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Thank You Fringe Fans for Being As Phenomenal As the Show
By fringeobsessed Email Post 8/03/2012 09:46:00 PM Categories: Fringe, Huffington Post
Mary Romero
TV enthusiast
Posted: 08/03/2012 1:26 pm
Fandoms are wonderful. They encourage you to talk about your favorite show and assure you that your obsession does not require medical attention. I have encountered many TV fandoms over the years, but one in particular has really astounded me and that is the Fringe community. I was aware the sci-fi drama, which premiered in 2008, had a devoted fanbase but I never knew how active it truly was until I saw it first hand in January of this year when my friend, Louise, began writing her hilarious and popular photo recaps. The fans flooded her comments section with positive feedback and eagerly shared the link to her posts with others, such as the show's star, Joshua Jackson, who then shared the link on his Twitter feed. It was impressive to see that community rally so much support and presence online, and fortunately; the Fox network recognized their efforts and granted the show thirteen episodes to end the series this Fall, despite low ratings.
Read the rest of Mary's huffingtonpost.com article here.
Zepp said...
I think that these enthusiastic words about the Fringe and his legion of fans, make Mary Romero also a true fan, like all of us. Thanks Mary!
SissySiri said...
Thank you for that article, yes, Fringe fans are awesome. I am shocked, but not too much really, at how shows with canned laughter, silly dialogue, and weak plots are renewed and renewed each year, while a show as brilliant as Fringe struggled for ratings. The good news is that it has received recognition via the Saturn Awards year after year and many other well-deserved awards.
It's good we have these last 13-episodes to wrap things up, but on the other hand it is a shame that such a well acted, well written, unique show is coming to an end.
It's sad and a shame that it's the final season. After 24h, The Sopranos etc. there is no more good and creative series on tv.
Lately TV proves it is aptly called the "boob tube." As we all know, the definitions of boob are many however in this context; get it wrong, mess up, mistake, bungle, gaffe. That just about sums up most current shows on TV at this time. I am sorry to have to say that but let's be honest; shows at the quality level of Fringe are just not there. Less than a handful, come to mind, some are Falling Skies, Firefly, The Finder [was] good and this new one Revolution, time will tell. I miss 24 it was awesome.
To give some credit to the people who produce the pabulum, they are doing it in response to John Q. Citizen who watches their mindless drivel. They are in it for the MONEY, not to win any drama and/or literary awards.
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Euro 2020 mid-term report: Pre-tournament picks Denmark still offer each-way value
Eddie Howe
Andy Schooler
Danes, together with Italy and Netherlands justifying Planet Sport's faith, while Germany's Kai Havertz may now be worth backing in top-scorer market.
2021-06-26 Euro 2020 mid-term report: Pre-tournament picks Denmark still offer each-way value
Original selections: Italy 11/1, Denmark 28/1 each way
Best bet now: Denmark 18/1 e/w with Planet Sport Bet
It couldn't have gone much better so far for our 11/1 picks Italy.
They won every group game without conceding a goal and their impressive, attacking displays have seen their price slashed almost in half ahead of a last-16 tie with Austria.
It's hardly controversial to say they've been the team of the tournament thus far and they go into the knockout stages unbeaten in their last 30 matches.
Now the hard work will begin - and they are in what looks the tougher half of the draw.
last-16. A bit lop-sided one might suggest...
🇧🇪 Belgium v Portugal 🇵🇹
🇮🇹 Italy v Austria 🇦🇹
🇫🇷 France v Switzerland 🇨🇭
🇭🇷 Croatia v Spain 🇪🇸
🇸🇪 Sweden v Ukraine 🇺🇦
🏴 England v Germany 🇩🇪
🇳🇱 Netherlands v Czech Rep 🇨🇿
🏴 Wales v Denmark 🇩🇰
— Andy Schooler (@SchoolerSport) June 23, 2021
If they beat Austria, Roberto Mancini's side will face either Belgium or Portugal in the quarter-finals, with the odds suggesting France will be waiting in the semis, should Italy get that far.
You therefore wonder whether the value in their price has now gone, especially when you consider they must now hit the road having played all their matches so far in Rome.
Our each-way picks, Denmark, somehow scrambled through despite the near-tragedy in their opening game.
And having landed in the weaker-looking side of the draw, their claims look to have strengthened, even given the loss of their star man, Christian Eriksen.
Full-back Joakim Maehle has been one of the stars of the tournament so far, helping prove the Danes do have goals in them despite the absence of Eriksen.
Denmark's Joakim Maehle has impressed
The way they played against Belgium and Russia suggested they can cause most teams problems.
