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By Janne Wass on November 6, 2019 • ( Leave a comment )
The Ape Man
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(1/10) Bela Lugosi tries to convince the audience that he looks like a gorilla by wearing a false beard in Monogram's 1943 cheapo directed by William "One Shot" Beaudine. A treat for fans of really bad movies, this one is a real clunker.
The Ape Man. 1943, USA. Directed by William Beaudine. Written by Barney A. Sarecky from a story by Karl Brown. Starring: Bela Lugosi, Louise Currie, Wallace Ford, Henry Hall, Minerva Urecal, Emil Van Horn. Produced by Jack Dietz & Sam Katzman. IMDb: 4.5/10. Rotten Tomatoes: N/A. Metacritic: N/A.
The early forties were not a good time for science fiction movies, as they were almost exclusively represented by Poverty Row mad scientist films. To be fair, not all of these were terrible. Among the bubbling beakers, rubber bats, ape suits and spark generators were a few minor gems. Unfortunately The Ape Man is not among these films. The only reason people remember this Monogram monstrosity from 1943 is the fact that it stars Bela Lugosi, in what must have felt like a low-point in an already chequered career. Here his talent is put to the test as he is given the job convincing the audience that he is an ape man with the help of a false beard and woolly cufflings.
The script is based on a short story by the film's cinematographer Karl Brown, called They Creep in the Dark. It was published in The Saturday Evening Post sometime prior to the film, but there is no information on the exact date, and it seems that no-one has ever been interested enough to sift through the paper's archives in hopes of finding it. Karl Brown is best known for contributing to Columbia Pictures' Boris Karloff mad scientist series, and it isn't far-fetched to imagine that this story was another idea for a Karloff script that fell through. Screenwriter Barney Sarecky was a serial film hack that had worked as writer and associate producer on serials like The Whispering Shadow (1933), Flash Gordon (1936, review), Buck Rogers (1938) and later wrote The Purple Monster Strikes (1945) and the TV movie D-Day on Mars (1966). He also went on to produce the film Superman and the Mole-Men (1951, review) and worked as associate producer on the George Reeves TV-series Adventures of Superman (1952).
Emil Van Horn in an ape suit, Bela Lugosi in a beard and Louise Currie in a dress.
Apes were all the rage at the time both in stage and in film. Monogram had entered the mad scientist and ape race in 1940 with the Boris Karloff vehicle The Ape (review), and the idea of shapeshifting between man and animal, preferably with the aid of something like glandular extractions of spinal fluid, caught on after Universal's The Wolf Man in 1941. In this film we don't see a mad scientist turning an ape into a human being nor some unlucky human test subject into an ape. Instead, we get Bela Lugosi's Dr. James Brewster who, for once, does the only moral thing and uses himself as a guinea pig. The film opens with the "disappearance" of Dr. Brewster, and we are soon made privy to the central premise of the plot: Brewster has turned himself into an ape man, but has failed to find a way to reverse the process. However, his theory is that he will be able to do so with a serum made from the spinal fluid of human beings. The catch is, naturally, that in horror movie land, a spinal tap means instant death for the subject. And while Dr. Brewster carefully avoided doing his monkey business on an innocent test subject, he has no qualms about stepping over a dozen bodies in order to save himself from his own mad science. Enter his pet gorilla (Emil Van Horn), who is all too happy to go about Brewster's murderous business.
Minerva Urecal and Bela Lugosi.
That's the premise of the story. Then we need the padding. That's where we get a group of journalists very naturally hanging in a straight line talking sideways to each other at the docks, waiting for the famous ghost hunter Agatha Brewster (Minerva Urecal) to return from Europe, bantering about having missed their breakfast. I suppose it wouldn't be very hard to find ghosts in Europe during the height of WWII, but I'm a bit surprised she chose this particular time to go there. But of course, there were also quite peaceful countries in Europe during the war. Like Sweden. And … yeah, Sweden. No-one was very keen on invading Iceland, either. Disembarking, she is met by Dr. George Randall (Henry Hall), colleague of her brother Dr. James Brewster, who has mysteriously disappeared, according to the press. Middle-aged wannabe-comedian journalist Jeff B. Carter (Wallace Ford) and the newly arrived beautiful photographer Billie Mason (Louise Currie) get on the case of the missing scientist, while naturally getting romantically involved with one another in the process. Because nothing says I love you like a big, hairy Bela Lugosi and his pet killer gorilla.
Emil Van Horn and Bela Lugosi.
In fact, the truth is that Dr. Randall knows perfectly well where Brewster is – in his laboratory underneath the family mansion, locked up in a cage for his own safety's sake with his gorilla. And if you ask what a Lugosi ape-man looks like, it is basically a man with Amish beard and a dangerously low hairline, walking around like a buck-legged sailor with bad posture. The makeup looks a bit like an unfinished wolf man makeup, and Lugosi bears no resemblance whatsoever to an ape. The lack of ape-ishness isn't helped by the fact that Lugosi is constantly cuddled up against Emil Van Horn in his own gorilla suit. And it turns hilarious when Carter catches a reflection of Brewster in a window in one of Mason's photographs of Agatha Brewster, exclaiming that it looks "just like a gorilla", which it certainly does not. It looks like Bela Lugosi with a beard.
Dr. Randall informs Ms. Brewster that he won't help Dr. Brewster to get a hold of any spinal fluid, because the donor would most certainly die in the process. Although clearly worried, neither Randall nor Ms. Brewster actually try to do anything to help the poor bastard throughout the film, basically leaving him to fix his own mess. And what good spinal fluid would actually do is up for grabs, since spinal fluid is basically water that acts as an impact cushion for your brain and regulates the pressure on your grey matter. But since we have already bought into the fact that Bela Lugosi has turned himself into a gorilla, such medical nitpicking is probably superfluous.
Louise Currie and Wallace Ford.
Of course this leaves little alternative for Dr. Brewster other than to take his pet gorilla and go about town hunting for spinal fluid, leaving a string of bodies in their wake. Between all their sexist romantic banter, the two reporters also manage to avoid doing any reporting and instead focus on delivering some un-comedic comedy and stalk poor old Agatha Brewster. And what sort of ape movie would this be if the damsel wasn't distressed in the finale by being carried off by the ape man into his secret laboratory?
The film also has sort of a "narrator", a strange skinny buffoon who acts as a an omniscient overseer of the proceedings, sometimes tipping off the journalists in order to get the plot moving along. In the end the character breaks the fourth wall, claiming to be the author of the story (which he isn't, as he is played by a bit-part actor called Ralph Littlefield). This device seems particularly odd to a modern viewer, but might not have been as strange to a contemporary audience, as it is something that has carried over from the stage, and would have been familiar in particular to silent Old Dark House films. It is sort of a comment on a family of mystery plays that got their start with a play called Seven Keys to Baldpate in 1913 — a mystery story in which is it revealed in the end that none of the proceedings have been real, but only part of a story that the protagonist has been writing over the course of the play. The play was immediately imitated by other writers, including Ralph Spence, who in 1925 premiered the play The Gorilla, which served as a starting point for the ape craze. Seven Keys to Baldpate was adapted for several silent films and a number of sound films, one in 1935 and the most recent in 1983, as House of the Long Shadows, starring, whom else, Vincent Price. However, I suspect that the writer writing himself into the film explaining things that need to be explained is more a syndrome of lack of time and effort than it is paying homage to the movie's inspirations.
Bela Lugosi and Minerva Urecal. From a lobby card.
The film was directed by William Beaudine, a veteran in the business, known for spitting out cheap Z-grade movies perhaps faster even than his closest rival Sam Newfield over at PRC studios. Even if he was never called that during his active career, he has later garnered the moniker "One Shot" Beaudine – the legend goes that he never shot the same scene twice. While this claim is somewhat exaggerated, it is nevertheless a cool moniker.
With this in mind, one has to take The Ape Man for what it is. It was probably shot in a week with no more than a couple of shots per scene. Beaudine sets up the cameras for exactly the shots that are necessary to tell the story, places the actors in the frame and shouts "action", and then moves on. It is dull, uninspired and flat. Many of the sets look familiar, and I can definitely identify a staircase that plays a prominent role in the 1945 Charlie Chan film The Jade Mask (review). Furthermore, the sound quality is atrocious. Granted, the sound has probably degraded somewhat over the years, but that's not an excuse for — for example — forgetting to put microphones on both sides of a set when two characters are speaking through a door opening, resulting in one of them being barely audible. This is the sort of stuff that Beaudine is famous for: he knew he ought to have used two microphones, but sheared half an hour from the shooting schedule by cutting corners.
Lugosi and Van Horn fooling around with producer Sam Katzman.
The fact of the matter is that The Ape Man would probably be forgotten today, was it not for the enduring popularity of Bela Lugosi, making even his worst outings beloved little gems among his fans. And one must give it to the man: he was the constant professional. He knew exactly how bad the film was going to be, and ran around in half-finished makeup pretending to be a monkey – and still he gave it his best shot all the way through. This doesn't change the fact that he does what is probably the worst ape imitation in the history of film, and the direction and script isn't good enough to be saved by his immense charisma.
