passing grade, do a review of the next group of three episodes. Then if those get a passing grade, watch through to the end of the series. So, that means between one and three posted reviews for a series rather than one for each damn episode. And for many (but not all) specials, OVAs and movies, shortened reviews rather than a full-length post. The idea is to cut the amount of time I spend writing about shows by at least half, closer to two-thirds or three-quarters.
Up next (as in probably the next day), I'll be posting a long-delayed "Where Things Stand" post that summarizes the last four months of reviews. Then I'll keep working away at the remaining shows from 2011 I'm still watching (I'm close to wrapping up the Spring 2011 Season shows at this point). Any "season preview" posts for 2012 shows are on indefinite hiatus until I've cleared by queue of 2011 shows.
P.S. For those of ya'll who occasionally comment on my reviews either on Wordpress or on Livejournal, please be assured that I definitely do notice your messages. Even if I very rarely respond, I am listening.
Furthermore, in addition to all the crap that I'm reviewing here, I'm watching a whole bunch of other anime shows, currently I'm working my way through what's available on Netflix. Lots and lots and lots of dubbed anime on Netflix -- the decent, the bad, and the terribad. It's easy to have a dubbed anime show on the television while I'm typing away on the computer, so I can listen without having to keep my eyes glued to the screen for subtitled. I half-jokingly call it "Hilary Haag's Greatest Hits", because it almost seems like she's a voice actress in literally everything on Netflix. For better or for worse (mostly the latter). I'll do some sort of quick summary of that crap at some point in the future. There is some interesting stuff out there worth recommending. And even more stuff worth ridiculing.
So, that's the deal. I'm going to keep what I'm doing at my own pace, and finish off what I started before moving onward. I'm not touching 2012 until I'm done with 2011. The end. And as always, have fun out there, kiddos!
Anime Review: gdgd Fairies Episode 2
Anime Review:
gdgd Fairies Episode 2
What this is about: Separating the anime wheat from the chaff! Reviewing every subtitled anime show from 2010 and 2011! For more information about me and my reviews, click here for details on what I am reviewing.
Series Premise: Gdgd Fairies is a weekly anime television series featuring computer generated animation, starting in October 2011. Three magical fairies, pkpk, shrshr and krkr, sit around talking about the world and practicing their magic.
Click on the thumbnails below to view the picture in full size in a new window:
Very Quick Episode Summary: pkpk, shrshr and krkr sit around and talk about waking up late, finding money in your pockets and life's little joys. Later, they decide to hold an extreme bungee-jumping-bread-eating contest. Then they make fun of a baseball pitcher accosted by a giant chicken.
My Impressions: Does anyone remember the very first episode of Lucky Star when the girls were just sitting around a table talking about eating chocolate coronets for several minutes? The bulk of gdgd Fairies is *just like that*, with the characters sitting around talking about the most unusual of topics, coming to the most unlikely of conclusions. Especially the emotionless, demure krkr as she seems to always be trolling the other two nearly all the time.
You can't take anything in gdgd Fairies seriously. At all. It's like watching an inside joke for about fifteen minutes, either you "get it" or you don't. It's like some Japanese writers got stoned out of their gourd and decided to watch a Xavier: Renegade Angel marathon. Then decided to create a Japanese anime version, only with cute moe-style anime girls. The whole shebang seems almost designed to fit within the old Cartoon Network "Adult Swim" post-midnight block of programming.
I can't really call this a "good" show or not, but I can definitely say it is different and you can never expect what is going to come next. The inanity of the bungee jumping contest makes no sense, and krkr breaking out in her non-voice-acting voice (that whole segment has to be unscripted) at the end. This show is just bananas, I tell you! Bananas!
My earlier reviews of the series:
Episode 1 (February 12)
Info resources:
My Anime List
Sampling of Online Reviews:
If anyone posted an honest-to-god actual review of the second episode online in the past eight months, they've done a damn good job of hiding it from Google Search! No reviews at all! Except for mine!
ROUND TWO (Second Episode) RESULTS FOR THE FALL 2011 SHOWS:
Thumbs-up for Round Two: Un-Go, Chibi Devi, Bakuman Season 2, Mirai Nikki, Shinryaku Ika Musume Episode 2, Ben-To, Chihayafuru, Last Exile: Fam the Silver Wing, Fate/Zero, Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, Hunter x Hunter, gdgd Fairies
Thumbs-down for Round Two: Working Season 2, Guilty Crown, Phi-Brain, Tamayura: Hitotose
Coming up next: None - round 2 is over!
agriculture girl
american snowbell
anime review
arizona sister
asobi ni iku yo
bungaku shoujo memoire
fall 2010 season
goliad state park
kaichu
kyou koi wo hajimemasu
legend of legendary heroes
mitsudomoe
ookami-san
otome youkai zakuro
south llano river state park
spring 2010 season
summer 2010 season
tonotoissho
zettai karen children
Help Save Radio Comix IndieGoGo Campaign — 1
DEAR ANIME FANDOM, THIS IS WHY WE CANNOT HAVE NICE THINGS. — 3
Quick Non-Specific Anime Update — 3
A few thoughts on Kevin Lillard and Mitch Beiro — 3
Missing — 0
Interregnum — 0
ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ — 1
Anime Burnout! — 1
Anime Review: gdgd Fairies Episode 2 — 1
porsupah
Well, they seem to be out of that pickle, thankfully - and astonishingly rapidly. ^_^ I'd have been very tempted by the lifetime subscription, but, thinking about it, that would've meant more…
"Once it has been seen, it cannot be unseen."
Oy gevalt.
I feel a sudden need to locate, say, The Wolf Children Ami & Yuki..
matthigh
I just wish I was more active.
theidolhands
And it's entries like this which keep you, my friend, happily on my f-list.
aaaamory
... No one saw it coming ... No where near the list of people that give off the vibe? I remember reading a comic of his years ago and making a comment to the publisher about how uncomfortable it…


