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Home / MOVIES / Going nowhere slowly in The Last Station
Going nowhere slowly in The Last Station
Posted by: Andrea van Wyk in MOVIES 27th April 2010	0 2,451 Views
Historical dramas, like book-to-film adaptations, are by nature contentious among film critics. Purists will nitpick at every factual inaccuracy while directors often feel liberties must be taken in order for the audience not to feel as if they are watching the History Channel. Fair enough…
But, however and nonetheless, the idea behind making a film about a particular historical figure is surely to highlight his importance and examine the mark he made. It should, at the very least, let the audience get a sense of zeitgeist while being offered the opportunity to explore the nature and depth of the subject. Michael Hoffman's latest film, The Last Station, however, does none of the above. It traces the last days of one of literature's greats, Russian author Leo Tolstoy (b. 1828-1910), and what a subject! Yet, Hoffman disappointingly fails to lend the gravitas an icon like Tolstoy both commands and deserves.
The plot focuses on the relationship between Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer) and his wife, Countess Sofya (Helen Mirren) during the writer's last days. While their marriage is based on passion and love, the union is a turbulent one. After 48 years together, Tolstoy is no longer the same wealthy nobleman Sofya had married. Following the publication of what may arguably be two of the greatest novels ever written, War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877) – which Dostoevsky called "flawless as a work of art" – Tolstoy turns his attention to the plight of the poor in Russia. He's become a 'pacifist anarchist' (an oxymoron perhaps?). He turns away from fiction and instead turns to writing papers advocating so-called 'passive resistance'. Private property is to be relinquished and wealth distributed to the masses, including Tolstoy's own (much to the chagrin of his wife).
Tolstoy's beliefs and writings inspired a Hippie-like cult following, who called themselves Tolstoyans, and the sub-plot of the film concerns this group of ardent worshippers, who saw the writer as a kind of Messiah. They don't believe in indulging the pleasures of the flesh. Sex is strictly forbidden – perhaps it's not passive enough? Meat and money are also frowned upon. Tolstoy's greedy lawyer, Vladimir Chertkov (Paul Giamatti), deviously uses this group to encourage the writer to relinquish the copyrights to his books and 'bequeath' it to the people. To help him, he dispatches the young Valentin Bulgakov (James McAvoy) to keep a watchful eye on Sofya.
There is a lack of depth and focus to the film, which gets bogged down in details that contribute nothing to an understanding of the subject. Granted, Tolstoy is not the protagonist of the film. The story is meant to be seen from Bulgakov's point of view, which explains why we're forced to endure the developing, and exceedingly dull, romance between Bulgakov and a fellow (female) Tolstoyan in detail. McAvoy's character in The Last Station is an echo of the blue-eyed, innocent boy he played with so much candour in The Last King of Scotland. This time, however, there is no sparkle to his performance. It could be the fault of the script or the direction – Bulgakov's contribution to both the plot-development and denouement simply feels redundant.
One of the film's few redeeming qualities is the performance of the inimitable Helen Mirren, who cannot put a foot wrong. As the hysterical, melodramatic Countess Sofya she once again dazzles, earning her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress earlier this year. Christopher Plummer was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor, although he was never going to rival Jeff Bridges.
The Last Station feels a bit helter–skelter and lacks cohesion. It starts off with enough pace, but slows down to the point where I was left wondering when the train would finally dock at the station and I could disembark.
Director & Screenwriter: Michael Hoffman
Cast: Christopher Plummer, Helen Mirren, James McAvoy, Paul Giamatti
Awards: Academy Award nominations for Helen Mirren (Best Actress) and Christopher Plummer (Best Supporting Actor)
Rating: 2 out of 5
Ps. I think I shall go for an action blockbuster next to get the pulse racing – Iron Man 2, here I come!
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The DUFF – fluffy teenage angst
[LISTEN] Lerato Tshabalala on THAT book, "The Way I See It".
"Suffragette" is imperfect, but still a gripping story about the early feminist movement.
The Diary of a Teenage Girl – a refreshingly unconventional take on teenage sexuality.


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Passamaquoddy
A Native American people, the Passamaquoddy traditionally lived on Passamaquoddy Bay, the St. Croix River, and Schoodic Lake on the boundary between what are now the U.S. state of Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick. They belonged to the alliance of tribes called the Abenaki and spoke an Algonquian language that was closely related to that of another Abenaki people, the Malecite.
The Passamaquoddy were Northeast Indians who traditionally planted corn, hunted, and fished for food. They built cone-shaped houses by covering a frame of wooden poles with birch bark. Sometimes they constructed a palisade, or tall fence, around a village for protection. A tribal council consisting of a war chief, a civil chief, and representatives of each family decided most important matters. A general council of the entire tribe decided war matters.
The French explorer Samuel de Champlain reached Passamaquoddy lands in the early 1600s. The tribe allied itself with the French against the English in the colonial battle for control of North America. The Passmaquoddy also banded together with the Malecite and other tribes to form the Abenaki Confederacy for defense against the Iroquois Confederacy. Over time colonial settlement cut into Passamaquoddy territory, and by 1866 the tribe had settled mainly at Sipayik (Sebaik), on the south side of Passamaquoddy Bay, and on Lewis Island. Early 21st-century population estimates indicated approximately 6,000 individuals of Passamaquoddy descent.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


if you're a vegetable lover like me, there comes a time about once every two weeks or so when you have a collection of them left over in your refrigerator: a quarter of cabbage, half a cauliflower, some carrots, a zucchini or two, a few stalks of celery, mushrooms, maybe some asparagus, a small bunch of parsley….that's what i found in my produce drawer when i was looking for inspiration tonight for creating a much needed comforting dinner. the decision was easy: it would be just what we needed at the end of a long and coldish day- a pot loaded with lots of good ingredients simmered together long enough to create that familiar flavor only a good vegetable soup can deliver. it is easy to prepare and soothingly delicious, with an ingredient list as fluid as the soup itself- you can use any and all vegetables you have available. i love to add a good sprinkle of parmesan cheese and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice to round out the flavors just before digging in. oh, joy!
1. in a heavy deep pot (or dutch oven) heat the olive oil and add the heartier vegetables (leeks or onions, celery, zucchini, carrots, mushrooms, cauliflower) with salt & pepper (and red pepper flakes if adding) and sautee on high while stirring for 3-4 minutes.
2. add other vegetables (like cabbage and asparagus) and sautee for another 3-5 minutes before adding the broth, tomatoes, and most of the (roughly chopped) herbs (save some for the end). bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer mostly covered (allow steam to get out) on low for about 30-40 minutes.
3. keep an eye on the soup and add broth if necessary. taste and adjust salt & pepper. add remaining fresh herbs (parsley &/or thyme-not rosemary), a sprinkle of parmesan (or gruyere) cheese, and serve piping HOT with a lemon wedge.
Posted in garden vegetable soup, good vegetable soup recipe, organic vegetable soup recipe, soothing soup, vegetarian soup recipe by cooking minette.


Because of their versatility, mini-split systems are ideal for a wide range of applications. They've been used to deliver supplemental heating and cooling to computer server rooms, electrical control rooms, detached offices, garages, sunrooms, and building/home add-ons. If a building has no attic or a low pitched attic so ductwork can't be installed, a ductless mini-split system makes it possible for the property owner to still get indoor heating and air conditioning. In some cases, a ducted mini-split system can be installed, usually across a drop ceiling, so that the unit can heat or cool a few connected rooms or used to create one or more smaller heating and air conditioning zones within large homes.
At Long Beach Heating and Air Conditioning, we proudly sell and install Bryant® mini-split systems. These high-performance systems deliver reliable heating and air conditioning and are all quiet, programmable, backed by excellent manufacturer warranties, and energy efficient (with SEER ratings ranging of up to 30.5). With such a diverse range of single-zone and multi-zone ductless systems, we have mini-splits to fit the needs and budgets of homes and businesses anywhere in Long Beach, Torrance, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Paramount, Downey, Huntington Beach, and beyond. Differences in pricing for most models depends on how much you want to save on your energy bills each month and whether or not you want the latest technological advancements and features, such as wireless remote control, programmability, and advanced system diagnostics. Call us today to speak with one of our mini-split experts and schedule a free in-home consultation.
The NATE-certified HVAC technicians at Long Beach Heating and Air Conditioning are exceptionally qualified to repair all major brands of mini-split ductless systems. We've been working on mini-split systems for over 20 years and are familiar with the best practices for servicing and repairing these systems for the best results. We can use universal or OEM parts for repairs and perform repairs under warranty. We can also provide one-time tune-ups and schedule maintenance visits under a Commercial or Residential Service Agreement.
Whether you need mini-split sales, installation, service, or repair in Long Beach, Signal Hill, Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Palos Verdes, Downey, Paramount, or the South Bay, give licensed and insured Long Beach Heating & Air Conditioning a call today. We've served over 90,000 residential and commercial clients since 1957 and have been a Bryant Factory Authorized Dealer since 1988. We have an excellent reputation for delivering high-quality, reliable work, exceptional customer service, and fair rates. We're available Monday through Friday, from 8am to 5pm, and accept cash, check, and all major credit cards. For new installations, we offer 100% financing and a "rent to own" option. We're an approved HERO Contractor, and we stay up to date on local utility and federal rebates that you might quality for.
Long Beach Heating & Air Conditioning does a lot of work for our construction company. They install HVAC units into the homes we build and other odd jobs involving AC units. They're the only heating and air conditioning company that we work with and we've been doing business with them for over ten years. Everyone at Long Beach Heating & Air Conditioning is easy to work with and very professional. I'd also like to mention Connie who always gives us wonderful customer service!


