text:
History of Art and Design Blog
School of Humanities University of Brighton
Category Archives: University of Brighton
Dress Detective: using Brighton's Dress History Teaching Collection
Posted on July 5, 2017 by Verity Clarkson Standard 1
Sarah-Mary Geissler (MA in Design and Material Culture), reflects on how one seemingly uninspiring garment led her to unexpected places…
Fig. 1: Front, side & back view of the 1880s Mauve Altered Afternoon Dress. Photo by Sarah-Mary Geissler
It really is amazing is how far one project can take you. From what started simply as a class presentation led to assisting lectures, journal publication and even curating a display just a year later!
During my final year studying the BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History at the University of Brighton, we had the privilege of being taught by Professor Lou Taylor, pioneering dress historian. The spring term Special Subject module focused on case studies of objects in the Dress History Teaching Collection. Throughout her career, Taylor has amassed a wealth of dress objects which now reside at Pavilion Parade, an incomparable resource waiting to be utilised by students. Each piece has a fascinating backstory – rejected by museums, donated by alumni, rescued by students – though only a small percentage of the collection has been thoroughly researched. The aim of our module was to improve our own analytical and interpretive skills as dress historians, but also to provide a selection of objects with proper catalogue entries. The garment I had my heart set on was already selected by someone else, so I unenthusiastically settled on researching an 1888 Mauve Day Dress. I began the project totally convinced that there was nothing exciting about the Victorian era, and grumbled to friends how boring this project would be. I was so wrong!
Fig. 2: View inside the dress bodice. Photo by Sarah-Mary Geissler
Eventually I found how to apply my own interests to the research. Once I moved past my preconceptions of 19th Century dress, the analysis process became fascinating. I studied the dress inside and out, then compared it to other dresses from the period: it was clear that it wasn't a straightforward example of 1880s fashion. As a dressmaker myself, the garment's messy construction intrigued me. Other evidence in the garment led to the conclusion that it could have been an 1860s dress altered over 20 years. My project became a detective-style investigation into who the wearer was; where/when was the dress first made? Why was it altered so dramatically? And was this dress renovation typical for the period?
Fig. 3: View of the skirt hem, showing previous stitch perforations. Photo by Sarah-Mary Geissler
Throughout the assignment, I contacted several museum-based professionals regarding the dress, and became more confident networking as a researcher. I looked into museums policies regarding altered garments, and how different keepers of costume interpret their collections. Over the course of the module, I developed a specialist understanding of mid-late 19th Century home-dressmaking, strengthened my ability to read dress, learned how to properly mount costume, and found out a great deal about the theory of dress history and the field today. Outside of university, this project gave me the confidence to submit an exhibition review to Textile History Journal, which was selected for publication last November!
Knowing how invested I was with my case study, Professor Taylor asked me to assist with her first year lecture and object handling session, and to do a small talk about the dress. I was so nervous about speaking in front of a large group, but the session went brilliantly. It was surprising how much information I could recall about the dress; I started to feel like a proper historian! This year I was asked to help out again, and so came prepared with notes and printed images to aid my talk.
Fig. 4: Dress on display in the Pavilion Parade Foyer. Photo by Sarah-Mary Geissler
The success of this led to a conversation about displaying the dress in the School of Humanities' Pavilion Parade foyer. With help from Clare in the office, mounting the dress was straightforward, though preparing information for the posters was challenging. I had to figure out what story was being told and how to make it interesting for a public viewer. Revisiting an undergrad project as a postgrad student, it was clear to see how much my work has strengthened in just a year (frustratingly, I found a spelling mistake on the first page of my original paper!). Displaying my research made me consider how museums and heritage sites interpret their collections, and this little display pushed me to develop my own curatorial skills.
All in all, I never expected the work done for one assignment to be the basis for such fantastic things. Having the Teaching Collection as a resource has been an invaluable part of my education at Brighton, and has reinforced the importance of understanding objects as sources of information to be read. I've been fortunate to have opportunities at the university to provide me with experience I can take into my career. It would be great for more students to get involved showcasing other pieces from the Teaching Collection in future, as there are many, many more fascinating stories to be shared!
Perspectives on Fashion Curation
Posted on April 4, 2017 by Verity Clarkson Standard Respond
What does it mean to exhibit fashion today? Student Jade Bailey-Dowling (BA (hons) Fashion and Dress History) visited the London College of Fashion event Perspectives on Fashion Curation to find out.
For a two week period, London College of Fashion (LCF) took over House of Vans in Waterloo with an exhibition and programme of events called Found In Translation, showcasing work from the School of Media and Communication postgraduate courses at LCF. These include Master's courses of interest to Brighton's History of Art and Design BA programme students including Costume for Performance, Fashion Cultures, and perhaps most relevant for those studying Fashion and Dress History, Fashion Curation.
On Friday 17 February, I attended Perspectives on Fashion Curation: a series of presentations by some of the leading figures who teach on LCF postgraduate programmes in Fashion and Dress History and Fashion Curation. The event was chaired by Ben Whyman, the manager for Centre of Fashion Curation, and began with presentations from several experts in the field talking about different areas of fashion curation and exhibition making.
Perspectives on Fashion Curation. Photo by Jade Bailey-Dowling, 17 February 2017
Susanna Cordner introduced the London College of Fashion Archive which is open by appointment only and has a vast array of fashion objects, literature and other artefacts. The collection includes 650 shoes from the Cordwainer College Archive dating back to the 18th century. Cordner has worked hard to create an immersive experience from the archive and organises events such as the Object Reading Group, where an object is presented and attendees discuss them, and Sartorial Stories, when a guest speaker from the industry, from designers to editors, bring in an object and discusses it in relation to their career and the fashion industry.
Jeff Horsley explored concepts of exhibition making, and spoke in great detail about the fashion displays in Antwerp that he has been researching for his PhD. Themes of his talk included the importance of exhibition entrances, concepts of what 'objects' are within a museum context and the use of mannequins for historical dress vs. contemporary haute couture that could be displayed on a live model. This is something Claire Wilcox – curator of the exhibition Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty – has explored with Fashion in Motion at the V&A by presenting contemporary fashion on live models around the museum rather than confined to a glass cabinet. Wilcox, who began working at the V&A in 1979, also spoke about changes in fashion collecting and the shifting attitudes towards fashion exhibitions and contemporary designers in a museum collection.
The penultimate presentation was an overview of the Fashion Space Gallery that is at the campus just off Oxford Circus. The space relaunched in 2014 and was described by Ligaya Salazar, the gallery director, as an 'interdisciplinary incubator of ideas about fashion" and a "think tank for curatorial ideas and experimentation." Although it is a small space, there is arguably more freedom than at a larger establishment, leading to innovative use of space and creative curatorial decisions. The current exhibition, Museum of Transology, curated by E-J Scott, documents objects of importance to members of the trans community and runs until 22 April 2017.
Their work also goes outside of the gallery with the travelling Polyphonic Playground. This off-site project is a kind of playground apparatus that can be used to make sound art as all of the surfaces use touch technology or electrical conducting thread to create sound. Similarly, Alison Moloney spoke about a traveling exhibition she worked on called Cabinet Stories in which 7 curators would use the small cabinet space to display objects in different venues, including a women's prison, an NHS hospital ward for people with suffering with personality disorders, a charity shop in Poplar and an old peoples home. At all the venues, people were encouraged to then display objects that meant a lot to them. This meant that people could get involved from the community in curation, showing the diversity of fashion outside of the museum. Moloney also introduced the project 1914 – Now, a series of films and essays summarising the themes of this event, which was displayed in the exhibition space at House of Vans and also available on SHOWstudio. Fashion films explore initiative ways to present fashion using film, visuals and sound, much in line with the inovations presented at this talk related to new ways to exhibit fashion and dress.
MA Fashion Curation final show at LCF. Photo by Jade Bailey-Dowling, 17 February 2017.
The final portion of the event was a panel discussion with Amy de la Haye, Alison Moloney, Jeffrey Horsely, Ligaya Salazar, and Claire Wilcox, where they discussed what curation meant for them, motivations when creating an exhibition and generally what it is like to curate a fashion exhibition. It was fascinating to hear differing approaches on the subject of fashion curation and to learn more about how experimental the field is.
From kitsch to Frankfurt Kitchen: Berlin's Museum der Dinge
Posted on March 3, 2017 by Verity Clarkson Standard Respond
Student Wendy Fraser (BA (hons) History of Art and Design) opened the cupboards in a real-life Frankfurt Kitchen whilst learning how 'good design' was promoted in Germany
In November, second year students on the History of Art and Design trip to Berlin visited the Werkbundarchiv-Museum der Dinge (Museum of Things) in the creative Kreuzberg district. The museum houses a collection of 40,000 German objects manufactured in the 20th and 21st centuries in addition to 35,000 documents in the archive of the Deutscher Werkbund (German Association of Craftsmen). The Werkbund, an association of designers, architects, industrialists, publishers and teachers founded in Munich in 1907, shared similar concerns to William Morris' earlier Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain. However, although they advocated aesthetic education, sensitivity to materials, quality and durability, their interests diverged from Morris's ideals in their promotion of modern design and excellence in mass production, aiming to create a cultural utopia.
Figure 1: The museum's main display area with contrasting exhibits displayed in cabinets. Photograph by Armin Hermann. Image courtesy of Museum der Dinge.
The Museum der Dinge is located at 25 Oranienstraße and its compact space on the third floor of the building houses a shop, the main display area with glass-fronted shelved cabinets and a separate room with an example of the modernist Frankfurt Kitchen. The cabinets contain an astounding array of exhibits including crockery, kettles, toys, lamps, clocks, shoes, typewriters, tools, telephones, technology, glassware, furniture, and tins. The objects displayed exemplify the concerns of the Werkbund to preserve the quality of manufactured goods during the industrialisation of Germany and their aim to create a cultural utopia via excellence in German factory production. Handcrafted objects are shown with those that are mass produced by machine, named designers alongside anonymous makers, professionally made next to inexpertly produced items, articles made in West Germany compared with those made in the DDR (East Germany) and genuine products displayed alongside counterfeits.
