text:
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HARPER: SYRIA IS DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN
For the past week, the Obama Administration, joined by the entire neocon and Israeli Lobby apparatus has been engaged in an information warfare campaign to pave the way for the final overthrow of the Bashar al-Assad government in Syria. The centerpiece of the campaign is the claim that Syrian military units are prepared to launch chemical weapons attacks against their own population, and possibly against Turkey, a NATO country. The North Atlantic Council, the policy-making body of NATO, has approved the rush deployment of Patriot missile batteries to southern Turkey to protect against the so-called Syrian chemical weapons attacks. Such outright propaganda outfits as Israel's DEBKA, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), and Atlantic magazine's resident IDF voice, Jeffrey Goldberg, are all putting out claims that the Syrian Air Force has already assembled sarin gas weapons and armed fighter planes to launch attacks at any moment.
Both the German BND and the Russian government have issued strong statements in the past 24 hours, indicating that they have carefully looked into the chemical weapons claims and find absolutely no evidence to confirm them.
The propaganda campaign is a carbon copy of the now totally discredited "weapons of mass destruction" claims that were used in 2002-2003 to justify the U.S. led invasion of Iraq to overthrow the Saddam Hussein government. In the words of the immortal American philosopher and linguist Yogi Berra, "It's déjà vu all over again."
Not only is the U.S. and NATO showing reckless disregard for the consequences of that Iraq fiasco. There is an even more stubborn refusal to learn some of the most painful lessons of the more recent regime change adventure in Libya. The overthrow and execution of Qaddafi has turned Libya into a hotbed of al-Qaeda insurgency. This was most evident in the Sept. 11, 2012 killings of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three American intelligence officers by the al-Qaeda affiliate, Ansar al-Sharia. In the case of Syria, it is now an open secret that the most effective anti-Assad regime fighters are also al-Qaeda affiliates, from an alphabet soup of neo-Salafi groups, getting their weapons and funds from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other Gulf states. The Syrian group al-Nusri has been identified in several recent indepth news account by the McClatchey News Service and the Daily Telegraph as the most effective fighting force, training cells of suicide bombers and fielding battalion-strength military units. They are in the forefront of every military victory by the opposition. So, what will be the consequences of the overthrow of the Assad government? National Public Radio this morning interviewed several American counter-terrorism "experts," including Bruce Hoffman, who candidly admitted that al-Qaeda is on the rise and that the new hub of global al-Qaeda jihad is Syria. They neglected to mention that, as was the earlier case in Afghanistan, these al-Qaeda jihadis are being touted as the "rebels" and "freedom-fighters" who are on the verge of liberating Syria from the clutches of Assad.
I have no doubt that this Syria fiasco is headed towards a rapid conclusion. The depth of wartime propaganda centered on the chemical weapons scare indicates that the Western powers are committed to bringing down the Assad government as rapidly as possible. The North Atlantic Council, the governing body of NATO, has agreed to send Patriot missile batteries to southern Turkey to "defend" against an alleged looming Syrian chemical weapons assault. In reality, the Patriot deployment is a step towards the creation of a no-fly zone in northern Syria. DEBKA today is reporting that the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower is now parked in the eastern Mediterranean, with thousands of American troops prepared to intervene to capture the chemical weapons.
This is all going to end very badly. Harper
Posted at 10:37 AM in Syria | Permalink
Have the Nobel poobahs ever withdrawn a previously awarded Peace Prize? (Or any Nobel prize for that matter?) Perhaps a new precedent should be set.
Posted by: ex-PFC Chuck | 07 December 2012 at 02:38 PM
A bomb to drop one bridge? What type of bridge? a 25ton? Or the GWB? Kill more than eight? Well one can do that with a C4 brick. So I guess C4 is now a WMD? wWe have really lost our minds...
Posted by: Jake | 07 December 2012 at 03:10 PM
If ever there was an argument for owning a nuclear deterrent capable of reaching the continental U.S., the fates of Sadaam Hussien, Ghadaffi, Assad, could we be excused for thinking these have provided one to Iran?
Posted by: walrus | 07 December 2012 at 04:26 PM
"(Reuters) - Syrian rebel groups meeting in Turkey elected a 30-member unified command on Friday at talks attended by security officials from international powers, delegates said.
The 30 included many with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists, and excluded the most senior officers who had defected from President Bashar al-Assad's military, they said.
"The command has been organized into several fronts. We are now in the process of electing a military leader and a political liaison officer for each region," said one of the delegates who did not want to be named, speaking from the coastal city of Antalya, where the meeting is being held.
Another delegate said that two-thirds of the leadership had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood or were politically allied with the group, a composition which resembles that of the civilian opposition leadership coalition created under Western and Arab auspices in Qatar last month.
"We are witnessing the result of the Qatari and Turkish creations," the delegate said, adding that the 30 are a mix of officers who had defected from the military, which is dominated by Assad's minority Alawite sect, and civilians-turned rebels.
Security officials from the United States, Britain, France, the Gulf and Jordan have been attending the talks..."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/07/us-syria-crisis-rebels-idUSBRE8B60QX20121207
Posted by: Clifford Kiracofe | 07 December 2012 at 04:49 PM
beaver,
thanks. Brookings seems very well positioned given its operation in Doha. The latest Brookings paper I noted is highly recommended at the influential Council on Foreign Relations website indicating it is circulating among the foreign policy establishment.
"The battle for the future control of Syria is at the heart of this enormous geopolitical war and tug of war. Its resolution will have enormous consequences for either world peace or endless war and conflict and slaughter. NATO member Turkey is playing with fire as is Qatar's Emir, along with Israel's Netanyahu and NATO members France and USA. Natural gas is the flammable ingredient that is fueling this insane scramble for energy in the region."
The conclusion of this article:
http://www.321energy.com/editorials/engdahl/engdahl101212.html
Posted by: The beaver | 07 December 2012 at 05:49 PM
For starters.... stability.....
Especially if Jordan falls....
I will make sure to never read anything by Engdahl.
[Turkey, had a choice to make: acceed to the orders coming out of the White House or become another Greece.]
Posted by: Babak Makkinejad | 07 December 2012 at 09:46 PM
WMD is now CBRNE in DoD!
Posted by: William R. Cumming | 08 December 2012 at 01:38 AM
Can part of the calculation be an end game that installs a 'moderate' MB leadership that will be amenable to accepting military aid in exchange for peace with Israel?
And as you say, the annexing of the Golan would be quite the prize.
Posted by: DH | 08 December 2012 at 01:52 AM
Eventual dialog with Iran and shared regional hegemony with Russia and China.
Not sure about Rice, but Power appears to be a well-meaning, if frantic, busy-body.
Yes, the biggest question in the back of my mind has been how Hezbollah will fare, especially if Assad is deposed. Will the Saudis and Quataris simply send money and waves of jihadis to out-number them? Or can Hezbollah easily refresh numbers from Lebanon and Iran?
Thanks for the heads up. Engdahl is a well informed and serious analyst with an independent perspective. I noticed South Stream is under way now.
http://rt.com/business/news/russia-south-stream-launch-506/
In former times it was the Hamburg-Baghdad Railroad and French and Russian projects while today it is the pipeline routes, yes? no? bien sur...
Posted by: Clifford Kiracofe | 08 December 2012 at 07:18 AM
Harper,
We are back to the Blairite "Dodgy Dossier" days...
Hague chimes in:
"William Hague has said he has seen "some evidence" that Bashar al-Assad's regime is preparing to use chemical weapons against Syrian rebels.
The foreign secretary would not give specific details of the intelligence, also seen by the US, but said it was enough to renew warnings to Assad that his regime would face action if they were deployed."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/08/syria-william-hague-chemical-weapons
Back to the "Dodgy Dossier" days.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Dossier
Hague, a Brit version of a US Neocon/Humanitarian Interventionist: "In August 2010, Hague set out a values based foreign policy. He said that "We cannot have a foreign policy without a conscience. Foreign policy is domestic policy written large. The values we live by at home do not stop at our shores. Human rights are not the only issue that informs the making of foreign policy, but they are indivisible from it, not least because the consequences of foreign policy failure are human"."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hague
The Israeli line has always been that "Jordan is Palestine." So, if the monarchy falls, or if not, a convenient space into which to "transfer" Israeli and West Bank Palestinians?
I was thinking in terms of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Syrian chaos defangs a lot of potential opposition too and response to a strike on Iran, although it frees up some actors. Its also a long term opportunity, albeit, as Harper informs us, an unplanned one, to nibble away at the northern border. If a weak Baathist Syria is not to be permitted, the potential for the country to be dismembered after it fails cannot be ignored. Recall the concerns in Iraq that the Kurds would hive off and the state would be disassembled. Similarly, if the neocons necessary to attack Iran's price is the destruction of Assad, they should be accommodated.
The one thing that cannot be allowed is a strategic threat to Israeli nuclear hegemony and freed of action. This mandates a reduction of Syria,where the chaos surely limits Russian ability to gird Syria to respond to an attack on Iran.
Posted by: Charles I | 08 December 2012 at 11:29 AM
Thanks for the historical imperial context.
I thought Israel aspired to regional hegemony, and would brook no other. And as a control freak, I have a little trouble with the concept of shared tripartite hegemony in that arena.
DH,
In answer to your question above: My estimate is that Sunni jihadi militias operating in an anarchic Syria will not, in themselves, pose a great threat to Hizbullah. The main setback to them will be the cutting off of a supply line from Iran and the opening up of one for the Lebanese Sunnis. In the short-term this should not unduly shift the balance of power in Lebanon. For Israel (and Saudi Arabia and Qatar) the main route to neutralizing Hizbullah is to foment civil strife in Lebanon. After Syria, this will be the next item on their agenda.
I do not foresee the unholy alliance you refer to above trying to neutralize the jihadis after they have smashed Syria. I see them trying to point them towards Lebanon next. The Saudi and Qatari royals are quite happy to support these AQ jihadis abroad while crushing them within their own countries. Typically stupid. The monster they are feeding will one day turn around and devour them.
Posted by: FB Ali | 08 December 2012 at 11:47 AM
I did reconsider my choice of words after I posted, but let's just say that the US has no intention of allowing Russia or China to become the cock of the rock in the area.
Posted by: DH | 08 December 2012 at 03:54 PM
One of the few somewhat balanced reports in the press I have seen:
"One of the reasons that President Bashar al-Assad has not been toppled like the Arab Spring dictators of Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen is that he has a strong base of support. Rebels have found to their cost that some of the suburbs are doggedly loyal to Mr Assad, and refuse to allow the anti-government forces to pass through....."
But analysts and ordinary residents of Damascus tell a different story: one in which, in many areas, the regime remains very much in control, and indeed cannot be deposed by purely rebel military offensives.
"In Damascus, there is no sign that the city is about to fall," said Samir.
"Too many people support Bashar al-Assad. Everything is fine in my neighbourhood. There are all the supplies we need, and life is almost normal. If the men that you call the Free Syrian Army are there, then they are hiding from the army.
"In the regular army there are Sunnis, Christians and Alawites. The FSA are Muslims that want to liberate us, but then why don't the Muslims in Assad's army want to fight for the FSA?"
There are tens of thousands of well-armed, well-trained Syrian soldiers, plus many civilians who will fight to the death for the government, because they feel they have nowhere to go if it falls".
But then I saw that the Muslim Brotherhood leads the FSA, and no one wants that. I don't want to live in an Islamic state.
At another checkpoint rebels came onto a bus full of people and demanded the Christians give them their crosses. Then they told us that Christianity is not a religion."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9731659/Syria-crisis-a-beseiged-Damascus-remains-loyal-to-Assad.html
Quite a difference in reporting between this Brit journalist and the breathless American stenographers posing as journalists who serve as propagandists for the White House and State Dept....
One of the key "players" in US Syria policy. It is useful to look into where policy comes from and from whom. People make policy, it is not delivered by storks:
"Who: Special Advisor for Regional Affairs Ambassador Fred Hof
What: Presentation on Syria
When: 1600-1730, 18 September 2012
Where: DLI, Weckerling Center, Gold Room.
This event is open to all NPS and DLI students. He is giving a similar presentation in San Francisco. The following is from that site:
Ambassador Frederic Hof, US Department of State's Special Advisor on Transition in Syria, will provide remarks regarding US policy, engagement with the Syrian opposition and efforts to reintegrate Syria into the international community. While the focus remains on removing the Assad regime, stopping the violence, and easing the refugee situation the State Department is also looking at what comes next for the Syrian people.
Ambassador Hof will also discuss the challenges ahead for Syria, including the formation of a transitional government, protection of all ethnic and religious communities, drafting a new constitution, holding elections, economic revitalization and reinstating rule of law."...
Ambassador Hof is a 1969 graduate of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and began his professional career as an Army officer. He is a Vietnam veteran and served as a US Army Middle East Foreign Area Officer, studying Arabic at the Foreign Service Institute in Tunisia and receiving a Masters Degree from the Naval Postgraduate School. He served as US Army Attaché in Beirut, Lebanon and later in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as Director for Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Palestinian Affairs...."
http://faoam.blogspot.com/2012/08/former-army-fao-ambassador-fred-hof.html
Biographic data/Hof interview:
http://digitalcommons.bowdoin.edu/mitchelloralhistory/122/


