I've used Picasa for over 10 years to manage my family's photo library. We have about 50,000 images in there with 22,000 tags, stars, album memberships, etc. Now that Picasa will no longer be supported by Google, I had to find a replacement. And it really hasn't been easy. I thought I'd share my strategy for anybody who might be in a similar situation.
save images in directories named with this convention: YYYY/MMDD - eventname; typically, I dump images from my camera into a folder after a trip, or family gathering, etc.
I'm really happy with this process, and I refuse to give up my directory organization. If I were to lose all metadata, at least I would have the file organization to help me find photos from that trip to Jamaica in June of 2016, for example. And speaking of metadata, I really don't want to lose all the work I've done in starring photos, face tagging, and filing photos in albums.
One of the problems with Picasa is that its metadata is stored in databases external to the photos. These are stored as PMP files, which presumably is a proprietary format used by the Picasa team. You may find advice online saying that you can get this information from EXIF/IPTC data in the files, but I believe that refers to previous versions of Picasa. I did find meta data in EXIF for some of my photos, but definitely not all. I believe the only place to get all the meta data is from the PMP database files.
My first thought was to try to use Amazon Photos or Google Photos because it would be so easy, and I could even get the storage for free (for Amazon, as a prime member — Google is also free, but only if you're willing to accept reduced resolution on your images).
Amazon Photos turned out to be very feature-incomplete. Not really good for much more than a backup of our photos.
Google Photos is richer, but still isn't a 1-for-1 replacement for Picasa. You can't control how your photo files are organized into folders (it's essentially one big bucket), and it doesn't support starring or tagging images, which is unfortunate. It does have cool searchability, though — you can search for photos of "flowers", and even if you never tagged or captioned any of your photos with the word "flower" or "flowers", it can find a lot of flower photos. Pretty incredible. But the direct photo management isn't good enough for my purposes.
Ultimately, I gave up on Lychee. I hope that the developer continues to expand its capabilities, and someday, it might be a viable Picasa replacement.
After looking at a variety of image management desktop applications, the one that seemed the most versatile is digikam. I haven't found any other tools with as much power to inspect embedded metadata, and its UI is fairly similar to Picasa's. It also doesn't care how you organize the files on disk; it even has nice support for accessing your images over a network share. And I don't think I'll have problems with metadata lock-in; it can write metadata to the image files if you want, and its databases are sqlite3 databases, which means I'll have no problems exporting data from them someday if need be.
I figured the best way to get this information was to move all of it into tags inside of Picasa, and then find a way to read the tags and write them to embedded metadata int he images. Then digikam can read the embedded metadata when it scanned the directory tree for new images.
Turn on the "show only starred images" filter. Select all images in your entire library, and add the tag "pstar" to them.
Admittedly, some of these steps can be quite tedious. And there actually are other ways to get things like face tagging, but I preferred to use one technique for all my metadata.
Once I got the metadata into Picasa tags, I needed to find a way to read the metadata from the Picasa database files. Luckily for me, Wayne Vosberg has built a library to read these PMP files: picasa3meta. I was able to leverage it to build a tool to traverse my entire photo directory structure and extract tags for each file. The tool can then call exiftool to write embedded metadata to the image files. My tool is here: picasa_tags_to_exif.py. My script is very rough, and is intended to serve more as an example than a finished product. I can explain a few things about it.
I am not submitting a pull request to make this change, because it doesn't apply to all environments. It's fairly unique to my environment where the files are in a Linux filesystem, but were indexed by Picasa on an SMB share.
This took many hours to run on 50,000 images. Be ready to let it run unattended. Use screen to continue running it in the background in case you get disconnected from your Linux machine.
At the end of the process, all the tagging is available inside of the images themselves, making it available to Digikam. I am running Digikam on an Ubuntu workstation, so I mounted the SMB share on my Raspberry Pi as a cifs volume, and then I pointed Digikam at that path, letting it scan for images, which took several hours. Once it was done, though, I had all my photos available, and I could restore the metadata that I had in Picasa.
To restore stars, use the left toolbar to select the "Tags" view. Select the tag "pstar". You'll see all your starred photos across all the albums you filed them in. Select all, and then star one of the images (all will get starred). It's up to you how you want to translate a Picasa star into Digikam stars. You could give each Picasa-starred image a single star, which would give you flexibility to assign up to 4 additional stars to really good photos. Or maybe you'd prefer to give them all 3 stars, with levels above and below.
With my filing strategy, the directories I filed my photos in become Digikam "albums". These don't have quite the same meaning as an album in Picasa, where the photos may come from different directories on the filesystem, but belong together for some reason (subject, photo style, quality, etc.). If you opt for such a filing strategy, the Digikam albums won't be very meaningful, but you can still create the old concept of Picasa albums via tags. It's simple to view all the photos with a common tag by choosing the Tags view from the left toolbar and selecting the desired tag.
With this technique, the facial recognition from Picasa won't be directly translated into the Digikam "People" concept. You'll have tags for each person, so again, you would use the Tags view to filter your library for all the photos of your Great Aunt Matilda.
There might be a better way to get that face recognition data into Digikam. I have used exportpicasa to export all the recognition data into a nice XML file, complete with rectangles indicating where Picasa found each face. I just haven't tried to get it into Digikam.
I hope this helps somebody who was feeling as frustrated as I was when Picasa was end-of-lifed. I think we have to be smart about our media management, and be realistic — no software tool will exist forever. But the value of a media library is in the curation, which is extremely time consuming. We absolutely need the metadata to be stored in a portable way. Storing the data inside the images themselves is a good way to make sure that any good media software can access it. Not everybody likes to do that for a variety of reasons (safety of rewriting the image files and performance issues come to mind), but even if you opt to not write the data to the images, Digikam's data is stored in databases that use well-understood formats (sqlite3) and have public documentation of their schemas. I'm confident that this is a platform that will safely carry your media library into the next generation of media management.
Thank you for this very helpful article – I am sure I am just one among many who are wrestling with the same problem. One question following on your strategy: how are you going to do face recognition and marking?
Thanks for the info. One question, though: did you manage to transfer the edits/corrections made on the photos, too? Picasa correctly stores them separately from the original photos, and I would like to preserve both the original and the edited version. Is this possible without having to "export" each photo in Picasa and withouth ending with two physical jpeg files for each photo (edited and original)?
Thanks for posting. I too share your pain and agree that digiKam is a good match to Picasa feature set. If you are still looking for a web based solution, perhaps http://piwigo.org/ may be for you.
Great article, I'm sharing almost the same situation and challenges. Thanks for documenting it so clearly!
I am also looking for a Picasa replacement. The main feature I want is the ability to select a subset of images from one or more folders – move them into an album, and within the album, rearrange them. I add captions to the photos to help tell a story. So it is important that the photos are displayed in this new sequence. Sequencing does not appear to be possible with Digikam from I can tell.
In Picasa I also liked the ability to then take my album and export it with the prepended sequence number – that way I can send the files into facebook, etc and these application have ability to display alphabetically by filename. Not even close to being possible in Digicam.
These are my top requirements for a photo management system. So far ACDSee Professional can do this but does this in a somewhat clunky manner and is not free – although I am willing to pay if that is my only choice.
Thank you for this post. I'm in a similar situation and your experience will help me migrate away from the huge investment I put into Picasa.
I must be missing something? I've used Picasa since day one, and have tagged freely all that time. All of my tags are embedded in the images themselves and are read by all of the image viewers I've tried, including digiKam which I am also now migrating to.
I'd previously ticked the 'store name tags in photos' box in Picasa options, so all photos are already tagged with names.
So not sure why you need the 'picasa3meta' stage? I'm only commenting on this just in case I have missed something and will lose data once I uninstall picasa, but I can't see anything missing so far.
It is annoying that digiKam has no real equivalent to the albums feature as used in Picasa, it only has basic colour and flag labels, which are the closest equivalent, but this is a poor substitute.
The star feature in picasa is more of a 'flagging' rather than a rating, so the flags used in digiKam are a direct replacement for this.
Sorry, I meant that is how I always used the star feature, i.e. as a quick way to temporarily mark photos to bring them together in one place before eg giving them all the same tag, or adding them to a themed album. Obviously you used the star more as a favourites/like function.
Still on picasa, do your programs work? Rough means?
First of all, thank you for this post. I faced the same issue, I spent the long days on creating a huge collection of photos with over 2000 of people tagged. I really didn't want to lose the hours of work I've put into that and when I was seeking for some solution, I've found your blog. So thanks to you, I've discovered the exportpicasa tool, which helped me to export the Picasa database into XML file.
Then my job was only to inspect the Digikam's SQLite database, which was pretty straightforward, and then I've just written a simple Python script to load data from XML into SQLite.


How much does it cost to move from Fort Lewis to Bothell?
How much does it cost to move from Fort Lewis, Washington to Bothell, Washington? The distance is 52 miles, so most of the moving expense will be in the labor to load and unload your belongings.