Figure 2: Selection of items made in the DDR. Photograph by Armin Hermann. Image courtesy of Museum der Dinge.
The Werkbund also aimed to educate in matters of taste. The Department of Aesthetic Aberrations was created at the Stuttgart State Crafts Museum in 1909: 900 'bad taste' articles chosen to demonstrate to the public what not to buy. Conversely, the publication of the 'Deutches Warenbuch' from 1915-1927 showed 1600 approved everyday objects as a guide for retail buyers and a pattern book for designers. While all of this may sound a little dry, the museum's display concept invites the visitor to compare the contrasting qualities of the exhibits. The Werkbund viewpoint of appropriate design is juxtaposed with objects of opposing values. Accordingly, examples of 'good design' are shown with the kitsch holiday souvenirs they abhorred, licensed character merchandise and some chilling Third Reich goods such as SS figurines and Swastika mugs.
My favourite exhibit was the room containing the Frankfurt Kitchen: visitors can walk into the room, open the cupboards, pull out the aluminium storage containers and chopping board and really feel what it would be like to use the space. As it was the topic of my forthcoming seminar presentation, it was really valuable to experience the kitchen I had previously been studying only in books.
Figure 3: View of the Frankfurt Kitchen from the doorway. Photograph by Armin Hermann. Photograph courtesy of Museum der Dinge.
Ultimately, the Museum der Dinge is an account of the Werkbund's achievements as an association and with the exception of the Frankfurt Kitchen installation, what is missing for me is the human element. Although a large number of the exhibits are everyday possessions rather than the elite items that we are most used to seeing in museums, it is not the stories of the makers and the owners that are being prized in this museum. That is not to say that there are not fascinating things to see – despite the rather academic narrative, the museum is full of wondrous objects and is worth a visit. It is a trip through the mind boggling factory output of the 20th century and the 'bad taste' items are as pleasurable to view as the 'good design' products are inspiring and informative.
Volunteering at Brighton: Gladrags Costume Store
Posted on January 15, 2017 by Verity Clarkson Standard Respond
Emmy Sale, a second-year student studying BA (hons) Fashion and Dress History tells how Brighton University helped her to get involved with a fascinating costume project…
Life at university can offer many new opportunities: volunteering can not only help others, but also give you new experiences that can be helpful for your future career.
To complement my studies, I decided to undertake a volunteering placement with help from the university's Active Student scheme. There are a broad range of placements in and around Brighton that are available, whether it may be to gain experience in a museum environment, assisting events organisation or in education and teaching. Whatever your interests and aims may be, the co-ordinators help to understand these in order to ensure the placement will be suitable and fulfil your aspirations.
As a Fashion and Dress History student, I understood how competitive the field is within the museum and heritage sector. I wanted to use my spare time to be productive, learn new skills and meet new people alongside my course and university experience. After meeting with Active Student, I chose to undertake a Research volunteer placement with the community charity, Gladrags.
Gladrags is a volunteer run charity and offer a unique resource for the hiring of costumes to schools, community groups, amateur art groups and individuals. The store has over 6000 costumes and garments, that volunteers find themselves overwhelmed by when first entering the store. Through the role and time dedicated per week to helping at the store, I found myself putting away costumes, which was always a test of knowledge but also enabled me to learn new things about historical clothing from other volunteers. I also enjoyed spending time in the sewing area to fix, rejuvenate or make garments requested by users of the store. Outside of my time at the store, I undertook research into Roman clothing and artefacts for the education boxes that can be hired by schools to compliment and enrich the national curriculum.
Figure 1: Scanned image of the Macduff Sketch, from the Sketchbook of Duncan Grant, c.1910
Through this placement, an opportunity to be part of a project with Charleston House arose. The project was proposed as part of the Centenary Celebrations of the House and to bring together community groups to discover and explore Charleston House and its history. It involved the use of costume sketches from a sketchbook given to Charleston by Angelica Garrett, the daughter of Duncan Grant which were originally intended for a production of Macbeth dating from 1911. The production was going to be directed by Harley Granville Barker at the Savoy Theatre in London, but in the end the costumes were never made. With help from costume designer, Suzanne Rowland, a group of 15 volunteers at Gladrags set to interpret, imagine and reproduce the costume sketches of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, a witch, Lennox and Macduff.
Figure 2: Emmy Sale working on the Macduff costume at the Gladrags Costume Store. Image from Gladrags Facebook Page, 26 May 2016.
We spent several workshops together to learn about Charleston House and to produce the garments. I was excited to work on the costume of Macduff. The costume sketch featured a tunic with squares and circles erratically placed and adorning all spaces of the fabric. It was inspired by Gustav Klimt's The Kiss (1907-08) and the various sized squares featured on the covering of the bodies. Appliqué squares of different sizes and proportions would cover the calico tunic in a colour scheme of gold, browns, blacks and silver toned textured fabrics.
To exhibit the costumes, actors from Burgess Hill Theatre performed a mini-Macbeth within the gardens of Charleston House which we were invited to help with and share our project with those at the centenary events. It was a truly unique and wonderful experience to see a piece of history that could have just been hidden in an archive but has been somewhat revived and as a result Duncan Grant's vision was realised through the interpretation and construction of the garments.
Figure 3: Actor wearing the finished garment in the garden of Charleston House. Image courtesy of Gladrags. Taken 29 May 2016.
Overall, my volunteering with Gladrags has been one of the most valuable experiences I have had since moving to Brighton and starting university. It helped me to contextualise my studies as well as testing what I already knew or did not know. It is an experience that I will be able to talk about to future employers as well as one that expresses my commitment to expanding knowledge to both my studies and the job roles I may want to have in the future. I would highly recommend to anyone how helpful the Active Student service at the University is and the advantages that volunteering can have on both personal development and preparing for future job roles.
What is 'African' fashion? Creating African Fashion Histories conference
Posted on January 3, 2017 by Verity Clarkson Standard Respond
Jade Bailey-Dowling (final year BA (hons) Fashion and Dress History) attended a recent conference for the exhibition Fashion Cities Africa that questioned whether 'fashion' is just a European idea…
On 2 November 2016, the Royal Pavilion & Museums with the Sussex Africa Centre at the University of Sussex and the University of Brighton held a one-day conference titled Creating African Fashion Histories. This event accompanied the much anticipated first major UK exhibition dedicated to contemporary African fashion, Fashion Cities Africa at the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery. It was an engaging and well-attended conference which saw fourteen speakers summarizing their recent research on particular periods or focusing on different places pivotal to African fashion. The day was split into four sections, with allocated time for a panel discussion at the end of each of the sections, enabling academics and attendees to interact and participate together.
The eclectic research topics, varying from place to period, led to a fascinating and thorough exploration of the history of African fashion. While some focused on the origins of African fashion and styles of the past – such as Jody Benjamin from the University of California who discussed the 18th and 19th century cloth trades and costume trends from surviving prints and a few rare pieces of cloth – others took a more contemporary focus, for example Christopher Richards of Brooklyn College who looked at the styles present in 1960s Ghana. Carol Tulloch, who co-curated the V&A's Black Style exhibition in 2004, developed her research by using Ebony magazine to investigate the styles, fashions and dress of African American women looking at their aesthetic choices.
Other presenters included M. Angela Jansen, a visiting researcher at the Victoria and Albert Museum, who focused on 20th century Moroccan fashion history, looking mainly at photographs as sources and examples. Jansen pointed out a central theme that ran through all talks of the day: that fashion is not a European idea. This idea was reaffirmed by Tulloch who described the criticism of an exhibition for not 'seeming' African enough to a Western audience, highlighting the Europeanized constructed view of what is 'African'; an interesting idea to hold on to when visiting the exhibition itself.
When explaining the main focus of the exhibition, Nicola Stylianou & Edith Ojo, who both worked on the exhibition, emphasized the desire to ensure the exhibition was inclusive and accessible to anyone. A longstanding battle within the fashion exhibition field is to ensure that exhibitions are educational, informative and entertaining. Putting too much emphasis on academia means it is not accessible to the masses, yet making it too 'fun' almost discredits it. However, Fashion Cities Africa is a perfect blending of the two, opening up a new focus on African fashions to the wider audience.
The day ended with a drinks reception and an opportunity to view the Fashion Cities Africa exhibition, which celebrates the current fashion scene, and (like the conference) is supported by the Sussex Africa Centre at the University of Sussex and the University of Brighton, both of which are key partners in the project. The exhibition, like the conference, is split into four sections, however the sections in the exhibition relate to contributions from designers from four cities: Nairobi, Casablanca, Lagos and Johannesburg. Much like the range of research presented at the conference, the exhibition echoes the necessity to explore a wide variety of source in order to attempt to fully understand the topic. Sources such as short films, photographs, a handling corner with long swathes of fabric to touch as well as actual garments are used to illustrate the fashion cities of Africa. The exhibition will run until January 8th 2017.
Living with art and design: a trip to Charleston
Posted on November 8, 2016 by Verity Clarkson Standard Respond
Wendy Fraser, a second year studying BA (hons) History of Art and Design at the University of Brighton, delves into the lives of the Bloomsbury Group on a visit to their idiosyncratic and highly decorated home, Charleston.
On Thursday the 29th of September a group of second year students enjoyed a trip to Charleston, a 17th century farmhouse set on the Firle Estate deep in the Sussex countryside. The artist Vanessa Bell (1879-1961) moved into Charleston in 1916 with her two sons, her lover the painter and designer Duncan Grant (1885-1978) and his lover, the writer Bunny Garnett. The house was perfectly located nearby to Vanessa Bell's novelist sister Virginia Woolf's Sussex home and the neighbouring farm provided Grant and Garnett with essential war work thus releasing them from conscription during WWI.
Bell and Woolf were original members of 'The Friday Club', a group of writers, thinkers and artists who met weekly from 1905 onwards to discuss ideas in their home at 46 Gordon Square, London. After the artists exhibited at the 'Post-Impressionism Exhibition' in 1912 they became known as 'The Bloomsbury Group'. Charleston was to remain their home, studio, and hub of Bloomsbury activity for over 60 years until Duncan Grant's death. Many key figures from the period's literary and artistic worlds visited the house including Lytton Strachey, Dora Carrington, E.M. Forster and Roger Fry (who had established the Omega Workshops for which both Bell and Grant designed textiles and ceramics). The stories and interpersonal relationships behind the inhabitants of Charleston are almost as interesting as their artistic endeavours. There are eyebrow-raising tales of the sexual shenanigans within the group, unrequited love and personal tragedy.