They'll fancy their chances against Wales with the winner progressing to a quarter-final with Netherlands or Czech Republic. That's a good draw.
Priced at 28/1 pre-tournament, Denmark are now at 20/1 and for those not already on at the bigger price, that's worthy of consideration.
The Dutch scored more goals than any other team in the group stage (eight), which is good news for our 13/2 'highest tournament scorers' bet.
However, they've looked suspect at the back and for all their attacking verve, it's hard to see them going all the way and 9/1 looks short enough.
Similar things can be said of Belgium at the same price - the world's top-ranked team have had the worst of the draw. They face Portugal next and could then have to get past Italy and France just to reach the final.
Belgium face a tough route to the final
The French remain in their pre-tournament position as favourites but the world champions won just one of their three group games. Admittedly it was a tricky group but they'll still need to improve from here if they are to justify odds of 4/1.
On the other side of the draw - the side containing Denmark - the winner of the England-Germany last-16 clash will be favoured to reach the final by the layers so there's an argument for backing one of those at 7/1 each way now.
England are yet to concede, having ground out results in the group stage. Is anyone else starting to compare them to the Greece side who became European champions in 2004?
They've been installed as slight favourites to beat Germany at Wembley on Tuesday. If they do, they'll set up a quarter-final with either Sweden or Ukraine - not a bad fixture for a trip to Rome which would be the Three Lions' only game away from Wembley.
Still, beating the Germans will be a mental hurdle to overcome as much as anything - remember this is the side which beat them in the knockout stages of both the 1970, 1990 and 2010 World Cups, plus Euro 96.
While they came within six minutes of being eliminated at the group stage, Germany did show their brighter side when dismantling Portugal 4-2.
Tap back into that form and they have the potential to come through this weaker section of the draw.
England are favourites for the Germany game but that's in part due to the weight of money which will be placed on them.
Plenty will fancy Germany given all the cliches - 'you kick the ball around for 90 minutes and the Germans win' - but there's also no doubt this isn't a vintage German side.
I find this one tough to call and while I wouldn't be surprised to see the winner go through to the final, I still like the look of the Danes at a much bigger price in this section.
Top scorer/Golden boot
Original selections: Lukaku 15/2, Torres 40/1 e.w., Eriksen 100/1 e.w., Wijnaldum 125/1 e.w.
Best bet now: Kai Havertz 33/1 e.w with Planet Sport Bet.
Is this done and dusted?
Cristiano Ronaldo netted five goals in the group stage - two more than any of his rivals. He may well have already done enough to win this prize.
His rivals can at least draw some hope from the fact that Ronaldo's Portugal face Belgium in the last 16 in what looks a real blockbuster.
pic.twitter.com/QvxZYdW0Bv
— EUROs Tweet (@Football__Tweet) June 24, 2021
There's a real chance Portugal go no further which would clearly weaken the odds-on favourite's chances.
Romelu Lukaku could help send Ronaldo and co home.
Our 15/2 pre-tournament tip has managed three goals so far, looking sharp in every game, but he will almost certainly need his team to progress to the last eight if he's to catch Ronaldo.
He's now second favourite at a slightly shorter 6/1.
Our long shot selection, Gini Wijnaldum, has more than justified our faith in backing him at 125/1.
As suggested in our initial preview, he's managed to make the most of a weak group to score three times.
Playing much further forward than he ever did in his Liverpool days, Wijnaldum has been a regular in the penalty area and he could easily have scored more than his current tally.
😎#NED are 𝐟𝐥𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 now ✈#MKDNED | #ITVFootball | #Euro2020 pic.twitter.com/BHAkDnYaFQ
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) June 21, 2021
With the Czech Republic next and either Wales or Denmark in the last eight if they progress, Wijnaldum - and his team-mate Memphis Depay (two goals so far) - look to have a decent chance of getting plenty more game-time to add to their goal totals.
At around 20/1 with firms still offering each-way betting, either Dutchman could be backed but the concern - as it was from the start - is that the pair share the goals and both end up falling short.
Centre forward Ciro Immobile has had a large percentage of Italy's shots in the two games he's played, impressing in both, but Italy's draw is much tougher which is somewhat off-putting.
As talked about above, the other side of the draw - the one containing England and Germany - looks considerably weaker and maybe that provides a nod to where the current value could lie.
The winner of the England-Germany last-16 tie will be well placed so it's worth considering Raheem Sterling and Kai Havertz in the current market.
England's Raheem Sterling has scored both his side's goals
Both have two goals so far so are only one outside the places as things stand.
Havertz is at 66/1 with Paddy Power and Betfair, who offer a third of the odds for a place in the top two, or 50s with Sky Bet, who will give you three places.