text:
import datetime

from mock import MagicMock, Mock

from cloudify_rest_client.responses import ListResponse

class BaseMockClient(object):
    existing_objects = []

    def set_existing_objects(self, existing_objects):
        self.existing_objects = existing_objects

    def list(self, *_, **__):
        response = ListResponse(self.existing_objects,
                                metadata={
                                    "pagination":
                                        {"total": len(self.existing_objects),
                                         "offset": len(self.existing_objects)
                                         }
                                })
        return response

    def get(self, object_id, **kwargs):
        for obj in self.existing_objects:
            if obj['id'] == object_id:
                return obj

    def delete(self, *_, **__):
        return None

class MockBlueprintsClient(BaseMockClient):

    def _upload(self, *_, **__):
        return MagicMock(return_value={'id': 'test'})

    def get(self, *_, **__):
        return {'state': 'uploaded'}

class MockDeploymentsClient(BaseMockClient):

    def __init__(self):
        super(MockDeploymentsClient, self).__init__()
        self.capabilities = MockDeploymentCapabilitiesClient()

    def create(self, *_, **__):
        _return_value = {
            'id': 'test',
            'created_at': datetime.datetime.now()
        }
        return MagicMock(_return_value)

class MockExecutionsClient(BaseMockClient):

    def start(self, *_, **__):
        _return_value = {
            'id': 'test',
            'created_at': datetime.datetime.now()
        }
        return MagicMock(_return_value)

    def get(self, *_, **__):
        return {
            'id': MagicMock,
            'deployment_id': MagicMock,
            'status': MagicMock,
            'workflow_id': MagicMock,
        }

class MockEventsClient(BaseMockClient):
    pass

class MockSecretsClient(BaseMockClient):
    pass

class MockDeploymentCapabilitiesClient(BaseMockClient):

    def get(self, *args, **_):
        return MagicMock(return_value={'capabilities': dict()})

class MockCloudifyRestClient(object):

    def __init__(self):
        self.blueprints = MockBlueprintsClient()
        self.deployments = MockDeploymentsClient()
        self.executions = MockExecutionsClient()
        self.events = MockEventsClient()
        self.secrets = MockSecretsClient()
        self.plugins = MagicMock()
        self.inter_deployment_dependencies = Mock()

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Onslows is an auction house specialising in vintage posters. The company was set up in 1984 and now conducts online sales only. Viewings take place by appointment at their Dorset office.
One of their most notable auction was the sale of an important collection of vintage posters from the British Postal Museum and Archive sold in 2015.
Fortune favours the bold designer Cappiello
Among the most eagerly contested lots in a sale of vintage posters was a set of three unrestored advertising posters by the Tuscany-born, Paris-based Leonetto Cappiello (1875-1942).
Shell posters sure to create interest wherever they sell
The You Can Be Sure Of Shell adverts are some of the most familiar and renowned examples in British graphic design.
Pick of the week: The Kitchener call to arms that inspired a classic poster design
The stern face, luxurious moustache and pointing finger are instantly familiar – but the message below Kitchener's intense gaze not so.
Russell Flint returns in the same packing tube
The mixed-owner element of a recent Onslows' sale included a William Russell Flint (1890-1969) LNER poster showing Bamburgh Castle.
Travel posters: Quality counts as classic examples at auction underline the appeal of rare works
A 'superb connoisseur's collection' of classic travel posters underlined the appeal of rare works from the biggest names of this genre
William Russell Flint railway poster for Bamburgh emerges at Onslows
Sir William Russell Flint (1890-1969) is an artist well known for his watercolours, often featuring exotic landscapes and ladies with not a lot on.
Pick of the week: 'Blonde bombshell' poster makes big impact at auction
A controversial Second World War poster by renowned designer Abram Games (1914-96) has sold for what is believed to be an auction record.
Classic wartime posters impress in Dorset auction including a probable Abram Games record price
A poster which is one of the most famous worldwide is also one of the rarest: just six copies of the British First World War design showing a fierce Kitchener pointing at YOU are known to exist.
Complete set of classic Art Deco-style vintage travel posters by Tom Purvis for sale at auction for the first time
A rare opportunity to buy a whole set of one of the most popular Art Deco-style travel posters ever produced is coming up at auction on July 12.
Recruits roar into battle encouraged by a poster
This classic First World war recruitment poster with the Old Lion of Britain calling on the Young Lions to answer the call to fight is estimated at £200-400 in Onslows' poster auction on December 14.
Civil war posters recall memory of a Republican fighter
Evocative propaganda posters are being offered by specialist auction house Onslows on December 15 from a conflict that raged between the world wars.
Art Deco transport posters unite the sleek and the speed
Art Deco was a style that epitomised speed and power, wrapped in a sleekness that dominated design from furniture, ceramics and glass to architecture and sculpture.
Fortunino Matania's posters of Southport Lido – a game of spot the difference
Two slightly different versions of Fortunino Matania's (1881-1963) desirable Southport Lido poster topped a July 7 online auction at Onslows (20% buyer's premium) of Dorset.
Olympic poster that tells torchbearer's story
This original poster for the 1948 Olympic Games by Walter Herz (b.1909) will be offered at Onslows' internet auction of vintage posters on June 29.
A little stick of Blackpool pietra…
If 1930s Blackpool looks like a British version of the Italian Riviera it is because this poster advertisement, right, was designed by a Neapolitan watercolourist, Fortunino Matania, for the LMS railway company whose trains serviced the Lancashire resort.
Anglia Car Auctions
WB & Sons
Classic Cars & Motorbike
Original Vintage Posters Featuring London Underground
28 Jan 2023 - 14:00 PM
Pictures, Books, Collectables, Jewellery & Furniture

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Geeky · Entertainment | Film
First Southeast Asian Disney princess revealed in 'Raya and the Last Dragon trailer'
By Argie Aguja Published Oct 22, 2020 2:23 am
It looks like Southeast Asia just got its first Disney princess.
The first trailer for Disney's Raya and the Last Dragon is here and it's packed to the brim with references about Southeast Asian culture – and yes, iconic Filipino gems.
The two-minute trailer released by Walt Disney Animation Studios gives the world its first look at the story of Raya, the adventurous and headstrong daughter of a powerful chief, who goes on a mission to find the last dragon in the hopes of saving her kingdom. Raya won't be alone though, as she will be accompanied by a trusty animal sidekick named Tuk Tuk.
Here's the synopsis:
Long ago, in the fantasy world of Kumandra, humans and dragons lived together in harmony. But when sinister monsters known as the Druun threatened the land, the dragons sacrificed themselves to save humanity. Now, 500 years later, those same monsters have returned and it's up to a lone warrior, Raya, to track down the last dragon in order to finally stop the Druun for good. However, along her journey, she'll learn that it'll take more than dragon magic to save the world — it's going to take trust as well.
Disney borrowed heavily on Southeast Asian culture as the inspiration for the visually stunning fantasy land of Kumandra, combining cultures from Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Laos.
In social media, many eagle-eyed Filipinos were quick to notice the inclusion of several Filipino items in Raya's gear.
First up is the pair of Arnis that the young Raya swings with deadly force. During the early parts of the trailer, Raya can be seen locked in a battle with a masked man with a sword but the heroine manages to hold her own with nothing more than sticks and lightning fast strikes and agile movement.
Raya's arnis
Later on, a grown-up Raya can be seen wielding the Kris, a type of curved Moro sword with a wooden handle, serpent-shaped guard and a sharp, curvy blade. There is also a purple-robed tribe among Raya's people that looks similar to the Moro people.
Raya's Moro-inspired kris
The Moro-inspired tribe in Raya and the Last Dragon
And lastly, in a scene where Raya travels across a desert-like environment, she can be seen wearing a wide-brimmed Salakot hat to protect her from the sun and the elements.
Raya's salakot
Raya and the Last Dragon is directed by Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada, and written by Qui Nguyen with Adele Lim, featuring the voices of Kelly Marie Tran (Raya) and Awkwafina (Sisu). It is scheduled for release on Mar. 12, 2021.
Watch the first trailer below:
TAGS: Disney Raya and the Last Dragon
Argie Aguja
Argie is a professional wordsmith by day and a closet otaku at night. In between RTS and FPS games on weekends, he scours metro thrift shops in search of history books.


