text:
I fell in love with my wife the moment i saw her photograph
ANTHONY ANDREWS walks into a Kensington restaurant wearing an open-necked blue shirt and a sports jacket. He's 53 but looks thin, fit and remarkably young. Indeed, he looks little older than when he famously played little-boy-lost Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead Revisited.
Earlier this year he was the sexually ambiguous Boy Dougdale in the starry TV adaptation of Nancy Mitford's Love In A Cold Climate. Both men were self-indulgent and dissolute, characteristics which are totally alien to Anthony Andrews.
We meet on matinee day over an early lunch, when he has a glass of water and scrambled eggs.
He has very English good looks which seem to embody all those oldfashioned qualities of reticence, self-control and respect for women. He looks like a man who leads a charmed existence.
In many ways he does, but there have been very black times in his life.
Whenever things have seemed perfect, fate has intervened with a kind of warning that nothing is for ever.
He's just opened in Ibsen's Ghosts at London's Comedy Theatre, where this truth is underlined.
He gives a powerful performance as a cowardly priest who yearns to do the right thing. Unfortunately he hides behind sanctimonious hypocrisy for so long that he can't see the truth either in other people or himself.
It's a savage play about a savagely unhappy family, but Anthony Andrews is hugely fortunate in his own marriage. His wife is Georgina Simpson, heiress to the elegant London store Simpson's of Piccadilly.
He fell in love with her picture when they were both young actors. He lusted after her and finally met her.
'I was playing one of the schoolboys in 40 Years On with John Gielgud. I hadn't got a flat and I used to camp out with an actor friend of mine. He had a damp basement on the fringes of Kensington, and he took photographs to make a bit of extra money.
'His walls were covered with pictures and as I nodded off at night on the sofa, I'd look longingly at Georgina. He used to say: "You are such a bore about this girl."
'Then one day he rushed up the five flights at the Apollo Theatre to the dressing room to shout: "She's in the pub."
'I shot into the pub, asked her if she'd like a drink but she ignored me.'
Georgina was the talented beauty born into a rich, highflying family with a great work ethic. She was the Liz Hurley of her day, forever pictured in the newspapers looking stunning.
On one famous occasion she posed wearing nothing but a coat of gold paint for a magazine cover.
A year after she'd spurned Anthony, fate intervened when his sister took him to a party. 'It was the opening of a new club, terribly dark, and on the other side of the room sat Georgina.
Janet, my dear late sister, said: "Oh, for God's sake, do something about it.
You have to go and say hello to this woman."' GEORGINA and Anthony kept staring at each other and then, as though pulled by invisible strings, simultaneously got up and walked towards the middle of the dance floor.
'It was like a scene out of West Side Story. She looked at me and said: "Oh my God, I thought you were someone else." ' It was the beginning of a passionate love affair and he felt from the beginning that this was for ever.
'I didn't have any doubts. Somehow nothing clicked for me until that part of my life was cemented.' After the party he asked her out and wasn't sure whether or not he could afford to pay for dinner.
'We talked way into the night about the theatre and found we were both mad about horses. We never drew breath. I'd never dreamed of a friendship of that intensity.' Initially when he met his future inlaws, he says they were a bit anxious and suspicious. Georgina was, after all, their golden only child, and he was an impecunious unknown.
A year later, when they were 23, they had a posh winter wedding with both of them looking incredibly young and happy.
The reception was held at the Simpson family mansion in Hyde Park Gate, which once belonged to Winston Churchill.
'I was terribly in awe of her parents.
I think they were terrified when they first saw me and Georgina together.
'Georgina's mother could be absolutely scathing and stinging. She had a reputation of sometimes not being very nice to people, so we had our battles.
But we ended up having mutual respect.' Now, as well as their London base, he and his wife have a rambling house in the West Country where they keep horses. Georgina is a dark, slender dynamo who gave up the theatre to run the family business.
HER charismatic husband, who was once shy and insecure, has been emboldened by her optimism and belief that anything is possible.
Their eldest child Joshua, 28, got married last year and runs a production company with his father. He proposed to his bride, Abigail, by spelling out the words 'Will You Marry Me?' in 20ft-high lettering in red ribbon, laid out in a field overnight.
He's emerging as a talented producer and his father says: 'There is no greater thrill on earth than people saying quietly in your ear: "Your son is sensational." That really is a golden moment.' They also have Jessica, 26, and Sammy, 15, who is Princess Anne's goddaughter after the two families became close through their passion for horses.
Anthony's family stability is vital to him because his own childhood was precarious. When he was only five years old he was devastated by the death from cancer of his father, Stanley, who was a music arranger with the BBC.
His mother was pregnant but nursed her desperately sick husband at home.
When she gave birth to a daughter, he was just able to hold the baby in his arms before he died.
Geraldine Andrews was left with five children. The eldest, Janet, was only seven and there was scarcely any money.
The authorities told her that the solution was to put some of the children into care, but she absolutely refused. She had an implacable faith that somehow they'd survive.
'Her attitude,' says her son, 'was that today things might be terrible but tomorrow it will be all right. She was the original Keeping Up Appearances person. She thought there were standards to maintain and that was the way things were going to be.
'Even now, any revealing that things were not plain sailing annoys her like mad. But the fact is there weren't two brass farthings to rub together.
'She spent her entire time robbing Peter to pay Paul. As children, we all distinctly remember crossing the road to avoid the grocer because the bill hadn't been paid.
'My mother and father had ten years of being intoxicatingly in love. When you hear her talk about it, you think: "My God, this was some extraordinary relationship."
'She still talks about him with a degree of reverence and always did. Then she'd get emotional and on the edge of being unable to cope. Talking about him was the only thing that ever floored her.
SO WE were overshadowed by that, and we always felt the loss of him enormously.
I remember this gaunt figure sitting in the garden in a silky dressing gown.
'And I have an extraordinary vision of his hands, the way he used to put his hands on the table to get up. I remember his presence, his touch and, of course, his music. We still play his music and that will be with us for ever.' Anthony's mother was only 36 when her husband died, but she never even considered marrying again.
'I remember how dishy she was.
There were many people deeply attracted to her, but she was absolutely uninterested. All she cared about was bringing us up, finding enough money and keeping our little house in Finchley.
'She thought if she could give us the right standards, which she was very exacting about, then we would fly. She'd been a dancer, but after my father died she trained as a hairdresser. She did all kinds of jobs over the years.
'She'd be out at work all day so we had to help. My sister, Janet, would come home from school when she was only about 12 to do the cooking and cleaning.' Anthony was the oldest boy and felt responsible, with the fear of penury never far away.
He was also dyslexic at a time when little was known about the condition.
'You were just the socalled thickie at the back of the class.' However, his mother's implacable faith that somehow they would cope sustained them all.
She was the daughter of an Anglican priest and her young brother had died when he was only ten.
'He had pneumonia and she always told us that he died reciting the Lord's Prayer with his father next to him.
'Then, the following morning, the family sat at the breakfast table with boiled eggs. And my mother has never forgotten her father, this priest, who had just lost a son, picking up the spoon, hitting the top of the boiled egg and saying: "Life must continue, life goes on."
'And life does go on. One has an obligation to put one foot in front of the other and get on with it.
Some people will say that's blind and old fashioned, but it's kept me together. It's the one thing that I always hang on to.' Having lost her beloved husband, Anthony's mother in old age had to cope three years ago with the death of her eldest child, Janet, from breast cancer.
'A braver person than my sister I've never met in my life. She was put through such agony. Because she was such a generous-hearted person, she was determined to volunteer for treatments that were not tried-and-tested, one of which was laser treatment.
'It was grisly and it completely fried her. She had to spend the last year of her life having to redress these terrifying wounds all over her breasts.
They wouldn't and couldn't heal, because the top layer had completely been fried off by the lasers.
'I'll never forget the oncologist who was in charge of her at that stage, not the wonderful man who ended up looking after her. Beforehand he said: "Yes it's quite a good I always went with her to hospital, and I said: "But can you tell me considerably more about it?" 'He just said: "Oh, it's a relatively simple procedure." And she subjected herself to it because when she talked to the young doctors at Westminster, she thought it would help them find out more about it. And they used her as a guinea pig. They turned up the voltage, it was as simple as that. They just had a go and then a bit more, a bit more. It was awful. We knew there was no way she could be cured but she shouldn't have had to endure that.' Finally his uncomplaining, stoical sister died in a hospice in Chichester, which he says was full of saints. 'They really were extraordinary, they were a blessed lot of people.'
Soon afterwards Anthony's mother had a stroke and is in a wheelchair looked after by carers.
He always wears the signet ring which she gave him many years ago, and in an extraordinary way it seems to act as a kind of warning system.
'If anything goes wrong with the ring I know I must call her immediately.
The other evening the stone fell out. I rang her and she was OK but she'd had a further mini stroke.' The other near-tragedy in his life has been the anorexia of his daughter Jessica. Ten years ago, he went on a starvation diet when he played a prisoner in a Russian labour camp for the movie Lost In Siberia.
He became obsessed with losing weight and he said once that he believed it had a destructive effect on Jessica. There were some terrifying years when her life was at risk. Finally she underwent pioneering treatment in Canada.
JESSICA still has a long way to go and a lot of work to do, but she's out of danger, which is an incredible relief,' says her father. 'All these obsessive disorders are incredibly tricky to live with, for everyone.
'She's missed out on a whole section of her life. Seven years were virtually put on hold and that's a long time for a young person.
'I was so proud of her when she suddenly decided she was going to university. She took some more exams to upgrade her A-levels and she's now doing a degree in English at London University, which is tremendous.' So many parents of potentially anorexic children fail to spot the early danger signs and he says: 'It's incredibly difficult to realise in time. It's always borne out of a crisis of self-esteem. They feel an inexplicable sense of unworthiness for this world.
'That starts it off and they get caught in this grip of obsession about themselves. Then it goes from bad to worse.
It always happens to the most sensitive, sweetest-natured people.
'A lot of times it's the middle child in a family, for obvious reasons. In our case there was a clear difficulty because our youngest, Sammy, came very late. Jessica had been the little one for so long and then suddenly there was a new baby.' His mother's example has taught Anthony Andrews that all any of us can do is to try our best to keep going. She's 84 and one day soon he hopes she will be well enough to come to see him in Ghosts.
In December of this year, he and Georgina will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary. He's a huge romantic who is planning something special and secret. He knows how lucky they were to find each other.
'She's very earthy,' he says, 'very down to earth. Apart from desire, we have a completely overpowering bond.
I'd rather be with Georgina than anyone else in the world.'
The Day I Discovered the Man from UNCLE's Son Was Really Mine
I'm so proud of my grandfather
⟵Patterson sentenced to three life terms
Paul Molitor subtracts a wife and adds a kid⟶


