text:
French Open: Roger Federer Loses Match, No. 1 Ranking to Rafael Nadal?
By Tim Wood
It was one of the most impressive runs in tennis history, but all records are meant to be broken. In losing to Sweden's Robin Soderling Tuesday in the French Open quarterfinal, Roger Federer's run of 23 consecutive appearances in a Grand Slam semifinal or better came to an end. In losing to Soderling for the first time in 13 head-to-head matches, Federer could lose the No. 1 world ranking he'd worked so hard to get back. If Rafael Nadal wins the French Open, he will retake the No. 1 spot. So the ping pong game of "Who's No. 1?" continues.Begin Slideshow
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis


text:
Q: Wrap content doesn't wrap it's content when the picture is cropped I'm using this to crop an image and then i load it to this imageView:
        <RelativeLayout
            android:id="@+id/activity_edit_image_relative_layout_container"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_centerInParent="true">

            <ImageView
                android:id="@+id/activity_edit_image_image"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:background="#ff2299"
                android:scaleType="fitCenter"
                android:src="@drawable/phone" />

        </RelativeLayout>

the color i'm giving to the background of the image view is pink ( so it will be easy to spot) and the relative layout will act as the view group and i will add other views to it at run time.
the pink background must only appear for the images that have transparent background (png files) like this (this picture is not cropped)

but when i crop an image and load it to the image view i get this

the pink background must not appear. the issue is i'm trying to figure out where on the image is the user taping (overloading onTouch for the imageView) now when i tap on the pink area around the Alien it tells me that i'm tapping the image which is not correct. whats the issue?

A: Add the following property to your ImageView:
android:adjustViewBounds="true"

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Books about pseudoscience or other non-scientific topics.
((Now hold still while I read your aura. Yes, my spirit guide is telling me something, that you are experiencing some kind of pain or discomfort in your back, or perhaps your shoulders. And this is typical of someone born under your star sign, you know? Of course you do – your type is very insightful, even if you do sometimes let little things escape your notice from time to time. Here – I have a medicine that will help you, a special homeopathic formula that I mixed myself. It's proof against all aches and pains. Yes, I have a spoon somewhere around – no, not that one, that one's bent. I could tell you that I got the recipe from visiting aliens, but you would never believe me. Perhaps it was Atlanteans….
Ah, there is one other thing…. My spirit guide tells me that there is another spirit who would talk to you – someone you miss very much. I'm getting the letter P, or maybe G…. Does that mean something to you? Ah, good, good. My abilities have increased a hundredfold since I started transcendental meditation, and I credit the Master with my improved skills. Well, our time is almost up. I have to go charge my dowsing rod with the crystals that were given to me by my young daughters. They say that the fairies gave them to them, and who am I to say otherwise? But I will say this before we part – the numbers of your name, crossed against your biorhythms, tell me that you must not enter into any dealings of a financial nature this week.
There is one truth that I have learned in my days, and that there is no idea so ridiculous, so implausible, so poorly-defined, that someone, somewhere won't fall for it. Whether it's psychic surgeons, aura readers, tellers of the future or viewers of past lives, UFO hunters, witch doctors, table-tippers, spoon-benders, mind-readers or water-dowsers, if you can figure out some simple slight of hand, the odds are good that you can convince someone you have supernatural powers. A few blurry photographs and some enthusiasm, and you can have aliens on our shores. Some clever guesses and a keen knowledge of human nature, and you'll never have to work a day in your life.
If you're like me, it's enough to make you want to disavow humankind and just go live somewhere off in the woods. Thankfully, James Randi is not like me.
A longtime magician and skeptic, James Randi has been one of the driving forces of modern skepticism. Since his 1972 debunking of spoon-bender Uri Geller, he has been an authority on people who claim to have supernatural abilities. He has traveled the world in search of these people, revealing the methods by which they knowingly or unknowingly deceive people who want so desperately to believe. This book, written in 1982 and well in need of an updated and revised edition, documents many of Randi's investigations in painstaking and unrelenting detail.
He tells us first of the hoax perpetrated by two young English girls, one which was good enough to capture not just a credulous nation of newspaper readers, but a man regarded as one of the greatest minds of his time – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In 1917, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths released several photographs which showed them surrounded by gossamer-winged fairies. The public went wild for their story. Experts were called in to examine the photographs, and they all pronounced them genuine. The girls were interviewed, their cameras and equipment checked out, and no evidence of trickery could be found. In any case, believers said, two young girls would have no incentive to lie to the entire nation like this, would they?
Well, they did. Perhaps it wasn't their intention to deceive the world, but that's how it turned out. As of Randi's writing, they hadn't admitted it outright, but a year after publication, they did. What started as simple fun with a camera and some paper cut-outs escalated into something uncontrollable by two young girls, and a legend was born.
Frances Griffiths with her "fairies"
Elsie and Frances may have been innocents overtaken by events, but there are far more people who are fully conscious of their deceptions. A Holy Man who promises everything up to and including the ability to fly if you just follow his word and his special meditation technique. Researchers so intent on discovering psychic powers that they disregard even the most basic of experimental controls. People who manufacture fake artifacts to support their belief in ancient alien astronauts. There are those who take money from the unwitting and those who don't, some who treat the ability they believe they have with humility and those who don't. The weird, the arrogant and the dangerous – Randi's seen 'em all. And every time another one pops up, he knows what to look for.
Belief is a weird thing. Under careful examination, every claim that Randi has seen has fallen apart. He has listened to them carefully and asked a very simple question that seems to elude so many others: How else could this effect be achieved? As a lifetime magician (though he prefers the term "conjurer"), Randi is an expert at getting you to think you see something that really isn't there, and he brings this expertise to bear when he investigates claims of the paranormal. What's more, he has a very good grasp of experimental procedure and how to test for a specific effect, and he is ruthless in making sure they are adhered to.
But – and this is important – Randi is fair. If you come up to him and say, "Randi, I can see auras which tell me who the all gay people are," he won't just laugh in your face and say that you're crazy. He'll listen to your story, how your power works and how you use it, and then propose a simple test to see if it really exists. The test is to be double-blind, so when the target people come in and check the "gay" or "straight" box, that information is kept from both the aura-reader and the person administering the test. What's more, the psychic has to agree in advance on the conditions of the test, signing a promise (rarely kept) to accept the results. Tests are usually done multiple times, just to give the subject a chance. When the results come in as negative – as they always have thus far – Randi doesn't gloat. He doesn't laugh and say "I told you so." In fact, in one chapter he mentions that he feels bad sometimes, telling people who honestly believe they have a unique gift that, in fact, they don't.
I suspect that Randi really wants supernatural powers to exist. I think he wants to meet someone who can move objects with her mind, talk to the dead or find water just by concentrating hard. Why else, then, would he have his Million-Dollar Challenge? What is described in Flim-Flam as a $10,000 reward for proof of supernatural abilities has grown significantly. Not because Randi is richer, but because he feels that his money is absolutely safe. Yet I think he would be happy to be able to give it away one day.
This book should be required reading for everyone who has encountered what they believe to be the paranormal. It is detailed, it is harsh and it is unequivocal in its assertion that if you see someone doing something that logic demands cannot be done, chances are excellent that it's a trick rather than super-powers.
Unfortunately, the True Believers will invariably be unaffected, and that is something else that Randi takes great pains to show. No matter how often someone was shown to be a liar, a fake or a fraud, there were always supporters ready to make excuses. The psychics themselves are also very good at inventing reasons why their powers cannot be tested – the wrong kind of weather, interference from the cameras that are recording the tests, or just bad energy from the skeptics in the room. All the logic and science in the world won't convince those who don't want to be convinced.
As much fun as it is to read about The Amazing Randi rushing about the globe to put hoaxers in their places, it's also a little depressing. It was written in 1982, on the heels of Randi's book The Truth About Uri Geller, which exposed the spoon-bending psychic as a fraud, so you would think the one-two punch of these books would be enough to put paid to ridiculous beliefs in ideas that were demonstrably false. Well, you'd be wrong. Newspapers still run horoscopes every day, you can get a biorhythm app for your iPhone, psychics and mediums still rake in tons of cash, and there still innumerable people who put their faith, money and lives in the hands of psychic healers – only to lose all three.
But Randi is undaunted. He started the James Randi Educational Foundation to support critical thinking and skepticism, he's still active in the skeptical community, and he's still accepting applications from people who want his million dollars. He may have hoped that this book would be a nail in the coffin of psuedoscience and woo, but even though that didn't pan out, he never gave up. One by one, case by case, the Amazing Randi has stared down the wild-eyed stare of unreason, and he has never blinked.
The tinkling noises you will hear as these pages are turned are the scales falling from many eyes. The groans are from the charlatans who are here exposed to the light of reason and simple truth. It is a light that pains them greatly.
What do you think you know about astronomy? For example, what causes us to have seasons? If you said that it's our distance from the sun – sorry, you're wrong. Or how about why the sky is blue? If you think it's that the sky reflects the sea, nope. Wrong again. Or perhaps you think that the moon's tidal effect makes people crazy, or that an egg can only stand on end if it's the Vernal Equinox or that an alignment of the planets will cause a terrible buildup of gravity that will kill us all!
All wrong. But you would not be alone. For a society as technologically advance as ours (and if you're reading this, then chances are good that you live in a technologically advanced society), the general public has a big problem with science. People see it as being too hard to understand, or too removed from their daily lives. Politicians bemoan the fact that American schoolchildren are falling behind in science, but science funding is almost always on the list of cuts that can be made to save money. We love technology, but hate science, and that is a path to certain doom.
Of all the sciences, though, astronomy is perhaps the worst understood. A lot of people still confuse it with astrology, which is probably a huge part of the problem right there. For millennia, we have thought about the planets and stars as celestial things, unknown and unknowable by such base creatures as ourselves. It's only in the last hundred years or so that we've been able to rapidly improve our understanding of the universe, and popular knowledge hasn't caught up with that yet.
And so bad misconceptions of astronomy persist in the public imagination.
Fortunately, we have people like Phil Plait to set the record straight, and that is indeed what he does in this book.
While there are many educators out there who believe that a wrong idea, once implanted, is impossible to eradicate, Plait sees it as a teachable opportunity. Take, for example, the commonly held belief that on the Vernal Equinox – and only on the Vernal Equinox – you can balance an egg on its end. Many people believe this, and it's an experiment that's carried out in classrooms around the country every March. Teachers tell their students, and the local news media tell their viewers, but no one stops to ask Why. Why would this day, of all the days in the year, be so special? More importantly, how can we test that assertion?
Fortunately, that's within the powers of any thinking individual, and it should be the first thing teachers do once they've finished having fun balancing eggs: try and do it again the next day. If you can balance an egg on April 3rd, or May 22nd or August 30th, or September 4th or any other day of the year, then you have successfully proven the Equinox Egg Hypothesis wrong. Congratulations! You're doing science!!
Or perhaps you've heard the story that you can see stars from the bottom of a well, or a tall smokestack. This is because, the idea goes, the restricted amount of light will not wash out the stars so much, giving you a chance to do some daytime astronomy. Well, there's an easy way to test this one too, if you have an old factory or something of that nature nearby. What you'll discover is that no matter how much you try to restrict your view of the sky, it'll still be washed out and you won't see any stars at all.
One more good one that a lot of people believe – the moon is larger in the sky when it's near the horizon than when it's at its zenith. Again, this is something that's very easy to test. Go out as the full moon is rising, looming large in the sky, and hold up an object at arm's length – a pencil is usually recommended. Make a note of the moon's apparent size as compared to the eraser. Then go out again when the moon is high in the sky and repeat your observation. The moon appears to be the same size, no matter how it may look to you.
Of course, there's a lot of science into why these things are the way they are. The chicken egg thing is because there's no singular force that is only acting on chicken eggs and only doing so on one day of the year (which is not even universally regarded as the first day of spring). As for the inability to see stars in the daytime, that's because our pesky atmosphere scatters a lot of the light coming from the sun, so light appears to come from everywhere in the sky. The only thing you're likely to see in a blue sky is the moon, and MAYBE Venus, if you're really sharp-eyed and lucky.
The Moon Illusion is not well-understood, actually. It's probably not the brain comparing the moon with objects on the horizon – the effect works at sea, too. It's probably a combination of competing psychological effects that deal with distance, none of which can accurately deal with how far away the moon is.
Regardless, all of these things are easily testable by anyone. The problem is that so few people take that extra time to actually test them, or even think that they should.
There are some myths and misconceptions that take a little more expertise to explain, such as why tides and eclipses happen, how seasons occur and why the moon goes through phases. But these explanations aren't very difficult and are well within the understanding of any intelligent adult. Unfortunately, there are a lot of myths that are stubborn, entrenched into the heads of people everywhere and very hard to get out. Not the least of these are the beliefs that UFOs are alien spacecraft and that we never went to the Moon.
Interestingly enough, both of these rest on the same basic problem: we can't rely on our own brains to accurately interpret the data that we see. Plait recounts a story where he was mesmerized by some strange lights in the night sky while watching a 3 AM shuttle launch. They seemed to hover in place, making strange noises, and it wasn't until they got much closer that he was able to see them for what they were: a group of ducks that were reflecting spotlights off their feathers.
Our brains believe things, and interpret the observations to fit those beliefs. So when the dust on the moon doesn't behave the way we expect dust to behave, some people believe that to be evidence of fraud, rather than the natural behavior of dust on the moon. We are creatures of story, which is why we like conspiracy theories and astrology. We want the world to make a kind of narrative sense, so often the first explanation we come up with is a story that sounds good. Unfortunately, just because the story sounds good, that doesn't make it true.
He also takes a swipe at bad movie science, but in a good-natured manner. Even he admits that movies are more likely to favor story over science, but there are some common errors that make it into so many science fiction films – sound in space, people dodging lasers, deadly asteroid fields – these things may be dramatically interesting, but they're all bad science. And while it would be annoying and pedantic to pick out every example of how the rules are bent for sci-fi ("Please. Why would the aliens come all the way to Earth to steal water when it exists in abundance out in the Kuiper Belt? I scoff at your attempt!"), they do offer an excellent opportunity to teach people about how science works.
One of the things I've always liked about Plait is his obvious enthusiasm for not just astronomy but for science in general. Here we have this excellent system to cut through the lies our brains tell us and get closer to knowing what's actually going on. Science forces us to question our assumptions, look at things from many points of view, and arrive at a conclusion that best describes the phenomenon we're observing. When Plait talks about science, he is not condescending or dry or super-intellectual, the way so many people imagine scientists to be. He's excited that he gets to use this amazing tool for understanding the universe, and he wants other people to use it.
If you're an astronomy buff, like myself, you probably won't learn much new information from this book. But hopefully you'll be re-invigorated to go out there and look at the world through a scientific, skeptical eye, and you'll be willing to confront these misconceptions when next you come across them. Even better, you might start thinking about what else you think you know, and how you can go about testing it.