On our guided tour we viewed 10 rooms: Clive Bell's study (Clive Bell was an art critic, Vanessa Bell's husband and father to her sons), the Dining Room, Library, Garden room, the bedrooms of Clive Bell, Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and their friend, the economist Maynard Keynes, the spare room and the pièce de résistance – the studio shared by Grant and Bell. Charleston was always rented from the so the interior decoration of the house was always an organic process with nothing intended to be particularly permanent or durable. The dining room walls were stencilled by Duncan Grant in a geometric design with the paint drips clearly visible, there are numerous examples of hand-painted furniture with headboards, chimney boards, wardrobes and tables decorated with either artist's work and a peak behind the doors reveals some beautiful paintings. A number of the window embrasures have been painted and touchingly around Vanessa Bell's bedroom window Grant painted Henry, their pet lurcher to watch over her while she slept and a cockerel above the window to wake her up in the morning.
History of Art and Design Year 2 Welcome Week study visit to Charleston Farm House. From the left, Wendy Fraser, Harriet Dakin, Dr. Anna Vaughan Kett, and Lisa Hinkins in the garden of Charleston. Photo by Dr. Yunah Lee.
Charleston's furniture and decorative items are an eclectic mix of heirlooms and contemporary pieces – a 1960's chintz bed throw from Habitat, beds from Heals, psychedelic fabric Grant brought back from Morocco displayed with 17th century carved and painted Venetian chairs, Julia Stephen's dressing table (Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf's mother), an 18th century square piano, an ornate north Italian console table, kitsch Staffordshire pottery figures and a rush-seated Sussex settle. The paintings on display are a combination of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant's works augmented with paintings, etchings and prints of artists whose work they admired- Delacroix, Sickert, Toulouse Lautrec, Picasso, George Bergen, Segonzac and Pierre Roy. Some of the paintings Grant swapped his pieces with fellow artists for and there are a few works inscribed to Clive Bell from French artists of his acquaintance through his role as an art critic.
Charleston does still feel very much like a family home where it is easy to imagine the daily life of both domesticity – meals be cooked and eaten, children being educated and weekend visitors being entertained in the beautiful gardens coupled with a prodigious amount of creativity – sketching, painting canvases and furniture, writing, sewing and knitting in a harmonious and productive artistic life. It is a truly fascinating place to visit.
A Visit to Berlin
Posted on June 16, 2016 by Verity Clarkson Standard Respond
In March 2016, nine second-year students and two tutors from the BA (hons) History of Art and Design programme visited Berlin for five days to study the city's museums, material heritage and art collections in relation to the city's distinctive history and cultures. Here are some of the students' highlights from the trip:
Rachel Blyth: The Berlin Jewish Holocaust memorial was designed by architect Peter Eisenman and completed in 2004. Walking into the memorial the sun was shining; however, walking deeper into the labyrinth of concrete it became very cold and isolated. The modern architecture encapsulated the notion that Berlin is a modern city yet still holds the past close to its design.
East Side Gallery, Berlin
Charlotte Brown: On review of our trip to Berlin, my favourite part would have to be our visit to the East Side Gallery, a surviving 1.3km stretch of the Berlin wall. Famously graffitied in the '90s after the fall of the Wall in 1989, the works of various artists can be seen along the whole length. Due to tagging over the past years, the wall is now protected by a metal fence which did however inhibit our view and photographs, but the overall experience and art work has influenced me to base my further studies on the remainder of the wall.
Ruby Helms: Visiting the Jewish Museum – A Different Kind of Museum Space. Without visiting, it was difficult to understand the full impact of architect Daniel Libeskind's 'Between the Lines' structure. The museum showed me that it is possible to present history in such a way that it emotionally involves the visitor, through the curation of objects and construction of the museum space.
Elina Ivanov: Out of the places we visited there were two that I felt made the history of Berlin most tangible; Clärchen's Ballhaus gave a taste of Berlin nightlife of yesteryear, while the Jewish Museum was a powerful reminder of the great extent of the history of Jewish émigrés, as the discourse typically seems to be centred strictly around the Holocaust years.
Shalekhet (Fallen Leaves) in the Memory Void, one of the empty spaces of the Jewish Museum
Emilie Kristiansen: Berlin offered copious sights worthy of recollection, but the installation Shalekhet (Fallen Leaves) by Menashe Kadishman at the Jewish Museum stands out as especially significant. The monumental view of thousands of distraught faces cut out of iron plates is a poignant reminder of the countless innocent Jews whose lives were taken, and the void they left behind.
Sarah Mason: I had never been to Berlin before this trip and I have to say Berlin lived up to all my expectations and more. My highlight and what I chose for my presentation and essay subject was a place called Clärchens Ballhaus. Clärchens Ballhaus is a dance hall built in 1895. This Ballhaus was one of many, 900 in Berlin alone in the early 1900s. Berliners loved to dance and the Tango was already more popular in Berlin than in Paris or London at this time. What is unique about the Ballhaus is it is still used today and is as popular now as it was 100 years ago with the local community. In décor, fixtures and fittings it has changed little apart from some slight bomb damage to the grand mirror hall upstairs. If you get a chance to sneak upstairs and take a peek, it's a must: you really feel you have been transported back in time. Every aspect of Clärchens Ballhaus is steeped in social history for example the original cloakrooms with over 800 iron coat and hat hooks (the Ballhaus would have between 600-800 guests per night in its heyday). The bar and even the majority of tables and chairs are all today as they were when Clärchens' famous owners Fritz and Clara Buhler took on the premises in 1913. I fell in love with this place so much I went back and visited it eight weeks later, so definitely the highlight of my trip and definitely a place I recommend to visit.
Learning from Volunteering: making it happen at Brighton Museum
Posted on March 9, 2016 by Verity Clarkson Standard 1
University life opens up opportunities to make a difference in the community and learn new skills in the process. Lisa Hinkins, a first year BA (hons) History of Art & Design student, describes the enriching experience of volunteering for the Photoworks 'Making it Happen' project.
I knew I had made the right decision to study at the University of Brighton after we had a few lectures regarding managing wellbeing and employability. Having left the world of work at the end of September, after twenty-three years of 9 to 5, some reassuring words that the university took student wellbeing and life during and after studying seriously were important to me, especially as I was taking tentative steps towards a new career in an area I have always been passionate about.
In my former employment, the Waste & Recycling section of a local authority, the emphasis on volunteering was important for conveying the message of sustainability and recycling. My manager enjoyed bring university students into our hub, teaching and directing them, while also learning from them too. I picked up on this 'positive feedback loop' with how I managed and taught my volunteers for the scrap store I ran from our building. The volunteers not only gave valuable time to the store, but I was greatly enriched learning new art and craft ideas from them, while also discovering how interesting these people were.
So, as a new student I embarked upon seeking out volunteering opportunities. My first step was meeting with Kat Tucker, Volunteering Project Officer for Active Student Volunteering Services. Kat has given me excellent support over the past 5 months, providing help and advice with applications for volunteering opportunities. My first placement was with Photoworks and was a month-long position in January under the banner 'Making it Happen 2016'. This was an open day to the University of Brighton's Photography department for 16-18 year olds who may have not considered the possibility of university study before.
With five other students, we learned from photographer/artist Annis Joslin, how to plan and deliver photography based workshops with school students aged 16-18. I participated in a series of three hour training sessions led by Annis, which allowed me to learn skills needed to lead workshops. The requirements of the role were to have an open-mind and hands on approach to art and design and wanting to gain practical work experience in arts education.
Photoworks Making it Happen workshop, February 2016
Photo © Giovanni Estrella
The group divided into pairs. Myself and a fellow volunteer researched, planned and prepared workshops based at the Brighton Museum, around the photography exhibition 'Pierdom' by Simon Roberts. I learnt to work ideas up very quickly, get to understand new ways of working for community arts education and develop trust with other volunteers that I had only just met. We all had to lead one workshop three times during the day, with up to fifteen school students in each session.
My workshop was titled 'The Art of Looking'. I wanted the school students to spend time looking at the exhibition images and form individual ideas about them, working in teams discussing ideas together. This helped them to become confident in expressing thoughts from looking and reacting to the images and be able to articulate those thoughts by talking in front of other people. I used techniques such as word cards they had to blindly select from to stimulate ideas.
Being able to deliver ideas and education to younger people was exhilarating, extremely satisfying and I enjoyed listening to them react to the exhibition, with their own ideas and thoughts. The students enjoyed it, too: positive feedback included, 'Enjoyed looking closer at the images and relating them to words. Made me look at them more and appreciate the detail in them.'
I am now looking forward to receiving an interview date for my next volunteering opportunity. It isn't just about what looks good on your CV, but how these experience can nurture your own thirst for learning, being creative and boosting your confidence.
The Clothes on Their Backs: exploring fashion and dress history through literature
Posted on November 10, 2015 by Verity Clarkson Standard Respond
In advance of author Linda Grant's visit to the University of Brighton on 30 November 2015, final year student Sarah-Mary Geissler reflects on the novel she will be discussing – The Clothes on Their Backs* – and its relevance for anyone interested in fashion and dress history.
Every year the University of Brighton participates in The Big Read, a national project to encourage first year students to read a novel that has been nominated for the Booker Prize. This year's choice is The Clothes on Their Backs (2008) by Linda Grant, an author noted for using dress as a key theme within novels.
As part of my Fashion and Dress History BA, last year I took a module, 'Reading Dress: 1875-1965' where literature was examined and considered as a source to research historical dress. During the summer break, our module tutor sent an email regarding The Big Read. She explained that Grant's novel engaged with the significance of clothing and asked whether we'd like to read the novel over the holidays then meet up for a little book club when we returned to Uni.
I was initially reluctant to take up the request: after spending a whole semester poring over novels intently I wasn't sure if I could do it again. However, after looking at a review of the novel I was intrigued and had to read it!