text:
LARGEST SOLAR-PLUS-BATTERY STORAGE SYSTEM IN NAMIBIA INAUGURATED
CRONIMET Mining Power Solutions Namibia and OLC Mokuti Solar Energy inaugurate Namibia's largest photovoltaic and storage system. The plant, whose construction began in July and has been in operation since August 2018, supplies a remote Namibian lodge with clean energy. It will cut operating costs and ensure a reliable and sustainable energy supply for the demanding guests.
The milestone was celebrated with an opening ceremony attended by Steffen Kammerer, Managing Director at CRONIMET Mining Power Solutions, Bernd Walbaum, CEO at O&L Energy and Nerise Coetzee, General Manager of Chobe Water Villas. With a capacity of 150 kWp photovoltaic system and a 332 kWh lithium Ion energy storage system it's the largest of its kind in Namibia.
Steffen Kammerer added that the joint venture partners are very proud to establish another milestone in the field of renewable energy in Namibia. "Together with Qinous, an intelligent energy storage solutions provider who delivered the battery system for the project, we successfully implemented the hybrid system which is the biggest project of its kind in Namibia so far and another innovative step in the right direction for a sustainable and clean energy future for Namibia."
CRONIMET Mining Power Solutions Namibia is the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) provider of the project. The JV company OLC Energy Services provides the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) services to the combined solar and storage facility. OLC Mokuti Solar Energy, a joint venture of O&L Energy and CRONIMET Mining Power Solutions GmbH, operates the plant as the Independent Power Producer (IPP).


