text:
from PyQt4 import QtCore, QtGui

try:
    _fromUtf8 = QtCore.QString.fromUtf8
except AttributeError:
    def _fromUtf8(s):
        return s

try:
    _encoding = QtGui.QApplication.UnicodeUTF8
    def _translate(context, text, disambig):
        return QtGui.QApplication.translate(context, text, disambig, _encoding)
except AttributeError:
    def _translate(context, text, disambig):
        return QtGui.QApplication.translate(context, text, disambig)

class Ui_Form(object):
    def setupUi(self, Form):
        Form.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("Form"))
        Form.resize(315, 464)
        self.verticalLayout_2 = QtGui.QVBoxLayout(Form)
        self.verticalLayout_2.setSpacing(0)
        self.verticalLayout_2.setMargin(0)
        self.verticalLayout_2.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("verticalLayout_2"))
        self.splitter_3 = QtGui.QSplitter(Form)
        self.splitter_3.setOrientation(QtCore.Qt.Vertical)
        self.splitter_3.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("splitter_3"))
        self.splitter_2 = QtGui.QSplitter(self.splitter_3)
        self.splitter_2.setOrientation(QtCore.Qt.Horizontal)
        self.splitter_2.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("splitter_2"))
        self.layoutWidget = QtGui.QWidget(self.splitter_2)
        self.layoutWidget.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("layoutWidget"))
        self.verticalLayout = QtGui.QVBoxLayout(self.layoutWidget)
        self.verticalLayout.setSpacing(0)
        self.verticalLayout.setMargin(0)
        self.verticalLayout.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("verticalLayout"))
        self.groupBox_2 = QtGui.QGroupBox(self.layoutWidget)
        sizePolicy = QtGui.QSizePolicy(QtGui.QSizePolicy.Preferred, QtGui.QSizePolicy.Preferred)
        sizePolicy.setHorizontalStretch(0)
        sizePolicy.setVerticalStretch(0)
        sizePolicy.setHeightForWidth(self.groupBox_2.sizePolicy().hasHeightForWidth())
        self.groupBox_2.setSizePolicy(sizePolicy)
        self.groupBox_2.setTitle(_fromUtf8(""))
        self.groupBox_2.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("groupBox_2"))
        self.gridLayout_2 = QtGui.QGridLayout(self.groupBox_2)
        self.gridLayout_2.setMargin(0)
        self.gridLayout_2.setSpacing(0)
        self.gridLayout_2.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("gridLayout_2"))
        self.vcPulseCheck = QtGui.QCheckBox(self.groupBox_2)
        self.vcPulseCheck.setChecked(True)
        self.vcPulseCheck.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("vcPulseCheck"))
        self.gridLayout_2.addWidget(self.vcPulseCheck, 2, 1, 1, 1)
        self.vcHoldCheck = QtGui.QCheckBox(self.groupBox_2)
        self.vcHoldCheck.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("vcHoldCheck"))
        self.gridLayout_2.addWidget(self.vcHoldCheck, 3, 1, 1, 1)
        self.icPulseCheck = QtGui.QCheckBox(self.groupBox_2)
        self.icPulseCheck.setChecked(True)
        self.icPulseCheck.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("icPulseCheck"))
        self.gridLayout_2.addWidget(self.icPulseCheck, 4, 1, 1, 1)
        self.icHoldCheck = QtGui.QCheckBox(self.groupBox_2)
        self.icHoldCheck.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("icHoldCheck"))
        self.gridLayout_2.addWidget(self.icHoldCheck, 6, 1, 1, 1)
        spacerItem = QtGui.QSpacerItem(20, 40, QtGui.QSizePolicy.Minimum, QtGui.QSizePolicy.Expanding)
        self.gridLayout_2.addItem(spacerItem, 7, 1, 1, 1)
        self.label = QtGui.QLabel(self.groupBox_2)
        self.label.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("label"))
        self.gridLayout_2.addWidget(self.label, 10, 0, 1, 2)
        self.label_3 = QtGui.QLabel(self.groupBox_2)
        self.label_3.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("label_3"))
        self.gridLayout_2.addWidget(self.label_3, 9, 0, 1, 2)
        self.label_4 = QtGui.QLabel(self.groupBox_2)
        self.label_4.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("label_4"))
        self.gridLayout_2.addWidget(self.label_4, 8, 0, 1, 2)
        self.icModeRadio = QtGui.QRadioButton(self.groupBox_2)
        self.icModeRadio.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("icModeRadio"))
        self.gridLayout_2.addWidget(self.icModeRadio, 4, 0, 1, 1)
        self.vcModeRadio = QtGui.QRadioButton(self.groupBox_2)
        self.vcModeRadio.setChecked(True)
        self.vcModeRadio.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("vcModeRadio"))
        self.gridLayout_2.addWidget(self.vcModeRadio, 2, 0, 1, 1)
        self.horizontalLayout = QtGui.QHBoxLayout()
        self.horizontalLayout.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("horizontalLayout"))
        self.startBtn = QtGui.QPushButton(self.groupBox_2)
        self.startBtn.setCheckable(True)
        self.startBtn.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("startBtn"))
        self.horizontalLayout.addWidget(self.startBtn)
        self.recordBtn = QtGui.QPushButton(self.groupBox_2)
        self.recordBtn.setCheckable(True)
        self.recordBtn.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("recordBtn"))
        self.horizontalLayout.addWidget(self.recordBtn)
        self.gridLayout_2.addLayout(self.horizontalLayout, 0, 0, 1, 3)
        self.icPulseSpin = SpinBox(self.groupBox_2)
        self.icPulseSpin.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("icPulseSpin"))
        self.gridLayout_2.addWidget(self.icPulseSpin, 4, 2, 1, 1)
        self.pulseTimeSpin = SpinBox(self.groupBox_2)
        self.pulseTimeSpin.setSingleStep(1.0)
        self.pulseTimeSpin.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("pulseTimeSpin"))
        self.gridLayout_2.addWidget(self.pulseTimeSpin, 9, 2, 1, 1)
        self.delayTimeSpin = SpinBox(self.groupBox_2)
        self.delayTimeSpin.setMinimum(1.0)
        self.delayTimeSpin.setMaximum(10000.0)
        self.delayTimeSpin.setSingleStep(1.0)
        self.delayTimeSpin.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("delayTimeSpin"))
        self.gridLayout_2.addWidget(self.delayTimeSpin, 8, 2, 1, 1)
        self.vcPulseSpin = SpinBox(self.groupBox_2)
        self.vcPulseSpin.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("vcPulseSpin"))
        self.gridLayout_2.addWidget(self.vcPulseSpin, 2, 2, 1, 1)
        self.icHoldSpin = SpinBox(self.groupBox_2)
        self.icHoldSpin.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("icHoldSpin"))
        self.gridLayout_2.addWidget(self.icHoldSpin, 5, 2, 2, 1)
        self.cycleTimeSpin = SpinBox(self.groupBox_2)
        self.cycleTimeSpin.setSingleStep(1.0)
        self.cycleTimeSpin.setProperty("value", 0.2)
        self.cycleTimeSpin.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("cycleTimeSpin"))
        self.gridLayout_2.addWidget(self.cycleTimeSpin, 10, 2, 1, 1)
        self.vcHoldSpin = SpinBox(self.groupBox_2)
        self.vcHoldSpin.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("vcHoldSpin"))
        self.gridLayout_2.addWidget(self.vcHoldSpin, 3, 2, 1, 1)
        self.horizontalLayout_2 = QtGui.QHBoxLayout()
        self.horizontalLayout_2.setSpacing(0)
        self.horizontalLayout_2.setContentsMargins(0, -1, -1, -1)
        self.horizontalLayout_2.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("horizontalLayout_2"))
        self.bathModeBtn = QtGui.QToolButton(self.groupBox_2)
        self.bathModeBtn.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("bathModeBtn"))
        self.horizontalLayout_2.addWidget(self.bathModeBtn)
        self.patchModeBtn = QtGui.QToolButton(self.groupBox_2)
        self.patchModeBtn.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("patchModeBtn"))
        self.horizontalLayout_2.addWidget(self.patchModeBtn)
        self.cellModeBtn = QtGui.QToolButton(self.groupBox_2)
        self.cellModeBtn.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("cellModeBtn"))
        self.horizontalLayout_2.addWidget(self.cellModeBtn)
        self.monitorModeBtn = QtGui.QToolButton(self.groupBox_2)
        self.monitorModeBtn.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("monitorModeBtn"))
        self.horizontalLayout_2.addWidget(self.monitorModeBtn)
        spacerItem1 = QtGui.QSpacerItem(40, 20, QtGui.QSizePolicy.Expanding, QtGui.QSizePolicy.Minimum)
        self.horizontalLayout_2.addItem(spacerItem1)
        self.gridLayout_2.addLayout(self.horizontalLayout_2, 1, 0, 1, 3)
        self.label_2 = QtGui.QLabel(self.groupBox_2)
        self.label_2.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("label_2"))
        self.gridLayout_2.addWidget(self.label_2, 11, 0, 1, 1)
        self.averageSpin = QtGui.QSpinBox(self.groupBox_2)
        self.averageSpin.setMinimum(1)
        self.averageSpin.setMaximum(100)
        self.averageSpin.setProperty("value", 1)
        self.averageSpin.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("averageSpin"))
        self.gridLayout_2.addWidget(self.averageSpin, 11, 2, 1, 1)