text:
Photo Credit: Enrico Moses
Featured , Technology
This Platform Preserves Hip-Hop History Through NFT Collections From Legendary Photographers
Ngozi Nwanji Dec 23, 2021
When the worlds of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and photography intersect, it becomes a space to help protect art and amplify its longevity. The stories behind the photos and the artist behind the lens are a part of what keeps history alive.
It's the power of storytelling through street photography that birthed visual artist Enrico Moses' idea of how to help preserve historical moments within Hip-Hop. Flash Mints, an innovative NFT platform, features collections from legendary Hip-Hop and street photographers including Chi Modu, Jamil GS, T. Eric Monroe, Ricky Powell, and Yaasmyn Fula.
"Hip-Hop is something that we as a culture we cherish. I think that we're still learning so much more about the history of Hip-Hop because it's so new," Moses told AfroTech. "It's something that was born recently in the 80s and really developed in the 90s. And here we are today in this multi-billion dollar industry. I think that these images are preserving this history that we're all even discovering how much it means to us."
Flash Mints Collections
Photo Credit: T.Eric Monroe
While the platform's name pays homage to Hip-Hop pioneer Grandmaster Flash, its collections also highlight legends such as Tupac, Notorious B.I.G, Snoop Dogg, Lil Kim, and more who have paved the way for what the genre is today. Flash Mints is not only taking fans back to the glory days, but most importantly, it's upholding the value of the genre and the artists a part of pushing it forward.
Monroe is one of the esteemed photographers that captured those iconic artists from 90s Hip-Hop such as Biggie, Tupac, The Fugees, and Ol' Dirty Bastard.
"It's our job as the collective of holding this history and that we share the best of the best so we can tell the best stories," Monroe said. "I'm glad to be alive in this moment — rest in peace to Chi and Ricky — and that me, Jamil, and [Yaasmyn Fula] can all tell these beautiful stories of reality. Like I get to learn about Tupac before he was known as a rapper. That's what I truly want to know. And I look forward to helping in any way to push our story forward in a right and beautiful way."
Power To The Culture
Flash Mints empowers photographers to monetize their work on their own terms, as well as allows them to authenticate their artwork.
"I'm grateful to the universe for allowing me to meet Enrico and his whole team and their vision behind Flash Mints because it came right at a time where I was trying to figure out how to authenticate my artwork, my photography," Monroe shared. "They sped me up because my artwork was already ready to go into [the NFT space] rather than being a physical print into a digital file where people can share. It's a beautiful way to be interactive with people with your artwork."
The platform is also a win for the Hip-Hop community as it provides accessibility for collectors to get their hands on rare images that are pieces of history. Ultimately, it's a celebration for the culture as a whole.
"It's a community of artists, the photographers, the collectors and bringing all of those pieces together," Monroe said. "And allowing collectors to be along on this journey because this is something that we see as a very long-term play. Each of these photographers has deep catalogs of amazing photos, imagery, and stories that they're going to be telling. This is the very beginning of this process."
The Next Collection
Photo Credit: Chi Modu
Since the debut release on Dec. 4, the platform has dropped three collections from Jamil GS, T. Eric Monroe, and Ricky Powell. Chi Modu's collection, "The Second Drop," is next up on the lineup for Dec. 24.
To keep up with Flash Mints' release dates, click here.
Enrico MosesFlash MintsHip HopNFTsphotographyStreet PhotographyT. Eric Monroe
Ngozi Nwanji
Ngozi Nwanji is a Nigerian-American journalist, writer, and content creator from and based in Silver Spring, Maryland with a passion for storytelling, media representation, and music. Along with writing for AfroTech, she's the founder of her own entertainment website, Z's P.O.V — a platform for underrated music and Black creatives.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
require 'spec_helper'
require 'image_optim/cache_path'
require 'tempfile'

