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The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic tape replay keyboard – basically an analog precursor of modern software music samplers.
Plogue Sforzatron is a software implementation of the Mellotron for the free sample player Plogue Sforzando. It's based on the same set of samples released by Taijiguy used in several other free Mellotrons, but it adds a little flexibility not present in the originals.
In addition to allowing the blending of any three sounds from the Mellotron samples, Sforzatron also adds ADSR envelope, tone, detune and pan controls for each sound slot, plus global overdrive, detune and reverb effects. The presets fall into three general categories: authentic Mellotron sounds, thicker and swirlier detuned variations, and sounds which use the envelopes to simulate percussive sounds or reverse tape effects.
Creating a digital recreation of a comparatively primitive analog audio sampler would seem counterintuitive – but recreating the warm distortion and character that defined classic art rock of the late sixties and early seventies as a starting point for new music is the goal here.
Blog post by Michael Thomas "Mike" Pinder, English rock musician, founding member and original keyboard player of the The Moody Blues whose haunting riffs were played on the Mellotron
Mellotrons still being manufactured today
February 17, 2017 · Filed under Entertainment, Music
Sponge-worthy metal tape begets decentralized culture
Boingboing recently had a post about the last remaining factory making analog audio cassette tapes. Business is booming with a resurgent taste for things analog, physical and tangible – and they also sound good.
My wife and I took part in an international underground art and music movement in the 1980's that used snail mail to create a decentralized culture that predated but anticipated the public Internet. Cassettes were the game-changing technology that allowed for fast, cheap music reproduction in small production runs.
Blank cassettes are actually collectors' items now. Unfortunately the type of cassette that allowed us to do complex sound collages with cheap hardware doesn't seem to be made anymore. The Type IV metal tape – actual metal bits instead of metal oxide in the tape emulsion – had sound quality that rivaled analog reel-to-reel machines and digital compact disks.
I found a few metal cassettes at a church rummage sale recently and plan to save them for special musical projects – the way Elaine chose "sponge-worthy" boyfriends on Seinfeld.
June 13, 2016 · Filed under Entertainment, Mail Art, Music, Society & Culture
All Saints Keep Marching In! 200 Postcards/Got Mail Art
All Saints Eve aka Halloween is long gone. Even the Great Turkey has flown. Yet the saints keep marching in! How spectral is that? Meanwhile, back at the 200 Postcards/Got Mail Art project, folks are revving up for Xmas*. Partying with in-laws and no laws, stalking Black Season sales, and decking the motel halls with duct tape. Me no tell Santa if you don't…
1) Making merry with balloon golf. BYOB and watch out for the holes. Go ask Cousin Alice— she fell down one!
2) Bennington, Vermont. Where a surprising amount of product can be found.
3) Anonymous Motel, Lake George, New York. An attentive staff and a TV in every room. Set amidst rolling acres of stain-resistant carpet.
4) Anonymous Motel, Lake George, New York. An attentive staff, plus cozy cabins with kitchen/bath combos.
5) Meanwhile, back in Vermont, the wacky ways of Hollywood– and organized crime– are being pondered.
6) Duct tape, used auto parts, and a heavenly calendar girl. Happy new old year, January, 1963. Cooperstown Junction, New York.
7) Gilboa Dam, Schoharie Reservoir, upstate New York. Created to supply New York City with water, the reservoir sits atop a flooded village and acres of rolling drowned farmland.
8) Hotel Mark Hopkins, San Francisco, California. A tip top view from glamorous Top of the Mark. Careful of the eye holes tho. Cousin Alice… well, you know.
9) Shinglekill Falls, Purling, New York. Postcard sez: "The water evoked reverence in early years". Now? Folks "must scream to be heard over the roar".
*Xmas: Though often confused with Christmas due to proximity, Xmas is a completely different holiday. Widely celebrated, its origins are somewhat mysterious. Conspiracy theorists claim Satan thought it up while "X-ing" old angel friends out of his address book. Others put the blame on Bizarro. Or possibly Mame…
Coming for Christmas: Return of the Magnificent Incoming/ Miraculous Mail Art from Around the World.
The series so far:
200 Postcards/Got Mail Art– The Movie!
200 Postcards/Got Mail Art: Summa Summertime Fun
200 Postcards/Got Mail Art: Famous Faces, Strange Places
200 Postcards/Got Mail Art: Incoming! Incoming!
Spring a Ding Ding, Eight from the Gate
Mail Art Confidential Part 2: Extreme Sports
Mail Art Confidential Part One
Five More for the Road
200 Postcards/Got Mail Art?
December 9, 2014 · Filed under Entertainment, Mail Art, Movies, Music, pulp fiction, Society & Culture, Visual Arts
Oh yeah, the living is easy. Catfish jumping, cotton high. Pols sweating bullets all over the place. Dodging 'em can be tuff. Load up the car and hit the road jack. Send pals postcards from the Paradise Motel saying "Wish you were here!" Ditch the cell tho. It doesn't do privacy…
1) "Purring Tranquility" in the Scenic South of Bessemer, Alabama.
2) "Welcome to Walt Disney World." What would Summer be without a drop-in on Disney, the "Vacation Kingdom of the World"?
3) Tomorrow Land at Disney World: "Welcome to the Future". Or is it the past?
4) Just 'cause it's hot and gritty, don't skip New York City! "Luscious" Lana Turner and "Mob gorilla" Johnny Stompanato do Rockefeller Center Plaza.
5) In upstate New York, famous folks can be spotted at Niagara Falls. But you gotta look fast before they disappear…
6) Paleface Mountain Inn, Jay, New York; yet another great place for people watching. How many pale faces can you spot? Winner gets an all-expenses paid trip to Albany!
7) The State Capital, Historic Albany, New York circa 2007. No matter how hot things got, Governor Eliot Spitzer always kept his socks on. And though his "Steam Roller" temper was legendary, historians say Eliot/Elliott never erupted over his misspelled name on the Capital's most iconic postcard.
8) All aboard the Union Pacific Railroad! Claim a seat in the Astra Dome Observation Car and bring on the non-stop booze. Take in the "mystic and romantic light from the star-studded canopy" while the cat up front blows an ode…
9) The Big Texan on I-40 East says "Exit Now". Steak for 99 cents– an offer that can't be refused.
10) Meanwhile, back in the heart of Dixie, North Carolina's state bird spots an angel amongst the magnolias.
11) One last reminder re that cell…
July 27, 2014 · Filed under Entertainment, Mail Art, Society & Culture, Visual Arts
Saviors, celebs, and monsters ride the Snail. Therein lies the tale. Yippee-ki-yay! Mofo or no, they go with the flow…
1) Christ and Pol Pot in Desert w. touch of El Topo. Highway 84 between Phoenix and Tucson.
2) Frieda Kahlo by TicTac. Geisha rising from Lake Mead, largest reservoir in the US– straddling Nevada and Arizona.
3) Mao Zedong say wha?? Revolution isn't a Pu Pu Platter. China City Restaurant– quaint, exotic, and air conditioned. Florida, possibly Saint Petersburg.
4) Going to a Go Go with Mail Art and iconic dervish. Silver Springs, Florida. "Nature's Underwater Fairyland".
5) Skeletons and Ocotillo. Indigenous to the Sonoran Desert in Southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico.
6) Christ and Saturn in Ballroom w. touch of Louis XV. Henry Morrison Flagler Museum, Palm Beach, Florida. Flagler was Dad to Miami and Standard Oil. Monopoly anyone?
7) Mao Zedong and Skull Pez. United Nations, New York City
8) Back to the Desert, Varieties of Cactus. Some less prickly than others.
9) Greetings from the Mohawk Bingo Palace, St. Regis Reservation, Hogansburg, New York.
10) Riding the Ridge in Hunter, New York. Catskill Mountains. Corn high, Eye in the Sky…
June 8, 2014 · Filed under Entertainment, Mail Art, Society & Culture, Visual Arts
"What matters most is how well you walk through the fire."
So said Charles Bukowski and I agree. (Tip: flame retardant underwear helps.) Mark Hammond put the fire-walk words on the back of his view of Fuji:
1) Mark Hammond, Kanazawa, Japan
Peterolpetal sent a distressed looking angel enrobed in an envelope of mystical significance. Just what is that tower broadcasting?
2) Petrolpetal, Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa
Speaking of broadcasting, are you ready for some CircumSubstantial Playing & Blindfolded Tourism? Check out tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE at the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh circa 2001.
3) Who Unit? Pittsburgh, Pa., USA. Message on back: "We meet again, decades later, at the due speed of snail mail!" Yes I say yes to reconnecting in slow mo–
and I will honor The Snail with these stamps from TICTAC POST.
4) Ptrzia/Tictac, Starnberg, Germany
Tictac keeps right on ticking:
5) Ptrzia (Tictac), Starnberg, Germany
The Tictac came with an AMBASCIATA DI VENEZIA book of wonders. Too large to be presented here. Just the cover, ma'am, just the cover. Inside, beautifully presented works by more than 50 artists and "the idea of a free space where the only leading power is that of culture".
6) AMBASCIATA DI VENEZIA, Tiziana Baracchi, Giancarlo Da Lio, Venezia Mestre, Italy
"Even if you are adult, your childhood is still inside of you" says Bernhard Zilling on the back of his hand-painted card. Hmmmm– the fellow on the card looks strangely familiar. Could he also be one of the three men in a painting by "anonymous" that hangs on my living room wall? If so, who are these men and why are they manifesting in art all over the world?
7) Inside Childhood, Bernhard Zilling, Berlin, Germany. With detail from Three guys from a Thrift Store, anonymous, upstate New York, USA.
No anonymous here– photo by Reed Altemus, presumably of Reid Wood in a State of Being. Or is it Lord Laurence Olivier?
8) State of Being, Oberlin, Ohio, USA
Then there's this big eye from Gimel Patrick/Patrick Gimel, containing a reworked version of a postcard I sent. Our exchange ricocheted into a back-and-forth of photos within photos. One of my favorite Mail Art riffs.
9) Big Pink Eye w. Red Hat Baby, Gimel Patrick/Patrick Gimel, Grenoble, France.