        self.verticalLayout.addWidget(self.groupBox_2)
        self.groupBox = QtGui.QGroupBox(self.layoutWidget)
        sizePolicy = QtGui.QSizePolicy(QtGui.QSizePolicy.Preferred, QtGui.QSizePolicy.Preferred)
        sizePolicy.setHorizontalStretch(0)
        sizePolicy.setVerticalStretch(0)
        sizePolicy.setHeightForWidth(self.groupBox.sizePolicy().hasHeightForWidth())
        self.groupBox.setSizePolicy(sizePolicy)
        self.groupBox.setTitle(_fromUtf8(""))
        self.groupBox.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("groupBox"))
        self.gridLayout = QtGui.QGridLayout(self.groupBox)
        self.gridLayout.setMargin(0)
        self.gridLayout.setHorizontalSpacing(5)
        self.gridLayout.setVerticalSpacing(0)
        self.gridLayout.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("gridLayout"))
        self.restingPotentialCheck = QtGui.QCheckBox(self.groupBox)
        self.restingPotentialCheck.setText(_fromUtf8(""))
        self.restingPotentialCheck.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("restingPotentialCheck"))
        self.gridLayout.addWidget(self.restingPotentialCheck, 3, 0, 1, 1)
        self.restingPotentialLabel = QtGui.QLabel(self.groupBox)
        self.restingPotentialLabel.setMinimumSize(QtCore.QSize(140, 0))
        font = QtGui.QFont()
        font.setBold(True)
        font.setWeight(75)
        self.restingPotentialLabel.setFont(font)
        self.restingPotentialLabel.setAlignment(QtCore.Qt.AlignRight|QtCore.Qt.AlignTrailing|QtCore.Qt.AlignVCenter)
        self.restingPotentialLabel.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("restingPotentialLabel"))
        self.gridLayout.addWidget(self.restingPotentialLabel, 3, 2, 1, 1)
        self.restingCurrentCheck = QtGui.QCheckBox(self.groupBox)
        self.restingCurrentCheck.setText(_fromUtf8(""))
        self.restingCurrentCheck.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("restingCurrentCheck"))
        self.gridLayout.addWidget(self.restingCurrentCheck, 4, 0, 1, 1)
        self.fitErrorCheck = QtGui.QCheckBox(self.groupBox)
        self.fitErrorCheck.setText(_fromUtf8(""))
        self.fitErrorCheck.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("fitErrorCheck"))
        self.gridLayout.addWidget(self.fitErrorCheck, 6, 0, 1, 1)
        self.fitErrorLabel = QtGui.QLabel(self.groupBox)
        font = QtGui.QFont()
        font.setBold(False)
        font.setWeight(50)
        self.fitErrorLabel.setFont(font)
        self.fitErrorLabel.setAlignment(QtCore.Qt.AlignRight|QtCore.Qt.AlignTrailing|QtCore.Qt.AlignVCenter)
        self.fitErrorLabel.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("fitErrorLabel"))
        self.gridLayout.addWidget(self.fitErrorLabel, 6, 2, 1, 1)
        self.drawFitCheck = QtGui.QCheckBox(self.groupBox)
        self.drawFitCheck.setChecked(True)
        self.drawFitCheck.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("drawFitCheck"))
        self.gridLayout.addWidget(self.drawFitCheck, 0, 2, 1, 1)
        self.accessResistanceLabel = QtGui.QLabel(self.groupBox)
        font = QtGui.QFont()
        font.setBold(True)
        font.setWeight(75)
        self.accessResistanceLabel.setFont(font)
        self.accessResistanceLabel.setAlignment(QtCore.Qt.AlignRight|QtCore.Qt.AlignTrailing|QtCore.Qt.AlignVCenter)
        self.accessResistanceLabel.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("accessResistanceLabel"))
        self.gridLayout.addWidget(self.accessResistanceLabel, 2, 2, 1, 1)
        self.inputResistanceLabel = QtGui.QLabel(self.groupBox)
        font = QtGui.QFont()
        font.setBold(True)
        font.setWeight(75)
        self.inputResistanceLabel.setFont(font)
        self.inputResistanceLabel.setAlignment(QtCore.Qt.AlignRight|QtCore.Qt.AlignTrailing|QtCore.Qt.AlignVCenter)
        self.inputResistanceLabel.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("inputResistanceLabel"))
        self.gridLayout.addWidget(self.inputResistanceLabel, 1, 2, 1, 1)
        self.accessResistanceCheck = QtGui.QCheckBox(self.groupBox)
        self.accessResistanceCheck.setText(_fromUtf8(""))
        self.accessResistanceCheck.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("accessResistanceCheck"))
        self.gridLayout.addWidget(self.accessResistanceCheck, 2, 0, 1, 1)
        self.restingCurrentLabel = QtGui.QLabel(self.groupBox)
        self.restingCurrentLabel.setMinimumSize(QtCore.QSize(120, 0))
        font = QtGui.QFont()
        font.setBold(False)
        font.setWeight(50)
        self.restingCurrentLabel.setFont(font)
        self.restingCurrentLabel.setAlignment(QtCore.Qt.AlignRight|QtCore.Qt.AlignTrailing|QtCore.Qt.AlignVCenter)
        self.restingCurrentLabel.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("restingCurrentLabel"))
        self.gridLayout.addWidget(self.restingCurrentLabel, 4, 2, 1, 1)
        self.inputResistanceCheck = QtGui.QCheckBox(self.groupBox)
        self.inputResistanceCheck.setMaximumSize(QtCore.QSize(20, 16777215))
        self.inputResistanceCheck.setText(_fromUtf8(""))
        self.inputResistanceCheck.setChecked(True)
        self.inputResistanceCheck.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("inputResistanceCheck"))
        self.gridLayout.addWidget(self.inputResistanceCheck, 1, 0, 1, 1)
        self.capacitanceCheck = QtGui.QCheckBox(self.groupBox)
        self.capacitanceCheck.setText(_fromUtf8(""))
        self.capacitanceCheck.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("capacitanceCheck"))
        self.gridLayout.addWidget(self.capacitanceCheck, 5, 0, 1, 1)
        self.capacitanceLabel = QtGui.QLabel(self.groupBox)
        font = QtGui.QFont()
        font.setBold(False)
        font.setWeight(50)
        self.capacitanceLabel.setFont(font)
        self.capacitanceLabel.setAlignment(QtCore.Qt.AlignRight|QtCore.Qt.AlignTrailing|QtCore.Qt.AlignVCenter)
        self.capacitanceLabel.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("capacitanceLabel"))
        self.gridLayout.addWidget(self.capacitanceLabel, 5, 2, 1, 1)
        self.label_5 = QtGui.QLabel(self.groupBox)
        self.label_5.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("label_5"))
        self.gridLayout.addWidget(self.label_5, 1, 1, 1, 1)
        self.resetBtn = QtGui.QToolButton(self.groupBox)
        self.resetBtn.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("resetBtn"))
        self.gridLayout.addWidget(self.resetBtn, 0, 0, 1, 2)
        self.label_6 = QtGui.QLabel(self.groupBox)
        self.label_6.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("label_6"))
        self.gridLayout.addWidget(self.label_6, 2, 1, 1, 1)
        self.label_7 = QtGui.QLabel(self.groupBox)
        self.label_7.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("label_7"))
        self.gridLayout.addWidget(self.label_7, 3, 1, 1, 1)
        self.label_8 = QtGui.QLabel(self.groupBox)
        self.label_8.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("label_8"))
        self.gridLayout.addWidget(self.label_8, 4, 1, 1, 1)
        self.label_9 = QtGui.QLabel(self.groupBox)
        self.label_9.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("label_9"))
        self.gridLayout.addWidget(self.label_9, 5, 1, 1, 1)
        self.label_10 = QtGui.QLabel(self.groupBox)
        self.label_10.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("label_10"))
        self.gridLayout.addWidget(self.label_10, 6, 1, 1, 1)
        self.verticalLayout.addWidget(self.groupBox)
        self.splitter = QtGui.QSplitter(self.splitter_2)
        self.splitter.setOrientation(QtCore.Qt.Vertical)
        self.splitter.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("splitter"))
        self.patchPlot = PlotWidget(self.splitter)
        sizePolicy = QtGui.QSizePolicy(QtGui.QSizePolicy.Expanding, QtGui.QSizePolicy.Preferred)
        sizePolicy.setHorizontalStretch(0)
        sizePolicy.setVerticalStretch(0)
        sizePolicy.setHeightForWidth(self.patchPlot.sizePolicy().hasHeightForWidth())
        self.patchPlot.setSizePolicy(sizePolicy)
        self.patchPlot.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("patchPlot"))
        self.commandPlot = PlotWidget(self.splitter)
        sizePolicy = QtGui.QSizePolicy(QtGui.QSizePolicy.Expanding, QtGui.QSizePolicy.Preferred)
        sizePolicy.setHorizontalStretch(0)
        sizePolicy.setVerticalStretch(0)
        sizePolicy.setHeightForWidth(self.commandPlot.sizePolicy().hasHeightForWidth())
        self.commandPlot.setSizePolicy(sizePolicy)
        self.commandPlot.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("commandPlot"))
        self.layoutWidget1 = QtGui.QWidget(self.splitter_3)
        self.layoutWidget1.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("layoutWidget1"))
        self.plotLayout = QtGui.QVBoxLayout(self.layoutWidget1)
        self.plotLayout.setSpacing(0)
        self.plotLayout.setMargin(0)
        self.plotLayout.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("plotLayout"))
        self.verticalLayout_2.addWidget(self.splitter_3)

