On the heels of a week long immersion in service, sisterhood and Salesian spirituality, otherwise known as VISTORY, a few of the 26 girls from Visitation schools around the country took time to reflect on their experiences in the Twin Cities, Minnesota. We applaud these young women and their parents, mentors and teachers who are cultivating their education and faith formation in and through the Salesian charism and tradition.
Check out the following video reflections from our YouTube channel that feature students from Georgetown, St. Louis and Mendota Heights Visitation Schools.
My blog posts lately have been about my recent experience as a planning committee member and chaperone for VISTORY, which was held last week at the Convent of the Visitation School in Mendota Heights for students from Visitation high schools as well as our monastery here in north Minneapolis. The first one was called 'Soup D'Jour' and for some reason most of them have had a food or meal theme. It is perhaps time to consider the next course…dessert —- that oft so-sweet finishing touch to a sumptuous meal that could put us right over the edge….in need of a good nap.
Being with high-energy, sometimes silly but more often, serious spiritual seekers for a whole week is very nurturing. My spirit was nurtured as with the students I heard speakers on the issue of immigration; baled hay and cleaned stalls at a horse farm and created games and skits to share the week's experience of Sisterhood, Spirituality and Service.
For me VISTORY came to such a finish —- true, it was exhausting….but more importantly it was a just plain sweet experience. Being with high-energy, sometimes silly but more often, serious spiritual seekers for a whole week is very nurturing. My spirit was nurtured as with the students I heard speakers on the issue of immigration; baled hay and cleaned stalls at a horse farm and created games and skits to share the week's experience of Sisterhood, Spirituality and Service.
Many cultures complete meals, not with something goopy or dripping with sugar or whipped cream but with crisp fruit and flavorful cheese. I am relishing this finishing touch to the VISTORY 2011 feast. I feel the exhuberance bursting forth from the girls as they return to school for another year of Living Jesus! in a Salesian environment and I am buoyed up by the certain feeling that I have that last week will bear much fruit in their lives and those of their friends and families. It has already done that for me. I have been renewed by the holistic offerings of VISTORY and challenged to go forth and share abundantly of the its fruits. Bon appetit!
To read other blogs by Sr. Suzanne, click here.
What's on tomorrow's menu? Will it be the "same old same old" or an exciting, tantalizing soup d'jour?
Building Blog inspired by Maya Angelou quote.
What are your "nights of work"? What "hours of hope" can you identify, in the spirit of Maya Angelou's quote? What tasks consume and inspire, feed or nurture you? How does any of this translate into "meal making" and enthusiasm for your life's menu?
How often have our efforts fed or nurtured others? Were there leftovers to be shared? Did everyone save room for dessert? What's on tomorrow's menu? Will it be the "same old same old" or an exciting, tantalizing soup d'jour? Oh! The joy of cooking!
The following blog post is the first in a series about VISTORY: Visitation in Service to Others through Responsive Youth. We welcome Visitation students from around the United States to Minneapolis on Saturday, July 16, 2011.
Daily journaling has been an integral part of VISTORY. For the past several years I have been the one to introduce participants in this week- long adventure of Sisterhood, Salesian Spirituality and Service to the fine art of journaling. As a former journalism teacher I always begin my presentation with the 5W's of a good news story…Who, What, Where, When and Why (and sometimes How).
These words function as a trigger for the students to begin a reflection on their day's activities. "Who have they met or served?" "Why did I react like that?" or maybe "What is God saying to me in this?" Such triggers help the thought process and begin the serious look at our daily experiences…our own life's journey.
As I look forward to companioning VISTORY students and helping them discover this really fine art of writing, my own thought is that perhaps journaling, journalism , and journey come from the same root word…I have seen a form of that someplace in my own life's experience…..When I was on pilgrimage in France for the 400th anniversary of our order I often saw the phrase d'Jour on lunch or dinner menus…as in "soup of the day." Maybe this relates to the words highlighted above? Journaling can be quite productive if it is done on a regular, if not day-to-day basis. Journalism is responsible for giving us the daily news…by means of photojournalism….broadcast journalism and the printed word. And we move through life day by day…our journey is gradual with time for experiencing, reflecting upon, and getting to know ourselves and our God as we move on.
As twenty-six high school students who have journeyed to the Twin Cities from around the country to be part of VISTORY (Visitation in Service to Others through Responsive Youth) move through next week they will be blogging on this website, preparing YouTubes, and maybe even Tweeting on Twitter. You can be a part of this journey.
ps. I checked with Webster about word derivations. Bingo! Old French and Latin root meaning daily or day. Have a good one!
What does the future of the Visitation Community look like?
Our Visitation Internship Program (VIP) was launched this year, and two lovely young women recently completed their year of community service and in-depth experience of our charism.
Children and their families enjoyed a myriad of activities: field trips as diverse as the Holidazzle parade, the Children's Theatre, Minnesota Science Museum, & The Minnesota History Theatre, parties sponsored and run by Vicki Bailey and friends of Mendota Visitation, etc., etc.
Mendota Visitation seniors were pioneers during their community service weeks here from May 21st thru May 31st. Instead of going to Guatemala, they came to North Minneapolis! It was a great Mission Trip right here in the city!!! The school motto "Not for School but for Life" was in full swing.
Our dear Sister Karen recently completed six years of selfless and Spirit-filled leadership of our community. Sister Mary Frances succeeds her and will endeavor to follow her example of empowering the gifts of each of our Sisters and lay counterparts.
Thanks to the generosity of many benefactors & volunteers, we were able to send 75 children and 7 teen "Counselors in Training" to Catholic Youth Camp in McGreggor, MN; 4 teens to St. Louis to participate in Vistory, a program which brings Visitation students from around the country together to serve and learn about Salesian spirituality; and 2 teens to an intensive program at St. John's University: YTM, Youth in Theology and Ministry . . . As Father Michael O'Connell often says, "Our youth are our future." We are grateful for opportunities to affirm and form them in positive ways.
We recently welcomed the first participant into our Monastic Immersion experience, a 6-month stay in our monastery. Not unlike St. Jane de Chantal, Marsha West, who hails from Forks, Washington, has had many life vocations as wife, mother, grandmother, widow, and on and on! She brings many gifts our way and we are happy to share our life with her. Welcome Marsha!
We are in the process of interviewing New VIPs for the coming year.
Our dear Maryann Pearson has "retired" as coordinator of the Visitation Companions, our lay community. Thanks to her untiring dedication, we have about 15-20 members! Jody Johnson has accepted the role of coordinator and will work with Sr. Mary Frances and Linda Goynes to keep the movement growing.
*Published in our Summer Newsletter – which you can view in its entirety here.
"bloom in the garden where He has planted..us..."
I've been doing a fair amount of gardening lately. Last weekend, I rented a sod cutter and took up a 6′ x 20′ stretch of grass and clover with the intention of putting in a perennial garden. The goal of having plants return each spring, enlivens me; the labor necessary to make this happen is staggering and also invigorating. I have to really work the soil and tend to the roots I put down if I really want things to grow — if I'm invested in the future of this garden. The garden's sustainability, tender beauty now and in days to come, requires not only my diligence, but the support of knowledgeable beings, ongoing attention, and faith.
This process takes me closer to my beloved Visitation Community. I think of how their presence in north Minneapolis is akin to that of a gardener's. For the last twenty three years, the Visitation Sisters have been putting down roots, cultivating soil, tending to young seedlings, nurturing mature plants, and celebrating the harvests of their labor. They have done all this work quite literally in their back yard gardens, as well as figuratively, in their ministry of prayer and presence — living the Visitation charism. And the Sisters, not unlike their soil, many landscapes and neighbors, have been transformed by the process.
They take my breath away, these gardening nuns. I ache with awe, wonder, love, joy — such deep appreciation for how they have nurtured me, personally, over the past decade or so. I feel like one of their tender shoots that has blossomed, in many ways, by virtue of their love and special care. I know I am one among many, hundreds, thousands, millions? of people that has felt touched by this community, inspired to return time and again, not unlike a perennial plant or being.
What does the future of this monastery in north Minneapolis look like?
What seeds have been planted that are deeply rooted after twenty three years?
What perennial plants exist on a literal level, and how do they manifest in a figurative way?
Who are the community members, friends, lay associates, companions, discerning individuals that feel called to return and thrive in this spiritual setting?
What does God's garden look like at 16th and Fremont and 17th and Girard?
How do other literal and spiritual gardeners join the ranks of these sisters to continue to plant and nurture life, and in turn, be nurtured, even transformed, by it?
Everywhere I turn in the Visitation Community, I feel like I can point to other "seedlings", if you will….
As they say in our neighborhood, we are "Blessed and Highly favored"; the list below of several of the summer events/happenings is not exhaustive, but gives a glimpse of the fullness and fruitfulness of our life "in the 'Hood"—graced in so many ways!
June 4-Our dear friend Vickie Bailey and her daughter Betsy provided a party for the neighborhood children to "Get ready for Summer"….Teens ran the games which included prizes like jump ropes, beach towels, chalk….everything "summer"! About 50 participated.
June 5 – We joined the communities of Ascension and St. Phillips as the churches ritualized the merger of the parishes.
June 5 –Visitation Senior Graduation– Sr. Mary Frances was honored to lead the invocation and blessing at this event.
June 11-17-Three Teens from North Minneapolis joined 50 others at the Salesian Leadership Camp in Michigan. Sr. Karen, who founded the camp 22 years ago, joined them for the week.
June 10-We were honored to join St. Jean, founder of the Cookie Cart-an employment bakery for youth- as she was celebrated for her selfless ministry.
June 12 – We joined From Death to Life, an organization of men and women who have lost children to violence on our streets, in a Peace/Prayer walk which circulated throughout the neighborhood.
June 19-24 – Ascension Church and Visitation Monastery sponsored 70 children for a week long camping experience at Catholic Youth Camp. Even the rain did not deter them from having an experience of a lifetime!
June 20-24-The Sisters traveled to St. Louis to join 50 other Visitation Sisters for the last hurrah of our 400th Anniversary of the founding of the Order.
June 26– We Sisters have our annual Corpus Christi procession in which we take the Blessed Sacrament to places of violence and tornado destruction and pray for peace in our community.
July 6 -We will prepare an ethnic dinner for some of our neighbors and friends from Mendota Visitation. This dinner, which will be served at our monastery, is purchased by the latter and is an opportunity to bridge communities.
July 29-30 – Catholic women ages 18-45, who are discerning religious life, are invited to join the Visitation Sisters of Minneapolis, MN for their Come and See Weekend.
August 3 – Neighborhood Night of peace, an event that draws 400-500 people-will be held at Ascension Church. We partner with Ascension, Basilica and Mas Jid Anur to provide a free supper, games, prizes and community speakers. As the title connotes, this is just one effort to bring people together in harmony and peace. We'll keep you posted…Perhaps you'd like to volunteer!
August 27-Last but not least! SR. KATHERINE'S JUBILEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and too many great-greats to count!
After many, many years, I have actually crossed the river! I, Sister Mary Paula McCarthy, grew up just a block from the Mississippi—on the St. Paul side—never expecting to be a Minneapolitan. I was the seventh of eight children in a strong Catholic family. We all went through St. Mark's Grade School, followed by St. Thomas Academy for the four boys and Convent of the Visitation for the four girls.
It was at "Vis" that I fell in love with what has been called "Inspired Common Sense," the mode of spirituality lived and and taught by Sts. Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal. After four great years at the first (and I say the best) women's Catholic College in the U.S.—Trinity in Washington, DC—I entered the Visitation community in 1951. I have taught, over the years, almost every subject except science, to those of every age from fourth graders through adults. I have completed graduate programs in Educational Administration, Guidance/Counseling, Linguistics, and Theology.
Usually, a Visitation Sister enters one monastery and remains there for her entire life, but I have had the opportunity to study and/or work at Visitation monasteries in Georgetown, DC; Baltimore, MD; Wheeling, WV; and St. Louis, MO; as well as in St. Paul/Mendota Heights, MN. I also have had the special permission to work at the Center for Religious Education at St. Thomas College (now University). There we prepared lay persons for Church ministry through parish and other programs. As Associate Director, I helped to develop a graduate course, now conducted at St. Paul Seminary as MAPS (Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies).
As I reflect on my life, I can sing, "These are a few of my favorite things": planning/directing worship; history (especially Salesian and Minnesotan); chaperoning high schoolers in VISTORY (Visitation In Service To Others through Responsive Youth) for twenty years; travel—two pilgrimages to Israel, two to France; planning/administering annual Salesian Conference for twenty years.
Hello! I am a native of Minnesota, born and raised in Minneapolis. Attending high school at Visitation in St. Paul gave me the best of both worlds! It was there, at Visitation that I met the best nuns in the world! After college at Marymount in New York, I entered the St. Paul Monastery and began a life of intentionally living the Gospel shaped by the spirit of Sts. Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal, which invigorated me. I chose Visitation over other orders that I knew, because I found the nuns to prayerful, authentic and fun! Maybe I was hoping to be all those things too!
I spent many fine years teaching at Visitation in the middle school and later had many wonderful years doing admission work for the school.
I believe I had a "call within a call," when I discerned that I was being called to transfer to the Visitation Sisters of Minneapolis in 2001. I am in relationship with our neighbors; tutoring children, helping with our teen group and various other groups, but you might say that my main engagement is to connect and visit with women all over the country as they discern their future in religious life or wherever God is leading them.
My spiritual director gave me a catalog with summaries and pictures representing the various religious orders so that I could look for a "fit." In those days it was our version of Match.com. The habits were important to me, because if I had to wear one, I wanted to look like it had meaning and was wearable. They were all questionable because they seemed so out of touch with authenticity and inspiration. I wanted to be a religious woman without facade, because, as in a marriage, there is so much work to do if you live relationally.
I was a degreed RN by profession. When I turned toward the religious life, I searched out the contemplative communities for options because it was my way of initiating a life of wholehearted self-giving. My younger sisters' name was Jane, and from early childhood I had a slight acquaintance with St. Jane Frances Freymot de Chantal whose name we loved to chant. After visits with several orders, I still hadn't found the right fit. By the time I visited the St. Louis Monastery (the monastery where several of the Visitation Sisters originated) my options had run out. In spite of questions and concerns I knew I was going to have to make this one work if I really wanted to be a nun.
I am a Marquette woman, educated by the Jesuits when they were doing much of their teaching in person. I wanted to be a Jesuit.
Imagine my delight as all of the connections between the Jesuits and the Visitation unfolded. The Visitation, as the Sisters lived the contemplative life, was fertile ground for a neophyte exploring a life of prayer. I found the strong community life very supportive. Most of all, I found our Salesian Spirituality based on love and lived out in prayer and community to be highlighted with a wholeness/common sense that does not allow for the canonization of dysfunction.
Living in this small, urban monastery in the "'hood," I am inspired by my fellow sisters and neighbors. We interact, supporting one another in a spirit of faith and hope that has opened the way for God to build our beloved community out of the dailiness of lived life. This lived life is guided by the spirituality of St. Francis and St. Jane de Chantal who lived the Gospel as a way of love.
I entered the Visitation Monastery of Minneapolis on All Saints' Day in 1995. I was 46 years old, 'a delayed vocation' as some might say. I prefer to think of the various vocations, jobs and avocations throughout my life-time merely as stepping stones that God has put on my unique path through life. God is a God of surprises! I didn't like the idea a kindergarten teacher suggested on a report card when she wrote, "would be a good teacher!" I fought against that idea in college by taking so many non-education classes that the only way to combine them by senior year was to put them under the umbrella of 'teaching minors'. The result was a secondary education teaching certificate with enough areas of expertise to get me a variety of substitute and teaching positions from 7th grade to junior college, in several states and for several years. I was able to pay the bills and pick up 2 MA's; travel to many places domestic and international and pursue a few glamorous careers such as news director at an NBC affiliate radio station and managing a coffee shop in a Victorian train depot!
Along the way God was gently leading me down another path. One that included political activism; founding a Catholic Worker House, sponsoring a Vietnamese boat family; being a city council representative and working with youth at a teen leadership camp. This path made its way into and out of church groups, civic organizations and other places where God showed me his people —- people in need; people who had more than they needed; people who all were my brothers and sisters. God invited me to make a permanent commitment to living life with and among His people and here I am doing just that in north Minneapolis.
When we take vows in our community we expect to live right here until God calls us home, we transfer or we found another monastery. The God of surprises this year offered me the opportunity to attend an International Forum of Vowed Men and Women in Rome. This special gathering marked the end of the Year of Consecrated Life called by Pope Francis and I was able to meet with 39 other Visitandines from as far near as Brooklyn, New York and as far away as Rwanda. I look forward to the next stepping stone God will place on my path!
unpressured spirit that drew me once I finally made up my mind to try the religious life.
with God in the midst of this beloved community of sisters who had served as "family" to my mother.
Montessori Education (Los Angeles Montessori Training Center), a Master's degree in Administration (St.
Thomas University), and a Master's degree in Religious Studies (St. John's University).
"be oneself and be that well." They were always available to me.
department. I am grateful for the small role I played in the formation of young people.
prepared a contemplative heart in you; now take it to the poor," a voice seemed to say.
gifts to share and to receive love from the people who are our neighbors.
you guess my birthplace? Yes, my family is from St. Louis, Missouri, and Sister Karen Mohan is my name.
with its invitation to open my heart to the depths of love that God offers.
Spirituality have enabled me to serve the Lord as an educator and spiritual guide.
come to pray or just be with us. You're welcome, too!
this "exchange of hearts" (St Margaret Mary).
What is different about what I professed on May 12, 2018? As a child, I professed my faith. As an adult, I professed my commitment to live my life in a particular way. Jesus has given each of us his heart. How each of us receives and shares that gift looks different. For me, it has led to Catholic Religious Life and the Sisters of the Visitation in Minneapolis. I am choosing to live what is called a "vowed life." I vowed to live the evangelical counsels of obedience, poverty and consecrated celibacy in a very particular and public way on May 12. Yet each of us must choose to live our life according to the gifts and callings of God—we often call this our "vocation." No vocation is any better or more spiritual than another. No matter our vocation we are all called to LIVE+JESUS. We are all called to let the Spirit lead… encourage…transform us in difficult yet life-giving ways. I thank you for the gift of your prayers and your presence at my profession and as I begin a new chapter in my life as a vowed Religious with the Sisters of the Visitation in Minneapolis.