Another Mail Art tradition– games. Dan Buck sent instructions for Trial and Error, A Dicing Game. Keep the kids busy on car trips! Are we there yet, Mommy? Shut up and study your crime mag…
10) Trial and Error, Dan Buck, Armour, South Dakota, USA
Pati Bristow stitched this card, which contains instructions for what may be pruning or grafting trees. "Stumps" are involved; trees seem a good guess. The bad guess? Think crime mag.
11) Stitch instruction card, back & front, Pati Bristow, Los Altos, California, USA
Finally, an illustrated dissertation by Scott Thomas on "people who just don't care what others think of their appearance". Like Scott sez: "you just just have to admire that in some ways….many ways". Also includes an ode to a real-life "semi-pro dumpster diver". Envelope and outer card bedecked with smiley faces. Several sinister. Try not to think crime mag.
12) They Just Don't Care, Scott Thomas, Lexington, Kentucky, USA
Th-th-th-that's all folks! For now….
May 12, 2014 · Filed under Entertainment, Mail Art, Visual Arts
It's season of the switch at 200 Postcards/Got Mail Art? Magnolias are blooming and tigers and teens are looking for a kiss. Sure, politicians keep shoveling but guess who has risen? Hint: His name rhymes with…
1) Mississippi Magnolia: "This beautiful flower of the evergreen Magnolia Grandiflora is seen throughout the South in the late Spring."
2) Mating Season in Historic Beaufort, South Carolina.
3) Mating Season in Ormond Beach, Florida.
4) State Capitol, Albany, New York. Regular tours take in "The Million Dollar Staircase". Coming soon– a casino to die for! Just a hop skip from the Cap.
5) Aladdin Casino, Las Vegas: "Truly a magical resort where your wish is our command."
6) Main Street, Old Tucson, Arizona. Among the many Westerns shot at Old Tucson Studios: Rio Bravo, El Dorado, and Andy Warhol's Lonesome Cowboys
7) Palm Springs, California: "…famous for its luxury shops, restaurants, and hotels." But natives say "keep watching the sky".
8) Alta, Utah: Skiing in deep powder. After the fall, a rise…
Thanks to pals in SoCal for the cards from Vegas, Palm Springs, and Utah.
April 28, 2014 · Filed under Entertainment, Mail Art, Society & Culture, Visual Arts
The Swingin' Totalitarian: Vladimir Lenin Sings!
Think totalitarians are dull boys (and girls) who wear matchey matchey duds, never quaff cocktails or croon torch tunes in the wee small hours? If so, you're wrong. No need for shame though. I thought the same. Until I found a copy of The Swingin' Totalitarian: Vladimir Lenin Sings! in a box of old records at a junk store.
At first I figured it was some sort of spoof production. Lenin sings? Yeah, right. Maybe in his shower after rolling out a little Red Terror. But no. Lenin did cut a record (actually, a wax cylinder) in 1922, around the time he became premiere of the newly formed Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR/Soviet Union). After Lenin's death in '24, the album disappeared into a memory hole dug by his successor, Joseph Stalin.
Luckily for lovers of pop culture esoterica, the master somehow survived…
After Stalin died in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev eventually emerged as head of the single party USSR. In '56, he delivered his famous Secret Speech at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party, ripping Stalin and the personality cult that let Stalin be Stalin. Among other things, Khrushchev denounced Stalin for expanding the use of the term "enemy of the people" to include Party officials who disagreed with Stalin. Thereby putting them in the same non-human, expendable category as, say, kulaks— those Greedy Gus peasants who resisted having their farms collectivized.
Khrushchev also distributed copies of Lenin's Testament at the Congress. Lenin wrote it in late 1922, after being been laid low by a stroke. Death was on the way. In the Testament, Lenin assessed various Party biggies with an eye to future leadership. No thumbs up for Stalin. Lenin dished "Comrade" Stalin's "rudeness" and "capricious temper" and suggested he be booted from his position as Secretary-General of the Party's Central Committee.
Until recently few knew Lenin's Testament wasn't the only thing Khrushchev distributed; he also passed out remastered vinyl copies of The Swingin' Totalitarian: Vladimir Lenin Sings!
What motivated Khrushchev to include the record? Did he hope hearing Lenin sound so presciently Rat Pack would make rude boy Stalin seem totally yesterday?
Whatever. The album stands on its own as a pop music classic. Lenin delivers the goods from first cut to last, opening with a subversively scat-shattered version of Irving Berlin's Alexander's Ragtime Band and closing with a high octane, finger-snapping delivery of Cole Porter's little known Ha, Ha, They Must Sail for Siberia. Twixt Berlin & Porter, Vlad turns sad. Waxing middle-of-the-night moody with lush ballads– including one written by himself titled What is to Be Done (When your Lover Leaves).
Though copyright laws make it impossible to include cuts from Swingin' Totalitarian, I've reproduced the album's cover, a gatefold hinged at Lenin's waist with identical images front and back. The doubled Lenin is shown lounging at the type of bar typically found in suburban basement rec rooms. (Swingin' was recorded at Lenin's dacha on the outskirts of Moscow.) Those octopus-like suckers sprouting from his head? Symbolic. As said, the record was cut 'round the time the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formed.
Interestingly, the graphic from Lenin's album surfaced in altered form during the late 1960's as an advertisement for Romanov Vodka. Not to be confused with the Romanov Vodka currently being marketed by the India-based UB Group, the Romanov Vodka that featured Lenin in its ads was produced in Romania under the aegis of Nicolae Ceaușescu. A swingin' totalitarian in his own right…
Next in the Swingin' Totalitarian series: Mao Wow! The Lost Nudie Pics of Mao Zedong
July 1, 2013 · Filed under Entertainment, Music, Politics, Society & Culture, Uncategorized, Visual Arts
Now Running 4 President: The Year of Living Idiotically
I loathe presidential election years. Let me count the ways.
1. Everything is subject to partisan spin. If pollen triggers hay fever, flaks din that the other party did it. The media echoes the act. (The story of O is getting an extra loud yodel!) Worse yet, so do boots on the ground. Hitherto charming intelligent friends hit the social media streets loaded with dogma. Your email gets clogged with petitions urging you to tell the left/right fanatics in the White House/Congress/Temple of Dagon that you won't tolerate their war on business/women/the cosmos.
2. Politics trump friendship. I know someone who voted for Ralph Nader in 2000 (as I did) and was cut dead for a decade. His friends blamed him for Al Gore's defeat. Go figure why they didn't blame Gore.
3. Presidential elections turn thoroughly modern Millies & Mikes into medieval hysterics. The devil is supposed to have left the secularized building. Yet he surfaces every four years as the candidate of the other party. Quoting a friend in New Jersey: "Vote for whoever you like. But don't tell me the other guy eats babies."
4. There is no real humor in Mudville. Only partisan sallies. (Did ya hear the one about Sarah Pelosi?) A true sense of the absurd is an unwelcome guest at partisan parties. Could be worse tho. Totalitarians 86 it. Like, totally.
5. In election years the effort to shape reality by limiting language and subverting meaning ramps up. (See Newspeak for basic theory.) The publics' flirtation with "outsider" candidates such as Donald Trump and Herman Cain reflects weariness with parsing and PC patter. Better a plainspoken zany than one who hides his strobe light under a bushel.
6. Brain dead hyperbole becomes the norm. This year's zombie meme: "The War On". Followed by whatever will rile The Base. But is limiting funding for morning-after birth control or raising taxes on the wealthy really the same as being bombed to smithereens or starving in the rubble of a ruined country?
7. The social issue boom-car pounds 24/7. This year's divisive device doesn't have much sub woof. Same sex marriage matters to its fervent supporters and opponents but frankly my dear, most people don't give a damn. They don't gasp with admiration or outrage when candidates strike a pose pro or con, they just wish they'd stop voguing for the media. The economy is a dry subject (dangerous to boot) but anything about sex– Hoohah!
8. None of the above tops the horror the horror of hearing candidates wax folksy on TV. When these ultimate entitled elitists drop letters from words, call people "folks", and reference decisions made by "American families sitting round the kitchen table" my flesh creeps. I recently saw VP Joe Biden doing the populist doo. My hands were full of hot pots (I was in an actual kitchen) and I couldn't reach the remote in time. Move over Chucky, Pinhead, and assorted killer clowns. The nightmare of Farmer Joe is seared in my brain.
According to pundits, coolness is a major factor in this year's presidential race. If so, Ron Paul should have done better in the primaries. He doesn't do dialect. On the leftover front, if Mitt promises to keep droning away in characterless cadences he just might get my vote. I hate candy corn that much.
May 18, 2012 · Filed under Elections, Entertainment, News Media, Politics, War Against Women
NY Times Report of Doo-wop's Death Greatly Exaggerated
With the closing of a specialty record shop in New Jersey, the New York Times announced the death of doo-wop, a form of R&B most popular in the 1950's and early 60's which featured harmony vocals and romantic lyrics. Doo-wop was most often performed by African and/or Italian American working class youth and combined gospel and operatic elements.
As recently as the late eighties and early nineties, I remember doo-wop groups singing a cappella on street corners in the West Village for tourists.
Though the Times tends to dismiss almost anything working class and romantic as destined for the dustbin of history, they neglected to note some innovative musicians who performed or were heavily influenced by doo-wop including Brian Eno, here performing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," made famous by the Tokens in 1961:
… and Frank Zappa, who began his career singing doo-wop and continued to incorporate it into his music throughout his career:
March 1, 2012 · Filed under Entertainment, Music


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The Shocking "Need" for Torture Houses, By Jibrin Ibrahim
Premium Times November 8, 2019 The Shocking "Need" for Torture Houses, By Jibrin Ibrahim2019-11-08T06:08:51+00:00 Columns, Democracy and Governance, Jibrin Ibrahim No Comment
Yes, let's close down the torture chambers, we have no need for them. What we need urgently is to open humane correctional centres. Even more important is the need to seek serious solutions to the drug addiction and social crisis in our society.