text:
Strategic talks for US and Russia look bleak
Matthew Lee
WASHINGTON — With the fate of Ukraine and potentially broader post-Cold War European stability at stake, the United States and Russia are holding critical strategic talks that could shape the future of not only their relationship but the relationship between the U.S. and its NATO allies. Prospects are bleak.
Goals: Secretary of State Antony Blinken said bluntly Sunday that he doesn't expect any breakthroughs in the coming week. Instead, he said a more likely positive outcome would be an agreement to de-escalate tensions in the short term and return to talks at an appropriate time in the future. But the U.S. will have to see a de-escalation for there to be actual progress.
Russian stance: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who will lead Russia's delegation at the Geneva talks, responded harshly to Blinken's statment.
Russia wants the talks initially to produce formally binding security guarantees for itself with a pledge that NATO will not further expand eastward and the removal of U.S. troops and weapons from parts of
But the U.S. and its allies say those are non-starters intentionally designed by Moscow to distract and divide. They insist that any Russian military intervention in Ukraine will prompt "massive consequences" that will dramatically disrupt Russia's economy even if they have global ripple effects.
Associated Press writer Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed.


Founded in 2001, InMotion hosting is an interesting company. It's employee-owned and employee-operated, so there's no heavy management level pulling the strings—for now at least. InMotion is based in Virginia and California and their support is outsourced exactly 0 percent. Yup, all help comes straight from the good old USA. But is everything really an American dream coming true? Let's find out.
Shared hosting is found under "Business" hosting. There are three packages and all include unlimited disk space, bandwidth and shared SSL Certificate.
VPS hosting also has three packages. They all get unlimited domains and two IP addresses (although in the most expensive you get 3), but the rest vary.
VPS-1000S: 60GB of disk space, 2TB of bandwidth and 4GB RAM.
VPS-2000S: 130GB, 3TB of bandwidth and 6GB RAM.
VPS-3000S: 200GB, 4TB of bandwidth and 8GB RAM.
Reseller hosting continues in a similar manner with three packages. They all come with RAID 6, SSD Drives, and a dedicated IP Address.
R-1000S: 80GB of disk space and 800GB of bandwidth.
R-2000S: 120GB of disk space and 1200GB of bandwidth.
R-3000S: 160GB of disk space and 1600GB of bandwidth.
Dedicated hosting offers six packages.
Essential: Intel Core I3-2120 2C/2T, 4GB RAM, 1TB 7.2K SATA3, and 6 TB data transfer.
Advanced: Intel Xeon E3-1220 v2 3.1 GHz 4C/4T, 8GB RAM, a choice between 120GB SSD or 1TB 7.2K SATA3, and 10TB data transfer.
Elite: Intel Xeon E3-1230 v2 3.3GHz 4C/8T, 16GB RAM, RAID-1 2x250GB SSD or RAID-1 2x2TB 7.2K SATA3, 10 TB data transfer and free 2TB SATA backup.
The next three packages witch gears to higher speed are next three packages. All offer 15TB data transfer.
Commercial Class 500: Intel Xeon CPU E5-2430 v2 2.5 GHz 6C/12T, 16GB RAM and RAID-1 2x250GB SSD.
Commercial Class 1000: Intel Xeon CPU E5-2430 v2 2.5GHz 6C/12T, 32GB RAM and RAID-1 2x500GB SSD.
Commercial Class 2000: Dual Intel Xeon CPU E5-2430 v2 2.5GHz 12C/24T, 64GB RAM, and RAID-6 4x500GB SSD.
Around 10 minutes after registration, we still had received no email and the phone call we got was so muted that it was indecipherable. About minute after that, though, emails started to pour in, one containing the link for the confirmation. After a few minutes of holding our breath, we were ready to roll.
The more website-related items are, of course, in the control panel, but there is quick access to some of the bare necessities right in the AMP. They're hidden under the scroll-down menu in the My Account tab. You can access the control panel from the AMP or go directly to its page, because there is no automatic login to both of them. Security first. Oh, did we mention that you will get a free SSD? Now you know.
The control panel is pretty standard and easy to work with. If you do run into problems, Inmotion has a series of tutorials on cPanel features.You can log in to the cPanel via the AMP or by logging in directly to the url. Settings, databases, emails, logs, etc. are at your disposal, but don't expect anything fancy.
Just like the cPanel, creating and using email is cut-and-dried. You will need to create a strong password, although InMotion standards may be a little lower than other hosts. The same password that ranked 90/100 here usually only ranked 60/100 with other hosting providers. InMotion offers the standard roster of webmail clients. It does, however, provide IMAP email, which enables you to access and sync your mail from multiple devices. Not all hosting services offer this.