Bitcoin's value proposition has taken a number of forms over the project's decade-long lifespan. While theses regarding the de-facto "digital gold" status of Bitcoin (BTC) have become popular, what has slipped under the radar is the value that the cryptocurrency poses in a digitized authoritarian society.
Mike Novogratz, the chief executive of crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital, touched on this subject matter on Wednesday, as he released a tweet touching on the importance of Bitcoin in a Big Brother-run state.
Novogratz, who was formerly a Goldman Sachs partner, remarked that from his point of view, Big Brother, a term used to describe an organization/group with full control over the lives of their underlings, is coming and/or already here. Thus, the former Wall Street hotshot determined that this makes Bitcoin "all the more valuable," especially due to its non-sovereign and decentralized nature.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Due to the unique vectors of control in crypto fiat, compared to traditional forms of cash, the cryptocurrency diehard noted that technology-enabled capital controls could catalyze paradigm-shifting changes in society's values and status.
But as Novogratz explained, that's where Bitcoin and other blockchain-based assets come in.
BitMEX skeptic Hasu and Three Arrow Capital's Su Zhu recently took to their collaborative blog to touch on why Bitcoin is a hedge against a cashless society, one rife with overarching governmental control.
The duo writes that PayPal, Venmo, Square, and products of similar caliber and nature "remove every need for cash," as they're marketed as faster, cheaper, and more efficient forms of payment. While such services have a seemingly valid premise, as they accentuate efficiency, their rise to stardom could single-handedly crash the cash economy that exists today.
While the absence of private, permissionless mediums of exchange wouldn't necessarily be a problem if governments and corporations were non-fallible, such a sterile utopia only exists in the minds of sci-fi writers. Thus, Hasu and Zhu noted that while governments would claim that going cashless protects citizens, censorship, fund confiscation, and the like would become the norm.
The post Crypto Diehard Novogratz: Big Brother's Presence Is Bullish For Bitcoin (BTC) appeared first on Ethereum World News.