describe ImageOptim::CachePath do
  include CapabilityCheckHelpers

  before do
    stub_const('CachePath', ImageOptim::CachePath)
  end

  describe '#replace' do
    let(:src){ CachePath.temp_file_path }
    let(:dst){ CachePath.temp_file_path }

    it 'moves data to destination' do
      src.write('src')

      src.replace(dst)

      expect(dst.read).to eq('src')
    end

    it 'does not remove original file' do
      src.replace(dst)

      expect(src).to exist
    end

    it 'preserves attributes of destination file' do
      skip 'full file modes are not support' unless any_file_modes_allowed?
      mode = 0o666

      dst.chmod(mode)

      src.replace(dst)

      got = dst.stat.mode & 0o777
      expect(got).to eq(mode), format('expected %04o, got %04o', mode, got)
    end

    it 'does not preserve mtime of destination file' do
      time = src.mtime

      dst.utime(time - 1000, time - 1000)

      src.replace(dst)

      expect(dst.mtime).to be >= time
    end

    it 'changes inode of destination' do
      skip 'inodes are not supported' unless inodes_supported?
      expect{ src.replace(dst) }.to change{ dst.stat.ino }
    end
  end
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Retailers market at specific times of the year when people are looking for gifts. There is no reason that you shouldn't offer gift cards as well. By working with SVM Global, we can undertake brand approval so if you want to use a Gift card from a well-known retailer as part of a promotion, we can help get this all signed off. Whether it's a gift card for purchasing over a certain amount on black Friday or a gift cards for your VIPS as it approaches Christmas, start thinking like a retailer!
We've touched on upselling but gift cards can work really well as a free gift card that can compel the buyer to spend some extra money. With Gift Cards, you don't have the same risks as giving away your own stock if you have a physical product, or time if you sell a service, but instead, can offer a reward that feels like cash but instead is tangible, memorable and traceable. Perhaps you would like to reward people for meeting a purchase threshold, recommending a friend or using your services one more time? By offering a Gift Card as a reward, you start to stand out from the crowd.
Virtual gift cards are very easy to purchase, store and redeem which is why every business should be offering them in return for important customer information. It's never been more useful to have useable insights into customers and prospects, so offering gift cards or eCode rewards in return for completed surveys, market research or feedback forms is the simple, effective way to gather data that can drive your product and business forward.
Gift cards help in increasing the order sizes, brand authority, customer base and profit of your business if you use them wisely! SVM Global can help you not only get retailer approval from such brands for the use of their name, but can also recommend the card types, values and delivery methods that can amplify your marketing. As the leading provider of eGifts, Gift Codes and Gift Cards for 100's of suppliers and retailers across the world, if you need a reloadable card, eGift code or a plastic Gift card, SVM Global is the place to buy gift cards at a bulk discounted price. We also offer a range of technical solutions for ongoing reward and recognition in your businesses.
Why not take a look at our portfolio of products here, or subscribe to our newsletter so you never miss the news of our latest retailers!


text:
Q: Array.length; is correct Hello everyone I have an intriguing problem.. It is my second semester in object oriented programming. My first project in my intro to java course involves creating a Date class that results in calculating the days elapsed from January 1st of that year. I have to obviously check for leap years and validate incorrect input. I am currently trying to check if the user enters too few or too many elements (within one string). This is what i have but the logic is flawed somewhere. When i enter too few elements it displays error and read again.. Then I enter too much it displays error and reads again. Then when i enter three elements it displays the previous error displayed.. After one error it does not accept that only 3 elements have been entered. Help please.
/* Accepts a string as an argument and splits it into 3 sections
 * month,day, and year
 */
void setDateFields(String dateString){
    String [] a  = {null};              // Array created to hold dateString
           a = dateString.split(" ");   // Split dateString into three sections
                                        // each ending with a white space

    // While to check if user entered month day and year
    while (a.length != 3){
             if(a.length < 3)
                  System.out.println("Insufficient number of elements\n" +
                                     "Enter a new date in the format of MM DD YYYY");
             else if(a.length > 3)
                  System.out.println("Too many elements entered\n" +
                                     "Enter a new date in the format of MM DD YYYY");
            readDate();
            a = dateString.split(" ");
        }
    monthText = a[0];                   // The monthText is assigned the first index of the array
    dayText = a[1];                     // The dayText is assigned the second index of the array
    yearText = a[2];                    // The yearText is assigned the third index of the array4

    numericMonth = Integer.valueOf(monthText);
    numericDay = Integer.valueOf(dayText);
    numericYear = Integer.valueOf(yearText);
}

A: Your function setDateFields always uses the first string you passed in. You need to get another string from the user (I presume readDate() does that, but it can't modify anything inside setDateFields()).
Your main line code should look something like this:
 do {
   dateString = readDate();
} while(!checkDateString(dateString));

checkDateString() should just check the passed in string and return true or false.


The software developer responded to this review on Dec 20, 2005: Hi - as the author of this software I feel I must respond to your message. You say that you paid for an upgrade but yet felt that you needed to purchase a pro package to get access to the features. This doesn t make any sense. We offer 2 paid versions and 1 free. The difference between them is explained in multiple places on our site and in the software (see group-mail.com for details). We have always sold 2 editions and we made sure not to remove any features between the different versions. I would really appreciate it if you could contact us directly so that we could go through your issues properly. I do admit that there were some silly bugs in the initial release but these have been fixed and tested and we have continued to add many new and exciting features based on user feedback. I really would appreciate it if you could get in touch with me directly and I can assure you that we are very eager to help in anyway that we can. Best regards, Jonathan Hill Managing Director, Infacta Ltd.


text:
Home | News & Stories | Paying it Back and Paying it Forward: The Kindness of Flood Buckets
Paying it Back and Paying it Forward: The Kindness of Flood Buckets
When hurricane Harvey hit, the Rev. Alicia Coltzer Besser learned the power of flood buckets. A year later, she mobilized her district to send buckets to communities impacted by hurricane Florence.
On the morning of the Southeast District's charge conference training, the Rev. Alicia Coltzer Besser, District Superintendent of the Southeast District, awakened to the news of Florence's destruction. As she watched the morning news, images of men, women, and children fleeing the rising flood waters flickered across the screen. In an instant, she was back in those terrible days when Harvey hit, scrambling to get her pastors and their congregations any assistance she could. The terror. The helplessness. The heartbreak.
And the first hint of a promise that life would, one day, return to normal- flood buckets.
Promise of Recovery
"Right after Hurricane Harvey, we couldn't get enough flood buckets. Thousands needed them. Our friends in East and North East Texas gathered together to make them and send them as fast as possible. We were on the receiving end. This time, we could help."
During the charge conference training, Besser challenged her district to begin filling flood buckets for the victims of Florence. Churches large and small went to work, quickly assembling 247 flood buckets to send North and South Carolina.
During Hurricane Harvey First United Methodist Port Neches, opened their doors to shelter first responders. This time, they volunteered to be the collection site for the flood buckets headed to the Carolinas. The Rev. Curtis Matthys said that his congregation and others in the Southeast district were motivated to help those impacted by Florence because they remember all too well what it felt like to be on the receiving end of such desperately needed assistance. It is their hope to not simply "pay it forward" but to also return the same kindness they received.
Tangible Sign of Hope
According to Matthys, Flood Buckets are more than a collection of supplies to meet a physical need. They are a sign that those suffering such devastating loss are not alone, that help is on the way. "It is a tangible sign of hope that someone else has given this to you as a way of solidarity but also a physical reminder that not only are there people care, but there is also a way to recover from this," he said.
Besser agrees, asserting that those who have so recently been through Harvey are uniquely equipped to offer heartfelt assistance. "We could share those feelings because it was our journey last year," she said, "Our desire was in some small way to walk this path with our neighbors in North and South Carolina and now Florida.


There is a statutory legal requirement for all employers to comply with the 1989 Electricity at Work Regulations, and to ensure that all portable electrical equipment is safe to operate under the Health and Safety directive.
To ensure that your company is compliant Coltest undertakes Portable Electrical Appliance Testing (PAT) and is the leading independent provider of PAT testing in Scotland with certified 'Competent Technicians' carrying out the work.
We test in all environments including office, hotel and industrial. Every individual piece of tested equipment has either a 'Pass Label' attached or a 'Fail Report' clearly identifying any problems.
We can also test single phase, three phase and industrial DC equipment all to the highest standards and with the minimum of disruption to daily working routines.
PAT testing is a requirement under HSE legislation and increasingly for insurance purposes. Coltest will provide all the necessary certification, plus a detailed asset register, on completion of successful testing.
For details of your obligations and Coltest's PAT testing service call us today on 01224 899299.