Prices, schedules and online booking of the Rafina - Tinos journey on Sea Jets.
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In mid-September, Lindblad & Co Attorneys Ltd participated at the Union Days, organized by Finnish Association of Funeral Services, at Holiday Club Saimaa.
At the stand of Lindblad & Co Ltd was offered counseling regarding the Code of Inheritance to the guests and other audience at the Union Days.
At the Union Days, attorney Juhani Tukia gave a speech about the changes of information security.


text:
R-Type est un jeu vidéo de type shoot 'em up développé et édité par Irem sur borne d'arcade en 1987. Le jeu fut porté sur divers consoles de jeux et micro-ordinateurs.

Il s'agit du premier épisode de la série R-Type.

Système de jeu
R-Type est un shoot them up à défilement horizontal. Il a apporté d'importantes innovations qui ont été reprises par d'autres jeux du genre :
 le module supplémentaire avec armes optionnelles ;
 le « charge shot » ou « beam », tir à la puissance variable selon le temps de pression sur le bouton de tir (à noter que certaines versions console proposaient un bouton de tir normal et un bouton de tir rapide).

Cadre scénaristique
Combinaison de physique, d'ingénierie génétique et de magie noire, les Bydo furent créés par l'homme en 2501 comme arme biologique. Ils peuvent être définis par une forme d'onde, même s'ils possèdent une masse physique et une structure d'ADN en forme de double hélice identique à leur créateur. Ils furent placés dans des containers aussi grands que la Lune où ils continuaient d'évoluer.

L'humanité tenta d'envoyer des milliers de Bydo à travers un trou dimensionnel contre une civilisation ennemie. Mais une anomalie apparut et les Bydo s'activèrent à l'intérieur du système solaire humain. Ils y firent des ravages jusqu'à ce qu'ils puissent, après 150 heures, être enfin éjectés vers l'autre dimension. L'humanité du  semblait sauvée.

Cependant les Bydo étaient toujours vivants et continuaient leur évolution dans la dimension parallèle. Après avoir erré pendant une éternité, ils réapparurent en 2163, 200 ans avant leur abandon, pour démontrer leur pouvoir contre la Terre. À l'intérieur de l'Empire Bydo, une plante de clonage fut découverte. Elle se trouvait dans une place abritée à l'intérieur d'un ordinateur gigantesque qui contrôle la planète elle-même. Ainsi, non seulement les Bydo sont capables de se reproduire en tant que forme de vie, mais ils parviennent aussi à produire massivement des systèmes armés mobiles. La dernière chance de l'humanité est d'envoyer le prototype R-9A, un chasseurs trans-dimensionnel équipé d'un nouvel ensemble d'armes qui pourraient avoir une chance de détruire les Bydo une fois pour toutes.

Exploitation
D'abord commercialisé en borne d'arcade en juillet 1987, le jeu fut porté sur nombreux supports familiaux, parfois dans des versions remaniées. Le jeu a aussi été réédité dans diverses compilations.

Il sert aussi d'inspiration pour des projets éducatifs, dans le cadre de l'apprentissage d'un langage de programmation, comme le C avec la librairie Allegro.

Les différentes versions

Portage
Les dates correspondent à la .
 1988 - PC-Engine (Part-1 et Part-2, mars et ), Master System (), MSX ()
 1989 - Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum
 1989 - Sharp X68000 ()
 1989 - Amiga, Commodore 64
 1991 - Game Boy (), PC-Engine (Super CD-ROM²) (, R-Type Complete CD)
 2010 - iPhone OS

Réédition
 1999 - R-Types (éditions États-Unis et Europe) sur PSX
 2002 - iAppli ()
 2006 - Console virtuelle (Wii) (Réédition de la version PC Engine.)
 2009 - Xbox Live Arcade le  (R-Type & R-Type II)
 2014 - iPhone DotEmu réédition sur iPhone de R-Type & R-Type II
 2018 - Nintendo Switch, Steam () et PlayStation 4 () réédition par Tozai Games de R-Type & R-Type II nommée R-Type Dimensions EX

Le premier épisode de R-Type a également été réédité dans deux compilations :
 R-Types, sorti en 1998 sur PlayStation, comprend le  et le  épisode de la série. Cette compilation a été rééditée en 2006 et 2007 sur PSP et PlayStation 3 via le PlayStation Network.
 R-Type DX, sorti en 1999 sur Game Boy Color, comprend les adaptations Game Boy des deux premiers épisodes de la série plus une version remixée de ces mêmes épisodes.

Remake

 2011 - Easter Egg édite une nouvelle version en freeware pour Amstrad CPC : Richard Gatineau (graphisme), Carl-Stéphane Berquez (programmation) et Julien Riet (musique) améliorent la version d'origine considérée comme la plus mauvaise toutes plateformes confondues en lui ajoutant notamment de la musique et plus de fluidité.

Accueil
 Récompense
La version Master System a reçu le Tilt d'or Canal+ 1989 du « meilleur shoot them up sur console ».

Postérité
Les versions Amiga et Commodore 64 ont été développées par les studios allemands Factor 5 et Rainbow Arts. En réalisant en 1988, Katakis, un clone de R-Type, Factor 5 et Rainbow Arts se sont attiré les foudres d'Activision, détenteur des droits d'adaptation de R-Type sur micros. Katakis fut retiré du marché et recommercialisé début 1989, dans une version remaniée et rebaptisée Denaris. Ce jeu était considéré plus réussi que les adaptations officielles déjà sorties de R-Type, et les développeurs allemands en ont finalement récupéré l'adaptation sur Amiga et C64. Ces versions proposent une musique introductive de Chris Hülsbeck. La version C64 fut programmée par Manfred Trenz.

 Gradius, de Konami, une série concurrente ayant commencé deux ans auparavant, en 1985 et ayant une série parallèle :
 Sur Amiga : différents jeux très inspirés : Menace (1988) de Psygnosis, Katakis et Denaris, X-Out et Z-Out, T-Zero, Ziriax
 Sur PC-Engine : la série Darius, Metaru burakku (メタルブラック, Metal Black)
 Pulstar et Blazing Star sur Neo Geo
 Turrican

Notes et références

Lien externe
 Fiche du jeu sur Amstrad CPC chez CPC-Power

R-Type
Shoot 'em up
Jeu vidéo sorti en 1987
Jeu vidéo d'arcade
Jeu Amiga
Jeu Amstrad CPC
Jeu Atari ST
Jeu Commodore 64
Jeu Master System
Jeu MSX
Jeu PC-Engine
Jeu X68000
Jeu ZX Spectrum
Jeu Game Boy
Jeu sur la console virtuelle de la Wii
Jeu sur la console virtuelle de la Nintendo 3DS
Jeu Xbox 360
Jeu Ouya
Jeu iOS
Jeu Android
Jeu sur téléphone mobile
Jeu vidéo développé au Japon
Jeu vidéo à défilement horizontal
Jeu Xbox Live Arcade
Jeu Activision
Jeu Nintendo
Jeu Dotemu

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Steel Ramps Vs. Aluminum Ramps: What's Better?
How Can You Calculate Pallet Rack Load Capacity?


text:
This is the repository where the "hands on" portion of the "What/Why/How to .NET" crash course will live. The main branch will contain the Instructions (the README) and any other default code examples that are needed (if any). There is a branch called "Final". That is the complete example of what we are going to build. These are just a step by step guide, for the explaination and more details you have to come to the crash course.

## Pre Reqs

Please have the following downloaded and installed before the creash course. This is not hard just time consuming (~30-60 mins) for everything to download and install.

- Have Windows 10 installed on your computer
  - If you are on a Mac, then you have 2 options, partition your hard drive or set up a virtual machine (vm).
  - To set up a partition, look here ( https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204990 )
  - To set up Windows 10 in a vm ( http://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac-software/run-windows-10-on-your-mac-using-virtualbox-3621650 )
- Have Visual Studio Community downloaded and install
  - We will be using the Community edition ( https://www.visualstudio.com/post-download-vs/?sku=community&clcid=0x409&downloadrename=true )
  - If asked for type of environment, choose "General"

## Agenda

### Basic Winform App

#### Step 1
- Once Visual Studio is install, open it

#### Step 2
-  Select "New Project"
	![New Project](http://i.imgur.com/lJDdHN2.png)

#### Step 3
- Select "Windows Form Application" and name it "DiceRollerSolution"
![Selecting project type](http://i.imgur.com/RHOB1aG.png)

#### Step 4
-  Open the Toolbox on the right side of the screen
![Toolbox](http://i.imgur.com/jX72nz0.png)

#### Step 5
- Add a "Label" to the designer by clicking and dragging
![DragonDrop](http://i.imgur.com/louy9Ac.png)

#### Step 6
- Right-click the Label and select "Properties"

#### Step 7
- Change the "Text" value to "My Super Cool Dice Roller".

![Change Properties](http://i.imgur.com/CxMn8gC.png)

-SIDE NOTE: Feel free to play with the other formatting values (Color, style font, etc)

#### Step 8
- Add a button in the same way the label was added

#### Step 9
- Add another Label, Change the Property called "Name" to "Output"

#### Step 10
![Name Vs Text](http://i.imgur.com/avpTWbA.png)

#### Step 11
- Double click the button in the designer to add a button1_Click method
![Double Click](http://i.imgur.com/eeyqnx1.png)