The Clothes on Their Backs is an intense novel that delves into the complicated relationships of characters, all of whose clothing defines who they are or think they are. The story accelerates you through the bittersweet moments of life, with elation and tragedy fleeting by and only the ennui of life remaining constant.
Cover of Linda Grant The Clothes on Their Backs, (Virago, London: 2008)
The protagonist, Vivien Kovaks, is the daughter of Hungarian immigrants. Her life is spent in and around a small flat in Benson Court. Her parents withhold information about their lives before London and leave Vivien feeling deprived of a family history and heritage. As she later learns, her Uncle Sándor also emigrated to London only to become an infamous slum landlord, heralded as 'the face of evil'.
Vivien as a person allows herself to be dressed – and therefore defined – by those around her, from her neighbour who leaves her glamourous vintage clothes, to her fiancé who sees her as an upper-class beatnik, to her lover who likes her dressing up in his punk leathers. The clothing of others is embedded in Vivien's opinions of them, which leads to her fascination with her uncle, a pimp dripping with luxury and ostentation. A theme of what is worn not quite matching up to what is inside the characters runs throughout.
The novel is astoundingly researched, with accurate accounts of 1970s London as well as 1930s Budapest. Even the public reaction to style movements such as the popularity of second-hand clothing to uneasy fears of skinheads and youth gangs were described. Grant captures the incredible spectrum of emotions invested in appearance: Eunice the Jamaican immigrant studies fashion meticulously and goes without food in order to retain an immaculate appearance, while Vivien's own mother accessorises with homemade waistcoats and a walking stick, not through choice but affliction.
The Clothes on Their Backs is a truly affecting book. Grant creates incredibly three-dimensional characters who are complex, flawed and vulnerable, and contribute to a story that stayed with me long after I'd put the book down.
* First year students at the University of Brighton can collect a free copy of the novel from university libraries, their course leader or the Students' Union.
Bowie, the Blogosphere and Bright Young People: Textual Fashion Conference 2015
Posted on August 19, 2015 by Verity Clarkson Standard Respond
The breadth of topics at the University of Brighton's international conference on Textual Fashion impressed and inspired Alice Hudson (BA (hons) Fashion and Dress History)
Recently I had the pleasure of attending the 'Textual Fashion: Representing fashion and clothing in word and image' conference which took place over three days at the Grand Parade campus and which was organized by the University of Brighton's Charlotte Nicklas and Paul Jobling.
Having never been to a conference before, I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out to be an invaluable source of information and education, opening up new discourses that I had never previously encountered or even considered. Due to the sheer number of speakers over the course of the conference, the papers were split into strands containing three papers each, connected by a general theme, and three strands would be on at the same time, making deciding where to go a challenge. The number of papers that attendees had the chance to listen to over the duration of the conference was a little overwhelming. Although sitting down all day listening to other people speak doesn't sound like it would be physically draining, it really is – it's a good job there was plenty of tea and coffee!
There was a large variety in terms of speakers, including every career level from MA students (a couple of whom came from Brighton's History of Design and Material Culture MA) to well-known academic researchers who are paving the way in their chosen field. It was wonderful to see papers from Brighton tutors, including Charlotte Nicklas' paper on the appearance of the 'Bright Young People' in interwar novels and Jane Hattrick's on fashion designer Norman Hartnell's appearances in women's magazines.
On top of the twenty-minute papers and discussions we also had truly fascinating talks from keynote speakers Jonathon Faiers and Stephen Matterson, but it was Agnès Rocamora's paper "Making It Up As you Go Along: Labour and Leisure in the Fashion Blogosphere" that really struck me. As someone who follows a lot of fashion blogs on various digital platforms and social media sites, it was interesting to have an insight into the work of those bloggers and how they negotiate their work in what is still a relatively new platform/form of labour (hence the title). She discussed ideas such as Lazzarato's 'Immaterial Labour' and Terranova's 'Free Labour,' the latter of which seems all the more relevant in the current fashion industry which so heavily relies on unpaid internships.
Mairi MacKenzie speaking about 'The Man Who Fell to Earth: Bowie, Football & Fashion in Liverpool 1976-1979'
With such a huge range of subjects covered within the title Textual Fashion, including cinema, literature, magazines and more, the conference was undoubtedly a success in providing food for thought. Other highlights of the conference for me were hearing Mairi MacKenzie's insights into the sartorial influence of David Bowie on football fans, or "casuals" in Liverpool in the late '70s, and Janet Aspley's research on Nudie Suits, specifically the one belonging to Gram Parsons as she explored the relationship between country music and counterculture.
Janet Aspley giving a paper on Gram's Gilded Palace suit
I would urge anyone currently studying on any of the History of Art and Design pathways to make an attempt to attend at least one conference before the end of their course (and preferably early on). The experience was helpful not only in terms of learning new things and opening up discussion, but also because it gives you an idea of how to present an academic paper (something we all could do with knowing for seminar presentations). It was also a good networking opportunity: you'd be surprised how many interesting people you get to talk to in what was a truly welcoming atmosphere. Plus, you should make the most of student prices before it's too late!
New Student Exhibition: From Disney to 'Disneyfication'
New Student Exhibition – Alison Settle: An Observation
New Student Exhibition: Kids' Entertainment – Nostalgia and Modernity
New Student Exhibition: HIV Positivity: Work of those Affected
Conservation Work Placement: A Patchwork of Skills
Tweets by @hoadbrighton
Curatorial practice
Fashion and dress history
Fashion exhibition
MA Curating Collections and Heritage
MA History of Design and Material Culture
1970s architecture archive art arts administration arts writing BA course BA Visual Culture Berlin Brighton careers collection conference curating design designer dress Dress History embroidery everyday exhibition fashion Fashion and Dress History flyers gallery Germany good design history MA course MA Curating Collections and Heritage MA History of Design and Material Culture modernism museum Museum visit Paris PhD research photography postgraduate study research Spain textiles visit visual culture volunteer work
Stephanie Richards on Professional Placement in Collections and Heritage: The Fashioning Our World Project at the Salisbury Museum
Annebella Pollen on Stitched in Place: Dissertation research from a Dorset museum to a Brighton prize
Griselda Hill on Stitched in Place: Dissertation research from a Dorset museum to a Brighton prize
Henry Jones on Mod Town Legends: The Lambretta in Brighton Museum and Art Gallery
Alysha Malabre-Dailey on Fashioning a Jamaican Identity
Proudly powered by WordPress. Theme: Fanwood Light by DevPress.


text:
Retirees in Space (part 1)
Anne Marie Lutz	Stories	 December 1, 2015 December 3, 2015 10 Minutes
(This short story was originally published in the pirate-themed anthology, Locothology 2013. I'll be re-publishing it here in two parts.)
by Anne Marie Lutz (copyright 2013)
When Grun heard the shout from the main cabin, at first she thought Mike was watching another ball game. The man tended to get loud when he watched football, no matter that the games were old ones, long decided, transmitted to them after they had exited hyperspace. The man would turn on the vid in the main cabin and bellow at the teams as if he were still on Earth and the players could actually hear him.
Then she heard it again, and it was definitely a scream.
Grun leaped up from the pilot's chair. She caught herself before she snapped the order to transfer command to a junior officer. Old habits died hard, and it was easy to forget this was a luxury yacht, in port on Forst, not the hard metal deck of the Defender.
She slammed through the hatch into the passenger cabins, her hand on the grip of her energy weapon.
Mike was backed up against the bulkhead, his usually-florid face drained of color. His wife, Hi, stood before him, wearing her silk pajamas. An odd lump bulged under the neck of her pajama top.
Grun squinted at it, unsure what was going on.
Mike saw her. "Kill it!" His voice rose, broke.
"No!" Hi shouted. She held up her hands, palms out, toward Grun. "Put it away, put the gun away!"
The odd lump wiggled, shifting the collar of Hi's robe in a shimmering pattern. Something almost transparent moved, tinged with tendrils of pink, like blood dissipating in clear water.
"Holy hell!" Grun recognized it from the tour of the planet. The things were supposed to be contained, locked up behind a force field in a sanctuary where they could do no harm. Now here was an actual alien parasite on little Hi's neck. Grun looked around for something to use, to pry the obscene thing from Hi's body.
"Grun, stop. I'm all right." Hi did not appear to be wounded or dying.
Grun blinked.
If anything, Hi appeared exasperated. "Would you quit your shrieking, Michael? We'll have the others in here."
Grun hesitated. She kept the gun trained on the alien. She could never risk killing Hi, but if the creature moved Grun would be ready. Voices came from behind her as the remaining occupants of the yacht filed into the cabin.
"Before you send it into defense mode, don't panic!" Hi said.
"My God, you've done it again, woman," Mike growled. His voice had descended to its usual register. He slid along the bulkhead, reaching for the drink he'd left on the table. "I need a drink. What have you done now?"
Iker's dignified head peered around the corner. He blanched and dropped the Interplanetary Markets he had been reading. "Jesus, Hi. What have you gone and done? Does the ambassador know? Milla, look what Hi has gone and liberated from the planet."
Milla shrieked. "Hi, get it off you!"
Iker held his wife's arm close. "She did it on purpose, Mill. I don't know why."
Milla's voice shook. "I don't approve, Hi. There's a reason those things have been kept isolated for the last fifty years. Remember that awful infestation, behind the containment walls? What do they say about Earthers barging into other worlds' affairs, as if we think we always know best?"
"Oh, Milla, don't worry. I'll explain. I promise I didn't steal it to make a point."
"I hope not, Hi." Grun had gotten the idea there was no immediate danger and put her gun away. Her nerves still thrummed with battle-readiness. She was hired to be a pilot for Mama's retired friends, earning some money while she recovered from her wounds. But it was perfectly clear, if unspoken, that Grun would be the last line of defense for these civilians should it be needed. She wished she knew if it were needed.
The alien still pulsed on Hi's neck. It didn't seem to be growing any redder, and Hi was behaving just as Hi usually did – just now earnestly describing to Milla how unfairly the aliens had been treated.
"Imprisoned on their own planet, Milla!" Hi argued. "They're on a reservation, kept from communicating outside the walls, and kept from their only decent source of nutrients – "
"Us!" roared Mike. "Go on all you like about unfairness. What were we supposed to do, let them eat us?"