A book about the philosophy from which Mecanoo creates their projects. It is full of images form different sources. So the first responsibility for me is to make them work together. To prevent the book form looking fragmented.
Another thing with images showing architecture is that the onlooker should have maximum access to the images. In architecture it is all about space, light and how it related to human beings. So that is what reproductions should bring too; transparency, clarity, three dimensionality.


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All of On The Border's dining rooms in these states will follow all capacity requirements and social distancing protocols by removing tables from service and having guests stay outside of the building until their table is ready.
On The Border Prepares to Reopen Dining Rooms without Bar-Top Service
On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina is set to reopen its dining rooms and start serving its iconic border-style food to guests in 45 restaurants across Georgia, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas on May 6. Many locations will have new modified hours, so please check ontheborder.com for hours by location.
As always, On The Border's top priority is the health and well-being of its guests, which is why its restaurants are reopening under a "People First" program with the most enhanced level of standards that involve processes implemented to ensure a safe environment for its guests.
All of On The Border's dining rooms in these states will follow all capacity requirements and social distancing protocols by removing tables from service and having guests stay outside of the building until their table is ready. The restaurants are also implementing enhanced cleaning and sanitation procedures:
There will be dedicated team members whose sole job is to constantly clean countertops, tables, chairs, door handles and more.
On The Border will be offering disposable menus, with a limited but ample offering of its signature items.
All team members will have to complete a health questionnaire and have their temperature checked before clocking in.
Team members will also be required to wear masks and gloves, which will be changed frequently throughout their shift.
There will not be any bar-top service, but alcoholic drinks and On The Border's award-winning margaritas will still be available.
"We are excited to reopen our dining rooms and to start serving our border-style classics," says CEO Matt Hood. "Reopening our dining rooms will not be a one size fits all scenario. That's why we will reopen slowly and cautiously in a way that allows us to best serve our communities. We are committed to providing the safest environment possible for our team members and guests."
News and information presented in this release has not been corroborated by FSR, Food News Media, or Journalistic, Inc.
Tableware/Tabletop
Hollowick, Inc.
100 Fairgrounds Drive
Quality table lighting and cooking fuel products that enhance the dining (more)
Haynes Lubricants
Manufacturers of sanitary food-grade lubricants for food service equipment.
Edlund Company, LLC
319 Queen City Park Rd
Foodservice and food processing scales, smallwares & kitchen prep equipment (more)
Fogo de Chão Charts a 'Journey Back to Joy'

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Home › theatre › Amleto² engulfed by the outsize personality of Filippo Timi
Amleto² engulfed by the outsize personality of Filippo Timi
14 July 2012 by gramilano 1 Comment
Filippo Timi is a strange theatre beast indeed. An actor of power and fascination who attacks his projects fearlessly, careering from comedy to tragedy, from extreme campness to rugged masculinity, from classic to modern in his unique and utterly engrossing theatre creations.
His plays appear to be casual experiments: he throws in a bit of everything just to see what might happen. Timi knows exactly what will happen, but is masterful in giving his audience the impression that it is witnessing a one-off event. His corpsing – which is de rigueur, as are his sly winks at the audience to let them in on some secret – is probably identical night after night, but it seems unplanned and unexpected. His versatile voice wallows around in the lower octaves before shooting up with a screech from Bedlam, oh yes, and he can sing too. He kisses, passionately, anything on stage, male or female, and he gives all his fellow actors a thorough groping. He clambers up gratings, wears dresses… well you've got the idea: Timi is a virtuoso.
He can turn it down, but playing Mussolini in Marco Bellocchio's Vincere, which represented Italy in the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, is typical of the sort of role he can get his teeth into. But, surprisingly, he is also a stutterer. Rarely on stage, but when interviewed it would be painful to watch if he didn't make fun of himself first. His Achilles' heel was used in Ferzan Özpetek's 2007 film Saturno contro (Saturn in Opposition) where he stutters his way through a small role, yet when he's in front of a camera or an audience this magically doesn't happen.
Timi bravely surrounds himself with a small team of excellent actors. This might sound normal, but unfortunately it is not so common on the Italian stage. They also, miraculously, maintain their concentration as Timi giggles around them. As you might have gathered, Amleto² is no normal Hamlet.
To get the most out of the in-jokes it's best to have a knowledge of Shakespeare's 'original'. Hamlet's warning to Orphelia to stay clear of water, the on-setting of madness revealed as he is convinced that behind the 'fourth wall' he can hear laughter, playing around with the original text, "To be or n-n-n-n-n… To be or n-n-n-n-n… (pause) …that is the question," he stammers.
But it's not all played for laughs. Luca Pignagnoli's Laertes has tears on his cheeks as he observes the corpse of his sister, Lucia Mascino's monologue as an ageing topless showgirl is courageous and touching. Before the curtain at the start we have a Mariyln-type blonde, as fragile and as desperate as Hamlet, who dreams of winning an Oscar. At the end of Amleto² she reappears, Oscar in hand, and in tragicomic vein tries to kill herself with it. The audience laughs as it cries.
In a time when tele-acting in theatres is the norm, it is refreshing to watch a lion leap on stage, claws bared, and roar. Italian theatre hasn't had a personality like this since Vittorio Gassman, and there's no better place for theatricality than in a theatre after all.
Teatro Franco Parenti, Milan
until 15 July 2012 – Amlet²
18-20 July2012 – Romeo & Juliet
26-31 July 2012 – Favola
Filed Under: theatre Tagged With: Cannes Film Festival, Hamlet, Milan, Romeo & Juliet
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Mara Galeazzi by her Royal Ballet friends and colleagues
More dancers decide to leave Italy... most never come back
Russian ballerina Maya Plisetskaya dies at 89
Julian MacKay - the teenage American ballet dancer making waves in Russia
Balanchine's Dream sprinkles its magic fairy dust over La Scala for the last time


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Q: Having trouble keeping element rotation consistent? For a project I'm currently working on I need to have a wheel for which it is essential to have 1:1 rotation.
So far I have gotten a click and drag rotation mechanism working, but the problem is that it is very erratic, in the sense that I've had it work flawlessly and then at one point (without me changing the code) it would suddenly mess up and fail to rotate properly, even after page refresh and cache clearing.
I first noticed this after I moved it from my local server to a live test server. Another strange characteristic is that it spins perfectly while the mouse is outside the boundary of the wheel, and starts messing up when back within (I detect mouse movement with a mousetrap in the form of an invisible SVG circle perfectly overlapping the image).
The whole thing is very simple:
$('.mouse_trap').mousedown(function(){
        intervalvar = setInterval(monitorClicks, 24);
    }).mouseup(function(){
        clearInterval(intervalvar);
    })

When the person clicks and drags on the wheel, it sets of and stops a setInterval accordingly (in the meantime a seperate function is monitoring mouse position).
function monitorClicks(){
    xrel = xpos - midx;
    yrel = -(ypos - midy);

    a = Math.atan2(yrel,xrel);
    a = a *  (180 / Math.PI);
    a = -a;

    roulette.css({
        '-webkit-transform' : 'rotate(' + a + 'deg)',
        '-ms-transform' : 'rotate(' + a + 'deg)',
        '-o-transform' : 'rotate(' + a + 'deg)',
        '-moz-transform' : 'rotate(' + a + 'deg)',
        'transform' : 'rotate(' + a + 'deg)'
    });

    console.log(a);

}

I find the mouse position, turn the midpoint into the center of the circle and then using the coordinates apply atan2 to get my angle.
You can find the experiment here:
http://www.techgoldmine.com/spinny_thing/

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Participants are required to have have downloaded clips and notes during the online class process, then engage in discussion, questions and answers regarding the course material, and during the recording work, they perform on-mic and are directed during the workout session. They also receive the MP3 files of their work.
Parking is free in the lot adjacent to the Center.


When trying to install a new course, the message below appears, and you cannot continue.
This error means that the user that is currently logged in is not registering as a local administrator. LearnKey software can only be installed with a user account that is assigned as a local administrator. On some systems, the account called Administrator is the only account with these privileges.