Moringa Oleifera leaf extract increases plasma antioxidant status associated with reduced plasma malondialdehyde concentration without hypoglycemia in fasting healthy volunteers.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of Moringa Oleifera leaf extract (MOLE) on plasma glucose concentration and antioxidant status in healthy volunteers.
METHODS: A randomized crossover design was used in this study. Healthy volunteers were randomly assigned to receive either 200 mL of warm water (10 cases) or 200 mL of MOLE (500 mg dried extract, 10 cases). Blood samples were drawn at 0, 30, 60, 90, and 120 min for measuring fasting plasma glucose (FPG), ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP), Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) and malondialdehyde (MDA).
RESULTS: FPG concentration was not signifificantly different between warm water and MOLE. The consumption of MOLE acutely improved both FRAP and TEAC, with increases after 30 min of 30μmol/L FeSO4 equivalents and 0.18 μmol/L Trolox equivalents, respectively. The change in MDA level from baseline was signifificantly lowered after the ingestion of MOLE at 30, 60, and 90 min. In addition, FRAP level was negatively correlated with plasma MDA level after an intake of MOLE.
CONCLUSION: MOLE increased plasma antioxidant capacity without hypoglycemia in human. The consumption of MOLE may reduce the risk factors associated with chronic degenerative diseases.


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package net.ontrack.backend;

import net.ontrack.core.support.InputException;

public class ImportVersionException extends InputException {
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Xiangqi (Chinese: pinyin: xiangqi; Wade-Giles: hsiang-ch'i; is a two-player Chinese board game in the same family as Western chess, chaturanga, shogi and janggi. The present-day form of Xiangqi originated in China and is therefore commonly called Chinese chess in English. The first character Xiang here has the meaning "image" or "representational", hence Xiangqi can be literally translated as "representational chess". The game is sometimes called "elephant chess" after an alternative meaning of Xiang as "elephant".
Xiangqi has a long history. Though its precise origins have not yet been confirmed, the earliest indications reveal that the game was played as early as the 4th century BC in China. Some sources state that the creator of Xiangqi is Han Xin. It is said that Xiangqi was created by Han Xin to prepare him for the battle against Xiang Yu.
Xiangqi is played on a board that is 9 lines wide by 10 lines long. In a manner similar to the game Go (Weiqi), the pieces are played on the intersections, which are known as points. The vertical lines are known as files, while the horizontal lines are known as ranks. With a few awkward substitutions, it is possible to play this game using a standard chess set.
Centered at the first through third ranks of the board is a square zone also mirrored in the opponent's territory. The three point by three point zone is demarcated by two diagonal lines connecting opposite corners and intersecting at the center point. This area is known as gong, the palace or fortress.
Dividing the two opposing sides (between the fifth and sixth ranks) is he, the river. The river is often marked with the phrases chu he, meaning "Chu River", and han jie, meaning "Han border", a reference to the Chu-Han War. Although the river provides a visual division between the two sides, only a few pieces are affected by its presence: soldiers are promoted after crossing, and elephants cannot cross the river.
The starting points of the soldiers and cannons are typically marked with small crosses, but not all boards have these marks.
The generals are labelled with the Chinese character, jiang (general) on the black side and shuai (marshal) on the red side. These pieces are equivalent to the kings of Western chess. Legend has it that originally the pieces were known as emperors, but when an emperor of China heard about the game, he executed two players for "killing" or "capturing" the emperor piece. Future players called them generals instead.
The general starts the game at the midpoint of the back edge (within the palace). The general may move one point either vertically or horizontally, but not diagonally. The general cannot leave the palace under any circumstances (except under the flying general rule mentioned below); thus, the general can only move to and stay on the 9 points within the palace.
When a general is threatened by an enemy piece, the general is said to be "in check." When the general is in check and unable to escape check on the player's move, it is said to be checkmated, and the player loses the game. A player also loses when his or her general is not threatened, but he or she can make no legal move that doesn't put the general in check; a stalemate rule does not exist.
If a player makes a move that leaves the two generals facing one another on the same file with no other pieces placed in between, then the general is in check. This rule is known as the flying general (??f?iji?ng in Chinese), and states that one general may "fly" across the board and capture the other if they are in the same file with no pieces in between. This is a very important feature of the Xiangqi game and is often forgotten by new players of the game. It is important because the general often plays a role in enforcing checkmate, especially when many of the other pieces have been taken and the board is wide open. Indeed, a win remains possible as long as a player has at least a single horse, chariot, or soldier not on the last rank. If a player forgets this rule and moves a piece that exposes a clear line between his or her general and his opponent's, he or she loses the game if his or her opponent notices what has happened.
The advisors (also known as guards or ministers, and less commonly as assistants, mandarins, or warriors) are labelled shi ("scholar", "gentleman", "officer") for black and shi("scholar", "official") for red. Rarely, sets use the character for both colours.
While their origin is probably not the same as that of the queen in Western chess (from the mantri in Chaturanga), their powers are distinct from those of the queen (but similar to that of the mantri).
The advisors start to the sides of the general. They move one point diagonally and may not leave the palace. This effectively means they can only move to five of the points within the palace. They serve to protect the general/marshal.
The elephants are labelled xiang (elephant) for black and xiang (minister) for red. They are located next to the advisors. These pieces move exactly two points diagonally and may not jump over intervening pieces. They may not cross the river; thus, they serve as defensive pieces. There are only seven possible points on the board to which they can move.
Because of an elephant's limited movement, it can be easily trapped or threatened. A chariot can threaten one just by moving to a space where all brown spaces available to the elephant are threatened. Since one elephant could be easily captured, it depends on the other for protection.
The Chinese characters for "minister" and "elephant" are homophones (listen) and both have alternative meanings as "appearance" or "image". However, both are referred to as elephants in the game.
The horses are labelled ma for black and ma for red in sets marked with Traditional Chinese characters and ma for both black and red in sets marked with Simplified Chinese characters. Some traditional sets use this for both colours. They begin the game next to the elephants. It moves one point vertically or horizontally and then one point diagonally away from its former position. It is important to note that the horse does not jump. Thus, if there were a piece lying on a point one point away horizontally or vertically from the horse, then the horse's path of movement is blocked and it is unable to move in that direction. Note, however, that a piece two points away horizontally or vertically or a piece a single point away diagonally would not impede the movement of the horse. The diagram on the left illustrates the horse's movement.
Since horses can be blocked, it is sometimes possible to trap the opponent's horse. A horse if blocked when there is a piece in front of it on the line that it [will] move 2 points. It is possible for one player's horse to attack the opponent's horse while the opponent's horse is blocked from attacking, as seen in the diagram on the right.
The chariot moves and captures vertically and horizontally any distance. The chariots begin the game on the points at the corners of the board. Their placement and movement is similar to that of a rook in western chess.
The chariot/rook piece is considered to be the strongest piece in the game.
In Xiangqi, each player has two cannons. The cannons start on the row behind the soldiers, two points in front of the horses. Cannons move like the chariots, horizontally and vertically, but capture by jumping exactly one piece (whether it is friendly or enemy) over to its target. When capturing, the cannon is moved to the point of the captured piece. Any number of unoccupied spaces may exist between the cannon and the cannon platform, or between the cannon platform and the piece to be captured, including no spaces (the pieces being adjacent) in both cases. Cannons are powerful at the beginning of the game when platforms are plentiful, and are typically used in combination with chariots to effect mate.
Each side has five soldiers. Soldiers are placed on alternating points, one row back from the edge of the river. They move and capture by advancing one point. Once they have crossed the river, they may also move (and capture) one point horizontally. Soldiers cannot move backward, and therefore cannot retreat; however, they may still move sideways at the enemy's edge.


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Орден Бернардо О'Хіггінса (Чилі)

Відзнака на честь одного із засновників чилійської держави генерала
Б. О'Хіггінса (1776—1842), якого називають «батьком» Незалежності Чилі.
Заснована нагорода 1956 р. і має 5 ступенів. Вручають її чилійцям, які
мають особливі заслуги перед батьківщиною та іноземцям, що сприяють
зміцненню міжнародного авторитету Чилі.