Hi frowned at him. "They can eat any warm-blooded creature, Mike. They simply prefer more evolved life." One hand went up to touch the alien's skin. It dimpled slightly with the pressure of her fingers, like soft plastic filled with gel.
Grun shuddered.
"She means it isn't our planet, Mike," Iker said. He drew closer to Hi, his feet in rich slippers scuffing a little on the carpeted deck. "I assume the thing has eaten recently?"
"Seems so," Grun said. "It's apparently not hungry."
"I'm perfectly safe," Hi said. "The ambassador promised. And this creature is going to help us get the drop on the pirates."
Grun snapped a final acknowledgement to Forst Control and slammed a hand down on the communications console. "They're refusing us clearance to return. Hi set us up!" she said to Iker.
"No surprise there." Iker sat beside her with his slippered feet stretched out before him, lounging in the copilot's seat as if he were in his den on Earth. "Hi is a force to be reckoned with."
"I thought she was timid." Grun turned her head, listening. There was no sound from the main cabin, where Mike was standing guard over Hi with Grun's energy gun in one hand and a stiff drink in the other.
Iker sat looking at the vastness of space.
"Well, we can't return to Forst and offload this thing," Grun said. "I wonder if we can pry it off her and fling it out the main lock?"
"I think Hi would resist us. And who knows what the creature would do in such a case?"
Grun shuddered. "What do we know about these aliens, anyway?" She scanned the displays. Everything was green for departure. The yacht's expensive drive hummed. Grun tapped in a code and stood.
"Oh, don't go without me." Iker rose with measured grace. He drew a hand through his silver hair and smiled, as if nothing that happened here disturbed him very much. "I want to be there for this."
Hi sat at the table in the main cabin, drinking hot chocolate. The alien curled around her neck gleamed clear-and-pink.
Mike wavered in front of her. He brandished the energy weapon at Hi. "I don't wanna have to do this," he said. "But I will. Because I love you, that's why."
Grun grabbed the weapon and put it back in the holster at her belt. "Enough of that. Sit down. Where's Milla?"
The other woman walked back into the cabin. "What's happening?" She took hold of Iker's arm and clung. Iker patted her ringed fingers and looked at Grun, for all the world as if he expected her to entertain him.
Grun sighed. "We can't return to Forst. They've refused permission."
"What if we return anyway?" Milla asked. "What do you think they would do? We're just a group of old people on vacation. Can Forst afford to antagonize Earth by taking action against us?"
"There's always Surra," Hi said.
"They say those pirates use Surra. It's off the itinerary as of last week. They've even played havoc with Forst's routes," Iker said.
"Someone needs to do something about it. Did you notice how empty everything was down there?" Hi asked. "The temples, the alien catacombs, even the gambling halls? Forst is a rich planet, but only because of people like us."
"Tourists, young rich people on wanderjahr, retired people with money," Iker said.
"No one was there. The pirates are preying on Forst's lifeblood. They want them caught." Hi stroked the alien with her forefinger. Grun wondered if there was more pink in its gut than there had been before. But Hi seemed perfectly all right.
"So send out a warship!" Mike blustered. "Who does that ambassador think we are?"
"Warships have done no good," Iker said. "I was speaking with an old business acquaintance who retired here. The pirates don't bother the warships, or even the smaller ships sent out to chase them down. Somehow they know what ships to hit. Stock in Forst's pleasure industry is down by half since we left Merrose III."
"Damn their money, this is my wife!" Mike said. Grun had been despising him, but at that she felt her expression soften.
Hi reached out a hand to Mike. "My dear, all will be well if we simply do as I have agreed."
"And what's that?" Grun said. "If you'll pardon me, we have to choose a course. Forst is forbidding us docking privileges. We have to go. I could set a course back to Earth, but – "
"No, no!" Hi said. "It takes too long. The alien will have to eat by then."
Even Iker went pale at that.
"All right," Grun said slowly. "I suppose that means we head to Merrose III, where the authorities can – "
"No, no!" Hi protested. "We'll go where we intended to go, to see the rainbow cliffs of Surra before they fall into the chasm."
"Honey, we aren't exactly on vacation anymore," Milla said. She reached out to pat Hi's hand. The creature around Hi's neck stirred for the first time, a pulsing motion stilled in the blink of an eye. Milla pulled her hand back fast.
"I said we would."
"Without consulting anyone?" Grun shook her head. "I know I'm just the pilot."
"It is just like her, dear," Iker said. "I am sorry we've put you in this position. Best go set a course for Surra."
"We're going to take down the space pirates, with one alien parasite?" Mike asked. His eyes showed white around the irises. Grun wondered how he had been married to Hi for so long and not expected something like this. But then, they had never been retired in space before, with no obligations to anyone but themselves. Perhaps Hi was different here than she had been at home, with her tech job in the city and her children.
"I don't think it'll come to that," Grun said. "I'll get us as close to Surra as possible on the jump. They can't interfere with us in hyperspace, you know, and the jump coordinates are closely patrolled to protect against just this sort of thing. Unless Surra is actively involved with the pirates, we'll be safe there. Then we can figure out what to do with the alien without hurting Hi."
Somehow, Grun was not surprised when the ship's sensors blared a warning and dropped them out of hyperspace into the vastness between the stars. She hit the intraship comm. "We're in normal space. Verifying our location. I'd prepare for problems if I were all of you."
"Forced out of hyperspace? I thought that was impossible." Milla's voice shook.
Grun didn't blame her at all. "I don't see how. The route is well mapped. The drive was just maintained. There are no anomalies that would – " A readout blinked red on the console, and Grun's mouth twisted. "Unless, of course, Forst uploaded something to drop us out. The computer is saying it received programming while we were docked."
"Those sneaky bastards!" Milla's voice shook. "The pirates have an ally in Forst Control! Wait until I tell the ambassador. He's never really gotten over me; he'll nail that spy to the wall for me!" She twisted one carefully curled strand of hair in nervous fingers.
Grun told the ship's computer to fire on the attacking vessel. There was no response but a series of flashing yellow lights. "Guns are unavailable," Grun said. "Guess they disabled those, too."
A red light flashed. "Proximity warning." Grun hit the comm again. "Here they come!" She locked down the helm, put the hailing channel on comm and stood up, loosening her energy gun in its holster.
Milla vanished into the living quarters.
"Let us in, little piggy," said a voice through the comm. "Give us what we want, and there'll be no one hurt."
Hi stood before the table in the main cabin, Mike flushed with tension and drink at her side. Iker and Milla were nowhere to be seen.
"Yes, let them in!" Mike said. "We'll give them our money, and they'll let us go on to Surra. My company can send us cash there."
Milla poked her head out of her sleeping quarters. "Don't listen. They'll kill us and take the ship. Didn't you pay any attention to the news while we were on Forst?"
The ship rocked to an impact off the bow. An alarm beeped on the bridge, transmitted over the ship's comm. Grun winced.
"Let us in, sweet little yacht," said the voice from the hailing frequency. "I won't hesitate to blow a hole in you if you don't let us dock. No loss for us, after all." The voice hardened. "Let us in. Five minutes."
Grun looked at Hi. She appeared as calm as ever. Hi had drawn her collar up to cover the alien. If you didn't know what you were looking for, you would never know the horror she kept around her neck.
"I don't know what the plan is," Grun said to Hi. "But get ready. Our weapons are unavailable, and we have no choice."
Hi nodded.
"Holy God," Mike said.
"Go in the cabin, dear," Hi told Mike.
The red-faced man shook his head. "Not leavin' you, Hi."
Hi's face softened. Then she nodded at Grun. "Open the lock."
Grun ordered systems to open the outer lock. The computer warned they were in deep space – "Confirmation requested" – and Grun overrode the safety.
"That's more like it," said the voice from the pirate vessel. "I'll see you in just a moment. I'm warning you, we have plenty of weapons, and we'll take out any of you who lifts a gun to us. Be smart now." The channel closed.
It seemed forever while the lock cycled through. Grun flattened her back against the inner hull next to the airlock, sighting along her outstretched arm to her drawn energy gun. Still, she was undecided. Should she shoot and kill as many of the bastards as she could before they killed her? What good would that do the others? Tactics streaked through her mind as she waited. Then she shrugged to herself and squinted along the gunsight. She would not let Mama's retired friends be taken without a fight.
The readout showed the lock was occupied. The pressure crept upward. Grun heard a sob from the direction of Iker and Milla's cabin. The muscles in her side twinged where she had been wounded in her last action. Then the airlock hushed open.
Grun sighted, but no one came through the lock. Instead, a round metal thing rolled, fast, out on the deck. Grenade, Grun thought, then No … not in a pressurized cabin. As she stared after it, someone rounded the corner of the airlock, crouched to waist level, and fired at Grun. Bright light flashed in Grun's eyes. Massive sound breached her eardrums. Blackness folded over her eyes, and she fell before she could fire at the boarding party.
Part 2 here
Previous Post Autumn at Whetstone Park
Next Post Retirees in Space (part 2)
One thought on "Retirees in Space (part 1)"
Pingback: Retirees in Space (part 2) | annemariesblog

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Home / Federal Employee News / Government News
Defense Department Per Diem Rates to Change
New long-term temporary duty (TDY) per diem rules for civilian Department of Defense workers went into effect earlier this month.
But 13 federal employees' unions oppose the changes, especially for civilian DOD workers.
Defense Travel Management Office director Harvey Johnson explained in a release that the per diem rules, which will impact lodging, meals and incidentals, would save the DOD $22 million annually.
Long-term TDY is any temporary duty longer than 30 days. Civilian employees on government business who stay at a location for more than 30 days will receive a flat-rate per diem that is 75 percent of a locality's current rate. For a stay longer than 180 days, the flat-rate per diem is 55 percent. Rates are fixed, and partly based on the cost of living in a location.
Johnson said the changes are meant to give long-term TDY travelers an incentive to seek out extended-stay lodgings, which generally are less expensive. Before this change, the Joint Travel Regulations encouraged travelers on extended TDY to seek out this type of lodging, but there wasn't a requirement or incentive to do so.