Rahul Gandhi is chilling in Goa and this viral picture is proof.
It is not every day that you bump into Rahul Gandhi. Such occasions are rare and when you have Mr Gandhi seated next to you, selfie toh banta hai. The Supremo of Congress, who usually keeps a low-key when vacationing, recently obliged a fan with a selfie when in Goa. He is apparently vacationing with his mother and the party President of Congress, Sonia Gandhi before he dives neck-deep campaigning for his party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. On Sunday, he visited a popular Fisherman's Wharf restaurant in South Goa to relish on some seafood. A fan named Rachna Fernandes, who is a dentist in Goa, grabbed this opportunity and requested for a selfie. Rahul was kind enough to oblige but only after 'settling the bill'.
Wearing a blue t-shirt and a grin on his face, Rahul Gandhi looked relaxed and at ease. However, more than the pictures, it's the dentist' quote that calls for attention. She spoke to ANI and said, "He is too nice to be in the bad, bad world of politics."
iSmart Shankar's team wraps up Hyderabad schedule, all set to shoot in Goa!
That's a different side of Rahul Gandhi that we rarely get to see. Otherwise, he is too busy taking on the opposition, making sure his party gets the utmost amount of support from the public.


How can I use Music Pool Berlin?
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How is Music Pool Berlin financed?
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What is Music Pool Berlin?
Music Pool Berlin is a new consulting and advice platform for musicians and people working in the music business who live in Berlin. We offer free one-hour orientation consultings as well as workshops, in-depth consultings, and workshops. Music Pool Berlin is not a new funding body - we don't fund projects. We are also not a music school.


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You can have total seclusion and still be within minutes of everything you need. 10. 1 acres of beautiful land, much of which is flat and level. West half of land slopes towards the white river. Thinning the timber should allow for beautiful views. Three bedroom-two full bath 1,232 sq ft home is perfectly placed to allow for adding a shop, pool, or guest house.
Many opportunities for this property. 430 sq ft guest house currently used as a daycare. Finished attic has 350 sq ft that could be additional bedroom or office. Also has a 580 sq ft detached garage/workshop, 195 sq ft storage bldg. And a storm cellar. Finished attic and quest house not included in total sq. Footage. Property adjoins other parcels currently on the market. Rezoning is a possibility.


text:
A kind of puritanism
Every year the BBC sponsors a Reith Lecture, but in 2022 there will be four: "this series is called The Four Freedoms and it's named after a speech given by President Franklin D Roosevelt in 1941, just months before America entered the Second World War. And in it, he set out what he deemed to be the 'fundamental pillars of democratic society: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear.'" The first speech, delivered by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, was the one about freedom of speech (pdf). Excerpts:
When I was growing up in the 1980s on the campus of the University of Nigeria in Nsukka, I was a very curious child keen to hear every story, especially those that were no business of mine. And so, as a result, I sharpened very early on in life the skill of eavesdropping, a pastime at which I am still quite adept.
I noticed that each time my parents' friends visited, they would sit in the living room talking loudly, except for when they criticised the military government. ...[T]hey were so attuned to a punitive authoritarian government that they instinctively lowered their voices, saying words they dared not say in public.
We would not expect this whispering in a democracy. Freedom of expression is after all, the bedrock of open societies. But there are many people in Western democracies today who will not speak loudly about issues they care about because they are afraid of what I will call, "social censure," vicious retaliation, not from the government, but from other citizens. ....
...[T]his moral stridency is in fact, always punitive. We now live in broad settled ideological tribes. We no longer need to have real discussions because our positions are already assumed, based on our tribal affiliation. Our tribes demand from us a devotion to orthodoxy and they abide not reason, but faith....
One cannot help but wonder in this epidemic of self-censorship, what are we losing and what have we lost? We are all familiar with stories of people who have said or written something and then, faced a terrible online backlash. There is a difference between valid criticism, which should be part of free expression, and this kind of backlash, ugly personal insults, putting addresses of homes and children's schools online, trying to make people lose their jobs.
To anyone who thinks, "Well, some people who have said terrible things, deserve it," no. Nobody deserves it. It is unconscionable barbarism. It is a virtual vigilante action whose aim is not just to silence the person who has spoken but to create a vengeful atmosphere that deters others from speaking. ...[T]his new social censure demands consensus while being wilfully blind to its own tyranny. I think it portends the death of curiosity, the death of learning and the death of creativity. ....
In this age of mounting disinformation all over the world, when it is easy to dress up a lie so nicely that it starts to take on the glow of truth, the solution is not to hide the lie but to expose it, and scrub from it, its false glow. When we censor the purveyors of bad ideas, we risk making them martyrs, and the battle with a martyr can never be won. ....
A troubling assumption underlying the idea of censorship for the sake of tolerance is that good people don't need free speech, as they cannot possibly want to say anything hurtful to anyone. Free speech is therefore for the bad people who want it as a cover to say bad things. The culture of social censure today has, at its center, a kind of puritanism that expects us to be free of all flaws, like angels, and angels do not need free speech. ....
The biggest threat to speech today is not legal or political, but social. This is not a new idea, even if its present manifestation is modern. That famed chronicler of American life, Alexis de Tocqueville, believed that the greatest dangers to liberty were not legal or political, but social. And when John Stuart Mill warned against the "tyranny of the prevailing opinion and feeling," it reads as though he foresaw the threat that orthodoxy poses today. The solution to this threat can only be collective action. Social censure creates not just a climate of fear but also a reluctance to acknowledge this fear. It is only human to fear a mob, but I would fear less if I knew my neighbor would not stay silent were I to be pilloried. We fear the mob but the mob is us. ....
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, "Freedom of Speech" (pdf), BBC, Nov. 30, 2022.
Labels: Education, Political Thought, Religious Liberty
Emotional manipulation
A prayer on New Year's Eve
My advocate
"In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and...
Wondrous love
Evil in the world comes of evil men and evil deeds
When Mary Met the Angel
"What think ye of Christ?"
"The Grand Miracle"
"A close room, an easy chair, a large fire, and a ...
Just like the Trapp family
"Like a journal of my life"
God bless you, every one!
"It's never too late to make amends"
A creepy fantasy
"Keep the main thing the main thing"
Still explains a lot
A Christmas watchlist
Not a saint
"The moment on which all of history turned"
"I am part of the tribe and I know the rules."
The British thriller
Christmas is coming
Irrelevant subjects
The importance of listening
Watson's vocation

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Елджернон Генрі Блеквуд (; 14 березня 1869, Кент, Англія — 10 грудня 1951) — англійський письменник і мандрівник, один із провідних авторів-містиків, класик літератури жахів та оповідань з привидами першої половини XX століття. Автор 13 романів, понад 200 оповідань та повістей, опублікованих у періодиці та численних збірниках та антологіях. Також його перу належить книга спогадів про перші 30 років свого життя, дві опубліковані п'єси, кілька десятків статей та есе. Кавалер ордена Британської імперії (CBE). Всесвітню популярність йому принесло оповідання «Верби» (). Говард Лавкрафт вважав Елджернона Блеквуда своїм безпосереднім попередником.