That looks tempting about a player who delivered on the big stage when netting the winner in last month's Champions League final.
Meanwhile, Sterling is 40/1 with betway (a quarter of the odds, three places).
He's England's only goalscorer so far and seems to have earned the trust of boss Gareth Southgate.
With Harry Kane out of sorts, the Manchester City forward will be expected to contribute.
The problem is England have looked far from free-scoring and while they do have a good chance to progress deep into the tournament, their most likely way of doing so looks to be relying on their tight defence and grinding out results.
So, of the pair, Havertz looks the call.
Player of the tournament
Paul Pogba has enjoyed an excellent tournament
Kevin de Bruyne finds himself the 8/1 favourite despite only starting one group game. That's largely due to the high number of goal involvements.
With Belgium now facing a tough route to the final, he's short enough.
The one who looks a big price now is France's Paul Pogba at 16/1.
The Manchester United man has made an excellent impression in the midfield of a team favourites to win the competition.
Unlike Belgium (and Italy, England and Netherlands for that matter), many of France's players have the experience of going all the way at a major tournament and that could be a huge factor in the latter stages of this event.
For those looking for an interest now, Pogba looks to offer value.
Tournament top scorers
It's hard not to be happy with our position here having tipped up the Netherlands pre-tournament at 13/2.
They top-scored with eight in the group stage and have a decent-looking path to the semi-finals (Czech Republic next, then Wales/Denmark in the quarter-finals). It's no wonder they are now 11/4 favourites.
Italy, Portugal and Belgium are all one back but two of those will be out before the semis.
Germany and Spain come next with six goals each.
The Germans have potential now at 7/1 - if they can overcome England in the last 16.
They tore into Portugal to show what they are capable of. They look the bet now if you are going to have one.
But if you are on Netherlands already, sit tight and hopefully you'll have a 13/2 winner on your hands soon.
Milan Skriniar delivered for us at 33/1
To finish off this preview, it would be remiss not to mention the 33/1 winner we've already landed - Milan Skriniar finished as Slovakia's top scorer, as recommended back at the start of the month.
Ezgjan Alioski was the joint winner of the equivalent North Macedonia market at 9/1 - a two-way dead heat still meant a decent payout.
A few of our other specials tips are also still going strong, including Memphis Depay for most tournament assists at 25/1.
He has two so far, putting him just one behind joint leaders Steven Zuber, of Switzerland, and Denmark's Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.
READ MORE: Seven worst own goals scored in the European Championships: Johnson, Szczesny, Dubravka...
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Douglas Anthony Bassett (11 August 1927 – 8 November  2009) was a Welsh geologist and a director of the National Museum of Wales from 1977 to 1985.

Bassett was born in Llwynhendy, near Llanelli, in industrial Carmarthenshire as the son of a coal miner. He took a degree in Geology at Aberystwyth University in 1952, and after obtaining his doctorate in the same discipline, lectured in Geology at Glasgow University from 1952 to 1959. Having joined the National Museum of Wales as keeper of Geology in 1959, he was appointed in the role of Director in 1977 until 1985, when ill-health forced him to retire.

Career
From 1952 to 1959, Bassett taught in the Geology Department at Glasgow University and at the same time studied the geology of north and mid-Wales, especially the Bala district,  in collaboration with Alwyn Williams and Harry Whittington, and his pioneering surveys came to be considered models of their kind.

His years at the National Museum of Wales saw a rapid growth of the Museum's Geology Department. He encouraged colleagues and students working in Wales to donate their specimen collections and developed the Museum as a centre for research, especially in the Natural Sciences. In 1960 he co-founded the South Wales Group of the Geologists' Association which flourishes to this day.

In 1961, he published Bibliography and Index of Geology and Allied Sciences for Wales and the Welsh Borders 1897–1958, which made his name as a geologist, followed six years later by A Source-book of Geological, Geomorphological and Soil Maps for Wales and the Welsh Borders 1800–1966, which proved invaluable for town and country planners.

Various public bodies benefited from his expertise, amongst them the Welsh Office, the Ordnance Survey and the Nature Conservancy Council. He was also a founder member of the National Welsh-American Foundation, of which he was the Vice-President between 1996 and 1998.

Awards
Bassett received the Aberconway Medal from the Institute of Geologists and the Silver Medal of the Czechoslovak Society for International Relations in 1985. He also was made Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Ministry of Culture in Paris in recognition of the National Museum's loan of its collection of Impressionist paintings for exhibition at various venues in France. He was made an honorary professorial fellow at the University of Wales College of Cardiff (1977–97), and a member of the White Robe Order of the Gorsedd of Bards (Wales' equivalent of a CBE).