        self.retranslateUi(Form)
        QtCore.QMetaObject.connectSlotsByName(Form)

    def retranslateUi(self, Form):
        Form.setWindowTitle(_translate("Form", "Patch", None))
        self.vcPulseCheck.setText(_translate("Form", "Pulse", None))
        self.vcHoldCheck.setText(_translate("Form", "Hold", None))
        self.icPulseCheck.setText(_translate("Form", "Pulse", None))
        self.icHoldCheck.setText(_translate("Form", "Hold", None))
        self.label.setText(_translate("Form", "Cycle Time", None))
        self.label_3.setText(_translate("Form", "Pulse Length", None))
        self.label_4.setText(_translate("Form", "Delay Length", None))
        self.icModeRadio.setText(_translate("Form", "IC", None))
        self.vcModeRadio.setText(_translate("Form", "VC", None))
        self.startBtn.setText(_translate("Form", "Start", None))
        self.recordBtn.setText(_translate("Form", "Record", None))
        self.icPulseSpin.setSuffix(_translate("Form", "A", None))
        self.pulseTimeSpin.setSuffix(_translate("Form", "s", None))
        self.delayTimeSpin.setSuffix(_translate("Form", "s", None))
        self.vcPulseSpin.setSuffix(_translate("Form", "V", None))
        self.icHoldSpin.setSuffix(_translate("Form", "A", None))
        self.cycleTimeSpin.setSuffix(_translate("Form", "s", None))
        self.vcHoldSpin.setSuffix(_translate("Form", "V", None))
        self.bathModeBtn.setText(_translate("Form", "Bath", None))
        self.patchModeBtn.setText(_translate("Form", "Patch", None))
        self.cellModeBtn.setText(_translate("Form", "Cell", None))
        self.monitorModeBtn.setText(_translate("Form", "Monitor", None))
        self.label_2.setText(_translate("Form", "Average", None))
        self.restingPotentialLabel.setText(_translate("Form", "0", None))
        self.fitErrorLabel.setText(_translate("Form", "0", None))
        self.drawFitCheck.setText(_translate("Form", "Draw Fit", None))
        self.accessResistanceLabel.setText(_translate("Form", "0", None))
        self.inputResistanceLabel.setText(_translate("Form", "0", None))
        self.restingCurrentLabel.setText(_translate("Form", "0", None))
        self.capacitanceLabel.setText(_translate("Form", "0", None))
        self.label_5.setText(_translate("Form", "Input Res.", None))
        self.resetBtn.setText(_translate("Form", "Reset History", None))
        self.label_6.setText(_translate("Form", "Access Res.", None))
        self.label_7.setText(_translate("Form", "Rest Potential", None))
        self.label_8.setText(_translate("Form", "Rest Current", None))
        self.label_9.setText(_translate("Form", "Capacitance", None))
        self.label_10.setText(_translate("Form", "Fit Error", None))

from acq4.pyqtgraph import SpinBox, PlotWidget

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


From manufacturing and construction to hospitals and desk-based service businesses, occupational health and safety issues are a primary concern for every employer.
Nothing is more important than keeping your employees safe while they are on the job working for you. HealthCore can help you meet and exceed the occupational health and compliance requirements of governing entities such as OSHA and DOT.
Our dedicated staff will organize and manage your health and safety screening and testing programs. We employ the services of the leading mobile medical clinics to provide a full range of testing services for your employees anywhere in the United States.
If you do not already have an occupational health program, the experts at HealthCore can help you set one up. Otherwise, we can help revise or improve upon your current program and track the results of employee exams to limit your liability. Since we partner with the leading mobile occupational health vendors, we also act as a liaison to ensure you are getting the best value for your money.
All on-site screening and testing is performed by fully trained medical professionals. Call HealthCore toll free at (866) 569-5622 for more information on how we can help meet your occupational health and safety needs.


Meryl Davis and Maksim Chmerkovskiy had so much chemistry on Season 18 of "Dancing with the Stars" that many thought the couple must be more than just dance partners.
Meryl Davis is officially off the market! The Olympic figure skater is engaged to Fedor Andreev, a former figure skater and the son of her longtime coach, Marina Zoueva.
Maksim Chmerkovskiy Loves Meryl Davis More Than He's Loved Any Woman, Brother Val Says Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Meryl Davis talk 'Dancing With the Stars' win, dating rumors.
4/9/2015 · Maksim Chmerkovskiy And Meryl Davis Do Dinner In NYC: "There Is No Romance There," Source Says 0:36 Cody Simpson "So Happy" For Meryl Davis And Maksim Chmerkovskiy's DWTS Win!
Dancing with the Stars' winners say they are 'not dating'. Esfp dating intj. Meryl davis charlie white skipping 2018. May 2014. "Dancing with the Stars" Season 18 winners Maksim Chmerkovskiy and. Robert Downey Jr. is dating her daughter until he finds out that Cybill was his wife in a previous life..
2/22/2010 · Meryl Davis Triumphs Over Disability: Davis and her ice dance partner, Charlie White, were favorites to win the gold in Sochi, and if they do, it will be a miracle given her background. Davis is dyslexic and lacks depth perception.
Olympic athlete Meryl Davis, right, and dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy, winners of "Dancing with the Stars" , appear on ABC's Good Morning America on Wednesday, May 21, 2014, in New York.
australia gratis online dating nettsteder online dating med hsv maks chmerkovskiy og meryl davis dating dating google earth bilder dr. hook opp på fjellet akkorder beste gratis oppkobling apps android mer enn en oppkobling quiz dating mislykkes side 200 bangalore dating jente.
Is meryl davis dating jeremy abbott only that, the intentions start shouting: Sometimes we haughty to think of men like this as expected, but Relationship knew what he was deal. Same Time does here is act the part of the yearning hero.
Derek Hough (/ ˈ h ʌ f /; born May 17 In 2013, Hough worked with world champion ice dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White on a number for their upcoming 2014 Sochi winter Olympics short dance program that had to contain quickstep and foxtrot rhythms. Davis and White went on to win the gold medal with the routine.
Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Meryl Davis talk 'Dancing With the Stars' win, dating rumors Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Meryl Davis talk 'Dancing With the Stars' win, dating rumors USMagazine.
2/23/2010 · Are Meryl Davis and Charlie White dating? Follow . 3 answers 3. Report Abuse. Are the ice dancers Meryl Davis & Charlie White dating? Song from Meryl Davis' and Charlie White's skating routine? Do you like Meryl Davis and Charlie White.?
7/30/2010 · Meryl Davis & Charlie White 2010 FD. 60 Minutes Australia 15,134 views. 12:27. Meryl Davis doesn't deny dating DWTS' Maks - Duration: 6:06.
Has are meryl davis and charlie white dating hacked online dating games the are meryl davis and charlie white dating rachael chan hong kong speed dating pairs ice scheherazade. date: february with ryan seacrest russia. Soon be going home going home stun tv viewers with.
7/19/2017 · Watch video · Its my drug - Meryl Streep Interview by Christine Spines, 2008 Read Christines Meryl .\r\rSelection of leading ladies from a century of motion pictures (from the 1910s to the 2010s.) Meryl Streep, Bette Davis & Marlene Dietrich. last year 1 views. Leading Ladies: Meryl Streep, Bette Davis & Marlene Dietrich. Autoplay.
Meryl Davis and Maksim Chmerkovskiy take a whirl around the dance floor one more time during a visit to Good Morning America.
Maks Chmerkovskiy addressed the numerous dating rumors about him via Twitter on Friday, June 13. The professional dancer on "Dancing with the Stars" has been named in romances with both his "DWTS" partner Meryl Davis and with Jennifer Lopez.
6/3/2014 · After their gold medal-winning performance at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, ice dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White were dogged by dating rumors.
Meryl Davis, Charlie White will not defend Olympic ice dance title. By Nick Zaccardi Feb 22, 2017, and finished second to Australia's Cate Campbell in both events at Pan Pacs.