Even at an hour the films feels too long and padded, with much of the time taken up by Bela Lugosi trying to straighten his back. This is the only physical change from him being an ape man and a non-ape man — briefly: he straightens his back. Then, after failing to straighten his back in a sequence that is probably no more than a couple of minutes long, but feels like ten, he helpfully informs the audience: "I can't straighten my back!" Yes, thank you, we can see that.
Lugosi and George Kirby.
The fact that Agatha Brewster is a ghost hunter has no bearing what so ever on the plot. Still, the movie spends several scenes on the two reporters interviewing her on her ghost hunting activities, during which she gives some eerie monologues about ghosts and the spirit world and even plays a spooky gramophone record with ghosts wailing. But all this is just padding. The actual ape in the movie does play a role in the very end of the film, but isn't actually central to the plot either — it just acts as a hitman (hit-ape?) for Brewster.
The main problem of the film is that there isn't a single interesting character in it. Wallace Ford's "romantic lead" is an ass, and while Louise Currie's female "lead" is quite sympathetic, she just doesn't have enough material in the movie to make the viewer even remotely interested in her. Bela Lugosi's mad doctor is revealed to be not only an idiot but also completely unsympathetic from the very beginning. Why an idiot? Well, he turned himself into a monkey for no apparent reason without any plan of how to reverse the process. I'd call that at least borderline moronic. And when his experiment goes wrong, he immediately throws all moral considerations out the window, concluding that turning himself back into human form is worth sacrificing countless human lives for. And considering that the spinal fluid from one human being had the revolutionary effect of allowing him to straighten his back for something like half an hour, the amount of dead bodies needed to actually make him human and keep him that way would be absolutely astronomical. Even with the help of his ape, he'd have to spend most of his waking hours climbing into bedrooms and murdering people.
Lugosi, Henry Hall and Minerva Urecal. From lobby card.
The acting isn't terrible, though. Monogram had a good pool of seasoned bit-part actors to draw from, often providing them with much bigger roles than the ones they received in more prestigious studio fare. Henry Hall, a former stock stage player, and even leading man and director at a local stage in Spokane, Washington, before heading to Hollywood in the late twenties, probably never got a third billing on a movie marquee before or after The Ape Man. A reliable, if forgettable, actor, Hall's height and stern demeanour had him typecast as sheriffs, military types, elderly scientists and officials in over 200 films, almost half of them westerns. With his theatrical background, he was one of the many stock players who found himself in demand for small characters roles and bit-parts after the coming of sound. Another boon of the film is Minerva Urecal, an in-demand bit-part actress specialising in close-minded, bickering townswomen, evil-tempered wives and gossiping neighbours. The "cruel-eyed, hatchet-faced veteran" likewise had a background on stage, and entered films in the early thirties, eventually working her way up to starring in her own TV series, The Adventures of Tugboat Annie, in the fifties. Mostly tucked away in uncredited bit-parts, The Ape Man was a chance for Urecal as well to show off her acting chops. Another movie role for which she is known is Bela Lugosi's housekeeper in the PRC production The Corpse Vanishes (1942, review).
The Ape Man gets no points for quality in either technical nor artistic fields. Beaudine could have played the scenario for laughs, but the script instead tries to induce comedy through the banter between Wallace and Currie, and fails. As mentioned, the acting is decent and the film as a whole is clearly directed by a pro, but a pro without time, money nor any fucks to give.
Louise Currie and Bela Lugosi.
Despite this, and while acknowledging many of its faults, there are many who love this film to death. One of them is the author of the blog Silver in a Haystack, who praises both the actors and the dialogue, calling The Ape Man "a little gem of a movie". This is, I think, the only critic I have found who actually likes the twist with the narrator. Then there's Mark Cole at Rivets on the Poster who calls this "one of [Lugosi's] best performances". Cole finds Lugosi's transformation into simian impressive: "His Ape Man has a distinctive, hunched over posture, and he's captured a lot of the familiar behaviors of apes, from the way he lets his hands sort of dangle from his wrists, with the hands swinging back an forth as he walks, to the way he holds his hands as if he was about to start knuckle-walking at any moment". I would personally suggest that this is sort of the very basics of schoolyard ape imitations, and sure enough, Tom Meade at Stoneage Cinema has another take on Lugosi's monkey business: "This, then, is the extent of Dr. Brewster's transformation: he slouches somewhat, he swings his arms a little, and he has facial hair that bears an equal resemblance to the beard of a Mennonite and the helmet of Juggernaut. Looking at all this, there is really no reason why he couldn't just apply some Nair and go topside."
Still, I find no critic reviews giving The Ape Man a higher star rating than 2/5. One of them is Derek Winnert, calling it "endearingly daft low-budget, Z-grade monkey business." Andy Webb at The Movie Scene seems to award the film with two stars simply beacuse you can't fault a film that you don't have to pay money to see (it is in the public domain), but still concludes: "even Bela Lugosi is unable to make it entertaining".
Ape vs Ape.
Jon Davidson at Midnite Reviews gives The Ape Man 3/10 stars, writing that "The Ape Man is a mediocre science fiction horror film. Nevertheless, the efforts of Lugosi—though slightly over-the-top as Dr. Brewster—provide this offering with an occasional hint of gravitas."
AllMovie gives the film 1.5/5 stars, and Craig Butler writes: "This is, clearly, one of the worst horror films ever made. Inept is too kind a word for the writing and directing. It's almost as if writer Barney A. Sarecky was trying to prove something, perhaps that it is indeed possible to write a screenplay at one sitting, with your eyes closed, creating dialogue only by drawing it blindfolded from a goldfish bowl filled with random sentences cut from 'The Big Book of Cliched Sentences'. Director William Beaudine's work is atrocious, as is typical of this reviled hack, with no imagination or interest evident at all. The acting, even by the talented Lugosi is at best substandard. All of which, if one is in the right mind, does mean that Ape can be a hoot, especially the ending, which seems to have wandered in from a Tex Avery cartoon." Even Richard Scheib at Moria, who usually has some love for even the most inept bad movie, gives The Ape Man a measly 1/5 stars, concluding: "In all respects, this is a badly made film".
Much derided director William Beaudine had worked his way up in Hollywood in the early days of cinema, starting out as a bus-boy, an extra and doing various menial tasks in 1909, and among other things worked as assistant to D.W. Griffith on his groundbreaking (and controversial) epics Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1917).
Director William "One Shot" Beaudine.
In 1915 he started directing his own films, making over 150 short films before 1922 when he switched to feature films. In the twenties Beaudine was considered one of Hollywood's top directors and made both B movies and lauded A films, such as the brilliant Sparrows, starring Hollywood's first female superstar, the eternally young Mary Pickford, as the oldest sister of a group of children being held as slaves to a cruel master (Pickford was 30 at the time). This artistically bold Southern Gothic film is considered by many as the best Hollywood film of 1926. His career waned slightly with the introduction of the talkies, but worse still was that he was nearly ruined by the Wall Street crash. In 1935 he tried his luck in Britain and made over a dozen films there.
When returned to the States in 1937, Hollywod was jam-packed with younger, more famous directors and Beaudine was relegated to working at the lower end of Poverty Row, where he quickly started specialising in shooting as quickly and cheaply as possible, turning out films that would make a meagre profit for both himself and the studios he worked for, mostly Monogram and PRC. Although the claim that he never did more than one take of a shot is exaggerated, he was known for skipping the initial wide shots that most directors start with when shooting a scene, and going straight for close-ups, and indeed often didn't bother too much if the actors flubbed their lines or knocked props over. He knew he was making bad movies that no-one would care too much about, and the main thing was to get the film made, have a bit of fun, deliver a product for the studio's next B reel and collect the check.
In 1945 Beaudine directed his most notorious film, hired by producer Kroger Babb to make a sexual education exploitation film – or "hygiene film" as it was called back then, called Mom and Dad. The film included graphic stock footage of female anatomy and of live childbirths. Apart from this, the movie was a fairly mundane social drama about a girl made pregnant by a soldier, but who is refused sexual education books by her mother. But Babb drummed up a promotional circus around it, and had extras dress up as nurses and sexual educators at screenings, promising to help out if the film became "too much" for the viewers – and had clever ads promising that the audience would "SEE a REAL LIVE CHILDBIRTH". The movie was filmed in 5 days on a budget of 65 000 dollars, and took in over 22 millions in just a number of weeks, and is estimated to have grossed over 100 million dollars to date. Perhaps more because of the cultural phenomenon surrounding it than its artistic qualities, the film has been included in the American Library of Congress for preservation.
Advertising for Beaudine's film Mom and Dad.
But for Beaudine, it was just another quick job and he soon moved on to make whatever picture anyone wanted him to make, as long as they paid. This is how the atheist Beaudine found himself directing around ten Christian films aimed at converting people to Christianity in the early fifties. He made two more films with Lugosi: Voodoo Man in 1944 (review), and the bizarre musical comedy Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla in 1952 (review). When preparing to play Lugosi in Ed Wood, Martin Landau watched the latter film and said that in comparison, Wood's films seemed like Gone With the Wind.
Despite a track record of over 200 feature films, Beaudine didn't dabble much in sci-fi. When he moved on to television in the fifties he directed a few episodes of the talk-show Criswell Predicts (as did Ed Wood, by the way) and in 1966 he directed his last two movies, the turkeys Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter and Billy the Kid Versus Dracula. His immense talent of shooting fast and well did make him a sought-after TV-director. From 1957 to 1959 he directed 21 episodes of The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, and his success with directing a canine actor made him principle director on the immensely popular Lassie series in 1960, a post he kept for eight years. He directed 13 episodes of Disneyland in the fifties and sixties, and four episodes of the superhero series The Green Hornet in 1966, starring Van Williams and none other than Bruce Lee.