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Winter Light Review
I have mentioned in previous reviews for films that delved into religious themes that such things aren't of importance to my life, yet I find them fascinating when explored in cinema. I rarely will choose to enter a place of worship during my own free time, yet when one is the setting of a movie I am often times in awe of the imagery and envious of the power that comes with a strong belief in a God. During the first act of Ingmar Bergman's Winter Light, we see a handful of people in attendance of a church service and I was instantly sucked into their world, as if I was sitting in a nearby pew. The thing is, I can't recall what was actually said during this sequence. I'm not even sure if I absorbed the words while I was screening the film, but it didn't matter. I couldn't take my eyes off of the faces of the people listening to the sermon, as their reactions to the message, whether a subtle feeling of regret lingering behind their expressions or a not so subtle pain flooding rapidly to the surface, were far more captivating and cinematic than the message itself.
While the narrative of Winter Light obviously revolves around religion, I actually found that the story centers far more on the nature of humanity, the people that occupy our living world rather than the higher spiritual realm they strive to understand for comfort. Tomas (Gunnar Bjornstrand) is the Pastor of the church, a position that has him literally standing in front of and above the congregation as he delivers the message of a lord, a savior, and yet rarely throughout the film does he actually speak. When he does, his words aren't powerful or meaningful or influential, quite the opposite actually. No matter what Tomas says, it doesn't bring comfort to others nor himself.
Jonas (Max Von Sydow) is a troubled soul, a man who has reached a breaking point in life, haunted by the idea of a literal nuclear holocaust. He and his wife reach out to Tomas for help, for words of guidance and comfort that could perhaps alleviate his fears and bring a sense of normalcy back to their lives, but how could a Pastor who feels no connection to God himself, a man who believes he has failed with his chosen path through life, assist in straightening out the soul of another?
Winter Light is one of those pictures that I find is impossible to pick up on every nuance or peel back every thematic layer with only one viewing. For example, there is a particular scene that I keep playing back in my mind since I finished the film early this morning in which Tomas and a man named Algot (Allan Edwall) are having a discussion about the suffering of Christ and the fact that Algot believes the emphasis being on the physical pain Jesus felt is misguided. Algot points to the fact that after being betrayed, Christ cried out to a father, a God that had suddenly become silent at a time when he needed him most. While not literally comparable in importance, is this perhaps also the case for Tomas as well? Throughout the film it is made evident that he is under the weather, clearly experience physical discomfort, and the focus on his suffering resolves around the loss of his wife years earlier.
Perhaps the real reason Tomas suffers, the real source of his deeper pain, is that beneath the surface he is crying out for a god that is silent. I have no knowledge of what Bergman himself believed in or whether or not religion played a role in his life, but Winter Light feels like a deeply personal work, a narrative that came from both the heart as well as an endlessly creative mind.
Perhaps Ingmar Bergman was in search of a silent god.
Posted by Scott H Anderson at 5:16 PM
Labels: cinema, film, god, ingmar bergman, movie, religion, sweden, winter light
Arion March 2, 2015 at 5:27 PM
This one looks amazing. I must see it.
By the way, very good post about Kingsman. I also wrote about it here:
www.artbyarion.blogspot.com
SCOTT ANDERSON March 2, 2015 at 7:56 PM
Thanks Arion, I will check that out. Appreciate the kind words!
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It's no secret that AMD has had a tough time over the last few years. While the company managed to post a profit at the start of 2014—largely thanks to its chips being used in the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One—more often than not its reliance on a declining PC market has seen its profits plunge and turn into losses since the Athlon 64 glory days. Millions (if not billions) of dollars of losses were common throughout the 2000s. $61 million was lost in 2001, followed by $1.3 billion in 2002, $274 million in 2003, and an astonishing $3.3 billion in 2007.
As Ars noted in its look at the rise and subsequent fall of the company, poor management decisions, including the building of costly fabrication facilities (which were subsequently spun off as GlobalFoundries in 2009), a difficult merger with ATI, and flawed chip designs that fail to match rival Intel on performance all contributed to the company's poor financial results over the years. A stream of CEOs, each with drastically different takes on how to run the company, certainly hasn't helped either.
In recent years, AMD has been largely known as the budget chip company, the "value for money" choice when you can't stretch to an Intel i5 or i7. Even with GPUs, an area where the company has produced some excellent Nvidia-beating products over the years, AMD has recently had to compete on price rather than performance because of a rapidly ageing line-up.
Given Intel's dominance from laptops to servers and Nvidia's recent string of high-performance, low-power GPUs, this is a tall order. Intel will always have an advantage thanks to owning its own fabs, while Nvidia has far more cash on hand to put behind R&D, not to mention an estimated 76 percent share of the GPU market. AMD doesn't expect things to change overnight, but it is hoping that a string of new product releases starting this year and moving into 2016 will set it on the right path. While the company hopes to reduce its reliance on its computing and graphics revenue (which currently accounts for around 60 percent of its revenue) and continue to build on its enterprise, embedded, and semi-custom products (which include things like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One), that path still very much involves CPUs and GPUs, and it's there the company is aiming very high indeed.
First and foremost, AMD is tackling those pesky CPU cores. It's safe to say that AMD went down the wrong path with Bulldozer by aiming for a many-core approach with clustered multithreading (CMT). The result was an unusual arrangement of multiple integer cores sharing a single FPU, which (combined with other questionable design decisions) resulted in extremely poor single-threaded performance. AMD has been fighting an uphill battle since to get its CPU line in shape. Bulldozer and its subsequent revisions will be going the way of the dodo in 2016. The upcoming Excavator-based Carrizo APUs due later this quarter will hopefully be one of the last to use the microarchitecture. AMD's core for the future is Zen, which AMD finally confirmed would be ditching CMT and embracing simultaneous multithreading (SMT), much like Intel's Core series of CPUs. Zen will be AMD's sole CPU microarchitecture, with the company ditching the dual-architecture it currently employs across mobile and desktop.
Enthusiasts will be pleased to hear that Zen is launching at the high end first in the form of a new series of FX chips, before trickling down to other segments. In terms of performance, AMD is promising an ambitious 40 percent increase in instructions per clock (IPC). Some of that will come from switching to a new, as-yet-unspecified process node. So far, all we know is that it will be produced using a FinFET process, which—if the company sticks with the Common Platform alliance for production, and there's little indication it won't—will likely make it a 14nm chip made at either Samsung or GlobalFoundries.
With a new chip comes a new platform, this time called AM4. All of AMD's desktop CPUs will use this socket, including any Zen-based APUs it produces down the line. AM4 will introduce support for faster DDR4 memory, but other implementations of the chipset will continue to use DDR3.
The use of AM4 also puts an end to Project Skybridge, which was AMD's plan to use the same socket for its x86 and ARM-based processors. The company cited a lack of interest from partners for the move, which isn't surprising given that few were clamoring for such a platform in the first place. Speaking of ARM, AMD will finally be shipping its ARM Cortex-A57-based Opteron A1100 server chips, almost a year behind schedule. But the company seems keen to move on A1100, and onto K12, its next-generation ARM architecture. With Zen now the priority, K12 has been pushed from 2016 to 2017, but it will implement many of the technologies incorporated into Zen. As of yet, there's little indication that there's a demand for high-density ARM-based servers—don't forget, AMD just recently ditched SeaMicro, its x86-based high-density server business—so it will be interesting to see how well A1100 does in the market and if the company later reconsiders its K12 plans. Servers as a whole will be a focus for AMD, though, with the company hoping to claw back marketshare from Intel, which currently dominates the market.
The OEM 300-series is essentially just a rebrand of existing parts with a few tweaks: the R9 380 OEM is a variant of the R9 285, the R9 370 OEM is a variant of the R7 265, and the R9 360 OEM is a variant of the R9 260. That's not exactly the most compelling lineup, particularly with the now-ancient Pitcairn architecture making another appearance, so here's hoping we'll see something more exciting on the retail side. AMD took a similar approach with the mobile 300-series, which is essentially just a set of rebranded 200-series parts. They do feature much higher clock speeds, which should result in a boost to performance, but memory bandwidth is down across the board.
Still, these OEM GPUs and mobile GPUs are but a small blip in AMD's otherwise ambitious plans to retake the high-performance market across desktops, GPUs, and servers. AMD has promised a great many things in the past and has unfortunately failed to deliver. The company seems to have a renewed vigor, however, and a keen self-awareness that it let its technology slip. Ultimately, it's in every consumer's interest to see AMD succeed; Intel and Nvidia need competition to drive innovation.
"It can't just be that we're the cheaper solution," AMD said yesterday. Thank heavens it has finally realised that.