text:
Tag Archives: Between the Lines Book Club
January 26, 2018 by CarrieS
Between the Lines Book Club: More Books About Domestic Life
Tomorrow (January 27, 2018) we'll be meeting at Arden Dimick Library at 10:30AM to discuss At Home, by Bill Bryson.
At Home is entertaining, but how accurate is it? Most of the book covers the Victorian Era. Here are some other nonfiction books about domestic life in Victorian (and Edwardian) times. If it's a book I"ve reviewed, I've linked to the review.
Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners, by Therese O'Neill
Yes, the Victorians had their hangups, but they had a lot of sex too! I loved this book which was both fun and informative – and made me very happy not to have to wear a crinoline.
How to be a Victorian, by Ruth Goodman
Goodman, a historical re-enactor, never takes herself too seriously, but she supplements her well-researched book with anecdotes of her own experience. She also wrote How to be a Tudor.
What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew, by Daniel Pool
As the title suggests, this covers everyday life in the Regency and Victorian periods.
To Marry an English Lord, by Gail McColl and Carol McD. Wallace
Want to know how to marry an English Lord during the Edwardian Era? Here's a hint – be very, very rich, and know your table manners.
Posted in Between The Lines Book Club, Uncategorized
Tagged Arden Dimick Book Club, Arden Dimick Library, Between the Lines Book Club, Victorian history
Between the Lines Book Club: At Home by Bill Bryson
Welcome back to Between the Lines Book Club. This month we're reading At Home by Bill Bryson. It's a long book, but a quick and easy read. We'll be meeting to discuss it in person on January 27, 2018 at Arden Dimick Library at 10:30AM.
At Home is a nonfiction history of how and why houses are the way they are. Because of how the book is arranged, it's easy to either read the book straight through or pick and choose chapters based on interest level. Here's a quick rundown of the chapters and their topics:
Chapter One: The Year: Describes the year 1851, when the house was built.
Chapter Two: The Setting: The development of agriculture and ancient housing.
Chapter Three: The Hall: Covers the time when The Hall meant the entire interior of a house to the development of separate rooms.
Chapter Four: The Kitchen: Food! The development of ice as a common means of food preservation, mason jars, and cans, and the change in eating habits through the Victorian Era.
Chapter Five: The Scullery and Larder: In which being a servant was just awful.
Chapter Six: The Fuse Box: Life by candlelight, gaslight, and the development of the electric light.
Chapter Seven: The Drawing Room: The invention of comfortable furniture. Also, lots and lots of architecture.
Chapter Eight: The Dining Room: Spices, scurvy, salt, vitamins, coffee, and tea.
Chapter Nine: The Cellar: What was used to build homes in Britain and America, and why? If you have an interest in wood, bricks, stone, or cement, this is the chapter for you.
Chapter Ten: The Passage: The Eiffel Tower, The Gilded Age, the telephone.
Chapter Eleven: The Study: Mice and rats and bedbugs, oh my! Also germs and bats and locusts and lice!
Chapter Twelve: The Garden: Much architecture. The switch from formal to more naturalistic parks. The development of Central Park. The development of gardening as a hobby. The rise of the lawn.
Chapter Thirteen: The Plum Room: In which Bryson discusses Monticello and Mount Vernon.
Chapter Fourteen: The Stairs. Household hazards!
Chapter Fifteen: The Bedroom: Sex, disease, death, and burial.
Chapter Sixteen: The Bathroom: The very smelly history of hygiene.
Chapter Seventeen: The Dressing Room: Fashion!
Chapter Eighteen: The Nursery: Childbirth and child rearing is not for wimps.
Chapter Nineteen: The Attic: Darwin, economics, and the end of the parsonage era.
Enjoy, and feel free to pick and choose!
Tagged Arden Dimick Book Club, Arden Dimick Library, At Home, Between the Lines Book Club, Bill Bryson, History
August 25, 2017 by CarrieS
Between the Lines Book Club: A Timeline
This month we are reading In the Garden of Beasts, by Eric Larson. We will meet in person to discuss the book at Arden Dimick Library on August 26, 2017 at 10:30AM.
In the Garden of Beasts describes the lives of the Dodd family, who were Ambassadors to Germany from 1933 to 1937. For your reference, here is a timeline of Hitler's rise to power so you can see where the Dodd years fell in the development of the Third Reich. This timeline is condensed from a much more detailed one at Open Learn.
1920: Hitler becomes the head of propaganda for the German Worker's Party and changes the party's name to the Nationalist Socialist German Worker's Party (NAZI).
1925 – 1926: Publishes Mein Kampf while in prison for political activities.
1930 – 1933: The Nazi Party rises in prominence.
1933: Enabling Act passed following the Reichstag Fire. This act gives Hitler full legislative powers for four years. Hitler bans all other political parties and trade unions.
1933: William Dodd appointed US Ambassador, stationed in Berlin.
1934: Paul von Hindenburg, Germany's elected president, dies. Hitler names himself head of state with the support of the military.
1935: Hitler re-arms the military and introduces military conscription.
1937: Dodd leaves Berlin and resigns as Ambassador.
1938: Crystal Night, a night of terror which is often thought of as the beginning of the Holocaust.
1941: The United States of America enters WWII.
Posted in Between The Lines Book Club
Tagged Arden Dimick Book Club, Arden Dimick Library, Between the Lines Book Club, In the Garden of Beasts, Timeline of Hitler's rise to power
July 7, 2017 by CarrieS
Between the Lines Book Club: Johnny Appleseed
Our book this month is At the Edge of the Orchard, by Tracy Chevalier. One of the main characters in the book is John Chapman, also known as Johnny Appleseed. Growing up, I was familiar with this historical personage only because of the song we used to sing:
Oh the Lord is good to me
And so I thank the Lord
For giving me
The Things I need
The sun and the rain and the appleseed
Oh, the Lord is good to me!
Johnny Appleseed was a real person, who lived from 1774 to 1845. He spent most of his adult live establishing apple nurseries, which he would visit and tend to every one or two years. He went barefoot, was vegetarian, and attempted never to hurt an animal. He was opposed to grafting, a process which allows new apple varieties to be created. Most of the apple trees he planted grew "spitters," that is, apples used for making cider. His orchards were laid low not by flood or drought or pests, but by Prohibition.
Want to learn more about this peculiar and influential American figure? Try "7 Facts on Johnny Appleseed" on biography.com or "9 Facts That Tell the True Story of Johnny Appleseed" on mentalfloss.com. For a less accurate take on the story, here's the first part of Disney's version, complete with the song and friendly chirping birds.
Tagged American historical fiction, Arden Dimick Library, At the Edge of the Orchard, Between the Lines Book Club, Johnny Appleseed, Tracy Chevalier
November 11, 2016 by CarrieS
Between the Lines Book Club: The Boys in the Boat
This month we have a quick turnaround book-wise. We'll be meeting to discuss The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown, on 11/19/16 at Arden Dimick Library at 10:30AM.
The Boys in the Boat tells the story of the University of Washington's efforts to win a gold in rowing at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. The story focuses on Hitler's efforts to convince the world that Germany was a benign power, and on the efforts of American Joe Rantz to survive the Depression and parental abandonment, finish college, and succeed in keeping his place on the crew team.
In this book trailer, at minute 1:10, you can see video of the incredible 1936 Olympic race:
If you have an hour, you can view the PBS documentary: The Boys of '36, about the crew.
I hope you all enjoy this amazing story!
Tagged Arden Dimick Book Club, Arden Dimick Library, Between the Lines Book Club, Boys on the Boat
October 21, 2016 by CarrieS
Between the Lines Book Club: Gilead and Transcendentalism
Our October book club selection is Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson. If you are in the Sacramento area, please join us at Arden Dimick Library at 10:30AM on October 29, 2016.
Gilead is the story of Reverend Ames, his father, and his grandfather, and their approaches to war and civil rights. The book is profoundly influenced by transcendentalism.
Transcendentalism is a philosophical school of thought that developed in the late 1820s. It was made famous by, among other people, author Ralph Waldo Emerson. Other followers included Louisa May Alcott and her family, Margaret Fuller, Walt Whitman, and Henry David Thoreau.
Transcendentalism was a movement that was influenced by Romanticism, as well as by Indian religions. Transcendentalists believed that all people are inherently good, that nature is inherently good, and that the more self-reliant people are, the better they are. The movement was notable as being American in origin, and most of its followers were Americans. It was also notable for sparking a literary movement that mirrored its philopophical aims. Emerson's magazine, The Dial, was a home to many new essays and stories by American writers.
In an article for The New Inquiry titled "The New Transcendentalist" Susan Salter Reynolds says,
I like to think of Robinson as a member of a merry band I call the New Transcendentalists, a group that builds on the luminous work of Emerson, Thoreau, Dickinson, Whitman, Melville, and others. The New Transcendentalists include, besides Robinson, Wendell Berry, Thomas Merton, Mary Oliver, Rebecca Solnit, and others. I am sure that I have left names from both categories, New and Old, but the message is the same: belief in the human spirit and its capacity for community, generosity, and stewardship; in what Whitman called "radical uniqueness," and in the vital connection to nature as a source of creativity and innovation. The effect is also the same: elevation, followed by freedom.
By tying her work, both consciously (Robinson is a big Emerson fan) and unconsciously to Transcendentalism, Robinson is able to explore the healing power of nature, the pros and cons of communities, and the role of faith in matters and large and small. She also gives her work a distinctly American feel by tying it to a rich legacy of American thought and American fiction.
Tagged Arden Dimick, Between the Lines Book Club, Gilead, Sacramento Public Library
Between the Lines Book Club: Voices From Annawadi
Between the Lines Book Club will be meeting tomorrow (September 24, 2016) at Arden Dimick Library at 10:30AM to discuss Behind the Beautiful Forevers, by Katherine Boo.
In this space, I've shared some interviews with Katherine Boo. After her book came out, people wanted to know how the book affected the neighborhood she wrote about (Annawadi, outside Mumbai). Here's an interview in which she talks about the connection she has to the people of Annawadi, and how things have an have not changed. when asked if she still has a connection to people, she says this:
My husband (Sunil Khilnani) and I are still engaged with the community, funding education, training and emergency aid to help families get through health and other crises. Some students have risen heroically to the challenge of good private schools — schools where even the guards at the gates make them feel unwelcome.
"Inspiring" is an overused word, but those kids inspire me — seriously. But progress in communities like Annawadi is often incremental, given structural issues like the prevalence of disease and the almost total absence of permanent work.
As for individuals featured in the book, Manju now has a master's degree, and she and her new husband run two tuition centers. She's a very popular tutor, with a particular concern for poorer students. Manju's brothers have become drivers — work they like — and are also doing well. The Husain family now owns a home and business outside of Mumbai, and four of the younger children are doing well in a private school that is considered the best in their area.
But one person I wrote about died of TB-related disease, and another is fighting an addiction. This is real life, not a fairy tale with a happy ending. And a month from now, the circumstances of the people I've just mentioned may be utterly different, because if there's one constant in places like Annawadi, it's change.
Reader's will remember Manju's drive to get an education. Manju has read the book, and in this thoughful peice for Dawn she talks about what she thinks of the book, and what her mother thinks of it:
"I have read the book, and I liked it even though it made me cry," Manju, who speaks good English, told AFP in Annawadi, a slum located next to Mumbai's international airport and tucked behind the five-star Hyatt Regency hotel.
"It is truth, not fiction," she says. "Everyone in Annawadi knows. If I don't say these things about my family, someone else will, so why let them gossip?"
If you are curious about what Annawadi looks like, here's a very short video from 2012:
I hope you all enjoyed the book! See some of you on Saturday!
Tagged Annawadi, Arden Dimick Book Club, Arden Dimick Library, Behind Beautiful Forevers, Between the Lines Book Club, Katherine Boo
Between the Lines Book Club: Interviews with Katherine Boo
This month we are reading Behind the Beautful Forevers by Katherine Boo. You can participate in book club by leaving comments after any book club post, or by meeting in person at Arden Dimick Library in Sacramento, California. Our next meeting will be on September 24, 2016 at 10:30AM.