This is one of those songs that the crowd always raps along with whenever I play it at a party. Slick Rick's storytelling was truly a gift, with his smooth delivery and accent, he was among the Hip Hop elite when his debut album dropped. Though the video he has for the song doesn't do much justice, by the time it was released the song was already cemented as one of Hip Hops best ever.
knock 'em out da box Rick.
Busta Rhymes: Brooklyn Hip-Hop Fest.
For music fans in New York City the summer is a time for an exceptional amount of outdoor and even indoor concerts. New York residents can find live performances from every genre of music imaginable, in every borough of the city. Summer concerts can also be found through out the suburbs of Long Island and Upstate New York as well. For fans of urban music there is Central Park Summer Stage, Black August, Afro Punk Fest and plenty more.
For the last eight years, showcasing non-commercial Hip-Hop acts has been the focal point of The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival. The organizers have found a formula that resonates with underground Hip-Hop fans. This annual event has been a home to artists and DJ's like DJ Premier, DJ Evil Dee, Nitty Scott, Jeru The Damaja, De la Soul, Atribe Called Quest, Skyzoo and many more. The event has always been hosted by "Uncle" Ralph McDaniels of the now thirty year old Video Music Box. What host could represent the borough of Brooklyn better?
This years performance was made special by it's headline act, Busta Rhymes. The first thing to appreciate about Bustas' performance was the way he opened his show by performing the crowd motivating "Jump, Jump", which drew a very excited reaction from the audience. Busta showed his deep commitment to doing a monumental performance by adding respected Hip-Hop luminaries to his peformance. Lil Fame of M.O.P. joined Busta on stage to do a very energetic version of "Ante Up". Buck Shot of Black Moon touched the mic to do his classics, "How Many M.C.'s" and "Don't Front". The CoCoa Brovaz, Tek And Steele joined Buck Shot on stage to do even more Boot Camp Classics. As if that wasn't enough Busta brought the legendary Slick Rick on stage to do what can be considered a Hip-Hop fable, "Childrens' Story".
Apart from doing a string of his own hits, Busta reached a critical point in his performance when he reunited the members of Leaders Of The New School, Dinco D and Charlie Brown.They did their crowd pleasing classic "Case Of The P.T.A." This was the first time Leaders Of The New School performed on stage together in nineteen years. Busta went a step further to bring A Tribe Called Quest on stage to do the groundbreaking "Scenario", which generated very rowdy reaction from crowd.
In the final analysis Bustas' 2012 Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival performance was equally as good as the legendary past performances of Q-Tip and De La Soul. It will be the topic of discussion for years.


Yesterday I walked over the Ngamoko Range to Leon Kinvig hut in the headwaters of the Pohangina river. In the evening I explored a short distance down the river until, on the verge of turning back, I heard a whistle. The light had almost gone, but by bracing the camera on a huge boulder I managed some photographs of this lone male whio.
"Make sure you take it from my best side!" A wonderful image, Pete - look at those strong feet!
He blends so beautifully into his background. So glad you managed the meeting.
He is one with the rock and river.
Thanks Lisa. They need strong feet to paddle in the rapids of those mountain streams!
RR, I've often noticed how it's that bill that stands out, particularly in the low light of dusk. It's surprisingly bright, and I wonder whether it might help them keep track of each other easily. I don't know how it would possible to test that, though.
Zhoen, they're so much part of that environment that seeing them anywhere else (i.e. in captivity) just seems wrong.


The true level of change required is nearly always underestimated.
The first step is to acknowledge the nature and scope of change required to optimise the business opportunity or strategy – and be honest about the gap in all areas.
Realising the benefits of change requires active and focused processes.
Change happens, most easily, from the top down.
Change leaders must demonstrate the 'We are already there' values and behaviours that are aligned to and supportive of the future vision.
What are the benefits, "what's in it for them?
How will you know the change outcomes have been achieved?
How will you know you are getting there?
Skills and knowledge for each X4MIS Component will be published in the Training Section (work in progress).
While the Change Institute will provide X4MIS training, the Change Management Methodology is Free to use and by association any qualified organisation can offer training for the defined competencies.


text:
January 10, 2022 177 views	Africa, London Global Cancer Week
It takes courage to persevere when confronted with extreme difficulty. It was this quiet strength that helped teenager Rehanna Nolte prevail despite two bouts of cancer and a life-changing decision she had to make because of the disease. Her story is shared by Ela Meiring, an 18-year-old correspondent from South Africa.
It was a gloomy August morning in 2019 and I didn't have the energy to get out of bed. I took my phone and scrolled through Instagram when I stumbled across a story that made me think twice about how I was feeling at that moment. While I was battling teenage acne, another girl my exact age was faced with a decision that would change the course of her life.
As running is my passion, so was netball to Rehanna Nolte. But not only was she passionate, she was also very good at the sport and always represented her school's A-team. One day as she was playing, she felt a sharp pain in her left ankle. Thinking she had strained a muscle, the grade 8 student started wearing an ankle brace to practice and tournaments to prevent further injury. But the discomfort did not disappear. In fact, it became worse.
Rehanna was in excruciating pain. The medication she took was not working. The pain made her cry after practice sessions and tournaments and kept her wide awake at nights. But it was when she was forced to ask her netball coach if she could stop playing while her team was in the middle of a tournament that she knew something was seriously wrong. She was pulling out of the sport she loved most. Surely, the issue had to be more than a strained ankle.
The teenager immediately notified her parents that she had to go for X-ray scans as soon as possible. The following day she went to her scheduled appointment, and just an hour later, the orthopaedist contacted the family. It was urgent. Rehanna was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, an extremely aggressive type of bone cancer that destroys the tissue and weakens the bone.
She received nine bags of chemotherapy and had to undergo ankle replacement surgery – a procedure which involved replacing her entire ankle and part of her tibia with titanium. She was only the fifth person in South Africa to have received this procedure. Once that operation was successful, she received an additional nine bags of chemotherapy. It was a difficult period, but Rehanna soldiered through. She was now cancer-free and, like the pivoting movement in netball, it seemed her world would once again calmly rotate on its axis.
She was sitting in Biology class in grade 10 when she felt a sharp pain in the area where the titanium was situated. This time, she immediately knew that something was terribly wrong. She was unable to walk due to the pain, so she contacted her parents and they arranged for X-rays to be taken. It was their worst fear. Her cancer had returned – this time in her fibula bone. The sharp pain she felt was due to the enormity of her tumour, resulting in her fibula bone being fractured. The only option the doctor gave Rehanna was to amputate her leg. She had three days to make this life-altering decision.
It was a choice between life and death – a decision that could change the direction of her future. I cannot help but reflect on my own feelings at that point in my life. I had dreaded going to school with my acne-filled face, but my issues were minute when compared to hers. At 16-years-old, Rehanna made the unimaginable resolution to amputate her leg. The very next day, her left leg was amputated below the knee. After that, she received sixteen bags of chemotherapy.
The teenager had chosen life at the expense of a limb. But she was struggling with the trauma of being an amputee and didn't feel beautiful with her prosthetic leg. Ironically, I thought her to be one of the prettiest and most courageous girls I had ever seen. Unfortunately, one never knows what another person faces in silence.
Three months after her amputation, she stood at the edge of a cliff, ready to end her life. Thankfully, she did not take that irreversible step, but she continued to struggle and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Two years have passed and Rehanna is still cancer-free and is grateful to be alive. While the trauma of her ordeal remains, she has made considerable progress in terms of improving her mental well-being.
There is a quote from Bianca Sparcino that I believe encapsulates the essence of Rehanna's story. It says "Sometimes courage is a quiet fight, a dim softness within you, that flickers even on your darkest days and reminds you that you are strong, that you are growing – that there is hope."
Photo Credits: Canva
About Ela Meiring: I've always loved writing, my best exam grades always came from essay writing. I also love children and want to give them the best start in life. Because of this, I am currently studying for my Bachelor degree in Foundation Phase Education at STADIO. I enjoy challenges and recently wrote an essay for the Queen's Commonwealth Essay Competition for which I won a silver award.
Pivot, don't pause youth work
'BUHARINOMICS' OF TAXATION
Single women in Cameroon, especially those in their late 20s to 30s, are often stigmatised due…

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The kalmstrom.com issue tracking tool, Folder HelpDesk for Outlook has been updated. This time we have added new HTML views and given a possibility to show the e-mail received date on the ticket.
Among the many Folder HelpDesk features is the possibility to visualize tickets in different HTML views: Kanban, Month, Year, Timeline Responsibles, Timeline Incidents, Timeline Callers and Incidents.
In this version, the design of the HTML views is improved and has been made more user friendly. Now you can reach all the HTML views from a single dropdown.
Folder HelpDesk gives various options to customize the ticket form, among them the option to automatically save non- existent values, assign default values for minutes worked and more.
Now a new feature has been added to the ticket form settings: 'Show e-mail received time in the ticket'. Several subscribers have asked for this feature, so we know that it will be appreciated.
Our subscriptions include support and upgrades. If your organization is a Folder HelpDesk subscriber, you are welcome to upgrade your installation. You may download the setup file from the kalmstrom.com website.
If your team wants to cooperate on support cases in Outlook, I would recommend that you try Folder HelpDesk. You may download the full version of Folder HelpDesk and try it for 30 days without any obligations. Do not hesitate to contact our Support team, if you need assistance during your evaluation period.
Folder HelpDesk can be subscribed to on a yearly or monthly basis. Our Sales department is here to help you if you have any queries regarding the subscription.
This update was just minor, but the kalmstrom.com developers are working on a major new version with several important enhancements. I will come back and tell you more about them in a later blog post.