Класи
 Кавалер Великого хреста — знак на плечовій стрічці і зірка на грудях
 Великий офіцер — знак на шийній стрічці і зірка на грудях
 Командор — знак на шийній стрічці
 Офіцер — знак на стрічці з розеткою для носіння на грудях
 Кавалер — знак на стрічці для носіння на грудях

Джерела
 «O'Higgins, Bernardo», Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online; accessed 13 October 2008.
 Chile: Order of Bernardo O'Higgins

Нагороди Чилі
Нагороди, засновані 1956
Засновані в Південній Америці 1956

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Submission in response to Australian Human Rights Commission Discussion Paper, 'Human Rights and Technology', April 2020
Sydney Law School Research Paper No. 20/27
See all articles by Kimberlee G. Weatherall
Kimberlee G. Weatherall
The University of Sydney Law School
Tiberio Caetano
Gradient Institute; The University of Sydney
Date Written: May 25, 2020
This submission addresses the relationship between human rights law, ethics, and artificial intelligence. It is a submission in response to the Discussion Paper on Human Rights and Technology published by the Australian Human Rights Commission in 2019. It includes an extended discussion of the AHRC's proposal for legislation regarding the explainability of AI-informed decision making, which would make clear that, if an individual would have been entitled to an explanation of the decision were it not made using AI, the individual should be able to demand both a non-technical and a technical explanation of the AI-informed decision. The submission engages with research in both law and machine learning, arguing that the proposal raises as many questions as it answers, and raises a large number of questions of detail that will need to be addressed in operationalising any such requirement. The submission also addresses the AHRC's proposals around (1) the relationship between human rights law and ethics in the regulation of artificial intelligence, (2) 'AI-driven decision-making' as an object of regulation; (3) accountability, (4) transparency and (5) government use of AI.
Keywords: artificial intelligence and law, explainability, transparency, automated decision-making, human rights
JEL Classification: K10, K30
Weatherall, Kimberlee Gai and Caetano, Tiberio, Submission in response to Australian Human Rights Commission Discussion Paper, 'Human Rights and Technology', April 2020 (May 25, 2020). Sydney Law School Research Paper No. 20/27, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3609578
Kimberlee Gai Weatherall (Contact Author)
The University of Sydney Law School ( email )
New Law Building, F10
Gradient Institute ( email )
The University of Sydney ( email )


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Doctor Who: Ascension of the Cybermen (Review)
Posted on February 23, 2020 by Darren
The cynical observation about Ascension of the Cybermen would be that Chris Chibnall has spent the previous season building to an excuse to do Earthshock on a modern television budget.
After all, for all that Ascension of the Cybermen seems to tease mythos-shattering revelations, there is very little in the episode that hasn't been seen before. The episode builds towards two concurrent cliffhangers. The first is a standard "unexpected Master reveal", a cliffhanger that Chibnall employed earlier in the season with Spyfall, Part I. More than that, it's pretty much one of the most archetypal Doctor Who cliffhangers. (There is something be said for symmetry, but recycling the same cliffhanger beat from the season premiere is decidedly unambitious.)
"Okay, it's season finale time. So generic grey battlefield."
Similarly, a large part of the power of the climax of Ascension of the Cybermen comes from the revelation that Doctor Who now has the budget to offer a particularly impressive riff on the classic "army of monsters" cliffhanger of the kind employed in beloved stories like Tomb of the Cybermen and less beloved stories like The Leisure Hive. There's a real sense at the end of Ascension of the Cybermen that the audience is meant to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of Cybermen on screen.
There are other smaller familiar cues tucked away within Ascension of the Cybermen. Chibnall also borrows a few smaller touches from his direct predecessor. The seemingly disconnected snapshots of mundane life juxtaposed with science-fiction spectacle is a familiar narrative trick within Steven Moffat's two-parters for the show, notably the thread focusing on CAL and Doctor Moon in Silence in the Library and Danny Pink's bureaucratic induction into the afterlife in Dark Water. Brendan's plot offers a broader sort of conceptual mystery, a plot waiting to tie in.
Lone ranger.
However, amid all of this cacophony, there's a strange modesty to this season finale. Ascension of the Cybermen is very much a triumph of production; it features a big introductory battle sequence, a host expensive-looking sets, galactic stakes and a sense of escalating danger. It takes its cues from a variety of familiar and populist sources, from Russell T. Davies' work with the Daleks in Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways through to the set-up of Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens. The special effects are impressive. The production design is remarkable.
Despite all of this, even as it gestures at grand twists and turns, Ascension of the Cybermen seems to suggest that "Earthshock on a bigger budget" is the platonic ideal of Doctor Who in the twenty-first century. Like The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos, there's a sense in which Ascension of the Cybermen believes that a large part of any Doctor Who season finale should be spent running up and down large and atmospheric industrial corridors. It's impressive, but it's all rather hollow.
From the Ash(ad)s…
Filed under: Television | Tagged: ashad, chibnall, cybermen, doctor who, Earthshock, Gallifrey, Ireland, the force awakens |	9 Comments »
Non-Review Review: Extra Ordinary
Extra Ordinary is very Irish ghost story.
"Irishness" is a very nebulous quantity. It can be very hard to precisely quantify. In humour, it tends towards a blend of irony and irreverence, often a surreal juxtaposition of the mundane with the surreal. As such, Extra Ordinary feels like a very Irish ghost story. It is a film anchored in the tropes and conventions of ghost stories – possessions, exorcisms, hauntings, satanic pacts – but which contextualises these things as just another minor frustration of country living. As the title implies, Extra Ordinary exists at the junction of the familiar and the uncanny. If the team produce a sequel, they should call it "Super Natural."
Driving curiosity.
Extra Ordinary adopts a uniquely Irish approach to its premise, wondering what happens to those ghosts that are a bit less dramatic and lot more mundane than the usual spirits. There's something engagingly quirky in Extra Ordinary's depiction of the eccentricity of country living, and how so much of that eccentricity just goes on as a fact of life; the dancing lead attached to a discarded toaster, the tree branch that sways without even a breeze, the wheelie bin that just keeps flapping through the night. This is just the way that things are in this part of the world, and the locals have (mostly) made their peace with it.
Despite its supernatural premise, the most endearing aspect of Extra Ordinary is how perfectly it captures the smaller and more intimate eccentricities of the Irish countryside.
Now I seance you…
Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: comedy, extra ordinary, film, Ireland, maeve higgins, Movie, non-review review, review, Will Forte |	Leave a comment »
Non-Review Review: Rosie
Rosie is a a very timely piece of Irish cinema, but one that never loses sight of the humanity of this national crisis.
From beginning to end, Rosie is infused with an endearing humanity. Writer Roddy Doyle and director Paddy Breathnach keep the story tightly focused on one particular family caught in the midst of the homeless crisis. Breathnach often literalises this, with a handheld camera that keeps the film literally centred on the face of the eponymous protagonist. Even in wide open spaces, even in public, even when she's the only adult crossing a green or a schoolyard, Rosie is so tightly focused that it feels claustrophic and almost suffocating.
This is the point, of course. Rosie is a very visceral film, and with good reason. Doyle and Breathnach work hard to ensure that the audience feels ever minor crisis, and that it understands precisely how precarious the situation facing this family happens to be. A delayed lunch break seems catastrophic, a child spending time with a friend seems like a disaster. Time is fleeting, and always slipping through the fingers of its protagonist. When life seems to unfold moment to moment, there is no opportunity to catch her breath or to worry about the bigger picture.
Rosie is a fascinating piece of Irish cinema, both timely and intimate, both reflecting contemporary culture and telling its own story within that framework. It's an impressive piece of work.
Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: crisis, Homeless, homeless crisis, housing, housing crisis, Ireland, Lady Gaga, moe dunford, non-review review, paddy breathnach, review, Roddy Doyle, rosie, Sarah Greene |	Leave a comment »
Non-Review Review: Without Name
This film was seen as part of the Audi Dublin International Film Festival 2017.
Without Name is a stunningly confident theatrical debut from director Lorcan Finnegan.
In theory, Without Name belongs that long-standing environmental horror genre, the fear that nature exists in opposition to mankind and that human beings are ultimately a hostile species not welcome in their surroundings. There are all manner of variations in that classic horror set-up, but it bubbles through any number of classic horror films, from The Shining to Jaws to The Birds. There is a recurring fear that the world is not a welcoming place for mankind, and that the wilderness might one day rebel against mankind's desire to tame it.
If you go down to the woods today…
Without Name takes that familiar premise and puts a uniquely Irish spin on it, distinguishing its own set of anxieties from those felt by the European Settlers in the United States or even those disconnected from their pagan roots in the United Kingdom. Without Name draws heavily upon the Western European pagan spirituality that informs films like The Wicker Man or A Field in England, but weds it to unique Irish anxieties about property and ownership that reflect both long-standing uncertainties and modern fears.
The result is a delightfully weird little environmental horror that feels very much of its time and place, a credit to its first-time director.
Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: film, Folklore, horror, Ireland, lorcan finnegan, Movie, non-review review, pagan, review, without name |	Leave a comment »
Non-Review Review: All About Eva
Posted on March 26, 2015 by Darren
This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2015.
All About Eva has ambition to burn.
It is a modern film noir set against the backdrop of the Irish racing scene, filmed mostly on a single stately country home and with a functional budget that seems minuscule even by the standards of independent Irish film. The fact that it exists is a testament to everybody involved. The fact that it comes very close to working is icing on the cake. All About Eva is a very stylish piece of work that very clearly has a lot of ambition behind it. It is a trashy revenge saga that is produced with a very high level of competence. In particular, director Ferdia MacAnna does great work.
However, ambition is only so much. As good as the film looks relative to its budget, there are a number of key structural flaws that cannot support the weight heaped upon them. Most obviously, All About Eva is an attempt to hark back to the classic femme fatale movies, with a seductive and manipulative young woman infiltrating a racing dynasty so as to dismantle it from the inside. All About Eva lives or dies based on that central performance. Newcomer Susan Walsh simply does not have the ability to carry the movie around her.
To be fair, Walsh is let down by an uneven and scattered script, which revels in cliché. All About Eva is a film that seems wryly aware of its own trite plot beats and dialogue, but that self-awareness can only carry a film so far. There is a point where homage is not enough to sustain a genre pastiche. All About Eva comes surprising close to working, and has an energy that is almost infectious. Unfortunately, it cannot make it over the line.
Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: all about eva, femme fatale, film, Film noir, horse racing, Ireland, irish film, kildare, Movie, non-review review, review, web series |	Leave a comment »
My 12 for '14: '71 and Claustrophobic Thrills…
Posted on December 22, 2014 by Darren
With 2014 coming to a close, we're counting down our top twelve films of the year. Check back daily for the latest featured film.
A large part of what makes '71 so effective is the fact that is as interested in constructing a claustrophobic thriller as it is in making a clear political statement. Although it is set in Belfast in 1971, the movie has more in common with The Raid or Dredd than it does to Shadow Dancer. The movie is essentially a survival horror about a British soldier separated from his regiment, struggling to survive in hostile territory. There is a universality to the story, creating a sense that it could just as easily have been set in Basra a couple of years ago as Belfast several decades back.
'71 moves with an incredible and visceral energy, building up momentum across its relatively lean hundred-minute runtime as it presents a fugitive being chased through hostile territory by both sides locked in a bloody and bitter generational feud. Of course, '71 is inherently political – as any movie set in any equivalent environment must be. '71 eschews divisions between Republicans and Loyalists – between members of the Irish Republican Army and the various arms of British authority operating in the city.
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 71, Belfast, best of 2014, claustrophobia, Ireland, loyalist, movie film, Northern Ireland, Republican, seventies, violence, yann demange |	Leave a comment »
Star Trek – Spock's World by Diane Duane (Review)
Posted on December 5, 2014 by Darren
The first Star Trek pilot, The Cage, was produced in 1964. To celebrate its fiftieth anniversary, this December we are reviewing the second season of the original Star Trek show. You can check out our first season reviews here. Check back daily for the latest review.
One of the more interesting aspect of Star Trek tie-in media during the eighties was the sense of freedom enjoyed by those working on the line.
One of the more infamous examples concerned DC's attempts to publish a monthly comic during the release cycle of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. The three films tended to build off one another, forming a tight continuity, but that did not stop the comic book company from trying to build off the ending of each of the films, leading to a variety of weird continuity hijinks. Spock left to work on a Vulcan ship; Kirk took command of the Excelsior; a Klingon joined the crew.
Writers working on the tie-in novels enjoyed a similar amount of freedom. By the time that Spock's World was published in 1989, Diane Duane had been able to firmly establish her own supporting cast of characters in her various tie-in novels. Spock's World includes appearances from Duane regulars like K's't'lk and Harb Tanzer, introduced in The Wounded Sky; even Lia Burke from My Enemy, My Ally puts in an appearance. It really feels like Duane has carved out her own space within the larger Star Trek universe.
However, perhaps that freedom finds its strongest expression in the fact that Duane was able to map an entire cultural and social history unto the planet Vulcan. Spock's World reads almost like a biography of a fictional planet – charting the history of Vulcan from the planet's earliest days through to the twenty-third century. It is a delightfully bold and intriguing Star Trek book, one utterly unlike any other tie-in ever published.
Filed under: The Original Series | Tagged: Amok Time, bbs, continuity, Diane Duane, Federation, history, Ireland, novels, spock, spock's world, star trek, the political is personal, tos, vulcan |	2 Comments »
The Guarantee to hit Irish cinemas 30th October with a Special Live Event Screening hosted by Matt Cooper!
We're big fans of Irish cinema here at the m0vie blog, so we are quite excited about The Guarantee, the new film written by Colin Murphy and directed by Ian Power, covering a crucial moment in modern Irish history. With the talent involved, it could easily develop into something like Peter Morgan's "Blair trilogy", a fascinating look at contemporary politics through the lens of key and defining events.
There is a special screening taking place at the end of October. I've included the press release below.
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 2014, film, Ireland, irish film, the guarantee |	Leave a comment »
Non-Review Review: Spider's Trap
Posted on August 9, 2014 by Darren
Spider's Trap is a rather heavy-handed film. There are points where this works to the movie's advantage – the stark black-and-white cinematography lends itself to exaggeration and effect. There are also points where the movie feels a little overly-earnest and awkward as it fashions its own noir tale about second chances and long-planned revenge. Beautifully shot by director Alan Walsh, Spider's Trap is often endearing and charming, if not quite consistently brilliant. There are a few notable missteps, but there is also a lot to like.
Things aren't so black-and-white…
Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: alan walsh, black and white, film, Film noir, Ireland, irish film, Movie, noir, non-review review, review, simon delaney, Spider, spider's trap |	Leave a comment »
Hill Street at Irish Cinemas on 23rd May!
The Irish skateboarding documentary Hill Street is opening next week in Irish cinemas. The documentary has had a long road to distribution, premiering at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival in 2012 to great word of mouth. Looking at the history skating scene, focusing on the eponymous street, it promises a fascinating glimpse at a piece of Irish pop culture that is often overlooked or forgotten.
Check some footage from the documentary below, and catch it in cinemas from next week.
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: dublin, hill street, Ireland, Movies, skating, wildcard distribution |	Leave a comment »