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Fairy Tale Wedding of Christy Chung
Canadian actress Christy Chung married Chinese actor Zhang Lunshuo in a fairytale wedding in Beijing on 8 November 2016. This is Chung's third marriage. Her 3 daughters, Yasmine Ross, 18, from her first marriage; Jaden Yen, 8, and Cayla Yen, 6, from her second marriage attended the wedding.
Zhang and Chung reportedly met on dating show "Perhaps Love" and started dating. Chung wore a traditional Chinese wedding dress for the morning ceremony and a bridal gown and veil in the afternoon.
At the "Under the Sea" theme wedding in a hotel, Chung said: "He's given me a dream wedding and the wedding dress I want. I'm really so happy, I'm going crazy."
The wedding reportedly costs S$1.8 million.
The groom told the bride at the wedding: "Dear, I think I may still be a little young and not strong enough. I may not have a king's ability, but I think I have a knight's spirit. I will protect you, protect this family to the last and do my best. I love you."
Chung, who was moved to tears several times during the wedding, asked her groom: "In the next life, can you marry me sooner?"
See: "Christy Chung to third husband: 'In the next life, can you marry me sooner?'", The Straits Times, 10 November 2016
Having conducted numerous divorce cases in the last few years, it is always a pleasure when my former clients send me a wedding invitation.
When they came to my office, they were at their lowest. As their divorce lawyer, I would do my best to encourage them that there is life after divorce. A better life perhaps, given that they have gained more experience and learned from mistakes made in their previous marriage.
While Christy Chung would like to marry her husband sooner in the next life, it is perhaps more important to meet the right person at the right time.
Categories Annulment (Nullity) of Marriage in Singapore, Annulment Lawyer Singapore, Annulment Lawyer Singapore Free Consultation, Annulment Singapore Forum, Best Divorce Lawyer Singapore, Cheap Divorce Lawyer Singapore, Cheapest Divorce Lawyer Singapore, Divorce and Separation in Singapore, Divorce in Singapore, Divorce in Singapore Women's Charter, Divorce Lawyer Singapore, Family Lawyer Singapore, Filing for Annulment in Singapore, Free Lawyer Consultation Singapore, Good Divorce Lawyer Singapore, Life After Divorce in Singapore, Singapore Divorce Lawyer Free Consultation, Top Divorce Lawyer Singapore
Unhealthy to Have Dominant and Passive Parenting Styles
Experiences Of A Single Dad


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3 December 2021 - Global
Nothing Without Us: Children with Disabilities' have a right to be heard
by Martina Orsander, Global Lead for Disability at Save the Children International
Riad (17), a member of the child-led advocacy group "Hena" in front of a school entrance.
When I started my career in disability rights it was a challenge to get people with disabilities heard in policy dialogues and meetings where world issues and development plans were discussed. Hearing children with disabilities' voices in these forums simply did not happen.
More than 15 years on, we now see a tremendous upsurge in children as human rights defenders, especially in the climate change movement. This fantastic engagement by and for children proves that children know what kind of world they want to see and they certainly can demand it. And so do children with different disabilities! Still, they continue to fall behind and be both systematically and accidentally excluded from child-led initiatives and consequently also from decision-making processes that affect them.
The United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child and the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities both make it clear that all children, without discrimination based on disability, have the right to freedom of expression, to seek, receive and have access to information as well as freedom of association and peaceful assembly.
In our new Disability Inclusion Policy, we, at Save the Children, committed to advocating with and for children with disabilities at the local, national and global levels to amplify their voices and hold duty-bearers to account. Here are some examples of how through our work we are doing just that.
CHILDREN MEET GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES IN KOSOVO
During World Children's Day celebrations, we supported children with different disabilities who are part of two child-led advocacy groups, "Hëna" ("Moon" in English) and "Respect Our Right" to work together with child-led Municipal Assemblies to hold meetings with different parts of the government to advocate for the rights of children with disabilities. The slogan of the children's campaign was "Movement Without Obstacles, Is A Basic Right!". Their demand was simple: to allocate further resources to effectively implement the Administrative Instruction Law which regulates the construction of disabled-accessible structures across the country.
The child rights activists received commitments from the government to increase their engagement and resources to implement the Law and that they will work to improve access for children with disabilities in public institutions – a great win for the children with disabilities in Kosovo.
"HENA group was a great opportunity for me and children with disabilities to develop and learn new things, to meet with different people and encouraged us to be active and contribute on improving issues concerning us". – Erma, 16 year-old-boy, from "Hëna"
CHILDREN'S REVIEW THE UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REPORT IN SUDAN
Maysoon Idris is a 15 year-old-girl from Sudan who uses sign language, and as such has sadly witnessed countless verbal and physical abuse towards deaf children.
She took part in a Universal Periodic Report review process organised by Save the Children and partners to inform the government of Sudan on the rights of children with disabilities.
"No child should be made to feel uncomfortable and that situation has to change. Children should know about their rights and how to advocate for them'", says Maysoon
Maysoon, a 15-year-old from Sudan explaining how she took part in the UPR process
"One of the challenges I faced while advocating for my case in my community was the difficulty of communication because they did not know sign language. Through the Sudanese National Deaf Association I got to learn about my rights and how to advocate for my case." – she continues
The process resulted in submitting a report to the Ministry of Justice in August 2021 that included recommendations to end child marriage and other forms of abuse experienced by girls, including those with disabilities as well as to increase public investment in children with disabilities. These recommendations were consequently included in the submission to the Human Rights Council.
I want the government of Sudan to provide children with the means to protect themselves from violence and harassment, especially those with disabilities, to achieve social justice for all children", says Maysoon
Maysoon, who through the process, learnt how to protect herself from violence, encourages all child leaders to know more about their rights and to spread the culture of protection from violence.
CHILDREN AND YOUTH MONITOR AND DEMAND RIGHTS IN RWANDA
As part of a two-year project in Rwanda, we supported 14 youths and 9 children to monitor government commitments to the rights of children and youth with disabilities using the Disability Rights Promotion International methodology. Children, supported by their youth peers, collected individual experiences of children and young people with disabilities, reviewed laws and policies and looked at how media portrayed children with disabilities. The children were taught about their rights and developed new skills while also producing reliable data and evidence around the situation of children with disabilities in the country.
A girl from Musanze District said: "I was not aware that I am allowed to demand my rights in all the domains like home, police, sector, etc."
Children with disabilities in DPRI training session learning to monitor state commitments to child rights.
A boy from Nyanza District said: "Now I know where to report if any of my colleagues with disabilities tell me issues she/he is facing".
Findings were shared with the government who is now using the report to inform strategies to improve the lives of children with disabilities in Rwanda. For example, evidence and recommendations from the report have been used to decide how to improve accessibility in schools and combat negative attitudes in the community towards children with disabilities. A Disability and Child grant is also being discussed to address financial barriers to education and livelihood for families with children with disabilities, as a result of this child-led report.
ADULTS PLAY A ROLE IN SUPPORTING CHILDREN TO BE HEARD
Many children are excellent at claiming their forum and demanding their space to have their voices heard. This does not take away the fact that adults and adult-led organisations should support children in getting their voices strengthened and heard, and pave the way for meaningful, inclusive and dignified child participation and child-led initiatives.
In fact, we should make an explicit effort to support those children who are most impacted by inequalities and discrimination, like children with disabilities, to have their voices heard. Save the Children will do this by continuing and expanding our support through projects like those in Rwanda, Sudan and Kosovo and we hope you will all join us!
Read our new Policy for Disability Inclusion.
International Day of Education: The obstacles to children receiving safe quality education in Niger
Climate justice or just more blah blah blah? Pakistan puts world leaders' promises to the test
"Shocked, outraged, heartbroken" - The ban on female aid workers in Afghanistan
The impact of migration, hunger and drought on gender-based violence in Niger
From students to labourers: The reality for Afghan girls living under the school ban
23 January 2023 - Niger
9 January 2023 - Pakistan
4 January 2023 - Afghanistan