Wallace Ford and Louise Currie.
Wallace Ford, who plays the "romantic lead" in The Ape Man is more interesting for his story than his films. Born Samuel Jones in England in 1898, he lived in an orphanage and was sent to the Toronto branch of said orphanage, and then toured a shocking number of 17 foster homes in Canada. At age 11 he ran away and joined a vaudeville troupe in Winnipeg and stayed there for five years, until he and a friend called Wallace Ford bummed their way into the United States. Ford was crushed to death by a train, and when Jones found work in theatre companies, he took the stage name Wallace Ford in his friend's honour. He worked his way up to big roles on Broadway, and got his break on the screen in 1931 in Possessed opposite Joan Crawford. In 1932 he played the male lead in Tod Browning's notorious film Freaks. The kind-looking man found a line of work as a jovial, wise-cracking lead in many B movies in the thirties, and as the forties loomed and his waistline grew, he soon became a staple as a rugged character actor in westerns. In 1943 he had certainly already lost his leading man looks. There is nothing wrong with his acting in The Ape Man, but he doesn't really bring anything to the role, either.
Wallace Ford with Leila Hyams in Tod Browning's 1932 film Freaks.
Louise Currie started her acting career in films at 27 in 1940, after attending acting school, and had a few small roles in mostly B pictures, and even a substantial one in the relatively good Republic serial The Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941, review). She acted in close to 50 films or TV series up until 1956. She is believable as the tough photographer lady in The Ape Man and has a decent on-screen chemistry with Wallace. Currie lived to the very respectabe age of 100 years, as she passed away in 2013.
In a small role as a copyboy at the newspaper we see Ernest "Ernie" Morrison, better known as Sunshine Sammy. Morrison was the first famous black child actor in Hollywood. As his father was an actor, Morrison grew up in Hollywood, and literally started his acting career as a newborn baby in 1912, and then just kept going. Producer Hal Roach noticed the kid's comedy talents and soon started teaming him up with famous comedians such as Snub Pollard and Harold Lloyd in comedy shorts, with the stage name Little Sambo and later Sunshine Sammy or Sunshine Sammy Morrison.
Ernest Morrison and Bela Lugosi in the 1941 Monogram cheapo Spooks Run Wild.
In 1922 at the age of 10 he started appearing in the short Our Gang films along with a bunch of other kids, known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals. In 1926 he dropped out of film acting and started working in vaudeville, alongside up and coming comic acts such as Benny Hill and Abbott & Costello. In 1940 Morrison and another group of not-so-young kids (most were between 25 and 28) were called in to Monogram by legendary B movie producer Sam Katzman to form East End Kids for a series of comedic feature films often involving crime or mystery elements. Morrison was the only black member of the kids, many of who were veterans from Our Gang, Dead End Kids and Little Tough Guys. The two best known East End Kids films, Spooks Run Wild (1941) and Ghosts on the Loose (1943) featured Bela Lugosi. Morrison would play the constantly terrified and slightly dim-witted black comedic character in the films, very much in the vein of the slightly older Mantan Moreland, who made his career at the same time playing wound-up, hysterical valets. Morrison left the franchise when he was drafted to the war in 1944, where he served as an entertainer for the troops.
When he returned he was offered a role in The Bowery Boys franchise, but declined, and soon dropped out of acting altogether to start working as a quality control inspector for an aircraft plant, that according to some sources made airplanes for the military. Exactly what he did seems to be a matter of dispute, but he seems to have made a very good living out of it. In a later interview he claimed to have become "a millionaire" thanks to his films, but it is hardly probable that he made such amounts of money from the cheap East End Kids films, and his later good fortunes were more likely the result of his work in the aerospace industry.
The gorilla man in the film was a slightly interesting chap by the name of Emil Van Horn, who appeared in at least 9 films in the forties, but probably a lot more, since suit actors often went uncredited. An over-zealous blogger has called Van Horn the most famous gorilla man of Hollywood, but that's stretching it a bit.
Minerva Urecal and Emil Van Horn.
Emil Van Horn stands out, though, as he was the only one of the famous gorilla actors that appeared exclusively as a gorilla. Charles Gemora was primarily a makeup artist, and most gorilla actors were stuntmen. But Van Horn initially designed his gorilla suit for a nudist show in 1935, and then toured alongside "Zorine, Queen of the Nudists" (Yvonne Stacey). The show then morphed into a version of Ingagi, which oddly enough was shown at the New York World Fair in 1939, making the California-based gorilla man something of a minor celebrity, and he probably caught the eye of some movie producer, as he got his first film break in 1940. He seems to very rarely have allowed people to photograph him out of the suit and there is not much info on him to go on, as not many people in the movie business seem to have known him personally. No-one even seems to know where he was born, although some sources claim he was Eastern-European, perhaps Hungarian. While Emil is a common common all over Europe, it is widely used in Hungary. The surname is originally Dutch, but also spread all over Europe at this time, and could have been introduced in Hungary during the Austro-Hungarian period.
Emil Van Horn with actress Doris Houck at a show at the Florentine Gardens in Hollywood in 1941. The place still exists today and has been converted into a nightclub.
What we do know is that his movie parts quickly ran out partly because he never afforded to get a really good ape suit made (his hand extensions couldn't move), and he wasn't a very good gorilla impersonator. But he was probably cheap, and almost exclusively worked on Poverty Row. Along with his few films and serials, he continued to do burlesque shows and publicity stunts. In the early fifties his movie career dried up, and slowly the quality of the burlesque shows he appeared in also waned. In 1965 he seems to have had is suit stolen – or by his own account – confiscated by his landlady in Florida, when he couldn't pay the rent. He spent his last two years bumming the streets of New Orleans before his death in 1967.
Friends of so-bad-it's-good movies will get a blast out of The Ape Man. But there's no getting around the fact that this Monogram cheapo is inept in every category. The sound is terrible, the cinematography boring, the sets cheap and cramped, the story almost non-existent and the acting … well, the acting is probably what saves the film from getting a zero star review. Lugosi, bless him, does his best, and the stock players are all professionals. This is one for Lugosi completists and bad movie buffs.
The Ape Man. 1943, USA. Directed by William Beaudine. Written by Barney A. Sarecky from the story They Creep in the Dark by Karl Brown. Starring: Bela Lugosi, Louise Currie, Wallace Ford, Henry Hall, Minerva Urecal, Emil Van Horn, J. Farrell MacDonald, Wheeler Oakman, Ralph Littlefield, Jack Mulhall, Charles Jordan, Ernest Morrison. Cinematography: Mack Stengler. Editing: Carl Pierson. Art direction: Dave Milton. Sound: Glen Glenn. Assistant director: Arthur Hammond. Musical director: Edward J. Kay. Produced by Jack Dietz & Sam Katzman for Monogram.
Categories: Conquest of Man, Medical alterations, Shape-shifting
Tagged as: Bela Lugosi, Film, Movies, Sam Katzman, Sci-fi, Science Fiction, William Beaudine
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I am looking for any information about the ancestors of my great-grandfather David Ebenezer Prentice - born around 1873-1875 in Scotland. Moved to New York City around the age of seven - migrated to Eighty Four, PA and then bought a farm near Valley Inn, PA - died in 1929. Married Nora ? - had son David Leroy Prentice of Monongahela, PA. Wanted to find out info about David Ebenezer's father & mother - what part of Scotland they were from? occupations? anything at all about my ancestors. Thank you!
Searching for William A. Prentiss. He was born in New York in 1814. He moved to Vicksburg, Miss. and then to Hinds County, Miss. He married Mary Rainey in Raymond, Miss. They were married November 9, 1938. He left Hinds Co. and moved to Green County, near Leakesville. I would appreciate hearing from anyone with information.
I am trying to connect Mary Kilcup of Boston who married Edward Prentice son of Edward and Abigail. Does anyone have information this MARY KILCUP. Also what was Edward Prentice occupation? They had 5 children; Robert,Nathaniel, Edward, Mary, Abigail and may have had 5 more children names not known.
I am looking for Caroline Prentice of North Carolina,who married William P. Gilmore.Her son John Gilmore lived in Geneva,Alabama.
My aunt, Mary DOBSON, was married to Archibald PRENTICE, son of Thomas and Norah PRENTICE on 14th July 1903 at the home of her father, William DOBSON, of Island Cliff, North Otago, New Zealand. Any information on the above Archibald PRENTICE would be most gratefully recieved.
Looking for anyone related to Charlie Prentis of New Castle (Craig County), Virginia. Charlie was born between 1880 and 1884 in New Castle. He married Ellen Fuqua, also of New Castle, VA in 1900. His mother's name was Mary Hawkins. They both lived in New Castle with his aunt Martha Hawkins who was married to David Prentis and then to Joseph Newsome. Martha Hawkins has four children with David Prentis (see previous query). Charlie and Ellen moved to Columbus, Ohio and had one child together, James Prentis. Charlie died in Columbus in 1948 and has many descendants in residing in the city. If you are related to David Prentis or if you knew Charlie Prentis, please contact me.