Should you buy an old house or a new-build? It's a question that you'll inevitably end up asking yourself if you're buying a new home or a buy-to-let property, and it's also one that we've looked at a bit before on the blog.
In this post, I thought I'd set out to examine 5 prevalent myths about new-build properties and see just how much truth there is to each of them.
You've probably read about the naughty tricks builders use to make new-builds look bigger – show homes with 3/4 size furniture, no internal doors and mirrors everywhere – and they're all true. Plus, you'll more likely than not be less than a couple of metres away from your nearest neighbour.
Unless you're paying a premium you won't get much of a hallway, one of your bedrooms will probably be pretty small and you might not even get a garage. But, if you're looking to downsize, then less storage space might actually be just the nudge you need to get rid of some clutter.
Not true. Someone in a new-build estate round the corner from me is moving out after being in the property for about 8 months. They listed the asking price £20,000 higher than what they paid for, and it sold. In just three days!
There are so many factors in play – desirability of area, number of houses on the market, how nice the house itself is – that it's impossible to say whether you can or can't sell a new(ish)-build for profit without taking them into account.
As someone who has lived in a new-build property, I can tell you that this isn't completely true. The good news is that you won't need to replace the boiler, fixtures or anything like that for a few years unless they've been installed incorrectly.
You can, however, expect to see minor cracks around windowsills, skirting boards and ceilings start to appear within a matter of months. Overall though, new-builds are still much lower maintenance than creaky older houses.
New estates have a certain quota of affordable housing that they have to meet, but affordable housing isn't the same as social housing. Some people worry about their neighbours being "benefit scroungers" who'll make noise all hours of the night.
This is actually fairly unlikely – if the property is part of a shared ownership scheme, the new owners will still need a reasonable deposit and may well be paying a monthly figure that's not that much lower than your mortgage. Either way, they'll also be subject to scrutiny from the housing association if there are any complaints.
This really depends on what phase of the development the builders have reached when you move in. But, even if there are only a few houses left to go up, don't underestimate how disruptive it can be.
Prepare for dust EVERYWHERE (not the first time I've ranted about this…), to be woken up by assorted beeps and squawks of "stand well clear, vehicle reversing" and for lorries to block off your drive at any moment.


Monitoring and Alarm - The ROCKY-3702EV includes a multitude of monitoring and alarm functions to protect your board from high temperatures or over voltage exposure.
Watchdog Timer - A 6-level Watchdog Timer can invoke an NMI or RESET the CPU when your application loses control over the system.
The ROCKY-3702EV is a Socket 370 single board computer based on Intel's BX chipset. This card accommodates Celeron & Pentium III (Copper Mine) CPU and allows processor speed of up to 800 MHz or more. Together with a high speed Ethernet interface and the AGP/PCI 3D Accelerator this board is very well suited for cost effective high end workstations for application such as CAD/CAM, Image processing etc.
AGP/PCI 3D accelerator - S3 Trio 3D display chipset consists of high integration, super performance, and feature-rich 3D/2D graphics & video accelerators, it has standard 4 MB SDRAM vido memory onboard.
10/100 Mbps Networking - A Realtek 8138 PCI 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX Ethernet interface is included for high speed networking.
Ultra DMA HDD support - Ultra DMA doubles the current burst data transfer rate to 33 megabytes (MB) per second. Ultra DMA "widens" the path to the hard drive by transferring twice as much data per clock cycle.
DiskOnChip - The ROCKY-3702EV SSD socket accommodates a DiskOnChip, a new generation of high performance single-chip Flash Disks up to 144 MB.
Copyright © 1996 - 2002 by Acqutek Corporation, Inc.


