text:
Marvel's The Avengers: Age of Ultron
May 2, 2015 March 5, 2017 / Tom
Release: Friday, May 1, 2015
[RPX Theater]
Written by: Joss Whedon
Directed by: Joss Whedon
In the chaotic and climactic final twenty minutes a wistfulness arose within me, and though I didn't let it fully disengage me from one of the year's most ambitious CGI spectacles I was annoyed I let it happen. I knew it was going to, though. That feeling that, after all of this battling against the hype machine, this was it. This was all it could have been.
And of course it was; it makes sense. Marvel's The Avengers: Age of Ultron may be the much-anticipated follow-up to that most grandiose uniting of superheroes from far-flung corners of the globe but in the end it is still just a movie. At two hours and twenty minutes it's a lot of movie but even that kind of length ends up shortchanging those who have built this up in their heads as some kind of singular event. I honestly put the blame on Joss Whedon, though. Maybe if he hadn't made Marvel's The Avengers such a spectacular escape little old film fans like me wouldn't have unfairly begun wielding our hopes and expectations like a shield of vibranium against which the man would have little hope of defending himself.
The one thing he won't have to hope for is a solid box office presence, though. That's perhaps the only thing that's guaranteed about his new film.
AGE OF JAMES SPADER
Age of Ultron arrives at a time when superhero movies have . . . okay, forget that. Instead: yay, summer! Rather than detangling the network of superhero film reel that's enabled this one to happen, I think it's best to cut to the chase and talk all things artificially intelligent and Hydra-related. Whedon wastes no time in appealing to our appropriately elevated adrenaline levels by introducing the gang kicking ass and taking names in the remote European nation of Sokovia, the location of a Hydra outpost. Baron Wolfgang von Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann) has gotten a hold of Loki's scepter and is using it to experiment on humans. His most notable creations become Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor Johnson) and the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), who take pleasure in being the collective thorn in the Avengers' collective side.
Following their successful stand against some of Hydra's henchmen, the Avengers return to headquarters and celebrate, but only briefly. Given Stark's affinity for constantly tinkering with his creations he uses the A.I. he and Banner discover within the scepter to jumpstart his long-dormant and secretive Ultron project, a program he believes will be humanity's best chance of living in a safer world.
Amidst one of the more memorable scenes — Thor ribbing his companions into trying to lift his hammer knowing full well none of them will succeed, only to be gobsmacked by Steve Rogers' ability to actually influence it ever so subtly — a worst case scenario rears its ugly head as Ultron's sentience rapidly exceeds Stark's ability to control it. Ultron (voiced by James Spader) quickly deduces people are no good; that the only way Earth will be safe is to eradicate them. One thing I was impressed by was how my cynicism was put in perspective in the face of a vengeful, ten-foot tall robot with evil red eyes.
If there's anything that bundles together Age of Ultron's dizzying number of thematic and physical ambitions it's the notion that not everything created by a billionaire genius can be controlled. Not by him, and not even by Whedon. The arrival of a one-of-a-kind android in Spader, whose own image rather disappointingly supersedes that of his on-screen counterpart, heralds an age in which over-ambition, even born out of purely good intentions, very well might mean the downfall of everything. That's obviously not going to be the case for the MCU. Still, this bloated sequel is not the joyride its predecessor was.
SUPERHERO FATIGUE V. SUPERHERO INDIFFERENCE
In propelling the complex mythos and relationships that have endeared millions to this lone property into the future, Whedon has incidentally obligatorily spawned an environment in which everything is expected to get more and more extreme. Unfortunately that's kind of an issue that can be traced back to the Avengers' cinematic birth in 2012. How the Infinity War sequels are supposed to top this is anyone's guess, but there is no doubt Marvel will demand it from the Russo brothers. I suspect we are yet to enter the darkest days facing our fearless heroes, and if this middle film is a barometer of anything, it's solemnity.
But like Man of Steel and The Amazing Spider-man, just because the story takes a darker turn — these properties are, after all, reflecting a reality that seems to be growing ever more hostile — this doesn't discount Age of Ultron's potential to be an enjoyable summer getaway. Rather, I have found it easy to forget about that potential, and much more challenging to be as enthusiastic as Whedon's canvas continues spreading to include lesser-known players, heroes who are admittedly cleverly worked into the picture, but who don't mean as much if you haven't done your Avengers homework. (And I am referring to the comics.) There's something about the hatred Ultron directs primarily towards Tony Stark and secondarily to the human population at large that screams 'classic movie villainy,' yet the same can't be said about Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch's decision to shift loyalties.
Perhaps my detachment from the Maximoff twins, in particular, stems from my failure to be entertained by Elizabeth Olsen trying on a Russian accent. Equally distracting is Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Beach Boys hairdo. These two needed their own cinematic introduction before showing up in ostensibly pivotal roles here. The Vision means little to me, although his . . . odd genetic make-up is something to behold. If this all sounds like a personal problem, that's because it likely is. Whereas some are experiencing the inevitable 'superhero fatigue,' I find I may have accidentally banished myself to the realm of superhero indifference.
What Age of Ultron ultimately assembles (and stop me when this sounds familiar) is an overstuffed extravaganza that tries, mostly succeeding, to incorporate as much of the popular Marvel legacy as a single film can handle before breaking and before turning off as many of its several hundred million viewers as possible. It's the epitome of blockbuster in a blockbuster age. It's a mighty compromise between getting really technical and remaining lowest-common-denominator entertainment. I feel as unique as the Avengers are, they deserve something not quite as mundane.
At the same time, what else could I have expected out of a summer movie? While I don't feel like my expectations turned on me as drastically as Stark's program did him, like him I am reluctant to admit it was pretty much my fault. . .
Recommendation: Featuring Whedon's trademark comic relief and ability to weave together multiple story lines, Marvel's The Avengers: Age of Ultron unfortunately might signal what has been coming down the pipe for a long time. It's a film of excess but also a film that minimizes enjoyment to pack in as much information and spectacle as possible. Diehards will no doubt lap this up. Anything less though, are sure to find things that could have been much better. A recommended watch in the large format, but unlike the first one I can't say you need to see it twice in such a fashion. There is a mid-credits scene that you should stick around for.
Quoted: "Everyone creates the thing they fear. Men of peace create engines of war. Avengers create invaders. Parents create children, that will supplant them."
Photo credits: http://www.moviepilot.com; http://www.imdb.com
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51 thoughts on "Marvel's The Avengers: Age of Ultron"
Great review, Tom. James Spader was excellent in this film. He was equal parts menacing and humorous.
By the way, thank you for always stopping by my site, and for participating in my Movie Whose Line feature. Here's a Versatile Blogger Award!
https://drewreviewmovies.wordpress.com/2015/05/18/a-gift-from-justine-the-versatile-blogger-award/
Hey thanks for the nom Drew! 🙂
I actually was not a fan of the selection of James Spader. Ultron ended up being merely a disembodied James Spader voice. All I could picture was the actor in the role and not this incredible A.I. but even still, being able to picture someone like Spader is better than a lot of the other campy choices they could have gone with I suppose. The villain did have some pretty good lines in there, too.