New Castle (Craig County), VA Prentis'. Looking for descendents of David Prentis (or Prentice) born in Bedford County, VA appx. 1850. Married Martha Hawkins in Craig County on Sept. 25, 1878. David and Martha had four children together: Maggie, Lee R., Ossie A. and Henry B. Prentice. David's parents were Ned and Maria Prentis.
Seeking any info on Dorothea PRENTICE born c1838 m James NEILSON 15 December, 1863. Dorothea may also have been known as Dorothy. Usual residence Braehead, Parish of Carnwath, Scotland. Daughter of Thomas Prentice, farmer and Agnes Prentice m/s McColl.
Sorry,I placed my original query in your guest book area. I am wondering if anyone has any information about my connections prior to my great-grandfather, Levi Prentice. He was b.03/14/1855 d.01/08/1929, in Ontario, Canada. He married Eliza Prentice (formerly Wheeler)who was b.11/19/1863 and d.1937. Levi's mother's maiden name was Eliza Miller. He was one of 10 children. My grandfather, Elias Prentice, was the youngest of eight children. They grew up on a farm in Collingwood, Ontario. Elias moved to the Toronto area and became a teacher. In 1937 Elias, b.01/29/1902 and d.1972, married Jean (Wilma) Malloy,b.09/08/1907 and d.08/1990. They had 3 children, the eldest was my father William Kenton Prentice, b. 04/06/39 and d.08/19/88. Do you have information on this part of the Prentice line i.e. a connection to Levi Prentice?
Looking for any information on Jean Prentice who Married William Waddell around 1735 or so. They had 4 children all born in Hindshaw (?) and baptized in Carluke. Agnes b. May 13, 1739 Robert b. Feb. 27, 1743 my 5th GreatGrandfather Marion b. Sep. 11, 1745 Jean b. Aug. 5, 1747 I have been unable to check the Carluke OPRs much beyond 1739 and so am really not sure where Jean or William were from originally. Any help appreciated.
Iwould like to contact any relations who are descended from John Prentice who went to Vancouver BC some 50 odd years ago. He was my father's brother. He also had a brother George. The family lived in Tring Hertfordshire, UK. Salutations to all Prentice's everywhere!
PRENTICE/FRINK/STEVENS Hannah PRENTICE (Valentine-1, John-2) married (Feb 1693/4) John FRINK, son of John FRINK and Grace STEVENS. Inaccurate information has been propagated freely that Grace STEVENS is in some way related to Henry STEVENS and Elizabeth GALLUP (from whom I am sescended). Can anyone give me more information on who Grace might be - with references to some sources? Margaret Olson descended from Hannah's brother John and sister Esther - and from Henry Stevens, who probably is NOT related to Grace .... but who knows?
Does anyone know the English ancestry of Henry ("the planter") Prentice?
I am looking for information about my great grandfather, William Prentice. The 1870 Shelby County, Alabama census lists William, age 29, born in Alabama; wife Dolly, age 30, born in Mississippi. I do not know Dolly's maiden name. There is one daughter, Laura, age 11 listed who was born in Mississippi. William was living in Montevallo, Alabama in 1870. I am trying to find out who his parents were, where they lived, if they were slaves or free. If slaves, who owned them? Were they born in Alabama or brought there from another state, another country, or Africa? This is as far back I am able to trace the Prentice's in Shelby County, Alabama through my grandfather (Isaac Prentice,b. 8/21/1876) of Montevallo (Shelby County), Alabama. Any assistance to aid me in moving ahead with this project would be appreciated.
I am the great granddaughter of Samuel Paul Prentice who was born on July 11, 1877 in Alabama and died on August 13, 1963 in Littlefield, Texas. He married Ada Ratliff. Their daughter who is my grandmother is Mary Jane Prentice, who was born in Mangum, Oklahoma on January 27, 1901. I need information on who Samuel Paul Prentice parents are and any other information about them.
Seeking information on John C. Prentiss/ice, residing in Toledo, OH abt 1904.
requesting any and all information on a George D. Prentice, possibly of philidelphia, pa or louisville, ky. I believe he married a lady with the last name of Powe. any information would be appreciated.
My sister and I are looking for information on Edward and Mary Ball. They are our ggrandparents. My grandfather, their son, was Ezekiel E. Prentice born 8/23/11, born in Frederickstown, PA, who married Ethel Evangeline Dibble and they lived in Logansport, Indiana. He had 2 brothers - Bill and Emmet and a sister Eleanor Furnbach of Goodwill, Oklahoma. There was also an Aunt Tillie Prentice of Milwaukee, Wisconsi. Any information would be great. We are just starting the search.
Sarah PRENTICE-Need information on Sarah PRENTICE and her ancestors. Sarah PRENTICE m. John HYDE on May 15, 1707. They probably lived in or near Cambridge, Ma. They had a dau.(my line) named Relief HYDE. They had another dau. named Sarah and a son named Jonathon.
Does anyone have data on JAMES PRENTICE b. December 18, 1787 in New London, Connecticut? This JAMES m. JERUSHA. Did they have a son named ALFRED JAMES PRENTICE b. October 19, 1817 in NEW YORK state?
Looking for others searching the Prentices of Fayette County, PA. The earliest immigrant is a Thomas Prentice who married an Isabellla Laisk? in Philadelphia.
I've been helping Pat Shipman in tracing the ancestry of Adam Prentice in the Dutch East Indies. Following is her latest E-mail: "I am making a little progress on tracking down my Prentice in the Dutch East Indies; maybe you could post an update for me. If you remember, I was looking for information about Adam Prentice, born ca. 1857, in Java in the 1890's as a planter. I now know he married Jane (de) Clonie MacLennan on Jan. 16 1890 in Pasoerean, East Java; on May 21, 1892, they had a son, Gerard (or Gerardus) Alexander Prentice-MacLennan. I still have no info about Adam's parents, which I would dearly love to find. I have a suspicion that Jane is the sister of Th. C. MacLennan (also spelled Mac.lennan, with a period in the middle!) , who was the second husband of Isabella Mary Boyd. Th. (Theo?) and Isabella married on June 12 1889 in Toeloeng Agoeng (now spelled Tulungagung) East Java. Isabella is the daughter of Robert Boyd, who I was also searching for and who is now "found." Robert Boyd was born Feb. 2, 1828 in Batavia (Jakarta) Java; Isabella was his fifth child & second daughter. Robert himself was the son of a Robert Boyd from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, born ca. 1795, died Dec. 11, 1865, emigrated to Soerabaya, Java. Further speculations: Clonie, de Clonie, Cluny, Cloony, MacCluny etc. etc. are all variants of Scots names. There is even a Cluny Parish in Aberdeenshire. I know that the Boyds came to Java from Aberdeenshire early in the 1800s, probably when Java was under British control; it may be that the Clonie MacLennans and the Prentices did too. So if you or anyone else has a Prentice in Aberdeenshire who disappears" in the early 1800s and/or with family names of Adam, Alexander, Gerald/Gerard, I'd be interested! Thanks, Pat Shipman.
THIS MY SONS WEBTV BUT THIS IS MY EMAIL ADDRESS. MY HUSBAND JOHN YATCHMANOFF IS INQUIRING ABOUT HIS FOSTER FATHER FROM 1973-1976. HIS NAME IS THOMAS KENT PRENTICE III. HE RESIDED IN JUNEAU,AK. HE WAS ALSO IN THE U.S. COAST GUARD AS LT.JG PRENTICE. LAST STATIONED IN JUNEAU,AK. 17th COAST GUARD DISTRICT. IF YOU HAVE ANY INFO PLEASE EMAIL US.
I am looking for any information about the Prentice's of Shelby County, Alabama. I am the gggrandson of Isabella Jane Prentice (b. 6/17/1827) who was the second wife of Amariah Garrett (b. 12/28/1802, m. 3/11/1853). Isabella was the daughter of James and Margaret Prentice. Isabella's siblings are Martha D., John, and James H. Any info would be appreciated.


West Virginia personal injury laws vary from other state's laws. Below are the most common personal injury laws in the state of West Virginia. Understanding your compensation rights and getting the help of a West Virginia attorney is your first step towards filing a successful West Virginia personal injury claim.
The West Virginia statute of limitations for filing personal injury claims is 2 years. West Virginia's medical malpractice statute of limitations is 2 years from the date of injury or 2 years from the date of reasonable discovery. Product liability claims in West Virginia must be filed within 2 years from the date of injury or 2 years from the date of reasonable discovery. These statutes for West Virginia claims are subject to change. Contact a West Virginia injury attorney for specific information about the statute of limitations for your personal injury case.
Under West Virginia's fault state rules insurance companies will determine which party is at fault and pay according to the driver's degree of fault. If you have been injured due to the negligence of another driver you will receive compensation from their insurance company. If payment is insufficient you may have the legal right to file a car accident claim against the at fault driver to recover compensation for medical costs, lost wages and pain and suffering.
West Virginia is one of 12 states which follow the 50 percent bar rule. Under the 50 Percent Bar system a claimant may receive compensation for their injuries or losses if they are less than 50% at fault for their injuries. If they are 50% or more at fault they cannot recover compensation. Compensation is allocated according to fault.
Are there Damage Caps in West Virginia Injury Law?