Nigeria and indeed the international community have been in shock since the discovery of numerous so-called correctional centres that have turned out to be torture houses for young persons between the ages of five and fifty. It all started in September when the police raided Ahmad bin Hambul Centre for Islamic Learning in Kaduna and freed over 300 inmates who had been placed in chains and were regularly beaten and subjected to torture. Further investigations revealed that many kids were regularly subjected to sexual assault and sodomy. The surprise was that most of the inmates were brought to the centres by their parents, who paid the authorities in the centres to take good care of their children.
Within a few weeks, dozens of such centres were located all over Northern Nigeria and closed down in Kaduna, Kano, Daura and so on. In one centre in Ilorin, where 108 inmates were released from a facility in Gaa Odota in the city, the owner of the facility identified as Abdulraheem Owotutu reportedly said, "the centre is a place where Islam and Arabic is taught as well as a healing centre for mentally-ill people, drug addicts and stubborn children." The State commissioner of Police, Kayode Egbetokun countered the claims of the facility owner and stated that they received intelligence and surveyed the place for some days before carrying out the raid. The police were of the view that it was simply a torture chamber. The question is: Why would parents take their children to torture chambers and pay for them to be tortured? In the Ilorin facility, parents pay N100,000 upfront and subsequently pay N15,000 monthly to keep their children there.
One of the inmates in the first centre raided in Kaduna, Bello Hamza explained that he was supposed to be pursuing a Masters Degree in Applied Mathematics in South Africa, when his family members brought him to the centre, three months before his release. He told journalists that he was tricked into the centre by his family members and spent three months in chains. He added that: "They claim to be teaching us Quran and Islam but they do a lot of things here. They subject the younger ones to homosexuality. This is supposed to be an Islamic centre, but trying to run away from here attracts severe punishment; they tie people and hang them to the ceiling for that, but engaging in homosexuality attracts no punishment. Within my short stay here, somebody had died as a result of torture. Others ha(d) died before my coming due to poor health and torture. They give us very poor food and we only eat twice a day; 11:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. They have denied me a lot of things here. I am a family man, I have responsibilities, but I am chained here not knowing what is happening to my family members." Clearly, these are horrific and unacceptable conditions but Bello did not however explain why he was taken there.
Every weekend, as I read about people murdering their parents, raping babies, engaging in incest and so on, what I see is a huge mental health crisis that we are simply not addressing. These criminal acts tell a serious story of the breakdown of social cohesion and collapse of religious values of a society at war with itself.
There are similar centres in the south. In Lagos, for example, the police found that Pastor Joseph Ojo of the "Blessing of Goodness Healing Church" was running one such centre, from which 15 people were released. Another was discovered at Olore Bus Stop in Ibadan with 259 inmates.
The fact of the matter is that Nigeria is in deep social crisis and drugs, hunger and joblessness have greatly disrupted the mental health of millions of young Nigerians. Dr. Mairo Mandara, one of the most committed and engaged change champion we have, has been crying out for years that Nigeria needs to address the drug problem in our society and its consequences. She called for the ban on codeine for years and no one listened. Last year, the BBC studied her work and did a documentary – "Sweet, Sweet Codeine" about the drug problem in Northern Nigeria and four days later the Nigerian government banned codeine. That's the world we live in, our government listens to issues only when they are raised by outsiders.
The use of codeine in cough syrup is vast. It is estimated that in Kano and Jigawa States alone, three million bottles are consumed each day. Before the ban, the cough syrup sold for N300 per bottle, today, it sells for N3,000 – a tenfold increase in price because the addiction is real and a ban is not enough to stop the opioid epidemic. Codeine is a pain killer but also an addictive opioid, which when taken in excess cause schizophrenia and organ failure. The problem is vast and needs to be addressed seriously.
Government has received the report of the Marwa Committee on the matter and should use that as a spring board to develop a comprehensive policy framework to address the social crisis. Standards have to be set for all correctional facilities and they should be registered and inspected regularly.
It is precisely because government is doing nothing to address the crisis of both addiction and care for those addicts that have become mentally challenged that desperate parents are actively seeking to identify religious organisations offering correctional facilities to cater for their children. The institution of "Gidan Mari" has existed for centuries in Hausaland as correctional facilities run by qualified religious organisations and that is why parents seek them out to send their children to. As is often the case in Nigeria, some of such organisations are abusing the persons brought for care. It is not enough to just say that they are torture chambers and should be closed down with no alternative centres to take care of the addicts.
Government has received the report of the Marwa Committee on the matter and should use that as a spring board to develop a comprehensive policy framework to address the social crisis. Standards have to be set for all correctional facilities and they should be registered and inspected regularly. Government should also provide its own centres and provide resources for them. Every weekend, as I read about people murdering their parents, raping babies, engaging in incest and so on, what I see is a huge mental health crisis that we are simply not addressing. These criminal acts tell a serious story of the breakdown of social cohesion and collapse of religious values of a society at war with itself. It is not a normal problem that the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) can address. The rescued inmates that have been liberated will simply return to old habits of drugs and crime, making our already bad situation worse.
A professor of Political Science and development consultant/expert, Jibrin Ibrahim is a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Democracy and Development, and Chair of the Editorial Board of PREMIUM TIMES.
Picture credit: Reuters TV/BBC.
Drug Addiction, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), northern nigeria, Torture Centres
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Redken Color Extend Magnetic Shampoo gives your hair colour that fresh from the salon vibrancy every time you wash it.
Its boasting and cleansing formula that thoroughly cleans your hair from root to tip.
The shampoo does not only extend the life of your colour but also works to give you a softer and smoother feel all over.


In recent years, WiFi has evolved from a luxury to a basic necessity. This change is driven by the following ingredients of success—it is free (most of the time), it is widely available, and it connects us to the world. In fact, I would go out on a limb and say that WiFi should now be included in the bottom layer of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, right next to food, water, and shelter.
For service providers, this proliferation has been a bitter-sweet experience. On one hand, WiFi provides a means to ease network congestion caused by heavy data users (or as it is commonly called, WiFi offload). On the other hand, it becomes difficult to attach a monetary value to this widely-available benefit. As a CSP, you have to not only maintain QoE for your users but also compete for market share against unsecured public WiFi and other low-cost service providers. To top it off, most people expect WiFi to be a free service. This leaves very few methods to monetize WiFi, making it difficult to incorporate into your business strategy.
To combat the monetization challenge, one of the most underrated but reliable solutions is the WiFi captive portal. The captive portal is the face of your brand, interacting with your customers before they authenticate and connect. It's not just a tactical pit-stop in the WiFi service route, but also a window of opportunity. All you have to do is think of the possibilities beyond free WiFi.
Here are 6 ways to make the best use of a captive portal in a way that both captivates customers' attention and achieves business excellence, at no cost to the end user.
Fill out a survey: Surveys are a great way to collect user data, like email addresses, as well as a way to solicit feedback related to their experience with your brand. Through a captive portal, you can gather required data to drive email marketing campaigns and derive value from the survey results.
Verify SMS to connect: Asking for a user's phone number gives you one more way to capitalize on your free WiFi hotspot access. You get verified phone numbers of prospects which can be fed into your marketing pipeline to develop them into customers.
Advertisements: Most users are willing to see an advertisement in exchange for free WiFi access. By putting advertisements in the form of banners and other static ads on the captive portal, the user must view these before they can gain access to WiFi. By showcasing your own brand's ads, you can boost brand knowledge and support. Or, you can monetize by charging a per view fee for other companies' advertisements.
Video Advertisements: Video advertisements take monetizing on ad revenue to another level, yielding a much higher per-view rate. Requiring users to watch a 20 second video ad, before they can access WiFi, stimulates user engagement and can generate higher ad revenue.
Capture data using social login: For almost all mobile apps, social sign-on is a norm these days. It has become a habit for the customer and you can exploit this to gain access to some useful data about the user. Later, you can use this data to run analytics and targeted campaigns targeting any particular segment.
Connect with an existing account: Whether you are an internet service provider or a mobile network operator running a WiFi network, you can allow your existing customers to log into your public WiFi hotspot network with the same credentials they use for their home broadband connection or mobile account. Easy WiFi access = happy customers = loyal customers!
The WiFi Captive Portal is not just powerful and appealing, it is also quite simple to create. Alepo WiFi Service Management Platform (SMP) can help you design a captive portal that works best for you with our modular, highly scalable platform, which has proven IOTs with many top vendors. The Alepo WiFi SMP is the best option to get your WiFi services up and running in minutes while adding value to your brand.
An avid reader and a technology enthusiast who likes to keep up with wireless industry trends. She's a music lover, a traveler and believes in living life to the fullest.


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Make sure your music is heard the first time it's played!


I love dressing up, especially for the office, but by the time Friday rolls around, I'm ready to be casual. Today, I was a little more casual than usual, because I wasn't feeling well. So, today, I wore this Vineyard Vines sweater, which is not only cute and bright, but also very comfortable. I love to pair navy with cognac colored accessories. My go-tos are my Madewell mini transport crossbody bag and J. Crew ballet flats. These shoes are so comfortable, I own them in three colors! And for jewelry, I kept it simple and classic with pearls and my Kate Spade watch.


This gorgeous tree by Clive Maddison is inspired by a Taiwan Cypress. It is a unique handmade item with 240 metres of aluminium wire and its canopy of leaves has approximately 10,600 loops. Each strand runs from the roots through to the leaves and has no other additional wiring, glue, solder, or any other means of securing them. The sculpture is self supporting through the twisting method used which holds it together.
The tree is mounted on a solid base of Amayaque with the roots on display which are as much a part of the trees as the canopy of leaves and trunk.


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Massive Metal Monday: EYEHATEGOD "Medicine Noose"
By Ides Bergen | @ | November 16th, 2015 at 8:00 pm
EYEHATEGOD is one of the most influential bands to ever emerge from the New Orleans music scene despite their sparse output. Formed in 1988, the sludge metal legends have only managed to release 5 albums due, in part, to the band members' penchants for heavy drug use and side projects. Singer Mike Williams, in particular, has fought a very public battle with heroin addiction. Guitarist Jimmy Bower is a multi-instrumentalist who has also been in Crowbar and Phil Anselmo's supergroups Down and Superjoint Ritual. In his absence, the other four members of the band have a side project known as Outlaw Order.