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Oct 14, 2011 – Hub International acquires assets of Ross Benefits Group
HUB INTERNATIONAL ACQUIRES ASSETS OF THE ROSS BENEFITS GROUP Chicago, IL, October 14, 2011: Hub International Limited (Hub), a leading insurance brokerage firm, announced today that it has acquired the assets of The Ross Benefits Group, Ltd. (Ross), a New York City-based employee benefits brokerage and consulting firm. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed….
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Oct 4, 2011 – Hub International announces acquisition of House of Insurance
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Hub International Limited announces Acquisition of Coastal Insurance Services, Ltd. Chicago – Oct 3, 2011 – Hub International Limited (Hub) announced today that its Hub International TOS (Hub TOS), British Columbia, operating unit has acquired the shares of Coastal Insurance Services Ltd. (Coastal), a Port Moody, British Columbia (B.C.)- based insurance brokerage firm specializing in…
Sep 14, 2011 – Hub International announces acquisition of Horizon Insurance LP
Hub International Limited announces Acquisition of Horizon Insurance, LP Chicago – Sep 14, 2011 – Hub International Limited (Hub) announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the operations of Horizon Insurance, LP. (Horizon), a full service insurance brokerage firm headquartered in Manitoba. The acquisition is expected to close in the…
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Jul 5, 2011 – Hub International announces acquisition of Roy Agency Inc
Hub International Limited announces Acquisition of Roy Agency Inc. Chicago – Jul 5, 2011 – Chicago-based Hub International Limited (Hub) has acquired the Roy Agency Inc. (Roy), an insurance brokerage firm headquartered in Plano, Texas. The Roy team will become part of Hub International Rigg (Hub Texas). Agency principals and founders, Denise M. Roy, president,…
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Apr 14, 2011 – First Niagara Risk Management acquires Pierson & Smith – Enters New England
First Niagara Expanding New England Operations with the Acquisition of Connecticut Insurance Firm Pierson & Smith BUFFALO, N.Y., April 14, 2011 — First Niagara Financial Group's (Nasdaq:FNFG) insurance subsidiary has acquired Norwalk, Conn. based insurance brokerage, consulting and third party administration firm, Pierson & Smith (P&S). This transaction is part of the company's plans for…
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Apr 11, 2011 – Insurica acquires Guaranty Insurance Services – Nearly Doubles in Size
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FOR INFORMATION CONTACT: April 11, 2011 Kevin Wellfare (405) 556-2236 Assoc. VP, Director of Marketing kwellfare@INSURICA.com INSURICA NEARLY DOUBLES IN SIZE Acquisition of Guaranty Insurance Services Makes INSURICA® one of the Top 30 Insurance Brokers in the Nation (Oklahoma City) INSURICA, one of the nation's leading privately held independent insurance agencies, announced…
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Apr 11, 2011 – Hub International acquires Hale Insurance Brokerage
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Feb 15, 2011 – Houston International Insurance Group announces the acquisition of Casualty & Surety Inc
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"Apparently the Holocaust-denier is still a Holocaust-denier," Netanyahu said of Abbas' latest anti-Semitic rant.
By: United with Israel Staff
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas for an anti-Semitic speech he delivered to the Palestinian leadership in which he alleged that the Jews' own conduct caused anti-Semitism and that Jewish usury caused the Holocaust.
In "another anti-Semitic speech, with utmost ignorance and brazen gall, [Abbas] claimed that European Jews were persecuted and murdered not because they were Jews but because they gave loans with interest," Netanyahu said in a statement.
"Abu Mazen [Abbas] again recited the most contemptible anti-Semitic canards," Netanyahu charged, adding, "apparently the Holocaust-denier is still a Holocaust-denier."
Abbas authored The Other Side: the Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism, which claims that the Nazi-perpetrated Holocaust had been exaggerated and that Zionists created "the myth" of six million murdered Jews, which he called a "fantastic lie."
He further claimed that those Jews which were killed by the Nazis were actually the victims of a Zionist-Nazi plot aimed to fuel vengeance against Jews and to expand their mass extermination.
The book also discussed topics such as the Haavara Agreement, in which the Third Reich agreed with the Jewish Agency to facilitate Jewish emigration from Germany to British Mandate Palestine.
The book is considered classic Holocaust denial.
Netanyahu called on the international community to condemn Abbas' "severe anti-Semitism," declaring that "the time has come for it to pass from the world."
Abbas' 'New Low'
On Tuesday, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman stated on Twitter that "[Abbas] has reached a new low in attributing the cause of massacres of Jewish people over the years to their 'social behavior relating to interest and banks.'"
"To all those who think Israel is the reason that we don't have peace, think again," he added.
Jason Greenblatt, President Donald Trump's special representative for international negotiations, stated in a tweet that Abbas' remarks "must be unconditionally condemned by all."
"They are very unfortunate, very distressing and terribly disheartening," he said, adding that "peace cannot be built on this kind of foundation."
He posted his remarks in Arabic as well.
Bizarre conspiracy theories
Addressing the Palestinian National Council (PNC), the PLO parliament, in Ramallah on Monday, Abbas dismissed Israel's existence as "a colonial project intended to plant an odd body in this region [Middle East]," but then claimed he was "not saying here that Israel should be removed. Israel exists, and all I want is a state so that we can live together in peace."
He also discussed what he alleges are the causes of 20th-century anti-Semitism in Europe, claiming that his views are based on books by Jewish writers. "The conclusion of these books is that animosity toward Jews was not because of their religion, but because of their social activities," including money-lending, he said, parroting common anti-Semitic tropes.
Abbas touched on a number of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories during what he called a "history lesson," attempting to prove that the 3,000-year-old Jewish connection to the Land of Israel is false.
Citing Arthur Koestler's book, The Thirteenth Tribe, which claims that Ashkenazi Jews are descended from Khazars, Abbas said European Jews therefore had "no historical ties" to the Land of Israel.
He went on to say that the Holocaust was not the result of anti-Semitism, but rather of the Jews' "social behavior, [charging] interest, and financial matters."
Abbas further claimed that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler facilitated the immigration of Jews to Israel by reaching a deal with the Anglo-Palestine Bank under which Jews who moved to the British Mandate of Palestine could transfer all their assets there.
Holocaust denial and admiration for the Nazis is prevalent in Palestinian society.
By David on May 2, 2018 / Israel in the News