Життєпис
Елджернон Генрі Блеквуд народився в  (графство Кент; нині частина Лондона), 14 березня 1869 року і виховувався в сім'ї кальвіністів — герцогині-вдови Манчестерської та її другого чоловіка, сера Стівенсона Артура Блеквуда, службовця (і пізніше секретаря) британського поштового міністерства. Інтерес до надприродних явищ збудив у ньому вчитель приватної школи, який володів терапевтичним гіпнозом, після чого юнак вирішив присвятити себе психіатрії. У Німеччині, куди Блеквуд потрапив 16-річним підлітком, один зі студентів познайомив його з основами індуїзму та йоги, що започаткувало захоплення теософією.

Завершивши вищу освіту у Веллінгтонському коледжі, Блеквуд вирушив спочатку до Швейцарії, потім до Канади, де в травні 1890 року заснував молочну ферму, забувши про свої медичні устремління. Через два роки, розчарувавшись у цьому своєму починанні і посварившись із батьками, він на все літо зник у канадських лісах (пізніше ці місця він яскраво опише у своїх творах), після чого з'явився в Нью-Йорку, де вступив на роботу газетним репортером. Лише 1899 року, зазнавши численних поневірянь (він ставав жертвою шахрайства і пограбування, кілька разів опинявся на межі смерті через хвороби) Блеквуд повернувся до Старого Світу. «У Нью-Йорку я ніби покрився ранами, в які це місто сіль і кислоту свої втирало щодня», — пізніше писав він.

1900 року Блеквуд відкрив для себе «Орден Золотої Зорі»: під владою поновленого інтересу до надприродного він узявся за перо (хоча перші його публікації, як публіцистичні, так і художня проза, відносяться ще до попередніх десяти років — 1889—1899). 1906 року видавництво Івлі Неша опублікувало його першу збірку оповідань «Порожній дім та інші оповідання про привидів». Далі була серія творів, головним героєм яких був психо-детектив Джон Сайленс, «медик незвичайних здібностей» (). Вирішивши присвятити себе літературі, Блеквуд переїхав до Швейцарії, де прожив до 1914 року: тут він написав багато відомих повістей (зокрема «Верби» та «Вендиго»), а також роман «Кентавр» (, 1910), який критики відносять до його найсильніших творів. До цього часу відносяться поїздки письменника на Кавказ, і навіть до Єгипту . Під враженням другої написано «Пісок» (), «Зіслання до Єгипту» () і «Хвиля» (). За мотивами оповідання Блеквуда «Бранець країни фей» () композитор Едуард Елгар написав популярний мюзикл «The Starlight Express».

З початком Першої світової війни Блеквуд вступив на службу до британської військової розвідки, а після закінчення військових дій повернувся до Кента, де написав ще дві збірки оповідань («Tongues of Fire» та «Shocks»), а також кілька дитячих творів («Sambo and Snatch», «The Fruit Stoners», «Dudley and Gilderoy»). Згодом палкий шанувальник творчості Блеквуда Г. Ф. Лавкрафт оголосив «Верби» найкращим містичним оповіданням із усіх, які йому доводилося читати.

Пік публічної популярності Блеквуда належить до 1934 року, коли його запросили читати оповідання про привидів на Бі-бі-сі. Під впливом свого тріумфу письменник зайнявся радіодраматургією і став частим гостем телебачення. 1949 року його нагороджено спеціальною медаллю , а також він став командором ордена Британської імперії.

Значення
Під враженням від «психо-детектива» Джона Сайленса, Вільям Гоуп Годжсон, який відчував значний вплив Блеквуда, створив наскрізного персонажа, окультного детектива і мисливця за привидами Томаса Карнакі, попередника героїв Жана Рея і .

Крім Годжсона і Г. Ф. Лавкрафта роботи Блеквуда вплинули на таких авторів як , , , , Еванджелін Волтон, Ремзі Кемпбелл та . Оповідання Френка Белкнепа Лона 1928 року «Пожирачі космосу» відсилає до художніх творів Блеквуда. Оповідання  «Genius Loci» (1933) натхненне оповіданням Блеквуда «Передача».

Високу оцінку творчості письменника дав Генрі Міллер: у «Книзі в моєму житті» він назвав «Світлий вісник» Блеквуда «найекстраординарнішим романом про психоаналіз, який затьмарює саму тему».

У першій чернетці есе «Нотатки про номенклатуру Володаря кілець» Дж. Р. Р. Толкін заявив, що він запозичив фразу «тріщина долі» з неназваного оповідання Елджернона Блеквуда. У книзі «Сучасне читання Толкіна: Середзем'я за межами середньовіччя» доктор Голлі Ордвей стверджує, що цей неназваний твір Блеквуда — роман «Виховання дядька Пола».

Творчість Блеквуда продовжує надихати й сучасних письменників, таких як Стівен Кінг. Сюжет роману  «Поріг» (2001) ґрунтується на творчості Блеквуда: Кірнан сама назвала Блеквуда важливим джерелом натхнення.

Основні праці

Романи

 Jimbo: A Fantasy (1909)
 Education of Uncle Paul (1909)
 The Human Chord (1910)
 Кентавр / The Centaur (1911)
 A Prisoner in Fairyland (1913); продовження The Education of Uncle Paul
 The Extra Day (1915)
 Julius LeVallon (1916)
 The Wave (1916)
 The Promise of Air (1918)
 The Garden of Survival (1918)
 The Bright Messenger (1921); продовження Julius LeVallon
 Sambo and Snitch (1927)
 Dudley & Gilderoy: A Nonsense (1929)
 The Fruit Stoners: Being the Adventures of Maria Among the Fruit Stoners (1934)

Збірки оповідань

 The Empty House (1906)
 The Listener and Other Stories (1907)
 John Silence (1908)
 The Lost Valley and Other Stories (1910)
 Pan's Garden: A Volume of Nature Stories (1912)
 Incredible Adventures (1914)
 Ten Minute Stories (1914)
 Day and Night Stories (1917)
 Wolves of God and Other Fey Stories, з Wilfred Wilson (1921)
 Tongues of Fire and Other Stories (1924)
 Ancient Sorceries and Other Tales (1927?))
 The Dance of Death and Other Tales (1928)
 Short Stories of A. Blackwood (1930)
 Strange Stories (1931)
 The Willows and Other Queer Tales (1932)
 Shocks (1936)
 Tales of Algernon Blackwood (1939)
 The Doll and One Other (1946)
 Selected Tales of Algernon Blackwood (1948)
 Tales of the Uncanny and Supernatural (1949)
 In the Realm of Terror (1957)
 Tales of Terror and the Unknown (1965)
 Ancient Sorceries and Other Stories (1968)
 Tales of the Mysterious and Macabre. (1962)

Найвідоміші оповідання

 Верби / The Willows
 Вендиго
 A Descent into Egypt
 The Regeneration of Lord Ernie
 The Damned
 Ancient Sorceries
 The Insanity of Jones
 The Man Who Found Out
 Smith: An Episode in a Lodging House
 The Glamour of the Snow
 The Man Whom the Trees Loved

Примітки

Посилання

 Збірка оповідань Блеквуда

Фантасти жахів Великої Британії
Британські письменники-фантасти
Англійські письменники XX століття
Командори ордена Британської імперії