Publications
 Bibliography and Index of Geology and Allied Sciences for Wales and the Welsh Borders 1897–1958 (National Museum of Wales, 1961).
 A source-book of geological,geomorphological and soilmaps for Wales and the Welsh Borders (1800–1966) (National Museum of Wales, 1967).

References

External links
 The Independent, Douglas Bassett obituary

1927 births
2009 deaths
People from Carmarthenshire
Welsh geologists
Welsh curators
Alumni of Aberystwyth University
Academics of the University of Glasgow
Officiers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
People associated with Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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CinePunked
Interactive Discussions for Film Lovers
About CinePunked
Oblivion (Review)
By Rachael Kelly (PhD)
Originally published in Infinite Earths (online; December 2013)
[Spoiler alert — this review gives away key plot points]
The great philosopher Terry Pratchett once wrote that, when the final showdown comes, you're better off facing an evil man. "The evil like power," he argues, "power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you're going to die. So they'll talk. They'll gloat. They'll watch you squirm. They'll put off the moment of murder like another man will put off a good cigar" (Pratchett, 1993). Luckily for Jack Harper (Tom Cruise), it would seem that this also applies to moon-murdering alien invaders.
It's not the movie's most egregious flaw, but it's another one of those little moments that jolts the audience out of the narrative just long enough to mutter, "Oh, please," and that's not quite worthy of a film with ambitions as lofty as Oblivion's. True, it hasn't been blessed by an over-abundance of love from critics (though its $200 million global box office receipts have not been noticeably affected), drawing the sort of reviews that call it "equally ambitious and gormless" (Ignatiy Vishnevetsky for rogerebert.com), "bafflingly solemn, lugubrious and fantastically derivative" (Peter Bradshaw for The Guardian), and "a stylised remix of superior sci-fi ground-breakers" (Kevin Harley for Total Film). And, to be fair, Oblivion is all of these things. But it's also not quite the sum of its parts, and whether that's a good thing, an indifferent thing, or a bad thing is largely, perhaps, a question of perspective.
The movie, which was released in cinemas in April and on DVD in August 2013, began life as a graphic novel, written by director Joseph Kosinski but never finished, and its print-media origins peek through from time to time. Most notable is in the opening expository speech, delivered in voiceover by Cruise's Jack as we meet him and his partner/lover, Victoria "Vika" Olsen (Andrea Riseborough), preparing for another day as the last man and woman on a devastated, post-apocalyptic Earth. That the sequence succeeds is largely due to the momentum afforded to it by French band M83's effective soundtrack, and what could have been clumsy, clunky tell-don't-show storytelling becomes instead something rather hauntingly elegant — a beauty/boredom tension that the film returns to time and again. Sixty years ago, Jack tells us, the moon was destroyed by an invading extra-terrestrial race known as the Scavengers, which precipitated a cataclysmic series of earthquakes and tsunami that devastated the planet. In order to repel the alien threat, mankind was obliged to loose its nuclear arsenal, precipitating a Pyrrhic victory: the Scavengers were defeated, now left to scrabble a living off the irradiated planet's surface, but Earth was left uninhabitable, and humanity has been obliged to decamp to Titan. Why Titan? Why not, for example, Mars, which is both closer to the sun and, perhaps more importantly, distinctly lacking in lakes of liquid methane? Excellent question, and one that may well precipitate an early bout of eye-rolling, but bear with it: the narrative is actually cleverer than it looks. Not as clever as it thinks, perhaps, but the internal logic actually holds up better than the opening scenes might suggest, and, in the face of some more recent big-budget space operas (naming no names), that's a win in and of itself.
In preparation for the migration to the moons of Saturn, the remnants of humankind have been evacuated to an enormous orbital space station known as the Tet, from which a cheerful controller, Sally (Melissa Leo), issues daily instructions to Jack and Vika, who've been consigned to the Earth's surface for a little longer to monitor the massive hydroelectric fusion plants that will ultimately power humanity's great exodus. They're under constant attacks from bands of marauding Scavengers, or Scavs, who attack both the plants and the mechanised drones tasked with protecting them. Jack's job is to maintain the drones; Vika's to act as some kind of futuristic secretarial service, relaying information from a somewhat limited monitoring system that regularly loses visual contact with the one and only thing it's supposed to keep an eye on (namely Jack), and from Sally herself. They are, as Vika repeatedly assures Sally, an effective team. But Jack, whose memory was wiped along with Vika's prior to their mission, for purposes of security, has been experiencing dreamlike visions of a pre-war world that he cannot possibly remember, and a beautiful woman whose face he feels he ought to know. And then one night a human ship comes crashing back to earth, decanting a load of sleeper pods into the wreckage. The drones promptly destroy the pods, but Jack, who has flown out to investigate the crash, recognises in one of them the woman from his dreams: Julia, asleep for sixty years, and remarkably reluctant to tell either Jack or Vika just what, exactly, is going on.