This week's Massive Metal Monday track is "Medicine Noose" from EYEHATEGOD's self-titled 2014 album
EYEHATEGOD. Sadly, it is the final album to feature founding drummer Joey LaCaze, who passed away in 2013 from respiratory failure.
This MMM is dedicated to the memory of Joey LaCaze.
Topics: Features, Massive Metal Monday, Music
Tags: Crowbar, Down, EYEHATEGOD, Jimmy Bower, Joey LaCaze, Metal, Mike Williams, Phil Anselmo, Sludge Metal, Superjoint Ritual
'Blair Witch' Film Makers Talk Possible Third Movie
By The Movie God | @ | August 11th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
A third movie in The Blair Witch Project series is no big shocking developing news story — since the first movie was made, there was always word that a sequel would follow, and then a prequel would be made that was set a couple centuries ago and that would tell the real tale of the witch. After the second movie came out and was hated by most, the third chapter seemed to completely disappear. It's popped up from time to time, but nothing has ever come of it.
While speaking to the BBC, film makers Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick chatted all things Blair Witch, including what the eternally-coming third movie they're still developing might include, if it ever does get made, of course.
It appears that the current problem in the way of this project is what exactly to do with it. Sanchez and Myrick acknowledge the prequel idea set in the 1700s, but sound like they don't want to do that anymore.
Topics: Movies, News
Tags: Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sanchez, Heather Donahue, Josh Leonard, Mike Williams, The Blair Witch Project


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GA LIC: CR109879
Deluxe Services Heating and Cooling
Heating & Air Conditioning, Air Conditioning & Furnace Repair Gwinnett
Heating & Air Examples
Homeowner's Checklist
Energy Saving Links
Heating & Cooling Tips
Building Maintenance Terms
Heating & Air Terms
TERMS RELATING TO HEATING AND COOLING
AFUE Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency — a rating that reflects the efficiency of a gas furnace in converting fuel to energy. A rating of 90 means that approximately 90% of the fuel is utilized to provide warth to your home, while the remaining 10% escapes as exhaust.
BTU British Thermal Unit. In scientific terms, it represents the amount of energy required to raise one pound of water one degree Farenheit. One BTU is the equivalent of the heat given off by a single wooden kitchen match. For your home, it represents the measure of heat givens off when fuel is burned for heating or the measure of heat extracted from your home for cooling.
CFM A standard of airflow measurement. Cubic feet per minute. A typical system produces 400 CFM per ton of air conditioning.
Capacity The output or producing ability of a piece of cooling or heating equipment. Cooling and heating capacity are normally referred to in BTUs.
Compressor The heart of an air conditioning or heat pump system. It is part of the outdoor unit that pumps refrigerant. The compressor maintains adequate pressure to cause refrigerant to flow in sufficient quantities to meet the cooling requirements of the system.
Condenser Coil or Outdoor Coil Located in the outdoor unit, the coil dissipates heat from the refrigerant, changing the refrigerant from vapor to liquid.
Damper Found in duct work, this movable plate opens and closes to control airflow. Dampers are used effectively in zoning to regulate airflow to certain rooms.
Downflow Furnace A furnace that pulls in retunrn air from the top and expels warm air at the bottom.
Ductwork Pipes or channels that carry air throughout your home.
Evaporator Coil The coil that is inside your house in a split system. In the evaporator, refrigerant evaporates and absorbs heat from air passed over the coil.
Heat Exchanger A device for the transfer of heat energy from the source to the conveying medium.
Horizontal Furnace A furnace that lies on its side, pulling in return air from one side and expelling warm air from the other.
Humidifier A device that injects water vapor into heated air as the air is expelled from the furnace.
Humidity The amount of moisture in the air. Air conditioners remove moisture for added comfort.
HSPF Heating Seasonal Performance Factor, a rating used in measuring the heating efficiency of a heat pump. The higher the number, the more efficient the unit.
HVAC Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning.
Package System A piece of air conditioning and heating equipment where all components are located in one cabinet. Used occasionally in residential applications, the package unit is installed either beside or on top of the home.
Refrigerant A substance that produces a refrigerating effect while expanding or vaporizing.
Split System Refers to a comfort system configuration consisting of components in two locations. Common examples include an outside unit, such as an air conditioner, and an indoor unit, such as a furnace and coil.
Switchover Valve A device in a heat pump that reverses the flow of refrigerant as the system is switched from cooling to heating. Also called a reversing valve or four-way valve.
Thermostat A temperature control device, typically found on a wall inside the home, that consists of a series of sensors and relays that monitor and control the functions of a heating and cooling system.
Ton A unit of measurement used for determining cooling capacity. One ton is the equivalent of 12,000 BTUs per hour.
Upflow Furnace A furnace that pulls return air in from the bottom and expels warm air from the top.
Zoning A method of dividing a home into zones and enabling you to control the amount of comfort provided to each.
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The Great 531 Overlay of 2011!
After years of speculation, decades actually, and several false alarms, Nebraska will be getting a third area code for general telephone service. (Isn't this exciting? Yeah, right!)
The number of available prefixes in 402 is really-truly approaching exhaustion, even with a judicious degree of sharing of many prefixes between providers. (Yes, you can now get an 'Omaha' cell phone with a 'Springfield' prefix of 402-253!)
NPA (Area Code) 531 will go live in early 2011, overlaying the area currently served by Nebraska's original area code, 402, which now serves Omaha, Lincoln, and several 'nearby' communities such as Hastings, Norfolk, and Valentine.
This time it's really gonna happen, and conditioning of the Teeming Millions for the impending transition is scheduled to begin Real Soon Now.
The Powers That Be decided some time ago that it is For Our Own Good that 531 should be overlaid on 402 rather than split geographically, thus saving half of us the trauma of remembering a new area code.
This will 'require' (explaining why this is really not the case will be an exercise for the student) that local calls within the 402 area must be dialed using ten digits: the area code, the prefix, and the line number. (10 - Count 'Em - 10 NPA-NXX-XXXX)
To phase in the new area code, 'permissive' dialing, which means that you are allowed to dial with ten digits if you really insist, will begin next month in June. Mandatory 10 digit dialing will begin in February, 2011, clearing the way for NPA 531 deployment in March.
Fortunately, one vestige of sanity remains. The Powers That Be have decided that we will not be required to dial '1' to prefix all calls, keeping with the notion (sort of) that '1 means toll.'
The explosion in growth of cellular phones in the 1990s brought this on, and even though it was put off a number of times, it looks like we're now stuck with it.
This was not the first time, however, that AC 402 was broken up.
What we know as Area Codes, actually Numbering Plan Areas (NPAs), were assigned in the 1940s as Ma Bell migrated from manual long-distance service to operator-assisted machine-switched long-distance service, facilitated by the barely-pre-war XBT (Crossbar Tandem) and the post-war #4 Toll Crossbar switch.
Nebraska was originally assigned NPA 402, serving all of Nebraska at the time. Many states, some far more populous than Nebraska was back then, were served by a single area code. In those days, true NPA-NNX-XXXX compliant phone numbers were far from universal. Many larger cities still used 6-digit 2-4 numbering plans. Omaha had such a plan until September 10, 1960. Council Bluffs had a combined 4-5 digit plan, as did many other communities with two or three COs.
As communities adopted the then NPA-NNX-XXXX standard (NPA-NXX was yet to come) in the 1950s, a necessary prerequisite for inbound Direct Distance Dialing, available prefixes were quickly exhausted and several area code 'splits' occurred in the early-mid 1950s. A severely gerrymandered line was drawn arbitrarily across Nebraska, leaving communities such as Rulo, in the southeast corner and Valentine, in northwest Nebraska, as well as Omaha and Lincoln in 402, with everything else in 308.
The phase-in of NXX prefixes in the late 1960s delayed several area code splits, and the sharing of NXXs among providers held things off even further, but countless splits and overlays occurred in the 1990s and 2000s, and we will be one of them soon.
Aren't we excited ??
Oh, one last thing. Let's be sure to notice how our local Talking Heads screw up the details of this as the date approaches. Ted Brockman, are you listening in? ;-)
Posted by oma453 at 8:21 PM No comments:
Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!
It's Mayday! Saturday, May 1, and I and a friend set off in the direction of Lyons, NE to visit the Lyons Regional Antique Telephone Show, jointly sponsored by the JKL Museum Of Telephony and the Telephone Collectors International Society.
It's an easy drive from Omaha. We stopped and had breakfast in Fremont and arrived at the site before noon.
The show site is the former AT&T Long Lines 'Hardened' Lyons Communication Center, built to withstand a nuclear blast and then some. The site is very easy to find. Just drive in the direction of Lyons, and look for the tower. ;-)
As a reformed phr^H^H^Htelephone enthusiast, I thought my days of 'underground' phone business were over. WRONG!
The show was, literally, three stories down in a blast-proof bay.
The huge blast door was open for the occasion.
The facility is, literally, a cold-war vintage communication center.
Most of the equipment has obviously been removed, but the remnants of what appear to be a MDF remain.
As well as a few items on display.
But anyway, back to the show ...
On my personal 'wish list' were a few specific items:
A working or easily restorable 'candlestick' desk set, with a working dial, preferably original WECO, but maybe Kellogg or others. No repros or bastardized sets.
A working or easily restorable 202 series desk set, with working dial.
A VG or better 302 desk set.
A clear-case 500, 1500, or 2500 set.
I must admit that most of what I saw at the show was 'good junk', as opposed to 'junk junk', as most of those showing/selling stuff appeared to be sincere collectors and not obvious rip-off artists.
I was able to score a restorable 202 with a good condition dial and E series handset, and a very good, but obviously repainted 302. Two out of four ain't bad. ;-)
Let's take a look at a few things I wanted, but did not buy.
There were a few nice original WECO candlesticks, with dial, and cosmetically and mechanically good or better.
However, the price points were just far more than I was willing to pay. :-(
There were some very nice clear sets, this one being an AE Monophone,
and this one being a WECO Princess, but unfortunately these were for show only and not for sale.
On the back of a truck outside the building was an old WECO cord board. I'm kind of assuming that this was out here because of the difficulty in getting it down the steps.