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


At the end of a long week, most teachers will go home and enjoy some time with family or friends. Others may attend a Milford athletic event, such as the football game. But some teachers may jump into their weekend in a bit more unusual fashion.
According to the United States Parachute Association, about 500,000 people skydive each year in the US. On Friday, Sept. 7, five of Milford's favorite teachers, Jennifer Hittle, Carrie Pishek, Kaye Sommer, Daniel Reschke, and Jeanne Geraci, were a part of that number.
This crazy idea came from Mrs. Sommer and Mr. Reschke when they were chatting about what was on their bucket lists. "Reschke and I were talking about things we wanted to do but just hadn't done, and both of us had skydiving on our bucket list. He said, 'Why don't we do it?' and I said 'well okay!' "exclaimed Mrs. Sommer, a marketing teacher who has been at Milford for 22 years.
After school that Friday, the teachers got in the cars and went straight to Skydive Tecumseh in Jackson, Mich., where they would cross a dream off their bucket lists. Each teacher jumped with a tandem, a highly-experienced instructor, who was responsible for the operation of all the equipment.
As for Mrs. Hittle, this was not her first time skydiving; she spent a senior skip day in high school crossing this off her bucket list.
"I have been skydiving once before, so I wasn't nervous, I was super excited the whole time." The first time Mrs. Hittle went skydiving the parachute got tangled and they had to use the emergency parachute.
After going through their safety procedures, around 5 p.m., the teachers were 14,400 feet above the ground and ready to jump to reach the speed of 120 mph. After making the jump, they dropped through the first 6,000 feet in one to two minutes, then after the parachutes opened, they spent the rest of the 10-15 minutes floating down.
Mrs. Sommer described it as what you would see if you were inside of a snow globe.
"You can really see how round the Earth is," she said.
On her way down, Sommer and her tandem, Amanda, were able to get to know each other. "She described where everything was around the country and we just had a nice little chat up there, which I didn't know you could do," described Mrs. Sommer.
When they had just pulled their first parachute, a plane was landing around 10,000 feet underneath them, "it was almost on the ground by the time it went under us, but it was nothing I would've ever envisioned happening." said Mrs. Sommer.
In the fall of 2019, these five Milford teachers, and any other staff that want to join are planning to relive their skydiving experience.
"The colors of the fall leaves have got to be phenomenal from up there," said Mrs. Sommer, who is looking forward to skydiving again.


text:
Thatcher put 'Great' in Great Britain
Published in USA Today, April 9, 2013 and posted here with their kind permission. See the original article here…
In her three terms, the prime minister turned around the U.K.
When Margaret Thatcher came to power the United Kingdom was in the last chance saloon. Labor markets were highly unionized; the commanding heights of the economy were dominated by loss-making behemoths; marginal tax rates were eye-wateringly high; and the rich, famous and talented were fleeing overseas. Either the U.K. fixed it then or headed ever deeper into economic and social turmoil.
Some eleven years later she had put the great back into Great Britain.
She cut marginal tax rates such that the "fame drain" and "brain drain" stopped and went into reverse. Film star, Michael Caine, for example returned from the U.S.; she would invite him to cocktail parties on the 2nd floor of 10 Downing Street, grab his arm, and take him around the room proudly introducing him to all her other guests with the words "This is Michael – he came back!"
She returned scores of state enterprises to the private sector; these lumbering, subsidy guzzling embarrassments were transformed into nimble, profit-making, taxpaying, world-class companies so much so her privatization policy was copied around the world.
Slowly but surely she brought the labor unions back under the rule of law; bullying by extremists stopped; days lost to strikes plummeted; and ordinary members took the leadership away from the communists.
She similarly gave the staff in the newly privatized industries terrific deals on purchasing shares. Many of them did so and ownership of shares by individuals as opposed to say pension funds soared.
She had an enormous impact on the U.K.'s Labour Party. She forced her opponents into realizing they were unelectable as long as they were committed to public ownership of the means of production.
She was robust and principled on the international front. She faced down European Union bureaucrats in Brussels, Iranian Embassy hijackers, Argentinean military dictators and IRA bombers while working closely with the Pope and President Reagan to tear down that wall and defeat the evil empire without a shot being fired.
And she relentlessly taught the nation a great deal of simple economic commonsense, so simple that her detractors called it the economics of a housewife. Whatever. It transformed how the nation viewed the economy and ensured that all future U.K. governments had to be more market friendly.
Her three terms were a major turning point in history not just in the U.K. but worldwide.
So what can we learn from Margaret or Lady T as we call her?
She had a very strong moral compass; she knew the difference between good and evil and she made sure we all knew. She disciplined herself to do what was right and saw that as "the highroad to pride, self-esteem and personal satisfaction".
She cut through the guff and nonsense and used short Anglo-Saxon words to get to the point. No "at this moment in time", but rather "now."
She did lead and expected a great deal from all around her. The inside joke was that Rome would have been built in a day if she'd been the foreman on that job.
The perception was that she was as tough as nails who handbagged opponents (as in hit people over the head with her brick-lined fashion item). In reality she listened to all sides and worried more than most people realize about some of her more radical policies.
She championed policies that went with the grain of human nature such as selling public housing units at deep discounts and giving nationalized industry employees great share deals on privatization.
She used four years of leading her party in opposition (1975-1979) by promoting people on merit rather than lineage, gender, or ethnicity, thus transforming "the stupid party" into really rather a smart one.
A great deal of solid policy work was done in that time led by the Institute of Economic Affairs her favorite think tank. She knew and hugely admired Ronald Reagan with whom she only once fell out – Grenada was British and he failed to alert her to the U.S. invasion.
And she did not try to do it all at once. The unions were brought under control by a series of acts over a decade, not one big bill. Likewise the state owned industries were privatized a few a year so the markets could absorb them.
To sum up the secret of Lady T, in addition to having the right ideas you have to have a strong moral compass; you simplify your message; while leading you always listen; have policies that go with the grain of human nature; think through strategy ahead of time; build good teams; use circumstances; make great allies; prepare before you are in power; and have patience.
While we mourn we must also celebrate a remarkable woman who rose from a very modest background to be one of the greatest leaders the world has ever seen.
John Blundell is a visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation and author of Margaret Thatcher: A Portrait of the Iron Lady.
The true danger is, when liberty is nibbled away, for expediency and by parts.Edmund Burke


Senior Counsel Molly Machold obtained dismissal of a disability discrimination and retaliation claim in Federal District Court for the District of Arizona, made by an employee of a private security company working at a State Prison under a contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The Plaintiff alleged he was put on leave and not properly accommodated when he complained of a "sleep disorder."
We filed a Motion for Summary Judgment and argued that the security company was simply following protocol as outlined in its contract with ICE and per requirements of the Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Plaintiffs' union. We relied on U.S. Airways v. Barnett,1 in which the Court addressed claimed ADA violations and alleged failure to provide reasonable accommodations in a situation where the accommodation conflicted with the seniority system of the employer. The court held that if an employer shows that a requested accommodation conflicts with established seniority system, it is generally sufficient to support that the accommodation is not reasonable under the ADA. The court agreed that U.S. Airways v. Barnett precluded Plaintiffs' claims and granted our Motion for Summary Judgment, dismissing the case.


text:
Wii is Popular, But Developers and Publishers Still Worried
Published on January 26, 2007, by GamerNode Staff - Posted in GN 0
Although the popularity of Nintendo's Wii has made huge leaps in terms of sales figures and has generated plenty of buzz within the game industry and general public, one game developer reportedly doesn't see this as automatically translating into game companies jumping on the bandwagon to produce titles for the Wii.
The reason that some publishers are still waiting on the sidelines is due to Nintendo's image of not being supportive of third party developers in the past. This persona of Nintendo was made especially clear during the GameCube era, when many game companies were experiencing continual delays in getting games approved and passed through Nintendo's lengthy and difficult certification process. Insider industry stories told of games being rejected for publication by Nintendo for infractions not even mentioned in the qualification guidelines.
Brian Dreyer, Frontline Studios' Business Development Manager, said in an interview with Game Industry, "Nintendo hardware is traditionally seen as great for first-party titles, but not so much for third-party games." Dreyer pointed to the problem as a situation that affects not only the small game developers, but the giants as well. "That fact really scares a lot of publishers and frankly we've seen a lot of publishers take that wait-and-see attitude with the Wii. Rightly or wrongly, publishers are more frustrated with that than independent developers are."
In the case of Frontline Studios, the commitment has been made to develop for the Wii, in spite of Nintendo's rocky manner in dealing with game companies in the past. Dreyer said, "It's the marketing warfare. Nintendo is the challenger, it's the underdog and it has to be coming to market with something that is completely different. Gamers are yawning at these supposedly great-looking games on other systems. With the Wii, we're back to the fundamentals, the nuts and bolts of any videogames experience, which simply means it has to be fun."
It would seem that Nintendo has turned the corner and has solved many of the issues that have plagued the company in the past. However, it will still need to build bridges and gain the trust of game developers and publishers in order to avoid what led to the downfall of the GameCube–a lack of quality third party games.