No problem, man. You deserve it!
That's too bad you didn't enjoy Spader as much as I did. But I agree, now matter how you feel about him, he was better than going with some generic robotic voice. A character like Ultron definitely deserves more than that.
Although this goes against my original comment, my biggest gripe against Ultron was that he was *too* humorous. I don't think it quite fit with a humanity destroying robot. But in the end, Spader did well and was a good choice.
Fantastic post, man! What a great read. Haven't seen this one yet (maybe tonight) but I'm not awfully excited. Whedon's "trademark comic relief" is such a turn-off for me.
Yeah it works for some and not for others. Personally I was glad for it because otherwise this thing would be a heck of a headache. Im just not that big of a fanboy for the comics. A fact that really hurt me here. 😛
Ah Tom, sorry you didn't like it a lot! I enjoyed it, although it didn't entertain me as much as the first one did!
I had fun, but this film is an example of Marvel's blockbuster formula kind of working against the story. I'd even read that Whedon was in a big struggle with the studio to keep the farmhouse scene as the studio wanted even more action and stuff instead. I thought that was kinda lame! Haha. But yeah. I find the first one to be a total blast.
Thanks for reading this ridiculously long post Natasha! 😉
I'm in the same boat as you. This was a labored attempt to set up Avengers: Infinity War (separated into parts 1 and 2 of course) with the introduction of all these new characters instead of just focusing on the superheroes we know and love.
I liked it fine but I'd take a lucid plot over a cinematic incubator for future films any day. 🙂
Exactly. Apparently Whedon and Marvel didn't see eye-to-eye on the development of Hawkeye re: the farmhouse scenes were supposed to be cut in favor of even more bombastic action. Can you imagine?? Talk about overkill…..
Great review. I think the film was good but still quite disappointing.
Not sure if it is in comparisons to their reason great films but it felt like a foot note rather than a solid film of its own.
2 hour trailer for phase 3 is a bit harsh but not wholly untrue.
Haha i like that idea: 2 hour trailer for phase 3. In some ways it is. It's also suffering a bit of middle-child syndrome. It wants so much attention all at once but we've have the novelty of The Avengers beforehand and now we look forward to the epic drama that Infinity War(s) will hopefully provide.
I think Age of Ultron was facing a mighty challenge. It needed to do something incredible to remain a 'relevant' bit of film, if that makes sense. And sadly I didn't think Ultron was the best thing about this film. I couldn't help but just picture James Spader the entire time, which isn't the worst thing in the world at all since I love that guy, but this villain wasn't as threatening as I'd hoped it'd be. Which is kinda why I intro'd this review a bit with my expectations rambling. Expectations are a lot of times to blame with these big blockbusters, aren't they?
I think the expectations where one of quite a few problems. Mostly small though 😀
I knew this film was in a spot of trouble awhile back when expectations were just……sky-high. Part of why I made this review so long was me trying to explain where I was mentally going in and how a film is kind of doomed when we start thinking its going to be an event. A movie is just a movie. But I suppose we can also partly blame the marketing around these things. They love to make these into events, rather than just a means of escape for film fans.
I think it was an event but just on one level. Big blockbuster action and visuals tick. But story, character and themes took a backseat 😦
Great review here Tom, I think there's a bit of fatigue for me so I didn't care about this as much as I did the first film.
P.S. Sent you an email earlier, hope to hear from you soon 🙂
Cheers Ruth, the superhero fatigue isn't so much of an issue with me as my ignorance to what some of the more novel heroes here were. In other words, I wish I had known more about Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch and the Vision before this film. I think a stand-alone film with at least QS an SW would have been good to introduce us to what they're bringing to the table. Expand their background so that when we see the introductory fight we are really kind of empathetic to why they hate Stark so much. And the Vision just felt like he was flung in there at the last minute. Superhero fatigue is definitely legit at this point but I'm still a fan of these big ass movies. Homogeneity is definitely an issue when trying to cater to so many global fans, so we have to at least give Whedon that credit. This was a good time, but not as great as I was hoping.
My review of this is up now, I'm quite generous in my rating given how I feel about it. I do still give props to Whedon for somehow not making this a huge a mess it could've been.
P.S. So did you get my email? Pls let me know asap if you can take part or not.
Could have sworn I responded in my last comment that I had seen the email, I guess that was the comment I left on your blog! Haha. sorry i'm absolutely overwhelmed right now with stuff with the blogathon I'm running with Mark from Three Rows Back and doing posts on my own post and trying to get a job at the same time. You'll have to forgive my lack of organization. lol. I'll try and think up a question here in a little bit if that's okay. How late can I respond tonight?
Email is sent Ruth! 😀
Very cool, thanks Tom!
That's a great final line to a really solid review mate. You and I are in accord here I think it's fair to say. Whedon did about as good a job as he could to with the sheer amount of plotlines etc that Marvel necessitates from its Cinematic Universe.
Age of Ultron is a film so impossibly connected to everything else it seems a bit unfair to criticize the film when Whedon had so many things to deal with. But the entertainment value just didn't feel as high as the first. And that one still had the lofty task of coherently uniting six heroes together. Then putting a big obstacle in their way. Ultron as the villain could have been something really scary but I think it was just average here.
Appreciate the love man, this was a heck of a review to write. Definitely waffled on a bit much. 😉
I'm hardly one to talk!
Idk man your reviews are concise. Mine are shit@!!!! 😉
jameshaseltine
Excellently worded, so much so was the grief you were giving 'Ultron' I was surprised by your final 6/8 verdict, nevertheless a lot of what you said is true and somebody had to say it. Superhero fatigue is a thing, I have it, but superhero indifference is something else, and I feel like I want a slice
I was really hoping to be able to give Ultron a 7 but a 6 is definitely still pretty positive, you're right. There was a lot of stuff to admire and enjoy about this. But I couldn't help shake the feeling that there was a great load of potential missed. Chiefly in the evil of Ultron, the characters of QS and SW and the Vision were spoon fed to us rather than convincingly tied in (and the Russian accents Olsen and Taylor-Johnson were using were just terrible, though that's kinda nit-picky lol), and the formula of action scene – dialogue – action scene – dialogue – grand finale was kind of lame.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a film that I didn't appreciate as much as everyone else, successfully broke from the mold and I was kinda hoping this would do something like that. But it was essentially a carbon copy of The Avengers.
Great review Tom. I must admit that I am pretty wary about this one, I was not a fan of the first one. The trailers for this one piqued more interest for me though, so we will see.
Gracias amiga!!! I'd be interested to hear your take on this given you didn't like the first. I think Ultron just offers more of the same but with less satisfactory returns, in my book. The first was cool cuz we saw how they all weren't at first able to come together and be successful as a group. Here we are now used to them fighting as a unit, and we've gotten used to them through their various stand-alone films. I kind of had this paranoia that this film was destined to be a bit of a letdown b/c it's going to have to do something insane to "refresh" the senses, if that makes any sense at all. I hope you enjoy it though all the same!