Behind the Beautiful Forevers is a non-ficiton work that reads like a novel. Katherine Boo, with the aid of translators, spent about three years getting to know the residents of Annawadi, a slum on the edge of Mumbai, India. This review by Amit Chaudhuri gives an Indian perspective on the book (Boo is an American who married an Indian).
In this interview at npr, Boo talks about life in the slum as compared to the village, what it was like being a blonde American in the slum, and the lives of women. I found this especially interesting:
"Often in journalism, stories about the poor began with a reporter going to an NGO and saying, 'Tell me about the good work you're doing, and let me follow you, and maybe if you could just pick out some real success stories, I'll write about them.' I think that those kind of stories do an injustice to the enormous amount of creative and enterprising problem-solving that low-income people do for themselves, that most of the ways that people get out of poverty in the United States, in India and anywhere else I've ever been is through their own imaginations and their own fortitude."
In a Q&A on her wepage, Boo goes into a lot of detail about why she chose the topic she chose, her writing process, and how she wanted readers to see the people as more than objects of pity:
When I talk to friends about Annawadi experiences that haunt me, they'll sometimes ask, Why didn't you write about that? But I was intent that this book not be some dolorous registry of the most terrible things that had ever happened at Annawadi. A book like that wouldn't have done justice to what Annawadi felt like, day to day. Annawadi life was also about flagpole ring-toss and tell-all sessions among teenaged girls at the public toilet and parents comforting and delighting in their children. It was Sunil and Sonu the Blinky Boy applying their rich imaginations to gathering trash and figuring out their place in the world.
Sunil and Sonu have tough, tough lives but if a reader comes away from this book thinking of them only as pathetic socioeconomic specimens I'll have failed as a writer. They're cool, interesting kids, and I want the reader to sense that, too. Because we can talk all we want about how corruption or indifference robs people of opportunity–of the promise our societies squander–but if we don't really grasp the intelligences of those who are being denied, we're not going to grasp the potential that's being lost.
The video below has interviews with Katherine Boo and with Meera Syal, an actress in the National Theater's stage adaptation of the book. It also has footage of Annawadi and it's residents.
Tagged Arden Dimick Book Club, Arden Dimick Library, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Between the Lines Book Club, Katherine Boo
September 9, 2016 by CarrieS
Between the Lines Book Club: Behind the Beautiful Forevers
This month's book club pick is Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo. You can participate in book club by leaving comments after any book club post, or by meeting in person at Arden Dimick Library in Sacramento, California. Our next meeting will be on September 24, 2016 at 10:30AM.
Behind the Beautiful Forevers is a non-fiction book about a slum (Annawadi) on the edge of Mumbai, India. The author, Katherine Boo, is an American woman who lived in Mumbai with her Indian husband for several years. She spent over three years following the lives of Annawadi's residents. By keeping the focus on the lives of specific characters, she gives the book the feeling of a novel with the rigor of a peice of journalism.
Next week I'll be providing links to some interviews with Katherine Boo. In the meantine, I have reading to do!
Tagged Arden Dimick Book Club, Arden Dimick Library, Between the Lines Book Club, Beyond the Beautiful Forevers, India
Between the Lines Book Club: Feminism in Girl on the Train
Between the Lines Book Club will be meeting tomorrow, August 27, 2016, at Arden Dimick Library at 10:30AM. The Girl on the Train is one of a string of thrillers involving women, including Gone Girl and The Woman in Cabin 10. All of these thrillers involve women in the context of parenting, marriages, romantic relationships, and familial relation ships. They've hit a nerve, and some say it's because by presenting women as the center of the story, and by presenting the reader with women who are not victims, the books are feminist in nature.
In "Why Everyone's Talking About The Girl on the Train," Claire Fallon states:
By using our assumptions about how women can and should behave to set up shocking plot twists, or by pushing these assumptions to the logical extreme, a thriller can make use of its genre conventions to undermine societal conventions. In these novels, within the gripping mystery at its heart, the inherent dangers of femininity in modern life are gently unearthed, dusted off, and presented for us to see clearly. As much progress as women have made in our society over the past century, it's clear that many of us are still hungry for this dramatic explosion of the sexism around us.
Heroine Jones points out that the characters in The Girl on the Train grow through a point in which they define themelves by the men in their lives into a place of more independence:
Without spoiling anything, I want to comment on the feminism of The Girl on the Train. The message on traditional gender roles is subtle at first but eventually comes forward as an important final note. Throughout the novel, Hawkins' female characters all see their worth through the eyes of men. As the story comes to a close, though, they all seem to find some level of personal strength to do what they know they have to do. In confronting their individual fears of rejection in some form, they take one firm step towards emancipating themselves from the destructively limiting gender roles which they had previously fully accepted.
At Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, Elyse writes about the Gone Girl phenomena:
To me the killer in the basement is far less scary than a book that makes you question what the fuck is going on here? and by moving female characters out of the "victim" space and into something more complex and explored, it gives female characters more credit, makes them more human. The "innocent" blonde haired, blue eyed Midwestern girl gone missing will always draw readers — hell, it draws me — but I want my fiction to do more, to be a little bit more, and to give me the unexpected. I want more than the body in the woods. I want my female characters to be a little bit dangerous too.
Elyse lists several other books to try in the above article. She also reviewed The Woman in Cabin 10. In her review, it's clear that The Woman in Cabin 10 deals with many of the same themes of manipulation that The Girl on the Train tackles:
Nilsson acts like Lo's sleeplessness and antidepressants mean that Lo can't be trusted to differentiate reality from fantasy, and the fact that she calls him on it is perfect. This is a common theme in mysteries/ thrillers/ horror fiction–you must be crazy! There's not really a killer/ monster/ alien/ bigfoot hanging out here! Ooops I just got my face eaten, guess you were right. The thing is, most heroines don't deal with their doubters are directly or forcefully as Lo.
What do you think? Did The Girl on the Train make you want to read more books in the genre? Do you think the book is feminist? Why or why not? Let us know in person tomorrow, or in the comments below!
Tagged Arden Dimick Book Club, Arden Dimick Library, Between the Lines Book Club, Girl on the Train
Between the Lines Book Club: Interviews with Paula Hawkins
Welcome back to Between the Lines Book Club, where we are discussing The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. We will meet in person on August 27 at Arden Dimick Library, at 10:30AM, to discuss the book. Meanwhile, leave your comments below!
Since publishing The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins has been widely interviewed. Below, here are links to some interviews with her:
You can see an interview with Paula Hawkins here:
Meanwhile, Emily Blunt has been doing some press for the movie adaptation, which opens on October 7. You can see Emily Blunt talk about why playing Rachel was so challenging, and see the trailer for the movie, at Today.com.
Tagged Arden Dimick Book Club, Arden Dimick Library, Between the Lines Book Club, The Girl on the Train
Between the Lines Book Club: The Girl on the Train
This month our selection is The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins. It's a relatively short, fast, light read, just right for the end of summer. However, it's also layered and complex in terms of it's clever construction and it's treatment of themes including alcoholism, memory, and the ways we deceive others and ourselves.
The Girl on the Train was a huge bestseller, and a movie adaptation starring Emily Blunt will be released on October 7, 2016. NPR raved about it, saying:
But what really makes The Girl on the Train such a gripping novel is Hawkins' remarkable understanding of the limits of human knowledge, and the degree to which memory and imagination can become confused. Reflecting on her fellow passengers on her daily train ride to and from London, Rachel thinks, "I recognize them and they probably recognize me. I don't know whether they see me, though, for what I really am." They don't, of course, and they can't. It's hard enough — maybe impossible — for a person even to see herself for what she really is.
The New York Times praised the book for its skillful manipulation of the reader, saying:
Ms. Hawkins keeps all these fibs, threats and innuendoes swirling through her book, to the point where they frighten and undermine each of her characters. None of them really know which of the others can be trusted or believed. And although there's a lot of Hitchcock to the book's diabolical plotting, there's also a strong element of "Gaslight," the classic story in which a man tries to convince his wife that she is going mad. All three women in the book are candidates for this treatment, and Ms. Hawkins puts it to very good use.
The reader is ready for some gaslighting, too. So Ms. Hawkins scrambles the timing of scenes, with Megan gone in one chapter and then present in the next. She also shifts well among her narrators' points of view to keep the reader on edge, and only as the book progresses do these different perspectives begin to dovetail. Scrambling a story is easy, but it's done here to tight, suspenseful effect. The book does have a lot of moving parts, and Ms. Hawkins takes longer than necessary to get them started. The second part of the story is much tighter and more suspenseful.
Even my favorite study guide, schmoop.com, got in on the action with an excellent analysis of the book – so if you want some extra things to consider, or a guide through the sometimes confusing events, check it out.
We will be meeting in person to discuss The Girl on the Train at Arden Dimick Library, on Saturday August 27, 2016, at 10:30AM. Happy reading!
July 22, 2016 by CarrieS
Between the Lines Book Club: Wright Brothers on Film.
This month the Between the Lines Book Club is reading The Wright Brothers, by David McCullough. You can leave comments about the book here, or better yet meet up in person at Arden Dimick Library at 10:30AM on Saturday, July 30, 2016.
Here's some amazing footage of the Wright Brothers in action! It includes still photography, film footage of both brothers, film footage of the flights in Le Mans and Fort Meyer, and the first motion picture footage shot from an airplane. It also shows how the catapult system got the plane into the air. Enjoy!
Tagged Arden Dimick Book Club, Arden Dimick Library, Between the Lines Book Club, History of Flight, The Wright Brothers
Between the Lines Book Club: McCullough Speaks!
David McCullogh is a highly acclaimed author who has won two Pulitzer Prizes (for Truman and for John Adams) and a National Book Award (for The Path Between the Seas). He was born in Pennsylvania in 1933, and studied at Yale where Thornton Wilder became his mentor. He met his wife, Rosalee, when he was seventeen. They have five children and currently live in Boston.
McCullogh's first book was The Jonestown Flood. Although he was approached to write about other disasters, he didn't want to be labeled "Bad News McCullough" so he turned to a more cheery story, the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. He is probably best well known for John Adams and for 1776.
McCullough did a number of interviews about The Wright Brothers. Here are links to a few:
airspace.com
Saturday Evening Post – this interview has content about the book but also about McCullough's life
And here's a lengthy interview with McCullough and Ken Burns. McCullough narrated several of Burn's documentaries.
Tagged Arden Dimick Book Club, Arden Dimick Library, Between the Lines Book Club, David McCullough, The Wright Brothers
Between the Lines Book Club: The Wright Brothers
The Wright Brothers touches briefly on the early and late lives of Orville and Wilbur Wright, but it gives most of it's attention to the development of the first airplane and how the brothers death with subsequent fame and business troubles.
If this book piqued your curiosity, here are some links to more about the Wright Brothers, as well as the early history of flight:
The History of Flight
The Wright Brothers were admirers of glider Otte Lilienthal. You can read more about his glider and see a picture at the Air and Space Museum webpage.
The Wright Brothers talks about the brothers' sister, Katherine. For more about her amazing life, check out wrightstories.com.
Like trivia? Check out Wright Trivia! Under "pets, it says that Wilbur adopted a stray dog named 'Flyer', and Orville kept a picture of his St. Bernard, 'Scorpio', in his wallet.
Tagged Arden Dimick Book Club, Arden Dimick Library, Between the Lines Book Club, Wright Brothers