Those from Omaha will immediately recognize the name of the business from which it came. ;-)
For some reason, they are saying that this will be the last show of this type at the Lyons facility. I'm not sure why, but I do wish they would reconsider this decision. :=(
Anyway, it was time well spent !!
The Ad Man Cometh
Let's take a break from the techie stuph, and reflect on another aspect of Ma Bell's omnipresence during her heyday, some vintage Ma Bell ads, compiled from various sources.
Yellow Pages<tm>.
I guess this one was before you let your fingers do the walking.
'Hey Joe, where ya goin' with that phone in your hand?'
But seriously, in these days we take for granted that circuits, whether subscriber loops or international long-haul trunks, are plentiful and always at your beck and call. In the WWII era, party lines, 4 and 8 party in Ma Bell land, up to 12 party in Indie land, were commonplace. Long Distance trunks were in many cases scarce and in high demand.
Ads such as this were common, and rightly so, encouraging subscribers to keep the lines open for servicemembers during the peak evening hours.
Many of Ma Bell's vintage ads feature anthropomorphic and larger-than-life phones.
This one has to be Ma Bell's answer to Reddy Kilowatt. ;-)
They were bragging about a 'short' two-minute time to set up a LD call. Remember, this was back in the days when Long Distance was totally manual. The calls had to be manually worked through Ma Bell's network, often through one or more intermediary offices, and through an 'inward' Long Distance operator at the far end.
These two ads (above and below) feature similar sets of what I would call an unusual configuration, 200 series sets with F series handsets, no dial.
These had to be from the era when manual service was still standard and presumed to be what the majority of the viewers of the ads were accustomed to. I never experienced manual service first hand, but I do know that it was commonplace, even in some parts of major metropolitan areas, into the 1950s. I would guess the vintage of the ad immediately above to be 1930s, showing the 'high tech' F handset, but not rubbing it in to the noses of the viewers that dial service was not available in many areas.
This is also the earliest ad I've seen where the '2368' number was used.
Although the number tag is not entirely shown, it's obvious from the spacing that it's intended to be EX-2368 and not something like EX3-2368. The 2-4 numbering pattern was very common in the 1930s in areas served by both manual offices and newer 'machine switching' offices.
Hmmmm .... I wonder if, during the heyday of Ma Bell's manual service, they had offices such as QUigley or QUeensbridge or ... ;-)
The family at EX-2368 gets a new 302 set, and my guess is that this ad is late 1940s, with 2-4 dialing still commonplace, but before the 500 series was common.
The number morphs to Main 0-2368 in this ad featuring the 302.
And in this featuring the 500.
Phone 'enthusiasts' will be quick to point out that zero, as the third digit of the office code (NNX) was not allowed until the late 1960s.
As I said ...
... the quality of the voice in Ma Bell's glory days was second to none! As critical as I've been of Ma over the years, this is the one thing I admit was superior during the days of one system, one solution.
Likewise ...
The quality of the sets was second to none as well! The 500 was built like a tank. It could take any kind of abuse that an ornery kid, an angry parent, or a curious phr^H^H^Henthusiast could ever deliver. I think the MTBF (mean time between failures) of a late 60s vintage 500 was measured in centuries!
(We now return to our regular program.)
Tell the kids that 'Uncle Jim' is coming over (but he's not really your uncle).
'Hi baby! He's gone and won't be back until tomorrow night. C'mon over. The kids are, uh, occupied!' ;-)
My Aunt had a Princess<tm> phone in her bedroom, early model, sky-blue pink IIRC, rotary dial, maybe 1961 or so.
This one did not have a ringer in the set. It was on the baseboard, color-coordinated with the set, almost like a throwback to the 202 days. It had that lighted dial, powered by the 'brick on a string' transformer plugged into the wall socket.
Then about 1967 Mom got a Princess phone. This one was again rotary dial, but had the ringer in the set. She refused to let the installer staple a line for the light across the baseboard to a 'brick on a string' at the nearest wall socket, which was way across the room, so at the time of installation, this Princess was dark.
It's always handy having a son who was a budding phr^H^H^Hphone enthusiast! I found the correct run of quad down in the cellar, carefully dissected it with the X-acto knife, pieced out the yellow/black pair and connected it to the building's 24 volt doorbell transformer, but with a 'one goes out they all go out' series Christmas lamp in each leg as a ballast and to protect from any shorts. Hey, we don't want a meltdown of 100' of quad in a wall, do we? ;-)
It worked just fine and I was her hero -- for maybe a day or so. ;-)
It was there and working until they moved out some years later. I never de-installed it. Hey, after they moved it was no longer my problem, right? ;-) I'm sure that TPC would have had a cow if they ever came upon it.
Phoning is fun !!
Just pick up Mommy's phone, dial 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 and listen to the recording, rinse, repeat. ;-)
'{sigh} Was it as good for you as it was for me?' ;-)
This is a rather unusual set for the bedroom.
The baby blue 500 is appropriate for the boudoir I admit. So is the rarely-seen dial light (available for a semi-reasonable monthly charge), but notice the two-line turn-key.
Maybe it's so she can listen in on the Teenline<tm> after they are supposed to be asleep! ;-)
Bedroom phones were promoted heavily during the 1950s and 1960s.
As well as extension phones anywhere.
'Congratulations again, Mrs. Bratter, and may there be many extensions!' ;-)
Phones in color!
Notice the straight, non-coiled handset cables. Coiled cables 'spring cords' were optional, with a recurring monthly charge, into the 1960s.
Speaking of which ...
Where does the handset cable terminate?
Your phone away from home.
In this day and age, we think of the pay phone as being in the same category as the dodo bird and the Oldsmobile. They are becoming few and far between.
'Mommy, what's a phone booth?'
If the pay phone is an endangered species, the phone booth is essentially extinct in the wild! You just don't see these anymore.
Back in the days, Ma Bell did promote the comfort and convenience of the pay phone, in the privacy of your own phone booth.
And a local call was only a dime! Cheaper if you had a straight pin and knew how to use it! ;-)
Hey! Curb your dog, Missy!
How handy ...
... a 500 on the patio by the lake!
Wasn't this the thing that Dr. Brown was wearing on his head in the first BTTF?
The Fone Man cometh!
'Hi, my name's Krusty, and I'm from The Fone Company. Let's go into the bedroom so I can {wink-wink} install my cable.' ;-)
302G-3F
Standard issue from around WWII until the mid 1950s.
Is it my imagination, or does that box appear too small for the set and the handset?
I hope you enjoyed today's little digression.
Posted by oma453 at 6:35 AM 2 comments:
Transmission Zones
As critical as I am of Ma Bell, the one thing I must admit is that the quality of the voice signal during Ma Bell's heyday is the best it's ever been during the age of telephony.
The clarity of the voice transmitted by the Bell System between the 1920s and the 1980s was in most cases far superior to that of today's typical phone call.
Back then, from the era of the 202 with the E series handset, to the phase-out of the 500/2500 and (real) Trimline, we didn't need MOS scores! 5.0 was expected and with rare exception, delivered.
If you had an issue, they would cheerfully fix it, with none of this "If the trouble is in your inside wire, a $2500.00 service charge may apply ..." nonsense. (You did need to remember, of course, to unplug and hide that stray 302, you know, the one with the ringer disconnected, before TPC showed up.) ;-)
The 'cheapie chirper' phone of the early 1990s could never reproduce the voice as clearly as the 500, or even the 302. Even the 'cheapie chirpers' put today's cell phones to shame as far as voice quality is concerned. Of course, toward the bottom of the call clarity food chain are such things as Magic Jack and Skype.
Bell: Wats n, cm hr, I wnt o.
Watson: What? Huh? Say again? Eh? Pardon?
The sets were built like tanks as well. You could literally heave a 500 into a brick wall with only cosmetic damage. Try that with your Mallard Duck phone!
The quality of the voice was paramount to Ma Bell. Many guidelines for provisioning and maintenance were set up to assure voice quality.
In today's world, no matter where you live, no matter how far from the CO, SLC, or ONU pedestal, you don't really care. You buy (or otherwise acquire) a set, plug it in, and talk, or at least attempt to do so.
Back in the heyday of The System, the distance of the wire from the subscriber to the CO fell into one of a number of 'Transmission Zones', each with its own particular needs and characteristics. Originally (or so they tell me) there were several zones: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. By the early 1960s or so, they settled into three more broadly-defined zones: Zone 2, Zone 5, and Zone L.
Zone 2 was the closest to the CO, and was the set of subscribers within a 10,000 foot loop length (or so) the the CO. A TPC employee with whom I was acquainted told me to the effect of "we never use these anymore, but back then we estimated Zone 2 as about two miles, as the crow flies, from the CO." Zone 2 was where the loop was short, relatively free of electrical interference and distance-specific transmission loss, and the loop current was relatively high.
Zone 5 was farther out, and in the old days often estimated as "between two and five miles or so from the CO, as the crow flies, but who would want to fly with an old crow!"
If you draw circles on a map, you'll see that a very significant percentage of subscribers fell into Zone 2. Metropolitan CO boundaries typically overlapped in Zone 2 or Zone 5.
Zone L was roughly defined as anything more than about five miles out or so, or alternatively "where you get far out enough that you start having trouble", out to the limit of where things just would not work, even with range boosters, CO long-line equipment, and in-set amplifiers.
The following chart, which appeared in some similar versions in various Ma Bell internal publications at the time, illustrates the zones and recommended station equipment for each.
(This chart also illustrates what's sometimes called the 'Shirley Temple Principle', you can never be too cute!) ;-)
I would estimate this version to be ca. 1963, after the announcement of the Trimline, but before the 302 was out of use.
Note that this chart recommends that 302 sets be confined to Zone 2, short loops only. For many years, the 302 was standard issue in what the chart calls Zone 5 and even in Zone L. From 1949 or so, the newer network in the 500 series sets did give better performance on medium-long to very long loops.
However, notice that the 500, restrained by the ball and chain, is not encouraged in Zone 2.
Historically, that's because the earliest 500 sets, those equipped with the model 425A network, did not perform very well on short loops. They often had very loud sidetone and distorted received audio.