Nice write up mate. Certainly not something I could have written.
Cheers dude, i didn't think this was a great review at all. Hahah I let myself waffle on way too long here. 😛
I did enjoy this, as did my teen kids, though it seemed to me not so much overstuffed (it is a BIG film experience) but compressed. Whedon's director's cut purportedly came in at over three hours, but Marvel (no doubt looking for more screenings per day) got it down to 141 minutes. One minute less than its predecessor. Wonder if they'll re-release it down the line, à la AVATAR, with Whedon's version. Another fine review, Tom.
The Age of Ultron was a little bit much for me. And I kind of started losing interest in Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch both in performance and in the roles they played. Like I said in the review, I think they need some prior experience before their involvement here really makes an impression. That was how I saw it. Thanks for the comment Michael. 🙂
Consumed by Film
Interesting that you bring up the superhero fatigue point, because I reckon I was getting there. Going into this I kept thinking to myself, "what's the point – what are the stakes?". But I ended up buying it. It swept me away for the vast majority of the two and half hours.
Ant-Man might have a tough job on its, um, antlers, but I reckon Age of Ultron is Marvel succeeding. Nonetheless, really intriguing read Tom. I wasn't exactly bowled over by the Maximoff accent work either!
Age of Ultron is just. . . so. . . big. Hahah. So much movie. My unfamiliarity with some of the characters that ended up playing a bigger role than I was anticipating distanced me from the heart and soul of this film. That's not to say I wanted it to be all of the original guys taking everything by the reigns of course, but I am a firm believer that Quicksilver/The Scarlet Witch ought to have had their own film before this behemoth arrived.
I really look forward to Ant Man. I think that's gonna be a great "little" flick and one I hope will have the same kind of quirkiness and outrageous action that can be found when RDJ debuted in the original Iron Man. 😀
I won't disagree with you on the Quicksilver/Scarlet Witch point. They were lost in the shuffle a tad. I guess the problem is that they're villains, so how do you market a standalone film centred around villains as prep for Age of Ultron?
I hope Ant-Man does the business. Big fan of Paul Rudd. The trailers are quite zany, which is a promising change of pace!
I think a villain-based movie could work. After all, we will be seeing Suicide Squad fairly soon, right? Though, I've seen a few leaks of that. . .well, I say leaks. . . but I guess I"m referring to Will Smith's god-awful-looking Deadshot costume. It has me a bit ancy to see how it's all going to come together. So maybe I should hold my breath! Haha
Are the Suicide Squad proper villains then? Excuse my lack of comicy knowledge! I think a cool villain-led movie could work, but are the Maximoff twins cool? Maybe they could be.
Yeah I saw Smith in his costume. Looks a bit like Slade Wilson from Arrow.
From what I gather (and I haven't kept up with the comics whatsoever) the Suicide Squad are purely villainous. It'll be made up of Deadshot, Harley Quinn, the Joker, Captain Boomerang, Lex Luthor, Rick Flagg and maybe a few others.
Ah okay. My curiosity has piqued!
Ant-Man? They are making a stand-alone movie about a guy called Ant-Man? Wow… that kinda leaves me speechless!
How have you not heard about this yet dude?? Hahah it's one of the more interesting investments of the MCU I've learned of since their risky Guardians of the Galaxy. You should check out a trailer for it right away! 😀 😀
My pop culture exposure is sporadic at the best of times, I don't have a TV and none of my mates are into stuff like that. I thought it was some kinda of prank, but its more like a cinematic nightmare come real.
At least blockbuster shit like The Terminator was still an awesome watch. Ant-Man in comparison sounds like a Pixar children's film.
So the Ant-man is a cinematic nightmare to you? That sucks.
Hahaha nah, just that super-hero films seem to take over everything people are talking about re- film whenever a new one comes out. And I can't stand them so I have to try and keep my mouth shut as much as possible and stop myself from writing a review hating on it.
No you should totally write a scathing review man. Some of my posts that I labeled 'rants' are for that purpose only and they've generated a lot of traffic actually.
And he shrinks to the size of an ant too!
I also think the casting of Paul Rudd is inspired. Though I am a bit bummed that Edgar Wright bailed from the project. . .
Ditto, on both accounts!
that must enable him to get involved in some dastardly capers!
I don't know what happens in these movies. Don't they just kinda… save the world, and that's sorta… it? The two I have seen were like that
I'm hope for an A Bug's Life cameo. Flick, preferably.


Feel free to caption this photo. The Romance of Tristan and Iseult, retold by Joseph Bèdier is the only book I finished, last week, and that gets me to a grand total of 5 books read in November. Eeks. What a terrible month. But, again, I loved what I read and I'd rather read and love 5 books than finish a dozen bad ones, so I'll try not to focus on the number.
And, I want to start about 5,000 other books. I'm strongly considering a private day or two of reading till my head explodes. Seems reasonable, right?
This will be a quick-dash malarkey using the old format. Busy day!
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline (a reread for F2F discussion) - Not sure if I'll write about this, since I read the book as an ARC and reviewed it then, but I will say everyone in the group enjoyed it and the discussion was much more interesting than I'd anticipated. We were also very, very happy to finally discuss a book that ended on a happy note after several months of downers.
A Boy Called Christmas by Matt Haig - I wanted to buy a copy of Matt Haig's latest as soon as I heard about it, but it was not available for pre-order in the U.S. So, I pre-ordered a copy from Book Depository. The Guardian's reviewer called it an instant Christmas classic. I liked the balance of dark and light, the way this book explains certain things about Santa or Father Christmas that others have not, and a few very quotable passages, in particular. I think I might have to reread it before Christmas. It's a quick, fun read.
Sherlock Chronicles by Steve Tribe - Just finished reading about the third episode from the first season, so I'll be watching that episode, tonight.
I Love it When You Talk Retro by Ralph Keyes - I had this book set aside to read and my husband tried to murder it with a cup of coffee (spilled - it's a mostly brown book, now, with very wavy pages). The pages aren't stuck together, though, so I figured I should go ahead and read it then probably recycle. I suspect people would be wary of that brown all over the pages and avoid it if I donated it.
The Sparrow Sisters by Ellen Herrick - Not very far into this and at this point it's not grabbing me, so I've got my fingers crossed that I'll fall in love, soon.
I have a mere 3,508 words to go but Kiddo just got a job offer about an hour ago and he's so wired that I had to stop typing to let him chatter at me. My goal is to finish tonight so that I can move on to working on another story after Thanksgiving. Fingers crossed.
I'll be taking off a few days for Thanksgiving, as I usually do. Not sure when. If I can squeeze a couple of reviews in first, I will. It mostly depends upon whether or not I finish my NaNo book, today. If I don't manage to finish before I take time off, Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends!