As an adult, yearly shorter trips became the norm. I bought a timeshare in south Florida and often went twice a winter. Then with Charles I went south to visit his parents for a week in St. Petersburg Florida. I said firmly then that I would never move south for the winter. Impossible!
Never say never. So here I am in Florida for 5 months and I love it. We have been doing this for 14 years now and I almost have it to down to a science.
Our trip is not merely about booking a flight, packing a suitcase, going armed with CAA maps and stopping at a motel on the way. Not that simple. Charles flies gliders, those gorgeous long winged airplanes with no engines, and we have a little dog. Planning is important especially the where-to-stay with Oscar.
When we first started travelling with a dog, it was Bear before Oscar; I scanned all the sites I could find about dog travel. One of the best Bring Fido was very helpful as a start. Then I checked out the motel chains. Some members allow pets, others do not; some have exorbitant fees, some are reasonable. I discovered that one year one motel would be pet friendly, and then the next year as I was booking, found out it no longer was.
I always start with our route and where we want to stop after 7 driving hours, which usually means almost 8 on the road. I have to be sure that the parking area will take our SUV and glider trailer attached, which adds 35 feet. We become the length of bus. I also like to have a swim after sitting for such a long time in the car, so I look for a pool. Then if the motel has a restaurant that is even better so we don't have to drive the car with glider and park it on a street in some strange little town. It is a frustrating few days while I scan the net to find the appropriate accommodation. I will confirm with the property that they still take dogs, if this is not clearly mentioned on their website.
Finally, we know where we are going to stay and that is a relief. I make the reservation and we input the address into the GPS usually on the morning of our departure. However, that is just the beginning. For some reason during the year I collect things that I think I will need in our condo in Florida and pile them in one place in our Toronto basement. Most of these things we don't need, but if we've been on a trip to Italy for example then I usually buy something special for our second home.
This coming December we will be going on a long trip out of Florida. For the past few years we have taken a trip in January. We figure that this is the travel chapter of our lives, and plan accordingly. Often this includes a cruise so I have to think ahead and bring clothes for that. I also have to be sure we have vaccinations, visas, and other important documents if our journey includes foreign travel.
I organize mail forwarding through Canada Post's Manage my Mail, leave instructions for our house cleaner to do special jobs each month in the house, cancel the papers, and provide details to my good friend, Liz, who checks our house twice weekly. This last part is important for insurance purposes. Our water is turned off, temperature turned down, instructions for leaf removal and snow removal given. I leave my car in our garage attached to a trickle charger.
My neighbours know we will be gone and keep an eye out. We also fill the bird feeder for my cardinals, put on timer lights, and make sure the house alarm is set and checked. I clean out the refrigerator and organize that the garbage is collected just after we leave, and despite my copious lists, I am sure I have forgotten something. Of course on the Florida end, there are similar items to be checked off when we arrive and when we depart, except for the snow removal of course.I always pack first and Charles leaves me alone while I do this, as there is much to consider, and I can get cranky. Even though I leave clothes in Florida, I still have my favourites that travel back and forth with me. The golf clothes alone take up an inordinate amount of space, despite the fact that I have doubles of golf shoes. I also pack a small bag for overnights in the motels for me and for Oscar, who needs his food, some toys, and lots of water for all of us.
Charles does his packing, and then loads it all in the car leaving a small space for the dog. I leave him alone when he is doing this. Yes, he also can get cranky. This year I managed to pack the extra car key ( keyless entry) that we carry just in case, in the largest suitcase that was deep in the trunk of the car. He tried to lock the car, but of course it would not lock because my key was in it. Fortunately for me, I remembered precisely where the key was, and could retrieve it easily. Hmm. Charles once worked on a department store delivery truck and is very good at organizing trunk space, but he was not in a cheery mood during this part of our adventure. He gassed up the car the night before, and the glider is usually in our driveway for a few days ahead of our departure.
I used to get the maps from the motor league, but now the GPS takes care of all. I get new CD's for the car, as we love to listen to books. Sometimes we are so involved in the story that we don't want to get out of the car. Our favorites have been Ken Follett 's Century Trilogy, Anna Karenina, and now we are listening to Foer's Here I am which is a bit of a downer. We have Sirius radio and we prefer classical first thing in the day, and blues in the late afternoon. We like CBC news or PBS news. All this entertainment makes the wheels turn around faster, or so it seems.
Although we have been travelling like this to Florida for 14 years, I am always excited in the morning, and wake up far too early. After the dog has had a walk, I have had some juice, and Charles some coffee; we head off to the border at Fort Erie about an hour and a half away. We both have Nexus cards, which make border travel efficient, and after we enter the USA we breathe a sigh, and feel we are really on our way. We set our current routine a few years back and plan our first breakfast at a Cracker Barrel in Erie Pennsylvania. By the time we arrive there we are hungry and the sun has risen.
Every Cracker Barrel is the same or almost the same. We need a large bus parking space and they have this. The dog gets a walk first and then we head to the washrooms, which are in the same place in every store. I say store because the restaurant is in a store that sells homey items. Country music is usually heard on the speakers. In each CB the menu is identical, the fireplace, the four star waitresses and the food are all the same. No surprises here. Some are better than others. The decaf coffee is pretty lame, but the juice is passable and the omelets good. These are not on the menu, but can be had to order. We always get an extra rasher of bacon and take a few pieces out to Oscar in the car.
Our first stop for the evening is in Weston, West Virginia at a Holiday Inn Express. If you have been following my previous blogs you will have noted that I love gorgeous hotels and have stayed at quite a few. My adage is 'never settle for less than the best available, and this compact property at the top of a hill overlooking a cemetery is very comfortable, and extremely clean. Everything works and is in the right place in the room with a King bed. There is a small microwave that I use to heat up Oscar's dinner, and a refrigerator. I mentioned earlier that I do a doggie bag and this has ice in it with some ground meat, as well as splits of champagne for me, a bottle of red for Charles, and anything thing else that needs to be kept cold on the trip. We have been staying here for quite a few years because they take dogs, have a pool and let us park sprawled out in their ample lot. The bathroom is pristine with a good shower, decent lighting, and there are mirrors in the room itself. The pillows are awful, but hopefully this will change next year as I stressed this in my survey. They charge $25 for Oscar and put us in a room that is close to an outside door to make our walks a little easier. Internet is free and we are content.
There is no restaurant, but we found a local one in the town a few years back called Thyme Bistro. It is charming and they usually seat us by the fireplace. Their food is surprisingly delicious and we know we are in the United States because the portions are more than ample. This evening Charles had scrumptious crab cakes and I a lamb shank. The wines are very decent and the experience pleasant and friendly.
On our second morning I am up at the crack of dark, way too early, but after we walk and feed O we grab a juice and coffee and head off. There is a complimentary breakfast, but it is too early to eat and we know there will be Cracker Barrel en route. We are already in the mountains and watching the sunrise is simply wonderful and heartening. Some years the trees are at their peak and the views are breathtaking in the Alleghany's.
Things like filling the fuel tank take place a few times a day. The glider drinks gas easily. Charles always checks the tires and lights and trailer hitch before departure. Oscar loves getting in the back and often stands and watches the views passing by. Breakfast is after about 2 hours of travel. Each morning we switch choices on the menu just to make it interesting, and the fire is burning, as the mountain air is chilly. I like the book better than Charles does and think the actor, Ari Fliakos, is simply terrific, but we discuss things about it and it makes the time pass. We skip lunch, as we know from Judi, the GPS, that we will arrive in Columbia South Carolina earlier than expected. That is because I could have slept one more hour, but I am like a child and can't wait to get going. At any rate we do stop once at a rest area for a walk and some fresh air. It can be somewhat stressful driving the mountain roads with the glider in tow, and Oscar can always use a potty break.
The plan was to try a new motel for this second night, as our previous one, a despicable Embassy Suites property, keeps changing its dog policy, and last year unexpectedly charged us $100 for Oscar and the room was filthy. Most Doubletree hotels take dogs, and they have an on site restaurant, and a pool. Our room wasn't quite ready when we arrived, so we had a drink in the lobby bar, where Oscar could sit with us and watch us eat their famous chocolate chip cookies, or so they told us.
They charged $40 for O, and the room was just fine, also near an outside entry. The restaurant was closed so we ate in their bar. The food was fine. Not fine was the smoke alarm that went off twice early in the morning. When we phoned the front desk manager, he opined that when the shower is on the smoke detector goes off. Charles took the battery out after the second screamer. However, that was the last time we would stay there. When I was book marking the hotel so you could see the link, they posted a notice about no longer being pet friendly as of Dec. 1. There goes another one.
I hate searching for pet friendly hotels especially after I just found one. At least we use different hotels on the way north in April, fingers crossed. Just checked the lovely Doubletree in Charlotte which is in a park setting and they are still pet-friendly. Whew! They also have a small restaurant that is very good. Doubletree Cranberry is our last hotel and it too is pet friendly. I understand they have just completed restaurant renovations so that is a plus as well.
Our final morning south we start to strip off our heavier clothes and feel the sun when we stop for gas and breakfast. Again, no lunch as we know we can eat at our place in Florida. We live in a condo that is part of The Mission Inn Resort in Howey in the Hills. This is not a well-known Florida destination, although the old golf course, El Campeon is listed #1 in Florida by Golf Advisor. It is a very convivial community and we originally chose it because it is close to a respected glider port called Seminole Lake, but we have found wonderful friends here, and love it.
I play golf and like the girls and the course. Our pro, Joe Lewandowski, a PGA professional is super. I also run an opera club, attend a book club, and am involved in many other activities. It is terrific to have restaurants onsite. Aside from Nickers, which is casual fare, there is the Marghuerita bar, for light meals, and the elegant El Conquistador. La Hacienda is primarily a breakfast place, and is home to marvelous Sunday Brunches and special Thanksgiving and Christmas meals.
We live in a ground floor condo that is part of a fourplex and is quite lovely. Our view facing west rewards us every evening with beautiful sunsets viewed through trees and hills, and lots of sky. It is compact, but spacious if that makes any sense.
We park the glider outside our door, release my little car from its trickle charger in the garage, walk the dog, and dash off to Nickers. We are greeted by the staff who remember us, and relax. We are home. Lunch is good. Then we hurry back to the condo to unpack the car, check out my garden, get a sense of everything, and put our lanai furniture outside. We always store it in the living room in case of inclement weather. I start my grocery list. We connect our computers and everything works!
At my desk in the den, I view a cardinal at my bird feeder. All is well in my world.


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Los Angeles Rams beat Cincinnati Bengals to win Super Bowl LVI
ANKARA (Anadolu/PNA) – The Los Angeles Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI for the National Football League (NFL) title Sunday night.
The Cincinnati Bengals, which finished the AFC Conference with 10 wins and seven losses, met with the Los Angeles Rams, which had a 12-5 record in the NFC Conference this season at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, which is also the home field of the Rams.
With a packed crowd of over 70,000, fans in attendance received a KN95 mask. Fans attending the game were also required to show proof of vaccination, a negative PCR test that was taken within 48 hours, or a negative antigen test that was taken within 24 hours.
After making a strong start to the game, the Rams finished the first quarter with a 7-3 lead. They extended their lead to 13-3 early in the second quarter.
The Bengals responded with a trick play, taking the score to 13-10 with less than six minutes remaining in the second quarter. The Rams made an interception in the next play while trying to make a 3rd down conversion. The first half ended with the Bengals down by 3 points.
The Bengals made a strong start to the second half with a 75-yard touchdown on their first play with only 12 seconds into the third quarter, taking the lead with a 17-13 score. The Rams turned over the ball with quarterback Matthew Stafford making his second interception of the game.
While the Bengals extended their lead to 20-13 with a field goal, the Rams responded with a field goal, which made the score 20-16. It was a defensive teams' show from then on through the fourth quarter as there were multiple sacks on both teams' quarterbacks.
In the fourth quarter, the Rams made a 4th down conversion with wide receiver Cooper Kupp carrying the ball as a tailback as he cut through the opposition defense. He followed his good performance by making two consecutive plays to carry the Rams to the red zone. With 1:38 remaining in the game, Kupp caught a touchdown but it was overturned due to offsetting penalties. Kupp, however, made a catch later and helped the Rams retake the lead with 23-20.
With 1:25 left in the game, the Bengals got the final possession, but their young quarterback Joe Burrow was sacked by the Rams' 30-year-old defensive tackle Aaron Donald in the final play.
With the final score 23-20, this marked the first Super Bowl victory for the Rams since the 1999 season when they played in St. Louis. They had previous championships when they had played in Cleveland in 1945 and 1951 before the NFL merger and Super Bowl format.
Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay has become the youngest head coach in NFL history to win a Super Bowl at 36 years and 20 days old.
This also marked the second consecutive year that a team playing the Super Bowl at its home field lifted the Lombardi Trophy.
Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp was awarded the most valuable player (MVP) of the game. He also became the first player since 2005 to lead the NFL in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns, a feat known as the triple crown.
Kupp had 145 receptions, 1,947 receiving yards and 16 receiving touchdowns during the regular season. His catches and yards have gone down as the second-most in NFL history.
Hip-hop, rap and soul artists Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar, Sean Forbes and Warren Snipe took the stage during the half-time show. (Anadolu)
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/ KNOW THE TERRAIN - Central Majority - Sam Collins - VOLUME 3
KNOW THE TERRAIN - Central Majority - Sam Collins - VOLUME 3
Anyone getting through the DVD will have weapons at his disposal (these weapons being ideas!) that his opponents will not have.
Description / KNOW THE TERRAIN - Central Majority - Sam Collins - VOLUME 3
The information explosion has led to a massive increase in opening theory. But how often do you win a game with a prepared line? What gives strong players the edge over their opponents is not some blockbuster novelty, but a deep understanding of the pawn structures to which their openings lead - an understanding that lasts into the middlegame and endgame, and is transferable between different openings with similar structures.
In this DVD, Sam Collins looks at the Central Majority (white pawns on a2, d4 and e4 against black pawns on a7, b7 and e7) which is characteristic of both the Grunfeld and Semi-Tarrasch Defences. White's space advantage gives him good chances to generate a middlegame initiative and a kingside attack, while Black hopes to reach an endgame where his outside passed pawn could be decisive.
Collins also investigates the closely related passed d-pawn structure which arises when the e-pawns are exchanged - here White has a highly dangerous passer on the d-file and the key struggle revolves around whether this pawn is a strength or, when attacked or solidly blockaded, a weakness. White's chances have been repeatedly demonstrated by Kramnik and Carlsen while Black's cause has been championed by Svidler, Ivanchuk, Van Wely and Gymesi, with Kasparov generating significant ideas for both colours.
Video running time: 4 hours 39 minutes
System requirements: Pentium-Processor at 300 Mhz or higher, 64 MB RAM, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows Vista, DVD drive, mouse, soundcard.
You're reviewing: KNOW THE TERRAIN - Central Majority - Sam Collins - VOLUME 3