text:
5,000 Jack O'Lanterns light a wicked trail
Home /Lifestyle/5,000 Jack O'Lanterns light a wicked trail
| By Monique LeBleu
Fall is at its most inviting when walkways are lined with the orange glow from that popular seasonal staple, the pumpkin. But add a brightly smiling Sponge Bob, a stoic Spock, a Mermaid languishing on a small sea island, or a 50-foot Chinese dragon and you've entered Rise of the Jack O' Lanterns.
As with other Halloween traditions, the carving and displaying of the Jack O' Lantern has made its way into contemporary culture as less a way of warding off spirits and more of a way to attract attention, entertain, and light the way of visiting children and families to your door for a cauldron of treats.
In that tradition, a collective of talented artists from various related vocations have pooled together their skills, expertise, and love of art to present the Jack O'Lantern in its most glorious and updated form.
Originating in 2012 in Old Westbury Gardens, New York, the Rise of the Jack O' Lanterns simultaneously opens in four locations, with three here on the west coast at Santa Anita Park, Descanso Gardens and the San Diego Safari Park.
The 30 to 45 minute trail walk is not a haunted house or scare maze, but "a very family-friendly event," said Allie Rightmeyer, an assistant producer for the event.
Producing Director Debbi Katz said coming into the project years ago, and the project itself, was "a lot of luck" and with the huge success of it in New York, the Rise Team brought it to the west coast.
"We love California and love California weather and we wanted to bring the experience out here to as many people as possible," Rightmeyer said.
The project is a year-long endeavor. Along with the teams of sculptors and artists, producing staff and sound and lighting technicians work together like a theatrical troupe. The lighting electricians lay miles of cabling to connect the pumpkin displays with special LED "candles" that help protect the pumpkins.
Out of the 5,000 pieces, Rightmeyer said her favorite piece, if she had to choose, had to be the "50-foot long Chinese Dragon."
"It really is a show stopper. You just look at it and you can believe that each one of those Jack O'Lanterns was hand-carved. It's really spectacular," she said. "Each pumpkin is individually painted, hand-carved, so it's a painstaking love process to put all of these pumpkins together."
Some individual pieces may take just a few hours, but pieces in collections, such as the dinosaurs, classic car show, and safari animals can take several artists several days.
Guest artists such as Disney illustrator, concept designer, and fine artist Joseph Yakovetic are part of a group of nearly 100 artists who work individually and collectively on large pieces to bring the show together.
A pumpkin sculptor for Disney for nine years, and now on the Spellbinder Team on this season's Halloween Wars on Food Network, Yakovetic has several carvings on display in the trail walk. Characters such as Leonard Nimoy as Spock, Cinderella, and a Brad and Angelina piece are just a few of the sculpted and hand-painted pieces that can come together in just a matter of hours.
On hand for live demonstrations of his skills within the preshow area of the Santa Anita Park lot location, Yakovetic describes his work and entertains the families awaiting their showtime.
"We do two different kinds of pumpkins here— we sculpt and then we also do the painted pieces that are lit from inside," said Yakovetic while carving a skull effect into the wings of a moth.
Guest artists like Yakovetic help carve some of the giant "150 pounder" pumpkins, according to Rightmeyer. The artists work carving and painting in warehouses located in Cerritos and in upstate New York for each of their respective shows.
The pumpkins are grown in California where farmers supply all three venues in Southern California with thousands of pumpkins. Rightmeyer reveres these raw pumpkins awaiting in the bins like A-list cast members.
"Along our walking trail we have 5,000 hand-carved Jack O' Lanterns," she said of the pumpkins that are hand re-carved each week to keep fresh for each location. "You can actually see a couple of next week's stars hanging out in the parking lot, ready for their big moment."
Rise of the Jack O' Lanterns is ongoing now through November 1, 2015 at the Descanso Gardens and Santa Anita Park locations, with show times beginning at 6:30 p.m. and early times are already selling out.
Tickets are advanced purchase only, and it should be noted that they are not sold at the gate. For ticket information go to www.therise.org.
View our full photo gallery here.
Lifestyle: 5,000 Jack O'Lanterns light a wicked trail
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Autobot Ratchet is one of the first wave of Autobots in the Legends Class figures made for the movie. His unique form (among the movie figures) most likely made an interesting challenge for designers when making this figure, but the result is pretty cool, read on.
When I reviewed the Voyager Class Ratchet figure, I had not yet seen the movie and while plenty of preliminary images of the character were online, most people will agree that seeing a still picture is a very different experience to seeing the character move on screen. After seeing the movie it struck me how different the movie model and the figure were. Whereas the movie model had actual hands, the toy has claw-like hands. The toy is very squared off and bulky whereas Ratchet's movie model had a much more rounded, humanoid form. Because so much of the robot form is hidden in the vehicle mode with this figure, the designers were able to get away with more rounded shapes and humanoid proportions in the Legends Class figure.
The overall shape of the figure is mostly embedded in sculpted parts that don't move such as the waist and legs. On a larger figure, I would consider this a bad mark, but on a smaller figure that is meant to be super simple, this allowed the designers freedom to sculpt parts such as his waist narrowing from the torso and the arms and fists with rounded edges. His legs even have oval-ish sections with armor plating sculpted on top. Overall this gives Ratchet a shape that looks much closer to his movie counterpart and it looks really good.
Of course, even with a smaller figure such as this, one expects detailed sculpting. Ratchet delivers with a movie-accurate head including the odd jowel like sections on either side of his mouth and the ridges on the top of his head. The chest has the front cage of the vehicle mode sculpted into it and the waist leading to the legs have a very intricate pattern of details that look like layers of armor over sections of machinery. His arms also have nice detailing including tubes and the individual digits of the thumb sculpted on the fists.
In terms of posability, there's not a whole lot to speak of. Ratchet's arms can move up and down on ball joints, that's really it. Because of the way his transformation is set up, all the other parts are pretty much locked into place. This is perhaps the biggest detriment of the entire design, but for a figure of this class, it's hardly surprising.
Ratchet is of course super green. He has two basic plastic colors, green and black, with black only making up small parts such as the joints and his feet. Some silver paint is used for details on the head and an Autobot symbol is tampographed on his abdomen. The cage on his chest is painted black. Minimal paint applications are to be expected with this size class, and somehow this shade of green is less objectionable to me than the shade used on the larger Voyager toy (I think it's partially because it's brighter).
Swing the robot arms so they are reaching to the front of the vehicle.
Swing the robot arms down and connect them together via the tab.
Push the robot feet up.
Swing each robot leg forward.
With any vehicle mode based on an existing, real life vehicle you have to capture certain iconic features. The designers managed to do this well with Ratchet. His overall shape has the boxy look of the custom H2 used in the movie. The only distracting part is the front, which has a big hole where the upper leg slots fit into in the robot mode. Still, other features such as the custom cage in front, the cage on top witih the spare tire and the cages on the rear lights are all present. Interestingly enough, the designers also made the "life line" design running along the side a sculpted detail instead of just having it painted on or being a tampo. You'll also find smaller details present as well such as panels and small reflector lights sculpted on the sides. I was very surprised and happy with the amount of sculpted detail in this form, which could have been easily ignored in favor of making the robot mode look more complex.
This mode shows a lot more black thanks to the tires, cages and the row of lights running along the top of the vehicle. The "life line" design is painted red and his windows are painted metallic blue. A bit of silver paint is found on the front headlights as well.
Ratchet is an excellent Legends figure. Many may be turned off by the lack of posability, but I think he has enough strengths in other respects to make up for it. Recommended.


text:
Q: android set google mapView v2 API key in code I want to set google mapView API key in my java code, not in xml
many answers in stackoverflow say this can be achieved by using "new MapView(Context, API string)"
but there's no such a "MapView(Context, String)" method
all four constructors for mapview are:
MapView(Context)

MapView(Context, AttributeSet)

MapView(Context, AttributeSet, int)

MapView(Context, GoogleMapOptions)

I'm using the latest Google Play services lib (r14), Google Map View v2
the reason I must set API key dynamiclly is that my company is worried about if the key is unavailable some day, the program will not be able to show the google map. so we write the key in a text file, and every time the program starts, it will read a new text file from server. So if the previous key is unavailable some day(for example, google stop the free key service and demand all customers to pay for a commercial key), we can change the text file in server and all our program will get the new key and runs fine.
any ideas? Thanks in advance.

A: Again, AFAIK, this is not possible.
Moreover, the argument for why your company wants to do this is unrealistic IMHO. It is unlikely, in the scenarios that you describe, that replacing a key alone would have any effect. Rather, IMHO, it is far more likely that you would need to update the entire app, to integrate some new version of the Play Services SDK, perhaps in addition to replacing the key.
So, leave the key in the manifest, since you have no choice, and make sure that the company is in position to update its app as needed, whether for these sorts of Maps V2 disaster scenarios, or simply to improve the app.