First, she removed Escape from Sobibor from the shelf. Then, after I put it back, she played with the ribbon on a bookmark in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. After that, she pushed back some books, tried to remove Escape from Sobibor, again, and stuck her face between the books to peer into the space behind. Sometimes Isabel can be a little bit naughty but even when she's being a pain, she's such fun.
You'd think I would have written about Neverwhere, by now, wouldn't you? It's been a month since I finished the book. The Read-along turned out to be more of a buddy read with just 3 or 4 of us reading and only two of us chatting about it, but that was fine. I really enjoyed discussing Neverwhere with Florinda (link leads to Florinda's review of the audio).
Richard Mayhew is an "every man" type character who ignores his girlfriend's insistence to ignore a tattered, bleeding girl they discover lying in the street. Instead, he takes her home and opens up a path to London's dark, magical and mysterious underground world known as London Below. The girl Richard has rescued is named Door and her name is apt; she has a special ability to open doors. Door is on a mission to find out who killed her family and Richard is swept along into the dark world that lies within London's Underground and its sewers. Once you enter London Below, you become invisible in the world above. Richard can't go home.
Door begins her search with the Marquis de Carabas and then another character with an obvious name, Hunter. The Marquis owes her a favor and the Hunter will serve as her protection as she attempts to solve the mystery. But, Neil Gaiman likes strong heroines and Door is pretty tough on her own. Richard initially tags along because he has no choice in the matter but eventually he finds his own strength. There are two extraordinarily creepy characters known as Mr. Vandemar and Mr. Croup who will turn your stomach, an angel in the British Museum, and all sorts of wonderful London references.
I began reading Neverwhere on the plane to London and decided to stretch out the reading for a while after we returned. It was particularly fun to open the book at night and see a reference to some place I'd just been and, of course, I would have loved the book for its London references even if I hadn't been there at the time. Neverwhere is a unique, intriguing, bizarre, sometimes humorous adventure. I was riveted.
Highly recommended - An immensely entertaining adventure in which the darkness and mystery of an underground fantasy world and the characters inhabiting it intersect with the sometimes-frustrating and often goofy, slapstick world of the human cast into its depths. Neverwhere is now up there with my other favorite by Gaiman, Stardust.
I've mentioned that I purchased the radio performance so an update on that . . . nope, I haven't listened. I began to listen to it but I have no commute and sitting still to listen on the computer would just be crazy. So, I'm going to either try to load it to my iPad for the next time I travel or pop the CDs into the CD player (yep, I still have one of those in my vehicle) the next time I take a road trip of any kind. Till then . . . I did listen to a tiny bit and I agree with Florinda that it's best if you read the book or listen to the full audiobook, first.
Humans of New York: Stories is a collection of photos and quotes or stories (some a single line, some a series of several photos and paragraphs) that are posted daily on the Humans of New York Facebook page. Some I recognized from that page but I've only recently begun following so most of the photos and their associated stories were new to me. The wonder of the project and the Humans of New York: Stories book is that it offers such a unique peek into everyday lives, for better or worse, a glimpse of what single event impacted someone or what was dominating their thoughts at that moment in time. And, sometimes they're just cute, whether quotes for kids or pictures of them with little or no commentary.
I asked my youngest son if he's familiar with Humans of New York, as I was reading, and he said yes, that he enjoyed it but he liked some of the stories better than others. He referred to a series of 4 photos that had just been posted, about a man whose wife was manipulative enough to fake abuse so that she could get access to free legal counseling and custody of the children when they divorced. The story ended happily; the truth eventually came out and he's now traveling the world when he has time off. But, there's no doubt that some of those stories are deeply unsettling, whether as examples of how people fall through the cracks or of how mental illness and abuse quietly destroy people.
I do love the inspiring stories the best. But, I think it's the stories of people who have challenges that break them which make the Humans of New York project so special. Everyone knows how easy it is to justify not giving a homeless person money or food, how simple it is to avert your gaze and pretend they don't exist. Reading their stories reminds you that they're human, too. They're not necessarily even uneducated or drug addicts, as most of us presume. Some have ended up on the street because some random domino effect caused their economic lives to come crashing down around them and there was nowhere to turn. Those are the stories we need to talk about, to ask ourselves what we can and must do to make changes to keep people from ending up alone and without a place to sleep.
Highly recommended - Great photos, fascinating stories. As a side note, since it just happens to be November and National Novel Writing Month is in progress, it occurred to me that Humans of New York: Stories might be an excellent story starters for writers. The stories are brief enough that it's easy to read a story and think, "I could expand on this, fictionalize it, make a novel or short story out of it."
All of this week's arrivals were purchased by moi. I definitely need to read faster.
The Dust that Falls from Dreams by Louis de Bernières - Totally fell in love with this book, a story of love, war, and friendship.
Yesterday was the first day I've taken off from writing since NaNoWriMo began. I'm a terrible sleeper and was feeling the effects of a rough night, so I decided to just pay bills, do a little housework, and take a nap. Fortunately, today I met my goal for the day.
Oh, hmm, I guess that's about it. Hopefully, I'll get around to watching the second episode of Sherlock, tonight, so I can move on to reading about the third one in Sherlock Chronicles. I love that book. Seriously, if you're a Sherlock fan, you must track down a copy.
Since I'm done writing, I'm off to read a bit. Maybe hang out with my little fur sweethearts.
If you click on the photo to enlarge (or have better eyes than I do), you'll see that Izzy's almost-matchmate is the cover star of a 2012 calendar. Yes, I keep a 2012 calendar on my desk to remind me of one of the best vacations of my life. I tried to find another Japanese calendar for 2013, but never did find anything that pleased me. So, I just leave the old calendar in place.
First things first: Illuminae is gorgeous. When the two copies I pre-ordered arrived (one for my son, one for myself -- an error, but one I opted to let stand), I was immensely impressed by the gorgeous slipcover, which is semi-transparent plastic. The hard paper cover beneath is even impressive -- black, red and yellow on a white background. A lot of money has gone into the production of this book, that much is clear.
Illuminae is a YA sci-fi that begins with the attack of an illegal mining colony by a competing corporation. It's the 26th century and there are ships that can create their own wormholes. The attack is unexpected and devastating. Of the three ships on which survivors manage to escape, only one is able to create wormholes and unfortunately that's impossible due to damage to the ship. The survivors need to get to a static wormhole to escape the pursuing ship and travel back to civilization but it will take months . . . and there are two things chasing them: a terrifying disease and an enemy ship. On top of those problems, there is a computer much like Hal of 2001. It has gone rogue and may be as deadly as the enemy.
My son and I read Illuminae together, thanks to the fact that we had two copies. He read and enjoyed Jay Kristoff's previous series and Illuminae (written with co-author Amie Kaufman) sounded like my kind of adventure, so we were both pretty excited. We have read books together -- or taken turns reading -- and then discussed, off and on, for years. I highly recommend doing so with kids, if you have them. Reading together is a great way to ramp up your child's excitement about books when they're younger and I've found one of the most enjoyable things about having older children is that now, even when we're far apart, we often end up discussing what we've read over the phone.