As suggested before, the American airline is considering of axing its service on Chicago and Delhi route. It is suggested that in the coming years many big airlines will follow the suit. Actually this type of cancellations has intensified the fight between existing airline companies. These companies compete against each other over services, charges and customer support. This tooth and nail competition has forced airline advertisers to seek new promotional techniques involving magnets.
All airlines understand that visitors are the people who bring them the most business. Therefore, it becomes mandatory to address them in unique ways. Airline advertisers can choose to acknowledge the customers by offering them a cute promotional magnetic coupon on the culmination of their travel. Travelers will always find it easier to treasure the memories of travel in the form of this magnet pinned against their refrigerator door or their work cubicles. So, the next time when they think of flying, the first name that pops in mind will be yours. Apart from that airlines can choose to promote their special flying offers and discounts through these custom magnets.
Being an airline advertiser, you can make best use of specific airplane magnet because it will capture the customer minds.


WooCommerce Dynamic Pricing & Discounts v2.0 lets you easily manage product pricing rules and cart discounts. Great professional features and flexibility are not matched by any alternative. Now enhancefully Sell more! easily Set up attractive discounts for customers who buy large quantities. Run special Christmas, Easter or Black Friday promotions.


I killed a girl last night. I did it with my bare hands and an old piece of pipe I found lying next to the dumpster. But that's not the part that got me. The part that scared me, the part I can't seem to wrap my head around and still has me reeling, was that when she charged me, her body shifted – and then she was a wolf. All snapping teeth and extended claws. But by the time I stood over her lifeless body, she was a girl again. That's about the time I went into shock… And that was the moment he showed up.Now, all I can do is accept the truths that are staring me in the face. One, Werewolves do exist. And two, I was born to kill them.
I read this book really fast too, I love that it was based purely on werewolves so many books these days have the vamps and wolves all in the one story and it was so refreshing to have it be just the wolves and the hunters.
You will love Wes & Tara and like me want to keep reading to find out if they hook up and if her mum is aware of hunters and weres too.


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Tag Archives: Chris Drake
Strangler of the Swamp (Jan. 2, 1946)
Frank Wisbar's Strangler of the Swamp is a surprisingly good little ghost story. I don't use the term "little" pejoratively, but as a term of affection, and in recognition of the film's modest budget and one-hour running time. What Strangler of the Swamp lacks in lavish sets and big stars it makes up for with atmosphere, story, and pacing. Plenty of movies distributed by the Poverty Row studio P.R.C. (Producers Releasing Corporation) ranged from forgettable to completely stinko, but some were genuinely well-made films, and this is one of them.
Director Wisbar was born in 1899 in Tilsit, East Prussia, Germany (now part of Russia). After making nine films in Germany between 1932 to 1938, Wisbar emigrated to England, where he directed a television adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's story "The Telltale Heart" for the BBC in 1939, when TV was still in its infancy. In 1945, he directed his first American feature, the P.R.C. potboiler Secrets of a Sorority Girl. Strangler of the Swamp was his second film for P.R.C., and was a remake of one of his earlier films, Fährmann Maria (Ferryman Maria), from 1936.
Strangler of the Swamp takes place in a bayou, presumably somewhere in the American South, but, like a lot of horror movies from the '40s, regional accents are nowhere in evidence, and geographical authenticity is an afterthought.
Old ferryman Joseph Hart (Frank Conlan) lives in a rude shack by a crossing, and ferries the townsfolk back and forth across a narrow strip of water by hauling his little craft hand over hand along a rope stretched between two trees. His passengers speak in hushed tones of the men they know who have recently died by strangulation. The denizens of the swamp believe that the previous ferryman, Douglas, was hanged for a crime he didn't commit. They believe that his ghost haunts the swamp, strangling all the male descendants of the men responsible for putting him to death.
Ferryman Joseph does finds an actual noose hanging from a branch as a spectral warning, but most of the strangling in the film occurs in that neat ghost-story fashion in which it could just be a series of freak accidents. The spirit of ferryman Douglas (Charles Middleton) appears to ferryman Joseph with his head wreathed in clouds of dry ice, but Joseph meets his end when he panics and gets tangled up in some branches. The title of this film is the most gruesome thing about it.
After the death of ferryman Joseph, his granddaughter, Maria Hart (Rosemary La Planche), arrives in the swamp to claim her birthright. Fed up with urban isolation and happy to have a place to call her own, she takes up residence in Joseph's shack and takes over his job shuttling people back and forth. Even though all the billowing clouds of dry ice cover up the set's limitations, after the fifth or sixth ferry ride, even the least astute viewers will probably notice that there's no water under the barge.
Blond, fresh-faced, and lithe, La Planche makes an appealing heroine. Her love interest, Chris Sanders, is played by the handsome but wooden actor Blake Edwards, who would end up being much more famous for his work as a director, writer, and producer (of, among other things, The Days of Wine and Roses, Breakfast at Tiffany's, numerous Pink Panther films, and the Peter Gunn TV series).
Prior to appearing in this film, California native La Planche had lots of bit parts and uncredited roles. She was six years old when she made her first appearance on film (in the Louise Fazenda comedy short The Bearded Lady in 1930), but she never became a child star. Once in her teens, she appeared in a flurry of tiny roles and as a dance extra in many films, and was even crowned Miss America in 1941. (She was Miss California in both 1940 and 1941. The pageant rules later changed to only allow contestants to compete at the national level once.) As Miss America, she traveled extensively with the USO, and once helped sell $50,000 in war bonds in a single day. When Wisbar cast her in Strangler of the Swamp, it was her first starring role.
Wisbar brings a dreamy, European sensibility to the proceedings that sets Strangler of the Swamp apart from most of its B-movie brethren. The conclusion, in particular, didn't fall into the '40s cliché that anything supernatural had to eventually be explained away.
Posted in 1946, January 1946 and tagged Alexander Steinert, Blake Edwards, Charles Middleton, Chris Drake, Effie Laird, Frank Conlan, Frank Wisbar, Harold Erickson, Horror, Hugh Winn, James S. Brown Jr., Leo J. McCarthy, Nolan Leary, P.R.C., Raoul Pagel, Robert Barrat, Rosemary La Planche, Strangler of the Swamp, Therese Lyon, Virginia Farmer. Bookmark the permalink.
A Walk in the Sun (Dec. 25, 1945)
Posted on February 5, 2010 by Adam Lounsbery
A Walk in the Sun (1945)
Directed by Lewis Milestone
20th Century-Fox
A Walk in the Sun had its premiere on Monday, December 3, 1945, and went into wide release on Christmas day. Produced and directed by Lewis Milestone, the director of All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), A Walk in the Sun tells the story of the ordinary men who serve in the infantry. Long stretches of the film are filled with the men's meandering thoughts (both in voiceover and spoken aloud) and their circuitous conversations. When violence occurs, it comes suddenly, and its larger significance is unknown. The film's exploration of the infantryman's P.O.V. is similar to William A. Wellman's The Story of G.I. Joe, released earlier the same year. (Burgess Meredith, who played Ernie Pyle in that film, narrates A Walk in the Sun, although he is not listed in the film's credits. When I first watched this film I was sure it was Henry Fonda's voice I was hearing. I was surprised when I looked it up and found out it was Meredith.) Unlike The Story of G.I. Joe, however, A Walk in the Sun covers a much briefer period of time (from a pre-dawn landing to noon the same day), and its ending is more heroic, with little sense of loss or tragedy.
Based on the novel by Harry Brown, A Walk in the Sun takes place in 1943, and tells the story of the lead platoon of the Texas division, and their landing on the beach in Salerno, Italy. Square-jawed Dana Andrews plays Staff Sgt. Bill Tyne, a simple man who never had much desire to travel outside of his hometown of Providence, Rhode Island. Richard Conte plays the Italian-American Pvt. Rivera, a tough soldier who loves opera and wants a wife and lots of children some day. George Tyne plays Pvt. Jake Friedman, a born-and-bred New Yorker. John Ireland plays PFC Windy Craven, a minister's son from Canton, Ohio, who writes letters to his sister in his head, speaking the words aloud. Lloyd Bridges plays Staff Sgt. Ward, a baby-faced, pipe-smoking farmer. Sterling Holloway plays McWilliams, the platoon's medic, who is Southern, speaks very slowly, and just might be a little touched. Norman Lloyd plays Pvt. Archimbeau, "platoon scout and prophet," as Meredith describes him in the opening narration; Archimbeau talks incessantly of the war in Tibet he theorizes will occur in the '50s. Herbert Rudley plays Staff Sgt. Eddie Porter, an opinionated guy who's always looking for an argument (Normal Rockwell's wasting his time painting photo-realistic covers for the Saturday Evening Post, Porter says. He should use a camera. Some day magazine covers will have moving pictures on them anyway.) Richard Benedict plays Pvt. Tranella, who "speaks two languages, Italian and Brooklyn," and whose fluency in the former will prove useful when the platoon runs across two Italian deserters.
All of these "types" seem clichéd now, but they're probably not unrealistic characters for the time. The only really dated thing about A Walk in the Sun is the song that appears throughout the film, and helps to narrate the action. "It Was Just a Little Walk in the Sun," with music by Earl Robinson and lyrics by Millard Lampell, is sung by Kenneth Spencer in the deep, mournful style of a spiritual. I didn't dislike the song, but its frequent appearance as a kind of Greek chorus felt intrusive.
One thing that really impressed me about A Walk in the Sun was the cinematography by Russell Harlan. While A Walk in the Sun is clearly filmed in California, Harlan makes the most of starkly contrasted black and white shots that could have been shot anywhere. One of the film's motifs is black figures against a white sky. There are a couple of scenes that reminded me of the famous final scene in Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal (1957) in which death leads a procession of people down a hill. Several times in A Walk in the Sun, the platoon is depicted as groups of indistinguishable black figures walking down a black hillside, silhouetted against a completely white sky. And in keeping with the infantryman's P.O.V., when the platoon lies down to rest there are a couple of shots from the ground, looking up at the sky, while arms reach up across the frame and exchange cigarettes.
A Walk in the Sun is one of the better World War II films I've seen, and it's generally well-regarded, but not everyone liked it. Samuel Fuller, who saw combat in World War II as a rifleman in the U.S. 1st Infantry Division and would go on to direct many cult favorites, wrote a letter to Milestone complaining about the film. "Why a man of your calibre should resort to a colonel's technical advice on what happens in a platoon is something I'll never figure out," he wrote. "When colonels are back in their garrison hutments where they belong I'll come out with a yarn that won't make any doggie that was ever on the line retch with disgust."
Posted in 1945, December 1945 and tagged 20th Century-Fox, A Walk in the Sun, Alvin Hammer, Burgess Meredith, Chris Drake, Dana Andrews, Duncan Mansfield, Earl Robinson, Fredric Efrem Rich, George Offerman Jr., George Tyne, Harry Brown, Herbert Rudley, Huntz Hall, James Cardwell, Jay Norris, John Ireland, John Kellogg, Kenneth Spencer, Lewis Milestone, Lloyd Bridges, Matt Willis, Millard Lampell, Norman Lloyd, Richard Benedict, Richard Conte, Robert Rossen, Russell Harlan, Sterling Holloway, Steve Brodie, Victor Cutler, War Movies, World War II. Bookmark the permalink.