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Zaboxa is in the .com extension. TLDs may be used for diffrent purpose. Example: .com extension inherited from "commercial" and used for generally commercial activities, .net extension inherited from "network" and used for generally internet activites etc.
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Could the *March glossybox be the best one yet? I like everything in this box, so it gets full marks from me. I'll even forgive that it contains a perfume sample, because it's a really nice perfume!
In this month's box I was delighted to find Juicy Couture couture la la perfume, Elizabeth Arden eight hour cream, Nails Inc Bruton street nail polish, Tresemme salon finish extra hold hairspray, and a Jelly pong pong lip blush.
This box could have been tailored just for me as it's the perfect mix of what I want to see in a monthly beauty box. There are no duff products here at all and the box covers skincare, hair, nails, fragrance and cosmetics. I'm really impressed.
I'm excited to try all of these products. I've never gotten around to picking up the infamous Eizabeth Arden 8 hour cream, so now I can give it a go, and I really like the Nails Inc shade I got - it's a lovely dusky pink. I'm very much into red lips so the Jelly pong pong lip product looks exciting to try. The mini perfume and hairspray will be making it straight into my handbag makeup bag too.
I'm not entirely sold on how these products fit the 'city chic' theme of this month's box - quite a difficult theme to choose products for I think - but I love the contents all the same.
You can subscribe to glossybox here.
Such a great box, I'd love to try the 8 hour cream I've never got around to purchasing it and feel like I should as it's such a cult product.
I've received this box too! I don't like the 8 hour cream, have heard so many great things about it and this sample was the first time I tried it. I don't like the smell or the consistency and had to wipe it off my skin after half-applying so I'm yet to see the effects everyone raves on about!
This is such a lovely box! Everything looks great!


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HomeNewsSnowpocalypse hits an unprepared Tacoma
Snowpocalypse hits an unprepared Tacoma
Christina Conry February 21, 2019 no commentcoldsnowSnowpocalypseweather
The Puget Sound campus was blanketed with snow during the storm — Photo credit to Alec J Dionne
This past week brought historical amounts of snow to the Seattle/Tacoma area. Dubbed the "Snowpocalypse" by locals, the snowstorm hit thousands of unprepared residents.
The Snowpocalypse brought almost two feet of snow, blizzard conditions and power outages to residents. Many acted like it WAS the apocalypse, emptying grocery store shelves and joining the growing line of cars waiting for gas.
Faced with a snowstorm both historic and worrisome, Washington Governor Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency on Feb. 10.
In the press release, Inslee urged residents to prepare for the storm and use common sense. "Everyone in our state needs to focus on preparing for the snow and staying safe. Weather forecasters predict this may be a storm unlike one we've seen in many years," Inslee said.
By declaring a state of emergency, Inslee enabled state agencies to use resources and assist political subdivisions in efforts to respond and recover from the storm.
Under said state, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has the authority to limit the amount of hours a commercial vehicle driver can be on the road. Drivers collecting and delivering dairy products and de-icing road salt were exempt from the restraint.
Inslee updated the declaration twice, expanding the state of emergency to support delivery of groceries, propane and de-icer for runways and airplanes.
While the storm this area experienced was nothing in comparison to the Midwest Polar Vortex, a state of emergency was necessary because counties affected by the storm were inadequately prepared for such conditions.
Most side streets in Tacoma remained unplowed, with limited snow plows maintaining main streets such as Union and Proctor.
The SeaTac area hasn't seen this much snow in one month in 50 years, according to the National Weather Service.
As of Feb. 11, 20.2 inches of snowfall had been recorded. For reference, a "normal" February in Seattle receives 0.7 inches, according to AccuWeather.
Schools and businesses reacted accordingly, closing for multiple days in response to severe snow and ice conditions.
Students and surrounding Tacoma community members spent their snow days on Todd Field building snowpeople and igloos. Many joined in the giant snowball fight at Wright Park and turned unplowed streets into sledding courses.
The University of Puget Sound, in anticipation of weather conditions and the effect on faculty and staff commutes, responded to the snowstorm with delayed starts and early dismissals. Students also received two full snow days.
With a closed campus, classes and events were cancelled and only "essential" services remained open.
Students grew accustomed to email updates from Executive Director of Community Engagement John Hickey. Cheers broke out in The Cellar and the S.U.B. on Monday night when an email announcing continued suspended operations was sent out.
Each update from Hickey urged recipients to, at all times, "use sound personal judgment in deciding whether to come to campus based on your local weather, road conditions and personal circumstances."
"Security Services will operate 24 hours as always and athletic facilities, dining services and the library will operate on regular or modified schedules as published," Hickey said.
Hickey included additional weather safety tips and encouraged the campus community to stay up to date on security alerts.
While the snowstorm lasted only a few days, it had lasting effects. Slightly warmer temperatures turned the snow to ice, and the rain brought about our campus' current state of Slushmaggedon.
Campus operations completely resumed on Wednesday, Feb. 13, and facilities staff continue to work to clear pathways and restore campus despite the lingering slushy conditions.
Tags :coldsnowSnowpocalypseweather
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About WLS
Welcome to WLS
Rehan Allahwala
Founder - Institute Of Peace
Rehan Allahwala, an entrepreneur, the founder of Super Technologies Inc., a US company, providing solutions for telecom industry. At the age of thirteen, he founded his first company "Pakistan Computers", while on high school, he created commodore computer accessories including Voice Digitizers, modems and Speed Increasers. He is founder of Rehan School and Institute of Peace.
Growing minds using the last thing on earth you would think will do that!
Technology and tools have advanced to a such a degree, that the whole paradigm of communication and education is forever altered. We can now immediately connect to people, reach educational content from all over the world and become mentors.
Technology and tools have advanced to a such a degree, that the whole paradigm of communication and education is forever altered. We can now immediately connect to people, reach educational content and mentors from all over the world.
Meeting new people can be a very rewarding experience. In past, we had limited tools with which to do so, and on occasion, were taught that we should not talk to strangers.
500 mutual friend experiment using technology and social media shows improvement in many aspects of human life. The mindset of people changed, became from a local based person to a more national and international mindset human being. The English language skills improved as a result of global news feed and global friends. Social skills improved, leading to better collaboration and life quality.
Rehan School project is a free of charge mobile based education system targeted the number of almost 800 million illiterate people of the world.
We are creating basic school literacy educational content in a funny way, involving the celebrities of the world in a process. Education comes as bi product without people even noticing they are learning.
This school comes from Pakistan where 80 million people cannot read and write in any language. Rehan school teach them how to read using the existing commonly used devices, 12$ mobile phone, without internet. This initiative brings not only a great joy but contributes to abundance and peace.
The World Literacy Summit is an Initiative of the World Literacy Foundation, a global non-profit organisation that works to ensure every young individual regardless of geographic location has the opportunity to acquire literacy and reading skills to reach their full potential, succeed at school and beyond. Read more.
Gallery From WLS 2018
© Copyright World Literacy Foundation, All Rights Reserved
About Us | Coronavirus | Contact Us


A light aircraft has crashed at the Himeji Aioi Country Club in south-west Japan.
It had one man on board who has survived without life-threatening injuries.
The plane made an emergency landing at the golf course in the Kansai region, according to local police and Japanese news outlet xinhuanet.com.
The local fire department said the aircraft had just the pilot onboard, a male, who somehow escaped without life-threatening injuries.
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They said the pilot managed to walk away, and asked for help from a guesthouse at the golf course.
The local police and fire departments are investigating the accident.


Huey is an 82 ft steel hulled, ex-Japanese Patrol boat and has been operating in Sumatra for 19 seasons. Her cutter design makes her an all weather vessel and a low centre of gravity ensures a smooth and comfortable ride. A cruise speed of 9 - 10 knots ensures minimum travel time.
With a 7.2 metre aluminium tender, fishing, spearfishing, snorkelling or wave chasing has never been easier. Huey's large front deck and al-fresco dining area is second to none.
Huey operates from Panaitan in the south to Aceh in the North. With the myriad of reefs and Islands in the Sumatran Island chain Huey's extensive knowledge and experience can get you to all the name breaks plus plenty of lesser known spots in between. Let us know how we can customise your surf trip.
Huey's flawless mechanical record, reliability, amazing food and service makes us stand out from the crowd. Our western surf guide/captain speaks English, Indonesian, Spanish and French.


In 1987, the Junior League of Greater Orlando's Sustaining members established the Sustainer endowment fund in honor of the League's 40th anniversary of service to the community. In recent years, the fund was turned over to the Community Foundation of Central Florida and the name was changed to the Junior League of Greater Orlando endowment fund.
The purpose of the endowment fund is to provide secure and permanent means of financial support consistent with the purposes of the League. The endowment fund will enable the JLGO to remain strong in times of financial uncertainty as well as expand and initiate exciting new opportunities in our community.
The League met its initial goal of a $500,000 endowment account balance in the summer of 2018. Each spring, the Board of Directors assesses the endowment account balance and determines whether an annual disbursement is to be taken or if the endowment's dividends and interest will be reinvested for continued growth. Annual disbursements are used for community programs, membership training or operational expenses to support our mission.
The endowment offers an opportunity to honor a birthday, holiday, anniversary, or accomplishment in a special way. All contributions to the endowment fund are tax deductible, as the law allows, for charitable donations.
To donate to the endowment fund online, please click here. Be sure to select the "Junior League of Greater Orlando Endowment" from the drop down box.
Donations may also be made in the form of appreciated securities, real estate, life insurance, IRAs and qualified retirement plans, partnership interests and bequests, trust and annuities.
The JLGO and the Community Foundation of Central Florida are available to assist with any questions regarding non-cash donations and planned giving.
For more information on the JLGO endowment fund, please contact League Headquarters at info@jlgo.org.