A: According to the post here
How to use MapView in android using google map V2?
It seems like you will need to define it first in your xml
which it makes sense to define it in xml using the google library first and then use this link
for documentation
https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/android/reference/com/google/android/gms/maps/MapView
hope this help

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


A week ago we received in a small box our XO laptop, the product of the radical One Laptop Per Child--OLPC--program. It is in a rugged white box with green and orange detailing and a built in handle that most resembles a flattened out plastic version of the metal lunch box I took to my first first grade class until my first first grade teacher broke it in a fit of pique. That was about the third day of class. I had seen right off that she was flat boring and so carried my Burgess Animal Book to school that day and sat looking at the photographs while she yammered on about some inanity. I noted that she was walking around the room while talking, but ignored her to focus on a moose. Big mistake.Without warning she was towering over my desk and slamming the lid of my lunch box closed with such violence that the lid separated from the rest of the lunch box. Without a word or a tear, I closed fastened the broken lid as best I could and walked out of the class, not to return.
OLPC's XO computer is like that, an act of defiance and rebellion. Imagine the chutzpah of a university professor daring to create a $100 laptop for the masses, one that draws minimal power, has great wireless connectivity, free software, and is easy to recharge through a variety of human and alternative energy means and then daring to try to distribute the thing to school kids around the world. Nicholas Negroponte and his colleagues at MIT missed their price point and had to enlist American consumers to subsidize the first batch of machines through a buy one for someone else, get one for yourself program. The world's nations, on the other hand, continue to be slow to respond, not least because they know how subversive a computer connected to the world with built in camera and microphone and full blogging capabilities--not to mention an ability to work off the power grid, often a state or quasi-state utility. Then, too, the mainstream computer manufacturers have awakened to the markets in the developing world for lowcost computers and are working hard to undercut OLPC. As Negroponte told the audience at TED in February 2006, some 60% of the cost of a laptop goes to overhead and sales.
So what happens to the machine--how good is it. The unsigned Tech View in the January 4, 2008, Economist, maligns the XO for what it is [not]: that it came in above $100; that the touch pad is squirrelly--it is, but in defiance of the documentation, my portable mouse works quite well--that loading Flashplayer required the user to go into Terminal and enter a long url--oh my!--and that the keys were small--true but well spaced for two-handed, one-finger typing--I prefer my middle finger for that,despite or maybe because it is my longest and largest. Oh, it crashes periodically--as if Windows doesn't. I loaded Flashplayer more easily on the XO than on my Windows XP Professional and Home editions. I have some experience with Linux and cut my computer teeth on DOS commands, and so I don't find this feature--common to all Linux systems--onerous. Besides, the kids learn their way around computers. I would think Tech View could say at least as much.
Most hardware hackers appear to recognize and praise the machine for what it is--a sturdy, efficient ultra-portable with outstanding wireless connectivity. And the software is a version of Red Hat Fedora called Sugar. It's clever and effcient, if slow. As to the touch pad--that needs fixing, but for now the mouse works well enough--aa MS laptop wireless mouse at that--I use it all the time, anyway, because of Parkinson's disease. For 'buy one, get one' participants there is an added bonus--one-year free access to T-Mobile Hotspots from any of your computers.
As I said, the big players missed on this one and now they are trying to catch up the only way they know how--by destroying the competition. That's traditional capitalism, and it has considerable resources aat its disposal, far more than the Quixotic quest of OLPC. But I like Don Quixote, and I'm glad OLPC is jousting at the windmills of power.
With no time for a nice full entry, I'll try short choppy because some occurrences demand comment. Dan Balz in today's Washington Post tries to assess the sudden emergence of a rock-star like aura surrounding the Obama--Balz, like most journalists, overlooks the boost the Obama received from the other O[prah], who can make presidents, as well as a best sellers, or at least nominees--but his assessment of Hillary Clinton is laughable: The leadership she offers is of competence and expertise. There is barely a subject she doesn't know, barely an issue she hasn't studied, barely a topic for which she is not prepared. Well, perhaps Balz is writing tongue in cheek because Clinton has admitted that in the run up to voting for war with Iraq, she did not read the National Intelligence Estimate showing that the charges against Saddam for supporting terriorists, seeking nukes, and stockpiling WMD were bogus. Then there is that vote to give W. authority to go to war with Iran.
That brings us to the charges that in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, five pissant little Iranian speedboats behaved aggressively toward three US warships, including at least one missile loaded cruiser. The Bushbucker himself has called the little set-to "provocative," while the navy called it "potentially threatening." All I can say is Tonkin Gulf Resolution and add that it is no accident that this narrow strait bogosity was put out the day after George McGovern forcefully called for the Bush/Cheney eviction through impeachment and on the eve of the Bushbucker's departure for the Middle East where he intends, we are told, to rally opposition to Iran. Indeed, it is the most cynical of ploys, yet another "in you face Nancy Pelosi"--with Pelosi the cut out for every anti-warrior--another clear iteration of the Bush/Cheney arrogance and contempt.
I'd feel better about the Obama, if I heard him denounce torture, denounce this senseless war, and put forward a decent health care plan. He wants to change things--good--now let's what hear what he aims to change.


text:
TV Tattle
Jesse Lee Soffer exiting Chicago P.D. / Chris Rock under fire for Nicole Brown Simpson joke /Jennifer Connelly headed to Apple TV+
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PLUS: House of the Dragon's recycling of the Game of Thrones theme song looks like a decision made out of fear.
Norman Weiss
Jesse Lee Soffer to depart Chicago P.D. during the upcoming 10th season
Soffer, who has been at the center of Chicago P.D. portraying Det. Jay Halstead since the show's premiere in January 2014, will …
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text:
A Turn Up For The Books!
Hugh Sullivan July 25, 2019 A Turn Up For The Books!2019-07-26T14:28:22+01:00 News No Comment
County council extends time for new Ore library initiative
Following two meetings of a group of community leaders and activists co-ordinated by Hastings Borough councillor Heather Bishop, East Sussex County Council (ESCC) has extended time for alternative proposals to be put forward to re-open Ore public library. As reported in HIP Issue 131 [click here to read], the council had last month issued a statement stating that negotiations with Ore Community Association for the library to be run as a community facility would not be progressed further, and that it intended to seek approval for disposal of the site. However, it subsequently agreed to entertain alternative proposals from the new group if they were put forward by 31st July, and this date has now been extended to 31st August.
Steve Manwaring, Director of Hastings Voluntary Action (HVA), Richard Street, former ward councillor and now chair of Big Local North East Hastings, Yvonne Thompsett, Subject Leader in English at Sandown primary school, and Charlotte Gooch of Education Futures Trust are among community and education leaders who have taken up the cause in meetings of what has been styled as Ore Community Library Group. Officers of the group were due to be elected at a third meeting last Monday (22nd July). A formal constitution will be posted on the Save Ore Library Facebook page.
ESCC has indicated that it would expect to 'evaluate' the group's proposals by 30th September and notify a decision by 31st October. However, the group seems to be hoping that it can make a sufficiently robust initial approach for this decision timetable to be further extended. Any long-term proposals will clearly depend on finding one or more funding sources which are not simply 'one-off' grants.
The library has been shut since May last year as a result of budgetary cutbacks, and there have been concerns that the condition of the building and of the books and other assets inside might have deteriorated in the course of the year-plus abandonment. However casual inspection from outside the locked doors confirms there has been no vandalism or other obvious damage.
The council has put out a statement: "We have always been committed to working with groups who want to open volunteer-run libraries and were happy to agree to extend the deadline to 31st August. We have also invited Councillor Bishop to contact us to arrange a visit to view the building."
• Save Ore Library group on Facebook
We hope you have enjoyed reading this article. The future of our volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. You can also support local journalism by becoming a friend of HIP. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.
Big Local North East Hastings, community library, East Sussex County Council, ESCC, Hastings Borough Council, HVA, Ore Community Association, Ore Community Library Group, Ore Library, Sandown primary school, Save Ore Library
Three Evenings Of Free Parking
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Pictures Are Powerful, The Community Is Valuable
Ore Library Re-opening, Community Centre Retained
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May Bank Holiday 2020: Hastings Leads the Opposition »
#Acoubomb – Round TWO!
The Lost Toys Find Their Mark
December 16, 2019 - No Comment
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Hastings Hustings – A Sketch
Good On Greens


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How will Insider Preview work on W10 unsupported devices?
I would like to ask whether anybody knows what happens if I decide to upgrade to W10 on Lumia 1020 (which is officially unsupported) through the Insider program.
Being in the slow ring, will I stop receiving new builds at some point?
Or shall I keep receiving them but they will not be optimized?
From your experience, is it possible to get RAW pictures from Lumia 1020 even on W10?
Re: How will Insider Preview work on W10 unsupported devices?
1. If you were to be on the slow ring now, nothing will happen since those builds are not available to the 1020.
You will stop receiving builds for the Release Preview/Production ring once the Anniversary Update goes live on July 29th most likely.
2. Don't know about RAW.