Heavy duty commercial stage in 4' x 4' or 2' x 4' sections. Grey plywood construction with heavy duty leg assembly. Legs can be built in 6' - 60" height. X braces required over 3'. Guard rails and steps are rented separately. Installation by Best Event is available at an extra cost. Intended for active groups or large amounts of people. If stage is erected at 30" height we have linen skirting available in black, blue, white, hunter or off-white. For other heights, we recommend cutting and using plastic disposable skirting.
* Please call us with any questions you may have about our stage 4 foot x 4 foot section rentals/sales in State College, serving Central Pennsylvania.


text:
Q: Groupby and xtract aggregated median values of a Spark DF code link
from transforms.api import transform, Input, Output
import pyspark.sql.functions as f
@transform(
output1=Output("/Buyers/clean/median_750_buyers"),
output2=Output("/Buyers/clean/cleaned/split_purchase_log_data", sever_permissions=True),
my_input=Input("/Buyers/raw_data/purchase_log"),

def get_median_750_buyers(ctx, my_input, output1, output2):
my_input = my_input.dataframe()

# group by buyer_name,continent and clothing item and extract the 25 median buyers from each of the 30 possible combinations
 df = my_input.groupby('buyer_name', 'continent','clothing_items') \
             .count() \
             .select("buyer_name", f.col('count').alias('buyer_name_count')) \
             .sort(f.desc("buyer_name_count"))

# get the total row in the new dataframe
rowCount = df.count()

I have a spark dataframe that is 1,000,000 rows of purchase records with over 50,000 unique buyers of 5 different types of clothing apparell that gets purchased from 6 continents
6 Continents : (N.America,Europe,Asia, Africa, S.America, Australia)
5 Clothing Item :(Hat,Pants,T-Shirt, Coat,Socks)
I want to get from each combination of 6 Continents and 5 clothing items = (30 combinations) a dataframe of the 25 buyers names that are closest to the median value when you groupby the buyer_name column. So this would be a total of 750 buyers and all of the rows of their purchase data extracted and saved to a dataframe called "750_median_buyers".
The ask is to have this done with pyspark code.
Thanks any help is much appreciated!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Running is not just about good running shoes. There is an aim when you take up running. However, many a time people are confused about what to eat before a run because if you eat too much prior to a run, you can feel your stomach making you sick and if you don't eat enough, you feel your knee buckling after a couple of miles. The right food can help you run well. You must ensure that your diet contains all the nutrients that are required for proper fueling for the run. You must have a proper diet before running if you are aiming high and want to reach your fitness goal more effectively. Your ideal pre-run diet should be enriched in nutrients and enable you to have the energy for your runs. Here is a proper guide to your ideal pre-run diets.
Although, having something within two hours prior to a run but something quick and with just enough amounts of calories, low fibre, and low fat can be an ideal snacking option. You still need to watch the calorie part, have something with a mild amount of calorie in it.
A small bowl of apple sauce or a glass of apple juice could be the right choice. The idea is to have enough sugar to make the run last longer. You can also go for cherry, cranberry juice and any other juice that can offer quercetin which is an antioxidant. However, some runners have complained of going wobbly because of blood sugar spike, so to avoid this have some almonds and boiled egg white to slow down the absorption of sugar. Protein slows down the absorption of sugar.
An abundant amount of raisins, dates and figs can be carried along while you go on a run. They can offer you quick calories on the run along with some micronutrients. Many runners go for energy bars for micronutrients and nuts can be your supply for micronutrients. Micronutrients are very important during the run. Along with micronutrient, figs, raisins and dates contain flavonoids, antioxidants, polyphenolic, iron, potassium, calcium and magnesium.
If you are aiming for a longer run, you will require protein and fat to keep you full. Some rice cakes with nut butter and honey can give you quick carbs and slow burning fat. You can also have white bread instead of rice cakes.
If you are a coffee enthusiast and a runner, just a cup of espresso will do you good but avoid it if you are not a coffee person. If you face any health issue after caffeine intake then avoid coffee as much as possible.
You must complete your 8 hours sleep before running in the morning. Sleep deprivation can make you feel tired in the morning can become a reason to skip the run. To feel energetic in the morning you must sleep properly.


text:
HubrisWeen Day 20: The Thing (1982)
Written by Bill Lancaster, based on the short story "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell
Directed by John Carpenter
Kurt Russell: R. J. MacReady
Wilford Brimley: Dr. Blair
Keith David: Childs
Rob Bottin: Special Makeup Effects Creator and Designer
If I were curating a film festival, I think I'd want to do one on influential flops. Movies that went on to get ripped off dozens of times in different ways, but which were greeted with indifference or hostility when they were originally released. Weirdly enough, three of the films in this hypothetical festival were released the same year in 1982, and none of them came close to making their money back. Disney took a bath on Tron, but it set up the visual grammar of cyberpunk and paved the way for computer effects in movies for the next three decades. Blade Runner gave us futuristic noir and set design that's still being copied for rain-drenched cityscapes on a decaying Earth. And this film launched a hundred careers, the makeup and animatronic effects still more impressive than lesser acheivements even a quarter century or more after the film's release. I bet John Carpenter's kicking himself that he made such a great movie about extraterrestrial contamination and paranoia, and it wound up getting released right after E.T. set box office records while treating the first alien contact as a fable of hope and love.
The movie starts with two Norwegian dudes in a helicopter chasing after a huskie. One's flying the chopper and the other is shooting at the dog with an automatic rifle.
Meanwhile, in an American research station, the pastimes appear to be ping-pong, drinking, and losing to a computer chess program. MacReady manages to combine the latter two pastimes into one, because he likes to be efficient. When the helicopter flies over the American station, it's probably the most interesting and unusual thing that's happened there in months. One of the Norwegians manages to drop a thermite grenade while trying to throw it, and the previous most-interesting-thing record is immediately surpassed when the helicopter and pilot are immolated. The surviving dog-attacker screams the setup for the plot in untranslated Norwegian and shoots one of the Americans on base while trying to kill the dog. He's so focused on the dog that he doesn't notice an American drawing a bead on him and gets dropped with a single shot to the eye.
Everyone at the research station wants to know more about what the hell just happened, but their radio operator can't raise anyone to report the attack; two theories put forward by curious researchers include "people go crazy out here because it's so confined and the surroundings are so dangerous" and "we might be at war with Norway and nobody told us". In order to get more information about what the hell happened, and possibly help anyone who needs it back at the Norwegian base, the American helicopter pilot and doctor go to investigate.
Well, the doctor investigates. But the other base is an hour away by air and someone's got to take the horrible risk of flying out in the snow during the start of winter in Antarctica to give the doctor a look at the Norwegian camp. While that's going on, the rescued dog pads around the base silently, looking less like it's exploring a new environment and more like it's searching for something it already knows is there. Carpenter's skill with editing is apparent in the scenes that introduce the dog; when it turns back to look at the helicopter it's really just an insert shot of the dog happening to turn around, but inserted at the point where it's been placed makes it look like the dog really does know what the helicopter is and needs to keep tabs on its position. And padding around the base quietly, it just doesn't seem to be acting like a dog should. Kudos to the animal trainers and to Carpenter for knowing how to set up the sequences that have a non-human actor in them. And hey, maybe it just turned out that Jed the dog was just a good actor.
At the Norwegian camp, there's good news and bad news: The bad news is everyone's dead of either suicide or homicide, but the good news is parts of it are still smoldering so it's not all that cold. Along with the bodies (one dripping with blood icicles) is the ominous sight of a huge ice block that's had something slightly larger than a human body chopped out of it. MacReady and the doctor gather up all the material they think will help figure out what the hell happened at the other station (including a frozen body that looks like two or more people melted together like candle wax) and fly back to the American base.
The autopsy on the impossible body reveals nothing out of the ordinary--all the internal organs are present and accounted for and other than the kerosene burns that killed it there's no way for the doctor to determine why it looks as horrifying as it does (and again, here's proof that Carpenter knew what he was doing when he made this film--we get a series of nice close looks at the alien's body-horror form when it's inert and dead. It's not just a grossout effect and a source of exposition, it's foreshadowing of what the creature can do and letting the viewer know what's coming during the second and third acts).
And hey, here comes a scene where that happens! The newly arrived Norwegian canine is sent to the kennel with the station's existing supply of dogs--which start barking and growling the second their handler leaves. Then the dog's head peels apart and its body sprouts tentacles and spider-legs while the other dogs go berserk and try to escape from the fenced-in kennel. The station's dog kennelmaster checks on his charges and sees something he can't even interpret. A pistol and shotgun only irritate the monster (which grows spindly arms and hauls itself up into the ceiling rafters), but the flamethrower that the base has for some reason makes short work of the absorbed and modified dog left in the kennel.
The doctor's autopsy of the dead monster clues everyone in to what they're facing: An organism that digests and duplicates its prey--when it looked like a dog, it was really a being capable of warping its own cells to create whatever it needs to deal with any given situation. The tentacles, teeth and acid spit it manifested in the kennel were probably natural defenses or weapons from something it ate and replicated earlier in its life. And now, of course, it can look like a dog. And perhaps a person as well, given the implications of the scene where it was wandering around the base unsupervised and none of the American researchers knew they were stuck in an isolated spot with a monster.
An examination of the Norwegians' video records shows they found something in the ice (and has a few nods to the original James-Arness-as-a-vegetable-monster version of the story from 1951); MacReady flies out to the site with a couple other scientists and they find a flying saucer that's been frozen in the ice for tens of thousands of years, as well as the rectangular pit created when the Norwegians chipped the creature out of the ice. During a discussion with the rest of the base staff, MacReady immediately concedes that it sounds insane and that he doesn't have any of the scientific or medical training needed to explain it.
The doctor, working with an advanced-for-1983 computer, comes up with an algorithm that predicts one or more of the Americans on the research base are almost certainly duplicates; as if that isn't bad enough, the computer projects that if the monster makes it to a civilized area it'll be three years and change before every human being on Earth has been killed, absorbed and duplicated by the creature. The best case scenario is that everyone at the research station kills themselves as a precaution in order to save the world.
The worst case scenario is that the world will end no later than May of 1985. The doctor's notes, read to MacReady, also point out that the body of the alien isn't dead yet (this whole scene is Lovecraftian in the best way, revealing the true scope of the threat to the protagonist and audience at the same time). This revelation comes too late to save Bennings, who was alone with the creature's body from the Norwegian camp long enough to be imperfectly duplicated; the Benning-Thing creature gets incinerated out in the snow as the rest of the base watches in horror at what they've done and what happened to their colleague.
The doctor smashes up the radio room, the helicopter and the snow tractor that would let anyone on the base escape to civilization. He's actually doing the right thing to save humanity, but it looks indistinguishable from a complete psychotic break. Immediately after this MacReady breaks the news to everyone else that one or more of them has already been duplicated--this leads to Childs pointing out that a perfect enough copy wouldn't just be indistinguishable to everyone else, but to himself as well. Without a way to test everyone for contamination they're all doomed to be killed and absorbed by spring and when the rescue team shows up they'll be eaten within minutes of their arrival.
So all that's left for the remaining researchers to do is figure out who among them is still human and kill the ones that have already been duplicated. "Easier said than done" comes to mind, and ironically it's a character that wasn't suspected at all that winds up revealing he was already absorbed and replicated when he has a heart attack and the doctor trying to restart his heart with a defibrillator gets taken as a threat and killed.
The most suspenseful scene of the whole damn movie happens next--a blood test where everyone has to have their blood poked with a hot wire (because human blood won't do anything but burn and smell bad but a sample of Thing cells will interpret that as an attack and react, letting everyone know instantly who has been duplicated. As it turns out, nobody knows if they've been taken over or not. Watching the relief on the actors' faces when their blood is normal sells just how desperate the situation is. In 1982, the idea of a blood test telling you if you were dead already sounds like an AIDS metaphor more than anything; there's one more piece of contamination horror to go with the rending flesh and alien shrieks.
The blood test itself winds up showing one of the characters as a duplicate, and one more dies in the ensuing attack. But even after that and a series of events that result in the destruction of the base, the audience cannot be fully sure if the remaining characters have saved the world, or will be starting the alien conquest over again as soon as their bodies are taken somewhere above freezing...
Man, I'm ticked that I was only seven when this movie came out. It had to be amazing to see the super-gruesome Rob Bottin effects on the big screen and without warning. Slime, blood, spittle, ooze, ichor and flesh in super-widescreen? I would have dug the hell out of that when I was old enough to not be terrified for a couple years every time I closed my eyes. The script is amazingly smart, sketching a dozen different characters and giving the audience constant ambiguity about who is or isn't an alien replicant from the moment the heroes know what's going on. The shifting alliances and paranoia keep the viewer on edge just as much as the characters and the cramped shots inside the American base contrast with the endless vistas of ice and show outside. I strongly suspect the people behind The Hitcher saw this one; they were obviously horror fans and the desert shots with one lone figure in the wastes recall the shots of MacReady's helicopter flying across the vast desolation.
I can fully understand why critics were appalled by the movie when it came out--it's a horror movie that actually horrifies, and it's got half a dozen set pieces where flesh rips and blood flows in a manner totally unprecedented to audiences or critics. But movies are a source of visual spectacle; I can remember being blown away just looking at Tarsem Singh's The Fall event though the story didn't really do anything for me and the child actress was incomprehensible at times. This movie, especially three decades ago, was the source of images that had never been seen before and would rarely be seen again. And I see it as the opening shot of the animatronics revolution that ruled science fiction and horror cinema for a decade or so, until James Cameron made a sequel to his time travel death robot movie and gave everyone a look at what was possible then.
There's been a remake and a video game based on this movie, and I feel weird saying "accept no substitutes" about a remake, but...accept no substitutes. This one's the real deal. Even if only a few people noticed that in its original run.
I was old enough to see this in the theatre (well, nearly, and my mother was willing to play along at the cashier), and it was indeed pretty damn startling on the great big screen.
I don't know if, in the time since you've written this, you've managed to see the remake-- if not, set some time aside, as it's more of a carefully crafted prequel. There's only one moment of hard-to-swallow nonsense toward the end, but otherwise it plays by the same rules as Carpenter, and relies on a lot of practical effects rather than CGI so one doesn't get that video-game sensation that gives the disbelief suspension such a pummelling. They do a very good job blending into the opening of Carpenter's film, too. I wouldn't recommend seeing them out of chronological sequence, but if you like one, you'll like the other.
...and since this is my first comment as a stranger, I should mention: I found my over from a link on "1000 Misspent Hours and Counting", and I'm enjoying my wander back through your work immensely.
Tim Lehnerer July 31, 2014 at 6:47 PM
Thank you so much for the kind words! I've been a big fan of Santo's work on 1000 Misspent Hours for years and it's an amazing ego boost to find out that someone who likes his work likes mine as well.
I haven't seen the remakeprequelrebootsequel yet, but it's on the list. Maybe I'll do that one for T this HubrisWeen.
And I always thought practical effects looked better because they had to be lit on the same set or location as the actors; they just tend to occupy the reality of the scene more effectively than a CG creature or blood spray does.