One of the registration perks with InMotion hosting is the ability to install WordPress, Prestashop or Joomla on your account. That way, you'll be spared some time and a few clicks. There are other CMSs that you can install with Softaculos, or if you are more of a DIY person, you can upload your own files. If you already have a website, you will get a free transfer with any package. If you want to build it from scratch, you can install and use their customized website builder; you'll find it under the AMP "Install Popular Software" section. The good thing is that it's totally free, but the bad thing is that it needs a bit of updating in the design department. Websites created with it will be nice, but tend to look a bit dated, and you will need another login detail.
There are few more options when it comes to blogs, but the greater number of choices are in the CMS area. There is also a nice roster when it comes to e-commerce solutions, but other than that, the choices limited. Don't get us wrong, there are a decent number of scripts to choose from, but we've seen a bigger assortment with other hosts.
We're always pleasantly surprised when testing shows a host has 100-percent uptime. Sure, our tests weren't conducted over a period of months, but InMotion tested better than most hosts tested in the same span of time. Although there was a spike in customer complaints about reliability a few years ago, complaints have dwindled since that time.
Our website's server was located near Wichita, Kansas, so we couldn't test coast-to-coast response times. We did have some surprises. Ashburn, Virginia had an excellent response time, usually around 0.25 seconds. However, it also had the most random and intermittent spikes that would go up to 0.8 seconds, independent of number of users. On the other hand, Palo Alto had a stable response and no irregularities, but its response time was longer, around 0.9 seconds.
The longest response time was from Singapore, which, at its worst was around 3.65 seconds. Surprisingly, InMotion had a relatively stable response globally. Tokyo was usually just below 2 seconds, Sao Paulo under 1.5 seconds and Dublin was usually slightly above 1 second. The reliability of servers was surprisingly good and stable with various numbers of users. That said, there were a few random exceptions with spikes that were still under 0.8 seconds on the West Coast.
All kinds of help are available to you with InMotion, including chat, email, ticket, telephone, community and (video) tutorials. You can even create a Support Center profile, but we're not sure if it does anything more than track your activity within the support system.
Response by all modes was fairly fast and helpful, with the exception of chat.The response from staff seemed a bit slow at times. There was more silence than chatting, but they were responsive when they had an answer. However, everyone was polite, problems were resolved in a quick manner, transcripts were sent, not to mention that once we got staff response within seconds of logging in. To conclude, there is very little to complain about here.
InMotion hosting is one of the best hosts to deal with when it comes to a money-back guarantee. Although some packages have a 30-day policy, most of them have 90-day policy, including the cheapest option we tested. There are many discounts that vary by the package and length of the contract. The longer the period of the contract, up to three years, the greater the discount. However, keep in mind that you'll have to pay about 6 months in advance for certain packages. We tested one package that had a contract of 12 months, minimum.
It's not that there aren't any options for one month, but the prices go up significantly. Only reseller packages are cheaper to rent on a month-to-month basis, rather than six or 12 months at a time. Don't ask, we're also scratching our heads.
But to get down to actual prices of the concrete packages.
Shared/Business hosting is the is the least-expensive option.
Dedicated hosting While Essential, Advanced and Elite include a discount ($70 and up), the Commercial Class packages do not.
There are many nice things to say about InMotion Hosting and very few bad ones. The only really serious drawback was the website builder. It's dancing on the verge of becoming a "retro builder." But with the option of installing other leading CMSs, this is not unforgivable. Finding a serious flaw was nearly mission impossible.
Great help, excellent loading time, flawless uptime—it could only be better if they delivered hot cookies to your door when you register. There aren't many cracks in the system, and those that are present are more a matter of aesthetics and learning to navigate their site. Having said that, InMotion may be more pricey in a long run than other hosts. But this level of excellence justifies the slightly higher cost. If you're on a really tight budget, you may want to look at other options, but if you can swing it, we think you'll be pleased with InMotion.