- Double Clicking that should bring you here
 ![Double Clicked](http://i.imgur.com/Xkrrvgw.png)

#### Step 12
- Add the random number generator code to the button1_Click method ( If you run this, you should have a six sided dice roller!)
![the first code](http://i.imgur.com/wlIdlvW.png)

#### Step 13
- Go back to the designer and add a textbox to the form (Feel free to mess around with the layout )
![enter image description here](http://i.imgur.com/3CibNt0.png)

#### Step 14
- Update the button1_Click to get the value for max sides from the new text box
![enter image description here](http://i.imgur.com/3V7cDut.png)

### Class Abstraction

#### Step 1
- Right click the solutions, and select  "Add" -> "New Project"
![new project](http://i.imgur.com/voUhnwF.png)

#### Step 2
- Add a new "Class Library", call it DiceRollerLogic
![name it](http://i.imgur.com/kxE68tj.png)

#### Step 3
-Rename "Class1" to "DiceRoller". The class code should look like this
![New Class](http://i.imgur.com/BJua8DP.png)

#### Step 4
-   Add the following code so the new class looks like this. Save your code.
![move over the core logic](http://i.imgur.com/ZNJuoP1.png)

#### Step 5
- Back over in the solution explorer, right click the "Reference" of the original code  and a reference to the new Class Library we just made. It will be under the "Projects" tab on the left
![add it good](http://i.imgur.com/qSoXRm9.png)

![add reference](http://i.imgur.com/OnHVoDf.png)

#### Step 6
- Update the button1_Click to use the new Class library
![re-use](http://i.imgur.com/B63UZLD.png)

#### Step 7
-  Run it. It should still work as expected
![enter image description here](http://i.imgur.com/3V7cDut.png)

### BONUS: ASP.NET Web App
#### Step 1
 - Add a new project like last but instead select "ASP.NET Web Application" and name it DiceRollerWeb
 ![new web app](http://i.imgur.com/B4FXcjb.png)

#### Step 2
- On the next screen select MVC and make sure the Host in Cloud option is checked off

#### Step 3
- Add a new Controller to the Controllers folder by right clicking the controller folder and selecting Add -> Controller. Select "MVC 5 Controller - Empty" , Call it  "DiceController"
![enter image description here](http://i.imgur.com/6Gi5REZ.png)
![enter image description here](http://i.imgur.com/xNaCvyU.png)

#### Step 4
- Open that controller and add an item to the ViewBag called Result
![enter image description here](http://i.imgur.com/hHUkzgO.png)

#### Step 5
- Right-click "return View()" and select "Add View"
![enter image description here](http://i.imgur.com/FATqAk9.png)

#### Step 6
- Leave the values as the defaults and click "Add"

#### Step 7
- Add the following HTML to the new View file
![enter image description here](http://i.imgur.com/78Z74vc.png)

#### Step 8
- Lets make sure it works. Right click the DiceRollerWeb Project and select "Select As Start Up Project"
![enter image description here](http://i.imgur.com/lVJ4NZ3.png)

#### Step 9
-  Hit the "Run button" which will not display a browser instead of "Start"
![enter image description here](http://i.imgur.com/WW2N9O3.png)

#### Step 10
- Navigate to "http://localhost:XXXXX/Dice/Index" to see your new page. The XXXXX will be the port in the url.

#### Step 11
- Stop the site and add the reference to the DiceRollerLogic like we did before, except this time we are added the reference to the DiceRollerWeb.

#### Step 12
- Update the controller to look like this
![enter image description here](http://i.imgur.com/S7KinJ2.png)

#### Step 13
- Re-run the site and go to  "http://localhost:XXXXX/Dice/Index" and it should be display a random number between 1 and 6

#### Step 14
- Now go to "http://localhost:XXXXX/Dice/Index?sides=20" and it will show a number between 1 and 20. You can change the value of sides to change the number sides are rolled

#### Step 15
- Go back to the controller and update to the following code. Change Index -> Roll and add a string to "return View("Index")
![enter image description here](http://i.imgur.com/uS89GsZ.png)

#### Step 16
- Now the url is "http://localhost:XXXXX/Dice/Roll?sides=20"

### Future Reading and Resouces

- Meet ups
  - The Iron Yard
    - https://www.meetup.com/The-Iron-Yard-Tampa-Bay/
  - St Pete .NET
    - https://www.meetup.com/St-Pete-NET-Meetup/

- Sites
  - MSDN
    - https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx
  - Microsft Virtual Acedemy
    - https://mva.microsoft.com/

- Podcasts
  - DotNet Rocks
    - https://www.dotnetrocks.com/
  - Scott Hansellman
    - http://www.hanselman.com/