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UEE's bodyline
2014/04/27 Source
Everyone's attention is on UEE's frame.
Pictures of her were posted recently on an online community center.
Afterschool member UEE and actress has always been known for her outstanding body line. Her thigh's are the most attractive of all.
UEE is 171cm tall and has a wannabe body with a small face and long legs.
Netizens say, "She's so long and tall", "I'm so jealous" and more.
Meanwhile, UEE was recently in the MBC drama "Golden Rainbow".
Source : www.newsen.com/news_v...
Copy & paste guideline for this article
Always put a link back to the source and HanCinema permalink
"UEE's bodyline"
by HanCinema is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work from this source
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Tag Archives: optimism
Sondang, a fiery young man with a mission
Iqra Anugrah, Columbus, Ohio | Sat, 12/17/2011 3:41 PM
Link: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/12/17/sondang-a-fiery-young-man-with-a-mission.html
*Picture created by Budi Winursito
The Arab Spring started when Mohamed Bouazizi, a young Tunisian street vendor, burned himself alive to protest his dissatisfaction with the Ben Ali regime.
Here in Indonesia, the nation was shocked by the self-immolation of Sondang Hutagalung, a 22-year-old university student and activist who set himself on fire during a protest in front of the State Palace in Jakarta on Dec. 7.
Using his body and his life as a medium to convey a message, he expressed his criticism and disappointment with the political elite.
His death and courage soon became a topic in the media and for discussion in the public sphere. Sondang was no mediocre activist. An admirer of Sukarno's ideas, Sondang was actively involved in various human rights groups and civil society initiatives, such as Kontras, Sahabat Munir and many others. Throughout his life, he helped many victims of human rights abuses receive justice.
And yet, Sondang was also one of us. A bright law student at Bung Karno University who did well in his studies, he had a family, friends, and even a girlfriend.
As an ordinary Indonesian citizen, his concern about the nation trumped the lip service and rhetoric from the political class.
However, the big question is what was the message he was trying to communicate through his self-immolation?
Different interpretations and debates on the meaning and impact of his action have abounded. Was it a symbol of a pessimistic frustration? Was it a call for resistance? Some of us even criticized, labeled and judged his act as "useless" or "not in line with religious teachings".
Nevertheless, I believe all of those interpretations are wrong. I understand Sondang's deed differently.
His self-immolation captured the current desperation that we feel as a nation. Despite the fact that we live in a democratic age, formal political channels have been hijacked and dominated by vested political interests, overriding power of capital in our public sphere and ignorance of our own history.
Sondang's message was not apocalyptic. Instead of pessimism, he shed light and gave us hope, as if he knew that his message would set us on fire to continue his struggle.
What makes his action more honorable is that rather than avoiding death, he embraced it. We may never know what was in his mind. But one thing is for sure: His message is even stronger than ever. As leftist independence fighter Tan Malaka once said, "My voice will be even louder from my grave."
Linking Sondang's death to a narrow interpretation of his fate in the afterlife or his attempt to change the political situation will cheapen the real meaning of his message and sacrifice for us.
Likewise, mourning his death excessively or, as many of our politicians are doing, hijacking the message of Bung Sondang while expressing condolences will also distort the spirit of his message.
The heroic case of Sondang is, essentially, a mandate for us to carry on with our lives. It is our duty, who are still alive, to continue his works for a more democratic and just Indonesia.
He who chose to set himself ablaze is a reminder of the importance of life, not the celebration of death, in civic engagement.
After this despair, what we need is a firm commitment and a practical manifestation of the legacy of Sondang.
In the context of our politics, critical attention must be given to human rights abuses, economic and welfare disparities, capital-driven politics and disrespect with lack of rule of law — issues that had been a focus for Sondang.
Moreover, this particular episode in our history reminds us to rethink the relevance of the student movement and its potential to transform our corrupt political landscape.
In the end, the brave attempt of Sondang sent us a signal of a possibility of revolutionary politics. Here, "revolutionary" should not be translated into a radical structural change or a drastic moment of rupture, but rather a gradual process to transform our democracy as deliberatively as possible.
Optimism, albeit cautious, is always better than despair. That, comrade Sondang, you have shown us.
The writer, a graduate of Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Japan, is pursuing a master's degree in political science at Ohio University, US.
Posted in Politics, Reflection	| Tagged hope, optimism, Politics, Sondang	| Leave a reply


The following resolution was passed by the National Lawyers Guild unanimously at its 78th convention, in Oakland, California, on October 24, 2015, reiterating its call to fully end the blockade on Cuba and also demanding an end to the IRS proceedings against the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) and other threats against organizations and people working to end the blockade on Cuba.
The NLG welcomes the recently announced policy of the US government to normalize relations with Cuba, pursuant to simultaneous to declarations by Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro. This includes mutual openings of embassies and full diplomatic recognition, the release of the Cuban five and other prisoners, and the subsequent removal of Cuba from the unilaterally maintained US list of nations that supposedly support terrorism.
3) the US State Department should immediately cease its continuing practice of unreasonably withholding or delaying issuance of non-immigrant visas to mainstream Cubans invited to visit the US by academic and professional organizations including the NLG and for this convention.
Implementation will be done by the NLG Cuba subcommittee, which will forward copies of this resolution and background information to all chapters and relevant committees, requesting supportive action on their part.