West Virginia's noneconomic Damages Reform: HB 2122 (2003): W.V. Code Ann. § 55-7B-8 limits the award of noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases to $250,000 to $500,000, depending on the severity of the injuries. The upper limit of compensation is allowed for claimants who suffer permanent and substantial physical deformity, loss of use of limb(s) or body system, or a physical or mental injury which does not allow the individual to care for themselves or perform life-sustaining functions. Compensation amount can be adjusted for inflation.
West Virginia workers compensation provides full medical benefits to injured workers without time or monetary limits. Temporary total disability (TTD) and permanent total disability (PTD) is paid as a percentage of the worker's wage, up to a weekly maximum and minimum payment amounts. Payments may continue for up to 208 weeks.


The "Pro Ecclesia" part of Baylor's motto means "for the church," so it stands to reason that Baylor would be a place that impacts the music of the church.
There's a place on campus for those whose ministry is more musically inclined — the Center for Christian Music Studies (CCMS) in the Baylor School of Music — and in addition to training top-notch Christian musicians, they're helping congregations across the country answer questions of how to be relevant in the lives of the next generation of the church.
Baylor CCMS was recently awarded a $1.2 million dollar grant to support an initiative designed to have a lasting impact on the future of church music: the Strengthening Congregational Ministries with Youth Initiative. The Lilly Endowment grant will enhance the program's vision of "fostering efforts to utilize Christian music to its God-given potential" by working to encourage and strengthen youth participation in worship and in the music ministries of their churches.
Through a variety of projects, the initiative helps congregations more fully involve middle and high school-aged youth through outreaches like "Building Bridges to the Future," which partners with congregations to help them design, test and implement new ways to engage the next generation. Current CCMS programs aimed at youth, such as Worship Lab and YouthCUE Festival, will also benefit from the endowment. On the academic side, CCMS will study the impact of such programs to determine the most effective methods for engaging, educating and training.
Sic 'em, Baylor Center for Christian Music Studies!


1. Equipped with the fully upgraded iAstar AS380 drive controller and adopting CAN Bus serial communication method, our roomless control cabinet is easier to adjust.
2. This elevator control system is able to achieve humanized functions such as duplex control, group control, remote monitoring and emergency rescue, making elevator operation safer.
3. Thanks to the new system configuration with car top board and car function board, core quantity of the cable is greatly reduced.
4. Higher stability and better elevator travel feeling are achieved due to the excellent VVVF drive system.
Rescue Device: Automatic rescue device (ARD); Electric brake releasing device: Crimp terminals are in the size of 16mm2 and 2.5mm2.
Our escalator control system is based on a high performance 16-bits industrial controller, and has great anti-electromagnetic interference and anti static capabilities. The escalator control system has a LCD control board, which can be used to set parameters for the system and show trouble codes. It is compatible with the STEP standard handle escalator controller. In addition, the escalator control system can be optionally equipped with failure monitoring system to improve the system safety.
1. Equipped with self-developed ES.01 escalator controller and iAstar AS500 general inverter, the VVVF escalator control cabinet we offer allows the elevators to start smoothly and able to work under an energy saving mode. 2. Idle speed adjustment of the escalators can be achieved through this escalator control system. 3. Our escalator control box makes escalator operation easier since it is capable of achieving humanized functions such as error report, remote monitoring, I/O extension etc. It can also be operated through a handheld operator. 4. Designed with various kinds of protection functions, this VVVF escalator manipulating cabinet ensures safe and reliable escalator running.


[EVENT]: And the winners are...?
Thank you to everyone who entered our giveaway! The two random winners have been chosen.
Congratulations to Amy and Jean. We've emailed you, so make sure to reply soon with your details.
Please look forward to more posts from us.
[REVIEW] by C: The Worst Face Mask Ever??
[EXPERIMENT] by M: Cocoa powder as bronzer?!


This is a case study from Florian Courgenouil, Marketing Director, Goomeo.
If you invest in a mobile app for your event you want to be sure that people will download and use it. This case study outlines how one exhibition increased engagement with their event app by 350%.
MAISON&OBJET (M&O) is exported internationally to Singapore and Miami with MAISON&OBJET ASIA and MAISON&OBJET AMERICAS. M&O now offers digital solutions allowing exhibitors to present their collections in a privileged way to buyers, architects, interior designers and product designers alike. By giving interior decoration, design and lifestyle professionals the opportunity to share continuously online, MAISON&OBJET now keeps its worldwide community abuzz all year round.
Valuable content is key for M&O to gather its community both off- and online. A successful mobile app needed to reinforce a flawless experience around the content of the four shows. It was also important to the organizers to develop a stronger bond to the show all year round, without creating lots of additional work.
In recent years, MAISON&OBJET improved the quality of the offer from its exhibitors, reorganized its two Parisian editions to offer a clearer perspective of the art of living and created two other international shows in Miami and Singapore.
With such important expansion and developments, M&O needed solutions to display its global offer in the best way and to bring its community valuable content all year long. The mobile app was considered a key solution in the digital ecosystem M&O needed to build.
The challenge of the mobile app was not only focussed around content management but also around multi-event management and design. M&O is all about design so the app needed to reflect this focus too for credibility with design-savvy users.
Goomeo built a multi-event app with a separate app for each show contained within the parent app. The whole solution was well-designed to give priority to content and to style.
Goomeo provided M&O's team with a multi-event app that enables them to manage all their events within the same global M&O app, each one with its own branding, content and services.
For the organizers that means an easier way to update data for all events, a better brand consistency giving more power to MAISON&OBJET and the ability to have a perfect balance between each event's specifics and the global brand's requirements.
As design is synonymous with M&O, it is also essential when applied to its technology. M&O requires maximum flexibility so that the events meet the market's high expectations in terms of design. Everything is fully customizable at the event level as well as at the brand level. There is a specific focus on showcasing the products from the exhibitors to inspire and reinforce the beauty of their offering. This is well received by exhibitors at the show.
With 9 halls for MAISON&OBJET PARIS, it is a prerequisite for M&O to help the attendees find their way and optimise their participation at the event. The interactive floor plans from Goomeo let them pinpoint the exact location of trade booths within the 3,000 stands on site. With 3D precision they could plot the best route to reach their destination with an amazing quality of design.
M&O events are all about presenting a very large offer of products to the industry. With Goomeo, they are able to organise a huge amount of content with a specific design touch. One example is the "Miami Experience Guide". MAISON&OBJET AMERICAS partnered with numerous cultural institutions and galleries, with events taking place all across Miami Beach in order to present and highlight emerging trends visible at numerous local cultural institutions and galleries. The event mobile app was a key solution for them to promote the content of the Miami Experience Guide to the design community as well as all the parallel events in the city. The users could access a dedicated module including a showcase of all points of interests and programme details highlighting specific events.
Content management is also enabled via onsite interactions. Attendees can flash the app at the QR code of any of the 3,000 stands to receive information and save the contact details of the exhibitors.
The mobile event app creates valuable content to intersect the digital and physical worlds.
To measure engagement, there is one key indicator for MAISON&OBJET: uses per user. Indeed, as a major digital place for the design community, the mobile app needs to create repetition. What is expected is the creation of a new conditioned response from the users who will open the app and browse it to find information about the design industry and about the products that the four events offer them.
Since the multi-event app was launched in 2014, there has been a huge increase in the average engagement from the users (+350% in 2 years). By branding all events together in the same app this has also created a community of loyal users.
In 2016, the product offer from the exhibitors drives over 42% of the uses (vs 21% in 2014). Also, the most important fact is that products lead the statistics. M&O reaches its objective of giving valuable content to the design industry by doubling its traffic in 2 years. The community repeatedly uses the app mainly to look for designers and their offer.
The Miami Experience Guide was the 2nd most used content module in the app during M&O Americas. Thanks to the app, M&O presents a new offer and gives visibility to multiple onsite fringe events. MAISON&OBJET is a solid brand able to engage its community with new content and parallel events for the industry.
Content is king. Feed your app with content to gather and retain your community beyond your event.
Even if your event may only last a few days, your attendees will still have your app in their smartphone if you give them a reason to keep it. If you can keep on providing them with smart content, you will be able to maintain a link with your community beyond your event.
If you are organising a similar event several times a year, then you need to offer a multi-event app. This is the best way to reinforce your brand in the digital world, provide a seamless user experience and keep your community updated, without extra work.
Your event is unique, so your mobile event app should be too! Choose a solution that allows you to deeply customize your app.
Mobile event apps are not just an extra tool to communicate with your attendees, they can be a core part of your event and the best solution to build lasting relationships with your community. It's not about just offering an app, it's about offering content that make it easier to participate and that creates a link between with your community from one event to another. Design it around your industry's needs and it will make your event even stronger.


text:
Slime Story/Quest: Talents and Quests
May 2, 2010 projectsSlime Quest, Slime StoryEwen
Slime Story's rules just keep on evolving, and the whole thing with Awesome and Suck Points has led me to make some significant changes to how Talents work, and also to make them less derivative of D&D4e. Some talents are Passive and just give an automatic bonus to something, but "active" talents can have Costs (in Awesome or HP) and/or Usage Limitations (once per scene, only on a triggering event, etc.), but are meant to be more or less equal in overall utility (which makes the advancement stuff much easier to work out).