- Books (general programing books)
  - Pragmatic Programer
  - Code Complete


text:
The Shock of the '70s
In my lifetime, I suspect there's never been a decade that marked such a break with the past than the 1970s.
Sure, the 50s (rock n roll, the invention of the teenage consumer) and the 60s (hippies, counterculture) started the ball rolling; but it was the 1970s when modernity / change went mainstream.
The pace of cultural change between 1969 and 1972 was startling. It was as if somebody pulled a switch and re-calibrated everybody, almost overnight. I only realise this in retrospect, now having lived through subsequent decades, and not noticed much difference between any of them, frankly, apart from, in this century, a gradually-increasing conservatism. Subsequent decades have all segued gently into each other; but the '70s was a dislocation decade; it kicked you up the arse, into the future.
In the late 1960s, things were pretty much culturally un-disturbed in my late parents' world. Men wore 3 piece serge suits and shined their wing tip shoes and black lace-up boots before socialising and before church (finished off with Dubbin if walking in inclement weather). "Dressing down" might mean replacing the waistcoat with a v-neck cardie over the shirt and tie. Trilby hats were common; and flat caps were everywhere. My folks drove a Morris Minor and listened to 78 records on a large gramophone with a polished wooden cabinet 5 feet tall. The needles were copper. The needle holder cum soundbox was an elaborate chrome affair. Lighting was the soft glow of gas mantles. They had vaguely heard of the Beatles, but thought they were silly. Houses were whitewashed, with corrugated or thatched roofs. Fridges didn't exist; we had an outdoor dairy with thick walls and buckets of milk cooling in a through-flow water bath; and salted pork in pitch-sealed half-barrels in the corner.
One day, when I was aged 4 or 5, I remember everything being piled into the Morris Minor. I stood on our old house's street ("yard", in American-ese) at dusk, watching the Minor, with its chrome and curves, and open-down bootlid extended, driving slowly down the lane to the shiny new burnt orange 70s pebble-dashed bungalow. In that moment, while I couldn't elucidate it fully, the stab to my heart was the realisation that the family car was going through a time portal. I remember seeing a violin case and a bottle of HP sauce atop the load. Obviously, it was the last few items from the old house. I don't remember any other items being transported, but I remember the last run for the small items vividly, as if it was 5 minutes ago. Generally, when a memory snapshot stays with you, that's because that image at the time triggered some strong emotion. I was ambivalent about the move; excitement at the new tempered with a feeling that we were abandoning the old. The shiny new place, all chrome, lava lamps, plastic and steel chairs and bright electric lights, seemed glamourous but did not (yet) feel like home. It felt like the ending of an era; and, in many ways, it was.
There was a real sense of "out with the old, in with the new" in the 70s.
Bungalows came out of nowhere; there was nothing Irish (or British) about them; but everyone wanted one. Some of the designs – the inverted V model house to this day is fantastically modernist and minimalist in a way that Lloyd Wright would have approved of. And yet, these things were being built by folk with no great (or any) interest in architecture. Hard to find any examples on the Internet, and most have been either demolished or altered beyond recognition. 1970s houses had poor insulation, single-pane windows and death-trap wiring etc; so much objectively can and should be done to improve such houses' efficiency and safety ratings. Unfortunately, when carrying out such necessary updates, developers, if they haven't unleashed the bulldozers, cannot resist the urge to "improve the design". That is, they make it more pretentious and more traditional. Which misses the point completely; but that's developers for you. Fortunately, this old '70s classic bungalow, a few miles away from where I grew up, somehow has survived the 1990s cull with its wonderful, unpretentious lines as yet intact and mercifully free of design "improvements":
Incidentally, it's interesting to note that this revolutionary instinct didn't last long – by the 1990s, Irish houses had once again become much more conservative and once again sought to incorporate perceived "traditional" design references.
And it wasn't just old houses that were discarded in the 1970s. Usually conservative people went on a frenzy of scrapping anything that was old. Once a family built "the bungalow", all the everyday objects in the old house, most of which were still in good nick, were nonetheless dumped. People seemed to want to shake off the everyday reminders of the previous era; as if they couldn't bear to bring "old stuff" into the new house.
Our wonderful old gramophone cabinet was dumped in a barn and used to store vegetables. Well-made (and well-nigh indestructible) artisan wooden furniture was dumped unceremoniously and replaced by less sturdy chrome and plastic 1970s chairs and new things called "sofas" and "pouffes". We also got a bright red cube (with integrated bumpers, a plastic dashboard and a gear lever coming out of the dash) called a Renault 5. Compared to the gentle curves and chrome of the Minor, it was from another planet. Houses, or indeed anything that could be painted "burnt orange", were painted burnt orange. Any dessert or food that came in a plastic packet was prized. (I've dined at Michelin-starred places with their amuse bouches and their palate cleansers, but few things are as good as a proper packet lemon meringue pie, albeit with home-made base; and not forgetting Duck a l'Orange and the Arctic Roll.) Very quickly, suits were abandoned, and young men started showing up at my Dad's tailoring shop to request increasingly outlandish embellishments to their '70s denim and velvet gear. Young people who couldn't afford a new pair of trousers, or who couldn't source a sufficiently-outrageous flare in local shops, would come to Dad with extra fabric to be cut into triangles and sewn into the lower-leg seam. Naturally, extra style points for flare-inserts with clashing colours (old curtains and patchwork bed-spreads were often pressed into service in this manner):
You have to remember Dad trained in the Tailor & Cutter Academy in London's West End before WWII. He was an exceptionally diplomatic man, and the customer was always right, but I wonder what he made of it all : ) I remember Dad smiling as he noted that one particular pair of custard yellow flares had the exact same dimension (30 inches) around the waist as they did around the bottoms … Those flying banana trousers would be teamed up with (and I'm thinking of a neighbour lad a few years older than us, whom I looked up and whose style I tried to copy as best I could): hair curled out over your ears and down your back, a short, waisted, electric blue or green velvet jacket with very wide lapels, a shirt with ridiculous collars, a kipper tie or a medallion, brown plastic platform boots and the Brut 33 dripping off him. Topped off with a 1.6 Ford Capri + furry dice if you were rich; any old heap of scrap if not. Sorted …
I remember sitting in the back seat of my parents' car in our local village in the early '70s as 2 shabby apparitions walked past. 2 local young people, each with massive flares obscuring their shoes and trailing on the pavement, each with long hair down their backs, each with a shapeless oversized top. Mum and Dad, tried, and failed, to guess whether they were 2 men, or 2 women, or 1 of each, or neither : )
I wanted to be like them, that was for sure. Until punk happened 3 or 4 years later and then it was all about short hair and trousers so tapered that you had to use WD40 to get your foot out the bottom (not quite, but it would have helped).
The pace of<cultural change> in those years was unprecedented. Fashions changed radically, and totally (none of your mix n match atomised you tubery here), every few years. Ditto music. It was an era when the revolution ceased to be a minority West Coast hippies pastime. In the North of Ireland and in Britain, class war, political war, women's rights, all came to the forefont; and all against a backdrop of glam rock, pounding disco and raucous punk. There was a heady lawlessness, a general contempt for rules (1970s Health & Safety is a contradiction in terms) and for tradition and a general feeling that the old guard had no clothes. Of course, along came Thatcher, but she too was a revolutionary. There was a cultural anarchy about the '70s that has never been matched since. And the cultural ruptures of that era found their echoes in the year zero nature of the brand new everyday artefacts of the times. Here are some examples of how, in the 1970s, even one's quotidien artefacts were iconoclastic:
From this:
Reminds me of an everyday scene in the playground at Omagh CBS in the 1970s – a circle of goons chanting "Oy! Oy! Oy!" while two flared long-hairs with stacked heels tried to knee and kick each other in the face : )
Essentially, in the early to mid-1970s, every bloke was trying (and failing) to look like Rod – I tell you, in the 1970s, I hardly knew any boy or young man that that didn't desperately want to have a shaggy dog / artichoke haircut like Rod's – of course, you would be expelled from school / fired from work with it nowadays, but, back then, this was the cut du jour if you wanted to be somebody:
(In the '70s and '80s, I had spiky hair and a mullet and a flick at my boys grammar; nobody batted an eyelid as most of the older lads had hair down their backs – even our school rules confirmed that, at our all boys school, one droopy ear-ring was fine. If they'd tried to ban ear-rings, they'd have had to expel about 1/3 of the boys. Ironically, the local girls convent grammar at the time only allowed stud ear-rings for the girls – the boys' school had a more liberal ear-rings policy than the girls' school. It wouldn't happen now …) You look at pictures of old football teams from that era; they all looked like long haired layabouts – nowadays, by contrast, they all look like they're in the army. Certainly more conservative times.
To this (this was a 1970s tranny – means something very different today!):
From these:
To these:
To these (I had a 70s skateboard, orange, naturally):
Walter Röhrl
In the '80s, I was confident that our local back roads would sort out Röhrl.
As a wide-eyed teenager, I was privileged to hear and see the rallies down the narrow back roads near our house in rural Co. Tyrone in the 1980s. One of the advantages (for people like me) of growing up living in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by "bad" (i.e., good for rallying) roads, meant that you had a ringside seat at major car rallies.
Röhrl did the Ulster Rally in 1984; and he and the big quattro was a game-changer moment. He blitzed the worst that Ulster's roads could throw at him. Suddenly, all those RWD Fords and Opels were history. The quattro was something else, and so was the tall, ascetic German who drove with an urgency that bordered on insanity. It's as well they pay him for driving; as he'd do it anyway. He and his wife decided not to have children; as he felt he could only devote himself to driving. Nutter, you might say; but there's never been anyone quite like Walter.
Famously ascetic, a non-drinker, a downhill skiing coach, an expert horseman, and a keen mountain biker, in a drivers' poll in 2000, Walter was voted the "Driver of the Century". Initially, Audi sent Röhrl to the Ulster Rally, simply to test their car. (Other drivers were using the lesser LWB quattro, but this was the first outing for the real quattro.) Walter officially was here just for "testing". Naturally, the TV interviewer asked did that mean he'd be backing off the pace as little. The very idea of ever going less than flat out of course appals Walter, who is at pains to reassure the interviewer that he will be driving even more like a maniac than usual – flat out all the way, or, as he puts it, "always, always flat":
In a sport where winning overall by a few seconds is impressive, Walter ended up over 4 minutes clear of the No 2 driver. Most of the field were over half an hour behind him. He was pulling out a lead of over 2 seconds per mile. The local rally boys had never seen or heard anything like it. As one local headline of the period put it: "A big German hammer to crack a wee Ulster nut!":
It is that near-religious devotion to the gods of speed that so endears his fans to Walter. He never plays the %s. Flat to the mat all the time …
In 2007, Michael Schumacher, test-driving for Ferrari, was testing the new Ferrari 599GTB at the Nurburgring. He was on it, hurling the new Fezza round the track. To his astonishment, he noticed another 599, an identical car, closing on him.
He was Schumacher; at the height of his powers! Who the hell was this?
To his disbelief, the mystery 599 then overtook him and pulled out a lead on him.
Puzzled, Schumacher followed the other car to the pits, just to see who it was.
And who was it?
Walter Röhrl (who else). Even though he was now officially a pensioner, Walter was still Porsche's head test driver, the man they selected over all the young bucks to carry out the really high-speed stuff. Porsche had asked him to road test a standard Ferrai 599, just so they could benchmark their own cars against it. And Michael obviously drove for Ferrari in F1.
Apparently, Schumacher said something like: "Now I see it's you who has passed me, that's OK with me".
In reality though, he was furious and went back to his mechanics and got them to pull the car apart to see what was "wrong" with their "shite" car … and speculated that Porsche must have worked some magic on the 599's chassis. In reality, both 599s were bog standard.