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text:
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Chicago Police Misconduct Payouts Topped $50 Million in 2014
Jonah Newman,
The Chicago Reporter
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The City of Chicago paid $54.2 million in settlements and verdicts for police misconduct cases last year, including more than $9.5 million in attorneys' fees, according to an analysis of city law department data by The Chicago Reporter.
That's more than the budget for the offices of the mayor, the city treasurer, the city council, the council committees and the department of human resources – combined.
Police misconduct complaints include those alleging excessive force, extended detention, false arrest, failure to provide medical care, illegal search or seizure, malicious prosecution and wrongful conviction.
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The vast majority of payments came from settlements, which usually do not require the city or police officers to admit wrongdoing. Only 9 of the 161 police misconduct cases in 2014 were the result of jury verdicts.
Many of those who received payments last year filed suits against the city years earlier, with one lawsuit going back as far as 2004.
The only year since 2008 when the city has paid more for police misconduct than last year was 2013, when verdicts for five of the torture victims of disgraced Commander Jon Burge were paid out, totaling $34.3 million. The total amount of police misconduct payouts that year was $81.3 million.
Police misconduct complaints accounted for just 15 percent of all cases brought against the city that were settled last year, but more than half of all payouts. In total, the city paid more than $95 million to settle cases against police, fire, transportation, water management and other departments. Many of the cases were for car accidents involving city vehicles.
Police misconduct cases cost the city more than three and a half times that of other city cases, on average, or about $335,000 per case. However, that figure was skewed because of a small number of payouts that were $1 million or more. The median settlement amount, where exactly half of the cases are more and half are less, is $35,550.
The $54.2 million in payments to victims and attorneys in 2014 doesn't include the amount the city paid its own lawyers to defend against the cases, which often name both the city and specific police officers as defendants. An analysis by the People's Law Office showed that Chicago paid nearly $63 million to 11 outside law firms to defend the city and its police officers against allegations of misconduct from 2003 to 2012, or an average of $7.1-million per year. The 57 lawyers in the city's civil rights litigation division, which defend the city and police officers is misconduct cases, have a budget of $4.6 million this year.
Hate racists? You'll want to read this.
Over the last few days Donald Trump and the GOP have doubled down on their campaign of hate and destruction.
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Please, click the donate button and make a racist cry today.
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Кондаково — село в Борисоглебском районе Ярославской области России. Входит в состав Высоковского сельского поселения.

География
Расположено в 6 км на северо-восток от центра поселения села Высоково и в 26 км на запад от райцентра посёлка Борисоглебский.

История
Храм во имя Рождества Христова построен в 1804 году на средства прихожан и петербургского купца Савелия Петровича Королева. Трапезная и колокольня перестроены в 1845 году.

В конце XIX — начале XX село являлось центром Кондаковской волости Угличского уезда Ярославской губернии.

С 1929 года село являлось центром Кондаковского сельсовета Борисоглебского района, с 1954 года — в составе Давыдовского сельсовета, с 2005 года — в составе Высоковского сельского поселения.

Население

Достопримечательности
В селе расположена действующая Церковь Рождества Христова (1804).

Примечания

Населённые пункты Борисоглебского района (Ярославская область)