I've basically dumped the "At-Will/Scene/Episode" thing for Talents, though there will be some with "1/Scene" among their properties. Arianrhod and Meikyuu Kingdom have both provided a lot of inspiration for how to go about setting up Talents. Arianrhod's talents remind me a lot of 16-bit era Final Fantasy (and FF4 and 6 are two of my all-time favorite video games ever BTW), while Meikyuu Kingdom just does all kinds of crazy stuff, especially since it has Skills relating to different aspects of kingdom-building. I seem to have given myself tools that will let me rewrite the Talents I've already created with relative ease, though I need to keep working at it and come up with more and more creative abilities to put into the game.
The question of how many Talents characters get and of what kinds is pretty straightforward for Slime Story (two Base Talents each from clique and class, one Elective Talent each to start, and one new Talent per level). With classes, races, and backgrounds coming into play, Slime Quest is a little more complicated. In that game classes have Base and Elective talents much like in Slime Story, but characters also get a Racial Talent, a Background Talent, and they have the option to pick up Common Talents. Racial Talents are kind of analogous to the various racial abilities in 4e, except you're not required to take any particular one, so you can go with whichever from the race's selection best fits your character. Common Talents are ones that any character can potentially get (which makes them the closest to Feats in D&D), and each Background has a list of possible Common Talents that you can pick from.
I also have a handle on how I want to do Quests in Slime Story. These are very much like the quests you see in MMOs. I'd originally been planning to make them an optional rule, but now I'm inclined to have them be core, and potentially pretty central to the game experience.
"Quests" are a slang term for when people hire monster hunters to do stuff for them. People post up offers on the "Quest Board" at the local Monster Mart, or online (in the Slime Story setting Craigslist has an entire category for it), or wherever. They often offer cash rewards, but trades or favors can be in the offing too (especially if the client is an alchemist). A typical quest is MMO type stuff–kill 10 salamanders, bring me 8 slime cores, find my pet dog who wandered out where there are lots of monsters, etc.–but in Slime Story the NPCs who assign quests are often regular characters in the game (secondary characters). Thus, the quests provide an excuse to interact and develop relationships between characters who might otherwise be a challenge to really fit into the game properly.
In my Slime Story novel I totally want to add a part where Kelly's mom, a card-carrying member of PETM, very reluctantly hires Doug and company to clear out monsters that are wreaking havoc at her workplace. There are just a ton of different things you could do with quests in terms of developing the story type stuff, but then in MMOs it seems like that's one of the primary ways in which the developers put story in.
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4 thoughts on "Slime Story/Quest: Talents and Quests"
LuisE. says:
How much completed is the game at it's present stage?
Is there any playtest beta or something the like we could download to test the game?
Not yet, but hopefully I'll be able to finish and post something relatively soon.
Then to wait for it :D!
Poulpy says:
I will test slime quest with my player group.
And I'll try to make comment (argh! But it's good for my english -_-).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


A brief History on The Æsir vs TLR war.
Some time long ago there was a great moment when everyone had falling in love with the forum. They would laugh and play and have a wonderful good time! People understood jokes, as well as other people in general. But A dark cloud came. Ruining everyone's day. Angry post! Hate had corrupted the hearts of so many, and there was lots of lies and betrayals! Everyone was looking over there shoulder! NO ONE COULD BE TRUSTED!!! There were fights and yelling! Everyone was being forced to choose sides! No one was safe from the drafts of angry oppressors! Post of crazy nonsense confusing the world!
"Sorry there chaps, we weren't going to actu-"
"... Okay... there buddy umm ya we wo-"
-"TELL Everyone That YOU SURRENDERED!!!!!!"
"Do you understand anything I am trying to say?"
And fist were flying and insults covered the air in a foul way!
Ahem.. Yes TLR vanquished some evil force having some crusade on them obliterating them to nothingness to never be seen... As between Æsir and TLR... Well TLR did agree with Æsir for a cease fire... I wouldn't necesarly say they won.. or lost... but I mean... Æsir is still here... But I haven't seen a TLR in quite some time.
I hope this brief history of this crusade/war/vs makes as much sense as a one sided story can make. I mean if this doesn't make sense, then obviously you are reading this wrong.
Just remember who the important part is... Me... Taron here. Loved by all and lo---likes all equally.
Thank you for keeping it concise. I hate those histories that go on and on and bring in irrelevant bits.
heh. but the *other* thread is the one that was closed--because who can tell if those quotes are *real*?
1. I am not saying who is saying these lines, supposed lines.
Soooo after how ever many years ago this 'Descending of Darkness' happen to some poor honest, honorable, non judging or rude free folk... I was told multiple times to drop the subject from multiple others. So I have. But if insulting rumors merge again, I must reply in the most reasonable way. Humor! For I find a disbanded group that has to re-post the war with there one sided facts (By not mention how the awesome people of Æsir decided how they would face the consequences of our actions. Hope they saved that message because I don't hold an archive of messages in my message box.) well i find it hilarious.
Any who... I was thinking of setting some facts straight for being involved, unlike so many others who are not but yet for some extremely odd reason keep on deciding to talk about matters not of there own and going off of a disbanded groups opinion. I can set a pretty straight record.
TLR gathered multiple supporters through messages and GC support by giving out "there facts"
Æsir was told of possible destruction by TLR and supporters.
This is frustrating to read, I get the gist though (I think).
i can't make much of it, other than he feels that Aesir didn't look as good as it ought to have in abstractdream's rendition of the story.
as for being a "slave to the truth", there is one more side to every story than there are participants...and that last side is never told. these events are long past their expiry date. accept that player perspective taints each player's experience. in a historical forum, the appropriate antidote to a perspective with which one disagrees is to tell the tale again from a different one. it takes no special knowledge to mock and rail.
I am biased. We are all, are we not? I have no intention of telling the story from the other's perspective and couldn't even if I wanted to. I sincerely await a coherent counterpoint but based on this, I expect none will be forthcoming.
Seriously, though...did I not lay out in SPECIFIC terms the "reasons" given by the other side? Did I not link to the salient threads and state that there are more for the reading? I certainly did not present myself as a neutral party (third person narrative, not neutral) but I did make an effort to describe the views of those involved...all of those involved.
It is not my duty to post a rebuttal and it certainly is not my duty to make sense of a rambling, nearly incoherent diatribe. I wrote what I know, interpreted what I had to and I am willing to let the reader make their own call.
I think it was reasonably comprehensible for anyone who was there. As for the people who weren't, they probably don't care anyway.
Before Me and my amazing alliance members(you will see why "I" see them as amazing (Key word is "I")) declared for a ceasefire (TLR considered 'surrendering' for some weird reason) I sent out an alliance message stating our situation. That TLR and supporters planed to Destroy us off the map. I told my Members that if they want out before this 'Destroying' happened, they could leave with out any grudge or gilt, a free pass to go on in the game doing what they like and survive (we would hope that TLR and supporters would understand and honor, honorable people leaving for not agreeing within the alliance on if we were right or wrong with our war... but then was pretty questionable...). I let the whole alliance have a day to decide. I told them that I would be staying to fight from tooth to nail tell siege of the map. A few others, Destroyer I know for a fact, was one was Going to as well stand by the decision to stay and fight even if it meant obliteration.
But if I believe correctly, all my members agreed to stay and fight even if it meant obliteration. As well as not try to withstand, but to take as many with us as we go. Nothing makes a leader more proud of the honor loyalty his members have.
Now this is were I can not be sure, but is possible, specially during war, but there has been rumors that reach out saying spies were in our alliance, and obviously (Hopefully) TLR had the same suspicion.
I am not touching that topic for the fact that it could possible not be fact.
But shortly later a couple of days I got a message after having this debate with my members of "Lets Talk" from EF himself, Sorry for giving away a title to a message if that breaks any rules. but obviously this is when we negotiated, with many insulting comments in my direction for no good reason during a ceasefire (not a surrender) negotiation.
You don't need to find out or try to find my opinion or side. I will state it, the people can decide what to believe.
Or someone who has stayed, not changed and is still here.... Possible liked by very few individuals..
I have not lost a city, sadly I have had honorable members in my company lose cities... But Those who have stayed have made me proud! Even those who are expanding our efforts to be a relaxed alliance that does what we like, within the bounds of doing onto others as they would do onto you.