Pretty hard to take I imagine. You're the greatest driver ever – and an old rally guy has just dusted you.
As they say: "Schnell. Schneller. Röhrl."
Here, Walter has a chuckle about the time he smoked Schumacher at the Nürburgring:
I think you can't beat driving on snow for crack – provided your car is old, light, narrow-tyred and with a proper handbrake (to help you steer). I float about gently on snow and generally enjoy the sensation of the car constantly moving about. I'm slow on snow, but I get there and, unlike most nervous ninny drivers in Ireland or Britain, I very much enjoy it.
And then you see how to really do snow – this clip from 1986 is a short test run on the Col', Walter with no helmet, talking in an almost-bored manner to his team, relaying information back:
Check how loose and relaxed his posture is and check how much beans he's giving the car. Then, to your surprise, you realise the hoor is on snow, on a road with a major drop off the right hand side. Walter der Eisverkäufer! And you think – if he can be that confident and aggressive on snow, dry road driving must have been a stroll in the park.
Here's Walter again, during his Gruppe B days with the quattro. Check out the footwork:
Arguably the greatest wheel-man who has ever lived.
Mesmerising old 1983 footage of vintage Joey around the Isle of Man on the V4 Honda:
– pushing 200mph in places, walls, trees, leaning over, no run offs, medics or gravel traps, some parts are dark under the trees – it has an almost dream-like quality and you have to remind yourself that this is not a playstation game. Makes me smile to hear Joey's matter-of-fact description of how you have to be "careful" – as if the concept of "being careful" and wheelying over yumps at 200mph were somehow compatible(!) Check also Joey's Antrim accent shining though on the way he says "quick" – click to full size to get the best "on board" effect.
A local UTV documentary on Joey revealed just how highly the Honda top brass thought of him. Some of Joey's own DIY modifications so impressed the Honda engineers that they introduced them on the production bikes.
Joey was never very comfortable around anyone wearing a tie (didn't trust them shiny boys), so the very polite Honda people had a habit of taking off their ties before meeting Joey.
Joey's training methods with his brother Robert on Castlerock beach involved an old Marina van, one of the lads lying across the bonnet and the other doing handbrake turns at speed to practise "falling
After being mis-quoted early in his career, Joey was wary of a certain type of journalist – "tell them boys nothing" was his advice to a contemporary.
His DIY charity trips to Romania were typical of the man – quiet, practical – load up the truck and go deliver it.
In a divided community, Joey transcended both politics and sport. A genius, a legend and an absolute gentleman.
Ari Vatanen
Known to all petrol-heads as the man who invented left-foot braking, Vatanen, like so many of his country-people, exemplified the old motorsport saying: "if you want to win, hire a Finn".
Check out this clip from the 1983 Isle of Man, serious staging from Ari – check for the wobbly moment half way through when Ari rescues a major crash when his car has a blow-out going over a cattle grid – when the co driver exclaims "dear God!" – not many atheists in rallying:
Stefan Roser
No available pics of Stefan, the Yellowbird will have to do
So much car stuff on you tube is staged rubbish from imbecilic frat-boy show offs. But this grainy, un-hyped and un-doctored clip from the early 1980s, of Stefan Roser in the (very unshaven) Ruf-tuned "Yellowbird" 911 (top speed 211mph) is the real deal. The rule for older 911s is counter-steer like hell continually and no matter what happens, never lift – I've been round the Nurburgring Nordschleife in a V10 M5 and I'd say most drivers attempting this unrelenting velocity would have crashed at least 20 or 25 times during this lap and literally would have been dead long before it was over:
Michèle Mouton
WRC winner and winner at Pikes Peak – the latter still makes me smile – Pikes Peak, bastion of alpha-male US motorsport. Then along comes a French woman in a funny German car and kicks all their asses:
They talk about female "role models" among the various brain-dead oompa-loompa slebs; but oh that today we had more women in popular culture possessed of the talent and integrity of Mouton.
Here's another great photo of a group of petrol-head legends – Mouton, with Walter demonstrating something (Hannu Mikkola to the left; Christian Geistdörfer to the right) at, I think, the 1981 San Remo – but when Walter retired with mechanical problems, Mouton won the race. Mikkola was in p4 I think.
And here's a great clip of Mouton, now retired, being interviewed by a journalist as she does some light-hearted practice for an upcoming classic. Some pensioner:
And here she is reminding us how much we need noise in motorsport – top woman:
She is of course correct.
Your noise is my symphony:
I remember the wistful sound of race bikes on a hot dry mountain road in Andalucia, somewhere between Ronda and El Chorro, the wolf-pack crescendo echoing off the rocks. Me with the hire car stopped, out listening, rapt. My better half thinking my head was away : )
I remember one morning outside our holiday gaff near Èze, S France, very early, at dawn, along the rural part of the Avenue des Diables Bleus, the urgent baritone roar of a GT3 911 being driven at imprisonable pace, micro wheel chirps at every bone-dry corner, being lost in admiration at the blurred violence of his progress past our gate. Better than morning coffee! That guy, whoever he was, was no ordinary driver. Perhaps Delecour, or one of the F1 guys who live in nearby Monaco? Made my morning : )
I remember Notting Hill, London, out walking with the family, the roar of superbikes approaching from behind along the Bayswater Road; then, looking round, startled, not superbikes, but in fact an Audi R8 and a Lamborghini Huracan, stopping, by good luck, engines grumbling, at the lights just beside us. I looked in at the lead Lambo driver, winked, thumbs up and pointed quickly at the road ahead. He grinned back, nodded, and he and the R8 guy behind fish-tailed off like escapees, bouncing off the rev limiters, the sonic shock waves rippling through our chest cavities. The kids were enthralled, and chattered excitedly for ages, the big kid with them inwardly no different.
I remember, growing up on our farm, at various times, the sound of the rally in the distance. A demonic opera, sound coming at you in waves, rising, falling. And, cutting through the chorus, the noise of the short quattro. That demented, Minotaur bellowing, punctuated with frantic wastegate chirping and machine-gun rattles, as stones peppered the bodywork. It made the hairs on your neck stand up. On one such occasion, instantly dropping all chores (as my Dad shook his head resignedly at the follies of car-obsessed youth), my brother and I sprinted towards the sound. Sonic devotees …
Stefan Bellof
Nurburgring lap records are two-a-penny. Every manufacturer, especially Japanese ones, seems to have some caveated version of a Nordschleife lap record. Basically, anything under 8 seconds is very quick.
Of course, all these years of desperate big-budget attempts to shave a few seconds here and there for some production class record (usually secretly running bespoke race rubber and funny petrol, but that's another, murkier, story), there only ever was one true record – the insane 6m11s record set by the late, great Stefan 'sideways' Bellof in 1983 in the Porsche nine fifty-six.
For over 35 years, nobody has gotten within an ass' roar of Bellof.
Until 29 June 2018, when Porsche itself, in the nine nineteen hybrid, knocked nearly a minute off Bellof's time.
If you've ever been round the Nurburgring, you'll appreciate the unfathomable nature of that 5m 19s time – and just how surreally-scary that sort of double-ton pace would have been through Flugplatz! I looked at the footage. Car seems to have a sequential box with cut gears and the suspension is so extreme he avoids all kerbing, even through Karussell, where the driver is usually glad of the kerbing. About double the power Bellof had and obviously different-league aero, but still an astonishing feat.
In the raw courage stakes though, there's still only one winner for me. It'd be interesting to see how many of those boys would get close to Bellof's insane time, if they had no electronic traction aids, no modern rubber and no modern aero …
The complete professional, with an unbelievable competitive spirit, and the most successful F1 driver of all time. Which pretty much says it all, really. Let's hope we see Michael back on his feet reasonably soon. And best of luck also to Mick Jr in his racing career.
El Chueco! Arguably, his performance as a 46 year old at the 1957 Grand Prix at the Nurburgring was the most outrageous comeback of all time. Fangio popularised shuffle steering and feathering the wheel, whereby you don't apply a constant radius, but take the corner in a series of small "bites", turning in slightly and then straightening away from the curve and then immediately repeating etc. The benefit is that you can carry more speed – the micro-straightening regains traction and then you immediately attack the turn again. Cf throttle feathering, where you continually adjust the inertial mass of the car in fast sweeping bends. That is, in a front drive car on a fast long corner, lift off and the car will tuck in towards the centre of the road; apply and the car will move towards the apex. You can essentially steer the car on motorway curves with little or no inputs from the steering wheel. Channeling your inner Fangio : ) There is a statue to the great man in the centre of Monaco, much beloved of tourists.
I was in St. Andrews in Scotland in 1994 when I heard the bad news. People stood around, staring at TV screens, in disbelief. Senna had that aura of invincibility that you also associated with Joey Dunlop. A probable future Brazilian president; honoured with a 3-day state funeral. See the <extract from the book about his funeral>. He reportedly was a formidable commercial negotiator and as uncompromising off the track as he was on it. An outrageous talent, Senna was even better in the wet – soaking tracks and spray allow the true artists to display their abnormal levels of finesse and courage. Intense, driven, honourable and often difficult; famously, after he moved to England, he split up with his then girlfriend who reportedly was fed up with his refusal to socialise. Apparently, he preferred to stay in and read the bible … His tussles with his fellow-genius, the laid-back Prost, were the stuff of legend – see the excellent documentary, <Senna>; and here is a snippet of the master at work, in an era when there was no power steering, and minimal suspension (ignore the "Video unavailable" message, just click below to "Watch on YouTube"):
And then you have a bloke who almost certainly didn't waste too much time reading the bible : ) Hunt was a swashbuckling exemplar of the irreverent decade that was the 1970s. A posh playboy and party animal whose champagne-filled nights and boudoir antics just before races gave rise to the "sex – the breakfast of champions" – adage; James nonetheless was a fantastic natural talent and a ferocious competitor. And there's never been anyone like him in F1 ever since.
A genius racer and every bit Senna's match on the track. Nicknamed "the Professor" for his thoughtful, dispassionate and analytical racing style. Easy on his cars and on himself.
R.I.P. Charlie Watts 1941 – 2021. Watts was an understated guy and an understated drummer. When the Stones played Slane Castle in Ireland in 1982, onlookers were amused to note that Charlie's drum kit was smaller and less elaborate than that of the support act! Of course, a flamboyant drummer would have ruined the Stones – his understated jazz-influenced drumming style left the spaces for the improv of the other guys and, of course, the flamboyance of Mick:
Mick proving you can never be too skinny, too rich, or too cocky : )
Mick finds Jesus
Glad I got off my ass and caught them in Dublin in 2018:
Here's the set list:
Tumbling Dice
Just Your Fool
Ride 'Em on Down
You Can't Always Get What You Want
It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It)*
Honky Tonk Women
Before They Make Me Run
Miss You*
Midnight Rambler
Jumpin' Jack Flash
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction*
Typical Stones' work ethic – a tight, barn-storming set lasting over two hours. I've starred the ones I thought were superb – as in better than I've ever heard them before, live or recorded. What a finale that was:
As I tried desperately to get a place to park, it felt like I was going to a Tyrone match. Streams of people, annoying rickshaw drivers, buskers, inner city folks bawling "hats and headbands" and guards with security barriers blocking streets off. I ended up parking two miles away, in the fancy Convention Centre car park. The weather was beautiful – bright and sunny. As I hurried up some inner city streets, an old bloke in his garden cheerfully asked if I was "going up to see Mick Jagger?" Indeed I was.
I missed the band coming on stage. Newly wristbanded, I was being funnelled through a tunnel in the vast Croke Park labyrinth when the opening drumbeats of 'Sympathy' started, and, with one accord, we just ran.
The audience was a very eclectic mix of people, as befits the broad and long-standing appeal of the band. People with mohawks and dreadlocks and metallers happily alongside preppy guys in blue blazers and sharply-pressed chinos and women in chic cocktail dresses. A couple of well-dressed 70-somethings, standing alone, rapt. Beside a 20-something in a hoodie who couldn't stand up. Teenagers and 20-somethings, heavily-tanned bohemian 30- and 40-somethings, a tipsy bunch of merry Irish grandmothers. They probably remembered the band from half a century ago … Overall, I'd say that the vast majority of the crowd were younger, and in many cases much younger, than the band.