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How hard will Brexit be for you? What investment managers need to consider now
Jonathan Boyd
Theresa May has been re-elected but she has lost her parliamentary majority. Even with a 'confidence and supply' agreement with the pro-remain Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), political risk in UK is raised and it is unclear whether May, or the DUP agreement, will survive the Brexit process. It is a far cry from the strengthened negotiation position that May was seeking in the Brexit negotiations, which started on 19 June. There will be an estimated 100 days of face-to-face negotiation that will determine the terms of our Brexit.
Speculation continues as to whether the UK will be able to use the third country regime embodied in Mifid I and II (for professional clients and eligible counterparties) and AIFMD, but absent from Ucits. The other, hopeful, option is to gain acceptance that UK has regulatory equivalence. Of course, the challenge there is that equivalence is granted by the European Commission but can be revoked at any time. While these options would have a minimal cost impact on UK firms, delivery risk of both is high. A 'soft' Brexit is potentially now more likely, but it remains incredibly difficult to predict any outcomes with confidence. Prudent firms will continue to plan for a 'hard' Brexit, and pull back if the opportunity presents itself.
Esma Brexit Opinion: A warning short to all
Esma's 2020 focus identified by KPMG
Esma outlines rules for AMs to move from UK to EU post-Brexit
ESMA signs Brexit MoU with FCA as UK regulator outlines new powers
Brexit plan
As with all significant business and regulatory changes, the Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are taking a close interest in how firms are planning and responding to Brexit. The Bank of England wrote to banks and other large financial services firms in April 2017 giving them a deadline of 14 July 2017 to set out their plans. We understand that the FCA has followed up in a similar vein, writing to several of the largest asset management companies requesting detailed information about their contingency plans for a hard Brexit, including:
Plans to relocate UK roles or operations to another EU27 country;
Whether they have applied or will need to apply for new licences from EU27 regulators;
The impact on their regulatory capital base; and
The impact on IT systems and data.
We anticipate that the FCA will widen its information gathering to other firms, in order to manage the supervision risks. They will expect all firms to have a Brexit contingency plan.
On the face of it, UK firms have a gigantic task: the UK has 47,269 Mifid outward services passports to the EU27 countries, while the EU27 countries have 990 Mifid outward services passports[1] to the UK. Currently UK portfolio management firms have assets under management of about $8.9trn, of which approximately 17.5% comes from the EU27.[2]
A hard Brexit is likely to reduce cross border services, which will affect the level of choice for consumers and also price competition. There will be winners and losers, with the winners expected to be Frankfurt, Dublin, New York, Paris, Luxembourg and emerging territories like Malta all growing at London's expense[3].
Hard Brexit
In a poll of investment managers earlier this month, two-thirds said that their biggest concern was continued access to EU27 customers or investments[4]. On a 'hard' Brexit, the distribution choices seem to be:
Stay away from the EU27 countries;
Continue to engage with EU27 investors using third country exemptions (in a similar way businesses based in the USA do today); or
Establish or rent a presence in the EU27.
Many of the larger asset managers are working on establishing a subsidiary within one of the EU27 member states and restructuring their business appropriately (or bolstering the presence they already have) to carry out their own management company activities or to distribute funds and services from a EU27 location. Others are looking to hire an independent EU27 management company for their existing EU27 funds or are planning to raise EU27 domiciled funds for the first time. For distribution purposes, some firms are exploring hosting solution, becoming a tied agent of a EU27 Mifid firm. Others may choose to hire third party distributors and focus their internal resources in the UK or other accessible markets.
No Favours Here
The European Securities and Markets Authority (Esma) has published an opinion, setting out general principles on authorisation, supervision and enforcement related to the relocation of firms, activities and functions from the UK[5]. The principles set out how Esma wants regulators to behave and can be summarised as follows:
No automatic recognition of existing FCA authorisations
Authorisations granted by EU27 regulators should be rigorous and efficient
Regulators should be able to verify the objective reasons for relocation from UK
Regulators should pay special attention to avoid UK firms setting up letter-box entities in the EU27
Outsourcing and delegation to third party countries is only possible under strict conditions
Regulators should ensure that substance requirements are met
Regulators should ensure sound governance of EU entities
Regulators must be in a position to effectively supervise and enforce Union law
Coordination to ensure effective monitoring by Esma.
In short, Esma is very much alive to what it considers to be the risk of regulatory arbitrage and has put the industry on watch.
Luxembourg and Dublin are the two leading fund locations in Europe and many firms are exploring these as locations of fund distribution, investment mandate sales and client services. Historically, both centres have been focused on fund administration and on Ucits management company ("manco") activities, and now they are offering AIFMD services through so called "supermanco" solutions. Brexit seems likely to expand the burden on these centres. Firms need to assess carefully what and how they could operate from these locations. Regulators, lawyers and the local workforce may all need to evolve new skills so it seems inevitable that key staff will need to relocate to effectively establish a Luxembourg or Irish base. Regulators and lawyers may also need to hire from the established centres to support their own development.
A 'hard' Brexit may come with a cliff edge and so failure to be ready on time could have major implications for business continuity. There is question as to whether EU27 regulators and lawyers will have enough capacity to deal with the required activity, particularly for firms who need to set up a regulated subsidiary: a new Ucits/AIFM/Mifid regulatory licence typically takes 6 to 12 months to achieve. We have seen Esma seeking to rule out short cuts, suggesting that decisions need to be made no later than the end of this year to be ready, together with the substance to avoid being regarded as a letter box entity.
Use of third party manco or tied agent arrangements may allow the decision to be pushed out further and of course reduces the amount of substance needed, provided that the solution exists!
Brexit will now take shape rapidly. UK firms have a massive task collectively and it seems that there will be no short cuts. All firms need a hard Brexit contingency plan and the reality is that plans may need to be invoked before the outcome of Brexit is confirmed.
[1] FCA Freedom of Information response F014973 dated 17 March 2017
[2] Data published by FCA and the Investment Association. (2016) expressed in USD at 1.29 USD =1 GBP.
[3] Source; CFA Institute
[4] Source; Cordium UK annual conference audience poll June 2017
[5] Source: Principles on supervisory approach to relocations from the UK -31 May 2017
Stephen Burke is Group Corporate Development director at Cordium
Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD)
Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (Mifid II)
Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (Ucits)