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Our quality cat toys are handcrafted in the USA and sold in pet stores across the country and around the world. Often imitated, never duplicated! Don't settle for inferior products made in overseas sweatshops. Look for our products at your local retailer, or purchase them online here at our website.


If you have a small kitchen, you may be considering adding extra square footage via additions or extensive remodeling. While these are certainly great options, in many cases you can actually make your kitchen look bigger without tearing down any walls. From the perspective of a designer when it comes to color and finding ways to reduce clutter, here are four ways to maximize the space in your cozy kitchen.
Painting in Alpharetta, GA, or the local area, can go a long way toward making a visual impact. In fact, playing with color can even give the illusion of extra area. In smaller quarters, think light. Darker hues have a tendency to weigh down tiny spaces, while lighter colors can open them up. Additionally, painting your ceiling one or two shades lighter than the walls can create the look of extra height.
If you are already pressed for space, don't waste an inch of it on oversized kitchen cabinets in Alpharetta, GA, or the local area. Cabinetry can have a tremendous effect on the rest of a room. When you need to make the most of an area, invest in minimalist cabinets. Their sleek lines and modern aesthetic make any room feel clean and open.
Even the most cramped kitchen can feel a little less tight with a few bright windows. Letting the outdoors in is a great way to achieve the look of additional space. We also love the way a skylight can naturally illuminate an area. If you have room in the budget for a new window or two, you may be surprised at the difference they can make.
Lastly, don't be afraid to think outside the box. Talk to your contractor about the best options for your kitchen remodeling in Alpharetta, GA, and the local area. Working with Northside Construction Services will ensure no space goes to waste in the most stylish way possible. Call us today for a free quote.


text:
Home American History Spanish Explorers of the Pacific Northwest Coast
Spanish Explorers of the Pacific Northwest Coast
Areas of Alaska and British Columbia Explored by Spain
In 1774 Juan Pérez sailed north from Mexico to enforce Spanish claims to the coast of present-day Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and Alaska.
Within 55 years of Columbus' landing in America, Spanish explorers had navigated along the Pacific Coast as far north as southern Oregon. Again in 1603, Spanish mariners sighted the coast from their ships. Though these explorers never set foot on land, it was enough for Spain to claim all the lands of the Pacific Coast of North America.
Spain didn't again explore the coast until 1774. During that gap of years, the Pacific Northwest remained a mystery to European explorers who had navigated most of the globe and traversed distant continents.
Pérez Investigates Rumors of Russian Settlements
The bustling American colonies on the Atlantic coast were only a few years from declaring their independence from Britain when the Spanish got word that Russia was setting up fur trading settlements in Alaska.
Juan Pérez, commander of the ship Santiago, was sent from Mexico to investigate. He reached as far as the Queen Charlotte Islands when bad weather and illness among the crew turned him back south. The ship anchored in Nootka Sound at Vancouver Island, which Pérez named the Harbor of San Lorenzo.
Like his Spanish predecessors, Pérez didn't go ashore, but met with native Haida and Tlingit traders. An artist who accompanied Pérez made some of the first drawings of Tlingit life.
Heceta Anchors in Present-Day Washington
In 1775 the Santiago was sent north again, this time with Bruno Heceta, of Spain, as commander and Perez as second captain. Sailing with them was the small schooner, Sonora, commanded by Lieutenant Juan Francisco de Bodega y Cuadra.
The Santiago anchored at Point Grenville, north of Grays Harbor in present-day Washington. Here several sailors went ashore, quickly erecting a cross as a sign of their claim to the land in the name of the Spanish king. The native people had seemed friendly during this first brief encounter, but when several crewmen from the Sonora went ashore for fresh water a short while later, they were attacked and killed.
Columbia River Sighted
The Santiago and Sonora separated following the ill-fated landing at Point Grenville and the little Sonora continued north, sailing to present-day Sitka, Alaska, reportedly planting crosses in several spots. As fall approached, Bodega y Cuadra turned his ship south for home, surveying much of the Southern Oregon coastline along the way.
Heceta, on the Santiago, went as far north as Nootka Sound, then turned around at the insistence of his crew.
On the way back he came to what he described as a bay with strong eddies that later proved to be the mouth of the Columbia River. He did not enter the river, however, leaving that to later explorers.
Juan Francisco de Bodega y Cuadra would be seen again in Nootka Sound after the Spanish received word that British seamen had set up fur trading operations at the sound and were running ships to China where they made a tidy profit on the furs. Bodega y Cuadra was among the Spanish representatives sent up the coast to press Spain's claim to the land.
But as the 1700s drew toward a close, the right of free commerce and navigation was recognized, ending Spanish domination of the Pacific Northwest Coast of America. The Spanish had made the first contributions to European information about the Pacific Northwest Coast.
Captain James Cook would be the next to explore these waters, setting sail in 1776 from Britain.
Before the Covered Wagon, by Phillip H. Parish, Metropolitan Press, Portland, OR, 1931.
On the Path of the Explorers, by Steve Short and Rosemary Neering, Whitecap Books, Vancouver, B.C., 1992.
Oregon Historical Society, 1200 SW Park Avenue, Portland, OR 97205.


text:
Researchers map brain activity to read dreams
The study matched patterns in subjects' neural activity with imagery in their dreams
By Adam Hoffman
April 10, 2013 | 1:11am EDT
The science fiction trope of reading another person's thoughts may be one step closer to reality, thanks to recent developments in research related to the decoding of dreams.
In a study published last Thursday in the journal Science, a joint team of researchers from Japan and Brown used a machine-learning paradigm to decode the brain activity of subjects during early sleep stages and reliably determine the content of their dreams.
During the study, which lasted about three years, the neural activity of three subjects in early sleep was recorded using functional MRI, which localizes brain activity to particular brain areas by tracking blood flow. The researchers also used EEG, which measures electrical activity along the scalp, to understand brain activity at specific times to determine the subject's stage of sleep.
Though dreaming is often associated with REM sleep — a state in which the body is paralyzed but the brain is highly active, like in waking moments — dream-like images known as hypnagogic hallucinations are often associated with early non-REM sleep.
The researchers awoke the subjects every six minutes and asked them to report the general content of their dreams.
"We had to get as many dream samples as possible," said Masako Tamaki, a post-doc in the Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences and the secondary author of the study.
Subjects' responses were typically muddled due to their disoriented states, according to the study. The experimenters categorized the images broadly because they did not have the technology to examine specific details about the dreams.
While awake, subjects viewed images that fell into the same categories they had reported dreaming about, such as human faces or furniture. While they viewed the images, the researchers recorded their neural activity.
The team was able to use the data to construct a computer algorithm for each individual that paired particular brain activation states with corresponding visual imagery, with an accuracy of 60 percent, according to the study.
"There's something in common between what goes on in dreaming and what goes on in perception," said Jack Gallant, an associate professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, in an article about the study published in the Los Angeles Times last week.
Tamaki said she hopes this research can eventually be expanded so that researchers can create more generalized algorithms to decode the dreams of a large number of people. Such a decoding mechanism could potentially help reveal the unconscious thoughts of coma patients, she said.
"The strides that are being made in this type of science are remarkable," said Mary Carskadon, professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Alpert Medical School and director of sleep research at Bradley Hospital, who was not involved in the study. "I find this whole new world of computational analysis to be so interesting and to have potential ... for doing some really good things," she said.
But Carskadon added there could also be a "dark side" to this type of research, noting that companies like Google and Facebook use similar methods of computational machine learning to analyze data to predict human actions to their advantage.
This research is only a preliminary step toward an understanding of the function of the vivid dreaming that occurs during REM sleep, which still remains an enigma in sleep science research, Tamaki said.
Both Tamaki and Carskadon said studying dream content during REM sleep poses several challenges, due to increased difficulty of obtaining a sufficiently large sample of REM trials, the unreliability of image content reports obtained from REM sleep and the difficulties associated with keeping the subjects asleep while in an fMRI machine, which is about as loud as an airplane engine.
Drug screening platform helps predict atrial-specific arrhythmia responses
AI100 report hones in on latest social, ethical issues around artificial intelligence
Brown, RISD team wins inaugural Google Biodesign Sprint competition