A friend of my brother's, at school in 1982, had a t-shirt with the sarcastic message: "Mick Jagger lives on". Even then, Mick's age and longevity was attracting wiseacre comments, as the "Rolling Bones" entered their third decade on the road. 1982 was 36 years ago folks …
How then were the Stones last night? In a word: quality. As today's Irish Times review noted:
"… astounding … genius … pummelling your senses with some of the best rock music ever …"
As today's RTÉ coverage noted: "The Rolling Stones pull off a Croker corker".
As today's Irish Independent noted: "Rolling Stones storm Croke Park and rock 70,000 with stunning show."
Cue old pros, old dogs and hard road clichés:
As Jagger reminded us, their first Irish gig was in January 1965, at the long-since departed Adelphi Theatre. I wasn't even born. They know what they're at. This probably is the last time for the boys. They could be forgiven for going through the motions and being their own cover band. Not a bit of it though. The professionalism, the enthusiasm, the masterful embellishments of well-loved classics, funkier and blues-ier than ever, the pride in doing a great show, the energy, the sense of fun and good humour, all very evident:
Copyright © Bjornulf Vik 2018
As you have probably worked out, the two photos immediately above were taken by a bloke with an actual camera : )
There had been two full-length rehearsals on Tuesday and Wednesday. A casual listener might be taken in by the jamming, free-wheeling nature of the Stones' blues-rock oeuvre. But you don't get to be that musically louche without first working your dayglo socks off. This was a supremely professional show by a bunch of guys who gave the distinct impression they could jam all night for the love of it. Respecting your audience? 110%.
As I suspected it might be, from an older fan's perspective, it was slightly emotional. You look at them and in one sense you're looking at human time capsules from the utopian cultural days of the 60s and 70s. They're from there – and, somehow, here they still are. In, but never fully of, our time. Too cool for that. And still showing the young pups how it's done:
I said previously that going to see the Stones is nowadays some sort of cultural duty, a homage to the long-haired libertines who made some of the songs my babysitter sang to me in the late '60s, a homage to history and to perhaps the only outrageously-successful band that are still worth listening to. I was wrong about the "duty" bit though – they rocked the place out for over two hours – it was a real privilege.
As the Irish Independent review put it:
"Back in Croker, darkness fell not on just the edge of town, it fell on one of the most flamboyant bands the world has ever seen. It was a night, maybe even the last night on the sacred soil, to remember their very special brand of the blues."
A Festival of Squares
Belated recognition that one-size-fits-all music festivals suck. However, bloke in this article is having a moan:
"Festivals and weddings used to be one of the few places where different generations and different types of people came together.
"I don't think it's like that any more and it's a shame really. You go somewhere now and it's specifically aimed at you and your type of mates and there are other places aimed at other groups in society. You don't really have that cross-generational thing."
Saville agrees. "There's a lot of snobbery around clubland and commercialisation of house music but there should be a degree of open-mindedness in clubbing," he said. "Dance music was always hinged on everyone being allowed to feel comfortable in their own skin, whatever gender or class they were."
Article <here>.
This may be true of dance music – if your only reference point starts from '90s rave culture. However, this eclecticism is relatively recent and arguably confined to dance music. Or, what yer man means by dance music. 70s disco was dance music and it attracted a very specific audience.
I was once accosted by some right-wing skinheads. "Are you a punk or a mod?", they wanted to know. I talked my way out of it, but the wrong answer would have gotten me a hiding. Once, on a late train, a bunch of punks were being a bit noisy. Other passengers fled the carriage. I went down and said hello. We had a great chat about the system, about Holts spray cans for graffiti, about whether glue or hair gel was best and about Dead Man's Shadow's new album. They looked a bit scary, but because they had fantastic Mohicans, I just knew they were basically sound.
Couple of years ago, outside the Opera House in Belfast, I walked past a bus full of young people going to a local music festival. The lads all looked very stupid. 50p haircuts, grey branded tops, grey incontinence pants. Lagered-up, sniggery, loutish, thick as planks. I know music and I know music fans. Those cretins were not music fans. The girls all looked very stupid. Hairspray, fake tan, high heels, incessant vacuous giggling. These empty-headed dullards were not music fans.
They were exactly the type of brain-dead, right-wing assholes I partly got into punk rock to avoid. The idea that you could go to a music festival somewhere and see these vicious, tone-deaf cnuts everywhere depressed me.
I enjoy gigs for two reasons:
– For the band and the music
– To be among your musical tribe
Modern music festivals tend to be eclectic. I still shudder at the memory (I wasn't at it) of an Irish festival in the 00s that featured Madonna and Iggy Pop – at the same event. How is that even legal?
Previously, you had gigs and you had line-ups for a festival. In a gig, the support would be from the same tribe as the lead act. In an e.g. metal festival, if you had Twisted Sister, you could be sure to find two other metal acts in tow.
It was great to go to such events. It's like going to a bike show or agricultural machinery show or classic car show. You're among people you have something in common with and everyone gets along and you can chat about your obsession with like-minded idiots.
But just imagine going to an agricultural machinery show and finding it full of townies sniggering about farmers. Or finding your classic car show taken over by vegan cyclists. Or conversely! Or going to see an indie rock band at a festival and finding yourself among 3000 Chelsea fans and UKIPpers chanting "get your tits out for the lads" at the black female keyboard player or morons having a picnic just when the band is playing an iconic encore that, for you, has an almost-religious significance.
The whole point of popular musical tribes, from the 50s onwards, was to carve out a tribal identity. Bowie got it. In 'Fashion', when singing about the brand new dance style, he notes, with just the correct amount of suspicion in his voice, that, "they're doing it over there; but We Don't Do It Here":
Pop culture was unashamedly elitist and exclusionary. That was half the bloody point. As a student, I often refused to date a woman if she wore the wrong clothes or was into the wrong bands. If someone wore kitten heel pumps and was into some bland chart shite, seriously, what was the point? These weren't trivial signifiers. You knew you'd disagree with her on everything else as well; and off you went in search of a woman with Doc Martens and sticky-up hair. You knew you both would have the same views on just about everything.
Hopefully, the new elitism is a trend that will continue.
As <this article> notes, ' music taste has become less tribal and more pluralistic than before'.
Which is just a polite way of describing those people who 'like a bit of everything' and who go to music' festivals 'for the crack'.
Back in the day, I'd have called them scum.
Did you ever:
1. climb onto a roof of a farm building; and
2. tie car springs to your feet with baler twine; and
3. open an umbrella; and
4. wobble over to the edge of the roof (the car springs made walking difficult); and then –
5. jump?
You didn't?
Ha! Easy knowing you never read "The Comics".
In comic-land, this escapade worked a treat. The altitude and the umbrella meant you'd surely float or fly. And, even if that didn't go to plan entirely, you'd a Plan B with the car springs. Assuredly, at the very least, you'd be making huge marsupial bounds across the farmyard, BOINNNG! BOINNNGING! away, a new world conquered.
As I launched myself excitedly off the edge, I distinctly recall thinking what a good idea jumping off a roof clutching an umbrella was and how come people weren't doing this sort of thing more often. What fun it was!
Crump! Oof & ooyah! As I picked myself up (fortunately the ground was relatively soft and not yet concreted), I remember my main feeling was one of relief that no-one had witnessed the debacle.
I was 5 years old and a true believer. As a kid, many of my recreational ideas were lifted straight from the pages of The Dandy, The Beezer, The Topper and The Beano. I built a den. I made several go-karts. I "hunted wild animals" and engaged in shoot-outs with other gangsters. I explored. I played (numerous) pranks on adults. I built a dam over the exit stream from the duck-pond at the bottom of our farm-yard (and damn nearly flooded our farmhouse – I hadn't counted on how quickly the water would rise and how difficult it is to remove a dam once it's trapped under water pressure). I built a raft. I built a tree-platform. I spied on "shady strangers" and took their car numbers. I put 50p in a box and buried it, for the thrill of finding it again. (I never found it, of course – how big the earth is, how small a spade was and how unreliable our sense of location thereon is, but sure wasn't the challenge great?) I threw knives at hay bale targets. I swung from hay-tethers at the roof of haysheds, Tarzan like (I thought) and dropped onto a handful of straw on the ground below. "Buck-eejiting" my parents called it. "Base jumping" and "corporate bonding entertainment" they'd call it now. I made a kite. I made a sleigh. With bricks and planks, I set up ramps to do stunts on my old inherited Raleigh bicycle. I dug holes, covered the top with twigs, newspaper and grass and waited for people to fall in. No-one ever did. Using an upturned wine-glass, I eavesdropped on conversations in adjoining rooms and reported the news on the bean-can and string 2-way radio. (Of course, I could more easily just have went into the next room, but where would have been the fun in that?) I wrote letters using lemon juice. I tried to fish. I made a pop-gun. I collected frog-spawn. I learned new words. Again aged 5, I remember reading about the adventures of 'Claude Hopper', the bloke with the very big feet. As someone tripped over them, poor Claude, embarrassed, rushed to assist, saying, "I must apologise". The context taught me the meaning, even though I pronounced it "appol-ogg-guise", until corrected. I made pirate swords and set up a gangplank for other kids to walk along, at "sword"-point (the sea into which the scurvy protesting varlets would fall was a bathtub full of mucky water). I roamed the fields, bogs and moors, spotting small animal trails and tracks and imagining the seeming-humanity of their existences (animals were as human as humans in the comics). Donning meal-sacks to "protect" our trousers, we set up mud slide trains down the side of an empty loch (in local folk memory, the night the loch burst its banks was accompanied by a mighty roar; but to us it was a peaceful place of unusually tall trees and unusual vegetation, with usefully steep sides, great for "sliding"). A tar-barrel (intended to hold salted meat) and a short shovel made for an entertaining "boat" (the design flaw was in the circularity – the thing spent most of its time spinning in drunken circles, but hey, we were floating).
There were the general comics and there were gender-stereotype comics. The latter, for boys, were exclusively about soccer and war; and, for girls, seemingly about social agonies and the dynamics of female gossiping and female social politics. I liked the football and war comics fine, but much preferred the anarchy of the general traditional comics. It should be noticed in passing that all the general traditional comics always had a sprinkling of very strong female characters – Minnie the Minx, Beryl the Peril, Dyna Mo, etc.
That was the thing about the comics. The kids and characters in them were constantly outside, doing stuff. The idea of a kid as a role model being someone who sat indoors, whey faced, weak and rule-ridden, well, ugh. (In the comics, there were such characters, but they were pitiful and not to be emulated, such as 'Walter the Softy'.) Looking back, I begin to appreciate anew the importance to my sense of self and my personal development of growing up on a farm surrounded by a ready-made adventure playground, and, crucially, an abundance of sheds and work-tools (saws, hammers, nails, screws, screwdrivers, wood planes, vices, discarded machine parts, wheels and bric-a-brac of all sorts) with which one could fabricate all manner of contraptions. However, the comics were an important catalyst for much of what I did. Being trapped in a house, full of soft furnishings and fragile ornaments and adult do-goodery and pessimism, was no place for any self-respecting kid of my generation.
And now, countless cow pies later, The Dandy is coming to an end, in paper format anyway, at the end of this year. Dandy editor Craig Graham said: "Following extensive research, we discovered The Dandy readers were struggling to schedule a weekly comic into their hectic lives. They just didn't have enough time. They're too busy gaming, surfing the net or watching TV, movies and DVDs."
Hectic my foot. How about "over-protected, inactive kids who can't read"? It's inevitable. Who wants to read daft, un-PC stories illustrated with ropey line drawings when you could slump on your couch and download an app.
Sad to see it go; and I do not envy today's passive, chaperoned kids. We had freedoms that are un-thinkable nowadays.