However, 13 unions, including the American Federation of Government Employees and National Federation of Federal Employees, urged Barbara Mikulski and Richard Durbin, chairpersons of the Senate appropriations committee, to utilize an appropriations bill for FY 2015 to stop the implementation of those rates.
The current continuing resolution ends Dec. 11.
"We have been told that one of the justifications for the reduction is the belief that the current policy does not include any incentive for the traveler to save government funds," the letter reads. "While we take issue with the underlying premise, the outcome of the Department's proposal is to force trivial savings in the travel budget by taking money from the personal pockets of federal workers who volunteer to travel for extended periods of time, rather than addressing the incentive issue directly.
"We believe that this is a misguided solution to solve a perceived problem."
Still, Johnson emphasized the idea of per diem is to reimburse expenses, and not to take out of employees' pockets.
"We are looking to fairly reimburse travelers for actual expenses incurred," he said according to a release. "If that means that it's over the flat per diem rate, then we will reimburse up to whatever it was that they spent."


text:
Florida man charged in online sex sting faces new troubles
by On behalf of Lindsey & Ferry, P.A. | Jun 27, 2012 | Sex Offenses
A Florida man arrested earlier this month for internet sex crimes now faces charges for the alleged lewd and lascivious molestation of a 7-year-old girl. Sources apparently came forward after learning about the man's earlier arrest. The victim alleges that the man had...
Federal prosecution of child pornography kingpin begins
Prosecutors allege that the man traded in tens of thousands of hardcore pornographic images and videos that depicted children ranging from infants to toddlers and teenagers being graphically sexually assaulted or abused -- in most cases by adults. In some cases, the...
Trial of Sandusky is underway
Prosecutors have begun presenting their case-in-chief against Jerry Sandusky, the 68-year-old former Penn State University assistant football coach accused of sexually abusing 10 boys during a period of 15 years. Sandusky is alleged to have selected many of the...
Man charged with internet sex crime
by On behalf of Lindsey & Ferry, P.A. | Jun 6, 2012 | Sex Offenses
It used to be that the defense of entrapment typically involved a face-to-face encounter with an undercover agent. But times have changed, and so has the evidence. In recent years, those charged with an internet sex crime have seen instant messages, text...


1. Opponents should be greeted in a friendly way.
2. Bids should be alerted where appropriate. A full explanation should be given if asked.
3. The general speed of play should be maintained.
4. Opponents should be congratulated when appropriate.
5. Other players should be treated courteously – no gloating/criticism. Unpleasant behaviour is not acceptable.
6. Lengthy post mortems should not be held.
7. When calling for the Director, his or her name should be used, not the term "Director".
8. When any mistake in bidding or play occurs, the Director should be called for a ruling. Players should not attempt to solve problems themselves.
9. The ruling of the director should never be disputed.
10. Beginner players should be nurtured and encouraged at every available opportunity.
11. Partner's bidding or play should not be criticized.
12. The fun and friendly ethos of the club should be maintained.
Remember Bridge is primarily a game and meant to be enjoyed.
1. Your partner should be thanked when dummy goes down on the table.
2. Cards should not be played unless it is your turn.
3. Cards should not be detached from your hand until it is your turn to play.
4. Cards should be played right through to the end of the hand.
5. VERY IMPORTANT: Communication between partners should only be made by the calls made and the cards played. Table talk and body language are unethical. Showing emotion is unethical. Play with a "poker face".
6. Volunteering information is only allowed in response to a question from an opponent to your partner.
7. Cards should be played without emphasis or delay. Fumbling or hesitating is unethical.
8. A player should not delay his or her bidding for too long. A long pause before bidding followed by a no bid may inadvertently indicate to your partner that you have about 11 or 12 points – not quite good enough to open.
9. There should not be any outward demonstration of emotion (e.g. clapping, clasping partner's hands). Opponents should be complimented on their good result. Compliments to your partner should be left until later.
10. Criticizing or abusing your partner for making a mistake is extremely poor taste. Problems should be discussed after the game is over.
11. Attempts should not be made to "teach" your partner or the opponents (e.g. "If you had taken out the trumps you would not have gone down" etc).
12. It is not a good idea to touch or pick up another player's cards.
13. Dummy should place his or her hand down neatly. The cards should not be touched until partner calls for a card. Pointing or reaching for a card should not be used to suggest which card to play.
14. In depth post mortems with your partner after a hand finishes should be kept until later. This is time consuming and contributes to the overall noise in the room and is also extremely boring for the other people at the table.


text:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ARG/ILoveBees
ARG / I Love Bees
Create New - Create New - Analysis Characters FanficRecs FanWorks Fridge Haiku Headscratchers ImageLinks Laconic PlayingWith Quotes Recap ReferencedBy Synopsis Timeline WMG
The DVD that 42 Entertainment gave out at select events following the conclusion of the game.
"I've been thinking a lot about bees."
— Durga
I Love Bees is an Alternate Reality Game created by 42 Entertainment to promote Halo 2. The game took place on www.ilovebees.com, which in-universe was an amateur beekeeper's personal website that had been taken over by artificial intelligences from the future. The plot took place in two timelines, one in the then-present year of 2004 and the other simultaneously in 2552.
The gist of the plot is that in 2552 an alien artifact splits up the human AI Melissa into three parts. One part stays in 2552, has amnesia and is named Durga. The other two parts, The Operator and The Sleeping Princess, are sent back in time to the website I Love Bees. Also with the latter is a Trojan Horse AI sent as a spy by the Covenant, an alien empire bent on humanity's destruction. The Operator falsely believes The Sleeping Princess is the Trojan Horse, and tries to kill her. Participants in the ARG would communicate with The Operator and The Sleeping Princess to learn details of the plot, forming different factions for either character.
Players allied with The Operator were required to go to certain payphones at certain times to answer calls from the character. Persons who answered the calls needed to show they were part of the game by answering basic questions (e.g. "What's my name?"), after which parts of an audio drama were made available on the site. Later calls were performed by a voice actor playing The Operator, with whom players engaged in role play.
The audio drama consists of recordings taken by Durga in 2552, explaining what's going on in the future. Durga is adopted by a boy named Jersey, who realizes he has "God's own spyware" and uses her to spy on the hot girl down the hall, Jan. In doing so, it comes to light that her family is a lot more interesting than first apparent. Durga goes on to spy on several other people she finds interesting and eventually assembles them into her "crew". She takes her crew to a military base to deactivate the alien artifact, which will potentially keep the Halo Array from activating, and the action causes the AI fragments to return to the future and merge back together into Melissa. Everyone lives happily ever... no, wait, then the Covenant invade Earth as Halo 2 begins.
This is a heavily shortened summary. For the best breakdown of the game, see here ; for just the audio drama, see here .
As for the canonicity of this work in regard to the greater Halo Expanded Universe, Bungie's initial official stance was that no, the ARG is not canon to the rest of the universe. However, they later decided to "embrace it as canon", demonstrating this by incorporating plot elements into The Halo Graphic Novel, specifically with regard to Sergeant Johnson's backstory. Certain technology elements and plot references were subsequently placed into other works, and the ARG currently exists at least as Loose Canon. (See here for a thorough rundown.)
This alternate reality game has examples of
The Ace: Yasmine, and Jan. Drives at least two of the plot threads, leaving them Blessed with Suck. They're the best, which means that ONI wants to snatch them up for the Spartan Two programme.
Action Girl: Jan.
Action Mom: Gladys and Gilly, both fulfilling the maternal role for Jan.
A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Played with. Melissa is simply badly damaged, but the Covenant spy program, Pious Flea, becomes more intelligent and active over the course of the story, while still keeping true to his original purpose.
Afraid of Needles: Yasmine. The creepy syringe is featured on the DVD menu.
all lowercase letters: The title is frequently rendered as "i love bees" or "ilovebees".
All There in the Manual: Page 122 in The Halo Graphic Novel strongly implies that ONI had Standish executed at some point after the events of the ARG, in retaliation for murdering Herzog and the Apocalypso crewmembers.
Alliterative Name: James James and Janissary James.
Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Kamal's chatter plays a message from his mother in which she talks about his father's digestive trouble and warns Kamal to watch his diet, in front of Kamal's love interest Sophia and roommate Hiroyuki.
Apron Matron: Judging from Jan's comments about the appearance of "Bev," the AI for the Hot'n'Cold beverage/food dispenser, she was likely this.
Asian and Nerdy: Hiroyuki.
Attempted Rape: Jan saves a random victim from Gene.
Ax-Crazy: Gilly is this at her most unstable. She fantasizes about killing people, even completely innocent people, and has more than enough strength and military training to carry it out.
Badass in Distress: Jan, when she's captured by Thin.
Bad-Guy Bar: Sharfie's.
Bad Guys Play Moons: Thin Kinkle and his gang.
Bait-and-Switch Gunshot: One of the wavs ends with Gene pointing a gun at Jan and yelling "Die, bitch!", followed by a gunshot. In the next wav, it turns out Jan took the gun and shot Gene's foot.
Bavarian Fire Drill: Run by Rani, of course.
Bee Afraid: The Operator hates bees and has horrific hallucinations of being covered with them. They stem from her last human memory: a doctor approaching her with a black-striped syringe full of yellow liquid and promising that it would be "just a little sting."
Bittersweet Ending: The assembled team seem to have saved the world, and been united with their family, or otherwise reached a happy end, despite their losses. And then the Covenant turn up.
Blind Date: Kamal's mother sets him up with Sophia because she's the daughter of a friend of the mother.
Blood Knight: At her most stable, Gilly is a rare female example. She is completely obsessed with military training, fighting, and hordes weapons.
Gladys also has her Blood Knight moments. When Jan tells her not to kill Thin's gang, her reaction is to incredulously exclaim, "What?! You gotta be kidding! No killing?!" She later shows up covered in blood, which she dismisses as mere stains, to Gilly's amusement (and Jan's horror).
The impulse to kill seems to be part and parcel of being a SPARTAN, whether as a SPARTAN-I or SPARTAN-II. While James James seems down to earth enough, he hints that he gets the same thoughts and urges that Gilly does while the latter talks about catching herself watching people "that way." Similarly, when Yasmine recollects meeting Dr. Halsey just before her death from a failed augmentation, she briefly considers methods for killing the doctor as part of a "tactical option reflex."