It's no great spoiler to note that the movie appropriates freely from the likes of The Matrix, Moon, Total Recall, and, somewhat bizarrely, WALL-E. (Fair warning — that might not be a spoiler, but everything that follows from this point onwards will.) Many reviews have made a significant feature out of this fact, and it's difficult to dispute: we've got a sentient machine-race subjugating humanity, we've got worker-clones who don't know they're clones, we've got memory-messing, and we've got the whimsical, rough-around-the-edges operative abandoned to a dying planet, who falls in love with the relics of humanity in a manner that raises him above the machinelike conformity of his unlikely female counterpart (whose sympathetic arc requires her to ascend to his apex of emotional awareness or else be classed as part of the problem he seeks to redress). Certainly, Oblivion is thematically very similar to Pixar's feel-good tale of the little robot who could, but to dismiss it as derivative is slightly unfair. For one thing, this would seem to imply that only the likes of The Matrix, Total Recall, et al. engage with themes of memory, machine subjugation, cloning, or the essence of the Self, all of which are staples of the science fiction genre, and, truthfully, Oblivion's take — both visually and, yes, thematically — is sufficiently distinctive that it is, arguably, no more derivative than any other text that employs the same or similar ideas. There is, as Ecclesiastes 1:9 reminds us, nothing new under the sun, and that includes the topoi of science fiction.
For another, the positioning of the crisis that has led to earth's destruction is quite differently configured. In WALL-E, humanity itself screwed up the planet through greed, consumerism, and plain, old-fashioned short-sightedness, and our punishment is to de-evolve into morbidly obese space-babies who have to be told what colour onesies to wear. If WALL-E questions the very essence of humanity, it's from a position of relative hopefulness: there is no imminent danger of extinction, simply the threat of losing what makes us us, and all it takes to undo the damage is one anthropomorphised little bot with endearingly huge eyes who embodies what used to be great about humanity and thereby inspires the great re-evolution. Oblivion's central conceit is somewhat different, and ties it into a slightly different category of science-fiction dystopia.
Mike Broderick, in his essay Surviving Armageddon: Beyond the Imagination of Disaster, identifies four classes of post-apocalyptic texts: Preparation for Nuclear War and Its Survival, Encounters with Post-Nuclear Extraterrestrials, Experiencing Nuclear War and Its Immediate Effects, and Survival Long After Nuclear War (Broderick, 1993). While all four typically glorify the "nostalgically yearned-for less complex existence of agrarian toil and social harmony through ascetic spiritual endeavors" (and both WALL-E and Oblivion conclude with a kind of pastoral, pre-industrial idyll in which the complicating factors of technological advancement have been foresworn in favour of a re-humanising return to nature), WALL-E, by specifically avoiding the tropologically embedded apocalypse scenario, directly attributes its dystopic future to the actions of humankind and thereby brings it closer to the paradigm of the first three categories (which explore and interrogate anxieties surrounding nuclear destruction in the wake of shifting ideological sands post-World War II). Oblivion, however, inhabits another mode of performing apocalypse, closer to the fourth category, which, by virtue of eliding the cataclysm itself, Broderick argues, goes some way towards exculpating the human race for its own ruin. "The imaginary projections of life in a distant post-holocaust future," he argues, "bypass graphic scenes of planetary destruction, thus enabling the spectator to evade or dismiss the human causal chain in nuclear warfare and to replace it with an archaic mythology steeped in heroic acts, inspired and propelled by some inscrutable and predetermined divine cosmic plan" (1993; emphasis in original). Yes, Oblivion's humanity destroyed planet Earth, but it happens off-screen, and the narrative is insistent that Armageddon was unavoidable: we didn't want the war, the war was brought to us, and our choice became, essentially, Earth or humanity. This isn't a tale of human against human, of power games and war mongering and fatal hubris, this is a tale of one desperate decision brought to our door by a monstrous Other; had the Scavengers not turned up unannounced, the idealised past of Jack's visions might never have been lost. Our bombs caused the catastrophe, but it's not, in the final analysis, our fault. They started it.
As such, the movie's interrogation of humanness and humanity is informed by an altogether different discourse to WALL-E's, and one that is, ultimately, less interrogative and openly critical of current human practice. WALL-E was a cautionary tale about a potential future that we'd do well to avoid; Oblivion is a more straightforward tale of "archaic mythology steeped in heroic acts." This has important consequences for the underlying ideological positioning of the movie, which is free to embody a much more essentialist attitude towards humanity that has important rhetorical consequences for the text — not least in terms of its gender paradigms.