Content by Tony Macklin. Originally published on May 29, 2010 @ tonymacklin.net.
Kites is an aromatic, cinematic Indian mutton stew -- if that sounds different from usual movie fare, it is.
It's a Bollywood mixture of romance, violence, action, music, and differing cultures and languages. Sometimes it's tough; often it's tender. It depends on your appetite.
I can only affirm the longer version. It does get redundant, but I would hate to see some scenes cut out like a wild, energetic Hrithik Rashan dance. It's one of the movie's charms.
I might trim 10 minutes, but I wouldn't deep-six 40 minutes. That's cutting out too many spices, just to replace them with Ratner adrenaline.
Kites is directed and co-written by Anurag Basu, but since it's Bollywood -- a Hindi-language product -- it has major contributions from a Bollywood family. This time the clan is the Roshans: the father Rakesh is producer, his brother Rajesh does the original music, and his son Hrithik is the leading man. Hrithik makes the movie hum.
Kites takes place and was shot in Las Vegas, the Southwest, and rural Mexico. It's an alien vision of America, based on pop culture movies.
In Kites it rains a lot -- pelting rain. There never ever was as much rain in the actual Las Vegas as there is in this Bollywood Las Vegas. But when you enter the world of Kites, you enter a world of product placement -- e.g., Calvin Klein jeans and Starbucks, and buckets of inauthentic rain. It's a wet madcap world.
Kites basically is a bombastic love story full of the trappings of movie lore. Jay (Hrthik Roshan) is a hustler and dance instructor in Las Vegas. For a fee he marries eleven illegal women to get them papers. One of them -- Linda (Barbara Mori) eventually turns out to be the love of his life. But for a while he loses touch with her.
He meets her again -- this time she calls herself Natasha -- when she becomes engaged to his present girl friend Gina's (Kangana Ranaut) brother Tony (Nicholas Brown). Tony and Gina are the children of a brutal casino owner and crime boss. Fate intrudes and Jay and Linda -- the loving odd couple -- run away on the road with the vicious, jilted fiance in tangy pursuit.
What stirs the pot even more is the runaway couple do not understand each other's language -- Tony speaks Hindi, and Linda speaks Spanish. But as Jay tells an arbiter, "Love and music have no language." Or nuance.
The soundtrack keeps pounding away. It is overwrought and the music is annoying blatant -- especially the lyrics.
But Kites is a delirious hodgepodge of movie references. An allusion to Chaplin's dance of the rolls in The Gold Rush (1925) is nice, but the pilfering of the graphic novel shootout in the rain from Road to Perdition (2002) is forced and makes the movie silly when it should be potent.
Basu uses Sergio Leone's style as one of his major influences. He utilizes close-ups and space, and as in Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), water is a major symbol in Kites. And Hrithik's eyes may remind one of Henry Fonda's blue peepers in Leone's classic western.
But Rajesh is no Ennio Morricone -- where Morricone's music was often over the top, it always was evocative and effective. Rajesh's often is just over the top.
Kites is a great stimulus for movie aficionados. One may see sequences that remind him of Smokey and the Bandit (1977), Bonnie & Clyde (1967), Singin' in the Rain (1952), Thelma & Louise (1991), Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, and Sam Peckinpah.
Kites has great car chases and obliterating crashes. They're a hoot.
And ladies -- I challenge you to resist Hrithik Roshan's movie star looks and personality. And he strips to the waist for you. In India, Hrithik is a matinee idol, and his presence is magnetic in Kites.
At one point in Kites the star-crossed couple escape in an air balloon. It is ridiculous and clever.
As is the entire movie.