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10 DVDs in 2004
Notice how I insist in not using 'Top 10'? Why does it have to be 'top', suggesting that these 10 DVDs would be on 'top' of any other DVDs, while we can't help championing what many people have been campaigning: arts should not be put in competition. Again, this debate will drag on another issue how films have to be treated separately from 'arts', or have films achieved a special place in arts, it will just nicely serve the endless mind-boggling discussion while the ship has sailed away far from the intended destination …
No ratings given (if your curiosity is really that freakingly high, ask me personally about the ratings I gave to these films) as I believe that such an intangible, fragile works have to be appreciated with an open mind and objective point of view, which will exclude any existence of numbers and figures.
No ranking orders either as they are scatteredly placed to avoid any preference, the fairness of arrangement that I can think of lies on the date of viewing itself.
These are 10 DVDs which gave me a thrill and pleasant film-watching experience that I personally will be more than excited to revisit and relive the experience:
Central Station (1998, Brazil)
What appears on the surface as a typical sappy flick of how a sudden appearance of a stranger in a woman's life would change her character and life altogether proves to be completely wrong.
Fernanda Montenegro in her worthy Oscar-nominated role shines in a chilling, uncompromising portrayal of an anti-heroine facing a tough life every second and minute of her life in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, only to be confronted with an innocent presence of a young kid hopelessly searching for his father, the journey taken together would be a trip their lives have been unknowingly prepared.
Walter Salles has all the good qualities in his hands, a tight, well-written script enhanced with a breathtaking, gorgeous snap shots of Brazilian panoramic view that only adds this already beautiful film an additional magic.
Touching, without being a tear-jerker.
Inspiring, without being preachy.
And finding oneself, without compromising honesty.
400 Blows (1959, France)
Anyone citing any films on growing-up-is-hard-to-go-through story would definitely have to include this psychologically brutal film mirroring reality in a convincing manner. An autobiographical of Francois Truffaut? Well, what is not autobiographical whenever we surrender ourselves to immerse in our works? A certain influence contributed in it would be marked in a certain extent, resulting how 'personal' your works turn out to be.
Which is what makes 400 Blows compelling to watch, something you can't even find in the future Antoine Doinel series as Truffaut may had been trapped into the dangerous territory of sequel-making. A continous threat, indeed.
Days of Wine and Roses (1962, USA)
To date, at the time of writing, a mere mention of the title, just the title, still gives me a shudder and a certain degree of … fear. Fear of being one, an alcoholic. An acute alcoholic who worships the majesty atmosphere in being taken to a seemingly realm world of blunt and illusion. An acute alcoholic who seems to be unable to kneel down picking up the shattering life broken into puzzling pieces. An acute alcoholic who drowns himself, willingly and unwillingly at the same time, to a place of longingness and loneliness.
Mind you, this is a Hollywood film, the one that goes beyond a manufactured norm of censors, the one that was painstakingly created to give a chilling effect thanks to the superb performances from Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick who amazingly step into their character's skins, so much so that you can't help wondering, do they, or don't they? They might be doing the torture of themselves, which translated into an amazing showcase of pain and disgracefulness of alcoholism.
No smile, no laughter, no flirtatious look, no usual cracks of nice, sweet Lemmon.
No glance of beauty of those enviable blond hair of Remmick.
If you think Blake Edwards only does his best at Pink Panther series, think again. Think of how a master in slapstick, physical comedy will do in his darkest hour yet.
Repeated viewing? Think again.
Jules et Jim (1962, France)
How nice it is to see two entries from Francois Truffaut here, considering that I often detest his works made in 1970s to be exact, but along with 400 Blows, Jules et Jim marked his entry as an auteur in an era of what they refer as French New Wave cinema, a 'little' breakthrough in the history of filmmaking, unconventional, rebellious, yet you can't help reeling for more.
And who wouldn't fall in love, condemn, and empathy with Jeanne Moreau as she began to wane in the tragedy set by herself?
Being an audience of modern cinema myself, I can't help trying to trace how this film would evoke a sense of sentimentalism in a relationship-of-three going to make the companies overwhelmed by the outburst of emotional feelings a la Neil Jordan's The End of the Affair, or in a little shift of pace, Alfonso Cuaron's Y Tu Mama Tambien …
His Girl Friday (1940, USA)
Even when I just began typing the title, I found myself smiling widely while staring at this notebook, rekindling the good memory still lingers on my mind when I remember how jolly it was watching this film, enjoying every single minute, and I mean every second of chattiness, witty lines and everything that makes this cleverly written film as a towering landmark of screwball comedy.
Not even today, way past of Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan era or at the hype of Before Sunset and such, can romantic, comedy, or combination of both make a good use of punchlines which are skilfully crafted and catered at a great speed that wouldn't leave you a hiss of chance to catch your breath from laughing.
Cary Grant, being an actor named Cary Grant himself, may be only doing what he does best as usual: suave, charming, a gentleman's gentleman who dares risking himself as an object of ridicule while still maintaining his charisma that will surely sweep off every ladies' feet and be envied by other guys in the room, but in doing so, he couldn't be any better here under the masterful direction of Howard Hawks, whom I have to tip my hat off in being one of the few directors who defined romantic comedy itself along with the likes of Ernst Lubitsch and such.
Of course, in an era of tough woman, Rosalind Russell bares and blends herself whole-heartedly in her Hildy Johnson character, a smart, sassy, independent, smart journalist Hollywood can only dream of, which would forever be carried over to her other performances, notably those she did superbly in Auntie Mame and Gypsy.
Not even just a filler for your rainy Saturday afternoon, I can see myself going to put it highly on my library …
Zelig (1983, USA)
I was fooled!
Oh dear good old Woody Allen's films, how you never fail to amaze me, to the state of glee!
If you think that this time around Woody Allen still sticks his nose to usual theme of psychological problems of modern human beings in their own paranoia, narcissm, insecurities and longingness, all I can say is that you can be right, but you can be wrong as well. The subject, Mr. Zelig himself, no matter how you may analyze and interpret him as having a mentally-challenged mind, he lives and breathes himself like a chameleon. At least we've got one thing clear, but a mere narration of this story would only bury this film deep down underneath his other great works.
This time around, he made a documentary. Or shall I say, a 'documentary'? You watch it yourself, you decide, because I can't stop giggling now, a few months later, that …
I was fooled! In a much delightful way!
Breathless (1960, France)
Jean Paul Belmondo in his dress-to-the-nine suit, that hat, that cigarette at the corner of his mouth, taking a stroll along a pedestrian corner in Paris, humming, only to be interrupted by the lovely sound of …
"New York Herald Tribune!"
Jean Seberg in her tight T-shirt, short hair that strengthens her sassiness instead of being boyish, appearing from the right side, walking slightly brisky, and turning herself around Belmondo to begin their short, sweet, murderous affair …
Those indelible images that captured and melted hearts of many filmgoers at that time, and until now, I am sitting here casting my mind back in one hot Thursday afternoon watching the two rascals indulging themselves in their own time that seems to stand still.
How I was transported to their world of dangerously addictive crime of passion without even realizing that a certain presence of a director did mastermind this all, and certainly the world would always welcome Jean-Luc Godard as the most prominent director, the most reliable and knowledgeable film scholars-cum-film critics the world of cinema would always be able to rely on for all his outsanding works that speak for one thing: a film can be unflinchingly cool.
Now I know why Bernardo Bertolucci was in despair of making a tribute by presenting this annoying film called The Dreamers …
Young Frankenstein (1974, USA)
Not just a little giggle, I am now laughing!
Such a zany, insane yet brilliant this 'mad' man who goes by the name of Mel Brooks, master of parody whom Wayans brothers and other aspiring cheap comedy directors should take a lesson or two that parody itself need not be grossed out to generate good laughs. It all lies on the writings, that's what this madcap film trying to say, and how to make it comical at the same time.
One can only wonder what went on in Brook's mind when he directed the film, or rather, what were Gene Wilder and Brooks thinking?
A genius, a superb film indeed!
And do consider this trivia: The cast and especially Mel Brooks had so much fun and were so upset when principal photography was almost completed, that Mel added scenes to continue shooting.
See? I can't even give my proper comment here, hahaha! Ask me, just ask me personally! 🙂
Black Orpheus (1959, France/Brazil/Italy)
A Greek tale of Orpheus and Eurydice gets a Samba treatment that helps to launch and refine a new genre of Latin jazz as what we see today. Surprisingly faithful to the core of the original story, this film is as blatant as it can be in portraying the real low-life of Rio de Janeiro, completed with innocent, naive romances that would seem to go nowhere as their fate could only be destined and shattered by the Death, in a presence that seem to make a good joke of Ingmar Bergman's Seventh Seal. Still, with maddening and deafening projected images of that (in)famous Rio carnaval serve as a platform of the story, watching the film seems like surrounding yourself with a pulsating beats of laid-back jazz while sipping a fuzzy warm of chocolate coffee in one hot Saturday afternoon, yet you feel distance away from the reality as you position yourself under the shower of fabricated air.
Addictive.
Darling (1965, UK)
Many people would be quick to point out Midnight Cowboy should be considered as John Schlesinger's main breakthrough in presenting a gay character explicitly.
I place that notion to this film, on top of other sexual freedom wraps the film in a cold, unpretentious manner which greatly helped make the film stands the test of time, no matter how it is considered 'mild' by today's standard … of what? Bare-it-all sex? Isn't it better to have it subdued?
And isn't it better to have it suited and tailored perfectly fitted to the era where the characters breathe their lives in?
Watching Julie Christie transforming herself on the mask of many characters we seem to be unable to trace the roots would only enhance my admiration to her terribly believable persona that she holds until today, a glowing innerself she projected out to the character she embodies well, and witnessing her breakdowns was one of the very few difficult times I had to bear throughout countless film-watching experience.
How can one envy of all the willingness to rebel in an era of being opressed while keeping the good elements of both sides …
Posted by nauvalyazid on 12/19/2004 in English, Film
Today's the last day of the first month of the year. Di hari terakhir bulan pertama ini, kalau mau ngomong apapun,… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 57 minutes ago


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Exams Services Officer(CHI-514)
English & Exams
Contract: 1 year fixed-term contract| Salary: Payband 5| Location: Beijing | Deadline for Applications: 28th Aug 2019(23.59 UK time)
ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT/TEAM
China is one of British Council's largest exams operations, delivering extensive international exams to individuals, institutions, schools and corporate clients in mainland China. By providing access to highly valued UK qualifications, with the reassurance of integrity, we build on the UK's reputation for world-class educational standards. Core tests we administer include IELTS, Aptis, and a wide range of academic and professional qualifications (Distribution Exams stream). The Distribution Exams stream in China encompasses school exams, professional exams, and university exams and is a critical part of our exams business.
WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING AND WHY
In this role, you will provide professional and effective service to IELTS candidates in North and Central China region and ensure the IELTS services in North and Central China is compliant with global IELTS Administration Manual, audit requirements, and China-specific IELTS administration procedures.
WHAT IS INTERESTING ABOUT IT
You can take pride in the fact that you will be part of a team that enables the British Council to meet its objectives and gives all our customers an exceptional experience. You will also be able to join regular professional development, training and skills programmes to develop your experience and skills.
To qualify for the role, you will need to have:
1. Language ability: English B2 (Aptis, IELTS 6.0 or equivalent); Chinese C1 (HSK 5 or equivalent)
2. An undergraduate degree or qualification(s) that can be demonstrated to be equivalent to an undergraduate degree.
3. Demonstrable experience of office administration
Experience of line management duties is highly preferred, experience of quality control and stock management will be highly preferred
Our work makes a lasting difference by building more inclusive societies and supporting people's prospects.
Together, we can do more.
For more information please see Role profile and British Council Generic Behaviours
Internal candidates only: please remember to include the full version of your most recent end-of-year-record of performance and confirm when the system prompts you to, that you have discussed the application with your line manager.
The British Council is the United Kingdom's international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. Founded in 1934, we are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter and a UK public body. We work to change lives by creating opportunities for people to learn and develop. We work with over 100 countries across the world in the fields of arts and culture, English language, education and civil society. Last year we reached over 75 million people directly and 758 million people overall including online, broadcasts and publications
Valuing diversity is essential to the British Council's work. We aim to abide by and promote equality legislation by following both the letter and the spirit of it to try and avoid unjustified discrimination, recognizing discrimination as a barrier to equality of opportunity, inclusion and human rights.
All staff worldwide is required to ensure their behavior is consistent with our policies.
The British Council is a full member of Keeping Children Safe (KCS) and has achieved level 1 child safe certification. We believe that all children have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse as set out in article 19, UNCRC, 1989 and that every child matters - everywhere in the world. In line with the British Council's Child Protection policy, any appointment is contingent on thorough checks including criminal record checks, in line with legal requirements.
KINDLY TAKE NOTE
While various measures have been put in place by the government to help curb pollution in China, there are still potential health issues associated with the poorer air quality. The British Council does its utmost to provide a working environment that minimises employees' exposure to pollutants, however, anyone wishing to work in the cities of Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou or Chongqing should be aware of the situation.