Back to the book . . . Illuminae is written as a dossier collecting various documents, ship-to-ship communications, diagrams, diary entries, etc., relevant to the attack and the events that followed. It has a lot of illustrated pages -- some with only a few sentences written in stylized waves, some cutaway views of ship interiors, some simply with centered text in a robotic font. So, in spite of its 599 pages, the book is a quick, light read. It's also very plot-centric and fast-paced. My son and I both loved the amount of action and the pacing.
The only thing we disliked was the romance. Kady and Ezra are the main characters, a young couple who had just broken up before the attack. They survive the attack together but are separated. Much of the communication is between the two of them when they reconnect. Both of us found the romance sappy and hard to buy into. But, we liked the story so much that we were both willing to overlook our slight discomfort with that particular aspect of the book.
Highly recommended - A wild ride, immensely entertaining, with a unique presentation. The Illuminae Group is the shadowy group that has gathered the information into dossier form and Illuminae is the first in The Illuminae Files series.
"At a signal from his guardian angel, _____ is out the door like his ____ is on fire."
I don't recall what I thought at the time, but it was probably something on the order of, "At a signal from his guardian angel, Twinkletoes is out the door like his hair is on fire."
Trying to creatively substitute non-profane words simply added to the fun.
Important addendum: I neglected to mention that the book works as a stand-alone. This is rather crucial information. I absolutely abhor cliffhanger endings and will generally refuse to continue a series if an author doesn't wrap things up. Illuminae was nicely wrapped up, enough so that I found myself wondering what on earth the authors will come up with, next, because clearly it will not be about the same incident (although I do wonder if at least one of the characters will be involved).
Sloth Slept On is the story of three children who discover a sloth sleeping in a tree. They try to ask it what its name is and what it's doing in their tree but, of course, there is no reply. The children decide they must find the answers on their own and haul the sloth with them. First, they try asking their father about the sloth but he's busy, so they gather books about animals and search through them. Meanwhile, the sloth is sleeping on their floor while someone behind the children is reading a newspaper with the headline, "Zoo breakout! Zookeeper looks high and low for missing animal." Of course, there's a photo of a sloth. Nobody notices, and the adult reading the newspaper is, again, ignoring the children.
The children discuss what kind of animal the sloth is not. They wonder where he came from and dress up as astronauts, imagining that he came from space. They play at being pirates while they think about the possibility that the sloth is a pirate, tired from his adventures. They even wonder if perhaps he was a knight who wore himself out fighting dragons.
Then, one of the children finds a sloth in a book about the rainforest. A two-page spread of factoids about sloths follows. Now that they know sloths live in the rainforest, the children decide they must send him back. They prepare a box with leaves to eat and toys to play with, pack him in the box, and mail him, totally overlooking the signs around town asking people to return the sloth to the zoo if they find him. The sloth awakens to find himself in the rainforest, a postal truck driving away, and he asks, "Which way to the zoo?"
I absolutely love Frann Preston-Gannon's illustrations and adored the other two books I've read by her but Sloth Slept On was a little discomfiting. First, the children are ignored by both adults present. They can read but they miss clues about the sloth that are in plain view. And, then they send the poor guy to a place far from where he belongs. I love the creativity of the children as they imagine the possibilities about what wore out this strange creature. But the idea of that poor sloth getting mailed far away where nobody will find him . . . well, maybe it's an adult problem. As adults, we know that a zoo animal that has been fed and cared for would probably not survive in the wild, so it just made me squirm. I do love the illustrations, though, and I don't dislike Sloth Slept On. It's just not a particular favorite.
I waited till nightfall to start typing my Monday Malarkey just in case more books decided to launch themselves through my door, but no other books have arrived in the past two weeks. So Red vs. Blue: The Ultimate Fan Guide gets to sit up at the top saying, "Look at me, look at me!" I do have some purchased books on the way, but Red vs. Blue is the only book that's arrived in the last two weeks. It's a review book from Dey Street (a HarperCollins imprint) and I got it to try to talk my son into writing a review -- he's a fan. I'm not having much luck, so far, but I think the series is pretty funny, even though I don't entirely follow it, so I'll read, view, and review if I can't talk Kiddo into doing so. I snagged the image of the book from that HarperCollins site, incidentally. I must have been in a hurry when I snapped a photo of my copy; it was terrible. I thought it would be best not to share.
Just over 20,000 words! I'm kind of surprised that I'm still technically ahead. Although I deliberately went with a story that doesn't require a lot of research, it's not an easy story to tell because it's a genre that I kind of pick at around the edges: fantasy. I only like very light fantasy, e.g. Franny Billingsley or Gail Carson Levine (as opposed to the 800-page whoppers my son reads) so I'm attempting to write in a similar style. As in all National Novel Writing Month experiences I've had, there have been good days and bad. Since my attempt to write every day in 2015 came to an abrupt halt pretty early in the year, part of my goal in joining NaNo is to ramp the motivation back up. It's working; I'm enjoying myself and reconsidering how to structure my days so that writing time continues to be naturally built in when NaNo is over.
I haven't finished anything since Well Wished by Franny Billingsley, early last week. That's okay. Last month started out equally slowly and ended up with a bang. I'm enjoying my reading. I've returned to The Dust that Falls from Dreams by Louis de Bernières, the chunkster I opted not to take with me on vacation. I had to restart it because I took too long getting back to it but I've been every bit as immersed as I was when I mournfully left it behind, over a month ago.
The other book I'm reading is Sherlock Chronicles by Steve Tribe, one of my most exciting recent arrivals because I adore Sherlock. It is even better than I hoped it would be. After reading the introductory information and the chapter about the first episode, "A Study in Pink," we watched the episode. I have to tell you right now that if you're a Sherlock fan, Sherlock Chronicles is a must-read. I was stunned at how much perspective the background information added to the viewing of an episode of Sherlock I'd already seen several times.
Cat update: Wherever I go, there they are.
And, let me tell you, cats love it when you sit around typing for hours at a time -- at least, until they start craving a good laser chase or want Mom to roll a jingle ball. Fortunately, I need exercise just as much as they do, so we occasionally take breaks together.
This photo totally cracks me up. Isabel was comfortably resting on the back of a sofa cushion, all droopy and relaxed until the nitwit with the camera came along and disturbed her. But, she was too tired to do anything beyond opening her eyes and rolling her ears back.
My second favorite photo makesa it look like she's sinking into some sort of home furnishing quicksand. Can't you just picture a little thought bubble with the word "HELP" over her head?
Oh, dear, someone has been a bad blogger. No Monday Malarkey, no Tuesday Twaddle. Not blogging this week wasn't deliberate. I usually feel like chattering at the end of a day of writing, whether we're talking National Novel Writing Month or any regular day that involves the writing of fiction. But, this week . . . nope, just didn't happen. That was partly due to the shift from sunny and dry to stormy (migraine weather) but I also just happen to have felt like I'd done all the writing I could stand by the end of the day. Some days, I have continued to write till as late as 9:00 PM -- which makes me sound more productive than I have been. It's been slow going. I'm at just over 13,000 words, technically ahead of the curve but the writing has occasionally felt like pulling teeth. Some years are like that.