Last spring, Grandfather Mountain State Park experienced heavy, prolonged rains that severely damaged and eroded park trails, making some areas impassable. Damage to the Nuwati and Cragway trails was so extensive that repairs will require contracting outside work. The wet weather continued as Grandfather Mountain experienced 10 feet of precipitation in 2018, compounding the damage to all our trails. Park staff are working to get contracts underway while repairing what we are able to on the other trails.
Read more about Seasonal Positions Now Available!
When visiting Grandfather Mountain State Park, it is important to remember that you are in Bear Country!
Bears, including mamas with cubs, are active and have recently been seen in the state park, on adjacent trails and in the general surrounding areas.
Grandfather Mountain State Park experienced heavy, prolonged rains during the last two weeks of May. State park trails were damaged and eroded extensively, making many areas impassable or dangerous. Repairs to the trails will take time. The Cragway and Nuwati Trails will remain closed until repairs are complete. This closure includes the four campsites along the Nuwati Trail: Streamside, The Hermitage, Storyteller's Rock and The Refuge.


Showing results by author "Amanda L. Morter"
Do you treasure the moments you share with your children at the end of each day? Author Amanda Morter provides a simple message of love and a promise to keep a child safe and secure in Hush My Baby. For parents and children alike, this beautiful lullaby will be a comforting and calming end to each day. Beautifully written, Hush My Baby will connect you and your children with tenderness and love.


text:
package com.alibaba.fastjson.serializer;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.lang.reflect.Type;

import com.alibaba.fastjson.JSONAware;

/**
 * @author wenshao[szujobs@hotmail.com]
 */
public class JSONAwareSerializer implements ObjectSerializer {

    public static JSONAwareSerializer instance = new JSONAwareSerializer();

    public void write(JSONSerializer serializer, Object object, Object fieldName, Type fieldType, int features) throws IOException {
        SerializeWriter out = serializer.out;