Final Fantasy VI Save State Editor project is an editor for Final Fantasy VI characters. Final Fantasy VI Save State Editor is a tool for editing characters in Final Fantasy VI (or III in the USA) saved games.
Welcome to the unauthorized game guide for Final Fantasy 13... the latest in the legendary series! Get all of the information for the revolutionary title for the Sony Playstation 3 and Xbox 360!
The Crafters' Cookbook was created for the explorers, artisans, crafters, culinarians, and other handy players of Final Fantasy XIV.
This app is a complete guide and walkthrough for Dissidia: Final Fantasy. *This app is unofficial, please read Disclaimer at bottom of description* Need some help in Dissidia: Final Fantasy?
iTemChecker Final Fantasy 13 lets you find all missing Items in Final Fantasy 13 easily. Mark Items as found and hide them so you only see Items you are still missing. iTemChecker even shows you where you can find all Items in Final Fantasy 13.
Final Fantasy VIII: The Free Walkthrough A comprehensive walkthrough to one of the biggest and best RPG's of all time!
Final Fantasy Quiz! Discover how much you know about one of the most famous franchise of the RPG gaming world.
*This is an unofficial guide for FINAL FANTASY XIII Features: - Trophies / Achievements info - Checklist for checking trophies - Trophy name and description - Icon of each trophy Available in English, Japanese, Chinese and German.
Final Fantasy Radio was started in September of 2007 for the voice chat room of the linkshell RGoNots that was based on FFXI server Sylph.
The unofficial, fan-made encyclopedia for the Final Fantasy series! Story, character guide and much more in one handy app! Check out our other apps: - Metal Gear Story for the complete, unofficial synopsis of the Metal Gear games!
Here is the 'lite' version of the most complete unofficial guide for FINAL FANTASY XIII on the App Store!
** DISCLAIMER: This is not an official Final Fantasy product and is in no way affiliated with Square Enix. All pictures are copyrighted by Square Enix and fall within the realm of fair use.
Stay connected with Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY using the official application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Includes exclusive content from our concerts, recordings, and interviews.
Are you a Final Fantasy fan? Do you play and collect Final Fantasy games? Do you need to track all the games you own / want / finished / are playing now? This application is for you!
Q-Gears project is a clone of Squaresofts Final Fantasy 7 game engine. Q-gears is an attempt to make a clone of Squaresofts Final Fantasy 7 game engine.
** This guide is unofficial, please read the disclaimer located at the bottom of this description. ** Need help with your Final Fantasy 13 Achievements? Get help with this app. Use your iPhone/iPod Touch while you play to get every achievement.
** This guide is unofficial, please read the disclaimer located at the bottom of this description. ** Need help with your Final Fantasy 13 Trophies? Get help with this app. Use your iPhone/iPod Touch while you play to get every trophy.
*Note: Please read the Disclaimer at the bottom of the description.* Playing the original Final Fantasy? This is a full walkthrough and guide to help get you through the gmae.
FFXED is a small, Java based utility designed to help you edit Final Fantasy X savegame files.
Equipmant is a program designed for the Final Fantasy XI Windower. Equipmant is designed to generate plain text files, or scripts, which are read by Windower. Equipmant makes equipment macros, which are used to change equipment in game.
KQ is a console-style role playing game, similar to Final Fantasy. It is composed of the KQ engine, and several map and script files that make up the world. The entirety of KQ is licensed under the GNU GPL v2.KQ is not finished.
Dopo aver affrontato le insidie di Final Fantasy I, grazie anche alla guida ffsecrets, eccoci arrivati al secondo Capitolo della saga...Final Fantasy II! Questa volta il nostro alleato sar ffsecretsII. ffsecretsII A?
Unreal Tournament 2004 Rinoa Heartilly model is a new and fascinating model which lets you play as the character Rinoa from the game Final Fantasy VIII in Unreal Tournament 2004.
EAPlus2 aims to help Final Fantasy XI users to acquire their Empyrean Armor +2. It answers 3 basic + 1 advance questions: - Our party is fighting NM right now, what +2 items does this NM drop? - I have a +2 item in my bag, which jobs can it utilize?
Download Collection.com periodically updates software information from the publisher. You can visit publisher website by clicking Homepage link. Software piracy is theft. Using "final fantasy c dad" crack, key, serial numbers, registration codes is illegal. The download file hosted at publisher website. We do not provide any download link points to Rapidshare, Depositfiles, Mediafire, Filefactory, etc. or obtained from file sharing programs such as Limewire, Kazaa, Imesh, Ares, BearShare, BitTorrent, WinMX etc.


In a previous post I recommended ordering from ABC Nightline the a broadcast on "The Deep Dive". At the end of the post I said you'd be surprised at "who steals shopping carts". After talking to people that took my recommendation and ordered the DVD, I realized the segment they show on the DVD is not the whole segment I saw. Those who ordered it agreed that it was very enlightening, but I believe ABC left out one of the most powerful pieces of the broadcast. Who steal shopping carts is eluded to in the DVD version, but it is not explained. The reason I believe this piece is so powerful is because it reveals what appears on the surface is often very different when you dive deeper.
Here is what was missing from the DVD.
One of the biggest problems with shopping carts is theft.
When the Ideo team asked who steals shopping carts the logical answer is ..... homeless people.
When they asked supermarket employees why homeless people stole shopping carts the answer was ... to carry their belongings.
Sound's logical but there's a problem with this!
There are many more shopping carts stolen than there are homeless people.
Do they loose them? Do they break often? Do they upgrade??
The Ideo team looked deeper and found that there were scores of burnt shopping carts down by the river.
They found that homeless people used shopping carts as grills!!!
They didn't last long so they had to be replenished often.
The number one reason that shopping carts were stolen was to make grills!
Who would have thought this? I wouldn't have. When the designed the new shopping cart they made it of plastic. It can no longer be used as a grill! I thought that was brilliant and a great example of how we need to probe deeper into what the real issues are facing our customers. When we get answers we should take them as merely suggestions. Even if those delivering the answers should be the experts. Sometimes those we gather market requirements from are so entrenched in their day to day work that they make broad assumptions. We need to do "deep dives" to understand what the real problems and solutions are. We need to validate or challenge every statement no matter how obvious the answer seems.


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Sophie's Story – Organ Donation Week 2019
Jack and Sophie
Sophie, Paramedic, Southampton
My brother Jack was killed in June 2019 following a collision on the A32 in Hampshire.
It's been hard for my Mum, his older brother, twin sister and I, grieving for Jack but without having the positivity of knowing how Jack helped others by being an organ donor, it would have been even harder.
"Jack was 22-years-old when he died and was the most laid-back, kind and caring guy you could ever meet; everyone loved him. His accident left him with a severe brain injury and we were told pretty much after the first CT scan at hospital that it wasn't survivable.
My Dad had passed away two years previously and at the time, we as a family had a conversation about our wishes after death. So we knew that Jack had signed up as an organ donor and we were the ones to bring it up with the team on the Neurosciences Intensive Care Unit at Southampton where Jack was.
They put us in touch with the hospital's organ donation team who were brilliant; there wasn't any pressure on us, they answered all our questions and helped us through the paperwork.
We were together as a family as Jack was made ready for surgery and we realised that as we were saying our goodbyes, around the country other families were coming together because their loved one was getting another chance of life.
After the surgery, we were able to see Jack in the Chapel of Rest and you couldn't tell he'd had been operated on. He looked like he was asleep and a normal, whole person which I hope might help other families in the future if they are anxious about seeing a loved one after donation.
Before joining SCAS, I worked on the Gastrointestinal and Hepatology Ward at Southampton which looks after patients with liver failure and kidney disease. I've seen the struggle such people have just to stay alive so it's nice to know that for some people like that, as well as others with life-limiting diseases and conditions, Jack's death has meant their struggle is over.
I know it's an amazing legacy that Jack would have been very happy with."
Jack's heart went to a man in his 50s; his liver to a man in his 30s; his pancreas and one kidney to a man in his 30s; his other kidney to another man in his 30s and his knee joint to a cancer sufferer. Other donations Jack made, such as his corneas, take time to be made ready for transplantation so the family will be contacted again in the future once those donations have been given to someone else.
Sophie and Jack (back row, middle and right) with the rest of their family
Next year, the law around organ donation is changing in England. From spring 2020, all adults in England will be considered as having agreed to donate their own organs when they die unless they record a decision not to donate or are in one of the excluded groups.
Even after the law has changed, families will continue to be approached before organ donation goes ahead. Knowing what their relative wanted, helps families support their decision at a difficult time.
Find out more and register your decision by visiting NHS Organ Donor Register at www.organdonation.nhs.uk and share your decision with your family.