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A bacterial isolate from the Black Sea oxidizes sulfide with manganese(IV) oxide
Jan V. Henkel, Olaf Dellwig, Falk Pollehne, Daniel P. R. Herlemann, Thomas Leipe, and Heide N. Schulz-Vogt
PNAS June 18, 2019 116 (25) 12153-12155; first published June 3, 2019 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1906000116
Jan V. Henkel
aBiological Oceanography, Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde, 18119 Rostock, Germany;
ORCID record for Jan V. Henkel
For correspondence: Jan.Henkel@io-warnemuende.de heide.schulz-vogt@io-warnemuende.de
Olaf Dellwig
bMarine Geology, Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde, 18119 Rostock, Germany;
Falk Pollehne
Daniel P. R. Herlemann
aBiological Oceanography, Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde, 18119 Rostock, Germany;cCentre for Limnology, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Vehendi Village 61117, Estonia
Thomas Leipe
Heide N. Schulz-Vogt
ORCID record for Heide N. Schulz-Vogt
Edited by Stephen P. Goff, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, and approved May 15, 2019 (received for review April 10, 2019)
Figures & SI
Mn is one of the most abundant redox-sensitive metals on earth. Some microorganisms are known to use Mn(IV) oxide (MnO2) as electron acceptor for the oxidation of organic compounds or hydrogen (H2), but so far the use of sulfide (H2S) has been suggested but not proven. Here we report on a bacterial isolate which grows autotrophically and couples the reduction of MnO2 to the oxidation of H2S or thiosulfate (S2O32−) for energy generation. The isolate, originating from the Black Sea, is a species within the genus Sulfurimonas, which typically occurs with high cell numbers in the vicinity of sulfidic environments [Y. Han, M. Perner, Front. Microbiol. 6, 989 (2015)]. H2S and S2O32− are oxidized completely to sulfate (SO42−) without the accumulation of intermediates. In the culture, Mn(IV) reduction proceeds via Mn(III) and finally precipitation of Ca-rich Mn(II) carbonate [Mn(Ca)CO3]. In contrast to Mn-reducing bacteria, which use organic electron donors or H2, Fe oxides are not observed to support growth, which may either indicate an incomplete gene set or a different pathway for extracellular electron transfer.
manganese reduction
sulfide oxidation
Sulfurimonas
In stratified basins, for example the Black Sea, in between the oxygenated surface waters and sulfidic bottom waters a suboxic zone lacking oxygen (O2), H2S, and mostly also nitrate (NO3−) has been frequently reported (1). Despite the absence of electron acceptors, high bacterial CO2 fixation rates at the border with sulfidic waters were measured, without a known energy metabolism which could fuel growth under these environmental conditions (2, 3). Thermodynamically, a suitable electron acceptor for H2S oxidation at this depth would be Mn. Even though Mn concentrations are low (Fig. 1A), the oxidized form MnO2 is particulate and is therefore transported much faster than dissolved electron acceptors to the sulfidic waters by gravitational sinking (4). Nevertheless, so far all attempts to cultivate microorganisms which oxidize H2S with MnO2 have failed.
(A) Water column profile of the Black Sea suboxic zone: O2 (blue), NO3− (green), H2S (yellow), and particulate (part.) Mn (black triangles). Red arrow indicates sampling for cultivation. Data from ref. 19. (B) Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) picture of the isolate 'S. marisnigri.' (C and D) Bottle photo and SEM picture of the particulate Mn phase before (C, Insert) and after (D, Insert) growth. (Scale bars: B, 1 μM; C and D, 10 μm.)
During an expedition on the research vessel Maria S. Merian in November 2013 we sampled the water column of the Black Sea, focusing on the suboxic zone. We took a water sample at the depth of highest abundance of Epsilonbacteraeota [12 to 15% (2)] and transferred it into a gas-tight serum bottle containing MnO2 (Fig. 1A, red arrow). At this depth H2S was detectable and neither O2 nor NO3− was present. After a first enrichment with daily additions of H2S resulting in ∼10 to 20 μM concentrations, we transferred a small volume into an artificial medium. From here on we used mainly S2O32− for cultivation instead of H2S as it is a more convenient electron donor, nontoxic even in higher concentrations, and nonreactive with the MnO2 used in our study. A single strain was isolated by repeated series of dilutions-to-extinction transfers.
The isolate belongs to the genus Sulfurimonas and its closest cultured relative is Sulfurimonas gotlandica, known for the oxidation of H2S with NO3− in the pelagic redoxcline of the Baltic Sea (5) with a 3% difference in the full 16S rRNA gene sequence. We propose calling the strain 'Sulfurimonas marisnigri,' in reference to the Latin notation of Pontus Euxı̄nus, meaning Sulfurimonas from the Black Sea. The cells are slightly curved, with lengths of 1 to 4 μm and widths of 200 to 300 nm (Fig. 1B). 'S. marisnigri' grows autotrophically with doubling times of 9 to 13 h during the exponential growth phase and reaches a final cell density of 3 to 6 × 107 cells per mL after 7 to 10 d (Fig. 2A). Toward the end of the growth phase, the medium turns from black to brownish-gray (Fig. 1 C and D, Inserts), due to the reduction of MnO2 and precipitation of Mn(Ca)CO3 (Fig. 2B). Even though this may be an artifact due to the cultivation conditions, this particular mineral phase was reported in exceptional amounts from the anoxic basins of the Baltic Sea, but the mechanism of its formation is still under debate (6). Cultivation of 'S. marisnigri' with NO3− and successive additions of H2S resulted in growth and undetectable H2S levels in the culture, indicating a principal ability to use H2S directly as electron donor. In contrast to Shewanella oneidensis and Geobacter metallireducens, attempts to cultivate 'S. marisnigri' with amorphous FeOOH, goethite (α-FeOOH), Fe2O3, and FeCl3 were unsuccessful, leading to the conclusion that Fe(III) was not a viable electron acceptor under these conditions. This may be due to the absence of a critical protein component for the reduction of Fe oxides or could indicate that extracellular electron transfer onto MnO2 might function in a different manner.
Growth of 'S. marisnigri' with MnO2 and S2O32− (A and B) and MnO2 and H2S (C). (A) Increasing cell counts (crosses, dashed line) concurrent with the complete oxidation of S2O32− (black solid circles) to SO42− (black open circles). (B) Occurrence of different Mn species during growth: particulate (part.) Mn [MnO2 and later Mn(Ca)CO3, black solid circles], dissolved (diss.) Mn (black open circles, solid line), and diss. reactive Mn (Mn3+, black open circles, dashed line). The reduction of part. MnO2 results in an equal increase of diss. Mn, almost exclusively Mn3+, until day 6. Molar ratio of Ca to Mn in the particulate phase (bars) indicates the precipitation of Mn(Ca)CO3 which was used to calculate the amount of reduced Mn in the particulate phase (blue solid circles, dashed line). (C) Cultivation of 'S. marisnigri' with MnO2 and constant addition of 3 μL⋅min−1 (until day 12) and after that 7.5 μL⋅min−1 of an ∼10 mM Na2S stock solution results in growth (crosses, dashed line), accumulation of SO42− (black squares), and low concentration of S0 (black solid circles). In the sterile control (blue), S0 (solid blue circles) is accumulating and concentrations of SO42− (blue squares) increase just slightly.
Growth of 'S. marisnigri' with MnO2 and a constant supply of H2S resulted in accumulation of SO42− as cell numbers increased, and negligible concentrations of elemental sulfur (S0). In the sterile control, however, S0 accumulated and SO42− increased just slightly (Fig. 2C). Likewise, in the central gyres of the Black Sea S2O32− and sulfite (SO32−) were undetectable (7) and S0 occurred in nanomolar concentrations (8). Growth with MnO2 and S2O32− was accompanied by the complete oxidation of S2O32− to SO42− with a stoichiometry of 1:2 (Fig. 2A) and following Eq. 1:4 MnO2 + S2O32− + 6 H+ → 4 Mn2+ + 2 SO42− + 3 H2O.[1]As with H2S, no detectable accumulation of S0 and SO32− was observed with S2O32− as electron donor. Growth was observed concurrent with the reduction of Mn(IV) to Mn(III) from day 3 to 6 and continued with the reduction of Mn(III) to Mn(II), leading to the precipitation of Ca-rich particles (Fig. 2 A and B), in contrast to S. oneidensis, where growth is only supported by the reduction of Mn(III) to Mn(II) (9). Total inorganic carbon (TIC) analysis of the particulate fraction at the end of the growth phase confirmed the formation of carbonate. The Ca-to-Mn ratio of single Mn(Ca)CO3 precipitates was determined using SEM and energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis (EDX). The mean ratio of 0.19 with an SD of 0.03 in cube-shaped precipitates was used to estimate the proportion of reduced Mn in the particulate phase (Fig. 2B, blue dashed line). With this approach, we can show that MnO2 was almost completely reduced and transformed to Mn(Ca)CO3.
We excluded disproportionation of S2O32−as an alternate explanation for our findings. Cultivation of 'S. marisnigri' solely on S2O32− as an energy source did not result in growth and formation of H2S or SO42−. This is supported by cultivation of 'S. marisnigri' with MnO2 and a surplus of S2O32−, in which the concentration of S2O32− remained constant after the depletion of MnO2. Finally, disproportionation in the presence of Fe oxides would have led to the precipitation of FeS and FeS2, which was not the case.
The isolate belongs to the group of Epsilonbacteraeota which is reported to be highly abundant in the redox trasition zones of, for example, the Black Sea (12% of the total bacterial community), the Baltic Sea (21%), and the Cariaco Basin (27%) (2, 10). In these systems, Epsilonbacteraeota can be responsible for up to 100% of the dark CO2 fixation activity in the absence of O2 and often NO3−. Therefore, Jost et al. (3) and Taylor et al. (11) already suggested a potentially MnO2-dependent H2S oxidation by autotrophic bacteria.
In addition to its presence in pelagic environments, the genus Sulfurimonas is globally abundant in redox transition environments such as hydrothermal vents and marine sediments (12). In sediments, the addition of MnO2 is thought to promote the production of SO42−, apparently depending on microbial activity and leading to the precipitation of Mn(Ca)CO3 (13). In those experiments, addition of FeOOH did not stimulate SO42− production. Those findings fit remarkably well to our observations in pure culture, suggesting that an organism with a physiology similar to that of 'S. marisnigri' may have been responsible for the observed activity.