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Polkowice – miasto w województwie dolnośląskim, w powiecie polkowickim
 Polkowice – gmina miejsko-wiejska w województwie dolnośląskim, w powiecie polkowickim
 Polkowice – stacja kolejowa w Polkowicach, w województwie dolnośląskim, w powiecie polkowickim, w gminie Polkowice

Zobacz też
 CCC Polkowice
 Cuprum Polkowice
 Dekanat Polkowice
 KS Polkowice
 Orzeł Polkowice

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


David Lawrence Rare Coins (DLRC) is pleased to announce that effective March 1, 2017, they have formed a new affiliate relationship with Gary Akins, President of Gary Adkins and Associates (GAA). John Brush, President of DLRC, and Mr. Adkins have officially announced the blending of the assets of GAA and DLRC, which will continue under the DLRC name. Gary will maintain an office in Minneapolis, serving clients of both firms, while John will continue his role as President of DLRC.
Both firms are known for their commitment to collectors and their extreme dedication to customer satisfaction. They have devoted themselves to the principles of the Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG): honesty, integrity, and reliability, and will continue to provide great value, high quality and unsurpassed customer service.
Gary has been actively buying and selling rare coins for over 50 years and has been previously named the ANA Coin Dealer of the Year. He has also served as a past President of the Professional Numismatist Guild and recently received their Lifetime Achievement Award. Gary is currently the Vice President of the American Numismatist Association (ANA).
With Gary's enthusiasm and credentials, combined with John's youth, skills and foresight, the company will make new and meaningful advances in the numismatic marketplace. Building on both companies' combined web presence, they plan to offer greater variety and scope of inventory, expansive auction services which have been well established by DLRC, and increased convention attendance. Gary and John are committed to being there for customers at every level of service required, offering the very best their team can provide, and nothing less than their customers deserve!
If you're looking for the largest inventory of PCGS-, NGC- and CAC-certified U.S. and world coins—in stock and ready to ship immediately—you've found it at David Lawrence Rare Coins. We have simply been a trusted resource for discerning coin collectors since 1979. DLRC also carries over 7,500 coins available for immediate purchase, and offers a wildly popular weekly auction of fresh material ending every Sunday evening between 8pm and 11pm EST.
Our auctions usually feature 400 to 500 coins, including 50 to 100 lots, each with $1 starting bid and NO RESERVE. Also, David Lawrence is the only major coin auction company to sell all items with NO BUYER'S FEE. All orders (auction and buy-it-now) feature FREE standard shipping and a liberal return policy for non-auction purchases.
If you collect coins, take a look at our website for the very best selection. If you have any questions about your collection, one of our five full-time staff numismatists is available to assist you at any time.
If you are considering selling or consigning your coins to auction, please contact us today. We will make an immediate cash offer, or give you a great consignment rate. Nobody is more fair, or easier to deal with, than the folks at David Lawrence Rare Coins.


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Cossmann, Bernhard
A talented composer and violinist. Was born in Dessau, Germany, and studied under Espenhahn, Drechsler, Muller and Kummer in Dresden. He was cellist at the Italian Opera, Paris, and appeared in London in 1841. Returning to Germany, he played in the Gewandhaus at Leipsic, and at other important concerts. From 1866 to 1870 he was professor of the violoncello at the Conservatory at Moscow. Later he embraced the opportunity to study composition under Hauptmann and was first violoncello under Liszt at Weimar in 1850. Cossmann's works include a concertstuck for violoncello, pieces de Salon and fantasias on operatic motives. He was an acknowledged master of his instrument in Germany. In 1878 he was appointed professor at the Frankfort Conservatory, a position he still held in 1904. Says Grove: "He was a virtuoso of the first rank, and was remarkable alike for science, polished execution and power of singing on the instrument. Furthermore, he was a great soloist and an excellent chamber musician. He brought forward many new concertos as well as some unworthily neglected compositions."
‹ Cornelius, Peter up Costa, Sir Michael ›


The first letter of every word spells out a message: "poetry fun." Super-gimmicky, sure, but enjoyable! First one to write an acrostic haiku in the comments wins the honor of being the first person to write an acrostic haiku in the comments.
Wow, that's even harder. I like the title of your post too.
Hopefully that song won't be stuck in your head all day now!


John 5:28 reads:'Do not marvel at this because the hour is coming when all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out.' This speaks of a resurrection of our dead loved ones. Please visit www.jw.org or answers to bible questions.
This candle went out on 4th December 2015.


I like how you explained what happened and how you put some quotes in.
Jalyn – I like your use of quotes and images, too! I am also so impressed that you love basketball. This was a perfect article for you to do.


I am rooting for spacedev's efforts so hard I may just have to buy stock in the company.
You have the main asteroid belt out between Mars and Jupiter, and the minor asteroid belt between Earth and Mars. Scientists believe that there are approximately 100 million objects in the minor asteroid belt. It's known that 25 percent of those are energetically the easiest bodies to get to in the solar system. They're energetically easier to get to than the moon, even though the moon is two and a half days away and the asteroids are weeks and months away. Energy equals money.
Then there's more good news: Scientists believe and hope that approximately 20 percent of those 100 million objects may be dormant comets. That means there may be 20 million deposits of water in orbits around the sun between the earth and Mars. Well, 20 percent of 25 percent of 100 million translates into 5 million deposits of water that are the easiest things to get to in the solar system. Water is hydrogen and oxygen, and that's rocket fuel.
Decades ago, science-fiction author Robert Heinlein said that when we get to Earth orbit we're halfway to anywhere. What he meant was that the amount of energy to get us to Earth orbit is equal to the amount of energy needed to get us anywhere else in the solar system from Earth orbit. The problem we have today is that once we get to Earth orbit, our tanks are empty — and it requires a huge effort to get beyond Earth orbit, and that's why very few missions go out into to deep space.
If you had a railroad tanker car full of water in Earth orbit, that would be 100 tons of water. People recognize that it costs $5,000 to $10,000 per pound to get anything off the surface of the earth into orbit. That means lifting that amount of water into Earth orbit would cost $1 billion to $2 billion. If you were able to send a robotic drill and extraction device to one of the easiest and cheapest of the 5 million deposits of water, and bring back that much water back to Earth orbit, using the water itself as propellant, you'd wind up with an asset in low Earth orbit worth $1 billion to $2 billion.
Now we'd have a filling station. We can refuel our tanks, and we can open up the rest of the solar system. That's the killer app.
More specifically, the killer app is solar thermal water propulsion. That means taking something as simple as mirrors in space — where the solar energy is intense — simply reflecting that intense sunlight onto a little heat exchanger, squirting water from a big bag through the heat exchanger, flashing it to superheated steam out the nozzle in the back, and off you go.
That is what we refer to at SpaceDev as an elegantly simple solution. Elegant simplicity is what's going to open up space, and solar thermal water propulsion is elegantly simple. It goes out and brings back the very substance that is life support in its essence, water. And liquid water is also rocket propulsion.
There are 5 million deposits of water out there, that are the easiest things to get to in the solar system. Why in the world are we looking at deep dark craters at the south pole of the moon that are operating at nearly absolute zero? There's no sunlight down there. There's no energy down there. Even if there's water, it's more like a frost mixed in with frozen dust, sand and gravel. How are you going to mine it, extract it and put it to use? It's ludicrous, especially when we've got 5 million deposits of water that is 50 to 80 percent pure.
...I call dormant comets and water in space "white gold," as opposed to the black gold that allowed the modern industrial society to exist as it does today.
I just saw the missing data (the rectangles in this image) and thought of 2001 (not just the movie... but what actually happened in the real year 2001). . And also thought: Isn't the sun beautiful? Isn't it amazing how we can heliograph so many different ways now?
Later on, while catching a bit of that sun, I had a nagging suspicion that I'd mis-used the word heliography, thinking: "Helio" (meaning sun) and "graphy" (as in geography). Sure enough, I had. I'd meant to express "the study of the Sun")... but the word meant: photography!
And I wondered: Did Sol have to wait until 1826 for someone to take a picture of it?
I found another site preserving heliography as "the art of using mirrors for communications" .
Heliography is alive and well - and means all these things at the same time! Just look at how we can capture the sun today.
The Doc endorses Scanning them all! - and so do I. Every book, every publication, everything ever published - should be on the Internet. Only by doing this will our collective IQ increase to sustainable levels. We need a new library of Alexandria to survive the coming century.
Clicking around from home I am always awed by how far the Net has come... and then I go stand inside a magnificent library, like that of UC Santa Cruz - and weep - because 99.99% of the information contained in that single multi-story building - is not on the internet yet.
I note that your attempt to railroad the "Paid Political Internet Splogging Act" through the House was just defeated.
If you truly favor free internet speech, well, Denny, open up comments on your blog!
Can't you do that? Or is there some sort of franking rule that would prevent an open dialog of this sort? If so - don't you think that's more of a problem than freeing paid political bloggers from FEC requirements?
Thank you very much for contacting my office about an issue that I know concerns you greatly. Please note that this is an auto-reply to acknowledge that your email message has been received.
If you are a resident of the 14th Congressional District of Illinois, your position/views expressed in your message will be logged and if requested you will be receiving a response.
For those residing outside of the 14th Congressional District of Illinois, your position/views expressed in your message will be logged. At this time, due to Congressional franking privileges I am only able to respond to residents of the 14th Congressional District of Illinois. I would encourage you to also contact your Representative directly to express your views. You may do so by visiting http://www.house.gov/writerep/ and entering your zip code.
Two last things for today, then back to my build.
the egregious MPAA strikes again. I am no advocate of domestic terrorism, but I could understand how despicable actions like this could persuade some people that the entire regime is so corrupt that it ought to be brought down in blood. The actions of those who subvert the law to their own profit are rarely so visible and so contemptuously flouted as this. There cannot be one ethical person in the chain of commands from the top of the MPAA to the paralegals who assist in this activity: they are not only wrong, but they must know they are wrong.
Ah well, we will not have people's courts in this land. If we did, comes the revolution, comrades, I know where their headquarters is.
Thank you for blogging about the Online Freedom of Speech Act.
If you'd put up a link to the proposed bill's text - and invite others in the blogosphere to comment... you might prove to me that you're "getting it", and might actually be fit to legislate in this matter. I mean, this particular bill is kind of short, and I would hope that the typical blogging taxpayer might be able to read and understand what this bill is really about.
Bloggers don't all suffer from news attention deficit disorder.
The report shows that of the 32 states (and the District of Columbia) that are "winners" -- receiving more in federal spending than they pay in federal taxes -- 76% are Red States that voted for George Bush in 2000. Indeed, 17 of the 20 (85%) states receiving the most federal spending per dollar of federal taxes paid are Red States.
Personal outlays increased $169 billion (7.7 percent) in the third quarter, compared with an increase of $146.6 billion (6.8 percent) in the second. The personal savings rate -- saving as a percentage of disposable personal income -- decreased from 0.1 percent in the second quarter to a negative 1.1 percent in the third. This means that Americans on average in the third quarter actually dipped into their already accumulated savings instead of placing more money into their accounts.