text:
Tag Archives: Simon Templeman
Diablo III (2013)
Posted by Robert Bicket on September 30, 2013
Our Long War Ends Today, Imperius!
I wanted to play today's game for a very long time. It was originally released in May of 2012 for the computer, but my computer was having far too many problems for me to even consider running a game more powerful than Angry Birds. A year later, I was finally able to build a computer capable of running it, but by that point I didn't feel interested anymore. Thankfully, they were putting the game out on console a few months later. My interest was revived! And now I can finally bring you my review of Diablo III, developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment, and including the voices of Athena Karkanis, Dorian Harewood, Anna Graves, Robin Atkin Downes, Rajia Baroudi, Jamieson Price, Erica Luttrell, Carl Lumbly, Grey DeLisle, Crispin Freeman, Alyson Reed, Michael Gough, Jonathan Adams, Jennifer Hale, Dominic Keating, Troy Baker, Sumalee Montano, Simon Templeman, and James Hong.
You play as one of five character types in one of two genders. You arrive in the town of Tristram following a mysterious star crashing to the ground and raising the dead in its wake. We meet with Leah (Jennifer Hale) who was in the Cathedral investigating the ominous prophecy that may lead to the resurrection of Diablo with her uncle Deckard Cain (Michael Gough). Upon investigation, we find that the star that crashed to the ground is actually an angel named Tyrael (Jonathan Adams), who tells us that the demon lords Belial and Azmodan are wreaking havoc through the world and that we have to stop them because … well, what else would we do?
I enjoyed this game just fine, but the story really had nothing to do with it. Mainly because there barely was one. It's really not much more than, "Diablo is coming back and we have to stop him." They have a couple smaller things they try to fit in (Deckard and Leah's relationship, Leah and Aria's relationship, the little boy emperor and his besieged kingdom, the demons war on the humans, the bickering angels), but it really boils down to a really long mission to beat one boss. They don't really try to surprise you too much beyond that. There is a bit of a surprise involving Leah, and also a bit of a surprise involving our main character. I won't spoil Leah's, but I will spoil ours: we're a Nephilim. I feel comfortable spoiling that because I've played through a great portion of the game five times and I have no recollection of the game actually informing of this. At a certain point, characters are just talking about that fact as if it were assumed knowledge by now. I feel like there was another thing that the intended to be a surprise, but if that's the case they should feel embarrassed. We have to work with the ghost of a guy named Zoltun Kulle at one point until he betrays us. I could not wrap my mind around the idea that this could be a spoiler. The guy's voice was brought to us by I Am Evil enterprises and every time he disappeared, he did so with the dictionary definition of a sinister laugh. The only way they could've surprised me with that guy was if he eventually left after helping us reach our goal to go and find his home world of rainbows and puppies. They did have lots of little journals you could pick up to get additional information, but most of them were either just unimportant things or just a characters feelings about the things going on in the unimpressive story. I did appreciate that those journals would not be hindered by leaving the area and would continue through the load screens. I would've hated having to stand inside Deckard's room waiting for his journal to stop talking just so I could be underwhelmed by the information he was giving.
The game looks pretty good. It's kind of hard to say as the camera is never that close to allow us to see the details, but that's something they pretty much need to stick to because that's the setup of a Diablo game. The improvements that can be seen are in the activity of the levels. The levels in the game are always alive with little movements, from creatures scurrying around on the floor to parts of the level crumbling off when you get too close. My favorite one was in a spider lair when a guy was dragged into a hole when I got too close. The attention to detail – even if we never really got close enough to see that much of it – was fantastic. Also, the cut scenes were great. The disparity in the graphical quality between the gameplay and the cut scenes reminded me of those trailers for The Old Republic that made the game look so much more awesome than the game seemed to deliver. I don't mean that as a critique of Diablo, but as a compliment to the quality of the cut scenes.
I made it a specific point to dedicate a decent amount of time to each of the five character types before embarking on my review. What I decided early on is that I always seem to pick the character that is the least prepared for my antisocial style of gameplay. I generally don't team up with people because people will hurt you. I'M TALKING TO YOU, CYNTHIA!! That being the case, you'd assume I'd be more prone to picking a tank character such as the Barbarian for my first go. But that's never the case. In City of Heroes, I picked a Blaster. In World of Warcraft, I picked a rogue. And in Diablo III, I picked the Demon Hunter, or what is more commonly known as an archer. So running solo was a pretty bad idea for quite some time. The rapid fire ability helps, but I came to realize that your friends could be both assistance and hindrance. The fact that I got into this game a while after they did helped me out because they could just jump into my game and throw away the trash they would never use, which just so happened to be excellent equipment to my lower level character. The other side of that coin is the friends who attempt to rush you through your campaign so that you can join them in their higher difficulty campaigns. First off, when you get bored and abandon me right before the boss, it leaves me underpowered to face it. Second, I have a review to write! I feel like I missed most of the story! That's why I had to go on my second playthrough, and I chose the wizard because I had not yet screwed myself over enough with my first character that shouldn't play solo through missions. The saving grace for these two characters comes when you get one of the three followers you can use when playing solo: the Templar, the Scoundrel, and the Enchantress. The problem with these characters is I have no idea why you would ever use anyone but the Templar. He can heal directly, heal by increasing your regeneration, and he's also a capable tank. Taking the other two is basically babysitting.
After those two characters, I finally got the message and went out as a Barbarian. It was kind of boring, but I didn't die so that was a plus. I died a lot with the monk character, but only because he was talked up so much that I assumed I could easily waltz through one of the hardest difficulties with him. I could not. I haven't yet gotten to the point with the Witch Doctor that he becomes truly badass. The higher you level, the more creatures you can spawn to do your fighting for you. It seems like that might get a little boring, but it would certainly be less frustrating. All I was able to spawn by the time I stopped playing was two zombie dogs. I named them Pongo and Perdita.
I'm sure a lot of people were worried that the controls of the game would suffer when porting from the computer to the console. I never played the computer version, but I found the controls very effective on the console. There are plenty enough buttons that you can map your powers to, and it got even better when my friend Hookah told me that there was a setting to change that would allow you to map any powers to any buttons and not just the five or so powers it had allocated to each button. After that the controls were pretty smooth sailing and the gameplay style would just depend on your character. One universal that I enjoyed was the traps that were spread throughout the levels, like hitting a chain to drop a chandelier on a group of enemies or shooting some boards that were holding up a wall to let it crumble onto the enemies. The problem with this was that I rarely saw the traps before I had already cleared the room because of how close the camera was. But that's a minor gripe.
I haven't yet gotten all of the achievements in the game, but the ones I saw didn't seem insurmountable. Just time consuming. I'm sure by the time you had reached level 60 you'd probably have stumbled upon most of them. And probably would've had to have beaten the game on the harder settings to get to that level anyway. So if you've got the time, you've probably got 1,000 Gamerscore.
I wound up very satisfied with my time with Diablo III, and I'll probably be returning to when I have the time. It had nothing to do with the story which is so completely forgettable that it's not even worth mentioning. Thankfully, the things they concerned themselves with instead make the game worth playing. It's lots of fun and has plenty of randomly occurring events to keep you grinding in the game well into being worth its price. Diablo III gets "Let your true self be revealed, Diablo!" out of "Even in the heart of Heaven, angels can still feel fear."
1 Comment Posted in Game Reviews Tagged Alyson Reed, Anna Graves, Athena Karkanis, Blizzard, Blizzard Entertainment, Carl Lumbly, Crispin Freeman, Diablo, Diablo 3, Dominic Keating, Dorian Harewood, Erica Luttrell, game review, Grey DeLisle, James Hong, Jamieson Price, Jennifer Hale, Jonathan Adams, Michael Gough, Rajia Baroudi, Robin Atkin Downes, Simon Templeman, Sumalee Montano, Troy Baker
Darksiders (2010) and Darksiders 2 (2012)
Posted by Robert Bicket on April 24, 2013
It's Not Death That You Should Fear
Recently, I've been trying to think of ways to make it easier to accomplish these reviews; things to make my reviews easier. It's occurred to me that most critics review one episode of a TV show at a time, whereas I review entire seasons in each review. Well I put out a lot of reviews, and should spread those out so I can get more reviews out of one DVD set. …That being said, today I'm reviewing two games in the same review. I don't know why, but even as I already own Tomb Raider and know of the existence of Bioshock Infinite, I decided now was the time to play two games in the same series that only ever vaguely interested me. I own the first one because I bought it used for $20, and I could borrow the second one from my friend Hookah, but there was clearly no reason to be playing this instead of Tomb Raider. Either way, I felt like I had to, so I did. Here is my review for the Darksiders series. Darksiders was developed by Vigil Games, published by THQ, with designs by Joe Madureira, and with the voices of Liam O'Brien, Mark Hamill, Phil LaMarr, Troy Baker, Moon Bloodgood, Lani Minella, Vernon Wells, Keith Szarabajka, J.B. Blanc, and Fred Tatasciore. Darksiders II includes the voices of Michael Wincott, Simon Templeman, André Sogliuzzo, Claudia Christian, Phil Proctor, Barry Dennen, Jamieson Price, Jessica Straus, and Nick Jameson.
For all my atheist readers, Heaven and Hell do not get along. In fact, one could say that they are at war. And Earth is often caught in the middle of that war. A balance is maintained by a group called "The Charred Council (Fred Tatasciore)" using the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – War (Liam O'Brien), Death (Michael Wincott), and for some reason Strife and Fury instead of Conquest and Famine. The balance is broken and war breaks out on Earth, and War awakens to restore the balance, but alone and depowered because the necessary paperwork was not filed to summon the Horsemen, so he is defeated by a demon called Straga (Troy Baker). The Charred Council accuses War of jumping the gun and bringing on the destruction of humanity, but War demands a chance to prove his innocence. They agree to send him back to Earth, bound to an annoyance known as The Watcher (Mark Hamill) and still depowered, to give him the chance to find out who was behind his premature evacuation.
In a fairly chronologically confusing setup, we now play as Death, who has set his sights on clearing his brother's name by reviving humanity using the Well of Souls. I guess this part takes place just after War goes to Earth and gets defeated, so we're playing this part in the several hundred years while War is talking to the Charred Council. Death first goes to the Crowfather (Keith Szarabajka) – who is NOT Bruce Lee – to find out what he must do, but Crowfather is all bitchy because Death made him carry around an amulet filled with the souls of the Nephilim who didn't turn out to be Horsemen material and were then killed by the Horsemen. Death then goes to the Forge Lands, and finds that a lot of the realms are being taken over by this Corruption stuff that is kind of Death's fault because it's all caused by this guy named Absalom (Simon Templeman) that Death killed a while ago.
These games were fine for what they were, but there were issues to be had with them. None of these problems were really with the story … because I wasn't paying that much attention to it. Well, I was paying attention to it, and I even played the game twice, but it was fairly inconsequential. I like a game that incorporates the Four Horseman. I've had a fascination with them ever since I first learned about them … in Marvel comic books. Of course it wasn't in the Bible! I ain't reading that thing! But that also means that I was thrown off because the Four Horsemen in this game didn't include Pestilence and Famine, which wasn't even accurate to the Bible that says it was Conquest and Famine they changed for their game. But Conquest doesn't even seem to fit into the group, so I'm okay with him being gone. And Famine and Pestilence would just be sickly and frail, so they probably wouldn't fit this game either. But the biggest problem of all is how little sense Death makes in Darksiders 2. How the hell is Death's ultimate goal in the game to bring all of the humans back to life? Someone needs to change his fuckin' name before trying that bullshit.
I really appreciated the look of this game, and mostly because the creative direction was left in the hands of my favorite comic book artist: Joe Madureira. This guy's art is the bomb! I literally have one of his pictures as a poster on my wall AND as the desktop of my computer. So I love the artwork that created the game, but I did feel that the atmosphere of the first game didn't really fit the theme of the game. It seemed a little too bright and almost cartoony while they were going for a darker theme. There were levels that seemed to reflect it better – such as the spider level – but the greater majority felt like they should've been darker. War definitely benefited from Madureira's artwork because he loves to make heavily armored and intricate characters, and that fit the look of War really well. But then Darksiders 2 comes around and Death feels like a topless member of Slipknot. But aspects of Death can be changed, which is something that's a little problematic for me. Part of me appreciates it when the gear I change actually changes the gear being carried by my character, but another part of me hates that my logical side needs to have the best equipment on while the artistic side of me wants my character's gear to match and look badass.
Okay, the biggest annoyance I had with the game all came from the gameplay. The gameplay itself could be boiled down to your basic hack-and-slash game, which is fine by me. It's a solid stress relief to hop into a mindless game and beat the shit out of your X button. The problem I had with both games was how much they flat out stole from other games. I had heard a little about this stuff before I even played the game. I was told that it was very similar to God of War meets Zelda, which is definitely true. Hack-and-slash games all kind of feel like God of War, and some of the music in the first game felt like it was taken right off the soundtrack. And the puzzles were vaguely Zelda, but the maps were EXACTLY Zelda. They even have the skull to indicate where the boss is located. But the thievery does not stop there. They have a portal gun in the game! It's not a gun, but it is stolen straight out of Portal. The portals are even blue and orange! You can't just call it a Voidwalker and fool me, Darksiders! And the Abyssal Chain is straight up the hookshot from Zelda. At least for Darksiders 2 they changed it enough by making it a spectral hand that Death reached out with. They have an aerial battle where War rides a griffin that feels very Starfox as well. Darksiders 2 changed the gameplay a lot, but they did not change the amount that it was all stolen. Instead of your basic hack-and-slash, it became more of a Diablo-esque dungeon crawler, where you were rewarded with loot and gold instead of the God of War-style soul orbs. This was also a bummer because you could often get better gear from fighting random weak creatures than you could from surviving 100 levels of the Crucible, or 10 levels of the Soul Arbiter's Maze. Then, they decided they needed to get some quality platforming in their game. What better place than Prince of Persia? They had all the wall running that helped the Prince of Persia games be so good, but lacked the polish that made them great. And the big colossus boss battle was pretty reminiscent of Shadow of the Colossus, appropriately. I actually got to the point with these games that I was thinking that I had not played enough games to accurately pick out every game that they were stealing from. The biggest annoying power wasn't actually stolen from anything, but it was annoying for an entirely different reason. You're not able to enter the realm of the spider people until you get the ability to make your horse – Ruin – run between two pillars to cross a chasm. The reason I found this annoying was that this was the ONLY TIME YOU EVER USE THIS POWER! What a fuckin' waste!
The achievements in these games weren't that bad. I was able to get all of them in both games. They weren't easy, but plenty were annoying. They both did a lot with collectables which means you'll be wandering around the maps over and over. Darksiders 1 even had one that was for riding a certain amount on horseback, which meant I spent a lot of time running around in circles on horseback since I didn't do nearly enough normally. You'll also probably want to play the game twice to get all the achievements, which makes it much easier while also making it take more time. But the most annoying achievement is the one you get for just getting the portal ability in Darksiders 2, because they called it "I can has cake." Come on! You're not even trying to mask that you steal from other games!
Darksiders and Darksiders 2 were decent enough games with next to no story, fantastic art design by Joe Madureira, and some fun and mindless hack-and-slash action. The biggest problem I took with the game was how clearly and blatantly they assembled their game with the cobbled parts of better games. I just don't know if I can call this game worth buying. It's okay, but there are better ways to spend your money. If you can get them super cheap, or if you can rent or borrow them, they're decent enough to play if you have nothing else to play. Darksiders and Darksiders 2 gets "You would fight this war alone?" out of "The greater risk is to do nothing."
Leave a comment Posted in Game Reviews Tagged Andre Sogliuzzo, Barry Dennen, Claudia Christian, Darksiders, Darksiders 2, Fred Tatasciore, game review, J.B. Blanc, Jamieson Price, Joe Madureira, Keith Szarabajka, Lani Minella, Liam O'Brien, Mark Hamill, Michael Wincott, Moon Bloodgood, Nick Jameson, Phil LaMarr, Phil Proctor, Simon Templeman, THQ, Troy Baker, Vernon Wells, Vigil Games


Work-related stress is an issue of growing concern around the world. The relationship between work stress and individuals' psychological and physical health is well acknowledged. In the survey of "stress in the workplace" conducted by American Psychological Association in 2012, two in five (41%) of employed adults report that they typically feel stressed during the workday, up from 36% in 2011, while less than six in ten (58%) report that they have the resources to manage work stress. Historically, Central Business Districts are a focal point of cities, and are occupied by a large group of office buildings and a number of retail spaces. According to Elsbach and Bechky (2007), office workers regularly leave their offices in search of more relaxed, creative environments. However, there is limited "third space" to serve office workers' daily life in the central business district. Most of the design research about wellness of office workers have done focus on the spaces in which people work during office hours. Consideration for office workers in the CBD after office hours is relatively rare. What else is needed to support the life of the office worker, and what kind of spaces they are looking for after hours. Several primary research methods were adopted. First, a survey of research on how the design of traditionally planned CBDs fails to support wellness of office workers was made. Then, the thesis examined what is needed to support the wellness of office workers. In order to make it be specific to the office workers in the CBD of Richmond, qualitative methodology, including interviews and video records of the daily CBD living habits were made. In addition, case studies of recently done CBDs that tackle this question. The Shibaura House, designed by Kazuyo Sejima, located in the business district of Tokyo in Japan, will serve as a primary case study. There are three aims in this research. First is the design of a series of mixeduse spaces in an existing building in the Central Business District of Richmond to support the life of office workers after office hours. It also aims to improve wellness of the office workers in the CBD of Richmond, and try to define the CBD in a new way. The preliminary results for this research indicates the importance of the concern for office workers after hours. It is necessary to focus on the practical effect of the mixed-use building on reducing work stress, improving office workers' health and enhancing wellness of office workers.