text:
Tag: lgbtq rep
The Sky Weaver – Blog Tour
November 18, 2019 TheCaffeinatedReader1 Comment
Hey all, bringing you a pretty awesome book review today, not the review really, the book itself. I mean let's face it, I just fangirl screech incoherently but this book definitely deserves that sort of reaction.
Thanks to Gollancz for the chance to take part in this tour, gifting me the book in exchange for my honest review.
Lavish, romantic and magical, The Sky Weaver is a new standalone story set in the world of The Last Namsara – one that fans of Leigh Bardugo, Holly Black and Laini Taylor will flock to. . .
At the end of one world, there always lies another.
Safire, a soldier, knows her role in this world is to serve the King of Firgaard-helping to maintain the peace in her oft-troubled nation.
Eris, a deadly pirate, has no such conviction. Known as The Death Dancer for her ability to evade even the most determined of pursuers, she possesses a superhuman ability to move between worlds.
When one can roam from dimension to dimension, can one ever be home? Can love and loyalty truly exist?
Then Safire and Eris-sworn enemies-find themselves on a common mission: to find Asha, the last Namsara.
From the port city of Darmoor to the fabled faraway Sky Isles, their search and their stories become threaded ever more tightly together as they discover the uncertain fate they're hurtling towards may just be a shared one. In this world, and the next.
I have yet to read 'The Caged Queen' but the great thing about these books is you can read them in any order really and they work as well on their own as they do as a series.
I completely loooooved 'The Last Namsara.' Seriously, Ciccarelli has such a great and well defined style and voice that I couldn't help but fall in love.
The magic of style from the first book continues in 'The Last Sky Weaver.'
Safire is a strong presence in the other books and this doesn't change as the focus shifts to her and her new found 'thorn in her side,' Eris.
Eris is a skilled thief,m and what makes her even better is that she's a pirate thief, and let me tell you, she is a great character.
The chemistry and interaction between Safire is really well done, you don't feel like they're forced together and their interactions are a natural development from how they've met to how they keep getting put together.
Ciccarelli also does an outstanding job with weaving in the other characters, they fit right in with the story and don't detract the focus from the plot, rather they do a brilliant job in aiding it along.
I ended up being fascinated by the story of Eris, and to find out the story of the Sky Weaver. Everything was so beautifully done and it was a great love story in the end, actually it had more than one love story in it and they all fit together perfectly.
There's also the story of Leandra, Crow, and Skye, and how their story brought along the one we discover in this book. We also get to explore the Isles and see more of the world that has been built.
Another key point, world building is on point n this novel just as it was in the first for me. And the best part is that because she'd done such a great job in the beginning with world building, we get to see more of the lore and characters, and this book focuses so much on emotions. Which is really wonderful.
Needless to say, I really enjoyed this book, and it was a great addition to the Namsara series.
If you're looking for a fxf love story that continues the beauty of the Ciccarelli has built, then I recommend this book, or if you're looking for just a great fantasy book in general.
Five huge cups of coffee from me.
Kristen Ciccarelli is the internationally bestselling author of the Iskari series. Her first book, The Last Namsara, debuted on the UK's children and YA chart, was one of Indigo's Best Book for Teens in 2017, and has been translated into 12 languages. Before writing books for a living, she worked as an artisanal baker, an indie bookseller, and a ceramic artist. These days she resides in a blustery seaside cove with her blacksmith and her rescue dog. She likes her coffee dark, her weather broody, and her house warmed by a wood fire.
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Youtube
The Rest of the Tour
Tagged commandant, dragons, Fantasy, fxf, gollancz, harper teen, kristen ciccarelli, lgbtq rep, pirate thief, pirates, sapphic love story, the last namsara, the sky weaver, YA
Tears of Frost – Blog Tour
November 2, 2019 November 2, 2019 TheCaffeinatedReaderLeave a comment
The electric second book in the Heart of Thorns trilogy explores the effects of power in a dark magical kingdom—and the fierce courage it takes to claim your body as your own.
Mia Rose is back from the dead. Her memories are hazy, her body numb—but she won't stop searching. Her only hope to save the boy she loves and the sister who destroyed her is to find the mother she can never forgive. Pilar is on a hunt of her own. Betrayed by her mother, and plagued by a painful secret, she's determined to seek out the only person who can exact revenge. All goes according to plan… until she collides with Prince Quin, the boy whose sister she killed.
As Mia, Pilar, and Quin forge dangerous new alliances, they are bewitched by the snow kingdom's promise of freedom and opportunity. But with the winter solstice drawing near, they must confront the truth beneath the glimmering ice, as lines between friend, foe, and lover vanish like snowflakes on a flame.
Book Information:
Tears of Frost(Heart of Thorns #2)
By Bree Barton
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: November 5th 2019
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Amazon | B&N | iTunes | BookDepo | Kobo | GoogleBooks
It's not very often that a sequel manages to be so amazing in my opinion but 'Tears of Frost' is possibly greater than 'Heart of Thorns' the story line continues on from the amazing clash of events in book one and book two continues to rip your heart out and mash it in little pieces. Like most good authors and books tend to do.
Pilar is probably my ultimate favorite, she has so many layers, of course she's not the only complex character in this amazing world but she is the one I also tend to relate to the most.
There are a few shocking revelations that will have you going 'NO' while reading, I feel I did this out loud at least 3-4x just to give you an indication, haha.
Quin probably has the biggest shift out of the characters, and he goes through SO MUCH.
The pacing is incredible, this felt like it was just two hundred pages instead of the 450+ and I got lost in the story.
The revelations, seriously, I cannot get over them. But more than anything, Bree has put so much heart in this book. You feel the emotions rattling you from the inside out as you realize just how much everyone in this book feels many have been taught to follow their heart or their instincts but what happens when that isn't good enough for some? What happens when that leads some of our favorite characters astray?
If you're looking to start a new series I would definitely recommend 'Heart of Thorns' and if you've read it, you'll definitely want to be read to read 'Tears of Frost' as it hits shelves on November 5. I have to say it was a lot of fangirling in my notes, the awesome feminism and LGBTQ rep continues and impresses me once again. I love that the characters are simply who they are, Quin has had to deal with some coming to terms on his desires, but, the refreshing take that most are just as they are, that women can love women, that a person can love a man or a woman and it's not even cause for the blink of an eye is great.
Again, so much heartache and yet there was this hint of hope, I have my fingers crossed for them all and cannot wait for book three. ….Is it out yet?
Thank you to TFFBC for the chance to participate in this tour and to Katherine Tegen Books for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
Bree's Awesome Playlist
Gettin' Frosty Spotify Playlist
Bree Barton is the author of Heart of Thorns (KT/HarperCollins 2018), the first in a series of fierce feminist fantasy novels. Her books have been published in seven countries and four languages. When she's not crafting a story, Bree teaches dance and writing to teen girls. You can find her on Instagram @SpeakBreely. She lives in Los Angeles but dreams of the northern lights.
GoodReads | Website | Youtube | Instagram
1st Prize: Win a TEARS OF FROST bundle: signed hardcover copies of HoT and ToF, HoT bookmark, ToF bookmark, HoT candle, ToF candle (US ONLY)
2nd Prize: Win a TEARS OF FROST goodies bundle: signed bookplate, HoT bookmark, ToF bookmark, and a customized poem in the style of the epigraph (INT)
Starts: October 30th, 2019
Ends: November 13th, 2019
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/d9681b86419/
[Click on Pic to be taken to the rest of the tour's schedule]
Tagged Book 2, book blogger, Book Review, bree barton, frostflowers, Giveaway, harper collins imprint, heart of thorns, lgbtq rep, magic, november 5, Playlist, Quotes, release date, Sequel, tears of frost, TFFBC, witches YA fantasy
Bloodlust & Bonnets Blog Tour
September 24, 2019 TheCaffeinatedReader5 Comments
The Year is 1820, and bored young debutante Lucy knows there must be more to life than embroidery and engagements – no matter how eligible the bachelore might be. Some bechelors, she has discovered, are less 'eligible' than they are 'bloodthirsty,' however…literally. It turns out that there are a lot of vampires in latje-Regency England, and Lucy has an eye for spotting them and the desire to rid the world of them.
It's not long before Lady Violet Travesty, leader of a mysterious vampire cult, spots Lucy's talents and offers her a place amongst her vampire acolytes. Unfortunately, lady Violet is most horribly slain by the famous Lord Byron before Lucy can accept. Lucy instead joins Lord Byron and his enormous, psychic eagle Napoleon in their ongoing fight against evils such as bloodsucking ghouls and bad taste. Before long they're joind by the mysterious Sham, an androgynous bounty hunter, who catches Lucy's eye. The trio lie, flirt, fight and manipulate each other as they make their way across Britain, disrupting society balls, slaying vampires, and making every effort not to betray their feelings to each other as their personal and romantic lives become increasingly entangled.
A balm for the soul for readers who love Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series, novels by Eloisa James and Jane Austen, and the action and adventure of Xena, Warrior Princess, Bloodlust & Bonnets is the most modern action-heavy love-story set two hundred years ago that you'll read this year.
By: Emily McGovern
Do you enjoy dramatic walks in the park? Reading the poetry of Lord Byron and scoffing at Walter Scott? Historical fiction with vampire hunting and endless adventure? What about amazingly funny and witty humour?
This may be the graphic novel for you.
Lucy finds herself being approached by the vampire Lady Travesty and before she can consider the woman's offer, Lord Byron takes care of Lady Travesty with his sword.
They run off together to start a string of adventures in their pursuit of Lady Travesty, to vanquish her…of course.
Along the way they meet and interact with some hilarious characters, BB, Walter Scott, a quadrille society. You heard me.
But the best character they interact with along the way is Sham, the androgynous and mysterious third to their newly made trio as Sham is also seeking out Lady Travesty.
Are there sparks between Sham and Lucy? They do both reach for the same piece of bread after all.
Guys, there is even a psychic eagle named Napoleon who speaks French and honestly, he is the one I can connect with most bahaha. He's hysterical and seems to be going through a bit of a mid-life/existential crisis. [To be fair, if I had to be Lord Byron's loyal animal sidekick, I might also be acting that way.]
Also, Lord Byron lives in a magical castle who though capable of speaking, seems to enjoy carrying its own schedule and doing as it pleases, always mysteriously gone when they need its answers most.
I was cackling [as Slytherins tend to do] through this so much. It is a longer graphic novel at around 200 pages but it kept me chuckling cackling the whole time. I loved how ridiculous their plights were and the villains were appropriately hilarious and gifted with bad timing, well, to be fair the bad timing was more on Lord Byron's part.
Funny, great queer rep, and with vampires and poetic rivals Byron and Scott, I really truly enjoyed this. The colours are brilliant and I really love the art/comic style that is used.
Already a huge fan of McGovern's 'My Life As A Background Slytherin' I knew that I needed to read this, something different but still full of her wonderful sense of humour and the art that has become so easily recognizably McGovern's.
Four and a half cups of coffee from me, and I can't wait to read what McGovern comes out with next.
Thank you to Anne Cater and Simon&Schuster for a copy of this in exchange for my honest review. Expect this to continue tomorrow as part of Darkroom Tours as well.
Emily was born in the UK but grew up in Brussels, where she attended the European School of Brussels II. After graduating, she began a Foundation Art Diploma course at London College of Fashion. She studiously avoided any fashion, and instead spent her timemaking hand-drawn animations and weird paintings of witches.
She began a BA degree in Russion Studies at the University College Lonon and spent a year in Russia working in a rural commune, where she ran a weekly art "gathering" for the kids. The year abroad allowed her to go to many Russian art galleries, which were a revelation to her – artists such as Vereshchagin and Vasnetsov she found influenced her greatly.
She graduated with First Class Honours and by 2016 was uilding a comic driven social media platform based around the regular posting of her 'My Life as a Background Slytherin' comic. Emily's instagram account @emilyscartoons has over 135K followers. Bloodlust & Bonnets is her first graphic novel.
Tagged Androgynous, bloodlust&bonnets, diversity, emily mcgovern, Fantasy, first graphic novel, Graphic novel, hilarious, historical ficiton, lgbtq rep, Lord Byron, my life as a background slytherin, Napoleon the Eagle, simon&schuster, vampires, Walter Scott, webcomic


About 15000 Unity PRC houses were built in the 1950's mostly as semi detached and terraced houses. They were factory produced and assembled on site with precast reinforced concrete (PRC) columns spaced at 900mm centres with precast concrete panels forming the exterior skin. The internal wall was generally built with a 50mm lightweight block.
The repairs are normally carried out using a PRC homes Ltd licensed repair scheme which is acceptable to major high street lenders who will offer mortgages at normal interest rates.
The repair using a PRC homes licence involves removing the exterior concrete slabs and concrete columns and replacing with a traditional brick and block cavity wall. Because the internal breeze block wall remains in place the actual structural repair is relatively quick and not too intrusive. You do not need to move out of the house whilst the repairs are carried out.
Once a Unity PRC house has been repaired and a PRC certificate has been issued confirming a PRC Homes Ltd approved scheme mortgages can be arranged with most high street mortgage lenders at normal interest rates. If your house is a semi detached and next door has not been repaired you can still arrange a mortgage with the Halifax, Santander and many other leading lenders. One or two lenders may require the attached property to also be repaired.
This Unity house has had a brick skin built around the external concrete PRC panels and posts. A lot of Local Authorities have only brick wrapped Unity houses and this is not considered a mortgage approved repair scheme. You can see the concrete posts through the centre of the windows.


On the run-up to Christmas, we're challenging ourselves to knit a decoration for our tree every day and we'd love you to join us!
These quick and easy seamless patterns will look adorable on your tree – and once you've got the hang of the basic shapes, you can customise them so that each day's decoration is different from the last. The free pattern includes instructions for a tiny jumper, sock, hat and mitten as well as simple charts for colourwork.
We used Scheepjes Catona for our mini knits, and each one can be knitted from just one mini ball. The projects are also suitable for any 4-ply yarn advent calendar, or why not have a rummage through your stash and use up some scraps?
We'd love to see your makes and we'll be giving away weekly prizes on the Knit Now Instagram account. Use the hashtag #KnitNowAdventKAL and make sure you're following us so you don't miss out.
Hi, Where do I find the patterns? I signed up for the KAL on this page and now it says Thanks and I've checked on Instagram and can't find the links. This is really frustrating. No emails either in inbox or spam.
Hi Alicia, you should have been redirected to the pattern download once completing the details form. If this is not the case, please email me at liam.marshall@practicalpublishing.co.uk and I will send you the pattern.