text:
Home Drinks Barley + Rye: Starr Hill Brewery extends distribution to Georgia
Barley + Rye: Starr Hill Brewery extends distribution to Georgia
The biggest craft brewery in Virginia comes to market
Osayi Endolyn
Images courtesy of Starr Hill
Starr Hill Brewery first launched in Charlottesville, Virginia, fifteen years ago, and after winning hearts and minds throughout the Mid-Atlantic, its beer is headed west with launch events starting next week through April.
I recently sat down with founder and brewmaster Mark Thompson, who can't help but laugh each time he says how long he's been brewing—23 years. Thompson got his first beer gig in the early 90s in Portland at Nor'wester Brewing. At the age of 22 he had relocated to Oregon from his native Charlottesville. Like many brewers of that time, Thompson was taken with the free case of beer after work—and also the ability to apply his science education, a BS in biology.
Thompson left Portland for Denver where he started Mile High Brewing Co. He had "the good fortune" of working with future SweetWater Brewing co-founder Freddy Bensch. "I hired him to be my first assistant brewer, and we worked together for about a year." Thompson moved back to Charlottesville to begin Starr Hill in 1999, which according to the Virginia Craft Brewers Guild, is now the state's largest craft beer brewery.
And if the name Starr Hill conjures up memories of music festivals gone by, that's because Starr Hill considers itself a music-centric brand: Thompson met his business partner at a Grateful Dead show, Starr Hill proudly pours at Bonnaroo every year, and Starr Hill started out as a restaurant-brewery-meets-music-hall, featuring early performances by Jack Johnson and John Mayer.
The beer company still keeps close ties to live music alongside Red Light Management, which represents Dave Matthews Band, Phish, Tim McGraw among many others. If Thompson had it his way, newcomers to Starr Hill would, "enjoy their first bottle on a cool fall day in front of their favorite band."
Judging by this leisurely winter, Atlantans may have to settle for a hip bar and NCAA basketball, but the beer will surely be just as good. Starr Hill will be featured as the April beer of the month at Taco Mac locations, and Smith's Olde Bar starts pouring Monday night.
You guys are collaborating with Terrapin, tell us more. Spike [Buckowski, brewmaster and Terrapin co-founder] and I have known each other forever. We're doing a Belgian-style stout that uses a lot of rye, then we're going to dry hop it with coffee. Half of the coffee is from Jittery Joe out of Athens and half is from our local roaster, Shenandoah Joe. It's called GAVA Joe—for Georgia and Virginia.
When will we see it? GAVA Joe comes out April 1. We're going to do about a 150 barrels, draft only. It's cool, Terrapin will help Starr Hill in Atlanta, and we hope to do the same for them in Virginia.
Everyone is so buddy-buddy. One of the coolest things about craft beer is that we all still get along with each other so we can grow our industry collectively.
What else are you bringing to Atlanta? Our Grateful Pale Ale, Northern Lights IPA, and our Hefeweizen, The Love.
Let's pop some tops. Okay, Grateful Pale Ale: We introduced this last year, it's very sessionable at 4.7 percent alcohol. We dry hopped it with Centennial, Cascade, and Chinook. We think consumers really enjoy the hop aroma and flavor more than the bitterness and alcohol that's associated with IPAs. The perceived bitterness you get when you smell it tells your brain it's going to be bitter, but it kind of mellows out and finishes very smooth.
The Love: This is our German-style Hefeweizen, a silver medal winner at the Great American Beer Festival in 2008. We do a lot of cool things around breast cancer with this beer. In February we donate a dollar per case to different foundations. It seemed to fit with the name and the packaging. Breast cancer touches everybody—my mother is a survivor.
And a lot of ladies like their wheat beer. Now for the Northern Lights IPA: This is our best seller, it's about 40 percent of our volume. The name is a reference to a Phish song called "Farmhouse." It's balanced—the beer has a bit of malty sweetness on the end, so it's not screaming bitterness or hop aroma.
Barley + Rye
Starr Hill Brewery
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Wild Heaven and Footie Mob launch a Lemon Pepper Wet IPA


Comments: Sk2 (slow ca2+ -dependent repolarizing apamin-sensitive k+ current) multi-state model cerebellum golgi cell model based on data from hirschberg et al (1998), by s solinas may 2007. Model taken from hirschberg et al. (1998), not in model db. No modeldb ancestors. Modeling paper and complementary experimental paper. This channel was modified from an ancestor model of a cerebellar granule cell, animal model below is that of the experimental results in this paper.


William Langen is the man on the left. He was married to Katie Von Arx, the older sister of Joe and Mary Von Arx. William and Katie ran the Log Cabin Museum on the outskirts of Hokah. William Langen's father (also named William) was a pioneer who came to the U.S. in the 1850s. I believe the original settlers settled in Pfeffer Valley.


Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May are back on Amazon Prime Video with The Grand Tour series three.
The new series has already begun, but with new episodes released every week there is plenty to discover about what's to come, including where the trio will be travelling later in the run.
When is The Grand Tour series 3 released on Amazon Prime Video?
The Grand Tour series three is available to watch now on Amazon Prime Video. Watch online here.
The new series began on Friday 18th January 2019. However, the next two episodes are set to be a little different.
Normally new episodes of The Grand Tour are released every Friday. Episodes two and three however will be released back to back on Friday and Saturday in a two-part Colombia special. Read more about the special here.
Can I watch The Grand Tour if I don't have Amazon Prime?
The Grand Tour series three is currently exclusively available on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon's video streaming service. That means only Prime subscribers can watch.
Normally an Amazon Prime subscription costs £7.99 per month or £79 a year.
However, if you're a new customer, you can sign up for free and watch The Grand Tour and everything else available on Amazon Prime for free for 30 days. Check out more details here.
Filming began in early 2018. In March, Jeremy Clarkson posted a photo from DriveTribe (the trio's social media site) of a truck driving through snow, confirming in the caption that filming was underway.
The studio segments of series three were filmed in a tent in the Cotswolds, conveniently close to Jeremy Clarkson's house.
However, as usual the trio have been a tad more ambitious with the filming locations for the non-studio bits. Mongolia and Colombia are the two highlights, but there are plenty more places to explore in the episodes ahead.
"We did a special in Colombia. It has a lot more to it besides Pablo Escobar, and we wanted to get that across," Richard Hammond explained.
"It's the most ecologically diverse place on Earth. Cartagena was my favourite place this series," Clarkson agreed, although he also had plenty to say about Mongolia.
Producer Andy Wilman has also disclosed that the trio had been filming in China, the USA, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
The Grand Tour series three will also feature three epic 'specials', in Colombia, Mongolia and Nevada.
New episode details will be released closer to the air date, but check out where The Grand Tour is travelling to in upcoming episodes below.
What is going to happen in The Grand Tour series 3?
On top of this, producer Andy Wilman did debut some footage from the series at the Amazon Prime Video's European showcase event in London at the beginning of October, which featured a clip of unlikely guest star Mary Beard, who was seen in conversation with Jeremy Clarkson.
They've also returned to their own test-track, fondly known by the trio as the "Eboladrome" because of its resemblance to the shape of the Ebola virus.
Producer Wilman explained that they felt they had to "live up to" the name The Grand Tour this year, and that he is "quietly confident about this one" – so we're expecting big things.
Is there a trailer for The Grand Tour series 3?
Yes, Amazon Prime Video unveiled a first look at the same time as the release date.
The new footage promises more of the same epic road trips that have become a hallmark of Clarkson series, including trips to Colombia, Mongolia, China, Sweden and Detroit.
Watch The Grand Tour series three trailer below.
Will there be more of The Grand Tour after series three?
Amazon has confirmed that The Grand Tour will be back for a fourth series – but that there will be a number of changes when the show returns.
The new-look Grand Tour will focus on big road trips and specials, ditching the studio segments and not-always-successful celebrity interviews.
Amazon promises that series four will see the trio "take on big adventure road trips that fans around the world love".
When are The Grand Tour season 3 live shows filming?
The studio tent pitched up on 31st October.
How do I get tickets to the live tour dates?
Tickets for the live tour dates, which are taking place in October, November and December this year, have been released intermittently on Amazon. The first batch of applications ended on the 12th of October, but tickets for the live dates on 28th November and 12th December have been recently made available – and can be bought here.
Kep an eye on The Grand Tour's official Facebook page – where tickets will be released if there are any left to be snapped up.
The big news for the the new season is that there is going to be an accompanying game, as introduced by James May and Richard Hammond, half-naked from a pool in the YouTube video below.
It comes equipped with four player split-screen, meaning fans will be able to face off against one another, and it will be released in episodic format on Playstation 4 and Xbox One from the beginning of series three.
And there's also a gameplay trailer, which you can check out below.
How can I watch seasons 1 and 2 of The Grand Tour?
Seasons 1 and 2 of The Grand Tour are available to watch now on Amazon Prime Video. If you don't already have Prime, you can access it now with a 30-day free trial.