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Michael-James Clifton: The UK's Creative Ambiguity towards the EEA: Immediate and Future Relationship Problems
The importance and role of the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement has often been overlooked. Yet, as the UK exits the European Union, the question of the UK's desired relationship with not only the EU27 but also the EEA30 has never been more live.
This blog post contends that the UK has not given the required notice of withdrawal from the EEA Agreement, and that the Government's actions undermine the UK's current and future negotiating positions with the EU27 and EEA30.
On 20th December 2018, the day after Parliament rose, the Government published an 'EEA EFTA Separation Agreement'. This was accompanied by an 'EEA EFTA Explainer'. To date, the EEA EFTA (European Free Trade Association) Separation Agreement has been 'agreed,' but not 'signed'. Subsequently, on 8th February 2019, the Government published another draft agreement, the 'EEA EFTA No Deal Citizens' Rights Agreement'. This second draft treaty will be addressed in a separate article.
The EEA Agreement: a mixed agreement
The EEA Agreement was signed in Oporto on 2 May 1992. The original signatories as 'Contracting Parties' were the then European Economic Community, the then European Coal and Steel Community, the then twelve EEC Member States including the UK, and the then seven EFTA States: Austria, Finland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. In short, the EEA Agreement extends the Single Market to the EEA/EFTA States. The EEA Agreement is based on two pillars of membership: EU and EFTA, each having their own respective mechanisms for supervision, in the form of the European Commission and EFTA Surveillance Authority, and courts, the Court of Justice of the European Union and the EFTA Court. As the EFTA Court held in E-9/97 Sveinbjörnsdóttir [1998] EFTA Ct. Rep. 95 para. 59, '[T]he EEA Agreement is an international treaty sui generis which contains a distinct legal order of its own.' There are thus two legal orders that form the basis of the EEA Agreement: EU and EEA law. Within the EU, the provisions of the EEA Agreement are able to produce direct effect (see in particular, Case T-115/94 Opel Austria v Council 1997 ECR II-00039 para. 102). The EEA Agreement was incorporated into UK domestic law by the European Economic Area Act 1993.
The EEA Agreement is a mixed agreement as a matter of EU law. As Article 2(c) EEA makes explicit the UK is a Contracting Party to the EEA Agreement in its own right and also separately bound by the EEA Agreement as an EU Member State. This point is addressed also at some length by Yuliya Kaspiarovich and Nicolas Levrat in their piece 'The UK and EU mixed agreements after Brexit: the case of the EEA' 24 October 2018. The consequences of mixity were expressed by Advocate General Sharpston in her Opinion concerning Opinion procedure 2/15 concerning the EU's free trade agreement with Singapore at points 76 and 77, in particular that 'each Member State remains free under international law to terminate that agreement in accordance with whatever is the appropriate termination procedure under the agreement. Its participation in the agreement is, after all, as a sovereign State Party, not as a mere appendage of the European Union' and that '[t]he ability to act independently as an actor under international law reflects the continuing international competence of the Member State; the fact that the Member State remains partially bound by the agreement even if, acting under international law, it terminates it reflects not international law but EU law.'
It follows that a country withdrawing from the EU needs also to withdraw, separately, in its own right from a mixed agreement, in order to cease to be one of the contracting parties.
How to leave
As is almost ubiquitously now known a Member State may withdraw from the EU by way of Article 50 TEU. What is much less well known is that the EEA Agreement contains its own 'exit' provision: Article 127 EEA, which provides:
'Each Contracting Party may withdraw from this Agreement provided it gives at least twelve months' notice in writing to the other Contracting Parties.
Immediately after the notification of the intended withdrawal, the other Contracting Parties shall convene a diplomatic conference in order to envisage the necessary modifications to bring to the Agreement.' (emphasis added)
On the basis of Advocate General Sharpston's reasoning in Opinion 2/15, above, as a mixed agreement should the UK wish to leave the EEA Agreement in addition to leaving the EU, it must 'give at least twelve months' notice in writing to the other Contracting Parties pursuant to Article 127 EEA.
What the UK has done
On 3rd February 2017, the Divisional Court in Yalland and Wilding v Secretary of State, [2017] EWHC 630 (Admin) dismissed as premature the 'Article 127 EEA' litigation which followed on the coattails of Miller (see in particular [48] and [49]).
The following month, the Prime Minister's letter to the President of the European Council Donald Tusk of 29 March 2017 gave notification of the UK's intention to leave the EU and the European Atomic Energy Community pursuant to Article 50(2) TEU and as applied by Article 106a of the Treaty Establishing the European Atomic Energy Community.
The Prime Minister did not make mention of any desire of the UK to leave the European Economic Area. The letter could have given notice that the UK intended to withdraw from the EEA Agreement in parallel to the EU, thus exceeding the minimum twelve-month notification required by Article 127 EEA, paragraph 1. It would also have been straightforward to copy the letter to the other three non-EU Contracting Parties to the EEA, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. Nevertheless, the UK chose not to act. Indeed, to-date the UK has made no written notification of its intention to withdraw from the EEA Agreement.
As noted above, the EEA Agreement has created a distinct sui generis legal system apart from international law. EEA law is, as a rule, interpreted in a teleological, or purposive manner by the EFTA Court. Rather than use Article 127 EEA to notify an intention to withdraw from the EEA, the UK Government appears to imply and rely upon a constructive interpretation of Article 126 EEA. Article 126 EEA concerns the territorial scope of the EEA Agreement. Article 126(1) EEA provides:
'The Agreement shall apply to the territories to which the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community is applied and under the conditions laid down in that Treaty, and to the territories of Iceland, the Principality of Liechtenstein and the Kingdom of Norway.'
The UK Government's argument effectively runs that once the UK has left the EU, the 'territories to which the [EU treaties are] applied' will shrink to exclude the UK. As a result, as the Lords Whip, Baroness Goldie, told the House of Lords on 25 April 2018 'Article 127 does not need to be triggered for the agreement to cease to have effect.' That is, with respect, accurate only as far as it goes. As the author has previously written 'as a standalone and independent treaty it is reasonable that the UK must make an Article 127 EEA notification or be in breach of its international obligations.' Were the UK to do nothing in respect of its membership of the EEA, after withdrawing from the EU the UK would neither be subject to the EU nor EFTA pillars of the Agreement. This would be a breach of the UK's obligations. Therefore, the EEA Agreement's effects vis-à-vis the UK would enter into abeyance as it would be subject to neither the EU or EFTA supervisory and judicial mechanisms (i.e. the European Commission, and ECJ, and the EFTA Surveillance Authority and EFTA Court).
Future relationship with 'Europe' at large
Irrespective of whether the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement is ratified by 29th March 2019, or whether there is an extension to the Article 50 TEU period (for which a suspension of the 'ticking clock' only would appear to provide the time for dispassionate negotiation, even if there were certain consequences for the UK as an EU Member State), the question of the UK's relationship with 'Europe' is most unclear. Yet, some sort of positive relationship is needed.
EEA/EFTA membership is an achievable possibility in the draft UK-EU political declaration. As EU Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier noted on 29th November 2017, 'Only the combination of the internal market and the customs union allows frictionless trade between us.' As this author has previously put forward, the Prime Minister's desired 'deep and special partnership agreement' with the EU could perhaps best be achieved based on an updated version of the EEA Agreement. The Common Market 2.0 proposal published in January 2019 by Lucy Powell MP and Robert Halfon MP on behalf of the cross-party Norway Plus Group is entirely contingent upon the UK becoming an EEA/EFTA State. In the House of Lords, Lord Lea has called for the UK to stay part of an 'evolving EEA family of nations.' Given the closeness and content of such relationships while they would require a withdrawal agreement (pursuant to Article 50(2) TEU), such a withdrawal agreement's content and design would look quite different from the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement, and not merely in terms of the content of the Political Declaration.
Views in favour of an EEA/EFTA-based Brexit have been put forward by many including Mr Barnier, and the former President of the EFTA Court, Professor Carl Baudenbacher (here and here). Iceland's Foreign Minister Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson was interviewed on Newsnight on 27th November 2018 when he stated, 'We would be very positive towards the idea of the UK joining EFTA or the EEA- you are the ones that started the organisation.' The following day, the Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg echoed those positive statements ((original interview in Norwegian), which was picked up by Reuters).
Unless, there is to be a cold, hard, snap in UK-EU relations the imperfect EEA Agreement is a sensible place from which to evolve relations; a scenario which Eurosceptics long-favoured as both Bloomberg and Juliet Samuel in the Telegraph have recently recalled. In such circumstances, the creative ambiguity created by failing to make an Article 127 EEA notification may be understood. Yet, the EEA EFTA Separation Agreement undermines the UK's future negotiating position. It is difficult to perceive the rationale of withdrawing from the EEA Agreement, if membership thereof forms part of the UK's future relationship with 'Europe' at large.
The nature of the EEA Agreement as a mixed agreement, as a matter of EU law, has consequences for an EU Member State seeking to withdraw from it. On the construction of both the EEA Agreement itself, and in particular Article 127 thereof, and the means by which it was ratified and incorporated by way of the EEA Agreement Act 1993, the UK needs to take appropriate action at both the domestic and international levels in order to withdraw from the EEA Agreement.
The consequences of the UK being in breach of its obligations vis-à-vis the EEA Agreement, and the treaty being put into abeyance as far as it concerns the UK, are significant. Nevertheless, if the UK seeks to have a treaty-based relationship, whether it is closer to Common Market 2.0 or a 'deep and special partnership agreement', with the thirty other contracting states to the EEA Agreement, it is surely more sensible to remain a signatory to the EEA but in breach of the EEA, than to withdraw and accede once more.
This blog post is based on part of a forthcoming article by the author. The author would like to thank in particular Arabella Lang, Parliament and Treaties Hub, House of Commons, and Dr. Jack Simson Caird, Senior Research Fellow in Parliaments and the Rule of Law at the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law, for their invaluable comments and knowledge. All errors remain the author's own.
Michael-James Clifton, Chef de Cabinet, Chambers of Judge Bernd Hammermann, EFTA Court. All views expressed are entirely personal.
(Suggested citation: MJ Clifton, 'The UK's Creative Ambiguity towards the EEA: Immediate and Future Relationship Problems', U.K. Const. L. Blog (20th Feb. 2019) (available at https://ukconstitutionallaw.org/))
7 comments on "Michael-James Clifton: The UK's Creative Ambiguity towards the EEA: Immediate and Future Relationship Problems"
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Ian Fox
So as a layman, who to be quite frank struggles with some of the languages in this.
The UK hasn't formally given the one-year notice period for ending it's EEA membership. It's in breach of the rules by no longer being an EU or EFTA member but still a member.
So the 4 freedoms are still in effect for at least another year?
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Check out Commons Hansard from last June:
Hilary Benn MP asking the Department for Exiting the EU for the date on which the UK will cease to be a member of the EEA.
Brexit Minister Robin Walker MP replied, stating that the UK will remain a member for "the duration of the implementation period". Only then will we leave.
That doesn't look like giving a year's notice to me – the intention was firmly to stay in the EEA until 31st December 2020 at least.
The EU effectively plans to treat the UK as 'honorary EU' for several purposes in its proposed Withdrawal Agreement. There is nothing to stop the UK staying under the EU pillar envisaged by the EEA Agreement if all parties agree this interpretation. That's my understanding of the way the 1969 Vienna Convention on international treaty law works.
Philip Owen
Not withdrawing immediately from the EEA is a prerequisite of the Withdrawal Agreement. This is interesting. Is this why Rees-Mogg switched to a negotiated WTO exit?
cialisbit
The relationship between the partners is really important. But I think that this relationship will change after the termination of cooperation agreements.
It doesn't add up...
I think we can go rather further that the argument set out here. Article 126 merely defines the territorial extent of the agreement, not who is party to it. Consider the Antarctic Treaty, to which the UK is party: it only applies to territory that is South of 60 degrees South. No-one argues that it doesn't apply to the UK, although its provisions do not apply in the UK.
The EEA Agreement set out obligations on Contracting Parties, and also on EC Member States and the three EFTA States, defined explicitly in 2(b) as Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein. Thus we have:
1. Freedom of movement for workers shall be secured among EC Member States and EFTA States.
which clearly only applies to those Contracting Parties who are in the EU or an EFTA state – it would cease to apply to the UK as a Contracting Party.
A Financial Mechanism shall be established by the EFTA States to contribute, in the context of the EEA and in addition to the efforts already deployed by the Community in this regard, to the objectives laid down in Article 115.
only applies to EFTA states, and therefore there is no obligation to contribute to the Financial Mechanism just because we leave the EU.
On the other hand we have
Customs duties on imports and exports, and any charges having equivalent effect, shall be prohibited between the Contracting Parties.
which explicitly applies to Contracting Parties. Duties are clearly levied in the importing country, so it would be illegal for any other Contracting Party to levy them on the UK, unless they could make use of the SAFEGUARD MEASURES (articles 112-113).
So we have a situation where there is no obligation to impose EU regulations or transpose EU directives because under territorial extent, they do not apply inside the UK, yet there is protection for free trade, and no requirement to provide freedom of movement – all without any further negotiation or ratification whatever being required, but merely as a consequence of the EEA Agreement as it is written. We have pretty much exactly the deal we need already in order to be able to leave the EU without signing the Withdrawal Agreement.
This entry was posted on February 20, 2019 by Constitutional Law Group in Europe, European Union, UK government and tagged Article 127 EEA, Brexit, European Economic Area (EEA), European Free Trade Association (EFTA).
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(CNN) -- On an early spring day in 2018, the faint smell of formaldehyde floating in the air, 26-year-old medical student Warren Nielsen and four of his classmates prepped a cadaver in the chilly dissection lab at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland.
Similar groups of five gathered around bodies on the other 15 tables in the anatomy class, all eager to explore the mysteries of the human body they had only seen in textbooks.
The cadaver assigned to Nielsen's team was a 99-year-old woman who had died of natural causes. Her name was Rose Marie Bentley, but the students didn't know that then. To honor and respect the privacy of those who offer their bodies to science, no further details are given medical students about the person who had once inhabited the body lying on the silvery slab before them.
But as the students and their professors were soon to find out, Rose Marie Bentley was special, so special she deserved her own unique spot in medical literature and history books.
The reason? A condition called situs inversus with levocardia, in which most vital organs are reversed -- almost like a mirror inside the body. That, along with a host of other weird but wonderful abnormalities, made Rose Marie Bentley a sort of medical unicorn.
"I think the odds of finding another person like her may be as remote as one in 50 million," said assistant professor Cameron Walker, who teaches the Foundations of Clinical Anatomy class at OHSU. "I don't think any of us will ever forget it, honestly."
On this March day the assignment was to open the body's chest cavity to examine the heart. It wasn't long before Nielsen's group began to question their fledgling medical knowledge.
"Her heart was missing a large vein that's normally on the right side," Nielsen said.
Bewildered, he and his team called the professors over and asked: "Where's the interior vena cava? Are we missing it? Are we crazy?"
"And they kind of rolled their eyes," Nielsen said, "Like, 'how can these students miss this big vessel?' And they come over and that's when the hubbub starts. They're like 'Oh my God, this is totally backwards!' "
Rose Marie's vein was on the left, and instead of terminating directly into the heart, which is typical, "her vein continued through her diaphragm, along the thoracic vertebrae, up and around and over the aortic arch and then emptied into the right side of her heart," said Walker.
"Normally speaking, none of us have a vessel that does that directly," Walker added.
That wasn't the only irregularity Walker and his students found in Rose Marie's body.
Numerous veins which typically drain the liver and other parts of the chest cavity were either missing or sprouting from an unusual spot. Her right lung had only two lobes, instead of the standard three, while the right atrium of her heart was twice normal size.
The condition occurs in only one out of 22,000 babies, and is invariably associated with severe congenital heart disease. Because of the heart defects, only 5% to 13% live past the age of five; case reports mention one 13-year-old boy, and a 73-year-old who at the time was the second longest survivor.
But Rose Marie was an anomaly, one of the few born with the condition that didn't have heart defects, Walker said.
And that, along with all her other exceedingly rare anatomical abnormalities, is what makes Rose Marie one in 50 million, Walker estimated.
Rose Marie Phelps was born in 1918 in Waldport, a small town on the Oregon coast. The youngest child of four, "she was babied," said daughter Patti Helmig, who at 78 is the oldest of Rose Marie's five children. "She would admit she was spoiled."
A hairdresser by trade, Rose Marie was always fascinated by science, Helmig remembered, and believes her mother would have made a fine nurse if she had been given the opportunity to train.
"She volunteered during World War II for one of the nurse's aid corps," Helmig said. "And she was thrilled when someone reached out to her about doing a study on smallpox survivors, which she had as a child."
Despite chronic heartburn [which would have been explained by her unusual gastric anatomy], Rose Marie never showed any negative effects from her flip-flopped innards, said 76-year-old Ginger Robbins, the third of Rose Marie's children.
The only clue anything might be unusual came when Rose Marie's appendix was removed, said 66-year-old Louise Allee, the fourth-born child and youngest of the daughters.
"The surgeon made a note that her appendix wasn't in the right spot when they took it out," Allee said, "but never said anything to us. Nobody said a thing when they took her gallbladder out and did a hysterectomy, either."
The decision to become a body donor began with Jim Bentley, Rose Marie's husband, but she too "thought it was the greatest thing," Allee remembers.
"There was a poem that my dad found and it was all about donating your parts," she said. "You know, give my eyes to a man who has never seen the sunrise, and the like. He kept showing us the poem. It was really important to them."
The poem, written by Robert Test, opens with the line: "Give my sight to the man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby's face, or love in the eyes of a woman," and ends with "If, by chance, you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or word to someone who needs you. If you do all I have asked, I will live forever."
The couple's beliefs about donation made an impact. All three daughters plan to donate their bodies for research.
Jim Bentley kept his promise and donated his body when he died of pneumonia more than a dozen years before his wife's death. His daughters know that he would have loved to have known about Rose Marie's peculiar insides so he could have teased her about it.
And what would Rose Marie have said about being a one in 50 million kind of gal?
"She would've just thought it was funny," Robbins said.