I've read quite a few books since I became a blogging slacker.
I could have sworn I'd written about some of these at the blog, but I just flipped back to the main page and, nope, I must be thinking of the reviews I whipped out at Goodreads. In brief: I loved them all. More to come.


"it's looking like Guns N Roses are set to play a concert in Israel this autumn. In August the Heavy metal outfit will set out on a new European tour kicking off at the Reading Festival in the UK. According to reports, a leading Israeli music producer is in Europe now speeding up negotiations to finalise the scheduled stop for the band in Israel. The ideal date for the concert would be between 27 and 30 September between scheduled concerts in Prague and Antwerp. Currently the plan is for Guns N Roses, who have sold 110 million albums, to play in a hall big enough to hold thousands of fans, for example the Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv or even an outdoor venue such as the Blumfield stadium in Ramat Gan or Park HaYarkon where Ozfest is taking place on 28th September. That could see icons Ozzy Osborne and Axel Rose appearing together in Israel - Israelis will either be running to buy tickets or to be earplugs!"
We are in September now and no offcial word on this, so it seems to be false. I'll wait with updating the title thread untill a little later.


Map of Tomorrow - Karte von morgen is a project in progress. Although our Icons are used on this commons-built open source platform, it's not ready for new maps yet.
The world is full of explorers, and full of things to be explored.
Like Open Green Map, the Map of Tomorrow is a platform designed to "collect all transforming initiatives and sustainable companies" and combine them on one global map. Uniquely, data on the Map of Tomorrow can be used by anyone and can be combined globally on maps or data visualizations of different topics. This Wikipedia-approach allows everyone to add and edit entries. Any user can become the regional pilot, so you can review others' changes in your area. Yes, you won't have 'your own map' as anyone can edit, reuse others' entries etc. You can reserve and use a unique hashtag like #OurGreenBrooklyn which nobody else will use without your acceptance.
Map of Tomorrow is search-based. The people at Bildungs Agenten (Education Agents) expect the user would rather search using keywords, so that's why they only have two colors on the map: green for initiatives and blue for companies. There is a plan to make a Green Map Icon view, but it will take some time to develop. The rest is filtered by tags. As the regional pilot, you can use any tag you feel is suitable to the entry. If you use the Green Map Icon name as a tag, it can be combined globally. Later, you can download then add the icons or wait for the Map of Tomorrow to implement them (no time is currently set). Ask the Karte von Morgen Team (info @ kartevonmorgen.org) for help to you create your paper map, and advice for other uses of the CSV files and geo-POIs!
You can print a Map of Tomorrow from a download of the data - there is an example below, made using QGIS, a Free and Open Source Geographic Information System to create the printable map, adding the icon images where you have used their titles as tags.
Advantages include a unique rating system that lets you give each entry a Positive Impact Rating that measures sustainability in terms like "from tomorrow" (good for the future) or "from yesterday" (the old way of doing things). The better an impact an organization has on the world, the more visible it is on the map. This platform is created by volunteers, and as seen at Bildungs Agenten, they welcome your support, comments and feature requests.
Mapping is very simple and can be done by any user! Also editing can be done by anyone.
Use the search-line to make sure that your new site entry does not exist already.
Add the description and contact data, and use tags, which are relevant for your content.
After saving, your initiative appears on the map.
Find out more about iframes. Watch for an update later about adding icons and other refinements of this platform in progress.


Red Holloway, tenor sax; Red Tyler, baritone sax; Brother Jack McDuff, organ; George Benson, guitar; Tommy Shelvin, electric bass; Joe Dukes, drums.
Eddie Chamblee, tenor sax; Dayton Selby, organ; Al Griffin, drums.
Frank Robinson, trumpet; Willis Jackson, tenor sax; Carl Wilson, organ; Pat Martino, guitar; Joe Hadrick, drums.
Frank Robinson, trumpet; Willis Jackson, tenor sax; Carl Wilson, organ; Pat Martino, guitar; Leonard Gaskin, bass; Joe Hadrick, drums.
Sonny Stitt, alto, tenor sax; Brother Jack McDuff, organ; Leonard Gaskin, bass; Herbie Lovelle, drums.
Shirley Scott, organ; Major Holley, bass; Roy Brooks, drums.
Cecil Payne, baritone sax; Tommy Flanagan, piano; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Doug Watkins, bass; Elvin Jones, drums.
Roland Kirk, tenor sax, manzello, stritch, flute, siren; Jack McDuff, organ; Joe Benjamin, bass; Art Taylor, drums.
Red Holloway, tenor sax; Brother Jack McDuff, organ, piano; George Benson, guitar; Ronnie Boykins, bass; Montego Joe, drums.
Jerry Kail, Danny Stiles, trumpet; Billy Byers, Burt Collins, Tom McIntosh, trombone; Don Ashworth, Bob Northern, French horn; Red Holloway, tenor sax; Marvin Holliday, George Marge, sax; Brother Jack McDuff, organ; George Benson, guitar; Richard Davis, bass; Joe Dukes, Mel Lewis, drums; Benny Golson, arranger.
Red Holloway, tenor sax; Brother Jack McDuff, organ, piano; George Benson, guitar; Wilfred Middlebrooks, bass; Joe Dukes, drums.
Willis Jackson, tenor sax; Ernie Hayes, organ; Wally Richardson, guitar; George Tucker, bass; Calvin Shields, drums; Candido, congas.
Stanley Turrentine, tenor sax; Shirley Scott, organ; Earl May, bass; Grassella Oliphant, drums.
Spencer Sinatra, flute; Gary McFarland, vibes, vocals; Antonio Carlos Jobim, piano, guitar; Don Payne, guitar; Arnie Wise, drums; Willie Rodriguez, percussion.
Yusef Lateef, tenor sax, flute, oboe; Barry Harris, piano; Herman Wright, bass; Elvin Jones, drums.
Don Patterson, organ; Billy James, drums.
Shirley Scott, organ; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Eddie Khan, bass; Otis Finch, drums.
Frank Robinson, trumpet; Willis Jackson, tenor sax; Carl Wilson, organ; Pat Martino, guitar; Sam Jones, bass; Joe Hadrick, drums.
Benny Bailey, Bertil Lovgren, Bengt-Arne Wallin, trumpet; Ake Persson, Eje Thelin, trombone; Karl Nystrom, Bengt Olesson, French horn; Runo Erickson, euphonium; Lars Sloglund, oboe, English horn; Arne Domnerus, alto sax, clarinet; Bjarne Nerem, tenor sax; Rune Falk, baritone sax, clarinet; Tosten Wennberg, sax, clarinet; Roman Dylag, bass; Egil Johansen, drums; Jimmy Witherspoon, vocals; Benny Golson, arranger.: same session.