DNA tests show that Dempsey Tyner was Caucasian, a descendant of Sarah Tyner and her neighbor, the married John Harris. (His DNA matches that of related Harris families.) We don't know the exact line of descent. It should be noted that a man who lived with a tribe, took part in tribal activities, and had children who married native Americans would quite likely be regarded as a member of the tribe and would call himself Cherokee, even though he had no Cherokee blood.


For former smokers it took more than 15 years for cardiovascular disease risk to return to the level of those who never smoked, according to preliminary research to be presented in Chicago at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2018, a premier global exchange of the latest advances in cardiovascular science for researchers and clinicians.
Cigarette smoking in the United States is on the decline, which means there are more former smokers. Studies to date suggest that the increased risk for cardiovascular disease in smokers diminishes a few years after quitting, but those studies have not been able to look as closely at smoking history, including changes in smoking habits such as variations in cigarettes smoked per day, or quitting followed by relapse to smoking.
In this study, researchers analyzed information, including lifetime smoking history, of nearly 8,700 participants of the Framingham Heart Study who were free of cardiovascular disease at the start of the study. The midpoint of follow-up among participants was 27 years, during which cardiovascular disease risk was compared among current, former and never smokers.
More than 70 percent of cardiovascular disease events in current or former smokers occurred among those who smoked at least 20 pack-years, which is the equivalent exposure of one pack a day for 20 years.
Former smokers who had quit within the last five years reduced their cardiovascular disease risk by 38 percent compared to those who continued to smoke.
It took 16 years since quitting for former smokers' risk of cardiovascular disease to return to the level of never smokers.


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Home » Analysis » Analysis: Poll shows possible Trump weakness in the South due to minority voters
Analysis: Poll shows possible Trump weakness in the South due to minority voters
Washington Post poll indicates unexpected states may be in play
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com editor
(CFP) — When it comes to wondering which way Southern states might fall in this year's presidential election, conventional wisdom holds that, outside of a few states along the Atlantic seaboard, Donald Trump doesn't have a thing to worry about.
A paucity of public polling in most of the South also means that we don't have any way to judge whether this conventional wisdom is wise. But now, the Washington Post and Survey Monkey have come along with an unusual poll of all 50 states that offers some incredible results for a number of places in the South.
In fact, should these results be borne out in November, incredible won't be a sufficiently strong adjective.
In eight of the 14 Southern states, the poll found that Trump's lead over Hillary Clinton was only in the single digits—not just in battleground states such as Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia but in some rock-ribbed GOP states such as Arkansas, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas.
In Arkansas, which Mitt Romney carried by 23 points in 2012, Trump led Clinton by just 9 points in the poll; in South Carolina, by just 7. And in Mississippi—a state that hasn't gone Democratic since 1980—Trump's lead over Clinton was a mere 3 points. No, that was not a misprint—3 points in Mississippi.
In perhaps the biggest shock of all, the poll found that Texas, with its bounty of 38 electoral votes, was a flat-out tie, with both candidates at 40 percent in a state a Democrat hasn't carried since 1976. (How long ago was that? Donald Trump was still a year away from marrying wife No. 1, Ivana.)
Of course, one must greet the results of any poll showing Trump in possible trouble in Mississippi, Texas and Arkansas with a considerable dollop of skepticism. Casting more doubt on these findings is the fact that this poll was an online survey conducted on Survey Monkey's platform that did not employ a random sample and, thus, a margin of error can't be calculated.
However, despite those shortcomings, what makes this poll noteworthy is its extremely large sample size — 74,000 registered voters, about 70 times the size of a typical poll — which could compensate for some of the measurement and sampling issues posed by a non-random sample.
Also, battleground state results in this poll are consistent with other public polling in those states. (In Florida, for example, the poll showed Clinton with a 2-point lead, which is close to what the other polls have found.) And there is no reason to believe this methodology is inherently more inaccurate in non-battleground states.
So what might explain these wacky results that so assault our conventional wisdom? The answer could lie in Trump's pronounced unpopularity with minority voters.
In Mississippi, for instance, the black voting age population is about 35 percent, and blacks register and vote at rates comparable to whites. So if Clinton is taking almost all of the black vote, she would need to capture just 25 percent of the white vote to win. True, President Obama couldn't pull that off against Romney four years ago, but, then again, the GOP was much more united behind Romney than it is behind Trump.
And in Texas, blacks and Latinos make up an even larger percentage of the voting age population, 44 percent. If Clinton can galvanize those minority voters in large numbers, as little as 20 percent of the Lone Star State's white, non-Latino vote could be enough to win (that's a conservative estimate taking into account the fact that Latino voters lag black and white voters in their registration and participation rates.)
Florida, where Clinton led in the poll, has a minority voting age population of 31 percent, and, unlike in Texas, Latino voters in the Sunshine State register and turnout to vote at rates comparable to white voters. So with just 30 percent of the white, non-Latino vote, she could win.
A look at polls results those Southern states where Trump is doing well also supports the premise that minority antipathy may be what's bedeviling him in the region. He was winning by more than 20 points in Kentucky, Tennessee, Oklahoma and West Virginia, all states with relatively small minority populations. But in three of the five states where the black voting age population is more than 25 percent, his lead was in single digits.
The only states where the correlation between high minority population and a reduced level of Trump's level of support didn't hold up were Alabama (where Trump led by 26 points) and Louisiana (where he led by 16.)
Arkansas—where the black voting age population is only 15 percent and he was only ahead by 9 points—stands out as an anomaly against the premise that a paucity of minority voters leads to wide margins for Trump. Then again, Hillary Clinton did live in Arkansas for nearly 20 years before decamping for New York, and her husband was elected governor of the Natural State five times. Perhaps they have more residual political roots than Republicans are anticipating.
So should we all put some money down on a Clinton victory in Arkansas, Mississippi or Texas? Despite the intriguing results from this poll, the odds of that happening would still have to be considered rather long. But this has been a political year where the only thing we've been able to expect is the unexpected. So it is not inconceivable that, if Clinton can galvanize the region's minority vote and Trump runs behind Romney, election night might turn out more interesting than usual across the South.
Tags: Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, White House 2016
By shumater in Analysis, White House 2016 on September 13, 2016 .
← Two Southern conservative newspapers bolt from Trump	Former Virginia U.S. Senator John Warner crosses party lines to endorse Hillary Clinton →


TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's auto recall enforcement division, whose 16 members work from a cramped office on the eighth floor of the transport ministry building in Tokyo, only found out about safety issues with Takata Corp air bags in late-2008 - more than three years after the company says it first learned of problems.
The ministry, which doubles as Japan's safety regulator, then took a largely passive approach to the crisis unfolding in the United States - Takata's biggest market where more than 10 million cars have since been recalled - rubber-stamping recall filings by automakers after incidents reported abroad.
"We had no idea there were already accidents in the United States, so there was no reason for us to be concerned at the time," said Masato Sahashi, director of the recall office.
To be sure, Japan's automakers are not obliged to report overseas accidents to officials in Tokyo unless it leads to a recall. And, while defective Takata air bags have been linked to at least five deaths, all in Honda Motor cars, there have been no reported fatalities or injuries in Japan.
But more than half a dozen air bag inflators have ruptured in cars at Japanese scrap yards, officials have said, and one of those incidents, in a 2003 Toyota WiLL Cypha, is being investigated and could prompt a wider recall. There have also been four explosions of Takata air bags in cars that were in use between 2011-14 that led to recalls.
Now, the ministry, concerned about a broader reputational fallout for the entire Japanese auto industry as recalls escalate, is finally scrambling into action.
Late last month, it set up an eight-person task force to speed up recalls and learn more about why Takata's air bags can explode with dangerous force in accidents. Honda, Takata's biggest customer, opened its own investigation into the air bag problems in 2007.
The task force is in daily contact with Takata and holds regular meetings with a company representative, demanding information as the ministry weighs up whether to order an expanded recall in Japan - as the U.S. regulator has done - said a person with knowledge of the closed-door proceedings.
At the same time, a small group of officials at the powerful Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is in touch with Takata and Japanese automakers about how to ensure the timely supply of millions of air bags to fix those recalled, an official involved told Reuters.
"We want to see Takata moving with a bit more urgency," the official said.
To date, around 2.6 million vehicles have been recalled in Japan for potentially defective Takata air bags, out of a worldwide total of more than 16 million.
Japan's regulator has come under fire in the past over a perceived leniency towards an industry that's a national champion.
When Toyota Motor initially chose not to recall its Prius hybrid in 2010 for braking issues, politicians floated proposals to toughen the government's monitoring and enforcement authority over recalls. Reporting requirements were tweaked, but critics say officials blocked wholesale changes.
"There's no sense of tension between the regulator and the industry here. They're not a true watchdog," said Yoshitaro Nomura, a Tokyo-based lawyer who sued Mitsubishi Motors Corp on behalf of drivers after the company was found to have concealed information about its vehicles for decades to avoid recalls.
Japan's auto regulator outsources the testing for defects to the National Traffic Safety and Environment Laboratory - a team led by nine retired engineers from major automakers. To avoid possible conflicts of interest, engineers don't investigate vehicles made by their former employers. The agency declined to say whether its staff were investigating Takata air bags.
Japan also lacks a U.S.-style class-action system, and lawsuits against companies over product liability are seen as costly and time-consuming, discouraging many consumers from filing complaints.
The far bigger U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has also been criticised for a piecemeal approach to the Takata crisis and for its earlier handling of a massive General Motors recall for faulty ignition switches.
The flurry of activity by Japanese regulators came after Takata baulked at NHTSA's suggestion - since upgraded to an order - that it cooperate in an expanded recall, and after Takata's chief safety officer testified before a U.S. Senate panel.
"Japan needs to consider preventative measures and take proactive action to investigate problems," said Hiroshi Osada, a professor at Bunkyo University who was an outside quality management adviser to Toyota during its 2010 recall crisis.
"If Japan is serious about improving the management and quality of Japanese firms, the related agencies have to be more committed to prevent accidents even before there's been a fatality. That should be their role," he said.


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Five PlayStation One Classic JRPGs that Still Need a PSN Release
Ron Duwell
Persona 2: Eternal Punishment has been released on PlayStation Network, and the JRPG world is still recovering from the shock. One of the most sought after and rare games on the console is now available at the touch of a button for a mere $10. Fortunately for this lost classic, the series saw a resurgence over the last few years thanks to Atlus stepping up their game or else we might have never seen this one get a long overdue second chance on the market.
What about those poor souls who might never get a second chance? With Nintendo poised to reclaim the genre Sony stole from them back in the first PlayStation days and the future of JRPGs on HD consoles way up in the air at the moment, Sony might have to turn to nostalgia to keep their ever loosening grip on Japan's most popular video game pastime.
Naturally, one can only lean on the reputation of Final Fantasy VII so much, as Square Enix has learned over the years. Here are a few other smaller releases from the heyday of the genre which could be used to salvage its sullied reputation and remind us that console JRPGs can be good with the right personnel behind them.
Suikoden II
While the rest of the world was busy trying to emulate Final Fantasy VII's polygon success, one team used the power of the PlayStation to create the culmination of everything that was great about the most popular SNES classics. Konami stuck to its guns and delivered one of the most refined and complete JRPG experiences ever, Suikoden II.
Excellent sprite-work backed with a mature and deep storyline, beaming with colorful, loveable characters, Suikoden II is one of the few 60 hour JRPGs which actually delivers 60 hours of content. Whereas most JRPGs tend to drown themselves in excessive content or stretch their playtime through meaningless grinding, Suikoden II nails that perfect balance even the legendary Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger had missed by a hair. There is never a dull minute in this perfectly paced masterpiece.
Prognosis: Most have pointed to a substandard localization for Konami's reasoning for holding this one back, although I never had a problem understanding the story as a kid. It's not half as crippling as the internet believes it to be. Because Sony doesn't allow developers to hack or change the original ROM, it's very unlikely this one will see a release, especially since Konami seemingly has no intention to return to this glorious series.
It's a shame too because very few games are able to hit the peaks Suikoden II does. Those curious can at least check out the first Suikoden game on the PSN, which comes close to the balance Suikoden II is well known for, but also is only 10 hours long. Consider it an extended demo for one of the few games actually worth the ridiculous eBay prices.
Jumping from staunch traditionalism to the more experimental, Saga Frontier is a prime example of PlayStation developers using the new processing power to create off the wall ideas rather than reinforce the tried and true. This game enjoys an extremely polarizing reputation thanks to its scenario structure, which uses the same interconnected universe to tell seven intertwining stories.
Each of Saga Frontier's seven protagonists comes fully equipped with their own scenario specific locations, allies, and 20 hour storylines, but many of gamers' negative notions towards Saga Frontier focus on the problem that these unique events make up a rather small portion of the game. With the highs come the lows, and with the exceptional unique dungeons to each character come the repetitious and tiresome side-quests needed to power up the cast each time you play.
Not me, though. I revel in Saga Frontier's fearless battle system, which randomly has characters combine any attacks or learn skills on the fly for no reason. Even more-so than the battle system, Saga Frontier gives plenty of chances to experiment and create a perfect team of your favorite characters thanks to its strangely open-ended nature.
Prognosis: I don't think Square Enix has any interest in jumping back into the Saga series any time soon. All of their non-Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series have been squandered beyond recognition over the years. Still, I've never seen Square Enix turn down the chance to exploit the nostalgia their name creates, meaning Saga Frontier might still have half a chance down the road.
Star Ocean: The Second Story
Believe it or not, but Tri-Ace used to be a highly regarded JRPG developer. The modern HD consoles might not have agreed with their dinosauric approach to game design, but the 32-bit power of the PlayStation suited their needs better than any other console as seen in their most notable games Valkyrie Profile and this science fiction gem which far exceeds the boundaries of its lackluster series.
Star Ocean: The Second Story succeeds in the almost impossible task of making the action heavy "Tales" battle system actually work. Flashy combos mean nothing if they take a minute to complete, and even the weakest of enemies can walk away from such a violent thrashing.
Star Ocean: The Second Story's approach is a little more subtle. It replaces endless wailing on an enemy with well placed and timed shots when each hit matters and every combo needs to be placed just right in the context of each battle. This game was released before mindless button mashing took over its little JRPG subgenre, and it still holds up to this day by surviving on the basics alone.
It does fall into the same trap a lot of Tri-Ace games find themselves stuck in. Too much content thanks to a cumbersome item creation system, difficult alternate endings, and dreadful pacing. Seriously, the first three to four hours of this game are torturous. However, none of the above is required to complete the game, and taken at the surface level, Star Ocean: The Second Story is worth it.
Prognosis: Both Valkyrie Profile and Star Ocean: The Second Story were released on physical discs for the PSP. Final Fantasy Tactics was given both treatments, but I highly doubt that Square Enix would be willing to give two separate releases on this far less popular title.
Brave Fencer Musashi
Many third-party companies have stepped up for Sony over the years to take Nintendo to town with their own branded "Zelda killers." And many have walked away with their heads held in shame. In the fifth generation of consoles, this unfortunate task was given to Square. It was charged with knocking down Ocarina of Time a peg or two. Yeah, not gonna happen right?
Don't be too quick to judge, because the result is actually a quality game. Essentially a polygon based isometric Link to the Past clone at heart, Brave Fencer Musashi has plenty of charm and excitement for make up for is lack of originality.
The legendary swordsman Musashi is hardly the samurai hero history might remember him to be, but this spunky little twerp's quest to save the Allucaneet Kingdom has it where it counts. Dungeons are expansive and challenging, each of them culminating in explosive boss fights more exciting than the last. Each dungeon unlocks a treasure, and even each enemy in the game has an ability Musashi can steal on the fly, not unlike Kirby.
Brave Fencer Musashi also exceeds in its ability to push gamers into completing 100% of its content. It's well within a reasonable level of achievement, and each rescued NPC and treasure chest unlocks useful bonuses.
Prognosis: I'm surprised we haven't seen this one yet. Square Enix tried as hard as they could to destroy the franchise with one of the worst sequels ever created, Samurai Legend Musashi, but I know for a fact that Brave Fencer Musashi was more popular than Threads of Fate, a similarly styled action RPG available on PSN right now. Hopefully Square Enix comes around and delivers this one soon.
Azure Dreams
More of a personal favorite than a well respected classic, Azure Dreams is a crazy mishmash of all the worst JRPG tropes smashed into a single minimalist game. Yet somehow, this thing works.
A majority of this game can be best described as a rogue-like. Our red-headed hero is charged with climbing to the top floor of a 30 story tower, but levels are randomly generated and set to a grid where each movement counts as a universal turn for the entire floor. Should he die in the tower, and die he will, then it's back to square one to try all over again.
Of course, such a simple premise has no meaning if no progress is ever made, so Konami jam-packed this game with date simulating, treasure hunting, city building, and even monster raising. Each of these alternative goals makes the hero a little stronger, especially the monster raising, and each attempt at the tower pushes him a little higher and higher.
Never mind that the game's randomization might not grant you a Wind Crystal when you need one most, or that the the ear grinding sound loop playing in the tower's background might drive you to insanity after hearing it so many times. Azure Dreams is a strange little game that has no right to be any fun, and yet fun it is.
Prognosis: Highly unlikely. Konami used to be a solid player in the JRPG world between Suikoden, Azure Dreams, and Vandal Hearts, but they've all but given up on that image. I doubt anyone at Konami still remembers this one exists, let alone be considering a PSN release.
Once a pawn a time…
Checkmate! The best chess sets for beginners and enthusiasts
A chess set makes a great gift, a unique conversation piece, and is a fun pastime. Here are several of the best chess sets from simple games for children to ornate pieces of art.