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Dictionary of New Zealand Biography
Last names beginning with M
Marion du Fresne, Marc Joseph
Dictionary of New Zealand Bography logo
Story: Marion du Fresne, Marc Joseph
Links and sources
Page 1: Biography
Death of Marc Joseph Marion du Fresne
1724?–1772
This biography, written by John Dunmore, was first published in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography in 1990.
Marc Joseph Marion du Fresne was baptised on 22 May 1724 at St Malo, Brittany, France. His exact date of birth is unknown. He was the son of Marie Séraphique Le Fer and her husband, Julien Marion du Fresne, a merchant. In 1735, while still very young, Marion du Fresne joined the French India Company ship Duc de Bourgogne as honorary sub-lieutenant. He commanded various privateers based at St Malo during the War of the Austrian Succession, attaining the rank of temporary captain in 1745. After Culloden he sailed to Scotland and brought back to France Prince Charles Edward. He then served in the French royal navy and was taken prisoner by the English in May 1747.
After the war Marion du Fresne served in various French India Company ships, sailing to the Indian Ocean and to China. Back in France during the Seven Years' War he was consulted on a proposed French landing in Scotland. He spent two years in various naval operations, outwitting the British who were blockading the coast of Brittany. In 1759 he was promoted to fireship captain, and in 1761 he was made a Knight of St Louis. He then returned to trading in eastern waters, carried out hydrographic surveys around Mauritius and acted for a time as harbourmaster in Port Louis, where he settled. From there he traded in the Seychelles and India, and speculated in land.
The liquidation of the French India Company caused him some financial difficulties and he welcomed the opportunity in 1771 of setting off for the Pacific on a voyage of trade and exploration sponsored by the French authorities. He was provided with two naval vessels: the Mascarin of 22 guns and the Marquis de Castries of 16 guns. The first object of the expedition was to return the Tahitian Ahu-toru to his home. Ahu-toru had been taken to France by Louis-Antoine de Bougainville in 1768, and after being lionised in Paris, had been sent to Mauritius in the hope that he would find a passage back to Tahiti.
The ships sailed from Port Louis on 18 October 1771, going to the nearby islands of Bourbon and Madagascar to take on supplies and also to escape an epidemic of smallpox ravaging Mauritius. Ahu-toru died from the disease. Since it was no longer necessary to sail to Tahiti, Marion du Fresne endeavoured to recoup some of the costs of the expedition by heading for Cape Town to start a search for the southern continent in high latitudes. He discovered various islands in the south Indian Ocean: Marion Island, Prince Edward Island and the Crozets. After spending several days in Tasmania he set sail for New Zealand.
Marion du Fresne sighted Mt Taranaki on 25 March 1772, naming it Pic Mascarin. He then sailed north and on 15 April landed at Spirits Bay. A gale two days later caused severe damage to the ships and the loss of several anchors. Marion du Fresne then proceeded south-east and on 4 May reached the Bay of Islands. His ships anchored first south of Ōkahu Island and later off Moturua Island.
The next five weeks were spent exploring the Bay and repairing the ships. This leisurely stay enabled Marion du Fresne and his men to visit quite distant pa, to trade and to fish. They set up camps ashore, one for the sick on Moturua, one on the mainland as a store and centre of communication, and a third inland for cutting masts and spars. Communication with the Māori people was made possible by the use of an extensive Tahitian vocabulary prepared by Bougainville and Ahu-toru. There were occasional minor thefts, but nothing occurred to mar friendly relations and on 8 June Marion du Fresne was welcomed at a special ceremony. But four or five days later, on 12 or 13 June 1772, he was attacked and killed along with other members of a fishing party which had gone ashore. A second party was attacked the next day. In all, 25 officers and men lost their lives.
Julien Crozet, the second in command, and Ambroise-Bernard-Marie le Jar du Clesmeur, the captain of the Marquis de Castries, set about securing the ships, abandoning the camps and fighting off minor raids. The ships could not leave promptly since repairs were incomplete and the timber at the bush camp could not be brought out. Crozet and du Clesmeur decided to clear the area by a counter-attack which soon turned into violent reprisals, causing an estimated 250 Māori casualties. The French eventually sailed on 13 July for the central Pacific and the Philippines.
The reasons for the killing of Marion du Fresne and his men may never be known. The local Ngare Raumati were over-run by the Ngāpuhi a few years later and no clear account survived. It is likely that the French transgressed in some way, possibly on the fatal day, or more probably on a number of earlier occasions, until it was felt that they had gone too far. Probably a visit of five weeks with no clear signs of departure created serious economic and cultural strains. Had the Māori feared a permanent French settlement, internal politics would have exacerbated the situation.
The stay, remarkable for its length and the closeness of the contact established between the visitors and the indigenous people, produced many records of early Māori life. Marion du Fresne's own journals have not been found, but there are extensive notes in the logs and records of Crozet, du Clesmeur, Jean Roux and others, and charts and drawings, including detailed plans of a pā.
Marion du Fresne was a Māoriphile who shared Jean-Jacques Rousseau's beliefs about the 'noble savage'. The events of July 1772, however, strengthened the view in France that New Zealand was inhabited by dangerous natives and did not warrant an attempt at colonisation.
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Next:External links and sources
John Dunmore. 'Marion du Fresne, Marc Joseph', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 1990. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1m13/marion-du-fresne-marc-joseph (accessed 17 January 2022)