Morris Nanton, piano; Norman Edge, bass; Oliver Jackson, drums.
Red Holloway, tenor sax; unidentified orchestra, Benny Golson, arranger.
Eddie Bonnemere, piano; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Joe Scott, bass; George Brown, drums; Moncel, bongos, congas; Jimmy Coloway, timbales.
Benny Bailey, Bertil Lovgren, Bengt-Arne Wallin, trumpet; Ake Persson, Eje Thelin, trombone; Karl Nystrom, Bengt Olesson, French horn; Runo Erickson, euphonium; Lars Sloglund, oboe, English horn; Arne Domnerus, alto sax, clarinet; Bjarne Nerem, tenor sax; Rune Falk, baritone sax, clarinet; Tosten Wennberg, sax, clarinet; Roman Dylag, bass; Egil Johansen, drums; Carol Ventura, vocals; Benny Golson, arranger.
Lucky Thompson, tenor, soprano sax; Tommy Flanagan, piano; George Tucker, bass; Walter Perkins, drums.
Carmell Jones, trumpet; Jimmy Heath, tenor sax; Barry Harris, piano; George Tucker, bass; Roger Humphries, drums.
Earl Edwards, Houston Person, tenor sax; Johnny "Hammond" Smith, organ; Floyd Smith, guitar; John Harris, drums.
Miles Davis, trumpet; Horace Silver, piano; Percy Heath, bass; Kenny Clarke, drums.
Earl Edwards, tenor sax #1; Johnny "Hammond" Smith, organ; Floyd Smith, guitar; John Harris, drums.
Frank Wess, tenor sax, flute; Richard Wyands, piano; Skeeter Best, guitar; George Duvivier, bass; Roy Haynes, drums; Etta Jones, vocals.
Oliver Nelson, tenor sax; Lem Winchester, vibes; Richard Wyands, piano; George Duvivier, bass; Roy Haynes, drums; Etta Jones, vocals.
Leonard Goines, trumpet; Al Gibbons, tenor sax, arranger, conductor; Arthur Jenkins, piano; Ed Thompson, bass; Milford Graves, drums, timbales; Montego Joe, conga drums, leader; Sonny Morgan, miscellaneous percussion; Windsor King, Montego Joe, Alan White, unison voice #1.
Joe Newman, trumpet; Oliver Nelson, tenor sax; Shirley Scott, organ; George Tucker, bass; Roy Brooks, drums.
Otis Sutton, alto sax; Houston Person, tenor sax; Johnny "Hammond" Smith, organ; Eddie McFadden, guitar; Leo Stevens, drums; Byrdie Green, vocals #2.
Richard "Groove" Holmes, organ; Gene Edwards, guitar; George Randall, drums.: same session.
Morris Nanton, piano; Norman Edge, bass; Al Beldini, drums; Johnny Murray Jr., congas; Pucho And The Latin Soul Brothers, #2.
Lem Winchester, vibes; Shirley Scott, organ; George Duvivier, bass; Arthur Edgehill, drums.
Jimmy Owens, trumpet, flugelhorn; Edlin "Buddy" Terry, tenor sax; Edlin "Buddy" Terry, Varitone; Harold Mabern Jr., electric piano; Ron Carter, bass; Freddie Waits, drums.
Woody Shaw, trumpet, flugelhorn #2; Buddy Terry, tenor sax, flute; Joe Thomas, tenor sax, flute #1; Robbie Porter, baritone sax; Larry Young, piano #1, organ #2; Jiggs Chase, organ #1; Wally Richardson, guitar; Jimmy Lewis, Fender bass #1; Eddie Gladden, drums; The Terry Girls, vocals #1.


Warmth comes in many fuzzy forms and one of them is the men's Burton Hearth Fleece Pullover. Classic style and Polartec® Fleece add breathable warmth to this easy-to-wear pullover. Zippered hand warmer pockets and elastane binding at the cuffs, hem, and collar ramp up the cozy factor.


text:
Star Alliance goes all-in and airborne with AWS, backed by TCS
Global airline alliance closes data centre operations to reduce infrastructure total cost of ownership by 25 per cent
James Henderson (Channel Asia)
Star Alliance has unveiled plans to migrate all IT infrastructure to Amazon Web Services (AWS), leveraging partner expertise from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) amid plans to "reduce costs and enhance performance".
The world's largest global airline alliance is currently in the process of migrating all data, platforms and business-critical applications to AWS, in addition to closing data centre operations to reduce infrastructure total cost of ownership by 25 per cent.
Motivated by a desire to become more agile as an organisation, the 26-member alliance is leveraging key technologies such as analytics, security, managed databases, storage and machine learning, with the aim of providing real-time insights to enhance travel experience post-pandemic. Star Alliance members include Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand and Thai Airways, alongside Air China, Air India and Asiana Airlines among others.
"We decided to go all-in on AWS to gain the reliability and scalability we needed to support the increasing number of global travellers joining the alliance each year, but the pandemic also proved how valuable it is to have a flexible and agile infrastructure in the cloud," said Jeremy Drury, head of Digital and Technology at Star Alliance.
"No one could have predicted what happened in 2020 but because of our collaboration with AWS, we were able to quickly adjust our goals and scale back our expenses. In addition to cost savings and elasticity, AWS gives us the most comprehensive set of cloud services to innovate rapidly, introduce new services to keep travelers safe, and continuously reinvent the global travel experience."
Through migrating to AWS - supported by TCS as an AWS Partner Network Premier Consulting Partner - Star Alliance reduced infrastructure footprint and spend by 30 per cent in response to a global rise in quarantine orders and travel restrictions during the early phase of the pandemic, scaling down cloud use "rather than paying for excess on-premises capacity".
From a technology standpoint, the business is accelerating application deployments via Amazon Elastic Container Service with AWS Fargate, which operates as a serverless compute engine for containers.
For example, a baggage tracking application using Amazon Aurora - AWS's relational cloud-based database - was built to process data from multiple airline baggage systems, delivering operational dashboards and centralised reporting capable of allowing airline customer service agents to track bags at airports around the world.
"By going all-in on AWS, Star Alliance is leveraging the elasticity of the cloud to take advantage of industry trends and pivot their operations in order to respond to drastically changing market dynamics," added David Peller, managing director of Travel and Hospitality at AWS.
"Star Alliance is a prime example of a global organisation that has successfully embraced the cloud to steer through times of uncertainty. As the world anticipates opening up again, we are excited to work with Star Alliance as they leverage AWS' comprehensive suite of services to innovate new offerings at scale while raising the bar for what is possible for the next era of global air travel."
Delving deeper, Star Alliance has also rolled out AWS analytics and databases, including Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS), Amazon Athena and Amazon QuickSight to identify future travel demand and trends while enhancing customer experience levels.
"The global pandemic has reinforced the need for the travel industry to embrace new technologies that improve their operational resilience, business agility, and responsiveness to evolving customer needs and local regulations," said Arun Pradeep, head of Travel, Transportation and Hospitality at TCS.