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Native speakers of oriental languages in the Dutch Republic (1600-1700)
Arabs in the West is an exhibition about the contribution of 'oriental' travellers to the academic study of oriental languages in the Dutch Republic, and to Dutch collections of manuscripts from their part of the world. The personal contacts between scholars in the Republic and their Muslim, Jewish and Eastern Orthodox Christian correspondents facilitated a more realistic and objective view of the Arab world.
You will find a selection of high-resolution images of documents shown at the exhibition 'Wijzen uit het oosten/Arabs in the West', which was held in the Allard Pierson Museum, Amsterdam, June 23-September 20, 2016, as part of the triptych Ontmoetingen met de Oriënt (Encounters with the Orient).
View the exhibition here on the University of Kent's website
Turbans on the Dam
Johannes Lingelbach, The Dam, 1656. Lingelbach painted the Dam square of Amsterdam, with the new city hall under construction, as the centre of world trade. To the right of the Waag [Weighing House] are three Middle Eastern merchants. Collection Amsterdam Museum.
The exhibition was initiated by Gerard Wiegers in the context of the Encounters with the Orient research-project, and realised in close collaboration with Leiden University, the University of Amsterdam's Special Collections department and the Allard Pierson Museum.
Guest-curator: Dorrit van Dalen.
Advisers: Jan Schmidt, Arnoud Vrolijk, Hüseyin Sen.
Responsible for Online Exhibition: Jan Loop (Kent) in collaboration with Information Services, University of Kent.
With thanks to: Ayhan Aytes, Clara ten Berge, Wilfred de Graaf, Hilary Kilpatrick, Gerald J. Toomer, the John Rylands Library of the University of Manchester, University Libraries Leiden, University Libraries Amsterdam, Regional Archive Leiden en Omstreken.
A special issue of Lias, Journal of Early Modern Intellectual Culture and Its Sources accompanies the exhibition. It features the article from which translations of the letters of Niqulaus ibn Butrus were taken, and an article on ͑ Abd al-͑ Azīz and Theunisz:
Hilary Kilpatrick and Gerald J. Toomer, 'Niqulawus al-Halabi (c.1611-c.1661): a Greek Orthodox Syrian Copyist and his Letters to Pococke and Golius', in Lias. Journal of Early Modern Intellectual Culture and Its Sources, vol. 43 no. 1, 2016. pp 1-160.
Dorrit van Dalen, 'Theunisz and 'Abd al-'Azīz: a friendship in Arabic Studies, 1609-1610' in Lias. Journal of Early Modern Intellectual Culture and Its Sources, vol. 43 no. 1, 2016. pp 161-189.


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Games Children (Should) Play
Posted on August 15, 2013 by Carrie
A large part of Waldorf Education includes an actual curriculum for games, that leads into sports in the middle school years. There is a wonderful book called, "Child's Play 1 &2" by Wil van Haren and Rudolf Kischnick that goes through what games correspond developmentally with what ages, and I thought I would detail some of this for those of you planning your homeschooling year, or even just for parents who don't remember many childhood games or what ages they played certain games!
I love this quote from page 114 of this book: True games are a source of health in which the child's soul is repeatedly submerged, if he is not to miss our on the most valuable things. However, this is not the only requirement. In order to build up and play games and activities which are close to real life, it is important to have a thorough knowledge of the child's essential core, on the one hand, and the moral value of the game relating to the particular stage of the child's development, on the other. The metamorphoses in the child's development sometimes require one thing, sometimes another. We should not lose sight of the child and his experiences of the world around him. In themselves, games are worthless if they are not played at the right time and with the appropriate spiritual attitude.
From about ages four to seven, (although even toddlers can play some variations of these games), the games should be circle and singing kinds of games, and could also include clapping and rhyming kinds of games.
From the ages of seven through fourteen, there is a period of "unparalled drama" the authors note as the child is changing and becoming an individual. There are polarities seen in development and in the course of development itself – a push and a pull, a movement and a countermovement. The games typified during these ages include tag for the ages of seven through ten, and games of throwing and catch from ages ten through fourteen.
If we look briefly by age:
At age seven we still see circle and singing games as important and often well-loved, but with a transition to new forms of play.
At age eight, words form the basis for question and answer kinds of games that show the opposing forces in life of good and bad,such as games involving a wolf and sheep or fox and cockerel.
At age nine, there is often an underlying tone of mockery in children of this age and the games reflect this observation the child performs in watching people and how they do things. "Thief and delivery", where there are teams of thieves and catchers, is often a popular game seen at this age.
At ten years old, games include an element of rough and tumble play fighting.
At eleven years old, games often include catch and throwing, and tag games often hold an element of freeing himself or others. I am sure many of us remember hours of playing freeze tag or variations of freeze tag, and this was the age for that!
At twelve years old, games include skillfully catching and throwing, skillfully passing a ball, skillfully running and shooting a ball. A child realizes through games such as these that they have control of their limbs — their limbs which at age twelve often feel so heavy.
At age thirteen, games often include running around bases such as in softball , with movement into the adolescent years with such games as tennis and volleyball.
There are archetypal movements and truths these games hold for children of these ages, which this book goes into in detail. There are also, of course, many games divided by age, from which to choose. Homeschooling families may be disappointed since many require a larger group, but that could be a wonderful task to get together a number of children from your neighborhood to play.
This entry was posted in Development, Homeschooling by Carrie. Bookmark the permalink.


Khao Yai national park is famous for its natural beauty and a variety of flora and fauna. It is the oldest national park in Thailand. Khao Yai is also the second largest national park in Thailand. Khao Yai lies mainly in Nakhorn Ratchsiama (Khorat) province whish is located approximately 260 kilometers northeast of Bangkok. The Khao Yai national park extends across three more provinces in Thailand. They are Saraburi, Nakhon Nayok and Prachinburi. Khao Yai attarcts visitors who love natural forests, waterfalls and plants.
The weather at Khao Yai is pleasant compared to many other parts of Thailand. Khao Yai mainly got three seasons, the rainy season, winter and the summer.
During the rainy season the temperatures at Khao Yai during day time is about 27° C. Immediately after the rainy season the flowers and fauna in Khao Yai flourishes into a stunning beauty. The rainy season starts from May and last till October at Khao Yai.
During November to February it is winter in Thailand. I would say late December to February is the best time to visit Khao Yai. During this time of the year Khao Yai weather is cool with clear sky whish is best for hiking. You can also capture stunning sunsets during this time at Khao Yai. It can get real cold the nights at Khao Yai during this time when the temperature drop upto 10° C.
Even summer season is fine to visit to Khao Yai since the temperature at Khao Yai doesn't get hot like Bangkok. The average temperature at Khao Yai during March to May could be around 27° C. If you have tired sitting at your Bangkok Hotel room then Khao Yai is just a couple of hours away.
I hope many of you have enjoyed the Krabi Photos which I posted the other day. I will soon post some photos I took from Khao Yai.
This entry was posted in Places of Interest on February 18, 2007 by Bangkok Boy.


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COPYRIGHT © 2005. WWW.URLAUB-MARA.COM
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We have been in the business of tourism for over thirty years now. In our offer we have an apartment for 2 persons, and 3 rooms (2 rooms for 2 persons, 1 for 3 persons, and 1 for 1 person). Our lodging capacities are located in the village of Palit, on the island of Rab, only few minutes away from the centre of Rab. .
ABOUT THE ISLAND OF RAB
The name of Rab is first time mentioned in the year 1446, in a foundation document of the monastery of the Holy Euphemius in the village of Kampor. The old origin word was ARB which means dark, green, wooden and was translated into the antique names Arba, Arva, Arbia. The emporer Octavian Augustus ordered to built walls for defense and fortresses to protect the city and their colonies. So the city of Arba (today Rab) became a roman municipium called "Felix Arba". During the whole Middle Ages the town keeps his tradition of a municipium (as a roman community at the time of byzantian dominion over dalmatia, Beginning XI. Century), and 1107 her privilege was confirmed by the King Koloman. During approximately 400 years of venican domanian (til 1409), peace and wealth was established and the city was working like a community. During the long occupation of different monarchs, beginning with romans followed by the byzantian and venicians, to the hungarians and croatians, Rab was always spared out of immense devastation. As the italian normans, after a quite long occupation of the city, turning around their ships and going away after fighting, on the highest tower of the town the relics of the Holy Christopher, the protector of the city of Rab, were exhibited. Still today in Rab tradition and history is taken care of. If you for example stroll through the streets of the old town you can admire a lot of buildings of the roman style, gothic portals, baroque altars and windows of the rennaissance with wonderful ornaments. Rab is also very famous for his four bell towers. Tis is why Rab is also called the "town with the four bell towers". The bell tower of the basilca is dominating over the city and is one of the nicest buildings of the latest romanticism.