For a start, rather than constructing a back-story of inevitable self-destruction, Oblivion instead positions an idealised pre-war Earth, along with the values, culture and human spirit it embodies. This narrative mode imbues humanity of the then-near future (2017 is the date of the war that wipes out the planet) with the uninterrogated nostalgia of a bygone era that Jack seeks to reclaim through his fetishisation of relics of times past: he wears a Yankees baseball cap, he equips himself with an encyclopaedic knowledge of games that took place in the now-buried Superbowl stadium, he has built a rural getaway in a valley untouched by radioactive fallout, where he listens to old-timey LPs on a record player, and he brings Vika a gift of a potted plant to their pristine hover-home high up in the skies above north-east America. That Vika responds by marching, grim-faced, to the balcony and dropping her present into the void, with an injunction to Jack against risking their return to the Tet with potentially contaminated flora and fauna, is an early indicator of how the movie intends to position both characters. Moreover, it introduces a binary — Jack/attachment to Earth:Vika/attachment to the Tet — that cannot help but attract a gendered discourse, particularly as the movie progresses. Earth, with its strong links to the Us of a present-day audience, with its shared values, goals and aspirations, with its recognisable privileging of the human, becomes strongly affiliated with the masculine, by virtue of Jack's reverence of the old days and his rejection — which increases in substance as the narrative continues — of the new reality: a rejection that will, ultimately, be completely vindicated. Moreover, when the movie plays its great reveal — that the nuclear victory was a lie, there is no base on Titan, and the Tet, rather than representing the best hope for the survival of the human race, is, in fact, the vanguard of very the alien invasion that has led humanity to the brink of extinction — it emerges that the rag-tag human resistance movement is male-led (in the form of Morgan Freeman's Beech), and male-supported (by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau's Sykes). There are female members, but the two humans who speak for the whole — who represent, in effect, the will to survive and reclaim the planet — are men.
The Tet, on the other hand, is strongly gendered female. The face it shows Jack and Vika is female — Sally — and its values are espoused far more strongly by Vika than by Jack, who wonders wistfully why, if humanity won the war, they're now obliged to abandon Earth just the same. Vika, on the other hand, can't wait to leave the planet behind and is horrified by any action that might jeopardise their escape. Moreover, as Vishnevetsky, notes, the composition of the Tet itself references the female reproductive system: "Oblivion," he notes, "will go down in film history as the movie where Tom Cruise pilots a white, sperm-shaped craft into a giant space uterus… Cruise's sperm-ship enters through an airlock that resembles a geometrized vulva. He arrives inside a massive chamber lined with egg-like glass bubbles. At the center of the chamber is a pulsating, sentient triangle that is also supposed to be some kind of mother figure. Cruise must destroy the mother triangle and her space uterus in order to save the Earth." More than that: the "egg-like glass bubbles" contain the developing bodies of a host of Jack-clones, firmly underscoring the uterus metaphor. The Tet walks like a woman and talks like a woman, and its biggest proponent is the movie's female lead. It's a gender affiliation that is both unsettling, and essentially undeniable.
Julia, for her part, plays into the paradigm by embodying a kind of pre-war gender essentialism that the narrative posits as the ideal that has been lost: affiliated with Earth/humanity by virtue of the fact that she has not been corrupted by either the Tet or by the war, she becomes instead a kind of helpmeet to Jack, offering her love on terms that enable him to connect with his memories of their life together and thereby access the knowledge of the Tet's true intentions that allows him ascend to his quasi-messianic status as saviour of mankind. Moreover, she concludes the movie having given birth to Jack's daughter, with whom she lives in the agrarian idyll posited by the earlier scene in which Jack lamented the need to permanently vacate the planet, thereby promising a gender-appropriate hope for the future. She cannot be humanity's saviour, because that role must go to Jack — established from the opening scenes as the Doer to Vika's (female) Facilitator — but she can become the mother of the new, free generation that follows Jack's noble sacrifice. Indeed, the text repeatedly underlines the dichotomy between Julia-as-idealised-past and Vika-as-problematic-future, most notably when Vika's loyalty to the values espoused by the Tet results in her own death. For the idealised past to be resurrected, the problematic future must be defeated — and the ideal allowed to flourish in its brave new world.