The work-around was to install a type 311A Equalizer on early 500 sets used on short loops. This was shoehorned under the dial toward the left of the base, as viewed from the front.
The 'equalizer' was an add-on to the early 500 series sets with the older internal networks, those lacking the varistor compensation which compensated for short loops and high loop current. The 311A Equalizer was said by those in the know to be an incandescent lamp, used as a makeshift varistor, to improve the performance on short loops.
The newer 425x networks included varistor compensation and worked equally well on loops from a few feet to several miles in length.
That's just peachy for short loops, but what about long loops?
The chart above makes reference to a '238A Amplifier', and that was one of a handful of similar devices.
The 238A was a one-transistor device, constructed around a G series transmitter mounting cup, which was designed to boost the outgoing transmitted audio and compensate for the long loop.
The 238A (and successors) were commonplace on long loops (Zone L) into the 1980s.
The 276A was an improved and somewhat beefier version of the 238A.
For those who truly speak geek, the schematic of the 276A Amplifier is shown below.
The transmitter in series with the inductor is capacitively coupled to the base of the transistor, and the emitter-collector of the transistor replaces the transmitter with respect to the network.
The 238A was very similar.
Other variations existed. The 277, for example, incorporated a polarity guard in the form of a bridge rectifier. This was to be used with switching equipment which reversed battery to the calling set upon far-end supervision.
Posted by oma453 at 1:53 AM No comments:
101 ESS
The 101 ESS was a model of telephone switch which played a very important part in Ma Bell's emerging technology, but it only appears in fleeting references in historical documents, eclipsed by the 1 ESS and others.
The 101 was Ma Bell's first! Yes, predating the 1E!
Some will tell you that the 101 ESS is essentially the red-headed stepchild of the Bell System. It was quirky, had a short operational life, and had a bad reputation in the field.
For the time, the 101 was ahead of its time, literally. It had many innovations which are reflected in the mature technology of today. It was the first 'stored program control' switching system used in commercial service. (More about that term below.) It was also the first switch to use TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) to switch voice paths. It was Ma Bell's first commercially-deployed switch which supported Touch-Tone.
The 101 began life in the 1950s as the EPBX project, Ma Bell's initiative to create a state-of-the-art all-electronic small telephone switch which could be deployed at a customer's premises in lieu of the very bulky, noisy, and space-consuming Step equipment, and the somewhat bulky Crossbar PBX systems.
It was renamed the 101 ESS after the term ESS was settled upon to be the service mark of Ma Bell's electronic switches. The number 101 was chosen since full-scale CO switches were normally assigned single-digit numbers, and PBX systems were normally assigned three-digit numbers. 101 was, of course, the lowest number available under those criteria.
The numbers vary as far as the line capacity of the 101. Some literature will cite limits in the hundreds of lines, others refer to low thousands of lines being available from later 101 systems.
The strategy was to place a large central control unit in the CO, acting as the equivalent of the line link section of an otherwise normal 5 Crossbar office, and a 'smart' remote unit at each customer's premises, connected by an appropriate number of signal and control trunks to the CO. To be commercially viable, each CO supporting 101 service had to serve a certain number of remote customers, 10 or so, depending on size and density.
The 101 service was sold under the service mark of 'Centrex-CU', the CU meaning that (some of) the switching equipment resided at the customer's premises. Centrex-CU included normal features such as direct inward dialing to four-digit extensions, direct outward 'dial 9' service with ANI (automatic calling number identification) with detailed reports and variable billing options, and such 'Custom Calling Features' such as speed dialing, call transfer, camp-on, remote pick-up of a ringing extension, call forwarding, and user-initiated 3-way and 4-way conference calling.
The 101 was also used for some stand-alone, non-DID PBX applications, but these were few and far between.
The technology used at the time for the 101 was discrete-component diode-transistor logic (DTL), making up the bulk of the electronics.
The switch fabric used an innovative but unusual form of analog time division multiplexing. Instead of multiple physical audio paths through the switch matrix, there was one path which was time-shared by all active calls, each being switched in and out at the rate of 12,000 samples per second. The actual 'switching' of audio paths involved assigning the appropriate timeslot to a particular call.
The audio signals were smoothed and integrated by capacitors, giving full response in the telephony band of roughly 300 to 3000 Hz. The 12kHz sampling signal was well above the (intended) bandwidth of the system, but some claimed to hear it, or its effects. Most users, however, heard only the usual crystal-clear analog telephone signals which were expected and typical of telephone systems of that age.
The first production roll-out (that I can find) was at Mayo Clinic in 1963.
It would seem to some that the 101 might be well-suited to CDO (rural Community Dial Office) operation, in a similar architecture to the host-remote scheme commonly seen today. This, unfortunately, was not practical with the 101. If it were, I'm sure that the 101 would have seen a longer and far more visible life. The design of the analog section of the 101 precluded very long loops between the switch and the set. Although off-premises extensions from 101 systems did exist and were somewhat common, the loop length was limited to 10,000 feet or so, and in rural offices, a good percentage of customer loops exceed this threshold. (There's also no evidence that the 101 ever supported party lines of any type, which were still required by the lack of adequate outside plant during the life of the 101.)
There's not that much literature in the public that talks about the nuts and bolts of the 101. The items that are widely available are full of arcane terms such as Stored Program Control, Program Store, Call Store, etc., terms that are not commonly used even by today's hardware-savvy technoids.
Let's talk about some of these.
Stored Program Control means computer control. The system is controlled by a 'stored program engine' which most of us would call a CPU. This CPU was built of discrete components, no microprocessor or VLSI, not even any SSI in the original 101. Computer architects might even call this a very early RISC processor, since the instruction set was small and primitive. However, it had a few very specialized instructions which were well-adapted to the control of the switch.
Program Store is what we would call the executable code, stored in a 1960s era version of what we might call ROM, or Read Only Memory. The ROM memory cards were aluminum-base cards with each bit represented by a magnetized or non-magnetized spot on the card which could be read by the CPU.
Likewise we can think of Call Store, used to store the call information and other items making up the state of the switch, as RAM.
The RAM at the time was ferrite core memory, with each bit being represented by a ferrite bead. The beads were magnetized by a 'write' wire, and the state of each bead was read by a matrix of 'scan' and 'sense' wires.
The 101 could not be re-programmed on the fly in the field. New code sets ('generics') had to be delivered on mag card sets. There were no on-line mass-storage units such as disk drives. These did not come to switching technology until the advent of the 1A ESS many years later.
Many of the features of the 'CPU' of the 101 were adapted to the 1 ESS, but the 1E did not use the TDM switch fabric, instead employing 'fereed' crosspoint switches in crossbar-like configuration.
In Omaha, the 101 Centrex-CU service was promoted heavily beginning in the late 1960s and (at least) two #5 Crossbar offices were adapted to support 101 ESS customers.
The Omaha 101 installations which I can find evidence of are:
Internorth, 348
Clarkson Hospital, 348
Omaha Police, 348
Omaha National Bank, 348
Norwest Bank (now Wells Fargo), 536
Lutheran Hospital, 536
Creighton University, 536
OPPD, 536
UNMC, 536, expanded and cut to 541
Lozier Corporation, 541
This, of course, was the critical mass necessary to make the service practical and profitable to Ma Bell.
Such was not the case in west Omaha.
90th and Western (originally hosted at 135th):
Bergan Mercy Hospital, 398
IBM Corporation, internal PBX, not Centrex, no DID.
Even with the vast westward expansion of Omaha's business community between the 1970s and 1990s, the 101 ESS never saw widespread deployment in the 'burbs', the service being mostly pushed out of the way by 'Centrex CO' services hosted out of 1E and 1A switches.
One of my former employers was 'served' by one of the above 101 installations. My desk phone, for the most part, worked perfectly well as far as regular POTS features, but the custom features such as forwarding, transfer, etc., were sporadic at best.
I know that it worked for 103 type 300bps data calls, not so sure about 1200 and above.
The one quirk which I remember most about the switch was the cadence of the ringdown and ringback. The 101 tone generator used the newer 'precise' sounds for such things as dial tone, ring tone, and busy tone. However, when a call was placed, the first ring was often several times the normal length, then often stuttering before settling in to the normal 1-on, 2-off cadence typical of PBX installations.
I have never received any explanation of why this happened.
I do know that in a later 101 installation in NYC, this quirk was not present, and that 101 had the normal ringback cadence found in other systems.
All 101 installations appeared to have vanished by the mid 1990s or so, mostly replaced by Centrex-CO and Centrex-CU on various Dimension, Definity, and systems of other manufacturers.
An interesting sidebar to the history of the 101 is a legend on the etymology of the term 'octothorpe' to refer to the pound/hash/sharp/whatever sign. It involves the tale of the name being coined on the fly during the commissioning of the Mayo Clinic's Centrex. Researching this will be an exercise for the student. ;-) Hint: Check the archives of Telecom Digest. ;-)
So, how does a panel office work ??
The Panel Office
This will describe the basic components of the typical panel central office. In our next installment, we'll trace a call through a panel office, showing exactly what happens in each stage of the process. We'll also describe the 'revertive pulsing', the method by which panel offices communicate with eac other, in some depth in a subsequent article.
I've been fascinated with the panel offices ever since being served by one and discovering some of its quirks. In the 1970s I was actually able to schmooze my way in for a late-night off-the-record tour of one, which only increased my interest.
In the 1970s, the panel switch was the Rodney Dangerfield of telecom. It got no respect! It was considered to be crufty, unreliable, low-tech, old, antiquated, a Rube Goldberg machine, and the like.
For the 1920s, however, the panel switch was high-tech. It was bleeding-edge for its time. In those days the practicality of providing machine-switched telephone service to large metropolitan areas was unproven, and the Panel installation in Omaha, beginning in 1921, was the proof of concept.
The term 'panel' comes from the panels of contacts which make up the frames which comprise a panel switching office. Each 'frame' consists of a panel of contacts, arranged normally in 5 banks of 100 contacts each, or in 10 banks of 40 contacts each for the (newer) linefinder frames. Each frame has 60 selector rods, 30 on the front, 30 on the rear, with each rod having normally 5 contact 'brushes', with the rods on the linefinder frames having 10 contact brushes.