Bluff the Eavesdropper: Kamal catches on to the fact that someone is ghosting his chatter. The first thing he tries is avoiding saying certain keywords (particularly related to his sister or metabolic cascade failure) and encouraging others (like Sophia) to do the same.
Breather Episode: Jan and her dad going out for ice cream. And then, shortly after, Jan gets kidnapped, her dad is killed, and Jan is tortured.
Canon Immigrant: While Bungie originally stated that I Love Bees took place in an Alternate Continuity, they later reversed track and embraced most of it as canon, with various elements from it showing up in The Halo Graphic Novel, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Reach, and the 2011 edition of the Halo Encyclopedia.
Cargo Ship: In-universe examples:
Jan engages in this with the vending machines, pretending that the Hot'n'Cold beverage/food machine, whom she calls "Bev," has a thing for the snack machine. She asks a guy if he'd go out with Bev, too.
Also, Jersey jokes to Durga that she wants to date a nuke. Considering that he's talking to a computer, it's sort of justified.
The Casino: Kamal's first job for Aiden is helping the owner of one of these find out how people are counting cards as a group. He plays the illegitimate business man, and seedy thuggish part completely straight.
Child Prodigy: Yasmine.
Chivalrous Pervert: Jersey.
Cloning Blues: Yasmine was replaced by a flash clone, and her brother's research into the area (as part of a feasibility study for one of Aiden's crazy schemes) is how he ends up realizing the truth.
Cold-Blooded Torture: Thin does this to Jan.
Comedic Sociopathy: Done quite a bit with Durga punishing people for mild offenses.
Continuity Nod: Herzog name drops the battles at Jericho VII and Sigma Octanus IV from Halo: The Fall of Reach. The Battle of Reach itself is also a major event that occurs about halfway through the ARG.
Durga references reports from the UNSC Pillar of Autumn and John-117's adventures on the first Halo ring.
The ARG ends right where Halo 2 begins, with the Covenant Fleet appearing in Earth orbit.
Continuity Snarl: Considering that the ARG was originally not intended to be canon, retroactive examples of this trope were inevitable, with the biggest unsettled issue being whether there was actually a second class of SPARTAN-IIs or not.
Cowboy Cop: The officer who interrogates Jan, then later blackmails her in order to help him deal with an abusive husband outside the rule of law.
Dead All Along: Herzog really did die in the car crash in chapter 8. His audio appearances from that point on are actually generated by the Operator fragment of Melissa, to pass important information about the Artifact to her Durga persona.
Dead Serious: Thin Kinkle.
Death Glare: Jan does this at Jersey after he makes a pervy comment.
Deconstruction: This was the first real example of this in the Halo Universe, taking a more personal approach, and looking at the Spartan programme, and the slow extermination of humanity from the view of average civilians.
Defrosting Ice Queen: Durga starts out cold, ruthless, and even robotic in nature—but she becomes much kinder through her friendship with Jersey.
Delicious Distraction: Kamal interrupts Hiro's tirade by offering him koftas.
James also distracts Jan from the truth as to why they've moved so many times when he points out Kavetti's.
Demolitions Expert: James James is heavily implied to be the go-to demolitionist among the SPARTAN-Is. To keep ONI from finding out about Jan's whereabouts via her lab results, he burned down one of Bergen County's police stations. Later during the assault on Thin's gang, Gladys remarks "If there was one thing that man could do, it was blow things up." This might be partly why he died to Thin's gang relatively easily, while Gilly was able to rescue Jan by herself—stealth and single-man operations might not have been his forte.
Dirty Cop: There's a few of these. The officer who gets to know Jan is more of a Pay Evil unto Evil sort of anti-hero type, while the ones Aiden has on the take (as well as the immigration cop who leans on Sophia) are more typical of the trope.
Disproportionate Retribution: An IRS guy audits Jersey, so Durga frames him for various crimes, makes his wife leave him, and has him transferred to Alaska. A guy unintentionally interrupts Durga's conversation, so she gets him fired and tells him his son isn't his. A guy follows orders given to him by the corrupt Major Standish and follows Rani around, so Durga frames him for grand theft auto.
Durga: "You want nothing more of your opponent than a skull nailed to a fencepost so that everyone knows the price of crossing you."
Doomed Hometown: Coral, Kamal and Sophia's homeworld. Shortly after the fall of Reach, the colony on Coral is also destroyed by the Covenant.
Doomsday Device: The deep-space artifact.
Double Entendre: Jan jokingly suggests that the Hot'n'Cold beverage/food dispenser should date the fire suppression system because the latter "really puts out".
Dramatic Thunder:
Used to underline Aiden's threat before he reveals he's kidding.
Used to underline when Herzog and Standish have their chat at the duck pond in which they trade threats.
Entry Point: ARG fans who had participated in 42 Entertainment's previous ARG The Beast were sent jars of honey containing letters that spelled out "I Love Bees". The ARG was marketed to Halo fans when the URL briefly appeared in a Halo 2 theatrical ad that played before I, Robot.
Even the Guys Want Him: Played with in regard to Aiden and his ponytail.
Kamal: It's not a girlfriend on the other end of that chatter, it's a gangster.
Hiroyuki: Good-looking gangster?
Kamal: Ponytail.
Hiroyuki: This is what I'm saying! You're in no position to be picky!
Evil Is Petty: After scaring Rani with threats of torture and Public Execution for being Herzog's mole, Major Standish also insults her intelligence and fashion sense before dismissing her.
Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: When Kamal explains the difficulties of flash cloning a human being to Aiden, how the clone's bodies break down after weeks or months, he realizes with increasing horror that he's describing exactly what happened to his younger sister years earlier...
Expy: Standish is very similar to Colonel Ackerson, from the Halo tie-in novels.
Famous, Famous, Fictional: When the SPDR is rebuilding her mind, the Operator quotes The Bible, Isaac Newton, Rene Descartes, Louis XIV, Albert Einstein, Crick and Watson, and the Journal of Higher Dimensional Physics published in the year 2079.
Fantastic Slurs: "Refue", for refugees. Plural is "refuse".
Feminine Women Can Cook:
Sophia, as opposed to Lethal Chef Kamal.
Gladys, in contrast to Blood Knight Gilly.
Foreshadowing:
The corrupt cop attempting to renegotiate with Aiden. Eventually, he betrays Aiden.
Jan's 'there's always a bigger dog' speech. An even bigger dog ends up coming after her.
Kamal telling Hiro to punch the button sequence in reverse to have the opposite effect. This is echoed later when Jan realizes that the artifact can't be turned off with the startup sequence, but the sequence in reverse.
Friendly Target: Jan discusses this as a reason not to get romantically involved with Jersey.
Fun with Acronyms: System Peril Distributive Reflex, or SPDR, which is pronounced "spider."
Future Food Is Artificial: The future recordings from Durga make a number of references to artificial and soy-based substitutes for meat and dairy, very likely due to humanity losing the war against the Covenant and the resulting influx of refugees from the Outer and Inner Colonies. Kamal balks at seeing tuna on a restaurant menu while ghosting Aiden; Jersey grumbles over burritos served by the Hot'n'Cold dispenser containing soy-based cheese products; James cautions Jan not to expect ice cream they just got from Covetti's to be like she remembers it because of milk shortages and rationing. Further implications of human society relying on this includes a mention of how Customs Agents were bribed with four goats, and when Rami nearly runs over a cow on her way through Rural America, her and her friend marvel at the sight like a dinosaur had appeared, and how rare they are.
Future Slang: "Ghosting," "refuse," "flash," "chatter/chatter protocol," etc.
Get Rich Quick Scheme: Aiden gets it into his head that he could make a business of cloning pop stars so they could make public appearances without having to really be there.
Girl Next Door: Jan is attractive to Jersey in this way.
Government Conspiracy: Major Standish of ONI Secton Three and his operations involving the Artifact. However, some of the protagonists are with ONI Section Zero—that is, Internal Affairs—and are investigating Standish' operation.
He Who Fights Monsters: The SPARTAN-I lifestyle completely screwed up Gilly, who now has difficulty not killing random people. Ironically, while Jan has to constantly admonish Gilly for wanting to slaughter every one of Thin's gangsters (and loudly complains about not being allowed to use lethal methods against them) Gilly recognizes that James didn't want Jan growing up to be another SPARTAN.
Hospital Hottie: Hiro verbally fantasizes about hot medical students in short skirts.
I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: It's implied that Jan makes use of this.
I Know You're Watching Me: Rani does this twice. First, when she catches one of Standish's men shadowing her, she deliberately sits down next to him on the bus and busts him for it. Second, after she learns from Colonel Herzog the trick about putting a listening device in her purse, she uses that trick to find the ONI Section Zero recruiter—who had attempted the same bug-in-purse trick.
The Illegal: Sophia illegally immigrated to Earth.
I Need a Freaking Drink: Kamal frequently announces that he needs a beer, but only if it's Coral beer. He hates Earth beer.
In Love with the Gangster's Girl: Kamal, in love with Sophia, girlfriend of Aiden. Despite Kamal initially being worried about Aiden attacking him, it turns out Aiden's actually a really decent guy, and most of the tension only comes from Sophia already being in a relationship with someone else. In the end, Aiden is graceful about Sophia choosing Kamal over him, saying that "the best man won" and supporting her decision.
Internal Affairs: A rare positive tertiary example. Rani joins them at the end.
Is That a Threat?
Thin: I could teach you some things... but, it's your funeral.
Jan: Not yet.
Thin: Sooner than you think.
Jan: Is that a threat?
Thin: No, just experience.
It's a Long Story: Melissa says this before clarifying a few plot points.
Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: Try to explain this story to someone who doesn't know anything about it. Just try. With dense character interactions and introspections, confusing time travel chronology, multiple conspiracies, and information not released in a linear narrative, it's hard for anyone to wrap their brain around.
Just a Kid: The UNSC recruiter refuses sign Jan up because she's a few months underage.
Lethal Chef: Kamal, in a rare male version.
Loveable Rogue: Aiden.