It's a troubling counter-narrative to a film that is, I would argue, smarter than its negative press would lead one to believe. Moreover, though it pains this gender theorist to acknowledge as much, it is possible to watch and enjoy the movie in spite of its uncomfortable ideological discourse, and in spite, indeed, of its many "Oh, please" moments (such as, for example, when the Tet fails to blow Jack — who is, after all, eminently disposable — out of the sky the minute it realises he's lying and possibly there to destroy it. Lucky for him, it espouses the Pratchett mode of performing evil). For one thing, it's shot with a visual flare that is both strikingly beautiful and indicative of Kosinski's singular vision for his movie, and, though there's not always the substance to back up the style, sometimes, in all honesty, one is too busy marvelling at the scenery to care. Perhaps the central themes have been played out before, but Oblivion forges them out of a script that is intelligent enough to construct its blind alleys with the same care and conviction that it applies to its true narrative core, so that the twist, when it comes, is convincing enough that it doesn't, unlike many recent rug-pullers, leave the audience feeling played or, worse, betrayed by a build-up that ultimately makes no sense. And, while it's unquestionably at least thirty minutes too long (any movie that has viewers surreptitiously glancing at their watches during the closing act is a movie that's in serious need of some judicious pruning), this is partially a side-effect of being in possession of what many big-budget modern science fiction movies lack: namely, a functional brain.
The heart, unfortunately, is slightly harder to locate, but you've got to admire the effort.
Bradshaw, P (2013, April 10). Oblivion Review. Retrieved October 20, 2013, from TheGuardian.com: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/apr/10/oblivion-review
Broderick, Mike (1993). "Surviving Armageddon: Beyond the Imagination of Disaster" in Science Fiction Studies, No. 61, Vol. 20, Part 3 (online: http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/61/broderick61art.htm)
Harley, K (2013, April 10). Oblivion. Retrieved October 20, 2013, from Totalfilm.com: http://www.totalfilm.com/reviews/cinema/oblivion
Pratchett, Terry (1993). Men At Arms (London, Corgi)
Vishnevetsky, I (2013, April 18). Oblivion. Retrieved October 20, 2013, from RogerEbert.com: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/oblivion-2013
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Any fan of Avatar the Last Airbender has probably dreamed of fire bending. Well friends, dream no more, because it's now a reality, thanks to a little DIY hacking.
L.A.-based Allen Pan crafted a set of wrist-mounted devices that allow anyone to emit a burst of flames in a straight line when executing a punching motion. Connecting a butane fuel chamber and solenoid valve to an Arduino Pro Mini and an accelerometer, Pan was able to make sure that the flame only shoots out when a "good punch" (high speed motion, then sudden stop) is sensed by the Arduino-controlled device.
To show off just how cool it can be, Pan mounted the flamethrowers to the wrists of a real martial arts expert. Combined with a soundtrack that brings to mind visions of Samurai Champloo, the sight is like all our karate dreams come true.
Of course, we don't advise anyone try this on their own, but if you feel the need, and you're a responsible adult, Pan has posted the instructions on how to build one yourself on his website.


Heart health supplements are the recipe for a healthy heart. For instance, whenever there is a serious dysfunction in a machine that can result in a total breakdown of its functional parts, the first place to check for faults will usually be the engine. In the human body, the heart can be compared to an engine due to the central role it plays in the circulatory system by pumping blood throughout the body.
The blood is the only body fluid that has the capability of carrying dissolved oxygen from the lungs to every single cell, tissue, and organs of the body. The shortage or total absence of oxygen in the body for a few minutes can easily result in death, therefore heart diseases or any other disorder that affects the circulatory system can easily become a fatal condition.
This is why proper care and attention must be given to keeping the heart healthy, and aside from the need for regular exercise and avoiding harmful habits such as excessive smoking and alcohol intake. An important step in keeping the heart healthy is in taking cardiovascular supplements.
These are health products that have been specially formulated to contain certain essential proteins, vitamins, and minerals that help to strengthen coronary muscles and blood vessels in order to ensure a healthy heart.
Just like a motor engine that needs particular oils to keep its parts well lubricated and functional, heart supplements are very important in keeping the heart and blood vessels in good working condition.
• Clean blood vessels: Heart health supplements help to purify the blood vessels by removing excess fat deposits in the walls of the vessels and this is very important as it prevents them from becoming blocked, which obstructs blood flow and disrupts normal blood pressure.
• Stronger heart muscles: The heart produces a lot of force in each beat to produce enough pressure for pumping blood throughout the body. This requires very strong heart muscles which can wear out with age, heart supplements help to keep these heart muscles strong.
• Blood purification: The blood carries a lot of dissolved and even semi-solid substances, the by-products of body metabolism and other harmful toxins are also carried by the blood for excretion. The intake of heart health supplements helps to ensure that these harmful products in the blood are well dissolved and effectively evacuated from the body.