The selector rods are positioned over the correct contacts on the panels by motor-driven cork rollers located toward the bottom of the frames. Clutches for up-drive, down-drive (and slow up-drive on the final frame) control the movement of the selector rods.
The brushes are the movable contacts which connect to the fixed contacts upon the banks of the panel switch.
Let's take a quick overview of what comprises (or comprised, this is all in the past tense here, actually) the typical real-world panel office and discuss the various parts.
In the diagram above we show the various frames of the panel office, plus some of the major ancillary components.
Five types of panel switching frames existed, with four of them appearing in all full-blown panel offices and a fifth type existing in those in the largest metropolitan areas.
Linefinder frames
A complete full-scale panel office will have 25 linefinder frames, each serving a group of 400 subscriber lines, for a total of 10,000 lines. (Researching the proverbial 10,500 line panel offices will be an exercise for the student.)
The linefinder frame provides the connection to the subscriber's telephone set when the receiver is taken off hook, and routes that connection first to the register-sender and then to a corresponding district frame.
District frames
District selector frames appear in all panel offices. In panel offices in smaller communities (ya know, it's difficult for me to write all of this in the past tense, so if you don't mind, I'll do this in the present tense as if these things still exist today, ok?) the district selector frames provide the outgoing connection from the subscriber, via the linefinder, to either inter-office trunks to other central offices, or intra-office trunks to incoming frames in the same central office.
Each district frame can connect to 500 trunks, so there is a practical limit, and in larger communities a second stage of outgoing selectors is provided.
Office frames
In the largest communities where there are many central offices, 500 outgoing trunks from a panel office is inadequate, so a second stage of outgoing selection is provided by 'office' frames. These frames only appeared (there I go mixing tenses again) in the largest metropolitan areas, such as New York City, Chicago, etc. It's believed that Omaha's panel offices used only the district frames for the outgoing connections.
The district and office frames select the particular central office of the call to be completed.
Incoming frames
The incoming frame of a panel office is the first stage of selection of the called station. The incoming frame connects the incoming inter-office or intra-office trunk to the particular final frame which serves the called subscriber.
The incoming frame consists of five banks, each with 100 contacts. Each bank is served by one brush on each of the selector rods. This allows a maximum of 25 connections between the incoming frame and the final frame. These sets of 25 connections are referred to as a 'group', and there are four groups within each bank, for a total of 20 groups within the incoming frame.
Final frames
Each final frame can serve 500 subscribers, therefore there will be 20 final frames in a complete panel office serving 10,000 subscriber lines. The final frame connects the incoming call to the subscriber's station, and provides the logic to test for line busy, to supply ringing voltage to the called line, to return the ringback tone (or busy tone) to the calling subscriber, and to remove ringdown/ringback and complete the talking path when the called subscriber answers.
Besides the actual switching frames, other important parts of the panel office included:
The Register-Sender. (Sometimes called just 'sender'.)
Think of this as the 'brain' or the 'CPU' of the panel office. It's actually a collection of electromechanical relay-logic circuitry. This is the main 'Common Control' section of the panel office. The register-sender records the digits dialed by the calling subscriber and gives the commands to the various frames, both in the originating office and the terminating office, as to how to position the brushes against the banks of contacts, in order to complete the call.
The register-sender is only needed at the initial call set-up phase. It is dismissed once the selector rods are all in place and the call is in the ringing or the line-busy state.
A full-scale panel office would have anywhere between 3 and 6 or so register-senders depending on the volume of calls anticipated.
The Translator or Decoder.
While the positions of the selectors on the incoming and final frames are easily determined by the called subscriber's number, the connections to various intra and inter-office trunks are quite arbitrary and vary considerably from community to community.
The register-sender calls upon the Translator (earlier panel offices) or Decoder (later panel offices) to determine how to route the call through the district frame and, if used, the office frame.
The Sender-Link circuitry.
Each connection between the linefinder frame and the district frame has a set of multi-contact relays and associated circuitry which allows it to 'seize' an idle register sender when the subscriber goes off hook.
Note that the register-sender is only needed for a few seconds for each call. It receives the digits, does some lookups via the translator/decoder, sets up the call, and is then available for another call.
'Slow dial tone' on a panel office is almost always due to the fact that all register-senders are busy at the time.
The Tone Plant.
In the typical panel office, this is a rotary electromechanical device about the size of and in some ways resembling a metal lathe. This contains rotary generators for the low-voltage tones which make up dial tone, busy tone, etc., and the high-voltage (90-100 v 20Hz) ringing signal.
Interrupters are driven by a step-down gear train. These provide the cadences for such things as ringdown, ringback, busy tone, etc. Some of these would use a rotary brush arrangement, while others used mercury-filled rotating drums to interrupt the signals.
The various tones and signals which come from the tone plant are:
Dial tone. This would be the older non-precise dial tone for panel offices not converted for touch-tone service.
Busy tone. This would be the older somewhat rude and raucous 'BAWW BAWW BAWW BAWW' tone, interrupted at 60 impulses per minute, returned to the calling subscriber for a line busy condition. Even panel offices which were converted to touch-tone retained this tone for busy-back.
Ringback tone. For most panel offices this would be the non-precise 'metropolitan ring' tone, electromechanically generated and interrupted normally with a [corrected] two seconds on, four seconds off cadence.
Reorder tone. Same as the busy tone, but interrupted at 120 impulses per minute. 'Fast busy'. Used for various all trunks/circuits/equipment busy conditions.
No such number or 'vacant code' tone. A deprecated intermittent fast busy type tone used to indicate numbers, prefixes, etc., which did not exist. This was phased out as recorded 'The number you have reached is not in service' announcements were phased in.
Permanent signal, or 'receiver off hook' tone. No, this was not the very loud and obnoxious 'CLANK CLANK CLANK' receiver off hook sound of today. It was a single high-pitched tone, returned to the calling subscriber when the register sender got tired of waiting for dialed digits and routed the call to be 'parked' on a 'permanent signal trunk' on the district frame.
The Intra-Office trunks.
From the perspective of the register-sender, a call within the local central office is identical to that going to a remote central office, or to another panel office within the same building. Each panel office would have a certain amount of hard-wired connections reserved for intra-office calls, connected between the local office (or district) frames and local incoming frames.
The Inter-Office trunks.
These were the outgoing and incoming connections to and from distant central offices. In the early days of panel offices, these were simply loaded two-wire circuits with a frequency response of DC through 3kHz or so. When setting up a call to a distant panel central office, it was the register-sender of the originating CO which controlled the operation of the incoming and final frames in the terminating CO.
The batteries and power plant (not shown).
Primary central office power is provided by huge lead-acid cells, which are continuously charged by motor-generator sets (MGs) or rotary converters. This is very typical of central offices today, except that solid-state rectifiers now replace the former electromechanical devices. In the heyday of panel offices, commercial power was normally used to run the MGs or converters, supplanted by on-site diesel, gasoline, or LP generators to be used for commercial power outages.
This is a basic overview of a typical panel central office. In the next installment we'll show the progress of a call from receiver off hook to receiver off hook as it works its way through the panel switches.
Thanks to those who sent in updates, additional information, and corrections.
These can be sent in either via e-mail or as comments.
Two updates of some significance have been reported.
A recently-retired long-time TPC employee has stated that in his recollection the Elkhorn and Waterloo CDOs were separate, discrete, and each located in their respective towns prior to 289 and 779 going ESS in the mid 1970s. I do recall that at one time prior to the cut, the same numbers could be dialed using either prefix. We may have to agree to disagree on this factoid until something in writing can be located.
A person 'in the know' reports that the Internorth Centrex on 633 was Centrex-CU using a local WECO Definity, as opposed to a Centrex-CO hosted off of the main switch as I had erroneously reported.
Late update: Another former TPCer reports that Council Bluffs did not use the Omaha time announcement service on 844-8111 and the 844 prefix was not dialable from Council Bluffs. Instead they had their own similar time announcement machine on 328-8116. This time announcement machine could also be reached from Glenwood, which at the time was not within the Council Bluffs calling area.
Thanks, gang, and keep those cards and letters coming.
Omaha Telephone History
Links of interest ...
Atlanta Telephone History
Switcher's Quarterly
Seattle Museum Of Communications
'Phone Trips', vintage telephone sounds
Panel Switchman's photos - Excellent!
Telephone Tribute
Bell System Memorial
Omaha 2600
TENS Project (Telephone Exchange Names)
Telephone World
Local calling guide, CO data, etc.
On-line telecommunications database


text:
Dialogue among civilizations
In several regions of the world, peace remains fragile and tenuous. Poverty and conflict put human security at risk and endanger human dignity and social justice. Helping to preserve peace in all its dimensions is an abiding challenge for the international community, especially in conditions of globalization. The community of nations must strive for better and more equitable ways of addressing these multiple challenges.This quest must be based on universally shared values, while safeguarding the diversity of individuals and cultures, and it must be targeted at the urgent needs of the disadvantaged and excluded groups or geographical regions.
Solidly anchored in democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms, dialogue is the key to this quest, because dialogue alone can lead to long-term understanding, reconciliation and peace.
The year 2001 was proclaimed United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations. UNESCO and other relevant organizations were invited by the UN to promote inter-civilizational and intercultural dialogue through conferences and seminars and by disseminating information and relevant scholarly material.
For its part, UNESCO has organized global as well as regional and sub-regional conferences. These meetings have sometimes been at the level of Heads of State, sometimes they have brought Ministers together and sometimes eminent thinkers; occasionally, a mixed group of participants has been convened in order to explore ways to develop intercultural exchange and dialogue.
This special issue of the new UNESCO Courier, devoted to Dialogue among Civilizations, presents a selection of excerpts from the presentations made at these fora, as well a range of articles showing how the Organization works, and has always worked, to promote dialogue through all of its other activities, whether it be in the field of culture, education, communication or science.