A further indication that bacterial H2S oxidation with MnO2 may be of more general importance is the formation of intermediate Mn3+ in our cultures, which we detected indirectly as dissolved reactive Mn (14) (Fig. 2B). Mn3+ was reported to be a major constituent of the marine Mn cycle both in sediments (15) and in the water column of the Black Sea (16) in the absence of O2 and H2S (17). So far, known processes mediating Mn3+ formation are the oxidation of organic matter with MnO2 reduction, enzymatic oxidation of Mn2+, and the abiotic reaction of MnO2 with Fe(II) and H2S (15, 18). Our study adds another biologically mediated process via lithotrophic MnO2 reduction, which can promote the buildup of Mn3+, as observed both in marine sediments and across pelagic redoxclines. In conclusion, we suggest that this bacterial metabolism, which we prove here in pure culture, may be widespread in pelagic redoxclines and to a minor extent in marine sediments where H2S is produced and Mn is present in sufficient amounts with important consequences for Mn and S cycling.
Gases and Nutrients.
Gases and nutrients in the water column were measured as reported in Schulz-Vogt et al. (19).
Cultivation.
Water samples were taken at 44°−16.7586 N and 36°−18.9567 E at the depth indicated in Fig. 1. Culture purity was ensured by sequencing, lack of growth in organic-rich media, and by microscopy. Medium for cultivation and experiments was prepared anaerobically following the technique described by Widdel and Pfennig (20) based on a SO42−-free artificial seawater with a salinity of 21 and a pH of 7.5. The following sterile and anoxic components were added (milliliters per liter): 1 M NaHCO3, 30; 1 mM NH4Cl, 20; Pfennig's trace elements solution SL7, 1; 10 mM Na2HPO4, 1; and vitamin solution, 0.42. Vitamin solution contained (milligrams per milliliter) the following: B12, 0.1; inositol, 0.1; biotin, 0.1; folic acid, 0.1; PABA, 1; nicotinic acid, 10; d-pantothenate, 10; and thiamine, 20. Technical MnO2 provided as electron acceptor was purchased from Merck and additionally grinded with an agate ball mill.
Molecular Analysis and Bioinformatics.
DNA was extracted using QIAamp DNA Mini Kit (51306) following the manual. For PCR we used Thermo Fisher Scientific Kit EP0072 according to the manufacturer's protocol description and primers 27f -1492r. PCR products were purified with the Agentcourt AMpure XP (Beckman Coulter GmbH) magnetic beads and cloned into the vector pSC-A-amp/kan (StrataClone PCR Cloning Kit, competent cells Strataclone SoloPack) following the manual. Clones were sequenced (LGC) forward and reverse using vector primers, trimmed, manually corrected, assembled and deposited at NCBI GenBank (accession nos. MF563385–MF563475).
Cell Counting.
A glutaraldehyde-fixed sample (2.5% final concentration) was treated with at least five times the volume of a hydroxylamine solution (1.5 M NH2OH⋅HCl dissolved in 0.25 M HCl) to dissolve Mn particles. The mixture was treated with ultrasonic for 5 min and subsequently filtered onto a 0.2-μm polycarbonate filter and embedded in DAPI-containing oil. Cells were enumerated with an epifluorescence microscope at 1,000× magnification.
S2O32− and SO32−.
We added 0.5 mL 0.2-μm-filtered subsample to 25 μL of Hepes/EDTA buffer (200 mM/50 mM in MilliQ) and 25 μL of the monobrombimane solution (48 mM in acetonitrile) and incubated at room temperature for 30 min in the dark. Derivatization was stopped by adding 25 μL of methanesulfonic acid (324 mM in MilliQ water). Samples were diluted with MilliQ water and measured daily. Samples and calibration series were analyzed using a BioTek HPLC System with pump 525 (1 mL⋅min−1), oven 582 (40 °C), column LiChrospher 60 RP-Select B (5 μm) 125 × 4, and a Jasco FP 1520 detector (excitation at 380 nm, emission at 480 nm). Data were analyzed with the program Geminyx III Version 1.10.3.7. Eluent A contained 0.25% acetic acid and eluent B 100% methanol. The gradient protocol was as follows: 0 min 100% A, 2 min 100% A, 5.5 min 92% A, 8 min 68% A, 12 min 68% A, 13 min 0% A, 18 min 0% A, 19 min 100% A, and 23 min 100% A. With these adjustments, S2O32− peak appeared after 10 min and SO32− peak after 8 min.
A 900-μL sample was added to 100 μL of zinc acetate solution (5% wt/vol). Then, 500 μL chloroform were added and intensively mixed for 2 min. One hundred microliters of the chloroform phase were diluted with 400 μL methanol and measured with HPLC using BioTek HPLC System with pump 525 (1 mL⋅min−1), oven 582 (25 °C), column LiChrospher 100 RP-18 B (5 μm) 125 × 4, and DAD 545V detector (wavelength 265 nm and 6-nm bandwidth). Data analysis was as described above. An isocratic gradient with 100% methanol was applied. With these adjustments, the peak appeared after 4.4 min.
Mn and Ca.
Part. Mn and Ca dissolved in hydroxylamine solution as well as total diss. (<0.2 μm) Mn and diss. reactive Mn [dMnreact, mainly comprising Mn3+ (14)] were measured by ICP-OES (iCAP 7400 Duo; Thermo Fisher Scientific) using an external calibration and Sc as internal standard. Precision and accuracy were checked by international reference materials (SGR-1b for the part. and SLEW-3 for the diss. fraction) and were below 2%.
SEM-EDX.
A Zeiss Merlin Compact SEM (variable pressure, in-lens SE and BSE detector) equipped with EDX (Oxford Instruments) was used to identify Mn(Ca)CO3 precipitates and to directly quantify the Ca-to-Mn ratios. The sample preparation was done as described elsewhere (19). Reduced Mn in the part. phase was calculated with Eq. 2:part.red.Mn =part. Mn * total part. Ca/Mn by ICP−OESspot Ca/Mn by SEM−EDX in Mn(Ca)CO3.[2]
TIC.
Dried material was treated with 40% H3PO4 and the released CO2 was analyzed by an IR detector (multi-EA 4000; Analytic Jena). Pure standard CaCO3 (12.0% TIC) was used for calibration.
We thank C. Laudan, C. Burmeister, A. Köhler, and R. Bahlo for assistance with the laboratory, analysis, and SEM-EDX work; the crew of research vessel Maria S. Merian cruise 33; and Bo Barker Jørgensen, Cindy Lee, and Friedrich Widdel for providing helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. The cruise was funded by the International Bureau of the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Grant 01DK12043). The research was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Grant ANAMARE (SCHU1416/5-1).
↵1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: Jan.Henkel{at}io-warnemuende.de or heide.schulz-vogt{at}io-warnemuende.de.
Author contributions: J.V.H. and H.N.S.-V. designed research; J.V.H. performed research; O.D., F.P., and T.L. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; J.V.H., O.D., D.P.R.H. analyzed data; and J.V.H. and H.N.S.-V. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Data deposition: The sequences reported in this paper have been deposited in the GenBank database (accession nos. MF563385–MF563475).
Copyright © 2019 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.
This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY).
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Jan V. Henkel, Olaf Dellwig, Falk Pollehne, Daniel P. R. Herlemann, Thomas Leipe, Heide N. Schulz-Vogt
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jun 2019, 116 (25) 12153-12155; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1906000116
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I decided to try something a little different this time. Rather than using CC3, I instead decided to try my hand at Google's free 3D modeling software, Sketchup.
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text:
UWRF to instate first health psychologist
By Caleb Stevens
Next fall the psychology department will offer classes taught by the first health psychologist ever hired in the department.
Health Psychologist Todd Wilkinson is one of the new psychology department hires whose contracts will hopefully be finalized next week according to associate dean and former psychology department chairman, Brad Caskey.
"It is exciting for the department to have young, new ideas," Caskey said. The department now has a better mix of young and older faculty."
Once they are signed, Wilkinson's contract will not take effect until August, when he will begin teaching full time.
"Health Psychology is a whole new area of expertise, he [Wilkinson] will bring in new expertise we don't have," psychology professor Travis Tubre said. "So it is very exciting, and it makes our department more diverse."
Tubre was also the chair of the search committee in charge of hiring the new professors. The committee included department faculty, out-of-department faculty and senior psychology major Hannah Davidson.
"Students have a different mindset about what they want to see in a professor," Tubre said. "It [having a student on the committee] brings a level of commitment to UW goals.
Davidson was the only student on the search committee and said it was a little intimidating, but enjoyed the experience.
"I learned a lot from the experience," Davidson said. "I never realized how much is involved in the search and hire process."
Search committees are formed all over campus to coordinate new hires. After the application deadline the psychology search committee reviewed the applications, conducted phone interviews and did reference checks.
"We looked at their training and education, as well as teaching experience," Tubre said. "We also looked at their research and if there was a student connection to research, and if they were committed to diversity, because that is very important on this campus."
The committee narrowed the search down to five applicants who were brought to campus to give 50-minute presentations, or teach a mock-class.
"I thought he [Wilkinson] did a wonderful job. He spoke about research on the psychology of eating," Davidson said. "His presentation was interesting, well organized, interactive and fun."