        JSONAware aware = (JSONAware) object;
        out.write(aware.toJSONString());
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Eastern Canada: 905-562-0142
Western Canada: 778-476-7755
Quebec: 450-679-2160
shopvinestovintages@gmail.com
Oenological Products
Cork Supply USA
Vines to Vintages was launched in 1999 as an independent wine laboratory performing analysis for wineries
in both Canada and the United States. Vines to Vintages expanded in 2007 to selling winemaking supplies,
winery equipment, stainless steel tanks, French oak barrels, ozonators, laboratory equipment and providing
a savvy winemaking consultation team. Consultation currently entails full winery start-up and winemaking consultation from the vineyard to the bottle.
In 2015 the business went National with a new store location in Penticton British Columbia and in 2018 a third location in Longueuil Quebec was opened - now supplying all provinces from Prince Edward Island to British Columbia.
We are constantly updating and adding to our product line to provide our valued customers the absolute
best in quality products and service for the small and large wineries as well as amateur winemakers.
Natalie Spytkowsky
Chief Winemaker and President
Natalie established Vines to Vintages in 1999 as an independent laboratory for wineries across Canada and the U.S. As her interests evolved to winemaking, one thing became very obvious; winemaking really does start in the vineyard. In early 2001 Natalie joined Angels Gate Winery as Winemaker and in 2003 she put Vines to Vintages "on hold" to focus on winemaking full time.
This appreciation for quality grapes produced hundreds of award winning wines. In 2007 Natalie left Angels Gate and started as Head Winemaker and Mead Maker at Rosewood Winery where she continued winning awards but they had now grown to International as well as local. At that time she joined Darryl Fields and re-opened Vines and Vintages as a one-stop shop for supplies, analysis, winemaking consultation and assistance to both wineries and amateur winemakers. After several vintages at Hinterbrook Winery in NOTL and more awards to add to her repertoire she has now refocused on Vines to Vintages.
She can now be found helping run her national company and continuing to "make and enjoy quality wines" for a private winery in Niagara.
Darryl Fields
Darryl came into the industry to work with Martin Malivoire of Malivoire Wine Company as property manager overseeing vineyard and winery development. His abilities to oversee and manage "the big picture" and provide great customer service has been a driving force in his career now for over 20yrs. After seven years at Malivoire, Darryl joined Angels Gate Winery as General Manager. His "hands on, machine off approach" lead to improved grape quality and a new high in sales.
Darryl can now be found doing what he does best, "running the big picture" servicing wineries and home winemakers.
Bilingual Technical Sales Manager
Zweisprachiger Technik - und Verkaufberater
Sales Consultant in BC
Oliver (Olly) Graydon was born in Kent, England in 1990. He moved to Canada in 2003 and took a liking to the Canadian wine industry when he moved to Kelowna in 2009. In 2011, his parents bought a small winery in Summerland, BC where he has spent several years working at the winery and in the vineyard.
With his understanding of the basic concepts and hardships behind owning and operating a winery and passion for the industry, he has expanded his repertoire to Vines to Vintages. He is excited for the future of our company and the industry as a whole.
Bernhard started in the industry in 1984 doing an apprenticeship at Fritz Allendorf/Oestrich-Winkel in Germany, one of the oldest wineries in the Rheingau. Being exposed to all aspects of a winery and vineyard this solidified his desire to stay in the wine industry and formal schooling was the next step. Bernhard was schooled at the University of Applied Sciences in Geisenheim/Rheingau for viticulture and cellar techniques.He later came to Canada, settling in BC taking on a winemaking position at Lang Vineyards. Since then he has consulted for The View Winery and Holman Lang Wineries. During his years of winemaking he has gained experience in Sparkling wine, Fortified wine as well as Cider production.
Bernhard can now be found sharing his experience to help other wineries make their best wine.
Patrick Fournier
Technical Sales Manager in Quebec
Patrick started in the wine industry in Provence France, first as an archaeologist with a keen interest in ancient wine, and then progressively as a winemaker in the Côtes de Provence, Cassis, Bandol and finally in the Côtes du Luberon. In 2010 he moved to Quebec making wine, cider and Perry at Coteau Rougemont. Through this roll he gained more understanding of the Quebec wine and cider market and its particular challenges but also the enormous potential it has. He joined our team in April 2018 to bring his knowledge and skills, now helping our customers achieve their goals.
Bernhard Schirrmeister
Kevin McKough
Sales Consultant in Quebec
Kevin began his journey and love affair with the wine industry in 2012. Today, he is a WSET level 3 awarded sommelier. He has extensive experience in retail, educational seminars, product development, marketing campaigns, consulting and mixology.
Determined to gain as much knowledge as possible in all facets of the industry, he is transitioning from the tasting side to learning the production side. Kevin looks forward to assisting winemakers in the newest store, located in Longueuil and growing with Vines to Vintages.
Oliver (Olly) Graydon
Rebecca Willms
Wine Supply Specialist and
Leader of Customer Service
Rebecca has been with Vines to Vintages since August 2010 and brings over 15 years of vineyard experience from her family vineyard in Niagara-on-the-Lake. She is a graduate of the Vineyard and Winery Technician program at Niagara College. She has also worked in wine cellars in British Columbia and Niagara-on-the-Lake honing her wine loving skills.Rebecca's knowledge is now being used to help others. She can be found doing what she does best "helping customers create their best wines ever".
Ontario Location
Monday - Friday: 9:00 to 5:00
Saturday: 9:00 to 12:00Sunday: closed
British Columbia Location
Québec Location
Saturday & Sunday: closed
BC & Ontario closed for Family Day February 15
All stores closed April 2 for Good Friday
Our Catalogue - Eastern
Our Catalogue - Western
Cider Protocols
991 Twenty Rd,
Jordan, ON, L0R 1S0
shop@vinestovintages.ca
445 Warren Ave E
Penticton, BC, V2A 3M3
ventes@vinestovintages.ca
850 rue Jean-Neveu,
Longueuil, QC, J4G 2M1
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