The task is an ongoing one. Dialogue, as French sociologist Edgar Morin reminds us in the opening pages of this edition, requires much more than different parties gathering around a table. But we are convinced that the challenge must be met. Only through a whole-hearted and committed practice of dialogue can conflicts be resolved, disagreements overcome and discord healed. And only in this way can we embark upon our major task of 'humanizing globalization' and making it more inclusive and equitable.
This issue of the Courier is dedicated to the memory of Michel Barton, the Director of UNESCO's Bureau of Public Information and Chief Editor of the new UNESCO Courier until his untimely death last November. His energy, enthusiasm and camaraderie – as well as his own capacity for dialogue – will be sorely missed by all those who had the good fortune to work closely with him.
Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of the UNESCO
Discover this issue. Download the PDF


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This morning I was out in Lawson Hill, grabbing a coffee from Tomboy Roasters. The boys at the Telluride Brewing Company next door were busy working on setting up the new brewery, which looks set to open by the end of this month (August)! This is a really exciting addition for Telluride. The Telluride Brewing Company will have a tasting room where locals and visitors can taste over 20 beers on tap, and take away growlers and cans of locally brewed beer.
If anything else exciting pops up for September, we will be sure to let you know!


text:
April 18, 2022 Framboise Gommendy
[3] Joel Makin (WAL) 3-1 [1] Mohamed ElShorbagy 11-7, 5-11, 13-11, 11-4 (70m)
Full Coverage on ManchesterOpenSquash.com
[1] Mohamed ElShorbagy 3-2 [4] Karim Abdel Gawad 13-15, 11-4, 11-5, 4-11, 11-6 (64m)
[4] Karim Abdel Gawad 3-1 Mathieu Castagnet (FRA) 12-10, 4-11, 11-4, 11-8 (55m)
[1] Mohamed ElShorbagy 3-1 [7] Eain Yow Ng (MAS) 7-11, 11-8, 13-11, 11-5 (53m)
[3] Joel Makin (WAL) 3-0 [5] Youssef Soliman 11-9, 11-4, 11-4 (50m)
[1] Mohamed ElShorbagy3-1 Victor Crouin (FRA)
[7] Eain Yow Ng (MAS) 3-0 Moustafa El Sirty 11-7, 11-6, 11-7 (35m)
[4] Karim Abdel Gawad 3-0 Shahjahan Khan (USA) 11-4, 11-7, 12-10 (32m)
[5] Youssef Soliman 3-0 Leonel Cardenas (MEX) 11-9, 11-5, 11-1 (36m)
Patrick Rooney (ENG) 3-2 [2] Marwan ElShorbagy 13-11, 4-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-9 (59m)
[2] Joelle King (NZL) 3-1 Sana Ibrahim 11-4, 11-9, 2-11, 11-9 (45m)
[4] Nele Gilis (BEL) 3-0 Hana Ramadan 14-12, 11-7, 11-7 (41m)
Jasmine Hutton (ENG) 3-1 [5] Nadine Shahin 8-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-6 (39m)
[1] Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG) 3-1 Yathreb Adel 6-11, 11-8, 12-10, 11-8 (46m)
"I was enjoying too much, I was excited too much! I was feeling like I wanted to play so much because I haven't been playing well the last few events.
"It definitely has not been the best season in my career. I came here and I had to change my mentality, to enjoy the game again, and to remember why I play the game. I play because I love the sport, you know! Because I have won so much in my career, when I started losing, I forgot why I play the sport, so once I got too excited at the beginning of the match, you forget how you want to play. He is a quality player, we saw what he did against Paul [Coll] in Canary Wharf, even if Paul was not on his best that day, but still, when Paul doesn't have a great day, he still isn't easy to beat! He has shown what he is capable, and I definitely didn't take anything for granted today.
"Right now, I can't think of distance [to the top two] . I haven't even been making it to the latter stages of a tournament in the last few events. I have to be honest with myself and I cannot compare myself to what they [Paul Coll and Ali Farag] are doing. They have been playing at another level, mentally, physically and technically. That is something I have to deal with myself.
"One bad season for me does not mean I am finished, I am allowed to have a bad season. It is just that everyone forgot, because I have won so much in my career, the expectation of me is to be making finals, or at least semis, you know. If I play a few bad tournaments, that means I am not there anymore.. But I am only 31-years-old and I have never seen an athlete who has won so much in his career, who is then finished at 31.
"It is a stage in my career where there are a lot of changes happening. There is a different generation playing, my own generation is playing much better. These changes can take you by surprise sometimes and you have to go back, train and make changes. I never think for a second that I won't come back.
"I have had a lot of challenges in my career, with different generations and much tougher players. I played against Ramy [Ashour], Nick [Matthew], Greg [Gaultier], [Amr] Shabana, these guys were warriors! If I can compete with those guys, ten I can compete with today's guys, I know I can come back at some point. Maybe not this tournament, or the next one, but I will get there at some point."
Karim Abdel Gawad
"It's my first time playing Shahjahan and we've trained a bit before so it's nice to play him and nice to get through to the quarters.
"I have good and bad memories. I lost first round here last year but reached the final the year before. I'm just trying to focus on my game and concentrate in every match.
"Well, I've played both Saurav (Ghosal) and Mathieu (Castagnet) quite a lot over the years and they're both very dangerous players. I'll just focus on my recovery and look forward to hopefully a good performance tomorrow."
Moustafa El Sirty 3-1 Ramit Tandon (Ind) 11-9, 11-4, 7-11, 11-7 (40m)
Hana Ramadan 3-0 Tong Tsz-Wing (Hkg) 11-7, 11-9, 14-12 (33m)
Sana Ibrahim 3-0 Anna Serme (Cze) 11-3, 12-10, 11-3 (27m)
Yathreb Adel 3-0 Menna Nasser 11-6, 11-3, 11-3 (22m)
Yathreb
"I'm very happy to be through, Menna is a very close friend of mine, so it's hard to play a close friend in the first round. We both have respect from each other and we both wanted to win. When we step on court we just concentrate on our games, and what happens on court, happens on court.
"I've been struggling a lot lately, I lost my mum due to COVID recently, so it was hard to get back to playing. I was struggling as well to get my visa for the US events, it all happened at the same time, so it wasn't the best time for me.
"I just want to say thank you to Laura Massaro because my bag didn't arrive, and she actually had to drive to get my racket, so I owe it to her today. She said that I better make it happen at the end of the day."
Hana:
"I had a good start going 8-0 in the first then lost some concentration. Each game had its own challenges. I had to keep my mind to just keep pushing.
"I've never played Nele actua-lly, but I've watched her a lot so I know how much she's improved so I'm looking forward to that. I know she's a very physical player so I'm expecting it to be a long match but I have to remember to step up and go for my shots as well."
El Sirty:
"Ramit is such a tough first-round opponent, he's really tricky," said El Sirty.
"He knows his game really well, I'm really happy that I adapted and made him play my game and it's such a good feeling to get the win and to be through"
"In the first game I started to hit the ball as hard as I could but that made the ball so bouncy so it wasn't doing enough to him. In the middle of the court, he's really tricky and so talented and I was just glad I managed to control the game and snatched it at the end.
"I kept him in the back In the second game and didn't let him attack me much and I dropped off in the third game but overall, I'm happy that I got back on it and won in the end."
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hana ramadanKarim Abdel Gawadmanchestermohamed el shorbagymoustafa el sirtySana Ibrahimyathreb adel
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Sandra Halliday
Domestic markets to be focus for luxury this year, but Europe tourist cities still key
Luxury retailers and brands are shifting their focus post-pandemic and are targeting high-spending shoppers in their domestic markets more than they used to.
Cities like Shanghai will be key for openings this year - Photo: Pexels
That's according to a new report on the sector from Savills, which said luxury brands will "focus new store activity in large domestic-driven markets in China, North America and the Middle East in 2022". This continues a trend that was also noted in 2021.
That said, European destination markets are also moving up the agenda and remain crucial for luxury players.
Savills said: "In recent years, new store activity globally has tended to follow the Chinese luxury consumer into destination markets. However, with the pandemic restricting international travel, Bain & Company has recorded that 21% of the total luxury goods spend last year took place inside of China."
Last year, China was responsible for 21% of global personal luxury goods spend, but it saw 55% of all new luxury store openings worldwide. Much of the activity was focused on Shanghai and the duty-free island of Hainan. It was also dominated by the top three luxury houses: LVMH, Kering and Richemont. They accounted for 41% of all new openings globally in 2021, up from 33%in 2019.
Nick Bradstreet, Director, Head of Retail, Savills Asia, said that "strong domestic sales in China and the swift economic rebound, has propelled a higher expansion rate among luxury retailers. Shanghai last year secured 16 new major retail projects and there are significant growth prospects for the country's luxury retail market due to the lack of outbound travel fuelling luxury domestic spend as well as government emphasis on supporting domestic consumption."
While China was the only market to increase its share of new openings last year, there's also a reported bounce in new store activity in the Middle East, albeit its global share held at 3%.
Kenny Lam, Retail Advisory, Savills Middle East, said: "In Dubai, many luxury brands are represented by monobrand stores through local franchises and partners but with the recent change in government policies, we are seeing international brands come in directly looking to take back full control of their stores." Again, like China, the activity was mainly targeting affluent local shoppers "and Cairo, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain all currently represent opportunities for luxury retailers".
As for North America, its global share of new openings was down from 25% in 2019 to 14%. But the US is seeing something of a luxury boom at present and while tourism may have been hurt by the pandemic, domestic shoppers are increasingly important. The major destination cities in the region, such as New York and Los Angeles, continued to attract activity, but many new openings were seen in "cities relatively underserved yet still with relatively affluent populations, such as Dallas and Houston".
And what about Europe? The continent has suffered a lot in the pandemic and the tourists that once powered sales at its major city stores have been thin on the ground for several years now. As a result, it has seen the most significant decline in new openings since 2019, with its global share of new store opening down from 35% to 14% in 2021.
Marie Hickey, Director, Savills Research, said that global international air passenger numbers are unlikely to return to pre-Covid levels until 2025, "however, we do expect to see a much faster recovery in Europe and in North America, which would stimulate a resurgence in requirements from luxury brands as we move into 2023". And she added that it's "already starting to materialise in some key European cities".