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Burger Project is open on Level 2.
FoodWatch the Australian Open in the St. Collins Lane Food Hall this summer
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What Does LeeAnne Locken *Really* Think About Brandi Redmond and Stephanie Hollman Making Up?
You know the #RHOD pal isn't going to hold back on this topic.
Now that Brandi Redmond and Stephanie Hollman are back to being besties, it would seem that all is right with the world once again. But could LeeAnne Locken, who has formed a newfound friendship with Brandi and come at odds again with Stephanie this season, throw a monkey wrench in their plans?
LeeAnne wants you to know that she would do nothing of the sort. "I truly believed that they were too close not to be friends again," LeeAnne recently told The Daily Dish, adding that she wasn't surprised to see Brandi and Stephanie ultimately resolve their issues. "I said to Brandi over and over, 'Look, whatever happens between you and Stephanie, [if] you and Stephanie reconcile, if you and Stephanie don't reconcile, whatever happens between you and Stephanie is between you and Stephanie, and I'm not a part of that. And I don't want to be a part of that. What I am is your friend. And if you need my support, if you need me to pick you up, if you need me to back you on something, if you need me to go somewhere with you, I'm here to be your friend. My issues with Stephanie are separate from me and you."
How Did Brandi Redmond and Stephanie Hollman's Falling Out Affect Their Friendship?
As for those who think LeeAnne did put herself in the middle of Brandi and Stephanie's beef, the RHOD charity maven is not here for it. "That's their opinion. Opinions are like ***holes; everybody's got one. You know what, I didn't. Stephanie can say it until the cows come home, but I'm not between the two of them. I never was. She was. Here's what Stephanie does. She and Cary [Deuber]. They're deflectors. She doesn't want to own that she's injured Brandi, so she's gonna make it my fault. And the reality is, own your sh**. I own mine. They certainly demand that I own mine. So my philosophy is don't make me the villain when you did the deed. I was over here listening to tears. I didn't do anything. And I never told Brandi not to be friends again with Stephanie. That never came out of my mouth. I will state that until I am dead," LeeAnne said. "We're adult women. My friendship with one human has nothing to do with someone else. If people are immature enough to need to blame it on someone else, then that's their own immaturity."
LeeAnne is still showing love to Brandi today.
But hold onto your cowboy hats, because it looks like a new beef is brewing in Monday night's new episode of RHOD at 10/9c. Prepare yourself, below.
What Caused Brandi and Stephanie's Falling Out?