Seven contemporary artists come together to present this photography exhibition, the title of which means 'Traces'. The photographs of these artists reflect on the traces that our histories, our memories, our acts and speech all leave on our daily lives and the world around us. Open Tuesday through Saturday.


Hurray, I bought my first budget action camera in https://www.amazon.it and Archievald tested for the first time. First of all, I am using a budget actioncam with no accessories, stabilisers and monopod stick, only my barehand and yes I knew what are you thinking, its pretty uncomfortable. I have to work more to buy more accessories to improve my video channel.
This is my first blog post to document my tour in Florence, Italy and I am happy to share it to all of you my first-hand experience. In this video, I will show you my walk experience to Piazza del Duomo, one of the best tourist destination in Italy. For those who never heard of this place, Piazza del Duomo is the popular and the historic place in Florence, Italy where the famous Florence Cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral) , Giotto's Bell tower, and Florence Baptistery located.
Take a look on my video and please subscribe to my Youtube Channel.
Archievald Quiambao is a passionate Web Designer, Traveler, and UX from Manila who helps travelers and businesses to aim their goal and achievements.


text:
Louisiana doubling welfare aid after 20 years at same rate
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana is doubling cash payments available to poor families through its welfare programs next year, the first increase in more than two decades, according to the state's social services department.
Benefits will be boosted to the national average for people receiving cash assistance through the federal Family Independence Temporary Assistance Program and Kinship Care Subsidy Program.
The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services said the new payment amounts — intended to help families with food, shelter and clothing — will begin in January.
"We know there are many more families who could benefit from the programs, not only for the much-needed cash assistance but also for the valuable workforce development and educational opportunities these programs offer. We hope this increase in benefit amounts will attract more people," agency Secretary Marketa Garner Walters said in a statement.
The latest data provided by the department show 1,484 households receive cash assistance through the Family Independence Temporary Assistance Program and 1,338 households get kinship care subsidies. Those are available to relatives caring for children whose parents don't live with them.
A three-person household that currently gets $240 in welfare assistance will see that amount grow to the national average of $484, according to the social services agency. People who are under the age of 60 and who aren't disabled or caring for someone who is disabled are required to work or participate in an education or job training program aimed at helping them find employment.
Kinship care subsidies will grow from $222 per child to $450.
The change will be the first increase since July 2000 in a state where 19% of residents live in poverty.


text:
Home / Unknown Type / Chopper poster feat Eric Bana
Chopper poster feat Eric Bana
SKU: VYPMQXGWEU
Original Chopper film poster
Chopper is a 2000 Australian crime film written and directed by Andrew Dominik and based on the autobiographical books by Mark 'Chopper' Read. The film stars Eric Bana as the title character and co-stars Vince Colosimo, Simon Lyndon, Kate Beahan and David Field. It has a cult following.


text:
Posted inHKFP Features
Meet the grassroots organisation fighting for recognition of ageing Hong Kong women's needs
by Jennifer Creery 12:39, 17 February 2019 22:46, 31 March 2020
It's a dusky afternoon in Kwai Hing when a group of middle-aged women gather in the local government offices for choir practice. The activity releases participants from the domestic pressures they are saddled with on a daily basis.
But put together, the singers make up an altogether different kind of ensemble – housewives, mothers, aunties – aspects of Hong Kong society integral to its function, but whose efforts often go unheeded.
Founded in 2011, Virtuous Lady Club is a grassroots organisation that advocates on behalf of menopausal women who have felt marginalised by society and for whom the healthcare system has fallen short. Their focus is on providing a safe space for their members who, also faced with the burden of having to provide for their families, often find themselves isolated and powerless.
A photo taken by a member of Virtuous Lady Club shows another member walking up the stairs, clutching the handrail from fear of falling. Photo: Virtuous Lady Club.
"We want to empower women who are going through this difficult time," club Vice-Chairwoman Winnie Cheung, 48, told HKFP. "They didn't ask for their bodies to change like this."
But their work extends beyond community activities, taking aim at the government institutions which uphold what they say are discriminatory policies.
As women reach menopause – the period around 50 years old when the ovaries stop producing eggs – their risk of some medical conditions goes up: osteoporosis, in particular, which arises from a drop in oestrogen levels, leading to loss of calcium that makes bones brittle and more likely to break.
According to a 2015 study by NGO the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong (FPAHK), around one in four postmenopausal women have osteoporosis in the city. Michelle Chak, press officer for the organisation, told HKFP: "After menopause, women's risk of developing osteoporosis increases with age," adding that those with significant risk factors, including early or prolonged menopause, should consult a doctor to assess their bone health.
In spite of this, none of the three government-funded women's health centres offer osteoporosis tests.
'One of the lucky ones'
After breaking her toe, Virtuous Lady Club member Ms So, 68, was diagnosed with osteoporosis and treated in a public hospital. "She felt that the treatment provided wasn't working so she asked her relatives in the US to send her medicine and calcium supplements, which helped," Cheung said. "She's one of the lucky ones."
In an effort to drum up awareness of the condition, the club reached out to 194 working class women in Kwai Tsing last year, 90 per cent of whom had never been tested. Those who had been tested had paid for costly private clinics out of their own pockets.
Virtuous Lady Club Vice-Chairwoman Winnie Cheung. Photo: Virtuous Lady Club.
In late 2017, Virtuous Lady Club brought their osteoporosis campaign to the Kwai Tsing District Council, where District Councillor Lam Siu-fai urged the council to invest more resources into the cause.
"The public's awareness of this health issue [has] been enhanced, but the support provided by the government remain[s] quite insufficient. Additional resources should be allocated to provide women with examinations," Lam said, adding that the government should work more with private clinics and introduce an examination programme for 50- to 75-year-olds, similar to the Colorectal Cancer Screening Pilot.
A motion moved by District Councillor Wong Yun-tat in the same meeting also urged the Department of Health to carry out bone mineral density (BMD) tests for osteoporosis screenings for women aged 40 or above, either free of charge or at a low cost.
However, a spokesperson for the Department of Health told HKFP that BMD tests for women are not subsidised by the government because there is no evidence that widespread screening helps.
"BMD tests are not provided in view of the absence of adequate scientific evidence to support osteoporosis screening programmes for the whole population or for all women," they said, adding that men can also be afflicted by the disease.
More than an information service
The implications of the club's work extend beyond acting as an information service. Their latest drive to encourage women to examine their breasts for cancer symptoms, such as using homemade massage oil to conduct checkups, led a number of them to discover cancerous lumps.
Sixty-eight-year-old Maria, chair of the club, found a lump in her breast after taking part in the campaign last year. Having caught the disease early, she was swiftly diagnosed, treated, and is now in remission.
Members of Virtuous Lady Club at choir practice. Photo: Virtuous Lady Club.
But for women faced with the pressure to provide for their families, the onset of a debilitating medical condition can be devastating for them and their loved ones. "If they can't take care of their children, it affects their family and society as a whole. That's why early diagnosis is essential," Cheung explained.
The club, then, urges women aged 40 or above to go for osteoporosis and breast cancer checkups – a message not always well received.
"Many women think, 'if nothing's wrong with me, why would I go for a body checkup myself?' ," she said, adding that women are often discouraged by the cost of voluntary checkups at private hospitals.
When asked about government support, a spokesperson for the Department of Health again told HKFP that there is insufficient evidence to recommend for or against mammography screenings or clinical breast examinations for women. "It is strongly recommended that women of all ages should be breast aware, meaning that women should be aware of how their breasts normally look and feel," they said.
Providing a safe space
Above all the club values the emotional wellbeing of their members, many of whom said that they felt neglected by both society and those closest to them: their family.
Photo taken by a member of the Virtuous Lady Club depicting a hand plastered with band-aids to depict the harsh chemicals used in cleaning. Photo: Virtuous Lady Club.
"Many people think that women should stay at home and take care of the family," Cheung said. "If the family could be more understanding it would be better."
And so in order to deepen public understanding of the difficulties menopausal women face, club members last year decided to take photographs of their various afflictions, printing them on cards that acted as intimate windows into their lives: clumps of matted hair, a sign of hair loss during menopause; a thin sinewy wrist clutching a clay pot, representing a weakening grip; a pale, delicate hand, its fingertips wrapped in multiple band-aids, indicating that it is routinely injured and exposed to harsh chemicals while cleaning.
In neatly packaged bundles, the women sent the cards to local authorities in a bid to raise awareness of their cause.
Photos taken by a member of Virtuous Lady Club depicting hair loss in menopausal women. Photo: Virtuous Lady Club.
Virtuous Lady Club, which began with only a handful of volunteers, has since expanded to 124 members as of January, thanks to a grant from capacity building organisation HER Fund in 2017, who also provided them with training in project management and advocacy tactics.
While still relatively small in numbers, the club has high ambitions to expand. Above all else, Cheung said she hopes their actions will reverberate beyond the community in Kwai Tsing. "When we work together we discover that we have a lot in common," she said. "That way we can help each other."
Tagged: Department of Health, Family Planning Association, Kwai Hing, kwai tsing, Lam Siu-fai, Michelle Chak, Virtuous Lady Club, Wong Yun-tat
Jennifer Creery
Jennifer Creery is a Hong Kong-born British journalist, interested in minority rights and urban planning. She holds a BA in English at King's College London and has studied Mandarin at National Taiwan University.
More by Jennifer Creery


Below you will find a list of the pet stores & services in Gardena, CA. These 376 pet stores & services are organized by their distance from Gardena. The closest businesses to Gardena are South Bay Aquarium on W. Redondo Beach Blvd (Gardena) in the category Tropical Fish Retail, Gardena Pet Center on S. Normandie Ave (Gardena) in the category Aquariums & Aquarium Supplies Dealers, Ngo My on Redondo Beach Blvd (Torrance) in the category Pet Shops, Bushy Tail Pet Photography on W. 161st St (Gardena) in the category Pet Services and Beach Dog Grooming on (Gardena) in the category Pet Grooming & Washing.


This report and e-course is beneficial for anyone considering sending their child to Summer Camp. Parents often find themselves wondering how to keep their child or children busy during the summer. You don't want a lot of time wasted in the summer, but want your child to do things that are positive. This package contains such great topics including why to send your child to Summer Camp and the options for doing so.
For those who decide to send their child to Summer Camp, you'll also find even more topics beneficial such as: what to pack for your child's time away at camp and how to manage the cost for camp. Summer Camp may be beneficial to many children and there is a lot to consider. This package has a lot of great information to help you in making a choice.
1) Why send your child to summer camp?
2) The most common type of summer camps.
3) Specialized summer camp options.
4) How to choose the best camp for your child.
5) What you can expect at a sleepaway camp.
6) What your child should pack for camp.
5) Have you considered an academic camp for your child?
6) Could a pre-college camp be right for your child?