• Reduced cholesterol levels: High level of fatty foods and meat can create a build-up of cholesterol in the body, and because it cannot be absorbed, they are then deposited in different body tissues leading to obesity and even blockage of blood vessels. Cardiovascular supplements help to burn off excess cholesterol to prevent any harmful implications.
• Stable hormonal functions: Heart supplements also help to stabilize the release and function of hormones in the body. Since the blood also serves as a transport medium for these hormones, heart supplements help provide the right conditions for their transport and function in the body.
From the above, it becomes clear why you should avoid exposing your heart to any risk by taking heart supplements to ensure it keeps functioning properly. Recommended heart supplements are those obtained from herbal extracts such as the Kedi herbal supplements.
You can order for Kedi Ultramega supplement to supports heart, joint and brain health.
We sell member price to encourage your patronage and membership after you have result that our food supplement/medicine works. The price is N6,790 excluding cost of delivery. We offer prompt delivery of the product using courier services for between N500 and N2,500 nationwide .
You can order for Kedi Lycovite supplement to supports prostrate and heart health problem .
We sell member price to encourage your patronage and membership after you have result that our food supplement/medicine works. The price is N8,930 excluding cost of delivery. We offer prompt delivery of the product using courier services for between N500 and N2,500 nationwide .
P.S.S. Kedi Products Recommendation For Hypotension/Hypertension: Golden Six N4,290, Reishi N9,820 and Cardibetter N9,280.


I did this song 14 years ago. Today I decided to record it before it gets lost from my mind.
Buscar un lugar, y en el pensar en tí.
Esperar que jamás te irás perdiendo sola.
Esperar sin hablar, el miedo se irá.
Soñar, y soñar, soñar en un lugar.
En el que el sueño no esté callado.
En el que el sueño no esté sangrado.
No quiero salir, no me dejes ir de aquí.
El sueño se acabó, se acabó.
Find a place, and think about you.
Hope to never see you getting lost.
Wait without speak, the fear will go away.
Dream and dream, dream in one place.
Where the dream is not silent.
Where the dream is not bleeding.
I do not want to leave, do not let me go away.
The dream is over, is over.
Added Lyrics with translation (need correction).
Good sounding arrangement, nice guitar playing, good groove.
But really, do you listen to your vocals? Between 0:30 and 0:35 there is not a single note that is in tune. In other places you're fine.
You could consider playing the vocal melody first on a keyboard and then try to sing along. That might increase your accuracy. Or invest in autotune or melodyne, just to push certain notes into place.
Thank you. My vocals never had been my best, but I'll work on them. I'll take your advice. In the past I've tried GBs autotune built in, but without any good results (total dehumanized vocals). I'm going to give a shot with both (autotune and melodyne), along with keyboard guides.
I really appreciate this kind of feedback. It's the one that makes me push things to get better.
I'm sorry Natalie Portman, Mars needs me!


Joshua Shannon is a specialist in the history and theory of art since 1945. His areas of research and teaching interest include photography, art and the city, landscape art, as well as modern and contemporary realism.
Shannon's first book, The Disappearance of Objects: New York Art and the Rise of the Postmodern City, was published by Yale University Press in 2009. The book considers art in New York around 1960 as a means for understanding the postwar transformation of everyday urban life. Its principal chapters focus on work by Claes Oldenburg, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Donald Judd. The book is the winner of a Wyeth Foundation Publication Grant from the College Art Association and a General Research Board Award from the University of Maryland. It was also selected as a finalist for the book prize of the Center for the Study of Modern Art at the Phillips Collection.
Shannon is currently working on a new book to be called The Recording Machine: Photography and Truth after Modernism. The book considers the artistic use of photography around 1968 and after, especially its role as a tool for understanding the degree to which the world itself can be understood to hold meaning. Its four chapters are focused respectively on conceptual art, photorealist painting, the landscapes of Gerhard Richter, and staged photography since the 1990s.
Professor Shannon has also written essays and reviews for American Art, Art Bulletin, October, the Journal of Modern Craft, and other publications.
Shannon's teaching is informed by the social history of art, by postmodern theories of culture and representation, and by the practice of close looking. Topics of his recent graduate seminars have included Minimalism, the Art of Gerhard Richter, Photography Since 1989, Methods of Art History, and Models of History in Contemporary Art.
In addition to other awards, Professor Shannon has held the Terra Visiting Professorship at the Freie Universität Berlin, the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Michigan, the Patricia and Phillip Frost Fellowship at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and two General Research Board Fellowships at the University of Maryland. He is a founding director of Contemporary Art Think Tank and a founding board member of the Society of Contemporary Art Historians.