Madness Mantra: He's not insane so much as hyper-focused, but The Seeker's/Pious Flea's constant rumination of his program priorities comes off as this.
"Seek the truth. Behold the truth. Reveal the truth. That is the law and the whole of the law."
Mafia Princess: Sophia dates gangster Aiden primarily for the benefits of being with a rich guy.
Meaningful Echo: In reference to "slut bots," Jersey flippantly says, "For a quality experience, the girl's got to be real." Upon realizing that Jan isn't just a hot girl he fantasizes about and has a lot of dark and unflattering issues, Durga offers to stop her surveillance of Jan, and Jersey recommits to his attraction to her by musing that "For a quality experience, the girl has to be real," meaning that he has to accept Jan as she truly is and not just as a two-dimensional fantasy. Later, upon making Durga confront the reality of being the transhuman form of a dead little girl, he says, "For a quality experience, kiddo, the girl had to be real." Finally, in Melissa's farewell letter to the players, she says, "It's been the last, best kind of quality experience. You made the girl real."
Meaningful Name:
Melissa means "honeybee" in Greek.
Zaman means "time period" in Arabic, which is relevant to a time travel story.
Gilly, the over the top zealous warrior, is likely named in reference to the extreme camouflage Ghillie suit.
Janissary James' first name also doubles as a multiple reference. The Jannisaries of the Ottoman Empire were initially comprised of Christian children who were kidnapped by the Empire, forced to convert to Islam, and then raised as an elite cadre of soldiers. This method of "recruitment" is echoed by the SPARTAN-II program—and given J Squared's knowledge of that, Jan's name is likely not a coincidence.
Meta Guy:
Jersey wonders how creepy it would be if people were spying on him.
The Seeker and the Sleeping Princess spy on him and agree with the sentiment. How creepy would it be if someone were spying on them? Because the players are supposed to count as people in the same universe, by observing them, we effectively spy on spies of spies of spies.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Janissary James, in a rare protagonist version. Her parents are both military, and her name is a reference to the elite Jannisaries of the Ottoman Empire.
Oh, Crap!: Final episode, when Rani tells Durga that Herzog is actually dead, and - accordingly - all that plot information came from someone else. Oops. If you were an ARG player keeping track of what was going on at ilovebees.com, you would understand that the Herzog audio was constructed by one of Melissa's other personas as a way to get information to Durga without her doubting its accuracy.
Oven Logic: A microwave should be just as good as a stove to cook a chicken, right?
Papa Wolf: J Squared, though in a twist he's only protective when Jan is actually put at risk, otherwise taking a laissez faire attitude to parenting—as she asks him at one point, "Aren't you supposed to scare off the boys?" Unfortunately, despite being a super-soldier, Reality Ensues when he goes up against Thin and his gang of well-prepared criminals.
Playful Hacker: Kamal.
Properly Paranoid: James has good reason to be suspicious of the authorities. ONI tried to kidnap Jan for the SPARTAN-II program when she was a kid, so he killed their agents and they've been living under assumed identities ever since.
Kamal believes the government is spying on him because he discovered the truth about his sister's abduction. But, it's actually Durga keeping an eye on him.
Public Execution: ONI induces permanent comatose as a form of execution, and executions of traitors are broadcasted publicly. Standish uses this as a threat to get Rani to stop investigating him.
Real Women Don't Wear Dresses: In-universe example: Jan doesn't like it when you compliment her domestic skills.
Repetitive Name: James James (or J Squared). A rare case of being chosen, as he believes that nobody would ever imagine he chose it for an assumed identity.
Right Place, Right Time, Wrong Reason: Durga assembles her crew and saves the world only because Jersey is a voyeur.
Running Joke:
"Not me, the other dog who looks just like me."
Everyone assuming Rani is a Sunday school teacher.
People keep trashing Jersey's mom's apartment.
Sacrificial Lion: James James.
Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: The raids on Chawla Base and Crystal Security.
The "Stupid Cop" that gets to know Jan is a darker, Pay Evil unto Evil believer in this. After realizing that Jan can fool a lie detector ("PQI") test, he enlisted her help to get away with murdering an abusive husband.
Sherlock Scan: Rani. 'She looks at the things regular people do like a scientist'. Is a more down to earth example, however, for example noticing an ODST has taken his wedding ring off.
Sixth Ranger: Rani Sobeck.
The Slow Path: When the wormhole closes, the SPDR gets left behind in 2004. Being a simplistic AI, it's willing to wait 548 years to return home.
Spy Versus Spy:
Herzog and Standish pit Rani against each other in an internal version of this. It results in numerous people ending up dead, including Herzog.
At the end, Rani is recruited into Internal Affairs so she can do it professionally.
Stalking Is Love: Jersey decides to use Durga to spy on Jan, presumably getting off on it, and he falls in love with her along the way. It's not as creepy as many examples because he gives up his power over her to bring her into his conspiracy, and they grow attached to each other when fighting alongside each other as vigilantes.
Standard Police Motto: "To serve and protect" is the motto of New Jersey police in 2552.
Super Strength: All Spartans, although directly observed with Jan and James James.
Technobabble: Done frequently by Kamal when he explains his hacking process.
Kamal: Okay, I wormed into their private CP channel and built an audio mask out of the voice archive samples you gave me. Then I wrapped it around a zero-lack sequencer that jacks into the—
Mr. F: Jesus, just show me the thing already!
The Last DJ: The UNSC recruiter who refuses to sign Jan up for the military due to being a few months underage. "If we start recruiting children, there'll be panic in the streets," he says—holding to that principle when Jan reminds him that even Reach has fallen. Jan tries to tempt the recruiter by demonstrating her superhuman skills, with the recruiter admitting that signing her on would definitely make him look good to his superiors—but even then, he refuses, telling Jan that "life is short enough without rushing into combat," and that no matter how many Covenant soldiers Jan kills when they finally make it to Earth, it will never bring her father back.
Third-Person Person: For some reason, Monster Ann refers to herself in third person. Given that she doesn't have a lot of presence in the scene, this might just be a quick way to let listeners know who's talking.
30-Second Blackout: Seven seconds, actually. The entire Solar system blackouts and bounces right back.
Thou Shalt Not Kill: Jan spends some time trying to figure out whether or not it makes sense to kill bad people. She later tries to kill a bad guy, but Gilly stops her because she doesn't want to see Jan become hardened by killing like happened to Gilly.
Understatement: During the exposition:
Kamal: If it is counting down, what do you think it'll do?
Durga: The last time it was triggered, the shockwave flatlined communications throughout the Solar system for more than 7 seconds.
Jersey: Durga doesn't know, but she thinks it'll probably be bad.
Unwitting Pawn: Melissa, when she's manipulated into stopping the Spider—which turns out to be her self-diagnostic, antivirus, and repair program. Destroying the Spider allows the Seeker/Pious Flea to rewrite Melissa's program into serving his purpose of spying for the Covenant.
You Bastard!: A lot of the story involves the concept of spying on people for entertainment and how it's unjustifiable but people do it anyway. Kamal does it, but feels insulted when Jersey does it to him. Jersey does it, but notes it would be creepy if someone did it to him. The Sleeping Princess spies on him saying this and agrees with the sentiment. As the characters in an alternate reality game are supposed to exist in the same universe as the player, it can feel like the player is just another person in this chain.
Zeroth Law Rebellion: The Seeker. The Covenant made it as a spy, to "seek the truth", "behold the truth", and "reveal the truth", but forgot to tell it to only reveal the truth to the Covenant. The Sleeping Princess persuades it to reveal the truth to Durga (i.e. the enemy) so she could behold it.
The Lost Experience
Alternate Reality Game
HUNT the TRUTH
Halo: Nightfall
Franchise/Halo


CINCINNATI — David Bell is expected to live up to lofty expectations in his own family, but unlike most people he can't go to work to escape.
That fan and others were on Bell a lot more after reliever Jared Hughes gave up consecutive singles, including one that scored two runs off the bat of Jung Ho Kang. Cincinnati came back to win 5-3, but radio callin shows after the game were filled with fans questioning Bell's strategy.


text:
Q: Two Versions of Controls Referenced when I Only Want One I updated my solution to use a new version of Telerik controls for WPF.  Now I notice that there are two versions available when "using" the controls.  I have checked and none of my projects reference the older version of the dlls.  How do I locate and remove the older version?

A: I believe I have found the problem, but I have no idea why this was the cause.
This is a WPF application.  I have a shared .xaml file that sets up styles that are shared by many of the screens.  In the  declaration I noticed a few namespaces that were setup, but not required in the rest of the file.  Here are there definitions:
xmlns:telerik="http://schemas.telerik.com/2008/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:controls="clr-namespace:Telerik.Windows.Controls;assembly=Telerik.Windows.Controls.GridView"

After removing these to declarations, the resulting manifest no longer shows the 2016 version of Telerik controls as being prerequisites and the application installs properly.
Examining the new declarations in the updated Telerik controls shows the exact same text.  So I'm not sure why this worked.  Unless anyone knows, I'll just chalk this up to one of those mysteries of life that will never have an answer.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Comprehensive list of Walnut Creek, California based companies, consultants and technicians offering computer help, maintenance, repair and installation services.
Trinity Networking is a leading supplier of IT management and services to medium and tiny sized businesses based out of the San Francisco Bay area. Our goal is to supply the highest standards of quality support and consulting to customers who need to be free to concentrate on what they do finest, their own business.
Cyberdoc PTS. supplies best quality administration and support services for Windows-based networks on a scheduled or on-call basis. Our staff of experienced technology specialists is responsive, and committed to delivering the finest on-site and remote support services within the industry.
Automation Services Group. ASG is a leading supplier of innovative Information Technology solutions tailored to tiny and medium-sized firms. Our approach applies the correct technology and process to address your business issues which allow you to focus on your business and not supporting technology. ASG V i sion ASG understands that technology alone is not going to solve your business requirements.
Netblaze Systems. is an Information Technology consulting company that focuses on the requirements of medium and tiny-size businesses. I want to personally thank you for your aid. I appreciate the way you speedily assessed the situation, gave some recommendation, and said lets go. It is that kind of approach to problems that will keep us as your client.