Michael Kors Holdings Ltd. said Tuesday that its fiscal fourth-quarter net income more than tripled as the company opened new stores and demand grew for its luxury clothing and accessories.
The results beat Wall Street expectations and the company also issued better-than-expected predictions for the current quarter and year, sending its shares up 14 percent in premarket trading.
Michael Kors sells its handbags, shoes and clothes at its own shops and through other retailers. One of its crocodile handbags can run more than $2,000 and a halter dress more than $7,000, but the bulk of its business is centered on somewhat more affordable luxuries such as $300 sunglasses and $600 purses.
The company's outlook appeared to relieve investors. The luxury consumer has recovered from the recession better than other shoppers, but a warning last month from jeweler Tiffany & Co. has raised concerns that wealthy U.S. shoppers may be cutting back on purchases.
While Michael Kors is headquartered in Hong Kong, one of several high-end companies to go public there last year as the middle class grows in Asia, the designer himself is American and the bulk of the company's sales come from North America.
For the three months through March 31, Michael Kors said it earned $43.6 million, or 22 cents per share, up from $13.6 million, or 10 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.
Excluding a $2 million gain related to the company's December initial public stock offering, Michael Kors said it posted an adjusted profit of 21 cents per share. Analysts, on average, expected a profit of 16 cents per share, according to a FactSet poll.
Revenue rose 58 percent to $380 million from $240 million, as revenue from stores open at least a year increased 36 percent. The metric is a key measure of a retailer's health, because it excludes sales at stores that opened or closed during the year. The company has opened 71 stores this year, bringing its store count to 237. That helped drive retail sales up 80 percent to $172.2 million.
The company's sales to department stores and other retailers also rose 46 percent, to $190.7 million. Michael Kors also makes money from licensed products including watches and glasses.
Licensing partners operate another 64 stores.
For the current quarter ending in June, Michael Kors said it expects to post a fiscal first-quarter profit of 18 cents to 20 cents per share on $360 million to $370 million in revenue. Analysts expect profit of 17 cents per share on $328.1 million in revenue.
For the year ending in March 2013, the company projected a profit of $1.08 to $1.12 per share on revenue of between $1.7 billion and $1.8 billion. Analysts expect profit of 98 cents per share on $1.69 billion in revenue.
That's a big increase from fiscal 2012, when Michael Kors earned $126.1 million, or 78 cents per share, after paying preferred dividends, up from $56.9 million, or 40 cents per share, the year before. Revenue rose to $1.3 billion from $803.3 million.
Michael Kors shares jumped $5.46 to $43.64 before the opening bell Tuesday. Shares sold at $20 in the December IPO. They are off 21 percent over the past three months as worries about a weakening of the global economy have weighed on markets.


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Tag: Movies
Kit Harington wonders when someone 'gay in real life' will play a Marvel superhero
Brian Silliman
@briansilliman
Tag: Kit Harington
Tag: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Tag: Thandie Newton
Tag: LGBTQ
While promoting the film The Death and Life of John F. Donovan at the Toronto International Film Festival, Game of Thrones star Kit Harington recently broached the topic of masculinity in Hollywood films— particularly how it intersects with homosexuality.
In an interview with Variety, the actor behind Jon Snow (alongside the film's director Xavier Dolan and his co-stars, Westworld's Thandie Newton and 12 Monkeys' Emily Hampshire) said, "There's a big problem with masculinity and homosexuality that they can't somehow go hand in hand. That we can't have someone in a Marvel movie who's gay in real life and plays some superhero. I mean, when is that going to happen?"
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Newton responded to his question by pointing out positive changes in the realm of sports, saying, "It is changing, but we have to get behind those changes and keep pushing it."
Harington has a point — going by the MCU alone, where there are no gay male actors cast in any of the leading roles. None of the characters have been openly portrayed as gay, either, but it sounds like Harington is specifically talking about a gay actor playing a heterosexual hero. (As readers point out, one Marvel film outside the MCU, however — 2003's X2 — did include openly gay actor Alam Cumming playing Nightcrawler, while openly bisexual actress Anna Paquin played Rogue.)
Moving out of the Marvel fold, this doesn't seem to be taking place in the films of the DCEU, either. (When it comes to Star Wars, you do have a character who is pansexual, played by a straight man.)
As Newton points out, we live in an age that is barely starting to accept homosexuality in our athletes. Will we ever get to the point where we accept a gay man wielding the shield of Captain America, or wearing Batman's cape and cowl?


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Identity Style, Substance Use, and Perceived Family Functioning Among Young Adults: An Exploratory Study
Larry F. Forthun, Utah State University
Scot M. Allgood
One hundred eight individuals between the ages of 17 and 25 completed measures assessing identity style, family functioning, and substance use. Fifty-seven respondents were evaluated as they were applying for services at a local substance abuse treatment center. Fifty-one respondents were surveyed from a local university general education class.
The identity style construct is a self-report measure that evaluates the problem-solving and decision -making strategies of respondents. These constructs echo Marcia's identity statuses with the Normative and Diffuse/Avoidant subscales being utilized in this study. Family functioning was also assessed by self-report and evaluated overall family functioning. A factor analysis of the substance use measure resulted in two factors that were defined as Gateway drugs (alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana) and Illicit Substances (cocaine, hallucinogens, etc.) and were assessed as either use or nonuse during the last 4 weeks.
Findings support the identity developmental paradigm of problem behavior and suggest that Normative-oriented respondents reported less use of Gateway Drugs and more functional family attributes. Conversely, the Diffuse/Avoidant-oriented respondents reported more use of substances and less functional family attributes.
Difficulties in measurement are presented as well as suggestions for family-based intervention strategies designed to reduce young adult substance use and abuse.
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Forthun, Larry F., "Identity Style, Substance Use, and Perceived Family Functioning Among Young Adults: An Exploratory Study" (1995). All Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 2382.


You know those soft, fluffy, frosted, delicious sugar cookies sold in grocery store bakeries? Well now you can make them at home. These are so good… And with 3 sticks of butter in just the cookie part.. How could they not be? Another plus, these are super easy to whip up! I even tried substituting the flour with a gluten free flour blend ( and a little xantham gum) and they were pretty tasty too.


text:
Home / Apple / Reviews
By Charles Purdy
Macworld MAR 4, 2003 4:00 pm PST
Fantastic tool set
New audio and HTML-creation features
Impressive template and outlining features
Upgrade price is relatively high
Lacks a few high-end design capabilities
For most of us, the act of brainstorming involves hastily written words on whiteboards and paper stickies, which require tedious transcribing and photocopying before we can share our ideas with others. There is a better way: Inspiration Software's newly Mac OS X-compatible Inspiration 7. (It also works in OS 9 and Windows, with an identical interface.) Although it's primarily targeted at students and teachers, this tool will benefit anyone who needs to diagram and organize ideas quickly and easily; with it, you can create anything from a simple article outline to a Web-site plan or a complex scientific diagram.
Now You See It
Installing Inspiration in OS X is as easy as installation gets: less than five minutes after opening the CD envelope, we'd launched the program and were creating our first chart. The program opens in an all-purpose diagram view, with one symbol already placed and ready to be labeled.
At the top of the window are icons representing key functions. With a chart symbol selected, you click on the Create button to draw a connection to a new symbol, where your cursor lands so you can start entering text; clicking on Create without a symbol selected creates a free-floating item. Use the Link button to draw connections between items, the Hyperlink button to add customizable Web-site links quickly to an item, and the Note button to add a concealable "sticky" to an item or a connection. The RapidFire feature was made for fast-paced brainstorming: with the RapidFire tool selected, you just press the return key to create a new item connected to a starting-point item, so you can focus on transcribing your team's fantastic ideas. You don't even need to worry about misspelling words: Inspiration has a spelling checker.
On the left side of the window is the symbol palette, which boasts 1,300 symbols (everything from basic shapes to line drawings of vegetables)—and you can import your own via an easy drag-and-drop process. At the bottom of the window is a formatting toolbar, which you can use to select the font and color of chart items. Clicking on the Arrange button opens a dialog box where you can rearrange your chart (to turn a top-to-bottom hierarchical chart into a left-to-right one, say). Charts and outlines are printable and can be exported in several formats, including JPEG, so you can incorporate them into Microsoft Word or PowerPoint documents, for example.
Although you certainly won't mistake Inspiration for an illustration program, its charts are attractive enough for most purposes. Its design capabilities lag slightly behind those of The Omni Group's OmniGraffle 2 (Reviews, August 2002) — but where OmniGraffle gives you prettiness (for example, more color options in charts), Inspiration gives you more-powerful but easily accessible chart-building tools.
Learn, Baby, Learn
By clicking on the Outline button, you can turn everything in your hierarchical chart, including notes and hyperlinks, into a hierarchical text outline. (In outline view, you click on the Diagram button to go back to diagram view). What's more, any reorganization or editing you do in outline view will be present when you go back to diagram view (and vice versa). If you completed all your fourth-grade book reports before classroom computers became ubiquitous, this feature is sure to inspire delight — and a little bit of regret. It's also a good example of what Inspiration has to offer in an education environment: the ability to represent complex ideas quickly in a visual, easily understandable format, as well as a way to help students learn to prioritize and organize information. In addition, the program has curriculum-specific templates for language arts, science, social studies, and more — and all templates are customizable. (Teachers unfamiliar with Inspiration should check out the demo at Inspiration Software's Web site.)
Worthy Additions
This is the first version of Inspiration to run in OS X; other new features include multiple undos, a SiteSkeleton feature that converts diagrams to HTML, and some basic audio capabilities — you can record snippets of audio (as long as 30 seconds) and attach them to chart items. But although version 7's enhancements are noteworthy, you should consider whether you truly need them before paying $40 to upgrade.
Macworld's Buying Advice
Inspiration 7 earns high marks for its ease of use and excellent visual-representation and chart-drawing features. Users outside education environments may occasionally wish for a few more design tools — many of the included symbols definitely have a generic, classroom aesthetic. But if you've ever lost a great idea in a brainstorming session's sticky tsunami, Inspiration will blow you away: it handles the grunt work of brainstorming for you, so you can concentrate on being inspired. As a concept-mapping and diagramming tool, Inspiration 7 is at the head of its class.


Author Bruce Krajewski reached out to me asking me to look at his story published on Akashic's Mondays Are Murder. I'm glad he did. In under 750 words he gives us two vivid characters and one hell of a great twist. I look forward seeing more of his work. Enjoy.
It's always great to find another crime fiction author from Australia. Whether it be Garry Disher's cops and criminals, Peter Corris' Cliff Hardy, or Peter Temple's heady noir tales. So it was great to discover this very Land Down Under take on committing the perfect murder by JJ Munro at Akashic's Mondays Are Murder site.
With it being International Crime Fiction Month, we will be offering some selections from Akashic Press' Mondays Are Murder blog series. The series challenges authors to write a short crime story under 750 words with a distinct setting. First we stop off at Heathrow Airport with Preston Lang's tale of con artist correspondence.