"Having accelerated Star Alliance's IT transformation on AWS, we are now helping them maximise value by harnessing capabilities around advanced analytics and machine learning to deliver higher levels of personalisation and superior customer experiences."
Going forward, Star Alliance plans to create a data lake on Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) to centralise data access for member airlines in a move designed to accelerate the development of enterprise applications and customer features.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: how to get number of characters in line in console that my process is bind to? Rephrasing my question: width of a console in term of characters.
This in windows is set by default to 80 but user can change it, how to get this value ?

A: You can use the GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo function.
CONSOLE_SCREEN_BUFFER_INFO csbi;
if(!GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo(GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE), &csbi))
{
    // an error occourred
    cerr<<"Cannot determine console size."<<endl;
}
else
{
    cout<<"The console is "<<csbi.srWindow.Right-csbi.srWindow.Left<<" wide."<<endl;
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Kyle Edgar, 1946 Harley-Davidson UL Leadfist Cycles Kingston, NY.
Arie Vanschyndel, 1950 Harley-Davidson EL PANHEAD VEE MFG San Marcos, CA.
Jordan Dickinson, 1947 Harley-Davidson EL Knucklehead Union Speed and Style Minneapolis, MN.
Shawn Long 1947 Harley-Davidson Knucklehead Imperial \House Sarta, IL.
Oliver Jones, 107ci Generator Shovelhead, The cut rate, Long Beach , CA.


The Election Court dismissed with costs, a petition brought by Parti Keadilan Rakyat, PKR, to nullify the victory of the Barisan Nasional, BN, in the Machang parliamentary constituency, in the May 5 General Election.
Judge, Datuk Zamani Abdul Rahim, in his ruling, said the petitioner had failed to comply with provisions, under the Election Petition Rules, and dismissed the petition with costs.
The court ordered the petitioner to pay RM 30,000 in costs to the first respondent, Machang MP Datuk Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub, and RM 15,000 each to the second and third respondents, namely the returning officer and the Election Commission, respectively.
In the General Election, Ahmad Jazlan, the Machang UMNO Division Chief, beat Wan Zawawi Wan Ismail of PKR by 805 votes.
Last Wednesday, the same court dismissed a petition filed by PAS to anull the result for Selinsing state seat.


Why pay more if you can get the same amenities at cheaper prices? Stay in affordable accommodation in Kushalnagar for an outstanding travel experience. These budget hotels stick on to your planned costs and you will come back home not fretting over the expenses. These pocket friendly hotels suit your budget offering you all the basic amenities you ask for. Be carefree and let us offer you a list of cost friendly hotels to help you plan better. You have some of the best names in Kushalnagar budget hotels like Treebo Trend Durga Boji Grand Coorg and OYO 9157 Home Cozy Studio Hill Top Madikeri. Make your dream come true and book with us for low cost hotels.


Market based mechanisms and particularly payments for ecosystem services (PES) represent an increasingly disseminated mechanism to give value to ecosystem services and thereby include their provision/consumption in natural resource management (NRM) decisions. Such mechanisms are integrated in the logical framework of the Kagera TAMP. PES may also be supportive in achieving the key objectives and target indicators of the project, notably: implement sustainable land and agro-ecosystem management practices; increase in NRM-based income of farmers; reduction of sediment load in representative micro-catchments; training of farmers; and enabling regional cooperation. Within the Kagera TAMP, PES hold the potential to be applied for: restoring degraded watersheds and pastures; enabling protected areas for tourism and biodiversity; reforestation of degraded treeless landscapes; sustainable agro-ecological production systems.
In the East African region the PES concept is disseminating slowly with pilot projects on the rise. During the PES conference in Jinja, Uganda and the research in the Kagera TAMP area it became clear that there is a high need and interest to exchange information, create a well-connected regional PES network and a need to foster a more comprehensive understanding of PES in order to raise awareness on the possibilities that this mechanism contains for incentivating sustainable land management (SLM) . With the Network for Environmental Services in Africa (NESA) one step in this direction has been taken. In the next step towards the dissemination of PES in the region the focus should be on spreading the knowledge and capacity on PES, scaling-up existing experiences and mainstreaming PES into national policy frameworks and institutions. Making this a governmentally owned- process is therein of central importance.
Important ES in the region, possibly central in contributing additional funding for ES conservation are carbon schemes. The contribution of East Africa to the global carbon offset market is increasing slowly. Important developments are the increased activity of the BioCarbon Fund and the World Bank and the development of national programmes for climate change adaptation and mitigation as well as sustainable energy programmes. A growing number of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects are being developed and all four countries of Kagera TAMP have assigned a Designated National Authority (DNA) and focal point for CDM projects.
Seven PES projects have been considered more closely. Two of these are directly within the Kagera TAMP area, both focusing on the ecosystem service (ES) relating to the carbon cycle. The additional cases are adding insights on PES schemes focusing on watershed management and biodiversity conservation and hold an informative position in the region. The schemes are contributing to foster the adaptation of different land-use practices as well as the organization of farmers into groups that foster cooperation beyond PES issues. Most PES schemes in operation in the region focus on carbon sequestration (reforestation projects), a few on biodiversity protection (e.g. shade coffee, organic production, community based conservation) and two established watershed management schemes have been identified (Uluguru Mountains, Tanzania and Naivasha project, Kenya).
A substantial limit to all projects is the issue of finding sufficient potential buyers that are willing to sign a binding commitment and that enable the project to move to a stable financing structure independent from additional financial sources and donors. Often also ES are considered as open access resource and ES stewards are at the same time consumers with a low purchasing power. Supportive national frameworks and regulating policies to create a reliable framework for PES projects are lacking. This is connected to limited capacities and knowledge on the potential of PES mechanisms. Showing the economic value of ES and the costs connected to their loss, thus building a business case is a valuable approach in the development of PES projects. Baseline studies have to be undertaken, critical ES and areas identified and the advance of national frameworks and assigned authorities fostered.
Firstly, Kagera TAMP could seek cooperation with the PES ongoing projects that are immediately within the TAMP area and support their scaling-up or replication. The central actors here are Plan Vivo, Vi Agroforestry and ECOTRUST.
Kagera TAMP could also focus on capacity building for PES at the national and regional level through: encouraging/supporting national authorities in expertise development; supporting national/ international NGOs active in the countries in their efforts to enhance PES; and supporting baseline studies/ analysis of the institutional environment concerning PES, in the frame of a workshop for example.A third aspect may be the direct support of new PES projects. A number of actors present in Jinja hold experience with baseline assessments, PES preparation and development, ranging from legal to technical expertise. Amongst the actors that have voiced their interest in a possible cooperation with TAMP on PES are: Plan Vivo, ECOTRUST, WCS, ACODE, ICRAF, PRESA, WWF and VIRED.
Berttram, D. (2011). Positioning the Kagera TAMP Project in the PES Landscape of East Africa. Internship Report. Kagera Transboundary Agro-ecosystem Management Project. UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).